act12side

You told me to decide.

Hold on.

Er... alright, then, LUNG wRATh! Now, here to give you your awards for making it out of the prelims, we have Mr. Pancho!

I see Candela brought us two incredible young ladies.

You know us?

Who doesn't know how the Mayor welcomed two young Lungmenites?

Ernesto, you've been dutiful with our guests, haven't you?

It's an undertaking from Ms. Candela herself, Father. Of course I'm doing all I can.

Fine, good.

This is your father?

I am.

Here's your award. Take it.

A pure gold statue...

You get this sort of award just for beating a prelim?

Yes. Remember where you are. This is the Dossoles way.

You have your fun, youngsters.

Thank you...

Alright, we're all looking forward to LUNG wRATh's performance in the official championship!

Haaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa! Missy, did you hear that? LUNG wRATh, haaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa!

Laugh a little quieter, I dare you.

You have to see the pout on Miss Lin's face. Ch'en totally came up with that name on the spot.

No, forget that! What is Ch'en Hui-chieh doing here too? The nerve of the woman! And they entered together! Did the little rat only even come because she knew Ch'en would be here?

Heh heh heh, you've got guts, Lin Yühsia, keeping all this from me...

Hey, Missy. Don't get carried away.

You said it was Chief Wei who arranged Lin Yühsia's business here. So it follows that Ch'en's here for the Chief too... right?

Fine... I guess you've got a point.

Also... may as well suggest it. Miss Lin's here, and so's Ch'en. Let's go say hi?

Hmph... I have an even better plan.

The two of them teamed up to join the competition, right? Perfect.

The whole championship's going to be broadcast live from start to finish. Let's hold off on saying hello. We'll watch them compete, and then when they lose, we'll go laugh in their faces.

Ha, now you hate Ch'en too, on top of everything.

Hmph. She came here on a vacation without so much as a word. Aren't you pissed off?

You know, I'm glad Ch'en's doing well. Words can't express how happy I am for her.

Ugh, are we speaking different languages here? Agree with me or not, come on.

I'm your bodyguard here. Your word is law.

That's more like it.

Not my fault if we run across them though, okay?

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

Hey, look! They're the ones who just won the scrimmage preliminaries, right?

Keep it up, LUNG wRATh! You've got me on your side already!

Well, then, I'll just...

Ernesto, in this city, I've noticed a lot of military personnel.

Your intuition's on the mark. The truth is, not everyone's allowed into Dossoles.

If you want to come vacation here, you need to have enough money. If you want to come live here, you need even more money.

In Bolívar, the second-best way to make money is temp jobs, and the best, most profitable one—is serving.

Was your father a soldier too?

The old man sure used to be. I remember he made full colonel.

That's pretty high up.

I guess you want to ask why he'd come here.

I admit I'm curious.

There's nothing much to say. He's majorly stubborn, thinks about nothing but war all day, and doesn't like kissing up to bosses. He got falsely charged, and then driven out of the army.

Sorry.

Save it. I think he's dull enough for a lifetime too.

He doesn't have a big enough fist, and what does he stand up straight all day like that for?

...I suppose.

I thought you'd argue back.

I do want to, but ultimately I don't know this place, or really Bolívar as a whole.

I can say the old man's been pretty good since coming here, or I'd have never been able to work under the Mayor.

Come to think of it, the two of you have been in Dossoles for two days now. Any thoughts on the city so far?

Corrupt.

Stinks to high heaven.

It seems we're of a mind, for once.

Now that's funny. I was sure any guests the Mayor invited here would love it.

What about you?

Me? I love this place, naturally.

You never need to think about the world outside. As long as you have money, you can play, from sun-up to sun-down, and then from sun-down back to sun-up.

I don't know how you live in Lungmen, but I can't imagine there's a better life than here.

Is that so.

Forget that for now... Is this whole competition as heavy on full-contact as the scrimmage just now?

Ah! Yes.

I don't know if you have anything similar over there, but in this competition, the courses are designed for physical contests.

But of course, the people aren't here for a simple stamina match.

Most everyone is chasing a thrill. What they really want to see is the kind of fight you two put on. Stuff that gets their hearts pumping.

So in other words, we go out there to amuse the people.

Hahaha! You could put it that way.

This is utterly senseless.

I'm in agreement with you there, but nothing changes the fact that we're taking part. Let's be prepared.

Sorry, Ernesto, but we'll be asking you to explain more about the format of the competition.

Sure thing.

First things first, do you know of a weapons vendor anywhere?

I do. You're in the market?

If the combat holds up like it just did, I might need a change of arms, at the least.

In that case, come with me. This isn't an open-air kind of topic, anyway.

Come in, please.

You own this shop?

That's right. It's just the place you're looking for.

I've opened a handful of these stores throughout the city. Call it an income stream.

We carry all sorts of weapons, as a matter of course, but can I ask, why are you looking to change, Miss Ch'en?

My sword isn't that suited to competitive stuff like this.

Hm... Honestly, the blade you carry doesn't pose any kind of problem.

There's a mountain of competitors with weapons and tricks a whole lot worse than that up their sleeves. Swords aren't high on the danger scale.

Which is to say: even if you don't use yours, others will use theirs.

Doesn't matter. I'm not good with mercy.

Just give me something that won't do too much damage to a human body.

Well, in that case... try a high-pressure water gun like this.

A water gun?

Oh, it's a fairly specialized weapon. Fires high-pressure water rounds, hits hard, but won't cause major injury.

Do you know how to work a crossbow?

I've never used one in the field, but I didn't do bad on my shooting course.

Let's give it a try.