Annie : This chapter is a side-story.... I wrote it because I felt like it XD my excuse. Not sure I need a side-story though because this story is dragging on slightly. ;P
Chapter Twenty-One : Competition I
When I look back at last couple of days here in Wu, it made me realize just how much people tried to help me with this. Even Ce, who laughed at me instead of with me, apologized as soon as he could stop and breathe. Stupid idiot, I would like to see him try! Sometimes I got so frustrated that I would just disappear to cool my head, to think about my decisions back then. Even though I knew that there was no point in looking back, that memory was the longest memory I had recovered and I wanted to keep it as fresh as possible. But every time I got to the end of the memory, I would snap out of my day-dreaming, not wanting to see my mother's bloody face. It was just too much, even for me.
It was one of those days when I got tired of trying to be a "human", as Ce called it, and was on top of the same peach tree I had climbed several days ago when I jumped off the window to run away to think. It was a perfect day to be having a nap, with the sun shining – even though hardly any got through the thick layer of leaves – and slight breeze blowing. I was supposed to be in the training arena because of a monthly competition or something… But they'll do fine without me… They wouldn't even notice I'm gone… Mm… My eyelids feel so heavy… It's so warm…
"Found you!" said a chirping voice right against my ear and I opened my eyes in annoyance. "Hey guys! She's here!"
"Xiao, you guys don't really need me. Let me sleep…" I said drowsily, wiping my eyes.
"I don't think so! Remember? Every general has to take part in this competition! Every single one of them!"
"Well, technically, I'm not a general yet, not a proper one anyway. A student-general, like Xun." I tried to push her away from me, but she grabbed my arm and suddenly jumped. "What...?" I didn't have time to say anything as I fell towards the ground with frightening speed, and Xiao had let go of my arm. I somersaulted in the air and managed to land lightly on my feet just in time and saw Xiao land right next to me.
"Guys! Over here!" she shouted, waving her thin arms madly. "I've found her!"
"Well, both of you, get over here!" That was Tong. I rolled my eyes and followed Xiao towards the training arena. This was a completely pointless competition – why did they even bother participating? To show off their strength? How childish. I grumbled in my mind, but kept a careful guard on my face; I didn't want to look displeased or anything, that'll be just rude.
"Hem, hem," Ce cleared his throat loudly, standing in front of all the generals, "now that everyone's here, let's start our competition, shall we? You guys all did this before, you know how this works… Oh yeah, Hua won't, huh. Well then, just for Hua I will explain the rules. So listen up guys, be patient. Ok, first, two teams are picked by random draws from this basket," he held up a woven basket with a hole on the lid just big enough to fit a hand in, "two even numbered teams. Then we have our first round, with six people in each teams. The boundaries are the arena fences. If you are out of it, then you're out of the game. We fight until there are only four people left in the arena. We have a lunch break, then the four people are split into pairs by another random draw. Then we fight until there's two left, and then there are no teams; you fight each other. The victor is the winner of this month's competition!"
Hm. Simple enough. So the twelve generals here were participating, huh. I noticed all the eyes on me, making sure that I understood. I only had one question. "Do you fight with real weapons or the training weapons?" I asked loudly so that everybody could hear me.
"We fight with real ones. Try not to aim for critical areas, though. We don't want any serious injuries," Ce answered and looked around. "No more questions? Great then! Hey, Zhou Yu, wanna draw the names out?"
"It'll be my pleasure," Zhou Yu walked up to the front and while Ce held the basket, he put his hand through the hole in the lid and drew one paper out. "In team one, Lu Meng." Another draw. "In team two, Gan Ning." Another draw. "Team one, Da Qiao." And the list went on until both the teams had six people.
Team one – Lu Meng, Da Qiao, Sun Quan, Ling Tong, Zhou Yu and Taishi Ci
Team two – Gan Ning, Xiao Qiao, Sun Ce, Shui Hua, Sun Shang Xiang and Lu Xun
There were some arguments, like Shang Xiang complaining that she didn't want Ce in her team – I agreed silently, I wanted to kick his ass – and Xiao not wanting to fight against Zhou Yu, and Ce whining about Da being on the other team, but rules were rules and the teams were decided like that. We had two older generals, Zhou Tai and Huang Gai as our supervisors to watch over the game and everyone else entered the arena and faced opposite teams, all grasping their weapons tightly for battle. Me, I was in the back, leaning against my double-ended spear – I had ordered it to the smith especially – and waited for the fight to begin. Everyone had a pair from the opposite team; Tong was with Xun, Lu Meng with Ce, Quan with Xiao, Zhou Yu with Ning and Taishi Ci with Shang Xiang which only left me and Da. I really didn't want to fight Da… Not that I doubted her skills, nothing like that, nor was I scared. I just didn't want to fight her.
"And… START!" Huang Gai yelled and everyone leapt into action. Suddenly, a nunchuku flew at me from nowhere and I instantly dodged; I was expecting a fan, not a nunchuku!
"What… Tong, I thought you were fighting Xun!" I yelled, as I blocked his second attack with my spear. He grinned.
"Well, Da over there stole my prey as I was about to attack, you see," he said, and from behind Tong's shoulder I saw Da and Xun fighting against one another. "It doesn't matter anyway. Let me see how good you've become!"
I chuckled – and it sounded right this time – "I've always been good enough to beat you!" I said, swinging my spear in a wide circle – oops, did I just hit someone? – and following with my double kicks. Tong was knocked backwards, falling to the ground way over there. I turned to see who I have hit.
"Hua you idiot!" Oh, I've hit Ce. No worries then. "I'm in your team!"
"Yeah… DUCK!" I yelled, pushing him down while blocking Lu Meng's attack. We ended up in a deadlock – I hated deadlocks, it just showed the strength difference between a man and a woman – and before I could be pushed, I kicked Lu Meng's legs and he fell, thank goodness backwards.
"Hey, gimme my opponent back!" said Ce and he pushed me out of the way. I moved, my back against the arena fence, observing the scene. Ok, Zhou Yu was out of the game, he was standing outside the fence, watching. Xiao and Quan… Now, that was hilarious, they were in a deadlock right against the fence but Shang Xiang and Taishi Ci pushed them both out of the boundaries while they were fighting. Xiao was fuming, her face flushed with fury. I looked around for an opponent, but there didn't seem to be one. Three people were out, which meant there was only nine people left, and I was left enemy-less. I suppose it couldn't be bad watching a little more. Oh, Ning had stolen my opponent, Tong. They were fighting rather fiercely… Hm, Da and Xun were pretty good, but Da didn't really seem to be trying. I figured that she didn't like fighting much. But Shang Xiang was another story entirely. She looked like she was having a time of her life, attacking Taishi Ci. I'm surprised that he was still in the game. Hey, Lu Meng just got flown out of the arena by Sun Ce! Finally, making himself useful there!
"Nice kick there, Ce!" I said to him, who looked around for another opponent.
"Thanks! I guess we're both partner-less, huh? Hey, look!" he pointed towards Shang Xiang and Ci, "oooh, Shang Xiang better be careful, she's not looking where she's going…. OH!!! Nice one, Ci!"
Shang Xiang, just like Ce had said, had not been watching where she was going; she was too busy attacking Ci. But that was what he was wanting, he was luring her. When he was standing against the corner of the arena, Shang Xiang jumped and attacked as if to finish Ci off, but Ci simply bent down and Shang Xiang flew over the arena fence, landing on the other side – luckily – on her feet. Looking furious, she went to join Xiao who was also sulking.
"Mind if I take that one, Hua?" Ce asked, already running towards Ci. I still had no enemy to fight against and this was getting boring. Over there, Tong and Ning were still fighting, but Ning was being pushed back. I predicted that he would be out of the game soon, and he was. Ning got hit by Tong's air attack, and he flew out of the arena, landing on his butt. Ouch. Oh well, at least now I had an opponent!
We were running towards each other, brandishing our weapons when we heard both Zhou Tai and Huang Gai's voice. "Time out!" they yelled and we all stopped in our tracks. What? But I hardly got to fight! That was disappointing.
When we all gathered in the arena again, Huang Gai stood in front of us. "Alright then, the four generals going to the second round are: Ling Tong, Shui Hua, Lu Xun and Sun Ce!" he said loudly, and I was surprised that Da had lost to Xun. She could've won if she had tried her best, I had no doubt about that. But why? "We'll be having a lunch break, and then the second round will begin!" Huang Gai announced and I looked around to find Da. She was over there, talking to Xiao and Shang Xiang as usual. I made my way towards them.
"Hey, Hua, congrats on making your way towards the second round!" Xiao said. "Last month I managed to get to the second round, but I suppose I wasn't lucky enough this time."
"Damn it!" Shang Xiang fumed, clutching her chakrams, "I could've won! This is most embarrassing! I have always continued onto the second round! I'll kill Ci for humiliating me!"
Da looked at both of them, smiling. "Now now, don't be like that. Let's go and eat now. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. It's just luck." The two grumbled and walked towards the long table where lunch was being served. "Come now, Hua," she said, looking around at me. "It won't do you good if you're hungry for the next round."
"Hey, Da," I stopped her and she smiled at me.
"Yes?"
"Why did you fight Xun?"
"Because I didn't want to face you," she smiled teasingly. "You young ones are too strong for me. See? I lost to Xun."
I let out a carefully controlled laugh, wondering if she was avoiding my question. "You're sounding like Huang Gai over there. But at least he doesn't admit that he's weaker than any of us."
"Yes, well that's because he's a man," replied Da before dragging me towards the table, not giving me a chance to say another word. "Come on, you need to eat for your next round." Yeah, I did. I had a very important thing to do. I had to kick your husband's ass. I smiled apologetically, while being dragged. Sorry, Da. You really should've kicked my butt before I get a chance to kick your husband's.
Annie : A bit of a strong rivalry between Sun Ce and Shui Hua, but I like it coz... Well coz the girls - with the exception of Da - wants to kick his ass. XD By the way, I actually did the draws for the teams randomly. A bit of a coincidence that both Qiaos were on different teams to their husbands...