A/N: First things first, I shall explain that during the writing of battle scenes I will not write the fighter's moves since a lot of people wouldn't know what I'm talking about and also because I do not know them myself (I swear the list of fighting moves is huge no matter which character). Secondly, while I'm proud to know five languages, I will be using them when writing about a fight happening in countires who use those languages but do not fret dear chidren I will be translating them in brackets. That's it enjoy~
Chapter 1: An improbable team
Bright lights swinging in every direction, lampposts posted in front of the stadium giving off their every ounce of lighting particle making it almost look like it was still daytime. The stadium built up proudly by its owner was welcoming yet again the guests who looked forward to a good brawl in the famous tournament everyone adored to watch but feared to take part in. Although the tournament was firstly thought up for single participants, this year was different. Tekken Tag Tournament. The motives behind this very tournament had always stayed unknown to the eyes of the audience as well as the fighters themselves. Many people spoke of it being a place for rivals to get their scores settled but most importantly, for people to get their hands on a very generous amount of prize money.
As much as the prize money seemed to sound appealing to everyone who had the chance to hear the exact amount of it, Asuka was one of those who came with a mission in their hearts. It may sound ridiculous to participate in the tournament for the sole reason to stop whoever is behind the scenes but she was convinced that with a fellow mate it might very well become possible.
The moment she finally stopped her wandering thoughts, her shoulders slumped. Of course, to enter the tournament she had to be paired up, because she would eventually stumble upon two opponents where she would be in a huge disadvantage, in a tournament where people were ready to kill even more.
The second she had learned that a new tournament was about to be launched, she rushed home on her bicycle to register herself, completely forgetting that she had been in the middle of class. There had been no regret left as the next day the teacher had made her clean the classroom for the next two weeks. In spite of the advertisement having been oddly bizarre –with it being displayed on a dirigible – she had completely overlooked the fact that this tournament was specially conceived for a team of two fighters but for those who would want to go solo, people would most probably point their finger on the closest cemetery.
As much as she had wanted to go with someone she was sure could pull out a good fight; she found none who had suited her taste. Sure, there were several feasible people for the job but as she heard about the rumor of Lily having the intention of entering the tournament with a partner, she heightened her bar of expectations to the point where she thought that even God himself wasn't good enough for the job. Thus, she ended up being partnerless.
Asuka stood now at the entrance, taking in a deep breath, preparing herself mentally for what was about to come. Then, she swiftly began to walk through the giant hall to the reception desk, her heart jumping from excitement at every step she had taken further into the building. Soon she could smell fresh sweat being shed, mixed with what seemed to be flower deodorant –most probably from girls trying to hide the result from a recent fighting arts practice.
Upon arriving to the reception desk, she was greeted with a high pitched voice and a smile which seemed to grow only wider each time words were spoken. "Welcome to the Tekken Tag Tournament 2! Yes, well heard it's our second one and surely not the last! What can I do for you?" Asuka could have sworn that her ears would at any moment detach themselves and run away. Then again, she wasn't blaming her, the poor girl was sitting right next a speaker who was shouting away information every five minutes so she gave herself some time to let her ears rest a little before passing her ticket to the receptionist girl.
The girl-who was named Polina, many thanks for there being a name tag- gratefully took her ticket and, in a matter of seconds, passed it through a machine connected to her PC. After a moment, Asuka's eyes widened at the screen. A 3D model of herself was gracefully turning clock-wise in the center while information on herself such as, her height, age, pounds-simply only some personal-medical stats really-was displayed on each side of her.
Turning away from her PC after having typed whatever she had needed to, Polina faced her, reaching out her ticket which apparently was used to register her participation on the said tournament. "Here's your ticket, with the pleasure of serving you again, I bid you good luck." After having said the phrase she probably already had to say more than a hundred times today, she lightly bowed her head as farewell.
Asuka who still had her eyes transfixed into the screen –although it had already faded into a black background- shook her head to escape her momentary haze to arch a brow at the receptionist girl. "Say, aren't you tired of having your eyes literally crushed by the useless information coming out of the speaker right next to you? Also, aren't you scared of scary and mean looking participants who come your way? I mean, some of them do have a lack of patience, so don't they sometimes threaten you?" She was very aware that it wasn't any of her business and that she wouldn't gain anything by sticking her nose in it but still she wanted to make sure of something that had bothered her since she first saw Polina.
The girl tilted her head to the side, a confused look in her eyes. "I beg your pardon?" Her question had been as business like as if she had been brainwashed into absolutely not showing her true personality to anyone who passed by her desk. Asuka could have stopped it here but she persevered, hoping to fill her suspicion with an answer.
"Oh come on, don't tell me you can't answer a question a participant of this tournament, that your employer hosts, has?" She purposely emphasized some words while grinning to get her to talk, which after a little moment of hesitation completely worked.
"Actually, yes I do feel threatened sometimes but oh well what can a lowly receptionist such as me do but to keep working to earn money to get bread and meat on her table?" Polina leisurely sighed before straightening her back again as if she had forgotten the fact that Asuka was still a "client". "Hmm, I understand. I wish your job could be easier but I hope they pay you at least the due money for this." Asuka made a fist with her hand while punching it against the palm of her other hand.
"Of course, but no one ever talked to me that nicely while at work! I also wish I had more people like you Miss Kazama." Her smile had been so radiant and innocent that Asuka felt that she had accomplished her mission. "Now she's showing her real smile."
Asuka smiled back at her while an uneasy feeling kept creeping in her stomach. Without a second thought she began to explain her uneasiness. "Say, Polina this tournament is for a team of two right? Is it really that bad if I don't have a partner?"
Polina blinked at her name being spoken about so leisurely but soon showed up another innocent yet playful grin. "Not really no, actually we have the option to play matchmakers!" Her voice was now full of enthusiasm as Asuka frowned in confusion. Noticing her reaction, Polina continued with her explanation. "Well, it's simple. In the application form we put a question as follows, "In case your partner becomes unable to participate or you came without partner, we have the option to arrange you a new partner. Please choose your option down below." Many people said they wouldn't mind and the others well, most of them just ignored that choice." She dropped her shoulders accompanied with a short sigh.
Asuka's eyes were clearly lit up as she could feel a curious shade of sparkles floating imaginably around her. Before she could blurt out her loud positive answer a doubt stopped her. "Having a partner arranged for me is good and all but what if I get partnered up with some strange guy?" Obviously, she had made enemies in her past tournament, although they weren't a lot, she was sure that she nor her enemy would make a truce and work together, in a tournament where they were a team even less.
Polina looked at her with a worried expression, observing Asuka's face with hope of it giving out an answer. After a moment of meditation, Asuka lifted her fist into the air, startling Polina in the process. "Heck with it, I'll risk this! Polina, play the matchmaking roulette for me!"
"Yes, of course!" With a huge smile on her face, Polina began furiously typing on her keyboard before printing what resembled a badge with a number on it. "Here you go, you are number 22, your number is on your participation ticket too but the badge is mostly for the partner to find you. Your partner's number is 11 –the numbers kinda look like destiny if you ask me- and I noticed he hasn't come to check in yet but it's still early for anything to begin so you'll have to wait for a bit."
"You sure the matchmaking is put on random? Because it surely looks odd to me how the numbers look similar." Polina ignored her intrigued question and repeatedly continued throwing out the word "destiny".
Upon calming herself, Polina straightened her back, her innocent smile showing up again, "Well miss Kazama, I wish you good luck. I'm sure your partner will be wonderful." There was something secretive about the way she had pronounced the word "wonderful" that let Asuka believe Polina knew more than she let on but she chose to ignore it.
Making a fist with her hand, Asuka gave out her thanks, waving good bye to Polina while walking in the direction of the waiting room. She'd never been in this kind of stadium before and she was sure she would never fight into one either because one more thing the tournament had a liking for was to send fighters all over the world to fight in random kind of arenas which would be broadcasted live throughout the world.
She was still walking through the main hallway when she noticed that it hadn't been just one waiting room that had been talked about but numerous ones. Immediately she noticed chunks of concrete on the floors as well as some walls missing. Fearfully, she took a peek inside a waiting room which –surprisingly- still looked rather untouched; to find a man, no wait a woman with blonde hair and Indiana Jones looking attire, her arms as well as her legs crossed while sitting on a chair. Their eyes met, upon which Asuka was ready to go into fighting stance but choose otherwise as the blonde girl held up her badge with the number 15. Asuka shook her head with an apologetic smile while the girl looked away, closing her eyes in the process.
Then Asuka noticed a deep tanned woman which clearly was in need of clothes seen as she was showing a great amount of skin, talking to an as equally tanned man which the only particular feature was to have a lot of chains wrapped around his neck. They were calmly discussing in the corner of the room, not talking the same –although similar- language. "Well, they clearly found each other good." Only partners that had come together had the same badge number while those who came separately had to find a different number than theirs.
Seeing the two of them together, their badges not matching made Asuka realize how envious she felt. Would she and her partner hit it off well? To be honest she wasn't a girl with a lot of friends and she had to admit that her attitude wasn't helping to it either. Plus, she wouldn't go as far as to talk about boyfriends, of course, she had had a few but they had all broken up saying they felt miserable about the fact that she was stronger than them. "Talking about whimpering bunnies." She clicked her tongue at the unpleasant memory before making her way out of the room.
She continued her little journey but as soon as she made two steps, a flying chair came from her right. She had instinctively ducked down, the chair hitting the wall and exploding into pieces. Noticing she had stepped into a battle field, Asuka fearfully continued to crawl on her knees to get away, ignoring the flying objects that came flying from both fighters. She hadn't taken the risk of taking a peek of their faces but judging from the voices, they were two men and they weren't only fighting for fun.
"Hopefully I get partnered with a good citizen." Holding her wish in her mind she didn't notice that she had closed her eyes. Her face came suddenly crashing into a rough fabric she knew as being jeans, her body falling backwards due to the surprise.
"Oh, is everything alright miss?" Her eyes had still been closed when she heard the mature and a little rough voice belonging to a man above her head. She slowly opened her eyes to find an outstretched hand being held to her and upon looking further up; she met another pair of gentle eyes. Her mouth uncontrollably opened up and down, her mind forming and laying out words but her voice visibly not cooperating.
She couldn't deny the fact that she had stumbled onto a very handsome man, something very different from the acne infested teenage boys she had the misfortune to cross ways with at school. She had been so fixated into his clear blue eyes that she almost didn't hear him insistently repeating his question.
Asuka shook her head, silently whispering a 'yes' before willingly taking the man's hand. He pushed her up without much effort, almost completely lifting her feet off the ground. Before she could thank him, he scowled before darting his eyes to the right down the hallway.
"Careful!" The words had barely been spoken out when he suddenly positioned himself before her, destroying a chair that had been flying into their direction with a single punch. During the whole action, she could have sworn that she saw sparkles of lightning out of his hand but decided that there were other matters at hand to think about.
The man let out a sigh before turning to face her. "Are you alright? That was pretty close huh?" He threw a smile at her, uncomfortably rubbing the back of his head with one hand.
Her lips instinctively turned up to a smile as well before widening her eyes at the sight behind the smiling man. "Watch out!" This time, she was the one to shout out a warning before taking the man by the arm and smashing him against the nearest wall, barely escaping the table that had been thrown into their direction.
"Hah, there really is every type of objects flying in here. Well we were in the middle of the hallway, so I guess it was our fault too?" Suddenly, she remembered that she still had her two hands wrapped around the man's arm and slowly opened one of her eyes, fearing she had put too much force into it and maybe hurt someone she had just saved from being hit.
The man had his eyes wide open, an unfazed expression on his face and Asuka quizzically tilted her head to the side. "Was it maybe…too much?" Her voice squeaked at the end of her question. She knew she had hurt more people than needed when trying to save them which most of the time were her boyfriends. The man blinked a few times before turning to her with another one of his crooked smiles. "Ah, don't worry. I am completely fine; I'd worry if I wasn't though. It was a pretty powerful blow."
Asuka instantly apologized, her cheeks undeniably turning tomato colored. Why was she feeling embarrassed all of a sudden? Because some handsome-mature-beautifully ocean colored eyes-man was smiling at her? It wasn't her style to act as a deeply in love high school girl in front of her crush.
"It's surely only because I had been surprised to bump into his legs, yes that's it." While she was trying to debate with herself, a hand slowly came down on her shoulder. Her shoulders twitched at the sudden contact when the man let out a slight chuckle. "I think we'll make a good team, partner."
She paused at the words he had just spoken out and arched a questioning brow at him. Noticing her confusion, he pointed to the ground, Asuka's eyes following his finger. A badge with the number 22 –clearly hers- was lying in the ground. She hurriedly bent down to pick it off the ground before straightening her back only to be met with another badge showing the number 11.
Her eyes widened as a malicious grin spread on her lips. "Heh, looks like this guy could manage pretty well in a battle." Her previous inner struggles already forgotten, she excitedly balled her hands into fists, ignoring the curious gaze from the man beside her.
Asuka quickly noticed that she had indeed not been alone and managed to send him an awkward smile. The man suddenly bowed his head, finally deciding to introduce himself. "Alexandersson Lars, honored to meet you."
"Whoa, he isn't kidding with his exaggerating introduction." "Kazama Asuka, and well, nice to meet you too."
The look he gave her after having heard her name hadn't surprised her the least, it wasn't every day that your family name was associated to that of the top bad guy at the head of one of the biggest corporations of Japan. Since a lot of people grew to like having the same disturbed expression at the mention of her name, she always ignored at best their reaction, faking every time how much she would have liked to shout out that she would be the one to butt her relative's ass.
Before she could, however, have any kind of reaction, the man-now known as Lars-held up his fist to her, his voice one of genuine sincerity. "No matter what family name we may have, no matter what our past put us through, we are in this together." He ended his heroic speech with a knowing smile which Asuka gratefully returned while bumping her fist against his.
A chime suddenly rang out, a digitalized voice giving out information. "Calling out to all participants, please proceed down the hallway C to the main arena. I repeat-"
"This is it, are you ready partner?" Lars asked, his smile never vanishing from his lips. "As I'll ever be." Together they decided to head into the main arena.
They reunited with the other participants who were standing in pairs onto the arena. They were all facing a giant TV screen which was showing a countdown. Asuka, accompanied with Lars, walked further into the arena until they reached an empty spot and at that exact moment, the countdown ended, showing a giant '0' on the screen.
Everyone held their breaths for what was about to come when suddenly the screen was showing two panels, one to the right and one to the left with a 'VS' separating the two. Soon the panels began to move like what seemed to be a roulette and when they finally stopped, it showed two teams' pictures with their numbers and the name of a specific location laid out underneath the panels.
Lars leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. "It may sound confusing to understand since they started it without any warning but if I am guessing correctly, the teams are chosen at random and the location appearing underneath it all seems to indicate the location of their fight. Wouldn't you agree?" His breath tickled in her ear and God knows how sensitive she was at that area however, she chose that here again, important matters couldn't wait.
She nodded to his question while the chosen teams walked out of the arena. While waiting for the roulette to finally choose her team, Asuka looked around at the other present participants, only to find that there were teams which clearly would have chosen another partner had they had a choice. Some were on the verge to throw themselves at each other's throat, fighting for whichever reason they claimed would be worth it. She couldn't blame them, after all, wasn't she exactly one of them? Her arrogant blonde rival as well as the man who had once been suspected to have destroyed her father's dojo had been spotted both in separate teams standing a little further away. Her fists strengthened as a sudden blinking from the screen caught her eye.
Finally after a few rounds, the roulette finally stopped on her team and while she looked at the second panel, her eyes suddenly widened. The faces shown on the panel were certainly a tad too familiar to overlook.
Asuka looked to her right where at the same moment; a pair of brown eyes met hers. She had recognized the woman with a clothes loss and her partner with his neck warped in golden chains. The woman –apparently named Christie thanks to the panel showing her name- smiled mischievously at her, mouthing words that sounded anything else like good luck wishing. The man –named Miguel- had a disinterested look painted on his features, looking at nothing in particular as his partner continued on with her one-sided teasing.
Asuka had been more as ready to reply as mockingly as her rival had been doing but a tug on her arm made it impossible. Lars held her arm and drew her to his left side, hiding her from their opponents' view, his eyes still fixed on the screen. "Why is he…?" Before she could actually question him about his actions, he turned to her with a smile. "Brazil it is then."
-x-x-x-x-
It had happened so fast that she didn't realize she was sitting in one of the airport's waiting rooms when only one hour earlier she had been in one of the biggest fighting arenas in Japan. After having said their destination, Lars had dragged her out of the arena, giving her a few minutes to prepare her luggage and meet him at the airport. The man had claimed the words "the sooner, the better" would fit the best in their case, and while the actual fight was scheduled to be held in two days, he had added "it will be a great occasion to go sightseeing".
She let out a sigh. "For someone who looked like regular person, he sure had sounded commanding." Suddenly she felt something warm being pressed to her cheek and she instantly sat up, getting into fighting stance only to be faced with a chuckling Lars. "I didn't mean to surprise you, lately it seems as if it's the only thing I do when coming near you. I'm slowly starting to feel like a ghost."
Asuka narrowed her eyes at his comment, wondering if he had actually made –rather tried to make- a joke. Not receiving the reaction he had expected, Lars proceeded to hand her a cup of hot cocoa which she gratefully took. "Why cocoa though?" Although her brash mouth had always been ready to speak out words her mind hadn't even finished forming, with Lars, those words somehow stayed behind closed lips. It wasn't long before an announcement rang out, informing them that the flight to Brazil was about to take off.
Finally comfortably settling into their seats, Asuka and Lars sat next to each other, none of them showing any trembling hands paranoia or any other behavior which could have only be called fear of flying. For Asuka though, the trip would be as peaceful as a voyage by train or car would be. Indeed, a fighter who had participated at many King of Iron Fist tournaments, knew that this tournament would require the participants to be flexible with their schedules as they were in constant movement between countries. This time seemed to be different and kind of big, seen that it was a tournament made with teams of two, so giving more time than needed for a fight was only normal. A part of her blamed herself for not having shown more interest in the screen which had shown her team's opponents as well as the fight location. Lars had –as a seemingly good leader- been the one to tell her during their little trip to the airport, that they would have to fly to Brazil with the actual fight being held in a tropical rainforest.
They would be stuck on the plane for nearly one entire day before actually landing in Brazil and one hour had already passed when Asuka turned off her handheld console with an annoyed sigh. One of many problems she had faced while travelling alone in planes was boredom which irritated her to some point where the only thing that would rejoice her was having her sights on food which mostly had been snacks, but had filled her enough to make her sleepy for the rest of the travel.
In this case, she wasn't alone and one thing she didn't want was to have an older –not forgetting handsome- man having to see how she stuffed her mouth with snacks named "Eat me please". With nothing else to do she stole a glance at Lars beside her, noticing for the first time that she hadn't got a clear view of him since the only thing which had drawn her until now had been his ocean blue eyes.
Soon, she wasn't only stealing a glance anymore; she was completely staring-although from the corner of her eye- at his profile. Pushing his eyes aside, she contemplated his face, mature features decorated with two scars, one curved scar on his right cheek while another one started above his left eye and going all the way horizontally down. Big brows but certainly not unappealing though it made her think where she might have seen similar one's elsewhere. Sandy brown colored hair which was most probably a pain to take care of every morning since it looked the hair gel would become ineffective any minute now. Upon taking a look at his clothes, she noticed that he was wearing white leather pants with a belt, paired with red boots and a black shirt with white wave like patterns. Overall, he looked pretty classy in casual clothes and it made her wonder what kind of job he did for a living. "Although now that I remember, we don't know a thing about each other beside our names…"
She was still lost in her contemplating when Lars stopped looking down at the magazine on his lap to look up at her with arched brows. "Is something wrong?" Asuka flinched, her mind quickly trying to pick out a simple and believable excuse but having found none, she proceeded into waving away her hand. "N-nothing."
"Urgh, not convincing, not convincing at all. Some kid having been caught with his mother's bra around his chest would have found something better to say." She looked away and gladly thanked in her mind, the heart of a gentleman sitting next to her for having given her the window seat. Clouds were appearing and disappearing slowly outside the window when she felt that his gaze still hadn't left her and although she had wanted to ignore it, her mouth brashly laid out words. "W-what?"
He shook his head meaning to say that whatever he had thought off was nothing important before looking down again at his magazine.
"Well this is awkward…Hmm, let's just ask him." She was feeling bored and whatever she might think of entertaining herself with would clearly become boring as well so while coming to a conclusion she decided she wanted to know her partner a little better.
Asuka called out his name to get his attention which she succeeded to have and gulping down her shyness she began to slowly ask her question. "Would you mind to be asked a few questions?" She pointed with her eyes to his magazine, hoping she hadn't actually interrupted him at an awfully good passage.
He tilted his head and then seeming to understand her intentions, he closed the magazine, burying it behind his back. "Of course, I have been thinking of it being a good idea to get to know each other as well." He smoothly and gentlemanly let the words easily roll out of his tongue while maneuvering his body on the seat to properly face her.
She didn't think twice about what question to ask first since they would have hours to ask each other what came through their minds. She started with the most obvious one to her. "What do you do? For a job I mean."
Right after she had spoken out her question, she could notice him frowning then hesitation passing through his eyes as he seemed to think about if he should really answer or not. It had only been there for a few seconds before he nodded to himself, finally having reached a decision.
"Well I think it's better if I told you this now than finding out from another person because there indeed are people who know about me. There was a time where I was part of the Tekken Force, as a commander of a whole unity but the justice I had so believed on was completely unneeded in that business. Sometimes, you would have to do things which your sense of morale would clearly disapprove of but you carried it out anyway because it was your job. Completely foolish thinking if you ask me." She had been obediently listening to his tale but froze as she heard the name "Tekken Force". It was indeed true that this group had a liking for dirty jobs and the stupid thinking of not asking the reasons why.
Her eyes suspiciously narrowed as he paused but when he noticed her reaction, his hands waved back and forth as if to indicate for her to calm down. "Don't misunderstand me, I was indeed part of that group but only until I noticed what black motives were laid behind. I think it was two years ago that I finally quitted it, taking a whole unit with me –although the whole bunch had just followed me behind- so I guess we've become some kind of rebels?" He chuckled, his eyes shining with a mysterious nostalgic sparkle since he had surely just remembered his comrades.
Still, there was something bothering her. "Tekken Force, right? If I get this correctly, you were on the premises of the Mishima Zaibatsu Corporation, so did you maybe get some vital information that would benefit a certain third party who'd wanted to blow up the whole thing?" Her voice was filled with enthusiasm hoping she would get some clues to help her in her quest to destroy the organization she had condemned as evil.
Lars threw her a suspicious look before opening his mouth to reply. "While it's true, I hadn't stayed long enough to be able to get any kind of government secret from them or any secret whatsoever and I guess I can deduce that you hold a certain sentiment of despise towards the Mishima?" There had been a hint of just something in his voice which Asuka wasn't able to put her finger on it but a sudden sparkle in her had taken upon flame, now raging out with passion exactly as her next words would be. "It's completely true! They're the ones destroying any kind of peaceful time we have in our country so of course I want to stop them the most and apparently I am somehow related to them in which way, I don't care but I sure as hell am not going to let this continue any further."
If she hadn't been held back by the seatbelt she would have jumped on her seat by now, pumping her fists into the air and showing her upmost determination into the whole thing. She had been so engrossed into her own excitement that she hadn't noticed the deep frown that was forming on Lars' face.
"How can you be so reckless?" His voice had been so overwhelming with seriousness that she instantly flinched. As she fearfully turned to face him, she saw him balling his hands into fists, no trace of any kind of smile or kind expression in sight.
As nothing came out of her mouth, Lars continued with his lecture. "From what I see, you are still young and at best a High school student adding to that a woman no less. You should be at school studying and trying to graduate and not having roots of hatred spreading out about some organization which is anyway being targeted by a whole lot of other experimented people." His remarks had been more than insulting to her both as a fighter and as a woman and while she sure as hell wasn't going to let him do as he pleases –handsome or not-, she found herself protesting before she could even think otherwise.
"What does it have to do with you what I do with my life? Don't you dare push your damn sexist beliefs on me, if I fight it's because I like to. Plus, my father hasn't been teaching me to fight just so I could brag about it to whoever would listen, it helps to solve some problems as well." Lars' eyes widened with shock as if he hadn't expected for her to reply back. Though he had looked stunned for a moment he quickly regained his earlier composure, his voice rising up.
"Obviously not everything is resolved with brute force; wiser would be to use words. I'm quite sure it isn't right to let a teenage girl into this place where death is a casual thing." She was visibly growing tired of his knightly like thinking but wouldn't let him get the last word.
"Words you say? You're kidding me. What can words do against fists? Every problem I have dissolved was with my fists and it always went perfectly well. I have calmed more fights than anyone would have had -probably because everyone was scared to- but I'm different, I can't just stand by and witness an injustice without stopping it."
Lars didn't show any reaction of stopping as he uttered his next knightly words. "Calming fights in High schools or on streets is fine and all but what would you do against firearms or even a war? Would you still come talking all innocently about fists? How come you can't-." His words had cut short without apparent reason as Lars' expression suddenly froze. Then, seeming to realize what he had been doing, he leaned back into his seat while letting out a sigh.
"Ah, look at me, talking like my mother would." He closed his eyes as if the behavior he had taken had left him disappointed. Seeing his peaceful expression made Asuka calm down as well, reflecting over their –now over- disagreement.
It had certainly looked to her as if it had been a defensive - offensive conversation but that had also been her brash spur of the moment thinking. However, now that she had the opportunity to think calmly about it all, she felt that his strong objection to her beliefs had only been there in a protective kind of way. While it was true that his sexist statement about her being a woman had pissed her off, everything else he had said had been kind of true. "I guess you'd have to put the blame on me and my brash personality too."
"Sorry." She was surprised how easily that word had come out of her mouth as her shoulders slumped in disappointment. Lars looked back at her with a stunned expression before smiling kindly back at her. "No, no, I'm the one who should be apologizing. I know women have the right to do as they please but I guess I don't want to see young people like you experience the same things I have. I've seen people kill in front of my eyes, be it with a reason or without. Nevertheless, I should have seen your point of view and if you tell me you can calm down fights the way you do, I should applaud it. Thus, I'm sorry too."
They smiled at each other for a while when Asuka looked at their surroundings. The passenger seats were widely separated, almost secluded from each other. "It is first class after all, a luck they didn't seem to bother with our heated argument." If they had indeed been in another class, people would have surely commented on them but seen as the tournament always paid their participants first class tickets regardless of their fighter rank, the seats always have had their space. Only the participants who are considered worthy are selected to the tournament although it seems that the same faces are always reappearing with the exception of a few. While the travels from one place to another –whatever the conveyance- were paid by the tournament, all the other expenses like the hotels, the food and whatever else would have to be paid by the participant, not forgetting the participation fee that hadn't been free given either. To find the money for it, Asuka had to sacrifice all the money she had made from her numerous part time jobs but now that she was finally starting, it didn't seem like a bad investment now, of course, seen from a different point of view.
They were slowly starting another –this time friendly- conversation when Lars suddenly wondered out loud. "We have talked about what I do but I don't really know what you do although I have already implied you being a High school student…" He gave her an apologetic smile while Asuka modestly replied.
"Oh but you were right, I'm actually a High School student in senior year. Apart from being an eighteen year old teen and having a dojo owner as father, there's nothing else interesting to say, I guess. How old are you by the way?" A troubled expression passed through Lars' face while his hand began to nonchalantly rub the back of his neck.
"Well you're much younger compared to me, I feel like an old man with my 28 little springs. Wait for a few more then I will literally be walking around with a cane." He laughed, embarrassment written all over his face. "Walking around with a cane?" She slowly starting questioning his vain attempts on making jokes but choose to do the best she could in giving him some kind of weird placed smile.
-x-x-x-x-
They had finally landed in Rio, the capital of Brazil, the next day early in the afternoon. Lars –as a perfect leader- suggested here again, booking a room at a near hotel, stopping her to even place a word when the moment came to pay their stay beforehand. As expected from the wannabe knight, Lars had paid her share not without Asuka's strongly objection of course. It had all happened with Asuka beginning to flail her arms around in an attempt to get in front and get her own money out and with Lars strongly blocking her with both arms around her waist, trying to pay with the money he had to hold in his mouth and all that under the eyes of a stunned receptionist as well as the surrounding by standers.
Asuka had pouted all the way back to their respective rooms, slamming the door tightly shut in front of a conflicted Lars who had just asked if she had wanted to take a stroll around after having had a short rest.
She dropped her luggage by the single bed before plopping down on it, burying her face in her pillow, mumbling out complains after complaints, claiming that she wouldn't move her ass anywhere that wannabe knight had wanted to make her go.
She awoke without having noticed that she had actually fallen asleep with her shoes still on. She then proceeded to remove them and turning on the lights in the room before closing the curtains. It had already grown dark outside and a clock on the wall which sadly seemed to indicate that she had missed dinner that the hotel could provide but only serve from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., thus now being it 8.48 p.m. had come to confirm her lateness.
Her stomach suddenly made its presence clear while calling out for food, leaving Asuka little choice to refuse. She had started to look in her luggage for snacks but remembered she had gobbled everything down seizing the moment Lars had fallen asleep beside her on the plane. Giving out a defeated sigh she looked around the room for the first time, noticing that even though it had only been a 3 star rated hotel, the bed had been cozy and the decoration simple yet painted with a touch of warm colors. Adding the numerous 'samba' objects lying across the room and on the walls such as carnival masks loaded with glitter and old instruments, she now sure felt welcome in the country.
The moment she had decided to give up with the resolve to go sleeping on an empty stomach, a knock had stopped her on her tracks to the bed. She went to the door, dragging her feet behind in frustration of not having found any snack left and when she opened up, she was greeted with the scent which seemed to have brought her to Heaven's door. Looking up to the person who was holding the object of divinity itself, her expression suddenly faltered.
"What do you want?" She spoke out with a clearly annoyed voice, her face clearly matching it while Lars tried to shove the 'divinity' into her hands. She crossed her arms in refusal, pride taking over judgment. "Please, I want to apologize for whichever reason you thought what I did or said was wrong. However, even if you don't forgive me, you can keep the food, I'm sure you haven't eaten right?" Although she was acting like a spoiled brat, this was something she wouldn't let it pass so easily.
"What makes you think that? Of course I'm not hun-." Before she could even end her sentence, her stomach had come once again to disturb peace with its food call, making Asuka lower her head in embarrassment. "I'm waiting for it any moment now." She wasn't sure what kind of reaction from Lars she was waiting for. Would he laugh right under her nose or angrily and impatiently shout back at her? Although she had awaited the worst, when she looked up, she could see a vision she had never seen before.
Lars was broadly grinning at her, not in a kindly way but in oddly mischievously new way. "Oh really, is that so? I heard something telling me the complete opposite." "Urgh, he's so taunting me!"
After having her stomach embarrassing her, she couldn't give Lars another reason for mocking and quickly tried to snatch away the bag of deliciousness he was holding. Clearly noticing what she was planning, Lars quickly held the bag up over his head and strongly out of her reach given the fact of him being taller than her. Still, she persisted in going after the bag which Lars continued to hold out of her reach almost as if he had started a game only he could enjoy. The sound of constant chuckling from him and Asuka's strained voice filled the empty hallway and she was slowly growing tired when her foot suddenly slipped on the rug that had been decorating the endless hallway. She started to fall backwards while grabbing the nearest thing she could have hold onto with it being Lars' shirt.
Her eyes closed as she awaited the impact with the ground which didn't fail to come, giving her a dull pain on her back. During the fall, she hadn't failed to notice the sound of something being ripped as well as the sound of the man -she had unwillingly brought down with her- giving out a surprised gasp. It was only common sense that he had fallen too but when opening her eyes, she was met with a slightly tanned and very muscular chest. She gave out a little surprised gasp while Lars gave out a soft moan. "Ah, I should have known better as to play like a little kid. Are you alright?" He moved out of the way above her, his naked chest still exposed unbeknownst to him.
Asuka only managed a weak nod while pointing a trembling finger at him, her words slightly trembling as well, striving for steadiness. "Y-Your, um shirt is open. Sorry." He looked confused for a moment before looking down, his face then contorting into a troubled expression. "Damn, the buttons are ruined. Guess one shirt is down; well I expected to lose one in a fight but not on a meaningless brawl with my partner." He chuckled again, his warm smile lingering on his lips as he passed her the bag of food again. "Here, you won first prize by taking my shirt down." "Another one." While taking little consideration for his failed joke, Asuka finally resigned in taking the bag from his hand.
"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been so childish as to pout and get angry with you." She didn't know why or how but getting an excuse out of her was very hard for anyone who had wanted to take a shot in making her apologize for whatever reason. However , with Lars it came as naturally as drawing out water from a tap. Maybe because he was older but that wouldn't explain how even her father failed in making her apologize when she came in late for training.
Suddenly, an old couple walked past, circling around them while giving them warm smiles. "Couples these days, they only know how to argue with each other right honey?" the old woman's words made Asuka's cheeks grow bright red with embarrassment. "Couple? Do we really look like one? Not forgetting that they could have mistaken this differently how I'm sitting on the floor accompanied by a topless man much older than me."
Lars only chuckled while offering her a hand to get up. She gently placed her hand in his while the old woman's words still lingered in her head when Lars spoke out. "That was unexpected, I would have said we would have looked like siblings." Suddenly, she felt her heart sink without apparent reason but felt like the only thing she wanted was to get back into her room which she immediately did after a quick goodbye.
She walked over to the bed, unconsciously opening the bag while questioning her actions when the sweet smell of divinity –also commonly named fried pork noodles- made everything that had bothered her vanish into nothingness. She quickly ate her fill before exercising a little bit for tomorrow's fight. Finally after a good shower, she went to bed, the vision of Lars' naked chest far away from her mind. After all, she had seen more men with naked chests as she could count back in her father's dojo therefore seeing another chest wasn't going to bother her the least.
-x-x-x-x-
The sun was shining yet again in the country where summer never seemed to end while projecting its hot rays down upon the populace. Asuka had woken up late for breakfast but still managed to sneak back a pair of buttered toast bread from a tray a waiter had been holding to clean up. Seeing that yesterday, she had almost melted in her clothes due to the hot weather, she had opted for a change of clothes for fighting. She had traded her white and blue jumpsuit she had been wearing the day before with simple back mini shorts and a neutral white tank top completed with white and back striped boots.
She was now waiting in front of the hotel like Lars –the faithful leader- had asked her to while jumping on her feet, barely containing her excitement for the fight to come. After a little while of endless waiting, she saw Lars coming out, her mouth hanging wide upon at the sight of him.
"Where the hell did your clothes run to?" She had been almost shouting out loud but noticing there were people around she had tried to keep it at a reasonable level although she could barely contain her composure with him showing up only with a pair of knee length shorts and sandals.
Lars looked at her with a questioning face. "What's wrong with it? I may have hidden it from you very well yesterday but I just can't stand the heat. A person like me who comes from one of the iciest places in Sweden can withstand any Antarctic weather coming at him but not hot summer temperatures; I was literally drowning in sweat!" He chained arguments after arguments to plead his cause while exaggeratingly waving his hands which made Asuka's lips twitch up, dying to let her laughter run wild.
In the end, she couldn't keep it in and stated laughing out loud, holding her belly in the process. "Well, who w-would have thought y-you were weak against heat, haha." She could barely keep her tears from tearing out of her eyes when she noticed that Lars wore a dejected expression almost pouting and while she had found it quite childish and somehow…cute, she stopped laughing, focusing on the battle to come. Seeming to get where her serious expression was coming from, he nodded at her, leading the way to the fighting place.
-x-x-x-x-
"Polina, what are you doing here?" Asuka had blurted out the name as soon as she had seen the innocent smile she had met back at the stadium's reception desk. Lars wore a confused expression but following her anyway further into the wide open space, different from all vegetation full paths they had seen on the way.
Polina smiled back at her, nodding curtly back at Lars. "It's very simple. See, every match has to have a referee, although it is someone who only does just watch until the last team standing can be called a winner. They send us to the place of the match to observe the fight and then report back the result to the tournament's directory who will tell us against whom the winner team will fight next. As soon as I knew I could volunteer for the job, I did and choose to follow your team Miss Kazama and it does seem now like "destiny"." She had talked excitedly until the point where she had mentioned the last word with a hint of something, giving a wink back at Lars.
Probably understanding that Asuka would continue the conversation just fine, Lars stared to relentlessly looking at his surroundings to find shade which gave Asuka the urge to burst out laughing again but retaining it as she noticed Polina's slight grin. "Whatever you're thinking, you've got it wrong." "Oh, but I didn't say anything miss Kazama…ah."
Polina gave out a surprised sound while looking at something behind Asuka's back and when she turned around, she saw that her opponent had just arrived with Christie still wearing as much clothes as if she had been going to the swimming pool, still no changes in Miguel, seen as he still wore his golden chains and Hawaiian flower patterned shirt.
At some point she found Lars next to her, his hand gently resting on her shoulder as he leaned in. "I'll take the guy and you the girl and in case something bad were to happen, I won't hesitate to instantly call it a draw and take us away. Are we clear?" He had sounded so overwhelmingly serious that there hadn't been room for backtalk although something she couldn't hold back just flowed out of her lips. "Is this something about sexism again when you say so directly that I'll have to fight the girl?"
Her whisper had clearly toned up a little as Lars, incredulously, looked back at her. "N-no that wasn't what I-. Look if there were two women I guess I would have to fight against one of them apart from the fact that the guy does look incredibly towering, I feel like she has been having her eyes on you for a while, at the stadium back in Japan too." A sudden image of him, having hidden her beside him back at the stadium, floated back into her mind. "So that's why he did that." She felt a certain heat grow back to her cheeks, some kind she couldn't blame on the sun but startled back into reality when she heard Polina shaking a bell in her hand.
"Attention please, is English okay for everyone?" Everyone nodded with Asuka giving out a sigh of relief. "Thank god for my good notes in English class - although it's the only one besides Japanese that I master…"
Polina began to explain the basic rules of the fight and since it was the first tag fight for Asuka, she concentrated herself in the words that were spoken. Apparently, the fighters could go one on one and only call in their partner to trade their place or they could choose each, one opponent. The choice was left to the fighters although it wasn't guaranteed that everything would happen the way the fighters had consented to. Most of the times, with the chance of having a good team balance as well as harmony, two partners would go against their two opponents at the same time, trading blows and trying not to hit each other. There was another thing at which she caught her breath upon hearing it and that was...
"It may come that instead of knocking out another fighter, that same fighter gets killed. In that case it will not be called a murder as it had been a consented fight and the fighter had accepted all the aftermaths that came with it. Although if that happens, the standing fighter will immediately be excluded from the tournament, let it be clear." While biting back her uneasiness, Asuka grew impressed at how expressionless Polina had looked while explaining the rules. After giving a thumps up to the –former- receptionist girl, Asuka looked back at her opponent who had come to stand before her stretching out her hand. "Let this be a good fight, està bem (okay)?" Although she couldn't understand the last words, she didn't bother with it as she shook the tanned woman's hand back.
After exchanging glances with Lars, Asuka took a deep breath, waiting for the sound of the bell to ring. "Get ready for battle!" At that instant the sound of the bell resounded around the empty space, with the only other sound being the chirping of birds, never seeming to stop a little further away.
After the ring of the bell, she took a defensive posture by jumping backwards, putting a little distance between the two while the sounds of two other people battling beside her came to her ears. Although she had wanted to take a peek at Lars' fight, she kept her eyes locked on the smiling woman. Christie whose hand had rested on her hip, started to move around in a way Asuka had instantly recognized as being this country's famous fighting dance, the "Capoeira".
Tough she knew she had to stay calm and be reflecting upon the situation, her fighter spirit was screaming to just lash out and going with her gut. Suddenly, Christie put her hands on the ground lifting her body up to the air with only her arms supporting all her weight. She slowly started to turn clockwise with her legs until they were madly turning like a propeller advancing at her at a moderate pace. Of course, Asuka saw her coming towards her and quickly tried to move out of the way but Christie followed her still on her hands until she had caught up with her. Her legs were lashing at every direction not in turn motion anymore but with help of different moves while working everything out on the ground making it difficult to even touch her. Every time Asuka had tried to throw a fist, Christie came to block it with her legs. Finally, Asuka did a back flip, putting a secure distance between the two.
The feelings of frustration for not being able to do anything were beginning to boil but what really set the timer off was the grin that had appeared on the other woman's face. Any sense of reason she may have had since the beginning of the fight, disappeared at that moment from her mind. Suddenly, she just ran towards her opponent who was already getting ready to hit back if necessary. A reckless action she had done in which she hadn't realized what the consequences would be. As soon as she was close enough to hit, she stopped, starting with a leg kick which Christie immediately stopped with both of her legs, making Asuka turn in circles before hitting her leg hard on the brash girl's stomach.
Asuka flew a few feet away, her body slamming against the dusty ground which stained her clothes with dirt. "Ouch, I deserved that." She tried to get up to her feet, staggering in the process, holding her stomach in pain. That had hurt and so much as she had wanted to deny it, utterly stupid, but what had meant to be a reckless act had, in fact, given her an incredible idea.
She rested for a moment while her opponent seemed to enjoy dancing in a mocking way. Suddenly she heard heavy breaths and panting coming from a little distance anyway. Tearing her eyes from the dancing queen, she took a peek at the men's fight and frowned in confusion. Miguel was madly throwing his fist in every direction while Lars mainly focused on evading every attack coming at him. He had somehow a kind of gracefulness as he elegantly dodged every punch and just for a moment she could have sworn his eyes had met hers. Before she could think further of it she heard footsteps coming towards her.
Christie was making her way back to her with the same grin as earlier as if it had already dawned upon her that this was her win. The pain form her stomach had lessened while Asuka took a fighting stance ready to dash again, noticing how Christie had also gone back to the ground, rotating her feet again. "Exactly how I wanted."
Asuka took this opportunity to dash towards her again but instead of landing a kick this time, she sprung up, turning so that she was upside down. The moment she flew above Christie's rotating feet, she concentrated herself on them, seizing the perfect moment to grab her ankles with both of her hands. Christie, surprised by Asuka's action, unconsciously weakened the strength she had put in her arms to keep her body up on the ground. Thus with nothing to grab onto, Christie let herself be guided by Asuka's arms as this one landed only on her feet to throw with great effort, the tanned woman's body into the distance. After her throw, Asuka took a moment to catch her well deserved breath while watching how her opponent's body crashed against a tree not far away. "And here goes!" She shouted out what seemed to be a little battle cry as she launched forward into a sprint.
While running she had hoped to gather all the strength she could muster into her knees for the finishing move. Christie had only just dared to open her eyes while straightening her back to stop it from sliding down onto the ground while resting her back against the tree. She only had the time to widen her eyes and letting a surprised "oh" out as Asuka strongly slammed her knee into her stomach.
Christie let out a soundless cry of pain before falling back with the tree -which had upon such great impact- begun to uproot. She fell to the floor along with the tree, dust rising up from the ground, while a thin line of blood gushed out from the corner of her mouth. The moment she had weakly opened up her eyes, Asuka raised up a fist, grinning broadly while stating. "Never underestimate me again."
Christie tried to curl up her mouth but miserably failing by coughing out more blood. Asuka was about to walk away but stopped when she heard a very weak and hoarse voice beginning to speak. "Eu errei (I was wrong). Voçé é ...mesmo…muito forte. You are…indeed strong." Those were the only words she'd spoken before she gently closed her eyes, her chest slowly rising up and down.
Suddenly a sound like that made by thunder –no, more like electricity- piped up from behind and while she looked up to the sky for confirmation, she felt dumb for even having tried in the first place. How could thunder erupt out of nowhere when the sun was heavily shining its mortal hot rays and with no clouds obstructing the view of the bluest skies? "Yeah…impossible."
When turning around, she could see Miguel wriggling on the floor, blue sparkles of lightning enveloping his body while Lars unfazed, watched his opponent squirm. Then, after a short while, the sparks faded with Miguel showing no sign of standing up again. However before Asuka could run up to Lars for explanation, a voice erupting from a nearby tree stopped her.
"Double K.O. Congratulations you've won round one!" Polina came jumping out from a branch into the ground, motioning for the two winners to join her, a little mechanic ball following every movement made. "Ah yes, I've nearly forgotten that this is broadcasted live with the help of that ball thingy camera."
Polina swiftly brought up a laptop from her shoulder bag, typing in whatever information came through until Asuka and Lars joined her. With an excited smile she pushed a button on the laptop, a projection suddenly coming out of it.
"As you probably know, all the fights are done at a specific hour and date but as soon as it is finished, the result of the fights are linked to the database which figures out, by roulette choice as well, the next opponents. Let's see who they are. Wining team duo, number 11 and 22."
As soon as the words had left her mouth, the screen projected by the portable computer began to show the famous roulette in the second panel while the first showed Asuka's and Lars' pictures. Suddenly it came to a stop and Polina turned to the floating camera exclaiming loudly the results. "The next fight will be against team Ling Xiaoyu and Bosconovich Alisa, Team duo 6!"
Asuka quirked a questioning brow at the opponents' portraits that had come to view, recognizing Xiaoyu who she had already crossed ways with at her school as well as Alisa that certainly hadn't seem like a robot but was incredibly indeed one. "Talking about fast technology development, someday they surely will take over the world."
She then casually turned her head to look at Lars, noticing for the first time the conflicted expression drawn all over his face. "Is something wrong?" He didn't seem to have listened to her question seen as he looked lost in thought but as she repeated her question a little louder, he suddenly changed his expression to a warm one, leaving no trace of any ulterior bothered expression that had initially appeared. "No nothing, don't worry." She refrained from asking further something he clearly seemed to be avoiding to answer and tried her best to ignore it for now.
-x-x-x-x-
After being told their opponents for the second round as well as the location -which was, this time, in Finland- the duo went back to their hotel to change clothes which were tattered with dust. Asuka had taken a bath before sitting down on her bed to think about today's events. "I thought I had imagined those sparks before when he had protected me in the hallway the first time we met but it seems they were real." Those sparks had remained a mystery to her as well as the reason for Lars's suddenly conflicted face when hearing about their next opponents. Was it because it were two women this time and he –as the perfect gentleman- didn't want to hurt unnecessary people even more if they were women?
While she tried to set things right in her head, a knock from the door, chased away her thoughts. Behind the door Asuka found a finally full clothed Lars. He was wearing a red and black dragon patterned shirt with a pair of black jeans adding the same boots he had worn on the plane. He crooked his lips into a smile while speaking up. "Since we weren't able to do anything out together yesterday what do you say about having dinner at a restaurant?"
This had so much sounded like a formal date invitation although the word "date" had never once been pronounced or even suggested. She shook her head to wake up from her thoughts about this maybe being a date and just nodded back a 'yes' to him for confirmation.
At the restaurant where he food had tasted awfully delicious albeit spicy as hell in some other side dishes, a waiter had told them about the annual carnival parade that was about to start at the main avenue not far from there, to which Lars had commented "it would be worth to see". They had made their way to the main avenue but a little problem they hadn't counted with was…
"Why are there a damn lot of people out here?" Although she had known exactly why they were all assembled together, she continued on in complaining about the huge crowds and how it was greatly starting to piss her off. Plus, she had been separated from Lars who she now trying to find amongst these people and the fact about them not having exchanged phone numbers had even more so added to the problem of finding each other again. There had been the option to go back to the hotel but how could she with people pressing her into all directions? "Tch, I would have more luck in trying to find a green leaf hanging on a tree in a dire winter, although it does sound as impossible, I guess."
Suddenly she was faced with an extravagantly decorated gate which was guarded by a security guard but as she was about to dive back into the crowd, someone pulled her by the arm. "Depressa menina, so mais faltava voçé. (Move on young lady, you are the last one missing)." The words the man had thrown out at her had surely been the native language of the country but not knowing it made it a great problem, even more now, seen as he was leading her inside the gate, throwing more incomprehensible words back at her to which she could only nod. Yes, she could have only brushed his hand off and go see elsewhere but a part of her had remained curious about what they would made her do.
The man soon stopped before what seemed to be changing rooms and threw a dazzling outfit which was definitely in need of more fabric back at her, probably ordering for her to change into it. Asuka just shook her shoulders doing as she was told but embarrassingly and slowly coming out of the changing room wearing it. "This is really hugely embarrassing how it reveals so much skin but I guess it's normal for Brazilian carnival?" As she looked around she saw girls wearing the same outfit as her only with different colors. Hers were a mixture of rainbow colors, fine rainbow colored feathers on her back to match it further. Suddenly a woman walked over to her, starting to do her make up without asking for consent and briskly walked away once finished.
Then, another woman came up to her, wearing the same outfit as her with only the colors differencing them. She wore a smug look on her face as she spoke up. "Humph vamos ver o que as suas meninas sabem fazer contra as minhas. (Let's see what your girls can do against mine)." Here again incomprehensible words were spoken but it had clearly sounded as some kind of challenge to Asuka's ears. She didn't know why, but her fighter spirit seemed to tell that the way that wannabe star woman had pronounced her words, hadn't been a kind compliment at all. The woman threw her a last disdainful look, her eyes clearly focusing on Asuka's chest before puffing out her own chest like a proud dog that had just brought back the ball that had been thrown at him.
However, before Asuka could even place a word – not worrying about the fact that the woman would not understand anyway- all the women in the room were called out. Following them, Asuka found her heart pounding heavily against her chest in excitement. After passing through long colorful curtains, she was called over by the man who had initially brought her in a little while before.
The man spoke back his usual incomprehensible language as he pushed her back into what seemed to be a platform. She had been placed before a certain group of other feather decorated women including the disdainful woman from before who didn't hesitate to show her most devious grin.
Suddenly the platform started moving up until it reached its peak and upon stopping, Asuka froze. Everything before her was colorful and sparkling with illuminated lights coming from everywhere but the first thing she noticed was that she was on top of what seemed to be a moving carnival float. As soon as the platform had stopped moving, the dancers spread about the place, dancing with their entire beings.
Suddenly, her hands started to tremble as she waited for her body to start reacting. "There are...thousands of people…watching me like this." She hadn't realized that by having to dress like this, she would have to show it to other people. The costume was one of the upmost naked skin revealing and she could do nothing else but standing there stiff like a new cutting board out of its package.
She also ignored the curious looks and whispers from the dancers around her which were certainly asking themselves why she hadn't started to move. Before she could think of it any further, the disdainful woman from before placed herself before her heavily pushing her to the side. Asuka's body reacted immediately by swinging around to avoid the falling but it had somehow struck a sensible cord in her body, the one nobody should try to stroke, her fighter spirit had somehow awakened again.
Forgetting the crowds' cheering around her, Asuka pushed up against the wannabe star whom, not so happy to see her rival, began to push back. "Say goodbye to your luck girlie." While showing one of her devilish grins, Asuka pushed all her strength into her right arm, pushing with her elbow into the woman's side, making her fly out of the carnival float into the arms of a clown who had been dancing to the side in the ground. Of course Asuka had only been playing with her recent made rival seen as if she had used her entire strength against someone who had clearly not been trained into fighting; she would have clearly hurt her which hadn't been what she had intended to do. So, she waited for the moment where she could be absolutely sure that there would be someone to catch her even if it happened to be an unintentional catch.
Suddenly a cheer erupted among the dancers who quickly surrounded her, swirling her in circles while shouting out more incomprehensible words that could most probably be understood as "thank you". "Huh, Seems like she had a lot of well bred enemies among her group." The loud Brazilian music in the background began to create a sort of adrenaline in her body while she began to follow the same steps as the other dancers who joyfully helped her in her dance. It felt quite good to go all out in the dance with the cheers of the crowd acclaiming them. Just when she had decided to look at the crowd to wave at them, she spotted a familiar sandy brown tuft of hair with a bright red shirt. By starring a little longer she finally confirmed as it being Lars as he frantically shot his head right to left most probably in search of Asuka.
She tried to call out to him but the loud music in the background as well as the dancers who at each second turned her in circles. Fortunately, by whatever god that had been prayed to, Lars finally looked her way in a daze , however, it had taken him a while to recognize her and as soon as he did, his eyes widened in shock as his mouth turned up and down like a fish out of the water. Soon, he started following the carnival float, avoiding getting pushed by the crowd with his head shooting back and forth to her and in front of him.
The dancers kept her dancing until the end of the parade where the float finally stopped, letting all dancers go back on land. After a moment of waiting, Lars came joining her, his disheveled hair hiding his forehead full of tiny sweat drops slowly sliding down on his face. After having taken a deep breather, Lars opened his mouth to speak but thought otherwise, pushing Asuka gently aside to avoid being hit by the familiar boots that came flying a second later.
Before any of them could make out what had just happened, an angry voice erupted behind them. "Criminale! Voçé veio de roubar o meu momento de gloria no pódium, voçé vai me o pagar! (You criminal! You have just stolen my moment of glory on the podium; I'm going to make you pay for it!)" One thing was for sure, the woman who had just yelled out her words was not happy at all as she stumped on the ground, making her way towards them with her gaze set on Asuka. Looking a little further away she could see her favorite pair of boots ruined in the midst of the sandy ground and thinking about it a little longer, it had finally dawned upon her. "Damn, of course! Since they thought I was the one they were apparently waiting on, I automatically stole the place of another girl. No guesses into saying that she is the one I stole it from though."
Asuka was slowly backing away, no desire left in her to try to explain her side of the story since it would probably fall on deaf ears seen as the woman appeared to be a little too much agitated to her liking. Noticing Asuka's reaction, Lars gently wrapped his hand around hers, whispering silently a "run" before taking off with incredible speed, dragging her behind him.
When they finally stopped out of breath, surely a few miles away from the place they had been at, Asuka sat on the ground, her bare feet aching to be massaged. Seen as she had worn the sandals given to her -where the straps had been made out of pearls letting it look like more of an accessory than actual sandals-, they got lost somewhere along the way, leaving Asuka's feet with absolutely no protection against the rocky road.
She had been acting so carefree that she almost jumped up when hearing Lars' shout. "What were you thinking?" "Again?" She wasn't up to another verbal fight even less to another speech of his about protecting the fragile one's etc, etc. Still a side of her was apologetic, if she hadn't been so curious, she wouldn't have been dancing on top of the most popular carnival float but it would have seemed such a waste to have taken the opportunity when presented.
Lars looked at her for some kind of answer which Asuka choose to give. "I know I acted carelessly again but you should have seen how much fun that was!" She laughed out loud, hoping Lars would follow suit which he didn't but only hopelessly sighed before speaking with an exhausted voice. "Sure I know, I was watching you dance after all but I was still looking for you. I was seriously worried about you and now y-you're wearing t-that kind of outfit while I'm trying to get serious!" She watched him with a quizzical expression not sure if he was just acting or really was embarrassed. However, she confirmed it being the latter, seen as he unbuttoned his shirt before handing it to her stuttering out the words "you'll get cold otherwise" for excuse.
Asuka put his shirt on which hid her entire costume due to it's larger size and looked back at Lars who was fiddling with his phone before taking out a second one which strangely looked –no which was hers. After a while he gave it back to her with a simple explanation. "In case you are wondering how I got your phone since you had kept it back with your clothes, I caught it back from the woman who had thrown your shoes at the same time as your phone. It was the only thing I could save though." He looked sorry for a while but immediately changed expressions to a softer one. "Anyways, I registered my phone number so that we can call each other if we get separated again." Asuka nodded in contentment, putting back her phone in the man's shirt's pocket.
"I'm sorry too, lately that's all we do, apologizing, I mean." She gave a weird kind of smile while Lars beamed back before an idea seemed to pop in his head. With that, he turned around, crouching down on the ground with his hands stretching back. "Climb on." She didn't know why he was suddenly offering a piggy back ride when he added. "You don't have any shoes and I doubt you'll want to walk on these little rocks do you?" Well, he was giving her a strong argument and while hesitating a little, she shyly climbed on his broad shoulders.
"I'm heavy right." Lars hadn't even made one step when her thoughts were voiced but he only laughed, throwing his head back to look at her. "Nah, I've held bags of flour that were even heavier, haha." "Pity some jokes as usual." She had been surprised by the warm temperature Rio held onto, wondering if Lars had been feeling hot again but holding these thoughts to herself she sighed slowly.
They were walking in silence for a while, the gentle mild night breeze stroking her warm cheeks felt good as well as the gentle rocking from Lars' walking. The shirt had his scent, a strong male scent not unpleasant yet there had been a tiny drop of what seemed to smell like cologne left, making her eyes grow heavier as the hold of her arms around his neck grew weaker.
"Ah, the stars sure are beautiful aren't they?" Asuka had wanted to reply back, to ask questions which lacked proper answers but her voice just wouldn't come out as she was about to completely fall completely asleep.
Upon waking up, she found herself in a bed, not hers but a similar one. Looking around the room, she could perceive that there were the same decorations as those from her room but the disposition was somehow different. The rays of the sun were penetrating through the curtains, making Asuka narrow her eyes. "So it's morning and I- oh Tekken Lord, I completely fell asleep on his back last night." She was sure that the hotel key for her room had vanished just like the rest of her clothes and so Lars must have brought her back to his room. She got out of bed, noticing that she had still been wearing his shirt with the costume underneath and nearly falling over a luggage when trying to regain the nearby couch.
Looking down, she found it to be hers. "Man, how much time have I been out while he was doing everything?" "For about eleven hours." The voice rising up behind startled her, making her nearly stumble over her luggage again. Lars was smiling while standing in the doorway walking in before closing the door behind. "I asked the reception for a second key and went to fetch your clothes and I also got the tickets for our next flight that is about to take off in two hours.
"Two hours?" She loudly exclaimed, neither in a question nor in an asking for confirmation kind of way. While rummaging through her luggage she fished out a pair of clothes, running into the bathroom to change and maybe taking a speed shower.
As soon as she finished preparing she immediately apologized to Lars for having fallen asleep while he replied with an "It's okay" and went on in explaining that he had spent a comfortable time sleeping on the couch. He sure had sounded convincing but a part of her knew he had been lying to not let her feel bad. "That's the knight for you."
They were making their way towards round two of the tournament and yet their hearts had already somewhat come closer, but what was awaiting them in Finland?
Next up chapter 2: A fork in the road. See you soon!