From Another World

23. Choice Finally Begins

Nervousness. Going into battle - going into any sort of fight where you can lose... it's a terrifying feeling. Hands shaking, palms sweating, heart beating. Some people deal with it differently. Some hype themselves up, some try to calm themselves down, some maybe listen to music.

Back when I was Sarah, I was on the judo team when I was in high school. I always felt nervous before a match. I was never good at the sport; I always fumbled through my steps and never followed them through completely... always stopping halfway. I was never sure that I would win my matches when I was nervous. To calm my nerves, I would calm myself down and concentrate on what's in front of me. I would also hype myself up by jumping and slamming my feet on the ground a couple of times. It's hard to explain why I would do that, but it always seemed to work.

We arrived at Namimori Shrine and prepared for Byakuran to appear. I went straight into the base as Shoichi explained to everybody what it was. I couldn't help but feel nervous. I had to calm myself down. I've been training for this for so long already but it feels like I'm not strong enough. I'm not strong enough to protect these people that I've grown to care about. Knowledge or not, this isn't entirely what I remember KHR being; and it's all because I'm here.

Sometimes I think I should've just stayed away and stayed an onlooker, but I was dying to become part of something. I never had any real friends. I had acquaintances, I had people I knew; but no friends. Even Tsuna and the others... I only knew them because I was the baseball team's manager, I sat next to Yamamoto in class and found out that we head the same way going home. But they were always acquaintances.

I still don't feel like they're my friends. Sometimes I feel like I just forced myself on them.

I-

"Hey there, everyone."

I heard Byakuran's voice outside. I brought my right hand up to my lips and pressed my rings against it, closing my eyes. I forced my hands to stop shaking and stood up, walking out to see Byakuran's ugly mug in the sky.

"Not a pretty look for you, Byakuran," I call out, crossing my arms and leaning against the wall of the base.

"Fujimiya Satsuki..." he hummed, looking at me. "I have plans for you, my dear."

"I don't think so." An arm shielded me from Byakuran and I look at Tsuna. "You're not going anywhere near her."

"Thank you..." I whisper.

"The energy required for you all to be transferred to the Choice stage is... five million fiamma volts!"

Everyone shouted their disagreement but the face in the sky ignored them and continued talking. He aimed one of his stupid eyes to the mountain and blew it up. The girls were scared and I reached my hands out to them, squeezing their shoulders in comfort. The light that Byakuran's face was emitting got smaller and I could feel everyone's panic.

"Everyone isn't here yet," Tsuna simply stated, confidently looking up at Byakuran.

"Nice to see a healthy respect for the rules... or could it be an excuse for your inability to produce five million fiamma volts?"

"No," both Tsuna and I stated. "They'll be here."

"Your time is up."

"They're coming."

Suddenly, two fast figures appeared at our sides. Yamamoto and Hibari. I sigh in relief and pull my box from its chain, lighting my rings up and inserting them, opening up my box and releasing the twin foxes. I concentrate and gather all the energy I could to help produce the required energy needed.