Firecracker: The 99th Games Book One

Training, District 6

As Haruka and Tori entered the training room, Haruka took her hand and led her to the nearest surface he could climb onto. He crawled onto a table, clearing his throat.

"Excuse me, everyone!" he called. Only a few people glanced over. "I'm extremely homosexual and I need a boyfriend, does anyone want to join my team and help me protect my district partner in exchange for smooches?"

Tori snorted, covering her mouth. "Haruka...!"

The boy from District 12 raised his hand. "I'm a loud bisexual with no skills except strangling people, can I join?"

Haruka pointed him out. "You're hired!"

The girl from District 8 raised her hand also. "I think girls are hot but I've never dated one! Does that count?"

"Yes!" Haruka replied immediately.

She cheered. "Sick! New friends!"

The shorter boy from District 4 stared at Haruka in a mix of awe and intrigue for a moment, but he stayed silent.

Two allies was better than none. Haruka crawled down from his perch as their two new friends approached, telling himself that this would be enough. Tori smiled, waving to their alliance.

"I'm Tori," she greeted. "I guess the four of us are going to be together now, huh?"

"I'm Kyoko and you're pretty," the District 8 girl announced.

Tori giggled, blushing slightly. "Thank you! You're really pretty too!"

Kyoko beamed. "This is a good alliance."

"I'm Faqir, where's my smooch?" the District 12 boy asked.

"I'm Haruka and you'll get your smooch once Tori makes it through the Bloodbath," Haruka declared. "Okay! Now that we're all here, what should we learn first? I'm stupid and bad at literally everything that isn't figure skating!"

"I used to be a pilot, but...th-that's all I'm good at," Tori admitted. "And I can't even do it anymore, on account of...y-yeah."

"I'm the laziest member of my family and I have zero skills aside from being pretty!" Kyoko exclaimed.

"I literally don't know how to die," Faqir said seriously. "I can make jewelry, I get crystal healing, and I'm surprisingly competent at getting into fistfights! ...Winning fistfights is another story!"

"So we should probably start with learning survival tactics," Kyoko suggested. "Wanna go study plants and figure out how to build a fire?"

"Good idea! Let's do it!" Haruka decided.

The team looked over at plants, where the District 3 girl was frantically studying at the only station.

"...Snares?" Haruka suggested.

"Snares," Kyoko and Faqir agreed at the same time.

And so the Rainbow Brigade (plus Tori) spent their time at snares instead. Tori utilized her incredible charisma to strike up a conversation with the uninterested trainer, who helped teach the group about building fires and finding clean water.

Day one was a success.

Day two, Haruka and Tori met Faqir and Kyoko at plants, where Kyoko had already reserved a spot. She waved as the two approached.

"I'll tap the buttons and stuff," she offered. "Once all four of us agree and feel like we've got the information learned, I'll advance us to the next piece of info. We can run it a few times for practice!"

"Tomorrow, we should learn fighting," Faqir suggested. "I think I'll try the obstacle course and good old fashioned fisticuffs. What are you guys feeling?"

"I'm...really bad with sharp things, s-so maybe I'll join you in fisticuffs," Tori decided. "Maybe I'll get cool robot limbs so I can fight better!"

"That's the spirit!" Faqir exclaimed.

"Spears seem really cool," Kyoko admitted. "I wanna learn those. Maybe axes."

"I can try everything until I find something I don't utterly fail at!" Haruka exclaimed.

"Good idea!" Faqir said. "We're a good team, guys."

Haruka nodded fervently. Yes, this was a good team. They would be okay. They had to be okay.

He found it hard to separate from Tori and let Faqir watch over her for their final day of training. But bidding her a temporary farewell, Haruka headed to archery to see if he might have any luck.

He made three attempts before completely giving up. None of his arrows even went close. One somehow managed to shoot backwards. How did Haruka consistently manage to break physics by being so abysmally awful at everything?

He tried joining Kyoko at spears and managed to stab himself in the foot by dropping one. No more of that, then.

While being tended to by on-site medics, Haruka watched Tori at the punching bags. With the instruction of Faqir and the trainer, she was actually doing surprisingly well.

Haruka realized when he fumbled over throwing knives and somehow managed to drop it on the same foot that he was the weak link of this alliance.

How was he going to protect Tori?

Faqir, Kyoko, please...you might be my only hope.

If they couldn't keep her safe...her sacrifice would mean nothing.

All Haruka could do was die in her place.

I'm sorry, Yupon.

What if I have to choose between you and her?

The Hunger Games were much scarier all of a sudden.