Ryu couldn’t deny it. When the prospect of playing with a cute schoolgirl was posed, his first thought was “YES!”. So now he was standing in the figurative gladiator pit strapping trackers onto his feet with a headset resting on his forehead.

“Are you ready?” said the girl opposite him.

Ryu still didn’t know her name, and he felt too awkward to ask with all these people around.

“Yeah,” said Ryu.

The girl pulled down her headset, and Ryu did the same. His vision was replaced by that of a boxing arena, albeit it was noticeably fake. Ryu spoilt by now that he’d seen what true VR could look like. His opponent, still wearing red, stood before him.

“Have you played before?” said the girl.

“Only in VR,” said Ryu.

“Well this is very different.”

The girl put up her fists.

[Raise your fists to begin]

Ryu looked down at his hands, closing them and opening them to get a feel for the controls.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, please, take your time,” said the girl.

Ryu held back his rebuttal and raised his fists.

[3…]

[2…]

[1…]

*DING*

The girl vanished from Ryu’s vision, and less than a second later he fell to the ground as he was swept off his feet. Momentarily immobilised, all he could do was roll as the girl stabbed her foot at him as if it was a weapon - and with how swiftly she did it, Ryu was starting to believe it was.

“You’re really gonna-” Ryu dodged another kick, “-kick a guy when he’s down?”

The kicks stopped and Ryu took the chance to get up, after which the first thing he saw was a fist flying straight for his head.

The fist seemed slow now, in fact everything seemed slow. This wasn’t the first time Ryu had experienced such a sensation, but now he had an idea what might be going on. Dot was the culprit. His brain, which was the only reasonable place Dot could reside, was working so fast that the world seemed slow in comparison.

Dot couldn’t control him, not here, in the real world, but it could tell him what to do. Like when it told him what to type the actions were there, at the forefront of his mind. Ryu began to step to the side, and in the next instant the fist flew past his ear.

The girl backed off,.

“Not bad” said the girl, as Ryu charged at her.

Before he had even reached the girl Dot changed its mind and Ryu was back on the defensive, dodging by a hair's breadth as the girl threw punches and kicks in his direction.

Even if he could think faster, it made no difference if his body was to slow to actually take advantage of it. The most he could do was dodge against this gung-ho kung fu fighting maiden as he waited for an opening, which he was becoming less and less sure would come.

Time went on and Ryu’s movements got slower, but so did the girls. His stamina wasn’t great. It was no surprise, playing video games all day tended to do that. So he was lucky that the girls attacks were slowing down as well. Whether it was because she played games all day or because she’d expended more energy on the offensive, he wasn’t too sure.

“Aren’t you gonna… attack me?” said the girl, huffing.

She jumped back, putting distance between the two of them as she rested. Dot began screaming in his head to attack with such an opportunity, and truth be told he was tired of being told to dodge over and over again.

Ryu charged, and as he did so it occurred to him just how elementary Dot’s fighting style was. There was no foresight or planning, just reacting to what was happening around him. He had all this time because his charge was nowhere near as swift or surprising as he thought it was. It was closer to a quick jog.

“Seriously?” said the girl, putting up her fists.

Ryu could see it coming. Dot was going to tell him to stop and get on the defensive any second now-

It took Ryu a moment to realise what that meant, and immediately after he put all energy in his legs and jumped, throwing his character's weight at the girl. The two of them collided and collapsed to the ground, Ryu on top. His hand opened like one of those crane machines and descended on her neck, closing around it.

*DING*

[Player 2 wins]

Ryu removed his headset and looked at the girl who was doing the same.

“Good game,” said Ryu, huffing.

The girl looked Ryu in the eye, her breaths were shallow and rough, and she placed her hands on her hips as she rested. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a fight like that before,” said the girl.

“Sorry, should I have stopped?” said Ryu, scratching his hair.

The girl waved her right hand at Ryu, telling him to wait as she settled her breaths.

“No, it’s just… it’s like you were trying to kill me.”