“Alright kid, put this on before you go out there.” Coach passed her a bright red hoodie that had the gym’s logo on the back and was way too big for her.

She put it on without any complaint and got a feel for it. Seeing if it would get in her way while she was fighting. Thankfully it didn’t, so she didn’t have to awkwardly tell Coach that she couldn’t wear this or her performance would lower.

“You can take it off before the match starts. Don’t worry about fighting in it.” He only told her now. Making her kind of feel stupid.

As she was doing that, he began explaining to her how this tournament worked. Which Zoey believes he should’ve done when they were on the fucking way to this damn place.

“This is only the preliminaries which means only a single round for 4 minutes. This may not be the only fight you participate in today either. If there’s a lot of other fighters that manage to get through, you’ll have to fight against one of them. Only 12 fighters can make it in the brackets. We need to get you in one of those brackets.”

“Mokay.” Zoey placed in her mouthguard.

“Oh, and none of that nice shit in the ring, alright?” A question mark flew above Zoey’s head. “I’m talking about how you like to place nice with your opponents instead of murdering them dead and killing em. You don’t go for the kill but wear them out like you’re playing with them. That’s going to get you killed one day.”

“But how am I supposed to gain experience as a fighter if I don’t learn from my opponents?” She asked after taking her mouthguard out.

Something about this sentence made Coach look at her weird. She couldn’t tell but a warmth was brought to his heart after hearing this from Zoey. This little firecracker actually cared about improving her skill. She wasn’t scared of losing or wanted to win with everything she had. All she wanted was to become a better boxer.

“Forget what I said, kid. Just don’t lose without giving your all.” He patted her on the back and pulled up her hoodie. “Now let’s go out there and kick some ass.” He opened the door leading to the ring.

“But what about the rules? And who am I even fighting?” She placed her mouthguard back in as she followed behind him.

“They’ll tell you-” Coach’s words were cut off by sound of the audience screaming once they saw her coming out.

Zoey almost instinctively held her gloves to her ears from the ear-deafening cheer. These guys didn’t even know who she was! Why in the hell were they cheering so loudly?! Is it because this was the first fight of the day or was it because they’re all drunk already? She saw them selling alcoholic beverages earlier.

She made it inside the cage with the referee and her opponent. The referee was dressed in black and white with a stern look on his face. Her opponent was faced to the audience instead of her and the ref had to physically turn her to the audience when she was busy looking at the guy she was about to fight. That was embarrassing but the true embarrassment was realizing that literally thousands of people were watching her. Zoey’s shocked face was present right on that big ass screen up top.

“Our first fight of the day folks! Both of them are completely new faces to the YFTL! On our right side, we have Haruto Tanaka!” The audience screamed as loud as they could.

“Haruto Tanaka came straight from Japan for the opportunity to perform in the Youth Fighting Tournament League! Back home he was known as an unbeatable fighter with his bo-staff! He hasn’t lost a single fight yet!” The audience yelled even louder.

Normally if someone was placed against someone known as unbeatable, they would start to get nervous and doubt themselves. Which isn’t what happened for Zoey at all. Instead of becoming nervous about the fight, she grew excited. Just how far would this boy be able to raise her boxing skills? Would he push her on the defensive and allow her to quickly raise her defensive skills? Or would he just get steamrolled by her, completely unable to resist against her? Zoey had to cover her mouth because of the excited grin growing on her face.

“And in our left cornerrrrr! We have Zoey Winters! She lives right here in the good old USA as a boxer! It’s said right here that she’s only been practicing for a few weeks so, we might be in for a quick show folks! Let’s get our first match of the day going!” Zoey did not like how she was introduced compared to her opponent.

That announcer bastard landed himself right in her shit list. If she could find girl boxers around her age in the nearby area, she could have an undefeated streak too! From the bets on the screen, Haruto had a 99% lead over her 1%. Zoey looked towards the Coach and them, only to find that Dylan was the only one looking at her with support. Besides him, everyone else was completely unsure of her victory. This pissed her off.

“No hits in the genitalia, no eye-gouging, no fish hooking, no biting, no hair pulling, no strikes to or grabbing of the throat, no intentional grabbing of the cage, no throwing your opponent out of the cage, no strikes to the back of the head or spine, no headbutts, and no manipulation of the fingers or toes. Got all that?” The referee asked.

“Yep.” Haruto confidently smiled.

“Uh, yes?” Zoey’s head was spinning. She could only catch a few of those rules.

“Then begin!” He shouted and the fight was on?

Zoey could only barely glimpse a wooden stick heading for her forehead. She leaned her body all the way back to avoid it and then ran forward. Closing in underneath the boy with her other fist reared back to launch straight into his unprotected stomach. In the back of her mind, she was screaming, “Noooooo!!!” at the possible loss of skill experience she could’ve gained from this boy. But surely, he would be tough enough to withstand a single hit from her, right?

Zoey’s fist landed true and took the boy straight off his feet all the way into the cage. He landed back first onto the cage and then dropped into an unconscious slump onto the mat. The entire stadium was completely silent at this outcome. This wasn’t what Zoey cared about.

“Please stand back up... Please stand back up Mr. Unbeatable....” She begged.

Her skills! He could raise so many of her defensive skills! She could easily parry, block, and slip past that staff of his! Who knows if her next opponent would fight in a way that could let her do the same. Plus! The announcer basically said that he was a genius! Haruto could’ve brought her boxing skills to new heights as she actively learned how to fight against his weapon.

“It’s over! It’s really over just like that!” The announcer shouted as the Ref called the match.

“Haruto was knocked unconscious from one punch from Zoey! It only took one punch! Does she have solid steel for fists or something!? How could this happen!?”

“That’s bullshit! How in the fuck could a scrawny ass girl like that punch like that!?”

“She’s so tiny, I could eat her!”

“Check the gloves! She’s hiding something in them!”

“My money.... it’s all gone....”

“Coach... I don’t think I've seen so many zeroes before in my life...” Dylan nervously shared, looking at his checking account.

“What the hell!?” Was everyone else’s reaction as Dylan grew rich in only a single day. Everyone else was too afraid to bet.

“God damn it! I knew I should’ve trusted her!” Steven cursed the heavens.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Tony shared his regret.

“This fucking kid...” Coach had never been prouder. He too was not confident in Zoey’s chances.

“Just a fluke.” Ben scoffed. “If that dumbass wasn’t looking down on her, he could’ve easily reacted to her coming in.” This was a surprise since it was coming from Ben of all people.

“He thought he had her as soon as the ref started the match.” Zack agreed.

“Guess you really can’t be too cocky, huh? It only takes one good hit sometimes.” Aiden chimed in.

“Check the gloves! Check the gloves! Check the gloves!” Many members of the audience began to chant.

“It looks like the crowd believes that Zoey’s gloves have been tampered in some way! Is it true that our little Single Blow Boxer could be cheating in only the Preliminaries!?” The announcer only added to the chants.

It looks like Zoey wasn’t going to be a fan favorite in this tournament. A lot of angry adults were staring at her, blaming her for losing a shit ton of money. If Zoey wasn’t the socially awkward dork she was, she’d be laughing in their faces for doubting her. She didn’t know people were legally betting money on teenagers but if this was how they reacted when they lost, they don’t really deserve to be here. Zoey was hearing a lot of nasty things being said about her that weren’t true at all and was really pissing her off.

‘Hahaha! You fuckers! You deserved to lose for betting against me! Pieces of shit!’ The ref asked for her gloves and she willingly handed them over with a calm look on her face. Inwardly snickering at all of them.

He checked them out as carefully as he could. Only to keep his decision as Zoey as the winner and everyone else could shut the fuck up. Once the gloves were proved to be untampered, everyone went silent again. Except those few that were still screaming about becoming filthy rich for betting on her. Zoey was led out of the cage as the victor with Coach waiting on her from outside.

“I’m proud of you, kid.” Coach smiled.

“I didn’t think he’d be done in one hit...” Zoey truthfully admitted.

“Nobody did! Hahahaha! Did you hear those crying babies?! You did fantastic out there Zoey and don’t let anybody tell you differently.” Coach Scott laughed his heart out.

“Thanks Coach...” It was good to know he didn’t bet against her with how happy he looked.