It was Monday, the day after the Rebellion incident. Hagun Academy’s selection battles—the war to decide Hagun’s six representatives for the Seven Stars Battle Festival—had finally begun.

“It finally begins! Here’s the lowdown on one very special contender. She’s a new student, but she’s already Rank B! The blood of the great hero Ryouma Kurogane flows through her! That’s right, it’s Shizuku Kurogane’s first selection battle!”

Hagun’s broadcasting club was met with cheers from everyone who had come to scout the second-best new student.

“And you may know her opponent from last year’s inter-school match against Donrou Academy! He’s the Rank C knight who defeated Yamamichiyuki Azuchi, one of Donrou’s Seven Stars reps. It’s the third-year student, Shigenobu Suga! Will this experienced near-graduate be the one to baptize his young foe, or will a shining superstar of the new generation kick that old fart out of the ring?! And now, the buzzer will—has already rung?! Suga’s already on the move!”

Suga wielded twin swords as his Device. They crackled, ready to unleash lightning.

“Tough luck, super rookie! My lightning is the perfect counter for your water! Curse your bad luck while you watch the Seven Stars from the sidelines! Hakuraijin!”

With a smug expression for having the elemental advantage, Suga slashed in Shizuku’s direction, creating a lightning bolt.

“Shouha Suiren!” Shizuku, standing stock still, went to block the coming attack with her Noble Art, a barrier of water.

A conductor like water should have been useless against an electric attack, but it was quite the opposite. The lightning fizzled out, unable to pierce through the cascade.

“What?!” Suga couldn’t believe his eyes.

“His lightning had no effect! Ms. Oreki, you’re our analyst; could you explain this phenomenon for us?!”

“Gah, gah. Her water is what you’d call ultrapure!”

“‘Ultrapure’?”

“Mm, well, everyone thinks water itself conducts electricity, but that’s not quite right. It’s actually the impurities in the water, like ions and microorganisms, that act as conductors. As water gets purer, it becomes more and more of an insulator. And Shizuku’s water is the purest there is, so it’s ultrapure. Ultrapure water is a nearly perfect insulator, so electricity won’t pass through it.”

“Wow, interesting! So why don’t the other water mages just do the same thing?”

“It’s not that they don’t, it’s that they can’t. Removing all ions and impurities from water is like panning for gold in the desert. Shizuku’s magic control is so refined that she’s able to perform such an incredible feat. If an ordinary knight tried to imitate her, they would probably get really messed up in the head. Cough… That’s the power of the second-strongest new student. Ack! Blurgh!”

“Whoa! This is the third time you’ve coughed up blood today! A-Are you okay, Ms. Oreki?!”

“Oh, p-please, I’m fine. I just need a quick injection is all. Ahhh, that’s nice.”

“Ms. Oreki? Ms. Oreki?! That’s not something people say when they get shots! Are you sure you’re okay?!”

“Yes, yes… You could say I was dying for that shot.”

“Ma’am, you’re starting to sound like an addict!”

It was a bit of a tedious explanation, but essentially, electric attacks were ineffective against Shizuku.

“Damn!” Suga cursed, finally understanding his situation. “I’d better back off for now.”

“Where do you think you’re going to back off to with your legs the way they are?”

“Huh?!”

“Ooh! What’s this?! Suga’s legs have been frozen to the ground! He can’t escape!”

“Suiroudan.”

Shizuku shot a ball of water, about a foot in diameter, from Yoishigure’s tip. It struck the unmoving Suga’s face directly, surrounding his head. He raised a hand to try to pull the orb off of his face, but he only grabbed at water.

Unable to successfully grab a liquid, Suga couldn’t tear the prison off his face. He clawed desperately for air, only speeding up the emptying of his lungs.

“Blurgh.”

The last of his oxygen supply exhausted, Suga’s hands fell to his sides. Shizuku finally dispelled the prison, freeing him, and he fell to the ground in the middle of the ring.

“Shigenobu Suga is unable to battle! Shizuku Kurogane is the winner!” The referee rendered a verdict.

“This battle is oveeer! The winner is Shizuku Kurogane, a first-year student! She overcame an elemental disadvantage through sheer force, seizing her first victory!”

“It wasn’t that big a deal.”

Shizuku looked over to the audience and saw Ikki, waving his hands wildly as he cheered for her. She gave him a small wave back, then turned to look at the electronic signboard above the training field, confirming the time.

She should be finishing her battle soon too.

◆◆◆

Meanwhile, at the seventh training field, four times as many spectators were gathered as there were at Shizuku’s fight.

That was to be expected, as the once-in-a-decade genius princess—a first-year student who was already known around the world as the Crimson Princess—and number one rookie, Stella Vermillion, was fighting her first selection battle.

“Get her, Momotani!”

“You’re the king of close-range battle!”

“Show her what her upperclassmen are made of!”

Several onlookers shouted words of encouragement at her foe.

“The audience is showing incredible support for the heavy tank Momotani! He’s not one of Hagun’s top ten most popular students for nothing! Will we see him use his special technique to blow his enemy out of the arena today?! With his rare armor-type Device, Goliath, he’s ready to unleash his legendary Heavy Charge!”

The crowd cheered as the announcer talked him up. Takeshi Momotani, the giant who stood almost six and a half feet tall and Stella’s first opponent, bore the burden of their expectations:

Momotani, protected by layer upon layer of armor, crouched at his starting position. He pointed his shoulder forward, preparing to charge at his enemy, but he didn’t move from that position.

“What are you doing, Momotani?! Just blow her away like usual!”

“She lost to a Rank F! She’s no match for you!”

His classmates continued to call out to him, but Momotani remained still.

How am I supposed to win here?

He cowered in fear of the sea of flames before him—in fear of Stella, who wore the billowing flames like a dress.

The sea of flames surrounded her in a ring. Even standing more than ten yards away from her, the sparks that burned the air around Stella’s ring of fire were heating up Momotani’s armor. He finally had a true understanding the extraordinary power Stella wielded.

Fighting her would be like throwing myself into a volcano, Momotani began to think.

“They don’t understand, but you seem to.” Stella spoke to Momotani, both of them still at their starting positions. “This is a real fight. There’s no Phantom Form pain here; this is real pain. You’d better think long and hard about whether you want to come near me.”

She knew of his fear, along with the reason behind it. With that in mind, Momotani responded.

“I give up.”

“W-W-Wooow! Momotani has given up without even taking a step!”

“Ahaha! Loser! What a joke! But at least he’s not stupid!” A teacher in the analyst’s chair, wearing a red kimono, cackled tactlessly at his decision. He couldn’t tell if she was making fun of him or praising him.

“What do you mean, Ms. Saikyou?”

“He can’t beat a beast like her! If I told you to burn yourself to death right now, would you do it? Of course not! But man, he didn’t even move before he gave up! What a freakin’ loser! Ahahaha!”

“U-Um, Ms. Saikyou? Could you maybe be a little nicer?” the female announcer warned her, recoiling slightly.

“Ooh, hahahah, I’m sooo scared. I’ll just make my escape!”

Ms. Saikyou leaped out of the analyst’s seat and ran off.

“H-Hey, Ms. Saikyou! There are still matches left! God, who asked this woman to be the analyst?!”

The announcer is pretty easily flustered, Stella sighed in annoyance and exited the ring.

“And I’ve just received word that the results of the battle at the fifth training field are out! The second-place newbie, Shizuku Kurogane, has won against Shigenobu Suga!”

She learned of Shizuku’s victory on the way. Not that she expected any different, especially when Shizuku was up against some nobody.

“But oh my, these new kids are tough! The best and second-best newbies have completely denied some of the school’s best-known knights! Overwhelming victory! They’ve won their debut battles without so much as a scratch on them! There’s something about these kids, I tell you! We might just win the Seven Stars this year!”

◆◆◆

“Congratulations, Stella.”

Back in their dorm room at the end of the first day of selection battles, Ikki praised Stella for her win.

“H-Hmph. I don’t know why you would expect less of me.”

She avoided the compliment as always, but the way her expression wavered ever so slightly made it clear that she appreciated it.

“I hear he didn’t even fight you.”

“Yeah. I decided to turn up the heat a bit more than usual.”

“Sorry I didn’t come. I wish I could have.”

“I wish you had too.”

“Huh? What was that?”

“N-Nothing! It’s not your fault Shizuku’s battle was scheduled for the same time slot. But you’d better come watch me next time!”

“Yeah! Of course. Hey, you came home pretty late for such a speedy victory.”

“Well, that battle was such a letdown that I didn’t even work up a sweat, so I went to the gym for a while.”

“Huh. It’s really cool that all of you won, though. You, Shizuku, and even Alice.”

Alice’s selection battle had taken place immediately after Shizuku’s, at the same training field. Even if her abilities weren’t specialized for battle, she really had shown off when she’d used the skill that had won her the spot as the roommate of the second-best newbie, overwhelming her Rank E foe in under ten seconds.

“I saw her abilities in action during the incident with the Rebellion. Since she isn’t made for battle, she has to play a bit dirty. I guess you wouldn’t do well against a trickster like her, huh?”

“I will always win, no matter who my opponent is. You worry about others too much, Ikki.”

“Ahaha. Maybe.”

Ikki chuckled and looked back at the TV, which showed a certain student knight’s match. It was none other than one of Shizuya Kirihara’s matches.

“You’re watching this video again? You’ve been at this since yesterday.”

“Yeah. I want to study his technique until I know it like the back of my hand.”

The video was borrowed from the head of the newspaper club, Kagami Kusakabe. More specifically, it was footage of his first-round match at the Seven Stars.

It was a strange match—Kirihara walked clockwise around his enemy, shooting at him repeatedly while he just stood there. His opponent couldn’t do anything; he looked around, dumbfounded, as he took magic arrow after magic arrow. Eventually, he bled out and fell. Even when Kirihara stood right in front of him, he didn’t react. He was completely at Kirihara’s mercy.

The reason was simple: Kirihara’s opponent couldn’t see him.

“It’s all because of his perfect stealth technique, Area Invisible. It suppresses all evidence of his existence—he’s invisible to the naked eye, and even his magical power and scent become imperceptible. That’s the special ability of his Device, Oborozuki. Man, what an annoying power.”

“I just can’t stand the way this guy fights.”

Stella watched the TV disdainfully. It certainly wasn’t the most honorable battle, so Ikki understood how she felt. In fact, it was more like a hunt than a battle; he was shooting fish in a barrel.

“But it makes sense to fight the way he does. He used that ability in every fight last year, and he never got a single scratch on him. Kirihara is really strong.”

“Doesn’t that seem weird? He was in last year’s Seven Stars, right? But he’s not the Seven Stars King, so he must have lost at some point.”

“Yeah, in the second round. He withdrew.”

“Why?”

“Kirihara won’t fight an enemy that can break his Area Invisible. It may be a powerful ability, but there’s a surefire way to beat it: wide-area attacks. Kirihara refuses to ever fight an enemy that can hit everything in the arena at once. For example, Stella, I’m sure you could set the whole arena on fire.”

“Hm, so if you can hit the whole arena at once, invisibility is useless.”

“Right. If Kirihara was up against you, he would withdraw. He’s not much of a knight at this point; that’s why most people know him as ‘The Hunter’.”

“Hmph. That’s the worst nickname I’ve ever heard. He avoids fighting people he can’t crush, and when he does fight, he tortures his opponent. He’s more of a chicken than he is a man.” Just staying in a safe place wasn’t so bad—that was actually the whole point of his ability. But Stella was disgusted just watching Kirihara on the TV, as he intentionally avoided dealing the finishing blow in order to continue making his victim suffer. “But now I see why he’s the worst matchup for you.”

“Right? He may as well be my natural enemy.”

The only way to ensure victory against Area Invisible was to use a wide-area attack, but Ikki had nothing like that. He had excellent mastery of the sword, to be sure, along with a well-toned body and hand-to-hand combat skills, but he was limited to purely close-range fighting. He couldn’t hit a foe without first approaching them.

On top of that, Kirihara’s Device, Oborozuki, was a bow—a long-range weapon. Ikki would never be able to land the first hit against him. His trump card, Ittou Shura, could only be used once a day, and a single minute was too restrictive for their fight. Ikki’s Achilles’ heel was an enemy as skilled at running away as he was.

“Do you think you’ll be okay, Ikki?”

On the TV, Kirihara’s prey was being carried away on a stretcher. Concerned that such a tragedy could befall Ikki as well, Stella had her misgivings.

“Are you worried about me?”

“Why would I worry about you?!” His straightforward response had turned her cheeks bright red. “I just need you to win so that I’m not forced to become one of his girlfriends! That’s all I’m worried about! Like, yeah, being your servant is the worst, but having to be that smug ass’ girlfriend is even more the worst!”

“You’re the one who made that wager. I don’t see how you expect me to take responsibility for your blunder. Heck, I even tried to stop you.”

“Aww… I just… couldn’t stand to see him being so mean to you.”

“Huh? You just… What?”

“N-Nothing!” She huffed as she turned away.

Stella was so quiet that Ikki couldn’t hear her. However, he did at least understand that she wanted him to win.

“I don’t care that much about an apology, but I don’t want people looking down on you either. Guess I’d better win tomorrow.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Yeah. I know how to beat him.”

Ikki didn’t hesitate one bit before answering. He was up against the strongest rookie knight of his generation.

Kirihara’s incredible ability helped him win enough to experience the Seven Stars Battle Festival in his first year at Hagun, but in the end, he was still a person. A person who lost in the second round, at that. To be stopped by an obstacle like Kirihara would be a shame to Ikki’s knighthood.

On top of that, the Seven Stars representatives were to be six students with the best results in battle. Ms. Oreki had mentioned “more than ten” battles before, so even rounding up to twenty, there would probably be around six knights who won all twenty of their battles. If Ikki failed even once, he would most likely lose his chance at the Seven Stars.

There was no room for failure. If he failed, everything he’d endured along his path would go to waste.

“I’m going to win,” he swore. Not against anyone in specific, but against himself. Ikki spoke with more confidence than usual.

His confidence was enough to satisfy Stella. Actually, Stella had met up with Alice, who had just finished her battle, on the way back to her dorm. Alice was worried about Ikki, assuming that he was nervous about his first official battle, but he seemed fine. There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in the way he spoke or acted.

Stella knew Ikki’s strength better than anyone, so she decided he was probably ready.

“Good. There’s no choice but for you to win. Remember how he threw the gauntlet at you?”

“That’s not how the saying goes at all.”

Stella was fluent enough in Japanese, but her knowledge of honorable suicide, idioms, and other bits of the culture were all pretty lacking.

“Anyway, Ikki, how about we go get some food? I’m getting hungry.”

“Sure. I’m getting tired of this video.”

“Japanese people usually eat cutlet curry at times like this, right? Isn’t it supposed to bring you victory or something?”

“Uh, no, I don’t buy into superstitions like that. Let’s just get some udon.”

The two of them left their dorm and headed to the school’s cafeteria. The day before the battle ended like any other.

◆◆◆

“Sorry, Kurogane. I can’t really be your friend anymore.”

“Huh?!”

The sun still hadn’t risen. Holding his breath and clenching his hands tight, Ikki opened his eyes; he’d had an awful, awful dream. He relaxed his hands to find they were drenched with sweat.

Why am I dreaming about the past right now, of all times? Ikki’s sorry words echoed within his mind. He hadn’t slept well at all. It’s a bit early for my daily run, but…

Deciding to do so anyway in hopes of clearing his thoughts, Ikki climbed down from the top bunk, moving carefully to avoid waking Stella. It was nearly the end of April. The mornings were still chilly, but it was a welcome temperature, cooling the sweat that covered Ikki’s body.

“Why am I thinking about it so much now?”

Nobody was with him, so he didn’t expect a response. The question had just flown naturally from his mouth, as he still didn’t understand why he had a dream like that.

“The director watches me whenever I talk to you.”

When had the rumors even started to circulate? One single student couldn’t take classes on fighting. The official reason had been that he was too weak and might get hurt, but anyone who had really known the teachers could tell that it was no more than a ruse.

“Anyone who talks to Ikki gets their grades lowered.”

As the rumors spread, naturally, people had started to keep their distance from him.

“Come to think of it, I think that’s where it was.”

Ikki looked through the hallway window and into the lush, green courtyard. Back when everyone had believed the rumors, when everyone but his roommate had shut Ikki out, an unusual voice addressed him in that courtyard. It was Shizuya Kirihara, the superstar rookie of Ikki’s generation, a first-year student who had secured his place at the Seven Stars Battle Festival once before.

To be frank, Ikki had had a bad impression of him from the get-go. The other students had kept their distance from Ikki for their own safety, but Kirihara actively went out of his way to hurt him. Though he never attacked directly, he would slander Ikki amongst his weird harem—always loud enough for Ikki to hear—and spread awful rumors throughout the class, bullying him indirectly.

Why would he do that? Ikki didn’t remember doing anything to make Kirihara dislike him, but maybe that wasn’t even the reason he’d done it. Put simply, there had been nobody in his corner. There seemed to have been an unspoken rule that they could do anything they wanted to hurt him and go unpunished. There had been plenty of people out there who would have loved to take advantage of that, and Kirihara had been one of them. That was probably the only reason he’d addressed Ikki.

Ikki had figured he was up to no good, and sure enough, he was.

“If you keep listening to your teachers like that, you’ll never be able to show them your true power. You know that, don’t you? C’mon. Fight with me, and then they’ll see.”

It was true that Ikki’s teachers wouldn’t have been able to say he was too weak if he’d beaten one of the school’s Seven Stars representatives. Kirihara had made his offer, pretending to care about Ikki, but Ikki hadn’t cared for the offer.

Fighting inside the school without staff permission was punished swiftly and severely. If Ikki were to come anywhere close to causing a scandal, his family and the director—who happened to be wrapped around their little finger—would have been more than happy to have him expelled. That had been Kirihara’s goal.

At the time, he’d felt the presence of multiple staff members. They were all in cahoots with the director, ready to abuse Ikki. In fact, they had probably been standing right behind Kirihara. Having known as much, Ikki had refused the offer and moved to leave the courtyard.

“Don’t be like that. I’m just worried about you as a classmate.”

When Ikki had turned away, however, Kirihara had shot arrows into him using Oborozuki. Ikki hadn’t even been armed; he hadn’t summoned his Device because he knew fighting was foolish.

“I was really surprised at the time.”

Not just at Kirihara’s actions, but because nobody had even tried to stop him. Students and staff alike seemed to ignore them altogether. Ikki had never known his place in the world so intimately before then. He had never hated his solitude so much until then.

The staff had even seemed to have been waiting in anticipation for Ikki to take the bait. For the Kurogane family, the ones who had demanded he not be allowed to become a professional Mage-Knight, his expulsion would have been the single best outcome. He had been fully aware of that, so even as he took dozens of arrows, he’d never summoned Intetsu. Evasion itself could even have been considered violent behavior, so he hadn’t bothered moving.

After having being shot by so many arrows, Ikki had eventually passed out where he’d stood. But, as proven by the school’s camera footage, he’d never tried to fight back, so they weren’t able to punish him. On the other hand, the aggressor, Kirihara, had been “reprimanded”. The whole matter had been settled with a single nominal punishment, making it clear that the whole thing had been a secret deal with the director.

“The more I think about it, the more I realize that last year really sucked.”

From there, the bullying had become more violent and malicious. In the beginning, there were students that sympathized with Ikki, but one by one, they had been caught up in the wave of hatred created by Kirihara and the school staff, becoming numb to the violent displays. Eventually, even Ikki’s roommate—the one friend who’d stood with him through it all—gritted his teeth and left him behind.

Ikki wasn’t mad at him in the slightest; he only felt heartbreak. After that, he never talked to his roommate again. Ikki’s roommate never spoke to him, so he did his best to return the favor and ignore him. He was a kind person; if Ikki had tried to make conversation, he would probably have given in. Eventually, he advanced to the next grade, while Ikki flunked.

“Why did I dream about that?”

It was all over; Ikki didn’t care about it anymore. Until the dream, he didn’t even remember that it happened. So why? Was it because he talked with Kirihara?

Well, no point in wasting brain power on something I don’t know.

It didn’t matter, anyway. With the old director gone, there was nobody to stand in his way. All that mattered was showing what he was made of. Nothing else.

Suddenly, a warm, golden light shone on Ikki’s face, leaking through the gaps in the urban skyline. The light of dawn signaled a new day. Squinting his eyes, he took in the morning of his battle. Ikki Kurogane’s ultimate trial was about to begin.

◆◆◆

During the selection battle period, only morning classes—optional for students who had selection battles that day—were held, while the afternoons and evenings were devoted to those battles. Ikki’s battle was to begin surprisingly early during that time frame, at 1:30 p.m.

Filling his stomach at lunch was a major priority, so Ikki ate with the group at the school’s cafeteria, topping it off with energy gel. From there, Ikki, Stella, Shizuku, and Alice went to the fourth training field, where Ikki’s battle would be held.

It was already 1:00 p.m., with the battle prior to Ikki’s having just begun. He was supposed to be in the waiting room ten minutes before the battle was to begin, so he had twenty minutes free. Stella and Shizuku suggested he sit with them and watch the current battle until then.

“I guess I’ll just go there early, then,” he stated instead.

“Huh? You don’t want to watch them fight?”

“No, thanks. I’d rather concentrate on my own fight. Later.”

Ikki was already optimizing his own mindset and style to face Kirihara. He didn’t want to let that go to waste by getting caught up in someone else’s match.

“Big Brother, you must win this. I believe in you.”

“Like I said yesterday, since you beat me, I’m not going to let you look like a loser out there.”

“Don’t die, hon.”

Ikki nodded at their words of encouragement before heading off to the waiting room.

◆◆◆

“Ikki Kurogane, class 1-1, right? You’re all set, so you can take your handbook back now.”

The girl working at the reception counter had held Ikki’s handbook against her terminal, completing the necessary pre-duel proceedings, then returned the book to him.

“For your first match, I’ll explain the selection battle rules. Like the Seven Stars Battle Festival, selection battles are one-on-one duels with no time limit. You’re free to forfeit at any time.

“Phantom Form will not be used in these battles, and as such, there is a very real possibility of dying in battle. Staff will be on hand to respond to any possible situation in order to prevent accidental death, of course, but we cannot guarantee any student’s safety.

“If you’re willing to accept these risks, tap ‘Yes’ on your handbook’s screen. If not, tap ‘No’, but please keep in mind that doing so will remove you from the pool of selection battle contestants.”

Ikki wasted no time in pressing the “Yes” button.

“Hah! You little boys are all about snap decisions.”

“Huh?” Ikki turned toward the source of the playful voice: a small, familiar-looking woman wearing a white kimono with a floral pattern under a bright red haori. Despite her kimono being far too big for her tiny figure and her childlike features, she wasn’t a student. “You’re Ms. Nene Saikyou, right?”