Part 14: Wait, I Had a Rival, Didn't I?

2Yr. 2Mo. 1Wk.

Well, folks, the tournament went... interestingly. It didn't look like it would at first, mind.



Chucky's first two opponents backed out rather than face him...



...and in his first actual fight, he demonstrated why.



His fight against another Garu was a bit interesting, partially for the mirror match qualities and partially because Chucky could barely hit him. Raw aggression carried him through, though; his opponent only managed to get one attack off, and it missed.

Then the interesting bit happened.



Guess who also had a monster in the competition? I'd forgotten about her.



It's funny; I remember being so pissed off at her and her insults, but with what I've been through with Rio, and with raising our monsters, it all seems so petty now.



So I wasn't too worked up about the results of our showdown.



Especially since I had a pretty good idea who was going to win.



I think she took it pretty well.



And Chucky has officially advanced to C Class!



Cesare stopped by after the fight to congratulate us both, so yay, I guess.



Pollock stopped by too, letting me know that I'll have to do a bit of traveling if I want to keep challenging up the ranks. I'm looking forward to it.



While he was here, I had him check out a tablet I found on an adventure; apparently it's blueprints for a training gadget called a Stonehenge. As we don't have enough room for the gadgets we have, I declined to purchase one, at least for now.



Oh, and Rio's started talking to herself again. Joy.



Anyway, everyone's worked hard, so I gave everyone the week off, myself included. This gave me plenty of time to contemplate the question of the week: Which monsters, if any, are ready to start advancing to the next class? I'm not eligible to enter Chucky in official Rank C matches yet, but I can have him get his Star Points and cross my fingers that I get a breeder rank up card in the mail between now and then. And of course both Natsu and iScream can challenge for their own rank-ups... if we think they're ready.