Doodle Champion Island Journeys!

7.

"Princess Otohime lives in a beautiful underwater castle, you can see it from the red bridge west of here. She welcomes all to join her in her Artistic Swimming dances..."

The street sign pointed to a long narrow wooden bridge that was just enough for at most two to pass at a time, leading over a strait to a distant islet. Like the bridge crossing the river to the bamboo forest, it had been standing there since who-knew-when, the wooden boards creaked under her feet, threatening to collapse with every step she took but never did to some unknown miracles. However, there was also a noticeable difference: the area was bursting with not only competitors, but also spectators.

Apparently, this islet was much, much more welcoming than the forest: the paths were neatly tiled with stone plates, there was a smooth transition between the sandy beach and the well-mown dark green lawn; willows grew on the side, their leaves put up a majestic look; here and there were funny-looking short moldy-green-leaved trees with orange trunks, alongside trees that grew vibrant red leaves despite it was summer, both their names she couldn't tell; and for the central attraction was a beautiful red bridge, the one you could expect from an old east-Asian romance scene, crossing a lake that reflected sunlight, glowing like a gem.

The entrance path led to a small pool lined with stone plates, separated from the lake, its water so still that Lucky would've doubted it being the Synchronized Swimming contest place, hadn't for the Torii standing steadily on the middle of the surface. Things looked way too calm to have a competition going on.

Lucky took a step back and breathed in, stabilizing her inner energy, and concentrated on her feet, then quickly went forward. But instead of falling into the water, she walked on it. Yes, on the water surface. That's one of Lucky's specialties: walking on liquid surfaces as if they were solid. Let's say she was... not so keen on getting her fur wet in the first place, hence trying to figure out a way to make contact with water without actually doing so. In other words, one of the first techniques she learned was to create a thin veil of air covering her body, acting as a sort of shield against water - in this case, she only focused on her feet to save energy.

The feline passed under the vermillion gate, then looked back at the blue emblem on the gate expectantly, yet nothing happened.

"So this one comes with a condition like Skateboarding?" Lucky mumbled to herself. Back at the Otohime statue, there were also a few small shiny gold sculptures of different creatures laid on the pedestal, by the princess's feet - sculptures of competitors who had earnt the Artistic Swimming scroll. Basically, one would have a small gold sculpt like that by the feet of the statue depicting the Legendary Champion they had defeated; Lucky had found out about that just by reading the advertising scroll.

"That means the dancing place is accessible, but how..?" Lucky passed the Torii for the 9th time.

"If you don't mind me asking, how would you compete in Artistic Swimming if you don't swim?" someone snickered.

A yellow fox - an Inari - was standing by the pool, watching Lucky as if she was something entertaining while using the sleeve of her pink haori to muffle her snickers.

"Ah, Kitsune! So you've defeated the Tengu?" Lucky came to the fox's side and asked, because she did care, having seen how the latter struggled in her first match.

"Of course I have! I'm an Inari, I can't lose to him twice," Kitsune humphed, but her smile showed that she wasn't mad at Lucky for the question at all. Then she looked at Lucky and smirked:

"So, Lucky the Cat, this year's first winner of Table Tennis and Skateboarding, is afraid of water? How ironic," she said mockingly.

"I just don't like getting wet, those two are different!" Lucky exclaimed, "But now that you mention it, how can we get to Princess Otohime's contest?"