The Ripple Effect | Volume II
Chapter 17 – Control Exercise
(Nansei Junior High School – Practice Field)
A loud scream of a whistle sounds about the practice field, haphazardly gaining everyone's attention. Most people were too busy catching their breath to turn their heads. Coach Sakka stood in front of the line where everyone finished with his clipboard in hand and the other in his pocket. He exchanged glances with his two assistants at both ends of the field as they nodded their heads. Seems like they had everything they needed.
"Great job everyone!" Coach Sakka announced to the group. "Looks like everyone made it through the first period without passing out, giving up, or losing their lunch! Guess we've got a tough young class this year!" Only as soon as he finished saying that, a heavyset kid roughly on the end of the line turns around and…loses his lunch.
Everyone else who watched it reeled back in disgust. Coach Sakka cleared his throat. "Anyways, looks like someone broke the old school record! That's amazing news!" This raised some ears as those who made it relatively close to the front of the pack wondered if they were the person to break it.
Drawsah slowly and timidly trudges his way back to the main group from where he was standing. Which was all the way at the front, twenty meters past the goal line. Kitsutsuki eyed him up and down out of bewildered curiosity. Drawsah's facial features were still strangely tense, and his face was still pale, despite it not being so white when they started.
Kitsutsuki seemed to be at a loss for words. "What's wrong with you?" she asked, taking note of his shaky limbs and condition. "You don't look so good."
Drawsah doesn't reply. As if he didn't hear Kitsutsuki's question at all. He was still breathing as if he was out of breath—a minor panic attack of sorts. Kitsutsuki narrowed her eyes at the boy, trying to come up with a conclusion herself. Eventually, she would take notice of Drawsah's nasty bruise in the middle of his forehead.
"Number twenty-two is our first-place sprinter and posted a school records time of four point ninety-three seconds!" Coach Sakka announced to the full-attentive group, some kids' faces lit up in shock.
A time that fast for kids like them was unfathomable. "Number twenty-seven and six came in at a five point thirty-one and five point forty seconds. Seems like we have some very fast players on our hands!"
Everyone started looking for number twenty-two and eventually found the boy wearing it with his hands on his knees. Their expressions directed towards him varied. Some looked at him in awe, others defeated. Bao looked at him with a peering gaze. He looked angry enough to pop a blood vessel under his eyelids.
Kitsutsuki leans down to Drawsah's level, also taking notice of everyone's stares and whispered comments amongst themselves. Drawsah's condition seemed to only get worse, as if those words were the opposite of what he wanted to hear.
"What the hell is going on?!" Kitsutsuki whisper shouted, loud enough for only Drawsah to hear. Kitsutsuki shifted her gaze down to Drawsah's limiters and noticed that they were on a significantly lower level than they were just thirty minutes ago. Her expression grew more and more anxious, as if his panic attack could have an effect on them all.
Drawsah swallows and blinks, struggling to find some words to say. His mind was too distracted with something, as if he had all of a sudden lost his ability to speak. "… I—…" The boy could barely utter a word.
Kitsutsuki put her hands on her hips and stood up straight, looking down on Drawsah with a troubled face. He's scared shitless… "What happened in the locker room?!" Kitsutsuki quickly asked Drawsah. But again, she received no answer.
Drawsah took a deep breath in, and then let it out. He looked down at his limiters and sighed. He tapped on the miniature screen and the interface switched, displaying energy used, time left, and charging speed. He sighed.
"Ten more minutes."
"Ten—… For what?" Kitsutsuki asked, completely lost and left in the dark."
Drawsah finally raised his posture after what felt like an hour and opens his eyes. He glanced in Bao's direction, still huffing and puffing from his little panic attack from before. "I'll…" he spoke through shaky breaths, finally addressing his friend. "…explain later…"
Kitsutsuki groaned in annoyance. She didn't spend all that time asking him questions just for him to turn around and refuse to answer every single one of them. "I don't know what's going on with those…bracelets," Kitsutsuki started, "but just don't screw anything up, got it?" She turned away from him and started walking back to the center of the line. By now, everyone's stares quickly shifted back towards the coach.
Bao's expression seemed to get angrier by the second. His time should have been the best one there. It was impossible for Drawsah to beat him as his release was awful. Not only that, but he was also nowhere to be found after the first few seconds. A forty-meter dash always relies on the release. Even the fastest sprinters with top speed would end up losing in a forty-meter, that's why they excel in the hundred-meter.
Which is why Drawsah being able to beat him by half a second after having such a horrendous release irks him greatly. That should be impossible. Either the lazy evaluator at the end of the course marked his time off by a second or the kid himself was a whole different case altogether. He caught Kitsutsuki's glare and returned the favor.
Just as I thought, you're still below me in terms of strength, speed, and skill. You're no longer my point of focus, Tori. Now it's that…brats name again. Number twenty-two. You'll fall along shortly anyways. I'll never have to try with you…
Drawsah brought his left hand up and analyzed it. It was still shaking from the adrenaline rush. And despite all of his best efforts to keep his body calm, it still kept shaking. His heart was still racing, his breathing still shaky, and his body mimicked his hand. He took another deep breath in and out.
He thought back to his performance, overlooking what had gone wrong and what else he should change to make his next attempt better. The safest option right now would be to leave. But even doing that discretely is dangerous. I'll have to figure out how to wait out these next ten minutes somehow…
Coach Sakka blows his whistle, getting everyone's attention for a second time. "With that being said, follow your two guides!" he announced, pointing at the two upperclassmen who were now standing next to each other on the other side of the field. "They'll lead you over to stage two! You've got one hundred twenty seconds!" He blows his whistle again, signaling everyone to get a move on.
Drawsah looked down at his feet and grew a little anxious. He carefully raises his foot and calmly puts one in front of the other, trying to make sure his body movement isn't stressed or thought too hard about. If I take it too easy, I'll be disqualified. If I'm too lax, I'll stand out…beyond normal limits.
…
He shifted his gaze at both Bao and Kitsutsuki and then towards Coach Sakka. Hopefully the next stage is just a simple workout. I could fake that pretty easily. But strongly doubt that. This controlling my energy stuff is really getting on my nerves. Why did I have to be born this way. I never wanted this…!
Drawsah's right foot planted into the ground and dug around two inches into the Earth. He slowly opens his eyes and sighs. And that's on me for failing to control my emotions again. That's why that happened during the sprint… He picks his left foot up and puts it in front of the other, taking a deep breath in and out. He manages to continue without much thought and only about his destination.
He lifted his head to find the rest of the group and found them jogging to their destination instead. Drawsah takes a deep breath. Coach gave us two minutes. They don't seem to be going too far and he never said it was going to be a race. If I'm last, that's perfectly fine. I can jog over there at a light pace… Surely…
(NJHS – Half-Sized Practice Field)
And exactly as those one hundred twenty seconds passed, Coach Sakka blew his whistle to draw everyone's undivided attention. The entire group of thirty kids stood on another field that was much smaller than the one they stood on before. Only this one was cut in half. Now there was only one goal on one end and a half-circle on the other, mocking the middle of a full field.
There were small bright white cones littered about the field in two different sections, each assorted in various patterns. Right in front of those two courses of cones were those thirty students divided into two different groups of fifteen. Each assistant stood at the front of each course, awaiting Coach Sakka's instructions.
Drawsah found himself at the back of the group on the left, doing much better without his limiters than he was previously before. His pale face reverted to his normal skin tone and the amount of anxious sweat that soaked his clothes lessened. But it seemed that he was concentrating on only one thing, keeping his energy in check.
Kitsutsuki was in the same group as Bao was on the right side. They stood relatively in the middle of the pack, eyeing down Coach Sakka who stood in the middle of everything and everyone. Bao shifted his focus towards the cones for a second. Looks like an agility course. These custom-made cleats should do pretty good on cuts, I made sure I got the studs on them just right. Now I've got no excuse to not come in first place!
"Congrats on making it to the second period! Most people don't make it this far…!" Coach Sakka announced to both groups. Some people started to lose their serious faces. They've only ran one forty-meter dash, it couldn't possibly be that difficult.
"See, I knew we should've been with the older class…!" Sana uttered under her breath. "There's no way this guy's being serious."
"He's just trying to lighten the mood," Zun whispered to Sana with a bit of rash in his voice. "None of us even made top five in the last period so we aren't off to a great start by your standards."
Sana seemed to get a little ticked off by Zun's comment. "He's right, Sana." She turned her head to Liza, who spoke to her in a whisper. "We've got no room to complain about anything unless we 'crush' these tryouts, huh? Let's just focus on what's in front of us." Liza put her hands on her hips, blinking slowly as if she was bored.
"Fine," Sana said flatly. "Let's stop slacking off. I'll come in first in this next drill."
"Rooting for ya'," Liza added sarcastically, giving Sana a lazy thumbs up. Sana rolled her eyes at the comment and glanced behind her for a moment. Twenty-two, huh? The kid that broke the record…? He looks no different from me… Drawsah looked in her direction and caught Sana's stare, but she didn't look bothered at all. He awkwardly looked in another direction. That kid's weird too…
"…Anyway… This next period will be an agility course!" Coach Sakka announced. "These are time-based courses that shows us your acceleration, change of direction, and footwork!" The burly man pointed to both of his assistants—one with a clipboard and the other completely empty. "Pay close attention! They'll be walking us through the course so you might wanna pick up a thing or two!"
The boy turned around and faced the course, lining up at the start of two spaced cones lazily. He looked back at Coach Sakka and gave him a short nod. Coach Sakka blew his whistle which signals the boy to start running the course. He began running at a forty-five-degree angle to the left and after several steps, turns around a cone to the right ninety. He starts to jog on the short straight and takes another ninety-degree turn. After five steps, he takes one more ninety-degree right turn which after another several steps, returned him right back to where he started, completing a short diamond patter for the course.
Most of the kids in his group looked unimpressed, especially Sana. If any of these next periods are anything like these last two, these tryouts are already in the bag…honestly… This is embarrassing torture at this point.
Coach Sakka sighs and then looks towards his other assistant, already line up for the right course. "Ready?" he asked her. The girl gave him an upright thumbs up, prompting him to blow his whistle once again. Everyone shifted their attention towards the girl who immediately took off from the line with great speed.
She made a hard cut turning left and sprinted to the line cone on the end of the straight. The girl pivoted and dug her lead foot into the ground, causing her to make a complete one-eighty and run to the right, outside of the next cone. Everyone watching seemed to watch in awe. This course was completely different from the first one.
The girl came up to the next cone sprinting and cut up and to the left, sacrificing little speed to make the sharp turn. There was one cone at the top of the course—right in the middle. She took four running strides on her straight and made one last left cutting turn that led her down a long diagonal path. There were two more cones at the end of the straight that came out to the left of the pair she started at, and once she passed them, she came to a jogging stop.
She whipped her head up to the group on the left in front of the diamond course. "You guys are supposed to run that course just like that," the girl declared, pointing at the left course. "Just as I did and not as Tadashi did." The larger group watched her with different expressions this time, as if they were taking what she said seriously.
The boy looked at her with an unimpressed face. He put his hands on his hips and sighed at her announcement. Way to go… Calling me out like that… You had no reason to turn on your tryhard mode for that stupid course. Now you're really tryin' to make me look back in front of the coach.
Some people in the left group sigh in relief, seeing as their course wasn't as intensive and complicated as it was for the people on the right—Drawsah being one of those people. Coach Sakka seemed to have heard it and shook his head, clicking his tongue in the process. "I hope you don't think you won't be challenged on both courses," he abruptly brought up to both groups. "Everyone is equal on this team, and we don't cut corners! Do you understand?!"
"Yes sir!" everyone affirmed quite loudly.
"Alright!" Coach Sakka crossed his arms and seemed to look satisfied. "Now form lines and get to work!" The man brought his whistle up to his mouth and blew into it, signaling the start of the second period.
Two minutes would quickly go by. The line in front of Drawsah would slowly lessen and he would find himself coming up to the start of the line. It didn't take long for other people from the other line to start filling in behind him. Drawsah analyzed everyone's run in front of his own so he could find the time he should shoot for. So, he could find a course time relatively in the middle of the pack. He had already messed up before and ended up breaking a record. If he were to end up doing that again, he could kiss his idea of remaining irrelevant goodbye.
In the neighboring line, Bao was set at the start with the girl overseeing the course looking for his sign of being ready. She glanced over to the person nearing the end of the course, and once they did, she clicked her stopwatch. The girl only needed a short check for Bao to see whether he was ready or not, then blew a short tweet from her whistle.
Bao took off from the start and quickly cut into his left turn. He ran the straight and came to a complete stop for only half a second before taking off in the other direction towards the right. He could tell he's had the best start so far. Bao made a cut up to the corner of the course and used his top speed to cut around the corner instead of making the turn square.
This is what baseball players did when they ran their bases. In short, all they're doing is rounding out their straight paths to be able to turn corners without sacrificing any speed. Another example of this is when racecar drivers stick to a racing lane when driving through a course.
This technique allowed Bao to cut down his time by at least .80 seconds. Which compared to most other times was a large margin to beat. Bao sprinted towards the finish crossed it at his best speed, shortly coming to a bouncing stop. There we go. That's gotta be the best time so far. The girl running the line clicked her stopwatch which read a time of eleven thirty-two seconds. The last fastest time before that was twelve seconds flat. She looked at the next person and lightly blew her whistle.
Bao jogs towards the other line and stands at the back of it. He watched Drawsah's back with a mean glare. If he can beat whatever I just ran, I've got a problem. But if he's just really athletic, so what? No one's got me beat when it comes to actual football skill. Every track star can't play football like I can.
Drawsah held his chin with his hand with his other arm propping up the other. He was analyzing each and every run on the course in front of him, but his face looked pretty tense. I think I can manage this one… The next course though… He glanced over at the nearby course and frowned. Everyone running the course would slip in some parts and stumble, adding precious seconds to their time. Kitsutsuki was only behind two more kids in front of her. The best I can do is wing it on that one… He sighed. Now there were only three kids left in front of him.
Kitsutsuki stood at the start of the course, awaiting her turn to run. The boy in front of her started off great until he came to the top corner. Slowing down there didn't help out his time at all. He was definitely slower than Bao, and after seeing that Kitsutsuki brought her head down and stopped paying attention. She placed one foot on the line and the other behind her, lowered herself down and placed her hands on her forward knee.
The evaluator girl watched the boy run past the finish and glanced back at Kitsutsuki who was in her starting position. She blew her whistle and Kitsutsuki took off in the same manner as Bao did. Each starting corner cut was flawless and so was the turnaround towards the right cone.
She took a page out of Bao's book and rounded her straights, sacrificing very little speed if any at the final corner. She full sprinted towards the finish and passed the final cone at her top speed. The girl overseeing her run raised her eyebrows at the sight, clicking the stopwatch and reading it. Eleven sixty-four huh? Not bad. She glanced at the next kid. "Ready?" she asked them.
Kitsutsuki came to a jogging stop and started walking towards the end of the next line. That one felt pretty good. But I'll have to do more if I wanna beat Bao. Especially on those cuts…
Bao stared down Kitsutsuki with a mean mug on his face. She's gotten way better… I underestimated them at first, but now I'll use everything in this next course. No slip-ups. No mistakes…
Kitsutsuki caught Bao's malicious glare and smirked at him. She walked towards him and stood behind him, cutting a few people in line but they were too busy catching their breath from the last course to care. And those who seemed to be bothered by it felt that they shouldn't confront Kitsutsuki for some reason.
"You look pretty upset Bao," Kitsutsuki mockingly snickered, bringing her hand up above her forehead displaying a 'loser' sign. "Things aren't going to plan?"
Bao gritted his teeth but tried to save face by mirroring her energy. "Keep your head on the game and not on me!" he callously replied, invading Kitsutsuki's personal space. "I'll break the stalemate in the next one. No more holding back."
Kitsutsuki frowned. She drew her hand down and crossed her arms, keeping her sharp glare on Bao. "What did you do to Drawsah?" she irritably asked in a low tone of voice.
"Who? You mean that shrimp-sized pineapple you hang out with?" Bao quickly asked. He looked forward and put his hands on his hips. "I ain't do squat. What, you worried?" Bao grinned devilishly at Kitsutsuki.
…
"You know…" Kitsutsuki began in a dark tone, "…if you touch him, not only would I kick your ass, but Drawsah would too." She pushed him about a foot away with her arm. "So back off," she coldly uttered.
Bao started to laugh. "Yeah right!" he exclaimed through laughs. "That little kid?"
Kitsutsuki narrowed her eyes, her face seemed to tense up. "The back of your hand is bruised." She casually pointed at Bao's hand.
"…What…?" Bao's laughs halted as he brought up his hand, rubbed it, and shook the feeling off. "So…?"
Kitsutsuki blinked and glanced at Drawsah's back. There was one more girl in front of him. I should stop pushing the issue and shut my mouth. Something might slip and I'll end up exposing him by accident. She sighed and turned her body towards the front. "A word of advice from me to you."
Bao turned his head slightly to look down at Kitsutsuki. He didn't say a word.
"Don't. By all means necessary, try to fight Drawsah," she lowly uttered. Her words sounded serious and non-threatening. It didn't seem to be an act either.
"Pshaw," Bao uttered without much reaction. He was now staring at the front too, watching as Drawsah stood at the start cone. "Whatever." … Why does that name sound familiar…? "Drawsah" … Doesn't that Capsule Corp. owner-guy have a son by that name. The only name I can remember is a "Bulma" …
Nah that can't be possible. Somebody with that status wouldn't be playing a sport like this. And if that guy did, he'd be in a pretty-private league or something. And he definitely wouldn't be hanging around with a girl like Tori.
Zun was watching Drawsah from the start as his friend ran back towards the back of their line. Liza caught on quite quickly as Zun's face looked more analytical than usual. "Who's that?" she asked Zun. He turned around surprised. "Somebody important?"
"Only the kid who just broke the school's record on the last period," Zun irritably answered. "Do you ever pay attention to anything, Liza?"
Liza sighed. "Well, that was very rude of you," she carelessly replied. "… Nope."
Drawsah stood at the start with a tense and anxious expression. He lowered himself into a split stance and sighed, closing his eyes to concentrate. The older boy looked at Drawsah after Sana ran past the cone and grew confused, raising an eyebrow at the sight. "You good?" he casually asked Drawsah."
"Yeah."
The boy tweets his whistle. Drawsah tried to lightly take off of the line, but his forward foot came back too fast as he ended up kicking the dirt beneath him and fell forwards, right on his face. The dirt ends up flying into the faces and hair of the kids behind him, which made them utter unpleasantries under their breath.
Kitsutsuki and Bao looked unimpressed. What the hell is Drawsah doing…? He blitzed the last drill so now he's trying to go for the opposite? I don't think that'll make any sense…
…
Drawsah slowly raised his head from the dirt and looked up at the older boy who looked down at him with a confused expression. "Can I start over?"
"…Yeah," the boy awkwardly answered. "One more chance though because you only get two starts." Drawsah sighed and slowly picked himself up with shaky limbs.
"Watch your footing!" Coach Sakka announced to the entire group from the middle. He stood at the back behind both lines overseeing the entire drill on both sides. That comment caused some snickers here and there to erupt on Drawsah's misfortune. But the latter seemed not to care or notice.
Kitsutsuki readjusted her face with a shake and squinted at Drawsah, bringing her hand up to her chin in thought. His limiters went from like forty-something down to ten. That shouldn't be normal right? Even a little later after this time yesterday he was doing perfectly fine. Did he break them?
The day before around this time, Kitsutsuki had exposed Drawsah for the first time. But despite that, his demeanor didn't change for the rest of the day. He was still limited by his limiters. And even while his body was under the influence of those limiters, his speed and strength were outclassing her own. He had already made that known all day the day before. Kitsutsuki had remembered that much.
If he was able to do all of that without even trying, just imagine what he's capable of without them… Kitsutsuki watched Drawsah dust himself off. She grew nervous. He's trying to conceal his abilities without them isn't he…? Then how did he break them? Drawsah's nasty bruise on his forehead had yet to fade away. Bao's red knuckles hadn't resolved themselves either. A moment of realization seems to take Kitsutsuki by storm. She looked up at Bao out of the corner of her eye, who still had a confused expression on his face. You idiot…!
Drawsah lowered himself into a split stance again and recollected himself. Although his forehead started to sweat again, the rest of the muscles in his body started to lose tension. He had to fully concentrate on this body simply and block out everything else once he started. Only thinking about what he was doing and nothing else should make it easier on his mental. He exhaled through his mouth. "Alright."
"Ready?" the boy asked Drawsah, who received a nod in return. He blew his whistle again and took off as he did before without a slip up. But the older boy noticed that dirt still kicked up after Drawsah's footsteps. It raised his eyebrow again.
The spiky-headed boy turned the first corner without a rounded turn quickly without stumbling once. It was perfect. On a closer look with Drawsah, he actually seemed to be holding his breath, extremely concentrated with his eyes slightly open. The next cut ended up kicking up some dirt, but he kept his stride as if it didn't happen. At the last corner, Drawsah cut the turn and made it square but only a little bit of speed was sacrificed as he came to a jogging stop back at the start of the course.
Drawsah opened his eyes wide and let out a breath. His tensed-up face and muscles seemed to disappear and looked relaxed for the first time since entering the locker room. Nice… That was way better than the last time. He brought his head up and walked towards the back of the next line and found the three kids standing in front of him from before looking at him with half-stunned faces. He looked behind him confused at the evaluator as his straight face looked stupefied as well. He looks down at the stopwatch and notices that he forgot to stop recording the time.
The boy looked at Coach Sakka, motioning to his stopwatch and shrugged.
… Drawsah sucked on his bottom lip in awkwardness. He looked in Kitsutsuki's direction.
Jeez… She raised her hands up and down in front of her, motioning Drawsah to slow down. Kitsutsuki looked more sheepish than shocked if anything. But it wasn't like she hasn't seen anything like that out of Drawsah before. He wasn't kidding about his terrible control at all… I won't forget it.
Drawsah blinked and started to look a little uneasy and turned his head to the front, standing behind Sana. Did I… He surveyed the course he had just run and noticed that the cone at the top was knocked over. Even some other kids started to lose confidence. His expression lowered as if he was guilty. Did I overdo it…? He sighed in defeat and raised his wrists to look at his limiters.
They both read twenty-five percent which caused relief to wash all over his face. He raised his limiter levels from zero up to about halfway up the scale. He put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath, his heart rate started to lower, his breathing became slowed, and all of his anxiety seemed to sweep away in one motion. We're finally back to normal.
"Who are you?" A voice said in front of him. Drawsah quickly raised his head.
"Huh?"
"You heard me…" Sana said. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. "What? You ran so hard you forgot your name or something?"
In the other line, Bao's face grew irritatingly angrier by the second. He shifted his gaze between Kitsutsuki and Drawsah. What's with these two…? How did they even meet…? That kid's moving like an Olympian and Kitsutsuki's apparently's been able to keep up with me after all those years… Man this is getting annoying…! He balled up his fists to his side.
End of Chapter Seventeen.
A/N:
Happy Sunday!
Y'know I actually worked on his for only two days and for me, that's not that bad. Same thing schedule-wise is going on. University and flight school is going well. Finding a job is impossible because my schedule is too deep. Luckily enough for me though, money for both intuitions shouldn't be an issue over these next two semesters.
Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! (Might not be enjoying this little saga but I promise you it'll be worth seeing through to the end!) I'm expecting this one to be shorter than the last one and shouldn't span that deep in terms of chapters. The length of the chapters might be shorter too, considering IRL time constraints. My scripts actually aren't that deep either so for about 60% of the work you're reading is written in as filler from one point to the next. I'm assuming that's how most authors write their stories(?)
Anyway, hoped you enjoyed this chapter and hope that you'll be back with me for the next one! Shalom.
