Time passed for Zoey and things were going pretty well for her. She continued to hunt demons with Alexander and Lindsay. Her teaching lessons with her brother continued even though she didn’t have that much time to teach him anymore. Zoey’s own boxing lessons started back up at the gym and seeing everyone’s reaction to her coming back was pretty nice. They seemed like they all missed her! Even Coach Scott teared up seeing her again. But Zoey was pretty sure those tears were for Ben who was taking on a new guy without even trying.

“Why is Ben going up against a beginner? With how he acts, I'd think that Coach would keep him far away from any newbies.” Zoey pointed out.

“Turns out someone put him in his place on the street and now he’s been improving for the better.” Steven answered.

“Who was it?” Zoey asked without showing any outward change in her emotions.

  While inwardly she was actually pretty excited at the thought that someone could beat Ben. Just out there on the street waiting for her to find them? Wait, no. She wasn’t some kind of lunatic that went after every strong opponent she heard about. There were rules she made for herself when going out on a hunt. Only aim for gangsters, delinquents, criminals, and demons. Sometimes assholes who don’t know how to act in public too.

“It turns out it was some delinquent. Ben didn’t tell us anything because he’s upset about losing to the guy but we have our ways.” Tony chuckled.

“Just some regular ole delinquent?” Zoey questioned.

“Nah. The kid was pretty badass. I heard that he knew taekwondo.” Steven answered.

“Did you find out his name?”

“Nope. Only Ben knows that one.” Tony shrugged.

“Alright, guys. Talk to you later. I got some catching up to do ever since I was grounded.” Zoey told them before walking away.

“Grounded?” They both questioned before bursting out in laughter.

“I thought something serious happened!” Steven said.

“For real! Like your mom or dad got sick!” Tony shared.

“I keep forgetting you guys are still kids living with your parents and going to school and all that.”

“They’re so damn talented in boxing, it’s easy to forget.”

“I can teach you guys sometime if you want!” Zoey shouted. She couldn’t let her teaching skill only be used on her brother and Steven and Tony were pretty cool. Sometimes they were dicks but that’s just guys in general. At least that’s what she thought.

“We’ll see Zoey!” They laughed at her offer.

‘Assholes... I’ll show you how good of a teacher I am. Just wait.’ Zoey’s eyes pierced into the frail figures of the newbies before going into the locker room to change.

  The group of new faces joining the gym all collectively shivered once Zoey’s predatory eyes met their direction. They didn’t understand why they felt frightened but if they did, shivering was the right response. Zoey was someone who willingly endangered herself on multiple occasions just to level up her skills. Say nothing of trying to prove a point while also raising her Teaching skill. She’s long understood that ever since she gained the Box, she’s become a little less sane. Especially after killing that daemon and not even having nightmares about it. In fact, she’d had dreams of rapidly leveling her skills to the max and conquering the world. But that was just a silly dream, taking over the world wasn’t something she was really interested in.

  Zoey tried to rationalize her lunacy by arguing that she had nightmares about her near-death experience. That meant that she wasn’t too far gone as she was still scared of losing her life. Once it reached the point that she was willing to endanger herself without any fear at all to her life and the people around her, maybe that would be the point where she needed therapy or to be stopped like some out-of-control vigilante. Could Alexander and Lindsay stop her?

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‘It depends. Alexander’s lightning... That was too fast for me to react to. If he got that spell off before I could punch him, I could probably die or get electrocuted. It wasn’t powerful enough to blow a hole in that daemon, so it must be a shocking type of spell. I definitely need to work on my defenses.’ Zoey thought to herself as she got called on by Coach Scott.

“Zoey! Get your ass up here! Let me see if you got sloppy while you were grounded.” He yelled.

  Letting everyone know that she still got grounded by her parents like some sort of stupid kid. Hearing everyone laugh like he told the funniest joke in the world pissed her off. She had half a mind to pound all the jerks who laughed with her boxing gloves but knew that would not help her case. At least her case for being allowed to stay in the gym anyway.

  Zoey climbed into the ring with Coach Scott. He had mitts on for her to punch while they were in the ring. Since this was to make sure her skill didn’t fall while she was gone, Zoey planned to start off lightly. And if he wasn’t satisfied, she’d ramp it up to casual. And if that somehow still wasn’t enough, she could go hard.

  Something that she’s never really done in this gym ever. Unless you counted all the times she trained hard, then Zoey hasn’t ever used her full strength in the gym. Seeing that Coach Scott was ready, Zoey moved in. With a nice crisp punch on the mitt, Zoey smiled at the familiar feeling. The small shock in Coach Scott’s eyes was nice to see too.

“Oi! Keep your head up!” He shot a lightning-quick jab towards her face. Zoey blocked with a proper guard.

“Keep going! I didn’t tell you to stop!” He urged her.

  Zoey shot out with a simple 1-1-2 combo. Left jab, left jab, right straight. Before switching it up to a 1-2-2, left jab, right straight into an even stronger right straight. She accidentally used a bit more power in that she wanted to and sent Coach Scott sliding back slightly. His eyes seemed like they were smiling but the feeling she got from the coach was anything but positive. Did he want her to ramp it up?

“Don’t stop why the hell are you stopping?!”

  Guess it was okay to go up to the casual level. Zoey’s simple punches took on a different personality. Almost as if her fists were showing a hint of their true power. Coach Scott wanted to see this true power. He wanted to force it out of Zoey and see its deadly potential! His mitts controlled the flow of their training.

  They slowly started to ramp up in speed and everyone’s eyes started to wander over to them. With all the noise they were making, it's no surprise that the attention was on them. Scott was trying to ooze out every slightest bit of the strength she was purposely hiding away. Zoey caught on to this instead of falling into his trap. What would he do even if she revealed how good she was? Were there places she could sign up as his fighter as a high schooler where Ben wouldn’t be the better choice?

“Ah, fuck it.” Zoey liked to pretend she was this smart, analytic, thinker but deep down she was just a meathead. It was so much easier and simpler to be a meathead.

  Zoey gave Coach what he wanted. Just on the off chance that he could possibly find somewhere to place her where she could officially fight just like Ben, Steven, Zack, and Tony. She’s never had her debut fight and was always envious of the others when they talked about how they felt fighting in the ring. Shit, she was brave enough to fight and kill a demon but she’s enough of a coward that she can’t even show how good she is at the sport she’s starting to like? That’s retarded!

  Her fist shot out like miniature cannons and numbed the coach’s hands when he tried to block it with the mitts. His eyes widened at this but Zoey barely noticed anything but the mitts in his hands. Heavy punches, not fitting at all of a girl of her size, pounded into the mitts. Actually, forcing the Coach backward. He could barely keep up! He might’ve been out of the boxing game for a while but that didn’t mean just anyone could run him over.

  Coach Scott toughened himself up and handled Zoey’s offensive assault like a professional. Gritting his teeth, he continued to block and throw out punches for her to dodge. They were like a well-oiled machine in how seamlessly they were moving. Zoey wasn’t even paying attention to how quickly her skills were raising because of this sudden training with Coach Scott. Her only focus was giving him what he wanted and the small chance that something fun could come out of it.

“Alright! That’s enough!” He stopped their training.

“Looks like that grounding did some good for ya! You came back even better than before.” He shook his hands to get some feeling back in them.

“Uh. Thanks?” Was this the first compliment she’s ever gotten from him?

“I’ve been looking to give you something to do besides train all day in here. We all noticed how your ears perk up whenever someone talks about their match. So, I finally managed to find something nearby for you to take part in. Your first match starts next Monday.” He told her.

  Zoey couldn’t help herself from smiling a smile way too silly. She did manage to hold in the scream she wanted to let out but the smile? That's asking for too much out of a socially awkward dork like her.

“Thank you for this chance Coach Scott! I’ll do my best!” Zoey practically screamed.

“Can’t have you wasting away in this gym forever just because you're a girl. I always reward those that work hard.” Scott said for everyone to hear. “I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow. Your training with Zack will also have some changes. This fighting tournament I signed you up in isn’t like any other tournament out there.”

“It’s not a boxing match?” Zoey questioned.

“Girls don’t box out here. Especially not girls at your age. This is a youth fighting tournament with all fighting styles.” He smiled. Zoey’s eyes brightened up at his words.

‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ She inwardly squealed while wanting to rapidly stomp her feet on the mat.