Chapter 2 - Ignited Spark

Chapter 2

~

The next morning Sam unlocked the door to the gym and entered, closing it behind her. Removing her headphones and hanging them around her neck she looked around the room a bit seeing the few darker spots here and there now gone. The gym never really got too dirty since cleaning up after you're done was a rule, but it accumulates eventually for various reasons.

Putting the bag she had been carrying on the desk she spotted the old man sleeping propped up against one of the walls, though she didn't see Nana anywhere.

"Nana?" Checking the changing rooms, toilets, showers, supply closets and making a lap around the room, also checking behind the boxing ring and still not finding her Sam's brows furrowed slightly as she made her way towards her new employee.

"Hey old man, you know where Nana is?" He was apparently a light sleeper since he quickly woke up with a yawn, his hands habitually reaching for the nonexistent blankets around him as he groggily opened his eyes.

He looked around in confusion for a few seconds with his mind clouded by sleep before he remembered yesterday's events. "Hey!" Hearing someone calling out he looked up and saw his employer standing above him with her arms crossed.

"Yes?" Yama rubbed his eyes a bit as he stood up with a grunt.

"Where's Nana?"

"Nana? She's..." Yama looked down in confusion upon not seeing her next to him. She had decided to help him with cleaning yesterday and he had found out that she could be extremely stubborn when she wanted to be since he couldn't find a way to dissuade her, when they eventually finished he was dead tired and collapsed back against the wall while Nana plopped down beside him, sleep claiming him not long after.

"Huh?" Scratching at his head while looking around the room Yama heard his employer quickly speak up.

"I've already searched the whole gym and I didn't find her." Sam chewed on her lip with a slight frown as one of her fingers tapped agianst her arm in agitation.

Yama's eyes widened, although they hadn't know each other for long he had already taken a liking to the odd little girl, his world lightening up with her presence. She kept him grounded. He also felt alot of responsibility towards her since he had decided to take her in.

"Nana? Nana!?" Feeling a sense of panic slowly growing in his chest Yama called out frantically.

"I told you, I already looked arou-" Sam started before the two of them turned around when they heard some ruffling and saw the sheet covering of the boxing ring bulging, Nana's little head popping out a few moments later as she looked at them with her usual expression.

"..."

Yama put a hand on his chest as he breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw her while Sam's previously tensed body relaxed.

"Alright, well now that that's done with I've got some breakfast for you two." Sam spun on her foot and went to get the bag she had put on the desk lightly tossing it at Yama who caught it.

"It's not something fancy or anything but it's filling."

"Thank you." Yama bowed towards her as his fingers unconsciously clenched the bag tightly.

"Meh, you won't do much cleaning if you keel over midway." Sam shrugged as she returned to the desk and sat down in her chair, putting on her headphones again while taking out her phone.

Walking over to Nana and sitting down leaning against the boxing ring Yama took out the two boxes of food, patting the spot next to him.

"Come on Nana, let's eat." As he looked at her munching away using the fork taped to the lid, his eyes turned to his own food in thought. He still had not really come to terms with the drastic changes in terms of living conditions feeling like it wasn't real, however the evidence was right in front of him.

Once the first piece of food entered his mouth, he had a feeling that maybe this was a turning point in his life.

The next few weeks continued on like this, Yama and Nana working when everyone had left, slept, went through the day and then repeated when night approached.

They didn't really have anything to do during the day so Yama usually took walks when he got restless, meanwhile Nana usually just sat somewhere staring into space occasionally talking with Sam or Chad. In other words, they talked to her while she responded with nods or head shakes.

There was something bugging Yama however, Nana didn't seem to have any want for other things children her age was usually interested in. He had offered to buy her something to play with when she was bored but anything he brought up was met with a head shake.

He wasn't exactly in any hurry to find somewhere he and Nana could live since Sam had offered them to stay in the gym as long as they wanted to saying she didn't care, something he was very grateful for.

When he approached Sam for help regarding Nana's situation seeing as he didn't really know what to do, she also started trying to entice her with different things which unfortunately didn't help much either.

...

"Well, why don't Chad and I take Nana to the arcade down the street to play some games? Maybe she just isn't that interested in toys." Sam suggested after eventually running out of ideas.

"Then I leave her to you, I suppose. I think it'd do her some good to stretch her legs a bit." Yama nodded, sending a glance at Nana standing next to Chad who was doing some drills. She was currently wearing her old hoodie, her asking Sam when she would get it back being one of the few times she interacted with anyone on her own accord.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of her properly." Sam promised sincerely as she looked at him before she turned around and started walking towards the two.

"Chad!"

"What?" Chad panted breathlessly, drenched in sweat as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye while he continued going through his routine, moving around the punching bag.

"Go take a shower, we're taking Nana to the arcade." Sam stated authoritatively as she put one of her hands on her hip, pointing at him with the other.

"Hmm?" Chad relaxed his stance while breathing heavily. "Are you sure that's a good idea? The sun's already set." He gestured at the dark streets outside the window as he removed his gloves and grabbed his water bottle.

"It'll be fine the arcade isn't that far away, even if something does happens you'll protect us, right?" Sam waved her hand flippantly.

"...Did you even ask Nana if she wants to go?" Chad asked her blatantly already knowing the answer as he shoved his gloves into his bag, undoing his wraps.

"..."

"You wanna go to the arcade, Nana?" Sam looked down at her with an innocent expression on her face and recieved a tilted head in return.

"She said yes."

"Yeah, yeah. Give me a few minutes. I need to shower and get some money." Chad spoke with a sigh as he picked up his bag and started jogging home after quickly wiping the floor underneath the bag with a towel.

About 15 minutes later the three of them were walking towards the arcade, Sam leading Nana by the hand so she wouldn't get lost... or just disappear suddenly. She could be eerily quiet sometimes, even with her new shoes on Sam would've forgotten she was there if she wasn't holding her hand.

"So, what brought this on?" Chad asked curiously as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Yama and I are a bit worried that Nana doesn't seem to want toys and stuff, so I thought we could take her to the arcade from time to time to have fun instead." Sam answered lazily, most of her focus concentrated on looking down at her phone and not walking into anything.

"Ah, I see. Well, let's hope we find something you'll find fun, Nana." Chad said casually as he gave Nana a pat on the head, something else catching his eye when he looked down at her.

"Hey, what's that game from?" He raised an eyebrow as he pointed at Nana's shoulder. "Iunno, I didn't really find anything about it." Sam shrugged nonchalantly.

"That sucks, the emblem looks pretty cool." Chad grumbled in disappointment.

A few minutes later the group of three arrived at a large building with the doors opened, a large neon blue sign reading 'Arcade' just above them.

"Oh, we're here." Sam said in slight surprise before slipping her phone back into her pocket.

"You're gonna walk into a pole eventually, I just know it." Chad quipped as they entered into the dark arcade only lit up by the different games. Even with the doors wide open to the chilly night air, they felt the heat of the room accompanied by the sounds of talking, shouting, button mashing and a plethora of sound effects.

"So, what we starting with?" Chad asked as he walked to the change machine, putting in a few bills he took out of his jacket.

"Hmmm. You see anything interesting, Nana?" Sam asked as she looked down at her, Nana looked around a bit before shaking her head.

"Not really, huh? Well I guess we'll go through a few and see if you like any of 'em." Sam hummed as she quickly exchanged a few bills before they worked their way around, randomly picking games for Nana to play. While she didn't really seem to dislike it, Sam got the feeling she was just doing it because they were there.

Sam crossed her arms in thought leaning against a pillar as she watched Nana play some knock off of Sea Invaders with Chad crouching next to her giving her some tips. So far Nana hadn't really taken an interest in anything, but she didn't know if that was because she just didn't like games in general or if they just hadn't found the right one yet.

Something they did find out was that Nana was unnaturally quick in improving at whatever game she played, starting with her not really knowing what to do and finishing with an above average in score, only improving further with each try.

Seeing Nana finishing her go, Sam walked over and was just about to speak up when the three of them heard a massive cheer and when they looked over they saw a huge group crowding around two of the arcade machines.

"What's happening?" Chad asked curiously looking over at the crowd while standing up from his crouch.

"Dunno, maybe someone's tryharding for a record or something?" Sam guessed with shoulder shake.

"Nah, they're standing around the Street Brawler machines." Chad shook his head.

"Well, excuse me for not having memorized the layout of the games, Mr. Arcade." Sam rolled her eyes.

"Wanna check it out?" Chad asked in an eager tone as he ignored her reply making her shrug.

"I guess, let's go Nana." Sam grabbed Nana's hand and started leisurely walking over while Chad started jogging.

"What's that face for?" Sam asked weirdly, arriving a few seconds later to see Chad's jaw practically touching the ground with his eyes locked onto the screen.

"Look." Chad absentmindedly gestured for her to look at the game.

"Oh, damn. Is he a pro?" Sam asked in surprise upon seeing one of the players being locked into yet another combo, barely doing any damage before being knocked out provoking another cheer.

"Dunno, I'm not really into the pro scene." Chad said dismissively.

"Hmm." The two continued watching the next few rounds, the supposed pro practically playing around with his opponents spamming emotes and still winning by a landslide. As the game paused slightly, someone else taking place as his opponent Sam remembered Nana and had a small moment of panic before she looked down and saw her still there, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Sorry Nana I got a bit caught up." Sam said apologetically giving her a pat on the head as she realized that all that Nana could see was the legs of the people in front of them.

"Oy." Sam kicked at one of Chad's boots and gently nudged Nana towards him. "Put her on your shoulders, she can't see anything."

"Oh, sorry Nana." He also apologized as he lifted her by the armpits, placing her on his shoulders before he continued watching.

"Hmm?" As the game started again with a new challenger stepping up, Sam raised an eyebrow as she noticed that although Nana's expression hadn't changed still being blank, she was looking at the hands of the 'pro' as he played. Maybe she likes fighting games? They hadn't tried any yet since most of the fighting games at this arcade were co-op only.

They continued watching the next few matches before getting bored and walked around them, Chad putting Nana down on the ground again.

"So, what's next?"

"We're playing Street Brawlers, Nana looked a bit interested when she was watching them."

"Oh?"

Finding another two machines with the game after wandering around Chad walked around to the other machines and waited for Nana. Though before they could start Sam discovered a problem... Nana couldn't reach the controls.

Sam scratched her head as she looked around, "Chad look after Nana for a bit." She said before she went to get a chair, returning about a minute later she positioned it in front of the conrtols and put Nana on top of it.

"You ready?" Chad called out from the second machine on the other side.

"Yup, start it." Sam answered and leaned against another game with crossed arms as she watched Nana picking the same character the 'pro' was using, the 'Game Start!' ringing out a few seconds later.

As Chad and Nana's characters appeared in some sort of urban environment, Chad waited for Nana to start while she started slowly cycling through some movements.

"Ready Nana? Here I come." Chad warned as he shifted his character forwards and landed a few punches and kicks on Nana's, knocking her health bar down about a third.

"Hey! Knucklehead, let her get used to it first!" Sam shouted at him.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll take it easy, we can just go again anyway." Chad grumbled slightly.

Seemingly being done with testing things out, Chad saw Nana's character approach and start prodding him with a few jabs which he simply blocked, before retreating again. This continued for the next few exchanges as Chad's health bar started very slowly depleting.

"Watch out Nana, I'm going on the attack." Chad cautioned, although he knew that Nana hadn't played any game like this before, he felt a bit bored after a while. His character dashed forward and lashed out with a kick which Nana actually managed to block, sending a punch in retaliation.

"Oh, you're getting the hang of this Nana." Chad was still surprised at how quickly she managed to learn the games they showed her. The two went back and forth again for a while, Chad eventually emerging as the victor.

"Wanna go again, Nana?" Sam asked and raised her eyebrows in surprise when she nodded, she usually didn't really care if she did or not, only continuing to play if they started the game again.

"Oh, I guess you like fighting games, then." Sam mused as she inserted another few coins, Chad doing the same when he heard it, the game starting again a few seconds later with the same characters as the last time.

"Not waiting for you this time, Nana!" Chad called out as he rushed her, though was in for a surprise when she dodged at the last second and swept his character's legs leading into an uppercut and keeping him locked in the air as she went through a long chain combo, an announcement being heard what must've been 10 seconds later.

[K.O.]

"..."

Both Sam and Chad stood in stunned silence as they stared at the text, only snapping out of it when the new round started, the silence continued as Nana proceeded to surgically lock Chad's character in various different ways despite his attempts to stop it and pummeling his health bar down to 0, another announcement being heard after three rounds of this.

[You Win]

"..."

"Holy crap." Chad muttered under his breath with wide eyes as he walked around to where Sam and Nana were, seeing Sam's jaw hanging open and Nana messing with the controls.

"You just got absolutely trashed." Sam let out eventually, her face set in slight disbelief.

"I... did."

The two looked down at Nana who looked back at them over her shoulder and tilted her head in confusion before going back to fiddling with the controls.

"Hey, she wants to play more. Go, go." Sam snapped out of her surprise and started pushing Chad back to the other side.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going, no need to push me." Chad sighed.

Nothing much changed in the next few games, Chad barely able to do any damage to Nana's character before being action-locked and eventually knocked out, Nana's combos only getting longer and longer the more they played.

"I give, I give. You're too good, Nana." Chad hung his head in defeat after another brutal beatdown, walking back over to them with his hands up in the air.

"Heh, of course. Nana is undefeatable, you know?" Sam scoffed jokingly as she picked up Nana and held her up in front of her like a cat. "Look at this menacing face, everyone else who stepped up to challenge her cowered with just a look."

Chad had an amused smile on his face as he looked at Nana's still blank face staring at him as he played along, clasping his hands together and bowing to her with a serious face. "I see, it seems you were the legendary player, Nana. It was an honor fighting against you."

The two burst out in laughter as Sam put down Nana again and took her hand as they wandered around for a bit, looking to see if anything else would catch Nana's interest.

"Oh hey, look." Sam pointed at the punching machine she spotted standing in one of the corners of the arcade and turned her head towards Chad. "You wanna try?"

"Eh, why not?" He shrugged and took off his jacket, chucking it at the pinball machine next to him as he walked over, doing some light punches at the air.

"If you get lower than 700 you're weak." Sam shouted at him, standing a few meters away to the side of him with Nana.

"You know that it doesn't really calculate punching power, right?" Chad replied with an eyeroll before he brought up his arms and started lightly doing some small hops back and forth focusing on the punching bag.

A few seconds later he took a step forward with his left foot while turning his right, rotating his upper body and hips as his right hand shot forward accompanied by a sharp exhale, hitting slightly off-center on the bag with a loud smack as he stepped back.

[870]

"Well, it's over 700 at least." Chad quipped as he looked at the display.

"Pfft, lucky shot." Sam made a face at him and was about to continue when she felt a slight tug at her hand and looked down to see Nana unconsciously leaning away from her looking in the other direction.

"What's wrong, Nana?" Sam asked curiously as she raised an eyebrow, not receiving a response she looked at what had caught her attention and saw two people playing Dance Dash.

"Oh, do you want to go look at them playing?"

"What's up?" Chad asked as he walked towards them after fetching his jacket.

"Nana is curious about DD." Sam replied as she started walking over to to take a closer look, Chad trailing behind them. As they moved closer the three saw the players nonchalantly gliding across the control floor seamlessly hitting the notes, not missing a single one.

While they were watching Sam found her gaze curiously wandering down to Nana who's eyes were looking at their legs. Her eyes widened a bit as an outrageous thought appeared in her mind and a few minutes later when they were done, finishing with 97% accuracy, she picked up Nana and carried her over to the machine.

"Let's try this one, Nana." Sam encouraged cheerfully and placed her on the down on the control floor, selecting the same song and difficulty the previous players were using.

"Are you sure? Nana doesn't strike me as someone who likes moving around alot and why did you pick the hardest difficulty for?" Chad asked in confusion as he watched Sam quickly tapping away at the screen.

"Shush." Sam quickly waved him away as the game started, her eyes locked onto Nana's figure staring at the screen.

"What do you mean shush-" Chad asked questioningly as he turned his head towards her before his voice cut off as he saw something out of the corner of his eyes and stared dumbfounded as Nana's small legs started smoothly sliding across the control floor as she danced away, looking almost bored with her everpresent blank stare still on her face.

[Clear]

93%

Perfect - 78

Great - 92

Good - 58

Bad - 16

"..."

The two looked at the scene playing out in front of them in stunned silence until the song ended and Nana came to a stop and her result showed up on the screen. Sam and Chad stared at the score for what must've been several minutes before eventually just looking at each other.

"What the heck?"

"What the hel- Ow!" Chad winced in pain as Sam at his chin and threw him a dirty look.

"What's that for!?" Chad asked loudly as he frantically rubbed where she kicked him.

"Language." Sam huffed, crossing her arms in front of her as she answered making Chad give her a flat stare. "You know that Nana's gonna hear cursing one way or another, right?"

"Well, yeah. But it's kinda fun acting like a mom that thinks that her child won't ever know what cursing is." Sam shrugged nonchalantly making Chad narrow his eyes at her, then why was that kick even necessary!?

"Anyway, it's probably time to take Nana back to the gym, I think she's had at least a bit of fun during our little outing so I'll count this as a success." Sam declared casually as she took Nana's hand and started marching towards the exit while Chad grumpily followed behind.

The next day Chad got an idea as yesterday's events played through his mind while he was working through his routines and stopped before he looked around a bit, eventually finding his target sitting on the receptionist desk staring into space and started making his way over.

"Hey, Nana. Wanna try throwing some punches?"

"Chad, Nana is like six years old. She'll hurt herself, we don't even have child sized gloves." Sam who was sitting in her chair heard him and swiveled around with a frown on her face.

"It'll be fine~ I'll wrap her hands and we'll just go through the motions, she won't be using enough strength to hurt herself." Chad reassured as he waved his hand and turned towards Nana who tilted her head. "So, what about it, Nana?"

...

"There we go." Chad said as he stood up from his crouch, Nana's small hands now enveloped by handwraps standing next to one of the punching bags as far away from other members as possible so they didn't get in the way.

"Where did you even get this idea from?" Sam asked from a few meters away with a disapproving frown on her face, arms crossed in front of her as her foot tapped the ground impatiently.

"Well, you remember yesterday, right? I got curious to see if she'd pick up boxing as fast as she does games." Chad shrugged his shoulders as he answered nonchalantly.

"She better not get hurt, or you're on official training dummy duty for the next month." Sam threatened as her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Yeah, yeah. It'll be fine. Look over here Nana." Chad waved her off dismissively as he walked over to the punching back, called out to Nana and then started slowly moving around it, making sure to keep light on his feet and his hands guarding his face, mixing in some slips and head movements.

"Alright. Your turn, Nana." A few minutes later Chad relaxed his stance and took a few steps back as he gestured towards the punching bag as he looked at her encouragingly.

"You don't need to do it if you don't want to, Nana." Sam said gently as she crouched down next to her and patted her head.

Nana stood unresponsive for a few seconds before her she blinked a few times and started walking towards the punching bag, raising her hands into a guard and started mimicking Chad's previous movements almost flawlessly.

Chad let out an impressed whistle as he looked at her smoothly moving around the bag like she been boxing for at least a couple of years. There were barely any pauses inbetween her movements, Nana exuding a relaxed feeling looking very comfortable going through the motions, something only present in experienced practitioners.

Most of those who just picked up boxing were usually much more hesitant in their movements though through none of their own fault since they simply lacked the confidence you gradually built up through experience.

When Chad had just started out he felt a bit self-conscious of doing something wrongly which slowly disappeared over the years as he got better thanks to the gym's boxing trainer, and in his first spar he took alot of unecessary shots when thinking of which punch to use where and when.

"Good job Nana, that was awesome!" A few minutes later Nana gradually slowed down and came to a stop, Chad excitedly walking over as he praised her. "Want to try some punches?"

A few hours later Nana was drenched in sweat, panting heavily as she moved around the punching bag much slower than when she had started, though now with very light punches that barely touched the bag added to her routine.

Chad hadn't really intended for this to be a multiple hours long training session but Nana had just kept going and going, apparently having taken a liking to it.

Something that surprised him even more than Nana being so interested in boxing was her stamina, Nana having barely taken any breaks mostly just to get some water from the bottle Sam had given her when she determined Nana wasn't stopping anytime soon, the other thing being that altough she slowed down, her form stayed solid throughout.

There were a few times at the start where he had to correct her, one of them being how to manage her breathing and a few other small mistakes, but once he had told her she instantly adjusted after which she didn't make them again. But then again, he wasn't a boxing trainer so he probably missed alot.

"I think that's enough for today, Nana." Although he was happy she found something that she found fun, he was worried that she really was going to hurt herself if she continued, he had the feeling that if left alone, Nana would probably just continue until she collapsed.

"Are you finally done?" Sam quickly walked over when she saw Nana slowing to a stop, she had done the same thing the last few times when Nana paused to get some water.

"Yeah, I'm a bit worried she'll hurt herself if she doesn't stop soon."

"As you should be, idiot." Sam tsked at him as she ran over to Nana and gave her a quick look over, undoing her wraps and inspecting her hands.

"She's fine she barely touched the bag, I made sure of it. I'm not that stupid." Chad reassured as he took a sip of water having continued his routine along with Nana on a nearby punching bag.

Sam ignored him, continuing her inspection before eventually being satisfied. She gave Nana a pat on the head, her face changing slightly since it practically felt like she'd just gotten out of a pool. "You need a shower little lady."

Taking her hand Sam started leading her towards the changing room, calling out to Chad without turning around. "You're on training dummy duty the whole day tomorrow, you're also cleaning up."

"Aw, man..." Chad sighed to himself, although he could just ignore it since she couldn't really order him around, Sam would just do something else to annoy him. He learned that the hard way when she brought a water gun and decided that trying to shoot his nipples the whole day was a good idea.

The next morning when Sam opened the door to the gym she paused upon seeing Nana looking like she was gliding along the floor in a combination of yesterday's boxing routines and her DD movements doing some sort of self created race track through the punching bags, it looked a bit comical since her head was barely moving up and down.

"What's she doing?" Sam asked as she walked over to Yama who stood nearby watching whatever Nana was doing.

"I'm not sure, she was doing this when I woke up but I didn't want to interrupt her. It's nice seeing her being so active." Yama replied with a small smile as he watched her zooming around the punching bags.

"Godammit, Chad. Look at what you did." Sam pinched the bridge of her nose as she muttered darkly. It wasn't like she didn't want Nana to do what she had an interest in, but she was worried Nana would eventually want to start sparring.

"Hmm." Sam rubbed her chin as she got an idea. Taking out her phone she walked over to Nana and called out to her with a wave, making her stop and turn towards her.

When Chad arrived at the gym a few hours later he blinked in confusion, seeing Nana doing some very familiar stances next to the punching bags and turned to Sam sitting behind the receptionist desk, palming her face.

"Hey." Chad called out, Sam's answer being a long groan of suffering.

"Isn't that-" He pointed at Nana.

"Yes. Yes, that is the bending movements from the Incarnation." Sam interrupted.

"Why is she-"

"Because I thought it was a good idea to distract her from the boxing drills with some cartoons, okay!?" Sam shouted as she propped herself up on the desk, getting in his face.

"Oh. Boxing isn't that dangerous if she's just going at the punching bag as long as she's doing it properly, you know?" Chad raised an eyebrow in confusion, he didn't know why Sam was so against it. It wasn't like she was sparring with the others.

"...I know." Sam sighed slightly as she sat back in her seat with a tired expression, she hadn't known Nana for that long but the girl just had this air of cluelessness that made her want to take care of her. "I guess I'm overreacting a bit."

"Well, who knows. Maybe she'll lose interest in a few days." Chad shrugged his shoulders.