As Wataru was not of this world, naturally he didn’t have money that he could use in this world!
“Let’s have Résistance pay, for now!!”
“What!?” Résistance couldn’t help but snap at the sudden suggestion!
“I’m sorry, Résistance! You’re the oldest! I swear I’ll pay you back!” Wataru fell to his knees in tears and groveled shamelessly! The impact of his forehead against the floor cracked the store’s foundation, but we won’t worry about that now!
“Ugh... All right, I give up...” she relented!
Wataru was actually still seventeen, the same age as Aria! Résistance, at twenty-four, was by far the oldest of the group!
The party headed to the register, and Résistance reluctantly paid for Aria’s Payblade!
“Thank you, Résistance!” Aria hugged the newly purchased Payblade box!
“Hey, Wataru. Once you get some money from taking down the Demon Lord, you have to pay me back for this.”
“Oh, yeah! If I remember!!”
If and only if Wataru remembered would he pay her back!! Just as the trio were about to exit the store, a strange voice called for them from behind!
“Stop right there!!”
“Th-That voice...!” Sensing a powerful presence, Aria cautiously turned around!
There was a young boy standing there! He seemed to be about eleven years old, and his brown hair peeked out from under the red baseball cap perched on his head! He was wearing an oversized, neon yellow hoodie, but his most noticeable characteristics were the sharp front teeth poking out of his mouth! This kid looked just like the protagonist of a certain toy-battling anime from around a decade ago!!
“You know this kid, Aria?” Wataru asked!
“I do! He’s Storm! He’s in the fifth grade at Sky Elementary School. He’s the second best Payblader in this city, after me!”
The buck-toothed boy, Storm, frowned at this! “Heh, in your dreams! I got you beat by a mile, Aria!”
“Hmph! As if! As of today, we’re tied at 200 wins each, and 100 draws! Our powers are completely even! And because I’m older, I break the tie! I win!”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Résistance coldly interjected!
“Looks like you snatched up a new Payblade, Aria! Why don’t you battle me with that model right now, and we’ll see who’s the real top Payblader of the Sky Kingdom, once and for all!?”
“Bring it on! There’s not a chance in hell that an eleven-year-old snot-nosed little bitch will beat me!” That’s the main heroine of our series, Dear Readers! “You may have earned the title of ‘The Sky Kingdom Prodigy,’ but I’ve earned the title of ‘That One Girl You Shouldn’t Go Near!’ Let’s decide who rules this city!”
“Why are you proud of having that title!?!?!?” Wataru shouted! It was true, though; no grade schooler should have been hanging out with Aria!
“Okie dokie, let’s battle! Payblade Arena, initiate!!!” Storm thrust his right fist up towards the ceiling!
Bo-wowowowowowow...!!!
H-How could this be!? The floor between Aria and Storm began to vibrate before sliding open to reveal a 3 meter by 3 meter area! From that area, a giant blue plastic object emerged! It looked like a shallow bowl, large enough to fit a grown adult!
“What is this???”
“It’s a Payblade Arena, Wataru! We spin our Payblades in here and do battle!” Aria explained!
With a click! the blue Arena completed its emergence! Aria was ready for battle!!
“But how does this Arena come out of the store’s floor like that!?!?!?” Wataru asked with natural curiosity!
“How...? This is a Toys ‘B’ We! Of course they have an Arena ready to come up when you yell for it!” Storm declared! That doesn’t actually explain anything, but you should be used to that by now, Dear Readers!
“That’s right, Wataru,” Résistance joined in. “You can call for a Payblade Arena to appear in any Toys ‘B’ We franchise location. Any Payblader knows that.”
“Résistance! You’re... one of them!?!?” Wataru asked!
“I dabble in it.”
“Let’s do this, Storm!” Aria shouted adamantly, and tore open the box for her new Justice Blade Mk-II (Toys ‘B’ We Exclusive Edition)! From it, she produced a blue Payblade with an eye-catching gold trim and a distinctive Goblob crest! “What are you going to use, Storm?”
“I brought this!” The boy pulled a Payblade out of his pants pocket! It had a white body, pointy thorn-like protrusions, and a tiger symbol in the center!!
“I see. A Deadly White Tiger V... A custom model with extremely high attack power, designed to quickly end the battle, one way or the other!”
“Good eye! Your Justice Blade Mk-II’s a defensive model, but my Deadly White Tiger V can break through it!”
Wataru tilted his head curiously. “Résistance, what the hell are they talking about?”
“In short, Aria’s Payblade specializes in defense, while that kid, Storm’s, Payblade specializes in attack.”
“Huh. There’s a little more to this than I thought!”
Each and every Payblade was different! Each model was made with a tendency towards either attack or defense, for example, or a balance right down the middle!!
“You ready, Aria?” Storm grinned, his buck-teeth shimmering in the light!
“Yeah, Storm! Let’s do this!”
A visible tension began to grow between the two standing at the opposite ends of the Arena! It was the calm before the storm, no pun intended! Wataru and Résistance watched without a word! After a few moments of silence, Aria and Storm both raised their Payblades to strike a special pose! They looked like baseball pitchers winding up for a fastball!
With their arms raised, they shouted in unison: “Three! Two! One! Let it rain!!!”
Brrrsshhhhh!!!
Just as they finished their chant, Aria and Storm threw their Payblades as hard as they could into the Arena! The pointed bottoms of the Payblades struck the smooth, shallow bowl of the Arena’s floor, and the Payblades began spinning at incredible speed around the battleground! They were two mini-typhoons ready to collide!! Like two fighters sizing one another up for combat, Deadly White Tiger V and Justice Blade Mk-II circled clockwise around the Arena!! The Payblades spiraled closer and closer, until eventually they clashed in the dead center of the stadium!!!
Grararakkkkk!!!
A metallic clashing rang through the store as the Payblades bounced off each other with a burst of sparks!!
Wataru was both shocked and excited! “H-Hey! What’s the age range on those things!? That’s a fire hazard!!”
“Exciting, isn’t it?” agreed Résistance. “Payblades are made with plastic cores and metal blades. When they collide, the blades grind against each other, creating that signature spark-shower.”
There were so many sparks, in fact, that they would have been immediately banned in Japan! This kind of crazy toy was only available in a fantasy world where people were much less concerned with trivialities like safety!!
Grarararararar!!!
Aria’s and Storm’s Payblades continued grinding against one another!
“Not bad, Aria!”
“Not too bad yourself, Storm!”
The two Paybladers watched the clashing tops with their fists clenched!
“What are they doing???” Wataru asked!
“Let me explain,” Résistance answered with a serious expression! “Payblades are treated with a special magic spell on their way out of the factory.”
“M-Magic!?” Wataru couldn’t contain his amazement!
Résistance confirmed! “That’s right. The spell allows the Payblade to spin faster in proportion to its user’s mental energy.”
“That’s incredible!!”
He was right; it was incredible, and shocking to boot! Aren’t you glad you stuck around for this special episode, Dear Readers!? All Payblades were enchanted with a spell that allows them to spin faster the more their users concentrated on the battle! They were in a fantasy world, after all! Any kind of nonsensical technology could be explained away with magic!
“That’s why they’re both focusing their mental energies into their Payblades like that to make them spin faster.”
H-How surprising! Payblading was not mere child’s play, but a high-level sport that involved a keenness of mind and a deep reserve of mental fortitude!!
“Payblade... It’s so deep...!”
At this moment, Aria turned her gaze to Storm, and cracked a taunting grin! “By the way, Storm...”
“What!?”
“I heard that you got a big fat zero on your test the other day...”
The color drained from Storm’s face! “H-How did you...!?”
“Ohohohohoho, I have my sources!”
Storm’s Deadly White Tiger V immediately began to slow down! Aria’s Justice Blade Mk-II, still spinning at full speed, began pushing it back!
“Wh-What’s going on??? What was all that!?”
“Think, Wataru. Payblades spin faster the more their users concentrate. That goes both ways.”
“You mean... Storm’s Payblade slowed down because his mental state weakened!?!?”
“That’s right! That’s why Aria executed that emotional assault!”
Apparently, attacking your opponent’s mental stability was a crucial strategy during Payblade battles, where the users’ concentration spelled the outcome of each battle! This was no ordinary children’s toy!
“And didn’t your teacher scold you for forgetting to do your homework, Storm?”
“Grr...!”
“And for goofing around by swinging a broom around during clean-up.”
“G-Grr...!”
Aria’s words flew into Storm’s heart like daggers! His Payblade rapidly lost its momentum with every cutting remark!!
“How does Aria know all that, anyway???” Wataru asked!