Chapter 38: Chapter 36 : Beggars Can't Be Choosers
A/N Thanks for the stones! Here's this week chap! And pic.. lol
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From the moment both teams arrived Rumi's gaze had been on Kurai.
She was looking at him, trying to see if he had any changes in his behaviour but…
'Why?' He had kept his nonchalant demeanor the whole time.
She noticed that he still didn't even glance at her, so she followed his eyes and saw Ryuko.
The referee was oddly full of smiles, "The next challenge is a food game! We know that some of you haven't eaten anything since the start, so we decided to kindly help you…"
'What happened?' She couldn't remember well but she was sure that Ryuko wasn't like this yesterday.
Although she was suspicious of the dragon girl, her stomach was growling too much after hearing something about 'food'.
"The goal of this challenge is very simple… The team that eats the most wins the prize at the end, which is a fishing rod kit."
While most kids from Rumi's team could be seen salivating, those from Kurai's weren't that impressed.
Still they couldn't spit on free food served on a plate like this, even more so in this kind of game.
Ryuko continued, "Without wasting anymore time, let's begin! Please have one of your members step forward in this 1vs1 food showdown!"
Rumi's gut feeling was right, somehow Ryuko was pretty hyped by this challenge.
That's why she continued to eye the referee, and didn't see Kurai's team consult each other before.
"Come on! Don't be scared!" Seeing that no one was stepping up, Ryuko encouraged them.
"Humph! Weaklings!" Rumi snorted, she saw her teammates' wary look and bravely marched forward.
She advanced up to Ryuko and stood before a wooden table where two wooden plates were turned upside down. It looked like they were hiding something inside.
In front of her stood her 'eternal rival' or 'the bastard' who stole her first kiss, at least that's how she swore at him in her mind.
'Just why won't you look at me? Did that mean nothing to you?' Rumi had her eyes set on Kurai but from the start he kept a cheeky smile while looking at Ryuko.
"Oi! Y—"
She tightened her knuckles but before she could talk Kurai beat her to it.
"Ryuko-chan~! I'm here on the behalf of my whole team! We've decided before that I'll be the only one playing."
He looked back at his team, and declared, "They've all agreed beforehand, I hope you understand."
Rumi and Ryuko were stumped, so much that they forgot how Kurai called the blond just before.
"Huuuhh… There's nothing against that in the rules… So… I guess yeah..."
Inwardly, she was cursing her luck for putting someone so hard to handle and unpredictable like Kurai in front of her.
"Good, good…" Finally, he looked at his friend and grinned.
"Bon appétit à vous, Rumi-chan~"
Swallowing her anger because he ignored her, she forced out a smile, "Same, bastard."
Meanwhile, Ryuko was standing in the middle, awkwardly listening to their conversation.
She signalled the other kids to come around Rumi and Kurai while she was unveiling the food.
"Let's start with The Eye of The King, a very rare kind of food."
Kurai stepped back when she took off the plates.
There, 2 spoiled or rotten fish eyes were laid, all in all it looked disgusting. The people around even gulped after seeing it.
There was a reason why Kurai stepped back, it weirded out Ryuko who couldn't understand his action.
Just before the challenge, his team consulted each other. They actually found a clue in the bottle's message.
That's how they knew that something disgusting was hiding behind it.
And after a small talk, they decided to give up, even more so after hearing the measly reward.
They could eat better things only thanks to Kurai, so they didn't see the need to sicken themselves with disgusting food. Kurai too, he wasn't against it, whether he won or lost, in the end it was just a kid's game.
"Ummm? Kurai-san what are you doing?" Ryuko asked him after seeing his behaviour.
"I ain't eating this." He told her straightforwardly, shocking both girls.
"You do know that by doing so you might disqualify your whole team?"
Kurai nodded, his expression didn't change, "Um."
"Alright… What about you, Rumi?"
'Only Rumi? Why does she call him -san then? Tsk.' She clicked her tongue.
"What?!" She then rudely answered, lashing out a bit to the dragon girl.
"Huh, I just wanted to know if you were going to eat…"
Rumi glanced back behind her, "Are one of you weaklings going to eat?"
Immediately, the red team showed signs of disgust and repulsion.
"We're all hungry and tired and y'all have the gall to refuse free food?" She shook her head
Rumi went straight for the ocular globe and ate it.
Under everyone's astonished and disgusted gaze, she kept on chewing the slimy fish eyeball.
Obviously she found it disgusting too since it was something only locals could eat but she forced herself and swallowed it.
'Again…' Looking up to Kurai, she had fire burning in her eyes.
She was feeling like some sort of distance was forming between them and that she had to do everything in her power to catch-up.
Rumi settled her eyes on the next 'meal' kindly offered by Ryuko.
The referee was astonished by the bunny too, she knew that if she was in her place she would throw up directly.
This time it was something round, it looked soft… But the inside was pretty hard.
"Team Yellow : 0 points. Team Red : 1 point. The next meal is called balls of steel… That's it." Ryuko introduced the next food and quickly switched subjects, not wanting to talk more about it.
Rumi didn't take anymore time to think and started chewing again.
Those balls were in fact the balls of a local bull inhabiting islands in this zone.
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...
"And…! Team Yellow : 0! Team Red : 5! Congratulations to Rumi for carrying her time all alone and winning this challenge!" Ryuko clapped Rumi's performance.
For the last 20 minutes, the little bunny overcame every weird kind of food presented to her; living or dead insects, tongues, organs.
Her team started clapping. They won in the end, and that without playing so of course they were happy for having her in their team.
They even encouraged her when she wanted to throw up. So it's not like they are total hypocrites.
On the other hand, Kurai's team faces were more solemn. They were disgusted the whole time and glad that they didn't have to eat anything.
"Now it's time for everyone to go back to their islands! I'll see you later for the next challenge!"
After Ryuko's last words, the team separated again.
'Looks like it infuriated her, huh? Ahah, this is pretty awkward…' Kurai was glancing back at Rumi's weird face.
He then got on the boat, silently gazing at the sea.
"That bunny is really crazy!"
"Yes! I would've never eaten that trash!"
"You would've have to—"
The kid who was talking couldn't even articulate his words anymore. The same pressure they came to know the first time that they stepped on the island came back again.
"Can you repeat what you said? I didn't hear properly… Sadly…" Kurai asked, glancing at the whole group from the corner of his eye.
"...Good it's better that way." He told them after receiving a heavy silence as an answer.
Looking up, he snickered, "Heh… Lemme just tell you… If you were poor, would you refuse money? So if you were hungry, would you then refuse food?"
Understanding him, his team grimaced in shame. It was all thanks to him that they could skip this challenge… Or else they would've to eat it like Rumi.
"See… Anyway, now shut y'all mouth until we arrive."
It was in this 'peaceful' atmosphere that the Yellow Team reached its island.
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...
Since it was still morning, the Yellow Team organized themselves thanks to Kurai; bringing woods, palm leaves, coconuts and other useful things. Meanwhile Kurai went to hunt wild beasts again.
On Rumi's island the situation was way more dire, even though they won the fishing set…
It's like giving a gun to a kid, if he doesn't know how to use it, the weapon would be harmless.
Fortunately for the Reds, a hungered bunny couldn't be underestimated. Even more so if her main motivation for fishing was food.
After plenty of trials and errors, Rumi finally got the hang of it and managed to fish out 2 kgs of fresh meat.
Although it wasn't enough for their whole team, they were still happy about it because in the end, it remained true that they haven't eaten for a while now.
So it was with a rejuvenated Red Team and the always same Yellow Team that the second challenge of the day started.
And this one was way more important… The kids actually understood the pattern of the challenges… It wasn't that hard anyway.
The first challenge offers to the winner a prize, while the second challenge doesn't give anything worthy, but penalizes the loser. By making the kids vote against each other and thin out their numbers.
That's why they were all more nervous, surprisingly, the yellows were stressing out more than the reds. If they had to vote against 5 other persons, they'll be really too few for the rest of the game.
Well… Kurai was assured of their victory, after all the first game really advantaged that mermaid girl, and he didn't believe that it'll be the same this time.
The bottled hint also gave him more confidence. 'It said "Ingenuity will give you wings." so it has something to do with a flying race?' He thought while looking at the deplorable state of the Red Team.
He wasn't that far off… A few minutes later, Ryuko came, and as the referee, she explained the rules again.
It was indeed a race but on a boat, the "wing" part wasn't literally meant for flying. Both teams had to build a boat starting from scratch and do 5 laps in the designated area on the sea.
After Ryuko gave the start, the 12 yellow bandanas and the 23 red ones started their run to the forest to take wood.
It was their only supply to create a semblance of a boat.
Although at first glance the reds had an advantage, the numerical one, they were quickly beaten by the yellows' quick organisation.
Their boat was steadily being built under Kurai's lead. They weren't particularly using their quirks, but their minds and partnership.
It was the opposite for the reds. They weren't the least organised, nor good enough with their smarts to design a nice boat.
Their single advantage lay on their quirks.
One kid had glue coming out of his fingers. Another one could create blades.
Another girl had some weird brownish vines coming out of her hair.
'Heh.' Rumi smirked, thinking that they were blessed for this challenge.
She wasn't very useful quirkwise, that's why she was giving her all to bring wood.
Even if she wasn't friendly-friendly with her teammates, in the end they had the same goal.
Winning.
So she could ignore everything, for the duration of the game.
Putting a big branch of oak-tree on her shoulder, she muttered in a low voice, "I'll show you, bastard!"
Her red eyes were blazing, and they were piercing through the crowd of kids until they reached a certain cat-boy.
Since that 'event', her mind was in turmoil, jealousy, happiness, incomprehension, realisation,... It was a jumbled mess, a mess she couldn't understand at all.
That's why she wanted to win this challenge against the odds, to make him look at her.
And finally settle things with him, as straightforwardly as she can.
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…
Unfortunately, Fate wasn't thinking like her.
After only 10 mins, Kurai's supervised boat was already afloat on the sea.
In the end, their numerical disadvantage turned the situation around, since they were fewer, they needed to build a smaller boat than the reds.
Kurai opted for a float board with a round tree trunk attached together with leaves' ropes.
In the middle of their 'boat' stood a bigger tree trunk where a sail made of leaves too was making the boat move thanks to the wind.
Their team was also ramming with wooden planks they had crafted beforehand.
The Red Team was awed in front of them, and they weren't the only ones.
Kurai's boat was so good and fast that they had already done 3 laps when Rumi's team set sail.
The little rabbit didn't give up, alas it looked like Fate wasn't keen on rabbits.
Indeed, even though they had very helpful quirks to build the boat, it didn't amount to anything because their boat was starting to sink.
It didn't help that they were 23…
It was like giving a monkey the best tool in the world, he might be able to imitate a boat, but not the intricate details… So in the end an old man with life experience could easily beat the monkey even if he didn't have any tools.
Therefore, Kurai's team won the challenge, making the bunny girl gnash her teeth in anger.
She was angry at her own powerlessness, at her teammates' and at the possibility of being eliminated tonight.
After Ryuko took back their wooden totem to give it to Kurai, Rumi was even more infuriated…
Well, to her, it looked like Ryuko was 'flirting' with Kurai the whole time. And the bastard wasn't doing anything and receiving it all with a kind smile.
Rumi didn't even want to look at their direction anymore.
She had other problems to deal with, for tonight at least…
That's why when she reached the settlement where the "hell night" took place, Rumi prayed for the first time of her life.
It was also the first time that she was leaving her fate into other people's hands.
'Grrrr.' She growled at Ryuko's appearance to reveal the votes.
She didn't know why she felt threatened by this girl, nor where she was threatened… Was it in her relationship? Or in a more primal way?
"Let's start with the first vote!" Interrupting her thoughts, the blond referee declared out loud the start of the hell night.
"R…!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone