AMVERY

My crushing, humiliating defeat at the hands of Louise Lumi had started my career off on a sour note. Deluxe sour, if you will. Like a sour candy that had expired and gone rotten, and that somehow made the flavor even more sour.

I wanted to spend the whole week in the gym area training and figuring out how to use my new body to its fullest potential, but I had stupid classes to go to. So I found myself sitting in the back of a classroom moping as a teacher droned on about Proto history. Louise, in a typical total dweeb move, sat front and center in the classroom, studiously taking notes.

This was a lateral move for me. In both this world and the last, I was a senior in high school. In both worlds, I was not into the whole school part of school, sludging through the day to get to hangout time with friends. Similarly, I sped through the classes in DFA, using a guide to get the best attributes leveled up. The best part of the life sim side of DFA was the dating, but that didn’t open up until later. We were firmly in tutorial month.

So to get through tutorial week, I started daydreaming about the next big event where I would hopefully redeem the Astrell name. There were four monthly battle events in DFA’s career mode. Three of the weekly events (think your typical TV show for your preferred sport) and one mega event (think like a big wrestling or boxing event). My goal for the next show was to win. I had to win at least one fight. I didn’t want to lose ever, but again, started off on a deluxe sour note. I hoped I would face someone easier than Louise, but also someone I’d look cool defeating, like not a complete scrub. I needed to have a better record, or I might not even be included in the giant cage match at the big show.

The “[...]lash of the Titans'' match wasn’t really for anything. You didn’t win a championship or a shot at a championship even. Just a trophy that didn't give you any kind of benefit other than having a trophy. I think the developers just wanted a big cool looking multi level cage match from all the trailers and ads to not take super long to show up in game. That said, it’s also one of the bigger challenges of the entire career mode just for all the mechanics that don’t pop up anywhere else. Why they end tutorial month with one of the most complicated match types in the game I’ll never know. To weed out the weaklings, maybe?

“And why is the shedding rate of Proto dragons so vital to the DFA?” The teacher asked. There was only one teacher in the game, and that carried over here. She didn’t seem worried about being overworked teaching however many classes she was responsible for though. Since she was also the coach of the training and practice modes in game, she was appropriately named Coach Coachman.

Louise’s hand snapped up. What a dork. “Because cleanup of Proto dragon scales, in the improper hands, can be fashioned into various weapons due to its durability. The cleanup crews need to keep this in mind to prevent unregulated weaponry.”

“Absolutely correct!”

Another reason it was hard to pay attention in class: Louise. As I mentioned, she was front and center for the proceedings, and kept answering every question, likely making everyone in class hate her. Every time she got an answer right (so every fifteen seconds or so) her tail excitedly flicked around. It was kind of hypnotizing to watch. I wanted to run up to the front of class, grab her tail, fling her over and slam her through the rows of desks behind her. Fun daydream, but I also kept staring at Louise’s tail. She had a more slender tail than I did, and I was somewhat regretting picking the one I did when I was in that ethereal character creation zone. It was a bummer how my tail situation was going compared to hers.

The tails were like the signature iconic imagery of the base form Protos. I had doodled myself with the one I wanted so many times and had been made fun of so much at school for it, but I didn’t care, dragon tails looked sick. Actually having one? It made my balance all weird. It was fun to swing around the one time I got that right in a fight but that was it. Wasn’t I supposed to suddenly be kickass if I got reborn in a fighting world? I was only kicking moderately more ass than I did before.

As for my other classmates, I didn’t really pay attention to them. They weren’t being as annoying as Louise with her question answering and tail wagging. Plus, there weren’t any characters I knew from the game. DFA populates story mode with created characters that are procedurally generated with some base personality types. So I’d probably recognize Grumpy A when they popped up, or Cheerful C.

I was hoping someone I knew would pop up in the school outside of a flashback—I reasoned that the less I thought about my consciousness basically hopping around in time the better, really, not thinking deeply at all about question the structural logistics of this dimension we were in would be for the best—but alas, it was a normal first day of classes at DFA Academy.

At least in the training areas I got a better handle on myself. Doing laps around the state-of-the-art training facility helped me feel like I wasn’t gonna fall on my ass every two steps. I spotted Louise fighting a training dummy in a practice ring. There were a bunch of practice rings connected to each other, so I claimed the spot next to her. I was gonna beat the hell out of my dummy way better than she beat hers up.

In game, the dummies were pretty beloved. They had goofy faces and were all bright and colorful. They were there for training modes, and also for picking your moves. I was honestly more excited to see these guys than I was for Coach Coachman. Louise didn’t react when I got into the ring next to her, even when I bounced and stomped around obnoxiously. She was probably used to me making obnoxious noises to get her attention, or to annoy her.

In this world, the dummies remained still until you bopped them one, then they took a fighting stance. They didn’t fight back, so you could practice whatever move you wanted on them (that sounds really bad, this is about fighting training! Fighting!) But they were hidden unlockable characters too, so I had to prepare for these guys to eventually come to life and try to get revenge on me for all the violence I inflicted upon them.

I wished I could just hit my dummy with a dragon shift finisher right away, but I still couldn’t figure that one out. I decided to start simple, and just focused on hitting moves I thought I could do. Again, I had little time to catch up to Louise, because any more losses and I’d be in for a very depressing time.

I did not want the boring “oddball partners who don’t get along” team story. That’s the one you get if you’re a complete failure in the first few matches, so they throw you a bone by giving you dull content that makes you want to quit. Plus, I’d likely get paired with Louise for that one and neither of us wanted that. If not that, I’d get paired with, like, Grumpy C personality type, and Grumpy C is the most boring of the Grumpy type personalities.

“You won’t get anything done if you keep spacing out like that,” Louise said. She was leaning on the ropes in her ring.

“And you won’t get anywhere if you’re staring at me when you should be focusing on your own damn business.” I said.

For some reason, Louise flinched at that. “I wasn’t!”

“Wait, were you actually watching me?” I asked.

“No!” Louise flailed her arms in front of her. “I’m trying to see if I can perform a dragon shift, but it takes a lot of momentum building and a great deal of focus.”

“If you were so focused, why’d you call over to me?”

“You were staring into space for so long I thought you had traded places with your dummy.” Louise said. “I was simply concerned for your safety.”

“Awww, concerned for little ol’ me?” I said. I blew her a kiss. That was something that would always set her off no matter what. You’d think I would try it less as the effect would surely wear off on her eventually, but no, pretty much from the moment I became acquainted with her, blowing her a kiss was the kind of thing that really got her mad.

“You…” Louise said, stomping.

“You know, that little stomp there was so pathetic that it turned around and became kind of cute.” I said.

“You are infuriating!”

Louise turned on her heel and got back to trying attacks on her dummy. So far, it felt like the only thing I was any good at was making Louise mad. But I could already do that before. With Louise close by, I wanted to prove that I wasn’t a complete failure. Her goal of dragon shifting became mine as well. As I lobbed attacks at the poor practice dummy, I felt a burning desire within me. I was going to get this shift to work no matter what, and then savor the look on Louise’s face when I completely and embarrassingly bested her.