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Katana couldn't stop thinking about him. The mysterious demon he'd bumped into on the street, a demon with broken horns and sad eyes bluer than any ocean. A demon with a heavily scarred face, teeth peeking out through the slashes torn in his lips, twin scars making a smile-like curve from the corners of his mouth, dozens of other marks carving their way across his flesh.
A demon who was scared, that Katana had protected, going so far as to take the stranger to his private garden.
A demon who, according to that foul woman, had been hurt in one of the worst ways Katana could imagine.
The image of the man’s face flashed across his eyes again. For a moment, lying on that blanket, when he slipped from the haze of dissociation and back into his own skin, he had looked peaceful, relaxed. It was this image burning into Katana’s brain whenever he closed his eyes.
Hyperlaser . That was his name. Katana had no other information on the man and he wasn't about to go digging. Mostly because it was creepy, but also because Katana was just slightly superstitious. If he was meant to meet that beautiful stranger again, then he would. There was nothing else to it.
The memory of his foe — the sword-wielding woman chasing Hyperlaser — reappeared in his mind and he thought of how she screeched at him. How she thought he was nothing more than a mistake, and a delusional freak.
Looking down at his body, Katana sighed.
Deciding that he had to get up and go do something lest he sink into a pit of self-doubt he had no desire to revisit, Katana made his way out to his garden again. The weighted blanket he put down for Hyperlaser was still flat on the grass, as if at any moment Hyperlaser would walk through the gate and lie down on it again. I am in deep shit , Katana realized. Pining after a man I saw once. Ridiculous.
It did feel ridiculous. Katana was the stone-cold samurai, the one who rarely spoke and carried intimidation in his every movement. And yet there was something about Hyperlaser that made him simultaneously want to wrap the man in a blanket and shield him from harm and kiss him into a breathless mess. For someone so stoic, this was a lot of new input to handle. Katana had hookups before, he had friends he would sometimes have sex with, but he’d never had feelings for any of them like he did for this stranger.
The sun was just cresting the horizon as Katana began his lengthy yoga routine. He wanted to clear his mind of his unwanted thoughts, both about his own life and decisions and about Hyperlaser. The thoughts he was having about Hyperlaser made his face heat up. Katana was never much of a blusher, but he could feel his heart thumping in his chest thinking of how Hyperlaser had leaned into him.
Admittedly it was only because Hyperlaser was scared and hiding from his attacker, but it had been nice to be trusted. If he could go back and do it again, Katana would have scared her off before she could say anything to Hyperlaser. It hurt him to watch the shorter man collapse, eyes staring into nothing and tears streaking his face.
The look of sheer terror on his face when Katana picked him up would stay with him for a long time. Katana sighed as he moved through the familiar poses of a sun salutation, arms stretching above his head before dipping down to touch his toes.
"Hey!" The woman had shouted as he scooped the unresponsive mercenary. "Where are you going? You can't just run off with my client! I'll call the police!" Katana ignored her, simply holding Hyperlaser’s shivering form bridal-style as he walked away. He knew he had to get the other somewhere safe, somewhere with no chances of being interrupted. Katana had his own scars, he knew what PTSD looked like.
And that was how he came to his garden. He moved fluidly from a sun salutation to tree pose, before stepping back to make a flawless triangle. He held the position as long as he could before moving on to the next, each action devoid of conscious thought. No, he simply continued with his thoughts about Hyperlaser, taking each one, acknowledging it, and then letting it pass as smoothly as water over a cliff.
By the end of it, he was feeling much better, and much more sure about himself and his emotions. That technique had been taught to him by his old therapist, who he no longer saw but was still friends with. Maybe he could get Hyperlaser an appointment…
Come to think of it, hadn't his friend worked at the same office Hyperlaser had fled from? Making his way from the garden to his house — it had already been an hour spent outside — Katana grabbed his house phone and punched in the therapist’s number, letting it ring while he dug in the fridge for eggs.
"Hello? Katana?"
Setting the eggs down on the counter, he quickly picked up the phone. "Atomizer! It is good to hear your voice again."
Atomizer laughed. "Likewise. It's been too long, huh? Is this a social call?"
"Sadly, no. I wanted to know if you still work at the same office." He cracked two eggs into a small bowl, putting the phone on speaker so he could talk and cook breakfast simultaneously.
"I do. But why are you asking? Did something happen?"
"In a way." He proceeded to recount the entire incident with Hyperlaser to the older demon. By the time he was done, the pan was hot enough for him to pour the eggs into.
Atomizer remained silent throughout the entire speech, but the second Katana had finished he cursed angrily. "I told her to stay away from him! Gods dammit, of course this had to happen while I was away."
"Away? For what cause?" He flipped the scrambled eggs around in the pan. The heat was a little too high, resulting in his scrambled eggs cooking more like an omelet.
"A wedding, actually. Not mine, but a friend's. It’s not important right now."
"So, that woman— who was she?"
"Someone who was supposed to have been fired by now. We could never get any proof, but she’d been suspected of using unethical methods to 'treat' her clients. Chasing someone down with a sword is sure to get her thrown out."
"And you were supposed to be seeing Hyperlaser? Will you do so upon your return?"
Atomizer laughed as Katana used the spatula to scoop the eggs onto a plate. "Yes, yes, I will. Don't worry, he'll be in good hands from now on. Though I am curious: Why do you care so much?"
Katana felt himself flushing as he sat down at his kitchen table, a simple wooden affair placed in its own small extension to the house. "Well I— That is to say— I mean—"
He could almost see the wry grin sure to be spreading across Atomizer's face. "Is there something about him that… piques your interest, perhaps?"
Katana sighed, looking out one of the many windows that made up the sunroom his table was enclosed in. "May I speak freely?"
"Always."
"I cannot get the thought of him to leave my head. There was something about him that made me want to protect him, before I even knew what he was running from."
"Savior complex coming back?"
"No, this felt different . I do not know how I can explain it.
"Well let me ask you something, Katana: have you ever been in love before?"
There was a long pause. "Goddess. Atomizer, are you being serious? You think this is a… a crush?"
"That’s exactly what I think it is. I know you've not had the best experiences with crushes or romantic relationships, but maybe this is when your brain finally decided it wants one. I'm sure you've heard the saying 'love at first sight.' Don't be so quick to discredit that as nonsense."
"What am I to do about it? This crush?"
Katana was very thankful to have a friend like Atomizer, who wasn't going to laugh at him for asking questions that seemed like he, at 28 years old, should already know the answer to. "My best advice? Wait and see what happens. Maybe it'll go away. Maybe not. And maybe you'll get lucky and meet him again."
"Thank you, old friend. It was nice to hear your voice again."
"And I yours," Atomizer replied. "Bye."
"Goodbye," Katana said, and then hung up the phone, returning it to its charging port before finally starting on his breakfast. Luckily his eggs hadn’t gone cold.
As he was eating breakfast, his mind again drifted to thoughts of Hyperlaser. He prayed to the Goddess that one day soon he would encounter the other again, because as selfish as it was, Katana wanted to have Hyperlaser in any way he could, whether that be as friends or partners. And so he went about his day as normal, resolved to wait for the hands of fate to spin until they aligned just right once more.
He didn’t dare call Atomizer to ask about Hyperlaser. That would be creepy. Katana just hoped that the other was doing alright.
One year passed with no sign of Hyperlaser, and then another. Katana went through the same motions of his life in Lost Temple, praying to the Swords along with everyone else, working to make his house look as rich as possible, and participating in Phights to earn money.
A new season was about to start. Phights had two seasons each year, with a small period of time between them in the fall and spring. They were run by a company known only as Flipside, the creators of Phighting. There were two announcers, both nameless, though fans had speculated for years over who they could be, where they came from, and why they created the phights in the first place. The announcers were always spectating the match from their tower hovering over the arena and commentating on it to the throng of viewers beneath. Those crowds of nameless demons were the real reason that phights brought in so much money: the betting.
Betting on phights was illegal. However, a man known only as The Broker led the largest underground betting ring, having such pull that he could even sway the outcome of a phight. And this, of course, was the main way that the Phighters made as many Bux as they did. The admissions cost to spectate a match was nowhere near enough to pay all the Phighters, what with the map changes and repairs and every other little thing that went into running the arena. Despite this, Flipside refused to raise the price.
So that was where The Broker came in. Everyone listened to him: it was simply the way of things. But Katana had never expected to be asked to target a particular Phighter. Especially not when he immediately recognized the Phighter in question as Hyperlaser. He was wrapped from head to toe in dark-colored armor. He had tall, bulky boots that seemed to be magnetized, for whatever reason, and the collar of his uniform aligned seamlessly with the shiny black-and-blue helmet he wore. Two antennas stuck up from the sides in a mockery of horns, and he was carrying a massive gun that Katana realized was his gear.
Though he hadn’t seen the other in over two years, it seemed like fate that today of all days would be their second first meeting. This was the day that Katana had saved Hyperlaser from Elvenblade, after all.
“I… I cannot do this,” Katana resolved, turning his gaze to The Broker, who stood slightly in front of Hyperlaser. The mysterious man wore a teal dress shirt with a navy blue vest over it, the color perfectly matching his dress shoes. His glass eye glinted ominously in the low lighting of the rooms beneath the arena, where Phighters went to prepare before being sent to the stage.
“What’s the matter, samurai? All I’m asking is that you target him. He’s a new Phighter, people are going to bet against him anyway. The more he loses now the more money for me, and then…?” He spoke like he was spelling out to a toddler that two plus two did, in fact, equal four.
Katana sighed. “More money for me. I understand that, but—”
“Just do it,” Hyperlaser spoke. His voice was flatter than Katana remembered it being, a total monotone only further filtered through the vocoder of his helmet.
“I—”
“That’s how things work around here, right? You do what he says, we all get paid better. So do it. I don’t care.”
Broker laughed joyfully. “See? This guy gets me! We’re gonna be good friends, I’m sure of it!” He casually slung an arm over Hyperlaser’s shoulder, only to pout when it was immediately shoved off.
“Don’t touch me,” Hyperlaser said, and his voice sounded a little colder.
The dealer quickly noticed the death stare Katana was giving him through the mask, and put his hands up in a gesture of mock surrender. “Alright, alright. Calm down, lovebirds.” He walked past Katana to go talk to some of the other contestants for the upcoming matches. “Don’t let me down,” he smiled, clapping Katana on the back as he left. Despite his playful tone, Katana knew exactly how dangerous The Broker could be if a Phighter didn’t listen to him.
“I did not think this would be how we met again,” Katana said softly.
Hyperlaser barked a laugh. He’s changed, Katana thought. “Cruel irony, right?” Hyperlaser asked, and there was something like bitterness lacing his tone. “I won’t hold it against you.”
And before Katana had a chance to get another word in, he was being pulled away by his team. Quickly he was ushered through the maze of hallways under the arena, before being shoved up with everyone else to get in position. The map was Rob the Roblox Bank, and Katana’s team was mostly ranged players.
“Let’s talk strats,” said Eagle, a Phighter with an annoying Southern accent who somehow always managed to find a flashier pair of cowboy boots to wear each match. She had one of her eagles perched on one shoulder, and her cowboy boots were covered in so many rhinestones it should have been a crime to wear them outside.
“We’ve got a good team for this map. Katana, you draw their fire away from us, so we can snipe them.” Airstrike was a seasoned Phighter, having been in the game for longer than any of them. He was wearing a flight suit, a pair of goggles secured over his eyes and a parachute on his back. “I’ll provide backup for Katana with my hammers. The rest of you, wear down the other team. And Seabow, keep an eye out for when we need healing.”
Seabow nodded in affirmation, their heavy crossbow strapped to their back. They didn’t speak, unless they were underwater. On land, their long hair obscured most of their features, leaving many to wonder what exactly was on their team.
It seemed that each team had four phighters. Katana could work with that. All he had to do was follow the plan… And target Hyperlaser. Shaking his head, he pulled his sword from its scabbard.
“Three…. Two…. One….” Katana took a deep breath and sent his prayers to the Goddess. “Phight!”
All four of them bounced out of the room, Katana taking the lower route to get down to the heart of the battle. He could see that the other team consisted of Hyperlaser, Cymbals, C. Copia, and someone he couldn’t see yet. Hyperlaser was the only ranged member of their team that he could see, meaning that he would have to pull damage from Cymbals and Copia with backup from Airstrike, who had throwing hammers for short-range combat.
The battle was going well so far. He’d gotten more kills by himself than the entire other team, but they weren’t even a full thirty seconds into the match yet. He was chasing down C. Copia to finish the other off, ignoring the explosives being shot at him as he neared. Suddenly, something hit him in the back, and he pitched forward, unable to control his own body. His vision spun and spiraled and then suddenly he was looking down at himself.
“You—!” he growled. It was the fourth member of the other team, Bodyswap. And just as the name implied, he was now in their body, while they were in his. He could still fight, of course, but the unfortunate issue was that Bodyswap carried no weapon aside from the potion they used in battle. All their moves involved tricks or possession, and Katana already knew that the other team wasn’t going to kill him now. The only way to get back to his body was if he died, or if Bodyswap died as him. Barring those conditions, the potion would wear off after about fifteen seconds, which was still plenty of time for Swap-Katana to do some serious damage,
Katana tried to fling himself over the edge of the map and into the abyss below, only to be stopped by Copia’s arms around his waist. Unused to Bodyswap’s much smaller form, it wasn’t very hard for the other Phighter to overpower him, leaving him to watch as his entire team was decimated within the potion’s duration.
Airstrike managed to land a hit on him, ending the potion as Swap-Katana was instantly killed by the bomb from above, but it was already too late. And then, to make matters worse, Cymbals managed to get up to the area where their ranged Phighters were. Katana wanted to help, but he was currently occupied trying to fight both Copia and Bodyswap at the same time, which was not an easy task, as Bodyswap kept providing buffs to Copia.
There was a sudden flash of bright light and then Katana was respawning back in the entryway. Killed by Hyperlaser , the system informed him cheerily. Rank: Newcomer.
Katana cursed and ran as fast as he could to get back into the fight. He made sure to go after Hyperlaser as he was told, which thankfully didn’t look too suspicious to his team. They managed to scrape a win by exactly one kill, even going into overtime at the end of the match.
Once time was called, each team used the remaining moments in the arena to use their gears freely. Eagle summoned in three of the birds, which immediately started shooting red-white-and-blue lasers around the arena like fireworks. Airstrike launched himself upward and floated down using his parachute. Seabow created a temporary fountain that pushed the players around and made everyone’s legs wet up to their calves.
On the other side, Bodyswap angrily threw a potion into the ground. Copia used his carnagecopia to launch a few more explosives into the air, shooting at nothing, while Cymbals simply crashed his cymbals together, producing a very annoying sound that almost immediately had him getting shot at by Eagle’s birds.
Through it all, Katana and Hyperlaser did nothing, simply staring at each other from across the arena. Katana sheathed his sword and then it was time for them all to leave. On the walk back, he was congratulated heavily by his teammates, yet he still couldn’t get Hyperlaser out of his head, even if he’d won the match and done what both The Broker and Hyperlaser himself had told him to do.
“Well done, all of you!” It was The Broker again, smiling maniacally as he handed out envelopes to each Phighter. “And the star of my show! That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Katana said nothing, looking over The Broker’s head anxiously for any sign of Hyperlaser. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to mind being ignored. No, he was much more invested in whatever was going on with Katana and Hyperlaser. He always did like mysteries, and those two seemed to have quite the history, if the way they were skirting around each other was anything to go by.
When Hyperlaser eventually appeared, Katana wasted no time in making his way over to the smaller demon. “Hyperlaser—”
Katana was shocked when the smaller demon slammed him into the lockers that lined the walls. “Stop acting like you know me. We’re not friends ,” he spat, gun held up to dig into the underside of Katana’s chin. “So stop— Stop pretending like you care about me.” His voice held that steady monotone the entire team, only the cadence and volume of his speech teeling Katana that he was truly upset. The cold metal of the gun’s barrel dug further into Katana’s chin as Hyperlaser continued speaking. “I don’t know who you are, and you don’t know who I am. You already said you didn’t want anything back then, it’s too late to change your mind.”
“I don’t—”
Hyperlaser cut him off. “Stay away from me. I don’t need you.” He gave one last shove and stalked off, leaving Katana to slowly slide down the locker behind him. The samurai swallowed, feeling the imprint of the gun like it was still pressed into his skin. Hyperlaser could have killed him right there and he wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.
He wondered what he did wrong. Maybe Hyperlaser really didn’t need anyone. But if Katana knew one thing, it was that struggling alone was both impossible and unnecessary. He would just have to redeem himself in Hyperlaser’s eyes, and then he would have to make sure that if the sniper ever needed him, he would be there. A difficult labor, but one that would ultimately prove worthwhile. Even if it did end in Katana almost getting shot on a number of occasions.