-I want to apologize for taking months to publish. I kept getting stuck, starting over, and procrastinating a lot more than I should've. But I want to explain what im going to do now.
I'm breaking up the original big chapter I had planned, into four storylines (It's not a habit...) starting with Ochiba and Lee yin.
Enjoy, I hope you like it.
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"Now... is the worst time to talk." Ringo said with a tight smile.
Lee Yin grinned as she watched Ringo shove Ochiba off the stage. Chuckling even more when Ringo flung an entire fighter right into Ochiba out of irritation. In her opinion, they both deserved a little suffering for making her life so difficult.
Pssht.
"Silver star. The homewrecker has trimmed the leaf, moving in..." the girl holding it reported.
Lee Yin stared at her star-shaped walkie-talkie before taking extra care to hide it. "Right, be careful...Beige...bat?"
Paasht.
"B'dazzled-Blue Bedazzled Blade, Ma'am." She corrected proudly, giving a thumbs up from below the bleachers
Lee Yin slipped further into her trench coat to talk inconspicuously, of course. Spying 101: hide the face. Why did she pick that as a name—
Pushaw.
"Silver star?" B'dazzled-Blue Bedazzled Blade called through her knife-shaped walkie-talkie.
Jumping slightly, Lee Yin hunched back over the walkie-talkie. "R-Right, remember to guide him out quietly."
"Roger!" B-BBB saluted, crouching against a wall and crab walking away. "Going ghost... Over."
"—Psssh." B-BBB also added.
They don't even turn off. Lee Yin shook her head and sighed, rising from her chair.
The plan was simple: wait until Ochiba left the tent, then chase him into a secluded spot to reap vengeance. How exactly they'd reap... well, murder was intense.
But the active plan should've been as simple as faking a marriage. But that gets surprisingly complicated if man can't act right. Like Ochiba, taking his sweet time lingering at the side of the arena like a lost puppy.
But Ochiba had a small plan of his own, doing mental gymnastics to make sense of it. "Ringo said 'now' was the worst time." so it was obvious that he didn't— "So he definitely wants to wait till the tournament was over to talk."
"Sir," a female voice harshly interrupted his shocking breakthrough. "Please leave the ring side and get a ticket if you want to watch."
"Oh, I didn't know—"
"Of course not." she said blatantly before flipping through a book titled, "how to wed" before clearing her throat. "Vengeance prevention policy. Leave."
Ochiba couldn't but feel skeptical, a strange feeling in the wind maybe. But it's hard argue with hard facts written in a strangely unrelated book. And this girl was an employee, after all, with a uniform and nametag.
Why would an employee lie?
So Ochiba left calmly, only to be ambushed by dozens of girls the moment he stepped out of the tent.
Ochiba stirred, waking up in a new spot. The back of his head ached, more than one strike should. And hearing the growls around him, he knew he was surrounded.
"Ochiba~ Banbusa!" the bundle of rage and hate, Lee Yin, shouted proudly from atop a cart. "You took forever to wake up," she chided.
"Sleepy head!" the crowd chanted.
Ochiba rubbed the back of his head, wincing more. "..Lee Yin! How are you?"
"Just fine," she admitted, calmly flicking the tip of her spear. "But you? After another rejection, you must be devastated."
"Maybe a bit—but It wasn't a rejection!" Ochiba argued, waiting to get interrupted. But Lee Yin let him continue. "...We just postponed our discussion."
Lee Yin smirked. "Sound like it was more than a postponement."
"It's probably Fo-Evah!" one girl punctuated.
Lee Yin gave that girl a high five before turning back to Ochiba. "Just give up Ochiba. your life will only get sadder." she warned.
"I won't give up, love is relentless... as stated in this book I wrote." From somewhere, Ochiba procured enough books titled Life on Love to pass around.
He worked his way around the circle passing out books, earning scowls... and looking for a way out. By the third lap he found a small exit, really small...
As he tried to leap through a cart, his bamboo cape got caught on the lip of a stove. Then Hazel-Hilted Hooked-Hammer and Pink-Painted Prickled Pillow grabbed Ochiba by the ankles.
Lee Yin continued to skim through the book, noting all of the puns about apples. "Wow... this is shameless."
With a snap of her finger, Ochiba was tossed back into the center of the circle with fresh bruises.
"You can't judge a book by it's cover..." Ochiba muttered.
"You're only writing this sappy junk to reach Ringo." Ochiba didn't say a word. "What are we going to do with you?"
Another girl stepped forward, the fortieth ex. "We'll kill him, and parade our work for all the disloyal men to see!" she eagerly suggested.
"Yea..." Lee Yin gave the girl a concerned look. but she knew the girl's attitude stemmed from the worst breakup out of any of the warriors. "We can't rush this. Even if he dumped you on line paper."
"Worst paper of the bunch!" she exclaimed. "He didn't even tear the holes cleanly!"
"Then what do we do with him?" the thirteenth, beastly brown barbed bat asked.
"Well I was thinking. This grand chase, our quest for revenge. Why should it end now?" Lee Yin turned to her crowd of warriors, noticing the confusion on their faces. "Lets hunt him for a while longer." Lee Yin further suggested.
The girls paused, and replayed the words in their heads. Then they huddled together and whispered, glaring at Ochiba for making the slightest twitch.
Righteous red rapier—Yīn Guǒ, finally stepped forward. "Did you hit your head?" she asked Lee Yin.
"No?"
"Did you turn your head too hard?" Asked Ren Goh.
"I'm not old."
"Well," Yīn Guǒ thought for a moment, snorting quietly. "did you see an old man loose his toupee and trip while running from a pig?"
Lee Yin blinked. "What?"
"Well it must have been so funny, that you laughed too hard and hurt your head." Yīn Guǒ said confidently.
Lee Yin facepalmed. "It doesn't work like that!"
"Well you hurt your head somehow." Ren Goh insisted. "Maybe that fire boy did something—Look for any marks!"
"Marks?!" Lee Yin questioned, frightfully.
More girls ran to check on Lee Yin, offering their own strange superstitions related to brain damage. As they started twisting and turning Lee Yin around so everyone could get a look, Ochiba started creeping toward a gap in the cart ring.
"Girls! enough about me!" Lee Yin shouted. She pointed at their biggest concern just as he was climbing out of the cart cage. "Ochiba is getting away—"
"After him!" Yīn Guǒ ordered, quickly taking charge.
The warriors of vengeance surged forward, weapons in hand. Lee Yin readied her spear, but was stopped by Yīn Guǒ.
"You should rest and let the able-bodied people work." Yīn Guǒ suggested.
"But I'm not—" Lee Yin was silenced by a finger.
"Shh-shh... It's okay, rest." Yīn Guǒ insisted, hurrying off to join the chase.
Lee Yin stood by herself, baffled by the events that had just passed. "I'm not some 'sickly girl'..." she muttered bitterly.