Chapter Two: Airess in Distress

Following Ribbon Girls' win on Sunday, the couple spent a relatively quiet night in with some DvDs and some duvets.

Monday was a similarly quiet day, spent in each other's company in and around Mintendo Noodle House as they helped out Min Min's parents and signed the occasional autograph for customers who were shocked to find Ribbon Girl around.

On Tuesday they went to an empty part of the beach, relaxing in the sun and dipping their toes in the sea. They met up briefly with BYTE and BARQ, who were patrolling nearby, and Min Min once again repeated her joke about trying to feed BARQ a dog biscuit and being shocked to find he has no mouth.

For Wednesday they decided to flex their ARMS a bit, and went for some volleyball. Neither were playing particularly seriously, and generally had more fun trying to do increasingly stupid trickshots. A couple hours in, they were surprised to see Spring Man and Ninjara arrive at the court next to them, and they played a couple matches together - split into teams, the girlfriends VS the boyfriends. It wasn't really clear who won in the end because neither team seemed to actually pay attention to keeping score, but they all had fun.

… And then came Thursday.

Early in the morning, Ribbon Girl awoke to an empty bed and lazily stretched herself out across it. She sighed deeply from a good night's sleep and got to her feet, slipping into some cute fluffy slippers beside the bed. She came down the stairs and found Min Min cooking at the stove.

"Heya Ribs! You were sleeping real cutely so I didn't wanna wake you."

"That's a funny looking ramen, Min. Is it supposed to be so round?" She giggled.

"Hah. Hah. Hah. And you say I repeat my jokes too much!" She flipped a pancake in her pan with a near perfect flip.

Ribbon Girl grabbed the syrup from the cupboard and sat down, curiously raising an eyebrow at an envelope left on the table.

"Oh, right, yeah - there's a letter for you. Looks important."

The envelope was sealed with red wax, stamped with the ARMS tournament icon. "Nah, it's just one of those usual 'Here is the date & time of your next match! Don't be late!' type of letters, I think." She opened it lazily.

"How many 'cakes you want, hun?" She waited for a response, but one didn't come. "Ribs? How many 'cakes? ...That's short for pancakes." With still no response, she turned to look at her girlfriend, who was staring at the letter with a look of dread . "Ribs? Everything okay…?"

"I…" She closed the letter quietly and put it down flat on the table. "Oh, uh, it's nothing…" She kept her eyes low and spoke quietly. "I'll just have two pancakes, if that's okay."

"Are you gonna tell me what's wrong…?"

She shook her head sadly.

"Ribs…" She repeated, not commandingly, but cautiously.

She took a deep breath and picked the letter back up. "...I'm up against Max Brass again."

Roughly two years ago, a young and cheery Ribbon Girl entered the ARMS annual tournament with high hopes and a bright and budding attitude.

She was already a fairly well known singer, but she had only bared ARMS for a few short weeks by the time the tourney began. She took to them like a true natural, swinging like a pro right from the get go, and her incredible air maneuverability struck awe in all those she faced off against.

To her surprise, and to the surprise of many of her new fans, she soared through the ranks quite quickly - until she entered the final, just as cheery as ever. And there she fought off against the long-time champion: Max Brass.

Brass was a smug man with a ton of hammy personality. He took hubris to a whole new level, flaunting his stardom every chance he got, with bellowing laughs and bright shining teeth. And the audience? They loved him. Every match he faced off in was crowded by dozens and dozens of people dressed in his likeness, far outnumbering those there to support his rival. He was the undefeated champion for years and years, and every smackdown he dealt to a new challenger was met with thunderous applause.

And then, as a young lady, Ribbon Girl was pitched to fight him. And he trounced her. Every punch he swung smacked her with incredible force, launching her against the railings of the stage and making the crowd go wild. She remembered distinctly pushing herself back onto her feet as the crowd chanted 'BRASS! BRASS! BRASS', and the man himself flexed for them smugly.

She was barely able to get a couple lucky hits in, which he shrugged off like it was nothing. She was exhausted from dodging and swinging and trying with all her might to stay in the game, but it was all just delaying the inevitable. There was no way she could beat him. He wasn't even breaking a sweat. And as the crowd continued their undying support for him, she began to feel ganged up on - was anyone rooting for her? Anyone at all? Or were they all just waiting to see their hero smash another rival into the ground like it was nothing?

Well, that's exactly what happened. With plenty of time on the clock to spare, Max Brass finished Ribbon Girl off with a swift grab and a hard swing onto the rings' floor. The crowd cheered loudly, and Ribbon Girl bit her lip hard to stop it wobbling. Brass flexed for the crowd as she quietly and shakily got to her feet and headed over to the changing rooms, leaving Brass behind to continue his famous gloating.

Ribbon Girl went home that night and wrapped herself up tightly in a blanket, keeping herself far away from any and all mention of the fight. Even then, catching a glance of the headline in the morning paper - MAX BRASS DOES IT AGAIN! - made her shake. It took a very, very long time to recover from it all. And in a lot of ways, she never really did. She couldn't bare to think about it. She couldn't ever forget the humiliation she felt on hearing the cheers of the crowd as she fell to the floor. It was, for her, absolutely traumatic.

In time, she went back to ARMS fighting. Nothing serious at first, just a few fun scraps with some up-and-comers. No use putting the gift of ARMS to waste, after all.

And after some years, Max Brass - the still undefeated champion - stood down from his throne to tour the world and meet with his admirers all across the globe. The position of champion began to trade hands rather frequently. It was now an achievable goal, one that anyone had a shot at.

And so, despite everything that happened, Ribbon Girl was able to convince herself to give it another shot. To go for that championship one more time, knowing full well that if she made it to the finals her opponent would be just another fighter like her. She wouldn't have to suffer a humiliation like that again.

"... Max Brass is back in the championship seat."

"Wait wait wait, what do you mean Brass is back? I thought he quit?"

"Mm. Well I guess he's done with his tour." Ribbion Girl tucked her shoulders inwards, clearly uncomfortable with all the memories coming back to her. "Mummy agreed to a quick match between the two of them to see who would keep the throne." She bit her lip, speaking quietly. "... Brass PERFECT'd him."

"Oh God." Min Min clicked the stove off and went to sit next to Ribbon Girl. "...You okay?"

She ducked her head against Min Min's shoulder, staring off into the distance. "...Mm."

"...You gonna be okay for the fight?"

"Mm." The wall clock ticked slowly in the silence. "Can't just throw in the towel. Even if I know he'll wipe the floor with me." Her lip began to wobble a bit too. "I probably should have been training this week, too. So I really have no shot now."

"Hey, it's not too late!" Min Min laid her head on Ribbon Girls'. "You wanna do some training before Sunday? Throw a couple punches to get you in the groove?"

"No." She snapped. "What's even the point? Nothing like that would prepare me for-" She bit into her lip hard, shutting her eyes tightly and trying to stop being so emotional.

Min Min rubbed her back. "It's okay, it's okayyyy! Look, we'll train a bit this afternoon and just kinda hone your skills a bit. You've come a long way since all that in the past, and that Brass bozo will be old and rusty. You can do it."

"Mm." She responded quietly, before laying her head closer against Min Min. "... Thanks."

The two ate their breakfast and continued on their day, though admittedly the tone was still off. It was clear that Ribbon Girl couldn't get it off her mind so easily, and she seemed distracted in everything they did that followed.

They trained briefly later on, with some extra assistance from Spring Man and Ninjara, who were happy to tag along and vary her opponent a bit. She did incredibly well against them, but it didn't seem to help her outlook on it all - it just wasn't the same . Even an impressive PERFECT against Spring Man wasn't enough to convince her otherwise. None of it compared to what Brass would have in store for her. So what difference did any of it make?

It was a little awkward between the four of them, having Ribbon Girl express her doubts so openly, and looking at it all so pessimistically. She knew they wanted to help, and of course she appreciated that, but she just couldn't hide how meaningless she felt it all was.

Min Min could see how this was all affecting Ribbon Girl, and it hurt to see her go through that. Quietly, she dipped away for a moment while Ribbon Girl was busy fighting Ninjara, and made a quick phone call.