A-Class Tournament Final

"Well, well, you've come. The grand, sweeping decisive battle with me is finally about to begin…!

"… Wait, eh, a sub-numbered chapter!? Hold on a second! Isn't that strange? It's the final, the final! This is the last grand decisive battle, the very make-or-break moment of whether you can get this Seika Shikina onto your team! It ought to be lovingly and meticulously depicted across, like, ten chapters, with tears and emotion and all the works!?"

"Ah, sorry, Seika. From my end, the final's basically already over."

"Why-y-y-y!?"

 

*

 

A conversation like that may or may not have happened somewhere. Or so it felt.

Well, no, of course it didn't.

The final, the closing battle of the A-Class Tournament, was about to be staged in spectacular fashion at last.

The loser's bracket had wrapped up over the course of the morning: 5th place went to Aldis, 6th to former 4th-place Norris, 7th to former 11th-place Hands, and 8th to Rudis… a reasonably fitting set of results, it seemed.

It wasn't that Rudis had lost; he'd been put through to the 8th-place decider by lottery, and you took 8th if you won that.

In other words, 5th through 8th were apparently all just lottery results, which struck me as pretty unreasonable. Even a vaunted A-Class Master got treated like this if they lost, huh…

A magnificent ceremony unfolded, the closing remarks were delivered, and…

Anastasia-san handled play-by-play, with Deeds-san on color commentary.

"And now, the final match that brings the A-Class Tournament to its grand close!

"Currently A-Class rank 3, Dalido-senshu! Two years of S-Class tenure to his name! A skilled-tier Master who holds top idol Seika Shikina as his ace!

"And now, his opponent is…"

Doon!

Whoa, the way they're treating him felt a bit different.

"A-Class rank 1! The hopeful rookie Master, Naoto Akai-senshu! The superstar who broke through the very Aldis-senshu and has been showing off overwhelming strength against everyone else as well! Now, the absolute championship favorite of this tournament! Naoto Akai-senshu is about to climb the final stair to S-Class!

"With Naoto-senshu leading a lineup of charming, splendid Garumon all around, attention is on whose performance we'll get to see today!"

Uwaaah… The commentary was already proceeding off the absolute premise that I was definitely going to win!

"Naoto-senshu, then please send them out one at a time."

"… Yeah… well, then… Go, Patty."

"Yes～!"

"Oho, and the one stepping out right from the start is Patty! She's the daughter of that Ogre Goddess Pamela, the Bull Demon King Patty!

"Thanks to her performances, an Earth tale called Journey to the West has been getting the spotlight, but it's an awfully strange story, isn't it. A bit incomprehensible, in a way.

"What's with this person called Genjō?"

"It seems the Garumon who wrote that book misinterpreted a great deal of the contents… apparently the real Journey to the West is rather different.

"That's likely why Journey to the West has been a minor work in this world. We can hope for the appearance of a new author."

"If Naoto-senshu can also handle the writing, please do, by all means! Maybe weaving in Patty-san's own firsthand accounts!"

That was impossible!

… Well, if there really was no one else who could write it, maybe it'd be fine for me to talk through the outline and have Patty write it down.

"Adorable yet, in fact, said by some to be the strongest among Naoto-senshu's Garumon, Patty. Her chances to step into this tournament have been few, but she's drawing a lot of attention.

"Once again, she takes the great stage of this final!"

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it!"

"Now then, Naoto-senshu, your next, please."

"Then… Go, Luna."

"Yes."

Dowaaaaaah!

"And now, the rapidly rising idol of this tournament, the angel Luna… that is, Lucifera Luna, makes her entrance!

"On top of her undeniable ability, her splendid singing voice and beauty have been carrying her up the stardom ladder in no time at all.

"Her divine art Messiah is widely said to perhaps be the strongest skill in this whole tournament!"

"Indeed! In this tournament, the performances of Colette and this Luna have been truly remarkable!"

"The Garumon who represents Naoto Akai-senshu may be Kanan Kazami, but personally, I find myself rooting for this Luna. After all, she's a junior at my agency!"

Waaaah…

A wave of cheering erupted.

Luna's popularity had gotten really crazy…

"Now then, your third, please!"

"Then. Go, Suzanne."

"Yes."

"Oho! It's Suzanne! Beautiful and strong. Michaela Suzanne, whose mother is said to be that strongest goddess Mercheada herself, takes the stage!

"She, who many figured was being conserved for the S-Class deciding match, comes out onto this great stage of the final!"

"It really does look as if she's been winning without ever needing to put forth almost any of her real strength…

"Whether even a glimpse of her true ability will show in this final match is something to watch, isn't it."

"Oh my, this is luxurious! It's a lineup that wouldn't look out of place even at S-Class; he's lined up three Ultimate-Job-tier Garumon right when it counts!"

"For Dalido-senshu and Seika Shikina, we'd really love it if they could push hard enough to make us see the 2nd party."

"Indeed!"

They were talking like I was guaranteed to sweep all six in a row!

… No, well, that was exactly my plan. But having my own intentions affirmed this hard somehow made me feel embarrassed instead.

"Well then, this is the finale. Let's go big."

"Yes～!"

"Yes!"

"Yes."

And so, the match started.

There was one Ultimate-Job among them, and the lineup didn't look bad. Dalido's camp, apparently, was made up entirely of idols affiliated with Lightning.

"Divine Art - Messiah!"

First, Luna deployed her divine art.

"Ogrification, Barrier Crush!"

Patty entered Ogrification and broke the shield.

"Divine Art - Testament!"

Then Suzanne struck swiftly.

… Farewell.

"Aah, that was fast, wasn't it…"

"Dalido-senshu, as a regular A-Class, certainly isn't a weak player either, you know."

"Now then, has the stage warmed up!?"

There, Seika made her entrance.

Dancing Princesses plus a Songstress; that was the style. A pretty interesting lineup, in fact.

"Now, here we go, Seika Shikina's recital! First Skill, Divine Art - Hero's Triumph!"

Oooh!? What, their classes shot up all at once!

This was amazing. I wanted to use it myself soon.

"Now, dance, both of you!"

"Divine Art - Wild Sword Dance!"

"Divine Art - Wild Sword Dance!"

The two whirled into dance. A four-hit combo, raining attacks while their attack power climbed by 30% with each strike; a slightly nasty offensive move!

"Kyaaa!"

"Kuh."

"Augh!"

Their aim seemed to be inaccurate, though.

Each defended properly, but all three took roughly 50 damage in total.

Whoa, that was strong.

"That looks troublesome. From here on, I'll be going at you in earnest.

"Divine Art - Michaela!"

"Leave it to Patty～ Super Ogre God Charge… Demon Art - Plantain Fan!"

Zudadadadada!

"Divine Art - Endless Waltz!"

"Divine Art - Endless Waltz!"

"Divine Art - Ripple Nocturne!"

After 49 attacks rained down 16 times each, Endless Waltz had somehow evaded as many as 8 attacks.

Eh? Even though they had guaranteed-hit applied!? … So this was the Complete Evasion that dodges even guaranteed-hit! … First time I'd seen it.

If you didn't have a means of attacking at least 8 times, that would've been game over…

However, in the face of an 8-hit attack switched to Dark element, the two of them got their HP shaved down, zun-zun.

HP halved…

Hm, less damage than I'd thought.

Messiah plus Dark element should be 4x, right? At 40 per hit times 8, that was 320 damage. They'd cut it to about 1/4.

What was going on. Some kind of trait, maybe?

Well, whatever.

And against Seika, it looked like 1/10 damage. About 1/3 shaved off.

"Divine Art - Balmung!"

"…!"

About 1/8 damage to Seika. Hmm, roughly 1/10 after all.

"Ugh… s-strong, aren't you…?"

That was my line. She was fighting harder than I'd expected.

"Heeh… so even guaranteed-hit gets dodged.

"Nice. Looks like it'll be worth the effort to land my hits.

"Divine Art - Testament!"

A merciless strike, as if to say dodge it if you can.

"…!"

"…!"

Dogoon!

"Oh? What about Endless Waltz?"

I guessed it was just too powerful an evasion skill, so it had a restriction against being used every turn after all…

Or perhaps Suzanne, this time, hadn't simply slammed Testament's beam straight down but had instead surrounded the area first and released it with directional focus to converge on the center, so that even Complete Evasion couldn't dodge it.

For Morris and Ilva, it was over with that. No Endure either.

About 1/4 damage to Seika.

"Ku, uu…"

Seika hung her head.

"You were really strong～. I'm really looking forward to Seika joining our side～"

"Yes, if Seika-san comes to us, that'll be reassuring."

Patty and Luna called out to that Seika.

"… I'm frustrated. Losing… it's truly, truly frustrating.

"… If you ever let me, of all people, lose a second time… I won't forgive you."

So saying, Seika smiled.

… Brightly.

"Divine Art - Balmung!"

"Demon Art - Plantain Fan!"

Dokkaaan!

"Decided! It's decided! The A-Class Tournament Final, the winner is Naoto Akai-senshu!

"The champion is… decided to be Naoto Akai-senshu!"

Waaaaaaaah…!

And so, it was decided. Even though the span should have been short, this A-Class Tournament, which had felt strangely long, finally drew its curtain.

The result was… victory!

To win in a tournament this big…

I thought it was an enormous honor. Right now, I was just purely happy.