Let's Fight!

The boys gazed at Ciel with adoration, their eyes nearly growing out of their heads. Ciel couldn't help but shudder at the look of them.

"Wow, Sister, can you really not feel it?" Blaine asked. His blue hair was pushed into a messy slob by the glass, but he paid no attention to it.

Well, it couldn't exactly hurt to tell them, right?

"I just noticed."

Even with their admiration, Ciel reprimanded herself in her mind. It was a flawed outlook to think that not sensing bloodlust was a good thing. While she had the power of the resentful souls and her old body in the past, she hadn't had to remember about killing intent because she was constantly on alert anyways and could effectively take any precautions beforehand. But now she was in the body of a child and couldn't do anything to protect herself.

As the bloodlust around the girl got stronger, so did the pressure. When she hadn't noticed it, it had felt like a nice breath of fresh air. Now it felt like she was being held down by water. Ciel closed her eyes as she familiarized herself with the changes, and within a few seconds blinked them back open.

The white-haired boy was the first to speak this time.

"You adjusted to it?" he asked. His previously distant attitude was becoming more comfortable.

But before she could answer, someone else joined the conversation.

"Hey Ash, how could you come without us?" a voice said from behind her. The words the boy spoke didn't match the jeering tone he used.

This was new, no one had ever talked to me like that.

Ciel couldn't help but appreciate the souls once more for sending her here. Getting into fights made her blood pump.

Ash, on the other hand, didn't look nearly as excited. He rolled his eyes, leaning against the glass like the bloodlust wasn't there. Ciel admired that such a young boy had no issues with the pressure surrounding the Technoid, even if it doubled several times when he lay on it.

"Maybe I didn't invite you because I don't like you," Ash said. There was a calmness to his voice which left the boy glaring at him.

"Brother," she said, looking to Jamie, "Why is Ash talking to air?"

She listened to Blaire choke down laughter as Jamie just gave her a slight smile.

"You're right, Ash, why would you talk to air when we have our sister right here?" Jamie said.

The boy glared once more, but it didn't take long for him to redirect his hatred toward the girl with them, she was a pretty one at that.

"What do you even know about Technoids," he sneered, "I've never even seen you around here, you must just be here to cling on to the young master's power."

Ciel glanced around her. All of the boys seemed a little pretentious, but none of them seemed like a young master. Plus, nobility had been outlawed long ago after all the revolutions that had taken place.

Blaire noticed her confusion and scratched the top of his head.

"Jay, if she was able to get in, she hit the requirements," he said, "That means she hit the status and ticket cost. So why would she be here to talk to the young master if she'd already has all the power she needs?"

Ticket cost?

"Which requirements?" she asked.

"You know, the two million you pay to enter the store and having a status above A-level."

Blaire noticed her face hadn't cleared up.

"The requirements we were talking about were the ones to get the option in your menu in the first place. Did your parent bring you?" he asked.

Ciel considered for a moment. She supposed since she was alone anyways, she could consider Leonard her guardian for the time of the tour; she nodded. It was most likely because of him that she'd gotten in anyway.

Jay laughed, that same jeering laugh. Ciel wondered if he could learn some creativity for the life of him and stop doing the same thing over and over again.

"So you couldn't even enter by yourself. Did your daddy pay for you? Did he tell you to grab someone rich while you were at it-"

"Fucking hell," Ash interrupted, "If you want to fight, let's just head to the Arena now."

"Yeah, if you wanna go to the Arena, I'm not gonna back down," Blaine followed, giving Ash a thumbs up.

Jamie chimed in, "Yeah, bring your henchmen. One V one until one side gets knocked."

Ciel smiled, "You aren't scared, are you?"

She couldn't get enough of this. Sometime during her conversation with the three boys, she noticed that her brain wasn't working quite as well as she thought it had been. She felt invincible. It seemed that when she'd reverted back to her ten-year-old self, her brain had reverted back to its ten-year-old wiring as well, it was just that she had her memories.

But she didn't know she was such a violent kid.

She thanked Gael in her heart for redirecting her prepubescent anger into something useful.

Jay didn't back down, he just laughed that same, annoying fucking laugh.

"Fine, but don't cry when you lose," and he sauntered away.

Ciel didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Not only were these kids richer than her, they were swaggier too.

"Look up Arena in the menu, the Virtual Arena should pop up," Jamie said. He'd seemed to be aspiring to take the place of Leonard, and Ciel gave him props. All he was missing was an alligator head.

She followed his instructions, and immediately she was transported to a place that was a mirror image of the arena Leonard had shown her, only she was now in a hidden area.

There were three sections in the Arena. First, the battle area; this one should be self-explanatory. Second, the glass pit. This was where competitors would soon go up to the battle stage would get in order and speak with the other team to decide arrangements. The third and final place was where the audience sat.

There didn't have to be a referee in these fights as the rules were automatically implemented by the Virtual World.

Cheat? We'll just throw you out.

Hack us? Do you think we can't hack back? We'll take your money.

They'd probably want players to cheat, it'd give them an excuse to rob them. Ciel couldn't stop herself from shivering at the memory of the fairy she'd met. The power to make someone want to throw money away so casually was still fresh in her mind.

"Since you haven't been to the Arena before," this time Blaire was her guide, "I'll explain the basics to you while Jay brings his henchmen over."

"Basically there are three options: Group PvP, Single Duel, and Friendly Duel.

Group PvP(player versus player) is where there are two groups, in this case, our team and Jay's, will send up one player each. They'll fight, and whoever ends up 'dead' or shot in a vital area, is sent out. The one who wins stays up and fights against the next players until they lose.

Single Duel and Friendly Duel are where only two people are fighting, but the difference between the two are based on how much the Virtual World will suppress pain for you. You have a homemade Pod, right? In that case, you'll only feel seventy-five percent of the max pain anyways so you'll be fine. On the other hand, if you were at a Community Center," Blaire shivered, "those monsters get one-hundred percent of the pain.

In Friendly mode the pain is adjustable and players usually only use those matches to work on technique or for friendly fights. Comparatively, Single Duel uses max pain and you'll actually feel like you're dying. Single Duel and Friendly Duel will also be decided by the two beginning players of the Group Pvp for the rest of their matches. I haven't used Single Duel personally, but," Blaire looked at the other two boys as though he was talking shit about them, "those monsters have.

Also, the Arena here is connected to the Technoid Shop, so you have to do a half-decent job to get high enough on the rankings to get into the store. Though I'm not sure how Sister got in without knowing about the requirements, I'm sure the shop also tested you on an equivalent level when you entered."

Ciel avoided his eyes and Blaire laughed.

"With the bloodlust you can stand, you've proved yourself already."

"Now, if you press here," Blaire showed her his screen, "you'll see the leaderboards either corresponding to the Friendly Duels or Single Duels. You may think the Single Duel rankings would be much more esteemed, but I can promise you, it's also hard going against people who don't feel pain. They just keep getting up. Either way, both leaderboards are counted when letting people into the Technoid Shop, so that's how I got in. You usually have to be in the top three-hundred for your server."

Ciel looked through the rankings, then she switched over to the World Rankings.

"Where's Dragon?" she asked.

"Dragon hasn't been on the leaderboards in ages. You get moved up to fighting at the Community Center once you've dominated the server for too long, so Dragon's long been removed from the online rankings."

Ciel appreciated Blaine's concise explanations. It looked like having a Technoid-obsessed friend was some use after all.

"Oh," Blaine smiled, "looks like Jay made it."