Chapter 341 To The Second Round

It wasn't a surprise, but Satoshi had actually spoken a split second too late. He thought Sassu would stop dead in her tracks when he spoke out of nowhere. However, Sassu reacted a little bit too late. The moment Satoshi spoke, she had already touched him. instead of Jana and Ryoko. And she had the full intent to drain all of their life force.

Meaning to say, Satoshi received twice the full brunt of Sassu's attack.

Satoshi's eyes widened in surprise when he rushed to Jana and Ryoko's aid. She knew that it would only take Sakura Cherry a split second to drain the life out of them, and now that he was the one touched, he expected to die right then and there.

However, two seconds passed, and Satoshi was still conscious. Even then, Sassu has not yet removed her hands from his chest. Instead, she gripped him by his t-shirt and pulled him towards her. A satisfied smile appeared on her face as she buried her face in Satoshi's chest, clamping her two hands behind Satoshi before he could even react.

"Got you~" Sassu sang, rubbing her cheek on Satoshi's chest.

A couple of seconds later, Midori and the others finally arrived at the scene after being informed by Kuroe that there was a commotion by the end of the hallway inside the walls of the American Dome. They figured that the panic was probably caused by Sassu.

They were right on the money.

The group sighed in relief when they noticed that Sassu was burying her face in Satoshi's chest. Just as they thought, only Satoshi could appease the rollercoaster of the girl that is Sassu.

"Phew~ and here we are,  thinking that we'd have to deal with the authorities in the aftermath. Good thing no one got gravely injured... or worse, dead." Midori pointed out, panting. All of them ran all the way, and that's why they were so out of breath.

"That could've ended worse... Fortunately, Satoshi stepped in just in time." Sumire (superpower, status effect based on her eye color) muttered as her eyes glowed a nice yellow. She was ready to inflict a status effect on Sakura Cherry just in case she still hadn't controlled herself. Her yellow gaze corresponds to the paralysis status effect. Then again, Sumire was just glad that her eye color wasn't purple or gray today.

"Keep your guards up. Sassu's still the one conscious right now. I know because I still can't read her mind." Kuroe muttered, keeping her distance from Satoshi and Sakura Cherry.

Suddenly, Sassu looked up with her pupils dilating. Even though Satoshi wasn't the least bit afraid, seeing the sudden shift in Sassu's expression made him flinch. He badly wanted to let go of the hug, but he didn't do it. As much  as his body screamed to struggle from her embrace, Satoshi held the urge in. He knew that sudden movements would highly likely trigger Sassu. If that were to happen, he'd be the first to suffer since Sassu stuck to him like glue.

Despite the inner panic, Satoshi kept still, even reciprocating the warm hug that Sassu gave him.

The moment Sassu looked up, Satoshi sensed the change in her. It was a subtle change, but Satoshi noticed it right away. It's as if Sassu's character changed in a snap of a finger, and she opened her mouth in shock. As she took in what was currently happening, she turned towards Midori and the others, wondering why they were all  gathered there in the first place.

'Wait, the last thing I remembered was... that's right! I was in the audience seats with everyone, conversing with Midori and the others. What happened? What am I doing here? And why am I hugging Satoshi... argh~! I don't want to let go, but this is really, really, really embarrassing!' Cherry screamed in her head as she buried her face in Satoshi's chest. This time, it wasn't because she wanted to express that she liked Satoshi.

She just... she just didn't want to be seen by everyone. Or rather, she couldn't even bring herself to look everyone in the eyes after the bold move she pulled off. 'Please, don't look!' Cherry muttered to herself before redirecting her shamefulness towards Sassu, her other consciousness.

"Sassu?! What were you doing? Why am I hugging Satoshi right now?" She asked, even though she wasn't expecting an answer.

Slowly, she let go of Satoshi and sheepishly walked toward the group. While doing so, she didn't forget to bow her head towards Jana and Ryoko since she was well aware that she attacked them out of nowhere, courtesy of Sassu, of course.

"Oh, you're back."

"Glad to have you back, Cherry. You're getting bolder and bolder by the second," Kuroe greeted, patting Cherry on the back as she stood beside her.

"Uuuuu~" Cherry pouted, unaware that Kuroe was expressing her jealousy at that moment.

"O-oh! How are you guys?" Satoshi asked, waving toward the group in an awkward manner. He didn't do anything wrong, per se, but he felt like he was just caught red-handed. "What are you doing here?"

"Your dad's surprise. He flew us all the way from Japan. We came to cheer you on."

Everyone, including Cherry, nodded along.

"Second round's about to start soon, right? Shouldn't you be preparing right now?" Hiroshi asked out of nowhere.

Silence then filled the air while Hiroshi's sight landed on the frappe that was 'coldly' sitting on the table. He held his breath, fully knowing that it wouldn't take long before Midori noticed it. His head slowly turned towards Midori who didn't seem to notice that they were interrupting something.

Phew~!

The moment he sighed, however, Midori pointed towards the table where the two frappes were sitting. He didn't notice it because Hiroshi glanced at it. The reason why he saw it was that the ice in the drink suddenly decided to make a clacking sound out of nowhere. "Oh~! I guess you're talking about something? We interrupted something, didn't we?" Midori forced a chuckle out of his mouth as he scratched his head.

"Come on, you guys, let's head back. We can talk to Satoshi later.," Midori continued, gesturing at everyone to go with him.

"But why do we have to... " Shiroi trailed off, wondering why Midori suddenly started acting weirdly.

"Let's go, can't you see? They're on a date together!" Midori whispered to Shiroi before he led the way back to their seats inside the American Dome.

"Ah, here we go again," Kuroe muttered to herself as she turned around, following the group. She softly waved her hand toward Satoshi, and Satoshi waved back in return. Kuroe's face turned red as she turned away.

"B-but," Shiroi stammered, but Kuroe grabbed her by the hand and led her out of there along with everyone else.

"Come on, we have to go. And no, they're not on a date." Kuroe pointed out before Shiroi could say anything. This caused Shiroi to turn red as she looked down at her feet. Then again, it was sort of expected for Kuroe to say something like that. After all, she can easily read the minds of everyone there.

Satoshi smiled as the group wished him luck before they headed back inside the American Dome. There were only a few minutes before the second round starts, and Satoshi was looking forward to his next match. As usual, he had no idea what to expect from the upcoming match but based on the previous matches, he more or less assumed that he'd be facing another Disciple. If not on the second round, then the rounds after that. There's also a good chance that he'll be facing Ash or Jean Grey... or maybe White Mist or Black Fog. In any case, the road toward  the champion is a long and bumpy one.

For now, though, his conversation with Jana was far from over. With the commotion settled, Jana returned to her seat. and Ryoko decided to catch up with Shiroi and the others since she didn't want to disturb her master during a serious conversation. As much as she wanted to say, she knew that it would only make the situation more awkward than it already was. That's why she joined Shiroi's group even though she hasn't met most of them.

"Back to your question, I guess." Satoshi casually called out as he, too, sat down and sipped on his frappe.

Jana expectantly looked at Satoshi. She was convinced that he was a Disciple, and he couldn't deny it otherwise. Well, she already expected Satoshi to deny it, and she wasn't falling for it.

"To be honest, I only learned about Disciples today from another participant in the Official Beast Tournament. I don't think I'm—" Satoshi answered.

"..."

[And the winner of the final match is none other than Black Fog! It seems like the crowd-proclaimed beast tamer, Jean Grey, lost against a dark horse!] The announcement suddenly rang throughout the whole stadium, interrupting what Satoshi was supposed to say.