Chapter 40 - Tournument Start (2)

"Is that the Pink Star Siren?"

"She can't be late, right?"

"Who knows? I wonder if she and James will fight in the arena…"

A few vestals were gossiping about the Siren as they lined up. Ryuu, who had overheard their conversation as he walked by, was looking at her with his eyebrows raised and his lips forming an 'o' shape.

Although there had been some little differences in his life so far, he had seen the same events and the same characters as the Bakugan cartoon he had watched. Of course, he had also met different people and brawlers.

But when they passed through a place like this, it was the first time he saw a 'famous' brawler he had never even heard of.

Compared to his surprise, his comrades in vestal did not seem to care much. They probably didn't even realize what he was looking at, as he was some distance away. Marucho couldn't make sense of his dumbfounded, gaping mouth. He asked with a confused expression:

"What's wrong Ryuu?"

Ryuu shook his head from side to side.

"Nothing."

After brushing it off, he pointed to the arena.

"Look at this place. Isn't it too tight?"

Ryuu asked in mild surprise, while Shun calmly pointed to a place where they could see better and spoke in a low voice:

"Yes, it looks that way. Let's go up there and examine it."

Everyone nodded in agreement and they started heading in the direction Shun pointed. Ryuu was very curious about how they would get to the building he pointed to.

He soon got his answer. They went straight into the building and asked for permission to go to the roof and... well... they got it. He had thought that they would have a problem with the overly tight security, or that they would be sternly refused.

But the vestal who met them was impressed by their "intense passion" for looking around and gave them permission. How kind of him.

Ryuu sighed.

'Of course. What did I expect?'

For some reason, disappointment bubbled up inside him. But without saying much, he left with them. Naturally, they took the elevator to the top floor and then the stairs to the penthouse.

The lawn was a beautiful sight. From above, most everything outside the arena, including the vestals, looked tiny.

Ace and Shun handed out the binoculars they had taken and everyone quickly began to look around. Ryuu was no different, though his mind was elsewhere.

He felt a restlessness he couldn't make sense of. Something was wrong here, in this city. Maybe it was just a feeling. But what he heard and saw only increased that feeling.

As absurd thoughts occupied his mind, Dan's voice cut through his thoughts like a knife.

"Man, these are tighter than Shun's pants."

Dan's joking comment made him smile, but unlike him, no one else seemed to care. Looking in the direction he was looking, he replied:

"You're right, it's way too crowded."

He found this situation strange. Differences were natural. But the presence of so much security made him uneasy. Not to mention the regular checks for entry. 

Meanwhile, Ace spoke in a normal voice:

"Looks like they're playing a match before the tournament."

Dan looked around quickly with excitement and worry that he might miss it:

"Where? Where?"

Ryuu was looking directly into the arena. Meanwhile, the others were looking there as well, and finally Dan noticed and said, "Huh? I see it."

As the binoculars turned in that direction, there was an unimpressive match. It was clearly two inexperienced brawlers battling each other fiercely.

The insect known as the Subterra Fly Beetle and an unnamed Haos bakugan, similar to a phoenix, were battling it out.

Considering the Fly Beetle was clinging to him like a leech, the fight wasn't going so well.

But at that moment, Ryuu realized something important, almost at the same time as Dan.

The energy created by the fight was being drawn towards the white plate at the top of the arena with the golden ring, decorated with many small white circles. The energy was being transported through the golden roof that stretched out on all four sides, wrapping around the glass dome like the limbs of the golden ring, and was moving towards that point.

As it moved forward, momentarily every color could be seen to glow. Immediately afterwards, it was clear that it was being directed towards this emerald green crystal above.

Realizing the same thing, Dan quickly pointed in that direction and asked:

"Hey! Did you see that?"

Shun spoke confidently, confirming his guess:

"Just as I predicted. The arena and the dimension controller are synchronized."

Ryuu turned towards Shun while nodding his head in agreement. He hadn't noticed, but Shun was now wearing a long green jacket. He looked much more 'modern' now.

"Then we can destroy it by overloading it."

Ace interjected:

"As long as we can get in."

Ryuu agreed with him. But he couldn't hide his discomfort at his direct entry. Meanwhile, Marucho spoke up:

"Guys, I think we should think about this after Mira comes back. After all-"

Just then, the communicator in Dan's pocket rang. Dan immediately opened it and saw Mira hiding.

However, time passed. Mira saw and fought against her father's first invention, the cybernetic bakugan Ventus Alter, a big step towards her father's greatest invention. The result? She won, of course.

(A/N: There are no canon extras in this paragraph, so I've kept it short. If you want to, or if you haven't seen it but are reading this, check out Episode 7 of the New Vestoria season.)

With the passage of time, the tournament time was getting closer and closer. James, Siren and many other brawlers went to the waiting room early to avoid being late.

James was both satisfied and disappointed that he didn't see anyone from the Resistance while he was waiting before he went to the waiting room.

The Resistance, meanwhile, were really in a great deal of trouble. It was a problem that even Ryuu hadn't expected.

They couldn't enter the tournament!

Even though the assignment was not much different from the one in the canon, they were comically left in the lurch when they arrived at security.

Dan, Marucho and Shun naturally had nothing to identify them. No doubt the Baron could have prepared an identity that would have been manageable. But it would have taken time, and besides, they had not expected to encounter such a high level of security, so they were caught unawares.

As a result, the Baron and Marucho tried to persuade them for the umpteenth time that Ryuu had stopped counting, but the security guard flatly refused them:

"I'm sorry. No matter what, you cannot enter without identification."

They had to think of a way around this. Marucho and Baron were buying time for the trio while trying to talk them through it.

Mira was surprised, not expecting anything like this, but then she smiled a little nervously. She wasn't sure if her next move would work. 

She pressed a button on her glove and a set of credentials appeared on the Gauntlet's glass.

She pointed it at the guard.

"My friends forgot to register their IDs on their gauntlets. They just got them. Could you do me a favor, pleeeease?"

With a face as sweet as she could be, she pointed the gauntlet towards the guard so that he could read it.

The guard was about to say something. But when he read the text, he realized who he was facing. 

It was the daughter of the famous, genius Professor Clay.

Since the guard had no knowledge of this, he wore a troubled expression. He didn't want to jeopardize his job. The fact that Professor Clay had not given any instructions about this was also causing problems.

He thought for a while, not knowing what to do. When he looked at them, he finally decided that there would be no problem.

He looked to his left and right and saw that there were not many people because most of them were in the arena since it was the last hours.

And then he gave all of the Resistance something that looked like a ticket to get in.

Time passed quickly for James as he waited in his seat. As he waited, oblivious to what was happening, he noticed two contestants talking amongst themselves.

"Are you in a solo battle? Do you have a partner?"

"Does it look like you have one?"

"Oh bro, so you can't fight the Vexos either."

"Are you no different from me?"

This contestant squinted at the other. The other sighed.

"I am, but think of it this way. There are heavyweights like Siren, James, Daron."

"Well, none of them is a Vexos."

"That's just it..."

As their conversation continued, there were many similar conversations. James was proud to be one of the main focal points of the looks and conversations that came several times. Shaking his head from side to side, he swept the area with his eyes once more.

His eyes searched for a boy the size of a leg, wearing a blue mask reminiscent of the masks worn by Mexican wrestlers, but to no avail. However, once again he breathed a sigh of relief.

[Looks like you got what you wanted, didn't you?]

James grinned like a triumphant child.

"I really got it, right?"

His unexpected victory made him think for a moment that he had broken through the seemingly impenetrable "plot" wall. Perhaps he could have bought the time he needed without all this trouble. A few more times of sneaking stones in their path and he believed he could easily earn ten thousand.

James' grin widened as he thought this. It was even a little frightening. Just then someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Startled, he turned around and saw Siren. She was looking at him curiously.

"What are you grinning so much about?"

In spite of her curious question without any ulterior motive, James paused for a moment before speaking. Then he said these words:

"Nothing, I was just wondering who I was going to battle first today."

The digital red lines covering the eye socket of Siren's mask shimmered coincidentally with this. She grinned.

"Me too. Lots of interesting names here."

James glanced at Daron and replied.

"Right? You and Daron, for example. I look forward to battle either of you."

Even as he said it, it was obvious that it didn't matter who he was battling. It was as if he was brimming with the will to battle. At least that's what Siren could see in James's silvery black eyes.

She shook her head from side to side, then said:

"Me too, sort of. If someone agreed to team up with me, maybe we could face the Vexos."

James responded, not even a little offended:

"I'm sure that someone has their reasons."

Siren was annoyed that James spoke as if he were independent of her. But she kept her patience and spoke reproachfully:

"Do you think so? I think he just prefers to hang out alone."

James thought she might be right for a moment, but then he shook his head from side to side.

"It could be interpreted that way, maybe. Or maybe he just needs to be alone right now."

Siren paused before answering.

"Why would you need such a thing?"

James thought for a moment before choosing the appropriate words. Then he began to explain.

"Because-"

Just as he was about to continue his speech, he paused. Because he instantly recognized the person coming in from the waiting room.

There was a big difference between reality and cartoons. He had experienced this first while talking with Volt. The real one was more violent than the cartoon and naturally different. But he could still tell who he was by the way he dressed.

This was also the case here, and actually even more obvious. A small guy, not even a meter tall, with a blue mask that looked like a Mexican wrestler, was very distinctive.

The moment he saw him, his mind went blank. He just stared at Marucho with a dull stare.

At James' sudden reaction, Siren also looked at the person he was looking at and felt strange. This was one of the five she had seen before. So he had come to fight too. But what was James doing with this strange little guy?

Siren looked curiously at him and at the masked little guy. The little guy moved to an empty seat, a little nervously.

When he realized that under James and Siren's attentive gaze, many eyes were focused on him, even though he didn't want them to, he spoke softly to himself. But his speech was barely intelligible in the midst of all the noise. He seemed to be mumbling nervously to himself.

But James could barely hear what he was saying.

"Am I attracting too much attention, Elfin?"

Unfortunately, he couldn't hear her answer. But that sentence alone was enough to confirm that it was Marucho. Now… he was fucked!

But in a way, it was good. It meant a longer reprieve.

Still, rather than thinking about it in those terms, James tensed as he realized the magnitude of the risk. His brow furrowed involuntarily as he averted his gaze in an irrelevant direction.

Siren naturally recognized the awkwardness and asked:

"Do you have a bad relationship with that masked man?"

James shrugged in response to the question and tried to answer indifferently:

"Sort of. He's not worth mentioning."

Even though he said so, his nervousness, which he failed to hide, gave him away. Still, Siren said nothing.

Surely, one day an opportunity would arise for her to find out. She had a confidence that she would get that opportunity quickly. After all, she-

Just then an announcement interrupted her thoughts.

"Attention brawlers! The tournament is about to start. Please complete your preparations!"

And so the signal was given to start. James' tense features, Siren's excited grin and Marucho's determined look summed up all the brawlers in the room.

And now, the fight was on. Siren was the first to battle!

Siren knew that her opponent was a complete unknown, so she didn't react much. She just glanced at James as she made her way to the exit as usual. James just gave her a thumbsup signal.

For someone like Siren, he would surely have it in the bag. As she and the unrecognizable vestal left, James stopped for a while and then walked over to Marucho, who was trying to stay particularly inconspicuous on the corner.

[What are you planning to do?]

James didn't answer. He took a seat next to Marucho and sat down. One or two people looked at him, but he ignored them. They were already engrossed in their own conversation.

Marucho was obviously nervous. Yet he was trying to keep himself as calm as possible. James wasn't sure if this was really how he was acting or if he was acting to hide himself.

Marucho was smart. James knew that. He could even say he was the brains of the team, although sometimes it wasn't obvious. And since this was real and not a cartoon, he had come to expect everything from him involuntarily.

James took a deep breath and looked at him carefully. Marucho, the target of his gaze, looked at him and asked:

"Is there a problem, sir?"

James looked at him a little longer and then spoke unexpectedly:

"I was just wondering... If you knew that your action would change someone's life in a negative way, would you still do it?"