Super Smash Bros Book of Oneshots

Anger Will Be Your Enemy (Shulk)

Emi let out a loud battle cry as she slashed away wooden dummies and panted, sweat soaking her skin from hours of training. She looked around the many wooden dummies she took down and felt angry, brushing some of her light brown hair from her emerald green eyes.

"Dammit...still not good enough!" she growled under her breath, gritting her teeth in frustration.

She then pressed a button on the wall and new wooden dummies appeared. Letting out another battle cry, she did her sword spin attack in a straight line and taking down the dummies in her way. Emi has been training harder than she usually did after her terrible defeat to Ganondorf, her arch-rival and most hated fighter in the Smash Tournament. From the beginning when they crossed battles, the Gerudo man would always taunt her, telling her she would never have the guts to beat him, and sadly he was right. However, that didn't let her get herself down and she swore that she would defeat him someday. The thoughts of the man got her blood boiling and released fire from the slash marks on the dummies she took down, burning them to ashes.

Before she could go for the next row, she was stopped by a familiar blue slash in front of her. She glared at her left to see the Mando blade-weilding fighter looking right at her as a way to tell her to stop what she was doing.

"For the love of...Shulk, I told YOU that I don't need your help!" Emi spat at him, knocking his blade away from her with her own.

Withdrawing his weapon, Shulk said, "I know you're still bummed out about your defeat with Ganondorf, but that doesn't mean you have to push yourself past your limits! Rosalina and Lucina are terribly worried about you and your health! They even told me that there were times you fell unconscious for a day or two and, as your friend, I am telling you to stop right now and take it easy!"

The young swords woman scoffed. "Ha! You expect me to let Ganondorf see me as a weakling? Is that what everyone thinks I am since that battle?!?"

Shulk shook his head. "No one is saying that. Everyone is just worried about you, that's all. Look, we all know you're doing your best to improve, but pushing yourself like this is not the best solution. Why can't you let me and the others help?"

"Because..." Then she fell silent and then, out of sheer anger, she struck her sword to the ground. "Because I don't want to hurt anyone cause of my anger...You know damn well how powerful my fire can get when I get mad."

Shulk fell silent after that. When she started training, she was letting her friends and fellow fighters help her, but then one day changed the girl everyone said was honorable and friendly. She and a friend were fighting, the friend acting as Ganondorf as a motivator, but that got out of hand when her anger got the best of her and got her friend hurt in the process. Shulk rolled up the left sleeve of his jacket and looked at the bandages covering his hand up to almost a couple inches from his elbow. He was the friend who got hurt.

After what seemed to be an eternity of silence, the blonde broke the silence, saying, "Emi, I don't blame you for what happened and I'm not mad at you for it, but that doesn't mean you have to shut everyone, including me, out."

Emi shook her head. "You don't understand, Shulk. What if I lose by Ganondorf again? What if everyone thinks bad of me from the way I acted? I know I'm trying so hard to control my anger, but I...I..." She started to tremble and doing her best not to let out tears she held back for the past couple weeks. "I just don't want to hurt anyone like I did with you, Shulk, and I still can't forgive myself for what I did to you...Master Hand invited me to this tournament so it could help me control it, but I don't know anymore..."