A Game of Fate

Chapter 2

Goddess Nico

"You are the challenger which allows me to choose how this dispute will be decided. Luckily for you, I already know what I will choose. Come with me." At that moment, the door just behind her chair opened up, revealing a long hallway. Honoka took another deep breath and followed her without question.

While following this strange girl, Honoka couldn't help but get a little psyched up. All of those people were probably running away from this place, but why? To Honoka, nothing seemed to scare her. It was just the atmosphere that was giving her some troubles. When they made it to the end of the hall, the door slid open and Honoka was introduced to a high-tech room.

"Whoa, what is this place?"

"This is my favorite place of all time. The game we'll be playing is a personal favorite. It's called Hunting in Plain Sight. Do you know how to play?"

"No."

"Good. I like explaining the rules." Out of nowhere, the girl created two identical clones and had them stand beside her. "This is how you play. You will be placed into a group of people like this looking like me. I will also be placed within this group of people. The point of the game is to find each other and tag them with this shocker. Don't worry, it won't cause any bodily harm. If you find someone who looks like me, this will happen." The girl put the shocker in her clone's stomach and caused it to disappear into a cloud of smoke. "But… if you get the right me, everyone else will disappear. Do you understand?"

"I mean… I guess so. But… How is this fair?"

"It's not supposed to be. You challenge me and I get to set the parameters. If you have a problem, you can always leave whenever you want," she said with an evil smirk.

"No… I just… Give me some time to think." At that moment, Honoka realized why all of those people were running away. This game was unfair on every level. She was the one who had the disadvantage. No matter how she looked at it, she had to do all of the work while this other girl got to sit back and relax. "So let me guess this straight. All I have to do is find the real you and I win."

"Yep. To make things fairer, you only need to find the real me once. I will have to find you three times. How about it? Are you ready?"

Honoka was liking the sound of this game a little bit more than before, but she did have this small thought in the back of her mind that was telling her that this game was rigged. She had her reputation to worry about so she was still iffy about risking it just to answer a few questions.

"What are we wagering?"

"You're wanting answers to your questions so if you win, I'll answer anything you ask. If I win, you will never step foot on this mountain ever again. Got it?" She leaned in and gave Honoka a really scary look. However, Honoka stood her ground and took another deep breath.

"Got it. Let's do this."

"Alright, I definitely like you now. Allow me to introduce myself once again. I am Yazawa Nico, one of the 8 descendants of the Goddess Muse. Let's have a good game." Nico tossed a shocker stick to Honoka as the game was starting to set.

At that moment, the room filled up with smoke as the two of them were randomly assigned somewhere inside that room. Honoka was starting to panic just a little bit because things were moving just a little too quickly for her. The smoke surrounding her lasted for about another minute until it finally subsided. When Honoka was able to see again, she saw a room full of the same-looking girl all around her. It appeared as though the game was on.

…

Honoka looked around cautiously and saw that a town was created around her somehow. Nico clones were everywhere which only made things a lot worse. She could barely wrap her head around what was happening to her. Unfortunately, she wasn't given a lot of time to think. Within a manner of seconds, the real Nico appeared behind her and gave her a shock to the back.

"That's one. You're already falling behind."

Once again, the place filled up with smoke. Honoka wanted to know what was going on, but there was no explanation for her questions. When the room dissipated with smoke, she saw that there was a new place with the same concept still going on. However, Honoka was ready this time… At least a little more than last time. She ran towards the shadows that the buildings provided and watched from a distance. The only bad thing was that no one looked out of the ordinary. That's when Honoka really started to question this game.

"How is this fair? I don't see any way I can win." She was about give up, but then she saw something unusual. One of the girls was looking around as if she was lost. This was the lead that Honoka was searching for. That girl was the only one sticking out of the crowd so she pulled out her shock stick and headed for her. "I got you now!" Honoka lunged at the girl and poked her right in the stomach.

Poof!

"What?!"

"That wasn't the right one, dummy." From behind, Nico jumped at her and got her in the back.

Honoka felt the rush of electricity run through her body as she was down to her last life. The room reset once more, but it seemed to give Honoka a little more time to think. She had to use this time effectively. Staying still like she did in the first round didn't prove to be effective at all. Relying on her gut like the second round didn't prove to be much help either. There weren't many options she had left. As her mind continued to get flustered with ideas, the room reset was finished and the final round was starting. Either she would win or Nico would… And that was not what Honoka wanted.

This time, the town was a lot more open which prevented any aerial attack like it seemed in the second round. Honoka walked into the middle of the huge group and slowly scanned the area. She wasn't looking for anything in particular since she knew she had to change her game plan. The thing that was different from the other rounds was that it seemed to go on longer than normal. That meant many things, but Honoka didn't want to think about it. She kept her mind as calm as it could be at the time and made sure that her immediate vicinity was clear.

It seemed like minutes went by until something finally happened. The real Nico finally spotted Honoka in the mass of clones. That's when she pulled out her shock stick and went for the closing attack. She ran as fast as she could towards her with the stick ready. As she neared, she started to laugh.

"I got you now." She lunged for Honoka, but when she reached full extension, Honoka wasn't there. "What?!"

"Surprises won't work forever." From below, Honoka was crouched right below Nico's body with her shock stick ready. She aimed straight up and nailed her right in the gut.

"Guh!" At that moment, all of the clones in the room disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Honoka had won. The buzzer sounded which meant the match was over. Nico's body hit the ground after being shocked for the first time ever, but she eventually made it back to her feet to confront Honoka about this surprising revelation. "How did you know I was behind you?"

"Well, the first two times were definitely a surprise, but the third round told me everything."

"How?"

"I was able to realize that your specialty was surprise attacks. That's why every time we encountered each other, you were behind me. I also took the bet that you weren't very good at fighting. Luckily for me, since I'm part of the common people, fighting is a necessity so I wasn't worried about that."

"Hm… Very interesting. You're the first person to ever discover those things about me. Very well… As promised, I will answer any question you have."

"Sweet…"

"With confidentiality that you will never tell anyone what you know about me."

"O-Okay."

"Alright then… Ask away."

Honoka took a breath of relief and began.

"On the news, they made it seem like a big deal that someone came to the mountain to challenge the Goddesses. Why is that?"

"The Goddesses have always been seen as the keepers of peace or at least, people of higher power in the world. The rumors that we have powers are true; I will tell you that. With this whole system of games or challenges, the odds would always be in our favor so people just decided to not try. However, when this started to become more like a sport, challenging us started to seem like a good idea. The only thing is that common people can't win. For you, I can say that you are not common. To win like you did, I'm quite interested in following your progress."

"Progress? What do you mean by that?"

"Here on the mountain, we received that there was only one person in the world who has never been beaten. I can only guess that that person is you."

At that moment, Honoka gulped incredibly loud which only made Nico laugh.

"Haha! Don't be so nervous. No one's hostile about this. Since we've been so isolated, the Goddesses would love a challenge."

"But I never said I wanted to challenge anyone else. You said you would answer any question that I had. I still have more questions."

"I'm afraid I've said too much. If you want more questions, I suggest continuing up the mountain to find the answers that you seek."

"But…"

"Begone!" At that moment, a huge cloud of smoke appeared, revealing an army Nico clones all around her. In that split second, the real Nico disappeared into the crowd of clones, preventing Honoka from finding out any more.

"Wait! That wasn't part of the deal! Answer me!"

"I answered the questions that were relevant to the situation. Now leave this place!"

"No! You need to answer everything!" Honoka waited for a few seconds, but realized that it was worthless. She turned around and saw that the door leading out of the shrine was already open. She slowly made her way there and exited the shrine in silence. When she made it outside, the caretaker was standing outside giving her a cute, little applause.

"Congratulations on beating your first Goddess. I didn't expect this at all."

"What is going on here? What aren't you telling me?"

"I don't understand what you're asking. Everything you could ever want to know is on this mountain. You just have to make it to the top if you want the full answer."

As angered as Honoka was, it was quickly starting to seem that challenging and beating the Goddesses was the only way to go. She asked the caretaker where to go next and Honoka immediately headed there without question. This was only because none of her questions would ever be answered unless she furthered herself up the mountain.

When she arrived at the next shrine, the door opened automatically and Honoka walked in with slightly more confidence than before. She walked through the dark room until she saw the throne in the back of the shrine. However, the throne had two chairs which was a little strange. She immediately stopped where she was and looked around. The Goddess wasn't in her chair.

"Hello? Goddess, are you here? I came to…"

"Challenge us? We know. I saw the whole thing."

"Us? We? Huh," Honoka questioned under her breath. "Uh… Yeah, I did. Shall we get this thing… Ah!" From both sides, two huge jaguars appeared out from the darkness. "Um… Am I intruding?!"

"Rin-chan, call them off. This girl is our guest."

"Oh right, ~nya!" The two cats backed down as the room lit up. This gave Honoka a chance to look around, but she still couldn't see anybody. After a few seconds, one girl jumped down from the ceiling and the other appeared out from behind the pillar.

"Welcome to the Sister Shrine. Have you come to challenge us?"

End of Chapter 2