Steel Dragon

Mei Mei woke up hearing the sound of the drone floating through the house, her grandfather's electronic voice already echoing loudly even before she got up. He didn't need coffee anymore, nor rest, and apparently he didn't have any patience for laziness either. As soon as she opened her eyes, the drone's screen blinked with a message, almost like a good morning from the digital world.

"Get up, Mei Mei. Today's going to be tough. Real training starts early."

Mei Mei dragged herself to the sink, splashed cold water on her face, tied her hair and put on her sneakers, feeling her body protest from sleep and pain from the previous day's training. But she didn't want to complain, she knew that wasting time would only give her AI-grandpa even more reason to nag.

She walked through the house to the warehouse where Chun-Li was waiting for her disassembled, the pieces scattered on the floor like a metal puzzle.

The drone was already circling, inspecting the tools. It blinked its lights, then stopped right in front of Mei Mei, with the screen showing big letters: "Today is a day to learn or to suffer. Who chooses is you."

She didn't know whether to laugh or complain, but she knew she had no choice.

Even before picking up a screwdriver, grandpa started giving orders: "You're going to disassemble and assemble Chun-Li's arm ten times before lunch. If there's a leftover screw, if you drop a piece, you start all over from zero. Understood?"

Mei Mei nodded, grumbling inside, but swallowing her pride. She kneeled next to the mecha's arm, looked at each screw, studied each fitting, trying to remember everything she had learned and her grandfather's scoldings.

When she started to disassemble, she felt her fingers tremble. The AI-grandpa didn't spare on the comments: "Hold the tool right, Mei Mei. Go slowly, but don't drag it out. If you tighten too much, you strip the thread. If you tighten too little, everything falls apart after."

Mei Mei answered with an awkward smile, but did her best to follow the instructions. Each screw she loosened, she put in a separate box, trying to keep order.

When she got distracted and dropped a piece, the drone set off an alert: "Dropped it? Start from the beginning. The secret of any robot is not to lose anything."

She laughed, a bit irritated, but deep down she liked that routine. While she disassembled and assembled Chun-Li's arm over and over, AI-grandpa alternated between scolding and jokes: "Look, at least it's not so bad this time. But I know you'll still forget the elbow fitting."

"Don't forget to align the joint before closing, or when you turn it on, everything will fly everywhere."

When she finally managed to finish the first assembly without losing a piece, she felt a joy she hadn't felt in a long time.

The drone blinked a green light, but soon changed to yellow: "Now take it all apart again and do better. One day you'll get there."

Time went by and Mei Mei was getting faster.

Each assembly took less time, each mistake was corrected with a tip from AI-grandpa. Sometimes he pretended to turn off the light on purpose just to see if she could find the pieces in the dark. Other times, he changed the order of the tools, leaving everything messy, just to train her patience.

"Today is a day to train under pressure, Mei Mei. Life doesn't warn when it's going to get complicated. You have to know how to deal with surprise. Go, assemble Chun-Li's arm without looking at the manual."

She grumbled, but accepted the challenge. Closed her eyes, tried to remember each step, and started. In the beginning, she got stuck in a fitting, cursed under her breath, but AI-grandpa just replied with sarcasm: "If you had trained more, you'd remember that. Look properly. Each part only has one right place."

Even with the teasing, Mei Mei started to get the hang of it. She noticed that each sound of the fitting had a unique sound, that you could feel the weight of a wrong part just by lifting.

Grandpa, even grumpy, started letting out hidden compliments: "Improved. Getting less slow. Soon I'll stop calling you turtle."

While she trained, the drone also cleaned the shop, pushing screws to the side, blowing dust away, sometimes even getting in the way more than helping.

When Mei Mei made a mistake, he took the opportunity to joke: "If you keep going like this, I'll call Kazuo to give you a lesson."

Mei Mei shot back: "I want to see him assemble Chun-Li without blowing everything up, grandpa."

AI-grandpa replied quickly: "If he tried, he'd become a meme like you."

They laughed together, the mood getting lighter, and Mei Mei realized she was really learning. With each attempt, she better understood how the parts worked, the differences in the fittings, the function of every wire.

When she assembled the mecha's arm for the sixth time without a mistake, she felt proud of herself. The drone displayed a message: "If you reach ten, you'll win the special prize: lunch without a scolding."

Mei Mei pretended to make a face, but was happy. Training that way, even if tiring, made her feel less alone.

After a quick lunch, Mei Mei threw herself on the warehouse floor, exhausted. The drone hovered above her, blinking blue light from time to time.

"Get up, lazy. If you sleep now, you lose your rhythm. Old school training gives no break."

She huffed, but got up. Grandpa set a new challenge: "Now I want to see you disassemble Chun-Li's central panel in less than ten minutes. Just don't pull out the wires in a hurry."

Mei Mei accepted, grabbed the tools and went ahead. AI-grandpa kept time, giving quick tips, making jokes between one alert and another.

When she almost tripped over her own foot, he commented: "Coordination, girl! No use having a brain if your foot doesn't cooperate."

At every stage, Mei Mei outdid herself. She discovered she was capable of doing things faster than she thought, as long as she really paid attention. AI-grandpa celebrated in his own way: "Now yes. Soon you'll assemble Chun-Li with one hand."

At the end of the afternoon, Mei Mei was sweaty, tired, but smiling. The shop even looked tidier after so many rounds of pieces. The drone was quiet for a moment, then showed on the screen: "Proud of you, Mei Mei. Just don't let it go to your head."

She smiled, grateful. She felt she was finally ready to face the world again. At night, she turned on the VR helmet, entered the virtual cockpit and tested Chun-Li's commands. Everything worked better than ever. The new arm responded immediately, every sensor in perfect condition.

Grandpa appeared on the screen, blinking: "Now you can start thinking about competing again. But remember: you'll only win if you train more than everyone else."

Mei Mei felt a thrill of excitement. Her heart raced. For the first time, she truly felt confident. It wasn't just stubbornness anymore, it was knowledge, training, sweat.

"You can bet, grandpa. Now no one can stop me."

The drone turned off the shop light, blinked one last message before "sleeping": "Steel Dragon never gives up. You carry that name now."

Mei Mei looked at the robot, the tools, the pendant stuck in the drone, and was sure the dragon would return. And that, no matter how hard it was, she wasn't going to tremble in front of anyone anymore.