Chrono X Angel, Book 2: Winter Snow

Chapter 3

Both girls stood in front of their respective lanes, a look of sheer determination chiseled onto their features. Everything had led to this, and only one of them could win...

"May the best woman win," said Emiko with a smirk, inserting her token as Nonami did the same.

"Indeed," replied Nonami, "One shall stand, and one shall fall."

Usoko blinked. Did Nonami just say what she thought she said? Jeez... nerd...

With an audible clattering, the balls fell down the track and landed at the base of the machine. Immediately Emiko grabbed the first one and chucked it straight up the middle, having put a bit of spin on it so when it reached the ramp it spun and veered right, straight into the 100 point bucket. All of this happened in less than a second, and even Nonami was having trouble keeping up with Emiko's movements as she proceeded to send three more balls into the same hole.
In her tiredness, she nearly forgot she was also playing and began rolling her own balls up the ramp. The first two landed in 50 pointers, not bad but, if Emiko was as good as she claimed, Nonami knew she was already in trouble...
By now, Emiko had rolled her seventh ball, and had once again scored 100 points. At the rate she was going, the Oni was on track to have a perfect score of 900. As she was about to let loose the eighth ball, a loud shout of frustration bellowed from where the group had been moments earlier. Apparently Emiko's uncle was having a lot of trouble fixing the busted game. Unfortunately, the shout threw Emiko off and her ball landed in the gutter for a solid zero points.

Seeing this, Nonami threw her third ball, it landing in a 100 pointer. It was not as though she had never played this game before, the Vampire just was not nearly as practiced as Emiko clearly was. Seeing her flub like that though filled Nonami with hope. If she could just get 100's, she could perhaps tie with the Oni Princess she had gained a serious respect for.

Emiko's mind was racing. She had never made such a serious blunder, not since she was a kid. Her hopes of a perfect game dashed, she steeled herself, throwing the next ball with the same calculated power and spin that had been the key to her skill for as long as she could remember.

"800 points," she thought to herself, "you can still win with 800 points... it's a respectable score... just one more throw and we're good..."

Her final ball landing in the same pocket, Emiko's final score was 800. As a decent number of tickets started flowing out of the machine, she looked over to see how her adversary was faring. True, Nonami may be a friend anywhere else, but right here, right now, the two girls were fierce competitors and only one could win the glory. Glancing at the scoreboard, Nonami was on ball six and had...500 points. Apparently she had figured out a similar trick to Emiko's, something that made Emi's stomach drop a bit. True, Nonami had no way of beating her, but that did not mean Emiko wanted to tie. How would a tie even work? Would there be a sudden death round?

Nonami glanced at the ball in her hand, or was it hands, the world had started spinning a little for her. Still, she could not give up yet, she had to win. For her own dignity if nothing else. Tossing it down the track, Nonami watched the five spheres roll down five tracks and into five 100 point buckets. Just two more to go...
Stumbling forward, she had an idea... what if she were to toss both at once.

"Here goes... nothing," she said, reaching down and gripping them tightly.
Lunging forward, she hurled the spheres down the track with a shout of "I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!!!"

So hard did she throw them, that the friction against the track left a trail of smoke as they landed in each of the 100 point pockets.

"Succ... success," she muttered, collapsing into an unconscious heap.