Among the skyscrapers lining the streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo, the Japanese Branch of the International Mage-Knight Federation stood thirty stories tall. In the top-floor office, Itsuki Kurogane, Japan’s branch manager, creased his brow while taking a phone call.

“Really? So Shizuku lost?”

His sigh echoed loudly throughout the office, unlit despite it being nighttime.

“Her opponent was Raikiri, so she seemingly had little chance from the start.”

“It was Mr. Nangou’s favorite disciple?”

“Yes. Shizuku had bad luck there. If only this selection battle silliness hadn’t happened, she would have easily been among the selected.”

“Silliness” indeed. Itsuki nodded silently in agreement with the man on the phone’s assessment. Fighting real battles to select a representative? In his eyes, Kurono Shinguuji’s method was the most abominable thing in the world.

“And what of Ikki?”

“The Worst One remains undefeated. Clearly, the students of Hagun are good-for-nothings if a Rank F failure of a knight can make it as far as he has.”

“Do you think he’ll be selected?”

“Pity though it may be, that failure has already defeated the Crimson Princess and the third-best student, Runner’s High. If Hagun raises students this worthless, and if he doesn’t run into Raikiri or Blutrote Dame… he may appear on the national stage.”

“We can’t allow that,” Itsuki stated, his voice heavier than lead. He didn’t want to even imagine it, but that was what reality was coming to.

“A-Absolutely, sir! I agree!”

“Is there nothing you can do about it?”

“Perhaps we could have the director revoke his certification as a student knight?”

“If that were possible, I’d have done it a long time ago. The right to manage Mage-Knight and student knight certifications falls to the white-beards at the main office; even if our branch could submit a revocation request, it would fail without clear basis to give it cogency. At any rate, we need to take some sort of measure before the Seven Stars Battle Festival.”

For the past year, they had used The Hunter to try to egg him into a fight, but Ikki had steadfastly refused to take the bait. Even when The Hunter pushed him near death, he never so much as evaded the attacks because he knew it could be seen as fighting back. All Itsuki was able to do was force him to repeat a year.

Before he could have Ikki expelled and his student knight certification rescinded, Itsuki first had to have him banned from the Federation. Unfortunately, that was no more than a wild fantasy, as Itsuki didn’t have the authority to do so. To accomplish such a task, he needed some basis to persuade the people who did have that authority.

“I have an ingenious plan to deal with this Ikki Kurogane,” a man’s droll voice echoed through the dark room.

Itsuki turned his eyes languidly toward the entrance, where he found an obese, middle-aged man, his face resembling that of Ebisu, the god of fishermen. He remembered that face—it belonged to Mamoru Akaza, a member of one of the Kurogane branch families.

“Akaza?”

“It’s been a while, family head. Mhmhm!”

“So, what’s this ingenious plan?” Itsuki asked, abruptly hanging up on his phone call. His interested lay solely in Akaza’s claim.

Seeing this, Akaza plastered a dubious smile onto his face and cleared his throat.

“Ahem! Well, you see, I’ve heard some information through the grapevine. If all goes well, I believe I may be able to assuage your fears.”

◆◇◆◇◆

The following Sunday, Ikki Kurogane, Stella Vermillion, and the rest of the student council rode in Saijou’s van on their way to Hagun Academy’s campground in Okutama’s mountains. They were off to find out the identity of the legendary giant—to solve the mystery at Okutama—but the site of the campground was large and treacherous, littered with mountains and deep forests.

It was no simple task for people to scour the entire area without equipment, even if they were Blazers. That meant, of course, that the team needed to recharge their batteries by filling their stomachs, so Saijou and Kanata were left to deal with administration duties while the rest of the members were to make curry.

With the division of labor complete, those on curry duty began carrying the campground’s cookware and Touka’s groceries to their campsite. They were given permission to use the campground’s canteen, but since they had come all the way to the mountains, they ended up making camping curry.

“Ahhh!” Stella took a deep breath while placing knives, a cutting board, and other items in the kitchen made from brick. “The air here is so clear, cool, and refreshing.”

“Without any asphalt, the air is much cooler,” Ikki explained.

“There’s way too much concrete all over Japan. It’s so hot and sultry, I can’t take it.”

“Well, most of the country is subtropical, after all.”

Stella’s homeland, the Vermillion Empire, lay in Northern Europe. The temperature was much lower than Japan, with drier air to match. Frankly, Stella’s first experience with the Japanese heat was overpowering, and Ikki had even heard her groaning at night as of late. It was understandable, though; Japanese heat had been known to kill.

“Hey, Stella! Let’s play some badminton!”

One step ahead of Stella, Renren had already finished hauling her cookware and called out to her, racket in hand.

“Sure!” she replied, gladly accepting Renren’s challenge. “Watch out, though, ’cause I’m good.”

“That so?! Well, I’ve got the best footwork you’ll ever see! Bring it on!”

“Heheh♪ I’ll make you regret challenging me!”

“Ah, Stella…” Ikki tried to stop her, but she had already run off. “Jeez, weren’t we just talking about doing the cooking?”

Touka smiled gently at the sighing Ikki as she put down her grocery bags.

“Don’t worry about it. Curry doesn’t need that much manpower, anyway. We can make them clean up after.”

“Fair enough. Oh, by the way, how much were the groceries? I can pay for our share.”

“Hehehe, there’s no need to worry about that. You agreed to help us, so call the meals our treat. In fact, if you don’t let us take care of it, I’ll feel guilty.”

Touka shrugged her shoulders, slightly annoyed, though Ikki would have felt the same way were he in her shoes. Any more humility would just make her feel bad at this point.

“All right, then. Thank you.”

“Touka likes to make her legendary homemade curry roux. It’s sooo good,” Utakata raved.

“Mm-hmm. I can’t wait for you to try it.”

“At least let me help a little, though.”

“All right. Kurogane, I’ll entrust you with peeling the potatoes and carrots.”

“Okay.”

“Uta, could you prepare the rice?”

“If you’re making your famous curry, do you want the usual rice?”

“Yes, please. I’ve got the California rice here as well. Thank you.”

“Hehe, this is gonna be so good.”

Utakata and Touka seemed to be communicating with just their eyes. Ikki, watching from the side, had no idea what was going on, but he understood the profound depth of the two cooks’ friendship nonetheless.

◆◇◆◇◆

It had been five years since Ikki ran away from home. In that much time living alone, him having mastered a fair number of domestic skills was to be expected; he performed the job he was given with incredible skill.

First, he peeled the potatoes, soaking them in water in order to keep them from falling apart while they were cooked. While they soaked, he peeled the carrots and cut them into bite-size pieces, taking them to Touka when he was finished. He suddenly stopped on his way over, however, when a sound caused his ears to prick up.

What he was hearing was Touka, who had donned an apron, humming the theme song of a popular children’s anime in which the pastry-headed main character let hungry people eat parts of its head. All the while, she skillfully chopped meat and onions.