Around 7 PM, as it would be in the Central European time zone, was around the point where the tournament's aftermath was starting to truly settle – the past hour saw the last handful of matches in this long afternoon of fists thrown, blood spilled and more than bones being broken, and beyond the medical evaluations and other necessary needs for recovery, all that was truly left to do was let the rest of the night unwind into celebration and relaxation.

"Mary – quick quess'ion..."

"Yeah?"

"Y' think I wen' a lil' too hard on th' drink?"

Probably super easy to take a guess on the answer – Vanessa was filled up enough on the sweet stuff to the point of being unable to go anywhere without having herself draped around her partner.

"I think you tried a little to hard to impress that kid," answered Mary. It was only natural that the post-match get-together between the two fighting agents and Tsugumi would end in someone getting tipsy, and of the three, it was the most obvious candidate to take the booze-infused cake.

"C'mon, 'Nes. You need somewhere to lay down for a little bit." Mary was on her way to bring her drunken partner back to the recovery room – a closer path from the bar room than the one back to their own proper accommodations. The door was always open, equally welcoming to any and all who needed some sort of help whether after a match or something that acquired the necessary attention.

Recent patients by the end of the round included Ai coming off a horrific chill from all that snow, as well as relatively recovered girls in May Lee, Nakoruru and Hotaru. No sign of Mature after her recent KO, and that would be for a reason coming later...

As soon as the two entered the room, another voice sounded off within it, that being the enlisted maid in Iroha. "What seems to be the problem over here?" she asked.

Mary explained to the maid. "Just dropping off someone who needs to sober up." With a little bit of struggle, she heaved the shitfaced body of her friend onto the nearest unoccupied bed. "You wouldn't mind fetching some water so she doesn't feel too much like shit in the morning, would ya?"

Iroha accepted the order with a light bow. "Right away, miss."

"Well, clearly, you two had some fun..."

Mary turned in a half-circle to meet the voice talking to her – which belonged to Aoi, who was besides the bed to the right alongside the again-stoic yet relaxed Leona, just minutes off from the insanity of the first round's finale match and its aftermath. The soldier clearly needed some checking up on her wounds, and the biker alongside her was hanging by for the long run.

"Oh, hey," Mary greeted. Immediately, she started to recall, "Glad to see you girls survived all that stuff with the secretaries."

"Barely," Aoi said back. "You know how they are; all grabby and scratchy. Was it ever gonna be easy? Hell no... but we pulled through."

"We'd drink to that. Well... at this point, probably just me." Mary looked back towards her intoxicated partner for a moment, before returning back to the conversation. "Uhh, Leona – anything to say?"

As usual, Leona didn't have much input to put in, but her thoughts towards those Orochi vixens was simple and effective. "Hmph... they were better off staying dead."

Mary paused for a moment, as if to speak up on that thought... before ultimately giving in to full agreement. "Speaking for all of us there."

Aoi nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure it wasn't just me who wanted competition to come first in all this – then the crazies come piling in." She was probably the most objected to people like those of the Hakkesshu getting involved in the business of this quote 'private tournament'. "Already knocked out one part of that problem – here's to hoping we deal with the rest of it before... well..."

"Before..." Mary rolled her hand out, hoping to help the Kusanagi prospect finish the sentence. "...Yeah?"

The sporadically spoken Leona coined in, "It's complicated."

Looking into the potential connection that she noticed between Aoi and Leona at this point and the obvious connection the step-daughter of Heidern had towards the Orochi, some pieces started to click in Mary's head.

Unfortunately, it was still a bit of an incomplete puzzle. The blonde agent eventually spoke again, "Well, I sure as hell hope we don't fall too deep into that..."

Tink-thud~! "Shit."

The first thing that sprung to mind to all that heard the brief noise resulted in focus turning towards Vanessa, and her unfortunate attempt at handling the sobering water – with a limp wrist knocking it over within seconds of delivery. The redhead muttered, unable to even curl her fingers around the now-tipped over glass.

Within the awkward silence, Mary made sure to explain to Iroha, "She had a shit-ton to drink. Also, the whole fight she had earlier, with her head going through the wall... probably not a good idea to try and let her try and handle anything right now."

Iroha nodded, showing some light worry with the buzzed condition of the boxer. "Hmm. I suppose a refill is needed here..."

"Yeah, y' do that, lady," Vanessa slurred briefly, swatting out at the air in front of her as the maid before her made her way back to the nearby sink. Afterwards, the redhead agent let her face sink a little more into the bed beneath her... "Man, this shit's comfy..."

Even with the acknowledgment of how deep of a stupor Vanessa was with all the stuff she had to drink, and how much she really needed the recovery after such an eventful day for her, it was hard not to admit it was kind of a cute sight to see an often-professional agent being so far off her brain as a result.

Mary had a bit of a positively baffled grin on her face. "You thinkin' you can handle being here while you sober up?

Vanessa retorted, "Yea'. Whatev'r. As long 's that maid keeps—urp—keeps up th' good work." She rolled over onto her left side, maintaining a glance towards the appointed maid that was continuing to provide aid. It may have been—scratch that, it was totally the alcohol talking, but the redhead was incredibly focused on that cute servant and that... intriguing attire.

A brief silence, and then Vanessa finally started to speak up on those thoughts... "'Nother question, Mary?"

"Yeah?"

"You think if I ask her to sit on m' face, she'd do it?"

Mary's eyebrows raised up so fast they could've flung off into orbit if they weren't bound to her face. "...What."

Even Aoi to the side leaned out upon overhearing. "Uhh... she just asked what I thought she just asked, right?"

Vanessa drunkenly chuckled in response to the baffled reaction besides her. "Fuck's sake, girls – have y' seen that maid's ass? Someone's gotta put that trunk to good use..."

Mary found it hard to stiffle her utter bewilderment. "'Nes, please – you're drunk, if you're gonna need to rest, I think you might need some proper pillows. Plus, I'm pretty sure she can hear you..."

She wasn't wrong – Iroha wasn't going to be taking that long with the water, and by the time she was back, the agents glanced ahead together and saw the maid standing before them, her face shaded slightly in a blushy pink as she stood awkwardly.

Eventually, Iroha commented, "I... don't think Miss Blanctorche informed me on whether or not I should go forward with orders like that."

Before Vanessa could speak up, Mary silenced her with a hand cupping over the redhead's mouth, retorting swiftly, "Please don't encourage her."

Good idea – otherwise, it would probably draw some ire out of Elisabeth with all this uncouth behavior going on with her cohorts.

Speaking of 'uncouth behavior'...

"Winner's circle, bitches!"

Hanging out in the bar room moments after had to be helped out of it outside of her own drunken accord, the floor was now given to Angel for her own celebration. This celebration, 'of course', involved her recklessly handling a couple of cactus-juice beers * (somehow that was a choice), slamming them down on the bar for herself to enjoy alongside others.

Among the others included Nagase, who was treated to one of the unnecessary glasses, and was quickly sparked with surprise, and not quite in the most positive sort. She never really acknowledged many drinks that were such an odd shade of green.

Nagase voiced her opinion quickly, staring down the clear green in revulsion. "...You don't expect me to actually drink that, right?"

Angel was seated atop the bar, with quite the tempting posture. "If you wanna win – I don't keep myself in this sort of shape just by pumping the weights, y'know!" She was playfully feeling herself up and down her chest and abs all the while – probably enjoying herself a bit too much, especially in a public(-ish) place like this.

"I'm a human weapon," Nagase quickly objected. "Who needs to be super-fit if it's the gadgets, the blades and the specs that do the talking?"

"Spoken like someone who doesn't want any boys thinking about her."

"I wanna be thought of as a wicked little nightmare of a ninja – with how you look, they're probably doing a lot more than thinking." Nagase recognized that there was a lot of contrast – between her own colorful get-up that's more for recognition than provocation, and Angel's cleavage-presenting leather jacket alongside her chaps-and-thong combo.

Angel chuckled, fully laying down flat atop the bar table with all the unsubtle sexiness of a gravure model. "Let 'em cum; to me, that's a great form of appreciation, n'ya know?"

"Now I don't know who's the freakest between us..." Nagase shoved aside the cactus beer in front of her face, and turned to her right. "So, how about you, 'Pretty in Purple'? How are you gonna celebrate making it this far?"

The nicknamed subject in this case was Athena, the third of the few who were sitting around in the room. "Away from you. Clearly." She was seated about halfway across the bar, a way's away from anyone else, enjoying a bit of milk, and making sure the little towel tucked slightly into her skirt hid well the nether-exposing tear in her spats.

"Soooo why bother being here? Where you risk bumping with scumbags like us?"

"'Cuz her friend's thirsty over here, too!" Filling the seat to the right of Athena, unsurprisingly at this point, was Malin – and she found plenty of reasons to try and start shit across the room with Nagase after their bout in the first round.

"I mean, 'friend' is kind of a strong word to throw around..." thought Athena, saying nothing out loud but still briefly rolling her eyes on the surface of her expression. Mostly, she didn't want Malin starting shit, especially since she was dealing with other personal things on top of that.

Nagase was particularly baffled by her round-one frustration personified returning into her fray. "Okay, you got literally burned into submission – how are you still kickin' it back like nothing awful happened to you?"

The honeybee nerd wasn't in the wrong putting an objection out like that – outside of the messy, fairly scorched attire, Malin seemed surprisingly fine by now, even though the fight was over and done with only a couple hours ago.

Malin's explanation – "You haven't had been taken care of by this tourney's staff like I was – it's some pretty good work. You probably wouldn't know that, cause you caught me on a bad point and got lucky."

Nagase darted her eyes back at the relaxed Angel, whispering what she knew. "I scanned all I could at the start of the fight – she was busy fingering herself like a minute before we started fighting."

"Was she thinking about me?" Angel whispered back, still hung up in curiosity about those who were doing 'more than thinking'.

"Shh!" Nagase shushed, before returning to her newfound rival with a retort. "Look, I'm not gonna get in your face like you're in mine – I won, you lost, that's pretty much it. Even with 'disadvantages' or luck, you weren't getting anywhere past me."

Without warning, a knife was withdrew into Malin's hand as she stabbed it straight into the flat wood surface in front of her. "Nothin' stopping us from going at it again – even if that lady whips both our asses at the end of the night, I ain't going down twice!"

Athena knew letting the blonde thief come along for the post-match mingles was a bad idea – immediately, she had to start holding Malin back. "Okay, so much for hanging out here – let's just head back to our room..."

"Dammit Athena, just let this happen!" complained Malin as her Psycho Soldier friend got a grapple around her waist and started dragging her off her stool as they made for the exit. If only she held onto the knife she shoved into the table, she would've probably had something to cut herself free.

"I don't wanna have to babysit you, alright? I'm diffusing this before it even has a chance to explode."

"For fuck's sake...!"

Nagase looked on, finding something kinda funny with the dynamic of the High School Girl team partners – sometimes she felt as though she had more of a well-arranged mind, though it was mostly thanks to Mephistopheles for basically rebuilding her.

"Hey, bee-babe."

"Hmm?" Nagase glanced back at Angel once again. At a future point, she would probably wish she didn't.

Angel spoke up, "Not gonna lie, I like seeing that idol chick leave, with those torn shorts. You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"

Nagase retorted, "I was thinkin' those girls are probably the worst 'best friends' I've seen. If you wanna try and rip Athena's shorts open and shove a fist up her hole, that's up to you – and all a variable based on how the next round's turning out."

"Oh, I would totally spread those cheeks," Angel shamelessly proclaimed, completely lacking hesitation. "Her's and her friend's – bike shorts are second to thongs in bringing the best outta butts."

Angel eventually rolled off the bar table, landing delicately onto her feet and walking past the fellow agent. "Anyways, I think I'm gonna go sniff those stools, since that's the closest I might get to actually eating some ass. You wanna join?"

"That sounds like a ridiculous idea," Nagase answered, grinding a finger against the wood to write some drawn-out scribbles here and there. "...Might as well do it anyways, we're being watched regardless..."

"Fucking Kusanagi... and that piece of shit soldier..."

Once they both eventually reclaimed their composure after the explosive first-round finale that they both wound up on the wrong end of, the secretaries of darkness were on their slow collective trudge through the halls, trying to find their way back to comfort. Whatever they'd consider comfort, at least.

Muttering out vulgar thoughts, Vice was on the tougher end of the deal, having to carry the injured (and still VERY out cold) Mature the whole way through. This was not a great time for either of them, especially for the violent redhead that was at least the winning half of the psychopathic duo.

"Welcome back, girls – glad you're feeling better..."

Beauty in pink awaited the vicious duet, as Shermie leaned besides the door leading into Mature and Vice's room, patiently sitting in wait.

By this point, the French babe was firmly solidified in the 'trio of terror' as the odd one out, being the friendliest, flirtiest and overall most positive one of the bunch. Of course, this was only as she was without influence of the Orochi – that was a whole 'nother beast, and hopefully not looked into very, very soon...

Vice greeted, clearly disgruntled. "Now's not the time to be so happy right now, honey. We've had enough shit to deal with for a day..."

Shermie giggled, approaching without caution. "Can't a babe greet her fellow babes, regardless of how torn up we get?"

Vice scoffed. "You lucked out on your match – we had to go through hell and still only one of us managed to win. Don't act like you went through the same crap as I did."

"I'm just having fun – you should too, even with a few cuts and bruises."

"And stab wounds?"

"You sound like you hate bringing it up."

"'Cause I do!" Right afterwards, Vice winced, the lingering pain coming from that wound again returning. The stress was getting to her again, clearly... "Rrgh... why should you care? In your last life, you had your throat ripped out..."

"And I'm looking fine now, don't you think?" retorted Shermie, twirling enthusiastically. "Hell, we're all sexy bitches around here~"

The rebuttal of such a statement was a pained groan – not from either of the redheads, but of Mature waking from her impromptu siesta. "Uhn, dammit..."

Vice briefly shook the draped-around arm of Mature as she lightly nudged against her. "You okay, babe?"

Drowsy and muddled with discorded injuries, Mature complained... "All this banter makes my head feel like it's wrapped in barbed wire..."

Vice assured her, "Nah – that's just Shermie trying to be the cheer-up. And failing."

Shermie crossed her arms, keeping at bay the hidden discontent. "Don't act like I wasn't helping..."

"Except you actually weren't. C'mon... let's just fucking lay down somewhere for once..." Vice bumped a shoulder into the door to the room to push it open and enter, the duet making a less dignified exit into their quarters than last time.

Shermie's sassy smile only wiped away a slight bit as she found herself back to an unsatisfying lonesome. She was usually the peppiest one in the room with her fellow cohorts. Sometimes she wished things were much happier for the trio, that the night would end on a more optimistic note considering at least 2 of the 3 had made it past the first round in this dazzling tournament.

Instead, things were as blunt as a door swinging open against your back when you least expect it. Just like Shermie didn't expect the same on her end, as the neighboring door, to her own room, opened and nudged against her to catch her off-guard.

"Oof!" The French babe took the bumpy door quite well, giggling away the brief pain – doubly helpful considering who she was now sharing the room with. "Careful~"

"Désolé..." Ash half-muffled on the other end, having leaned his slightly restless body against the door to open it. "Are they gone?"

Shermie nodded. "Yeah."

""Ah, dieu merci..." brought his face away from the door, shaking away some of the grogginess he felt having to endure the bit of Hakkesshu in-fighting on the other side. "I think I share Mature' pain – for a whole different reason."

"Don't get too wrapped up in it." Shermie twirled around to the other side of the door to meet up with her red-clad companion. "It's kinda their thing, being crazy devoted. 'Orochi's will' and all that."

"I can't imagine being aligned with people so wild. Hell, I can't even imagine being as wild as someone like Yagami." As far as he knew, Ash would be sacrificing a piece of his sanity for a new splash of paint for his flames (of which he didn't need Orochi in his past). After the business with his ancestor, he would not want anything dark inside him again.

"Well, if you're like Aoi, you'd spend a lot of time without having to deal with those... 'urges'." Shermie leaned her body deeper against Ash's, and from there, she cooed in intrigue. "Oooh... speaking of urges..."

In regards to what was poking against the front of Shermie's skirt, Ash's welcoming grin made it clear of how little indignity he felt. "Well, a guy like me, alone in that room thinking of someone like you... it's only natural.

Shermie giggled again. "Ash Crimson, you are so shameless."

"Well – that's one way to put it..." Ash wrapped an arm around the back of Shermie as they held each other closer... and closer...

"Attention~!" But the moment was cut short by the resounding alert across the building – the authorital but alluring voice of the tournament's second-hand arranger Chizuru sounded off with the following announcement:

"All participants in the building, will report to the foyer within ten minutes, for info regarding our next round. Please follow through in an orderly fashion, and thank you for your participation."

Shermie honestly almost forgot about the tournament for a little bit as she was lost in her effeminate fling's eyes. "Guess the night's not over yet..."

"Unfortunately." Ash realized fairly quickly it was gonna be a little while longer before he... got down to business with his fellow French hotness, and he looked a little disappointed. Thankfully, the smile of his lover kept him above surface level with his thoughts.

"If you want, you can just stay here; I won't be long, hopefully," Shermie assured.

"I'll try not to make a mess," Ash joked.

"Maybe that'd make it better..." Shermie leaned in and gave Ash a little pecking kiss on the lips, feeling up his jaw as she backed away and left the scene.

After again appreciating the view of Shermie's curves upon her exit, Ash closed the door, and as it was shut, he leaned against it. His eyes lowered on himself at first, at his clear excitement bulging beneath his pants, and then up to the ceiling, almost prepared to thank God.

Love was in the air, and he was right there to breathe it in and appreciate it.

* – The 'cactus beers' are sort of a nod to what is apparently a favorite food of Angel, which is 'raw cactus slices'.

Also the initial plan for this post-round stuff was to post this and the next chapter in a single go, as a double post; by the time I write this, the next chapter is actually mostly done and might either come out later in the day or within the next couple, so look forward to that. Speaking of...

Next Chapter: Heading into the second round, Elisabeth lays down the law with some changes to the rules...