"What would you do if you caught one?" Eve wondered aloud.
The girl considered. They sat next to one another on a park bench, the day warm and bright in the middle of the afternoon. Some children played off to the side, while numerous adults wandered through the paths and trees, enjoying the day. Eve had had the idea to bring them here, figuring the girl would enjoy the closest thing to wilderness they could get in the city. Eve had been right, but she hadn't fully considered what the girl would do in a park. Specifically, she hadn't considered the number of...squirrels.
The girl had spent the better part of the last several hours running around the park wildly, attempting to catch every squirrel she had seen - and there had been many, many squirrels. Eve had followed her tirelessly, trying to suggest off and on that perhaps they might just walk, or join a game of Frisbee, or anything, but the girl hadn't relented for hours. Finally, Eve had convinced her to sit down - the girl was out of breath, her hair completely disheveled, and she finally seemed to think it was a good idea. Especially considering that she hadn't caught one.
"I...it's not so much about the having of it, just the catching. Proving that you're better than it."
"Do you really think the squirrel cares?"
The girl nodded vigorously. "Make no mistake. They are devious creatures, who exist to mock us. It's not just a test of my abilities, it's about putting them in their place."
"And yet...you've never caught one."
The girl paused.
"That is so..."
Eve kept pressing. "So...you do this every day, and you keep losing."
The girl flinched. "That is one way to look at it." She shifted uncomfortably, and considered leaving.
"I'm sorry," Eve said. "I didn't mean it like that. It just seems odd to keep beating yourself up over something you can't do."
The girl rounded on her, suddenly angry. "Can't do? I can do it! It's just...every time I am close, they shift this way or that, or climb a branch I cannot, or something, and they get away. But I am learning their tricks, and one day I will have them."
Eve was taken aback by the sudden rage, but she tried to keep calm. She hadn't been trying to start a fight.
"How long have you been trying?"
The girl paused, and remembered.
----
It had been many years ago, when she was still young. She remembered having been told not too long ago she was four and ten. She was walking the woods, silently hoping that Zhong would find her, but she knew he wasn't expected back for a few days yet. So she was alone until then, it seemed.
She came across the Master, overseeing a few of the acolytes sparring. None of them could speak to her, of course, and she doubted the Master would speak to her, but she stopped to look nonetheless. She observed their form - sloppy, she thought. They were each of them flawed - that one had the raw speed, but none of the finesse and control. That one was big and strong, but too hesitant.
After a few minutes, the Master, to her surprise, spoke. "You are thinking that you are better than them," he said.
She flushed and looked at the ground, but she knew better than to lie. "Yes," she said.
"You are not wrong. You are faster than most of them, smarter than most, and stronger than at least a few. I have seen you defeat most of the boys your age."
She could defeat many of the boys older than her, too, she knew, but she could not say this. To brag or to make unfounded statements would earn the ire of the Master, she knew. In his own speech the Master was careful only to make observations, not praise.
She did not thank him, but let the silence grow between them.
"You must understand, Aubrey." She wondered if he really knew how much she hated to hear that. He had to see her flinch. "No matter how fast, or smart, or strong you are compared to them, it is not enough. You are walking the path of a warrior, and for a woman, you are dangerously ill-equipped."
She said nothing once more, but her silence spoke for her.
"I have offered to send you to the city, to learn as a normal girl would. But you refuse, and I am honor bound to keep you here in my protection if you will not go. But I cannot shield you from the truth, Aubrey - all you have is not enough to succeed on the path you walk."
She would not cry. She would not.
"What will be enough?"
"When you are smarter than the wisest priest, or the oldest of wise men. When you are stronger than a giant. When you can run through the trees and catch the squirrels, then perhaps you will have enough."
The girl was not stupid. She knew he exaggerated. She knew he mocked her, subtly, quietly. He was trying to convince her to give up again.
The girl was stubborn.
She stalked off sullenly, not knowing what else to say. She felt tears roll down her face but refused to acknowledge them. Stupid, useless emotion, what good would it do her? If the Master saw, it would only reinforce what he already thought. That the fighting that she knew she was good at, better than anyone he taught here, was not for her. That she was too weak inside, that no matter how skilled she was, she would be too soft.
She came into a clearing. She looked up and spotted a squirrel, eating a nut and looking down at her. Black eyes. Mocking eyes. Mocking her the way her Master had.
She would catch it, and bring it back, and show him she was fast enough.
----
"Years. Many years," was all she said, finally. The memory made her want to cry, though she restrained herself. It was hard to keep the sadness out of her voice though.
"Aubrey, I'm sorry," Eve said. The girl flinched - she had been getting better at hiding that, especially with Eve, but her thoughts were elsewhere now. "I'm not trying to upset you. I'm just saying that if you put half as much effort into winning matches as you do catching squirrels, you could be a superstar."
The girl sighed. There was too much to handle in this place. It had been easier when she was alone in the woods.
"Perhaps that is so, Eve. I do not think I can let go so easily, though."
Eve was silent for a moment, then she continued. "You're going to be in the Elite X battle royal at All or Nothing, right?"
"I am here to fight. If I cannot fight anywhere else, then I will do so there. Though I do not understand this concept of throwing your opponent over ropes. How does that prove anything? They could simply enter the ring again and keep fighting."
"Well, it's...it's hard to explain. It's traditional."
"You have strange traditions here. Are you sure I cannot just pin them?"
"Well, you can try, but historically it doesn't end well..."
The girl sulked for a moment, before shaking her head.
"I cannot understand, but if it is what is wanted, then I will do it."
Eve nodded. "I'm going to be in there too. We'll be opponents."
Aubrey cocked her head. She had not considered, but it made sense.
"I...yes. I am sorry to learn this."
Eve shook her head. "Why? No one's doing anything wrong. It's what we do for a living. It won't make us any less of friends."
"No one I have wrestled so far has seemed to want to call me friend afterwards."
"Do you want to be friends with Cerberus?"
"Err...not especially."
"Do you want to be friends with Ilapa, or Jimmy Wonder, or...M?"
The girl's eyes widened. "Ilapa is terrifying. So big. I did not know people came so large here. And Wonder...magic is not something to be messed around with, Eve. Zhong has told me many times of sorcerers who steal children who do not eat their vegetables. No, I do not wish to know this man. But...who is M?"
Eve thought for a moment.
"You know, I'm not sure I can explain that to you, Aubrey. He's...a wrestler. Apparently. He loves the letter M. That's about all I got."
The girl raised an eyebrow.
"He sounds...odd."
Eve nodded in agreement.
"Is it normal to be named only a letter?"
"No, it's pretty unusual."
"I...I think I will focus on defeating him, and not on understanding him."
Eve, once again, nodded in agreement.
"This could be a big chance for both of us. A shot at the Elite X title puts you on the path to the world title."
"This business of handing out gold for winning fights is...perplexing, to me, but you tell me it is a good thing. I hope very much to have a chance at this gold, Eve."
"So do I, friend. So do I."
The silence settled between them, with the realization deepening for the girl that she would be forced to fight Eve soon.
"We'll still be friends? Even if..." The girl trailed off, quietly.
Eve smiled an extended a hand.
"Still friends. Whatever happens."
