Chivalry of A Failed Knight Vol. 3

Table of Contents
Cover
Color Illustrations
Prologue: Shizuku’s Challenge
Chapter 1: Lorelei vs. Raikiri
Chapter 2: Mystery in Okutama
Chapter 3: Worst One in Duress
Chapter 4: Cutting the Gordian Knot
Epilogue: Another One
Afterword
Shizuku Kurogane reminisced about her days as a child.
No matter what she did, be it hit other children, steal their toys, or even
break the toys she stole, she was always forgiven. Why was that? It was
because, even when she was young, her talent as a Blazer was clear.
“I’m sorry, Shizuku. You too! Say you’re sorry!”
“Sorry.”
The child Shizuku had bullied, a relative of hers, was forced to apologize
after his mother whacked him on the head. It was a quivering, forced apology
filled with repressed anger, but Shizuku merely glared at them with the same
disgusted look she always wore.
Children who distorted justice in the face of power, adults who ignored
wrongdoing in the face of power—everyone around her was exactly the
same: worthless. They bowed down to the strong, expressing completely
artificial gratitude and good will. It was a filthy sight.
That was the reason Shizuku came to hate the human race, even
becoming fed up with her own self for being one of those worthless creatures.
As she did, she took out her frustration on those weaker than her; it made her
feel just a tiny bit better when she heard the cries of the beings she hated. But
there was a boy—just one boy—who wouldn’t allow her to do that.
Slap!
That boy, Ikki Kurogane, would smack her in the face when she made
other children cry.
“You can’t bully the weak,” he would tell her.
At the time, Shizuku hadn’t realized what had happened to her. Her
parents had scolded her before, but they had never laid a hand on her, so
despite not knowing why, her cheek swelled and grew hot as tears flowed
from her eyes.
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“Apologize right now, young man!” the adults, red with rage, would
scream at Ikki when they saw Shizuku crying. When he refused, they hit him,
but Ikki never bowed his head. He had no reason to.
Shizuku had never met someone like him before, because nobody else
had the guts to tell her when she was wrong. Though she cried from the
shock of being slapped, she was actually happy. She didn’t want to be
spoiled; she wanted someone strict, who honestly respected her as a fellow
human being. She had always hoped to meet someone like him. It was then
that she decided to follow his example, so that one day she might grow up to
be different than the worthless adults she knew.
I had no idea back then.
She didn’t know the hardship of her brother’s world, or the solitude he
was forced to bear.
◆◇◆◇◆
“First-year student Shizuku Kurogane, your battle is about to begin.

Please make your way to the arena.”
Shizuku slowly opened her eyes as she listened to the announcement. A
dark passage lay before her, leading directly to the entrance of the arena.
Without hesitation, she walked forward, continuing to reminisce.
Only after he ran away did I realize how much pain my brother was in.
As if he had never existed, nobody in the Kurogane family had bothered
to search for him. That was when Shizuku had come to realize what her
brother hid behind his gentle smile. She loathed the entire Kurogane family
for how they had driven him away, and through her loathing, she came to a
decision: If nobody else in the world would love Ikki, then she was willing to
offer him all the love being deprived of him.
Accomplishing that was impossible the way she was, however.
Constantly relying on him and following him around wasn’t the answer.
Shizuku couldn’t save her brother if she couldn’t support him as an equal; she
would end up leaving him in solitude once more. She had no choice but to
become stronger.
One day, Ikki would stand out from the rest of the world. Shizuku
understood that, because she knew his strength better than anyone else. Still,
she worked tirelessly, desperately, in hopes of becoming someone who could

stand as his equal.
Eventually, she became strong enough to become a Rank B Blazer, but it
wasn’t enough. If Ikki was aiming to take the Seven Stars, then Shizuku
wasn’t quite ready to walk alongside him.
“Okay, everyone! Let’s meet the fighters for today’s twelfth match! From
the blue gate, we have the little sister of Ikki Kurogane, the most popular
knight this year! She’s second-best among the first-years, trailing just behind
the Crimson Princess!
“With fifteen matches fought, she has a perfect fifteen-win record! She’ll
trounce you even if your ability has an advantage against hers! Will she once
again be able to use her outstanding magic control to drag her opponent into
the depths?! It’s Shizuku Kurogane, the legendary Lorelei!”
Shizuku exited the dim hallway and was immediately met with cheers
echoing throughout the arena, but even the deafening cheers seemed so far
away, for Shizuku was focused solely on the person standing before her.
“And from the red gate, we have the highest-ranking student knight in
Hagun, bearing the title of student council president! In only her second year,
she advanced all the way to the semifinals at the Seven Stars Battle Festival
before losing to the soon-to-be Seven Stars King, Bukyoku Academy’s
Moroboshi. This year, however, she has once again taken the stage in the all-
out war for the summit, with her invincible trump card honed more than ever!
“Speed that can’t be avoided, sharpness that can’t be blocked! Will her
golden flash once again cut down her foe in the blink of an eye?! It’s Hagun’s
most powerful and most beloved lightning-wielder, Touka Toudou—the
Raikiri herself!”

Touka Toudou. Separated by about fifty feet, Shizuku fixed her eyes on
her foe, whose hazel hair swayed as she moved. In doing so, she became
certain. I see. She’s in a completely different league.
Just standing near Toudou, the very air began to sting. The hair on
Shizuku’s body trembled, and she began to sweat as she was pierced by her
opponent’s dagger-like gaze.
Toudou’s very nature was fundamentally different from that of everyone
Shizuku had defeated in her previous selection battles. She was an incredibly
powerful foe, one far surpassing Shizuku herself, which was exactly why
Shizuku’s blood began to boil with fighting spirit. She had been waiting for
such an opportunity since she entered Hagun. A fight that would test the
strength of her love.
Finally. A semifinalist from the Seven Stars seems like a worthy enough
opponent for me. She was ready to prove just how strongly she loved her
brother. Her feelings, her love, everything would be put to the test. This fight
will be the true test of my limits!
“And now, today’s twelfth match begins!”
As if in response to Shizuku’s mounting passion, the buzzer rang,
announcing the start of their battle.

Lorelei versus Raikiri.
Both were among the strongest Rank B knights in the school, but the
battle between the two behemoths was off to an unexpected start.
“Wh-What’s this, I wonder! Neither of them is advancing!”
The silver shortsword, Yoishigure. The katana, Narukami, waiting in its
glossy black sheath. With their respective Devices in hand, the two fighters
kept their distance as they each traced a semicircle around the arena. An
entire minute had passed since the start of their duel, but their blades hadn’t
crossed even once.
Meanwhile, the air in the venue was thick with tension. Over a hundred
spectators were gathered for the battle between the two masters of war, all
watching with bated breath.
“Neither of them wants to initiate,” the flame-haired girl next to Ikki,
Stella Vermillion, muttered with a stiff voice.
“They’re just glaring at each other from a distance, sizing up their
opponent’s actions,” Nagi Alisuin—Alice—said in response. “Two Rank B
knights with power worthy of challenging the Seven Stars Battle Festival.
Both Shizuku and the student council president have ways of attacking from
across the ring. They’re both keeping their foe in killing range—the first to
act thoughtlessly is sure to lose.”
“That’s one reason, but in this match, Shizuku doesn’t want to make the
first move,” Ikki added. “Toudou uses the strongest close-range weapon out
there: the katana.”
“Is that related to the trump card they were talking about a minute ago,
Ikki?” Stella asked.
“Yeah. That’s no exaggeration, either. It’s so powerful and so
breathtaking that it became Toudou’s nickname as well. I’m talking about her

Noble Art, the super-electromagnetic quickdraw, Raikiri.” Narukami, hung at
her waist, and its sheath made use of electricity to create a magnetic field,
ejecting the sword; the otherworldly speed and power with which she
unsheathed her sword could rend even a bolt of lightning. It wasn’t a blow
that the human body could withstand. It was certain to defeat any foe. “So
far, she’s won every official battle she’s used Raikiri in, no exceptions. Once
Raikiri is summoned, it’s curtains for her opponent. It’s the very epitome of a
trump card.”
“Oh, but she was only a semifinalist, right? Doesn’t that mean that
whoever beat her was able to get around Raikiri?”
“Not quite.” Ikki shook his head. “The Seven Stars King, Moroboshi, is a
lancer. I saw the video of their battle, and he stayed outside of Raikiri’s range
from start to finish. That means even the Seven Stars King is afraid of her
Noble Art. There isn’t a single person who’s defeated her at close range.
Anyone who gets near her is destroyed by her faster-than-lightning strike.
Shizuku is well-aware of that, of course.”
“That’s why she isn’t moving, then?”
“Right. She’ll be on the defensive for the entirety of the battle. Shizuku’s
specialty is long-range magic, so there’s no reason for her to intentionally
step into a disadvantageous fight.” So Shizuku waited, time frozen, for the
moment her opponent began her attack. “But if Toudou so much as flinches,
the battle will explode into action.”
The very moment Ikki finished his sentence, Touka went on the attack.
◆◇◆◇◆
With a sudden burst of energy, Touka bent her knees and leaned forward.
She drove off the ground, shifting to top speed in an instant. Less than twenty
yards stood between them, a distance she could close in the blink of an eye,
but Lorelei wouldn’t stand and watch while she did.
Responding to Touka’s actions, Shizuku made her move as well. She was
ready, because she had been waiting for the moment Touka would dash
forward.
“Freeze the earth, Toudo Heigen!”
The ground below her feet froze. The spreading ice reached the walls
even faster than Touka could move, turning the arena into an ice rink. If

someone dashed on an ice rink, they would, of course, slip, making it their
only option to slow down. Driving Touka into such a situation was Shizuku’s
ploy, and once accomplished, she immediately leapt into the next step of her
plan: Noble Art: Suiroudan
When launched, the cannonball of water that emerged from Yoishigure’s
tip would wrap around the foe’s head and make them unable to breathe.
Firing three shots, common sense dictated that it would be impossible to
dodge all of them on a field of ice.
Her foe was on another level, however; she was a being that had nearly
reached the pinnacle of the Seven Stars. Somehow, Touka navigated the ice
rink without slowing down. She had realized right away what Shizuku
wanted her to do, so instead of stopping, she instead let herself accelerate
further by sliding.
Weaving through the gaps between shots, she gracefully evaded
Suiroudan. She then used the ice to her advantage to spin like a top and
unsheathe her sword, aiming for the still-distant Shizuku as she sent a magic
slash of lightning in the shape of a crescent moon gunning for her neck.
Touka had seen through Shizuku’s strategy, evading her fire and
launching an immediate long-range counterattack. She had been visualizing
her every move since the very moment she saw Toudo Heigen.
Shizuku had never experienced someone who could see through her so
quickly and precisely, but she had assumed it would happen and planned for
it. A moment before Touka’s lightning sliced through her neck, a hundred-
foot tall wall of water shot up from between her and the attack, separating
them. It was Shouha Suiren, another of her Noble Arts. Stronger than a
defensive wall of iron, neither projectiles nor electricity could pass through it.
Of course, Shizuku didn’t expect Raikiri to go along with her plans so
easily—she was among the four strongest student knights in Japan, after all.
Touka was sure to attempt a long-range counterattack after being targeted by
Suiroudan, so Shizuku had prepared the defensive wall in advance.
The lightning struck the wall of water, vaporizing the point of impact, but
it wasn’t able to break through. Shizuku had successfully repelled Touka’s
attack, but that thought lasted only a mere moment.
“Ah!”
When Touka saw that her attack didn’t hit its mark, she wasted no time in
unleashing two, three, ten more bolts of lightning. She was like a machine

gun, firing wildly at her target. The foresight she’d displayed before was
gone; she was attacking with brute force alone.
That didn’t mean it was a thoughtless action, however. Touka was well
aware of the advantage she held over Shizuku: the speed at which she could
use her techniques.
To prevent her water from conducting electricity, Shizuku had to take
care to remove every single impurity from every single molecule of water,
making perfectly, completely pure. It was extremely delicate and precise
work. In contrast, Touka’s strikes required no careful management
whatsoever; she only had to enchant them with lightning.
It was only natural that their speeds would differ. Touka had realized her
advantage with only one attack, and that her continuous, lightning-fast assault
would put Shizuku in the most difficult possible situation.
Her analysis was correct. Against the endless bombardment, Shizuku was
forced to maintain her barrier. She had to focus entirely on using Shouha
Suiren to protect herself from the volley of attacks. Even so, Touka’s
powerful attacks with her superheated lightning blade were slowly but surely
vaporizing the barrier, grinding down Shizuku’s shield.
After dozens of strikes, the machine gun-like lightning destroyed the last
of her protection. Touka swung Narukami once more, ready to deal the
finishing blow, but something wasn’t right.
“Huh…?!”
Her movements stopped just as she went to swing. Why? The reason lay
at her feet. Something had taken hold of her legs: a watery arm that had
sprouted from the frozen floor. It froze as soon as it grabbed her, pinning her
where she stood, and a shadow simultaneously appeared over her head.
By the time Touka had torn her line of sight away from Shizuku and
looked up at the sky, it was too late. What she saw was a massive pillar of
ice, falling at a terrifying speed from within any human’s worst blind spot. It
seemed close enough that she could touch it with her nose.
Everything was happening just as Shizuku had imagined it would. If
Touka wanted to fight using the speed of her foresight, then Shizuku would
fight with depth of hers. Touka had been led to believe that her speed gave
her an advantage, that Shizuku was only able to hide in her shell and fight a
defensive battle until she’d lost. All the while, Shizuku’s magic had crept
along the floor, creating an arm to restrain Touka. In addition, the steam

resulting from Touka’s attacks was used to create the pillar of ice that would
soon crush her.
Three complex uses of magic, all at once. A normal Blazer couldn’t
perform such a feat, but Shizuku could. She had Rank A magic control—the
highest level among all of humanity, even surpassing Stella Vermillion.
The falling mass of ice split the entire ring in two, the resulting crack
extending even to the audience’s seats. That was just how powerful the blow
was. A gravestone of ice sat at the center of the destruction; Touka couldn’t
have possibly been standing after that. It was clear to all who the victor was.
Or so it should have been, but Shizuku could still feel the tension in the
air, no less painful than before. As if confirming her fears, the mass of ice
began to split in half, like a blooming flower. In the midst of it, Raikiri stood
uninjured.
Both attacked, both defended. The area was left half-destroyed by their
battle, but not a single strike landed. They were evenly matched.
The duel between Rank B knights had returned to its starting point: a
staring match.
◆◇◆◇◆
“A-Amaziiiiing! Such high-level offense and defense! I was put in

charge of the play-by-play, but I couldn’t even get a word in!”
The commentator shouted as if she had only just remembered that she
was supposed to speak. Her voice seemed to lift the breathless audience’s
tension all at once, with shocked yells coming from all directions.
“Wh-What’s with these two?! Are they really human?!”
“Man, the student council pres is crazy!”
“We already know that! She was a semifinalist! How the hell is that first-
year standing up to her, though?!”
“Defend, counterattack, bluff, secret weapon—all in a matter of seconds!
How many moves does she have?!”
“But the president was ready to handle all of it!”
“They’re both monsters. This is what a Rank B battle looks like!”
“The crowd is going wild over their fight, and it’s no wonder! Strength,
skill, and tactics alike are being displayed at levels much higher than any
normal student could achieve! These two are the real deal! I wouldn’t be

surprised if either one of them became the Seven Stars King!
“All this fighting, and yet zero damage has been done! There’s not even a
single scratch on either of them! You know what they say: ‘Diamonds can
only be cut by other diamonds’! Who will the goddess of victory favor today,
folks?!”
“Shizuku’s doing great!”
“I knew she was strong, but this is surprising, even for me!”
Like the hosts, Stella and Alice were in awe of Shizuku’s fighting. Her
opponent was the strongest knight in all of Hagun, a girl who was in the
semifinals of last year’s Seven Stars Battle Festival. Shizuku keeping pace
with Touka proved that she was strong enough to fight on even footing with
the beings at the very top of Seven Stars.
“If she keeps this up, she might be able to win!” Stella cheered, full of
excitement.
Though they often snapped at each other, Stella didn’t hate Shizuku. In
fact, their love for the same man led to a sort of mutual understanding, and
for that, from the bottom of her heart, Stella was truly happy. Shizuku was
doing more than enough to win, despite her foe having the elemental
advantage.
The outcome of their match was unclear; there was a great possibility for
a major upset. However, beside the two whose hearts swelled with
anticipation, Ikki Kurogane alone watched the arena with apprehension.
Are they really evenly matched?
◆◇◆◇◆
“They really are well-matched, eh, Kanata?”

“It seems so, Vice President.”
Two members of Touka Toudou’s student council—Utakata Misogi and
Kanata Toutokubara—observed the fight from just above the red gate,
opposite Ikki’s seat above the blue gate.
“These first-years are amazing. They’re so strong it’s hard to put into
words. If they decide to be delinquents, we’re the ones who’ll have to stop
them, y’know?”
“Heehee. Your cries seem more joyful than anything. This means we can
graduate without worry.” With a voice as elegant as a bird’s song, Kanata

smiled and once again looked out from beneath her wide-brimmed hat at the
first-year who fought on even footing with Touka. “It’s truly a surprise,
though. Who would have expected her to be able to compete with our
princess like this?”
“Right? I can’t see a single advantage or disadvantage on either side. It’s
not just Kurogane and Stella; these first-years really are incredible.” Utakata
acknowledged their ability with a cool, composed smile. “At least, this one is
when it comes to long range.”
That was the reason Ikki looked so concerned. There was one truth to be
gleaned from their initial trading of blows: Touka would absolutely dominate
Shizuku in close-range combat. There would be no way to defeat her if it
came to that. In other words, Shizuku Kurogane’s chance at victory lay solely
in staying far away—keeping pace wasn’t good enough.
If she wanted to win, Shizuku needed to get a leg up on Touka
offensively. She knew that, but she couldn’t land a single damaging blow.
Their exchange may have ended in a draw, but in the grand scheme of things,
it was clear who had really come out on top in the first skirmish in the battle
between Lorelei and Raikiri.
“Even worse, Touka isn’t fighting seriously yet.”
For a Rank B knight, Shizuku was a first-class water mage with Rank A
magic control. One would be hard-pressed to find a talent like her even at the
Seven Stars. She was a rare opportunity.
Instead of unleashing an all-out attack, Touka instead chose to do as
Shizuku wished and remain at long range. She wanted to learn what a top-tier
water mage’s attacks felt like.
“Touka must be happy to be able to fight her before the Festival.”
“Indeed. She’ll likely end this study session soon, though. Today’s
matches are far behind schedule, and as we know, the president isn’t fond of
delays.”
◆◇◆◇◆
As Kanata had predicted, there was a change in the arena. At Touka’s

feet, the skating rink created by Toudo Heigen was beginning to spew steam
—she was joule heating the ground with the immense electrical power within
her, using it to neutralize Shizuku’s Noble Art. Then, she lifted Narukami and

pointed it at Shizuku.
The light reflecting off the tip of Touka’s sword carried a powerful
killing intent that Shizuku couldn’t ignore. Her expression stiffened as that
bloodlust pierced her heart, though the almighty pressure she felt was only
part of the reason.
I don’t understand. Glaring at Touka from afar, Shizuku was frozen with
apprehension. Her foe’s last move in their previous exchange assailed her
with doubt. How was she able to respond to my surprise attack? Can she see
something I can’t?
Lorelei’s magic control far outclassed Raikiri’s. It was even a full level
above the Rank A Blazer Stella’s. She was right to have confidence in her
camouflage; it was inconceivable that her opponent could have been aware of
the trick she was going to pull.
Even stranger, it had come from Touka’s worst blind spot: directly
overhead. Though many people could react to hints from behind them, it was
a fundamental flaw of the human species that they could never do so to hints
from above. Touka, however, had reacted as if it were completely normal,
splitting the gravestone of ice in twain.
It was then, while Shizuku toiled over the mystery of her foe’s abilities,
that she suddenly saw Touka standing right in front of her, disturbing the air
as she swung Narukami.
“Gah?!”
Her eyes grew wide with shock—it took everything she had to avoid
screaming. Who could blame her? A fraction of a second ago, her opponent
was dozens of yards away, but she had gotten close enough that Shizuku
could reach out her arm and touch her. Of course, not before Touka’s sword
would slice into her.
“Ngh!”
She did not freeze up, however. Without a thought as to how she would
catch herself when she fell, Shizuku threw herself backward, barely evading
Touka’s horizontal slash. Her body spun in midair, and when she touched her
left hand to the ground, she detonated a high-pressure blast of water from her
palm, launching herself far away from Touka.
Dodging the attack and putting distance between them was a calculated
decision, but Shizuku had been forced to rack her brain to come up with such
a daring move and execute it with composure. It left her in a half-panicked

state.
I don’t get it!
She couldn’t comprehend what had happened. Touka hadn’t left her sight
for even a moment, yet somehow, with no sound or sign of movement, she
had instantly closed the several-dozen-yard gap between them.
“Ooh! Careful there, Kurogane! That was quite the narrow escape! She
was reacting to Toudou’s attacks with ease earlier, so what’s the deal now?!
She almost looked like she was daydreaming!”
Did I lose focus? No, there’s no way. Shizuku knitted her eyebrows
dubiously. It shouldn’t have been possible for her to lose focus in battle, but
the announcer’s words were proof that it appeared that way to others. Had
she failed to keep Raikiri’s attack in sight even though she’d had no trouble
doing so before?
No matter what the case, Touka’s last attack was problematic for
Shizuku. She had to stay focused, lest she miss her assailant again, so she
reminded herself to stay sharp, focusing her consciousness on her eyes. The
next moment, however, she once again saw Narukami rapidly approaching.
“Bwahhh?!”
Given no time to dodge, Shizuku was helpless as her clothes were
shredded by the attack.
“Whoooa, get a load of that! Shizuku Kurogane has taken a direct hit
from Toudou’s sword! And a deep one, at that! Could this be a fatal
wound?!”
However, just as everyone began to think the match had been decided,
Shizuku’s body turned pale, then liquified and spilled onto the ground. The
real Shizuku was already standing a great distance behind Touka.
“Wh-What’s this?! A water clone?! Kurogane has beautifully evaded
Raikiri’s—Wait, what’s this?!” The announcer’s voice froze when she saw
the stream of crimson running down Shizuku’s arm. “Blood is dripping from
her left arm! She didn’t evade it completely, after all! Kurogane has finally
been hit! The great Raikiri, Touka Toudou, draws first blood!”
“Rgh…!” Shizuku groaned, holding the slash wound on her left arm.
It’s like she’s teleporting. What sort of trick is she using? She had no idea
what Toudou was doing to mask her movements, but the stream of crimson
running down her arm made one thing perfectly clear: I can’t follow her
movements!

That was the beginning of the end. It became obvious to everyone that
theirs was no longer an even match.
◆◇◆◇◆
The scales had finally tipped in Touka’s favor; Shizuku was fighting a
purely defensive battle, only able to run away. The approaching Raikiri was
faster, though, and Shizuku’s decreasing reaction speed was a major burden.
She became more and more exhausted, eventually reaching the point where a
stiff breeze would be nearly enough to topple her.
“What’s going on here? At first, Lorelei and Raikiri seemed evenly
matched, but now it seems to be taking everything Lorelei’s got just to run
away. How did she fall so far behind?!”
The play-by-play announcer was bewildered. She didn’t know that
Shizuku was unable to see Touka’s movements, so there was no way for her
to understand why the battle had become so one-sided. Even so, everyone
present at the training field knew exactly who would emerge victorious.
“She should really just surrender.”
“I guess the president was just too much for a first-year.”
“And here I thought she had a chance at first.”
“Huh? You leaving already?”
“Yeah. This battle’s over. I mean, not like we didn’t know the president
was crazy strong, right?”
The venue had calmed significantly, missing all of the enthusiasm
present at the start of the match. Really, no matter how incredible she was,
Shizuku was just a first-year. How could the best knight in all of Hagun fall
to someone like her? Everyone there was disappointed in themselves for
having even begun to get excited over something so unlikely.
Among them, Stella spoke to Ikki, nearly groaning in dismay.
“Hey, Ikki? What happened to Shizuku?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at her. Her reactions have obviously dulled.”
“That’s right, Stella. The president isn’t moving any differently, but it’s
like Shizuku can’t even see her.”
Alice had noticed the problem with Shizuku’s actions as well. Naturally,
Ikki had too, but he could see a little bit more than the rest of them.

“I think you’re right about that.”
“Oh?”
“Shizuku really can’t see her. I’ve seen something like it before.” It was
when he’d met Nene Saikyou, the Demon Princess, just before his first
selection battle. “Back then, Ms. Saikyou appeared in front of me without me
even realizing it. I never stopped looking in her direction, but she was
suddenly inches away from me. Whatever Raikiri is doing, it must be the
same thing. Perhaps it’s some sort of martial art.”
“Ahaha! Nice one, little Kurogane. I’m surprised you noticed.”
When Ikki turned toward the voice that had descended on him from
behind, he saw a girl in a beautiful kimono and a handsome woman in a suit,
both making their way down the stairs of the bowl-shaped arena.
“Hey there. Been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Ms. Saikyou, Director. Why are you two here?”
“What? It’s not like we need anything. We just saw you here, so we
wanted to say hi.”
The director, Kurono Shinguuji, answered Alice’s question. They merely
came to watch a selection battle between two Rank B knights for fun, and
called out to Ikki and the girls because of their fascinating conversation.
“Wait, are you saying Ikki was right, Ms. Nene?”
“Yep,” Ms. Saikyou nodded in reply to Stella. “That’s Void Step, an
ancient technique combining breathing and footwork. If I had to describe
it…”
“…Huh?”
Without warning, Saikyou seemingly teleported nearly twenty feet,
stopping close enough to breathe on Stella. She then grabbed Stella’s ample
breasts and held them up, massaging them.
“Eep?!”
“Like that, see? Damn, you’ve got big honkers. Soft, too.”
“Aaahhhhh! Wh-Wh-Wh-What do you think you’re doing?!”
“I figured mine would get bigger if I felt yours up.”
“If you want them to get bigger, feel up your own!”
“Look at my chest, stupid! What am I supposed to feel here?!”
“Why are you the one getting mad? You groped me!”
“I suppose you can already see through the trick behind Void Step,
Kurogane?” Kurono asked, ignoring the two bickering girls, to which he

nodded.
“Yes. If I were told to replicate it, I probably could.”
“Hey, Ikki?” Stella began. “What is Void Step, exactly?”
“Well, let’s see. Basically, since we humans are living things, we can’t
perceive every single thing that enters our eyes and ears like machines can.
The brain registers things and can recall them, but the consciousness doesn’t
identify them. And that’s a good thing—if your brain was forced to take note
of and analyze every single piece of sensory information it received, it would
quickly overheat. Instead, the human brain tosses the lowest-priority
information into the voids in one’s consciousness, making things easier by
not recognizing this information at all.
“Void Step uses a special, highly specific pattern of breathing and
footwork to allow a person to slip into these voids. As a result, Shizuku can
see Toudou, but she doesn’t know that she can. Her brain and eyes definitely
still perceive her enemy, but her consciousness is discarding that perception
as unimportant information. That is, until she comes close enough to pose a
major threat to Shizuku’s life.”
“Exactly right. You’ve studied well,” Kurono said, impressed.
Ikki’s answer had perfectly exposed the previously incomprehensible
mechanism behind the technique that was plaguing Shizuku. It was the tiny
periphery of unconsciousness that existed within the senses. By shifting one’s
breathing and self by a half-step, Touka had slipped through Shizuku’s
consciousness, preventing her mind from locking on. That was the method
behind Void Step, an ancient style of stealth walking.
“I’ve seen this before, after all.” Touka’s Void Step was also much less
refined than Ms. Saikyou’s, allowing Ikki to see through it more easily. “But
I’m surprised a student could master the Demon Princess’ technique.”
“Well, there’s an easy explanation for that one,” Kurono told him. “Nene
and Toudou both studied under the same knight—the very knight who
specialized in Void Step.”
“Really? Who was it?”
“Torajirou Nangou.”
“Nangou? You mean the God of War?!”
The shock on Ikki’s face was completely transparent. The God of War,
Torajirou Nangou, was a lifelong rival to Ryouma Kurogane and a senior
knight who remained active even past the age of ninety. He was undisputedly

a living legend.
“As I recall, you saw him at a senior citizens’ home and begged him to
teach you.”
“Jeez, slow down, Kuu!” Ms. Saikyou piped up. “I’ve never thought of
that old-timer as my teacher!”
“Why are you so embarrassed? I bet you only wear those clogs to imitate
him.”
“N-N-N-No, I do not! I bought these because I saw an ad saying they’d
cure constipation!”
“Acupressure sandals…?” As Ms. Saikyou’s long, hanging sleeves
fluttered around with her waving arms, Kurono rebuked her temper tantrum,
mentioning that “You’re never honest when it comes to him”. Then, she
turned to look at Ikki again. “Well, anyway, if you know that much about
how Void Step works, then I’m sure you also know that your sister can’t do
anything to stop it.”
“What?!”
Stella and Alice raised their voices in disbelief at her matter-of-fact
declaration of Shizuku’s defeat. Though Ikki’s expression was grim, he
wasn’t surprised; he had already arrived at the same conclusion.
“Is that true, Ikki?! There’s no way to defeat Void Step?!”
“No, there is a way to defeat the technique itself. You have to
intentionally focus your mind on your unconscious senses—on the voids in
your consciousness. The problem is that it’s much easier said than done.
“For example, imagine there’s a man pointing a gun at you from straight
ahead, his finger on the trigger. He obviously wants to kill you. Your focus
would naturally be drawn directly toward the barrel, because that’s what has
control over the last seconds of your life, right?
“Under those circumstances, would you turn your attention to the man’s
earring? Would you think about who manufactured that earring? Of course
you wouldn’t, because unnecessary information is completely ignored by
your conscious mind. In order to defeat Void Step, however, you must turn
your attention from the gun to the earring in that life-or-death situation. That
is the act of focusing on your unconscious senses.
“Shizuku may as well be in a life-or-death situation like that right now.
Intentionally removing her focus from her enemy would require specific
training; she would need to be able to freely control both her body and senses

at once. Honestly, she’s in a really tough spot.”
If she were Ikki or Stella, she might have been able to. The two of them
had established full control of their bodies as a result of their learning martial
arts.
Shizuku was different, though. She was the best of the best when it came
to controlling magic, but an amateur at controlling her body. The moment she
began to think that she was just overlooking Touka and tried to concentrate
more on her, her field of vision narrowed, making the voids in her
consciousness even larger. It created a vicious, endless cycle.
“I don’t believe it!” Stella cried.
Ikki didn’t want to imagine his sister’s defeat either, but as things stood,
the chasm between the two Rank B knights was too large. The fact that
Shizuku hadn’t damaged Touka even once stood as a testament to that fact.
Even their battle at long range, where she excelled, had ended in a draw, and
an even battle at long range was equal to defeat in the long run.
With her pinned down and the scales so far against her favor, it was hard
to believe that she could win. Touka would close the distance between them
once and for all, entering the close-range domain of Raikiri.
“If Shizuku has some trump card to fight Raikiri off at close range, she
might have a chance. But if not…”
Ikki didn’t bother to say what would happen if that were the case, though
Stella already knew what was to follow.
“Mmh.”
It was strange. To her, Shizuku was a rival for Ikki’s affections; she
shouldn’t have been anything but a hindrance. Even so, Stella knew what
Shizuku was experiencing as she fought, the strength of the emotions that
supported her as she faced the challenge before her. The fact that they loved
the same man made that feeling all the more potent.
“Shizukuuu! You can do iiit!”
A few small words wouldn’t be enough to turn the fight around, but
Stella couldn’t bear to not shout those words.
◆◇◆◇◆
Shizuku clearly heard Stella’s loud, beautiful voice as it echoed through

the bored venue. It was the voice of her rival in love, honestly wishing for her

victory, and hearing it made Shizuku clench her fists so hard the blood
stopped flowing through them.
I don’t want your support! she claimed within her mind, feigning
annoyance with an angry look while attempting to ignore the crawly,
indescribable emotion deep within her heart.
If she were to acknowledge it, she believed it would change her
relationship with Stella forever. However, no matter how much she tried to
disregard it, Stella’s voice fanned the flames of her competitiveness.
Stella is sure to make it to the Seven Stars. I have to win and advance. I
have to move onward to the Seven Stars, with my brother and my friends!
Stella was the only Rank A knight in all of Hagun, standing taller than
even the monster that currently opposed Shizuku. She wouldn’t stumble over
the small stepping stone that was the selection battles.
Ikki, the man who had defeated Stella, would surely make it to the top of
the nation. Shizuku understood her brother’s strength better than anyone else,
so she harbored no doubts about that fact.
She couldn’t allow herself to be the only one to lose. Her strength had
been drained by the realization of her hopeless inferiority, but her fighting
spirit raged stronger than ever. Casting healing magic on her own wounds,
she stood up straight and glared directly at her enemy.
“What’s this? Kurogane still hasn’t given up on this one-sided battle!
She’s healing her wounds, standing ready to fight on! Has she found her
chance at victory?!”
What Shizuku had found was not her chance at victory, but rather her
determination. She couldn’t perceive Touka’s approach, nor could she
understand the trick behind it. All she knew was that she was tired of it.
Defending had become pointless. If she couldn’t see Touka’s moves, her
original strategy of pinning her down and fighting a long-range battle was out
of the question; trying to run away would make the situation progressively
worse.
The only path left to her was to go on the offensive. Her opponent was
Raikiri, the greatest knight in all of Hagun. She was undefeated at close
range, but it was the only way for Shizuku to win, so she steeled her resolve
and strengthened her grip on Yoishigure.
I’ll be the first to defeat her undefeated close-range attack!
Clueless as to what Shizuku was planning, Touka once again mercilessly

stepped into the voids in Shizuku’s consciousness, when suddenly, Shizuku
moved.
“Byakuya Kekkai!” she shouted, stabbing Yoishigure into the frozen
earth.
When the words left her lips, the ice created by Toudo Heigen instantly
turned into a thick, white mist that filled the arena.
Shizuku had changed her perspective on the battle. If she couldn’t see
Touka, then why let Touka see her? Considering that Toudo Heigen was
already useless against the enemy’s joule heating, Shizuku chose to sublimate
the layer of ice, reducing visibility in the arena to a mere three feet.
The only one who could move freely in the magic mist was Shizuku
herself. Though she couldn’t see, the mist was like a part of Shizuku’s body
—she could feel everything and everyone that touched it. She located her
enemy, who was standing still, at a loss for what to do, and immediately
circled behind her.
“Hisuijin.”
In response to Shizuku’s voice, all the water vapor in the air surrounding
her moved, focusing at Yoishigure’s tip to create a massive blade of highly
pressurized, rotating water.
Water constantly dripping over a long period of time would erode
massive boulders, and would cut through metal when made into a high-
pressure current. One could even go so far as to say that Earth itself was
carved by water into a sculpture. Nothing in the world cannot be cut by
water, and Shizuku was using her outstanding magic control to condense the
world-shaping power of Mother Nature into her blade.
Now, the true battle begins!
She dashed toward Touka, but it wasn’t a reckless attack, for she was
deeply assured of her victory. She still didn’t know how Touka had seen her
attack from above coming, but even if she saw Hisuijin and tried to react
using Narukami, she would be unable to stop it.
No matter how sharp or well-crafted one’s blade was, it made no
difference. A solid couldn’t stop liquid from flowing around it. Hisuijin
would easily bypass Narukami and cut Touka down.
Shizuku already knew exactly how this would go, so she stepped in range
of Raikiri with confidence in her heart. The moment she did, something
caught her attention.

“Huh?”
Touka stood in the fog, her eyes fixed directly on Shizuku despite the
low visibility. She was poised and ready to draw Narukami, visible lightning
running through its pitch-black sheath.
Shizuku knew what came next, for she had seen the blinding light
unleashed by Touka’s attack in videos countless times. It was her legendary
trump card that crushed all foes before it with a single stroke.
“Raikiri!”
Plasma surged, instantly turning the world white with overwhelming
heat, but having already set out for her final attack, Shizuku couldn’t stop.
She used all of her strength to swing Hisuijin, but the blade of water was
blown away with Raikiri’s speed alone.
Shizuku Kurogane’s wish, along with everything else she had put into the
battle, was cut down with a single sword stroke.
◆◇◆◇◆
The moment the plasma-coated blade was unsheathed, its faster-than-

sound slash detonated the air all around it. The raging wind it created, with
Touka at the center, blew away the mist of Byakuya Kekkai. The aftermath
reached all the way to the audience stands, making the split arena creak. It
was so ferocious that one could hardly remain standing in the wind.
In the midst of those roaring winds, Ikki kept his eyes open, looking
down into the arena. He saw everything, never averting his eyes until he was
met with the sight of Shizuku Kurogane falling to the ground.
“A flash of lightning, and she’s dooooown! The referee has crossed his
arms, signaling the end of the match! Kurogane fought tooth and nail, but the
semifinalist proved too great a wall for her to surmount! The winner of this
Rank B deathmatch is the student council president, Touka ‘Raikiri’
Toudou!”
The host announced the victor, lowering the curtain on their battle. An
intense, no-holds-barred fight. The beginning of the battle revealed just how
much both of them surpassed normal students, but in the end, Shizuku lost
hopelessly; she was never able to land so much as a single hit on her
opponent.
“Hey, Ikki?”

“I know, Alice. I saw it.” After his reply, Ikki stared at one point in the
arena. It was the fallen Shizuku’s right hand, her fingers wrapped around
Raikiri’s ankle. Indeed, it was a complete loss for her. “Great job out there,
Shizuku.”
Shizuku was likely the one who most clearly realized the chasm of
strength between the two, but she kept on fighting and fighting, refusing to
yield.
You’ve gotten so much stronger.
Long ago, she was just a little girl who chased after Ikki wherever he
went. Ikki had become more aware of the passage of the last four years than
he’d ever been.
“…”
Ikki watched the victor flip her chestnut-colored hair as she walked out
of the arena.
She’s too strong.
Shizuku’s last attack was far from reckless. Having used Byakuya
Kekkai to rob the enemy of her sight, she’d had her most powerful Noble Art,
Hisuijin, in hand. She had leaped into battle against Raikiri with all of her
most potent tools and visualizing a clear path to victory, but it was all cut
down by a simple, head-on attack.
Raikiri was able to counteract the strongest of fighters and the most well-
thought-out of plans, far exceeding anyone’s expectations. Ikki knew from
his battle with Kuraudo Kurashiki, the Sword Eater, that the top of the Seven
Stars was full of people like those two. Not a single member of that domain
was normal; they were superhumans who had long surpassed normal
measurements. It made Ikki think of how rewarding it would feel to reach
that summit.
I’d like to cross swords with you sometime, Raikiri.
◆◇◆◇◆
What followed the blinding, burning flash of light was benighted

emptiness. Shizuku slowly regained her consciousness, dragging herself from
the darkness.
She lifted her heavy eyelids, focusing her blurry vision. The first thing
she saw was a bland, white, unsoiled infirmary ceiling, followed by the

familiar face of her roommate.
“Finally came to, huh, Shizuku?”
“Alice?”
Shizuku slowly lifted her upper body off of the bed. When she looked
around, she noticed that other people were present as well. Ikki Kurogane—
her brother—and Stella Vermillion were standing behind Alice. Upon seeing
them all, Shizuku realized that she had failed.
Oh. I get it.
“Guess I lost,” she muttered, ushering in a depressed silence.
Don’t worry about it. Be happy.
People who put themselves squarely in the competitive world knew how
grim those words truly were. There were no words for losers in this world.
“Hey, Shizuku? Um…”
“I’m sorry.” Stella tried to end the painfully awkward silence, but
Shizuku coldly interrupted her. “I’d like to be alone for a while, if you don’t
mind. I’m still tired from the match.”
Shizuku hid her face and asked everyone to leave. She didn’t want to see
anyone or hear anything. All she wanted was to be alone.
“Sure. Let’s go, Stella.”
“…Okay.”
Ikki quickly understood her intentions and left with everyone in tow. She
appreciated that, for the pain of defeat had already caught in her throat.
Shizuku was a prideful girl; she didn’t want Ikki or Stella to see her as she
quivered with regret and sadness.
“Why are you still here?”
For some reason, Alice had stayed behind, a serene grin on her face.
“Why? Well, who knows?”
“I just said I wanted to be alone.”
“Yes, I’m not deaf.”
“Then just—!” Before she could finish her retort, Alice drew her into a
hug. “Alice?”
“You were amazing out there. Your brother’s eyes were glued to you
from start to finish. He said you did a great job.” Alice whispered as she
gently ran her hand through the still-shocked Shizuku’s hair. “Shizuku, I’m
not someone you have to put on a mask around. You don’t have to keep
acting so tough.”

Ah…
That was her limit. Alice’s gentle words and protective embrace were
enough to coax the first sob out of her throat, and once the first one had
broken through the dam, the rest came flooding out.
Damn it. Damn it, damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it!
A broken wish. A failed dream. It all still tormented her.
Shizuku screamed in place of the pain that she wouldn’t put into words,
clinging to Alice’s chest so tightly that her nails dug in. Alice didn’t pull
away, though; she knew she was the only one to whom Shizuku could
express her pain, so she stayed with Shizuku, holding her tiny body until the
sobs finally stopped.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Shizuku looked really upset.”

Stella spoke to Ikki as the two of them walked back to their dorm.
“Are you surprised? This probably destroyed her chances of getting to
the Seven Stars.” Ikki had asked Ms. Oreki about it before the match. At the
rate the selection battles were going, all six representatives would be people
with flawless records. The national stage wouldn’t permit a loser. “But still,
Shizuku has nothing to be ashamed of.”
Ikki remembered Shizuku’s right hand, holding Touka’s leg. The
willpower she had displayed at the very end of their battle was especially
spectacular.
“You can’t lose even once? That’s a lot of pressure.”
“Yeah. And we’re not exempt from that either, you know.”
Everyone—Shizuku, Ikki, Stella, and all the other students—was fighting
under the same rules. No one aiming for the top of the Seven Stars would
allow a single loss. That was the rule laid out by the new director, Kurono
Shinguuji, in an attempt to proverbially pan for the new Seven Stars King.
They would find the strongest knight, even if it meant the school’s best
had to crush one another. After all, only one person could stand at the top of
Seven Stars.
“The selection battles are almost over,” Ikki continued. “We’d better
brace ourselves for what’s to come.”
“I won’t lose, of course.” He turned to look at Stella, who oh-so

confidently declared her victory. She looked back up at him in return, her
eyes burning with fighting spirit. “I will not fail. You and I are going to fight
in the finals of the Seven Stars Battle Festival, and this time, I’ll win.”
Ikki felt immense joy welling up from within him. He wasn’t the only
one waiting eagerly for their chance to come.
“Me too, Stella. I won’t fail either.”
“Heehee, of course not. You know you’ll catch hell from me if you drop
out halfway through♪”
Stella responded to his determination by flashing him a beaming smile.
He couldn’t help but grin too; she was more charming than ever.
The more Ikki knew about her and the closer they became, the more he
fell in love with her. The scent of flowers around her, her high body
temperature—it was all charming in its own way.
In his desire to be loved even more by Stella, he was more motivated
than ever to work harder than ever. He could push himself to greater heights
in order to become a man fitting of his greatest rival and girlfriend. Having
met her was his greatest stroke of fortune.
“If we’re planning on winning, then we’d better go train, right?”
“Sure! I’ve been itching for a battle after watching Shizuku’s.”
“Hah! That’s so like you, Stella. Let’s get to it, then.”
Once Ikki confirmed that they were alone in the hallway, he wrapped his
fingers around Stella’s hand. She squeezed his hand tightly in return.
Ever since they had taken the next step at the pool, the couple had
become a bit more used to that sort of physical contact. They’d gotten so
accustomed to it that whenever they were alone together, their hands would
naturally seek each other out.
Ikki and Stella both loved the act of interlocking their fingers, allowing
them to feel the other’s presence and heat, but their favorite act was, of
course, kissing. The event at the pool was proof that they had gotten much
closer to acting like a real couple.
It was a clear step forward, but in truth, Stella felt a smidge dissatisfied
with the state of their relationship. Perhaps it wasn’t dissatisfaction, though.
Perhaps it was the desire to be even closer. She wanted Ikki to want her as a
woman, and the closer the two became, the greater her desire.
That was especially true when they exchanged kisses before sleeping;
parting lips was more difficult than anything else in the world. Stella had

even moaned in disappointment and desire when their kiss had ended the day
prior, startling Ikki.
That was way too embarrassing. Disgusted by the cloying sound that had
escaped her lips, she jumped straight into bed and buried herself under the
covers. It had taken some time for the flame in her to dissipate. Am I a
nympho or something?
Just remembering it was painful. Besides, she was the second imperial
princess of the Vermillion Empire. Even if he did want her, she wouldn’t be
ready to respond to his desires.
At the same time, however, both she and Ikki were adults according to
the standards set forth by the International Mage-Knight Federation, as they
were above fifteen years of age. They were both real, marriageable adults,
and as adults, they had the right to love as they pleased.
If only Ikki wanted me…
If he could look her straight in the eye, put his hands on her shoulders,
and say he honestly wanted her, what would Stella do? Would she choose her
position as a princess, or would she choose her own feelings?
Not long ago, Stella would have found some excuse to reject him, but she
was no longer certain what she would say. No matter how much she thought
about it, she couldn’t find a sure answer. If Ikki really, truly wanted her that
badly…
I think…
“What’s wrong, Stella? Your face is super red.”
“Huh?! O-Oh, um, it’s nothing! I’m fine!”
“Your face doesn’t get that red when nothing’s wrong. Did you catch a
cold? Here, let me check your temperature.”
Ikki brought his forehead to hers with a worried expression, ready to
check for a fever.
D-D-Don’t come near my face right nooow! Stella screamed internally in
response to his kindness.
“R-Really, I’m fine! I swear! Please, don’t come any closer!”
Stella successfully drove Ikki back with her response, but she was
somewhat appalled with herself. How brazen could she be, imagining such
things while walking through the school while it was still light out? It was
simply wrong.
That’s strictly forbidden until bedtime.

Stella finally calmed herself, ignoring the voice in her head telling her
that being in bed didn’t make it any better, when something strange appeared
from around the corner in front of them. Thinking it may have been a
person’s shadow, the couple quickly untangled their hands.
Ikki and Stella had to remember their social standing. If the world knew
of their relationship, it would be shocked at best, making their lives much
more hectic. Until the busyness of school and the Seven Stars cleared up,
they decided that hiding their relationship was the best choice.
What appeared was not human, however. It was a pale-white, misshapen
rectangle monster.
“Hup… Hah…!”
Upon closer inspection, the monster was actually a giant stack of papers
that somebody was carrying with both hands. Neither Ikki nor Stella had any
idea who it was, for the mountain of paper was so high that it covered their
face, but looking down at their feet, the two could tell that it was a female
student.
“Wow, that’s unsafe.”
“Right. We should probably help her,” Ikki decided, and called out to the
girl. “Excuse me. Would you like some help carrying all that?”
“Huh?! Eeeaaaaargh!”
The girl was so surprised to suddenly be addressed that she stiffened up,
leading to her right foot entangling with her left and her accidentally
throwing the entire stack of papers at Ikki.
“Whoa!”
“Jeez, what are you two even doing?”
“Oh no! I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t think anyone else was here!”
“No, it’s my fault for scaring you like that. I’m sorry.”
The three of them got on their knees and began collecting the scattered
papers. Once a fair amount of them had been collected, Ikki once again
turned his attention to the girl and was greeted by her butt, swaying as she
moved.
“Bah!”
“Ah, my glasses. Where are my glasses?”
Her skirt must have ridden up when she fell, but she seemed to not have
noticed; she simply muttered to herself as she groped around with her hands
on all fours. Every time she moved, her plump rear end moved with her.

“Hey, girl! Your skirt! Your skirt’s pulled up!”
“Huh? Oh nooooo!” Thanks to Stella’s warning, she finally realized that
she had pretty much shoved her butt into Ikki’s face and rushed to right her
skirt. “I-I’m so sorry you had to see that disgusting sight!”
“You’re fine… Ahaha.”
“Were you looking, Ikki?”
“Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t?”
“Do you think I would?”
“I don’t. Hm?”
As Ikki sighed, something appeared in his peripheral vision. It was a pair
of round glasses with very thick lenses.
Oh, is this what she was looking for?
Correctly guessing the reason she was shaking her booty while on her
hands and knees, Ikki picked up the glasses and offered them to the girl.
“Hey, isn’t this what you’re looking for?”
“Yes! That’s it! Thank you so much! Let me tell you, I can’t see without
my glasses!”
The female student turned around to face Ikki and thanked him as she
accepted the glasses. That was when Ikki and Stella finally got a good look at
her face.
“Huh?”
“Wha—?!”
They froze in terror.
“Hey, aren’t you…”
The girl, with her chestnut hair styled into two French braids, was the
very person who had just overwhelmed Shizuku with her might, the strongest
student in all of Hagun Academy.
“Raikiri? Touka Toudou?!”
“Um, yes? Why do you ask?”
◆◇◆◇◆
“Oh, there you are, Pres! Heya!”

“Hello, Mishima.”
“Congratulations on your victory today, President!”
“Thank you for cheering me on, Sayama.”

“Hi, President Toudou! Thanks again for helping me find my wallet! I’m
really sorry it ended up taking all day.”
“Pay it no mind, Itagaki. Besides, we only found it thanks to Uta; I
honestly didn’t help much at all. Oh, but please, do take extra care to keep
track of it.”
Every few steps she took, Touka was greeted by students, both boys and
girls alike. She responded to each of them politely and by name. Ikki and
Stella watched the spectacle from a few steps behind, holding the papers that
Touka had been carrying before.
“People really love her, huh?”
“I’m just doing what any student council president should do,” Touka
said in response to Stella’s honest thoughts, smiling as if she were somewhat
embarrassed. “Anyway, thank you both. You didn’t just pick those up for me,
you even helped me carry them.”
“Oh, no, don’t worry about it. That was way too much for one person,
anyway.”
“Ahaha… I got lazy and wanted to make it in one trip. That’s what I get
for skimping, right?” Touka stuck her tongue out in a playful yet bashful
manner, an action uncharacteristically cute for the person who had just
crushed Shizuku with her fiendish strength. “I’m surprised, though. I’ve seen
Stella’s face in the news so many times, but you’re the legendary Ikki
Kurogane? We’ve met at a rather awkward time.”
That awkwardness was presumably because of what had happened with
Shizuku, but Ikki shook his head in response.
“A battle’s a battle. Shizuku gave it all she had and fought a good fight.
Likewise, you took up the gauntlet and fought in good faith. To me, that’s all
that matters. In fact, I’m grateful that you fought so earnestly. I have no
complaints whatsoever.”
That was Ikki’s honest opinion, completely devoid of falsehood.
“I agree with that, but there is one thing that bothers me.” Building off of
what Ikki was saying, Stella stared at Touka with a dangerous look in her
eyes. There was something she absolutely had to ask. “Touka, from what I’ve
seen so far, you’re pretty much blind without your glasses, right? But you
weren’t wearing glasses during your fight. Why is that? You were holding
back, weren’t you?”
“N-Nuh-uh! That ain’t true!”

“Uh…?”
“What? Oh, u-um, no, that’s not true.” Touka must have been so shaken
by Stella’s observation that she spoke in a strange way. She blushed as she
rushed to correct herself, but it was far too late. Regardless, she cleared her
throat and returned to her usual cadence. “Actually, it’s the exact opposite. I
expected Shizuku to be a very difficult foe to deal with, so I couldn’t go into
battle with my glasses on—I intentionally made my vision worse to boost the
accuracy of my perception. If I didn’t, someone like her would have been
tough going.”
“‘Perception’? What does perception have to do with this?”
“When I deprive myself of vision, I become able to sense the impulses in
others’ bodies. That’s just one application of my abilities as a user of
electricity.
“Humans are essentially living precision instruments. Their actions are
controlled purely by impulses sent from the brain, so the ability to sense
those impulses is incredibly useful; it means knowing a person’s next actions.
Signals sent to the muscles that control their eyes tell where their vision is
directed, hormones secreted by the pituitary gland reveal their mental state—
all of that and more can be understood from reading them.
“The information you glean from impulses are your foe’s true intentions,
and they’re impossible to fake. What is their mental state? What is the next
action they plan to take? Limiting my vision gives me access to even more
information than usual, so if I take off my glasses, it’s beyond simple to read
and understand what my opponent is going to do. That means traps and
ambushes don’t work on me.”
“I see. That’s how you dodged Shizuku’s ambush, then?”
Touka nodded in affirmation.
“That’s one of my Noble Arts: Reverse Sight. I suppose it’s not too
unlike the Worst One’s Perfect Vision, though yours is the result of insight
while mine is just a bit of cunning. Anyway, rest assured that I wasn’t going
easy on her by any means.”
“Hmm… I see,” Stella replied. “Sorry I doubted you.”
“Pay it no mind. Heehee.”
“You seem happy.”
“I was just thinking about how thoughtful you are toward your friends.”
Stella’s cheeks turned so red that they were on fire.

“What?! Sh-She and I are not friends!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“I disagree. You two get along really well.”
“You too, Ikki?! God, who even cares?!”
She huffed and turned away from Ikki, rushing ahead alone.
Does she know where the student council room is?
She didn’t have any idea; she was probably waiting for them just behind
that corner. Instead of following her, though, Ikki turned to face Touka.
“By the way, are you sure about that?”
“About what?”
“You just told us everything about your ability. We don’t have that many
selection battles left, but there’s still a chance one of us might be pitted
against you.”
“It doesn’t matter to me. I won’t lose just because you know how
Reverse Sight works.”
“Ngh!”
As if he’d been struck by lightning, a shudder ran from Ikki’s head to his
toes. Behind Touka’s mature, tranquil smile, he saw a dangerous twinkle
deep in her eye, like light reflecting from the tip of a blade. It was
unmistakable proof that she was the Raikiri, with absolute confidence in her
own abilities and the thirst for battle with ever-stronger opponents. She was
cut from the same cloth as Ikki and Stella, her eyes burning with confidence
and ambition.
…Haha.
Looking at her, Ikki thought that they might just become great friends. It
made him wish more than ever that he would get the chance to fight her one
day.
◆◇◆◇◆
After five minutes of walking, Ikki and the gang arrived in front of the
student council room.
“Whew, finally. It’s such a long walk to the council room.”
“Thank you both. You’re free to come in and enjoy some tea, if you’d
like. Toutokubara just brought us some lovely tea leaves yesterday.”
“I’d be glad to. How about you, Stella?”

“Sure. I’m parched.”
“Please, come on in. Hnghyu!”
Touka opened the door to the council room and stepped forward to guide
the two inside, when her toe caught on something heavy, causing her to fall
forward dramatically. She fell more or less face-first, leaving her rear
pointing directly toward Ikki and Stella and her underwear fully exposed.
Touka’s skirt was doing a poor job today, indeed.
“Y’know, Ikki, we could put advertisements on her underwear and make
a killing.”
“That’s an interesting idea.”
“Oww… What’s it this time?” Once again mixing up her words in
surprise at the sudden trap, Touka stood up and looked at the council room
again, going pale as she did so. “Wh-What the heeeeell?!”
In the council room, everything was scattered about: every book from
every shelf, every item from every drawer. Amidst the chaos, Touka’s fellow
council members were lined up together.
Secretary Ikazuchi Saijou was taking minutes with his surprisingly neat
penmanship, while treasurer Kanata Toutokubara was bringing him tea. In
contrast to the two members doing their jobs with due diligence, vice
president Utakata Misogi was transfixed on a video game and general affairs
manager Renren Tomaru was watching the screen with great interest. She
wore only an athletic undershirt and panties, training with a chest expander in
her immodest attire.

“Oh? Hey, Pres is back! Hellooo!”
“Ahaha☆ You’re so clumsy, Touka. Falling over again?”
Renren and Utakata greeted Touka when they noticed her, but she merely
knitted her eyebrows tightly at the two of them before yelling at the top of her
lungs.
“Ughhh! Tomaru! How many times I gotta tell ya to put them dumbbells
back after ya use ’em?! They’re right dangerous! And Uta, put ya manga
back on the shelf when yer done havin’ a read of it! Ya always leave it lyin’
around! I was gone for a single day; how’d ya manage to make such a pigsty
o’ the place?!”
“Hmph! What makes you think we messed the place up, Pres? You could
be making a false accusation here!”
“Tomaru is the only one who does strength training in the council room,
and you two are always the ones leaving manga around!” Touka cried, having
collected herself just enough to speak normally again.
“Aw, I just wanted to binge-read some Samurai Z, Dragon Orb, and
Dunk Shot. It’s always such a pain to keep going to the shelf, so I took ’em
all out. Then I got all nostalgic for my childhood, so I had to turn the room
upside-down looking for my SMES before I could finally dig the thing up.
Oh, but don’t worry! Ikazuchi and Kanata did all the work while you were
gone.”
“Your smugness over making other people do all the work is making me
mad! Honestly, you’re always—”
“President, I apologize for interrupting you while you’re worked up, but
you have visitors.”
“Huh?!”
Touka, having forgotten herself in rage upon seeing the sad state of the
room, pivoted to face the doorway. There, Ikki and Stella stood just outside
the hoarders’ home, watching the pitiful performance before them with
forced grins.
“O-Oh, ahaha. Wait here for juuust a sec, okay?” Touka plastered a smile
onto her pale face as she pushed the two into the hallway and slammed the
door shut. “Come on and help me clean up! Turn that stupid game off, Uta!”
“Whoa! H-Hang on, Touka! I haven’t saved my game since yesterday!
W-Wait, no— Waaahhhhh! My Zola’s Flippers!”
“I keep telling you, limit your gaming time to an hour a day! I swear, I

take my eyes off of you for one day! And Tomaru, look at how you’re
dressed! There’s a boy right next to you! At least put on a skirt or
something!”
“You’re the one who broke the AC, Pres. It’s hot in here!”
“Yep. Whenever you touch any appliance, you go and short it out.”
“I-I am extremely sorry for that, yes, but that doesn’t give you the right
to laze around in your underwear! Where’s your discipline?! This isn’t a
good look for us, the role models for students all around the school!”
“But you’re always napping in your underwear back in our dorm.”
“Ahaha☆ You’ve always needed someone to keep you on your toes,
Touka. Otherwise you start getting lazier and lazier.”
“M-M-My private life ain’t got nothing to do with it! J-Just tidy up, for
cryin’ out loud! Anythin’ ya leave sittin’ out, I’m tossin’ out!”
“Whoa! Okay, okay!”
“Hurry, hurry!”
The council room boomed and shook, as if the members inside were
moving homes.
“It’s like Touka is their mother.”
“The student council certainly has its share of troubles.”
Listening to the hustle and bustle from the hallway, Ikki and Stella
suddenly had the urge to be nicer to Touka. She had chased them out before
they could even put the papers down, but they could hardly blame her. The
two of them waited several minutes, until finally, the student council room’s
door opened and a haggard Touka poked her head out.
“Haah, haah… S-Sorry for the wait. Please, come in.”
“S-Sure. Thanks.”
Ikki followed Stella into the room, wondering if accepting Touka’s
invitation to tea had been a mistake, but he was shocked; the inside was
nearly spotless, as if they had swapped it out with an entirely different room.
The books were all neatly in their shelves, and the floor was so well-polished
that he could see his reflection in it. The cleanliness and the subtle, refined
antique style of the furniture made the room seem much like a chamber in a
Western castle.
It was admirable how they had cleaned up so much in only a few minutes
—at least, until Ikki’s all-seeing eyes gravitated toward the truth.
Huh. That closet over there looks like it’s about to burst. In front of the

door, Saijou stood firm, like a guardian statue. I’ll just pretend I didn’t see it.
He chose not to disturb the lid of Pandora’s box, letting himself and
Stella be guided to a sofa in the center of the room. Once the two had taken
their seats around the same table as the members of the student council,
Renren grinned affably from the other side of the table.
“Been a while, eh, Kurogane? You’ve just been winning constantly since
you beat me.”
“Yeah, I’m really giving it my all out there.”
Following up on their exchange, Kanata offered Stella a tender smile and
a greeting. Her eyes, peeking out from under the brim of her hat for the first
time, were blue.
“It’s been some time since we met at that restaurant, hasn’t it, Stella?”
“Yes. I didn’t think I’d ever end up in this room, though.”
“Toutokubara, could you bring these two some tea, please?” Touka
requested.
“Of course.”
“Hey, Kanata! One more for me!”
“Kanata! I want some cupcakes!”
Utakata and Renren put in orders of their own as well.
“You two will go without dessert today.”
“Wh-Whaaat?!”
“That’s just mean, Touka! Why are we even here if we don’t get
dessert?!”
“Because you’re members of the student council!”
Touka had raised her voice to a yell. Truly, her life seemed to be a long
chain of rapid-fire retorts. Suddenly, while struggling to keep the closet shut
—rather, while he stood idly in front of the closet, Saijou’s usually-stern face
broke out in delight as he spoke to Touka, who was nearly hyperventilating
from overwork.
“I must say, President, you work fast. You’ve already found someone to
help us with the matter from before, and the perfect pair, at that. They won’t
be lacking in fighting ability, to be sure.”
“Fighting ability”? “Help”?
Ikki and Stella tilted their heads, confused by his ominous words—Touka
hadn’t mentioned anything like that.
“Come again?”

When they shot questioning glances at her, they could almost see the
question mark floating over her puzzled face. Meanwhile, Saijou was
obviously bewildered by her reaction.
“Hm? What, have I got it wrong? We don’t usually get visitors, so I
figured that was it.”
“Did you really forget, Touka? Come on, the director herself asked us for
this.”
“Kurono asked us… Aaahhhhh!” Touka screamed, her face pale-white.
“My, my. You honestly forgot, didn’t you? I was convinced that was why
you had brought these two along.”
“Oh… Well, yes, I did forget. I was so focused on my battle with
Shizuku that I forgot.”
“So? What’s all this about?” Stella asked from beside Ikki, interrogating
the crestfallen Touka, but the answer was instead provided by Kanata as she
poured tea for everyone.
“Recently, Director Shinguuji requested a favor from the student council.
Our school’s Seven Stars representatives are usually sent to a training camp
in Okutama, but it seems some dubious individual has appeared there.”
“That’s not good.”
“Right. The student council was asked to travel there and confirm things
were safe, as all of the teachers are too busy with the selection battles.
However, the area around the campground is full of tall mountains and thick
forests, so we’re simply lacking in numbers.”
“I see. So you were looking for help from outside the council.” The
instructors weren’t the only ones whose schedules were full from because of
the selection battles. “By the way, what is this ‘dubious individual’ like? Do
we know anything about them?”
“Yes, well…” Kanata hesitated before answering. “It seems to be a giant,
standing well over fifteen feet tall.”
“What?!”
“A giant?!”
“Yes, a giant. And I don’t mean the sports team.”
“I know.”
“I’m not talking about titans, either, so stay your attacks.”
“I said I know. But I’m surprised by what you know, Toutokubara.”
“H-Hey, are giants really real?!”

Stella took the opportunity to jump into the absurd conversation, leaning
forward with excitement. Her scarlet eyes gleamed like an overenthusiastic
child’s.
“That really got you chomping at the bit, didn’t it, Stella?”
“It’s giants we’re talking about here! They’re so mysterious, like
cryptids!”
“No way! You like that kind of stuff too, Stella?!” Renren hailed her
newfound comrade.
“I love it! In fact, I learned Japanese from Japanese documentaries about
Bigfoot!”
That was her introduction to Japanese culture?! Ikki shuddered, but
Renren seemed as though she’d found a kindred spirit.
“Ooh! Now you’re speakin’ my language!”
“Well—”
“Vice President,” Kanata said, quickly interrupting Utakata, “I believe
that’s enough.”
“Hey, Ikki! Touka needs us, so we should help her out! I wanna see a
giant!”
Stella took Ikki by the shoulders and shook him. He honestly didn’t have
much interest in giants, but he was benefitting from the new selection battle
system that had made things so busy for the student council, so he was more
than willing to assist them and happily agreed to the request.
“If you need our help, we’d be glad to join you as fellow students.”
“Y-You mean it?!” Their ready assent had given Touka new life. She was
no longer holding her head in her hands.
“We can’t turn a blind eye to the training camp being ruined, anyway. If
you’d be willing to have us—”
“We’d love to have you! Thank you so much! You’re such a huge help!”
Touka graciously accepted, extending her gratitude with an outstretched
hand.
“Don’t worry, it’s my pleasure!” Stella replied, intercepting her with an
enthusiastic handshake.
“Huh? Oh, um, sure. Thank you.”
Thus, Ikki and Stella would be joining the student council on their
journey to Okutama the following weekend.

Among the skyscrapers lining the streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo, the
Japanese Branch of the International Mage-Knight Federation stood thirty
stories tall. In the top-floor office, Itsuki Kurogane, Japan’s branch manager,
creased his brow while taking a phone call.
“Really? So Shizuku lost?”
His sigh echoed loudly throughout the office, unlit despite it being
nighttime.
“Her opponent was Raikiri, so she seemingly had little chance from the
start.”
“It was Mr. Nangou’s favorite disciple?”
“Yes. Shizuku had bad luck there. If only this selection battle silliness
hadn’t happened, she would have easily been among the selected.”
“Silliness” indeed. Itsuki nodded silently in agreement with the man on
the phone’s assessment. Fighting real battles to select a representative? In his
eyes, Kurono Shinguuji’s method was the most abominable thing in the
world.
“And what of Ikki?”
“The Worst One remains undefeated. Clearly, the students of Hagun are
good-for-nothings if a Rank F failure of a knight can make it as far as he
has.”
“Do you think he’ll be selected?”
“Pity though it may be, that failure has already defeated the Crimson
Princess and the third-best student, Runner’s High. If Hagun raises students
this worthless, and if he doesn’t run into Raikiri or Blutrote Dame… he may
appear on the national stage.”
“We can’t allow that,” Itsuki stated, his voice heavier than lead. He
didn’t want to even imagine it, but that was what reality was coming to.

“A-Absolutely, sir! I agree!”
“Is there nothing you can do about it?”
“Perhaps we could have the director revoke his certification as a student
knight?”
“If that were possible, I’d have done it a long time ago. The right to
manage Mage-Knight and student knight certifications falls to the white-
beards at the main office; even if our branch could submit a revocation
request, it would fail without clear basis to give it cogency. At any rate, we
need to take some sort of measure before the Seven Stars Battle Festival.”
For the past year, they had used The Hunter to try to egg him into a fight,
but Ikki had steadfastly refused to take the bait. Even when The Hunter
pushed him near death, he never so much as evaded the attacks because he
knew it could be seen as fighting back. All Itsuki was able to do was force
him to repeat a year.
Before he could have Ikki expelled and his student knight certification
rescinded, Itsuki first had to have him banned from the Federation.
Unfortunately, that was no more than a wild fantasy, as Itsuki didn’t have the
authority to do so. To accomplish such a task, he needed some basis to
persuade the people who did have that authority.
“I have an ingenious plan to deal with this Ikki Kurogane,” a man’s droll
voice echoed through the dark room.
Itsuki turned his eyes languidly toward the entrance, where he found an
obese, middle-aged man, his face resembling that of Ebisu, the god of
fishermen. He remembered that face—it belonged to Mamoru Akaza, a
member of one of the Kurogane branch families.
“Akaza?”
“It’s been a while, family head. Mhmhm!”
“So, what’s this ingenious plan?” Itsuki asked, abruptly hanging up on
his phone call. His interested lay solely in Akaza’s claim.
Seeing this, Akaza plastered a dubious smile onto his face and cleared his
throat.
“Ahem! Well, you see, I’ve heard some information through the
grapevine. If all goes well, I believe I may be able to assuage your fears.”
◆◇◆◇◆

The following Sunday, Ikki Kurogane, Stella Vermillion, and the rest of
the student council rode in Saijou’s van on their way to Hagun Academy’s
campground in Okutama’s mountains. They were off to find out the identity
of the legendary giant—to solve the mystery at Okutama—but the site of the
campground was large and treacherous, littered with mountains and deep
forests.
It was no simple task for people to scour the entire area without
equipment, even if they were Blazers. That meant, of course, that the team
needed to recharge their batteries by filling their stomachs, so Saijou and
Kanata were left to deal with administration duties while the rest of the
members were to make curry.
With the division of labor complete, those on curry duty began carrying
the campground’s cookware and Touka’s groceries to their campsite. They
were given permission to use the campground’s canteen, but since they had
come all the way to the mountains, they ended up making camping curry.
“Ahhh!” Stella took a deep breath while placing knives, a cutting board,
and other items in the kitchen made from brick. “The air here is so clear,
cool, and refreshing.”
“Without any asphalt, the air is much cooler,” Ikki explained.
“There’s way too much concrete all over Japan. It’s so hot and sultry, I
can’t take it.”
“Well, most of the country is subtropical, after all.”
Stella’s homeland, the Vermillion Empire, lay in Northern Europe. The
temperature was much lower than Japan, with drier air to match. Frankly,
Stella’s first experience with the Japanese heat was overpowering, and Ikki
had even heard her groaning at night as of late. It was understandable,
though; Japanese heat had been known to kill.
“Hey, Stella! Let’s play some badminton!”
One step ahead of Stella, Renren had already finished hauling her
cookware and called out to her, racket in hand.
“Sure!” she replied, gladly accepting Renren’s challenge. “Watch out,
though, ’cause I’m good.”
“That so?! Well, I’ve got the best footwork you’ll ever see! Bring it on!”
“Heheh♪ I’ll make you regret challenging me!”
“Ah, Stella…” Ikki tried to stop her, but she had already run off. “Jeez,
weren’t we just talking about doing the cooking?”

Touka smiled gently at the sighing Ikki as she put down her grocery
bags.
“Don’t worry about it. Curry doesn’t need that much manpower, anyway.
We can make them clean up after.”
“Fair enough. Oh, by the way, how much were the groceries? I can pay
for our share.”
“Hehehe, there’s no need to worry about that. You agreed to help us, so
call the meals our treat. In fact, if you don’t let us take care of it, I’ll feel
guilty.”
Touka shrugged her shoulders, slightly annoyed, though Ikki would have
felt the same way were he in her shoes. Any more humility would just make
her feel bad at this point.
“All right, then. Thank you.”
“Touka likes to make her legendary homemade curry roux. It’s sooo
good,” Utakata raved.
“Mm-hmm. I can’t wait for you to try it.”
“At least let me help a little, though.”
“All right. Kurogane, I’ll entrust you with peeling the potatoes and
carrots.”
“Okay.”
“Uta, could you prepare the rice?”
“If you’re making your famous curry, do you want the usual rice?”
“Yes, please. I’ve got the California rice here as well. Thank you.”
“Hehe, this is gonna be so good.”
Utakata and Touka seemed to be communicating with just their eyes.
Ikki, watching from the side, had no idea what was going on, but he
understood the profound depth of the two cooks’ friendship nonetheless.
◆◇◆◇◆
It had been five years since Ikki ran away from home. In that much time
living alone, him having mastered a fair number of domestic skills was to be
expected; he performed the job he was given with incredible skill.
First, he peeled the potatoes, soaking them in water in order to keep them
from falling apart while they were cooked. While they soaked, he peeled the
carrots and cut them into bite-size pieces, taking them to Touka when he was

finished. He suddenly stopped on his way over, however, when a sound
caused his ears to prick up.
What he was hearing was Touka, who had donned an apron, humming
the theme song of a popular children’s anime in which the pastry-headed
main character let hungry people eat parts of its head. All the while, she
skillfully chopped meat and onions.

Ikki was transfixed on her youthful yet motherly appearance. She had a
sort of consummate sense of beauty, almost like a painting.
“Hm? Something wrong?”
“Oh, no. Sorry.”
Startled by Touka noticing him, Ikki quickly brought himself back to
reality.
What was that about? It’s like I was being drawn in by her.
When he’d watched Raikiri as she took down Shizuku with her
overwhelming strength, he hadn’t seen anything like that in her. Though
fairly curious about it, he pushed the matter into the back of his mind and
handed her the ingredients.
“Here are the potatoes and carrots. I also went ahead and soaked the
potatoes.”
“Thank you. My, they’re so neatly peeled. Having the veggies cut a little
bigger is nice too.”
“Since we’re eating outside and the sky is so clear, I figured country-
style curry might be good.”
“You get a gold star, Kurogane. Guess your aptitude for blades doesn’t
end with just the sword, huh?”
“Haha, I just lived alone for a long time. So, is there anything else I can
help you with?”
“No, thank you. I can do the rest with a single pot, so you’re free to take
a break.”
Two would certainly be a crowd with only one pot, so he accepted her
offer and excused himself from the outdoor kitchen.
“Heheheh. What’s wrong, bud? Distracted by Touka’s big booty?”
Utakata, cooking rice with the camp’s cookware, pressed Ikki about why
he had been standing there staring at Touka.
“N-No, of course not!” Ikki denied the claim profusely. It did look big,
round, and soft, so of course he was a little interested as a man, but that
wasn’t the reason. “I mean it. It’s just… I don’t really get it myself, but
seeing Toudou preparing a meal really caught my eye. It’s almost like there
was something I just had to see.”
“Hmm…” Utakata seemed deeply interested in Ikki’s answer.
“Something you ‘had to see’, huh? You’re definitely not any normal guy if
you caught on that quickly.”

“What do you mean?”
“You felt like there was something you had to see about the way she was,
and you were right. That’s kind of like Touka’s core—it’s the source of her
strength.”
“It is?”
“Yep. I’ve known her forever, so I would know.”
“Forever”…
Ikki could tell from the way they’d made eye contact earlier that there
was a long history between Utakata and Touka, so he decided to mention it
outright.
“You two have known each other for that long?”
“Huh? Well, yeah. Both of us came from the same orphanage.”
“You did?”
“The Wakaba House is one result of the Toutokubara Foundation’s social
work. It takes in orphaned children and fosters them. Kanata often visited the
Wakaba House while Touka and I were there, so we’ve known her since back
then too. The three of us hung out together so much.”
“I had no idea.”
Ikki was clueless about how to react given the way Utakata was talking
about it like it was nothing. He had assumed they were childhood friends, but
not that they had come from the same institution. He couldn’t decide whether
he should delve deeper into such a delicate subject or leave Utakata alone.
The source of Toudou’s strength.
Regardless of which option was better, Utakata’s claim attracted his
interest. He wanted to know what kind of woman Touka Toudou was, so he
boldly continued that line of questioning.
“If you don’t mind, would you tell me more about the ‘source of her
strength’?”
Utakata stayed silent for a moment, then posed a question.
“When you hear the word ‘orphanage’, what comes to mind?”
“It’s a place where children live after they’ve lost their relatives, right?”
“In not so many words, sure, but there are a lot of ways kids lose their
relatives. Some lose their parents to accidents or fires, some are abandoned…
Those are bad, but there’s even worse out there. Some kids are taken away by
the government because their parents almost killed them. Stuff like that.”
“Their parents did?!”

“Yeah. There were a lot of kids with tough backgrounds at our
orphanage, which made things really bad. Everyone there shared common
circumstances, yet they would tease and bully each other a lot. It was so
painful. But among all that, Touka was always trying to make all of us happy
even though she was an orphan too. In place of the owner, she’d read books
to the little kids and make dinner for us. The owner was a really nice person,
but wasn’t that great at cooking. Everyone loved it when Touka took over,
haha.”
“She seems like a good caretaker.”
“She’s always been that way, sticking her nose in other people’s
business. Like with the guy who was almost killed by his parents. He was so
violent and uncontrollable, so broken beyond repair, so willing to hurt her
over and over again, but she never abandoned him. Thanks to her, he could
become human again, feeling real human feelings. To this day, he’s still
grateful to her. He still loves her.”
Utakata lowered his eyes as he spoke of the past. At some point, his story
had begun to seem autobiographical. Perhaps he was that very child who had
nearly died at the hands of his own parents. After a brief pause, he continued:
“So one day, he asked her, ‘Why are you so strong?’ It just got to him so
much—they were both orphaned children, so how could she be so loving
toward others? She replied, ‘My parents loved me so much. It may have been
a short time compared to normal families, but we had our share of smiles and
love; their memory keeps me going even now that I’ve lost them. Now, I
want other children to be able to smile as well. I want everyone to have
happy memories that keep them going too, just like I have of my parents. The
love that my parents taught me to give is a precious thing.’
“True to her word, Touka still visits the Wakaba House, bringing smiles
and courage for all the kids. She had shown us orphans firsthand that we
could still grow up to be amazing people, and she continues to do so as the
Raikiri, one of the strongest student knights in Japan.”
With so much revealed to him, Ikki was finally able to grasp the source
of Touka’s strength. It was benevolence, giving her the ability to wield
unrivaled power for the benefit of others.
Touka Toudou naturally held goodwill toward others. When Ikki had
caught a glimpse of a fragment of Touka’s good-natured spirit as she cooked
for others, it naturally caught his attention. Her naturally good heart, the core

of her strength, was vital information that he couldn’t afford to overlook.
“Ikki, you’re strong. Stronger than I imagined, to be honest. I wouldn’t
stand a chance against you, and even Kanata would have trouble beating you,
but not even you can defeat Touka. Her strength is special; she knows just
what it would mean and how many people she would disappoint if she lost.
So she won’t bend, and she definitely won’t break. The two of you simply
carry different weights.”
“…”
Ikki had no response to that declaration. All he could do was to turn his
gaze from Utakata to Touka, still happily cooking away, and to ponder her
deeply. He pondered the many people whose hopes and dreams she carried
on her delicate little shoulders, along with the strength that allowed her to
sustain it all.
I know I’m nothing like that.
Ikki had gotten to where he was believing only in his own self-worth.
He’d never relied on or helped anyone, only pushing onward to become his
ideal self. The weight that Utakata spoke of didn’t guide Ikki’s sword. The
hopes of others didn’t ride on it.
That fact manifested as something like a black, formless haze that coiled
around Ikki’s heart. “Can your sword, so free of weight, defeat her?” it asked
him.
◆◇◆◇◆
The curry they ate for lunch was made with garlic rice instead of white.
The dish, Ikki learned, had been concocted by Utakata, Touka, and Kanata
through trial and error in their orphanage days, back when they needed to
make a cheap meal that everyone would enjoy. The curry roux that Touka
brought in plastic containers was mixed with the taste of savory beef tendon,
and when combined with the fragrant garlic rice, it made for a delicious meal.
It was the most enjoyable curry Ikki had ever eaten—he devoured it so
greedily that he accidentally overate. Stella, however, didn’t bother much
with it despite usually eating four times as much as the average person.
Perhaps she just wasn’t a big fan of it.
After waiting a while for their food to digest, Touka split everyone into
groups for the coming treks. Walking in the mountains alone was extremely

dangerous even for Blazers, so Touka and Utakata were one group, Saijou
and Renren another, and Ikki and Stella a third, while Kanata remained at the
campsite that served as their home base in case of emergency. The groups
then split off and began the hunt. Their objective: finding and securing the
giant.
Ikki and Stella made way for the western side of the forested mountains.
Unlike normal mountain trails traveled by hikers, the area they were in was a
facility for Blazer training. As such, the paths were left unbeaten for training
purposes, allowing them to become overgrown with trees and grass. Adding
to that, they were walking uphill as the area was at an incline, making it all
the more treacherous.
No, if it were merely treacherous, it would pose little challenge for Ikki
and Stella, who regularly honed their bodies.
“Ugh, again?” With his left hand, Ikki seized a shadow that had sprung
out of the bushes—a pit viper with its fangs bared, marking the third time that
had happened.
Even ignoring the difficulty of walking, the ambushes were annoying.
Still, he merely tossed it away with a flick of his wrist and turned his
attention to Stella.
“Looks like there are a lot of venomous snakes out here. They won’t kill
you, but you should still be careful.”
“…Okay.”
There was little excitement in Stella’s voice. In fact, she was visibly
dispirited. If she’d still had her vigor from earlier, she would have taken the
lead and pushed her way through the foliage, but instead, she trudged slowly
behind Ikki with slumped shoulders and hunched back.
“What’s wrong? Did losing at badminton get you down that much?”
Her earlier match with Renren had ended in defeat. Stella had misjudged
the strength of her smash, leading to her own undoing by hitting the birdie
out of the court.
“No, I don’t care about that…”
She denied what he thought to be the source of her sulkiness, but her
response was clearly noncommittal, almost as if she herself didn’t know why
she felt so down.
Seriously, I wonder what’s wrong. Ikki cocked his head in confusion at
his girlfriend’s unusual state, unable to grasp just how profound the change

was. Maybe she’s not used to walking these mountain trails.
“Stay close to me,” he told her. “We don’t want to get separated.”
Ikki held the foliage apart to let Stella through, but that was a mistake.
The change in Stella’s mood was not something to be ignored.
◆◇◆◇◆
I don’t think I like how the sky looks. Rain, maybe?

After about two hours of walking along the rarely-trod path, Ikki stared
up through the overgrown trees. He had heard that mountain weather could
change at a moment’s notice, but the clear sky’s dazzling blue being so
quickly replaced with a dull gray was extreme to say the least. It seemed
liable to start raining at any second, and the air was chilly at their increased
altitude.
“Hm?”
When Ikki resumed looking forward, he immediately noticed something
strange: fallen trees. Not just one or two, either, but dozens.
The area’s topsoil had been turned up, exposing the subsoil beneath. It
was as if some giant creature had crawled up out of the earth, uprooting and
displacing the trees, deforesting the nearly twenty-foot diameter gouge.
Nearby, he could see what seemed like almost half-yard footprints dug into
the muddy soil.
“What in the world?!” Instead of a monster, the footprints had a striking
resemblance to those of a human. No human could possibly grow to that size,
of course, so they couldn’t have been made by one; they must have been the
rumored giant’s. “Hey, Stella? Do you think…”
“Haah, haah…”
Ikki called out to Stella to confirm his bizarre finding, but noticed that
she was leaning against a tree, almost hyperventilating.
“Stella? Are you tired— Stella?! Why are you sweating so much?!”
He had thought she was leaning on it because she was tired, but that was
wrong. When he saw her, he noticed that despite the cool air temperature, her
face was bright red and an incredible amount of sweat had collected on her
forehead. It was strange no matter how he looked at it.
“I-I’m not sure… It’s getting really hard to move my body. And I’m so
dizzy and nauseous… Hey, Ikki, I need to ask you something.”

Stella languidly lifted her reddened face and looked at Ikki. The severity
in her eyes showed a spark of resolution; it was plain to see that her question
was of utmost importance. What was she going to ask? Ikki swallowed and
pressed her to speak.
“What is it?”
So weak she was about to fall to her knees, she asked him:
“Can you get pregnant from kissing?”
“…No, Stella.” Ikki didn’t want to imagine that he was some sort of
creature that could impregnate girls through mere lip contact. “I think you’re
probably sick.”
“You mean lovesick…?”
“No, you’ve probably just got a cold. You look like you’ve got a fever.”
“O-Oh, I see. So this is the ‘cold’ everyone talks about.”
“Stella, have you never actually caught a cold?”
“Never. This is why… other kids had to stay home from school, right? I
was so jealous of them back then, but now…”
Stella grinned bitterly. It was the first time her own body had ever
resisted her so much, so she had only just come to understand how bad her
condition was. Japan’s hot, humid climate must have reduced her immunity
to disease.
“Anyway, we aren’t going to make much progress like this. Let’s head
back.”
“H-Hang on… We just found a clue.”
“You can barely move though, right? The clue can wait.”
“No, I’m fine. See… H-Huh?”
“Stella!”
When she attempted to pull herself away from the tree that supported her,
Stella began to sway, nearly collapsing. Fortunately, Ikki moved quickly,
supporting her just before she fell. In doing so, he realized that she was
abnormally hot—hot enough to feel through her clothes.
This is worse than I thought.
Because Stella didn’t notice that she was sick, she had pushed herself
beyond her limit, making her condition even worse. They had to get off the
mountain immediately, so Ikki, resolving to do just that, picked up his
girlfriend princess-style.
“I’m taking you back, whether you want me to or not.”

“O-Oh…”
Stella looked a little discontent, but she didn’t resist once it was clear that
he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Of course, she didn’t have enough energy
to resist anyway, no matter how she felt. Thus, she merely surrendered
herself to Ikki, breathing heavily all the while.
I need to get her off this mountain and to a doctor.
Ikki’s legs were strong enough to run down a mountain while carrying
another person without too much difficulty. It wouldn’t take too long to reach
the base.
Or so he thought, but it wouldn’t be so easy. A few small raindrops
began to fall from the lead-colored sky before giving way to a torrential
rainfall. It was one of the so-called “guerrilla squalls” that had become
increasingly common as a result of Japan’s subtropical climate.
“Ugh, this is really bad timing!”
Ikki didn’t mind getting wet, but it was a problem for Stella. If she got
cold, her immunity would fall even more; she would be lucky to get off with
just a cold. If anything happened to exacerbate her cold even further, it could
turn into pneumonia, an outcome they had to avoid at all costs to prevent her
selection battles from being affected.
That’s it! There was a cabin for emergency refuge on the way up here!
Ikki changed course the moment he recalled it. Deciding that they would
first sit out the rain, he gave up on getting off the mountain.
◆◇◆◇◆
There was some distance between them and the cabin, so the pair was
soaked when they finally arrived. In order to dry their wet clothes, Ikki
started a fire in the cabin’s hearth using some firewood that had been kept
inside. He then used his student handbook’s phone function to call Kanata,
who was still waiting at the campsite.
“Stella collapsed?!”
“Yeah. I took her to a nearby cabin to wait for the rain to stop.”
“My, my. How is she doing?”
“My guess is it’s a bad cold, but I can’t say for sure without talking to a
doctor.”
“Very well. I’ll send help immediately.”

“Thank you. As for the giant, we found footprints that seem to fit the
description, along with traces of something huge rising up from the earth.
The giant may be underground.”
“Underground…? It’s rather hard to believe that something so large
could live underground, but very well. We will take over the investigation of
what you’ve found. You two should remain in the cabin and rest until help
arrives. It will probably take about two hours. It’s gotten quite cold outside,
so don’t forget to dry your wet bodies.”
“Of course. Thanks again.” Ikki hung up the phone and threw the last of
their firewood into the hearth. The room had already gotten much warmer.
“All right, now we can dry our clothes.”
Ikki removed his soaked clothing until he was wearing only his pants,
laying it out in front of the hearth. Then he spoke to Stella, who was leaning
against the wall and taking deep, pained breaths.
“You should strip too, Stella. It’s a little embarrassing, I guess, but it’s
better than letting your cold get worse.”
“…Okay.”
Stella and Ikki may have been dating, but they were only close enough to
be comfortable kissing. She would no doubt be reluctant to bare her skin so
early in their relationship, but she didn’t grumble over it. She peeled off her
soaked uniform jacket and moved her hands to her skirt, knowing full well
that there was no room for her to be stubborn. It was critical that she didn’t
allow her condition to worsen even more.
Both Ikki and Stella were fighting to be among a mere six people to
move past the selection battles and on to the Seven Stars. If she chose to be
stubborn and it made her cold worse, the two of them would never meet in
the Seven Stars finals. Stella wasn’t the kind of woman to get her priorities
mixed up; she refused to let a little embarrassment get in the way of keeping
her promise to Ikki—the most important thing in the world to her. She stood
up to take off her skirt.
“Ah.”
“Stella!”
When she did, she collapsed. It was the first time in her life that she had
been in such poor condition. Because she had so carelessly worsened her
cold, the resulting loss of strength was enough to leave her powerless to even
strip.

Ikki, who caught her before she hit the ground, knew that. He could still
feel her body temperature through her clothes, and it was even higher than it
had been earlier. Her condition was getting worse, and he didn’t want to force
her to do anything more, so he made a bold proposal.
“Stella, um, why don’t you let me do it for you.”
Her ruby eyes bulged when she heard the suggestion. Embarrassing as it
was for her to expose herself, for Ikki to do it was entirely out of the
question. Even so, Stella nodded ever so slightly and replied quickly.
“Yeah… Please.”
She surrendered herself to Ikki, as she knew that he was forcing down his
own embarrassment solely for the sake of her health.
Keep it together, Ikki.
Knowing that Stella was putting aside her worries in accepting his
proposal, Ikki again monished himself fiercely. It was out of the question for
him to make light of the situation and embarrass her more; he was the only
one who could help her.
Ikki got right to work, moving clinically and promptly to remove Stella’s
clothes in order to avoid embarrassing her. He couldn’t think any sexy
thoughts.
Okay.
Once Ikki had sufficiently cautioned himself, he reached his hands
toward Stella’s clothes.
First were her stockings, which clung to her skin. They would probably
have the worst effect on her given that they adhered so tightly to her body, so
he unclipped the garter belt connected to them. Then, one at a time, he stuck
his finger under her stockings, pulling them down slowly.

Her snow-white legs were revealed as her black stockings peeled off.
Well-developed from constant long-term exertion, their length emphasized
just how slender and supple they were.
Though Ikki tried to calm himself, he couldn’t help but gulp down saliva.
That his very hands were what bared her legs only served to make things
worse. He was all but forced to notice how alluring they were.
The moment Ikki finally separated the wet stockings from Stella’s
beautifully-pedicured toenails, he felt a powerful shock run down his body.
He had become painfully aware of the naïveté of his plan.
I can’t keep doing this without going insane.
Being as robotic as necessary wouldn’t have been a problem if it were
any other girl, but it was the girl he loved most in the world, and he was
stripping off her clothes one article at a time. Very few actions were quite as
sensual, and every time more of Stella’s skin was exposed, her sweet scent
would tickle his nose.
Just removing her stockings had Ikki’s heart beating so hard he thought it
would tear through his chest. Would he be able to survive taking her shirt
off?
But… Ikki took a quick glance at Stella’s face, which was red enough
that it seemed ready to catch fire. The wetness of her eyes was clearly
because of more than just her illness. I have to be reliable for her right now.
“Stella, you can take it easy. It’ll be okay,” Ikki assured her with a smile,
hoping to assuage her shyness even just a bit.
“O-Okay…”
It came as no surprise that she remained stiff despite her affirmative
response. Given how embarrassed he was, Ikki could only imagine how bad
it must have been for her; taking it easy would be impossible. The only thing
he could do for her was to get it over with quickly.
With that resolve, he moved his hands to the buttons on her shirt and
undid them from top to bottom, taking care not to linger for too long. The
shirt had absorbed a lot of rainwater; it clung to Stella’s round, bountiful
breasts so that their shape was clearly discernible. He had to make sure he
lifted the buttons before undoing them, but he carefully, gently did so in order
to avoid touching her as he undid her top.
Once he had undone the bottommost button, Ikki moved his hands to her
shirt collar and pulled it open. The wet shirt resisted, but it eventually slipped

over Stella’s shoulders, removing the veil that concealed her bare skin.
Her throat that moved seductively as she breathed. Her large breasts that
were crammed tightly into a lace brassiere. Her porcelain-colored upper
body, toned yet not lacking in feminine softness, that quivered slightly with
every breath. The entirety of Stella’s form, slick and shiny from the rain and
sweat, was fully revealed.
That arousing sparkle seemed to short-circuit Ikki’s brain. His throat was
drier than a desert, and he was assailed with the desire to kiss her soft, sweet-
smelling skin. He wanted to run his tongue along it, to occasionally nibble at
it, and to wet his throat with her moisture, but he kept his restraint to the last.
What am I thinking? Stella is in pain! He demanded himself to push
down the urges rising up from within in an attempt to maintain self-control. If
he couldn’t do that, his emotions would burst out of him.
“Hey, Ikki…? I want you to… take off my bra.”
Stella, now in only her underwear, said something scandalous.
“…Huh?! Uh, wh-what was that?”
“It hurts so much to breathe… I just need you to unhook it.”
With every labored breath, her chest heaved greatly. He realized that the
bra restraining her chest was probably doing more harm than good, especially
considering how large her breasts were.
Should I…?
Ikki was honestly unsure. Stella was in pain, though, which meant saying
no wasn’t an option. He was the one who had offered to do it, and she was
the one who had placed her trust in him.
“O-Oh, um, yeah. Okay. Got it.”
Feigning calm, Ikki nodded. Stella’s bra was the front closure kind, but it
also had straps, so just unhooking it wouldn’t be enough to make it fall off
completely.
This is fine. I won’t see anything. I’ll be fine. I’ll be juuust fine.
Ikki repeated that mentally as if trying to persuade himself, then extended
his index finger to the front hook and undid it. The moment he did, Stella’s
breasts bounced as they seemingly burst out of the bra, finally freed from
their confines.
“Ah…!”
That was tempting enough to deal a fatal blow to the last of Ikki’s
battered restraint. He had seen it coming, however, and had already taken

measures against it. The instant he unhooked the bra, Ikki bit his tongue as
hard as he could in a way that ensured that Stella wouldn’t notice. The
sudden pain erased all of Ikki’s impure thoughts and reconnected the thread
of restraint that had snapped before.
What am I even fighting against?
Having made it through the predicament, Ikki felt miserable. He believed
himself to be pretentious, fretting over a woman’s bare body and trying to
hide it. If he only had more experience with girls, he could have kept some
amount of composure. Whatever. It’s too late to complain about it.
One way or another, he had successfully carried out his manly duty. He
had coolly maintained his self-control, undressing Stella without letting his
inward panic show on his face. Surely, he had minimized the awkwardness
Stella had to face.
“H-Here, get under this towel. It’s cold at this altitude.”
Ikki draped a towel he’d found in the cabin over Stella’s shoulders. Then,
with a faint voice, Stella thanked Ikki for his help.
“Sorry for making you do all this, Ikki.”
“It’s not your fault you caught a cold. Especially since this is your first
summer in Japan.”
“Yeah, but… you seem like… you’re in pain.”
“Huh? I do?”
Ikki was flustered. He thought he hadn’t shown any emotion, but Stella
wasn’t looking at his face. With an expression that was somewhere between
surprise or bewilderment, she was looking much lower, around his waist area.
I have a terrible feeling about this…
“I mean… it’s really, really big right now.”
Following her line of sight, Ikki looked down toward his hips and saw
that a certain part of his body had missed the memo about staying calm.
“…Oh.” Ikki was full of vigor in a way that he didn’t want to be. There
wasn’t any way for him to fool Stella, and even more embarrassingly, he was
that excited while wearing a completely blank expression. He wanted to die.
“A-Ahaha… S-So, there’s this thing with men, where, like, even if you’re not
thinking those thoughts, part of your body disagrees, and, uh, I’d really
appreciate it if you could be lenient with me here.”
Too ashamed to even look at Stella, Ikki averted his eyes and started
mumbling excuses. In response, however, a smile spread gently across her

sweaty face.
“Uh-uh… Don’t apologize… It is… really embarrassing, yeah, but… like
I said at the pool before, I wouldn’t mind if it was with you… Actually, I’m
really happy that I get you so excited.”
Ah…
Dizzy beyond belief, Ikki was about ready to fall on his face. Perhaps due
to the fever, Stella looked different from usual. Her drooped shoulders and
wet eyes seemed so meek and fragile; Ikki couldn’t handle her saying such
cute things to him. He wanted to yank her into a hug and kiss her.
“Hey, Ikki?” Stella began, turning her eyes upward to peek at him. “Do
you… wanna do it?”
“…Huh?” He didn’t understand the earth-shattering question she had just
asked. After a mere moment of pure confusion, he realized just how deadly
that question was and screamed in shock. “Whaaaaaaaaaat?! H-Hey, Stella,
you do know what you just said, right?!”
“Yeah… I do.”
“Ngh!”
Ikki was reflected in her ruby eyes, clouded somewhat by the fever yet
harboring an undeniable seriousness. She wasn’t just blurting out whatever
came to mind because she was sick; Stella was asking that question sincerely,
and Ikki knew it.
Gulp.
What was he supposed to say, though? Should he tell the truth? There
was only one honest answer to that question: “Yes, of course.”
He felt that way in many different situations. Whenever they kissed, held
hands, hugged… Ikki had felt that inner urge countless times before. It was
natural and unavoidable; he was a boy, and she was a girl. Them wanting one
another as members of the opposite sex was the obvious outcome.
Still, putting that into words was a different story. Humanity as a species
confirms intent through speech, after all. Consent between two parties
becomes a shared decision. If Ikki replied honestly and Stella agreed to it…
It wouldn’t end with just our words after that!
He didn’t have the confidence to bring it to that end. Even if he was able
to follow through, when they returned to their dorm and Stella recovered, he
would be uncontrollable. That couldn’t be made to pass; the sequence of
events was wrong.

“Sorry, I can’t answer that right now,” he said, staring right back into
Stella’s serious, ruby eyes. “Stella, I love you, and I wish I could tell the
entire world. I’d tell anyone—Shizuku, Alice, strangers… even your parents,
because I think this is the purest, most wonderful emotion I’ve ever felt.
But… if our relationship turned into that right now, I’d feel guilty facing your
parents. I wouldn’t be able to be proud about it.”
Ikki and Stella were both adults; they had little to no reason to be afraid
of what others thought. Even so, Ikki believed that there was a right way to
handle such important things. Stella was a treasure to her parents, who had
raised her with care. To lay a hand on her without so much as greeting them
would be unreasonable.
“I’m sorry,” he said, apologizing again for his failure to answer her
question. “My thoughts may be a bit too outdated and stuffy, but this is one
point I can’t budge on, even if you think I’m a wuss because of it.”
He wasn’t especially overjoyed by the current situation surrounding their
relationship. Ideally, they would be able to make it public immediately,
because then he could proudly tell anyone and everyone about his love for
her.
Sadly, that wasn’t possible; if they went public, it would be a scandal. It
didn’t matter that Stella wanted to be in the relationship, that alone would
lower her standing as a public figure. With the impending Seven Stars Battle
Festival, they had to avoid that outcome; in Ikki’s opinion, it was all the more
important to keep a clear line between them in public.
“I don’t think you’re a wuss.” Stella intertwined her fingers with Ikki’s
and a smile appeared on her face, red with fever. “I’m the one who should be
sorry. I got all weird with you when you were just thinking about me.”
She returned his apology with a red-hot blush that wasn’t because of the
sickness.
“I love you, and I wish I could tell the entire world.” I didn’t know he
loved me that much. Stella had never realized just how much Ikki was
thinking and doing for her sake. She thought only of the boy in front of her,
but he was keeping an eye on those supporting her from behind as well while
continuously working to make their relationship even better as they moved
forward. It moved Stella profoundly, as it was proof that he cherished their
relationship and wanted to handle it with care. But what am I doing? Ikki is
so pure, and then there’s me.

Just taking off her clothes had gotten her so excited that she forgot her
principles—a theme that seemed to be more common than ever before. The
thought of how immoral she had acted made Stella even more ashamed of her
thoughtlessness.
“Maybe the fever is making me a little crazy. I’ll take a little nap.”
Successfully blaming it on the cold, Stella wrapped herself in the towel
and laid down.
“Sure. I’ll watch the fire.”
Ikki didn’t bother to keep up the conversation. After being made to say as
much as he did, why would he say any more? He probably thought he’d
insulted her, too. Those anxieties tormented Stella, making her want to tear
herself apart.
But… I wish he would’ve said yes.
Though she was happy that Ikki was so serious about their relationship,
and though her mind was turning into mush from the fever, Stella couldn’t
get her mind off Ikki’s vague response.
Reading into the context of the situation, she could easily guess the
answer he hadn’t been able to give her. She didn’t just want to imagine it,
however; she couldn’t help but want to hear his voice as his lips formed the
words. Believing he would say it one day, she began to wonder if rushing it
would be a mistake. She couldn’t decide, but she did become painfully aware
of one thing:
I must be some kind of pervert.
◆◇◆◇◆
It wasn’t long after their delicate talk that Stella started snoring from
within her towel, but that only lasted about thirty minutes. When she opened
her eyes again, her condition had stabilized considerably; the waterfall of
sweat had ceased, and it was easier for her to breathe. Her cheeks remained
rosy red, but that alone wasn’t enough to develop into pneumonia. Ikki was
sitting next to her, relieved to see that she looked better, so she sat up.
If she’s this much better, maybe it’s okay to talk now.
He would have preferred that she continued resting until help arrived, but
whether Stella simply hated being still or the embarrassment from their
previous talk had resurfaced, she began talking endlessly about pointless

things like what was going on at school.
Ikki enjoyed listening to her, of course, but there was a question he
wanted to ask Stella. After confirming that she was energetic enough to carry
on conversation, he changed the subject.
“Hey, Stella.”
“Yeah?”
“What are your parents like?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, we’re dating. We’ll want to be open about it someday, yeah? I
can’t just go my whole life without at least meeting them, so before I do, I’d
like to know what they’re like.”
There was no way Ikki could get around meeting Stella’s parents. In fact,
it was an action he felt he had to aim directly for. He wanted to meet them
before the Seven Stars was over, and hoped to avoid facing them with a
complete lack of information. All he really needed to know was what kind of
people they were, so the least he could do was ask.
“Uh, y-yeah, right. That’s what being open about it would mean, huh…?
Eugh.” Stella went pale at the thought. It was such an unsubtle refusal that
the word “no” might as well have been tattooed across her forehead. “Ikki,
uh, just a thought: What if we hide it until right before we get married?”
He couldn’t hide his discomfort with that idea.
“No, I’m pretty sure that’s not going to work. Going completely public
can wait that long, sure, but at the very minimum, I have to meet your
parents.”
“Don’t worry, Daddy’ll be okay if his little girl tells him, ‘Oopsie, I
forgot’.”
“That doesn’t sound like an ‘oopsie’. You might give him a heart attack
if you’re not careful.”
Thinking from her father’s perspective, Ikki was sure that getting his
daughter’s wedding invitation alongside the morning paper would end
poorly. Just spitting his coffee everywhere would be the absolute best
outcome.
“Aww, but—”
“Do you want to avoid letting me meet your parents that badly?”
“Ugh…” Forced into the heart of the issue, Stella could only groan and
nod. “My mom is normal, honest. But my dad is kinda eccentric, and he

adores me. If he heard that the two of us were dating…”
“He might be against it?”
“No, I don’t think he would.”
“Then we should be fine—”
“It’s not about whether he approves or not; he’d probably make sure you
disappear the moment you set foot in the Vermillion Empire.”
That didn’t sound fine at all.
“Hey, he’s an emperor, right? A real, actual emperor? Let’s not joke
around here…”
“It’s not a joke.”
Ikki felt an awful headache coming on, but not because he’d been
infected with Stella’s cold. Probably.
If he wanted their love to be proper, meeting her parents was something
that absolutely had to be done—no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It was the one
thing Ikki couldn’t escape doing. No matter who his foe, his only option was
to face them head-on, so Ikki did his best to view Emperor Vermillion in a
positive light.
“W-Well, that’s probably just because he loves you, right? He sounds
like a nice dad.”
“He just doesn’t know how to cut the cord. When I told him I wanted to
study abroad, he cried and begged me not to.”
“I mean, anyone would be against it if you told them you were going
abroad to find people stronger than you.”
“True. The only way I got out of there was because Mom pulled some
strings and got him thrown in prison.”
“‘Pulled some strings’?! What strings do you have to pull to imprison the
emperor?! Stella, you said your mom is normal, but this doesn’t sound
normal at all!”
“Ooh, I know! If we just have Mom do that again…”
“No! Absolutely not! I’ll just meet him normally!”
“Huh? You know you’ll die, right?”
“How can you say that like it’s inevitable?!” Ikki recoiled slightly at how
seriously she answered him, but if that was what it took to be with Stella, he
was ready for it. “I’m glad you’re worried about me, and it seems like it’ll be
tough from what you’ve said, but this is the one thing I can’t run away from.
I want to meet your father and do what I can to make him accept me. As a

man, it’s something I have to do.”
Ikki’s voice was filled with great resolve—resolve that could not be
made to waver. Knowing as much, Stella sighed.
“Okay, fine. We can go see him in Vermillion.” Her face broke into a
smile as she lay her head on Ikki’s shoulder. “Maybe I wouldn’t mind
introducing him to my amazing boyfriend.”
“Thank you, Stella.”
Ikki stroked Stella’s crimson hair as she rubbed her cheek against his
shoulder, eyes closed blissfully. Her bliss was short-lived, however; her face
quickly clouded over, as if she’d suddenly remembered something important.
“Oh, Ikki? One more thing,” she began solemnly. “Do I have to meet
your parents too?”
She seemed uncomfortable with the prospect. That was to be expected;
she knew Ikki’s relationship with his family—barring Shizuku—was rocky at
best.
The question disturbed Ikki’s smile as well. He didn’t know whether it
was necessary for her to meet them, or even if he was considered a member
of the family anymore. He had disobeyed their orders and ran away from
home.
Does my father still consider me his son? Ikki pondered, remembering
the look on his father’s face.
“Good question,” he replied after thinking at length. “I think it’s an
important thing to do, so how about we go visit the Kuroganes after the
Seven Stars?”
If nothing else, Ikki thought of his father as family. He never once
thought that he had been treated like a son, but Itsuki was still the one and
only father he had. He hoped that one day they would come to understand
each other, so he carried on believing that they were still family.
“Okay, sure,” Stella nodded.
She had some misgivings about Ikki’s suggestion. Kurono, Shizuku, and
even Ikki himself had told her so much about the mistreatment he faced from
his family.
“You’re worthless, so you should remain worthless.”
Was that something a father could say to his own flesh and blood? To not
only abandon your child, but to actively crush his opportunities? Stella, who
had been loved by her parents for her entire life, could say with certainty that

their relationship was messed up. It simply wasn’t something a parent would
do, hence she was apprehensive.
He still thinks of them as family.
Ikki’s assessment of his situation was very naïve, perhaps enough that it
would come to hurt him more deeply than ever.
Stella couldn’t just tell him outright that his father no longer thought of
him as his child, though. What sort of monster could say something so
atrocious? Her only option was to believe that Ikki’s family wouldn’t betray
his expectations.
Silence fell between the two of them for a moment, but they both looked
up when they noticed that the ground was shaking.
“Hm? What’s happening? An earthquake?” It seemed different than an
earthquake. The motion they felt was less of a quaking and more of a
swaying. It wasn’t just a one-time thing, either; it was happening in set
intervals, almost as if something massive was striking the ground repeatedly.
“Do you think this is the giant’s footsteps?”
The sight they’d seen about half an hour earlier came to mind. Gouged-
out earth, trees scattered about, and giant footprints. It wouldn’t have been
surprising for something with feet that big to create such tremors as it
walked.
Ikki wasn’t the type to believe in things like the Headless Horseman or
the Loch Ness Monster, but he and Stella had found a clear footprint before.
He believed it was the most likely explanation, so he stood up.
“I’ll take a look,” he said. “That’s why we came here today, anyway.”
“I’m coming too!” Stella cried as she attempted to stand and follow him.
“Nope.”
Ikki pushed her forehead away with his pointer finger, using enough
force to make her fall on her backside.
“Wh-Why not?! I wanna see the giant too!”
“If it does turn out to be a giant, and if it’s violent, I may have to fight it.
You ought to stay here and rest since you’re sick.”
“Aww.”
Stella puffed out her cheeks like a spoiled child, but Ikki’s stern look
forced her to reluctantly obey. He then headed to the entrance of the cabin,
leaving her behind, and put his ear against the thin wooden door, where he
listened carefully, surveying the situation outside.

Thud. Thud.
The sounds were close. The vibrations at his feet revealed that the
epicenter was very close by.
“Come to me, Intetsu.”
Weaving together those magic words, Ikki materialized his sword, black
as a raven. Then, he took a deep breath to calm himself before hurling
himself toward the door, leaping out of the cabin.
When he got outside, he found only an uninhabited forest and harsh
rainfall. It was the exact same as it had been when he’d carried Stella over.
What’s going on here?
The sounds and vibrations were definitely real, but the massive being that
created them was absent. When he thought about it, he realized that the
sounds and vibrations had ceased the moment he’d opened the door.
“What on earth happened?” Bewildered, Ikki turned back toward the
cabin. “Huh?”
There, he saw a rock giant, standing over fifteen feet tall, in front of the
door. On his way out of the cabin, he had actually walked between its legs.
N-No way!
Ikki stood and stared blankly, stunned at the unbelievable sight, but it
was nothing compared to the horror of what happened next. The giant had
decided, of all things, to swing its massive arm down onto the roof of the
cabin—the very cabin that Stella lay sick within.
“S-Stellaaa!”
It took no time at all for the cabin to be crushed to bits under the
monster’s phenomenal strength.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Rgh…!”
“Ah?! Wh-What?! What’s happening?!” Stella screamed from within
Ikki’s arms.
They were a hair’s breadth away from disaster. In the milliseconds before
the cabin was destroyed, Ikki had activated Ittou Shura and used its speed to
save Stella from being crushed.
“Stella, are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah. But what the heck…?”

“Take a look.” Ikki glanced at the rock giant. “There really is a giant
here.”
“Huh…?” Stella followed his line of sight to find the source of all the
destruction. “What?! That looks nothing like I imagined it would!”
“Focus on the actual problem!”
Stella was right, though. Instead of the large human they’d envisioned,
the giant was a humanoid monster constructed of rocks that had been piled
together. Its appearance made one question if it even was a living creature.
Whether it was alive or not, one thing was clear: the rock giant definitely
had the intention of harming Ikki and Stella. In fact, it was already following
up on its first attack, again swinging a massive arm in their direction.
“Ngh!”
Ikki leaped to the side, avoiding the attack with Stella in tow. Behind
him, the earth shattered under the immense force. Not even a Blazer would
have been able to withstand an attack like that. The only option they had left
was to take down the monster before that became an issue, so Ikki set Stella
down and confronted the giant, Intetsu in hand.
“Stay right here, Stella, so you don’t get too wet.”
“Are you sure you want to fight that thing? I’m not sure your sword will
work too well.”
“I’m sure. I have something to deal with guys like him.”
Ikki held the blade of his katana in his left hand and drew his right hand,
holding Intetsu’s hilt, backward. He was preparing to thrust.
Uncaring—or perhaps like a machine, lacking volition entirely—the
giant repeated its attack. Such a dull, unimaginative assault could never work
on the Worst One, however. Ikki faced the giant and used his leg strength,
amplified to superhuman levels by Ittou Shura, to propel himself toward it.
He slipped past the monster’s rocky fist and unleashed his fully-drawn thrust
with his right hand, sending a flash of steel tearing through the air.
Arm strength, leg strength, momentum—Ikki’s extraordinary body
control allowed him to condense every vector of his power into the tip of his
sword, creating his most powerful attack. It was one of the Worst One’s
seven secret sword techniques, a charge attack boasting the greatest physical
power of them all.
“First Secret Sword: Saigeki!”
Ikki’s body, not having lost any momentum after his initial propulsion,

crashed through the center of the rock giant’s chest. The impact of the blow
shook the giant’s body; starting from the hole in its chest, the rocks began to
tremble as it collapsed. Though they were once combined, the rocks lost their
human-like shape and fell into a heap.
“All right!” he cheered, but his celebration was short-lived. “What?!”
The moment he landed and showed the slightest sign of relief, Ikki saw
something unbelievable. Like magnets, the fallen rocks began to come
together again. The wreckage gathered to mimic the human form once more,
but it didn’t regain its earlier size. Instead, there were dozens of rock
monsters the size of Ikki.
Amidst the spectacle, he found another abnormality. Between the rocks
that were held together like magnets were thread-like traces of magic. He
wasn’t facing a mere rock monster; someone was using magic to control the
rocks.
“A Noble Art! Stella, our enemy is a Blazer! Keep your eyes peeled!”
“Ikki, behind you!”
Responding to Stella’s cry, Ikki slashed at a rockman that was charging
in to punch him. There was a loud clang!, and the reverberation of his blade
against hard rock shook his arm. All he had accomplished was making a
small fissure within the rock.
Is Saigeki is the only attack that’ll work on these things?!
However, Saigeki had a fatal flaw: as a charge attack, he first had to
create momentum. The dozens of rockmen rushing in to attack at once,
however, left him no opportunity to do so.
“Gnaagh!”
“Ikki!”
Blood flew from Ikki’s head as he took a direct hit from solid rock. There
were far too many of the creatures for him to be able to parry every single
attack, even when he used Ten’i Muhou.
This isn’t good… Though his hand had been forced, he’d used Ittou
Shura too early; he had less than thirty seconds before it came to an end. At
the rate he was going, it would run out before he could take them all down.
What do I do?!
Their foe would not wait for him to think, however. While several
rockmen ganged up on Ikki, five others were making their way over to attack
Stella, who was still wrapped in the towel.

“Stella!”
Witnessing the horror from a gap between rockmen, Ikki screamed her
name, but screaming would do nothing. He couldn’t break through the crowd
fast enough. With Stella so enfeebled, being attacked would put her in
immense danger—
“Hyaaah!”
Before he could finish his thought, Stella had, with one swing of
Lævateinn, shattered all five of the rockmen who had leaped at her. She
hadn’t just dealt with the danger encroaching on her, though; she had blown
away the rockmen surrounding Ikki with the force of her attack, smashing
and destroying them with ease as she ran to his side.
“Oh? That’s not the sick girl I remember.”
“Yeah, I’m a little surprised too. Guess I don’t know my own strength.”
Ikki wondered if she should say something like that about herself, but in his
shock, he just nodded. “I can already move more freely now that I’ve rested a
bit. I’ll fight with you; I have a much better chance against monsters like
these than you do.”
It was true; Stella’s superhuman strength meant she could smash the
rocks with brute force rather than having to cut through them. But no matter
how strong she was, she was sick. Ikki didn’t want her to overwork herself,
but he would make little to no progress fighting alone. If he had to choose—
“Now, now. You shouldn’t push yourself when you’re sick, Stella♪”
An out-of-place, frivolous voice rang through the battlefield. Just as
suddenly, the source of that voice appeared before them.
“Vice President Misogi!”
◆◇◆◇◆
“Hey, kids. I’m here to help!”

“You got here fast,” Ikki replied. “I was told it would take another half
hour.”
“Ahaha! Well, you know me—I like to do the impossible. No big deal♪”
Utakata winked at them.
“Grooaaar!”
Behind him, as if haphazardly attacking anything that moved, the
monster bellowed and swung its rock fist down at his head.

Thanks to Ten’i Muhou, its stiff fist had only struck a glancing blow on
Ikki earlier, but a direct hit would shatter a human’s comparatively soft skull
with ease.
“Misogi, behind you!”
Despite Ikki’s warning of the impending danger, Utakata stayed where he
was and grinned, not moving even a muscle to evade the attack. The rock fist
connected, lopping the head right off Utakata’s shoulders.
“Wha—?!”
“Eek!”
Ikki and Stella watched in horror. With that much power behind the
blow, Utakata’s head exploded like a tomato. His tiny body was then thrown
into the mud, unmoving.
“Gotcha! Fell for it, didn’t you?” The boy who had died mere seconds
before was piggyback-riding the rockman that had killed him, laughing as if
nothing had happened. “Aha!☆ Sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that.”
“…Huh? Wh-Whaaat?!”
Stella was so dumbfounded that she couldn’t help but yell. Ikki was
silent, but stupefied nonetheless. He was sure he had just seen Utakata’s head
pulverized before him, with blood and bits of bone flying through the air. The
grotesque sight was still fresh in his memory; it had definitely happened, but
reality told her otherwise. The completely unrealistic result could only have
been caused by one thing.
“It’s a Noble Art. One related to interfering with cause and effect, at
that.”
“Correct!” Utakata nodded and congratulated Ikki.
Many lineages of Blazer abilities existed; Ikki’s Ittou Shura strengthened
his physical abilities, Stella’s Dragon Breath manipulated nature, and Ayase
Ayatsuji’s Mark of the Wind manipulated concepts. The rarest form of Blazer
abilities also happened to be the strongest: manipulation of cause and effect.
“My Noble Art, Black Box, allows me to change the outcome of events,”
Utakata continued. “As a result, any attack against me fails outright.”
His statement made Ikki recalled a certain event. Back when they had
first met at the restaurant, Fifty-Fifty had healed Ikki’s injury with a mere
touch. At the time, Ikki had had no idea what power lay within that skill.
I was never injured at all. He overwrote that event entirely. So this is the
power known as the strongest of all Noble Art forms?

He shuddered at the thought. Ikki had seen plenty of abilities, but Fifty-
Fifty’s was the most aberrant of all. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how
he would defeat such a Noble Art.
For the moment, though, he was thankful for Utakata’s irregular power.
With him on their side, finding their way out of the ambush would be a cinch.
Ikki and Stella both expected as such, but…
“That should make this an easy victory! Help us out, Misogi. We can
take these things down all at once!”
“Nope, that’s not happening.”
Utakata quickly shot down Stella’s request.
“Huh? Wh-Why not?!”
“Thing is, my Black Box can only control events that potentially exist.
Even a one percent chance is a one hundred percent chance if I will it, but for
events that can’t exist, such as someone of my strength winning this, it has no
effect. So while one is equal to a hundred, zero is still zero. You two may
have been breaking those rocks like it was just another day on the job, but
people of ordinary strength like me can’t perform those crazy battle manga
feats. Especially not a cute, weak little boy like me!”
“So that’s your ability’s weakness?”
“Yep. If I could do whatever I wanted, you’d see me in the selection
battles, but Black Box is limited to events that are possible in the first place.
To put it bluntly, if I can’t win on my own, then it can’t do squat.”
For someone as frail as Utakata, the range of possibilities was greatly
decreased. Knowing that, Utakata chose not to enter the Seven Stars selection
battles.
“Then why are you even here?!”
Stella addressed the elephant in the room. Bringing in someone who
couldn’t fight would just make things more difficult.
“To save you, duh.” Utakata shot her a smile that hid a deeper meaning
and hopped down from the rockman’s back. “But like I said, fighting isn’t my
specialty. I’m just here to navigate her with a one hundred percent success
rate—no more, no less. Your turn, Touka.”
He looked up the mountainside, toward a gentle slope. At the edge of the
forest, a small area had been cleared out to make room for a cabin.
“Okay! Thank you for guiding me here, Uta.”
The glasses-wearing girl with chestnut hair stood there, her sword

shining golden with static electricity.
“Toudou…”
“Things got a little hairy there, but I’m glad you’re both safe.” Touka
looked toward Ikki and Stella with damp eyes and sighed with relief. She
then tightened her face once more and leaned forward, preparing to charge
the monsters that had been set upon the pair. “You two can relax. I’ll take it
from here.”
“Wait, Touka!” Stella cried, trying to stop her from being reckless.
“Swords don’t work on them! You can’t fight incomprehensible things like
them alone! I’ll help—”
“I’m fine,” Touka replied before Stella could finish her sentence. “I know
their weakness.”
“What?!”
“Using magic to sic inorganic material on others is one of the favored
methods of puppet masters,” Touka explained. “And there’s an ironclad rule
when it comes to that fighting style: When controlling multiple dolls at once,
you don’t control them all directly; you set up one of them as a hub to control
the others. The greatest benefit of this fighting style is that it hides the Blazer,
allowing them to fight safely. Finding the source is the greatest measure to
defeat them, which is why they try to minimize the amount of threads leading
back to them, but if you think about it the other way around, it means
destroying the hub will leave them unable to control their dolls.”
Such magic couldn’t be used in an arena, which offered no hiding spots
—in other words, a student knight would be unfamiliar with the style. Even
so, despite their status as student knights, Touka and Kanata had been called
on to carry out special missions before, giving them real experience with
fighting terrorists. They had full knowledge of styles Ikki and Stella had
never seen before.
“Found it. Shippuu Jinrai.” Touka, using her knowledge and
observational skills, instantly picked out the one creature from within the
writhing mass of rockmen that connected them all. Activating a Noble Art
that boosted her abilities to their limits by stimulating her muscles with
electricity, she disappeared in a flash—Or perhaps she didn’t disappear,
instead leaping directly through enemy lines, aiming straight for the hub.
She moved with lightning speed, faster than the rockmen could even
begin to react. While they all stood stock-still like the dolls they were…

“Raikiri!”
…it all ended in a single flash of light. Touka’s plasma blade, unleashed
at light speed, sliced the hub in two. Every rockman in the area was
enveloped in and destroyed by the ensuing blast, powerful enough that one
might be convinced that it could blow away even the rain clouds above.
When it dissipated, not a single enemy remained standing.
◆◇◆◇◆
There were no signs of the rockmen reforming. Their invisible foe had
given up once his hub was destroyed.
“Wow…” A single word of admiration leaked out of Stella’s mouth.
“Finding the enemy’s weak point with a single glance is amazing, but even
more than that, Touka, you’ve struck an incredible balance between ability
and swordplay.”
“Absolutely,” Ikki agreed. He was sure that the balance Raikiri had found
was the reason for her strength.
Touka had a vast array of applications for her ability. Lightning had high
attack power, but it wasn’t useful for attacks alone. She could also use it to
power herself up physically, bolstering her strength, or cognitively, bolstering
her observational skills. That was where her swordplay came in; with
extremely honed abilities and swordplay at her disposal, she could combine
the two and make them even stronger. She was naturally better than Ikki, who
focused only on swordplay, but by his judgment, her power was greater than
even Stella’s.
“Honestly, this has been enlightening.”
Stella too saw power in Touka that didn’t exist within herself, and made
a rare yet admirable declaration. Still, she frowned, and Ikki knew why. It
was because she had realized that the Crimson Princess was no match for the
Raikiri.
Rank A and Rank B. Based on their classifications, there was no
mistaking that Stella had greater potential. In a year’s time, she would
probably leave Raikiri in the dust. However, if the two of them were to fight
the way they were, Touka was ten times more likely to emerge victorious.
Stella’s frown was because she knew that was the case.
“Stella?” Touka ran over and called to her. “I-I heard you collapsed with

a fever. Are you okay?”
Touka’s concern as she dashed toward Stella made her seem like an
entirely different person from the one who had just crushed all of those
rockmen. She was even paler than Stella, showing just how worried she was.
“Oh, ah, um… I’m much better after taking a short break.”
Stella tried to calm her with a smile, but Touka pressed her forehead
against Stella’s and very quickly saw through her lie.
“You’re on fire! You say you’re fine, but you’re clearly not! And look
how wet you are! What if you make your cold even worse?!”
“I couldn’t help it. The cabin was destroyed when we got attacked.”
Stella pointed at the cabin’s sad remains, to which Touka gave it a
worried glance.
“Uta, are there any other emergency refuge cabins nearby?” she asked.
“Nope. But I think I remember there was a cave a bit north of here.”
“Then let’s take shelter there for now. We don’t want Stella out in the
rain, and we have to treat Ikki, too,” Touka said, lifting Stella into her arms.
“We’re going, Stella.”
“Whoa! H-Hey, you don’t have to carry me! It’s too weird!”
“I don’t care. You’re sick, so give up and relax.”
Like a mother admonishing her child, Touka shut Stella right up with a
gentle yet forceful command. She then carried her in the direction of the
cave.
“Touka lost both of her parents to illness,” Utakata muttered just loud
enough for Ikki to hear. “Ever since then, she’s always been such a nag about
staying in good shape. When she’s like that, you might as well just obey her;
she’ll give you a spanking if you don’t.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from experience, Vice President.”
“She’s a prodigy in more ways than one. You do not want a spanking
from her, what with the way she can snap that wrist.”
He was definitely speaking from experience. Just like the events back in
the council room implied, they’ve had a long mother-and-unruly-children
relationship.
“So, are you good to walk on your own? You can lean on my shoulder if
you need to,” Utakata offered, keeping in mind Ikki’s exhaustion after using
Ittou Shura.
“No, thank you,” Ikki replied, shaking his head. “I can at least walk.”

“Good. Let’s go.”
So the party, reunited at last, made their way to the cave that would
shelter them from the rain.
※※※
“Heheheh. The plan was only to try out my hub and step on their toes a
bit, but what an intense bit of retaliation that was. Goodness.” Somewhere in
Japan, a gathering of social dropouts took place in a dark room, despite it
being midday. There, a tall man sunk deeply into a sofa, sighing with a small
grin on his face. “I suppose that’s Raikiri for you. Those puppets stood no
chance against her.”
“What an awful smell. Did it burn your arm?” a shadow behind the tall
man asked, disdain in his voice.
“To a crisp. Thanks to that, this arm is useless.”
He showed the shadow his left arm. Raikiri’s high-tension electric
current had flowed through the magic wires that controlled the rockmen,
burning the puppeteer’s arm to the point that flesh was falling from it. The
destruction to his body was so severe that he wasn’t likely to see a full
recovery even if he were to use a Capsule, but despite that, the tall man didn’t
cry out in agony; his singsong tone gave the impression that he was closer to
applauding Touka.
“Blame yourself for your own pointless actions. Wait for the eve of the
festival, fool.”
“Can’t disagree with that. Heheheh.”
“As a mere student, I know not the opinions of the Organization, but I
expect you’re a member of it. They should have taught you that it’s best to
refrain from recklessness before a battle.”
“You’re not wrong there, but there’s no fun in waiting around all day. It’s
boring, and that’s a bad thing. I can’t stand boredom—that’s what makes me
the Pierrot. I live to smile, day and night. Whether in good or in evil, to enjoy
myself and smile is my sole duty, don’t you know?”
“Difficult as ever to understand, I see.”
“Heheheh, good. A predictable Pierrot would ruin the party, after all.”
Speaking with a tone that hardly tried to hide his frivolity, the tall man moved
a finger on his right hand. When he did, his scorched left arm fell clean off,

as if it had been cut by a well-honed blade. He didn’t bleed, though—
presumably because of the intense burns that reached deep into his body.
“Oh, did you want this? I’m afraid it’s well-done.”
“No. Let that cat eat it, if you’d like.”
“Heheheh. Careful, now. If you don’t call it Sphinx like she wants, she’ll
never stop crying.”
“You can glue wings onto a cat, but it’s still a cat.”
The tall man sighed inwardly at the shadow’s response. For such a young
man, he was quite the stick-in-the-mud.
“Ooh, by the way, that Crimson Princess you love so much was on the
battlefield too. She looked worse for wear; perhaps she fell victim to a cold?”
“I don’t know, nor do I care.”
“My, you’re not worried about her? I heard your only reason for being
here was to meet her.”
“Yes, that’s the reason I’m playing along with your foolishness. But if a
cold is all it takes for her to be unable to join the tournament, then that only
proves that the Crimson Princess was never worthy in the first place.”
His words, piercing through the darkness, weren’t wrong, but that was
part of why the tall man realized how incompatible the two were. He was so
unwilling to joke.
“Goodness me, you’re so cold. I suppose boys these days have to be
boring workaholics to attract girls.”
“Keep your jokes to yourself, clown.”
Maybe the shadow man was aware of their incompatibility, too; he spat
those parting words and left the room. As his figure sank into the darkness,
the tall man watched and sighed.
“You’re no fun at all. You should learn from your little brother and be
more easygoing.”
◆◇◆◇◆
The rain carried on incessantly for more than three hours; the sun was
already beginning to set by the time Ikki and his friends could start
descending the mountain. All of the clouds had disappeared the moment it
stopped, however, allowing the sunset to dye the forest a rosy red.
Japan’s weather is really something these days, everyone thought to

themselves as they walked the road back to their base. Along the way, Stella,
being carried on Ikki’s back, asked a question.
“Hey, Touka? Are you sure it’s okay to leave the person who controlled
those rockmen alone?”
Once the battle was over, the party had needed to run for the cave to
escape the rain, and they had been stuck there since. The identity of the
person who had been controlling the puppets remained unknown, seemingly
displeasing Stella. Of course, everyone present sympathized; they couldn’t
shake the feeling that their job had been left undone, with the root cause of
the giant still shrouded in mystery.
“Well, I’d be glad to catch them if we could,” Touka replied, “but I don’t
think we can.”
“Why not?”
“When I destroyed the hub, I used the bolt from Raikiri to calculate the
distance between us and the puppeteer. They were too far away for us to find
and capture.”
“How far away?”
“I would estimate at least sixty miles.”
“Buh-agh! Hack!”
Stella choked when she heard the distance—so far that he might not have
even been in the Tokyo metropolitan area. There was no way they would
catch him from that far away.
“Ugh. Well, that’s a surprise. Can puppet masters really control their
puppets from that far away?”
“Normally, that would be impossible. Our special squads usually had
Rank B puppet masters in them, but even they could only fully control their
dolls at a distance of a third of a mile.” That was proof of one thing: Whoever
was on the other end of that magic wire was no normal being. Making
mention of that, Touka frowned slightly. “Maybe the fact that we didn’t meet
face-to-face was a stroke of luck for me.”
“Sounds like it would be smart for us not to probe too deeply into it.”
Ikki expressed his understanding of her decision. Jumping into battle
with an unknown enemy like that would be far too dangerous. Stella, on the
other hand, wasn’t one to be happy about letting an enemy get away. She
cleared her throat and spoke.
“It’s kind of a letdown for this to end without us knowing the truth

behind it, though.”
“I had Toutokubara send a message to the director. If she deems it
necessary, she’ll take the next step herself. Since I wounded the enemy pretty
heavily, I doubt they’ll come back for more.”
What a crazy thing for Toudou to say so forthright.
A puppet master controlling their puppets from over sixty miles away
was outrageous enough, but for Touka to be able to zap them from that same
distance meant she was definitely a big deal.
The group continued their chatter as they walked the twilight road down
the mountain. The way back was muddy from the rain, but they were
Hagun’s most distinguished students; none of them would be so clumsy as to
slip. Even Ikki, who was carrying Stella on his back, had slept well enough in
the cave that, despite the initial fatigue from Ittou Shura, he was energetic
enough to do so with ease. Their march went so well, in fact, that they were
able to make it all the way back to the campground at the base of the
mountain before the day had ended.
“Oh! Hey there, guys! Good to see you home safe!” Upon their return,
they were greeted by Renren and Saijou, who had been waiting outside for
them. “I heard you got sick, Stella. Rough going, huh?”
“Sorry to burden everyone so much. This was my first time catching a
cold, so I didn’t even know what was happening.”
“Usually it pretty much immobilizes you, but you were as energetic as
ever, Stella, considering how you put a hole in the ground with just the birdie.
There might be a point where you’re just too strong, y’know?”
“It kinda sounds like you’re making fun of me here.”
Yeah, this isn’t the sick girl I remember.
Ikki couldn’t help but wonder why she had been playing badminton like
it was tennis. Even so, he had a feeling Stella would be fine in her selection
battles despite her cold.
“You’ve had quite the day, too, haven’t you?” Saijou suddenly offered
his sympathy to Ikki. “First your partner collapses, and then you’re attacked
by a giant.”
“Hahaha, it’s cool. I’m used to having bad luck.”
“I heard you were injured. It’s nothing major, right?”
“It might swell a bit, but that should be it. I’m fine.”
“That so?”

Ikki nodded, but Saijou pulled a small vial out of his pocket and handed
it over.
“What’s this?”
“I come from a family of doctors; it’s essentially a secret salve. It works
well on bruises, so you should try it out.”
“Oh, really? Thank you. I’ll use it later.”
Ikki smiled and thanked Saijou for his kindness.
“Gaaay!” Utakata teased from behind them.
“Is this why you didn’t come at me even when I was wearing nothing but
my underwear in the council room?!” Renren exclaimed, joining in on the
fun.
“Wh-Wh-What kind of foolishness are you two going on about?!” Touka
shouted. “They’re just friends! I think!”
“Why do you sound so unsure about it, Touka?” Stella asked.
The conversation Ikki heard made his head ache even more than the
wound did.
“Sorry about that bunch. They’re always that annoying, so don’t worry
about them.”
“Hahaha.”
Saijou truly has admirable mental fortitude. He was a man who had seen
a lot.
“Phew,” Utakata sighed. “Anyway, I’m so tired from walking all day.
Hungry, too. Hey, Touka! We should have a barbecue before we all go
home!”
“Oh, good idea! I couldn’t eat much for lunch, so I’m ready to chow
down on some meat.”
“Me too!”
Stella and Renren agreed with Utakata’s suggestion, but Touka shook her
head.
“No. Stella is sick, so we need to take her to a doctor.”
“Whaaat?!” the three of them cried in unison.
“Nuh-uh, just look at her!” Renren said, gesturing toward Stella. “She’s
in perfect health!”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“See, she says she’s fine! I believe that, as an upperclassman and student
council president, you should respect your underclassman’s independence!”

“Complain all you want, but I’m not going to budge on this. You
shouldn’t underestimate a cold. Besides, this is an important time for Stella,
and we want to take every possible precaution.”
“Aww…”
Ikki could hear Stella’s stomach growling behind him—she really had
regained her appetite. Furthermore, her body temperature was nowhere near
as high as it was when she was in the cabin with Ikki. She may well have
been approaching a complete recovery, though such superhuman healing
wasn’t exactly a shock when it came to someone with magical power like
Stella’s.
“Toudou, while it is important to get her to a doctor, I’d say it’s just as
bad to ignore her hunger. She’ll lack the energy she needs to fight off the
cold.”
“Ikki…!”
“Ooh, true, true! Good thinking, Kurogane!”
“Hmm, I suppose you’re right. Though I’m not sure meat is the best food
for someone who’s recovering… Oh, fine. Once we get Stella to a doctor and
get her some medicine, we can go to an all-you-can-eat barbeque. We have to
go now, though, or the hospital will be closed.”
“Thanks, Touka!” Renren cheered. “Woo, meat!”
“Misogi, let’s go to Kokoen!” Stella suggested.
“Aw, yeah!” he replied. “I’ll make reservations right now!”
“No, stop!” Touka shouted. “I said all-you-can-eat!”
The student council really does get lively when they’re all together. That
was when Ikki noticed they were short a person. “Hey, where’s
Toutokubara?”
“Kanata went to talk to a visitor or something,” Renren explained.
“Oops, I completely forgot to mention that,” Saijou said. “Someone came
to visit you, Kurogane.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, apparently he went looking for you at the school before being told
you were here.”
Ikki tilted his head. He couldn’t think of any acquaintances that wanted
to see him so badly they’d follow him all the way to Okutama.
“Saijou, what was his name?”
“Let me think…” Saijou pondered it for a moment. “Oh, yeah. He called

himself Akaza.”
Ikki stiffened up when he heard that name. Immediately after, a man’s
slimy voice reached his ears.
“Theeere you are. We finally meet!” He turned his eyes to see Kanata
Toutokubara and the man she had been speaking with. “It’s been a while,
Ikki. Mhmhm!”
An ugly, obese, middle-aged man in a red suit smiled at him. Ikki knew
that man; he had seen him too many times back home.
“Ikki, who is this guy?”
Stella must have felt his back tense up, as she asked that question
cautiously.
“This is Mamoru Akaza. He’s the head of one of the Kurogane branch
families,” Ikki replied as he set her down.
Stella could tell from just that information what the man was like. She
glared at him threateningly, like a cat with its hackles raised.
“Um, is something wrong?” Kanata asked, clearly confused by the
sudden aura of danger.
“Mhmhm, there’s no need to look at me like that. I don’t like this either,
see? Imagine how I felt coming all the way to Okutama for a good-for-
nothing like you.”
Undaunted by the pair’s clear distaste for him, Akaza plastered a
gracious smile on his face and spat venom at Ikki. The visitor’s open
contempt made even the student council abundantly aware that he was Ikki’s
enemy.
“What’s with you?! Don’t you see you’re being rude?!”
Touka couldn’t bear to stand and watch what was happening. She too
glared at the rude visitor.
“Well, if it isn’t the legendary Raikiri. Good day to you. Or I suppose it’s
‘good evening’ by now, isn’t it? I heard you risked life and limb to save Ikki.
My sincerest apologies for him; he had one job, and he couldn’t even
accomplish that. As a representative of the family, I will apologize
wholeheartedly. Here goes…”
“N-Nobody wants you to do that—”
“I am sooo very sorry.”
Akaza was talking to Touka, but he clearly wasn’t listening to her. He
just kept on repeating his efforts to put Ikki down.

Touka was at a loss for words, agape at his brazen hostility. The other
council members were similarly shocked. A silence fell among the gathering
until, unhesitatingly, Akaza cut right to the chase.
“Well, leaving that aside, how about we get down to brass tacks? I’d
rather not waste time with all these mosquitoes around. Mhmhm. I’m here
today with a veeery important bit of news for Ikki, from the Ethics
Committee at the International Mage-Knight Federation’s Japanese Branch.”
Outwardly, he smiled, but through his narrowed eyelids, there was almost
no light to be seen. It was clear to anyone that his “important business” was
bad news. There was no way to get rid of him without asking, though, so Ikki
pressed him for answers.
“What could you possibly want to say to me now?”
“Mhmhm. Perhaps showing would be faster than telling. Here, have a
look at the evening paper.”
Akaza handed over several newspaper articles. Did they have something
to do with Ikki? He looked at the first one, conscious of the pounding of his
heart. There, on the front page, was a picture of Ikki and Stella kissing in a
forest.
◆◇◆◇◆
Stella was transfixed on the photograph, wide-eyed.

“Ikki, th-that’s us!”
It was as clear as day. That was the forest clearing where Ikki and the
gang trained every morning. The photo, taken while they were kissing, was
plastered on the front page of each of the newspapers. Their secret
relationship had been exposed by someone in the school.
“Great picture, right? Look at the quality on your faces there. And this is
a picture at nighttime, at that! Cameras these days are crazy, huh? Mhmhm.
You don’t know yet since you’ve been here in Okutama, but everyone’s
going crazy over it. Putting your grubby hands on a royal guest is
unprecedented misconduct, after all.”
“H-Hold it!” Stella snatched the papers away and nearly yelled. “Wh-
What’s the deal with these articles?! It’s all bull!”
She pointed at the headlines in her fury. The Man Who Stole a Princess’
Purity, Emperor Vermillion Enraged!, A New Problem in Japan-Vermillion

Relations?! All of the headlines were seemingly trying to exaggerate the
importance of their relationship.
Comments from the Kurogane family about Ikki were printed, as well.
They claimed that he had always had loose morals, that he was a problem
child who had nearly torn the family apart, that he was a fundamentally evil
person, and even that he was a philanderer with a chain of debauched
relationships under his belt. They were all baseless lies, but the newspapers
printed those lies as if they were fact.
“‘Ikki Kurogane has always been a notoriously terrible person’?!”
Though Stella couldn’t keep quiet through her rage, Akaza’s self-
satisfied smirk never left his face.
“No, honestly, it’s all true. That just means you didn’t know, Princess.
Did you expect him to tell you about what a waste of space he is? We,
however, have known this man for quite a long time. It pains me to insult a
relative, really, but this man has been a delinquent for as long as we can
remember. Assault, theft, blackmail—nothing’s too low for him. Look,
there’s even testimony from a victim here. Mhmhm!”
“It’s all made up! Anyone who knows anything about Ikki would know
that he’d never do anything like that!”
“Mhmhm. Regardless of your thoughts, Princess, this is how the facts
have been published; it’s clear what the masses think. Even among the
Federation, this information has caused countless people to call into question
Ikki’s qualifications as a knight. As a result, the Japanese Branch has decided
to open an emergency inquiry into this matter. With it, we will take a
comprehensive look into things, and should we find that he isn’t up to our
standards, we will petition to have his name expunged from the register of
knights. I am here today to bring Ikki to the venue where we’ll be holding the
inquiry.”
Akaza’s attitude made it clear to Stella that a simple scandal wasn’t the
end—the Kurogane family was using it as a front to ruthlessly attack Ikki
with their hatred and damage his standing as a knight. By taking advantage of
the scandal, they planned to go so far as to revoke Ikki’s license as a knight
and have him exiled. They were doing everything in their power to suppress
the so-called failure that dared to disobey the Kurogane family.
“You will come, won’t you, Ikki? Mhmhm!” Akaza declared in his slimy
voice and put his hands on Ikki’s shoulders. “This is a formal summons from

the Ethics Committee. You’d be wise not to ignore it. Mhmhm, well, if you
do, you’ll find yourself in a very disadvantageous position.”
In response, Ikki remained silent for a moment.
“Fine, then,” he finally answered, giving Akaza a resolute look of
defiance as he spoke.
When she looked into his eyes, Stella sensed the great malice and
accompanying trials that awaited her boyfriend.

“Greetings, everyone. I sincerely thank you for taking time out of your
busy schedules to come to this emergency inquiry. We are here today to
discuss a certain Ikki Kurogane, a legal adult who has gravely misconducted
himself by fostering an illicit sexual relationship with a state guest. Thus,
many in this Japanese Branch office have called into question his
accountability and sense of ethics.
“Student knights are given various rights at age fifteen that normal
children do not have. Thus, it is only natural that we would expect them to
have a sense of responsibility befitting those rights. In the spirit of that belief,
this Ethics Committee meeting was arranged to provide an opportunity for us
to thoroughly investigate whether there are concerns regarding Ikki
Kurogane’s status as a knight. I know you are all very busy men, so I thank
you for your understanding and cooperation.”
The International Mage-Knight Federation’s Japanese office building. On
its tenth underground floor, a committee existed to oversee the ethics of
student knights and Mage-Knights, providing guidance and petitioning for
bans when the need arose. They could be said to be a kind of military police.
In one room on that floor, the leader of the committee, Akaza, bowed his
head to the gathering of near-middle-aged men around him. He also grinned
broadly at Ikki, who stood square in front of them.
“Now, everyone,” Akaza continued, “please be seated so that we may
begin the inquiry.”
The inquiry was announced, and everyone took their seats. Only Ikki,
who was not provided a chair, was left standing. It was a plain, yet spiteful
act, demanding that he stand throughout the hours-long interrogation, but at
the very least, Ikki wasn’t so feeble as to admit defeat from such a minor
discomfort.

The air here is so stagnant.
Ikki surveyed the room, which had almost no light sources to speak of.
Around him were long desks arranged in a U-shape, where Akaza and the
other men sat. Three in front and one on either side—a total of five people,
all wearing red suits to show that they were members of the Ethics
Committee.
“There’s no need to act so uptight. I’ll say it once: all of us here are on
your side.” Akaza teased Ikki, noticing that he was sizing up the strength of
the committee members. “This inquiry is not the place to point fingers. As
unprecedented as your misconduct may be, we want to hear your excuse for
having a relationship with a state guest. This is a place of enlightenment,
open to you due solely to the combined generosity of your father and us.
There’s not a single one among us who isn’t on your side. Right, everyone?”
“That’s right. None of us want you banned from the Federation without
at least giving you the chance to offer an explanation. You’ve tried your
hardest to make it to where you are now, mere steps away from making it to
the Seven Stars Battle Festival. It would be a shame for all that effort to go to
waste.”
“…Thanks.”
The way they could brazenly lie to his face about so many things was
almost amazing.
“Now that you understand that we have your best interests at heart, let’s
start by confirming the basics. Ikki, is it true that you are in a relationship
with Stella Vermillion, the second imperial princess of the Vermillion
Empire?”
“Yes, that is true.”
“Mhmhm, good on you for being honest. When did your relationship
begin?”
“It was around the time the Seven Stars Battle Festival selection battles
began. Specifically, the night of my first battle.”
There wasn’t much point in hiding the truth from them, so Ikki answered
honestly. Even so, the committee members all looked at him scornfully.
“Oh? It didn’t take you two very long after you met to start dating.”
“Hmph, kids these days. They’re all about being fast and reckless.”
“Yes. Back in my day, we would take things slow and wait for our
relationship to develop organically.”

“These kids are like rabbits, I tell you. I think they call them ‘shotgun
weddings’?”
“Truly reprehensible.”
They talked as if Ikki and Stella were having premarital sex, but they had
done nothing of the sort. In fact, most couples their age would say they were
too platonic. They took their relationship very seriously because they were
well aware of the delicacy surrounding her status as a princess, making those
accusations all the more enraging.
“Excuse me, but I haven’t done a single thing like you all and the
newspapers—”
“Ikki, Ikki. I understand you have things you want to say, but you must
leave them until you’re given permission to testify. Otherwise, you might
give us a bad impression. Mhmhm!”
“…My apologies.” Ikki bowed reluctantly, his testimony blocked by
Akaza.
“Hmph. If you want to talk so badly, I’ve got a question for you. Did you
never think that it was poor judgment to have an illicit relationship with a
princess?” the man to Ikki’s left, with a goatee and an unpleasant look in his
eye, asked curtly. “That’s a very dangerous act that could quickly develop
into an international incident. I know you’re at an age when you’re always
thinking with the wrong head, but do you really lack even the sense to choose
a more suitable plaything?”
“My relationship with Stella isn’t ‘play’. We honestly love each other.”
“Hmph. Brat.”
“Mhmhm! I once thought my first love was the one too. Oh, youth is a
wonderful thing.”
“If you’ll permit me to say it, Stella and I are legal adults. We have the
right to marry. Don’t you think it’s completely normal to take our
relationship seriously?”
“A trivial objection. You’re awfully defiant, aren’t you?”
“Come on, now. You’d better rethink that attitude.”
“Bad first impression. Mhmhm!”
Akaza wrote something on a piece of paper. As he looked at the men
around him who were clearly not willing to listen to his thoughts, Ikki sighed
inwardly. They were interrogating him based on an adult’s accountability, but
simultaneously refusing to acknowledge his rights as an adult; they only

treated him as an adult when it was convenient for them.
I figured this would be a farce. The committee’s behavior made it
abundantly clear that not one of them had any intention of truthfully
investigating Ikki’s qualifications as a knight. They had already come to the
conclusion that he was unfit, and were in the process of searching for
information to reinforce that claim, much like during the Inquisitions. Then
again, I’ve known as much ever since I saw those newspapers.
From the get-go, everything had clearly been odd. First, the princess of
an empire starting a relationship during her time studying abroad. That would
be scandalous in and of itself, and there would be a controversy over it, but
the progression from there to questioning Ikki’s qualifications as a knight was
unnatural.
As Ikki had asserted before, he and Stella weren’t children. They were
adults, so they had the right to marry. There was a legal basis for their love,
in a way. With Ikki’s and Stella’s feelings for each other made clear, even if
the emperor of Vermillion—Stella’s father—took issue with it, his natural
first course of action would be to speak with her.
No such thing had happened, however. Instead, people entirely unrelated
to their relationship were calling it wrong and screaming “misconduct”,
plastering it all over every single newspaper in order to call Ikki’s capacity as
a knight into question. It was nothing if not abnormal.
Why would something so abnormal be happening? The reason was
simple: a certain someone must have been mixing their own arbitrary
opinions into the uproar.
Roundabout as always, I see.
They weren’t being roundabout just for kicks, though. All Mage-Knights,
student knights included, had their names in the International Mage-Knight
Federation’s register. Besides acting as a deterrent against war, the existence
of such a supranational organization simplified crossing borders for Mage-
Knights, allowing them to help each other in times of duress. In the event a
war were to somehow break out, thanks to the power of the Federation,
gathering knights to battle as representatives of their nations would be orderly
and procedural.
There were many other reasons as well, but they had little bearing on
Ikki’s situation. What was relevant to his case was that knights with their
name in the Federation’s register couldn’t have their knight certifications

suspended or revoked by a single nation’s government or branch office. Not
even Itsuki Kurogane, head of the Japanese Branch, or Akaza, chairman of
the Ethics Committee, held that privilege. As such, they were forced to use
roundabout methods, like how they had tried to sic The Hunter on Ikki the
year before.
They had hoped to pressure Ikki in private to force him to admit that he
had done wrong. If they weren’t able to do that, they would just say he had a
bad attitude or bad posture, or that he looked at them wrong, or that they
didn’t like the way he talked, and so on. Nothing was beneath them.
Once they had enough information at their disposal to make Ikki look
bad, they would use it as grounds to apply for his name to be struck from the
register. That was Akaza’s aim, and Ikki knew it, so instead of just repeating
his own assertions, the safest thing for him to do was to weather the storm
and avoid letting them read into his statements.
“Whether you all have a good or bad impression of me doesn’t really
matter. I truly love Stella, and Stella truly loves me. I can guarantee you that
much. I don’t believe we’ve done anything wrong, and I can’t stand idly by
while someone else calls us wrong.”
Ikki knew his best course of action, yet he didn’t stop opposing the
committee. He was well aware of just how much Stella loved him back;
whenever they hugged or kissed, he would see her gorgeous smile, so he
wouldn’t let anyone call their love “misconduct” or “wrong”. If someone was
going to say it was a mistake, he was going to fight back. That was the entire
reason he had come to the interrogation.
I told Stella one thing: I’ll proudly tell anyone and everyone that I love
her.
He would not retreat, and he would not sit silently. If the men before him
had never had any intention of entertaining his claims, then all the better; Ikki
didn’t need their approval. He would make his claim regardless, because his
feelings for Stella were the one thing he would never lie about.
◆◇◆◇◆
In the three days that had passed since Ikki had been taken away and
detained by the Ethics Committee, Stella had been like a volcano primed to
erupt. She scowled constantly, and sparks flew from her hair like fireworks.

Many students seemed interested in the scandal and wanted to probe her
for information, but even approaching her was so intimidating that they all
gave her a wide berth. Even in the packed cafeteria at lunch, nobody sat near
Stella.
“You look pretty menacing for someone who just recovered from a cold,
Stella.”
The tall, lean girl who spoke to Stella so nonchalantly was Nagi Alisuin,
someone in no position to worry about such trivialities.
A voice from afar—likely one of her fans—warned, “Lady Nagi, it’s too
dangerous!”, and though Stella wouldn’t take out her anger on a friend no
matter how mad she was, her attitude and speech were clearly more
aggressive.
“No duh. You think I can smile when they’re all writing lies about me?”
Stella spat. “They”, of course, being the newspapers. Their lies involved
lambasting Ikki and painting Stella as a weak-minded woman who was
fooled by a monster. She boiled with indignation just from remembering it. “I
heard it was bad, but Japan’s mass media really has reached a new low.”
“Nyehehe, that one definitely hit home.”
Another girl, wearing an apologetic look beneath her glasses, said as she
sat next to Stella.
“Kagami?”
“Mind if I sit with you?”
“Go on. There’s plenty of space, not that I mind.”
“Nyehehe. Thanks.” Kagami Kusakabe moved her lunch tray over to
Stella’s table and continued speaking, looking apologetic. “I don’t blame you
for being mad, Stella. I mean, yeah, it’s obvious that you dating someone
while studying here would turn into a scandal, but the reporters are slimeballs
for completely ignoring your judgement in favor of calling your relationship
‘misconduct’. That’s gonna cause an actual international incident, but hey,
that’s probably why they’re reporting it like that in the first place.”
“Oh? What’s that mean?”
“Well, I’ve got a bit of clout in the world of reporters, so I had my
contacts dig up some dirt. As it turns out, the Ethics Committee has been
pressuring people like nobody’s business. They publicized the Princess
Vermillion Scandal as misconduct, trying to make it out to be something
horrible. And just between us, the committee has even been threatening to

take away some outlets’ publication rights to entertainment events like the
King of Knights.”
“Since the Federation controls the KoK, they’re free to make threats like
that, then? I see.”
Newspapers losing their publication rights to the greatest entertainment
event in the world would deal an immense blow to their sales, one great
enough that said papers would be hard pressed to not fail immediately. They
essentially had knives at their throats; their only option was to give in to the
coercion.
The facts according to Kagami were proof enough that the Ethics
Committee and Itsuki Kurogane were really coming after Ikki’s certification
as a knight. Knowing how serious they were, Stella couldn’t help but be
taken aback.
“I can’t believe it… Ikki’s just a high school student! Why is his own
father, the head of the Federation’s Japanese Branch, going so far to corner
him?!” What was the point in doing so? Wouldn’t the widespread
denunciation of Ikki also hurt the Kurogane family name by extension? What
possible reason could he have had? “This is his son we’re talking about. Why
—”
“That’s just the kind of father he is.” The reply came from the opposite
side of the table, directly in front of Stella. Her voice was quiet yet pretty, not
unlike a bell. “That’s what he does. There’s not much else to say.”
“Shizuku…”
“Honestly, I don’t know what he’s thinking or why he detests my brother
so much. His warped mind is beyond my comprehension. That just makes it
all the more normal for him to do such horrible things, though.”
Shizuku moved her own tray to the table as well, stating the cold, hard
truth as she set her Japanese-style meal down opposite Stella.
“Hey, Shizuku?” Stella found the coming words hard to say, but knew
she had to. It had only taken her so long to say because they hadn’t seen each
other since Shizuku’s battle with Raikiri. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you about
us.”
She knew just how much Shizuku loved her brother, so she braced
herself for the coming storm. Shizuku’s reaction, however, was surprisingly
dismissive.
“I don’t care. Besides, I already knew.”

“Huh?”
“It was obvious from a glance that your relationship had changed on the
night of his first battle. Right, Alice?”
“Haha, well, it was rather easy to tell.”
“Yep!” Kagami added. “I actually noticed too.”
“Ugh…” Stella groaned, strangely ashamed. Was their flirting that
brazen? They thought they had evaded detection by keeping anything lovey-
dovey confined to their room and the forest.
“Your status means that being in a relationship would definitely lead to
an uproar the moment it was announced. I get that you two wanted to avoid
that during the busy time that is the Seven Stars and its preparations, and I
think you did the best you could, so I don’t blame you at all. What matters
now is what we do going forward,” Shizuku said, turning to look at Kagami
next to her. “Kusakabe, based on the way this conversation is going, I assume
you know my family circumstances to some extent?”
“Nyehehe! Information is a journalist’s lifeline. Yeah, I do happen to
know a little.”
“Then I’ll come right out and ask: Do you think my brother could
actually be exiled as a result of this case?”
“Not as things are now,” Kagami responded, not hesitating in the
slightest.
“Oh, really?”
“Well, Alice, neither of them actually did anything bad, right? I touched
on this before, but there’s a limit to how long a handful of journalists can
ignore Stella’s side and call it misconduct. For most people, this story is just,
‘Wow, the princess of Vermillion is dating? What’s he like? Ooh, saucy!’
and that’s it; nothing more. The Ethics Committee is trying to fan the flames
by calling it misconduct, but it just isn’t catching on. Without that, their
claims have no legitimacy; at this point in time, it’s just a large-scale false
accusation. In fact, they probably know this, and that’s why they’re trying to
control public perception by using the inquiry to dig up dirt in any way they
can. Ikki isn’t stupid enough to take the bait that easily, though, so I find it
hard to believe the Japanese Branch will be able to ban him. The Federation
as a whole sees bans as the last of their last resorts, after all.”
“What makes it ‘the last of their last resorts’?” Stella asked.
“Whether it’s a student knight or a licensed Mage-Knight, the Federation

doesn’t want to ban someone unless they’ve done something truly terrible. To
put it in perspective for you, do you remember Kuraudo Kurashiki from
Donrou Academy?”
“Yes.”
“Even for someone as notorious as him, the most he’s gotten is a stern
warning.”
“That’s… a very light punishment.”
“Is there a reason why?”
Kagami nodded in response to Shizuku’s question.
“It’s because most banned knights turn to crime.”
Once they obtained their licenses, all knights dreamed of making
livelihoods as Blazers. The vast majority of those to whom that opportunity
was lost would use their Blazer abilities illegally, becoming criminals.
Countless statistics supported that claim.
“Of course,” Kagami continued, “these people were already bad enough
to be banned, so it’s not that surprising, but it’s safer to keep your mad dog
on a leash, isn’t it? So the Federation wants to keep all knights under their
supervision, and as a result, just about every country that’s a part of it has
legislation to keep their Blazers on the path of knighthood. That said, human
rights groups in Japan have kept things from progressing that far here.
“Basically, banning Blazers lets all of the mad dogs loose and creates
criminals, which is why the Federation is generally reluctant to resort it, and
banning student knights is an especially rare case. The Ethics Committee is
trying really hard to make it happen this time, though, so I’m a little worried
about what’s happening to Ikki right now.”
If the committee wanted to find fault with Ikki’s attitude or tone of voice
in response to their questioning, they wouldn’t be able to take it much further
than that. However, if Ikki said that he was thoughtless, that would become
the accepted truth, giving them a strong backing in their petition to ban him.
It would follow that the committee would use any means necessary to
accomplish that.
“…”
Everyone present fell silent at Kagami’s mysterious words. The
committee’s inquiry was being carried out underground, far from the light of
day and right in Itsuki Kurogane’s lap. In addition, the Ethics Committee
itself was staffed entirely by the Kurogane bloodline, as if it were their

sanctuary. Everyone around Ikki was allied with the Kurogane family; he
would never receive fair treatment there. They weren’t likely to resort to
torture the way a real inquisition would, but there were plenty of other ways
to press him.
Ikki… The more she thought about it, the more awful things Stella
imagined, to the point that she hadn’t slept properly for the past three days.
Every time she closed her eyes, she was forced to picture what was
happening to her beloved deep underground. This is all because of me.
If she were just another ordinary girl, Ikki’s enemies wouldn’t have been
able to use her to their advantage. She was a burden on Ikki. She was holding
him back during the most important time of his life, when he was meant to
secure his place at the Seven Stars. That helpless regret revealed itself bit by
bit; it hurt her so, so much.
“Maybe I should break up with Ikki.” The words leaked weakly from her
lips. “Because… it’s all my fault, right? If I were a normal girl, this wouldn’t
—”
“Stella!”
Alice’s scream pierced Stella’s eardrums. Her voice sent a shudder down
Stella’s back, causing her to look up from her bowed position. When she did,
she noticed the tip of a sharp icicle shooting toward her face.
She reflexively covered herself in Empress’ Dress, crossing her arms in
front of herself to guard against the spear of ice, but the attack was too fast
and too strong. The impact lifted her off the ground and threw her against the
cafeteria wall, causing her to crash through it and land outside.
“Ahhh!”
“Wh-What’s going on?!”
The cafeteria erupted into a panic.
In the midst of the uproar, Stella felt her arm, grimacing at the pain that
shot through it. One of her bones must have cracked when she was thrown
against the wall by the blunt icicle, only its sharp tip having melted amidst
the flames that burned hot enough to disintegrate even bullets. There was
only one person there who could wield water magic like that.
“Wh-What are you doing, Shizuku?!”
Covering her wounded arm, Stella howled at Shizuku, who stood tall
atop a table with Yoishigure in hand.

“You’re going to ask me that?”
“Eep!”
The look in Shizuku’s eyes sent another shiver down Stella’s spine, even
more unsettling than the last. Her voice was quiet, and her face was as placid
as ever, but her eyes harbored a chilling glimmer so full of rage that it
numbed Stella’s whole body.
“Are you completely ignorant of why my brother is playing along with
this farce? He had the option to ignore the inquiry completely and remain
silent, because it’s really just an inquisition dressed up as a serious
investigation—a farce, designed to lead to a predetermined result. No matter
what he says, they won’t listen. The whole reason he’s telling his side of the
story is because he couldn’t stomach how they defiled your relationship with
their obscene ideas. That’s how much he cares about you. If you even think
of betraying my brother because you can’t understand that much, you’ve got
another thing coming.”
Shizuku’s icy passion was more than enough to make Stella realize the
mistake she’d made.
“…Sorry. It was stupid of me to say that.”
Stella earnestly bowed in apology to Shizuku.
I can’t believe I said something so shameful.
She still didn’t consider their relationship to be a mistake, and Ikki was
behind enemy lines, proving that he was still proud of their relationship.
The enemy’s purpose was to cast doubts on Ikki’s sense of responsibility,
stripping him of his status as an adult and a knight. Therefore, if Ikki had ever
said that dating Stella was thoughtless or a mistake, they would have been
sure to publicize it immediately, because it was proof that Ikki was admitting
to being an irresponsible fool.
“I love you, and I wish I could tell the entire world.”
He was putting those words into practice even in such an awful situation.
That was how strongly his love for Stella burned. But what was she to do?
How could she respond to Ikki’s passion?
Something only I can do. Something I have to do.
That was…
“Good Lord. You all sure are comfortable with destroying my school.” A
voice, mixed with a sigh, called out to Stella and Shizuku. That hoarse voice
came from Kurono Shinguuji, weaving her way through the commotion. “Put

yourselves in my shoes. You know I have to fix this, right?”
Grumbling as she stepped outside through the hole Shizuku had put in
the wall, she snapped her fingers. In doing so, the debris rose into the air and
filled the hole that Stella had flown through. It was like watching a video tape
rewinding; in a matter of seconds, the hole had been cleanly refilled.
“That should do it.” Nodding with satisfaction at a job well done, she
turned her attention to Stella, who was still sitting. “Vermillion, I need to talk
to you about the issue with Kurogane. Could you come with me to my
office?”
Stella accompanied Kurono to her place of work.
◆◇◆◇◆
Kurono walked Stella to her office, which reeked of cigarettes, and had
her sit on the visitors’ sofa. She then lowered herself into a chair opposite
her, with a table between them, and sighed as wrinkles of frustration lined her
forehead.
“Well, this has all turned into quite the annoyance.”
Stella imagined that Kurono’s visible fatigue was a result of her being
dragged into the issue as the one responsible for putting them in the same
dorm room. She could hardly sympathize, though, as she still took issue with
the coed system.
Oh, yeah…
Figuring she might as well preempt Kurono, Stella asked about
something that was bothering her.
“Director, what’s going to happen to Ikki’s selection battles? Surely he
won’t be penalized for not being able to fight.”
“On my honor, I won’t let that happen. Kurogane’s opponents will be
sent to the Federation’s mock battlefield over at the Japanese Branch office.
And of course, we’ll have a teacher from this school present to oversee it. No
telling what would happen if we let those idiots judge the fights, after all.”
“Can I go cheer him on?”
“No, that won’t happen. He’s forbidden any meetings until the inquiry
ends.”
“So he’s in complete confinement…”
At the very least, it was reassuring that Kurono promised he wouldn’t

lose by default; treating his confinement as an absence would be going too
far. With one worry assuaged, Stella sighed in relief and pressed Kurono to
speak this time.
“So, what did you want me to come here for?”
Kurono started talking business right away.
“Mm, I’d like to know what your parents think about all this.”
Stella had to wonder why she of all people would be worried about
something like that, but at the same time, she had no reason to hide it. She
told Kurono how her parents had reacted when she’d called them after Ikki
was abducted.
“My mother said she understood my decision, but as for my father, he’s a
complete no-go. He’s so mad. ‘How dare he lay a hand on my daughter
without permission?!’ was his response.”
“Your father really loves you.”
“He needs to learn to let me be already. Turns out that he’s so pissed he’s
gonna storm over here soon.”
“When?”
“Probably three weeks from now?”
“That’s around the time selection battles will end. And that’s exactly
what our goal is.”
“Your goal?”
Stella was confused by that statement; what exactly did Kurono mean by
it?
“Once Emperor Vermillion herself comes for a visit,” Kurono explained,
“the red-suits of the Ethics Committee will absolutely not refuse him a face-
to-face with Kurogane. And once everyone related to this incident—you
included—can have a discussion, this will finally come to an end. Their
claims of Kurogane’s ‘misconduct’ are pure conjecture, only being
entertained by the public because this discussion hasn’t happened yet. If
Emperor Vermillion himself accepts Kurogane, they’ll be left without a leg to
stand on. That’s when I’ll get my chance to chase them down.”
“Are you going to fight back?”
“Absolutely. They falsely accused my student on my turf. When I’m done
with them, they’ll wish they were dead.”
Scary. The look on Kurono’s face and the words coming out of her
mouth had Stella cowering; just being near her was terrifying. Though she

may have retired from being a knight, the immense pressure that Kurono—
once the third-strongest Mage-Knight in the world—exuded had never faded.
But I guess that’s the point.
The red-suits of the Ethics Committee claimed that Ikki’s actions were so
rash that he could cause an international incident. However, if Stella’s father,
the head of the Vermillion Empire, accepted him, then all would be well. The
only problem was whether or not he would accept Stella’s boyfriend.
“Ugh, I’m not too sure about that. He’s seriously unreasonable when it
comes to me.”
That man, when she went on a middle school camping trip in the
mountains, had put on a bear suit and watched her from the forest. Everyone
had mistaken him for a real bear, and he’d almost ended up dead, though she
had considered killing him anyway once she’d realized the bear was her dad.
That was just who he was, so Stella didn’t see him being very welcoming
toward Ikki.
“It’ll be okay,” Kurono said, smiling gently while showing her rare
motherly side to the sullen Stella. “If he could raise a smart, upright girl like
you, then I’m sure he’ll come to understand that Kurogane’s a good kid.”
There was no real basis for her logic, but surprisingly, Kurono’s words
made Stella’s fear vanish. She was right; he wasn’t a bad father at all. In fact,
he loved his daughter deeply. Coming to that realization, Stella wished only
for him to come to like the man she loved.
“That would be really nice.”
“But still, you should help with the Vermillion side of the encounter.
Take some advice from a married woman: before you two cut the cake,
meeting each other’s parents is one of the biggest team challenges you’ll
have to face. Don’t make the man do all the work, because what your parents
are paying attention to is how willing you are to protect him.”
“I-I’ll do what I can.”
“Heheh. Yeah, damn right you will. I figured you’d be more depressed
when I found you, but I’m glad you seem to be doing well.”
“I guess I just needed an icy little girl to light a fire under me.”
Rubbing her right arm, Stella smiled a little as determination smoldered
in her heart. It wasn’t right for good women to leave everything to the men.
The time had come for Stella to fight too.
“I love you, and I wish I could tell the entire world.”

Ikki’s words rung truer than ever. Taking them to heart, Stella steeled her
resolve.
I have to keep my promise too.
◆◇◆◇◆
The tenth underground floor of the International Mage-Knight

Federation’s Japanese Branch. In a room there, Ikki remained confined.
“Food’s on the table. Questioning starts at six tomorrow, so get to bed.”
A sallow, red-suited man spat inhospitably as he set an electronic lock on
the door and left. The room’s only furnishings were a stained bed and a table
and chair that seemed ready to collapse at any moment, but after being made
to stand all day during the questioning, Ikki appreciated those meager
comforts.
He sighed deeply, as if exhaling all of his exhaustion, and sat in the
shabby chair. The inquiry had started at 6:00 a.m. and ended at 11:00 p.m.
The Ethics Committee had chairs, and they rotated members four times a day.
They weren’t fatigued in the slightest, but their victim was far worse for
wear. After a week of that, even Ikki’s trained body was beginning to falter,
though it wasn’t the only reason his fatigue continued to build.
“Man, I really miss rice right about now.”
He glanced over at his dinner, disappointed. It was just two small
nutrition bars. He checked the nutritional information on the back and saw
that together, they did add up to one meal’s worth of calories and nutrition,
but for a growing teenager and warrior like Ikki, it was far from enough.
Having so little for his daily meal left him chronically suffering from hunger
pangs.
“And nothing to drink, as usual.”
Even worse, his hydration was also restricted. Somehow, the water that
was supposed to come with his meal would apparently be “lost” along the
way. The room Ikki was shoved into had been cut off from the water supply
for weeks as well, so he couldn’t even wash his hands. It was yet another of
their plain but spiteful acts.
Of course, he didn’t receive water during the inquiries either. He was
forced to use his shower time and the time spent going between his room and
the inquiries to fill up on as much water as he could by using the bathroom.

Such a way of living would only keep becoming more and more exhausting.
Surrounded by enemies and forsaken by the world. His was a solitary
struggle.
Not that it matters.
He was used to it. He’d always made his way alone, relying on nobody,
learning from nobody. It wasn’t his first time fighting such a battle.
When he closed his eyes, he could still remember hiding in the hills
behind his house, silently swinging his sword over and over. The majority of
his life had felt no different; he didn’t have to try any harder than usual to
endure it. Both solitude and hostility were normal conditions for him, so no
matter how much Akaza and his goons tried to force Ikki to say that he was
mistaken, they wouldn’t be able to crush his hardened spirit.
If they keep this up, I can still take it. If he did that, he would likely meet
with Emperor Vermillion soon enough—Stella’s father wouldn’t just ignore
the central figure in a crisis that involved his daughter. In that case, Ikki’s
main objective was to keep standing firm in the face of the fussy third parties
until Akaza lost his right to intervene. That’ll be the real moment of truth for
me.
He had to get Stella’s father to accept him; it would be the most
important event in his life. The very thought of it made him so nervous that
his heartbeat intensified, but he couldn’t run away. Not from something so
important.
The moment Ikki Kurogane fell in love with Stella Vermillion, that they
would meet became a foregone conclusion. To prepare for the inevitable, Ikki
spent all his time thinking how he should make the best first impression.
Should he wear a suit to their meeting? And for his hair, perhaps he should…
part it to the side? He tried to imagine how that would look.
Whoa. Not into that.
The image of Ikki as a businessman made him chuckle.
More than his appearance, however, the thing that mattered most was
communicating his sincerity. Cheap visual tricks wouldn’t work; in fact, they
would have the opposite effect. There was no other way than to
wholeheartedly look the emperor in the eye and appeal to him as earnestly as
possible.
I’ve got the time, so I might as well practice.
While tricks weren’t going to work, it didn’t mean he would go in

unprepared. He had to rehearse, so he closed his eyes and focused his mind.
Behind his eyelids, he pictured Stella’s father, Emperor Vermillion.
Stella had shown him a picture once, so he knew the emperor’s face. He had
the same fire-red hair as Stella and stood nearly six and a half feet tall. His
beard connected to his sideburns, bringing to mind a courageous lion’s mane.
Ikki opened his eyes, attempting to bring the vision to life. It was almost
as if the man himself was standing before him. Of course, he wasn’t actually
there, but Ikki’s well-honed ability to concentrate created a shadow of the
man.
Once he had materialized the image of the man in his mind, he began to
spar with it. It was a basic martial arts technique being put it into practice, but
for an expert like Ikki, the shadow was more than just a shadow; it had a
gaze, heartbeat, and bodily warmth. It was so realistic that it even had an
audible pulse. Even the man who had created it couldn’t help but shudder.
The lion-like Emperor Vermillion stood with an intense look, saying
nothing and standing perfectly still as his eyes, ruby-red like his daughter’s,
pierced Ikki. He felt as if his skin would crack under the weight of that gaze.
His body broke out in sweat and his throat dried up, but if he couldn’t handle
a fake, there was no way he would be able to stand firm in front of the real
deal.
Ikki inhaled deeply and stared right back at Emperor Vermillion. Then he
got down on his knees, pressed his forehead against the floor, and expelled all
the air in his lungs with a shout.
“Please let me have your daughter!”
“I will not.”
His rejection fell on Ikki like lead, shaking his eardrums. Was he not
earnest enough?
…Wait a second. No, no, no, no, no. Stop. Hold up.
No matter how insanely intimidating the shadow was, a fake image of a
man was still just a fake image. He shouldn’t have been able to respond. To
find out whose voice that was, Ikki looked up.
“Why would I give you Shizuku?”
Standing before him, he found his own father, Itsuki Kurogane, looking
down at him with his cold, ash-gray eyes.
“D-D-D-D-Daaaaad?!”

◆◇◆◇◆
Another chair was brought into the room, into which Itsuki sat down
looked at Ikki from across the table. They stared at each other for a full five
minutes without exchanging a single word.
Th-This is awkward. Ikki felt beads of cold sweat rolling down his back.
No surprise there; their reunion had started off on the wrong foot, but to make
matters worse, Ikki hadn’t seen his father even once since his fifth birthday.
He’d never had the slightest idea what to say or what expression to wear were
they to be reunited. That aside, what in the world could this man want with
me at this point? Why would he come all the way here to meet me?
While Ikki was busy trying to read his father’s mind, Itsuki broke the
silence.
“Ikki.”
“Y-Yes?” Ikki answered, his voice shrill.
More beads of sweat formed. His heart started beating erratically. What
could Itsuki possibly have to say?
He’s been so distant from me for my whole life. I have no idea—
“Do you have some sort of sexual interest in Shizuku?”
“Bah!”
“Incest is wrong. Ethically, of course, but you should also think of your
future children’s immunity to disease—”
“H-Hey, hang on! I was just trying to rehearse for when I meet Stella’s
parents, I swear! I love Shizuku, but not like that! She’s my sister!”
“Really? Good.”
That was far too close. Ikki was about to be branded as a very dangerous
person. If he had waited any longer, he would’ve been lectured hard.
Well, I guess I can’t blame him, if that’s how he walked in on me.
Thanks to his outburst, though, a bit of the awkwardness went away. Ikki
used the opportunity to ask his question first.
“S-So, uh, what are you here for, Dad?”
“My own son is only an elevator away from me. Maybe I decided to
come see you on a whim.”
“…Oh. All right.”
Ikki didn’t know if he was serious. Itsuki had always had such a severe
look on his face, and his gray eyes showed no emotion whatsoever. Even if

Ikki didn’t know his father’s true thoughts, he definitely felt his heart
screaming, accompanied by a strange twinge spreading through his cheeks.
What is this feeling? Am I… happy?
He was having trouble analyzing the emotions he was feeling at their ten-
year reunion.
“You seem to be doing quite well,” Itsuki said without an ounce of
visible tension in his expression.
“H-How so?”
“I mean your results in Hagun’s new selection battle system. I hear
you’re at an undefeated sixteen wins.”
“Oh, well, uh… After my battle today, that actually makes seventeen.”
“And you’ve been up against more than just some weaklings. That’s
quite the accomplishment.”
“…Huh?”
What was that? Did Ikki’s father compliment him?
What do I do now? I’m actually really happy.
It didn’t take long for Ikki to be sure that he was actually happy to be
able to meet his father again, to be able to hear his voice again. Indeed, Ikki
Kurogane still loved Itsuki Kurogane. That was why he had answered Stella’s
question in the cabin the way he did. After all, Itsuki was his one and only
father.
However poorly he was treated, however much he was deprived of
simple acceptance, Ikki couldn’t come to hate his parents. Even if his parents
could hate him, he could only continue to love. He knew that his father was
involved in his investigation and imprisonment, yet despite that, his father
was watching him, speaking to him. That alone made him helplessly elated.
Maybe…
He was different from who he used to be, so maybe his father would
accept him.
“You’re worthless, so you should remain worthless.”
Maybe he would give Ikki a different answer. With that hope in mind,
Ikki spoke.
“S-So, hey, Dad?”
“What?”
“I’m, um… I-I’m trying really hard. My rank is still F, but I’ve won
against some really strong people, and I don’t plan on losing anytime soon.

I’m different from the boy who couldn’t do anything. I’ve trained so hard—
hard enough that I won’t be a disgrace to the family name anymore. S-So…
So, please…” His throat quivering from nervousness, Ikki panted as he
breathed in. He mustered up all the courage he could to plead to his father,
Itsuki. “If I win the finals at the Seven Stars, will you… Will you accept
me?”
In response, Itsuki gazed at his son wordlessly for a moment.
“…I see,” he replied, closing his eyes. “I never quite understood why you
left us, but now I see. You were under the impression that I didn’t accept you
because you were weak. Correct?”
“Yeah…”
Ikki nodded. That wasn’t the entire reason Ikki had left his home, but
there was no doubt that that was part of it.
If that’s the case, though, now that I’m stronger—
“If so, that was a grave misunderstanding. Know that I have always
accepted you as my son.”
“Huh?”
Ikki’s eyes opened wide as his body stiffened at the unexpected
statement. What did he just say? He accepted Ikki?
“Y-You’re lying!”
“I’m not. If I were, would I have come down to see you?”
“B-But… You never did anything for me. You never taught me how to
use my Blazer abilities, you never let me train in martial arts like the branch
family kids, you never let me do anything.” Ikki remembered just how
stifling his family life had been. Itsuki had excluded Ikki from everything,
and when other family members saw that the head of the family hated him,
they would oppress him just the same. The pain, distress, and loneliness still
made his heart throb with pain. “If you accepted me, then why didn’t you
treat me the same as everyone else?!”
Itsuki’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.
“I had no need to teach you, so I did not. Nothing more. Teaching a
student with no talent to learn half-baked sword tricks would be a fruitless
endeavor for both teacher and student,” he replied, almost as if it was the
most obvious thing in the world. He then stopped and corrected himself. “No,
fruitlessness in itself is not a problem. The worst result would have been you
as you are now: a half-baked swordsman with half-baked powers, producing

half-baked results.”
“Wh-What does that mean?”
Unable to understand what he had just heard, Ikki could only respond
with a question. In response, Itsuki closed his eyes again and, speaking
matter-of-factly, explained the truth behind his words.
“Ever since the time when Mage-Knights were still called samurai, the
Kurogane family has been distinguished among Blazers. We have a
responsibility to lead all of the knights in this country. Uniting every knight
under one organization is no easy feat, however, as every knight is a
superhuman with powers far beyond the ordinary. Because we all have such
power in our grasp, we cannot be treated like normal humans.
“To fit everyone into the box that is this organization, we need a sort of
pecking order. This pecking order is established in a tangible, public way
through the use of a ranking system based on individuals’ abilities. Through
it, people become aware of their own roles in society, preserving harmony.
“This is a very important thing—an organization must have every cog,
large or small, performing the duty allotted to it for the whole to function
properly. There are roles at both the top and bottom of the ladder, and
someone at the bottom will never look to someone at the top and think, ‘I’m
better than them’, and deviate from their role.
“As you can see, Ikki, you are the greatest evil facing this organization.
Someone worthless like you cannot try to gain worth, else others at the
bottom will also become unproductive. They too will become prideful and
think that they have worth, thus deviating from their own roles. They bring
about decreased productivity and increased wastefulness, harming both
themselves and the organization.
“Even if ranking is not a flawless system, its failures are exceptionally
rare, therefore we must try to avoid waste wherever possible. That is why I
told you: you’re worthless, so you should remain worthless.”
Ikki finally understood the man known as Itsuki Kurogane. The
Kurogane family was carrying out the duty it had passed down for
generations, and for that purpose, they had imposed hard and fast rules on
both themselves and others—the order they lived by. That was the basic
principle that guided people like Itsuki, who strove to control others. It was
exactly the sort of man Ikki’s father, the Mage-Knight known as Iron Blood,
strove to be.

“Wait… a second…” If he truly believed that, it would mean… “Then
the reason you told me not to do anything wasn’t because I would bring
shame to the family?”
“Of course not. Family is unimportant; the role of the Kurogane lineage
is to uphold harmony among all the knights of this nation. As such, those
who are unable to do anything must fill their roles and do nothing. Ikki, you
want me to accept you? Then give up being a knight right now.”
“Gh!”
“Because you’re worthless, you should simply do nothing. That’s the
only thing I’ve ever wanted from you.”
That made it clear to Ikki that his father was speaking honestly. Still, it
was still an incredibly bitter pill to swallow.
Then what am I to this man? His father didn’t actually hate him, but
given the alternative, Ikki would have preferred that he hated him for not
having talent. If Itsuki hated him for that, it would have meant he at least
expected something of Ikki. Unfortunately, the truth was that Itsuki had no
wishes or feelings for Ikki. That’s just… too much.
Itsuki’s feelings weren’t even in the dimension of love or hate. To him,
Ikki was nothing but a rock on the side of the road; to love or hate something
so trifling would be silly. The knowledge of that fact caused the cold sorrow
within Ikki to overflow.
“Ah…!”
“Hm? What? Why are you crying?”
Itsuki knitted his eyebrows in confusion. That reaction was enough to
make Ikki realize that somewhere deep in his heart, all he wanted was some
sort of connection with his one and only father. He wished and wished for the
day when they would come to understand each other, but the way things
were, his own father couldn’t even understand the reason he wept.
I guess that’s it. The two of us are just too far apart.
In that moment, something in Ikki’s heart—something vital to him—
came crashing down. In that moment, the precision machine known as Ikki
Kurogane began to crumble.
◆◇◆◇◆
After Ikki broke out into tears, he gave no response other than quiet sobs.

It got bad enough that Itsuki merely gave up on him and left the room, taking
the elevator back up to his top-floor office. There, a red-suited man with a
body shaped like a keg waited for him.
“Hello-hello, head of the family. Good day to you. Or should I say good
evening by now?”
“Akaza?”
“So? What was he like?”
“As usual, I don’t understand him. Though he’s not as bad as his brother
Ouma, at least.”
“I don’t mean his personality. Did he seem to be deteriorating at all?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Mhmhm. I may have played with his food a little bit. He’s been eating a
drug that destroys both his body and mind simultaneously.”
“One of those truth serums from the military police era? That’s quite the
direct method.”
“Just as you know me so well, I also know his stubbornness very well. I
don’t expect him to break from questioning alone—that is merely pretext to
isolate him. Things are moving along exactly as we calculated; all we have to
do is wait for Emperor Vermillion’s visit—”
“You don’t have to explain it. I can imagine, I’m sure.” Itsuki silenced
Akaza, who had begun giving a full presentation. “I’m leaving this to your
discretion. Do whatever you need to do; I don’t care. However, I will not
permit failure. You will have Ikki banned.”
“Yes, of course. I understand. Mhmhm. Well, you just watch,” Akaza
said, exiting the room.
Alone in his office, Itsuki turned to face the portraits of the Japanese
Branch directors that had come before him, the majority of whom were
Kuroganes.
Each picture bore the weight of responsibility that they had all inherited.
Itsuki himself was one of them, so he was resolved to bring about the greatest
good for the greatest majority that he envisioned.
My life of toeing the line, not overstepping my bounds, is the best way of
life for the majority of people. There weren’t many people like Ikki, who
could shed their powerlessness. Pointless hopes and consigned self-
confidence could only lead to loss for both the person in question and the
greater organization. Thus, they were less than useless—they were a burden

on the organization he managed. I’ll do whatever it takes to dispose of them.
That’s my duty.
For the sake of the ironclad hierarchy, he would show no mercy, even to
his own child. That was the only righteousness for “Iron Blood” Itsuki
Kurogane.
◆◇◆◇◆
Ten days after Ikki was taken away by the Ethics Committee, the
Federation’s Japanese Branch held his eighteenth selection battle against a
nameless Rank E, accompanied by Yuuri Oreki, who judged the battle.
Shizuku had learned of Ms. Oreki’s role beforehand from Kagami, and went
with Alice to wait for her at the Federation’s front gate.
Just as the sun was beginning to set, she exited alone. Shizuku and Alice
immediately ran over to her and asked for the results of the match.
“Ms. Oreki, what happened with my brother? Did he win?”
“Huh? Um… Yes. He got his eighteenth victory.”
“Is something the matter?” Alice was quick to follow up to her
halfhearted answer.
Ms. Oreki looked as if she was considering whether to tell them
something, but considering that Shizuku was Ikki’s blood relative, she
decided not to hide the truth.
“The thing is, Kurogane doesn’t look too good.”
“What’s wrong with my brother?”
“Well, he was pale, and his breathing was very ragged and pained. But
the fact that he won so handily despite that is amazing,” she added.
“Did he catch Stella’s cold?” Alice asked after exchanging a glance with
Shizuku.
“It’s not impossible.”
Even if he hadn’t caught her cold, they had heard that Ikki had gotten
soaked at Okutama. With the added fatigue of the inquiry, it wouldn’t have
been surprising to the pair if he’d caught one of his own.
“No, that’s probably not it.”
Ms. Oreki, who was well-acquainted with illness, realized that Ikki’s
condition wasn’t a result of simply being unwell.
“Ms. Oreki?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s nothing. I’m off to see the director now.”
She withdrew her words and left, doubting that she should be saying such
a thing to students; it would only serve to make Shizuku worry unnecessarily.
Even so, they saw right past it.
“Ms. Oreki wanted to say something there.”
“She does know a lot about sickness. Maybe she noticed something about
Ikki’s symptoms.”
“That something being that it isn’t just any old cold?”
“Most likely. They might be doing something to him in there.”
Shizuku felt a chill run down her spine. She knew that nothing was off
the table for her father and his goons. To them, the end justified any means.
“Big Brother… Please be safe.”
It was all happening deep underground, far beyond her reach. Impatient
and enraged as she may have been, Shizuku could do nothing but pray.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Hey! Why are you just standing there blankly?!” Ikki opened his eyes
wide at the water the Committee threw in his face, accompanied by a hoarse
shout. “Napping during an inquiry?! Is there no end to your
irresponsibility?!”
A middle-aged man with thin-rimmed glasses in front of his bangs
screamed into Ikki’s ear. His jeers echoed loudly through the tiny room, but
even then, the voice seemed so distant to Ikki.
Oh. Guess I fell asleep again.
Two weeks after the interrogation began, Ikki’s fatigue was reaching its
peak. Long-term confinement, the same questions and answers repeated
dozens of times, his assertions continuing to go unheard. That was more than
enough to chip away the sanity from any human.
On top of all that, Ikki had spent the past few days suffering from a
sudden high fever and a cough. No matter how he tried to suck in air, pain
would rush through him, making it almost impossible for him to breathe; it
was as if his lungs were failing. The chronic lack of oxygen led to his
consciousness fading in and out.
At best, he had pneumonia, but for all he knew, it may have been
developing into something even worse. It was enough to require an

immediate hospital visit, but of course, the Ethics Committee wouldn’t allow
it.
“Hmph. Things go bad for you, so you feign illness. How childish.”
Maybe they had been waiting for the moment Ikki was at his weakest to
corner him. He didn’t get a second—let alone a minute—of rest. “Now, let’s
continue talking about your secret agreement with Director Shinguuji. Under
the old director’s system, you were deemed unfit and forced to repeat a year,
but this secret deal makes light of that, and we believe that there is a clear
ethical problem—”
His line of questioning had already been covered over and over. Ikki’s
response: The old director’s decision to make him repeat a year was a result
of him being barred from taking classes because of an arbitrary requirement.
It was invalid.
The Ethics Committee should have known as much without being told;
they were the very ones who had instructed the previous director to do so.
However, the red-suits refused to listen. They lobbed questions and assailed
him with doubt, yet they ignored his answers while prattling on about him
giving a bad impression or being rebellious.
“Ack! Gah! Gahah!”
Ikki had been surprisingly patient despite the vain effort, but when he
opened his mouth to argue, he began to cough violently and fell to the floor.
“Damn you, nobody told you to sit down! You’ve got no grit!”
“Ngh…!”
The man with glasses stomped onto the back of Ikki’s head, smashing his
face into the floor. The smell of metal filled his nostrils, and drops of blood
fell from his nose.
Pitiful.
Caught up in his own helplessness, Ikki could do nothing but smirk. He
had a vague idea that his condition was something man-made, probably the
result of some sort of drug. Normally, Ikki would have gotten worse bit by
bit, but he had fallen apart in one fell swoop.
The killing blow was having met his father, Itsuki. Ikki had always
believed that no matter how distant or cold he was, somewhere, there was
still a connection between them. That belief had lay somewhere deep in his
heart for a very long time, but it proved to be a mistake. It was cut to pieces
in the worst possible way, destroying his mental stability.

An unstable mind could do nothing to save a body beset by disease.
There was no stopping his descent. The condition of Ikki’s body and mind
were crumbling at an alarming rate.
“I think you’ll have to be satisfied with that.” Suddenly, Akaza stood and
commanded the man to step back. He twisted his lips into a vulgar grin as he
crouched down next to Ikki. “Mhmhm. You’re in some pain, aren’t you?”
“…”
“I understand, considering how long you’ve been in questioning. But
understand my point of view: I’m doing my very best to prove that you’re a
fine, upstanding knight. However, we’re just not making any progress this
way. So I thought about it for a while, and I found an incredible way to make
everyone doubting you eat their words. So, do you want to hear it? You want
to hear it, right?”
“What is it…? Ack! Gah!”
Coughs punctuating his question, Ikki asked not because he was
interested, but because it was the only thing he could do to move forward.
“Mhmhm.” Akaza nodded in satisfaction. “Well, it’s nothing special, you
see. You should be aware that it is the knight’s way to cut his own path
through fate. So, why don’t we put that into practice?”
“Put that into practice”? How?
“Sooo, we’ll settle this dispute between you and your naysayers based on
the result of your selection battle tomorrow.”
“Based on the result”.
That was enough for Ikki to understand what Akaza was saying without
him actually saying it.
“You mean a duel against a designated fighter?”
“Yes. Decisions based on duels are absolute to us knights; it’s a rule that,
while unwritten, is never to be disobeyed. No matter how illogical or
ridiculous the decision, a decision made by a duel is bound by tradition. The
Federation operates the same way. If you agree to this duel, and if you can
find the strength to come out on top, no one will question you and your
qualifications as a knight any longer. Ikki, this could be your miraculous
chance to save yourself. It’s your only choice, right? Riiight?”
“So if I win tomorrow, you’ll let me go?”
“Yes, yes, of course. But as it stands, your opponent for tomorrow is a
third-year Rank E. Frankly, defeating someone as weak as him wouldn’t

contribute much to proving your strength—it won’t convince everyone. For
this fight, we need to prepare a suitable actor.”
“Ack… Who’s… your ‘actor’?” Ikki asked, having already assumed they
intended for him to fight someone strong.
“The Ethics Committee plans to choose the student council president,
Touka Toudou.”
Akaza’s grin broadened more than ever as he named the assassin. An
opponent who Ikki would have to fight desperately against, even if he was in
perfect health. The top-ranking student in the school and a semifinalist at the
previous year’s Seven Stars Battle Festival. Seeing as Ikki was so weak he
could barely crawl on his hands and knees, she would be too much for him.
He didn’t need to accept the challenge; at some point, his meeting with
Stella’s father would be held. If he could hold out until then, everything
would reach its end in a place where Akaza and his goons had no influence.
In addition, it would be an insult to Touka for her to be roped into such a one-
sided fight. Ikki had no reason to accept it.
“Oh, by the way, we’ve already run this by Emperor Vermillion. Or
should I say, a tiny little slip-up on our end has the emperor convinced that
you’ve already agreed to the duel. Dear me, I am so sorry. And let me just
say, he is so deeply interested in the fight. I believe he said something like,
‘A man who can’t overcome this trial will never have my daughter!’ If you
don’t agree to the fight, well, I don’t know that he’ll be very impressed with
you.”
So that’s it. They were always planning for it to come to this.
Akaza had skillfully blocked Ikki’s one point of escape, making him
realize that the inquiry was just an excuse to isolate him from Hagun. Akaza
had never thought simple mental torture would be enough to make Ikki admit
defeat; it was all meant to coerce Ikki to agree to an unwinnable battle. That
was their scheme.
“You’ll stand and fight like a man, I assume?”
Whenever the word “duel” was uttered, logic and justice were thrown out
the window—everything rode on the results of the fight. That had been a
tradition among knights since the dawn of time. Ikki had done nothing
wrong, yet losing his duel with Touka would put him in the wrong. That
would mean losing everything.
It was an unfair, awful idea; he had much to lose, and absolutely nothing

to gain. He would just be given back the freedom that he was meant to have
from the start. It was so, so unfair.
“…Okay. I’ll do it,” Ikki finally answered, his face dripping with
bitterness. With all routes of escape cut off, doing so was his only option.
“Heh. Haha! Hehahaha! Wonderful, wonderful! Imagine if you had said
no! Mhmhm! This is what boys are all about! Did you hear what he just said,
everyone?! The result of our inquiry rides on his performance in tomorrow’s
duel! We make dealings with our swords, just like the knights of old! That
way, nobody can object to the noble decision that is reached! I declare this
inquiry complete!”
The Worst One, in duress, was made to cast himself into a more hopeless
battle than ever before. His opponent was Raikiri, whose undefeated close-
range prowess may have surpassed even his own.
Against an opponent who was both powerful and in perfect health, Ikki
would drag his own worn-down body into a battle that would decide his very
future. He remembered what Utakata had said to him:
“The two of you simply carry different weights.”
It was true. Someone like him could never begin to imagine the sheer
weight of the hopes and dreams Touka’s delicate shoulders supported. It
didn’t stop with the kids from the orphanage, either; she had earned the
admiration of countless people with her previous Seven Stars performance.
Could Ikki really win against someone who had so much to be proud of?
Could his sword, guided by naught but a worthless, hollow boy who didn’t
even have the trust of his father, overcome her?

“Yeah, I’m okay. I’m doin’ just peachy. Yeah. I think tomorrow’s
battle’s the last one for the whole school. Huh? Yer comin’ all the way to
Tokyo? Ya made a banner for me, too?! Yer jumpin’ the gun!
“By the way, this year’s Seven Stars’s in Osaka… Yep. Whether I win ’r
lose, I think I’ll come ’n visit for a while after the selection battles either way.
Yeah. All right, bye. Thanks for the veggies. Tell everyone else I said thanks
as well. Take care o’ yerself, Mom. See ya.”
After saying goodbye, Touka turned off her student notebook’s phone
function. Her sweat adhered to the liquid-crystal display, which showed the
total call time of fifty minutes. She had been on the phone for far too long.
“How’s the matron doing?”
Utakata, sitting on the student council room’s sofa, asked about the
person on the other end of the call before taking a bite of a fist-sized tomato.
That person was the matron who ran the Wakaba House.
“Pretty well. Almost as healthy as she used to be, actually.”
The matron of the orphanage—the elderly woman Touka called
“Mom”—had fallen victim to a heart attack the year before. At the time,
Touka would spend whole nights crying, and even the usually easygoing
Utakata had been pale with worry. Based on how she sounded on the phone,
however, her condition had settled to the point that she actually sounded
much better.
“So they already made a banner for you?”
Touka hadn’t even secured the last of her victories, let alone been chosen
as a representative yet, but the matron and the orphans had already made a
banner to wave at the Seven Stars. It left Touka speechless.
“I swear, they’re always so hasty.”
“That’s just how much they believe in you. You’re their hope—the hero

of Wakaba House, Raikiri.”
Utakata opened the box of vegetables the house had sent and handed a
photograph over to Touka. The children in the photo were smiling, mud
covering their faces as they harvested vegetables. On the back of the image,
they had done their best to write words of encouragement using letters they
had just learned.
To the children of Wakaba House, Touka was most certainly a hero.
Parentless like them, a child of the House like them, she was fighting—and
winning—with dignity in front of the entire world.
She was admired by all the orphans. They wanted to be shining beacons
of hope, just like her. She continued inspiring them to dream, and to keep
chasing their dreams.
Touka was well-aware of the effect she had on them, of course, so she
refused to lose. She couldn’t bear to. Their hopes weren’t a source of pressure
for her; rather, they gave her greater strength. That was the strongest part of
Touka Toudou, the great Raikiri.
I’ll read this later.
Touka held the letter lovingly against her heart before putting it into her
bag. Then, she directed her attention to the cardboard box full of vegetables.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants—it was full of summer vegetables
harvested by the orphans. Much of the harvest was scraggly and misshapen,
but it filled her with an indescribable warmth.
“Wow! Look, Uta! This eggplant is so big and juicy! I bet it’d go great in
eggplant curry.”
“Yeah. It’s so dark, thick, and juicy, right? Heheh.”
“C-Come on! Quit that creepy old man shtick!”
“Hahaha! There’s so much here that it’ll rot before we get through it all,
though. We should take some to the cafeteria tomorrow.”
Utakata’s innocent words caused Touka’s face to quickly cloud over. She
had remembered something unpleasant.
“…Tomorrow, huh?”
Earlier, Touka had been contacted by Director Kurono Shinguuji with an
update regarding her opponent for the next day. Specifically, that her new
opponent would be the man entangled in worldwide controversy: the Worst
One. Touka couldn’t help but feel that there was something foul afoot.
When pressed about it, Kurono was open with the truth. The sheer

adversity that Ikki was being forced to confront was beyond description. The
malice enveloping him had put him into the worst condition possible, and
they intended to pit him against a fighter like Touka while in such a
condition.
Needless to say, Touka was reluctant at best.
“Are you gonna accept the duel, Touka?”
Utakata knew how she felt. He asked his question in an apprehensive
manner, as her face still clouded over with distaste, to which she looked
down.
“I don’t have any say in the matter. Like the director said, this is nothing
more than my final selection battle.”
Though Ikki was going into their duel with everything on the line, it was
just another selection battle to Touka; a mere change in opponent wouldn’t
force her to risk anything else on this battle. In addition, extenuating
circumstances had forced the school to change selection battle opponents
many times, so Touka didn’t have much room to protest.
“But you hate that you have to do it, right?”
“Yeah…”
A girl as kind-hearted as her couldn’t so easily ignore the lump in her
throat, regardless of whether she had been given a choice. That was why she
took one single measure.
Knock, knock.
Right on schedule, a visitor knocked on the door of the student council
room.
“Who’s here at this time of night?”
“I asked her to come. Come on in!”
“Thank you.”
The girl who opened the door was reminiscent of a porcelain doll.
Shizuku Kurogane, the one known as Lorelei, who had fought so desperately
against Touka once before.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Talk about an unexpected visitor,” Utakata said.

“‘Unexpected’ is what I should be saying. Imagine my surprise when the
person who ruined my selection battle record called me here this late at

night.”
“Haha, true, true. Hey, want a tomato? They’re really sweet.”
“I already brushed my teeth, so no, thank you. I assume you didn’t have
me come over here just to offer me tomatoes, so what do you want from me,
President?”
Shizuku hurried the subject along. She knew she was being childish, but
she couldn’t quell her discomfort when faced with the person who had
crushed her dream of going up onto the international stage with her brother.
Touka could more or less grasp how she felt, so she got straight to the point
of why she called Shizuku.
“Well, the director just spoke with me, and… I decided I should tell you
about it, since it affects you as well.”
She told Shizuku about the sudden change in her matchup, and how Ikki
was being forced to bet his own future on their battle. With every awful truth
that was revealed to her, Shizuku’s expression grew more and more furious.
“Rgh! Damn lowlifes!” Shizuku’s jade eyes shone with rage as she swore
at the people responsible. “So, are you going to fight my battered and beaten
brother?”
“Even if I’m the student council president, I’m still just a student. I
objected as best I could, but I don’t have the power to change my matchup.”
Touka was reluctant to fight Ikki, but it wasn’t her decision to make. That
was why she had summoned Shizuku—“I had no choice” wouldn’t solve the
problem. “That’s why I have a request for you, a member of his family.”
“Do you, now?”
“Yes. Shizuku, could you please ask your brother to withdraw from the
battle?”
“…What?”
“I’m told that he’s doing really badly; pneumonia at best, and possibly
much worse. To put it bluntly, he’s absolutely not in any condition to fight. In
the few days that we’ve known each other, I’ve seen what kind of knight Ikki
Kurogane is, and I can tell that he’ll drag his battered body to the arena if he
has to. He’s seriously going to try to win against me, because he’s certain that
he can win and determined to do it.
“I’m not the type to pull any punches against a foe, either. The moment
he enters the arena, I plan to fight him with my entire heart and soul. If some
unfortunate accident happened as a result…”

She’s actually serious.
A shudder ran through Shizuku’s whole body. Behind those glasses, the
light shining in Touka’s eyes made it all too clear that she hadn’t exaggerated
at any point; it wasn’t out of the question that she would accidentally kill
Ikki. Touka had summoned Shizuku because she knew that very event could
come to pass.
“Please, I need you to stop him. I believe you’re the only one who can do
it, because you’re his only family.”
Shizuku didn’t respond immediately. She considered what she was meant
to do, and what would be most right for her to do.
“Let me sleep on it.”
Still unsure, it took all her strength to squeeze out those few words.
◆◇◆◇◆
When Shizuku left the room, Touka sighed, exhaling all the unease
within her.
“Whether I win tomorrow, or Kurogane withdraws from the battle… Will
I be able to go to the Seven Stars with pride in my heart?”
She remembered the picture of the orphans’ smiles, along with the
attached message. Could she fight a battle that would live up to their honest
expectations of her? She couldn’t shake the anxiety the question created.
“Touka.” While she worried, her hand was enveloped in a small warmth.
Utakata had grasped her hand with his and was looking up at her from his
much shorter height. “I know it feels like everything’s gotten ridiculous
because of some selfish adults’ circumstances, but you have to focus on
yourself. Fight a fight that you can be proud of, because that’s what we all
love about you. I’m sure that’s what Ikki wants too.”
Utakata was confident in that belief. No matter what anyone else thought,
it didn’t matter; Touka just had to do what was right for her.
After Utakata spoke, Touka’s lips finally curled into a smile. Her duty
was to put her all into what she could do.
That’s all I can do, after all.
“You’re right. Thanks, Uta. Okay!” she cried, slapping her own cheeks.
Pain shot through her, pushing out all of her worry and distress. It wasn’t
time for her to be worried.

If he’ll crawl his way up to fight me, then I’ll offer no mercy. Touka
would fight Ikki mercilessly, with every ounce of might and honor within her
as a knight. And she would win. She was sure to. I’ll win and move on to the
Seven Stars with pride in my heart!
When the long night was over, Hagun Academy greeted the final day of
its fateful Seven Stars Battle Festival selection battles.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Whew. Summer’s only just started and it’s already this hot. This one’s
gonna be a scorcher.”
The morning of the final selection battle, the stationmaster of a train
station near Hagun Academy wiped the sweat from his brow as he swept. The
sky was clear and blue, pouring the sun’s inescapable, oppressive heat all
over the land. It was just the type of weather that made his tight, dark-blue
uniform difficult to put up with.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of an approaching train, so he looked up to
see a local train arriving at the platform. It slowly approached, and once it
stopped, the doors opened. The stationmaster took three steps back, getting
out of the way of the alighting customers.
Not that anyone would be getting off here at this time of day.
The only place accessible from the station was Hagun itself. Students
might venture elsewhere on weekends, but there was no reason for the
students of Hagun, a school with a mandatory dorm policy, to be at the
station on a weekday morning.
Hm? A single man, bent over limply emerged sluggishly from the open
door. An old man? Rare for someone to be here on a weekday.
Who was that man? The stationmaster directed his gaze at the old man
with vague interest. He was at a loss for words; it was actually a young man
—maybe even just a boy—who’d alighted. The boy should have been at an
age where his energy was at its peak, but instead, he slowly crept out of the
train, hunched over.
The stationmaster wasn’t shocked merely because it was a boy, though;
he was astonished by the awful state the boy, Ikki Kurogane, was in.
“Haah… Haah…!”
His frantic gasps were hoarse, and words couldn’t describe how pale his

face was. Behind his disheveled bangs, his murky eyes showed no signs of
life. Worst of all, the amount of sweat that coated his forehead and dripped
from his jaw was immense. Even with the intense heat, train cars were
cooled; a healthy person wouldn’t sweat inside one.
“H-Hey, are you okay?!”
“Yeah… Y-Yes, sir, I’m… fine.”
“You don’t look fine! I’ll call an ambulance. Oh, hey! You’re that guy!”
The stationmaster was startled when he saw Ikki’s face. The boy standing
before him was, according to the papers, the one who had seduced and toyed
with Princess Vermillion. Clear disgust showed on the stationmaster’s face
for a moment—disgust that Ikki didn’t fail to notice.
“Thanks for your… concern, but… Sorry, I’m in a hurry, so…”
He bowed slightly to the stationmaster before walking past him, exiting
the station.
“Ah…”
Ikki slowly disappeared into the distance, his steps shaky. Watching him,
the stationmaster was bewildered.
He seemed like a really polite kid.
The media had painted him as a boy whose own family had admitted was
a notoriously problematic child, but after seeing him in person, the
stationmaster was unsure that he was even the same person.
◆◇◆◇◆
Leaving the station, Ikki continued onto the road leading to Hagun. It
was sloped gently, and the distance was just over half a mile. It was the same
road Ikki jogged with Stella every morning.
Normally, the hills would be no issue for him, but given his condition, it
was a Herculean feat just to trudge through them. His lungs felt as if they
would burst from even the smallest breath. They refused nearly all of the
oxygen offered to them.
It hurts so much…
He at least wanted to breathe, so he opened his mouth and gasped for air,
but a sharp pain in his inflamed lungs forced him to expel all the air he’d just
inhaled.
“Ack! Gah! Hagh!”

His lips were dyed a bluish purple due to the extreme lack of oxygen in
his blood. The world was so indistinct as a result of the fever and suffocation
that Ikki might as well have been unconscious. In place of his weakened ego,
the drug’s hallucinogenic properties had given him cowardice.
I’m supposed to fight Raikiri like this? I’ll never beat her. It was
impossible. Tantamount to suicide, even. That much had become all but
clear; a hollow man with a hollow sword couldn’t bring down someone like
her. I just wanna go to bed…
Complaints floated through Ikki’s mind as he slowly climbed the hill, all
alone except for the absurd heat and the cicadas’ chirps. Surrendering himself
to oblivion seemed an alluring prospect.
“Ah…”
He tripped on a tiny pebble, falling down into the asphalt without even
attempting to catch himself.
No… He had to get up. If he didn’t get up, he wouldn’t make it to the
battle in time. If he didn’t make it in time, he would lose. If he lost… I
wonder what would happen next.
He could feel his mind dissolving into goop. The confusion from the drug
and the haze from the high fever made Ikki unable to pinpoint what he was
doing or where he was going.
Somewhere in the pool that once was his brain, Ikki noticed something
impossible in the periphery of his vision: snow. At some point, the sky had
darkened, ushering in a flurry of large snowflakes. That was impossible,
though; it couldn’t have been snowing in the middle of summer. He couldn’t
believe it.
So cold… Ikki was chilled to the bone. Come to think of it, didn’t it snow
back then, too?
The cold made him remember the day that his family had gathered to
celebrate the new year. The day he had run away from home, unable to stand
the pain anymore. Nobody had gone out to find him. Nobody had worried
about him. He had just laid there, curled up in the snow, alone.
I’m still… the same as I was that day.
What was he doing? Unwanted, unsuccessful, unable to change anything.
Ikki had remained curled up in that snowstorm for all that time.
What was it he was trying to do, battered as he was? He didn’t know. He
couldn’t remember anything. All he could feel was the helpless sluggishness

of his body and the weight of his eyelids, until his consciousness disappeared
into the cold depths.
◆◇◆◇◆
The final day of selection battles saw much fewer battles than usual; the
only people fighting were the twelve remaining undefeated students. As a
result, there were more spectators than ever, especially in the first training
field, where the duel between Raikiri and the Worst One would be fought.
Students all throughout the stands raised their voices in surprise.
“Wow, so many people!”
“Well, duh. Everyone’s been clamoring to see the Raikiri and Worst One
matchup.”
“Huh? Are those cameras down there?”
“Probably the news. You know what’s been going on.”
“Yeah, the scandal with the Worst One and the Crimson Princess. But I
thought the media wasn’t allowed inside the school.”
“The Federation has a major part in this, so maybe they made an
exception?”
“Maybe. Hey, do you guys believe those articles?”
“They’re definitely dating. Neither of them has denied it, and even if they
had, they were suspiciously close.”
“Come to think of it, didn’t she confess to him during his fight with The
Hunter?”
“Not that article! I’m talking about the one where Worst One’s family
testified. They said he’s been a piece of crap since he was a kid and that now
he’s some playboy or something.”
“Oh, that one.”
“I don’t think I believe it.”
“Me neither, actually. My Device is a katana, just like his, so I go to his
sessions during lunch and learn swings and maneuvers from him all the time.
He always seemed so nice”
“I go to those too! In the courtyard, right? He started giving those lessons
because his classmates kept bugging him.”
“Yeah, that’s it. I’ve met him in person, so I don’t believe a word of what
those papers say. After all, even though it doesn’t help him at all during

selection battles, he keeps patiently teaching us. I definitely can’t imagine
him trying to trick the Crimson Princess.”
“But the testimony came from his family, y’know? Shouldn’t that mean
it’s true? It’s not like they have any reason to lie about one of their own.
Like, I’m sure they’d lie to cover for him, but definitely not to make him look
bad.”
“Hm, I dunno.”
Looking down on the general bustle of the crowd—and the questions and
doubts relating to Ikki mixed in—from the very top of the bowl-shaped arena,
an amazed Nene Saikyou spoke to Kurono Shinguuji, who stood next to her.
“Huh, I guess not all the kids blindly believe the news like sheep.”
“Yep. Those who know Kurogane especially lean away from the official
story.”
“You can tell at a glance that he’s harmless.”
“But the truth doesn’t matter anymore.” Kurono had a sour look on her
face. What was right or wrong, truth or lies, fact or fiction regarding the Ikki
controversy was riding on this battle. No matter how right Ikki was, and no
matter how wrong Akaza was, the only way for Ikki to prove himself was
through his sword. “I can’t believe they seriously did it. Bunch of bastards.”
Even Kurono hadn’t imagined they would pull such a stunt. She groaned
at her naïveté for thinking that they just had to hold out until Stella’s father
arrived.
“Mhmhm. I’ll take that as a compliment.” The two of them heard a
peculiarly delighted voice nearby. They both looked in the direction of the
voice to find a keg-shaped man wiping sweat from his forehead. “Hello,
ladies. Hot out here today, isn’t it?”
“Chairman Akaza.”
When Akaza appeared, their well-shaped faces both twisted into scowls.
He certainly wasn’t someone they would welcome with open arms.
“What do you want from us, you red fox?” Saikyou asked with a prickly
voice.
“Now, now, no need to bare your fangs,” Akaza replied with a smile. “I
want nothing; I just happened to meet a man who wanted me to find you two.
Here you are, sir.”
He had brought a small, old man in a kimono and hakama pants to see
them.

“Oh, there you are! With a campus this big, it’s just impossible to find
anything.”
“Ugh, it’s this old shit!”
The first to react was Saikyou. That was, of course, because the man
before them was the God of War, Torajirou Nangou. At ninety-two years old,
he was one of the greatest Mage-Knights in Japan. He was also Saikyou’s
teacher.
“Ohoho. My lovable apprentice, I see you’re as foul-mouthed as ever. I
find that pretty cute, truth be told.”
“‘C-Cute’? D-Don’t be such a creep!”
“You’re blushing, Nene. Seems like someone’s secretly happy.”
“Wh-Why would I be happy about being creeped on by a dried-up old
shit like you?!”
She’s so dishonest.
No matter how hard she tried, Saikyou’s words alone wouldn’t lessen the
redness in her face. She had a long history with the man, and held him in
greater esteem than she did anyone else in the world.
“Good to see you again as well, Kurono. Last time I saw you, your belly
was bulging quite a bit. I assume the delivery went well?”
“Yes, fortunately.”
“Good, good. But, heh, now that you’ve given birth, you’ve gotten a fair
bit sexier. Especially around your hips here—”
“You old shit! Who do you think you are, coming here and leering at my
friend?! I’ll kill you!”
“Ohoho. Nene, you’re not getting any younger. Maybe instead of
screeching at me, you should learn from Kurono how to have sex appeal. It’ll
be too late before long.”
“Oh, trust me, Master Nangou. It’s already far too late for her.”
“I-I-It is not! I’m just trying to have fun! It’s stupid to tie yourself down
to just one man! Why are you on his side, anyway, Kuu?!”
Because you’re always cuter when he’s around.
Kurono felt the urge to tease her even more, to make up for all the times
she was decidedly uncute. Not that she would tell Saikyou that, though.
“So, Master Nangou, why are you here today?”
Saikyou yelled at them in indignation for ignoring her, but that made
Kurono ignore her even more as she spoke to Nangou. Her question was

essentially just lip service, as Kurono could more-or-less grasp why he had
come.
“I’m here to watch Touka’s crowning moment, of course. Yes, I could’ve
waited until the Festival, but how could I not drag myself here when her
opponent is a Kurogane?”
Thought so.
Nangou wasn’t just Saikyou’s master; he was Touka’s as well. He had
noticed how resourceful she was not long prior and had been teaching her
swordplay ever since. Raikiri, Touka’s signature move that had become her
nickname, was his own Otogiri optimized to fit her.
Beyond that, however, there was an even more important reason for his
visit.
“Mhmhm. Master Nangou, you were a contemporary of the great hero
Ryouma Kurogane. Some even call you lifelong rivals. I’m not surprised
you’re interested.”
Nangou was ninety-two years old. He and Samurai Ryouma had been
comrades in World War II, but they were rivals nonetheless.
Selection battle matchups weren’t normally circulated outside the school,
but due to the mass media’s influence, the matchup between Raikiri and the
Worst One had been leaked to the public. Once he knew that his beloved
disciple and his old rival’s descendant would be competing against each
other, there was no way Nangou would miss the opportunity to witness their
battle.
“Oh, but Master Nangou,” Akaza began with a mischievous smile
plastered on his face, “I believe this battle may just be interrupted.”
“What?!”
Kurono’s eyebrows tensed up at the indescribable malice that lay in his
voice. Almost simultaneously, an announcement echoed through the venue.
“May I have everyone’s attention. The time has come for the battle
between Touka Toudou and Ikki Kurogane to start, but Ikki Kurogane has not
yet arrived at his waiting room. According to the selection battle rules, if he
does not arrive within the next ten minutes, it will result in a loss by default.”
“As I recall, Chairman Akaza, you were supposed to bring Kurogane
here by car. You told me I didn’t need to come and meet him.”
“Mhmhm, well, I am sorry. I juuust happened to forget, see. Deepest
apologies. But the Federation branch office isn’t very far from here; I’m sure

he could make it by himself if he took the train. Well, he didn’t seem to be in
peak condition, so who knows? Maybe he dropped dead along the way?
Mhmhm!”
Jackass.
The discomfort welling up within Kurono caused her to clench her fist
hard enough to stop the blood from flowing through it. She felt a smaller
hand touch hers as it trembled. Saikyou looked up at her frowning friend and
held a fan over her own mouth, whispering so that only Kurono could hear.
“Don’t lose your cool, Kuu. No matter what the details are, Kurogane
accepted this duel. Now’s not the time for us to butt in; we’ll act once it’s all
over.”
“Yeah. You’re right,” Kurono said, unraveling her fist with the
knowledge that Saikyou was just as angry as she was. The two women were
determined that, regardless of Ikki’s victory or defeat, the red fox would not
leave in one piece.
Meanwhile, the red fox in question watched the arena with glee as the
timer ticked down, unaware of their desire to end him. Everything was going
according to his plan—Ikki would be banned from the Federation, and if
everything was brought to a close in a way that pleased Itsuki, he would be
promoted from Chairman of the Ethics Committee to Head of Public
Relations. To a brighter, more open world, unlike the underground part of the
Federation building.
Then I can finally be free from the role of the bad guy. The Ethics
Committee, often criticized for being akin to secret police, had been a
position of glory back in the military police era. Since then, however, it had
gained a much darker connotation. An upright man would never choose to
live in obscurity the way they did, and Akaza was no different. Apologies to
you, Ikki, but I’ll have to crush you beneath my feet.
He didn’t care what happened; even if Ikki were killed, it meant nothing.
It wasn’t his problem.
◆◇◆◇◆
Ikki’s mind remained in that snowstorm. While he lay huddled amidst the
falling snow, he remembered how it all began. It was a day much like the
current one—one that chilled him to the bone.

That was the day Ikki Kurogane was truly born. He had met Ryouma
Kurogane, and for the first time in his life, he had been told to believe in
himself. It had made him so happy.
Several months after, Ryouma had died of old age, but his words had
lived on in Ikki’s heart. He had hoped to one day, when someone else had hit
the wall known as talent and had given up, unable to progress, be the kind of
person who could have offered words of encouragement to them. Ever since
that day, he had continued to fight his hardest.
If not for that encounter, Ikki wouldn’t have existed as the man he was.
His meeting with Ryouma was his pride. However, a voice just like his own
whispered into his ears.
“Was that meeting really for the best? Didn’t it just wreak more havoc
on your life, causing you endless pain and solitude?”
Ikki’s muddied mind forced images of the past up to the surface. Back in
elementary school, despite the blood that had covered his skinned-raw hands,
Ikki had kept swinging Intetsu. At the time, he’d had no idea if what he was
doing was right or if he could truly become stronger. He’d known so little at
that point that he’d used manga as serious reference material.
No matter how many dead ends he’d reached, nobody would teach him,
so Ikki had instead hid in the brush and watched the branch family kids train,
then imitating them.
He remembered just how lonely it had been. Ikki had constantly been
reminded that he would never experience the kindness and stern discipline
the Kurogane family’s hired instructors would offer the other kids.
The next thought that floated to the surface was a certain dojo. Having
graduated to middle school, Ikki had visited dojos to hone his martial arts
skills. He and one such dojo had arranged a one-on-one match, but as soon as
the gong signaled the start of the battle, all of the other disciples had jumped
on him from behind and pinned him down.
“When I’m through with you, you’ll never be foolish enough to storm a
dojo ever again,” his opponent, the master of the dojo, had said, taking Ikki
by the hand.
He then forcefully snapped Ikki’s pinky finger, with every other one of
his fingers having suffered the same fate. Nobody at the dojo had made so
much as an attempt to save him; they had all laughed raucously, as if they
had been having a wonderful time breaking all of the little boy’s fingers. The

pain and terror from that near-lynching were still branded into Ikki’s mind.
One last memory came to his mind—one from merely a year earlier.
“C’mon, now. If you don’t fight back, you’ll never prove your strength! I,
The Hunter, have named you my opponent, so fight me, dammit!”
Kirihara had been filling Ikki with holes like he was swiss cheese, while
the teachers had just glared at him.
“Sorry, Kurogane. I can’t really be your friend anymore.”
Following that, a friend had abandoned him.
“Here you are now, groveling yet again,” the Ikki-like voice whispered.
“This is all thanks to Ryouma Kurogane’s irresponsible encouragement. If
you had just toed the line like your father told you to, none of this would have
happened. You wouldn’t have had to drag your dying body to a battle that
only spells death.
“Living beyond your means will only lead to unhappiness. People have a
set domain based on the resources available to them. Anyone who chooses to
push their way out will only be met with pain and solitude.
“So, have you had enough yet? Have you realized how pointless it is?
Then just relax. Live your life unbound by the foolish words of a dead man.
Sleep here, and soon, it will all be over. You will never made to suffer by the
hand of Ryouma Kurogane’s words again. Now…”
Rest. All he had to do was rest. Continuing the way he was would only
lead to more pain. If he just went to sleep, all would be well. He could relax.
Ikki knew that. He knew that, and yet…
“AaaAAHHHHHHH!”
His festering throat unleashed a cracking roar as he lifted his weak body
from the asphalt. Through the snowstorm, he moved step by step, climbing
the hill anew.
“Stop this,” the voice called to him. “Why do you insist on hurting
yourself?”
Ikki himself didn’t even know the answer to that question. His mind and
memories, lost somewhere in the murk, were failing to even conjure up
thought. Only one thing was visible at the very edge of his consciousness: a
red flame.
No, it was red hair that, like a flame, gently wavered and scattered sparks
as it went. Whose hair was it? Who was behind those flames?
In his condition, Ikki couldn’t even remember that much. However, there

was an incredible, unbearable stirring in his heart when that image arose.
Though he knew not who it was, just the fluttering off that hair lit a fire in his
frozen heart and spurred his exhausted body to act.
“Just rest. There’s no way you can beat Raikiri, and nobody expects you
to be able to. When you arrive, what will you do? What can you do the way
you are?”
Ikki didn’t know. In fact, he wasn’t even sure of where he was going or
what he was doing, but trusting in the warmth in his heart, Ikki finally
remembered something.
Oh, right… I made a promise.
“…to…gether. …knight…hood.”
He remembered not exactly what it was, but it was a promise he held
dear, made with a person he held dear.
That wasn’t all, either. He also heard voices. They were
incomprehensible, but the commotion made up of many familiar voices
spurred him forward.
So I have to go…
That was Ikki’s answer. The voice that had once tried to beguile Ikki
with comforting words sighed, thoroughly annoyed.
“Really? You’re going to keep hurting yourself?” Its pitch-black face
warped into a distorted grin. “Well, it’s pointless.”
Ah…
Just as he arrived at Hagun Academy’s front gate, Ikki’s knees buckled
and he fell once again. No matter how strong his drive, his body couldn’t
keep up. He couldn’t move forward. He couldn’t even stand. The man known
as Ikki Kurogane had reached his absolute limit.
“It’s over for you.”
He fell inanimately, like a marionette with its strings cut, and fell to the
ground, unable to rise again.
Or so he thought. but as he fell, a warm, gentle force caught him. The
force then spoke, stifling some sort of emotion.
“Welcome back, Big Brother.”
That voice, as pretty and clear as a bell’s chime, pulled the name of one
person from the pile that was Ikki’s memories. It brought back the name and
the memories of Ikki’s beloved little sister.
“Shizuku…”

◆◇◆◇◆
After saving Ikki from his fall, Shizuku hoarsely explained everything to
him.
“After what Touka said to me last night, I couldn’t stop worrying.”
Should she have stopped him? Honestly, Shizuku wanted to stop her poor
brother. He’d had enough. He’d tried and tried, more than he’d needed to.
Shizuku didn’t want Ikki to hurt any more than he already did. She didn’t
want him to suffer.
“Give up on knighthood and go back home.”
Home may have been a cage for Ikki, but at least Shizuku would be with
him; she wouldn’t let him be alone anymore. She could love him as a mother,
a sister, a friend, a partner, and more. She could give him anything he
wanted, so she wanted nothing more than to let him rest.
“But when I was thinking about it, I realized I just couldn’t bring myself
to stop you. When you’re here at school, you smile. You look so happy.”
Back home, that was unthinkable. Though Ikki would occasionally smile for
Shizuku, he had never truly smiled for himself. He had finally gained a smile
for himself; how could Shizuku take that away from him? “So I made a little
bet. If you came here of your own volition, I would take you to your duel and
shout my support for you at the top of my lungs.”
Along with Shizuku’s voice, there was a clamor of other voices.
“There you are, man! You can win this!”
“The battle hasn’t started yet! Hurry!”
“You’re not far from the arena, Kurogane! You can do it!”
“Ikki! Fiiight!”
“One final push! Show us your grit!”
Those voices belonged to people Shizuku had run to and gathered for the
sake of reaching her brother. Friends, classmates, his students, past opponents
—so many people were waiting for him at the front gate.
Ikki stared at the gaggle, dumbfounded, as Shizuku continued.
“Big Brother, I won’t ask what they told you or how they cornered you,
because I can imagine it well enough on my own. But please, never forget
that you’re not alone. You were at first, perhaps for far too long. Now,
however, all these people are here to support you. Stella and Alice couldn’t

come because of their own battles, but they’re praying for your victory. The
Worst One is our hero. So…
“I want you to fight. Fight, and win!”
◆◇◆◇◆
Shizuku’s cries of support definitely reached Ikki’s consciousness despite

it being lost in the snowstorm. He took another look through his misty vision.
“I want you to fight. Fight, and win!”
His silver-haired sister was there.
“The next edition of the Bulletin needs you on the cover! Don’t lose
now!”
A cute girl with glasses was there too.
“Kurogane, this is the moment of truth!”
A tall girl, one of his students, was there.
“I believe in you. As your teacher, I know you’re not the kind of boy to
lose like this.”
“Yeah, Pres is strong, but you beat me. Show her what you’ve got!”
“Yep! Where there’s a will, there’s a way!”
“Ikki! We know you can win!”
His other swordplay students, upperclassmen who always supported him,
classmates, the teacher who had gotten him into the academy, past rivals he’d
fought with the Seven Stars on the line—all of them were calling Ikki’s
name. The sight of it birthed conviction in his heart.
Yeah. I finally get it.
Ikki finally knew what drove him forward after his body had reached its
limit. It was their voices, and the emotions behind them. Those who loved
him, those who admired him, and even those whose dreams had been crushed
by him. Everyone present had entrusted their feelings to Ikki in some way.
Thus, they called out to him. Their voices and feelings pushed him forward.
When Utakata had told him, “The two of you simply carry different
weights”, Ikki had thought he was carrying nothing. But that was wrong. Ikki
had surpassed his own limit and realized the weight he carried; the weight of
the dreams entrusted to him by others.
I guess I became that kind of person at some point.
Ikki felt a fire growing within himself when that conviction arose. The

warmth of it spread through him via the movement of his blood, returning his
strength. His collapsed pile of thoughts and memories returned to form, and
the haze in his mind cleared.
It was time for him to fight. How could he just give up when so many
people were entrusting their feelings to him? And most of all, though she was
absent, he still had his promise with Stella, the girl with that hair of flame.
“So let’s go, together, to the peak of knighthood.”
He could clearly recall their vow. If he was going to make it happen, he
couldn’t lose to Raikiri.
“Thank you. Shizuku, Kusakabe, Ayatsuji, Tomaru, Saijou, Ms. Oreki,
and everyone.”
Before he realized it, the snowstorm was gone. Ikki thanked them and
left Shizuku behind, moving under his own power again. He stood tall as he
advanced toward the duel, with the strength he gained from his friends. Fear
no longer had any place in his heart.
“There’s no way you can beat Raikiri, and nobody expects you to be able
to.”
Those words were spoken by the weakling inside Ikki. Finally, he had a
clear rebuttal: I can beat her. He and his opponent were equal knights,
bearing equal weight.
If he was honest, she was a very powerful opponent; maybe too powerful
for him in his current state. The more he thought about it, the more
disadvantages he saw weighing him down.
Even so, he would do everything he could. It was his duty to do so, for
the sake of everyone who gave him the strength to keep on going.
“Then off I—”
Suddenly, a voice echoed high into the summer sky.
“Ikkiii!”
An incredibly powerful, beautiful voice, lovelier than any melody.
◆◇◆◇◆
“Stella…!”
“Thank God! You really… made it…”
The fiery-haired girl who yelled and dashed over to Ikki began to pant
heavily, murmuring something. Shizuku, behind Ikki, gasped in shock at her

sudden appearance.
“H-Hey, Stella?! Weren’t you supposed to be in a battle?!”
Indeed, that was the source of her surprise. Stella was a candidate for the
Seven Stars Battle Festival, as she had maintained an unblemished win streak
throughout her selection battles. Like Alice, who was also absent, she should
have been in the middle of her battle. Why was she at the front gate?
Stella didn’t answer the question with words, instead using her actions.
She presented an object with such excitement that she might as well have
thrown it into Ikki’s face.
“Ikki, I kept our promise. I’m a Seven Stars rep now!”

The item she held was a medal that proved she had been selected by
Hagun Academy to be a representative at the Seven Stars. Stella had already
completed her final battle by defeating another undefeated student in record
time, a mere three seconds. She had done that just to be there for Ikki during
his final battle.
She had wondered what she should do—what she could do—to help Ikki
in his solitary war. The answer she had come up with was to keep her end of
their promise and to come find him. It was a surefire way to give him
courage.
“So go out there and win, Ikki! Then we’ll go, together, to the peak of
knighthood!”
Ikki felt tears welling up in his eyes. He really did have an amazing
girlfriend. It wasn’t just that she had come so far to support his exhausted
self. In that moment, Stella had given him so much courage, so much
strength.
Her love is the best thing I could have ever hoped for.
Ikki had to keep being worthy of her love; a proud man who was just as
strong as she was.
His weak-spirited thought of “I’ll do what I can” was shattered by the
sound of her voice. Ikki had to leave his friends with better parting words.
“Off I go” wasn’t good enough, so instead, he declared:
“I’m off to win!”
◆◇◆◇◆
“Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Thanks for calling.” Utakata thanked the
caller and pulled his student handbook away from his ear. He then sat down
in a chair in the waiting room before telling Touka, whose eyes were closed
while she focused herself, “Renren called. Ikki’s here.”
“Mm,” Touka replied shortly, groaning.
Her bangs hung over her face, hiding her expression. Utakata couldn’t
begin to understand what was going on in her heart.
Ikki had arrived. Faced with a truth that she had initially wanted to avoid,
Touka—
“…Heheh.”
Utakata felt his body hair stand on end as Touka’s lips warped with

delight. Lightning crackled in the air around her as a result of her
exhilaration, causing Utakata to swallow speechlessly.
That really flipped her switch.
The last time he had seen Touka like that was when she’d fought
Moroboshi at the Festival the year before. It was out of sheer kindness that
had Touka worried about Ikki’s health and wished he would surrender, but in
their world—a world of fighting—kindness alone wouldn’t bring anyone to
the top four in the nation. The ferocity and brutality necessary to submerge
one’s foe in a pool of their own blood ruled the other side of Touka’s
personality.
At least she doesn’t show this side too often.
Ikki had forced Touka to get serious. The sheer nobility of the boy
known as Ikki Kurogane had made her accept him as a powerful foe. She
wouldn’t hold back in the slightest; she was going to give the half-dead
Worst One all she had. He didn’t have even a fraction of a chance at victory.
“Touka Toudou, your battle is about to begin. Please make your way to
the arena.”
“All right. Here I go, Uta.”
She slowly stood from her chair and disappeared through the door to the
red gate. Utakata watched as she left, her form overflowing with vitality. He
couldn’t help but pity the dying boy who had to face her.
I’m sorry for what’s about to happen to you, Worst One. Consider this
matchup just bad luck.
◆◇◆◇◆
“All right, everyone. We apologize for the long wait, but now, it’s time to
begin the final selection battle for the Seven Stars Battle Festival! From the
red gate, Raikiri appears!
Nineteen wins, zero defeats. She’s the student council president and it
shows—her overwhelming strength has helped her come out of every battle
unscathed! Despite Hagun’s overall poor performance as of late, her
continuous victories have shone the light of courage on all of us! Hagun
Academy’s pride and joy, our radiant number-one star! Walking the path of
glory, this star is off to battle to secure her final victory and her place at the
Seven Stars! It’s the third-year student Touka Toudou, everybody! With

everyone’s anticipation at her back, she has taken the stage!”
Touka showed herself in the arena. She stood with her back straight,
watching the blue gate with dignity.
“What amazing concentration.” Stella, watching from afar, could feel just
how energetic she was. “Even at this distance, my skin is tingling!”
Shizuku, however, having experienced Raikiri’s power firsthand, felt
differently. The moment Touka appeared in the arena, she felt fear run
through her; the terror was so great that she wanted to look away.
But she did not. Instead, she held her trembling shoulders and continued
looking down at the arena, suppressing the urge to flee.
“Shizuku, are you okay?”
“I’m not, honestly. But my brother is doing his absolute best, so I can’t
leave him now. I’ll watch this battle until it’s over, no matter how it ends.”
“And from the blue gate, we have another undefeated nineteen-streaker—
although the road he took to get here was entirely different from Raikiri’s!
Never given the time of day, never accepted by anyone, a lone wolf left for
dead in the abyss. But he’s clawed his way back up! The Crimson Princess,
The Hunter, and even Runner’s High! He mowed down Hagun’s most
famous knights like nobody’s business! There’s not a single person in this
school who doesn’t know his name! Hagun’s favorite Rank F: first-year Ikki
Kurogane, the Worst One! This wolf bares his fangs toward the sky, ready to
sink his teeth into a star!”
Following Touka’s entrance, Ikki appeared from the blue gate. He
entered the arena with sure steps and a stalwart stature that betrayed the fact
that he was half-dead.
“D-Doesn’t he seem a little different?”
“Yeah. His expression isn’t any different, though, is it?”
“He’s scary to look at…”
The audience stirred. They felt something in the way he stood, even if
they couldn’t put it into words—though some members of the crowd had an
idea of what it was.
“Oho, so that’s Touka’s opponent? He’s strong, that’s for sure.”
“You can tell, Master Nangou?”
“Of course I can, just look at how tense he is. This little man is ready to
die here, if necessary. He’s walking into battle with that much determination;
even the audience is taken aback by his resolve. I didn’t know Kurogane was

that sort of man, but I have a feeling this battle will be a treat to watch.”
“For real. Then again, while he’s not showing it on his face, the fatigue is
definitely wearing on him. You think he has any chance of beating Touka
like that, Kuu?”
“Mhmhm. Whether he can or not, he has to face her. This is his duel,
after all.”
Ignoring Akaza’s interruption, Kurono looked down as she answered.
“Well, the outlook is bleak. I doubt he’ll be able to fully swing his sword
more than once or twice. Kurogane has to be careful here; he ought to know
Raikiri’s killing tactic well by now.”
“Hm? Does she have one?”
Kurono thought of ignoring his question as well, but decided she was
tired of listening to such a greasy fatass speak. Thus, she turned to Akaza and
explained.
“Basically, Raikiri is a quickdraw attack. If her sword isn’t sheathed, she
can’t use it. Through repeated, careful in-and-out attacks, he can apply
pressure that will neutralize Toudou’s Raikiri and other Noble Arts. The
moment she unsheathes that sword, she’ll become unable to use Raikiri. If
Kurogane has a chance, that’s where it lies. But, to make that chance a
reality, he’ll have to fight a patient, drawn-out battle despite his pain.”
It was a disadvantageous battle, but rushing to end it would hurt his
chances even further. He was up against the close-range queen, Raikiri, after
all. If he charged right in, he would eat her all-powerful trump card. Ittou
Shura, which multiplied his strength by dozens of times, still wasn’t enough
to break through Raikiri, so a drawn-out battle would be his best bet.
Saikyou was of the same mind, but a single knight there had a different
opinion.
“Oho, I see. You suggest a drawn-out battle, then, Kurono?” It was
Nangou. Behind his wrinkled eyelids, his eyes shone with the shrewdness of
a hawk’s. “I bet this battle will be settled in a single slash.”
Meanwhile, the crowd was beginning to go wild watching the two
fighters in the arena. In the midst of the tempest, Touka offered a few words
to Ikki.
“I have to apologize to you, Kurogane.”
“Why’s that?”
“I kept on hoping you wouldn’t come here. I even begged your sister to

make you forfeit the match. But while I was doing those hypocritical
things… I was still desperately looking forward to this fight!”
“Ah!”
“Kurogane, I know you’re already deeply hurt all over, and your fatigue
is plain to see. But I’m still so helplessly excited, because ever since the
moment I met you, I’ve always, always wanted to fight you!”
She spread her feet as her lips drew into a smile. Lightning ran through
the air, converging at Touka’s palm until it became Narukami. Her
expression showed that she could hardly wait for the battle to begin—and the
same went for Ikki.
“I agree wholeheartedly,” he declared, materializing his own katana in
his right hand.
It was true that he had always thought the same thing. Who was stronger,
him or Raikiri? Could he defeat such a foe? At times, he would get so
worried about it that his mind would be taken over by doubt, like fog seeping
in, but there she was, directly in front of him.
“As long as I stand here as a knight, I won’t swing my sword in a way
that would bring shame to me, you, or the people pushing you forward. So
here I swear…” Ikki said, raising the sword in his right hand and pointing the
tip at Touka. “I’ll use my greatest weakness to shatter your indomitable
strength!”
He swore that he would win. That was why he had come, after all.
“After a short exchange, these two greats now face each other, Devices in
hand! A girl who has seen the summit, and a boy who crawled up from the
depths. Who is truly stronger? With their place at the Seven Stars Battle
Festival on the line, these knights begin their final battle! Now, everyone, say
it with me! Let’s go ahead!”
◆◇◆◇◆
When the buzzer sounded, everyone present at the scene saw something
unbelievable. Before it had even fallen silent, blue light radiated from Ikki
and he charged at Touka.
“Wh-Whoa! Kurogane opens with his trump card, Ittou Shura! He’s
attacking at the very start!”
The crowd was restless—Ikki had never used his Ittou Shura at the start

of a match until this point.
Why would he? The technique had a strict time limit of one minute; if his
target fled in that time, he’d be done for. Instead, he would trade blows with
his opponent, reading their plans from top to bottom and learning their
methods. He would never use it before doing so.
However, Ikki had discarded that pattern, because he didn’t have the
stamina to read Touka’s plans from even the smallest of engagements. Had
the fatigue forced him to rush the battle that much?
That was a reckless decision, Kurogane! Kurono gritted her teeth at the
sight. He should have been prepared to take some risks and draw out the
fight. Forcing the end of the match while he still had stamina would may
have worked in a more favorable situation, but in his current position, it was
beyond foolish. Doesn’t he know that he’s up against the Raikiri?!
She was among the top four student knights in the country. A suicide
attack wouldn’t work on her. He would either fall to her Raikiri, or she would
escape him with Shippuu Jinrai. Either way, this decision left Ikki with no
chance at victory.
Kurono and Saikyou looked down on the fight with grim expressions.
Shizuku and Alice, other powerful students, did the same. The recklessness
he was displaying caused their faces to warp with despair.
From among them, however, Stella Vermillion, the Crimson Princess,
grinned slightly.
Jeez, Ikki. Even when your livelihood as a knight is on the line, you’re
still so crazy. She knew why he had chosen the path he did. Raikiri was a
quickdraw attack, so all one had to do to stifle it was to attack while Touka’s
sword was unsheathed. Even I know as much, so of course you’ve noticed.
Still, Ikki hadn’t chosen that option. Why? Was it because he judged that
he had too little stamina to follow through with that plan? No, there was more
to it than that. Stella knew his wasn’t a clever decision, and she was right to
think so.
I’ve known this from the very start!
Ever since he met Touka, Ikki had known that he would defeat her by
defeating Raikiri. The super-electromagnetic quickdraw Raikiri was so
powerful that it became her title as a knight, after all. How could he claim
victory without challenging and defeating that attack?
Frankly, his body was at its limit. He had enough magic left within him

to use Ittou Shura without difficulty, but his stamina wouldn’t be able to keep
up with it. In fact, he probably only had one swing worth of energy left
within him.
However, that was all he needed. No feints, no wasted stamina. Ikki
would move in a straight line until he was at point-blank range, where he
would put all of his strength into a single stroke, and in doing so, he would
defeat the invincible Raikiri. That was the utmost form of sincerity he could
show Touka, who had risen to the field of a battle swirling with conspiracy.
This is my own challenge!
However unfavorable the odds, Ikki would not fight a battle he would
regret, nor would he fight in a way that disappointed his opponent. With that
determination in his heart, he ran, shining with the light of life.
“I’ll use my greatest weakness to shatter your indomitable strength!”
As she watched him, Touka Toudou came to understand that the words
he’d said before the match were his genuine thoughts. She didn’t even need
Reverse Sight to read his impulses; the sheer determination approaching her
told the whole story. Ikki Kurogane had decided that the first slash in their
battle would also be the last, so he charged in, aiming for her Raikiri
counterattack.
Her victory was assured. She simply had to fake using Raikiri before
jumping far back, forcing him to fumble his full-body attack. Then, once he
was completely exhausted, she could harass him from outside of his range.
He would be helpless, leading to her victory.
As if!
Close-range combat was the domain of Raikiri, in which it had never
been bested. It was where Touka was at her most powerful, so she didn’t
even entertain the idea.
What would a queen be if she shamelessly fled from her territory just
because an enemy attacked? Where would she fight if not where she was the
strongest? Most of all, why would she flee from a knight who, despite the
pain and fatigue he faced, challenged her invincible technique with all his
strength? Who could take pride in a victory like that?
I’m not here to protect my number-one spot at Hagun! I’m here to defeat
this proud knight and become the Seven Stars King! I’ll accept his challenge
with the indomitable strength of my Raikiri!
Touka widened her stance and sent lightning coursing through

Narukami’s scabbard in preparation to use her trump card: a single strike that
had cut down every single person to ever fall victim to it.
Ready to draw her sword, she unleashed her counterattack upon the
approaching Ikki. Like her foe, she would bet everything on a single slash in
a fair fight that would bring mutual pride to both knights. That was the noble
path of knighthood—the path on which the two knights faced each other.
Ikki would unleash his Seventh Secret Sword: Raikou. An invisible
swing that made his swordplay impossible to trace, it was the fastest of all his
seven sword arts. Its speed was like that of lightning as it struck the earth,
which made it all the more fitting that the counterattack directed at him was
Raikiri, an electricity-based quickdraw that could tear through even lightning.
Both swords were guided by superhuman speed, so the result of the
matchup would be decided by the depth of feelings behind them: the prayers
of those who supported each fighter from the bottom of their hearts, and the
knights’ pure desire to defeat the foe before them. They put all of that and
more into the embodiments of their souls, and with every last ounce of their
strength, both knights swung their swords.
“Haaahhhhh!”
“Yaaaaahhhhh!”
Their blades were as lightning bolts. Though their point-blank strikes
both tore through the air at incredible speed, Raikiri was slightly faster.
No! This isn’t enough! The approaching plasma blade burned so brightly
that its color was imperceptible. I can’t make it like this!
Faced with her speed and power, Ikki foresaw his own defeat. The
unsheathed Raikiri was unfettered and merciless, controlled by a woman who
was prepared to kill if necessary. It was a gorgeous exhibition of swordplay;
Touka Toudou was truly a powerful knight.
So what?!
Ikki knew that she was strong. He also knew that he was inferior to most,
but he had never turned away from that fact. He kept fighting, not once trying
to escape that unbearable truth. That was why he knew what he had to do in
such a situation.
If he was inferior, he had to gather his strength. If he couldn’t make it, he
had to strain himself further. A minute was too long; all he needed was a
single second.
Ikki honed his soul. Sight, taste, hearing, touch, smell—not one of his

senses was useful to him as he swung. In that single instant, Ikki didn’t even
need to breathe. He abandoned everything irrelevant and concentrated his
remaining power.
His muscles, his marrow, his bones, his cells. From it all, he wrung every
last drop of vitality, stamina, magic, and potential in his body, all to break
beyond his limits.

When their steel blades collided, a gale of wind blew in all directions.
The impact created a flash that robbed the world of color momentarily, and
the rumble that accompanied it was akin to a thunderclap that could be heard
from hundreds of miles away, with not a sound to be heard once it subsided.
Clang!
In the silence, the sound of metal breaking echoed through the venue,
followed by that of someone falling. The crowd had been forced to close their
eyes from the sheer brilliance of the lightning strike-like clash, but slowly,
timidly, they opened their eyes and looked into the arena.
The shattered weapon was Narukami, and the one who had fallen along
the royal path of knighthood was the Raikiri, Touka Toudou.
◆◇◆◇◆
“H-He broke iiiiit! I-I can’t believe it! All it took was one crossing of
blades, one trading of blows, and Toudou’s Narukami—along with her very
own Raikiri—has been shatteeered! Toudou has fallen, and she isn’t getting
up! A referee is running over now! Can she continue the fight, or…?!”
The crowd watched with bated breath as the referee approached Touka
and made his decision. He squatted down for a moment, looked her over,
then finally stood and crossed his arms to form an X.
“The referee has ruled her unable to battle! The duel is oveeer! What a
finish! What an end! It only took a fraction of a second, but the strongest
knight in Hagun Academy has been bested! The last one standing, the victor
of this match, is the Worst One, Ikki Kuroganeee!”
The moment the winner’s name was announced, the crowd erupted into
cheers, shaking the venue. The audience turned into a crucible of excitement,
with many members expressing their shock.
“N-No way…”
“H-He really won! He beat the Raikiri!”
“Unbelievable! The president lost at close range?!”
“Hey, I’ve never seen someone break a Device before. Is she alive?”
“Yaaaaay! Ikki, you’re the best!”
Watching Ikki as he dragged himself out of the arena, Stella immediately
ran over toward the blue gate to meet him.
“Aren’t you going, Shizuku?” Kagami asked the silver-haired girl, whom

she had watched the battle together with, but Shizuku just shook her head
slightly. “Are you waiting so he can be alone with Stella? On a day like this, I
don’t think they’d mind you being there.”
“No…”
“Shizuku?”
The tiny girl merely sat down in place. Kagami then realized that
Shizuku wanted to go, but couldn’t get her body to move. Her beloved older
brother had dragged his near-dead body into battle against a woman who had
put all her strength into a single strike against him, unhesitating despite his
poor state.
Though Ikki had won, it was only by a hair. If he had made even the
tiniest slip-up, he could have lost his head. That tension—and the resulting
relief from being released from it—had drained Shizuku of all her energy.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. So glad…!”
Shizuku was so overcome with emotion that she could only sit and cry in
relief. The poor girl had been so tense since the night before.
“Did you see that, Nene?”
“Yeah, duh. That Kurogane boy is one hell of a guy.”
Nangou and Saikyou—two of the esteemed Mage-Knights watching
from the very top of the stands—had seen something. When the two steel
lightning bolts that were Raikou and Raikiri collided, Ikki had accelerated
even further.
“Ittou Shura, a technique that uses all of Ikki’s power in one minute,
couldn’t defeat Raikiri. He knew that, so the man did it all in one swing
instead of one minute! With even more staggering concentration than in his
one-minute-transformation, he multiplied his strength not by dozens, but by
hundreds, putting it all into the power and speed of his swing!”
If the normal use of Ittou Shura could be seen as using all of one’s
strength to run a hundred yards, then what Ikki had just done was to condense
all of those hundred yards into a single step. That was no human feat; it was
something possible only for a man who had descended into the very depths of
hell, the domain of the Asura. A limit that surpassed limits, eclipsing even
humanity to become a demon. Its name: Ittou Rasetsu.
“But that was a mere trick. It wasn’t what decided the match.”
“Master Nangou?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, you old shit?”

“Touka used her Raikiri with the resolve to kill that Kurogane boy. It was
the most beautiful, unhesitant swordplay I’ve ever seen, and there’s no doubt
it was faster than the boy’s. But the moment he reached his limit, he evolved.
It all happened in the nick of time, for the sole purpose of defeating Touka.
“I can only imagine that’s what he’s always done. With nothing to his
name, nothing given to him by anyone, he always fights tooth and nail,
believing in his own potential. He endlessly hones himself to become faster
than he was one minute ago, stronger than he was one second ago.
“In the end, it was that minor difference. Touka used the limits of her
strength in her attack, that much is certain, but during their battle, that boy
forced his own limits to grow. His persistent effort to increase his own
potential was what earned him this victory. Very fitting for a man like him.”
Nangou squinted his eyes, already narrow from his sagging skin, and
watched Ikki exit the ring as though he were an old friend.
“I-Impossible! Do you even hear yourself?! He was half-dead! For that to
lead to this, there must have been some kind of mistake! That’s it, it’s all a
mistake! Something went wrong! You think I’ll accept this outcome?!”
Akaza, unable to process what had happened right before his eyes,
screamed as he ran out of the stands.
“Kuu, you’re not gonna follow him?” Saikyou asked, shooting a glance
at his round form as he waddled away. “He’s definitely up to no good.”
“Honestly, I wanted to make him pay for everything he’s put us through,
but it feels stupid now,” Kurono replied, having also assumed he was
scheming. “It doesn’t matter whether or not we leave him; he can’t do
anything anymore. No matter what he tries, it’s too late. The situation’s out
of his hands. A nationally-renowned knight, family ties, injustice, an absurd
fight—Ikki Kurogane faced all that and more head-on, and with a single
slash, he cut the Gordian Knot.”
Nobody would entertain any objections to the result. News cameras had
caught the entire spectacle, including the moment the great Raikiri fell to the
Worst One.
“It doesn’t matter how much Kurogane’s family wants to abuse him
anymore,” she continued. “The world’s not going to let him go that easily.
Thanks to this battle, the name ‘Worst One’—or perhaps ‘Another One’—is
echoing around the world as we speak.”

◆◇◆◇◆
Their cheers sound so distant, Ikki thought, as if listening to rain outside

his window. His consciousness had separated entirely from his physical form;
if he relaxed his grip on himself even a little bit, he would probably collapse.
Maybe it was okay for him to collapse. He had already won the battle,
after all. Despite that, however, he continued to push his legs forward. There
was somewhere he needed to go, someone he needed to see.
I have to tell her something… right now.
So he walked through the blue gate, leaving the cheering crowd behind.
“Ikki!”
There, the person he wanted to meet came to him from beyond it.
Lucky me.
Ikki wasn’t sure if he could make it to the audience stands. Stella opened
her arms to receive Ikki as he fell into her chest. She embraced him, her large
chest pressing into him as she spoke.
“Great job out there, Ikki. Hic…!”
She was sobbing. Ikki looked up and saw that her face was wet with
tears.
“Did I make you worry that much?”
“YES! Yes, you did! Hic! You got abducted! I didn’t see you for weeks!
And when you come back, you’re half-dead! Worst of all, you start going on
about fighting Raikiri head-on despite all that! How stupid can you be, Ikki?!
I can’t believe you, you big, stupid dummy!”
Haha… he thought. Guess she didn’t like my joke.
“But y’know, I’m a dummy, too.”
“Huh?”
“Because I fell in love with you even though you keep doing things like
that.”
She held him even tighter.
There’s that warmth…
The heat of Stella’s body had given Ikki’s frozen self so much strength.
Back when he fell into that snowstorm, he had thought it was all over. He
hadn’t had an ounce of energy left within him.
It was her warmth that gave him the power to go on. Though Ikki
couldn’t even remember her name at that point, she had brought his corpse

back to life.
Thank you.
If Stella hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have been able to make it as far
as he did. He would have been left buried in the snow, thrown away
definitively by his own father, unable to cope with the feeling of loss.
Because she was there, he had been able to dig himself out of it. Because
she was there, he had been able to keep fighting. That was the reason he
chose to say it. He had decided that when his battle was over, if he had won,
he would tell her.
“Stella.” Ikki inhaled deeply and held Stella with all the strength left in
him. He had decided that when his battle was over, once he had won, he
would tell her. “I want us to be a family.”
All the love in his heart was poured into those few short words. Decisive
words that he could never have said before. Words that would take their
relationship beyond just boyfriend and girlfriend.
He felt Stella start to quiver, but it only lasted an instant. She quickly
squeezed him even tighter and replied with a voice that sounded as though
she was ready to cry, her expression a mix of bashfulness and unimaginable
joy.
“Me too. Marry me, Ikki.”

Hearing those words, relief washed over Ikki’s heart and he finally
released his grasp on consciousness.
“Ikki…? Ikki, no! Wake up!”
His body hung limply in Stella’s arms. He was breathing, but very
weakly. She knew at a glance that he was in critical condition. Even worse,
she found that beneath his clothes, he was covered in blood. The several-
hundred-times multiplication of his strength was something the human body
couldn’t handle.
I have to get him to the infirmary!
“Stooop!”
Before Stella could move Ikki to safety, a barrel-shaped man blocked her
path. It was Mamoru Akaza, his face dripping with sweat and no sign of
sanity remaining in his bloodshot eyes. He had failed, and he would be made
to take responsibility for his failure.
Promotion was out of the question; it was clear that he would instead lose
his position. That realization caused panic to overtake the man, robbing him
of the last of his logic. His one goal had become to cover up the result of his
mission, so he brandished his Device, a hand axe, and approached the
unconscious Ikki.
“Mhmhm! Wait just a moment there, Princess! Put that man down! He
and I have a duel that we must attend to! You see, his planned opponent was
not actually Touka Toudou—it was me! This is a man-to-man deal! Now,
bring him over to me… Oh?”
Suddenly, Akaza lost sight of Stella, who had been standing directly in
front of him. She had, unbeknownst to him, moved behind him.
No. It wasn’t that simple; she had actually slipped into the voids in his
consciousness. It was the ancient style of walking, Void Step. For someone at
Stella’s level, once she knew the basic principles behind it, it wasn’t overly
difficult to replicate it.
She had escaped Akaza’s perception and carried Ikki past him, but not
without knocking the barrel-man away with a backhanded blow.
“Hngaaaaahhh?!”
Akaza was thrown like he had been hit by a truck, flying through the blue
gate, then bouncing over and over, like a rubber ball, into the middle of the
arena.
“Whoa! There’s an old man in the ring!”

“The hell’s he doing? I feel like I’ve seen him before.”
“Look at his spine! It’s not supposed to bend like that, is it?”
“Eww, look at him spasming! Gross!”
“Is he alive?”
Stella heard some commotion coming from the stands, but she didn’t pay
it any mind. She was already on her way to the infirmary to have Ikki treated
by a doctor. Even the face of the man she had just smacked into oblivion had
already disappeared from her mind.
◆◇◆◇◆
An hour after the match, Touka finally recovered from the shock to her
consciousness caused by the breaking of her Device, Narukami.
“Finally awake, Touka?”
“Do you feel all right? Hurt anywhere?”
She was lying in a bed, watched over by Utakata and Kanata. The sight
told Touka everything she needed to know.
“Oh. Guess I lost, huh?” There was a gap in her memories beginning at
the moment she swung her sword; the moment she fell did not exist within
her mind. However, when she saw her friends’ consoling looks, it wasn’t
hard for her to guess what happened. “And here I thought my Raikiri was
unbeatable.”
“Master Nangou thought so too.”
“Master? Was he there?”
“Yep. Right, Kanata?”
“Yes. Since the battle was open to the public, he came to watch you
fight.”
“He was really proud of you! He even said that was the most beautiful
Raikiri he had ever seen.”
…Really?
“If Master thinks so, then I guess I wasn’t mistaken in thinking so
myself.”
She had used every last ounce of her power, yet Ikki Kurogane still
surpassed her. Something still bothered her about it.
Kurogane moved even faster in that moment. In the space of a second, he
had forced his limits to grow for the sole purpose of defeating Touka. She

thought she had always kept aiming higher, but she realized that it was
nothing compared to what Ikki was doing. The Worst One wasn’t just
fighting against desperate odds in their duel, he was doing so every day. And
every time he did, he continued to evolve. Perhaps her defeat had been a
foregone conclusion. What an incredible person. Things won’t be the same
next time, though.
The satisfying feeling left behind by Touka’s perfect Raikiri still lingered
in her hands. That feeling taught her that she could still grow ever more.
Someday, she would close the gap between them. Someday, she would
surpass him. She would chase after him at full speed until the day they fought
again, when it was her turn to challenge him.
“So, Touka…”
“Hm?”
Utakata started to speak suddenly. He had an uncomfortable look on his
face, but when pressed, he asked his question.
“Should I call everyone at the Wakaba House?”
Oh. Right.
Touka remembered that they had gone so far as having made a banner for
her. As difficult as it may have been, she had to let them know she’d lost.
Utakata was willing to tell them in her place if the truth was too painful for
her to tell, but regardless of the outcome, she had promised to go see them all
after the selection battles were over.
“Thanks for worrying about me, but I’m okay. I should tell them myself.”
“You don’t have to act tough.”
Touka shook her head. She wasn’t acting tough. In her full-power battle
with Ikki, she had given all she had. She wasn’t afraid to tell anyone about
the Raikiri she had unleashed with so much resolve that she was prepared
even to kill Ikki for her victory. She had nothing to be ashamed of.
“I’ll go home with pride in my heart.”
She would tell them about how she had fought a truly incredible knight.

After the duel, Ikki slept for a full week. With the fatigue from the
inquiry, the poisoning from Akaza’s drug, and the effect of Ittou Rasetsu on
top of it all, it wasn’t such a far-fetched outcome.
While the man himself slept soundly, the series of events that started the
scandal was settled. That was a result of Stella’s father, Emperor Vermillion,
learning of the results of Ikki’s duel and everything leading up to it. He
declared his immense displeasure with the Ethics Committee and their tool,
the mass media. Once the emperor had directly stated his displeasure with
them, the news could do nothing but quiet down.
Finally, he announced that he would put off his decision regarding Ikki
and Stella’s relationship, demanding that Ikki come to the Vermillion Empire
to meet him after the Seven Stars Battle Festival. Between those declarations
and Akaza’s subsequent fall from power, there was nobody left to doubt
Ikki’s qualifications as a knight.
With everything having reached its conclusion, the entire student body
gathered in the usually rarely-used gymnasium for the formal swearing-in
ceremony of the six students who would represent Hagun Academy after the
long, long line of selection battles.
“We will now begin the ceremony. When your name is called, please
come up to the stage,” Kurono said, her voice projecting through the
gymnasium. Then, she began reading the names of each student. “Year 1,
Rank A: Stella Vermillion. Year 3, Rank D: Botan Hagure. Year 3, Rank B:
Kanata Toutokubara. Year 3, Rank C: Kikyou Hagure. Year 1, Rank D: Nagi
Alisuin… is unable to be here, it seems. Year 1, Rank F: Ikki Kurogane.”
“Ma’am.”
Ikki replied quickly and stood when his name was called, climbing the
stairs next to him to go onstage. Then, like the four before him, he walked in

front of Director Kurono Shinguuji to receive a certificate and a medal.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you very much.”
He bowed, and the five representatives lined up together in front of the
entire school body as the school’s representatives. Once Kurono saw that Ikki
was lined up with them, she continued.
“The five you see before you all—six, including Nagi Alisuin—are now
officially recognized as Hagun Academy’s representatives for the Seven Stars
Battle Festival!”
The audience welcomed the five people onstage with roaring applause.
Everyone was looking right at Ikki and the other representatives.
In battle, he didn’t care about other people looking at him. He wasn’t in
battle, however, and was anything but used to being the center of attention to
receive positive recognition, so he felt especially awkward. He was the type
of person who didn’t especially care about other people’s opinions of him or
his social status, so he was unsure of how to handle himself during such
ceremonies. He really just wanted to get off the stage.
“Next, I will announce the team captain. When I call your name, step
forward. The leader will be Year 1, Rank F Ikki Kurogane.”
As if acting specifically against Ikki’s desires, Kurono once again called
his name.
“…Huh?” Ikki was shocked beyond belief that he was named captain,
unintentionally turning toward Kurono. He had expected that the more
experienced student council member, Kanata, or the talk of the town, Stella,
would be chosen as captain. “I’m the leader? Wh-Why?”
“Obviously, yes,” Kurono said, giving him an annoyed look. “The
Hunter, Runner’s High, even Raikiri; you defeated all of the school’s Seven
Stars frontrunners one after another. Who else here would be more fitting to
be the captain of Hagun’s representatives? Now step forward, would you?”
“O-Oh, uh, yes, ma’am.”
Ikki still wasn’t convinced. As he had lived his life outside of the
spotlight, the role of leader was one he had never played before. He was left
unable to do anything but panic, until Kurono’s harsh tone forced him to
reflexively step forward. She then continued the ceremony.
“Now, the team captain will be given the school’s flag.” With that, a
single female student carried the flag to Ikki from offstage. It was the girl he

had beaten in his final battle. “Student council president, Touka Toudou.”
“I haven’t seen you since the match. I’m glad you’re doing better.”
Touka smiled slightly and lifted the school’s flag. “This is the flag I was
given as last year’s team captain. I was planning to carry it again this year,
but then I lost to you, Kurogane. I asked the faculty to let me give this to you
personally.”
When he heard that, Ikki was at a loss for words. Touka must have
already sorted out her feelings about the match, because she looked
completely fine.
As for Ikki, who had just woken up, he still felt like their battle was just
the day before. He had no idea what he should say to the person he had
knocked out of the running. However, despite his lack of a suitable response,
he at least knew that he wanted to thank her.
Despite the filth and evil that had permeated their fight, she still fought
him unreservedly, like a proud knight. It was because she was there that he
had been able to draw so much strength from within.
“Toudou, I… I could only fight at full power because you were my
opponent, because I wanted to win against you specifically. If I hadn’t been
up against you, then I’m sure—”
“Kurogane.” She interrupted him, and gave him a gentle look. “Ikki
Kurogane, to be victorious is to carry a burden. You’re carrying the
aspirations of the people who failed against you. This flag is a symbol of the
hopes and dreams of so many students who wanted to represent the school,
but couldn’t. I’m not telling you to fight for us, but please, take this flag so
that we can be there the moment you take the Seven Stars.”
Touka held the flag out to Ikki. Hearing her words and seeing that flag,
he finally understood that he didn’t need words; there was only one way to
repay the girl in front of him and all the other knights who fought only to
have their dreams crushed. He would bear the burden of their hopes through
his victory.
What did Ikki have to do, then, as the victor? He wasn’t one to not
recognize what was required of him, so he firmly grasped the black flagpole
that was offered to him.
“…I promise that I will.”
The moment he said that, the gymnasium erupted into applause.
“You can do it, Captaaain!”

“We’ll definitely come cheer you on!”
“You beat the president! That makes you our representative!”
“We know you can take the top, Ikkiii!”
“Don’t you dare lose, Another One!”
Voices of support, cheers of blessing, cries of encouragement. So many
different voices were mixed into the applause, slamming into Ikki. The shock
of it sent a shiver down his spine. He tightened his lips, stiffening his face. It
was the only thing he could do to stop himself from crying.
With his face still stiffened, Ikki raised the flag in response to their cheers
and returned to his own spot in line. He then whispered to Stella, standing
next to him.
“…Stella.”
“Yeah?”
“To be honest… I’ve never really cared about anyone else’s opinions.
Nobody’s ever thought anything positive of me, so I figured it was just
impossible. I always thought I just needed to get to the point where I could
accept myself. But being accepted by others like this is… surprisingly nice.”
Ikki could no longer tell if he was smiling or crying. But when Stella
looked at him, she smiled happily, so he knew that he must have been making
some sort of cheerful face.
Thus, Hagun Academy, situated in the southern area of Japan’s Kanto
region, had its Seven Stars Battle Festival representatives.
Following them, northern Kanto’s Donrou Academy, Tohoku’s Kyomon
Academy, Hokkaido’s Rokuzon Academy, Kyushu and Okinawa’s
Bunkyoku Academy, Chugoku and Shigoku’s Rentei Academy, and finally,
the strongest school in Japan and a leading powerhouse worldwide, having
reached the finals at the Seven Stars for the past twenty years and with a
monopoly on the top spot for each of the past five, Kinki and Chubu’s
Bukyoku Academy, all announced their own representatives one after
another.
The actors were all taking the stage: Kyomon’s Icy Sneer, Mikoto
Tsuruya; Rokuzon’s Grizzly Panther, Renji Kaga; Donrou’s Sword Eater,
Kuraudo Kurashiki; the current champion of the Festival, the Seven Stars
King, Yuudai Moroboshi.
Every one of those knights was famous throughout Japan, and Ikki
Kurogane was headed to the Festival, where they awaited him. There, he

would fight for the opportunity to stand at the pinnacle of the Seven Stars,
and where he would fulfill the vow he made to his strongest rival of all, the
Crimson Princess.
His story had progressed to the national stage.
※※※
Meanwhile, while Hagun Academy’s swearing-in ceremony was

underway, something else was taking place beneath a desolate expressway.
“Heheheh. Looks like Hagun’s order has been solidified as well. Quite
surprising that neither Raikiri, Runner’s High, nor Lorelei made it into the
lineup.”
“Hardly their fault. Two of them simply fell victim to bad luck.”
“Well, luck is another part of skill. If the luck of the draw is enough to
make you lose, that just shows what kind of knight you are. Doesn’t that
sound like something Ouma would say to you?”
“I don’t especially care.”
“Wow, cold. Well, whatever. I suppose your preparations are complete?”
“Yes, without issue. Lorelei’s fall was unexpected, but it won’t interfere
with the plan. I can dispose of her at any time.”
“Heheheh. You really are the master of masters when it comes to
assassination. Your skill is on another level. But what else would I expect
from the Black Assassin, who cleared the Killing House with a record-
breaking high score? Or I suppose you’re the Black Rose now, Comrade
Alisuin?”
“…”
Alisuin’s cold expression bore no resemblance to the kind one she wore
around Ikki and his group. She hardly appeared to be a human with emotions,
more closely resembling glasswork; one might have even mistaken her for a
different person. That in itself gave her a certain dangerous beauty that one
might even describe as lurid.

“Either way, this means that preparations for the eve of the Festival are
complete.” Chuckling as if to mock the world, the person on the other end of
the line connected to Alisuin’s student handbook—clearly not one from
Hagun Academy—spoke with ecstasy in their voice. “The actors are all
present. I assume that’s what everyone thinks. But they’re mistaken; the star
has yet to appear. Nobody knows of the star’s existence, so it’s up to us to
show them. We’ll steal onstage from under the curtain, find the fool who
thinks himself to be the star, and smack him in the face, revealing this truth to
the world: The star of this Seven Stars Battle Festival is us, the Akatsuki.”
With the stage having moved to a national scale, the story began anew,
accompanied by the eerie, creeping sound of wickedness.

Afterword
Thank you for reading volume three of Chivalry of a Failed Knight. I’m
the author, Riku Misora.
This volume marks the climax of the Selection Battle Arc. Even I, the
author, tore through this book from the excitement. Did you enjoy it? I’m
currently patting myself on the back for writing something exciting enough
that I could shamelessly call it a true climax, so I can only hope that you, my
readers, will also find this volume to be exciting.
Excuse me for changing the subject, but with volume two, the Chivalry
of a Failed Knight series has reached a total of one hundred thousand sales. I
have to offer my gratitude to all of my readers for making it possible.
Honestly, thank you so much for reading and supporting me! Thanks to you
all, I’ve finally completed the Selection Battle Arc and begun the next step,
the Nationals Arc. Of course, this is entirely thanks to your support.
In the fourth volume, many people—from the famed greats to the evil
shadows lurking behind them—will all move on the summit of the Seven
Stars simultaneously. I’ll be working hard to bring you even stronger foes
and even more heated battles, so I hope for your continued support!
Now, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me
make this book.
Won, thank you as always for your wonderful illustrations. Even with a
tight schedule, you fulfilled all of my requests. I am eternally grateful to you.
All the skin in this volume’s illustrations had my mouth watering, and it’s my
exclusive right as the writer to declare that as my number-one most
appreciated thing (haha)! I’m always looking forward to your next ones.
To my lead editor, Mr. Ohara, and to everyone in the editorial staff who
worked to make this happen, I thank you deeply.
Finally, I must once again thank everyone who read this book. Let’s meet
again in volume four!

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Table of Contents

Page 1 Goldenagato | https://mp4directs.com

“First-year student Shizuku Kurogane, your battle is about to begin.

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“A-Amaziiiiing! Such high-level offense and defense! I was put in

Page 10 Goldenagato | https://mp4directs.com

“They really are well-matched, eh, Kanata?”

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As Kanata had predicted, there was a change in the arena. At Touka’s

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Shizuku clearly heard Stella’s loud, beautiful voice as it echoed through

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The moment the plasma-coated blade was unsheathed, its faster-than-

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What followed the blinding, burning flash of light was benighted

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“Shizuku looked really upset.”

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“Oh, there you are, Pres! Heya!”

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I don’t think I like how the sky looks. Rain, maybe?

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