“Sono hōkō no subete o fakku shite,” Daigo chanted in Japanese, extending a hand ready for a snap. “Zero de watte kudasai!”
One eye shined crimson, the other blue, and energy converged in front of him into a ball of deep purple, growing darker as it swelled.
He didn’t pivot or crouch once, and he could already fire off a raw ultimate? Daniel relaxed his concern and shifted his stance — this would be an easy counter.
Daigo’s flick rang through the air like a dropped quarter before an ear-shattering boom launched a black hole at him. Shivers rushed down Daniel’s spine as he dived aside. His devastating ultimate didn’t destroy the ground; it erased everything it touched, like an angry toddler dragged an eraser across the wood and through columns.
It tore a hole in the wall before exploding in the forest, the cacophony of falling trees muted as the building collapsed behind him. Amidst the roaring falling concrete and wood, Daigo still raised his hands and backed towards the display of journals.
“I never got why people didn’t use their biggest moves from the start,” he cackled, backing into the journal display. “Baron’s Rage: Inferno!”
A callout, a few hand gestures, and Daigo released a ball of fire as large as he was tall. Daniel shot to his feet and countered, capturing the EX-enhanced damage. He dashed through the fire in slowed time, drawing back for a powerful punch. Time resumed as he neared Daigo and threw a fist.
…and he hit the journal display.
Daigo was nowhere to be found. Daniel shattered the glass protecting the journals, and the stored damage still remained charged in his knuckles.
“Twofold Fist!”
Daigo’s fist smashed into his back, thundering through his body.
“Pulse!”
A flash of white, and a burst of intense damage sent Daniel spinning. His back hit the journal display. White lightning crackled along Daigo’s fist. Hitstun still paralyzed him, so Daigo struck with a combo of swift chops and strikes.
“You thought being a Zoner meant I couldn’t fight up close? Ha!”
He punched Daniel to the ground, reducing his health to sixty-percent. Daigo threw a jab on wakeup, and Daniel easily countered, phasing past him — he had to get out of the corner. Past Daigo, the damage had been done. The System marked the entire room as their arena, but debris and rubble carpeted the back half, its ceiling open to the sunset.
Daigo suddenly stood in front of him.
Daniel was back in front of the journal display.
Their positions had been swapped!
“Lotus Cleave of the South Moon!”
Daigo swiped at the air, but nothing immediately shot out. Daniel raised his guard, and a sixteenth rest later, an invisible slash struck his guard like a swipe of a sword.
He memorized the timing as Daigo lunged closer. Daniel dropped his guard and struck his counter, but Daigo blinked out of existence. He was left only facing the rubble, ahead.
Behind you!
The moment his Counter expired, Daigo kicked him in the arm, linking into another combo, launching Daniel towards destruction. But, midair, he felt the familiar jolt in his body. One second, as Daniel flew away from him, Daigo stood in front of the journal display, his hands in a peculiar position. The next, Daniel was back at the journals and flew backwards, sliding to Daigo’s feet.
Daigo swapped their positions again.
“Twofold Fist!”
Daniel countered and time hiccuped as he shot to his feet, phasing through Daigo to stand behind him, stealing the damage.
“Lotus Cleave of the South Moon!”
Daigo swiped at the air as he spun. Daniel had the timing down flat and countered a second time.
“Baron’s Rage: Inferno!”
A third successful counter, and Daniel cracked a smile as he pivoted aside and caught his breath against a column. The plan was working. He was down sixty percent, sure, but if he landed a Hard Punch with the damage he had stored up now and his two bars of Meter, he could easily negate that difference.
Yet, standing between two columns, Daigo sensed his satisfaction and laughed at him.
“Gateway of the Oak Tile!”
Daigo flattened his palm, and the air folded over itself until a glassy mirror formed between two columns beside him.
“Baron’s Rage: Inferno!”
Calling out the special move’s name was Daigo’s casting requirement instead of physical directions, and since he said its name, every special move was an EX. He fired another powerful fireball at the mirror, and it reflected back towards him.
Daniel realized the strategy a second too late. Suddenly, he was looking at Daigo leaning against the same column, with a raging fireball coming from his left.
Countering would risk losing his stored damage. He raised his guard and the fire washed over him, obscuring his view, barely letting him spot Daigo advancing.
“Twofold Fist…!”
He couldn’t drop his guard. The dying flames would fall, obscuring his view too much to time his counter. He’d risk losing his stored damage.
Why would he attack after forcing me to block?
Daniel blinked, and Daigo disappeared from view, but he was suddenly standing between the columns. Daigo’s fist plunged into his spine with a flash of white sparks, recoiling through his entire body.
“Pulse!”
A second shockwave wrecked Daniel’s entire body, before Daigo swapped their positions again and hit him from the front. He strung a light to a medium to a heavy, knocking Daniel back into the broken journal display with his final palm strike. When he kept on the offensive, Daniel tensed up for another swap, but Daigo grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him to the side, instead.
Daniel’s health hit the red as his back hit a column. His body ached with every movement, and after so many throat punches, each raspy breath was a fight. He stumbled as he regained balance, holding onto the column.
“What’s wrong? Getting dizzy?!” Daigo said, standing in front of the broken journal display. “Lotus Cleave!”
A sixteenth rest, and Daniel struck his counterpose, but the slash never came. His counter and all his stored damage faded away, leaving him wide open for a final roundhouse to the jaw that sent him to a world of blackness.
I lost to a fake.
And at this rate, he would’ve lost the entire program to someone who’s gimmick was just swapping their positions. The round replayed in his mind as the referee brought Daniel back to the land of the living. Memorizing his special move names was vital. They wouldn’t work without the full name, just like how a special move wouldn’t work without all of its inputs.
In a flash of blue, the referee repaired the castle. Daigo stood in the center of the room laughing. “I told you! The mind, body, and heart are all intertwined, Chase. You couldn’t even tell me which dimension you liked more. If you can’t even decide where your heart is, how can you tell where your body is? You can’t. That’s why I’m winning this.”
For once, Daigo was right. He couldn’t decide; the Carmen Garcia he’d grown up with had always been the most beautiful person he’d ever known.
But Carmen loved him.
“Round two!”
Daniel shook his head. He had to focus. He couldn’t get distracted by Daigo’s questions, but there was a hint of truth to them. Every time their position had been swapped, trying to focus on the shift based on the world changing around him left him lost and confused.
“Ready?”
Daniel popped his knuckles and raised his fists slightly.
Ground yourself. Just you and him. Focus on where you are, not where you used to be.
“Fight!”
“Hunting Eye of the North Star’s Gate!”
Daigo pulled two kunai out of his pockets, each shimmering a mix of red and blue, matching the flashes in his eyes. He fanned each into six across both hands, and once he threw them, the kunai multiplied until three dozen floating knives throughout the arena, unaffected by gravity.
Daniel narrowed his focus. Thirty six kunai. Him. Daigo. Just like the last round, he opened with an ultimate, though it wasn’t the same uber-destructive finisher as last time. Daigo disappeared from view, leaving a kunai in his place.
He swapped with a kunai
“Twofold Fist!”
Daniel countered the powerful punch, turning on a dime and gaining distance. Every time Daigo disappeared from view, he was teleporting behind him.
“Lotus Cleave…!”
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He disappeared from view, but Daniel flinched, whirling around to meet him as he swiped his hand down.
“...of the South Moon!”
Easily, he countered the moment the invisible slash would strike. Light traced his damage-storing limbs as he stepped into close-range, pausing right as time resumed to gauge Daigo’s response. Daigo met his advance with a grab.
No more holding back.
Daniel ducked underneath his arms and let his stored damage explode into Daigo’s chin, stealing a quarter of his health in one heavy. A blow to the solar plexus, and Daniel paused to not incur his combo penalty. Daigo tried to put distance between them. Daniel chased him down.
His nerves leaped and Daigo disappeared.
“Twofold—!”
Dnaiel let reflexes guide him as he spun with a haymaker to Daigo’s ear, interrupting his chant. He tried striking back with a light chop, but Daniel countered and punished with a heavy gut punch and an uppercut, beating his flesh like a dull drum.
On recovery, Daigo flinched the gesture to swap their positions again. Daniel knew he wouldn’t make the same mistake. This time, he’d probably try backdashing after the teleport, to punish his predicted attack.
The moment they swapped, Daniel lunged backwards and spun, following Daigo’s attempted retreat. Daigo grit his teeth, thrusting his arms. “Baron’s Rage!”
Daniel followed through with a heavy punch into his jaw. “What? No inferno?”
Daigo stumbled backwards and brought his hands together. Before he could make the gesture to swap them once again, Daniel introduced his fist to Daigo’s nose, flattening him onto the ground.
“Down!”
Daniel’s knuckles burned with victory as he backed away, adrenaline pumping through his pounding heart. If their fight was a multiple choice question, he just filled in all the right answers back to back.
Daigo rose with camaraderie, a glint in his eye as the referee healed the blood from his nose. “Impressive. You took me down before I even got to activate Hunting Eye!”
“‘Cause your technique’s all distractions,” Daniel said. “I—”
“What, are you gonna say you just focused and ‘grounded’ yourself? And yet, you can’t do that for a simple question?”
Daniel scoffed. “You don’t get it. Picking a whole reality ain’t simple.”
“Final round!”
“I’m surprised you can even decide what to eat for lunch. It is that simple. I know it is. I’ve had the dreams, too!”
“Fight!”
The round started, yet for a moment, Daniel wasn’t there. He was in a body that didn’t exist, watching the Carmen Garcia back home help her younger sibling in their childhood park. He was at that same park, eavesdropping as his friends mourned him. He was trapped in his old bedroom, unable to clue his parents that he was still alive.
The dreams.
“Lotus Cleave of the South Moon!”
Daniel snapped back to reality an instant too late, and couldn’t strike his counterpose before the Lotus Cleave struck. It was like the air itself swiped across his abdomen with a blowtorch, burning as the dismemberment shield saved him from falling apart. Daigo threw a kunai, swapping positions with it as it neared Daniel.
He landed in a low kick, launching into a combo. “I bet you saw your friends, too. Your family you left? Got to see how they’re getting on without you? Who did and didn’t move on?!” he spat, ending the combo with a heavy punch.
An aggressive light kick on wakeup, but Daniel countered and backed away, weaving past a column, circling around. “Then why don’t you wanna use your wish to get home?! You know it can!”
His nerves jumped — Daugo swapped their position, and suddenly he was facing the window, too. But, like second hand reflexes, he turned and faced Daigo, stopping his advance in his tracks. He knew the counter that would come if he attacked.
Daigo retreated a step. “Gateway of the Oak Tile!” he said, placing a mirror between two columns. “Don’t tell me this dimension’s got you believing a lie like that. Even if it could, I’m done. I’m not gonna keep waking up heartbroken. Gateway of the Oak Tile!”
As he threw another mirror, Daniel pounced on the chance. Daigo fired a Baron’s Rage to cover his further retreat, and Daniel dodged to not risk his stored damage before rushing Daigo.
But then he was facing the fireball again.
“Don’t you think they’ve forgotten about you, too, by now?!”
His shout came from behind. Daigo had swapped his position with the fireball mid transit, placing himself behind Daniel.
Yet, in that moment, with the fireball in front and his opponent behind him, all Daniel could focus on was the buried questions that rose to the surface. If he didn’t win the next Ultimate Versus, it could take another year for a chance to get back. What if Carmen had a boyfriend by the time he got back? What if his friends replaced him in the group? What if his parents had another kid?
How could he fight to get his life back if everyone replaced him?
Every muscle in his body screamed for him to counter the raging inferno.
He flexed into his counterpose, but Daigo grabbed him from behind and froze him with hitstun, throwing him right into the fireball. The assault continued with a full combo, every punch knocking another question from deep within his mind. How could they even put him back in school?
“Lotus Cleave of the South Moon!”
Daigo’s Cleave ended the combo, yet as he launched Daniel back, he continued making hand gestures.
“I’ll show you how it feels to lose yourself. Suspension of the Ninth Chain!”
The blue and red light in Daigo’s eyes swirled into purple irises as he thrust his arms outwards, and a bubble of violet energy spread through the entire arena. A chill went through the air when it passed Daniel.
Gravity left the conversation.
Daniel felt his stomach flip and turn as he floated from the ground, no gravity to keep him down anymore. Daigo leaped towards him with a flying kick, sending him spinning backwards. There was no up or down anymore; the ceiling became the walls of a jungle gym of wooden beams.
“I know what I’m here for. My rank! Fighting, just because I need to fight!”
Daniel’s hand scraped along the floor as he tried to stop himself, a foolish move. He flew into one of the mirrors Daigo had cast earlier. The world itself flipped as he came out spinning back in the direction he’d come from.
Daigo flew at him in zero gravity. Daniel tried to attack, but with no ground, his center of gravity was all off. Even as he whiffed, Daigo swapped their positions, and they passed each other.
“Lotus Cleave!”
But no South Moon. It was a fake, he threw a kunai instead. Daniel barely caught it with his eyes and countered in time, but Daigo appeared where the kunai was and grabbed him by the shirt.
“I bet you saw your girlfriend, too. Did you try looking for her version in this dimension?” He scoffed. “When I found her version here, I wiped that stranger’s name from my memory. She’s worthless to me!”
He kicked Daniel backwards, sending him flying towards another Gateway. It sent Daniel right back at Daigo. In he finally managed to orient himself — to ground himself. He forewent trying to keep track of where they were in the arena. Daniel kept his focus narrowed on Daigo alone as they flipped and turned through the castle, world spinning around them as Daniel blocked and redirected the swings of his blockstring.
“We’re the only ones like this — listen to me!” Daigo shouted. “It took me years to realize I’ll only be hurt if I leave my heart where I used to be!”
When Daniel expected a punch, Daigo kicked off of his guard, sending him swiveling through the zero gravity. His mind flipped from his words. Was that his life? Was that what was causing his problem with Carmen, with fighting Eternite? Were the dreams coming from the places he’d left his heart behind in his old dimension?
“Burst!”
It came from an angle he couldn't even comprehend defending from. Daigo kicked him in the throat, passing right through his guard with an Aggroburst before he grabbed Daniel by the shirt once again.
“Let home go, or let them go! Lotus Cleave of the South Moon!”
He kicked Daniel away, but as Daniel tried to block, gravity returned. It threw him off enough for the Lotus Cleave to slash a hole in Daniel’s shirt, drawing a spray of blood. Daniel landed back first, his fist matted with blood. The health bar at his wrist was red, and he hadn’t even touched Daigo yet.
Daigo stalked towards him. “We’re the only ones who understand each other, Chase. No one else was stolen from their home. I tried looking. Listen to me, and you can learn the easy way instead of learning the hard way, alone.”
“No.” Daniel clenched his fists gleaming with stored damage, eyeing his final, desperate ace in his sleeve.
The fate of the School of Flow rested on his six bars of Meter.
“Speak up, brat!”
“I said no!”
Daniel shot to his feet, slapped Daigo’s punch aside, and slammed his fist into Daigo’s nose, taking a quarter of his health in a single blow.
“I’m not you! I’m done being hurt, and I’m done being unsure — I love here more!” he shouted, smashing ribs with one blow, cracking his jaw with the other.
Daigo threw a high jab, but Daniel countered and fired for the solar plexus, putting all his pent up rage behind both hits. “I don't care what you say! I’m still gonna fight to get home, no matter what!”
Daigo stumbled back, spitting a tooth from a bloody jaw. “Dammit, no — you don’t understand!”
Daniel drew both fists past his chest and countered Daigo’s desperate smack. Blood and tears from his broken nose froze in the air. It was the opposite; he finally understood where his heart lied. Daniel phased through him, crouching behind him.
Down, Forward, Back, Down, Back, Forward, Back.
He charged all the Meter he’d built up through the entire match into Hard Punch, supercharging it more than he ever had. Six bars of raw power charged up from his bicep to his tightening forearm to his knuckles of steel, coursing through his gleaming veins and shimmering from his skin as a powerful aura.
Time resumed, and Daigo’s face went ghost-white with fear.
“No. You don’t understand that I never used my ultimate.”
Daigo flinched into a block, crossing his arms.
“Burst!”
The six meter Hard Punch pierced through his shield, shattered one forearm, decimated the other, and blasted through Daigo’s skull, erasing the other eighty percent of his health.
And Daigo fell.
“K.O.!”
Daniel let his numb arm drop. Blood dripped from his knuckles onto the wood like a bird pecking against a tree, running from the burst blood vessels up and down his scarred, numb arm. Steam rose from his battered, twisted forearm. It pained Daniel to look at the result of such a violent explosion of power, but the referee healed his wounds and raised that fist into the air.
“Chase wins!”
A menu appeared certifying his victory, and with that, their continued place in the program. He rose to Golden Class, and he knew he could finally give Carmen a straightforward answer to her question. She could never reject this, and he would never feel uncertain about her again.
He loved her more.
When the referee revived Daigo, he remained laying on the floor. “Are you really ready to sacrifice it all, Chase?”
“What?”
“This wish you’re so focused on. Even if it could take us home…would you really be ready to sacrifice it all?”
Daniel searched for the hidden insult. Yet, for once, Daigo’s tone was sincere, and he looked up at the ceiling with a blank expression. Daniel sighed. “I don’t know. But that’s later’s problem. And it’s Daniel.”
“Well, Daniel, you’re setting yourself up.” Daigo sat up. “Think about it. If you know you enjoy here more than you enjoy your home dimension, why are you fighting to get back?”
The question settled in his mind like a heavy weight on his stomach.
“What are you really fighting for?”
“I…I don’t know.”
Daigo nodded. “I fight because I enjoy it. I love it, I love this world, and it makes me happy. If you can’t see that, you really are an indecisive brat in a bad situation.” He shrugged. “I’ll find you when you figure it out. See you in another life.”
The next thing Daniel knew, he was back at the entrance to the castle. Mr. Stone sat on the stairs in front of him in a meditating position, watching a menu window of a fight.
His fight.
Mr. Stone closed his menu, pinching it back down to his wrist. “By the stream, I would think that you freed yourself of doubt’s debt. By your expression, I feel the fight has revealed another question.”
Daniel nodded, gaze falling to the floor.
“As conflict always does. Let’s go home, Daniel.”