Ove rested his weapon upon his shoulder, holding it in one hand. I could tell he was prepared to swing it down on me without hesitation.
He touched the line below him with his free hand. Our breathing synchronized. And as I charged at him and he swung his longsword down with one hand...
“Hakkeyoi!” shouted the gyōji, signaling the start of the bout while raising his war fan.
SLAP!
“Ngh!”
Ove groaned as I rushed him and struck his sword-wielding wrist from below with a harite. One might assume the harite of a sumo wrestler would be slow due to their large build, but it’s actually much faster than a jab in boxing. As my opponent lost his balance above the waist, I grabbed his belt with a deep underarm grip. He hurried to swing his sword, but swords aren’t much good so up close and personal.
“D-Damn it, let me go!!!”
“Still in, still in, still in...” the referee chanted.
While Ove struggled to break free, I pulled on his belt and pushed him farther and farther along. He panicked when he saw that the edge of the ring was approaching. But a panicking swordsman who doesn’t know how to stop a yorikiri—the name of the move I was executing—is as good as prey for a sumo wrestler. I timed his struggling with a move of my own: sukui nage, a beltless arm throw.
“Gaaaaah!!!” Ove rolled over one of the set-back bales and fell out of the ring.
“The winner is decided,” announced the referee, raising his fan towards me.
In an instant, both the referee and the ring disappeared.
“I win.”
“What, just because you won some game— W-Wait, what?!” It appeared Ove could not get himself back to his feet.
“Sumo is a divine ritual. Don’t expect to get another chance right away. You’ll have to wait until the next basho.”
“And just what is a ‘basho’ supposed to be?! What is this high-level divine martial art?!”
“Sumo.”
“‘Sumo’... I...I’ve never heard of this ceremonial divine art...” The defeated knight slumped his shoulders in dejection.
Heh, weapons won’t help you in the ring against an unarmed sumo wrestler.
✦ ✦ ✦
I left Ove behind and made my way into the dungeon. My sumo senses led me to the deepest cell.
“Wh-Who’s there? H-Have you come to kill me...?”
A faint voice came from the darkness. Inside the cell stood a boy with cat ears, peering at me with teary eyes and paralyzed with fear.
...
......
Is...that...
...my favorite character from my past life, Second Prince Richie?!
Despite his title, he wasn’t available as a love interest in the game, and his role amounted to sticking to the first prince’s back and speaking timidly with the protagonist every now and then. But his splendid looks and his enthralling shotaness made him immensely popular with ladies who were into that sort of thing, and there was even an urban legend that they brought down the developer’s servers with their emails asking for a Richie route because “who needs Prince Jonas anyway?” That’s just how popular Richie was.
I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now, but I was very much obsessed with him myself: I had shed tears of blood and agonized in front of my console over the fact he wasn’t available to be romanced.