"Cordelia," you say in a grave tone. When the girl turns to face you, you continue. "As you enter the field of battle, remember this: come back with your gi, or on it."
She stares at you for a long a moment, and then asks, "Did you completely lose your mind in the last minute, Alex? Or is this just a temporary insanity?"
"It's hard to lose something you didn't have to begin with," Briar notes jokingly. "I mean, this guy thinks he's a reincarnation. Everybody knows that's just nuts."
"Yeah," Cordelia agrees with a grin. "Any random guy off the street would- wait, who said that?"
"Wait," Briar blurts out at the same moment, "you heard me? Like really heard me?"
Cordelia is not quite staring at Briar, but she's definitely looking in the fairy's general location.
"Well," you mutter, "this is certainly an unexpected development. Ladies," you continue, looking around at the passing crowd, a few of whom regard your little group with curious, mocking, or troubled expressions as they go by, "as delighted and terrified as I am that you finally seem to be able to talk to each other, this really isn't the time or the place."
"...right," Cordy says after a moment. "Fight first, talk to invisible friends later, in private."
"Good plan. Oh, and Cordelia?"
"Yes?" she asks warily, warned by your once-again sober voice.
"All joking aside, remember what you said before. Sensei thinks you can do this. All you need to do is show everybody that he was right, and that Cordelia Chase is not to be messed with."
"Darn straight." She heads for the girls' locker room door, then pauses and looks back. "Thanks, Alex. And good luck to you, too."
You give her a half-bow before heading for the boys' locker room.
It's pretty crowded. Interestingly enough, you're not the largest boy in the room, although you come close - there's one kid who looks like a pint-sized sumo wrestler, and another kid who's several inches taller than you, if not quite so broad in proportion. A few others more or less match your size, but there's not even ten of them all told; everyone else in the room is shorter, skinnier, and/or younger than you. Some of the six-year-olds are downright tiny, and hastily scurry out of your path as you approach - about the only thing that prevents you from having a Ganondorf versus Link flashback is that none of the little kids has the right features, and nobody is carrying a sword.
You pick out a locker and change quickly. Your gi is dark blue, largely because Cordelia did the shopping for your entire group - on the grounds that if you were all going to have to wear kung fu outfits for hours each week, they were going to be stylish kung fu outfits, because she refused to be seen in anything less - and according to Queen C, the more traditional white doesn't suit your coloration. Your belt matches because Lu-sensei doesn't use color-coded belts as a ranking system - which is fortunate, because you shudder to think of how Cordelia might have reacted, trying to coordinate her training outfits with the veritable rainbow of colors you've seen used in other schools. As it happens, you're not entirely sure how your teacher grades your performance, other than that you tend not to get hit with the Enlightenment Stick as much when you're doing well. You think.
When you leave the changing room, you find yourself stepping into a large chamber whose features - wooden floor, fold-out bleachers, and high, high ceiling with a lot of exposed girders, pipes, and machinery - remind you of your school gym. It's twice as big, however, and looks a great deal more modern - and of course, the majority of the signs and posters on the walls are in characters quite illegible to you. Crash mats have been laid out on the floor to form a dozen or so makeshift "rings," all of which currently have two kids on them in various stages of fighting, with at least one official nearby. The rest of the participants are scattered about the room. Some are standing or sitting near the rings, while others hang back near the walls. Some are cheering or groaning the current batch of contestants, while others watch in silence or talk amongst themselves. The bleachers are mostly filled with older kids and adults - you don't see Lu-sensei.
Not long after you enter, one of the fights comes to an end as a smaller boy executes a respectable throw and gets his opponent off the central white mats and onto the dark blue outer ring. The referee barks a command and gestures to the smaller boy, who smiles triumphantly before bowing to his opponent and departing the ring.
"Number Twenty-Seven and Number Forty-Two," the referee calls a moment later. Two more boys hurry towards the ring.
From the look of it, you'll be waiting a while before your number is called.