The Bathroom Break

So here's how this works, right?
The ****'s the property of their owner. And by extension, the property of the **** is also the property of the owner. Therefore, if the **** happens to have slaves of their own, those slaves become the property of the owner. Which means that the owner can do anything they want with them. Anything.
That includes setting them free!

Sounds good? I should hope so! That's airtight logic right there! Even if we suppose there's some loophole there that I missed, a **** still gotta do anything their owner asks. Including to stop giving their slaves orders! And setting them free!

Got it? No further questions? Good.
Now that we've settled the matter on if I could set free a **** by making their owner surrender, the next step is figuring out whether I should.
Now, you probably already made up your mind the moment you heard the dilemma. And I don't blame you! Hell, if I heard you say 'I know we shouldn't tolerate slavery, but...', I'd knee you in the face right then and there! And I'd expect you to thank me afterwards!
Here's the thing though; what happens in this world... That's not my responsibility! I'm just a guest here. Any pretense of being judge, jury and executioner of these guys whenever they do anything I don't agree with would not only be presumptuous... But also very rude!
Look, it's not so simple. These guys have their own history, cultures and traditions spanning millennia. And yeah, I don't necessarily have to admire or even like any of it... But that doesn't give me the right to tell them to toss it all in the garbage for my convenience.

They just have to figure out their own world at their own pace. I really shouldn't involve myself.
But if not me, then who?
The harsh unyielding truth is that people in this world walk through life bound in servitude to others. Just cause everyone here thinks that some people simply are the property of other people. They don't know any better!
If they did, they'd probably be horrified what they were letting pass by around them... Just like how I should be!

Yeah, as you can imagine the dialogue that ran through my head got nowhere really quickly. But at some point at some time a decision really had to be made. And once it was done... I'd never be able to take it back!

I was just there to test out my fancy gadgets. That's all I hoped to do. That's all I really should have been doing. Got some real nice data too! Got to try out both the rejuvenation pill, and the de-rejuvenation pill on the same day!

Oh. Hang on. Don't tell me you just assumed I turned back into a grown up at some point after my first match! To begin with, youth just happens to be an intricate part of my being, rather than something that goes away as I age.
More to the point, though, everything I told you about since I won my first match? All that was done still in my kid form!
Let that sink in!

Now, you all are probably astute enough to have figured out my juvenile state would persist until I actually went about and cured it.
I shouldn't need to go over that part, since I trust my readers already figured that bit out by themselves. But as it happens, that part is important for the story.
So just bear with me now.

My teeny tiny self lumbered towards the bathrooms with a vial of pink de-rejuvenation medicine. I made sure I was alone, of course. I mean, nobody wants me to remain a toddler, right? Nobody who isn't a freak anyhow. But if they saw me enter the bathroom with a strange concoction, you just know they'd go ahead and jump to conclusions!
Once I made sure I was alone, I leaned against the sterile-coloured tile wall and drank the fluid in one gulp. You might imagine that such an adorable colour would've been sweet. Probably tasting like bubblegum, or cotton candy. You'd be wrong.
Making science function the way you want to is chore enough, but to also make it look and taste pleasant? There's no guarantee it's even possible! Much less a priority!
Look, sometimes the science which functions exactly the way you want it just has traits not incidental to its purpose. That's just the bitter medicine you're gonna have to swallow.
Just like how I did in fact! The medicine tasted like bitter ash. If someone went crazy on the salt. But hey, you know what they say: the bitter taste means that the medicine is working!
Don't look into how cobra venom tastes though.

But it went down in a swig. All I had to do was wait a couple of seconds for the **** to take effect. So, you might think that a proactive girl with so much spirit would have trouble just sitting around doing nothing, huh? Well, I'm sorry to say that you'd be utterly mistaken! Sure, a lonely, filthy bathroom might not be my usual scene to hang out in, but my brain just so happens to be brimming with brilliant ideas! I'm actually grateful to occasionally have these moments to myself, where I can simmer down, just dedicate myself to any one of these half-baked ideas or unsolved problems.
For example, if Katey wins against the bull-y, she'll be up against Hebi-san in the next match! And that's a one way ticket to enslavement.
Not fun.

So, no doubt you've already come up with a couple of ideas. For example, I bet you imagine that instead of raising Mrs Bull-Dozer to beat Katey, I could simply poison her? So that she'll be too weak to win?
Already ahead of you on that one. And let me tell you, that's a terrible idea. Look, it's not exactly a guarantee that Katey will even be able to beat Hulk Bovine without my intervention. It's just that I can't assume that's gonna be the case. By incapacitating Katey before the match, that'll increase the chances of her surrendering. And then we're back at square one! Trying to figure out how to not get her enslaved!

So that's one for the bin. But who's to say that she even needs to fight to begin with? You probably also thought that a noxious **** might do the trick. She'll be sleeping all night! And through her own inevitable enslavement! Now, that's actually a good plan! If you thought of it, go ahead and give yourself a gold star!
It's not gonna work though. Not against Katey. She's not a morning person to begin with. So for this tournament she got herself a really good alarm clock. One guaranteed to get her out of bed... With a crash and a bang!
Any **** that's good enough to defeat this alarm for sure would also be good enough to cause her some serious harm. I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet; this clock has bested me.
Trust me on this! I'm the one who made it.

So how about a completely different approach? I bet you thought that if Katey would end up fighting the snake, I could just equip the angelic girl to defeat her.
What's missing from that plan is the details. What exactly would be the best way of equipping her against this opponent? Cause an **** rifle is not gonna do squat against getting hypnotized. All that plan is gonna do, when Katey inevitably surrenders, is drop the weapons I provided right into Hebi-san's lap. When I fight her then, I'm gonna have to worry both about getting hypnotized and getting pulverized!

Oh yeah! I haven't even considered what'll happen if I do end up fighting Hebi-san! Could I really be subdued like that? Independence and freedom are what I value the most! I'd never give them up! But... I'm sure that every single person she'd beaten so far thought the same thing.
One way or another, I'll end up finding out for sure when I fight her. In the most fateful way.

Maybe it'd be best if I sat that one out. Unless of course Katey would end up enslaved. Then I don't think I'd be able to. She deserves a fighting chance! Would I even be able to commit myself to anything like that?
I hadn't even figured out what to do about Tanya!
This tournament sure knew how to throw a spanner in the gearworks. I actually once had an idea of engineering a species of simians that could transform into a spanner and back at will. Someday I'll go about making that into a reality. Of course, people would just end up complaining that this monkey-wrench is just a bad pun. Well, you know what? I don't care what they think! I didn't ask for a pun! I asked for a baboon with the power of transfiguration! If what all people can think about is how they don't like the jokes they can make at their expense, then guess what? That only makes them look bad!

To be fair, I could redesign this project into one that is harder to make a pun about. In fact, if that's convenient for all the pun-critics out there, then that'd be kind of a dick move if I didn't even try.
But... Who's to say a dick move is always a bad thing? Sometimes I need to stand my ground! And sometimes maybe the complainers need a lesson in humility!

Wait, what was I pondering about?

Whatever it was, it would have to wait.
The door creaked open, and a gold-coloured sabaton clamped in.

Uh oh...
I looked down, finding my regular old slender yet curvy legs.
I was still wearing nothing but my T-shirt. Sure, that worked like a charm as a simple but cute dress when in my kid form. But I went into the bathroom for this process precisely so I wouldn't get spotted without any clothes! I thought I'd get at least one moment alone before I got back my sexy teenage body. But nope!
This dolt just had to waltz in just as my transformation had finished!

There I was, literally caught pantsless when the Golden Knight Silvester Spartano d'Artagan entered the bathrom. I could only cross my legs, pull the hem of my shirt down and wave with an awkward smile, "Uh... Ah... Why, hi there, handsome! You come here often?"