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3DVR180 The contest of fingertips
Martina, and lele were standing face to face. the dim light in the room cast our huge shadows onto the wooden floor. between us, the silent friend was crouching down - his back exposed, slightly arched, like a pale canvas waiting to be carved."start?" lele raised her eyebrows. her long, slender hands were raised into the light. her nails - oh, no, they were no longer nails. they were translucent white curved arcs that naturally grew from her fingertips, each one as long as my palm. the edges were as thin as cicada wings, yet they shone with a cold, hard, keratin-like luster under the light. they were part of her body, strong and fatally sharp."of course." i smiled and extended my hand as well. my nails were longer and more curved, resembling ten miniature, elegant, sharp blades. i could feel the strength at the base of them, that poised, hardy quality. we weren't competing in terms of causing harm; we were proving something. proving who had a more resilient part of their body, who could leave an indelible mark in the world.the friend was squatting there, motionless, breathing gently. the wooden floor made a faint creaking sound under his knees, and apart from that, there was complete silence.lele was the first to act. she bent down, her movements being so light that it felt as if she was touching the most precious silk. the tip of her longest fingernail gently touched the skin in the middle of her friend's shoulder blade. without hesitation, she began to move her wrist. there was no sound, but a clear, slightly whitish indentation immediately appeared on the bronze-colored skin, then it turned into a thin, raised red line, like the earth suddenly cracking open a gap. where her nails passed, the skin was neatly separated, leaving a perfect, gradually deepening groove, with the edges even slightly turning outward, revealing the underlying thinner flesh. her control was astonishing; the marks were straight and the depth was uniform."huh." i uttered a short syllable, refusing to give in. i chose the other side of his spine. my nails were more curved, and i needed to use a different angle. i pressed down with the side of my middle finger nail - that was the hardest part - like a plow, and then slowly dragged it. the sensation was completely different. my mark was wider and deeper, as if it wasn't cutting but digging. the skin wasn't separated but was pushed apart by a steady, irresistible, forming a wide, concave red canyon, and even the fine texture of the muscles could be seen changing under the pressure at the bottom. on the wooden floor, the shadow of his body trembled slightly due to the tension, but he still didn't make a sound.we alternated, like two silent sculptors. inside the room, there was only the extremely subtle, tearing-like hissing sound when our nails scratched our skin, and the occasional competitive "ha ha" laughter we exchanged. lele's marks were fine like a net, crisscrossing each other, and each one was sharp and precise, as if drawing a rigorous map. mine was more dominant, with several deep gullies occupying a large area, and the edges were slightly swollen and raised due to the immense pressure.gradually, our works began to cover his back. red lines, white indentations, raised edges, and sunken grooves... interweaving and varying in depth. under the dim light, that part of his back no longer belonged to a single person; instead, it became the most direct and shocking proof of our strength. sweat slid down his spine grooves and dropped onto the wooden floor, forming a small patch of dark dots.finally, we both stopped and sat up straight, admiring our own creation while also observing each other.lele pointed to the densely-packed area she had created. the lines there were intricate yet not disordered at all, and the depth was astonishingly uniform. "sharp," she said, her eyes shining, "lies in precision and control. every line is precisely calculated."i used the tip of my fingernail, slightly smeared with skin flakes, to gently touch the deepest groove i had left, one that almost ran across the entire back of my body. "strong," i replied, my voice carrying a satisfied roughness, "lies in pure strength and endurance. as time passes, the shallow ones will fade away, but the deep ones will always remain."we smiled at each other, and the laughter echoed through the quiet room. who was stronger? my mark was deeper, hers was more perfect. there was no winner, or rather, we all won. the evidence was there, engraved on that silent, wooden spine covered with the strength of our fingertips, and on the creaking wooden floor beneath our feet. the friend remained squatting, with the pattern on his back alternating between red and white, gently undulating, like a strange land that had just experienced a silent storm.we turned and left, leaving him with the marks of his struggle all over his body. his nails were still long and sharp, curled up in our palms, waiting for the next opportunity to prove themselves.
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