by Yuu Miyazaki
“Uh, y-yes. Sorry,” the young woman stammered, forcing herself to sit up straight.
“We’re going to come up with an awesome strategy, something that will leave that Sylvia speechless!” Miluše declared, clenching her fists.
“Ah… I’ll do my best,” Mahulena responded, but she knew already that it would be useless.
Of course, that wasn’t to say that Rusalka wasn’t popular. The group had produced numerous worldwide hits, and it was no exaggeration to say that Sylvia was their only real opposition when it came to the charts.
But still, that wasn’t enough for Miluše and the others.
And it wasn’t as if Mahulena herself didn’t think it would be wonderful to take Sylvia’s position at the top of the music scene. She just knew that their opponent was too much for them. Sylvia Lyyneheym was the real thing, the kind of songstress who appeared only once in a hundred years, capable of inspiring devotion in the hearts of girls and old women alike. Rusalka, in contrast, was popular among the younger generations, but they tended to fall flat with older groups.
“Well, do you have any ideas?” Miluše asked, glancing around at her fellow members.
“Okay, then! Let’s start with mine!” Tuulia, the group’s rhythm guitarist, was the first to raise her hand.
“All right, that’s the spirit, Tuulia! Come on, tell us!”
“We should go all out with force! Challenge her to a duel and take her down head-on!”
“…But haven’t we tried that before…?” Mahulena asked tiredly. Even the other members looked unimpressed.
Tuulia had made the same proposal countless times already, insisting that if they couldn’t beat her in the world of music, they could at least defeat her as students of Asterisk. As part of Sylvia’s fame came from being Queenvale’s number one, Tuulia insisted that it would be a terrible blow to her to lose to one of them in battle.
But it wasn’t as if they hadn’t tried that already.
Each of them had challenged Sylvia to a duel, and they’d all been defeated one by one. And Mahulena, who hadn’t even wanted to fight her but had been pressured into it by the others, had been defeated instantly.
Yet Tuulia waved her finger, a smile rising to her lips. “Tsk-tsk… You should let me finish. I’ve been thinking about it since, like, forever. And I’ve finally found her weakness.”
“Her…weakness?!”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Tuulia.
“Right, I’m being totally serious here. Listen, she needs to be able to sing to use her abilities, right? So all we need to be able to do is make sure she can’t sing, and then we can show her who’s best!”
“…It makes sense.” The normally expressionless Päivi, the group’s drummer, nodded.
“But how can we make sure she can’t sing?” Monica, their bassist, asked, head tilted to one side.
Tuulia faltered, seemingly taken aback by the question. To Mahulena, it looked like she hadn’t thought it through that far.
“I mean… Well, for example, like…in the water or something.”
“…You mean duel her underwater?”
Underwater battles weren’t unheard of in exhibition matches, but it would be pretty difficult to arrange that kind of situation for a duel or an official ranking match. It might work if they were to start the battle aboveground and try to lure her into the water, but she would probably have other tricks up her sleeve, like flying above the water’s surface or just freezing it solid. For all they knew, she might even be able to just make the water turn back, like Moses parting the sea.
“Then what about attacking her when she’s got a cold and can’t sing?”
“…Do you think she’d accept a duel in that situation?”
“Okay, then other situations where she can’t sing… Like in a vacuum?”
“…”
Mahulena was surprised not so much at Tuulia’s suggestion as at the fact that she knew that sound couldn’t travel though a vacuum.
“All right, next!” Miluše interrupted with a clap, attempting to restart the conversation.
“I have an idea,” Päivi said, her hand raised. “If Sylvia’s ratings fall, ours should go up. All we have to do is spread some rumors that make her look bad, even if they’re all made up.”
“That’s all well and good, but if it were to get out of hand, Benetnasch might get involved. That wouldn’t be good.”
Queenvale’s covert ops unit, Benetnasch, specialized in manipulating public opinion and had even helped Rusalka reach their current position. If information damaging to Sylvia, the academy’s prize symbol, were to get out, there was no doubt they would intervene.
“So why don’t we just spread a bunch of small rumors about her, nothing so big that they would have to do anything?”
“Oh? Such as?”
“How about we say we saw her pocket a hundred-yen coin she found lying around somewhere?”
“…Anything else?”
“Or we say we saw her ignore a red light?”
Mahulena sighed. At that rate, it would take a century to drag her reputation down.
“Come on, my turn, my turn! I’ve got an idea!” This time, it was Monica with her hand raised. “It won’t matter if Benetnasch gets involved so long as they don’t know it was us, right? So, I mean, like, why don’t we get one of the media clubs to spread it or something?”
Monica might have looked like the cutest and sweetest member of the group, but it was also she who had the most malicious character.
“Hmm, maybe… But there’s no way they’d fall for bogus information.”
Monica let out a quiet, foreboding laugh. “But what if we had real information?”
Everyone’s gazes snapped toward her, their expressions serious.
“Don’t tell me…you’ve got something?”
“It isn’t concrete or anything… But I mean, don’t you think she’s been up to something lately?” Monica asked, extending her thumb suggestively.
Miluše and Tuulia’s faces instantly turned red.
“N-n-no way?!”
“A b-b-boyfriend?!”
“If we can get our hands on some evidence, it’ll turn into a huge scandal. Even Benetnasch won’t be able to make it all go away too easily.”
Certainly, Mahulena thought, if it were true, it could turn into Sylvia’s first—perhaps even her last—major scandal. “B-but are you sure?”
“Who knows? I just happened to overhear the chairwoman say something like that. It’s not like I caught the whole conversation or anything,” Monica said, pulling a stuffed toy to her chest.
Mahulena had to admit that she did feel a touch of respect for her colleague every now and then, especially when she kept pushing the limits of her cunning nature.
Miluše, who had seemed to be deep in thought, suddenly looked up. “Speaking of which, she is taking a break during the school fair…”
“We were only given today’s performance because she turned it down, right?” Mahulena was only stating a simple fact, but she hadn’t been prepared for the other members’ reaction.
“That’s got nothing to do with it!” they shouted in unison, each of them glaring at her in disgust.
“Anyway, what we need to do is find out why she took three days off during one of the busiest times of the year.”
“Yeah, but what are we actually supposed to do? It’s not like we know anyone who can look into her private life, and we can’t exactly ask Benetnasch to do it for us,” Mahulena reminded them.
“Ugh… W-well, I guess not…” Miluše trailed off, until suddenly raising her face and making a loud, excited clap. “Right, that’s it! Why don’t we just check it out ourselves?”
“Huh? U-us…?”
“Why not? We’ve got the day off tomorrow anyway. Let’s find out for ourselves whether or not she actually has a boyfriend!”
“Whaaat?!” Mahulena jumped to her feet, but everyone else seemed to be quite taken by the suggestion.
> “Sounds good!”
“Yeah, I’m on board!”
“Ha-ha! This’ll be fun!”
“W-wait, everyone…!” Mahulena urged, trying to calm them all down, but no one seemed to be paying her any attention. “Wouldn’t we be better off spending the time practicing, though…?” she muttered, already half-resigned to her fate.
It was the second day of the school fair. Sylvia was showing Ayato around the lush grounds of Queenvale Academy for Young Ladies.
“I had no idea that everything could be so different. The buildings, the atmosphere…,” Ayato said, taking in the surroundings.
“Well, yeah. But still, the vibe here is pretty similar to Seidoukan, don’t you think? And I guess Gallardworth is pretty orthodox, too. But then you’ve got Le Wolfe and Jie Long and, like we saw yesterday, Allekant. They’re all pretty distinctive.”
After wandering around Seidoukan, they had decided to go to Allekant Académie as well. Ayato had to agree with Sylvia—it was a rather unusual place.
Seidoukan and Queenvale felt more or less like regular schools, but Allekant was more like a research institute. Everything down to the smallest detail seemed designed to emphasize functionality. There had been a lot of research announcements and scientific events but little in the way of actual festivities.
Perhaps that was why the turnout had been somewhat lower than at the other two, Ayato thought.
“This certainly looks like the most crowded one so far… Ah, sorry!” Ayato murmured after bumping into a passerby.
Even though they were strolling along a lakeside path somewhat removed from the center of the academy, without any stalls in sight, the area was still teeming with visitors.
“Come on, Ayato! This is our secret flower garden, after all! It’s not like people can come and visit whenever they feel like it. It’s only natural to want to take a look, don’t you think?”
There were so many boys around that it was hard to imagine that it was actually a girl’s school. What stood out to Ayato the most wasn’t the visitors who had come from outside Asterisk but rather the number of students from the other academies.
“It’s a good thing that everyone’s so honest.” Sylvia chuckled, but her expression at once turned grave, and she turned around, glancing behind her.
Ayato had noticed it, too. “…Is someone following us?”
“It looks like it.”
“Did someone recognize me…?”
“Hmm… Maybe me?”
There was no mistaking it. Someone was following them.
It could have been a fan or possibly a member of the media who had seen through their disguises, but then they seemed to be putting too much effort into hiding their presence for that. Whoever it was, they seemed to have melted into the crowd. They must have realized that they had been noticed.
“They don’t seem to be threatening, but what should we do?”
Sylvia, it seemed, had come up with the same idea that he had. “I don’t want to waste our date, but why don’t we split up for a little while? At least then we’ll know which of us they’re after.”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
It wasn’t a bad plan, but splitting up also meant dividing their strength.
But Sylvia looked at him with an amused smile. “Thanks for worrying about me, but I am the runner-up of the Lindvolus, you know?”
“…I guess so,” Ayato replied, smiling back at her.
Sylvia ought to be the second-strongest student in Asterisk, at least in theory.
“Besides, I don’t think anyone would try to attack us in a place like this.”
“I can’t argue with that.”
Ayato certainly couldn’t sense anything particularly dangerous about their pursuer.
“Where should we meet…? I suppose we can contact each other whenever we need to, but it might be best to leave the campus. But you probably don’t know this area well, do you?”
Ayato was about to nod, when he suddenly remembered a place that he had been once before. “Ah, I’ve been to this café, though… This one.” He opened a small air-window displaying the place that Eishirou had told him about.
“Ah, I know it. All right!” Sylvia nodded as if that settled it, signaling with her eyes where they should split up.
And with that, they headed straight into the most crowded area in the heart of the academy. They turned in opposite directions at the exact same moment, Sylvia going right, Ayato going left.
Ayato began to increase his pace, taking care so as not to bump into anyone.
The grounds around the campus were filled with greenery. Seidoukan also had a good amount of green spaces, but they were more parklike, while Queenvale’s seemed to be filled with natural groves and hillocks. Of course, Ayato reminded himself, the city was a man-made island, so they were both equally artificial.
After coming out of one of those groves, he came to a sudden stop.
It seemed that he had finally found a quiet area, so he shouldn’t have any difficulty sensing anyone in pursuit.
“…Maybe I lost them?” he wondered aloud.
He scanned his surroundings, but there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
Maybe it was Sylvia whom they were following after all, he mused.
“I’d better call her…,” he muttered to himself, taking out his mobile, when he noticed a girl approaching down the footpath in front of him. He began to brace himself for a confrontation but relaxed when he couldn’t sense anything unusual about her.
He let out a brief sigh, moving to give her room to pass. The girl nodded lightly as she walked by.
But then, for some reason, she came to a sudden stop, turning around and staring straight at Ayato’s face.
“…Um, is something wrong?”
“…” The girl tilted her head to one side, a quizzical expression on her face, her long, glossy black hair drooping straight down. “…Ayato?”
“Ah…” He brushed a hand over his glasses and hairband, but everything seemed to be in order. “Um, no, I mean, I’m…” He stood fumbling for some kind of explanation, unable to work out how she had seen through the disguise, when—
“It’s been a long time. It’s me, Yuzuhi,” she said, bowing deeply.
“Yuzuhi…?” he repeated, when the name clicked. “Yuzuhi?! From the Yatsuka Dojo?!”
“The very one!” The black-haired girl, Yuzuhi Renjouji, smiled sweetly.
“B-but…what are you doing here…?”
The last time they had met, Yuzuhi had been learning archery at the Yatsuka Dojo, one of several family branches of the Amagiri Shinmei style.
Among the dojos that taught the Amagiri Shinmei style, the Yatsuka Dojo specialized in passing down the art of archery. The head dojo of course taught archery as well, but it had long since ceased to teach the Master Techniques. For those, students had to go to the Yatsuka Dojo. Not being particularly well suited to archery, Ayato himself had never had a chance to study those techniques, but he had accompanied his sister several times when she’d gone to visit, when he was a kid.
He had gotten to know Yuzuhi during that period, and since they were the same age, they’d spoken to each other often. Nonetheless, he had stopped going to the Yatsuka Dojo once Haruka disappeared, so it must have been years since they’d last seen each other.
“Didn’t anyone tell you? I’ve been a student here at Queenvale since last year,” Yuzuhi said, pointing to her school crest.
“…No, sorry. This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Ayato scratched his cheek, mentally cursing his father.
“I’ve heard about all your achievements. I know it’s late, but I really wanted to congratulate you for winning the Phoenix. I should have gone to see you earlier, but I didn’t want to trouble you…”
From the time they were children, she’d always been incredibly conscientious.
“But you’ve really changed your image! When I was watching the Phoenix, you looked more—”
“Ah, well—can you come with me?” Ayato said, surveying his surroundings, before stepping off the footpath and leading her back into the grove.
Once there, he took off his glasses and hit the switch on the hairband.
“How’s this?”
“…Oh, I see. So it was a disguise.” Yuzuhi nodded.
“Well, it can’t have been that good. I mean, you saw through it right away.”
“That’s not it. Your bearing and your way of walking looked like how we’re taught in the Amagiri Shinmei style, so I thought maybe… It just got me thinking. Sorry for asking out of nowhere like that.”
“You’ve still got sharp eyes…,” Ayato murmured, remembering back when even his father had had to acknowledge her archery skills.
But before she could respond, Ayato’s mobile began to ring.
“Ah… Sorry, can I have a minute?” he excused himself, before opening a small air-window.
“Ayato?” Sylvia asked, her expression hesitant. “Did they follow you?”
“Huh? No, they didn’t come this way… I thought they must have gone after you?”
“Hmm, maybe. I thought I sensed them for a while, but then there was a bit of a commotion, and they disappeared,” Sylvia answered, seemingly disappointed.
“What kind of commotion?”
“I’ll tell you in person,” she said, and the air-window snapped closed.
Ayato wasn’t particularly satisfied with the outcome, either, but he had to admit that it was better than finding themselves dragged into a dangerous situation.
“Sorry, Yuzuhi. It looks like something’s come up. Let’s talk properly some other time.”
“Not at all.” Yuzuhi shook her head. “I’m keeping a friend waiting, too.”
They made their way back to the footpath, bowed to each other in farewell, and headed off in opposite directions, when Yuzuhi turned around with a start.
“Ah, that’s right,” she said as if suddenly remembering something. “There’s something that I should tell you. According to the rumors, you’re going to take part in the Gryps, right?”
“Ah, yeah…”
“So am I.”