Jay shoved his way through the dense crowd of revellers, earning a few death stares as he ploughed people aside. A few stray elbows came his way, but Jay took advantage of Vega backflipping onto another table to squeeze past a few people caught watching.

Eventually, Jay wormed his way to the centre of the room.

“Wait is that you? Lightning Leonard!” Akira’s familiar voice split the remaining crowd; he waved Jay over to an empty seat on the central table. Once Jay sat down, Akira slid a full mug of beer his way.

“It’s me. My names Jay though, Lightning Leonard’s a bit too superhero for my liking. Only Coach called me Lightning all the time.” Jay replied, half shouting over the raucous crowd.

“Fair enough. Mine was Ginger Ninja before I managed to switch it, so it could be worse.”

Embarrassment washed over the young man’s face as Lyra simply chuckled beside him.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Jay. Akira was telling me about how someone from his home world was here. It’s the most excited I’ve seen him in a while.” Lyra extended her hand to Jay. Her skin was startlingly cold and felt like a fusion of stone and glass. “I’m Lyra, and the imbecile doing backflips behind you is my sister, Vega.”

A loud thud vibrated the floorboards beneath Jay, immediately followed by boisterous cheers.

“Yeah, there’s not too many of us Earthlings here.” Akira said, buzzing with excitement.

“I thought your planet didn’t have much conflict? It’d make sense to have a lot of untapped potential there.” Said Lyra.

Akira nodded. He went deep in his own world for a few seconds before his smile came back.

Jay stared at them both, silently pleading for some context or, even better, some answers.

“Do you know anything about this place or how you got here?” Lyra asked.

Jay shook his head. Recounting everything that had happened since he’d last seen Akira. Q had thrown a lot of new words at Jay, but none of them made much sense. He considered telling them about the voice that had spoken to him during his debut but decided against it. The voice did ask him to keep it a secret, after all.

“Well, I can fill you in on the basics at least.” Said Akira “As the recruiter told you, you’re on an island called Arenara Fortunis on the planet Eterna, and you’re an E Grade gladiator in the Second Chance Coliseum. All E Grade fighters, including me, Lyra, and Vega, have to fight at least every seven days. The coliseum has an ancient machine that scours other universes for fighters that die before reaching their full potential. The machine teleports them here and, as the price for keeping them alive, Soulbinds them to fight in the coliseum.”

“That’s… A lot.” Jay said, seeing off the rest of his beer “How does that even work?”

“The teleporting or the Soulbinding? Either way the answer’s the same, the coliseum itself admits that they don’t fully understand the technology. It’s so far out of my depth that I’m not even working on a theory for it. It’s really annoying actually. A whole planet full of philosophers debating on Harmony and none of them can be bothered to ever try and figure out how it works! It’s baffling. There’s hardly any discourse on it either! Every time I go to Scholar’s there’s nothing on it, it’s like nobody even-”

Akira reined in his exasperated rant before it truly got going, noticing Jay’s confused face and Lyra’s politely uninterested one.

He quickly brushed off the awkwardness. An impish smile returned to his face as he recalibrated and turned to Jay.

“So how did you die?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The impish smile grew into a devilish grin as Akira’s face showed how funny he found that question.

Although Jay guessed that a dark sense of humour probably helped you cope with the fate of fighting to the death every week.

Lyra hid a disapproving stare behind her drink. Jay wasn’t sure whether it was towards Akira or her sister, who had now transitioned from backflips to trying to pour a beer into her mouth from as high up as possible.

“The last thing I remember was boxing. My opponent cheated, he stepped on my foot. Because of that I couldn’t dodge properly.”

Jay spoke softly, part of him not wanting to acknowledge what he was saying was true.

“And then he cracked me. Thanks for filling me in, I guess. You mentioned Harmony and essence.” Jay pushed the lump back down his throat, no use feeling sorry for himself. “Q spoke about it too. Is that how Vega threw those explosions in her fight?”

Akira's eyes lit up at the mention of Harmony. “Oh man! If I gave you the full answer, I’d be here all night. Short answer: It’s magic, where the only limitations are the ones set by your mind. Yes, Vega could throw those fireballs because she understands the essence of explosivity. But if you try to wrap your head around that right now, you’ll get nowhere. It’s best if you discover it for yourself organically. I can help you with that tomorrow if you’d like?”

Jay accepted instantly.

He’d seen the gulf between rank 1 and rank 973. He could never beat Vega with just his fists.

A slurred voice, almost identical to Lyra's, shouted from right behind Jay's ear. “The only thing you need help with right now, kid. Is a fucking drink!”

E Grade’s number one fighter half sat, half collapsed, between Akira and her sister. Before tonight, Jay didn’t know whether a glass face could look drunk.

He knew now.

“Who’s the new guy?” Vega said as she squinted her eyes at Jay.

Akira began to explain the situation. Vega listened for about five seconds before walking up to the bar and returning with drinks in both hands.

“Listen man. I’m sure you’re a great guy, but the introductions are kinda in the way of me getting fucked up. Can it wait ‘til morning?”

Something told Jay that that was more of a statement than a question.

Who was he to argue with her? Nobody can deny a fighter from a victory celebration, it was all but in the job description.

“I just watched your fight. There’s a bit of a gap between rank 973 and rank 1.” Jay forced out a laugh to mask his wounded pride. But defeat cut far deeper than weakness, if buddying up with the top of his division helped Jay become stronger, then that’s what he’d do.

"Whatcha think? Did you like the headbutt? I'm thinking of calling that one ‘meteor strike’. It’s got a nice ring to it.”

“It was certainly something. I couldn’t pull it off.” Jay replied.

“Certainly something!” Lyra scoffed. “What the poor guy is too afraid to say is that you’re sloppy, you go for too much flashy bullshit and get injured unnecessarily.”

“Woah woah woah! Here goes Mrs. Fighting-Expert again. Do you need a reminder who’s rank 1 and who isn’t? We’re gladiators Lyra. It’s our job to entertain.” Vega slammed her empty mug on the table. The crowd’s rumbling faded, hushing down to a quiet murmur as everyone’s attention gradually made its way to the centre table.

Akira gave Jay a helpless look. This debate had clearly happened before.

“What’s more important Vega, entertaining or staying alive?”

“I’d rather die in the coliseum than live like you!”

Even the murmurs died out. An eerie silence smothered the room as every set of eyes stayed glued to the twins.

Some critical, some concerned, all of them interested.

“Why’s everyone fucking quiet all of a sudden?” Vega shouted to the shellshocked crowd. “We’re supposed to be fucking celebrating! Next rounds on me!”

Nothing gets people going quite like free alcohol, the rest of the room quickly woke up to match Vega’s energy. As she stood up from the table and left for the bar, she dragged a conflicted Akira behind her.

Only Jay remained by Lyra’s side.

“I’m guessing you’re the older twin then?”

“Forty seconds younger, would you believe. Although cleaning up after her mistakes has probably aged me a good few years.”

Lyra tapped her glassy fingers against the edge of her mug as she sighed at the surrounding celebrations.

“She wasn’t always like this. When we first got here, it was all about staying alive. We’d already died once and didn’t care to die twice. But as we climbed up the rankings it all changed. She just doesn’t care about her safety anymore. I’m worried. Worried she’ll do something stupid and end up dying. Again.”

“Yeah… That’s rough, buddy.”

“You don’t exactly have a way with words do you?” Lyra said. Chuckling into her empty drink.

“Before I got here, I made a career out of trying not to get punched in the face; it didn’t always work.”

Lyra laughed once more. A bittersweet look swept across her face as she stared at her sister pouring a beer into Akira's helpless mouth.

“You were a fighter before? If that’s so you might be able to help me out.” Lyra pointed towards Akira. “I like to have a second set of eyes whenever I review my fights. He’ll be too hungover to watch with me tomorrow. Care to join?”

“Sounds great. Just one problem though. I’m kinda homeless.”