A seemingly never-ending wall surrounded the Spirit Academy campus, separating it from the rest of the city. It was over eighty feet tall and ten feet thick, made of impenetrable metal. Mattiaz stood tiny and insignificant in its shadow. He couldn’t help but wonder if the wall was for defense or maintaining confidentiality within the academy⁠—in either case, it unnerved him. He recalled the hateful attitude of the attackers they met in the city; considering that, the defense theory sounded quite plausible, but…

Lusio turned away from the wall and headed towards the campus’ northern exit. Mattiaz followed, pulling himself away from his thoughts with a disturbed shiver.

As they approached the exit, they spotted a lone guard booth with only a turnstile between the campus grounds and the city. It would have been easy to imagine security here was awfully lax. However, hidden cameras dotted every corner of the campus, both inside and out; any trespasser caught on film would trigger a deafening campus-wide alarm.

A young woman in uniform sat in the glass-covered security booth, her short black hair tightly framing her face as she smiled in greeting. Mattiaz leaned on the counter and asked, “Hey, lady. Has a guy named Roy left campus?”

She nodded and crossed her fingers on the stainless desk. “Let me check.”

Mattiaz watched, expecting her to check the computer records. Instead, a hologram sprouted from her right hand, using her left hand to scroll through some kind of records that Mathiaz nor Lusio couldn’t understand.

Mattiaz’s jaw dropped at the display. But before he could utter any of his questions, Lusio seemingly read his mind and explained, “She’s a cyborg,.

“Oh…” Mattiaz had heard of cyborgs. He recalled that the government had enhanced many of its officials with technology to strengthen their militia. This security officer must have had such enhancements, making her a human/robot hybrid—a cyborg. He quietly inspected the lady, trying to pinpoint any sign of cyborg features, but his search was in vain. She looked ordinary enough, safe for her dead-eyed gaze and unsettling smile.

Now that he thought about it, she wasn’t that different from Lusio. That had to be it, he thought. Could Lusio be a cyborg too? After all, ever since he had met the boy, he hadn’t stopped smiling for a single second. Even his words came off as monotone, and rehearsed. And just like the lady, nothing seemed off about him appearance wise. He looked so normal–considering he was a spiriter–that it was almost uncanny.

Even more-so, being a fanboy of all things spirit-related, Mattiaz was aware that a cyborg had awakened spirit a few years back–being the first cyborg to do so–that was the same age as him. He had personally been excited to meet him. But to think it would be his roommate–

“Roy left campus just under half an hour ago. Do you wish to leave a message for him?” said the cyborg.

“Shit!” Mattiaz jumped, startled by her sudden interruption.

“Thank you for your message.” She nodded and rotated on her spinning chair, effectively ending their conversation.

“Oh fuck! No, I—” Mattiaz tried to get her attention to fix his message, but she ignored his attempts. He scowled as the cyborg tapped into her smartphone and launched some kind of mobile game, effectively shutting down their conversation.

“Ugh, whatever,” he spat. Disappointed with her attitude, Mattiaz walked through the turnstile and into the city.

“So what do we do now?” Lusio asked, following closely behind him.

Mattiaz evaluated their options. “I wanna talk to those guys from before.” He looked at Lusio. “You said Roy beat them up, so I thought he might know where to find them, but I’m starting to think that’s not the best idea…” He exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose in thought. He thought it would be easier to find Roy since he was a spiriter, but if he was out gallivanting in the city of Holy Bay, than he may as well look for the spirit-hating teenagers directly.

If only he had a single clue where to find them. All he could vaguely recall were their names: Johnny, Chip, Dennis, and Ralph, their looks, the fact they had baseball jerseys on...

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“Is there a baseball field around here?” he wondered aloud, not expecting an answer per se.

Lusio gazed down the street in deep thought as he considered Mattiaz’s question. He placed a finger under his chin and motioned toward the main street. “I think there’s one a couple blocks north of here. Why?” Mattiaz nodded, glad Lusio had known. Then again, Lusio seemed to know everything.

“They might be there… Could be a long shot, though.”

Lusio turned to Mattiaz, a questioning tilt to his head. “Who?”

Mattiaz groaned. “The guys who attacked me and Steve,” he deadpanned.

“Oh, right. That’s what we were doing…” Lusio’s smile gleamed with a hint of pride. “I guess it’s worth a shot.”

Mattiaz followed Lusio through the streets of Holy Bay. He wondered how Lusio knew so much about the city, but figured the answer was more simple than suspicious: Lusio must have lived there or visited at some point. Perhaps as a cyborg… he thought. Maybe he worked as a living navigator? Mattiaz smirked at the notion. That would be quite handy actually.

Mattiaz checked his surroundings, spotting some run-down shops, a dingy bar, and a candy store within the block. The road below was built from light stone that matched the foundations of the surrounding buildings, the combination of stone and wood panelling reminding Mattiaz of scenery in an old movie. Though the architecture was beautiful, every street tended to look identical—without Lusio, Mattiaz would have gotten lost a long time ago. In fact, he couldn’t even guess where Steve had parked the truck earlier.

My bandanna’s still there too… His chest tightened at the thought. Each time he touched his forehead, his fingers met the rough texture of his bandages instead of his lucky bandanna. He felt naked without it, robbed of the reassurance it always gave him.

Although the roads were empty, Lusio still waited for the green light to pass through the crosswalk. Impatient, Mattiaz nudged him into the road to pick up their pace, but Lusio kept stopping for red lights. Are cyborgs programmed to follow the law? he wondered, adding another point to his cyborg theory. Nevertheless, Lusio hadn’t complained about Mattiaz nearly pushing him into traffic—even his smile stayed perfectly in place.

As they passed a shady alleyway, something caught Mattiaz’s eye: a graffiti-covered dumpster that boasted a very detailed graffiti of a blond man’s face at the tip of a penis. Mattiaz stared, his mind working until something clicked. I remember that dick! This was the spot where he’d taken a piss after Steve parked his truck.

Leaving Lusio behind, he began to retrace his steps. It didn’t take long to find the alleyway. Mattiaz scoured the dark concrete, gaze settling on a crumpled and dirty cloth on the ground. Though it was impossible to distinguish its original color, he knew exactly what it was: his lucky bandanna. For the first time since regaining consciousness, he let himself slip back into his signature goofy grin as he plucked the bandanna from the street.

“What are you doing?”

“Shit!” Mattiaz jumped at Lusio’s interruption, still not used to his sneaky behavior. “Oh, it’s just you.” He turned to Lusio with a frown and held up the dirty cloth. “It’s my lucky bandanna. Look what they fucking did to it.”

“Hmm.” Lusio took the bandanna from Mattiaz to examine it. “Looks like they wrote something on it. ”

“Oh, wait,” Mattiaz said, scraping the grime off the bandanna to reveal ‘The Phoenix’ written on the formerly white fabric. “This is actually a signature from my favorite Spirit Tournament fighter, Ronald Davidson. You know him, right? The Phoenix?” He wasn’t sure if Lusio followed things like Spirit Tournaments, but once he nodded, Mattiaz felt more at ease. “Yeah, he’s fucking awesome.”

Ten years ago, the Spirit Tournament fighters held a party near his orphanage. Seeing this as a perfect opportunity to meet his hero, Mattiaz snuck out after curfew to attend the party. Since he was only six years old, they obviously didn’t let him in, which left him crying on the sidewalk with his broken dreams.

But soon after, a group of scary looking strangers approached him. With as much mettle as a distraught child could muster, he tried his best to get them to leave him alone, but they were persistent. That is, until Ronald Davidson showed up. Once he was on the scene, the strangers fled.

Mattiaz had no idea what to say to his hero. Instead, he ended up spewing nonsense. Amidst all his blabbering, he somehow convinced Ronald to sign his bandanna.

Despite how short their meeting was, Mattiaz still considered it the best day of his life. But even with the bandanna as proof, no one believed that he had met the famed Phoenix.

“I believe he won the Spirit Tournament two times in a row?” Lusio said, bringing Mattiaz back to the present.

“Yes! And it’s gonna be three fucking times soon!” A date hadn’t been set for the next Tournament, but Mattiaz did daily checks of every reliable source looking for updates. He wanted to brag and say something like, ‘I’ll also win the tournament!’ but he couldn’t do it. Not after today. First, he needed to prove his strength as a spiriter if his words were to carry any weight.

Fighting to keep his mood up, he focused on the task at hand: finding the attackers. He shoved the dirty bandanna inside his jacket pocket, turning to Lusio. “Anyway, where’s the baseball field?”

Lusio pondered the shifts in Mattiaz’s mood, curious as to what had made him switch between excited and serious so quickly. No matter his musings, Lusio could’t find an answer.

“It’s this way.” Flashing his usual smile, Lusio led Mattiaz out of the alley.