Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.
While WSSP and Co Are Trapped at Starfall Islands
Byleth, Dorothea and Rosalina appeared in front of the Smash Mansion due to the latter's teleportation. They all walked through the doors a moment later… to find Junior running away with a mischievous chuckle.
A few moments later, Toon Link walked by grumbling wearing nothing but pink.
"Got out pranked, did we?" Byleth teased.
"I don't wanna talk about it…" Toon Link mumbled as he kept walking, hoping that Tetra wouldn't see him like it or he'd never hear the end of it.
The trio wandered around the Smash Mansion, where they found Ibuki playing her guitar while Hajime was leaning against a couch while chatting with Link and Min Min.
"Hey Ibuki!" Byleth waved her over.
"Ah, Byleth-chan~! Dorothea-chan~! Rosie-chan~!" Ibuki waved as she went over to hug all three. "Ibuki assumes you're here to cheer Chiaki-chan up?"
"Yeah. Is she busy?" Rosalina asked.
"Well… we decided to give her some space so she'd clear her head. This whole Twilight thing is really bugging the hell out of her." Ibuki said.
"Yeah. Poor girl's had it rough." Link added.
"I thought some of my ramen would cheer her up." Min Min said. "It did for a few minutes, but…"
Hajime sighed. "This whole Twilight mess is getting to her. No amount of hugs from anyone would cheer her up."
"Oh come on, Hajime-chan. You know she adores hugs!"
"Yeah, that's true." Hajime nodded. "It's just really affecting her mind right now."
"Is she in her room playing a game?" Dorothea asked.
"Actually…" Ibuki spoke up. "She's in the gym."
Meanwhile…
BGM: Anti-Hero (Taylor Swift) (Start at 1:29)
"Hah… hah…" Chiaki panted, decked out in a sports bra and boxer shorts. She was staring at Sandbag that she was currently beating up… not that Sandbag minded at all.
There was a picture on Sandbag's face. A picture of Twilight Chiaki that was pretty much crumpled up.
"HAH!" Chiaki punched, delivering strong punches as she even threw in a few kicks, making sure that her heel hit front and center of her stupid face.
"Rrrrgh…"
She continued to punch repeatedly, hatred in her eyes as she continued her onslaught.
However, Sandbag was slowly started to get covered in soft pink blood as she was not wearing gloves at all.
"HAAAAAAH!" Chiaki unleashed a shoryuken that nearly knocked Sandbag off of his hook.
Fellow gym goers like Little Mac, Falcon, Terry, Samus, Wii Fit Trainer, Daisy, Tifa, and Incineroar all looked at Chiaki with concern. Not because that she sometimes hits the gym for a casual work out while listening to game music…
But because this time around, Chiaki was extremely agitated over current events and was wailing on Sandbag… and it seems as if her agitation was not slowing down.
Even her two small cheerleaders being BB-8 and Elfilin were growing very concerned over her.
"Nnngh…" Chiaki grunted, clasping her wrists as she saw her bloodied fists. She glared at the photo once more as she continued to throw them, bloodying up the photo of Twilight, but no matter how hard she punched, she knew it wasn't the real deal and it was continuing to frustrate the hell out of her.
She paused to catch her breath as she reached for her Feraligatrade and took a few swigs.
"Ya know… padding for your fists will go a long way."
"Huh?" Chiaki turned her head to see Byleth. "Oh… hey Byleth…"
She reached for her speaker and turned the music off.
End BGM
"What's up?"
"I've heard what happened recently…"
"Ugh…" Chiaki groaned as she sat down on a bench. "She's the worst…"
Byleth sat down next to her. "Usually you don't let anything get you down so much, even if you lose a fight in Smash. Yet this one's bugging you the most…"
"I just… I just don't know what to do…" Chiaki mumbled. "I was trying to ignore her… but I just couldn't stop thinking about her. Then of course, I've heard that she's busy exterminating every Chiaki in the multiverse because she's the "one true NanamI" or some other bullcrap… and all because she decided to go after Beyonder. To make maters worse, she blew up her version of Remnant because she thought Weiss was gonna kill her!"
Chiaki closed her eyes. "I'm thankful that Strange went out of his way and put a protective spell over me so I wouldn't get transferred back to that universe and get killed by her… and it's just so… so…"
She let out a frustrated sigh as Byleth put a hand on her back.
"It's okay… just let it out."
"It's just so… BULLSHIT! Like, fine, there's always a universe out there where there's an evil version of yourself, I get that… but why does mine have to be like Dark Ruby? It's just… come on! Why does she have to be such a friggin' bitch?! It's just… WHY?!"
Chiaki leaned against the wall, sighing. "I know that this is probably the Triforce of Power corrupting her, but… she even said to my face that she knew what she was doing was going to be sketchy so she made a wish from Jirachi that the Triforce of Wisdom and Courage would stick with her along with the Master Sword. If anything… I feel extremely bad for the Triforce and Fi."
She closed her eyes. "And there's nothing we can do about it… but everyone's feeling that a fight with her is inevitable at this point. Stop her before she does anything else. And I just… I just don't know what to do except for… scream in a pillow and punch the daylights out of Sandbag."
"Have you tried playing games to get your-"
"Yeah, I have. But she just keeps creeping back up and I just… ugh…"
"Okay, so don't feel too upset over what I'm about to say, but… I honestly think you're becoming obsessed with her."
"Noooo, really? What gave you that idea?" Chiaki rolled her eyes. "...I'm sorry, that snark was a little too mean."
"No no, it's okay." Byleth smiled. "I understand that an evil version of yourself would catch your interest, especially considering this particular one is enough to make anyone's skin crawl with what she's doing."
"I genuinely believe that when Beyonder gave her back the Triforce just to be a dick, it shattered her mind. And… I also sincerely believe that if we remove the Triforce from her a second time… she's not just going to sit back and reflect on what she's done. I've a feeling her mind will be so twisted that she will want it back no matter what and will die trying."
She closed her eyes.
"Honestly, Byleth… there's no hope for her. I actually… kinda pity her a bit. She had so much potential with the Triforce and she's using it to kill villains before she set her sights on different versions of myself and… killing Remnant just to get rid of one individual. She had… so much going on for her… working her way through Hyrule and getting her second chance on revenge with Junko all for… what… her becoming empress of her world and going on a shitty crusade that's making her more and more bloodthirsty?"
Byleth wrapped her arm around her shoulder as Chiaki leaned her head.
"This girl's making me swear more than I'd like to… I just… wish she wasn't such a problem."
"I wish I had an answer for all this… then again, I've never met an evil version of myself-"
"There was that Grimm counterpart of yours."
"Eh… I don't think she counts. Not to me, anyway."
"What do I do, Byleth…? I'm starting to go a little insane these days, no matter how hard I try to ignore her."
Byleth roped her into a hug and held her, gently rubbing her back as she then turned her head to look at the boxing ring. An idea came to her head as she smiled.
"You know what I like to do when I want to get my mind off things?"
"Fooling around with your wife?" Chiaki teased.
Byleth blushed with a playful smile. "Well, yes, but we also have a gym at our house. I tend to frequent it along with my wife and Yang, though Dorothea's more of a treadmill kind of woman."
"Does anyone else use it?"
"Oh, I've seen Rubes, Maia and Bereto go in there sometimes. Raven flirts with it now and then. I've also seen dad lift some weights."
"I figured. And Qrow?"
"Eh… I haven't seen him go in there yet as far as I know." Byleth shrugged.
"So… where are you getting at-" Chiaki turned to the boxing ring and looked at Byleth. "...Oh geez, I know how much of a heavy hitter you are."
"Speaking from someone who's also a heavy hitter." She winked.
"I… okay, true." Chiaki looked at her hands. "Though I might not be in the best shape to slug it out with you at the moment."
"You think I came here alone~?" Byleth winked as Chiaki looked to see Dorothea and Rosalina coming in.
"Oh!"
"You look all raggedy…" Dorothea said.
"Is it really that bad?" Chiaki chuckled nervously as she stood up, wincing from how sore she felt. Dorothea hugged her gently where Chiaki returned the hug and then when they broke the hug, Rosalina wrapped her into a loving hug.
"Haaaaaaaaaa~" Chiaki sighed happily, closing her eyes and melting into Rosalina's hug as she felt her knuckles getting healed from the hug as well.
"You feel better?" Rosalina softly asked.
"Oh… I should've hugged you when you came back from Monster Hunting…" She said calmly as she broke the hug, looking at her knuckles as they fully healed.
"My offer's still on the table, ya know." Byleth said.
"Oh… what the heck. I need to blow off a lot of steam anyway."
Chiaki climbed into the ring while Byleth went off to go change, and then came back in her own sports bra and shorts of her own, complete with her own boxing gloves.
"Love that tattoo on your back." Dorothea said, checking it out. "Definitely fits you."
Chiaki smiled. "Yeah."
"Alright, you ready?" Byleth asked.
Chiaki nodded. "I have to say, this is an odd therapy session you cooked up."
"It's not always just lying down and venting out your issues." Byleth smiled. "Sometimes you just gotta mix it up a little."
"Good point." She chuckled.
"Now, focus on me." Byleth instructed. "Let all your frustrations from that Twilight version of you come out. Just keep going until you feel all of it leave your body."
"Okay." Chiaki closed her eyes
"I got the music!" Dorothea said as she looked through Chiaki's playlist. "Let's see… oh, this one sounds fun."
BGM: Natural (Imagine Dragons)
Chiaki took a deep breath, and then reopened her eyes as they turned crimson red.
"Game on." She said determinedly, squaring up.
At that moment, Ibuki climbed into the ring. "Round one! FIGHT!" She called out as Chiaki and Byleth approached each other with Dorothea, Rosalina, Hajime, Min Min and Link watching on.
Chiaki delivered the first swing, throwing a right hook into Byleth's cheek as she weaved her head to avoid it and delivered a counter punch to her cheek. Chiaki would then deliver a few jabs as Byleth was able to block the attacks… but received a strong punch to the gut.
"Mmmph!" Byleth grunted as Chiaki delivered a right hook immediately after but Byleth swiftly avoided the attack and proceeded to counterhook, knocking Chiaki back a bit as Byleth unleashed a flurry of jabs into Chiaki but the gamer girl blocked most of them and then retaliated by delivering a powerful counter to make Byleth back up.
Chiaki continued to attack her, delivering a few uppercuts to the abdomen and even a right hook, only she miscalculated and struck Byleth's right breast by accident. "Oh! Ooops…"
"Oh, don't worry about it." Byleth waved it off with a chuckle as Chiaki resumed her onslaught, continuing to deliver strong heavy blows into Byleth as the mercenary responded in kind, both of them striking each other in the cheek to make them both back up.
They're not kidding… she definitely does have a hell of a punch. Byleth thought with a smirk.
Ooof, that was a heavy one… what I'd expect from the Ashen Lady herself. Chiaki thought as they continued to swing into each other, until Chiaki managed to deliver a heavy power punch into Byleth's abdomen that made her back up to the ropes.
Chiaki delivered strong powerful blows as Byleth found herself cornered and tried to block Chiaki swinging nasty blows…
…But she could tell that her punches were softening up a bit, and it's not from fatigue.
There you go. Byleth thought with a soft smile before she counter attacked, making Chiaki back off as Byleth proceeded to deliver plenty of blows to her as Chiaki tried to block as she found herself at the corner.
Crap! She thought as Byleth swung into her as Chiaki blocked as best she could, though Byleth switched it up and rattled her abdomen, which gave Chiaki an opportunity to throw an uppercut to her lower jaw.
"Nnngh!" Byleth grunted. She was at least thankful she was wearing a mouth guard as Chiaki proceeded to deliver powerful hooks and straights into her face and abdomen, before a wave of energy swirled through Chiaki's right fist.
Oh crap! Byleth thought, realizing what Chiaki was about to do.
"SHORYUKEN!" She yelled, but Byleth swiftly avoided it in time before delivering a punishing blow to her abdomen. "Mmmph!" Chiaki grunted as Byleth delivered a few hooks into her and delivered a might blow upstairs that made the gamer girl see stars.
"Nnngh…" Chiaki groaned as she stumbled a bit as Byleth continued to attack, but Chiaki regained focus and delivered a mighty right hook to the side of her abdomen… although she went a bit too far and struck Byleth in the liver by accident.
"Ooooh!" The audience flinched.
"Ooooof!" Byleth winced, as she stumbled before she fell on her butt.
End BGM
"Hah… hah…" Chiaki panted before she realized what she did as her eyes turned yellow again. "Oh god… did I make a liver shot? I'm so sorry!"
"Nah… you're good." Byleth waved it off woozily. "Hooo… hell of a shot there, girl."
Chiaki sheepishly scratched her cheek as she knelt down. "You okay…?"
"Y-yeah… g-give me a few minutes and I'll be standing." Byleth giggled. "Do you feel a lot better now…?"
"Honestly? I feel a lot looser… yeah, I feel a lot better."
"That's good. Maybe you oughta punch it out with someone if you're ever feeling upset about Twilight."
"Ibuki thinks Nijima-chan would help with that~!"
Hajime sweatdropped. "Let's try not to kill her."
"Ah, right… Akane-chan then?"
"Somehow, I feel that's worse."
"I could be her sparring partner!" Tifa offered.
"Roar Roar!" Incineroar agreed.
"Wonder if Mac would be comfortable with slugging it out with her…" Link wondered.
"Come on, I slug it out in matches with girls all the time. Chiaki wouldn't be different." Little Mac said.
"It's true." Doc Louis agreed.
Later, at a large pond (Thankfully not Rayquaza's lake)
Chiaki tossed a rock into a pond, where it skipped three times before landing inside.
"Heave… ho!" Elfilin said, trying to skip it across the pond but it went inside almost immediately. "Awww…"
BB-8 picked up a rock and spun his body around before throwing it, where it skipped about eighteen times before landing inside the water. BB-8 let out a happy boop.
"...Whoa!" Elfilin said in surprise.
"Show off." Ibuki mumbled as she had two skips.
"I've always wondered what it'd be like to have an evil counterpart. Like, would I still be a dorky gamer girl but just extremely toxic and unbearable? Or would I just be some sort of dark queen ruling the gaming world with an iron fist and sending foolish gamers to the shadow realm or… something! Instead, I get the most extreme version of myself…"
"I'm sure if there's another evil you somewhere, she'd be less extreme." Byleth said, skipping a rock across the pond as it stopped at six, with Rosalina trying it and surpassing BB-8 by skipping twenty-three.
"I believe that was twenty three." Rosalina said, then glancing over at BB-8 who was giving her a dirty look. "What?"
BB-8 booped.
"What do you mean I'm a cheater?" Rosalina tilted her head.
Chiaki sighed. "I hope so… maybe that one's a lot nicer." She said as Hajime skipped about eight. She closed her eyes. "I just need to stop obsessing over her… if that's even possible considering a fight is all but inevitable at this point."
"It's going to be tricky, that's for sure." Byleth said as she hugged Chiaki from behind. "But for now, just focus on yourself and your friends. That's all that matters… and when the time comes to knock Twilight down, we'll all be there to support you."
Chiaki smiled. "I… I know it's too early to start recruiting and all, but, would you…-"
"Help you fight her? Just say the word when that day comes and I'll come running."
"Thanks…" She then closed her eyes and smiled. "Thank you, Byleth… I… really needed that today."
"You're welcome." Byleth smiled.
At that moment, Byleth's scroll went off as she pulled it out to see who was texting her.
"Hey, can you and Dorothea come see me for a sec? I'm at Mushroom Park. - Kyoko"
"What for?"
"I'll tell you when you get here."
"Okay."
"Sorry, I gotta run. But if Twilight clouds your mind again, don't hesitate to ask for a sparring partner."
"You got it." Chiaki smiled as Byleth released her and then walked off.
"Come on, babe. We need to go."
"Oh? What for?" Dorothea wondered as she followed her.
"Probably an impromptu date." Rosalina giggled. "If you want, I could stay with you for a while longer."
"I wouldn't mind that." Chiaki smiled as she was hugged by Hajime and Ibuki, the former kissing her on the cheek as Elfilin and BB-8 joined in.
Chiaki then sat down and looked at the sky as Rosalina sat behind her and pulled her in close as Chiaki rested her head on her chest.
Chiaki let out a soft chuckle while closing her eyes. Who knew boxing would be great therapy for a girl like me?
Ibuki: Happy gamer girl is best gamer girl~! *giggles*
Deadpool: Yeah, she definitely needed it.
A shout out to Flash for this idea!