As I was walking through the night market lined with daily necessities, the atmosphere around me suddenly changed. The number of food and beverage stalls on either side of the street had increased.
[It looks like this is the area that deals with foodstuffs.]
[Yeeees. There are some staaaaaalls where you can eat and walk arouuuuund, and there are aaaaaaalso stalls that sell pre-processed food produuuuucts.]
[I see. By the way, what did you come here to buy?]
[Bloodberrieeeeees. They're suitable for making jaaaaaam, so you can use them in various situatioooooons.]
[Ahh, you mean that bright red jam that we use for breakfast...]
[That's riiiiiiiight.]
There's a very tasty jam that is often served with bread for breakfast... It looks like strawberry jam, but it tastes a little different, and I was curious about it, but it seems like it was bloodberry jam.
[Is it a very rare ingredient?]
[I can't say that it's raaaare. Howeveeeeer, it's an ingredient that isn't found in the Human Reaaaaaaalm, so you have to come to the Demon Realm to buy iiiiiiit.]
[Fumu... I suppose it's not something you can just buy in the night market huh.]
I thought she was talking about an ingredient that is only available at the night market, but from the way Illness-san talked, it sounds like these could be bought outside of the night market as well.
[That's riiiiiiight. I was also looking for ingredieeeeents that could be bought only at the night markeeeeeet, such as the fruit called "Evernight Drop" over theeeeeeere.]
[Evernight Drop? That's a very impressive sounding name, isn't it?]
[It's a difficult fruit to grooooow because its taste deteriorates signiiiiiiificantly when exposed to sunliiiiiiight. Of couuuuurse, since they must not be exposed to sunlight when selling theeeeeem, they are sold at night markeeeeets and other stores that are open at niiiiiight.]
[Fumu fumu, is it delicious?]
[It tastes good when made into juuuuuice. It's sold right over theeeeere.]
I looked in the direction indicated by Illness-san and saw a stall with a sign Evernight Drop Drinks. An Evernight Drop is being displayed on the front counter of the store... a quick glance at the display shows that it looks like a fig, but it's completely black in color.
Moreover, it's human nature to want to taste it when you heard that it can only be bought here... so since we've come to visit, let's try it out.
[Since there's an opportunity, I was thinking of buying some... but do you also want some, Illness-san? I'll buy for both of us.]
[I suppoooooose. Howeveeeeer, a cup is already too much for meeeee, so if Kaito-sama shares a few sips with meeee, it will be enouuuuugh.]
[I see, I understand. Well then, I'll go buy one.]
Nodding at Illness-san's words, I was about to head to the stall with great enthusiasm... but I stopped along the way.
[...Errr, I'm sorry, Illness-san. I think I may have misheard you, but did you just say something about wanting to share a few sips of my drink?]
[If Kaito-sama is alright with iiiiiiit.]
[...N- No, it's not that I don't like it... but is that alright with you, Illness-san?]
[What do you meaaaaan?]
[N- No, it's nothing. I'm going to get one.]
Wouldn't that be like an indirect kiss? As I had such a thought in a moment... I realized that the drink isn't necessarily being served with a straw.
Illness-san seemed unconcerned about this, so it's probably the type that you directly drink from a cup. If that's the case, we can just avoid where we sipped and we're good to go!
[Excuse me, can I have one?]
[We have different sizes, small, medium and large, which would you like?]
[I'll have a medium one then.]
[Alright. That would be 4 R... Here you go.]
[Thank you very much... It comes with a lid huh.]
[Unnn? Is this Customer-sama's first time trying out the Evernight Drop Drink? It may not be as bad as sunlight, but the taste is slightly reduced when exposed to light, so they're placed in a container with a tight lid. You see the hole over there? You put your mouth on it and drink from there.]
[I- I see... Thank you.]
The cups that came out were the kind I see in convenience stores and coffee shops, where the lid and mouthpiece are integrated into a single cup.
What should I do... This container really makes me feel more conscious about the indirect kiss than when drinking from a straw... Moreover, isn't this lid fixed with the cup? With the mouthpiece so small, how in the world did they even get the drink inside? Did they use magic?
Returning to Illness-san's side, I took a sip of the drink I had just bought to quench my thirst.
Its taste kinda resembles a ramune, having a refreshing and invigorating taste. Unnn, I like this taste a lot. It's delicious... Well, putting that aside...
[E- Errr, Illness-san? Would you like to drink?]
[Thank youuuuu. Well theeeen, please allow me to have sooooome.]
When I timidly held out the cup to her, trying to check her reaction, she thanked me and accepted it, and without any hesitation, she put her mouth on the cup and began to drink.
I- I wonder why? I know it's already too late for me to get embarrassed from an indirect kiss, but was it because Illness-san isn't my girlfriend? I was very conscious of her lips as she drank.
[Thank youuuu. This is enough for meeeee. Please drink the rest, Kaito-samaaaa.]
[Ah, yes.]
...Ah, I blundered. If she just wanted a sip, should I have given it to her first? No, even if I did that, I wonder if that would change the outcome... What's with this strange embarrassment, I'm not a high schooler anymore... Illness-san herself doesn't seem to mind, and I'm just being too conscious about this.
Don't mind it, stop being weirdly conscious about this, keep a normal state of mind...
[Kaito-samaaa.]
[ ! ? ! ? Y- Yes! What is it!?]
[Oyaaa?]
[N- No, I'm sorry. I was just a little bit surprised... What is it?]
[Yeeees. Bloodberries are being sold a little further down the streeeeeeet, so would it be alriiiiight if we go through the purchase along the waaaaay?]
[O- Of course, it's alright.]
T- That surprised me. It's not that I did anything wrong, but I felt as if my heart would jump out of my chest. F- For the time being, while Illness-san does her shopping, let's just try to put my mind at ease.
_______________________________________________________________
Chapter 1241 EX - RINGTOSS 2
Kaito
The Protagonist. A new student enrolled in Quoits Elite Training School, aiming to become a future Quoits Elite.
He is a kind-hearted young man who loves RINGTOSS and although he's still a novice in many aspects, he has a natural sense for RINGTOSS, and even World Rank-1 Nightmare recognizes his potential.
By chance, he found himself in a battle against the Evil Organization "Despair Festival" over the Rings of Darkness, and through many battles, he grew up to be a strong man.
With his natural sense of style, he uses the techniques of his comrades and enemies in his own way. With the ability to copy special moves, he's able to respond to various types of battles.
On the other hand, he didn't have any original Special Move... but in Episode 47: "Awakening and 48: "Weave my bonds – Special Shot!", he developed his Special Move: "Revenate Memories", which combines several Special Moves.
It's impossible under normal circumstances to combine multiple Special Moves since they signify the individuality of their creator, and according to Nightmare, it's "a miraculous Special Move that is only possible with Kaito's exceptional sense".
Even though he fought many battles, lost and suffered, he continued to fight with his deep-seated love for RINGTOSS, and his strong feelings reached the RINGTOSS Demon God.
Through many encounters and battles, he eventually grew into a talented player that many Top-Rankers took notice of.
~ ~ Special Move ~ ~
Revenate Memories
Kaito's original technique is a combination of several Special Moves, which can be used in any situation.
It's a miraculously well-balanced Special Move, made possible only by Kaito's remarkable intuitive sense of executing it.
Wings of Bond
In the battle against the RINGTOSS Demon God, with the memories of his rivals and friends he had fought up to that point, Kaito unleashed this technique, smashing through RINGTOSS Demon God's Absolute Death Domain and scored a point.
Aoi
The Heroine. A Quoits Elite Candidate with a promising future, she was quite confrontational with Kaito when he first entered the school, but they reconciled after a direct confrontation.
To begin with, she and Kaito played together when they were small children, and since Kaito moved away when he was in third grade of elementary school, it had been a long time since they had met again.
For Aoi, Kaito was her first love, and Aoi recognized Kaito at first glance. She flared up at Kaito when he didn't recognize her though.
Even though she's still a candidate, she has solid RINGTOSS skills, but due to her nature as the Heroine, she's often saved by Kaito when she's in a tight spot, so her total winning percentage isn't very high.
However, she still manages to defeat strong opponents at key moments.
Although she has a calm and gentle personality, she's sometimes a little too conscious with matters related to Kaito that her tongue gets a little sharper, and she herself is quite concerned about it.
In the middle of the story, she realized that she couldn't go on like this and made a conscious effort to be more honest, and as a result, she became closer to Kaito than before.
As the Main Heroine, she has many chapters together with Kaito, and it can be said that their relationship is more like that of friends and less of lovers. In the last episode, she graduated from school with Kaito and promised to join the same RINGTOSS team as him.
~ ~ Special Move ~ ~
Earth Flower
A technique in which she unleashes multiple rings at a low altitude. Although it may look simple, it's a tricky technique with a hop-up trajectory that is difficult to deal with.
Alice
Alice is a classmate and good friend of Kaito and Aoi. She enlivens the place with her cheerful and jovial personality. Her RINGTOSS skills are only moderately good, and she isn't often depicted playing against other players.
However, she's well-informed and is often the catalyst for Kaito and Aoi to get involved in various incidents. The information she gives is sometimes wrong and they find themselves in a tight spot because of her, so in a sense, she's a troublemaker.
~ ~ Nightmare ~ ~
The Quoits Elite Candidate Alice's true identity is the strongest Quoits Elite who reigns at the top of all Quoits Elites, the unshakeable World Rank-1.
She's described as the strongest character in the series, and except for a flashback scene of her battle with Baby Castella Mask, she has never been defeated by any opponent in the series.
She's officially the most powerful character in the battle against the Despair Festival, where she insta-killed her opponents in a 1 vs 50 in an irregular RINGTOSS battle.
At first, when she learned that the Despair Festival was planning to revive the RINGTOSS Demon God, she thought it would be interesting and infiltrated the Quoits Elite Academy, where the main body of the RINGTOSS Demon God was sealed deep underground, as a student so that she could fight immediately when the RINGTOSS Demon God was revived.
However, she changed her purpose after meeting Kaito there and discovering his talent. She aimed to help Kaito grow through battles with the Despair Festival, and dared to use her position as a classmate to put Kaito and his friends in a difficult situation with various wrong information.
However, it isn't that she doesn't feel friendship with Kaito and her other friends, and there were times when she helped in the form of Nightmare, following them in the shadows when the situation became too much for them to handle.
She finally reveals her true identity to Kaito, who had grown up strong after his battle with the RINGTOSS Demon God, and told him that she was looking forward to the day he challenges her in an official battle.
...One would have thought she left after that, but she was still hanging out with Kaito and her other friends as Alice in the last episode, and she said that "since she entered the school, she will stay with them until graduation".
Kuromueina
A teacher at Quoits Elite Academy and homeroom teacher of Kaito's class. Nicknamed "Kuro-chan-sensei", she's known for her kindness and love for her students, making her very popular among the students.
She's the familiar and reliable adult for Kaito and his friends, and when they're in trouble, the first person they turn to is Kuromueina.
When she learned that Kaito and his friends are fighting against the Despair Festival, she is torn between wanting her students to not do anything dangerous and wanting to respect Kaito and his friends' desire not to allow anyone to use RINGTOSS for evil, but in the end, she decided to support them.
~ ~ Baby Castella Mask ~ ~
Kuromueina's true identity, a Super-Class Quoits Elite and the World Rank-2. Her true identity was revealed in episode 27: "Academy Raid" when she blocked the path leading to the gymnasium where the students had taken refuge, and suddenly putting on her mask, she overwhelmed the assaulting Despair Festival.
In the story, she and Nightmare are depicted as powerful Rankers who stand apart from the rest.
Unlike Nightmare, who was active in the darkness, Kuromueina was originally a teacher, and although she hid her true identity, she remained devoted to her students from beginning to end.
In Episode 47: "Awakening", she is furious with Nightmare for unintentionally putting Kaito in a tight spot, and a battle is about to break out between them.
("I'll crush you!", Kuromueina said as she brought out her rings, but Aoi and her friends, who didn't know her true identity, desperately stopped Kuromueina from snapping against the World Rank-1.)
She was one of the few people who were aware of Alice's true identity, but as long as the person herself is hiding it, it didn't seem like she intended to reveal this without permission.
However, after Kaito and his friends get involved in danger, the amount of homework Alice is required to do is doubled, and she was often depicted shrieking about this matter throughout the series.
In the final episode, she's still active as a teacher, smiling as she sees Kaito and the others off to their graduation.
Frea
In Episode 31, she appeared before Kaito, who was lamenting his own weakness, and trained Kaito to seek his strength. She is well-known as the World Rank-7, Challenger, and she feels sympathy for Kaito, who shows his hidden strength in a different situation.
After training, she taught Kaito her own Special Move, Rebellion Burst, and this technique, which shows its power only in a tight situation, saved Kaito's life many times.
Later, when she made her reappearance, she always looked as if "I raised Kaito myself", and acting as his master, she calls Kaito her favorite disciple.
In the last episode, she was energetically battling someone off-screen, giving out a monologue about how she was looking forward to fighting his favorite disciple.
RINGTOSS Demon God I – S
A Demon God who once drove the ancient RINGTOSS civilization to destruction. She used to be a gentle God who loved RINGTOSS, but her strength was so great that no one could stand alongside her, and she became increasingly lonely because no one would fight against her.
RINGTOSS isn't a game you play alone, but she couldn't play RINGTOSS with anyone. As a result of such loneliness and sadness, she developed a strong hatred for RINGTOSS itself, and came to the conclusion that "RINGTOSS, which creates such suffering, should disappear from the world".
She forced all Quoits Elite of the ancient RINGTOSS civilization to surrender with her sheer strength, imprinting overwhelming fear in the hearts of the Quoits Elites.
Their fear of the RINGTOSS Demon God made the ancient Quoits Elites tremble so much that they couldn't even hold their rings, and RINGTOSS itself eventually faded away.
Seeing such a thing happening to RINGTOSS, I – S went into a deep sleep thinking that her purpose had been accomplished, but RINGTOSS hadn't been destroyed and had been passed down to the next generation in detail.
Then, in order to prevent the RINGTOSS Demon God from ever resurrecting again, the few remaining ancient Quoits Elites placed a powerful seal on I – S's body and hid the seal's core parts in 15 rings scattered in various locations.
I – S, revived by the Despair Festival, once again showed her anger at the spread of RINGTOSS throughout the world, and after crushing with overwhelming force the leader of the Despair Festival who had revived her, she was forced to confront Kaito, who had followed that leader and was met with her revival.
Her ability was so overwhelming that after taking 9 points from Kaito in an instant, she made no attack at all, as if to remind him of his helplessness. All of Kaito's attacks were completely blocked by her Absolute Death Domain. She tried to instill fear into Kaito's heart so that he would never be able to play RINGTOSS again.
In fact, Kaito was so driven to the corner that his hands shook as he held his rings, but the voices of his friends, and above all, his strong love for RINGTOSS, helped him to get up and score a point by smashing through the Absolute Death Domain with his Pinnacle Shot: Wings of Bonds.
The score was still 9-1, but I – S, seeing Kaito's Wings of Bonds, remembered that it's not only loneliness and sadness that RINGTOSS produces, and her remembering her love for RINGTOSS, she surrendered, admitting her defeat while praising the bond between Kaito and his friends.
In the final episode, I – S seems to have taken a liking to Kaito, and before he knew it, she had taken up residence in Kaito's house, where she's depicted smiling as she watches an official RINGTOSS match on TV.
As a side note, the expression on Aoi's face when she heard from Kaito that I – S had taken up residence in his home was quite indescribable.
~ ~ Special Move ~ ~
Absolute Death Realm
An absolute defense technique that renders all attacks from the opponent to nothing. It's named as such because the rings that entered this domain flops to the ground, as if they had died.
It had blocked every technique that Kaito threw at it, causing a strong sense of fear in Kaito's heart. At first glance, it seems to be an invincible technique, but Nightmare, who was watching the battle, saw that "there's an upper limit to the power of a technique it could kill", and in fact, it couldn't kill the power of Kaito's Wings of Bonds and was smashed through.
[Terminologies]
Quoits Elite Academy
A school where many Quoits Elite Candidates attend to become future top Quoits Elites. The school is well-equipped with facilities for Quoits Elites, and under the guidance of top-notch teachers, many Candidates hone their skills day by day.
In the basement of the school, the body of the RINGTOSS Demon God, which once drove the ancient RINGTOSS civilization to extinction, is sealed away under heavy guard.
Rings of Darkness
The 15 rings needed to unseal the RINGTOSS Demon God I – S are secretly sealed in various locations, and the locations are written in ancient documents.
The Despair Festival is after these, and Kaito and his friends will be involved in battles against them over the Ring of Darkness.
Despair Festival
An evil organization that controls the underworld RINGTOSS world and plans to conquer the world through RINGTOSS.
However, since Nightmare, the pinnacle of the official RINGTOSS world, is too strong and they held no chance of winning against her, they planned to revive the RINGTOSS Demon God and smash Nightmare with her.
The fact that Nightmare is able to gain information on them and their plans early on makes them a conspicuously pitiful enemy organization.