All Too Easy (Open)

[NISHIMURA, HIDEO]

It started out as a typical day for the joint school gym class in the early morning, no fuss no nothing on the first day on this new year of school. And dear Hideo looks unconvinced as ever on his purpose here but he knows that exercise is viable to his health and logically has to participate in it. Whether he liked or not, it was just another dull morning to him. At least, until the gym teacher went away and then the class changed into something else entirely. The bad blood between the schools and the class discrimination has begun to rise from the cracks of perfection.

The raven haired male spotted a freshman from his school getting bullied by Izumi Chou seniors, and automatically he already certain about one thing, they will get no mercy from him. He marched on over to the group at high pace and once he reached them, he’ll offer a little proposal. “Oh? If you’re so great, then why don’t you place your greatness on the line against or that money so dear?” he mused with a dastardly grin on face filled with confidence and a “ploy” of pride to bait his victims. He wondered if these bullies were as predictable like the rest of the stereotype.

The three seniors themselves weren’t exactly pleased with Hideo’s offer and tried to scare him off, but he quickly made a retort towards them. “I see, well, in front of all these people, you don’t mind admitting your fear. And you know what? I’ll even offer up my freedom for the entire high school term I got left and even into college as for my bet, you just got to offer up pocket change and you EVEN get to choose the game. How does that grab you?” he mused once more with a deadly ploy and this time it looked like it worked judging from the spite and resentment upon the seniors’ faces.

And there it was, grabbing chairs and a table to set the stage with everyone else being the audience in Hideo’s miraculous play. The seniors’ choices of the games were poker, shougi, and checkers. However, in almost no time flat, he mopped the floor with every single one of them with almost little ease. In all that time, Hideo still had the venomous smile on his face and the three seniors were frustrated on their loss and asked for a rematch. But all Hideo is thinking about, was much fun he was having with his freedom on the line. Then, he instantly said in his gym uniform, “Who’s next?” musing with that very smile. Maybe he found this day to be interesting after all.

[SORATOBU, CHISOKU]

"GO!!!" Said his classmate as he clicked against the top of the stop watch, my body moved it was fast, blurring across the gymnasium. I pushed my legs just as I would on the tracks, moving with incredible force and intensity across the floor. I had enjoyed this feeling, the feeling of the wind on my face and the "power" that speed gave me. Quickly, I switched gears my as I came across the second half.

The wind shear that I felt fluttered against my clothes as I released more energy. The power of my legs moving quicker and quicker, I couldn't allow myself to fall during a practice run as I gritted my teeth and slid to a stop I pressed my head back and began to move slowly. I began to maneuver my hands and legs shaking off the tension as I gasped outward. I looked towards the timer. "You got an 11.23, it took you eleven seconds to get back here." I sighed.

"Dammit, that's far too slow." Exhaling once more as I placed my hands on my hips looking down. "The high-school record is 10.08 for a high school record in America, I have to get faster... I can't just conserve my strength anymore full tilt all the w-" My head turned towards the altercation that was happening in front of my eyes as the seniors began to tease and harass someone.

"Hm... looks like our schools starting to go after the little guys in Izumi." I said this because I knew a few of them actually, they weren't necessarily the smartest guys around nor were they people you wanted to mess with normally. That's when another voice of reason came and started to pique my interest. "Nishimura-senpai, huh... I've heard of him, he's one of the smartest kids in Kyoudou, a math ace." My eyebrow raised as I watched him. "Math ace, eh... he's picking on the wrong guys if he has no talent for battle. Lets get back to training." I exhaled again.

"I'll place my full attention on this sprint and maybe I'll get a bit higher." As I bent forward once more, I began to become enticed with running again. My face was serious as my legs gathered tension, my hands pressing my fingers deep into the ground. "Ready..." I exhaled outward taking a deep breath. "GO!" As he released and exhaled the "ready" voice once again. I began to blitz once again. My senses were onto once more running fiercely.

As time passed once again, I listened to what my friend said. "You did a lot better than both of those times, 10.52, definitely better than normal but..." He knew what I was going to do next. "Still not the best." As I took my eyes back towards him. "I need to work on both my acceleration and my top speed then, keeping pace is difficult because the stride marks how fast you're going, if I can't do a better rocket start and stride, I can kiss that record goodbye." Wiping the sweat from my brow, I watched the on-going humiliation of the seniors and junior class men.

"Looks like Nishimura-senpai is making a killing." My eyes went towards that event, and then back towards him. "Odoro, it doesn't really matter what he's doing, gambling is something that really doesn't interest me, unless it's a challenge on my natural abilities of quickness." I said towards him, as he chuckled. "You were always like that, Jet." I nodded my head, sighing.

[NISHIMURA, HIDEO]

Hideo was having certainly a grand time in his gambling endeavors with his freedom on the line and also bringing shame to the three bullies from Izumi Chou. While he may be full of pride and showing himself off as an egomaniac now, he feels a honest sense of accomplishment helping someone in need. Probably because he was an almost social outsider from when he was a child and didn’t want anyone else feel the same or be persecuted for it, he’ll rather take all the blame. It’s an admirable effort but in truth was purely suffering for taking on that heavy burden. Still, he chose it and he wouldn’t of have it any other way.

Now the three seniors were still demanding their rematch especially after Hideo made the statement of asking for a new challenger. Hideo smirked and even scoffed off a light chuckle before he replied to the trio, “Well then, I guess we have to make it double or nothing, right?” His tone was practically the same tone the trio was giving onto the freshman, raising himself up to be the superior to them. And those three didn’t like that one bit as they darted their glares into Hideo. It was thanks to that, they gain hesitation when they declared their games, the first was backgammon, the second was a simple rock-paper-scissors, and lastly a physical contest of speed a relay race.

While first two challenges were nothing to hold a candle to in Hideo’s mind, but it was the third one that did took premeditative planning on Hideo’s part. He had to race with one senior on a twelve yard stretch meeting the line and back to start which had to be repeated two times, a total of three laps. Now while he does some walks every now and then, he knows he’s not an athlete but what he can do is calculate what it takes to push his body before it reaches his limit. He may not have a solid plan because bodies are usually unpredictable if there’s no previous training involved. But he knows can’t be stopped at this point if he loses, because Hideo figured that those three bullies will just gain more edge again and place it on people. And that’s not something he’ll allow from them anymore.

At the starting point Hideo and his opponent make their stretches and prepare their bodies for the soon-coming movement. With their marks set, one of the other senior’s started the countdown from five. As the numbers clocked down all Hideo could think about was how much he wanted to defeat them and it made his blood boil with anticipation. Then, the go signal was heard and participants were off. It’s like Hideo said, now its double or nothing for all the cards on the table and the winner takes all.

[SORATOBU, CHISOKU]

"Yo, Jet." He patted my arm as it swatted against my skin, right while I was beginning to ready my run, my eyes gazed towards what would be an interesting sight. My arms crossed as I blinked and thought about what was going on for a second. "That wasn't the smartest bet he could of made... Kyoji there is in football, so he has a great deal of speed for someone "normal" anyway." Odoro told me this by his analysis, he was always someone good at judging these types of things.

I thought about what Odoro said for a moment and then sighed. I was a bit intrigued out to why Hideo would choose to run against athletes. After all, he wasn't one. Or so Odoro had said anyway, so for whatever reason he chose to place himself on the stake there. What could I do, should I just allow this to transpire or... Suddenly my eyes brightened...

A small smile appeared on my lips as I watched this begin a devilish smile now took it over, but then sighed deeply. "Jet?" Odoro asked me as he watched me, I started to step forward instead of watching what would soon be a tragedy in the distance. He was doing something he really didn't need to do, or so I thought. So with a bit of a jumping sprint I went in front of them before they could get themselves ready.

"I'd hold up for a moment here, guys." I crossed my arms and tapped my foot showing a cheeky grin. "Seems like this is my kind of game, so I'll tell you what, I'll join in." I took my eyes towards Hideo, taking out a pocket of five hundred yen. "What do you say?" I asked and smiled. "I have money so I should be able to enter this contest right?" I looked towards Hideo, I batted my right eye to show what I was doing and hoped he understood it, knowing he wasn't an athlete.