by Yuu Miyazaki
Ayato automatically paused in response, and she turned to him. “I don’t think I need to tell you this every time, but—please stay out of trouble, will you?”
The lottery for the bracket was held at the Sirius Dome, which had by now become quite familiar to Ayato.
“Good day, Ayato. Thank you for coming.”
They were in a private suite, close to the stage but partitioned off from the general seating. Once Ayato arrived at the site, following Claudia’s directions, she greeted him with a smile.
“I had no idea there were seats like these,” he remarked.
The space was not very large, but with only a few seats, it felt quite open and relaxed. There was no one else here, so the two had the place all to themselves.
“This suite is reserved for the Seidoukan student council. Please.” Claudia indicated a seat, and Ayato took it. She sat down next to him and inclined her head. “First of all, congratulations on advancing to the main tournament.”
“Oh, um—thanks.” Flustered, Ayato returned the bow.
“I’m looking forward to your performance in the main tournament. Please do your best for our school.”
“I’ll do everything I can. All the other teams are amazing, though. It looks like it’ll be tough.”
“Well, all the teams advancing really are truly skilled fighters,” Claudia said with a laugh. “But the way I see it, there are not many teams that can go toe-to-toe with you and Julis. That’s why this lottery is so important. There’s quite a responsibility on my shoulders.”
“Oh, yeah… Is it okay for you to be in here?”
Claudia was supposed to draw the lottery for Seidoukan. Ayato wondered if she had time for this leisurely chat.
“The drawing is the very last thing to happen. There will be speeches by bigwigs and a summary of the preliminary rounds—a lot of boring things, really.”
As they spoke, someone presumably from the Executive Committee was babbling energetically on a large screen. The speech seemed to be explaining the trends of this Phoenix and its previous season, but nothing of particular interest.
Still, the seats appeared to be just as packed as they were for the matches.
Most of the audience were only there for the lottery, too. Very few paid attention to the speech.
“At any rate—it’s been quite a while since we’ve been alone like this, Ayato.”
“Huh…?” Ayato tensed up as Claudia drew her body toward his.
“I’ve been so busy with work, and Julis and the others have had you all to themselves… I’ve been lonesome, you know.” She took his arm and pressed herself even closer.
“Well, um… That’s—” Ayato grew more nervous as Claudia pushed her soft, ample chest against him. At the same time, a terribly fine, sweet fragrance tickled his nose.
And with impeccable timing, his mobile rang. “Oh—Sorry, Claudia!”
He thanked his luck as he separated himself from her to open an air-window. Kirin was on the other end, eyebrows upturned with worry.
“H-hi, Ayato. I’m sorry to call you like this…!”
“Is something wrong?”
Kirin was visibly flustered. Something unexpected must have happened.
As Ayato leaned toward the screen out of concern, Kirin continued nervously. “Um, well, I came to the commercial area today with Saya, but—all of a sudden, I just can’t find her anywhere…”
“Oh… I see.” Ayato could already tell what had happened, but he let her continue anyway.
“And I called her on her mobile device, and she says she got lost! I—I don’t know what to do.”
“Got it. I can help you look, so let’s meet up first. Where are you now?”
“Th-thank you so much! Right now, I’m……”
Once they had agreed on a rendezvous point, he hung up.
Kirin, at least, was not far from where he was, so they would be able to meet up quickly.
The problem was Saya, whose sense of direction was truly abysmal.
Once, when they were in elementary school, she had completely disappeared after going out to get some juice. When he called her, she had made her way over a mountain and into a neighboring town. Ayato doubted she had left Asterisk this time, but she could be literally anywhere in the city.
“Sorry, Claudia. Well, you heard that, so…” Ayato swiveled back toward Claudia and jumped slightly.
She was scowling darkly at him.
“Um, Claudia…?”
Ayato had never seen her like this. It left him completely nonplussed.
She was always smiling, so calm, and in control…
“We were finally going to get some time together.” Her tone was accusatory and somewhat childish.
Or rather, it was appropriate for her actual age.
“I was really looking forward to this, you know.”
“Um—Well, I…,” he mumbled vaguely, having no idea what to do.
Claudia turned away in a huff.
“I-I’m really sorry! I’ll make it up to you, I promise!” Ayato apologized in distress, but Claudia maintained her silence and posture.
He was about to put his head in his hands and give up on this unsolvable crisis when he suddenly noticed her shoulders were shaking slightly with suppressed laughter. “Oh…”
“I do beg your pardon.” She giggled, and turned with her tongue stuck out at him. “That was cruel of me.”
“Come on, Claudia, don’t do that.” Ayato almost crumpled to the floor.
She turned her usual serene smile on him. “Please forgive me. I really was looking forward to this.”
Ayato winced with guilt.
“Still, you can’t leave Miss Sasamiya lost in the streets,” she went on gently, and opened the door for him. “But you will make it up to me, won’t you? I’ll hold you to that.”
“Yes, ma’am.” With a tired smile, Ayato left the suite to hurry toward the subway station.
“Let’s see. She should be around here somewhere, I think,” Ayato said, getting his bearings in the cityscape.
They were in west Asterisk, at the outskirts of the commercial area. After meeting up with Kirin and calling Saya’s mobile, he had narrowed her location to this neighborhood.
“We’ll have to look for her on foot from here.”
“I suppose so,” Kirin said, head swiveling this way and that.
Ayato had told Saya to stay put, so he hoped the situation wouldn’t deteriorate further. “We should split up. We have to find her before it gets dark.”
“Right. I’ll go look that way.”
“Thanks, Kirin.”
“Sure!” She bowed politely to him, trotted to the other side of the road, and vanished into the streets.
Even in the middle of the Festa, there were few tourists so close to the redevelopment area. Ayato did see several characters who looked like trouble, but he attributed that to their proximity to Le Wolfe.
He wondered then whether splitting up with Kirin was the best idea, but there couldn’t be many who stood a chance against her. Her reputation as a former first-ranked student preceded her. He doubted anyone would be foolish enough to start a fight with her.
The problem was Saya. He was worried that she might get into some kind of altercation—specifically, that she would start one.
Of course, his concern extended mainly to the other party.
Holding back was not in Saya’s nature. The more he considered that, the more it seemed like the right decision to split up and look for her.
“From what I could tell on the air-window, she didn’t seem to be on a major street,” he muttered. “So, I guess I have to check the back streets one by one…”
Letting out a sigh, Ayato went into a nearby alley. It was somewhat damp, dimly lit, with few pedestrians.
He kept walking for a bit, but nothing changed. Just as he decided to double back, he thought he heard someone talking in the shadows up ahead.
He stopped still and strained his ea
rs.
“Don’t… Please…! …me go…!”
This time, he heard it for sure. And it sounded like trouble.
He crept forward to observe and saw a girl behind a building, surrounded by several men.
That’s—
To Ayato’s surprise, he recognized both parties.
The girl was Priscilla Urzaiz. The men were the ones from that brawl with Irene.
Ayato could guess what was going on here.
“Hey, quit making so much noise. We hate extra work.”
“That’s right. And don’t blame us for this. Blame your sister.”
“Mmf! Mmmm!” The men’s hands muffled Priscilla’s screams. They had her hands pinned, too. There were five assailants in all.
Judging from their brawl the other day, Ayato could take any one of them without releasing his strength. But it was not so simple with five. Plus, handling this with force was out of the question to begin with. If he got involved in trouble and street fights, he wouldn’t be able to show his face to Julis. And if it resulted in him getting disqualified from the Festa—there would be no way to ever make that up to her.
But he could hardly just walk away.
Not much of a choice, Ayato thought with a sigh. He emerged from the shadows with deliberately loud footsteps.
“Wh-who the hell are you?!” One of the men noticed Ayato and activated a knife-type Lux—an unexpectedly quick reaction.
“Oh, nobody, I’m just passing by… But do you think maybe you could let that girl go?”
“What?!” Their eyes all fixed on him at once.
They didn’t seem the type for rational conversation.
“You got some balls, kid, bargin’ in like this and tellin’ us what to do.”
Glaring at Ayato, the other men activated their Luxes one by one.
Then suddenly, one pointed at Ayato’s face and shouted, “Whoa! Isn’t that the Murakumo?!”
“The Murakumo— You mean Seidoukan’s first-ranked?”
“This goofy-lookin’ brat? You sure?”
For a moment, doubt crossed their faces.
Ayato did not miss the opportunity.
Catching them off guard, he slipped between them to Priscilla, where she was held against the wall. He grabbed her hand and ran at full speed, pulling her deeper into the alley.
“Hey! You little bastard—!”
The man who had been holding Priscilla reached out at them, but too late.
“Um—I—!” she began.
“Just run!” Ayato told her.
The men gave chase with angry shouts. Explanations could wait.
Ayato had thought that the twisting alleyways would be ideal for throwing off pursuers, but in reality it was the opposite. He was practically as lost as Saya in this part of town, while the men seemed to know these alleys like the backs of their hands.
“Go around from the right! We can trap them in a dead end!”
“Contact the boss! Ask him to send a few more guys!”
The shouts came from more than one direction. They were apparently being herded toward the redevelopment area. “This could have gone better…”
If he broke his seal now, it might affect him tomorrow and beyond. Since their match was not until the day after tomorrow, he would have some time to recover, but he wanted to avoid that if possible.
He might not have a choice, though.
Priscilla interrupted the thoughts running through his mind with a tug on his shirt.
Wordlessly, she pointed upward.
“Up…? Oh—right!”
Grasping what she meant, he rounded a corner and released his strength just for a moment. Paying no mind to the sharp pain that shot through his body, he drew Priscilla close and kicked off the wall to climb up a building.
There were few tall structures in this area. This one was only four stories high.
“Hey, where’d they go?!”
“Find them! They can’t have gone far!”
From below, Ayato could still hear them. As he stood on the roof, stifling his breath, the men loudly doubled back. He exhaled in relief.
They would probably figure out how he and Priscilla had escaped, but he decided on staying still for the time being. Luckily, a water tower and other obstacles would provide cover, perfect for hiding.
“Uh, um…” Priscilla awkwardly groped for words, and Ayato realized he had been holding on to her all this time.
“Oh—s-sorry!” He hastily let go.
“No, please don’t apologize! You saved me! Thank you so much!” Priscilla bowed deeply, then took out her mobile. “Um… Would you mind if I call my sister?”
“Oh, no, go ahead.”
With a nod, Priscilla started to fiddle with the device. Ayato figured she must have been adjusting the air-window and volume to prevent discovery.
Ayato searched for any signs of others in the area. If he strained his ears, he could still hear angry voices in the distance. But things were quiet near them.
Unnaturally so.
What’s going on…?
Of course, that was preferable to being chased by a gang, but something about it felt strange. He needed to keep his mind sharp.
“Um, Mr. Amagiri…?” Priscilla said timidly.
“Oh, sorry.” Ayato smiled at her. “Were you able to get in touch with your sister?”
She nodded, looking reassured. “Yes! She’s on her way to pick me up.”
“Good. We can breathe easy then.”
The truly proper thing to do would have been to contact the city guard, but Ayato assumed Priscilla must have known that, too. If she had decided to contact just her sister, then Ayato was not going to press her about it.
“So… What led to all that?” Ayato asked. He had a rough idea of what had occurred, but not the details.
“Those men are from a casino in the Rotlicht—I think.”
“The Rotlicht?”
“Oh— There’s a part of the redevelopment area full of illegal businesses. That’s what people call it.”
“Huh…” So that was what went on in the redevelopment area? The central district had plenty of legal casinos. If the casinos in the Rotlicht operated illegally, they must have had reasons.
“And these guys from the casino… Why were they after you?”
“W-well… My sister caused a big brawl there some time ago. I hear she nearly destroyed the place,” Priscilla explained with downcast eyes, apparently ashamed. The latter half of her explanation became so faint it was barely audible.
Still, Ayato understood her perfectly well.
The men had tried to get back at Irene for wrecking their casino. But, finding themselves no match for her, they went after her sister, Priscilla, instead. That seemed to be the gist of it.
“B-but please don’t get the wrong idea! Sis—I mean, Irene is a little violent and short-tempered, for sure, but she’s really a very nice person!” Priscilla waved emphatically as she defended Irene.
Ayato could sense the affection Priscilla had for her sister, and it made him smile.
“Okay.” He laughed and held out his hand. “I’m Ayato Amagiri, by the way. Although I guess you knew that already.”
“I’m Priscilla Urzaiz. I’m sorry my sister was so rude to you the other day.” She smiled awkwardly as she shook his hand.
They were, after all, both on teams favored to win the Phoenix. It was impossible that they wouldn’t know of each other.
“I should really be able to fend for myself in a situation like that—but I’m just not as strong as her,” Priscilla said sadly.
True, while Priscilla was a Genestella, she hardly seemed to have any fighting experience.
In fact, talking to her in person, Ayato doubted her personality could handle conflict of any kind.
“Then why did you choose to fight in the Phoenix?”
“Um, well…,” Priscilla hesitantly began.
“Hey, what the hell d’you think you’re doing?!”
> Hearing that harsh voice behind him, Ayato felt a ferocious wave of murderous intent. He whipped around in a fighting stance.
Irene Urzaiz stood there with the Gravisheath in her hands, floating in midair.
“Irene!”
“I sure hope you haven’t laid a finger on Priscilla.” Her eyes were shadowed with hostility and suspicion.
“H-he didn’t! I told you earlier! Mr. Amagiri saved me!” Priscilla rushed to explain.
Irene was apparently in no mood to hear it. “You be quiet, Priscilla. Why would Ayato Amagiri save you? Aren’t you suspicious? He’s got no reason to help you. Actually, he’s our enemy, so it woulda made more sense if he just walked away.”
She glared at Ayato with eyes as deep and dark as falling dusk.
“Your enemy?” he said. “Well, maybe in the arena, but not now.”
“Heh! Such noble words. You’re not gonna fool me!” Irene spat as she alighted on the roof and slowly raised the Gravisheath. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but I’ll make you regret going near my sister.”
“Uh-oh…”
Irene seemed deadly serious.
Her violent aura prickled his skin. Ayato found his hand reaching for the Lux holder at his waist.
Ayato was already within range of the Gravisheath, and the roof limited his room to run. He couldn’t escape it.
Then—
“Irene… You don’t really mean that, do you?” Priscilla inserted herself between Irene and Ayato and stared at her sister coolly. Soft as her volume was, anger and determination unmistakably darkened her tone.
All at once, light returned to Irene’s eyes, and she hurriedly disengaged the Gravisheath. “O-okay! Kidding! I was just kidding, calm down!” In a cold sweat, Irene held out both palms and shook her head.
“Are you sure? You’re not going to do anything to Mr. Amagiri?”
“Nope! Not a thing!”
“Really? Promise?”
“Yeah, yup! I promise!”
“Okay. Good.” Priscilla smiled brightly and nodded in satisfaction.
Irene, meanwhile, wearily slumped her shoulders, but then raised her head to look at Ayato. “But I’ve got two questions for you.”