“Ahhh, okay! Let’s get this done, huh?” Sunmi said, yawning deeply as she tumbled out of her bed and swayed through her day, making a special point to get her make-up just the way she wanted it before she suited up and took off out the door. “All right, time to get my hands dirty!” What seemed like a big push for Sunmi was that her hands were a clenched fist of perfectly manicured natural nails. Something that wasn’t typical for her, and was even less typical for her on days when she was clearly intending to work. Her bouncy purple cardigan was gone, and instead was this deep blue sweatshirt dress and big chunky socks with her canvas sneakers. “I don’t wanna waste too much more time pretending I don’t know what to do. I moreso wanna just make sure I keep myself sane while I’m here.”
One step, two steps, last step. There was a sudden shift in the world, and what took her and Ji-ho two trains and a short walk took her three steps. Standing in front of the fighting pit. This blight on the horizon of her home. Quite literally, in her case. As she sauntered up to the same man who let her in before, she waved and held out the poly to buy her way in. “Just me today, I think! And you…Maybe you go home early, hm?” Her golden eyes glittered in the glow of the arena’s floodlights. Her suggestion felt honied in some way, and it must have been so, as the man seemed all too willing to abide. “Sure thing. Give’em hell, sister.” What was true was that Sunmi wanted this building gone; it was also true that someone wanted this building to stand. “I fully intend to.”
This building that Sunmi found herself in was, unfortunately, quite what she expected it to be. In the scavaged remains of the ancient building’s courtyard, a massive space of fresh dirt and scattered weapons sat with some level of reverence for its placement. Sunmi walked happily into the arena and looked around to the people who were there. It was a simple enough display that she intended to put on, but it was not as violent as her fantasies up til this point had been. Instead, she simply took her place at the center and allowed the battle to begin.
The battle of a thousand cuts was what she’d signed up for. A kumite-style bout that would go on for as long as the fighter could hold out. The pit’s current record was a rather impressive seven fights. “Our first fighter of the evening is a local, it appears. From over in The Veldt, it’s the bleating beauty herself, Sunmi Park!” As the ring announcer explained the rules to the unfamiliar, Sunmi took the moment to stretch a bit, kick around a few times, and of course, take a long pull from the bright pink vape that she’d kept tucked in her sleeves. It was no surprise, though, that when the first opponent appeared, the crowd seemed to be prepared to see Sunmi find her end here.
Her first opponent was a larger man of relatively wide build. More muscle than mind, and clearly the ‘first wall’ that a good fighter might be forced to get past in such a place. But as Sunmi looked up at the towering male and his mostly sybernetic body, she made a point to wave at his chest and not his eyes. An act that caused the giant of a man to shudder, and caught the glink of more than a couple of people who had their own bets running for the fight. Not everyone saw that one-second exchange, but it did turn the tide of things for a few people very quickly. “Pay attention, you cow!” Shouted the man, who put all of the force he had into a straight punch aimed at her head. Though perhaps predictably, she did not feel the force of that strike.
“Wow, big punch!” She said, looking at the arm fully extended in front of her. Taking proper care to look over it finely. Her voice, barely above a whisper, made it out to the sight of the old man she was fighting. “Would totally suck to see this model explode. What with it being a piloted one. Wanna just…?” And she positioned her foot behind his, and her hand on his chest before sweeping him off his legs and forcing a firm palm into him. Sending him tumbling across the ground and into the wall, where a large cloud of dust was kicked up. “Oh gosh,” Sunmi said. “Guess I really nailed him! Go me~!” A combination of power and momentum did a lot of the work, but the real damage was done long before she landed a blow. After all, when the first fight is a ‘wall’, then it should be broken down with minimal damage to those forced to maintain it. At least, that’s what weighed down Sunmi’s strikes and propelled her words. “One…! Two…!” The announcer counted. In this moment, Sunmi dug into her sleeve and pulled out her vape again, pulling on it for a while, and then tucking it away. In the same count, though, she did pull out a firmly banded stack of poly and placed it in the corner nearest to her. Looking up at the nearest attendee who could hear her, she looked up and winked. “Call it an extra pot for whoever can get me to lose in a real way. But don’t tell anyone, okay~?” Playing up the angle seemed like a fun bit of theatre, and a secret always tended to do a lot more legwork than the truth might. As the crowd shuffled around with the final count of ten, Sunmi waved up at the people who seemed to be interested in her. Not because she wanted to be seen by anyone, but because she wanted her feat to be witnessed by as many eyes as possible.
The next few opponents were none of particular note. Sunmi’s next five matches seemed to churn the flow of the first one. While not all of them could be talked out of trying, all of them could be bested. The ones who knew that were more than happy to roll over her. After all, if all she was going to do was run to the top of the ladder anyway, it didn’t seem to be in the best interest of anyone to make a real effort to fight her if they valued their form. With a fighter like Sunmi, it was clear to anyone who wasn’t a total novice; she was toying with this place. Why was unclear, though. If anyone knew her name, they knew her fondly. This felt like an odd thing to be doing at all for the patissier, but the more familiar people were able to discern what this was. Maybe not in certain terms, but the more you knew about the city’s whispers, the more you knew what this was indicative of. And so for all sorts of reasons, people seemed content to allow business to go on as usual. The aura she’d curated after all had shaped this sort of behavior.
“Oh, it’s Sunmi?”
“She’s gonna break that record.”
“She’s finally making her move?”
“Does that mean Gukkebi isn’t with her?”
“I’ll put a thousand on the girl! Fuck it! She’s hot!”
“Is that the chick who runs the free noodle place? Let’s go, lady!”
“Oh shit, we should go after this, hey?”
This pulse. It was so fun and familiar. Why on earth was it here? What person saw fit to divest themselves of the city and set up in the middle of nowhere? As Sunmi fought her way through the fodder, she found her answer in the seventh opponent. “Oh! Well, would you look at that. I thought Jiji put you in a pot? That girl’s so sloppy.”
Before the sheepie patissier stood a behemoth of a woman. Covered head to toe in a patchwork of synthetic dermal adhesives and whatever skin of hers they could retain. “Nah, she’s an ace. Thank the gods for Saniderm, I suppose. What are you doing here, lady? I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong, opening up my little slice of something out here somewhere.” While the lynx started on her pontification, Sunmi reached into her sleeve and pulled out another tightly wound stack of poly and walked it over into the corner. Same as she’d done with every fight before her, smoking her vape as she walked to and fro. “No, no, don’t stop on my account. I’m just–” The lynx lunched at the sheepish young woman, who rose an arm to casually brush aside the strike of the beastly ex-mercenary. “Ah, okay! So this is personal? I didn’t think you were this hot on Jiji~! I can totes introduce you if that’s what this is about! My phone’s in here some–” And another lunge from Ryuujin, double as fast as the last one. Though Sunmi didn’t seem to be concerned, as she’d effortlessly graze the strike of the lynx, who seemed to be well acquainted with the combat style. “Tch, you’re not gonna take the bite? Lame. If you’re gonna be in my place, at least follow my damn rules!” The final strike from Ryuujin was blindingly fast, and so fast that Sunmi was unable to see it coming, but it was something of a blessing that she didn’t have to. With some simple dancing and the very simple practice of opening her ears and listening, Sunmi was able to hear the strikes hunting for her heart. “So listen, Miss Ryuujin. I wanna talk about your denizenship, if you’re not opposed to that.” Though it certainly felt as though the lynx had no plans of making peace with anyone. As the patissier rose her foot to parry aside the strike coming from the enraged lynx, she couldn’t help but smile, much to Ryuujin’s immediate dismay.
“Fuck off, wouldja? What’s the problem!?” Ryuujin asked, striking out against Sunmi with wild slashes of her claws in the form of ferocious punches and murderous kicks. Each blow that didn’t find its target pushed forward massive gusts of wind, and when Sunmi felt confident enough in her positioning and posturing to parry a blow, the ensuing clash shook the very ground under them. The crowds started to sway with the punches and kicks. Cheering for whomever they saw as the best of the exchange. What started as a series of soft glancing blows and knelt dancing from Sunmi became more dedicated dodging, parrying, and overall commitment to the fight. She’d started to see the spirit in Ryuujin’s assault and felt confident enough in her own will to meet whatever she’d seen in these strikes. These claws and fangs are grasping at a place to hold dominion over. “Poor thing,” Sunmi thought as she started to match the lynx blow for blow. No longer dodging her at all, but blocking and parrying every strike. Her destructive power sourced the form of tight explosive crashes of her fists into Ryuujin’s frame whenever she might see the space in a counter or pull on the lynx in such a way that she might inspire an opening to create itself.
“Hm…You’re not that bad, actually. At least, I don’t wanna call you that! I kinda like you, Jennie!”
“What the hell do I care how you feel about me, witch!” Ryuujin snapped, crushing the earth under her as she ran towards Sunmi, who had uncharacteristically planted herself in place after renaming the beast of a woman. The pair finally met, and it concussively sent waves through the building. Pushing on its attendees and its walls in equal measure. Ryuujin’s power was never up for discussion, of course. It was simply that what Bellona’s Fang needed from her was the subjection of a people who were already quite happy to follow the rule of law. Sunmi knew nothing of the forest that Ryuujin wardened over, only the peaceful place she’d left behind. As the pair clashed, the moment felt like an eternity, and in that eternity, Sunmi took a moment to think about what she was doing and why she was doing it at all.
‘Jiji didn’t let you stay…I wonder why.’
This was the mantra that hummed endlessly as the pair deftly traded blows. While the crowd cheered and the walls rattled, the fighters themselves became understandably silent.
Each strike did feel real. Sunmi wasn’t in a position to deny the woman’s power. What she did not feel, though, piqued her curiosity. Consistently, Ryuujin’s punches landed off-rhythm. It was a subtle thing, but she could feel in each connecting strike, be it block or parry, it was being thrown out of order. As if her body, in its post-sashimiification state by way of Gukkebi, she couldn’t move her body correctly. This was a flaw in her style that was either a result of her injuries or a result of a poor martial art. And for Sunmi, at current, she still couldn’t tell. It felt almost unfair to judge the home she’d loved so dearly by its biggest hurdle of an old age, but she was…At least a little curious. On one of the few respites that Ryuujin gave herself in this blinding rush, Sunmi could help that she’d softly begin to smile. Though perhaps a little too widely, as it would always renew Ryuujin’s assault. And each time, Sunmi couldn’t help feeling like a child. As if she were stalking a partner’s old ex. Her face took on a red hue at the thought, and this look of flustered dismay only excited the hungry lynx.
Each punch that Ryuujin threw, she wanted her fist to land on Sunmi’s frame in a way that would unravel at the blow, but it seemed nearly impossible for anyone to comfortably gain an inch in the exchange. At least, this is what the lynx felt. Her fists crashed with against firm limbs, or nothing at all. As far as Ryuujin was concerned, though, this was her fight to win. The pace of the blows began to increase more and more as she went on. Fighting without a moment’s consideration for the reality where her blows didn’t land and rip a hole through this would. She knew it was close. If she punched harder, if she kicked faster, if she could close her fist fast enough. But it always seemed just out of her grasp, but it never seemed so far above her that it was impossible. The fight that she’d win here would be the one that allowed her access back into the forest. This sheepie patissier’s head should be the pass back into the battlefield. That’s what she truly felt in her heart, and it was that bloodlust that tinged her flaws and filled her eyes with the wide intoxication of the hunt. As far as she was concerned, this prey was all that there was, and perhaps all that there might ever be again.
As time went on, and blows were traded back and forth, what became more and more obvious to Sunmi was just how much she’d been outpacing Ryuujin. Not in explosive strength or anything like that, but in the way that she’d stopped dodging entirely, choosing instead to take the moments where she might dodge to instead offer a firm strike with the fist, elbow, shoulder, or whatever of her eight extremities were best for the moment. It was a fight, after all. And inso being a fight, Sunmi’s zeal seemed to be fading. What started up as a boiling disgust of what this place was had manifested itself in a way where, instead, she was left to be the executioner of a long-dead monster. With a quick combination, Sunmi put space between the two of them and tucked her hands behind her back. Very much with no defenses up to speak of, and that much was clear to Ryuujin, whose mind was very much losing itself to the joy of an honest fight. Sunmi’s eyes even started to waver from her opponent in her disengagement.
“Jennie, can I ask…Not that you’ll answer. You…Think you have a chance here? For reals?”
“Of course I do! If I’m alive, there’s a chance to win! I’m no coward!”
“And…Winning to you, it’s–”
There was no time to clarify. In a flash, Ryuujin closed the gap between her and Sunmi. Faster even than Sunmi should have been able to react in any other moment. But in this one, it was not all that difficult to suss out who it was that this lynx was in the deepest parts of her heart. Not that such revelations made her a worse person, only that they made her plain. As she reached Sunmi in a second, she threw the last honest punch she’d throw of the match. Everything that Ryuujin believed had made it into her fist, and Sunmi felt it all. No matter the truth of the matter.
The patissier sighed as she felt the full weight of a broken warrior’s body in the palm of her hand. The pride that she’d felt, the shards of ego sticking out through her clenched fists, the sorrow at being defeated in a place she thought herself to be queen, Sunmi felt it all when she’d taken that punch to the face. It was all there, and it was everything that Ryuujin had to attack with. Unfortunately, though, when those soft golden eyes looked at her, Ryuujin’s body seemed to shudder. “I want you gone because I think you are in the way of people bigger and better than you, Jennie. That’s my issue.” The distance between the pair now was nothing, and so when Sunmi drove her fist into the massive woman, it was with precision and little immediate spectacle that Ryuujin fell rather harmlessly to the floor, and the ring announcer started on with their counting. Sunmi knelt down, stroking the dingy white hair of the seemingly incapacitated lynx. “I don’t think you’d have a chance of being me in a million years. You don’t actually believe in anything, whereas I…I think all I have is what I believe. So maybe next time, huh? Come to the arena I’m opening in town. We’ll rematch.”
As the announcer called the ten count, the crowd erupted in an uproar. The fighting pit’s champion had been beaten, and Sunmi couldn’t help but be impressed with the caliber of the fight. It would have been unfair to imply that she was never against the ropes at any point, but it would be equally unfair to suggest to anyone that this was as fair as two women going to war. In truth, Sunmi’s victory was less of a possibility and more of an eventuality. The outcome was obvious to some in the beginning, and to others as the bout went on. While Sunmi had always known, only the more seasoned among them could be able to discern this outcome. So while Sunmi’s overexaggerated yawns and deep post-fight stretches seemed a lot like posturing, most of it was that she’d simply been taking the slower path to the end of the fight the entire time. And inso doing, she had exhausted herself. “Ahhh, okay! So what do I win? She’s final boss, right? My prize, please~?”