Sokudo: Villains Always Win (ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ ᴛᴡᴏ)

Chapter eight | missing

A roundhouse kick to the face, caught just a second away from impact, and thrown to the side. Chieko tumbled on the floor, stopped herself and jumped to her feet. Minji had literally grabbed her by her leg, and threw her across the room. She knew she was light, but not as light as feather.

She dashed towards Minji, going for a different tactic. With her quick reflexes, Minji turned to her direction locking eyes. Ready for the perfect defense, Minji raised her arms to block another kick. But things played out a little differently.

Having jumped and stood mid-air before Minji, time seemed to freeze just for a moment, as Chieko reached out her hands and firmly grabbing onto Minji's shoulders. Time started playing at a slower pace as Chieko's body flew over Minji, hands still gripping her shoulders. When her feet touched the floor, that's when time returned to normal, and Minji had somehow been lifted up, and thrown over Chieko, landing on her back with the perfect view of Chieko looking down at her.

Both of them were shocked beyond relief.

Chieko had managed to pick Minji up off the ground, and throw her over her shoulder. They both looked at each other, speechless. Minji was the first to snap out of the daze and attack again, the fight not yet over despite the stunning attack.

She started throwing punches at Chieko, who could only block while stepping back. She still wasn't completely back to reality, her mind felt disconnected from her body. The senses around her dulled, her thoughts aimlessly floating around in her head. Her arms throbbed and burned from the inside, as if set ablaze. Yet at the same time, she could barely feel them.

Her vision started to become blurry, and she started to lose sight of Minji in front of her, still throwing punches without realize anything. Shaking her head, Chieko tried to regain focus, and the feeling in her arms ─ even though it'd be less painful to just drop her guard and let them hang by her side. It actually looked like she had a chance of victory, she couldn't give up now.

So despite the agonizing pain quickly growing stronger, she fought back, using her arms to push Minji back. She barely stumbled, and Chieko had to act fast before she was pushed into another corner.

Running out of ideas with a tired mind, Chieko charged at Minji with no thought to it. Minji easily dodged and used her elbow to knock Chieko down, but Chieko grabbed onto her arm and held on tight. Using the last of the strength she had left, she threw Minji over her shoulder for the second time. That time, Minji didn't get up to fight again.

By then, Chieko's arms felt like they were about to fall off. She fell to her knees in both pain and exhaustion, when she was about to fall to the floor, she felt someone holding her up. She just wanted to lay down and rest, even if it was on the floor. She had won the match, but exhaustion took over and she didn't have enough energy to celebrate her victory.

"Maybe I underestimated you a bit..." At first, she had thought that was Minji's voice, and that caused a smile to spread across her lips. But then she recognized the voice to belong to someone else, and she looked at the hands holding her up, then she lifted her head. She had enough energy to widen her eyes and free herself from his grasp, stumbling backwards.

Taichi?

Her cheeks flushed, whether from embarrassment or being hot after the match, she didn't know. Taichi's eyes slightly widened when she pulled away, he opened his mouth to say something that seemed important by his expression, but had been cut off by another voice.

Or more like, laughter.

It startled Chieko and deeply confused her, she turned around to see Minji still laying on the floor. Her laughter continuing, she climbed back to her feet. Her cheeks flushed and wide grin spread across her face, she ran a hand through her hair. "That was truly spectacular, Chieko! Amazing, I'm shocked by how strong you've gotten!" She gushed, rushing over to Chieko's side, gently holding her hands up admiring the muscle that had grown on her arms during the past weeks.