Let's Blitz!

Waiting for the blitzoff, Rikku whispered to Yuna, just loud enough for the other team to hear,

"Draca kioc yna cu cmuf, ajah y cruubiv luimt uidnih dras!" Yuna smiled at Rikku's encouragement, and at the confused scowl on Bickson's face when he heard it, and replied,

"Yht y cruubiv ryc y paddan lryhla uv sygehk y kuym!"

When Bickson caught the blitzoff, all three forwards sped to intercept him. After Wakka tackled him, Bickson threw the ball desperately to Graav. Rikku managed to get a hand on the ball, and yelped as the Venom Pass poisoned her, but Yuna couldn't block it, so it sailed across the court.

Upon catching the pass, Graav swam straight towards the goal, unheeding of Kimahri and Auron's moves to intercept him. Simultaneously, the two defenders reared back, and then shot forward to incapacitate Graav. But just as they were about to connect, Graav dodged and slipped down even closer to the goal.

Letting off a drop-kick, Graav shot the ball just as Auron grabbed him from behind. The ball still sped towards Lulu, though, seemingly in a straight path, and she reached out for it. It hit her hand hard, bending her fingers backwards, and although the ball bounced off innocently to the side, Lulu's hand was withered, severely impairing her catching ability.

Kimahri snatched up the errant ball, and swam wordlessly towards Yuna.

"Go," he said to her simply, tossing her the ball, "Kimahri protect Yuna." She nodded, somewhat surprised, but she was not willing to let his faith in her go to waste. She swam towards the enemy goal, trying to make her movements unpredictable, but it was soon clear that Doram and Abus would intercept her long before she reached the goal.

Yuna paused, uncertain, but before she could decide on a course of action, Kimahri rushed ahead of her and preemptively kicked Abus so hard he floated over to the other side of the arena, and then tacked Doram to make a path for Yuna.

"Go," he urged her, and she nodded with understanding, and swam on. Just as she was approaching where she thought she could kick the ball in the goal, Balgerda and Bickson reached her, clearly ready to attack. Yuna smiled calmly. They would soon discover that she was not as helpless as she looked.

Punching the ball with all her might, it flew towards Balgerda and whacked her in the face. When the rebounding ball came back towards Yuna, she hit it again, and it collided painfully with Bickson's face. Then, spinning around in the air, she connected with the ball at tremendous speed and sent it hurtling towards the Auroch goal.

Raudy watched the the ball closely during this exchange, but when Yuna finally kicked the ball, it was going so fast he could only leap to one side and hope for the best.

Just as he leapt, the ball entered the goal near the top, too far away for him to reach. The buzzer sounded. The Aurochs were victorious!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After returning to the airship, the warriors gathered in Tidus' room, where he lay sick.

"We whupped 'em!," Rikku was the first to exclaim, grinning excitedly.

"I don't know how, but we did it," Wakka muttered, shaking his head. Yuna ran over to Tidus and grabbed his hands.

"Did you see it, did you see it?!," she asked. Tidus sat up slowly, and with a weak smile, replied,

"Yeah, Cid set up the terminal in here so I could watch the game. Yuna, I had no idea you could blitz like that!!" Yuna blushed a little and looked down at the ground.

"Sir Jecht used to show it to me all the time, and as a kid I would try and imitate him . . . I never actually succeeded until today, though!"

"Well, your spin could use a little polishing -- you gotta pull your arms in so you go faster, and you were aligned a little wrong, so the shot went in the middle of the goal instead of to the side, and . . . " At the look of surprised disappointment on Yuna's face he stopped and laughed. "I'm just kidding! It was great! I appreciate you guys working so hard to win the match for us." But his unsmiling face didn't match his words. Yuna reassured him,

"Don't worry, Tidus, the Aurochs still need you. Although, I wouldn't mind playing blitzball once in a while . . . "

Rikku chimed in, "Yeah, me too! Did you see my amazing Flash Shot?!"

Kimahri added, "Kimahri like blitzball. Would play again."

Lulu nodded, and said calmly, "I must admit, I had more fun that I thought I would. It was exhilarating, yet at the same time almost peaceful."

Even Auron had something to say, "Playing blitzball is infinitely more satisfying than watching it." Tidus and Wakka exchanged a worried glance, and Wakka shook his head.

"Let's hope Brother and Naida and everyone get back soon, yah?"

Rikku glared at Wakka playfully. "Hey, what are you saying?! I think we did really good for our first game EVER! In fact, if you're gonna be all ungrateful about our help, maybe we'll form our own team, the . . . the Spira Spiders!!" Everyone laughed at that, but Tidus wondered if she was serious. On the one hand, the Aurochs hadn't had any serious competition in quite some time. On the other hand, he didn't really relish the thought of going up against Spira's strongest warriors, who also happened to be his best friends, on the blitz field.

What am I thinking, there's no way that would happen. He grinned and squeezed Yuna's hand. "Thanks again, guys."

THE END. As you can see, I left room for a sequel, in case I or somebody else want to write one! I hope you enjoyed the fun blitzballing. :-)