Episode 22 - Stealing Thunder

Chiyoko was quiet. She had said a cursory goodbye to the Bosatsu duelists, then met up again with Kohitsuji. Their opponents were strange - they seemed nice, but she couldn't shake the unsettling feeling that crept up on her when she was stuck with them in the elevator.

But that wasn't the most pressing issue at the moment. She was often distracted by things like this, trying to figure people out, when really she should be focusing on the upcoming duels.

She looked around. Electrical problems aside, it was quite an impressive building - a spire that towered over the surrounding city, topped by an open-air dueling arena. The stands were bursting, fans of each team eager for this round's duels to start. She was sitting on the sidelines, along with Hairo, Tetsu, and Captain Hidaka. On the opposing bench, four of the Bosatsu duelists waited - Kotei, Jihara, Yukimura, and Captain Ryoichi. Just outside the arena, on opposite sides, Mizumigawa and Karasu were preparing to face each other.

Chiyoko knew that Karasu was strong, but Mizumigawa was not to be taken lightly. She was very skilled, and it was well-known that in the last few years Bosatsu had been a real innovator in developing esoteric techniques. Karasu was going to have to bring all his strength to bear if he was going to triumph.

The crowd suddenly cheered as the two duelists emerged from their respective entrances, striding towards their dueling platforms.

Mizumigawa Shin was wearing her signature hand-wraps and dark glasses. She wasn't a physically imposing figure, but out there in front of the audience she had a powerful presence - electric.

Karasu Nori - Karasu the Rogue - was dressed in his typical dueling outfit, his uniform accented by a domino mask. He carried a single rose, and as he reached the platform, he savored its scent, then tossed it towards the audience - receiving an extra chorus of cheers as his fans reached out to catch it.

Say what you like, he's got style, thought Chiyoko. Just can't seem to hang on to a girlfriend for some reason. Although things seem to be going okay between him and Ana so far...

"Mizumigawa Shin!" Karasu greeted his opponent. "I've been looking forward to this duel."

"Yeah?" She adjusted her shades with the edge of her hand, smirking. "Then don't blink."

"Hah! All right, but I don't just want to hear boasts. I want you to be able to keep up - you're going to have to use your thunderbolt technique."

"Normally I only use that on tough opponents."

Karasu turned towards the audience. "What do you think? Don't you want to see her duel for real?" They roared in agreement.

"Hey, hey, no need to beg. I guess if you're a fan, it's the least I can do." She shifted her stance, then traced a wide circle in the air with her fingertips. Suddenly, with a thunderclap, she brought her hands together, interlacing her fingers, steepling her forefingers. "RIN! Seal of the thunderbolt!"

Chiyoko's eyes widened. Mizumigawa's movements were confident before, but now... she exuded an incredible power, as though her body was charged with electricity. What was this technique?! Was she tapping in to some strange source of power? Or was this her natural strength, sealed away?

Karasu clenched a fist. "Yes! This is the power I wanted to see." He raised it up in preparation for the first throw, and Mizumigawa followed suit.

"Rock! Paper! Scissors! SHOOT!"

Mizumigawa whipped forward a swift throw of Rock. At the same time, Karasu's hand shot forward - stuttered in mid-throw, as though in a skipping video - and completed the throw. Paper.

"Paper covers Rock! Point to Karasu!"

They paused for a moment, then dropped their hands.

"Karasu-kun, that was a sweet Glitch Step! Totally threw me off."

"Are you kidding? I only barely pulled that off. Did you seriously just use Seeding on me?!"

"Hell, I tried."

"No, it worked! I thought you were going to throw Paper, but only guessed you might be seeding it just before the throw. I used the Glitch Step to hide my suspicion, and it payed off."

Chiyoko narrowed her eyes. Sierpinski Seeding? The technique was incredibly tough to pull off - a duelist would have to subtly indicate a specific throw several times, but only at the precise edge of their opponent's peripheral vision. Done properly, it would cause their opponent to subconsciously read them as preparing the  desired throw, and would therefore control what they used to counter. So Mizumigawa had seeded a throw of Paper, so that Karasu would throw Scissors. If it had worked, her throw of Rock would have won, but he suspected something was up, and threw Paper to counter.

"You better have more tricks than that, Karasu-kun. It's not going to work again!"

They prepared for the next throw.

"Rock! Paper! Scissors! SHOOT!"

"Scissors cuts Paper! Point to Mizumigawa!"

"That type of move isn't going to work on me, Karasu-kun. Trying to read me mid-throw? I've been training with Jihara-san, and he's faster than you!"

"That was pretty good, Mizu-kun. You could tell I was trying to read your throw, so you faked Rock before switching to Scissors."

"Yep. I thought you were going to take this match seriously!"

"Well, I suppose it's time to finish this." Karasu held a rose in front of him - where had that come from? - and narrowed his eyes at Mizumigawa. "I've seen through your pattern, Mizu-kun. I don't need to read your throw, I can predict it ahead of time." He vanished the rose again with a flick of his hand.

She rolled her eyes. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Rock! Paper! Scissors! SHOOT!"

"Scissors cuts Paper! Point to Karasu!"

"Tch. You got me."

He shrugged. "Yeah, I was lying. Had to distract you. But it worked! You were wrong about me being too slow - now that I'm synced up with you, I can 'steal' your throws without predicting them." He ran a hand through his hair. "It's over, Mizu-kun!"

"Heh." She looked down. "I guess you're right. It was fun, but it all ends here." She looked up sharply, drew a circle quickly in the air, then brought her hands together with a sound like thunder.

Her hands were clasped together, the fingers interlaced, but different this time - her middle fingers were pressed together, folded behind her forefingers. "PYO! Seal of the great thunderbolt!"

Chiyoko almost couldn't believe it. The change that came over Mizumigawa was like when she used the first seal, but redoubled. She almost expected to see sparks jumping from the duelist's fingers.

"You're good, Karasu-kun! I was hoping I wouldn't have to use my second-level release." She pointed at him. "Consider yourself lucky!"

The duel didn't last much longer after that. The next two throws followed swiftly, and on each one her movements were fast and flawless. Without hesitating, she threw the perfect counter each time. She blew past all his defenses, and in a flash, the match was over.

"Match, Mizumigawa! Three points to two!"

Karasu had to take a moment to catch his breath. "Mizu-kun, that was incredible!" He bowed to her.

She flashed him a smile and a 'V for victory'. "Not bad yourself, Karasu-kun. Keep working, and maybe you'll be able to keep up with me next time."

"Haha! All right, Mizu-kun. Next time!" They left the dueling platforms. Karasu's girlfriend, Ana, was waiting for him, and she gave him a kiss on the cheek as he returned to his seat.

But Chiyoko wasn't watching them anymore. She was heading for the team's lounge to prepare herself for the next duel. These Bosatsu duelists - we can't underestimate them! I'll have to be especially careful dealing with this next one. She glanced back, as her opponent was heading off in the opposite direction. From what I heard on the elevator, she sounded especially dangerous. The "mastermind", Yukimura Hisoka.

Episode 21 - Gathering

Yukimura adjusted her glasses and began to tell her story. "So, my first year at Bosatsu, I started visiting the dueling team before the first tryouts of the year, watching the sparring and practice matches."

Ryoichi cut in. "Lots of people do that, but Yuki-chan... she'd show up every day, taking elaborate notes on every match."

"I needed to learn the lay of the land if I was to join the team. Not everyone can blithely ignore the existing power structures."

"Hah! Yes, that's you, always deferring to authority."

She narrowed her eyes at this, but continued. "I took notes on the team, on everyone's dueling styles. When the time came to try out for a spot, I used that information to win."

There was a brief pause, as Ryoichi waited for her to continue. "That... was terrible. Did a raconteur kill your parents or something? Just... just let me tell it." She shrugged. "So she shows up one day, when the team's duelists are going to spar. She comes up to us, the five slated for the championship, and she hands us each an envelope. Says nothing, she's cultivating an aura of mystique -" she rolled her eyes at this "- except that we're not supposed to open them until after the day's training. Most of the duelists didn't think much of it, forget about the envelopes. But as soon as we're done, I open mine."

He leaned forward, spreading his fingers. "It's a single sheet of paper. On it, she's written a series of throws. It takes me a moment to figure it out, but then I see it. From the start of that practice, through each of my duels in order, it's a series that would have beaten me. I go to the others to check, and it's the same with them - she'd figured out how to beat each of us before the matches even started. We tried to find her, but she'd already disappeared. Then, the next day, she shows up and joins in the practice, as though she'd been a member of the team for years."

He leaned back again. "She may not be able to tell a story, but don't let her fool you into thinking she doesn't have a sense for the dramatic. She's Bosatsu's 'mastermind'." He glanced at Jin. "She was the one who came up with the throw that Mizu-kun used against you that day on the tennis courts."

Jin blinked. There was so much he didn't know about his teammates. Why was that? Was it just that he hadn't asked ...?

"In fact, now that I think about it... it was Captain Umari Toshio's last year, and I was planning to succeed him the following year. I was popular with the first-year students, and Yuki-chan seemed to be on my side as well. But she convinced me to challenge him for the position before the championship started."

She looked away, spoke quietly. "I didn't see any point in delaying the inevitable. Ryoichi-san is right - Umari-san was a good duelist but a terrible captain, and the team wasn't going to go anywhere until Ryoichi took over."

"Well, I challenged him, and I had enough support with the rest of the team that he had to accept. Yuki-chan and I developed a cunning strategy, and I beat him. It... wasn't a graceful transfer of power. He quit the dueling team in a fit of rage, and I haven't heard of him since. But in the end, I was the captain, and the current age of Bosatsu dawned."

He looked over at Jihara, who was sitting still with folded hands. "And my first year as captain was the year we lost to the Shinku monastery."

Jihara nodded. "As Ryoichi-dono says, that was the first year we met. The Bosatsu dueling team progressed quite far in the championship that year, under Ryoichi-dono's peerless leadership. He helped them to unlock their potential, and they swept past many opponents that would have previously proved too capable. However, the ability that allowed them to progress that far placed them against an opponent they were completely unprepared to challenge. The Shinku monastery is an isolated community of duelists who follow a rigorous training regimen, honing their bodies to be capable of utilizing the monastery's signature technique, the Lord of Emptiness. This esoteric technique produces a state in which a sufficiently capable duelist may respond in the moment of an opponent's throw, countering them regardless of their strategy. It is an invin-"

The pause was momentary.

"In the proper hands, the technique is essentially invincible. The Bosatsu duelists faced a team of Shinku monastery's most highly trained monks, each a master of the Lord of Emptiness technique. The first two matches were decisive victories for Shinku. In the third match, Bosatsu's new captain dueled an initiate who had been raised in the monastery, but who was only that year allowed to duel in the championship. Myself. Ryoichi-dono was swift enough to last for several rounds, in which I was only able to force ties. I won the duel in the end, but the extended bout gave him enough time to observe me. He has peculiar insight, and he was able to discern what I had kept hidden from my fellow monks for years. In truth, I was dissatisfied with the only life I had ever known. I wished to discover the world that I had never been a part of. I felt that I was trapped within Shinku, but that I had no other options. After that round of the tournament, Ryoichi-dono came to speak with me privately. He offered to take me in and provide a place for me at Bosatsu. I had won the match, but the true victory was his. I took the chance he offered me, and have been a member of the Bosatsu dueling team ever since."

There was a drawn-out silence.

"Damn." Mizumigawa finally broke in. "I guess it's my turn next, but my story's not anywhere near that moving, and I didn't pull some ridiculous stunt like Ryo-kun or Yuki-chan. I just showed up, the next year, my first, at the tryouts. I dueled Ryo-kun and showed him I knew my stuff, so here I am!"

"Wellll... that's not quite all, is it?" Ryoichi arched an eyebrow at her.

"Uh?"

"You don't remember? When you were sparring with me? I could tell you had spirit, but I wasn't sure if you had the talent to back it up. But when I used the Rock-Crushing Strike... you blocked it effortlessly, but that wasn't the impressive part. What surprised me was how you used it on me yourself right afterward."

"Ah, well, it's not such a tough technique! I must've picked it up the last tournament season."

"Don't be so modest. What you used against me was a hand-crafted variation on the Rock-Crushing Strike that I had designed myself. It took me days to master it, and you learned it in the middle of a duel. You earned your spot on the team with that one throw."

"Ha! Haha! Uh, isn't it Kotei-kun's turn? Yeah?" Mizumigawa grinned in embarrassment.

Ryoichi smirked, but they turned towards Jin.

"Um. Well -"

Jin was cut off suddenly as the lights flashed on, blinding bright, and the elevator shuddered to life again. It accelerated, as though nothing had happened, towards the the three hundredth floor and the dueling arena.

"- I guess I can tell you later."

Episode 20 - Stuck

Jihara Akatsuki shook his head. "I am afraid the ceiling panel is locked. We will have to wait until power is restored."

They sat, leaning against the walls of the elevator. They had come to a stop somewhere above the hundredth floor of the building, and the doors, when forced, opened only on a blank wall - the elevator was only supposed to run to the 300th floor.

"I guess we're stuck, then," concluded Ryoichi, looking cheerful even in the dim emergency lighting.

"This sucks!" Mizumigawa sat upside down, her back resting on the floor, her legs stretched up the wall. "How long is this going to take? What are we supposed to do?"

"Well, um," said Chiyoko softly, as everyone turned towards her, "I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Chiyoko Shizu."

Ryoichi grinned. "Of the Kohitsuji Academy dueling team? Pleased to meet you. I am Captain Ryoichi Kei, of Bosatsu."

The other Bosatsu duelists introduced themselves in turn. Chiyoko studied them carefully. She'd read the data on each of them, but there wasn't much information on what they were like as people. For some reason, nobody thought that was important enough to track.

There was a short silence before Chiyoko spoke up again. "So, um, how did you all end up on the dueling team?"

Mizumigawa perked up. "Oh man. You gonna tell her about how you joined, Ryo-kun?"

"Well..."

"Don't do this whole thing where you pretend you don't want to!" She smirked. "You love talking about yourself."

"Fine! If it'll make you happy, I'll grudgingly tell you." He cleared his throat, as though for punctuation. "Well, it was three years ago, my first year at the academy. At the beginning of the year I showed up to the offices to meet with the captain at the time, Umari Toshio. You see, the Bosatsu team was ranked very poorly, and most people didn't really pay it much attention then. But I had been watching their matches, and there were a few duelists there who I thought had a lot of promise. With proper guidance and strategy, they could have been quite formidable. So I went to Captain Umari, and I made my case."

Ryoichi shrugged.

"He didn't like it. Thought I was just some cocky upstart, fresh from the junior leagues. Which I was, I guess. But still, he threw me out of there."

Mizumigawa spun around to sit upright, grinning.

"So, before the first tryouts of the year, the team does an exhibition for the school. The arena's packed, and the team's best duelists are showing off their most impressive throws and techniques. Finally, Umari enters the ring to demonstrate a new technique he developed, the 'Stride of Hermes'. But before he can begin, a murmur passes through the crowd. It's me, walking out of the stands. It takes longer than I expected - the whole way down, there's this uncomfortable quiet, and Umari's giving me this look like he wishes I'd burn to ash right then and there. But I keep going, until I'm standing in front of the whole team, and I flick out my wrist" - he demonstrates the gesture - "in Scissors, a duel challenge. I tell the whole school, not only is the team not strong enough to take us to the championship, they're not even strong enough to beat a single first-year student. I said I wanted to try out, immediately, by dueling each of them in turn. If one of them could beat me, I'd leave. But if I beat them all, I wanted a spot on their team, and a chance to compete in any tournament they entered."

"Hah!" Mizumigawa punched Ryoichi lightly on the shoulder. "I wish I could have seen that!"

Yukimura nodded. "I am certain it was almost as impressive as Ryoichi-san is making it out to be."

Ryoichi clutched his heart in mock-sorrow. "Yuki-chan! You wound me. I would never embellish a tale."

Chiyoko smiled quietly to herself before Ryoichi continued.

"I had challenged the dueling team's honor, and Umari's most of all. He had to accept. So, in the middle of the exhibition, one after another, I faced Bosatsu's five strongest duelists. I had studied each of them, and I knew their weaknesses. They had potential, but it was uncultivated. So, I defeated each of them in turn, until only Captain Umari remained." Ryoichi looked especially pleased. "He was furious."

"Which, of course, was the plan. Umari Toshio was a useless captain, but a very powerful duelist. He was an analytical type, able to develop elaborate strategies to trap any opponent. The team never progressed very far under his leadership, but he personally almost never lost a match. So I had to arrange the match to be as favorable as possible - I had studied his dueling history, but he knew almost nothing about me. I was calm and, if I'm being honest, exuding confidence and skill, while he had just witnessed me insult his team and his ability, then defeat every one of his teammates, before the entire school.

"Still, it was a hard-fought duel. He had been formulating plans to defeat me over the course of the four previous duels, watching my patterns and movements. I used esoteric techniques to cloud my intentions, eventually bringing the duel to a tie, with the next point determining the victor. He drew one foot back, preparing his dreaded Stride of Hermes. He wanted to finish it with a flashy, decisive throw. The arena had gone utterly silent. I knew that he had noticed I'd been avoiding Paper during this duel, trying to make him think that I'd use it at the last moment for a surprise finish. So, he was expecting me to use Rock to counter his Scissors. But this would make Paper a "safe" throw - it wouldn't lose whether my gambit was real, and I used Paper, or a feint, and I used Rock. He was learning quickly, and he didn't trust this. So, when it came to the throw - Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot! - he had fallen right into my trap, throwing Rock to counter the double-gambit and losing to my throw of Paper.

"And that was that. The audience went crazy, shouting and cheering and booing as I left the dueling platform. I was on the team. I wasn't very popular with the other members, but everyone knew who I was."

Yukimura smiled sardonically. "Of course, what else were you supposed to do after your bad first impression? You had no choice but to challenge them all in front of the entire school."

He shrugged. "Hey, it worked."

"Eventually. The team was a complete mess my first year."

Mizumigawa raised an eyebrow. "Hey, yeah, you joined up the year after that, didn't you? How did that go?"

"It was pretty uneventful."

Ryoichi gave her a skeptical glance. "Come on, Yuki-chan. It's your turn."

Mizumigawa leaned towards her. "Yeah, please?"

She sighed. "Fine, fine, no need to prostrate yourselves. I'll tell you how it happened."