This is surprising. Actually, this might the most surprised I've ever been. I dunno. I just, oh this is [i]weird.[/i] When did my life become so full of princesses? But when I think about them all, and the ones I think about like princesses even though they're technically not, each and every one of them is incredible in a way that seems impossible to copy. Chen has this effortless understanding of swordfights so that it looks like she's fought through the whole duel before you've even challenged her to it, even when you try things you've never done before against her. Rose is strong enough to fight the entire world, feels like, when she wants to be. Not to mention the whole shapeshifting thing, which I've never seen anywhere else even a little bit. And then Yin had her whole Supermax Intensity thing with the chanting and the witchcraft and the glittering secretly-a-bunch-of-tigers knights. Jessic's a [i]dragon![/i] And Hyra's plots are so detailed that she beat [i]both[/i] of them with her brain at least as much as her hands. And I didn't even say a word about Qiu or Keron!

And then there's, y'know, me. If you asked me to pick a thing I've got that I thought could stack against all those amazing girls, I guess I'd maybe say... enthusiasm? I love doing this. I love practicing and training and all the little gritty parts of being on an adventure, and most days I really don't mind losing a fight when I think a lot of other people might. I guess 'cause everybody I fight is already so amazing it'd be silly to feel bad about getting beat by 'em. And, like, I'd like to think I've gotten a lot better than when I was starting and I needed Hyra to teach me how to hold a sword, but I...

I'm nothing special. Y'know? Everything I do is full of silly mistakes, and even when it's not I make it look harder than anybody else. I need five cuts to manage what Chen can do in one. And even on the way up this tower I think I must've almost dropped these poor swords of mine at least a dozen times. That's all I've got. I can work hard to catch up a little bitty bit but I always bobble it at the end. The things I've done, I don't think they could shock anybody unless you count the fact that it's [i]me[/i] doing them. And y'know, like, when your best quality relies on you being kind of a loser, that. Um. I guess it makes me a loser. I mean, somebody's gotta be. Right? It's not like it's a terrible thing to be. But when that clicked the first time it still hurt, because I thought it meant I could never really make it on the level of all these princesses no matter how hard I tried to, and I just couldn't shut my heart off in time. I still wanted it. I still want it, even now. 

And so I... when I came through that glass? I thought that. No, wait. Hold on. I'm about to say something really tricky, and I don't want anybody getting it crossed up. You would have to be the world's biggest dummy to think that Princess Kikil wasn't on the level of the rest of the princesses. I dare you to say that she's not amazingly amazing. Try it. Do. I'll find you. Just look at her world! All those machines, the dance she made them do. The things she made me do. I could [i]never[/i]. Not in a million years with a million books explaining how would I get close. 

But.

She's a princess. And like I said, every princess or princess-like person I've ever met have all been sword demons. So I just assumed that everything that happened down on the streets was building up to an impossible to handle closing act. And she might still have an ultimate move that's gonna rock me in the end. Probably does, actually. But even still. I never thought I'd meet a princess who wasn't the best at swords. I didn't think I'd meet one, let alone duel one, and have her style look like she's trying as hard as I am. I can see the practice and the study in every move she makes. I didn't know princesses actually had to practice, bein' honest with you. She's trying so very hard and I can [i]see[/i] it and. This is so silly. But. But I think she's trying so hard because of me. I think I, I made her do this. I'm making her try. If, no I can't, I can't, I can't ask her about it. But if, if, if! If! Maybe she's shooting me with a laser gun because I made dueling like this look fun to her. Maybe the reason she's not crushing me with a secret super-robot army hidden in the wall panels is 'cause something I did made her think it'd be fun to try it too. Is it even possible she's trying to impress me?

I smile. I absolutely can't help myself. But then I have to duck and find cover in an awful hurry, because as hard as I've been trying to I haven't figured out a good way to block lasers. Eeep! Eeeeeeeeep! Oh gosh, hup! I tilt my head just before I hit the floor and feel my shoulder thump against the wood panel flooring, and I roll up and over onto my feet right into a dive to the safety of that desk she flipped over earlier. Well, the sorta safety. That gun's got so much punch she could shoot right through this thing, or just bounce a shot across her sword and a bit of broken glass and fry my butt where it sits, but at least behind here it's a lot harder for her to see what she's doing. Plus after the window I think she believes in the sacred power of the heroine behind cover in a gunfight. I watch power blast after power blast sail over the desk and splash harmlessly against the wall behind me, and I know for sure. Goshies, what a pro. 

Oh, man! If she's trying this hard, that means I gotta step up my game too! I can't get her this riled up just to disappoint her at the end!

Hokay. This is a moment of truth. If this desk is as heavy as it looks, then Kikil's hiding the strength of a goddess under that mask and I was wrong to think any of the stuff I just did. But if I'm right and we're a bit closer to equals, at least in the field of swordfighting, then this desk will do what I want it to, too. I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I work the massive sword off my back. Then I forget to let that breath go, I'm so nervous. The blade shivers in my hands for reasons that have nothing to do with how heavy it is. But it's time to try. I pop up onto my feet and slam the tip of my sword into the floor, catching it on the edge of the table. And it's a miracle! It flips up into the air to cover me!!

...I'm so grateful for these goggles, you've got no idea. If it weren't for them, Kikil'd know for sure just how much I've started crying. And that'd spoil everything. With a big ol' sniff, I whip around as hard as I can in a full circle and draw the katana at the tail end of the motion, slicing the table in half so cleanly it forgets to split apart. My hands move to my pistols, I guess on instinct, and I find they've got spare clips I didn't notice in a couple of my leg pouches. I give them both a good twirl and shoot them both across my chest, crisscross style as I empty them into the table so that the blasts blow the two ends clear across the room from each other. 

Hokay, Yue! Lightning quick now, you've only got a second to get this right! Flash, fwip, slip... click! I remember that guns have safeties at the last possible microsecond before they return to their sheaths. Erm. Holsters. Holders? N-nevermind, I don't have time! I pluck my katana back off the ground (because of course I dropped it, but nobody saw probably maybe so I'm still valid) and sheathe it, too. I jump up in the air and kick my monster blade, wrenching it back up out of the floor as I flip up and over it. And grab it as I run. It goes back onto my back. 

I think this is what Kat would call my first Hyra Moment. Because she's a sillyhead, this isn't my first by a long shot, but it might be my first that properly lives up to her standard. None of those flashy moves helped me buy the moment I need to close distance, and if they did then I wasted them putting my weapons back in order. But it [i]did[/i] draw Kikil's eyes. You can tell because her mask turns a little when she's watching something. And that's an opportunity to do something unexpected. Rapier in one hand, and my trusty saber in the other, I fly across the room like a wolf pouncing on a deer at a watering hole. Swift and sure and vicious, that's me. Just this once. I swing my sword with every once of strength in my body...

So that it clashes with a shower of sparks against her gladius. I hold my rapier steady to control her gun arm. I even switched sword arms, to keep it fair. My precious silver blade grinds against her neon green one, as we two struggle in the bladelock, that oldest and most beautiful of duel forms. A true stalemate. Like she deserves. C'mon, if I tried for the finisher now I'd be history's greatest jerkface. This is my chance at [i]redemption[/i], dummy, I'm not wasting it on something as pointless as winning. No, I'm gonna draw out her best and final technique, and then we'll see if I'm up to it at last. And if not? Hey, at least I'm used to losing. That's how I made all my best friends.

My smile lights up my entire face. The tears that slipped under the goggles glisten against my cheeks.

"So, hey. Hi! Hello! Fancy meeting you here, am I right?"