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
silent No one can beat Little Yama You cheated and I want to know how Give me that bot Several of Mr Yama’s large associates suddenly moved toward Hiro I can see you’re upset Here’s what I’m gonna do I’ll teach you everything I know about high-torque micromotors Hiro said as the huge men backed him into a corner I charge an hourly rate it’s pricey but worth it Before you know it you’ll be making robots that aren’t totally junky First class is free Hiro was really starting to sweat when a scooter came out of nowhere and tore down the alley It skidded to a stop knocking Mr Yama and his goons to the ground Get on the rider yelled to Hiro 4
Chapter 2 Tadashi Hamada reached back and shoved a helmet on his little brother Hiro’s head He gunned the scooter’s engine and took off through the crowd It was hard for Tadashi to be patient with his little brother sometimes He turned and smacked the top of Hiro’s helmet You graduated high school when you were thirteen and this is what you’re doing You’re wasting that big brain of yours It was well known that both the Hamada brothers were tech prodigies but Hiro he was something special He was a bona fide genius Not that he did much with his brain other than build fighting bots I’m on a roll big brother Hiro replied grinning There’s no stopping me now Just then a police car with its red lights flashing pulled up and blocked the end of the 5
