OOC:

Spoiler:

It was a bit of a surprise when Nozomi once again found herself in the race course arena. She already knew the rules, of course, as she had completed the track last time with little difficulty. Looking around her, she sized up her competition, and was rather relieved that none of them were repeats from the first time she'd done the course. If any of them remembered her, she'd be a target for sure, having knocked most of them off the course. That being said, she saw the weasels eyeing her up, and it was rather evident that they remembered her. A smile formed on her face. That meant that things would be pretty interesting this race. This time, she wasn't even wearing her weights to start with, having chosen to forgo them. She was reaching a plateau of speed that she really didn't want to be bothered with them anymore.

The weasels growled, pointing their scythes at Nozomi, who only smiled back in response. She pulled out her A rank tanto, and took up a ready stance, just waiting for the race to start. She was just going to take her time with this one, and block their sickles with the tanto. She thought back on what Hanbei had told her about the weasels, that they didn't necessarily hurt to get hit by, which was some small comfort. She didn't really enjoy the pain of a blade cutting into her, should she fail to dodge for whatever reason. Still, she wasn't about to lose either, and the only way to actually lose was to be caught by the weasel's weapons and lose your legs. As long as she crossed the finish line of lap 3, she would be completely fine, and on her way to the last of the qualifying missions.

WC: 302/750

The match started, and Nozomi took off with a start about as fast as she could comfortably go. She wasn't running full speed, just going fast enough that she wasn't going to run out of steam any time soon, and there were actually those that kept up with her this time. Of course, there were still plenty of them that were falling behind a little bit, but they really weren't of much concern to Nozomi. The first hurdle was coming up fairly quickly, and she had to be prepared for the weasels. They seemed to have been slighted by her in the past race she was in, and wanted to pay her back for completely making fools of everyone. To that regard, the other competitors were largely ignored as the three of them focused on Nozomi herself. Their scythes moved in to try and catch Nozomi with at least one of them.

Moving low and beginning to tuck into a slide, Nozomi's blade swept towards the other blades from the bottom, to use vertical force against their horizontal momentum. It would be easy to chain reaction their blades being knocked into the air above her and let her slide under their weapons. The hurdle was passed with ease, and Nozomi picked up her speed a bit, still not quite pushing herself. She was eager to get the rest done. At the same time, she didn't want to completely show off her skill set before the championships. As it was, she'd already showed off quite a bit more than she usually would in a couple of the other obstacle courses. It was a good way for people to gather information on her if they didn't already have it. She was now pulling into the lead a bit though, as the others tried to keep up, but her body movements were top tier for most shinobi.

A couple laps and dodged hurdles later, Nozomi was comfortably ahead of most of the other competitors, although the weasels had been hyper focusing on her, so only a couple had even been eliminated. That being said, there was another contestant who was managing to keep up with her somewhat. It provided that little boost of fun that Nozomi needed, as she was intent on not allowing him to pass her up. That being said, she wasn't going quite as fast as she could, and she'd been the main person dodging any sickle attacks, so that was what had stopped her from actually maintaining a heavy lead. The last hurdle came up, and Nozomi stopped moving, the sickles barely missing her as they hadn't expected her to stop, and Nozomi burst forward as fast as she could, gaining up on the other contestant, who had passed her with her stop. Gritting her teeth in frustration, Nozomi and him both sped towards the finish line, and crossed at what seemed like the same time.

To Nozomi, the answer was clear though. He had crossed only slightly before she had. It didn't really matter, but she took a small blow to her pride, having finished second. She still had completed the course though, and only needed one more qualifying win. If she saw him again, she'd make sure to beat him in the championships.

WC: 546
TWC: 848/750

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