Chapter 1 Not quite a big city and not quite a small town San Fransokyo had always been a mysterious mix of old and new On foggy nights the bright skyscraper lights and the neon of the modern city softened giving the old Victorian pagodas and forgotten alleyways of the past an inviting glow One such night a young teenage boy named Hiro Hamada was making his way down an old brick alley He was looking for a place where grown men came to fight The boy felt a little nervous when he finally approached a rowdy crowd Men were jammed around a fighting ring chanting Ya ma Ya ma Mr. Yama a large sumo sized man strutted into the ring and held up his huge hands in victory It had been a fight to the death and Mr. Yama's tricked out eighteen inch robot which had claws for one hand and a spinning 1
saw wheel for the other had just decapitated the competition The remains of the defeated robot were unceremoniously tossed onto a pile of other dismembered opponents Who’s next Mr Yama snarled scanning the crowd The spectators exchanged money and prepared to place their bets Who has the guts to step into the ring with Little Yama The crowd stared at the big man’s fierce robot and shrank away Some even hid their bots behind their backs Then a voice said Can I try The crowd parted and everyone stared at Hiro Yama’s eyes narrowed What’s your name little boy It’s Hiro Hiro Hamada The four-hundred pound man folded his thick arms over his chest Go home Zero Bot-fighting isn’t for little boys with toy robots You have to pay to play Is this enough Hiro asked holding up a wad of bills Yama smiled and placed Little Yama back in the ring Hiro held up a small unimpressive twelve-inch robot He tried to seem confident He’d learned a long time ago that when you bot-fought in this part of town you never let them see your fear 2
Hiro put Megabot down into the ring Immediately the tiny robot toppled over Yama couldn’t hide his smirk as he sat on his mat Hiro also sat down his mat across the ring from Yama’s The bettors went crazy Piles of cash grew higher and higher The referee stepped up and lowered an open umbrella between the two Two bots enter One bot leaves she shouted Fighters ready Fight Little Yama quickly advanced on Megabot towering over him In seconds he had sliced through Hiro’s bot The crowd cheered But without warning Hiro’s seemingly broken bot reassembled Megabot destroy Hiro ordered Hiro’s bot counterattacked with such deadly force the fight was over in seconds Little Yama was torn to pieces Bits of him sparked and jumped all over the ring With the click of Hiro’s remote control Megabot gave a cute yet awkward bow The whole audience was silent Mr Yama was stunned But wha How This is not possible Hiro smiled No one likes a sore loser big guy But everyone loves a winner He held up his bot and the crowd chanted Hi-ro Hi-ro Hi-ro No Mr Yama yelled and the crowd became 3
