The Asterisk War, Vol. 4: Quest for Days Lost

by Yuu Miyazaki

  “Burst into bloom—Primrose!” Julis promptly let her spell fly, but Shenyun beat her by an instant.

  “Jí jí rú l lìng, chì!” Shenyun folded his fingers into a complicated figure, and the air around him shimmered. The next instant, smoke billowed from all corners of the stage.

  “A smokescreen?!” Julis exclaimed.

  In the blink of an eye, the dark cloud engulfed the battlefield. Julis withdrew her Primrose fireballs. It would be practically impossible to hit her target under these conditions—and she might accidentally hit Ayato instead.

  Ayato doubted he could land an attack, either, and stepped back. “Are you all right, Julis?”

  “I’m fine. But they got us good… I wasn’t expecting this.” She clicked her tongue angrily.

  Ayato focused on her presence and listened for Julis’s voice to locate her. He looked around carefully, but the smoke was too deep to see through.

  Then he realized that something was off. Despite being so thick and deep, the smoke wasn’t smoky at all.

  “Julis, I don’t think this smoke is real.”

  With a gasp, she scanned the arena, too. “I see. So it’s an illusion…”

  Shenyun was an expert at this—creating the appearance of things that weren’t there. This smoke was naturally a trick of his Seisenjutsu.

  “I did hear that Shenyun Li’s illusions can make all sorts of things, but smoke… Well, it’s fine. This will clear soon,” Julis declared.

  “Why do you say that?” Ayato wondered at her confidence.

  “Attacking after obstructing the view from the outside is against the Stella Carta,” she replied, almost indifferently. “They’ve never done anything like this in the past.”

  “I see. I guess if people can’t see the match, they can’t tell whether you’re breaking the rules.”

  “Well, that’s part of it,” Julis said, “but the biggest reason is that this is a spectator event. The audience can’t be entertained if they can’t see what’s going on.”

  It was a more inhumane reason than he’d thought.

  Proving her point, the crowd started booing vehemently. When the jeering grew louder, the smoke suddenly cleared away.

  “Spectators these days have no patience…”

  “There’s no need to rush us. The real show is about to start.”

  Shenyun and Shenhua had moved to the edge of the stage and spoke with malevolent grins.

  For them, the smoke had achieved the desired effect. They had shaved nearly a minute from Ayato’s allotted time by hardly expending any energy.

  “Ugh. They really are terrible people,” Julis spat, offended, but her mind was already preparing for her next technique.

  Ayato silently agreed with her, then repositioned the Ser Veresta and advanced toward the twins.

  “Oh, you’re impatient, too. Well, then, let us show you our next technique.” Shenyun made another symbol with his hands. The space around him distorted like clay, and shadowlike forms rose from the arena.

  The shadows took the shapes of people. Four perfect duplicates of Shenyun stood with intrepid smiles.

  “There it is…!” Julis said.

  It was Shenyun Li’s best illusion—Copying. He had used this skill in almost all his previous matches.

  Of course, the apparitions had no physical form. But they were so detailed it was impossible to tell them apart by appearance, and they even replicated his prana flow. On top of that, all four behaved independently, so there was no way to analyze a pattern to find the real Shenyun.

  And, on top of that—

  “Now it’s my turn.”

  Shenhua also formed a symbol with her hands, and her body seemed to vanish into thin air.

  This was Shenhua’s favorite technique—Obscuring. She did not just become invisible to the eye but hid everything about her presence, even sound and prana, in an illusion as accomplished as her brother’s. It was impossible to detect her without deep concentration.

  Both of the twins’ skill sets were perfectly suited to buying time.

  “Now, we’re ready to begin—”

  “—and wouldn’t it be amateurish to wait for you to make your move?”

  “Yes, and boring for the audience.”

  “We have to liven it up a little or they might boo us again.”

  “So—”

  The five Shenyuns spoke in turn. Even their voices were perfect replications.

  “—let’s make this a little flashy.”

  The five clones snapped, and paper materialized between their fingers.

  “Look out, Ayato—those are spell charms.” Julis readied her rapier, the Aspera Spina, and cautiously lowered her center of gravity.

  Spell charms were a type of support item, slips of paper infused with the power of Seisenjutsu. They were single use, but their wide variety of applications made them practical in battle.

  “But there’s only one real one, right?” Ayato said.

  No matter how intricate the illusion, the apparitions had no physical form. That meant the tags of the copies would also be fake.

  “That’s true, but— Tch. Here he comes!”

  The five Shenyuns rushed at them at once.

  They held no weapons, so Ayato guessed the charms held some offensive technique.

  He greeted one of the attackers with the Ser Veresta, splitting him easily in two. But there was no impact, and the severed illusion swayed like smoke to quickly reform.

  That one’s fake…!

  Even knowing most were illusions, Ayato could not tell them apart. He cut through another one with a backhand, but again his weapon simply passed through.

  “Too bad! Wrong again.”

  A third Shenyun who had slipped under his attacks thrust a spell charm at Ayato with a grin.

  “Bào!”

  The slip exploded with a deafening boom.

  “!”

  The blast and its heat hurled Ayato through the air, then sent him rolling on the ground. Having seen the attack in the recordings of the twins’ matches, he was able to defend with his prana and reduce the harm done. Still, his bones creaked from the shock.

  “Heh, not much damage for taking an explosion charm at that range. You don’t have that ridiculous amount of prana for nothing—you’re pretty hardy.”

  Shenyun spoke with pure admiration, but quickly distanced himself again to mingle with his copies.

  “Ayato! Are you all right?” Julis, who had been facing the remaining two Shenyuns, tried to rush to his aid.

  “Don’t forget about me.” Shenhua’s voice came from nowhere, and a similar blast exploded inches from Julis’s face.

  “Aaaugh!” Julis hurtled backward.

  “Julis!” As Ayato rushed to break her fall, Shenhua’s laughter surrounded them.

  She was making her voice echo every which way, confounding any efforts to locate her.

  “Ngh. I—I’m fine,” Julis said, wincing in pain as she stood. “But, Ayato, aren’t you almost out of time? I’ll cover you. Take out Shenyun Li.”

  “…Got it.”

  A good while had passed since the start of the match. He couldn’t afford to waste any more time.

  And if he was going to attack one of the twins, it made more sense to go after Shenyun rather than the invisible Shenhua. The apparitions posed their own challenge, but at least he knew what to target. Even if he had to beat them one by one, it was possible he could hit the real Shenyun on the first try.

  “We played completely into their hands—but in a way, that’s a part of our plan, too. Keep a cool head.” Julis channeled her prana as she spoke, and the mana around her condensed in response. “Burst into bloom—Livingston Daisy!”

  A dozen or more chakrams of fire took shape and rushed at the five Shenyuns ahead of Ayato.

  “Hmm, I thought you might target me first,” one of the Shenyuns murmured, but this one did not even prepare for an attack, only stood leisurely. Ayato guessed that it was an illusion.
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  Then all I have to do is ignore it!

  As Ayato dashed between the chakrams to close in on his marks, he made a split-second decision.

  That moment, without warning, a giant wall formed right in front of him.

  “—?!”

  It blocked all the chakrams, and while they created sparks in a vain effort to cut through the thick wall, they ran out of momentum and vanished.

  Ayato jumped sideways to go around the wall, but an explosion nailed him from nowhere, as if it had been lying in wait. “Aaagh!”

  This time, he did not have time to defend with his prana, and he groaned in pain as he suffered the full power of the blast.

  “Oh, I should warn you—the spell charms Shenhua set up are invisible,” Shenyun told him gleefully.

  Set up—that meant the trap was readied in advance.

  That wall was probably from a defensive spell charm, Ayato thought. But when did they put them down…? Then the answer hit him—the smokescreen.

  Julis had abilities similar to these traps, but because the spell tags were infused with the necessary prana when they were made, activating them took almost none of the user’s own prana. In other words, they could use as many traps as they wanted until they ran out of charms.

  There was no telling how many tags there were on the stage.

  “Step aside, Ayato! I’ll just burn them all!”

  They might not be able to see the charms, but if they were physical objects, they could be destroyed.

  And Julis had the ability to burn away a large area at once. However…

  “You keep forgetting that I’m here, too.” Shenhua’s mischievous voice sounded behind Julis.

  She whirled with a gasp, but it was too late.

  “Qiáo léi!”

  “Aaaaaagh!”

  With a tremendous flash of electricity, a piercing shock ran through her body. Julis screamed in pain at the effect of Shenhua’s Seisenjutsu.

  “Julis!” Ayato moved as if about to rush to her.

  Collapsed to her knees, she shouted at him. “D-don’t worry about me! Beat Shenyun!”

  “Tch…!”

  Over two minutes had gone by since the start of the match. And with battles the next day and the day after that, he didn’t have a second to lose.

  “Okay! Then you get Shenhua!” Ayato immediately closed in on the closest Shenyun.

  “Right. Leave her to me!”

  As he heard her reply, Ayato skidded to a halt in front of Shenyun, then quickly sidestepped.

  After a slight delay, the space in front of Shenyun shimmered, then exploded.

  I thought so—!

  These spell charms activated automatically when he stepped within a certain distance.

  The five Shenyuns were scattered around him, but not aimlessly. Everything the apparitions did had a purpose. This gave Ayato some idea of where the traps were.

  “Hmm…not bad,” one of the Shenyuns muttered, sounding impressed.

  Ayato cut through him in a single breath—but again without impact. Another fake.

  He immediately turned his attention to the next target. “Fine, I’ll just cut through all five!”

  “You are Seidoukan’s first ranked, after all. I guess you won’t be that easy to take down.”

  The other Shenyuns had started reading Ayato’s attacks to avoid him, but they couldn’t dodge forever at close range.

  Enduring several explosions, Ayato cut through a second, then a third apparition…

  “Oops, sorry. Wrong one again.” The copy blurred like a mirage and laughed tauntingly.

  “Ugh…” Ayato groaned. The damage from the explosions and the impending time limit wore at him bit by bit.

  But now there were only two left—the one farthest from him, and another slightly closer. One of these had to be the real Shenyun.

  “Then it’s you!” Making a guess based on Shenyun’s personality, Ayato set his sights on the farther one.

  Shenyun evaded his sweep to the side, but then Ayato turned his wrist and swung upward.

  “Amagiri Shinmei Style, First Technique—Twin Serpents!”

  But there was no contact.

  I was wrong…?!

  “Tch…” Ayato faced the last Shenyun and dropped to one knee, making a pained noise under his breath.

  “Oh, dear. Are you out of time now? And you were so close,” Shenyun said, a hint of relief in his voice.

  “Ayato!” As Julis rushed toward him, she was suddenly launched into the air. “Guh—?!”

  “That felt good!” Shenhua said with an elated laugh, but Ayato couldn’t tell from where. She must have landed a direct hit.

  “Gaaah…!”

  As Ayato groaned in protest, magic circles materialized around him, and chains of light restrained him once again.

  The blade of the Ser Veresta vanished, and the activator dropped from his hand with a clatter. Shenyun observed Ayato with pleasure but cautiously kept his distance.

  Once the chains vanished and Ayato had collapsed, breathing hard, Shenyun finally walked to his side.

  “I don’t know why that happens to you, but what a shame. So, how do you feel right now?” Shenyun grinned, confident in his victory.

  Yes, the twins knew about the time limit. And from watching the match against Irene and Priscilla, they also knew that exceeding the limit would immobilize Ayato. This was exactly what they had been waiting for.

  Yes, exactly.

  “Heh-heh…”

  “Hmm?”

  As Ayato chuckled softly, Shenyun regarded him with suspicion.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Oh, nothing. It’s just that—the fight isn’t over yet.” Ayato activated a blade-shaped Lux with his right hand.

  With surprise on his face, Shenyun braced himself—but it was too late.

  In one instant, Ayato rose and swung his arm straight across.

  The twins knew about Ayato’s time limit, but not how long it was. With only the match against the Urzaiz sisters and maybe the duel against Kirin to go on, their estimate for the time limit was rough at best.

  Ayato had been fighting for a little over three minutes. It had taken a toll on his body, but not so much that he was immobile.

  This was Julis’s plan. First, they would strike quickly. If that worked, good. If they failed, then they would pretend that their opponents’ stalling strategy had succeeded and wait for their chance. The twins were the type to deliver the final blow once they were sure of victory. Everything had gone just as they had predicted.

  Ayato’s sword sliced through Shenyun’s school crest, giving him no time to dodge.

  But—

  “Wha…?”

  Once again, the attack made contact with nothing.

  It can’t be—! This one was a copy, too?!

  Stunned, Ayato stared at the shimmering apparition.

  “Ooh, that was close. As the saying goes—‘One who understands Destiny does not stand beneath a tottering wall.’”

  A space far behind him warped, and from it emerged Shenyun with a thin smile. As he snapped his fingers, the five copies all disappeared.

  “…!”

  Ayato finally understood. The five Shenyuns had all been copies, and Shenhua’s technique had hidden the real one.

  But since when…?

  Ayato thought back, and the realization shocked him.

  There was only one time they could have accomplished this—during the smokescreen. So Ayato and Julis had been fighting an illusion the entire time.

  “Ha-ha! Did you finally figure it out? You guys had a plan of your own, I guess. But unfortunately, you’re nowhere near our level.” Gleeful anticipation made itself plain on Shenyun’s face.

  “But what about the first spell charm—?”

  Apparitions could not use real spell charms. Ayato thought the real Shenyun had to have triggered the first exploding charm, at least.

  “Oh, that? Shenhua set up that one, too. It was timed
to go off.”

  “Timed?”

  “Yes. I just set the copy on you at the right place and time. It was a little tricky to pull off, but it made you think that one of the copies was real.” Shenyun theatrically shrugged his shoulders. “Did you really think I’d do something so stupid? Jumping into the range of your attacks just because I had copies?”

  He flicked his wrists, and multiple spell charms appeared between his fingers.

  “You might not have such an easy time dodging these now.”

  Shenyun flung out his arms, and the spell charms shot through the air to surround Ayato.

  The charms moved fast, but Ayato at his full strength could have cut them all down without needing to dodge their attacks. The tags hung around him as if they had been pinned to the air.

  “Not yet…!”

  “Hmm?”

  “You haven’t won yet…! I won’t lose here!”

  “Oh—I didn’t know you could make a face like that. Mm, how enticing.” Shenyun’s tone was brimming with pleasure.

  Grinding his teeth, Ayato adjusted his sword and tried to break out of the enclosure by force.

  “I just love your futile struggling,” Shenyun crooned. “It makes my heart sing!”

  Before Ayato could get through, one of the spell tags shimmered, then exploded.

  “Gaaaaah!” As he cried out in agony, the blast sent him into another tag, which then exploded. The charms knocked his body around like a ping-pong ball. With no time to defend, battered by shock waves and heat, Ayato crumpled helplessly to the ground.

  “Ugh…” He groaned. Bruises and cuts all over, and probably a broken bone or two.

  “Well, as much as it pains me, I should probably wrap this up.” Shenyun produced yet more spell charms.

  But just as they left his fingers—

  “Ayato! Give me your hand!”

  It was Julis. He reached out as he was told, and she dived down with fiery wings to grab his hand, then whisked him away.

  “Damn!” Shenyun muttered. The spell charms detonated a moment too late. The blast made Julis lose control, throwing her and Ayato to the ground. But they had escaped.

  “Th-thanks, Julis. You saved me there.”

  “No, I’m sorry it took so long. I knew you were in danger, but I had trouble shaking off Shenhua.” Even as she spoke, Julis stood and readied the Aspera Spina.