Chapter 29 Part 2
Stone-chan—a genin girl from the Hidden Stone—was fairly tall and... that's all I could say about her. Neither in appearance nor equipment did she stand out. Her opponent: Grass-san, from the Hidden Grass, accordingly. Standard equipment, standard umbrella, standard hat, tall...
"Kami—do they stamp you out on a press over there in Grass?!" I thought, looking at the pair of fighters. However you looked at it, both opponents seemed so standard-stereotypical that even the opening syllables of their names had already evaporated from my memory, and I could guarantee that by the next morning, I'd be unable to recall even crumbs of their appearances. I'd remember them only as "Stone-chan" and "Grass-san"—and even then, only because I'd invented those nicknames myself.
What terrifying ordinariness. These guys ought to be the most magnificent spies in history!
"Good—next match."
Eh? Huh?? Huh-huh?!!
I... got so lost in thought... that... I missed... the entire... match?...
Who? Who won?! Where are both combatants???
Ah... the entire arena is studded with needles—Grass-san, without a doubt, made that mess. Oh—who won, then? For some reason, I feel affronted. Fine—I'll watch the next match with all my eyes!
Right! Rock Lee and... Nara Shikumo!!!
Ou...
"YOSHHHHHHH!!! I'm coming!" Lee-chan exclaimed, inspired, springing forward from her spot. Whether from excess emotion or miscalculation—the jump carried her all the way to the ceiling.
"Argh—what a drag. I give up!" A cantankerous shout came from the opposite end of the participants' area.
"EH????..." The shadow of incomprehension fell over Lee's radiant face, and the girl froze like a pillar of salt, not even completing her somersault.
Oh—this is bad!
Buboof!
Ah. The stupor-stricken Youthful Maiden landed just like that on the arena's hard floor: lying on her face, with her rear aimed at the zenith.
"Eh?.. Eeeh? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHH??! The spectators and the remaining participants—all were in shock. But Lee was the most stunned of all.
"Ghmhh... k-hh-khh... em..." Gekko, it seemed, had choked on her own cough. The zombie-jonin's eyes flew so wide the bags beneath them gathered into black strips of skin. "Winner... Rock Lee?.."
Flop. Lee's rear plopped to the floor, and the girl herself, with jerky, broken movements, assumed a semblance of a vertical position. Her eyes were huge, huge—expressing the full depth of shock and sincere indignation. She completely ignored the rivulets of blood spreading across her forehead (kami—the floor at the impact site is all cracks!!!), directing her gaze toward Shikumo, sprawled lazily across the railing. Lee looked at her as if Shikumo had committed an unthinkable, most vile and terrible betrayal.
"U... Um..." And as if that weren't enough—to complete this theater of the absurd—Lee did the very last thing anyone could possibly have expected. "Uwaaaaaaaa!!!!"
She burst into tears.
Large, bitter tears streamed in rivers from the girl's eyes, and the air filled with the heart-rending wail of sincere hurt. I don't know about anyone else—but at that moment, I felt profoundly uncomfortable. Looking at the arena, I had no other desire but to go and try to comfort the poor girl. And, judging by the grimaces of the people around me, many of the men were in solidarity with me. And not only men—hm.
"LEE!!!" Gaya screamed, leaping down. In the green loli's eyes stood Oceans of Tears.
"S... senseeeeeeei!" Lee cried. Scrambling rapidly on all fours (so rapidly the wind rose indoors!), the Youthful Maiden crashed into her miniature copy and buried her face in the latter's belly-button, continuing to pour tears! "M-my f-fight!.. my f-fight! Sniff! I... sniffle-sniffle... w... with m-me... sniff! N-no one wants to fiiIIIIght meee!!!"
"Lee! My poor Student!" Gaya wailed, also streaming tears... and snot... "There'll—sniff!—be more fights! I—sniffle!—I promise—sniff-sniff!—you'll find—hng-sniffle!—you'll find your Rival! Sob-sob!"
"Sensei!!!.. Sniff!"
"Sniffle-sniffle!... Lee!"
"SENSEI!"
"LEE!!!!"
"Gods—why am I SO EMBARRASSED?!" I groaned, crumpled on the floor and hiding my burning face in my knees. And what about me?! Everyone was uncomfortable!!!
"Ghm... well... ghm..." The Hokage creaked, recovering clarity of gaze. Surveying the unfolding chaos, she cast a sharp look at the organizers. They exchanged stiff glances, after which one of them rushed toward the wailing pair. But even that didn't end it: as it turned out, budging those two from the spot... or at least shutting them up, was almost physically impossible. A second examiner came to the unfortunate one's aid, then another... In the end, it was resolved when a female examiner thought to pull a lollipop from her pocket and shove it into Might's mouth. The latter fell silent at once. The other examiners followed the heroine with their gazes as she led the sobbing Youthful Maidens from the room, soothingly stroking their heads like little children.
Hah...
I don't even know what to say. And that goes for more than just me: it seemed this absurd incident had thoroughly knocked the combatants out of their fighting spirit. This was only confirmed by the next match between another Grass shinobi and Takahashi Tento (m-Tenten)—the bout began rather sluggishly and somehow even clumsily. Haa... After all, Leaf participants had advanced the most: the entire "Konoha 12," plus two more bodies from "sempai's" team—practically three-fifths of all candidates. Here, willy-nilly, it turned out that every other fight would involve a Leaf genin. The match itself, honestly, didn't impress me: I've never found particular beauty in sharpened bits of metal, and both fighters used them quite liberally. Watching the fight, I merely noted that the Grass genin ought to have coated his needles with some local-action poison. Had he done so, Tento would have already "lost" his left arm, having carelessly caught several fine needles in his forearm. All in all, Takahashi won this bout, possessing an overwhelming advantage in the quantity of hurled iron.
Third match: Kankuko—the puppeteer from Sand—against a Leaf shinobi: Yori. It seemed Orochi's minions were unlucky in this world as well. Seeing the woman in the burqa, I recalled with some difficulty that her male version was supposed to fight Sasuke in the very first bout of the semi-finals. Well then... As it transpired: chakra-draining threads don't work on combat puppets—but their embrace is strong enough to break several bones.
Fourth match: Temaru versus Nezha.
This was more interesting: a Hyuga oriented toward high-speed close combat against a mid-to-long-range fighter based on the Wind element. Had there been a betting pool here, I'd have wagered on the Hyuga without a doubt. Were the arena, say, two or three times wider, I might have hesitated—but in this situation, the Kazekage's son had precious little room to maneuver.
Ah—as I'd predicted: fem-Neji, immediately after the referee's signal, took a course toward sharply closing the distance with her opponent. For Temaru, close contact was, naturally, the most undesirable option, so he attempted to fend off the white-eyed girl and maintain the minimum possible distance. And, as I'd said, the arena's space was far too cramped for the Sand shinobi. Thus began a brief but swift game of tag. And the result was predictable: the more mobile Nezha caught up to the Kazekage's son, and after that, only a few strikes were needed. For some time, Temaru managed to fend the girl off with his fan—but then missed a blow to the shoulder, which proved fatal for him. Juken attacks aren't that powerful—but the internal damage they cause is immense: first, Nezha's opponent lost chakra control in his arm; then several more high-speed strikes partially destabilized his chakra flows...
"I surrender!"
And the fateful words rang out. It seemed Temaru had decided he no longer had any chance of winning, and thus sought to minimize damage with his surrender.
"Mhmm... She definitely has issues," I thought, watching the smug face of the Hyuga. Of course, she'd won and had cause for pride and a sense of superiority. Except the white-eyed girl's face seemed to say openly: "My victory is natural, because I cannot lose—because it couldn't be otherwise, because everyone around is weak!" Ha—even prideful Hedgehog-chan hasn't sunk that deep into arrogant snobbery!
I don't know how similar Neji's and Nezha's personal histories are—but the girl definitely has problems.
Sometimes I wonder: why don't shinobi have psychoanalysts?! Their brains are simply an uncultivated field!!
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Thanks for reading the chapter!
I started a new translation and I would be very happy if you decided to check out my new translation story. It's a crossover of Toaru and One Piece... Well, the only Toaru element here is one cute Misaka. This is all that came of my desire to translate a Toaru fanfic, but I'm not complaining—even though I've only just started reading and translating it, I'm really enjoying the story. It has plenty of slice-of-life elements, and the pacing is quite slow and detailed. It's written in a sweet, positive way—at least for now. There likely won't be any romance, as there were no tags indicating such, but I won't say for sure until I've finished reading it myself. I'd recommend it to those who aren't craving violence, carnage, or excessive cruelty. In my opinion, it's a worthwhile story, though it's definitely a matter of personal taste—especially since the protagonist is a girl, which isn't everyone's cup of tea (though it doesn't really matter for now—at least as of 30+ chapters in, Misaka is still 6 years old. I'm not sure how long this will go on, but I have a hunch she'll remain a child for the first 200 chapters or so—maybe even longer). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.
One Piece: Railgun Misaka Misaka https://www.webnovel.com/book/one-piece-railgun-misaka-misaka_37195209600636405