Chapter 30

-Kageyama-

As the crowd sheers for the exciting match that was unfolded before their eyes, Kamui puts her bow casually around her shoulder. She walks toward the defeated Katsuro and bows down with a hand on her heart and her left leg bend behind her.

It would have been a fair play gesture if it was not for her free arm, gesturing to all the contestant who have been eliminated.

The knight straightens herself with a smirk. "Bye." She gives a small wave before walking past the defeated soldier toward the stage, where she sits back on her chair.

The guard does not react, only a bit taken aback. As an escort of the prince he can not allow himself to react to any form of provocation.

But as an archer, the fact that he lost to a simple hunter, who is a head smaller than him, gives him a bitter taste.

Katsuro is ushered toward empty seats next to the defeated contestant as the staff prepares the targets for the next round.

-With Ryoma-

Yes the woman who won against one of his best soldiers threatened him and has beaten Kagero's up the day before.

But having a bad temper does not mean not having skills in warfare. His mother's retainer, Reina, is a perfect example.

The blond hunter has not only a really good accuracy, but also a good adaptability when she is in a situation that is not favorable to herself. Nobody thought about shooting from a circle that is not designated to the target you are aiming at.

This quick way if thinking has cost the victory to his best archer in the vanguard.

The prince is taken out of his thoughts when the second match finishes, compared to the previous one, it was quite boring.

The third match was between the friend of Kamui who was part of the second qualifying session and a hunter from the host town

Her friend lost and was guided toward the other eliminated contestants.

The third hunter of Shirakawa, the youngest one, was next against one of the prince's guards. The soldier wields the sword but was able to reach the eleventh place during the qualifying.

The hunter won with a gap of 16 points and made his way toward the blond chef, sitting next to her before getting shunned away, the knight gesturing to all the seats available at the moment.

The rest of the eighth of finals were quite boring and the quarter finals were already starting.

Unsurprisingly, Kamui won against one of the weakest competitors qualified and her young comrade has dominated his match too. On the other side of the board, the ones able to go in semi final are the guards in third and fourth qualifying places.

And they want to take revenge on Kamui. But they are not mad or anything, they are just determined on beating this competition's favorite.

The semifinals go without any problem, the bear hunter beats her fellow hunter and, after a close match, the guard who placed fourth is able to reach the final.

Kamui stands up from her chair and stares down at her last opponent with an intimidating glare.

The prince guesses that it has something to do with her skirmish with Kagero.

She slowly use the stairs to access the field, her eyes never leaving her opponent who just stares back with a surprised expression.

The knight just used her skill 'Charisma: E' without knowing it. It allows her to force someone under her orders with fear, reducing their moral considerably. But if her opponent is too determined it will not work, it only makes her menacing.

She also activated it when she was mugging the crown prince, and when she asked Maiko to help Kotai the first time they met.

However she does not know how to willingly use it.

Anyway, both finalist wait for the match to begin and as the soldier looks at the drummer, Emiya puts her hands right before the line, her left leg is bent under her waist and her right leg is put straight behind her, only the ball of her bare foot is touching the ground.

As she been bare foot for all the competition?

The drummer gets ready to start the final as Kamui puts her waist up, her baggy pants hiding her possible curves.

The match begins and the prince understand why she puts herself in such a strange position.

Right when the drummer makes contact with his instrument, the chef's hands leave the ground and the angle she made with her body allows her to propel herself before straightening her back during the first meters, making her go faster than her opponent right from the beginning.

She reaches the closest circle and puts a knee down while taking her bow from around her shoulder. The blond girl draws her bow and shots immediately, making a bullseye on the farthest target.

The bear hunter then jumps hands first toward the second circle, entering it with a roll. She grabbed her second arrow while she was rolling on her shoulder and nocks it on her bow, drawing and shooting, she makes another bullseye but she is too busy taking her third arrow to look at her score.

However she heard it from the animator doing his job and shooting with the crowd, making the knight smirk.

She makes another bullseye and before jumping in the last circle, she makes sure that her opponent left it.

Stimulated by her speed, the soldier picks up speed and leaves the fifty meters target after two shots as Kamui appears in a small cloud of dust right when his feet get out of the circle.

The guard sprints toward the middle target as his opponent already shots her fourth arrow and grabs her fifth without even glancing at her arrow's trajectory. The man entering his mid twenties shots his third arrow at the same time as the blond hunter shots her last.

She gestures for the referees to take her unused arrow as bonus points, finishing the match in less than a minute with 80 points out of the 80 possible.

The winner casually walks away from the targets barefoot, throws her bow in the air, does a cartwheel followed by a somersault flawlessly before catching her bow back and smirking toward her last opponent.

Prince Ryoma smirks too at the display, getting even more interested in the rude hunter.

His retainer, Saizo, only glares suspiciously at Kamui's back, who returns it over her shoulder immediately, surprising the ninja.

"She is really skilled." The prince says as he stands up and follows everyone on the field.

Saizo stands beside him. "And cocky." He glances at his liege before resuming looking for potential danger. "Please do not tell me..."

"She would make a good Kinshi knight." He starts.

The red haired ninja sighs tiredly. "My liege..."

But he is interrupted. "She has an enormous potential as an archer and as you may have seen, she also has some knowledge in acrobatics." Ryoma smiles.

"My Lord, it is..."

The prince does not listen. "And she also knows about wind magic, it is a advantage when you are fighting an aerial battle." The ninja sweatdrops. "She could block incoming arrows, change her mount direction unexpectedly or even..." The brunette glances at the young ninja blankly staring at him. "Ah... Sorry."

Saizo shakes his head with another sigh. "I understand that you might feel... attracted to this woman, but you need to learn to control your emotions as the HT." He uses there, quite simple, code to make sure nobody knows his ward is the first prince, HT meaning Heir to the Throne.

"Yes. Of course." He smiles, looking at the winner.

-On the Stage-

Kamui is standing next to the animator as the crowd has been invited to come closer.

"This has been an incredible competition and I am so thankful to have been allowed to comment it to you all again this year." He gives a warm smile to the crowd who does the same. "This edition of the archery tournament of Kageyama is coming to an end." Everyone make a disappointed 'oh'. "And this time, not only have we the first ever female winner, but we also have a new record holder for the best speed/points ratio, Emiya the bear hunter scoring the maximum of 80 points in 48.7 seconds!" The crowd sheers as Kamui avoids looking at them, embarrassed but still putting a blank face.

"Emiya." The animator approaches her. "We heard that you are able to perform some flashy magic." The knight frowns. "Could you show us."

Kamui looks up at him and thinks of the fact she never registered how tall the man was, a whole head and a half taller. "No." She says matter-of-factly.

She showed off enough and she is sure some people will ask her to join their cause, she sighs internally.

"Alright..." The tall animator sweatdrops as women in kimono comes on the stage carrying wooden trophies.

And money.

"Anyway! For the third place, we have the youngest hunter of Shirakawa, Nobuyuki!" The young man steps forward with a cocky smirk and is given a trophy. "Sharing his place, we have Shin from the capital!" The guard who made it to the semifinals steps forward too and exchange a nods with Nobuyuki before receiving the same trophy.

"At the second place, we have Sota, also from the capital." The man stares at Kamui who does not even acknowledge him. He receive a trophy slightly bigger than the two others with a basket of food as a consolation price.

"And the winner is Emiya, the bear hunter from Shirakawa!" The blond girl finally stares back with a condescending smile at the second place holder. She advances between the other archers and is given a bag containing the 1000 golds and a trophy bigger than anyone else, which is funny since she is the smallest on the stage at the moment.

The crowd applauds all the contestants and that is how the 47th edition of the archery competition of Kageyama ends.

A/N Here is the end of the tournament with a normal length chapter because I want to finish this arc quickly. :)

Review reply:

Dragon lord Syed 101: I made him this way because he his the crown prince, also some of the characters may seem stupid but since it is a medieval fantasy universe I guessed that there are no public schools. However, in Hoshido at least, everyone as been taught how to read and write (with some errors but still understandable).