Water Competition

“Death Game?” replied Hitomi with a heavy amount of skepticism. She paused for a moment willing to entertain Hiroshi. There was a fair bit of caution that Hiroshi earned from Hitomi, due to his last game he played with her. She understood how real his power could be.

He shrugged a bit with a weak smile. “What can I say, I’m unoriginal. But it’s an accurate title.”

“The loser dies?”

“That’s right. Any game has a winner and loser. Just in this case the rules state that the one that loses is killed. It keeps things simple and ensures this is the end. One of us isn’t walking away from this game alive.”

“And how is a loser determined?”

“That’s simple as well. It’s score based.” Hiroshi pointed with his finger to the air above them. Hovering well out of reach of them were gigantic zeroes along with the names of the players. It angled in such a way as to follow them, always being readable. “Since this is a game of death, the first person to hit four points dies.”

“How are points gained?”

“By getting hit by your opponent. It’s like at a kendo competition. Each hit is a score, just points are awarded to the loser rather than the winner.” Hiroshi motioned over to Hitomi with a massive list of text appearing before her. “See very straightforward. Besides the other forty-three pages of regulations. I can wait if you want to read them all.”

Annoyance popped up in Hitomi’s face in the form of an angry vein on her forehead. “You’re just stalling now!” Shortly after the text appeared, as though there was a holographic projection in front of her, an acceptance confirmation came. It asked if she understood and accepted the rules of the game. She immediately slammed her hand down on the registration panel.

A light ping went off as it accepted her approval. The text disappeared and a large countdown appeared between them. It was already in the process of going down when Hitomi tried to move. She made no real movements, as the game held her down until the countdown ended.

“Game Start!” appeared between them signaling the commencement.

Chapter 349 – Water Competition

Taking the first attack immediately with faster reaction times, Hitomi swung down her arm directly in the water on Hiroshi. He braced for the attack as the water pushed him backwards before the tension in the water snapped. Water rained down over the whole area leaving the earth wet.

Hitomi glanced up to the score to see that it still read zero. In confusion, she shouted down to Hiroshi, “What game are you playing?!”

Recovering from the attack, Hiroshi did little to bother with his soaked appearance. “You didn’t look at the rules. You can’t score a point with powers. Only physical contact by the players counts as a point.” He saw Hitomi charging at him, enraged over being tricked into the game. She wasn’t even using her full abilities, which Hiroshi already had seen before. It made it very easy for him to dodge her and tap her lightly on the shoulder. “Like this.”

A point went to Hitomi’s score.

She quickly turned around skating over the softened earth a little. Enraged further by losing a point to Hiroshi, she charged back at him at full speed. She disappeared from Hiroshi’s sight only leaving behind a splash of water.

Hiroshi had no chance of doing anything other than facing the attack straight on. She moved faster than his eyes could follow. The blow sent him flying back and tumbling through the earth until he came to a stop by the earth wall perimeter.

While Hiroshi was taken out, she went to check on the score. It read one to one now, a tie. Still angry, she looked a little reduced in her rage. The success seemed to have allowed for a small release.

‘Damn, I should have included a rule for knocking your opponent off their feet. I may still die before she loses.’ Shaken by the whole thing, but surprisingly not feeling any worse, Hiroshi managed to get himself back on his feet. ‘This was the only way to ensure the fight ended quickly. I just have to make sure to stay alive…’

Feeling more confident now with a point on her side, she charged once more after Hiroshi. She took advantage of her speed to make it impossible for him to even dodge. Her punch easily landed inside Hiroshi's stomach knocking him back into the wall.

The score remained still.

More confusion and anger set in. She unleashed a hail of punches though most of them missed Hiroshi as he got away after the first couple. Just as she finished her attack, he jumped through the air landing his hand on top of her head.

Another point.

Hitomi glared over at Hiroshi as he weakly smirked. “You’re the one that ignored all the rules before accepting. This is your own fault.”

Her rage refueled quickly as she threw out her fists at Hiroshi. He blocked a few of them with his hands with the score remaining unchanged. While in her emotional state, he was able to manage with her attacks and speed a lot more easily. “Damn you! I won’t allow you to have your way with me!”

Throwing her off him into the mud, Hiroshi took it as a moment to pause and recover. “I’ve got no interest in that sort of thing, not that you’d believe me.”

She quickly jumped back to her feet and attacked him openly with no strategy. All her intent was to gain the next point that she needed. However, the score never changed no matter how many times that she hit him. She tried all manner of options and locations. All she did was bruise up Hiroshi more than he was already. “Why can’t I get another point?!”

“Because the rules say you can’t. There are specific scoring rules.”

“Scoring rules?! You said physical contact scored points!”

“Yes, but I didn’t say anything about the conditions or special rules we’re playing by. We’re using the House Rules Set, meaning that there are only certain ways you can score points.”

“What!? You didn’t say anything about that!”

“I did offer you the chance to read the rules.”

“Damn you…”

Hiroshi gave her a bit of a smirk, his body starting to come back around to him again, through all of the bruises. “I’ll give you this little hint then, since I feel so bad for you. The reason that you can’t score a point is because your feet can’t be touching the same surface for each point.”

“Same surface?” She stared down at her feet seeing the ground. It took her a moment, but she put it all together.

Suddenly, all the water that she created before rose up out off the ground. While what had already mixed to be mud stayed behind, it generated enough for her. “Your little hint is going to be the death of you!”

Water poured down over the ground, but kept a specific form unlike before. Hitomi funneled it into a river pointed straight at Hiroshi. It ran for more than a meter deep as a wild rapid. Once she created her path, she jumped up onto the water with her feet landing on top and not actually sinking into the water. While the water sped away, she remained still floating on top. “You didn’t think I could do this did you?!”

Allowing the river to take her along now, Hitomi raced towards Hiroshi who found the pressure of the water and tumultuous water more difficult than expected. She came down kicking Hiroshi in the chin knocking him out of the water.

Second point, tied.

Hiroshi quickly snapped himself out of the stun of her attack to grab a hold of the tall wall of earth. He used it to pull himself back into the fight and fly over to Hitomi. The river already started to turn away and fall off as she finished with what she wanted.

He grabbed a hold of her while in mid-air and spun her around getting himself to land his feet into the water before it all scattered.

Third point scored.

Once he had what he wanted, he separated from her jumping away before he took any more of a pummeling from her. He skidded a little over the muddy ground. A grin came across his face as it all worked out. “I only told you that rule because I wanted you to use your water.”

“Damn you! I’m going to kill you!”

“It’s looking more like you’re going to die. One more point.”

“How did you even get that second point? You weren’t touching anything!”

Shrugging, while keeping the secret to himself. He dodged the next round of strikes by the enraged Hitomi. Unable to keep her anger in control, she lost any sort of accuracy. Hiroshi effortlessly worked around her. He threw out his leg to trip her.

Falling on her face, Hitomi quickly jumped up again before Hiroshi could even make an action. She went wild with her attacks trying anything to get another point. “I won’t die! I won’t die!” Water quickly began to pour out of her eyes, soaking the earth.

Hiroshi struggled with the pressure, not able to completely stay ahead of the new rivers. Even though the ground gave more places for the water to pour out into, the volume she produced still managed to give standing water.

She leapt after him as it dragged him out of her range. Jumping around the water, she closed the distance before leaping after him, punching him out of the water and into the crater she created, from when he fell out of the school.

Third point, tied.

Water quickly filled up the crater into a pool once more. He left the pit before it became too filled with water. ‘Damn…she’s been so caught up in her anger it’s been difficult getting the last hit I need…’

Hitomi saw the gigantic numbers out of the corner of her eye. It calmed her down a little seeing that she finally got the third point that she was looking for from the game. “It’s tied now.” A little more in control of her situation, she remembered what she did to get the point, which also led her to another realization. “There’s only three possible points to gain! This game can’t be won!”

Water still poured off of him and his feet sank in the earth a little. He wiped away the water hanging to his brow. “Is that what you think? There’s a fourth point. I wouldn’t make a game unbeatable.”

“A fourth point? How?”

“That’s my secret.”

“Bastard! You did this on purpose!”

Dark shadows hung over Hiroshi's face as he slowly walked forward, his determination unbreakable. “Of course, I never said I made a fair game, just a winnable game. This is the moment where you die.”