The interested visitors positioned themselves within the limits of the yellow line, on the perimeter of the hall, Machi, Sora, Yuka, and Miss Kaoru included.
After a few minutes, the central area where the military robot was and the entire area delimited by the yellow line began to become uneven and descended to the sub-level.
"Here we go, this is so exciting," Kaoru said.
The sub-level was a huge circular Plexiglas chamber with a corridor around it so that visitors could safely watch. There was a single hinged entrance on the inner part of the corridor with a tamper-proof electronic lock controlled remotely, whoever entered or exited had to be authorized to do so.
The floor of the test chamber was not a normal floor like the upper levels, it seemed to be made of smooth ice, like an ice skating rink.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's start the demonstration, as you can see the robot is at a disadvantage on this floor, machines are not usually good ice skaters," the advertiser said with a little giggle.
"For this demonstration, we will need a volunteer, preferably someone who has skated on ice before. Candidates put their hand in the air, then the pilot will choose a person."
A few hands went up, inside the machine, Hiroshi scanned the candidates, uninterested.
Seeing that no one else raised their hand, Hiroshi decided to use the robot's loudspeaker.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Hiroshi, I would like to share some details with the candidates: this demonstration will not be a competition to see who skates better, it will be a fight! Not only must you be a great ice skater, but you must also have fighting and athletic skills. And you shouldn't be afraid of getting some bruises either. This is a military prototype that represents a human soldier in a high-tech metal exoskeleton. Therefore, it will be a fight between a soldier from the future and a normal soldier from the past, or as I always say, an outdated soldier..."
Suddenly all hands went down, nobody felt capable of enrolling into a fight with that thing. Hiroshi had just eliminated all the unwanted candidates.
A few minutes passed, and no one else raised their hand. Suddenly, Hiroshi received a communication inside the cockpit: "Sir we have to change the demo, you will fight with an automated robot instead of a person."
"No, that is going to be very boring for the crowd and the millions watching live, please wait a little longer," Hiroshi replied patiently.
Hiroshi decided to get moving, strangely the machine had no difficulty taking steps or sliding on the ice surface, much to the surprise of the crowd.
"There is one person among you who has all the characteristics I have described, an excellent ice skater, great athleticism, and a fearless fighting spirit. It is a pity that she is so afraid to face the future. I think you cannot ask for more, she represents everything soldiers of the past have in common: pathetic, cowardly, and insignificant." Hiroshi teased.
Suddenly, a hand went up from the audience. It was a young girl, with short hair, piercing eyes, with an elegant bearing: Machi.
"Machi, what are you doing?" Yuka asked surprised, "You're falling for his trick, let me go instead, I'll teach him a lesson".
"Yuka, you're a decent ice skater, but not good enough for a fight, I'm just going to have some fun, besides, what can he do? Try to kill me? That wouldn't help much making me a love conquest," Machi replied amused.
"Machi please don't go, I have a bad feeling," Sora pleaded, clearly worried.
"Sora, don't worry, if anyone should be worried, it's him," Machi said, calming her sister a little.
"Machi, we'll cheer for you," Kaoru said, smiling at her.
Machi went towards the small entrance of the chamber, an assistant was waiting for her.
"The young miss is very brave, please let me prepare you," the assistant said, she was the same woman she had seen twice before, she looked so human, and yet it was a mass-produced copy.
"Okay, here's a pair of modern ice skates. They won't make you faster but they will increase your kicking power, you can use them both for skating and for attacking. The steel blades are very sturdy."
Machi put on the ice skates, they were comfortable and adapted to her foot as soon as she put them on.
"Now you're going to have to wear several layers of protection as well..." the assistant continued, but Machi had already entered the arena leaving her behind, the door closed behind her.
Hiroshi couldn't believe it when he saw Machi inside the arena with only a pair of reinforced ice skates on her feet.
"You didn't want a soldier from the past? So, there's no more past than fighting with just one pair of boots!"
"Are you crazy? You have to wear protection or you could seriously injure yourself!" Hiroshi shouted.
"I'll only get hurt if you use bullets against me. That bullshit that cowardly soldiers of the future use to keep from admitting they are too weak and pathetic to use muscle power." Machi replied in a challenging tone.
"You know perfectly well that they would never allow the use of firearms in this demonstration, that would be..."
"Cowardice?" Machi fired.
"I was going to say unfair," Hiroshi added.
"Well, killing me could be the only way you would ever have to conquer someone like me..." Machi said coldly.
"I would never harm you..." Hiroshi said.
"So? What if we move on to the acts? Do you want to give these people a demonstration of that thing or what?" Machi said impatiently.
"You took the words out of my mouth, don't say I didn't warn you, then don't complain after," Hiroshi said satisfied.
Hiroshi's plan was already outlined: first, he would humiliate Machi in the arena, he would break her spirit and her convictions, Machi would be vulnerable, later he would offer her his shoulder to cry on and some soft talk, they would kiss and everything would be done, perfect!
Far away, a web server room was starting to show red LED lights, in the social network's control room the technicians were rushing to get more servers online and asking other companies for help to re-transmit the live feed, there was a huge spike of unexpected traffic on the live streaming of the sky exhibit. Apparently, half the planet was trying to watch the demonstration of the new military prototype in the enclosure's testing arena.
On the screens there was an ultra-modern exoskeleton robot against a girl with only one pair of ice skates and no protection, the technician frowned, it must have been some kind of joke to entertain the audience, it certainly wasn't a real fight...
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