Not What She Seems

Yaeman's National District Schools Fighting Competition Round I

  30 Chapter Anniversary!
  To celebrate the 30 chapter anniversary, I decided to make this chapter longer than usual with it totaling out to be 2161 words (including this text here). Enjoy!
  I watched as she kicked the punching bag. The bag ripped open and all the stuff on the inside came out. The bag ripped. Exactly like how mine ripped. When I helped her clean up the mess, I designed her a much more durable punching bag, one that can sustain my kicks and hers. When she kicked that punching bag, I saw sparks follow her leg as she kicked the bag. Strike two. Her punches did the exact same thing. Strike three. I'm sure of it. She's just like me. I need to go tell father.

*******

  "Alright! I think that's all we need, right?" I ask Verlynn and Relvin.
  "Yeah." they answer.
  "Well them see you guys later! Well, in like, a month maybe." I say, waving goodbye and leaving the house.
  "Well, then. This'll be fun!" I exclaim happily.
  "Yavara....you do know we'll have to fight each other." Verlynn says.
  "Yeah, I do. But it'll be fun!" I state, staying positive.
  "Wait a minute, I thought a boy can't hit a girl!" Verlynn exclaims.
  "Yeah, they realized that a little too late, so the rules were modified. Boys are not allowed to, on any occasions, hit a girl on a sensitive spot such as the chest, eye, etc., basically anywhere in which it would really really really hurt. Same vice versa, girls aren't allowed to hit boys in sensitive spots. If you do it and the referee feels like it was intentional, you are automatically disqualified. If it happens in the team match, you are disqualified and now your team consists of three people. If it wasn't intentional, it'll be a time out for a brief second if it wasn't a spot like the eye so the other person has time for the spot where they were hit to stop hurting." I explain, walking in the direction of the school.
  "How do they know if it was an accident or not?" Relvin asks, walking with me.
  "They'll rewind the footage, zoom in, and watch it closely." I respond.
  "What's an example of an unintentional hit?" Verlynn questions.
  "Like, let's say you were aiming for the person's stomach and they tried to crouch to dodge the hit and your hit hit them in the chest, that's unintentional because you were aiming for their stomach and they moved." I state.
  "You're allowed to hit the stomach?" Relvin asks, shocked.
  "Yeah, but you can't completely aim at the stomach for the whole match, they'll call it a game over and you're disqualified." I explain again.
  "Mmm, got it." Relvin answers. We arrive at the school a couple of minutes later and make our way towards the tournament room.
  "Hey Maj!" I exclaim, hugging him.
  "Are you gonna wear that to fight? You're gonna burn up!" Maj jokes.
  "Why do you play so much? You know I'm not." I say.
  "I'm sorry, love. I won't joke around anymore then." Maj says.
  "Sometimes I don't even know what to say to you." I answer. We all walk through the hallway together.
  "Ready for round one, Yavara?" Maj asks me, smiling.
  "You bet I am!" I exclaim, excited.
  "Well then, let's go look at the papers to see when you're fighting, love." Maj states, leading me to the stapled papers on the wall.
  "Woah. I'm the first fighter!" I exclaim, surprised.
  "Yep, who are you against?" Maj ponders, waiting for me to read the paper.
  "Oh...it's me against Amorae. Amorae is quite tough." I state.
  "You bet I am, Yavara. I'm going to make sure to beat your little wannabe butt. That's right, I'm going to take you down. Everyone thinks you're so special, well guess what? You're a no one. Once I beat you, I will regain the title of the strongest person at Apermae Academy. So get prepared to lose and be embarrassed. Unless, of course, you want to drop out, freshman." Amorae says nastily.
  "No thank you. Well, you seem so confident you're gonna beat me. That's good, but bad. It's good because you trust myself, I forgot why it's bad again. This'll be an interesting fight, considering you're quite strong. Oh well, may the best fighter win!" I state happily, walking away.
  We finally make it to the auditorium and I am called up to get ready and head to the ring. I take my sweats off so I'm wearing only my fighting clothes: a plain white t-shirt, black shorts, and my fighting gloves which were a sort of plaid with black and white as the colors. I take off my over-the-ear earbuds and place them down carefully in my bag. I walk out of the dressing room and walk into the ring.
  "Okay folks! Our first match is our star fighter, Yavara Cyvaira against our used-to-be top fighter, Amorae Parks!" the referee says, introducing us.
  "For those of you who don't know the rules, the rules are simple. No one-spot targeting, no hitting sensitive spots such as chest, eyes, etc. First person down for ten seconds is the loser. If no one is down for ten seconds by the time five minutes is up, the winner'll be the person with the least amount of bruises." the referee says.
  "Everyone understand? Okay, fighters, shake hands." the referee instructs. We shake hands.
  "May the best fighter win. Good luck." I say, returning to my side.
  "Ready! Fight!" the referee says, hopping out of the ring.
  Amorae instantly heads for me. She tries to uppercut me, but I dodge it. I hit her in the cheek, which causes spit to come flying out of her mouth. Instantly, I straight kick her up her jaw and she goes flying up in the air. She lands safely and comes at me again. Hold your strength and energy back, let her waste hers first. I think. As she runs at me, I start spinning around, dragging my right foot across the floor and I see her prepare for a low kick.
  "Hmm. Clearly you don't know your facts, you're too early." Amorae says, dashing at me. I finish my 270° spin and straight kick her in the jaw again. She's flies back a second time and I run towards her at half my usual speed and knee her in the stomach. I made sure it was an indirect, soft hit so she wouldn't get critically injured. She almost flies towards the rope going around the ring and I run beside her and planter kick her in the side. I stop to let her get up because I don't want to be rude. She gets up and runs at me with full force and I try to dodge it, but my foot accidentally gets in her way and trips her and she falls on the floor. I walk towards her and stick my arm out for her to grab.
  "Are you okay, Amorae?" I ask, genuinely concerned.
  "You idiot." she says, sneering. She takes my hand and flips me upside-down so I hit my head hard on the ring floor. I use my hands to cover my face. Everything hurts. Mostly my head. I hear the crowd go "Woah.", not because she beat me, but because it was a bogus move.
****Relvin
  "Is she down?" Verlynn asks, concerned.
  "No, she's not. She's getting more energy. This whole time she's been playing soft to match Amorae's fighting level, she's been trying to waste as little energy as possible. Now that Amorae played dirty, she's going to play dirty too and end the game." I inform Verlynn. I know Yavara too well. She won't go down that easily. I'm just worried that she gave her a bruise or something.
****Yavara
  "Yavara—Yavara are you okay? Give me a thumbs up if you're okay!"' the referee shouts. I hear the crowd start counting to ten and see a happy Amorae boasting. 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9.... I raise up my thumb and flip myself up and stand up. Amorae appears shocked.
  "I'm fine." I shout over the crowd. The crowd goes wild when I stand back up. I let all my energy out and run towards Amorae and kick her in the stomach, punch her in the cheek, uppercut her, knee her in the jaw, knee her in the side, straight kick her, trick high kick her, low kick her, and punch her her one more time in the back. She falls down.
  "1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...." the referee and the audience say.
  "10! And she's down! Yavara Cyvaira advances to round two of the school competition!" the referee shouts, thrilled by the turn in events. The audience screams. Amorae gets up a couple of seconds later and we shake hands again. As I walk out of the ring after being awarded my medal for winning round one and putting on my sweatpants and other stuff, I pass Amorae.
  "Oh, right, now I remember what was so bad about confidence. It can make you get too cocky, then, you lose. Also, FYI,  I'm not a freshman. I'm an Intermediate." I say, putting my hand on her shoulder and walking away. She glares at me. I don't care though. She wanted to play dirty, so I played dirty. Should've been fair and accepted my hand.
  "There you are! Are you okay? Did she hurt you?" Relvin asks, hugging me.
  "Yes and no." I answer, pulling away from his hug.
  "Relvin, you need to go, your match is up next. You're against Marshall Cormes." I say pushing him along.
  "Oh, really? Fine, but you better not be lying to me." Relvin says, picking up his stuff.
  "I'm not, just go." I say, pushing him again. Relvin walks away.
  "Come here love we're gonna get you some McDonalds fries." Maj says, pulling me along. I get some fries and make it back just in time for Relvin's match.
  "Ladies and gentlemen, our second set of fighters are Relvin Cypton, our second top fighter in Apermae Academy, and Marshall Cormes." the referee says, introducing them.
  The match soon starts and Relvin charges at Marshall. Relvin starts throwing punches at Marshall's chest and arms. He punches him in the stomach and Relvin is too fast for Marshall to try and block. Relvin low kicks Marshall, which gets him on the floor fast. The referee immediately starts counting down and Marshall doesn't get up. Relvin wins the match. I have to admit, that was awfully fast. A couple of matches later, we come across the last set of matches for today. Ver
  "Our last set of fighters are used-to-be top fighter Verlynn Tohaz and Merrill Daes!" the referee says for like the 80th time. The match starts and Merrill heads towards Verlynn full speed and tries to hit Verlynn. Verlynn blocks his hit. After a while of going back and forth, Merrill looked agitated. Purposefully, he hits Verlynn in the chest. Verlynn stops and starts to cough.
  "Merrill Daes hits Verlynn Tohaz in the stomach out of fear and agitation! Merrill, I hope you do know it is strictly forbidden to hit any girl in the stomach hard or in general during these tournaments. For that, Merrill Daes, you are disqualified from Apermae Academy's All Martial Arts Allowed Competition. Please exit the ring immediately and remove your bracelet for round one along with your fighter's permission ID and throw it down the chute next to the entrance. Your fighting status will be removed as soon as possible in the system for the competition. Verlynn Tohaz advances to round two." the referee says. Wow. I've never seen that happen in these competitions. I see Verlynn's face. She's not injured. It doesn't hurt anymore. I can tell all this by her expression. She exits the ring, grabs her stuff, and meets up with us.
  "Yes! I advance to round two! Good thing, I was getting tired." Verlynn says. I smile. I could tell she was.
  "I saw him getting agitated. He was stuck. He was running out of energy and didn't know what to do." I say.
  "Yeah, I saw it too." Verlynn says.
  "Come on guys, let's go celebrate with some extremely fattening, not good for us whatsoever pizza." Relvin suggests.
  "Oh! I vote Dominos!" I say excitedly.
  "I second that.' Verlynn agrees.
  "Dominos it is." Relvin decides. We head to my dorm room (I have to cover Verlynn's eyes, but not Relvin's because I trust him) and eat Dominos pizza with root beer. We joke around and have fun for the whole night. Eventually, Verlynn falls asleep and soon I follow her as I suddenly fall asleep on Relvin's lap. I enter a deep, deep sleep.....