by Yuu Miyazaki
“I-impossible!” Päivi sputtered, her eyes wide in shock.
“This must be the Pan-Dora’s precognition!” Mahulena murmured in consternation.
Everything’s going fine so far. Now for the hard part…
She swung downward with the Pan-Dora, aiming straight for Monica’s school crest.
Monica let out a cry of distress.
Fortunately for Claudia, she had yet to recover her fighting posture.
Before the blades could reach her, however, Miluše leaped to her defense.
“Not so easy!” she broke in, her eyes glowing with the eerily beautiful azure light of the Lyre-Poros.
“Oh dear, you’re faster than I thought!”
She had known that it would be beyond Kirin’s abilities to hold her back for long, but she had been hoping for just a little more time.
That meant, however, that it would also be beyond her own abilities to outsmart Miluše to reach Monica.
Unless she overextended herself, that was.
I guess I have no choice.
She focused her mind on the Pan-Dora once more.
Having the opposing team’s leader standing right in front of her was an unprecedented opportunity, and she had to fight against herself not to aim at Miluše’s own school crest. With her physical abilities still being brought down by Monica’s Orga Lux, however, she would be unlikely to find the perfect move, no matter how much stock she spent. Which left only one course of action available to her.
Thirty seconds… Forty seconds… Fifty seconds…
Not enough…
Sixty seconds… Seventy seconds… Eighty seconds…
Not yet.
Ninety seconds… One hundred seconds…
I guess this is my limit.
She flashed Miluše a bright smile as her surroundings burst into motion.
Claudia swung the blade in her right hand down toward her with a cry, but Miluše parried it effortlessly. At the same time, she thrust the blade in her left hand toward her school crest, but she blocked that, too, by deflecting the angle of her strike with her elbow, and followed through to swing her own glowing blade toward Claudia’s school crest. Claudia twisted around, then unleashed a ferocious spinning attack toward her opponent. Miluše blocked it, but the blow was so heavy that even she was left momentarily stunned.
The combination of attacks had left Claudia off-balance, but she nonetheless stepped forward, swinging her blade toward Monica’s school crest, when—
“Don’t underestimate me!” Monica cried out, having regained her fighting stance, as she deflected each of her attacks one after the other.
Claudia tried to regain her balance, but before she had a chance to move, Miluše delivered a powerful kick to her abdomen.
“—!”
She had concentrated her prana into her stomach to limit the damage, but the blow was enough to send her falling to the ground.
“Hah! You’re mine now!” Monica howled as she leaped after her, swinging her ax down to carve her school crest in two. “I’ve done it!” she cried out elatedly. “I’ve taken down their champion!”
“…Boom.”
At that exact moment, however, a torrent of light surged out from behind Claudia, smashing into Monica’s own school crest.
“…Huh?”
It was Saya’s homing blaster.
“Claudia Enfield—crest broken.”
“Monica—crest broken.”
The two automated announcements rang out on top of each other.
They had defeated each other simultaneously.
After running through close to two hundred different courses of action with her precognition, this was the best outcome Claudia had found. Her opponent, having defeated her enemy and let down her guard—that was what she had focused on.
In a team battle, defeated players were, of course, not allowed to interfere with the remainder of the match in any way.
Which meant that Monica’s weakening ability, which had caused Claudia and the other so much trouble, was now taken care of.
“N-no way…” Monica sank to the ground, looking as if she was about to burst into tears.
Claudia, on the other hand, let out a sigh of relief.
The first stage of the strategy was complete.
“It’s up to the rest of you now,” she said to herself as she withdrew to the edge of the stage. There was nothing she could do now but watch as her team members fought on.
“Everyone, fall back! We need to reset our formation!”
“It’s not that easy…!” Tuulia grunted as she blocked Ayato’s renewed attacks.
With Monica eliminated, the tides of the battle had undergone a sudden change. Ayato and the others had been fighting on the defensive, but now, despite the numbers still being equal, they had managed to take the upper hand.
The only reason he wasn’t able to finish his opponent off then and there was because Päivi kept using her acoustic barrier to block his attacks before they could reach their target.
“Burst into bloom—Antirrhinum Majus!”
Julis’s Strega abilities had undergone the most dramatic transformation. As he corrected his grip on the Ser Veresta, Ayato could feel the heat pulsing from the flames that she had summoned up all across the stage.
Now, Päivi would no doubt have to focus entirely on keeping her in check, which meant he was free to go after Tuulia.
Glancing across the stage, Kirin looked to have regained her composure as well and was pushing against Miluše with her Conjoined Cranes.
“You’d better not be making light of me, Murakumo!”
“—!”
Tuulia, however, stepped forward with a well-aimed lunge. Ayato couldn’t help but fall back at the strength of her determination. Maybe, he thought, it still wouldn’t go as smoothly as he had been hoping.
“I might not be a match for you in raw strength or skill, and the fact that we’re exchanging blows at all might be thanks to Mahulena, but I’m not going down so easily!”
She certainly did seem to have a strong will.
“Argh, fine!” Miluše called out all of a sudden. “We can’t afford to hold back anymore! Everyone, resonance!”
Resonance…?
There were a lot of mysteries swirling around the Lyre-Poros, so it should have come as little surprise that they were hiding some sort of ace precisely for times like these.
Ayato stepped back, just in case, when Tuulia began to strike violently at the strings of her guitar.
At that moment, a heavy bass sound rushed toward him—the powerful shock throwing him to the rear of the stage.
“Nngh—?!” He reflexively twisted his body as he flew through the air and somehow managed to land on his knees.
“…Ayato, are you all right?” Saya, who was standing nearby, began to move toward him, but he raised a hand to tell her to stay where she was.
“I think so. But that…”
It wasn’t an acoustic wave. If it had been, as fast as it was, he should have had enough time to dodge it.
Right. It must have been Päivi, he thought as he stared across the stage.
Before him, there was a distortion moving through the air, at least a dozen yards in width.
“That’s…not her acoustic barrier, is it?” Kirin asked, holding a hand up to her head. She, too, had been thrown across the stage by the force of the blast.
“That’s impossible. It has to be ten times bigger than what she’s been doing up till now…,” Julis muttered.
It didn’t take long for the acoustic barrier to dissipate, and when it did, the four remaining members were waiting for them on the other side of the stage.
“Hah! What do you think? Surprised?” Miluše asked with a boldly confident smile as she pointed her guitar in their direction. “It’s our ultimate move! We draw out the Lyre-Poros’s original power by making each of our Orga Luxes resonate with one another! You don’t have a one in a million chance now!”
“…You seem to be having a hard time of it, though,” Saya pointed out.
“What…?!” Miluše squawked.
Saya was right. The four were all sweating heavily as if in considerable pain.
That, Ayato realized, was no doubt the cost of using the Orga Lux’s resonance technique.
“H-hmph! That doesn’t matter. This is the end for you!” Miluše declared, lifting her hand to her guitar.
At that instant, a chill ran down Ayato’s spine.
“It can’t be…!”
The others seemed to have felt it, too.
If Päivi used her acoustic barrier now, at its current size—
“You won’t get away from this!” Tuulia shouted, her arm raised toward them.
“Everyone, behind me!” Julis cried, rushing forward as mana swirled around her.
But even if she was to use a defensive ability, she wouldn’t make it in time.
And that was when Kirin leaped forward, too.
“Yaaah!” With a piercing, raw cry, she threw the Senbakiri across the stage like a javelin.
Ayato had only heard of the technique once before. The Devouring Beak. Like her sword-drawing technique, it was an unorthodox move created by the Toudou style.
The sliver blade carved through the air in a straight line before lodging itself into the center of Miluše’s guitar.
“Huh?!”
“Burst into bloom—Anthurium Multifluus!”
Taking advantage of the brief window that Kirin had bought her, Julis unleashed several shields of flame around them.
At that moment, Miluše’s and Tuulia’s guitars seemed to let out almighty screams, and a ferocious acoustic wave swept over them.
It was strong enough to shred their clothes, gnashing at their skin and all but grinding them into the ground.
“Nngh…!” Ayato had no choice but to cover his face with his arms and concentrate his prana into defense.
The storm continued unabated for a long moment, gouging into everything within its range and blasting at least half the stage into the protective barriers behind them.
When finally it abated, and Ayato was able to lift his face, the familiar, emotionless automated voice sounded.
“Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld—crest broken.”
“Kirin Toudou—crest broken.”
The two girls lay fallen on their knees where they had been standing.
“—! Julis! Kirin!” he cried out, about to rush toward them, when Julis stopped him with a pained look.
“…Sorry. I wasn’t strong enough. But you’re both safe, so there is still a chance. It’s all up to you now.”
“Ayato, Saya… We’re counting on you,” Kirin added, her face already beginning to swell from her injuries.
He and Saya were only safe because the two had used themselves as shields.
“Right, leave it to us.”
“…” Saya gave them both a slight nod.
“Argh…! Why won’t they give up?!” Miluše panted.
“It doesn’t matter! We’ll keep hitting them, no matter how many times it takes!” Tuulia answered as the two raised their guitars once again.
Ayato quickly surveyed his surroundings. There was too great a distance between him and them. He wouldn’t be able to reach them in time. That left only one option.
“Take thiiiiiiiiis!” Miluše and Tuulia cried in unison, the sound of their voices bleeding into the piercing scream that had begun to emerge once again from their guitars.
Ayato poured his prana into the Ser Veresta.
It was Meteor Arts.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” he yelled.
He swung the Orga Lux, which had undergone an explosive burst of growth, and with a piercing roar, brought it down on the coming deluge.
Its urm-manadite core emitted a brilliant crimson glow as it carved straight through the acoustic wave, parting it down the middle like Moses did the Red Sea.
“Saya!”
“…Full burst.”
Behind him, the girl was ready to fire.
“…Boom!”
A long explosion of light passed through the path opened up by the Ser Veresta, coursing down upon Miluše—or rather, her school crest.
However—
“I don’t think so!”
“No, you don’t!”
Tuulia and Päivi put themselves between their team leader and the oncoming blast.
“Mahulena!” Miluše cried out.
“Right!” Mahulena called back, striking a powerful, beautiful note on her keyboard.
With that, the azure glow in Miluše’s eyes began to burn fiercer still.
“No, they’re using this resonance technique on her strengthening ability…?!”
Ayato raced to stop her, but at the same time, Miluše came hurtling toward him—and after dodging his lunge with the Ser Veresta, she kept going.
She’s going for Saya…!
Her speed was incomprehensible. She was at least a match for Hufeng Zhao—possibly even faster still.
Ayato spun around to chase after her, but even he knew that he wouldn’t make it in time.
“It’s overrrrrrrrr!” she cried out, assured of victory, as she raised her guitar.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
In a flash of that azure light, Miluše, her guitar raised before her, had appeared in front of Saya. It was the perfect timing for taking her opponent off guard.
Saya, however, remained calm. Things were still going according to Claudia’s strategy, the second stage of which was for her to lure Miluše into close combat.
She deactivated the Waldenholt and dodged the strike at the very last moment. As Miluše’s glowing blade lodged into the Lux blaster’s modified back unit, she reached for the Senbakiri, still entrenched in the middle of the Orga Lux.
Miluše’s eyes changed color in shock.
Her breathing under control, Saya deftly swung the katana.
It was the Amagiri Shinmei style, which she had learned from Ayato so that she would be able to keep up with him during their practice.
She had watched Haruka do them so many times that the moves were all but carved into her memory.
“Amagiri Shinmei Sword Style, First Technique—Twin Serpents.”
Even she was surprised by how smoothly her blade crisscrossed over its target.
“Miluše—crest broken.”
“End of battle! Winners: Team Enfield!”
With that, Miluše’s school crest shattered into four pieces, falling to the ground with a clink.
EPILOGUE
“Ah, we lost…” Miluše’s voice as she led her team members back to their prep room was rather indifferent.
“…Such a shame…”
“And we were this close…”
“It’s awful! We lost, and my hair got burned!”
The others all spoke regretfully, but their faces looked unusually refreshed. Not dwelling on their failures was one of their best characteristics, from Mahulena’s perspective, at least.
Her own readiness to accept defeat had surprised her, too. They had fought as best they could, so there was nothing for them to regret, even having lost. That was what she thought.
“Good work, everyone,” Sylvia called out to them.
Had she been waiting in front of their prep room the whole time?
“Sylvia… What are you doing here?” Miluše blinked in surprise.
Sylvia, her hands on her waist, smiled back at them all as if the answer was obvious. “Do you need to ask? After watching that, there’s something I wanted to tell you.”
“Oh…?”
“It was a good match. Really good.”
“…” The five girls, Mahulena included, caught their breath, standing stock-still.
Sylvia flashed them all an amused smile and let out a quiet sigh. “Well, to put it bluntly, the Festa is really no more than a show, a stupid one at that, just like the system behind it… But even so, that doesn’t mean that every
thing that happens during the Festa is stupid, too. Or rather, it might be stupid, but it isn’t worthless. There’s value in it.” She glanced at each of them in turn, her eyes filled with kindness. “It doesn’t matter the platform—having a strong desire and fighting with all your strength to fulfill that desire is an admirable thing, and it’s worthy of respect. That’s what I think.”
She paused there, scratching at her cheek in embarrassment, as though aware that she was being uncharacteristically talkative. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is this—you were really cool. Good work, Rusalka.”
With that, she tapped Miluše on her chest with her fist before waving good-bye. “See you later.”
The five members of Rusalka stood in mute astonishment for a long moment, until all at once they broke out into joyous laughter.
“This must mean she’s finally recognized us!” Miluše exclaimed, her face brimming with relief.
“She said we were really cool! And worthy of respect!”
“Yep, yep! I think we’ve already won!”
“…Me too.”
As usual, the four were only concerned with themselves, Mahulena thought, but even she couldn’t stop herself from smiling.
And there was little wonder why. They had been praised by Sylvia Lyyneheym. There wouldn’t be a single student at Queenvale who didn’t regard that as an honor.
And with that thought, her mobile began to ring.
“Good work, everyone” came Petra’s voice on the other side of the pitch-black air-window.
“Ugh, ch-chairwoman!” The five all hastily straightened their postures, standing at attention.
Strange as it was, they had almost forgotten that they had lost. Their teamwork might have been perfect, but it went without saying that, as Queenvale’s representatives, they would have to face consequences for their defeat.
“It’s a shame it ended up that way. Well, there’s no helping it, I guess, not against opponents like that.”
“H-huh…?”
Instead of reprimanding them, Petra’s words were unexpectedly gentle.
“Y-you’re not angry…?” Miluše asked nervously.