The Winners Take It All | Chishiya [English]

We are strong together

"I'm still looking for Ann, unfortunately I haven't run into her yet," Kuina told me as we walked down the hallway. We used the time to exchange our experiences. "At least I found you now. And based on the hickeys on your neck, you also know where Chishiya is, am I right?", her grin was wide and honest.

A little confused, I touched my neck and then blushed a little.

"No," Kuina put her hand to her mouth, "Don't say you're together now?" I hesitated for a moment before nodding slightly. It was okay if she knew - after all, she had gotten along well with Chishiya.

"We confessed our feelings to each other, yeah, so that kind of makes us a couple," I told her, and she let out a relieved breath. I looked at her a little confused. "What's wrong?" I wanted to know, and she laughed quietly.

"Oh, I've waited so long for it to finally happen! Chishiya fought so hard with himself, he didn't even want to admit that he had a crush on you. I tried to get him to realize his emotions when he told me how he killed your rapist-" I jerked my head around and stared at her in shock.

"Shuntaro did what?" I wanted to make sure I hadn't misheard, and she smiled.

"He didn't tell you that he killed that guy?" she asked me, and I shook my head.

That explained a lot to me...

The blood on his fingers that I had seen as we drove back together in the car.

The grin he had on his lips...

He had done it for me.

He had killed him because he knew Lukas had achieved his goal.

He did it.

And I hadn't known.

Chishiya Shuntaro, what else are you hiding from me?

"Hey, don't get lost in thoughts again, Ayu! We're here," Kuina pulled me by the arm and I stumbled slightly as we entered a huge hall.

My eyes immediately fell on a familiar figure.

"Ann," I murmured quietly and Kuina's head snapped around. We immediately approached each other, but we didn't get to talk anymore.

A simple nod was all we could give each other.

The game now begins!

The Queen of Clubs team now enters the arena!

There was a drum roll as a huge crowd of other people suddenly came from the other side. If I counted correctly, there were almost twenty.

Just as many as there were on our side.

"Welcome players!", a young woman emerged from the crowd, "I am the Queen of Clubs, Futiko Aruka."

She looked so nice... but I knew looks could be deceiving.

"To a fair and team-based game," her speech was short and sweet before she hid back in the crowd of her own team. Our eyes wandered to a large screen.

Game: Dodgeball

Time limit: -

Rules:

There are two teams.

The players are free to choose which part of the field they are on.

Teams must try to throw others off.

The goal is to completely throw off the opposing team.

Game over when being thrown off the playing field.

Game over when the Queen of Clubs is defeated.

Game over if you fall into the abyss.

Balls may be caught.

A game of spades in a club's costume... Dodgeball has always been a team game. You must coordinate with each other in order to score points. I had always been good at dodgeball in school, but now?

It was a matter of life and death, was I able to keep my nerve?

Especially when I saw how deep abyss was... If you fell, you died on impact...

Kuina tapped me and pointed to a table. Balls were given away there. The three of us went there and each got two. When we touched them, they turned a blue color. Team blue again...

The last time I was given this color I didn't have such a good experience.

The players should now position themselves on the field!

I timidly entered the field. I was on the same level as Kuina and Ann. If I wasn't mistaken, you could actually change levels by jumping over the chasms. However, that was of course also a big risk. We would have to see how the game went.

The screen suddenly showed a score.

22/22.

That was the number of players left per team.

We could do it. If you had good reactions and if could aim a little, you really had the perfect conditions here.

The game starts in

3

2

1

Begin!

It happened damn fast. The balls flew around and it became confusing. I was shot at again and again but was able to dodge at the last moment.

How long could I keep this up? I had no idea.

A quick look at the score board told me that we were two people behind. It could have been worse, but it was still disturbing.

I caught a ball again and hit a person from the red team. She was thrown into the abyss. This would happen to me too if I wasn't careful.

I caught a weakly thrown ball and threw again, but unfortunately, I missed my target by half an inch.

Shit.

14 to 15.

We were still one person behind. Fifteen more had to be dropped. Or we defeated the Queen of Clubs, but if I concluded correctly, that wasn't going to be an easy story. She was damn good at this game.

And then... I understood something.

We weren't a team yet, we didn't really work together, we just threw the balls around.

It was a club's game. We had to communicate to win.

But how exactly? What could make it easier, how could we become more agile? Where could we gain an advantage?

Why was playing field the way it was?

I tried to observe the Queen of Clubs a little on the side.

And then it occurred to me.

She moved completely differently than us. She used the entire playing field. Her speed was a weapon few could beat. Unless...

...we managed to create an artificial speed.

And I already knew how exactly we could do that.

Oh boy, I would have to do anything to convince my teammates...

We were only strong if we played together.