- Disclaimer: Matantei Loki Ragnarok belongs to Kinoshita Sakura.
Ah, My Loki-sama!
written by Kurosu
- Chapter Forty-Two. Special - Unforgettable Summer, Battle for the Brides.
"Grrrr, curse you guys!"
Freya's screaming was really give them all a headache, but that was the typical reaction of a woman being tied up to a wooden post in the middle of an empty field while her friends were all hiding behind the bushes, keeping a lookout for their enemies. They had split in to two different groups, where Heimdall led one with Freyr, Gullinbursti, Hodur and Koutaro, positioned in the north, and Loki's group was too the east, so they would have a good view of the open space - even Gjallar was posted in a nearby tree upon his master's orders.
"Did we really have to tie her like that?" Mayura sweatdropped, huddled close to Loki, who had his arm wrapped around her crouching form. He did make this plan for them, but he had a bad feeling in his gut that he couldn't shake away, and he usually felt this way when it involved Mayura, so he couldn't let her out of his sight, no matter what.
Knowing that the others had a good eye on Freya and the goddess, herself, could handle most things, he could focus on protecting Mayura.
'We should've gagged her while we were at!' Fenrir sighed, his head on the ground with paws over his ears, in agony over the goddess' loud, banshee-like scream, 'Who wants a noisy sacrifice anyway!'
"Nii-sama, that's not nice."
The puppy started to laugh, 'It's ironic... that we're sacrificing a goddess, haha!'
"Aha, that's pretty funny!" Narugami was chuckling too, "I bet they're not picky at all."
"Shh, I think I heard something," Loki hushed them, listening carefully, as his green eyes scanned the area, "Do you see anything?"
"No, nothing, Loki-sama."
Yamino peered in to the distance, seeing the earth appearing undisturbed, but what they should have paid attention to was the area behind them, where the shadow had suddenly appeared, speeding towards Mayura. Gjallar's warning squawk blared over them, and Loki's hand gripped Mayura's shoulder, and he pulled her against him, twisting them both to the side, as the shadow rushed by them.
Narugami was the next to react, swinging Mjollnir at the shadow, but missed, smashing in to the sand instead. The shadow made a turn back towards Loki and Mayura, but the god scooped her in to his arms and jumped out of the way.
Heimdall's group shot out from their hiding place, about to chase after the shadow, when Freya's screamed for them, another dark spot appeared, charging for the goddess. Heimdall and Freyr changed directions, going to assist the bound up goddess, since she was their priority, but Hodur tripped and fell, trying to follow them. While they tried to attack the sand, Koutaro snuck up behind Freya and quickly untied her, but no one was able to get a good hit on their slippery opponents.
They couldn't get a strike in like this, against beings they couldn't even touch or see, and at the speed they were moving, it was impossible for a direct attack. They would have to take the indirect route, and if the sand was their only connection, then Loki would use it. He shouted to everyone, "ATTACK THE SAND!"
Heimdall clenched his teeth and jabbed his hand in to the sand, summoning his dark powers in to the earth. The ground shook and rumbled loudly, and suddenly a burst of dark energy streaked towards the shadow and exploded from underneath them, blasting sand all over the place, and out from the heap, a strange monkey-like man leapt out of the sand. He flipped backwards in to a tree and perched on the branch, grinning, "He~h, you guys know magic?"
"Eh, a talking monkey?" Koutaro sweatdropped.
A vein appeared on Sarutoru's head, "Who are you calling a monk-"
"Wow!" Mayura was ecstatic, "I bet Mister Monkey knows all sorts of tricks!"
"..."
Narugami took care of the other shadow, stabbing the earth with Mjollnir, and called forth his lightning to blast a dog-like man from the black patch. He landed on the ground on all fours and ran around Narugami once before charging head first at him, but it was Fenrir that head butt in to his side like a shooting bullet, knocking the half-beast back to the sand, but he immediately got up and regrouped with his partner.
A third shadow appeared, and a bird-like man jumped out from it, and everyone sweatdropped at the array of weirdoes, not what they were expecting in terms of formidable foes. This was way too much for Koutaro to take, and he unexpectedly laughed, like someone who had reached his limit, "Aha, this must be a dream! I'm probably still at home... dreaming all this up... This crazy, weird island... with all these freaks...!"
Then out of the skies, a giant image of a peach appeared, light radiating around it, but it was no mirage, it really was the fruit itself, drifting down towards ground, where the spectators gathered as if it was the most awesomest thing anyone ever witnessed, but no one was impressed, because they were gods, except for Koutaro and Mayura. What was even more amazing was the peach splitting apart to reveal a boy in fancy tribal garb with a sword attached, horizontally, to the back of his waist and a gourd hanging at his side, and he held another peach in his hands.
"Oh my god! Aliens DO exist!" blurted out a very enthusiastic Mayura, jumping out of a sweatdropping Loki's arms.
"Eh! Really?!" Hodur got just as excited, looking about.
"Yeah, this has to be a dream! Totally a dream!" Koutaro, having snapped in to psychotic laughter, kept insisting to himself, but Freya was so tired of listening to him, and even though he did untie her, she smacked him anyway with her magical frying pan, knocking out the noisy, mortal boy unconscious.
"Dream that then!" the goddess sighed.
The enemy's apparent leader was the youthful boy, who radiated a mysterious power beneath his apparent maturity, floating towards the group, as the peach he emerged from faded from view. He had a regal, arrogant air about him that irritated the gods, who wanted to wipe off the prissy smirk off his face and give a black eye or two, because he had no idea who he was really dealing with.
Nargugami threw Mjollnir over his shoulder, "What's up with this light show?"
'Says Flashy Pants,' Fenrir snarked.
The peach vanished in to thin air as the boy introduced himself, "I am Touma, Prince of Illusions and ruler of Togenkyo!"
Narugami glanced towards his companions, "Togenkyo? Have you guys heard of it?"
"Freyr doesn't know."
"It must be their home planet!" Mayura chipped in.
'Is it food?' Fenrir asked hastily, and even Gullinbursti seemed to have lit up at the mention of food.
Hodur mumbled, "It sounds like a spa resort..."
Touma and his minions sweatdropped, while half the group discussed this mysterious Togenkyo, the rest of the immortals didn't care at all with either of his narcissistic attitude or self-proclaimed title of some place they had never heard of, still glaring at him and his posse of kidnappers, and Heimdall, after he mumbled 'idiots,' stepped forward to the so-called prince, "You're the ones that kidnapped our friends."
"Kidnapped?" the bird-man scoffed, "Don't insult us!"
"Even if you're aliens," Mayura shouted at them, "I won't give you special treatment!"
Everyone sweatdropped, but she continued, "I can't forgive you for taking Hel-chan and Spica-sama! We want them back!"
"Give back Hel-chan!" Hodur wailed, collapsing to the sand on his knees, crying in to his arms, "Give back my best friend!"
"That's enough!" Touma frowned, ordering them to all shut up, "The remaining women will come with me!"
Immediately after that declaration, all the gods, being oh so over protective, moved in front of Mayura and Freya, glaring at their enemies darkly, while a very pissed off goddess crossed her arms over her abdomen, shouting at the prince, "You cheeky, little brat, how dare you address me in that tone! I'll have you know not even the-"
Narugami, cutting Freya off, pointed Mjollnir at the group, "If you're looking for a fight, I'll give it to you! But you're not laying a hand on them!"
'Flashy Pants!' Fenrir barked, 'Don't hog all the glory!'
"Nii-san, that's not important..."
"Freyr won't let a kid take Freya and Yamato Nadeshiko!"
The monkey lackey jumped down from the tree and dropped a lobster to the ground - never mind he pulled the thing out of thin air, or painfully from his pants - while Touma stepped up to it, taking the gourd from his side and uncapping it. He powered some mysterious liquid over the poor lobster, turning the sea creature in to a fully grown hybrid of a man, and the freaking out was commenced by various members of Loki's group. The calmer ones of Loki, Heimdall, Yamino and Hodur, who had no idea what was going on because he couldn't see, sweatdropped.
"Oh my god!" Mayura cried, "It turned in to a person!"
"I've seen worse," Loki deadpanned, and the other gods nodded in agreement.
'Oi, is that supposed to scare us?!' Fenrir growled, but none of the enemies could understand him, so he was ignored.
Touma, kind of pissed that he wasn't doing a good job of scaring these people, shouted, "If you don't come quietly with us to my bridal competition, then I'll just dump this water on you and no man will ever be interested in you again!"
"Are you threatening me?!" Freya narrowed her eyes at the royal brat.
'With that personality,' the puppy murmured, 'no one's interested in her.'
The blonde goddess whipped her head towards Fenrir, as if she had heard him, eyeing him carefully, and he scurried over to his father's side just in case she wanted to exact revenge on his true statement, while everyone puzzled over the mentioning of a bridal competition. The absurdity of it all had infuriated Freyr, who obviously would forbid his sister and his Yamato Nadeshiko to participate in such things.
"Touma-kun!" Mayura called, "If we go with you, will you let our friends go?"
Everyone was shocked by her words, but leave it to the mortal girl to put her friends' safety before her own, but Touma appeared satisfied by her answer, "Then you're willing?" He moved towards her, a hand offered out to her, but Loki refused to let her go, standing in front of her protectively, daring the prince to take in for what was his, though unofficially.
Heimdall snorted, "I wouldn't trust him, nee-chan."
Narugami lifted Mjollnir up, "If you won't return our friends..."
"Freyr will convince you!"
Leave it to the easily excitable Narugami and Freyr to charge head on in to battle without another thought for the consequences nor the rest of their companions watching them. They really should've at least assessed the abilities their enemies had first, like the sudden invisible shockwave blasted at the group from Touma's left hand, catching them off guard. He drew the mysterious blade from its scabbard and held it up high in to the air, summoning a blinding light and distracting them further with the tremors of the earth and the flames bursting from the grounds.
His minions jumped in to the fray, smacking them aside till they forced their way towards the remaining females of the group. Touma was quicker, able to reach Mayura within seconds, and was brave to snatch Mayura's arm and dragged her from Loki's side.
"Loki-kun!" she cried, reaching out her hand to him.
The god, knocked off balance from the quake, swung his hand for her but missed her by centimeters, "Mayura!"
The rocks and dirt exploded from the ground in front of him, blocking his way, and the flames flared up and engulfed him, along with the others. Their dangerous surroundings had them trapped and all he could do was watch the bratty prince throw her over his shoulder like a sack of rice that the girl didn't appreciate, while his pack of animal hybrids took care of a feisty Freya, requiring both the monkey-man and dog-man to pin her set of flailing arms and legs in place before taking off in to the air.
"Unhand me you filthy creatures!" the goddess demanded, "When I get my chain-"
"Will someone shut her up!" their prince groaned as they gathered around him in small spheres, and the group retreated back to their island base of darkness and foreboding things to come, that eventually floated along side many others from the ominous thick fog. This would have been a mystery, but Loki could track down Mayura without a problem, but how to get there was another issue. Not everyone could just fly over there or teleport, as magical and all powerful they seemed to be.
Speaking of powers, how shameful that a group of gods was defeated by a prepubescent, self-proclaimed royal ass that probably didn't know a thing about women and dared to use cheap tricks like illusions to attack gods - which was normally Loki's little mischievous pranks when he was bored. Not only were their women's lives at stake, but so were their prides as immortals of Asgard, and they weren't particularly merciful gods at this point, ready to dish out some death sentences at the next meet.
Lucky for them that they didn't have to swim across the seas to reach Togenkyo Island, because Yamino and Heimdall managed to find an emergency life boat stashed below deck of the Kakinouchi yacht - even the unconscious heir could be useful. So the measly flotation device was a very tight fit, carrying six gods and two small animals across the waters, and poor Loki wasn't spared from the waves of the seas.
Meanwhile, Mayura and Freya, both blindfolded and arms tied behind their backs, though only Freya still had a gag on, were being led down a long corridor by the animal-like henchmen. They gently pushed them forward, Mayura stumbling a bit, bumping in to Freya in front of her, and apologized. When they finally reached a set of large doors, being shoved open by the guards, while the escorts took the blindfolds off the women and untied them.
Before Freya could even summon her magical weapons and attack, she and Mayura were pushed in to the very poorly lit room. Instead of stumbling to the floor, which was several meters down, they plummeted in to the large pillow cushions, and the lights overhead began to brighten, revealing extravagant chandeliers overhead, and a large banquet hall of at least a hundred females in attendance, all dressed in luxurious dresses and ball gowns.
Freya ground out angrily, miffed that she wasn't given such gorgeous clothing, which shouldn't be the concern right now, "What in Asgard's name is this?!"
"Wow!" Mayura exclaimed, "Everyone is so pretty!"
"Mayura-san!"
The familiar voice drew their attention among the crowd, where Hel-chan excused her way through the women to make it to her friends. She was wearing a completely different attire than her beach wear, though showing just as much skin in the spaghetti-strap dress with a short skirt, and Mayura glomped her, "Hel-chan, I'm so glad you're okay! Where's Spica-sama?"
"She's over there," she pointed over her shoulder and took Mayura's hand, leading them through the maze of females, all socializing with each other as if being captives to a bunch of human-hybrids was not a problem. They were drinking and eating like it was a huge party, and part of the feasting crowd was Spica, drowning herself in paradise of food, that clashed with her cute, halter dress of frills and ribbons. Her teeth tore through a large drumstick in one hand while the other waved at them, and they sweatdropped at the size of it, even more amazed by the sheer amount of food stretched on the long table.
"At least one of us is enjoying the abduction," the blonde goddess sneered.
Spica's sign: 'At least I don't have a stick up my ass.'
"Why you-"
It was an obvious fact that a god and a giant were eternal rivals, and Mayura couldn't let a conflict break out among them, "AH! I'm sure Loki-kun is on his way to save us!"
As if his name was a magical word to erase all of Freya's anger and hate, she found herself pining for the trickster god instead, "Oh! Loki certainly will save me from these heathens! I guess I'll have to be a maiden in distress and let him be the hero! It'll be so romantic!"
Spica's sarcastic sign: 'Great. I'll be over here.'
The others sweatdropped at her sudden change in demeanor, which the mortal was grateful for and looked around the room, "Hel-chan, do you know who these girls are? Are they like us?"
She nodded, "They were taken from the nearby islands."
"But they're not even worried," Freya remarked, "Like this is all a party to them."
"Apparently we were invited to a bridal competition for a Prince Touma, whoever he is."
"Eh," Mayura sweatdropped, "I wouldn't really call it a friendly invitation."
"That stupid brat again," Freya growled, so unlike a goddess.
Somewhere on the island, Loki and company were hidden in the perimeter of the forest glades that surrounded the mighty fortress that was just a very large tree in the center of the drifting piece of land, almost comparable to Yggdrasil, to come up with the next plan. After much deliberation in the group, they had come to a consensus that blasting their way inside would only put their women's safety at risk, so the next best thing was distract and assimilate to the situation.
It was a good thing that they were gods, more specifically good-looking gods with magical powers that could transform themselves to lovely goddesses that even mortal men could fall in love with. This was the one time that Heimdall was grateful for lacking his right eye and possessing half his powers, so he wouldn't go on a gender-bending spree for the sake of loved ones.
Narugami, in a poofy, ruffled dress, glared at a beautiful Loki, who shouldn't be grinning so smugly in the fitted, slim gown of bloody red, "This is a lot worse than 'that time'. Now I'm a freakin' woman!"
"It's only for a few minutes, till we get inside."
"Freyr is so lovely," the god-turned-temporary-goddess sighed, playing with the ends of his attached, white cape to his shimmering, pearly white princess ball gown, while a very touched Gullinbursti gazed at his master with much admiration, "but not as lovely as Yamato Nadeshiko!"
"The girls better not see me like this," Narugami moped.
"Waah, it'll be so embarrassing!" Hodur gushed, and the others sweatdropped, not only to his rather cutesy exclamation but also his black, gothic-like dress topped with a black hoodie, in the middle of summer.
'You don't sound embarrassed,' Fenrir barked then turned to an uncomfortable Yamino, who was wearing a very conservative, purple dress with long sleeves and a skirt that dragged on the ground, 'Oi Jormungand, what's up with that outfit. You need to wear something sexy.'
"All right," Heimdall clapped for their attention, "If you ladies are done whining, we have some work to do." That comment earned him some glares, and he ignored them, making his way out of the forest, heading towards the fortress entrance being guarded by two soldiers.
Of course he and his group of fake women were immediately stopped, looking rather suspicious but that was overshadowed by the obvious ogling of the guards. Heimdall sweatdropped at his poorly assembled bridal candidates for the prince, and it seemed that only the competent Loki and a ditzy Freyr managed to lure the henchmen in to a sense of comfortable flirting, but one look at Narugami's constipated expression was priceless.
"Are you ladies here to be Prince Touma's bride?"
"Yes," Heimdall coughed, "my sisters are looking for husbands..."
A guard walked over to Narugami and gave him a look over, wagging his brows with interest. Narugami glared as he walked by, passing the inspection, but he suddenly felt a slap to his behind. The thunder god already hated wearing women's clothing, due to a past incident, but turning in to a female and being hit on was another matter completely.
Heimdall slapped a hand to his forehead since that little action had doomed them, while Fenrir and Gullinbursti, having hidden themselves under Yamino's and Freyr's dress respectively, witnessed the humorous sight and snickered.
Not able to take anymore of the charade, Narugami grabbed Mjollnir from underneath his skirt, strapped to his leg, and smacked the two guards unconscious.
"We should've done this from the start," he shouted, ripping the dress from his person to break the magic, returning himself to his original appearance, and kicked the entrance door down. The other gods did the same, tearing through the fabric ending the magic casted on them, overlooking the fact that the whole plan had been pointless to begin with, but a grinning Heimdall had some great blackmail images for the future.
He sprinted in to the fortress after everyone and came to a stop at a very long hallway, with a series of doors along both sides, and they sweatdropped, knowing that nothing was ever good behind closed doors. Besides, Loki had a direct path to Mayura, the white thread shimmering brightly straight down the hall, and he charged ahead, leading them to their final destination.
Spica was still stuffing her face with all the food while Mayura and Hel-chan, each had a plate of a bit of this and that, dared not to invade the giantess' territory, but they were famished from all the waiting, wondering when this so called bridal competition was going to start. They had no plans on participating but were rather curious about the strange entertainment of these islanders, though Mayura's mind wandered back to Loki and the others, hoping they were all right.
With the quick break in between, Mayura was now sporting a strapless and backless gown that wrapped around her chest towards her lower back and a wide sash tied around her waist, right beneath her bust, making a big bow in the back. The skirt was short, hitting mid-thigh, with a slit on each side that didn't seem to bother her much, considering the two-piece swimsuit she wore earlier.
Annoyed and impatient, Freya, having changed in to the island's expensive fabric of soft blue that hugged her curves, flowing straight to the floor, a slit along the right side and a single strap over her left shoulder, threw her goblet of red wine to the floor. She stood up, and with a hand on her hip, she was about to give a piece of her mind to their absent hosts, when, as if on cue, the sounds of drums began to fill the banquet hall and the lights dimmed, a spotlight appearing on the raised platform in the middle of the room.
A voice, from over the loud speakers, announced, "The one you've all been waiting for... the wonderful and magnificent ruler of Togenkyo, Prince Touma!"
In a flash of blinding lights and theatrical fireworks display, Touma appeared before the throne, standing proudly and waving a hand to his audience, and the lights returned to normal while the female crowds murmured to themselves.
"Oh, so that's Touma-san," Hel-chan noted in surprise.
Spica's sign: 'He's just a baby.'
"A baby that needs to be punished!" Freya glared.
"Attention, ladies!" the monkey-man, named Sartor because that was his given name (and he hated to be called monkey-man), now had a microphone in his hand, since he was the host of the bridal contest, "The Bridal Games will now begin!"
"If he's looking for a spanking," the blonde goddess whipped out her magical frying pan, "I'll be glad to give him one."
"Sorry, ojou-san," the birdman named Toristan appeared behind them, "But the cooking round doesn't start till later."
Mayura, sweatdropping and trying to calm the hot-headed Freya down with Hel-chan, spoke to the masked man, "Excuse me, but we're not participating."
"You have no choice. Everyone must participate, or else."
She blinked, "Or else?"
"Or else what?!" Freya screamed.
Toristan sweatdropped, thinking how Freya would totally lose the competition, and showed them a piece of paper. Mayura took it and looked it over, gradually a bunch of tiny sweatdrops appear over her head, and seeing how nervous and distress the mortal had become, Hel-chan and Freya stood on either side of her to see what was the big deal. Right behind them, Spica just shoved a meatball in to her mouth, holding a sign up: 'What is it?'
"AN INVOICE?!"
"For all the luxury accommodations," he nodded, "Your dresses, the food and wine..."
Upon seeing how much their total was, coming to about 608,900 yen ($6089), the three screamed at the poor messenger - ironic that he was half bird to deliver the bad news, "WE CAN'T PAY FOR THIS!"
"The dresses shouldn't cost that much!" Freya glared.
"And we hardly ate anything," Hel-chan's eyes teared up.
Mayura sweatdropped and turned around to look at Spica, who was still eating, attempting to look innocent and clueless about the whole matter, while Toristan continued to add up the additional food she was inhaling to the current invoice.
Spica's sign: 'You mean it's not free?'
"Ah, I'm surprised," the mortal girl started, a nervous twitch of her left eye, "Loki-kun hasn't filed for bankruptcy..."
It was quite amazing when one thought about it, ignoring the fact that these were gods, when Loki could afford such a large and extravagant mansion to live in, pay for the necessities and Yamino's occasional mail order spending while the rest of the gods struggled to make ends meet, like Narugami's endless part-time jobs and the sharing of rent of a 20-tatami size apartment between Heimdall, Freyr and Freya.
Sarutoru's voice boomed over them again, "Every woman must have patience to be Prince Touma's bride! The first contest will test this!"
Each girl present, being forced to participate, was given a pair of chopsticks and two plates, one was empty and the other filled with grains of rice. Mayura and company looked at their set uncertainly, all praying that their friends would hurry up and save them, and even Spica was no exception since the buffet was shut down.
Instructions for the round was announced, "You must move each grain of rice from one plate to the other, using only the chopsticks!"
Spica stared at the plate of rice in her hands, and all she could see was food, despite it being in its raw state, and dumped it in to her mouth.
The girls sweatdropped when she held up a sign: 'I'm still hungry.'
Toristan pointed at Spica, "Disqualified!"
The giantess held her empty plate out to him, holding up another sign: 'Food please.'
"This is silly," Hel-chan sighed.
Freya growled, "Only an idiot could think this up!"
"Hm, this doesn't seem so bad," Mayura smiled, carefully moving one grain with the chopsticks, her tongue poking between her lips in full concentration, while the other goddesses sweatdropped. At the success of her first rice making it to the other plate, she clapped and cheered, "Yay! I did it!"
"Mayura-san," Hel-chan smiled at her friend's amusement and optimism in spite of their circumstance and turned to her plates and decided to give the game a try but was less successful.
"Hmmf!" Freya glared at her plates and decided to participate, not because she wanted to be a bride to some brat, but she was a goddess, who could do anything gracefully and elegantly, with hubris. She was out to prove to that idiot Touma that no one was going to make a fool out of goddess Freya and get away with it, yet he didn't need to lift a finger for her already do so.
Within minutes, she successfully completed the task, raising the new plate of rice grains up to Touma, "You little brat, I won this!"
Following Freya's completion, Hel-chan finished hers and wiped the sweat from her forehead. The mental focus wasn't the issue, but she never had to deal use a pair of chopsticks to pick up such a tiny thing before, and coming after them was a bright Mayura, humming to herself, as she had no problems, taking her time because she didn't realize that speed was also key to winning. Not many girls were able to complete the task, and only the top fifty fastest ones could make it to the next round.
"Boring~! It doesn't count!" Touma waved off the round without a care, ignoring Freya's ranting and raving below. For him, the image of a beautiful woman lowering herself for a mere child's enjoyment was hilarious enough, and he was ready to move on, "Bring on the next contest!"
Obeying his young master, Sarutoru announced the next round when a group of henchmen brought out a gigantic Venus Flytrap to the center of the room, "Not only does a wife have patience but also talent! The next contest is flower arrangement!"
Mayura and Hel-chan, each holding a pair of clippers, stared up at it and sweatdropped.
"Th-That's a flower?" the pink-haired girl twitched.
"I don't think we would find this indigenous to Tokyo, Mayura-san."
"Ohoho~!"
Freya laughed, pulling out her magical chainsaw and revving it up. She ducked out of the way when one of the vines shot at her, which took hold of a surprised Mayura and yanked her in to the air.
"Mayura-san!"
Hel-chan grabbed the leftover plates and threw it like a frisbee at the vine, slicing it right off the man-eating plant, and ran in to catch Mayura before she hit the ground. The plant cried in pain, and thanking the distraction, Freya was able to get in close enough to cut the monstrous, overgrown weed at its base.
She gave it a salute as it went falling over like a useless tree, and not able to give up, the plant tried to attack her with the remaining vines, but Freya easily dispatched those with the chainsaw, leaving a gardener's mess behind, and stood triumphantly, pointing her finger at Touma, "Give it up! Your pathetic attempts to humiliate a goddess will be your ruin!"
"Start the next contest!" he ordered.
"What the-"
"Our next contest," Sarutoru cut off any of Freya's vulgarities, "will test each bridal candidate's cooking ability!"
At this point, after the round with the man-eating plant, the only contestants really left were Mayura and the two goddesses and those who managed to avoid the vines and clipped something off the plant, which were about ten bridal candidates now. Out of those ten, the goddesses had already been defeated before the round even started because they had never in their long existence touched a stove, and Freya's magical frying pan was not used for cooking but for clobbering and maybe magically burning stuff.
On the other hand, Mayura was happily stirring a bowl of eggs and then chopped some onions and tomatoes, because she could cook, if some of her dishes were average, having to fill in a few times in the kitchen when Yamino was out of commission. Her frying pan was warming up on the stove, while an eager Spica was next to her, waiting with an empty plate for food. She was making her omelet specialty, but the giantess was just happy that she could eat again, deeply moved by her companion's culinary skills.
Spica's sign: 'Marry me.'
Mayura sweatdropped, "S-Spica-sama..."
Notes: Lol, sorry if I made Freya way too aggressive. I needed to have someone like that... *shrugs* -kuro.