∆t=m∆v/F

"Hey Aika, pass me a ruler?"

I've barely walked into Lev's house and he's already ordering me around. I roll my eyes and sigh dramatically as I walk over to his backpack in the corner of the room and fish out his ruler. "Hey, Lev, I'm good! How are you?" I say sarcastically as I toss him his ruler. He fumbles a bit catching it and I snicker at him. He makes a face at me and goes back to sketching something.

"I thought we were at that point in our friendship where we can just move past the pleasantries?" he says, with a lifting intonation.

"Uh-huh, whatever," I respond dismissively. I sit myself down beside him. "What're you drawing?"

Lev groans. "A shear force diagram. I'm so sick of these. I don't even understand why we still have to do them," he adds.

"You invited me over so I could watch you do your college homework?"

"No, I took time out of my busy study schedule to be your emotional support when you check the NCC matchups."

I freeze at the mention of the matchup schedule. I haven't been checking for updates on it. As excited as I am for finally being in the most-watched fighting championship in the country, Takumi's words have been haunting me. The fighters in this competition passed the same bar test I did. I busted my butt training for this event and getting in was far from a walk in the park. Every person I face, regardless of their figure, is the best of the best, and if I'm overconfident, I'll lose before I even know what hit me. And who knows? My first opponent could very well be Evren herself.

"Hey, Earth to Aika? You ok?" Lev is suddenly waving his ruler in front of my face. He sounds concerned. Great. I must have been silent a tick too long. "I'm serious when I say I'm emotional support. I know you can be... frenzied with these kinds of things."

"Wow, gee, thanks."

"You'll be fine. You haven't lost a match in... in forever. You'll kick their ass, whoever it is. As long as it's not Evren right off the bat. Or that Kevin guy, he looked pretty scary. Or Lyra, I heard she paid big bucks for international training or some shit."

I sigh. "You're not really helping, Lev." I'm starting to feel antsy but I shake my hands vigorously to shake the feeling off. Lev puts his materials aside and gets up to grab his laptop.

"Right, right, sorry. Ok, we're checking right now and getting this over with. Aika with no confidence and a bundle of nerves is not who I put my money behind," Lev says as he sits down on the floor beside me and starts up his laptop. Before I know it, we're at the official NCC website and Lev's deftly clicking through the submenus to get to this year's matchups. I don't take my eyes off the screen while Lev scrolls down to my weight division.

My name finally appears at the end, next to a 'Gabriel Lavoie.' Opponent number one. The first that needs to fall if I stand a chance of facing off against the Commander of Space.

"You and Evren are on opposite ends of the table. That probably means you won't have to face her in the points tally," Lev says. There's relief in his voice. "That's lucky. They usually match up adjacent winners and adjacent losers when they do the next round's matchups. You... actually have a chance at matching Evren's points total," he adds, in slight disbelief. I can feel myself grinning.

"So, if I win all five of my points fights, I'll tie with Evren for Division Champion."

"Yeah." Lev looks up at me and catches my grin. "Yeah... you lucky little shit," he laughs.

I hold up a victory sign, immediately feeling my confidence return. "Then we'd both qualify for the Grand Champion's Battle Royale," I finish Lev's line of thought out loud.

"Now that's a tiebreaker I'd pay big money to see," he says, his eyes lighting up. "Undefeated Commander of Space, versus the newcomer who fast-forwards time. A Battle of Unusuals."

"That's the plan," I shrug, as though I totally had such a plan just a few minutes ago.

Lev leans back and just looks me over. He looks impressed. "You-"

"Levente!" I suddenly hear a woman yelling from across the house. Almost certainly Lev's mom, and almost certainly trouble, judging by the fact that she used his full first name. I can hear her marching closer as she continues to yell at Lev, who is now swearing under his breath. "Tes vêtements! Ramasse-les, maintenant! Je te l'ai déjà dit maintes fois- Oh-!" Lev's mom has finally reached Lev's room and has spotted me, mid-pointing to the floor behind her. She doesn't finish her sentence and instead smiles at me sheepishly. "Hi, Aika, I didn't hear you come in. How are you?"

"Hi Ms. Arsenault, I'm good. Thanks. Am I... interrupting anything important?" I ask, glancing between her and Lev with concern.

"Oh, no, don't worry. Please stay as long as you like. I know you'll be busy with the NCC matches coming up, so I would love to keep you as long as I can before you're too caught up in it all." She winks at me before retreating backwards toward the door to Lev's room. "I'll leave you be for now. Lev," she turns abruptly to her son, "Je n'arrive pas à croire que tu l'as invitée lorsque tes vêtements étaient-!"

"Ok, Mom, j'comprends, I'll pick them up before she leaves," Lev suddenly interjects, his hands held up in front of his chest defensively. His mom sighs, repeating something under her breath indignantly, but she just waves at us before walking back out the door. It only takes me a few seconds to clue in to what they were probably talking about.

"You need to stop leaving your clothes on the floor all around the house," I say. Lev groans.

"Hey, sometimes I figure out a really important problem and need to write down the answer, immediately, before I forget."

"So you just drop your laundry at the front door and run to your room? You know, your clothes have to end up in your room anyway, so it makes more sense to hold onto them-"

"Aika," Lev holds up a hand in protest, "You're not here to talk about my quirks. And anyway, who knows? Maybe you're the one who's actually responsible for some of those. My head got pretty banged up that one time."

I pale immediately. "Don't even joke about that, Lev."

"Right, right," he gives me an apologetic look and continues, "Anyway, you're here so I can prep you for your NCC match." I think about telling him that I have a personal coach for that, but he seems to be on a roll so I let him continue his speech. "Gabriel," he rolls his R deeply as he pronounces my opponent's name, "He's not your typical figure-enhanced fighter. He has a water figure, and he gets away with using it in competition because he's so jumpy and fidgety that he sweats out enough firepower... er, waterpower?... to use as a weapon. I'm sure you've seen him on TV." I nod, remembering the very flighty acrobat in the NCC a few years back. "He's faster than you," Lev says. "Without a doubt. Catching him to knock him out might be tough, even for a fast-forwarder."

"I don't need to chase him," I say. "I just need to wait for the right opportunity to strike. He's got to get close to me eventually if he's serious about knocking me out." Lev grimaces.

"Then be ready to take a few hits, because I doubt that you'll get him on your first try. No offense, I totally believe in you, but this guy-"

"-is a veteran professional," I finish for him. Everyone's been telling me that. I get it. These people in the NCC are as good as me, if not better because they're more experienced. I almost get frustrated at it, but seeing Lev's concerned expression makes me think that it's not a lack of confidence in me that's inspiring everyone's sudden unsolicited advice. Maybe everyone's just nervous about me doing well. About me coming out of this without any serious injuries. "I'll be careful," I add, trying to make my voice sound genuine.

"Good." Lev tries to sound nonchalant, but I can see through him. It's nice to have his concern and support, and I can feel my heart warm. How is it that he always manages to do that? "How's your training been going? I admit I'm not the one to craft your workout regime, I just do the cheerleading stuff," Lev continues as he picks his homework up off the floor.

"Nevaeh's been putting me through hell," I answer. My mind immediately recalls the post-workout ice baths and I shudder. "She'll probably want to tone it down as the competition starts, though, so I don't go into a fight sore," I add. Will I ever be grateful for that.

"Can't you just fast-forward your healing or something? I don't know that I've actually ever asked you," Lev says.

"No, my figure doesn't work like that." I pause, trying to think of a good way to explain it. "I can't localize the fast-forward that precisely. But even apart from that, my figure has more to do with me shortening time than speeding through it. I can't make things grow or age or anything like that. I just... lessen the time it takes for me to move from Point A to Point B by altering the space I'm in." I add in some hand motions in an attempt to make more sense. "I mean, I suppose I could shorten the time it takes for a bunch of blood cells to move from Point A to Point B, to promote healing, theoretically, but that sounds really complicated... That's why I just punch people." Lev laughs and I try to fight off a grin as I continue. "Much simpler. No fancy science. The time I take away, though, seems to multiply my force as a result. It's probably an aftereffect that has to do with balancing some equations. Physics stuff. I don't know."

"I'm rubbing off on you, you're starting to speak math-y," Lev suddenly laughs. I roll my eyes.

"That's what Takumi thinks, anyway," I mumble.

"Ah, of course it's your brother who comes up with the smart things."

"Excuse me!" I scoff in mock offense.

Lev and I share a good laugh and I feel my tension melt away. Anxious or excited, I really do tend to get into a... 'frenzy' when something big happens. My muscles seize up, and on instinct my body prepares for a fight. I've learned that punching stuff is a harmless way of loosening up. If I could use my figure in place of those horrendous ice baths I force myself to take, trust me, I would. But hey, I'll take ice baths over figuring out the intricacies of the laws of spacetime for now.