Private Arena Mishaps

Yojo ha'd and hmm'd at the sight of the Acinaces Arena. It looked like the kind of ancient colosseum he'd see in the history books about Rome. The sight of the thing felt fairly jarring for him as he stood there, truth be told. He'd come only to look around and get a feel for the place after hearing about it at the Academy, yet as he stood in front of the main entrance he could not help but feel a sense of awe sweep over him. Being a gladiator wasn't on his list of dreams, but with the opportunity to fight wantonly and not hold back for a change was tempting. Besides, experience in gladiatorial blood-matches were good to have on a resume when working for the MCPD, right?

The teen began walking toward the front entrance, only to hear a loud voice pipe up from the parking-lot nearby. "Again! Again!" it shouted excitedly.

He frowned, pausing as his head slowly turned to look at the direction the shout had come from. Narrowing his gaze, Yojo saw a gaggle of Academy students gathered amidst the rows of cars of the Arena parking lot. He could see some of their features a bit, mostly just their heads as they poked above the rows of parked cars. Intrigued but also cautious, Yojo walked toward the group to see what was the matter. When he made his way to them he saw a trio of Vampires egging on what looked like a naga-boy who's snake-body was wrapped tightly around a human girl. "Ack! Okay! Th-That's enough, you win!" she yelled, the naga's body constricting her as she was on the ground. "Come on guys, th-this is starting to hurt!" She said, nervousness and a growing amount of worry becoming prevalent in her voice.

"Oh come on Nat. Lighten up. What happened to wanting to be 'one of the guys'? Don't you know how much we like to fight?- Especially when we drive all the way down here in Reggie's lame-ass pickup truck only to not get tickets to tonight's fight?" The ringleader vampire said, undoing the top few buttons of his school uniform as he spoke, watching as the naga-boy squeezed Nat juuuust a bit harder. Nat gave an exasperated look, one that Yojo could see all too clearly as he squatted down behind a nearby truck, watching events unfold. "W-What the fuck Jack. I fought Daniel and lost. W-what are you talking about? What more do you want?" She said, her eyes widening as she lay there on the ground.

The lead vampire, Jack, smirked. "You still don't get it new girl? Figures. Humans are always the most stupid people on this island, let alone boring..." Jack said, nodding to his two preppy-looking vampire buddies. "This is the Acinaces Arena. We came here looking for blood. If we can't get our fix from watching it get shed in the colosseum, then hopefully a friend like you can help us out. You know, be one of the guys." The student said, his eyes glowing as he stepped closer to Nat, watching as she struggled to break free from the naga's grasp.

Yojo was appalled. He hadn't seen this kind of behavior on Manta Carlos yet as someone who'd moved to the island recently. He'd forgotten that, supernatural or not, sick and twisted people always seemed to be able to find their way into the sun. It was up to him and others to knock them down more than a few pegs until they retreated back to the dark. The teen steeled his nerve, focused on the obscured gaggle of students in the empty parking lot, and emerged from cover.

If these lowlifes wanted a fight, he had no reservations about giving them one!

@Keen

"O-Oh shit!" the naga-boy said as he heard the voice of the newcomer approaching them, his eyes widening in alarm as the spectacle of a cell phone camera staring him down along with Jack and the rest of their borderline-criminal possee of high school delinquents. Yojo appeared out of hiding just as Kon made his presence known, freezing up as the adult's voice rang over the parking lot.

Jack swore loudly, hiding his face in an attempt to conceal his identity. "Shit!" He shouted, pulling out his keys and hopping into the pickup truck that they'd all driven down to the arena in (likely with one of them sitting in the truck bed, how dangerous!). "Hide your faces!" He said, turning on the car and dangeorusly backing up, nearly smacking the naga and Nat as he did so. The other two vampire boys panicked an dissolved into clouds of mist, likely in an attempt to get away without being identified and being reported to the school.

The naga let go of Nat, pulling himself up onto the back of the pickup truck. They were trying to make a break for it!

"I don't think so!" Yojo shouted, moving in front of the pickup truck and blocking their escape route. "Oh shit, oh fuck, oh god" Jack murmured before disappearing into mist, similar to his fellow vampires. At being abandoned, the naga boy swore loudly, "You asshole. Don't leave me!" He shouted.

"I think that's enough of that for now. I'm sure the police are already on their way. If you run now, you'll only make all this harder for yourself!" Yojo warned, walking by the truck bed and giving a stern look at the fellow student. He helped Nat up, "Are you all right, miss?" He asked. The girl gave a smile, "Y-Yeah. Thank you for helping me. I shouldn't have trusted those guys so easily. Gah, I'm such an idiot!" She shouted before sighing all the hot air of her lungs, "Can I use your phone? I want to call a friend to call my roommate and let her know what happened." She asked. Yojo handed over his cell before walking up to the adult that had stepped in.

"Thank you for saying something. I was worried about what might have happened if one of us stayed silent. Did you catch them on film?" He asked, looking at the cell phone Kon held. The melancholic-looking teen gave a tired smile, "I'm Yoshihiro Joe, a student at the academy and, in a few years, hopefully a Manta Carlos police officer." He said, extending his hand to shake the enigmatic stranger's.

Yojo winced a tad as he caught the glare shot at him. It wasn't the best time for an introduction, was it? Hopefully everything could be smoothed over well enough. Now that they had a video of the incident as well as their faces, let alone the license plate number, it was only a matter of sending it over to the police. "Yeah, I gave them a call before I handed her my phone. I think she'll be okay, thankfully." He said, watching as the girl finished up her phone call.

"My roommates on her way to pick me up. I'll just... I'll handle the cops and all that. Its the least I can do to repay the help." The girl said, rubbing her temples a tad before handing Yojo back his phone. Once she noticed Kon, though, her demeanour brightened a tad. "Yoooo, aren't you Konpetiō? Like, the announcer for all the big fights in the arena?" Nat asked, a small smile slipping onto her face. "I can't wait to tell how the bloodsport announcer managed to scare off a bunch of teens with just his voice!" She said with a somewhat nervous chuckle.

Yojo looked back up to the adult that he had somehow gotten himself tangled up with. This was one of the big names of the arena? The teen opted to stay silent for now, he felt a tad out of place at the moment. It was only after the police had come, noted down the incident and gotten a copy of Kon's video that a sense of calm overtook him again.

He'd watch the police cars drive off as well as Nat's friend drive her home, leaving him alone and somewhat caught up in a strange quiet as he stood there in the parking lot.

"So... You really work for this big place?" He asked, trying to ground himself again in the here and the now.

"O-Oh. Well, uhh, I'm sorry in that case." Yojo started, feeling somewhat awkward as the stranger elaborated on what must have been a case of mistaken identity. A toothy grin and short while later though and that feeling quickly disappeared. "Ahh, I see you, uhh, what you did there." He said with a light chuckle that didn't sound humorous so much as 'hahaaaaaa, I want to die inside now'.

Yojo recollected himself enough to nod at Kon's few disclaimers. "Well congrats in that case, both for the promotion and for the anniversary!" He said. God, what would life look like when he had been on Manta Carlos for a full year? He didn't even know what things would look like then.

"What's it like being a commentator? Do you have like a catchphrase that you say when something big happens during a fight?" Yojo asked, in awe of the fighting-related-figure in front of him. He'd watched more than his fair share of wrestling growing up, his knowledge about the fine art of commentating was largely limited to that. "Have you ever seen someone get thrown from a 20 foot high steel cage onto the announce table?" the starry-eyed Yojo asked, brimming with all sorts of politely-savage questions.

"Is it... Is it true that people kill each other here?" He asked, the thought dawning on him slowly. That was a pretty big downer compared to all the other fighting events he could think up.

Yojo didn't seem to notice being on the offensive when it came to asking so many questions. Heck, this kind of stuff was heckin cool! If he hadn't dedicated himself to becoming a detective one day and being a cop, he totally would have been into this sort of thing. He'd seen Russell Crowe's Gladiator enough times to get the general gist for how all this worked. Maybe he was a bit more bloodthirsty than he was admitting to himself.

"Immortals and regenerators... I wish it could just be confined to them. I don't like the idea of mortals throwing their lives away for blood and glory- even though thats metal as heck, man." Yojo thought aloud. Hey, this was a peculiar island. Different strokes for different folks and all that. "Back where I'm from, my strength and durability were always hard for me to test. I'd sneak into the gym late at night and just slap as many weights as I could onto a barbell to guess how strong I was. I imagine nobody who fights here has that problem- pushing their limits I mean." Yojo thought aloud, looking up briefly at the arena before...slowly... an idea dawned on him.


"Hey... You said most of the fights are age-gated, right? That means there are some that under-18s can fight in, yeah? Is there any way to sign up for one of the lower-bracket ones?" The boy asked, the feverish dreams of WWE finishing moves returning to his minds eye. It was arguably a not-so-hot-idea, but hey, it wasn't like he was going to be able to push what his body could do with its physical powers when he was powered down for football practice!