A Push in the Right Direction
Mystery 54: Pet Show
The first event on the show was a battle, when Nera's turn came; she set Godai out to face a huge green goblin. "This isn't fair, I'm not even armed!" The goblin was not only three times as big as Godai, it held a large wooden club. Godai ran in circles around the arena, avoiding the swings of the club. He considered jumping out of the arena and getting himself disqualified, but he feared the consequences of that as well.
Exhausted and panicked, Godai tripped over his own feet and fell. The goblin, who was running after him, clumsily tripped over Godai, flailing its arms and tossing the club into the air as it fell with half its huge body outside of the circular arena, the club landing on its head. Godai rolled out of the way, escaping being crushed by the goblin's heavy legs. He was sore around the ribs where the goblin had tripped on him, but otherwise unharmed.
Each participant of the first round had to defeat two opponents in battle, reducing the number of participants considerably. Godai was not so lucky in his next fight. The massive black and white orc chased him right out of the arena, though it stupidly continued running after Godai, getting disqualified as well.
"You lost!" Nera yelled at Godai, who was still running for his life with the all brawn and no brains orc chasing after him, causing a commotion among the other participants, though the human witnesses laughed, thinking it was all part of the show.
In his haste, Godai found himself in the path of the goblin he had defeated before by sheer clumsy luck and the beast was angry. Godai jumped out of the way as the goblin raised the large club made out of a tree and brought it down harshly as the orc rammed right into the goblin and the two beasts knocked each other out, Godai emerging out of the ordeal unharmed. "That's it, I'm not playing anymore," his fear for Nera was lost to indignation and the courage that came as the aftermath of survival. He walked over to where Neuro was waiting and glared, blaming him for all that was wrong in the world, "I hate you." Then he sat down at the sidelines.
"Really slave number two, what are you so upset about?" Neuro innocently inquired and Godai decided not to dignify him with answer.
Neuro didn't have time to further annoy Godai, because it was his turn to send out one of his pets to do battle. "Go Stinky, make sure you win against both your opponents or else."
The unknown man in black went into the arena, but his opponents fought dirty, sending out both the kobold and gargoyle at once, instead of one by one as it should be. The judges reasoned that, since it was required to defeat two opponents before advancing, as long as that condition was met, it didn't matter if it was done separately or at the same time, they weren't too concerned with the minor details of the rules anyway.
The kobold and gargoyle glared at each other, as if deciding that the only worthy opponent was each other. They nodded with the silent agreement of getting rid of the creature in, which was small compared to them, then focus on fighting each other. Thus they pounded away, kicking, punching and clawing, but strangely enough, they couldn't even rip the black fabric, let alone wound him. "I would much rather not hurt you two, violence is not of my preference..." the clocked figure pushed the other two with amazing strength, causing the bronze kobold to helplessly stumble out of the arena.
The gargoyle flew at the last second, and got ready for a counter attack. However, the one whom Neuro called Stinky was faster; he grabbed the gray gargoyle's tail and pulled it hard enough to force the gargoyle to touch the ground outside of the designated fighting circle. The announcer declared him the winner and having defeated two opponents, Stinky gained the right to participate in the third round.
Each master could bring two pets and though Godai had been eliminated, Nera still had Yako whom she could sent out to round two and with some luck, she might gain access to the third and final round. Neuro had Stinky's participation in the finals secured and it was time to send out Yukari to face the second event of the day.
The crowed was moved to a different area of the grassy fields outside the city, often used to set up carnivals and circus shows, as well as bonfires and other outdoor activities that brought a large gathering of people. There was enough room to build a maze, filled with cameras so that the audience could see what was happening inside on a big screen.
The participants would enter the maze one by one and were required to navigate the labyrinth and find a way to get through a series of locked doors. Any methods would be fine, picking the locks or breaking down the doors, however, breaking down a wall was not allowed. The maze had no fully open paths, one would have to run through it and find the right series of doors to get to the other side. It was a race against time with only the fastest few qualifying.
"This will be easy!" Yukari cheered as she stood on the starting line. She was enjoying the show very much and even more so now that it was her turn to be a part of it. The signal to begin sounded off and she rushed into the maze, following her instincts as a guide to the structure. While the audience and the masters could watch, the other pets had been sent away to another circus tent, where they could not see the maze so as to not have any extra advantages.
Suspiciously, Yukari was able to find the right way through the maze with ease, picking one lock after another like a professional thief. She made it to the end, jumping and cheering. Her time was quite good and very likely to get her to the next round. Most likely, the other competitors would run through the maze knocking down doors, which would be set up again for the next contestant to repeat the action, few of the pet creatures present actually had a detectable IQ level.
Many of the large beings, ogres, orcs, goblins, kobolds, gargoyles and a variety of others, in their rush to get through the maze quickly, ran into walls past the doors, breaking them down and becoming disqualified. Others ran through the entire maze, going in circles, breaking down doors one by one as they came to them, then finding doors that had already been broken down, realizing they were back to where they had been before. They lacked the intellect to figure out the maze and though the average human was more intelligent than those creatures, Neuro found it suspicious that Yukari could get through the maze with such ease and even more so that she could pick locks as if it was second nature.
When Yako's turn came, her face revealed concentration and hunger. She was full of determination like Neuro had never seen before. She rushed into the maze, taking all the right turns with perfection, which amazed the crowds. She had a bit of a struggle with some of the locks, but fought her way through, picking them or even breaking them. She couldn't get the last door to open and stubbornly ran into it until she knocked it down and made it to the end of the maze in good time.
The explanation to Yako's performance in the maze was no secret. Neuro had no doubts that though faint, she could somehow perceive the scent of food slipping under the doors of the maze and followed it to the end, nearly ripping off Nera's hand when she snatched away the hotdog she was using to secretly guide Yako though the maze. The judges either didn't understand the extent of he hotdog's influence in the trek through the labyrinth or didn't care.
Along with the strongest mythological creatures, Yako, Yukari and the unknown man nicknamed Stinky, had advanced to the final round of the show. It was the moment of truth, the last competition was about to be revealed and a winner would be chosen.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro.
