Chapter - 12

「Everyone, your attention please. As we have completed the ring preparations, we will now begin the first round matches of Block C. Representatives from Block C, please gather in your holding rooms.」

Once again the scene moved back to the mortar-built Bay Dome, where the announcement that preparation work on the ring surrounded by artificial grass was being made.

That announcement also reached the ears of Ikki and company, who had been leaning on the spectator fence watching the previous matches.

Ikki turned to Shizuku and Arisuin, who were with him.

"I guess it's time for me to go to the holding room."

His was the fourth matchup of Block C. As such, there was little reason for him to rush, but neither was there any excuse to be late.

"Do your best, Ikki."

"I will be praying for your good fortune in battle, Onii-sama… that said, the nerve of that woman Stella, really. Leaving aside not arriving for her own match, she is even late for yours."

"Isn't the order of importance supposed to be reversed, normally?"

"After this, I'm going to use the killer techniques I learned in One Hundred and Eight Ways to Bully the New Wife to beat her down."

"Haha… please show some mercy. Later, then."

Having so mollified Shizuku, who was displeased that Stella had not been the first to come forward and cheer her brother on, Ikki bade them farewell and then headed off to the holding room. He had been holding a relaxed expression throughout their time together, one so calm he didn't seem to have to battle later today. Perhaps it was due to this that Shizuku heaved a sigh of relief after seeing him off.

"That's good. Onii-sama doesn't seem as nervous as he was before."

"Haha. Well, he did fight the Twin Wings before, so why would he be afraid of an opponent of the Seven Stars Sword King's level?"

Finding Arisuin's words reasonable, Shizuku nodded. That battle had done her brother good. Of that she had no doubt.

Just then, a familiar voice rang out.

"He~llo, you two! Haven't seen you since yesterday!"

A young woman in a white robe waved as she walked towards them from the direction in which Ikki had left.

"Kiriko-san…."

"Well, well, don't we keep bumping into one another lately?"

"Hmmm, that's true—it's almost like fate is drawing us together."

"Being fated to be with doctors isn't quite my style, though."

Kiriko shrugged at Arisuin's joke, and then her face turned serious.

"I passed by the Worst One just now. Did something happen to him?"

"I think Onii-sama is really relaxed. Why do you say that?"

"Exactly. He's too relaxed. As we passed, I tried a quick check-up on him. His pulse, temperature, perspiration… even his circulation and hormone balance were way too calm. Normally, these values should at least change somewhat before a fight in anyone, but for him there was no change in any of them."

This was hardly the reaction of a human being. As Kiriko explained, Ikki had been in a state of excitation when meeting Moroboshi the previous day. As such, his display today of a complete lack of such excitement meant that—

"He is forcing himself to relax, and overly so. He wasn't like this yesterday… then, his level of excitement had been just right for combat. There might be something he's uneasy about."

Something Onii-sama is… uneasy about…?

"Are you really, really sure about this?"

"I couldn't tell you what he might be uneasy about, but I'm certain of my diagnosis."

"Might he be trying not to waste more energy than necessary by relaxing?"

"I wouldn't think so. A suitable amount of excitement can raise your ability in combat… in fact, I found it concerning precisely because he should be the sort of knight who understands this principle."

An ominous silence fell at Kiriko's ill-omened diagnosis, and in the disquiet Shizuku recalled the things they had heard from her the previous night after parting ways with Ikki—the things they had heard about Yuudai Moroboshi, the person Ikki was soon to fight.

Part 4[]

"What did you mean by a 'tragic sense of duty'?"

Ikki wouldn't win. Having heard Kiriko say this with surety, Shizuku pressed her for an answer. From her perspective, it felt like she was insulting her brother unfairly, but Kiriko couldn't have said such things without having her reasons.

"…Moroboshi-kun's sister was at the store today, right? I think you already found out about it, but she cannot speak."

"Yes, we heard from the Seven Stars Sword King that it was some sort of mental condition."

"It's his fault that she is unable to speak."

"What… did you say?"

"Well I don't think so of course, but he does, because no other reason could be found."

After that, Kiriko spoke about the origins of Moroboshi's sense of duty.

It had all begun six years ago—in the tragedy that had occurred when he bore the moniker of the 'Star of Naniwa', Kansai's top young knight.

"It was a holiday. Moroboshi-kun and his family were going to a theme park by train when the accident happened. The event itself made the news country-wide, so I'm sure both of you know of it, no?"

Shizuku nodded. She had indeed seen it while at her parents' home.

"As I recall, it was a terrible tragedy that claimed the lives of a few hundred people. As for the Seven Stars Sword King being involved, I hadn't heard about that till Onii-sama told me about it today."

"Yes, many lost their lives in that accident. In fact, that he is alive at all makes Moroboshi-kun a lucky man. He did not escape unscathed, however. While his parents and sister only sustained light injuries, he was severely wounded. In fact, he lost both his legs."

"Lost…? You mean, he became disabled…!?"

"Yes. As the culmination of modern medical science, the iPS capsule is capable of re-attaching lost limbs—arms, legs, and in some circumstances even the head. But its miraculous ability is limited to re-attachment only. It could not regenerate legs that had already been ground into paste."

In other words, Moroboshi's injuries had not been reversible by medical science.

"Thus, even though his life was saved, the Osakan hometown hero, the one whom many had held great expectations for, seeing him as one of the most talented people after the Yaksha Princess… was forced to retire just before the elimination matches of the elementary school league's upper bracket."

How frustrated he must have been. How awful he must have felt. And yet, Moroboshi then could not even stand on his own two feet. He could not possibly fight in that state. Though it was a bitter choice, the Star of Naniwa accepted his fate then. His inherent positivity allowed him to get over it and walk a path separate from that of a knight. But—

"There were people who could not get over it in the same way he did."

One was Koume Moroboshi, Moroboshi's younger sister. Why? The reason… was a most cruel one.

"The one who had said 'I want to go to the theme park' that fateful day was her."

"Then…! Then, she…."

"Yes, Koume-chan blamed herself."

If she hadn't suggested that they go to the amusement park, her brother wouldn't have lost his legs, and more importantly the bright future that had been promised to him. Because of her selfish request—indeed, she continued to blame herself most strongly—so strongly that her heart broke. In the end, she lost the ability to speak, almost as though to banish that selfishness.

"To think something like that happened…."

"Diseases of the heart are very difficult to cure. Unlike injuries or illnesses, the method by which they may be cured differs greatly from person to person. We doctors, sadly, are helpless. But there is one man who can cure Koume-chan."

From what she had spoken of duty from before, Shizuku and Arisuin could deduce the identity of that one man.

"That would be the Seven Stars Sword King, Yuudai Moroboshi himself."

"Yes, the abnormality that arose in his sister lit the fire in him once again, who had given up the path of the knight before."

It had been half a year after the incident, when Moroboshi had somehow gotten wind of the fact that she had been researching a method to utilize the body's cells to regrow lost limbs via magic, and came to her.

「Doc, please. Help me fight once again!」

He likely had not consulted his family at all before dragging himself from Osaka to Hiroshima, bringing only his muddied, wounded body… and a singular determination.

"I accepted without hesitation. Of course, it wasn't because I was moved by his passion or anything. To me, his arrival was just awfully convenient, as I was looking for laboratory rats for my research. Haha, I'm a cruel woman aren't I? At that time, I thought that I could do anything, that it was fine for me to do anything. So I stepped into the realm of the gods, and created new parts to replace the missing ones."

"So, Moroboshi's current legs are…."

"Yes, I cannibalized components from the rest of his body at the molecular level and coalesced the dispersed parts into a pair of false legs."

As another water user, Shizuku was rendered speechless at the skill of the White-Robed Knight. The number of water users in the whole world who could recreate a pair of new legs for someone who had lost them could not be more than three. Moreover, by her method all the components would originally come from Moroboshi himself, thus ruling out the occurrence of foreign body rejection as might happen in a transplant.

However—

"Hmm, but don't the legs account for close to half of the human body's total mass? Wouldn't a transfer of that sort be detrimental to the rest of the body?"

Arisuin's question was exactly the same as that which Shizuku was thinking. And their fears were spot-on.

"You have a good eye for this. It's as you say. We had problems. First there was the severe atrophy of his musculature all across the board, to the point where his life was in danger. The density of his bones was also decreased due to the creation of the large and robust leg bones, thus causing him to develop osteoporosis."

In the period just after the operation, Moroboshi had been so weakened that the mere act of inhalation and exhalation would cause his chest bones to ache. He was closer to death, most likely, more than he was right after the accident.

But that was only the beginning. In order to allow his by then thoroughly skin-and-bones body to regain a satisfactory degree of mobility, he had to build up his muscle mass. He also needed to do so as quickly as possible, as his reduced musculature would soon lose the ability to sustain his basic bodily functions.

Thus Kiriko had forced him, with that stick-thin body of his, to undergo an exercise regimen meant for first-rate athletes.

"Of course, it was unpardonable to make him do that with his body all the same."

His hollowed bones broke, his weakened muscles tore. His softened tendons split, his nerves snapped everywhere. Swallowing his agony, he ran on shattered legs, lifted dumbbells with ruined arms. His wounded body was healed each time by Kiriko's recovery magic, but that only meant that he would experience ruination for times uncountable.

It was a reckless process no different from torture. Vomiting and incontinence became everyday occurrences. In the end—

"Three months. That was how long it took to give up."

"That was unavoidable. Such recklessness…."

"Or should I say, that it's amazing that he could hold out for three months."

The common opinion between Shizuku and Arisuin had been that three months was way too long. It had clearly surpassed the bounds of treatment—could anyone continue doing such things?

Yet reality went against their reckoning.

"And that's where you're both mistaken. The one who gave up… was me."

"Eh…?"

"At first, I had always treated him like a lab rat, observing his progress and writing it down in a journal. But even though this seems obvious… he isn't a lab rat. He's a living being with the same shape as me. Watching that living being writhe in the throes of pain that had far exceeded human tolerance for days, for weeks, I couldn't stay calm… to be honest, I was going insane. Even in my dreams, I could hear his cries of agony."

After three months, she could not but think of her research as the work of the devil. She had to stop this immediately. The existing technology for prostheses was amazing. They could neither replicate very subtle movements nor allow mana to flow through them like one's original legs, which meant that Moroboshi could not again become a knight, but were advanced enough they would pose almost no obstacle to one's daily life.

Wouldn't that be enough?

Thinking thus, she had requested that Moroboshi cease the rehabilitation process and allow her to perform the operation that would return the flesh in his legs to his upper body.

"…But he told me this."

Even today, she could not forget his words then, could not help but remember them. With sweat matting his brow, and his breathing a mess, he said—

「Y'see, Doc. What d'ya think were the last words Koume spoke? Her face all messed up with tears, she said, 'I'm sorry'. Since then, I've never heard a thing from her. It's all my fault, it's all because I'm so pathetic. She has to bear a burden she shouldn't have to cuz' I was hurt. She jus' wanted to go t' the amusement park, but now she thinks that kind of cute selfishness is a sin… so I can't let it end here. I wanna let her know. That she don't need to apologize none. That she don't need to worry none. But I can't do it with this pathetic body. The things I lost in that accident—my legs, my strength, my place in the world—I'm gonna get 'em all back, to show her with results, not words like 'I'm okay now', or I'll never forgive myself! That's why…! Until I make Koume forgive herself and become able to speak once more, it don't matter how many times my bones break or my muscles tear…! I ain't ever gonna let her see my bent back ever again! That's what… an older brother is!」

"As he said, he never stopped—never even desired to stop—till his rehabilitation was complete… and after a few years, his desperate hard work finally bore fruit. The Star of Naniwa Yuudai Moroboshi returned to this stage, his strength not at all less than it was before."

And then he climbed, all the way to the summit of Japan's student knights—becoming the Seven Stars Sword King.

"Even so, the duty that Moroboshi-kun had set himself is not yet complete. Until the day that Koume-chan speaks again, he will always be a desperate man."

His desire for a serious match with Ikki therefore did not stem from ambition, but rather, it was all for his sister. The flame in him—that sense of duty as a brother that had brought him crawling out of the depths of hell—had not extinguished, but rather burned on.

"Having always been watching him, I can promise you. The Seven Stars Sword King Yuudai Moroboshi is not someone who can be defeated merely by having the ambition to beat him. People who fight for others important to them are very strong."