Enjyu had to admit that standing on stage in a line with other B-daplayers while the crowd roared on was intoxicating. He could hardly believe how quickly time had flown since the Winners Tournament had started, but here he finally was. Battle after battle had brought him here:
“—the elite eight!”
Vinnie V stood before them, working the crowd flawlessly. Enjyu found that he couldn’t hold back the beginnings of a grin, even as he stared straight ahead while Vinnie V announced the matchups that would occur over the next two days.
His wasn’t until later in the afternoon, but he didn’t mind. Yamato’s match was first, and that was enough excitement for him.
“Well, well, Armada’s star pupils going up against each other,” said Ababa with a smirk. Enjyu stood with him on the sidelines, listening to Bull and Li chat while Wen was trying to catch the attention of the twins standing off on their own.
“He must be feeling pretty conflicted,” said Enjyu. He glanced down at Ababa, “You should probably go to him. I’ll hold the fort here.”
Ababa scoffed, trying to look affronted for Enjyu’s suggestion he offer his old friend some comfort, but the cat nodded anyway and started off toward Armada’s side of the arena. Though their little B-daplayer school was split between the two teachers, there was little real animosity between any of them.
Enjyu took a moment to make sure Li, Bull, and Tommi were behaving before he casually wandered over to Wen, who was furiously trying to catch either twins’ gaze with the most unsubtle side glances and waves possible.
“Hey, knock that off,” he told Wen, who whirled around to face him. “Those two are probably all absorbed in their own world right now.”
“Wh—Enjyu, stop sneaking up on me,” said Wen, glaring at him.
Enjyu gazed at him impassively, then looked over to the twins serving as the objects of Wen’s antics. Gray and Liena. Twin stars from Wintoon that had relentlessly battled their way through the tournament. Enjyu had tracked their impeccable progress with a constant feeling that he or Yamato would have to go up against one of them before the tournament was over.
“They just found out they’re facing each other,” Enjyu said, “I don’t think they care about anyone else right now. Imagine if you had to face Li in your match.”
Wen paused, then deflated and stepped back. “You’re right, I’ll leave them alone,” he said, turning to Enjyu. “Hey, at least I don’t have to imagine that when I’ve got to go up against you.”
“If you ask nicely, I won’t flatten you too much,” he said with a grin. They had battled and trained often in the past few years, under Ababa’s watchful eyes, but Enjyu had quickly outclassed him, despite starting later at their school.
“Oh, no way,” countered Wen, “I’m never forgiving you if you even think about going easy on me. I’ve earned my way to the elite eight.”
Though Enjyu was certain they were still joking around, there was a fire to Wen’s words that he knew better than to dismiss. Enjyu nodded, and Wen grinned back.
“Think Yamato and Terry are ready for this?” he asked, switching gears to the match ahead of them.
“Oh, heck yeah,” answered Wen, “Those two are pumped, and…hey, wait, where’s Yamato?”
Wen’s observation came just in time, as Vinnie suddenly called out, “Our first elite eight match is about to start, but has anyone seen Yamato? If he’s not here in the next minute, he’ll be disqualified as a no-show!”
Enjyu frowned, trying to figure out where Yamato could be. He looked over to where Armada and Ababa were both beginning to panic. The sight might have been comical, if Enjyu’s best friend wasn’t missing. Tommi came over to him, prompting Enjyu to lean down and let him jump onto his shoulder. The cat’s familiar weight was comforting.
“What’s going on?” voiced Terry from where he stood waiting at the battlefield. He turned, and met Enjyu’s gaze. “He was here just moments ago!”
Something had to be wrong. Yamato would never abandon a match.
“I’ll go find him,” Enjyu started to say, feeling Tommi’s tail curl against his shoulder, when a peculiar noise from the entryway to the arena caught his attention.
“I’m here!” It was Yamato, yelling as he ran onto the field waving his arms. He jumped over to the field, landing deftly on his side, and took out Cobalt Blade.
“Geez, laddie, you had me worried,” said Terry.
“Woah, it’s me and you, huh?” Yamato looked…strangely confused as he looked around at the arena. He seemed especially shocked when his eyes met Enjyu’s but he quickly shook his head and turned back to the field. “Hey, Terry! I’m not gonna make this easy!”
Enjyu stopped paying attention to what Terry and Yamato went on to say as the match started. He found himself staring directly at Yamato all throughout, barely watching them as they began knocking down each other’s pins. That sense of wrongness had returned, as he took in how focused Yamato’s expression had become, how he seemed more…assured in what he was doing.
Something was different about him, but Enjyu wasn’t sure what.
“And that’s every pin down! Yamato’s combination of rapid-fire and power shots sure made him the winner here today!”
This version of the Winners Tournament was confusing.
Yamato stepped away from the field, and immediately Wen came running to his side to clap him on the back. Li and Bull weren’t far behind, striding up to congratulate both him and Terry for a great match.
Armada and Ababa came over together, and it was strange to hear them both offer encouraging words to Terry.
He’d spotted Gray and Liena earlier, standing off on their own in the sidelines, but neither seemed interested in the little group forming around him.
Then there was Enjyu. He was dressed in a jacket rather than what Yamato was used to seeing him wear, and Tommi was sitting on his shoulder. His hair hung low around his ears and was blue and he had no scar at all. Despite the commotion around him, despite trying to remind himself this was all just a dream, this wasn’t real, Yamato found himself staring at Enjyu again.
Then Enjyu smiled and started toward him, and a string of impossible memories flashed through Yamato’s mind.
Meeting each other in a big city, meeting each other’s parents, playing with Tommi, attending a B-daplaying school together, coming to the Winners Tournament together—
“Hey,” said Enjyu, smiling brightly. “You did it.”
“Yeah, I did,” said Yamato, and with those words he forgot everything that made this situation wrong. He could see out the corners of his eyes the others stepping away to give him and Enjyu space. “But you still have to win your match, huh.”
Enjyu snorted. “Yeah, well I’ll be seeing you in the finals, I’m sure.”
His words seemed to break some kind of spell in the arena, and Yamato grinned as Enjyu’s statement kicked up a flurry of conversation with everyone around.
“Ababa, do you ever teach your students humility?” asked Armada aloud.
“Start with yours before getting on my case,” was the answer to that.
Things were fine. Everything was fine. Yamato had just needed something from the locker room, and that meant Enjyu didn’t have to worry at all. He’d given Yamato his celebratory hugs, and then it had been his turn.
Enjyu stood across from Wen, hands on Lightning Kahn, gaze on the few remaining pins composing Wen’s half of the field. He could hear Yamato cheering for him loudly, and Li following suit as he cheered for his brother. Enjyu had to admit, he had underestimated Wen just a bit, and now he and Bakuso were really making Enjyu work for his win.
He had no intention of losing, either way. He began to match Wen’s shots, blocking them from his final column of pins. He had to mount an attack, as the longer this went on, the more Wen’s advantage grew.
Narrowing his eyes, he fired off a shot angled toward his own column of pins. It was about as risky as Vinnie quickly called it, and Enjyu knew if he’d done this wrong, then he was done for.
Fortunately, Wen was surprised long enough that he couldn’t take advantage, and they both watched as Enjyu’s shot ran through fallen pins and struck the fifth pin down the column. At the angle it hit, the pin fell forward toward Wen’s side, sending all the pins before it falling over as well.
Enjyu grinned. It wasn’t the best defense as he’d left himself with almost no pins, but it would do. Now, he could mount an attack. Wen seemed to realize what he was doing, as he began to rapid-fire against the pile of pins that formed a wall for Enjyu. Each shot edged the fallen pins closer and closer to the standing few.
Enjyu gritted his teeth, turned his barrel toward Wen’s pins, and fired with a yell. “Kahn Crush!”
Wen kept firing, even as Enjyu’s shot blazed across and barreled over his field of pins, leaving a trail of smoke.
“Just a little more,” Wen said to himself, but as the smoke settled—
“We have the winner of this elite eight match, folks, and it’s Enjyu! Will this reckless rumbler cease to impress with his ever-risky strategies?”
“Enjyu, you’ve been lucky so far,” said Ababa. He took a moment to down his entire glass of milk, barely holding back a faint purr. “But being so rash in battle isn’t going to always work out, you know.”
Enjyu shrugged. “Yeah, I know. Shooting my own pins just seemed like the best option in the moment.”
It was just the two of them in the best cafe in town. Everyone had gone out to the city around the Winners Dome to shop and look around, but he and Ababa had, as usual, gone straight to the planned rendezvous point. They both preferred to skip the frivolity after all.
Well, Enjyu might have gone with Yamato if Ababa hadn’t mentioned wanting to talk to him privately.
“More milk over here please,” called out Ababa to the lone woman behind the counter. Ababa turned back to Enjyu as she begun pouring him a new glass. “Now then, I wanted to talk to you about Yamato.”
“What’s there to talk about?” asked Enjyu, resting his chin in one hand on the table between them.
“Do you never worry that he will betray you?” asked Ababa.
Enjyu almost fell out his chair in surprise. He regained his composure quickly, straightening himself. So this was going to be one of those talks.
“Hell no,” he said. “Yamato would never betray me. He’s my best friend.”
“Enjyu.” Ababa gazed at him evenly. “One day you may have to make your own decision about Yamato’s presence in your life. Remember, there can only be one winner in every round, match, and tournament.”
It was Ababa’s own school of thought. Though he and Armada taught under the same roof and both taught the values of playing honorably, Ababa had always preferred fostering a more competitive edge to his own students. True competitors, he maintained, were lonely at the top.
For all that Enjyu liked Ababa’s teaching style over Armada’s, that particular lecture never sat well with him. Not when he had Yamato to prove that maybe Armada’s lessons of strength from camaraderie rang a little more true than Ababa’s advice.
“I know,” he said, but he knew he would never be able to live without Yamato.
Yamato followed after Armada with Tommi on his shoulder, while Terry and Bull kept to his side. They walked through Winners City together, enjoying the late afternoon warmth. Terry and Bull were chatting about the Winners Tournament so far, and Yamato was only half-listening. He kept feeling as though he was forgetting something, but what exactly kept eluding him.
It was when he bumped into Armada’s back for the third time that Armada turned around to ask him, “Yamato, you’ve been quiet, what’s on your mind?”
He looked up at his master, thinking for a moment. “I just feel like there’s something weird about this tournament.”
“Well, you’ve said that before about the players in tomorrow morning’s battle,” Terry piped in. “That one lad gives me the creeps too.”
Yamato paused, trying to recall who said players were. For some reason, he couldn’t conjure up a mental image at all, and the only other two players he knew were going up against each other were… “You mean Gray and Liena?”
Terry looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “No, Yamato, it’s Sigma and Biarce, remember?”
Biarce?
…Biarce…
“Holy fff…B-daballs!” Yamato exclaimed as shock ran through him. This wasn’t real! That’s what had felt wrong. With the shock of hearing Biarce’s name, Yamato found he remembered everything as quickly as he’d forgotten, and this time, he had no intention of forgetting again.
Imaginary friends. Imaginary tournament. Was Biarce’s addition Enjyu’s doing? Yamato ignored how increasingly concerned the others were becoming as he began to pace right there on the street. His knowledge that this was all a dream mixed with the false memories he’d acquired, creating a jumble of thoughts that only made his head hurt.
Wait, couldn’t he just…change things? It was Enjyu’s dream, but now that he was dreaming too…Yamato turned and finally faced the others around him. Armada, Tommi, Terry, and Bull. They had fallen silent, but were gazing at him worriedly for his sudden, unusual behavior.
“Guys,” said Yamato, “Go on ahead to the…” A pause, as he recalled what they had agreed on. “…the cafe first. I’ve got something to take care of.”
“Yamato, what’s this about?” asked Armada.
“I, uh, I wanna get something for Enjyu,” he said quickly, though he was sure that imaginary or not, they could tell something was up. “A surprise! So just go right on ahead.” He began to herd them off, practically shoving Terry and Bull along, to much flailing and protests.
“Okay, okay, we’ll go!” Terry broke free of them, jumping away. “Yamato, we’ll catch you later!”
Bull didn’t seem to mind too much, as he started after Terry. “This must be something important, huh? Later, Yamato.”
“What’s this really about?” Armada hung back, looking down at him with a grim expression.
“It’s just something I need to do, Master Armada,” answered Yamato. It was about as honest as he could be. For all that this wasn’t the real Armada, he wasn’t sure what the realization that their world wasn’t real would do to the cat, and he wasn’t ready to make even an imaginary version of his master, or any of his friends really, go through that.
Armada said nothing for a long moment, before finally nodding. “All right then, Yamato,” he said, “You do what it is you need to do, but you come back to us soon.”
“Of course,” said Yamato.
He waited till Armada—and Tommi—had joined Terry and Bull and gone out of sight before turning back to the street.
“Okay, let’s see how much of this dream I can control,” he said to himself, looking over the familiar sight before him. It could have been any of Winners City’s streets, with its stalls manned by shopkeepers looking to profit off the big events going on due to the tournament.
If all he had to do was remind Enjyu of reality to wake him up, then surely he just had to change things into what had been real. While the various stalls had all likely been real in some way, a street full of merchants didn’t exactly make for the most exciting thing.
Yamato grinned as he thought back to the festival on the eve of the finals, how the streets had looked then, with their bright lights and…
He glared at the sight before him. “I want…a festival!” he declared.
Nothing happened.
Yamato frowned, but he had never been one to be discouraged so quickly. This time, he tried picturing the way the town had been. It had been evening, with fireworks flowering in the sky and the streets, brightly lit by all the stalls, had been packed with humans, animal folk, and robots alike.
Nothing happened.
He grit his teeth, feeling suddenly a great pressure, as another idea occurred to him. So simply wanting it and simply picturing it wasn’t enough. Yamato mustered up his will, and thought back to his final battle with Enjyu. Their final B-daballs in mid-air, pushing against each other from the final push they’d both given them. He thought back to that, and remembered how it’d felt and how much of his willpower he’d had to pour into that one B-daball before he’d managed another shot.
He thought of that feeling, of his B-daball pushing against Enjyu’s and, holding onto that sensation, tried picturing the festival again and he imagined pushing it out onto the street before him like each part of it was a B-daball.
This time, something happened.
The street changed. The stalls were different, the crowds bigger. It was well into the evening instead of the late afternoon.
He sighed in satisfaction, watching the unknowing crowds mill about.
Yamato supposed he could practice before meeting up with Enjyu again. With a big grin, he remembered how things had looked even later in the evening…and with a push on the dream, the street was immediately flooded with an ever-expanding mass of popcorn.
Perfect.
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