We shoved Daisuke and Tsubasa between us and jumped to formation. My shoulder stung from the force of Kei’s push. Though it would’ve been hurting a lot more if he hadn’t. The arrows rained down on us, and I did my best to swat them away with my staves. The arrows themselves were lightweight and were aimed at our shoulders, arms and legs. They were clearly only meant to incapacitate us.

Where are they coming from? I scanned the tops of the apartments between each attack, going over their gables and alcoves. There! I could just make out a girl sitting on some kind of precipice behind the bars of an elevator. An arrow came flying out from between the gaps.

But Kei whacked away another arrow at the same time. I swallowed as I realized what that meant. Two archers!

‘I see her behind a balcony!’ said Kei.

‘The other one’s behind the elevator of the building three blocks away on my right.’ I swatted away an arrow just in time, its feather tip scratching me as it fell. ‘Can you hit one of them with your boomerangs?’

‘It’s hard to see her clearly, and she’s moving around a lot. But I’ll give it a try.’

I spun around to cover for him as he took a shot. But if keeping away one archer’s arrows was hard, two was nigh impossible. An arrow scraped my arm.

Kei’s boomerang swerved inside the balcony and hit something with a clunk.

‘Dammit, I missed.’ Kei swore. The wire in his hand became taut and refused to shift as he pulled it. ‘She’s got my boomerang!’

I shifted back to my position. Now what? Perhaps we should wait for them to run out of arrows. I tried to recall the girls’ quivers back in the auditorium. But perhaps because I was too tired and hadn’t had a bite to eat for hours, I couldn’t conjure much more than a vague memory of a couple of teams with an archer. Should’ve paid more attention. How many could they hold, about twenty arrows each? But they should’ve run out by now. Then again, maybe one of the apartments was their home, and they had extra arrows available.

Wait a minute.

Not a single team had two archers as their fighters.

As I put together the pieces, my recollection of today morning grew sharper. They were a pair of twins, but they were on two different teams. They’re working together! Goosebumps prickled on my skin when the implication became clear. Where are the other two fighters?

Something fell between us and clattered on the ground. Grey clouds billowed out in the streets, engulfing us as it spread. A smoke bomb! My eyes stung and tears ran down my cheeks. The smoke irritated my airways with every breath, forcing me to cough to get rid of the prickling, stinging sensation. The clouds were so dense, I couldn’t even see my hands. A pitter-patter of footsteps came toward us. I raised my staves but lowered them in a moment. What if I hit my squad? Something pushed me away, and I stumbled blind.

My heart beat louder with every second the smoke took to clear. I was certain the other fighters had moved in. They must have been as blind as us, but they probably took note of our positions while we were busy with the arrows. I clenched my fist around my staves in frustration.

They’d have gone for Daisuke.

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The grey haze gave away to prove my assumptions correct. A purple-haired girl held a knife against Daisuke’s throat, her other hand around his waist, pulling him close to her. Daisuke’s rosy cheeks were now pale, and his large eyes were wider with fear. A boy with snake tattoos running up his arm crouched beneath them. He pointed a sabre in our direction while trying to unlatch the gold key from Daisuke’s belt.

Unlike the time with Kaede, they were too far away for me to jump in between. At least not without them noticing and slashing Daisuke’s neck.

But would they do that? It would kill Daisuke and disqualify them from the tournament. They’d have to be absolutely stupid to kill someone for a key they wouldn’t end up needing. Inner spirit bubbled within my feet as I readied to leap.

But what if they were that reckless? Even if they only wanted to scare us, they might impulsively end up pushing the blade in too far. There was no need to risk Daisuke’s life over the key.

Kei, Tsubasa and I glanced at each other. Kei raised his palm in a sign to not move, and I nodded. It seems we’d come to the same conclusion.

The boy struggled with the keyring, pulling it this way and that. Daisuke’s tied it with at least three pieces of wire, looping them one into another in a knot only he knew to undo. Shaking his head, the boy pulled out a knife and tried to cut it off.

Something flashed and slashed the wrists of the two fighters. The girl dropped her blade, hissing in pain, and I took the opening to leap toward them. Another set of footsteps landed behind us as I pushed Daisuke away. The boy had dropped his knife too but still held his sword. I pulled Daisuke with me further away before he recovered enough to strike us.

Kaede stood in our midst, holding two hook swords that dripped a little blood from its edges. She gave us a nod, then glared at the two fighters. A grin spread across my face. Now it was a fair fight.

The arrows began to rain down on us like a storm. I struck them away from me and Daisuke.

‘Kei, go get the archer on the balcony,’ said Kaede, whacking the arrows away. ‘My teammate is already going for the one behind the elevator. Though I don’t know what’s taking her so long.’

The other fighters approached us with their weapons, their injuries apparently not bad enough to stall them for too long. The girl now held an odd wooden stick with a button on one end, not unlike Ahio’s sword when drawn in. She pressed it, and a gleaming metal rope came whipping at me. No, not a rope, I realized as I dodged it. Several linked up knives.

‘I’ll take her, Tahro,’ said Kaede, hooking up her swords. ‘You get the guy.’

It made sense, Kaede had better reach with her linked swords, and could approach a longer-ranged fighter better.

Blocking the arrows and dodging the whip of knives, we switched places. The boy leapt toward me, swinging his blade. I blocked and countered from below his strike. He held his body strangely to the side, perhaps from a subconscious desire to protect his injured hand, and got the full blow of my staff. As he tumbled away, I landed another one right in his solar plexus. It pushed him from the street and onto the porch of an apartment. His head banged on the door. With a groan, he clutched his scalp and glanced at me with squinting eyes.

Taking his disorientation to my advantage, I pulled out some rope. He struggled a bit, but I grabbed his hands and feet. A few moments later, the boy’s wrists and ankles were both tied up.

Kaede had also finished her fight, tightening her knot securely as she looked up at me with a smile.

The noise of several running feet came from above. I glanced up at the rooftops, above where the archer behind the elevator was. Kaede’s teammate held her javelin in position to throw while the archer and two other kids fled from her, running on the precarious slope of the roof. But the girl didn’t give chase, only watching as the other team scurried off.

‘I got the keys,’ said Kei. I turned around to see him holding up the key ring. A silver and gold key hung from it. Yes! We’d got one more.

Kei winced and clutched his leg, moving his hand to reveal blood. Tsubasa rushed over to him

‘Are you hurt?’ I asked, before I realized what a stupid question it was.

‘One of the arrows got me on the way up.’ He rolled up his torn jeans, revealing a bloody gash. ‘It’s not as bad as it looks though. It didn’t stick in.’ He grinned and patted one of the sheaths that hung from his belt. ‘I also got my boomerang back.

While we fussed over Kei’s leg, Kaede’s teammate hopped down onto the street beside us, sheathing her javelin. Kaede strode toward her, eyes glinting with a fury I hadn’t seen in them before. She got close to the other girl’s face.

‘You’re sabotaging us on purpose, aren’t you?’ Kaede spat out.