by Sally Keira
"We all know how you feel about him. I've never seen anyone fire you up so much."
“Are you seriously trying to tell me how I feel?” Kaiya fumed.
Kazuo seemed amused by Kaiya’s harsh frown of denial and her poor attempt to refute his words.
“Just think about what I said,” Kazuo insisted.
Grinning at her reaction, Kazuo headed off to join the others, leaving her alone with her confused thoughts.
The more she considered Kazuo’s suggestion, the more irritated she actually felt toward Kazuo. How dare he make assumptions about her feelings for Lawso! She had not fallen for Lawso. It was merely sexual chemistry between them, she reassured herself.
Even if there was more between them, and Lawso was up for moving to Tokyo; the practical side of her knew it was unlikely that he would accept a position working under her command anyway. Her father would be unimpressed if he heard about any power struggles that would undoubtedly arise between them. No, Kazuo was wrong, asking Lawso to work with them was a stupid idea.
After more thought Kaiya realised that she would never ask Lawso to move to Tokyo either. She was not stupid enough to expose her heart to him. The man was so confident and cocky with her, she was sure he must be a bit of a player with women in general. Although Lawso was obviously attracted to her, she could not be certain that she was not just a fling to him. Never one to do the chasing with men, she would not make a fool of herself by starting now. Usually men chased her and she decided whether to let them. Lawso’s pursuit of her had been a fun distraction during a long and gruelling training program. That was all. She had allowed him touch her the way he did, because she damned well liked it. In fact, she felt angry that the others thought she had fallen for Lawso, he was just a distraction to entertain her!
No longer in the mood to be around anyone, Kaiya decided to head off to bed early. Training was concluding and she would need to rest before the finale challenges commenced. Unexpectedly, she found a written scroll waiting for her on her futon in her room. She smiled to think that the Sensei's still enjoyed sneaking around behind their backs. The contents of the scroll surprised her because they had not been set a group challenge in a while. The Japanese script translated to:
Good evening Kaiya Takahashi. Your final group challenge will involve hand to hand combat in the previously used two-kilometre-long, square challenge zone to the east of the dojo. The task is to subdue all players in the other team. This challenge will conclude when three members of the losing team are all returned to the dojo. You may use as much rope as you like but no weapons are allowed in this challenge. The exception is the use of one knife each, only to aid you in cutting rope or manipulating any natural resources around you. Do not use your knife as a direct weapon. You will camp overnight tonight in the challenge zone with your team, at a separate camp site to the other team. Your challenge will begin at sunrise. The teams are Yoshito, Anton and Kaiya versus Kazuo, Satoshi and Lawso. The losing team will face a penalty.
Kaiya laughed out loud when she saw who was on her team. How ironic that for her last group battle she was teamed with the two opponents she trusted the least and even had initially hated. Her opinion of Yoshito had changed over the last few months though. It was probable that she would not have it in her to harm him, if she needed to when their paths inevitably crossed again in Tokyo. It worried her that Yoshito was more of a friend than an enemy now. Kaiya supposed she had adjusted her opinion of Anton too, from hate to mere dislike, she laughed to herself.
Kaiya weighed up the teams in her head. Her team had Anton who was strong at grappling, their team had Kazuo who was the master of pressure points. Both teams had a well-rounded opponent- Yoshito or Lawso. That left cunning Satoshi with his traps on their team and Kaiya with her stealth and sparring speed. This would be an interesting match.
This would also be her last chance to teach Lawso a lesson. It would be very satisfying to see him bound in the penalty position, knowing that he would not get another opportunity to beat her. Now that Kaiya thought about it, it would be somewhat satisfying to beat Kazuo in the final group challenge as well. The stakes were higher this time because no one would want to have to look the Sensei's in the eye from the penalty position after they lost.
Kaiya realised that she felt nervous to be facing this final group challenge. Dressing quickly in a warm tight white snow outfit, she completed her look with a white beanie. There was enough snow cover now for white to be the more easily camouflaged colour.
Once Kaiya was ready, she headed quickly to the weaponry room to get a head start on the others. Grabbing three empty packs from the storage room, she started loading in her pick of equipment for her team. Into each of the bags she packed a large combat knife, plenty of rope, matches, body paint, and one each of the three best swags. She also filled up three canteens of water, plus wrapped up enough leftover food from the fridge for her team of three. After a few personal items were added to her pack, she dragged the other two packs with hers, over to the Northern door of the dojo. There, she casually waited for the men to return from their hot spring bath.
Anton returned to the dojo first, dressed in just a towel and carrying his dirty clothes. It amused her that the men were still running back to their rooms in towels, despite the snow. She figured it must be some kind of macho challenge to each other. Anton eyed off the three bags as Kaiya pulled him aside.
"Final group challenge. Yoshito, you and I are a team. I've packed so quickly get dressed."
Anton grinned at the realisation that they were about to get a head start. He bolted upstairs to his room to dress.
Satoshi entered next, also wearing just a towel with his clothes and boots in his hands. Satoshi suspiciously eyed off her three bags and hesitated at the stairs, wondering what she was up to. Kaiya just smiled secretly until Yoshito, Kazuo and Lawso all filed into the dojo as well. The four men stood towering over her, staring questioningly at her and the bags. Kaiya could not help but notice that she had four very buff, semi-naked men standing in front of her, wearing only towels.
She eventually found her voice. "Yoshito, you're with Anton and I in a final group challenge. As you can see I've packed our equipment. So as soon as you're ready we can get a head start on the others.”
There was a comical pause when the men realised what she had just said.
“Don’t let him up the stairs,” Lawso said.
They all tried to push Yoshito out of the way to beat him to the stairs. They were all laughing as Yoshito made it up the stairs last.
Yoshito returned shortly after Anton joined her where she waiting with their bags. Kaiya told them what was in their packs. They were satisfied and took off together out of the dojo. As they left they could see the other three opponents frantically running over to the weaponry room.
“Look at them all, scrambling around like mice,” Anton said.
The three of them laughed evilly at their opponents who were left behind.
After a few minutes outside strolling through the forest, Yoshito pulled out his old map from the concealment challenge. He pointed to a location about a kilometre north east into the zone.
"You guys head to this spot, it is a high point in the zone. It would be an advantageous spot for us to set up at, because we'd probably see them coming if they attacked. When Lawso and I spent a couple of days in this zone setting traps with Sensei Shinji; I familiarised myself with areas that I thought might prove useful in a future challenge. I think I should hang back and scout out where the others set up camp, and meet you there later."
“Great,” Kaiya said, impressed with Yoshito’s initiative.
“I’ll carry your pack,” Anton offered, clearly also pleased with Yoshito’s plan.
Yoshito took his knife out first before handing over his pack to Anton.
"See you both in a couple of hours," Yoshito said, as they left him in a position where he could later observe the others enter the challenge zone.
Yoshito
ended up being missing in action for about four hours. It was such an awkward amount of time to be alone in the wilderness with Anton. They just did not have anything in common to talk about. At least he was not currently hostile toward her, she thought. In the end they had both just crawled into their swags and looked up through the trees into the dark clouded sky. There was soft snowfall so they had to set up covers over their swags. Kaiya had set up another swag and cover for Yoshito in the middle of them both, so that she did not have to sleep next to Anton. Anton just watched her do this and did not offer to help. They decided not to light a fire and just brave the cold. Their swags were pretty warm anyway.
When Yoshito finally returned, he showed them the other team’s current location on their map.
"What took you so long?" Kaiya asked.
"I waited a couple of hours after they set up camp to see if they would change position, and they did. Obviously, they knew we had the advantage over them so that was how they were hoping to reclaim their advantage. Lawso has moved them to another tactical location, here on the map. But too bad for them we know they moved. I think we could actually sneak up on them in the morning from this slope here on the map,” Yoshito said.
Kaiya and Anton found themselves leaning over Yoshito’s map.
“Have you both thought more about tactics while I was gone?" Yoshito asked.
Kaiya had indeed been thinking about how they could approach this challenge.
"Yes,” Kaiya answered thoughtfully. “I suspect they may work together to first target Anton, because his size is an advantage in the absence of weapons. Anton, they are also used to your aggressive tactics, so they may expect an early show-down with you. But, if you head off to the boundary of the challenge zone, staying on the move, they won’t know whether to follow you or not. They will probably be forced to send one of them after you. Then, Yoshito and I could work together and pluck them off one by one. Anton, we could come support you in force after we've tied one or two of them up. Just stay uncaptured until then to keep them guessing.”
“I’m happy with that plan,” Yoshito said.
“I don’t know. Why should I miss all of the early action?” Anton asked.
“You’re not. You’d be confusing them, drawing them out. Keeping them guessing,” Kaiya said.
“No. I’m not happy about this,” Anton complained.
“Well, have you got a better idea?” Kaiya snapped.
“Yeah. You draw them out,” Anton said smugly.
“Fine. Let’s let Yoshito decide who draws them out then,” Kaiya said.
“Alright.” Anton said, turning expectantly toward Yoshito.
Yoshito appeared to consider both options.
“Anton, you draw them out,” Yoshito decided.
“What?” Anton was clearly unimpressed.
“It doesn’t really matter which one of you does it. Personally, I’d prefer to work in a pair with Kaiya,” Yoshito said. “Because, as you know Kaiya and I are from opposing ninja clans in Tokyo. So, this may be my last chance to observe how she works, so that I can more easily defeat her back in Tokyo.”
The grin disappeared off Kaiya’s face and Anton’s frown was replaced with a smirk.
“Are you joking?” Kaiya snapped.
Yoshito shrugged, revealing nothing.
“Since we’re planning to attack, we don’t need to make any traps,” Yoshito said. “And there is enough snow coverage for us to not need to use leaves and branches for camouflage. I think we can mostly rely on blending in with our white clothes. So let’s just set our alarms for an hour before sunrise, and get some rest.”
“Sounds good to me,” Anton grunted, zipping closed his swag.
Yoshito looked at Kaiya with an unreadable expression. She nodded at him and they both also zipped their swags closed with no more words exchanged between them.
***
The next morning, Kaiya and Yoshito were creeping together through the snow toward the enemy camp site. It was not too cold, despite the steam coming off their breath. Anton had separated from them some time ago, as planned. Kaiya and Yoshito had spread out somewhat amongst the trees, but they were aware of each other's movements.
Yoshito paused as he unexpectedly came across a reasonably hidden trap. He caught Kaiya's eye across the forest. Nonverbally he communicated that he was going to deliberately set it off.
There was a snap of rope and branches flinging. Yoshito muffled a fake cry into his hand, before hiding behind a tree in waiting.
Lawso sprung out of nowhere.
“It’s Yoshito,” Lawso called out, as he they locked into a grappling battle between them.
They were wrestling too closely to get any useful hits or kicks into each other. They were evenly matched as they struggling to subdue each other in the absence of weapons. Kaiya crept quickly toward them to intervene. She dropped behind the cover of a bush when she realised that Kazuo had beaten her to it.
“Need some help?” Kazuo asked, punching Yoshito in the back.
“Yes. Good timing,” Lawso laughed, as Yoshito was knocked down to the ground by multiple blows to his front and back.
Lawso dove on Yoshito and held him down struggling on the ground.
“You needed two of you to take me,” Yoshito groaned, whilst Kazuo tied Yoshito up with rope.
“Doesn’t matter if we did,” Lawso said. “You’re out of the game now.”
Kazuo and Lawso were laughing loudly like school boys. Kaiya realised that in her hesitation, she had lost her opportunity to join in the altercation. She was now forced to wait and consider her next move.
The enemy duo grabbed Yoshito by the shoulders and feet. They dragged him bucking into the clearing of their camp site, so that they could keep an eye on him. Once they secured him there to a tree, Kazuo went on the prowl within distance of Lawso's line of sight.
“Kaiya, where are you?” Kazuo called out. “I know you wouldn’t have teamed up with Anton, so you must be very close by. I know you can hear me.”
Damn. They probably knew which direction Anton had gone in then. Satoshi was nowhere in sight as far as Kaiya could tell, so he was probably tailing Anton. Where had Lawso gone? He was just there a moment ago, now he was out of sight. Was Kazuo trying to distract her?
“Lawso is tracking you, Kaiya,” Kazuo called out, as if he could hear her thoughts. “I dare you to run and give away your position to us.”
Kaiya narrowed her eyes in response to Kazuo’s taunting. It took a lot of effort to resist shouting out a fiery retort. She was more determined than ever now to smash the pair of them.
Instinct took over as she leopard crawled slowly down the slope away from the enemy. She found a location to work on bending branches backward into flick traps. Using some rope, she secured a branch stretched out of place, just like Satoshi had taught her. Further down the hill she secured two more flick traps and then finally added a trip line over the ground, in case the flick traps failed. It probably took her about 50 minutes to set up her traps because she had to be discrete. It amused her that she had done this within 100 metres of their camp, without them discovering her.
Kaiya was considering now how to go about leading the enemy down the slope. This would be her only chance against the two of them. Abandoning her pack down the hill, she took her time crawling slowly upward away from her traps. She was unsure what distance she needed to set up a chase from, so that her enemy caught up to her in time to be wiped out by her traps. If she failed, Anton would be on his own against the three of them and the group challenge would be quickly lost from this point. Pure instinct took over as she readied herself for a skirmish.
When Kaiya neared the camp site she could see Yoshito still tied up, but could not see Lawso or Kazuo anywhere now. Her gut told her that they were both close by. Deciding to test the waters, she deliberately snapped a branch.
She did not have to wait long. Suddenly Lawso and Kazuo were both aggressively sprinting toward her. It was possible that
they had seen her but more probable that they were just going for gung-ho tactics, in the direction of her subtle noise.
Lawso reached her hiding spot first, so she shot a kick outward from behind her bush and dropped him to the ground.
“Ahh, nice kick,” Lawso grumbled.
The fact that she knocked him down briefly, confirmed that they had not known her exact position. By the time she was standing Kazuo was swinging a high kick toward her and she ducked, punching him in the stomach. There was a loud thud from her fist connecting but Kazuo easily absorbed the blow.
Both men recovered quickly, chasing after her in the direction of her traps. Glancing over her shoulder, Kaiya saw that Kazuo was closer behind her. She deliberately slowed her run down slightly.
"I've got her!" Kazuo shouted as he reached for her, but Kaiya ducked his arm.
“Think again,” Kaiya taunted.
She flicked her knife down over the rope on her first trap and sliced the first flick trap into action. The branch swung harshly into Kazuo's face and knocked him down with a thud.
Lawso was still in pursuit. He was closing in behind her now. Kaiya released another flick trap, but Lawso ducked in time. The third flick trap fired poorly. To Kaiya’s dismay, Lawso stopped running a few metres before her trip rope. Peering back in Kazuo’s direction, Lawso reluctantly came to a halt.
"Let's call time-out because Kazuo never got back up," Lawso shouted out.
Lawso did not wait for her to agree. He walked over and crouched down next to Kazuo.
“Kazuo is knocked out cold, and has a small gash to his forehead,” Lawso called out.
Lawso dragged Kazuo into a clearing. After un-zipping his own jacket, Lawso cut a large strip of material off the bottom of his shirt. Lawso wrapped the make-shift bandage around Kazuo's head and stopped the bleeding. His first aid kit must have been back at their camp.
“Well?” Kaiya asked impatiently.
"It doesn't look too bad, he'll come too shortly,” Lawso decided.
Lawso was aware that Kaiya had rope bundled in her hands and had made a kind of lasso. She was stalking around him whilst playing with the rope, with a deadly look in her green eyes.