Minor gore warning, bleeding and cuts
Sofia walked through the canteen and tried to avoid notice as she went in to go and grab something and go back to the prep room so she could eat in peace without unnerving anyone.
She had gotten hungry after the last two rounds, but she had chosen to wait to get something to eat until the one-on-ones so there would be less people there.
But just as she grabbed up a package of meat, someone threw an arm around her shoulders and made her nearly jolt. She normally would have heard someone approaching her, but with everyone around them her hearing was flooded with background noise.
Turning she saw the tall purple fish-like girl she was going to fight in the next in a couple of matches and worked with in the second round, Machida.
"Hey Gromova," Machida greeted in English smiling at her before noticing the meat in her hands "Oh, you're eating too, cool! Just let me grab something and we can go eat in my prep room." Machida said quickly moving over to grab some of the crabs off to the side.
Sofia's ears folded down.
She wasn't sure she could get away before Machida returned and she severely doubted that Machida knew RSL, much less the four-finger equivalent to explain that she wouldn't be able to tell the girl they would not be able to eat together.
And like she expected Machida finished getting a bowl of seafood, full of crustaceans then used her tail to lead her along, and frankly Sofia didn't have it in her to do anything else but follow her.
"I guess we can't really talk about this until we get to the prep room but that can't stop me from telling you about myself, right?" Machida commented waving one of her hands.
"I've told you my name's Machida, but my favorite color is yellow and my best friend's name is Kai." Machida told her.
"I don't know if I mentioned it but I'm in the support course, I've been really into machines and stuff cause of my dad, his quirk causes him to need a lot of things to breath that wouldn't be safe for others, so he has this special pack to help him." Machida informed her only to stop when they were in front of a door.
"Oh, this is my prep room." Machida said opening the door leading her inside and to sit down with her.
"Here, you can use the text app on my phone to answer anything, feel free to ask me anything too, I haven't met anyone purple like me before now." Machida told her, her tail wagging happily behind her.
Sofia felt awkward and fiddled with the paper holding the ground meat she wanted to eat.
Machida seemed to pick up on it and her tail slowed "Well, we don't have to talk, we could just watch some videos while we eat instead?" Machida offered.
Sofia's ears perked up at that, eating might be too much, but it would be hard to ignore the tug of showing off the series Deku-Sensei showed her.
She greatly enjoyed the cartoon and wanted to talk with someone about it but there wasn't really anyone she could show it off to, and talking in general was sort of off the list of options from the beginning.
Sofia turned the thought over in her mind.
Machida and she were a lot of alike appearance-wise, with their matching skin/fur tones and animal features.
And weirdly enough despite her features being fish/sea-life ones Machida somehow looked more like a dejected puppy now.
It might have been her demeanor though because Machida seemed like a genuinely good person and had the emotional range of the snow dogs her dad raised as a hobby, and she could never resist those puppies' begging faces.
Dang it... she was talking herself into this wasn't she?
With an internal sigh she took out her phone and went to the bookmarked first episode and placed it on the table so that they could both watch her phone.
Machida tilted her head then she straightened up and clapped a little "Oh my gosh you watch this too! This was my dad's favorite show too when he was growing up, it's just so awesome." Machida squealed practically bouncing in place.
Sofia also couldn't help getting excited and both of their tails were wagging now.
Machida grabbed one of her crabs and messily bit into it, with a very loud crunch though not loud enough for her to wince from it.
And while this might be hypocritical considering her unease with being watched while eating but she couldn't help watching as Machida's multiple rows of teeth grind up the crab meat and shell.
She hadn't had seen someone else with teeth like that to eat like now, it wasn't something that she sought out to see before, but she wasn't as uncomfortable as she thought she would be in this kind of situation.
"Hey, you should really eat, if you're going to win you're going to need to keep your strength up for the next fight." Machida encouraged and Sofia's ears pressed against her head.
Machida drooped some "I could turn around and cover my eyes if that would help?" Machida offered "You don't really talk, so I guess you got some weird iffiness with eating or opening your mouth around others, right?" Machida guessed.
Sofia couldn't stop herself from ducking her head but nodded regardless, Machida turned around and indeed covered her eyes with her hands.
Sofia felt bad but did feel much better without her looking at her and she was thankful she could shove the whole lump of meat in her maw, she chewed it up and swallowed it in seconds.
She wiped up her mouth and then once she was sure that the fur was hiding her mouth's seems before she tapped Machida's shoulder.
"Wow, ate it all in one go? Wish I could do that sometimes." Machida commented after turning around then popped a shrimp in her mouth.
They didn't really talk much after that, Machida making a couple of comments about the episode until they saw the warning light flash.
"Oof, looks like it's time to go down and fight again. Best of luck Gromova." Machida said offering her hand for a shake, Sofia tentatively shook it then left to head down to the entrance gate.
Her nerves of fighting had returned as she walked.
The guy she fought before was in the support course and didn't want a fight, forfeiting before the fight even began, so she hadn't been able to get out the nervous energy of fighting with someone else in front of anyone yet.
At least she wouldn't have to worry about not being understood with Deku-Sensei being the umpire, and Machida was nice enough so hopefully the fight wouldn't get ugly at the very least.
Sofia could only hope that she could have a quick fight with Machida.
She stood at the entrance and watched as Machida walked out before the speaker from the commenter booth switched and she assumed it was her turn to walk out like she had the first time around.
Deku-Sensei said a few things then switched over to English, repeating the rules he signed to her the first time in English for both of them before giving them the cue to start the fight.
Sofia leapt and managed to tackle Machida, though not with enough force to knock the girl over but she did make the girl take a few steps back, she made to leap off Machida but did not end up as cleanly as she wanted it to be.
Because Machida grabbed onto her leg the same one that was caught in the net earlier, so she fell to the ground, hitting her chin on the ground a bit hard.
And before she could get her bearings back Machida was dragging her back to the boundary line, Sofia tried to claw at the ground to stop Machida, but it wasn't effective.
As nervous as she was, she didn't want to lose this quickly. It was a bit selfish of herself, but she at least wanted to take one of the medals home for her parents.
After all their hard work to get her here it shouldn't be over in a few seconds.
So, in an effort to get free Sofia flipped over on her back and immediately opened her mouth widely and hissed loudly.
Machida didn't scream like the support course boy, but she did jolt back with a yip, dropping her ankle.
Now free, Sofia quickly acted and swiped her feet, a spurt of blood coming out when her claws on her toes tore through both of her legs and Machida fell back with a cry of pain, both from the six new gashes and from falling on her tail wrong.
The loud crack of bone being unmistakable, nor was the cry of pain that was most likely a Japanese curse.
Concern spiking completely, she dropped everything and rushed to Machida's side, the girl rolled over and hissed as she got some kicked up dirt in the gashes on her legs and Sofia's ears pressed to her head and she cursed herself for causing this.
"Machida are you alright?" Deku-Sensei asked in English as he knelt next to the both of them.
Machida's reply was in Japanese so Sofia had no idea what was being said, Deku-Sensei merely nodded and went ahead to help Machida stand up, her tail hanging limply behind her and twitching somewhat.
Deku-Sensei loudly announced something to the crowd, then he turned to her "Machida-San can continue but has chosen to withdraw so you'll be moving on Gromova, would you please help me walk Machida to the medical area?" Deku-Sensei requested.
Sofia didn't hesitate to move under Machida's other side and tossed the girl's other arm over her shoulder to help the girl walk to where Master-Sensei was set up.
The smell of blood making her stomach turn in knots.
She had not meant to harm Machida like this, she had misjudged the distance and thought her foot's 'heel' would hit Machida's, and the fall on her tail was a complete accident and Sofia would never stop blaming herself if it didn't get its mobility back.
Machida hissed herself more than once as they walked.
A forced laugh tumbled out of Machida's throat before she turned to Sofia "Geeze, you really got me good huh Gromova?" Machida said, perhaps trying to lighten the mood though it wasn't very successful if the way her heart dropped into her twisted guts.
"Hey, don't feel bad about this, I'm just a big cry-baby and have a low pain tolerance, believe me if I could I'd be crying buckets right now, but the fish genes saved me there." Machida said trying to assure her.
Sofia, despite still feeling very awful about hurting Machida couldn't help being touched by Machida trying her best to comfort her after she slashed Machida's legs, she really wouldn't expect anyone to react like that after the fact.
Especially, not after she flashed her unhinged jaw at them, in fact other than her family she didn't think she knew anyone that would still want her so close to them despite knowing how her mouth really looked like on the inside.
Maybe it was because Machida also had a mouth considered traditionally 'scary' to most people and she was less sensitive to her mouth.
"Hey, do you know if your mouth glows in the dark?" Machida asked and Sofia almost stumbled on herself and whipped her head up to stare at her in disbelief, blinking in her shock of the question.
Because just, what?
"Sorry, I just noticed that your mouth was this pretty blue color and thought I'd just ask if it glowed on the inside. Do you know?" Machida asked.
Pretty?
Her mouth, even it was just the color, was... Pretty?
*What was this girl made of?* Sofia thought as she shook her head.
"Oh, no your mouth doesn't, or you don't know?" Machida inquired further.
Sofia paused to consider the question and how she'd answer it since she was very far out of the normal territory of how people acted around her.
Eventually she very tentatively opened her mouth just barely "I don't know." she answered her voice showing its disuse in its hoarse.
Machida despite seeing her mouth move the way it does when she speaks didn't react much and just hummed back.
"I've got a blacklight back home if you want to check it out? It would be really cool if your mouth also glows too." Machida offered.
A weird tinny sort of anxiousness formed at the thought.
"Dad would be so jealous if I brought home a new friend with Blitzwolfer mouth." Machida added with a chuckle.
Sofia blinked, tilting her head.
"Oh, it's from later in the series in another continuation for Ben wolf, still a stupid name though." Machida commented as they finally ended up in front of the room where Master-Sensei was set up.
Ah, she had only just finished the first series and wasn't sure which was next in the series and had put off asking Deku-Sensei which was next since she didn't want to bother him over it.
"Hey Gromova, do you mind staying with me for a bit? We could watch some more Ben 10 on my phone." Machida requested and Sofia was surprised with herself as she found herself nodding in agreement.