Teaser: They enter a shounen battle world stuck on repeat where rival characters who never won keep losing, endlessly, violently, gloriously and one of them has been waiting to kill Mira for a very long time.
The smell hit them first—sweat, blood, and burnt motivation.
Then came the shouting.
So much shouting.
"I'LL SURPASS YOU, KAZUKI!"
"SENPAI, NOTICE MY PUNCH!"
"MY FIST IS MY FRIENDSHIP!"
Rion looked dead inside. "God. I hate battle arcs."
Yuto ducked as a flaming sword flew past. "We just entered, and someone already exploded!"
They were in a crater-filled valley. Giant swords were stuck in the ground like grave markers. Characters screamed at the sky, powering up. Explosions popped like popcorn every few seconds.
Mira blinked. "So... is this whole place just... endless battle?"
"Yup," Rion said, dodging a flying uppercut from a guy yelling about justice. "These are the rivals. The ones who trained harder. Cared more. Lost every time."
---
A dark figure stepped into the smoke. His hair was gravity-defying. His coat flapped even without wind.
His aura was red. His eyes, furious.
"MIRA ELEN," he growled.
Mira raised an eyebrow. "Do I know you?"
He pointed. "YOU ERASED MY ARC."
"What."
"I was supposed to fight the protagonist in Episode 93! You destabilized the scene! He never came! I trained for 46 chapters for nothing!"
Yuto whispered, "This guy is scary."
Rion sighed. "He's a 'rival prime'. Probably one of the top-ranked unused characters in the system."
Mira: "What's his name?"
The rival: "...Takashi Bloodnova."
Yuto snorted.
---
Takashi pointed his sword at Mira. "I CHALLENGE YOU TO A NARRATIVE DUEL!"
Mira: "That's not a thing."
System popup:
> "Duel Accepted. First Strike: Glitched Villainess."
Rion jumped back. "It *is* a thing now!"
Mira barely dodged the first slash—code and sparks flying everywhere.
Takashi's moves were perfect, overdramatic, too polished to be human.
"HE'S STUCK IN ANIME MODE!" Mira yelled.
"I HAVE NO CHOICE! I EXIST ONLY TO LOSE AND TRY AGAIN!"
Punch. Counter. Explosion. The sky cracked.
Takashi roared, "THIS IS MY CHARACTER MOMENT!"
---
Mira ducked under a dragon made of fire. "Okay, I get it! You were written to suffer!"
Takashi: "AND YOU STOLE MY SUFFERING!"
She stopped.
"…What?"
Takashi lowered his blade. "Losing made me special. I kept coming back. I had *weight.* Then you glitched everything. Now I'm just… forgotten."
Yuto blinked. "Did… did that make me feel bad for him?"
Mira exhaled. "You don't need to lose to matter."
Takashi: "THAT'S WHAT A WINNER WOULD SAY!"
And with that, he lunged.
But instead of striking her, he threw his sword down.
"…I forfeit," he whispered. "Just once. I want to walk away before they delete me."
---
System prompt:
> "Rival Character Rewritten: Status – Resolved."
His coat vanished. His hair flattened. He blinked like a normal guy.
Takashi smiled. "Tell the others: you don't have to win to be real."
And then he walked into the crater, toward a sky that finally stopped glowing.
---
(Next: The Shounen Boss who was never defeated—because his arc was too expensive to animate—now rules the last fighting zone… and he wants Mira to *finish his final battle.*)