Part 32: What Makes You Think I'm Being Defensive?

4Yr. 2Mo. 2Wk.



Well, as you can see, we won the day against Diehl.



I think he took it well.



Okay, (a), no, and (b), the use of drugs like Troron is completely legal in IMa. Besides, you're one to talk, mister factory-farmed monsters.



Anyway, if Rio was hoping that we'd convince him of the righteousness of our cause through honorable combat, well, that strategy's 0 for 2 so far.



Then she got a weird idea. She seemed to think that if we get one of his old teachers from Vizley to give him a talking-to, it'd do some good.



I didn't know if that was such a good idea, but we'd have to go to Vizley sooner or later for Rank A matches, so I figured... might as well get it over with.



Double Pancho! So intense!



Gourdon laid down the law and advanced to Rank C.



And with that business complete, it was off to Vizley!



Which was, naturally, a cavalcade of faces I'd met before, starting with the headmistress. Rio asked her to give Diehl a stern talking-to...



...but she pointed out that she couldn't teach him what he wouldn't learn. She said she'd see about getting some monster care regulations approved by IMa, though. And with that, I hoped to leave...



...but I wasn't quite fast enough.



The Tome of Black Arts. How I wish I'd never heard of the thing.



Rio couldn't believe her ears. I hated to stand there and let her look at me like that...



...but that's exactly what I had to do.



At least the day wasn't all bad. I ran into some of the lowerclassmen, and got to see them get run off...



...by one of the scarier teachers on the campus.



He's a lot less scary when he's not your teacher, though.



Anyway, for once I didn't have to jump through hoops to get my next rankup, so the official A class tournaments are available to me. However, the earliest one I can be ready for is in July... and I still don't know if Chucky has what it takes to make it in Grade A. We'll just have to wait and see...