Souls to Ash

Chapter 6

6 days until the skirmish

"And next up we have..." Alicia squints to read the next names on her list because she still refuses to wear her reading glasses, claiming she looks "as sexy as Satan on a bike" without them, "Ah! We have the traditional Namari tournament, Emi Shinozaki is to face off with Kame Shohei first!" the crowd goes wild as always.

"You ready, Emi?" I ask her, whom is sitting beside me on the bleachers.

"You bet." she smiles, "Though I'm sure you'll win as always."

"Aw, don't say that, it might be your year." I smile, holding out my hand for her to take, which she does and we walk hand in hand to the center of the arena.

"How do you think you're going to do this year, Emi?" Alicia asks, putting the mic in front of said girl's face.

"I don't know how I'm going to do, but it sure will be interesting to try and take her place as the leader of Namari." Emi smiles sweetly.

"Aaaaand your response, Kame?" she shoves the mic in my face.

"Let's see you try, Emi."

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, er..." she stops and laughs awkwardly, "I mean ladies, but I'm sure there are a few of you out there who don't care, right?" at this a number of girls including Reiko yell in a deep voice to try and impersonate our nonexistent male counterparts, causing us to chuckle. "Alright, alright, enough of that, let's get this cat fight going, shall we?" a chorus of screams ensues and Alicia steps back into the sidelines. Emi and I turn into our magic forms.

"Ready, Emi?" I ask, taking steps back, as I usually start at one end and she at the other. Emi doesn't really need the extra room, we just like putting on a show for the girls on the bleachers.

"As ready as I'll ever be, Kame." she smiles, walking backwards as well.

"Ready?!" yells Alicia as we get to our respective ends, "Fight!"

Emi readies a shot and I stiffen in my battle stance, the entire arena grows deftly silent, all seemingly holding their breaths. She releases the arrow, straight into my soul gem. I move just in time to dodge the flaming arrow, it hits the ground just behind me with an explosion. I smirk as she draws another arrow back, I dodge effortlessly and begin running towards her, each shot she releases exploding around me as I dodge them with ease. I ready an ax just in time to reach her, I slice her side, causing her to release a yelp pf pain.

"I thought I taught you better, Emi." I tease before roundhouse kicking her abdomen with so much force it sends her flying to the ground with a painful thump. I throw my ax at her, knowing full well what is to come. She dodges out of the way and my weapon slices into the ground just by her head. She jumps up and grabs my ax.

"Isn't that a bit cheap, Emi?" I ask, "Using my weapon against me?"

"All's fair in love and war, hun." she smirks before sending the ax hurdling towards me, to which I catch by the handle with ease.

"Two can play at that game." she smiles, removing the gauze from her eye, causing murmurs of surprise to ripple from the crowd at her different colored eye. She stares me down with her one green eye and one dark blue eye, smiling.

"This should be fun, Emi." I say, rushing towards her with my weapons in hand. Just as I'm about to crash the blunt end of my ax into her skull, she dodges below me and springs up, delivering a powerful punch to the stomach before I have time to react. I land with a loud thump and a groan. I jump up just in time to move from an arrow as it whizzes past my head. I rush towards her, dodging her dangerously close arrows, when one suddenly pushes its way through my chest just below my soul gem. I fall back and yell in pain as the magic from the now nonexistent arrow courses through my veins, causing the crowd to gasp in terror.