"People like you should just die."

The young man standing by the entryway to the coliseum half-turned to look over his shoulder at the girl across the room.

"No worries." he said with a smile. "I'll win every competition, no matter how hard you try to make it for me."

"I won't congratulate you for it."

"That's fine." the young man answered. "You won't need to. But when I win the first match, I want you to kiss me."

"You can't defeat Lucis. He's too good."

"So you have no problems with making the bet, then?"

"Hmph."

Waving cheerfully to the girl, the young man stepped through the doors and into the arena proper. The roar of the hundred million spectators who had managed to procure tickets for the first day of the competition nearly blew him over. It wasn't him they had come to see, of course. At least, not specifically. Nor was it his opponent, not the favorite for the competition but a relatively safe bet to at least make it to the top sixteen or so. No, the cheers were simply because this was the very first match of a tournament to decide who would rule over the seven galaxies, and a bigger event hadn't happened in generations, if ever.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Its, Others, and creatures of all sizes!" the announcer roared throughout the arena. "You've waited, you've wept, you've bled for the spots you occupy today! I'm Charles Ericks, your announcer, and I'll be covering the games! The best of forty million inhabited worlds have signed up, and the lucky winners of our drawing will compete in the first matches in our arena! The rest, I'm afraid, are scattered throughout the rest of the buildings across this world due to time constraints. However, the only network authorized to cover this event, Galactis Omnimedia, is filming each and every one of these events, and they will be put up for viewing free of charge throughout the galaxies to the homes everyone with access and through all their public terminals! We'd also like to thank our major sponsors, Comcastics Industries and Megalopo Computers, who have provided equipment, and, of course, our Emperor, who has graciously chosen to fund this competition! As you all know, the winner of this competition will receive prizes so mind-bogglingly amazing, it's a wonder it's happening at all. The right to be the successor to the Emperor and rule us as our supreme leader, one hundred trillion GalactaDollars donated to their local world's government for infrastructure improvements, and the most lovely lady in all the galaxies, the Emperor's daughter, as one's wife! If the winner or their culture would bar such a thing for any reason, due to gender preferences, religious beliefs, or other things, the Emperor has agreed to a modification of that last one to the gift of an entire solar system for private use and fifty trillion GDs to develop it with! I don't know which one would be more exciting! Well, I've babbled long enough, but I still have to give the rules! All forms of armor, equipment, and miscellaneous tools are allowed so long as they have passed the requirements of the Tournament Fairness Committee, to allow our contestants to compete as they see fit! The first three rounds of the competition will be single-elimination matches, barring unexpected changes by the Emperor, with victory by the opponent's surrender, death, unconsciousness, or presence outside the arena floor for more than ten standard seconds! Now, below you, you see our first two lucky competitors, frothing at the mouth to win it all! From Proxis 32, we have renowned warrior Lucis Rastia, a fearsome entrant expected to go far! His opponent was seeded by request into the first match by Her Highness for reasons unknown, but the Emperor has allowed it! From the coreworlds of the Valhalla Galaxy, Michael Aetheria! Let the games... BEGIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!"

As soon as the word finished, Lucis Rastia swung his sword down in an arc and let a wave of energy fly towards Michael. The lesser-known contestant threw himself to the side and watched as the blast struck the field around the arena and detonated. Only the first match, and his opponent wasn't playing around. Well, maybe that was because it was the first match, and this wasn't exactly a local gathering. The prize would be hard-pressed to make itself larger. Michael threw himself down as another blast passed over his head, then leapt to his feet and began weaving through the barrage.

"And Rastia is off to an intense start, not giving his opponent any time to react! I don't know why Aetheria was put in this match, but it seems he isn't giving his opponent much trouble? Could Her Highness be signaling support for Rastia by giving him an easy opponent?"

Michael's right eye twitched in irritation. The announcer was closer to the truth than he knew. It wasn't really that she supported Rastia, just that she didn't support him. Still, it would be quite bad if he were to have made such a statement as 'I'll win everything' and then drop out in the very first fight. Another burst of energy soared past him, and a sensor implanted into his eye took the data it needed. Michael nodded slightly. Three more blasts came in quick succession, forcing the first layer of energy barriers around the field to their maximum for a few seconds. "Two more..." he muttered. Another blast came in low, and Michael simply jumped over it. The next blast went to his left as he kicked off against the ground. Lucis threw the sword he'd been using aside and drew an axe whose blade glittered with energy.

"Rastia has thrown away his weapon! It looks like that sword of his was only good for so many attacks! Was his opponent counting on all of these being used up so it would no longer be a threat? Rastia has pulled out his axe, and is advancing on his opponent!"

"Now we're getting somewhere." Michael noted as Lucis closed in. He reached under the cape he wore to hide his own weaponry and drew out several daggers, throwing them towards his weapon-dependent opponent. The axe came across in a wide sweep, a short-range burst of energy knocking the weapons away. Another dagger flew, and before Lucis could react, it struck him in the chest and let out its burst of energy. Michael's foe tumbled a short ways, then lurched to his feet and tossed aside his axe as well.

"Cheap toys won't be nearly enough to defeat me!" Lucis roared. A energy shield formed from a bracelet on his right wrist, and a flail was pulled out from whatever mechanism he used to store his weaponry. Spinning the spiked ball around, Lucis let it shoot forward, the chain automatically lengthening as it did so. The heavy orb struck Michael in the stomach and cracked several of his ribs before Lucis pulled it back and began spinning it around for round two. The crowd cheered at the hits. Michael sidestepped the next throw and pulled out another dagger, slicing it through the chain. Lucis, out three weapons now, growled and pulled out a broadsword. "I was originally going to let you live, but you can't even fight like a man!"

"Sorry." Michael answered, raising a hand as he hopped backwards, away from the first swing of the weapon. "I have a promise to keep to somebody, so I really can't lose. Especially not this early on." He pulled up another two daggers to block the broadsword's cleave.

"I'm fighting for the pride of my world! What motivation do you have!?" Lucis roared as he slashed again and again at his smaller opponent.

"Well, the Emperor's daughter is really cute. But she's so gloomy." Michael chirped in response. "I want to see her smile, I suppose."

"That's it!? You think to defeat me with as flimsy a reason as that? She'll smile, all right, when I make her a woman!" His sword stopped moving, an attempted hack into Michael's side blocked by one of his daggers. The boy was no longer smiling.

"...I don't really care if you laugh at me." he said, scratching his head with his other hand as Lucis blinked at him. "But I'm not really going to accept insulting one of my friends like that. And it wasn't even a good insult! At least show the courtesy to insult somebody properly if you're going to do it at all!" He dropped down and reached behind his back again, pulling out a sword reminiscent of the Oriental Worlds, thin with a slight curve to it. The blade slashed over, shearing through Lucis' weapon. Disarmed again, the warrior began to back up when the sword flashed around and stopped against his neck. Lucis narrowed his eyes.

"I was trained by the Imperial Guard itself. Who are you?" he inquired.

"Like the announcer said, my name is Michael Aetheria." the boy answered. "I'm going to win this tournament. My reasons aren't as petty as yours; the pride of your world? Hah. Looks like you could use a little less of that. I'll do what I have to in order to win. Surrender or die."

"I..." Lucis growled. "I... hah!" a blade swept across, only to be caught by Michael's dagger, still in his hand. Michael's style was primarily a counter-type; rather than going on the offensive against his opponents, he reacted to what they did and worked to find the weaknesses in their style that he could exploit. He used the end of his sword as a club and knocked Lucis on the head, an impact heavy enough to drop the warrior to the ground.

"An unexpected turn of events! Aetheria, on the defensive for most of the match, has come back to seize victory!" As the cheers of the crowd echoed throughout the Arena, Michael activated another system and watched as the daggers scattered around the field vanished. After a moment, he bent down and unhooked the shield-bracelet from Lucis' wrist, turning it off as he did so.

"I'll be taking this." he said, tossing the bracelet up into the air. "I like to keep mementos of the people I beat, especially when they're useful." Humming slightly, he activated the repair nannites in his body (by tournament rules, illegal in the match itself) and strode back into the waiting room. The next two contestants had different rooms, with the idea of not crowding the chambers to give each contestant the optimal conditions to ready themselves. The Emperor's daughter was sitting in the back of the room. eyes closed. "Well, I won."

"Through cheap tricks." the girl answered. "You didn't confront him, you made his weapons useless and then pulled out your own."

"Tricks are completely legal. Almost everything is in this competition. All's fair in love and war, right?"

"I don't love you."

"But you owe me a kiss."

"I never agreed to that."

"You're not even a little happy that I won, are you?"

"I was rather hoping he would bash your skull in." the girl responded. She stood up and turned to the door, then began walking towards it. "You're a pathetic failure who couldn't make it at home, so you came here hoping to win this tournament and get everything you had failed to achieve before, using a hodge-podge collection of trinkets you took from others."

"But instead of simply ignoring me and focusing on the entrants you like, and not just content with seeding me into the toughest division of the initial rounds of the tournament, you came down here yourself. One contestant out of more than a hundred million that you've personally involved yourself with. Why come down here at all and talk to me? Without security, assistants, or anyone else?" as he talked, he approached the girl, looking at the silky black hair that hung down her back. She turned to look at him, gray-blue eyes devoid of any pleasure in what she saw.

"Father decided that the two of us would talk to the first contestants to boost the morale of the others."

"A decision publicly known and made considerably in advance of you arranging for me to be here."

"I'd been hoping you would get killed so I wouldn't have to put up with you any longer. Even if you beg for a thousand years, I won't forgive what you did." the girl left, letting the door hiss shut behind her. Michael let out a sigh as he went and relaxed on one of the chairs provided, glad it conformed to the shape of his weapons so they weren't jabbing him unpleasantly. There were a lot of contestants to go through, and the competition would take awhile. His next fight would be tomorrow at the very earliest, and then only if she pulled a few more strings. Like everybody else in the competition, though, he wanted to win. Michael hopped up and strode out of the waiting room. Little had been spared in the construction of the arena; not just a one-event building, it had actually been created as a multipurpose center for major events, and as a result had high-end hotel rooms that had been given to the two-hundred and fifty six warriors who had been lucky, talented, or influential enough to be put in the main combat arena, as well as the major dignitaries. The Emperor himself was using a set of rooms on the top floor, a plush apartment bigger than many beings' houses. Well, he was the emperor who had united the galaxies. People would move stars if he told them to. The Imperial Suite was said to contain every possible comfort; what wasn't permanently in there could be summoned by a touchpad or voice. As opposed to his room, which was easily enough to satisfy a major star-cluster's ambassador. There were simply too many worlds in the Empire for the Emperor to receive dignitaries from any individual planet except the most important ones. Planets were grouped into star-clusters by geography, usually about fifty inhabited worlds, who brought their issues to a local supervisor, often somebody given the post as a reward from the Empire. One-hundred clusters sent up the important data to their own representative, and so-on and so forth until you had the supervisor for the entire Galaxy, who dealt with any issues important enough to be handled at that level, or in turn passed the duty to the Emperor, who tended to resolve things in a prompt galaxy. Anyone with authority over fifty thousand worlds or so often had their own planet somewhere in the cluster to relax on. Despite the authority, they really did have to deal with serious issues.

And this room had all the comforts of a place like that. Not to mention the security. Tampering with others' weapons or tools was forbidden in the competition, punishable by a slow, messy, and painful death. At least, tampering before the match was... during the fight itself, you could do pretty much anything you wanted to win. Some of the competitors saw themselves as or actually were knights of some sort. Some were of noble blood, others were punks and thugs from off the street. The combat rounds of the tournament were designed to weed out those who lacked the appropriate fighting ability to rule multiple galaxies. Rumors existed about other challenges as well; a survival event, an obstacle course, a test of historical understanding, even giving a speech to the arena's crowd. Some people, though talented fighters, just couldn't talk well in front of others, and for an Emperor, that was an important skill. Something like that wouldn't come until near the end, though. Curious about something, Michael turned the holographic computer on and typed in a query.

Fourteen billion GD had currently been placed on him. A relatively low amount (he knew from a previous query that the top contenders had upwards of ten trillion bet on them), it still made him feel good to know that some people thought he would win. Those who bet over a million were allowed to place comments for the fighters to encourage them. Idly, Michael scrolled down the list of the people who had bet the most. With so many people betting on the tournament, even the unlikeliest contenders had a lot of money placed on them. At the top of the list, with ten billion (the maximum amount allowed for an individual), was the Emperor's daughter. Raising an eyebrow slightly, he opened the attached message.

"I hope to lose this money very soon." Michael read aloud. "I will never have felt better about losing a bet." he closed the message. "Cheerful, isn't she?" he shrugged and read the rest of messages, most of which were from up-and-coming businessmen who had just placed the bets, having liked how he fought and noting that the odds against him, if he won, would ensure a tremendous payout for them. He intended to get them that money, not for their sakes, but for his. "Well, better rest up. Who knew what sort of freak tomorrow will bring?

The Next Day

"Ladies and Gentlethings! I'm sure many of you have come today hoping to see more of what we witnessed yesterday; a brutal, bloodthirsty display of skill! However, we got through the first round, and we're already down to half our original count! Which is still fifty million competitors, mind you, enormous no matter how you look at it! While the normal matches will continue in other arenas, the players here in the main arena will be facing a different sort of challenge, as decided by our supreme ruler himself for the enjoyment of the fans!"

"She couldn't have..." Michael muttered. "No, wait, she would..."

"With a hundred and twenty-eight matches yesterday, we saw a lot of fighting talent. Today, though, we'll be testing a different sort of thing. Before we reveal what it is, though... warriors, step forward!" doors around the arena hissed open, and Michael entered along with the other victors of the previous day's matches, until they were all lined up in a row across one end of the huge stadium. "I'm sure you're all wondering what's going on here! First of all, please deposit all of your weapons and tools with the retainers assigned to you. Don't worry, you'll get them back after we're done whether you win or not! This is strictly a physical competition, though, so only body-enhancements are allowed." Which was a good thing, Michael noted, considering he had quite a few of them. Most of them were agility enhancements, to increase his running speed and dodging ability. Those helped quite a bit for his countering style. "I'm so excited! It's amazing how fast things can get built around here! Now, here are the basic rules. Your goal, candidates for the Emperor's throne, is to knock over the pillars that will be placed before you. I should note, these things are heavy! You must topple at least three of the layers of the pillar in order to proceed to the next round; all of you may pass, or only one! Any competitor who knocks over the entire pillar will receive a special prize I'm not allowed to give details on! Clearly removing a layer from the pillar, or the ground one obviously off the ground and at least half its length away or onto its side or top, counts as the layer done. The lower the layer, the higher your score. You're also allowed to break the pieces. Keep in mind, though, you only get one try! BRING 'EM IN!"

"You have got to be joking." Michael said as a huge totem-like structure slammed into the ground of the area. More than a hundred more followed momentarily, leaving a fair bit of room between each one. The bottom disc was twenty feet across. "Hmph. Straight strength isn't gonna work. It'll have to be leverage or mining..." he muttered as the other competitors moved forward.

"Entrant Aetheria, the winner of yesterday's first match, has yet to move! Is there something he's planning?" Thuds began to mark the work of those already attacking the pillars. "Oh, I've just received a message from Her Highness... Hurry up and fail, she says! I suppose that answers why she got him into these trials..."

"Feh." Michael answered. He walked forward, then started to circle the massive structure. "Well, seems like fun." he slid off his shoes and socks and gave them to the aide who was following him, along with all of his weapons and tools. As the aide moved off with the precious cargo, Michael began to run around the structure.

"Aetheria is doing something, but I don't know what! This certainly look like the most bizzare method of toppling the monolith; is he hoping to summon mystic forces by running in circles?" Michael grinned and began moving faster, digging his feet into the ground with each step. This was good, soft soil they had the rocks on. Slowly, with each round he slid the dirt on one side a little further away. His strength wasn't nearly great enough to neatly smash all of the rocks in one go, and he'd promised to win every single competition for her. Finally, Michael stopped circling the totem and simply attacked the ground, making the hole larger and larger from the outside in. After nearly twenty minutes of hard work, long after everyone else had tried and succeeded in their attempt or failed somehow, he was still working. With a crash, the entire structure finally slid into the hole he had made, the massive bottom section now resting on its side. "What a strange method! Yet, it's worked! Contestant Aetheria has managed to topple over the entire structure by digging under it! It looks like some people will go to any length to try and secure a prize!"

"Dang straight." Michael muttered as, sweating heavily, he walked out of the hole he had made. "So what is it?"

"I'll bet Aetheria is wondering what sort of brilliant, stupendous, magnificent prize he has won! The odds are certainly improving on him; he's starting to look like a safe bet for your money! Michael Aetheria, your super ultra prize is... thiiiiiiiiis!" There was a massive plume of smoke from the center of the arena. When it cleared, it revealed a shimmering sword thrust into a pedestal. Michael walked over to it and raised an inquiring eyebrow, then shrugged and walked back towards the entrance. "A-Aetheria is walking away from the prize! What's going on inside his head!? Let's find out!" a Galactis Omnimedia news drone dropped out of the sky and began to circle around Michael. "Contestant Aetheria, why are you leaving your prize in the Arena!?"

"I only take weapons from my opponents!" he answered calmly.

Up in the Imperial Booth, the Emperor's daughter swore loudly and took off running. The weapon had been rigged with a bomb in case Michael actually drew it; a terrorist action, she'd been planning to call it, which would result in increased security for the rest of the tournament but no more of that annoying little punk. A trade she'd make in a heartbeat. The Emperor merely smiled, perfectly aware of what was going on. Michael took his possessions back and strode back into his waiting room, then into the hall.

"Hey, congratulations." one of the other winners said. Michael looked up to find a muscular man a few years older than him grinning widely. "Never thought of doing it that way. So, what sort of prize would you have taken?"

"Umm..." Michael thought about it for a few moments. "A picture of Her Highness sleeping? I bet she's really cute when she's taking a nap." his fellow winner laughed.

"True enough. She's wanted by most of the human men in the galaxies, and some that aren't. It's just that most people are too afraid to even approach her, since the first time somebody leaped at her, the Emperor burned their whole world. I suppose it's accepted talk here, though, considering that she is a prize."

"The best prize." Michael responded absently. "For some, anyway. If not a picture of her sleeping, then maybe in a bathing suit at the beach. I don't think anybody who's in this just to sleep with her is going to do very well, though."

"Of course they won't." the girl in question said, coming around a corner. The other entrant straightened immediately. "It's why you're destined to fail. Follow me, worm." the girl turned around abruptly and began walking away. Shrugging, Michael did as he was bid, and after a few minutes the two of them walked into an open room. This was one of the massive structure's themed chambers, designed after the tropics. Had she heard what he'd said, then, Michael wondered? The girl looked at the room's manager. "Out." she ordered. "Make sure nobody else comes in."

"You realize that tabloid magazines are going to report this as an affair of some sort, right?" Michael inquired.

"I wouldn't sleep with you if a trillion children's lives were on the line." the girl answered, stepping through a door to another chamber. Michael waited patiently. Several minutes later, the girl came back out, dressed in a relatively revealing bikini. "Take a good look. I want you to engrave me into your memory, so the day I finally get you killed, you can think about what you've lost and despair as your life ends." she slowly turned in a circle to reveal most of her notable assets. "I want you to lose everything, the way I did."

"You know there was a reason I couldn't come back." Michael answered, looking into the girl's eyes.

"You accepted the reason." the girl spat out. "How can I forgive something like that? I'm going to do everything I can to see that you don't make it any further in father's little competition; he doesn't care if I hate one of the contestants. You broke your promise before, and you'll do it again. There's no way you can win every competition here; it would take more than a miracle for someone like you."

"So." Michael responded. "If I do manage to do it? What then? Neither of us can change the past, but I do want to change the future. To make sure it never happens again."

"It's a little late for such language." the girl answered. "And I feel comfortable making the bet. You can't win. Not by any method. What is it you hope to gain?"

"Forget about what happened before." Michael answered. "Forgive and forget."

"A tall order. Fine. If you win, I'll forget about your abandoning me the way you did. And when you lose, if your opponent doesn't kill you, I will. You should pray for a quick death, because the one I'll give will have you begging to die when I've only just gotten started."

"Oh, you won't need to worry about that!" Michael answered, visibly more cheerful. "When this tournament is done, you'll never have to worry about being alone again."

"We have amazing healing technology. You'll be brought to the brink of death a thousand times, and feel every bit of it." the girl walked to the doorway again. Michael leaped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder before she opened it. "Do you want an even earlier death?"

"No." Michael answered mildly. "I just think you're a little underdressed to go running through the halls." he slid off his cape and put it around the girl's shoulders, covering her to her knees.

"...What is it they say in the Valhalla galaxy... oh, right." the girl said flatly, looking back up. "Burn in Surt's flames." she left the room. She did not, however, remove his cape. Michael merely sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"And she used to be so cute. Well, it's not like I can tell her the truth... she'd never believe me." he left the room as well, and found the manager standing there, looking confused. "For the sake of Her Highness' reputation, go ahead and report the truth, we just looked around and talked." he noted. "Her Highness has been slightly curious about the workmanship of this place, and is satisfied with the result. This room was picked at random."

"R-right." the manager said as Michael began walking back towards his room.

"Hey, kid!" another voice called. Michael looked up to find a trio of men advancing on him. Unlike the muscular man who'd greeted him right after the contestant, these men looked like nothing more than thugs. "What'cha trying to do, huh, showing off like that? You think you're better than the rest of us?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Michael answered immediately. "I'm going to win every part of this competition and prove it, too. Didn't... you three fail the test earlier?"

"That test was ridiculous! They didn't give us any time to prepare or nothin'!" another of the thugs growled. "And you go trying to make yourself good! Punks like you really annoy me!" Michael looked up and found the Emperor's daughter at an intersection, looking at him. She smirked before walking out of sight.

That little... she'll do anything to cause me trouble, won't she?

"How's about you make it up to us, yeah?" the third of the thugs said, voice surprisingly high-pitched. He pulled out a knife. "I'm gonna cut you up!"

"Why don't you three losers shove off?" a deeper voice inquired. Michael looked behind him to find two more contestants, ones he recognized as still in the game. One was the cheerful man from earlier, the other a slender girl in a coat long enough to reach the ground. She concealed her weapons the same way Michael usually did, though his cape was currently on someone else. "You couldn't deal with the unexpected, so you blame those who can? You're not even in our league."

"Gotta problem, huh!?" the third thug yelled, spinning his knife around. There was a sharp 'crack' sound, and the thug toppled over. Michael glanced back again; the girl had pulled out a rifle somewhere and shot the thug squarely in the face. Judging from the dart there, it was just a paralysis effect. The other two thugs let out howls of outrage and charge, only to have the larger man slam a fist into one and Michael tripping up the other. "You... se..."

"Are better than you, yes." the girl said, reloading her weapon. "Michael, right?" she added, looking up. "One of my friends is pretty high up in the planning committee for events. They're going to have a team competition next, and we want you to be on our team." Michael raised an eyebrow. "Thoris here is also from the Valhalla Core, and he's muscle. Smashed eight levels of his pillar."

"Yo." the man said, raising a hand.

"And I do distance weaponry. Name's Jennifer. You're obviously intelligent enough to plan things most people wouldn't think of. Together, we should be able to handle pretty much anything. I'll still beat both of you in the end, of course, but you'll get a lot further if you stick with me, and I hear that once you reach a certain point, you're going home with a prize no matter what. A good deal, isn't it?"

"I'm starting to get the feeling that everybody knows they'll win..." Michael muttered. "Sure, why not? But only if you can swear you want to be the best. We can't just pass, we have to dominate everyone else."

"I knew I was going to like you." Jennifer said, patting Michael on the shoulder while she stepped on the first thug's face cheerfully. "By all means, let's blow every other team apart! I'm expecting nothing else from the best contender here! Now come on, we need to go figure out what our weaknesses are. Always better to be prepared." Michael nodded and followed his new teammates as they moved towards one of the public training areas. The girl was right; it was much better to be prepared. He had to dominate, after all. In this case, though, were strings being pulled again? He'd have to cover any slack from his companions, so if they couldn't perform, he would be in trouble. There really were few limits as to what she would do to bother him. Well, in the end, it didn't matter. Whatever the challenge, he would find a way to deal with it.

After several hours of focused training for every scenario they could come up with, the trio finally split up and returned to their rooms. Michael had a guest waiting for him, dressed much more conservatively than when he'd seen her before.

"If you were a nicer, I'd be tempted to make a 'You could've asked if you wanted to get into my bed' sort of joke, but for some reason I doubt that's why you're here, Highness." he said calmly. "What can I do for you?"

"Die."

"I walked into that one, didn't I?" the girl nodded. "Feh. Okay, what else can I do for you?"

"Lose."

"If you want something, come out and say it already. If you're so disinclined to be around me, then there's no point in prolonging a stay in my rooms. I'm sure you have better things to do then pester somebody trying to win for your sake."

"You just want to make yourself feel better." the girl answered mildly. "I came to return your cape. It's coarse, but did its job."

"You could've had a servant do it. You're the Emperor's daughter; you can have pretty much anyone do anything you want. Why else are you here?"

"I'd prefer to not owe you anything, money or otherwise." she answered, gray-blue eyes regarding him coolly. "Unlike you, I have a certain amount of personal pride. What is it you want?"

"What do you mean?" Michael answered, relaxing on his bed and turning his head to look at one of the few people he considered a friend. "I can't seem to recall doing anything worthy of being thanked, least of all by you."

"The cape." the girl clarified.

"Lent to a friend. I don't need payment for that."

"I refuse to accept charity from you."

"When it would be so much easier to do it? You could've just had some useful little gadget sent down with the cloak and considered this debt you're making up paid in full." the girl merely stared at him. "Hey, it's true. I must admit to being surprised you didn't do it."

"Name a price. That's an Imperial Order." the girl growled. Michael sighed. She couldn't order him to lose the competition, but beyond that, her right as the Emperor's daughter entailed her to demand almost anything from anyone.

"And you'd just get offended if I said something like one GalactaDollar, huh?" Michael grumbled. "You have got to be the single most troublesome person I know. Um... I don't know... can you forgive me for the past now?" the girl merely glared. "Feh. That's what I want the most; that you refuse to pay is your problem, not mine. Your pride is seriously twisted, Saya."

"My name is Sadoko."

"Whatever." Michael answered. "I use the name you told me to use; you can't fairly complain about that."

"I was in disguise then."

"But you still told me to use it."

"Use my real name."

"I'd rather call you Saya. So that's my price for the cape, then." the girl's jaw went up and down several times, but not words came out. "Heh heh heh. Walked right into that one, didn't you? I'm not the only one who blunders forward every now and the." Saya took a deep, calming breath. Control. She had to remain in control. She was the only daughter of the man who ruled the seven galaxies. She was above the schemes of a pathetic little worm like Michael.

"...Very well." the girl growled. "I shall allow you to call me by that name."

"I thought I was being given it. You make it sound like you're doing me a favor, not soothing your pride by giving me something I want."

"I can still call security, claim you molested me, and execute you."

"This room has cameras watching every inch all the time, since the Emperor's here."

"I can turn them off."

"Not without the Administrator's Codes, which are currently held only by the Building Manager and the Emperor, and the Manager won't give them out except at the Emperor's orders, even to you."

"Must you persist in your crude attempts to outwit me? You should be grateful that I speak to you at all."

"So because you can't go against what I say, you claim authority makes you automatically right. You should know better than that; in debate, it's a fallacy."

"We're not debating."

"I said one thing, you disagreed. Sounds like a debate to me."

"Shut up."

"Heh heh heh."

Saya merely sighed and stared up at the ceiling.

"You are the most outrageous person I have ever met." she noted. "You could've been going home, right now, with enough money to let you live comfortably for the rest of your life. Instead, you want to call me by a silly name I used once while travelling incognito. Why?" Michael shrugged.

"Well, I don't really know Sadoko." he answered. "She's the Emperor's daughter, a figure of wealth, influence, and a sort of untouchable beauty. A person impossible for an ordinary guy to even get close to, much less really talk to. On the other hand, I know Saya. Saya is a girl I met on my homeworld, who got separated from the people she was travelling with and got very scared. The Valhallan Core Worlds are generally a safe place, but some of the shadier areas are nowhere for a young girl to wander alone. So I took Saya out of that place and brought her to a public station. I had to go get something, but when I finally got back, she was gone. I later found out that Saya had been kidnapped, and the Imperial Guard went in to save her. A very scary experience for a seven-year-old girl, being locked up for two months in a solitary confinement chamber, and I always did want to apologize to her for leaving her alone and allowing it to happen. But it was a messy event, and I know she can't forgive me just because I ask for it. There's a little more to the story, of course, but if I told it to Saya right now, I don't think she would really understand it. So... yeah. Can't change the past, but I can make sure she never feels that crushing loneliness again. I wouldn't know how to talk to Sadoko, but I want to win this Tournament and get Saya's forgiveness. She was really cute when she was young, you know? I bet if I saw her smile today, it'd be even better. When she was with me in Mjolnir's Valkyrie City, she was smiling the whole time. She didn't deserve to lose that smile."

"You don't..." Saya whispered. "You don't have any idea what it was like. To be separated, for the first time, from family and guards, in the middle of a violent district in a region known for men and women alike being strong fighters. Then being rescued by a native, for no reward other than because he felt like it, and brought back to safety. Then to have the boy vanish, with just a promise to be right back. And the moment he was out of sight, kidnapped. A cell barely large enough to lie down in, not a glimpse of a face or the echo of a word for two months, save for a daily threat on my life." Saya leaped at Michael, wrapping her hands around his neck. "You don't know how terrifying it was for that to happen! It wasn't supposed to be possible that I could be put in even a little danger, much less constantly in danger of having hostage negotiations fail! What was so important that you abandoned me for!? Why didn't you ever come!?" tears flowed down Saya's cheeks. Michael didn't watch, but instead stared up at the ceiling as the daughter of his supreme ruler cried on his chest. She'd been holding this in for a long, long time.

"...I'm... a hacker." Michael eventually said. "Sort of. I crack programs, hunt down programs by other hackers, and do a lot with experimental neural upgrades and the like. That day at the station I had to receive an implant. Not a long procedure, but it'd be months before I could get another chance, and it wasn't a place I'd take any friend of mine. I didn't think there was any way that Saya would be in danger, not with thousands of tough Valhallans in the station. The Valhallan Core is the military backbone of the empire. Genetically, my people are stronger than almost every other group, and they're definitely more numerous. We have a strong tradition of diversifying our skills; I'm in the programming and intelligence division of the Valhallan Special Forces. When I returned to the station and found that you were gone from where I'd left you, and the computers showed how you'd left, I knew there was a problem. Do you remember when those two months ended?"

"Of course." Saya whispered. "They said that fifty trillion GDs had been delivered, so I was free to go. The Imperial Guard met me outside, and immediately after, the place was bombed. The Kidnappers didn't have a chance."

"How did the Guard know to be there?"

"T-the money was paid. The Kidnappers must have told them to-"

"Why would people able to kidnap the Emperor's Daughter give the location of their hideout? Why not a neutral zone somewhere else? Why on the same planet?"

Saya didn't answer.

"Why was the money paid? If you search the records of the Imperial Treasury, the only account owned by the Emperor with that much money in it, no withdrawal of that amount was made anytime close to the time you were released. Easily proven with a call or two. I could probably access the information from here; the records of the Treasury are public-domain."

"What is it you're saying?" Saya asked.

"Like I said, I didn't want to tell Saya this until later." Michael muttered. "After she forgives me. I talked to a few friends of mine when Saya went missing. I wasn't in the Special Forces back then, of course, but I was being groomed for it. You'll notice I'm not nearly as muscular as most Valhallans. They agreed to look into it, and when they found out Saya's real name, they alerted the Imperial Guard and got busy tracking her down. We... sort of knew where Saya was the same day she went missing. But we couldn't go save her, because any attempt to rescue her would take so long that she would be killed in the meantime. It took a long time, but we finally wormed our way into all of their systems and faked an insertion of money into the account they wanted, while hiding the fact that the Imperial Guard was there. Their sensors showed no changes, so they let Saya go. After that, it was a simple matter to blast the place. After I win this Tournament of the Emperor's, I want to tell Saya this story, and apologize for taking so long to rescue her. I'd never had an offworld friend before, and it seems to me that there's so much time we never had together." Saya's grip around his neck tightened.

"You'll have to work very hard to convince that girl that you're telling the truth." Saya whispered. "She was very lonely and very afraid for a very long time. The first person she'd ever met who didn't bow to her, but treated her like a real person, wasn't with her when she needed a friend the most. If you... if you win this tournament, I'll make sure she believes you. I'll talk to Saya personally."

"Excellent." Michael gasped out. "If you don't mind, I'd like to breathe now!"

The next day, Michael Aetheria of the Valhallan Special Forces Intelligence and Hacking Division, Thoris Odinson of the Valhallan Special Forces Mjolnir Blitz Force, and Jennifer Anders of the Imperial Guard Sniper Squad took the fastest time in a complex obstacle course constructed inside the arena, with a finishing time of nineteen minutes and twelve seconds. The next-fastest time was six minutes slower, and the worst more than three times longer than the winners. The top third of the successful teams advanced to the next round.

At this point, the one thousand winners of the outside arenas joined those seeded into the main event, and the competitions began in earnest. Jennifer Anders lost in the second round, her tactical skills not enough to work the scenario provided with an acceptable victory. Thoris Odinson received fourth place for an impressive blitz assault of the type he was personally trained to do. Michael Aetheria took the top prize, programming in a complex list of actions for every member of his squad and updating in real time to deal with the changes. Thoris subsequently lost the next round, unable to give a proper speech to the audience due to stage fright. The events progressed on a regular basis, with the final match between Michael and the number-one contender at the start of the competition, a nobleman from the Imperial Throneworld itself. As with the first match, this was an individual fight. Michael secured a victory after sustaining moderate injuries while remotely hacking his opponent's weapons to render their energy capabilities useless, a feat his division headquarters reported was almost impossible to do while fighting, especially when the opponent was talented. That day, Michael Aetheria was proclaimed the Heir of the Empire and married Sadoko.

Michael let out a sigh of contentment as he flopped onto the bed in the Imperial Suite. It felt like he was lying on a cloud. The door to one of the side-chambers hissed open a moment later, revealing that the person on the other side was his new wife, whom he still referred to as Saya, even in public. The media had assumed it was just a nickname of some sort, unaware of the story behind it. The girl glided in, dressed in a long, semi-transparent gown designed to show off more than hide. Michael smiled slightly.

"Well, I talked to Saya." the girl said. "She has... chosen to accept your offered explanation for the circumstances of her kidnapping years ago, and has decided to forgive you for it."

"I'm glad." Michael answered as the girl lay down next to him. The room was quiet for several moments.

"...Aren't you going to bring me to heights of ecstasy or something?" the daughter of the current Emperor and the wife of the next finally inquired. Michael looked over.

"Nah." he said. "All I really did was win a competition through a little creativity. I really like Saya, but she does have emotional scars that are probably going to take a little while longer to heal, you know? I'm in no rush. When she finally smiles freely, I'll know she's recovered. I like Saya for more than her body... she's my friend and companion. I don't need to ravish her to show how I feel."

"I see." Sadoko 'Saya' Aetheria said. Then, smiling, she leaned over and kissed Michael's cheek. "Thank you."

HAPPY END

Despite Sadoko's intense desire to kill you, through outwitting the trials you successfully navigated the obstacles and got her to smile! Congratulations!