Chapter Four: Blitzball Cup - Part 1: Besaid Aurochs versus Al Bhed Psyches

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At last, chapter 4 is up. I think I might rush this chapter a bit. This chapter will be useless if u did not play blitzball in the game. And to add matter worse, I am not good of describing movement. So I think you readers are going to suffer your brain for insane imagination. Sorry readers!

Oh please R & R please.

Oh by the way, notice the name of the chapter? Yeah, I put the wrong title in Chapter 3. Sorry for the inconvenience, readers!

To tyrantflame: Thanks for review. It's keeping me going and going. Without your support, I might be bored with my life to death.

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Info: Blitzball is a kind of game where 6 players in each team. The usual formation is 2 attackers, 1 midfielder, 2 defenders and 1 goalkeeper. They play in a Sphere Pool filled with water. The duration of the game is 10 minutes. 5 minutes for each half.

I hope the readers understand my explanation to understood the story.

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GAME START

The ball was thrown up inside the middle of sphere pool. As a midfielder, I had to take the ball first. Of course, the opposing team would also do that to prevent me from grabbing it. Fortunately, I caught the ball before him by few centimetres and in a brief instant; he straight away tackled onto my body. I evaded upward and swim straight to the centre of the pool.

Wakka and my other team-mates went to its own position while I swam around and finding a plan to go past the Al Bhed defenders. Not far from me, an interceptor went straight to me while I swam to the opponent side of the pool. Just before he was in his tackling range, I passed the ball to Wakka. He caught it up nicely and managed to pass the first defender. I swam behind him as a support when a passing is needed. As I thought, before he was getting crushed by the other defender, he passed back to me and I passed to Datto instantly. Datto caught the ball and he swam into his shooting range. As he reached it, Datto kick the ball with his full strength. The ball went nicely without any interruption from the defender and hopefully it will hit the net.

The female goalkeeper dived. She managed to save the ball after all. With sudden movement, the ball was already zooming through the water. Suddenly, I felt danger. The ball was so powerfully thrown by the goalkeeper that it's passed me and straight to the attacker on my right. I swam as fast as I could behind him while Botta was trying to intercept him. Botta sliced onto him but failed to stop it. The attacker managed to do acrobatic on Botta's left side and putting himself forward by pushing Botta further from him which mean he's a bit more further away from me. Now, the attacker was already in his shooting range and I felt panic in my body. I kicked my feet as hard as I could on the water and swam like a dolphin after the attacker. I'll hope I managed to divert the ball from the goal net even though I knew Keepa was already standby on front of the goal net. Suddenly, the Al Bhed striker shoots the ball.

BANG!

I did it. The ball was moving to the right side of the goal area. I somehow managed to kick the ball after doing some sort long range acrobatic style (man, I can't think a better description than that). I went after the ball and of course, that same attacker went after it with showing his 'i-swear-i-gonna-kill-you' face expression on me. I kicked my body through the water as hard as I could again and swam more nearer to the ball before him and his other team-mate reach the ball. I passed the ball to Jassu instantly as soon as I caught the ball before the two Al Bhed could block my pass. I dodged quickly behind them and swam toward the centre. Jassu was doing his job very well, passing the ball to Wakka as soon as an Al Bhed challenges him. I am pleased Wakka did not try to go over opponent's defender; instead he passed the ball to Datto. Somehow I felt a bad feeling when he caught the ball.

I cursed. I thought so. Unfortunately, Datto did not please me at all. He just rushed over the defender and founded out he was tackled roughly and the ball fall back to the Al Bhed. Now Besaid Aurochs are under attack again. The Al Bhed that took the ball passed toward to his midfielder friend and he instantly evaded Jassu's tackle while caught the ball. Now it is 3 Al Bhed Attackers versus 2 Besaid Aurochs Defenders in the Besaid Aurochs side of the Sphere Pool. I make a hand sign to Botta to intercept the midfielder while I positioned myself between the two attackers. As I suspected, the midfielder threw the ball to his right as soon as Botta slide on him. Luckily I was fast enough to swing my body like a pendulum (gosh man, I don't know how to describe this. Use your imagination, readers) and kicked the ball back to the centre, removing all danger on Besaid Aurochs.

3 minutes have gone through and the result was still 0-0. Datto caught the ball. I put a very hasty hand sign to him and he nodded. That hand sign was to tell him not to be rush, be calm and think about his situation before executing a movement. I swam toward to the centre and saw Wakka make a hand signal. Hmmm, I thought. That wouldn't work, Wakka. I made a counter hand signal to Datto to tell them that Wakka's plan was not going to work! Too late. Datto passed the ball to Wakka and he rushed to the goal area. Don't shoot! Your shooting range is too short! Wakka shot the ball and of course, the keeper caught the ball and as my worse fear have been predicted what going on, she passed her fast pass ball skill directly to her own striker, on my left side. He shot the ball and as I thought, Keepa couldn't able to save that ball from inside his enemy shooting range. The score now become 1 to Al Bhed Psyches and 0 to Besaid Aurochs.

Less than 30 seconds left before half time. I guess I couldn't do anything here. Damn it, I thought.

Locker Room

I was frustrated. "Wakka, you know you can't shoot from that range, so why did you do that!"

"Sorry, I had to. The condition of the rule in the ultimatum, remember?"

"Grrrr….. damn it!" I gritted my teeth. "Is there anything we can do!"

This time, Keepa answered. "We can win if the problem is already settled".

"How!"

"We just hope to receive the signal from Lulu to confirm that the problem is already clear"

"What kind of signal?"

"A flare on the sky" replied Datto.

"And we hope that the problem can be done before the second half end," said Jassu.

A long silence greeted them before my head was filled with imagination.

I asked again, "What is the condition of the ultimatum again?"

Wakka answered, "We must not win at any cost"

"Exactly, so that mean, we can at least draw the game to prevent us from eliminated."

"How you are going to plan that? Al Bhed has very good defenders and keeper, ya?".

"I know. Let me settle everything here." I called everyone to round up and began to explain about this plan I had in mind.

SECOND HALF

As I swam to my position, a thought occur me. What was this 'problem' they talking about? What were they trying to hide something from me? And what was the problem between Al Bhed Psyches and Besaid Aurochs? I shrugged my head off and began to focus on the game. I will think about this later, I thought.

Al Bhed Psyches' Midfielder caught the ball. I instantly darted and challenge onto him. He responded by passing to his left companion. I and Jassu went straight to the receiver. The left striker went toward to Jassu left side to avoid two front tackle. He managed to evade Jassu tackle and passed to his own midfielder again. This time, Botta challenged him. The midfielder hesitated a moment before passing to his right companion. The right striker grinned evilly when he noticed there was no defender to block him. He went straight to his attacking range and shot the ball.

KICK!

Not in my life if you want to score, I thought. The ball was moving to the Al Bhed Psyches Area – Left Side – of the Sphere Pool. I managed to divert the ball from the scoring area with a bicycle kick. That striker might be furious when he didn't realise I swam franticly toward the scoring area and spoiling his excitement. Wait a minute. That was the SAME striker that I just pissed his head off before. I giggled with the look of his face.

Anyway, no time to play now, I thought. I better focused with the plan right away. Wakka intercept the ball from that incident. I made a hand signal to him to execute the plan.

Wakka move in zigzag style, trying to shook off the defender on front of him. He skilfully slides below the defender but not enough to get enough momentum to kick the ball. Instead, he passed to Datto. Unfortunately, the ball was slapped away by another defender. The ball went straight to the same person that got pissed off by me.

CRASH!

Ha! He went down by me again! I tackled that Al Bhed with body blow when he was focusing on the ball too much. It made him off balance and the ball went off from his grip. I immediately snatched the ball. I laughed in my mind about his frustration of getting the ball away from him. That makes 3 times in a row. Now you Al Bhed going to regret your own dirty trick on us, I thought. I am on fire right now.

Another Al Bhed was after me from behind. I stopped my track and pulled his shirt to me. I pushed him back and gained a boost from that push and that mean I m quite far from them right now. 2 down and 3 to go. The Al Bhed Midfielder went after me after he seen his team-mates have been defeated. Just before he reached his hand on my body, I passed to Wakka. Without warning, I pull the Al Bhed Midfielder right hand to my left and kicked my feet on his back. Another one down. Wakka passed back to me and this time, the last two remaining defenders went after me. I passed to Datto and as I predicted, the left defender went to Wakka while the other went straight to Datto. At this situation, the two Al Bhed positioned them between Wakka, Datto and me. They were very skilled. The left defender position himself where he can easily intercept the passing ball from Datto to Wakka. Meanwhile, the right defender position himself where he can tackle Datto if he decided not to pass or intercept Datto pass to me. Without hesitation, I coolly made a hand signal to Datto to pass the ball to Wakka. He threw the ball to Wakka. As I predicted, the left keeper began to catch the moving ball. But he forgot one thing….

GOALLLLLLL!

The ball struck the net. I hovered and kicked the passing ball toward to my enemy goal. The Al Bhed goalkeeper was in open-mouthed amazement. She didn't expect I managed to use 'volley shot' skill on that ball. Even her team-mates were shocked about this. Never in their life was that they expected a player from Besaid Aurochs able to use a difficult skill. I was feeling a bit mighty after the goal. Now the Al Bhed felt my wrath. I laughed in my mind furiously. Wakka and the rest of my team waved to me and showing a hand language 'excellent, well done' to me.

Less than two minutes remaining in the game. I focused back to the game again. The game continued and Al Bhed got the ball. I needed to defend the goal carefully before the flare on the sky shown up. Please, be hurry! I said in my mind. I'll hope that reach someone that doing the job. The formation had been changed according to the plan. The four of us will create a box-size defend strategy with Wakka as a lone striker. This formation was to increase the defenders for each enemy striker by supporting one defender when it's facing an enemy with the ball. This was to make sure that the attackers could not shoot without shrugging one defender. The only drawback of this formation was that your attack strength would decrease significantly. I acted as a support defender where a help arise.

One minute to go. I had been going left and right to support the defenders and cleared the ball from danger to our goal. Suddenly, I saw a white flash at the sky over the Sphere Pool. It's a signal! (Woohoo, the problem had been solved!) Now, the only thing I need to do was to steal the ball from the enemy. Currently, the ball was in the enemy hand at Besaid Aurochs right side of the Sphere Pool. Think! Think! Think! I said to my mind. The only thing that came to my mind was to make sure I can get the ball was to put 3 of 4 defenders to strike him. I hesitated a bit before executing the plan.

Ok. Here goes nothing.

I made a hasty hand signal to Botta and Jassu. They went straight to the enemy carrier of the ball. I followed them as I pray that the enemy would try to pass to the pissed off attacker.

Glimmer of hope came to me. He passed to the direction I wanted to be. Gosh, God must be with me today. I intercept the ball and passed to Botta before any nearby Al Bhed punch me. Less than 40 seconds now. Wakka finally realised the flare and make a hand signal to the team: All Front Attack (all player attack strategy).

Botta made a long pass to Wakka. By the time, Wakka caught the ball; the remaining time was 25 seconds. Two Al Bhed Defenders were onto him. Wakka jumped up on top of the two defenders and kicked them away. Less than 20 seconds now. Please let Wakka score it, I prayed in my mind. Wakka shot the ball.

GOALLLLLLLLL!

The score is now 2-1. Finally, the Besaid Aurochs managed to create a comeback. The ball struck the Al Bhed goal net before the time ends. It was unbelievable to me. Wakka finally showed his strength to the Al Bhed players. The game officially ends after the shot. Besaid Aurochs advanced to final for the fist time in history.

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Somewhere else

It was dark inside the cave. "Switch on the light, Kay", said a girl voice. Kay pulled a string hanging on the ceiling of the cave and a light on the ceiling shine brightly enough to see the inside of the cave.

"Rikku, what are we doing here?" Kay asked in the language of Al Bhed.

The same girl, Rikku, replied also in the same language, "We are here to do some pesky work. This is important, don't you know?"

"Yeah, but aren't we rushing things?"

"Look, do you know what this 'important' thing is?"

Looking embarrassed, "Alright, so I don't know what it is. Care to tell me?"

Rikku, a girl with cute face and palm styled orange hair, sighed. "Geez, do you know about our cousin?"

"Huh? I thought YOU are my cousin".

"What? Didn't your parents tell you about our OTHER cousin?" Rikku asked. Kay shrugged.

"Well, maybe I can tell you right now…."Rikku paused a moment. "I think maybe later I will tell you"

"Why?" Kay felt shock about that.

"You will be shocked if I tell about it!"

"No, I will not! Just tell me, please!" Kay jumped on the ground repeatedly like a 7 years old child.

"Ok, I will tell you when the plan is underway." Rikku put both her hands on both side of Kay's shoulder. "All I can tell you now that our cousin is in danger. We need to help her."

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Chapter 4 end

Next Chapter: Blitzball Cup – Part 2: Besaid Aurochs versus Luca Goers

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Hoooooooooooooooookay. I hate this chapter and the next chapter coming up. I actually wanted to skip the Bliztball Cup part but somehow that part is connected to the story……….. --;;;

Well, sorry to let you guys suffer reading this (yes, I am repeating it again no matter how I improve this story) CRAPPPPPPPY chapter. Oh, yes, you guessed it. The next chapter will be going to be crappy story too.

You noticed the last bit right? About Rikku and Kay, right? I needed something to spice up this chapter……..

Oh and they are speaking in Al Bhed language. I used the English because it was easier to write without having to go to the translation web site.

To TyrantFlame, I think you will read this chapter on Tuesday but I did told you I that I send it on Monday. Well, this chapter was post up on Monday while at your place it's become Tuesday because of the different time zone – 6 hours difference ya. Oh one more thing, I think I m guilty about this. I was too sleepy that I forgot to post this chapter in the morning in my time.

Again, please review.

PS: I think I cheated a bit about Valcin in the blitzball game. The way I describe him in the story was like he is best at everything. I think I needed to downgrade him in the next chapter.