Chapter -26

Shizuku and Arisuin were staring in wonder, but why would Stella care? She couldn't bear it. Shooting a curse at the spectators with indignant eyes ablaze, she struck with words as if she was breathing fire.

"There's no way an F-Rank can win against an A-Rank? Isn't that something you people decided yourselves!? Limiting yourselves as unable to surpass a prodigy, you're only justifying your own resignation! You people are giving up like that for convenience, you know. But don't you use your resignation to deny Ikki's strength!"

That was intolerable, absolutely intolerable, because even though Ikki was inferior to everyone here, he kept on rejecting that resignation! If it was Ikki, he could withstand being sneered at by all, being cursed as trash, and being told that talent was insurmountable. He still continued to believe in his own worth. And despite that outrageous treatment, he obtained the strongest single minute that wouldn't lose to any talent. The brilliance of Ikki's spirit she saw that day was still burning in Stella's eyes even now. She hadn't thought as strongly about another person before. She hadn't admired another person as much before. Because Stella understood how high her pride was―

"He doesn't have anything like talent, but you people who cling to such petty things, there's no way you understand Ikki's strength! There's no way you can see it! You fools with your all-knowing tone, don't make fun of the knight that I love!!!"

"Stella…."

At such emotions gushing out, at the words that struck him, Ikki raised his eyes, and Stella's chest throbbed painfully at the emotions she found there.

"Why are you making such a miserable face…!?"

His expression was so frail it could crumble at any moment. Stella understood it, since Ikki was not yet as mature as she was. Rather, he was still so young that one could call him a child. No matter how he tried to be tough, no matter how he carried a steely determination―there was no way he could be so callous. He would be wounded by such jeers, and his heart would be injured by such abuse. Compared to that constant tormenting distress, it may be a merciful dose of reality for the person called Ikki Kurogane to lose and break down here. But still―but still…!

"Ikki, you told me, didn't you? That whatever other people say, you won't give up on yourself…! I thought if you were like that, I'd follow you wherever you go! So to these people saying whatever they please, don't make a face like you're giving up! I don't intend to lose to a man that weak! Because… the one I admire, the one I fell in love with, the one I always look up to, is the knight I continue to take pride in named Ikki Kurogane! ―So…

"WHEN YOU'RE IN FRONT OF ME, ALWAYS BE AS COOL AS I KNOW YOU ARE, YOU IDIIIOOOOOTTTTT!!!"

There was a place she wanted to reach together with him―that was why Stella put all of her feelings into her scream. It wasn't just Ikki himself that believed in Ikki Kurogane's worth anymore. In that moment―

*Pow!* Ikki punched his own cheek with enough force that the sound could be heard from afar.

「Wha!?」

Everyone there shouted in astonishment at this sudden, eccentric act. What the heck was he doing? Under the questioning gazes, Ikki―

"Thanks, Stella. You really put life back into me."

―slowly, but with strength, stood back up.

Part 11[]

Rising to his feet, Ikki gazed at the red-haired girl who had scolded him. Large bright teardrops were spilling from Stella's crimson eyes. For whose sake were those tears pouring out? For whom was she grieving? Ikki wasn't so thickheaded that he didn't know. But even in her pain, Stella was saying this.

Fight.

Stella knew how hard and painful Ikki's path was, but she still wanted him to keep fighting.

So there's someone other than Ryouma-san saying that….

Ikki thought that if he lost this fight, everything he had suffered would become meaningless, and he was afraid to think on that loss. But he was mistaken. His goal of becoming a mage-knight might have taken great effort so far, but those days of trying hard and moving forward wouldn't become meaningless at all.

Because I met a girl who says that she loves the way I've lived!

The instant he understood that, *click*, Ikki felt his heart and body joining together. His thoughts that were clouded by tension and dismay turned alarmingly clear. His body that was injured and bleeding was already on the brink of collapse, but it moved as he wished. Ikki's fighting condition had finally reached its zenith.

Then it was still too early, much too early, to give up. He couldn't, not yet. There was still something to try. Something that he, Ikki Kurogane, must do. He would move forward, no matter how punishing that was supposed to be. If he was defeated while using all his power, he could recover from his injuries and fight again, but….

But losing his nerve and running away, that would disgrace a knight for the rest of his life!

"Oooooooo!!!"

Ikki raised a war cry and fired himself up. From his flesh, from his blood, from every single cell, he gathered magic power and ignited it all in a flash. Ikki Kurogane's body shined with a blue flame that flowed like wind, radiating the glow of his Noble Art, Ittou Shura. And in doing so, Ikki declared his determination to finish this bout right here.

"With my greatest weakness, I'll catch your greatest strength―let's fight, Kirihara-kun!"

「Aaaaah! Contender Kurogane, who we could only think had already been defeated, has made a grand challenge! He's invoked Ittou Shura, the Noble Art which eliminated the A-Rank knight Stella Vermillion! Now the great technique which can be used only once a day has been activated―could he have found a way to beat Area Invisible!?」

With the sudden change in the battle that Kirihara was completely dominating, the tone of Tsukuyomi's live coverage lifted. Even she had been appalled by the Hunter's gruesome tactics. She had hoped for this turn of events, and sent Ikki her heartfelt encouragement. But alas, Ikki didn't have the solution Tsukuyomi was expecting. Area Invisible was perhaps the strongest anti-personnel Noble Art, not a technique that would be beaten by the strength of a Failed Knight in the first place.

And Kirihara also knew that.

"Catch? A 'Worst One' like you is going to catch me, the 'Hunter' Shizuya Kirihara? That kind of thing is beyond you. Aren't you boasting about something you can't even do?"

Right, exactly right. Ikki was boasting about something he couldn't do. Acting like that had surely been a mistake, and trying had only confused everything. Ikki Kurogane could accomplish only one feat since the beginning.

"You've already struggled in futility long enough, I think. I'm also pretty tired of watching something so uncouth, so it's about time I bring it to an end. …Hmm, which reminds me, I promised to tell you where I aim, right? That's right… the next one is―"

There was a certain bloodthirst dwelling in Kirihara's voice as he nocked an arrow on his bowstring. Perhaps his move would be deathblow to decide this fight.

"―to the crown of your head. If you don't want to die, dodge it, you held-back failure!"

A destructive killing intent shot invisibly, an arrow capable of even snatching away life, was racing directly toward Ikki. But―killing intent was inconsequential now. Of the arrow, there was nothing that could be seen, nothing that could be heard, so rather than try for the arrow, Ikki would only see what he could see, hear what he could hear.

Remember it―

The order he received his wounds, the direction―

Remember it―

The depth of his injuries, the angle―

Remember it―

Kirihara's words at that time, the voice―

Everything about this match was packed into those details. As if perusing the history of its fencing from the sword style technique, derive the enemy's process from the order and direction. As if collecting the school's knowledge from its swordsmanship, reverse-engineer the position from the injuries and angle. As if stealing the principles of its invention from its tricks, expose the patterns of thinking from the words and the voice. And then from everything there, investigating the previous degree of piercing's tendency, the personality, technique, design, by integrating, analyzing, understanding, exhausting data on all kinds of things―grasp everything about the person called Shizuya Kirihara!

There was no reason he couldn't do it. It wasn't difficult. Because all along, since long ago, Ikki Kurogane had fought that way!

In that instant, the arrow shot from Oborotsuki bit into Ikki. The place it pierced… was not the crown of the head, but the heart. Yes, Kirihara had set a trap into the last blow with a Hunter's composure and cool-headedness. His opponent was already in a hopeless situation, but just in case none of the injuries had occurred, he had shot an arrow at Ikki's heart while saying he was aiming at Ikki's head. A feint in addition to invisibility, his attack permitted no evasion. And exactly as the Hunter planned, the invisible killing intent pierced Ikki's heart―

"…Oh?"

That sound spilled out from Shizuya Kirihara's mouth at the inexplicable sight before him, and his mind went blank. He had sent an arrow of certain death that couldn't be avoided or blocked, but―Ikki's left hand had grabbed it, stopping it on the verge of penetrating Ikki's chest.

"H-How…."

How was it possible? Did such a thing really happen? To the astonished Hunter who was confronting a reality beyond his comprehension, his red-soaked prey coughed and said―

"…As I thought, there's no way you'd tell me the truth."

"What… are you saying―!?"

In that moment, Kirihara shuddered as if a worm had burrowed into his back. Ikki's eyes, without the slightest wandering, were staring him down even though he should be imperceptible.

"It… can't be…."

He had never experienced this, and icy sweat was pouring from all over his body. A chill crept up his spine, and his limbs trembled with a clatter. In Kirihara's swaying field of vision―

"…Yeah, I caught it. And I won't let you get away again."

―the bloodstained knight before him laughed weakly.

Part 12[]

「W-W-What happened―!? Contender Kurogane just caught the arrow that he shouldn't be able to see! What the heck is going on!? Even I, reporting live on location, still can't find Contender Kirihara! Area Invisible, the perfect stealth, is still going strong, but the images from our camera are being delivered now… and they reveal that Contender Kurogane reacted to the arrow flying at him! Is he seeing what we can't!?」

「Aha, wahahaha! Are you serious!? That guy really did it!」

Saikyou, who was also giving commentary to the arena, abruptly clapped her hands and gave a resounding laugh.

「Saikyou-sensei? Did you just figure something out!?」

「Heh heh heh…! Yeah, I figured it out. It's exactly as it looks. Area Invisible is already useless.」

Kirihara countered Saikyou's words reflexively.

"D-Don't be ridiculous! My Area Invisible is unbeatable! There's no way this F-Rank garbage has seen through it!"

「Ahaha. Yeah, that's right. That's also what I think. Kiri-yan's Area Invisible is the strongest Noble Art against individual fighters. It's fine to be confident about it, because after all, Area Invisible can't be seen through. The thing that's been seen through is… the Hunter himself.」

"What the hell does that mean!?"

「Oh goodness, you're exceptionally dull, aren't you Kiri-yan? Haven't you seen the fight between the princess and Kuro-bou? At that time, Kuro-bou saw and stole the princess's Imperial Arts, but stealing a sword technique isn't an ordinary feat like imitating a style. From something like a style or swordsmanship, the accumulated history is studied, taking the ideas arrived there, and exposing and returning with the principle of its foundation. That's what we call stealing a sword technique. And just now, he did the same exact thing to you. During the fight, he stole the person called Shizuya Kirihara. Isn't that right, Kuro-bou?」

At Saikyou's nonsensical words―

"Eh, well. It was something like that."

Ikki affirmed her analysis with a nod. He had employed his anti-personnel technique, Blade Steal, against Kirihara.

"R-Ridiculous! How can something like that happen!? Especially since I must have been invisible to you…!"

"I didn't see you, but knowing 'where Kirihara-kun is right now' isn't that difficult, because you've left a lot of clues, you know?"

"Clues…?"

"The wounds you've put on me. Your procedure from the sequence of wounds I took. Your direction from the angles. And the distance from the power. They all tell me where you are. Tracing the Hunter's position at any particular moment is easy if I follow these markers, and if I understand that much, it's the same as being able to see you. In that case, it's fine to do what I usually do. Whether it's sword technique or people, there's a principle that fundamentally governs all their actions. You can call it a system of values. By using that―the person's actions and plans, what that person is thinking right now, how I myself should move, what countermeasures should be taken, whether to move forward or draw back, to attack or defend―every possible action is completely and quite clearly predictable. For example, at this moment, I know that you've taken three steps back."

Kirihara's body froze in fright at Ikki's light declaration, and he leaked out a soundless shriek, because what Ikki had said was unmistakably true. But of course Ikki could know Kirihara's response. The principle he spoke of wasn't a notion limited to the here and now. That predictability of human thought was a firmly-rooted identity, not something that could be changed in an instant. However much the person himself wants to outsmart that identity, even the thought of outsmarting it arises from the identity itself, and therefore couldn't escape Ikki's perception. By stealing the opponent's identity, Ikki seized all those thoughts and feelings.

If Ikki had to name this technique, it would be Perfect Vision. Before its power, Kirihara finally understood. The true dreadfulness of the knight called Ikki Kurogane wasn't sword technique, a one-minute boost, or anything else like that. It was his ability to expose and reflect the true nature of everything he sees, a discerning eye like a shining magic mirror. That mirror could capture even the invisible Hunter. Therefore―

"I see everything you're capable of doing. In this match, I'll take the win!"

With that declaration, Ikki burst forward to thrust a fang at the Hunter who had lost his refuge!

"S-Stay awaaaaay!!!"

In response, Kirihara put up one final resistance. Drawing Oborotsuki so forcefully that it creaked, he faced the sky above and shot one arrow that had all of his magic loaded into it. A moment later, the arrow exploded in midair, becoming a hundred slivers of iron shining with light invisible to the naked eye. Overtaking Ikki as a sudden shower, they homed and poured down on him, drilling into and smashing the stone floor of the battleground, heaving it up and smashing it again.

There was no pattern to the destruction. The Noble Art Million Rain was an attack of indiscriminate scope made of more than a hundred pieces of iron. Kirihara had concluded that if his thoughts were being read, he should carpet-bomb the area without thinking. The idea had to be correct, but even so―

"Why!? Why doesn't it hit!?"

―Ikki cleared away the invisible arrowheads, running through the destructive rain without slowing the slightest and darting through the rolled-up cloud of dust. In truth, he had already seen all of it.

"It's useless, you know. No matter how much you try to keep your heart clear, you want to beat me. You want to kill me. The urge for that frightened heart to shout its killing intent can't be restrained. No matter how much you want to attack with an unreadable mind, the killing intent dwells inside you."

And Perfect Vision accurately captured that intent. Attacking an enemy without consciously aiming to kill was a mental state taught by certain martial arts, but it wasn't a skill that someone like Kirihara could use. He had only increased the number of arrows he had shot.

"Whether a hundred arrows or a thousand, my Ittou Shura won't fall to such things!"

Every resistance was already meaningless. Like a superior player who predicts a hundred moves ahead, Ikki had already seen the endgame!

"Wait, wait! Stop! Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop I said! Do you hear me!? Stop fucking kidding me! Am I supposed to fall to this F-Rank failure of a student!? Unlike you, people expect things of me! Unlike worthless garbage like you, I have things to lose, you know! Someone like you, there's no reason for you to win against me! So stoooooop!!!"

Ikki didn't stop. He already couldn't be stopped by Kirihara!

"H-Hey! This is a joke, right!? Yeah! Let's drop it! Let's drop it already! That kind of, that blade!? If you cut a person with that thing, it'll probably become a disaster, right!? That kind of thing isn't normal! There's other ways for us to do this! So let's stop! I-I know! Let's decide it with rock-paper-scissors! That's good, right!? Hey, Kurogane-kun! Aren't we classmates, friends!?"

Ikki wasn't going to listen. Who was it that asked if he had prepared himself in coming onto this stage? From the moment a knight entered the ring, he was resolved to kill or be killed. Therefore, Ikki would have no mercy. The black blade would clear away Kirihara's resistance, grasp Kirihara at sword distance at last, and―

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"

"H-HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! S-STOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!! I get it! I'm fine with losing! I'm fine with losing so DON'T HURT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Ikki swung downward with a flash, and in that moment, the space Ikki sheared through shined bright. Kirihara's body was visible in the middle of that light, and he fell on his back onto the ground already unconscious, turning up the whites of his eyes, spouting foam from his mouth, but… without injury. He had been cut so shallowly he wasn't even bleeding from the skin on the tip of his nose.

Ikki understood that Kirihara was giving up, and had no intention of killing Kirihara from the beginning. And yet―

The predicted distance was off by a millimeter, huh.

―yet even though he hadn't intended to wound, the sword edge did slightly touch skin. It was only because the power of Kirihara's arrows made reading the distance difficult.

My training's still lacking, I guess? There's still a long way to go.

And seeing that the Hunter was defeated by the sword-wielding beast before him―

"Shizuya Kirihara can no longer fight! The winner, Ikki Kurogane!"

―the referee announced Ikki's first victory.

Part 13[]

「The match is oveeer! Somehow the F-Rank knight, Contender Ikki Kurogane, has taken the victory! Even though he was prohibited from attending classes last year, he has defeated his generation's strongest knight in a fight to the death, and acquired a splendid first win in these selection battle matches!」

The moment Ikki's victory was announced, the string holding him up snapped. Everything he'd been holding in with vigor alone―wounds and bleeding from the fight, extreme fatigue from Ittou Shura's backlash―poured out together.

「Congratulations…! Aaaaah! Contender Kurogane has fallen in the ring! Isn't it quite clumsy to collapse after winning!?」

「Aw crap. Medical team! Hurry up and stuff that guy in a capsule!」

Accepting Saikyou's instructions, the facility's staff put Ikki's body on a stretcher and carried him out. Because iPS capsules were installed in every training arena, the worst-case scenario would probably be avoided. And after the winner was removed this way, only the fainted Kirihara remained in the arena, until Kirihara too was dragged out by a staff member.

「Contender Kirihara has also left the ring just now. He was considered the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival's leading candidate for this year, but was unexpectedly defeated! Perhaps due to that huge shock, there's no sign he's getting up despite not receiving any injury!」

One member of Kirihara's cheering party, who had seen the fight's conclusion from the spectator seats, coughed.

"He was somewhat… uncool."

"The last part, wasn't he crying? 'Don't hurt me?'"

"I'm disillusioned, honestly…."

"Let's go back, go back. I've already kinda lost interest."

Tsukuyomi and Saikyou watched all this from their commentator seats.

「Uh-oh, the cheering girls are leaving in droves. Well, it must be hard to lose an idol.」

「Even if he was hurt, they'd have seen what he's really like sooner or later, you know.」

「…That's also true, huh? Ehh, then today's fourth match ends here. The fifth match will begin after the ring's cleaned up, so the contenders who will appear, please get ready.」

After making the announcement, Tsukuyomi cut her microphone.

"Whew… what an amazing match. Contender Kirihara's Area Invisible that got him so many wins without injury, being defeated by an F-Rank knight. I didn't see that coming."

Relaxing, she said so to the nearby Saikyou. But where Saikyou should've been sitting, there was only a note bearing a short message: 「That match was satisfying enough, so I'm outta here.」

"Noooooo! I don't want to do this anymooooore! Somebody switch with meeeee!"