Finally the machina went down in a shower of sparks and steam.
Nabiki fumed as she looked down on the remains of her weapon.
Then, the door next to her opened, and one of the Al Bhed tumbled outside. He fell down, knocked out by the same person he was intending to kidnap: Yuna!
The young summoner hurried out of the door and past Nabiki, until she was with her friends again.
"Did you hurt 'em?" Akane asked amused. Yuna giggled. "A little."
Then they returned their attention to Nabiki. "What do you say now, Nabs?" Akane asked. She knew that her sister HATED that nickname. "Want to stop all this and finally tell me what's gotten you so furious? What do you have against Yuna?"
Nabiki looked down. "Akane, you... you have no idea why I'm doing this. No idea at all! These stupid 'religious' rules and their customs that... that... you have no idea..."
"Then tell me! I wanna know!"
Nabiki just turned around.
Yuna took a step forward. "Please... Nabiki. I don't know you, and your sister didn't tell me that much about you, but... you have to understand! I'm doing this journey for the people of Spira! I want to save them from Sin... I want to bring them the Calm."
"It's not about the people of Spira," Nabiki muttered. "It's about... about..."
"About WHAT?" Akane nearly shrieked.
"You know what?" Nabiki said. "Forget it! Go with your little summoner friend on her pilgrimage! You'll see what she'll achieve..."
She turned around and showed a small smile. "Say hi to Kasumi from me, okay? I really liked her song..."
Then she grabbed something from her belt and threw it on the ship's deck.
A black cloud of smoke rose in front of them, making the four of them cough and shielding the sneaky Tendo girl from their eyes.
And when the smoke cleared, she was gone!
"A smoke bomb," Tidus commented. "Clever girl..."
----
Afterwards, they returned to the Auroch's locker room. When Ranma saw Akane, she got excited and whirled her around.
"Akane! Akane, we won! We won! We're in the finals!"
"Lady Yuna!" Datto said. "Are you all right?"
"Yes," Yuna nodded. "I'm sorry to have worried all of you."
Wakka was lying on the bench. He got injured during the game. "How could you let some Al Bhed kidnap you?" he scolded while holding his side. Yuna looked down sadly. "I'm sorry..."
"Hey, Wakka," Tidus said. "Let it go, all right?"
Wakka huffed and lay back down. "Don't go near the Al Bhed! They're trouble..."
Yuna seemed very sad for some reason. Akane looked at her worriedly and decided to ask her later about it. For now, she didn't want to spoil Ranma and the others their victory.
The door opened and Kasumi entered. "Congratulations, everyone," she cheered. "I'm so happy you won your first game."
"Kasumi," Ranma beamed. "Thanks for the performance! It was GREAT!"
"Yes, Miss Kasumi," Letty nodded. "You were a great inspiration for everyone of us. We can't thank you enough."
"Oh, really?" Kasumi looked really happy now. "I'm so glad... I think Lenne will be happy as well."
"Lenne?" Tidus asked. "Who's Lenne?"
'Uh-oh,' Kasumi thought. 'That wasn't very smart, Kasumi!'
"Um, she... she's my little muse," she finally said. "Didn't you know? Every artist has his or her little muse."
"Oh, that's what you mean," Ranma nodded. "I get it."
'Phew!' Lenne mentally said. 'That was close! Thanks, Kasumi!'
"Well, who's playing next?" Tidus asked.
"The Luca Goers versus the Kilika Beasts," Keepa said.
"Oh, right," Ranma shouted. "I have to cheer on Ukyo."
And most of them stormed out of the room, to watch the match between Luca and Kilika.
Kasumi wanted to leave, but hesitated. "Akane?" she asked. "Aren't you coming?"
"Hm? Oh, yes, yes! Just a minute! Go on ahead, I'll come in a moment, okay?"
Kasumi nodded and went ahead.
Akane sighed. 'Should I have told her about Nabiki?' she thought. 'Well, for now, we can concentrate on the tournament. I can tell her later...'
"Akane?" Wakka asked from his bench. "Are you all right?"
Akane nodded. "Yeah, thanks, Wakka..."
But privately, she thought: 'I will be all right when Nabiki listens to reason and tells me why she wanted to kidnap Yuna."
----
The match was short, but brutal! After Bicksum, the Goers' captain, realized that the Beasts have become much stronger under Ukyo's training, he and his companions started to use some dirty tricks. But Ukyo quickly saw through their dirty deeds and paid it back to them. In the end, the Kilika Beasts won with a score of 4:2.
Afterwards, Ranma wanted to congratulate Ukyo, but didn't get the chance. The final round was about to begin...
"But who could have imagined," stadium speaker Bobba shouted. "A championship game between these two teams! The Kilika Beasts and the Besaid Aurochs... both teams that really never managed to impress the spectators... But here they are, competing against each other for the cup!"
"This really looks like history in the making, Bobba," his pal Jimma agreed. "Those new players from both of the teams really managed to put some fight in the players."
While Wakka and Letty were sitting on the bench, Ranma, Tidus and the other Aurochs were huddling together one last time before the game.
"Okay, team, what are we gonna do?" Ranma asked.
"WIN!!" the Aurochs shouted.
"For cap'n Wakka," Keepa added.
"Let's blitz!" Tidus yelled.
----
The two teams were getting in position. Ranma shifted around her gills - the little devices that allowed the players to breathe under water during the games - and looked towards Ukyo, who was kneeling directly in front of her. She smiled and extended her hand.
Ranma looked at it, nodded and accepted the handshake.
They might be rivals in this end game, but they also were childhood buddies, so they silently promised each other a nice, challenging, but also fair game.
"Look at that, folks," Bobba shouted. "These two players really know the concept of fair play! It's been a long time since I've seen an end game with two such promising young players like them."
"You're right, Bobba," Jimma replied. "Even if one of the teams loses, they certainly won't have any hard feelings for the glorious winners... whoever that may be!"
Ranma and Ukyo knelt down on the ground again. They carefully watched each other's eyes and waited.
And then... the blitzball was released.
The two newbie players pushed themselves away from the ground while each one of them was trying to catch the ball first.
The final round of the grand blitzball tournament has begun!
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(Posted Sat, 15 Jul 2006 20:45)
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