Sparring practice part 2? (P, IO, NK)

Hikari was starting to panic, a few more people started to come over and look at her as well. She would reach over to Shiroi and ask "Hop...Hopeless?" As she would, Shirio would strip off her black shirt and show that she was wearing a bikini under it. This was quite curious to Hikari, did she always just wear a bikini under her clothing? However Shiroi would ask Hikari to come into the lake with her, and with honesty, Namikaze felt like she would be ok with being in the water (Hey, water was cover after all!)

As the two got into the lake, Namikaze would listen to what Shiroi would say

"Look, the reason we're here is twofold, but the only thing I'm going to tell you about now is your punishment. Right now, your only job is to enjoy the festival. Doesn't sound like much of a punishment, but there's the catch. You have to wear just the bikini"

This still seemed weird to Hikari, but at the same time, she couldn't really understand why this was her punishment. It seemed more like 'hey, lets play around with Hikari for no good reason!' But at the same time, Namikaze didn't have much of a choice right now.

So, Hikari and Shiroi would make their way back to the shore and step out. It was a little bit worst now, the two girls were wet and cold. Hikari started to form a handsign to cast a jutsu to blow off the water, but cought herself, she was told that she should hide the fact that she was a shinobi from people. So, she went up with her hands to preform a handsign, but caught herself and just acted like she was readjusting her top. Blushing, seeing how much of her slender body was being exposed she would look over to Shiroi.

"O...Ok.... so..... what is first? Or...... do you just want me to walk around by myself?" She would ask nervously, she could tell that she had a lot of eyes on her right now.

"Nah, being alone at these places is boring. And while it probably wouldn't be hard to pick up a companion," Shiroi said while she did an over exaggerated wink, "I doubt either of us are really looking for that sort of thing."

Turning around, Shiroi walked into the fairegrounds. The first few stalls were all food, and Shiroi was not hungry just yet. One was bean paste stuffed buns, another was serving something kabobs, and a third was all baked goods. If Hikari was curious, Shiroi would stick with her and visit the food stalls, but Shiroi's goal was the third stand on the left. It was a bean bag toss game. Fun game. Completely rigged. Not impossible, but rigged. The holes were technically big enough for the bean bag to get through, but their angle made them appear bigger than they were, so people always misjudged their size.

Now, it is also important to mention that this stall was one of those 'win almost every time' types. You could go for a closer hole, which was also a lot larger, and you get a little trinket. It was something terribly cheap and small, but it was something if you tried for it. Of course, the farther back holes were much smaller, but gave better prizes. The farthest hole, if you managed to get the bean bag into it, had a prize of a three foot tall teddy bear.

Of course, it cost money to play. Three throws per play. As they were walking up, Shiroi said "Just play along," to Hikari in a rather hushed tone.

"Oh. My god!" Shiroi positively squealed, doing a little jump and clap for joy (imagine the physics for yourself if you really want to). "I love this game!" Shiroi skipped over to the bean bag toss stand. "Ooh, I want to play! Pass me those bags!" Shiroi would hand the money over excitedly to the late teens/early twenties boy running the stall. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact with the girls, and making sure to stand very close to the counter, which rose up just past his waistline. He handed Shiroi the three bean bags, and she started throwing, 'aiming' for the closest holes. Of course they all missed, with exclaimations coming from the girl such as "oops", "darn it", and "this time I'll get it!" the entire time. Within a minute, she had run out of bean bags. Shiroi put on a pouty face and looked towards the boy running the stall. He would not budge, and shook his head.

So, Shiroi did the smartest thing possible. She rested her elbows on the counter with her hands against her cheeks. Her elbows were a bit closer together than the edge of her shoulders, and her back was just a few degrees off parallel with the ground. Her pouty face continued, but now she spoke. "Pleeease, can I have just one more throw! PLEEEEAASSSSEEE?" The boy's face went all red and, perhaps more to get her to stand up than anything, he handed her a bean bag and looked away.

Shiroi grabbed it and did a little jump again, aligning her shot for the back most hole. Of course, it landed, and went in, and the boy saw it plain as day. Shiroi would turn to Hikari and go "OHMYGODIDIDIT" while trying to grab Hikari's hands and do a little dance. The boy behind the counter would begrudgingly get up and get the teddy bear, before offering to hold onto it for them until later in the faire, or they could take it now. Shiroi fully expected Hikari to ask to take it now, but if that happened, Shiroi would interrupt Hikari. Regardless of any interruptions, Shiroi would say "Keep it here, cutie, I'll come get my prize later," before walking off with a wink, dragging Hikari (hopefully not literally!) behind her.

As Shirori would bring up the word ‘companion’ and once again started to fluster. She would respond with “Yeah, Prehaps you are old enough to do that, but I’m a little bit to young for that…. By the way….. How old are you Misstress? I thought you were a little kid, but seeing how you can change your body height as you please, are you actualy a little kid?”

After she answered that, Hikari would continue to follow her commander. (But would stop to grab her purse that she brought with her, filled with some money and her other clothing) As the girls walked down the path, Hikari could sense the eyes of a lot of men looking at the two girls. Hikari would blush at this and look around, on top of all the men staring at the scadly dressed pair of women, Hikari noticed that there was a lot of food stands. With all honesty, the chestnut haired girl hadn’t eaten since this morning, not taking time to of eat after her little spar. But at the same time, Namikaze didn’t want to say anything to her sparring partner. (Also, she was paranoid that if she ate something while her stomach was being shown then what ever she would eat would be easily seen in her stomach.) They would keep going until the two girls would come across a game stand. It was one of those fun ones where one was given a bean bag, and was made to throw it and try to get it into a hole. Closer holes get smaller prizes, further get larger. As the two approached the counter, there was a young man in his late teens, early 20’s working the counter.

As they got closer, Shiroi would come up to the young girl and ask her to ‘play along’ Hikari wasn’t sure what she meant until Shiroi suddenly started Squealing.
“Oh my god!” She squeeled, “I love this game!” And would ask the boy to play, handing over some money to play it. Hikari would watch at Shiroi would start to toss the bags. Something seemed off as she threw them, If Shiroi had wanted to, she could of thrown the bags in a similar way to how we threw shuiken, she would be easily able to hit the target every time. However, she wasn’t. This seemed weird to Hikari, even if she was trying to hide the fact she was a shinobi, she should have been able to hit the mark every time with her current abilities.

After all three of the bags were tossed, Shiroi would start to pout to the man about getting another bag. It seemd weird for Shiroi to do this, Hikari was about to offer to pay for the young girl to try again, but before she could, the young man gave in and gave her another bag. Shiroi would take it, jumping up and down with joy, before throwing the bag. This time, it went sailing above the holes she had been aiming at, and made it in the hole that was in the far back. Namikaze would be a little bit surprised that she did it, and when she did, Hikari almost forgot what she was wearing and was in such joy, “OHMYGODYOUDIDIT!” Hikari would squeal at the same time as her friend, and would grab Shiroi by her hands and jump up and down, this didn’t last for long before Hikari remembered that she was in her bikini and stopped and covered back up. When The boy went and got her prize and offered to give it to them now, or to keep it until the end, Hikari would respond with “Oh, we will take it with us now!” Hopeing that she could convince her mistress to let her hug it for the rest of the fair (Which Hikari would be able to use to cover up her front,) But right after she did, Shiroi would say "Keep it here, cutie, I'll come get my prize later.” Hikari would blush, when she called him a ‘cutie’ but would be more a little bit bumbed that The girl would see through her plan of using the toy as a cover up.

Shiroi would take Hikari by the hand and walk off to the next place.

As they continued to walk forward, Hikari’s stomach would growl a little bit. She would look around and notice something, a cotton candy stand! Hikari would look over at it, when she was a child and was at a fair held at her local town. She saw one, and the pink fluffiness made her fall in love with it. She wasn’t able to get one at the time (Her parents thought that it was to sugary for a small girl like Hikari to have at the time) But now, she felt like she could probably have some (And with the way it looked like it melted in one’s mouth, it appeared that it wouldn’t cause an unsightly bump of fat on Hikari’s stomach.)

“Um, Shiroi?” Hikari would ask, not calling her captor ‘mistress’ again, “I actually haven’t eaten today, would you mind if we stopped and got some of that?” Hikari would point at the cotton candy stand, and say, “I will pay, you don’t have to worry about that.”

Presuming Shiroi would say yes (IF not: ignore everything beyond this point and just keep going.) Hikari and her mentor would go to the stand (I don’t know, but I am presuming Shiroi would make Hikari go get it on her own, but stop me here if I am wrong again) the man at the cotton candy stand was of similar age to the one at the game stand. Similar to that man also, the man would look Hikari up and down once, before looking away. Namikaze would blush and ask “Hello? I would like to buy two Cotton candies please.”

The man would sort of mutter, saying “100 Ryo” Hikari would go into her purse and look for the money, unfortunately, she didn’t bring her wallet today, but she did have 50 ryo just lying around in the bottom of her purse.

She would look at the man and ask, “Um… I only have 50 ryo, Is there any way you can make an exception, for me? Please?”

The man would look up, see Hikari, and turn away and say, “Uh….. sure….” Namikaze would smile and give him the ryo, and start to head back over to Shiroi. Without really realizing it, she sort of accidently done the same thing Shiroi had done, and used her charm to get what she wanted.

Word Count: 1117

Shiroi wanted to grind her fist into Hikari's noggin for thinking the Jounin was a young child. Instead, Shiroi would turn to Hikari, a sickly sweet smile on her face. "Little kid?" Shiroi would step towards Hikari. She would slowly reach up and try to grab Hikari's shoulder. Not tightly. It was not even really a grab, it was more her hand cupping around Hikari's shoulder. She would continue smiling at Hikari for a moment, just letting the situation get awkward, before suddenly attempting to jerk Hikari forward and a bit down. This would result, if Shiroi had executed it perfectly and Hikari not resisted too much, in the center top back of Hikari's head landing directly under Shiroi's chin. There would be nowhere near enough force in this to damage either of the girls. At least, not physically.

"Does this look like a 'little girl' to you?" Shiroi whispered loudly, almost venomously, before letting Hikari go and taking a step back. "I'm eighteen."

The next events proceeded as previously described, with some extra room for if this exchange between the two girls continued.

---

"Yeah, you go ahead and get some, I'm going to get us some real food. Meet me back by the lake side where we started in like, five or ten minutes. And don't wrap up!" Shiroi went off and found a stall selling baozi. There were some fresh steamed barbecue pork buns that smells absolutely divine. Shiroi purchased four of those and two cream filled baozi from the stall. Nothing much interesting happened there. The teller was an older woman who, while she obviously disapproved of Shiroi's attire, was knowledgeable enough to not shoo away a paying customer. Shiroi left with a simple thank you after paying with money that had been curled up and tucked onto her ear under her hair (like a pencil) (I did not think this get up through at all, generally I just have Shiroi magic stuff out of her hoodie pocket o-o). She would then walk back over to the sheet with the half dozen baozi, expecting Hikari to have beaten her back.

A Hikari grabbed her head and brought her closer to her, the young girl screamed (In her head of course, if she did out loud, she didn't know what Shiroi would do to her.)

Hikari would back away from the young girl and would think for a while about what just happend, she is 18? That makes sense with her being a jounin in all, but she was so little! Perhaps her jutsu allowed her to play around with her height and age a little. That seems to be a good ability to have when you were oldr and worrying about your body.

A few more people came over to where the girls were set up to make set up to watch the fire works themselves. As Hikari got to her location first, she had half a mind to take the cloth and wrap herself in it, but remembered Shiroi’s last words of “Don’t wrap up” So Hikari didn’t. She would see Shiroi come with some food and Hikari would call out to her “Misstress, over here!” She would call out going back to using that word without realizing it and when Shiroi would come up Hikari would hand the cotton candy over to Shiroi, “Here you go, I talked to vender into giving us a half off deal!”

Shiroi smiled. "Learning how to use your assets, eh? Glad I could be a teacher for you," she said, sitting down next to her companion. "Eat up, that much sugar won't fill you, just make you all sticky." Shiroi grabbed out two of the pork buns and one of the cream buns and placed them next to Hikari. Grabbing one of the other pork buns for herself, she started eating it. Was pretty good. Not as good as a few shops in the village, but this was a faire setup, so it was expected to be a bit lower quality.

"So, there's one thing I didn't mention. We're not here just for the faire and the food. There's a little.. contest.. going on in, oh, about forty minutes I'd imagine? We're entering. So hurry up and finish eating." Shiroi proceeded to stuff her face. The buns were pretty good, and the cotton candy was... cotton candy.

When both were done eating, Shiroi would stand up and lead Hikari about one quarter of the way around the lake. There was a stage set up at this side, and a growing crowd of people. Shiroi had bundled up the sheet and her shirt and brought them with, explaining that they could watch the fireworks from that side of the lake.

Shiroi walked up to a small podium with a sheet of lines, some of which had names. There was nothing on the sheet other than the names and signatures, however. Shiroi told Hikari to write in here name and sign on the line next to it, though Shiroi did this before Hikari could.

Once both names were written upon the paper, Shiroi led Hikari to the area in front of the stage. She put unfurled the sheet there and laid down on her stomach, resting her head upon her arms. "Get comfortable, it may be awhile before we're called up."



A man walks onto the stage. There's around eighty people watching as he does so. Shiroi is not one of those. "Welcome, one and all, to the 'Suit Up!' competition, part of the second annual Hoshi Water Festival!" He made extravagant movements to accompany his extravagant voice. "Our fine panel of judges this year consists of..." blah blah blah... " They will be tasked with determining the most handsome and beautiful men and women: in bathing suits! We have many fine volunteers this year. Remember: we are a completely free contest, so we don't offer any amazing prizes, but we do offer you this pretty sash! Anyways, let's get on with the show! First up? ..."

Several men and women (mostly women) are called onto the stage. Shiroi only half pays attention to them. She does however note that all of the women so far have been wearing one pieces. Maybe this would be easier than she thought.

[don't be called up yet]

Hikari would blush, and when she was told she needed to learn how to ‘use her assets.’ “I… I wouldn’t call that ‘using her assets!” She would argue, before Shiroi would hand her food. Hikari would start eating, still slightly scared of getting fat while her midsection was so easily on display, but she was hungry enough to go ahead and do it. The food wasn’t the best, but it was a Fare, so that was to be expected. Hikari would, at a pace that was sort of slow.

As the two girls ate, Shiroi would bring something,
“So, there's one thing I didn't mention. We're not here just for the faire and the food. There's a little.. contest.. going on in, oh, about forty minutes I'd imagine? We're entering.”

Hikari would look up and shiver, “A contest?” She would ask, but Namikaze wasn’t going to push anymore then that…. After all…. This was probably one of the evil…. woman’s (She couldn’t call her a child or a loli anymore) sinister plans. As such, any sort of attempt to force the information would be meaningless, and with all honesty, might be for the best that the young girl didn’t know about it.

It took a bit of time before Hikari finished eating (She might of taken more time than she should of hoping she could miss the ‘contest’ if she took long enough, but only had so much food, and couldn’t make it last that long) Before they packed up and started heading over to the other side of the lake. Namikaze would walk over to the other side of the lake, where there was a small podium set up with sheet of lines on it. There were a few names on it, Shiroi told Hikari to put her name on it, and Shiroi would put her name on it.

Hikari would think for a second, what was this? She was about to put her name on something, and didn’t know what she was agreeing to, but Shiroi did it, so surely it couldn’t be all bad? Namikaze would take a pen and would print her name, and then sign it. Namikaze look at the jounin and the two of them would go in front of the stage.

Shiroi would open up the blanket and tell Hikari to get comfortable, and Hikari’s first reaction was to take the cloth and wear it again, but At this point Hikari had given up on that version of safety. She would instead sit on her front and rest her head on her forearms, similar to the way that Shiroi was resting. (Covered up her front afterall, and this was one Hikari’s favorate resting positions.)

After a few minutes had past some one would come up and explain the contest. Beautiful men and women…… in bathing suits?
Hikari would look over to shiroi in disbelief. “Misstress….. please tell me you are kidding….” Hikari would ask. “Am I even old enough to be in this contest?” Namikaze would then look at the men who were going up on the stage, apparently, the contest was having the men go first, and the women go second. After a few minutes, the girls would start to go up. Something that the 16 year old would notice was the fact that all the women were wering one pieces. They were still tight and exposing, but better than the two piece thing that the young girl was being forced to wear (Although they were still getting catcalled and woots from the crowd) “Why couldn’t I wear one of those?” The chestnut-haired girl would ask. After a bit more time (Perhaps Shiro would be cut off and can’t answer) The man would call out, “Next up, we have lovely lady contestant number 5! Shiroi Shinzo! Come on up!”


Word count: 639

As Hikari saw these events, she would turn a bright red and her heart would start to beat faster and faster, suddenly, Shiroi would return to her and tell her to ‘go get em!’ and spank her, As that happens, Hikari’s poor heart couldn’t take it anymore and she has a heart attack and dies.
[Exit]
[Claiming Hikari’s death]
HIkari would sort of bite her lip when she heard that this was for people aged 16 or older. She was 16 exactly, so close…..

Namikaze would watch as her teacher would go up get on the stage, Hikari noticed her eyes move over to the judges, as if to size them up and get ready for what was to come. The main problem Hikari had was with the fact that the last judge kept bleating the women that was going up. Hikari had no idea how she was going to deal with the woman.

When she finally did get on stage, the first judge (The one that was most level headed of them all) seemed to ask some questions. These were fairly basic about herself, and with all honesty Hikari felt like all of these questions were fair and normal. Heck, If it wasn’t for the fact that Shiroi had her midriff showing, it wouldn’t be weird at all. Almost like a job interview.

The second judge asked his questions, and Hikari felt like this was a bit weirder of questions, preahps something a guy would ask a girl on a first date. Shiroi however would be able to talk with the guy and go back and forth with him, while this was an interview like talk, it felt more like a conversation between the two rather than a question and answer.
The third judge would then come up to her and start to beliter Shiroi like she had to so many others before. As she did, Hikari would notice that a light appeared in the jounin’s eyes, like she had just hit the jack pot. Hikari would take the sheet and hide under it for a minute (This time, not to cover up), knowing what was coming, and she didn’t want to see the cringe that was to come. After about a minute, she would get up in time to see the woman flying out of her seat and on some of the cat callers. Hikari would chuckle a bit over this and would get out from under the covers before Shiroi would start to head back over to her. Well, one of the biggest problems for Hikari was down.

Shiroi was about to say how Hikari had a few minutes, but then the chestnut haried girl was called up.

Hikari would shiver, feeling like her name was called for some sort of execution order,

As Hikari got up, and tried to calm her self down, shiroi would give Hikari a firm slap, it was loud and hard enough that a few other people probably heard it, making Hikari blush even more. She would look over a Zee with puppy eyes, as in Please don’t make me do this! Before heading out to go over to the stage. She made this plea, but knew it was pointless.


As Hikari got on stage, (Still holding her breast so that no one could see her cleavage,) the first judge would start asking questions.

“Ok, first questions are easy introductions, Name, age, etc.”

Hikari would shiver a more, well, she had to preform now or not at all. She looked over to Shiroi, who was most likely signaling to her to answer the questions.

“Uh….. Hikari Namikaze, 16, I have lived in Hoshi for about….. well, it’s been about four months now.”

“Arms behind your back,” The second judge would jump in and say. Hikari’s face would turn a bright red. To make matters worst, it looked like a few more of the jerks were in the back, catcalling more.

“Yeah, show us the goods babe!”
“No hiding bitch!”

This made things even worst, Hikari was almost trembling at this point, but what was she supposed to do? It was far too late for Hikari to get out of this situation (Unless she wanted to make it rain fireballs, but Hikari felt like that might make the situation worst.) so, she had no luck. Hikari would put her hands behind her back, letting everyone see her slender body. The jerks in the back started wooting and hollering, Hikari probably had the largest bust size of the entire cast. The first judge would look over to the second one, and sort of nudge him to continue, seeing that he was cut off.

“Ok, favorate color ba…. Hon….. Hikari?” the man said, trying not to say something sexual. Hikari would blush and respond.

“Well…. My favorate color is white, and no, I am not just saying that because you said that, it is my favorate color. However, Fuscia comes in a close second.”

“Hmmm, ok then, how about hobbies?”

Training Hikari would think, but knew she couldn’t say that. With all honesty, since she came to Hoshi, that was the majority of what she has had done. But obviously she couldn’t say that! So, Hikari had to come up with something else that sounded more normal. “Well…. I enjoy cooking, my parents ran a tea shop that I worked at as a maid when I was younger….”


“A maid?” One of the cat callers jokingly said and acted like he was about to faint, “Take me now!”

Note to self Hikari thought, master air bullets so that I can use it without hand seals, then, I could just ‘sneaze,’ and hit people. Hikari’s vision was starting to blur for a second, the embarrassment was starting to raise her blood pressure to the point that she felt like she was about to pass out! She had to come up with something else quick! “I often love reading novels! Heck, most days you can find me in the Archives reading!”

“Great!” The heckler said in an obviously fake overjoyed voice, “Now I know where I can meet the woman of my dreams!”

Hikari was sure she blacked out for a second, because she felt like she missed a few seconds, the next thing she could tell was “avorate food?”

“Um….” Hikari would try to recollect herself, “I…. I think, Um,…. My favorate food it…. Most likely…. Well, the cotton candy at the stands here was really good! I love sweets!”

“You can be my sweetie any day!” One of the hecklers called out.

This time, actualy, Hikari wouldn’t pass out or start to lose conscious. This time, she would sort of chuckle, that one, Hikari had to admit, was kind of funny.
Sensing that Hikari was laughing a bit (Probably thinking that she had gone insane due to the, hecklers) the judge would ask his next question, this time talking in a little bit more of a comforting way, “Wow, you have only been here a couple of months? What brought you to Hoshi?”

Hikari was still a little bit sore on the subject that brought her to the village, so she didn’t want to give the full answer, (Also, it involved becoming a shinobi, so she couldn’t give that away.) “It was about time for me to move out from my family’s tea shop, where I worked as a maid, and Hoshi felt like it was the best option for me to make a career and have a life here… and hoshi are often known for being so open….. so… well…. That was the main reason…”

The judge would write a note on his note pad. “Now…. What do you think of our poltical situation with Shinobi occupation?”


Hikari would think about this for a second, obviously she was a shinobi in support of it, but if she answered like that, she might be lynched on the grounds of a being a shinobi trying to sneak her way into the competition. However, this was a good opportunity to point out the good points of shinobi.
“I…. I don’t like it.” Hikari would start, getting a little bit analytical, she slowly started to forget the part where she was in the middle of a contest wearing practically nothing. “And with all honesty, I don’t think anyone does. We have limited water supplies, food, and land, and having a group of…. Basically soldiers…. Occupying us and straining our already small resources seems a little bit insane for me, even more so when you consider the dark” Hikari decided to play a little bit dumb here, “Magic that the shinobi use, in seems unholy and wrong. However, where I was from my family and myself had to fear attacks from missing ninja’s and bandits on a daily basis. And when they did preform raids, they didn’t care what they left us with, just took our supplies and goods and left us for dead. I can’t count how many of my friends I have seen raped, kidnapped, and killed at the edge of a rusty, serrated blade. I don’t know how bad it was for you in the village of Hoshi, but I hear it was as bad, if not worst, then it was for me and my family. I don’t like them being here, however, I personally feel like having evil demons that will take some of our supplies and live with us in peace is better than dealing with those evil demons that would kill us and take all of our property…..”

As Hikari explained a little bit about her past, and showed she was more than just a pretty face, the crowd got silent, even the rude people involved with the cat calling stopped there shenanigans. After a few seconds of this silence, the first judge would say “That will be all, Miss Namikaze.”

Hikari (Who was starting to cool down a bit) would start to curtsy to the crowd, then remembered she didn’t have any dress to do that in, so she bowed and made her way off the stage, back to Shiroi.

Hikari would make it back to the sheet that she and Shiroi was on, and would sort of fall on it, she would then roll over onto her back so she was more comfortable (At this point, she had been on stage with a bunch of people watching her, so she didn’t care to much if a few people were still watching her and got a good look at her now. She would take a deep breath before putting stating, “Well, I hope that is good enough, Misstress. I think we can all agree that you are going to win the whole competition, but I hope that was good enough for my ‘punishment.’"

Word Count: 1819
TWC: 5564
(OOC: Hikari doesn’t know that Shiroi was DQed)

Shiroi chuckled a bit as Hikari was on stage. Despite appearing to be a total dunce, and even a bit of an airhead, she had a brain on those shoulders! And a weight in front of them, which the crowd was obviously enjoying. Shiroi was surprised with how far Hikari bowed, and apparently several men were quite pleased. Then Hikari walked back over towards Shiroi and, in a surprising turn of events, laid on her back! So Shiroi went from her sitting position to lay on her back too, their heads just about lining up.

"I wouldn't bet on it. I don't think that first judge likes me, and I'm convinced that second judge liked 'you' better," she said with a wink, looking over towards Hikari. There were only a handful of participants after the pair. Turns out, not many people go to swimsuit contests in a rather religious place.

The two remaining judges were given a few minutes to discuss the winner while contestants were asked to gather behind stage. The host made special mention that 'participants may bring a plus one with them to wait and go on stage with, if they so desire.' Shiroi went with Hikari to wait behind the stage. A fair few people were trying to ask Shiroi to let them be her 'plus one', but she refused, and would interrupt Hikari if she ever seemed like she was going to say 'yes'. Behind the stage, most of the women huddled together away from Hikari and Shiroi. Most of the men huddled in small groups. They did not look towards Shiroi and Hikari either, but that likely was in no small part to the fact that they were wearing either very loose swim trunks or very tight speedos, were about to go on stage, and did not want to be saluting the audience.

Shiroi leaned against the back wall of the stage wishing she had some gum. "Interesting standpoint, by the way. Didn't expect you to have such a detailed position on the 'ninja occupation'. That what you really think, or just what you thought he wanted to hear?"

First up, the men were called up, one after the other. The prizes were given and they were asked to stay on stage for the group bow. Hands interlocked, they all bent the ninety degrees to do the wave-like bow, and then a second time it was done, before walking off stage. Next up came the women. Two no names were called up for third and second place. Shiroi mentioned something while they waited for first place to be called "Just go with it again, you did well last time," and stood up, standing directly behind Hikari.

"And first place goes to: HIKARI NAMIKAZE! With two perfect scores! Fun fact: She is the ONLY one to get a perfect score from !" When the host announced Hikari's name, Shiroi would jump into action, attempting to land squarely on Hikari's shoulders. The plan was to ride her to victory. Shiroi cheered for the girl, egging her to go to the stage. Realize that, despite Shiroi's height being significantly more than normal, her weight was still the minuscule eighty pounds, so Hikari could easily handle it. Shiroi would jump off Hikari's shoulders, landing on her hands before rolling to stand upright. The sash that would be handed to Hikari was a bit too large, of course, it never fit perfectly, so even when placed at the farthest point up on her shoulder, it would still nearly pass under her bust. Shiroi would stand next to Hikari during the group bow. Technically, Shiroi stood with the other 'plus ones', but she was on the edge of it, with Hikari being the next person in line. Once this was done, Shiroi would wait for Hikari to act.