Natsume woke up on her bed, sweating and panting. Her usual nightmare chased her again. For a moment, she was confused as she didn’t recognize her surroundings, but slowly remembered everything so far. She sat down on the bed to calm down and then looked through the nearby window. The sky was getting orange, but the streets were still crowded with a lot of different creatures. She vaguely looked at them, recognizing some possible monsters from tales and stories, but didn’t feel anything. Instead, the girl went outside her room and down to the pub, where Susbok was still working behind the bar.

-Oh, there you are!- exclaimed Susbok at the sight of Natsume. -It’s getting late and I thought you would be hungry. What do you wanna eat?

Natsume sat down on a stool and simply shrugged.

-Whatever is fine- said Natsume in low voice.

-Oh, sure, you’re new here, you don’t know anything!- exclaimed Susbok. -Then I’ll prepare the ideal meal for first-timers. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

After a while, Susbok took a tray from the kitchen and put it in front of Natsume. There was a generous steak with gray sauce on it, a bowl with some kind of red soup and a few slices of bread. The girl simply put her hands together and then began to eat. Even though Susbok expected to see a young girl enjoying a nice meal, all he saw was a girl taking small bites of food at a slow pace, all while keeping her usual sad look. Susbok stared at that image until someone else claimed his attention in other part of the pub. Some minutes later, Elima appeared through the entrance door and approached Natsume.

-Oh, there you are! Do you like the food? It can be quite a change for someone like you- commented Elima with a giggle, but the girl simply nodded in agreement. After a few seconds of silence, the commander continued talking. -Well, as I told you, I have to explain the rules for you. Do you mind?

Elima pointed at the stool next to Natsume. The girl nodded again and the commander sat down.

-OK, the first round will be the preliminaries- explained Elima. -Since there are a lot of participants, we need to reduce the number to sixteen. Thus, all of you have been divided in 16 different groups and will fight a small tournament. The winner of each group will keep playing in the competition. In other words, if you want to move to the next round, you need to win 3 fights with the standard rules. The preliminaries will take place tomorrow all day. It will be a long day of fighting, so you better rest well. A soldier will come here in the morning to take you to the battle location, and Susbok will call you when that happens since your time perception is different. Do you get it so far?

Natsume nodded once again. Elima look at the child with worried expression, but continued explaining.

-Also, the opening ceremony takes place in a few hours and Your Majesty, King Mito, will give a speech. You don’t have to go if you’d rather not, but it can be fun and there will be a lot of creatures and participants over there. What do you say? Do you want me to take you there?

-No… thanks. I’d like to train a bit today- said Natsume.

-Well, if that’s what you want… You can use the area behind the inn, but you should take it easy. Tomorrow will be a big day- said Elima while pointing at a door that led to the outside.

-OK...-simply answered Natsume.

-Are you sure you don’t need anything else? Any other question?- asked Elima with worried tone, but the girl just denied with her head, keeping her usual sad face. -In that case, rest well and… I’ll see you tomorrow.

Elima stood up to leave, but Natsume stood up as well. She didn’t finish her meal, but began walking towards the door. The commander looked at her with sad expression, but turned around and left the inn.

The afternoon passed by quickly. Natsume asked Susbok of a sphere she could use for practice and began running around, kicking and bouncing the ball. She wanted to get used to the feeling of moving with it. In her head, she was calculating how careful she had to be while running with that sphere. On the other hand, Elima attended the opening ceremony. As she said, a huge crowd gathered at the entrance of the royal castle, waiting for the king to appear on stage. As King Mito walked forward, a huge roar echoed through the whole city.

-Dear citizens of Gat-Erol and visitors from faraway lands. It is an honor for me to hold this celebration once again as the Guardian Clash Tournament will begin once anew. This challenge is a reminder of how all of us are equal and should find an understanding of each other, not through violence and bloodshed, but through solemnity and respect. As more creatures from distant worlds gather together, we get a deeper understanding of how important our differences are and how those differences can make us grow. This year…

The king continued his “fake” speech, as it was written by Prince Zester, who stood by the king’s side. Among the crowd, Elima threw a stern look towards the king: somehow, her ability told her he was lying, or more like, he didn’t actually believe any of those words. However, she couldn’t pinpoint why. Thus, the day was over soon after and the next day arrived at the same pace.

-Hello, Natsume?- asked Susbok in front of Natsume’s door. -You should get up soon to have time for breakfast.

-Yeah, I’m coming...- answered Natsume from the other side of the door.

What Susbok didn’t know was that Natsume had been awake for quite a while and she was sitting on her bed, gasping and sweating. Once again, that recurrent nightmare chased her. The girl shook her head and left the room towards the pub area, where Susbok had already prepared some breakfast.

-Good morning. I hope you slept well- said Susbok smiling, but Natsume simply nodded. -Here’s your breakfast. The soldier will be arriving soon, so you better get ready.

After saying that, Natsume sat on a stool in front of the bar and began eating. Just like the previous day, she took small bites and ate slowly, or more like without much appetite. Susbok looked at her puzzled.

-I noticed you didn’t finish your meal yesterday. Was there something wrong? If you don’t like this either, I can prepare you other thing- offered Susbok happily.

-No… It was good...- answered Natsume.

-Well, I guess you have a small stomach then. But you should eat well now, you need as much energy as possible- exclaimed Susbok.

Still, the girl barely ate half of the food and sat down quietly while waiting for the soldier who would take her to the fighting arena. Among the creatures gathered at the pub, who talked loudly about the matches for the day, nobody seemed to notice the young girl waiting in silence. Compared to them, she felt insignificant, and somehow, relieved. In some way, being ignored was better than knowing everybody leered at her, gossiping about her trouble-making attitude. Still, that was not enough, as she remembered her goal clearly. Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

-I’m looking for… Natsume… Kumojima?- asked a young man in armor who just entered the pub while reading a piece of paper.

Natsume stood up and walked towards the soldier. Then she noticed how everybody looked at her surprised, but she ignored them. The girl also ignored the surprised face from the soldier, who cleared his voice.

-I’m taking you to the training grounds, where the preliminaries will take place- explained the soldier. -Are you ready?

Natsume nodded silently and followed the soldier through the door and the streets. Although there were still creatures on the streets, they weren’t as crowded as the previous day. The soldier noticed the girl looking around a bit and, knowing what she was thinking, explained:

-The training grounds are a small location for a big audience, and there will be a lot of battles. So instead, the images will be sent and showed in “air windows” at specific locations. Viewers have already gathered there, so it will be easy for us to walk around.

Still, the city was big enough to require a lengthy walk towards the grounds. Around fifteen minutes later, Natsume and the soldier arrived at their destination: an old fort with a big ground arena in a central patio. Inside the patio, a lot of different creatures, both human-like and not, gathered in small groups.

-Your group is over there. Follow me- said the soldier.

Both began walking towards one corner. Natsume looked around a bit, but her eyes stopped when noticing a figure. At the opposite wall, there was someone sitting on a stone bench with their legs crossed. From their shape, they looked human, around her same height, and they wore clothing similar to that taken from movies about ninjas and samurais: a thin white sleeveless shirt, gray baggy trousers and sandals. The girl wasn’t sure if they were human, as they hid their face with a white fox mask, similar to those seen in festivals, and the rest of their head was covered with a dark blue hood. As if meditating, the mysterious creature was doing some kind of gesture with their hands, but she couldn’t see it well. It was then than a loud voice screamed.

-What a bunch of weaklings! I could destroy them all right now and take the big prize!

Natsume turned around and found a huge boulder blocking sunlinght, or so he looked like that, as a huge viking-like man, as big as a truck, stood in front of her.

-And what is this? A kid? I can snap you this instant like a branch!- exclaimed the rude man while laughing out loud. However, Natsume stayed unemotional, which made the man angried. -What? Do you have a problem?

As the man kneeled down to grab Natsume, Elima stood between them.

-Stop right now, Durbonfer! You know the rules: no fighting outside official battles! Now move or you’ll get disqualified, and you know you can’t defeat me!- exclaimed Elima.

A weird silence filled the air as both of them glared at each other. The man called Durbonfer sighed and stood up.

-Whatever, you just took me off-guard, but I can crash you anytime! But I’ll play your silly stupid game- said Durbonfer with a mocking voice. Elima sighed.

-I’m sorry, Natsume. There’s always someone like that, and he had to end up in my group. Are you ready?- asked Elima, but Natsume was looking at another direction. -Is there any problem?

Natsume looked around and found the strange figure again, as they leaned back on the wall. There was something strange about that creature, but she didn’t know what it was.

-That person… no, creature… That one over there… Do you know who that is?- asked Natsume.

Elima looked in the same direction and noticed the masked figure as well.

-Yeah, I know some things, although they’re not in my group, so I don’t have that much information. Besides, they asked for their info to be kept as secret. But I know they call themselves “White Fur”- explained Elima.

“White Fur” murmured Natsume while still looking at the masked creature. Elima was surprised by the girl’s attitude, as it was the second time she showed other emotion aside from her usual sadness. “Maybe it’s their looks?”, thought Elima.

-Well, come over here, we have to start- said Elima to Natsume.

Both of them approached a group of creatures who gathered around a white rectangle mark on the ground. Natsume approached the group, with the previous Durbonfer in it, as well as a skinny lizard creature, a shy witch and robust four-legged living rock, or so they seemed. Including Natsume, there were eight creatures in that group. The girl didn’t focus that much on them and listened to Elima’s speech.

-Welcome to the preliminaries to you all- said Elima out loud while a blank floating board appeared next to her. -As you see, you eight have been grouped together and will play matches until there is one final winner. Rules are simple: you have been randomly assigned in pairs, shown in this board, and each one will fight until one participant wins, who will then move to the next round and will fight against the winner of other match. You will play standard matches, so the one keeping the ball most of the time wins. Each match will last the standard measure, and don’t worry, you will see it adapted to your time measures on the board. Remember: Absolute Victory is OK, but you can't severely harm your opponent. Additionally, if you leave the area, you automatically lose. Without further ado, let’s see the chart.

Suddenly, letters and blocks appeared in the block, forming a chart showing each participant and who would they fight. Natsume took a look, but didn’t pay attention to the names as she wouldn’t know who belonged to who. However, she noticed she was on the farthest left side, which meant…