Daniel had a plan.
He paced back and forth across his room, glancing up at the clock every other second as the ten minutes inched past. It felt like an eternity, waiting with his nerves on a hundred, skimming over the same online articles about what to do on a first date.
Dress nice.
Unfortunately, most of his closet was either casual wear or gym wear, so he settled on his Fighting uniform. It was the nicest thing he had, with the black shirt and the shiny yellow-bordering-gold puffy jacket. Sure, it wasn’t a button up shirt with slacks, but it was something.
He didn’t have any cologne either, but Raph did. Daniel’s hand hovered over the half-full maroon glass bottle on his dresser, hesitating.
Would he really be okay with him taking it?
Daniel scoffed — he pushed him to ask her out in the first place. If he had to borrow his cologne along the way, so what? But, he regretted it after the first puff. The spicy, sweet aroma was intense, whether it was from the scent or the fact that he sprayed himself five times.
The timer on his phone went off. Daniel checked his pockets and made sure not to leave his wallet before rushing for his door. He pulled it open; Carmen was already there, clutching her notebook and her pink purse, dressed in a skirt and an open sweater with a gray turtleneck.
Her fist paused in the air, a second away from knocking. She pulled her hand down, but knit her eyebrows as she saw his outfit. “Oh…you’re wearing that? Was this gonna be a Fighting thing? I can go back and change if you—”
“No! No, no, you’re fine. I just, nothing else in my closet felt appropriate, so…” Daniel nervously chuckled. “After you?”
A smile spread across Carmen’s face. “Sure, but I don’t think you want me to lead the whole way there.”
“Why?” he said, letting his door close behind him.
“Because you’re the one who picked out a cafe, dum-dum. I don’t know where it is!”
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The cafe was a great spot to pick. It was a green building on the corner of two narrow brick roads, with an overhang that displayed the name of the place over the quaint outdoor seating area. Most of the seats outside were taken by people chatting in French or having coffee, but a few were open — perfect.
Failing the first step of the plan wasn’t as perfect, though. Daniel tried to pace ahead of Carmen as they approached the entrance, and reached out for the door.
“Oh, don’t worry. Chip’s got it.”
Chip faded into existence in his muscle form, pulling the door open for the both of them and gesturing inside. Daniel stopped in his tracks, sighing. Carmen gave Chip a high five as she entered, but Daniel only did it reluctantly, glaring at the muscular ghost.
Carmen glanced at him over her shoulder. “What’s wrong? Why’d you look at him like that?”
“Sorry. I got something in my eye. Do you know what you want?”
The inside of the cafe was just as small and chill as the outside, too, with tables and shares and an assortment of likely expensive wine all around the front counter. Most of the menu was in French, but it was hard to miss “cheeseburger” being written out in plain english.
“Bonjour!” the man at the counter called out.
“Bonjour!” Daniel said. “It says they have burgers.”
“Yeah, but I don’t know if I want to eat that much, yet.”
“What’re the chances they just let us split a plate of fries?”
“Hm. Let’s see.” Carmen raised her phone and switched to her camera, likely planning to translate the menu herself.
But he already failed on opening the door for her. “Oh, don’t worry! I got it,” Daniel said, approaching the man at the front. He already had the translator app open on his phone, prepared exactly for this moment. “Bonjour! Can we just order the fries on their own?”
A moment later, the phone repeated his words, translated to and from french. “Hello,” it said, before continuing with the rest of the sentence.
The man behind the counter smiled and dropped his head, hiding a laugh.
“Shoot. I guess my app didn’t translate right.”
“No, sir. Your app translated just fine,” the man said. “You just assumed I couldn’t speak English, no?”
Daniel hoped his brown skin hid the heat flushing through his cheeks in embarrassment. Carmen laughed beside him, throwing her head back and covering her mouth. Even Chip, perched on her shoulder, laughed so hard he fell from her shoulder and faded away.
As it turned out, they did allow them to order a plate of fries. Daniel tried apologizing profusely for his mistake, but the cashier assured him it wasn’t that bad. Before long, they returned outside and picked an outdoor seat to wait for their food.
The chair! The chair was part of the plan!
“Here, let me—”
Once again, Chip blocked Daniel and pulled Carmen’s seat back for her to sit down. Frowning, Daniel fell into the seat across from her, wondering how ghost fried chicken would taste like.
“You’re trying pretty hard to be nice,” Carmen said. “What, are you trying to make up for that mess?”
Daniel scoffed. “No, that’s not why.”
“Sure it is.”
Carmen got to work, opening her notebook and flipping to a page scrawled full of notes. A woman passed by on a bicycle, ringing the bell as she rolled past. The smell of fresh coffee wafted through the air.
Remember the plan. Be engaging.
Daniel cleared his throat. “So, how’s your day been?”
Carmen shrugged. “After our morning training, I’ve just been wrapped up in doing research on Stylus. Why he’s famous, his previous Fights, his powers, et cetera. I found a lot of really good info, but I still can’t crack the main puzzle. No one’s been able to challenge him for years.”
Like she had completely reinvented comedy, Daniel laughed really hard, and made sure to keep steady eye contact afterwards. “Oh, that sounds so terrible. Reminds me of the time I had to look everything up at the last minute for this school project.”
“Cool. But, the Stylus thing is really weird. It’s not like Eternite, where he hasn’t been seen. He throws galas like this every year to celebrate his art and his ranking. It’s more like, despite being in public all the time, whenever anyone tries to challenge him to a fight, it never works! Like, look at this video I found.”
She turned her phone towards him. Stylus was just like Daniel imagined — a tall, gaudy man with slicked back black hair and a fancy suit and tie. He clutched a glass of wine, sipping it as he chatted with other high-society attendees. A man dressed in a long coat pushed through the crowd and called Stylus to a challenge.
Yet, no menu appeared to confirm the challenge. Stylus merely reacted with a wave of his hand before guards whisked the challenger away, and Stylus gloated about his status as the undefeatable Millionth Man.
“See? It’s so weird!”
“Yeah…”
Remember the plan. Ask her about herself.
“Have you ever had a job, Carmen?”
She gave him a quizzical look. “Well…there was this one time I worked at this really small and obscure restaurant. You might not have heard of it.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, it’s called the Maroon Sports Bar,” she replied, giving him a deadpan stare.
The smile faded from Daniel’s face. Sweat moistened underneath his armpits. Hopefully she couldn't tell. “Oh. Shoot. That was a dumb question, wasn't it?”
“Not the highest on the list, but it’s there. Anyway, that’s the puzzle. I can’t seem to come up with an answer on why this guy is unchallengeable. There’s no technology like that in the whole world, to just prevent someone from being challenged. No one can circumvent the system’s rules.”
“Yeah, but Apex could.”
“What do you mean?”
Remember the plan. Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams. Ask her about FORD!
“Nevermind,” Daniel said as the waiter came by with their food — a plate of perfectly seasoned, straight-cut fries. He took one from the plate and finished it in one bite. “What kinds of shows do you watch?”
“Okay, wait. Is there a prank here?”
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Every alarm shot off in Daniel’s brain. He struggled to swallow the singular fry. “I…what? What do you mean?”
“I mean…how do I put this into words?” She paused, taking a fry of her own as Chip stood beside the plate sadly. “You told me we were gonna figure this out in a different setting to get our minds working. Are we doing that, or are we having the world’s lamest interview?”
His throat went as dry as a summer sidewalk. The plan didn’t account for this. He swallowed nothing, and licked his lips, struggling to piece the words together. “I’m sorry. I’ll answer that in a sec — I gotta…go to the bathroom.”
“Okay. I’ll leave you some fries.”
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Daniel locked the door and leaned over the sink, glaring at himself in the mirror as her words repeated over and over his mind.
The plan was failing.
She called it the world's lamest interview — was he doing that badly? All the online pages, all the youtube videos, they told him this was the way to guarantee a successful first date. Be engaging, ask her about herself, stick to FORD, open the doors. The only thing left was to pay for the food.
What was he doing wrong?
He couldn’t mess it up, now. She would think of him as a clown, and then he’d have astronomically small chances of becoming anything more. Raph would probably call him a loser, for getting this close and fumbling the ball. And Mr. Stone? There was no telling how he’d react — probably with some proverb about accepting rejection.
Daniel leaned his forehead on his hands, taking a deep breath as his heart pounded in his chest. Rejection. From her. How could he live with himself? How could he train under the same school, fight alongside her if she rejected him because he ruined the first date?
He pulled his phone out and went for his history, finding the same videos that brought him here in the first place. Their knowledge hadn’t changed. They repeated the same steps, the same advice, but he then realized there was one he had forgotten.
Focus on common interests.
The world flipped head over heels. He raised his head, looking into his own eyes. Here he was, Daniel Chase, in the bathroom panicking alone because the internet wasn’t right. It was pathetic.
Lame.
He had already gotten far enough by getting over his fear of asking her out. If he was over the fear, really over it, he didn’t need to still be afraid of doing what was natural. He didn’t need a rigid plan. Those plans were made for strangers meeting strangers, scared of failure.
Not for him. And not for her.
Because he wouldn’t be afraid.
When he returned to their outdoor seats, half of the fries were gone, and Carmen still went back for more as she looked back and forth between her notes and the page open on her phone.
“You finally back?”
Daniel buried his phone in his pocket. “Back to nothing. Most of the fries are gone! I thought you said you weren’t that hungry.”
“I wasn’t! I mean, I wasn’t at the time that I said that. And then you put these fries in front of me and left me alone, so…I guess the plan changed,” she said, shrugging.
“I thought about something you might want to hear.” Daniel sipped some of his water to revive his dry throat and took some fries. “No one can break the system’s rules, right?”
“Except for Apex, like you said. What did you mean?”
“I meant, clearly her plan works because she’s found some loophole in how the System handles revival and stuff. Wouldn’t that mean that Stylus has found some loophole in how the System handles challenges? Hear me out. How does it work?”
“You challenge someone to a fight if you walk up to them and verbally say that you challenge them to a ranked fight.”
“Right. So, you have to walk up to that person who’s registered as whatever name you say.”
“Yeah?”
“What if the person you walk up to isn’t the actual person that’s registered as that name?”
The lightbulbs went off in her mind, too, as she gasped and dropped her fry. “Then the challenge wouldn’t work. Stylus is immune to challenges because he has a body double! Hold on.” She frantically flipped through her notes, jabbing her finger at a specific line. “Stylus had an older twin brother, too, who lived somewhere in Germany up until years ago when he moved back home. Ever since then, though, his social media’s gone dark.”
“How many years ago did he move back home?”
“At the same time that Stylus became unchallengeable! He’s not immune. He’s just using his twin brother as a body double to walk around the party!”
“All while the real Stylus is probably sitting somewhere behind the curtain, sipping on some wine, eating chips, and watching people make fools of themselves.” Daniel shrugged. “Makes perfect sense to me.”
“Oh, this is…” Carmen leaned back in her seat, brushing her curly hair out of her face, staring up at the low gray sky. “You were right, Daniel. I wouldn’t have figured this out if we didn’t come out here.”
Daniel returned her smile, warmth spreading through his chest. “Glad to be helpful. Do I get anything in return?”
She leaned forward, perching her chin on her hand. “I’d say…one free Favor Ticket, useful in the next thirty seconds.”
Daniel pulled his phone back out and switched to the photo he took of Eternite’s painting. “This is the guy I’m gonna challenge. A swordsman that disappeared hundreds of years ago. But, he still has a valid listing in the rankings, and this painting’s the only hint he left behind.”
“Eternite, the urban legend.” Carmen pinched on his phone screen, zooming in on the message engraved beneath the painting. “Eternity has left this world for another. Seek the place where the sun sets, and follow the portal of light,” she read.
“I’m stumped. I can’t figure out what he means.”
“Most people can’t. That’s why I didn’t care much when you showed me the first time. But…hm.” She entered the same cute thinking pose she always did, pulling on her chin, twirling her hair with the other hand. “Stylus was so hard to figure out because of misdirection. Do you think Eternite’s the same?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, the trail went cold because no one could figure out what the plaque meant. But, what if the secret’s not in the plaque? It could be…”
“…in the painting itself!” Daniel finished the sentence, taking a closer look at the background. In the foreground, Eternite was fighting an unseen opponent, but they were underneath a bridge. Cast in a haze of fuschia and orange, the setting sun shimmered on a section of the bridge’s arched underside. There, where the colors lightened, he noticed a certain distinguishable symbol. “Do you see that?”
“Weird…but that’s not natural.” Carmen went back to her own phone, taking to the search bar. “And the construction of the entire bridge looks like the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in the city. That might’ve been where they made the painting!”
Daniel leaned on the back two legs of his chair. “That sounds like a lead to me. I couldn’t have found that without you, Carmen.”
Carmen smiled, averting her eyes.
“Do you have anything else you wanna do today?”
“I was gonna go out for some practice ranked matches, but…” She shrugged. “Chasing the tail of a missing swordsman sounds way more interesting.”
The waiter returned to their table. “Looks like you two enjoyed your meal!”
“Just a light snack. Can we have the check?” As the waiter started scribbling, Carmen pulled out her own purse. Daniel raised a hand. “Don’t worry, I got it, this time.”
“Are you sure?”
“Really! I still have some cash saved from betting on fights.”
“Great. I have to use it first, anyway.”
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As Carmen stood at the sink washing her hands, a young woman left the stall behind her. She stifled her surprise. The woman must’ve been in there the entire time, even though she didn’t see any legs in the stall and barely even heard her footsteps as she strolled up to the sink.
The woman rolled up the sleeves of her white labcoat before splashing her face and washing her hands. Just as Carmen noticed the heart tattoo on her forearm and the freckles behind her glasses, they met eyes for a moment, and Carmen awkwardly refocused on her own hands.
“Seems like a rough scar,” the woman said.
Under the water, Carmen ran her thumb along the knuckle pinker than the rest, a burn still healing from the night of the dojo’s destruction.
“Oh…yeah. I got it from trying to cook.
The woman chuckled quietly. “Are you sure you didn’t get that from a fight, Carmen?”
“No, I actually—”
Carmen’s blood turned into ice. Her reflexes jolted into action, and she lunged back a few steps, summoning Chip in his muscular form, putting him between her and the young woman. “No. You’re with her!”
She froze like a deer in headlights. “Her?”
“Don’t play dumb. I’ll scream so loud, the entire restaurant is gonna come rushing in here. And so will my friend.”
The woman raised both of her palms, backing all the way into the wall. Drawing a shaky breath, she pushed her glasses back up on her face. “I’m not a Fighter. Please. Don’t hurt me. I don’t know who you’re talking about—”
“How did you know my name? You’re with Apex, aren’t you?!”
“Apex? The terrorist they were talking about on TV? No, I’m—” The woman gulped, and it was only then that Carmen noticed it looked like she’d break into tears at any moment. “I’m Mei Akiyama, with the Memory Project. You were our top candidate for testing out our experimental enhancer.”
Carmen tried to steady her breath, tried to calm her pounding heart.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I passed by and saw you eating, so I was planning on meeting you there, but I had to run to the bathroom. I don’t have any powers,” she spoke quickly, as if every word could’ve been her last.
Mei could be lying. If she lunged at her now, Carmen knew she could roll backwards through the door. But, the raw fear in Mei’s eyes spoke otherwise, and she never truly knew how it felt to be burned against a Fighter, as someone with no powers of their own.
Carmen clenched a fist. She still had to find out if Mei was lying or not. “Show me your Fighter menu.”
Quickly, Mei swiped her menu open and pressed the fist icon, flicking at the corner of the screen to rotate it towards Carmen’s side. Sure enough, it displayed the Fighter Network with options to watch live streamed games. If she was really a Fighter, it would’ve automatically shown her stats and moveset.
Carmen exhaled, transforming Chip into his tiny form. “Sorry, I just had to make sure you were telling the truth. I’ve…been through a lot.”
“It’s alright. I’m sorry, I did kinda surprise you out of nowhere. Did you still want to hear about the Memory Project, though?” Mei dug into her pockets, pulling out index cards. “I was still studying our pitch on the way here.”
One of the cards slipped out of Mei’s hands, dropping on the floor into a spot of water. Carmen chuckled as Chip perched on her shoulder. “Sure, I’ll listen.”
“Well, you’re a Fighter, Electrica, but you got second place in the South City Beginner’s Tournament. Don’t you wish you had more power? So no one else can ever think you’re weak?”
“Not really. I’ve moved past that.”
“Maybe. But there are two kinds of people in this world: people who want power so no one thinks they’re weak, and people who want it to convince themselves they aren’t weak.”
Carmen pursed her lips. Not wrong.
Mei opened her closed fist, revealing a single peppermint. She tossed it across the bathroom to Carmen. “We’ve created a special serum that enhances a Fighter’s mental capacity by unlocking their full potential, making some even as intelligent as the Fifty themselves.”
But, instead of the familiar red, the lines were bright pink, and glowing, almost as if the peppermint itself was radiating with power.
“Yes, I got all the lines right! Okay, I have to go and hurry for a meeting, but you can keep it. Keeping it means you’re entering an NDA where you’re legally forbidden to tell anyone else about it, though.”
“Wait, what?”
“Bye, Carmen! I’ll catch up with you once you try it!”
Mei made her way to the door and pushed it open. Daniel waited outside, and she hurriedly waved at him as she walked past. Daniel slowly waved back, and Carmen met him at the door. “Do you know her?” he asked.
“Not really, but…” Carmen buried the mint in her pocket. An experiment for later. “Can we head back to the hotel so I can change, first? This sweater’s itchy.”