Exception
By: Aviantei
57. Place Your Bets
It had been a long day of tournament competition, and the following matches had been every bit as chaotic as the audience had been longing for. Wiseleybot continued to be an impressive opponent, securing victory after victory, even as its owner slept soundly on the sidelines, but the Black Order team all did their best to push forward and wear it down. No one had been able to do as much damage all in one go as Johnny, but they all managed to contribute in their own ways.
However, as the finals approached they could be forgiven for wondering if all that would end up being enough.
Wiseleybot did run on an AI, after all, one that was capable of learning as it operated. Sure, it wasn't anywhere near as advanced as the Sir Komlin series, but that was to be expected since the creators had about a decade or so of experience between them. It wouldn't have been a fair fight from the start under those conditions. But up against fellow high schoolers?
The WISDOM AI was more than enough in those circumstances, and that meant that, as the curtain rose on the finals, the audience was abuzz with pure anticipation. Sure, the other matches had been enjoyable, but Wiseleybot's pure domination had quickly become the main event, and everyone was ready to see who would become victorious in the end. Would the top tier example of high school level engineering be the obvious victor? Or would it be an underdog story for the ages?
Lulu Bell—despite all her misgivings on the matter—was feeling rather confident that things would end in her club's victory. While all the lower leveled students had been overcome by their opposition, Wiseley was still in the game, and his work was showing off. He was lucky that it had, of course—member of the Noah or not, Lulu Bell would have shown no mercy to him if he'd failed on top of his lax attitude.
Wiseleybot may have been the last of Millennium Private High School's still active competitors, and Black Order High might've had six robots left, but this wasn't something where they could overwhelm their opponents with numbers in a free-for-all. All Robot Fight Club matches were one-on-one affairs, so BOHS was by all means in check.
Though even if they all could team up on Wiseley, it wouldn't do them any good, Lulu thought, surveying the lineup of beat up bots in opposition. The rest of her club members had already bowed out of the bracket, but they'd left the Black Order side in shambles in the process. Without any repair time to aid them, they were at an intense disadvantage—though you wouldn't have known it for looking at them. They all still think they have a chance.
Poor things.
"With no other competitors left to participate, Millennium Private High School's Wiseley will be handing the rest of the matches," the referee called, eliciting a variety of cheers and catcalls alike from the audience. "Black Order High School participants will continue to fight in the order pre-determined by the already existing bracket. Fights will continue until one side no longer has any robots in working order. Participant 65, please send your robot to the ring!"
65—a nickname for a kid in Johnny's year that no one remembered the origin for anymore—stepped up, ready to make the final stand. Behind them were a mix of main and Eastern Branch students along with their respective advisors, the final warriors left to determine victory or defeat.
(Komui was, notably, still missing. If he hadn't been so focused on the chance at victory before them, Reever would have been much, much, much more suitably concerned about this fact. This would be something he would come to regret later, as he did with most of his life decisions concerning Komui, but that was neither here nor there.)
"Man, I hate to say it, but this is looking rough," Lavi said, observing the stage. 65 was doing their best, of course, but was still a pretty disadvantageous situation. "Sure, I'm not an expert in this stuff—" just a bit above average when it came to theoretical knowledge about the topic "—but our side's on their last legs. I dunno how we're gonna make it through this one."
Tyki hummed and took a long sip from his can of soda (any and all pizza had long since been consumed). "I'm surprised to hear you say that, Red. What happened to all that confidence you had going on earlier?" Again, he wasn't all that invested in the result, but seeing the change in demeanor from his date was a bit surprising how gung ho he'd been not even a couple of hours ago.
But where Tyki had seen an apparent contradiction, Lavi just shook his head. "It's not that I think we can't win, it's just that I don't see the clear way out. That doesn't mean we won't end up finding it in the end." Lavi broke out into a grin, the one that had convinced Tyki from the start that the redheaded rabbit boy was pretty damn kissable—and Tyki had plenty experience in determining who would be kissable or not. "Besides, don't you think not knowing exactly what's going to happen is next is part of what makes life fun?"
"Well, I'm not gonna argue with you there." While plenty of other people in his life were determined to set things up to go their way, Tyki was far more of a go with the flow kind of person. Maybe that was why he had so much fun hanging out in places that both his classmates and his family wouldn't even bother with. "But just because we don't know what will happen for sure doesn't mean we can't take a guess. Care to make a bet?"
"Hm, you're the gambling type? Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Lavi was basing that far more on pure instinct than any form of logic, but his instincts had kept him alive so far, so he wasn't about to start arguing with them. Tyki shrugged, not bothering to deny it. He had a penchant for card games, and an even bigger penchant for putting stakes on said card games for a little bit of extra thrill. "But it'd be no fair if Mister Rich Noah over here bet money and conned me out of it. So you'd have to think of something else to wager instead."
"Oh, trust me, Red, I have plenty of thoughts on other things we could wager." Lavi caught the implication in a second, though he blushed harder than Tyki had expected, thanks to Lenalee's earlier insinuation. Even if he didn't know the precise cause, Tyki put on a smirk to press the advantage. "Hoh? You seem to have some ideas of what you'd like to win off of me there. Or maybe you were hoping you would lose instead?"
As the Lavi brain was wont to do in moments of crisis, it went into pure overdrive, which in turn lead to his mouth moving far too fast for his brain to filter anything. "Is it really losing if I still get something I want?" he asked, realizing within the next second that he didn't even know what he wanted, just that he wanted. Surely Tyki would come up with something good enough to satisfy them both, right? "Um, shit, I mean, that'd be—" Not knowing what he wanted to say, Lavi groaned, burying his face in his hands. "You should feel proud. You're the first person who's ever made me regret saying what I'm thinking out loud."
"I accept the honor with zero humility and every ounce of pride I can muster," Tyki said, dipping into the best bow he could muster given the seating arrangements. Down in the arena, 65 had tapped out, clearing his way for Cash (Tapp's sister) to take the stage. "Though if you need me to turn it down a notch, I will. I find your fluster enjoyable, but I'm not sure you feel the same."
Lavi, using his hand to fan himself with limited success, forced himself to look into Tyki's eyes. Really, a shade of gold like that was just unfair. "No, don't worry about it, I don't mind. I'm just not used to reacting like this, so I don't quite know what to do with myself. It's not bad." Experiencing new things was one of the best parts of life, and Lavi's approach was to run into such circumstances head on. Surprisingly, he did, in fact, know how to accept the consequences of his own actions. "How about this? We each bet on who we think's gonna win, and the loser has to be in charge of planning the next date."
And the natural outcome of those terms is that we get to go on another date, regardless of who wins. Tyki could think of far worse outcomes than that. "Very clever, Red. I think I'll agree to those terms." Lavi pumped his fist in success, which just endeared Tyki to him all the more. "I take it you'll be placing your bet on your school, then?"
"Of course!"
"So that leaves me to give my support to Wiseley." Which, given the circumstances, was looking to be the safer bet. Already Wiseleybot had taken care of four of its final opponents, bringing the Black Order to number five of six on their roster. Since Red and I both end up winning in the end, though, I suppose I don't mind. And though Tyki didn't quite care one way or another as to who would emerge victorious, the playful side of him couldn't help but quip, "I look forward to seeing what kind of date you come up with over there."
And Lavi took on that challenge with unbridled enthusiasm "I could say the same to you!"
Lo Hwa was pretty confident that she was going to have a heart attack before the day was even over. Now, this was a diagnosis she gave herself almost on a daily basis—anxiety was a bitch, even on the days where nothing went wrong—but it had never seemed as likely as it would in that moment.
Due to the Robot Fight Club's participant rotation structure, Lo Hwa was sixth and final member of the team up against Wiseley Kamelot's AI-powered bot. At first, she'd been a little bit relieved by the prospect—maybe one of her teammates would be able to finish things before she even had to step up to the plate—but that relief had steadily transitioned into her stomach and heart mashing together into one twisting pile of nervousness as Wiseleybot slowly but surely worked its way through everyone's creations. Li Kei, her close friend, was the last one left aside from her, and his robot looked like it could've fallen apart any second after he'd just barely won out against his previous opponent.
Li Kei's robot swerved, just avoiding the heavy blow Wiseleybot had aimed in its direction, and the pattern repeated. Unlike the earlier matches, Wiseleybot was done with any semblance of a defensive strategy, instead going all out. Its second arm had been damaged beyond repair in an earlier match up, but it had had a fourth to compensate and had been dominating ever since. The crowd reacted to each and every close call, until—
Crunch.
The sound was disheartening to Li Kei, Lo Hwa was sure, but it still felt like a death sentence to her, nonetheless. She wouldn't mind if she'd lost—she'd already completed a robot that had done miles better than her lackluster creation from last year, and her real passion was medicine anyways, so her level of personal investment was rather low—but she was the last hope. Her clubmates all cared, and audience cared, and that was way too much hecking pressure to put on one person wasn't it?
Sometimes Lo Hwa really hated the universe.
"Hey, you getting all caught up in your head again? Knock it off." The words were accompanied by a gentle bonk to the head courtesy of Fo's fist, and she crossed her arms as Lo Hwa peered at her. "Yeah, this is a pretty dramatic situation, sure, and we all wanna win. But that's nothing special. There's no one out there that wants to lose after all. And it would be nice if you win, but the real point of this event is to show off what our Science Club can do. Bak'll be happy with you, no matter how you do out there, so take a deep breath and remember what's important, alright?"
"Fo is right," Bak Chan said, offering a smile. "We just want you all to have fun. So long as you're doing that, then we have what we're looking for."
"No matter what, you're gonna do amazing, Lo Hwa!" Li Kei said, patting his friend on the shoulder.
"Yeah, that's right!"
"We'll cheer you on no matter what!"
The show of camaraderie was enough to make Lo Hwa tear up and the MPHS side jeer in opposition. "Thank you," Lo Hwa said, too touched to care about some naysayers for once. "I can't promise I'll win, but I'll give it everything I have, all the way to the end!"
And with her heart still threatening to rattle her ribcage right out of her chest, Lo Hwa stepped into the controller's position, bespectacled eyes locked onto her opponent. Wiseleybot was no longer an undamaged powerhouse, but it was still operational, and her own robot didn't look much better in comparison. No matter what, this would be the final battle, and someone had even dimmed the lights and set up spotlights to add to the dramatic element. Was it extra as fuck? Sure, but that was pretty much what everyone came there to witness.
The time gap between rounds of the sudden death match was over, and the referee called for the round to start. Somehow, the sounds of the auditorium around her faded away, and Lo Hwa's concentration reached its peak. It felt effortless, navigating her bot around Wiseleybot's incoming assault and counterattacking with her own front-loaded battering ram. The spring effect did have a bit of a drawback when it came to reload time, and the positioning of her attack point did limit her in where she could damage, but robots were complicated machines.
All you really had to do to make one stop working was break something important inside.
Even so, Wiseleybot's armor was tough, and Lo Hwa knew she couldn't waste any time if she wanted a chance. Lucky for her, though, Johnny had been kind enough to leave a perfect target for her assault. With deft controller precision, Lo Hwa bombarded Wiseleybot's damaged side as much as she could, though she did take a few nicks and scratches in the process.
And then: a miracle occurred, wherein Wiseleybot turned a little too fast, granting Lo Hwa a blow she wouldn't have been able to secure otherwise. She capitalized on the opportunity, crashing into Wiseleybot one more time though her battering ram hadn't had time to reload. Sticking in close meant she took a few extra hits, but she could see that Wiseleybot was reaching its limits. Maybe, just maybe she could—
Watching, Lulu Bell's eyes went wide. It would have been imperceptible to most, but Wiseleybot's movements were becoming more jagged. Its range of commands was impressive, but there was some sort of lag between what the machine was capable of doing and what the AI expected. Before, the AI had adapted to such things, but it must've been reaching its processing capacity after taking so much damage. Of course, that was only an issue if the bot continued to operate through its AI; a human operator could adapt much better. No longer willing to let things go with how close to victory they were, Lulu Bell turned to where her club member had been napping, snapping, "Wiseley—"
-only to find that said club member had already decided long ago that sticking around just wasn't worth the headache and had used the focus on the center stage as his cover to escape and take a nap on the bus in peace.
I don't care what the Chairman says, I'm going to kill that brat!
(The Chairman, as it were, was having a good chuckle at the situation alongside Road.)
But Lulu Bell's rage couldn't do anything to change the situation they were in, and her taking over controls would result in an immediate disqualification on MPHS's part anyways, so she controlled herself and faced the impending loss with as much grace as she could muster. Within the span of half a minute, Lo Hwa's robot managed to topple Wiseleybot to its side. Unable to get up, Lo Hwa's next attack crashed into it at full force, causing the once foreboding enemy to at long, long last fall still.
There was, in the immediate aftermath, a moment of silence as everyone processed what happened.
And then then gymnasium erupted into cheers loud and deafening enough to overwhelm the referee's final declaration of victory. Black Order Science Club member were cheering, Bak Chan just might've been crying, and hundreds of people were rushing down from the stands to join in on the group hug/celebration/mosh pit. Lo Hwa naturally gained an exceptional amount of attention in the process, and she was so going to need to avoid social interaction for the next two weeks at minimum, but she was so full of joy in that moment that she couldn't even bring herself to worry about that.
"That's right! In your face, Lulu Bell!"
But of course, this is Black Order High we're talking about, so it couldn't end quietly. Komui had reemerged from god knows where, bringing all smugness with him as he marched up to his rival. Never one to back down from a challenge, Lulu Bell faced him dead on and said, "You do realize that wasn't even one of your own students that won, right?"
"Doesn't matter! You're still the one that lost!" Lulu Bell sighed. She had expected this outcome, but it was still frustrating to deal with. "But of course, even if you emerged victorious, in the main competition, that bot wouldn't have stood a chance against what I created, so it wouldn't even matter."
Ah, so this was the game he was going to play this year. Well, Lulu Bell reasoned, it was going to suck whether she took the bait or not, so might as well try and get it over with. "And what monstrosity did you decide to make this year, Lee?"
"I'm so very glad you asked!" Komui shouted, brandishing a pure white controller and donning a grin that signaled nothing but suffering for everyone within a quarter-mile radius as he pushed a button and declared, "Come now—!
"Sir Komlin IV!"
[Author's Notes]
Hi, all, I hope you're doing well. I'm over here stunned it's already December and trying to wrap up some goals I set for myself for the year, including a mini batch of Reconstruction chapters I've been distracted from... But it ain't over 'til it's over, so let's give it our all!
One of those goals was building a Discord server for my fanfic readers, which I have a skeleton of at the moment. Hopefully I'll have a completed version to share soon.
Around this time of year I tend to do mass updates for my fanfic anniversary but I haven't had time to prep that due to hyperfixation on my yuumori fic, so instead I'll be updating Exception weekly until its anniversary on the 23rd! This will wrap up the Robot Fight Club Arc and also the first chap of the next arc before we resume bi-weekly updates alternating with my [Shibuya Operation - Story Storm] project this year, so I hope it's enjoyable to read.
Next Time: "58. We Really Don't Know What You Expected." Please look forward to it!
-Avi
[2 December 2023]
