It was decided, we were going to help Tako Musume look for her little sister. Once everyone else was on the same page, I decided just to give in and start helping as well. We started our search by walking up and down the beach. It was the most logical way to go about this.
“K-chan, K-chan!” Tako Musume called out as we walked along the beach with her. We walked up and down the beach, but no K-chan answered her calls.
“We are getting nowhere at this rate,” I said. “Let’s split up and search separately.”
“Ah, good idea Main-Kun,” Trash-chan said to me. So, we split into two smaller groups. My sister, Tanaka-san, and Osana-chan would find a boat and sail along the beach with Raphine and Estouls. Meanwhile, Shin-san and I would continue looking around here with Junkers and Trash-chan. We said our goodbyes and split up. Tako Musume ended up coming along with my group.
“So, it is fine that we split up, but where are we going to look now?” Shin-san asked after the sea team had left.
“Shin-kun, there are plenty of places ve haven’t looked,” Junkers said as she looked around the sandy beach. “Or maybe not…” she added.
“Maybe her sister just went into town?” Trash-chan said.
“It doesn’t seem likely, but we’ve checked everywhere else,” I said. I suppose we could check out some of the locations near the beach. At this rate, we had no better ideas.
We walked off the beach and into town. The sun was beginning to set. We would have to hurry; I didn’t want to spend too much longer looking for this waifu.
The town wasn’t much better of a place to search. We walked down a couple of streets with Tako Musume calling for her sister before finally stopping in a restaurant. Our heads hung down as we waited for the food to arrive.
“Where could she have gone?” Tako Musume cried.
“Don’t vorry dear. Ve will find her,” Junkers comforted the crying waifu who was clinging tightly to her arm.
“I hate to admit it, but I don’t think we will be able to find her?” Shin-san said quietly.
Trash-chan banged on the table.
“You’re giving up too soon, best friend-kun; I’m sure we will find her! It’s not like she could have gotten far!”
“Technically speaking, she could have gone to another dimension or a new timeline if she encountered the right waifu,” I said before taking a sip of my drink.
“Main-kun, what kind of thinking is that? Why would she leave such a cute older sister behind?”
“I’m not saying she would have done it willingly, for all we know, we could be getting wrapped up in some crazy adventure by agreeing to this search.”
“I don’t think so, Tai-san. This seems more like a side quest sort of thing,” Shin-san said. He was looking off into space and tapping his fingers on the table, not that he was aware of his actions. He was most certainly lost in thought.
Through the door, a crowd of shady-looking guys in black leather clothes walked in. They all had sunglasses on, even though the sun was setting, and had several brightly colored waifus behind them. I watched as they walked to the back of the restaurant to a poster. I turned away so that I was only watching them out of the corner of my eye. One of the guys looked around the restaurant for a moment as if to make sure no one was looking, then he lifted the poster and pressed a button. The wall suddenly slid open, and the crowd of guys and waifus stepped inside.
“Main-kun, did you see that? The wall slid open!” I had not realized Trash-chan was also watching until she blurted out for the whole restaurant to hear. Everyone turned to look our way; then they turned to look where Trash-chan was pointing.
“A sliding wall?” Shin-san asked, only now starting to pay attention.
“Oh, that seems fun,” Junkers said with a devious smile. She got up and walked over to the wall with Tako Musume still hanging on her. The octopus waifu had stopped crying but was confused by what was going on. “Right here, Trash-gozen?” Junkers asked.
“Yep, under the poster,” Trash-chan confirmed.
Junkers pushed the button under the poster, and once again, the wall slid open. She leaned into the doorway.
“Vow, there is a long staircase going down there!” She loudly told everyone. Shin-san stood up from the table while sighing. He walked across the room and pulled Junkers out from the doorway.
“Junkers, please. We don’t have time.”
“Vat if her sister is down there?”
“Junkers, we aren’t going down the dark staircase,” Shin-san said firmly.
“But,” Junkers tried to argue.
“No, the last time we did that… I don’t even want to remember it,” Shin-san shuddered.
“Oh, Main-kun, there is a door down here!” Trash-chan’s voice echoed up the stairs. I took my eyes off her for a second, and she was already down there.
“What are you doing? Come back up!” I yelled down the dark stairs. I was unable to see her at the bottom.
“There is a guy on the other side of the door asking for a password; what do you think it would be?” Trash-chan yelled back up.
“Just ignore him and come back upstairs.”
There was a pause.
“’ Just ignore him and come back upstairs ’ was not the password, Main-kun!” she yelled after a moment.
“Why would you think it was!” I snapped back. I let my head hang down. First, we agreed to help some random waifu, and now we were looking at some secret area in the restaurant. I started to walk down the stairs.
“Wait, Tai-san, what are you doing?” Shin-san asked with a clear hint of concern.
“We might as well as go downstairs; I don’t think our waifus intend to leave any time soon,” I said before beginning my descent. The others soon joined me at the bottom of the stairs. Sure enough, there was a large door with a slit in it. A man’s eyes on the other side peered through at us.
“What’s the password?” he asked in a deep, gruff voice.
“Alright, Main-kun, I think we are almost out of password attempts; we need to be smart about what we say,” Trash-chan said while rubbing her hand on her head.
“Is it password?” I asked. It was just a joke. I didn’t care if we got into this room or not. It would just be better to pretend to attempt instead of trying to drag Trash-chan away.
The man behind the door slid the opening over his eyes shut. I made a sigh of relief; that guess must have annoyed him. Unfortunately, the next sound I heard was of the door unlocking, then of it creaking open.
“Good guess, come on in,” he said in his gruff voice.
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“Yeah! Way to go, Main-kun!”
“That’s my Tai-kun!” Junkers added.
“Why did you have to guess right, Tai-san?” Shin-san asked while shaking his head.
“Honestly, I thought that would annoy them, not be correct,” I sighed.
“This place seems scary,” Tako Musume whispered.
We all walked through the door, and it snapped shut behind us. The room that greeted us was a sight to behold. It was a large, open, and dimly lit space. All was dim except a fighting arena that resembled a boxing ring in the middle. Except, it was floating in the air and didn’t have ropes connecting between the poles in the corners. Large spotlights from the ceiling brightly lit up the arena, and a crowd of people, waifus, and husbandos surrounded it, cheering. Inside the arena, two waifus were currently duking it out in a match. Each had ears on top of their head and wore large boxing gloves.
“Shin-san, I think it’s time we left,” I said.
“I agree Tai-san, I don’t see Tako Musume’s sister anywhere,” Shin replied. We both tried walking to the door, but Junkers grabbed us each by the back of our shirts.
“Vait, you two. This looks fun!” she said with sparkles in her eyes.
“She’s hooked,” I said with my head hanging down.
“We should have just walked away when we had the chance,” Shin-san added.
A man in a proton purple cloak strode up to us. He had a slender build and wore a pair of dark sunglasses, even though the room was not well let. His hair was snow-white, despite his age not appearing to compliment the color, and combed to swirl up like ice cream.
“Welcome, gentlemen and ladies; I take it that this is your first night in Melee Club?” he politely asked with an exaggerated but small bow.
“Um, yes, but we were just leaving,” I shouted before Junkers could answer; it didn’t matter. She just ended up answering after me.
“How does one get into the ring?” she asked excitedly.
“Well, hold on a moment, I haven’t even properly introduced you to the club!” he excitedly said.
“That won’t be necessary; we were just leaving,” Shin-san said. The man ignored him.
“This here is Melee Club, the only place where waifus and husbandos can duke it out without special abilities or world-ending powers mudding up the fights. No sir, just good old fashion brawls here!”
“That’s nice, but we really should be-“ I started but was cut off.
“Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why anyone would want to watch a fight like that? Well, I’ll tell you!”
“Just give up Tai-san, He’s not stopping, and Junkers is interested,” Shin-san said with a shrug. He had entirely given in to whatever was going to happen next.
“Let me ask you this, how many times have you seen a bland isekai protagonist sweep a competition? Tons of times! Or how about some OP S-tier waifu? If one is fighting in a war, we already know the outcome before it ends. Well, not here! In this club, abilities are stripped away, and the fighters must rely on their innate ability. Only the truly strong can make it here!” the man continued with his pitch, “and you came at the right time today, we just had a competitor from the deep sea enter, and she has been sweeping all the competition away!” the man finally ended his explanation of the club.
“As much as I want to leave, I’ll ask anyway, do you think the competitor is Tako Musume’s sister?” Shin-san begrudgingly asked.
“I hope not…” I answered.
“Ve vill just have to fight and see!” Junkers said happily.
“I don’t think my sister would be in here,” Tako Musume said in an uneasy voice.
“You don’t think she’s the champion he is talking about?” Shin-san asked.
“Well… if she were fighting, she would most certainly win… but-“
“So ve vont know until ve find out! Vere do I sign up!” Junkers was ready to go.
“Well, well, it seems your ready to enter the ring. First, let me tell you the rules of Melee Club. The first rule is you don’t-“
“Please just skip ahead to where she enters the ring,” I interrupted. If Junkers wanted to enter, it would be best just to move along and get it over with. The man sighed.
“Alright, please go to the back desk there; they will give you a number, gloves, and fox ears. After that, you have to wait until you are called to enter the ring. Fights are to knock the opponent out of the ring or make them unconscious.”
Junkers strode across the room to the desk.
“Why the fox ears?” Trash-chan asked.
“At this club, we believe fights should be no abilities, fox ears only, and on our stage Final Terminus,” the man said.
It wasn’t long before Junkers came back to the group. She now wore a white shirt with the number 52 on it, two red boxing gloves, and two white fox ears on her head.
“I’m so excited, she said with sparkles in her eyes.”
We watched the current brawl play out. Some blonde husbando was fighting a waifu with short, grey hair. Both had fox ears on their head that matched the color of their hair. They kept exchanging blows until the husbando was finally knocked out of the ring.
“Number 13 has knocked Number 90; it looks like she’s on a roll to take on the champion!” An announcer said over some speakers. “Next up, it looks like we have a new competitor, Number 52!”
Junkers happily climbed into the ring with the grey-haired waifu. After she did, the poles on the stage flashed for a second.
“What was that?” I asked out loud.
“That was the Barrier System; it is the same kind of technology used in the Waifu Arena to protect the crowds. Except instead of a thin veil that prevents abilities from passing through, we extent the arena to take up the whole volume of the stage. This is how we prevent abilities from being used in fights.” The man in the purple cloak said after suddenly appearing next to me.
“Your still here, huh?” I said with a mutter.
The fight began with a ring of the bell. Junkers and the other waifu began to bounce up and down before throwing a series of quick punches. Junkers took all the blows directly. When the grey-haired waifu realized her punches were not effective, she stopped and took a couple of steps back.
Junkers didn’t hesitate; she delivered a punch directly into the other waifu. In an instant, the waifu was thrown from the stage to the outside, where the crowd caught her.
“She’s out!” the announcer shouted. The crowd roared.
“Impressive, she’s pretty tough,” The purple-cloak man said.
“Junkers,” Shin-san groaned while shaking his head.
The fights went on in much the same way. Junkers stayed on the stage while opponents came one after another to get knocked out in a single blow. Until, at last, it was time for the finals. The crowd began to cheer as a waifu stood up in the back of the room and slowly moved to the stage.
“Well, she did well before, but our champion will not be beaten so easily,” the man in the cloak said.
“You can think that, but Junkers is going to get the victory here!”
“Yeah, Best Friend-kun, you tell him!”
Somewhere along the way, Shin-san had gone from not wanting Junkers to compete to being the loudest person cheering for her. Trash-chan naturally had gone along with him and cheered as well.
The man in the purple cloak laughed.
“We will see, but our current competitor has trained in the deepest parts of the ocean; she is strong.”
The competitor jumped up onto the stage and landed in front of Junkers. She was a mermaid with long, green hair.
“Is that your sister,” I whispered to Tako Musume.
“No, I told you she wouldn’t be here,” she answered.
The fight began between the finalists. The mermaid did not try to go for a quick blow and instead bounced around the stage. Junkers followed the mermaid’s movements with her eyes. Then, in a flash, the mermaid was giving a punch to Junkers in her stomach. Junkers stumbled back until she was by the edge of the stage. She swayed by the edge until she regained her balance and took a couple of steps closer to the stage’s center.
Junkers charged forward and tried to get the mermaid with a right-hand punch. The green-haired waifu simply swatted the punch out of the way with her left arm and gave Junkers three consecutive punches with her right.
Junkers gritted her teeth and used her left hand to give the mermaid a blow in the side. The mermaid began to fall over, but she caught herself on the ground with her hands. She started doing a handstand then spun around in a circle. Junkers was slapped with the mermaid’s tail repeatedly until she stepped back.
The mermaid stopped spinning and flipped right side up. Both waifus were breathing heavily at this point, and the match could go either way.
“Go, Junkers!” Shin-san yelled.
“Knock her out!” Trash-chan added.
Junkers leaped high up in the air and focused a punch to the ground. The mermaid bounced out of the way before Junkers could hit her. The whole floating stage began to shake like a boat on the sea from Junkers’ blow. The crowd cheered.
“Amazing everyone. Even with her abilities cut off, Number 52 still has so much raw power,” the announcer shouted.
Junkers stood up from her ground pound attack and looked to the mermaid. She charged forward with her arm back for another blow. The mermaid prepared to block an impact to the head, but Junkers ducked down and punched her stomach. The mermaid, however, was unfazed and used the opportunity to give a downward strike on Junkers.
Junkers went to the stage floor, and the crowd yelled out in a chorus of cheers. Junkers wasn’t done, though. She quickly got up and threw another punch at the mermaid. This time, the mermaid simply bounced to the side. Junkers went stumbling forward, and the mermaid took the opportunity to strike her back. Before we knew it, Junkers went flying out of the stage in our direction.
“She’s out!” the announcer yelled as we caught Junkers. She was out cold with swirls in her eyes.
“Junkers, you did well,” Trash-chan said with tears in her eyes.
“Come on guys, let’s just get going,” Shin-san added, also with tears in his eyes.
I sighed as we carried Junkers out of the underground Melee club.
We ended up back on the beach, where we finally sat down to take a rest.
“Well, we know where her sister is not at now,” I said.
“Will we ever find my sister?” Tako Musume said with tears in her eyes.
I didn’t reply. I already figured this was a lost cause.
Shin-san and Trash-chan didn’t reply. They had laid Junkers on the beach and were now trying to wake her. I sat down on the sand. My phone began to ring. I looked at it to see that my sister was calling.
“Hello,” I said while answering it.
“Big Brother, we have trouble! We need you to meet us at the beach!” she yelled over the line.
“Wait, what’s going on?” I asked while suddenly standing up.
“Well, it’s a long story… but the boat is headed to the beach right now!”
In the distance, I could see a large shadow beginning to form. This certainly could not be good.