Time had passed and it had grown dark. Ashley led us to the Fire God idol, and we gathered with everyone there. The rest of the villagers were already there, and the square around the idol was really hopping.
“Everyone! It’s time for the festivaaaal!” shouted Moichi, his loud voice kicking off the festivities.
“Yeaaaahh!” the whole village cried in unison.
After Moichi signaled the start, people scattered all over the village like scurrying little spiders. It was an odd way to start things off, but I didn’t dislike it. We’d decided that the four of us would stick together, so we slowly walked through the festival site.
Lamps, lit up with fire and lightning magic, were placed every ten, fifteen feet or so. They illuminated the village, splashing it with vivid color. It was an extraordinary sight, as if the village itself had become some kind of theme park. When I looked to my side, I saw that Filia—who was walking next to me—looked pretty hyped.
“You’re feeling pretty festive yourself, huh, Filia?”
“Yes! I’ll be able to make so many strange noises without worrying about people looking at me.”
“I-I see.” I flinched a bit at Filia’s response. Did Filia have a secret, deep darkness within? Was she…was she under a lot of stress?
“Err. If you’re worried about stuff, I don’t mind listening.”
“No, I was just joking!” she snapped.
What? What kinda joke was that? “Stop makin’ jokes that are hard to understand.”
“I thought you were being serious too,” said Ashley.
“What? You were fibbing?!” shouted Loli Loli. “Had me tooootally fooled!”
Filia seemed shocked at that. Ashley just shook her head. “Big Sis tends to keep a lot of things to herself. Yuri, make sure you support Sis properly!”
“Of course.”
“Okay then, that’s good. Ooooh, over there!” Ashley pointed toward a corner of the village. There was a particularly large crowd of people gathered there.
“What’s going on over there?”
“That’s where people show off special performances! And anyone can jump in and do it. You don’t have to sign up or anything.”
“Oh! Performance!” Loli Loli was practically jumping up and down. “I wanna see! I wanna go!”
We headed over, Ashley and Loli Loli pulling us along. Just as Ashley had said, there were all sorts of people giving performances. There were tons of really unique skills on display, like someone sending lightning magic through their body to make their body glow, or someone using earth magic to make a giant sphere of mud. They were really interesting!
“Everyone’s so amazing,” said Filia quietly.
Next to Filia, a girl was trembling with excitement—Ashley. “Oh, no, after seeing that, I just can’t hold it in anymore…sorry, you guys, but I’m jumping in!”
With that, Ashley ran at incredible speed toward the center of the crowd. It seemed like she was a festival girl through and through; it was in her veins.
“Alllll right!” Ashley announced. “I’m gonna do something too!” As she did, she conjured a gigantic fire dragon with her fire magic. Then she hopped onto the dragon and flew up into the sky.
“Whoa!”
“What was that?!”
“’Eyyyy, that’s Ashley! Atta girl!”
As the crowd cheered, the fire dragon Ashley controlled began to soar and weave with even more intensity. Ashley, riding on the dragon’s head, was clearly having fun as she looked down at us. She shone with brightness and cheer.
“You’re so incredibly brave, Ashley,” called Filia. “I can’t even think of—Yuri?”
“I can’t lose!”
“Huh?”
After seeing something that amazing, I couldn’t just sit there and be quiet! I had to jump in too—but I didn’t know how to perform. What could I do? I had to think of something! Then inspiration struck like a punch. I borrowed a thick black marker from one of the people in the crowd, released my muscles, and drew a face on my belly.
Yeah. Yeah, this rocked. “Voila.”
“Y-Yuri?! What—why—huh?!”
“It’s a ‘belly dance,’” I explained. “By drawing a face on my belly and making it dance, I’m essentially displaying my skills to the crowd. I thought this would be a good way for me to show off my muscles!”
I moved my abdominal muscles freely, making the face on my belly look like it was changing expressions. No one should make light of the humble belly dance. Besides, my belly dancing was clearly different from your run-of-the-mill normie belly dance, all thanks to my well-trained muscles. My fine, supple muscles could move freely, and thereby be used to create a variety of expressions.
“Pfft! Tee hee hee! Pfffhssss! St-stop, enough!”
“Oh, that’s amazing, Yuri!”
In an instant, Filia was crouching down, clutching her stomach, while Loli Loli looked like she was keenly interested in what I was doing. I knew I’d made the right choice. This trick would be a great way to get people interested in muscles! Especially if they looked at it long enough. My plan to propagate the word of muscle was sure to proceed without a hitch. On top of that, it was fun. This plan killed two birds with one stone.
Such an ingenious strategy was only natural for me, an intellectual muscle man. Having gained confidence from their reactions, I followed Ashley’s example and jumped into the middle of the circle of people. It was time to get started. With this, there was no way I could lose to Ashley!
“What is that? What’s going on?”
“What in the world is he going to do?”
The villagers made a lot of bewildered sounds. All right, well—they were confused now, but I had their attention. They couldn’t take their eyes off of my inflated, bulging muscles. So, while they were still looking at me, I resumed belly dancing. Rectus abdominis, oblique abdominal, transverse abdominis—I moved my abs in intricate patterns in order to convey the sublime goodness of muscle.
“Nice, nice! More!”
“This is gettin’ kinda exciting! What’s going on?”
I continued belly dancing, now with serious effort. But Ashley’s dragon seemed to be attracting more looks because of its flashy appearance. No way could I let myself be defeated like this!
“In that case…how about this?” I wiggled around, twisting my body as I danced. I used the air itself as a foothold so that I could freely use the space in the wide-open sky above and started jumping around. I moved so fast that a countless number of afterimages of myself flew through the air as well, right in front of the audience. This allowed me to be seen even from afar, and my movements looked even flashier! More importantly, the increase in number was a big advantage.
“Wha?! Yuri, what are you doing?” shouted Ashley from atop the dragon’s head.
I called back to her as I moved my legs so fast that they were invisible in order to stay in the air. “I’m not gonna lose to you, Ashley!”
“No! It’s not about losing or winning, I’m asking you what you’re doing! It’s super scary!”
Scary? Ha! “Aww, you scared, Ashley? In that case, I’ll take the win!”
“My words aren’t getting through—but if it’s a showdown you want, you got it!” shouted Ashley, and the dragon she was riding made a beautiful loop in the air.
The spectators below erupted into loud cheers. Atta girl, Ashley. She was definitely a worthy opponent.
“Oho! So, little girl, you’re challenging me? That’s the spirit. Bring it!”
“How can you try and show off when you’re looking like that? Well, you’ve got guts, I’ll give you that!”
I activated Super Yuri Mode and increased the number of afterimages even further. My movements left everyone who saw them dumbstruck, amazed, and the people down on the ground responded with thunderous applause. The crowd was incredibly excited as they watched us. A little further away from the rest of the crowd, I saw Filia and Loli Loli watching us too.
“You two are great!”
“Keep it up!”
Cheers of encouragement came from all over. All right, this was getting exciting. This would definitely spread the good word of muscle!