Now, we've gotten into the heart of the action… For the next sixty-three days, there will be one match every day until the end of the tournament… 64 characters, single elimination, 1 final winner.

But don't think that we'll entirely abandon backstory… For each match, we will have a preshow fic and an aftermath fic, describing events that happened before and after the matches. There will occasionally be even more.

And later on… The real story will pick up. Here's the first match… Link vs. AiAi.

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PRESHOW

The Stadium

Gradually, people were piling in.

The match was about to begin. 62 characters were still safe today, but two were in the ring this afternoon, battling in out for glory. The winner would last another month; the loser would go home today.

And not too many people were all that unsure as to who would be today's loser.

Zelda, princess of Hyrule, left Link at the doors of the stadium locker room, where the Hylian hero of time was headed to get ready for the contest. As she strode into her reserved front row seat, where all the contestants always sat, she picked up on some snippets of conversation, as they drifted by.

Ganondorf and Bowser were two of the loudest conversers, so Ganondorf's sinister and deep voice and Bowser's reptilian roar were heard loudly by all the onlookers.

"Not looking forward to this match?" Growled the turtle king.

Ganondorf shook his head. His trademark sneer was gone, and replaced with a look of disgust.

"Nah. That kid's gonna win. This monkey's pathetic."

Indeed, that was the general feeling. Many of the characters wondered how AiAi had even gotten into the contest... But he was easy fodder, in any case.

Zelda finally reached her seat, and sat down. Even with everyone being so sure as to who would win, the princess was still nervous... There was always a chance that Link could falter, against the type of competition that every fighter here brought, and she wouldn't be able to rest easy until it was over.

Cloud and Aeris, on the other hand, arrived late for the match, barely getting in. Not seeing Sora present at the stadium, Aeris had gone to look for him, and found him brooding in his room, as usual. It took her a while, but she convinced him to come.

"Alright, alright... But I don't see how it will make me feel any better."

"Hey, you never know until you try. Come on, Sora, we'll be late."

Wordlessly, Cloud led the two back to the stadium, as his two companions quarreled with each other about Sora's attitude as of late.

I wonder how she's going to be able to face the kid in battle, the man from Midgar, Cloud, thought.

She'll probably just give up... She's far too nice.

Link just sat in his room, trying to relax before the big duel. Even though he had done this six times before, it wasn't any less intimidating, and he needed to tone down his nerves before the battle.

But, he thought, the monkey's probably got it a lot worse.

And he was right. AiAi was extremely afraid of the fight that was about to take place… When had he ever fought in battle before? He just raced around, on his quest for bananas.

AiAi paced around the room... Or rather, rolled in his bubble. It was an odd sort of pacing, but... He rather had no choice. He rarely came out of the bubble.

Suddenly, AiAi's pacing became too pronounced. He slammed straight into the wall of his locker room, and it took him ten seconds to recover before he could spin around again... And he moved dizzily, at that.

Kaepora Gaebora, the owl advisor to Link, laughed softly, as he spied into the room from a peephole.

"You almost have to feel sorry for the monkey, hoot…"

THE BATTLE

The stands were filled. Link glanced around nervously. Everyone would be analyzing his every move, looking for a weakness in his technique, anything exploitable. He had won the title of champion last year… but with a price. He had gained the respect and envy of the other fighters... but there were plenty who would love to see him fall.

His counterpart in the first fight was a monkey. Link almost had to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. I mean, seriously, they expect me to fight a monkey? I'm a Hylian Knight, not a zookeeper. Last monkey I ran into... well, I just gave him a banana and he built me a bridge.

Link had a great deal of tools and weapons at his disposal, but he had neglected to bring any bananas. Guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way...

"COME ON, START! IT'S A FREAKING MONKEY ON A BALL! Just KILL him already!!!" Bowser yelled. No one heard Donkey Kong's protest. The crowd was all too eager to see Link in action.

The simian on a ball began to run forward on it, like he was on a treadmill. It began to inch forward.

Link began to be afraid as the ball began to speed up, and turn around him. The ball began circling around him, faster and faster, and the monkey snarled at him, and with his full force, rammed the ball into Link.

Link was knocked backwards, more by surprise than anything else. Then he began to chuckle loud enough for the monkey to hear him. This was simply ridiculous.

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A voice blared out over the audience. No one was sure who invited the announcer, it was just assumed that these kind of events needed to have one if the action slowed down.

"What! Could this be! Is the returning champion down for the count! Things are looking bad for our hero Link, and that monkey is itching for more! What a fighter!"

"No wait, he's getting back up, and he seems to be laughing! The blow must have jarred something loose! He's mad... he's... shooting ice arrows at the monkey! The ball appears to be frozen! This is incredible! I've never seen anything like it!"

AiAi tried rolling but his ball was stuck to the ground. He angrily yelped at Link.

"Wait, now he's shooting fire arrows at the ball... the ball appears to have shattered from the pressure! What a stunning upset, I never would have foreseen this!"

AiAi yelped even louder than before, jumping up and down and getting in Link's face.

"Link has taken a light arrow and blinded the monkey! Now he's throwing his boomerang! Whoops he missed... WHAM! Got him on the return shot. Now he appears to be beating the monkey senseless with a deku stick. Ouch, looks like AiAi just got a fire rod in the face! That's gotta hurt! Wow folks, we just witnessed a casting of Din's Fire. That monkey looks like burnt toast. Link has finally pulled out his sword, and looks like he'll finish... OH MY GOD NO! THAT SWORD DOESN'T GO THERE! SOMEBODY STOP THIS MAN! AUUGH! OH THE HUMANITY!"

5 bombs, and a slew of arrows later, the monkey was clearly finished. Link smirked. Even Bowser and Wario were cheering at the carnage.

Yeah... that was kind of fun. Bring on the others.

AFTERMATH


The red-cloaked swordsman looked out over his sunglasses and gave a derisive grunt in the direction of the arena. "Hmph. Hardly a worthy champion." Auron turned away.

"What did you want from him?" a calm yet sinister voice muttered from the shadows. "I found the performance impressive… and entertaining." The disfigured vampire, Raziel, preferred to stay out of the harsh sunlight, though it was no longer harmful to him.

"The true measure of a warrior is his capacity for clemency. Any brute fiend can overpower the weak, but there is nothing respectable in the flaunting of that power beyond the point of its utility."

Fool. Typical human. The weak exist to serve the strong, and if the strong demand death, death is their duty. It isn't a matter of respect, it is a matter of survival. The predator must hunt, as surely as the prey must flee. "You do strive too hard to glorify your human weakness," retorted Raziel. "What is power if not the ability to kill? Any serious champion would wish to instill fear in the hearts of those seeking to dethrone him—I can attest to that personally." There are too many humans here. Were there really so many realms that knew no being mightier than a human?

Raziel had little respect for the majority of the contestants, and shunned them. This Auron was an exception, however. By all evidence, he is human, but I can see he is spiritually much more powerful than the rest of them. Yet his soul is strained by its effort to maintain some ruse. Then there was a being not unlike Raziel himself, the one called Alucard. The blood of some great clan flowed in his veins, but it was diluted. Abomination. I hunger for your soul, cousin. The only other being worthy of Raziel's attention was the boy with the key. His bond with his weapon was not unlike that Raziel shared with Soul Reaver. They hated him, hated all the power the Soul Reaver bestowed upon him. If your purpose is my undoing, then mine is yours.

"There is no more honor in taking a life pointlessly than in dying pointlessly," continued Auron. "Not every being that opposes you deserves death, no matter how just your cause. And what is just about seeking victory in this tournament?"

Justice. Who is one fallible human to judge another's actions unjust? "Not every being that opposes me deserves death. Every being who I oppose deserves death. The inconsequential ones, those who merely get in the way, are themselves responsible for their fate."

Auron adjusted his sunglasses. "I won't waste any more of my time with you."

"Then go, human. You are no concern of mine. Though it will be soon, may you die well."

"I did." Auron stalked away.

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A note… The announcer is likely a one shot deal. This early, we still were experimenting a bit with what to do.

Anyway… The preshow was written by me, Sir Bormun, the match was written by BigCow, and the aftermath was written by StopPokingMe.