Stranded

The tournament quickly wrapped up with Sir Grobhand and Jadwiga respectively sending Sir Kit and Xiao Lin to the final round. There, Xiao Lin managed to win, meaning Sir Kit was the ultimate loser. As such, he was executed by being impaled from all over by wooden poles.

"And that's the tournament. Winnings will be transferred to your accounts momentarily. See ya," Mama rabbit waved as the room went dark.

When the lights came back on, the stage was empty.

"And that's our cue to leave," Okisato nodded.

Once the two were outside, they took notice of the crowd of winners from the tournament, anxiously staring at each other.

"Yu- Mmph!?"

"Let's not make contact just yet," Okisato whispered as he covered Mimoko's mouth with his hand.

However, Yuusuke took notice of them. "Isn't that... Nah, gotta be someone else," he grumbled.

Okisato took the chance to drag Mimoko away before Yuusuke could put two and two together.

...

"Why did you do that?" Mimoko glared as Okisato massaged the red handprint on his face.

"Inoue-senpai, what do you want to do now?" Okisato asked.

"Huh?"

"You came here intending to take down the Jobberslayer League, but Shousen-san made it through the tournament. What's your play now?"

Mimoko paused and frowned as she bobbed her head to and fro. "I'm... not sure. Yuusuke-kun's safe, so I honestly want to get him back to Shousen-chan. But I also want to send those fiends to prison for what they did."

"Then let's find that secret puzzle cafe so you can go home."

...

At the hotel, Okisato and Mimoko were greeted with another surprise in the form of all the surviving participants from the tournament being present in the lobby.

"That's odd. I'd have expected some of them to have warped away, but they're all here. Change of plan; I'll make contact, you search for the cafe," Okisato nodded.

"Huh? But-"

"It's easier to explain away if it's just me here."

Mimoko sighed and headed off as Okisato approached the group.

"Huh!? Why're you here!?" Yuusuke gasped.

"Ah, when I heard about the tournament being here, I thought I'd might as well check this place out since it's so remote and might have a maestro here."

Bruno and Aigul stared silently as Kisha rose to her feet. "THERE'S A MAESTRO HERE!? Well take me to em! I need something to do since I'm practically stranded here!"

"You're stranded?"

"We all are... We're unable to warp back, and we don't have plane tickets. We can't leave," Aigl sighed.

"Why can't you warp?"

"We don't know why, only that we can't."

"In that case, could I talk to you about a different matter?"

Aigul slowly nodded. "You got my message. Then let me tell you about the corrupt whore who did all this..."