"And we have a winner!" The commentator screamed, marking the end of the Official Beast Tournament as everyone cheered with a standing ovation. It was truly a remarkable match, full of twists and turns, but it was an enjoyable ride. At the end of the day, the audience got to enjoy the tournament and the beast tamers got the chance to show what they were capable of on stage. Despite the many hiccups that occurred throughout the Official Beast Tournament, Luke Skyrunner (the owner of the American Dome and the head manager of the event himself) was content with the way the tournament came about.
Wide-eyed, Yun Zhe stared at his feet, to the point where one could almost see him boring a hole through them. After a couple of seconds, however, Yun Zhe accepted his loss.
To him, it was a one-sided fight in the first place since he had a hard time against a single tamed beast. When he slowly looked up, his gaze shifted towards the four tamed beasts that stood idly by at the corner of the grand stage, namely: Dex, Ghast, Sera, Scarlet Scythe, and Stat. It drove the nail home that Satoshi did defeat his Penta Beast Integration with one tamed beast .
"I really lost by a landslide, didn't I?" Yun Zhe muttered to himself. He dusted himself off before he walked towards Satoshi. By then, he had deactivated his beast integration. "That was a great match, Satoshi." He said, extending his hand.
"It was a great match." Satoshi continued, returning Yun Zhe's handshake. "This is kind of off-topic but... should I really keep this guy over here?"
With a problematic expression written on his countenance, Satoshi pointed at the Scarlet Scythe who silently floated in-line with his other familiars. Somehow, he just appeared out of nowhere and insisted that he was now his master. It wasn't such a bad deal so Satoshi went along with it. But now that he thought about it, it seemed rather suspicious since— just like Yun Zhe— he had seen Jana just this morning.
"He had already chosen you as his master. Also, I don't have a say on whether you keep him or not. For now, let's look for Jana, and once we've confirmed what happened, you can decide after that." Yun Zhe muttered. "I'm thinking that the two of them just had a falling out. It's quite normal for a beast tamer and a Representative to argue some of the time since they both have sentience."
"I see. Let's look for her now." Satoshi offered.
"No, that would be weird. For now, let's wait for the Official Beast Tournament to end, and then we can talk about looking for her." Yun Zhe advised.
"..."
"..."
Suddenly, Satoshi felt a stinging pain in his head as memories started flooding in. Undoubtedly, they were memories of the Scarlet Scythe right when Jana was killed. The words of the killer rang in Satoshi's ears as he called Jana a murderer after killing her. He also saw how the killer wielded some form of dimensional travel so he could send Jana's dead body somewhere else.
Satoshi fell to his knees as a throbbing headache occurred in his head. The headache wasn't due to the fact that the memories were flooding his mind, but because he could feel the pain that the Scarlet Scythe felt when his master had been eliminated. It was excruciating, and Satoshi felt like his heart would break if this went on.
"Oi, Satoshi, are you all right? What's going on?!" Yun Zhe screamed as he grabbed Satoshi by the armpit before he fell down. But just like Satoshi, he didn't have enough strength to keep himself up, that's why he almost fell forward when he tried to assist Satoshi. "Oi, Satoshi? What's going on? Answer me. Medic? MEDIC!!!"
The picture was something that the audience did not expect at all. Satoshi was the winner, and yet the loser was the one who was calling the medic for the winner. It was a plot twist that they'd never encountered in the past, and it made them rethink the Official Beast Tournament.
Just when the medics started rushing in, Satoshi continued to comb through the Scarlet Scythe's memory. After the murder had happened, Scarlet Scythe went invisible and followed the murderer back to the American Dome. It continued following the killer until the killer reached his seat.
That's where the memory stopped. And for Satoshi, the memory was more than enough for him to figure out who the killer was.
Before the medic could prop Satoshi to the gurney, he stood up and integrated with Dex. In that instant, Satoshi heard a voice in his head that told him to integrate with him, and when he did so, it was none other than Dex. He was surprised about Dex's offer, but what surprised him, even more, was the fact that this was the first time he'd ever integrated with Dex.
For the first time ever since Dex had become his personal assistant, his information system, he had never integrated with him. And now that he did, the transformation was beyond what he could imagine.
A robotic helmet on his head appeared, and a shining glow then illuminated the center of his chest before a crystalline metallic substance emerged from the glow and started spreading all over his body. A striking color of black and white appeared on the substance as they hardened into a full metal suit with defined aesthetics.
The medics, along with Yun Zhe and the majority of the audience, gasped as they witnessed Satoshi's sudden transformation. Those who were old enough to know the reference started whispering amongst themselves.
"Ho— isn't that iron man?"
"Wait? Really? An iron man form with beast integration? Wow, that's crazy!"
"Avengers assemble, am I right?"
"No shoot! That's a pretty good transformation!'
While the people were whispering amongst themselves and the movement of the spectators stilled, Satoshi heard a voice in his head. It was none other than Dex.
[Satoshi, can you still hear me?]
[If you want to find the killer, you can begin scanning the crowd. I will find him for you.]
Just when Satoshi looked up, countless squares appeared on his visors, and they marked every face on his line of vision. Satoshi slowly turned as he scanned the crowd while thinking of the features of the killer. "Jonathan. I think his name is Jonathan." He muttered to himself.
Unbeknownst to him, Yun Zhe could still hear him even though he was talking through his helmet. Upon hearing the name, Yun Zhe's ears perked up before he went in front of Satoshi. "Satoshi, did you just say Jonathan?" He confirmed.
But Satoshi wasn't paying attention to him. Just when Yun Zhe was starting to put two and two together, Satoshi flew into the audience.
After scanning hundreds upon hundreds of faces, Satoshi had pinpointed where the killer was, and he honed in on him like a homing missile. He had no idea how strong he was, but it was unforgivable that he killed someone in cold blood. No matter what justifiable reason he had, he had killed a person, and Satoshi wouldn't let him get away with it.
However, Satoshi didn't take into account the barrier that surrounded the entire grand stage as soon as he flew up, he was immediately deflected by the barrier. The barrier started glowing a nice shade of yellow where he hit, and the vibration that it caused made the audience panic a little bit.
Despite Satoshi's impulsive actions, the audience didn't leave their seats at all, they were curious as to why Satoshi was acting that way, and they intended to stay so they could witness what was about to come down.
A glow appeared on the palm of Satoshi's hand and he felt an incomprehensible amount of power well within it. For the second time, Satoshi flew upward. This time, he locked his shoulders and elbows into a punching position before unleashing a powerful punch at the barrier.
booOOOOM!
There was a delay in the sound as the barrier bounced from Satoshi's strike. However, the amount of force was too much for the barrier to handle, and it vibrated so powerfully before it gave in.
It wasn't even a powerful explosion. It was just one punch. And yet, Satoshi was able to destroy the barrier.
At this point, the audience knew that something was up, and Satoshi was acting wild. Some of them started panicking, but those who were right in front of Satoshi were too scared to even move. He was like a monster in full-metal armor, and the way his visor glowed scared them to the point that their feet were glued to the ground.
Satoshi flew toward one of the audience, grabbing him by the throat before bringing him up.
"What is going on?! Why is Satoshi acting this way?!" The commentator couldn't help but ask. As it turned out, he didn't mute his mic after the fight.
The man that Satoshi had picked up didn't struggle at all. In fact, he smiled. "Ou, Satoshi, quite an introduction you got there. I'm Jonathan by the way... I guess you already knew that, huh?"
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