This is sudden. A little unexpected. And maybe a bit reckless. Going out of town to a place you've just heard of simply because there's an event that "sounds like fun". Though, perhaps that's mainly the reason people take trips out of town. To be honest, there's no way you could've seen yourself doing anything like this a few years ago, even during the time where your parents were still around. But well, you've gone through a lot and the events have changed you, for the better.

You wouldn't be preparing for this if not for that amazing stroke of coincidence. You and your girlfriend Morgan were taking a walk through your city after a visit to some other friends, when she ran into one of her high school friends, seemingly on her way home from work.

"Anon, this is my friend Jess." Morgan introduced you. "Actually, this is the one I mentioned. With the brother, who had that friend who told us about that cool fight thing he joined a while back." And after that quick introduction, Morgan seemed to get a grand idea. "Jess, call up your brother real quick, have him call his friend, so he can tell us again about that fight club thing he went to and where it was."

You weren't sure where her thoughts were headed, but she explained just as quickly.

"If it sounds interesting to you Anon, maybe we can take a trip out there, go see it for ourselves."

"I could've sworn you said something about getting me to do something other than fighting," you told her. "but now you want to take a sudden trip to a place where their main deal is fighting?"

"No no, I just didn't want you fighting 6th Street. And, y'know, the other gangsters. That was dangerous and could've got you seriously hurt or worse. But this sounded more like friendly competition, and that's perfectly fine with me."

"Riiight. Also, I've had my bat with me every time I got in trouble." you followed with. "If I have to fistfight I'm just gonna get beat down."

"Not true, you fought that blonde guy hand to hand and ended up winning." she told you. "Just take a chance, it might be more interesting than you think. Besides, we could do with a change of scenery for a bit, don't you think?"

You knew that when Morgan was that insistent it would be damn near impossible to dissuade her. Well, it wasn't like you were automatically agreeing to anything, so listening to the story yourself wasn't going to hurt. So the brother was contacted, who then contacted his friend, by the name of Kayo, who was happy to recount his tale of the small town and their age long tradition of fighting each other for entertainment and respect in this local event they called The Circle.

Kayo told you over the phone about his experience, his participation in this two against two tournament, and about the guy who seems to be some sort of organizer or ringleader for the event.

Funny enough. His name is Anon too. That caught your interest immediately. You don't ever meet too many people with your name, so the fact that the guy across the country who is the leader of this event has your name. Kayo had your curiosity at first, but now he had your attention.

So after listening to this guy Kayo's story, you felt a deep and sudden desire to head that way and go check things out for yourself. You thanked Kayo for his time and he told you to tell that other Anon that "Kayo says wassup", which you agreed to do. After that, Morgan's friend hung up and went back to chatting with Morgan while you took to researching that city. As well as the best way to get there, and places you could stay at.

They parted ways after exchanging phone numbers, since Morgan has a phone now that you got her. Jess also promised to talk to the rest of their old friends and let them know how Morgan's doing. Which is good. You connected with your old friends, Morgan did the same.

After that, with your impulsive decision cemented in your mind, you made your preparations and had everything ready for your sudden and spontaneous trip to another state. You made sure to ask if Keiji or Okita could head over to your place and check on Morgan's garden for her every other day, which they agreed to. You were only gonna be gone for about a week, so hopefully they wouldn't tear anything up in the backyard.

You took an Oober to the airport, got your boarding tickets, checked your bags and were ready to go. The boarding process seems a lot more annoying now, but the last time you were on a plane was about a decade ago, so you're sure it's changed. You noticed the nervousness afflicting Morgan, and did your best to keep her calm and allay her fears.

You boarded the plane. Morgan's seat was technically the window seat, but she wasn't having that so you took it. She held your hand tight the entire time and threatened to crush it during the takeoff. You're sure you're gonna have claw marks or something. But all the while you whispered reassurance into her ear to keep her from freaking out. First time plane rides sure are tough on some people.

After a while though she calmed down enough to fall asleep, and spent the entire rest of the ride nestled into you as you watched whatever plane movies were available. During that time, you let your mind wander with thoughts of what you were getting into and why you so readily accepted the thought of taking the trip out here. Even though your heart has finally healed, perhaps deep within you still hold that need for conflict that you had. You do still remember clearly the excitement and adrenaline that came to you during those skirmishes, as well as that powerful enjoyment that came when you punched Jack square in the face that one time. Maybe this was some call to battle that your subconscious needed to answer.

However, you personally thought you were done with the need to fight, especially a few months ago, when Reave, the once leader of the no longer Reapers, beat you into the ground and almost sent you to the Great Beyond. You haven't had any real wants or desires to fight anyone after that, but maybe that's just because there are no opponents to face. Coming to this Towngrove place might be a good way to determine if you really do still need to get your kicks with a bit of brawling. 

And as you occupied your time with those thoughts, just like that five hours went by.

"That wasn't actually too bad." Morgan said as you two departed the plane.

"How would you know, you spent the entire trip asleep." you countered.

"Exactly. If I could fall asleep, then that means there was nothing to worry about."

"So I guess that means you'll be fine with taking the window seat on the home trip then?"

She went quiet after that question though.

Five hours doesn't seem like an extraordinary amount of time, but you forgot that the eastern side of the country is a whole three hours ahead in time, so it's more like eight hours have passed. After you collect your bags, the first thing you do is grab something to eat. Which hurts your wallet a bit more than you'd like because airplane restaurants are weirdly overpriced. Fifteen dollars for a burger? Madness.

But after that, it's another Oober trip to the hotel you're staying at. So one more thirty minute ride, and you arrive at your hotel. You check in there and head up to your room. It's already pretty late, and according to Kayo, the Circle activities would end before sundown. Besides, it's a good idea to rest up, clear the fatigue and the jet lag. If you're going to get into some brawls, you want to be at your best. Of course, your best would've involved a certain DeMari 300, but these aren't those kinds of fights. And it's almost certain that you won't have to use that thing for anything besides its intended purpose ever again, what with the severe lack of conflict in San Vanargrand now.

Anyway you and Morgan have a shower, and after some time with the dryer where you help her with the harder to reach places, you guys hunker down for bed. A bit earlier than normal but it's fine. Morgan stays up a bit longer, since she's been properly rested on the plane, and scans the local t.v. stations. It doesn't bother you though, you're out after a few moments. You've got what you hope is an exciting week ahead of you, best to be rested and ready for it.

You wake up fairly well rested, but later than you expected. Morgan was still asleep as well but comes to right around the time you do. So with the both of you up and feeling pretty good, you decide it's time to go find that Circle and get in on the action. Right after breakfast, which at this point is closer to brunch. Luckily the hotel you're in also has a restaurant, so you don't have to go too far to look for something appropriate. A bit of breakfast to fuel you, and you take off on the hunt for glory.

However, it occurs to you that just because you know that the event is in the city of Towngrove, does not mean you know the city, or the exact location of where it is. You look at the map of the city on your phone, but it's not like there will be a little marker on it that has the location of The Circle. 

"How the hell are we supposed to find this place? Kayo didn't exactly tell us where it is." you reveal to Morgan.

"True, but he did say that it's apparently an event that everyone in town knows about." Morgan responds. "So I guess all we have to do is just ask somebody where it is. I'm sure they'll give us directions."

You nod in acknowledgment and scan your surroundings for someone who looks like they would be in the know.

"Ooh, how about those two over there?" Morgan asks, bringing your attention to a couple of lions walking down the road. However, before you can agree or not, she's already trotting over to them with that characteristic canine friendliness. All you can do is follow along behind her.

"Hi, hello, excuse me you two." she says, grabbing their attention.

As they turn, you take a quick scan of them. They're both pretty tall. The guy looks like your everyday kind of lion, though his shirt looks a little too tight in the arms. Likely a style choice. The girl however, looks like she stepped right out of a biker gang from the movies. You expect that confrontational feeling to spring forth in you. But it doesn't, so you take that as a very good sign. Especially since you don't know anything about her at the moment, and just assuming is a bad look. Besides, Kayo didn't say they had the same problems here as you did back home, so it's just gotta be a fashion statement, probably.

"Hey hey." the lady speaks first. "What can we do for you?"

"Well, we're visiting from out of town," Morgan begins. "And we were hoping you guys could give us some directions. We're told everyone who lives in this city knows about it, so would you be able to tell us where this thing called The Circle is?"

They share a look for a second, the lady grins brightly, the guy gets this look in his eye, like he's subtly sizing you both up.

"What a coincidence." she says. "We were both actually on our way in that direction ourselves. You can just walk with us if you're heading over now."

Morgan looks to you, wondering what you want to do. You shrug and nod, no need to wait.

"Sure, that sounds fine. Thanks." you say.

"No problem." the guy speaks now. "Always cool to have new challengers. Anon'll enjoy more than anyone."

They head off and you follow them on their way, making small talk as you go. They introduce themselves as Caesar and Cleo, so you introduce yourselves as well.

"Wait say what?" Caesar says suddenly. 

"You said your name was Anon?" Cleo asks.

"Correct." you answer.

They share another look. You can't quite decipher it however.

"Now that's a wild coincidence." Caesar says.

"We're definitely gonna have to see them fight or something right?" Cleo asks him. 

"He's gotta make it up there first, but yeah. This is gonna be good."

They must be already comparing you against this other Anon.

Besides that, you make more small talk on your way. They ask you where you're from and what brought you out here, and you answer truthfully. When you make mention of hearing about this place from Kayo, Caesar reacts and rubs his back as if the name invoked the pain of some old wound.

"Well, it was the perfect time for us to cross paths." Caesar says. "Usually, Circle doesn't start 'till school is out, so you would've been stuck for another few hours. Luckily there was no school today so we're kicking off at noon."

"Oh. Nice." you comment.

"It's just coincidences and good timing all around recently, huh?" Morgan says.

"Alright, it's right up here." Cleo informs you.

You almost think she's playing you, there's nothing around in any direction, but as you advance up the inclined road you see the area, people walking ahead of you, cars parked in the dirt down the road and a small gathering of people around this giant slab of ground right in the middle of a large empty dirt lot.

"Yeah, definitely not something you'd find on a map." Morgan remarks.

"Before you split off, stick with us for a bit longer." Cleo says.

"Yeah yeah, we definitely gotta introduce you to the guy."

That's fine, you had wanted to meet the guy anyway, having an introduction just makes it easier. As you continue to follow the two lions, you find yourself quickly wondering what you're going to come face to face with in this ringleader of fist fighting. Is this guy gonna be gigantic and imposing, like Tiny? Maybe fierce eyed and determined, like Shinzo? Terrifying and violent like Reave? But you realize that you're just comparing him to the gang bosses you've met, and he's probably not like any of them. . . Maybe. Though you don't have to wonder for much longer.

"Hey Anon!" Cleo shouts. "There's a new guy you gotta meet!"

And as you pass by the people already beginning to congregate on that stone slab, the lions step to the side and you come face to face with the man you can only assume is Anon. And he. He looks.

... Pretty fucking average to be honest.

He looks up at you, as he stays seated on this ancient looking plastic milk crate. His face lights up in a strange excitement as he stands to his, not at all imposing height. He's about eye level with you actually.

"A fresh victi- I mean a new challenger! Welcome!" he shouts.

Okay, he's already a little weird, but you're sure he's been getting his brain rattled a lot over here. You stick your hand out to shake it.

"Hey, nice to meet you." you say as he shakes your hand. "And before I forget, Kayo told me to tell you 'wassup'."

His face once again lights up at the mention of Kayo.

"Wait, Kayo? Really? Oh shit, are you from where he is? San... San Vana... Something."

"San Vanargrand, yeah. Guess he's been telling tales of this place out there, so for whatever reason it was decided that we would come out here."

He looks slightly behind him, to this adorable but feisty looking white rabbit and gives her this big ol' grin.

"He's spreading the word, Mirabelle." he says. "Kayo actually told his friends and people are showing up. Aww man, this is great."

"Well don't you feel accomplished?" the rabbit called Mirabelle says to him with a taunting smirk. He nods back vigorously, before he turns back to face you.

"So, what's your name buddy?" he asks.

You feel the edges of your mouth turn up in a slight grin as you answer "Anon."

"Huh, what?" he says, thinking you were addressing him.

"No, that's my name." you explain.

Then he looks like you just quickly slapped him.

"Forreal?!" he shouts, to which you reply with a nod. "Holy shit there are two of us?! Honestly, I never expected that, I always thought my name was kind of odd and uncommon."

"Yeah you're telling me." you respond.

"Kinda makes me wonder if there are more people with our name? If there's two, maybe there's more."

"Yeah, it's not entirely impossible." you shrug.

"Already making friends huh?" Morgan says from your side. "And to think that was so hard for you to do just several months ago."

"Yup, it's all your fault. " you tell her. "Morgan, this is the other Anon. Anon, this is Morgan, my girlfriend. It's actually because of her that we're here. One of her friends had a brother who was friends with Kayo, so that's how we learned about your event here."

However, he looks like he stopped paying attention halfway through your sentences, glancing between you and Morgan with a strange look on his face.

"You two are dating?" he asks with complete sincerity.

Hmm, that worries you for a moment. Some people in some states do still have an old way of thinking, was that information a mistake to share? Well, you wouldn't take it back even if you could.

"Yeah we are." you speak the truth, pulling Morgan closer by the shoulder. "It's actually a pretty common thing over on the West Coast."

He once again looks to his rabbit friend who seems to share the look of wonder on his face.

"Are you thinking?" she starts.

"That we need to take a trip out west to see what it's like?" he finishes.

They both nod simultaneously, then look back to you and Morgan, noting your tilted head of confusion.

"This is Mirabelle." he says.

"Nice to meet you both." she says.

 "We are also dating." Anon continues. "And while things are cool for us out here, we sometimes still get that raised eyebrow or scrunched face from some of the much older residents."

"Ahh." you say. Makes sense. Old way of thinking.

You both share similar nods of understanding for a while, before he seems to realize something.

"So Anon." he starts, before he twitches at the mentioning of his own name to someone else. "The fact that you've deliberately chosen to come here today, must mean you're in the mood to fight right?"

You nod. "That's pretty much it, I'd say."

"You any good?" Mirabelle asks, looking you up and down like she's sizing you up. What, is she thinking of fighting you or something? Actually, you do remember Kayo saying something about his fight ending with a flying rabbit. . .

"To be honest, probably not." you answer semi truthfully.

"He's underselling, don't believe it." Morgan says.

"I'm not I swear. It's just that, most of my fights weren't very. . . Traditional in the sense, like I assume these are."

"Oh."Anon says. "Is that from more of that uhhh, asshole gang violence stuff that Kayo told me about?"

Oh, Kayo's had run ins with 6th Street too, huh. Makes total sense. "Well, yeah. There was a 'gang', who didn't really fight fair. So well, neither did I. They started messing with me so the easiest thing for me to do was to smack them up with my baseball bat."

"Whoa, what?" Anon says, obviously shocked. "That sounds kinda dangerous and violent."

"Yeah well, I was usually on my own and it was the easiest way I could think of to fight off like six of them at once. Except for Tiny, he was gigantic. You shoulda seen the size of this black bear man, he was like ten feet tall and two thousand pounds."

"You fought a bear?" he asks. "Did you win?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't."

He nods, though it almost looks like there's a flash of envy in his eyes.

"Yeah so anyway, I've gotten in like two traditional fistfights. One went fine for me, the other... Did not. So I guess it's just a coin flip on if I'll do well or not."

"Sooo, Anon?" Mirabelle speaks up, and causes both you and the other guy to look at her. "If you don't mind me asking. If you aren't entirely confident with your fighting, what made you want to come out to a place to well, fight?"

"Good question. Most of it was her." you say, pointing to Morgan who puts on her best innocent face. "She basically coerced me into coming here. 'It'll be fun, you'll do great', all that jazz. Besides that, Kayo made it sound like one of those wonders of the world that you just had to experience for yourself. And if I was going to experience it I had to do it quick. He mentioned something about the cutoff being age restricted to under twenty one and I'm coming up on that, so."

They nod along as you explain.

"But lastly, I wanted to use what was considered a mostly safe environment to see if the dark seeds within my heart have been thoroughly drowned."

You lose them at that part.

"Too much Shinzo in that one, hun." Morgan tells you.

"Right, sorry." you say. "Basically, I was in a dark place for a long time. And eventually 6th Street started showing up and brought me conflict. Then I learned that I enjoyed the conflict, as odd as it was because it momentarily dampened the grief I was feeling. I've since changed and feel a whole lot better, but mainly, I'm wondering if I still have that need to want to fight people and what I would do if I did... Mostly because, as of right now, there are absolutely no more enemies in San Vanargrand for me to fight if I wanted to."

"No more enemies?" Anon asks. "That gang is gone?"

"Oh, all of them are gone. . . It's a long story."

"Alrighty. Well I'ma be honest man, that sounds a bit tough to deal with. To be honest, sounds like something my friend Lewis would've been interested in discussing with you, he's an inner workings of the hearts and minds kind of guy." 

"What he's saying kind of reminds me of that thing your dad was making you do a while ago, Anon." Mirabelle says.

He thinks for a moment before eventually getting where she got that idea. "Oh yeah, I can kind of see that. Well, whatever your reasons, as long as you face your opponents honestly and with proper decorum, then you are welcome to throw down with us."

"Cool." you say. "I appreciate that."

"Hey guys, what's going on?" a new voice calls out as they approach. 

This too tall rabbit with brown and white fur strides up, a cup of something in his hand that he sips leisurely.

"We got a new challenger Blake, that's what!" Anon says.

"Ooh, oh boy." this other rabbit says.

"Also his name is the same as mine."

"... This is getting out of hand, now there are two of you." he laughs.

"This is Blake, my little brother." Mirabelle says.

You stare at her and then him, comparing their heights. This dude is a few inches taller than even you.

"Uhhh, 'little'. Right." you drone.

"So, uhhh, Anon." the new rabbit Blake says.

"Huh? Yeah?" Both you and the other Anon answer.

"Well that's gonna get confusing quick." Morgan comments.

"Agreed." Mirabelle adds.

You and the other Anon glance at each other.

"You uh, got a nickname or something?" Anon asks.

"A nickname?" you repeat, demonstrating your thoughts to the redundancy that would bring.

"Okay understood. I'm just saying. Like uhhhh. Oh, like around here people call me The King. Cuz I'm like, King of The Circle."

You look at him like he's joking. "People do not call you that."

"People definitely call him that." Blake responds.

"Oh Lord." You think for a minute. You don't have any nicknames. Well, apparently some of the Akai Onis call you the Star of San Vanargrand for whatever crazy reason. But that's more a moniker than a nickname, right?

"Alright then. If you're the King, I guess just call me Ace for now."

"Oh yeah?" he asks.

"I'm pretty good at baseball, so I guess it fits."

"King and Ace, huh?" Mirabelle wonders. "What, are we playing cards now? Actually, isn't the Ace like, the best card in the deck?"

You chuckle in response to her question.

"Alright alright. So then, Ace." the little brother speaks again. "Are you gonna fight today? See any opponents that catch your eye?"

"Oh I can just choose huh?" you say. You look to "King" here. "But I think Kayo said something like I can't fight you until I win three matches with no losses, right?"

"Correct, he says. "But I'll be one hunna witchu fam. They don't call me the King for nothing, I'm kind of a tough bout."

"Damn, the pride on this man." you laugh. "Now I have to fight you. I'm motivated now. Go on then King, pick my battles for me."

"What? You sure?" he asks.

"Never let it be known that I sharpened my blade on the bones of the weak." you speak theatrically. "Send unto me your champions, Your Majesty. That I might break them."

"... Oh man I like this guy." he says, looking to his girlfriend and her brother. "Very well challenger. Prepare yourself, while I go to confer with Towngrove's greatest warriors."

He gets up and walks off quick.

"How'd you go from 'I'm probably not the best fighter' to 'I want to fight the strongest people here' in such a short time?" Morgan asks you.

You shrug."Did you hear that guy? I can't not match that pride, especially when he has my name. I'd feel like the inferior Anon."

You get strange Highlander vibes from this encounter. There truly can be only one.

"Besides, you don't get any stronger facing weaker opponents. The best experience comes from enemies that are stronger than you."

"Mmhmm!" Blake shouts, mouth closed and draining the last of what was in his cup.

"And lastly, a certain border collie likes watching me fight, or else she wouldn't have insisted so heavily on us coming to this town for a fight club. According to her, she 'likes how much of a badass I am', so why not show her that with some particularly exciting fights."

"What?" I didn't- I mean, I don't-" she stumbles.

"Oh please, don't you think we know each other well enough by now? Besides you said as much yourself when you first told me how you felt that night."

She goes silent, her entire plot thoroughly outed. At that point, King Anon returns.

"Alright man, how long are you gonna be in town?" he asks.

"Uhh, it's Monday today... We're leaving next Tuesday."

"Okay dope, that's plenty of time. I've got a few fights prepped and ready for you over the week. Mainly there was this one guy in particular that I wanted you to go up against, but he's on the school sports team and I had to make sure he would be able to show up."

"Oho, a fellow Jock. What team is he on?" you ask.

"Football."

"Pfft, of course."

"Alright well, thing should be starting soon. You need a refresher on the rules, or did Kayo hook you up well enough?"

"He told me but feel free to refresh me just in case." you nod.

And he does. It's pretty much everything you had already heard from Kayo but it didn't hurt to hear it all again. The only thing that bothered you was that mention of pre fight smack talk. You didn't really have any ideas on that one, so you asked for some examples. Anon did a quick example back and forth with Blake and you concluded that it would be very difficult if not downright impossible for you. 

They make quips at each others' species, and after your run in with the masters of Death, any and all thoughts toward specism burns like acid in your mind.

"They're purely just jokes for fun." King explained. "But, we do still get a few people who are unwilling or unable to engage in that part, so it is not at all a requirement. We want all participants to be comfortable with the game here."

That's good, Because even if you could quip like they did, you've still been raised far too respectfully to have any effective lines to use.

Eventually the time comes, people stand shoulder to shoulder in a large circle and this super bookish looking high school girl pops in. Once she makes greetings to the crowd, she calls for fighters. You choose to let a few people go so you can get an idea as to how things usually turn out. Two anthros step in, they do that smack talk thing, then once the girl who seems to be the referee asks them if they're ready, she calls for them to fight and that's where it begins.

The fights are about what you'd expect, except for the added danger of getting knocked into the effective area of the people surrounding the fighters. It's free reign for them to do whatever they please if you get too close. So the fights aren't as exactly one on one as you would have thought. Which might be a good thing, a bit less uniform and more street, kind of exactly what you wanted.

You watch intensely, studying the movements of the fighters. Once one fight is over and a winner is pronounced, the referee girls asks for more. Two others step in, the cycle repeats. After the third fight, you think you've got a good idea of how this works. Not much to it to be honest. When the referee calls for fighters, you raise your hand and step in confidently.

"Oh hello." the ref says. "You're a new face, I haven't seen you around before."

"Yep, from out of town." you say.

"He's from where Kayo is from, Elodi!" King shouts.

"Oh wow! How exciting." she exclaims. "Then if you're anything like he is, this will definitely be an impressive fight. Welcome to you..." she trails off, waiting for your name.

"Uhh Ace. I guess." you say.

"Very well. Are you familiar with the rules?" she asks, to which you nod. "Perfect. Then would anyone else like to face our new challenger?"

"Caesar!" King shouts, with more of that earlier theatrical tone. "By the Right I call upon you. Step forth and defend your King's honor from this wandering warrior!"

And what would you know, Caesar, the lion you first met steps up and across from you.

"I and my fair lady heralded you to this arena of glory." he says. "Now it falls to me to deliver you shame."

"I fought a bear like twice your size man, I am not afraid."

"Well. If we're prepared, what do you to have to say to each other?" the ref asks.

Here comes that part. And of course you don't have anything to say. But well... You don't really have to insult what he is to be effective right? Who he is might work just as well.

"Man, my first trial and it's a lion? Might as well just not call me Ace and call me Herkules instead."

Caesar scrunches his face, unsure of your meaning. You'd think a lion with the name of a Roman emperor would've got that. The referee understood it though, judging by the look on her face.

"Never mind man." you continue. "I guess you don't quite have the brain to get that one. You should probably work on the muscle in your skull too, instead of just the ones in your arms. And like, everything else too. Who the hell keeps letting you skip leg day?" 

That actually gets a chuckle out of some of the spectators.

"Whatever man, you're just jealous because you're scrawny. Must not be eating well back home, they must not have too many banana trees out West."

"Dude, is the reason the top of your head looks so crazy because your biceps are too big to reach a comb up there?"

"Like you're any better. Can you even see me past all that mess in your face?"

That reminds you, you still need to get a haircut like Morgan suggested.

"Man, to be honest I don't even want to." you say, pressing more of your hair into the space in front of your eyes. "You look like you took a blender to the face, how many ass beatings have you gotten out here?"

That gets the crowd to hoot and holler, King especially. So Caesar must be the Towngrove punching bag of sorts. Evidenced by the fact that he goes quiet after your observation. After a while of no comebacks the referee decides to move on.

"Alright then. Are you ready Caesar?" He nods. She looks to you. "Are you ready, Ace?"

You take a deep breath and let it out. Then you nod to her.

"Then let's. Fight!"

Caesar makes the first move, striding right up to you with the confidence and swagger that only a prideful being such as he can produce. Once he's within striking range of you, he lets loose with a quick jab straight at your face. However, since you were biding your time waiting for his first move, and are so used to fast moving objects, you quickly dodge his opening strike. However you don't immediately try to capitalize on his missed attack, you pull back a few feet to give yourself some space. He once again approaches and tries to strike again, and with ease you manage to dodge.

You keep your eyes on his movements, analyzing him in the short moments you're allowed, seeing how he moves and how he prefers to strike. He puts his focus on punches, but the way he has his legs positioned, you think he might throw a kick or two at you at some point. You pause your backpedaling and allow him into striking distance once again. He'll definitely out range you, but if you dodge and get in close you might be able to get some strikes in.

Although before you decide to do that, you choose to see what he's got in the way of endurance. How long can he continue to throw these missing strikes. A jab, a hook, an uppercut, he throws them all in vain. 

You can tell after a while of this that your dexterity is grating on his patience. He steps in quickly and throws a kick , that you saw coming but didn't have the time to dodge. It almost catches you in the side, but you pull your arm down to block it just in time. However you were completely wrong. This man does hit leg day occasionally, that kick was kind of fierce. It hit you with enough force to throw you a bit off balance, which gave him enough time to come forward with his left and punch you right between the eyes with the force of a hammer. It hits you hard enough to send you backpedaling until you hit the ground on your back, staring into the sky.

The sky is surprisingly pretty out here in Towngrove, it's so clear and blue.

You come out of your admiration when that referee girl comes into your vision.

"Are you done?" she asks.

"What?" you respond.

"Umm. Are you done? Can you continue fighting or are you finished?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah I'm good. Sorry."

You got distracted. There's no urgency and danger like in your past fights, so you lost your focus. You draw your legs back then forward and spring back to your feet with a kip-up. You've actually only done that twice and they were both a long time ago, so you're internally glad that you can still effectively do those.

It's time to fight back. You send yourself at Caesar fists raised, ready to punch him out. As soon as you're close to within his striking zone, you slow down just a bit to prepare and reposition yourself. He throws another punch aimed right for your brow, but you throw your head down and duck directly under it. You bring your arm out and drive it straight into the center of his stomach. He buckles and bends forward, but he reels back ready to punch you from his lofty position. So you act first and throw your left fist straight into the bottom of his chin. He takes a single step back, and you press that advantage. You lunge at him and  jump into him. With his impressive bulk, you scale him like he's a colossus. Your left hand gripping his shoulder, your feet driven into his gut and hip for leverage.You bring your right fist up and throw it down right into his nose with enough force to send his entire body diving into the dirt, back first.

Here it comes, your best beat em up move. You position yourself over him  and throw punch after relentless punch in your favored ground and pound method. He takes punch after punch for a while, and tries to block. You hunt for whatever opening you can find and keep on the pressure. Until he opens his hands up and grabs your right arm before another punch can connect. You throw punches with your ungrappled left until he manages to latch onto that too.

What he plans to do next you don't know. But you aren't going to give him the chance to do it anyway. You use his own grapple against him. With his hands latched onto your arms, his torso is completely exposed. You jump up and bring your legs together, driving your knees into his vulnerable gut. He cringes and shrivels as pain shoots through him and his grip on your arms weakens considerably

You put a hand near his shoulder to hold him down as you prepare to beat on his face some more, but you stop. How much is too much? Do you beat on him until he's unconscious? But doesn't he get a chance to say he's done? When does that come? Does the ref decide that or is it just when you look unresponsive, like you were earlier?

You look down at Caesar, who doesn't quite look ready to give up. He's struggling to regain some breath into his lungs, but the fight doesn't seem to have escaped him. You glance at the ref for a moment and she's staring intensely, scrutinizing every detail, but doesn't seem ready to call the fight.

You peer up at King and his friends. They're cheering. Well, not just them, a lot of people are cheering, spurring your fight on, showcasing their excitement. Reminds you of a sports venue. Morgan's standing near them and unlike whenever you'd normally get in a fight, there's no mask of fear on her face. It's covered with an unrestrained awe and excitement.

You bring your attention back to Caesar, then pull yourself back and stand up, giving him space to recover freely. You wait until his breathing is steadied and he rises to his feet, albeit a little shaky. He looks at you, his passion for battle reigniting embers in his eyes. But then he turns back and looks at King. Nothing is said, but King seems to confer with Caesar some unspoken word. Caesar turns back to you.

"Alright. I'm done." he says. "Good fight there Anon. Er uh, Ace."

There's a very sudden commotion as Caesar reveals your true name, but you pay it no mind.

"Alright alright!' the referee shouts. "There we have it! Our winner in his first ever fight in The Circle, Ace! Congratulations."

That's when the commotion shifts to a chorus of celebratory cheers. And oh man, this sound takes you back. It makes you feel good, makes you feel accomplished. You bask in the cheers for a while before Caesar steps up to you and offers his hand. You shake it firmly.

"Thanks for a good first fight Caesar. You sure do fucking hit hard though dude, goddamn."

He shrugs. "Yeah I've been told that a lot."

After that, you walk up to what's basically the Royal Court. King, his girlfriend, her brother, and Morgan. There's also somebody new standing next to Mirabelle that wasn't there earlier.

"So how do you feel?" Morgan is the first to speak.

"The center of my face hurts." you reply.

"Yeah no doy, you took a lion punch dead center to it."

"Yeah, so now I can't think. Pain's too great. Kiss it and make it better."

She stares at you. You grin at her.

"I'm not doing that in front of all these people." she says flatly. You hang your head in sorrow.

"Well anyway. I feel fine. Like, just fine. That need for violence that I used to have. Couldn't find a hint of it during that fight. Granted, I kind of figured it was nowhere to be found. That was what I was using to fill my heart with when it was empty, but you've since solved that problem so of course it's gone. But, well, never hurts to double check."

"Good. Great. Perfect." she says.

"Aww man, I hope that doesn't mean you don't want the rest of your fights." King says, a bit downcast.

"Oh no absolutely. I challenged you and your people, it would be cowardly of me to go back on my challenge. Besides. that was just a side objective. I came for the fights so I'm gonna get those. This is actually, pretty fun. Besides the bludgeoning my face just got, I like what's going on here."

"Yeah?" King asks. "Good man, I'm glad. Kayo came last time and he wasn't too thrilled with the one on one aspect. But if you enjoyed yourself then that's all I need to hear."

"Caesar didn't have to go easy on me though." you say. "I wanted the full experience, he could've fought me with more gusto, y'know."

King chuckles. This low, slow, conspiratorial chuckle that says he knows something you don't, or is simply amused at the comment you just made.

"So. What about you?" you ask him. "You gonna fight? Show me what you got?"

"Only way I can fight is if someone gets the three wins to challenge me. And it is, increasingly difficult, for people to achieve that."

"Oh yeah, why?"

"Cuz I got my Kingsguard right here." he says, pointing to the two rabbits next to him.

"Hm? Oh let me guess. They go out there and end people's three win streaks before they can get to you don't they?"

"Yessir!" Blake exclaims with a jovial laugh.

"This is gonna be my final objective isn't it?" you ask King. He simply shrugs, but the grin on his face tells you that you're correct. "So when's my next fight?"

"One a day." he says. "So come back tomorrow. Oh uh, after like three o clock, we usually don't start til the high school up the way lets out."

"Got it."

"So what're you getting up to after this?" Mirabelle asks.

You look to Morgan.

"To be honest, this is all we had planned." she says. "We don't know what else is out here. This is all we came for, so if you have suggestions, we're all for it."

They all chuckle.

"This is all there is to do in Towngrove." Blake says.

"Well, y'know there's a shopping center." Mirabelle adds. "And the TIM. But really, yeah that's it."

"TIM?" Morgan and you ask simultaneously.

"It's a big ass mall." King explains. "Like a hundred stores, an arcade and a movie theater in it. And the only other interesting thing in this town besides The Circle."

"Damn. That kinda sucks." you say. "But well, San Van isn't much better."

The conversation lulls a bit so that newcomer decides to pose you a question.

"Umm excuse me. Did I hear right when Caesar said your name is Anon?"

You look down at this doe of some kind, with a surprisingly awesome punk rock aesthetic.

"Goddamn I dig your style." you blurt out before you can phrase it in a more polite way.

"Oh, haha, thanks." she says.

"But uh, yeah. That's my name as well.  We're calling me Ace to avoid the confusion here." you explain pointing between you and King.

She nods in understanding.

King points to the doe. "This is Bree. She's a friend of ours. Just a spectator though, now, so you don't have to worry about her knocking your teeth out like the rest of us."

"Oh perfect." you say with a feigned sigh of relief.

After that, there's a few more fights, and once they're all done, you finally notice just how many more anthros there are than humans in this place. Weird to see, considering the numbers are a bit more even in San Vanargrand. Anyway, The Circle seems to be coming to its end for the day, so it's about time for you to get going as well. You bid everyone farewell, and find Caesar and Cleo to thank them once again. You Maps your hotel and head straight back. Luckily, the kitchen is still open and serving dinner, so you and Morgan grab some food before returning to your room. You spend the rest of the day in each other's company before winding down for bed.

You wake up a lot later than you normally would. Your body's probably still on West Coast time. Morgan's also still in bed, even though she tends to always be up slightly before you. Ah well, sleeping in is a rare treat, might as well enjoy it. Besides, according to King and his buddies, The Circle won't be starting up for a good while, and there isn't much out here in the way of entertainment. Except for a mall of sorts called the TIM. You grab your phone and search up "Towngrove TIM" and get the Towngrove Imperial Mall. And true to their word, as you scroll through the list of establishments within, there are close to a hundred stores there. 

Something to check out before you go back home at least.

Anyway, there's not much else to do but play the dreaded waiting game. You order some food and pretty much idle around, watching the T.V with Morgan until it's about time to head back over. However, as you're walking down the street, a car slows to a stop right next to you. Down goes the passenger window to reveal the white rabbit Mirabelle.

"Hey you two." she says. "Heading to The Circle?"

The local Anon's head pops into view from the driver's seat. "Yo. If y'all want a ride, we can let you in the back. It's not the most comfortable, but y'know it beats walking."

You and Morgan share a look, silently agreeing to accept the hospitality.

"Sure, we'd appreciate it." you accept.

Mirabelle hops out to let the seat forward and allow you two in. Once you're both in, she returns it to its spot and hops back in, then King takes off.

"Damn. This you?" you ask, impressed with the vehicle you're sitting in.

"Sure is." King answers, smug dripping from his voice.

"What year?"

"It's an '18."

"Not bad. I drive a '15 Camero myself." you say with similar smug. "Although, it's my dad's." you add, telling the truth.

"Nice. Dad's hand-me-down huh?" he asks.

"... You could say that." you shrug.

No need to bring up what happened. You don't want any pulled punches out of pity. Luckily he doesn't press what you meant or anything, giving an accepting nod. After a short drive though, you pull up to the Circle, people are already showing up. 

You exit the car, and King informs you that he'll be back after he goes to pick up Blake. He leaves, and once again, you have to wait. So you spend the time actually surveying the area. A squirrel is unloading the back of a pickup truck with what you assume are drinks. A raccoon has a table with papers and a box. Some canine is squatting near a boom box, shuffling through some music. There's a fox and a cow across the way in a tent wearing old timey nurse caps.

... You have to turn your attention away quickly before you get caught staring at that cow.

Though you turn your attention right at Morgan, who is staring right at you. You think she caught you red handed before she says "Why are you so smiley?"

"Oh uh. Just thinking that what they've got going here is pretty cool. I expected, y'know a bit more hostility, but they get their punches in and shake hands afterwords like good sports. I like it."

"Yessir, good sportsmanship is important." King says, coming up to you.

"That was fast." you comment.

"Yeah, school is literally right up the hill." he says, hooking his thumb towards the direction in which he had driven off.

"Convenient."

After a while, the referee comes up, so it must be time to start. Apparently The Circle still ends at the same time, when evening starts to roll in, which means there's less time for fights during the normal day. So you opt to get your fight in first. After a quick word to King to ask if that second fighter he has prepared for you is here, he confirms that he is. So when fighters are called for, you step in eager to get things going.

"Our far off fighter from foreign fields returns." the ref says, with a fancy alliteration. "Then let's begin. Who else is stepping in?"

"Tyrell!" King shouts, reminiscent of yesterday. "By the Right I call upon you."

Your opponent needs no other words. He strides in with an almost knightly swagger, throwing his balled up fist rhythmically into his chest as he stands opposite you.

"Wassup homie." he says casually. You expected another fancy line like you got from Caesar yesterday.

You throw your head up in silent greeting as you appraise your next adversary.

"Alright, the fighters are chosen." the ref says. "Now, what do you have to say?"

"Anon there told me you're on a football team." you say quickly. "But looking at you, that's kind of hard to believe. What are you really, the water boy?"

"Shiiiit. I might as well be with how hard I drip." he says, brushing off his shoulders.

You chuckle before you can stop yourself. That was a pretty good comeback, you'll admit.

"You play a sport or somethin'?" he asks in what sounds like an honest question.

"Baseball."

He pauses. Then lets out the meanest raspberry anyone's ever made at you. Like you just told him you're a professional hackey sacker or something.

"Alright that's it." you say feeling thoroughly offended at such a simple provocation. You turn to your left and look out at the members of the Circle surrounding the two of you. "I'ma need you guys to go ahead and clear a path, so I can give this chump the chance to do what he does best: run."

"Ay, we don't just run. We hit too." he says, throwing his fist into his hand for emphasis. "Which you about to learn."

You've got nothing else to say, and neither does he. So after a few seconds of silence the ref proceeds. "Tyrell, are you ready?" He nods. "Ace, are you ready?" You nod as well. "Then let's. Fight!"

You watch each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. But standing here mean mugging at each other is wearing on your patience. You run at him to close the gap as quickly as you can and raise your fist for a momentum fueled swing at his face. However at the last moment you angle down to fake him out and swing at his gut instead.

Unfortunately, as a fellow sportsman he seems to have the quick reaction time one would expect and manages to weave out of the way of your strike just in time. He then throws a hook that catches you right under the ribs as you pass by him. You raise your fist and pivot, intent on delivering revenge. He sees your revenge strike coming though, and dodges out of the way. Too bad you never followed through, feinting your swing and catching his dodge. You follow through with a new punch and catch him in the chin. 

He steps back, you step forward to hit him again, but he swings out and tags you in the nose as he leans back and out of our range. You throw a hook, but he ducks right underneath it and throws an uppercut at you that shakes your skull and forces you to backpedal. That's where he finds his momentum and starts to throw his punches with fervor. Jabs, hooks, uppercuts, this man begins to box you up with ferocity. He's got a good rhythm and knows when to switch from going for head shots to body shots when you keep your guard centered for too long.  And dodging isn't really helping when he's just about as fast as you and able to close any distance you make just as soon as you make it.

He throws punches at your face, but you guard them. But your guard begins to fall, and he notices. Good thing, because you began to drop it on purpose. You slightly reel back your arm as you see him winding up for a hook, and when he lets it go, you do the same, catching him right in the eye with a right hook as he slams into your jaw with his left. With that spare moment, you try to throw yourself at him to tackle him to the ground.

Trying to tackle the football player. That's a bit ironic, isn't it?

Unfortunately, he still has enough of his senses to see you coming and dodge out of the way. Though it's more like he fell out of the way, accidentally tripping over his own foot as he tried to sidestep you. However, that mistake works out heavily in his favor, as you can't halt your forward momentum in time to avoid colliding with a brick wall. Well, he's not exactly a brick wall, but he's damn near built like it. This very bulky horse guy was in your path and brought you to a sudden stop by bending low and letting you run face first into the cinder block that was his shoulder.

That's right, the people in the front row are allowed to get involved you remember, as you press your palms into your temples to stop the daze. Well if the crowd is a type of weapon, and you've been called a weapon fighter, logic dictates that you should use them. You turn around just in time to see your opponent advancing quickly up to you. You get an idea. You decide to borrow this horse guy's bulk for a moment. You step toward him and when Tyrell is in range, you turn and rebound off of the horse, almost in reenactment of your fight against Tiny, where you launched yourself off the gate. To his credit the horse doesn't even really budge as close to one hundred and ninety pounds bounds off of his wall like flesh and into the air. You lash your legs out and dropkick Tyrell dead center in the chest. You hit the ground before he does, but when he hits the dirt, he goes down hard.

You slide yourself onto an elbow and look over at your grounded opponent. However that's when you notice that most of your makeshift arena has gone strangely quiet. You glance around quickly and take in the wide eyed and astonished stares of the spectators.

Your immediate thoughts drift toward concern. Maybe you did something you weren't supposed to. You find King in the audience, sat upon his milk crate. He looks at the horse you had unknowingly assist you, then back to you.

"Holy shit that's never been done before in the history of The Circle! Maybe!" he shouts, like he just bore witness to a legendary event.

"... Should I have not done that?" you ask honestly.

He looks over at the horse. "Are you good Clyde?"

The horse dusts off the part of his shirt where your foot planted into him, before he says "That was pretty fuckin' dope, I can't even lie."

King nods heavily in agreement, before he shifts his gaze to you. "Guess you're good. Now back to your fight, it doesn't look over yet."

You look to your opponent, who is indeed coming back to his feet. You stand up as well. You run over as soon as he's on his feet, grab hold of him and slingshot him into The Circle. Two of them latch on to his arms and open him up for some serious damage. So you aim and throw a haymaker right into his solar plexus. He heaves and damn near spits up a lung. You step back, expecting that to be good enough to put him down. They release him and he staggers forward. Then he raises his fist and slugs you right in the face, like he just had one too many drinks and drunkenly attacked you. Then he grabs you by the shirt collar, reels back and bashes his forehead into yours. 

This asshole's skull is made out of stone or something. He reels back to do it again, but you stick your hands out and block his head with your palms before he makes contact. You wedge your leg between the two of you and kick out, separating the both of you. Now it's your turn to stagger forward. You take a few steps, then once again lunge at him, attempting to tackle him to the ground. This time however, you succeed. Then comes the ground and pound, you throw consecutive punches at him, over and over. His defense is faltering, but he doesn't concede. He even takes swings at you when you ease up to give him the chance to bow out gracefully.

This dude's tenacious, for sure. Well if he won't give up on his own, you'll just have to punch on him until he takes a nap. You swing and swing. He swings as well, even if his own attacks will leave him open for a solid strike from you. However, when you catch him between the eyes, he mellows out considerably. He's not unconscious, but he's stopped swinging. The ref begins to approach, so you retreat, removing yourself from over him and taking a few steps back.

She asks him if he's done, but he doesn't respond. She asks again. Again no verbal answer. But his body jolts, and he attempts to roll over and once again stand to his feet.

"Holy hell, what are they putting in the gaterade out here?" you speak under your breath. To be honest, you're getting kind of gassed, and this guy put up a hell of a fight. If he's got more in him, you doubt the likelihood of a victory.

However, a voice speaks out to soothe this unyielding beast.

"Alright babe, that's enough don't you think?" this Siamese cat says, beckoning to Tyrell. "Say you're done so we can go before you get too messed up. You've got practice tomorrow."

"I almost got him." Tyrell says to her.

"Mmhmm, you sure do. Now come on."

"Aight aight," he shrugs. "I'm done." Then he begins to walk off towards the cat, before he suddenly stops, then turns to walk toward you. He holds his hand out. "Good fight, G."

"Likewise." you say, and shake his hand. Then he resumes his previous course and walks over to the cat, grabbing her hand  and walking off together.

You nod, feeling a sudden newfound respect for that guy. You also begin to wonder if football players just have a thing for feline girls, as you think back to your old friend Dwayne. 

"Well, there we have it. Our winner, once again, is Ace!" the ref exclaims, eliciting a mass of cheers from the audience.

You drag yourself into the audience where everyone is waiting for you.

"That dude is something else." you say, throwing your arm around Morgan's shoulder, partly to hold her close and partly to use her as leverage for your failing endurance.

"Yeah, Tyrell is a different beast." King agrees. "But you won, congrats."

"I might not have had that girl not cut us short."

"So uh, Ace." Blake cuts in. " I noticed you used that ground attack thing twice now. Is that like your signature?"

You raise an eyebrow at his question.

"A lot of us have moves that we tend to gravitate towards to end our fights with." King explains. "Like the rabbits here use dropkicks. I've got a kickboxing clinch. Even Bree likes her elbow drops."

You look at the doe who has once again arrived and she shrugs. 

"I thought you were just a spectator? You fight too?" you ask.

"It's. Well, it's a long story." she responds in way of an answer.

You shrug in reply. If she doesn't want to get into it, you won't press.

"Well, anyway. I guess you're right." you return to the topic. "I guess I do use that move pretty often." 

"Cool cool." King says. "Well man, feel free to watch the rest of the fights. There won't be as many as yesterday, but you know, they're still entertaining. Though it's fine if you want to bail. You look like you're gonna fall over any second now."

You do feel a bit exhausted, but you'll be fine.

You shake your head. "I'm good, I'll stick around. If that's okay with you." you direct at Morgan. She nods in approval, so you spend the rest of the remaining time at the Circle watching the rest of the fights. You were hoping to catch either the Kingsguard or the King himself getting into a fight so you could have some idea of what you're going up against next, but there was no such luck. Eventually it comes time to call it and head out for the day.

"You sure you'll be good getting back?" King asks. "I'm sure Blake can walk, if not catch a ride from one of his other friends."

"Nah man, it's cool." you say, refusing his courtesy. "I'll live, I swear. I mean, I lived through a lot worse."

Morgan elbows you in the side, to your dismay, because you're still a bit sore. She doesn't like it when you joke about your near death experiences, so you apologize to her. King raises an eyebrow but otherwise doesn't question it. With another farewell, he takes off and leaves you to walk back to your hotel.

One walk later, with a slight detour to get some food at this place called Rajin' Kane's (why the hell aren't there any of these in San Vanargrand?) you end up back at your hotel. The difficulty in these fights are definitely increasing, and you're keenly aware that the skill you get from being surprisingly good at whatever you try cannot hold a candle to people who have been engaging in an activity for what might be years. You're going to need all your rest, so you prepare for bed. Morgan stays up a bit longer though, because of course she does. What you're in for next, you have no idea.

You rise at a more respectable time than yesterday. However, existing is unnecessary until 3 p.m, so your time is spent relaxing and gathering strength for your next upcoming trial. The trial that you have doubts about. That Tyrell guy was good and he was only the second fight. And since it's very likely that you're going to have to fight one of those rabbits, who apparently make their livings by beating people before they get to fight King, you don't feel too good about your chances. Too bad your folks didn't raise no quitter, so you're going to persevere even if victory isn't the most likely.

You're feeling pretty good after some decent rest, even though you still feel a bit raw in some places. In a way, the pain you're feeling reminds you of your days after back to back practice sessions, so it's nothing extremely new to you. However, it is a bit of a trip that these guys come back to beat on each other day after day, without getting tired or more seriously injured. But oh well, there's no point to thinking about it too heavily.

The time comes so you get prepped and ready to leave. On your way you don't run into King this time. Not that you expected that stroke of luck again, but catching the ride was a nice convenience. Besides, it gives you the chance to enjoy the sights with Morgan. It's not at all like San Vanargrand. It's more sparse in it's buildings, and there's quite a few areas covered in trees and greenery. At least until you turn the corner and can see the more urban area and the testament to consumerism that is that giant mall you've heard about.

"There it is." you muse. "The giant mall. We still gotta go check that out."

"Yep. After your last fight, we'll definitely go." Morgan responds. "Gotta find some sort of reward to get you once you win."

She has far too much faith in your ability, but the optimism is appreciated.

It takes you some time, but you finally make it up to the Circle. Just in time too as it seems that things are just now beginning. Some fighters have already been chosen and are in their preparatory stage. Before you decide to step in and get a better view, you slide toward that squirrel selling drinks. Of course, seeing this one sends your mind toward that other squirrel that you've had to deal with, even though they look nothing alike here. And thinking of her makes you think of those goons and the choices you've made. A lot's going to change back home. But this is not the time to think about all that, you have to keep your mind focused on what's happening immediately. Even though it's still a bit chilly, as early in the year as it is, a cold beverage is exactly what calls to you. Morgan however, opts for one of the drinks in the giant pitcher, that turns out to be hot cocoa.

You kind of wish you got some of that instead, but you made your choice. Maybe you'll come back afterwards if there's any left. Anyway, you pay with a bill out of the small stack that Morgan said would be a good idea to have, since not everything in the world is purchasable by card. Then once that's done you slide your way into the Circle to get a good vantage point to watch the fight.

It was a good one, pretty neck and neck. But once it's over you make your way over to King and his retinue.

"Oh hey, there he is!" King shouts as he catches sight of you. "Almost thought you were gonna take a day off to recuperate."

"Nah man, I'm tougher than I look." you say, waving away his concern.

"You sure? You don't literally have to do your fights back to back, as long as you don't lose, the streak remains. You can take a break if you need one. In fact, I insist."

"I promise I'm good." you nod. "I'm here, and I'm ready."

You watch as this sneaky grin creeps onto his face and he slightly shakes his head. "With what's coming up next. No you're not. But I admire the confidence!" He adds a thumbs up to the end of his sentence.

You scrunch your face in confusion, and a bit of worry, and look to Morgan for some sort of reassurance. You aren't sure if he's trying to spook you, or if you're honestly about to have a bad time. Morgan gives you a pat on the back to help your nerves.

"Alright then." King says. "Well, Blake will you-"

"Uh uh hold on." Mirabelle pipes up, gripping King by the shoulder and leaning forward. "I want this one."

"Yeah but look, if you fight him then I'm not gonna even get a chan-" he starts, before Mirabelle gives him this ice cold glare so powerful it even chills you.

". . . Understood." King says, then turns to you. "So I guess you'll be-

"Wait wait." the younger brother chimes in this time. "I want this fight just as much as her." He crosses his arms, tilts his head up and looks down at his sister like some sort of anime villain. "I won't simply yield to you here, sister."

They stare at each other for a good while, unflinching. You, King, and pretty much everyone around who has noticed this square off have gone quiet. Then suddenly they both throw their hands up, and throw their fist into their palms for a single round of rock, paper, scissors.

The younger brother lifts his thrown scissors into the air. Then falls to his knees dramatically, crushed by his older sister's rock, that she then lifts to the sky like a triumphant fist. With no other words, she walks proudly into the Circle and turns to face you, waiting patiently.

You turn to get confirmation from King. He simply shrugs and nods.

"Are you really sure about this, man?" you ask him. "Like, all in all, I guess I don't mind, but. I don't wanna hurt your girlfriend or anything."

He looks at you calmly, measuring your words. Before he asks "Have you ever played chess before, Ace?"

You stifle a laugh at the silliness that is asking a jock if he's ever played chess. . . Well you have, your dad taught you back in middle school, but you aren't gonna tell anyone that.

"I know the rules, sure." you say in response.

"Good. So then uh. Then you know that the Queen is actually the strongest piece on the board, right?"

"Uh, mhm." you respond blankly, a slight tinge of worry invading you as you follow his line of thought.

"Great. So uh. Good luck." is how he finishes his thought.

You chuckle. "What are you saying, huh? That I'm about to get fucked up?"

He doesn't answer. That worries you. You glance around to the nearby spectators and note their similar states of silence. Your grin falters and worry permeates you.

"Am I about to get fucked up?" you ask sincerely. The solemn nods from the many faces acknowledging your imminent doom is your answer. "Oh no."

You turn your attention to the rabbit, standing stock still and waiting. "What on earth are you?" escapes your mouth before you can realize what you're saying and reel it in.

Honestly, the fact that everyone around unanimously agrees that you're about to get your block rocked invokes a horrible dread. And as you watch this tiny snow white rabbit, open her big blue eyes wide and draw this slow, malicious grin across her mouth, you feel like a full moon suddenly spawned in the sky and warped this originally docile looking creature into a beast of nightmares.

"I'm the Queen, bitch." she spits her words with an air of superiority that only a true monarch could achieve.

"Oh Lord I've made a terrible mistake." you say to yourself, resigned to your imminent fate. You turn to Morgan and place your hands on her shoulders. "If I don't make it. Bury me with my bat."

"Come on, don't say that. This is just for fun, it's not gonna be that bad." she says. "It won't be that bad right?" she asks King.

He once again remains silent. Before he turns to you and once again says "Good luck."

Regret is the word of the day, as you take a few steps forward into the Circle and stand across from your small in stature, but imposing in aura, opponent.

"Oh, and don't you even think about pulling your punches because I'm a girl, like that other guy from San Vanargrand. Or you really will be flying home in a box." the Queen dictates.

Oh. Now that she brings it up, that is a valid point. You've never had conflict with a girl before. All the goons in 6th Street you fought were stupid dudes. But, that doesn't seem to hold much of a reason to stop for you. There was that Reaper woman, Widow, who surely got to that point by her skill and desire to inflict violence. But there's also Okita, the graceful geisha(you remembered the word) that clobbered several guys and almost snapped a poor dude in half. And judging by the reverence and respect this rabbit is getting from everyone, you yourself are about to be folded by a girl. So to hell with thoughts of gender inequality, women are clearly a force to be reckoned with. Like Rosie the Riveter, they really can do it.

"Oh no, don't worry." you finally say. "I'll fight like my life depends on it. Because it probably will."

She takes your words with a nod of acceptance.

"Well. Okay." the referee finally speaks. "Since it seems like our fighters have been chosen, let's get started with the next round. What do you have to say?"

You pause to think for a moment. You're pulling up blank, but Mirabelle seems to be willing to wait, giving you the chance to come up with anything.

"Well, I mean." you start. "You seem real confident that you're gonna kick my ass. But like, can you even reach it from down there? Should we get you a step stool or something first?"

"You think you're safe just because you're taller than me?" she responds. "You're about to find out real soon that your place is beneath me."

"Uh, you must have us confused. Judging by your personality, I think the Anon that's usually beneath you, is that one." you point to King, and receive a chorus of giggles and chuckles from the spectators.

"Well, maybe it's just an Anon's fate to be pushed around by their girls. After all." She looks to Morgan, then back to you. "She dragged you out here, didn't she? To come fight because she said so."

The crowd ooh's, like that was a grievous injury. Which it kind of was, you set yourself up for that, in a way.

"Alright, hold on." you say, and cup your ear with your hand as you lean forward. "I'ma really need you to speak up, it's kinda hard to hear you from all the way down there."

"You're gonna clearly hear the sound of your bones breaking in a minute."

"Oh no, she's coming for my ankles, I'm terrified."

"More like I'm coming for your kneecaps."

"Okay!" the ref shouts. "With all of that said, this is bound to be an... Interesting match."

You caught that pause, but you choose to make no comment.

"Now then. Mirabelle, are you ready?"

She stretches her legs a bit, and then nods.

"Good. Ace, are you ready?"

"Probably not, but I'm gonna do it anyway." you say.

"Okay then." the ref says. "Then let's. Fight!"

You blink, and almost miss it. She closes the gap in a second and is already in a position to pulverize your exposed flesh. You can't even block in time as she punches you twice dead center in the gut. It didn't hurt too bad, but damn she's fast. You regain enough sense to throw your own attack, but who would've guessed that she's fast on the defense as well as the attack. She dodges your swing and counters with two more well placed punches to your side. You throw a hook and surprise surprise, she dodges and punches you twice... So surely this will work on the third try. You swing again, just to be dodged. However, you follow up with a second strike to try and catch her off guard while she's stepping in to get her punches. Unfortunately she sees it coming and leans back and out of the way, causing you to barely miss her nose.

This can work though, if you don't give her a chance to counter, you can catch her at some point. You throw punch after punch in an attempt to keep her on the defensive, and hope that she slips up. However, just like Okita, her dodges are fairly quick and almost graceful to a point. You can't seem to find a point to connect with. But a stroke of luck comes your way, and you happen to stick your foot out while you attack. She dodges in the direction of your outstretched foot, and, keeping her attention on your arms, didn't notice your leg. She stumbles, giving you the perfect opportunity to clock her good.

Too bad that someone who's been doing this for a while knows exactly how to reverse their misfortunes. As she falls, she twists her body and sticks her hands out, flipping into a cartwheel to recover and escape. But not before lashing her leg out and kicking you in the jaw so hard your entire body goes rigid. Your hands shoot up and clutch your chin, like if you even think of letting go your entire jaw will fall off. You think that's the hardest you've ever been hit, and you've been slugged by a bear.

You stare wide eyed at this tiny rabbit, who stands and looks up at you, casually dusting off her shoulders with this unbearably taunting grin on her face. So her punches aren't too terrible, but if she kicks you a few more times she's gonna put you to bed, and not in the fun way.

She starts approaching you, but you stand your ground. Now more wary of her kicks, you need to turn the tables somehow. You lift your right hand as she gets closer, and bring it back to swing. But as you draw your right arm back, you actually lash out with your left, finally catching her off guard. She's late with her dodge and you tag her in the shoulder. You lean into the strike with your right, and even though she brings up both her arms to block it, the force knocks her pretty far back and off balances her.

You press with this advantage. Now that she's lost her rhythm, you throw a few strikes and they're beginning to land. She still dodges a few, but now you're managing to fake her out and get in a few hits. You might be able to wear her down if you keep this up. You throw an uppercut that slips through her crossed arms and makes contact with her chin. Then you lash forward with a haymaker aimed right between her eyes that you hope will put her down for the count.

But just as your hand goes out, faster than you can register, she drops most of her body to the ground, and kicks her leg out right at your shin. You lose your footing and go stumbling right passed her and into the crowd. You trip up, but some people keep you from eating dirt by catching you by the arm. However, when you try to stand to your full fight, the hands that once helped you now clamp down, keeping your arm in their clutches and placing a detrimental hand on your shoulder to keep you on one knee. Mirabelle takes two short steps before bounding into the air and kicking you right in the side of the head.

Your ears are ringing, vision blurring. Your arm is released and you hit the dirt. You're still conscious, but you're definitely running out of gas. And you're certain the Queen here could continue to dance around you all day if she needs to. You stand, slowly, to keep the dizziness from throwing you right back to the ground. You wobble and stumble a bit as you stand straight. You turn to face your opponent, and drop your hands to your knees to catch your breath.

At least, that's how you hope it looks. Recalling the gambit you used against your other impossible to defeat adversary, Shinzo, you simulate being too tired to continue. You let your hands slowly slide from your knees and lean ever so forward, so that it looks like you're about to pass out and fall on your face.  At the last moment you gather your strength and push forward, opening your arms and locking them around Mirabelle to tackle her right to the ground. It works, you caught her so off guard she didn't even get a chance to evade.

. . . Or so you thought.

You see at the very last moment before you touch down, that her legs are curling beneath your torso. As you reach the ground, she manages to use the backward momentum and her superior leg strength to kick you off of her and into the air. You're a few feet off the ground as you launch passed her and you manage to flip forward right as your back comes crashing down to earth. It knocks the air straight out of you and stuns you for a good moment.

You kick and flail and feel like a beetle as you struggle to get off your back and stand up.

"Dear God why's she so tough?" you mumble to yourself. "What's she eat, souls?"

You manage to make it to your feet. You take a deep breath and scan quickly for your opponent. However, as you find her you think it might have been better had you stayed down. You find her careening through the air, bundled up like a little white ball of hate.

Oh. So this must be what Kayo meant by flying rabbits.

The impact is sudden, and devastating. Her legs slam into your chest with a dropkick so violent it causes you to backpedal across the entire arena and into the arms of the crowd. You lose strength in just about every muscle in your body. You aren't even sure if you're breathing at the moment. You attempt to slump to the ground, but the people holding you deny you that mercy. Mirabelle approaches.  

Nope, nope. You can't take anymore, but the words to speak your surrender refuse to flow. She squats down and leans forward, so that you're almost face to face with her looking ever so slightly down at you.

"You understand your place now?" she asks calmly.

You stare at her for a moment, brain processes stopped.

"Well?" she asks, raising a fist for emphasis.

"Uh huh." you say.

"What was that?"

"Yes, ma'am." you correct.

"Yes what?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Okay good." she nods, and takes a step back, before looking to the ref. "Okay, I'm done." she says, then steps lively back to the crowd, and takes a seat in King's lap.

The crowd members that were holding you, release you gently. You crawl to the ground and oh so carefully lay flat against the cool slab of stone, unsure how and why you got your ass beat so hard, but thankful that it's over. All the adrenaline ebbing away from you, and the dull aches in full force, consciousness starts to slip away. Someone is nearby now, trying to get your attention, but the world is already fading.

You come to with a start, and the first thing you notice is the dull green of some older than dirt tent. You also notice the two anthros playing nurse, at about the same time as they notice you waking up.

"Finally conscious, are we?" the fox asks.

"After your first run in with the Queen, we honestly expected you to be out longer." the cow adds. "It's a good thing she showed you mercy there."

"That was mercy?" you croak. They both nod in unison. So now you're even more concerned about what kind of unearthly horror that rabbit really is.

You're brought out of your thoughts when you notice Morgan peeking into the tent. She notices your attentiveness, and turns to look at the nurses.

"You're free to come in now." the cow says, and Morgan does so, walking right up to you and peering into your face.

"You uh, kind of got a bit messed up there huh?" she asks.

"Oh, y'know, just a bit." you reply.

"He's gonna be okay right?" she asks the nurses. "Nothing damaged, right?" 

"Oh yeah, he's fine." the fox answers. " A little beat up, maybe gonna be sore for a bit but otherwise fine. Good thing he's got some decent conditioning to him, anything less and the outlook might've been a bit different."

You lift your hand and poke your stomach, which is not quite as firm as it used to be a few years ago.  But at least you haven't gotten pudgy. You sit yourself up and boy does that hurt to do.

"I'm free to go though, right?" you ask.

"Yup." the cow says. "Like we said, just take it easy for a bit and you'll be fine."

"Cool, thanks." you say, and make your way out.

Looks like the event is mostly done for the day, judging by the multitude of people departing. You spot King and his crew still waiting though, likely waiting for you as he spots you and waves you over.

"So." he starts once you reach him. "How do you feel?"

"I feel like you need to give your girlfriend her title back." you say. "I haven't seen how you fight, but I could barely lay a hand on her, why is she not the true champion here?"

"Oh no man, I'm only here by sheer luck." he answers. "One day she will come to reclaim the throne and I will not be able to stop her. She's just being gracious enough to allow me to be here for the time being."

"Ah. Now that makes so much more sense." you nod.

"Hope I didn't hurt you too bad there." Mirabelle says.

"I'm a bit bruised, but I'll live." you shrug before sticking your hand out. "Good fight, Your Highness. As good as getting steamrolled could be I guess."

"Haha, good fight Ace." she says as she shakes your hand. "Don't be too hard on yourself, you definitely put up a decent fight."

"And now your final challenge awaits." King says with a grin. "You get to fight me."

"Wait what?" you say, confused. "I thought I only got to fight you if I won all three fights. I just got my ass handed to me."

"Yes, yes you did." Mirabelle speaks with that taunting grin on her face. "But technically, I was the one to say 'I'm done', so it ends as a loss for me. Which means you won."

"Ah, so that was your plan." you say. "You just wanted to show me that you're the true final boss here."

She nods happily and that taunting grin of her shifts into a genuine smile. You can see why King likes her.

"Well." you continue. "I guess I can hold myself together long enough to put in one last fight. But I'm going to need a day to rest."

"Oh no, absolutely." King agrees. "Rest is good, take your time."

"Cool." you nod. "On that note though, I'ma drag my ass back to our hotel room."

"Lemme give you a ride back, man. I insist."

"Nah man, it's fine." you protest. "I can make it-"

"Anon." Morgan cuts you off. "Just accept the kindness and say 'thank you', alright?"

". . . Okay fine. I appreciate it, thanks."

King gives a nod of satisfaction and walks over to his car. You cram in, it's a bit of a squeeze, but the trip is short enough to not be uncomfortable. Once you're out, you give the group one more word of parting and head in. You stop at the hotel restaurant, because getting knocked around worked up an appetite. Then up to your room, you hit the shower to let the water wash away the sting of your defeat. Technically you won, but everyone knows the truth. Once done, you flop face first into the bed.

"Morgan." you mumble into your pillow.

"Uh huh?"

"Do not. Tell anyone back home, what happened today. Please."

"Don't worry." she pats your back gently. "I won't say a thing. I mean, imagine what Keiji and Okita, and even Shinzo would say, if they heard you got knocked around so easily by a rabbit."

You can hear the laughs she's trying to suppress. You feel a tinge of shame, but only at losing. Your opponent was skilled, and unlike you, who had his first ever real fight a handful of months ago, she's likely been doing this for years. Your natural talent thing can't possibly hold a candle to years of training and refinement.

You begin to drift off, thinking about what your fight against King will be like. He has to be tough himself to hold that title apparently, but he himself has confirmed that he's not as strong as Mirabelle. Either way, come what may, you hope, you pray, that it will not be as bad as today.

You come to at some point but you don't even bother checking the time. Morgan's already up, and apparently watching t.v. It's quiet enough that you can't hear it but loud enough that she can it seems. You adjust your position on the bed, to the cry of resentment that comes from your bruised front and back.

"Hey, how you feeling?" Morgan asks as she sees you squirming.

"Suffering." you respond.

"Oof, it's that bad?"

"Honestly, not really." You got beat up sure, but you have indeed had worse. "i feel like if I had to rank them, my fight with Reave was still the worse I've ever got. But this. I assume this is what it feels like to be hit with one of those shotgun bean bags."

She pats you sympathetically. "Well just take some time to get yourself together. I'd even say you did well enough. You don't have to go for that last fight if you don't want to, we can just take it easy until it's time to head home."

"Oh I want to. Gotta see this through to the end. Besides. King looks strangely excited to fight me. I'd hate to leave him disappointed."

She nods in understanding, a gentle smile on her face. "Well then get better soon, so you can go have that fight."

"Mhm." you agree. "My wallet's over there if you want to go grab yourself some food or anything. I think I'm going to go back to bed."

You close your eyes to the sound and motion of Morgan leaving the bed, so you guess she's taking up that offer. After a while, she says something to you, but by that time your consciousness is already on its way out.

You wake up again who knows how much later. The first thing you notice is that you feel a lot heavier for some reason. The second thing you notice is that you can't move. You're face down in the bed, and having difficulty adjusting. You almost think you have that sleep paralysis thing, but you clearly have your faculties, your feeling, and you can move your arms and legs. It's just your center that's the problem. That's when you notice that the added weight you have is breathing. So, thinking logically, the only thing that could be happening here, is that Morgan has placed herself directly on your back and is also asleep. She's not much of a wild sleeper, so this is unexpected. And even if she were, how the hell did she get back there?

This oddly reminds you of those pictures you'd see on the internet with the frogs stacked on top of each other, for like, a game or something. But this is not a game, and you still don't understand why. Plus, you're hurt, why would she decide to hunker down directly on your back? This might just end up increasing your sore-

Actually. Now that you focus on it, you're not sore. Not in the slightest. You move as much as you're able with Morgan on your back, and your front, as well as your back aren't as nearly as in pain as they were when you woke up earlier. You'd actually say that you feel pretty good. Which means the only logical answer to this scenario is that Morgan did something to you while you were asleep. Though, you feel better so whatever it was, you're thankful for it.

However, the problem now is that you're overly rested and at a point where your body isn't pleading with you to stop moving. But now you can't move even if you wanted to. Well, you could, but Morgan seems so peaceful where she is that you don't have the heart to disrupt that. You  reach your arm out to at least grasp for your phone on the nearby stand, but you're apparently centered on the bed at the moment so it's too far away. So your only choice is to lay in silence, too rested to sleep, but too bored to stay awake.

Eventually, after a while Morgan comes to and frees you from the frog stack you were in. You try to grill her for information on why she was perched on your back and what exactly she did that's got you feeling better, but she remains suspiciously tight lipped. It almost worries you with how much she dodges the questions, but once you realize that you aren't getting anything out of her, you choose to drop the issue. She heats up the food she got a while ago, and since it's too late to really go do anything, you spend the rest of the day watching whatever's on t.v. Not every day has to be filled with excitement, just because you're on vacation. 

A new day is here though, and this is one for excitement. It's Friday, and while you could wait until Monday for your fight, just to make sure you're really healed, you don't want to fly home bruised and battered. Besides, whatever Morgan did that she still refuses to elaborate on has you feeling amazing. Like almost getting slaughtered by a rabbit was just an awful dream. But you're pulling up to the Circle, ready to get your final fight against the King himself underway. Although, you're a bit early. The venue is still in its setup phase, with people showing up, and others putting their side shops together.

Though King isn't here yet. Probably still picking up his not so little brother. So while you have time, maybe you can figure out a game plan. You still have no idea how he fights. Not even catching a glimpse of what he can do will definitely be a detriment considering he's had plenty of chances to see what you can do. He's not as tough as the Queen, but that's no reason to underestimate him. At the moment, it  seems like your only option is to roll with the punches. But maybe you can ask around real quick. Find Caesar or someone who's fought the guy before and ask them what he can do and what to look out for. You look around to see if one of your previous opponents are around, but that's when you notice that Morgan is no longer at your side. Did she go to get something to drink from the squirrel? You look over, but she's not there, either. Not like her to silently wander off like that. But your concern needs not last as she pops right back into her place at your side.

"Hm? Where'd you disappear to?" you ask.

"What do you mean? I've been here the entire time." she answers.

Like hell she was. You were a bit distracted, but not so much that you completely glanced over her while you were looking around. You get ready to refute that statement, but stop when you hear from the music system across the way, a familiar rhythm.

They told him 'don't you ever come around here,

Don't wanna see your face you better disappear'.

You look at Morgan as your favorite song ever plays. She looks back at you as innocently as she can, but you see the smile playing at the edges of her lips. With this, combined with whatever she did yesterday, it's clear she's trying to set you up for victory.

"Trying to hype me up with my favorite song, huh?" you ask.

"Hm? That's a coincidence, I had nothing to do with that." is her dodgy answer.

"Right. Coincidence of course."

But it's working. This song hypes you up in ways you can't describe. Your body is practically moments away from breaking out in song and dance just to release the building energy. Luckily the threat of shame and being laughed out of town keeps you from making a fool of yourself. You do however, nod your head and tap your foot to the beat.

"You actually like this old music?" the familiar voice of King asks as he finally shows up.

"Absolutely." you tell him. "What, you don't?"

"Eh, I like the older stuff, but not that old. If it was made before I was born I just can't vibe."

"... Damn." you deflate like a balloon. "And here I thought we could actually get along."

Though you both have a laugh, so you're of course still getting along.

"So where's Too-Tall? He not with you today?"

"... Who?" King asks.

"Your uh, little brother." you clarify.

"Hm? Oh Blake. He texted Mira and said he had to stick around at school for a bit, so we came without him."

He didn't comment on the fact that you called Blake his little brother and not Mirabelle's.

"Ah. And Her Highness is."

"Grabbing a drink." He points over to where she is.  "Anyway. So you're here today. You just watching today, or?"

"I'm fighting if you're ready." you answer.

"You sure? No need to rush yourself, if you need more time to rest you can-"

"I feel fantastic." you cut in. "The best I'm ever going to get. I could probably suplex Caesar if I tried. The time is now."

He looks at you, trying to gauge if you're bluffing or not. Then his eyebrow lifts conspiratorially.

"Oh yeah? Go to Xinyan or something, did you?"

"Shin-what?" you ask. "What's that?"

"It's the-"

"Oh hey, look who's back." the Queen speaks as she approaches. "Up and at 'em already huh?"

"Your Highness." you say in greeting. "Yeah, I feel pretty good today, so I figured I'd come get this final fight done and spend the rest of the week cooling off."

"Alright cool. You bounced back surprisingly fast. Unlike a certain someone who took like a month off after he lost to me the first time."

"It was only a week!" King corrects quickly. "And that was different. I lost my years long streak, I was crushed."

"Yeah yeah." she waves him away. "Anyway, you guys gonna duke it out first thing,or leave it for last?"

"You share a glance with King and shrug. "Will it make much of a difference?"

"Mmm, probably not. It's really just a matter of choice. Whenever you challenge me is when we'll go at it, so it's on you."

You nod. It may be a title fight of sorts, but King probably gets challenged all the time, so waiting till the end might not be an event to build any sort of hype. Might as well just go for it first thing. 

And first thing it shall be. After a short wait, the ref comes up, does her introduction and calls for challengers. You throw your hand up and step into The Circle. You pivot and face King.

"Hand it over, that thing. Your crown." you say.

He smiles wide and stands slowly, almost regally. The crowd around cheers in a way you've yet to hear as their King leaves his throne for what must be the first time in ages. He stands across from you.

"Well this should be fun." the ref says. "Let's get right to it then, do you have anything to say?"

King waves his hands at you in an offering motion, giving you the floor to say something first. He'll probably banter back if you choose to, or else say nothing if you choose not to. And honestly, you may choose not to. You look at this guy, trying to find something to talk mess about, but you feel like you're really coming up empty. The only thing you could quickly think to remark on is him getting beat by a rabbit, but well. That's pot and kettle exactly. Yeah, there isn't much for you to-

"I uhhh, don't like that shirt you got." you spit out randomly.

His smile falters a bit as he looks down at himself. "What, my flannel?"

"Yeah, it's uhh, kinda lame."

All trace of friendliness vacates his face as he glares at you as if you just insulted everything he's ever lived for.

"Oh that's it. No one disrespects the flannel and survives." He raises his fists and gets into a fighting stance.

"Pfft okay." you scoff, and raise your hands as well.

"Start the fight Elodi." King says to the ref.

"Well okay." she says. "Are you ready?" she asks you, to which you nod. "Then let's. Fight!"

King is on you as soon as the word is given. He's damn near as fast as the rabbit. You barely avoid a straight punch aimed right for your nose, before catching a sudden hook to the temple. You fight through it and give him a hook of your own. He ducks under it and gives you a swift punch right in the sternum. You retaliate with a jab into a hook. He blocks the jab and dodges the hook, then throws a punch into your stomach, followed by a hook into your side. He finishes with this heavy kick that he tosses into your side with enough power to get you staggering away.

You drop your guard, and stand still a little exasperated. You look around the crowd until you find Mirabelle standing where she normally is. You throw your hands up and point to her and King, then address the rest of the crowd.

"Do y'all really have to deal with these kind of fights all the time?" you ask.

Everyone in the crowd who seems to regularly fight gives their varying degrees of confirming nods or comments.

"We have to deal with the Breaker Boy too." someone says, probably talking about the other rabbit.

You shake your head and sigh as you turn your attention back to King who has so graciously allowed you to air your frustrations. Truly this trip has changed from a moment of soul searching into a lesson in humility.

There really isn't much of a way to counter these years of practice. Whatever talent you have can't match up. But you aren't going to just throw in the towel just because things aren't going well for you. You've got to at least try to give King the fight he's been looking forward to. So a fight you'll give him.

Even if you're about to resort to a few dirty tactics to try and get a leg up.

No time wasted you run at King and throw a punch. Unsurprisingly, he avoids it, but you keep your momentum going and use your leg to sweep at his exposed leg, kicking him right in the ankle and tripping him up. He didn't expect that and it caught him by surprise. It knocks him off balance and lets you connect with a heavy punch to the chest. He trips up and takes a few retreating steps to center himself but you push forward. If it bleeds, it can die. If he can be punched, he can be knocked out. 

You chase him and press the attack. He guards against your offensive so you do something unorthodox, and shove him. A simple shove, but effective. He backpedals to keep his balance, but you drop your foot directly on top of one of his, screwing up his balance. He falls back and you hasten his descent with a punch to the gut. Flat on the ground now, you dive in, throw yourself over him and begin a hail of blows He keeps his guard up and defends, but you manage to slip through it every once in a while and make solid contact. This continues for a moment, until you reel back to slip under his guard and crack his chin, his arm shoots out and he smacks you right between the eyes with a swift punch. It stuns you just enough to give him room to scurry from under your grip and lash his leg out, pushing you away. 

You take a few breaths to recover yourself as he stands back up. You have to keep pressing, if he gets his momentum back he'll take control of the fight again. You step up to him and swing, trying to keep the offensive up.

But he lifts his arm, and instead of blocking or dodging, he knocks your fist away from its intended trajectory, effectively deflecting you. Then he leans forward and throws his hands to either side of your head. He seems to have locked his hands behind you, and before you can get a gauge on what he's planned, he reels you in and throws a powerful knee directly into your exposed stomach.

He begins to mash your gut into paste and when you try and block him he releases this headlock he has for just long enough to hook you right in the cheek. When you bring your hand up to block your face, he locks you in his grasp again then knees you in the stomach. Knees to the gut, kicks to the shin, quick punches to the face. You're stuck in a blender and can't escape.

You gotta use your head before he beats you into submission. So you do exactly that. His grip keeping you from escaping backward, you push forward through the onslaught of his attacks, and throw your head forward, slamming your skull into the bridge of his nose. You didn't hit him nearly as hard as you would've liked, but it was enough for him to loosen his grip and stagger a bit.  You bring as much force as you can and give him a swift hook to the cheek before you retreat yourself.

Okay, so he's not the King for nothing. Even though his girlfriend is the real shot caller, you may have underestimated just how tough he is because of that. You feel sufficiently thrashed and you haven't been at this for long at all. The Queen's got the speed and leg power but King has decent marks all around. It's tough to stand up straight and if you remain lax for too long your legs are going to collapse from right under you.

King can probably see the end approaching, judging by the look of finality he's giving you. He takes a few steps forward, ready to achieve his victory. You throw a punch in vain, hoping it will do anything, and are surprised when it actually connects. King reels back and throws a punch of his own, your entire body too weak to dodge, and your arms too slow to block, you take his punch head on, but remain standing.

You throw another one, but it comes out far too slow. He dodges it, and the resulting wiff causes you to lean forward to regain your balance. King brings his arm back and smashes his entire elbow across your face. You stagger backward, the world fading, balance lost. The sky begins to unravel before you, but oddly you never feel yourself collapse to the ground. You regain enough clarity to  look down and notice King holding you up, a foot planted over yours, his arm clasped onto your forearm, unwilling to let you hit the ground so easily.

He seems like he wants to keep going, and judging by the open stance and close quarters proximity of this positioning, he's willing to go blow for blow to keep the fight going just a bit longer. You force your remaining strength into your arm, and punch him in the face. He takes it without even moving to block or avoid it, then returns with a punch of his own. You swing, he swings. In the position, back and forth, it's like some weird Russian Roulette style Helena duel, where you take turns punching each other until someone loses the will to fight or consciousness.

Blow for blow, trade for trade, your face and your knuckles are numb. You keep swinging, so does he, until the roaring of the crowd dulls, until even the voice of Morgan, who's been cheering for you this whole time fades away. You punch, and get punched back, but even lifting your arm is an ordeal now.

All you've got in you is one more. You reel back at the same time as King, and pour whatever you've got left into your fist. And almost like the end to a movie fight, you clock each other at the exact same time.

But that's it, you're fading out. The world's blurring, darkness creeping into the corners of your vision. You did your worst, you tried your best. Now it's time to rest.

You come to consciousness. Dull, throbbing pain blooms in patches around your body. However, when you open your eyes, the first thing you see is not the top of the tent. but massively maternal mammaries moments away from mashing against you. You also feel gauze and other assortments of bandage being fastened to your face, but that's not where your attention lies.

"Jesus Christ." escapes you involuntarily. and the would-be nurse notices your return to the risen realm.

"Fighting the queen and then the king almost back to back. That's a special brand of madness." the cow tending to your injuries remarks.

"Yyyyyes." you reply absently.

"But well, you did good." the fox adds. "Anon came in with an ear to ear grin on his face as he dragged you over here, so that's basically the sign of approval."

"Well I'm glad he enjoyed knocking my teeth out." you say.

"You still have all your teeth though?" the cow says.

"No, I mean. N-nevermind."

After your bandages are affixed, and your caretakers give you some ice to soothe your bruises, you're released. Doesn't look like you were out for very long, and there's another fight going on in the Circle. You make your way around and worm your way to the front back toward King and the group. You keep any comments to yourself while the competitors are engaged. You slide up to Morgan, throw your arm around her shoulder and pretend to need her help staying upright after your vicious ass whooping. She plays along, gripping you around the waist and supporting you while you watch the next fight.

You finally notice that Blake is one of the competitors. However, it seems no one informed him that this is a fight club and not a dance club. Even though you say that, he's using his weird breakdancing to surprising effect. He's using all these windmills and flares to attack, and his opponent is having a tough time with it. Blake finishes off with this backflip kick that catches his opponent in the chin. The guy looks to the sky and falls back like a felled tree, out cold, and Blake wins the fight.

"Damn." you say. "I'm sure glad I wasn't betting on myself to win or anything. This is what it's like to have the odds completely stacked against you."

 "I'd disagree," King says, overhearing your comment. "But yeah, it's a little unfair."

"It was a valuable experience though." You hold your hand out to him. "Good fight, King."

He reaches out and shakes it firmly, a large happy smile on his face. "Good fight, Ace."

"Sheesh!" Blake says as he departs from the center of the Circle. "I caught the end of your fight. I loved how it ended, it reminded me of the end of this fight in Reckord of Ragnarock. It was amazing."

You tilt your head. That name doesn't ring any bells for you. "Reck- what? What is that?"

"It's an anime." Blake and King speak at the same time.

"Right." you nod. "Well I like your whole thing too. Mad points for style."

Blake's grin is giant and elated.

"Well." King says. "You got the full Circle experience, congratulations. You've experienced the best thing to do in Towngrove. What's next, you still have a few days out here, yeah?"

You nod. "Yeah, we do. Uhhh. I think we're gonna take a trip to that mall you guys talked about?" You look down to Morgan to get confirmation and she nods in agreement.

"Still haven't done that yet?" Mirabelle asks, to which you shake your head. "Well that's good then. Me and Anon, or uh, 'King', were going to go spend our day over there ourselves tomorrow."

"Yeah yeah." King chimes in. "You guys should hang with us, we can show you around, keep you from getting lost, take you to some of the cool shops."

You mull the thought over. They were going together on their own, so it sounds like it was a date. You'd hate to impose just for the sake of your own convenience. You prepare to politely decline, but.

"Sure that sounds like fun, we'd love to." Morgan answers, accepting the invitation for the both of you.

You prepare to protest, but when you look at Morgan, she looks into your eyes with a gaze that says "Don't you dare fight me on this." So you shrug and acquiesce. 

"Alright sure." you say.

"Great." King says. "How's noon work for you two? We can scoop you up from your hotel, grab some lunch at this diner we like."

You remain silent and allow Morgan to answer with a "Sounds good." And now you have plans for tomorrow. It might be a bit of a struggle with the soreness, but you'll manage.

You got back to your room last night and ended your day immediately, too drained to do much of anything besides shower and fall into bed. When you rise in the morning, your body protests, but you manage to will yourself up. Just in time because it'll be noon in a little more than an hour. You begin to stumble into the bathroom before Morgan calls out to you.

"So now that it's over, how was the whole Circle adventure?"

You stop and think. "Hmmm. Painful? Yes. Humbling? No. I'm still the best."

". . . I'm gonna tell them you said that." she says, curling her mouth into almost that same taunting grin that Mirabelle constantly keeps.

"Alright wait, let's just be cool here." you borderline beg.

But eventually you make your way into the bathroom and after the necessities are taken care of, you get dressed and are ready to go minutes before noon rolls around.

"They're on their way, if you want to head down and wait for them." Morgan relays to you.

"What, how do you know?" you ask.

She lifts her cell  phone in answer. "Mirabelle and I exchanged numbers. Right before we left."

"Alright." you say, adding a nod of acknowledgment. And together you head down to the front of the hotel to wait.

King pulls up in his car, and once again you cram into the back. You make your greetings and he apologizes for having to make you squeeze into his car. You wave away his apologies though, unnecessary as they are. Then he takes off down the road. You make small talk until King pulls into this decently sized parking lot and finds a space to park. You look around and from what you can see, the giant mall is a block or two down the way, but there's a slightly smaller outdoor shopping plaza or something across from you.

"Lunch is down this way." Mirabelle says, noticing you scanning the vicinity. You nod and follow along.

The stores are about what you'd expect from a small town like this. Mom and Pop shops lined up to the left and right.

"Surprised this place can survive when there's a damn mega mall a block away." you say.

"That's exactly what I'm always thinking, man." King replies, holding his hands out in front of him like he's about to delve into some crazy conspiracy theory. However, he says nothing and his hand continues out to grab at the handle of a door to a quaint little diner.

You all enter, you're seated at a booth and menus are passed out. You return to your small talk about nothing in particular after you've decided what you want to eat until the conversation begins to lull a bit. That's when Morgan looks at you and pulls out that taunting grin. Less taunting, and more completely malicious. You plead with your eyes, but she ignores your imploring gaze.

"So you know guys, my Anon said something interesting when we were getting ready to meet you. What was it?"

"I uhhh. Have already forgotten." you mumble.

"No you didn't, c'mon." she teases. "Something about the experience being painful but, what?"

"But uhhhh, informative." you say, grasping at straws. "It was quite painful though. "I've got in a couple fights before, not at all for fun, but you two and your fights for entertainment completely trump my life or death bouts for sure. . . Heh, honestly, if the last guy I fought with had even a fraction of your skill, I likely wouldn't be sitting here. Heheh, good thing he put all his points into small guns and intimidate and nothing into melee."

You try to make light of the heavy tone you accidentally brought up, but as you look to Morgan, she's not finding the humor in it, the stern glare that she has cutting into you.

"Alright, what's up with that?" King asks.

You look at him and arch an eyebrow in question.

"Like, I believe that's the second time you made a joke like that. And the second time she looked at you like she was about to bite you on the nose for doing so." He looks down to Mirabelle for a moment, then back to you. "So is everything cool? No need to tell if it's private, It's just."

"Kind of curious." Mirabelle says to finalize the idea that King was bringing up.

"Mmm. Well." You weigh the idea of explaining your engagement with the Reapers. Well. They already know about the gang stuff out West thanks to Kayo, it should be alright. "Well I mean. I had the unfortunate luck of getting involved with some of the gang activity out there. Not by choice mind you. But, well. Long story short, it's entirely possible that I may or may not have almost died."

You wait for someone to comment, but when nothing comes you continue. "But I lived. So, y'know I feel like it's my right as the survivor to laugh at Death. Doubly so because those psychopaths used to call themselves the Reapers."

King holds his hand up, which transitions to a single finger. "I think I'm gonna need that long story long."

"Yeah," Mirabelle agrees. "I want details on that as well. Kayo didn't ever say anything about almost dying, did he?" 

King shakes his head. "Only that he used to get jumped often."

"Oh, he must've been talking about 6th Street then." you say. "Those guys are Weenie Hut Jr. The guys I dealt with at the end there were real Salty Spittoon guys."

Though the arrival of your food cuts into the moment, King and Mirabelle are far too engrossed in what you have to say to eat in silence. So you break up between eating and telling your story. You finish recounting your event with the Reapers at around the same time lunch is polished off.

"It ended up." You hold a finger a few inches off to the side of your face. "Right about here. Just a few seconds later and I would've been done."

"I cannot believe you almost ate a bullet." King says, while looking over and making some sort of hand gesture to the waitress that served your table. "You've got guardian angels man."

"You're telling me." you say. "Every moment from then on is a gift." You punctuate that sentence by reeling Morgan in and snuggling your cheek against the top of her head. Which you immediately regret because that was the side of your face that was just brutalized a day ago.

Though while you chat, you notice the waitress bring what looks like the check. You didn't even get it split. But you've got cash, you'll just drop whatever half makes and that should be good. You go to retrieve your wallet, but as you pull it out and look back up, the waitress is walking away while King reels in his extended arm.

You look between the departing waitress and King. He looks at you nonchalantly.

"What?" he asks.

"Did you just-" you start.

"What?" he repeats.

"- pay the check?" you finish.

"Hm? Oh, yeah."

"Uhhh. Then whadda I owe you?"

"Uhhh nothing?" he shrugs. 

"Wait wait wait, that's not how this works." you protest.

He glances at the waitress bringing his receipt and card back. "Too late."

You're halfway towards opening your wallet to throw some bills at him before a hand comes up to your jaw and scrunches your cheeks, pantomiming your mouth moving while a horrible mimicry of your voice says "Thank you King, we appreciate it."

King shrugs and leans back before he is subjected to the same awful ventriloquy that says "You're welcome Ace, it was my pleasure."

You and King pull yourselves away as your respective girlfriends laugh with each other at your expense.

 After that you depart and the girls decide to walk with each other and keep their chat going. King slides up and taps you on the shoulder and points to a building as you walk away. 

Xinyan Massage Parlor, it says.

"You sure you didn't go there before our fight?"

"I have never even seen that place before today." you answer honestly.

He scans your face for bluff, but shrugs in acceptance and continues on.

A massage parlor though? Now that you think of it, the unique position she fell asleep in, and the way your body felt completely rejuvenated when moments before you felt like you were suffering. Helping you heal, putting on your favorite song to help ease your nerves. Morgan did what she could to help you, like she always does. It's a shame you couldn't win.

After that you make the trip over to the mall. And yeah, this place is, in a word: gigantic. Why does a small town like this need such a big ass mall? Whatever, none of your business. King and Mirabelle lead you and Morgan through the mall, showing you around to some of their favorite shops. A lot of the shops are your generic name brand, but the places they show you seem to be more personal and such, like the shops in that plaza. Maybe they rented the storefront, probably more cost effective than an entire building. Probably more traffic too.

Morgan and Mirabelle walk and talk together happily as Mirabelle helms the charge from store to store. You and King hang back, for a very specific reason only apparent to you and other beings of cultured understanding similar to you. . . Wagging tails are adorable.

Eventually though, it seems Morgan makes mention of wanting a unique kind of souvenir to take home. So Mirabelle heads toward this shop that you've never seen any similarities to before. It's piled wall to wall, display to display, with these ornaments. No, that's not quite right. Sculptures? They're made of glass or ceramic or something and a clear half of them have a kind of fantasy deal to them. Dragons or fairies and all that. The other half are like, two people dancing, or a small band playing and other more real world stuff. Snow globes, a few hand paintings on the wall. It's all very artistic, and feels like things you'd find if you stumbled upon like, a grandma's sitting room or something.

Morgan looks interested though and scans the sculptures for something she may want. While she does, you talk to the girl at the register and ask her what the deal with all this stuff is. She tells you that it was one of those passed down through the family things and that people still like it, especially the older generation. So technically, you're right, this is in someone's grandmother's room somewhere.

Eventually Morgan finds something she likes and presents it to you.

"You gonna put that in your room?" you ask.

"Nope I'm putting it in yours." she answers.

"Like hell you are."

"Your room needs some color, it's super boring."

"Yeah, I like it that way." you huff.

"You guys room together?" Mirabelle asks, hearing your conversation.

"Whaaat, no way." King comments as Morgan sets her figure on the counter to be purchased. "You're not much older than us, but you've got a place together, I'm impressed."

"Well uh." You scratch the back of your neck, knowing where this conversation will lead if you can't deflect it properly. "It's not that hard, you know."

"Not hard, but it's gotta be a bit expensive, right?" Mirabelle asks.

"Well, yeah, it would be. But uh not for me, so we manage." You shrug. "It is dummy expensive to have your own place out West though nowadays, I have no idea why. Stupid beach states."

King leans down to Mirabelle and stage whispers "His parents must be like yours, Hills living." Then using his normal voice he says "Your folks makin' the fat stacks?"

You're terrible at deflecting, no wonder you got your ass beat so hard. Just rip the bandaid off and tell the truth or you'll be here for ages. You remember to pay for Morgan's figure and Morgan tells the cashier it needs to survive a plane trip home, so it's wrapped and preserved in a way that will accomplish that. After that, you vacate the shop, then turn to the inquiring couple.

"My parents were not loaded. They made ends meet, and had some sound investments. Stayed outta debt, managed to buy their own house, when property costs were, y'know affordable."

They listen, but King perks up when he seems to catch that you've been using past tense.

"But they uhhh. They went home." You look up in the direction of the sky, even though you're in a building, on the word "home". "And they left me the house. And everything else. So."

It only takes them a second to understand your meaning, but they stay quiet. You look to Morgan, worry crossing her face. As if speaking about this is going to drain everything that filled your heart and leave you empty once more.

 "That's. Rough." Mirabelle says. "Um, sorry, I don't. . ."

You hold your hand up to stop her. "No need for that, none at all."

They both nod, and return, with a moment of difficulty, to the jovial mood they were in before you said all this. So you continue to walk and talk, until they take you to what they say is the last stop. The arcade. It's pretty big, about as big as David Buster's back home, though this place even has some old school cabinets on top of the new age junk. So you guys play some games together for a good long while.

After that, you guys sit and stop at a nearby bench to rest. Morgan and Mirabelle are huddled and speaking almost conspiratorially to each other about who knows what. You're listening to King chat about some of his more exciting fights, including his epic loss against his idol, the Undefeated Champion. He's talking about how he got pedigree'd into the dirt, but he's got this huge smile on his face.

Interesting. Losing never made you happy. Even as good as you were, you couldn't carry your team every time, so you still suffered some losses. But if you told someone about them, you definitely wouldn't be grinning as big as this guy is. There really must be something about The Circle that brings out the best in people, even through the conflict.

Suddenly, Morgan and Mirabelle stand up. Morgan slides over to you.

"There's something I wanna go buy, gimme your card."

"Uhh. Okay. I'm sure we can all go together, we're ready to keep going." you tell her as you follow her request.

"Nope, you stay here, we'll be right back." she says as she basically snatches your card from you and scurries off with Mirabelle.

King and you share a look of confusion and shrug simultaneously, but otherwise go back to chatting undisturbed. They return after a while, a bag each in their grasp, blank and unrecognizable. Your card is returned with a word of thanks, and not much else.

Though after that, the general consensus around the group, is that it's time to skedaddle. Exploring every inch of this place and goofing off at the arcade took you well into the evening, it's about to be sundown soon. So you all make your way out and back to King's car. He whisks you back to your hotel, and you slide him a couple bills for gas and refuse to let him fight you on it.

"You guys gonna be at the Circle Monday?" you ask.

"Of course. We're there damn near every day." he says.

"Cool. We might slide over just to say our goodbyes then."

He nods. "Alright. Catch ya later, Ace."

"Later King. Your Highness." you add with a bow. Mirabelle nods in return, and with that they take off.

All that walking and playing built up an appetite, but since it's getting late you have a light dinner. Back up to your room, Morgan offers you the shower first and you accept. Once you finish, you trade. You do notice that she takes the bag of that whatever she bought earlier in with her. New pajamas? Or maybe body wash? Whatever, not a big deal.

As you fall into bed, you reminisce on the week, about your fights and how they went. Better than expected, considering the opponents you faced. You tried your hardest, but it was clear that you couldn't hold much of a candle to Mirabelle and King. But that's okay, this is their element, their court. If they tried to play a game of baseball against you, you'd slaughter them.

It's fine though. It was a good time. As you lean back to get comfortable and get ready to doze off, Morgan comes out of the bathroom.

"I hope you aren't too tired." she says, as she rounds the corner. "Night's not over yet."

You come to enough clarity to look over at her and. . . Notice that whatever she's wearing, they are not pajamas. In fact, wearing whatever that is indicates that there will not be much sleeping being done. It's lacy, pink and transparent. And it clicks that she must've ran off to get this during that moment at the mall.

"Uhhh. Wus dis?" you garble, brain processes too divided to be coherent.

"Reward." she answers. "You came out here, mostly at my request, and did your best, so I feel like even if you didn't win the whole thing, you should be rewarded for the valiant effort. So you're going to lay back and let me take care of you tonight."

Whoa, that's. Surprisingly forward, coming from Morgan. She's a little more, roundabout when letting you know that she's in the mood. Not that you're complaining, not at all. 

"Well, if this is my reward for second place, then I definitely wish I could've won." you muse.

"If you had won, I would've done that thing that you really like."

". . . With the-"

"Yep." she nods.

"On the-"

"Mhm."

You click your tongue and suddenly feel an unexplainable and unyielding hatred for King. You momentarily hope that wherever he is, and whatever he's doing, that he can feel your wrath.

"Don't look so upset." Morgan says, dimming the lights and crawling into bed right up to you. "It may not be the grand prize, but I promise you'll still enjoy this reward.."

Your Sunday is mostly comprised of resting and recovery, because although you toughed it out to go hang out, you were still very sore from your fight. . . You also ended up a bit sore in another way after last night. When somewhere in between, Morgan shifted from "I'm going to take care of you" like a passionate lover would, into "I'm  gonna take care of ya" like a Mafia debt collector would. There were no breaks and no loss of endurance. For a moment you wondered where it all came from, if it was a biological development or just the conscious freeing of inhibitions. Perhaps some outside force warped into that hungry beast. . . But, well. You'd deny it if ever asked about it, but you wouldn't mind a few nights like that every once in a while. It was exciting,

When Monday rolls around you check to make sure everything you brought is together and ready to be packed away, because you'll be leaving bright and early the following morning to get back home. But as you said, you head down to The Circle at the appropriate time to bid your final farewells.

Lucky for you the gang's all there. King, Mirabelle, their little brother, even the doe that you met a few times. You even catch sight of Caesar and the other kindred soul that King had you fight. You give them nods of acknowledgement on your way forward.

"There he is." King says when he sees you. "Heading out tomorrow, right?"

You nod. "Yessir. Just wanted to get one final look at the place and say our goodbyes. Thanks for hosting us, it was fun, mostly."

"Haha, well we're glad you enjoyed." He reaches out to shake your hand which you accept.

"I'd say that I would do some training and try to take you guys on again later, but I seriously doubt it would do me any good. Also I'm reaching the cutoff age soon anyway."

"Pfft, as the King, I have the right to break the rules as I please. So that wouldn't hold you back if you didn't want it to. Unfortunately, I likely won't be around to do so. Mira and I are leaving for college pretty soon."

"Oh, really? That's good, real good."

There's still technically that option for you too. You still haven't quite decided what you want to do with that situation back home.

"Damn man." you follow up. "You're sending me home with a loss, and I won't even be able to come back and try my hand again. That's lame."

"Haha, sorry man." he shrugs. "There's always like, spring break and stuff. If you wanna try and make time for a rematch."

"Oh you definitely have to make a return trip." Blake chimes in. "I gotta fight you next time."

". . . Well I mean." you start. "I got time. If you want we can get a match-"

Wait no, you've got a better idea.

"Actually, why don't we do that thing?" you ask. "Kayo mentioned to me something about you guys doing a two on two tourney when he was here. Why don't we just get a single two on two match real quick. Blake finds a partner, and you and me team up, King."

He's staring at you with this kind of blank look. There's no way he's not into the idea, right?

"I mean. We just had an Anon versus Anon match. The next obvious choice is Anon and Anon team-up, right?"

King lifts his hands. Plants them both on your shoulders. Looks directly into your eyes. And says, "You're a genius." Then he turns toward the Circle and screams out "Elodi!" before making a dash straight toward the referee girl.

While he does that, you turn to inform Morgan that, against your better judgment, you're about to get into one more match. But she's preoccupied, chatting with Mirabelle in that secretive tone again. Mirabelle catches your attention turned on her, and twists her adorable lagomorphian face into the absolute sassiest, most dastardly taunting grin she can possibly muster. She opens her mouth to speak, and you mentally steel yourself, expecting her to spew some sort of foul, caustic venom, like a deadly hydra.

"You two are exactly alike. Anon."

. . . That's all she says. Confusion grasps you immediately. You look to Morgan, but she's got both hands over her mouth, looking like she's desperately trying to keep her very soul from escaping out of it.

Before you can ask any questions, King comes back. "We're good to go! Blake, go find a partner, we're doing this."

"Woo yeah!" Blake exclaims and bounds off.

King turns back to you and notices the look on your face. "You okay?"

You lean towards him, as if whispering will help you be secret. "Are you aware that your girlfriend is kinda spooky sometimes?"

He says nothing, but gives you a heavy nod.

"Alright everyone, welcome back to the Circle!" the referee Elodi exclaims. "Before we get into our regularly scheduled fights, it seems our Anon intends to send our visitor home after partaking in a special event. A chance to fight shoulder to shoulder with the King himself! So if we could have those two enter now please?"

King nudges you and you walk with him into the center of the Circle.

"Perfect." Elodi continues. "And now, if we can have their chosen opponents enter?" 

Blake powerslides into the Circle, then plants one foot into the ground and points off into the distance. Then who you assume is his partner walks in, a bit more casually.  A grey wolf, with about the same kind of build as Blake. They're almost even in height too.

"Oh, Troy. Nice to see you again, you don't step in to fight very often." Elodi remarks.

"Yeah, you know I'm not very good at this." the wolf says. "But my kouhai practically begged me, 'n I can't say no."

"Well it's still bound to be a fantastic match. Now, if both teams are ready."

You share a glance with King. He looks to his opponents and points his finger at the both of them. You follow his lead, bring your fist up, stick your thumb out and drop it straight down.

"Iku ze senpai!" Blake exclaims, bringing his fist up toward his partner.

"Makasero, kouhai." his partner responds, bumping their fists together.

You freeze, a little put off. Neither of these gentlemen look Japanese. They must be the types that are way too into anime, like worse than your friend Hal.

"Thaaat's cringe." you say, far louder than you meant to.

"You're cringe!" they both shout, trying to slit your throat with the force of their words.

You actually recoil a bit at the outburst, and look to King. Who can only offer a shrug.

"They're a little defensive about that." he says.

"Oookay." the ref says, bringing focus back. "If both teams are ready, then let this surprise two on two match, and Ace's farewell fight, begin!"

Blake begins swaying and bobbing to some music only he can hear, while his friend stands posed like Akooma from Streed Fighter.  You aren't sure the best target to engage first. You saw for yourself Blake's wild B-Boy skills and while his friend said he's no good, that could just be a ploy to fake you out.

Though while you ruminate, your choice is made when Blake stops swaying, and with a speed as fast as his sister, dashes toward you and transitions into this strangely cinematic flying kick. You don't have enough time to get your bearings and dodge, so you're about to take this straight to the face.

Or so you thought, but King  managed to see it coming long before you did, and pushed you out of harm's way, ducking underneath it himself. When you turn around, you see Blake and King throwing punches and kicks, dodging and countering. Though you notice that King is standing, and even attacking differently than when he fought you. Like he turned into some old martial arts master.

But you have to focus. Your opponent has been chosen, and he's trotting up to you. You take a few steps forward, and get ready to attack, but when you get within range he swings with a backhanded fist. You lean back and manage to avoid it, then block his follow up straight punch. He connects seamlessly into a roundhouse kick to your head that you duck underneath. With his back turned toward you, you try to get a free shot, but he keeps his momentum going and finishes with a following reverse roundhouse that in your haste catches you in the shoulder. You ignore it though and as he's setting his foot down to recover, you manage to get in close enough to punch him right in the gut.

It wasn't a particularly hard hit, but he still backpedals a few steps. So he's apparently pretty light on his feet, in a bad way. You glance back for just long enough to see King and Blake still engaged, then bring your attention forward. You step in and strike with purpose. This guy here has to take a step back to keep his balance pretty much every time you strike him, if you make solid contact or if he blocks it. So you're going to corral him backward into the Circle for them to latch on to him. 

You drive him back until you're about a few steps away, but in that time he reels back and lets loose with another roundhouse kick. You dodge the first one and anticipate the second one. It comes, but nowhere near where you expected, he crouches low and sweeps your leg, catching you near the ankle and unbalancing you. As you try to recover, he twists and swings down with this hammer arm motion that collides with your chest, sending you sprawling backward and toward the ground. You manage to use the momentum to hit the ground and recovery roll backward and onto your feet. He didn't expect that, he looked ready for you to hit the ground flat and was approaching to capitalize on that possibility. You spring up from your low position and dropkick him right in the space between his stomach and waist, and fling him across the entirety of the Circle and into the arms of the crowd.

So far away from you now, you twist your attention to King and Blake. You wait a second for your opening, and when Blake turns his back to you, your shoulder greets his back,, an open palmed strike greets his front, and a casually outstretched leg greets his feet. He falls to the ground, and grounded opponents are your favorite. You pounce like a shark on a bleeding fish, and King moves to take the other opponent as you pummel Blake for a bit.

Though this kid has some long legs and is surprisingly flexible. You only got a few clean hits before he managed to somehow angle one of his legs up and around your neck, before quickly yanking you away from him.

. . . No seriously, how did he do that? Can the body really reach such extreme positions. Unfortunately, you don't have time to ponder it as he rises and attacks. This wasn't what you hoped for,  your plan was to beat him into submission while he was grounded. Because you have no idea how to counter these seemingly wild, but calculatedly graceful movements. He's also got precise control of where he wants his attacks to go, and can change their placement mid swing. You're taken aback and dropped to your knees when a kick coming straight for your head suddenly departed your vision and collided unimpeded with your stomach.

Blake flips into a hand stand and looks like he's about to split your skull with a heel crush.

However, he pauses and twists his head toward King and his opponent. In that split second, he concludes that his partner is in trouble, and rights himself without finishing you off. Comes down, crouches, and prepares to leap to the rescue with a bounding bunny hop. You see why, King has that wolf in the same kind of grapple that he caught you in, where he mashed you to paste. You lean forward and when Blake prepares to launch off the ground, you spring forward as well, and just barely manage to grasp his ankle before he's out of your range. His long ass legs were his downfall here. His forward launch halted, he slaps into the ground. You scramble up toward his back, hoist him up and drop him backward onto his ass, so that he's sitting on the ground. Before he can flee you wrap your arm around his neck and put him in a chokehold. While Blake struggles in your grasp, you watch King break that poor wolf. After a moment though, the wolf lifts his leg and manages to put enough space between himself and King to force the two apart with his foot. King had his back close enough to the Circle for them to latch onto him and hold him down. And the look on their faces say they do so gladly, even though they should be impartial. It seems not all of the King's people are glad for his unending victories.

You abandon your chokehold and in the same vein of what Blake attempted to do, rush to assist your partner. The wolf catches you coming just a smidge too late, and takes a second dropkick to the gut for his delayed reaction. It once again puts him into the waiting arms of the Circle, but try as he might to recover and rise, he looks spent. He hangs limply in their arms, looking quite done.

The vultures free King from their grasp and he steps up to you, giving you a grateful nod. You turn your attention to Blake, rising to his feet, staring at the both of you. You get ready for another go, but the look in his eyes states he's done as well. Confirmed by the wave of his hands and shake of his head, that signals his silent resignation.

"Well well, it looks like Blake is done, and from what I can see, Troy is as well." Elodi says. "So the winners for this impromptu doubles match are King and Ace!"

King throws a hand up and beats on his chest with the other. You mirror the action and do the same. Anons of a feather gloat together. The crowd claps and cheers, but more as a formality it seems. After all, with King on your side, the match was rigged from the start.

As Blake approaches to check on his partner, you give him a shake of the hand and a "good fight" to which he reciprocates. Then you do the same with King and retreat toward his area of the Circle.

"Not bad, but you gotta get more height before your release." Mirabelle says suddenly.

". . . What?" you mumble.

"Your dropkicks." she explains. "The real damage comes when you reach chest height. As I'm sure you remember. But the execution isn't bad. Just need to get more height with the jump first. 7 out of 10, decent dropkick."

"Uhhh. Right. I appreciate the advice, Your Highness."

She nods, satisfied.

"Welp." You look to Morgan. "I'm satisfied, how about you?"

"I've gotten just about everything I could have out of this trip." she answers.

"Then I'd say our work here is done. It was an absolute pleasure meeting the both of you. King, Mirabelle."

"You as well." Mirabelle says.

"May we meet again someday." King responds.

"I'm glad to have met you as well." Morgan says to Mirabelle. "Thanks a lot."

"My pleasure." Mirabelle replies. "You have my number, feel free to text if you uh, want any more advice."

"Will do." she says, side eyeing you and smirking.

And suddenly it all makes sense. The outfit, Morgan's late night actions, the "you're alike" comment. It was all her. . . You aren't sure if them getting along so well is going to be good for your health, or sanity. 

But with your farewells all said and done, and a win under your belt before you head home, your trip to Towngrove and participation in the Circle are now officially completed. You head back to your hotel to rest up and prepare for your early flight tomorrow. You'll have some stories to tell when you get back home, and this lesson in humility and your needs, or lack thereof, of conflict will certainly assist you going forward. Maybe you'll be able to give Kayo a word of thanks for guiding you out this way, if you ever manage to make contact with him again.

You look up to the clear blue sky of Towngrove. These will be some fond memories you've made. Memories of Kings and Aces.

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Author's Notes:

It should not have taken as long as it did to put out what was essentially a side story. But uh, all the time I was supposed to be writing was spent, clearing raids, finishing events and completing battle passes, I'm sorry.

But now that I'm mostly free of all that I can return to my realm of conflict and cute animal girls.

However, saying that leads me into some news: those of you, if any waiting for an official part 2 to Empty Heart, will have to continue waiting. The reasons being, I have a few ideas for several potential one and done stories I want to do. And two, I goofed and inadvertently killed off all my story's adversaries, so I don't know where I'm gonna get my conflict from. But that's okay I'll figure it out, because there are some loose threads that need tying.

Until then though, I hope you all continue to stick around and enjoy what I make. As always, I will see you on the horizon, my fellow degenerates.

Now off I go to suffer in Darkest Dungeon 2 for several weeks.