Chapter - 5

After the advent of the flash that burned away her field of vision, there was a deep darkness of despair. From that gloom, Shizuku slowly woke up. Raising heavy eyelids, she saw the blurry world come into focus. What jumped into her eyes was the white ceiling of a spotless medical office, and―

"You've woken up, haven't you Shizuku?"

―the face of the roommate she recognized.

"…Alice."

Shizuku slowly raised her body half-way from the bed. When she looked, she saw that it wasn't only Arisuin here. Behind him, the figures of her brother Ikki Kurogane and Stella Vermillion were here as well. From that sight―

Ah, I see.

Shizuku comprehended her own defeat.

"I lost, didn't I?"

At those words coughed and muttered, a heavy silence fell.

Don't worry about it, cheer up. The people who were part of this world of matches and fights knew how bleak those words would be. In this world, there were no such words to give for the defeated.

"…Shizuku, umm, you know?"

"I'm sorry."

The words that Stella tried to begin to say in the middle of the painful silence, Shizuku cut them to pieces.

"A little while… just for a little while, won't you leave me alone? I'm worn out today."

Shizuku covered her face and begged everyone. Right now, she didn't want to hear anything, and didn't want to see anything. …She just wanted to be alone.

"I understand. …Let's go, Stella."

"…Yeah."

Ikki sympathized with Shizuku's feelings, and lead everyone out of the medical office immediately. She was grateful. The regret over her defeat that ran through her heart was already rising through her throat. Her body trembling miserably from bitterness, she didn't want her brother, Stella, or anyone to see it. Because Shizuku was a proud little girl.

That was what she asked for, but―

"…Why are you still here?"

For some reason, Arisuin had remained in the room with a gentle smile on his face.

"Well, I wonder why?"

"I must have said to leave me alone."

"Yep. I heard you."

"So―!"

In the instant she vented violent words, Arisuin embraced Shizuku.

Eh…."

"…Ali…ce?"

"You really fought hard, didn't you?"

Arisuin conveyed a calm tone close to the ears of Shizuku who had been surprised by the sudden embrace.

"Your brother, he was watching Shizuku all the way to the end. He said that you were splendid."

And while stroking her silver hair as if brushing it―

"And to me, Shizuku is neither someone who wants to protect nor someone who doesn't want to lose. Therefore… you don't have to pretend to be tough, you know."

That was her limit. To the gentle words that had been announced, to the embrace wrapped around her, the sobs that were rising through her throat spilled out. After it spilled out once, more overflowed like a dam breaking.

Frustrating.

Frustrating. Frustrating.

Frustrating. Frustrating. Frustrating!

The wish that didn't come true. The dream she didn't reach. Those vestiges tormented Shizuku. The frustration that she couldn't put into words, Shizuku screamed them out as she clung to Arisuin's chest. She put in enough strength to cut with her nails, but Arisuin didn't loosen his embrace. Because the partner of this proud little girl who was spitting out her bitterness, he knew that he was the only one. Therefore Arisuin kept hugging her small body until Shizuku's sobbing ended.

"Shizuku seemed vexed."

Heading down the corridor from the medical office to the dormitory, Stella coughed.

"…It's understandable. The road to the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival has essentially been closed to her, probably."

Some time ago, Ikki had been informed by Oreki firsthand that these Selection Battles would advance only six names as representatives, and these slots would be filled by the undefeated. Since they would aim for the entire country, these fights would never permit a defeat.

"But Shizuku has nothing to be embarrassed about."

Ikki remembered Shizuku's right hand that seized Touka's ankle. The willpower that she showed at the end, it was indescribably magnificent.

"It's a rigid fight that doesn't allow even one loss, right?"

"Yeah. But… it's not just someone else's problem."

Everyone fought under the same rules. Shizuku, Ikki, Stella―and everyone else. None of the people who aimed for the summit of the Seven Stars were allowed even one defeat. That was the rule laid out by the new board chairman, Kurono Shinguuji. A cliff that filtered out contenders for the sake of creating a Seven Stars Sword King from Hagun. Even breaking down and reuniting the stars of high-ranking companions, to select the strongest single person. Because at the end of the day, only one person can take the summit of the Seven Stars.

"It's already the finishing line of the Selection Battles. Even we have to focus our energies more than ever, right?"

"I won't lose, you know."

Ikki turned his gaze to Stella nearby, who made that clear declaration. And Stella also looked up at Ikki again. With pupils that held the blazing and sparkling flames of a strong fighting spirit.

"I will absolutely not lose. Because I'll fight and win against Ikki this time at the finals of the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival."

To that expression of strong will and affection, Ikki felt a happiness rising inside his chest. The promise they exchanged that night. He knew he wasn't the only one who looked forward to its fulfillment.

"…I think the same, after all. I definitely won't lose either."

"Hehe. Of course. I won't allow you to disappear in the middle♪"

Stella cheerfully spread a sweet smile over her whole face at Ikki's reply. At that smiling face, Ikki's cheeks relaxed. Recently, this girl had become more and more unbearably lovely. The more he knew her, the closer he got to her, the more he loved this girl. Her flower-like fragrance, her slightly high temperature―all of it was lovely. And because he wanted to fall even more in love with that girl, he would maintain a higher motivation than what he had held up to now. He would push himself higher than where he was now. For the sake of making himself worthy of the strongest rival who was there beside him, of the girl who was his beloved sweetheart. His meeting with her, it was an irreplaceable fortune as far as Ikki was concerned.

"Well, so that we don't lose, shall we do some training?"

"That's fine. Speaking honestly, after watching Shizuku's match, my body has been throbbing."

"Haha. That's so like Stella. Then let's hurry and go."

Saying so, Ikki checked to see that nobody else was in the corridor, then took Stella's hand and entwined their fingers. When he did so, Stella also squeezed Ikki's hand in return. Since they had taken a step forward as sweethearts at the pool, little by little they had grown used to mutual skinship. Recently, when they went to places out of the public eye, one of them would spontaneously grasp the other's hand. Tightly entwining fingers, recognizing the partner's temperature and presence, Ikki and Stella both loved doing those things.

Well, of course their favorite kind of skinship was kissing. …In that state, for the love between the two, the matter that had begun at that pool had certainly shortened the distance between the two sweethearts. That could certainly be called progress.

However―to tell the truth, Stella felt a touch unsatisfied with the current situation. Or maybe unsatisfied was not quite the right way to say it. She wanted to get closer and closer―to seek Ikki as a woman would. To shrink and shrink the distance between herself and Ikki, that desire was growing strong.

At night. In particular, when they exchanged kisses before sleeping. It was the worst at the moment their lips separated. Like yesterday, she gave a strange moaning sound when their lips separated that had surprised Ikki.

That was so embarrassing….

Having been surprised by a sweet sound she hadn't imagined she could make leaking from her own lips, she immediately leaped into bed and covered her head with her futon, but nonetheless there was a time before the fire that had lit inside her body went out.

Are my sexual desires so strong, I wonder…

Just remembering it had somehow made her very embarrassed. In the first place, she hadn't sought a place to get an answer. Because for Stella, there was her position as the second princess of the Vermillion Empire. However, at the same time Stella and Ikki were both mature adults beyond the age of fifteen. (That Blazers come of age at fifteen was a standard shared by all countries participating in the League of Mage-Knight Nations.) In other words, they were both… adults who could consent to marriage. As adults who've come of age, they had the privilege to fall in love, of course.

What if, by some chance… Ikki sought that….

If he looked her directly in the eyes, placed his hands on her shoulders, and sought that―if it was at this moment, what answer might she choose? Would she take the official stance of an imperial princess? Or instead her own personal feelings?

If it was Stella from a little while ago, she'd probably give some excuse or other and refuse Ikki. But right now, which would it be?

She asked herself, but no answer came.

But, if Ikki truly wanted and sought for her―

…I would―

"What's wrong, Stella? Your face is really red?"

"Fue!? Ah, it's nothing!"

"If it's nothing, your face wouldn't get that red, you know. I wonder if you might have a cold. Maybe a little fever."

With a worried expression, Ikki drew near her forehead to check her temperature. To that kindness, Stella raised her feelings in a scream.

D-D-Don't get near my face right now―!

"I-I-I'm really fine! Really! So you can't get so close―!"

She somehow forced Ikki back, while astounded by her own lack of chastity. To think that she was considering such misconduct inside the school building before the sun had even set―

Such a thing was bad.

Such a thing is prohibited before going to bed.

Meaning it was okay in bed? Stella ignored the retort sent from her own heart and calmed her feelings down.

Suddenly, it was at that time. From the corner in front of their eyes, with a nuu sound, a strange thing came into view.

Was it a human shadow? Thinking that, the two of them separated their hands in a panic. Like they expressed not long ago, Ikki had a social position, not to mention Stella. If they were to be sweethearts, the world would be considerably taken aback, and that interaction would become heavily pressured. Because of that, until the frantic period of students in the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival ends, it was their current plan to leave the relationship between the two of them hidden.

However… what appeared wasn't a person. It was a monster in the shape of a pure white crooked rectangle.

"Heave… heave…!"

That monster, if one looked carefully, one could tell it was a bundle of papers stacked into a pillar. Somebody was carrying the pile of stacked paper with both hands. It was hard to tell who was doing it though, because the mountain of paper stretched so high it was concealing his or her face. But if one looked toward the legs, it seemed to be a female student.

"I-It looks kind of dangerous."

"It does, doesn't it? We should probably give her a hand."

Making up his mind, Ikki raised his voice at the female student.

"Umm, if you'd like, should I help you carry that?"

"Eh!?"

However, the female student was surprised by his abrupt voice, and her body stiffened. Because of that, her right foot caught the back of her left foot, and―

"Eeeeek!"

"Whoa!?"

And dropped the stack of paper on Ikki.

"Sheesh, what are you two doing…."

"Oh no no! I-I'm sorry! I didn't think that there were people in front of me!"

"No, I'm also sorry for startling you by calling out suddenly."

The three of them fell to their knees and together gathered the dispersed stack of papers. And then after collecting them to some extent, Ikki turned his attention back to the female student, and―

Before his eyes, there was a butt moving left and right.

"Bu!"

"Ohh, glasses… where are my glasses?"

Perhaps at the time she fell down, her skirt had been flipped up. But the female student hadn't realized it herself, and while coughing, she was on all fours groping around the floor by hand. In doing so, she swayed and fluttered a somewhat large and voluptuous butt.

"Wha, hey you! Your skirt! Your skirt is flipped up!"

"Eh? Nooooooooo!!!"

At Stella's warning, the female student finally realized she was waving her uncovered butt in front of Ikki face, and hurriedly returned her skirt to its normal position.

"I-I'm so sorry! I've shown you such an unthinkably indecent thing…!"

"Err, no… ahaha."

"Ikki, did you see it?"

"…If I said I didn't, would you believe me?"

"Do you think I would?"

"Guess I don't need to ask. …Hmm?"

As he sighed, something came into Ikki's field of view. It was a pair of round glasses with extremely thick lenses.

Ah, was this what she was looking for a moment ago?

Guessing the reason the female student had been on all fours and shaking her butt, Ikki picked those glasses up and presented it to her.

"Hey, the thing you were looking for, isn't this it?"

"Ah, that's it! Thank you so much! I can't see anything without them…."

The female student turned toward Ikki, and gratefully accepted the glasses. And that was when Ikki and Stella saw the female student's face properly for the first time―

"Eh?"

"Wha!?"

―and froze in surprise with a single question.

"Y-You're―"

Why? Because this female student―this girl with her chestnut-colored hair in a braid was―

"Raikiri―Touka Toudou!?"

Undoubtedly, it was the one who defeated Shizuku with overwhelming power, the one who was Hagun's strongest knight.

"Eh? Ah, yes? That's right, but what about it?"