She charged forward, bold and confident. Maybe she’d decided she could overpower me with brute force alone. Don’t make me laugh!
I kicked myself into high gear. Each step I took was heavier and more precise than the last. Then I aimed a low kick at her left leg. She didn’t try to dodge. The impact made an airy sound — and while it was still echoing, she closed in, as if to suggest my attacks were not a threat, and taking them was a small price to pay to win the war.
A forward punch. Not to the face, but the chest area slightly below. Bam.
“Guh...!”
The blow was so intense, it knocked the wind out of me for a split-second. If I’d taken a hit like that to the face... The mere thought sent a chill down my spine.
My low kick was meant to help get me into the rhythm, and I was fully prepared for a counterattack, but the damage I received in return far outweighed what I had dealt. Her leg muscles were a lot more powerful than I had expected. They didn’t look that burly, yet it felt like I was kicking a tree trunk. She was genuinely strong.
Had I gotten weaker? No way. Like, yeah, I had taken a sabbatical from karate at one point, but I had spent the past year-plus getting back into my groove. I was stronger than ever... but somehow, Mihashi Chinatsu had improved even more dramatically. She had probably dedicated her entire high school career to karate.
Sure, I had kept up my training, but at the same time, I had a club to attend, and studying to do, and friends to hang out with... Compared to Chinatsu, I had spent significantly less time focused on my fighting skills.
I could almost hear her telling me: Don’t expect to beat me with one hand tied behind your back.
Meanwhile, she continued her onslaught. Another forward punch. I jumped back, shifting the blow’s destination and reducing the damage as much as possible. Next, she went for a middle kick — feint — a high kick. Prepared for the worst, I raised my arm to block. If I took that hit, it would knock me out. I couldn’t let that happen. I needed to block it, no matter the cost.
As she whaled on me, I slipped in low kicks in retaliation. I could hear them landing, but Chinatsu’s expression didn’t shift even a fraction. Apparently she had decided to ignore them.
Our short-range combat continued. Any time I tried to back up, she would close in again, ensuring all of her attacks were within range. It was clear she was planning to simply endure any blows I landed in return.
Another high kick — no, a middle, I misread—
Then I took the hardest hit yet.
“Gah!”
Pain — shot through me — my rib — did it break? I can’t take another hit!
I could see her start to throw out another kick. Middle? High? Feint or no feint? If I took a high kick, I was done for, but even a middle kick would be hard to endure.
What now? What do I do?
“STOP!”
...Huh? It’s over? Did I lose?
For a split-second, my mind went blank. I glanced around, struggling to think. Then, at last, I realized that three minutes had passed, and thus, the first round had ended.
I walked back to my side and sat down in the chair provided to me.
“Want some water?! Or a towel?! I’ve got one right here!” Aoki babbled from somewhere behind me.
“Water.”
He held the bottle up to my lips, but I snatched it away and drank from it myself.
When I heard the word “stop,” part of me immediately wondered if I’d lost. This said a lot about my current state of mind.
Each break would only last one minute. How many seconds had passed? It was almost time for the next round. In less than sixty seconds, I’d have to get up and walk back to the battlefield. Time flew by so quickly here, and yet it lasted an eternity there...
I don’t want to fight. It hurts. I’m scared. I... can’t win...?
At this point, I couldn’t have returned to the arena without some ray of hope.
“Don’t force yourself, Yui. If it’s too risky, we can call it off.”
I jumped to my feet. “Hyah!”
“Aagh!”
My elbow slammed into him and sent him stumbling a short distance. Don’t be such a baby! You’re making me look like a gorilla or something!
How did he do that? He spoke up at the exact perfect time and got me motivated again. Almost like my body was moving on autopilot before my brain could catch up. I couldn’t stand it.
“Combatants, take your marks!”
At the judge’s voice, I raised my hand in Aoki’s direction.
“Be back soon.”
“Go get ’em!”
We exchanged a high-five.
In the second round, Chinatsu was just as aggressive. Forward punches, body kicks. Low, middle, high kicks. She was like a whirlwind, whipping around the arena, and it took everything I had to slip in a few punches and low kicks of my own in between.
As for the third and fourth rounds, they went pretty much the same way.
This was now my fourth break, and I was struggling to breathe. My whole body was probably in a lot of pain, too, but I was numb to it by this point. Part of me was amazed I was still able to move at all.
“This is kind of insane...”
“I thought this was going to be, like, a casual match...”
“So hardcore!”
“At this point, I don’t care who wins!”
“Keep it up, girls!”
Meanwhile, Aoki was doing his best to mop up my sweat with a towel, but it still wasn’t enough.
“Yui... This is just a casual school event, remember?”
No. This is a duel. To us, at least.
Talent... Effort... Dreams... Pride... So many things were riding on this fight.
“Combatants, take your marks!”
My body felt so leaden, I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to stand up.
“Win or lose, this is the final round,” I told him confidently. And with that, I slowly rose to my feet. Thank god. Apparently my legs could still support my weight, which meant I could still fight.
“You can always forfeit, you know,” Chinatsu called before the start of the fifth round. She still regarded me as her opponent, but I could see a hint of mercy in her expression.
“What, are you scared I’ll win again? You never could beat me,” I countered, hoping to bolster my morale.
“We’ll see about that,” she shot back flatly, her shoulders heaving.
She had to be exhausted from all that attacking... but the damage she’d inflicted was far greater. Meanwhile, I had barely landed any solid hits.
“BEGIN!”
Chinatsu charged straight at me; I put some distance between us. I couldn’t think about strategy any longer. All I could do was let my body move on autopilot.
And yet, although I was too tired to plan my moves, for some reason, my brain was stuck on something else. Chinatsu was right — I couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t beat me. After all, in the time since she moved away, she had invested far more time in karate than I had.
Right kick, left kick, right punch, one after another. I barely managed to get in a low kick, but the foot I was using was starting to hurt.
Every single one of Chinatsu’s attacks was an attempt to finish me. Each of them was a message: I’m not playing around.
Some people devoted their entire lives to their craft, while others devoted, eh, however much they felt like. People of the former category might judge those in the latter category, and vice versa. Their priorities were different. And I could understand how infuriating it would be if someone assumed they could beat you because of it, even though they didn’t know the whole story.
But just because someone didn’t devote their whole life to one single thing, it didn’t automatically mean they didn’t take their life seriously. Maybe they were devoted to a lot of different stuff at once. Maybe some things were equally as important as others. A single duel did not determine the value of everything.
Right! Left! Knee strike! Chinatsu’s onslaught was unending. She was trying her best to end this. I slipped in a low kick.
Kicking her used to feel like kicking a tree trunk, but now every time I landed one, she pulled her leg back slightly. Was she... flinching?
I wanted to beat her in this duel, fair and square. I refused to use my lack of time investment as an excuse. Obviously winning wasn’t everything, but at the same time, winning would prove to her just how committed I was. And I wanted her to see that.
She threw out a right hook aimed at my shoulder — an overswing. Meanwhile, in the same instant, I jumped. The whole world slowed to a crawl.
We had been fighting for nearly fifteen full minutes; I couldn’t begin to count how many punches and kicks we’d performed thus far. But there was one attack I hadn’t tried, and Chinatsu had probably noticed its absence by now. Maybe she thought I couldn’t use it, or maybe she thought I was holding back. But in actuality, I was waiting for the perfect time to summon all of my strength and speed to land it.
My high jump kick.
Aimed at the head, it was a knockout blow, and I had been waiting and waiting to use it.
Chinatsu’s legs weren’t moving. She was unable to dodge. So I unleashed my ultimate weapon straight at her — I’m sorry!
“Not gonna work!”
My foot struck her left arm. She blocked the hit. I felt a chill in my chest, but I ignored it. All I had to do was break through her guard.
Sparks flew as leg bone collided with arm bone... and then...
“RAAAAAAAAHHH!”
...she knocked me away with a right front kick.
The crowd gasped. Even they could tell that my ultimate attack had failed. And they all probably figured I was toast.
“You’re done,” Chinatsu declared.
It was such a climactic moment, I couldn’t blame them for thinking the battle was over.
“You can do it, Yui!”