Three was a crowd, and Akane and Mr. Stone led them downstairs to a crowd sharing tense glances. As he held the door from the stairs open for her, a silent smile passed between them. Daniel met Carmen’s eyes, hoping she had the same question that he did — why was she so special to him?

Outside, Akane explained the plan to take the train to Akihabara and walk to a certain Japanese barbeque place. But, she wasn’t riding with them. Daniel only then realized her jeans and black leather jacket combo was biker gear as she hopped onto a fancy crimson motorcycle, donning a matching helmet.

She pulled into the street and released the handle, holding her hands behind her. Jets of flames roared from her palms, launching her into a high speed wheelie. As she disappeared into the distance, the purr of her engine faded into Tokyo’s song of ambient traffic.

“Akane always had an eye for flair,” Mr. Stone said.

“How do you know her?” Carmen asked as they started towards the train station.

“Well, Daniel, Carmen, do you remember what I told you on the balcony during our party?”

“Yeah, that—” Daniel gasped. “No. That’s your ex?”

“That’s your ex?!” Carmen exclaimed.

“You had an ex?” Rafiq said.

“The implications of your reactions truly give me mixed feelings, but yes. A lifetime ago.”

“When you were still active as Flow,” Daniel said.

“Perhaps it's better if you hear her version of the story.”

To reach the train station, they had to pass through the Shibuya Crossing, the most busy pedestrian crossing in the entire world, as Carmen said. Daniel didn’t doubt her words as they reached the sea of people. A tidal wave of life and energy swept them up and forced them across the gigantic intersection, shoving them back and forth like paddle boats under a storm of bright billboards.

After a man bumped Carmen, Daniel held her soft hand tight and pulled her closer. Rafiq cracked a grin over his shoulder, but then bulldozed into someone else’s shoulder. Yet, even with his cane, Mr. Stone weaved through the traffic like a master sailor, each step precise and purposeful.

Before long, they reached the busy train to Akihabara. Daniel hadn’t been in Tokyo long, but it already felt different than anywhere else they’d been. He’d never seen this many people, let alone skyscrapers from horizon to horizon. It was past being a city within a natural landscape; the metropolis was a landscape, with every block a world on its own he could disappear into forever.

Despite that, no one fought. He only noticed once they whizzed past two fighters brawling on a rooftop. So many people, yet no one challenged anyone in public. So many billboards advertising upcoming fights and previous clips from famous bouts, yet he hadn’t seen anyone battling on the sidewalk.

“Have you guys noticed no one’s really fighting, here?” Daniel asked.

“Culture differences. What exactly do you mean?”

“Like, we’ve seen so many people walking around everywhere. I can tell that guy’s a fighter,” he said, pointing down the aisle. “But no one’s done anything.”

“Yea, ain’t nobody really active around here,” Rafiq chimed in. “And even when that dude did get active on Daniel, he had to go to the private Battlecar for it.”

“Here, it is seen as impolite to challenge and fight in public,” Mr. Stone said. “Whether you win or not, you’re simply inconveniencing others by making a scene. Street Fighting is shunned, and using powers in public is outlawed, too.”

Daniel gasped. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Carmen said. “They call Street Fighters TERM in Japan, which means RUDE. You could get arrested for using your powers too much. Even the popularity’s different here, because they hate Zoning, so most popular Japanese Fighters are Rushdowns or Grapplers.”

“Indeed. Zoning is technically as legitimate as any other strategy, but it’s seen as less honorable, here. I see you’ve done your research, Carmen.”

“Of course! I’ve even seen some of this in anime. Like there!” Carmen pressed her face against the window. “One of my favorite episodes of Dagon Silver happened there!”

With every chance to share her knowledge, Carmen’s quiet demeanor brightened as she pointed out different buildings and locations. Eventually, they pulled into the station, and met Akane a block away at the Akihabara branch of Ushihachi, a restaurant that served Japanese barbecue.

Of course, Carmen told them the proper term for it — Yakiniku. Ushihachi had a wooden and homey atmosphere, with brick walls and close booths with a fiery grill in the middle. After Mr. Stone and Akane ordered for them, they shared introductions.

“So you’re a true Rushdown, Rafiq, and you’re a Rushdown Puppet archetype, Carmen? I knew that sounded familiar! You’re the Millionth-ranked Fighter in the world, aren’t you?”

“You know?”

Akane nodded. “Could you show me your ‘puppet’?”

Carmen closed her palms and left a narrow sliver, allowing Chip to peek out in his cute form.

“I knew you looked familiar. I saw a news headline last week about Stylus being dethroned by a girl that fights with an electric ghost bird, who took his place as the millionth fighter.”

“Really?!” Her eyes lit up like stars, and as she met Daniel’s eyes with an excited gaze, he smiled, taking her hand in his own.

“We gotta see if your parents know,” he said.”

“You must. If I was your parent, I would certainly be proud of you, Carmen” Akane said. “And you, Daniel. Do you truly only have one attack?”

“Technically two, counting my Ult, but yeah! What about you? We saw that fire move you did on your bike!”

“Unfortunately, a Zoner, but it's forced me to develop a more…intimate style. I appreciate the compliment. I would show you, but I’d prefer not to be kicked out of the restaurant.” Akane said. She glanced at Mr. Stone. Her eyes were so strong and piercing, it came off as a stronger glare than Daniel expected. “Has he never mentioned me before?”

“It was my luck that my romantic life never became relevant for my students to know,” Mr. Stone said. “I would never hear the end of the teasing.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“But you’re ‘bout to hear the start of it! Come on, Akane. What happened?” Rafiq said.

“I love the enthusiastic ones. Anyway, Jonathan and I met during a retreat in Mage Country. I was there to better learn how to use my powers at close range, while he was there for…what was it again?”

“It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten myself, as well,” Mr. Stone chuckled. “I believe I was there for training and to discuss a joint sponsorship program with another Fighter.”

“Right, right. And so we met, and became close, especially once we learned we were both headed back to Japan.”

“How much were you together?” Carmen asked.

“Living in a country that forbids technology of any kind gave us quite a lot of time,”

Mr. Stone cracked a grin between his snow-gray beard, and Daniel couldn’t even believe his eyes. Did he get replaced with a clone on the way here?

“We left together, too, and I helped often at the Monsoon Arts School of Flow.”

“Do you remember when the students were worried I brought you to replace me?”

“Because they thought you were getting too old to teach after I beat you in a casual match?”

Their laughs complimented each other perfectly, with Mr. Stone’s deep chuckle serving as a background for her high-pitched cackle. Before long, though, they settled into a tense silence, sipping their drinks. Carmen shifted in her seat, and the lull weighed Daniel’s gaze to the wooden pattern of the table. They knew what came next in his life.

Rafiq didn’t. “And then? You can’t leave us on a cliffhanger like that!” he said.

“There is no cliffhanger. When Haruki snapped, that spelled the end of it all,” Mr. Stone said.

Rafiq’s energy deflated, and Daniel could see the worry in Carmen’s eyes. Under the table, he squeezed her hand.

“Jonathan spent quite a while in the hospital. And those…” Akane squeezed a napkin in her hands. “Apologies for my language, Jonathan, but I will never forgive those slimy bastards for pinning their demon daughter on you.”

“Her parents were afraid and confused,” Mr. Stone said. “I was the only surviving witness. I was in no shape to tell the truth, let alone one they would accept.”

“And yet, you still justify their evil actions, after this long. They were the reason your career collapsed, yet you still stick your neck out to be cut once again,” Akane spat, her eyes flashing with a spark of crimson.

“They were not—” Mr. Stone took a breath. “Regardless, continue with your version.”

“Oh, my version? Okay. Fine. It became too threatening to my own career to be seen as affiliated with Jonathan Stone, the man who killed his own student. And so, I had to stop visiting him in the hospital, had to stop taking his calls, stop reading texts…and then you disappeared. But that’s just the official version.”

Akane leaned forward, lowering her tone to a harsh, whipping whisper. “Behind the curtain, between the betrayal of your so-called ‘star pupil’ and watching years of your hard work burn away, you didn’t know how to cope without a bottle. You became upset. Angry. Emotional. You pushed me away, before soon leaving Japan.”

Daniel thought Mr. Stone would’ve shut her down, assured them that she was exaggerating — he couldn’t even imagine him in a drunken anger. People like that already had the primal, single-minded age hidden deep inside, waiting for the stupor of liquor to let it out. He’d seen it dozens of times from his parents. Mr. Stone would never be like that.

And yet, he nodded. “Correct.”

“I remember seeing that the American branch of the Monsoon Arts was still open, but facing difficulties finding students. I thought it was shut down for good by now.” Akane chuckled. “I’m glad to see that changed, though.”

“And I, likewise, am glad that you forgive me for my actions. We all make mistakes. I just let the self-hatred of those mistakes consume me.” He smiled, looking around at Daniel, Carmen, Rafiq. “Not anymore.”

“Onto better things,” Akane said.

“Indeed. Like, helping you three choose your targets.”

Daniel didn’t even have time to cope with the revelation before their food came, batting away the dark clouds from moments ago. Their waiter brought out trays of raw meat alongside rice and various sauces, to Daniel’s confusion. Akane showed them how to grill it themselves on the pit in the center of the table.

What kind of restaurant made you cook your own food?

It all made sense once he took that first bite, with the soy sauce drizzled on top and a batch of rice at the same time. The meat’s delicious and salty texture destroyed anything they had in Paris, and he immediately went for the second bite, though Mr. Stone warned him to enjoy the food instead of wolfing it all down.

As they continued to eat, the three of them opened their Fighter menus and minimized the windows to hardly bigger than tablets. Instead of going from legends and discoveries, Mr. Stone proposed that they should narrow down the filters to find the kind of opponent they wanted to battle. They had to be careful with who they chose; losing wasn’t an option, especially not for Daniel.

Their original plan was to go from being ranked in the millions to the hundred thousands, but when he instructed them search below one-hundred thousand, Carmen objected.

“I have a better idea,” she said, setting her filters from one thousand to a hundred thousand, instead.

Daniel gulped another heavenly bite down. “You’re going that high?!”

Carmen shrugged, nervously smiling. “I figured, if we need to get on Jazz Hands’s good side again, setting our targets even higher would do it. We told them we’d reach the thousands by the end of the program, anyway.”

“Are you sure you are ready for such a challenge though, Carmen? Within the thousands, you will only find metal ranks.”

“That just means I’ll have to train and practice more, right? It’s not like any of those metal ranks had an ex-fifty as their teacher, too.”

Mr. Stone pursed his lips, stifling an objection. “You are correct. Your ambition never fails to surprise me, but we work as a team. Do you two agree?”

Rafiq nodded quickly. “Hell yeah! I’m not chickening out!”

“Then I’m in, too!” Daniel tapped on the floating screen, setting his filter to only display the Fighters ranked from one thousand to one hundred thousand.

He narrowed it down further, tightening the filters to Fighters in Tokyo, then Golden or Platinum Class, the lowest of the metal classes, and then to Zoners. If Japan’s culture forced Zoners to fight up close as Akane described, their array of projectiles would be perfect for him to build counter damage from.

That brought it down to a few hundred. After that, he sorted by the most and least active. Fighters that were more active were more likely to get challenged more often, but he didn’t want to fight someone else after defeating his target. Rafiq and Carmen agreed, sorting by the same metric.

By the end, Daniel settled on Daigo, a Zoner with a private profile, though online rumors said he lived in a haunted castle just on the outskirts of Tokyo. Rafiq, meanwhile, chose Ahng, a Samurai Monk who frequented a temple to the south.

Carmen set her sights on Sakura, the Ronin Guardian of the Eternal Blossom Gardens.

Akane nearly spit out her food. “Are you insane, girl?”

“What? She fits all of my requirements,” Carmen said. “She’s ranked #2,303, is here in Tokyo, isn’t very active, and she’s a weapon wielder. I’m confident that I can deal with someone that uses a spear.”

“No. It’s more than that,” Akane said. “She is the Eternal Blossom Gardens. Those blossom trees never expire because of her powers!”

Carmen gasped.

“Consider this carefully, Carmen. You cannot risk picking someone you may lose against. Do not let your ambition outweigh your skill. Are you sure you want to go for such a high risk target?” Mr. Stone asked.

“I mean…you gave me the same concern when I considered fighting Stylus, and now I’m the millionth-ranked Fighter in the entire world, Mr. Stone. Do you not think I’m ready?”

“I must review your battle against Stylus. At the time, my attention was split between Carole intruding into the building.”

“Well, I think I’m ready, so Sakura’s going to be my target.”

Though she faced Mr. Stone, Carmen gave Daniel’s hand a squeeze, and he returned it. It was the right choice. She was choosing Sakura because she thought she was prepared, not backing down because someone else didn’t think she was.

“So first the Millionth Man, and now you’re planning to take down the Ronin Guardian, too?” Akane chuckled. “Jonathan, you’ve chosen even crazier students than before.”

“They never fail to surprise me. If those are your choices, save each of their listings,” Mr. Stone ordered. “We will need to train as much as possible before we battle them. I’ll contact John, and see if I can barter some leniency for ranked matches. I want all three of you to reach Golden Class before we challenge our targets.”

Daniel navigated through his Fighter menu, checking his class. Since he’d just reached S Class after defeating Eternite, he was still several matches away from ranking up.

“But, we cannot risk any more sudden challenges from people that recognize us. With Daniel and Carmen’s notoriety, we must be careful.”

“That don’t mean we gotta sit inside all day, though. Right?” Rafiq asked.

“Never. We must enjoy Carmen’s birthday, after all.”