Worst One Uses Mind Games to Defeat Ace of Donrou, Sword Eater!

The next day, the Hagun Academy Bulletin proudly published the event. Kagami Kusakabe had written the article, complete with pictures taken from a hidden vantage point. She had happened to catch the scent of a scoop when she’d heard Ikki and Ayase talking during their match, so she’d kept her eye on them for the rest of the day, even following them and Stella to the dojo the day after.

“A journalist is indistinguishable from a professional stalker!” she claimed. Ikki was astonished that she’d exposed everything that had happened without him even beginning to sense her presence.

The article made waves throughout Hagun, which was to be expected considering his opponent was a school’s ace. Even if his mind games were the only reason he’d won, nobody could call Ikki’s victory against a quarterfinalist a fluke. Those who were still prejudiced against him were left without a leg to stand on; nobody in Hagun could question his strength any longer.

“Who’s stronger? The student council president, Raikiri, or Worst One?”

No one knew who had first asked that question, but it had piqued the curiosity of all the students at Hagun Academy. Raikiri—Touka Toudou—had been a semifinalist; she must have been stronger. But if anyone would be able to beat her, it was the Worst One.

“No, he wouldn’t.”

“Yes, he would.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

The debate was heated enough that within a week, everyone had grown desperate to see them fight.

◆◆◆

One evening, about a week after Ikki’s fight with the Sword Eater, he and Stella sat down on a bench together, resting after having finished their daily training in the forest clearing.

As they sat down, Ikki received an email from Ayase on his student handbook. Amazingly, her father, Kaito Ayatsuji, had finally woken up.

“Huh? Ayatsuji’s dad woke up?!”

“Sounds like it.”

“That’s great timing!”

“Yeah. She’s just as surprised as we are. Look at this.”

Ikki showed Stella the email.

“Dad woke up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” Stella said. “Just look at all those exclamation marks. There are almost as many of those as there are episodes of Dragon Orb.”

“Well, as long as she’s happy, right?”

Ikki and the gang hadn’t seen Ayase since the day of the fight. After she’d returned to school that day, she said, “I put way too much weight on your shoulders, Kurogane. I should at least take responsibility for what I did to you.”

She gave herself up to the Selection Battle Committee, confessing to having cheated during her battle with Ikki. She wasn’t expelled thanks to Ms. Oreki’s intervention and the fact that she had admitted to it on her own, but she was removed from the selection pool and suspended from school for ten days.

Nonetheless, Ikki and Stella appreciated the email, as it confirmed she was doing well.

“But now that her dad’s awake, it’ll be hard for her to come back.”

“Yeah…”

Kaito had been comatose for two whole years, his body deteriorating all the while; his rehabilitation was sure to be a difficult process. Plus, he still had his heart condition. Ayase most likely wanted to spend time with him while she could.

“Guess we won’t see her in our training sessions anymore,” Ikki sighed.

“It’s kinda sad.”

“That’s just how it is, though.” It was a miracle in itself that Kaito had woken up after the doctors told her he wouldn’t make it past winter. “They may not have much longer together, but I hope they make the most of the time they have.”

“Yeah. Ooh, a phone call.” As Stella looked up at the evening sky, making a wish for Ayase and Kaito’s happiness, Ikki’s handbook suddenly started ringing. The caller happened to be the subject of their conversation, Ayase Ayatsuji. “Hello?”

“Is this Ikki Kurogane? Ayase told me about you. Get over here, marry my daughter, and inherit my dojo!”

Wham!

“You wake up after two whole years and this is how you act?! Sorry for the pointless phone call, Kurogane! I let him do it because he said he was just going to thank you!”

“Hahaha! There’s no need to hide it, Ayase. You love this boy! A father can tell; trust me. When you talked about him, you sounded just like your mother when she was head-over-heels for me!”

“Aaah! Aaaaah! Shut up, shut up! You’ve got it all wrong!”

“Don’t be embarrassed. Now that I’m awake, I have to make up for two lost years of matchmaking—”

“How about you sleep for two more years?!”

“Urfgh! Gah…”

“K-K-Kurogane! Forget he said anything! Bye!”

Click.

Beep. Beep.

“I get the feeling Kaito won’t be dying anytime soon,” Ikki sighed again.

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Stella replied.

“Still, seems like things wrapped up pretty well, didn’t they?”

“Yep!”

The dojo was Ayase’s again, and Kaito was finally awake. It was a shame that Ayase wouldn’t come to train anymore, but that didn’t mean they would never see her again. The whole affair with the Ayatsuji Dojo had been their sole concern since the assault at the family restaurant, so it was nice that things had calmed down.

“Things are a lot quieter with one less person around,” Ikki noted.

“Well,” Stella began, “we’re actually three people short today.”

“True, I guess.”

Not only was Ayase gone, but Shizuku and Alisuin hadn’t shown up to training sessions either.

“It’s not all that rare for Alice to be absent,” Stella noted, “but even Shizuku is missing today.”

“Yeah. Maybe she’s not feeling well.”

“I guess that means we’re alone, huh?”

Stella silently wrapped her hands around Ikki’s. She turned her wet ruby eyes up toward him, gazing into his eyes. After their trip to the public pool, their relationship was… still rather platonic, but both of them had started showing their affection through small gestures, so it was gradually making progress.

Beneath the setting sun, the couple’s shadows slowly came closer and closer.

“Stella…”

“Ikki…”

“Ikki…♥” The pair let out a “Huh?” as they turned their heads toward the third voice. Alisuin was trying to get in on their kiss from the side. “Mwah… Oh? You’re not going to kiss?”

“AaaaaaaaAAAAaaaAAH!”

Stella and Ikki both fell off the bench in shock.

“A-Alice?! What the hell are you doing?!”

“Whoopsie! I figured maybe you two would be into a three-way kiss.”

“We would nooot!” they cried in unison.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! You’re both so cute when you’re this red. Ahaha!” The couple’s reaction was so funny to Alice that tears started to form in the corners of her eyes. “But my, oh my, am I surprised. You used to be two prickly little hedgehogs, and now you’re going at it like rabbi—”

“W-W-W-W-We haven’t gone that far!”

“Oh, really? Well, you’re still making big progress, considering you’re used to public displays of affection now.”

“Alice, did you really notice that we were dating?”

“Well, I had a hunch. This just confirmed it!”

“Ngh.”

Stella’s expression soured. She must have thought that Alice, who was very well-connected—she was friends with boys and girls from all over the school—knowing their secret wouldn’t end well. Her eyes seemed to plead, “Do you think it’s too late to trick her?!”

Yes, it was clearly way too late. Even so, Ikki believed that if they calmly explained their circumstances, Alice wouldn’t spread the news all over the school. Thus, he forced himself to talk, telling himself that he had to spill the beans right then and there.

“Hey, Alice. Could you keep this—”

“I know, I know. Don’t worry. I can keep my mouth shut.” Alice put her index finger to her lips and winked, promising her silence. She really was a great person; she’d gotten even Shizuku to like her, after all. “I’ll just enjoy the show from my front-row seat, if you don’t mind.”

Or maybe she wasn’t so great. Maybe the world would have been better off if she were to get kicked square in the face by a horse.

“Ugh…” Stella groaned. “We messed up by letting you see us like this, but the silver lining is that at least Shizuku isn’t here.”

“Seriously. By the way, Alice, is Shizuku not with you?”

“Right. I got too caught up playing ONE with my fans, so I just got here a little late. Shizuku, however, has been planning to train alone.”

“Train alone”?

“Huh. It’s unusual for Shizuku to leave Ikki alone. And by choice, even.”

“Well, considering her next opponent, she’s probably bracing herself for what’s to come.”

“Oh? Has her next opponent already been revealed?”

“My, my. You two don’t know yet?”

Ikki looked over to Stella with a questioning glance, to which she shook her head. He didn’t know either, of course.

“Alice, who’s her next opponent?” Ikki asked, slightly concerned. “You said ‘considering her next opponent’, so they must be pretty tough.”

In response, Alice frowned, deep in thought.

“‘Tough’ doesn’t begin to describe her. She’s the strongest student in this academy, after all.”

◆◆◆

Meanwhile, at the sixth training field…

From noon to 5:00 p.m., the grounds were used for Seven Stars Battle Festival selection battles. After that, they were used as individual arenas for free-to-fight battle royales. The fights were carried out with Devices in Phantom Form, but there were no other concrete rules, allowing students to fight freely, unlike in class. Students who opted out of the selection battles were the first to join in, of course. That was why the training fields were usually bustling with battle later in the evenings.

That, however, was not the case. There was no bustle, and the heat of battle was absent. Freezing cold seemed to envelop the sixth training field, but that came as no surprise; all of the student knights in the arena had been turned into ice sculptures.

“Wh-What’s with her?”

“She’s a monster…”

“That one girl really took out fifty people…?”

The students in the audience spoke with quivering voices, discussing the events that had started only ten minutes prior. A single first-year student had entered the arena and spoken to every knight present.

“I want you all to fight me right now,” she’d told them.

They’d accepted her challenge, ready to rake the cocky first-year over the coals, but it resulted in their complete destruction. Not a single one of them was able to even touch the girl occupying the very center of the ring: Shizuku Kurogane, the girl known as Lorelei.