I was snapped out of my state of deep thought by the sounds of Hinako beating up Yuto. Yuto's face was all swollen, Hinako pretended nothing happened, acting all cutesy.
She came up to me excitedly, "Kintarooo! Let me tell you how our fight went, yeah?"
I nodded. "Alright!"
Hinako started:
"Soooo basically, we started by going to the other side of the ETG. While you and Itsuki went to the forested area, Yuto and I were taken to the mountainous half by good ol' Sojobo-sensei!"
"Once we arrived at the mountains, Sojobo-sensei gave us 10 minutes to show each other our puppet's moves. I demonstrated Tsunade's elegant and beautiful abilities and then Yuto showed off his puppet's lame moves."
Yuto chimed up, refuting Hinako's claims of his ability being "lame".
"Goemon's moves are totally cool! You're just tryna make yourself look better in front of Kintaro! Ya think so too, right Kintaro? Ya think Goemon's moves are cool right?!"
Before I could even get an answer out, Yuto summoned Goemon and started using all of his abilities at once. It was a mixture of smoke clouds and sword slashes. I really couldn't even tell what was happening. Before Yuto could continue to make a fool of himself, Sojobo quickly snapped him out of his delusions.
"Cut the crap, Yuto. Your puppet is plenty cool. Take pride in it, it is your family heirloom afterall. And as for you, missy…" He started addressing Hinako. "…don't put down your classmates' abilities like that, see what happens when you do?"
Yuto stopped fooling around, looking genuinely touched by Sojobo's words.
Hinako sighed. "Yes sensei… Anyways, where was I? Right, we were showing each other our moves. Well, after the 10 minutes were up we headed over to Sojobo-sensei. He was staring out into space, smoking a cigarette when he started giving us a monologue. It went sorta like this…"
"'The Sojobo family has long been a line of great teachers. Ever since the founding of puppetry by the Tenjin family, the Sojobo family has always been there. My puppet, Tengu, has been passed from eldest son to eldest son for generations. Although strong, he is meant to teach. Don't take that as a sign of weakness though, cuz I ain't gonna go easy on you guys!'"
"After that monologue, he summoned Tengu and immediately started going after us!"
"I REMEMBER THAT! We were running for our lives for a good five minutes!" Yuto added.
Hinako rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and during those five minutes of running for our lives I devised a plan for us to beat Sojobo-sensei!"
Yuto chuckled. "And it was a darn good plan too! Ya have ta admit, Hinako, our abilities work pretty well together!"
"Yeah… I guess they do…" Hinako said.
"So how did you guys even beat Sojobo-sensei if he was chasing you guys like crazy?" I asked.
Hinako continued her story. "Well, Sojobo-sensei's Tengu is all about speed. So we couldn't out do him there, and neither Yuto nor I would've been able to get a solid hit in so we couldn't beat him with raw power either. So I decided we'd focus on deceiving Sojobo-sensei in order to beat him."
"So I came up with a plan. We'd lure Sojobo-sensei to the waterfall at the center of the mountains. Yuto would fill the area with Goemon's Smoke Screen, I'd use Tsunade's Mitotic Mucus to make a clone, and we'd hide behind the waterfall while the clone tracked him. When he went after her, Yuto would snipe him with Bandit's Bullet and retire Tengu."
Sojobo stepped in, finishing the story. "And that's how the fight went for the most part. But they had forgotten one crucial part about fighting me." Sojobo waved his hand in front of his eyes. "The fact that I'm blind!"
"See, for the most part their plan was great. It accidentally accounted for all of my heightened senses: The smoke screen cancelling out my sense of smell and the waterfall my hearing. Not to mention the clone, which made me think I had at least found Hinako. Their plan was essentially foolproof… Except for the use of Yuto & Goemon's Bandit's Bullet. When Yuto had Goemon shoot it out, I could sense the change in air pressure as it came. So not only was I able to dodge it, but I had these two pinpointed down."
Sojobo turned over to Hinako and Yuto. "And I just want you two to know, your plan wasn't some kind of lucky draw. Even though it was based on the idea I could see you still managed to nullify my senses. And that's what's called good puppeteering."
Hinako grumbled to herself. "How could I have forgotten he was blind! So stupid of me…"
It was obvious that Hinako was still killing herself over her oversight, even if she didn't want to make it seem that way. What really gave it away was how red her cheeks were.
Hinako picked up the story from where Sojobo left off. "Anyways, after Sojobo-sensei found out where we were, he used this big sword slash, splitting the smoke, the waterfall, and us… nearly… in two!"
"I was stressed and had no idea what to do! I thought my plan had no flaws, but I was obviously wrong."
Yuto interrupts Hinako. "And that's where the great Ichikawa Yuto steps in! Ya see, I basically proposed that I use Goemon's Piercing Lunge in order to somehow launch Hinako forward so she could use her Reverse Healing Punch technique in order to sap the energy out of Mr. Ukyo-sensei!"
Hinako sighed, slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, that's true. At the moment it didn't sound like a bad idea, but then again I wasn't in the right state of mind. Though don't get the wrong idea, I still did doubt how exactly Goemon's Piercing Lunge would've propelled me forward without stabbing through me. So I decided to use Mitotic Mucus again and make another clone. She'd take the hit while the force from Piercing Lunge launched me forward."
Yuto whined. "Hey, I wasn't tryna kill you! I gotta admit though, that was pretty smart of you… especially since I hadn't thought of how I would realistically push you forward!" Yuto chuckled.
Hinako facepalmed. "Yeah, well, the point is the combination of both ideas worked out for the best. Once he sent me flying towards Sojobo-sensei, I had Tsunade prepare a Reverse Healing Punch. I was too large and going too fast for Sojobo-sensei to dodge so he had no option but to take the punch! And with that, I sapped all the energy away from him, quickly knocking him out and retiring Tengu!"
Sojobo started to laugh loudly. "That's right! You two made me very proud… even if I've only been your instructor for a day! I knew I did well partnering you two up."
Yuto and Hinako both smiled proudly.
"I'm glad you two had such a successful fight! As you can see, I clearly didn't…" I said.
Yuto questioned me. "Yeah, you look rough! What happened during your fight anyway? All you've told us is that it was tough."
I sighed. "I don't really wanna get into it." I still pondered whether or not I should reveal Itsuki and Kagami as the traitors they are. My brain said yes, but my heart said no, especially for Itsuki.
"Just know that Itsuki did the best he could against Kagami. And if it weren't for him, we would've lost."