Chapter 3 : One-on-One
Cassie Takachiho walked up the stairs towards the room of her nephew, a plate of sushi roll, wakame salad and a bowl of hot miso soup in hand. "Hiro," She greeted her nephew with evident gentleness in her voice, "you know you need to get up and face the sun!" The middle-aged woman said, trying to cheer the depressed teenager. "It's not the end of the world, sweetie."
"Hmm." Hiro hummed in monotonous agreement, lying like a dead plant on his bed. He didn't even glanced at his aunt, who changed the plate of food in his desk.
The woman sighed, "The school called again, they said your application is still pending." She said hopefully, "All you need is to register and, shazam, you're in the school. They say it may have been a few days since classes started but. . you're still welcome."
The ravenet nodded, "I'll think about it, Aunt Cass." He said with a hollow voice. Hiro's thoughts flew again to the heavens as she tuned out his Aunt. He thought about days when Tadashi would bring him to random places in effort to help him think about new project ideas.
"Okay, just. . . promise me you'll do good."
The teen didn't listened to what his guardian had said but he looked up, "Yes, Aunt Cass."
"Welcome one, welcome all!" A booming voice of a woman cut through the chuckles, shouts and boasts as she showed up with two teens, both wearing hoodies but the other one had it up to hiding his face. "Tonight's bot fight is rather. . . eccentric, as I must say!" She said, a smirk painting itself on her face. She led the teenagers on a small ring and separated them, "Two young competitors take a bite at the bait as they fight for glory! Now, your money, hon?"The woman said, holding up a small porridge bowl to a black haired teen.
He meekly reached for his pockets and showed crumpled dollars. "Uhm. . Would these do?" The boy, Hiro Hamada, said innocently.
The woman raised an eyebrow at Hiro but then looked away in annoyance, clicking her tongue as she walked to the other teen. "Tch. Soooo, Tetsuya, I'm pretty sure you've got more than this little runt's cash prize!" She smirked at the other teen, who was wearing a black jacket in contrast to Hiro's navy blue ones. The woman teased to pry off some big cash on the guy.
"Didn't come here to fight a low pot. But sure, I'll tease 'im." Hiro's opponent said with overloading confidence. He hated the way this guy treated him like he's just a meddlesome try-hard 'bot fighter but Hiro decided to keep a low profile to be able to calm the fuck down before he get revenge on his rival.
"Come at me, then." The child prodigy commented in a low voice but loud enough for his challenger to hear.
The guy chuckled sinisterly and replied, "Sure I will."
A red floral karakasa shielded Hiro's view of his rival as the woman who mediates them started the introduction of the fight. "Two bots enter, one bot leads. Fighters ready?" She asked and booming yells of encouragement and jeers of disapproval started.
"Ready." Hiro said, expanding his little robot's control mech to optimize its maximum abilities.
"FIGHT!" The lady shouted and the fight began. One-on-one.
The guy told Hiro with sheer sadism and hostility, "I'll crush you."
"Oh yeah?" He monotonously replied with a pokerface, "Well, robot, destroy."
The fight took Hiro longer than the maximum average of one minute to destroy his opponent's robot. It was fun and a little challenging, considering that it lasted for ten minutes straight. It was already ten in the evening and the teen was carefully picking the right alleys into which he walks into because even if San Fransokyo is a high-tech city, crime is still at large.
Footsteps echoed through the alleyway and Hiro's heartbeat fastened. He quickly changed pace and walked swiftly, only to be yelled at. "Hey, you dork, stop right there!" He heard the same voice of his opponent from earlier. Oh great, juuuust great. He internally commented."I'm amazed. You beat me."
Hiro was taken aback by the comment and faced the guy, his glorious black hoodie still covering half his face and the dark isn't really helping Hiro see much. Next time inspiration hits him, he'll make night vision glasses. Blinking twice, he tried to regain his composure. "Yeah. I beat you." Hiro tried to be as cocky as he normally would but a part of him is hopefully waiting for a Tadashi in a bike to bring him home. A little routine he and Tadashi, grudgingly if Hiro may say, would normally do on a Friday night.
The guy nodded and offered a handshake, "They call me Tetsuya here. Who're you?"
"Hiro." The ravenet took it and raised an eyebrow cautiously, "I don't suppose you're here to beg me of my 'legit' winning?"
"No. I didn't." 'Tetsuya' pulled back his hand and shoved it into his jeans pockets. "I'm amazed by your bot. You used Robert Callaghan's theory of Robotics to build that, didn't you?"
He remembered the incident again just by that one single surname. Professor Callaghan's still in there! At least someone's gotta help! Tadashi's voice rang into his ears and Hiro tried to push it away, not really wanting to break down infront of a stranger. "Uh- Yeah. W-Why, got a problem with that?"
"No, idiot." A faint chuckle was evident by the tone of Tetsuya's words, "Don't get cocky with me, you piece of shit." He nudged Hiro playfully like a 'friend'. The black haired teen wanted to snap Tetsuya's neck into stopping him from being too overly touchy. "I accepted my defeat and learning to know you wouldn't hurt me." Tetsuya continued.
"O-Okay. So, yeah, see you then, man! Nice- Nice talking with you!" Hiro said awkwardly, waving a good-bye as he tried to walk and run without seemingly evasive.
"Got no bike?" Tetsuya asked in concern, titling his 'hoodie' covered head to the side.
"A bike?" Hiro exclaimed in exaggeration, looking back at the figure. "I'm a teenager, barely touching the age of legality, why would I own one?!" He blurted out because Tadashi never let him try his motorbike, not even once. Well, Tadashi would've taught me if—He stopped, a gloomy aura once again dropping his soul.
"I got one, want a ride?"
"No thanks. I'm walking." Hiro said, turning his back towards Tetsuya once more, his monotonous depressed voice once again settling in on him.
"Sure. Whatever floats your boat." Tetsuya replied in a rather sarcastic comment. "Urgh. The one time you tried to be nice Junko, you screwed up and looked like a creep!" Hiro blinked and looked back, once again at Tetsuya, who was knocking his head with his fists – talking to himself. Hiro thought of who this Junko fella is.
"What?"
The guy looked up to Hiro and swayed the topic off. "No, just talkin' to myself." Tetsuya waved his right hand in a dismissing manner as his left hand removed the hoodie covering his face. Locks of medium long black hair flowed down to his back and dark pupils stared at Hiro's identical ones.
Realizing that Tetsuya was a girl, all Hiro could do was yell. "WAIT- YOU'RE A GIRL!?" He exclaimed, once again, in exaggeration, a blush of embarrassment creeping up on his face. A girl just asked him for a ride and there he is, being the same dork that he is. Hiro remembered the time when Tadashi told him he'd never get a girlfriend if he kept his robot fighting career. Perhaps he's right because Tetsuya's face wasn't amused.
"Got a problem with that?" She asked sharply, the tone of her voice dropped temperature.
"Uhm. . . Uh- No! Nothing!" Hiro said, cursing himself for not being able to differentiate a girl from a boy. Now that he's thought about it, Tetsuya's body figure was slender and impossible for a guy. He really thinks that Aunt Cass would've told him more about girls aside from liking 'sweet and fluffy things'.
A/N:OMG, you guys. So many views in one week! I love you all! Thank you to those who reviewed, favorite-d and followed! If you have something in mind, tell me what you think in the reviews section!
PS. Did I say I love you all?
PPS. Some questions on the review section aren't meant to be answered for I might spoil the surprise. Or perhaps you all got your own theories by now.
PPPS. Anyway, I hope you all still appreciate this! okay, I'm stopping. Hahaha