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The day Ace Park decides she has to end this game is the day Kanae refuses to be disqualified while splinting her own broken arm.
It’s been a truly hellish game, and going on three years of (if DGP funded and legalized) world travel has been draining.
“You could be disqualified,” Ace says, despite being rather impressed with the hour-long fight her girlfriend had managed against Tsumuri to be allowed to continue. “Would it really be so bad to lose?”
“What do you think?” Kanae asks. “You’re the one who looked at all 100 of us at the start like a curiosity.”
“Not a curiosity,” Ace says. She thinks maybe a tragedy . Then she remembers the very reason she has stayed this long and wiped the thought away. She thinks I can wait another life, if I have you in it.
She knows it’s a lie, but she always wants to believe it. She wanted to believe it with Kaya and the farm and the kids, with Michael, with Azuma, with Haru and little Mitsuko.
It’s never been true.
“Then what?” Kanae asks, grabbing her shirt. Ace lets her, the woman’s stubbornness what drew them together from the start.
“Potential,” Ace says. “But what is that worth if you’re dead?”
“Worth as much as if I give up,” Kanae replies. “You better pull your weight in this fight, Ace.”
“I’ll try,” Ace says.
Pulling her weight is an understatement, because Ace spends half of the game watching her partner’s back.
To Kanae’s credit, they still pull second place.
The game ends, and Kanae’s wounds heal. Ace still checks her over, just in case. She’s far too fond to let Kanae die of something preventable. Kanae waves her off, the stubborn woman.
“How long are we here?” She asks.
“In France?” Ace asks. “At least a week. I think they may be speeding it up. Would you like to hunt for Rider buckles or simply explore?”
“Definitely hunt,” Kanae says. “I’m still pissed we lost our chance at that OOO buckle in Germany; there’s bound to be more around Europe, right?”
“Anything is possible,” Ace replies. She kisses Kanae softly. “I do have a meeting first, though.”
Kanae waves a hand.
“You go take care of that, then,” she says. “I knew I’d have time to explore anyways.”
She’s so bright, and so stubborn. Ace can’t bear to see her burn herself with her own flames.
“Hey!”
Most people haven’t gotten to meet supporters, this particular game. Ace, it seems, was backed by a VIP. Meroro leans on the back of the couch, and Ace stares up at her from where she sits.
It could be worse, Meroro just like to ask about her love life, and sometimes touch her. Ace has had much worse supporter requests.
…much worse.
“You know where we’re going, yet?” Ace asks. Meroro pouts.
“They found out I was telling you,” she says. “The producer said to stop.”
She’s lying. Ace can tell from her amused face.
“Well,” Ace says. “That’s fine.”
“WHAT?!?!!”
“I can handle anything, in this game,” Ace says. “It’s really that simple.”
“Oh yeah?” Meroro asks. “Well, I guess you will have the home team advantage. Oh, the forbidden love of the coolest women in the game.”
“…What?”
Meroro winks.
“I can’t tell you more,” she says.
”And I’ll in anyways,” Ace says. But she knows…
It’s later that night in a one bed hotel room with her partner and lover.
Hundreds of years ago, Ace lost a lover to the DGP - well, she’s lost many a lover to a DGP, but he was different. Ace had loved him, and he’d died feeling used.
There can only be one winner, and Ace suspects these duos they’ve been in for years now are about to shatter. She holds Kanae gently in her arms, kisses her head, and she tries not to think of blood and loss and death.
She fails.