The train ride was pretty short to get there from the restaurant. I couldn’t believe that Amaya basically lived downtown. Her two-bedroom condo was just a few blocks away from the John Hancock building, one of my favorite towers in Chicago, but it’s mostly because I just liked the taller buildings in general.

Hanging out with them made me feel so much more mature and cooler. No one else in my high school was spending time with older people like that. None of my peers owned a condo in Chicago, nor did they have many friends who were in college. I was sure to avoid saying anything dumb or immature. I took it as an opportunity to stay relatively silent and follow Darren’s lead. He had a good head on his shoulders and I respected it. People said I was mature for my age, but Darren had some more insight and wisdom.

Amaya’s home was beautiful. We walked into a clean modern kitchen, all of the appliances were black and chrome. The counter was black granite. Then there was a dining section, a modest table that could seat four people easily. And a living room with a cozy loveseat and a chair on each side, with a dark wooden end table. The TV set was massive, and it was brand new. She had an entertainment center with surround sound speakers. In the black wooden stand, front and center, there was the Arakan Sphere, but it was a special edition. One that was rumored to exist that only was released in Japan. It was black with pinstripes (when ordinarily they came in various colors).

“Wow, that’s the pinstripe sphere, huh? It exists after all?” I uttered.

“Ha, you’re right. That’s the one and only,” Amaya said.

Darren and Wyatt sat on the loveseat and leaned forward, ogling at the special edition Arakan Sphere.

“I didn’t even know that was a thing,” Wyatt said, and Amaya chuckled.

“It’s beautiful,” Darren said.

“How did you get your hands on it?” I asked.

“Well, it happened after the first time we won the Miami tournament. I actually went to Japan that summer and stayed with my relatives; I practiced with some of the better players there.”

“Isn’t there only one other player in the top eight from Japan? 75K?” Wyatt asked.

“Yup, that’s right,” Amaya said.

“Since the top eight people run in their own circle, do you know where some of those guys came up with their name? I mean, it’s obvious with some people, but what’s up with Dayzees? Why did he select that?”

Amaya shook her head. “I think it’s kinda silly but he wanted to be named Dayzees because daisies are a funeral flower and he wanted to have his matches be very metaphorical. So basically, each match against him is the opponent’s funeral. And he’s the one personally who’s giving you the funeral flowers.”

“That’s so dumb,” I said.

“Wow. That’s actually ice cold. I love it,” Wyatt said.

Darren just shook his head. “I have no comment.”

“Okay but what about a player like 75K? Don’t get me wrong, I think it sounds cool, but why? Is there something I’m missing?” Wyatt asked.

We all looked at him incredulously, but I had to remind myself that Wyatt was a casual observer of the game. He didn’t know the legend of 75K. I couldn’t fault him for it.

“Are you serious?” Darren asked.

Amaya was sitting in one of the armchairs, but she leaned in closer to talk to Wyatt. ”So, 75K got his name before starting the professional tournament scene. He actually released a YouTube video of himself playing a match of EC where he was playing as Soul-Steel, his main. Somehow the game had this rare glitch occur that has never been able to be re-created or seen again. According to his story, he was practicing against the computer, who was Plasma-Manticore, and he was Soul-Steel. Then suddenly, he pulled off this combo but then it started looping constantly. Since the match doesn’t end until the combo is finished, the glitched combo kept going until he hit 75,000 hits in a combo. Since he was just casually playing, he didn’t record the video until 200 combo hits were in, letting it play out. For some reason, as soon as it hit 75,000, the game froze. Allegedly.

“I remember showing my dad that video to see if he knew what may have happened. Apparently, Arakan looked into the coding deeper but couldn’t find any bug. To this day, the combo has never been re-created, apparently. It was just some rare one-off thing. In my opinion, though, and my dad’s, we think 75K may have been playing a hacked version of the game that he did himself. Or maybe he installed something weird on his Arakan Sphere, or maybe his Arakan Sphere has something wrong with it. Not completely sure, and 75K doesn’t know either. I’ve even asked him myself. He’s one of my favorite people in the top eight, probably my favorite. A super down-to-earth guy, and he’s a sweetheart.”

“Wow, now I have to watch this video. Thank you for telling me. And you’re right, I’ve met 75K, and he was really nice to me. I thought he was cool. I played against him two years ago at the Chicago tournament,” Wyatt said.

“Oh no way, how fun. How’d you do?”

“Well, I’m not in the top eight, right?” Wyatt snickered.

“Ah, understand. I think all of you guys have a shot at being really good. Like, top eight-level, good.”

“The three of us?” Darren asked. “Nah, no way. Maybe Wyatt, but the three of us? We still have a lot of work to do.”

“That’s what I mean. If you guys can get better, I don’t know. The sky’s the limit. I truly feel like it should be the top sixteen because many of the guys rotate into the top spot sometimes at other tournaments. People learn things about others, and they change their playing strategies or even the main characters.”

Darren, Wyatt, and I sat there, digesting what Amaya had told us.

“Why don’t I give you guys the tour? I can also show you my collection in the other room!” Amaya stood up, and the rest of us followed her lead.

She had a hallway connecting two rooms, a bathroom, and a walk-in closet-type space with a washer and dryer. We walked into the first room on the left, an impressively large room with a twin bed in the corner and a massive three-monitor set up for a computer. Off to the side of the room, there was a glass case filled with colored, special edition ENControllers and others that looked normal, along with older, rarer Arakan games.

“Wow, this case is amazing. I appreciate the love for all of the older and rarer games. I always wanted to play some of these, but they were never released in the States,” I said with Darren and Wyatt marveling by my side.

“Maybe we can play them some time,” Amaya said.

“How come in the case at the bottom you have a can of Dust Gone?” Wyatt asked, and when I looked at the bottom shelf again, I noticed it.

“They’re actually my first sponsor believe it or not. Many people use their product to clean their gaming systems or their computers.”

“Whoa,” I uttered, “that’s so cool.”

“So, do you guys want to play some EC?” Amaya asked.

The three of us paused and looked at each other and performed a tandem nod like we did at the restaurant.

“Although, there was something I wanted to ask you that we didn’t get to talk about at brunch. How come you don’t want to do the Miami tournament this year?” I asked.

The smile on Amaya’s face had disappeared, which made me regret asking the question.

“Honestly, you guys may think I’m stupid or crazy, but I actually have some pretty bad anxiety. The combination of stepping away from Dayzees’ team, the massive crowd that watches the event, the pressure of assembling a team, and the public scrutiny that happens with that—“

“Uh, you can have us as your team,” I said. Why did I say that? What was I doing! I could feel Darren and Wyatt cringe behind me.

Amaya shook her head. “I know, and I’m totally aware of that, but please, I can’t play this year. I hope you guys understand that it’s a lot of pressure for me, and when I have horrible anxiety, I’m not myself. My head goes into a different world, and I can’t function the same. I don’t want to go there unless I’m comfortable, and at the moment, I’m not. I can’t tell you the amount of shit I received from fans after I departed Dayzees’ team. I mean, I’ve never received a death threats before, but after that happened, I was flooded with them.”

I was beginning to regret coming to her house, but I had to know, and she said she was an open book. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Darren echoed.

“Same,” Wyatt pitched in.

“I hope you guys understand. It already sucks because my sponsors are not happy, but they understand. I’ve shown them all of the hate mail I received. I told them I would try and be at the New York tournament, but there were no guarantees. I want to wait and see how I’ll feel a few months from now. Until then, I will add some videos of me playing a game or something on YouTube, and I can plug my sponsors then and make them happy,” Amaya said.

“If you don’t mind me asking, who are all of your sponsors?” Darren asked.

“Dust Gone and that really popular indie game, Techa. Oh, and I almost forgot, my biggest one, ENControl.”

“Whoa!” I blurted. “That would be like a dream to get sponsored by them. Is that how you got all those rare ENControl controllers?”

Amaya’s lip curled up. “You guessed it. Yeah, almost everyone I know loves their controllers, so I was happy too when they reached out to me. They’re good people at that company. Anyways, shall we start Crushin’?”

The rest of the day was a perfect Sunday. I couldn’t believe I was playing with Amaya at first, but after playing a few games against her, my starstruck response wore off. My nerves settled like a hot pot of tea taken off the stove. My performance as Golden-Bow improved the more games I played. I was still getting my butt kicked by Amaya, and so was Darren and Wyatt, but I felt a difference in my playing style for the better.

The hours flew by, and then we played one-on-one matches, doubles matches, and switched partner combos. We even played against the brutal computers because Amaya also had the hack on her game. None of us were successful in winning against the computer except for Amaya. She won about half of her matches.

“Guys, I’m not sure if you know, but all of the players in the top eight get their own copy of a special edition EC where you can play four on four. The computer also has a raised difficulty because it’s meant for the Miami teams to practice. Would—“

“Yes!” I blurted.

“Oh, I was just going to ask if you wanted to look at the cover. No need to get too excited.”

“Oh. Uh, sure?” I shrugged. Darren and Wyatt frowned; I could tell we all had the same idea.

“I’m just kidding!” Amaya shouted. The three of us forced out dry laughter. “Okay, alright, don’t patronize me here. Would you guys want to play, though? Simulate what the experience is like?”

“Absolutely, I have nowhere to be,” Darren said. “And neither do these boneheads.”

Amaya giggled to herself. “You guys are funny. Who even says boneheads these days?”

She brought out the game case from the cabinet underneath the TV, and it had unique artwork, but it was much simpler than the normal cover. It made sense, though. Why pay for something so expensive even though only 32 other people maximum would mostly be playing it?

The cover was gold and white (whereas the cover for the other game featured the fighters [not the unlock-ables, though] doing a victory pose, almost like a giant group selfie). This cover just featured Golden-Bow aiming his arrow slightly off to the side, although at first glance, it almost looked like it was aiming directly at me.

“Wow, Golden-Bow gets all the love on this cover, huh?” Wyatt said.

“He certainly does. I’d say it was a good omen.” I winked and laughed.

“Hey Amaya, what do you think when you hear the word omen?” Wyatt asked.

“Oh, it’s usually a bad thing,” she said.

“See! I have someone on my side on this one. Darren and Gordie think I’m weird—“

“Yeah, we think you’re weird all right, but it’s not all because of this whole omen thing,” Darren said. Wyatt shot him a glare.

“But you can definitely have a good omen, but on its own, I’d say it’s usually a bad sign,” Amaya said. Darren and I turned to Wyatt and grinned at him.

“Whatever, let’s just play this new version and sit in silence.”