Pyre Sat lazily on the wooden bench overlooking the water. It was early afternoon and he had grabbed a snack to help fill the empty hole that had suddenly arrived in his stomach.

He munched quietly on the hot dog in his hand. The grilled hot dog had the wonderful slightly charred skin. The meat was placed in between a bun and there was a tomato-y mixture spread across the top. The man had called it ketchup. Pyre got to experience something new everyday and he liked it that way. He didn’t have to worry about other people anymore. And the constant worry for the mission was gone. He was finally happy. Now his goal was to make others happy so they didn’t have to suffer like he once did.

Suddenly, a young kid dashed in front of Pyre. His arm shielded his clearly bruised face and it hid the fact that tears were currently streaming down his face. Pyre stood up and chased after the young child, he didn’t want anyone to get hurt like that.

He found the poor little boy huddled up in a corner, carefully wiping his eye as to not stimulate the sore black eye he had received. Pyre crouched down and became eye level with the sitting boy, “hey, are you alright?” Pyre questioned. The young boy curled up farther, he clearly was not in the mood to talk. “Hey,” Pyre pried, “you can talk to me. What happened? Who gave you the black eye? My name is Pyre by the way.” The young boy peered up over his arm and looked at Pyre, who gave the small boy a friendly smile. “My name is Tyler. I was fighting a man named rodric. He wasn’t listening to me and then he punched me.” Tyler responded. Pyre rose an eyebrow, “how much older is rodric.” Pyre asked.

If rodric was the same age pyre would just tell them to lay off their peer. If rodric was older, the poor man would feel very sore the next morning for bearing up an young boy.

“He’s older than me. I don’t know his exact age, but older than me.” Tyler said. Pyre nodded, “well that solves it, show me to this Rodric man, I’ll beat him up and kick him out of whatever establishment he is currently in.” Pyre said. He felt good helping the small kid, he didn’t want the kid to feel any pain, especially by the hand of an older man.

Tyler stood up and began to lead Pyre through the streets, explaining what had happened as they walked.

Boxing had become quite a popular sport recently and Tyler was an avid fan. He went and cheered for his favorites every day. Rodric, his assailant, beat the current champion one day and apparently he was known for being a cruel man. Tyler has tried to tell him and was rebuttled with the use of a fist. After that Tyler ran, which was when he ment Pyre.

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Tyler dragged Pyre into the misfit stadium that had been thrown together when boxing had become all the rage a few months ago. Tyler dragged him over and began chatting with the lady at the front desk.

"Hi Ruby! Is there still time to sign up?" He asked. Ruby raised her brown eyebrows, "Tyler, the last time you signed up, you got that." She said, pointing one of her long nails at his black eye. "No! I want to sign up this mage, his name is Pyre-Pyre what is your last name?" He asked. Pyre paused for a moment, "J-just Pyre, I have no last name. But yes, I am here to sign up for the match against rodric." He said. Ruby smiled, "Thank goodness someone other than poor Tyler here has the guts to kick the sorry loser out of the ring for good." She said. She scrawled Pyre's name down on the piece of paper. She pulled off a label and handed it to Pyre, "You have to wear this, it matches you with who you'll be fighting. No one signed up today except you and Rodric, so you are going to immediately have to face him." She said. Pyre smiled, "I think he can handle it."

"Wow! You are so brave." Tyler chirped. Pyre checked his watch, "We wait until the bell rings before we go out on our match?" Pyre asked. Tyler shook his head in affirmation, "We got here really early so Rodric isn't even here yet likely. But when Ruby rings the bell that is your cue to walk out the door and go beat some rodric ass!" Tyler yelled. Pyre laughed, "Watch your language. You're a little too young to swear." Tyler smiled, "Sorry. My mom has reminded me of the same things. She always said, 'no one needs to ever swear, tough boxers most of all.' she likes to use what I like against me." Tyler was a constant stream of words, Pyre found it friendly. Pyre cracked his knuckles, "so what should I expect from this dude?" Pyre asked. Tyler thought for a moment. "He's strong, pretty strong. But the fact that he is strong does not make up for the face that he is slow." Tyler said. He must have memorized Rodric's movements the first time the guy had walked out on stage. Pyre gave a nice little smile, "If he's slow this is in the bag for me, I happen to be very fast." He said, winking at Tyler. Tyler rubbed his hands together. "You are going to do so great, I am so ready for you to beat Rodric." Tyler grinned in delight.

The bell rang loudly and Pyre made his way to the door. He wanted to end this quickly, he really wanted to show it to Rodric. It wasn't right for anyone to beat up a kid, even if that kid had signed up for a fight. The man should have said that he wouldn't fight.

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Rodric was a somewhat lanky dude, with a slight hint of muscle underneath his shirt. "Who on earth are you?" Rodric questioned. "My name is Pyre, consider my match to be a symbol of revenge." he said. Pyre earned a great chorus of cheers from the crowd for his warning. Rodric scoffed, "I'll end this fight in less then sixty- seconds. I'm not scared of you." He jeered. The crowed booed him back. Rodric let it roll off of him, Pyre did have to give the man perks for being a good social person.

Ruby walked into the middle of the ring and spoke into a lacrima. The lacrima made her voice louder and she spoke out the rules on the match. "All violent contact is allowed as long as it comes from above the waist. Whoever falls first and stays down is the loser. Since this is a champion match, the winner is the new champion. When I ring the bell, you may begin." Ruby made her way off the dirt center and slammed a bell with a wooden mallet. Pyre walked forward, disguising his speed. When he got closer he made sure to give Rodric one good punch. Rodric keeled over for only a moment, before trying to uppercut Pyre. Pyre side stepped to the right. Rodric groaned and tried to throw another punch. Causing pyre to doge again. Rodric was just as slow as Tyler had said. The man's speed was sad. Pyre watched the clock tick by. He watched it get close to fifty. He was going to enjoy second sixty-one.

The punch and doge went on for another ten seconds. And at sixty one seconds Rodric's promise was over. The man angered by his loss hunkered down his stance and let out a massive roar. He then Ran forward towards Pyre. His fist was almost steaming as he came at pyre. Except, he was just too slow. Pyre stepped to the side and his punch missed. Then Pyre punched him hard in the back. The man went down hard. He groaned for a moment, rolled around. He was going to stay down. RUby smashed the bell and everyone cheered. Ruby walked out with the champion's belt and handed it to Pyre, as well as the prize money. Pyre thought he had done well. Rodric groaned and rolled around on the ground. Pyre crouched down and leaned in close.

"You should be ashamed of yourself for beating up a kid. Why on earth would you think that's a good idea. No wonder no one liked you. Go find some help, apologize, move on. You did some mean things and you should just try to become a better person. If it helps, move somewhere else after you have apologized. But i would implore you to stay here and build a better image for yourself." Pyre said.

Pyre then turned to tyler who was in the sidelines cheering him on. Pyre faked cracked his knuckles to look tough for him.

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Pyre then turned back to the rest of the auditorium. "I revoke my spot as champion. As I promised, this was a symbol of revenge. But keep in mind my good friends that revenge is not always the best way to go. We should live kindly. I do not consider myself the champion today, I consider myself the one putting this place back together. So, I hereby declare that I challenge the old champion." Pyre said. He watied for the old champion to stand, "I am the champion he called, I accept your challenge." The man said. Pyre smiled, "Good, then I forefit, you are the new champion." Pyre dropped the belt and walked back out of the ring.

Tyler waited in the dressing room for Pyre, "Wow, thanks so much. You changed everything, this is going to be so much better now. What did you say to Rodric though?" Tyler asked. Pyre smiled, "I just gave him some wiser words, a way to turn his life around." Pyre said.

On cue, the door opened and Rodric walked in. He glanced around the room nervously before looking straight at tyler. "I'm sorry little man. I really shouldn't have given you that black eye. I know that you were standing up for what you believed in and I was being a real jerk about it. I wanted to apologize, I'm sorry." Rodric said. Rodric turned to Pyre, "And thanks to you too, that was a good match, I can really grow from that." He said. Pyre smiled, " I was glad I could help. Growing is learning." Pyre said. Rodric gave a little nod and walked away down the hallway.

Tyler looked at Pyre, his mouth agape, "whatever you said had some profound effect on him. Thanks for that." He said. Pyre smiled. "Its nice to help people once in awhile." Pyre said. Pyre excused himself from the room and went into the shower to wash off the tiny bit of sweat and the ludicrous amount of sand that he had managed to get on himself during the fight. Afterwards he got changed and walked home.

He felt the weight of the money in his back pocket as he moved through town, back towards where his town house was. He barely thought of the Baurai or Aurelle anymore. He knew there was one more thing he needed to do. He needed to go greet one of the victims. He knew they were here, in one of the hospitals. If he greeted them he could at least know that no one remembered it and everything could go back to a peaceful time, no hidden battles that left everyone dead.

Pyre unlocked his front door and walked back inside. He had had more time to decorate over the past few days and now he had more pictures. When Pyre sold the place, if he ever did, he would leave the pictures, he enjoyed the nice views that the paint gave of nature. And he hoped any new tenant did as well.

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