Draft Phase Begins – Team A (Mikako & Rika)
The air inside Hall A was heavy, electric with strategy, rivalry and barely-concealed hunger. Seventy girls stood in rising rows of metal seats surrounding a central circular stage. Ten captains stood at podiums. Ten sub-leaders stood behind them. And in the massive screens surrounding the arena, one sentence burned across every wall:
TEAM DRAFT – BEGIN.
A camera drone hovered near Rika's face. She ignored it.
Her heartbeat was loud but steady. Her posture steady. Her eyes locked forward.
Standing beside her was Mikako Ren.
Tall. Elegant posture. Shadow-like presence. The kind of girl whose silence was louder than most people's screams. Rika could feel the pressure rolling off her, controlled, lethal.
Mikako didn't look at Rika, not yet. But Rika could feel her awareness, like a blade pressed near her throat.
These are my teammates now. Not enemies. Not rivals. Allies.
She forced herself to breathe. Calm. Think. Adapt.
