( Short Disclaimer - Above music video copyright belongs to the music creator "Yasuharu Takanashi" from the anime - Naruto )

( Ishiki gets confused by her fighting stance but ignores it and starts to get to his position by just ten steps backwards )

{Ishiki}: ( Luckily I did some workout in the morning, I make sure to end this fight as quick as possible )

( He reaches to his spot and turns back seeing Io who has a confident smirk on her face. Nerami started the countdown while sitting next to Akashi )

{Nerami}: Let me take the honor to announce the instructions of the battle.

This will be a one-on-one ritual takedown battle! Each side should only use their "aura-mana" energy to fight.

No weapons are allowed in this battle. No one should leave the battlefield, if you do you'll automatically get "disqualified" with no exceptions from your sides.

If I notice anything unbearable while fighting or caught cheating by any of you two, it will be considered as a "draw". It should be a fair fight!

Are you guys ready to fight?

{Ishiki}: (tucks up his collar) I am ready!

{Io}: (shows her stance) I am always ready for a fight! Let's have a good fight, Ishiki!

{Ishiki}: You bet. (confident grin)

{Nerami}: Alright!

LACKNESS OFF, SPIRIT ON!

( As soon as she said, Ishiki immediately started charging towards Io while she was off guard )

{Io}: Huh?..

( Ishiki tries to ram into her, but she manages to escape at the last second by jumping over him. Ishiki stops his motion by "thrusting" his left feet on the ground. Io gets stunned seeing his speed control )

{Ishiki}: ( Tsk! So close! )

( Io thinks about Ishiki's presence in the battle )

{Io}: ( I didn't expect that at first, thankfully I was in my fighting stance at the right time. Plus, the way he stared dashing towards me, the way he stopped. His speed control was spectacular )

What a start! (applauses Ishiki)

{Ishiki}: Heh?..

Using the speed to kickoff the battle was a genius move. I am impressed by your battle sense.

{Ishiki}: Huh?! Arigato! (confused)

{Akashi}: ( Instead of starting to attack Ishiki as he doesn't show his guard right now, she is just applauding him? What a weird girl )

( We see Io cleaning her face with her little kerchief with no tension around her. Both Ishiki and Akashi just gets even more confused by her actions in middle of a battle )

{Ishiki}: Are you done wiping your face? Come on, we are in the middle of a fight!

Gear it up fast!

HEY!? I am talking to you..

{Io}: You have no patience! Just let me get ready. I got something in my eye!

{Ishiki}: Tsk! This girl... (angers)

{Akashi}: Nerami.

Won't that be counted as a warning for not getting disqualified? Clearly Io doesn't even want to fight at this point, why don't you give the precaution?!

{Nerami}: That only happens in the official tournament matches at regional level. We are only playing a normal ritual street fight, there aren't many rules for this.

Also, if you put the same rules and regulations here, there won't be really any difference between an "authentic fight" and a "street fight". All will be the same and bland.

{Akashi}: Hm, that makes sense entertainment wise, but is it ok for the fighters?

{Nerami}: It depends on the fighter's behaviour. That's why I did mention some rules and regulations, just to create awareness in their minds while battling.

{Akashi}: Hmph! Huh- ( What am I doing? I gotta use this chance to show it to her )

Uh.. Neram-

{Nerami}: Hey Io, would you please start fighting already? It's taking you so much to just wipe your face!

{Io}: (silly laughs) Hehehe.. I am sorry.

( She puts her kerchief on her little pocket on her left side, while doing that Ishiki gave some comments )

{Ishiki}: Hey, I have one question for you?

Do you always do that weird stuff every time while batting someone?

( She stops her hand mid-way while putting it in the pocket )

{Io}: No! I don't.

{Ishiki}: Huh?

{Io}: This is the first time I've ever done such a thing! And most importantly, I don't even sweat while battling.

{Ishiki}: ( What? )

I don't get your point, what do you mean by that?

( We see some visuals of her doing tough exercises, failing land rituals lying on the ground crying and she gets separated by someone when she was a kid )

{Io}: Tsk.

( Why am I thinking about that right now? I have to focus on my battle )

LAND RITUAL : MUDSLIDE CONTROL!

( She made some sands on the ground levitate, forming "dry wet sand")

{Ishiki}: Nani?

{Io}: Here I go!

( She combines that wet sand into a huge wave which barrages into Ishiki )

{Ishiki}: Tsk!

( He runs all over the place to escape, but the speed of the sand chasing him was way faster. He started to run as fast as he could by "riding on the sides of the walls, jumping high enough to dodge, crawling into bushes and coming out in different directions" )

{Ishiki}: ( That sand moves so fast, I have to find a way not to get hit by it )

( It goes on for some time but once he started to get tired and scared at that moment and realizing it he got off guard. He got smashed by the wet sand wave and gets covered up all over, submerged deep inside )

{Akashi}: ISHIKI!!

{Io}: Hmph! He's done!

( Akashi gets shocked to see Ishiki get defeated that easily. The dust got cleared and we see Ishiki's shirt popping out )

{Akashi}: What kind of ritual is that?

{Nerami}: Mudslide control!

{Akashi}: Huh?

{Nerami}: It's an "aura-based" ritual where the user moisturizes the nearby sand and controls it at free will. It's also one of the most powerful and traditional rituals that the "Mazakades" use.

{Akashi}: I see.

( I had never seen such a ritual before, it has that same presence as the bullet punch. It looks like quite a strong ritual )

( Io neutralizes all the sand and walk towards Ishiki )

{Io}: I don't see any kind of movement from him, this is my chance to finish him!

( She slowly sped up and started charging her ritual. As she runs, little sand particles around starts to follow her and stick on to her right arm )

( She collected a certain amount and jumped so high in the air with a glorious takeoff. Akashi sees her with a shocking face )

{Io}: This will do it!

( The sand stuck on her right arm changed its shape into a spikeball, a "big sand spikeball" )

{Ishiki}: He..eh.. (opens his eyes)

( Ishiki slowly gets his consciousness and sees Io with that spikeball. Unfortunately, it was too late )

{Io}: LAND RITUAL: SAND SPIKEBALL!!

( She bashes towards Ishiki on the ground with high speed and direct hits. That attack made the whole area like a high-dust windy zone )

( Akashi and Nerami get their eyes closed and tanks that powerful wind force. As the dust slowly disappearing, we see Io with that confident grin )

{Io}: Well that was easy. At first, I thought I would see some seriousness.

Another win in my pocket! Sheesh..

( The dust gets disappeared.. )

HUH?! (shock face)

( As the dust gets cleared, we see a bunch of "white ashes" in Ishiki's place with no presence of him )

NO WAY! WHEN DID HE ESCAPE?

I hit him with my spikeball ritual directly to his chest!

{Nerami}: I swear I saw her hitting Ishiki with that devastating spikeball! I saw his body get bounced right before the dust appeared!

{Akashi}: (I thought he is done for but somehow he managed to escape)

( HUH?..)

( He sees the white ashes on the ground and realizes something he knew )

He.Haha (laughs)

{Nerami}: Aa..Akashi? (gets perplexed)

{Akashi}: I see, that's how he escaped. What a cheeky one!

( Io sees around the place with no blink. As she does, out of nowhere, Ishiki appears behind Io in style )

{Io}: ( Huh..When did he..)

{Ishiki}: HAAAAAAA...

( He comes for a punch in a "nonlinear stance", which is basically not in a fighting position. But Io dodges it at the very last second )

( Io dodges and counters Ishiki with a "roundhouse kick" by jumping a little. It made a huge impact on Ishiki's right cheek and falls )

{Ishiki}: (spits saliva)

{Io}: That punch's execution was poor and awfully timed.

( As he falls down, Ishiki turns into the white ashes like before which now everybody saw it )

{Io}: What the-- he turned into ashes?

( As she sees Ishiki turning into white ashes, we see "another" Ishiki appearing in the air very close to Io )

( She was too late to realize that he was behind, so Ishiki came with a "powerful kick" right into Io's stomach and landed perfectly. The impact made her fly for a distance and lands by rolling over )

{Io}: (struggles) Tsk!

{Akashi}: I never expected him to do it again in a battle!

Who would've thought that teaching him that ritual will come in handy for that lucky bastard! (smiles)

{Nerami}: Can you explain what is happening right now, Akashi?

( We see Ishiki landing on the ground with a stance of being glorious )

{Akashi}: Nerami! From here onwards, you don't need to worry about judging. I am pretty sure that this match will end soon enough.

{Nerami}: Huh? What do you mean by that?

{Akashi}: What Ishiki is doing now is one of the rituals I taught him before! The Illusionary ritual..

ASH-ILLUSION RELEASE!

( As he says that, we see Ishiki's shirt waves in the flow of wind with a "serious", piercing look on his eyes )

( Io gets very pissed after getting hit by Ishiki )

{Ishiki}: Now try to wipe your face with that kerchief. It will only clean your dust, not that dirty attitude of yours.

It's so annyoing!

{Io}: Tsk! How dare you-

( Getting mocked by Ishiki, she doesn't care about it and charges into him in a blink and forming that spikeball ritual )

( He doesn't even move nor flinch, he was ready to tank that attack. But, Ishiki dodges her at the right moment by just moving out of the way. Io notices quickly before falling )

( Before she did fall with the momentum, she controlled the sand and made them attack Ishiki. Ishiki got caught "red-handed" by the sand like a trapped animal )

{Io}: Let's see who's getting dirty now!

( She waves her right hand at the sand constricting him, the sand started to get "dry hard" which slowly starts spreading all over )

{Ishiki}: What is this? I can't move my legs and weave my hands. I am totally getting squished.

{Io}: Whenever someone gives a hard word about me, I give them the hardest reward.

{Ishiki}: HIAA..HAAA... (suffers pain)

{Io}: LAND RITUAL: DEATH SAND CRUSHER!

( She closes her fist hard-tight and made the constricting dry sand flat as a cardboard and made Ishiki "squeezed to death" with the whole sand covering him )

{Akashi}: ISHIKI!!

(shouts) DON'T TELL ME THAT YOU CRUSHED ISHIKI TO DEATH! IF YOU DID, THEN I AM GOING TO-

{Io}: Relax, I just gave him a little massage. A bit painful one, but works for knocking down someone.

{Akashi}: What's up with her? Does she always do that move? It looks so unsafe.

{Nerami}: I see your anger, Akashi. But, that's part of Io's fighting style.

{Akashi}: Her style?

( As Nerami explains about Io's fighting style and her battle sense, Io controls and apply more pressure to that sand just enough for Ishiki to get knocked down )

{Nerami}: Io possesses one of the greatest bloodlines in the world. You can tell that she is good at land rituals and most importantly, an "Mazakade".

If you want to be adored by everyone and not do the same thing as all the clan members do. You need to change everything about you. That's the case about Io.

She is different from anybody in her clan. Her presence, her moves, her fighting stances look so different, including her elder sister and father.

Another thing that Io excels the most, is her "psychological turmoil" to the opponents.

( We see a vision of a black stick figure fighting a white stick figure. Where Io is the "black' and the "white" is her opponent. Nerami explains with these as an example )

While fighting, she always shows her attitude to the opponent that not only it creates hate, but also a great lead to misdirecting their next moves.

And using that as a key, she unlocks more rooms for her to attack which will only amplify her winning chance . A smart way to get the free ticket for victory.

{Akashi}: So she uses her special way of fighting as a prime maneuver to defeat anybody?

{Nerami}: Not necessarily. If she finds her opponent easy, she won't go that aggressive. But...

If she finds her opponent aggressive, if not more... She will be the "unstoppable force".

{Io}: HIYAAAA!

( She makes the sand drop down in force, blasting off with a bombastic sound that made the landed spot crack into "pieces" )

Tsk... It's over!

( She shows her winning grin by seeing the impact realizing that she knocked out Ishiki )

( As the dust clears the spot, she sees the sand covering all over. But she gets stunned all of a sudden )

HUH?!

( She waves her palm in the air, moves the sand away and finds out the biggest reveal. Ishiki was nowhere to be found, she sees the same "white ashes" there instead of him )

Impossible, I caught him red-handed with my sand crusher.. I felt his body presence when I was constricting him..

( We see some visuals of her thinking of Ishiki getting caught by her sand and getting crushed )

Wait.. Don't tell me that..

I was fighting with his Illusion all along?!

If he's making me fight with his illusions..

Where is the "real" Ishiki?

( We see a serious look on Io's face with dust covering all over her, looking around with confusion madness rolling over her mind )

( The fight that started with a bang, will continue the same as the fight goes on )

______________________________________________________________________

Thank you for reading Chapter 20. Hope you "enjoyed" the intense fight and both Ishiki's and Io's battling skills with a lots of twists and turns.

Leave a "comment" on what did you feel about it, and if do liked it, please sure to "vote" for my chapters. It really encourages me a lot.