DOJOLAND (Elementary)

Chapter 2 - It's all Fun and Games

As the days went by, Hei became known for his upbeat, nothing-can-bring-me-down attitude and it made challenging him to spar a bit tricky so, smart children as they were, they would instead try their luck with seemingly innocent games such as asking him to push someone on a swing to see how far they could go.

"Hey, Marui, wanna play?"

"Call me Hei. What are you guys doing?"

"it's a game from my mother's land, we call it 'onion pluck'. any number of players hug one another from behind. the first one hugs a pole or a beam and the point is to stay connected. The other players will pull as hard as possible to disconnect them. Wanna be an onion? beware, tho, plucked onions become pluckers, too, if they're not tired"

"What if the first onion stays connected?", Hei asked.

"uh... I guess it means that's one tough onion, haha"

"Haha", Hei laughed. "Alright, I'll play!"

Some of the boys and girls' eyes shone. 'Now we'll see what you're really made of!', they thought.

The onions formed a row and waited for Heiwa to go into the front. When he didn't, they all looked worried toward his general direction.

"I'm plucking, tho", Heiwa said, stretching his fingers above his head and then wriggled his fingers while making a few popping sounds.

*gulp*

Thinking quickly, more of them decided to become onions. 'it'll be pointless if we can't tell if we're stronger. It doesn't matter if it's attack or defense'.

Hei stood behind the last onion kid and asked. "ready?"

The first onion braced a flagpole and said "yeah, g-" right before he flew 2 feet backward and fell on his butt. His arms stung "ow ow", he moaned.

"ah, sorry, I didn't wait until you were ready", Hei apologized, conveying he was really sorry. "can we go again?"

The first onion rubbed his arms until they felt better and grudgingly agreed but then decided to up the game. "Falling kinda hurt my behind, I'm going to stay on the ground and hold on using both arms and legs, if that's okay with you"

"Sure sure, it sounds much safer that way", Hei and other onions agreed.

"Don't start pulling until I say go, okay?", the first onion said and felt the onions' grip tighten with both arms and legs into one another.

"Alright.... GO!" he said after he tightened his arms and legs into a strong clasp.

The strong pull was still there but it wasn't something he couldn't handle. He could also feel how everyone was trying hard to not let go.

There was a grunt from behind and the pull was released for a bit. The linked onions looked back and noticed a few of them had let go.

"sorry, guys, I guess the pluckers were stronger than the weakest link...", a girl apologized and dusted her shorts' from behind.

Hei smiled triumphant. "Good job, everyone! now let's see if we can take the rest off the flagpole!".

A couple of minutes later, 4 more onions were plucked after a constantly increasing pull flicked into an actual plucking motion led by more schoolmates. Only 3 more onions remained. The first onion hugged the flagpole harder.

After a bit of a struggle to make a single line to pull, the plucking resumed.

The first onion grunted as the pressure increased and then was abruptly released.

He was surprised to hear laughing.

"AHAHAHAHAH, stop it, Hei! AHAHAHAH! That's cheating!! "

"What'?", The first onion asked, nervous.

"Hei stopped trying to pluck and tickled Beren to let go!", a couple of amused girls explained.

"I figured you 3 were too strong to keep trying to pull so I cheated, haha!", Hei answered unabashed.

"Aw come on!", the first onion complained but winced as he tried to stand.

The children who were closest looked concerned.

"A-are you alright?" one of the onlooking girls asked.

"ow... my arms are stiff..."

"You might have pulled something. Maybe we should take you to the infirmary to check on your arms", some of the boys suggested.

Hei motioned to stand but then he winced as well. "Ouch... sorry, I wanted to help you up but I think my arms are sore too... This isn't something I do every day..."

"Figures, you were doing most of the pulling today", one of the original pluckers said.

The first onion mustered an unsteady stand and nodded, satisfied. "You're really strong, Hei, next time you'll play onion"

"Maybe I will", Hei replied.

But it wasn't necessary anymore. The first pull had told everyone what they needed to know: Hei's specialty was burst strength rather than sustained grip.

They were slightly wrong.