Beatrice stood outside the toilet stall and buzzed with concern. "Master Damian, I don't understand what laxatives have to do with our battle?"
Speaking from a toilet wasn't the most dignified position to be in, but Damian didn't mind. "It's about taking the match seriously. My sport of choice is wrestling. And in wrestling, you get paired up against someone who weighs the same as you. If you don't take things seriously and go to the weigh-in with a kilo of food in your intestines, you're going to get paired with someone who did take things seriously and has an empty stomach. And they are going to have an extra kilo of muscle on their body."
"Hmmmm," the Poison Bee Warrior mused, "but the contests in Pokegirl gyms are
not
weight restricted. You don't gain anything by weighing less when you meet Samantha in battle."
Damian chuckled. "Like I said, it's about taking the match seriously. Unlike with Wrestling, the system wouldn't penalize me for not emptying myself before the fight. But it wouldn't
feel
like I was putting everything into it. Not to me. A fight is as much about your mental state as it is about the strength of your fists. We're facing off in the Psychic Gym, so that's probably even more true. If I don't feel like I'm doing everything to prepare myself, I won't be at my best."
"And that's why you drank three glasses of laxative goop last night?" Beatrice hummed in consternation.
Damian's nod wasn't audible, so he answered vocally. "Absolutely. It's what I would do if I was preparing for a wrestling match, it's what I'm doing to face Samantha." There were some gurgling noises. "At higher levels, wrestlers send themselves into clinical dehydration before the weigh-in and then rehydrate with IV fluids. But I'm doing this for a psychological edge, not to put myself in the hospital."
Beatrice wasn't sure that what her master was doing was completely sane, but he
was
her master. She had no choice but to cheer him on.
+-+-+
The Psychic Gym was an imposing structure. Where other gyms sought to cultivate the body, the Psychic Gym sought to cultivate the mind. The path to the front steps was bordered by cherry trees, their pink blossoms drifting in the wind. An interesting trick, considering that it was the beginning of October. The building itself was patterned off of a Southeast Asian wat, with a central stupa surrounded by a walled garden. As Damian walked through the garden, he saw students contemplating rocks and painting flowers. He wasn't sure why the flowers needed to be painted, they seemed like they were perfectly reasonable colors to begin with.
At the reception desk, a Pokegirl was bound in a straight jacket and suspended by ropes. She wore a blindfold and her breathing was surprisingly measured for someone in such extreme bondage. Her legs dangled uselessly and between them, her roped cunt glistened. The woman's long brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail, revealing the heavy brass collar around her neck. As Damian approached, she merely hung there, waiting.
"Excuse me?" Damian began.
The bound Pokegirl startled, jostling in her bindings. "Ah! Oh... sorry. I didn't see you come in." Damian wondered if that was a joke. He was still undecided by the time it had been long enough that it would be socially awkward to laugh, so he decided to keep it all inside. "Welcome to the Psychic Gym, I'm Catherine. How can I assist you?"
"Yeah, hi. I'm Damian Duarte, I'm here for a battle challenge against Samantha Stephens."
The dangling Pokegirl seemed lost. "Right. You're the undercard battle." Damian wasn't aware that there was a title event for him to be the undercard for, and said as much. "This afternoon third years Miko Mido and Hotaru Tomoe are going to have a five on five UU battle in the Formless Void, followed by a two hour punish fucking for the loser. Yours is a three on three NU battle in the Serene Dojo followed by a twenty minute punish fucking for the loser. That's why it's the undercard." As she was blindfolded, it wasn't exactly surprising that she wasn't
looking
at him, but Damian felt kind of odd that she wasn't really even facing him.
"So... where do
I
go?" The entrance to the Serene Dojo was a big and obvious archway, but that was for members of the audience. The changing room entrance required directions from the Pokegirl, and it turned out to be hidden behind a cat statue.
When he got into the changing room, they had gi for him to change into, and requested that all trainers and Pokegirls enter the dojo with bare feet. This required Beatrice and Hinako to come out of their Pokeballs to remove their shoes. They were in the process of doing that when he noticed that there was another group on the far side of the lockers. He figured it was probably Samantha and her team, and announced his presence.