Chapter 31: Game On

“Someone is cheerful this morning! It’s been a while since you’ve joined us for breakfast!” Meyer announced between bites.

Everyone looked.

The cynicism in his voice was apparent, but I just smiled as I casually grabbed a plate and put a few pieces of bread on it.

Everyone was already seated with Meyer at the very end of the table. I grabbed the jar of strawberry jam and balanced it on top of my plate, leaving me with one free hand. I then proceeded to slowly walk down the aisle between the tables.

Swiftly but gently I tapped the nape of Eli’s neck.

“What are you do…” but Eli couldn’t finish her sentence as she faceplanted into her food.

Down goes Eli.

“That’s not funny Fenn stop it!” said Meyer with a hint of panic.

On the opposite bench sat Ashe and Fiori, neither tried to stop me.

Yuki was between Meyer and I. They quickly got to their feet to attack, but then took a step back as it was obvious, any skin contact would end the fight.

I moved forward until they both had nowhere to retreat.

The look of fear on Meyer’s face was so satisfying.

“A human weapon,” I whispered to him as I pressed two fingers to his forehead. Instantly, he dropped to the ground and laid there motionless.

Down goes Meyer…

Yuki didn’t move.

Still balancing my plate in one hand, I turned around and took a seat at the table right in front of Ashe and Fiori.

“So, what’s everyone’s plan for the day?” I calmly asked.

Yuki took a minute but finally came back to the table.

“I was going to go back to bed, but seems like today will be an interesting day, so I might hang out with you guys for a while and see what happens next!” Ashe said with a mouthful.

“How long are they going to be down for?” Fiori asked, ignoring my question completely.

“It depends. It is not a precise art. A few minutes maybe. Half an hour at most. I went easy on them,” I explained, proud of my feat!

Fiori frowned.

“That’s not enough,” Yuki quickly assessed.

“It’s a start,” Ashe answered in my defence.

It was my turn to frown.

“It’s a start…” Fiori repeated unconvinced.

“But it’s not enough,” Yuki insisted.

Eli was the first to stir. With half of her breakfast hanging off her face, she took a few more seconds to shake herself awake.

“Wow. That was unexpected. So quick… stealthy,” she finally voiced.

Unlike Fiori and Yuki, she had clearly been impressed. It cheered me up a bit.

“I’ve been training,” I said with a side smile at Fiori.

“He’s been training with me,” Ashe added with a wink.

“Have you practiced releasing the energy? Or at the very least, have you come up with a distance attack? You won’t always have a chance to get up close, especially if weapons are involved.”

Yuki was always so de facto; nothing was ever good enough for them.

“That’s my next step,” I lied, trying to get them off my back.

“Good! Then you can start right now. Finish your breakfast and we will head out.”

“With you?!” I answered unable to hide my apprehension.

“With all of us! And Ashe too…” Yuki added with a smirk.

“What are we going to do?” I asked with a noticeable unease in my voice.

“We’ll start with the basics. You’re not really the athletic type…” Fiori noted.

“With a game of kemari,” Yuki proposed.

“Ohhhh! I love kemari,” said a sleepy Meyer.

“Or sepak takraw!” Ashe suggested showing sudden interest in the idea.

An evil smile appeared on Yuki’s face.

“You are so going down!” said Eli, pointing her finger at me.

Yuki and Eli high fived each other.

I winced.

“Well then, looks like the teams have been decided. It will be Ashe, Fenn and I, against Yuki, Eli and Meyer,” a resigned Fiori announced.

“And what exactly is this game everyone seems to know about?” I asked anxiously.

“Using your feet, knee, chest or your head, you must send the ball over the net to the other team. If the ball touches the ground, you get a point,” Meyer eagerly explained. “Yuki is unbeatable. You might as well declare forfeit right away and save yourself the humiliation of being crushed.”

“But there’s no fun in that, so let’s give it our best shot and see if we can finally beat them!” Fiori seemed almost cheerful. Something I hadn’t seen from him in a while.

“Make sure you warm up, old man! We are not going to go easy on you!” Eli was getting serious.

“Thank you for your concern young lady, my injuries are no longer a bother. And just so you know, in my youth I held the record at akratcheak.”

“Akratcheak?”

“Two-foot high kick competition.”

“Yuki has never been able to beat him,” Ashe boasted.

“But Yuki is so much taller!”

“It has nothing to do with height. It’s all about strength, agility and balance,” Fiori corrected her. “Although in this case, I’ve always suspected that Yuki’s been careful to let me keep my claim to fame because when it comes to strength, agility and balance, they are unmatched.”

“Oh… isn’t that kind of you Yuki, looking out for the old man!” Eli mocked.

“First off, I am not that old. Second, Yuki isn’t much younger!”

“Shocker!” Ashe teased. “Yuki looks at least twenty years younger!”

“Well… I do take good care of my skin,” Yuki suggested with a twinkle.

It stunned all of us.

Did Yuki just joke? Well that’s a first. I never knew they had a sense of humor.

“Wow…” Ashe exclaimed. “Who knew this day would come?

“Very funny,” Yuki replied as they attempted to nudge Ashe on the head.

We all grabbed our jackets and made our way outside. The court was already set up. The game it seemed, had been part of their daily training, yet I had never been introduced to it. With my lack of skills and practice, I felt sorry for my teammates.

“When did you learn to play this game?” I quickly asked Ashe.

“In the military; we used to have friendly tournaments during our time off. You know, to relieve the pressure…”

“But even Eli and Meyer know…”

“Well yes, before your arrival at the hotel, we played quite a lot. But after Hana brought you back, things became more serious and suddenly there was no more time for games or sleep...”

“Did Hana play too?”

“No. She never joined.”

We had reached the court. I had seen the netting before but never expected it was for a game. I had always imagined it was some sort of a fishing net drying rack.

I am always so clueless about everything.

Ashe quickly went over the rules of the game with me and then the game started.

I stood on the spot unable to move as the ball whizzed by me.

One ball…

Two balls…

Three balls…

As skilled as they were, Fiori and Ashe just couldn’t make up for my shortcomings. Nor could they match Yuki, Eli and Meyer in strength, power and agility.

“Get moving Fenn! We need your help!” Ashe yelled

“What’s the matter Blackout Kid, is the ball moving too fast for you?” Meyer taunted me.

“Fenn, this one’s for you!” Fiori said as he set me up with a header.

I can do this.

The ball made a high arc over the court giving me just enough time to position myself and spike it with a hard-front kick. I surprised everyone, myself included as I made a clean hit.

I did it!

I’m not hopeless after all!

But Meyer reacted quickly enough to block the shot sending the ball crashing into my face.

Blood came rushing out of my nose.

“I’m ok!” I lied, trying to stop the bleeding. Trying to stay focused… to not think about the blood.

So much blood…

“Quick, put some snow on your nose, it will help stop the bleeding,” Ashe put forth as she shoved a handful of snow into my face.

“I’m ok,” I said! “It’s nothing. Let’s just keep playing.”

“Are you sure, you’re ok? You don’t look ok to me!” Meyer goaded me.

“You’re covered in blood, you know!” Eli pointed out.

“I’m ok! Now let’s play.”

I picked up the ball from the ground and threw it at Fiori, so he could serve it back into play.

Concentrate on the game.

Thanks to a few lucky shots, we had a bit of a rally going on. I was able to hit the ball twice before Yuki spiked one right by my feet. No one was keeping score, but we all knew we were losing. I was their primary target; Yuki, Eli and Meyer all made it a point to spike toward me. To make matters worse, my instinct was to close my eyes when the ball came my way, rendering me completely useless.

“C’mon Fenn! At least try!” Eli screamed, obviously aggravated by my performance so far.

But before I could even move, Meyer kicked another ball straight at me. It was too fast for me to get out of the way. Too fast to react.

It’s gonna hit me right in the face…again.

I shrieked.

The sound resonated in my head.

I was angry and fed up.

They are purposely humiliating me.

In an excess of rage, I raised my hands to protect my face…

…but the ball never came.

Instead, I flew backward to the ground as I collided with an unknown force.

I heard a gasp.

I opened my eyes, unsure of what had just happened.

“Ok, now that was impressive!” Meyer exclaimed with complete admiration.

I looked around; the ball was on the ground on our side of the court. There was nothing impressive to see.

Ashe extended her hand to help me back up.

“So, what about this?” she asked Yuki. “Is this good enough? Is this enough progress for you?”

Yuki chuckled. “It’s a start…” they said.

Eli crossed under the net and came running at me all excited.

“You are amazing Fenn! You sent that ball flying so hard, I thought it would put a hole through the net!”

“I sent the ball flying… I did that?”

I did what?

“You have no idea how you did it, do you?” Meyer realized.

“Forget how, I don’t even know what it is I am supposed to have done,” I answered with brutal honesty.

“So again, it was just an automatic self preservation reaction from your body,” Meyer alleged disappointingly.

“Do you have to make it sound so bad…” I meekly pleaded. “I am trying my best here.”

“Self preservation or not, at least we know you have it in you!” It was nice of Ashe to come to my defence. “You’ll just need to practice a little more… perhaps if I tried to kill you again it would…”

“Tried to kill him… again?” Eli exclaimed horrified.

“Don’t worry Eli, I won’t actually kill your boyfriend. I already tried anyway, and it didn’t work.”

“He’s not my boyfriend…” she replied, embarrassed by Ashe’s statement.

“How about we tie him to a post and shoot balls at him until he figures out how to deflect them?” Yuki proposed.

Wait! What? This person is evil!

“I like that!” chimed Meyer.

“It could work,” considered Fiori.

“Seriously? Are you people really serious?” I panicked.

“I think you are the type of guy that does better under pressure,” Eli said with a smile as she got really close to me.

“But… I…”

“Just give it a try…” she whispered in my ear.

I spent the rest of the morning tied up to the net post while they all took turns kicking the ball at me. I had no physical way to defend myself. I stood there, as minutes felt like hours and pain turned into bruises. The craziest part was that I had voluntarily walked over to the post and obediently let Yuki tie me up, leaving me defenceless. I was hoping there was a method to their madness. That somehow, more of my powers would miraculously be awakened… but in the end all I got was another bloody nose and black and blue all over my body.

When it was decided that nothing would come from this violent exercise, Eli had to help me back to my cot.

“I was really hoping this would work,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not angry, right?”

“Why would I be,” I answered with my jaw clenched.

Of course, I am!

“Sometimes you have to do crazy things to get to what is most important. Even if those things don’t make sense, you still have to try… because if there is even the slightest chance that it might work, then it’s worth taking even the greatest risk. That’s what I like to believe.”

Well, good for you…

I was still angry, but I understood her feelings.

“Desperation is a powerful tool,” I finally conceded.

“Desperation is a powerful weapon,” she corrected me with fire in her eyes.