The Asterisk War, Vol. 7: Festival Symphony

by Yuu Miyazaki

  “Okay, that’s fine. I’m counting on you!” Eishirou said, before changing the topic. “By the way, your team will be taking a break from training, right?”

  “Ah yeah. Julis wants to keep on going by herself, though…”

  Claudia had her own responsibilities as student council president, and it seemed that she would be busy during the school fair keeping everything in order. Julis, in contrast, didn’t have the slightest interest in it and was planning to seclude herself in their training room until everything was over with.

  “Heh, that’s the princess for you,” Eishirou said, glancing toward Julis, who had just returned to her seat after buying a bread roll for lunch.

  Julis glared right back at him. “What? Do you have a problem with that, Yabuki?”

  “N-no, nothing like that…,” Eishirou muttered, looking away from her intense gaze and pulling a pained face. “Hey,” he began in a low voice, ducking near. “Doesn’t the princess seem like she’s in a bad mood?”

  “Yeah,” Ayato whispered back. “She’s been like this a lot lately…”

  “Hmph!” Julis snorted from across the room, turning away from the both of them.

  From the seat next to her, even Saya was glaring at the two boys reproachfully. Or rather, her expression was as usual, but her anger was strong enough that it seemed to waft over through the air alone.

  “…Do you really have no idea what’s wrong, Amagiri?”

  “Not a clue…”

  At that instant, the bell rang, announcing the end of lunch break.

  “Damn, looks like I’ve stayed longer than I should have. See you around!” Eishirou said, casually heading off toward the door.

  “Hey, wait! Yabuki! What about the afternoon classes?” Ayato called out.

  “It’s fine,” Eishirou said, looking back with a wave. “They’re too boring anyway. It won’t make any difference whether I stay or go.”

  But just as he was about to leave the classroom, he bumped into a short woman coming through the door. “Ah, sorry, my bad,” he muttered. “I should have been looking…” His voice trailed off, his face turning pale.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. But you were in the middle of something, Yabuki. You think my classes are boring, huh, is that it? Well?” Kyouko Yatsuzaki, the students’ homeroom teacher, held up her nail bat.

  “No, I mean, how do I put it…?! Th-that’s not what I meant! Y-you’re taking this the wrong way, little Kyouko! Just give me a chance to—”

  Ayato only had a moment to shut his eyes before a painful striking sound echoed throughout the room.

  The Seidoukan Academy promenade.

  The opening day of the school fair was blessed with blue skies and warm weather. Sunlight was sparkling through the canopy of fresh green leaves that overhung the long pedestrian avenue leading into Seidoukan Academy.

  Perhaps that was one of the reasons why the grounds were teeming with students and visitors alike. The promenade was quite a distance from the main facilities, and there were no stages or stalls to be seen, but even so, once Ayato sat down on the bench and began watching the flow of passersby, there was no end to their comings and goings.

  Even so, perhaps because it was still quieter than the scene at the academy’s main gate, he found himself able to relax.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting, Ayato!”

  Lifting his gaze at the sound of his name, he noticed a young woman wearing a large-brimmed hat standing in front of him.

  “N-no, you’re right on time. Though I’m surprised you knew about this place, Sylvie.”

  It was the girl—Sylvia—who had chosen this bench as their meeting place.

  There would have been no reason to be so surprised were she a student at Seidoukan, but Sylvia went to Queenvale. Ayato couldn’t help but be impressed by her knowledge of the campus.

  “I’ve come here a few times before, during other school fairs. And besides, it’s too busy by the main entrance,” Sylvia said with a weak shudder.

  There was no doubting that she was exceptionally skilled at hiding her identity, but in a crowded place like that, there was still a chance that someone might recognize her.

  “I actually wanted to dress a bit more stylishly…but then I’d probably stand out too much.”

  She was wearing jeans and a blouse, practically the same kind of outfit she had donned when they’d first met.

  “No, it looks good on you.”

  She was usually dressed up flamboyantly whenever she appeared on TV or else in her Queenvale uniform. Of course, she looked wonderful in that kind of outfit, too, Ayato thought, but the simple clothing she was wearing now better suited her carefree and buoyant personality.

  Sylvia blinked in apparent surprise, before breaking out into a broad smile. “Mm-hmm… You’re forthright, huh? Thanks! It makes me happy to hear you say that.” She leaned forward, drawing her face close to his. “But you know, there might be a problem with yours, don’t you think?”

  “Huh?” Ayato’s heart was throbbing. He could measure the inches between their faces. “Wh-what do you mean?”

  “Your clothes! I did tell you to disguise yourself, but you look way too suspicious!”

  “O-oh…”

  There was no denying that Ayato, having won the Phoenix, was a celebrity now, too. He would also have to dress in such a way that people wouldn’t recognize him, all the more so if he were to accompany Sylvia.

  Which was why he had put on a hat and sunglasses, but it looked like people would be able to see through them right away.

  “You weren’t wearing anything special the last time we met, either, but that’s just out of the question,” Sylvia said more sternly than he had expected, eyeing him over with her hands on her hips. “Lucky for you, I came prepared.”

  “…You did?”

  “Stay there. Let me show you.”

  No sooner had she sat next to him than she snatched off his hat and swept back his hair with her hand—all before taking out of her bag something that looked like a thin hairband. She fitted it onto his head.

  “Um, what are you doing?”

  “It’s what I use. It only works for a short amount of time, but it can change the color of your hair. Well, technically it just makes your hair look a different color, but whatever.”

  Ayato couldn’t help but be impressed.

  “And let’s get rid of those sunglasses. How about a pair of mock glasses…? Here, what do you think?”

  When he glanced toward the compact mirror that Sylvia pulled out of her handbag, it was like staring back at a completely different person.

  The most striking change was that his hair had turned blond. And the hairband seemed to have disappeared completely. On top of that, the mock glasses were much more fashionable than the sunglasses he had been wearing.

  He was impressed. There was little chance that any strangers would be able to recognize him now.

  “Good. Now that that’s out of the way, shall we begin our date?” Sylvia asked, taking Ayato by the arm and pulling him up from his seat.

  “…Very well. It would be my pleasure to accompany you.”

  “I don’t want you to accompany me. I want you to escort me.” Sylvia linked her arm through his, glancing toward him with upturned eyes.

  She had taken complete command of the situation.

  “I-I’ll do my best.”

  “Good. Well then, how about you start by showing me around?”

  Ayato cocked his head in confusion. “That’s fine with me… But you don’t want to see a performance or go to an event or anything?”

  “Hmm… If there’s something that you’re interested in, I wouldn’t mind taking a look. But I’m hoping to see all six of the schools,” Sylvia said eagerly, her fists clenched, as they approached the school buildings.

  “Wait, you want to go to all of them?”

  “We can’t do it all in one day, of course. But I mean, that’s why I took three days off.”

  In
that case, they would probably have to go to at least one other school today in addition to Seidoukan, Ayato thought.

  It wasn’t afternoon yet, so they would probably be okay as far as time went, but they wouldn’t be able to dawdle.

  “But if there’s an event or something that you want to go to, I don’t mind putting that first.”

  “Ah… Well, there was something that a friend asked me to participate in.”

  “You mean this one?” Sylvia asked, opening an air-window with a flick of her hand.

  A colorful advertisement popped up in front of him. EARTH-SHATTERING! THE GRAN COLOSSEO! The event was scheduled for the last day of the school fair, at the Sirius Dome. All it said was Participatory Field Simulation Battle! There was no information at all as to what exactly it was supposed to be about.

  “That’s you, isn’t it?” Sylvia asked, pointing at the top of the list of contestants.

  “Champion of the Phoenix… They’re not wasting it, huh…?”

  “Everyone’s talking about it on the Net. I didn’t think you were the kind of person to take part in that kind of thing.”

  “I’m not… One of my friends is helping organize it. I couldn’t turn him down… Or I suppose he didn’t give me a chance to turn him down.”

  “I see,” Sylvia said, closing the air-window. “So that’s it.”

  They had reached the end of the promenade, and the number of passersby had increased considerably. They were near the back of the middle school building, and while they couldn’t go inside, the square in front of them was crowded with rows of food stalls.

  “But I’d already arranged to go out with you, so I don’t mind turning him down.”

  “It’s okay. I’m a little interested in it myself… Ah, hold on a second!” Sylvia came to a sudden stop.

  Her gaze had turned to the food stall beside them. “Mister, can we have two?” she called out.

  “Here you go,” the vendor replied, holding out a pair of ice creams.

  She turned back to Ayato. “For you,” she said, offering one to him.

  “Thanks. But why ice cream?”

  “If you’re going to hide your identity on a date, you need ice cream. Well, I guess it’s technically gelato, though.”

  “Heh, so it is.”

  She seemed to be modeling her behavior on characters from old movies.

  “Now then, how about the next one?” boomed a voice from a loudspeaker behind them.

  Ayato and Sylvia turned around to see a huge air-window floating in front of the high school building. It looked like a live broadcast from the Sirius Dome.

  “Oh, it looks like Miluše and the others are going all out,” Sylvia murmured between licks of her ice cream.

  “Are they friends of yours?”

  “My cute little juniors. Have you heard of Rusalka?”

  “Ah, so that’s them, is it?” Ayato glanced back at the girls performing in the air-window.

  While not as popular as Sylvia, Rusalka was an all-female rock band with fans throughout the world.

  He couldn’t pinpoint when, but he was sure that he had heard that song somewhere before.

  “Right, I heard that they’re planning on taking part in the Gryps.”

  “That must be part of Petra’s publicity strategy. They made their debut at the last Gryps, you know… Ah, Petra is Queenvale’s chairwoman and my producer. Rusalka’s, too. She can be pretty devious, you know, but she knows how to get results.”

  “Oh…”

  For a brief instant, Claudia’s face seemed to float up before him. Perhaps people in charge of others were all like that.

  “You’ll be participating in the Gryps too, won’t you, Ayato? With your friends? You should be careful. Rusalka is pretty good. I mean, they can get a bit out of hand, but still…” Sylvia trailed off, leaving Ayato unsure of what she meant.

  “Are you planning to take part?” he asked.

  “Me? I’m more interested in the Lindvolus. And I still need to get revenge for the last time.”

  Sylvia had been the runner-up at the last Lindvolus, which meant that she had lost to Orphelia.

  “I’m a sore loser, huh?” She laughed at herself.

  After that, the two spoke casually as Ayato showed Sylvia around Seidoukan. As she had suggested, they took brief looks at all kinds of events, essentially spending the majority of their time wandering around the campus.

  The sole exception was an event at the indoor pool called Water Survival, cohosted by the swimming and shooting clubs. It looked like a simple survival game, the contestants armed with water blasters, but from their seats on the second floor of the pool building, there seemed to be one contestant outshining all the rest.

  “Hey, Ayato, don’t you know her?”

  “Eh?” He followed Sylvia’s pointed finger. “Saya?!”

  It was his childhood friend all right, holding a pair of large water blasters and dressed in a school swimsuit. Ayato didn’t know what the rules were, but she seemed to be treating all the other contestants as enemies. There must have been more than twenty of them.

  Saya was having no difficulty jumping between the countless floating islands that dotted the pool, knocking her opponents into the water one by one with perfectly aimed shots.

  “A-amazing! What an incredible performance from Miss Sasamiya! That’s one of the Phoenix’s top-four contestants for you, folks!” the student announcer cried excitedly over the loudspeaker.

  “Mm-hmm… She’s got good balance, that’s for sure, but her vision must be incredible. Lining up those shots midair while dodging all those attacks, there’s no way I could do that,” Sylvia remarked, impressed.

  Before long, Saya had knocked all the other contestants into the water, and a buzzer sounded to announce her victory.

  “…And there you have it, folks!” the live reporter cried out, standing on a platform beside the pool as he pulled Saya’s hand into the air. “Match Three goes to Miss Sasamiya, who overwhelmed all opposition!”

  Saya, however, didn’t seem particularly pleased, and her expression remained unchanged even when she was handed the trophy.

  “Do you have any words for us, Miss Sasamiya?”

  “…It’s not enough.”

  “…Huh? Um, Miss Sasamiya…” The announcer cocked his head in confusion.

  Saya seemed to be paying him no mind. “I want another go.”

  “Wha—? N-no! I’m sorry, but the match is over!”

  As he watched Saya begin to push her way past the host, Ayato felt a chill run down his spine. “W-we should get going, Sylvie,” he said, leading her away from the pool.

  CHAPTER 4

  SCHOOL FAIR RHAPSODY II

  Miluše, the leader of Rusalka, had a corner suite on the top floor of the dormitory at Queenvale Academy for Young Ladies.

  It was only thanks to being the school’s third-ranked fighter that she was able to stay there. To Mahulena, who was both unranked and Rusalka’s youngest member, it was like being in heaven.

  But while Mahulena might have once yearned to live in this kind of place, she had long since been disillusioned of such admiration and envy. For better or for worse, that was probably not unrelated to the fact that she had been selected to join Rusalka, the second-most popular entity at Queenvale.

  Sylvia really is amazing, but these people are something else entirely…

  Mahulena let out a brief sigh before knocking at the door.

  “Come on, Mahulena,” came Miluše’s exasperated voice as the door swung open. “You’re late.”

  “Sorry. The chairwoman wanted to talk to me.”

  “Oh? I guess there’s no helping it, then. Anyway, hurry up. Everyone’s waiting for you.” Miluše led her into the living room.

  Miluše—and everyone else in Rusalka for that matter—didn’t tend to think too much about things. Or rather, they thought about them, but the depth of their thinking was like the shallow end of a children’s swimming pool.

&n
bsp; Which was why Mahulena, the group’s one member who was capable of understanding important issues—although she didn’t like to think of herself as particularly special—was assigned the task of receiving information and instructions from their manager and explaining it to everyone else in a way they could understand.

  “Sorry to keep you all waiting…”

  Just as Miluše had said, everyone was sitting around the table.

  Even though Miluše’s quarters were unusually spacious, they were so messily strewn with stuffed toys lying here and there, magazines piled up haphazardly on every flat surface, and worn clothes thrown carelessly on the floor, that Mahulena couldn’t even think of a single compliment that wouldn’t come across as sarcastic.

  Of course, the cleaners would tidy it all back up again every three days, but it never took long for it to return to this kind of state.

  Only the space surrounding the table was cleared of clutter, but judging by the dangerous-looking mounds that lined the walls, the mess had probably been swept aside just before everyone had arrived. Mahulena hesitantly took her seat at the corner.

  “All right.” Miluše beamed, her voice as rich and clear as one would expect from the group’s vocalist. “Now that we’re all here, I hereby declare the Conference on Finding a Way to Unseat Sylvia Lyyneheym open!”

  “Yeah!”

  “All right!”

  “I can’t wait!”

  “…Yay…?”

  It was a routine topic for them, but everyone except Mahulena seemed to be uncharacteristically excited given the fact that it was the seventy-third such conference. The others had probably long since lost count, but it was Mahulena’s job after all to keep records of everything.

  Given that they had performed at the Sirius Dome just a few hours earlier and then made the rounds greeting the executives from the integrated enterprise foundations who had come to inspect the school fair, Mahulena couldn’t help wondering where their energy came from.

  “Hey! Mahulena, are you listening?” Miluše was leaning forward, snapping her fingers in front of her face.