In underground black-market fighting, people can die, though not all that often.
The organizers need bodies in the ring to make them money — they can't have every entrant dying on them.
But when it's necessary, they really can die.
At its core, black-market fighting is an outlet for the audience's brutality. Whatever class people belong to, they all carry their own pressure, and over the years many of them hide a dark, tide-like violence inside that needs somewhere to break.
Some vent by flaming strangers online; some drink themselves blind and sing as if they were weeping; some fight and kill; and some watch other people fight and kill, and get a different kind of satisfaction out of it.
The common thread is that afterward they almost certainly regret it: Why the hell did I drink last night? I feel like death today.
But in that moment, that very night — three more rounds!
That's what getting carried away looks like.
In the daytime, the black-market spectators are immaculately dressed elites, but the moment blood is drawn, they're more savage than anyone.
Add a bet and bloodshot eyes, and they're worse still.
"Useless! Kill her! Useless!"
Yueying's back kick had sent the big man toward toppling off the platform first, and the sight enraged the spectators who'd put their money on him. The place felt for a moment like it might riot; people began trying to climb over the railing.
"Hrah!" The big man clamped one hand onto the edge of the platform and actually hung there one-handed, not falling.
"Use your shadow blade and cut his hand off! What are you spacing out for, you stinking bitch!" the spectators who'd bet on Yueying kept cursing.
In that roar of noise, Yueying couldn't hear a word of how they were cursing her. She had nothing left. She wanted to close in and finish it, but the belly that had taken the earlier blow cramped with a knifing pain and her whole body felt ready to come apart; blood still dripped from beneath her mask, mottling her black clothes with dark red.
Breathing weakly, she crept slowly toward the big man.
Her opponent wasn't an esper at all — just an all-styles fighter — and yet the gravity power that had pinned her a moment ago, and his hanging in midair now... someone on the outside was helping him.
That's cheating.
The people running this place ought to notice. Why aren't they stopping it?
"You lose one match, one million." The man's indifferent voice echoed in her mind again.
"It'll hurt a lot."
"...If you're already hurting, then it's fine, isn't it?"
Yueying had never imagined those words would come out of that man's mouth... At first, seeing it was him, she'd even felt a certain warmth of familiarity, and two short sentences had smashed that warmth to pieces.
They're all the same.
If you're already hurting, then it's all right to lose...
Her thoughts scattering, Yueying had already crept to the platform's edge and tried to kick at the hand gripping the rim.
"Whoosh!" The man suddenly flipped up and over, landing above and behind her, and a foot came flying at the back of her head.
The crowd boiled over again!
Whatever faint notion of "it's all right to lose" Yueying had was flung somewhere out of reach; cold sweat broke over her as she dropped into a desperate backbend and the flying kick missed.
This isn't losing... this is dying!
They're trying to kill me?
"Hundred Blossoms Fold — that's what this is..." Past the first shock, Chu Ge had cooled down.
Qiu Wuji said, "Something outside is holding that man in the air. That's cheating. Our neighbor is going to die."
"Die?" Chu Ge watched Yueying dodging the man's relentless battering at the platform's edge, puzzled. "If she wants to concede, can't she just jump down?"
A hint of sarcasm crept into Qiu Wuji's voice. "If I'm not mistaken, the odds on her dying are probably the better bet. And if she knows she's been cheated against, she might cause the house trouble later. Even if they don't kill her on the platform, they'll find a way to kill her outside it afterward — that's exactly why someone came knocking at her door. The one who walked through walls was most likely just doing advance tracking and scouting, confirming where she lives, which is why the fee was only ten thousand."
Chu Ge's brows drew tight. Qiu Wuji's analysis made a great deal of sense. She really had dealt with both the straight world and the underworld too often; the logic of the two worlds was much the same.
My neighbor is going to die?
Yueying wanted to jump off the platform and concede too.
But she couldn't break clear.
Her dodges grew heavier and heavier. Wounded as she was, she no longer had the strength to shake off the gravity's hold; even her organs seemed to have turned to lead and mercury, dragging steadily downward.
The opponent's fist swelled in her vision.
Yueying went quiet, looking into the man's bloodthirsty eyes, and a thought surfaced in her mind — if I die, then it won't hurt anymore either, will it?
The weight on her body suddenly eased; the gravity binding had lifted, for no reason at all.
There was no time to consider anything. Survival instinct made Yueying flip backward on reflex, and in the same motion that dodged the punch, her feet had landed below the platform.
The clamor cut off with an eerie half-second pause, then burst out into even louder abuse; many tried to force their way past the rails and were held by something, unable to get out — chaos like a cage of beasts.
Dragging her wounded body, Yueying hurried into the passage and away, and soon reached the elevator. Losing meant no money, of course — never mind the money; getting out of here alive was what mattered now.
She hesitated for a moment. In this state, isn't the elevator a death trap? Can I even go?
The elevator doors suddenly opened. Yueying glanced inside on reflex, saw who was in it, and hesitated no more — she darted in quickly.
The doors closed and the elevator began to rise.
Upstairs, before the floor-to-ceiling glass window, someone stood quietly watching her go, brows faintly knit, as if puzzled.
"Boss, that gravity binding really wasn't me releasing it — someone interfered!" Behind him, a red-haired youth rushed to defend himself.
The man didn't turn his head. He waved a hand. "I know. I'm not blaming you."
The red-haired youth let out a breath. "Boss, someone's picking her up. Do we cut the elevator's power? Or set an ambush outside the doors?"
The man sighed. "Look at the monitor. There's no one in that elevator. It's just a smoke screen — they got out some other way long ago."
The red-haired youth checked the monitor in disbelief. The elevator was indeed empty. Unwilling to accept it, he pulled up the earlier footage — spotless, nothing there at all.
"They've got a highly skilled esper on their side. From the moment they entered the nightclub, every camera on them shows blank. That instinct for leaving no trace is close to a reflex — an old hand at this..."
Everyone exchanged looks. "You don't think... cops?"
The man sighed quietly. "Shut it down. The wall-walker fool's been caught. He was only hired from the outside and doesn't know anything about our setup, but black-market fighting is at least something he knows about, so the authorities are probably already investigating. Lie low for now. All operations stop."
"Then what about Yueying..."
"From the platform to the elevator, we held back because we didn't want to leave too much eyewitness proof out in the open. Once we watched her get into that elevator, we'd lost our best chance to kill her." The man stared at the elevator and murmured, as if to himself, "I'll find another way."
"Understood." Several people behind him, the red-haired youth among them, bowed respectfully — they clearly had great faith in this man.
Though he seems a little soft today... say, whether she was in the elevator or not, she can't have gotten far. Why not search, why not chase?
Probably afraid they're cops. Boss sees the whole picture; being cautious is only proper...