“Team sumo is about to take place. Similarly to grand sumo, competitors must synchronize their breathing before the start of the bout.”
In amateur sumo, the bout normally starts when the referee shouts “Hakkeyoi!” while in grand sumo, wrestlers must synchronize their breathing for the bout to begin. Apparently the bouts in this team competition were going to start in accordance with the ruleset of the latter.
Since Dark Sumo and Aryakan Sumo—two different organizations—were going against each other, the gray referee was created to ensure impartiality. But overall, it was still basically grand sumo.
Adela climbed the dohyō and opened her white fan. Despite her status as a ditzy maid, she was an official yobidashi of the Floortje Stable, so there shouldn’t be any problems with her doing this.
“On the east, Richie Aryaka, Richie Aryaka... On the west, Aikio, Aikio...”
In one motion, the prince took off his evening dress, revealing his slim and muscular body with his favorite mawashi around his loins. Then again, just like me, he was a major character in an otome game, so he couldn’t really gain much muscle or weight. This applied to Lord Clifton and General Maurilio too, as they were potential love interests in the game. Yustin, on the other hand, was a background character, so he could get as obese as he wanted to. It felt quite unfair.
Phalaris, being a dragon, apparently couldn’t gain weight for a different reason. As he was twenty-five meters in height in his dragon form, no amount of human-made chanko seemed to be able to make a difference. If we did make enough to fatten him up, the Floortje Stable would be in deep financial trouble.
“I should be going. I’ll win if I can.”
“Do your best, Your Highness.”
The prince nodded with a smile. Ah, how dignified! He had grown into a splendid young man. Dosukoi dosukoi!
Prince Richie and Aikio entered the ring. Since this was team sumo, it didn’t look like there would be any sponsor banners. I missed them just a little.
“Face each other.”
The gray referee didn’t carry a war fan, so instead he used knife hand gestures to perform his duties. It occurred to me that Dark Sumo had proper referees too. Did the sumo Valhalla assist demons and monsters like they assisted us humans? And I hoped they didn’t call the dark referee something like “the 100,058-year-old Demon Kakka.”
The prince’s and Aikio’s breathing synchronized. The two rikishi got up at the same time before loudly crashing into each other. It is said the head-on collision of two enormous rikishi is equivalent to the force of a small truck crashing into something. The prince smoothly deflected that force and grabbed the right side of his opponent’s mawashi. All right!
“You’re a pretty good wrestler for royalty.” A smug grin appeared on Aikio’s face.
The prince let go of Aikio’s mawashi and made a retreat. To my surprise, the troll’s body glowed red and spewed flames. The heat of it was startling.
“Kgh!” winced the prince.
“Mwah hah hah! This skill put me on a massive win streak. Now come!” shouted Aikio, flame roaring across his body.
“Harite Catapult!”
Prince Richie’s right hand broke the sound barrier, sending a shock wave at his opponent. However, said shock wave fizzled out upon reaching Aikio. Oh no! And his other ranged move, the Tornado Beltless Arm Throw, wasn’t very strong either when you couldn’t grapple with your target. The prince ended up being chased towards the edge of the ring.
“Watch out, Your Highness! You’re on the black dohyō!”
The prince looked down, startled.
“Nothing you can do about it!” spoke Aikio with a ferocious smile on his face as he charged at the prince, flames still coating his body.
Prince Richie clenched his teeth and prepared to try and stop his opponent.
“Don’t even bother! Living things instinctively fear fire! Think you can stop me with that nervous stance of yours?!”
Crash! As Aikio, empowered by the black dohyō underfoot to run even faster, rammed directly into the prince, the latter tumbled off the ring.
“Winner, Aikio.”
The referee raised his hand towards the Dark Sumo part of the ring.
“Your Highness!” Adela and I both shouted.
As we ran up to him, we noticed him holding his burnt upper arm.
“I lost. Aikio was a strong opponent. But it’s still frustrating to lose,” spoke the prince.
“Leave it to me. I promise to avenge you,” I replied.
“That flame of his makes facing him difficult. It’s not just the heat but the pain it brings. There’s that black dohyō too. It drains you of your strength.”
“Thank you, Your Highness. I’ll make sure your defeat wasn’t in vain.”
“Good luck, Floortje.”
Adela took an ointment out of her apron pocket and applied it to the prince’s arm. This girl sure had all sorts of things in her pockets.
At any rate, I had to admit I hadn’t been taking Dark Sumo very seriously. I had thought I’d be able to overpower these monsters using raw strength, but their individual traits made that difficult.
“It is time for the second bout,” announced the referee.
Adela hurried to climb the dohyō and spread her white fan.
“On the east, Floortje, Floortje... On the west, Givun, Givun...”
“Be careful, Floortje. He may be small, but you should stick with ranged attacks for this one.”
“I understand, Your Highness.”
It was my turn to enter the ring. I transported myself to the usual dressing room to put a mawashi on over my dress. Let’s do this!
I went up the yin-yang-shaped dohyō. Its form was a truly strange sight to behold. The border between white and black ran between the two starting lines in the ground, and both Givun and I had a tail of the opposing side of the dohyō behind us. I would have to mind my positioning in order to win. But standing around in one’s own territory and waiting for the opponent went against the whole idea of sumo. And those dots of the opposite color within one’s territory were like small dohyō of their own. It added tactical depth to the bout.
My opponent Givun had a red back and blue limbs. There was no mistaking the fact that he was a poisonous frog. I wondered how strong that poison was. The poison of the Japanese toad, for example, wasn’t very strong. As far as I remembered, it only made you a little numb.
“Ribbit, ribbit!”
Givun expanded his throat and vocalized. For a moment I even thought of him as colorful and pretty.
“Face each other.”
Givun and I assumed menacing stances. Was it a good idea to go for a thrust at the start? My dress gave me an advantage over men against such an opponent, as I was much less exposed to poison. Were Prince Richie in my place, he would definitely get poisoned.
My opponent and I touched the ground with our hands at the same time and charged at each other. I was about to go for a thrust before sensing danger and dodging to the side. A long tongue shot out from Givun’s mouth, stabbing at the place where I had stood a moment ago, then returning to its owner. The mucus that dripped from said tongue onto the ring emitted white smoke and an awful stench. Whoa!
“Heh heh! What’s the matter, ribbit? Are you just going to run, yokozuna Floortje, ribbit?”
What a powerful adversary!
It was as though he’d shot out a poisonous harite from his mouth. I was in a pinch. Heh heh heh. I felt the corners of my mouth rise in a smile. Now we’re talking. I wouldn’t have this any other way.
“Harite Catapult!”
Boom! My hand broke the sound barrier and launched a palm-shaped shock wave at Givun. Memetaa! As Givun curled up, the shock wave bounced off his back.
“Heh heh heh! My back deflects ranged attacks and magic alike! You can’t beat me, ribbit!”
As my opponent prematurely enjoyed his triumph, I shuffled my feet along the ground, crashing into him and grabbing the front of his mawashi.
“What? You’re actually grappling with me, ribbit?!”
“You can’t do sumo any other way, Givun!”
“Heh heh heh!”
After a joyful laugh, Givun thrust out his tongue at my face with incredible speed once more. I lowered my stance to dodge this and continued to push.
“Ribbit! Should you really be pushing? We’re in my territory now, ribbit!”
“You think I would do sumo if I were scared of some black dohyō?!”
“Ribbit!”
As I held Givun in a deep underarm grip, he grabbed my mawashi in an overarm grip in return. I used my head to block Givun’s mouth and pushed on. If he couldn’t point his mouth at me, he couldn’t shoot out that poisonous tongue harite of his either!
“Nice one, Floortje!” shouted the prince.
“Show him, milady!”
I pushed. I pushed. I pushed.
“Heh heh heh...” laughed Givun, enjoying himself.
Ngh! The black dohyō was sucking my strength away. On top of that, my arms felt numb from the poison coating Givun’s skin. As he forcefully grabbed my mawashi in a right-handed outside grip, we became locked up.
“You’re strong, ribbit! Your sumo is straight and honest, ribbit! But you’re getting weaker and weaker from my poison, ribbit!”
“My sumo wouldn’t lose to poison!”
Thunk! I hallucinated the sight of gears with “Sumo” written on them in large letters. As they gradually began to turn, I felt the power of sumo coursing through me, circulating through my veins. All right! The strength bestowed by my spirit of sumo was greater than the strength being drained by the black dohyō.
“N-No way! Wh-Where did you get such strength, ribbit?!”
“This is...my...sumo power!!!”
Still locked in a right-handed outside grip, I pulled on Givun’s left arm as it was gripping my belt, before twisting it as his body was lifted upwards.
“Pulling Body Death Sl—”
As I was about to perform a skill with a new magical effect, I hastily stopped once I realized what said effect would be. No matter how good “Pulling Body Death Slam” is as a skill name, sumo shouldn’t have lethal skills.
“Wh-What...?”
Givun appeared to have sensed the potential of that technique too, as he was visibly stricken with fear. I went for a beltless arm throw instead, forcing my opponent onto the ground. Smash! He bounced off the ground twice after rolling off the dohyō.
“Winner, Floortje.” The gray referee raised his hand my way.
Phew. What a formidable opponent that was.