by Yuu Miyazaki
Even so, he managed to correct his bearing before he hit the ground and landed safely before readying himself to meet Hufeng’s oncoming midair kick. His opponent leaped over him, unleashing a torrent of high-speed strikes. Ayato swung the Ser Veresta backward, meeting those blows head-on as his own weapon repeatedly collided with the Tongtianzu.
Brilliant sparks flew in every direction as the two Orga Luxes clashed against each other, until the two fighters’ attacks became so powerful as to force both of them apart.
“I should have expected as much from the Murakumo…” Hufeng’s breathing was ragged, but his smile was one of excitement. “You really are an outstanding opponent!”
“I could say the same about you!” Ayato replied, just as a strange feeling began to well up inside him.
It was the same dull throbbing in his chest that he had felt during the Gran Colosseo when he had witnessed Earnest’s and Sylvia’s abilities firsthand.
No, Ayato reminded himself, quashing the thought. The team comes first…
He edged closer to his opponent, keeping his gaze locked on Hufeng.
It was clear that Hufeng was focusing his prana into his legs. He was no doubt planning to leap forward with explosive force in an attempt to settle their duel.
The air practically throbbed with tension, until finally, it came to a head.
“, crest broken.”
The mechanical voice rang coolly across the stage.
“…I see.”
Watching Ayato rush to Claudia’s aid out of the corner of her eye, Kirin held the Senbakiri at eye level as she faced off against Xiaohui.
Her opponent, staff held low, knees bent, wore a suspicious frown. “What are you up to?”
“What am I up to…? Do you mean, why did I tell Ayato to go?”
It was the first time that Xiaohui had said anything to her. Kirin, surprised, wanted to choose her words carefully, without allowing her concentration to lapse.
“You can’t fight me alone.”
There was no trace of conceit behind those words; he had uttered them merely as an objective fact.
“Maybe not. But still…I won’t know unless I try!” Kirin cried as she leaped forward with an upward swing of her blade.
Xiaohui raised his staff to block the attack, while at the same time making a gesture with his free hand, summoning up a powerful gale that pushed her backward across the stage.
“Ugh…!”
This was it.
Under any normal circumstances, she would be able to flow from one strike to the next with the Toudou school’s Conjoined Cranes technique, but that wasn’t an option against Xiaohui. Put simply, he was too fast for her—the number of skills at his disposal too great. There was little chance she would be able to take him down in this state.
“Pò!”
Using the powerful gale at his back to leap after her, Xiaohui lunged toward her school crest, but Kirin managed to evade the attack by running toward him herself. His staff still made contact with her cheek, but she couldn’t afford to dwell on the blood that now dripped from the shallow cut.
Xiaohui’s staff was sharp and heavy. If she tried to parry his attacks with it head-on, there was a high chance that it would end up breaking the Senbakiri.
“Jí!”
Even so, the normal strategies for dealing with an opponent armed with a long weapon wouldn’t be effective against Xiaohui’s martial arts. Indeed, just as she was thinking that, he immediately followed through with a charged punch with his free hand.
The attack, made all the more powerful by his having channeled his prana into it, could have ended up shattering her bones if she had met it head-on.
Instead, she twisted her body out of the way, dodging it at a hair’s breadth. The strike grazed across her left shoulder, tearing her uniform and skin.
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
She countered with a wide swing of the Senbakiri, its tip reaching within a few centimeters of her opponent’s school crest—but by the time that it had gotten that far, Xiaohui, like she herself had done just before, had already spun out of its path.
He twisted through the air before lashing out with a backhanded punch aimed for her head.
Kirin, however, again ducked out of the way, leaving only a few strands of glittering silver hair to fall softly to the ground.
“Haaah…haaah…” Her breathing was growing ragged, but her concentration hadn’t flagged.
She could still win.
“…How?” Xiaohui asked, the two opponents having retreated from each other after their rapid exchange of blows. His gaze seemed to be filled with even greater suspicion than last time. “How did you dodge that attack? It would have been impossible for you just a moment ago.”
“I’m not the same person I was a moment ago,” Kirin replied firmly, leaping forward with a downward stroke of her blade.
In actual fact, not even she could say how exactly she had done it. She could just read him better than she could before. She could gauge his movements based on the way he concentrated his prana throughout his body. She wasn’t lying when she had told Ayato that she had realized something.
She had always been unusually sensitive to the flow of prana. Any Genestella could discern the movements of another person’s prana, but her understanding went to a deeper level in a way even she couldn’t properly describe. It was thanks to that that she had been able to master the Conjoined Cranes at such a young age.
And this wasn’t the first time she had been able to completely read an opponent through the way they focused their prana. However, whereas her previous experiences had lasted only for a short moment, she found herself now filled with a newfound confidence.
“The spirit of Tianshang Shengmu…?” Xiaohui murmured under his breath.
Kirin had no idea what he meant, but there was something else bothering her. “Do you mind if I ask a question of my own?” she asked, her gaze fixed on his face.
“What?”
“You… You aren’t trying to win, are you?”
Xiaohui’s eyes opened wide, as if caught off guard.
Right. That sense of unease that had been at the back of her mind since first facing off against him—it stemmed from his extreme selflessness.
“…Exactly. For me, victory is no more than a maximum display of one’s own power against an opponent.”
“In other words, you aren’t bothered about the outcome?”
“Is there anything wrong with that?” Xiaohui responded calmly.
Kirin pursed her lips in mild annoyance, shaking her head. “No. As a warrior, that’s…probably a very idealistic way of thinking. It’s a wonderful thing to want to better yourself and to simply want to fight at your best, without worrying about whether you win or lose,” Kirin said before catching her breath. “But I’m not so broad-minded… I want to win!”
“Then why do you seek victory? For yourself? For your friends? Or maybe you hope to win the tournament to have a wish granted?” As he spoke, Xiaohui was letting his prana flow through his body. He no doubt meant to bring their contest to an end.
Kirin, too, let her prana flow through her as she responded: “For all those things. I want to win for my own world!”
The two leaped toward each other.
Xiaohui’s staff spun upward with a howl, cutting through the air as it approached. Kirin, however, had already taken account of his movements. But of course, while she could read those movements in advance, she couldn’t hope to surpass him in terms of raw technique. If she wanted to beat him, there would only be one way to do it.
She stepped backward just far enough to dodge Xiaohui’s low attack as he tried to knock her off her feet; steadied herself as she turned aside his next strike with the Senbakiri; then spun out of the way of what was meant to be a surprise hand-to-hand attack.
It was a fierce series of moves, leaving her without any chance to counter.
Even with the ability to read his actions in advance, she w
as at her limit just trying to keep up with him.
“Jí jí rú l lìng, chì!” Xiaohui chanted as a surge of lightning exploded in front of her.
She shielded her eyes, but a sharp burning pain ran through her left arm. Because of the distraction, she had been too slow to react to Xiaohui’s next strike with his staff. It had probably left her arm broken.
But she couldn’t do anything about that now.
She shifted her hold on the Senbakiri to better control the weapon one-handed before lunging toward her opponent’s school crest.
There was no way she could have missed, and yet, the strike simply passed straight through its target with no resistance. Xiaohui’s figure wavered in the air for a second before disappearing.
An illusion?!
She had assumed that only the twins would use those, but there was no reason to have thought that Xiaohui wouldn’t be able to do so, either. She cursed herself for not realizing it sooner.
“This is it…!” Xiaohui, taking full advantage of the opportunity, swept his staff toward her.
Having seen the oncoming blow out of the corner of her eye, she had just enough time to leap out of the way but ended up losing her balance and falling to her knees.
Xiaohui changed his trajectory, homing in on her school crest with the tip of his weapon.
Once more, however, Kirin saw that coming. Her eyes flashed with a purple glimmer as she watched him fill his body with prana and exhaust it all in a sudden move.
She raised the Senbakiri one-handed to defend herself. A clear, crystalline sound rang out as the katana shattered, but she wasted no time before rushing toward Xiaohui’s chest.
Only the base of her blade remained, but that was enough.
Xiaohui was strong.
She still hadn’t been able to land any real attacks against him. The difference in ability between the two was clear, and he wasn’t the kind of fighter to let down his guard or underestimate his opponents.
Even so, Kirin didn’t hesitate.
It was her need to win that kept her going. An unbecoming reason, but that was what it was.
She had seen what drove Ayato, Saya, Julis, and Claudia forward—she understood what they wanted, why they needed to win. All those things existed in her world, too; all of them gave her the power to keep going.
A wall of fire began to erupt in her path, but she had seen through that, too. It was the same technique that Xiaohui had used against Ayato earlier, and Kirin had made the connection between his techniques and the symbols he made with his fingers, the movements of his lips.
Before the flames could fully emerge, she wrapped herself around her opponent’s arm, guiding her broken sword toward his school crest.
For the first time, Xiaohui’s eyes opened wide in shock.
Still, he didn’t allow himself to falter. Letting his staff drop to the ground, he readied himself to meet her with his bare hands, one fist clutching a glowing spell charm.
“Bào!”
A huge conflagration engulfed half the stage, followed by a tremendous explosion of searing wind.
It was a merciless attack, and one that, at this range, would risk engulfing him, too—which meant he would have had to have positioned it perfectly.
In which case—
Kirin spun around behind him, her legs screaming with pain as she pushed herself beyond her physical capabilities.
Just a little longer…
“Aaaaaargh!” Xiaohui let out an earsplitting war cry as he prepared to meet her attack.
He let out his fastest punch yet—but Kirin, filled with admiration for her opponent, let it swing past her, thrusting what remained of the Senbakiri at his chest.
It was, when all was said and done, only a broken sword.
Yet, it still reached its target.
“Xiaohui Wu—crest broken.”
Kirin’s final movements, her series of offensive and defensive maneuvers that completely engulfed her opponent, were as graceful and elegant as the folding of an origami crane.
CHAPTER 4
CLAIRVOYANCE
“Did we…win?” Julis murmured, falling to her knees in disbelief.
When the protective gel surrounding the stage was deactivated, a deafening roar of cheers descended upon Ayato and the others, followed by the impassioned voices of the announcer and commentator.
“Th-that’s it! What a conclusion! The winner is Seidoukan Academy’s Team Enfield!”
“This certainly is an unexpected victory. To be perfectly honest, there should have been a significant difference in ability between Contestant Toudou and Contestant Wu, and yet…”
“…Elder Brother…” Hufeng, standing across from Ayato, looked as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
“…”
Even so, judging by his expression, it was Xiaohui who was the most surprised of all.
“I… I lost… I see…”
Watching him murmur those brief words to himself, Ayato felt that he had seen Xiaohui exhibit something resembling honest emotion for the first time. It was a meager, fragmentary change, but there was unmistakably something different about him now compared to when he had first entered the stage.
At that moment, Kirin staggered weakly and lost her balance.
“Kirin!” Ayato rushed over to catch her just before she could hit the ground.
She seemed to be completely sapped of energy, but even so, she gave him a brave smile. “Th-thank you, Ayato… Did we…? Did we win?”
“Thanks to you!” Ayato beamed. “You were amazing, Kirin!”
But then he noticed something was wrong.
Her eyes were out of focus, her voice terribly weak.
“I—I see… Thank…goodness… But still… Why is everything…so…bright?”
“Kirin! Kirin!”
Just as she lost consciousness—
“Oh-ho, fret not.”
The voice was by no means loud enough to bury the roar of the crowd. On the contrary, it was soft and childish, with a light, mellow ring.
Ayato turned toward it reflexively, to see a void in the center of the stage, as if the air itself had been ripped open. From it emerged the figure of a girl.
“Xinglou…!”
“…Huh? Huh? Whaaat? Wh-what’s this? A child has appeared in the middle of the stage…!”
“Oh… It’s the Ban’yuu Tenra…” Compared to Mico’s flustered voice, Hiiragi’s was a strange mix of resignation and curiosity.
“Th-the Ban’yuu Tenra?! Now that you mention it, that girl does look like Jie Long’s number one, Xinglou Fan! Wh-why on earth could someone normally so reclusive enter the stage now…? No, no, before that—how did she enter the stage…?” Mico exclaimed, coming out with one question after another.
A commotion was beginning to ferment among the spectators, too.
Xinglou, however, paid them all no heed.
“She has looked into the vein of life,” the girl—Xinglou—explained with a hint of admiration as she stared at Kirin’s motionless face. “The sight will have been burned into her eyes. She should return to normal within two or three days.”
“The vein of life…?” Ayato repeated.
“Clairvoyance—the ability to read one’s intentions, only discernible through their prana. She no doubt read Xiaohui’s every move,” Xinglou explained.
Ayato didn’t understand. “You mean…like the Pan-Dora’s precognition?”
“No.” Xinglou shook her head. “That Orga Lux reveals the future of the world. That is what makes it such a powerful weapon for gathering information. No, what she saw isn’t the future of the world, but just one’s intentions. You could think of it more like mind reading.”
“So she knew what he was going to do because it’s what he wanted?”
“Exactly. She knew how he wanted to act,” Xinglou said with a nod, her lips pursed. “It’s a formidable natural talent. To think that she can do this much without proper training… To be honest, not
even I suspected she would come this far. If someone like me was to recklessly come into contact with someone like her, overflowing with talent polished through her own efforts, I could end up breaking her. I intended to leave her alone until she had fully ripened, but now that she’s here, I can hardly resist taking such a fragrant treat…”
“…I think I can say on her behalf that she isn’t interested.” Ayato tightened his grip on Kirin, narrowing his eyes at the child.
“I’m not fool enough to pluck a budding flower before it blooms.”
“…More importantly, is she going to be okay?”
Kirin hadn’t budged an inch since losing consciousness. Her breathing seemed to have come under control, but her complexion wasn’t good, and she seemed completely sapped.
“Even with training, looking into the flow of life requires great exertion. This is what happens when you overdo it, as she did. Think of it like exhausting your prana. Her life isn’t in danger, but it’s no less serious than a physical injury. You should take her somewhere to recover.”
“…Got it. Thank you, Xinglou.”
In that case, it would be better to wait for the first-aid staff to come to them rather than try to move her himself.
Saya, it seemed, had lost consciousness as well and was being seen to by Claudia.
“…Master…”
The five members of Team Yellow Dragon had assembled behind Xinglou and were kneeling reverently.
“I’m truly sorry for this defeat,” Xiaohui said as the team’s representative, his head bowed.
“Oh-ho, I don’t recall instructing you to win. What I wanted in exchange for teaching you was for you to satisfy me. You knew that.”
“Even so…,” Xiaohui began, his voice and face stiff.
Xinglou looked down at him with a joyful grin. “Oh-ho! Listen up, Xiaohui! This was my first time seeing that expression on you. Yes, it wasn’t victory I wanted… But that’s different from you not seeking victory.” With that, she narrowed her eyes, a cool chill entering her voice. “You have a brilliant mind, Xiaohui. Whether it’s martial arts or seisenjutsu, you absorb anything that comes your way. You’re faithful to my teachings, and you’ve never opposed me. Yes, you’re a truly excellent disciple. But unfortunately, I’ve no interest in doting on mere puppets.”