The Spirit of Competition

Stationed under the blissful shade of a tree in Burrowgatory Park, Ryobu rests against the tree trunk in his bun-form, awaiting the subtle presence of Lee Chi. With his eyes shut, enjoying the gentle breeze, he senses her arrival. She’s out of her doll form, just as he requested yesterday—excellent, always attentive.

"Today, your training takes the form of a mission, sprout," Ryobu says, peeking open an eye and smiling at her, raising a hoof. "A ninja manipulates the world around them to their benefit in unnoticeable ways. To master discretion, you must also sharpen the blade of your tongue. Your goal is to locate my littermate Kiiro and, while in this form, convince him to do something fun with you. Whatever that may be is up to you," Ryobu chuckles lightly. " Hehe~ A monumental task, given my beloved littermate's perpetual stick up his ass, no? You have until sunset. Let me know how it goes, you’ll find him near the outskirts of town."

~~~

"Something... Fun?" Lee Chi murmured, her nose scrunching in thought. It wasn't the request itself she had a problem with; Ryobu-sensei always gave her tasks that others saw as 'unorthodox'. However, like he said, Kiiro tended to... Well, have a stick up his ass. "Of course sensei, I won't let you down." She touched her front hooves together in front of her and bowed over them before scurrying off, her Chimelody Wakana drifting after her. 

~ 

Finally. Lee had been searching for Kiiro for the majority of the morning; her bun form made it difficult to run along rooftops like she may have done otherwise. Regardless, find him she did. Step one, complete.

"Kiiro-sama!" She called out to him cheerfully, ears twitching in an almost-wave. Lee bounced over to him, smiling up at the Greed doll with a Fang-filled grin.

~~~

Kiiro’s armor clanked with every assured step he took, sandals kicking up dirt and rock in his path. The summer heat is challenge to endure while fully suited, yet every day he grows ever more tolerant. He’s going on a walk specifically to test his endurance, the sparseness of strong trees provides little shade. The soothing songs of his chimelody, Banto, urges him forward. The imp happily keeping up by his side. 

Kiiro freezes when he hears his name called out to him, hand on his katana blade until he IDs the playful cheer.

“… Lee-chan? “ He turns around but sees nothing, fins twitching as he suspiciously and slowly stalks forward. Eyes darting around, hand on his handle much firmer now.

“Why do you hide?” He demands to know. Unsure if this is a trick of forces far more sinister or a silly game. Banto ducks behind her owner’s head, charm rattling.

~~~

"I'm down here, Kiiro-sama!" Lee Chi jumped up and down a few times, waving her arms to get his attention. Wakana joined in, chiming softly as she floated up towards Banto. 

Okay Lee, what's the plan here...

"What a pleasant surprise to see you today!"

~~~

". . ." Kiiro's gaze falls to the ground, where he notices a spiky perky-eared bunny hopping excitedly. Banto eagerly drifts towards Wakana, thrilled to see her playmate.

Kiiro doesn't dislike Lee Chi. Despite her hyperactivity and occasional annoyance, he'd be remiss if he didn't respect her hard work and persistence under Ryobu's training. He even finds her... cute. Despite that, his frown remains firm as he leans down slightly, towering over Lee Chi with a judgmental glare.

"A surprise? You weren't sent to find me?" the samurai scrutinizes her, brow pinching towards beneath his helmet.

~~~

"Sent to find you?" Lee tipped her head to the side. "Well, Ryobu-sensei has me on a mission right now, so technically I've been 'sent' by him, but the training is top secret!" 

Both a blessing and a curse, Lee Chi was quite good at 'not technically lying'. And she figured feigning surprise, and acting like all of her suggestions were her own instead of Ryobu's, would make Kiiro more likely to accept. 

"It's such a beautiful day out today, isn't it?"

~~~

She's so ridiculous.

He takes a very brief glance around, noticing their chimelodies sweetly circling each other.

Kiiro squats down, since craning his neck so dramatically to look at the dirt will make his spine ache.

" ... Quite, " He responds, now more suspicious than ever to whatever she's going to subject him too.

"I am training my endurance, the lack of strong shade alongside this area is good for it." Explains why he's all sweaty and a tiny bit out of breath.

~~~

Lee couldn't stop her rump from wiggling; if she had a tail, it would definitely be wagging. Despite their vastly different personalities, Lee Chi genuinely liked spending time with Kiiro. His sword skills were impressive; she could learn a lot from him. 

"So we're both training today." She nodded sagely. "Well, as I was running through Burrowgatory, I heard talk of something that sounded like it could be interesting to participate in, if you're willing to take a break with me? Not that you need one, of course-"

~~~

Kiiro huffs out of his nose as he watches her, feeling some sort of cute-aggression bubbling up that he's attempting to ignore.

"And what is this... something? " He sighs, indulging her. It would definitely be uncouth to ask to pet her. If somebody asked him he'd threatened to smite them where they stood.

~~~

"Hutch - ah, they own one of the most popular imp shops in the city - is hosting what they're calling an 'imp training camp'. There are imps of all kinds competing in little games with each other; I was thinking of bringing Wakana there later, I think she would have a lot of fun if Banto came too!" 

At the sound of her name, Wakana floated down and nuzzled against one of Lee Chi's ears, pulling a giggle from the bun. "How does that sound, Kiiro-sama?"

~~~

“… Imp training camp,” Kiiro repeats, trying to process what exactly that implies. 

It doesn’t sound foolish, just interesting. City bunnies train their imps? Kiiro is curious to how; however he’s in the middle of something.

Kiiro stands, making an uncertain sound, “I’m unsure how relevant such a thing will be for my day...”

Banto chimes all sad.

~~~

Lee's ears droop a little, and Wakana copies the sad chime that Banto made, floating over to her friend and petting the other Chimelody with her tail. 

"I-It's still outdoors!" Lee exclaimed. "We can find a place with lots of sun to stand... and... and you can carry me the whole way there! Extra resistance training!" 

Please please please-

~~~ 

“…”  ugh.

Kiiro looks to the camaraderie their imps have, and then Lee Chi practically begging for him to join her.

“Very well,” He relents, annoyed because she’s hopelessly adorable. Kiiro squats again and picks her up, big hands circling her bunny torso and lifting Lee Chi off the ground.

~~~

Lee Chi squeaked softly in mild surprise; she hadn't actually been expecting him to pick her up. "Thank you, Kiiro-sama!" 

Lee realized that she was genuinely excited to have their imps play together, and be able to spend a calm day with Kiiro, even if Ryobu-sensei hadn't specifically given her a mission. More often than not, either Ryobu-sensei or Void would be present as well, so Lee still felt like she didn't really know Kiiro despite having known him for awhile. 

"The training camp is set up near the Imporium, I can give you directions as we go. For now-" she pointed with a hoof back the way she'd come. "That's the best path to take to get to the right street!"

~~~

Kiiro holds Lee Chi like she’s a Weird Little Thing he isn’t exactly sure what to do with for a moment.

He then carefully sets Lee Chi atop his helmet, between his horns for her to hold.

“And how… Crowded is this camp going to be?” Kii is preparing himself for the answer to be ‘very.’

~~~

Lee's eyes widened as Kiiro set her on top of his helmet; she had the distinct thought that she was probably the only bun who had ever been up here. There wasn't much to hold onto other than his horns... so she did, gently. "Oh, I'm sure we can find a quieter part of it! The area that was sectioned off is really big."

~~~

" Will Banto have to train with..." He's trying to find a delicate way to put 'the barbaric city-trained fever imps of the general Burrowgatory public.'

"...The other imps there," He settles on, "I rather it just be her and Wakana."

~~~

Lee Chi shook her head before she remembered that Kiiro couldn't see her. "No, it can just be us! There are a lot of buns that are-" anti-social "-more selective with the company they keep, so it'll be no problem to make sure we get time to ourselves." 

Lee had never been to one of Hutch's training camps, but she figured it wasn't too much of a stretch to assume that the general public wouldn't want to spend time with someone like Kiiro, with his... 'stick up his ass' attitude and scary scowl.

~~~

~

Everyone naturally makes way for Kiiro, from the view Lee Chi has she sees just how easily crowds part to distance themself.

A plain doll at the entry point wearily smiles with a pamphlet in their hand, must be a volunteer.

“Um- hello! Would you like—“

“No.”

“Ok.“ 

Kiiro doesn’t even look at them as he walks past, stopping once they’ve made it within the perimeter. The colorful training-structures at first Kiiro felt were silly, but their purpose slowly clicks. Obstacles courses. Very nice. Banto chimes excitedly at the sight of all the imps and fun looking things.

~~~

Lee Chi winced a little at Kiiro's cold response to the poor volunteer, giving them an apologetic smile as they passed. She took a glance around the park, looking for something that might be fun for the two Chimelody. Wakana floated up to her, nestling with her between Kiiro's horns. It was a bit windier here, in this wide-open space. "What do you think would be fun for them?" Lee called down to Kiiro.

~~~

“… Fun?” Kiiro squints up at the little bunny atop his head, like the word ‘fun’ was her misspeaking.

Lee has mentioned training is ‘fun’ for her, so maybe that’s what she means.

“We can train wind endurance,” First thing that comes to mind.

~~~

"Wind... Endurance?" 

Lee Chi wasn't particularly surprised that Kiiro was immediately thinking about training even though she had mentioned earlier that she thought this would be fun for their imps, but... 

"Umm, yeah... They could... Oh!" She leaned over so Kiiro could see where she was pointing. "Over there, that looks like an obstacle course, doesn't it? What about that?"

~~~

"That'll do," Kiiro nods in approval, Lee Chi was expecting more resistance. 

Banto chimes a little louder and floats excitedly in the direction, the imp must find it fun looking.

He stands in front of the obstacle course, hands on his hips as he scrutinizes it, "May I ask you a question?" 

Banto curiously floats through an array of hoops, clinking in surprise as a gust of wind blows her back.

~~~

Wakana excitedly went after her friend, but it was clear to Lee that her Chimelody struggled a bit with the wind,  floating not quite straight.  

"You just did!" Lee Chi teased, but leaned over between Kiiro's horns in an attempt to see his face while they spoke. "Yes Kiiro-sama, you may."

~~~

“Ugh,” He groans in annoyance at her joke but his expression softens when he sees her.

Ugh. Ugh! She’s so cute.

“Quit that,” He says to Lee, seemingly about nothing in particular.

Banto looks over at her owner, wondering what’s the hold up is about! They’re going to play, aren’t they?

~~~

"Quit...?" Lee frowned softly, not sure what she'd done wrong. "Sorry Kiiro-sama, please ask your question..."

~~~

Kiiro isn’t too pleased about her frown but he doesn’t comment.

“You’re always so energetic about interacting with me. Why?” 

He noticed his chimelody make pleading eyes at him, posture relaxing and approaching the imps. He guides the two chimelodies to the start of the obstacle course.

~~~

Lee Chi's frown deepened, but in confusion of a different flavour. "What do you mean? You're important to Ryobu-sensei, so you're important to me too." She readjusted herself as Kiiro moved over to where the imps eagerly waited. "Even though we may have never met without him, I still like spending time with you. I want to get to know you more!" 

She waved to Wakana, who 'waved' back with her tail, nudging Banto playfully as she followed Kiiro's guidance.

~~~ 

Kiiro doesn’t respond, letting his thoughts on that stew. Though his translucent fins on his horns wiggle as he thinks. 

“Banto, Wakana, face the this way,” His voice is stern and commanding, Banto understanding vaguely as Kiiro pointed forward. She encouraged Wakana to do the same.

“Command your imp,” His eyes flick upwards to Lee.

~~~

"Comm- ah - Wakana, look where Kiiro-sama is pointing? You're going to play in that obstacle course with Banto!" Lee smiled, then remembered they were there to 'train' the imps. "It will help train you to float better, stronger!"

~~~

“Your imp won’t understand that,” He huffs, coming off as slightly annoyed and slightly entertained.

“They understand tone and firmness,” Kiiro clutches a fist to emphasize ‘firmness.’

“Command not ask.”

~~~ 

"I... That doesn't always work, Kiiro-sama!" But Lee fixed her eyes back on Wakana. "Wakana, follow Banto through the course."

~~~ 

Kiiro huffs, again, this time very annoyed.

Banto picked up the energy and began floating down the hoops, struggling against the wind but pressing forward. The imp looks back to see if their friend is following, only to get pushed by the wind again.

~~~

Wakana looked at her bun, then at the mean yellow one, then followed after her fellow imp. She seemed to be faster than Banto but not as strong, bumping into the hoops here and there as she floated along through the course.

~~~

"Focus, Banto," Kiiro lightly scolds, crossing his arms. 

Banto gets more discouraged, Kii tilting his head in confusion. His imp has no reason to be slower than Lee Chi's!

~~~

Lee Chi exhaled slowly, a sound that Ryobu-sensei would be able to recognize as an exasperated sigh but sounded innocuous to others that didn't know her as well. Lee kept her eyes on the two Chimelody, both with their strengths and weaknesses. "Keep it up Wakana! You too Banto, you're doing great!" She cheered both imps on, wanting them to have fun.

~~~ 

Cheering for both imps?

Kiiro doesn't get it.  It's a competition, is it not? Kiiro watches how Banto picks up in excitement, energy, moving forward a little faster with the encouragement. 

"...Why did you do that?" He tilts his head up only a bit, trying to get a good look at Lee.

~~~

"The 'spirit of competition' isn't just about *winning*, Kiiro-sama!" Lee Chi leaned in between Kiiro's horns again to look down at him. "If your training is never fun, and nobody encourages you, you're left trying to get better out of spite alone. That's no way to live!"