Cars of many colors, shapes, and sizes rolled past me as I walked down the sidewalk. The air seemed to have a bit of a bite to it, but I really didn't mind as I kept going. It took a while to get to the street that led to where I needed to be, but I arrived about a half hour early.

I looked down at the screen on my phone, and it confirmed that I was at my destination. I glanced up at the small house-like building, before going to the site for special instructions to get in. Knock, say that I'm looking for a place to stay the night, then I'm in.

Seems simple enough. I walked up to the door, and knocked on the dark door. There was a silence, before the door opened just a crack.

"Wh' you here, kid?" a feminine voice asked, in a punk-like way.

"I'm just looking for a place to stay the night." I replied. This made the door swing open, revealing a person very familiar to me: it was her, the pink-haired kid from the last bot fight I've been to.

"C'mon in, let me show you the way." she said, letting me inside and closing the door. "You're awful early."

"I know, I know. But I had to find an excuse to go, and looks like a walk was the way to go. Surprisingly, it took me less time than I thought to get here." I spoke, smiling slightly. The first legit smile I have had in a long time.

My feet tapped lightly against the stairs leading to the basement, and I took in a deep breath. The familiar sounds of soft machines whirring brought an almost odd calming feeling to me, like it was trying to pull me in again.

When my feet hit the basement floor, I heard a single voice in my head. The words spoken were very familiar to me, and I knew who it came from - Tadashi. His words of scolding me to never botfight again clouded my mind, making it hard to shake it off. As I walked deeper and deeper into the basement, the foggy thoughts seemed to dicipate. I felt a pang of guilt, but it was shaken out easily.

It was quite a while before more and more people arrived, all with their bots and their controllers. I felt oddly at home, when others - expecially one certain other - would classify this as dangerous and unsafe.

"Alright, everyone, it's time to start the fight!" the lady from earlier announced, as everyone started to gather around a white circle. More calming feeling washed over me as I pushed towards the inner circle, eager to start the first battle of a long time. The warm and welcoming feeling was very calming to me, for it was so familiar and so nice.

"First fighters, please take your place!" she said, as I instinctfully sat down on the floor, fumbling in my pocket and struggling to pull out Megabot. I looked at the yellow face, which seemed awfully happy for the situation that it is in. Another woman, one I have never met before, sat across from me, and placed her large and intimidating robot in front of her.

My hands started to tingle with excitement. I pulled out the small, bunched up cash in my pocket and plopped it on the tray, before smiling.

"As it always has been, two bots enter, one bot leaves. Fighters, are you ready?" the woman announced, as she placed the large umbrella, blocking my view of the opponent.

"Ready." we both said, in unison.

"Ready, go!" she cheered, lifting the blocking object up. I started my display with the limp bot, as always. When the enemy's bot had walked up to it curiously, that is when I started my game. The yellow face changed to its red one, before splitting apart. The three sections danced around the arena, before rolling up the side of the enemy's bot.

The bottom and middle sections of the robot started its thing with removing the arms first, then disabling the legs. I laughed a little in triumph, before leading the top part of the bot to rip off the head of the other bot.

I looked up from my controller, barely containing the face-splitting grin that wants to wriggle its way onto my face. My opponent looked at her robot in shock, barely believing what she saw. The poor bot was torn apart, like a little child came by and played with it in the wrong way.

"Good game." I heard her say, before I stood up to dust off my pants.

"Sorry 'bout the loss. It's fair game, though." I said, chuckling a little before collecting the pile of money on the tray. "Good game."

I looked down at the time on my phone, and saw that it was 6:42. It's been about an hour since I left. I knew I had to get home sometime soon, so I had to think of an excuse to leave early. After a bout of thinking, I came up with the perfect excuse... that was also true.

I headed towards the stairs, and was not stopped at all. My feet tapped up the small stairs before stopping, then a small shuffle of my feet turning suddenly to go out the door. When I got outside, I placed Megabot in my pocket, along with my winnings and the controller.

The sun just started to set as I walked down the street, which was way quieter than it was earlier. I took a deep breath of air, and smelled a mix of fresh cherry blossoms mixed with the soft tinge of car exhaust. As I walked down the street, I kept kicking around this small rock to keep me occupied.

It didn't take too long for me to reach the cafe. I opened the door, and smiled softly at Aunt Cass, who was getting everything ready for poetry night.

"Welcome back, Hiro. How was the walk?" Aunt Cass asked, before walking up to me to give me a hug.

"I'm feeling quite better. The walk really helped me loosen up." I replied, half lying. The walk did help me with clearing my mind, but botfighting did most of the work.

"You seem a lot better. D'you want to join me for beat poetry night?" Aunt Cass questioned, in a happy tone.

"Y'know what? That sounds like a great plan." I said, smiling softly.