Part 1:
All throughout Landsol, flyers for a fighting tournament were being posted everywhere. The tournam
Everyone was impressed with the prize money, everyone except Christina that is.
"Hmp…100,000 rubies?" she said, taking a look at the flier. Christina was on one of her usual walks around landsol when she stumbled upon the flier for the fighting tournament.
"What use is 100,000 rupees to me anyway? I'm already the leader of the most powerful guild in Landsol, and I already live in a nice castle?"
To Christina, 100,000 rupees was nothing. She already had everything she wanted, and was quite satisfied with her life in landsol. The only thing that didn't satisfy her was the lack of opponents, and even then, she didn't see anyone in Landsol defeating her anytime soon. Not even the person she was about to speak to.
"Hey Yuuki!" she shouted. Yuuki was in the process of putting a flier on a brick wall when he turned around and looked at her.
"Oh, hey Christina." he said nervously, knowing how unpredictable Christina could be at times.
"Working one of your many odd jobs are you? You know if you just accepted my proposal you wouldn't have to work a day in your life! Unless of course, you're trying to save up to get me something nice…" she said with a smirk.
Yuuki ignored her and continued to place the flier on the brick wall. Dispute being annoyed at Yuuki ignoring her question, Christina still tried to chat with him.
"So, what exactly is this tournament all about?"
ent was being set up by one of the rich members of landsol, and had a prize of 100,000 rubies.
"Well, according to the flier, it's a karate tournament."
"A karate tournament?"
Yuuki nodded.
Now this tournament had Chrstina's attention. She was used to fighting people with swords, but hand to hand combat? That was something different.
"Well now, this tournament has my attention. Now that I've been made aware of this fact, I think I'll go and sign up for this event. Can I expect you to be one of my opponents in the tournament?"
"I'm working as a ref." Yuuki said.
"Well, that's quite a shame. I would love to go one on one with you, especially in the bedroom! But I guess for now I'll just have to wait."
Yuuki's face blushed bright red at the comment Christina made.
"I really gotta make sure I don't get into too many of "those" situations with the girls in landsol…" he said to himself.
Christina wasn't the only person in the Nightmare guild who was interested in being a part of the hand to hand combat tournament. Out on a walk around town with Matsuri, Tomo spotted the flier up on a board.
"What's that Tomo?" Matsuri asked.
"It's a flier for a karate tournament that's being hosted here in Landsol."
"Karate?"
"It's a type of hand to hand combat. I know a lot about it because my grandfather trained me in it at his dojo."
"So are you going to sign up for the tournament?"
Tomo nodded.
"I don't need the 100,000 rubies, but it would be nice to be the winner of the first karate tournament in landsol." she said with a smile.
"That's awesome! I can get all the candy and action figures of Tiero Tiger I want!"
"Hey, at least give some of that money to your parents, or save it up for an education."
"An education?" Matsuri said with a frown. "Do I really need that when I'm already working for Nightmare?"
"We need our members to not just be bright eyed and bushy tailed but smart as well Matsuri." Tomo said, patting her head.
After that small conversation, the two of them headed over to sign up for the tournament.
Despite not being a sword fighting contest, a lot of residents of Landsol were interested in the tournament. When the sign up center wasn't handing out tickets for the event, they were handing out papers to those who wanted to participate in it.
"Man, I'm glad I'm not working that job." Yuuki said to himself. Yuuki was just about finished putting up flyers for the event when he spotted Tomo and Matsuri.
"Hey Tomo! Hey Matsuri!" he said waving to them.
"Oh, hey Yuuki! Are you planning on signing up for the karate tournament?" Tomo asked.
"No, but I am a part of the event as a ref."
"Awesome, so you'll be there to raise my hand as the winner of the tournament then right?"
Yuuki nodded, causing Tomo to let out a giggle.
"So you think I'm going to win the tournament then?"
"Well, Christina did say that she was going to sign up for it as well, but I see her as more of a sword fighter then a fist fighter."
"Hmm? Christina is gonna be a part of this?"
"Yeah. I'm a bit surprised to be honest, as I didn't think she'd be interested in a fist fight tournament."
"Guess she must be bored again…" Tomo said. Just then, Jun walked up to them.
"Matsuri, Tomo, Yuuki, nice to see you."
"Oh hey Jun! What are you doing here?" Tomo asked.
"I'm just about to sign up for the karate tournament."
"You two?" Yuuki said, somewhat surprised.
"Yes, I do have some background in hand to hand combat." Jun said.
"I don't think they'll allow you to wear that metal armor though…" Tomo said with a look of concern on her face.
"I know. As much as I like to keep my identity a secret, I suppose I"ll have to shed this armor in order to partake in the tournament."
"It would be nice to see you without it every now and then." Yuuki added.
"Man, I feel so left out! I'm the only one who's not a part of this tournament!" Matsuri said, pouting and crossing her arms.
"There, there. You can always root for us on the sidelines." Tomo said, patting her head.
"Oh…alright. But you better keep your promise about sharing the award money with me." Matsuri said.
"That's the only thing that concerns me about this tournament. Who is running it, and do they even have 100,000 rubies?" Jun asked.
"I wish I could tell you guys, but I didn't really get to see my bosses. When I signed up for this job it just told me to go to the building that's hosting the sign ups and post flyers to people…" Yuuki added.
"Well then, maybe it's best if nightmare gets involved with this tournament. I fear the prize money is too good to be true."
"I'll keep an eye out on anything suspicious." Yuuki stated.
"I'll do the same as well." Tomo added.
"Man, I hope this isn't just one big scheme. It would be nice to have a ton of rubies to spend money on candy and toys." Matsuri said with a worried expression on her face.
Despite the concerns, Tomo and Jun signed up. Yuuki made a note to himself to keep an eye out for anything suspicious going on during the tournament.
part 2:
In the building that hosted the sign-ups for the karate tournament, two men sat down at a table across from each other. One was somewhat fat and had a black mustache, the other was a skinny man with a bowtie.
"My,my, how interesting is this?" the man with the bowtie said. "It looks like we got some members of nightmare to join our little karate tournament."
"Is that a good thing?" the man with the black mustache asked.
"Well, if it means we don't have to worry about them stopping our little scheme here, then yes, it is a good thing."
"I can't help but feel bad for some of these folks though. We promised all that money and we can't deliver it."
"That's the point you idiot! This tournament was made so we could make the money, and the participants lose out. By the time this tournament ends, we'll be long gone with all the cash from the tickets we sold."
"I just hope this plan works out."
"You do everything I tell you to and this plan will work out perfectly my friend!"
—-Next day—-
It was the day of the landsol karate tournament and many people came out to watch the event. The event was being held at the town square, which had a stage in it. This stage was where the participants of the tournament would duke it out to see who would win.
"Wow, I'm impressed." Yuuki said to himself. "A lot of people came out to this event."
"Hello Young man."
Yuuki turned around to see Jun, out of her knight armor and into a karate outfit with a black mask covering her eyes.
"Hey Jun." Yuuki said back in a friendly tone.
"I must admit, I'm a bit nervous. I didn't expect this many people to be interested in a hand to hand combat tournament like this, but alas, many turned out to see this event, did they not?"
"Yeah, there's definitely a lot of people here." Yuuki said, looking around at all the people gathered in the square.
Suddenly, Yuuki's vision went dark. This wasn't because of anything serious however, as he would soon find out.
"Guess who?" Tomo whispered in his ear.
"Tomo?"
"Yep!"
Tomo took her hands off of Yuuki's eyes and hugged him from behind. Like Jun, Tomo was also in a karate outfit.
"What do you think of my karate uniform?" she asked Yuuki.
"I think it looks good on you."
"Thanks." she said with a smile. "Would you mind if I wore this at our wedding? It is the same color as a wedding dress."
Before Yuuki could answer, Christina came over.
"Don't you know it's rude to flirt with another woman's fiance." she said, scolding Tomo.
"You two are engaged?"
"It's complicated…" Yuuki said, somewhat embarrassed. Before things could get anymore awkward, he asked where Matsuri was.
"Right here! Matsuri of the nightmare guild reporting for duty!" Matsuri said in a proud tone, accompanied by a salute.
"Well, I'm glad you guys are all here, we're about to get started." Yuuki said.
"Wonderful! I look forward to capturing that 100,000 rupees prize." Christina said.
"Not if I beat you for it!" Tomo responded back.
Before things got started, the man with the bowtie got up on stage and greeted everyone.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the first annual Landsol karate tournament! I want to thank you all for coming out here to watch this event! As stated, the winner of this event will get 100,000 rupees!" the man said, holding up a small bag. Before the audience could become skeptical, the man addressed the small bag, which couldn't hold 100,000 rupees even if it wanted to.
"No this isn't the prize, it's only a small amount. The real prize is in the vault in our offices, and that my friends, is what the winner of this match will be getting." The man continued, reaching into the bag to pull out a handful of rupees.
The crowd seemed pleased and cheered, but Yuuki was starting to get suspicious. Why not just have the prize out on display? Even with Nightmare occupied there were plenty of other guilds that could guard the prize bag in order to make sure nobody was going to take it.
Nevertheless, Yuuki kept these thoughts to himself and got ready to referee the first match, which just so happened to involve Christina. Christina stood up on stage, her hands on her hips judging the man across from her. The man in question was taller and bigger than Christina.
"Well, well, the famous Christina here to fight me in a one on one hand to hand fight huh?" The man said.
"You may have beaten me plenty of times in the past when we've come to blow with swords, but this time…you won't wi-hey, why am I looking up at the sky?"
"While you were blabbering I quickly swept you off your feet." Christina said, looking down at him as she placed her left foot on his stomach.
"Christina wins!" Yuuki said, raising Christina's hand up.
"Get used to doing that all day, Yuuki."
Up next was Jun's match. Like Christina, Jun was also going up against a man, though said man was skinny.
"I've been wanting to get revenge on you nightmare freaks for a while now…" the man said, raising his fist up and getting ready to fight. Jun stood still and calm.
"Can you even see out of that thing?" the man said in a mocking tone. The man went up to Jun, reaching for her mask, but before he could get it, Jun grabbed his wrist. She then delivered a swift and powerful kick to the man's stomach, causing him to go down in pain.
"Remind me not to get on your bad side." Yuuki said to Jun while he was raising her hand.
"I doubt you'll do that anytime soon young man." she said with a warm smile. Up next was Tomo, and unlike Christina and Jun, she was taking on a girl with brown hair.
"A bit disappointed that I'm not facing a guy like my two teammates, but in no way am I going to underestimate you…"
"I'm glad…because I'm not gonna go easy on you!"
The girl launched herself at Tomo, but Tomo was able to doge. Tomo went for a kick, but the girl blocked it with her arms. The girl then tried to go for a kick herself, but Tomo was able to block it.
"Come on Tomo! You got this!" Matsuri said from the side lines. Tomo continued to look at her opponent while in a fighting stance.
"I can hear you Matsuri…" she thought to herself. "Thing is, grandpa told me no matter what, don't take your eyes off your opponent. He'd give me a chop to the head if he heard I lost this tournament in the first round, let alone because I didn't listen to him."
The girl once again came at Tomo, but Tomo dodged her and delivered a kick to the stomach, sending the girl down.
"Ow,ow,ow." the girl said in pain, holding her stomach. After Yuuki declared her the winner, Tomo helped the girl up.
"That was a good match you put out there." she said.
"Thanks." the girl said back.
"If you ever want some tips or to train, stop by my grandpa's dojo. He's an expert in martial arts."
The girl smiled back and nodded.
"So far, so good." Yuuki thought to himself. "I hope this tournament is legit, I would feel bad if I was a part of something that was a scam…"
As the tournament continued, Yuuki kept his eyes peeled for any suspicious activity…
part 3:
As the tournament continued, the man with the bowtie and black mustache watched from afar.
"I don't like how that ref is looking around." the man with the black mustache said. "You think he's onto us?"
"Even if he is, it doesn't matter."
"You sure boss?"
"Yes, because if we try to take him out now, then people will think something is up. If we just sit back, relax, watch this thing and then get the hell out of here by the time it's over with, we'll have all this money to ourselves and not have to worry about him or nightmare."
As the man said that, Tomo and Jun both got up on the stage.
"And another reason why we don't have to worry about those idiots from Nightmare, because they're fighting themselves right now as we speak!"
"Oh man, this outta be good…"
Standing in front of Yuuki was Tomo and Jun. Yuuki had a feeling the two were going to face off against each other at some point during the tournament, but he didn't think it would be this early. It was only the second round of four when the two Nightmare guild members found themselves facing each other.
"Nothing personal Jun, but I really could use that money."
"I understand. No hard feelings regardless of the results in this match, all I ask is that you give me your best."
Tomo nodded. Yuuki, seeing the determination in their eyes, hopped off the stage as soon as he gave the go for the match to start. At first, the match started off slow, with the two girls walking in a circle, each carefully studying each other. Finally, Tomo landed a punch, which was dodged by Jun.
Jun responded back by a kick to Tomo that got her in the stomach. Tomo wasn't too fazed by this however, and sent a kick right to Jun's leg. Like Tomo, the attack didn't faze Jun, and she threw a ferience punch that Tomo dodged at the last second.
"Yeah, I made the right choice to get off the stage for this one…" Yuuki said to himself.
"I'll say!" Matsuri said, standing next to Yuuki. "This is going to be such a great battle! Only bad thing is I don't know who to root for…"
"As both their friends and a ref I'd rather stay natural…" Yuuki responded.
After a couple of punches back and forth, the girls slowed things down again. Sweat could be seen dripping off both of them.
"Man, she's good." Tomo thought.
"Tomo is just as good of a fighter as she is a swords woman…" Jun thought. The two would once again circle around each other carefully, waiting for one or the other to slip up.
As the two were fighting, Christina made her way up front next to Yuuki.
"I must say I'm both impressed and jealous. I wish I was involved in a fight like this." Christina said.
"Well, the tournament isn't over yet, so maybe you'll find that one tough opponent." Yuuki said.
"I doubt it, but I'm flattered by the words of encouragement."
After circling around each other for a while, the two got back to fighting, with Jun making the first offensive move with a kick. Tomo dodged it, and tried to go for a kick as well, but Jun caught it and pulled Tomo down. Tomo quickly got up before Jun could do anything.
Jun went for a punch, but Tomo was able to dodge it. Jun threw two more punches, with one of them connecting to Tomo's stomach.
"I gotta do something fast…or this match will end with me losing!" Tomo thought to herself. Jun went for one more punch, but Tomo ducked it. Just then, Jun's mask came loose, causing her to adjust it.
"Sorry Jun, but grandpa taught me to never take a wide opening for granted…" Tomo thought.
With all her might, Tomo slammed her fist right into Jun's stomach. The punch was so hard that it caused Jun to slide back on the stage. Jun fell right on her butt, and looked up at Tomo.
"Sorry about that." Tomo said, afraid that Jun would be mad at her for attacking her as she was adjusting her mask.
"It's alright Tomo…you saw the opening and took it. This loss is my own." Jun said, grabbing Tomo's hand to get back up on her feet. Yuuki got back up on stage and announced Tomo as the winner.
"You did good out there Jun!" Matsuri said.
"Thanks. Matsuri. If you guys excuse me, I'm going to get back into my armor."
"Oh come now, do you have to? Christina said in a disappointed tone. "It's not everyday we see you out of that hunk of junk."
"I know, but for my own personal privacy I'd rather get into it again." Jun said before walking off into the crowd.
"One of these days I'm gonna steal that damn thing from her. That way she'll have no choice but to go out in public without it."
"Come on Christina, don't do that! She'll be upset!" Matsuri said.
"You're one to talk with that hat you refuse to remove."
Matsuri quickly put her hands on top of her hat, making sure it didn't leave it.
"I just like to wear this because I don't like my hair, that's all."
"What, you get a bad haircut?"
"Now, now, Christina, don't tease Matsuri like that." Tomo said, hopping off the stage to join her guildmates. "It's her hat, if she wants to wear it whenever she wants, she can." she said, patting Matsuri on the head.
"Besides, you got more important things to focus on then Matsuri's hat, such as facing me in the finals."
"You really think you and I are gonna face off in the finals?" Christina said, putting her hand on her hips.
"If we both win our matches in the next rounds? Yep…"
"Very well then, I look forward to facing off against you in the finals. Just so you know however, I'm not going to go easy on you."
"Neither am I." Tomo said with a smile.
"Man, that was one hell of a match huh!" the man with the bowtie said. "It's even better because if those Nightmare clowns wear themselves out, we don't have to worry about them chasing us!"
"Still, you think it's best to underestimate them?" the man with the black mustache said.
"Like I said, follow the plan to a T and we'll be getting away no problem!"
Little did the men know at the time that Jun was eavesdropping on them.
"So…it looks as though this is a scam after all." She thought to herself. "I better go and tell the others."
part 4:
Jun had pulled Yuuki, Matsuri, Tomo and Christina aside to talk to them about what she overheard coming from the two men.
"So…it looks like this whole tournament was a sham after all." Yuuki said, somewhat disappointed in himself for not noticing anything sketchy beforehand.
"Don't be too hard on yourself young man." Jun said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "These two scam artists did everything they could to cover up their tracks. If it wasn't for me over hearing them, they would have gotten away with this."
"So, what should we do?" Matsuri asked.
"Personally, I'd like to continue fighting." Christina said.
"Yeah I had a feeling you would say that." Yuuki added.
"But what about the criminals!"
"Well, how about this…" Tomo said, patting Matsuri on the head. "We finish off this tournament for the people who came here to watch it, then we get those two scam artist and throw them into jail."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Yuuki asked.
"In my personal opinion it works, as the two men did say they were going to get going after watching the fight themselves." Jun added.
"Alright then…I have an idea…" Yuuki said, gathering everyone around in a huddle.
—-
It was the final round of the tournament where the two favorites to win it met. Christina and Tomo. Christina and Tomo stood across from each other.
"Just so you know, I've been training karate for a while now with my grandfather." Tomo said, getting into a fighting stance.
"And just so you know, I hate to lose." Christina responded back.
As soon as Yuuki gave them the green light to start the match, the two were off to the races. Christina threw a few punches at Tomo, who blocked them all. After the fury of punches, Christina jumped back, creating some distance between her and Tomo.
"That was good, but now it's my turn…"
Tomo threw a few punches of her own, but Christina ducked and dodged them. Christina then went for a punch to the stomach, which got Tomo. It wasn't enough to bring her down however, and Tomo sent a punch right back to Christina.
"Oh man…these two are evenly matched!" Matsuri said, watching in the front row of the crowd.
"Come on Tomo, you got this!"
"I must say, this certainly is the type of fight I've been looking for for a while now. Someone who's willing to put up a decent fight against me!"
"I'm surprised Christina. I knew you to be a good sword fighter, but a fist fighter?"
"That's right you two…keep on wearing yourselves down." the man with the bowtie said, licking his lips and rubbing his hands at the sight of the two nightmare guild members facing off against each other.
Christina and Tomo both ciricled each other for a bit before Christina went on the attack with a punch. Tomo dodged it, and tried to sweep Christina. While she made contact with her legs, it wasn't enough to send her down, and Christina still found herself standing tall.
"Come now Tomo, you know a little trip up like that won't send me down don't you?"
Christina once again went for a punch, but this time Tomo caught it. Before Christna could say anything, Tomo sent a strong kick right to Christina's stomach, sending her flying back and almost off the stage. Christina staggered a bit, but was still standing.
Tomo still stood on guard, keeping her eyes glued to Christina. Christina slowly raised her head with a smile on her face.
"Bravo Tomo. That was amazing…"
"Thanks,'' Tomo said, still in a fighting stance.
"I hate to end this match on an anti-climatic note, but I think it's clear we're both even in straight, plus we got bigger fish to fry. As much as it pains me to say this Tomo, I forfeit."
With that, Yuuki raised his hand and declared Tomo the winner of the karate tournament.
"Man, what a lame finish. I could watch those two fight all day!" the man with the bowtie said. "Well, let's get going then…"
"Hold it."
Just as the man with the bowtie and mustache got up, they were approached by Jun, who was now wearing her armor.
"Are you two the one's hosting the karate tournament."
"Yep." the man with the mustache said.
"Don't you have a prize to give out?" Jun asked.
"We d-oof."
"Yes, yes we do. We'll go get it." the man with the bowtie said after elbowing the man with the mustache.
"Mind if I accompany you?"
"Not at all…" the man with the bowtie said, trying to keep his cool. The two men and Jun headed into the sign up building, where the money supposedly was.
"You're not gonna get me this time nightmare…" the man thought to himself. Just as the man with the mustache opened up the vault where the rupees were, the man with the bowtie took out a smoke bomb. The room filled with smoke, clouding Jun's vision.
From the stage, Yuuki could see the smoke coming from the building.
"Uh oh…" he said, pointing towards the building.
"Looks like the bad guys want to put up a fight. Come on guys!"
By the time Yuuki and others got to the building, Jun had made it, but was somewhat dizzy from inhaling all the smoke. A crowd had also gathered around to see what was going on.
"You OK Jun?" Tomo asked.
"Yes, but it appears that the duo had gotten away."
"Don't worry, we'll get 'em." Yuuki said.
"Hey! You can't take that! Those are my horses!"
Yuuki and co looked to see the duo who hosted the karate tournament getting on someone's horse and riding away with a big bag in hand.
"There they are!" Yuuki said.
The duo quickly high tailed it out of there, heading out of the town square and into the fields outside of town. Yuuki and the others followed behind.
—-
"Damn it! How did those freaks from Nightmare catch onto us!?" the man with the bowtie said. The duo was somewhere in a field far outside of town, having escaped Nightmare and Yuuki on a horse they stole from someone in town.
"Cheer up boss. We still got away with the money." the man with the mustache said.
"I suppose you're right, but it would have been nice if we could have left before Nightmare even caught on. It's probably all that ref's fault. I knew I should have kept a closer eye on him!"
"Yeah, you should have…"
Walking towards the duo was Yuuki. Behind him was Jun, Christina, Tomo, and Matsuri.
"You! This is all your fault! We were about to make a clean getaway!"
"Too bad you weren't able to." Yuuki said back.
"If you think we're going to hand this money over to you nice and easy, you're sadly mistaken…" the man with the mustache said, grabbing his own sword. The man with the bowtie did the same thing.
"Besides, aren't you two tired from fighting?" the man said, looking at Christina and Tomo.
"You're right, we are. However, our friend Yuuki here has a certain power that can help us." Tomo said with a smile. Yuuki started to glow, and with him, Tomo, Matsuri, and Christina.
"W-w-what's going on?" the man with the bowtie said, stepping back. Before the two men could attack, Tomo delivered a kick to the mustache man's stomach, sending him flying back, and Christina delivered a punch to the bowtie man that was so hard, it sent his bowtie flying off of him.
"If I would have known that these two were going to be taken out in one punch, I would have wanted to fight you even longer." Christina said, crossing her arms in displeasure.
"Oh well. After the scam these men pulled off, I"m glad to bring them to justice." Tomo said.
"Yeah, especially since you won't be getting that 100,000 rupee prize." Matsuri said, still bummed out about missing out on the prize.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, you cheering me on really helped me out there." Tomo said, patting her on the head.
"Thanks Tomo," Matusuir said, blushing a bit.
The next day, things were back to normal in landsol. The two men behind the scam were arrested, and though the crowd and fighters were disappointed that it turned out to be a scam, they enjoyed the tournament, with talks of holding another one even spreading around town.
Yuuki had invited Jun, Tomo, Christina, and Matsuri to the restaurant he worked at part time to have dinner with him. He also brought Tomo a small trophy.
"This for me?"
"Yeah. It's nothing much, but I wanted to give you something for winning the karate tournament." Yuuki said.
"Thanks Yuuki." Tomo said, hugging Yuuki.
"Hey, hey, that's my fiance you're hugging." Christina blurted out.
"Oh? And how did you two get engaged?"
"It's a long story, but he was able to touch my b-"
"Uh Christina…let's maybe not bring that up?" Yuuki said, his face starting to turn red.
"What? Yuuki, you touched Christina's breast?" Matsuri said.
"It's a long story…" Yuuki said.
"So, Yuuki used to touch my breast all the time!"
"What?! Yuuki, is this true?"
"N-no."
"While he hadn't touched my breast, I did allow Yuuki to see me without my armor on." Jun said.
"Man Yuuki, I didn't know you were such a player!" Matsuri said in a somewhat disapproving tone.
"Neither did I Matsuri…" Yuuki said, slumping down in his seat embarrassed.