Chapter 4: Fear
Amity felt sick.
And dizzy.
The sight of Crowley being carried away by the healing team, followed by Sclep and some human medic with red hair barely made it into her head.
As the crowd calmed down, some protesting, some cheering, most terrified; the announcer resumed introducing the rest of the human fighters.
She could not get her bearings for long enough to actually pay attention to any of it.
The level of fear and disgust she was experiencing was completely new to her. Not so much for what had happened to Crowley, but for the mere possibility of something similar happening to her.
For a moment, the whole world ceased to matter, almost ceased to even exist.
For a moment, she had a certain thoughts resounding in her head over and over:
"SURVIVE"
"DON'T DIE"
"I COULD DIE"
"SHOULD I RUN AWAY?"
"CAN I EVEN RUN AWAY?"
"WHAT WOULD LUZ DO?"
"WHAT IF I DIE?"
"WHAT WOULD LUZ DO?"
"I DON'T WANNA DIE"
"-aid?"
"huh?"
One of the humans had approached her while she was spacing out. If she had it in her to leap away, she would have, but she was to groggy for it.
"Are you afraid?"
"Uuummmmm…."
She couldn't even form a clear thought right now. The obvious answer is yes, she was afraid, terrified, horrified.
"You are. No need to say the obvious."
This human was short, just about as tall as Amity herself, and rather old. He was skinny and wore those same elaborate clothes Tokugawa used (apparently, it was a traditional attire called a "kimono"). He also had some simple plastic brim glasses, and his short black hair was grey on the sides.
But the thing that shocked her out of her stupor was his smile. Unlike Rasputin's sadistic, cruel grin; his was calming and gentle. Like an old grandfather having a good time. Amity felt like she could calm down on front of him.
"Don't worry, miss. It's ok to be afraid. Tell me, what are you afraid of right now?"
"…. Dying."
Amity felt embarrassed to admit such a thing to who was supposed to be her opponent, but this man was so kind and calming, she almost felt like she couldn't help opening up to him a little.
"I see…. Well, you know, I'm afraid of dying too! I mean I'm well over 80 by now, a bad sneeze and I'm a goner!"
The kind old man laughed at his own joke. By now, she was accustomed to the morbid humor humans could have, even Luz made jokes like this every now and then. She supposed humans in general were more accepting of their own mortality and fragility than witches were. Maybe that's why this was so much for her, the prospect of her own death hit just a little too hard in just the wrong place.
"And that's natural. Being afraid of death is what keeps us alive after all. I mean, if anyone says they are no afraid of dying, they are either lying or not long for this world. Usually the first in my experience."
"So don't feel bad for being afraid, you should be. As everyone else should be."
Amity felt better, her fear subsided a little but it was still there. And then a question came into her mind.
"…. And…. If you are so afraid, because you are so old…. Why are you here? Why are you fighting? Wouldn't it be safer for you if you stayed away from things like these?"
The man pondered for a moment.
"Hmmmmm… well you see miss. When confronted with the fear of death, there are two kinds of people: those who are smart and try to survive-"
The old man's smile widened a bit.
"-And idiots like me, who like to challenge that fear head on, and fight it. We are called "fighters" for that reason. Sure, we are afraid, but we fight anyway. As nonsensical as that may be, as stupid as it is to slam yourself head on towards death, we do it anyway."
"…. Why?"
"Ahhhh, there are so many reasons why an idiot will be an idiot. As many as the grains of sand in the ocean. Some want to be "the strongest in the world!", some want to "see how far they can go!", some want revenge, some want to beat someone or be better than someone….. some like me, just like fighting for the sake of fighting, and little else."
"… what about fighting to protect yourself, or someone you love?"
"heh heh! Miss, if you want to protect someone, there is a million better options than to throw fists. Running away, for example! If you are smart, you will never need to fight. Maybe there will come a day where fighting will be the only thing you can do, but otherwise, only an idiot does what does not need to be done."
Amity calmed down. It was calming to know that wise humans like this man existed, people that can reliably tell you what you need to hear to ground yourself back down.
She started to understand these humans a little, Rasputin was one of those people that liked to fight, that faced the fear of death with a smile. She had no idea why he did so, but at least she understood that the same fear she felt, he also felt. He just approached it differently.
She also started to feel bad for pulling everyone into this. Now that she understood what was really at play here, she decided to give everyone a chance to leave the competition, pride be damned, if someone is going to "be an idiot", may it at least be by their own hand.
Now that everyone calmed down, Tokugawa took a chance to talk.
"EHEM. Well, now that that's over, please allow me to clarify a couple of things about this tournament: As stated before, this will be a street-fight. That means that everything goes. Weapons, tricks, cheap-shots, no matter what you bring to the table, it is allowed. Anyone can go after anyone from the other side whenever and wherever, if you are not ready, that's on you. If someone dies, well that's a shame, but street-fights in the human realm often end up like that-"
Well that explains some things. This happens "all the time" over there?! Maybe the Boiling Isles are not as bad as Amity thought.
"-However, there are some caveats I do feel the need to include here:
Once a fight starts, it's a 1v1. The set fighters will be determined as things happen, of course, but once one human and one witch start fighting, anyone who tries to interfere will be either dragged away or disqualified. I know it's not true to form that a street-fight is exactly one-on-one, but that's the bet that was made, and we must honor that.
The winners will be out of the competition, meaning that fighting them means nothing. If you beat someone from the other side that won, good for you, but you are awarded nothing for it.
Anything that happens outside of the boiling isles is out of our control. This is just to keep things fair, since witches lose part of their capabilities in our world, and we want to see these matches at full capacity.
Anything that happens outside of our set fights is also out of our control. If we can't sanction it, we won't stop you, but don't expect us to give you any props for it.
With that said, the fighting has already begun! BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU!"
With that, the crowd cheered and everyone started to step away from the stadium. Luckily, no one from either side decided to start another fight right then and there. But now, the everlasting prospect of someone coming at them was on everyone's minds.
As they were leaving, Amity decided to ask the old human for his name, since she didn't catch It before.
"Oh my, you must have spaced out back there!"
She blushed out of embarrassment as the old man teased her.
"Well, like the announcer said, I am #14, the grandmaster of the Shibukawa-style jiujutsu. My name is Gouki Shibukawa."
"And just, before we leave, allow me to tell you one thing, miss."
Amity payed very close attention. Shibukawa took off his glasses.
"If, by any chance of fate, you and I end up fighting."
Suddenly, his kind smile turned into a disturbing grin, as if he turned into a demon out of nowhere. Amity was once again scared for her life.
"I WON'T HOLD BACK"
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Sclep walked out of the hospital. Crowley was in critical condition, but thanks to the combination of healing magic and human medical science and technology, he was in stable condition, and would likely survive. Dr. Kureha was impressive, the other human medics called him a "miracle worker", and with good reason. She could only be forever grateful to him, as advanced as her healing magic was, it would not have been enough to save Crowley.
She walked off and started to head home.
Until the sound of a loud CRASH caught her attention.
She headed towards an alleyway that seemed to be at the source of the sound. And she was left speechless at what she saw.
It was Grigori Rasputin.
Dead.
Brutally slammed into the wall of a building.
His teeth were gone.
His jaw was split in half.
His arms and legs were broken in four places each.
His hands were crushed.
His ribcage was a mess that could not possibly function anymore.
And he was stuck to the wall, almost like a fly that was smashed by a flyswatter.
Standing next to the corpse was the other massive human that was in the stadium earlier today. He was even taller than Rasputin, almost a full two and a half meters. He wore a loose shirt and pants, but Sclep could see the massive size of his muscles just from the parts of his body that stuck out of his clothes. His head was crowned by blond hair so short, it was almost shaven. His face was stern and stoic, you wouldn't be able to tell whether he has calm or upset.
The massive human turned towards Sclep, as she remembered how he was introduced by the announcer.
"WE HAVE FIGHTER #10. THIS MONSTER OF A MAN WAS NOT MADE BY NATURE. HE DID ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING TO BECOME STRONGER. STEROIDS, SURGERY, INHUMAN TRAINING, HUNTING AND KILLING WILD BEASTS WITH HIS BARE HANDS! THERE IS NOTHING HE WON'T DO TO BECOME STRONGER. THE FRANKESTEIN'S MONSTER OF MODERN MEDICINE! THE PIT FIGHTER!"
"JACK HANMA!"