Assassin Skills Required - Round One

20th Kill - Ten

With little else to do, Nakamura pulls out her knife and steadies her breathing.

"Well?" Ren smiles wide.

She takes a step back and nods. Deo becomes more focused on her. Just from the way he's standing, he seems like he's on the same level as Gerit and I don't think that lightly. The only difference is he's letting his anger control him instead of remaining calm.

Hopefully it's enough for Nakamura to get the advantage.

"I'm going to say yes then." Ren raises his arm and immediately swings it back down. "Fight!" He says cheerfully.

Deo is fast.

He's so fast, even Gerit seems interested in the fight. Somehow, Nakamura manages to fend him off. She stays on the defensive, evading and blocking every ferocious attack. It looks so one-sided from here, it makes me nervous.

"How's she gonna win against that?" Sugino mutters.

"She can win." Kayano reassures as best she can.

"Yeah. We gotta believe in her." Isogai adds.

"Huh. She's pretty sly." Stag mutters, watching her carefully.

A couple of us turn to him. "What do you mean?" I ask.

He waves us off and continues watching. I eye her closely, wondering if I missed something. Nakamura makes a motion for Deo's pants, shying away in a block. I lean forward with interest.

She's going for the gem anyway?

Nakamura bumps into him on the next dodge and he trims a bit of her hair in his strike.

"Did you just cut my hair?" Nakamura shouts angrily, one hand going towards her missing locks and the other smoothly sliding Deo's pouch into the cargo pants pocket. Annoyed, Deo goes back to attacking her. He doesn't seem to notice what she did.

"You saw it too, huh?" Stag whispers to me. I peek over at him. "Remind me not to underestimate either of you."

"We're on the same team." Kayano pushes, crossing her arms. "Not like we wouldn't save Deshi and Rom if we won."

"We'll see." Stag says casually.

He remains focused even while being friendly. He doesn't seem to trust us, and I don't really blame him. However, like Isogai said...

I doubt any of us are here for the prize money anymore.

Nakamura starts really losing. She's gained a few scraps here and there and she's clearly pushing herself to the limit.

"Please!" She cries out, dodging another attack. "I'll give you my gem so you can destroy it, just give me a chance!"

"You won't have a chance when I win." Deo spits out. "Like I said, this isn't some game to me anymore."

"But still..." Nakamura reaches into her pouch and pulls out her red tracker gem. "I'll peacefully give up or I'll waste your time trying to survive. You think I want to flat out die?"

He backs off a bit, thinking it over. "Fine. Toss it over." he says coldly.

Nakamura does, keeping her hands raised.

"No, Nakamura!" Yada calls out.

"It's okay." Nakamura smiles apologetically. "You'll give me a chance, right?"

"Unfortunately, they won't." Deo picks up the gem and smashes it against the ground without hesitation. He steps back, eyes widening all the way when he notices the tracker racing towards him. "What the—" He frantically pats the side of his pants, unable to locate his pouch.