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Even the place that used to be a bustling street now had become a jungle.
Most of the buildings had been abandoned and covered in greenery. Even so, lately, white-collar workers had been going around here and there.
"Kotori, how about this?"
Ohtori Chihaya had just found something among the wild grass and decided to call out to her nearby friend.
"Nah, this is just an ordinary plant. You must look for something like... tingly when you touch it."
"This is harder than I thought...."
"It's easy once you get used to it."
After a while, Chihaya raised her voice again.
"Ah, here's a tingling one!"
"Lemme see.... Ooh! Chii-chan, this is it...!"
"Finally!"
What the two had found was a sprout that looked just about the same as any budding plant at a glance.
"It's really tingly!"
"Yeah. It's repelling other life forces since it has a strong life force of its own."
"Without any doubt, this is a rare material," said Kotori in assurance.
"So, with that victory's in the bag!?"
"We can't get ahead of ourselves," Kotori warned Chihaya.
"Still, with game breaking materials like this, we're surely the front runners!"
"You betcha!"
Chihaya jumped for joy.
Influenced by her friend, Kotori was also walking on clouds.
From their elevated point of view, they had a clear view of the Kazamatsuri cityscape.
Even the skyscraper rooftops were concealed under all kinds of trees. The whole town was a thicket of interwoven foliage.

It had been roughly one year since the abominable incident known as "The Great Culling".
The great disaster that had destroyed most of the civilization left a deep scar, and mankind had yet to regain its ordinary life.
In such a severe and harsh period, the first ones to smile were the children.


[Let us welcome the historic start of the very first Familiar Fight Tournament! Or for short, FamiFight! Here in Kazamatsuri! Give it up for our challengers, and let's get ready to rumble!!]
Joyful cheers filled the venue.
Familiar Fight Tournament!
This is a game where people throw their small-sized familiars into battle. In the resource-scarce post-Culling world, this has become a trendy new form of entertainment.
The tournament grounds were packed with young participants and spectators.
Our duo, Chihaya and Kotori, were also participating in this tournament.
"So crowded here," said Kotori.
"Whoa.... So we have to win against all these people...?" Chihaya asked.
"They're much stronger than we expected, I guess."
Glancing around at the familiars which all the contestants—including kids— had brought, Kotori started to feel anxious.
"And we might have underestimated them a bit, I guess."
The two girls had procured the best type of rare material.
But there was a good reason why they were feeling insecure.
"Aww... He looks just so... so frail...."
Chihaya sighed as she took the familiar out from her waist bag.
That was the familiar brought to life with the girls' wishes for certain victory.
They named him "Sakutarou".
The familiar which was created out of the rare material would stand strong and mighty.
That's how it was supposed to be, but...
"Why is he so small and thin? This can't be right."
Sakutarou was all skin and bone. In other words, he looked very weak.

"Hey, I heard that there will be interview by Boro Boro Comic for today's event."
"Really~?"
Kotori's eyes were blinking in surprise when Chihaya brought that news.
It was the only monthly children's magazine still being published in this time of scarcity.
Due to the circumstances, the magazine only had a few pages and the printing was simple. However, now that entertainment was hard to come by, lots of children loved reading this magazine.
This Familiar Fight Tournament was fully sponsored by that Boro Boro Magazine.
Of course, the prize for the champions would be highly luxurious.
In this era of food shortage, that would be a year's worth of rice coupons.
Both Kotori and Chihaya aimed for that prize.
With that one wish in mind, they aimed to be the victors of this tournament.


First round, second match.
This would be the first battle for Chihaya and Kotori's team, team Pitter-Patter.
Their opponent's familiar was a Scrayleton.
Its weapons were those powerful looking claw scissors.
"Whoa, it looks so strong...."
"But there's no turning back for us!"
Both Kotori and Chihaya let their own familiars enter the battle arena.
The announcer called out in surprise.
[Oooh! Look what we have here! The girls duo, Team Pitter-Patter... have brought a rare cavalry-type familiar!]
Sakutarou entered the battle by riding on a beast-type familiar.
There are several detailed rules enforced in FamiFight.
For example, the use of toxic substances as familiar material is prohibited, and there's also weight restriction for the familiars.
By the latter rule alone, there's a clause that you can control multiple familiars as long as they're within the weight restriction.
Sakutarou was (unintentionally) an extra lightweight class. Knowing the circumstance Kotori—as the second in charge—immediately prepared a beast-type familiar, Petit Moth.
"Challenger Chihaya, let's bring a quick end to this battle."
"Roger that. I'll use Afterimage Technique to confuse them!"
"They can't move that fast...."
[Well then... Ready... Fight!]
Their opponent, a young boy, yelled, "Get 'em, Scrayleton!"
The crayfish exoskeleton approached fast, brandishing its claw scissors.
"Hmph! Sakutarou, attack it from behind!" Chihaya commanded her familiar.
Petit Moth ran through with Sakutarou riding on it.
So fast.
They could only run straight and turn at right angles. Even so they were unmistakably fast.
Suddenly they were standing behind the Scrayleton.
They hit its body.
"Wha—!? How did you know its weakness!?" The boy shrieked.
The crayfish familiar was all smashed up.
[Team Pitter-Patter wins!]
"We did it!"
"We won!"
The two jumped for a high five and pranced happily.
"Cavalry-type is pretty awesome."
"I guess we still can go on without relying on our trump card!"
They looked at each other and giggled.


The two steadily continued winning one battle after another.
Sakutarou's combat ability was lacking, but Petit Moth's dash ability compensated for it.
With a simple, yet strong dash attack, they defeated their competitors in the second and third rounds.
Finally, the fourth round, after a scheduled lunch break, would be the start of the semifinals.
"I guess we'll have stronger opponents coming up."
The two had a strategy meeting as they ate the rice balls they brought.
"I suppose we'll be relying on our trump card anytime soon, huh?"
"You bet. We don't want to lose just because we're bent on keeping it up to our sleeve."
"If we knew it'd be going this smoothly, I should've forced the others to participate."
"Not that we can do anything about it. They were busy."
They thought of their fellow housemates.
Their group of five had always been together.
The two girls had invited the others, but they refused to say they had other plans.
"Even so, they're gonna be real surprised when we come home with the champions medal!" Kotori grinned frivolously.
The girls were so dispirited when they started living together, but now they were a lot more lively.
Chihaya stood up energetically.
"Let's make Lucia and the others green with envy!"

When the time for the semifinal round came, they returned to the battleground.
"I've been expecting you!"
The one who awaited them with an imposing stance was none other than their own housemate, Konohana Lucia.
"Lucia!? Wha- Why are you here—!?"
"Fu fu fu, actually I too am partaking in this tournament. Had all five of us being on the same team, it would be far too cramped. Besides that, I want to try out my new familiar, Sunflowee-kun."
A small sunflower was riding on Lucia's shoulder.
It was a plant-type familiar.
"So Lucchan's playing the villain now...." Kotori sighed.
"Correct, so you're in big trouble."
"Hmph... and this after you refused our invitation...."
"Apologies, but let's settle this dispute in battle."


The game finally started.
[Well, let's get the semifinal started... Ready... Fight!]
"Go, Sunflowee-kun! Munch Munch Combo!"
The sunflower familiar fiercely dashed forward with its three root-legs.
Its flowering part opened a full-length gap which was its mouth, then it let out a bizarre screech.
Both Chihaya and Kotori were taken aback by that.
"Whoa, creepy!"
"Sakutarou, evade!"
Sakutarou evaded the bite attack by a hair's breadth.
"Impressive. To think that you could evade that one....."
Lucia smiled fearlessly.
"Sorry to say, Sunflowee still has much more than that! Take this! Missile Seed!"
Sunflowee's flower part shot several seeds.
The seeds landed all around Sakutarou. Pow-pow-pow-pow! They created a small chain explosion.
The firepower was basically like the explosive dehiscence of seed pods.
Rather dull, wasn't it?
But that continuous bombardment robbed Sakutarou of his mobility.
With the loud explosions of that special attack, the venue instantly sprang up with vigor.
On the other hand, sustaining damage little by little over and over again, Sakutarou's endurance would surely fall.
"That's weird...."
Kotori had a feeling that Sakutarou was already at his limit.
However, contrary to the rule of thumb, Sakutarou didn't turn to dust. Instead, he tried to get back to his feet at the risk of his life.
Was it a persistence exclusive to those made of rare materials?
"Kotori! Shouldn't we use our trump card right now?"
"I wanted to keep it until the final round, but we can't afford to lose right now! Have it your way, Chii-chan!"
"OK!"
"You guys seem to be up to something, but sorry.... The rice coupon and this tournament is already mine!"
Sunflowee soared high into the sky.
It was going for another bite-move.
But this time Chihaya was not flustered at all.
"Petit Moth... Armor up!"
Petit Moth did something rather unusual.
It stood up on its hind legs and hunched over Sakutarou as if it was riding on his back.
Each part of the body expanded and deformed at high speed.
And then...
[Oooh, look what we have here! Petit Moth has transformed into Sakutarou's armor!]
"It's too late for that now!"
Sunflowee got its teeth into Sakutarou.
However...!
"It's no use! Sakutarou, go for finishing kick!"
With a roundhouse kick, the now-more-powerful Sakutarou broke Sunflowee's stem.
[It's game! Team Pitter-Patter will head to the final round!]
Indifferent to the excitement in the venue, Chihaya and Kotori approached Lucia.
For some reason, Lucia collapsed dramatically to the floor.
"You have fought well, girls. But it's too early to rest assured. For I am the weakest among the Elite Two."
"You don't even have enough for an Elite Four!?" Kotori exclaimed.
"The secret society AKN48 will definitely stand in your way someday.... Or in the final round right after this, to be exact."
"Oh, you mean Akane and Shizuru?"
Ignorant to the dramatic tension Lucia had set up, Chihaya spoke up rather nonchalantly.
"Oh, you figured that out?"
Lucia laughed and got up readily.
"In the end, everyone's participating, huh...."
Thinking how silly it was that they all came up with the same idea, the three laughed together.
Oblivious to their circumstances, the audience viewed their peaceful atmosphere as a budding friendship and gave the girls a big round of applause.


This was the final game for the tournament.
"Kotori, Chihaya.... Do you really think that you can defeat our ultimate familiar?"
"I'll say it straight.... You're fooling yourselves."
Sure enough, their opponents were as expected.
[The final round is here! Moreover, we're having girls' showdown here! Here's Team Pitter-Patter with their remarkable progress, against the self-proclaimed secret society, AKN48!!]
Their familiar was already on standby in the battle ring.
"...that's not fair...."
Kotori was utterly shocked, looking at the familiar in front of Shizuru and Akane.
"They have rules regarding the height and length of familiar in this competition, but they didn't say anything when it comes to width. With that loophole, my ingenious idea brought forth this ultimate familiar. Tremble in fear before the FatGolem!"
The height of the wood golem wasn't too different from Sakutarou's.
Just as regulated.
But its width was five times wider.
So much it looked like a ball.
"Akane, you cheater! Is this even legal!?"
"We didn't break any rules, so deal with it!!"
Akane waved her arms as she retaliated.
[Now that their verbal showdown has reached its peak, let's begin the final battle of this tournament!]
The game started.
FatGolem advanced.
Even if it was just horizontally wide, the intensity of intimidating air around its large build was extraordinary.
"Chii-chan! Use the same tactics we did on the first round!"
"Roger that!"
Sakutarou jumped high to aim for the enemy's back.
But....
"...you're so naive, like a baby!"
Shizuru had predicted that attack, and she countered with an explosive attack right in the exact moment Sakutarou landed!
"Wha—!?"
It was an instant lethal blow. Chihaya couldn't help but lose her composure.
"Hold on, Chii-chan! Sakutarou... He's not out yet!"
"Huh? You're kidding!"
No, she wasn't.
Even though half of his armor had been destroyed, Sakutarou resisted the golem's fist with both of his arms.
"How impudent. Shizuru, finish it!"
"Of course."
The golem raised its fist.
Sakutarou hadn't recovered from the previous blow.
"By the way...."
Lucia who had been munching on cotton candy whispered in Kotori's ear.
"Shizuru is aiming for the golden saury cans within the canned food set: the one they give to the runner ups."
Kotori then made up a tentative plan.
"Heey, Shizu-chaaan~"
"What's up, Kotori? We're in the middle of battle you know."
"You want that canned saury, don't you? Well, if I lose this battle I'm not gonna give any to you."
"...that so. Well, I'll be off."
Shizuru immediately left her duty as the familiar commander and ran to where Chihaya and the others were.
"Huh? Hold on! Hold on!"
Akane started to lose her mind now that all of a sudden it was one against four.
"Sorry. I can no longer follow along with your selfish desire to get praised by Tooka-sensei. Now you're on your own. And get defeated, if possible. All for the canned saury."
"It's not like I'm doing this solely for my own self interest, jeez!"
"How about it, Challenger Senri? Will you continue the game?" the referee asked Akane.
"Uh...."
If there was no one to control the familiar, it would be regarded as defeat by default.
Cold sweat ran down Akane's forehead.
"Alright, bring it on! I'll show you the real power of the final evolution of the wood golem! Now witness the true power of FatGolem!"
Akane was done within just 5 seconds. (New record!)


"Big haul~ We got the big haul~♪"
With Chihaya first in line, the five girls walked home with gleeful smiles.
As the champions, Chihaya and Kotori received a year's worth of rice coupons.
The runner-ups, Shizuru and Akane got a set of canned food.
Lucia who managed to reach the semifinal also received a prize: a bag of confectionery assortments which was really valuable nowadays. She was really delighted.
"Will Tooka-sensei be happy with this?" Shizuru wondered.
"Well, she probably won't have to worry about our food expenses for a while," Akane replied.
"Huh? What's wrong, Kotori?"
"Chii-chan, it seems that he's gonna disappear soon...."
In Kotori's hands, Sakutarou seemed to be starting to fade.
"He was a tough one," Shizuru looked at Kotori's hands.
Sakutarou tried his best to stand up, with his limbs shaking.
Unfortunately, he no longer had the strength to do so.
"It was made out of the rumored rare material, right?"
Kotori nodded to Akane's question.
"The rare material.... Wasn't there a rumor that it contains the soul of the creatures swallowed by the forest...?"
Chihaya's face turned bitter from Lucia's statement.
It felt ominous, like that superstition that cherry trees get their color from the blood of corpses buried beneath them.
"Maybe that's not so far off," Kotori solemnly murmured.
"Maybe it was thanks to that someone's will to live more, that this buddy could be this tough...."
Sakutarou had slowly turned to dust.
A gust of wind softly carried away his final remains.
The girls watched that scene wordlessly.
Though they all had some thoughts on their own, they were a little too young to understand that sentiment known as loneliness.
Kotori clenched her now-empty hands tightly.
"Hey.... If we someday can find another, a way better rare material... Wanna try making a humanoid one?"
Humanoid familiar.
It was a legendary familiar type whose existence had never been confirmed, aside from the Key.
If they would succeed in summoning one, they would rewrite history.
The girls looked at each other.
They lowered their voice as if keeping it a secret, and they laughed merrily.
Even though the adults lament in this withered world, the eyes of those girls appeared sparkling.
Even if their stomachs were empty, even if they lacked so many things, the light is always before their eyes.
The girls innocently chased it like the radiance of a star.
Chasing the limit of possibility....

[Seventh Chapter - End]

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Translation notes:
Yeah, this chapter is about P○kémon battles. I just kinda went ahead and localized the names in this story because that's what P○kémon Company do.

Familiar Fight in original is バトルマモノ (Batoru (Battle) Mamono) or shortened バトマモ (BatoMamo). I made it into Familiar fight since I'm following Amaterasu's translation on mamono being "familiars". If in the latter official localization they're using other terms, I may change it into something more fitting.

Sakutarou | 咲太郎 is ship name for SakuyaxKotarou is written with the kanji 咲 (saku=bloom), and 太郎 (tarou) which is a pretty common masculine given name or a common name suffix. So in a sense it's like "bloom boy" or something.
Unfortunately, the tarou part is written in a different kanji than how you'd write Kotarou, so it's not a legit ship name for SakuyaxKotarou. Ship sunk.
Incidentally, it's never mentioned what gender Sakutarou is (if familiars do have gender though) but since it's been given masculine name and I need to make a clear difference between Sakutarou and Petit Moth in the narrative, I used masculine pronouns on it.

Boro Boro Comic is a reference to CoroCoro Comic, the manga magazine that is aimed for elementary school kids. P○kémon manga was also published in it. Boro boro is also a mimetic word in Japanese that means something tattered/battered/shabby, which is probably the exact condition of how the magazine publication was in this story. Not that anyone can blame it though...

And now's for localized BatoMamo FamiFight names!

• Scrayleton is ザリガニスケルトン (Zarigani Skeleton, literally just "Crayfish Skeleton") so I just mash up the word crayfish and skeleton, resulting in Scrayleton. (alternative options: Skelobster or Scrawleton)
• Sunflowee is コマワリ (komawari) which I think comes from the word small/little 小 (ko) and sunflower 向日葵 (himawari). Results in the mash of "sunflower" and "wee" = Sunflowee.
  But there's more to komawari though!
  Since Lucia mentioned it by the name "Komawari-kun", I probably should mention that it might be referencing a character which goes by the same nickname "Komawari-kun" in the manga series GakiDeka | がきデカ written by Yamagami Tatsuhiko (though the name is written in katakana in this story, while in GakiDeka it's written in hiragana). The name Komawari-kun in GakiDeka was derived from 小さなおまわり (chiisana omawari, little cop) so I guess that's kinda fitting with Lucia who apparently has a strong sense of order and justice.... Except that the Komawari-kun in GakiDeka is quite a... public menace. (The manga is pretty perverted too, so it's kind of a surprise if little Lucia did read this.)
  On a side note, Sunflowee's technique "Munch Munch Combo" in the original Japanese is モグモグコンボ (Mogu Mogu Combo) which is so suspiciously similar with モグモグGOMBO (Mogu Mogu GOMBO), the name of a educative culinary TV program for kids.
• FatGolem is でぶゴーレム (debu golem) which is literally... "fat golem". Yeah, I'm not creative.
I understand that localizing the names are completely unnecessary, but.. just lemme have a lil' bit fun, please.

Also this goes without saying: AKN48 is a direct reference to AKB48.

Usually, I make color codes for the characters, but this time I'm too lazy to make it and I'm sure you guys are bright enough to figure them out by now.

Last note: If you're reading this, again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, but I am sure you notice that recently there has been a lack of activity in this blog. Thanks for sticking with me so far, but I don't think I'll be able to update this blog as often as before. Maybe I'll update it next year! Ci vediamo!

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