A tournament

As she was trying to figure out about her feelings which were all over the place, she thought to herself “I have never felt this way or at least for these past few years. Talking to strangers never left this kind of impression on me before.”

That day she sat in front of her PC with all kinds of questions in her mind. She streamed for hours on end as usual, but something was surely different about her. She handled her internal thoughts as though she had been doing that for ages. Even at the end of the stream no one could tell if anything was wrong with her.

Fuyumi does not get close to any person on her own. She believes human connections are meaningless. The only thing it brings is “pain”. Some one loses a precious person every day then why do people long for these connections, even after being aware of it. Still, she managed to get a few friends on whom she could rely on.

A few days passed by, she started to attend college more regularly. She had been busy attending events up until now either it be online or offline. She goes back to her normal life pretty soon and the thoughts of that day in the supermarket disappeared as if they never existed in the first place.

They first encountered eachother in April, the spring season. Time flew by and it was almost summer. While everyone was planing to go to the sea shore on their vacation, Fuyumi was busy preparing for an E-sports tournament taking place in a different region. She managed to get in a team last winter and this tournament was going to be a big opportunity for them. She had been putting a lot of effort for this tournament so as to get sponsorships. Being in a team may not seem a big deal but adjusting your play style for others and everyone helping eachother to bring out everyone's true potential is really difficult. Most teams disband within a month or two. Also not many teams get recognition early in the game but for Fuyumi's team it was not like other typical teams. Fuyumi has a great influence in the industry so she has the image of being arrogant which is not true at all but it did cause troubles in the past.

Fuyumi's friend Nami and others made plans together to go to the beach but Fuyumi refused Nami at once when Nami offered Fuyumi to go with them. She came up with an excuse because most of you could say non of her acquaintance know about her career. Fuyumi always says she does “Free-lancing” which only aligns to one part of her actual job and that is, being an 'independent worker'.

The holidays approached and soon most of the students left for their vacations. Some went to visit their parents and some went to trips while a lot of them tried to get internship. Fuyumi's day-to-day life didn't change much. Wake up - Stream - Practice with teammates - Sleep. She did go outside on Sundays to go shopping for groceries.

Soon the day of the tournament was arriving. Most people show their faces when the tournament gets telecast but Fuyumi hides her face with a mask and a wig. She always asks the telecasting team to not to show her face often and it is one of the criteria for her to show up in events such as this.

Time flew by quickly , Fuyumi arrived there 2 days early for all the test runs and also to get used to the new set up. Most of the teams arrived on the same day. The tickets for watching the tournament live in the venue were all sold out a day before and finally the most anticipated day arrived, the day of the Tournament. The venue was filled with people. One-by-one all the teams were introduced. The match for the first round started. Only the top 6 teams will get in among the 16 teams who came to compete from different regions.

After intense battle the 6 teams were chosen and Fuyumi's team got in with the 2nd highest points. They started preparing for the next round in which only 2 teams will get a chance to compete. Fuyumi's team was newly formed but had the coordination needed for a team to perform well. They entered the 3rd round with a breeze. The finals were to be done the next day. They all went back to their hotel and were exhausted. They had a small party with snacks and drinks for qualifying in the Finals. Then they discussed strategies for the next day and everyone went back to their rooms.

The next day, they had a ceremony where the teams were being introduced. The stage simmering with lights and focusing on each player when they are introduced. When all the lights were focused on Fuyumi for her introduction she saw a familiar face in the audience. She wore a mask and a cap still her facial expressions were visible. She was in a dilemma for a few seconds.

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