Gakusen Toshi Asterisk - Volume 9 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

MIDDAY

“…You’re saying that the Nights are making a move?”

“I guess Galaxy finally ran out of patience.”

“Hmph. It’s none of my business,” Dirk Eberwein spat, reclining in his chair in the Le Wolfe Black Institute’s student council room, his usual frown carving deep wrinkles across his forehead.

“Dear me…,” Madiath Mesa, on the other side of the air-window, said with an affected shrug.

“If they do manage to get rid of her, it’ll make Seidoukan a hell of a lot easier to deal with. I can’t see them finding a replacement like her any time soon.”

“I see. So even you value her abilities, in your own way,” he joked.

Dirk glared into the air-window. “If that’s all you wanted to talk about, I’m hanging up. I’m afraid I don’t have as much free time on my hands as you do.”

“Now, now, hold on a minute. You’re as hot-headed as always, I see,” Madiath said, trying to soothe him. “No, the real issue is this: I only heard it a short while ago. It seems that our Miss Enfield knows about Varda.”

“What…?” Upon hearing this, even Dirk’s face paled in color.

Both Dirk and Madiath were members of a select group known as the Golden Bough Alliance, which, along with certain high-ranking executives in Galaxy, were supposed to be the only people with knowledge of the greatest secrets, including the existence of the only Orga Lux capable of acting independently, based on its own will—the Varda-Vaos.

Everyone else who knew about it had either been quietly taken care of, or else they had their memories erased by the Orga Lux itself, the primary ability of which was mind control.

“She must have brought it up either to try negotiating with Galaxy or else to threaten them. Something like that anyway.”

“She’s out of her mind.”

Trying to do something like that with an integrated enterprise foundation was practically the very definition of suicide.

“Indeed, that’s what I’m worried about. Do you really think that someone whose abilities you respect so much would have made such a foolish mistake?”

“…What do you mean?”

“What I’m saying is that everything that’s happened so far might all have been as she intended.” Madiath paused for a second. “Think about it. Galaxy brought in the Nights to deal with a student at their own school. That doesn’t make any sense. If they had wanted to do something, they could have punished her under some made-up pretext and dealt with it all internally.”

“So she started it all during the Festa, when Galaxy couldn’t afford to do anything half-baked, and even went so far as to give the other foundations an opportunity to hold them back… What a snake.”

“Considering the circumstances, the best option for Galaxy would simply be to make her disappear. In other words, assassinate her.”

Looking at it that way, there was a kind of logic to their actions.

And yet…

“But that still leaves the biggest problem. Why would she do it?”

From Claudia’s perspective, she was only hemming herself in. There was no logical benefit to be had.

“I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that… But there is one thing I can say for sure.”

“Yeah?”

“She’s human, just like us. It doesn’t matter what her wish is—she’s willing to sacrifice anything in order to fulfill it… Or rather, she doesn’t even take those secondary matters into consideration to begin with.”

“…Hmph.”

“Don’t lump me in with you,” Dirk wanted to spit back.

“Well, that’s the situation, so we’d better keep an eye on her.”

“What’s the point? She’s practically dead already.”

Night Emit wasn’t only ancient, it was one of the most distinguished groups of its kind in the Far East.

It didn’t matter how great Claudia’s abilities were—there was no way she would be able to escape.

“Indeed.” Madiath laughed. “And yet, I’ve got a feeling we shouldn’t take that for granted.” He flashed Dirk a suspicious smile before ending the call.

“…” Dirk, left alone, crossed him arms and sank deep into thought.

Finally, with a click of his tongue, he opened another air-window. “Make sure Korona gets here quickly—before evening. And start spreading a rumor—indirectly. Seidoukan’s student council president seems to be missing.”

“…I see. Thanks, Julis. I’ll call you later. Make sure you… Right, I’ll leave it to you.”

Ayato closed the small air-window and let out a tired sigh. “She isn’t in her dorm room,” he muttered in a low voice. “And according to Julis, it looks like there was a fight of some kind…”

He was sitting alone at a four-person table in the back of a gloomy diner on the outskirts of the commercial area, a cup of mud-like coffee in his hand.

“Just as I thought,” a voice from behind him said.

She too had spoken so softly that he could barely make out the words, but the voice belonged to the student council vice president of Saint Gallardworth Academy, Laetitia Blanchard.

Glancing over his shoulder, he watched as the young lady, her elegance quite at odds with the somewhat cheerless diner, lifted her cup of tea to her lips.

There was no denying that she stood out, but there was nothing he could do about that.

“Anyway, I’m surprised you knew this place. It’s certainly suitable for off-the-record talks… Although the clientele leaves something to be desired.” Laetitia spoke as if she was somehow impressed with the place and yet at the same time taking issue with it.

“No, I only found out about it from someone else…,” Ayato explained, looking down into his coffee.

It was the same diner where he had gone with Irene for information on Flora’s kidnapping during the last Festa. It was, after all, a rather shady establishment, so it was little wonder that Laetitia found it suspicious.

In other words, it was more suited to students from Le Wolfe than from Gallardworth.

“Well, you’re helping me out, so I won’t pry. I’m not very familiar with these kinds of places, and yet…”

“…And yet?”

“I’m not impressed that you frequent such a dubious place. I’ve heard that you often go to the Rotlicht as well. If you’re going to be friends with Claudia, you really need to think about improving your character a little.”

“I came here for a specific reason last time…,” he tried to explain, but Laetitia wouldn’t hear it.

“The Enfield family is just as distinguished in Europe as the Blanchard family. If you go around behaving in a way unbecoming of that name, it won’t just reflect poorly on you—you’ll drag Claudia down as well. And if that happens, I’ll never forgive you.”

“Right…”

For some reason, Laetitia seemed to be taking offense at all the wrong things.

It was clear, however, from the way she was speaking, that she truly was worried for Claudia.

“Listen up, Ayato Amagiri! If I’m being honest, I still haven’t accepted you. I’m only asking for your help now because I don’t have any other options. Keep that in mind!”

“Right… So what did you want to tell me?” he prompted. If he let her keep going on like that, she might never tell him.

“Yes… Ahem. Very well,” she said, clearing her throat.

Ayato had only suggested the diner in the first place because she had said that she wanted to speak to him in person.

After all, it sounded like they couldn’t afford to talk over the phone.

“I want to find Claudia as quickly as possible as well,” he told her.

She seemed to hesitate for the briefest of moments, before answering: “Then you need to hear this. It might prove vital to save her.”

In that case, she needed to come out with it, Ayato thought.

“…Just so you know, it was Claudia herself who told me this, and she made me promise not tell anyone else. I always intended to honor that promise, but now… Now I guess I don’t have any choice.”

“What is it?”

But instead of answering him, Laetitia asked a question of her own: “Before that, do you know what Claudia’s wish is—why she came to Asterisk?”

“Well… She wants to meet Ladislav Bartošik, the professor who was involved in the Jade Twilight Incident.”

Claudia had said as much during their winners’ interview several days ago, so that should have been public knowledge. Ayato personally, however, couldn’t help but wonder if her real goal wasn’t something else.

“Indeed. I saw her say that during the interview. But you know… That’s completely different than what she told me once before.”

“What…?”

Ayato was about to turn around, when, perhaps sensing this, Laetitia continued: “Let me start from the beginning. She and I used to be rivals, always competing against each other for victory in tournaments throughout Europe… In the end, I wasn’t ever able to beat her, though…”

“Right…”

Laetitia’s voice was filled with chagrin, muffled, as if she were biting on a handkerchief.

“Ahem. Anyway, during one tournament, she was in unusually high spirits. And she told me that she had finally found a wish that she wanted to have granted.”

“She was in high spirits? Claudia…?” Ayato had only known her for just over a year, but he had yet to see that side of her.

“Yes. I was surprised, too. I asked her to tell me, but she wouldn’t say anything more about it. I ended up getting so angry that I made a bet with her that if I won the next match, she would have to tell me everything.”

“…But didn’t you just say you weren’t able to beat her?”

In that case, she must have lost that bet.

Perhaps she had taken offense at those words, as she continued in a serious, quick voice: “R-right, but don’t interrupt! She was clearly acting strange during that tournament. I heard afterward that she had just gotten her hands on the Pan-Dora. She couldn’t use it because of the tournament’s regulations, but still…”

“The Pan-Dora…? Wait, hold on. I thought you said this happened when you were both still kids?”

Orga Luxes were only supposed to be used inside Asterisk. Of course, there were always exceptions, such as when Ayato had gone to Lieseltania, so it wasn’t impossible to take them outside the city, given that the user undertook the proper administrative procedures. Moreover, a winner in the Festa might use their wish to take private possession of an Orga Lux, but even in such cases, ownership would only last for the user’s lifetime, before reverting to the relevant foundation. Giving one to a child who wasn’t even a student at Asterisk, however—that was an extraordinary exception.

“I was surprised to hear it, too… But then, given her mother’s position, it probably wasn’t all that difficult. Even then, the woman was already close to the top at Galaxy. Moreover, I don’t think she had it all the time. They sent it back every now and then for analysis.” Laetitia paused there, sipping from her cup of tea. “Anyway, that’s how it was. She clearly wasn’t in a good way, and the final ended in a draw.”

“A draw…?”

“Neither of us won, and neither of us lost. So after making me promise never to tell anyone, she offered to tell me half of her wish,” Laetitia said with a small sigh. “Her wish—Claudia’s wish—was to dedicate herself fully to her destined partner.”

“…Huh?” Ayato inadvertently let that out, taken aback by what he had just heard. “Dedicate herself? To her destined partner?”

He had no idea what kind of person she had been as a child, but that kind of thing certainly didn’t match the Claudia he knew.

“Well, I was just as confused when I heard it. At first, I thought she was pulling my leg, so I asked her about this destined partner. And she told me that she hadn’t met him yet.”

Ayato could understand why she would think Claudia had been joking.

“But then she went to Seidoukan and rose to the position of student council president… And then, watching her actions, it suddenly all made sense to me. That destined partner she was talking about—it has to be you, Ayato Amagiri.”

“What?!” he exclaimed, spinning around. Realizing what he had done, he quickly turned back to his own table, lowering his voice: “…How did that happen?”

“To tell you the truth, at first, I thought you must have tricked her, but now…”

“I—I didn’t do anything like that…”

“Don’t worry. I’m not that bad a judge of character. I can tell from what you’ve done so far that, if nothing else, you’re not a bad person at heart.” Despite her words, there did seem to be a touch of displeasure in her voice. “Anyway, she put a huge amount of effort—and not just her own—into finding you and recommending you for a special scholarship. You, with no achievements, nothing at all to your name. That was the only time she had ever done anything like that—so I knew right away, it had to be you.”

“…” Ayato remained silent. He, too, had long wondered why the opportunity had come to him of all people.

He had tried to ask her about it the first time they had met. After all, he wasn’t the kind of outstanding student who would be considered a candidate for a scholarship—let alone be offered one. Claudia had said there had been a lot of opposition, but she had pushed through with his candidacy regardless. But in that case, how had she known about him to begin with?

“…This is just a guess, but I think she must have seen you in those nightmares that she has from using the Pan-Dora.”

“The Pan-Dora…? But I thought her memories of those faded away when she woke up?”

He was sure she had said something like that.

“That does seem to be the case. But she must have said something like this as well, that some fragments and impressions remain. What do you think? Even if they are just fragments, would they really be so strong as to completely change someone’s outlook on life?”

In the back of his mind, Ayato remembered something Claudia had said back when they had first met.

“At last… We meet at last.”

She had embraced him from behind, in the middle of the student council room.

Thinking back, her actions then had been completely at odds with her usual self. She had spoken with a fragile, helpless voice—a voice that he hadn’t heard again since.

“Basically, she must have met you in her dreams and fallen for you… Then she decided to come here, to Asterisk, meet you, and dedicate herself to you. That must have been her wish. To be honest, I think it’s a pretty stupid one, but that’s a different matter.”

Personally, Ayato found it somewhat difficult to accept, but when he looked at it objectively, he couldn’t deny that it all made sense.

“But then why does she have to participate in the Festa…?”

If Laetitia’s conclusions were true, then there would have been no need for Claudia to fight in the Gryps or make an enemy of Galaxy.

“Exactly!” Laetitia let out enthusiastically, as if she had only been building up to this point. “She only told me half her wish—so the other half has to be related to what’s going on now.”

“The other half… Do you think it has something to do with Professor Bartošik and the Jade Twilight Incident?”

Ayato couldn’t see much of a connection between the two issues.

“That’s what I want to ask you… Ayato Amagiri, what do you know about it?”

“…Me?”

But there was no way he could know any more about the incident than she already did.

“I hadn’t even heard of the professor until Claudia brought him up,” he answered with a shake of his head—though he knew that Laetitia couldn’t see it.

“Really? You’re not hiding anything?”

“No, I swear.”

“Hmm… Fine.” Laetitia’s voice seemed to be filled with disappointment.

“Anyway, all that aside, you must be one of the most important keys to this mystery. I’m sure of it.”

“Well… I guess so.”

He didn’t feel so sure himself, but based on everything she had said, he couldn’t deny the possibility that she might be right.

“So you need to find her and convince her to give up on it. You’re the only one who would be able to do it.”

“That’s…,” he began, before falling silent, at a loss for words.

Did he even have the right to make her give up on her wish, he wondered, especially given everything she had done to come this far?

“Even assuming that she manages to pull through this, once the integrated enterprise foundations start to do something, they never give up. You understand that, right? In this world, to oppose the integrated enterprise foundations is basically to sign your own death warrant. No matter what that wish of hers is, it can’t be worth more than her life.”

It was clear from Laetitia’s sincerity that she was truly concerned about her. That was enough for Ayato.

“…All right,” he said with a nod.

There probably were wishes that people would be willing to stake one’s life on, he thought. But even so, he didn’t want to lose Claudia over it.

“…In that case, I’ll believe in you. Take this.”

A small silver charm dropped onto the sofa where Ayato was sitting.

“What is it?”

“Claudia gave it to me as a birthday present a long time ago. It’s supposed to bring good luck… Although, it was a pretty unpleasant present.”

“Unpleasant…?” Ayato had no idea what she was talking about.

“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, please give it to her. She can think of it as my revenge, if she wants.”

Ayato stepped out of the diner into a dark, early fall day.

The sun was hidden behind thick clouds, and the damp wind carried a distinctive aroma. According to the weather forecast, rain was expected later in the evening.

“…Anyway, I need to find Claudia,” he muttered to himself as he hurried toward the road leading back to the school.

What could have motivated her to do this? He had no choice but to ask her directly. If, as Laetitia had said, he was one of the keys to the mystery, he had to find her no matter what it took.

Just as he had come to that realization, his mobile began to ring.

He hurriedly opened an air-window, only to be met with an unexpected face.

“Huh? Sylvie?”

“Ayato, I heard what happened. It sounds serious.”

“Ah, yeah. It is… But how did you find out about it?”

“I am a student council president, you know, and here at Queenvale we do have our own intelligence organization, Benetnasch. They aren’t half bad.”

Just like Laetitia had at Gallardworth, it looked like the other schools were starting to catch on to the situation, if belatedly.

“That’s it! Can you use Benetnasch to try to work out where she is right now?” he asked, a glimmer of hope having revealed itself.

Sylvia, however, merely shook her head apologetically. “I’m sorry, Ayato. They didn’t say anything about her current whereabouts, and I doubt they would tell me even if they do know.”

Just as a part of him had expected, the higher-ups at Queenvale also considered the best approach to be to let things play out.

They would, of course, know about Sylvia’s friendship with Ayato, and so there was little chance that they would divulge such information to her.

“But you know, I’ve been thinking about it myself, and—”

But before she could finish speaking, the air-window suddenly went black.

“…Huh? No signal?”

That was not a message he expected to see in the middle of Asterisk. With the exception of certain areas, such as the underground block where Saya had found herself several days ago, there should have been good reception throughout the entire city.

Wondering what was going on, Ayato lifted his gaze to his surroundings and paused in shock. Without him realizing it, the scenery around him had completely changed. The streets were devoid of passersby, and the buildings around him were in a dilapidated state. He was in the redevelopment area.

“How did I…?”

He should have been going in the other direction, back toward Seidoukan, and yet, he had found himself here. Not only that, now that he had stopped in the middle of the street, a thick fog had begun to rise up around him.

It was clearly an atypical mistake.

He put himself on guard, scanning his surroundings, when a ghostlike figure began to emerge from the mist.

“—?!”

“…It’s a concealment technique, one that interferes with the target’s sense of direction. It’s practically impossible to counter if the target doesn’t realize what’s happened to them.”

“Huh? That voice… Yabuki?!”

“Yep, right on the mark.”

The figure continued toward him through the fog, until finally Ayato could make out his roommate’s features. He was wearing a hood, and while his eyes were completely hidden, Ayato could make out a faint smile.

“What are you doing here?”

“Now, now, Amagiri. Won’t you play nice and let me keep you tied down for a while? There’s no need for questions.” Eishirou, his hands in his pockets, stopped just outside the edge of Ayato’s range.

“Let you keep me tied down…? Oh, so that’s how it is, is it?” Ayato asked with a slight scowl. His tone made his point clear. “You’re siding with the school on this?”

“Well, I had wanted to pull back the curtain more dramatically… But I guess it’s too late now.” Eishirou lifted his hood, flashing Ayato his usual friendly smile as he scratched at the side of his head. “You’ve heard about Shadowstar, right? Basically, I work for them. Surprised?” he asked with a quiet laugh.

“…Anyone would be surprised to hear that their friend works for an intelligence organization.”

“You look pretty calm, though,” Eishirou pointed out.

“I guess I’ve known for a while that you’re no ordinary student, Yabuki,” Ayato answered as he reached for his waist. “And I did think it was pretty unusual that you weren’t interested in taking part in the Festa.”

“Hah, is that so…? Looks like I need to up my training.” Eishirou lowered his shoulders, crestfallen. “But still, I’m glad to hear you consider me your friend. I feel like I’ve been deceiving you this whole time.” Eishirou’s head was drooped, but there was a probing glint in his eyes.

“Hmm… Conceal is probably a better way to put it, I’d say. And besides, there are things I’ve concealed from you as well, so I guess we’re both guilty.”

At this, Eishirou stared back at him in silent astonishment for a moment. “I always knew you were softhearted, but come on, this is a bit much…”

“That’s not it. I know what I’m doing. I mean, if you’re my friend, you might let me go, right?” Ayato replied with a grave expression, bracing himself for the worst.

The air around them suddenly became tense.

“Hey, hey! You trying to scare me?” Eishirou asked, unfazed. “To tell you the truth, though, speaking for myself, I’ve got nothing against doing just that.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve got my own problems, too, you know? My heart isn’t in this job,” he said, shrugging his shoulders in exasperation.

“…Is Shadowstar really okay with its people having such a half-hearted work ethic?”

It was an intelligence organization, after all.

“Ha-ha… Of course not. I’m not trying to brag or anything, but I’m kind of the biggest troublemaker Shadowstar’s ever had. I’ve got a bit of a name for myself there, you know?”

“…No, that isn’t something to boast about.”

Even at a time like this, Eishirou didn’t seem to be feeling any sense of tension or nervousness. “You know, it’s different if I get a choice, but I hate being made to do jobs I don’t want to do. And this time, that’s what it is.”

“So you’ll let me go, then, won’t you?” Ayato asked.

Eishirou, however, gave him a broad grin. “Let’s say you do get away. Do you even have any idea where to look for her?”

“Ah… Not yet.”

He didn’t want to admit it, but that was the truth.

“You won’t find her just fumbling around blindly. You know who it is that’s chasing her, right?”

“Aren’t they…? No, more importantly, do you have any idea where she is, Yabuki? Anything at all?”

“Hmm, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t,” he replied simply.

“In that case—”

Eishirou, however, raised a hand, urging Ayato to be silent. “No, no, no. It’ll come back to bite me if I tell you that. Far too dangerous.”

“Yabuki, Claudia’s life is in danger here! Please!” Ayato begged him.

“Well, I do owe the prez, and it’s not like I don’t want to repay her… All right, how about this?” he said, clapping his hands together as if coming across some great idea. “Amagiri, let’s have a match.”

“A match…?”

Ayato couldn’t help but wonder what Eishirou was thinking, and yet, judging from the situation, he must have been trying to lead up to this from the beginning.

“If you win, I’ll tell you where she is. And if I lose, it’ll give me a good excuse to give to the brass… And you know, I’ve been looking forward to this opportunity for a while now.”

“We don’t have time for this, Yabuki…!”

“I guess I can’t tell you, then.”

“Ngh…!”

Eishirou continued to watch Ayato with his usual carefree grin. His eyes, however, were serious. It was clear he wasn’t bluffing—and that he wouldn’t be willing to negotiate.

“Haah… Fine. What kind of match?”

It looked like he would have no choice.

“Let’s see… I don’t quite feel like staking my life on it, so how about we do it empty-handed, no weapons? You win if you can take me down.”

“And if you win…?”

“I’m just supposed to keep you tied down, so let’s just say the longer this thing drags on, the better I can fulfill my job.”

Ayato couldn’t help but feel as if he had been tricked into reaching this position, but there was no turning back now.

“As for the place… How about that building over there?” Eishirou glanced around before pointing to an abandoned building nearby—the sort of dilapidated construction that you could find just about anywhere in the redevelopment area. It was four stories high, but parts of walls and ceiling around the top floor looked to have already given way to the elements.

“Fine. Sorry about this, but I’m not going to go easy on you.”

“Good. Just don’t underestimate me,” Eishirou replied, before disappearing back into the fog.

“All right, then…”

With that, Ayato released his seal and approached the abandoned building.

“Huh…? What just happened?”

In the corridor on the top floor of Queenvale Academy for Young Ladies’ Twin Hall, Sylvia tilted her head in confusion as she inspected her mobile.

She had been talking normally until just a few moments ago, but all of a sudden, she seemed to have lost reception. For a second, she wondered whether it had malfunctioned, but the connection had dropped too suddenly for that.

She could try to work out what had gone wrong with it, but she wasn’t particularly good at using machines, and to be honest, she didn’t know a lot about how they worked, either. Nonetheless, she stood there, playing around with it, trying to get it to reconnect, when—

“…Who were you speaking with just now, Sylvia?”

“Ah! Petra!” She spun around, only to see Queenvale’s chairwoman, Petra Kivilehto, walking toward her.

“No, it’s nothing… I guess it’s not going to work,” she murmured to herself, hiding the device behind her back.

She probably wouldn’t be able to talk her way out of this one, though, she thought, and so resigned herself to facing her elder. “I was talking to Ayato. Is there anything wrong with that?”

“Ah… I already told you not to interfere with this, Sylvia. You might be the world’s most popular songstress, but you understand that even that won’t help you if you go up against the wishes of W&W, don’t you? Not even I would be able to protect you then.”

“I—I know…”

“Then take my advice.”

Seeing no other alternative, Sylvia put her mobile back into her pocket.

She wanted to help Ayato as much as possible, but as far as she could see, there wasn’t anything she could do for him right now.

“But still, the wishes of the foundation…?”

“What are you trying to say?” Petra’s expression, half concealed behind her visor-like pair of glasses, visibly stiffened.

“Nothing. I’m just a little disappointed.”

The life of Seidoukan’s student council president was now in danger because of the will of an IEF. Not only that, but just when she had thought the other foundations were ready to step in and bring a stop to it, they had all decided to stand aside and watch them kill her in silence. She couldn’t help but wish ill upon the whole lot.

“They’re as self-serving as you could get, every one of them…” She cursed them all under her breath.

Petra let out a weak sigh. “You’re still young, Sylvia. It isn’t just the integrated enterprise foundations. As soon as people find a way to better benefit themselves, they all become self-serving. It’s only natural. And in this world, that isn’t considered wrong.”

“I don’t know… Not me, at least,” Sylvia murmured, as if trying to convince herself.

She couldn’t help but think that, in the end, every student at Asterisk was no more than a pawn for the integrated enterprise foundations to profit off of.

Even students like herself, who were afforded more liberties than most others, were simply granted a slightly larger cage from which they couldn’t escape.

“…You know, Petra, this has just reminded me that it all boils down to nothing more than a big charade.”

“There’s no use holding on to that sentimentality of yours, Sylvia. You decided for yourself to become an idol.”

“That might be so…but I don’t think it’s that easy. You understand, don’t you, Petra? You were a student here, too.”

Petra remained silent for a long moment, before answering in a somewhat muffled tone: “…I’ve forgotten. It was a long time ago.”

Liar, Sylvia thought.

There was no point, however, debating it any further. It would be unfair for her to take her anger out on the older woman and would only end up making her feel worse.

At the very least, she could pray for the safety of the one who was willing to stand up and fight. “Ayato… Hang in there.”

It was all but impossible to see inside the abandoned building. There was no lighting, of course, and the fog seemed to have seeped within the walls as well.

No sooner had Ayato stepped inside than he noticed something disconcerting.

I can’t sense anything…

The Amagiri Shinmei style’s perception-expanding technique, the mental state known as shiki, seemed to be completely ineffective here. That, too, was probably due to Eishirou’s concealment techniques.

“This isn’t good…”

But there was no use fretting over it, he told himself.

He glanced across the room, trying to make out his surroundings through the dim fog. In front of him, there looked to be an empty corridor. He could make out a flight of stairs in the back, along with a door hanging from its hinges on the far wall, so damaged that it looked as if it might collapse at any moment.

Relying on the weak light peeking in through the window to guide his steps, he began down the debris-strewn corridor, when something came flying out toward him.

“Ha…!”

He managed to snatch it out of the air before it could hit him. It was a long, slender piece of metal—a bou-shuriken.

“…What was that you said about doing this empty-handed, Eishirou?” Ayato called out into the fog, his voice filled with disgust.

“I am empty-handed,” Eishirou called back. “Unfortunately, it looks like someone’s gone and set traps all throughout the building. I’ve got no idea who could’ve done it, but it looks pretty dangerous. You’d better watch out.”

“You really are shameless…,” Ayato murmured, but there was no use complaining. He would just have to be careful.

He could hardly even make out his own feet, but he proceeded through the building step-by-step, paying full attention to his surroundings.

He had made it almost to the middle of the corridor, when all of a sudden, he sensed a sudden rush coming up from behind him.

“Ngh!”

He rolled forward to evade Eishirou’s knife-hand strike, the attack grazing past him.

“Heh, so you dodged it. Looks like you live up to your name, Amagiri. The Phoenix wasn’t all for nothing, eh?” Eishirou gave a relaxed laugh.

“You as well. I couldn’t sense you at all… What’s the trick?”

“Heh, attacking from the shadows is our specialty. If people could see it, that’d leave us in a bit of a bind, don’t you think?” Eishirou said, before once again fading away into the dimly lit fog. “This whole place is completely under the control of my techniques. You can’t even enter your state of shiki, right?”

“I thought you’d done something… You keep saying technique. Are you a Dante, Yabuki?” Ayato called out, hoping to keep the conversation going so he could detect Eishirou’s location.

“I guess you could say that, in a general sense. It’s more like Jie Long’s seisenjutsu, though. But unlike them, only my clan can use these ones.”

“Your clan?”

“My family’s been involved in this business for a long time. They’ve been teaching me practically since I could walk. My dear father’s taken it to heart that those without talent don’t deserve to live, so I guess you can say it would have been against his nature to go easy on me. You wouldn’t guess how many times I ran away from home…”

The voice was coming from Ayato’s right side. Just as he began to turn around to face it, a low spinning kick knocked him off his feet.

The attack had taken him completely by surprise. Even so, he landed on his right hand, twisting his body through the air, and leaping to safety with a backward somersault.

“Heh-heh, you’d better be careful, Amagiri. Making our voices sound like they’re coming from somewhere else is child’s play for us.” This time, the voice came from directly overhead.

“…Thanks for the advice.”

Ayato finally understood.

Eishirou Yabuki was formidable.

He might have already known the location of their duel, and laid down traps, but the skill of his attacks and the way he moved were exceptional, easily comparable to those of a Page One.

Fortunately for Ayato, Eishirou wasn’t trying to escape, but rather, he was proactively trying to land his own strikes.

If what he said was to be believed, his goal was to delay Ayato for as long as possible. In that case, his best option would be to remain hidden and force Ayato to find him.

Unless that isn’t his goal…? No, there’s no time to worry about that.

Ayato steadied his breathing, trying to concentrate on his surroundings.

No matter how Eishirou tried to hide his presence, Ayato could still sense him just before he tried to launch an attack. That being the case, the real question was how fast he was able to respond.

He steadied the beating of his heart, letting his prana course through his body.

And then—

“…You’re mine!”

“!”

Once again, Eishirou rushed forward from behind with a knife-hand strike—Ayato just barely having enough time to leap out of the way. The attack, however, still hit him in the side, but he did his best to endure it.

He spun around, using the momentum to deliver a strike with the back of his fist into Eishirou’s chest.

“Aha!”

Eishirou parried the strike, deflecting it to the side, before immediately lashing out with a powerful sideways kick. Ayato blocked that in turn by crossing his arms together above his head, before pushing Eishirou’s leg out of the way with his right hand and delivering an openhanded strike with his left.

Punch met with punch, kick met with kick, the sounds of the contest echoing throughout the abandoned building.

They seemed to be evenly matched in both offense and defense, almost as if they had long been sparring partners.

Ayato continued to watch patiently for an opening, when, finally, as Eishirou unleashed a wide-ranging kick, he spotted one.

“…Now!”

“Wha—?!”

And yet—

He’s not there?!

The strike should have been perfectly timed, however, it cut through no more than thin air.

Or more precisely, Eishirou’s jacket was still there, but Eishirou himself was nowhere to be seen.

“A substitute…?!”

“Ka-ha, too easy!”

At that moment, a flurry of blows came speeding toward him out of the fog, striking him in his temples, the pit of his stomach, and his thighs in quick succession.

“Guh…!”

He concentrated his prana in an attempt to defend himself, but the attacks had left those vital areas aching. Moreover, Eishirou seemed to have poured his own prana into his attacks, much like Jie Long’s martial artists. That wasn’t a difficult technique in and of itself, but there was no way it could be carried out so smoothly without a high level of training.

But Ayato couldn’t give up. Without so much as pausing, he immediately unleashed a spinning counterattack of his own in the direction that the strikes had been launched.

“Ugh!”

This time, he seemed to have hit something, although judging by the force of the impact, Eishirou appeared to have defended himself against the full force of it.

“Heh… You’re quick on the uptake, huh?” Eishirou’s voice echoed around him. “Looks like I’d better be a bit more careful.”

What could be more careful than this?

He crouched down, bracing himself so he would be able to deal with any possible attack, when he heard an uncanny sound, almost as if something was breaking apart around him.

He glanced at his surroundings, but there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

No… Wait… That’s not it!

“…Above?!” he inadvertently called out, just as a web of cracks began to run the full length of the ceiling—and then it came crashing down.

Ayato raced through the corridor as debris of every size imaginable came pouring down toward him, only bothering to dodge the largest of pieces. Chunks as large as his fist struck his body, but he was in no frame of mind to worry about that.

When at last he reached the stairway, he thought he was finally out of the line of direct fire. But his heightened senses suddenly detected a trap being activated.

A volley of bou-shuriken shot toward him from three separate directions. The trap was clearly designed to entrap him in the middle, and it would only really be effective if he was to approach from the direction that he had.

Which meant…

He brought down the ceiling just to lure me here…?!

The debris had come down in such a way as to restrict his movements, forcing him into the snare. He couldn’t help but admire the meticulousness and effort that must have been put into it.

There was no way he would be able to dodge the oncoming projectiles, so he had little choice but to concentrate his prana into his arms and stop them from hitting anywhere vital.

“…Ugh!”

The damage wasn’t serious, but it was enough to bring him to a stop.

And at that moment, he sensed a wave of enmity rushing up from behind.

“It’s over, Amagiri.” Eishirou’s voice, seemingly convinced of victory—cold and calm, and without even the slightest hint of inattention—echoed in his ears.

He may well have been right.

That was, if Ayato hadn’t already predicted his next move.

“Wha—?!” Eishirou’s face twisted in dismay.

No sooner had he appeared behind him than Ayato had already begun to launch a counterattack.

He struck Eishirou’s jaw with the palm of his hand, while at the same time driving his elbow into his chest, before following through with three powerful punches into his stomach.

“Amagiri Shinmei Style Grappling Technique—Divine Thunder!”

“Ugh!”

And with that, Eishirou, his eyes wide open, came crumbling forward.

“Are you all right, Yabuki?” Ayato called out.

“Ouch… Looks like I lost.” Eishirou, his voiced filled with pain, somehow managed to turn onto his back to look up at him.

The sense of animosity that Ayato had previously felt from Eishirou had completely vanished, leaving in its place, rather, a refreshed countenance.

“Tell me one thing, though, how did you know what I was going to do?”

“If I had to put it down to anything, it was just a hunch…”

“Just a hunch?”

“Well, with both of your previous attacks, you came from behind, right? So I guessed you’d do the same thing that time, too,” Ayato replied.

“Argh, so that was it… I guess I messed up!” His tone suggested that he was joking, but Ayato could tell he felt truly chagrined.

“That pride will get the better of you… Or is it just an excuse?” Ayato didn’t know whether to be impressed or dismayed. “Anyway, something’s been bothering me for a while now.”

“What?”

“Did you really go all out? It didn’t seem that way to me.”

“What are you talking about? I put everything I had into it,” Eishirou said with a giddy laugh.

The reaction rang hollow in Ayato’s ears, but now wasn’t the time to argue the point.

“So, Yabuki. Where’s Claudia?”

“Ah, right. The prez… She’s in the harbor block,” Eishirou answered, as promised.

“You mean the one surrounding Seidoukan?”

While the harbor block that surrounded Seidoukan Academy belonged to the school, strictly speaking, students weren’t normally permitted to enter it. Its main use was for storage, making it more or less a warehouse area.

“Given who’s going after her, the worst move would be to let her escape into the city. Even Galaxy would have a hard time hushing it up if anything happened out in public. But then, there are no Festa events today, either, so they’d stand out too much if they tried anything on campus. So that leaves the harbor block. It’s the most logical choice.”

“I see…” Now that he knew where to look, he couldn’t afford to delay any longer. “Eishirou, I—”

“Don’t worry about me,” Eishirou interrupted. “You should be more concerned about your own safety, if you’re planning to go after her, that is.” He flashed Ayato a grim smile. “The people after the prez—Galaxy calls them the Night Emit… But they used to be known as the Yabuki clan.”

“The Yabuki…?” Ayato repeated, sucking in his breath.

“Yep. And the guy in charge is my very own father.”