"Talk about an explosive finish to the first round of today's competition~" hummed Tiamat, landing near where Sunraku and Itadori had exploded and sweeping the area clean with a wave of her left hand.
"But as both of our contestants were eliminated, how shall we proceed~?" asked Tiamat, directing the question and her smiling gaze to the main VIP booth...
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"Mmn...if we gave the win to Sunraku, it might incentivise others to use a similar strategy..." muttered Vahn, caressing Ravel's right thigh as she sat atop his left knee.
"While that's true..." affirmed Rias, standing near the window with her arms crossed as she contended, "We never expressly forbade the use of such tactics. That said, it would be a problem if everyone began blowing themselves up..."
"We should interpret the action for what it is..." stated Venelana, drawing everyone's gaze as she reasoned, "Blowing oneself up is ultimately an act of forfeiture for most Ascendees. It's accepting that you're no longer in a position to win and forfeiting your life in the pursuit of mutual destruction. It would be one thing if Sunraku-kun possessed an item that allowed him to survive blowing himself up, but that would most certainly be above D-Rank."
"And if we permit any Rank of item to be used, it defeats the purpose of restricting brackets..." appended Ravel, crossing her left arm under her round and pillowy breasts and thoughtfully cupping her chin with her right index finger and thumb.
"Then it's settled..." asserted Vahn, offering a curt nod before deciding, "I don't want to see this turn into a competition between who has the better equipment and backing, so we'll limit participants to equipment and items of the same Rank and prohibit the use of sacrificial totems and automatic revival items."
"And for the sake of fairness..." chimed Raval, drawing everyone's gazes as she submitted, "I propose that restrictions be placed on the ability to regenerate or resurrect naturally. That should prevent any accusations of foul play if someone like myself were to participate."
"A very forward-thinking suggestion," affirmed Misla, nodding approvingly from where she sat, combing her fingers through Lastia's hair as the latter napped using her left thigh as a pillow. Lastia's excitement for the Festival had caused her to stay up late the previous night, and after exploring with Lupheria and Rihoko for most of the day, she was completely tuckered out with a happy smile adorning her sleeping face...
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Receiving Vahn's decision via telepathy, Tiamat closed her deep blue eyes and bowed her head ever so slightly before raising her gaze and adopting a naturally seductive smile as she addressed the crowd, declaring, "It has been determined that the act of blowing oneself up is implicitly accepting that you're no longer in a position to attain victory. As such, your victor by forfeiture of his opponent is—"
Raising her right hand, Tiamat caused a confused Itadori to appear from a turquoise Magic Circle as she announced, "Itadori Yuji-kun! Everyone give him a round of applause~!"
"Wait...you're saying I won...?" asked Yuji, pointing at himself with a slack-jawed expression. Unfortunately, Tiamat completely ignored him and flew into the air, humming, "Now, who shall his opponent be~?" while looking in the direction of those waiting. The Power Levels of each contestant could be seen floating atop their head, so if she wanted to expedite things, she could always choose the strongest among them to ensure there would be fewer challengers.
'Oh? That could be interesting...' thought Tiamat, her expression gaining a hint of mirth as she met the gaze of a Riko, looking tense but determined among the group of would-be D-Rank competitors.
Clapping her hands together and adopting a closed-eyed smile, Tiamat happily chimed, "Alright, everyone, let's all give a warm round of applause to our next competitor, Riko-chan~!"
"Eh—?"
Not expecting to be teleported or for her turn to come so soon, Riko fell onto her butt and hands as she emerged from Tiamat's Magic Circle and found herself as the focal point of tens of thousands of gazes.
Seeing who Tiamat had chosen as his opponent, Itadori adopted a slight frown, made his way forward, and pulled out a red lollipop as he crouched down and asked, "Hey, you okay, kiddo? You're really brave for wanting to compete in this tournament, but you shouldn't force yourself."
Shifting her focus from the crowd to Itadori and the crimson lollipop he was presenting with an awkward smile, Riko went from overwhelmed to slightly annoyed. She knew he was trying to be considerate, but she had seen, experienced, and worked too hard to be coaxed and called kiddo by a boy not much older than her.
"Thank you for your consideration, Itadori-kun, but I wouldn't be here if I weren't confident I could perform," stated Riko, resisting the urge to swat aside the proffered lollipop as she shifted forward onto her heels, rose to her full height, and brushed off her butt with her gloved hands. Then, with a confident expression and an almost battle-hungry smile, she placed her hands on her hips, puffed her chest, raised her chin slightly, and asserted, "Honestly, it might be you who's in over their head. Once we start fighting, you should surrender quickly."
After blinking in surprise and tilting his head slightly, Itadori, who had risen to tower over Riko by nearly thirty centimeters, adopted a friendly smile, nodded, and affirmingly remarked, "You're definitely not lacking in spirit."
Before Riko could respond, Tiamat chimed in to explain, "Alright, before we begin the next match, our current and future competitors need to be aware of a few determinations that have been made. To ensure fairness, items and equipment above your rank cannot be used. Furthermore, if a competitor is immortal or possesses an item or ability that allows them to revive after death, it will be considered their defeat if they sustain a blow that would otherwise kill an ordinary Ascendee or if they are forced to use said item or ability."
Hearing Tiamat's explanation, Riko's confident mask cracked slightly, her smile cramping as the vast majority of her gear was C or B-Rank with two S-Rank items mixed in, courtesy of Vahn. She comprehended the need for such a rule change to ensure fairness, but as the items in question were a curse-warding ring and her favorite pair of self-cleaning undies, she didn't want to unequip them.
"Haaaa...I guess I don't have a choice..." sighed Riko, a faint blush tinting her cheeks as she opened her Equipment interface, causing her clothes to change from her custom combat and delving outfit to her gym clothes, an ordinary white jersey with red trim, a pair of red buruma, knee-high socks, and white, red-toed running shoes.
Noticing Riko's rather drastic change, Itadori raised his brows and asked, "Was everything you were wearing higher than D-Rank? You must be rich or from a really dangerous world."
"My world is very dangerous, but that's not the reason I have such high-quality equipment..." affirmed and conceded Riko, turning her head to the left and raising her gaze in the direction of the VIP viewing booth.
Following Riko's gaze, a bead of nervous sweat formed on the left side of Itadori's face as he realized Riko must be related to or involved with Vahn. He had only met Vahn twice, once to have Sukuna expelled from his body and another in passing, but he knew how absurd an existence the Dragon God was and how overprotective he could be.
Before Itadori could think to forfeit the match, he and Riko abruptly found themselves separated by a distance of twenty meters. Immediately after, Tiamat raised her right hand and happily announced, "Now, let the second match between Itadori Yuji and Riko begin~!"
"Haaaaaaaaaaa—!"
Leaving Itadori slack-jawed and at a loss for words, Riko kicked things off by striking a power-up pose and issuing a loud cry. He remembered doing something similar in his room and on the playground with his friends when he was in elementary and even middle school, but Riko very clearly wasn't suffering from a delusion as transparent, green, flame-like energy erupted from her body.
'I am beyond screwed...' Itadori thought to himself, raising his hands and hunching like a boxer in a defensive posture. He assumed that Riko would charge at him the moment she was finished powering up, so he was more than a little surprised when she abruptly produced a heavy-looking trench gun nearly two-thirds as long as she was tall.
"Oh, come on...!" shouted Itadori, hastily rolling to the side as Riko began bombarding him with explosive shotgun shells. To make matters worse for him, she floated into the air as he tried closing the distance, moving out of his effective range while he was well within hers...
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"Hooooo...now that's interesting..." remarked Tanya, seated in the stands next to Mikoto and a few others from the world of Toaru with her right leg crossed over her left and her sharp, intelligent green eyes narrowed. She had distanced herself from Riko and the youth troupe to gather allies and form a Party—nay, an organization of her own. As such, she was unaware that Riko, who lacked Mana of her own, had learned to fly without the aid of a Hybrid Computation Orb or Flight Unit.
"Has Mistress taken an interest in that girl...?" asked a petite, ostensibly middle-school-aged girl with large, empty blue eyes and black hair fixed into messy buns on both sides of her head.
"In a sense," confirmed Tanya, nodding curtly before revealing, "Riko and I were once members of the same Party. However, as we ultimately have very different mindsets and goals, our paths diverged shortly after I came to your world."
"I see..." muttered the petite girl, making a note on a crystalline data pad she almost always carried around with her. She, Kihara Enshuu, had been assigned to be Tanya's personal assistant after the latter approached and formed an agreement with her very wealthy family. And since information on other Ascendees, the Dragon's Pavilion, and Vahn was of extraordinary importance to both her family and her world as a whole, she took detailed notes of everything she witnessed and heard...
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"Alright, already! I give up...!" shouted Itadori, his hair and clothing visibly singed as he leaped out of the fiery plume of an explosion that could have leveled a small building. He had tried to counterattack by flinging items in his inventory and using his innate technique, Gravity Crush, to knock Riko out of the sky, but she easily avoided the former and outright endured the latter. As such, he had no realistic means to combat her as someone who almost exclusively fought using close combat.
"And we have our victor~!" exclaimed Tiamat, erecting a green, hexagon-formed hemispherical barrier to protect Itadori as Riko, unable to hear his surrender over the sound of her explosions, unleashed another salvo as he was rolling across the ground.
"Eh? It's over? Don't tell me...did I somehow break the rules...!?" asked Riko, panicking slightly as she didn't expect the battle to end with Tiamat erecting a barrier to protect her opponent.
"On the contrary" countered Tiamat, sporting an amused smile as she shook her head and revealed, "Your opponent has just surrendered, thus making you the winner. Congratulations on your debut and securing your first victory, Riko-chan."
"I won? Me...?" asked Riko, pointing at her befuddled, slightly flushed, and sweaty face. Bukujutsu was immensely draining, so even though she had spent the match flitting about and bombarding Itadori from the air, she was breathing heavily and nearing exhaustion.
"Indeed," affirmed Tiamat, nodding slowly before raising her right hand to envelop Riko in luminous green energy, restoring her condition. This didn't alleviate the fatigue from her battle-taxed mind, but it replenished her life essence and restored her stamina.
Realizing Tiamat wasn't just messing with her, Riko closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists, balling herself up like a bomb preparing to explode before shooting out her hands and feet, shouting, "I wooooon~!" to considerable fanfare from the crowd. Several spectators felt the match hadn't been entirely fair, but as Riko was ultimately a cute girl, there were far more people cheering for her than sympathizing with Itadori...
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