Chapter - 9

Ikki did not take the path back to the hotel after having parted from Shizuku and the others. Instead, he headed for a park away from the busy streets, away from the bustle of the night. None of that could be heard here, only the insects.

"Would you like to come out now? No one will hear us here even if we cause a disturbance."

The one he addressed was the source of that murderous intent that he had felt in front of Ichiban Boshi. That same gaze had continued to follow him since earlier. This was the real reason Ikki had chosen to return to the hotel alone—to speak to the owner of that gaze. Even with the Seven Stars Sword King among them, this person had unswervingly fixed an bloodlust upon Ikki alone, without anyone noticing. This alone spoke volumes of this pursuer's skill.

A moment later, his estimations were proven correct, as a figure emerged from the shadows and stood in front of him. Ikki gasped.

"To think that it would be you…."

The newcomer's Japanese-style clothing fluttered in the night wind. His sleek-lidded eyes flashed like naked blades. Yet, he and Ikki would have been spitting images of one another, if not for the cross-shaped scar that marred his face.

"…Ouma."

Indeed, this was none other than Ikki's brother by blood, and the sole A-Ranked Knight among Japan's student knights: Ouma Kurogane, the Sword Emperor of Wind.

Having shown himself, Ouma said not a word as he cast a piercing stare in Ikki's direction. It was hardly an amicable look, but rather one filled with killing intent, or perhaps enmity. Whichever it was, his mere gaze was enough to exert a prodigious pressure. The two of them were around the same height. Yet face-to-face, Ouma seemed to loom two, even three times his size—such was the substance of his mere presence.

Steeling himself, Ikki managed to not be swallowed up by the pressure his brother's gaze exuded.

"So, what might you need? Judging by that time in Hagun Academy, I don't suppose you're here for some brotherly bonding, are you?"

In dealing with Ouma, it was best to begin by asking for the agenda, for he was not someone to do anything—much less appear in front of him—without one.

Ouma spoke, breaking his silence.

"Of course, I came here to meet the likes of you only for one purpose. I have something that I must say."

"Something you must say?"

Ouma nodded slightly, then with a voice that echoed not in his ears, but in his very guts—

"Withdraw from the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival at once, Ikki."

His tone and words brooked no disagreement. Ikki gaped at the sudden command. Why did he have to withdraw from the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival?

"May I hear a reason?"

"Did you not understand what you were told? How carefree."

Ouma's brows furrowed, his annoyance at his brother's words plain.

"Your existence is a stumbling block to the Crimson Princess."

"…What?"

Having heard his brother's mind, it was Ikki's turn to frown.

"Since when have I been a stumbling block to Stella? I'd like it if you didn't reproach me without any basis."

"It's the truth. Thanks to your deceptions, you worm, the Crimson Princess has been foolishly wasting her time these few months competing at your level after being bested by you."

"Deception?"

"Techniques, tactics, all the means with which you attempt to catch the opponent off guard, those petty tricks with which you have bluffed and scraped your way to victory—that is your deception. Strength is not something that is found from such vulgarity, and she can never hope to become strong or anything like that by following the back of such a vulgar man. To tell the truth, she disappointed me during our battle when we assaulted Hagun. Someone of the same caliber as I should not have only amounted to that."

All this feigning the appearance of strength and thus conning Stella—he laid at Ikki's feet. Having so decided, Ouma rounded on him.

"Therefore disappear, fool. The Crimson Princess is too good for someone like you."

"I see, so that's how it is."

Ikki gave a light sigh at Ouma's words. Having heard up till here, he could understand why his brother had claimed that he was blocking Stella's progress. Simply put, Ouma was judging him on the basis of his own value system.

To him, strength was not the technique one used to win, but the power one has. That the person with more power would win was a given—techniques capable of subverting this law were nothing but trickery.

Really, what harsh words.

It really was harsh. After all, Ouma's ideals were nothing but a complete rejection of his existence as a F-rank knight aiming for the top. It was quite like Ouma as a purist of strength to speak this way, but Ikki was not about to by any means accept this ideal.

"I finally understand why you think that I have become an obstacle to Stella's progress, big brother. However, I have no reason to go along with your values. Even if is as you say, that your values are the truth, that I am a fake… Stella loves me, and she desires to have one more battle with me. To me, that is all. Everything. Your words do not hold a candle to our promise, Ouma. They do not move me."

He rejected Ouma's request unceremoniously. His brother in response did not look too disappointed, and indeed seemed to have anticipated this refusal to submit.

"You're a fool. Do not misunderstand me. I am not asking—I am ordering you. If you won't listen, then I will simply use force to bring you to heel. That's all there is to it."

With a single slow motion—as though finding the task too tiresome—he materialized his own Device, the nodachi Ryuuzume, longer than the average Japanese sword by a shade. The air itself around them seemed to freeze over with tension, as frightful birds fled their trees overhead. They knew—they knew that the moment this sword was drawn, all within the park lay inside the palm of Ouma's hand.

Ikki, too, knew this. But even though he did he did not waver in the least. A smile unafraid crept upon his lips.

"Well, this is good—I don't hate that it's easier to understand this way."

As he said this, he materialized his own Device, Intetsu.

He was already resolved. From the time that Ouma had shown himself, he had known that there was no way their exchange could end peaceably. Those words had then sealed that fate. Ouma had said that the time Ikki and Stella had spent together up till now had been worthless. To Ikki, meeting her, the days they had spent together—these things were precious. He could not simply smile and let such words pass. For the sake of Stella, who loved him, he would not rest till he made Ouma pay for saying them.

"Whether I am merely a stumbling stone for Stella or not—come ascertain it with your blade!"

"Don't you dare snarl at me in my own words, ragged mongrel!"

Thus did the extra-tournament battle between the Kurogane brothers erupt.

A blade of steel might not cross that distance. But a blade of wind was a different matter. This was the Noble Art Shinkuuha, a popular offensive technique among wind users that tore through air, creating a small corridor of vacuum. Naturally, Ouma was capable of using it.

"Haa!"

Ouma struck out with Ryuuzume once again, sending another blade of vacuum hurtling toward Ikki. A slash capable of cutting through air. While it lacked the sheer offensive strength of a fire-user's ranged abilities like Stella Vermillion's own long-range technique Dragon Fang, its supersonic speeds and the difficulty of dodging an invisible strike made it a deadly ability in its own right.

But such a pedestrian technique would not be able to tame the Worst One. Ikki continued to advance without losing an iota of speed, juking his way through the gaps between the vacuum blades, dodging them all by a hair's breadth. From his movements it was obvious that he had seen through the supposedly invisible Shinkuuha. But how? The trick lay in that which Ikki had fixed his gaze on. His eyes were not on the unseen blades, but theRyuuzume Ouma wielded. Though it boasted supersonic speed, Shinkuuha could only go a straight line down the trajectory drawn by its user's Device. Therefore, following it and evading it was simple if one observedRyuuzume's angles of attack. It was much like dodging bullets, where one could easily evade them by reading the timing of the bolt's movements, and the position of the muzzle. For someone with Ikki's reflexes and motion perception, they simply could not hit.

"Hmph…."

Weaving past the corridor of vacuum slashes, Ikki was closing in. As though judging that bringing Ikki down was beyond mere Shinkuuha, Ouma too charged and swung at Ikki's neck—not with a sword of wind this time, but with a sword of steel.

"Kaaaa!!"

"Tch…!"

He's fast!

Despite wielding a bladed weapon whose weight equaled that of a spear, the sharpness and speed of Ouma's slash with his nodachi by far surpassed Ikki's.

This was not a difference in skill—indeed, both sides were about equal in that regard. The difference lay in Ouma's ability. Manipulating the wind, he had rendered air resistance null and void, giving his white blade the advantage in speed over Ikki's black one. Without Ittou Shura, there was no counter to such speed. Having judged in that moment, Ikki took up a defensive stance—

*Swish*

—and then he felt a chill freeze the blood in his veins as that sound reached his ears.

"Ooooooh!"

Forsaking defense, he threw himself backward to avoid Ouma's strike. The blade struck the sandy soil of the park—and did not stop there, carving a seemingly bottomless chasm in the earth below, etching that fissure-like wound deeply into the ochre-colored ground. Ikki broke into a cold sweat at the sight. Stella too could shake the ground with her strikes, but Ouma's were a cut above her's. After all, shaking was a phenomenon caused by the dispersion of energy—a sign of excessive waste and imperfection in the user's magic control. A true strike of concentrated energy created no such perturbations. Where it went, it silently yet thoroughly blew everything away. That was Ouma's strike, which had cut through the earth like a knife through hot butter.

How much energy would have had he gathered, how much force and mass simulated in order to do something like that? How many hundreds of kilograms? How many thousands? He did not know, but one thing he did. His brother's strike, much like Stella's, was a brutal blow. And not one he could take head-on.

But—

This extraordinary offensive strength, it can only be created by that body.

"You've changed a lot since we last met all those years ago, Ouma. No, I should say you've changed too much. What's the secret behind that body?"

"Oh?"

Ouma cracked a predatory grin at Ikki's words.

"To think that you would notice my anomaly in our first crossing of blades. Though it is trickery, your wounding of Twin Wings is evidently not just for show… however, there is nothing you can do with that knowledge. This anomaly is pure strength alone, unlike your deceptions."

Indeed, that slash was a tough customer. He was by no means a stranger to attacks that he could not defend against. He had once fended a similarly earth-shattering blow from Stella by negating her demon-like physical strength with a soft defense. But that had only been possible because of Stella's inexperience. A blade wildly swung cuts not the falling leaf. That was the principle behind it; deflecting wild strength was but a simple matter.

Ouma's blade-work was different. Its path betrayed not the slightest hesitation or deviation—it would surely slice even a falling leaf clean in twain.

Like this, even using Ten'i Muhou would be fairly dangerous.

How would he deal with this demon's blade? Using Ittou Shura would allow him to close the speed gap, but given the one-minute time limit it had it was still too soon to use it. He needed to force Ouma's to show more of his hand first.

In that case, what indeed would he have to do? As he drew on his past experience to come to a solution—

"I see you're thinking of some pointless things."

Ouma's mocking call from a distance snapped his train of thought.

"I've said it before. There is nothing you can do."

Then, Ouma made his move. Was it Shinkuuha once again? No. He did not make to slash, but instead raised his blade on high, as though meaning to pierce the moon.

"Also, I don't intend to waste much time on someone of your level. Let's just put a time limit on this—all this scurrying about is depressing."

He then began his incantation.

"Bind and shut—Mukou Kekkai."

The pale emerald fire shrouding Ryuuzume burst forth in vibrant flame, and in an instant a savage gale swept across the battlefield. The sands rose and churned, blinding the eyes as the howling winds drew them into its twisting updraft. Ikki clawed at the ground with both hands, barely managing to keep himself from being thrown up into the air as well.

Kuh! He's obstructing my vision…!

The sandstorm and the twister as one had stripped him of both sight and mobility. He could not but acknowledge that this move was effective, but he quickly realized painfully that even that line of thinking was naive. A man who pursued strength as purely as Ouma did would never use a technique that was simply meant to reduce his opponent's fighting capability.

Mukou Kekkai had a more terrifying, more direct ability, and that was—

"This…!"

I can't… breathe!

—the forced removal of oxygen. The updraft Ouma had created was robbing the battlefield of it, drawing it up high into the sky, denying Ikki the luxury of time.

"You have ten minutes. About one if you fight; that's all you have left. I have no patience for you to be conserving that miserable strength of yours. Come at me with all you have."

Ikki, hearing Ouma's commanding tone, steeled himself. Indeed, he had no time to conserve his power, exactly as his brother had said. Moreover—

This isn't an opponent I can hold back against.

He did not know what had happened to his brother during the time when Ouma whereabouts had been unknown, but it was clear that he was many times stronger than Ikki had remembered him. This compounded with his preexisting power deficiency meant that Ouma was not an opponent against which he could hope to hide an ace. Recognizing this, Ikki aborted his attempt to see through Ouma's strength, and ignited all the magic flowing through his body.

"Ittou Shura."

A burst of azure fire wrapped around his body as his sword spirit burst forth, like a rushing wind yet sharp enough to cut flesh. The trees in the park again shook, their leaves falling like raindrops. Having experienced many battles, Ikki's spirit had come to possess a very physical pressure.

Yet Ouma was not in the least shaken by that level of pressure. Rather than be in the least intimidated by Ittou Shura, he seemed to be annoyed—as one presented with something dull.

"A highly focused release of all one's power within a short period of time used in order to defeat with explosive force an opponent whose total reserves you cannot match… this is the height of deception. Just looking at it makes my skin crawl…. Come. Allow me to blow this stumbling stone away."

With almost leisurely movements, he settled into a battle stance. Stoic and unmoving, he evoked the image of a mighty mountain. Deep-rooted in the earth, an absolute presence. Ikki was almost overwhelmed by this feeling alone. But he had already played his trump card. He had a minute left, no more. Even a second's waste was fatal against this foe. Therefore—

"Haaaaaa!"

The knight in black initiated the decisive attack, his posture low to the ground like a shadow. In response, the Sword Emperor of Wind too made his move, his blade sweeping forth like a hurricane towards that shadow's head.

But when cloaked in Ittou Shura, Ikki was swifter than any wind!

I can do this!

He intended to end this in the first strike using the decisive difference in speed. Deflect Ouma's blow, avoid him, and strike at his body in a flash.

Don't be afraid.

His eyes fixed on the white blade bearing down on his head. Ouma could split the earth with this blow. If he allowed fear to cripple his deflection, he would be decapitated in a single strike.

Focus!

He sought maximum concentration to avoid this executioner's guillotine. The precision to deflect this falling blade. He could do it. He had to be able to. With all that he had honed himself with so far, he could surely do it. So, without fear—

Gooooo!

Encouraging himself thus, Ikki summoned up his utmost focus and charged at the oncoming blade. In that instant, all too suddenly—

…Eh?

—he stopped.