"It is now time for the last match of the first round! I call the two last remaining contenders, YIN BEI AND DANZABURO!"
The snow hare and tanuki both walked in the fighting zone, looking completely calm.
"Alright, it's time to end the first round." Shinsuke remarked with a smile.
"I wonder what these two are capable of." Shao said.
"I'm sure they will be awesome." Koji said with a fist in the air.
"Yin Bei? Danzaburo? do you have any objections for this match?" Bindo asked.
"No." Yin Bei answered.
"Me neither." Danzaburo said as he kept moving the leaf in his mouth.
"Alright then, may the eight and last match of the first round START!"
Yin Bei immediately activated her special capacity The Sight, a mystical power passed down to her by her father which allowed her to notice very tiny details with very little effort, allowing her to easily predict her opponent's moves and discern their weaknesses. These came in the form of phantom images projecting off of Bei and her opponents depicting what she must do or highlighted objects or areas on them.
What she saw was an image of Danzaburo taking a leaf from his jacket and turn it into a kunai which he then threw at her. And that was exactly what the tanuki did in real life. She quickly blocked it with her Flicker Gauntlet. It was an odd combination of metal knuckles, a shield, and a wrist mounted eight inch dagger. It had a hare's head, ears, and nose painted on the front and a button on the front.
"Woah! She pared this attack quickly." Toka remarked.
"And what an impressive weapon." Karasu added. "I've never seen any kind of weapon similar to this one."
"What's this?" Asked Danbuso who was pretty surprised too.
"This is my Flicker Gauntlet." The snow hare answered with rising her weapon to her face. "As you can see, it's a combination of metal knuckles, a shield, and a dagger. It belonged to my father." She explained.
"Mmph!" Danbuzo scoffed with his usual montone look. "This is gonna be a bit tougher than I though."
The tanuki prefered to stay at a distance and deceive his opponent to win. So, he jumped a bit farther from her and threw some shurikens at her. Of course, thanks to the Sight, she managed to dodge all of them - not that she would have been touched without it.
"What does he steps back? He should attack forward and defeat her in close combat." Shao said.
"It's because Danzaburo fights in the style of Japanese ninjutsu." Karasu told him. "It's a style that requires to put ditsance between yourself and your opponent to establish a strategy before attacking. Being from Japan, I've seen a few warriors fighting like this."
Back to the fight, Yin Bei knew she couldn't win by simply dodging and blocking, so she decided to run forward for an assault on the tanuki. This last one kept shooting kunais and shurikens which his opponent either dodged or blocked thanks to the Sight. She then jumped in the air, ready to strike him with her weapon...when he suddenly took out a black ball from his jacket and threw it at her.
"What the-" Before she could react, the ball exploded a huge light which hurt her eyes very badly, causing her to fall on her back and hold her eyes in pain.
"I know the technique you've been using from the start." Danzaburo said as Yin Bei kept holding her eyes in pain. "It's the Sight, a spell for your eyes that allows you to forsee your opponent's moves and even see their weaknesses. I pretended to have limited ressources to force you to attack me which gave me the opportunity to throw you a flash bomb. Your eyes won't see anything for a while and you won't be able to use the Sight for the rest of this fight."
Damn! She fell into his trap. She couldn't see anymore, but luckily, she could hear perfectly thanks to her large ears and immediately got in her fighting stance. As for Danzaburo, he decided to pick up the leaf in his mouth and turned it into a katana before charging for the attack.
Hearing him coming despite the little noises he was doing, Yin Bei blocked his blade with her Flicker Gauntlet. The close combat was engaged and of course, the tanuki had the upper hand as the snow hare girl wasn't used to fighting without the use of her view sense yet. It's only once the sharp end of the katana gave her a cut on the cheek that she decided to bounce away from him.
If things kept going like this, she was sure to loose. Gulping, she putted her Flicker Gauntlet back into her changshan as it was heavy and made her loose speed.
"Wanna fight without weapons? Okay." Danzaburo said as he turned his katana back into a leaf which he putted back between his teeth and re-adjusted his straw hat on his head.
Forgetting his old habit of fighting at distance, the tanuki charged and engaged an hand-to-hand close combat with the snow hare. This last one fought back with the Ten Limb: A variation of Muay Thai that included her long prehensile ears and involved the use of hands, feet, elbows, knees, and ears. It was quite fast and her ears and legs, which were significantly stronger than her arms, helped her with her quite agressive style.
"Man, those two are really impressive!" Shinsuke remarked. "I never saw someone capable of turning weapons into leaves."
"And Yin Bei can fight without her eyes. I don't think I'd be capable of doing that." Koji added.
Blind or not, Danzaburo couldn't defeat her in close combat. He jumped away from here and though about a good strategy: he took a flash bomb and threw it on the other side of the fighting zone where it exploded. Just like he planned it, Yin Bei turned her attention toward the explosion's location which gave him an opening for an attack.
He charged, ready to kick her in the back of the head...when she got down to dodge his assault and caught his other leg between her ears.
"Gotcha!"
Right after saying that, she jumped and slammed Danzaburo so hard on the ground that it created a crater and made him spit blood. She then grabbed her flicker Gauntlet and used the shield to smash the tanuki right in the face, knocking him out.
Bindo came to check on him and gave his decision. "Contender Danzaburo is no longer able to continue. Therefore, the winner of the match is YIN BEI!"
The watchers applauded her. Danzaburo got lead to the infirmary by the medical team as Shao volunteered to lead the blind snow hare back to the bar.
The emperor suddenly got up which led to everyone getting silent to listen to him. "Alright! First of all, I want to congratulate our eight contenders who won their match and moved on to the second round! As for those who lost, I encourage them to train hard and try again next year!"
The crowd cheered for the contenders. "Now, with the first round officially over, we will all retire from the arena and continue the tournament tomorrow! This will give the remaining participants time to rest from their fight! Let's meet again here, tomorrow!"
With that being said, the emperor left with his royal guards to go back at the palace while the watchers returned either to their houses or at some hotel as many of them were from other cities. As for the participants, they all got back at the resting hall where their chambers were located to rest until tomorrow.
The first round is over, dear KFP fans! The eight remaining participants are: Toka, Karasu, Ayano, Misty, Koji, Saras, Shao, and Yin Bei. Stay stunned for the second round!
Also, as Mind Jack pointed it, snow hares are not bunnies: I was wrong.
Who do you think is gonna win? Which match would you like to see? Do you think this tournament is good so far? Lemme know in the reviews :)