Chapter - 18

「Wha… what just happened!?」

Iida yelled, his voice shrill.

「Just as we thought that this was the moment when Moroboshi would end this match, he was the one to fall insteaddd! I reckon he got hit in that exchange with Kurogane… b…but, I'm ashamed to say this, but it was just too fast—I couldn't see what happened at all!!」

Indeed, Ikki movements could not be seen, even by the people in the commentator's booth watching the match from afar. He had simply disappeared all of a sudden, and before anyone realized it, had passed Moroboshi by and cut him down.

Iida's eyes bugged wide in disbelief.

「What is happening? Kurogane's movements are clearly different from what he's shown up till now!」

But Muroto's surprise surpassed his.

「Impossible! That couldn't be… no, but… it could only be….」

He knew. He knew who the footwork and swordplay that Ikki had used really belonged to. Sensing his confusion, Iida pressed him.

「Muroto-pro. Do you know something about this? Is this, in fact, the Worst One's rumored Ittou Shura?」

「N-No, this isn't Ittou Shura. There was no change in the amount of magic power Kurogane was using. That… was pure swordplay! And while there are differences between two-sword and one-sword styles, I have seen that sort of untrackable instant acceleration of body and blade once before….」

「Where on earth could that be? Don't tell me, it was in the A-League!?」

Muroto shook his head.

「You can't find it in that place, because… this swordplay belongs to someone whom every country has given up on capturing due to her outrageous strength. This is the swordsmanship of the world's greatest swordsman, and its most wanted criminal in history—Twin Wings Edelweiss!」

Muroto's words caused an uproar in the audience.

「…Whaaaaattttt!?」

「Twin Wings, you mean, that Twin Wings!? But why would the Worst One know how to use her swordsmanship!?」

「No, wait, but I heard that the Worst One can steal his opponent's techniques!」

Surprised cries rang out all around. This time, Ikki's friends joined them in being dumbfounded. They understood that Ikki was someone who often went against commonly-held knowledge, but if what Muroto said was true, then this was incomparable to before.

"Did Onii-sama, really…!"

"So this is to say that he did not just return alive from his battle against Twin Wings, but even managed to steal the world's strongest swordsmanship!?"

And Kiriko objected to Alice's statement.

"That can't be! If so, why didn't he use this right from the start?"

This was the natural question to ask. Kurono, however, was quick to shoot her objection down.

"It's not that he didn't use it. It's just that he couldn't remember how, and thus couldn't use it."

"Ah…!"

At this, Kiriko remembered the conversation that Ikki had had with Yagokoro when they parted ways the previous day.

"That inability to remember was also the cause for his abnormality."

"Madam Chairman, what do you mean by that?"

"Edelweiss's swordplay isn't normal. Normally, all of a human's motions are created by the coordinated movements of muscles. However, that will not let you use Edelweiss's swordplay. To create that kind of extreme zero-to-one-hundred difference in speed, you need all the required muscles to move together instantaneously, and instantaneously muster the full strength of those muscles. A human normally wouldn't be able to send sufficient nerve signals instantaneously for that to occur."

One could not give orders to all of one's muscles at once.

"To make this possible, one needs to change these nerve signals themselves."

They had to be shaped, shaped into combat signals completely different from the ones normal humans came equipped with, signals that could be sent in shorter, more concentrated bursts. If one could not come to use one's brain signals this way, it would be impossible to command all the muscles of a complex living organism like a human being to release all their power at once.

"Ikki must have been able to touch and then get a hold of Edelweiss's swordplay from the blink-and-you'd-miss-it battle between their techniques. If even he himself did not remember it, his brain still does."

A knight of Ikki's caliber could trace that exceptional technique in their subconscious minds after having seen it but once.

"Thus, whenever he is in the zone at critical moments, his brain will release those combat signals, but like him, his body has forgotten that battle from which he gained them—thus, having forgotten what they were for, he was unable to do anything with the foreign signals."

"So because he could not recognize the signals he could not react to them. Is that it?"

Kurono nodded in confirmation to Shizuku's words.

"Exactly. In other words, Edelweiss did not break Ikki. If anything, the battle with her caused him to evolve explosively, so much so that his own body could not keep up with that growth… but, that was only the case until now."

Faced with imminent defeat, his body had finally been able to recall the power that he had gained from duelling Edelweiss, along with that method of moving his body, so completely foreign from what he had been doing in the sixteen years since he was born.

"The engine, chassis and clutch necessary for that super-high-speed movement have finally come together—now that it's come to this, the result of this match is obvious. Yuudai Moroboshi can be considered the strongest Seven Stars Sword King in the last ten years, but his opponent is too much for him. Even after being defeated in a duel with the strongest sword in the world, Kurogane was able to utilize his incredible learning capacity to obtain a skill that has surpassed the level of a student knight by far."

This technique was far above the caliber of what might be expected at such a tournament.

"The person facing Moroboshi now… is the real monster here."

That was why Kurono believed… that with regard to the first round matches, it was Moroboshi instead who had no luck.

Part 6[]

"Gah…ha!"

The feeling of something cold on his cheek—the cold stone flooring of the ring—brought Moroboshi back to his senses.

Wh…What, why am I lying down…?

Having lost consciousness for an instant, he could not comprehend what had happened to him, or that he had been hit by Ikki's attack.

For now, let's get up.

His instincts as a fighter allowed him to get up immediately even after having fallen down defenseless. Thus, even in his state of incomprehension, he got up on reflex, and in the moment that he got to his feet and his senses returned—

"G-uaa-aaaaahhhh!"

—he groaned in agony as fiery pain seared his flank.

「Moroboshi's gotten up! But as you can see, he's hurt really badly! He's losing lots of blood, and his legs are unsteady!」

Having heard his circumstances being analyzed by the commentary, and feeling his side burn, he realized that he had been injured.

What… is this? I was cut!? But I couldn't see anythin'….

As he was beside himself in confusion, he heard this.

"Aah… I finally understand."

His opponent said in a small voice.

"Kurogane… what in the world did you just do?"

What had he understood? Was he able to achieve that speed because he had understood it?

Ikki replied as he bowed slightly.

"Moroboshi-san, I'm sorry for having kept you waiting."

"You're… sorry?"

"Yes… it's all finally come together now."

Ikki was of course talking about their promise from the previous day. To give his best, and thus return the favor—a gentleman's agreement between him and the proud knight named Yuudai Moroboshi.

Now, he was confident that he could fulfill that agreement.

"So as we agreed, I'll show it to you—Ikki Kurogane at his full strength!"

Having said this, he vanished from Moroboshi's sight.

He disappeared…!

He did not in fact disappear, of course, but having skipped the acceleration process and achieved maximum output upon stepping forward Ikki got off to a rocketing start that Moroboshi's motion perception simply couldn't follow.

Drawing a curved arc with his sprinting, Ikki went around to Moroboshi's left. Three times Ikki had been repelled by his spear, but now he bypassed its range with ease while stepping into the range of his own blade—

"Guaaaah!"

—and cut Moroboshi's right arm as he blasted by like a black gale.

"You lil' shit—!"

Whirling around, Moroboshi lashed out with Sanrensei, using the burning pain to read Ikki's location. But he could only cut thin air. Ikki was no longer there by the time he turned.

He's already gone…!

Moroboshi was momentarily rendered speechless by the speed. But he had no time to be surprised as another blow struck him, slicing into his back.

"Gaaaaah—!"

「Aah! He's been hit again! Moroboshi is letting Kurogane get into range too easily! He's completely unable to follow his movements! Once again, Sanrensei has struck the empty air!」

「It can't be helped…! Kurogane's extreme highs and lows in acceleration and overwhelming speed is something that even we cannot catch from long range, what more when it happens in front of one's eyes! It's more than likely that the Seven Stars Sword King can no longer see the form of the Worst One!」

He had hit the nail on the head.

Sh…Shit!

Something impossible was happening before Moroboshi's eyes.

He could hear them. The sounds of any number of slashes, and of footsteps moving at a dreadful pace. His opponent was unmistakably close to him, and yet—

What is this, what is going on!?

—no matter where he turned to look, there was no one there.

It was as if he were the only man in the ring.

Was such a thing even possible? Could it even happen in real life? The ring was a round platform a hundred meters across in diameter, and there was no shade or cover in that small space. Yet though his opponent was so close he could hear his breathing, Moroboshi could not see him at all.

This… this is bad!

He could feel another slash incoming. If he continued to take hits like this, it would be dangerous. But he could no longer use his spear to fend off attacks of this speed. So he made a decision there and then.

"Uoooooo!!!"

He crossed his arms, covering his vital spots. Dispelling Tiger Bite, he released all his magic power to form an armor around his body.

「What is this? The Seven Stars Sword King, Japan's proud number one knight, has shed his pride and is going for an all-out defense!」

Moroboshi's magic power was not on Stella's level, and as such could not outright negate the attacks of an F-rank's Device like she could. But if he used all his power, he could reduce the impact of slashes from Intetsu. As long as his head remained defended by his arms, one or two hits would not result in a fatal injury.

However, this stance indicated that he had given up on attacking, as he could only defend from this position. Naturally, Ikki rushed in without fear!

「Kurogane isn't missing this chance! Blazing in, he attacks from every angle! It's a no-holds-barred beatdown! Moroboshi isn't retaliating! Has he lost the will to fight?」

「That's not it! The Seven Stars Sword King can't see the Worst One right now. All he can really do right now is defend himself. He's doing the best he can, indeed all he can to stay alive right now!」

Muroto was full of respect for Moroboshi's will to fight to the bitter end.

「…But, even so, we have to stop this match!」

「No way! Do you mean to say that Moroboshi can no longer turn this around?」

Muroto nodded.

「He won't. The difference between their skills is such that he can no longer win.」

Muroto had once been in the King of Knights A-league, one of only a few in the whole nation. Because of that, he understood that the difference between the two was so great as to be incomparable. His analysis, however, enraged Moroboshi's fans.

「What're ya sayin', shitty commentator!」

「Hosshii!! Don't give up-!」

So they cried out. However—

「The black wind howls on! Moroboshi's shield is dispersing—it's breaking, shattering! Is this really the end? The Star of Naniwa, the one who took the competition last year and whom everyone hoped might take the never-before-accomplished second straight title—is this really going to end without him being able to do anything?」

A sudden reversal, and from there an unbelievably one-sided battle. The occurrence of this unexpected development in Block C's fourth match had the spectator stands in turmoil.

And in those stands, Shizuku suddenly caught sight of the figure of Koume standing up and leaving. Almost as if she were fleeing.

Koume-san….

At that, Shizuku remembered the complicated expression she had made upon seeing Ikki the previous day, and the bitter, pained expression she had borne the whole time as she watched the match.

She could understand Koume's feelings, the pain she must feel. After all, her brother too was on the battlefield. She also understood that that pain was a mistake. By the time she caught herself, she was already chasing after Koume.

"You know…I might have said this before, but I really like that about you, Shizuku."

Even as she left, Shizuku flushed a little at Alice's soft words.