-Spiritual Kinship- 2nd half

Chapter 14 - Sold out

The match continued and the line to <Ratatoskr>'s booth seemingly grew longer and after the general participants bought the books they came for in the first place, a large number of them started coming to <Ratatoskr> and <Honjou-Dou>.

When she saw the state of things, Kotori gave a loud shout.

"Let's keep going! There are only three people in Nia's circle. She has two of them managing the line while the last manages their stock. On the other hand, we have twelve people for our booth. With our numbers, we can easily beat them in the number of books we can sell at once!"

The Spirits all began hailing to each other at Kotori's words, rapidly selling books. The number of cardboard boxes in the back slowly began to decrease one by one.

And then, they started closing the gap between the number of books <Honjou-Dou> had and they quickly caught up with Nia's

Upon that, Kotori folded her arms and took a glance at Nia's circle.

"Since the number of cashiers we have is more than you, we have the advantage in terms of speed—"

"—Kotori."

When Kotori was smirking in victory, Syouji cut into her words. Meanwhile, the Spirits were immensely focused on selling as quickly as possible.

"It's true that we're selling fast, but what do you think would happen if we were to run out? It's too early to be so confident. We haven't even won yet."

When Syouji said that, the line in front of their circle gradually began shrinking in size, while <Hounjou-Dou>'s line was still going strong.

"T-This..." Kotori muttered as Syouji nodded. At that point, Nia spoke up to reply to her dismay.

"I haven't been here in years, but I'm still Honjou Souji. Did you think that newcomers who don't know what or how to draw would be able to make up that difference with some cheap tricks in only a day?"

"....." Syouji closed his eyes in silence before taking a deep breath to gather his thoughts. What Nia said just now was true. Up until now, Shidou, Kotori and the others were relying on their secret weapons and managed to at least catch up with <Honjou-Dou>.

All the participants who had lined up for circle <Ratatoskr>'s book were already finished buying. There was no one else coming.

But there were still four boxes remaining, which meant they had a little more than two thousand books remaining in storage.

"Syouji....there's no one else. We've run out of people like you said."

"......W-What should we do?"

Shidou and Natsumi expressed their worry at their predicament, while Syouji showed a calm smile.

"I still have one more piece. The queen piece needed for a checkmate." Syouji said while putting a hand in front of his face.

—[You have become quite the performer. It seems the roles have reversed between you and Shidou, huh? Mister "I am the son of the first Spirit".]

—S-Shut up, I'm just trying to put on an act, geez. It's important in these kinds of situations. Besides, we're in some kind of a convention are we not?

When Syouji argued with the man inside his head, a figure stepped in front of the group as they were sinking into despair.

"Ufufu, Just leave it to me. The match is just beginning." Saying that, Miku gave Syouji a wink as if to deliver a message and looked at Nia.