by Yuu Miyazaki
“Ah… She’s probably at the casino.” Priscilla shrugged, her expression troubled. “Oh, but she did say that she would be at the event this evening. The one that you’re going to.”
“What? Irene, too?”
“She mentioned a huge prize being offered, I think.”
He hadn’t been paying much attention at the time, but he seemed to remember Eishirou saying something about there being a large sum of money up for grabs by the winner.
“That sounds like Irene,” he said, when he suddenly noticed something. “Priscilla, have you been training?”
“Huh? Y-you can tell…?” She lifted a hand to her mouth in shock.
“You’re walking differently, and you seem to have a bit more muscle on you.”
“Yes… I have been doing a little training, and sis has been teaching me all kinds of things. I can’t rely on her to protect me forever.”
“Oh, that’s pretty impressive.”
Priscilla blushed at the compliment. “Sh-she invited me to the event, but I’m still a bit scared…”
“Well, I think you made the right choice. Even I don’t really know what it’s about.”
There was certainly nothing to suggest that it was meant for beginners.
“I’ll be cheering for both you and your lady friend!” Priscilla said with an embarrassed grin, before heading back toward the stall.
After watching her go, Ayato noticed that Sylvia was staring at him as if she wanted to say something.
“Wh-what is it?”
“It must be nice, having such a dedicated fan.”
“You’re one to talk.”
Sylvia’s fan base was beyond comparison with his own.
“She’s different, though, from mine.”
“You think so?”
“I’m sure of it.” She sighed with exasperation.
It wasn’t long before their orders arrived.
“Oh, it’s Basque-style! It looks delicious!”
The paella that Priscilla had cooked for him and Julis during the Festa had been exquisite, so he had let her recommend another for them this time, too, but the ingredients and aroma seemed to be quite different.
It only took one mouthful, however, for him to realize that it was just as delicious.
Sylvia, her mouth widening into a broad smile, seemed to be enjoying it, too.
“Mmm… This is amazing. I almost want to ask her for her recipe.”
“Do you cook, too?”
“There’s no need to act so surprised. Even idols know how to cook, you know.” Sylvia pouted.
“Sorry, sorry, that wasn’t what I meant.” Ayato waved his hands as if to take the words back. “It’s just that you’re always so busy.”
“Ah, well, I haven’t done any recently… Oh no!”
“What is it?” Ayato blinked in surprise.
Sylvia propped her chin on her hand in embarrassment. “No. I just thought I could make lunch for you tomorrow, but today’s the last day…”
“Ah… That’s a shame.”
“Oh well. Let’s save it for next time.”
“Next time?” Ayato repeated.
Sylvia merely smiled mischievously back at him.
Julis had been in a foul mood ever since she had woken up.
If even she could recognize it, she thought, it would have to be as plain as day to anyone else.
Given how famous she’d become, a huge number of visitors to the academy seemed about to call out to her as she made her way to the training room, but it took only one look at her expression for them all to reconsider.
The fact that they didn’t bother her should have been wonderful, but right now it was more irritating than anything else.
“Ah… Good morning, Julis.” Kirin bowed her head in greeting as she entered the training room.
“Why can’t this school fair just be over with?” Julis spat out abruptly. But she immediately came to her senses, lowering her voice in apology. “Sorry, Kirin. It’s just not working out for me right now.”
“It’s all right. I feel the same way.”
Kirin, it seemed, understood the cause of her frustration.
It was galling to have to admit it, but it all came down to the fact that Ayato and Sylvia were spending the entire school fair together.
Of course, Ayato had every right to spend his time wherever and with whomever he pleased. It wasn’t her place to interfere.
But even when she told herself that, she still couldn’t calm her nerves.
Sylvia Lyyneheym…
It went without saying that Sylvia was the most famous person in Asterisk. Her name was always listed in the top ten, even on the unofficial ranking sites Odhroerir and Hexa Pantheon.
Indeed, Julis had been keeping a close eye on her even before she had started getting involved with Ayato.
Sylvia was, after all, the only person—at least as far as she knew—to have been able to put up a good fight against Orphelia. While overall, their match might have been somewhat one-sided, for a short while, at least Sylvia had been able to counter Orphelia’s abilities. For Julis, who understood firsthand just how powerful those abilities were, it was an astonishing performance.
Even if they hadn’t met directly, Julis could make some broad guesses as to her personality based on how she had handled that match.
She hated having to admit it, but Sylvia had a very good approach to her matches. She respected her opponents, and she would face them head-on, without scheming against them in the background. The fact that she could do so might have been thanks to her versatile abilities and strengths, but Julis couldn’t help but admire her for remaining true to herself even against Orphelia.
Based on all that, it was clear that she didn’t have the personality to try to lead others into traps.
Which means she probably didn’t have any ulterior motive in inviting Ayato to the fair…
Julis grabbed her head in her hands and let out a low groan as she came to that realization.
“J-Julis…?” Kirin called out cautiously, no doubt taken by surprise.
He might be a complete blockhead, but she’s a world-famous idol. At this rate…
“Um, are you okay, Julis?” Kirin asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“—! Ah, I mean, I’m all right. Everything’s fine.” Julis cleared her throat, standing up straight as she came back to her senses. “By the way, um… Right. Isn’t Saya coming today?”
“Oh yes… I think so. She went to an event run by the swimming club yesterday, so…”
“Ah, I heard that she went a little wild.”
Saya was probably venting her feelings in her own way, Julis thought.
“A friend from the swimming club told me that she had used it as an opportunity to let off stress.”
Julis could tell that Kirin, hiding behind her grim smile, mustn’t have been particularly pleased with how her own training was going recently.
“By the way, Kirin…”
“Yes?”
“Um, I don’t know how to put this… Your shoes are on the wrong feet.”
“Huh?!”
“And your ribbon isn’t tied straight.”
“What?!”
“And your hair is loose. The right side looks like it’s about to come undone.”
“Wh-wh-wha—?!” Kirin squatted down where she stood, on the verge of tears.
Julis let out a tired sigh, then walked behind her and starting to put her hair in order. “Let me have a look. I can straighten it up for you, at least.”
“Th-thank you, Julis…”
“Saya probably has the right idea, letting her stress pour out rather than letting it build up inside like we are.”
“Yes… But still…” Kirin mustered her voice with a nod. “Because of that, the swimming club won’t let her take part in anything else. Where could she have gone today? I suppose there are other events going on… And she could have gone to one of the other schools…”
&nbs
p; “I doubt it. Not with her sense of direction.”
At that moment, the training room door swung open.
“Well, speak of the devil.”
Saya, her expression sullen, strode through the entrance, followed a moment later by a beaming Claudia.
“Ah, excellent, we must have had the same idea.” She smiled.
“Oh, Claudia. Did you finish your work?”
“It’s about time I took a break. I thought we might all go to watch the event. I’ve already invited Miss Sasamiya, so why don’t we all go together?” Claudia pronounced, clapping her hands together.
“The event? You mean the one that Allekant and Jie Long are helping organize? The one that Ayato’s taking part in?”
“Exactly. But I’m afraid that it’s the clubs from the schools that have organized it. The student council hasn’t had any hand in it. We were of course given a rough idea of what to expect, but nothing more.”
“…”
Given that Ayato was going to participate, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t thought to go and watch it herself.
But she didn’t know whether she could honestly cheer him on given her present emotional state.
I’m not sulking. Really, I’m not sulking…
Claudia let out a soft laugh, as if reading her mind. “Some of the participants are also planning to take part in the Gryps. It might be a good way to gather some information, don’t you think?”
It was obvious that she was trying to encourage her to go, but now that she had put it that way, Julis couldn’t really refuse.
“…Sometimes you’re too shrewd, you know that?”
“Oh my, did I say something wrong?” Claudia replied sarcastically, as if pretending that she had no idea what Julis meant.
Appearance-wise, the Jie Long Seventh Institute was the most impressive of Asterisk’s six schools.
The grounds were filled with elaborate Chinese-style buildings, each of them connected by a labyrinthine network of adjoining galleries. The spaces between the buildings were filled with elegant landscapes and wide-open spaces, to the extent that visitors needed a map just to be able to find their way around.
“This place is amazing… It has to be the busiest of all of them,” Ayato marveled at Sylvia as they walked along together.
“Jie Long has more students than any of the other schools, but their traditions are different, too,” she replied.
“Their traditions?”
“Hmm… I don’t know whether to call it chaos or freedom… Anyway, their integrated enterprise foundation has always tended not to put too much pressure on them.”
Ayato glanced toward a large plaza. A number of students were busy controlling a dragon figure in an elaborate dance, with all manner of visitors thronging around them. In the garden at the opposite side of the gallery, a large knife-wielding man was doing some elaborate acrobatics to the cheers of a small crowd.
“Do you mean that they respect the students’ independence?”
“It’s more like the kind of people who chose to come to Jie Long are hoping to train to better themselves. Even the Festa comes second to that goal. Maybe that’s why it’s harder for their foundation to control them.”
“Ah, I see. So the Festa is just another avenue for training? I guess that means they don’t have any wishes they want granted?”
That reminded Ayato of Song and Luo, two of his opponents during the Phoenix. Those two were certainly that kind of student. If it was training itself that was their goal, that certainly explained why Jie Long’s martial artists were so strong.
“That might be the case for a lot of them, but there are people who have dreams of their own, too, just like at all the other schools.”
It sounded like firecrackers were going off all around them. There were all kinds of playful sounds echoing across the institute grounds. Given that Jie Long was the only one of Asterisk’s six academies that had an elementary school, there were also a large number of young children playfully running around.
“On top of that, the institute isn’t particularly unified, for better or for worse. There are several different factions for each of the martial arts, each of them more or less independent.”
“Doesn’t that go for Allekant, too?”
“No. Over there, the research budgets of the various factions come directly from their foundation… But I suppose that there is a bureaucratic side to Jie Long, too. The student council, at least, is very close to their IEF.”
“I see…”
Ayato glanced toward a hall that looked a lot like a dojo, where a dozen or so students were all performing some kind of dance in perfect unison.
He could see why Jie Long always did so well at the Festa—not only did they have a higher number of students than the other schools; they had many more students who were interested in combat.
“By the way, Ayato, you have a distinctive hand-to-hand fighting style, right? You know, the one you used when you fought against Kirin Toudou?”
“Well, the Amagiri Shinmei style does have some techniques for that kind of situation. But you know, you aren’t half bad yourself,” Ayato said, remembering the first time they had met, when she had defeated a former Jie Long Page One in a single move.
Sylvia puffed out her chest. “Even I don’t neglect my training.”
“But it looked like you know your way around real combat. What school was it?”
“Hmm… I don’t know what it’s called exactly or where it came from. And I was only taught the basics. The rest of it is my own style. Do you remember my music teacher whom I mentioned yesterday? She’s the one who taught me.”
“…Your music teacher?”
Ayato startled for a moment, but when he thought about it, if she had participated in the Eclipse, she would have to be quite strong.
“Ah, but I think she said once that it had something to do with the Vikings…”
They turned around a corner, when—
“—?!”
“Wha—?!”
The mana surrounding them began to writhe uncontrollably, the scenery around them seemingly melting like wax.
The two of them braced themselves for trouble but suddenly found themselves standing in a great hall.
“What’s going on…?”
There was a sudden burst of laughter. “Hoh-hoh, my apologies for that. I didn’t want to cause a scene, you see.” A young girl, her hair arranged into a shape like the wings of a butterfly, emerged from behind a pillar.
She looked to be around the same age as Flora. Based on the fact that she was wearing a Jie Long uniform, Ayato concluded she had to be a student.
“Oh… It’s you. Don’t surprise me like that, Xinglou,” Sylvia said, lowering her guard.
“It’s been a while, Miss Diva.”
Ayato, however, could barely take in what Sylvia had just said. “Xinglou…? Xinglou Fan?!”
Xinglou Fan, Jie Long’s top-ranked fighter and student council president and the current Immanent Heaven—Ban’yuu Tenra.
He had heard about her, of course, but he had never suspected that she would be so young. After all, there were hardly any videos of her matches, and while he wouldn’t go so far as to say that she was purposefully hiding from the public, he had heard that she often sent representatives to public events instead of attending them in person. There was little wonder that he hadn’t recognized her.
“Indeed, I am Xinglou Fan. I’m pleased to finally meet you, Ayato Amagiri. I’ve taken quite an interest in you.”
“Ah… Me too.” He still didn’t understand what was going on, but he accepted her outstretched hand all but reflexively.
“You truly were splendid in the Phoenix. Just thinking about it makes my heart race. But it’s such a pity. Why didn’t you attend Jie Long?”
“Well, um… I mean… More importantly, how did you bring us over here?”
He had been about to ask her how she had recognized them, given that they were still disguised, bu
t that was hardly the most pressing issue at hand.
“Shortening the earth vein and connecting great distances—a technique called bridging. Or rather, an application of it.”
“You mean teleportation? So Seisenjutsu can do that, too…”
He would have to come up with some kind of countermeasure, Ayato thought.
“It isn’t Seisenjutsu.” Xinglou shook her head slowly.
But in that case, what on earth could it be?
“There’s no use worrying about it, Ayato.” Sylvia shrugged, clearly resigned to their situation. “I’m sure it’s the same at all the other schools, too, but there’s something that incoming student council presidents at Queenvale are always told. If Jie Long’s representative is the Ban’yuu Tenra, then don’t get involved with her, no matter what.”
Xinglou let out a pleased laugh. “Hoh-hoh, that’s the first time I’ve heard that. No matter what, you say?”
“Yes…” Sylvia let out a long, deep sigh. “I don’t know how true they are, but according to the rumors, she’s already over a thousand years old.”
“A thousand years old… That’s…”
Even if she did have some kind of ability, that would mean she would have been alive since long before the Invertia. Given that Genestella only began to appear in the world as an effect of the manadite that had come to Earth during that time, there was no way it could be true.
“Oh? You don’t believe it?” Folding her arms, Xinglou glanced up at him, clearly disappointed by his reaction.
“I mean—”
“Never mind. Now that you’ve finally paid us a visit, allow me to enlighten you as to how this world works.”
And with that, the room fell into darkness.
“—!”
“There’s no need to worry. It’s just… Ah yes, it’s just what you might call a hologram.”
“A hologram…?”
A semitransparent projection of the Earth hovered up before them.
The planet was rotating slowly, peacefully—until, all of a sudden, countless meteorites began to appear, plummeting downward one after another.
“Is this…?”
“Precisely. The Invertia.”