Over the Head

All I can hear right now is vague muffled noise. I can't believe Dad and Lev made a big enough deal out of my tiny little head injury to get Nevaeh to put this plastic pillowcase over my head. I haven't worn headgear this thick since my days in the junior beginners. What was I, twelve? There's an incredibly disconcerting crumpling noise right below my ears as I bounce around to warm myself up.

Nevaeh, Lev, and Dad are all talking about something. Takumi's just noped out of the situation for whatever reason and is leaving, probably to go find a seat. If he's left then whatever that trio's chatting about can't be too important.

I relax some.

You'll be fine, Aika. You have extra-strong head protection and you've practiced raising your guard for weeks. Months. Years. You're ready for this. You've barreled through two opponents already. Two! You've beat out two trained professionals in the NCC. You belong here.

I've trained hard for this, for years. I've got this.

All right, that should do it for warmup. My muscles are feeling a little more limber. Let's double-check those gloves and guards... Check and check. I wonder how Evren's doing.

"Welcome! Bienvenue!" I can barely hear the announcer's voice through my helmet, but I know that now is Go Time.

Dad and Lev give me a thumbs up and a clap on the shoulder respectively before rushing down the couple of steps to the audience area. Nevaeh's saying something, but I can't hear what. She doesn't seem to notice that I can't hear her (either that or she just doesn't care), and she gives me a once-over before grinning and shoving me lovingly up the steps to the stage.

I take it all in for a moment.

This hasn't gotten old. I can't help my smile, seeing the excited audience staring up at me, the polished hydraulic stage inches from my feet, my opponent across the stage grinning back at me. It's almost surreal. The stuff of my dreams, now reality.

Vid looks to be about my height, maybe shorter. They have on an excited smile, all toothy and shining in contrast against their short beard. I smile extra back at them. I pretend that it's because I want to play some reverse psychology mind games on them, so I seem quiet and totally-not-aggressively-competitive. In reality, I know that they're the one who's caught me off guard by imitating the dazzling smirk of my dorky best friend.

...Let's not get caught up about that. Now's not the time to be shaky.

I have to win.

"...Aika Inoue versus Vid Nagy," the announcer says in his usual enthusiastic tone. It must be a fun job, commentating and getting to talk with all of the backstage people that make this magic happen. I bet Lev would do well with it. Actually, maybe not, he might faint from fanboying. "S'il vous plaît, dévoilez le stade. Please reveal the stage."

I hear the clicks and clangs of the machinery under the stage. The stage rises up, a giant cube, until it's almost twice my height. A few gaps in the wall form a makeshift ladder, built into the wall itself. I can still hear rumbling, meaning the stage is changing somewhere, but not where I can see.

Now the rumbling's stopped.

I have no idea what's in store for me, but I hear the loud beeping countdown and know I need to focus. If I can't see all of it, neither can Vid. I just need to climb up this thing fast and get a lay of the land before continuing.

The klaxon fires.

I'm speeding up the wall. It's a bit awkward with my gloves, even though they're the smaller and lighter MMA ones, and it occurs to me that maybe I should ask Nevaeh to put climbing into my training regimen.

I'm finally at the top and nearly teeter off the tinyass platform. What the hell?! Arms out! Balance! These Solbounds' grips aren't just for show! Ok, there we go. Wow... Now this is something I haven't seen before.

Each edge of the cube-stage has a tiny sliver of platform in the middle, one of which I'm barely balancing on and another of which Vid's crouching on. The stage then slopes downward and inward, like a bowl or a half-pipe. There are no horizontal footholds. At the very bottom, where the bowl finally starts to even out, is a hole. I can see that the bottom of the hole is out of bounds. This is a stage where I'll have to keep moving. I can't stop or I'll trip over myself and slide into that hole, out of bounds. Or into Vid, which wouldn't be much better.

Vid's smiling again. There's something unnerving about the way their mouth is twitching, though. It reminds me of when Nevaeh's come up with a new experimental warmup technique to try on me, her dedicated guinea pig.

...Oh. Right. Vid's the flighty jumpy one. This stage is practically custom-built to their strengths. And my weaknesses.

Crap, they're coming at me. I can't let them get above me. Focus, Aika. This is the real deal. Brace. ...Hold on, they weren't going for a hit. They were going for a grab. Shit shit shit shit, it's too late to counter this.

Vid gets their legs behind mine and in one swift movement, they flip me off my platform of safety.

They let go as I slide down the bowl.

I need to regain my footing or I'll slide right off. I still have to fight the Commander of Space, I can't lose this one.

Thank God my runners have grips.

I'm stopped and can now focus on Vid again. I see them crouched atop the sliver of platform I was just standing on. Their position makes them look like a leopard, about to pounce on its prey. I'm the prey.

I'm the prey! Get out of the way!

I barely manage to sidestep Vid's attack, with a little help from my figure. I focus all my power into my retaliatory punch. I miss. Vid's jumped up and over my arm, employing their infamous heights figure, and their kick is aimed straight at my face. I duck, though I feel their foot graze the top of my headgear. They land and immediately jump up again for a flying kick. I'd be impressed by their athleticism if I wasn't so preoccupied with not having my face kicked in. I honestly didn't expect them to kick again right away, so I have to shift my weight to dodge. I stumble and lose my balance.

This goddamn bowl-stage is a nightmare!

I'm balanced again but Vid has the upper hand and I know it. They've jumped up again, aiming at my head. What can I do? Think, Aika! And think fast!

Fast.

That's it.

I don't have time to wind up a strike, but I do have the ability to fast-forward Vid's incoming body.

I focus on Vid and will them to come at me faster. I feel a drop in the gravity around me.

See how my fist feels in your gut!

The impact and Vid's winded exhale are satisfying. I take the chance to give them my strongest left cross on top of that. They stumble and fall over, rolling downward towards the out of bounds circle. I chase them, carefully placing my feet so as not to trip. They catch themself on the edge of the hole. All I need to do is pry their fingers off the ledge and I've won. I crouch down to do just that, but Vid's no longer there.

What?

Did they fall?

Ow! NOPE. They've just hit the back of my head. I think I'm seeing stars. Everything's gone blurry and it feels like my brain is about to implode. Is this a concussion thing? I thought the helmet was supposed to help prevent that. Why did I bring my guard down? Hands up by the face, Aika. Nevaeh told you that.

I've been on the ground for too long, I need to get up before they count me out. I'm stumbling though. No, this can't be happening. Get up!

I hear the horn that marks the end of a match. No. I swear I had a few more seconds. My heart feels like it's sunken into my stomach. We'd only just started.

I can't hear what the announcer's saying, everything's just warbled noise. I feel someone picking me up. Is it Nevaeh? A med team? No, hold on, it's a smaller person, with a beard? Is Vid helping me up?

Oh, great, now I'm seeing double. Vid #1 seems to be helping me stay stationary. They're gripping my shoulders tightly and occasionally glancing at Vid #2, who is reaching for my head.

I feel my helmet come off and I shake my head a bit to regain focus. Ah, that made things worse- Oh! Never mind, now I can see clearer. Vid #1 is actually Vid, but Vid #2 is Nevaeh. She's making a weird face. I can't tell whether she's angry or concerned. Maybe both; I did just lose.

I just lost.

I feel empty. Where was my kickass figure? Why couldn't I just focus? My getting distracted just cost me the championship. Evren will be so disappointed when she sees the replays, how quickly I lost this match. Vid is good, yeah, but I should have lasted longer. Put up more of a fight.

"...know?"

What? Oh, Vid's been talking to me. They're chuckling at me but look a bit concerned.

"I just said you put up a good fight, you know?" Vid says.

"Oh." That's all I can manage. I think I need to go lie down somewhere.

"Yeah, I've been really excited to finally get to fight you," Vid continues. "The way you fight with your figure is amazing. I didn't expect to get literally pulled in like that."

Well, it didn't do much to help me out this time. No, I need to stop worrying like this. Where's your sportsmanship, Aika? You're on television. I try to smile. "Thank you. You deserve this." Vid gives me a strange look. Am I slurring or something?

"Uh, thanks, I guess! Good luck in the next round, though," they say. "I'm rooting for you." They wink before letting go of me, waving, and walking away. Nevaeh has a hand on my arm.

"You need to lie down," she says. Yeah, I do.

We walk off the stage, which I've just realized is now completely flat again, and are joined by Dad, Takumi, and Lev. I take a seat in one of the chairs up front. I don't feel like walking all the way to the medical station. Nevaeh's chiding me but I really just can't bring myself to walk anymore. It looks like she's calling the med team over now.

"Aika, are you ok?" Dad asks. I nod in response. He smiles widely. "You did great!" I can tell he's just trying to make me feel better after losing, so I give him a half-smile.

"That was probably your quickest fight yet," Lev says excitedly. "Think you can end the next one in under a minute, too?"

I shrug. There's not much point to my next points fights. Even if I win both, I'll only have four out of five wins. I'm sure Evren will have a perfect five-win run and beat me out to the grand championship Battle Royale.

"Hey, what's up with the droopy shoulders?" Takumi interjects. I glare at him.

"What, am I not allowed to be disappointed?"

"Why would you be disappointed? Did you not get to be as flashy and show off as much as you wanted or something?" he replies with equal bite. What the hell, Takumi?!

"I just lost! What do you want from me?!"

Takumi gives me a strange look, not unlike the one Vid gave me a minute ago. I... did lose... right? "What are you talking about?" Takumi says. "You won."

Oh. What?

"I see what's going on," Nevaeh says as the medical team arrives. She pauses to let them through to examine me. "Aika, you won. Vid stepped out of bounds before they knocked you down. The judges had to double-check with the instant replay cams, so the horn came late."

"Joe announced it, though," Lev says.

"I don't think she heard it," Takumi says, his voice softer now that he's had this realization. "Her head was knocked pretty bad."

"She seems to be ok for now," one of the members of the medical team says after getting me to follow a light-up pen. They pat me on the shoulder a couple of times. "Just rest up and make sure to see your doctor if you start getting dizzy or are having headaches."

"Sure." I can barely speak. My emotions are being driven on a rollercoaster. I just lost, but actually apparently won? And then I told Vid they deserved it - their win - but I actually just said they deserved their loss on national television, didn't I?

"Thank you," I hear Dad say to the med team as they depart. I don't know what I'm supposed to be feeling right now. Am I overwhelmed? Now Nevaeh's giggling at me.

"Hey, you did good," she says, folding her arms in her typical intimidating posture. "Granted, you got lucky at the end there, so we should work on your concentration next training session." I groan. That means Nevaeh throwing random stuff at me, with the expectation I react fast enough to catch or dodge it. I'll probably get some nice new bruises.

I brought this upon myself, though. This can't happen again. That was too close.

"That was too close," Nevaeh says, echoing my thoughts. "Oh, but here's some good news: I've found a colleague of mine willing to record Evren's fights for us. What he'll get will be way better than the official NCC camerawork, since they have to focus on both fighters and make the whole thing more dramatic. We'll hopefully get an uninterrupted stream to analyze in training." I'm beaming. She listened! "Oh, stop smiling like that, I made this decision myself, without any of your bribery." I don't care, I'll finally have a chance of catching Evren's weakness.

"All right, kids, enough of that! Aika needs some rest, and some homemade pancakes as a reward!" Dad claps his hands together excitedly.

"Ok, but only if Takumi makes them. Yours are terrible," I tease. Dad makes a dramatically upset expression and Takumi snickers.

"Lev, Nevaeh, you are also invited," Dad adds as he and Takumi help me up from my chair. I don't feel wobbly anymore.

"Hell yeah! I still haven't tasted Takumi's cooking," Lev says as Nevaeh gives her thanks.

We're heading home when I finally get the rush of adrenaline that comes with a win. It was close this time, and I've definitely learned my lesson. I can't let myself get distracted by Evren. She's the top, but that doesn't mean everyone on the way is weak. I need to be careful, and prepared.