Chapter Text
It's time for her fighting day.
The guard announces it with a detached, cold voice, and the kennel grows silent.
Heavy.
What?
She--shes new. She's so new. She's just been here for…she doesn't know how long exactly, just that it's enough time to heal from the shift and get settled into the routine of eat-train-testing-sleep that everyone here has.
Her ears flattened against her head, and her tail tucks between her legs. Distantly, she's aware that he's saying her opponent, that she should be paying attention, but–
But she can’t.
Fear grips her, cold and paralyzing, as the guard steps away and down the hall.
Someone grabs her shoulder, and she turns with the force of them spinning around. Instinctively, she tenses, waiting for a blow–
But it's just the hybrid with the jaguar ears that gives her extra food sometimes.
She can feel the tears burning in her eyes, but she doesn’t cry. She can't cry. Crying is a sign of weakness, and here–
The lady kneels down, looking into her eyes. “Did you hear what he said?” She speaks quietly, with a rasp, and she stiffens up and can't help the glance over her shoulder, because talking isn't allowed.
…nothing happens.
She swallows her tears and shakes her head, and the look of heartbreak the lady gives her makes her wilt.
Somebody laughs sharply in the back. She flinches.
“She's gonna get eaten alive.”
—
Class can't end soon enough.
Mualani's gaze flicks from the clock, to her teacher droning on about a group project, to her bouncing leg, then back to the clock. She shifts in her seat, and she itches to grab her phone to check the stats on the Gauntlet again, but that would definitely get her yelled at again.
But she can’t help that she's so excited.
There's a new Hybrid coming out, one that's been teased for months.
There had been leaks about what it could be, but Mualani stopped paying attention to those when it had apparently been confirmed that the new Hybrid was a combination of an octopus and a falcon. Nothing made sense about it. Nothing!
Archons, people were so stupid sometimes…
“...and finally, Mualani and Kinich.”
The mention of her name snaps her out of her daze, and she looks up. Oh, shoot, she should've been paying attention, probably.
…wait, did her teacher say Kinich?
Who in the Abyss is Kinich?!
She looks around, trying to catch sight of whoever this ‘Kinich’ person was--because preferably she would like to get along with said person, and she didn’t even know who they were!
Archons…that would be embarrassing…
Fischl, Bennett, Xinyan…she knows these people.
Her gaze snags on a boy with black hair in the corner, green eyes staring at her directly.
She blinks. The boy does not.
…I'm assuming that that is Kinich. At least, Mualani hopes it's Kinich. Otherwise, this is about to get very awkward.
She waits for a beat, to see if he gets up, and when he doesn't, she stands up and walks over.
He just continues staring at her quietly. Okay…
“Hi!” She sticks a hand out. “I don't think we've talked before, but I'm–”
“Mualani.” He says blandly, and Mualani blinks. He must take the expression on her face for confusion, because he tilts his head in the direction of their teacher. “He said it, when he was calling out partners.”
…okay, right person then. Thank goodness…
“Yeah, he did!”
Which is the only reason why I know your name. She adds on mentally, not that she would ever say that verbally to him. She pulls out a chair. Kinich just watches her idly.
“So…” How does someone say they weren't listening to the teacher at all when they were explaining the assignment without making them seem like a slacker. “...got any ideas?”
Kinich gives a one-armed shrug.
A very, very awkward silence follows.
“...well we'll have to start somewhere!” Mualani tries again, and Kinich nods, expression never changing. “Yeah, we will.”
Another long silence. Mualani starts to suspect that Kinich knows exactly what he's doing.
“...great!” Mualani says cheerfully, and takes her laptop out of her bag.
“We don't need that yet.” Says Kinich, and Mualani has never felt the urge to strangle someone more.
***
Mualani manages to use context clues to figure out what the assignment is about–a very boring sideshow presentation about the history of whatever part of Teyvatian history they want, using only their notes–and immediately springs the idea of the Gauntlet upon Kinich.
Kinich, however, immediately shuts it down.
For some reason.
“You seriously don't want to do the Gauntlet?” Mualani asks, genuinely shocked, and Kinich shakes his head as he compares his notes with Mualani's. “No.”
A pause, because Maulani wants to hear why.
Kinich doesn't say why.
I couldn't have been paired with anyone else…?
“But it's the biggest sporting event of all time!” She throws her hands up in the air, and Kinich looks up at her idly, tracking her hands with his eyes. He hums, then focuses back on his work.
“Nobody competes in it though.” He deadpans, and Mualani scoffs. “Well, yeah, duh, it's all holograms. How else do you think the contestants get animal ears and stuff?”
Kinich tilts his head in a silent agreement. “True.” He flips a page. “I just…I dunno. They're a bit too human for me.”
Personally, that's what Mualani loves about the Gauntlet–the holograms look so real, and have all the subtlety of an actual person that it's incredible. But she can also see how that, combined with the extreme violence of it all, it could be kinda unnerving.
She nods, a bit disappointed–but hey, it isn't the end of the world. “Alright then, we don't have to do it.” She says, and Kinich nods once in acknowledgement.
“Hm…how about the joining of Teyvat's nations?” She asks, pulling out the notes on it, and Kinich looks up long enough to read them and nod.
“Sounds good.”
The bell rings a few minutes after that, and Mualani gets a surge of pure joy.
Finally!
She leaps up, shoving her pencil case and binder into her bag before Kinich has even opened his. She must be smiling like an insane person, but c'mon!
New hybrid!!!
She barely remembers to say goodbye to Kinich--who’s slowly putting his computer away–and then she's sprinting out the door.
She has a Gauntlet match to catch!
Even the sudden wall of chaos from the other students can't stop her–Mualani’s on the track team, she knows how to run, and nothing can stop her now!
She ducks behind a group of chattering girls, and narrowly manages to avoid an elbow to the face from a bunch of boys who have decided that the hallway right as school ends is the perfect time to fight, and in a record time she's at the door.
The gas mask is slipped on, because Mualani doesn't intend on getting lung cancer anytime soon, and she steps into the safety chamber.
The lights glow, and Mualani runs in place as she waits. Archons, the switch between inside air and outside air has never taken so long.
C'mon, c'mon… she tugs on her sleeves. She needs to get home, like now!
The doors slide open with a woosh, and all is right in the world again.
Mualani grins underneath the mask, and then takes off running into the bright, bright outdoors. Nearby, other students that are either rushing to get picked up by parents or are as excited as her about the new Hybrid are being let out at the same time–the doors alongside her all open at once, and suddenly there's a swarm of yelling, laughing teenagers.
The sun beats down, and the orange haze that always covers the city is in full force. Must be a factory day. Mualani thinks, but it's hardly enough to keep her down for long.
She waves to a few of her friends waiting by the lonely, scraggly tree in the front yard of the school as she runs by, but doesn't stop to talk. A car honks as she runs across the crosswalk–she was totally obeying traffic laws!--and up the hill towards her house she goes.
This is the one and only time Mualani is genuinely glad that she lives so close to school, because within ten minutes, she has the door to her house thrown open and, as soon as she's able to get through the decontamination chamber of her house…
Archons, her heart is practically beating out of her chest at this point from sheer excitement alone.
She wonders what the new Hybrid is. It was a combination of two creatures, she knew, which was a switch up from the normal one animal. The last one had been a cat…they probably wouldn't do the same thing twice.
A ding lets her know it's safe for her to enter her home, and Mualani can't help the giggle that escapes her as she throws down her backpack and tosses the gas mask with it.
Her mom'll get on to her about that later, probably–something like ‘Gas masks are delicate and expensive!’ but Mualani doesn't really care at the moment. She swings by the kitchen, because sometimes matches go for a long time, and pauses at the fridge.
‘Hey, Lani!’ Reads her mom's neat handwriting, and Mualani thinks she knows what this is about. Her heart sinks a little. ‘Me and your father are going for another trip, just a month this time! You know what to do. Love you, honey.’
Mualani stares at the fridge for a moment, hand trembling as she rests it on the handle.
…of course.
She sighs. Well. Bright side! Mualani can watch as many matches as she wants now that there’s no one to tell her to go to bed!
She opens the fridge door, grabbing a pop, then shuts the fridge door as hard as she can. The sticky note flutters to the floor, but Mualani stubbornly ignores it as she bends down to root through the cabinet for chips.
Yes, we have the good kind! Mualani throws her arms up in the air with a whoop at the sight of the orange flavour of Sumerchips. Every other flavour sucks, Mualani would know, because she's tried each one over the years of obsessively watching every Gauntlet match.
She pauses at that thought. Is this an obsession…?
Nah. Couldn't be!
With that, she happily closes the cabinet and bolts up to her room, skipping the three steps at the top that squeak weirdly and almost slipping on the floor in her haste, because she's probably late to the match already; or at least cutting it close.
Her desk is by the window, but she knows better than to try and attend the match with the sun beating down in her full force–it makes her sweaty, even with the air-conditioning inside. She grabs the blinds, pulling them down so that the room is plunged into darkness and the unrelenting heat of the is abated.
She grabs the headset from the charging stand it's on, flopping into her bed and shifting around into a comfortable position. She'll probably have to get up and move at some point–leaning against the headboard of her bed isn't comfortable in the long run, but she doesn’t really mind.
She has other things to do.
She cracks open the pop can, sets on her nightstand, and then finally--finally!--slides on the headset.
The effect is instantaneous. One moment, Mualani is in her room, and the next, she's in the bleachers of the Stadium, amongst the cheering crowd.
She grins, looking around. It always amazes her at how they manage to make the virtual reality look so real. She can feel the air on her face, and the smell of popcorn and cooking meat fills the air. She could turn those settings off, but Mualani wants the full experience, not just the half-baked one.
If she wanted that she wouldn't have bought the virtual reality tickets at all, just watched the livestream.
But hey, she wasn't a superfan for nothing.
…well, maybe if she was a superfan, she'd actually be in the stadium, but the real life tickets are expensive as hell and Mualani needs to save up for university.
She turns towards the middle of the stadium. It's empty, for now, but soon the holograms will come to life, and the excitement will begin.
The stadium darkens. The crowd stills. Mualani leans forward in her seat. Oh, she was right in time.
“Ladies and gentleman, and everyone in between, it's timeeee!” The announcer shouts, voice radiating across the stadium, and the crowd goes wild. Mualani is vibrating, she's so excited. She'd be shouting alongside the rest of the crowd, but the last time she did that, her neighbours had filed a noise complaint and that had just been embarrassing to deal with.
“I'm sure I don't need to give you the rules, you know them already! But for first time watchers–”
Mualani taps her leg. She is definitely not a first time watcher, and knows all the rules, but she also had the common sense to know that not everybody is into the Pilgrimage as she is.
“Two Hybrids will enter the ring, randomly selected by our fancy roulette machine!” An exaggerated version of a slot machine distends, and Mualani grins as it spins, eyes tracking the various silhouettes she can see. “Until, it lands on our two fighters.”
The holograms in the middle form little versions of the General, a dog-like Hybrid who uses a bow, and the Oni, a massive hulking figure with horns and a claymore. Mualani isn't a personal favourite of either of those Hybrids, but she can’t deny that both of them make the fights fun–especially the Oni. Somehow, he managed to make them funny.
“And then, the two fighters until only one is left standing!”
The two little mini versions get into an exaggerated scrap in the arena--all cartoony cloud of fists and kicking. A cat yowls in the background, and, Mualani admits, it gets a laugh out of her. Chuckles rise from the rest of the crowd alongside her.
Eventually, it shows the Oni standing triumphantly over the General's body, hands on his hips, cartoon chest puffed out in pride. Somebody beside Mualani scoffs. “Aw, c'mon, too soon…”
Mualani laughs at that–the General had lost pretty badly to the Oni last week. So badly, in fact, that the internet had done what the internet does best and made it into a giant joke.
“Everyone know the rules?!” The announcer shouts out, and the crowd erupts in cheers, Mualani joining in. Finally.
“I can't hear you!”
The crowd screams louder, and excitement beats in Mualani's chest like a drum.
“Then let's get this started!”
The real roulette machine slides down from the top of the dome, and the cheers get somehow louder. Mualani leans forward, tracking the silhouettes.
The Commander…the Kitsune…the Hunter… Mualani waits with baited breath.
And…it stops on a cat-like silhouette, and Mualani has watched this show so many times that she knows exactly who that is. The image clears, showing a hybrid who, had she been real, would have been Mualani's age. She has light brown hair, and purple eyes, and there's a magicians hat in one hand.
The crowd goes crazy, yelling and shouting, because the Assassin has always been a favourite since her debut. Mualani joins in, cheering as loud as she can, but her focus is entirely on the second machine.
The new Hybrid is on there.
It lands on a silhouette, dinging the gold to signify who's been chosen, but it doesn't change to full-colour. Mualani leans forward even more. The crowd quiets.
Larger ears, long tail, smaller form…looks sorta like a kid, from what Mualani could tell. Or maybe just a shorter person, she doesn't want to judge!
“And would you look at that! Right out of the gate, we have the newest creation of Dottore's…”
The silhouette becomes full colour, and Mualani isn't the only one that ‘aw’s at the sight. The new Hybrid is clearly meant to look like a kid, with big, sad puppy-dog eyes. She has massive, fluffy ears, and a long, grey-spotted tail. She seems anxious, holding a pole-arm, and Mualani has never wanted to hug something more.
“The Underdog!”
The crowd erupts into cheers. Mualani immediately pulls up the stats for the Underdog--she's pretty sure the tail is a snow leopard, but the ears…she wants to know.
Awwww, a pika! Whatever that is! She quickly clicks the link to the Ikipedia page about the pika, and a small mouse-like thing stares back at her, giant ears and all. Cute!
They really outdid themselves that time.
The stadium goes dark. Mualani closes the web page, and then reaches across her bed to grab the bag of chips.
It's time.
The crowd quiets, anticipation thick in the air. Despite not physically being there, Mualani can feel it. It's heavy and electric and she can't help the way a grin lights up on her face.
The doors open, and the Assassin leaps out in a swift burst of wind. The crowd cheers, chanting her name, but she doesn’t seem to hear any of it, despite the cat ears on her head. She gives herself a shake, and glances around.
And then–
An agonized wail cuts through the excited cheers, effectively destroying any of the excited mood. Mualani turns around alongside the rest of the crowd to get a better view of the commotion.
There's a boy–maybe around her age, probably a little older–with sandy blond hair and purplish blue eyes that seem…weirdly familiar somehow. He's struggling against two officers trying to hold him back.
“My sister!” He screams, wrenching his arm out of one of the officer's hold and pointing at the Assassin, who’s standing in the middle of the stadium, not even giving him the time of day. “That's my sister, what have you done to her–”
Mualani cringes back, leaning away despite not physically being there. A mom tucks a kid a bit closer to her side as the boy flails, resisting the two officers trying to pull him back towards the exit.
…he knows they aren't real, right? She glances back towards the stage, and curses. Shoot, she missed the Underdog's debut…but that doesn't matter as much when somebody is in distress.
The boy continues his screaming, tears choking his voice
“Lynette! Lynette, please, please–”
“She isn't real.” Someone from a nearby row calls up, and the boy's gaze turns furious. “That's my sister! That's my sister, and she went missing, and they turned her into that thing–”
He's promptly yanked out of the stadium at that, his words breaking off into a scream. “Let go of me! I know who she is! That's my sister, take me to her, please–”
And then he's gone.
An uneasy silence falls over the crowd, before the first few people turn around to watch the fight.
Mualani though…Mualani lets her gaze linger a bit on where the boy was dragged out.
Clearly, he was just some…hysterical fan, or something. Mualani should think nothing of it.
But the way he was crying…
I hope he's okay. She thinks, biting her bottom lip, before turning back to watch the fight herself. She tilts her head, looking at the two fighters again–and letting her gaze linger on the Assassin for a second.
…the hologram didn’t even look over.
Mualani is surprised by how much that eases her mind. Of course the Assassin wouldn’t care. Of course she wouldn’t, she was a hologram. What else was Mualani thinking?
She takes a sip of pop to ease herself.
It doesn’t help. Probably because it’s pure sugar, and only makes Mualani shift in her seat more. Great.
She sighs, and tries to chase that event out of her mind right as the announcer counts down.
“Now, say it with me, viewers! Five!”
That guy was just…crazy.
“Four!”
None of the Hybrids have actual names–’Lynette’ doesn’t exist.
“Three!”
None of the Hybrids exist, period. They’re all holograms.
“Two!”
Mualani is worrying over nothing.
“One!”
With that thought in mind, Mualani joins the cheers as the fight begins.