BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga

Volume 2: Pokerface

Chapter 15: Hotel Chambert

"This is a big crowd..." Ryuu struggled to say within the mass of people crowding the front door as he and the rest of the Electopian fighters tried to make their way to the front desk. None of the people in line looked the least bit familiar to any of them except Klove, who tried to hide his identity as best he could. He already knew that veterans were unwelcome if they were to compete again, especially if they had gotten as far as he had in the last tournament.

"Gah!" Miyuu let out as she was almost out of the crowd and hopping on one foot, "Let go... of my leg..." Miyuu struggled to pry her left foot out of the crowd and finally succeeded as the rest of the fighters made it out of the mass of people. They were all gathered around a handful of people near the wall, but none of them could make out who it was due to the crowd blocking their view.

"Let's get to the desk before they decide to check..." Kinzoku said, but then stopped to see the crowd slowly moving from the mass towards the desk. "...in..."

Manic and Kinzoku quickly raced to the front desk to get rooms for everyone for tomorrow's match. It didn't take long for the four ahead of them to check in, as they were veterans of the last tournament, and had the bruises from the crowd to prove it.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the warm-hearted receptionist asked from behind the desk. She seemed cheerful towards everyone, making everyone from Electopia feel a bit easier about being at the hotel.

"Hi, are there any rooms available?" Kinzoku asked softly.

"No rooms are available, but if you're associated with the tournament, can you please tell me the country you're representing and your registered team name, please."

Manic thought for a second. Of course they hadn't registered their team name, he assumed, nor would it transfer to the hotel straight from the boat about who won the preliminaries that quickly, but it was worth a shot.

"Team Deity and Team Ironfist from Electopia," Manic said as he leaned on the counter. The receptionist frantically typed on a small keyboard and stared at a transparent monitor for a few seconds.

"...no, we don't have any teams registered by those names, sorry," the receptionist said.

"Ok..." Manic said as he leaned forward and whispered to the receptionist, "We're the... guests..."

"Oh, yes, you're the guests," the receptionist said with a bright smile as she typed more on the keyboard. Manic and the others could feel all the glares coming from the crowd of contestants as the room went silent, save for the sounds of typing on a keyboard. Manic decided not to look at the crowd and kept leaning on the desk while the others tried to ignore the crowd's stares.

"Ah, yes, here you go," the receptionist said finally, "Here are your keys... Sorry, but the two rooms are on separate floors. Good luck tomorrow!"

Manic thanked her quietly as he took the keys and handed one to Joseph. Joseph and Team Ironfist were on the fourth floor with room 405 while Team Deity had room 607, two floors above them.

"Let's go..." Manic said quietly as they all left the hotel lobby and strode up the stairs. As the group headed for the stairwell, Klove stayed behind and glared back at the crowd.

*I know you're in here...* Klove said to himself as he tried to see within the crowd. He then turned and walked towards the stairwell also. *But you won't show yourself until the last minute... I know how you work...*

The fighters quickly made their way to the fourth floor, letting Jet, Taichi, Derek, Klove and Joseph go to their rooms.

"We'll meet in the lobby tomorrow morning and go to the arena as a group, is what Jet's suggesting," Taichi said as he translated Jet's sign language for him. Manic nodded in agreement and led the way upstairs towards the sixth floor. The four made it to the sixth floor without receiving any unwanted attention from other fighters and they quickly made it to room 607.

"That was the longest moment in my life..." Ryuu said with a sigh as they all walked into the room. Kinzoku immediately set his katana and wakizashi on the table, along with Ryuu's nunchaku and Miyuu's katana. Manic was just taking off his ninjato and gun holster when something on the roof of their room caught his eye.

"What is that?" Manic asked quietly as he nodded towards a small, thin box mounted on the roof.

"Could be a camera..." Kinzoku said as he lay down on the bed, "I wouldn't be surprised to see one in our room, seeing as we're the 'guests' of this competition...they would want to keep a watch on us to make sure we don't escape..."

"That's true," Ryuu said as he splashed some water on his face quickly from the sink. Miyuu was sitting on the other bed, thumbing at a scratch on the sheath of her katana. Ryuu then walked out of the bathroom and saw the sun about to set over a mountain. "We had better get some rest for tomorrow," Ryuu said, wiping his face dry with a washcloth. Manic nodded in agreement, along with Miyuu. Kinzoku was already asleep.

Miyuu sighed, "I'll sleep on that bed... doesn't look like he'll wake up any time soon..."

"There's a fold-out bed in here if you prefer sleeping on that, Miyuu-chan," Ryuu said as he closed the closet and looked towards Miyuu.

"I'll take that," Miyuu said in response.

"Ok, I'll sleep on that bed, then," Manic said as he crossed the room, "Ryuu has a bed to himself, then..." Ryuu smiled and walked towards the bed as Manic said this, but stopped shortly afterwards and looked out the window.

"Who's that?" Ryuu asked no one in particular. Manic and Miyuu walked towards the window to look down at the ground to see a short, chubby man with long gray hair walking towards the entrance to the hotel.

"Hmm..." Manic said, "He might be a judge or something, because I don't see a team anywhere around him."

"That's possible," Miyuu said. She then yawned and walked towards her bed, "Well, I'm going to get some sleep now, see you all in the morning..."

"I'm going to do the same," Ryuu said as he walked towards his bed.

"Hope we do well enough at the tournament to leave there alive..." Manic said quietly as he walked towards the remaining bed.

*Don't worry, these guys all looked like pushovers compared to us,* Infernos said to Manic, *Besides, you guys are kinda cheating... you have 9 members on your team instead of 5...*

*But don't let anyone know...* Yui responded.

*I bet they already do, Yui,* Gaius said, *That's why we're here...*

There was a pause of silence until Infernos spoke up, *Eh, best not worry about these things right now, let them sleep...*

*True,* Gaius and Yui said.

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The hotel clock had read that it was four in the morning when a loud siren blared throughout all the rooms in the hotel. Everyone awoke with a start in 607, along with 405, save for Klove who had been used to this.

"What the hell!?" Manic yelled as he jumped from the bed.

"It's a fire alarm," Ryuu said as he grabbed the weapons off the table and tossed them to their respective owners. They were all now headed out the door and down to the lobby.

"Gah!" Joseph yelled as he fell onto the floor from the buzzing.

"Well, the tournament's begun," Klove said calmly as he got up from the bed.

"What?! At this early in the morning!?" Joseph interrogated.

"They know people are most savage around this time of day," Klove said as he grabbed his equipment from the table, "Because they're not fully awake... they don't hold back as much..."

They all made their way to the hotel lobby, assuming that the alarm meant that something had happened in the hotel and they were all to evacuate. However, once Team Deity reached the lobby floor and met up with Team Ironfist, everyone was gathered around a large scoreboard that displayed the team brackets.

BANDIT'S COVE TOURNAMENT
Tournament Bracket:

              ___________
                            |
                            |
___________ --___________
            |                        |
            |                        |
 _____--_____  _____--_____
     |           |             |          |
 __--__   __--__     __--__   __--__


1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15-16

Teams 1-4(Electopian Bracket)
1: Deity
2: Oni
3: ZX-One
4: Ironfist

Teams 5-8(Netopian Bracket)
5: Shuko
6: World Three
7: Liquid
8: Shikegami

Teams 9-12(Northern Republic Bracket)
9: Ace
10: Ninpo
11: Frost
12: Presario

Teams 13-16(Eurasian Bracket)
13: Ryusho
14: Zieghammer
15: Thunderstrike
16: Fierce Wind

"So, this is the bracket for the tournament?" Kinzoku asked as he looked at the teams.

"Team Oni..." Miyuu said quietly as she looked at the board, "We fight them first..."


"Their name doesn't sound very inviting..." Ryuu commented.

"...I wonder who Team ZX-One is..." Manic said as he looked at the scoreboard, but then his attention was caught by Kinzoku, who hit his shoulder to look at something.

"Look," Kinzoku said, "Didn't the World Three disband?" He pointed to the Netopian Bracket and towards World Three.

"Yeah, at least that's what I'd heard..." Manic said.

"Maybe someone picked it up again..." Ryuu commented, "It's not the first time that's happened before..."

"True..." Manic said, "In either case, we had better get ready for our fight today, we don't know how strong Team Oni is..."

"Then you had better beware, Team Deity," a voice said from behind them. They turned around to see a tall, black-haired man with light blue eyes glaring at them. He wore a gray trenchcoat and had a large, narrow stick strapped onto his back. Next to him were four other people clad in black ninja attire.

"You must be Team Oni," Manic said, returning the glare.

"You assume correctly," the man said as he started to walk past Manic. "You had better be as good as they say... because I'd be rather disappointed to see that the so-called 'strongest' are weak..."

Manic's determination remained with him, even after Team Oni had left. He then looked to Miyuu, Ryuu and Kinzoku.

"We're going to win this tournament, and we're all going home alive."

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V2 chapter 15 complete! Please read and review!