Chapter - 15

Ikki's estimation had been spot-on. The curving spear had gone unseen by the audience.

"Aah! What a pity! I had a good feeling about him going in there…!"

Arisuin's lips quirked downward as Ikki failed to seize the opportunity at the very last moment of his attack. What a pity—he had been so close, too. So Arisuin said, for he could only see that Ikki had failed to evade Sanrensei's final thrust. If he had known what had happened in that instant—of how Ikki had sprung a trap as he struck at the apparent weak point of Moroboshi's thrust-only spearmanship style, and how Moroboshi had shattered the premise that a sidestep out of the spear's range would render one safe with his surprise attack—he probably would not have said that. Many besides Arisuin were similarly fooled.

"Was it really 'just a pity'?"

But Shizuku had doubts, even though she could not see that curving thrust.

"What do you mean, Shizuku?"

"Look at Onii-sama's face right now."

Even from that far away, they could see that Ikki was shaken.

"If he had merely failed to dodge, his wariness wouldn't be this blatant. Something happened in that ring, something we couldn't see—and that was surely Moroboshi-san's intention."

There was someone else who had predicted this turn of events from the beginning. That was Touka Toudou, Raikiri, back in Tokyo.

"As I thought, he used it…."

That she could predict this was a matter of course. After all, she had faced the exact same in her turn the previous year.

"…Though I couldn't evade it and took a rough hit in my side."

"Um, President. Is there some sort of secret to that thrust? I couldn't see anything except that Kurogane-san seemed to fail in evading Sanrensei's last strike."

"As I said before, the weakness of the thrust lies in the ease of dodging it. However, Moroboshi's thrust has overturned this logic by… well, Kana-chan, his thrust can bend in the direction in which an opponent evades and pursue them."

"A bending thrust, you say?"

"Yes. Moroboshi has eliminated the vulnerabilities of the point attack through the use of this homing thrust."

"But, President, I couldn't see it bending. And besides, Blazers should only have one ability, and Moroboshi's has nothing to do with changing his reach. I don't think he possesses a Noble Art that would allow him to manipulate the shape of his Device like Sword Eater either."

"I suppose it can't be helped that you didn't see the spear bend. From the first, the spear itself isn't bending. It is as you say, Kana-chan. This was not the result of using Noble Arts—in other words, it is a martial art, just like Sanrensei. At any rate, Moroboshi-kun has control over the flow of the battle now that he has scored the first strike. This is now do-or-die for Kurogane-kun."

Just as Touka had said, the battle began once again.

「The Seven Stars Sword King has stepped forward! He's going on the offensive!」

The spear shot out once again, aiming for his legs. He was trying to limit Ikki's mobility.

Let's not think about attacking for now and just focus on evasion! I'll get back in the swing of things as I dodge!

Dodging the thrusts by taking half a step backward, he attempted to calm himself down. Each thrust seemed to split the air—he could not stop. He had to wait for the decisive opening when the spear, having missed, would stab into the stone floor—

The opening he imagined occurred in that instant. And yet, the spear that should have aimed for his legs suddenly shot upward, making for his face!

Uwaaa!

Jerking his head back, he narrowly avoided it, but still received a shallow graze to the cheek.

There's no mistaking it! While I don't understand the principle behind it, Moroboshi-san's thrust bends!

A spear, ramrod straight as it should have been, was as fluid as clay. It was an impossible sight, but seeing it twice had cleared all his doubts. And it was not just twice; all of Moroboshi's thrusts thereafter curved. Up and down, left and right, ever changing according to his will—chasing Ikki wherever he fled.

This is nuts. If I just sidestep, I'll be skewered!

This technique was not one to use knife-thin dodges on. He had no other option apart from seeking to completely escape the spear's attack range, and this he did with all his might.

「What's happening to Kurogane? Watching him flee helter-skelter, it's almost as though the beautiful dodges from before were a lie! It's like it's taking all he has just to escape!」

That's really true!

Ikki made a wry grin at the commentator's scathing remarks.

But escaping was not the same as losing. To flee was to avoid losing. No matter how unseemly he looked, he still sought victory. He did not run because he was afraid. Even as he scurried about he continued to observe Moroboshi, the gears in his head turning as they sought to come closer to the secret behind Moroboshi's homing thrust.

The commentators have made it quite clear—the audience can't see what's happening.

If they could see the homing spear, the commentators wouldn't have said what they had. Rather than commenting on Ikki's desperate scurrying, they would have praised Moroboshi's amazing technique.

Which means that the mechanism behind the homing thrust has to be—

"What's wrong? You ain't gonna win just by runnin' away, Kurogane!"

Once again, a flash of steel pierced the air. All this time, it had been this oncoming flash of silver steel that had been the focus of Ikki's attention. Which was normal; a mysterious technique was bound to attract attention after all.

But that's a mistake. I shouldn't be focusing on the tip, but rather on Moroboshi's hands!

In that instant, Ikki saw through the homing thrust. It did not escape his notice that Moroboshi would change the way he angled his elbows and flicked his wrists, changing the trajectory of the spear mid-thrust.

As I thought… so that's how it is!

Indeed. From the first, the spear itself did not bend. The 'bending' phenomena was an optical illusion caused by the subtlety of the switch-up.

To bend as one thrusts, and pierce as one bends. Easily said, but to perform that action while performing a series of three thrusts so swift that an outsider would only see one was no simple matter. This was beyond human reaction speed. It was not something one could do just by dreaming it up in one's head. It was something Moroboshi had carved into himself through an astounding amount of training, into his flesh, his bones and his blood. This spear needed no orders from his brain to pursue the enemy.

This was Yuudai Moroboshi's technique Houkiboshi, a martial art so expert as to seem like magic.

What amazing technique….

Even without the natural sense that the Sword Eater had been born with, he had managed to create a miracle, a move had surpassed the boundaries of humanity through sheer hard work. As a fellow martial artist, Ikki had to respect Moroboshi. It moved him above all else to see someone reversing the weakness of the thrust—the simplicity of evasion—and even working that flaw into his combat style. It was wonderful to have been able to come to the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival and face off against such an amazing knight.

But I won't be satisfied by just crossing swords!

He now knew that Houkiboshi was a purely physical technique. Thus, he too could attack. It was simple—Houkiboshi's strength lay in pursuing and attacking the opponent while they were in a defenseless post-evasion state.

Therefore—

"—I simply won't dodge at all!"

He switched up his battle plan suddenly. Houkiboshi, which had been aimed for his throat, was batted aside by Intetsu. He no longer paired evasion with retreat, but rather advanced in defense.

"Kuh—!?"

Moroboshi immediately retaliated with his Sanrensei-Houkiboshi combination, but the secret was out—if one did not attempt to dodge, then it was just like any other thrust. Ikki closed the distance slowly, parrying each strike and sweeping them away as they came.

「Whaaat! Kurogane has changed things up! Giving up dodging, he's breaking through bravely from the front! Sparks fly as the flashing blows rain down, but he's pushing them aside and approaching steadily!」

At this change of pace from Ikki, Moroboshi frowned for the first time since their match began. For a normal opponent, the act of advancing while knocking the high speed thrusts of Sanrensei aside should have been impossible even if they understood the principle behind Houkiboshi.

But Ikki could do it. With his powers of observation, capable of such things as Perfect Vision and Blade Steal, he had already seen through Moroboshi's habits and technique to a certain extent. By chasing Ikki down as far as he had, he had shown Ikki too much.

"Haaaa!"

「Moroboshi does his utmost to keep delivering high-speed strikes! But it can't stop Kurogane! It can't stop him! That phalanx of spears is being cast aside!」

「Like this, the Seven Stars Sword King will have trouble. The strength of the spear is its reach: if an enemy gets inside his guard, then its combat ability will be reduced by half! Moroboshi has to push him back somehow!」

But now that Ikki had a read on him, Moroboshi could not prevent his advance regardless of how quickly or often he struck. As it stood, it was only a matter of time before he would enter the sword's attack range. And having gained such an advantage, a swordsman of Ikki's caliber would never miss his opportunity. Once he got within Moroboshi's guard, this battle would be over!

Finally, Ikki breached the threshold. He was only one step away from the extent of his sword's reach.

"Shit—!"

In a last ditch effort to stop Ikki in his tracks, Moroboshi once again unleashed Sanrensei. But it was no use. Having stolen Moroboshi's technique, Ikki could instantly read the trajectory of Sanrensei from the angle Moroboshi's elbows were set at and the shifting of his gaze.

Deflecting the first and the second strikes, he matched his timing with the prelude to the third—and stepped into range!

「With this Kurogane's got Moroboshi in his sights!」

Seeing the Seven Stars Sword King being hunted down, a cry went up through the stands.

「Run, Hoshiiii!」

But there was still one strike left in Sanrensei. Like Houkiboshi, it was a high-speed maneuver honed from untold amounts of repeated practice, the process of which was carved into the body and left no room for thought. Even if they wanted him to flee, he could not. His body moved to aim its last blow at Ikki's chest!

But Ikki had already seen this—Moroboshi's habits, his angle of attack, the spear's trajectory, all of it. He could not possibly miss striking this blow!

Once I deflect this last strike, I'll be in range! In one go, victory will be—

—But in that moment, a flash ran through his brain.

No, wait, this is bad—!

And then, something unbelievable happened in the ring. Ikki, who should have succeeded in his pursuit of Moroboshi, was pierced in the shoulder by Tora-Ou and knocked back out of his sword's reach.

「Whaaaaat!? What happened here? It was apparent to everyone that Kurogane's assault was about to succeed, but he was suddenly knocked back! Taking a hit to the shoulder, he was sent flying out of range in one go!」

"That's not possible! Onii-sama would never slip up in that situation!"

Shizuku was clearly flustered by this unexpected development. But beside her, Arisuin had gone pale as he witnessed something even more unbelievable.

"Shizuku! Look at Intetsu!"

As he cried out, Shizuku too saw that impossible sight.

"That… that can't be…!"

「This… what would you call it? Kurogane's Device, Intetsu, is broken! It's as though a huge beast just took a chunk out of it!」

Indeed, the crystallization of Ikki's soul, his blade Device Intetsu, had a large part of it sliced off.

「What happened? A Device shouldn't even bend, let alone break, unless struck by a great force, but…!」

The commentator was again in confusion. This was only natural. A Device was constructed by crystallizing magic power with incredible density. Even after having broadcasted matches between knights for a long period of time, Iida could only count the number of times he had seen a Device break on one hand.

On the other hand Muroto, who was in charge of the analysis, was enthusiastic.

「No, there is an exception!」

「An… exception?」

「Yes. Please look closely at the Seven Stars Sword King's Tora-Ou!」

At Muroto's words, all eyes were on Moroboshi. And then everyone noticed. At some point, his spear had become clad in a golden aura.

Everyone knew what that aura was.

「This, this is! The Seven Stars Sword King had activated Tiger Bite at a certain point in the fight!」

This was the same anti-Blazer Noble Art Tiger Bite for which Yuudai Moroboshi was famed, and which had even dispelled the Sword Emperor of Wind's Noble Art Kusanagi the previous night.

「But why would he have activated Tiger Bite? Kurogane wasn't even using any Noble Arts…!」

But even as Iida said this, his faced changed as he seemingly came to his own conclusions.

「It couldn't be…!」

「So you noticed, huh. That's it. To dispel a Noble Art is to dispel the magic therein. And that which a Blazer invests magic power into is not limited to their Noble Arts. Their weapons, the Devices, are also made of magic power! It seems that the Seven Stars Sword King has somehow learned such a frightening technique in the one year since he took the title. Last year, his Tiger Bite had only been able to dispel Noble Arts, which a Blazer only puts a portion of their power into. But this year… it can even shatter a magic construct of such high density as a Device!」

Even in faraway Tokyo, Touka Toudou gasped as she witnessed this development in the battle.

"For such a thing to…!"

"President, this… is this going to be fairly hard for Kurogane?"

"…'Fairly' doesn't even cut it."

Yes. "Fairly" didn't even begin to describe it. The Device represented a Blazer's soul. If damaged or broken, the mental feedback was painful enough to easily render them unconscious. With Tiger Bite possessing the power to destroy even Devices, even the very act of crossing blades with him was like exposing one's heart to him and requesting death.

Luckily, Ikki's blade had not been completely shattered this time, but there would not be second chance. His Intetsu could not take another hit from Tora-Ou.

This also meant that Ikki had lost his means of dealing with Houkiboshi.

There is no target of opportunity—!

They all felt a shiver at the terrifying nature of Tiger Bite—Touka and Kanata, who were watching the broadcast together, as well as Ikki's companions on-site.

Ikki thought differently. More so than the technique—it was the person called Yuudai Moroboshi who caused him to tremble.

What a terrifying person…!

Tiger Bite was indeed a formidable ability. Even if he only possessed that ability, he would be able to dominate the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival.

But this knight he was fighting did not do so. He did not revel in that overwhelming power, but instead planned intricately, reeling Ikki in. From the first Sanrensei, all of his actions had been but foreshadowing. First had he used Sanrensei to lure Ikki into range, and then use the weakness of the thrust as bait before retaliating with Houkiboshi.

Of course Ikki would feel that he had been had, realizing that Sanrensei had merely been a bait for the real trap to be the sprung in the form of Houkiboshi, the real killing move. And then he, as a fellow Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival representative, had been able to quickly see through the fact that Houkiboshi was a physical technique that needn't be dodged but rather parried—and he would attack thusly, entering Moroboshi's guard.

But this was all according to Moroboshi's scenario.

Houkiboshi was not the killing blow. Indeed, it had never been meant to be the finishing blow, but rather bait to coax Ikki into the situation where Intetsu would meet Tora-Ou head on… all so he could drive Tiger Bite into the Blazer's critical weak point—their Device!

One would think that with such an ability, he would be more rough.

But instead he planned meticulously and efficiently, striking at the gaps in his opponent's thought process. If he had not doubted himself in that instant—thinking "If he can destroy Noble Arts, he could destroy Devices as well"—and thus delayed his attack, Intetsu would surely have been shattered and he would have been defeated.