Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 21 - Chapter 1.5

Interlude: Tournament Day Four

Sorcerer, Ray Starling

Yesterday, the third day of The Tournaments, victory was claimed by our guy Rook.

We didn’t fight the UBM he won though. He said he would fight it by himself once he was ready, and he was busy preparing for it today too. Rook was determined to do it solo and seemed to have his reasons, so all I could really do was pray it worked out for him.

Since he was a dark horse, though, my bet on him won me so much money that I went and bought him a dozen Brooches, Elixirs, and High Spirit Waters. Hopefully they would help him against the UBM.

Anyway, today was the fourth day, and the member of our clan participating this time was Io. Since she was heavily specialized in physical attack power, if she landed a hit, she could do heavy damage even to those above her.

But unfortunately...

“Pulverized. Cracked. Blasted... I was the one who ended up shattered...”

She was now laying her head on the restaurant table, clearly in low spirits.

“You did your best. It was a pretty bad matchup, huh?” I asked.

“Whatever was I to do against an opponent such as that...?”

“Wow, the fight was so one-sided it’s making you talk weird,” said Fujinon.

Io had lost on her third fight, and the player who’d beaten her was Phara, a K&R member who used a barrier that deflected weapon attacks. This barrier negated all and any attacks from Io’s Five-Ring, letting Phara fire arrows from relative safety and not giving Io a chance to do anything.

Io could’ve gotten through the barrier if she’d just used her hands instead of weapons, but that would’ve reduced the fight to a simple comparison of levels and combat experience. Winning against a battle-hardened Tenchi warrior without using any weapons would’ve been a challenge.

So yeah, Io had ended up suffering a total defeat and was really down now, so her friends and I were holding a little consolation party for her.

“Heh heh heh...our clan’s winning streak has been ended...by me. I am easily the weakest woman in Death Period...a real disgrace, I am...”

“N-No, you’re not...” said Kasumi.

“Again, why are you talking like that?” said Fujinon.

Mm-hmm...Io’s not acting anything like she did when we celebrated Rook’s win yesterday, I thought. Also, her words kinda sting. I mean, I dropped out on my second fight...

“And this was a matter of compatibility,” Fujinon continued. “Though I really didn’t expect it to be this bad based on what I saw last time.”

She and Kasumi continued to console Io, but something she said caught my attention.

“Last time?” I asked.

“Some time ago, the three of us participated in an arena event. Our first fight was against Juliet’s team, though, so we were completely crushed and lost right away.”

Oh, I’d actually heard about this. If I recalled correctly, it was an aquatic battle event where participants had to wear swimsuits.

“The final match was between Juliet’s team and a K&R team,” Fujinon continued, “which included Phara, so...”

“Oh, I see.” Even though Io knew what Phara was capable of, it hadn’t helped her when they’d fought.

“If only I was matched with the K&R member who protects against magic instead of weapons...” Io said.

They had that too? I thought. No surprise there, I guess. K&R is a big clan. “Anyway, that’s it for Death Period’s fourth day attempt, right?”

“Yeah, and with none of us taking part tomorrow or the day after, our next appearance will be Marie on the seventh day,” said Fujinon.

And with there being ten days of The Tournaments, this meant that the first half of the entire event was over for us.

“I’ve got college, though, so I won’t be able to watch her fight,” I said.

“We’ve got school too.” In Japan time, the seventh day of The Tournaments would take place Monday afternoon, so no decent student from that area of the world could stay around and watch it.

I wonder if I can still gamble, though. Maybe I can message Shu when the betting begins and get him to buy a ticket for me?

“I guess those of us who are likely to win in the remaining days are our teacher and Figaro, right?” asked Fujinon.

“Yeah. Ray’s brother and Hannya aren’t participating, so...” said Kasumi.

“Hrmm...Figaro is one thing, but I don’t think Marie stands a chance,” I said.

“Huh?” the two girls said in unison. I knew very well how powerful Marie was. I mean, she actually gave me the death penalty once.

But the thing about Marie’s powers was that...

“HMPH!” My thought was cut short by Io raising her head. “I’m not gonna forget ’bout this loss! I’ll get strong enough to break through any barrier!” Well, it looked like she went back to normal. She even stopped speaking weirdly.

“That’s the spirit! Do your best,” I encouraged. “For now, though, just order and eat whatever you want. It’s on me.”

“Oh, I’ll be feastin’!”

“C-Can we really...?” Kasumi asked, somewhat worried, but there was nothing to be concerned about.

“Thanks to The Tournaments, my wallet is pretty fat these days. Also...” I said, glancing to the side.

There, I saw a black mass, ravenously consuming what was probably many times her weight in food.

It didn’t even have to be said that this was my partner Nemesis. She’d been here the whole time, but instead of taking part in the conversation, she was doing nothing but eating.

“It’s nothing compared to how much I spend to feed her.”

“Ah ha ha...”

The amount Nemesis consumed seemed to be growing as she evolved. If it was this bad after she just became high-rank, how would it be in the future?

I probably needed to make more money, just to be on the safe side.

With that in mind, I’d resolved to bet on today’s Tournament too.

I was pretty sure that the winner would be Juliet.