CH_2.18 (049)

CH_2.18 (049)

The effects of Yoshio's forest 'lesson' could be seen entrenched in the group as they approached the last days of the basic training. Team-5 operated the same as before the forest challenge, but the same couldn't be said for others. The two winning coalitions had members of the four teams, meaning that at least one member in each team had chosen to give up completing the challenge with their teams to win the reward.

"The teams are broken," Takuma commented while watching Ai spar against her opponent. "If we're careful and play our cards right, we can get into the final tournament."

Yoshio's group consisted of five teams of five competing against each other on the weekly rankings leaderboard. No one could claim they knew exactly how the rankings worked as the criteria for grading was absent, and Yoshio only disclosed the rankings at the end of the week. But through some clever observations, the group members had deduced that the sparring record for every week held significant weight in the criteria.

But that didn't mean that sparring was all that mattered.

As it stood now, out of the five teams, three were in the lead with two No.1 rankings in the weekly— Team-5, Kameko's Team-3, and Cho's Team-1.

Team-5 got their second No.1 in Week Six from the forest challenge and were the latest to do so.

Unexpectedly, it was Team-2, a team that hadn't been No.1 before, to ace in Week Seven due to them preventing the abduction of a wealthy civilian merchant's wife and daughter while patrolling their route— a single incident that had rocketed them to win the week. Proving that sparring wasn't the end-all criteria.

Week Eight, however, didn't have any outlier events that could sway the rankings, neither did it have any challenges that had helped Team-5 win their two No.1 rankings.

Looking at the history, the chances didn't look good for Team-5 as they had never won a No.1 ranking based on sparring alone. They could even be considered in the same category as Team-2.

But things were different for Yoshio's group in Week Eight. Teams of strangers had learned to operate as cohesive units in their time together, but the forest challenge had thrown a wrench into the smoothly running teams. The number of mistakes during team exercises made up of a lot of training schedule, were as high as they were in the early weeks when the teams weren't used to each other.

Which presented Team-5 with an interesting situation.

Takuma pumped his fist and cheered as Ai sliced a gash into her opponent's arm. He grinned, "We have been the best team this week by far. Luck has been with us this week. Nenro and Masaaki haven't lost a single fight. Ai is going to win this one. I have been doing decently," even when he was holding back his brand new trump card for the final tournament, "and surprisingly your record isn't in the red."

"Stuff it," Taro grumbled. Taro's record was always more losses than wins. Takuma didn't say it out loud, but it felt great to have a higher win record than Taro— when just last year, Taro would've pounded him into the ground.

"If nothing crazy happens and we keep winning, we can ace this week," Takuma ripped the grass beside him.

"If we keep winning, that is," Taro replied.

In front of them, Ai threw her kunai, which embedded itself into her opponent's thigh, bringing them to their knees. Yoshio called the fight.

Taro continued, "As you said, we have been lucky with our pairings. But there are only so many people. It's only time before we get matched against someone powerful," he glanced at Kameko, the strongest in their group, "that might drag us down."

Takuma had considered that option, but he still thought they had every chance at winning as long as they continued to perform well outside of sparring.

Ai returned from lugging her opponent to the Shady Guy's tent. "Did you see that? I totally tricked him into committing when he shouldn't have," she had a healthy sheen of sweat on her.

"I saw. It was amazing," Nenro smiled as he handed a towel to Ai. He continued and added to the ongoing discussion, "I agree with Takuma. If we keep doing whatever we are and others don't suddenly get back into tune, I think we have a good chance."

Cho raised her quaking hand towards Takuma's face, but it fell back to the ground halfway up.

Takuma removed his smoking palm and didn't care anymore. He got off Cho and collapsed on the ground beside her. He looked to his side and saw that she was curled up and jittering. Face hot and heart drumming, but victorious, Takuma put his hands up, and he didn't care if it would make him feel miserable, but he yelled.

He had won.

———

.

Takuma hadn't felt worse in his entire life. One would think that a day would be enough to recover from a fight with minor cuts, but Cho's wind release jutsu had left a deep stinging pain in his body. It was so bad that he loathed the idea of standing.

"Will you stop groaning?" Ai shot him a glare.

Takuma groaned as he stretched his back and felt the pain in his bones. "I can't... I can't do it today. If he makes me fight today, I'll throw hard. Fuck the final tournament. I don't need the C-rank jutsu, I'll figure it out," he whined. He had skipped his early morning training because of the pain.

Takuma ignored Ai and continued to groan and did it louder when she hit. He only stopped when Yoshio arrived, and they had to file into the grid. He met eyes with Cho and glared at her when she had the gall to glare at him when she was the one who had made his life miserable!

"The final tournament is going to be held tomorrow and the day after that," were the first words that came out of Yoshio's mouth.

For a moment, Takuma forgot about the pain.

"I'm going to announce the weekly ranking for this week early," Yoshio continued. "The team with the highest number of wins will participate in the final tournament as my representatives. One of you guys better win. I don't appreciate getting embarrassed in front of my co-workers."

Takuma felt more restless than ever. Why couldn't he just get to the point?!

"... No.1 for this week's ranking is... Team-5," Yoshio turned to Team-5. "That makes you a three-time No.1— which means you're going to the final tournament."

Takuma blinked as he stared at Yoshio's face.

It felt so... anticlimactic.

"I disagree!"

Takuma turned towards the sword-wielding girl who had spoken up.

Now, that felt more climactic.

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