A Throne of Fire

Bringing Flames to a Kendo Fight

"Take a picture, it'll last longer.", Tsunami commented to the once loud and lively masses. The crowd parted like the red sea to let her and her group through, whispering behind their hands all the while. When the brown eyed girl reached the middle of the gym, the girls with her hung back at the front of the crowd as she entered into the ring with Mochida. The kendoist smirked and pointed his shinai at his opponent, a hand placed on his hip.

"Well well well, look who finally decided to show up. Took you long enough, Sano.", the boy said slowly. Tsuna almost frowned in confusion when she realized that was all he was going to say. She had been a few of his matches before, partially out of boredom and partially out of support for him. She knew Kensuke never missed an opportunity for smack talk, so why was he holding back? Tsuna decided not to question it and kept the conversation going.

"Yes well, I have a tight schedule. So let's cut to the chase, Mochida; I know why you're doing this.", she stated cryptically. Mochida's eyes widened and a light blush appeared on his cheeks.

"Y-You do?", he asked in a slightly hopeful tone. Tsuna nodded.

"Yes. You want to get with Kyoko and I'm in the way of that, so you want to take me out of the picture in the only way you can by challenging me to a kendo match. Be that as it may, was it really necessary to call me a lesbian? I would have accepted your challenge regardless of any taunting for Kyoko's sake.", Tsuna explained, not knowing how utterly wrong she was. Kensuke struggled to keep his disappointment off his face as his smirk widened.

"Had to make sure you'd show, but since you're so eager to get this over with, I'll keep things simple; you and I will go head to head until one of us takes one, and the person that does is the winner.", the black haired young man explained, reciting the bastardized rules he had been concocting over the past few days for this very match. Tsuna nodded in understanding.

"And the terms of victory?", she asked. Mochida's eyes narrowed. He knew making a demand was pointless since he wasn't going to win, but maybe he could use it to help get his true feelings across. He dropped the arm holding his shinai to his side.

"If I win, you have to grant me any request I ask of you.", he answered mysteriously. Tsuna was surprised. She was expecting him to say he wanted her to stop keeping him from Kyoko, or if he was more un-egalitarian than she had initially thought, Kyoko herself. His demand was so ambiguous. It made her curious about what he really wanted, even if he wouldn't get it. Tsuna gave Mochida a serious look.

"Very well. And if I win, you stop harassing Kyoko.", she told him firmly. To her surprise, Kensuke didn't look the least bit concerned about what might happen if that request became reality, only nodding in acceptance.

"Alright. So, ready to begin?", he asked in that cocky, kendo-mode Kensuke tone as he held his shinai in his starting form. Tsuna nodded and looked at Kyoko, about to nod at her so she would throw her Hana's shinai. Instead, a completely different shinai was thrown from the other side of the room.

"Tsunami, catch!", a cheerful voice called out. Tsuna looked towards the voice, caught the shinai with a confused expression, and became even more confused when she saw a smiling Yamamoto Takeshi, his arm positioned like he had just thrown one of his game-winning baseballs. Despite being in the same homeroom class, she and Yamamoto had never spoken before. Why was he going out of his way to help her? Tsuna wasn't able to follow this line of questioning far, because Kensuke came charging at her with his own weapon. Tsuna steeled her expression and blocked his attack with ease, their wooden blades criss-crossing.

"Attacking when I have no weapon, how noble of you Mochida.", she drawed in a bored and sarcastic tone, her stance not wavering in the slightest as Kensuke obviously struggled to keep his shinai from being repelled. The young man scowled in both concentration and anger.