"The court finds the defendant guilty on the charge of aggravated assault. I hereby sentence Yu Shan to ten years in prison, two to be served in juvenile detention, and eight in an adult prison."

Shan was grabbed by two guards by his arms. They carried him through the courtroom. Shan looked down in shame, avoiding the gazes of his family, coach, and friends. 

The boy sitting on the other end of the court laughed loudly as Shan was being escorted out. Shan turned his head to look at him. The boy had a vile smirk across his face, as he kicked his legs up onto the table, leaning backwards with his hands folded across his head.

"Ha!" he announced loudly. "That lowlife got what he deserved!"

He was met with the cold stare of the judge, and was quickly reprimanded by the man next to him. Shan swore he could see the reflection of the ceiling on his greasy black hair. How nice it must be to be able to afford an entire team of the nation's top lawyers. 

"Fucker." he muttered under his breath. He felt the grip of the two guards holding him loosen.

"It's not my fault his lowlife parents never taught him any manners!" the boy complained.

That's it. 

Shan twisted his arms out of the grip of the guards, hooking the one to his left's ankle with his foot and lifting and then pulling, dropping him to the floor. He shouldered past the one on his right with enough force to knock him over. In an instant, he sprinted across the courtroom, until he was face to face with the boy he assaulted.

"Say that again," he demanded.

The boy's lawyers stood up to face him. The one with the greasy hair spoke first. "Are you aware that this is an act of contempt of court? Go any further, and you will be puni-"

"Shut up. Don't care." Shan growled, shaking. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes, and blood trickled down the side of his lip. "Say it again, silver spoon."

"I said, your parents are good for nothing lowlives who didn't teach you a single th-" the boys words were cut short by handcuffs slamming into his skull. Blood flew onto the suit of the lawyer next to him, who did nothing but wince and look away in fear.

Shan leapt across the table and sat on the boy's stomach, slamming the handcuffs around his hands into the face of the boy below him. With every strike, a little bit of blood sprayed in random directions. 

"Say it again," Shan repeated, his voice breaking. "Say it again."

The whole courtroom froze as tears spilled down Shan's face and onto his victim. It took a few moments for the guards to snap out of their trance. They rushed across the courtroom and grabbed the crazed boy, still slamming his hands into the crumpled face of the boy below him. 

As he was dragged out of the courtroom, he screamed, "Don't ever talk to me about who's parents didn't raise them right!"

"That's enough out of you!" one of the guards yelled, yanking him forwards.

"Shut up!" Shan screamed, elbowing him in the face. "Fuck you! All of you can eat shit! Filthy dogs! Is money all that matters to you? Does justice not matter? All of you who took bribes from that rat can suffer in hell!"

Three more guards poured into the courtroom, slamming him down in an attempt to restrain him. Shan struggled as much as he could, slamming his knees, head, and elbows into their faces. 

Eventually, one of them brought a taser into the court and used it on him. Shan shuddered as the electricity poured through him, flailing wildly. 

"I'll kill you all!" he screamed before passing out.

When he came to, he was strapped to a board of some sort in a dark room. The air was cold enough to sting at his face. He struggled to move, restrained by a straitjacket. The room shook and he flew up a little, as if they were traveling on a bumpy road. Two locks of his hair on either side came loose from the knotted position they were usually in, falling in front of his eyes.

"Hello?" he hollered. "Where am I?"

Two metal doors to his left slammed open to reveal four men. The two wearing suits walked into the vehicle, while the other two stood outside, holding the doors open.

"Shan Yu." the dark skinned man said in English. "I paid a hefty price for you, you know? You just had to make things worse by getting sentenced completely as an adult, didn't you? To make things worse, that damned CEO made sure the bail was ten times higher than what it should have been."

"Shouldn't we remove the muzzle so he can talk?" the other man said.

"Yes, please do that. And insert the translators while you're at it, Daniel."

The man named Daniel unclipped the muzzle and inserted an earpiece for Shan. 

"Shan Yu," he said, pulling out a file from under his arm. "Competitive swimmer, sentenced to prison for aggravated assault on the son of one of China's biggest CEOs. During his trial, assaulted the victim again in a brutal fashion, putting him in a coma, hospitalizing him. Required multiple guards to be restrained and didn't go down, even after being hit by a taser. Despite all this, has not had any formal martial arts training. Mr. Black, I'm not sure why you went to these lengths to get this kid."

"What do you want?" Shan asked.

"I'll make things simple for you," the first man said. "I paid over a million US dollars for your bail. I'm gathering young men who have potential to be fighters. You see, two of my champions are just too dominant. Soon enough, people will stop betting, stop watching their fights, because the outcome is the same every time. Of course, I can't force you against your will, but if you refuse to fight, you go back to prison."

"You may also want to add that his prison time got upped to twenty-five years, Mr. Black."

"Ah, yes. That too." Mr. Black said dryly. "If you do accept, we'll place you in the East Asian block with the other participants for the preliminary rounds. You would be ranked at the bottom, unfortunately."

"Why go through all these lengths for me?"

Mr. Black pointed at one of the men holding the door open. He smirked at Shan with the whitest teeth he'd ever seen. Shan recognized him as Rex Rogers, the welterweight champion of the XFC. His dark skin was covered in scars of various shapes and sizes, but the most notable was one running through the right corner of his mouth, down to his chin.

"He requested it. The analysts were against it, because they didn't think the costs were worth it in return for the potential you showed, but Rex threatened to retire if we didn't get you."

"Be grateful, punk." Rex chuckled. "Don't go losing to Silva's fighter, or I'll kill you." He gestured at Carlos Silva, the other man holding the doors open.

"The lightweight and welterweight champions. Was I only picked because I can make weight for those two classes?" Shan asked.

"You catch on quickly," Mr. Black whistled. "Are you going to accept, or not?"

"Yes. I accept."

"Knock him out, Rex." Mr. Black turned and walked out of the vehicle.

"With pleasure." 

Rex stepped forwards and slammed his elbow onto Shan's chin, right below the mouth. The force of the impact shook his head up and down, but he didn't fall unconscious. His vision blurred and he shook his head in an attempt to clear it. 

"Did you miss? Stop fooling around." Carlos said, running a hand through his bleached hair. "We've got places to be, unlike you, you cokehead."

Rex turned back to Shan and grinned from ear to ear. Shan flinched; it was as if a primal fear had awakened in him. 

"I was right about you, Shan! You and I are gonna have the bloodiest fight on the biggest stage! Don't disappoint me."

The last thing Shan saw before falling unconscious was the knee of the welterweight champion flying towards him.