Alice and Fate-san's singing was... well, just as I had expected, it was wonderful. Alice demonstrated her high specs to the fullest, possessing a singing skill second only to Shiro-san. Fate-san too, did not let herself be overwhelmed by Alice's singing and beautifully matched her voice to create a beautiful harmony.
Apparently, unlike Chronois-san and Life-san, Fate-san is very good at singing.
Of course, the result was a victory for Alice and Fate-san's duo. Rei-san and Fei-san just had bad luck regarding opponents. Their breathtaking duet as a married couple was very good, and they might have won if they were against a different opponent.
Anyway, the first round was over, and now, it was time for the winners of the first round to face each other. It wasn't really a tournament, so the order of the matches seemed to be random.
At the moment, the top candidates for champion are the duo of Kuro and Shiro-san, whose singing skill is at a different level. Next would be the duo of Alice and Fate-san, with their breathtaking harmony, and the visually overwhelmingly strong duo of Isis-san and Lillywood-san.
However, after watching all of them sing, I found Shiro-san's singing skill to be overwhelming. Their opponent in the second round would have to be unlucky.
And the pair who became their opponent... was Aoi-chan and Hina-chan's duo.
Once again, it was Kuro and Shiro-san's duo that took the lead, and they sang just as well as they did in the first round.
[...Aoi-senpai, this is impossible.]
[...For the time being, let's just give it a try.]
Just like the duo of Neun-san and Dr. Vier that I saw in the first round, the two of them went up to the stage with a slightly resigned look on their faces. And then, the song they requested to sing was... a song I was familiar with.
No, but isn't this song... by a group that made a lightning fast debut by hitting number 1 on the Oricon chart about 6 months before we were teleported to this world?
This song is too recent. As expected, even Alice's band wouldn't be able to pl———— How the heck did they know this song?
Before I knew it, the instruments held by Alice's band had been replaced by guitars and drums, and they were playing the requested song as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
Hey, you're even making a guitar arrangement in the interlude over there. You... Seriously, you're actually from Earth, aren't you?
To be honest, I was more astonished by Alice's ability to play the latest songs from my world than Aoi-chan and Hina-chan singing it, but well, let's blame this on Alice...
Aoi-chan and Hina-chan's singing were also very good, but they still couldn't match Shiro-san's singing skill, so they were eliminated.
After that, the Karaoke Battle went on smoothly, and finally the top four were assembled.
First up was the duo of Kuro and Shiro-san, who literally beat their opponents with their overwhelming singing skill. Next was Alice and Fate-san, who sang a wide variety of tunes and safely came out on top.
With the judges... or rather, with me completely on their side, the duo of Isis-san and Lillywood-san won with their overwhelmingly precious performance. And then, there was the duo of Laguna-san and Fors-san, blessed with good combinations, came out on top with their stable singing voices.
These four groups were to compete in the semi-finals. And the first match up for the semi-finals will be... a match that could have been the decisive final round.
Kuro-Shiro-san team vs Alice-Fate-san team...
"Now then, it's finally the semi-finals! Fate-san, this is the critical moment!"
Incidentally, after they entered the tournament in the first round, Alice and Fate-san have been providing live commentary and analysis on the stage.
"N- No, Shall-tan. Let's stop here. Seriously, let's abstain already... Even though this is just a singing competition, fighting against Shallow Vernal-sama isn't something I...."
[...God of Fate.]
"Yesh!?"
[For this game only, put aside our difference in position. Go ahead and give it your all.]
"Yes! Even if it costs me my life!!!"
Fate-san had been determined to refuse to fight Shiro-san, but after receiving Shiro-san's permission, she grabbed the microphone with an expression more serious than ever.
And thus, the Karaoke Battle between the two teams with the greatest singing skills began.
The duo of Kuro and Shiro-san showed off their overwhelming singing ability as usual, but Alice and Fate-san weren't being outdone. Their voices were more in tune with each other than ever before, lifting each other up as they sing beautifully.
After both singers had finished, all that was left was to wait for my decision... Kuro and Shiro-san's team have the red flag, while Alice and Fate-san's team have the blue flag.
And after much deliberation... I slowly raised the blue flag.
"Whoa, this is... B- Blue!? It's blue! I- I was also quite surprised... However, it's our win!"
"W- Wait a minute there, Kai-chan!? The reason! Can you explain the reason!? Why did you vote for us!?"
The people who won were the most surprised. Fate-san, in particular, had a look of desperation on her face as she asked me why I had won. Taking the microphone from Alice's clone and gathering everyone's attention, I spoke.
"...To be honest, in terms of singing ability, Shiro-san was the best. Even compared to all the participants, she was overwhelmingly better."
"U- Unnn! That's right! Shallow Vernal-sama is the best! If that's the case..."
"However, because her voice was overwhelming... Kuro wasn't able to completely keep up with her. Shiro-san didn't seem to want to adjust to Kuro-san either, and even though it might be a bit, it made me feel that there's something out of place."
"Wha!?"
Even though I said they weren't able to match with each other, it had really just been very little. In fact, up to this point, I hadn't even felt that out of place feeling at all, they would have achieved an overwhelming victory.
It's not like Kuro was a bad singer though. Rather, on the same level as Alice, her singing ability was only second to Shiro-san.
However, how should I say this... Even though the No.1 and No.2 singer were to have teamed up with each other, that doesn't mean that they would be the No.1 duo in terms of singing in harmony.
If you are a good singer, you also have a strong sense of individuality. However, it's interesting how such an aspect might also affect the result of a battle like this.
"Especially this time, I felt that out of place feeling more strongly than before, because they're competing against Alice and Fate-san, a duo with the most harmonious singing voices I've ever heard."
Yes, oddly enough, the fact that the other duo had a great combination and were the second best singing duo after Kuro and Shiro-san, brought out that out-of-place feeling in my mind.
"...Exactly because this is a Tag-team Karaoke Battle that I've decided that Alice and Fate-san won."
"M- Mnhh..."
"...Kaito-san, you're surprisingly closely listening to our songs huh. I guess your Sympathy Magic was slightly involved with it too, but the reason you said made sense to me."
When I finished explaining why, Fate-san fell silent, and Alice nodded her head in agreement. Thereupon, before I knew it, Shiro-san approached me and spoke with her usual intonationless voice.
[...Was I the best singer?]
[Eh? Yes, if it were an individual competition, Shiro-san would have been the overwhelming winner.]
[I see, in that case, I have no objection to your decision.]
[However, since this is a team match, Shiro-san will have to match with Kuro, okay?]
[...Fumu, I understand.]
Regarding Kuro and Shiro's team, Kuro was trying to match with Shiro-san well, but Shiro-san seemed to ignore them and just sang as she wanted.
If Shiro-san had listened and matched with Kuro's singing voice... the result of this match would have been different.
"Ahh~~ Ladies and gentlemen of the audience, I know that everyone clearly understands this... but I'll still remind everyone. The only person Shallow Vernal-sama had allowed to speak like that to her is Kaito-san, okay? If anyone else made a similar statement, all Gods would have descended to eliminate such a person. I mean, if it wasn't Kaito-san who had decided this match, they would have been killed as soon as they made the decision that Shallow Vernal-sama lost."
"Right. But well, if Kai-chan says it like that, I guess it can't be helped. It looks like Shallow Vernal-sama was convinced too."
When I heard Alice's disturbing statement, I timidly looked at Chronois-san and the other Gods... The expression on Chronois-san, Life-san, Shea-san and Heart-san looked as if they were saying that it can't be helped.
I'm really glad that Shiro-san was an open-minded person.
A- Anyway, this ends the first round of the semi-finals, and the Karaoke Battle between Isis-san and Lillywood-san versus Laguna-san and Fors-san begins.
As always, Isis-san sang as hard as she could and her cuteness never faded but... arehh?
"...Shall-tan. Doesn't it seem like Death King's singing kinda got better?"
"It's just a guess but... I guess she really hardly ever sang in the first place? She was practicing in a whisper while listening to the other teams' songs earlier, so I guess she's grown in that short amount of time."
...How praiseworthy. She's really outrageously praiseworthy. She had been practicing hard while waiting for the others? How is it that each of her actions can be so precious?
No, I shouldn't be careless. If I don't watch myself, I may end up raising the flag before I could even hear Laguna-san and Fors-san sing.
After Isis-san and Lillywood-san finished singing, the following team, Laguna-san and Fors-san, also wonderfully sang but... in the end, I decided that Isis-san and Lillywood-san's team won.
Of course, there was a good reason for this. She has raised her singing level in that short period of time, and even though it was with Lillywood-san's help, Isis-san's singing voice was good enough to compete with Laguna-san.
And finally, the final match... it was a battle between Alice and Fate-san's team vs Isis-san and Lillywood-san's team.
But unfortunately, the two teams' singing was on a very different level. Even though Isis-san's singing ability has improved and Lillywood-san had great follow-ups... They still weren't able to reach the team-up of Alice and Fate.
Due to the fact that I'm judging, the visual aspect certainly is one of the major factors... but this is a Karaoke Battle. The most important thing that counts should still be one's singing skill.
As a result, I raised the flag for Alice and Fate-san's duo, deciding the winner of the Tag-team Karaoke Battle.
"It's settled! With that, the champion of the Tag-team Karaoke Battle is... I, Alice-chan and Fate-san's team!"
"I never expected we would be the champion... H- Hmmm, but after beating Shallow Vernal-sama, I couldn't afford to cut corners... Haahhh... Well, I guess it can't be helped."
The audience loudly applauded, and I clapped my hands to congratulate Alice and Fate-san. It really was a great and exciting battle.
It was a bit sad to see it end like this though...
"Now then, with our victory, us, the current champions, earned the right to challenge... "the Temporary Titleholder" Kaito-san!"
...Unnn? Arehh? Have I started hearing things? It feels like they're saying strange things...
"And with that, Kaito-san VS Alice-chan and Fate-san Team... the special match begins!!!"
[Eh? Eeeeeehhhh!?]
Dear Mom, Dad————- Just as I thought the Tag-team Karaoke Battle was over, I never expected that an unexpected entrance from a new challenger. Me. Wait, they called me the tentative titleholder, so that means Alice and Fate-san's team was the challenger. No, wait, stop thinking about things like that. Please wait, okay... I mean————- That's the first time I've heard that though!?