Omori and Basil vs Mari: Part 1

After spending time at the registration booth and some much needed pep talk from their friends, the two boys hurriedly stepped on the teleportation pad that would send them to the battle arena. This is it. His first ever big battle was just moments away and the flower boy couldn’t be more thrilled. “I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” he said, nervously glancing at Omori as he readjusted his flower crown. Compared to him, Omori’s much stronger and experienced but Basil himself was no pushover. After all, he spent the last three months rigorously training under Master Pluto who thought him all he needed to know about the art of combat. To someone who’s never even fought a living thing before, those three months were pure agony and torture but though sheer determination and resolve, Basil managed to survive the ordeal and became all the better for it.

The boys found themselves standing on a spacious rectangular arena. Their opponent was yet to show themselves.

Omori tapped his arm. “Ready?”

Basil cracked his knuckles and put his game face on. “Let’s do this.”

He’s still somewhat nervous but just observing Omori’s calm demeanor was enough to dissipate some of the stress.

As long as I’m with Omori, everything’s going to be okay.

The screen buzzed with static and a face the two weren’t at all expecting showed up.

Basil squinted and rubbed his eyes in disbelief. “Is that M-Mari?”

Omori just shrugged, seemingly unsurprised. “It’s just a simulation,” he said coolly as if it was the most obvious thing. “Don’t let it distract you. Fight with everything you’ve got.” Basil nodded. Of course it’s just a simulation, the real Mari won’t be able to leave her picnic blanket because of her bad knee. That doesn’t make the prospect of fighting an image of her any less daunting however. Basil stretched his arms and took a deep breath to compose himself. “Thanks, Omori.”

“Little brother and Basil, it’s so good to see you!” cried a voice. A voice that sounded exactly like hers.

Basil let out a nervous laugh. Wow, it even knows their name. The Mari clone had a curious basket full of fruits with her and nothing else. How is she going to fight them?

Omori took the knife out of his pocket and stepped forward. His expression hasn’t changed at all since they stepped foot in the arena. Basil had no idea how his friend could stay so calm about this. He knew that he loved Mari more than any of them, surely he’d have qualms fighting a foe that looks exactly like her even if it’s not real?
The big screen counted down to three and the battle had begun before Basil even knew it. Mari slowly approached them as the basket swayed in her hand. Omori wasted no time and ran, going for a direct attack. He’s so quick on his feet that it seemed to Basil like his friend just teleported a couple of feet away from him in a blink of an eye. He decided to keep his guard up for now and see how things would unfold.

Omori’s knife was swiftly blocked with the basket and in a move that Basil thought he’d never see from Mari, she launched a spin kick that struck Omori right on his side, sending him hurtling down the floor faster than Basil could reach him. “Omori! Are you okay?!” He rummaged his pocket for a thing that’d be able to heal his friend’s injury — a concoction made from restorative herbs, but Omori stopped him with a wave of his hand and shook his head. “I don’t need it just yet,” he said, standing up on his feet again. One look at him and Basil could tell that Omori still had plenty of fight left in him. He figured that his direct attack was a deliberate one meant to gauge how the foe would respond and it looked like Mari took the bait.

The boy gritted his teeth. Time for him to step up. Basil closed his eyes and focused, materializing three long green, thorny vines that shot up from the ground, shaking the platform and sending concrete debris flying everywhere. Omori stepped aside and held onto his knife. Knowing him, he’d only use the aid of his red hands when the situation has turned dire.

“Oh, how wonderful! Truly amazing!” cried the Mari clone in a manner distinguishable from the real one. How very creepy.

“Let’s see if you can block this!” Basil motioned with his right hand and the frontmost vine slithered towards Mari with frightening speed, intending to trap her in an instant. Omori understood his intent and stepped away from the path of the vine. The two other vines Basil kept close to himself for defense, to protect him in case Mari somehow pulls a long-range attack. The vine formed a spiral on the ground before looping and wrapping around Mari lik a vicious snake, ensuring that she won’t be able to escape from any direction.

“Guess you got me,” she said with a shrug. Basil glanced at Omori who remained at his position, carefully planning out his next move. He figured Mari would at least put up some resistance but she didn’t, opting to let the vine tighten around her.

Something didn’t feel quite right to him.

It’s too easy, almost as if Mari wanted him to trap her with his vine.

The basket was gone…

Mari’s body exploded in a puff of smoke, leaving behind… an orange?

Basil’s eye widened in fear.

“It’s a decoy…” he muttered as he quickly retracted his vine. Where could she be—

“Ahhhhhrgh!”

Something from above just struck him. Hard. Basil crumpled on the floor and tears streamed down his face.

“Haha, gotcha!” Mari hollered triumphantly, who had him pinned on the ground with one foot. Omori threw his knife and distracted her long enough for Basil to regain control of his two other vines and attack her with it but unfortunately, Mari was too fast and dodged sideways before the vines could strike her. She grabbed one of them with both hands and squeezed hard, severing the vine in the middle.

Basil was speechless. Is this thing really based on Mari, or was it just some extremely powerful murder robot taking on her image? What she did wasn’t even humanly possible so it’s definitely the latter. “Omori!” he cried out, still reeling from the pain.

It was then that six red hands materialized out of thin air. Mari pulled another fruit out of the basket — a lemon this time, and hurled it towards the hands before they could reach her.

BOOOM!

Explosive lemons huh? Basil wasn’t even surprised at that point. Nothing can faze him anymore after seeing the girl crush his vines like it was nothing.

Mari threw another lemon which got rid of the remaining hands. Basil took this chance to create distance from her and summon two more vines to replace the one that fell earlier. Meanwhile, Omori picked up his knife and summoned eight red hands which enveloped him like a protective field. He shot him a look that seems to be asking Basil to distract Mari for him so he could launch an attack from behind; a message he understood perfectly. Fine, he can do that much.

I got this, Omori.

Everything’s going to be okay.

“You won’t beat us!” he roared, his face filled with determination, sending three of his vines towards her all at once.

Mari smirked as she dug up something from the basket. “That’s the spirit!” she said in a mocking tone. What fruit was she going to use next?

Basil was starting to panic so he did the one thing his master told him to do when all seemed hopeless.

“WHEN I FLEX!”

The ground shook.

“I FEEL!!!”

Omori made his move and snuck up on Mari from behind, ready to attack while she’s distracted by Basil’s antics.

“MY BEST!!!” he yelled in a voice so loud he felt his vocal chords almost snapped like strings. This was of course accompanied by the flexing of his biceps. There wasn’t much to speak of but it’s primarily for raising one’s spirits anyway so lack of muscles wasn’t something to fret about in his case.

A direct hit!

Mari was thrown across the room by the combined force of the red hands that descended upon her from behind. Was that it? Did they win?!

Omori offered a hand and helped him get up. “Well done, Basil.” Basil blushed and turned his eyes elsewhere. “Ah, haha, it was nothing.”

Was it really over?

“Y-You.”

There’s an unsettling smile plastered on Mari’s face as she got up again. What freaked Basil more was her eyes however, which had the look of murder etched on them, her stare dripping with venom.

She takes out a banana from the basket.

“Looks like I underestimated the both of you."

The banana slowly elongates and becomes a weapon.

"I won't make that mistake again."

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Pub: 17 Dec 2021 17:54 UTC
Views: 402