Day Four: Evening

[Raditzu]

"What are you doing here, Sei?"

It was a simple question, but it carried with it more anger and frustration than Raditzu thought he had ever expressed before. While he respected the woman as a fighter, and as an instructor, they had never gotten along. They would probably never get along, but that didn't seem to bother either of them very much.

"Its been a while, hasn't it?" Sei answered Rad's question with one of her own. "Haven't seen you since you left Lord Vine's."

"I'm aware of that. Now what do you want?" Rad's breath quickened.

"Wanted to see how your training was coming along. Make sure you've remembered everything I've taughtcha." Sei approached Rad with a condescending smile of arrogance. She had always known that Raditzu was miles beyond her in raw power, but she would never let him forget that it was she who had been teaching him; a fact that had always rubbed Rad the wrong way.

"I'm doing fine," Rad responded. His entire body seemed to tense up as she approached.

"Yeah," she looked him up and down slowly. "You sure look like you're doing fine."

"Whatever. Just leave me alone. I have a tournament to win, and I don't need you hanging around."

"Oh really? You think you're going to win anything in that kind of condition?"

"Of course I'm going to win!" Raditzu suddenly found himself yelling at his former teacher. "I have to win!"

"Why? So you can see more of these?" Sei was suddenly holding a Raditzu doll. Her entire countenance had shifted to one of disapproval and borderline anger. "So people can parade around your name and use your face to sell piece of shit toys?"

"Yes!" Rad swept his hand through the outstretched Rad doll. "You got a problem with that?"

"As a matter of fact I do!" Sei had raised her voice to match Rad's.

"Well that's just too fucking bad, now isn't it?!"

Sei didn't say anything for a moment. She looked Raditzu up and down once more, then just shook her head. "Is that why you came to Vine's? You just wanted to learn another trick for your one-man circus?"

"What if I did?" Rad eyes burned with anger. Even his body shook.

"I may not like you much, but I thought you were better than that." Sei started to turn away.

"What the fuck do you know about me?!" Rad's voice cracked as he screamed. "You don't know anything."

"And what? A posted with your face all over it is your solution? Dolls of you for kids to play with?"

"Its an action figure! And yes! That is my solution. You don't like? You can go fuck yerself for all I care."

"... you're pathetic. You don't deserve any of this."

"Don't deserve this?! You have no idea what I deserve. You have no idea what I've been through."

"Yeah, you've had a tough life. Get over yourself, we all have shit we have to deal with."

"I haven't had a tough life, you ignorant cunt. I've had a fucking wasted life!" In his anger, tears had welled up in Raditzu's eyes. His view of Sei blurred, but he didn't even care about whether or not she was there. "I spent my entire life fighting for people who didn't give a shit about me! People behind desks sent people like me to die without a second thought. They didn't care if we died and they certainly didn't care if we came back alive. From birth I fought for these people! I've been shot, stabbed, blown up, straggled, tortured, and god knows what else because I thought it was the right thing to do. And look where it got me! There's only one thing I can do, Sei! I kill people. That's all I'll ever be good at and that's all I was ever given the chance to do."

Sei opened her mouth to say something, but Raditzu cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"So now I finally decide to do something for myself and I'm the fucking bad guy? No! I am not going to die being some soldier that no one will remember. I have not given my sweat and blood so no one can know who I am! If putting on a show is what gets people to know my name, then I'm going to give them the best show they've ever seen! I refuse to let myself fade out being a nobody."

"You really think anyone cares whether or not you're popular?"

"Of course people care! I've been a nobody my whole life. People don't care who you are. People don't care what you've done. I've saved worlds, Sei. Entire worlds! And how many people know that? No one. I'm done wasting my time for all of the ungrateful, self-absorbed assholes out there."

"You're happy just turning into one of those assholes yourself? You're disgusting."

Without saying anything else, Sei faded from view. Rad dropped to his knees, still shaking. He agreed with Sei, though she had no idea why. Even in his anger, even in his rage, he hadn't told her the truth. He hadn't told himself the truth. He had already lost the thing he had been fighting for and no amount of fame or fortune could bring that back. Maybe this was a form of atonement. Maybe it was a way of trying to apologize for his past shortcomings. No matter the reason, it was driven by the same thought:

No one waits for a nobody.