When the taxi stopped before the stadium, I concluded the transaction with the driver and rapidly jumped out of the vehicle. Just to fall straight to the ground, being harder than I imagined to walk with only one leg when there’s no close wall to lean against.

Fuck! Even if I have to crawl there, I’ll make it! I thought, clenching my teeth (giving up on biting my lower lip already) and doing exactly like I said.

This if I don’t be trampled to death before I reach the grandstand… I thought again, seeing the enormous amount of people waiting in line at the place, and the crowd that was still in it’s way to the line. Drawing a straight red line bellow me, I punched everyone that came too close with their feet; Heavy, you liar! You never planned to come back to me and, still have the courage to try to pretend to be the cool guy?! I thought, watching my little brother sitting on the edge of the tower and, depressed, talk with the upper class.

Scaring a fucking no one almost to death, the guy reaching to his heart and jumping after I bit his leg, I, slowly, yet bravely, made my way to the line of thousands and the short metallic fence outlining it, where I supported myself and somehow managed to keep upright. Though, I wasn’t even close to entering the arena, and even if I came to do so, what was I expecting to do? How could I reach him?

Advertisement seemed to be losing his cool while Heavy was telling his story, as well as the viewers, those stupid retards whose opinion changed from one second to another, who were all claiming how amazing Heavy had been until now, just to start to attack him every way possible.

My good hand; the right one without responding to my commands very well, not closing nor putting not near enough strength in its loose grip; involved the metallic fence tightly, so much that I felt that my bones could break.

“You say ‘precious’, hu? Yeah, I think this is pretty accurate: see, there’s someone who’s precious for me” Said Heavy, and the organizers of the Tournament allowed the viewers to listen to him, finally putting an end to the shameful orchestra trying too hard to divert the public attention from the anticlimactic development.

“She’s a Worker, like me: my sister. When I had just completed one year old and should begin to work, I got sick, when my father threw me away. I knew where my sister lived, then I staggered an entire day to her house and asked for help just before close my eyes. And, to my surprise, she did help me! She paid for my expansive treatment even tough almost starved for it, and even let me live with her. Since then, she has been my hero...”

You stupid little brother. I- I’m not the person you think I’m... I just helped you for my own sake, I pretended to be the sweet sister for my own sake, I…! I wanted to mold you in who you into some kind of fan, know how it is to be loved. Even when you said you would save me in the hospital, and after two entire years living with you, I thought “ah, now, this is the payoff of all this effort!”... I’m, actually, cold, manipulative, and selfish.

“...But, recently, she got a new job: paid better, but it was really dangerous. And, of course, the worst happened, why she’s waiting in the hospital right now, and why I entered this stupid tournament… Why I killed so many innocent people”

I’m was the one responsible for all this suffering, for your suffering...

“Mercury! You’re there, right? Watching this. Then, I want you to know: I wish that my sister keep 25% of the consolation prize, and the rest to be distributed between the families and friends of everyone who died here today! I know. I know that what I did is unforgivable. I know that this won’t bring anyone back, but… grant me at least this last selfish wish…!”

This… is all my fault. I thought, resting my useless right hand on my hart; tears were washing my blood-covered face that only made people look away, uncomfortable. The line hadn’t moved a single centimeter.

I created his love, but, before I could tell, started to love him back. I finally understood it.

And, then, killed him.

Even though then the audience watching Heavy had, once again, raised its voice in his side; confused, take out off-balance, thinking it was being fooled, but, still looking up to him, as a victim saved from certain death looking to the face of its savior right after face the endless darkness, still too shocked to understand what had just happened, and happened too fast, but knowing from the bottom of its heart that it had been rescued, that there was hope out there; even though I had been saved already, and probably would be able to live in luxury for all eternity if I was wise enough, I felt as if the ground had vanished from bellow my feet, and fell to the floor once again, powerless.

It wasn’t a hard battle for Heavy, he would just, simply, give up and die. Ah… nothing else matters, I knew. Rich or not, how could I go back to that empty world? Encircled from all sides, yet… alone. Just a target, a step from someone else, a number. How could I find myself strong enough to face this reality again after I had experienced this feeling? After see myself being this valued?

Messages of alert popped into my vision, my heart beats strange, too much of the wrong chemicals being released into my brain, but I couldn’t care anymore. Color and even form were vanishing while I felt myself stand at the line for so long that my body took root there. Even the sounds were becoming more and more distant, when I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder:

“Hey, you”, said a big man with a serious face. “Our company is at people’s side, so crippled are forbidden to wait in line: I have to ask you to retire or enter the stadium immediately, or else, I’ll have to use force to kick you out off here”, he concluded, reaching for the pistol at his waist; and just then I noticed his staff shirt.

“Ah- Ah! Ta- take me in, please! Take me to the stadium!” I asked, wiping my tears and blood-covered face into my sleeves.

“Hey, that’s not fair! Just because she’s a fucking potato she can watch the show while everyone else has to wait?!”, questioned a random piece of shit that God has created, apparently, only to delay even more my walk to Heavy.

The staff member was already lending me a shoulder, when he took the gun out off the holster and shot the random guy, this last one being throw so high in the air and so far away that his limp body fell in the giant gap between endless walls and where the flying vehicles transported peoples and things:

“Our company is doesn’t tolerate insults against burdens to society”

Escorted, I had my way in easily, the other staff member who tried to sell me a medkit being an exception, and, soon, the big man, had let me leaning against the entrance, was going back to the enormous line.

And I saw another obstacle ahead, and in the form of a wall of flesh, so many people inside that there wasn’t a single shoulder who wasn’t being compressed against another.

“Heavy…!” I said, taking a deep breath, seeing my little brother, thru the transmission, being butchered by Advertisement, who was throwing him from one side to another like a dog or a kid with a toy. “Heavy!” I jumped into the crowd, swimming against it. If I fall to the ground, I’ll absolutely be trampled to death! Somehow the pressure coming from all sides kept me standing up, actually, a bit away from the ground and a head above everyone else. “Heavy!” I kept using both my hands, even though the right one couldn’t grip with enough strength to pull me. “Heavy!” I screamed. One last time, suddenly falling, seeing thousands of heads and shoulders vanishing in a blur, being replaced by images of legs, ankles, and, finally, all those people’s feet soles.

Ah… I was so close, all that weight was coming to me, almost touching my face, neck, and single leg.

When a boy looking too young and exhibiting orange hair stopped every single one of them with his own body, standing God only knows how many people’s weight in his own back. Looking straight into my eyes, showing only surprise, he said:

“You… was calling ‘Heavy’, weren’t you?”

“Do- Do you know my little brother? Wah!” I screamed, being pulled up in an instant. Looking back; seeing myself curved into almost a ball, the hairs of my entire body all spiky, like a scared cat; I took a glimpse of a tall woman with a single red eye lifting me with one arm.

“So, you are his sister, hm? Well, we have no time to waste, right?” she threw me on her shoulder, like a lifeless sack. Without any effort, she made her way thru the crowd with surprisingly easy, pushing those in her path as an unstoppable tank.

“What do you plan to do, Aim?! Make her watch closely her brother death?!”, asked the orange-haired boy.

“Don’t be stupid, Star: I’ll make her talk with him. Maybe she can do what we failed to when training him, and change his mind this way”

“Do you think he can win?” I asked, tears coming to my eye again. No, wait, what am I talking about?! If I didn’t think that he could win from the begging, what was the point for me coming all the way to here? I said to myself. Yet, I waited for that woman’s reply:

“It’s… not impossible. There’s no such a thing as 100% chance of loss or victory in a real battlefield”, she answered, frowning her red eyebrows.

“Oh, yeah? But how do you plan to make her voice reach him?”

“However is running this show must be as despaired as us: what do you think will happen to him if the upper class down there get out of here bored? Just take one of the cameras flying above us and bring it here”, explained the woman with red-eye and hair, extending the boy an open hand.

“...Got it, captain”, he replied, tying a scarlet band on his forehead, his eyes changing to red, his expression becoming serious, and jumping at the tall woman’s hand, who threw him easily half a dozen meters high. The boy moved his hands too fast, grabbed something, and when he fell back to the ground, the tall woman was already putting me the closest possible to the arena. I could see Advertisement lifting Heavy up: he looked like had lost his patience.

“Here: I already explained the situation”, the orange-haired boy said, heading me a metallic sphere as big as the tip of my fingers. “If the Tournament organizers will really do something, thoug-!” he saw himself be interrupted when the sphere started to shine in a blinding bright white light, and an extremely loud whistle sounded.

I immediately took the sphere and shouted:

“Will you just destroy everyone’s life and runway, HEAVY?!”

Even if your victory chance is just a fraction of a laughable hypothesis, I won’t let you just die! I won’t stand here and see you disappear from my life! I’ll make you fight back and I’ll see you win this stupid Tournament!

“Do you really think this is for any good?!”

I can do this, because, Heavy, I know you! The words are just coming out of my mouth by themselves, as easy as it could be, and I know that it’s exactly what I have to tell you to change your mind.

“Do you think we’re a bunch of whores?! That you can just throw us a few bucks and go away?! Do you really think that…! That your death would make us better than if you keep living and dedicating yourself to make this a better world?!”

That you want everyone to be happy, that you love me, but want to share this love with the world too.

“...If you just give up now, Heavy...”

...Yet, let me fool myself, and think that I have a special place in your heart, okay?

“… I’ll kill myself..”