On the final evening of the joint training camp, Yuuri Oreki, a member of Hagun Academy’s staff, was sweeping around the school’s front gate in preparation for greeting the returning students. It was then that a lone girl in a tracksuit greeted her.

“Hi, Ms. Oreki.”

She turned toward the voice. It was a girl that she had never taught, but whom she had some memory of. She had supervised one of the girl’s selection battles at some point. She dug the name out of her memories and returned the greeting.

“Oh, hello there, Ayatsuji. Cough.”

“Thank you again for what you did for me.”

The reason Ayase bowed her head in gratitude was related to her battle with Ikki Kurogane.

“I didn’t do a thing. It was all thanks to Kurogane’s efforts.”

“But Ms. Oreki, you were the one who tolerated my rule-breaking. If you’d stopped our fight, I’m sure I would never have been able to let go of the past.”

“That was all because I’d already talked with Kurogane about it, cough. Aside from that, Ayatsuji, did you decide you were going to stay here? I figured you’d have gone home for the summer to take care of your father.”

“I wanted to join him in his rehabilitation, yes, but he wouldn’t have it. He said that I’m a growing young woman and that I shouldn’t use this time to slack off on my training. Supposedly, he can make it on his own.”

“Haha, that certainly sounds like the Last Samurai.”

“After two full years of sleep, he honestly seems livelier than ever. I decided I should try to keep up with him, so I just went for a run.”

“How prudent of you! I’m sure your other master is hard at work right now, too.”

Ms. Oreki looked up at the deep blue northern sky. Ayase muttered her agreement and looked up along with her.

“Kurogane really is incredible. He even beat the student council president despite his awful condition.”

“He certainly did. Even I was a little surprised, and I’m his teacher.”

“I heard a rumor that you were the one who proctored his entrance exam. Is that true?”

“Cough. Yes, it’s true.”

“You certainly have an eye for talent.”

In terms of his certification, Ikki was a Rank F; he wasn’t even qualified for entry into Hagun. The fact that he was enrolled despite his rank was presumably thanks to, as Ayase had praised her for, Ms. Oreki’s keen eye. However, she shook her head with an apologetic expression.

“Oh, no, not at all. Honestly, I tried to fail him.”

“Really?”

Ms. Oreki nodded. Her impression of Ikki when they’d first met was that he had an uncanny lack of talent. She hadn’t had even the slightest intention of letting him pass, so she’d given him one final opportunity, intending it as a mere formality. Ikki was offered a single chance to sell her on his worth as a Blazer.

“You know what that boy said to me?”

“What?”

“‘I can beat you in a fight right now’.” A child, not even out of middle school, had claimed he could defeat her, a full-fledged Mage-Knight and educator. “I couldn’t believe my ears. Such a bold statement came as quite the shock.”

“H-He was quite confident in himself.”

“Cough. And after that, he actually won! No matter who the proctor was at that point, there was no chance he wasn’t getting in.”

“I see. That’s quite the story…”

Ayase nodded, amazed at the details of Ikki’s entrance exam. Ikki had probably known at the time that he wouldn’t have been able to get in via a normal examination. That was why he’d so boisterously challenged Ms. Oreki to a duel, creating a chance for him to show what he was made of.

Ayase began to think. No matter what he lacked in power or ability, Ikki made up for his inferiority through some other means, forging his own path. It seemed very like him. She had no doubt that he was still—and would continue to be—the same way he was back then.

“Ms. Oreki, do you think Kurogane can be the next Seven Stars King?” Ayase asked, the strong, determined image of Ikki still in her mind.

“I may be biased because I’m so close to him,” Ms. Oreki responded, “but I think he has the strength to do so. Then again…”

“‘Then again’?”

“In this year’s Festival, just being the defending King might not be enough for him to make it all the way.”

“Is that because his older brother, that Rank A, is going to be there?”

Ms. Oreki cleared her throat and nodded in agreement, then began elaborating on her earlier, seemingly pessimistic statement.

“Well, partly, yes. But even more than that, there are so many kids this year that we know nothing about. Just about every school has some nameless first-year with abilities we can’t even pinpoint the nature of. I think the progression of this year’s Seven Stars Battle Festival will be greatly influenced by those kids.”

“Wow. With Stella in the mix, this year’s Festival is ripe with exciting new people.”

Though Ayase’s words seemed inoffensive, Ms. Oreki closed her eyes in silence. Indeed, “ripe” was an apt word. A typical year saw only one or two first-years making it to the Festival in total. It wasn’t uncommon for that number to even be zero.

Taking that into consideration, having ten first-years in the upcoming Festival definitely seemed to make it exceptionally ripe with newcomers. Something about that just didn’t sit right with Ms. Oreki, though. There was nothing wrong with first-years being representatives, but the inclination toward unknown ones was questionable.

It’s like they’ve been lying in wait for this.

Asking Ms. Saikyou and Director Shinguuji for their thoughts once they’d returned from Osaka seemed like her best option. However, while she pondered the matter, Ayase pointed toward the gate and spoke.

“Hmm? Ms. Oreki, there’s a bunch of people coming this way.”

Ms. Oreki then turned her eyes toward where she was pointing. Like she had said, seven shadowy figures were lined up, approaching Hagun Academy. It was a rare sight for a mandatory-residence school like Hagun, and given that it was summer vacation, it was even more bizarre that such a large group would come all at once. Stranger yet, two of the seven were riding on a beast that almost appeared to be a huge lion. Ms. Oreki narrowed her eyes. Who could they possibly have been?

“Oh? Is that…”

Her narrowed eyes opened in surprise. She recognized one among the seven from long ago.

Is that Ouma Kurogane, Bukyoku’s Rank A?!

The question of why a student from Bukyoku would be coming to Hagun swirled around her mind, but it was quickly forced out of her thoughts. The sight before her confirmed that something strange was going on, something much more important than the trivial question she had been preoccupied with.

It’s not just Ouma. Reps from Bunkyoku, Donrou, Rentei, and even the other schools…!

The people walking alongside Ouma were all familiar faces from the Seven Stars Battle Festival documents that Ms. Oreki, a member of the Festival staff, had received. A representative from each of the other six participating schools—plus one extra—was present. Worst of all, the nameless first-years that Ms. Oreki had just expressed her misgivings about were all in the lineup.

An indescribable chill ran down the nape of Ms. Oreki’s neck. Why were representatives from all of the other schools gathering? Why were they heading toward Hagun? Why did it create such an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach? Why were they all holding their Devices?

“Ayatsuji! Get away from here, now!”

The questions that assaulted Ms. Oreki’s mind all at once were answered immediately. One of the seven, a girl wearing a winter coat despite the summer heat—Yui Tatara, one of Donrou’s representatives—suddenly leaped toward Ayase, as quick as lightning. Using both hands, she swung her chainsaw-like Device down on the defenseless girl.

“Huh?”

The malicious assault was so abrupt that Ayase was completely unable to react. Tatara’s roaring weapon came down upon her, but just before it could lop her head off, Ms. Oreki repelled it with her cutlass Device. Her skillful parry caused Tatara to lose her balance—an opportunity she wasn’t going to let go to waste.

I have to stop her!

Deciding to stop the girl’s assault first and figure out why she had so suddenly come for blood later, Ms. Oreki deftly flicked her wrist. Her counterattack, aimed at the assailant’s carotid artery, was so fast and efficient that it left the girl no way to evade. The cutlass, materialized in Phantom Form, was going to knock her unconscious, but her lips merely curled into a wicked grin.

“Total Reflect.”

Just as Tatara’s neck was about to be pierced, a mysterious impact deflected Ms. Oreki’s blade.

◆◇◆◇◆

In the evening, with the sky dyed a burnt orange hue, a bus was concluding its journey from Yamagata to the area near Hagun Academy. On that bus was Ikki’s team of representatives and the people who’d helped them, like Shizuku and the student council. Friend groups sat together, sharing candy and chatting away with not a care in the world. Among them, however, a miserable-looking Stella’s shoulders were drooped.

“Haaah.”

“C’mon, Stella. Chin up.”

“I’m just so frustrated…”

Though Ikki, sitting next to her, tried to cheer her up, Stella couldn’t regain her vigor. As if following up his attempt, two female students, the twins Kikyou and Botan Hagure, addressed her.

“What’s wrong, Stella?”

“Did you get carsick, Princess?”

“Seems like she’s frustrated that she couldn’t outfight Toudou.”

Ikki waved his hand to gesture that there was no need to worry, and communicated to them why Stella was so down.

“Oh yeah,” one of the sisters replied, “you two did fight a bunch. What was the final score?”

“…We tied. Three wins each,” Stella whimpered quietly.

Stella’s one goal at the training camp had been to surpass Raikiri, but she’d failed, unable to win more than half of their duels. She was so disappointed in herself that she couldn’t stand it.

“But against the student council president, even a tie’s incredible.”

“Stella’s a Rank A, though. It only makes sense that she’d want to beat someone weaker than herself, right?”

“I don’t really think Touka is weaker than me.”

Stella argued Kikyou’s claim. She had actually expected the opposite; Stella believed herself inferior to Touka. The very reason she’d wanted to surpass her before the end of the training camp was so that she could look out on the coming Seven Stars Battle Festival with confidence.

But the result was not what she had expected.

“Aaaargh, I’m so mad!” Stella yelled. “I can’t stand sitting still right now! I might as well have just ran home instead!”

“I think that’s going a bit too far…” Ikki chuckled, knowing Stella wasn’t actually being serious.

“At times like this, the only way to get my mind off things is food.”

Upon saying that, Stella pulled three Snackers bars out of her bag and began devouring them, still curled up in despair. The Hagure sisters gasped in shock as they looked upon her.

“You had three servings each of udon and ramen at the rest stop. You’re still hungry?!”

“You’re gonna get fat!”

“I’ll be fine. No matter how much I eat, I never get fat,” Stella responded, thinking nothing of the strange phenomenon.

Somehow, Stella was a ridiculously big eater, yet her body remained tight and fit with no traces of excess fat. Even to Ikki, who thought he had a grasp on the inner workings of the human body, it was a mystery. He had simply chalked it up to some sort of inherent injustice and had long since accepted it. The twin upperclassmen, on the other hand, were hearing of it for the first time and were appalled, their faces frozen momentarily while her statement sunk in.

“What?!” they cried out simultaneously.

“…Botan. She had the tofu, curry, and tempura udons. After that, she had the soy sauce, miso, and pork ramens. If you ate all that, and then you even scarfed down Snackers to top it off, you’d definitely get fat, right?”

“That’s the only possibility, even if she’s using weird occult magic. She must be hiding some belly rolls under those clothes.”

“I-I am not! How rude! Any fat just happens to go right to my chest. I’ve never been all that fat in my entire life.”

While Stella retorted, still chomping down her super-fatty candy, Ikki bore witness to the very moment the sisters snapped.

“Don’t lie to us!”

With demonic looks on their faces, the Hagure twins fell upon Stella in a fit of rage. They grabbed her shoulders and yanked her from the bus seat, pinning her down.

“Whoa! Hey, what are you two doing?!”

“Shut up! I know you’re hiding a gut under there! Hurry up and confess, or else!”

“I told you, fat collects in my chest!”

“You think I’m gonna believe that?!”

“I swear, there’s gotta be a fat roll or two somewhere!”

The twins lifted up Stella’s shirt and started fiddling with her bare skin.

“C-Cut it out, already!” Stella screamed, her face getting redder by the second. “Where do you think you’re touching me?! Ikki, stop sitting there like a lump and help me!”

“Oh, u-uh, sure! Um, hey, you two should calm—”

“This is a sacred war between women. Butt out!”

“Just shut up and eat some Rocky or something, male!”

Ikki’s attempt to mediate was immediately shut down by the girls’ bloodshot eyes, like those of predatory beasts, locking onto him.

“Oh, okay. Sorry.”

“Ikkiii!”

They’re too scary for me!

Intimidated by their glares, Ikki chose to avert his eyes from what threatened to turn itself into an international incident, when suddenly, the seat next to him became occupied. Though it had been made vacant by Stella being dragged out of it, it now housed a small, silver-haired girl: Ikki’s sister, Shizuku Kurogane. Her green eyes watched the struggle on the floor of the bus, and she decided to poke fun.

“If Kusakabe were here to see this, she’d be more than happy to plaster photos all over the newspaper.”

“Ahaha, definitely. She’ll be so mad when she hears about this later.” Ikki agreed with Shizuku’s observation; as a matter of fact, Kagami probably would have wanted to join in. He then directed a question toward Alice, who sat in a window seat on the other side of the aisle. “So, you said Kagami was off to visit Hokkaido by herself or something, right?”

“Yes,” Alice responded, nodding. “Rokuzon’s training camp started three days ago, so she left first thing in the morning in search of a scoop.”

“Shame she couldn’t come with us.”

Of course, Alice was lying. Kagami was actually bound by her hands and feet, locked up in a facility at Kyomon’s training camp. However, with no evidence that she was lying, and no reason to doubt her in the first place, Ikki believed Alice’s statement.

“What a workaholic she is,” Shizuku, who also believed the lie, said with a sigh of both annoyance and admiration. “I’m already exhausted.”

“Sorry. Thank you so much for coming, Shizuku.”

Given her superb healing ability, Shizuku’s presence at the training camp had made a major difference. iPS Capsules were certainly convenient, but using them required full-body anesthesia, so they still placed a burden on the user. That was why Ikki had brought her with him to Yamagata despite her failure to become a representative. He was deeply grateful for her help with healing less serious wounds.

“Anything for you, Big Brother.” Shizuku flashed Ikki a lovely smile, one that nobody else would be blessed with, then held out the box of Rocky she was holding. “Would you like one?”

“Maybe just one.”

Ikki wasn’t especially fond of candy, but he was happy to try anything his sister offered him. He reached for the Rocky and attempted to remove a stick, but just as his fingers brushed the end of one, the characteristic red box was snatched away from him.

Huh?

Ikki didn’t understand why the box had been moved. Meanwhile, Shizuku put on an innocent face as she took one of the sticks and held it between her pale-pink lips. Then, as if beckoning a kiss, she pointed both her lips and the Rocky within them toward her brother.

“Mmm~”

“Wh-What exactly do you want me to do?!”

“H-Hey!” Ikki had faltered at the sudden attack, but his girlfriend refused to watch in silence. “What the hell are you trying to make Ikki do here, Shizuku?!”

“Ah!”

“Eep!”

As if they hadn’t had her pinned her down, the Hagure sisters yelped as Stella shook them off with ease and closed in on Shizuku.

“It’s just a little bit of sexual harassment. What’s the big deal?”

“How can you be so shameless and so nonchalant at the same time?! Don’t you think that’s improper?!”

“Quite hypocritical of you to say that when you’re undressed in public.”

“Huh?” Once it was pointed out to her, Stella finally took notice of her condition. She didn’t know what to say. The Hagure twins’ manhandling had left her shirt open, exposing her bra, and her skirt falling off. “N-Nooooo!”

Overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events, Stella stopped for a moment, allowing her thoughts to finally catch up to reality. Her face became so red-hot that it looked like fire would spew from it, and she curled up on the spot in shame.

“Whoa, someone looks like she’s been getting busy,” Utakata whispered, watching from afar. “Pretty hot…”

“I’m going to make you regret that when we get back to school, Uta,” Touka warned.

“Eek! Kanata, help! I don’t wanna face consequences!”

“I’m not the one who stuck their hand into the hornets’ nest,” Kanata replied curtly. “You’ll have to figure this one out yourself.”

As a woman of character, Stella would not lose heart so easily. She quickly righted her clothing and approached Shizuku anew.

“Shizuku! Didn’t you say you accepted my relationship with Ikki?”

“You mean your whole lovey-dovey relationship?”

“Yeah, that one!”

“Then yes, I did say that.”

“O-Okay, so s-stop doing that!” Stella shouted in discontent.

“Wow, is that it?” Shizuku scoffed. “You should learn to be less conceited.”

“Wh-What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“I said I’ve accepted your romantic relationship with my brother. But that’s the only way you can have him. I give my big brother a sister’s love, a mother’s care, a friend’s adoration, and even a partner’s caress.”

“Uh, Shizuku? I don’t remember you doing anything like that last one,” Ikki objected, but Shizuku ignored it entirely, thrusting four fingers toward Stella.

“In short, I love my big brother four times more than you do!” she declared. “Surely even you can see the thorough logic guiding me to my airtight conclusion.”

“I sure as hell can’t!” Stella’s reaction was natural, for Shizuku had clearly crossed the line into absurdity. “Cut the weird complaints and get away from Ikki! That’s my seat!”

“I don’t see your name on it!”

Stella finally decided to peel Shizuku away from Ikki by force, but she continued to resist by clinging to her brother. It was then that Ikki finally spoke, tired of watching the spectacle.

“H-Hey, c’mon, Stella. We shouldn’t make a scene on the bus. It’s dangerous.”

“Aw, but…”

“It’s just the ride home. Might as well leave her, right? Besides, we’re almost back at Hagun already.”

Ikki turned to face the scenery as it glided by. The bus had already passed through the city, arriving at the familiar trees and asphalt that formed the mountain path that Ikki and Stella jogged along every morning. Hagun Academy wasn’t far.

“Rgh… Fine, then. But you’re making up for this when we get there!”

There was no reason to fight for just a few minutes of time in a seat, so Stella withdrew. However, before she could find a new place to sit for the remainder of the journey, the bus driver abruptly slammed on the brakes.

“Ahhh!”

“Whoooa!”

The rapid loss of momentum threw all of the passengers forward. What could have happened to warrant such a sudden stop?

The first one to act was Touka. The student council president immediately got to her feet and ran over to Saijou, who was driving the bus. Normally, Saijou wasn’t the type to show his emotions, but he was staring out the windshield, pale and dumbfounded.

“Wh-What’s wrong, Saijou?! Did we hit something?!”

“No… That’s not it…”

Saijou slowly pointed at the area in front of the bus. Ikki and the rest of the passengers, who had made their way to the front after Touka, followed his trembling finger.

“Huh? Isn’t that the way to the school?”

There, in the very direction of Hagun Academy, thick black smoke was rising into the blood-red evening sky. Everyone present was at a loss for words, their eyes wide open in terror. Everyone, of course, except for Nagi Alisuin, who alone had remained seated.

◆◇◆◇◆

The bus transporting the group barreled through the main gate of Hagun Academy, its tires screeching to a halt. Everyone inside leaped out through both the door and the windows to take in the horrid scene.

“This is awful…”

Flames licked every part of the building, pouring smoke into the sky. The asphalt paved over the earth had cracked and broken, as if it had suffered an explosion. Scattered around the ruined school were collapsed students and faculty members who’d stayed for the summer. The fire was no mere accident; it was the result of a battle.

“Ikki, look!” Stella yelled, pointing.

Ikki turned to look in that direction, where he found two familiar women.

“Ms. Oreki… and Ayatsuji?!” Both of them lay motionless on the ground. Ikki and Stella rushed over to them and held them in their arms. “Ayatsuji! Wake up!”

“…”

“Nothing. Any luck, Stella?”

“Ms. Oreki’s not moving either. She’s not wounded, though; she just fainted.” There were no wounds on either of the ladies, but their clothes had been sliced and frayed in some places. “Whoever took them down must have been using their Device in Phantom Form.”

“Ladiiies and gentlemeeen!”

“Wha—?!”

An impish voice suddenly echoed through the area. It had come from above, as Ikki and his friends discovered when they all looked up toward its source. On the roof of a burning building stood a tall, lean man dressed like a jester.

“Welcome home from your long journey, representative team of Hagun Academy! I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Is that a clown?!”

The man’s bizarre appearance baffled the group, but Ikki and Touka recognized him from the list of Seven Stars contestants.

“No, that’s…”

“You’re Reisen Hiraga from Bunkyoku, aren’t you?” Touka asked, a menacing look on her face.

“Oh, you know me?” the jester responded, the excitement plain in his voice. “Heheheh, what an honor it is for the great Raikiri to remember my name! How do you like my stage? Did it shock you to your core?”

“Were you the one who did all this?!”

“Oh, no!” The fool exaggeratedly shook his head back and forth. “No, no, no, no, no! It wasn’t I who did this.”

The Pierrot, Reisen Hiraga, then jumped down from the roof of the building he stood on, from about forty feet in the air. He wasn’t the only one, either. From behind him, several more shadows descended, landing together in front of the Hagun students.

“Ah?!”

A man in a kimono carrying a long nodachi; an outlandish-looking woman, topless save for an artist’s apron; two girls riding a lion with raven-black fur, one with an eyepatch and the other wearing a maid uniform. Those four, as well as Hiraga and two others, comprised their off-kilter troupe. Even stranger than their appearances, though, was the mysterious, foreboding aura that accompanied them as they stood before Hagun’s students. Once they’d all landed, Hiraga gestured to himself and the others, finally answering Touka’s question.

“’Twas not I, but we, the students of Akatsuki Academy.”

The eighth school that had once moved in the shadows, Akatsuki had at last formally announced its existence. Its purpose: to stand in opposition to the schools that made up the Seven Stars, undermining the event like the dawn as it eclipsed the Big Dipper.

Ikki and his friends stood stock-still, unable to do anything but stare dumbfoundedly at the group. It was no surprise that they were stuck agape; the students were all representatives from schools other than Hagun. To make matters worse, looking upon the villains brought Ikki and Shizuku face-to-face with Ouma Kurogane, their own flesh and blood—though perhaps he had foregone being their older brother.

“Y-You! You’re that kid from Kyomon we met at the training camp!”

Among the seven who called themselves the students of Akatsuki Academy was Amane Shinomiya, the boy they’d met a few days ago.

“Ahaha, nice to see you again, Stella. You too, Ikki. I’m so glad I get to see your faces again so soon.”

“This must be why you got that bad feeling, Ikki.”

Is that really it?

Though Stella, having finally understood the reason, reminded Ikki of his distaste for Amane, he couldn’t help but wonder about her conclusion. Was the ill omen that had hung in his mind nothing more than a premonition that such an event would come to pass? No matter the answer, Ikki didn’t have time to pursue the doubts that had surfaced within him. He had other, more pressing things to focus on, so he looked up and posed a question to the enemy most closely related to him:

“Kyomon, Rokuzon, Bunkyoku, Bukyoku… You’ve got representatives from every school but Hagun here. Why is that? What’s going on here? Maybe you’d be willing to enlighten me with a reasonable explanation, brother. I’ve never heard of an Akatsuki—”

“Shut up.” Rather than an explanation, Ouma responded with a cruel retort, as if Ikki were a mere fly to be swatted away. “I renounced my relationship with you Kurogane scum long ago. Don’t talk like you know me.”

Ouma refused to so much as glance at his siblings. His eyes remained focused on the woman standing next to Ikki, Stella Vermillion. The sheer weight of his glare told her everything she needed to know.

This guy… He’s no joke. She could feel her skin tingling—trembling, even—just from the look in his eyes. Seven stood in front of her, all certainly ambitious and powerful knights, but the Gale Sword Emperor still stood out from amongst them. The air of intimidation about him was unmatched; his mere presence exuded pressure. No doubt about it. This guy’s the cream of the crop.

The glare Stella returned Ouma housed more conviction the more the realization of his strength set in. The others were much the same, as the tension between the two small forces continued to grow. Eventually, despite the intense hostility, Hiraga offered a more palatable answer than the venomous one Ouma had given.

“So, why are we doing this? What is Akatsuki Academy? I understand your questions, boy, so allow me to answer them. It’s actually pretty simple: whether or not we secure the representative spots at the Seven Stars, the management committee would never allow a school unapproved by the Federation to participate. Instead, we’re going to force them to approve of us by showing the world that a competition to find the country’s strongest student knights would be pointless if we were to be excluded.”

“I see. In other words, you’re trying to destroy Hagun to accomplish that goal. You plan to take Hagun’s place as one of the seven schools taking part in the Festival.”

“Correct! You’re always so quick to catch on, Raikiri.”

“And you think they’ll be willing to accept that you’re doing something illegal?”

“The management committee isn’t stupid. They’ll just remove you from the Festival.”

That was wrong; before that could happen, the Japanese government would stop Akatsuki’s attacks. Though Touka and Saijou told him as much, Hiraga’s fearless grin never wavered.

“Heheh, not quite. Rest assured that we will appear at the Seven Stars. The management committee and its parent organization, the Mage-Knight Federation, have no choice but to approve of Akatsuki Academy.

“Come on, think about it. Once we’ve destroyed Hagun, a school with such a vibrant history, refusing our challenge would be the same as running away with their tail between their legs. The Mage-Knight Federation controls the education of Blazers in every country under its umbrella. They wouldn’t sit around and let a school outside their control produce students stronger than theirs. After all, society’s trust in them is on the line here.

“To take back their damaged trust, they can only prove that the Blazers they’ve created are stronger than ours. If they can’t, they’ll never be able to protect what they’ve spent more than half a century building: their monopoly on educating Blazers.”

Indeed, the Seven Stars wasn’t merely an event for the schools. It existed for the Federation to put the excellence of their educational facilities and the mass production of superior Blazers under their control on display for the entirety of Japan. Their ability to deliver such incredible results was the reason that an exception was made to allow Blazer education, a factor vital to Japan’s defense, to be left to the Mage-Knight Federation, an entity that existed outside of the Japanese government.

But what if there was another educational facility that could outdo the Federation? Naturally, trust in their brand would be shaken to its very core. The purpose behind the establishment of Akatsuki Academy and the hiring of Rebellion, an enemy of the Federation, was to do just that, create a powerful entity to oppose them.

“So, I’m terribly sorry, but I’m going to need you to fall. You will be the stepping stones that lead to our success.”

Great malice rose from the group of Akatsuki students, enveloping them as they took their Devices in hand and assumed fighting stances.

“Do you really think we’ll just lie down and let you make fools out of us? Come and take us down, if you think you can!”

Hagun’s students responded in kind. They were still unnerved after the instantaneous show of hostility, but they materialized their own Devices nonetheless, symbolizing their readiness to resist the incoming threat.

“Heheh, with pleasure.”

The tension finally boiled over, with both forces leaping into battle.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Thank you so much for coming all the way out here, Master Nangou. We never expected that our swordplay coaches would be such easy opponents for him.”

Back at Kyomon Academy’s training camp in Yamagata, the facility had become quiet, the students having returned to their schools. Torajirou Nangou, the God of War and a swordplay instructor rushed in to help with the camp, was thanked for his help and seen to his car by a member of the camp’s staff.

“Oh ho ho! It’s no trouble at all. I’d been hoping to spar with that boy once or twice, and this was a perfect excuse to do so. Just as I’d thought, that boy is truly something.”

“You think so?” the staff member asked, taken aback by Nangou’s claim. “I went to watch one of your matches, but you two just stood and stared at each other the whole time. I didn’t see so much as one swing from either of your swords, so I just assumed Ikki was afraid of you.”

“Oh ho. Well, I suppose an amateur would see it that way.”

Nangou had sparred with Ikki three times during his stint as a temporary swordplay coach. Each time, they stood in their starting positions, remaining motionless until the end of the match. To someone like the staff member, who had watched from the sidelines, Ikki being too scared to move was the most logical conclusion to have drawn. According to Nangou, however, the truth was deeper than that.

Stepping into range of a swordsman of Nangou’s level was essentially accepting death; a single thoughtless misstep was all he needed to immediately cut down any foe. Knowing as much, the Worst One spent the entire duration of their three matches—a total of sixty minutes—making tiny alterations to his gaze, his fighting aura, and any other behaviors he could adjust in preparation to move in. He avoided making any thoughtless missteps, attempting to create an opportunity to jump in by standing in his starting position and using every technique in his repertoire in hopes of breaching the impenetrable barrier that was Nangou’s sword.

Unfortunately for Ikki, he was up against the man whose title was earned through his victory in China’s God of War League, the most prestigious of knight leagues in all the world. A man like him would give Ikki no opportunity to approach, resulting in Ikki not making a single move. Despite that, however, Nangou thought very highly of the boy.

Quite a surprise that he forced me to keep my guard up the way he did. Maybe if we’d used our abilities, we could’ve actually finished our fights.

While it was true that Ikki hadn’t moved at all, it was also true that Nangou hadn’t either. The Worst One had, for the full hour they’d sparred, never given the God of War a single chance to attack him. Though Nangou had made alterations to his behaviors to attempt to intimidate Ikki or feign attacks, Ikki’s spirit never wavered. He’d remained so steadfast, in fact, that he’d even gone on a similar offensive rather than remaining defensive. From the sidelines, it had appeared as though they’d stood still for twenty minutes at a time, but for Nangou, it was sixty minutes of incredibly dense combat the likes of which he’d experienced only a few times in the past.

“In terms of swordplay alone, he might be even superior to Ryouma,” Nangou said, his wrinkled face relaxing into a pleasant smile. “That boy’s going to be a frightening one someday.”

“He must be a big deal if you’ve got this much to say about him.”

“Oh ho. But I’m not going to let myself fall behind just yet. Hmm?”

“Master? What’s wrong?”

Nangou suddenly stopped walking, and the staff member walking with him stopped as well. Nangou was staring directly ahead, at a small hut built next to the road.

“What’s this?”

“That’s a warehouse. I believe lime and other similar materials are stored in it.”

“Is that all?”

“I would assume so, yes.”

“Well. That’s strange, then,” Nangou said as he scratched his chin, lost in thought.

“Why’s that?”

“There’s a person inside.”

Nangou’s brusque assertion prompted surprise from the staff member.

“Wh-What?! You don’t mean…”

Not waiting for his response, Nangou’s cane knocked against the ground with each step he took toward the warehouse. He paused, then, in a flash imperceptible to the untrained eye, unsheathed his swordstick Device, slicing the padlock that sealed the warehouse door. When he opened it, he discovered a girl who had been bound and gagged.

“I knew it.”

“Mmph! Hmmmph!”

“Y-You’re that girl from Hagun Academy’s newspaper club!” the staff member, who had arrived right after Nangou, cried in shock. The confined girl was indeed none other than Kagami Kusakabe.

“Hrrrmph!”

“Don’t rush me. I’ll free you now.”

Nangou skillfully severed the rope that bound Kagami. With her freedom of movement regained, she tore away the gag that covered her mouth and took a deep breath.

“Pwah! Haah, haah! Th-Thank you for saving me!”

“What in blazes happened to you?”

The staff member’s face was colored with uneasiness at the abnormal state of things. She had obviously been bound up and locked in the warehouse, but the specifics of how she’d gotten into such a situation were completely unknown to him. Kagami, however, hurriedly shook her head.

“Haah, I’ll explain later! I have to make a phone call first!”

Communicating the truth she’d discovered and the traitor that had discovered her to her friends was of utmost importance. Driven by a duty-bound determination to warn Ikki and the others, she pulled her student handbook from her pocket.

“Grr!”

It’s not going through!

No matter which of the trio Kagami called, neither Ikki nor Stella nor Shizuku would pick up. Awful thoughts about what sort of situation they were in flooded her mind, accompanied by the image of her friends fallen at Alice’s feet. She knew just how terrifying Alice’s abilities were, as the two had spent plenty of time together. If, as she had deduced, Alice was a member of the enemy ranks, the image in her mind wasn’t unrealistic.

She had to find some way to tell them about Alice, and every second was precious. Nervousness continued to strengthen the pounding in Kagami’s chest, until she resorted to an extreme measure. She followed a set procedure as she operated her handbook’s display, switching on one of its emergency features. Only usable to connect two student handbooks from the same school, the “forced call” mode set the receiving phone to full volume and automatically answered the call on speakerphone. With the forced call mode activated, she called Ikki’s handbook once more.

“Ikki!” she screamed the moment her call connected. “Alice is a spy from another school! Watch ooout!”

◆◇◆◇◆

Kagami’s voice echoed across the distant campus of Hagun Academy at an incredible volume. It reached the ears of everyone present, but it was a moment too late. Her screams were heard in the same instant Akatsuki’s and Hagun’s forces charged into battle.

Standing at the back of Hagun’s group, Alice, too, had made her move. She watched her so-called allies charge toward Akatsuki, then materialized several copies of her Device, Darkness Hermit, and held them between her fingers. It was the moment she had been waiting for, the type of moment she lived for.

Alice’s ability to manipulate shadows was based on concept manipulation. Her Noble Art, Shadow Bind, was an incredibly potent action that prevented all of her opponent’s movements if their shadow was pierced by her Device. Once the Hermit dug its fangs into one’s shadow, they wouldn’t be able to break their restraints no matter how hard they struggled. Even someone as strong as Stella would be powerless before it.

In situations where ambush was a viable tactic, Alice’s ability was one of the strongest there was. All she had to do was create an opportunity for that ambush. To that end, she had entered Hagun Academy, getting closer to its most powerful students so nonchalantly and making them trust her. If she could get the opportunity to land just a single sucker punch, victory would be in her hands. That was her plan to make Akatsuki Academy’s attack on Hagun, the Eve’s Ceremony, a resounding success.

As of the moment the two groups began their clash, Alice had fulfilled her duty. She had admirably, flawlessly carried out her mission. The entirety of Hagun’s forces had turned their backs to her, their minds and bodies focused wholly on the enemy they could see. Not a single person doubted her—a fatal mistake. Kagami could scream all she wanted, but she was powerless to help them evade or defend against their unseen foe.

“Shadow Bind.”

Coldly, mercilessly, the daggers flew from Alice’s hands. They soared through the air, each one quickly piercing the shadow of one of her targets and activating her Noble Art. Frozen in place by the ambush, all of Akatsuki was left completely defenseless.

◆◇◆◇◆

Ten minutes earlier, when Ikki and the gang had first seen smoke rising in the distance from aboard the bus.

“Akatsuki Academy. That’s the name of the group attacking Hagun.”

Everyone had nearly erupted into panic, but Alice’s cold, detached voice was clear among it all. Scattered around the bus were Darkness Hermit copies, stabbed into every shadow present.

“Huh?! Oh, Alice?!”

“What’s going on?”

Looking over the group, all of whom were shaken from having suddenly been rooted in place, Alice spoke again.

“I’ll tell you everything. Just calm down and listen, please.” She told them all about her true identity: an assassin for the Rebellion. Hired by a certain organization, Rebellion aimed to interfere in the coming Seven Stars Battle Festival, and for that purpose, they had sent elites from the underworld to the already-existing seven schools. Furthermore, she told them of the threat that they would face in ten minutes’ time, along with the attackers’ plans. “In short, my role was to stand behind you all and make it so you were unable to fight. The strategy would be guaranteed to go off without a hitch that way. I enrolled in Hagun and got closer to all of you in order to do that.”

“So you were lying to us this whole time?!”

“If this is some sort of joke, you’d better take it back.”

Stella and Ikki looked confused—bitter, even—but Alice shook her head.

“Sorry, but it’s no joke,” she declared so assuredly that it made Stella and Ikki even angrier. “Everything I just told you is true.”

“I don’t get it,” Shizuku, the person among them all who knew Alice the best, asserted, as calm and collected as ever. Her face, like the water’s surface on a clear day, showed not a ripple of emotion. “Why are you telling us this? Doesn’t us knowing about the plan make it that much more likely to fail?”

Shizuku had a point. After all, Alice had just told them all about the role she was to play once they’d arrived at Hagun. They knew that she was planning to ambush them from behind. If she meant to betray them, she was really jumping the gun.

Pressed from that angle, Alice looked over to Shizuku and responded in her calm voice. She had chosen the words she would say long ago.

“Yes, you’re right. I want this strategy to fail.”

Her tone, full of certainty, and her words, tinged with resolve, combined to show that she was, without a doubt, speaking the truth. She’d already made the decision to ensure that Akatsuki’s plan ended in failure.

“Why? Didn’t you enter this school and get close to Shizuku all for this?”

Though Ikki demanded to know why she would betray Akatsuki, Alice couldn’t help but to crack a troubled smile.

“Yes. Or, well, that’s what I was supposed to do. The thing is, I just became so helplessly fond of Shizuku.”

Alice began thinking to herself as she stared at the silver-haired girl. A ruined family, unbreakable blood ties, constant injustice. Even in the face of all that, no matter how badly she got hurt or how much she lost, Shizuku gritted her teeth and fought through it. It didn’t matter if she couldn’t be the person who was closest to her beloved brother; she would still love him with all her heart. To Alice, who had folded before the world’s injustices and forever abandoned the ability to love others, Shizuku’s way of life was so very beautiful. It was for that reason that, at some point, Alice had begun to feel something more strongly than ever before.

“The strong take everything, and the weak lose everything.” Even if Wallenstein’s sad claim was the absolute truth of this hellish existence, she didn’t want to be in a position where she had to take from such a noble girl. If she did, she would be no different from the mafia that had taken everything from her.

“You might ask me why,” Alice continued, “but this really is the reason for everything I’ve done. I don’t want to destroy Shizuku’s hopes, nor the dreams of the one she cherishes so dearly. I won’t help anyone else do so, either. With that in mind, I want to work together with you all to protect the Seven Stars, the venue where you can make your dreams into reality.”

“You want to work together with us?”

“Yes. Akatsuki Academy is made up of the underworld’s elites, so trying to fight them fairly would be suicide. But, if I can guarantee an ambush, that would be your best chance to defeat them.” Being betrayed by an ally at the outset of battle would leave them completely unable to react. A spy having infiltrated Hagun guaranteed Akatsuki’s success, but that logic worked both ways. Thus, in order to ensure the ambush stood no chance of failure, Alice had spent all her time working as a member of Akatsuki, never making herself the least bit suspicious. “If Hagun can thoroughly crush Akatsuki here, their plans will suffer a total setback. They’ll be forced to flee and won’t even be able to participate in the Festival. Only then will I be able to protect your Seven Stars Battle Festival. So please, I need you to work with me so that we can drive Akatsuki back.”

Alice bowed her head as deeply as she could while she petitioned with her friends. Everything she was doing was for the sake of Shizuku, both the girl herself and the boy she loved. She held out no hope of things returning to the way they were as a result of a single good deed; it didn’t change the fact that she was a murderer and a liar. Never again would Shizuku think of Alice as a sister, just like the younger siblings she’d lost long ago.

That, however, no longer mattered to her. She didn’t even care if she was no longer a part of Shizuku’s life if it meant protecting Shizuku’s precious love. That was Alice’s one desire—her genuine aspiration. And yet…

“D-Do you expect us to believe that?! Rebellion is a terrorist group, right?! They’re all murderers!”

“That’s right! You even said that you’ve killed people yourself! Why should we trust you when you’ve got us bound like this?!”

How sad it was that humans had no way to read the minds of others. The way the Hagure twins felt was only natural, considering how little they knew Alice. Their expressions were filled with fear and hatred toward the murderer before them, an abnormality existing outside the realm of common values.

For such a long time, a killer had been in their midst. It was so disgusting, so vile, so frightening that their reactions were what Alice had expected. To find that one of their acquaintances was actually a murderer with dozens of kills to their name must have been terrifying. All the times they’d spoken so obliviously to the monster before them metamorphosed, making such an everyday occurrence something feel so repulsive that it made them want to vomit. Alice’s only targets were fellow underworld criminals, but murder is still murder. From all points of view, their reactions were normal.

“Kikyou, Botan, I think you’re exactly right. There’s no reason for you to trust a murderer like me, especially now that you know I’ve been a traitor this whole time. That’s why, once this is over, I swear that I’ll never show my face around you again. And if something happens to me in this fight, if I’m injured in some way, I won’t mind if you desert me. But please, just for this moment, I want you to trust me.”

Accepting that their assertion was the natural conclusion, Alice used it to further her request. All she could do was plead with them, because She knew that there was no way to make others understand the contents of her heart, so all she could do was plead with them. The only option she had left was to pour every ounce of sincerity she could muster into her words and bow.

“Something’s been on my mind,” Touka interjected. “The organization that hired Rebellion to destroy the Seven Stars—in other words, your sponsor. Who exactly is that?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s a foe that we can’t handle. Telling you would only stress you out, so I can’t tell you just yet.”

“C-Come on, she’s obviously hiding something!”

“I knew it! We can’t trust someone this suspicious!”

The Hagure twins let loose another round of jeers, but Touka stopped them.

“And if we told you that we won’t trust you? What would you do then?”

“If that’s the case, I’ll turn this bus around and drive it as far away as I can,” Alice replied unhesitatingly. She had always planned to do so as a last resort. “But escape is impossible, so it would be little more than a vain struggle. As for me, I’d much prefer to make use of the element of surprise that we have now.”

“Hmm. I see your point. What do you think we should do, Kurogane?” The student council president’s dignified nature was shining through. Instead of panicking when faced with such an extraordinary situation, she quickly gathered her thoughts and took control over the flow of conversation. “Whether we fight or run, and whether we trust Alice or not, we’re in a race against time. This isn’t the time for a deliberate exchange of opinions. You’re the captain of Hagun’s Seven Stars representatives, so I believe you’re the one most qualified to make this decision.”

Ikki remained silent, considering his options. At the moment, there wasn’t enough basis to place their full trust in Alice. As Shizuku had pointed out, however, it was true that Alice’s actions did nothing to benefit her side. Ikki continued to turn the problem over in his mind, but a single quick glance at Shizuku’s face was enough to give him his answer.

“I think we should trust her.”

◆◇◆◇◆

Thanks to the Hagun representatives’ trust, Alice’s plan was carried out flawlessly. All of Akatsuki Academy was seized by their shadows during the initial charge, leaving them defenseless and unable to move.

“Raaahhhhh!”

All seven of them were slaughtered by Hagun’s blades. Fatal blows on defenseless targets, unavoidable and unblockable. It was a complete, unquestionable victory for Hagun Academy.

That should do it.

Alice had protected Shizuku’s—her little sister’s hopes. Her and everyone else’s Seven Stars was no longer in danger of being soiled by foul machinations. She was overjoyed beyond words by the result, and the other Hagun students were much alike.

“Ph-Phew… I don’t know what I would’ve done if we’d been stabbed in the back.”

Feeling their blades pierce through the Akatsuki students put everyone’s minds at ease. They all sighed with relief, finally relaxing their shoulders. Everyone except for Ikki, however, who was looking down at his fallen brother with a grim expression on his face.

It can’t be. A horrid chill that nearly made him retch ran through his body as he looked upon the truth that lay before him. What is this?

No matter how or from where he looked at it, he was truly looking at his brother Ouma. His manner, his aura, his spirit, his voice, his face—all of it was Ouma’s and Ouma’s alone. Ikki could still feel within Intetsu that he had absolutely taken down his brother with just one blow, yet that fact, coupled with the fact that he was dealing with the genuine article, made it all the harder to believe. Ouma Kurogane, the Gale Sword Emperor, couldn’t possibly have fallen so gracelessly at his feet.

As if triggered by that realization, a memory resurfaced in Ikki’s mind. A single fragment of a memory from several days prior, back in Yamagata’s shopping district. On that day, one boy had moved even faster than him to stop a knifer.

“Whoooa! Stop, stop! You can’t do that!”

That boy had told Ikki that he was able to do so because of his Blazer ability. Taking the boy’s physical ability into account, he must have acted even before the man did; if he hadn’t, Ikki would have reached him first.

Generally speaking, only two abilities could make such a thing possible. The first was the ability to see through things. If he had seen the hidden knife, it would have been easy to jump in before the man had revealed its presence. There was something that contradicted that, though. Kagami had said that the reason this boy was chosen to represent his school at the Seven Stars was that he had “the rare ability to manipulate cause and effect”. The ability to see through things was neither rare nor related to cause and effect, meaning that his Blazer ability had to have been something else. That something else, the only other possibility, was the ability to predict the future.

There’s no way…!

Faced with an impossible reality, Ikki seemingly received a divine revelation, one that sent a shudder creeping from his bowels all the way up to his throat. He quickly turned toward Alice, the shudder bursting from his lips as words.

“Alice, watch out! It’s a trap!”

But he was too late.

“Wha—?! Ah…”

“Alice?!”

Before she could react to Ikki’s warning, Alice was skewered by countless blades from behind. She then fell to the ground with a thud, dozens of silver swords still stabbed into her. Everyone gasped simultaneously at the sudden development.

“What a shame!” came a boundlessly energetic voice. “Maybe she would’ve reacted in time if you’d noticed a little sooner. I’m surprised you figured out my ability with so little contact, though, Ikki. That’s just what I’d expect from you!”

There, behind Alice, stood Amane Shinomiya, smiling innocently as he grasped countless silver swords.

◆◇◆◇◆

Alice, forcibly blacked out by the Phantom Form weapons protruding from her back, collapsed limply upon the ground. Shizuku was the first to act in retaliation.

“Alice!” she yelled, running over to her fallen friend.

“Shizuku, don’t be careless! Look ahead!”

“Gh?!”

Ikki’s warning came just in time. Before Shizuku’s eyes, there was a small distortion in the empty air, where the scenery seemed to rip.

That’s…!

Upon seeing it, Shizuku held up both arms in front of her face, assuming a defensive posture. Instantly after doing so, her tiny body was launched horizontally through the air, bouncing like a ball. It was like she’d been punched away by some invisible force—which was exactly what had happened.

“Ah…!”

A gasp came from one of the Hagun students. No, perhaps it had come from all of them, as the sight before them was truly stunning. As if walking out of an invisible smokescreen, the fallen Akatsuki Academy students appeared before the group, unwounded.

“H-Huh?! The heck’s going on?!”

“Are those clones?! How can they be standing over there when they’re on the ground right here!”

Renren and Saijou looked at their feet to confirm that the fallen Akatsuki were still there. Upon doing so, their eyes opened wide, for the truth was that the figures below them were nothing more than painted wooden dolls.

“Wh-What’s going on here?!”

“That was my Trompe L’oeil. Some say my art is realer than the real thing.”

A girl from Akatsuki Academy muttered a response to Renren’s shout. That girl, topless besides the apron hiding her generous chest, was Sara Bloodlily. Much like Alice, she, the Bloody da Vinci, was a member of Rebellion.

“To put it simply, the people that you thought to be us were actually wooden replicas given life by her Noble Art and piloted by my Black Widow.” Hiraga, the Pierrot, laughed contentedly as he exposed the truth. “Using Ouma’s wind powers to refract light, we kept our true selves hidden the whole time, waiting for your plan to fall apart.”

“Then you’ve known all along that Alice was deceiving you?!”

“We happen to have a spectacular prophet among us, you see. Ah, but the traitor herself was never told of this, of course. Just look how it turned out, though; it would seem Amane’s prediction was right on the nose. Makes for quite the shame that Master Wallenstein wanted to take pity on Alice and give her one last chance. I imagine he’ll be very disappointed.

“Well, I’ll leave you to finish the job, friends. The sponsor’s order was to ‘crush them as absolutely and intimidatingly as possible’, so if you would, please destroy every last one of them. In the meantime, I’ll take this traitor to her master.”

The Pierrot lifted Alice’s limp body and leaped backward like a panther, fleeing the battlefield. Try as he might, however, Ikki would not allow him such an easy escape.

“Hold it!” he cried as he kicked off the ground in pursuit. He moved fast enough that he would have caught up quickly if it weren’t for the Gale Sword Emperor blocking his path. “Ouma!”

“Begone.”

With not the slightest moment of hesitation, Ouma swung his Device, a nodachi over three feet long called Ryuuzume, a silver arc following the blade as it tore through the air. The merciless attack rushed toward Ikki’s torso, making it all too clear to him that he would have to stop and pay full attention to defending himself to prevent himself and Intetsu from being sliced in two.

“Haaaaah!”

Though Ikki had temporarily given up his pursuit, Ouma’s Device was stopped short of its target by a golden sword enveloped in flames.

“Stella!”

“Ikki!” Stella shouted while still fending off Ouma’s blade with her own. “Shizuku is chasing after Alice!”

“Ah!”

Ikki turned to look at the spot where Shizuku had landed after being blown away by Ouma. She was no longer there, so he began searching for her, and eventually caught sight of her far away, pursuing the fleeing Hiraga at top speed.

“They didn’t even try to stop her! There’s probably a trap just waiting for her out there! Don’t let her go alone; you have to go after them!”

Stella’s rapid-fire commands caused Ikki to hesitate. Was it okay for him to leave Stella and the others to deal with the threat facing them? Fortunately, Touka and the other student council members were present. The Hagure sisters were Seven Stars representatives, too. Therefore, it was best to help the person who was alone.

“Got it! I’ll let you handle these guys, then!”

“Right! I can crush every last one of these fools even without Alice’s help!”

Spurred on by Stella’s confidence, Ikki left the fight behind to chase after Shizuku. Seeing him off as he left, Stella returned her attention to her foe, who resembled her beloved. She could feel that the man, just like the puppet from earlier, was staring into her soul.

“I know you’ve been watching me this whole time. You’re here because you want to fight me, aren’t you?!” If Sara’s art was “realer than the real thing” like she claimed, then the puppet’s gaze had even imitated Ouma’s emotions. The Crimson Princess had no reason to refuse him. Her opponent was a Rank A knight just like her, so the time to play her part had come. “Then I accept your challenge, Gale Sword Emperor!”

Resolved to fight, Stella used her raw power to send Ouma flying. After launching him over a hundred feet away, she poured all of her spirit into the broadsword Lævateinn. She would begin their fight with her ultimate Noble Art, a swing of her sword that burned with the heat of the sun itself: Katharterio Salamandra.

I don’t know how strong this guy is, but I do know that he means business!

In order to defeat him, she couldn’t hold anything back at any point during their fight. If opening with Katharterio Salamandra was all it took to finish the match, that was fine with her. If not, she would learn her enemy’s true strength through how he countered. That was Stella’s decision, her determination leaping like the temperature.

“Hmph. Is that really how you intend to end this? Boring.”

With a savage grin that revealed his canines, Ouma responded with his own most powerful Noble Art. Ironically, it involved the same movements as Stella’s. Gripping his long sword with both hands, he held it aloft as he poured magic into it.

As the Gale Sword Emperor, Ouma’s ability was the manipulation of nature, specifically wind. The savage gale born from his power created a tornado centered around Ryuuzume, devouring the air around him. Likewise, debris and fire were swallowed by the storm that consumed everything in its wake. Once the violent storm had grown and condensed around his sword to the point that it too seemed to have mass, Ouma coolly uttered a single word:

“Kusanagi.”

A sword of blinding flame versus a sword of raging wind. Each one was nearly two hundred feet in length, able to attack at an unprecedented range. They were more than capable of bridging the hundred-foot gap between their wielders.

Both warriors simultaneously swung their supermassive swords down on their waiting foe, the blades colliding in midair. Instantly, the reinforced elements summoned by the knights’ magic, flame and wind, began to grind each other away, sending sparks flying. The sparks quickly began to unravel, becoming storms and conflagrations of their own that continued to wreak havoc on the surrounding area as they battled.

“Eeeeek!”

The Hagures screamed as the scorching gales threatened to blow away everyone present. Forced to protect themselves with magic, they all curled up and labored to stay rooted in place. If they relaxed for even a second, they would be launched with such force that the inevitable impact would be akin to hitting the ground after falling from the top of a skyscraper. To avoid that, everyone desperately tried to protect themselves while in the midst of a fight at a level that most normal knights could only dream of witnessing.

At long last, however, the competition between the blinding flame and raging wind began to break down. The Crimson Princess was being forced back.

N-No way! The bones in Stella’s arms creaked. Her heels gradually dug into the asphalt beneath them, carving fissures into it. Though she prided herself on her unprecedented strength, she was under pressure she had never faced before. I’m actually losing in a battle of raw strength?!

The sheer power that Ouma was unleashing bewildered Stella; she had never experienced anything like it. Unable to keep up, her plan to use Katharterio Salamandra to ascertain her opponent’s strength began to collapse at an alarming rate. Never before had she come across so much as a single person who could withstand a frontal attack from her esteemed Noble Art, but Ouma had done just that, and was even pushing her back.

Stella could hardly believe her eyes, let alone measure his strength. She had no experience facing such a situation, and with that lack of experience came a lack of ideas as to how to recover.

I don’t know what to do…! Slowly, gradually, the perfect cross shape created by the blades distorted. Raging wind overcame blinding flame, the tornado grinding away at the light pillar like a drill. Finally, the blade of Katharterio Salamandra was severed, and Kusanagi descended toward Stella’s head. Oh no!

Reeling from the overpowering force that broke her sword, Stella couldn’t move to escape her opponent’s attack. Nobody was able to jump in to save her, either, as everyone else in the area was preoccupied with protecting themselves from the incredible impact of the Rank A knights’ swords. Stella was going to be hit. Her defeat was all but assured—if not for Touka Toudou, the Raikiri and the only person present who was able to withstand their battle.

“Stella!”

Just before Kusanagi could split Stella in half, Touka used Shippuu Jinrai to accelerate, slipping between them to grab Stella and save her from the falling blade by a hair’s breadth. Kusanagi slammed into the ground as its raging winds tore through and blew away everything in its path. If Stella hadn’t been pulled away by Touka, she herself would have fallen victim to that destructive power.

Nothing remained in the arc traced by Kusanagi’s descent. Buildings, training grounds, the asphalt along the ground, and even the debris that littered the area had been ground away, leaving only a straight line carved into the brown soil. It was almost as if an enormous dragon had dragged one of its claws through it all. If a human had taken that powerful a blow head-on, there would probably have been nothing left of them.

Th-That was close! If Touka hadn’t saved me, I would have…

“Thank you! You saved me, Tou—?!” Suddenly, Stella’s voice caught in her throat, the reason for which lay in Touka’s right hand as it supported Stella’s head. She had sent a bolt of electricity directly through Stella’s brain. “Why…?”

“I’m sorry, Stella, but I can’t let you keep fighting Ouma. If you can only tie with me, then you can’t defeat him right now.”

“Ah…”

Stella looked to have some sort of protest in mind, but given that Touka had essentially flipped the breaker in her brain, she fainted before she could say it.

“Kikyou, Botan!”

“Huh?!”

“Eep!”

After forcing Stella to go unconscious, Touka looked to the Hagure sisters and lobbed Stella’s limp body at them. Though startled by the abrupt toss, the girls were quick enough thinkers to make it as two of Hagun’s Seven Stars representatives, so they had no trouble catching Stella.

“Take her and run as far as you possibly can!” Touka shouted not a moment after they’d caught her. “We can’t lose any Seven Stars representatives like you girls right now!”

Even under such extreme circumstances, Touka was calmer and more collected than anyone else. The situation had transformed the moment their ambush failed, and considering the difference in strength between the two groups, driving Akatsuki Academy back was a herculean task for Hagun. If they jumped in without a plan, Stella and the Hagure sisters ran the risk of becoming disabled—or worse—at the hands of Akatsuki’s students. If that happened, Akatsuki taking Hagun’s place as the seventh school, the worst possible outcome, would become far less improbable. As a veteran who had been through countless real-life battles, Touka decided on the best course of action and relayed her plan accordingly.

Routing Akatsuki’s students and bringing the situation to a forceful end. Stella’s method would usually be the best way to do things, but it’s not the right strategy here. Right here, right now, the most important thing for me to do is to protect Hagun Academy’s representatives!

“Y-Yes, ma’am!” the twins cried.

Touka’s command reverberated with the strength of her resolve, spurring them into action. Regardless of whether they agreed with her, the force of her command alone was enough to make them listen. Kikyou, the stronger of the Hagure sisters, quickly picked Stella up, and they turned tail and fled from Hagun.

“You think you can escape?”

Ouma’s voice, like a low growl, signaled the Akatsuki students behind him to leap into action. First was the girl in the dress, the Beast Tamer Rinna Kazamatsuri, riding atop her enormous black lion. Following her was Yui Tatara, The Unflinching.

“Mach Greed!”

“Crescendo Axe!”

Though Rinna and Yui tried to give chase to the three, Runner’s High and the Destroyer halted their pursuit by attacking them from the side.

“And you think we’d let you follow them?” Touka retorted, locking eyes with Ouma as she readied Narukami. As if following her, the other student council members readied their Devices anew as well.

“You’d sacrifice yourselves to let your representatives get away? That’s quite the level-headed decision. Unfortunately, you’re only prolonging the inevitable.”

Accompanying Ouma’s threat, the Akatsuki students stepped forward, their dark malice palpable. A second charge, one that harbored no falsehood or tricks, was unavoidable. It was truly a matter of life and death.

“Kana.”

As the atmosphere rapidly tensed ever further, Touka spoke to the girl standing next to her: Kanata Toutokubara. Touka gazed at her, the student council’s only Seven Stars representative, seemingly encouraging her to flee. Aware of what she wanted to say, Kanata offered not even a glance in return. She continued to stare fixedly at the targets in front of her.

“Absolutely not. I’ll be with you until the very end, Touka.”

“Right.” The two had known each other since they were children, so Touka knew just how stubborn she was. Repeated pleas would have been nothing more than wasted breath. “Letting a job go unfinished would leave a stain on the good name of the Hagun Academy student council. We’ll pay them back in full for trespassing on our turf!”

“Yeaaah!”

Invigorated by her short speech, all the students still present roared as they charged into battle.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Haah, haah…!”

Shizuku had been running along the empty slope leading from the school for some time. Once she had made it out of a bustling downtown area, however, a sharp pain in her side forced her to stop.

I’m really… out of shape. But I haven’t lost him yet.

She cursed her own weakness as she calculated the distance between her and the clown who’d abducted Alice, Hiraga. He was no longer visible; at some point along the way, he might have gotten into a car. Forward thinker that she was, though, Shizuku had wrapped a thread of magic around Alice just as she was being abducted.

The thread, so thin that it was imperceptible to the naked eye, could pass through any material, leading directly to Alice. By using that thread as a guide, she would be able to find her lost friend, even if catching up on foot was impossible. To account for that impossibility, she accosted a man on a motorcycle who was waiting at a red light.

“Excuse me! I’m a student knight from Hagun Academy. There’s a bit of an emergency, so I’d like to borrow your bike—”

“What?! Get real, brat. Why would I do that?”

“This is an emergency,” she told the man, an alarmingly hostile look on her face as she pressed Yoishigure against his throat. “Please.”

“Gladly! In fact, I insist!”

With a horrified smile, the man nodded like a bobblehead before breaking into a dead sprint, leaving his motorcycle abandoned. He had left Shizuku no other choice; she was in too great a hurry to argue. Deciding that she could probably have the school return it later, Shizuku took the man’s spot on the bike. In doing so, she realized that she had made a grave mistake.

My legs are too short…

“This is truly the most dastardly trap of them all.”

“Having fun, Shizuku?” came a voice from behind her, causing her to turn around.

“Big Brother.” There stood Ikki, who had been quick to catch up to her. “The enemy must have had some sort of getaway vehicle prepared, because Alice is getting farther away. That’s why I procured this motorcycle, but as you can see, it has a major design flaw. It’s disappointing indeed to see just how far Japanese manufacturing has degraded.”

“I don’t think the problem here is the design.” Ikki chuckled for a moment at Shizuku’s blame-shifting, but his face quickly turned serious. He approached her and asked a question of the girl who was still trying to pursue Alice despite her trickery. “Shizuku. They know that we’re trying to find Alice, but Ouma and the others aren’t trying to stop us. They’re not trying because they don’t have to try. There’s no question that somewhere up ahead, someone we have no hope of defeating is lying in wait. You know that, right?”

“Yes, I’m well aware.”

“Alice was lying to us for all that time. What if us pursuing her is all part of her plan? What if this is just another one of her complex schemes? That’s not impossible, is it?”

“Yes, I’m well aware.”

“And even if Alice did forsake Akatsuki just to save us, she told us to abandon her. That was what she asked of us. That means she doesn’t want you to put yourself in danger, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, I’m well aware.”

Shizuku gave the same response to all three of Ikki’s questions. She could infer that Ikki was trying to stop her, but she had no intention of backing down so easily, even if the person opposing her was her beloved older brother. After all, in her mind, his three questions were nothing but three tiny little nitpicks.

“So what? What’s so important about any of that, Big Brother?” She looked her brother directly in the eye and conveyed to him just how determined she was. “Alice is my friend. She’s the first person other than you that I’ve ever come to honestly enjoy. And now, that friend is in danger. That’s all that matters to me right now. I don’t care what threats I have to face or how much Alice wants me not to do this; I’m going to save her life.”

She would not turn tail and run home. Even knowing all the risks involved, she still wanted to rush to her closest friend’s aid. In the face of such courage and conviction, her brother couldn’t help but crack a small grin.

“Good answer.”

“…Bwah?” Ikki’s unexpected response caused Shizuku to accidentally make a silly noise. “Big Brother, you’re not here to try to stop me?”

“Well, if you’d given me a halfhearted answer, I would’ve dragged you home whether you liked it or not. But if that’s how strongly you feel about it, I have no reason to stop you.” Ikki straddled the motorcycle, pushing Shizuku behind him and gripping the handles. Then, he turned to look over his shoulder at her. “I’m here to help you do what you want to do, Shizuku.”

“Big Brother…”

Ikki swore that he would join her, accepting all the perils that would come with doing so. The love and appreciation she felt for his compassion made her heart swell. She rested her head on his back and felt more than ever: Though it may be unrequited, I’m glad I fell in love with you.

“Thank you,” Shizuku said, her voice quivering slightly.

“No need to thank me. This is what brothers do. Now, let’s get going. I’ll need you to give directions.”

“Okay.”

Ikki and Shizuku then rode straight toward Akatsuki Academy, where Alice had been whisked away to.