Brutal Colosseum Challenge

The last day of school passed and all remained quiet. For some unknown reason, Sun was absent so I was unable to follow up after sending the group message in Starfight. At least this time the delay wouldn’t be my fault…that was my hope.

I took advantage of the extra time off during summer break to work almost every day. If I worked for almost the entire break, then I figure I’d have enough money to be able to cut back once school began. I still requested to work later shifts, though. It was so nice not having to get up early every day.

July 24th 2018

In the afternoon, Ryuuji gets a visitor at his register. He starts with his usual greeting until he notices who it is. Sun places a drink on his counter and simply smiles. Ryuuji closes his eyes, straightens his back, and bows as low as he can, almost laying his head on the scanner.

“I’m really sorry for all the harsh things I said before. Can you forgive a low life such as myself?”

“You idiot, of course I’ll forgive you.”

Ryuuji is satisfied he was finally able to fully apologize. He notices no one is in line behind her and quickly scans her one drink.

“Do you have a few minutes to talk? I’ll take my break.”

“Sure that’s fine, but what about me paying?”

“Don’t worry, it’s on me. I’ll meet you outside.”

Ryuuji pays with his own cash and gives Sun her drink and receipt. Not wanting to waste even a second, Ryuuji runs off to ask for his break. Sun waits outside, sitting on the bench where they first spoke months ago. It doesn’t take long until Ryuuji appears, taking a seat right next to her.

“I’m glad you stopped by! I didn’t mean to take so long to give you a proper apology. It seemed best to keep my distance before, otherwise I probably would have yelled at you again even if I didn’t want to.”

“I won’t deny what you said was hurtful, but I even told Seiji and Hana it wasn’t completely your fault. I can’t believe I got sick on the last day of school, it was awful.” Sun shakes her head, not wanting to think of how ill she felt.

“It’s cool you were finally able to master the spell ‘Single Cell’ in Starfight, and even more incredible you were able to use it on a small target like my character instead of a large beast.”

“Oh that? Hana was the one who helped me. The advice she gave me was ‘aim for its center’ and it worked!”

“Seriously? She’s a better player than I thought.” Ryuuji then remembers the main thing he wanted to mention. “That reminds me, give me your cell number already. I guess because we see each other so much we never thought to exchange them.”

Sun thinks back, realizing they only talk in person or through Starfight, and is surprised she never gave it to him. She asks Ryuuji for his phone so she can enter her number. They then hear a familiar voice.

“If I didn’t know any better I’d think they were dating.”

Ryuuji and Sun look to their right to see Seiji and Hanabi. Ryuuji can only cringe.

“Sun, why did you invite them?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She says in a high pitched tone.

“Either way you shouldn’t joke like that. Me? Sun’s boyfriend? There’s no way I’ll be able to beat her prince charming even if I tried.”

Sun’s face turns bright red, “Prince charming?? What do you mean by that?”

“Please, even in the game I can see your eyes sparkle whenever Steve is around.”

Annoyed by his remark, Sun turns away with a huff and hands his phone to Seiji and Hanabi, telling them that they should add their numbers as well. Ryuuji tries to take it back, but is unsuccessful. Hanabi does so first, enjoying the amusing situation, then gives it to Seiji.

“I’ll add my number, but I only have a home phone, no cell, so it will probably be useless.”

Ryuuji quickly grabs his phone once they are finished. “Like I would call either of you.”

That rude comment is the best indication that things are back to how they were before. With his break almost over, they all part ways, looking forward to the big match in a few days.

July 30th 2018

The day of the Colosseum battle arrives. With only 10 minutes until the scheduled time, Seiji and Hanabi are the first there, with Ryuuji appearing shortly after.

“How is it that both of you always manage to beat me whenever we meet in-game?” Ryuuji complains.

“I guess we are just punctual people.” Seiji says.

Though in reality they just play too much and were already fighting dungeons before this.

Steve is next and wastes no time requesting communication and to form a party with Hargrave and Flora. When they accept, Steve doesn’t hide his excitement, making it seem like he was looking forward to this more than the actual battle.

“You weren’t kidding, you really are friends with Hargrave! Ah- my real name is Steve, Sun probably mentioned me at least once before. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Oh a fan? Nice to meet you.”

“Acting as if having fans is nothing new.” Ryuuji is disgusted despite being in a similar position when he transferred schools.

The few times that Hargrave joins other parties, he’s always showered with praise for all of his amazing accomplishments, so he became used to it.

“This is so cool, I can’t wait to tell my friends that I know the great hero Hargrave!!” Steve brags.

“That just leaves Sun. I called her right before logging in and she told me she would be right here. That should mean something, right?” Ryuuji says.

“She really is adorable isn’t she?” Steve says.

“I thought we already established that- no.”

After Sun arrives, cutting it close with seconds to spare, they enter the Colosseum. Since AkaNinja and HeroHiro are participating, they input the one-time code they were given after the challenge was accepted. Ryuuji set the battle to private ahead of time, with there being a password he can give out so others can watch. He sends the password to Seiji, Hanabi, and Sun and they enter one by one.

As expected by the name, the Colosseum is based on the real life one in Rome, with a ring in the center surrounded by a mass amount of seating in an old stone building. The two challengers are already in the center with the others at the edge of the seats.

Seiji glances around, impressed by what he sees. “I’ve never been here before, this is actually really cool.”

“Even with how popular you are?” Sun asks.

“Seiji and I automatically deny any challenges. Except he still accepts friendly fire for some reason.” Hanabi explains.

“If I accepted the Colosseum I would probably get over a dozen a day. It’s more fun to battle monsters anyway.”

Ryuuji is quick to switch focus to the battle. “Alright, enough wasting time. I’m glad you made it, Steve.”

“Are you kidding? I made sure to clear up my schedule right after I got the challenge.” Steve says.

“You mean later in the morning.”

“Minor details. Now then, Sun! Countdown from 3 to signal the start of the battle.”

“Why me?” she asks, “Can’t you just start without it?”

“You’re as much a part of all this as we are.” Ryuuji explains. “So if you don’t mind, we’d love your help.”

Months ago when Sun introduced the two of them, she never imagined their friendship would grow as it did. She never imagined the dark moments either, but that can come with any relationship no matter who is involved. To have them include her, even for something so simple, she feels overjoyed.

However, little do they know, a hacker is waiting for the exact moment that is about to occur; for them to hit the button to start the battle.

Sun starts the countdown, “3….2….1-!” And with that, they hit start and the battle begins. Almost simultaneously, the hacker takes control. Since the characters were already rushing towards each other, AkaNinja sustained some damage.

Steve is the first to comment, “Taking damage already? I guess the ‘amazing ninja’ got sloppy.”

“I must have hit the wrong key. Just you wait-”

“Ryuuji? Are you still there?”

Steve responds as if he didn’t hear Ryuuji just now, leaving them both confused for different reasons.

Unbeknownst to Ryuuji, no one can hear him due to the hacker cutting off all forms of communication within the game, including the mic and messages. Steve assumes Ryuuji chose to stay quiet and doesn’t suspect a thing.

“Not talking, huh. That’s fine, we’ll just focus on the battle!”

Knowing something is wrong, Ryuuji watches as AkaNinja moves, attacking HeroHiro, then looks down at the keyboard to see that his hands are indeed floating above it, not touching even one key. He pauses for a moment before realizing,

“I must have been hacked! Dammit, I only did this because the company announced they have better security to counter this. There hasn’t been an incident in over a year, why now?!”

Ryuuji stops and thinks. There’s no way to tell if this is the same hacker as before, not that it would matter. What about the game itself? He has noticed there have been less updates in recent months. Normally there are regular updates to improve the game, among other things, even if there isn’t a new event or dungeon. What about the company? The only thing that changed recently is…his dad’s firing. He remembers hearing his dad state how important it is to keep this game up to date, are they getting lazy without him there?

Whether it’s the truth or not, frustration starts to build as this all circles back to his current predicament. Ryuuji clenches his fists and is about to slam them on his desk, but quickly stops, instead slapping himself to forget all that.

“No, this is what got me into this situation in the first place. Think!! What can I do now?”

Ryuuji helplessly watches as someone else continues to use his character. With neither backing down, AkaNinja has taken more damage than HeroHiro, but both are still in good condition.

The other 3 watch the fight closely. Even though it just started, Sun is already bored, now finding it less fun to watch than participate. Seiji is the only person who notices something is off.

“Don’t you think AkaNinja’s movements are strange? Almost like he never played before. Way different from when we fought.”

“Maybe because you’re watching from a different angle?” Hanabi suggests.

That may be true, but Seiji still can’t help feeling something isn’t right. Just then, he hears his phone ring. He tells the girls he will be right back, placing his headset on his desk to answer the phone. Just like he mentioned days ago, it’s an older house phone that’s sitting on his dresser. He picks it up and is about to say ‘hello’, but is interrupted.

“Seiji!! I’m so glad you answered.”

“Ryuuji? But aren’t you in the Colosseum?”

“No, that’s not me playing, I must have been hacked!”

Seiji also remembers the company announced it would no longer happen, but that’s clearly not the case anymore.

“I can’t even talk in the game either, through my mic or the messages!” Ryuuji adds. “I need to explain to Steve what’s going on and after all that happened I should be the one to do it. Is it alright if I come over?”

“Come over…? But-”

Similar to the moment at school a few weeks ago, the idea of someone coming over causes Seiji to have a panic attack. His body freezes and mind goes blank. Ryuuji didn’t forget what happened and hasn’t given it much thought since then, but now knows the trigger is someone coming to his home. Normally a simple situation, it completely immobilizes Seiji.

Annoyed by the silence, Ryuuji attempts to analyze this problem, pacing in his room, thinking out loud to try and get an answer.

“Okay, let me guess! You’re afraid to have someone come over due to bullying? Were you afraid of getting hurt? You haven’t mentioned any relatives besides your mom who you don’t see...maybe you live alone? Have no one to rely on? Is that right?? ...yeah I get it!! Families suck and it’s scary when it feels like you have no one there for you. And I really hate to force you like this, but you’re all I got! Please, Seiji!”

Ryuuji pauses for a response, but it remains silent. Starting to lose hope, he scratches his head, now considering other options.

“Dammit, I could call Hinami, but I'd rather avoid that, and I can’t have Steve misunderstand this. Just trust me!”

Although Seiji was listening the entire time, the last words he heard ‘trust me’ struck a chord, waking him up. He takes a deep breath and lets it out before finally responding, though stuttering slightly.

“I just have to t-trust you, right? I can’t believe I’m being so pathetic”

“Seiji?” Ryuuji says, almost making sure it’s him.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Let me give you my address.”

As Seiji says his address, Ryuuji writes it down and checks the GPS on his phone to see that he lives close to the school. What would normally take 15 minutes, Ryuuji says he’ll make it there in 5. He makes sure to thank Seiji before quickly hanging up and rushing out the door, not even checking if his father is awake or not.

Running down the hall, he stops in front of the elevator, choosing to use that rather than run down the stairs, practically dancing as he waits so he doesn’t lose his pace. After only a few seconds, the doors open with no one inside. He rushes in, hitting the button to close the doors quickly to get to the bottom floor and once he does, he runs out into the street, going around anyone who happens to be there.

It’s a hot summer day, reaching a temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit with mild humidity, and as such it starts affecting Ryuuji immediately. He tries not to let it get to him, instead focusing on what he needs to do; to arrive at Seiji’s place before the match ends.