https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Hiro+Hayase&feedformat=atom Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en] 2024-03-19T02:31:12Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.35.2 https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Volume3_Chapter3&diff=511463 Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter3 2017-01-28T21:49:01Z <p>Hiro Hayase: /* Part 5 */ subhuman -&gt; demihuman</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 3: Claire's Birthday==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> —And just like that, Kamito went towards the fundamental subject classroom to take the supplementary class.<br /> <br /> Since Est disliked sitting down and listening to the lecture, she seemed to be playing with Scarlet outside.<br /> <br /> When he opened the door of the classroom, he spotted an appearance he recognized from behind among the scattered students.<br /> <br /> That blue pony-tail was... without a doubt, the captain of the Knights, Ellis.<br /> <br /> &quot;She's also in the supplementary class?&quot;<br /> <br /> It was a little surprising that that serious knight girl had failed the lecture.<br /> <br /> Kamito approached from behind to try to call out to her.<br /> <br /> For the time being, he had to explain about this morning's incident.<br /> <br /> Ellis opened her thick book, which was written in spirit language, and was softly muttering it out.<br /> <br /> In her engrossment in studying, she seemed to have completely not noticed that Kamito was drawing closer.<br /> <br /> (By any chance, is she simply trying to memorize the contents of the book word for word?)<br /> <br /> He thought that it couldn't be so, but the person herself was seriously trying to memorize it.<br /> <br /> (...I see, she's the type that's overly serious and poor at studying.)<br /> <br /> It was the same headlong type as her battle style. Types like this would make progress as long as they did not make a mistake in the way of putting in effort, however, they would stumble many times from time to time.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--55--&gt;<br /> &quot;Yo, Ellis.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hyan!&quot;<br /> <br /> The moment Kamito called out, a cutting-flash occurred.<br /> <br /> As Ellis turned around, she swung her sword downwards.<br /> <br /> &quot;...&quot;<br /> <br /> The sword stuck in the desk and it bent.<br /> <br /> Kamito had dodged the slash with a paper-thin difference.<br /> <br /> &quot;A-Are... you trying to kill me?!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Ka-Kazehaya Kamito... don't suddenly stand behind me!&quot;<br /> <br /> Despite that he was almost killed, she ended up being angry. ...How absurd.<br /> <br /> &quot;That was a very cute scream, Captain.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Do you want to be made into chicken pilaf?&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis' eyes dangerously hung up.<br /> <br /> ...It was very good that the variation of her cooking seemed to be spreading out nicely.<br /> <br /> &quot;I'm sorry for surprising you. Ellis, are you also taking supplementary class?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yeah, that's right. I had failed the fundamental subject.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It's a painful thing for both of us. Since, we're in the same supplementary class after all, let us get along nicely.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Don't group me together with you, I was busy with the Knights work and failed to earn the credit!&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--56--&gt;<br /> As he made a bitter smile at an enraged Ellis, Kamito sat beside her.<br /> <br /> As expected, she wasn't wearing the Knights armor when she took the supplementary class.<br /> <br /> Ellis in a normal uniform was somewhat refreshing.<br /> <br /> She always had that gallant impression, but now she felt somewhat lovely.<br /> <br /> (...By the way, Ellis' breasts are surprisingly big.)<br /> <br /> Kamito was tentatively also a boy in puberty. It couldn't be helped that his eyes unconsciously went over there.<br /> <br /> (With that size, isn't it considerably tight in the Knights breastplate?)<br /> <br /> He was thinking about such things, when—<br /> <br /> &quot;Err... Kazehaya Kamito.&quot;<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Ellis coughed.<br /> <br /> &quot;Uh?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It's regarding this morning, but I'm sorry.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Eh?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I heard the circumstances from Claire and the others after that. It appears that I had misunderstood. I'm sorry... I want you to forgive me.&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis shook her ponytail and bowed her head down.<br /> <br /> &quot;Ah, don't worry about it. Instead, if Ellis didn't come at that time, how should I put it, I feel that that would have turned into various terrible things.&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--57--&gt;<br /> Kamito made a bitter smile as he waved his hand, and Ellis breathed a sigh of relief.<br /> <br /> &quot;They were making chocolates for the Valentia Holy Festival, right?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;...Ya, that seemed like it. Ellis, would you happen to be making it too?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;M-Me!?&quot;<br /> <br /> At that moment, Ellis turned bright red.<br /> <br /> &quot;I-I don't have an interest in that kind of insolent event!&quot;<br /> <br /> She suddenly flared up for some reason.<br /> <br /> &quot;To make merry in such an event is outrageous, it's like neglecting one's duty as an academy student.&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis coughed, and fixed her sights on her spirit subject textbook again.<br /> <br /> To cool her flushed face, she began to mutter and memorize again.<br /> <br /> Being unable to just watch, Kamito advised her.<br /> <br /> &quot;Ellis, even without memorizing everything, isn't it alright to memorize just the important parts?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;B-But, in that case, I would not be studying it precisely.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It's much more futile to blindly memorize without understanding the contents. Look.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Fuaa, Wh-Wha-What are you doing?!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Since, you have seriously taken down your notes, I'll teach you just the important parts.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito looked at the book from the side, and Ellis was flustered.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hn, what's the matter?&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--58--&gt;<br /> &lt;small&gt;&quot;Y-Your arm is touching my breast... Err...&quot;&lt;/small&gt;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hn?&quot;<br /> <br /> She seemed to have said something, but her voice was too soft such that he couldn't hear it.<br /> <br /> Kamito drew his face even closer, and Ellis' face turned bright red.<br /> <br /> Without caring, Kamito was placing marks one after another with the pencil onto the textbook.<br /> <br /> &quot;This is like this, right? And, this is—&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;U-Um, I see... Your teaching method is good.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Is that so?&quot;<br /> <br /> Well, certainly if compared to Claire's teaching method, it might be better. There was the time he got Claire to explain the contents of the lecture before, but... honestly, he completely did not understand what she was saying.<br /> <br /> A genius type like Claire often seemed bad at teaching others.<br /> <br /> &quot;T-The next time, teach me various things again. Your explanations are very easy to understand.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Ahh, no problem.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito friendlily assured her, and then, he set his sights towards the platform in a fluster.<br /> <br /> Before he knew it, his lecturer-in-charge Freya was standing on the platform.<br /> <br /> If he had turned to the front a few seconds later, it was certain that a chalk would come flying at the speed of sound.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> Teacher Freya's supplementary class began.<br /> <br /> Ellis nodded seriously as usual as she was listening attentively to the lecture.<br /> <br /> &quot;—In other words, depending on the situation, it appears that there are also cases that result in the annihilation of contracted spirits. Of course, I believe that there isn't a fool that would reach her hand out to Cursed Armament Seals.&quot;<br /> <br /> What Freya was talking about was regarding the deciphering of the spirit seal and the Cursed Armament Seal.<br /> <br /> Cursed Armament Seal, so to speak, was about the matter of being granted a spirit seal through artificial means.<br /> <br /> It was still used during the Ranbal war, but its use has been currently prohibited by the cross-national treaty. Although, it was an open secret that some countries and organizations were still advancing its research.<br /> <br /> (Because even the Instructional School I was at was also researching the Cursed Armament Seals...)<br /> <br /> An orphan of the Instructional School, Jio Inzagi, they fought the other day.<br /> <br /> The part where that boy had sealed seventy-two spirits was also a type of Cursed Armament Seal that was engraved on his body.<br /> <br /> Besides sealing spirits, Cursed Armament Seals had various effects like forcefully drawing out a contracted spirit's power and granting new attributes. Just hearing this much, they seemed handy, but— for it to be prohibited by the cross-national treaty, of course, there was a proper reason.<br /> <br /> Among the people implanted with the Cursed Armament Seal, there were endless cases of fatal side effects occurring.<br /> <br /> &quot;During the Ranbal war, many elementalists were rounded up, and among them there were also people forcefully implanted with the Cursed Armament Seal by the military. What became of most of them?— Ellis, try answering.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Okay, the power of their contracted spirits was driven into a rampage, and there were even fatal cases, I've heard.&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis, who was pointed out from the platform, clearly answered.<br /> <br /> &quot;That's right. It is said that the number of people, whose body are compatible with the Cursed Armament Seal, is only less than ten percent even among the elementalists. However, in spite of the fact that that risk is evident, even now, the fact that illegal researches are continuing means that there are that many people who seek for easy power.&quot;<br /> <br /> Ms. Freya informed in a strict voice, and swung her cane.<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Kamito, who thought the teacher's attitude was suspicious, whispered to Ellis in a soft voice.<br /> <br /> &quot;She's sincerely emphasizing about the Cursed Armament Seal. This isn't the content of the fundamental subject, right?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;...Yes. As a matter of fact, there was a notification for the Sylphid Knights this morning.&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis slightly nodded.<br /> <br /> &quot;Somehow, recently there seemed to be a group illegally selling Cursed Armament Seals in Academy Town. As it's the period just before the Blade Dance, she's probably accosting a warning even during the lecture.&quot;<br /> <br /> The sale of Cursed Armament Seals was naturally prohibited within the Ordesia Empire.<br /> <br /> The princess maidens attending the academy should also perfectly understand that riskiness.<br /> <br /> However, even amongst them, there were those kinds of people, who would reach out for easy power.<br /> <br /> Especially, for a team whose results were sluggish just before the Blade Dance, it wouldn't be strange for some people to take the plunge and have an implantation, aware of the danger.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--61--&gt;<br /> The implantation of the Cursed Armament Seal cost a large sum of money, but the princess maidens attending the academy were mostly great nobles possessing territory.<br /> <br /> As far as the illegal organization was concerned, it was business that also had far lower risks than poaching in the spirit forest and selling sealed spirits on the black market, and could also raise enormous profits.<br /> <br /> &quot;Having a hand in the Cursed Armament Seals is the weakness of the heart. However, the number one evil is, of course, the people illegally handling the Cursed Armament Seals. As a knight, I'll never forgive those people who ruin the academy.&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis tightly clenched her fist, and muttered with determination.<br /> <br /> The weakness of the heart that sought dangerous power— He couldn't condemn that.<br /> <br /> Anyone would also have the likelihood of falling into that temptation.<br /> <br /> Even that proud Claire Rouge was like that.<br /> <br /> Despairing in her own weakness, she accepted the frenzy spirit Restia presented.<br /> <br /> To want to obtain strong power no matter what one had to do— That was something hard to understand for Kamito, who had once held the title of strongest.<br /> <br /> Being able to exchange feelings with spirits in spite of being a boy! —There was also a time that he thought of even cursing that power, which was the same as that person, who was called the history's worst Demon King.<br /> <br /> (—However, I can imagine it.)<br /> <br /> Kamito cast his eyes onto his left hand covered by a leather glove.<br /> <br /> If he couldn't take {{Furigana|her|Restia|margin=12}} back with his current power—<br /> <br /> It might be possible that he would end up reaching out for that prohibited power.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--62--&gt;<br /> &quot;How many such people has the Sylphid Knights arrested?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Err, of course, to expose this type of illegal organization, the Knights are also concentrating all their strengths, but— since that assault the other day, our present condition is that we are being afflicted by a serious short-handedness.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Is that so?...&quot;<br /> <br /> The incident the other day— That was about the incident that Jio Inzagi battled the Sylphid Knights, and stole highly classified materials of the strategic-class militarized spirit from the sealed library in the Academy.<br /> <br /> There were five knights, who were injured that time. Furthermore, Rakka and Reishia, who were also Ellis' teammates, were injured during the quest in Mine Town.<br /> <br /> The total number of people in the Sylphid Knights was twenty at best.<br /> <br /> So, that meant that a third of the organization was not functioning in their present condition.<br /> <br /> &quot;Are your two teammates already alright?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Ahh, they seemed to have recovered to the point of being able to somehow move their body. They have not yet recovered to the point where they can come back to the academy. If you had not come to help at that time, the girls and I would surely have been unable to return to the academy. ...I have to express my gratitude to you again.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;We were at that place because of our quest. It's natural to protect comrades of the academy, so Ellis, it isn't something you have to feel indebted for. We also received a reward and a thank-you-letter from the Knights.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito reflexively made a bitter smile at the ever-serious Ellis.<br /> <br /> &quot;That's something awarded to Team Scarlet. What I am saying is, err, that ''I have to express a more personal gratitude'' to you, or perhaps I should say that I want to do so...&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Uh?&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis bashfully mumbled. It was unusual for her, who was always frigid.<br /> <br /> &quot;What? Say it in a louder voice.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;...I-I mean—&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis came closer to his body.<br /> <br /> Smelling the faint yet nice smell of soap, Kamito was spontaneously startled.<br /> <br /> &quot;Err, do you have some plans after the supplementary class?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Plans? Ahh, we're having a victory celebration party with Claire and the others, but... Ellis, are you also coming?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;...&quot;<br /> <br /> When Kamito answered, Ellis placed her hand at her chin like she was a little perplexed—<br /> <br /> &quot;No, I'll have to decline. I seem to be disliked by Claire Rouge.&quot;<br /> <br /> She calmly shook her head.<br /> <br /> &quot;Then, are you free in the evening?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yes, as long as it's not too late...&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito tilted his head—<br /> <br /> &quot;However, why?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Uh, ah... I mean, err, I-I want you to help me with my studies!&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--64--&gt;<br /> &quot;Studies?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;That's right! D-Didn't you promise that you'll teach me just now?!&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis' face turned bright red.<br /> <br /> &quot;Err, I certainly said that, but... it's rather sudden.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;...W-Will you teach me or will you not, which is it?!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I-I got it... Let's see, well then, five o'clock in front of the middle auditorium, is that alright?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;U-Um, I got it. After all, I also have to prepare various things.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Prepare?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I-It's nothing... J-Just look forward to it!&quot;<br /> <br /> After telling it one-sidedly, Ellis quickly hid her face beneath her textbook.<br /> <br /> (...What on earth was that?)<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> After the supplementary class ended and bidding farewell to Ellis, Kamito hurriedly ran to the front of the main gate of the academy.<br /> <br /> &quot;You're late, Kamito!&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;Pishi!* *Pishi!* Claire was making sounds with her whip. ...She seemed pretty angry.<br /> <br /> &quot;Good grief, a man keeping a lady waiting is the worst.&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--65--&gt;<br /> &quot;If I was the queen, I'd behead you.&quot;<br /> <br /> Rinslet and Fianna were also angry.<br /> <br /> &quot;Sorry...&quot; Kamito docilely apologized.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito, I want to eat parfait soon.&quot;<br /> <br /> Est was motionlessly and expressionlessly staring at Kamito.<br /> <br /> &quot;Yeah, I keep on relying on Est every time. So, ask for anything today.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I'm happy, Kamito.&quot;<br /> <br /> Saying that, Est grasped tightly onto Kamito's hand.<br /> <br /> &quot;Wh—&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire and the others, the three of them, became stiff like they were frozen.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hn, what's the matter?&quot;<br /> <br /> As Kamito's hands were kept joined with Est's, he turned around—<br /> <br /> The three of them kept glaring at Kamito, as they groaned &quot;Gununu...&quot;.<br /> <br /> &quot;Fufu, everyone, his other hand is still free, you know?&quot;<br /> <br /> Carol placed her hand near her mouth, and gently smiled.<br /> <br /> &quot;I-It's not like that!&quot; &quot;Holding hands and such...&quot; &quot;I-I'm not a kid, you know!&quot;<br /> <br /> The three young ladies blushed, and quickly turned away.<br /> <br /> &quot;Ah, is that so? Well then, by the order of arrival, I'll do it.&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--66--&gt;<br /> Carol was tightly grasping onto Kamito's hand.<br /> [[Image:STnBD V03 067.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> &quot;...!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;This is a little embarrassing. ...Hn, what's the matter, everyone?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I-It's nothing, Let's quickly get going, idiot!&quot;<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Claire walked off like she was angry.<br /> <br /> &quot;A man who toys with a girl's feelings deserves death.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Haa, Kamito-kun is really the Demon King of the Night...&quot;<br /> <br /> Rinslet and Fianna also started walking.<br /> <br /> &quot;...What was that?&quot;<br /> <br /> With his hands kept joined with the two of theirs, Est's and Carol's, Kamito tilted his head.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> If Areishia Spirit Academy was a castle, then Academy Town at the bottom would be its castle town.<br /> <br /> Its outer edge was encircled by the spirit forest and ramparts, and the town was divided into five areas associated with the five grand spirits.<br /> <br /> The part that academy students used for a breather after examinations was primarily the &quot;Water&quot; area. Rivaling the imperial capital, entertainment facilities, such as jewelry shops, restaurants and large public baths, were gathered here.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, the &quot;Wind&quot; area, which Kamito and the others were heading to, was an area that ordinary townspeople lived in.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--67:Image--&gt;<br /> &lt;!--68--&gt;<br /> A vivid embroidered horizontal banner was hung out on the road, and small wooden frames that were for deifying the spirits of the land were being made everywhere. It seemed to be preparations for tomorrow's Valentia Holy Festival.<br /> <br /> &quot;It's awfully busy. It still has a different ambiance compared to the austere Imperial Empire's grand spirit festival.&quot;<br /> <br /> Being brought up in the imperial capital, Fianna voiced her thoughts.<br /> <br /> &quot;That's because the Valentia Holy Festival is a festival by ordinary townspeople. Its nuance is a little different from the ritual that princess maidens dedicate to spirits in.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Either way, it's close to the opening day of the Blade Dance.&quot;<br /> <br /> As Kamito gazed at the townscape full of liveliness, he muttered.<br /> <br /> &quot;... Ahh, that might be the case.&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire nodded as she walked.<br /> <br /> Although it's called the Blade Dance, it didn't mean dedicating blade dances all day and night.<br /> <br /> After all, it's a grand festival that gathered nobles of many kingdoms. Participants would be invited to the sponsoring nation's reception hall, and a dance party would be held throughout the dance, and countless numbers of fireworks would be launched at night. Near the grounds of Astral Zero, a famous town furnished with entertainment facilities was made.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling it a solemn ritual, it was closer to call it a large-scale revelry that spanned over several days.<br /> <br /> By the way, three years ago— Kamito, who was in female clothing, was invited to a dance, and nobles came proposing to him one after another. ...Even as he recalled that now, it gave him goose bumps.<br /> <br /> &quot;Ah, Kamito-san, have you seen the Blade Dance?&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--69--&gt;<br /> &quot;N-No, I just heard stories like that!&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito shook his head in a fluster at Rinslet, who tilted her head.<br /> <br /> &quot;Fufu, there's no way Kamito-kun knows it, right?&quot;<br /> <br /> Being the only one among them who knew Kamito's true identity, Fianna giggled.<br /> <br /> &quot;O-Oi, Fianna!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito raised his voice in a fluster.<br /> <br /> He was probably not suspected by Claire, and when he turned around.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hn?&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire was—<br /> <br /> Standing still at the roadside, and staring motionlessly at a display window of a shop.<br /> <br /> It seemed to be a store that was selling jewels and accessories.<br /> <br /> &quot;...What's the matter, Claire?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I-It's nothing!&quot;<br /> <br /> When Kamito approached, Claire jumped up.<br /> <br /> &quot;?&quot;<br /> <br /> Feeling suspicious, Kamito peered into the display window—<br /> <br /> A small cat shaped pendant was placed on the shelf.<br /> <br /> (...Hmm, as I thought, she's also a girl.)<br /> <br /> He ended up thinking that the face profile of Claire, whose face had turned bright red, was unusually cute.<br /> <br /> &quot;Do you want this?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I-I said it's nothing, right! I'm completely not interested in this sort of things!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I see. I thought it especially suits you.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;... A-Ar-Aren't you being an idiot! Le-Let's get going, I'm hungry!&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire turned bright red like a lobster, and started briskly walking off.<br /> <br /> &quot;...What, she isn't being honest as usual.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito shrugged his shoulders in disappointment.<br /> <br /> &quot;The day of the Valentia Holy Festival is also that girl's birthday.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Eh?&quot;<br /> <br /> Rinslet, who was behind him before he noticed, calmly informed him.<br /> <br /> &quot;Tomorrow's her birthday?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yes, although, she is brushing it off like it is nothing.&quot;<br /> <br /> (...Ahh, I see.)<br /> <br /> Kamito gazed at Claire's back, who was briskly walking off.<br /> <br /> Four years ago, because the Calamity Queen — Rubia Elstein, had rebelled against the fire Elemental Lord, the married couple of the Elstein duke family had their noble status divested.<br /> <br /> Since the day that incident occurred, Claire's life had completely changed.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--71--&gt;<br /> He was sure that she currently did not have the leeway or something to look forward to her birthday.<br /> <br /> &quot;...&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito returned his sights to the store's display window.<br /> <br /> There was the cat pendant with a ruby-like spirit crystal inlaid in its pupils.<br /> <br /> It seemed to be something pretty expensive.<br /> <br /> Kamito sighed, and gently moved away from the display window.<br /> <br /> &quot;Rinslet, thank you for telling me. You're a good person.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Wh-What are you saying, I do not understand what you mean!&quot;<br /> <br /> Rinslet's face turned bright red, and she turned her face away.<br /> <br /> (...Twenty gold coins, huh? Well, what do I do?)<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> The diner, called Japanese Bluefish Pavilion and recommended by Carol, was a very stylish building of red bricks.<br /> <br /> He sat on an inner table that sits six people and promptly opened the menu.<br /> <br /> There was a soup that completely used one chicken, a meat dish full of spices, a fried bean curd bread covered in honey, and a freshwater fish pie. The dishes drawn in the menu were all full of things that stimulated his appetite.<br /> <br /> However, what he was a little troubled by was— the reaction of the waitress girls.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--72--&gt;<br /> They were pointing at Kamito and whispering.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hey, by any chance, isn't he the male elementalist in the rumors?&quot; &quot;You mean the one that defeated the rampaging militarized spirit in that town?&quot; &quot;He's making five girls wait upon him. It's as if he has a king's pretension.&quot; &quot;Even such a small girl, his poison fangs...&quot; &quot;A licentious beast... No, perhaps I should call him the licentious king.&quot; &quot;The licentious king...&quot;<br /> <br /> ...What was licentious king? He wished that they stopped making so many new terms.<br /> <br /> &quot;A commoner's restaurant is also not bad once in a while.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;This is the first time I came to a place like this. Is there some sort of special etiquette?&quot;<br /> <br /> Rinslet and Fianna were looking around the store's interior, un-composed.<br /> <br /> Claire and Est had been looking together at the dessert menu.<br /> <br /> &quot;I'm lost. The European pear tart also looks delicious, also the peach mousse.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito, is it alright if I request for all these?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;No, all is definitely not possible, you know?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito waved his hand in a fluster—<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito promised. I could request anything I like today.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Gu...&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You promised.&quot;<br /> <br /> Est's innocent pupils were staring at Kamito.<br /> <br /> She had that never-changing empty expression as usual... However, there was a somewhat strange impact.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--73--&gt;<br /> Finally, Kamito ran out of patience, and hung his head down.<br /> <br /> &quot;...I got it. I promised after all.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito, I'm happy to be contracted to Kamito.&quot;<br /> <br /> Est tightly embraced Kamito's arm.<br /> <br /> &quot;Haha, Est, you're exaggerating.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito, who made a bitter smile, was—<br /> <br /> &quot;...&quot;<br /> <br /> Being glared at by Claire and the others.<br /> <br /> After Kamito consolidated the order, the dishes were carried out immediately. The dishes, which were fully lined up on the table, were all delicious, and the three high-class young ladies, who had refined palates, also seemed completely satisfied.<br /> <br /> &quot;Claire, don't casually move the mushroom onto my plate.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;What, despite that I went through the trouble to give it.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You're no good with mushrooms, right? I have pretty much gotten used to your likes and dislikes.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;...Um, why do you know that I'm no good with mushrooms?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I've generally grasped your taste.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Eh? Th-That's...&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire's face turned red.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito-san, here's my fish.&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--74--&gt;<br /> &quot;Kamito-kun, I'll also give you my shellfish.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You all...&quot;<br /> <br /> Having had ingredients thrown in without reservation from these fussy young ladies, Kamito's pasta had somewhat become something that he didn't really know.<br /> <br /> It was dessert after the meal. There were the multifarious parfait, the tart placed with a plentiful amount of seasonal fruits, the fluffy freshly-baked sponge cake, the mousse entwined with a bittersweet sauce and so on. They were lined up on the table, almost like a jewel box.<br /> <br /> &quot;It's very cute!&quot; &quot;How pretty.&quot; &quot;...Wh-What should I have?&quot;<br /> <br /> Gazing at the desserts lined up before them, the three of them placed their hands on their cheeks, seemingly in bliss.<br /> <br /> Even noble young ladies seemed to turn into normal girls in front of sweet desserts.<br /> <br /> &quot;You girls, are you really going to eat all of these?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Of course. When girls eat sweet things, their stomachs are connected to Astral Zero.&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire said something he didn't really understand with a tense expression.<br /> <br /> Yup! Yup! Fianna and Rinslet nodded.<br /> <br /> &quot;Fianna, I'll take a mouthful of cake.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It can't be helped, I'll exchange it with your pudding.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Claire, I will give you my peach. Be grateful.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Eh? Is that fine, Rinslet?&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--75--&gt;<br /> &quot;Yes, I'm no good with peaches... I'll exchange it for your slave.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;...Um, that's a tough choice.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Don't arbitrarily trade a person... Eh, I'm equal to a peach?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Claire, that's my cherry.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Carol, look, it's your favorite European pear.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Ah, well then, I'll return Milady's beloved peach back.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Eh, Rinslet, you—&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Carol, wh-wha-what are you saying?!&quot;<br /> <br /> Rinslet hit Carol.<br /> <br /> (Nevertheless...)<br /> <br /> As he glanced towards Claire beside him— Kamito muttered within his heart.<br /> <br /> He felt like Claire had changed a little.<br /> <br /> The time he just met her, how should he put it, she had a more brooding impression, and she had that atmosphere, like a wild cat not letting anyone near her.<br /> <br /> ...Something probably changed within her with the assembling of the team and comrades.<br /> <br /> &quot;...? Kamito, what are you looking at?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hn? You have cream on your cheek. Come on, I'll get it off.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Id-Idiot, I'll get it off myself!&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--76--&gt;<br /> Claire's face turned bright red, and she turned away, at that moment.<br /> <br /> &quot;Thank you for waiting. Here's this store's famous dish, Special Big Parfait♪&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Eh?&quot;<br /> <br /> Together with the cheerful voice—<br /> <br /> The waitress with her glamorous tall figure came to Kamito's table.<br /> <br /> She was a bewitchingly beautiful girl, and her wavy jade green hair was grown long.<br /> <br /> When he looked carefully, the tips of her ears were sharply pointed.<br /> <br /> (...The Elfim race?)<br /> <br /> They were demihumans that were reported to have crossed over from Astral Zero during the distant mythic age.<br /> <br /> It seemed that the pure Elfim race did not exist anymore now, but— their physical trait of having long ears was famous. They were often seen in the urban areas of the empire, there were also Elfim race students in the academy, but one working as a waitress in a diner was rare.<br /> <br /> What she had carried over was— a gigantic chocolate parfait.<br /> <br /> That was enshrined right in the middle of the table and had a size almost like a nightmare.<br /> <br /> &quot;...Eh, who ordered this?!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It wasn't me.&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire shook her head. Fianna and Rinslet also shook theirs.<br /> <br /> &quot;...&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--77--&gt;<br /> The line of sight from everyone naturally gathered on one girl.<br /> <br /> &quot;...Est?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito promised that I could request for anything.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Err, that's...&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You promised.&quot;<br /> <br /> Est gazed at Kamito with her innocent pupils.<br /> <br /> &quot;By the way, if you leave stuff behind, there'll be a fine♪&quot;<br /> <br /> The beautiful waitress pleasantly smiled.<br /> <br /> &quot;Wh-What do we do?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It appears that there's no choice but for everyone to cooperate and eat it.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;...It can't be helped.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito sighed in disappointment—<br /> <br /> (...Hn?)<br /> <br /> Suddenly, he discovered the figure of a girl he recognized on the other side of the window.<br /> <br /> She had a stunning blue haired pony-tail, and was in her Knights armor.<br /> <br /> She was Ellis, who he just bid farewell to at the academy a while ago.<br /> <br /> &quot;What's the matter, Kamito?&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--78--&gt;<br /> &quot;I just saw Ellis pass by over there. Does she have a quest for the Knights?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Ellis? Hmm...&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire glared at Kamito, seemingly displeased.<br /> <br /> &quot;...You're really concerned about Ellis.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hn, what do you mean... Mogu, mogugugu!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Suddenly, a spoon full of parfait was pushed into Kamito's mouth.<br /> <br /> &quot;Wh-What, despite being Kamito, to begin with, Ellis is of a rival team!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Mogu, mogugugugu...&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Besides, you're a slave spirit only for me!&quot;<br /> <br /> As she forcefully stuffed the spoon into Kamito's mouth, Claire flared up.<br /> <br /> (How unreasonable...)<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> (...Fufu, what interesting-looking girls♪)<br /> <br /> The tall beautiful girl, who returned to the kitchen, stuck out her tongue and licked her wet red lips.<br /> <br /> She was the one, who carried over the gigantic parfait to Kamito's table, the Elfim race waitress.<br /> <br /> From the kitchen, she viewed a hole as if she was evaluating or something—<br /> <br /> &lt;!--79--&gt;<br /> Finally, she made a short sigh.<br /> <br /> (Well, should I stop here today? Though they're the long-awaited prey.)<br /> <br /> The risk of those girls as someone to trade with was a little high.<br /> <br /> Those, who reached out for her goods— were always princess maidens who lost their confidence and were obsessed with strong delusions and a sense of duty.<br /> <br /> (...Although, that red haired girl seemed to be of a little hope.)<br /> <br /> Vivian Melosa— She was a merchant of {{Furigana|Corpse Federations|Murders|margin=12}}, who specially handled Cursed Armament Seals.<br /> <br /> She once taught in the Imperial Capital's Academy, and was the leading person in Cursed Armament Seal research. However, because the research of Cursed Armament Seals was prohibited after the Ranbal war, she was banished from the academy. After that, she moved around from organization to organization, doing nothing but research on Cursed Armament Seals.<br /> <br /> The academy, which assembled superior princess maidens from all around the country, was a suitable experiment site to her.<br /> <br /> So far, she had infiltrated the academy several times, and performed the implantation of Cursed Armament Seals into girls desiring power.<br /> <br /> (...Although, there was only one that succeeded.)<br /> <br /> Brushing her wavy jade green hair, she giggled.<br /> <br /> &quot;—Well, shall I patiently search? For my favorite kitten-chan?&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;{{SeireiDance Nav|prev=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter2|next=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume3 Chapter4}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance:Volume4_Chapter3&diff=511461 Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter3 2017-01-28T21:48:05Z <p>Hiro Hayase: /* Part 3 */ sub-human -&gt; demihuman</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 3: Dracunia's Dragon Princess==<br /> ===Part 1===<br /> &lt;!--63--&gt;<br /> On ascending to the ship's deck they could see clouds drifting by at terrifying speeds.<br /> <br /> Actually, the ship was at a speed whereby a person's body would be blown away in a flash by the blowing winds, but not even the sound of the wind could be heard thanks to a spirit magic barrier enclosing the ship.<br /> <br /> Looking down from the side of the airship, an eerie forest stretched out into the distance.<br /> <br /> Kamito was looking down at the forest and—<br /> <br /> &quot;Areishia Spirit Academy representative, Kazehaya Kamito, I presume?&quot;<br /> <br /> A voice came from behind him.<br /> <br /> &quot;......?&quot;<br /> <br /> Turning around, a beautiful elite-looking girl with shoulder-length hair was there.<br /> <br /> A beret adorned her head. A black surcoat with not a single wrinkle.<br /> <br /> She was probably about the same age as Kamito, and she was glaring at Kamito with strong-willed-looking pupils.<br /> <br /> &quot;Who are you? Why do you know my name?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You're famous. The only male elementalist on the continent.&quot;<br /> <br /> She told him while maintaining a rigid expression.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--64--&gt;<br /> Contrary to her magnificent appearance, her aura was thorny.<br /> <br /> &quot;Also, someone who plays around with women and then throws them away.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Wait, what am I famous for!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito yelled that out immediately.<br /> <br /> &quot;It's useless to attempt to deceive me. Dracunia's prized intelligence gathering agency is the finest in the continent, after all.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yeah, your prized espionage agents are definitely incompetent—wait, Dracunia?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito asked with knitted brows.<br /> <br /> The Dracunia Dragon Duchy.<br /> <br /> Located to the west of the Empire, it was a country that employed the strongest magic beasts, the dragons, in their military.<br /> <br /> &quot;Dracunia's representative, huh?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yes, Leader of the Knights of the Dragon Emperor — Leonora Lancaster.&quot;<br /> <br /> The beautiful girl in military uniform kept her eyes on him as she named herself.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Leonora.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito said with a sigh.<br /> <br /> He had heard that name from Claire.<br /> <br /> (If I remember, &quot;Dragon Princess&quot; was the title given to Dracunia's representing ace......)<br /> <br /> By popular opinion, she was the one known as an equal to Velsaria.<br /> <br /> [[Image:STnBD V04 065.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> &lt;!--66--&gt;<br /> &quot;What business does the ace of Dracunia have with me?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito put up his guard and readied himself.<br /> <br /> The Blade Dance was not just a festival.<br /> <br /> The Divine Ritual Institute would never admit it, but it was also a representative war of knights between nations.<br /> <br /> The country whose elementalist or elementalist team won would be granted the Elemental Lord's protection for several years and this blessing would lead to the nation prospering.<br /> <br /> The reason many countries trained elementalists was for this reason.<br /> <br /> And there were also many countries that had no choice but to use certain methods to grasp victory as a consequence.<br /> <br /> &quot;Trying to kill me off before the Blade Dance begins?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;What a stupid idea.&quot;<br /> <br /> But Leonora gently shook her head.<br /> <br /> &quot;Failing to send the Silent Fortress to compete, the Ordesia Empire will be no match for us, the Knights of the Dragon Emperor. We will demolish you soundly on the Blade Dance stage, fair and square.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Then, why?&quot;<br /> <br /> In front of the suspicious Kamito, she squirmed lightly with a red face.<br /> <br /> &quot;I, well, I, um, that is, your......I came to cut off that.&quot;<br /> <br /> While averting her eyes from Kamito, she smoothly drew out a large sword.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--67--&gt;<br /> &quot;Wh-Why are you taking out your sword!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito backed away.<br /> <br /> If her words were true, she hadn't come to assassinate him.<br /> <br /> Then, why exactly—<br /> <br /> &quot;Or rather, cut what from me?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;That's, y-your......kuu, you mean to make me say it!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hah?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Thi-This pervert!&quot;<br /> <br /> Large tears formed from Leonora's eyes—<br /> <br /> The large sword carved into the ship deck with a loud sound.<br /> <br /> Just then, the ship's floor exploded into shards.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Wha!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito had dodged by a paper-thin margin.<br /> <br /> &quot;Aren't you full of the intent to kill me!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I won't kill you if you don't resist. Please hold still.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I'm asking you what you mean—&quot;<br /> <br /> And then Kamito realized.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--68--&gt;<br /> Leonora's gaze was fixed firmly upon Kamito's lower body.<br /> <br /> As he noticed her cheeks colored red, she averted her eyes.<br /> <br /> &quot;Wait, don't tell me......&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito broke out into a cold sweat.<br /> <br /> &quot;Yes, I will have you let me cut off your ''that'', Kazehaya Kamito.&quot;<br /> <br /> Leonora drew the sword back out from the smashed floor and took a stance.<br /> <br /> &quot;It would trouble me greatly if you were to use the commotion of the Blade Dance to lay a hand on my subordinates after all.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Like I would!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You can't lie to me, you perverted brute of a demon king!&quot;<br /> <br /> She glared at him with cold eyes.<br /> <br /> &quot;Perverted brute of a demon king, you say......&quot;<br /> <br /> ......It was too horrible.<br /> <br /> He didn't think such shameful rumors would reach even outside of the country.<br /> <br /> &quot;W-With that devilish power and sweet words, you trick innocent maidens and do this kind of thing and that kind of thing to them, right!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;What are this kind of thing and that kind of thing......&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Th-That is......!&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--69--&gt;<br /> At Kamito's question, her face burned red.<br /> <br /> It seemed that the Dragon Princess was just as pure as the highborn ladies from the academy.<br /> <br /> &quot;You know, it's the opposite. You have a huge misunderstanding.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito said this with a sigh.<br /> <br /> &quot;......The opposite?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yeah, because I'm always being treated as a slave spirit by Claire.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Wha? To make a teammate into a toy slave spirit!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Listen to what other people are saying for a bit!&quot;<br /> <br /> ......Or rather, how come this young lady was using such terminology!?<br /> <br /> &quot;Do-Don't come any closer, you pervert!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Uoo!&quot;<br /> <br /> Leonora's blade sliced the air as she swung down.<br /> <br /> Kamito drew Terminus Est and stopped that blow.<br /> <br /> The high-pitched wail of metal colliding rang out across the deck.<br /> <br /> (......This is just like a repetition of my first meeting with Ellis!)<br /> <br /> While stopping the large blade, Kamito groaned internally.<br /> <br /> &quot;I see, you are truly strong......&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--70--&gt;<br /> Leonora let out a voice of admiration.<br /> <br /> &quot;So this is the Demon Slayer that defeated a giant militarized spirit.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It seems that your information is correct.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It makes me want to test which is stronger, that or my Dragon Slayer!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Leonora's sword gave off intense light with her words.<br /> <br /> (This is......!)<br /> <br /> It wasn't a regular elemental waffe. It gave off an impression equal to that of Velsaria's Dreadnought.<br /> <br /> (—This person's insanely strong!)<br /> <br /> As expected, the title of Dracunia's ace wasn't just for show.<br /> <br /> &quot;N-Now, please calmly remove your pants, i-it won't hurt a bit.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Who's gonna do that! Of course it's gonna hurt!&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito pushed back against the large sword.<br /> <br /> Such power was being used against him that he couldn't believe it was coming from that girl's frail-looking delicate arms.<br /> <br /> It was most likely a spirit magic for strengthening the body's traits. In a straight power competition, Kamito was at a disadvantage.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito!&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--71--&gt;<br /> The sound of the air being cut.<br /> <br /> Leonora's sword was gripped by the thing that had drawn a bright crimson arc in the air.<br /> <br /> &quot;You, what are you doing to my slave spirit!&quot;<br /> <br /> It was Claire who ascended to the deck with whip in hand.<br /> <br /> With one hand on her hip, she pointed towards Leonora.<br /> <br /> &quot;Claire, thanks for the help—&quot;<br /> <br /> In the opening Leonora left by diverting her attention, Kamito jumped away.<br /> <br /> &quot;You are—&quot;<br /> <br /> Leonora, having repelled the Flametounge, glared at Claire.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kazehaya Kamito's toy slave spirit.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Wha!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire's face instantly reddened.<br /> <br /> And with slow movements, she turned towards Kamito......<br /> <br /> &quot;Y-Y-You, don't tell me that's how you see me......!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Wait, you know that's wrong, right? I'm the slave spirit, right?&quot;<br /> <br /> ......Wait, that's strange. It seems like she became even angrier.<br /> <br /> The two ladies glaring at Kamito made him want to run away—<br /> <br /> &lt;!--72--&gt;<br /> And at that moment.<br /> <br /> Doooooooon!<br /> <br /> With an ear-splitting noise, the ship rocked violently.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> &quot;Kyaaa!&quot;<br /> <br /> The floor tilted and Claire lost her balance, falling over.<br /> <br /> &quot;—What!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito leaned off the side of the ship.<br /> <br /> He looked into the flowing clouds below and—<br /> <br /> &quot;That is!?&quot;<br /> <br /> A giant shadow was present in the clouds.<br /> <br /> Like splitting waves, it split the clouds to reveal a gigantic black monster!<br /> <br /> &quot;......!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Its total length was about 10 meters. Its appearance greatly resembled a stingray swimming in the ocean.<br /> <br /> The difference with stingrays was that it had enormous red eyes on its head.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--73--&gt;<br /> And that it was flying in the sky instead of the ocean.<br /> <br /> &quot;A magic beast!?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;No, that is......don't tell me, it's from the second aerial unit, the annihilation spirit Death Gaze—&quot;<br /> <br /> Leonora Lancaster knit her brows and muttered that while looking with suspicion.<br /> <br /> &quot;What?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Dracunia's main militarized spirit. It should have been sealed with the end of the Ranbal War, so why is it here?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Militarized spirit......&quot;<br /> <br /> A spirit which was comparable to a cooperative force of several elementalists.<br /> <br /> He didn't know why such a thing would attack the airship but—<br /> <br /> The fact that the ship was currently under attack was undeniable.<br /> <br /> The military annihilation spirit — Death Gaze roared as it glided.<br /> <br /> Even if the ship had a wind barrier, it was not a combat vessel.<br /> <br /> If it were to receive an attack from a giant like that, it would be helpless.<br /> <br /> The ship's alarm rang out across the deck.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--74--&gt;<br /> The ship made a quick turn and tried to avoid the spirit.<br /> <br /> As expected of a cutting-edge technology ship, it had impressive mobility.<br /> <br /> But it was useless in the face of the spirit.<br /> <br /> &quot;—It's coming, brace for impact!&quot;<br /> <br /> A loud noise.<br /> <br /> A fearsome impact rocked the ship and Kamito's body lifted up.<br /> <br /> The annihilation spirit had rammed into the side of the ship.<br /> <br /> &quot;Fuaa!&quot; &quot;Kyan!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You two, grab onto me!&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito quickly covered the two girls that had fallen to the ground. His heart thumped at the softness of their bodies once, but now wasn't the time to think about that.<br /> <br /> &quot;Claire, are you okay?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Fuaaa, y-you, where are you touching!&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire's face was bright red.<br /> <br /> &quot;......? Where, you say?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito looked at the spot he had grabbed both of them.<br /> <br /> His hands were caught on to both of their chests.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--75--&gt;<br /> &quot;......S-Sorry!&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito quickly withdrew his hand but,<br /> <br /> &quot;Th-th-th-this perverted slave spirit! Cinders, cinders!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hey, stop, this isn't the time for—&quot;<br /> <br /> Hit, hit, hit, hit.<br /> <br /> Claire hit Kamito with tears in her eyes.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, Leonora—<br /> <br /> &quot;A-aa-a-a boy, touched my br-brbr-breasts......!&quot;<br /> <br /> Poof. Steam rose from her face and she fainted.<br /> <br /> &quot;......H-Hey!&quot;<br /> <br /> He shook the fallen girl but it didn't seem like she would wake up.<br /> <br /> &quot;It looks like she's in shock from you touching her breasts.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I-It wasn't on purpose!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hmmm, I wonder about that?&quot;<br /> <br /> She glared at Kamito like she was unsatisfied.<br /> <br /> ......In any case, he couldn't leave her here.<br /> <br /> And just then. The ship rocked violently a second time.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--76--&gt;<br /> The spirit that had rammed into the ship was also attacking with its tail.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito, the ship will sink at this rate.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yeah......&quot;<br /> <br /> At the serious face of Claire, Kamito nodded.<br /> <br /> Chaos could be heard below the deck.<br /> <br /> Even if they were trained elementalists, they were still regular girls. It was a natural result that a sudden attack would cause panic inside the ship.<br /> <br /> The long-range attacker, Rinslet, would also have a hard time reaching the deck quickly in this chaos.<br /> <br /> &quot;Looks like we'll have to do this alone.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Looks that way.&quot;<br /> <br /> With the last attack, it seemed like the engine had stopped. The ship stalled like it had a nail jammed into it and began falling.<br /> <br /> &quot;We have about two or three minutes before we hit the ground......&quot;<br /> <br /> Until the staff got the back-up spirit engine working, they had to protect the defenseless ship.<br /> <br /> Kamito stood up unsteadily and planted each foot on the gunwale of the deck.<br /> <br /> &quot;Est, lend me your power!&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--77--&gt;<br /> He drew Terminus Est from his waist and poured in divine power.<br /> <br /> Responding to Kamito's summons, the sword gave off light.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito, it's reckless to fight with a sword. I'll do it.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;No, I will. Flametounge won't work on it.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;That is?&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire chewed her lip. Claire's battle style of wearing down her opponent was not suited for short-term battles. She knew that best herself.<br /> <br /> &quot;But what do I do then. I can't use magic to fly like Ellis.&quot; &lt;!-- feels like claire should have been refering to kamito here--&gt;<br /> <br /> &quot;As long as I cling to it and don't fall off, isn't that fine?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hah?&quot;<br /> <br /> At Kamito's carefree words, Claire was stunned.<br /> <br /> &quot;A-Aren't you just stupid!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Either way, at this rate the ship will sink. It's worth trying.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;B-But......&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire held fast to Kamito's uniform's sleeve.<br /> <br /> &quot;What, are you worried about me?&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--78--&gt;<br /> &quot;Th-That's not it, I'm not worried......&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire averted her eyes.<br /> <br /> Although arrogant most of the time, she was truly gentle underneath that.<br /> <br /> &quot;It's fine. I'll clean it up quickly.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito gave a light knock to Claire's head and—<br /> <br /> The flash of a silver white blade disappeared off the side of the ship.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Jeez, I don't care anymore, idiot!&quot;<br /> <br /> With the wind barrier damaged, the groaning sound of the wind could be heard.<br /> <br /> On the back of the annihilation spirit whose head was lodged into the side of the ship—<br /> <br /> &quot;Ohhhhhhhhh!&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito impaled it mercilessly.<br /> <br /> Piercing through the outer shell, it dug into the underlying flesh.<br /> <br /> The annihilation spirit gave off a fearsome cry and began to roll.<br /> <br /> On the verge of slipping off, Kamito placed his foot on the outer shell and he gripped his sword with all his might.<br /> <br /> In order to smack the bug on its back, the annihilation spirit folded its body and tried to hit it with its tail, rocking the boat in the process.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--79--&gt;<br /> From the giant flailing about, the ship's armor fell off into the forest.<br /> <br /> (The ship won't last at this rate......)<br /> <br /> Gritting his teeth, he withstood the force of the bone crushing attack.<br /> <br /> (First I have to take care of that tail!)<br /> <br /> Kamito drew out Terminus Est with all his strength. Pulled by gravity, he began to fall. However, just before he did, he jumped as hard as possible.<br /> <br /> He ran up the spirit's body rhythmically.<br /> <br /> This was just a giant body. If he just observed the muscles for contractions and planned his next step, before he began to fall, he could safely reach another foothold. Though it was a technique which required uncommon ability and battle prowess.<br /> <br /> &quot;Sorry. I bear no hatred against you.&quot;<br /> <br /> Jumping using just the giant's body—<br /> <br /> The demon slayer held in both his hands cleaved through the spirit's tail.<br /> <br /> The tail convulsed as it fell into the forest below.<br /> <br /> However, Kamito's body also became airborne at the same time.<br /> <br /> Gravity took over and began to pull him — just before that.<br /> <br /> Something wrapped around his ankle and pulled him back up.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--80--&gt;<br /> He was thrown around in the air — the next moment, he slapped onto the ship's deck.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Ouch......&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito was assaulted by pain.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Rather, it burns, so would you control your temperature output!?&quot;<br /> <br /> The ankle that had the Flametounge around it was a little charred.<br /> <br /> &quot;It's punishment for being reckless. If I had messed up, you'd be a pancake right about now.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I trusted that you wouldn't mess up, master.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......You're really an idiot, you know that......&quot;<br /> <br /> Mumbled the red-faced Claire unintelligibly.<br /> <br /> &quot;—And, here it comes!&quot;<br /> <br /> With its tail cut off, the enraged annihilation spirit charged towards the ship.<br /> <br /> A charge towards the deck with its mouth open, showing off its countless fangs!?<br /> <br /> A dreadful shock rattled the ship. Pieces of the deck flew off and scattered.<br /> <br /> Kamito took a stance and protected Claire from the shards.<br /> <br /> &quot;—As expected of a militarized annihilation spirit, such insane power.&quot;<br /> <br /> While still onboard the ship deck, the annihilation spirit raged.<br /> <br /> It appeared that its head had gotten stuck in the ship.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--81--&gt;<br /> It was a chance. The ship couldn't take another blow.<br /> <br /> Kamito took a stance with his Demon Slayer and charged it with divine power.<br /> <br /> &quot;Claire, I'm finishing it here!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Got it!&quot;<br /> <br /> The annihilation spirit writhed violently.<br /> <br /> As it flapped its fin-like wings and attempted to ascend—<br /> <br /> &quot;I won't let you!&quot;<br /> <br /> Moments before it succeeded, Claire wrapped the Flametounge around it.<br /> <br /> The Flametounge didn't manage to pierce the outer shell.<br /> <br /> But the flame whip had knocked the spirit off-balance and made it crash back onto the deck.<br /> <br /> There—<br /> <br /> &quot;Ohhhhhhhhh!&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito ran towards it with a large sword.<br /> <br /> A shining blade line.<br /> <br /> Kicking off the ground, the sword strike cut into the soft underbelly of the spirit.<br /> <br /> However—<br /> <br /> &lt;!--82--&gt;<br /> &quot;What!?&quot;<br /> <br /> Even with its underbelly pierced, the annihilation spirit had not been defeated.<br /> <br /> The spirit opened its jaw to reveal many fangs in front of Kamito—<br /> <br /> In that moment. He heard a voice from behind.<br /> <br /> &quot;O black-fanged dragon spirit, thou, abiding my command, eliminate my enemies—&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......!?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;—Destroy, Nidhogg!&quot;<br /> <br /> With that dignified voice—<br /> <br /> The rough, mad blaze swallowed the enraged giant annihilation spirit.<br /> <br /> This time the spirit was burned to charcoal and fell from the ship.<br /> <br /> On the deck, there was a line of intense black flame.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Claire?&quot;<br /> <br /> A black dragon with spread wings stood there.<br /> <br /> It was small for a dragon but still stood twice Kamito's height.<br /> <br /> &quot;Your finish is weak, Kazehaya Kamito.&quot;<br /> <br /> Leonora Lancaster stood there beside the black dragon.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--83--&gt;<br /> He wondered when she had regained consciousness.<br /> <br /> &quot;......That is the Knights of the Dragon Emperor's strongest dragon, Nidhogg.&quot;<br /> <br /> Claire whispered while looking.<br /> <br /> (......I see, it really isn't your everyday spirit.)<br /> <br /> Kamito was astonished.<br /> <br /> (Looks like this time's Blade Dance will have people of this level......)<br /> <br /> &quot;......You're a life saver, thanks.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito expressed his thanks and Leonora shook her head.<br /> <br /> &quot;That militarized spirit was from Dracunia to begin with so it's only natural that we be the ones to finish it.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......Even though you were passed out the whole time.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Th-That's because a man to-touched my chest......!&quot;<br /> <br /> The glaring Claire and panicking Leonora.<br /> <br /> The ship shook slightly and then started gaining altitude.<br /> <br /> It seems that the back-up spirit engine had been started.<br /> <br /> &quot;At least now we can relax.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;But how did a militarized spirit that was supposed to be sealed attack us—&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--84--&gt;<br /> That spirit was not mad.<br /> <br /> It had attacked the ship intentionally.<br /> <br /> &quot;It was probably someone who wanted to eliminate the Blade Dance competitors. It's impossible to track who used a militarized spirit.&quot;<br /> <br /> Leonora analyzed the situation calmly.<br /> <br /> &quot;It seems these kinds of attacks are commonplace. It seems that even if we're not there yet, we should treat it as if the Blade Dance has already begun.&quot;<br /> <br /> While leaning over the side of the ship, Claire pointed at the shadow of the ship.<br /> <br /> &quot;Look over there.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yeah?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito took a peek and saw a battleship within the clouds retreating.<br /> <br /> &quot;I don't know whose ship it is, but there's no way it's not connected to that attack. To use a militarized spirit of that class, there must be several elementalists onboard that ship.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Are we not going to chase them?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Without a flying wind spirit, it's impossible to catch up to a battleship going at full speed. And they probably have more militarized spirits. It's too dangerous.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......Sealed militarized spirits, huh.&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--85--&gt;<br /> Something was tugging at the edge of Kamito's mind.<br /> <br /> He remembered the battle with Jio Inzagi and his mission at the mine.<br /> <br /> (Restia was trying to unseal the strategic-class militarized spirit Jormungandr.)<br /> <br /> As expected, he might just be thinking too much into it—<br /> <br /> &quot;This might be connected to that darkness spirit girl from the other militarized spirit case......&quot;<br /> <br /> But it seemed that Claire had the same idea.<br /> <br /> She peered at Kamito with a meek face.<br /> <br /> &quot;......&quot;<br /> <br /> Kamito stayed silent.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito, are you unhurt!?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;All of a sudden, the ship shook......what happened out here!?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito-kun, are you okay?&quot;<br /> <br /> Ellis, Rinslet and Fianna all came up to the deck.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kazehaya Kamito, I will retire for today but—&quot;<br /> <br /> And Leonora reverted her black dragon to its sword form and turned on her heel.<br /> <br /> &quot;Deceiving princess maidens and forming a heavenly harem — that Wish is something this blade will never allow.&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--86--&gt;<br /> &quot;Wait, I'm not wishing for that kind of thing!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Y-You, are you participating in the Blade Dance for that kind of wish?&quot;<br /> <br /> Gogogogogogogogo......!<br /> <br /> &quot;Claire, don't believe it!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;A heavenly harem......was it?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Kamito-san, what does that mean!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Umm, what rank am I?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You guys......&quot;<br /> <br /> ......After that, Kamito was questioned by the young ladies for about an hour.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> &quot;Nii-sama, why have you become that weak?&quot;<br /> <br /> On the deck of the small battleship—<br /> <br /> The girl with ash grey hair tilted her head in a strange manner.<br /> <br /> Underfoot were the shattered remains of a ring.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--87--&gt;<br /> It was the ring of the sealed annihilation spirit.<br /> <br /> &quot;Muir, you should have been told not to use the Jester's Vise.&quot;<br /> <br /> From the ship's hatch appeared another girl.<br /> <br /> A girl with brown skin that looked to be around 15 years old.<br /> <br /> Beautiful jade hair. Pure red pupils and pointed ears.<br /> <br /> She was a demihuman Elfim with all the traits of one.<br /> <br /> &quot;It's not Muir's fault. It's the fault of those military guys for having a weak spirit.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;The mission this time is just to test his power. Just because you wanted to, a precious spirit was lost.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;If it couldn't stand Muir's Jester's Vise, it wasn't fit to be used.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Militarized spirits aren't your toys. They're not something you just throw away.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hmph, and that's why Lily is weak.&quot;<br /> <br /> Muir pouted her cheeks in discontent.<br /> <br /> The Elfim girl — Lily Flame breathed a heavy sigh.<br /> <br /> &quot;Well, fine, so how was his power? We lost a precious militarized spirit. You better at least have that or you'll have no excuse for Cardinal.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Nii-sama has become weak.&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;!--88--&gt;<br /> Muir put her index finger to her lips and shook her head in disappointment.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Weak? Even though he defeated a mid-class militarized spirit?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;The past nii-sama would have done it alone. But this time, the group with nii-sama pulled him down.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;His teammates from Areishia Academy, huh. I really can't believe it......that he's hanging out with that half-baked group.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Like this, nii-sama will just become weaker.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......That's true. Eventually a hindrance to Cardinal's plan may appear.&quot;<br /> <br /> Lily muttered this—<br /> <br /> &quot;It's fine. Muir will just kill everyone.&quot;<br /> <br /> Muir smiled innocently and turned towards her.<br /> <br /> &quot;Muir, don't do willful things. We are the Cardinal's tools?&quot; &lt;!-- was this meant to be a question? then it should be something like 'Are we not the Cardinal's tools?'--&gt;<br /> <br /> &quot;Shut up, Lily.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......!?&quot;<br /> <br /> For an instant a shudder ran through Lily Flame's body.<br /> <br /> The number two of the Instructional School — &quot;Monster&quot; Muir Alenstarl.<br /> <br /> She must never be upset.<br /> <br /> &lt;!--89--&gt;<br /> Lily had accompanied her for a long time so she knew that well.<br /> <br /> &quot;Muir doesn't care about anything other than nii-sama. I'll kill you too if you get in my way, Lily.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Muir......&quot;<br /> <br /> A few breathless seconds.<br /> <br /> And then—<br /> <br /> &quot;Aha, I'm joking. Lily, what kind of face are you making?&quot;<br /> <br /> Muir made a pure smile and turned towards her.<br /> <br /> &quot;Lily is my precious friend so I won't just kill you that easily.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......&quot;<br /> <br /> Muir looked towards the far end of the ship and sighed.<br /> <br /> &quot;Wait for me, nii-sama. I'll erase the meddlesome onee-chans for you.&quot;<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;{{SeireiDance Nav|prev=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter2|next=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume4 Chapter4}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_10_Chapter_3&diff=479712 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 10 Chapter 3 2016-02-05T02:52:07Z <p>Hiro Hayase: missing quotes</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 3 – Encounter==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The inboard broadcasting that signaled an emergency reverberated on the fifth day’s twilight of their voyage.<br /> <br /> According to the GPS, at that time the ship was crossing just right around the middle of the Pacific Ocean.<br /> <br /> Lotte was bringing up her discomfort to attention just before the emergency rang.<br /> <br /> “I felt a wavelength of emotion of something mysterious but… was someone thinking about something?”<br /> <br /> Even if she asked if there was someone thinking something strange, all present tilted their heads.<br /> <br /> “I was thinking about Nii-sama!” “I was thinking about Kazu-nii!”<br /> <br /> Kanae and Mio said at the same time, then they glared at each other with a mysterious rivalry. But that kind of thinking shouldn’t have any relation whatsoever with this.<br /> <br /> Lotte also couldn’t sense that sense of discomfort for the second time and the talk was closed without finding out the true form of that feeling.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> And then the first one that noticed the emergency broadcast {Emergency Situation} was Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was not given any work could participate in shadowing his companions that were working, and then by forcefully learning by imitation he remembered the work they did, on that day he added himself as a lookout by his own accord.<br /> <br /> The one with the most excellent eyesight among the ship’s members was Kazuki. While he was peeking into the lens of the telescope that was fixed on the lookout, there was a visible shadow on the horizon that was supposed to continue on forever.<br /> <br /> The sun had already descended down and the boundary line between the twilight and the horizon was darkly vague. But when he focused reinforcement magic into his eyesight, the scenery across the lens turned clearer and he caught the sight.<br /> <br /> A shadow was visible on the horizon. It was a silhouette with minute jaggedness. He didn’t think it was a rock.<br /> <br /> ―He thought that perhaps it could be a sail.<br /> <br /> “Eh, isn’t that a ship’s silhouette?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that, Akane-senpai who was weak in an unforeseen situation easily tossed her usual calmness to the wind and she turned on the on-board broadcasting in panic.<br /> <br /> “E, emergency situation occurred! All crew aboard please assemble on the bridge!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> No one had imagined this kind of situation. …With the exception of the Magic Advanced Countries and its surrounding patronage countries, the diplomatic relation of the world was completely closed between each other, that was how it should be.<br /> <br /> There shouldn’t be any ship sailing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean like this.<br /> <br /> To say nothing of this vast ocean, the possibility of two super tiny ships passing each other like this was like a miracle.<br /> <br /> …That was as long as one of the two parties didn’t intentionally attempt to get in contact with the other.<br /> <br /> It was not unreasonable for Akane-senpai to get shaken like this. There shouldn’t be anyone that had guessed that this kind of situation would happen beforehand.<br /> <br /> “ “Wing soaring the sky, lording over eye, invading world-destroying conflagration―manifest the authority of god right here, as the agent of civilization I advance deeper and deeper! Deep Striker!!” ”<br /> <br /> Both Kazuki and Lotte equipped [Deep Striker] and flew to the sky.<br /> <br /> Scout―they didn’t understand whether the other ship had also sensed them or not. But they judged that even if they had to bear the risk, they should obtain information.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte flew through the twilight sky, that was changing color from orange to deep blue, like meteors that were drawing two streaks of lines.<br /> <br /> On the other side of the horizon, they once more confirmed the shadow of a ship with their naked eyes. Kazuki slowed down their speed just a little and carefully got closer. They should be discovered already if there was also a lookout on the other ship. But there was no action at all from the other ship. Both of them boldly got closer from the sky to the ship.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, that…”<br /> <br /> “Yeah.” Kazuki nodded. “It’s a ghost ship.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Returning to the bridge, Kazuki and Lotte made their report to their companions.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai knitted her eyebrows and replied with a hard voice.<br /> <br /> “How unbelievable, something like a ghost ship. …I’m, weak against something occult like that.”<br /> <br /> “Akane is really a coward huh―. Don’t make that kind of scary face okay―”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai poked Akane-senpai from the side while teasing.<br /> <br /> “Rather than that, I think that ship is a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> “A ghost ship Haunted Ground… if it’s that then, I can still understand.”<br /> <br /> In short Akane-senpai was poor with things that were outside her own understanding. Her criterion that it was okay if it was a Haunted Ground allowed Akane-senpai to relax her expression from her frown and she nodded. Kazuki continued his report.<br /> <br /> “Its appearance is a pitch black sailing ship, its speed is slow. I couldn’t see any sign of life on the deck.”<br /> <br /> “Nonetheless it’s really baffling. Not on land, but a ship―for a construction to be turned into a Haunted Ground and drift around. I have never heard of any precedent like this. In the first place, which country does that ship come from I wonder?”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai who had recovered her calmness was mumbling in low voice.<br /> <br /> “Is it a coincidence that it is getting closer, heading to our ship?”<br /> <br /> “Perhaps it’s not really strange if it’s a Haunted Ground. Haunted Ground and Demon Beast possess an awareness of harming humans as their objective.”<br /> <br /> “There is also a way to take a detour and shake it off if we increase the speed of our ship. …But I wonder if it will follow us until America. That’s going to be really unbearable if that happens. It will be horrible in the end.”<br /> <br /> “If we liberate the ship from being a Haunted Ground and it returns to normal, perhaps it’s a ship that comes from America, so maybe it can become a clue regarding America’s current situation.”<br /> <br /> “…Then, it’s decided. Let’s line up our ship and board it.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Akane-senpai nodded at each other.<br /> <br /> “When Kazuki and Captain talk with each other, the tempo is fast and it’s hard to interject isn’t it~”<br /> <br /> Mio leaked out her voice with a sigh. Akane-senpai said “There is no time” while shaking her head.<br /> <br /> Even now the distance between this ship and the ghost ship was shrinking little by little.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, organize the members that will board the ghost ship. I will remain on this ship.”<br /> <br /> “Because senpai is scared?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t tease me. Someone knowledgeable about ship voyage has to be ready to protect the ship when push comes to shove. If in the case that the ship sinks… even your [Deep Striker] or [Blazing Wings] won’t be able to take you back from the middle of the Pacific Ocean until Japan you know.”<br /> <br /> Above this vast ocean, their definite foothold was only this ship. But this ship didn’t have anything like a defensive magic power. If some kind of attack magic came flying here, its defensive power was zero. It would sink really easily.<br /> <br /> Imagining the endlessly spreading out ocean outside the window, a shivering chill ran through his spine.<br /> <br /> “We have to prepare defensive magic as much as possible while getting closer then.”<br /> <br /> “Naturally. Leave behind members skilled in defensive magic here, you should board the other ship with members that are good in hand-to-hand combat.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki wrote out the members he thought of on the whiteboard.<br /> <br /> Kazuki, Arthur, Beatrix, Shouko, Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Kazuha-senpai, Kanae, Karin, Kohaku.<br /> <br /> Something like this perhaps.<br /> <br /> “You are skilled in hand-to-hand combat right?” He exchanged looks with Arthur.<br /> <br /> “But of course. Even though I have been thoroughly watching your fight until now, I still haven’t show any of my trump cards at all, so it’s not fair. I shall try a little bit harder here.”<br /> <br /> “Well, of course you won’t expose everything and fight seriously though.”<br /> <br /> “Ha-ha-ha! Naturally!”<br /> <br /> What a honest person. This person was gazing to the future, even while he was not overlooking Loki and China trying to disturb the world order, he was still thinking calmly that he had no duty to go as far as devoting his whole strength for Japan which was currently on the verge of the danger of getting invaded.<br /> <br /> “Oi, I ain’t any good in hand-to-hand combat or anything y’know. Why are you taking me and not Silirat?”<br /> <br /> Shouko yelled her objection.<br /> <br /> “Don’t tell me, are you worried that it gonna be bad if you ain’t constantly looking over my shoulder and so you ain’t gonna leave me alone, is that your thinking?”<br /> <br /> “No, it’s a place where we don’t know what can happen so I want someone like you with excellent sharp-sight, quick-wit, and balanced intuition.”<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, so you are unexpectedly confident in me huh. Well, if that’s your reason then just leave it to me.”<br /> <br /> Shouko scratched her cheek.<br /> <br /> “Boarding a ship from another ship and rampaging, it’s really like a Viking, making me excited. As an Einhrejar, this is the greatest situation.”<br /> <br /> Beatrix was trembling all over.<br /> <br /> “Don’t get too wild and destroy the ship okay.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu! Boarding the opponent’s ship without sinking it and plunder the whole cargo of the ship is the way of the Viking!”<br /> <br /> Was Einherjar in the same line with Vikings? What’s going to happen with Germany like this.<br /> <br /> Anyway, no matter what kind of Haunted Ground it was, he couldn’t really imagine that with this lineup they were going to find themselves in a situation where they had to take flight.<br /> <br /> Rather than feeling anxiety toward the unknown, the feeling surging inside his chest was rather more like [Let’s see what you’ve got].<br /> <br /> “How unfortunate―, I also want to go but the attack magics I can use are only in the group of large scale destruction―”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai said that while laughing. She had no anxiety at all towards the picked out members. She could be at ease while feeling happy.<br /> <br /> This great senior was also a powerful person that was worthy of attention, but they wouldn’t use any large scale attack magic aboard the ship so in the end he asked her to remain on the ship.<br /> <br /> When they gazed at the path ahead from the bridge, they finally could see the shadow of the ship with their naked eyes.<br /> <br /> In other words this was inside the range where both sides could perceive each other―they had entered the range of attack magic.<br /> <br /> The stay behind group began to chant defensive magic all at once.<br /> <br /> “…I, don’t have any defensive magic that can protect a shipp―”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai waved around her hands in flutter from being on her loose end.<br /> <br /> “I too don’t have anything like defensive magic! I cannot do anything!”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai too puffed out her small chest defiantly. Putting aside Kaguya-senpai, being unable to use both hand-to-hand combat and also defensive magic, she was a great senior that was thoroughly useless in this kind of situation.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps having peaky performance is a tradition of the Magic Division’s student council president.” &lt;ref&gt;Peaky is a terminology in Japan used regarding a car or motor. The meaning is different based on which part it refers too like tire, engine, or brake. But the common point of them all is that in a certain case the part has a really great performance, yet in a situation other than that the part is really hard to handle&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> The sadist who only had pain magic that was the current student council president, and the previous student council president who only had large scale destruction magic. What a terrible duo. In contrast Hikaru-senpai and Akane-senpai had flexibility so it was interesting.<br /> <br /> “I’ll protect this ship.” Kamimura-san who had confidence in her defensive magic said that vigorously.<br /> <br /> “The ship is coming alongside! Prepare to jump!!”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai changed into manual operation and directed the ship closer to the other ship.<br /> <br /> By operating the control panel, the acrylic panel at the left side of the bridge opened. The wind blew inside with great force. Everyone of the storming unit gathered on the edge of the {{furigana|window|panel}}. With the reddish black twilight horizon as its background, the black shadow of the ship that looked like a speck rapidly became bigger.<br /> <br /> It was not a ship that was really that big. A classic sailing ship that was insisting its old era’s atmosphere with a loud voice.<br /> <br /> But surely it was because of the effect of its transformation into a Haunted Ground, that it was stained pitch black.<br /> <br /> It was similar with the [Naglfar] that Hel summoned before.<br /> <br /> Should he feel eerie, or should he feel fortunate, but there was no attack magic coming from the other side. Even when the bows of the two ships were closing there was still nothing that came. Akane-senpai slowed down the ship.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san went “Nothing to protect…” with her shoulders drooped from losing her chance to be useful.<br /> <br /> But seeing that there was a Haunted Ground, he couldn’t imagine that there would be no enemies.<br /> <br /> “Yosh, I’ll give a count and then I’ll jump. Everyone follow after me.”<br /> <br /> The ships were gradually passing each other. Because the window they were at was in a high place, if he jumped from here using Enchant Aura, he would surely be able to jump down on the deck of the other ship.<br /> <br /> His companions performed Access altogether and changed into their Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “There is no way Kazuki should take the dangerous position in the lead, this is this one’s turn.”<br /> <br /> “No, it’s set already that this is my place to shine!”<br /> <br /> The easygoing duo of Kohaku and Karin competed with each other to dispute the front spot at the window.<br /> <br /> “Wait, we don’t know what is waiting for us there, I, that can use various kind of magic, am …”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu” Beatrix was chuckling fearlessly and smoothly cut into the front. “If it was about something like that than the guest that is me should stand in front and bear the full brunt of what is waiting for us right? No one will regret it even if you use an outsider like a sacrificial pawn.”<br /> <br /> After Beatrix said that, everyone got quiet and nodded. By no means that they were treating her like a sacrificial pawn, however they had the feeling that the role of rushing in at the front undoubtedly suited her really well.<br /> <br /> Her veteran back was so reliable. He felt like he understood the feelings of Eleonora who yearned for her so much.<br /> <br /> “FUHAHAHAHA! The true identity of the opponent is unknown just mean that! I’M GOING TO ENJOY THIS!!”<br /> <br /> As the ships came alongside each other, with tough legs and loins, Beatrix jumped to the black ship lightly.<br /> <br /> “If she said that, then we are also guests! We have to follow after her. We are going, Shouko-kun!”<br /> <br /> “Eh, you mean me too!Oi, don’t pull my hand!!”<br /> <br /> Arthur pulled Shouko’s hand while stepping on the window frame. Arthur didn’t change into his Magic Dress. In a battle, there should be no merit at all for a Magika Stigma to not equip their Magic Dress. …Was there a reason he didn’t want to show his Magic Dress to other people he wondered.<br /> <br /> Shouko gave up and matched her breath with Arthur, both of them then jumped together onto the black ship.<br /> <br /> “Yosh, we are also following after them!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too jumped. His whole body cut through the salty wind and dove down aiming for the pitch black landing spot!<br /> <br /> “I’m doing a good fight, welcoming a good death, and wish to participate in even more battles of heaven! The Divine Protection of blood color in my eye! Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix who was rushing ahead had already invoked her spell and swung around her large sword against someone as her opponent.<br /> <br /> Kazuki observed his surrounding at the same time with his landing. They couldn’t see anything of the situation aboard the black ship from the bridge. Here and there atop the deck was magic power that looked like black miasma drifting around in place.<br /> <br /> Several human shadows were there as if they were going to melt into that haze of black magic power.<br /> <br /> “Be careful, Kazuki! They are already here!!” Beatrix aroused his vigilance.<br /> <br /> The unidentifiable human shadow also rushed and attacked Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki also chanted the same magic like Beatrix and drew out &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt; in an Iai slash towards the unidentifiable human shadow. At his waist was a sheath that was custom made for Ame no Murakumo’s exclusive use.<br /> <br /> An out of place feeling. Rather than feeling like he had cut apart a Demon Beast, he felt a feedback as if he had cut a human that possessed a defensive magic power from his blade. The black shadow was repelled and blown away from the impact.<br /> <br /> “…How can you use my magic? I have been bothered from some time ago about how you can use magic from multiple groups.”<br /> <br /> Beatrix leaked out a surprised voice towards Kazuki who was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her at the corner of the deck with the fence behind them.<br /> <br /> “I can use the magic of allies whose positivity level is high.”<br /> <br /> “…Wh, what? Wh wh wh wh wh, what!? Then you mean my, my my my my my fee…”<br /> <br /> Beatrix was at her wits’ end. Beatrix―72<br /> <br /> Well, it was fairly, high.<br /> <br /> “Talk later! These unknowns are coming!”<br /> <br /> “Why didn’t you say about such important things as soon as us traveling together was decided!? EM―BA―RAS―SING―!!” Beatrix-chan held her large sword in hand while covering her face with her body fidgeting around.<br /> <br /> When he saw from the drifting black magic power, moving like a slippery eel, a figure of a black shadow appeared, it suddenly came charging. It swung around both of its hands randomly and trying to hit at them.<br /> <br /> Although that movement was reinforced by magic power, there was not even a single sign of martial arts presence in it.<br /> <br /> The enemy’s behavior was similar with the zombie that he had faced before.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Beatrix went out to meet the enemy attack from the front. Arthur and Shouko also began a battle with the shadow in a place slightly separate from them. With Kazuki and the others going forward, a space where people could land was created. There Kanae, Karin and the others jumped one after another.<br /> <br /> “It turns into melee. It’s not smart to swing around large swords here… O meteor leaving trail, gouge white scar on the night sky! {{furigana|Carnwennan|Small White Meteor Sword}}!!”<br /> <br /> Arthur chanted a spell and he created a silver gauntlet on his right arm with a short sword that was fixed into one into that gauntlet. Pure white magic power shone from the blade that was on the gauntlet, it spread to Arthur’s whole body―Arthur’s figure was accelerated and he vanished.<br /> <br /> The swarm of black shadow that attempted to assault Arthur was blown away all at once.<br /> <br /> Perhaps it was a short sword that bestowed a divine protection of acceleration. Its power was also high. Arthur dashed around the ship with a speed that couldn’t be caught with your eye cutting apart the black shadows. It was a force that could clean sweep on board the ship alone.<br /> <br /> “Hu… hurt…”<br /> <br /> He could hear a voice. Hurt, did it say that? Just now…<br /> <br /> “That become the whip of god that strike the soul! Wake up the wave motion that disturb the divine element right here… Dashinben!”<br /> <br /> Shouko too grasped in her hand a pole of white wood created from her chant. Its appearance was just a really normal stick, but she hit really hard the crown of the black shadow with it, that it made him think she might even have made a home run.<br /> <br /> Dashinben was a Sacred Treasure that possessed the power to disturb magic power. When he saw it before, just from swinging it at empty air in the battlefield it could strongly obstruct the magic chanting of the skillful Magika Stigmas in the surroundings.<br /> <br /> When a black shadow was hit directly at its head with that pole, it struggled, violently kicking and punching around. The magic power that it had inside its body was whirling, it behave as if rampaging around. Its whole body was trembling in convulsion, the shadow was writhing on the deck in a condition that was not fit to fight.<br /> <br /> Its agonized condition was ''frightfully full of human traits''.<br /> <br /> It seemed that Shouko herself didn’t have much grounding in martial arts, when she was attacked from all direction by the black shadows, she was hit completely by those simple attacks, unable to dodge. But she repelled those with a high standard Resist, then with a look as if she took no notice of the attack she swung down Dashinben at the enemies’ heads in turns.<br /> <br /> The shadows that were hit by Dashinben had their bodies trembling and withered on the floor without exception.<br /> <br /> “O god Thor of heaven! Delight in my sword dance and echo the roar! Entrust the thunder of sky in this sword, without even allowing anymore resistance, consign to oblivion!! Fjörgyn Megin!!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix too filled her sword with lightning and mowed down several black shadows altogether.<br /> <br /> “Hu, hurts…” “A, aa…” “Painful…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki, Beatrix, Arthur, and Shouko who went ahead into the ship witnessed the downed black shadows leaking out painful voices while standing up unsteadily.<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally earned some room and focused his eyes on the shadow’s figure.<br /> <br /> That figure was―a human. All of the shadow were equally young, there were males and/or females, each of their faces and physique were also different from each other.<br /> <br /> Their whole body was covered by black magic power, seeping into their body where the shadow should even be called [shadow human].<br /> <br /> Something was different from them compared to Demon Beasts. These guys felt pain and possessed awareness.<br /> <br /> They had magic power that bounced back attacks. Nevertheless they felt pain from the attack.<br /> <br /> ‘Are they human? But it feels like they are like a zombie…’<br /> <br /> Their figures were like… humans that were ravaged by black magic power and reconstructed into something different.<br /> <br /> His comrades were crossing near to his direction one after another and got their attack preparation ready.<br /> <br /> “Wait!” Kazuki halted them in fluster.<br /> <br /> “The condition of these guys are strange… they are in pain.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?” His comrades were taken aback.<br /> <br /> These guys were only manipulated by the black magic power, perhaps they were innocent normal humans.<br /> <br /> With that possibility, Kazuki focused his eyes even more.<br /> <br /> No, that was not it. When he looked carefully at the black flesh of the shadow humans, there were external wounds there.<br /> <br /> It looked like all of their blood flow was stopped, but no matter how he saw it, fatal wounds were already inflicted on them.<br /> <br /> They were dead bodies. His recognition that they were zombie was correct. Dead bodies were controlled by the black magic power. But their awareness as humans slightly remained and they felt pain when they were attacked.<br /> <br /> A drifting ship fully loaded with controlled dead bodies in order to attack people…<br /> <br /> Desecration of dead bodies. Such words floated inside his head. At the same time he recalled the time when Hel tried to manipulate his mother’s death. That instant, Kazuki’s will to fight was repulsed to the opposite direction.<br /> <br /> “Stop the attack! I’m going to liberate these people from the black magic power!!”<br /> <br /> “How!?” Shouko immediately yelled.<br /> <br /> But other than her, all his other comrades surely had an uncomfortable feeling towards these enemies. When Kazuki said that, everyone stopped their attack altogether and drew back like a receding wave.<br /> <br /> But even if they stopped their interference, the black shadow humans stood up while in agony and they once again formed a crowd and headed to this direction.<br /> <br /> …What should he do? Kazuki and the others were slowly cornered until the corner of the deck. His comrades turned into a single clump in the corner of the deck. Kazuki, Kanae, Kohaku, and Kazuha-senpai, then after that Arthur stood in the front and bore the brunt of the attack.<br /> <br /> The black human shadows gradually appeared from the darkness inside the ship, several dozens, no, perhaps it even passed a hundred of human shadows formed a crowd, they filled the deck completely and surrounded Kazuki and the others.<br /> <br /> The black shadows were hitting at the swordsmen that were standing at the front.<br /> <br /> Kazuki dodged, redirected, he was handling the assault with non-aggressive defense while chanting.<br /> <br /> “I am the shaman of sword. Rock cleaved, root torn, that virtuous sword of destruction right now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai too yelled “Futsu no Mitama!” at the same time, they cast the same magic of Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> It seemed their thinking were the same. With this holy sword of crushing evil, they were going to tear apart the black magic power!<br /> <br /> Kazuki sheathed Ame no Murakumo back in the scabbard and slashed with [Futsu no Mitama] in exchange.<br /> <br /> 'PACHIN!' The blade of Futsu no Mitama was bounced back with a feedback that was similar with hitting defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> “!?” Kazuki caught his breath.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, it bounced back just now!?” Kazuha-senpai also raised a panicked voice.<br /> <br /> But he remembered this feedback from before. The time when they were attached with {{furigana|Kumo Ito Shibari|Cloud String Binding}} from Susanoo’s barrier magic [Izumo Yaegaki], they had also failed like this when they tried to sever the cloud string. This was the same sensation with that time. This black magic power was even more superior compared to Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-kun! We are going to get cornered if we just defend one-sidedly like this!”<br /> <br /> Arthur yelled while dodging the attacks of the black shadows with the quickness of the short sword’s acceleration.<br /> <br /> The attack of the black shadow was monotone. It was simple for Kazuki whether to defend or evade them.<br /> <br /> But the number of the black shadows itself was extraordinary.<br /> <br /> Even if not all the shadows could attack, but by forming a crowd and pushing forward they could rob the space for moving from Kazuki and the others.<br /> <br /> The black shadows swung around their both hands, even while dodging those they were slowly cornered back.<br /> <br /> They were not a strong opponent but… if it kept like this they would be pushed back and crushed.<br /> <br /> “We’ve been patient enough here. …But looks like that magic ain’t good enough huh.”<br /> <br /> Shouko murmured while just staying still and got hit by the black shadows’ attack without looking concerned and defended all the attacks with Resist. She invoked the magic that she was chanting.<br /> <br /> From the scale of the magic power wave it was undoubtedly high level attack magic―but it was not a power to crush evil.<br /> <br /> “Thy voice is the pole of heaven that determine death… release the urge sleeping in mystery of enlightenment for 1500 years, the beast that reap and take life… {{furigana|Tensuu Sakkai Senjuu|Heaven Number Death Commandment Hermit Beast Fang}}!!”<br /> <br /> The magic power that whirled from Shouko was shot to the sky and it turned into the figure of a beast.<br /> <br /> Countless limbs, countless eyeballs, and countless fangs that lined up in its mouth, a beast that was like [the incarnation of violence].<br /> <br /> An ominous beast that couldn’t be imagined to be created by Taikoubou who was a sage that was also a hermit materialized, it fiercely flew into the crowd of the black shadows.<br /> <br /> Its countless arms mowed down the black shadows altogether, it crushed the fallen shadows under its feet, and its countless fangs tore apart.<br /> <br /> “A… AAaAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> The screams of the shadows reverberated. The blackened fleshes of the shadows were protected by the black magic power that acted similar with defensive magic power. But the protection was made to vanish in the blink of an eye by the beast’s atrocity.<br /> <br /> The black shadows were blown away one after another like pomegranate.<br /> <br /> It was a massacre. The black dead people that possessed a sense of pain were forced to feel the pain of death for the second time.<br /> <br /> Because the black magic power safeguard the shadows from everything except pain, they were instead feeling a pain longer than even the pain of death…<br /> <br /> The beast acted a pure quiet massacre without even making any howl.<br /> <br /> “Shouko!!” Kazuki unintentionally blamed her.<br /> <br /> But it was also a fact that Shouko’s magic cleared back the black shadows and rescued them from the predicament.<br /> <br /> “You’re too naïve! There ain’t no other way than this, don’t you get it! If the gentle way ain’t working, then don’t waste any time to change your sentiment!!”<br /> <br /> Shouko disparaged Kazuki while controlling the hermit beast. The black shadows didn’t die so simply and continued to raise an intensely awful scream, it was a scenery of screaming hell that should be feared.<br /> <br /> “It pains the heart but… it can’t be helped. We must not get stopped in this kind of place.”<br /> <br /> Arthur too gripped back his short sword and assisted Shouko. With a high speed short sword technique he carved the shadows.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…” Beatrix turned to Kazuki and leaked out a troubled voice.<br /> <br /> ‘Stop. Please wait.’ He thought that but those were not words that would be fine to be said out loud without thinking.<br /> <br /> But, was there no better way to do something about this?<br /> <br /> When he couldn’t sever Susanoo’s barrier, what did he do at that time?<br /> <br /> In order for the light to pierce through the darkness, an idea emerged inside Kazuki’s head. But…<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!” There was a voice from behind.<br /> <br /> When he looked back, Kamimura-san was leaning out her body from the window of Queen Kaguya.<br /> <br /> “You forgot this!” Saying that, the girl threw out something that shined silver to him. When he accepted that while paying attention, so that the thing wouldn’t fall down because of the awkward throw, he noticed that it was &lt;Yata no Kagami&gt;.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san then 'pyon' jumped from Queen Kaguya to this side.<br /> <br /> “I saw the situation from the bridge so I know what is happening. It’s going to be fine if you use this mirror.”<br /> <br /> What Kazuki remembered was also this mirror.<br /> <br /> When talking about something that possessed a power to crush evil that was even more powerful than Futsunushi no Kami, then it was this Sacred Treasure mirror.<br /> <br /> These shadow humans were similar with the armored warriors in Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> “But I’m still, I can’t use this mirror skillfully.”<br /> <br /> That was why he left it behind in the first place.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, because I will show you an example after this.”<br /> <br /> While grasping Kazuki’s hand tightly, Kamimura-san said that and began to chant a spell.<br /> <br /> Shouko and Arthur were also guessing that something was up and halted their attack for a moment.<br /> <br /> “…O guiding light that illuminate the four seas and all countries! Gather inside my master’s idol, release the light that purify the impurity… {{furigana|Yata no Kagami・Youka Issen|Sun Flower Single Flash}}!”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san also created a Yata no Kagami in her hand. It was a copy product created by Amaterasu’s magic power. The Yata no Kagami that was raised on Kamimura-san’s hand emitted a light like a sun at the same time when it was raised, illuminating the dim light of the twilight brilliantly.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san’s left hand was still holding Kazuki’s hand. From there the flow of the magic power was conveyed to him.<br /> <br /> ―Some kind of magic was formed inside her, some kind of magic phenomenon was {{furigana|Ordered|requested}} from Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> The black human shadows in front of Kamimura-san had the black magic powers that were clad on their body evaporated and they fell down. They recovered their original human complexion while collapsing down.<br /> <br /> What was there was not a shadow in agony. The light embraced the soul while pulling it out from the flesh body, returning them to a normal dead body. At the same time there was a sign that the ghost ship was slightly liberated from being a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> “I cannot hit them with light in too much range alone, so Kazuki too, do it together with me.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san filled her hand that was grasping him with strength and said that.<br /> <br /> “That Sacred Treasure has the feeling of goodness, so for Kazuki who don’t know any of these stranger, that they are enemies who already lost their lives, yet you still want to save them anyway, if it’s your wish then surely it will answer you. Don’t give up just because you cannot use it. It’s Amaterasu’s Sacred Treasure after all, so it’s a good child you know.”<br /> <br /> ―It would answer him. Believing those words, Kazuki strongly wished to the mirror.<br /> <br /> ‘I want to save them. As painless as possible, I want to let them rest.’<br /> <br /> ‘That’s why, lend me your strength!’<br /> <br /> The mirror, it sought and tried to absorb his magic power as if appealing for something. It was a calling that couldn’t be translated into human language. Something like a vague blueprint of a magic phenomenon was flowing into his mind.<br /> <br /> Kazuki responded to the calling and poured magic power into the mirror, the magic power was operated inside the mirror.<br /> <br /> The mirror that obtained energy, shined in a flash.<br /> <br /> “Illuminate the four seas and all countries, &lt;Yata no Kagami&gt;! Fuukyou Kaikon―Youka Issen!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too―he invoked the magic phenomenon that was invoked by Kamimura-san just now with the power of the Sacred Treasure.<br /> <br /> The black magic power evaporated in the blink of an eye, the human shadows that had recovered their normal complexion collapsed one after another.<br /> <br /> The jet black color also vanished from the ghost ship.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When all the black magic power had finished being purified, [Yata no Kagami] responded to Kazuki’s will by emitting a high pitch sound 'kiiiin' and it turned into a type of bracelet with a small mirror fixed onto it like a gem that twined around Kazuki’s left wrist.<br /> <br /> He had a feeling that the mirror was telling him it wouldn’t be a hindrance like this, even if he brought it while walking around.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> A tragic stage became exposed. There was the appearance of that ship which had been returned to its original appearance.<br /> <br /> As if a coating was peeled off, the color of ominous jet black vanished from the ghost ship and it returned into a sailing ship made from wood. The sails of the ship was still spreading out fully where it was receiving wind to wrong direction.<br /> <br /> It didn’t have any mechanical part as its driving force. That was to say, it could be predicted that this ship was drifting from a country that had retrogressed until a degree of civilization where they were using a sailing ship.<br /> <br /> Only the deck where Kazuki and the others were fighting was still colored pitch black even thought it had been liberated from the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Reddish black blood spread abundantly through the whole surface of the floor, this was caused by the blood that had seeped into the floor.<br /> <br /> The tranquil dead bodies that had been purified due to Kazuki and Kamimura-san’s mirror had collapsed and covered their surroundings completely. A white person, and also the first time Kazuki saw it, a black person were also mixed among the bodies.<br /> <br /> All of them had already bore fatal wound. There was a massacre here.<br /> <br /> And then with some kind of magic they were then controlled by the black magic power.<br /> <br /> “If this ship was transformed into a Haunted Ground because of that magic’s influence, then surely the one that used that magic was a Diva from the Chaos Side. The magic of the Chaos Side leads to Haunted Grounds.”<br /> <br /> Arthur murmured that while investigating the dead bodies.<br /> <br /> There was still faint temperature remaining in the dead bodies. It was still not that long since they died… no, their state was preserved while they were being manipulated by the black magic power.<br /> <br /> That was why they had a feeble consciousness and s sense of pain… was it because of this?<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii, there is someone that is still conscious!”<br /> <br /> Mio was grieving over the dead while adjusting their posture into a peaceful position one by one. And then, she yelled.<br /> <br /> If there was a living witness, there was no greater information than that. The gaze of all the members gathered at Mio. While receiving the gaze of everyone on her back, Mio embraced the upper body of the male that was collapsed face up and invoked her magic.<br /> <br /> “…O elegantly beautiful fire of reincarnation, burn the surface of life, make bud the regeneration inside… Anti Aging!”<br /> <br /> There was a deep wound gouged on the male’s body. The flame that Mio produced moved into the male’s mind and spread, accelerating the renewal of his flesh.<br /> <br /> The face of that white male became even paler like someone who already bled out all their blood. Just like a dry paper. There was no strength left in his eyes, it was a near miracle that he still had consciousness.<br /> <br /> {Aa… go, goddess…} The focus of the male’s eyes were fixed on Mio, he let out a withered voice.<br /> <br /> The words of the male was English, but he could listen to it thanks to lesson from Arthur.<br /> <br /> {I’m not a goddess, pull yourself.} Mio also called to him with English.<br /> <br /> {Why…} Rather than talking to Mio, it more like the male was murmuring to himself. {Even though they came to help us… why…}<br /> <br /> Something. Like this the male would keep holding something unfinished in him.<br /> <br /> {Tell us the circumstances. I will do what I can for your sake.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki too called to the male with simple English. The male wouldn’t last long. He asked right to the point.<br /> <br /> {Who, you all did this kind of thing?}<br /> <br /> Just for an instant, strength returned in the light green eyes of the male. Regret, sorrow, fury, such emotions appeared in his eyes.<br /> <br /> {…Coming to help us… we who are slaves… but that guy that help… why!}<br /> <br /> {Who was it, who do you mean by that guy!?}<br /> <br /> {RE…D…….} &lt;ref&gt;Here Red is written by alphabet&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> As if breathing the last breath from his mouth, the male’s eyelid and lips wilted powerlessly.<br /> <br /> Mio ended her healing magic.<br /> <br /> [Anti Aging] was not a magic that granted the flame of life, it was a magic that strengthened the flame of life.<br /> <br /> It was powerless for those who had expired.<br /> <br /> Mio gently closed the male’s half opened eyelids and lips.<br /> <br /> “The English just now” Arthur opened his mouth. “It’s not something from inside the sphere of Britain’s culture, but English from America’s sphere of culture.”<br /> <br /> “Is that something you can understand?”<br /> <br /> “It matched with the American-English’s characteristic I learned from the literature of the past. I’m sure of it.”<br /> <br /> Indeed, looked like it could be counted on.<br /> <br /> “It seems that this man was a slave. So this means that in America there is a slave system then.”<br /> <br /> Most likely it was not a rare thing in many countries outside Japan.<br /> <br /> Even Italia that Regina ruled had a slave system from what she said.<br /> <br /> Even Germany, whereas there were humans with the social standing of a noble like Lotte there, even if it couldn’t be said to be something like a slave, but the existence of a low class that was near such a thing existed.<br /> <br /> “This ship is a slave ship that transported these slaves somewhere. And in the middle of that, someone came to help.”<br /> <br /> …What they didn’t understand was why the result became like this.<br /> <br /> “Thanks to Kazuki’s way of doing things, we could obtain information.”<br /> <br /> Beatrix said that. After that she glanced at Shouko’s direction. Shouko was unreservedly investigating the death bodies that collapsed everywhere by rummaging them around, but she said a short sentence, “My bad”, to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “But I won’t say that I’m mistaken.”<br /> <br /> “Of course, I too don’t think that it will go this well every time with my way.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was thinking. “Surely, I’m naïve.” There was no feeling that he had handled this well appearing in his chest. A heavier self-reproaching feeling was settling inside him.<br /> <br /> Depending on the conditions, he too had to be able to make a decision just like the decision that Shouko took.<br /> <br /> Coldheartedly, rationally, the {{furigana|option|card}} to [abandon].<br /> <br /> “But” Kaguya-senpai who watched over the exchange interjected.<br /> <br /> “I think this is Otouto-kun’s way. It’s not about right or wrong…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s words got into his head directly.<br /> <br /> Way. Style. He could use both sword and magic. He was able to chant a manifold of magic types compared to an average person. He was in a position where he could always select an option from many. That was exactly why―he had the feeling that he must have something inside his heart that was always consistent and straight.<br /> <br /> ‘What kind of thing do I have to be consistent on from now on?’<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!” Hikaru-senpai’s voice came from the inside of the ship that could be entered from the stair on the deck.<br /> <br /> “There is a person inside the ship’s hold!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Inside the ship, there were swaying flames still remaining on the torches without being extinguished.<br /> <br /> The condition right before a place turned into a Haunted Ground was preserved even while being a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> The feeling that people lived here was remaining, it was completely like the &lt;Mary Celeste&gt; ship.<br /> <br /> Descending down the stairs that were painted with blood, they entered the ship’s hold.<br /> <br /> Ship’s hold. The thing that was called as the cargo of this ship, was it the slaves?<br /> <br /> The ship’s hold was also dirty with blood all over the place. However that there wasn’t any dead bodies here at all, it must be because the dead bodies that fell here had crept up the stairs to the deck and assaulted Kazuki and the others.<br /> <br /> An abundant amount of blood was covering the whole surface of the floor reddish black.<br /> <br /> On the black floor, there was a pure white girl laying down while curling her body.<br /> <br /> She was like the single star shining in the night sky.<br /> <br /> Her hair and her skin were pure white like a fantasy. The T-shirt and jeans she were wearing looked out of place with how clean they were without a single stain on it. Her eyes were closed and she collapsed on the floor, but a rhythmic sleeping breath was escaping her nose.<br /> <br /> “For her to sleep soundly in this kind of place, she really has a nerve huh!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that crouched beside the girl said a hysteric thing. No way it was something that stupid.<br /> <br /> “She is not waking up?”<br /> <br /> “I still haven’t tried it. I thought that I’m going to call Kazuki first. Can I wake her?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki nodded, Hikaru-senpai shook the sleeping girl calling “Ooo―ii!” with an excited look.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai… should he say that she was not a coward or something, but she was a person that was really following her own pace.<br /> <br /> The eyelids of the girl shook and a voice as if she was having a nightmare leaked out from her pink colored lips.<br /> <br /> {You woke up? You’re fine? No wound or anything on you?}<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai asked the girl’s name with a natural pronunciation. Hikaru-senpai who strangely had some genius aspects in her was the fastest among them all who had improved in English.<br /> <br /> The girl opened her eyes with a blink. He was able to believe once again that the girl was really alive from the light in her eyes.<br /> <br /> {Wo… und? I’m, fine…}<br /> <br /> Her eyes that were slightly slanted were colored blue that was so light to the degree it was slightly unnatural.<br /> <br /> {That’s great, that’s great. Well then, what is your name then?}<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai asked her with English that flowed smoothly.<br /> <br /> {Name… my name… call me my name? My name, call me my name?}<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Hikaru-senpai looked at each other.<br /> <br /> {Even if you ask me to call your name, but I don’t know your name. What is your name?}<br /> <br /> {I don’t know…} The girl whispered again with her expression unchanging.<br /> <br /> {My name, call my name?} The girl caught Hikaru-senpai’s hand pleadingly.<br /> <br /> Calling her the name…<br /> <br /> {Uu―nn} Hikaru-senpai was troubled.<br /> <br /> {Let’s change the question. Where did you come from?}<br /> <br /> {Where…} Her empty tone answer was as if the inside of the girl’s head was pure white and she let out that pure whiteness exactly as it was from her mouth―{I don’t know.}<br /> <br /> “This is really bad huh, Kazuki. This child, she looks like she is an amnesiac.”<br /> <br /> The girl looked around the surroundings restlessly.<br /> <br /> When she noticed that her surroundings was dyed reddish black with blood, she leaked out “Hyi-“ voice and she clung even stronger at Hikaru-senpai’s arm. She didn’t understand how she ended up in this kind of place.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> They led the girl back to the bridge.<br /> <br /> They quietly burned the ship where the scar of tragedy remained with Pyrokinesis, letting the ship drifted away to the sea.<br /> <br /> The pure white girl they brought along had her eyes turned round at everything in the bridge as if looking at something rare and she looked around restlessly. When looking at her appearance that stood up and walked around, she was even smaller and younger than Lotte.<br /> <br /> He should call her a little girl rather than a girl.<br /> <br /> “I wonder if we cannot make her recover her memory. I think if we can do that then we will understand many things.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki said to everyone who gathered on the bridge with Japanese. He still didn’t have the confidence to have a complicated conversation in English.<br /> <br /> The information about the girl’s birth country, what happened on that ship, was the people killed by someone―if the girl’s memory was recovered, perhaps they could understand about all that.<br /> <br /> ―Kazuki had promised to that person just before he died, that he would do all that he could.<br /> <br /> “Lotte. Can you pull out the memory of this child using Telepathy?”<br /> <br /> It was a violation of privacy to use Telepathy on another person’s mind. But surely they couldn’t let this child to be amnesic like this from now on just to respect her privacy.<br /> <br /> “That’s so desu, I’ll try. …For this power of mine that is like a peeping tom to be useful in a correct way like this is a rare chance desu.”<br /> <br /> “Lotte is always being considerate to your surroundings, so I think you are not like that at all though.”<br /> <br /> Lotte crouched in front of the pure white little girl and stared at her fixedly.<br /> <br /> {Is it okay for me to peek into your heart for a little desu?}<br /> <br /> Lotte asked in English. When the white little girl nodded, there was a string of blue magic power that lighted up faintly and connected between them.<br /> <br /> “…She has almost no magic power desu. Her wall of the heart is… weak desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte murmured. What that meant was that the little girl was in a state that was mostly [security free].<br /> <br /> When he thought that Lotte could do this, if it was Lotte then surely she could also even freely conduct something like brainwashing.<br /> <br /> Magic power would undergo a sudden growth at the puberty period. He guessed that this white little girl hadn’t yet entered her growth period. That was why, it was possible that her magic power could be that empty in her age.<br /> <br /> “…The inside of this child’s head, it’s pure white desu.”<br /> <br /> “You mean she doesn’t think of anything at all? Like a thoughtless person then?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai asked. Though mentioning about thoughtlessness, Hikaru-senpai was also quite like that though.<br /> <br /> “No… she is thinking. Though its only in small scale. But her mental territory is mostly blank desu.”<br /> <br /> The inside of her head was mostly pure white and only a little part of it was performing thinking activity…<br /> <br /> “And then her old memory is not here at all desu…”<br /> <br /> “She has no memory? If what she has is amnesia, then that kind of thing is impossible.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai interjected.<br /> <br /> “No matter what kind of memory, human preserve them all in their deep psyche. They only completely forget the way to [access] the memory that they hadn’t used for a long time. In short people just forget the way to remember.”<br /> <br /> That’s correct. Kazuki too, long before he became aware of his surroundings―the memory of the moment where he was abandoned at the orphanage, he once succeeded in miraculously remembering that memory. From that he remembered the face of his mother.<br /> <br /> Knowledge and memory were two different things. In a lot of cases where people lost their memory, they could still properly talk their native language and possessed the fundamental information of common sense. They even remembered the way to drive a car.<br /> <br /> It was just that people couldn’t access [the episode memory], like when they were able to walk, it was only that.<br /> <br /> “It’s as if… her soul was substantially damaged desu.”<br /> <br /> “You said that her old memory is not there, then does she have the very recent memory?”<br /> <br /> “Her new memory is… how should I say it… all of it is acting buggy desu.”<br /> <br /> “Buggy?”<br /> <br /> “It’s like she cannot recognize her memory as memory… or like her memory is scattered everywhere as jumbled data that is impossible to read… or like every single component is not attached with meaning that can connect to another. It’s chaos desu. To pull this out forcibly… it seems impossible for me desu.”<br /> <br /> So it was impossible even for Lotte’s magic skill. However, this little girl’s condition was…<br /> <br /> “…Is her hippocampus damaged?”<br /> <br /> When the part of brain that changed recognition into memory―[hippocampus] was damaged, the person’s condition would become something like what Lotte described.<br /> <br /> When that kind of memory bug was created like that, it was supposed to be like Yumeno-san’s double personality.<br /> <br /> “No… it looks like even now there is no damage or anything remaining in her desu. The really new memory of her meeting with us is normally accumulated in her brain, so right now she is normal desu. The majority of her mental territory is pure white desu but… a normal activity is being carried out only in the remaining part. It’s like her mind was messed up, then her mind is trying to reconstruct itself to adapt with that messed up condition… something like that desu.”<br /> <br /> A human even with his right brain wholly broken, he would have the adaptation ability where the left brain could take over the role of the right brain simultaneously with its own role.<br /> <br /> “This child, what in the world was done to her…?”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san’s heart was broken by abuse, but for this little girl to be subjected under a condition even crueler than that…<br /> <br /> With nothing else that could be done, Lotte halted her Telepathy. The blue string vanished quickly.<br /> <br /> The white little girl looked around restlessly because she didn’t understand the Japanese that they used to converse, but she once more murmured out {Name…} &lt;ref&gt;This is in English&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> {Someone call me… my name…} It was a voice that somehow made them feel the tenacity.<br /> <br /> A mind that was messed up and barely reconstructed itself by connecting its remaining parts.<br /> <br /> A name was the symbol of identity.<br /> <br /> Perhaps for her reconstructed heart to seek a name was only something natural.<br /> <br /> {Let’s give her name ourselves!}<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai suggested. She talked in English so that it would also get conveyed to the girl.<br /> <br /> The blue of the white girl’s eyes felt like it became a little deeper. And then with a half shout,<br /> <br /> {Name! I want it!! My name!!!} She yelled in succession.<br /> <br /> “We don’t know the circumstance of this child, but it looked like she met something cruel and got reborn right? Then we are this child’s new parents, I think we have to take care of her as a family! That’s why a name is necessary!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai talked in Japanese again. Certainly it was just like she said.<br /> <br /> Kazuki once again faced the little girl. It was as if a fire had been lit inside the girl, {Name! Name me!} she kept yelling. She was searching for something that would define her new self.<br /> <br /> This child was not a tool for the sake of obtaining information. She was a living human.<br /> <br /> Even in the case that she could recover her memory in the future, for her to go back to her family and country where she had lived until now… was most likely impossible. After all this child was found on a slave ship.<br /> <br /> Moreover she had a mind where there were traces that she had been subjected under something unimaginably cruel.<br /> <br /> They became involved with a little girl that had no place to go. Hereafter, they had to bear the responsibility of building up [relation] with this girl.<br /> <br /> “But even if senpai told us to think of a name so suddenly…”<br /> <br /> The white little girl stop calling repeatedly for name and stared at them fixedly with a serious gaze.<br /> <br /> “Ah, I cannot act stupid in this kind of flow huh?” Kanon-senpai said.<br /> <br /> “That’s obvious.” Akane-senpai hit Kanon-senpai’s head.<br /> <br /> “Actually, I already have an idea!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai raised her hand energetically. “Stella, how about a name like this I wonder?”<br /> <br /> “Stella… I see, so it means star.” Liz Liza-sensei murmured.<br /> <br /> That was an extremely fitting name for this girl.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t that fine?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki answered, everyone also nodded to each other. There was no one that felt any out of place feeling of that name.<br /> <br /> Most likely everyone held the same impression the moment they saw this little girl for the first time. Right in the middle of a reddish black blood-stained floor, the appearance of the pure white girl that curled her body into a small figure certainly looked like a single speck of a star.<br /> <br /> {Stella.} Kaguya-senpai called out to the girl in English like that.<br /> <br /> {Now your name, given from us, is Stella.}<br /> <br /> Like a flash, a radiant smile rose to the surface of Stella’s white face.<br /> <br /> {Stella! My name is… Stella!!}<br /> <br /> Stella jumped at Kaguya-senpai with a force as if her small body just got launched.<br /> <br /> The short Stella buried her face around the stomach of Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> {Fufufu… your name is Hayashizaki Stella you know―} She said that while boisterously petting Stella’s head.<br /> <br /> ‘She is in Hayashizaki house?’, a wry smile floated on Kazuki’s face a little.<br /> <br /> {Maa―ma!}<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, I’m a mama she said!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s face reddened with a puff.<br /> <br /> {Yooosh, you are Hayashizaki Stella! And then I’m Madam Hayashizaki Kaguya!!}<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai hugged Stella and twirled round and round. {Merry go Round} Stella laughed brightly. So it came to Hayashizaki Kaguya… Of course he intended to have this bond continue for life but, for some reason his chest throbbed hard. But for her to call herself Madam when she became like that.<br /> <br /> “In my case, it’s Hayashizaki Mio then.” “Hayashizaki Koyuki…” “Hayashizaki Hikaru huhh.”<br /> <br /> The girls around them were making their name into Hayashizaki family altogether and ascertained how their names rang out.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuha… hehehe, I have the feeling that my name rings out the best…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s expression slackened into a broad grin.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kanae… uh huh.” Kanae murmured with a quiet face.<br /> <br /> ‘No, your history as Hayashizaki had been a long time already right? This is not a moment for you to go uh-huh.’<br /> <br /> This time Stella rushed to Kazuki and hugged at him with {Paa―pa!}<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki Stella. …He had created a family beyond the harem.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, but calling yourself Madam Kaguya even though you haven’t even kissed yet is just somehow surreal isn’t it.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai said that kind of thing again innocently and laughed.<br /> <br /> “My goodness!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai who was concerned about how she was inexperienced in kissing was hit by a shock and trembled.<br /> <br /> “…Otouto-kun!” Kaguya-senpai kissed Kazuki’s cheek in an outburst of anger.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling it a kiss, her lips was sucking 'muchuu―' with all her power as if it changed into a suction pad.<br /> <br /> Stella was watching that with completely rounded eyes and asked them {Paapa and maama, love-love?}<br /> <br /> 'chubon' Kaguya-senpai stop her sucking and petted Stella’s head while saying {We are love-love see~}<br /> <br /> Otonashi Kaguya―148<br /> <br /> Stella was caught between Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai and she showed them a smiling face that was like a blooming flower.<br /> <br /> It looked like she was happy from the bottom of her heart from how good the relationship between Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> What was with this hugging act of hers?<br /> <br /> Perhaps she was instinctively wanting for [a stable relationship] from her state that was being an amnesiac person without a single relative. Perhaps she was feeling a [need for a hug] from her instinct as a child.<br /> <br /> She had established her self with the name and obtained the feeling of safety from the [parent and child relationship] even though it was only a mock relationship.<br /> <br /> Even if this was only something transient, she was instinctively seeking for the most primordial happiness called [family].<br /> <br /> And then for Kazuki and the others too―Stella’s smiling face tickled their instinctual desire to protect. The smiling face of a little girl… was super cute. It was a smiling face that was impossible to not love.<br /> <br /> Big and beautiful eyes, smoothly lengthening bridge of the nose, cheeks that puffed up when laughing.<br /> <br /> “Oo―kay, okay, okay.” Kazuki too got carried away in the mood and patted his daughter’s head.<br /> <br /> {Nn… Paapa’s hand feels really good! It makes me shiver somehow! Why?}<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.10 098.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> …Was it probably because he was always caressing girls?<br /> <br /> {Stella-chan, your clothes are dirty, do you want to enter the bath together with mama?}<br /> <br /> {Nn-} Stella obediently nodded. Kazuki even thought that ‘I also want to go together’.<br /> <br /> “But if she enters the bath, what will we do about her clothes?”<br /> <br /> Lotte raised her hand saying “Heree-“.<br /> <br /> {Onee-san will lend you a change of clothes desu-}<br /> <br /> Lotte acted like an older sister… Kazuki received a shock.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> With Stella as an addition, their voyage through the vast Atlantic Ocean continued even now.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai finally halted the driving force of the ship and deployed the sail.<br /> <br /> Even though the sail looked analog at a glance, but everything was controlled by computer. In their current position they could also acquire their position information through GPS so it didn’t mean that there were more special work they had to do.<br /> <br /> “To intend to rule over the wind with just a single button. As expected of the Japanese, Japanese are unfair.”<br /> <br /> Beatrix who had a reluctance against civilization made a complicated face.<br /> <br /> Among the work that the [sailor] girl on duty had to do, [looking after Stella] was added.<br /> <br /> Staring from distance the girls crowding around Stella while going “Cute, cute!”, Kazuki had the feeling that if he who was a man was the one that tried to do the same approaching towards Stella while going “Cute, cute!” it would be looked at a little different. Kazuki secretly agonized himself what he should do in his aim of wanting Stella’s skinship very much.<br /> <br /> {Paapa!}But when it was Stella herself that found Kazuki’s figure, she would be the one that approached him without fail, so Kazuki reflexively hugged the girl tightly from her unfair cuteness.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii… by any chance, do you also have that kind of feeling for a child around this age…?”<br /> <br /> Mio asked him with an amazed face.<br /> <br /> “There is no way I’m looking at Stella with that kind of eye. Even though you also got affectionate to Stella like a cat, why are you making an amazed face like that when I do the same thing?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki grindingly stroked his hand on the head of Stella that he hugged, {Paapa’s hand feels good―} she nuzzled back at him, it was so cute to the degree that he wanted to just eat her up. He wanted to lick her all over.<br /> <br /> Stella also learned Japanese from Arthur. With the absorbing power of children, Stella gradually learned how to talk Japanese brokenly.<br /> <br /> And then Stella’s sense that had almost no like or dislike had her eyes shine brightly from all the recreation facilities aboard the ship. She did a fighting game with Hikaru-senpai, appreciating anime with Lotte and Kamimura-san, and had fun learning language from Koyuki’s novel and Mio’s shoujo manga that they translated for her.<br /> <br /> Before they realized it, she had became familiar among his companions as a little girl that should be loved.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Once, when Kazuki had heard that Kaguya-senpai and Stella were playing analogue games, and he went to Kaguya-senpai’s room, he heard the muffled crying voice of Stella.<br /> <br /> Incidentally he also heard Kaguya-senpai’s voice in great panic saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”<br /> <br /> “What’s wrong!?” Kazuki rushed into the room in a great haste.<br /> <br /> “Paapa! Maama is unfair~!”<br /> <br /> When he entered the room, Stella clung at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “I, I’m not unfair you know~-, it was still within the category of the rule…” Kaguya-senpai was in a troubled feeling.<br /> <br /> One of Kaguya-senpai’s analogue game collection was spread out on top of the table.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had played it before, so he could understand the war situation in general.<br /> <br /> In regards to Stella’s forceful attack with brute force approach, Kaguya-senpai toyed around with her with an obscenely coordinated method, and while Stella didn’t understand anything, Kaguya-senpai shut her out completely. Kazuki was amazed.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya-senpai, your way is just too nasty there… you should be a little, discrete or something, like be more adult in Stella’s eyes or something…”<br /> <br /> She didn’t hold back any punch even against a child as her opponent.<br /> <br /> “I, I planned to do that you know!? But when I noticed it already became like this, like it’s impolite to go easy on your opponent…”<br /> <br /> “Kaguya-senpai is really stoic with a match after all.”<br /> <br /> Since her childhood, Kaguya-senpai was raised by receiving education from her father to [become the strongest Magika Stigma even if you have to throw away everything else]. Rather than calling that an education, it was more like a suggestion that was imprinted into her.<br /> <br /> At the bottom of Kaguya-senpai’s heart, her [obsession towards strength] hadn’t disappeared yet.<br /> <br /> That was why, when she was in a match, even while playing, she tended to completely become [I absolutely mustn’t lose].<br /> <br /> It was fine when she was against Kazuki, but it was not really mature when she did that with a little girl as her opponent.<br /> <br /> “Uu…” Stella directed eyes that seemed to be a little scared at Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt like he understood her feelings.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too, when he was a little child, didn’t have any relative that was connected by blood around him. Because the adults around him were not his blood relatives, he couldn’t believe that he was being loved and felt anxious from even little things.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, Mama doesn’t hate Stella at all you know.”<br /> <br /> “…Really?”<br /> <br /> “It’s true. Mama is just a little bit a sadistic pervert so she just wanted to fight seriously even against an opponent that she loves, that’s all. She is not scary, see.”<br /> <br /> “I think a pervert is scary…” Stella said out a staggeringly sound argument.<br /> <br /> “I’m not a sadistic pervert at all…” Kaguya-senpai became teary eyed.<br /> <br /> “Then let’s beat mama with papa and Stella’s cooperation play and cure mama from her perversion.”<br /> <br /> “Ok-! I’ll cooperate with Paapa and lead Maama back to the path of a correct human!!”<br /> <br /> Stella’s eyes brightened.<br /> <br /> “I’m happy that she stopped crying but, it feels complicated somehow…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was turned into a common enemy for the sake of Stella’s mood, and she grumbled while setting back the game components, like the cards and everything else.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> “Soon our ship should be detected by America’s side.”<br /> <br /> Inside their routine meeting place, Akane-senpai said that to everyone who gathered on the bridge.<br /> <br /> Only Kanae was not here where she had the duty to be the lookout.<br /> <br /> According to the GPS, the ship was going to finally reach the coastal waters of America.<br /> <br /> “I think that perhaps America won’t have GPS, but exactly because of that, if they are a country with proper awareness of their country’s defense and so they will constantly conduct security surveillance.”<br /> <br /> “So the sphere of America’s surveillance will depend on the height of their civilization then.”<br /> <br /> The possibility was weak, but if an equal level of civilization still remained in America, then they should immediately notice this ship on the Pacific Ocean using GPS surveillance.<br /> <br /> They should have noticed this ship at the point of time when this ship went out of Japan’s magic power cloud.<br /> <br /> If they conducted surveillance using binoculars, then surely they would notice this ship at almost the same time with this side’s lookout noticing them.<br /> <br /> In the case that they performed surveillance primitively only using naked eyes, then this side should be the one that would be able to find them first.<br /> <br /> “I panicked when we encountered the ghost ship right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean because it was unexpected, but if we have come until this far then it wouldn’t be strange that we could make contact with America’s ships anytime. All members, make your preparation.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai was extremely reliable when the situation was within her expectations.<br /> <br /> “Everyone’s English has improved considerably but… we should rely on Arthur as the first voice of negotiation when we make contact.”<br /> <br /> “My status is as a guest here but, is it fine?”<br /> <br /> Arthur asked back, all present nodded and it was decided.<br /> <br /> It was at that moment. Kanae rushed down from the lookout on the rooftop of the bridge.<br /> <br /> “A shadow of a ship is visible. I think that perhaps this time it’s an American ship.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The other ship also seemed to immediately approach to this side’s direction.<br /> <br /> In other words they noticed each other. In the distance when they had approached where they could see with a naked eye―when they entered the &lt;magic perception range&gt;, both ships then would be able to aim at each other with attack magic.<br /> <br /> “While we prepare defensive magic, we’ll count on Arthur to negotiate.”<br /> <br /> “Understood.” Arthur climbed to the bridge’s rooftop to the lookout together with Kanae.<br /> <br /> He directed his eyes to the window. Even Kazuki who had confidence is his eyesight reinforcement still couldn’t catch the sight of the other ship with his naked eye.<br /> <br /> Finally they were going to begin making contact with an unknown country.<br /> <br /> Might the other side also know about the matter regarding Stella…<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama, they will soon get close until the distance where they will be visible with the naked eye!”<br /> <br /> Kanae’s voice came from the rooftop. He passed through a tense time of waiting.<br /> <br /> The outline of the ship was visible even to Kazuki’s eye. As far as they could see from the silhouette, it seemed that the other ship unexpectedly didn’t look like a sailing ship.<br /> <br /> “Arthur! Take care of the first greeting!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that, the sonorous voice of Arthur shouted from the rooftop.<br /> <br /> {O dear ship of America, we have come for the sake of tying a friendly diplomacy! Now, let’s sit together on the table of negotiation!!}<br /> <br /> It was quite an elegant appeal. Would the other side give response for dialogue?<br /> <br /> The ship’s outline began to emit blue magic power light.<br /> <br /> “…I wonder if the other side is also making preparation for defensive magic.”<br /> <br /> In the ship of Kazuki and co. too, his companions transformed into their Magic Dress figure one after another and began to chant their defensive magic.<br /> <br /> Even Kazuki who was skilled at Foreseeing magic phenomenon was, as expected unable to clearly sense the magic power wave at this range.<br /> <br /> “No, I think those are attack magic.” Shouko murmured.<br /> <br /> “How do you know?”<br /> <br /> “It’s an instinct that comes from real battle experience. I can’t read magic power wave so detailed like you but, I can somehow understand ''if there is enmity filling the magic power''. A troop preparing to attack looks like that. …It’s coming y’all!”<br /> <br /> Exactly at that timing she warned, attack magic came soaring from the ship’s outline to here.<br /> <br /> Fire ball, electricity… and countless things that looked like bullets.<br /> <br /> All of them were low level magic, but if those hit the ship then it would sink without a doubt.<br /> <br /> “Is this the substitute of your response!?” Arthur raised an angry voice from the lookout.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ash all that is touched… the scorching heat of denial without any place to go! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> “O rejection of absolute zero, become the armor of isolation that protect my body! Breeze Barrier!”<br /> <br /> “O stream of atmosphere, converge in this body, become the storm that reject the hated person! The eye of the typhoon is exactly my throne! Storm Fort!”<br /> <br /> “O piling up wisdom in human history, become an armor that protect my body in many layers! Heavily, thickly, reject all brutality! Seusenhofer!!”<br /> <br /> “Cloud movement above the serpent, we who are the sky is the throne of the god. The oath of the country’s tutelary god is established in the steel of white cloud… the touted sword is, Ame no Murakumo! {{furigana|Shirakumo no Yoroi|Armor of White Cloud}}!”<br /> <br /> All the defense magic that their side had cast formed layers and protected the ship, repelling back the attack magic.<br /> <br /> After they defended against the first wave, the attack stopped for a while. Surely this was the chanting time of the other side.<br /> <br /> “It’s sea a battle now, you have any idea how to proceed from here!?”<br /> <br /> Shouko asked Kazuki. In place of a reply, Kazuki gave instruction to Akane-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Akane-senpai, please put out the full speed!!”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai ignited the engine and accelerated the ship. If the opponent was willing then this side also didn’t need to hide the power of civilization. They were going to approach closer for even a second faster. The ship shook fiercely.<br /> <br /> “Everyone continue with defensive magic! As soon as the ship is adjacent, the same members like in the ghost ship will board the other ship!”<br /> <br /> “So you ain’t intending to counterattack at all until we get closer like that!”<br /> <br /> Shouko raised an unsatisfied voice.<br /> <br /> “That’s obvious, we won’t sink the other ship! We’ll corner them to surrender with close quarter combat! This is a dialogue until the end!”<br /> <br /> If they sank the ship and the crews became scattered on the sea, they wouldn’t be able to talk with them.<br /> <br /> “You’ll only burden our side one-sidedly with the risk of sinking like that! …Just look, the second wave still ain’t coming yet. You know what this means?”<br /> <br /> Just as Shouko pointed out, the attack from the other side had stopped. That meant…<br /> <br /> “If they see us not attacking, that side is gonna give up defense and begin preparation of chanting high level magic that takes time instead. Those guys are used to fighting yeah.”<br /> <br /> Next a fierce attack would come. If they couldn’t block that with defensive magic then this ship was finished.<br /> <br /> Queen Kaguya accelerated in order for their ship to make contact for even an instant faster.<br /> <br /> Outside the window, that ship’s silhouette was gradually looking bigger.<br /> <br /> In order to attack this ship that was approaching them―attack magic with even larger scale than before surged at this direction from the other ship. It was a situation completely like the Titanic that crashed into an iceberg.<br /> <br /> “Self Burning!” “Freeze Barrier!” “Storm Fort!” “Seusenhofer!” “Shirakumo no Yoroi!”<br /> <br /> They also expanded several layers of defensive magic again. …Could they block with this…!?<br /> <br /> “We who look down from the sky are the {{furigana|shifu|fatherly master}}, Yin Yang five elements combine in we, the god’s soldier building up the seat of honor of ten calendar signs please pile up the divine protection of six carapace… {{furigana|Rokkojin|Six Shell Formation}}!”<br /> <br /> Shouko, who until just before was spouting out abusive language, invoked her magic.<br /> <br /> Taikoubou’s avatar emerged out and light that was like divine aid poured down on Queen Kaguya from the sky. Thereupon the force of the surrounding defensive magic increased. The flame wall and the tornado towered as if reaching the sky, the protection of cold together with the white cloud armor increased in thickness, the black luster of armor had its density heightened tightly.<br /> <br /> It was a magic that amplified defensive magic. A rare kind of magic…<br /> <br /> The second wave of attack magic with increased force was defended by the reinforced defensive magic.<br /> <br /> The ships finally came close to each other.<br /> <br /> The other ship was unexpectedly a modern ship of gray steel.<br /> <br /> …Was America not throwing away their civilization?<br /> <br /> Perhaps he should even call it a small type military patrol boat. Its appearance was in between that of a large type boat or a small type battleship.<br /> <br /> They could confirm that military force was deployed on the ship’s spacious deck.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai took the helm of Queen Kaguya. While Queen Kaguya evaded from collision, it accelerated and passed beside the other ship.<br /> <br /> “We are boarding it!” Kazuki gave the order the moment the ships passed each other, they all leaped at the other side altogether from the window.<br /> <br /> 'GATSUN!' The sensation of steel floor reverberated on Kazuki’s sole.<br /> <br /> At the same time black shadows assaulted him simultaneously from four directions. Fast.<br /> <br /> He instantly made his judgment. The approaching attacks were slashes from edged tool.<br /> <br /> Kazuki drove back the many piles of the slashing line and took some distance.<br /> <br /> After taking some distance, the figure of the attacker came into his sight―he focused his eyes.<br /> <br /> Most likely they were supposed to be American people. But he couldn’t make sure of that just by looking at them with one glance.<br /> <br /> What was in front of his eyes were {{furigana|cyborg|mechanized soldier}} with their whole body protected by armor of steel.<br /> <br /> “What the hell is this!?’ Kazuki thought, but there was no time to get shocked.<br /> <br /> The opponents were observing Kazuki with their gaze through the visor that covered the majority of their face. He could only slightly peek at their white skin at their mouth. Other than that there was no part of their skin that was exposed at all, even the joint parts were complicatedly entangled by metal that shined silver. They had a smooth streamlined silhouette.<br /> <br /> Perhaps it was even something like a &lt;strengthening exoskeleton&gt; that often came out in SF anime or manga.<br /> <br /> Blue blade was stretching out from their right arm―those blades were vibrating 'BUUUUUN!'<br /> <br /> High Frequency Blade!?<br /> <br /> An uncomfortable feeling. He didn’t understand what was the meaning of it. There was no meaning in this kind of weapon.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s companions that boarded this ship one after another together with him were also perplexed with their eyes turning round.<br /> <br /> Their feeling was like an explorer that discovered a rare animal on an unknown island.<br /> <br /> 'BUSHUU―!' Smoke came out from the cyborgs’s body… they are coming !<br /> <br /> Their strengthening exoskeleton was not a mere armor. The electrically operated actuator inside the exoskeleton converted electricity into movement energy and it was transmitted to the movements of the four limbs―in other words it was [reinforcement].<br /> <br /> The opponents came slashing at them with terrific speed.<br /> <br /> With their momentum as it was they swung down the HF blade lengthening out from the gauntlet of their right arm. That blade had its friction and heat quantity magnified due to the vibration. It was not hard to imagine that the blade hid a cutting and heat ability that should be feared.<br /> <br /> They had an unknown nature, but it was not worth fearing when he Foresighted their movement.<br /> <br /> Kazuki composedly parried a single attack and slashed back in counterattack.<br /> <br /> 'BACHIN!' Along with recoil of a strong defensive magic power, the body that was overflowing with the heaviness of the cyborg was blown away to the back. ''The cyborg was endowed with defensive magic power''.<br /> <br /> That should be something impossible.<br /> <br /> In addition that strengthening exoskeleton the opponent wore was covered by blue Enchant Aura that reinforced their body. ''On top of being reinforced by machine, the cyborg was further reinforced by magic power''.<br /> <br /> This was the source of his uncomfortable feeling. Magic power that was human’s mental energy was an energy that was exhibited by one’s own consciousness, which meant that it couldn’t be endowed to anything other than &lt;human strength&gt;.<br /> <br /> He had seen before cavalries that endowed even their beloved horses with magic power by heightening their horse riding technique until they reached the extreme territory of unity of rider and horse but…<br /> <br /> To do something like spreading through Enchant Aura into the power assist due to electrical booster device and a blade that vibrated at high frequency, that was something that couldn’t be imagined using common sense.<br /> <br /> That was exactly why modern weapons should have disappeared from the battlefield.<br /> <br /> Beatrix also blew back the opponent that assaulted her and then she murmured to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “A single attack from them is fast and heavy. But these guys’ sword technique is amateur. I don’t know what kind of trick they are using but… there is no way we will lose to this bunch. It would be a warrior’s disgrace.”<br /> <br /> Improvised soldiers born by means of power assist.<br /> <br /> Standardized strength that could be mass produced in a really short time.<br /> <br /> They were existences that were the antithesis of an Ikkitousen warrior. &lt;ref&gt;Ikkitousen=being a match against thousand&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Wasn’t this age of magic the age of heroes?<br /> <br /> The force of Kazuki and co. that had aboard the ship consisted of ten names that were skilled in hand to hand combat. And the number of cybrogs in front of their eyes were double their number, twenty cyborgs in total.<br /> <br /> The opponents were also taking a formation that was similar with Heaven and Earth Formation, there was the indication that Magika Stigmas were performing chanting inside the ship.<br /> <br /> “Beatrix, we two are going to break through these guys and aim for the Magika Stigmas inside. Let’s bet our pride as warriors.”<br /> <br /> “…Right!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki whispered back to Beatrix, her cheeks reddened with a puff and a heart mark flew from her.<br /> <br /> So this girl had her heart flutter in this kind of situation. …But certainly this was a situation that made a person’s heart dance.<br /> <br /> “Thunder fall on my body, obtaining lightning thought and god speed… wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!”<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, whirl in my body and double the {{furigana|Megin|divine power}}! The will of god that urge to unlimited battle, in this body! …Meginjord!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Beatrix stood shoulder to shoulder and went out in offense. They had left behind their companions that were bad in close quarter combat back on the ship, so they were able to rampage as they pleased without having any awareness to protect anyone.<br /> <br /> The cyborg soldiers stood in their way in order to protect the Magika Stigmas inside.<br /> <br /> Their speed and power from the assistance of their device were led around by the nose by Kazuki who Foresighted them. While Beatrix overwhelmed the cyborgs right from the front using Thor’s reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> Both of them beated and knocked down the opponent in front of them with a single blow and broke through the opponent’s formation. The other cyborg soldiers tried to stop Kazuki and Beatrix, but Kanae and Arthur obstructed them from both sides.<br /> <br /> The path before Kazuki and Beatrix was clear.<br /> <br /> Inside the long and narrow ship, the enemy Magika Stigmas were chanting magic. Before Kazuki and Beatrix could be allowed to approach them, the magics that they chanted were invoked earlier.<br /> <br /> Against the approaching magic, Kazuki by Foresighting the magic power, and Beatrix with her reinforced reflexes evaded them and ran to the inside.<br /> <br /> There were five Magika Stigmas that were chanting magic, being protected by the cyborg soldiers.<br /> <br /> That meant that there was a unit of 25 people in total here. And there Kazuki and co., ten people boarded the ship and the situation turned into an unfolding battle aboard the ship that couldn’t be called as wide.<br /> <br /> Two people among the five enemy Magika Stigmas intercepted Kazuki and Beatrix as if to proclaim that they could also fight in close quarter combat. It was as if they were forming back Heaven and Earth Formation with five people.<br /> <br /> The two who came intercepting were wearing strange Magic Dresses that didn’t lose to or was inferior to the cyborg soldiers on their bodies.<br /> <br /> One was a black girl with a toned body build like a warrior. She gave an impression like a black panther that leaped toward their prey with her gallant and handsome features. Her body was wearing Magic Dress that looked like bikini with red-white-blue color scheme and gloves on both her hands―saying it in a single word, she was like a &lt;boxer&gt;.<br /> <br /> The other one was a white girl with an expression as if it was made from ice somewhere. Sharp looking eyes and quirky blond hair could be peeked at through her cowboy hat and scarf, both her hands were holding silver handguns, and a figure that was almost naked was exposed from her long coat Magic Dress―she was like a &lt;gunman&gt; that came out from an old western film genre.<br /> <br /> …What’s with these girls!?<br /> <br /> But what he could say without mistake was… that these girls were American people!<br /> <br /> They were through and through, from their whole aspect, no matter where he saw them from, from the crown of their head until the tips of their toes, they had the feel of American people! It was as if they were taken blatantly from inside a skit!<br /> <br /> The black boxer girl yelled. She yelled in English that even Kazuki could follow.<br /> <br /> {Jeremy and I are each going to take one of these two! Ginny will cover us, the rest of you all will aim for the ship to hold them in check!!}<br /> <br /> Following that instruction, the five Magika Stigmas moved.<br /> <br /> The boxer girl headed at Kazuki and the gunman girl headed to Beatrix. The two Magika Stigmas at the back dispersed deeper inside to get away from Kazuki and Beatrix and directed the brunt of their magic power to the ship. The last one whirled a large magic power and entered her chanting of some kind of powerful magic of support type.<br /> <br /> {Shih-} The boxer girl struck at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> It was a sharp straight left jab. Because the jab came flying in a straight line, its movement was hard to catch and it looked excessively fast. Kazuki didn’t rely on his eye and read the destination of the magic power flow to evade.<br /> <br /> {!?} It seemed she didn’t think that her jab would be evaded, the boxer girl had her eyes widen in surprise while swinging her right fist at him. But her agitation was expressed in her movement.<br /> <br /> Kazuki easily evaded and slashed with Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> But at that moment, the boxer girl showed that she was not a mere fist fighter but a &lt;magic fist fighter&gt;.<br /> <br /> {Attack like the wind, uncatchable like the smoke, fluctuation is exactly the height of rule! … {{furigana|Smoke Work|Battle God of Smoke}}!}<br /> <br /> The black boxer’s body vanished as if it dispersed into {{furigana|Prima Materia|Origin Particle}}.<br /> <br /> She disappeared. Kazuki’s slash cut empty air.<br /> <br /> “!?” This time it was Kazuki that was surprised from having his attack evaded.<br /> <br /> The next instant, he received an impact to his face.<br /> <br /> Most likely it was a left jab. And then in barely no time at all he was hit consecutively by a right straight with a flash like speed.<br /> <br /> Kazuki staggered from the recoil of his defensive magic power. It was just a blow, but it was heavier compared to a slash.<br /> <br /> The figure of his opponent vanished―he could only sense the presence of her magic power flowing like a smoke.<br /> <br /> Was her fist the only thing materializing when she struck him?<br /> <br /> The attack from him passed through her, but her attack hit him completely.<br /> <br /> He could feel his opponent’s magic power creeping up at him accompanied by a presence of killing intent.<br /> <br /> Even without seeing it, if he could sense the flow of magic power than it was enough for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki dodged the unseen punch with a sway of his body.<br /> <br /> {!?} The invincible boxer let out a surprised indication from his evasion.<br /> <br /> “The wings flapped, what is scattered is spark. Trail behind the spiraling wind, become the bullet that pierces life! Flap and shoot out! Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> Physical attack hit only empty air, but he wondered how a flame bullet would fare.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki shot out a level 1 magic, the invincible boxer’s presence showed that she easily dodged it. This girl was different than the cyborg soldiers! She possessed an excellent skill on the level that could evade if it was a simple attack magic, that came from piling up training!<br /> <br /> But the fact that she evaded meant that even though she had turned into a smoke of magic power she still could be hit by attack magic.<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively let out a smile. She was an interesting opponent. He wanted to fight her one-on-one slowly.<br /> <br /> But he couldn’t do that.<br /> <br /> {Rhythm give ardor to fighting spirit, singing voice light courage, melody is changed into the brilliance of blade… bring the stage of victory into our battlefield! {{furigana|Fight Song|Song of Promised Victory}}ǃ}<br /> <br /> The Magika Stigma that chanted support magic from the depth of the ship invoked that magic.<br /> <br /> ―That girl also had a staggering appearance. The white girl with glamorous blond hair wore a Magic Dress in the form of a costume with stars and stripes pattern decorated with glittering spangles―her appearance was exactly like that of an [idol].<br /> <br /> It made him wanted to doubt whether what she wore was really a Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> Guitar and mike were created in her hands, the idol girl suddenly started to sing.<br /> <br /> While strumming her guitar, her singing voice echoed loudly through the battlefield.<br /> <br /> {~♪} The singing voice in English had an upbeat tempo, Kazuki couldn’t make out the lyrics of the song.<br /> <br /> Instantly the movement of all enemy troops on the battlefield accelerated and their power amplified.<br /> <br /> The cyborg soldiers that were located at a more distant location and also the boxer in front of his eyes, all were affected.<br /> <br /> All member support magic. It was a magic that could possibly change the war situation in a big way. It would be bad if that song was not stopped…<br /> <br /> “O undying bird that soar from dusk to dawn, please grant that wing of hope on my back! The destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was evading the unseen boxer’s prickling jabs, he invoked a large scale attack magic. Wings of flame spread out largely on Kazuki’s back and he directed it to the presence of the boxer’s magic power, Kazuki rotated his body and wing in order to swallow that presence.<br /> <br /> An approaching curtain of flame. It was a large scale attack magic that couldn’t be avoided and gave no room to escape.<br /> <br /> But the boxer girl also chanted her magic.<br /> <br /> {My daring knows no retreat and become a storm in the ring! Awaken the infinite great power… {{furigana|Dempsey Hurricane|Carnage Tornado Whirlwind Fist}}ǃǃ}<br /> <br /> She invoked that just before the curtain of flame approached, a fierce wind burst forth in the surroundings of the girl’s presence.<br /> <br /> Something rotated fiercely and disturbed the air.<br /> <br /> Kazuki sensed from the magic power what the girl was doing―she was giving rise to a fierce wind by doing boxing’s characteristic upper body rotation movement, &lt;weaving&gt; while further swinging around both her hands 'bun bun'.<br /> <br /> From the rotation of her upper body and both arms, she became a three pronged tornado and just like that she plunged into the curtain of flame.<br /> <br /> ―The wind had the power to blow away the flame.<br /> <br /> The wind that rotated at high speed stirred the flame. The flame got enfolded and scattered away everywhere before disappearing.<br /> <br /> Like that the girl slipped into the flame curtain. The Blazing Wings―were breached.<br /> <br /> The boxer girl went through the flame curtain and leaped into Kazuki’s bosom.<br /> <br /> {I got you!! Double Hurricane Cockscrew!!}<br /> <br /> The boxer girl raised a satisfied voice while thrusting forward both her arms that were conceived with tornado at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Such development could be predicted beforehand.<br /> <br /> “Zekorbeni!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki created a small Magic Dress of pendant shape on his neck and strongly thought of his bond with Mio.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s body was enveloped in dress of flame. At the same time he poured magic power into [the circuit of positivity level] and pulled out Phoenix’s power directly.<br /> <br /> Instant chanting―because the boxer girl had just invoked a large scale attack magic she became completely careless and leapt at him with her movement already entering an attack motion.<br /> <br /> Because he had already lured her enough, he invoked Zekorbeni. It was a timing where dodging was impossible.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise where the light of heaven reside in that body, respond to my accusation and burn to ash the sins on the earth! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> {Wh, WHAT!? How can that kind of magic, this fast…!?}<br /> <br /> If she was taken completely by surprise, than she wouldn’t be able to even use Resist.<br /> <br /> The avatar of Phoenix emerged, a light that was as if the sun itself was compressed was fired in a straight line. It was a magic that would have its power decreased in proportion depending on the distance because it was light, but if one got hit from zero distance it would have a power outside the norm.<br /> <br /> The boxer girl who was greeted by flying fire as if she was the one who jumped into it herself was blown away to the sea while her form was made to materialized.<br /> <br /> {What happened!?}<br /> <br /> Splash! The sound of someone falling into the sea could be heard. But for a possessor of magic power and physical ability of that level, she would surely able to climb up the ship again soon.<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately stopped pouring magic power into {{furigana|Zekorbeni|Crest of Solomon}} and vanished the flame dress. He must not display more power than what was necessary towards an opponent with unknown power.<br /> <br /> And then when he was going to hurry to head towards the idol who was singing the song of reinforcement magic, he paid attention to how Beatrix was doing with a glance.<br /> <br /> {No people that can escape against the law of the wilds… {{furigana|Roping &amp; Jitterbug|Dancer of Throwing Rope}}ǃ}<br /> “Nuwaa―!!”<br /> <br /> The gunman girl with a bad look in her eyes threw a rope that was permeated by magic power and bound Beatrix hands and feet. When the rope was pulled tightly, Beatrix rotated like a spinning top.<br /> <br /> It was as if a cowboy was controlling a ferocious bull with a rope.<br /> <br /> What in the world was she doing! Was the opponent really that powerful!?<br /> <br /> The gunman girl directed a sharp look at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> {I won’t let you go… shoot fate to death, magic bullet of black death! {{furigana|Ghost Snipe|Death Flying Star}}!}<br /> <br /> She turned the two silver handguns in her hands at him and pulled the triggers in succession.<br /> <br /> A total of seven bullets were fired―all of those bullets were enchanted with magic power.<br /> <br /> The bullets vanished in the middle of its firing line.<br /> <br /> Right after that―vortexes of magic power were created at Kazuki’s surroundings and the bullets came flying, tearing apart the space.<br /> <br /> Bullets that warped and came attacking from all directions―'gin gin!' Kazuki repelled the bullets with Ame no Murakumo and his body dodged.<br /> <br /> {My bullets were blocked…!?}<br /> <br /> ‘I see’, Kazuki understood the situation. Beatrix who was the type that blocked attacks using her reflex had bad compatibility with this attack.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki shot back at the gunman with Phoenix’s level 1 magic.<br /> <br /> {Shoot down all shots… {{furigana|Quick Aegis|Reaction Firing}}!}<br /> <br /> With a speed that far surpassed human’s reflex speed, the gunman shot back with her guns.<br /> <br /> Defensive magic―it was not the girl’s own reflex but a creation of [interception’s cause and effect] from the magic, it created the result of his Barrett getting shot by her gun. The bullet that was fired magically surpassed the speed of sound, collided with Barrett without any deviation, and it annihilated Barrett’s magic power.<br /> <br /> All of her chanting was fast like a quick draw gunman.<br /> <br /> But it was enough to just make her awareness directed to him for only an instant.<br /> <br /> Beatrix had already escaped from the rope with brute strength “Fun-!” and approached the gunman’s back. The large sword of the Einherjar swung down without letting escape the good chance, making the gunman went ‘hah’ in realization and turn back.<br /> <br /> {Something like your sword or whatever is useless no matter what you do…. O cloud of iron dust, curse and become the blessing that wrap my body… {{furigana|Desperado|Cloak of Wasteland}}!}<br /> <br /> Cloud of sand sprang forth around the gunman. The sand cloud was whirling while gluing closely to the girl’s body and the iron content that was strangely included in it solidified, forming a black coat.<br /> <br /> “The same method to defend won’t work the second time against the Einherjar! …O the god of Asgard Thor! Delight in my sword dance and let your roar resound! Entrust the thunder of sky into this sword, already even the exchange of attack is not allowed, consign to oblivion!! Fjorgyn Megin!!!!”<br /> <br /> His catchphrase was copied…!<br /> <br /> Lightning fell onto Beatrix’s raised sword and the sword that was wrapped by lightning was swung down as it was,<br /> <br /> “It’s difficult for a blade to affect that coat, but electricity will go through that really well!!”<br /> <br /> Blue sparks scattered on the body of the gunman who was protected by black clothing. It was the light of defensive magic power that resisted the rushing about electricity. “Guh.” The girl leaked out her voice and stepped back.<br /> <br /> Looks like Beatrix was fine.<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned to the idol wind magician that continued to sing the troublesome song in this battlefield and rushed at her.<br /> <br /> His eyes met the gaze of the idol girl. She further invoked another magic while she was singing. She chanted not using her mouth but by telepathy towards Astrum so it was something possible.<br /> <br /> It was high level attack magic. The idol girl was convinced that her attack magic would be invoked faster than Kazuki’s attack and she grinned broadly.<br /> <br /> Certainly he wouldn’t make it in time. But Kazuki kept running without trying to defend or dodge and raised Ame no Murakumo. …That was because he had noticed the magic power surge that happened quite far behind.<br /> <br /> “Dashinben!”<br /> <br /> While Shouko who according to her personal statement was bad in hand to hand combat was performing opposition to the cyborg soldiers, she kept watching over the battle state of this side and she invoked that magic at a perfect timing.<br /> <br /> A stick of plain wood that fiercely disturbed magic power. If that got swung down on empty air, it could emit wave that obstructed the chanting of all Magika Stigmas in the surrounding.<br /> <br /> 'DOON!' Even though there was no such sound but along with such a sensation echoing inside her head, the idol girl groaned “Uu-!?”. A moment of delay was created in the chanting that was almost completed, Kazuki stepped close to her.<br /> <br /> “Haa!”<br /> <br /> A flash of a diagonal slash along with his fighting spirit, and then a second strike further with the returning blade, he had no worry of anyone becoming a hindrance so he continued to give pursuing attack with large swings. He hacked to pieces the idol girl who seemed to have weak skill in fighting at the front lines.<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed his gaze at Arthur’s direction. ‘Please’, he informed with his eyes.<br /> <br /> Arthur also sensed the balance of the battle and nodded in understanding at his gaze’s meaning.<br /> <br /> {This battle is decided already! We are not coming to fight, sheath your weapons!!}<br /> <br /> Arthur who had the role of negotiating yelled in English.<br /> <br /> The gazes of the enemies gathered altogether at the collapsed idol girl in front of Kazuki.<br /> <br /> It seemed that this idol was the one with the highest position among them.<br /> <br /> The idol girl replied with a tense and awe inspiring look.<br /> <br /> {Visitors from other country! We the, Americans have adopted isolationism! We will intercept any who come from the outside, no matter who it is!!}<br /> <br /> As expected they were really American.<br /> <br /> “Arthur! What is the meaning of [isolationism]!?”<br /> <br /> Not understanding the word that was too technical, Kazuki asked to Arthur in a large voice using Japanese language.<br /> <br /> Arthur too replied back to Kazuki using Japanese language with a loud voice. “It means isolation doctrine!!”<br /> <br /> At that time, the momentum of the enemy shook.<br /> <br /> { { { {Ja, Japanese!?} } } }<br /> <br /> {Time, time, tiiimee!! Wait, waitt―!!}<br /> <br /> The idol girl swung around both her hands up and down. But this side had already stopped attacking since a while ago.<br /> <br /> The cyborg soldiers gathered around the idol girl in great panic and they began to discuss something in whispers as if in a huddle.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was taken aback by the sudden human reaction that they showed.<br /> <br /> {Who’d have thought that they are Japanese…} {They were talking in English so I thought that they might be British…} {Britain is no good, but Japan is fine, this is fantastic.} {No wonder I thought that their skins are yellow…} {But this is the first time I have seen the yellow monkey…} {Oi, stop it with the improper calling.}<br /> <br /> At that moment from the edge of the ship, the boxer girl that Kazuki had thrown into the sea just before climbed up onto the deck. Looking at the battle that was halted, her eyes turned circle while saying {What happen?} and she got added into her comrades huddle. Only the gunman girl was outside the circle alone waiting for the conclusion of the discussion to come out.<br /> <br /> {Yes, ohh~, yes!}<br /> <br /> The idol girl yelled. It seemed that something like a conclusion had been decided.<br /> <br /> The huddle was dissolved and the idol girl went a step forward to Arthur’s direction. She took a glance at Kazuki, and after hesitating which one was the representative, she talked in ''Japanese''.<br /> <br /> “Please forgive the sudden rudeness. We misunderstood that all of your are envoys from British because you negotiated using English. We are adopting isolation doctrine, but only Japan is the exception. We had been anticipating contact from Japan. Even now our heart is burning with the soul of Japan-America alliance. Once again, we welcome the arrival of all of you from the bottom of our heart. Welcome, to the USA!” &lt;ref&gt;The last sentence is said in English&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> The cyborg soldiers raised their fist all at once and yelled “USA!” “USA!” repeatedly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the others became even more dumbfounded.<br /> <br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_10_Chapter_2&diff=479671 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 10 Chapter 2 2016-02-04T18:19:35Z <p>Hiro Hayase: further -&gt; furthermore, typos</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 – Sea Route in Full Bloom (Harem Cruise)==<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The article that was written throughout the night was finished with magnificent shape and quality.<br /> <br /> Even the Thoughtography picture that accompanied the article would stir up the obscene imagination of the reader instead of how it didn’t depict anything vivid.<br /> <br /> Surely even before the people that read this could doubt the nonexistence of the evidence, their head would already become full with envy and rage.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling this article information, it was more like a novel, ‘To make myself write this kind of article, as expected I’m really a genius’ Turtle was praising himself.<br /> <br /> He wondered which publisher could accommodate his article in their pages as fast as possible.<br /> <br /> He made an appointment with an influential editor that was his acquaintance.<br /> <br /> He took a bath in the shower, shaved his beard, and changed the clothes that he had worn for three days.<br /> <br /> He printed the article on A4 paper using the household printer he owned.<br /> <br /> ―At that time the bell unexpectedly resounded inside the six tatami room.<br /> <br /> He didn’t expect any guest or anything. Turtle dubiously strode over the clothes that were scattered everywhere on the floor and opened the door standing at the entrance.<br /> <br /> The moment the door opened, the right hand of Turtle who was pushing open the knob of the door was pulled strongly forward. His left hand that was still holding the A4 paper was also quickly caught, and he got dragged outside the room. He was thrown down onto the floor like the judo move he learned in his student period.<br /> <br /> BAM! A hard sound resulted from his crash, both of his wrists profoundly felt some weight on it.<br /> <br /> A handcuff that was using adamantite as its core was fixed on both his hands.<br /> <br /> “…What the?” Turtle leaked out a befuddled voice.<br /> <br /> “This is police knight Kondou Hajime, the target has been secured. There is no doubt, it’s the man himself.”<br /> <br /> Turtle directed his eyes to the other party, the white uniform was the Knight Order’s. A katana was attached on his waist, so surely this was a swordsman. The police knight was the lowest rank of a knight.<br /> <br /> The man didn’t even look at Turtle and was talking to his wireless.<br /> <br /> “Hey wait, oi. Just why is this, why am I being arrested? Do you have arrest warrant or anything?”<br /> <br /> “There is none.” The man looked at Turtle for the first time. “This is really sudden so we don’t have anything like that.”<br /> <br /> “Then you can only ask me to go voluntarily, I should be able to refuse. I’m not going to go with you okay, take off this handcuff. After this my article needs to…”<br /> <br /> “No, there is this thing called arrest without a warrant.”<br /> <br /> “That’s why, why do I get arrested!?”<br /> <br /> “Certainly you are not doing anything really bad. Looks like you trespassed into a national forest, but you were not even caught red handed. But we cannot let you write your article by any means.”<br /> <br /> This police was saying something that was just too sketchy to this common citizen that was restrained by a handcuff.<br /> <br /> “You say that you cannot let me write the article… what kind of right you have to do that! As a journalist I have the freedom of expression! That’s a basic human right! I’m going make this into a big issue!!”<br /> <br /> The man who introduced himself as Kondo also made a face that looked troubled.<br /> <br /> Surely for himself this was the first time he had ever done violence like this.<br /> <br /> “I wonder how should I explain this… freedom of expression or your human right or whatever, you cannot say any of those things. We are going to completely ignore all that law and regulation stuff. You, have you thought of what will happen if you wrote the article?”<br /> <br /> Information about the King would become money, only that was enough for him.<br /> <br /> “What is going to happen you say… this is really not that outrageous right… The right of the public to know will be fulfilled. And money will come to me. That’s all. This is my purpose in life.”<br /> <br /> “If you write the article, China will come invading Japan you know.”<br /> <br /> Anger fell off from Turtle’s expression. “What the hell’s with that” Turtle leaked out a dispirited voice. He then remembered the course of events in that East-West War―how China was taking part at Yamato’s side. His face lost all color.<br /> <br /> His face turned expressionless and he looked down at the handcuff. This is, not an exaggeration at all is it?<br /> <br /> “Anyway just come along with us. We are not going to make you undergo any prosecution process or anything. Don’t complain at all. This is for your sake. You will be put under the monitoring of the Knight Order for a while. It still hasn’t been decided yet how you are going to be monitored. Everything depends on your attitude…”<br /> <br /> He imagined the extravagant ship that was mooring in the hidden harbor inside his head. The incomprehensible human that was called as a King or whatever who suddenly appeared in this country, was boarding a ship that had never been seen before and departed towards an unknown foreign country. And if he made that into an article, China would come invading.<br /> <br /> “…Hey, has the world completely changed?”<br /> <br /> Hearing Turtle’s abrupt words, the man knitted his eyebrows and said “What are you saying?”<br /> <br /> “Yeah, it has changed. In these three months a lot has been overturned. That’s right huh, there’s even more of such things the public has yet to be informed about.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “A contact just came, the three were able to be taken into custody safely. Kondou-san was surprised, he said that the thoughtography picture is just like the spitting image of the real person.<br /> <br /> Finishing her communication with the mainland, Akane-senpai put the receiver of the satellite communication device(INMARSAT) on the control panel. &lt;ref&gt;International Maritime Satellite Organization&lt;/ref&gt; With the INMARSAT satellite relaying the electromagnetic wave between this ship and Japan’s mainland, it made it possible for transmission of phone and internet.<br /> <br /> On top of the round table, a camera that was built-in with Psychofilm and thoughtography pictures that hadn’t been developed yet were scattered. These thoughtography pictures were changed into digital data and then they were sent to the mainland with INMARSAT‘s net.<br /> <br /> Using that image data, the Knight Order performed investigations to collect information and quickly resolved the situation.<br /> <br /> However… the thoughtography picture was absurd. Kazuki once again thought.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s great-…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was standing beside Akane-senpai nervously while watching over her conversation released a sigh of relief while stroking her chest. Tension left her expression and tears were spilling out from her eyes in drove.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki embraced her shoulder from the side, Kazuha-senpai clung at him closely.<br /> <br /> “However… as I thought, this is really shocking. Is this really your first time using Thoughtography? To be able to project the face of people that you saw only once in a mere short period this clearly is just…”<br /> <br /> The faces of the three men and woman were projected on the thoughtography pictures. The pictures were truly detailed but because the background was pitch black it looked more like a computer graphic.<br /> <br /> The truth was that Kazuki was not that worried. He thought that it was impossible doing this with ordinary method but… he immediately hit the idea that “If it’s Kazuha-senpai then perhaps she can do Thoughtography even though she has never done it before.”<br /> <br /> It was not a simple thing but Kazuha-senpai was a genius of general magic. Since she understood the usefulness of general magic from that time of turmoil with the spies, Kazuha-senpai had made an effort to train herself to find out its various practical application by her own initiative. Kazuki knew that.<br /> <br /> By the way because Kanae had also witnessed the faces of the journalists she also attempted to use Thoughtography, but for some reason what came out was Kazuki’s picture. Even if she tried to concentrate and recall the faces of the journalists, she was pleased to say that in the middle she would always completely think about Kazuki. She was an idiotic little sister as usual.<br /> <br /> Everyone else was also interested and attempted Thoughtography but, the result, there were a lot of pictures that looked like scribbles of kindergartners scattered on the round table.<br /> <br /> “It looks like when they questioned the journalist association, they could immediately identify the three people in question. They are an infamous gossip trio, Turtle Oota, Simo Heihei Iijima, and Anal Kirishima.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai laughed amusedly. “I understand why Turtle but, I wonder about the meaning of the other two’s nickname.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai is really a genius.” Kazuki said that while caressing Kazuha-senpai’s back, but Kazuha-senpai pressed her face into Kazuki’s chest and her crying didn’t look like it would stop soon.<br /> <br /> “What is being done to those three?” For the time being Kazuki faced Akane-senpai again.<br /> <br /> “Until our trip is finished, they are going to be either confined or monitored.”<br /> <br /> “What, you are not going to kill them?”<br /> <br /> Shouko who was sitting on a seat of the round table and watching over the situation said that in amazement.<br /> <br /> “Killing them is the fastest way to seal their mouths right? How naïve.”<br /> <br /> “It’s different for Anal-san or whatever that leaked out information, but there is no reason to lay the blame on the journalist and the cameraman. This country is a democratic country.”<br /> <br /> Shouko said that they were naïve but, democratically what they were doing to the journalist and the cameraman were already a great injustice.<br /> <br /> Saying it clearly, it bothered him.<br /> <br /> “For some reason the journalist man seems like he keeps muttering [The world has changed, changed] or something, so it looks like there is some talk that come out about what if we make him work as the government’s information official instead.”<br /> <br /> “Why’s that?”<br /> <br /> “When Kondou-san read the article he wrote, that journalist is quite good as an agitator… saying it positively he seems to have writen an ''article that moves people’s hearts'', they are going to try to win him over during the monitoring.”<br /> <br /> Perhaps that was not a bad point of a compromise.<br /> <br /> The world changed―certainly perhaps they had to make the people to be aware of those changes for real.<br /> <br /> “Hey, King. Do you know, about the political philosophy of Chukadou’s Emperor, Fu Zi?”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Shouko asked.<br /> <br /> “Political philosophy? Something like Regina’s &lt;Olympia Aristocrat Doctrine&gt;?”<br /> <br /> “&lt;Red Nopperabou&gt;.” It was an astoundingly mysterious word.<br /> <br /> “If I’m not mistaken, Chukadou… they don’t recognize the surrounding countries as a country and invaded them viewing them as [barbarian], they stole the culture, language, and religion of the invaded country, and assimilated them into Chukadou… isn’t that right?”<br /> <br /> “The politics is the story from there. The ideal shape of governing that Fu Zi is aiming, that is the Red Nopperabou. After assimilating all countries, next she will ''assimilate the whole human race''. She is going to terminate the fence between individuals. With the characteristic magic of the Diva Fu Zi is contracted with, she is going to make the whole human race into one colony. With that the riches are shared equally and all the problems in the world will be resolved.”<br /> <br /> Regina raised the explosion of human population as the forthcoming problem of the world and she said that she was going to sort the human race into aristocrats and slaves, where the slaves would be [culled]. What she meant by culled was to kill them.<br /> <br /> Then there was Fu Zi who was aiming to solve the problem with this exact opposite approach.<br /> <br /> “Even with a population explosion happening, if the difference between individual humans disappeared, then it’s going to be the same no matter who gets culled… consequently all of them are equal, is that it?”<br /> <br /> “That’s right. Rather than calling such a thing human, it’s better to call it a cell of colony organisms. Humans are going to be made into a single cell that live for the sake of the whole body.” &lt;ref&gt;Don’t know if what they are talking about is literal or just a metaphor&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Such method was certainly flawless. If there was a person that controlled it supernaturally, surely a flawless order could be maintained eternally. But something ghastly that he couldn’t express crept through Kazuki’s spine.<br /> <br /> The whole human race became the Red Nopperabou…<br /> <br /> “That’s the kind of country that is gonna invade Japan.”<br /> <br /> Sneer vanished from Shouko’s expression.<br /> <br /> “Your country almost became like that just because of a single joke article of a journalist that never even dreamed that such a thing can happen. Ignorance, insufficient sense of crisis, those are sins.”<br /> <br /> It was a danger not to inform the people of this country about what had happened in their own country.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a niceness from Shouko whose expression turned serious.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Shouko-san.”<br /> <br /> Shouko’s eyebrows twitched in surprise. “Oh? You attached ‘-san’ again on my name just now.”<br /> <br /> “It has been transmitted to me your advice that you have given is from your heart.”<br /> <br /> “Heh. You guys are just too naïve.”<br /> <br /> Most likely that was the sincerity of someone whose birthplace had been stolen already.<br /> <br /> The shoulder of Kazuha-senpai who was inside Kazuki’s embrace was trembling. When he looked at her, the globs of tear that were gathering in her eyes were growing a lot more where those were going to spill over anytime.<br /> <br /> “I, I… didn’t think of anything at all… that it might become something like that… I thought that even though those people were irritating because they were aiming for a bad article about Kazuki but they were not particularly evil people…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki also liked the Kazuha-senpai that was kindhearted like that.<br /> <br /> “But senpai can make a recovery with your own power already.”<br /> <br /> “I… I’m really pathetic…”<br /> <br /> “Senpai is a great person you know.”<br /> <br /> This time was not Kazuha-senpai’s failure but it was a failure invited by the insufficient recognition of the whole group. Accidentally, it was senpai that became the scapegoat here but it could also be said that it was thanks to her ability that they could recover.<br /> <br /> That was why there was a need to change how he treated this, not with reason but as a problem of feeling.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai strongly and pressed her crying face onto his chest tightly before he stroked her head.<br /> <br /> “I’m the senior, so don’t you stroke my head-“ She leaked out a complaining voice through his shirts.<br /> <br /> To continue even though she said to stop was the basics of interacting with Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps there are times when things don’t go well and it turns into failure. But senpai is a great person so it’s okay. At times when senpai becomes uneasy, please depend more on me and your {{furigana|surroundings|Peers}}&quot;.<br /> <br /> He earnestly continued to stroke Kazuha-senpai’s head. Thereupon a heart mark of positivity level up came flying.<br /> <br /> “…If I act too spoiled, you won’t hate or feel disgust at me because I’m a quack…?”<br /> <br /> She moved away her face just a little and asked him with upturned eyes.<br /> <br /> “Senpai.” Kazuki tilted up Kazuha-senpai’s face and forcefully stole her lips. From the light touch between lips, he then strongly sucked at her lips. “…!” As if a fire was lit in her, she sucked back strongly at Kazuki’s lips. Heart marks were flying everywhere. Finally excessive tension vanished from Kazuha-senpai’s body and she abandoned her body to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> When they separated their bodies after suckng chuu chuu at each other for a while, tears finally disappeared from Kazuha-senpai’s eyes. Kazuha-senpai was gazing at Kazuki dazedly with eyes as if looking at a dream.<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―142<br /> <br /> After that she noticed with a ‘hah’ and she looked around restlessly toward the other people that were in the bridge.<br /> <br /> Mio, Koyuki, Lotte, Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Kanae, Kohaku, the Ryuutaki sisters, Karin, Kamimura-san, Liz Liza-sensei, Akane-senpai, Kanon-senpai, Arthur, Shouko, Silirat. &lt;!--(Editor(Omega): Hey, why is there no mention of Bea – tan &gt;:) ) --&gt;<br /> <br /> ―All members were looking while still sitting on their seats.<br /> <br /> “I, I won’t make any more trouble and will work hard-!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai raised a scream and dashed out from the room in full speed.<br /> <br /> “…Somehow even my heart is beating fast. Tsukahara-san is cute. I too want her to rely more on me.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai murmured with a cool expression.<br /> <br /> “Amaziiing…” Silirat’s eyes turned round.<br /> <br /> “Is a kiss something that feels that good?” Karin touched her own lips softly.<br /> <br /> “I want to kiss…” Kaguya-senpai’s body dropped onto the table.<br /> <br /> “However the girl’s ability is certainly surprising.”<br /> <br /> Arthur murmured while curiously fiddling around with the camera that was loaded with Psychofilm.<br /> <br /> Arthur also challenged the making of a thoughtography picture just now―he exposed an awfully failed creation.<br /> <br /> It proved that Kazuha-senpai’s genius in general magic was far above the rest even when compared with a King.<br /> <br /> “Well, I’m the King and a knight that doesn’t worry of anything except fighting. Perhaps, if it’s about the skill in general magic, then Queen Regina is the one that is far more skilled though.”<br /> <br /> “That person… her way of fighting is also profusely skilled isn’t she? There is no openings in her offense and defense.”<br /> <br /> There was no opening―that meant that Kazuki’s way of fighting that pierced at the enemy’s weak point using countless magic would hardly work against her. By some chance, perhaps she was the strongest natural enemy for him.<br /> <br /> “Anyway, this case can be closed happily. With this we can sail without anything burdening us.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai pulled the mood together as the ship captain.<br /> <br /> “With this the briefing is over. Once again, Kazuki, as the King, please leisurely relax with the beginning of this cruise.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> An hour later, Kazuki was at the pool side.<br /> <br /> He deposited his body that was only wearing shorts on a spacious deck chair, there were even fruits that decorated the side table beside him, even fruit juice was there.<br /> <br /> The surface of the pool that, was located on the ship’s roof, was sparkling radiantly from the strong sunlight.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t calm down as if he was going to die.<br /> <br /> The girls who were assigned with duty inside the ship had changed into sailor uniforms and ran around doing their job. This ship was just freshly finished, but due to its nature that was constantly floating on sea water, the maintenance examination had to be diligently performed throughout the voyage. It seemed that the girls were being taught how to do that by Ship Captain Akane.<br /> <br /> Kazuki also tried to participate but he was chased away.<br /> <br /> There were also girls that were on a lookout at the bridge. Was the ship really moving at the planned direction, was there sign of other ships (though in this current era there was almost no such thing) or obstacles on their route, furthermore they also had to constantly check the weather’s change or the like without pause. Lotte was teaching everyone the controls of the ship. Shouko was also teaching the way to read the weather caringly with big-sisterly disposition.<br /> <br /> Kazuki also tried to get taught but he was chased away.<br /> <br /> There were also girls in the kitchen preparing lunch. Inside Queen Kaguya there were several extravagant restaurants and burger joints, but the crucial chef would only become a hindrance so there was none that came along on this journey. In the end they had to prepare their food themselves, but the kitchen was arranged with the ultimate ingredients and supreme facilities, the place became a dazzling environment for people who liked cooking.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was extremely excited but, he was chased away.<br /> <br /> The King should just leisurely relax―since everyone understood Kazuki’s personality, they said that with an expression of mischief on their face. This was nothing more than a bullying.<br /> <br /> “What in the world is the meaning of life I wonder…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was anguished. During the time where everyone was busily working, for him alone to drink a tropical juice at the pool side, ‘This is not me… This is not supposed to be me at all…’<br /> <br /> For the first time since he became a King, Kazuki became worried about the shakiness of his identity.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was reclining on the deck chair like on a bed.<br /> <br /> He was bathed in sunlight with a face of someone dying.<br /> <br /> There was no excitement at all that came to him in this resort situation.<br /> <br /> “Kaa~zukii-!” Something came flying together with an excited voice.<br /> <br /> “DOO~N!!”<br /> <br /> A girl that rounded her body fell at his side, the deck chair shook with a thud.<br /> <br /> It was Hikaru-senpai. Similar with the time of presentation before this, she was wearing a glossy swimming race swimsuit of the pool.<br /> <br /> “Hehe~♪ Let’s play too~gether-!” Hikaru-senpai clung beside him and frolicked at him.<br /> <br /> There was enough room even though there were two people lining on the deck chair.<br /> <br /> “Please wait for me, Hikaru-senpai!” From behind there was a different voice catching up.<br /> <br /> “Me too! Eii-!”<br /> <br /> One more person leaped at Kazuki’s side―this side was Mio in a red bikini.<br /> <br /> It became just a little cramped with three people lining up. Both of them sandwiched Kazuki tightly.<br /> <br /> Being clung at by girls in swimsuit with high exposure rate, Kazuki huddled his shoulders.<br /> <br /> “Are you two not being on duty?”<br /> <br /> “Uh-huh. But not letting the King get lonely is also a girl’s job, isn’t that right?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai kissed Kazuki’s right cheek lightly.<br /> <br /> “Me too-!” Mio also kissed his left cheek in rivalry. Instantly, the pool side turned cheerful.<br /> <br /> “Come on King, look, look! I’m going to put sun oil on you!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai pulled the chest part of her swimming race swimsuit and took out a bottle of sun oil from the valley of her breasts. For her to take that out from the valley of her breasts… as usual she was someone that seriously did something right out from a manga.<br /> <br /> “Even if you don’t purposefully put sun oil on me, I won’t get sun burned. I don’t particularly intend to get a tan anyway.”<br /> <br /> “It’s no good like that, you have to put on sun oil.” Mio scolded Kazuki from the side.<br /> <br /> “Sun oil is not put on for the sake of getting an excessive tan, it’s put on in order to protect the skin from the damage of the UV-rays even while your skin tans. If you are under this kind of sunlight, it’s no good unless you put either sun oil or tan block on!”<br /> <br /> Something like UV-rays that inflicted damage on the body gradually without him being aware couldn’t be blocked by the defensive magic power. Kazuki nodded if the reason was that.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, let’s compete in tanning after applying the oil! It’s a match of browned body!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai who was usually already high-tensioned became even further high-tensioned.<br /> <br /> “Come on, face this way-!”<br /> <br /> If she wanted to apply sun oil for him then he wouldn’t be reserved. “Pl, please take care of me” While Kazuki was feeling a slight shyness, he turned his body.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai seemed to think of something, she slipped off both her arms from her shoulder strap and slipped down the upper part of her swimming race swimsuit. Her lustrous skin was exposed as if a fruit with its skin peeled, and her drooping breasts shook like jelly.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai!?” Mio raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “Why is senpai suddenly getting topless!?” Kazuki too looked up to the sky.<br /> <br /> “Because I’m going to apply the oil after all. I’ve got to apply the oil myself.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai grinned brightly while putting oil on her hand and spread it syrupyly on her upper body.<br /> <br /> Her slender body and beautiful rocket breasts were giving off shiny luster under the sunlight and made her body dimensions even more conspicuous.<br /> <br /> The boyish Hikaru-senpai lasciviously radiated sensual charm. Even while she was smiling innocently, an atmosphere that was like a beast aiming for its prey was hiding in the depths of her eyes that were staring at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki unintentionally gulped his saliva at that perverse appearance.<br /> <br /> “Take this, slippy, slippy!” And then she embraced him tightly.<br /> <br /> Just when he thought that her bouncy breasts would get smashed softly on him, it slipped due to the lacquered oil and escaped from him. Hikaru-senpai shook her body and once more pressed back her breasts on him softly, and then it slipped away again because of the slippery oil. She repeated that many times and spread the oil with her breasts as a sponge replacement.<br /> <br /> “Se, senpai, this is…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was provoked. Thanks to the oil, the friction became zero and the sensation of Hikaru-senpai’s skin was conveyed to him 100%. ''Friction was just a hindrance''. The ultimate sensation that couldn’t be tasted when they were just hugging normally. The deliciousness of a girl was purely extracted… no, it was as if it got doubled.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha-♡ Breast sponge, my tips are tingling, it feels good-♪”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai was also feeling pleasure and her body was trembling in shivers.<br /> <br /> The breasts rubbed him with elasticity and slippery sensation, yet there was also a stiffness mixed in it that got highlighted. When Kazuki got conscious of the swelling nipple, Kazuki’s head was boiling even more.<br /> <br /> After sliding around Kazuki’s chest for a while, next Hikaru-senpai was going to sandwich his right shoulder and keeping like that she was sliding down his arm smoothly. After making round trips several times, she arrived at his fingertips. And then she made his palm to rub on her own breasts.<br /> <br /> “The face has to get oiled properly too-“<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai oiled even her face and rubbed her cheek on him as if getting spoiled.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a glance to the right thinking whether Mio would put a stop to this or not.<br /> <br /> “Me… me too!”<br /> <br /> But Mio felt rivalry and without hesitation took off the bra of her bikini and flung it away, she hugged tightly at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Mio’s symmetrically shaped breasts also shook like jelly. And then she spread oil in plenty on her body, making her naked body that was slightly more voluptuous than the slender Hikaru-senpai glitter.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.10 050.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Kazuki was also mesmerized by Mio’s figure, he realized the magic power of oil. Looking was great, touching was also great. What a thing, it strengthened the charm of a girl both visually and tactility.<br /> <br /> “Eii-“ Mio too hugged at Kazuki’s back and the two soft sponges squishily and slipperily made its presence known.<br /> <br /> Puni-nuru, Puni-nuru, Puni-nuru… he was sandwiched by a sensual sensation from behind and front by the two. &lt;ref&gt;Puni=the SFX of something elastic, nuru=the SFX of something slippery&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Ahn-“ There an ardent voice was mixed among all the sound. Sweet sensation, sweet voice, sweet fragrance… Sweetness of a girl was soaking into Kazuki’s whole body until his brain.<br /> <br /> “Just the upper body is no good, the lower body has to be oiled until its nook and corner…♪”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai slipped off both her legs from the remaining swimming race swimsuit on her lower body and threw it away.<br /> <br /> Her naked body was splendidly exposed in broad daylight, her thighs were also spread with oil syrupily. She sandwiched Kazuki’s thigh around her knees, and then she was sliding down slipperily from her thighs until the root of both her legs―her secret nether region. And then she began to rub her nether region back and forth on top of Kazuki’s thigh,<br /> <br /> “The butt too-!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai followed her own whim and half-rotated her body rapidly, she coated oil on her pudding-like butt, then she held Kazuki’s arm between the chasm of her butt and got sliding. Even though his arm had already got oiled from before, the chasm of the butt was slipperily making a round trip through the arm. Kazuki stiffened, even while having this act done to him, his fingers twitched reflexively.<br /> <br /> Thereupon his fingertip gently grazed the contraction of the chasm of Hikaru-senpai’s butt.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-! I liked it just now-!!♡”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai shook her butt even more and more in badgering him. His stiffened fingertip was pressed strongly at the contraction and it slipperily entered inside on its own accord, Hikaru-senpai’s waist shook happily.<br /> <br /> “But as expected feeling only good in my butt, it’s really not enough―♪”<br /> <br /> She returned her body’s direction to the front again and rubbed her breast and waist to Kazuki closely.<br /> <br /> With a sexually excited face facing him, with a posture that rubbed her body covering the maximum widest area she possibly could, Hikaru-senpai slide her body by her own whim, ‘Haa―’ she leaked out a hot breath.<br /> <br /> “How amazing… this oiling feels amazingly good more than I thought…♡ It makes me want to get oiled until the inside of my body…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai grasped Kazuki’s hand and held it between her crotches. Kazuki’s rugged hand pressed persistently on her sensitive spot and made her enjoy the stimulation. With the slipperiness of the oil, Kazuki’s fingertip smoothly entered into the inside. There a once more different sensation with even more heat than other places was making his finger sticky.<br /> <br /> “It feels good Kazuki-♡ That spot feels good-♡“<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai rubbed Kazuki’s finger persistently at the inside of her body that felt wet with a wetness that couldn’t be explained with just the slipperiness of the oil.<br /> <br /> “To, to completely go that far feeling good like that…”<br /> <br /> Mio opened her eyes wide looking at Hikaru-senpai’s innocent silliness. And then Mio too smoothly took off the panty of her bikini and threw it away. She coated her long legs with oil and entwined them on Kazuki’s leg. She fawned at him rubbing her body with a movement that was slightly more reserved than Hikaru-senpai. Her breathing, too, soon became ardent.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s both ears were surrounded by the sounds of “Haa♡ Haa♡” “Ahnn-♡“ “Nnn-♡“ from the two. His head became dizzy.<br /> <br /> The bold figures of the two were illuminated by the sun of midsummer without even a single shadow that was hidden.<br /> <br /> Even saying it conservatively, on top of the deck chair was the very heaven itself. Despite it was only a few hours that had passed since they departed from Japan, he had the feeling that he had arrived to some place far away beyond the horizon.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki too, come on, take off your swimsuit―. Let’s make your penis slippery okay?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai whose eyes were appearing intoxicated was tempting him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki hesitated. Being sandwiched between two naked girls, bodies slippery with oil, the swimwear that was remaining on him could be thought of as his last reasoning. The moment this got taken off and thrown away and the three became naked under the sun, he had the feeling that he would leave his body to his instinct and completely turn into a single beast.<br /> <br /> “It’s no good senpai, I don’t have any intention of getting a tan in that kind of place.”<br /> <br /> He tightly held his swimwear and held his ground.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii… for you to endure yourself in this situation… how cool…”<br /> <br /> It was unclear what was so cool for her but Mio’s eyes glittered ecstatically.<br /> <br /> Mio was not as innocent to the degree of Hikaru-senpai, she understood to a certain degree of a male’s instinct. She understood how much Kazuki was enduring himself currently.<br /> <br /> Mio was deeply moved and showered him with a kiss while saying “Kazu-nii, I love you! I love you so much!” Even while kissing him she was still wriggling her body lasciviously.<br /> <br /> The posture of Mio, who was kissing Kazuki, became as if she was the one who was in charge of Kazuki’s upper body, and then Hikaru-senpai’s posture was as if she was the one in charge of his lower body. With Kazuki in the center, the two girls continued to move their nude body as if they were becoming a perpetual machine that kept producing pleasant feelings. Both of them got carried away by the pleasant feelings many times over, their bodies convulsing. &lt;!--(Editor(Omega): The Perpetual Love Machine makes its return !)--&gt;<br /> <br /> “Haa, haa… even with my body twitching like this the good feeling continues even further… my head feels completely numb…-♡“<br /> <br /> The breathing of Hikaru-senpai who was greedy for the pleasant feeling was not so trivially turning rough.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was desperately enduring his desire of wanting to get his lower body oiled in addition. But the sweet sensation was gradually spreading to his waist as it pleased, something electrifying was discharged running from the center of his waist.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s body was shaking intolerably. At the same time Mio and Hikaru-senpai’s bodies were also noticeably trembling fiercely.<br /> <br /> It was an animalistic instant that laid bare an urge that was hard to resist.<br /> <br /> The three people finally stopped moving and laid down on the deck chair.<br /> <br /> “…Just now, Kazuki was also twitching…?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai was trying to lower Kazuki’s swimwear with her expression still in a dreamy state of mind.<br /> <br /> “…My, head feels dizzy from the heat, so I’m going to take a shower for a little.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stood up while pinning down his swimwear and hurriedly headed to the shower room.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> After that, the three were playing beach ball wholesomely for a while.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Kazuki, who was somewhat tanned when he rose from the pool, finally arrived at the [King’s Room] that was prepared for his sake.<br /> <br /> When he opened the door, what entered his sight was a deluxe suite that was illuminated by a golden chandelier.<br /> <br /> For the time being he sat on the bed that had the width that could be used by around four or five people. It completely made him wonder whether this bed was actually put here for the sake of calling girls over or not.<br /> <br /> The size of the bed was around five times wider than the one he owned in his private room at the Witch’s Mansion. The furniture was all made from valuable natural wood like mahogany or rosewood that were combined with the latest alchemic metal and resin, all of them possessed both the classic appearance together with futuristic modernity.<br /> <br /> Excess luxury… he thought that but the feeling of Vice Chief Yamagata who prepared a room like this for him was also conveyed. He was greatly touched by this assistance for him that was done with the full effort of someone.<br /> <br /> While he couldn’t really calm down, there was the sound of knocking.<br /> <br /> “Come in” When he invited in the guest, the door opened thinly and Koyuki’s face peeked out from the gap.<br /> <br /> Koyuki acted as if she was confirming that there was no one else inside the room before she hurriedly approached the bed where Kazuki was sitting. Her movement looked like a small animal.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki, have you finished your work?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki was wearing the previously mentioned cute sailor uniform. The clean whiteness of it suited Koyuki so much it made him dizzy. That she was wearing it meant that she was being on duty to do some kind of work on this ship, that made Kazuki jealous.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… I’m a hopeless elf…”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> “I was learning the way of machine’s maintaining and inspection as my job throughout the morning but… I’m not good against machines and my comprehension was falling behind the others… I completely became a bother. I’m disqualified as a sailor.”<br /> <br /> She said that with her shoulder dropping dejectedly.<br /> <br /> “I think it’s still too fast for you to have the consciousness as a pro sailor, but is Koyuki really that bad with machines?”<br /> <br /> This was Koyuki who was born possessing a lot of magic power and even in battle she had saved Kazuki with her quick-wittedness.<br /> <br /> Moreover she was also at the top in school record.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt reliability more than anyone of the same generation from Koyuki who was cool and intellectual.<br /> <br /> This side of her that was not good with machines was unexpected, but when he recalled her room that was buried in books, he got the feeling that he could understand her even if he was told that she was actually an analog person.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… as the King, please punish this me that is a no good sailor.”<br /> <br /> “Eh? Punish you as King you said?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was flabbergasted. “Surely you don’t need anything like a punishment right?”<br /> <br /> “There is no value in punishing me even when I failed… a deserted existence, in other words I’m just the dregs of an elf.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s voice became even more wilted. …Why did it turn out like that? It was a puzzling self-condemnation feeling from her. Koyuki was a serious person so when she failed she might be worrying too much that she then wanted to be scolded properly.<br /> <br /> Certainly, to not be questioned at all even though she failed, could be thought in reverse as no one had any expectation on her at all from the start. Interpreted broadly it could also be seen as deserting her.<br /> <br /> However, just because of that he had to punish her, their relationship was not a relationship between master and servant here.<br /> <br /> Even though he thought of Koyuki as his friend and also his comrade… she was an existence that was close to being his lover.<br /> <br /> “Is it fine even if I spank your butt?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that jokingly, Koyuki unhesitatingly took off her sailor uniform’s skirt altogether with her panties.<br /> <br /> …’WHY!?’ Kazuki fell into a panic.<br /> <br /> “It’s humiliating to be subjected with spanking at this age, but… I have no choice but to obey…”<br /> <br /> She was not hesitating in slipping off her skirt and her panties from her legs, there was no superfluous hair growing on her body, her lower body that was white and smooth like an egg was laid bare in front of him.<br /> <br /> No one was telling her to take off her panties or anything.<br /> <br /> Koyuki climbed on the lap of Kazuki who was sitting stock still on the bed and lying on her stomach.<br /> <br /> It was the traditional posture of butt-spanking.<br /> <br /> “It’s embarrassing but… if this is what Kazuki ordered then… come.”<br /> <br /> ‘Even if she said come’, Kazuki thought but Koyuki faced him with a face red from embarrassment while a color of expectation could be peeked out from her eyes.<br /> <br /> With his mind still half-suspended Kazuki stared fixedly at Koyuki’s butt.<br /> <br /> This was not his first time seeing a girl naked but surprisingly he had never seen it fixedly in a calm situation like this. A round butt that looked elastic like a pudding that was shaking fidgetingly. And then the thighs that were drawing soft curves from there. It was hard to see from this posture but the plump roundness that was surrounded in a triangle by both thighs and the butt was also exposed.<br /> <br /> “Pl, please don’t stare… at this kind of shameful appearance…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki said that in a rough breath but she looked like she wanted to be watched instead.<br /> <br /> With a stiff movement like a tin plate toy, Kazuki hit her butt for the time being.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling it hitting, his palm was more like pressing on her surface with a snap. The softness was spreading on his palm.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, like that it won’t become any punishment-”<br /> <br /> “Li, like this?”<br /> <br /> He swung his hand down putting just a little bit more strength in it. pechin! Her butt made an undulation. There's supposed to be some pain from that but there was no defensive magic power generated as if she was receiving that contentedly.<br /> <br /> “Nnn-!” Koyuki let a voice escape her mouth.<br /> <br /> He said spanking so this wouldn’t finish with just a single hit. He swung down his palm on Koyuki’s lovely butt several times. Her white skin reddened slightly.<br /> <br /> “…I’m, a hopeless no good elf so… please spank me more…!”<br /> <br /> In short this was her behaving like a spoiled child to him.<br /> <br /> There was a masochist-like aspect in Koyuki. But by no means that it was because her inborn nature liked to be abused verbally or because she could feel pain as pleasure. She created a situation where [he would accept her no good self] , she only wanted to feel that she was loved for real.<br /> <br /> His hesitation vanished all of a sudden. This act they were doing was not particularly so abnormal. This was just the usual Koyuki, who greedily wanted to be minded about.<br /> <br /> Of course it was also due to the fact that she failed her job, he guessed that she also wanted to get a fresh start mentally.<br /> <br /> “…Really, Koyuki is a hopeless pervert that always need to be looked after.”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki released a sigh, he said something mean in a theatrical way of talking. And then he put just a little more strength and hit her butt. “Ye, yess-!” Koyuki’s voice turned excited.<br /> <br /> “I’m a hopeless no good elf! Please spank me more-♡“<br /> <br /> pechi―n, pechi―n Such sounds rang out, Koyuki was happily wriggling her butt.<br /> <br /> “It will be no good to leave alone this kind of hopeless child unless I keep being together with you forever.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly stopped the force of his swinging down arm and gently caressed Koyuki’s reddened butt. He felt the roundness on his palm. Her butt twitched then.<br /> <br /> “Su, suddenly turning gentle like this, my butt, it turned sensitive…!”<br /> <br /> tsuu― A single line was dripping down from Koyuki’s thigh. It caught Kazuki’s attention and he caressed the wet thigh.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki, there is sweat here. Is your butt feeling hot?”<br /> <br /> “That’s not sweat… that’s because, on top of being unable to do my job, I’m a perverted elf…♡”<br /> <br /> Koyuki was shivering even more conspicuously while saying some masochistic words.<br /> <br /> She was lovely, however, somehow, she really made him feel that she was a hopeless girl and he could only make a bitter smile. He once more hit her butt sharply.<br /> <br /> After that, until the time for lunch came he kept spanking and caressing her butt.<br /> <br /> Before long he lifted in his arm the body of Koyuki that was limp like a doll while her expression was in a dreamy state of mind. “The punishment is over”, he said that and kissed her. Koyuki embraced Kazuki with a “puu” and acted sweet towards him like normal.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> Everywhere on the ship was extremely extravagant, but the ship also made him filled with admiration that even extravagance had a variety of variations.<br /> <br /> The inboard restaurant where they gathered for lunch was a space that made the visitors feel the impression of middle age Rome. Perhaps this kind of place is just like where the Sun King Louis XIV ‘Le Roi Soleil’ held a banquet in Versailles palace.<br /> <br /> Its wall and also the ceiling were applied with detailed carving in Baroque style, they were painted in different colors of golden and white. That golden and white were resplendently reflected by the light of the chandelier and the candlesticks, illuminating the space. That appearance was exactly like the Versailles palace that was extolled as the palace of the sun.<br /> <br /> Even all the tables and chairs were antique articles of Europe. Right now the diplomatic relationship between Japan and Europe is severed, the antiques that currently existed inside the country were mostly cultural assets.<br /> <br /> There were Japanese, Chinese, and Western restaurants available inside Queen Kaguya, it was terrifying to think that this was just nothing more than one of them. However the essential chef for it was not here.<br /> <br /> It couldn’t be helped that Kazuki became concerned with the kitchen. For all humans that love cooking, that place was a space that would make them water at the mouth.<br /> <br /> “ “ “ “The lunch today is made by us.” “ “ “<br /> <br /> The ones who were talking with matched voices in a tone as if they were playing house that didn’t suit this ultimate kitchen were the Ryuutaki sisters, Karin and Liz Liza-sensei, these four were wearing a sailor uniform covered with an apron and the long and narrow chef hat on their heads.<br /> <br /> What an amazing quartet.<br /> <br /> No, when he looked carefully there was also Kamimura-san half hidden by the group of four. There were five people.<br /> <br /> “Hmm? Kamimura-san is also working?”<br /> <br /> ‘Don’t tell me, how could that be,’ he thought that.<br /> <br /> “I was told that it’s fine even if I don’t work but… being seen with eyes of [only this girl is not working] is also painful so…”<br /> <br /> From now on Kamimura-san would be forced to a community life with a large number of eighteen people for ten days, whether she wanted it or not, in this closed space that was a ship. After that, where they would arrive at was on a foreign country called America.<br /> <br /> This was a harsh environment for the NEET Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> But the girl was concerned by the eyes of her surroundings and set out to act from herself. That… Kamimura-san!<br /> <br /> That was a great step forward. Calling it a brilliant achievement was not an exaggeration in the slightest.<br /> <br /> “I pressed a switch on the rice cooker and cooked the rice.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san raised her thumb with a triumphant look.<br /> <br /> “Amazing Kamimura-san! Thank you Kamimura-san!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki got carried away in praising her. Kamimura-san when she was in a good mood was fundamentally like an anime character so being exaggerated this much was better.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, I made the hamburger see!! This is Tamamo no Mae’s specialty cooking!!”<br /> <br /> When Karin raised her voice, the avatar of Tamamo no Mae floated besides her.<br /> <br /> {Uh huh. This is the specialty cooking of mine since my time as Dakki. I used to summon the lords that got too impertinent and treated them to hamburger like this. In addition, the ingredient was the minced meat of the guy’s son.}<br /> <br /> “What’s with you, telling that episode that ruined the mood.” Kazuki was drawing away from her.<br /> <br /> {That’s because the I at that period was Dakki of heaven’s decree, right now I’m the highly moral Tamamo-san. …Mu?}<br /> <br /> Tamamo directed her face to Shouko’s direction. She was staring fixedly at Shouko’s face.<br /> <br /> Besides Shouko, her contracted Diva―Taikoubou’s avatar emerged out along with a blue light.<br /> <br /> {It has been a long time, Dakki.} The old man with enlightened face called out to her like that.<br /> <br /> {Gee―!? Taikoubou!!} Tamamo was shocked and jumped with a 'pyon'.<br /> <br /> {Dakki? Who are you talking about kon?! I am Tamamo kon.} &lt;ref&gt;Kon is a fox’s voice&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> {It would be best even if you don’t change your character and play dumb. Currently I have no heaven’s decree to dispute against you.}<br /> <br /> {Tha, that’s so but… no matter what, the trauma is…}<br /> <br /> Tamamo huddled her head with both her hands while trembling fiercely 'gata gata'.<br /> <br /> {What an adverse fate isn’t it? For the fate between I and you to develop where we are fighting together shoulder to shoulder like this.}<br /> <br /> {Smashed… my head is smashed…}<br /> <br /> {Diva is established by the Mythology… but in the first place I am given the mission to escape from the heaven’s decree. And you escaped from the heaven’s decree as the servant of Joka by shifting into Tamamo. Due to that you created and obtained the chance meeting of adverse fate.}<br /> <br /> {It’s scary having your head split open by a whip… It’s scary having your head split open by a whip…}<br /> <br /> {In a certain meaning the both of us are exactly the symbol of the battle ahead… ah, wait.}<br /> <br /> The figure of Tamamo no Mae vanished despondently.<br /> <br /> {She vanished… Even though I wanted to renew the old friendship. No matter how hard one tries, I can’t mesh well with her when I try to get closer to her…}<br /> <br /> {Taikoubou…} Besides Lotte, Prometheus emerged out.<br /> <br /> {If you talk too long then the meal will get cold.}<br /> <br /> {I cannot taste it anyway.}<br /> <br /> {I’m assimilated with Lotte so I can taste it.}<br /> <br /> {Cheh-} Leaving behind childishness that seemed unbecoming of a sage, Taikoubou’s avatar vanished.<br /> <br /> “…Old man Taikoubou is unusually {{furigana|jovial|Friendly}} huh.”<br /> <br /> The contractor Shouko had her eyes turned round.<br /> <br /> “We were baking this pie together with Liz Liza-sensei.”<br /> <br /> The Ryuutaki sisters were holding what appeared to be a pie that was baked in the open from the kitchen.<br /> <br /> “There is also King Arthur here. When talking about Britain, then pie cooking will come to mind. Because recipes from all over the world is prepared inside the kitchen, we made this with that as reference.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei who was born in Britain yet raised in Japan talked. Her appearance where a tall and lanky chef hat was put on top of the head of her tiny body, he would be scolded if he said it out loud, but she was cute.<br /> <br /> “I created a meat pie with potato and cheese filling.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai said that while slurping her own saliva.<br /> <br /> “That composition really hit the spot of a meat pie’s deliciousness.”<br /> <br /> Arthur smiled broadly.<br /> <br /> “Hee, so if we mentioned Britain, then pie cooking will come to mind. I didn’t know that at all.”<br /> <br /> “Do you know nothing about Britain’s cooking? …Before in the old era, the people from the gourmet countries that were Japan, France, or China came harassing us with a gaze of mockery saying that Britain was a land with a savage palate… Such humiliation, by no means we, the inheritor of Britain’s genes, have forgotten it. It’s fine if we said that as a self-ridiculing joke, but for other countries to call us as a savage land is just something that is only a shameful thinking. How dare you, you Jap!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Arthur flung off his usual gentlemanly composure to the wind and he raised his voice roughly.<br /> <br /> “What does he mean by Jap?” Kazuki tilted his head. Liz Liza-sensei explained “It’s a derogatory term for Japanese that existed in the past.”<br /> <br /> “Well, around our generation it was a common sense that Britain’s food was bad anyway.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei who was from the older generation talked with a tone that was a little fired up.<br /> <br /> “Many countries were mocking our Britain’s food culture, but unexpectedly the reason for that wasn’t known. I heard there is a lot of Japanese that thought that the Anglo-Saxon race are fundamentally people with a savage taste. This is a good chance, I’m going to gamble the pride of the meat pie in this place in order to recover the honor of Britain’s gene in this place without fail. This is also the duty of a King.”<br /> <br /> “The food will get cold if the talk goes too long though…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki attempted to interrupt but Arthur ignored him and began to talk eloquently.<br /> <br /> “There were actually many primary factors that caused the food culture in our country to fail to blossom. The theory about our bad relation with France or the industrial revolution were raised but the biggest cause was the cold climate that made it hard to raise vegetable and wheat. The only one we could harvest was potato, we ate only potato and we were called potato knight. It’s the equivalent of rustic samurai in Japanese language.”<br /> <br /> “Something like country bumpkin then.” Kazuki back-talked with an indifferent feeling.<br /> <br /> “Next because stock-farming was also possible, we also ate beef meat often. That’s why roast beef and meat pie were greatly refined that we could even boast it to the world as our prided cooking. But the combination of potato and meat only reinforced the impression of us as savages. There we then bluffed [We don’t have any interest in something trivial like food! We are just putting importance on efficiency!] that only made the surrounding countries to make fun and look down on us. So vexing.”<br /> <br /> Arthur was trembling fiercely even though there was no person from that time at all here. He could take a glimpse of a King’s patriotism from this.<br /> <br /> “But when the 21st century of the old era came and the international exchange between countries was turning into a huge boom, the ingredients and food culture from other countries freely flooded Britain without any restriction. In this modern times you have never seen other countries with such an unprecedented sudden development of food culture to the degree of Britain, don’t you agree? But even so it’s not so simple to overturn the label that had once stuck to us.”<br /> <br /> Arthur’s voice was filled with a deep sadness.<br /> <br /> “Before we could even overturn that label―a great encounter and disaster happened and the era changed. The encounter with Diva. For the sake of our faith, we had to once again sever our ties with the world. Once again it appeared that the palate of the British Empire would be isolated inside the oatmeal of darkness.”<br /> <br /> “What in the world is this oatmeal of darkness?”<br /> <br /> “However, in exchange of losing our diplomatic relation we obtained the power of alchemy. As the King, I developed a large scale country project in order to enrich Britain’s food culture. We restored the soil, adapted the plant species of the old era to cold climate… we recovered the bright era once more! Any kind of crops exist in the current Britain! I did my best! I won’t let anyone call us as a tasteless country anymore!!”<br /> <br /> He learned a little bit more about foreign culture again. For the time being Kazuki and the others gave an applause, but Lotte was murmuring “Thinking of it in anime perspective this is a loss of individuality you know desu.”<br /> <br /> With a “Fuu” Arthur took a breather from his long talk and directed his gaze onto the meat pie.<br /> <br /> “Meat pie with cheese filling really hit the spot of a meat pie’s deliciousness. This is a special cooking that unites our pie cooking’s culture with our prided stock farming and dairy producet that were once numbered so few in our country. Thank you, Shinobu-kun, you have gathered and expressed the history of Britain’s food culture on top of a single plate. Well… though fish and chips that is wrapped inside an erotic newspaper is also not that bad.”<br /> <br /> “Meat… Cheese… A pie with a lot of butter… There is no reason that it will taste bad… gau…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai whose saliva kept gathering in her mouth was even now still making a face as if saliva would dribble down from her mouth anytime. There was no doubt that she just wanted to eat oily and meaty food, she was a carnivore that didn’t think of anything that profound.<br /> <br /> “If I left everything to everyone else, then everything will be completely covered by meat, so here I made a lot of vegetables.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was also carrying a pie on her hand. When she put it on the table and divided it, that cross-section view was depicting a stylish marble pattern of colorful vegetables, cheese, and egg.<br /> <br /> She further brought our potage soup and salad from the kitchen. &lt;ref&gt;Potage is a kind of thick soup. No dirty minds please. ;P&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “This pie is a quiche isn’t it? Also if you ask what kind of potage soup is this though… it’s not from Britain but France.” Arthur’s tone hardened from his antagonism towards France.<br /> <br /> “She kept trying to look good and tried to make something elaborate and kept failing, that’s why she got this delayed!”<br /> <br /> When Karin pointed that out while laughing, Miyabi-senpai whose showing-off personality got exposed “Don’t tell them that!” her face turned red. Liz Liza-sensei also laughed with a mean expression.<br /> <br /> “If you don’t have defensive magic power, your left finger and the tip of your foot will be gone already huh.”<br /> <br /> “I can understand finger but even the toes?”<br /> <br /> “She dropped the knife from the cutting board onto her foot many times. Exactly like a guillotine.”<br /> <br /> ‘Uwaa…’, Kazuki imagined it and his spine froze.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai also divided the pie that she baked herself. The pie texture of this one felt more like cookie that crumble rather than the usual flaky texture, the masses of meat was peeking out all over the cross-section with syrupy cheese spilling out. Just looking from the visual it looked absolutely tasty.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha! The quiche one has the feels like Paris, but this one, should it get called rough or wild, it really has the feel of savage cooking isn’t it! Though I like this kind of food more!”<br /> <br /> The thing that, although Kazuki was thinking it but he didn’t say it out, was said out by Hikaru-senpai while laughing.<br /> <br /> The face of Arthur who was the King of a country turned white and he stared at Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “What actually is a Diva and Mythology?”<br /> <br /> In the middle of the meal, Kazuki asked to Leme and Lotte―no, to Prometheus that was inside Lotte.<br /> <br /> “You two should have gradually recovered your memory, so isn’t it fine if you two teach me more about various things?”<br /> <br /> The conversation between Taikobou and Tamamo from before was weighing on Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> Diva was established by the Mythology―sometimes the Divas talked about this kind of thing that made him get an idea like that, but what was a Diva, what was Mythology, he always lacked the concreteness of their existence and didn’t understand well.<br /> <br /> While Leme was stuffing too much food into her mouth and she couldn’t reply while chewing 'mogu mogu', Prometheus emerged out beside Lotte. Prometheus was able to perform a skillful act of conversing with Kazuki using his avatar even while tasting the food with the senses that he shared with Lotte.<br /> <br /> {I have a memory loss but with the power and memory I have recovered little by little… there is something that I noticed. Though I think that perhaps Lemegeton-sama who has recovered more memory and power than me is the same like me.}<br /> <br /> “Mogu mogu gokun. …Right, I understand what Prometheus wanted to say. O King. It seems that Leme and others cannot bring the detailed information <br /> <br /> from that {{furigana|place|Astrum}} to this {{furigana|place|Real World}}.”<br /> <br /> “You cannot bring it here? What do you mean? It’s your own knowledge right?”<br /> <br /> “When Leme was inside Astrum, I understood well about Astrum. It was as if knowing about myself. But when Leme appear in the real world as an avatar, Leme gradually become clueless about Astrum. Like this when I have a flesh body in this world, ''Leme becomes even more detached from Astrum'', and Leme becomes even more clueless. It cannot be explained with the language of this world. It cannot be turned into information.”<br /> <br /> {Just now Kazuki said, our own knowledge, but that’s not accurate. Most likely, we are nothing more than a part of Astrum. ''At the same time we can also have our own individual personality''. The more we have a characteristic nature, the more I become this individual called Prometheus, the more I will become farther from Astrum’s whole body.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s head turned complicated.<br /> <br /> “Saying it in a sensible way… that’s right… if now Leme go back to Astrum, Leme will immediately get the idea [Aa! It’s should be easier if I just explained Astrum like this!] and become frustrated. But if Leme materialized here again and try to explain to Kazuki, Leme will go [How should I explain it again?] and become clueless once more. It’s not like I can take memo there.”<br /> <br /> “…I see.”<br /> <br /> “If there is a Diva that was established in his Mythology as someone that understand everything and can act in this real world, that kind of guy will perhaps be the exception to this. An existence with some kind of an established omniscience… that [Naiarlatoteph] who we fought before had that kind of atmosphere.”<br /> <br /> The Diva of Cthulhu Mythos that possessed Headmaster Otonashi and repeated an inhuman experiment underground the Knight Academy. That Diva clearly said out loud of the awareness of his own objective―a game.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t remember the majority of what that Diva said, but he talked about an annoying game that the forces of Mythology were competing in. If he remembered correctly―the struggle for Astrum.<br /> <br /> He had already come in contact with an existence that knew about the secret of the world before.<br /> <br /> But Naiarlatoteph was already terminated. There was no way Kazuki would allow that insane Diva to exist in this world for even a second longer. Because the Cthulhu Mythos was weakened, even Kazuki and co. at that time could somehow defeat him.<br /> <br /> If he could extract a little more detailed information from him before he was terminated…<br /> <br /> No, wrong―Naiarlatoteph was not terminated. He remembered that the Diva entrusted the seed of his slight existence to Loki, and supposedly Loki had planted that seed into a girl.<br /> <br /> The pitch black girl that Kaya jokingly named as Naiarlako or something.<br /> <br /> Whether Loki knew it or not, he might be placing a girl that grasped the secret of the world beside him.<br /> <br /> “You two are not intentionally explaining this in a way that is hard to understand are you?”<br /> <br /> “How unexpected. Leme likes Kazuki, so Leme won’t do that kind of harassment. Leme want a second serving of hamburger for Leme’s anger!”<br /> <br /> “Yosh, come―!” Karin put a hamburger on Leme’s plate. She seemed happy that her cooking was happily received. Kazuki understood well that feeling that it made him jealous. He wanted to work.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-kun, it’s not like I too have been taught everything by the chief god I’m contracted with you know.”<br /> <br /> Arthur too interjected while asking for a second serving of meat pie with a complicated expression.<br /> <br /> This person too could eat really well unlike his appearance. Moreover, he kept eating only meat.<br /> <br /> Kazuki lent his ear while asking for seconds of the salad and the quiche.<br /> <br /> “There is a stern wall between Astrum and this world. That’s why an &lt;agent&gt; called King is necessary. I think that making this wall gone is the task a King should perform.”<br /> <br /> “…Is that something that can be obtained from the victory in the battle between the fellow Kings?”<br /> <br /> “From the words that Basilleus Basilleon left behind, supposedly, at the very least, we will obtain something.”<br /> <br /> It was as if this person might be a believer of Basilleus Basilleon in some meaning, when he talked about those words, a passionate conviction filled his voice.<br /> <br /> “It’s not like we are particularly wanting for something or wanting to do something that we fight like this though… Loki is scheming something, China looks like it’s going to come invading…”<br /> <br /> “We are also the same. Rather than some kind of ideal, we just want to do something about the threat right in front of our eyes.”<br /> <br /> Shouko expressed her agreement with Kazuki’s words.<br /> <br /> “However this is just tasty. Yosh, next time I’m gonna make some Ryouzanpaku cooking.”<br /> <br /> “This is also delicious but, Kou-jie’s cooking is also great y’know!” &lt;ref&gt;Kou from Shoukou and jie is Chinese for big sister&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Silirat talked proudly as if boasting about herself.<br /> <br /> “Does it have any difference with Chinese food?”<br /> <br /> “My hometown has a little different history with China, or perhaps I should say there is influence from the outside.”<br /> <br /> When the conversation touched her hometown, Shouko’s expression softened just for a little.<br /> <br /> However both Shouko and Silirat were also eating meat with amazing vigor.<br /> <br /> “Right, meat is for a warrior!!!” Beatrix too said that as if to say that protein was exactly her faith.<br /> <br /> “My vegetable cooking… it’s not really decreasing isn’t it…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s white face whitened even more. Kazuki and Lotte noticed in the middle and changed direction to prioritize vegetables but… a cooking contest also happened to have a cruel facet in it.<br /> <br /> “Miyabi-oneesan! I prefer the quiche desu!!”<br /> <br /> “This is because senpai was thinking about the balance for us. I ate the vegetables properly too, see!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte gave a follow-up in fluster for the delicate Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was half-crying for the shock of having her own cooking avoided.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, you won’t grow big if you don’t eat meat.”<br /> <br /> “Muga”<br /> <br /> However Shinobu-senpai screwed in a mass of meat pie into Kazuki’s mouth from the side. With a tight hold.<br /> <br /> “As I thought meat pie is the one that reigns supreme. Fufufu, what capital of flower Paris. That kind of thing is merely something foolish.”<br /> <br /> Arthur who was watching that situation was murmuring with an intimation that was filled with a grudge somewhere.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! Are you saying you won’t eat my hamburger!!”<br /> <br /> “Moganbo”<br /> <br /> Karin too stood up from her chair and rushed at him before screwing in hamburger into Kazuki’s mouth. With a tight hold.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… I had lived all this time rejecting other people but, making food for another person where they are happily eating it makes me glad. Eat more Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> With her sagacious beauty enchanted with happiness, Shinobu-senpai continued to screw in meat into Kazuki’s mouth.<br /> <br /> “mogemogera”<br /> <br /> Having meat stuffed into his mouth one after another, a sound effect with unintelligible meaning escaped his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Geho-! Goho!? …My throat got choked…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a tea cup and a rice bowl in his hands and washed down the meat lump that got caught in his throat with rice and tea.<br /> <br /> “Are, are you okay…? Kazuki?”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san got worried about Kazuki who got stuck in a situation that turned strange and she was patting his back at his side. Kazuki’s throat was swelling big, with a big gulp that swelling passed through his esophagus.<br /> <br /> “Fuu…” After releasing a sigh he noticed.<br /> <br /> “Hm… this rice… it’s springy with the bulging of the grain strangely smooth, it passed through the throat smoothly… On top of its delicate cooking adjustment, all the grains are uniformly cooked. It was hidden in the shadow of the cooking with strong flavor, but this rice is extremely delicious…!!”<br /> <br /> “O, amazing. Even though I was already thinking that, as expected something this inconspicuous wouldn’t be noticed.”<br /> <br /> Karin’s eyes widened. Miyabi-senpai recovered her spirit and smiled.<br /> <br /> “That rice, Kamimura-san used Extra Sense to pick out the grains that were too big or too small, also the grains that were damaged, and then she removed the grains one by one before cooking it you know?”<br /> <br /> “To go that far…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was staring at Kamimura-san with a gaze of deep admiration. Kamimura-san averted her eyes shyly.<br /> <br /> “Something like this even someone like me… because I wanted everyone to feel happy eating it.”<br /> <br /> Beside her, the avatar of Amaterasu emerged out with her eyes wide open in shock.<br /> <br /> {I’m also surprised… this child who was indifferent to her surroundings is, saying until this far.}<br /> <br /> “I’m not indifferent. I’m always thankful to the people of the Witch’s Mansion. It’s just that there was no chance to say it out…”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san looked around at all the people present at the table and looked down shyly.<br /> <br /> When everyone was staying quiet waiting for her next words, she began to mumblingly leak out her feeling.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya is always kind… Though I’m troubled how to react being hugged impulsively and getting my head petted, treated like a pet.”<br /> <br /> “That’s because Itsuki-chan is really cute.” Kaguya-senpai grinned broadly.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai, when I was watching anime of the shounen manga category, she always came out of nowhere getting close to me to watch the show together. Though when her tension got too high and she tried out the anime’s technique on me I got troubled of how to react.”<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai, it’s no good to challenge people to a sword play without minding who or where like that.” Kazuki retorted.<br /> <br /> “Mio has too different hobbies with me, so she didn’t have time to converse with me but, she came giving me a lot of western clothes wanting me to try it out like playing with a doll. Though I’m troubled how to react because I have the feeling that the clothes didn’t match me.”<br /> <br /> “There is just no way that the clothes that I chose will be unsuited, okay-“<br /> <br /> “Koyuki lent me books, we didn’t really talk much but we read books together. I like Koyuki.”<br /> <br /> “Her positivity level to Koyuki is the highest!?” Kaguya-senpai was vexed.<br /> <br /> “Also Kazuha that called me her friend, also Kohaku that made a fuss of me as the Celebration King, of course Lotte-shishou and Kazuki too… everyone is nothing but kind and strong people so I don’t feel any uneasiness. But I just keep receiving, so if there is something that I can give out instead…”<br /> <br /> Her wandering gaze turned in a circle before she looked up at Kazuki beside her. She was making an upturned eyes just like a small animal. Kazuki’s feeling became just like when he was confronting the Demon Beast &lt;puppy&gt; in the cosplay café &lt;Solomon&gt;, he reflexively stroked Kamimura-san’s head fervently. Kaguya-senpai too leaped from her chair with a 'pyon'.<br /> <br /> “Itsuki-chan! Yo―u―are―cu―te―!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too hugged Kamimura-san and she fervently rubbed her head briskly.<br /> <br /> “Be, because you do this kind of thing, that I’m troubled how to react.” Kamimura-san’s face reddened.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt something warm lit up inside his chest. He always kept thinking of making someone happy, but of course receiving kindness from someone like this was also pleasant.<br /> <br /> He tended to forget it, but good will was not a one-way road.<br /> <br /> This overly extravagant ship too was also the good will right from the heart of Vice Chief Yamagata and the government.<br /> <br /> Perhaps he also had no choice but to get himself more used to receiving something like this.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> “For a bath to exist on a ship that is floating on the sea, it feels mysterious somehow.”<br /> <br /> With a bathing tool set in hand, Kazuki was walking alone inside the ship. The curtain of the night had already descended down outside the window, illuminated by the faint star light, the pitch black sea surface was undulating with waves.<br /> <br /> There was nothing else. This place was right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.<br /> <br /> He went down to the lower level with the elevator aboard the ship. There was the tank to preserve the water and the water making device that boiled the sea water in the lowest level of the ship. It seemed there was a [resort spa] right beside those facilities.<br /> <br /> And then it seemed there was also a different open air bath at the roof of the ship.<br /> <br /> He understood what was an open air bath, but about a spa, he couldn’t imagine anything other than a cod roe spa. Anyways, for the time being Kazuki was going to challenge an unknown experience. &lt;ref&gt;This cod roe spa, I imagine it’s this pond where many small fish are kept there, you put your hand or foot inside it and the fishes will crowd around you and eat your dead skin and dirt&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Because there was no other facility, he soon found the entrance where it was divided between the men and women sections. As expected there was no mixed bath for men and women. He passed through the curtain and entered inside, where Kanae in her swimsuit was there.<br /> <br /> “Ni・i・sa・ma~♡”<br /> <br /> Perhaps she had reflected on her fundoshi from before, this time she was wearing a black one piece swimsuit with high leg that had the slit digging into her skin, but her silhouette’s black streamlined shape also suited her alias [Storm Cat].<br /> <br /> Kazuki lightly poked Kanae’s forehead. “Get out.” “Funyaa-“<br /> <br /> “Just why are you in the man’s section?”<br /> <br /> “Because, Nii-sama, isn’t Nii-sama the only male on this ship? In other words there is no man section but Nii-sama section. Nii-sama section… what a wonderful sound… even just imagining it makes Kanae feel dizzy like burning under fire…” &lt;ref&gt;The burning under fire here is said in english, ‘baaningu ando faiyaa’. And also did she forget Arthur, or even Kanae has already guessed…&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “It’s really embarrassing to use English language so idiotically like that even though we are going to learn English properly from Arthur from now on.”<br /> <br /> “How can I not be inside such a wonderful place! That’s impossible! Unbelievable(Anbiriivaburu)!”<br /> <br /> “Your English is really messed up.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki poked Kanae’s forehead one more time stronger this time. “It’s enough already, just・get・out.” “Funyanya-“<br /> <br /> “But, but, Nii-sama, even though there is this rare chance using this kind of facility, won’t you be lonely just alone in there?”<br /> <br /> “Certainly that might be so though.”<br /> <br /> “Talking about a spa, it’s about massages! However, even though there is this valuable facility, there is no staff! And there, this unworthy Kanae will have the honor to become Nii-sama’s exclusive esthetician(esutetishan)!”<br /> <br /> Because Kanae was the other party he completely refused her following his habit, but thinking of it carefully there was no reason for him to refuse.<br /> <br /> “Well, it should be fine.”<br /> <br /> “Really!? Brother(Burazaa)! Not that, bravo(buravoo)! Uehihi, the body that is nii-sama’s body, with this hand… uehihi…! Well then Nii-sama, please change your clothes in this changing room over here! Ah, I have already prepared a swimsuit for the sake of Nii-sama who is a shy person, use this!”<br /> <br /> Kanae took out a black speedos from the chest of her one piece swimsuit, it was a heartless swimsuit with its fairly low-rise. ‘Why are you taking that out from that kind of place’, Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> “Kanae has prepare(purepara) preparation so Nii-sama’s change is just fit(jasuto feito)~♪”<br /> <br /> When he wore the speedos, the uneasiness from the area that the cloth covered made him feel like he could slightly understand the feeling of everyone that was wearing a Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> When he looked around, it seemed that what was called a spa was a relaxation facility that was centered around a bathing facility.<br /> <br /> With the spacious bathroom as the center, there were various doors that continued on to a sauna, massage room, and esthetic salon. Kanae was waiting inside the massage room.<br /> <br /> He opened the door. The room was dim, only the surrounding of the massage stand was illuminated by faint light.<br /> <br /> There was a fragrance that made him feel like his brain was going to melt. Tension naturally left from his body and unconsciously his walk became slower. While Kanae was burning some aroma, she was also saying “Quick, quick-“ beckoning him to the massage stand.<br /> <br /> This was also his first time having something like a classic aroma therapy. When he laid face-down on the massage stand just as he was told, he was wrapped in a sweet haze, he felt like his body would really melt down.<br /> <br /> He understood that the aroma was showing its effect on his brain. Wasn’t this thing close enough already to a drug like this?<br /> <br /> “Haa haa… the back of my lovely angel(mai ravurii enjeru) Nii-sama… I can see angel wings…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki couldn’t see it from where he laid face-down, but Kanae went around his back and for some reason she was nuzzling around Kazuki’s shoulder blade. Most likely she was not using her palm but nuzzling with her whole face.<br /> <br /> “Why are you not massaging but nuzzling with your cheek there?”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying Nii-sama, a massage is not done by suddenly rubbing the body, it’s first started from gently patting the body.”<br /> <br /> “…Now that you mentioned it, that’s true, but wicked thought is…”<br /> <br /> “Haa haa, Nii-sama’s back looks delicious… uehihi… slurp”<br /> <br /> “Oi, isn’t that a drool dripping down just now?”<br /> <br /> “Yo, yo, you’re wrong! It’s only the oil just now, massage oil.”<br /> <br /> “If it’s oil then it should be before the patting right, normally.”<br /> <br /> “Shut up(Saranrappu) Nii-sama!”<br /> <br /> “Eh, you’re saying to shut up?”<br /> <br /> “Chaiya!” Kanae drove a sharp blade hand onto Kazuki’s spine not different from her nickname Storm Cat. &lt;ref&gt;Blade hand, making a pose with your hand as if your hand is a blade and using that pose to strike&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Chaiya! Sei! Nyaa!”<br /> <br /> “It feels not strong enough I think.”<br /> <br /> “Oh…” &lt;ref&gt;This ‘oh’ is written using alphabet in the raw, not hiragana or katakana&lt;/ref&gt; Kanae expressed her mental shock by the English that she used correctly for the first time.<br /> <br /> Kanae was not using Enchant Aura. If someone carelessly used reinforcement magic when they were doing something like massaging and then mistaken the adjustment of their strength, the bone of the other party could easily get broken. That was because the side that was receiving massage had to shut down their defensive magic power in order to be massaged after all.<br /> <br /> Even in the case where the person had confidence in their control, there was taboo for a magician to use reinforcement magic against human who was not clad in a defensive magic power. But, a barehanded Kanae was too feeble.<br /> <br /> “The, then I’ll switch to finger pressure massage.”<br /> <br /> Kanae straddled Kazuki’s waist and pressed her thumbs with full effort onto his back.<br /> <br /> “Make it a little stronger.”<br /> <br /> “Mumumu… then Hayashizaki-style Secret Art, Dangerous Kanae Bunker(Denjarasu・Kanae Bankaa)!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae floated her body, putting her body weight into it, like an iron hammer she drove her fingers onto his back.<br /> <br /> “I’ll carve the love of a little sister into this baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!” Kanae yelled hot-bloodedly like in a battle anime.<br /> <br /> “It’s not really working you know.”<br /> <br /> “Oh my god-(Oo mai ga-)!” Kanae abruptly fell onto Kazuki’s back.<br /> <br /> “Jesus Onii-sama(Jeezasu Onii-sama)… your muscles are hard! Were you doing muscle training!?”<br /> <br /> “I did now and then before and after the meals when there was time.”<br /> <br /> “Gununu… that kind of serious Nii-sama is lovely… if it became like this, then I can only do this!”<br /> <br /> Kanae hopped up and then she landed on Kazuki’s back and stamped hard.<br /> <br /> “Oh, just now felt good.”<br /> <br /> “What the. Nii-sama, for you to get excited by your little sister’s kick… what a hopeless Nii-sama you are! Fufufu, Kanae too feels like I have somewhat reached a new frontier! Like this!? Please leak out your voice more and more like a pig! Hee―re, and here!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki got irritated.<br /> <br /> “Then this time I’ll give you a massage as my thanks.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki caught the foot that was coming to stamp him and he toppled her over. Immediately their bodies changed place and Kazuki pinned down Kanae.<br /> <br /> “Funyaa-!?” He stroked the squishy skin of Kanae who was stunned and blinking with surprise with his palm. “N, noo- Nii-sama-“ Like that she leaked out a coquettish voice. With a serious face Kazuki sensed the stiffened muscles beneath the skin and pressured there in one go.<br /> <br /> “Fu, funyaaaaaaa♡”<br /> <br /> Kanae raised her voice, small heart marks were flying everywhere.<br /> <br /> After ranking up the power of bond, Kazuki became able to sense the really small change of the positivity level. Making use of this ability, he immediately grasped the degree of strength and acupuncture points where Kanae felt it the best. He had obtained the talent where even while being a King he could also become a prodigious masseur.<br /> <br /> “Ah, Nii-sama… there… n-! Aaann-!”<br /> <br /> “Don’t you get too carried away! Hayashizaki-style Secret Art, Kazuki Bunker!!”<br /> <br /> Because Kanae’s positivity level was high, Kazuki was also able to use Kanae’s technique so skillfully.<br /> <br /> “Ah, Nii-samaaa, it feels good thereee-! Please mercy-!”<br /> <br /> Kanae’s body twisted wrigglingly. He thought that it was somewhat erotic, but the other side was Kanae so he swept away his worldly thought and he continuously pressed on secret spots one after another.<br /> <br /> “Comee―♡ Nii-sama, Kanae is cominggg-♡“<br /> <br /> “Just where are you coming.”<br /> <br /> “Nnn, nnhooooooo! Comiiiiiiing! Funyaaaaan!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae made a peace sign with both her hands, the white of her eyes kept rotating in circle and her tongue lolled out from her mouth.<br /> <br /> “You, your face right now really throws away yourself as a woman you know.”<br /> <br /> “Haa haa… the too good feeling really made Kanae completely run on the joke material.”<br /> <br /> “You stupid little sister.” The erotic feeling that welled up inside him shriveled down in one go.<br /> <br /> The relationship between him and Kanae had turned into one where they were conscious of each other as man and woman. However because he had continued as a big brother and his stupid little sister for a long time, it was also difficult for him to decide how to treat each other that would be fine.<br /> <br /> Surely Kanae was also like that. Even if she hid her shyness but before long an outrageously unfortunate look appeared on her.<br /> <br /> “You are really still the same idiot little sister huh.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki kneaded Kanae’s cheeks 'munyu' with both his hands. Her face returned to the usual cute little sister. He had to meet her halfway from his side too. Thinking so he brought his lips closer to Kanae.<br /> <br /> Kanae’s eyes brightened in dreamy color and she pushed her lips at him―no, wait a second.<br /> <br /> Just before their lips touched each other, Kazuki twisted his neck and took emergency evasion. Kanae yelled.<br /> <br /> “Wha!? Feint(Feinto)!? Why(Howai) Nii-sama so malicious like that!?”<br /> <br /> “Thinking it carefully there is still the one time use trump card for the level 10.”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s!?” Kanae’s expression turned pale. Her face was a face that had just received a shock that was not a joke. Exactly because they were always just joking around with each other that he really didn’t want to see this kind of face on her.<br /> <br /> He wasted no time to direct Kanae’s face to the side and touched his lips on her cheek.<br /> <br /> “Ah, kiss on the cheek…”<br /> <br /> Her cheek that was kissed reddened. He turned her face to the other side and kissed the cheek on the other side too, he then further turned her face down and kissed her forehead too. Kanae’s face became wholly red and she was dazed.<br /> <br /> “Tehehe… My face got kissed all over by Nii-sama…”<br /> <br /> The cheeks of the happy Kanae loosened, heart marks were forming a swarm and flew.<br /> <br /> ‘I have to make her expression to always be like this’, Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> When they soaked together inside the bath, Kanae began nodding off sleepily. When he noticed the night had already became the time when it could be said as late hours for the people of Hayashizaki family who was a believer of early to bed, early to rise.<br /> <br /> Rising from the bath, he sent off the girl who was rubbing her eyes sleepily until her room before going back to his own room.<br /> <br /> In the middle of the corridor he walked, there was Kamimura-san standing there.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san’s eyes that usually looked sleepy were currently shining glaringly.<br /> <br /> This girl was a resident of the night. The prime time of the day of a shut-in otaku began from now.<br /> <br /> “E, err… the theater room is amazing, it completely looks like a movie… there is also Lotte-shishou there so, let’s watch anime together?”<br /> <br /> She rushed closer to Kazuki like a puppy and tightly pinched Kazuki’s sleeve before looking at him with upturned eyes while saying that.<br /> <br /> He must have looked a little uneasy because she corrected herself “…You won’t go?”<br /> <br /> There was no way he could possibly refuse her.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> They walked through the corridor that was bright even in the night side by side.<br /> <br /> “This is the continuation of the story from the afternoon in that dining hall but…” Kamimura-san abruptly began to talk.<br /> <br /> It was as if she didn’t want to lose the chance to talk about something no matter what.<br /> <br /> The up and down of Kamimura-san’s emotion was really drastic, just when he thought that she was being reserved and stayed quiet, she suddenly began to talk. He had to get used to that gap of mood swing at all cost.<br /> <br /> “I, am scared of having expectation placed on me, and then betraying that.” She began to talk.<br /> <br /> “The reason I became a shut-in… it was just a really stupid reason but… originally, I was from a family of priests so I aimed to enter a university in Shinto major and I was made to study hard.”<br /> <br /> “You mean something like a Shinto priest when you said priest right? So there is a university to attend to for that kind of thing then.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki once trained aiming to become a swordsman, and now because he was attending the Magic Division he was distant from worldly affairs.<br /> <br /> After Kamimura-san nodded, she added in her explanation.<br /> <br /> “Since Divas appeared in this world, the popularity and the standard score for acceptance for a Shinto major rose suddenly…”<br /> <br /> “Aah, because the existences of Mythologies were proved, of course it’s only natural then that it happened.”<br /> <br /> Now that Japanese Mythology finally appeared in front of the people, he guessed that the major would only become more popular.<br /> <br /> In other words, that was why she had to study hard, aiming to enter the major that became hard to enter similar to those who aimed to become a lawyer or a doctor.<br /> <br /> “I attended cram school since my time in elementary school, I managed to pass middle school entrance exam and entered the middle school of my choice but… there I became a dunce that completely couldn’t keep up…”<br /> <br /> At this point Kamimura-san pouted her lips “Perhaps I didn’t have a smart brain anyway from the start… besides, at papa and mama’s time they could become priest even without studying, even though they don’t have any right to protest because this is from the lineage of the family…” she grumbled for a little.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t go to class, everything became scary… I feigned illness to the school several times. I just planned to take some emergency evacuation temporarily with light feeling. But like that my study was falling behind all the more, it became scarier and scarier… I made papa and mama disappointed, if it’s like that then I won’t work hard anymore I thought… And then when I shut myself in my room and played net games, there I discovered my place to belong…”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san went on “There, a shut-in that can continuously login the whole day will be relied on by everyone. Exactly like a hero. Once you become like that you won’t be able to go back anymore.” She laughed cynically.<br /> <br /> “I spent my whole time and spending money into net games, but even so [the hero’s war fund] was insufficient. …So I pestered mama for money saying that I will buy reference books and question collection because I will study at home, I received a lot on purpose and used it all for the game’s bill. Then I got found out that I almost never even used the few teaching material that I bought, how I used the money also got exposed soon… after that papa and mama stopped expecting anything from me.”<br /> <br /> It was something that was far removed from anything like Diva or battle or the peace of the country, a problem that existed in households everywhere. Nevertheless, there was a heaviness from the bottom of a deep darkness in her tone of voice.<br /> <br /> If he was also… Kazuki couldn’t stop himself from imagining. With people putting expectations only in his talent for the sword and he got adopted because of that, ''his current self was fortunately able to succeed in that and even Kanae was accepting him happily''.<br /> <br /> If he actually failed in that, what would happen to him then? His step-father and Kanae were kind people but―even so, perhaps it would still be unbearable. And then perhaps he would become a complete shut-in. Once he became a shut-in…<br /> <br /> In anyone’s period as a child, when their ego was still fragile, the source of feeling that wanted to try their best had always came from their desire to be recognized, that they wanted to be praised by their surroundings.<br /> <br /> Eyes of disappointment from a person’s surroundings would make people unable to do their best. It would completely bog them down into an inescapable quandary.<br /> <br /> The difference between failure and success was only paper thin. Kamimura-san’s fall vividly pressed even Kazuki’s heart.<br /> <br /> “My net game was also taken away. But for me, that was my single link with the outside world. That was the time when Amaterasu appeared and became my friend. I deviated from the elite path that aimed to become a priest, but there was magic power from birth inside me that could easily let me make a contract with Amaterasu. I never even noticed something like having magic power that is higher than average people.”<br /> <br /> That time when she was making everyone around her disappointed―Kamimura-san was chosen by the highest god of Japanese Mythology. Was that irony, but the feeling of making fruitless effort from choosing to aim to become a priest that had its admittance score raised just because of some half-hearted popularity was staggering.<br /> <br /> “At first I just thought that it was [too much] for me. But Amaterasu said to me that it’s fine even if I don’t force myself. It’s impossible for the current me to fight something, she said that kindly to me. If an Enigma appeared on me and the shut-in me was made to attend the Knight Academy then it would be a disaster, that was why Amaterasu said to me [make a contract with me and let’s play together].”<br /> <br /> How much that became a salvation for her―when he imagined it, a tear gathered in Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> “…Why, does Kazuki get teary eyed?”<br /> <br /> ‘Even if I’m not the person concerned I can understand’, if he said that kind of thing to her than she would surely be happy.<br /> <br /> “From then on various things happened and I got killed though.”<br /> <br /> She talked as if the event where she got killed was the trivial happening instead.<br /> <br /> “I also met Kazuki, everyone is kind to me… however everyone is also not having any expectations or anything from me. That’s why it feels really comfortable… that’s why the feeling of wanting to return the favor to everyone, is welling up inside me. ‘I want to become someone that can fight properly’, I thought of such thing just a little. Since I gave up becoming a priest, I didn’t have any wish of becoming anything, I came to think that I don’t want to work, but… I wanted to do something for the sake of everyone. I didn’t have any confidence in doing anything difficult, I tried to get enthusiastic like Miyabi-san, but it was impossible, getting so enthusiastic itself was embarrassing so I only cooked the rice but, but… I secretly, just a tiny, bit devoted my best effort, and there Kazuki noticed, I was happy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was driven by a feeling of wanting to hug Kamimura-san tightly very much, but he endured.<br /> <br /> Just when he endured, it was Kamimura-san that grasped Kazuki’s hand tightly.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… I, I’m a shut-in otaku but, get along better with me. Then… conquer me more? Like that I… can repay Kazuki properly. I’ll do my best, not getting sly anymore for something like billing.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura Itsuki―57<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The anime appreciation meeting with Kamimura-san and Lotte continued until late at night. Kamimura-san was talking about the anime with an amazingly high tension, but Lotte started to nod off, and when Kazuki too had his eyes getting bleary, Kamimura-san realized for the first time that the people in her surroundings was not limited to a nocturnal person like her. She then went ‘awa awa’ at her wits end while her tension got a sudden drop with her desperately apologizing, Kazuki soothed her saying “Don’t mind it” “It’s fine you know” while carrying up Lotte who already fell asleep in his arms before breaking up from Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> Finally after getting lost before he remembered that he actually didn’t know where Lotte’s room was, so he kept carrying Lotte and returned to his room, where he found Mio and Koyuki sleeping on the bed of his room.<br /> <br /> It was a situation where they were going to ask him to sleep together and waited for him. Even though it would be fine if they just contacted him instead of waiting like this.<br /> <br /> He then put Lotte on the bed too with them before laying down himself. It was a bed with a width that would be fine even with four people sleeping on top of it. It was an unpleasant way of saying it, but there was no other way to call this bed other than a harem exclusive bed.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii lhove―♡” Mio gave a light kiss at the cheek of Kazuki who was going to sleep. He wondered whether she was awake, but her breath was completely like someone asleep. It seemed that it was an unconscious act. “Puu puu” Koyuki too hugged at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> …He tended to only think of always and always devoting his effort for someone else.<br /> <br /> Good will was not a one way street. Being enveloped by everyone’s kindness like this, relying on them too, perhaps he had to get used to this without fail. In exchange, he had to work hard for the duty that couldn’t be shouldered by anyone else except him… perhaps that was the attitude that a King ought to take.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―That kind of thinking didn’t continue for long.<br /> <br /> “GIVE―ME―SOME―WORK―TOO―!!”<br /> <br /> When the time turned into the evening of the next day, Kazuki lost his patience and assaulted the kitchen while yelling.<br /> <br /> In this second day, throughout the morning “Ka, Kazuki… want to play?” he played a game with Kamimura-san that approached and pulled his sleeve, in the afternoon he was dragged to the pool by the Ryuutaki sisters that wanted to show their new swimsuits, doing those were also fun, but, there was no human that could feel satisfied only by having fun.<br /> <br /> The time that was too enjoyable fanned his anxiety. If good will was not a one way street then balance was supposed to be important.<br /> <br /> “Give me some work too―! It’s unpleasant just getting serviced―!!”<br /> <br /> “Waa, Kazu-nii is coming!” Along with Mio’s voice, the door of the kitchen was closed and locked just like a castle under siege. '''DON DON''' Kazuki knocked the door.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii is the King so you must not work~♪ After all we are going to entertain Kazu-nii to your heart’s content!”<br /> <br /> The voice of Mio that sounded teasing was returned back to him from across the door. For Kazuki, there was no way he could possibly smash down the door of the ship that was prepared for him by the country, he clung to the door and begged.<br /> <br /> “Let me work… it’s fine to do it together with everyone so…”<br /> <br /> “No way~♪”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.10 076.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Shouko and Silirat that were participating in the cooking preparation duty were staring at that situation while diligently doing vegetable preparation.<br /> <br /> “…The King of this country is really eccentric eh.”<br /> <br /> “What a happy-go-lucky bunch.”<br /> <br /> Shouko shrugged her shoulder to what Silirat murmured.<br /> <br /> “But I have fun and like this bunch yeah! The meal is delicious, and the friend increased! Doing practice with that gal named Kohaku, playing with that gal named Karin yeah-“<br /> <br /> “…Don’t you get beaten by this bunch’s carefreeness too. Ain’t you getting along too well with ‘em?”<br /> <br /> Taikoubou’s avatar emerged out beside Shoukou.<br /> <br /> {Carefree, is it? Hmm, the freedom of the soul is that kind of thing.}<br /> <br /> “Old man Taikoubou… you, are you by any chance saying that this kind of thing is actually your ideal?”<br /> <br /> Shouko scowled and pointed at the commotion around the door. Without any reply, Taikoubou’s avatar vanished.<br /> <br /> “…Geez, ain’t any way I can follow along with this bunch―” Shouko scratched her head.<br /> <br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_10_Chapter_2&diff=479658 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 10 Chapter 2 2016-02-04T15:29:08Z <p>Hiro Hayase: in text comments are hidden and only viewable in editing mode</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 – Sea Route in Full Bloom (Harem Cruise)==<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The article that was written throughout the night was finished with magnificent shape and quality.<br /> <br /> Even the Thoughtography picture that accompanied the article would stir up the obscene imagination of the reader instead of how it didn’t depict anything vivid.<br /> <br /> Surely even before the people that read this could doubt the nonexistence of the evidence, their head would already become full with envy and rage.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling this article information, it was more like a novel, ‘To make myself write this kind of article, as expected I’m really a genius’ Turtle was praising himself.<br /> <br /> He wondered which publisher could accommodate his article in their pages as fast as possible.<br /> <br /> He made an appointment with an influential editor that was his acquaintance.<br /> <br /> He took a bath in the shower, shaved his beard, and changed the clothes that he had worn for three days.<br /> <br /> He printed the article on A4 paper using the household printer he owned.<br /> <br /> ―At that time the bell unexpectedly resounded inside the six tatami room.<br /> <br /> He didn’t expect any guest or anything. Turtle dubiously strode over the clothes that were scattered everywhere on the floor and opened the door standing at the entrance.<br /> <br /> The moment the door opened, the right hand of Turtle who was pushing open the knob of the door was pulled strongly forward. His left hand that was still holding the A4 paper was also quickly caught, and he got dragged outside the room. He was thrown down onto the floor like the judo move he learned in his student period.<br /> <br /> BAM! A hard sound resulted from his crash, both of his wrists profoundly felt some weight on it.<br /> <br /> A handcuff that was using adamantite as its core was fixed on both his hands.<br /> <br /> “…What the?” Turtle leaked out a befuddled voice.<br /> <br /> “This is police knight Kondou Hajime, the target has been secured. There is no doubt, it’s the man himself.”<br /> <br /> Turtle directed his eyes to the other party, the white uniform was the Knight Order’s. A katana was attached on his waist, so surely this was a swordsman. The police knight was the lowest rank of a knight.<br /> <br /> The man didn’t even look at Turtle and was talking to his wireless.<br /> <br /> “Hey wait, oi. Just why is this, why am I being arrested? Do you have arrest warrant or anything?”<br /> <br /> “There is none.” The man looked at Turtle for the first time. “This is really sudden so we don’t have anything like that.”<br /> <br /> “Then you can only ask me to go voluntarily, I should be able to refuse. I’m not going to go with you okay, take off this handcuff. After this my article needs to…”<br /> <br /> “No, there is this thing called arrest without a warrant.”<br /> <br /> “That’s why, why do I get arrested!?”<br /> <br /> “Certainly you are not doing anything really bad. Looks like you trespassed into a national forest, but you were not even caught red handed. But we cannot let you write your article by any means.”<br /> <br /> This police was saying something that was just too sketchy to this common citizen that was restrained by a handcuff.<br /> <br /> “You say that you cannot let me write the article… what kind of right you have to do that! As a journalist I have the freedom of expression! That’s a basic human right! I’m going make this into a big issue!!”<br /> <br /> The man who introduced himself as Kondo also made a face that looked troubled.<br /> <br /> Surely for himself this was the first time he had ever done violence like this.<br /> <br /> “I wonder how should I explain this… freedom of expression or your human right or whatever, you cannot say any of those things. We are going to completely ignore all that law and regulation stuff. You, have you thought of what will happen if you wrote the article?”<br /> <br /> Information about the King would become money, only that was enough for him.<br /> <br /> “What is going to happen you say… this is really not that outrageous right… The right of the public to know will be fulfilled. And money will come to me. That’s all. This is my purpose in life.”<br /> <br /> “If you write the article, China will come invading Japan you know.”<br /> <br /> Anger fell off from Turtle’s expression. “What the hell’s with that” Turtle leaked out a dispirited voice. He then remembered the course of events in that East-West War―how China was taking part at Yamato’s side. His face lost all color.<br /> <br /> His face turned expressionless and he looked down at the handcuff. This is, not an exaggeration at all is it?<br /> <br /> “Anyway just come along with us. We are not going to make you undergo any prosecution process or anything. Don’t complain at all. This is for your sake. You will be put under the monitoring of the Knight Order for a while. It still hasn’t been decided yet how you are going to be monitored. Everything depends on your attitude…”<br /> <br /> He imagined the extravagant ship that was mooring in the hidden harbor inside his head. The incomprehensible human that was called as a King or whatever who suddenly appeared in this country, was boarding a ship that had never been seen before and departed towards an unknown foreign country. And if he made that into an article, China would come invading.<br /> <br /> “…Hey, has the world completely changed?”<br /> <br /> Hearing Turtle’s abrupt words, the man knitted his eyebrows and said “What are you saying?”<br /> <br /> “Yeah, it has changed. In these three months a lot has been overturned. That’s right huh, there’s even more of such things the public has yet to be informed about.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “A contact just came, the three were able to be taken into custody safely. Kondou-san was surprised, he said that the thoughtography picture is just like the spitting image of the real person.<br /> <br /> Finishing her communication with the mainland, Akane-senpai put the receiver of the satellite communication device(INMARSAT) on the control panel. &lt;ref&gt;International Maritime Satellite Organization&lt;/ref&gt; With the INMARSAT satellite relaying the electromagnetic wave between this ship and Japan’s mainland, it made it possible for transmission of phone and internet.<br /> <br /> On top of the round table, a camera that was built-in with Psychofilm and thoughtography pictures that hadn’t been developed yet were scattered. These thoughtography pictures were changed into digital data and then they were sent to the mainland with INMARSAT‘s net.<br /> <br /> Using that image data, the Knight Order performed investigations to collect information and quickly resolved the situation.<br /> <br /> However… the thoughtography picture was absurd. Kazuki once again thought.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s great-…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was standing beside Akane-senpai nervously while watching over her conversation released a sigh of relief while stroking her chest. Tension left her expression and tears were spilling out from her eyes in drove.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki embraced her shoulder from the side, Kazuha-senpai clung at him closely.<br /> <br /> “However… as I thought, this is really shocking. Is this really your first time using Thoughtography? To be able to project the face of people that you saw only once in a mere short period this clearly is just…”<br /> <br /> The faces of the three men and woman were projected on the thoughtography pictures. The pictures were truly detailed but because the background was pitch black it looked more like a computer graphic.<br /> <br /> The truth was that Kazuki was not that worried. He thought that it was impossible doing this with ordinary method but… he immediately hit the idea that “If it’s Kazuha-senpai then perhaps she can do Thoughtography even though she has never done it before.”<br /> <br /> It was not a simple thing but Kazuha-senpai was a genius of general magic. Since she understood the usefulness of general magic from that time of turmoil with the spies, Kazuha-senpai had made an effort to train herself to find out its various practical application by her own initiative. Kazuki knew that.<br /> <br /> By the way because Kanae had also witnessed the faces of the journalists she also attempted to use Thoughtography, but for some reason what came out was Kazuki’s picture. Even if she tried to concentrate and recall the faces of the journalists, she was pleased to say that in the middle she would always completely think about Kazuki. She was an idiotic little sister as usual.<br /> <br /> Everyone else was also interested and attempted Thoughtography but, the result, there were a lot of pictures that looked like scribbles of kindergartners scattered on the round table.<br /> <br /> “It looks like when they questioned the journalist association, they could immediately identify the three people in question. They are an infamous gossip trio, Turtle Oota, Simo Heihei Iijima, and Anal Kirishima.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai laughed amusedly. “I understand why Turtle but, I wonder about the meaning of the other two’s nickname.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai is really a genius.” Kazuki said that while caressing Kazuha-senpai’s back, but Kazuha-senpai pressed her face into Kazuki’s chest and her crying didn’t look like it would stop soon.<br /> <br /> “What is being done to those three?” For the time being Kazuki faced Akane-senpai again.<br /> <br /> “Until our trip is finished, they are going to be either confined or monitored.”<br /> <br /> “What, you are not going to kill them?”<br /> <br /> Shouko who was sitting on a seat of the round table and watching over the situation said that in amazement.<br /> <br /> “Killing them is the fastest way to seal their mouths right? How naïve.”<br /> <br /> “It’s different for Anal-san or whatever that leaked out information, but there is no reason to lay the blame on the journalist and the cameraman. This country is a democratic country.”<br /> <br /> Shouko said that they were naïve but, democratically what they were doing to the journalist and the cameraman were already a great injustice.<br /> <br /> Saying it clearly, it bothered him.<br /> <br /> “For some reason the journalist man seems like he keeps muttering [The world has changed, changed] or something, so it looks like there is some talk that come out about what if we make him work as the government’s information official instead.”<br /> <br /> “Why’s that?”<br /> <br /> “When Kondou-san read the article he wrote, that journalist is quite good as an agitator… saying it positively he seems to have writen an ''article that moves people’s hearts'', they are going to try to win him over during the monitoring.”<br /> <br /> Perhaps that was not a bad point of a compromise.<br /> <br /> The world changed―certainly perhaps they had to make the people to be aware of those changes for real.<br /> <br /> “Hey, King. Do you know, about the political philosophy of Chukadou’s Emperor, Fu Zi?”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Shouko asked.<br /> <br /> “Political philosophy? Something like Regina’s &lt;Olympia Aristocrat Doctrine&gt;?”<br /> <br /> “&lt;Red Nopperabou&gt;.” It was an astoundingly mysterious word.<br /> <br /> “If I’m not mistaken, Chukadou… they don’t recognize the surrounding countries as a country and invaded them viewing them as [barbarian], they stole the culture, language, and religion of the invaded country, and assimilated them into Chukadou… isn’t that right?”<br /> <br /> “The politics is the story from there. The ideal shape of governing that Fu Zi is aiming, that is the Red Nopperabou. After assimilating all countries, next she will ''assimilate the whole human race''. She is going to terminate the fence between individuals. With the characteristic magic of the Diva Fu Zi is contracted with, she is going to make the whole human race into one colony. With that the riches are shared equally and all the problems in the world will be resolved.”<br /> <br /> Regina raised the explosion of human population as the forthcoming problem of the world and she said that she was going to sort the human race into aristocrats and slaves, where the slaves would be [culled]. What she meant by culled was to kill them.<br /> <br /> Then there was Fu Zi who was aiming to solve the problem with this exact opposite approach.<br /> <br /> “Even with a population explosion happening, if the difference between individual humans disappeared, then it’s going to be the same no matter who gets culled… consequently all of them are equal, is that it?”<br /> <br /> “That’s right. Rather than calling such a thing human, it’s better to call it a cell of colony organisms. Humans are going to be made into a single cell that live for the sake of the whole body.” &lt;ref&gt;Don’t know if what they are talking about is literal or just a metaphor&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Such method was certainly flawless. If there was a person that controlled it supernaturally, surely a flawless order could be maintained eternally. But something ghastly that he couldn’t express crept through Kazuki’s spine.<br /> <br /> The whole human race became the Red Nopperabou…<br /> <br /> “That’s the kind of country that is gonna invade Japan.”<br /> <br /> Sneer vanished from Shouko’s expression.<br /> <br /> “Your country almost became like that just because of a single joke article of a journalist that never even dreamed that such a thing can happen. Ignorance, insufficient sense of crisis, those are sins.”<br /> <br /> It was a danger not to inform the people of this country about what had happened in their own country.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a niceness from Shouko whose expression turned serious.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Shouko-san.”<br /> <br /> Shouko’s eyebrows twitched in surprise. “Oh? You attached ‘-san’ again on my name just now.”<br /> <br /> “It has been transmitted to me your advice that you have given is from your heart.”<br /> <br /> “Heh. You guys are just too naïve.”<br /> <br /> Most likely that was the sincerity of someone whose birthplace had been stolen already.<br /> <br /> The shoulder of Kazuha-senpai who was inside Kazuki’s embrace was trembling. When he looked at her, the globs of tear that were gathering in her eyes were growing a lot more where those were going to spill over anytime.<br /> <br /> “I, I… didn’t think of anything at all… that it might become something like that… I thought that even though those people were irritating because they were aiming for a bad article about Kazuki but they were not particularly evil people…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki also liked the Kazuha-senpai that was kindhearted like that.<br /> <br /> “But senpai can make a recovery with your own power already.”<br /> <br /> “I… I’m really pathetic…”<br /> <br /> “Senpai is a great person you know.”<br /> <br /> This time was not Kazuha-senpai’s failure but it was a failure invited by the insufficient recognition of the whole group. Accidentally, it was senpai that became the scapegoat here but it could also be said that it was thanks to her ability that they could recover.<br /> <br /> That was why there was a need to change how he treated this, not with reason but as a problem of feeling.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai strongly and pressed her crying face onto his chest tightly before he stroked her head.<br /> <br /> “I’m the senior, so don’t you stroke my head-“ She leaked out a complaining voice through his shirts.<br /> <br /> To continue even though she said to stop was the basics of interacting with Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps there are times when things don’t go well and it turns into failure. But senpai is a great person so it’s okay. At times when senpai becomes uneasy, please depend more on me and your {{furigana|surroundings|Peers}}&quot;.<br /> <br /> He earnestly continued to stroke Kazuha-senpai’s head. Thereupon a heart mark of positivity level up came flying.<br /> <br /> “…If I act too spoiled, you won’t hate or feel disgust at me because I’m a quack…?”<br /> <br /> She moved away her face just a little and asked him with upturned eyes.<br /> <br /> “Senpai.” Kazuki tilted up Kazuha-senpai’s face and forcefully stole her lips. From the light touch between lips, he then strongly sucked at her lips. “…!” As if a fire was lit in her, she sucked back strongly at Kazuki’s lips. Heart marks were flying everywhere. Finally excessive tension vanished from Kazuha-senpai’s body and she abandoned her body to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> When they separated their bodies after suckng chuu chuu at each other for a while, tears finally disappeared from Kazuha-senpai’s eyes. Kazuha-senpai was gazing at Kazuki dazedly with eyes as if looking at a dream.<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―142<br /> <br /> After that she noticed with a ‘hah’ and she looked around restlessly toward the other people that were in the bridge.<br /> <br /> Mio, Koyuki, Lotte, Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Kanae, Kohaku, the Ryuutaki sisters, Karin, Kamimura-san, Liz Liza-sensei, Akane-senpai, Kanon-senpai, Arthur, Shouko, Silirat. &lt;!--(Editor(Omega): Hey, why is there no mention of Bea – tan &gt;:) ) --&gt;<br /> <br /> ―All members were looking while still sitting on their seats.<br /> <br /> “I, I won’t make any more trouble and will work hard-!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai raised a scream and dashed out from the room in full speed.<br /> <br /> “…Somehow even my heart is beating fast. Tsukahara-san is cute. I too want her to rely more on me.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai murmured with a cool expression.<br /> <br /> “Amaziiing…” Silirat’s eyes turned round.<br /> <br /> “Is a kiss something that feels that good?” Karin touched her own lips softly.<br /> <br /> “I want to kiss…” Kaguya-senpai’s body dropped onto the table.<br /> <br /> “However the girl’s ability is certainly surprising.”<br /> <br /> Arthur murmured while curiously fiddling around with the camera that was loaded with Psychofilm.<br /> <br /> Arthur also challenged the making of a thoughtography picture just now―he exposed an awfully failed creation.<br /> <br /> It proved that Kazuha-senpai’s genius in general magic was far above the rest even when compared with a King.<br /> <br /> “Well, I’m the King and a knight that doesn’t worry of anything except fighting. Perhaps, if it’s about the skill in general magic, then Queen Regina is the one that is far more skilled though.”<br /> <br /> “That person… her way of fighting is also profusely skilled isn’t she? There is no openings in her offense and defense.”<br /> <br /> There was no opening―that meant that Kazuki’s way of fighting that pierced at the enemy’s weak point using countless magic would hardly work against her. By some chance, perhaps she was the strongest natural enemy for him.<br /> <br /> “Anyway, this case can be closed happily. With this we can sail without anything burdening us.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai pulled the mood together as the ship captain.<br /> <br /> “With this the briefing is over. Once again, Kazuki, as the King, please leisurely relax with the beginning of this cruise.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> An hour later, Kazuki was at the pool side.<br /> <br /> He deposited his body that was only wearing shorts on a spacious deck chair, there were even fruits that decorated the side table beside him, even fruit juice was there.<br /> <br /> The surface of the pool that, was located on the ship’s roof, was sparkling radiantly from the strong sunlight.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t calm down as if he was going to die.<br /> <br /> The girls who were assigned with duty inside the ship had changed into sailor uniforms and ran around doing their job. This ship was just freshly finished, but due to its nature that was constantly floating on sea water, the maintenance examination had to be diligently performed throughout the voyage. It seemed that the girls were being taught how to do that by Ship Captain Akane.<br /> <br /> Kazuki also tried to participate but he was chased away.<br /> <br /> There were also girls that were on a lookout at the bridge. Was the ship really moving at the planned direction, was there sign of other ships (though in this current era there was almost no such thing) or obstacles on their route, further they also had to constantly check the weather’s change or the like without pause. Lotte was teaching everyone the controls of the ship. Shouko was also teaching the way to read the weather caringly with big-sisterly disposition.<br /> <br /> Kazuki also tried to get taught but he was chased away.<br /> <br /> There were also girls in the kitchen preparing lunch. Inside Queen Kaguya there were several extravagant restaurants and burger joints, but the crucial chef would only become a hindrance so there was none that came along on this journey. In the end they had to prepare their food themselves, but the kitchen was arranged with the ultimate ingredients and supreme facilities, the place became a dazzling environment for people who liked cooking.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was extremely excited but, he was chased away.<br /> <br /> The King just leisurely relax―since everyone understood Kazuki’s personality, they said that with an expression of mischief on their face. This was nothing more than a bullying.<br /> <br /> “What in the world is the meaning of life I wonder…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was anguished. During the time where everyone was busily working, for him alone to drink a tropical juice at the pool side, ‘This is not me… This is not supposed to be me at all…’<br /> <br /> For the first time since he became a King, Kazuki became worried about the shakiness of his identity.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was reclining on the deck chair like on a bed.<br /> <br /> He was bathed in sunlight with a face of someone dying.<br /> <br /> There was no excitement at all that came to him in this resort situation.<br /> <br /> “Kaa~zukii-!” Something came flying together with an excited voice.<br /> <br /> “DOO~N!!”<br /> <br /> A girl that rounded her body fell at his side, the deck chair shook with a thud.<br /> <br /> It was Hikaru-senpai. Similar with the time of presentation before this, she was wearing a glossy swimming race swimsuit of the pool.<br /> <br /> “Hehe~♪ Let’s play too~gether-!” Hikaru-senpai clung beside him and frolicked at him.<br /> <br /> There was enough room even though there were two people lining on the deck chair.<br /> <br /> “Please wait for me, Hikaru-senpai!” From behind there was a different voice catching up.<br /> <br /> “Me too! Eii-!”<br /> <br /> One more person leaped at Kazuki’s side―this side was Mio in a red bikini.<br /> <br /> It became just a little cramped with three people lining up. Both of them sandwiched Kazuki’s tightly.<br /> <br /> Being clung at by girls in swimsuit with high exposure rate, Kazuki huddled his shoulders.<br /> <br /> “Are you two not being on duty?”<br /> <br /> “Uh-huh. But not letting the King get lonely is also a girl’s job, isn’t that right?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai kissed Kazuki’s right cheek lightly.<br /> <br /> “Me too-!” Mio also kissed his left cheek in rivalry. Instantly, the pool side turned cheerful.<br /> <br /> “Come on King, look, look! I’m going to put sun oil on you!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai pulled the chest part of her swimming race swimsuit and took out a bottle of sun oil from the valley of her breasts. For her to take that out from the valley of her breasts… as usual she was someone that seriously did something right out from a manga.<br /> <br /> “Even if you don’t purposefully put sun oil on me, I won’t get sun burned. I don’t particularly intend to get a tan anyway.”<br /> <br /> “It’s no good like that, you have to put on sun oil.” Mio scolded Kazuki from the side.<br /> <br /> “Sun oil is not put on for the sake of getting an excessive tan, it’s put on in order to protect the skin from the damage of the UV-rays even while your skin tans. If you are under this kind of sunlight, it’s no good unless you put either sun oil or tan block on!”<br /> <br /> Something like UV-rays that inflicted damage on the body gradually without him being aware couldn’t be blocked by the defensive magic power. Kazuki nodded if the reason was that.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, let’s compete in tanning after applying the oil! It’s a match of browned body!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai who was usually already high-tensioned became even further high-tensioned.<br /> <br /> “Come on, face this way-!”<br /> <br /> If she wanted to apply sun oil for him then he wouldn’t be reserved. “Pl, please take care of me” While Kazuki was feeling a slight shyness, he turned his body.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai seemed to think of something, she slipped off both her arms from her shoulder strap and slipped down the upper part of her swimming race swimsuit. Her lustrous skin was exposed as if a fruit with its skin peeled, and her drooping breasts shook like jelly.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai!?” Mio raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “Why is senpai suddenly getting topless!?” Kazuki too looked up to the sky.<br /> <br /> “Because I’m going to apply the oil after all. I’ve got to apply the oil myself.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai grinned brightly while putting oil on her hand and spread it syrupyly on her upper body.<br /> <br /> Her slender body and beautiful rocket breast were giving off shiny luster under the sunlight and made her body dimensions even more conspicuous.<br /> <br /> The boyish Hikaru-senpai lasciviously radiated sensual charm. Even while she was smiling innocently, an atmosphere that was like a beast aiming for its prey was hiding in the depths of her eyes that were staring at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki unintentionally gulped his saliva at that perverse appearance.<br /> <br /> “Take this, slippy, slippy!” And then she embraced him tightly.<br /> <br /> Just when he thought that her bouncy breasts would get smashed softly on him, it slipped due to the lacquered oil and escaped from him. Hikaru-senpai shook her body and once more pressed back her breasts on him softly, and then it slipped away again because of the slippery oil. She repeated that many times and spread the oil with her breasts as a sponge replacement.<br /> <br /> “Se, senpai, this is…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was provoked. Thanks to the oil, the friction became zero and the sensation of Hikaru-senpai’s skin was conveyed to him 100%. ''Friction was just a hindrance''. The ultimate sensation that couldn’t be tasted when they were just hugging normally. The deliciousness of a girl was purely extracted… no, it was as if it got doubled.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha-♡ Breast sponge, my tips are tingling, it feels good-♪”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai was also feeling pleasure and her body was trembling in shivers.<br /> <br /> The breasts rubbed him with elasticity and slippery sensation, yet there was also a stiffness mixed in it that got highlighted. When Kazuki got conscious of the swelling nipple, Kazuki’s head was boiling even more.<br /> <br /> After sliding around Kazuki’s chest for a while, next Hikaru-senpai was going to sandwich his right shoulder and keeping like that she was sliding down his arm smoothly. After making round trips several times, she arrived at his fingertips. And then she made his palm to rub on her own breasts.<br /> <br /> “The face has to get oiled properly too-“<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai oiled even her face and rubbed her cheek on him as if getting spoiled.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a glance to the right thinking whether Mio would put a stop to this or not.<br /> <br /> “Me… me too!”<br /> <br /> But Mio felt rivalry and without hesitation took off the bra of her bikini and flung it away, she hugged tightly at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Mio’s symmetrically shaped breasts also shook like jelly. And then she spread oil in plenty on her body, making her naked body that was slightly more voluptuous than the slender Hikaru-senpai glitter.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.10 050.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Kazuki was also mesmerized by Mio’s figure, he realized the magic power of oil. Looking was great, touching was also great. What a thing, it strengthened the charm of a girl both visually and tactility.<br /> <br /> “Eii-“ Mio too hugged at Kazuki’s back and the two soft sponges squishily and slipperily made its presence known.<br /> <br /> Puni-nuru, Puni-nuru, Puni-nuru… he was sandwiched by a sensual sensation from behind and front by the two. &lt;ref&gt;Puni=the SFX of something elastic, nuru=the SFX of something slippery&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Ahn-“ There an ardent voice was mixed among all the sound. Sweet sensation, sweet voice, sweet fragrance… Sweetness of a girl was soaking into Kazuki’s whole body until his brain.<br /> <br /> “Just the upper body is no good, the lower body has to be oiled until its nook and corner…♪”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai slipped off both her legs from the remaining swimming race swimsuit on her lower body and threw it away.<br /> <br /> Her naked body was splendidly exposed in broad daylight, her thighs were also spread with oil syrupily. She sandwiched Kazuki’s thigh around her knees, and then she was sliding down slipperily from her thighs until the root of both her legs―her secret nether region. And then she began to rub her nether region back and forth on top of Kazuki’s thigh,<br /> <br /> “The butt too-!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai followed her own whim and half-rotated her body rapidly, she coated oil on her pudding-like butt, then she held Kazuki’s arm between the chasm of her butt and got sliding. Even though his arm had already got oiled from before, the chasm of the butt was slipperily making a round trip through the arm. Kazuki stiffened, even while having this act done to him, his fingers twitched reflexively.<br /> <br /> Thereupon his fingertip gently grazed the contraction of the chasm of Hikaru-senpai’s butt.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-! I liked it just now-!!♡”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai shook her butt even more and more in badgering him. His stiffened fingertip was pressed strongly at the contraction and it slipperily entered inside on its own accord, Hikaru-senpai’s waist shook happily.<br /> <br /> “But as expected feeling only good in my butt, it’s really not enough―♪”<br /> <br /> She returned her body’s direction to the front again and rubbed her breast and waist to Kazuki closely.<br /> <br /> With a sexually excited face facing him, with a posture that rubbed her body covering the maximum widest area she possibly could, Hikaru-senpai slide her body by her own whim, ‘Haa―’ she leaked out a hot breath.<br /> <br /> “How amazing… this oiling feels amazingly good more than I thought…♡ It makes me want to get oiled until the inside of my body…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai grasped Kazuki’s hand and held it between her crotches. Kazuki’s rugged hand pressed persistently on her sensitive spot and made her enjoy the stimulation. With the slipperiness of the oil, Kazuki’s fingertip smoothly entered into the inside. There a once more different sensation with even more heat than other places was making his finger sticky.<br /> <br /> “It feels good Kazuki-♡ That spot feels good-♡“<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai rubbed Kazuki’s finger persistently at the inside of her body that felt wet with a wetness that couldn’t be explained with just the slipperiness of the oil.<br /> <br /> “To, to completely go that far feeling good like that…”<br /> <br /> Mio opened her eyes wide looking at Hikaru-senpai’s innocent silliness. And then Mio too smoothly took off the panty of her bikini and threw it away. She coated her long legs with oil and entwined them on Kazuki’s leg. She fawned at him rubbing her body with a movement that was slightly more reserved than Hikaru-senpai. Her breathing, too, soon became ardent.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s both ears were surrounded by the sounds of “Haa♡ Haa♡” “Ahnn-♡“ “Nnn-♡“ from the two. His head became dizzy.<br /> <br /> The bold figures of the two were illuminated by the sun of midsummer without even a single shadow that was hidden.<br /> <br /> Even saying it conservatively, on top of the deck chair was the very heaven itself. Despite it was only a few hours that had passed since they departed from Japan, he had the feeling that he had arrived to some place far away beyond the horizon.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki too, come on, take off your swimsuit―. Let’s make your penis slippery okay?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai whose eyes were appearing intoxicated was tempting him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki hesitated. Being sandwiched between two naked girls, bodies slippery with oil, the swimwear that was remaining on him could be thought of as his last reasoning. The moment this got taken off and thrown away and the three became naked under the sun, he had the feeling that he would leave his body to his instinct and completely turn into a single beast.<br /> <br /> “It’s no good senpai, I don’t have any intention of getting a tan in that kind of place.”<br /> <br /> He tightly held his swimwear and held his ground.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii… for you to endure yourself in this situation… how cool…”<br /> <br /> It was unclear what was so cool for her but Mio’s eyes glittered ecstatically.<br /> <br /> Mio was not as innocent to the degree of Hikaru-senpai, she understood to a certain degree of a male’s instinct. She understood how much Kazuki was enduring himself currently.<br /> <br /> Mio was deeply moved and showered him with a kiss while saying “Kazu-nii, I love you! I love you so much!” Even while kissing him she was still wriggling her body lasciviously.<br /> <br /> The posture of Mio, who was kissing Kazuki, became as if she was the one who was in charge of Kazuki’s upper body, and then Hikaru-senpai’s posture was as if she was the one in charge of his lower body. With Kazuki in the center, the two girls continued to move their nude body as if they were becoming a perpetual machine that kept producing pleasant feelings. Both of them got carried away by the pleasant feelings many times over, their bodies convulsing. &lt;!--(Editor(Omega): The Perpetual Love Machine makes its return !)--&gt;<br /> <br /> “Haa, haa… even with my body twitching like this the good feeling continues even further… my head feels completely numb…-♡“<br /> <br /> The breathing of Hikaru-senpai who was greedy for the pleasant feeling was not so trivially turning rough.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was desperately enduring his desire of wanting to get his lower body oiled in addition. But the sweet sensation was gradually spreading to his waist as it pleased, something electrifying was discharged running from the center of his waist.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s body was shaking intolerably. At the same time Mio and Hikaru-senpai’s bodies were also noticeably trembling fiercely.<br /> <br /> It was an animalistic instant that laid bare an urge that was hard to resist.<br /> <br /> The three people finally stopped moving and laid down on the deck chair.<br /> <br /> “…Just now, Kazuki was also twitching…?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai was trying to lower Kazuki’s swimwear with her expression still in a dreamy state of mind.<br /> <br /> “…My, head feels dizzy from the heat, so I’m going to take a shower for a little.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stood up while pinning down his swimwear and hurriedly headed to the shower room.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> After that, the three were playing beach ball wholesomely for a while.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Kazuki, who was somewhat tanned when he rose from the pool, finally arrived at the [King’s Room] that was prepared for his sake.<br /> <br /> When he opened the door, what entered his sight was a deluxe suite that was illuminated by a golden chandelier.<br /> <br /> For the time being he sat on the bed that had the width that could be used by around four or five people. It completely made him wonder whether this bed was actually put here for the sake of calling girls over or not.<br /> <br /> The size of the bed wad around five times wider than the one he owned in his private room at the Witch’s Mansion. The furniture was all made from valuable natural wood like mahogany or rosewood that were combined with the latest alchemic metal and resin, all of them possessed both the classic appearance together with futuristic modernity.<br /> <br /> Excess luxury… he thought that but the feeling of Vice Chief Yamagata who prepared a room like this for him was also conveyed. He was greatly touched by this assistance for him that was done with the full effort of someone.<br /> <br /> While he couldn’t really calm down, there was the sound of knocking.<br /> <br /> “Come in” When he invited in the guest, the door opened thinly and Koyuki’s face peeked out from the gap.<br /> <br /> Koyuki acted as if she was confirming that there was no one else inside the room before she hurriedly approached the bed where Kazuki was sitting. Her movement looked like a small animal.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki, have you finished your work?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki was wearing the previously mentioned cute sailor uniform. The clean whiteness of it suited Koyuki so much it made him dizzy. That she was wearing it meant that she was being on duty to do some kind of work on this ship, that made Kazuki jealous.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… I’m a hopeless elf…”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> “I was learning the way of machine’s maintaining and inspection as my job throughout the morning but… I’m not good against machines and my comprehension was falling behind the others… I completely became a bother. I’m disqualified as a sailor.”<br /> <br /> She said that with her shoulder dropping dejectedly.<br /> <br /> “I think it’s still too fast for you to have the consciousness as a pro sailor, but is Koyuki really that bad with machines?”<br /> <br /> This was Koyuki who was born possessing a lot of magic power and even in battle she had saved Kazuki with her quick-wittedness.<br /> <br /> Moreover she was also at the top in school record.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt reliability more than anyone of the same generation from Koyuki who was cool and intellectual.<br /> <br /> This side of her that was not good with machines was unexpected, but when he recalled her room that was buried in book, he got the feeling that he could understand her even if he was told that she was actually an analog person.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… as the King, please punish this me that is a no good sailor.”<br /> <br /> “Eh? Punish you as King you said?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was flabbergasted. “Surely you don’t need anything like a punishment right?”<br /> <br /> “There is no value in punishing me even when I failed… a deserted existence, in other words I’m just the dregs of an elf”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s voice became even more wilted. …Why did it turn out like that? It was a puzzling self-condemnation feeling from her. Koyuki was a serious person so when she failed she might be worrying too much that she then wanted to be scolded properly.<br /> <br /> Certainly, to not be questioned at all even though she failed, could be thought in reverse as no one had any expectation on her at all from the start. Interpreted broadly it could also be seen as deserting her.<br /> <br /> However, just because of that he had to punish her, their relationship was not a relationship between master and servant here.<br /> <br /> Even though he thought of Koyuki as his friend and also his comrade… she was an existence that was close to being his lover.<br /> <br /> “Is it fine even if I spank your butt?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that jokingly, Koyuki unhesitatingly took off her sailor uniform’s skirt altogether with her panties.<br /> <br /> …’WHY!?’ Kazuki fell into a panic.<br /> <br /> “It’s humiliating to be subjected with spanking at this age, but… I have no choice but to obey…”<br /> <br /> She was not hesitating in slipping off her skirt and her panties from her legs, there was no superfluous hair growing on her body, her lower body that was white and smooth like an egg was laid bare in front of him.<br /> <br /> No one was telling her to take off her panties or anything.<br /> <br /> Koyuki climbed on the lap of Kazuki who was sitting stock still on the bed and lying on her stomach.<br /> <br /> It was the traditional posture of butt-spanking.<br /> <br /> “It’s embarrassing but… if this is what Kazuki ordered then… come.”<br /> <br /> ‘Even if she said come’, Kazuki thought but Koyuki faced him with a face red from embarrassment while a color of expectation could be peeked out from her eyes.<br /> <br /> With his mind still half-suspended Kazuki stared fixedly at Koyuki’s butt.<br /> <br /> This was not his first time seeing a girl naked but surprisingly he had never seen it fixedly in a calm situation like this. A round butt that looked elastic like a pudding that was shaking fidgetingly. And then the thighs that were drawing soft curves from there. It was hard to see from this posture but the plump roundness that was surrounded in a triangle by both thighs and the butt was also exposed.<br /> <br /> “Pl, please don’t stare… at this kind of shameful appearance…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki said that in a rough breath but she looked like she wanted to be watched instead.<br /> <br /> With a stiff movement like a tin plate toy, Kazuki hit her butt for the time being.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling it hitting, his palm was more like pressing on her surface with a snap. The softness was spreading on his palm.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, like that it won’t become any punishment-”<br /> <br /> “Li, like this?”<br /> <br /> He swung his hand down putting just a little bit more strength in it. pechin! Her butt made an undulation. There supposed to be some pain from that but there was no defensive magic power generated as if she was receiving that contentedly.<br /> <br /> “Nnn-!” Koyuki let a voice escape her mouth.<br /> <br /> He said spanking so this wouldn’t finish with just a single hit. He swung down his palm on Koyuki’s lovely butt several times. Her white skin reddened slightly.<br /> <br /> “…I’m, a hopeless no good elf so… please spank me more…!”<br /> <br /> In short this was her behaving like a spoiled child to him.<br /> <br /> There was a masochist-like aspect in Koyuki. But by no means that it was because her inborn nature liked to be abused verbally or because she could feel pain as pleasure. She created a situation where [he would accept her no good self] , she only wanted to feel that she was loved for real.<br /> <br /> His hesitation vanished all of a sudden. This act they were doing was not particularly so abnormal. This was just the usual Koyuki, who greedily wanted to be minded about.<br /> <br /> Of course it was also due to the fact that she failed her job, he guessed that she also wanted to get a fresh start mentally.<br /> <br /> “…Really, Koyuki is a hopeless pervert that always need to be looked after.”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki released a sigh, he said something mean in a theatrical way of talking. And then he put just a little more strength and hit her butt. “Ye, yess-!” Koyuki’s voice turned excited.<br /> <br /> “I’m a hopeless no good elf! Please spank me more-♡“<br /> <br /> pechi―n, pechi―n Such sounds rang out, Koyuki was happily wriggling her butt.<br /> <br /> “It will be no good to leave alone this kind of hopeless child unless I keep being together with you forever.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly stopped the force of his swinging down arm and gently caressed Koyuki’s reddened butt. He felt the roundness on his palm. Her butt twitched then.<br /> <br /> “Su, suddenly turning gentle like this, my butt, it turned sensitive…!”<br /> <br /> tsuu― A single line was dripping down from Koyuki’s thigh. It caught Kazuki’s attention and he caressed the wet thigh.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki, there is sweat here. Is your butt feeling hot?”<br /> <br /> “That’s not sweat… that’s because, on top of being unable to do my job, I’m a perverted elf…♡”<br /> <br /> Koyuki was shivering even more conspicuously while saying some masochistic words.<br /> <br /> She was lovely, however, somehow, she really made him feel that she was a hopeless girl and he could only make a bitter smile. He once more hit her butt sharply.<br /> <br /> After that, until the time for lunch came he kept spanking and caressing her butt.<br /> <br /> Before long he lifted in his arm the body of Koyuki that was limp like a doll while her expression was in a dreamy state of mind. “The punishment is over”, he said that and kissed her. Koyuki embraced Kazuki with a “puu” and acted sweet towards him like normal.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> Everywhere on the ship was extremely extravagant, but the ship also made him filled with admiration that even extravagance had a variety of variations.<br /> <br /> The inboard restaurant where they gathered for lunch was a space that made the visitors feel the impression of middle age Rome. Perhaps this kind of place is just like where the Sun King Louis XIV ‘Le Roi Soleil’ held a banquet in Versailles palace.<br /> <br /> Its wall and also the ceiling were applied with detailed carving in Baroque style, they were painted in different colors of golden and white. That golden and white were resplendently reflected by the light of the chandelier and the candlesticks, illuminating the space. That appearance was exactly like the Versailles palace that was extolled as the palace of the sun.<br /> <br /> Even all the tables and chairs were antique articles of Europe. Right now the diplomatic relationship between Japan and Europe is severed, the antiques that currently existed inside the country were mostly cultural assets.<br /> <br /> There were Japanese, Chinese, and Western restaurants available inside Queen Kaguya, it was terrifying to think that this was just nothing more than one of them. However the essential chef for it was not here.<br /> <br /> It couldn’t be helped that Kazuki became concerned with the kitchen. For all humans that love cooking, that place was a space that would make them water at the mouth.<br /> <br /> “ “ “ “The lunch today is made by us.” “ “ “<br /> <br /> The ones who were talking with matched voices in a tone as if they were playing house that didn’t suit this ultimate kitchen were the Ryuutaki sisters, Karin and Liz Liza-sensei, these four were wearing a sailor uniform covered with an apron and the long and narrow chef hat on their heads.<br /> <br /> What an amazing quartet.<br /> <br /> No, when he looked carefully there was also Kamimura-san half hidden by the group of four. There were five people.<br /> <br /> “Hmm? Kamimura-san is also working?”<br /> <br /> ‘Don’t tell me, how could that be,’ he thought that.<br /> <br /> “I was told that it’s fine even if I don’t work but… being seen with eyes of [only this girl is not working] is also painful so…”<br /> <br /> From now on Kamimura-san would be forced to a community life with a large number of eighteen people for ten days, whether she wanted it or not, in this closed space that was a ship. After that, where they would arrive at was on a foreign country called America.<br /> <br /> This was a harsh environment for the NEET Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> But the girl was concerned by the eyes of her surroundings and set out to act from herself. That… Kamimura-san!<br /> <br /> That was a great step forward. Calling it a brilliant achievement was not an exaggeration in the slightest.<br /> <br /> “I pressed a switch on the rice cooker and cooked the rice.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san raised her thumb with a triumphant look.<br /> <br /> “Amazing Kamimura-san! Thank you Kamimura-san!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki got carried away in praising her. Kamimura-san when she was in a good mood was fundamentally like an anime character so being exaggerated this much was better.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, I made the hamburger see!! This is Tamamo no Mae’s specialty cooking!!”<br /> <br /> When Karin raised her voice, the avatar of Tamamo no Mae floated besides her.<br /> <br /> {Uh huh. This is the specialty cooking of mine since my time as Dakki. I used to summon the lords that got too impertinent and treated them to hamburger like this. In addition, the ingredient was the minced meat of the guy’s son.}<br /> <br /> “What’s with you, telling that episode that ruined the mood.” Kazuki was drawing away from her.<br /> <br /> {That’s because the I at that period was Dakki of heaven’s decree, right now I’m the highly moral Tamamo-san. …Mu?}<br /> <br /> Tamamo directed her face to Shouko’s direction. She was staring fixedly at Shouko’s face.<br /> <br /> Besides Shouko, her contracted Diva―Taikoubou’s avatar emerged out along with a blue light.<br /> <br /> {It has been a long time, Dakki.} The old man with enlightened face called out to her like that.<br /> <br /> {Gee―!? Taikoubou!!} Tamamo was shocked and jumped with a 'pyon'.<br /> <br /> {Dakki? Who are you talking about kon?! I am Tamamo kon.} &lt;ref&gt;Kon is a fox’s voice&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> {It would be best even if you don’t change your character and play dumb. Currently I have no heaven’s decree to dispute against you.}<br /> <br /> {Tha, that’s so but… no matter what, the trauma is…}<br /> <br /> Tamamo huddled her head with both her hands while trembling fiercely 'gata gata'.<br /> <br /> {What an adverse fate isn’t it? For the fate between I and you to develop where we are fighting together shoulder to shoulder like this.}<br /> <br /> {Smashed… my head is smashed…}<br /> <br /> {Diva is established by the Mythology… but in the first place I am given the mission to escape from the heaven’s decree. And you escaped from the heaven’s decree as the servant of Joka by shifting into Tamamo. Due to that you created and obtained the chance meeting of adverse fate.}<br /> <br /> {It’s scary having your head split open by a whip… It’s scary having your head split open by a whip…}<br /> <br /> {In a certain meaning the both of us are exactly the symbol of the battle ahead… ah, wait.}<br /> <br /> The figure of Tamamo no Mae vanished despondently.<br /> <br /> {She vanished… Even though I wanted to renew the old friendship. No matter how hard one tries, I can’t mesh well with her when I try to get closer to her…}<br /> <br /> {Taikoubou…} Besides Lotte, Prometheus emerged out.<br /> <br /> {If you talk too long then the meal will get cold.}<br /> <br /> {I cannot taste it anyway.}<br /> <br /> {I’m assimilated with Lotte so I can taste it.}<br /> <br /> {Cheh-} Leaving behind childishness that seemed unbecoming of a sage, Taikoubou’s avatar vanished.<br /> <br /> “…Old man Taikoubou is unusually {{furigana|jovial|Friendly}} huh.”<br /> <br /> The contractor Shouko had her eyes turned round.<br /> <br /> “We were baking this pie together with Liz Liza-sensei.”<br /> <br /> The Ryuutaki sisters were holding what appeared to be a pie that was baked in the open from the kitchen.<br /> <br /> “There is also King Arthur here. When talking about Britain, then pie cooking will come to mind. Because recipes from all over the world is prepared inside the kitchen, we made this with that as reference.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei who was born in Britain yet raised in Japan talked. Her appearance where a tall and lanky chef hat was put on top of the head of her tiny body, he would be scolded if he said it out loud, but she was cute.<br /> <br /> “I created a meat pie with potato and cheese filling.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai said that while slurping her own saliva.<br /> <br /> “That composition really hit the spot of a meat pie’s deliciousness.”<br /> <br /> Arthur smiled broadly.<br /> <br /> “Hee, so if we mentioned Britain, then pie cooking will come to mind. I didn’t know that at all.”<br /> <br /> “Do you know nothing about Britain’s cooking? …Before in the old era, the people from the gourmet countries that were Japan, France, or China came harassing us with a gaze of mockery saying that Britain was a land with a savage palate… Such humiliation, by no means we, the inheritor of Britain’s genes, have forgotten it. It’s fine if we said that as a self-ridiculing joke, but for other countries to call us as a savage land is just something that is only a shameful thinking. How dare you, you Jap!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Arthur flung off his usual gentlemanly composure to the wind and he raised his voice roughly.<br /> <br /> “What does he mean by Jap?” Kazuki tilted his head. Liz Liza-sensei explained “It’s a derogatory term for Japanese that existed in the past.”<br /> <br /> “Well, around our generation it was a common sense that Britain’s food was bad anyway.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei who was from the older generation talked with a tone that was a little fired up.<br /> <br /> “Many countries were mocking our Britain’s food culture, but unexpectedly the reason for that wasn’t known. I heard there is a lot of Japanese that thought that the Anglo-Saxon race are fundamentally people with a savage taste. This is a good chance, I’m going to gamble the pride of the meat pie in this place in order to recover the honor of Britain’s gene in this place without fail. This is also the duty of a King.”<br /> <br /> “The food will get cold if the talk goes too long though…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki attempted to interrupt but Arthur ignored him and began to talk eloquently.<br /> <br /> “There were actually many primary factors that caused the food culture in our country to fail to blossom. The theory about our bad relation with France or the industrial revolution were raised but the biggest cause was the cold climate that made it hard to raise vegetable and wheat. The only one we could harvest was potato, we ate only potato and we were called potato knight. It’s the equivalent of rustic samurai in Japanese language.”<br /> <br /> “Something like country bumpkin then.” Kazuki back-talked with an indifferent feeling.<br /> <br /> “Next because stock-farming was also possible, we also ate beef meat often. That’s why roast beef and meat pie were greatly refined that we could even boast it to the world as our prided cooking. But the combination of potato and meat only reinforced the impression of us as savages. There we then bluffed [We don’t have any interest in something trivial like food! We are just putting importance on efficiency!] that only made the surrounding countries to make fun and look down on us. So vexing.”<br /> <br /> Arthur was trembling fiercely even though there was no person from that time at all here. He could take a glimpse of a King’s patriotism from this.<br /> <br /> “But when the 21st century of the old era came and the international exchange between countries was turning into a huge boom, the ingredients and food culture from other countries freely flooded Britain without any restriction. In this modern times you have never seen other countries with such an unprecedented sudden development of food culture to the degree of Britain, don’t you agree? But even so it’s not so simple to overturn the label that had once stuck to us.”<br /> <br /> Arthur’s voice was filled with a deep sadness.<br /> <br /> “Before we could even overturn that label―a great encounter and disaster happened and the era changed. The encounter with Diva. For the sake of our faith, we had to once again sever our ties with the world. Once again it appeared that the palate of the British Empire would be isolated inside the oatmeal of darkness.”<br /> <br /> “What in the world is this oatmeal of darkness?”<br /> <br /> “However, in exchange of losing our diplomatic relation we obtained the power of alchemy. As the King, I developed a large scale country project in order to enrich Britain’s food culture. We restored the soil, adapted the plant species of the old era to cold climate… we recovered the bright era once more! Any kind of crops exist in the current Britain! I did my best! I won’t let anyone call us as a tasteless country anymore!!”<br /> <br /> He learned a little bit more about foreign culture again. For the time being Kazuki and the others gave an applause, but Lotte was murmuring “Thinking of it in anime perspective this is a loss of individuality you know desu.”<br /> <br /> With a “Fuu” Arthur took a breather from his long talk and directed his gaze onto the meat pie.<br /> <br /> “Meat pie with cheese filling really hit the spot of a meat pie’s deliciousness. This is a special cooking that unites our pie cooking’s culture with our prided stock farming and dairy producet that were once numbered so few in our country. Thank you, Shinobu-kun, you have gathered and expressed the history of Britain’s food culture on top of a single plate. Well… though fish and chips that is wrapped inside an erotic newspaper is also not that bad.”<br /> <br /> “Meat… Cheese… A pie with a lot of butter… There is no reason that it will taste bad… gau…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai whose saliva kept gathering in her mouth was even now still making a face as if saliva would dribble down from her mouth anytime. There was no doubt that she just wanted to eat oily and meaty food, she was a carnivore that didn’t think of anything that profound.<br /> <br /> “If I left everything to everyone else, then everything will be completely covered by meat, so here I made a lot of vegetables.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was also carrying a pie on her hand. When she put it on the table and divided it, that cross-section view was depicting a stylish marble pattern of colorful vegetables, cheese, and egg.<br /> <br /> She further brought our potage soup and salad from the kitchen. &lt;ref&gt;Potage is a kind of thick soup. No dirty minds please. ;P&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “This pie is a quiche isn’t it? Also if you ask what kind of potage soup is this though… it’s not from Britain but France.” Arthur’s tone hardened from his antagonism towards France.<br /> <br /> “She kept trying to look good and tried to make something elaborate and kept failing, that’s why she got this delayed!”<br /> <br /> When Karin pointed that out while laughing, Miyabi-senpai whose showing-off personality got exposed “Don’t tell them that!” her face turned red. Liz Liza-sensei also laughed with a mean expression.<br /> <br /> “If you don’t have defensive magic power, your left finger and the tip of your foot will be gone already huh.”<br /> <br /> “I can understand finger but even the toes?”<br /> <br /> “She dropped the knife from the cutting board onto her foot many times. Exactly like a guillotine.”<br /> <br /> ‘Uwaa…’, Kazuki imagined it and his spine froze.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai also divided the pie that she baked herself. The pie texture of this one felt more like cookie that crumble rather than the usual flaky texture, the masses of meat was peeking out all over the cross-section with syrupy cheese spilling out. Just looking from the visual it looked absolutely tasty.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha! The quiche one has the feels like Paris, but this one, should it get called rough or wild, it really has the feel of savage cooking isn’t it! Though I like this kind of food more!”<br /> <br /> The thing that, although Kazuki was thinking it but he didn’t say it out, was said out by Hikaru-senpai while laughing.<br /> <br /> The face of Arthur who was the King of a country turned white and he stared at Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “What actually is a Diva and Mythology?”<br /> <br /> In the middle of the meal, Kazuki asked to Leme and Lotte―no, to Prometheus that was inside Lotte.<br /> <br /> “You two should have gradually recovered your memory, so isn’t it fine if you two teach me more about various things?”<br /> <br /> The conversation between Taikobou and Tamamo from before was weighing on Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> Diva was established by the Mythology―sometimes the Divas talked about this kind of thing that made him get an idea like that, but what was a Diva, what was Mythology, he always lacked the concreteness of their existence and didn’t understand well.<br /> <br /> While Leme was stuffing too much food into her mouth and she couldn’t reply while chewing 'mogu mogu', Prometheus emerged out beside Lotte. Prometheus was able to perform a skillful act of conversing with Kazuki using his avatar even while tasting the food with the senses that he shared with Lotte.<br /> <br /> {I have a memory loss but with the power and memory I have recovered little by little… there is something that I noticed. Though I think that perhaps Lemegeton-sama who has recovered more memory and power than me is the same like me.}<br /> <br /> “Mogu mogu gokun. …Right, I understand what Prometheus wanted to say. O King. It seems that Leme and others cannot bring the detailed information <br /> <br /> from that {{furigana|place|Astrum}} to this {{furigana|place|Real World}}.”<br /> <br /> “You cannot bring it here? What do you mean? It’s your own knowledge right?”<br /> <br /> “When Leme was inside Astrum, I understood well about Astrum. It was as if knowing about myself. But when Leme appear in the real world as an avatar, Leme gradually become clueless about Astrum. Like this when I have a flesh body in this world, ''Leme becomes even more detached from Astrum'', and Leme becomes even more clueless. It cannot be explained with the language of this world. It cannot be turned into information.”<br /> <br /> {Just now Kazuki said, our own knowledge, but that’s not accurate. Most likely, we are nothing more than a part of Astrum. ''At the same time we can also have our own individual personality''. The more we have a characteristic nature, the more I become this individual called Prometheus, the more I will become farther from Astrum’s whole body.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s head turned complicated.<br /> <br /> “Saying it in a sensible way… that’s right… if now Leme go back to Astrum, Leme will immediately get the idea [Aa! It’s should be easier if I just explained Astrum like this!] and become frustrated. But if Leme materialized here again and try to explain to Kazuki, Leme will go [How should I explain it again?] and become clueless once more. It’s not like I can take memo there.”<br /> <br /> “…I see.”<br /> <br /> “If there is a Diva that was established in his Mythology as someone that understand everything and can act in this real world, that kind of guy will perhaps be the exception to this. An existence with some kind of an established omniscience… that [Naiarlatoteph] who we fought before had that kind of atmosphere.”<br /> <br /> The Diva of Cthulhu Mythos that possessed Headmaster Otonashi and repeated an inhuman experiment underground the Knight Academy. That Diva clearly said out loud of the awareness of his own objective―a game.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t remember the majority of what that Diva said, but he talked about annoying game that the forces of Mythology were competing in. If he remembered correctly―the struggle for Astrum.<br /> <br /> He had already come in contact with an existence that knew about the secret of the world before.<br /> <br /> But Naiarlatoteph was already terminated. There was no way Kazuki would allow that insane Diva to exist in this world for even a second longer. Because the Cthulhu Mythos was weakened, even Kazuki and co. at that time could somehow defeat him.<br /> <br /> If he could extract a little more detailed information from him before he was terminated…<br /> <br /> No, wrong―Naiarlatoteph was not terminated. He remembered that the Diva entrusted the seed of his slight existence to Loki, and supposedly Loki had planted that seed into a girl.<br /> <br /> The pitch black girl that Kaya jokingly named as Naiarlako or something.<br /> <br /> Whether Loki knew it or not, he might be placing a girl that grasped the secret of the world beside him.<br /> <br /> “You two are not intentionally explaining this in a way that is hard to understand are you?”<br /> <br /> “How unexpected. Leme likes Kazuki, so Leme won’t do that kind of harassment. Leme want a second serving of hamburger for Leme’s anger!”<br /> <br /> “Yosh, come―!” Karin put a hamburger on Leme’s plate. She seemed happy that her cooking was happily received. Kazuki understood well that feeling that it made him jealous. He wanted to work.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-kun, it’s not like I too have been taught everything by the chief god I’m contracted with you know.”<br /> <br /> Arthur too interjected while asking for a second serving of meat pie with a complicated expression.<br /> <br /> This person too could eat really well unlike his appearance. Moreover, he kept eating only meat.<br /> <br /> Kazuki lent his ear while asking for seconds of the salad and the quiche.<br /> <br /> “There is a stern wall between Astrum and this world. That’s why an &lt;agent&gt; called King is necessary. I think that making this wall gone is the task a King should perform.”<br /> <br /> “…Is that something that can be obtained from the victory in the battle between the fellow Kings?”<br /> <br /> “From the words that Basilleus Basilleon left behind, supposedly, at the very least, we will obtain something.”<br /> <br /> It was as if this person might be a believer of Basilleus Basilleon in some meaning, when he talked about those words, a passionate conviction filled his voice.<br /> <br /> “It’s not like we are particularly wanting for something or wanting to do something that we fight like this though… Loki is scheming something, China looks like it’s going to come invading…”<br /> <br /> “We are also the same. Rather than some kind of ideal, we just want to do something about the threat right in front of our eyes.”<br /> <br /> Shouko expressed her agreement with Kazuki’s words.<br /> <br /> “However this is just tasty. Yosh, next time I’m gonna make some Ryouzanpaku cooking.”<br /> <br /> “This is also delicious but, Kou-jie’s cooking is also great y’know!” &lt;ref&gt;Kou from Shoukou and jie is Chinese for big sister&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Silirat talked proudly as if boasting about herself.<br /> <br /> “Does it have any difference with Chinese food?”<br /> <br /> “My hometown has a little different history with China, or perhaps I should say there is influence from the outside.”<br /> <br /> When the conversation touched her hometown, Shouko’s expression softened just for a little.<br /> <br /> However both Shouko and Silirat were also eating meat with amazing vigor.<br /> <br /> “Right, meat is for a warrior!!!” Beatrix too said that as if to say that protein was exactly her faith.<br /> <br /> “My vegetable cooking… it’s not really decreasing isn’t it…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s white face whitened even more. Kazuki and Lotte noticed in the middle and changed direction to prioritize vegetables but… a cooking contest also happened to have a cruel facet in it.<br /> <br /> “Miyabi-oneesan! I prefer the quiche desu!!”<br /> <br /> “This is because senpai was thinking about the balance for us. I ate the vegetables properly too, see!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte gave a follow-up in fluster for the delicate Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was half-crying for the shock of having her own cooking avoided.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, you won’t grow big if you don’t eat meat.”<br /> <br /> “Muga”<br /> <br /> However Shinobu-senpai screwed in a mass of meat pie into Kazuki’s mouth from the side. With a tight hold.<br /> <br /> “As I thought meat pie is the one that reigns supreme. Fufufu, what capital of flower Paris. That kind of thing is merely something foolish.”<br /> <br /> Arthur who was watching that situation was murmuring with an intimation that was filled with a grudge somewhere.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! Are you saying you won’t eat my hamburger!!”<br /> <br /> “Moganbo”<br /> <br /> Karin too stood up from her chair and rushed at him before screwing in hamburger into Kazuki’s mouth. With a tight hold.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… I had lived all this time rejecting other people but, making food for another person where they are happily eating it makes me glad. Eat more Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> With her sagacious beauty enchanted with happiness, Shinobu-senpai continued to screw in meat into Kazuki’s mouth.<br /> <br /> “mogemogera”<br /> <br /> Having meat stuffed into his mouth one after another, a sound effect with unintelligible meaning escaped his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Geho-! Goho!? …My throat got choked…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a tea cup and a rice bowl in his hands and washed down the meat lump that got caught in his throat with rice and tea.<br /> <br /> “Are, are you okay…? Kazuki?”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san got worried about Kazuki who got stuck in a situation that turned strange and she was patting his back at his side. Kazuki’s throat was swelling big, with a big gulp that swelling passed through his esophagus.<br /> <br /> “Fuu…” After releasing a sigh he noticed.<br /> <br /> “Hm… this rice… it’s springy with the bulging of the grain strangely smooth, it passed through the throat smoothly… On top of its delicate cooking adjustment, all the grains are uniformly cooked. It was hidden in the shadow of the cooking with strong flavor, but this rice is extremely delicious…!!”<br /> <br /> “O, amazing. Even though I was already thinking that, as expected something this inconspicuous wouldn’t be noticed.”<br /> <br /> Karin’s eyes widened. Miyabi-senpai recovered her spirit and smiled.<br /> <br /> “That rice, Kamimura-san used Extra Sense to pick out the grains that were too big or too small, also the grains that were damaged, and then she removed the grains one by one before cooking it you know?”<br /> <br /> “To go that far…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was staring at Kamimura-san with a gaze of deep admiration. Kamimura-san averted her eyes shyly.<br /> <br /> “Something like this even someone like me… because I wanted everyone to feel happy eating it.”<br /> <br /> Beside her, the avatar of Amaterasu emerged out with her eyes wide open in shock.<br /> <br /> {I’m also surprised… this child who was indifferent to her surroundings is, saying until this far.}<br /> <br /> “I’m not indifferent. I’m always thankful to the people of the Witch’s Mansion. It’s just that there was no chance to say it out…”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san looked around at all the people present at the table and looked down shyly.<br /> <br /> When everyone was staying quiet waiting for her next words, she began to mumblingly leak out her feeling.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya is always kind… Though I’m troubled how to react being hugged impulsively and getting my head petted, treated like a pet.”<br /> <br /> “That’s because Itsuki-chan is really cute.” Kaguya-senpai grinned broadly.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai, when I was watching anime of the shounen manga category, she always came out of nowhere getting close to me to watch the show together. Though when her tension got too high and she tried out the anime’s technique on me I got troubled of how to react.”<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai, it’s no good to challenge people to a sword play without minding who or where like that.” Kazuki retorted.<br /> <br /> “Mio has too different hobbies with me, so she didn’t have time to converse with me but, she came giving me a lot of western clothes wanting me to try it out like playing with a doll. Though I’m troubled how to react because I have the feeling that the clothes didn’t match me.”<br /> <br /> “There is just no way that the clothes that I chose will be unsuited, okay-“<br /> <br /> “Koyuki lent me books, we didn’t really talk much but we read books together. I like Koyuki.”<br /> <br /> “Her positivity level to Koyuki is the highest!?” Kaguya-senpai was vexed.<br /> <br /> “Also Kazuha that called me her friend, also Kohaku that made a fuss of me as the Celebration King, of course Lotte-shishou and Kazuki too… everyone is nothing but kind and strong people so I don’t feel any uneasiness. But I just keep receiving, so if there is something that I can give out instead…”<br /> <br /> Her wandering gaze turned in a circle before she looked up at Kazuki beside her. She was making an upturned eyes just like a small animal. Kazuki’s feeling became just like when he was confronting the Demon Beast &lt;puppy&gt; in the cosplay café &lt;Solomon&gt;, he reflexively stroked Kamimura-san’s head fervently. Kaguya-senpai too leaped from her chair with a 'pyon'.<br /> <br /> “Itsuki-chan! Yo―u―are―cu―te―!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too hugged Kamimura-san and she fervently rubbed her head briskly.<br /> <br /> “Be, because you do this kind of thing, that I’m troubled how to react.” Kamimura-san’s face reddened.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt something warm lit up inside his chest. He always kept thinking of making someone happy, but of course receiving kindness from someone like this was also pleasant.<br /> <br /> He tended to forget it, but good will was not a one-way road.<br /> <br /> This overly extravagant ship too was also the good will right from the heart of Vice Chief Yamagata and the government.<br /> <br /> Perhaps he also had no choice but to get himself more used of receiving something like this.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> “For a bath to exist on a ship that is floating on the sea, it feels mysterious somehow.”<br /> <br /> With a bathing tool set in hand, Kazuki was walking alone inside the ship. The curtain of the night had already descended down outside the window, illuminated by the faint star light, the pitch black sea surface was undulating with waves.<br /> <br /> There was nothing else. This place was right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.<br /> <br /> He went down to the lower level with the elevator aboard the ship. There was the tank to preserve the water and the water making device that boiled the sea water in the lowest level of the ship. It seemed there was a [resort spa] right beside those facilities.<br /> <br /> And then it seemed there was also a different open air bath at the roof of the ship.<br /> <br /> He understood what was an open air bath, but about a spa, he couldn’t imagine anything other than a cod roe spa. Anyways, for the time being Kazuki was going to challenge an unknown experience. &lt;ref&gt;This cod roe spa, I imagine it’s this pond where many small fish are kept there, you put your hand or foot inside it and the fishes will crowd around you and eat your dead skin and dirt&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Because there was no other facility, he soon found the entrance where it was divided between the men and women sections. As expected there was no mixed bath for men and women. He passed through the curtain and entered inside, where Kanae in her swimsuit was there.<br /> <br /> “Ni・i・sa・ma~♡”<br /> <br /> Perhaps she had reflected on her fundoshi from before, this time she was wearing a black one piece swimsuit with high leg that had the slit digging into her skin, but her silhouette’s black streamlined shape also suited her alias [Storm Cat].<br /> <br /> Kazuki lightly poked Kanae’s forehead. “Get out.” “Funyaa-“<br /> <br /> “Just why are you in the man’s section?”<br /> <br /> “Because, Nii-sama, isn’t Nii-sama the only male on this ship? In other words there is no man section but Nii-sama section. Nii-sama section… what a wonderful sound… even just imagining it makes Kanae feel dizzy like burning under fire…” &lt;ref&gt;The burning under fire here is said in english, ‘baaningu ando faiyaa’. And also did she forget Arthur, or even Kanae has already guessed…&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “It’s really embarrassing to use English language so idiotically like that even thought we are going to learn English properly from Arthur from now on.”<br /> <br /> “How can I not be inside such a wonderful place! That’s impossible! Unbelievable(Anbiriivaburu)!”<br /> <br /> “Your English is really messed up.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki poked Kanae’s forehead one more time stronger this time. “It’s enough already, just・get・out.” “Funyanya-“<br /> <br /> “But, but, Nii-sama, even though there is this rare chance using this kind of facility, won’t you be lonely just alone in there?”<br /> <br /> “Certainly that might be so though.”<br /> <br /> “Talking about a spa, it’s about massages! However, even though there is this valuable facility, there is no staff! And there, this unworthy Kanae will have the honor to become Nii-sama’s exclusive esthetician(esutetishan)!”<br /> <br /> Because Kanae was the other party he completely refused her following his habit, but thinking of it carefully there was no reason for him to refuse.<br /> <br /> “Well, it should be fine.”<br /> <br /> “Really!? Brother(Burazaa)! Not that, bravo(buravoo)! Uehihi, the body that is nii-sama’s body, with this hand… uehihi…! Well then Nii-sama, please change your clothes in this changing room over here! Ah, I have already prepared a swimsuit for the sake of Nii-sama who is a shy person, use this!”<br /> <br /> Kanae took out a black speedos from the chest of her one piece swimsuit, it was a heartless swimsuit with its fairly low-rise. ‘Why are you taking that out from that kind of place’, Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> “Kanae has prepare(purepara) preparation so Nii-sama’s change is just fit(jasuto feito)~♪”<br /> <br /> When he wore the speedos, the uneasiness from the area that the cloth covered made him feel like he could slightly understand the feeling of everyone that was wearing a Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> When he looked around, it seemed that what was called a spa was a relaxation facility that was centered around a bathing facility.<br /> <br /> With the spacious bathroom as the center, there were various doors that continued on to a sauna, massage room, and esthetic salon. Kanae was waiting inside the massage room.<br /> <br /> He opened the door. The room was dim, only the surrounding of the massage stand was illuminated by faint light.<br /> <br /> There was a fragrance that made him feel like his brain was going to melt. Tension naturally left from his body and unconsciously his walk became slower. While Kanae was burning some aroma, she was also saying “Quick, quick-“ beckoning him to the massage stand.<br /> <br /> This was also his first time having something like a classic aroma therapy. When he laid face-down on the massage stand just as he was told, he was wrapped in a sweet haze, he felt like his body would really melt down.<br /> <br /> He understood that the aroma was showing its effect on his brain. Wasn’t this thing close enough already to a drug like this?<br /> <br /> “Haa haa… the back of my lovely angel(mai ravurii enjeru) Nii-sama… I can see angel wings…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki couldn’t see it from where he laid face-down, but Kanae went around his back and for some reason she was nuzzling around Kazuki’s shoulder blade. Most likely she was not using her palm but nuzzling with her whole face.<br /> <br /> “Why are you not massaging but nuzzling with your cheek there?”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying Nii-sama, a massage is not done by suddenly rubbing the body, it’s first started from gently patting the body.”<br /> <br /> “…Now that you mentioned it, that’s true, but wicked thought is…”<br /> <br /> “Haa haa, Nii-sama’s back looks delicious… uehihi… slurp”<br /> <br /> “Oi, isn’t that a drool dripping down just now?”<br /> <br /> “Yo, yo, you’re wrong! It’s only the oil just now, massage oil.”<br /> <br /> “If it’s oil then it should be before the patting right, normally.”<br /> <br /> “Shut up(Saranrappu) Nii-sama!”<br /> <br /> “Eh, you’re saying to shut up?”<br /> <br /> “Chaiya!” Kanae drove a sharp blade hand onto Kazuki’s spine not different from her nickname Storm Cat. &lt;ref&gt;Blade hand, making a pose with your hand as if your hand is a blade and using that pose to strike&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Chaiya! Sei! Nyaa!”<br /> <br /> “It feels not strong enough I think.”<br /> <br /> “Oh…” &lt;ref&gt;This ‘oh’ is written using alphabet in the raw, not hiragana or katakana&lt;/ref&gt; Kanae expressed her mental shock by the English that she used correctly for the first time.<br /> <br /> Kanae was not using Enchant Aura. If someone carelessly used reinforcement magic when they were doing something like massaging and then mistaken the adjustment of their strength, the bone of the other party could easily get broken. That was because the side that was receiving massage had to shut down their defensive magic power in order to be massaged after all.<br /> <br /> Even in the case where the person had confidence in their control, there was taboo for a magician to use reinforcement magic against human who was not clad in a defensive magic power. But, a barehanded Kanae was too feeble.<br /> <br /> “The, then I’ll switch to finger pressure massage.”<br /> <br /> Kanae straddled Kazuki’s waist and pressed her thumbs with full effort onto his back.<br /> <br /> “Make it a little stronger.”<br /> <br /> “Mumumu… then Hayashizaki-style Secret Art, Dangerous Kanae Bunker(Denjarasu・Kanae Bankaa)!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae floated her body, putting her body weight into it, like an iron hammer she drove her fingers onto his back.<br /> <br /> “I’ll carve the love of a little sister into this baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!” Kanae yelled hot-bloodedly like in a battle anime.<br /> <br /> “It’s not really working you know.”<br /> <br /> “Oh my god-(Oo mai ga-)!” Kanae abruptly fell onto Kazuki’s back.<br /> <br /> “Jesus Onii-sama(Jeezasu Onii-sama)… your muscles are hard! Were you doing muscle training!?”<br /> <br /> “I did now and then before and after the meals when there was time.”<br /> <br /> “Gununu… that kind of serious Nii-sama is lovely… if it became like this, then I can only do this!”<br /> <br /> Kanae hopped up and then she landed on Kazuki’s back and stamped hard.<br /> <br /> “Oh, just now felt good.”<br /> <br /> “What the. Nii-sama, for you to get excited by your little sister’s kick… what a hopeless Nii-sama you are! Fufufu, Kanae too feels like I have somewhat reached a new frontier! Like this!? Please leak out your voice more and more like a pig! Hee―re, and here!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki got irritated.<br /> <br /> “Then this time I’ll give you a massage as my thanks.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki caught the foot that was coming to stamp him and he toppled her over. Immediately their bodies changed place and Kazuki pinned down Kanae.<br /> <br /> “Funyaa-!?” He stroked the squishy skin of Kanae who was stunned and blinking with surprise with his palm. “N, noo- Nii-sama-“ Like that she leaked out a coquettish voice. With a serious face Kazuki sensed the stiffened muscles beneath the skin and pressured there in one go.<br /> <br /> “Fu, funyaaaaaaa♡”<br /> <br /> Kanae raised her voice, small heart marks were flying everywhere.<br /> <br /> After ranking up the power of bond, Kazuki became able to sense the really small change of the positivity level. Making use of this ability, he immediately grasped the degree of strength and acupuncture points where Kanae felt it the best. He had obtained the talent where even while being a King he could also become a prodigious masseur.<br /> <br /> “Ah, Nii-sama… there… n-! Aaann-!”<br /> <br /> “Don’t you get too carried away! Hayashizaki-style Secret Art, Kazuki Bunker!!”<br /> <br /> Because Kanae’s positivity level was high, Kazuki was also able to use Kanae’s technique so skillfully.<br /> <br /> “Ah, Nii-samaaa, it feels good thereee-! Please mercy-!”<br /> <br /> Kanae’s body twisted wrigglingly. He thought that it was somewhat erotic, but the other side was Kanae so he swept away his worldly thought and he continuously pressed on secret spots one after another.<br /> <br /> “Comee―♡ Nii-sama, Kanae is cominggg-♡“<br /> <br /> “Just where are you coming.”<br /> <br /> “Nnn, nnhooooooo! Comiiiiiiing! Funyaaaaan!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae made a peace sign with both her hands, the white of her eyes kept rotating in circle and her tongue lolled out from her mouth.<br /> <br /> “You, your face right now really throws away yourself as a woman you know.”<br /> <br /> “Haa haa… the too good feeling really made Kanae completely run on the joke material.”<br /> <br /> “You stupid little sister.” The erotic feeling that welled up inside him shriveled down in one go.<br /> <br /> The relationship between him and Kanae had turned into one where they were conscious of each other as man and woman. However because he had continued as a big brother and his stupid little sister for a long time, it was also difficult for him to decide how to treat each other that would be fine.<br /> <br /> Surely Kanae was also like that. Even if she hid her shyness but before long an outrageously unfortunate look appeared on her.<br /> <br /> “You are really still the same idiot little sister huh.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki kneaded Kanae’s cheeks 'munyu' with both his hands. Her face returned to the usual cute little sister. He had to meet her halfway from his side too. Thinking so he brought his lips closer to Kanae.<br /> <br /> Kanae’s eyes brightened in dreamy color and she pushed her lips at him―no, wait a second.<br /> <br /> Just before their lips touched each other, Kazuki twisted his neck and took emergency evasion. Kanae yelled.<br /> <br /> “Wha!? Feint(Feinto)!? Why(Howai) Nii-sama so malicious like that!?”<br /> <br /> “Thinking it carefully there is still the one time use trump card for the level 10.”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s!?” Kanae’s expression turned pale. Her face was a face that had just received a shock that was not a joke. Exactly because they were always just joking around with each other that he really didn’t want to see this kind of face on her.<br /> <br /> He wasted no time to direct Kanae’s face to the side and touched his lips on her cheek.<br /> <br /> “Ah, kiss on the cheek…”<br /> <br /> Her cheek that was kissed reddened. He turned her face to the other side and kissed the cheek on the other side too, he then further turned her face down and kissed her forehead too. Kanae’s face became wholly red and she was dazed.<br /> <br /> “Tehehe… My face got kissed all over by Nii-sama…”<br /> <br /> The cheeks of the happy Kanae loosened, heart marks were forming a swarm and flew.<br /> <br /> ‘I have to make her expression to always be like this’, Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> When they soaked together inside the bath, Kanae began nodding off sleepily. When he noticed the night had already became the time when it could be said as late hours for the people of Hayashizaki family who was a believer of early to bed, early to rise.<br /> <br /> Rising from the bath, he sent off the girl who was rubbing her eyes sleepily until her room before going back to his own room.<br /> <br /> In the middle of the corridor he walked, there was Kamimura-san standing there.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san’s eyes that usually looked sleepy were currently shining glaringly.<br /> <br /> This girl was a resident of the night. The prime time of the day of a shut-in otaku began from now.<br /> <br /> “E, err… the theater room is amazing, it completely looks like a movie… there is also Lotte-shishou there so, let’s watch anime together?”<br /> <br /> She rushed closer to Kazuki like a puppy and tightly pinched Kazuki’s sleeve before looking at him with upturned eyes while saying that.<br /> <br /> He must have looked a little uneasy because she corrected herself “…You won’t go?”<br /> <br /> There was no way he could possibly refuse her.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> They walked through the corridor that was bright even in the night side by side.<br /> <br /> “This is the continuation of the story from the afternoon in that dining hall but…” Kamimura-san abruptly began to talk.<br /> <br /> It was as if she didn’t want to lose the chance to talk about something no matter what.<br /> <br /> The up and down of Kamimura-san’s emotion was really drastic, just when he thought that she was being reserved and stayed quiet, she suddenly began to talk. He had to get used to that gap of mood swing at all cost.<br /> <br /> “I, am scared of having expectation placed on me, and then betraying that.” She began to talk.<br /> <br /> “The reason I became a shut-in… it was just a really stupid reason but… originally, I was from a family of priests so I aimed to enter a university in Shinto major and I was made to study hard.”<br /> <br /> “You mean something like a Shinto priest when you said priest right? So there is a university to attend to for that kind of thing then.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki once trained aiming to become a swordsman, and now because he was attending the Magic Division he was distant from worldly affairs.<br /> <br /> After Kamimura-san nodded, she added in her explanation.<br /> <br /> “Since Divas appeared in this world, the popularity and the standard score for acceptance for a Shinto major rose suddenly…”<br /> <br /> “Aah, because the existences of Mythologies were proved, of course it’s only natural then that it happened.”<br /> <br /> Now that Japanese Mythology finally appeared in front of the people, he guessed that the major would only become more popular.<br /> <br /> In other words, that was why she had to study hard, aiming to enter the major that became hard to enter similar to those who aimed to become a lawyer or a doctor.<br /> <br /> “I attended cram school since my time in elementary school, I managed to pass middle school entrance exam and entered the middle school of my choice but… there I became a dunce that completely couldn’t keep up…”<br /> <br /> At this point Kamimura-san pouted her lips “Perhaps I didn’t have a smart brain anyway from the start… besides, at papa and mama’s time they could become priest even without studying, even though they don’t have any right to protest because this is from the lineage of the family…” she grumbled for a little.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t go to class, everything became scary… I feigned illness to the school several times. I just planned to take some emergency evacuation temporarily with light feeling. But like that my study was falling behind all the more, it became scarier and scarier… I made papa and mama disappointed, if it’s like that then I won’t work hard anymore I thought… And then when I shut myself in my room and played net games, there I discovered my place to belong…”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san went on “There, a shut-in that can continuously login the whole day will be relied on by everyone. Exactly like a hero. Once you become like that you won’t be able to go back anymore.” She laughed cynically.<br /> <br /> “I spent my whole time and spending money into net games, but even so [the hero’s war fund] was insufficient. …So I pestered mama for money saying that I will buy reference books and question collection because I will study at home, I received a lot on purpose and used it all for the game’s bill. Then I got found out that I almost never even used the few teaching material that I bought, how I used the money also got exposed soon… after that papa and mama stop expecting anything from me.”<br /> <br /> It was something that was far removed from anything like Diva or battle or the peace of the country, a problem that existed in households everywhere. Nevertheless, there was a heaviness from the bottom of a deep darkness in her tone of voice.<br /> <br /> If he was also… Kazuki couldn’t stop himself from imagining. With people putting expectations only in his talent for the sword and he got adopted because of that, ''his current self was fortunately able to succeed in that and even Kanae was accepting him happily''.<br /> <br /> If he actually failed in that, what would happen to him then? His step-father and Kanae were kind people but―even so, perhaps it would still be unbearable. And then perhaps he would become a complete shut-in. Once he became a shut-in…<br /> <br /> In anyone’s period as a child, when their ego was still fragile, the source of feeling that wanted to try their best had always came from their desire to be recognized, that they wanted to be praised by their surroundings.<br /> <br /> Eyes of disappointment from a person’s surroundings would make people unable to do their best. It would completely bog them down into an inescapable quandary.<br /> <br /> The difference between failure and success was only paper thin. Kamimura-san’s fall vividly pressed even Kazuki’s heart.<br /> <br /> “My net game was also taken away. But for me, that was my single link with the outside world. That was the time when Amaterasu appeared and became my friend. I deviated from the elite path that aimed to become a priest, but there was magic power from birth inside me that could easily let me make a contract with Amaterasu. I never even noticed something like having magic power that is higher than average people.”<br /> <br /> That time when she was making everyone around her disappointed―Kamimura-san was chosen by the highest god of Japanese Mythology. Was that irony, but the feeling of making fruitless effort from choosing to aim to become a priest that had its admittance score raised just because of some half-hearted popularity was staggering.<br /> <br /> “At first I just thought that it was [too much] for me. But Amaterasu said to me that it’s fine even if I don’t force myself. It’s impossible for the current me to fight something, she said that kindly to me. If an Enigma appeared on me and the shut-in me was made to attend the Knight Academy then it would be a disaster, that was why Amaterasu said to me [make a contract with me and let’s play together].”<br /> <br /> How much that became a salvation for her―when he imagined it, a tear gathered in Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> “…Why, does Kazuki get teary eyed?”<br /> <br /> ‘Even if I’m not the person concerned I can understand’, if he said that kind of thing to her than she would surely be happy.<br /> <br /> “From then on various things happened and I got killed though.”<br /> <br /> She talked as if the event where she got killed was the trivial happening instead.<br /> <br /> “I also met Kazuki, everyone is kind to me… however everyone is also not having any expectations or anything from me. That’s why it feels really comfortable… that’s why the feeling of wanting to return the favor to everyone, is welling up inside me. ‘I want to become someone that can fight properly’, I thought of such thing just a little. Since I gave up becoming a priest, I didn’t have any wish of becoming anything, I came to think that I don’t want to work, but… I wanted to do something for the sake of everyone. I didn’t have any confidence in doing anything difficult, I tried to get enthusiastic like Miyabi-san, but it was impossible, getting so enthusiastic itself was embarrassing so I only cooked the rice but, but… I secretly, just a tiny, bit devoted my best effort, and there Kazuki noticed, I was happy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was driven by a feeling of wanting to hug Kamimura-san tightly very much, but he endured.<br /> <br /> Just when he endured, it was Kamimura-san that grasped Kazuki’s hand tightly.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… I, I’m a shut-in otaku but, get along better with me. Then… conquer me more? Like that I… can repay Kazuki properly. I’ll do my best, not getting sly anymore for something like billing.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura Itsuki―57<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The anime appreciation meeting with Kamimura-san and Lotte continued until late at night. Kamimura-san was talking about the anime with an amazingly high tension, but Lotte started to nod off, and when Kazuki too had his eyes getting bleary, Kamimura-san realized for the first time that the people in her surroundings was not limited to a nocturnal person like her. She then went ‘awa awa’ at her wits end while her tension got a sudden drop with her desperately apologizing, Kazuki soothed her saying “Don’t mind it” “It’s fine you know” while carrying up Lotte who already fell asleep in his arms before breaking up from Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> Finally after getting lost before he remembered that he actually didn’t know where Lotte’s room was, so he kept carrying Lotte and returned to his room, where he found Mio and Koyuki sleeping on the bed of his room.<br /> <br /> It was a situation where they were going to ask him to sleep together and waited for him. Even though it would be fine if they just contacted him instead of waiting like this.<br /> <br /> He then put Lotte on the bed too with them before laying down himself. It was a bed with a width that would be fine even with four people sleeping on top of it. It was an unpleasant way of saying it, but there was no other way to call this bed other than a harem exclusive bed.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii lhove―♡” Mio gave a light kiss at the cheek of Kazuki who was going to sleep. He wondered whether she was awake, but her breath was completely like someone asleep. It seemed that it was an unconscious act. “Puu puu” Koyuki too hugged at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> …He tended to only think of always and always devoting his effort for someone else.<br /> <br /> Good will was not a one way street. Being enveloped by everyone’s kindness like this, relying on them too, perhaps he had to get used to this without fail. In exchange, he had to work hard for the duty that couldn’t be shouldered by anyone else except him… perhaps that was the attitude that a King ought to take.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―That kind of thinking didn’t continue for long.<br /> <br /> “GIVE―ME―SOME―WORK―TOO―!!”<br /> <br /> When the time turned into the evening of the next day, Kazuki lost his patience and assaulted the kitchen while yelling.<br /> <br /> In this second day, throughout the morning “Ka, Kazuki… want to play?” he played a game with Kamimura-san that approached and pulled his sleeve, in the afternoon he was dragged to the pool by the Ryuutaki sisters that wanted to show their new swimsuits, doing those were also fun, but, there was no human that could feel satisfied only by having fun.<br /> <br /> The time that was too enjoyable fanned his anxiety. If good will was not a one way street then balance was supposed to be important.<br /> <br /> “Give me some work too―! It’s unpleasant just getting serviced―!!”<br /> <br /> “Waa, Kazu-nii is coming!” Along with Mio’s voice, the door of the kitchen was closed and locked just like a castle under siege. '''DON DON''' Kazuki knocked the door.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii is the King so you must not work~♪ After all we are going to entertain Kazu-nii to your heart’s content!”<br /> <br /> The voice of Mio that sounded teasing was returned back to him from across the door. For Kazuki, there was no way he could possibly smash down the door of the ship that was prepared for him by the country, he clung to the door and begged.<br /> <br /> “Let me work… it’s fine to do it together with everyone so…”<br /> <br /> “No way~♪”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.10 076.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Shouko and Silirat that were participating in the cooking preparation duty were staring at that situation while diligently doing vegetable preparation.<br /> <br /> “…The King of this country is really eccentric eh.”<br /> <br /> “What a happy-go-lucky bunch.”<br /> <br /> Shouko shrugged her shoulder to what Silirat murmured.<br /> <br /> “But I have fun and like this bunch yeah! The meal is delicious, and the friend increased! Doing practice with that gal named Kohaku, playing with that gal named Karin yeah-“<br /> <br /> “…Don’t you get beaten by this bunch’s carefreeness too. Ain’t you getting along too well with ‘em?”<br /> <br /> Taikoubou’s avatar emerged out beside Shoukou.<br /> <br /> {Carefree, is it? Hmm, the freedom of the soul is that kind of thing.}<br /> <br /> “Old man Taikoubou… you, are you by any chance saying that this kind of thing is actually your ideal?”<br /> <br /> Shouko scowled and pointed at the commotion around the door. Without any reply, Taikoubou’s avatar vanished.<br /> <br /> “…Geez, ain’t any way I can follow along with this bunch―” Shouko scratched her head.<br /> <br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_10_Chapter_1&diff=479650 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 10 Chapter 1 2016-02-04T14:47:53Z <p>Hiro Hayase: awkward sentences, typos</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 – King Sailing Out==<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Everyone wanted to know about [Hayashizaki Kazuki]―.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Carrying a lofty mission inside their chest, a group of three people were lurking inside a forest. While being wrapped inside the chorus of the crickets and the grassy-smelling greens, they were squatting inside a thicket.<br /> <br /> Their figures with their eyes sparkling fiercely even while avoiding people’s eye was endlessly close with that of criminals.<br /> <br /> “Even if he is hiding inside the toilet, I’m not going to let even a hair of his ass escape and make the article for sure.”<br /> <br /> A man wearing a worn out shirt and chino pants murmured with a low voice that sounded sticky.<br /> <br /> His alias was &lt;Turtle Oota&gt;. He chased around people that were famous in society vindictively, if he didn’t see any smoke then he would fabricate the source himself, even people in the same profession called him [Information Pyromaniac] in dislike, he was a [scandal specialist journalist].<br /> <br /> “The glimmer of my lens cross over the far away space and cut through an instant…”<br /> <br /> Beside the Turtle, a man that was setting up an old fashioned film camera murmured.<br /> <br /> This man’s alias was &lt;Simo Heyhe Iijima&gt;. With his telescope lens and magic reinforced eyesight he caught his target accurately from extraordinary distance, he then burned that perception sight into his {{furigana|Psychofilm|Magic Impression Heat Film}} like a sniper, he was a [peeping photo specialist cameraman]. &lt;ref&gt;Simo Hayha, a legendary Finnish marksman&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “It’s in that direction see. I caught wind of information that says if Hayashizaki Kazuki is staying in that lodging house.”<br /> <br /> The one who was pointing at the sea from between the trees and saying that to Turtle and Simo Heyhe was the woman that was the third person of the group.<br /> <br /> The woman’s alias was &lt;Anal Kirishima&gt;. She retired from the Knight Order due to a mental injury from her battle against the Demon Beasts, besides using her experience for military analyst activity, she also sold the Knight Order’s secret information to the mass media and made a killing in profit, she was a [former knight with a lax mouth].<br /> <br /> Journalist, cameraman, informant, the group of three were hiding their body inside the national forest that spread along the coastline. There was a cove ahead of the forest. It was a calm natural harbor without any wave.<br /> <br /> Any kind of large-type ship surely could anchor there.<br /> <br /> “A hidden cove in the forest that is forbidden to enter… it’s completely a [hidden harbor] isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> Turtle murmured. Anal was “Right, it’s a hidden harbor” and nodded.<br /> <br /> “When the knight order received people and material from a foreign country, they secretly used this cove. Even if there is no diplomacy, we are still rarely exchanging things with the outside. This is made a secret from the people by them.”<br /> <br /> Anal once again leaked out an important secret of the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> Talking about the recent happenings, the Einherjar―Beatrix and her team that came to Japan for the sake of temporary cooperation was also entering this country from this cove with the Knight Order’s guidance.<br /> <br /> “But why does… Hayashizaki Kazuki that just became this country’s {{furigana|King|Basileus}} and his companions had come to this kind of place, I wonder.”<br /> <br /> Kirishima narrowed her lip. Turtle’s thick lip warped in a grin and he laughed.<br /> <br /> “Exposing those guys is our job here. Maybe it’s a secret meeting with an important person from abroad, perhaps even a secret transaction for suspicious things from abroad that came here. By chance it’s Hayashizaki Kazuki himself that is going to a foreign country?”<br /> <br /> After Turtle said that out loud, “No way though…” he immediately denied it himself.<br /> <br /> Ten-odd years had passed since Japan severed diplomatic relations with all foreign countries, for the Japanese people that lived in an island country, the place beyond the sea had naturally turned into something like an alternate world for them. It was an unimaginable place that was full of the unknown.<br /> <br /> Stepping out into the unknown world―it was unthinkable for a person who had just become a King to brave that kind of danger. He didn’t really understand in truth just what was this existence called as King, but… they were big shots right?<br /> <br /> What a human thought of the first thing when they rose to a seat of power was [their own self-preservation]. As a journalist, the [big shots] that Turtle had observed until now were all like that.<br /> <br /> Turtle held hatred towards influential people. When he heard that a high school student, a young boy named Hayashizaki Kazuki obtained a seat of power, that hatred of his flamed up especially fierce.<br /> <br /> He was going to put that guy in an article and make him into his own source of income, he couldn’t help but think that reflexively.<br /> <br /> “Well, if he is really here then anything he does is fine. If it’s material about Hayashizaki Kazuki, then any kind of article will sell at a high price. And if that happened to be a scandal then that’s just the best. If we can just get his figure having an affair with a woman in a photo then…”<br /> <br /> The facts that were understood about Hayashizaki Kazuki were few. At best there was the graduation album from his middle school period or the interview of his schoolmates of that time, the scoop the public got was just around that much. But something like that wouldn’t satisfy the curiosity of society. Everyone wanted to know more in regards to [Hayashizaki Kazuki].<br /> <br /> Society sought stimulation, but the Knight Order was strictly protecting that young man’s privacy.<br /> <br /> That incurred the anger of Turtle.<br /> <br /> What &lt;King&gt;. This country is a Democratic Country. The people were exactly the King, wasn’t that it?<br /> <br /> Things that the people wanted to know had to all be reported.<br /> <br /> If they were trying to hide information, then that was evil. To expose that was a journalist’s justice.<br /> <br /> A single small article would blaze up society. A single small article would throw down the fame of an influential person to the ground. To be able to achieve that was exactly the happiness of a journalist.<br /> <br /> The public would surely snap at it just like Turtle… he would exaggerate even trivial thing into something grand… he would mislead… stir up society… he was going to cause a large blaze.<br /> <br /> Oops, he must not become only too heated up, he also had to be vigilant of the surroundings calmly.<br /> <br /> Turtle lowered his breathing and concentrated Enchant Aura into his ear to search for sounds. The danger detection ability that he cultivated from his long journalism activity. Even in the case that the Knight Order was putting up security, Turtle had the confidence to succeed in escaping before he was discovered.<br /> <br /> “Can you see something even from here, Simo Heyhe? Something like a strange movement of human shadow or…”<br /> <br /> “If I don’t get a little closer… No wait… that’s! That’s!?”<br /> <br /> Simo Heyhe that was kneeling on the wet ground and peeking into his finder passionately, aimed his shutter with raging vigor.<br /> <br /> “What, did you find something, Simo Heyhe!?” Turtle’s voice reflexively turned loud.<br /> <br /> “You uncles, what are you all doing in this kind of place?”<br /> <br /> ―Suddenly a voice came from behind them.<br /> <br /> The group of three had their hairs stand on end from shock while turning back.<br /> <br /> A girl that looked like an outdoor type with her short-cut lively hair style was tilting her head with her eyes wide open.<br /> <br /> “Si, since when!? There were no footsteps at all!”<br /> <br /> “I don’t sound off any footsteps after all.”<br /> <br /> No, not only her footstep. There was not a single sound coming from the girl. Even when Turtle fully strengthened his hearing with his magic power, whether it was her heartbeat, or her blood flow, even the creak of her bones or muscles were not audible.<br /> <br /> The membrane of magic power that faintly covered the girl’s whole body was erasing all vibrations.<br /> <br /> It was an advanced magic technique he had never even seen before.<br /> <br /> It was exactly a modern ninja. But a long sword was holstered on the girls’ waist, he also had seen the uniform she was wearing before. This uniform was―the uniform of the Knight Academy’s Sword Division.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why is a student, in this kind of place”<br /> <br /> “That’s my line you know. Eerr… this place is a state-owned land where entry is forbidden. I am a student but I received a quest for the security of this place and I am given with the rights to apprehend or forcefully expel any suspicious person.”<br /> <br /> The girl talked with an awkward way of speaking and took out her student identification from her skirt’s pocket. [Sword Division Second Year・Tsukahara Kazuha] was written there.<br /> <br /> No matter how her atmosphere felt like she was not used to dealing with adults, but―she had no opening.<br /> <br /> The girl’s stance was always prepared to draw out her katana anytime. If they tried to run they would immediately get cut down.<br /> <br /> “Thi, this child, I’m sure she is the &lt;King&gt;’s close associate. You know, that [Chouki(Favored Princess)].”<br /> <br /> Kirishima who was a military analyst was trembling. She had heard that right now in the Knight Academy there were special students. The King’s close associates, several people that were Chouki… It was a phrase that was not suitable for this democratic country.<br /> <br /> “I, I’m not one of the Chouki. …Not yet.”<br /> <br /> A bitterness ran through the expression of the girl named Kazuha for an instant.<br /> <br /> “Not yet?”<br /> <br /> The instant the three’s awareness reacted to Kazuha’s reply, all of a sudden Kazuha’s hand reached out smoothly. Her thin fingers entwined around the camera and took it from Simo Heyhe’s hands. “Ah” He leaked out a foolish voice.<br /> <br /> It was a move that was like a wind that blew through the opening of the awareness. As if they were facing against a master of martial arts.<br /> <br /> “Errr, so all of you are journalist? I’m confiscating the film.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s expression relaxed when she understood that she was not facing dangerous opponents. She was a beautiful girl. But with a forceful manner she pulled away the film from the camera and crushed it in her grips.<br /> <br /> So the elite cadet of the Knight Academy was this kind of monster.<br /> <br /> “WHY-!” Turtle turned desperate and yelled.<br /> <br /> “Why is the King concealing himself!? The people have the right to know!”<br /> <br /> “That’s, because even the King has privacy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha huffily scowled. “He is also a normal student besides being a King you know?”<br /> <br /> “This country is a democracy! We the people cannot just go along with this just because suddenly we are told that a young boy is a King! Everyone wants to know about the King! Being a spectacle like a panda is also included among the duty of someone like a King!!”<br /> <br /> “…Even though Loki and his comrades might still conceal themselves in this country, there is no way we can just publicize his every single action like that don’t you think. Besides even if he is called the King, he already fights without asking for any reward already, asking him to be like a panda or whatever is just too much.”<br /> <br /> The three snorted their nose ”fun” all at once. Whether Turtle, Simo Heyhe, or Kirishima, all of these three didn’t think of anything at all except for their own profit.<br /> <br /> A King that continued to fight without asking anything back, such thing couldn’t possibly be true. Besides that kind of person wouldn’t become an interesting article. He undoubtedly had a hidden side. They came here fishing for that hidden side.<br /> <br /> “Mentioning the King… there is the rumor that every holiday he was walking around the town with a different girl each time. If you are also a girl, what do you think about that kind of thing?”<br /> <br /> Turtle inquired expecting a bitter reaction from a fastidious girl at that age.<br /> <br /> If this girl was hiding even a little antipathy towards the King… he was going to pull that story out of her, stir her up, until she was ablaze with fury from his prided smooth-talking. And then if he could record that, he could turn it into an article just with that. Turtle shrewdly pressed the switch of the recorder he hid inside his pocket.<br /> <br /> “Eh? That’s… i, isn’t that just fine? There is a circumstance that can’t be helped and all. Also… he faced all of them sincerely with all that he got, those of us around him properly understand that… even me, that…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha looked down while her cheeks reddened with a puff, she defended the King while her body was fidgeting around.<br /> <br /> “…As I thought, this child is the King’s Chouki. She is completely making a face of a maiden in love.”<br /> <br /> “It’s no good, seems like she is not holding even a single speck of antipathy for the King.”<br /> <br /> Kirishima and Turtle exchanged words with each other secretly with small voices.<br /> <br /> Those voices were clearly captured by the ears of Kazuha that had been reinforced with magic.<br /> <br /> “…I’ll cut and kick out all of you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha put her hand on her katana and a threatening tone entered her voice. The three panicked while saying “Wait, waiit!”<br /> <br /> “What are you all doing since a while ago-! All of you have no intention at all to lend your ear except for the story that you want to hear! Writing with that kind of self-important behavior is just going to create a crazy article!! With what kind of feelings do you think Kazuki became the King in that snowy mountain…!!”<br /> <br /> Right there, a footstep that parted through the grass and came closer could be heard.<br /> <br /> “Tsukahara Kazuha. It’s going to be the guard shift soon. Go eat some breakfast, it’s the navy curry.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, curry straight since the morning?” Kazuha looked back to the voice.<br /> <br /> “Nn? Who are those guys?”<br /> <br /> The one that appeared was a small statured girl that was wearing a similar Sword Division uniform. She had the cherubic face like a kitten with her hair tied into a ponytail that resembled a cat’s tail.<br /> <br /> “Ah, Kanae-san. These people, they are gossip reporters that want to write bad articles about Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha talked with an expression of anger that she was unable to clear away.<br /> <br /> “WHHAATT?” The cherubic face of the ponytail girl underwent a complete change into that of a Hannya.<br /> <br /> Sharp sounds rang out from the mouths of the sheath that were at their waists.<br /> <br /> “Let’s cut them down.” “I too think so.”<br /> <br /> Both of them faced each other and nodded.<br /> <br /> But that act became an opening for an instant. Turtle yelled “We are escaping!!” and pulled the hands of Simo Heyhe and Anal, then they dashed away at full speed.<br /> <br /> “Oi, they escaped.”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine even if we don’t purposefully chase them, that kind of people. It looks like they are unrelated to Loki.”<br /> <br /> Even though violence seriously appealed to her but Kazuha felt a hesitation, she released a deep sigh while being disgusted.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―After running back until the entrance of the forest, Turtle and the others finally noticed that they were not pursued and stopped their feet.<br /> <br /> But they already didn’t have the mood to enter the forest once more.<br /> <br /> “Simo Heyhe, in the end what picture did you managed to take just now?”<br /> <br /> “A ship.”<br /> <br /> Simo Heyhe murmured with a tone as if he had even seen a ghost.<br /> <br /> “…An extravagant and shiny ship like the [Titanic] at the movie a long time ago was peeking out from the gap between the trees. This is the first time I saw that kind of amazing ship.”<br /> <br /> “Amazing ship…? Is it for the King…?”<br /> <br /> Turtle who was supposedly a man who thought of nothing else other than his own profit was taken aback.<br /> <br /> “The King… is he seriously going outside the country? Isn’t that something amazing?”<br /> <br /> If this was really true, then it overturned the common sense. Due to the King that ignored the danger, the relationship between Japan and the foreign country―namely the [world] was going to shake and move on a grand scale, there was no mistaking it.<br /> <br /> This was not a scandal or anything. But…<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> The pure white ship that was floating on the secret cove was sparkling radiantly from being bathed in the morning sun of summer.<br /> <br /> It was as if a holy woman was bathing in cold water in the spring inside a forest.<br /> <br /> “What do you think, Hayashizaki-kun. This is what the Knight Order gambled their dignity to construct―[Solomon the 2nd].”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and all the others were lining up on the wharf that was sticking out from the cove. Vice Chief Yamagata puffed out his chest proudly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the others were staying at the small lodging house of the Knight Order that was hidden inside the forest.<br /> <br /> Solomon the 2nd was constructed in a certain workshop and then it was transported here during the night into this cove. And then this morning, it was making its debut in front of Kazuki and the others who just woke up.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and co. would traverse across the sea towards the mysterious continent―&lt;America&gt; with this ship.<br /> <br /> Rather than feeling shocked, Kazuki felt astonished instead.<br /> <br /> “Should I say it’s amazing… Or perhaps I should say that it’s fine even if you didn’t go this far…”<br /> <br /> Looking at the really wide gap compared to the first [Solomon] that time when he was infiltrating the Ise Imperial Shrine, he reflexively lost his words.<br /> <br /> This ship was truly an [extravagant passenger ship]. But Vice Chief Yamagata was from ''the generation where traveling abroad was still done'', a generation that Kazuki couldn’t even imagine.<br /> <br /> With the people of the country becoming unable to travel overseas, the culture called a cruise travel also went through a decline.<br /> <br /> The very concept of [extravagant passenger ship] itself―it already didn’t exist inside Kazuki and co.’s common sense.<br /> <br /> They couldn’t see this ship with the total length of 100 meters and total mass of 10000 tons other than a gigantic monster of the sea.<br /> <br /> It was just too overdone. In the first place, Kazuki had a sincere and healthy poor person mentality that was fine with anything as long as it had the minimum ability. He didn’t get what need there was to make the ship until this gigantic. To say nothing of why inside this gigantic ship there was a pool, a fitness room, a movie theater, a dance ballroom, a sushi shop, and a burger joint wholly installed, he didn’t get the meaning at all.<br /> <br /> “Is there any meaning in all of these?” ―His frank impression was all expressed in that one sentence.<br /> <br /> “After all, now is different than when you went to Ise, you have no need to escape or hide. And above all you are different than at that time, now you are the official [King] of the country. Moreover Arthur and the others that are honored visitors from another country are going together with you to America, there is no way we can make you all ride a poor looking ship.”<br /> <br /> “So it’s concerning the honor of Japan.”<br /> <br /> “I know you don’t really want to be extravagant or anything, but we want to have you who is the King of this country to ride the best ship there is. That’s how it is. This is service.”<br /> <br /> “…I really can’t calm down at all.”<br /> <br /> “Actually I’m also thinking of doing something about that student uniform but…”<br /> <br /> Vice Chief Yamagata made a wry face at Kazuki’s outfit.<br /> <br /> “There’s just no way, wearing something that looks really like a king is just too much. On the other hand, I’m not at the age of wearing suits, a student uniform is the proper attire for a student, don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> There was no summer or winter arrangement with the uniform of the Knight Academy, but Kazuki was matching the feel of the season and took off his jacket and turned out with his light shirt appearance. Because he was the only male in the Magic Division, his shirt that was an order-made was hand-sewn with smooth alchemic threads, a definite article of rare beauty even if it was worn out of shape.<br /> <br /> But it was undeniable that its base design was really like a student.<br /> <br /> But before he was a King he was a student first, Kazuki thought. It didn’t mean that he really liked to study, but he had the feeling that he wouldn’t become a respectable adult if he neglected his duty as a student too much.<br /> <br /> Kanae came close to Kazuki’s side and pulled lightly at his sleeve.<br /> <br /> “If it’s Nii-sama then you will be fine even if you are completely naked, you are the pride of Japan no matter where you go.”<br /> <br /> “Don’t think that everyone in the world is a brocon like you, you idiot.”<br /> <br /> “Fufu-, but Otouto-kun is a King of Magika Stigma. You should be at the top in exposure rate too.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai hugged his back tightly. Her thin fingers moved swiftly and unfastened the buttons of his shirt in turn from the top. “Wa, wait senpai…”<br /> <br /> “That’s right―! I too think so―!!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai crouched and tackled Kazuki’s legs, she then tried to pull down his trousers.<br /> <br /> “Senpai!? Hey, senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki held his shirt with both his hands and his knee was pushing back Hikaru-senpai’s face.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was smiling while cheering “Eei pull~, eei pull~”, Hikaru-senpai too whose face was quite roughly kneed was happily laughing “Ahaha!”<br /> <br /> “Certainly it’s unfair that it’s only us whose appearance has a high exposure rate. I too want to see Kazuki naked.”<br /> <br /> With a passionate gaze, Koyuki was staring at Kazuki whose clothes were in a half opened state.<br /> <br /> “Ye, yeah, Kazuki’s naked body… as expected the charm of a warrior dwells inside the physical beauty…”<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s cheeks were slightly reddening. She who was an Einherjar(Norse Knight) of Germany was also here in order to go together to America as the representative of the cooperation set-up between Japan and Germany.<br /> <br /> “You are just going to approve this? Wait, stop it, don’t look at me with those hungry eyes of a predator, don’t blush on your cheeks.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a terror that was like a fear of a prey in front of a predator while holding back and fixing his shirt.<br /> <br /> “Something like getting naked is no good. I’m going to design a King’s clothes that will bring out Kazu-nii’s coolness into prominence!”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.10 019.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Even Mio came butting in. Her skill in sewing shamed even a professional but…<br /> <br /> “I’m getting anxious that you will make something sparkling that strangely looks like shoujo manga style here…”<br /> <br /> It felt like she would make him wear a shirt made from gold and silver thread attached full of frills. He wanted frills to be attached only to maids.<br /> <br /> …Was it really that selfish to want to wear a normal male uniform just like this?<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, I want you to appear like [Muscle King Sugure] desu!”<br /> <br /> “That’s a cosplay then. Isn’t that a King of a different world already.”<br /> <br /> Although he said that but he really wanted to listen to Lotte’s request whatever it was for her. Kazuki took that character’s cool pose while yelling a cool line of the character, “Worthless punk is not needed here…!” The eyes of the otaku Lotte and Kamimura-san were shining, even Kazuha-senpai had a heart mark flying from her while saying “I don’t really understand the meaning of the sentence but maybe it looks cool…”<br /> <br /> “I see…” The King of Britain, Arthur, nodded.<br /> <br /> “Please wait, what are you understanding from that exchange just now?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki became worried about the honor of Japan but Arthur was “Hahaha” laughing largeheartedly.<br /> <br /> “Well, it’s just as Vice Chief Yamagata said. It seems in Japan modesty is included among the virtue, but a King also has the dignity that is demanded from a King. Your retainer will be self-aware as a retainer with your king-like behavior which in turn will make them offer their allegiance even more.”<br /> <br /> Arthur looked up at the extravagant passenger ship and nodded in satisfaction.<br /> <br /> “It’s a beautiful ship. Once there were also famous ships in my Britain that were called The Britannia and The Queen Elizabeth. After all, Britain is a similar island nation―an oceanic country like Japan.”<br /> <br /> “Leme too is pleased with this ship! An idiotic name like Solomon the 2nd doesn’t suit this elegant ship! Just name it as the Queen Lemegeton!!”<br /> <br /> Leme materialized beside Kazuki and hopped up and down even though her appearance was already an adult.<br /> <br /> “Your character is just not fitting a queen’s character. Arthur-san, don’t you feel uncomfortable riding a ship that moves using an engine?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki became slightly worried and sneaked a look at the true feeling of Arthur who looked largehearted.<br /> <br /> This person was also accompanying them to America. Rather, this person was the one who proposed the idea in the first place.<br /> <br /> “Of course I don’t like it. But you have your own culture, I’m the guest here. And then thinking from the view point of your culture, I can understand that this ship is something reasonable. Though if Queen Regina also comes with us, she will surely turn angry without doubt though.”<br /> <br /> The Magic Advanced Countries other than Japan really put their faith in their Mythology. They possessed the creed that rejected science civilization.<br /> <br /> But it seemed the degree of that rejection was different for each Mythology. Germany and Italia were really fierce in their rejection, but Arthur‘s Britain seemed comparatively lenient.<br /> <br /> Surely the reason why Arthur was more friendly to Kazuki compared to the other Kings was also because of that.<br /> <br /> ―On the other hand, they had no idea what would happen in America where they were going to head to.<br /> <br /> By any chance, perhaps they were worshiping a Mythology that was even stricter in this respect.<br /> <br /> If they flew carelessly using an airplane to that kind of place, they might be shot down by magic.<br /> <br /> Therefore this ship. Furthermore they were going to efficiently use engine to advance until halfway and when the land was near they would unfold the sail, this was a ship that adopted hybrid form that could also become a sailing ship.<br /> <br /> “…An engine ship huh. I wonder if I’m better off swimming…”<br /> <br /> Beatrix murmured with a real determination in her voice.<br /> <br /> Kazuki caught the scruff of her neck forcefully.<br /> <br /> “Don’t you separate from me for even a moment.” When he whispered that, Beatrix’s cheeks reddened with a puff once more.<br /> <br /> “…I, if Kazuki said until that far then…”<br /> <br /> “After all you are a dangerous character that I cannot take my eyes off carelessly.”<br /> <br /> Beatrix fell down on top of the wharf in great shock. And then “Don’t you toy around with the pure heart of a war maiden!”, saying that she kicked and struggled while rolling over on the ground.<br /> <br /> “Besides no matter how much you swim it’s impossible to cross the Pacific Ocean like that don’t you think? We are the ones who forcefully dragged you to go so you are not going against your faith at all.”<br /> <br /> Civilization was the symbol of arrogance. But Kazuki was using cooperation as an excuse to forcefully make Beatrix board the ship, so it couldn’t be said that Beatrix was being arrogant. She was just a victim.<br /> <br /> “This ship, was it constructed just in one week?” Kazuki turned back to Vice Chief Yamagata asking that.<br /> <br /> They decided that they were going to America using a ship one week ago.<br /> <br /> “No, this is a small-type passenger ship of the old era that is not used anymore now that we thoroughly repaired. After all there is no time. This ship is quite small to be called as extravagant.”<br /> <br /> “Whaaat, so this is not its maiden voyage then.”<br /> <br /> Roshouko butted in and chuckled ‘kishishi’. The leader of the anti-China resistance organization &lt;Ryouzanpaku&gt;, Roshouko too was also going together with them to America by Kazuki’s ''order''. She turned to Leme.<br /> <br /> “Queen Lemegeton, it’s old y’know. Yaa―ii, old, old.”<br /> <br /> “Gu, gunu―! What a humiliation to call a woman old!! As I thought this ship is just Solomon the 2nd!!”<br /> <br /> Leme kicked and struggled vexedly and stamped her foot in frustration.<br /> <br /> Beside her Beatrix was still rolling around kicking and struggling on the wharf.<br /> <br /> Even though these girls had the appearance of beautiful lady…<br /> <br /> One more person, Silirat who was the combat specialist of Ryouzanpaku’s leadership was also going with them. The girl with features that looked like a boy, Silirat was “Awesome shipp―!” Her eyes were honestly turning round in admiration.<br /> <br /> '''BOOOOOOOOOOOOO-''' The steam whistle was sounding. With consideration so it wouldn’t be audible outside, its reverberation was low-key. The steam whistle made them feel the beginning of the journey.<br /> <br /> “Yosh, the time for sailing out has come! Now, please get on aboard!! And then sweep away the darkness of the enigmatic America!!”<br /> <br /> Vice Chief Yamagata yelled in great mood. He was a honest uncle.<br /> <br /> The door in the flank of the pure white ship opened, from there a ramp was coming down to the wharf.<br /> <br /> With that stair, Kazuki and the others went up with a certain stride.<br /> <br /> “Please take care of Japan!” He looked back for the last time.<br /> <br /> Vice Chief Yamagata was not going together with them. Just like that he saw off Kazuki and co. from the wharf.<br /> <br /> Another person was taking the duty as the [ship captain] and that person had already been waiting for Kazuki and co. inside the ship.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The spacious and wide corridors inside the ship looked completely like a high grade hotel.<br /> <br /> “ “Awesome―!!” “ Karin and Silirat let out their voices together and ran around like kids.<br /> <br /> They really couldn’t think that currently they were inside an engine vehicle, it made them doubt whether they were really floating on top of the sea.<br /> <br /> A red carpet was spread out at their feet, the mahogany wall and ceiling emitted a mature gloss, handrails of marble metal with gold blended into it were continuing ahead.<br /> <br /> It was an overwhelming splendor but―at the same time it was also a decoration he had seen somewhere before.<br /> <br /> “This, isn’t this ship renovated based on the image of the Witch’s Mansion-!?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai immediately noticed and raised an excited voice. Kazuki too was thinking of completely the same thing.<br /> <br /> Surely this was the tasteful discretion of Vice Chief Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “Then this ship is Queen Kaguya isn’t it? Talking about the Witch’s Mansion means Kaguya-senpai after all.”<br /> <br /> “Queen… but the King is Otouto-kun. I’m not the queen though.”<br /> <br /> “The word Queen doesn’t only mean a female ruler of the country, it can also be used to refer to the King’s empress so it’s fine. The word queen by no means is referring to someone that is aiming for the throne.”<br /> <br /> When Arthur pointed out, Kaguya-senpai’s expression brightened “That’s it!” and she hugged at Kazuki’s neck. “Queen Kaguya! Otouto-kun… ehehe, I’m Kazuki-kun’s wife-♪”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was a person that had acted a lot like a big sister as a senior student council president, but she was hiding a feeling of wanting to rely on someone and getting spoiled.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stroked gently the head of Kaguya-senpai as if treating his little sister. He had become able to do that even more naturally compared from before. Kaguya-senpai narrowed her eyes and moaned “nn~” pleasantly.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai stared at Kazuki ecstatically. Her expression told him her desire to kiss. A charming soft and full lips. For the sake of preserving the level 10 magic that could be used just once from kissing… Kazuki had never kissed Kaguya-senpai with whom he felt a bond this deep. Kazuki had never kissed with her. He really wanted to do it.<br /> <br /> “Now that I remember, America where we are going is perhaps using English language right? Arthur-san, can you teach us English during the voyage?”<br /> <br /> The Knight Academy―not only there but the school education of this generation’s Japanese had few classes about foreign language.<br /> <br /> Because they lost diplomatic relations, the classes about that area decreased little by little.<br /> <br /> Having said that, now that he thought back, not to mention the Kings that were Arthur and Regina, even Roshouko and Beatrix were really fluent in Japanese that made him feel the difference in their international awareness.<br /> <br /> He was told that Lotte learned the Japanese language in three days using the power of Telepathy. Even though that was a prodigious act, it was possible for Kazuki and co. too to learn the fundamental speaking ability during this long voyage.<br /> <br /> “That’s fine. Before I came to Japan I too was cramming Japanese language, but it was very useful when Mr. Yamagata became my conversation partner in practice. Putting language study into practice is the best way to learn.”<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much. We can also spend the voyage without boredom.”<br /> <br /> Leading his companions in groups, Kazuki headed to the bridge where the ship captain was waiting.<br /> <br /> Even if this usual extravagant passenger ship had extravagant rooms, the inside that had never been visited by guests anymore would become coarse. But this ship, for the sake of welcoming the [King], there was no oversight at all from one end to another end. Even until the vicinity of the engine part, even until the parts that were only trivial, all of it maintained a perfect exquisiteness.<br /> <br /> So to speak this ship was a lady so beautiful even until its intestine.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai laughed “Ahaha-“ looking like she had thought of something interesting.<br /> <br /> “Even though Kaguya is black-hearted, but this Queen Kaguya is beautiful even on the inside eh.”<br /> <br /> “I, I’m not black-hearted you know!?”<br /> <br /> “Even though Kaguya fell constipated, but Queen Kaguya is clean even until inside its stomach eh.”<br /> <br /> “My bowel movement is not that bad!!” Kaguya-senpai swung around her hands in anger.<br /> <br /> It was hard for Kazuki to comment on that so he only moved forward while smiling wryly.<br /> <br /> Cabins and lounge where they could watch outside were gathered at the front area that had the most beautiful scenery, there were various amusement facilities in the middle part, and the back part was filled with practical facilities that were essential for the ship to move like the engine room.<br /> <br /> At the top level of that practical facilities, there was the bridge where they could look over everything. Advanced computers and GPS were loaded there, it was the brain where the control of all the equipment inside the ship was performed.<br /> <br /> They ascended to the highest floor with a low volume elevator.<br /> <br /> When the elevator door opened, the atmosphere of the top level was different with the sight until now.<br /> <br /> This floor was not for the sake of making people feel welcomed, it was a space for the sake of designing and implementing strategy. Extravagant ornaments kept a low profile and stylish sense of cleanliness was pushed out to the forefront. The wallpaper was pure white and there was no more carpet under their feet making their footsteps reverberate with hardness.<br /> <br /> “Even though Kaguya’s head is full with perverted things, but Queen Kaguya’s brain is…”<br /> <br /> “That’s enough already!”<br /> <br /> “As I thought this ship is not suitable with Kaguya so let’s name this ship Prince… no, Princess Hikaru.”<br /> <br /> “You are secretly jealous!? No way, just no way, this ship is Queen Kaguya―!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai began to quarrel when they reached the top floor.<br /> <br /> “Both of you, please stop your fight.” Kazuki finally mediated between the two.<br /> <br /> “Besides it would be better without all this gorgeousness and make it more like a tough warship.”<br /> <br /> “If it is that kind of ship, then what kind of name should we give it?” Mio asked.<br /> <br /> “Shouldn’t it be Barbarian Beatrix then.” Kazuki gave an unserious rude reply.<br /> <br /> “Calling it barbarian… that makes me blush.” Beatrix’s cheeks reddened with a puff.<br /> <br /> “That’s the name of other country’s people you know!? No wait, you are blushing from that!?” Kaguya-senpai retorted.<br /> <br /> “As I thought let’s just call it Pretty Sister Kanae from now on!”<br /> <br /> “No, this ship should be called Forever Love Mio-Mio!”<br /> <br /> As for Koyuki, “It’s not like I want my name to be included in this ship’s name or anything but… but this ship’s exterior is white isn’t it? Talking about white then it’s me isn’t it?” like that she kept glancing at Kazuki. Kohaku went “Even thought this is exactly the time where this one have to say some cool name and stood out but this one cannot think of anything…!”, she was holding her head. Behind her was Lotte and Kamimura-san holding hands happily singing the theme song of some old anime about the sea.<br /> <br /> “Everyone don’t just say anything as you please.” Kazuki made a troubled face from being unable to put the situation in order.<br /> <br /> “All of you are really getting along well, it’s so interesting.” Arthur looked fondly at them while smiling.<br /> <br /> “Geez! It’s decided already that this ship is Queen Kaguya!”<br /> <br /> While Kaguya-senpai was declaring so, they finally arrived at the bridge and pushed open the door.<br /> <br /> A whole surface of ocean blue spread out in their field of vision.<br /> <br /> Large reinforced acrylic panel was laid out around the bridge that was located in the highest place of the ship so that they could look over the surrounding 360°, it was to the degree that they even hallucinated of almost getting hit by the wind.<br /> <br /> From the flowing panorama, it made them feel the moving of the ship―heading toward America.<br /> <br /> “Welcome, Kazuki.” The person waiting for them in the bridge―the captain of this ship called out to him.<br /> <br /> “No, I wonder if it’s too impolite to call the King without honorific?”<br /> <br /> “Akane-senpai!”<br /> <br /> With various sailing gauges behind her, Akane-senpai was standing with an intellectual smile on her face.<br /> <br /> She was not wearing the uniform of the Knight Order, but an invigorating white sailor uniform.<br /> <br /> It was an outfit that wanted to impress the style of the navy, but it was complemented with a cute miniskirt.<br /> <br /> “Also Kanon-senpai too.”<br /> <br /> Beside Akane-senpai was a sulking Kanon-senpai that was sitting on the floor grasping her knees.<br /> <br /> “By any chance is this ship’s captain… one of you?”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu-, we have learned all the knowledge and skill necessary to become a navigation officer in just this past week.”<br /> <br /> When he looked carefully at Akane-senpai, her eyes had faint black circles around them from lack of sleep. She looked like she had been losing weight too, but the sense of fulfillment of a hard-worker was also mixed in her tone of voice.<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t understand how great of exploits was that but just from watching the monitor and gauges variation lining up the bridge, he could imagine that what she had done was not so simple a thing.<br /> <br /> But certainly for the sake of the sailing this time there was a need for someone to do that job.<br /> <br /> “In the operation this time there was an indispensable need for an ocean specialist. But on top of going to an unknown country, we cannot bring anyone weak that will only be a hindrance. There was no one among the knights in active duty that was convenient like that. That’s why an order to ''become that'' came to me and Kanon.”<br /> <br /> When Akane-senpai said that, Kanon-senpai who was sitting still on the floor yelled “Who can do something like that, idiott―!”<br /> <br /> “Kanon could only finish half the course, that’s why I became the ship captain, and Kanon is the slave.”<br /> <br /> The faces of everyone of the Witch’s Mansion were shaken from shock. The power relation dynamic of the two who were once president and vice president had been completely overturned.<br /> <br /> “Kanon has to be absolutely obedient to the order of me and Kazuki in this ship, so if there is anything troubling you just give any order you like to her.”<br /> <br /> “Gugii―! I am a third year here―! I’m the true super ultra student council president that is the most important in the Witch’s Mansion you know―! Why to a first year I have to―!”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying to the King. Watch your words carefully, you are just a mere slave here.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai stepped her foot on the back of Kanon-senpai who lost her temper. …She stepped on Kanon-senpai!<br /> <br /> “Akane-senpai is so cool!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s eyes shined. Both of them had the close relation as the present vice-president and the former vice-president.<br /> <br /> “If it’s Akane-senpai it makes me want to get stepped on a little… it really makes you think like that right, Kazuki!”<br /> <br /> “Eh, I didn’t think that, what’s with that?”<br /> <br /> “I too want to step on Kaguya like that!” She said that with her eyes shining in sparkles.<br /> <br /> The latent thing Hikaru-senpai hid inside her really cannot be measured huh, Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> “…Next, Roshouko-san, I heard that you too have the knowledge about sailing technique.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai called out to Shouko that was following along in the back.<br /> <br /> “Nn? Well, Ryouzanpaku is constantly moving between small islands using ship after all. But even though I have the knowledge as a sailor, I don’t know at all about the way to use machines like this yeah.”<br /> <br /> “That’s fine. Charlotte, you are half-assimilated with Prometheus, so you also understand how to control this ship aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Yes.” Lotte nodded obediently. “The wise man Prometheus that granted civilization can handle anything that is a machine all with his instinct. Though I don’t understand about sea or weather desu…”<br /> <br /> “In other words if both Shouko-san and Lotte combined their strength they can become a full fledged sailor.”<br /> <br /> When Akane-senpai said that, Lotte made a smiling face like a sunflower and rushed close to Shouko.<br /> <br /> “Shouko-oneesan, please take care of me desu!”<br /> <br /> “O-, what’s with you, what a cute girl huh.”<br /> <br /> Shouko hugged Lotte’s neck roughly and stroked her head grindingly. Lotte went “Please don’t grind my head~” while laughing.<br /> <br /> Shouko was a dangerous character whom he didn’t know what she was actually thinking inside.<br /> <br /> …He had asked Lotte before whether she could sense Shouko’s state of mind with Telepathy. However the security of the heart of Shouko and Arthur were constantly solid, Lotte was mostly unable to sense their mind.<br /> <br /> When someone became the top class human of another country, surely they would need to accumulate such training.<br /> <br /> “I, Kanon, then Shouko &amp; Charlotte will control the ship alternately in 8 hour shifts on the voyage from now on. Even though it’s called controlling the ship but most of it is done by the computer, however a human watching over it is still needed. I’ll also have everyone except Kazuki to form a duty chart and help on various works inside the ship, okay?”<br /> <br /> Everyone replied “Yes!” all at once.<br /> <br /> “…How about me?”<br /> <br /> “You are the King, so just relax dignifiedly.”<br /> <br /> Everything in front of Kazuki turned dark.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t do any work… is that what senpai is saying…!?”<br /> <br /> Even though he was not even tired, he was told something like don’t do any work. How could such a thing be possible?<br /> <br /> “Senpai, that sailor uniform, is there more for our share too!? That sailor uniform is cute!”<br /> <br /> Mio who liked western clothes immediately had her eyes brightened.<br /> <br /> “Of course. So that we can differentiate between who are in duty and who are off duty, I’ll have everyone else wear sailor uniform too while they are working in the ship.”<br /> <br /> “Akane-senpai, is there no sailor uniform for me…?” Kazuki said that imploringly.<br /> <br /> “Originally sailor uniform is an outfit that a man can wear too, but here I didn’t prepare anything else other than the skirt-type for girl use.”<br /> <br /> “Can you let me work too if I wear that…”<br /> <br /> “…That’s disgusting you know.”<br /> <br /> When Akane-senpai answered so with an expression that was holding back her laugh, Kazuki hung his head down powerlessly.<br /> <br /> “By the way… you have got to decide the ship’s name now. What are you going to name this ship?”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai asked Kazuki the owner.<br /> <br /> “It’s Cool Beauty Akane.” Kazuki who was ruled by despair carelessly said that.<br /> <br /> “…Eh? Wha, what are you saying.”<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun-!” Kaguya-senpai shook his shoulders with a desperate face.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, that’s a joke. Captain Akane, the name is Queen Kaguya please.”<br /> <br /> “I, I got it. Like this it’s a strange name isn’t it… why is it featured Kaguya?”<br /> <br /> “Please don’t say that it’s strange!” Kaguya-senpai said in a huff.<br /> <br /> “…Well then once again, Queen Kaguya, leaving port!!”<br /> <br /> Along with Akane-senpai’s declaration, the steam whistle rang out once more.<br /> <br /> It announced their separation with Vice Chief Yamagata who was seeing them off from the wharf.<br /> <br /> The speed of the ship increased and the scenery outside the window sped off.<br /> <br /> Suddenly a goose flesh sensation welled up inside Kazuki and he rushed to the back window of the bridge.<br /> <br /> The land was rapidly becoming farther. Already he couldn’t even make out the figure of the person that was standing on the wharf.<br /> <br /> Japan was gradually becoming distant. He went away from Japan―just from that he was driven by an unknown feeling of loss and drifting feeling as if he was becoming someone that was not him.<br /> <br /> Ten-odd years since Japan lost the diplomatic relations with foreign countries. Kazuki was raised until now with his roots firmly planted in the land called Japan without being particularly aware of the existence called a foreign country.<br /> <br /> That everything was overturned…<br /> <br /> He finally embarked to a [foreign country] where everything was unknown―<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> According to Arthur, the founder of magic that was the alchemist Basileus Basilleon left behind these words―[When all the Kings truly are present, the battlefield of the Kings will rise from the bottom of the sea].<br /> <br /> Arthur thought that Kazuki was the last King and came to Japan, but, even with Kazuki becoming a true King, there was no unusual phenomenon that happened anywhere in the world.<br /> <br /> Then it was the unknown continent [America] that was separated from east and west with Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean and had cut off all relation with other Magic Advanced Countries. In that land that was without a doubt a Magic Advanced Country, A King still hadn’t been born.<br /> <br /> Right now the balance of the world was in the middle of breaking down. Loki who had his stronghold in Japan and performing guerilla war was lending his hand to China who selfishly wanted to invade Japan, and then Russia was added into that alliance.<br /> <br /> In order to oppose China・Loki・Russia, Japan needed an ally.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had to pull the King of America that was going to be newly born to his side.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had to prevent Loki from pulling even the King of America to his side.<br /> <br /> This was a journey for the sake of that.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> Loki didn’t think that he had failed.<br /> <br /> But for the person in front of his eyes that was a betrayal.<br /> <br /> Because of that he had to be cautious in his behavior.<br /> <br /> “Oh mann, what a failure this is! Even though our side had collected two Sacred Treasures, who will ever think that we are the ones that lost eh! Even though Ikousai too had also completely mastered using Susanoo’s power flawlessly at that! This is a conclusion that even the god-sama cannot predict yeah!”<br /> <br /> For the time being Loki would laugh hard while saying that and took a peek at the other party’s reaction.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu…” Fu Zi also laughed.<br /> <br /> The imperial capital of Chukadou, Beijing. They were in the magnificent palace of that city, &lt;Shibi Palace&gt;.<br /> <br /> Loki was invited inside the extremely luxurious private room of the emperor.<br /> <br /> “Fuhahahaha! Tis’ no problem at all, my friend! Our heart is not that small to lose our composure just from a failure of that degree! After all our heart is the heart of China!! Fuhaa―hhahahaha!!”<br /> <br /> '''Pishi-'''…a crack entered the pure white make up of her imperial face. The excessively thick make up was split from laughing too much. The jewels and ornaments with weight several times her own body weight that decorated her whole body rang out clinking sounds '''jaran jaran'''.<br /> <br /> If according to Loki’s aesthetic sense that saw through all of that addition, Fu Zi who had just welcomed her age of fifteen was a natural beauty even without relying on all of that makeup and jewelry. But the Emperor of Chukadou was the ultimate star that shined bright in the center of the world. Her beauty had to transcend ultimately above human’s comprehension.<br /> <br /> And as the result of aiming at the beauty that surpassed the ultimate, the heavy makeup conducted on her imperial face was already a mask. What was attached on her body was not clothes but armor made from precious stones―no, she was a robot made from gems. The gems were arranged geometrically in accordance with the rule of divination, it could even be seen like a mandala.<br /> <br /> Fu Zi was not a beautiful girl―her appearance was an abstract painting.<br /> <br /> The culture of China is just incredible… Loki who was facing her thought so.<br /> <br /> But, however―at the same time Fu Zi was also a compassionate human.<br /> <br /> “Fuhahahah―! Gefu-! Gofun!!” Fu Zi laughed too much and choked.<br /> <br /> “Euuu-!” Letting such hoarse voice escaped, glob of tears appeared on her eyes. She couldn’t wipe her tear or anything with her sleeves that were covered with gems, so the tears were evaporated using Pyrokinesis. For a while she leaked out painful breath of “Hi―, hi―” and then Fu Zi recovered her calmness.<br /> <br /> “However… Loki…”<br /> <br /> Fu Zi slowly raised her imperial face. When the smile vanished from that expression, the crack that entered the make up was naturally mending. Throughout that beautiful face that was all like a sculpted model, only the glint of her eyes were like a flame.<br /> <br /> “…We feel a slight tedium… We won’t act narrow-mindedly like asking responsibility from you but… because of your failure now the [invasion] is far away…”<br /> <br /> “I guess so. If we interfere even more forcefully than this, Britain and Italy will seriously come attacking. The real point will be how Germany who is acting like a third party will act then.”<br /> <br /> ―’After that was America perhaps.’ Loki added inside his heart, now that he was mentioning about important point.<br /> <br /> “…How sluggish it is to peek at the movement of the third party or the like. Look…”<br /> <br /> Fu Zi dignifiedly raised both her hands and thrust them in front of Loki. Small palms like maple leave peeked out from the opening of the sleeves that were sewed through with jewelries. Those palms were trembling over and over as if being poisoned by something.<br /> <br /> “The &lt;Dragon of Heaven’s Decree&gt; that is residing inside us is rampaging inside… Also, our head hurts. Our skull is pressured creakingly by powerful impulse… Swallow up new land he say… rule over new people he say…”<br /> <br /> The light that dwell inside those eyes, if Loki had to be the one to express it then he could only call it as madness.<br /> <br /> &lt;Dragon of Heaven’s Decree&gt;―the Diva that the girl was contracted with was that kind of being.<br /> <br /> It was not a god or a devil. ''It was an existence that originally shouldn’t exist inside the Taoism Mythology''.<br /> <br /> Fu Zi when she was driven by her impulse was… dangerous.<br /> <br /> It even made him think whether her mind that had been strained until the limit was going to pop with a snap exactly now.<br /> <br /> Loki changed the topic of their conversation.<br /> <br /> “But there is also a thing that we obtained see. Rather what we got was perhaps even greater. We was able to make an unshakable relationship of cooperation with Russia.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? …But our friend Loki, our tediousness, our headache, its unbearable.”<br /> <br /> “Ha?”<br /> <br /> “If you say that Ilyailiya is cooperating with us―call Ilyailiya here. It would be best for us to deal with her here and liberate Russia. That’s the best cooperation she can give. For the current us.” &lt;ref&gt;The us here doesn’t refer to Fu Zi and Loki, but the us here is the royal way for the emperor to refer to herself alone&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Wha… what are you saying!?”<br /> <br /> Deal with her―kill her. Loki panicked from this reason that had transcended the dimension of a mere quick temper.<br /> <br /> “You are saying that anywhere is fine, that you want to rule, so you are going to just kill the guy that became your ally! You do that and on top of losing Russia, after that Britain, Italia, Japan, three countries are going to attack you all at once!! Even if I can take on Japan, your load is just gonna be too heavy taking on the remaining two kings, have you ever thought of that!!?”<br /> <br /> “You are making a single mistake in your thinking.”<br /> <br /> Fu Zi waved one of her trembling hand. Her voice was also trembling.<br /> <br /> “You keep making balanced calculation by considering that factors like Advanced Countries or Kings whatever in equal measures―but those factors are not equal. We… just taking on two Kings of Britain and Italia as opponents simultaneously at most, there is no way we will be the one that fall behind.”<br /> <br /> She was going to show that she could take on Arthur and Regina simultaneously. Fu Zi was saying such things with a trembling voice.<br /> <br /> ‘That’s just a big talk’, Loki was unable to laugh it off like that.<br /> <br /> The battle ability between Kings was not equal. The power of each Mythology was not equal.<br /> <br /> “Watch, my figure.”<br /> <br /> As if an overflowing power that couldn’t be held back, Fu Zi’s whole body was emitting radiant light.<br /> <br /> The thick makeup, the countless jewels, all were reduced by the magic power. Inside the light only for an instant Fu Zi returned to her original human appearance―at once &lt;the emperor’s Magic Dress&gt; was formed on that body.<br /> <br /> White skin was exposed. Even while exposing feminine beauty, both her arms that were the symbol of [strength] were covered by violet dragon scale like amethyst, horn and claws were elongating out ominously from her head and fingertips. On the other hand her chest and waist that should be hidden as an aristocrat were covered by golden garment, on her back a [halo] was shining.<br /> <br /> Violet and yellow were once colors that were restricted by China’s royal family. …A human dragon clad in restricted color….<br /> <br /> In order to let Loki know of that power , Fu Zi showed her transformation into her battle mode.<br /> <br /> “So this is the Magic Dress of the &lt;Dragon of Heaven’s Decree&gt;… even I who am a god is overwhelmed. This is certainly a [gravity].”<br /> <br /> Chinese Tao’s chief god &lt;Dragon of Heaven’s Decree&gt;―that was certainly too different in nature compared to other Divas. One factor that made Loki want to get closer to China was also because he wanted to confirm that peculiarity from up close.<br /> <br /> China’s abyssal history―4000 years. The current population of Chukadou―was actually 1.8 billion people.<br /> <br /> What was called as Mythology was the crystallization of the thought the people who lived in that sphere of civilization had stored. At present the people of China with the number that reached 1.8 billion human had continuously stored for 4000 years until now a colossal volume of prayer―the Sinocentrism.<br /> <br /> Even while believing that China was exactly the center of the world, the people was constantly tormented by the reality of starvation and wars. Inside that cruel reality, the people excessively and earnestly prayed, that someday the possessor of heaven’s decree would appear in this land, build the ideal China, and brought about the ultimate equality and peace.<br /> <br /> That torrent of prayer―turned into a savage dragon. Not a god and not even a devil, a single dragon.<br /> <br /> This dragon completely swallowed Taoism Mythology as the superior fantasy―that was how Loki interpreted it. It was different with a normal Mythology. Compared to a normal Mythology―it was in a different league. Powerful. It was not a weak truth.<br /> <br /> “Our suffering is the prayer of the people… there is no possible way this power will fall behind against the likes of Mythology…”<br /> <br /> A trembling voice―however it was not a weakly trembling voice. Rather it was a voice that was trembling from the inability to hold back the overflowing power. It was by no means a big talk. Certainly the &lt;Reborn Emperor&gt; Fu Zi was shouldering the volume of desire that could possibly utterly defeat both Arthur and Regina at the same time.<br /> <br /> But Fu Zi who was shouldering the Sinocentrism itself in that small body was constantly tormented by Sinocentrism desire of invasion. If the girl didn’t continuously invade, the dragon inside her would rampage madly and corner her mind into the edge of madness.<br /> <br /> Loki utterly scorned the too powerful strength that couldn’t be restrained.<br /> <br /> “We ain’t gonna understand how the relation between Japan and Germany is going to roll from now on. After all the Einherjar had completely acted rashly like assaulting the comrades of Hayashizaki Kazuki in Fuji’s sea of trees. But between Russia and Germany there is no obligation or resentment, a flat relationship. If you attacked Russia, then there is the possibility of Germany being added to the list of your enemy as the sanctions of that. You are gonna turn the whole world as your enemy.”<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Fu Zi released a part of the power and recovered her composure.<br /> <br /> “…Certainly putting Russia under our rule immediately is an imprudence. Then… if Russia had become our ally, it’s better to quickly attack Japan. It’s no matter even if Britain and Italia turn into our enemy, we don’t need any just cause or anything. This way of thinking is just natural isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t you say something of such small caliber.”<br /> <br /> “…Are you saying that we are narrow-minded.”<br /> <br /> “Even if you are not small but you don’t have any strong patience.”<br /> <br /> “We are just loathing an unnecessary patience.”<br /> <br /> A furrow of violent emotion appeared on Fu Zi’s forehead. Her eyes were blazing. But Fu Zi didn’t show short temper against Loki. She was going to listen to Loki’s story until the end. After all it was something that a person with large caliber would do.<br /> <br /> She was just a mere girl overstretching herself.<br /> <br /> “I’m saying that it’s just idiotic for someone so powerful like you to make a bet where the worst case is possible. Picking a fight ‘Come on, I dare you’ at Japan, Britain, and Italia where they might be waiting for you with all sorts of preparation, no matter how you gonna think about it, it just ain’t smart. Even if it’s you, the worst case always exists.”<br /> <br /> “There is no such thing as the worst case. …No.”<br /> <br /> Even while Fu Zi was denying it with her anger exposed, she immediately reconsidered.<br /> <br /> “Certainly it’s undeniable that we don’t understand well about Arthur, Regina, or Japan’s new King. There is no doubt of the result if we are compared against a known opponent, but it’s just as you said, that [there is something unknown] means that [the worst case exists].”<br /> <br /> “The time to attack is when you have composure while you can sense your opponent’s movement. Whether the opponent is really waiting for us with all sorts of preparation, or perhaps he is doing something else… Perhaps they are even going to America right now.”<br /> <br /> Even Loki didn’t know about that continent’s current condition. Knowing about that place through Kazuki was also interesting.<br /> <br /> “Mu? In the case that he is being absent than isn’t it easy to capture the country instead? Let’s go.”<br /> <br /> “That’s why I said that it’s not certain whether that guy is really away or not. Regina returned to her country and it seemed that she opened a meaningless grand parade. On the other hand we don’t know what the hell Japan and Britain’s Kings are doing right now. We also don’t know what kind of attitude Germany is gonna take against Japan. That’s why I told you to first investigate it for the time being. After doing that we can do anything without any trouble waiting for us right?”<br /> <br /> “There should be the former Yamato’s spies still hiding in Japan shouldn’t it? Something like what kind of action the King is currently taking should be easily known.”<br /> <br /> “Because of the current progress those spies are in the middle of being purged, there is still some that survived but they are completely on high alert there. They cannot move. ''Those like the press want to know about the King, if they published a scoop about what is the King doing right now then that would be great, so we are right now waiting for them to do our job for us''.”<br /> <br /> Loki laughed jokingly.<br /> <br /> “We see… if there is only that information then we can immediately attack them but…”<br /> <br /> ‘I don’t wanna have the situation become like that for now though’, Loki thought. He would also be troubled if China won overwhelmingly.<br /> <br /> ‘Don’t you guys dare to leak the information easily’, Loki prayed to the government of Japan.<br /> <br /> “Well, those guys are also not as naïve as we thought. They are hiding their movement carefully. I thought because that country is full of peace idiots that they will even expose more about Hayashizaki Kazuki in a variety show or something y’know.”<br /> <br /> “The King is the country’s greatest battle power. Surely the people are immensely curious about the new King, but if the King become a spectacle following the demand then it’s the same as leaking out their most important military secret. It was also a path that we once went through. We thought that Japan is still an inexperienced country, but it seems they are able to understand the importance of a King.”<br /> <br /> Fu Zi nodded. As long as she was not driven by her madness then she was a wise girl in the first place.<br /> <br /> “Understood. First we should grasp the movement of Japan’s new King and Arthur Basileus, isn’t that right?”<br /> <br /> Loki nodded back, “Also, Germany’s movement too.”<br /> <br /> In the first place Loki wanted time. Loki’s Einherjar was the weakest force among this whirlpool of power. They had obtained China and Russia as allies where they finally could steadily advance the materialization of their comrades that were Chaos Side’s Divas. Now they were in the middle of doing that.<br /> <br /> Even so if they were going to attack, then rather than targeting Japan that had Hayashizaki Kazuki, it was more convenient to target Britain. That place was the center of magic civilization. The legacy of Basileus Basilleon was there. In other words there was the secret of the world that even Loki didn’t know there. If he could make China attack Britain and received that legacy secretly from the sideline without being discovered….<br /> <br /> Would he be able to control however much great power in front of his eyes and moved to his own convenience then…<br /> <br /> She was driven by madness therefore this should be simple.<br /> <br /> By nature Fu Zi was a young wise girl therefore it was simple.<br /> <br /> The trembling of Fu Zi’s fingers stopped―the girl’s power of will halted.<br /> <br /> “We clearly understand the advice of you who are a friend. We are going to reflect on our imprudence that tried to walk an easy path from yielding to our internal pain. Tis’ no problem.”<br /> <br /> “So it becomes no problem, that’s good then.”<br /> <br /> “We like you and Kaya.”<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Fu Zi’s expression burst open in wide grin that suited a girl her age.<br /> <br /> While Loki was taken aback by that frank way of talking―he pitied the weight of the thing this girl shouldered.<br /> <br /> The 4000 years fervent prayer of 1.8 billion people. When it was turned over, it was the resentment of the people toward China’s successive generations of dynasties―to the powerful people. It was only natural that the power of resentment had an aspect that brought about madness as a curse. On both shoulders of the wise girl that was still young, all of that weight was burdening her. A colossal volume…<br /> <br /> “Kaya too said that she likes Hiroko-chan yeah.”<br /> <br /> “Fufu… fuhaa―hhahha! Tis’ no matter!!”<br /> <br /> Being called by her nickname Hiroko-chan, Fu Zi puffed her chest with that small body and laughed delightfully.<br /> <br /> “Thinking back… I think I have never heard about your political philosophy. If you obtain the world in your hand, what will you who are carrying the will of the Dragon of Heaven’s Decree bring about to this world?”<br /> <br /> “Hmm!” Fu Zi replied brightly as if she was going to reveal a valued treasure.<br /> <br /> “Our wish is for the people’s peace. Our prayer is for the people’s equality. For all the people to be in our hands, to make all the people―into [crimson nopperabou].” &lt;ref&gt;Nopperabou is a mythical being with flat featureless face&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When Akane-senpai operated the control panel, a large table of marble gradually rose from the floor of the bridge. The bridge was transformed into a meeting room that was balanced with the feeling of liberation of the blue ocean.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and co. encircled that round table and began the briefing.<br /> <br /> “Regarding the voyage… even though I called it that but the majority of the distance we advance will be managed by the computer. We anticipated that when we get closer to America the GPS will be unusable, but until that point there will be no problem to confirm our position with GPS, we can still get in contact and coordinate with the home country.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki thought “Eh?”<br /> <br /> “We cannot use GPS when we get closer to America?”<br /> <br /> “It’s not just limited to GPS, we also cannot take satellite pictures. All the action to find out about a foreign country using the power of technology is blocked by magic power. …You have never seen such thing in practice have you? Like the situation of a Magic Advanced Country’s city’s photograph taken using a satellite picture.”<br /> <br /> Now that she mentioned it he had never seen it. He didn’t notice when he was not told like this, but now that she said it that was a picture that he really wanted to see. Arthur shrugged his shoulders.<br /> <br /> “If that kind of thing is taken from the space and Japan is constantly monitoring other countries like that, the other Magic Advanced Countries will quickly declare war on Japan.”<br /> <br /> Certainly. This was why America was said as mysterious.<br /> <br /> “Even if we photograph a satellite picture, we won’t be able to differentiate anything other than a blur of blue magic power light. This blur of magic power light was named as [magic power cloud]. Its source is not really clear. Some people say that perhaps it’s a magic that is unconsciously manifested by the ‘exclusion against foreign countries’ mentality of the people that lives in that country. Unconsciously… or rather, perhaps I should call it… group latency consciousness.”<br /> <br /> Magic that was exerted unconsciously or group latency consciousness―certainly he had heard before that there was that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> Something like, because of the strong feeling of man and woman, the magic phenomenon that was unconsciously invoked made it hard to avoid pregnancy.<br /> <br /> “Most likely the magic power cloud obstructs the GPS signal. No matter where, all kind of waves are blocked. Maybe they had confirmed the existence of satellite photos, so the cloud is put in the sky, or so we thought, but even the access through the undersea cable that connected the mainland Japan with overseas is also repelled away. Though this is only if the other country still hasn’t thoroughly destroyed the facility there.”<br /> <br /> “We haven’t.” Arthur shook his head. “That kind of facility is still remaining in our Britain and the other Mythology countries too. After all it’s not like the instant we became a Mythology country we immediately abolished and destroyed all civilization leaving nothing behind.”<br /> <br /> “Yes, Germany and the surrounding vassal states are also like that desu. The abolition of civilization was progressed little by little. It’s by no means that everything had already been completely abolished.”<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it, Lotte was watching Japanese anime from your sickbed right, using a DVD player.”<br /> <br /> When he said that from recalling the information, Lotte nodded “Yes desu”.<br /> <br /> Germany was abolishing the civilization even fiercer than Britain. Even so that Lotte could hide a DVD player in her possession where she could still use it, that meant that science civilization was still surviving there.<br /> <br /> “The act of trying to know about other countries using the power of technology is repelled away. That’s why the countries of the world are so mysterious then.” Kazuki was convinced.<br /> <br /> “Lessons regarding the magic power cloud is given in the second year. It’s not unreasonable that you didn’t know about it. After all, the Knight Academy gives the maximum priority of training the students until they reach the level of strength where they could participate in quests.” Liz Liza-sensei added.<br /> <br /> “Right, we the second years knew about it. But it is really strange don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai knitted her eyebrows.<br /> <br /> “Despite it being a school that should be teaching us the right way to use power, anyway first they taught the way to use power right from the beginning and the knowledge only came later…”<br /> <br /> “Situations where reality cannot catch up with ideals often happen.”<br /> <br /> Arthur said a philosophic view from his position as a statesman in reality.<br /> <br /> “Japan’s government is really able. They are very interesting. With how our country turned into a Mythology country, there are some aspects where we are a little distant from this kind of systematic way.”<br /> <br /> “But Japan has some aspects where its perception is a little pampered.”<br /> <br /> Shouko who was not at the table but leaning on the wall suddenly added to the conversation while gazing as if looking at somewhere far away.<br /> <br /> “Pampered?” Kazuki asked back.<br /> <br /> “The people of this country are still―even when they have experienced the outbreak of war with Yamato―thinking that, it’s impossible for a war to happen with a foreign country, or something aren’t they?”<br /> <br /> “Perhaps that’s true.” Kazuki nodded while feeling the bitterness of making an excuse.<br /> <br /> “Rather than that, I think that we have become unable to have a real feeling of the foreign countries’ existence…”<br /> <br /> Conception’s outside―it became a blind spot. Even Kazuki in the first place didn’t have the conception of obtaining information about overseas with the power of technology.<br /> <br /> “Anyways, we have the satellite assistance for the majority of our voyage, so rest easy.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai concluded that for the time being.<br /> <br /> “In our estimates, the fastest we can reach America is in ten days. We will stop the engine when we get closer to America and open the sail. We don’t need to worry about the sail operation because the computer will manage it, but the speed then will be dependent on the wind. That’s why the food was prepared with extra.”<br /> <br /> “Well, just leave it to me when you cannot rely on the machine anymore.”<br /> <br /> Shouko hit her chest loudly. Akane-senpai directed doubtful eyes to her.<br /> <br /> “…Is it really okay, to rely on this person?”<br /> <br /> “For the time being, I think it is okay senpai.” Kazuki took the responsibility like so.<br /> <br /> “The Knight Order and Ryouzanpaku are maintaining the defense of Japan, but… even if there is something happening in Japan we are going to need around the same ten days to return back using this ship.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai said. If something happened then surely it was because of China. But…<br /> <br /> “I think perhaps there will be no such thing. After all, Regina returned back to her country flashily.”<br /> <br /> Mio who sat beside him tilted her head asking “Why?”<br /> <br /> “Even if the enemy sense that I and Arthur are not in the country, Regina would have to make an appeal that at the very least she is in the position where she can move anytime. On the surface Regina won’t cooperate with us, but perhaps even if she doesn’t come along with us to America, she is still thinking some about us.”<br /> <br /> “…I see, there is also that kind of way of thinking.”<br /> <br /> Arthur’s eyes opened wide and he hit his palm in realization.<br /> <br /> “I felt betrayed in my heart thinking that she would just overlook the disturbance in the world’s balance you know. So she made that kind of flashy parade while returning to her home was actually to hold in check the enemy by saying ‘I’m right here’.”<br /> <br /> “I wonder if you can feel relieved with a diversion just from Regina alone? After all the King of China is abnormally eager in her desire of invasion. If there is any opening then she is gonna come to take your country even with a high-handed method.”<br /> <br /> Shouko’s expression turned sharp as if she was a different person the moment the topic about China came out.<br /> <br /> “It’s going to be fine as long as we don’t show any opening right?”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai said. “There should not be anyone that knows we are departing to America. This Solomon the 2nd… no, Queen Kaguya was constructed and transported under the veil of secrecy. Kazuki and others’ action are also completely concealed.”<br /> <br /> If this side’s absence was detected―this talk was done with such premise, but in the first place they didn’t have the intention to let the enemy detect them.<br /> <br /> “I think it is better for you guys to have the readiness that the instant your absence is exposed they’re gonna come invading. That country is… no, that King is… someone that ain’t possible to understand what she is gonna suddenly come up with.”<br /> <br /> Shouko said with a heavy tone.<br /> <br /> “…Ah.” With a twitch Kazuha-senpai’s spine was trembling and she let out a small voice escape.<br /> <br /> “Is there something wrong, Kazuha-senpai?”<br /> <br /> “Ee,rr… about the story just now… if Kazuki’s absence got exposed, it’s going to be bad isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, that’s true.”<br /> <br /> “E, errr… this morning, some people that looked like newspaper reporters came… they looked like they got wind of Kazuki’s stay at that hidden harbor, they were taking pictures from afar… at that time I was the lookout but…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s countenance turned pale in the blink of an eye.<br /> <br /> “I, didn’t understand the gravity of the situation so… also I didn’t know that China is going to come attacking… I thought that only confiscating their film and chasing them away might be fine…”<br /> <br /> At that time, the ship might have been seen. Kazuha-senpai continued mentioning that.<br /> <br /> An article could be made even without picture. If an article about this came out to the public, then China will come to invade and it would become war.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―Kazuki immediately pondered. ‘Is there any way to stop the reporters from here?’<br /> <br /> They could make contact with the mainland, but they didn’t have any pictures of the reporters or even their names.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t get any idea at all about a sensible way to do something about this immediately.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> There was a single picture in Turtle Oota’s hand.<br /> <br /> His sworn friend Simo Heyhe Iijima rephotographed this picture of the ship that was mooring in the cove using his Thoughtography(Spirit Photography Magic). But with the memory of seeing the ship only once and Simo Heyhe’s magic skill, he could only create a hazy picture as if everything was covered with mist.<br /> <br /> The picture couldn’t possibly become any strong evidence.<br /> <br /> Even if he used the picture to prop up his article, it wouldn’t have any other meaning except of something in the degree of an image illustration.<br /> <br /> ―’Just this is enough. This can be made into an article.’ Turtle warped his thick lips and laughed alone.<br /> <br /> His workplace in Tokyo that doubled as his residence―a six tatami room that was buried in trashes, laundry, and materials. Only his desktop PC that was his work tool and the equipment around it looked taken care of splendidly.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t even collect the evidence about the information that the King was staying in the Knight Order’s lodging house at that hidden harbor. It couldn’t become anything except something like a gossip article.<br /> <br /> But even so, he was a gossip journalist. He wouldn’t hesitate at all to write an unreliable article.<br /> <br /> Besides, an article about the King departing overseas with a personal use ship was just too wild an idea, it would just result in the opposite and had no persuasive power at all. There shouldn’t be any human that was going to come up with such a made up story.<br /> <br /> He would spread out ripple in the society without fail.<br /> <br /> But now just when he was going to write the article, Turtle’s both hands stopped above the keyboard.<br /> <br /> The world was in the middle of changing on a grand scale―such strange feeling that seemed real stuck in his head and wouldn’t go away.<br /> <br /> ‘He is doing this without looking for anything in return.’<br /> <br /> That girl talked about the person that was the King with a serious gaze.<br /> <br /> Not even looking for anything in return, the King went to an unknown world―departed toward the open sea that had been forgotten from the common knowledge of the people during these 15 years. It was supposed to be a journey where there was only danger awaiting.<br /> <br /> To do such a thing without even informing the public, perhaps there was some kind of reason.<br /> <br /> The people with old sense of values were just holding back the symbol of this current era that was the King. Such composition kept floating inside his head. Wasn’t what he was going to write an ugly composition? For him to write this article…<br /> <br /> …No, so what if it was ugly? He was Turtle that welcomed any ugliness, wasn’t he the gossip journalist.<br /> <br /> Information about the King would become money. That was enough as his reason.<br /> <br /> How much credibility this article, that didn’t have even a single proof in it, could bring about, that was the only thing he needed to think about. ‘The soul of my work dwells exactly in this kind of thing. It’s fine for me, who is a worker in this field, to be a machine that just thinks about that.’<br /> <br /> People would believe what they wanted to believe. The people were hungry for rage towards influential people. In order for someone like him to taste the real feeling that he was a virtuous human, he kept looking for an excuse to persecute evil.<br /> <br /> That was why proof was unnecessary. As long as there was something people could just feel the sweet rage towards… they would believe anything.<br /> <br /> Just imagine the best story. Aboard an unbelievably luxurious and extravagant cruiser ship, while being served by a lot of beautiful girls that were called Chouki(favored princess/favored mistress), the young man who was just chosen as the King was going somewhere.<br /> <br /> What about, that there was actually a secret southern island resort that was secretly purchased by the government, that supposedly had already severed all diplomatic relations? There was no doubt that in that place where they didn’t need to worry about the public eye, a completely shameless debauchery was extravagantly, immorally, waiting for the King.<br /> <br /> Not looking for anything in return…? No, that was wrong. That King was surely a debauched harem King.<br /> <br /> The instant he ran his imagination wild, Turtle’s head was boiled with a sweet rage. Imaginations were surfacing in his head one after another, the hesitation vanished from his fingertips, inflammatory leading words were produced.<br /> <br /> He was lively depicting the figure of the sworn enemy of the people that couldn’t be allowed to live under the same heaven.<br /> <br /> Who could ever imagine that this kind of refined text could be written only from the imagination of a journalist that was full of lies.<br /> <br /> No matter where he brought that article, it surely could be publicized in no time at all…<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_9_Afterword&diff=479637 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Afterword 2016-02-04T11:16:04Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Afterword==<br /> <br /> Finally we reached the turning point! Even the content makes you feel the turning point, this is the ninth volume of Magika. I am really thankful that I am given the chance to come this far! To be able to pile up a number of volume until this many in this extremely harsh light novel industry, even myself cannot believe this.<br /> <br /> Moreover! Magika is still continuing ahead! (as if it’s something that is really awesome) I still want to stir it up even more, so if you reader will continue your patronage from now on too I will be happy. I, if it pleased you reader then perhaps you can recommend this novel or something to your friend or someone… currently taking application for Magilover. *Glance* *glance*<br /> <br /> It’s not like Magika got particularly sold like crazy or anything, but I had changed my residence. At the property that my relative possess, he felt it troublesome if there is trouble so it’s fine even if he got cheaper rent, he just wanted to make a relative to live in the place. He brought a story with that kind of feeling to me along with a transcendental bargain rent. Oh yeah! So for around five days from now I will be moving home in timely manner, even though this is not really an important news but I must write about this moving. Though I always write an afterword that is not important at all like this in the end…<br /> <br /> Right now, I’m in the middle of carrying away the baggage in my room and I’m flat out broke. My room is a six tatami room that was always in a state like a trash box, so its state right now where I can see the floor is a really fresh experience. However a crimson stain is spreading on my floor like a place of a murder scene. It’s not like I killed someone here but when I was building Cha○’s exclusive mobile suit, the Sa○fi plastic model I made a mistake and the paint spilled on the floor completely. There is no way I can make my room into a C○ar’s exclusive so I’m going to repaper the whole surface of the flooring. It’s going to take much time surely… You really got me huh, Char!<br /> <br /> Now that I mentioned it, when my mother brought the baggage that I left behind in my parent’s home to my new home, she sorted my things in my room from around the time I was in middle and high school as she pleased and brought it over to me. When I carelessly checked the inside,<br /> <br /> *A mountain of ero manga (what a really nostalgic design)<br /> *The files that I scrapped from the page of eroge magazine (I didn’t have the courage to buy eroge)<br /> *Light novel production notes (Indescribable content that cannot be called as anything else than my black history)<br /> *A mountain of sketches of moe character drawn with extremely pathetic skill (There are also some perverted pictures you know!)<br /> <br /> The instant I opened the baggage these treasured things felt like iron scraps piled up on my head, the killing power is too overkill and I died. Especially the last thing was just too last boss. It’s extremely painful. You really got me mama!<br /> <br /> When doing the cleaning of the room and I personally carried the various articles of darkness to the trash processing facility, somehow I feel like I have been reborn. Moving house is a renewal of the soul. Now that I mention it I have the feeling that the content of Magika’s ninth volume is about facing the past. Like this a human grow strong don’t they?<br /> <br /> With a completely sparkling new self I’m thinking to let fly the tenth volume of Magika to great height. Thank you very much to CHuN-san that drew super cool illustrations for this volume too! I yelled ‘nyaa’ the instant I saw the front cover. The rumored comicalization that went even more swimmingly than the original version Monrin-san, the characters of the second volume are also grandly entering the stage that I’m super looking forward to it every month! And then the editor-in-charge K-nya! Please don’t grumble things like “That guy break the deadline so calmly without any guilt” to my contemporary Iwanami Ryou-sensei… I feel bad, I’m reflecting… Fueee… Please expect even more great efforts from Mihara-san whose bath and toilet had now become separated! This is Mihara Mitsuki.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Epilogue|Epilogue]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 10 Illustrations|Volume 10 Novel Illustrations]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_9_Epilogue&diff=479636 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Epilogue 2016-02-04T11:10:50Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Epilogue – Cradle==<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> An unconventional mock battle was held in Asaka Garrison.<br /> <br /> On the other side is a two-man team of police knights that were stationed in this garrison. Both of the women had been given the seal of approval by Vice Chief Yamagata as Magika Stigmas that possessed above average ability.<br /> <br /> The mock battle was already over, these two women had yielded while falling on their knees.<br /> <br /> On the other side were students of the Magic Division―Amasaki Mio and Hiakari Koyuki.<br /> <br /> This two-man team didn’t even breathe hard.<br /> <br /> This mock battle was for the sake of ascertaining the true power of the &lt;Chouki Magician&gt;, it was performed in front of the eyes of a lot of knights and the top brass of the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> And the result – the confidence of many knights that possessed an abundance of experience were smashed into pieces.<br /> <br /> Inside the hearts of the knights they still didn’t believe about the special existences like [the King and his favored princesses]. Those kind of fellows made light of such thing saying that it was not a big deal.<br /> <br /> Being favored by the King gave birth to this much power―witnessing that in practice with their own eyes, for the first time they clearly understood how special the existence called as King is.<br /> <br /> From this day on, the organization called the Knight Order underwent a complete change.<br /> <br /> The knights lost their self-awareness that they were government workers with the leadership of the Knight Order as their superiors.<br /> <br /> The knights were now being self aware that they were subordinates that could be used by the [symbol of power] that was the King.<br /> <br /> ―However, Kazuki’s daily life didn’t change. He was just having a special power, in the time of need that power would protect those important to him, he was just a student with that determination.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “And so this is Amasaki Mio, the new version! Ehehe, Kazu-nii, how is it!?”<br /> <br /> In the dead of night just before going to sleep, Mio visited Kazuki in his room.<br /> <br /> Mio who defeated veteran knights at Asaka and proved her ability went back to the Witch’s Mansion in a good mood and even put down three bowls of rice at dinner.<br /> <br /> The girl named Amasaki Mio that was full with bright energy was the cutest when she was getting carried away like this.<br /> <br /> And then Mio twirled and twirled on the spot to flaunt off her new appearance.<br /> <br /> “It becomes even more gorgeous than before. But as I thought the exposure is a lot and looking at it makes my heart throb.”<br /> <br /> “Heheh, Kazu-nii you pervert~”<br /> <br /> Mio who was in an appearance that looked half naked sat on top of the knees of Kazuki who was sitting on the bed.<br /> <br /> He hugged that body tightly from behind. Thereupon for some reason, Kazuki recalled the rotting bones of his mother inside his arms, that lightly dry and sorrowful touch.<br /> <br /> There was the elasticity of meat at Mio’s skin, there was the warm pulse, and a sweet fragrance that was like flowers from her blond hair.<br /> <br /> “…Kazu-nii, aren’t you hugging me stronger than usual?”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was burying his face into Mio’s blond hair, it seemed he didn’t notice that he put too much strength into his arms that were hugging Mio.<br /> <br /> “Sorry, does it hurt?”<br /> <br /> “No, I feel happy somehow. It’s fine even if you are not overly gentle you know?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki relaxed the strength of his arms, Mio half rotated on top of Kazuki’s lap and faced him face to face with the posture of straddling Kazuki’s lap.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii, I love you-“ She hugged him tightly from the front and kissed him.<br /> <br /> Lips and lips touched each other. It felt like their hearts overlapped with the other.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii, I love you. I love you so much.” The lips separated and she whispered, then she kissed again.<br /> <br /> “Ehehe, I love you.” She repeated it many times while kissing.<br /> <br /> “You say love so many times.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki made a wry smile and retorted during the spare moment where their lips separated.<br /> <br /> “Because, I saw the recent Kazu-nii sometimes looked a little lonely. Kazu-nii showed the surrounding of your confidence, but it’s somewhat painful to watch instead.”<br /> <br /> His heart ached pricklingly.<br /> <br /> He had no intention to act brave. He didn’t even feel nervous in the duel with Ikousai that would decide the fate of Japan. Somehow, he felt something bulky and heavy attached to him inside himself.<br /> <br /> However certainly―there were moments where he succumbed to loneliness as if suddenly a draft was blowing inside his heart. Just like before when he recalled the feel of a bone inside his palm.<br /> <br /> In a corner of his heart, a part that was dyed with loneliness, that forever couldn’t be wiped off, had been created.<br /> <br /> “That’s why Kazu-nii, let’s sleep together tonight-!”<br /> <br /> Mio said that with a bright voice and pushed Kazuki down. Kazuki didn’t resist it and collapsed together with her while hugging her back.<br /> <br /> “Hey, Kazu-nii. A long time ago, do you remember, the time when we slept together at the orphanage?”<br /> <br /> “I remember. Mio was always clinging to me when it became night.”<br /> <br /> Mio had the habit to cry at night that she couldn’t fix no matter how long time had passed and she always clung to Kazuki when it was time to sleep. Of course, the two at that time didn’t have any awareness as man and woman at all though.<br /> <br /> “Ehehe. Then, then, you remember when we woke up in the morning? I mean did you notice?”<br /> <br /> “Morning?”<br /> <br /> “Right. At night it was always me that clung to Kazu-nii, but when the morning came it was Kazu-nii that clung to me before you noticed, our posture became hugging each other you remember. It always became like that you know?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki had the feeling of knowing a completely new fact, he peered into Mio’s face staringly.<br /> <br /> “…I did that?”<br /> <br /> “That’s right. Even Kazu-nii was lonely that time. But Kazu-nii would immediately act tough. You did that without even being aware yourself.”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuki remembered about his mother again.<br /> <br /> Thinking of it thoroughly, what was the first thing he was going to convey if he met his mother was that [he was not unhappy]. However if he conveyed that now, those were words that didn’t ring true in some parts.<br /> <br /> Just before his mother disappeared… he sobbed [something like this is unreasonable]. Those words were exactly his true feeling.<br /> <br /> Even he himself was unaware that he was feeling this lonely.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii is by no means alone okay? We too didn’t have a papa or a mama. That’s why, hey, Kazu-nii.” Mio repeated the same words many times over, and made Kazuki listen.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii, I love you. I think it’s really, really important, telling that I love you like this properly. I once again think so.”<br /> <br /> “…Mio, thank you. For always staying beside me.”<br /> <br /> ‘She is someone that understands me, even more than myself.’<br /> <br /> “Ehehe. I’m just clinging like this to Kazu-nii every time.”<br /> <br /> “I too love Mio you know.”<br /> <br /> “I know tha~t♪”<br /> <br /> Both of them hugged each other tightly on top of the bed. The soft, pulsing, warm skin brought tranquility to Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> He repeatedly kissed with Mio with some noise. The warm tranquility was mixed with a heated urge.<br /> <br /> He wanted to taste Mio’s skin more strongly. And then Mio’s bare plain reaction toward that and also her figure in rapture accepting him, he wanted to see that he thought.<br /> <br /> His emotional and lonely and instinctual urge wanted the girl named Mio without any contradiction at all.<br /> <br /> “Mio. I want to touch your breasts.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki boldly said. Mio’s slightly surprised face reddened.<br /> <br /> “I too… want to touch.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki wanted to feel love for real, Kaguya-senpai received Asmodeus’ influence, both of them proactively came at Kazuki and tempted him. However Mio whose positivity level was the highest didn’t do any such thing. Mio put a break of any improper thing, she was a girl that stopped until the level of a sweet kiss.<br /> <br /> From Kazuki himself until now, the time when he was touching a girl, rather than asking it himself he was going along with the other party’s feelings.<br /> <br /> But quite strangely, right now, he felt an urge toward Mio.<br /> <br /> Mio separated her body slightly from him and presented her breast. The part of the Magic Dress there was faintly disappearing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t say that he wanted to touch only her breast, he crept his palm all over Mio’s smooth skin, caressing dearly with his finger tips. Immediately Mio’s voice turned stimulated and heat ran throughout her whole body.<br /> <br /> He wanted to delight Mio. Kazuki recollected his experiences until now, he searched through Mio’s whole body while paying careful attention to the minute change of her positivity level.<br /> <br /> Mio directed a reproachful eye to him while her body was trembling from the sensation.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii… somehow you are really skillful in this…?”<br /> <br /> “Sorry.”<br /> <br /> “Buu―” Mio pouted her lips.<br /> <br /> But the expression of Mio that was like that was immediately repainted with a different color.<br /> <br /> He reached out his hand to the improper spot where a girl was the most shy. Mio opened her legs in order to receive Kazuki’s hand. A split was running on the beautifully smooth skin, something that looked similar with a lip was peeking out. That place was wet with secret fluid.<br /> <br /> “…I too want to make Kazu-nii feel good.”<br /> <br /> Mio’s palm was caressing all over Kazuki in opposition. Her palm was lowering down little by little from his chest, toward his lower body. With a bright red face, Mio’s breathing turned rough.<br /> <br /> “…Kazu-nii’s here too, looked painful.”<br /> <br /> Mio’s palm gently caressed the part of the sensitive thing that became bared. He felt numbness like electricity that ran from his spine into his head.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too similarly touched Mio’s sensitive spot gently. Mio too tensed from her spine until the tip of her toes as is she was struck by electricity.<br /> <br /> Both of their sensitive spots that were as if the most directly connected with the heart and emotion which were the most sensitive throughout the body were exposed, they mutually caressed each other dearly at those spots.<br /> <br /> “Mio, it feels good.”<br /> <br /> “Ehehe, it’s the same for me.”<br /> <br /> ―From there on both of them said “I love you” to each other many times over. Both of their feelings swelled out together with how much they expressed themselves to each other, Mio reached the height many times over. For the last, Kazuki too reached the end simultaneously, both of them were drained of their strength on top of the bed as if they were drifting inside a dream.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii…”<br /> <br /> Mio whispered dreamily while using Kazuki’s arm as a pillow.<br /> <br /> “I, want to give birth to Kazu-nii’s child.”<br /> <br /> She was just saying something extraordinary but Kazuki didn’t feel that it was something extraordinary. He felt like it was really natural words.<br /> <br /> “Someday for sure, you will.”<br /> <br /> Embracing a repose as if the consistency of the whole world was here, Kazuki caressed Mio’s blond hair.<br /> <br /> Mio went “Goronyaa~” and fawned at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> Inside that room, the rough breathing of a woman was leaking out.<br /> <br /> The woman was doing muscle training. She was performing the training with all her might.<br /> <br /> “…By any chance, are you using gravity strengthening magic at the same time?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was visiting that room was amazed and asked that.<br /> <br /> Beatrix who was bathing in her own flowing sweats while doing one-handed push-up was,<br /> <br /> “That voice is Kazuki!?” She raised her face in fluster, her hand that was wet with sweat slipped and slid sideways before she crashed to the ground with a bang.<br /> <br /> “Fu, fufufu.” Beatrix chuckled with her face still planted on the ground.<br /> <br /> “But of course. After all doing training with your own weight normally won’t become any training at all.”<br /> <br /> “Just for the sake of normal muscle training, you will go as far as laying out an advanced general magic like using gravity…”<br /> <br /> “Even when there is no tool like dumbbell or barbell, I can do muscle training anytime and anywhere.”<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s body that was slowly raising up was by no means filled with excessive muscle mass.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling it muscle, what she tempered was her Enchant Aura.<br /> <br /> “It seems that I have been completely asleep for quite long, getting entered into this kind of place is a one way road of getting my body dull.”<br /> <br /> ―What she called as this kind of place was the cell she was in. When he heard that Beatrix and her team had awakened from their magic intoxication, Kazuki went to the isolation cell at Asaka garrison.<br /> <br /> “It can’t be helped that you got put into an isolation cell right? How we are going to treat you after this is still not decided yet.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki sat down while subtly avoiding Beatrix’s sweat that wet the floor.<br /> <br /> “…Why are you bathing in your sweat like that? You can do something about something like sweat somehow with magic right?”<br /> <br /> “Because sweating like this feels good don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> Beatrix sat down on the floor that was wet from sweat with a thump and faced Kazuki. She was not even wearing a prison uniform, but for some reason she was wearing a pastel pink pajama that was pointlessly cute.<br /> <br /> “However this is really a generous treatment huh. It won’t be strange even if I get a death sentence after that.”<br /> <br /> The foreign knights that were staying in Japan in a set-up of a cooperative relationship, of all things disturbed Japan’s tactical operation that was in the middle of progression by picking a fight, they had assaulted Japan’s knights. Certainly it wouldn’t be strange even if they send back the dead bodies of Beatrix and her team back to Germany as a protest.<br /> <br /> But with Kazuki’s own discretion, the matter was halted where they would first wait for Beatrix to wake up.<br /> <br /> “Explain the circumstance. What in the world were you planning that you did that kind of thing?”<br /> <br /> Beatrix had her eyes turn round from Kazuki’s way of talking―it was a way of speaking as if it was Kazuki that had grasped the full authority of how to deal with Beatrix.<br /> <br /> “Explain the circumstance… huh. The circumstance you ask?”<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s eyes wandered around and she crumpled her eyebrows.<br /> <br /> “…Eeerr, why was I doing that kind of thing again?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was inquiring with a serious expression reflexively hung his head down in a slump.<br /> <br /> What the hell was this girl saying?<br /> <br /> It appears that rather than an action that she had done after a deep thought, it was an action that was done really impulsively instead. After Beatrix tried to recall the matter of that time with far away eyes, she suddenly went red with a puff.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 178.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “Wa, wait! Kazuki! You are telling me to talk of the circumstance!? That’s something really embarrassing to say to you, you know!!”<br /> <br /> “What’s with that. There is no way you can be let off without telling me the story here. Do you really understand the gravity of the situation here?”<br /> <br /> After Beatrix groaned “gununu” she confessed.<br /> <br /> “It was in order to bring you back home!”<br /> <br /> “Ha? …Haa?”<br /> <br /> “If Yamato wins you are just a low commoner, so I think with that I can bring you back home then!”<br /> <br /> “…I seriously don’t understand at all what you are talking about.”<br /> <br /> “No wait… in the first place I got that idea because… certainly… that’s right! I remember the crucial thing!! I found the data of the strange experiment that Japan is secretly conducting. It was a data of a gory human experiment. After reading that there is no way that can be allowed.”<br /> <br /> “Human experiment?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki asked in detail, Beatrix started to talk about the details of a repulsive experiment with anger mixed in her tone. The data was about the experiment that Naiarlatoteph was doing in the underground of the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> “That’s old data you know. The guy that did the experiment was already judged as a criminal. Who in the world gave you that data?”<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s noble face went blank with her mouth hanging open.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was glad that they had waited before deciding how to deal with them.<br /> <br /> This was a scheme for the sake of inviting antagonism between Japan and Germany. Someone that would profit if a confrontation between fellow Magic Advanced Countries was deepened―Loki’s face easily emerged to the surface inside Kazuki’s brain.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki explained to Beatrix that all of it was a big misunderstanding, Beatrix was astonished saying “What the…” and her shoulders dropped in a slump from their own misunderstanding.<br /> <br /> “That careless idiot Erii… no, that girl went that far to get between me and Kazuki to…”<br /> <br /> “And then, what are you planning to do from now on?”<br /> <br /> “What are we going to do… you ask? Don’t tell me, you are planning to just overlook this?”<br /> <br /> “You too had just gotten tricked after all. Also about that, whether I’m going to overlook this or not, that depends on what you guys are going to do from now on.”<br /> <br /> “It’s hard you know, thinking something like that without Erii. Eerrr… the first thing is I got to go back to my home country to report for the moment.”<br /> <br /> It was the proper answer, but Kazuki pondered that.<br /> <br /> “There is no need for all three of you to go back to report right?”<br /> <br /> “Mu? That’s true but”<br /> <br /> For them to go back to their own country meant a suspension of the cooperation set-up between Japan and Germany.<br /> <br /> …Even if he had to act half-coercively, he wanted to preserve the cooperation between Japan and Germany.<br /> <br /> Of course to cooperate with the Germans in the true meaning from hereon was depending on the decision of their home country after receiving the report though.<br /> <br /> “Loki is supposed to be the common enemy of Japan and the Einherjar. We who have defeated Yamato will take action to defeat Loki next, Beatrix, leave the report to Eleonora and you stay in Japan to continue the cooperation. For you yourself this should not be an odd decision.”<br /> <br /> “….u, mu…” Beatrix hummed.<br /> <br /> “Even so, if the one that go back to report is not me myself that is the captain… there is also that consideration.”<br /> <br /> “That’s no good. If your home country decide to stop the cooperation, it’s fine for you to go back at that time. However until that happens you are going to take joint action with me.”<br /> <br /> He had given them some favor because of the case this time. Beatrix couldn’t reject.<br /> <br /> For some reason Beatrix’s face reddened.<br /> <br /> “I, if you said it so pushily like that, then… it really can’t be helped…”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki who left behind the isolation cell next headed to the room of the headquarter chief.<br /> <br /> “When your interview with Beatrix is over, please bring yourself to the headquarter chief room. There is something I have to tell you and also to the Knight Order’s leadership.” <br /> <br /> Vice Chief Yamagata that informed him of Beatrix waking up also passed the verbal message of Arthur that was saying that to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> When he knocked and entered the room―inside there were Vice Chief Yamagata, Arthur, and then Shouko-san of Ryouzanpaku was also there.<br /> <br /> “Russia declared their cooperative relationship with China.”<br /> <br /> With Kazuki entering the room, Vice Chief Yamagata said that without even a greeting first.<br /> <br /> Kazuki answered after thinking for a little. “In other words, they are joining hands with Loki then.”<br /> <br /> “The one that draw this scheme is without a doubt Loki.”<br /> <br /> “After the duel with Ikousai, Loki suddenly launched a surprise attack, and yet they immediately retreated, that was for the sake of creating an established fact I guess. It was for the sake of making Ilyailiya unable to play both sides.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled about the happening at Sekigahara and said that.<br /> <br /> “Oo, so you properly noticed that.” Shouko-san raised the corner of her mouth in a grin.<br /> <br /> “Hmm, I see, so it’s for that kind of thing.” Arthur hit his palm with his fist.<br /> <br /> “It seemed that Ilyailiya had told Regina that Russia Mythology can attach themselves freely to Cosmos Side or Chaos Side. So it’s this kind of thing.”<br /> <br /> Loki made Ilyailiya’s position fixed in place conclusively. He wouldn’t let Ilyailiya go off with just a verbal promise. He deliberately made her exchanged hostility with Arthur and Regina.<br /> <br /> “However right now that Yamato is gone, does Russia and China still have any just excuse?”<br /> <br /> “For now… they are demanding us to hand over Aisu Ikousai who is contracted with Susanoo as the one with the true qualification to rule over Japan.”<br /> <br /> “Aren’t they completely ignoring the conclusion and all now? Perhaps as long as Ikousai is not killed then they will keep being persistent like this.”<br /> <br /> “Naturally this is a matter that has to be considered I think. About Ikousai’s execution.” Shouko-san interjected.<br /> <br /> “Just killing Ikousai won’t crush the other side’s just cause. If you do that then they surely will once again make up another excuse and come picking a fight, so perhaps it’s pointless doing that, anyway for the time being there is no harm putting aside killing her.”<br /> <br /> “You, saying for the time being like that…” Yamagata-san frowned.<br /> <br /> “’Perhaps it’s pointless but for the time being’, in Japan human life is not so light that we can kill someone just from mood like that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki rejected that clearly. “Ikousai didn’t really have any malice in her, she was just a maniac of strongest sword art that was lifted up by Yamato’s government as a symbol.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled the first time he met Lotte. Because of the judgment between countries, the life of a human was treated so lightly. That kind of judgment was clearly overflowing with malice.<br /> <br /> “I don’t mind even if they are finding fault with us. It’s just what we wish for to continue our battle with Loki. …Arthur-san, you are also going to lend your hand in this aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned his sight to Arthur. But, why was Regina not here?<br /> <br /> “The conflict between Japan and Yamato about the seat of the legitimate ruler was over already. It ended in the manner that all of you recognized. And then Loki, Russia, and China that even now want to continue the fight… fighting against them in other words mean a battle for the sake of protecting the world’s order. This battle should be something that all of you have to fight too.”<br /> <br /> Arthur rounded his eyes listening on Kazuki’s decisive way of talking.<br /> <br /> However he nodded as if saying that it was only natural.<br /> <br /> “Of course I called you with that kind of intention. I wanted you to pass that judgment. But your way of saying that is more decisive than I imagined. It appears that you are… getting accustomed as King.”<br /> <br /> ‘I wanted you to pass that judgment’ ―Arthur who called to Kazuki to talk about this matter was intentionally ignoring Japan’s government.<br /> <br /> “…I’m going to convey this to the top so that they can act in accordance with Hayashizaki-kun’s will.”<br /> <br /> The way Arthur was developing the matter made Vice Chief Yamagata say that with a troubled face.<br /> <br /> “What about Regina? It seems that she is not in this place though.”<br /> <br /> “She is… I brought the matter about the danger of {{furigana|the Chaos Side Diva|Loki}} colluding with China and Russia to her attention, but she said that she has no obligation to fight and went home to Italy. If she said that then I cannot detain her. That’s also a King’s judgment.”<br /> <br /> If Germany gave their cooperation to Japan then their side would be Japan-Britain-Germany while the other side was China-Russia-Loki.<br /> <br /> “A confrontation structure has been created in the world with this…”<br /> <br /> Vice Chief Yamagata said so with a bitter expression. Confrontation structure―of all things there were Magic Advanced Countries that appeared as Loki’s ally, with that the order between the Seven Great Magic Advanced Countries was breaking down.<br /> <br /> “For that I have a proposal. Hayashizaki-kun… won’t you go with me to America.”<br /> <br /> “…America?”<br /> <br /> It was a word that he didn’t anticipate. Kazuki spontaneously asked back.<br /> <br /> “That’s right. The one that will become the key person in this situation is America. If America stood as our ally… Regina surely won’t jump ship to the other side, that’s why we can stand in the superior position with number. On the contrary we cannot let even America to get sweet talked by Loki’s cajolery.”<br /> <br /> America―they were the country that evaded involvement with other countries the most among the Seven Great Magic Advanced Countries, a country that persisted in their isolationism. Could they do something about such actual state of affairs, not to mention Japan but most likely there was no doubt that the other countries also didn’t understand the situation there.<br /> <br /> “Certainly… it’s a country that we don’t know what they are thinking but it’s important who they are going to side with.”<br /> <br /> “By some chance, just like all of you in Japan, perhaps a King has also still haven’t been born yet in America.”<br /> <br /> “Because they don’t have a King, that’s why they aren’t getting involved with other countries and their standing point is unclear, is that it?”<br /> <br /> “Our Britain is the land where magic was first born in this world, the land where Basileus Basilleon put the headquarter of &lt;{{furigana|Libel Mundi|Dawn’s Omnipotent}}&gt;. The history of alchemists is the oldest there. That was why there is a lot of record about Basileus Basilleon left there.”<br /> <br /> “The alchemist Basileus Basilleon?”<br /> <br /> Why did that name suddenly appear here?<br /> <br /> No, perhaps it was obvious why.<br /> <br /> That name was the root of everything of this era of magic. It was a name that was connected with everything.<br /> <br /> “He left behind these words. ‘The time when all the Kings are standing in a complete set, the battlefield of the Kings will rise from the depth of the sea. A treasure existed there’.”<br /> <br /> “Treasure you say?” Kazuki knitted his eyebrows dubiously.<br /> <br /> “The Divas know about the treasure’s true form. They said that they will surely talk about it when the suitable time arrives.”<br /> <br /> Arthur said that unhesitatingly as if delivering an oracle.<br /> <br /> “I expected that it’s most likely―the Philosopher Stone.”<br /> <br /> No, wait. A treasure that the Divas knew about… Hearing those words, Kazuki remembered something that was stuck in his mind. He had the feeling that before this there was someone saying something like that.<br /> <br /> The thing that the Divas fought each other to try to get their hands on it…<br /> <br /> “I predicted that the King in America has still haven’t been determined yet because there is this kind of legend. The instant you defeated Ikousai, I thought that perhaps there is going to be an unusual phenomenon happening in this world. But nothing happened.”<br /> <br /> That meant Arthur had expected him as the last King. Kazuki made a bitter face.<br /> <br /> However the world’s unusual phenomenon. What in the world it meant that a battlefield would surface from the bottom of the sea?<br /> <br /> Like how a Haunted Ground was generated… would there be an island or even a continent created from the Astrum then?<br /> <br /> “…What I have misgivings for is that the American continent which is shrouded in darkness is currently just like this Japan and Yamato, perhaps right now they are also embroiled in a conflict between order and chaos there.”<br /> <br /> If there was a conflict like that and Loki intervened…<br /> <br /> “And so my proposal. We should head to America and know more about them. The darkness shrouding that continent has to be removed.”<br /> <br /> …Kazuki nodded. There was also the factor that he couldn’t see Arthur as a human that would deceive others.<br /> <br /> “Understood. Let’s do that.”<br /> <br /> “…Hmm. I will take this to the top so that they can go act in accordance with Hayashizaki-kun’s will.”<br /> <br /> Vice Chief Yamagata also said half-resigning himself.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Roshouko. What are you and your group going to do?”<br /> <br /> After they finished hearing Arthur’s story, each of them left the room―in that timing, Kazuki picked the time where Arthur had gone and caught Shouko’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> Kazuki called Shouko without any honorific.<br /> <br /> “What we are going to do you ask… of course we are Japan’s ally obviously.”<br /> <br /> Shouko said that while making a buttering up smiling face.<br /> <br /> “It’s just that we cannot just leave our hideout alone so there is no way we can go along to America. We are going to remain in Japan and cooperate in Japan’s defense ‘kay.”<br /> <br /> Suddenly in Kazuki’s mind, an image of their back stabbed by Shouko flashed.<br /> <br /> Hearing that this Shouko would cooperate with Japan’s defense during the time he would be in America, that she would continue to stay in Japan, an uneasiness that couldn’t be explained was welling up in him.<br /> <br /> No, this anxiety meant this kind of thing…<br /> <br /> “Shouko, I cannot approve that.”<br /> <br /> “Ah?” Shouko opened her eyes wide in shock from Kazuki’s rumination.<br /> <br /> “Why is that? You are saying that you cannot really trust us? Listen here, mister. I’m really troubled here. You guys cannot get all buddy-buddy with us on the surface, but a force that matched Japan’s interest the most is us Ryouzanpaku. For Japan that is in conflict with China we are the ally that you can trust the most yeah?”<br /> <br /> With a condemning tone like when before this he prioritized Germany’s Beatrix, Shouko-san was talking calmly however her tone was sharp.<br /> <br /> “No, your objective is China. Our objective is Loki.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki decisively rebutted. Their interests didn’t match each other.<br /> <br /> “You guys are by no means belong to Order. From what I can gather of [Taikoubou’s will] that you talked about before, I can surmise that. Your group’s objective is to first overthrow China to guarantee your own safety. If it’s for that sake… then you won’t mind whether you join hands with Order or with Chaos, whichever is fine.”<br /> <br /> Taikobou’s will. That will was―to prevent the arrival of the age where the Mythology was ruling over humans.<br /> <br /> Rather it was a thinking that opposed the Cosmos Side.<br /> <br /> “And then Loki and China’s alliance will surely breakdown someday.”<br /> <br /> Shouko’s eyes shook with slight agitation.<br /> <br /> Not only the objective right before the eyes, he also had to think about the true objectives of each force.<br /> <br /> “And when that happens, you will come running to Loki bringing a nice present… maybe.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki pulled Shouko’s shoulder closer to him and whispered on her ear.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps that nice present, is going to be this country and my head.”<br /> <br /> This woman named Roshouko was a woman that might have went that far.<br /> <br /> Shouko caught her breath and stared back at Kazuki’s expression.<br /> <br /> “What are you talking about rabbit-san. We are your ally you know.”<br /> <br /> “It will be great if it turns out like that in the very end. But in the current stage I can trust you as an ally only as long as Loki is still in an alliance with China. During the time until that happens…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki pushed aside Shouko’s shoulder and high-handedly said.<br /> <br /> “Just as you said we will accept Ryouzanpaku’s force to be added in Japan’s defense. But I’ll have both Shouko and Silirat to accompany me to America.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The forces that Ryouzanpaku could ally themselves with in the very end were only between Japan or Loki.<br /> <br /> But ultimately Japan too was incompatible with the Order. That was why certainly Shouko’s interest was close to Japan.<br /> <br /> ―Therefore Kazuki pressed a choice to her.<br /> <br /> “Come with me, and then whether you should side with me or with Loki, make sure of it with your own eyes.”<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Afterword|Afterword]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_9_Chapter_3&diff=479628 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Chapter 3 2016-02-04T09:59:21Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 3 – Male and Female==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> “However I’m really troubled here if you don’t treasure us a little more as comrades that fought together on the same side. Even though we came to help and trying to stop those Germans from going wild, there is my comrade that just got left to die without any help and fell into magic intoxication for all that. That’s just really heartless ain’t it―. And then there is no thanks or apology at all, you guys looks like you are just completely concerned about those German bunch only, yeah―”<br /> <br /> A rare guest was visiting the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> That person was securing the position right in front of the Phantasmagoria where it was the easiest spot to watch the show in the living room. The person was earnestly complaining and spouting sarcasm while gulping down the served cookies and black tea.<br /> <br /> “Mu… this cookie! I said many selfish things to that old man Yamagata and got him to feed me with various high class food, but this cookie is the tastiest I have gotten to eat until now… It looks simple somehow, but there is this good feeling that it was made courteously. It feels like a mom’s cookie. Seconds!”<br /> <br /> That person shamelessly held out the plate that had become empty to the [server].<br /> <br /> “Then please enjoy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took the plate and placed a second helping. The one who brew the black tea was Mio, but the one that baked the cookies was Kazuki. …After hearing the word mom, there was still a complicated feeling gushing out from him.<br /> <br /> “Hauu―…even though it’s Otouto-kun’s cookie that was baked for us… because of the sudden visitor the portion for each person decreased completely…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai fell prostrate on the table.<br /> <br /> The rare guest―was Ryouzanpaku’s Roshouko. From the wild jacket and denim pants that she wore, it showed her figure in civilian clothes with her skin that was burned healthily exposed, giving off the impression of her southerner origin.<br /> <br /> She looked wild but her instinct was sharp, she was strangely proficient at bargaining―she gave off the impression that she was someone he mustn’t let his guard down against.<br /> <br /> “Shouko-san, how can you act this freely?”<br /> <br /> Originally she was not a person that was supposed to be left alone too much to do as she pleased. She was friendly but, she was similar to the Kings that came from the outside, a powerful warrior that was a match for a thousand. It was strange that she was monitored by the country.<br /> <br /> “You don’t really need to worry, after all my comrade is hospitalized in Japan’s Knight Order’s facility y’know?”<br /> <br /> Shouko-san shrugged her shoulder and answered.<br /> <br /> “I’m not gonna do anything suspicious okay. I begged to Old man Yamagata to let me go play, if I try to do something then it’s fine for them to just kill off Silirat. It’s the opposite way of thinking.”<br /> <br /> I’ll give you my comrade as hostage so let me do as I please―opposite way of thinking or whatever, such a shameless reason wasn’t supposed to be accepted. But he guessed that Commander Yamagata couldn’t really reject her so strongly.<br /> <br /> Before, Silirat intervened to help Kaguya-senpai that fell into a predicament because of Germans running wild, and because the girl fell into magic intoxication from that fight, right now these girls were perfectly in the position of a good willed injured party.<br /> <br /> By making the rampaging Germans into their common enemy, it also could become a good chance to deepen the relation between Japan and Ryouzanpaku.<br /> <br /> But as for Kazuki―he didn’t want to turn Germany into an enemy.<br /> <br /> First he wanted to ask the circumstances why Beatrix rampaged around like that.<br /> <br /> As for Silirat’s action, who was going to add more injury to Eleonora whose magic power was gone, without even asking about the circumstances, although they said it was for the sake of helping Japan’s side… that was something that he couldn’t thank them for.<br /> <br /> Due to that Japan’s attitude toward Ryouzanpaku was still in the air until Beatrix and the others woke up.<br /> <br /> Shouko was dissatisfied with this stance that compromised with Germany rather than Ryouzanpaku who was supposed to be their comrade in standing together against Chukadou.<br /> <br /> “So, why does Shouko-san who became free come to this place?”<br /> <br /> “It’s Old man Yamagata’s public stage after all, so I was thinking to watch it with everyone like this. Come on, it’s beginning see. …Hyaa―, they really make a spectacle eh.”<br /> <br /> Shouko-san amusedly pointed at the Phantasmagoria while biting at the cookie.<br /> <br /> {Regarding the east and west war that was suddenly tied with a cease-fire agreement, the General Staff Headquarters Vice Chief Yamagata Koyata of the Knight agency opened an urgent press conference. We are now broadcasting from the Asaka garrison of the Knight Order.}<br /> <br /> Along with the stiff voice of the announcer that was colored with nervousness, the Asaka garrison where many knights were forming a tight line there was projected in the Phantasmagoria. The avatars of Solomon 72 Pillar were floating at the back of the knights in a line. What Shouko-san called as a spectacle was surely about this rather than the knights itself.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 134.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> In the center, there was Commander Yamagata with his best serious expression.<br /> <br /> No, should he call him General Staff Headquarters Vice Chief now? &lt;ref&gt;That’s damn long, I’ll just use the Vice Chief&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> So that the household that didn’t have the Phantasmagoria could also watch, this announcement could also be watched on flat television. It was the consideration so that this announcement could be conveyed to all the people of this country without fail.<br /> <br /> “Leme, what’s with these avatars of the 72 Pillar?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked Leme who was gulping down cookies with a vigor that didn’t lose or was inferior to Shouko.<br /> <br /> “It’s just a show. With this the persuasiveness toward the people will increase right? Everyone of this country loves the 72 Pillar after all.”<br /> <br /> In Japan the people were not obligated to be faithful to Divas, rather the 72 Pillar was loved like idols.<br /> <br /> The announcement from now on was something supported by the 72 Pillar. If they appealed with that kind of setting, the way the people received it would greatly change.<br /> <br /> “Still I wonder why it’s old man Yamagata that does this? For this kind of thing, the highest big shot… in this country it’s the Knight agency’s minister right, shouldn’t it be more logical for that guy to be the one that does this?”<br /> <br /> Shouko-san was talking while somewhat making fun of it along with sending a sidelong glance at Kazuki. It looked like she was looking for an answer from Kazuki. He felt her nastiness that was trying to test him. Kazuki answered.<br /> <br /> “This too might be a show. Today, what will be announced here will be more persuasive if it’s said by a person that was actually there.”<br /> <br /> Originally Vice Chief Yamagata was the commander of Shizuoka regiment that was located in the front line of the east-west war. He fought along with Kazuki till the end and accomplished a promotion in this occasion.<br /> <br /> Because Kazuki’s active role was not made public, in the society the achievements from the battle against Yamato were all assigned to Vice Chief Yamagata. Of course the person himself didn’t wish for that, but…<br /> <br /> In the eye of society, he was without a doubt a hero.<br /> <br /> {…It’s exactly as has been reported, the mediation of the other Magic Advanced Countries was the impetus behind the sudden ceasefire of the east-west war. It was a mediation on the basis of the logic of a mythological country.}<br /> <br /> Vice Chief Yamagata got the ball of the press conference rolling with a grave tone of voice.<br /> <br /> {Their logic disregard the historical legitimacy that we own and stated that the one that should govern this Japanese archipelago is the mythologically legitimate King―the Basileus. Because of that the dispute between our country and Yamato will be settled not by war, but by looking at who can gather the King’s symbol―the Three Sacred Treasures the fastest. Regarding this matter, I think it will make all of you the people of this country become terribly uneasy of this course of events that cannot be understood at all looking from the sense of values of our country, but this matter until the end is something for the sake of obtaining the international acknowledgment.}<br /> <br /> Something for the sake of obtaining the international acknowledgment―in other words it was not something absolute.<br /> <br /> They still did the Three Sacred Treasures gathering for the sake of obtaining the acknowledgment from the other countries, but if they lost in that endeavor they still wouldn’t withdraw so easily, it was that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> If the situation is moving to the destruction of the country, we the government plan to continue our battle of resistance while telling something like international acknowledgement that they could go and eat shit. That was what was indirectly said here.<br /> <br /> {Here I reported that the struggle for the Three Sacred Treasures between the two camps of Japan and Yamato had come to an end.}<br /> <br /> The journalists that filled the interview hall were making a stir.<br /> <br /> {With &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt; in our country, and &lt;Yasakani no Magatama&gt; and &lt;Yata no Kagami&gt; in Yamato, all of the Three Sacred Treasures have been discovered and the searching has ended.}<br /> <br /> The commotion among the journalists grew even bigger as if an earthquake was happening.<br /> <br /> {Isn’t it one against two?} {What’s going to happen?} {There was also the legend that the magatama had low importance you know.} {How are you going to take responsibility?} {What responsibility if the country is going to disappear…}<br /> <br /> Vice Chief Yamagata surveyed the journalists and informed more without any panic.<br /> <br /> {The Three Sacred Treasures are divided between the two camps, so both camps are going to bet their respective Sacred Treasures and a duel will be performed by the two people that Japan and Yamato respectively have as King.}<br /> <br /> The commotion reached its peak. …Even Kazuki swallowed his saliva nervously.<br /> <br /> {Who is this King you talked about!?} Someone yelled that. Asaka garrison fell silent in unrest.<br /> <br /> {The King is―a fifteen year old high school student named Hayashizaki Kazuki.}<br /> <br /> He said it. Vice Chief Yamagata really said it.<br /> <br /> “Oohh hoh! It’s finally really said out huh!”<br /> <br /> Shouko-san pointed the tip of her finger at the screen and directed an amused gaze at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, are you okay…?<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was worrying for him. Kazuki shook his head unrelated to the strong pressure.<br /> <br /> “It should be clearly announced officially like this. It’s different with the era of Kaa-san’s time. The connection between people and Diva has become strong. There is no need to shoulder this alone by myself and fight while understanding nothing.”<br /> <br /> “But won’t this affect the fight later~? What are you going to do if you get cold feet and lose and this country ends then~? As expected it’s hard right? This kind of thing will only become unnecessary pressure on you yeah.”<br /> <br /> Shouko-san laughed as if to stir him up.<br /> <br /> “Of course this will become a pressure without doubt, but I don’t think that this fight that will decide the fate of this country should be performed behind closed doors without anyone knowing. I should fight in front of the people. After all the fight this time is not for the sake of protecting the people that is only within my sight, this is a fight for the sake of protecting all the people of this country.”<br /> <br /> “Hou…?” Shouko-san retracted her laugh and narrowed her eyes.<br /> <br /> {Who is this young man called Hayashizaki Kazuki?}<br /> <br /> Inside the uncomfortable silence, Vice Chief Yamagata continued his words with a powerful weight.<br /> <br /> {He is without a doubt the strongest Magika Stigma in this country. I, who knows every single one of Japan’s knights, can affirm that.}<br /> <br /> {But he is still a young boy right..?} {Moreover a male…?}<br /> <br /> {He has already grown up by piling up diligent training of an old style sword art since his childhood and made a contract with a special Diva―the King of the Diva that supervises Solomon 72 Pillar. He had cultivated the skill of a sword master, moreover he possess the possibility to be able to use all the Summoning Magic of Solomon 72 Pillar. He has already obtained several dozens of magic and special abilities. Let alone being the strongest person in the Knight Order, even if he is paired against a single regiment of the Knight Order as his opponent he is able to win… while he is a human he is still a young boy that is bestowed with a power that is similar to an ultimate weapon. That is what a {{furigana|King|Basileus}} is.}<br /> <br /> There was conviction that was not just fleeting inside those powerful words.<br /> <br /> The figure of Vice Chief Yamagata that extolled the young boy called Hayashizaki Kazuki with conviction didn’t seem like a top brass of the Knight Order or the likes anymore. That was the figure of a [follower of Hayashizaki Kazuki].<br /> <br /> He who was seen as a hero by the society had declared such a thing until that far.<br /> <br /> {All of you are mistaken if you feel an apprehension whether it’s okay or not to leave such an important matter to him. If you asked why, that’s because if he didn’t fight in the first place then Yamato would have already finished invading this country. That is the reality of the battle before.}<br /> <br /> The anxiety of the group of journalists that were in that place was gradually changing into anticipation towards the new hero that was still unseen. At the same time a solemn atmosphere that was unlike a press conference of a democratic country but more like of a religious conference of a religion country began to drift in that place. One of the journalist raised a fearful voice.<br /> <br /> {If he wins… will this country become the possession of that youth..?}<br /> <br /> {It won’t.} Vice Chief Yamagata declared so.<br /> <br /> {Of those I know he is stronger than everyone, and also a person with a more upright nature than anyone. He is absolutely not someone that is going to change the thing that he loves the most by his own greed. Also in the case that he does such a thing, he will lose his power as a King… it will become something like that.}<br /> <br /> ―After that Vice Chief Yamagata announced that the duel would be performed tomorrow and ended the press conference.<br /> <br /> The announcement was sudden, but there was already previous arrangement between the two camps and Kazuki had already been notified in advance.<br /> <br /> The duel ground was Sekigahara.<br /> <br /> “It seems they really made too much of this matter.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki unintentionally uttered that out while sitting and drinking tea, Mio stood up from her chair noisily and hugged at his neck right from the side, the tea was almost spilled.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t all of it the truth! As expected from our Kazu-nii! Kazu-nii is magnificent!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai also took the opportunity to stand up.<br /> <br /> “As expected from Otouto-kun! This Otouto-kun is raised by all of us!”<br /> <br /> She said something like an old man of a farmer family and then hugged Kazuki from the opposite side.<br /> <br /> The face of Kazuki who was sitting on the chair was sandwiched between the breasts of the two that were hugging him while standing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki distorted his expression to hide his embarrassment while continuing to drink his tea.<br /> <br /> Seeing that situation, Shouko-san too murmured “Hmmm…” while drinking her tea.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The tea time was over, so Kazuki sent Shoukou-san back.<br /> <br /> After that, when Kazuki was washing the tea set, Kamimura-san in a jersey appearance came trotting into the kitchen. An active Kamimura-san that moved by her own instigation like this was rare.<br /> <br /> “Kamimura-san, are you coming to give me help?”<br /> <br /> “That’s absolutely not it. I don’t want to work degozaru.”<br /> <br /> A wry smile reflexively appeared on Kazuki’s face hearing Kamimura-san clearly declaring that.<br /> <br /> He thought that someone younger that needed to be looked after was cute.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san sat down with a plop on the nearby floor and looked up at the working Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… sorry. It looks like I pushed it out to you, about becoming the King of the Japanese Mythology…”<br /> <br /> “The bad one is Amaterasu who abandoned her work you know.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki carelessly back-talked like that, {Just wait right there―} the avatar of Amaterasu too was floating beside Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> How he was going to simultaneously become the King of Solomon along with the King of Japanese Mythology, when he thought back now it was only the natural progression of events.<br /> <br /> “But Kazuki… after coming back from Mt. Fuji, I have the feeling that your atmosphere has changed a little.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? Though I don’t know it myself.”<br /> <br /> “Somehow… you feel heavy.”<br /> <br /> Was she saying that he was fat? Kazuki reflexively tilted his head.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san stood up and tightly gripped the fringe of the working Kazuki’s shirt from behind.<br /> <br /> “Maybe you feel even more worth it to depend&lt;ref&gt;More dependable?&lt;/ref&gt; on than before… I feel this awesomeness from you, that if I become a parasite to this person then he would give me support, that I can continue to live without working. It’s a NEET’s intuition.”<br /> <br /> {I get it.} The NEET god Amaterasu was also nodding.<br /> <br /> “But I’m thinking… I wonder whether I have made Kazuki shoulder something really heavy like this.”<br /> <br /> “That’s not true Kamimura-san.”<br /> <br /> Certainly, perhaps right now he had become unperturbed by everything. The heavy pressure that he thought to be really heavy before, didn’t feel like it burdened him really that much now.<br /> <br /> Why he became like that―it wasn’t really related with Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> Right now he already knew that he was really loved by his mother from the bottom of her heart, and then he also knew that his mother now had already died in the true meaning.<br /> <br /> It was nothing more than that.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> When Kazuki returned to his room, a paper was stuck at his door.<br /> <br /> When he took and looked at it, it was a cutely looking pastel pink paper sealed with a heart seal, but right in the middle of it there was [Letter of Challenge] written with a bold stroke.<br /> <br /> He wondered who was the owner of a sense that made a love expression and letter of challenge coexist together on one paper without any contradiction. When Kazuki confirmed the name of the letter’s sender, it was Kanae just as expected.<br /> <br /> ―Tonight at 10 o’clock, I will be waiting in front of the Sword’s Division Washed Blood Pond.<br /> <br /> ‘Just where in the world is this Blood Washed Pond located…’ Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> To purposefully prepare a cute paper yet choosing the meeting place that the other side had no way of knowing, it was a really careless mistake that really seemed like Kanae. Kazuki contacted Kazuha-senpai by phone and got taught the general location of the place, and then right at 10 o’clock after he finished tidying up the aftermath of the dinner, he finally arrived.<br /> <br /> The garden of the Sword Division at night was dark as usual. Before, Kazuki had once proposed to install illumination here though it didn’t happen.<br /> <br /> The place called [Blood Washed Pond] had an outrageous name that seemed to be earned because it seemed the place was often used as the duel arena for fellow students. There was an open space in front of the pond. Even though originally it was a plaza for the sake of admiring the beautiful pond, the youthful students began to use the place as a duel space.<br /> <br /> Kanae was waiting there with her back facing the pond. The night sky was really clear without a single cloud in sight, moonlight that really matched a black cat was shining down.<br /> <br /> “So you came, Nii-sama.”<br /> <br /> “I didn’t know at all about this place called Blood Washed Pond, so it’s quite a trouble to arrive here you know.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kanae raised “Eee-!” voice and for the first time she noticed her failure, she was then pitifully all shaken up from the shock of having the wind taken out from her sail.<br /> <br /> “So so so so, sorry Nii-sama.”<br /> <br /> “You careless girl. And then, what’s with that letter of challenge?”<br /> <br /> Kanae who received a fresh start from Kazuki cleared her throat with *kohon*.<br /> <br /> “Just like the words that I wrote there… right now, in this place, please have a match with me.”<br /> <br /> Kanae unsheathed her black katana smoothly. &lt;Michikage&gt;… it was Kanae’s old beloved sword that she used a long time ago.<br /> <br /> Although these few years Kanae had been using two kodachi, in a two sword style all along until now.<br /> <br /> Her two sword style that came from her concern of her powerlessness. For her to stop doing that meant… that she might have broken out of her shell. That should be the reason of this sudden duel.<br /> <br /> ―[Shin’iki]. The technique Kanae used in the Grand Haunted Ground that even Kazuki didn’t have any knowledge about.<br /> <br /> What kind of technique was it, Kazuki at that time couldn’t ascertain it clearly.<br /> <br /> “Got it.” Kazuki didn’t ask her reason and drew his sword too.<br /> <br /> “Is it fine to start from this distance?”<br /> <br /> Kanae asked. The distance between them was around 3 meter. The distance between them shrank really naturally due to their conversation in the middle of this darkness. It was a swordsman’s distance that was disadvantageous for chanting a spell.<br /> <br /> “I’m not a magician. It’s fine for you to start at the timing that you like in the distance that you like.”<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama has an important event tomorrow so… let’s do this only until a good timing to quit.”<br /> <br /> The decisive duel was tomorrow. Some magic power could be recovered when sleeping but he couldn’t force himself here.<br /> <br /> “That helps.”<br /> <br /> “Well then.” The figure of the black cat melted into darkness.<br /> <br /> He used not just his eyesight but also used his magic power perception to Foresight Kanae’s movement―behind.<br /> <br /> The magic power’s flow conveyed to him a horizontal sweeping slash.<br /> <br /> Evasion was impossible. Kazuki put up Ame no Murakumo vertically and blocked the attack while his body was still turning behind. The sound of steel and steel clashing scattered sparks inside the darkness.<br /> <br /> From there the two blades entangled with each other softly, trying to break the sword stance of each other.<br /> <br /> The disturbance at each other was equal. When they both saw that what they were doing was difficult, both of them simultaneously took distance from each other to the back.<br /> <br /> Immediately Kanae’s figure vanished with a jump. It was similar with a reinforced Beatrix and Ikousai, a speed in the dimension where a naked eye was helpless to do anything. He had to read her movement using only the portent of the magic power.<br /> <br /> The movement of Kanae tonight was sharper than usual.<br /> <br /> A thrust assaulted him from diagonally behind. Kazuki drove away the tip of the sword to the side and tried to parry the attack. Kanae’s blade twisted like a snake’s head and tried to run away from that redirection. Both blades entangled with each other once more. Instant Positioning. But he couldn’t pour the concentration of his whole nerves into this battle between sword and sword.<br /> <br /> If he couldn’t chant Summoning Magic, this fight would only become a one-sided defensive battle. The other side was superior in speed.<br /> <br /> Saying it in reverse, as long as he could just maintain his spell chanting, he wouldn’t mind even if he got hit with one or two strikes.<br /> <br /> However… what about Shin’iki?<br /> <br /> Kazuki began the chant of Phoenix’s level 5 [Blazing Wings]. If he could just invoke that then it was a large scale attack magic that was impossible to evade.<br /> <br /> Having said that, it was hard to contest Kanae equally in sword while maintaining this chanting. While advancing his chanting, Kazuki was falling little by little into the inferior position.<br /> <br /> His posture was broken. Kazuki resolved himself to get hit. In exchange he passed the climax of the spell chanting. He switched his consciousness’s gear from the sword to his chanting and poured all his concentration onto that.<br /> <br /> “O immortal bird that soar from dusk to dawn, please grant that wings of hope on my back…”<br /> <br /> “Now!” At that time Kanae shouted―she had read what Kazuki was going to do.<br /> <br /> Kanae’s movement became even more honed and accelerated with a trajectory that depicted nothing pointless in it.<br /> <br /> It was a movement that was the only one for Kanae. And then her timing was exactly when Kazuki was welcoming the climax of his chanting. He had the feeling that some kind of unseen gears were clicking in him.<br /> <br /> “Shin’iki!!”<br /> <br /> While slipping into Kazuki’s bosom, leaving behind an afterimage, Kanae swung down her black katana diagonally at his shoulder. All of her movement was unified like a gust of wind. The impact of a slash ran inside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “For the sake of rebi……..”<br /> <br /> The attack just now was by no means something heavy.<br /> <br /> But blue defensive magic power was shining and the {{furigana|recoil|reflection}} from that transmitted a spark at the most vital part of the chanting that Kazuki was spinning inside his head.<br /> <br /> Like a candle extinguished by a gust of wind―the chanting inside Kazuki’s head vanished on its own.<br /> <br /> “…So this is Shin’iki!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously yelled and took a step back behind. But Kanae was fast. Foreseeing his escaping movement, she came in pursuit to attack. He couldn’t evade. But something like a minor damage was trivial.<br /> <br /> The true identity of Shin’iki was a chanting destroyer technique. Power was unnecessary for it. It slipped a single attack at the keystone that became the chant’s most inner core with extreme sharpness and accuracy.<br /> <br /> He was being in wonder that a human’s movement could produce such an extremely sharp blow. There was no mistaking it, that this technique was something obtained from the realization of the most optimum movement solution that was derived from Kanae’s muscles, bone structure, and every kind of factors in her body.<br /> <br /> Slipping the ultimate sharpness inside in the ultimate timing, a miraculous technique.<br /> <br /> The hair on Kazuki’s back stood up in cold shivers. In front of this technique, Magika Stigma were powerless.<br /> <br /> Having said that, this was absolutely not a technique that would succeed without fail.<br /> <br /> Just now he tried level 5 but… if he went for a low level magic with an easier chant then…<br /> <br /> Kazuki corrected his posture and once again he clashed his sword against Kanae’s. What kind of magic should he chant from here? There was a lot of choices available for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Several methods to deal with the situation appeared inside Kazuki’s head. Magic that could make Kanae’s Shin’iki powerless if he invoked it in this occasion. Kazuki picked out one from the list of his magic that he thought would be the most certain.<br /> <br /> “O stream of atmosphere, converge on this body, become the storm that reject the hated person…”<br /> <br /> Baal’s level 3 defensive magic. He brought down the level quite far, also if a defensive magic was targeted to the caster himself, then the Targeting step would be unneeded and he could chant easier.<br /> <br /> It was a magic that clad the whole body with an armor of wind. Moreover that wind could be manipulated according to the user’s will. In other words he would be able to disturb Kanae’s delicate swordsmanship with wind. Her perfect movement would deviate due to the wind that was impossible to calculate against, if her timing was out of place, just from that, Shin’iki would be unable to be completed anymore.<br /> <br /> It seemed that Kanae sensed the nature of the magic that Kazuki was trying to chant from the magic power wave because her face went ‘hah’ in realization. Kanae’s concentration increased even further.<br /> <br /> “Become the storm that reject the hated person…!”<br /> <br /> “…Shin’iki!”<br /> <br /> Before Kazuki’s eyes, Kanae stepped in with a speed that made her seem as if she was warping. It was a perfect movement.<br /> <br /> Shin’iki had once more―destroyed Kazuki’s chant.<br /> <br /> “Level 3 defensive magic is impossible-!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was struck with admiration. With this the majority of Kazuki’s magic became sealed.<br /> <br /> Kazuki barely blocked Kanae’s pursuing attack. He didn’t have any composure to bring out offense from his side.<br /> <br /> Plan B―a magic with even more simpler chanting, that he thought would most likely be able to break down Shin’iki.<br /> <br /> “O peerless master, make another showing from beyond the dream…”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 2 magic, [Kenki Tensei].<br /> <br /> It summoned a phantom of famous swordsman from the past, whose history of sword was remembered even in this era, to make them fight. Kanae wouldn’t be able to unleash Shin’iki while fighting the phantom swordsman. During the interval when Kanae wasted her time driving away the phantom swordsman, he could just chant [Storm Fort] or [Blazing Wings].<br /> <br /> “Along with the flame of transmutation…”<br /> <br /> Now, what would she do? Kanae who was just earnestly swinging her sword and Kazuki who was blocking that while chanting, both of their gazes entangled.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s spine froze in shudders. Kanae’s eyes stood out inside the darkness of the night. A strong magic power was residing inside those eyes for the sake of sensing Kazuki’s magic power, those eyes were shining with magic power light.<br /> <br /> That blue magic power light increased in intensity and was changing color to green―and then it was changing into a golden color.<br /> <br /> It was a phenomenon he had never seen before. He felt the shivers from witnessing something amazing.<br /> <br /> Kanae’s figure vanished. That instant, Kazuki completely felt gears interlocking inside him. ‘No good, it’s going to get smashed’, Kazuki half gave up.<br /> <br /> “The memory sealed inside the silver mirror……….”<br /> <br /> “…Shin, iki-!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae’s strained voice. Blown away magic power. Even level 2 magic was destroyed…<br /> <br /> His Plan B… Most of level 1 magic was a simple attack magic. It wouldn’t land on Kanae.<br /> <br /> The Summoning Magics were all sealed.<br /> <br /> Then with pure swordsmanship…<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s expression turned bitter. Kanae’s swordsmanship had been polished several levels higher than several months ago.<br /> <br /> In contrast during these several months he spent all his time just for magic training.<br /> <br /> So Kanae was this powerful if she could just force her opponent to stand in the same arena as her.<br /> <br /> Another alternative plan, there was none. Now it was only a matter of until when Kanae’s concentration could continue, how many times she could continuously make her Shin’iki succeed against Kazuki’s magic in succession.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Finally the two laid down on the lawn while feeling a comfortable fatigue. The scent of the grass was pleasant.<br /> <br /> After that Kazuki attempted low level magic three times. Kanae crushed all of those attempts.<br /> <br /> In the first place it was a match that started with the promise to stop at a good place. If they gave it their all, it would affect the duel tomorrow. Inevitably, Kazuki instantaneously invoked magic with Zekorbeni and ended the match.<br /> <br /> A magic with its potency weakened hit Kanae with a bump. The match ended with that.<br /> <br /> That meant Kazuki as a magic swordsman was destroyed by Kanae, and Kazuki became the victor as a King.<br /> <br /> Of course rather than the sense of fulfillment of his victory, his feeling that was extolling Kanae was stronger.<br /> <br /> “This technique is, Hayashizaki-style Dream Sword the Second, named Shin’iki.”<br /> <br /> Kanae who was lying down with him said melodically.<br /> <br /> There was a technique in Hayashizaki-style that was called the dream sword. A technique that was hard to realize like fulfilling a dream. His {{furigana|father|stepfather}} created a technique called [{{furigana|Kasane|Pile{{furigana|] and handed it down to Kazuki and Kanae.<br /> <br /> “…[Kasane] is still hard to put into practive and that’s why it’s a dream sword, but this technique is different don’t you think? Because yours can be used in the form of real battle.”<br /> <br /> That was exactly the point that had to be praised. Kazuki too was able to understand the principle of the sword. But this time he didn’t get it how the technique could continuously succeed even against low level magic. Rather than a divine work it could be thought of as an abnormal technique already. It was just too absurd that he wanted to feel astonished more than praising it.<br /> <br /> In the first place, those golden eyes…<br /> <br /> “No, it absolutely cannot be used until this far in real battle. It’s because the opponent tonight is Nii-sama that it could be used until this far.”<br /> <br /> “What?”<br /> <br /> “It’s Nii-sama doping. Nyaa―!”<br /> <br /> Incomprehensible. Kazuki turned his head with a roll to Kanae and asked for an explanation.<br /> <br /> “…I wanted to show my good aspect tonight towards Nii-sama that I could display a concentration that surpasses my limit. Even I, myself, am surprised that I can do that technique successively like that. Even if I try the same thing to other opponents, it’s absolutely impossible. After all I cannot let out my full power if it’s not concerning Nii-sama.”<br /> <br /> Kanae also rolled and turned her face at Kazuki and returned a wide smiling face like a cat.<br /> <br /> “…What if, for example it’s concerning your life, or it’s concerning the fate of the world?”<br /> <br /> “If there is no Nii-sama in there, surely I will not become so heated up like this. The greatest concentration that cannot be used except once in a lifetime, was used tonight, only in this moment.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was astonished and looked up to the sky.<br /> <br /> “Tonight, the time where I was exchanging slashes with Nii-sama, just the two of us with determination and conviction… for Kanae it was completely like a stage of a dream. That’s why this technique, is still just a dream sword.”<br /> <br /> Unintentionally a deep sigh escaped his mouth while looking at the moon. Just when he thought that she had mastered an absurd technique and became a monstrous swordsman, she then completely returned to the usual little sister.<br /> <br /> “You who can let out a power even greater than your full strength because I’m the opponent… what kind of meaning does that kind of thing have? Use that kind of thing for something more, like, for the sake of world peace or something.”<br /> <br /> “I’m fine with this. I’m different with Nii-sama… After all rather than everything in this world, I love only Nii-sama alone.”<br /> <br /> It was the usual―stupid beloved little sister of his.<br /> <br /> “That is why, fufufu. Nii-sama, what do you think? About Onee-chan’s strength.”<br /> <br /> “I still admire you just like in the past you know. Rather than me or Ikousai… Kanae-neesan is exactly the strongest swordsman.”<br /> <br /> “But even Nii-sama surely can also do that technique you know? Even Nii-sama should have continued to pursue your ideal movement until now.”<br /> <br /> Perhaps that might be so. It was simple to imitate it if he had worked out the how and made comparison.<br /> <br /> “If there is an instant where I cannot concede that I rapidly concentrate on something… when my adrenaline is flowing out gushingly inside my brain…”<br /> <br /> What was needed was a concentration that saw through instantly. This technique was largely influenced by the state of mind.<br /> <br /> Kanae tonight was concentrating to her maximum limit.<br /> <br /> “In my case, I had to demonstrate this technique to Nii-sama no matter what tonight.”<br /> <br /> He somehow understood. Why did Kanae look for a turning point in the relationship between them tonight…<br /> <br /> These few days, the person called Hayashizaki Kazuki was in the process of having his essence changed dramatically.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama is not a successor of the Hayashizaki-style anymore. Nevertheless, there is me here so please rest easy.”<br /> <br /> Surely Kanae wanted to say those words no matter what before the decisive duel.<br /> <br /> “…It looks like you have confidence in it huh.”<br /> <br /> “Yes. Please climb to a different stage Nii-sama. I will become the strongest swordsman.”<br /> <br /> If Kanae could say so with pride, then the Hayashizaki house had no need for anything like {{furigana|a child for duty|Kazuki}} anymore.<br /> <br /> Unneeded. That’s why…<br /> <br /> “That’s why Nii-sama, Nii-sama is not a Nii-sama anymore. Nii-sama now is an existence that is like a Nii-sama.”<br /> <br /> “You suddenly said out something so incomprehensible.”<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama is not a Nii-sama… but an existence that is like a Nii-sama… a man that I love.”<br /> <br /> He felt a sign of nimble movement like a cat from Kanae.<br /> <br /> He felt a weight bump his stomach. On the torso of Kazuki who was lying down face up, Kanae was taking a pose of straddling him. From there she brought down her body and got her face closer to him.<br /> <br /> “Please look at me… not as brother and sister, but as a woman.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki softly caught the face of Kanae that was nearing him with one hand.<br /> <br /> “…Since a long time ago, I have already been aware of you as an opposite sex you know?”<br /> <br /> Since his puberty arrived, he had always mobilized his reasoning power in full to reject Kanae’s temptation while saying jokes in his mouth even though inside he was desperately reigning himself. Now the reason to reject her had completely disappeared.<br /> <br /> “I noticed already that Nii-sama on the inside is always throbbing fast from my every single action. Kanae is not that shameless, to keep asking to be spoiled so much like that while knowing that what I’m doing is making the other party seriously draw away instead.”<br /> <br /> “What a wicked woman.”<br /> <br /> While saying something like a sore loser, Kazuki accepted the face of Kanae who even now was still drawing closer.<br /> <br /> Even inside this darkness Kanae’s lips looked extremely alluring.<br /> <br /> “…nn-“<br /> <br /> The lips felt extremely sweet, like strawberry milk.<br /> <br /> Their lips admirably separated after touching only slightly.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama… I’m happy…”<br /> <br /> A single male and female were connected. &lt;ref&gt;The kanji for male and female here and also the title is usually used for animal&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Fufufu… tonight for while… please kiss me like this the whole time.”<br /> <br /> One more time, Kanae brought her lips closer timidly. Kazuki embraced tightly the thin waist of Kanae.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> The ground of the duel was at Sekigahara.<br /> <br /> Looking from the sequence of events until now, from the geographical situation between Japan and Yamato, from the historical nuance that Sekigahara possessed, there was no place more fitting to settle the dispute other than here. &lt;ref&gt;Interestingly, in Japanese, the kanji for male and female can also be combined with other hiragana to mean ‘settling a dispute’&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Looking back, the place where the battle between Japan and Yamato was halted because of the intrusion from China was also at Sekigahara. It could be said that right now the time that had stopped since then was moving again.<br /> <br /> The battle between Tokugawa and Toyotomi happened far in the past, but even now Sekigahara was still a vast field. It was surrounded by fields of crops and partitioned by roads, but there was nothing blocking the view at all around them in this unduly wide field. When taking an extensive view at the stretching out mountains in the distance, the viewer would understand that this ground was a hollowed basin.<br /> <br /> The sky of the midday was clear. In the center of Sekigahara, Kazuki and Ikousai were facing each other. Taking a few dozen meters distance from there, the east army and the west army were taking position in representation of Japan and Yamato.<br /> <br /> The promise was a one on one fight, but there were a lot of people that would ascertain this event with their own eyes.<br /> <br /> On the east side, everyone of the Witch’s Mansion were forming a line at the front line. After them was the top brass of the Knight Order, with Vice Chief Yamagata at the front with ten knights as their escorts. There were also the figures of Kanon-senpai and Akane-senpai.<br /> <br /> Roshouko-san of Ryouzanpaku too was coming here, though for some reason, she was taking along her beloved horse while wearing a knight outfit. Perhaps she didn’t ride the car of the Knight Order and came here riding her horse.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, {{furigana|BOM-BA-YE|knock down}}♪ Kazuki, {{furigana|BOM-BA-YE|knock down}}♪” &lt;ref&gt;Inoki Bombaye was a wrestling event in Japan held by Antonio Inoki&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san and Amaterasu were singing a strange cheering song.<br /> <br /> So that they wouldn’t be a hindrance the mass media people were asked to hold back, but surely there were people that were taking pictures from a distance. There was nothing around the two that would be a hindrance.<br /> <br /> The bunch of Yamato was lining up on the west side. Loki and the illegal magicians that were his close associates were also there. Hel’s figure was not there. He wondered if it was because she had still suffered from the serious injuries previously dealt. The Japanese Divas that were still in the Wild God state, &lt;Susanoo Faction&gt;, should also be here, but the figures of the Shrine Maidens couldn’t be seen.<br /> <br /> The cavalries of the Chukadou Emperor’s Imperial Guard were not here. Kazuki was relieved about that.<br /> <br /> In comparison the battle power of Japan’s side was more numerous.<br /> <br /> Even in the case that they became dissatisfied about the result of the duel, this place wouldn’t fall into turmoil.<br /> <br /> There were also three people that consisted of Arthur, Regina, and Ilyailiya, who were standing on the boundary line of east and west like judges.<br /> <br /> Ikousai who was confronting Kazuki, was in her usual Japanese clothes carrying a katana in one hand. Yasakani no Magatama was wrapped on her left wrist while Yata no Kagami was held in her hand like a shield.<br /> <br /> Neither a composed smile nor an exhausted look could be seen from her, just an expressionless face like a Noh mask.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was in his uniform was only holding Ame no Murakumo in hand as the replacement of his lost beloved sword.<br /> <br /> Kazuki, too, didn’t feel nervous.<br /> <br /> “Between you and me, unnecessary words are no longer needed.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai talked with a calm tone. It was a battle that had been prepared until this far, but there was no rule at all in it. Both of them wouldn’t mind whenever the duel would start.<br /> <br /> “I too had already grown weary of fighting you here.”<br /> <br /> “What is left is only the conclusion.”<br /> <br /> “I agree.”<br /> <br /> That became the signal for the both of them.<br /> <br /> Ikousai pointed Yata no Kagami in her hand at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki poured magic power into Zekorbeni that appeared on his chest.<br /> <br /> “Illuminate the seven seas and all countries, &lt;Yata no Kagami&gt;! {{furigana|Fukyou Kaikon―Hika Issen|Sun Fire Single Flash}}!”<br /> <br /> Yata no Kagami instantly polished up from bluish green color into pure white and emitted light like the sun itself.<br /> <br /> “Mode・Veritas!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s body was wrapped in Prometheus’s streamlined shaped silver dress and instantly invoked that power.<br /> <br /> “Custom Liberion!”<br /> <br /> Equipped with a high speed maneuver thruster system, Kazuki instantly escaped from the high temperature light that was emitted by the mirror. His defensive magic power was slightly scraped but he immediately came out from the light’s exposure range and circled to Ikousai’s back with a twirl.<br /> <br /> He didn’t let Ikousai chant strengthening magic. There was a speed difference between them from the Custom Liberion that Kazuki wore which couldn’t be evaded even if she had predicted the attack. Kazuki kept riding on the speed and swung Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> But Ikousai met Kazuki’s attack with the minimal movement.<br /> <br /> “Illuminate all creation, &lt;Yata no Kagami&gt;. Fuukyou Kaikon―Mizukagami no Tate.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai directed the mirror that had finished radiating light at her own blind spot. Just doing that was enough for her.<br /> <br /> Yata no Kagami enlarged and became a mirror shield.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s figure was reflected on the mirror shield. Thereupon the shield moved automatically and repelled the strike from Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> Auto-defense. It was a shield that automatically blocked all attack that was reflected in the mirror.<br /> <br /> That solid defense ability was just as demonstrated previously in their battle at Fuji’s sea of trees.<br /> <br /> …But why can she use the Sacred Treasure’s power this skillfully during this short time?<br /> <br /> Kazuki still had yet been unable to master all of Ame no Murakumo’s power.<br /> <br /> “Open the world boundary, &lt;Yasakani no Magatama&gt;! {{furigana|Kaicho Kaikon|Open String Release Sou}}―{{furigana|Kamiwatari no Mon|Gate of Divine Crossing}}!”<br /> <br /> Yasakani no Magatama that was wrapped on Ikousai’s left hand naturally untied and floated on the air while enlarging.<br /> <br /> Inside that giant string became a pitch black another dimension and it absorbed Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Yasakani no Magatama shrank down in the air and vanished. Suddenly, Kazuki’s opponent disappeared.<br /> <br /> “Is that the warp ability like the time help came for Hel!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki strengthened his perceptions and paid attention to his surroundings.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s magic power had perfectly disappeared.<br /> <br /> No matter how fast an enemy he faced, Kazuki was able to Foresight them.<br /> <br /> But against an enemy that was not fast but warped instead?<br /> <br /> Magic power flipped behind Kazuki and without any time to dodge a slash was dealt to him.<br /> <br /> While receiving an impact from the smashed magic that made him stagger forward, Kazuki swept Ame no Murakumo while turning his body.<br /> <br /> At that time Yasakani no Magatama that was floating in the air―the entrance to another dimension had already absorbed Ikousai’s body inside and vanished.<br /> <br /> The body of Yasakani no Magatama itself also shrank and vanished, Ame no Murakumo slashed empty air.<br /> <br /> Ikousai disappeared again.<br /> <br /> She was right now located in an another dimension. He couldn’t Foresight at all where she would appear next.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t sense the magic power of another dimension or the like!<br /> <br /> “O piling up wisdom in human history, become the armor that armored my body in several layer! Heavily, thickly, reject every brutality! Seusenhofer!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki prepared for the attack that he didn’t know when it would come and deployed defensive magic. He poured magic power into Zekorbeni and set up a thick armor on his whole body.<br /> <br /> Immediately his armor was broken. He received an attack that was impossible to Foresight from behind.<br /> <br /> By the time he turned back, Ikousai was already vanishing.<br /> <br /> Both evasion and counterattack didn’t make it in time.<br /> <br /> …There was no other way than to sense the magic power when she came out for even an instant faster and react.<br /> <br /> Kazuki concentrated his mind and guarded against the magic power that he didn’t know when it would come.<br /> <br /> ―A magic power at his back once again!<br /> <br /> Kazuki tried to escape from the slash right away.<br /> <br /> But while he was still in an unsightly posture of frantically twisting his body, he was cut down by Ikousai.<br /> <br /> …He didn’t make it. She was just too fast from when she appeared and then attacking.<br /> <br /> “Hahaha, run around more! You pitiful worm!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai laughed scornfully while once again disappearing into another dimension.<br /> <br /> “…So this is the power of the Sacred Treasure she has.”<br /> <br /> He wouldn’t be able to escape if he couldn’t react more instantaneously…<br /> <br /> If he didn’t overcome this wall then he wouldn’t be able to fight properly.<br /> <br /> No, even if he could avoid the slash and counterattacked, there was still the auto-defense of [Mizukagami no Tate].<br /> <br /> If he didn’t surpass that wall too, his attacks wouldn’t have any effect at all.<br /> <br /> Warp and auto-defense. If he didn’t surpass these two walls simultaneously…<br /> <br /> An unpleasant sweat flowed down his forehead.<br /> <br /> “The Three Sacred Treasures each have the power of offense・defense・movement!”<br /> <br /> She appeared at his back and slashed him once more. [Seusenhofer] became hacked to pieces and vanished.<br /> <br /> Ikousai disappeared while leaving behind a yelling voice.<br /> <br /> “Yata no Kagami is defense, Yasakani no Magatama is movement! Offense is Ame no Murakumo, but… if defense and movement are perfect then an opponent can be made to not do anything and get shutout completely!”<br /> <br /> While receiving damage without any way to get out from the situation, Kazuki asked at the vanishing Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “In this short time period, how can you become this skillful in using the Sacred Treasures?”<br /> <br /> She appeared at Kazuki’s back once more and answered while slashing her blade.<br /> <br /> “…That’s because I have been mostly Susanoo himself! There is no way Susanoo cannot use these Three Sacred Treasures skillfully!! Solomon King… I’m already waking up to the power as the King of Japanese Mythology!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was slashed helplessly.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t call her cowardly. Hit and run―it was a way of fighting that perfectly sealed the opponent.<br /> <br /> “But that doesn’t mean that my offense is incomplete! Right now, part of my body is becoming Susanoo!! The herculean strength of god that is unrivaled under the sky!!”<br /> <br /> The willowy woman clad in Japanese clothes, Ikousai was having one of her arm changing into the muscular arm of a giant. Certainly a single attack from that was heavy.<br /> <br /> “…You are already not even Aisu Ikousai or anyone anymore huh.”<br /> <br /> “What a foolish sore loser! I’m only using everything that I possessed skillfully!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai appeared and vanished many times over as if her existence itself was turning into an illusion. Only realistic and certain slashes were left behind.<br /> <br /> “Thunder fall on my body and I obtain lightning thought and god speed… awaken the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki kept being slashed he invoked strengthening magic for the time being so the time wasn’t wasted in vain. His physical ability was strengthened electrifyingly. Though right now there was no way he could put it to use.<br /> <br /> “Thy rage become the happiness of the war Shrine Maiden! Answer the Kagura of soul invitation and break out storm of outcry, split the cloud and please descend here. The spirits and demons in this body! {{furigana|Chouryoku Shourai|Super Strength Invitation}}!!<br /> <br /> Ikousai also invoked a strengthening magic. She was chanting while crossing another dimension and attacking.<br /> <br /> “This won’t drag out any longer!”<br /> <br /> Her strike’s heaviness increased even more. Ikousai immediately dashed once more into another dimension.<br /> <br /> Saying it in reverse, right now Ikousai was also unable to sense the magic power on this side.<br /> <br /> Think of a breakthrough solution. …On the contrary if Ikousai was already feeling relieved from discovering just a single winning pattern, then the breakthrough from this situation would become a chance at the same time.<br /> <br /> There was an aspect of Ikousai that was like that. He could say confidently that she hated to doubt her victory.<br /> <br /> In contrast, no matter how cornered he was, he still had countless magic in reserve. Without doubt there was supposed to be the correct solution among these options. He was able to believe that there was a possibility of victory no matter what kind of disadvantageous situation he was in.<br /> <br /> ‘Are you still continuing to think even at the other side of that another dimension…?’<br /> <br /> Kazuki was slashed many times over.<br /> <br /> But while being slashed, he was pondering.<br /> <br /> “…O desire that lurk in the sea of heart, that hand reach out passing through the deeply sinful flesh. O incarnation of violation entangle following the desire. Desire Tentacle.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki silently chanted a magic that he thought would likely become necessary. It was a magic he could freely manipulate that grew out tentacles from inside the ground. ―Kazuki made the produced tentacles to not break out from the ground so that it was on standby inside the earth.<br /> <br /> Ikousai that was inside another dimension didn’t notice that he was chanting a tentacle magic. She was similar to his side that was unable to sense the magic power of the other side.<br /> <br /> The instant Ikousai appeared in this world, she would be captured by tentacles in a surprise attack.<br /> <br /> …It was still impossible. He still needed some more conditions. He was still unable to even evade her attack. His reaction was just too slow, surely by the time the tentacles appeared Ikousai would be already gone.<br /> <br /> He was slashed again. He was concentrating at his pondering, but Ikousai’s slash was by no means light. Rather, his magic power was shaved off steadily and his remaining time was rapidly shortening.<br /> <br /> Think. What was needed was an even more sensitive sensor.<br /> <br /> A sensor to detect the opponent’s appearance. Kazuki didn’t have that kind of magic. He had never used something like that in all of his battles until now, so Ikousai also roughly knew about that aspect of him.<br /> <br /> But if he changed his point of view for his currently existing magic…<br /> <br /> “Mode・Phoenix!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki switched to Phoenix’s dress. Kazuki’s Magic Dress transformed from the silver suit to a flame armor.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ash all that you touch… the scorching heat of rejection without any place to depend on! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> He poured magic power in the amount more than what was needed originally into Zekorbeni and invoked a low level magic.<br /> <br /> A flame in the amount that was incomparable with when he was using [Self Burning] normally was completely covering Kazuki’s whole body.<br /> <br /> Excessively large amounts of flame―he manipulated that with his will―he stretched out the flame like a net to his surrounding in a 360° angle.<br /> <br /> For the flame to be manipulated by his will meant that the flame got across to Kazuki’s mind. This flame passed through his nerves and was close to being a part of his body.<br /> <br /> It was hard to detect a generation of magic power in a space where there was nothing and react immediately. He would be late no matter what.<br /> <br /> But reacting immediately when something was touching his body could be done instantly if he was watching out for it.<br /> <br /> And then, for the sake of surpassing the two walls―he needed one more method.<br /> <br /> Think.<br /> <br /> Ikousai appeared―right in the middle of the net of flame.<br /> <br /> Right there! Kazuki immediately reacted as if his body was directly hit.<br /> <br /> “This is!?” Ikousai raised a shocked voice from being so suddenly caught inside flame.<br /> <br /> But there was not much of damage from the flame that was spread out thin. She didn’t even pay it any heed and swung her blade.<br /> <br /> The reaction that Kazuki immediately took was not an evasive action.<br /> <br /> A large amount of tentacles overflowed out breaking the ground with a thunderous sound, it entangled Ikousai who was floating in the air and bound her hands and feet.<br /> <br /> “Guh-!?” Ikousai raised an agitated voice.<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned his body while swinging his blade.<br /> <br /> Not at Ikousai―the blade ran through his own left wrist.<br /> <br /> He had removed his own left hand’s defensive magic. Fresh blood scattered at the same time while he was turning back.<br /> <br /> It was his last hand for the sake of overcoming the second wall.<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed his left hand at Ikousai and spurted out his blood. Blood spurt was reflected on Mizukagami no Tate at Ikousai’s hand, At that moment in order to protect Ikousai from the spilled blood, Mizukagami no Tate pulled Ikousai’s arm on its own accord and defended automatically.<br /> <br /> It was blocked. The entirety of the blood was blocked by Mizukagami no Tate.<br /> <br /> Mizukagami no Tate was dirtied. …At this moment, Ikousai was not paying attention to that fact.<br /> <br /> “Just tentacles on this degree!”<br /> <br /> With the right arm that was transformed into a giant, she tore apart the tentacles with brute force before trying to cut away at the tentacles by swinging around her katana with her right arm that had obtained freedom. After all it was just tentacles from a level 2 magic. If Susanoo’s herculean strength was exerted it wouldn’t pose any challenge at all.<br /> <br /> With a hair breadth timing Kazuki stabbed Ame no Murakumo and blocked Ikousai’s katana. The situation became a sword locking contest with him protecting the tentacles from being cut away.<br /> <br /> Ikousai noticed how Mizukagami no Tate didn’t react and for the first time a look of impatience floated on her expression. And then she noticed―how the mirror didn’t reflect anything from being dirtied by blood.<br /> <br /> “O august god that call the storm, please bestow thy breath on my back that is dancing under the heaven! Fuujin Kenbu!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai invoked reinforcement magic while locking her sword with Kazuki. It was a magic that accelerated her every single action by manipulating the wind freely.<br /> <br /> But her objective was not acceleration, she was attempting to wipe away the blood that dirtied Mizukagami no Tate with wind.<br /> <br /> “O stream of atmosphere, converge on this body, become the storm that reject the hated person! The eye of the typhoon is exactly my throne! Storm Fort!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki who had read ahead that Ikousai was going to do that had also began to chant ahead and invoked the magic at the same time. It was a defensive magic that manipulated the wind freely and defended against enemy’s attack.<br /> <br /> But his objective was not defense. He collided the wind at Ikousai’s manipulated wind from the opposite direction. He neutralized the wind that was trying to wipe away the blood and also trying to keep the blood staying on the mirror surface.<br /> <br /> It became a double layered sword locking contest―an entanglement of blade and blade that was trying break each other’s sword stance, and also wind against wind that entangled with each other twisting and bending in various directions trying to outwit each other.<br /> <br /> He wouldn’t let her bisect the tentacles. He wouldn’t let her wipe off the blood on the mirror.<br /> <br /> Both of them manipulated their respective blade and wind with a do-or-die spirit. This moment was exactly the moment that Kazuki had been waiting for.<br /> <br /> “…You {{furigana|fake King of Japanese Mythology|Susanoo}}! This is the victory of the King of Solomon’s power! Even I am already awakening to the power of my bond!”<br /> <br /> Just a moment was enough. He drove magic power into Zekorbeni―and invoked magic instantaneously.<br /> <br /> “O undying bird that repeated life and death, burn that body and liberate the last flame, become the sun of the surface…! Imitation Flare!!”<br /> <br /> Level 8 magic he could invoke from his bond with Mio―between Kazuki and Ikousai who were unfolding a double layered sword locking contest, the avatar of the immortal bird was floating, it liberated all of the flame in its body and turned into a small pseudo sun. That energy of light and heat possessed directionality and it advanced in Ikousai’s direction.<br /> <br /> The Mizukagami no Tate reflected nothing.<br /> <br /> “UOOO…!?” Ikousai was burned entirely together with the tentacles by the colossal heat. Her defensive magic power was smashed up. The blood evaporated and the stain on Mizukagami no Tate was sticking onto the mirror even more.<br /> <br /> While her body was ablaze Ikousai finally succeeded in running away into the entrance of Yasakani no Magatama.<br /> <br /> Kazuki maintained the flame sensor and stretched it out to his surroundings.<br /> <br /> In order to escape from that range, Ikousai appeared far separated from the distance of sword range.<br /> <br /> “The blessing of Susanoo o &lt;{{furigana|the spouse of rice plant|lightning}}&gt;, cover the surface and show the power that smash and devastate violently…Heitei Banrai!!”<br /> <br /> She invoked a large scale attack magic at the same time with her reappearance.<br /> <br /> It was a high speed chanting due to her possessed assimilation with Susanoo.<br /> <br /> Dark clouds hung over the clear blue sky overhead in the blink of an eye, lightning cloud and lightning cloud clashed with each other and made it rained down lightning. It was a magic that didn’t give any place to escape even if he Foresigthed it. But―<br /> <br /> “So you throw away yourself as a swordsman huh Ikousai! That’s pointless! Battou Kaikon―Kusanagi no Tsurugi!!”<br /> <br /> With Ame no Murakumo, Kazuki mowed down the downpour of lightning.<br /> <br /> With that one sweep―an invincible blade that was like a soundless wind bisected all the lightning and lightning clouds with one slash and made them all disappear. Witnessing the power of Ame no Murakumo that was finally made apparent, Ikousai’s eyes opened wide in shock.<br /> <br /> In panic Ikousai tried to escape to another dimension.<br /> <br /> “Mode・Merfolk!!”<br /> <br /> But before she could do that―Kazuki instantly had Zekorbeni switched. The flame armor changed into water feather robe. He poured magic power at the same time into Zekorbeni.<br /> <br /> “Time turn painting circle, the history is repeated inevitably, awaken the forgotten era right here… leave behind everything into inside the dream, toward the era of glacier! Ice Age!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai who was going to escape into Yasakani no Magatama that was floating in the air froze instantly altogether with the space. Her defensive magic power was smashed up and Ikousai’s muscle instantly stiffened.<br /> <br /> Kazuki ran. He closed the distance in an instant and swung Ame no Murakumo at the frozen space.<br /> <br /> “Carry the mystery in the blade crest, &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;! Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”<br /> <br /> The chill that spread out widely in all the space was compressed into the blade of Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> The blade where the compressed chill was residing―was slashed diagonally at Ikousai who was freezing in place from her shoulder.<br /> <br /> Ikousai barely moved Susanoo’s right arm in time and blocked the attack with her katana.<br /> <br /> A terrific impact was generated.<br /> <br /> ―It was not only a clash between blade and blade, extremely low temperature was conducted instantly through the blade, turning the metal’s crystalline structure brittle where it was going to break.<br /> <br /> The defensive magic power of Ikousai that extended until her blade was magically trying to neutralize this cooling pulverization phenomenon. Ikousai’s defensive magic power was smashed up in large amount just in an instant.<br /> <br /> ―That {{furigana|recoil|reflection}}. From the impact of an enormous smashed magic, the body of Ikousai who was moving her foot to another dimension was blown away. He would continue like this and end this in one go―just like in his battle with Hel.<br /> <br /> “Tenrou Kaidan!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s body, that he thought was going to collapse onto the ground just like that got up as if she was rebounding on an invisible spring and she adjusted her stance for a counterattack.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s original magic technique! Kazuki who aimed for a pursuing attack was taken by surprise.<br /> <br /> Her explosive thought in regard with the unexpected situation that was happening to her―as expected, Ikousai was an excellent swordsman.<br /> <br /> At the same time―Ikousai’s figure changed.<br /> <br /> “Hand over more power Susanoo! In exchange… I don’t care even if you plunder me more!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s trademark Japanese clothes disintegrated into Prima Materia and transformed into a completely different jet black costume. It was exactly the same like carving the avatar of Susanoo onto her body.<br /> <br /> Susanoo’s power of existence that was suppressed into just Ikousai’s right arm ran amok into Ikousai’s whole body. He felt vast magic power was going crazy at the inside of her skin.<br /> <br /> Ikousai―liberated that in the shape of magic.<br /> <br /> “O young noble of storm, set free all of that violent emotion right here!”<br /> <br /> It was a reinforcement magic―it was also in a level that he had never seen before until now.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was able to Foresight the invoked magic but―his body had already begun to move in a pursuing attack.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t stop.<br /> <br /> Kazuki accelerated using [{{furigana|Custom Liberion|Level 6}}] and [{{furigana|Ride Lightning|Level 5}}] while [{{furigana|Ice Age|Level 8}}]’s cold was compressed inside the blade of Ame no Murakumo, he unleashed a thrust with all that.<br /> <br /> He didn’t expect Ikousai to have put her stance in order, but there shouldn’t be anything to criticize in this single attack of his.<br /> <br /> “Residing in my body, make another showing of the tragedy of {{furigana|Takamagahara|the heavens}}!!”<br /> <br /> While chanting reinforcement magic, Ikousai threw away Yata no Kagami and thrust out her left fist.<br /> <br /> The katana gripped in her right hand was still repelled because of the impact from before.<br /> <br /> In desperation she was only swinging her left arm―it was kind of like a left straight.<br /> <br /> But the instant his blade and her fist collided, Ikousai’s unknown reinforcement magic was invoked.<br /> <br /> It was the ultimate reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Bougyaku Bushin|Tyrannical God of Military Arts}}!!!!”<br /> <br /> For an instant he hallucinated Ikousai’s left fist turn gigantic.<br /> <br /> *KAA-* A flash of the collision between magic powers―Kazuki’s body was blown away. He received a hard blow that unbelievably overmatched his attack and hit him, Kazuki opened his eyes wide unable to believe what just happened.<br /> <br /> Ikousai took a further step forward at the direction of the blown away Kazuki. *DOSHIN!* The earth shook. This time she raised her right hand that was holding her katana tightly―and swung it down.<br /> <br /> He was unable to take any evasive motion or defense at all.<br /> <br /> It was a completely dreadful slashing attack that he had never experienced personally before. The blade was pushed into his body diagonally starting from his shoulder.<br /> <br /> [Custom Liberion] burst and scattered leaving none of its original shape behind.<br /> <br /> His defensive magic power burst open and Kazuki’s body was blown away for many meters through Sekigahara.<br /> <br /> …He was safe. He is still living. While lying down on the ground, Kazuki reflexively thought like that.<br /> <br /> It was a blow that for an instant made him unable to think that he was protected by a defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> What the hell, with that power… so that’s Susanoo’s full power!<br /> <br /> “UAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!”<br /> <br /> It was not the blown away Kazuki, but Ikousai who was raising a shriek that sounded like she was completely in agony.<br /> <br /> She was trembling clatteringly looking like she was unable to suppress what was inside her body.<br /> <br /> But even while trembling she kicked the ground powerfully and ran at Kazuki who was lying down on the ground.<br /> <br /> Once again, that strong sword with hard to believe power was raised up.<br /> <br /> …It would be bad to be hit with that kind of destructive power in succession.<br /> <br /> No, he couldn’t get hit again for even one more time with that!<br /> <br /> With the table turned, this time it was Kazuki that was cornered. Ikousai was approaching with the speed of a raging wave.<br /> <br /> With his thought working explosively in an instant―at that instant, Kazuki thought it fortunate that currently he was clad in [Mode・Merfolk]. Without his date with Koyuki he would get killed here.<br /> <br /> “Moves in the Field!!”<br /> <br /> With a prompt judgment, Kazuki pulled out the most optimum solution.<br /> <br /> His blue feather robe shined, Kazuki froze the surrounding ground surface.<br /> <br /> Ikousai had never seen this magic. Also Kazuki invoked the magic just too fast for Ikousai to predict that it would turn out like this, and then currently she had also lost her presence of mind. Ikousai’s foot that was treading powerfully on the ground while raising her katana overhead, slipped. All of that power turned into nothing.<br /> <br /> “What the!?”<br /> <br /> While falling down, even so Ikousai was still swinging down her katana in desperation. Because she did that right after flopping down, the edge of that attack didn’t reach Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Impossible… reach! Shiraha Kagerou!!”<br /> <br /> The instant he thought it wouldn’t reach, with that secret technique Ikousai extended the length of her katana.<br /> <br /> But this time Kazuki was not surprised. He had already remembered that his opponent was a swordsman in the level that could do such a thing. Taking a precise half-step back, he saw off the tips of the elongated katana passing him away with paper thin difference.<br /> <br /> And then in a counterattack he took a step forward.<br /> <br /> “ “UOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!!” ” Both of them yelled at the same time.<br /> <br /> As if scooping up the falling down Ikousai, Kazuki raised the Ame no Murakumo that was filled with a condensed cold.<br /> <br /> Their offensive powers were mutually inflated. This time it was Ikousai who was blown away with a single strike.<br /> <br /> “Te, Tenrou Kaidan!” Ikousai’s body that was blown away rebounded back at him.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki didn’t swing his katana completely. He immediately reversed his blade and laid in wait, able to swing a second slash any time. The Tenrou Kaidan with its movement read was the same as if coming to offer herself to become a sandbag.<br /> <br /> Even faster than Ikousai’s counterattack, Kazuki swung down his second slash. Her defensive magic power was pulverized. This time Ikousai didn’t use Tenrou Kaidan and turned into a somersault before rolling on the ground.<br /> <br /> He wouldn’t allow any counterattack at all and kept beating her! Kazuki drew closer to Ikousai with Ame no Murakumo that still carried the compressed cold in it in his hand.<br /> <br /> “Susanoo!” Ikousai yelled.<br /> <br /> “Susanoo, give me more! Hand over more power!!”<br /> <br /> “Stop Ikousai! You are really going to lose yourself at this rate!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai had already reached the limit where she was just barely suppressing the power. If she continued to invite Susanoo into her any more than this, she will be consumed completely…!!<br /> <br /> “GUAAAAAAAAAAAAA-! SUSANOOOOOOO!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai who was lying on the ground sprang up her whole body as if the blood flow throughout her body was boiling up, she was struggling. From her right arm that had been changed into Susanoo himself, a muddy black magic power was overflowing out and went to encroach into Ikousai’s body. In the blink of an eye the color and texture of her skin was changing. Her body was being converted into a totally different bone structure and muscle. She was becoming a male god with flawless darkish skin.<br /> <br /> She couldn’t control it at all.<br /> <br /> Ikousai herself let escaped a breath of dread “Hyii-!” witnessing the transformation from her neck to her lower body.<br /> <br /> But once a Diva had been presented with a flesh body, they wouldn’t stop anymore even if their host lost their nerve. Ikousai who immediately relied on Susanoo from her fear of defeat already didn’t have any willpower left to oppose that.<br /> <br /> Ikousai was going to vanish if it kept like this.<br /> <br /> Altogether with her sword art’s technique that she had bet her life all this time to temper.<br /> <br /> “Stop it Ikousai, don’t you lose that!” &lt;ref&gt;It’s not clear what Kazuki mean by ‘that’. The original text is also ambiguous like this&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously shouted.<br /> <br /> He loved sword art. He had respect for someone that worked hard in swordsmanship.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was… he had recognized Ikousai as his rival, he respected her skill, he noticed that in a sense he fell in love. &lt;ref&gt;The word used here in the raw is ‘Ai’ which means love without ambiguousness. First time this word is used here I think, usually they used more ambiguous words like ‘daisuki’ which can still be meant as ‘like’&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> He earnestly sympathized towards Ikousai’s strength, he felt respect and affection.<br /> <br /> That Ikousai, right now, her figure that was going to completely throw herself away for the sake of her longing to become strong was something that he absolutely wouldn’t accept, no matter what.<br /> <br /> Muster out the strength for the sake of protecting!<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s mind tensed in that instant and he concentrated.<br /> <br /> The body moved naturally. With a movement that didn’t have even a single futility in it he took a step forward.<br /> <br /> …What Kanae worked out, that technique!<br /> <br /> Finally Susanoo’s magic power completely eroded everywhere of the body below the neck and it fully covered the face of Ikousai that painted the look of terror. The last stronghold of the existence called Ikousai, when even that fell then Ikousai’s everything would be changed into the god of rage.<br /> <br /> The timing, that would become the cornerstone of Susanoo’s encroachment.<br /> <br /> With a motion that had been honed, Kazuki swung down Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> That was the most ultimate movement that the flesh body could possibly build. The motion was different from Hayashizaki Kanae’s optimum movement, an optimum movement solution that was only his. Added to that, with a perfect timing he finally reached it. The gears were meshing perfectly with each other.<br /> <br /> The single strike that broke down every kind of magic phenomenon.<br /> <br /> *DON!* Something shot off from Ikousai’s body―and vanished. The pitch black magic power that eroded Ikousai’s body was torn off, broken down, and evacuated back to Astrum.<br /> <br /> “…Ju… just now… what kind of technique that…?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai who was a researcher of the sword asked that as the first thing even while sprawling down.<br /> <br /> The duel was decided. Kazuki answered while slowly pointing out the tip of his sword right before her eyes.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style Dream Sword the Second, Shin’iki. The highest peak of Japan’s sword art, that my little sister worked out. …Recognize your defeat, Ikousai. Both as the King of Yamato, and also as a swordsman.”<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> …Now that he remembered, his wrist hurt.<br /> <br /> Only after this late Kazuki grimaced his face from the blood that continued to flow from his left hand.<br /> <br /> “O dazzling beauty of fire of reincarnation, burn the surface of life and make bud the regeneration inside… Anti-Aging!”<br /> <br /> He invoked the magic that accelerated cell renewal and restored the wound of the body.<br /> <br /> Even with magic power yet if a human bled out in a large amount then he would die.<br /> <br /> “…I won’t recognize it.” Ikousai squeezed out her voice while still sprawling down on the ground.<br /> <br /> “I’m… going to stand up no matter how many times… I’ll keep challenging you.”<br /> <br /> “If that’s what you want to do then its fine if you do that. I absolutely cannot do anything like stealing your life, so you just do as you please.”<br /> <br /> In this case his bond with her was completely different compared to his bonds with everyone of the Witch’s Mansion, Kazuki felt something like a bond between swordsmen with her and his expression broke out into a smile.<br /> <br /> Although before this fight he had already spouted off some abusive language about how he had grown tired already of facing her.<br /> <br /> “But as promised, I’ll receive all of the Three Sacred Treasures now. If you say that you are going to challenge me again, you are going to be empty handed next. You’ve got to train really diligently before that won’t you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki plundered Yasakani no Magatama from Ikousai’s powerless hand and then picked up the thrown away Yata no Kagami. Ikousai groaned “Shit…” while being treated like that.<br /> <br /> “You can do whatever you like about how the conclusion between us is going to be, but… the matter about Japan and Yamato is settled already.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A sudden command rang out in Sekigahara.<br /> <br /> “Go!”<br /> <br /> The neigh of the horses that seemed to paint the atmosphere pitch black answered that.<br /> <br /> From the west direction, *DO-DO-DO-* a sound of earth tremor was audible.<br /> <br /> It was the sound of horses’ hooves coming closer. Kazuki who understood that turned back.<br /> <br /> The pure black cavalry of the Emperor’s Imperial Guard Squad of China’s army that appeared out of nowhere was rushing all at once at Kazuki and Ikousai.<br /> <br /> The one who gave the command was Loki.<br /> <br /> “What are you planning!?” Kazuki yelled at the really sudden happening.<br /> <br /> Their number was about ten horsemen. …These guys, where in the world were they coming from!? He had confirmed at the beginning, these guys shouldn’t be anywhere near here.<br /> <br /> Ambush troops…? But there was no hiding place in this field where the visibility of the surrounding was great.<br /> <br /> The cavalry that was on the level of having achieved the unity of horse and man was clad in magic power, they were shortening the distance in the blink of an eye.<br /> <br /> Arthur was flustered but he still rushed to Kazuki and Ikousai, whose battle was over, in order to cover him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Stop! If you all don’t stop…!”<br /> <br /> Arthur was yelling, but the cavalry was not stopping.<br /> <br /> Arthur didn’t lose his composure and he didn’t even hesitate.<br /> <br /> “If all of you don’t stop… draw!!”<br /> <br /> Magic power light wrapped the stick that Arthur was holding close to his body, it transformed into an elegant knight sword with gold ornament. The Sacred Treasure that was famous in legend―Excalibur.<br /> <br /> “壮揚兵馬(Zhuang yang bingma)!” &lt;ref&gt;Don’t really know how to translate this, this is said in Chinese, Zhuang=Strong/robust, yang=whipping a horse to urge it, bingma=troops and horse&lt;/ref&gt; “杀, 杀(Sha―, sha―)!” &lt;ref&gt;This is like a sound people made when they are urging the horse, but the Chinese word also means ‘kill/slaughter/butcher’&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> The soldiers atop the horses let out words of violent atmosphere from their mouths. And then several streaks of low level attack magic flew wildly all at once at them. Completely like a wild shooting of cavalry rifles.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too took a stance with Ame no Murakumo in hand.<br /> <br /> “Excalibur!”<br /> <br /> “Kusanagi no Tsurugi!”<br /> <br /> Against the approaching bullets of flame, lightning, or ice―Kazuki and Arthur that was standing side by side swung their swords that were their proof as King at the same time. A flash of horizontal line erased the flying bullets like smoke.<br /> <br /> After all those were attack magic to hold them back in the first place. The cavalry shrank the distance even closer.<br /> <br /> What made Kazuki feel a chill was how the cavalry fired magic wildly regardless of Ikousai who was sprawling down right besides him.<br /> <br /> The one who gave the order was Loki, and the one that came attacking then was the soldiers of China. These guys already didn’t pay any mind of what was going to happen to Yamato after this or the like.<br /> <br /> “Finish off the exhausted Hayashizaki Kazuki and his comrades in this place!”<br /> <br /> Loki yelled. “Ilyailiya! You too!!”<br /> <br /> Loki and also the illegal magicians were rushing to their direction behind the cavalry.<br /> <br /> “Immediately using others so roughly… No, I see, so he has that kind of ulterior motive. What a petty Diva.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya who was standing beside Regina was murmuring to herself.<br /> <br /> “Regina! You take care of Ilyailiya!!”<br /> <br /> Arthur looked back and yelled while going to meet the attack of the cavalry unit.<br /> <br /> “…Chih! Trying to order me around just for the sake of this country!! But Ilyailiya, I really can’t stomach you!!”<br /> <br /> “Agoni Koparyof… Mec!”<br /> <br /> “Ptéra Lonkhé!”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya changed one of her hand into a sliver blade that she swung down, while Regina blocked it with a thick Resist and stabbed back with her spear.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii-!”<br /> <br /> Everyone from the Witch’s Mansion that came to witness the duel with their own eyes and also the guard knights that were protecting the top brass were rushing to him all at once. But the cavalry of China would arrive at his location faster than them.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-kun. Please take Ikousai away and escape.”<br /> <br /> Arthur worried about Kazuki’s exhaustion and said that.<br /> <br /> “Even for you isn’t this too excessive. It’s one against ten.”<br /> <br /> “It’s unnecessary for you to worry about me! There is no such thing as excessive or the like ahead of the path that a knight should advance on!”<br /> <br /> Leaving those words behind, he went to intercept the approaching cavalry squad. ‘Is he serious’…Kazuki saw him off.<br /> <br /> “Loki bastard…”<br /> <br /> Ikousai whose whole body was damaged from inside by Susanoo was raising her upper body with difficulty.<br /> <br /> “So he already considered me the loser from the start and cowardly prepared an ambush troop like this…!”<br /> <br /> “No, that guy is a Diva that always prepares a situation so it will go well for him no matter what kind of result turned out.”<br /> <br /> That guy easily discarded Yamato.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> From the start he didn’t have anything he wanted to protect or the like. That was why he easily changed his attitude like that.<br /> <br /> From the east, there was also a single horseman that rang out the sound of hooves approaching near Kazuki and Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Now then King, what are you going to do?”<br /> <br /> ―It was Shouko-san riding her horse.<br /> <br /> “You knew that it would become like this didn’t you?”<br /> <br /> Even though Shouko-san was in the position of being a witness of the duel. From the beginning she was already prepared, riding her horse here for the sake of battle.<br /> <br /> She was grinning widely on top her horse while looking down on him. It was only her smiling face that was innocent like the sun.<br /> <br /> “Among those Imperial Guard bunches, there is a guy that can use concealment magic that hide their appearances. The extent of its effect is ten people. Using that to become an ambush troop is those guys’ specialty. It’s just as you said, I have expected this.”<br /> <br /> “You have that much information. Why didn’t you teach it to us?”<br /> <br /> “I forgot to mention it.”<br /> <br /> …This girl.<br /> <br /> “What are you going to do now, King. If you clash with them like this… there might be some damage that comes out to your comrades in a place where your hand doesn’t reach.”<br /> <br /> It was her usual unpleasant tone that seemed to be amused while in her position where the happening were other people’s problem.<br /> <br /> “I have thought this from quite a while ago, putting you aside, several of your comrades are a little inadequate to seriously clash against China. Just look at that.”<br /> <br /> From atop her horse, she pointed at the beginning of the hostilities that had opened exactly at that moment between Arthur and the ten horsemen.<br /> <br /> Even further behind Loki and three of his close illegal magician associates were following after the cavalry. There was also the figure of that black skinned girl called Naiarlako among them.<br /> <br /> “Those tens horsemen are chosen among the best of China’s army. I think even with Arthur as the opponent with the ten of them the battle will be more than equal y’know. Well, Arthur too is not exposing all his hand here so I wonder if he is cutting corners.&lt;!--Holding back/keeping his trump cards hidden--&gt; And here your comrades will rush there after this. Loki and his guys will also come running. If they clash with each other just like this, now, I wonder what will happen then.”<br /> <br /> She longwindedly talked in a roundabout way plainly trying to agitate him.<br /> <br /> But certainly, Kazuki was scared of his comrades fighting in a place where he was not there.<br /> <br /> “Even winning against Yamato like this, Japan is still a minor power. However feel relieved, of course this Shouko-san of Ryouzanpaku will lend her hand to you! That’s why this time for sure…”<br /> <br /> At this point her way of talking changed completely into a heavy tone.<br /> <br /> “…This time for sure, feel some obligation properly. Not to Germany, but towards us.”<br /> <br /> Shouko-san left those words behind and spurred her reins, she was heading to reinforce Arthur.<br /> <br /> “…That kind of thing is an unnecessary concern you know.”<br /> <br /> Leme materialized beside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “The contractor of us, the Solomon 72 Pillar is not inferior at all against the contractors of other Mythology’s. …Kazuki, you too have become a splendid King. Leme and the others have stopped our test for all of you. We are going to hand over that power completely. This is not only regarding you… but for your &lt;favored princesses&gt; too.” &lt;ref&gt;The kanji used here is寵姫(chouki) which means ‘favorite mistress’. The first kanji used alone means ‘favor/affection’, while the second kanji means ‘noble lady/princess’, so it can also mean favored princess/lady&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Completely handing over…? Are you saying that until now you were still holding back on us?”<br /> <br /> Leme didn’t answer. Right there Mio and the others were rushing at him.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii! We are going to fight so Kazu-nii escape… kyaa-!”<br /> <br /> “The Magic Dress is…!?”<br /> <br /> The moment they arrived Mio and Koyuki’s Magic Dresses shined dazzlingly. …It was the two whose positivity levels were above 150. Above their head, the avatars of Phoenix and Vepar were floating sublimely.<br /> <br /> {The time that should arrive has come. Right now this country is not a baby bird that is still waiting to grow into an adult. The time to liberate the power that you should possess has come.}<br /> <br /> {The King is standing here, and then the princesses that are the most favored by the King were born. We too are going to offer this power without sparing anything left to the princesses.}<br /> <br /> The avatars of Phoenix and Vepar were absorbed into Mio and Koyuki. The Magic Dresses of the two, who were taken aback, were continuing to shine.<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned his face to Leme in order to demand for an explanation.<br /> <br /> “What is happening!?”<br /> <br /> “You have become a human that is worthy to be called a King. Until now, so to speak was [the testing period of Solomon King], but in this occasion of your victory in the battle against Yamato, Leme and the others are also recognizing you for real as the King of this country. From now on Solomon 72 Pillar and Japan are truly a collective of one body and soul that share the same fate. Consequently we are liberating a new power for the comrades that are supporting you.”<br /> <br /> “A new power? This time it’s not to me, but to everyone?”<br /> <br /> “A new power… the power of Solomon 72 Pillar that was scattered until now is temporarily concentrated into a special Magika Stigma. That is the &lt;Chouki Magician&gt;. Watch…” &lt;ref&gt;If you guys can think of a cooler way to refer this transformation please tell me&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> With a flash shining brightly for an instant―the luminescence from Mio and Koyuki’s Magic Dresses finally settled down.<br /> <br /> When the light settled, both of their Magic Dresses achieved [evolution]―with a single glance he understood that it was not transformation but an evolution. With the contractor recognized by the Diva that they were worthy, the ornaments that decorated the dress became something with more gravity. Like flower petals in full bloom.<br /> <br /> Phoenix was orange and Vepar was light blue, with their personal color staying the same, the Magic Dresses turned into something with raw materials that possessed depth like a thick magic power made real.<br /> <br /> “…This, Phoenix’s magic power is transmitted at me through the Stigma…! Phoenix is supplying me with magic power!!”<br /> <br /> Mio touched her greatly exposed breast with one of her hands and raised a voice of wonder.<br /> <br /> “Magic power supplied from Diva you say…? Is that kind of thing possible? What is called as Summoning Magic is so to speak an action where the contractor receives a [magic blueprint] from the Diva right?”<br /> <br /> Summoning Magic was receiving the blue print of the ten magic that symbolized the myth of the Diva through the Stigma. Using that blueprint the contractor kneaded their own magic power and caused a magic phenomenon in a greater scale and efficiency that was far more complex compared to the phenomenon that was caused by general magic.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 161.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 162.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> But in the end the one that invoked the magic was nothing more than their own magic power.<br /> <br /> “Correct, Summoning Magic is just bestowing the source of magic phenomenon. But in the first place a Diva is a vast mass of magic power. Nevertheless there is a reason why Divas don't lend away that magic power. …That’s because there are a large number of contractors. For example Phoenix has dozens of contractor in the Knight Order. He is unable to share his power equally to all of them.”<br /> <br /> In order to deal with the illegal magicians and Demon Beast that appeared throughout the whole land of Japan, Solomon 72 Pillar distributed their power to a large number of knights. Even so the number of Magica Stigma was still quite lacking.<br /> <br /> “That scattered power is… temporarily, concentrated on the Magica Stigma that you favored. That’s the Chouki Magician. Using a direct connection with their Diva, their chanting speed becomes faster and they can cast large scale magic from the magic power of the Diva itself that is lent to them. …But during the time Amasaki Mio becomes a Chouki Magician, all of the other contractors of Phoenix become unable to use Summoning Magic though.”<br /> <br /> Zekorbeni was the King’s trump card, and then this was the princesses’ trump card…<br /> <br /> “…It’s great that we got a power up but, I think its fine even if you don’t up the exposure rate too.”<br /> <br /> Even while Koyuki was twisting her body around fidgetingly while acting embarrassed, she kept stealing glances at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> He had the feeling that even while being embarrassed she was indirectly appealing to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Certainly Koyuki’s dress that until now was in the shape like a school swimsuit turned into a suit with a sense of translucence as if the skin was showing through just like that with a cutting that was a little bold.<br /> <br /> “I think it’s cute you know. …No, now is not the time for that though.”<br /> <br /> In that direction Arthur and Shouko-san were struggling hard against the cavalry of ten horsemen as their opponents. Behind them Loki and his group were standing by.<br /> <br /> “Chouki… With Kazu-nii as the King, we are the princesses!!”<br /> <br /> Mio hopped up and down happily then like a princess she puffed out her chest and instructed Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii just withdraw! We are not only going to keep getting protected by Kazu-nii, we are going to protect Kazu-nii too! Just like what we promised at the beginning!!”<br /> <br /> Mio and the others rushed with full speed to the location of the fighting.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun has to conquer us more so that we can quickly become like that too.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too who was watching over the development with wide eyes was following after Mio while saying that.<br /> <br /> …Certainly he who was running out of gas right now might just be a hindrance here.<br /> <br /> He should move out of the way while preparing himself to move immediately if something happened.<br /> <br /> “We are drawing back, Ikousai.” Kazuki pulled out the hand of Ikousai who was still powerlessly sprawling down.<br /> <br /> Ikousai was flustered “Wha-!?” having her hand grasped and she resisted, trying to shake off his hand.<br /> <br /> “Stop it! I have never got my hand held by the opposite sex you know!”<br /> <br /> “…It’s not like I hold your hand for something strange, there is no way I can let you get away right now. You are a prisoner you know?”<br /> <br /> “Kuh… I won’t forgive this disgrace…!”<br /> <br /> For a while Kazuki kept pulling at Ikousai’s hand like a tug of war, but then “Sheesh troublesome!” he lost his temper and carried up Ikousai forcefully from her waist.<br /> <br /> He ran in this princess carry posture toward the east side where the stronghold of the Knight Order was located.<br /> <br /> “I―am―dir―ti―ed-!”<br /> <br /> “There is no way you got dirtied just by a carry like this!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Is the King of Britain just around this level huh!?”<br /> <br /> Chukadou’s Imperial Guard―Son Shouryuu bared his teeth and howled like a wild monkey making an intimidation. In his hand the Nyoibou created by his contracted Diva, {{furigana|Seiten Taisei|Sun Wukong}} was gripped.<br /> <br /> Other than him another six horsemen, in total seven horsemen were surrounding Arthur.<br /> <br /> “I don’t really want to use Summoning Magic against the likes of all of you.”<br /> <br /> As if waving his finger patronizingly, Arthur brandished Excalibur. In the end Excalibur was a Sacred Treasure. With Arthur Basileus relying fully on it, he particularly hid the power of his Diva.<br /> <br /> He felt Loki’s gaze. He didn’t really want to show his hand here.<br /> <br /> “You really said it!!”<br /> <br /> The seven horsemen matched their breath and assaulted Arthur without giving him any opening to dodge. Nyoibou, {{furigana|Houtengeki|Heaven Ji}}, {{furigana|Jahoko|Snake Spear}}, {{furigana|Gekkajou|Moon Fang Staff}}, {{furigana|Rougabou|Wolf Fang Pole}}… all of them created their own respective Sacred Treasures and added the speed of their horses into their attack like a falling meteor coming at Arthur. All of them were Magika Stigmas that had expertise in their weapon technique.<br /> <br /> …No, was it as expected that he couldn’t get out from this just with a single sword?<br /> <br /> Arthur honestly recognized his opponents and took out a small wood branch from inside his glen check suit. It was a small oak branch that carried the magic power of a druid.<br /> <br /> He carried it around in reserve as an item that had the characteristic of a disposable item after a one-time use.<br /> <br /> He pointed the tips of that branch to the opponents without considerable regret of wasting it and threw it away.<br /> <br /> The instant it left Arthur’s hand, the small branch set free its magic power and it grew into a giant trunk in the air. The solid trunk diverged into several branches while spreading wide, and entangled the seven horsemen.<br /> <br /> Their advances were obstructed. While they were trying to escape from the tree branches that even now were still elongating, their sure-kill formation was disturbed. Just with that the battle was now his―a single sword was enough to face them hand-to-hand, one by one and crush them.<br /> <br /> Arthur raised Excalibur overhead and rushed aiming for Son Shouryuu who was in the middle of the disordered rank.<br /> <br /> …He could also blow away all seven horsemen altogether if he got serious.<br /> <br /> But the reason why his will to fight didn’t get that far was not only because of Loki’s gaze.<br /> <br /> Because it was obvious that the fault was in Yamato’s side who broke the agreed stipulation, he was not reluctant to lend a hand to Japan like this. But because of that, if Japan’s Knight Order was going to leave dealing with this situation all to the foreign forces like this, then in that case they deserved to be scorned….<br /> <br /> “Still, if the King has used up all his power then next it’s the turn of his close aides to show their power for him, now then…”<br /> <br /> With a glance Arthur took a look at the encampment behind, he was anticipating for Japan’s Knight Order to rouse themselves.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “As always, you ran around well! You insect are shrewd as usual!!” &lt;ref&gt;The underline is because the speaker is speaking with a heavy accent&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> A manner that made people think of Kan’u Unchou… rather than that it was the huge girl that exchanged contract with &lt;Kantei Seiten&gt; himself that was yelling at Shouko while swinging around Seiryuutou. &lt;ref&gt;Kan’u Unchou=Guan Yu’s name in Japan, Kantei Seiten is his name when he was deified. Seiryuutou(Blue Dragon Sword) is Guan Yu’s famous weapon, I think&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Other than her, two more horsemen were chasing around Shouko.<br /> <br /> But the horse of the escaping Shouko―had been transformed into a completely different living thing. Using the magic of her contracted Diva &lt;Taikoubou&gt; the horse was evolved into a magic creature &lt;{{furigana|Suppushan|elpahure}}&gt;, with its mysterious appearance that was a crossbreed of various animals’ appearance, it was flying in the sky as if swimming even though it didn’t have wings.<br /> <br /> “Your attack is always a large swing huh! I’m already practiced buying time like this with you guys as the opponent y’know!”<br /> <br /> Shouko who was riding Suppushan nimbly moved around with a far greater maneuverability than the cavalrymen could and she further laid out violet magic smoke around.<br /> <br /> “But, if you are just running around then you won’t be able to obtain victory!!”<br /> <br /> The huge woman yelled. As for Shouko―’As always she is a woman that cannot pay attention to the situation.’ Inside her heart she was laughing derisively.<br /> <br /> She was saying threatening things to Hayashizaki Kazuki, but Loki had already achieved his objective. That guy was already in the state of waiting for the chance to retreat. That was why just buying time like this was good enough.<br /> <br /> Shouko had noticed. Loki and the illegal magicians with him pretended to join the fight yet stayed still in the middle of the way. He was watching her and Arthur from the distance where he could escape anytime.<br /> <br /> Although for the moment she was laying out smoke screen… it would be her loss if she was observed even if she fought seriously.<br /> <br /> Shouko who was straddling Suppushan and flew ran around parrying the severe martial arts of the Chinese cavalrymen like a flexible willow. Both her hands were swaying to and fro around and she directed a fooling around face to the horsemen chasing her.<br /> <br /> “Hmph, what are you talking about that I cannot obtain victory. Idiooooooooott! Your King is ugly!!”<br /> <br /> ‘Now then, what will become the cue’, Shouko looked back at the behind―and saw the Magica Stigmas of Japan rushing here with their body clad in an evolved Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “From the bottom of earth dance the wing and scatter. Trail behind the spiraling wind, become the bullet that reveal the fury of the star! Flap, shoot and destroy! {{furigana|Volcanic Barrett|Lava Spiral Flower}}!!”<br /> <br /> After Mio’s instantaneous chanting, the ground was splitting up in cracks and bullet of lava was floating, it rode the spiraling wind of Phoenix’s wing and shot out.<br /> <br /> Koyuki too chanted quickly at the same time.<br /> <br /> “O the utmost limit of permanence, with that freezing wind please comfort this chest. With the flowing silence of rejection, let’s announce the demise of that life… {{furigana|Arctic Wind|North Pole Wind}}!!”<br /> <br /> The wind of intense cold that symbolized the world where life couldn’t live was brought about into this world following Koyuki’s will.<br /> <br /> Both were level 1 magic in the first place, but those destructive powers were greatly amplified.<br /> <br /> “Fuh… as expected they won’t leave it to us huh. It’s great that I didn’t make a misjudgment!”<br /> <br /> Arthur’s expression broke out into a smile witnessing the attack of the Magika Stigmas who appeared to be the comrades and close aides of Hayashizaki Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Oops, is that some kind of power up? Wonder if that is the cue he is waiting for.”<br /> <br /> Shouko who was earnestly running around to buy time heaved a sigh of relief.<br /> <br /> The cavalry that was concentrating in their battle with Arthur and Shouko was taken by surprise at the magic of Koyuki and Mio that came flying, the pace of the cavalry became disturbed.<br /> <br /> “Now! Those that can use sword are going to charge there!”<br /> <br /> Kanae called out to Kazuha like that and went to slash at the cavalry that were in agitation.<br /> <br /> The cavalrymen looked down on Kanae who came charging without using any Summoning Magic. They fired low level magic simultaneously and swung a single attack of a Sacred Treasure at Kanae while making light of her.<br /> <br /> ―That kind of thing wouldn’t hit Kanae. She saw through all of the intercepting attacks and leaped between the cavalrymen. She sowed disturbance while running about between the cavalrymen and made them fall further into disturbance with a single strike to each opponent that she passed.<br /> <br /> …Kanae was feeling impatience inside her heart. It was another matter if this was a one-on-one battle, but in this chaotic melee, Shin’iki was completely unusable. In the end it was a technique that still couldn’t be called as practical for real battle.<br /> <br /> As expected it was Summoning Magic that dictated the battlefield. She once again thought so after witnessing the power up of both Amasaki Mio and Hiakari Koyuki.<br /> <br /> Perhaps both of those younger Magika Stigmas now had even become as strong as Otonashi Kaguya.<br /> <br /> And then from now on too there should be the same power up that was waiting for that Otonashi Kaguya too.<br /> <br /> ‘Wait a second’, Kanae thought. She was troubled that her [rivals] could be powered up so casually like that.<br /> <br /> That’s right, they are rivals.<br /> <br /> Herself was completely pursuing the path of swordsman. That determination didn’t shake at all. But… the desire of wanting to be loved by Nii-sama even more than those girls was burning Kanae’s chest like a devilish fire.<br /> <br /> Even though until now she showed jealousy on the surface, but inside her heart she was coolly thinking that she was herself, and they were themselves. That was because she had the thought that she didn’t even stand on the starting line at the time. But now she had finally kissed with Nii-sama and Nii-sama was looking at her as a girl.<br /> <br /> Now that she had progressed to this point, she couldn’t stay as she was until now. Moreover that kiss…<br /> <br /> “Nyaa&lt;nowiki&gt;~~~~~~&lt;/nowiki&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Something that was completely improper for the occasion filled Kanae’s head, her face was blushing bright red and she meowed. Her beautiful footwork completely degenerated into jitters and she swung around Michikage up and down.<br /> <br /> The Sacred Treasures and attack magic of the cavalrymen flew wildly at Kanae, who thought of a strange thing and got agitated by herself.<br /> <br /> …Damn it. Lacking in observation and concentration were something that was absolutely forbidden in the Hayashizaki-style.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ashes all that you touch… the howl of flame without place to depend! {{furigana|Self Burning・Empress|Embrace of Fire Wing}}!!”<br /> <br /> Flame was whirling in Kanae’s surrounding in the nick of time, the burning wings of the immortal bird became a folding shape and protected Kanae, who was enveloped inside, from the countless attack magic.<br /> <br /> “Please be careful there! Kanae-oneesan!!” &lt;ref&gt;The oneesan here is using the kanji of sister in law&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Mio said that with a tone that got carried away.<br /> <br /> “I, I never remembered becoming something like a sister-in-law of someone like you!”<br /> <br /> ‘I, if I don’t stay calm’…Kanae thought while being protected inside the flame.<br /> <br /> ―Hayashizaki Kanae, thou art wholeheartedly a heaven-sent child of the sword.<br /> <br /> Suddenly a voice rang out inside her head. Kanae was amazed with his timing.<br /> <br /> “Bereth huh. What do you want at this kind of time? Right now I’m in the middle of a bustle that has no compare you know. Go back.”<br /> <br /> ―I have resolved myself.<br /> <br /> “Listen to what I’m saying. This is not a situation for something like a long-winded talk. I cannot make anymore blunders.”<br /> <br /> ―I have continued to think for a long time, whether there is a way or not for me to [aid] thy resolve.<br /> <br /> The Diva that was called as the Devil King of Indignation said that with a meek voice.<br /> <br /> ―By no means thou art going to become my contractor. Thy pure soul won’t accept a contract in equal form with me. Then… Then, I have resolved. I’m going to become thy follower. For thy sake, I’m going to distort my own state.<br /> <br /> “What?”<br /> <br /> ―From this, I will abandon the fact that I’m a Diva. I will make all of my magic power to possess thy weapon… becoming a single Sacred Treasure. Doing that I can make thee, still as a swordsman, aim for a greater height.<br /> <br /> “Wait, wait a second. Are you fine with that?”<br /> <br /> Kanae was flustered. She had the feeling that an outrageous being was going to do an outrageous thing after dragging out his own resolve.<br /> <br /> “Wait, you have been searching for a contractor to be a Magika Stigma all this time right? Surely you also have your own pride as a Diva. Why, to go that far for my sake…?”<br /> <br /> ―I am Beleth. The supporter of noble valor and earnest love. The significance of my existence as a Diva is all in there. O girl that straightforwardly follow thine own path, this is by no means an emotion of love, but I have been charmed with thy soul. A human that charmed me this much, I won’t find it anymore hereafter even if I search for eternity.<br /> <br /> “…Hmph. I also don’t really like Sacred Treasures though.”<br /> <br /> Kanae murmured annoyedly.<br /> <br /> “If you say until that far, then I’ll accept you.”<br /> <br /> Kanae too, despite appearance, was also pleased by this Diva called Beleth.<br /> <br /> So, a supporter of noble valor and earnest love. Being liked by such a Diva didn’t feel so bad.<br /> <br /> ―Then as the replacement of thy beloved blade, call my name.<br /> <br /> Beleth’s presence that appeared inside her consciousness through Astrum was overflowing out to the outside world.<br /> <br /> Magic power that was like a mist of jade color floated in Kanae’s surrounding. This was Beleth’s color.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|I know thy name|Shem ha Meforash}}! Thy name is Beleth! O the supporter of noble valor and earnest love! That passion into my beloved blade!!”<br /> <br /> The jade magic power flowed into Michikage in one go. Kanae shuddered from that momentum that was like a muddy stream while holding tight the hilt of her sword. Michikage was changing. It unified with Beleth!<br /> <br /> The name of that Sacred Treasure was…&lt;{{furigana|Kuroneko Michikage|Black Cat Path Shadow}}&gt;!!<br /> <br /> Countless Stigma emerged on the surface of her beloved sword. That was the shape of Beleth’s soul. The sword blade distorted and changed. ‘Don’t make any weird shape okay’, Kanae thought.<br /> <br /> ‘Similar with a Magic Dress, it’s the shape of my and thy soul hailing each other in concert’, Beleth answered.<br /> <br /> The blade’s shape fixed into a streamlined form that gave off the impression like flowing water, a gust of wind, an impression of speed.<br /> <br /> Kuroneko Michikage… draw out that power immediately!!<br /> <br /> “&lt;{{furigana|Battou Kaikon―Kokui Musou|Black Coating Dream}}&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> The Sword Division battle uniform that Kanae wore disintegrated into Prima Materia, mixing with the jade magic power that overflowed from the Sacred treasure. While making a vortex, it materialized into a completely different shape.<br /> <br /> This was… completely like a Magic Dress?<br /> <br /> ―This long talk is exchanged inside your heart in an instant using telepathy.<br /> <br /> At the time when the attack magic and the defensive wing of flame finished fighting each other with both sides neutralized and vanished, the contract between Beleth and Kanae was over.<br /> <br /> At the same time with the flame vanishing, Kanae appeared in a completely new appearance.<br /> <br /> “Kanae-san also powered up!? …Wait, is that a Magic Dress!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha who was right beside her was the first that noticed and raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “No… it’s not a Magic Dress, but a power created by Sacred Treasure? But there is the presence of a Diva…?”<br /> <br /> The girl that excelled in manipulating magic power analyzed accurately the true form of that power.<br /> <br /> That’s right, this was not a Magic Dress. But a &lt;Sacred Treasure Dress&gt; that was produced by a Sacred Treasure.<br /> <br /> Until the end the core of this was the katana in her hand. But she wondered what kind of power resided inside this black outfit that overflowed out due to the Battou Kaikon.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 169.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> {Even though it’s called a cloth, but thou doesn’t need defensive power.}<br /> <br /> Beleth’s voice sounded the clearest she had ever heard until now.<br /> <br /> {This is &lt;the clothes of one who seeks the way&gt;. Since thou made a contract with me, thou art not allowed any crude movement anymore. That black outfit become a sensor that sense the movement of the four limbs, that movement is a movement that thou idealize, the more thou move closer to thy [Quintessence Movement], the clothes will bestow Divine Protection and bring about might into the sword blade. If thou make a crude movement, the power will wane instead. This is the power that is born from the hailing of my and thy soul.}<br /> <br /> It was an ability that was stranger than she imagined. It seemed that the Sacred Treasure didn’t simply heighten her defensive power or physical ability. In other words everything would be fine if she just swung her sword with the determination of constantly unleashing [Shin’iki] from her every single attack.<br /> <br /> Kanae kicked the ground and attacked the enemy that was in nearest distance from her. The opponent was in the middle of chanting a spell. But it was difficult to Foresee her movement on top of the horse and Shin’iki failed.<br /> <br /> But Kanae’s own movement was close to the quintessence. The instant the blade slashed―her black outfit shone faintly in jade color and it flowed into the blade.<br /> <br /> An impact she never experienced before and a thunderous roar rang out. The black cavalryman was blown away to the side as if gotten hit by a cannon rather than just being slashed, the knight desperately controlled the reins so the horse barely stayed standing.<br /> <br /> It was great if Shin’iki succeeded, yet even if it failed the attack would still become a critical hit depending on how much her movement deviated from the quintessence.<br /> <br /> Kanae spontaneously opened her eyes wide. For Kanae who had continuously worried of her powerlessness, the attack just now gave a feedback she had never known before.<br /> <br /> {Looks like there is irregularity in thy concentration. A crude movement like just now that resulted in embarrassing failure is intolerable so pay more attention.}<br /> <br /> Beleth talked in a way completely like a partner. Kanae let a huff escape her nose.<br /> <br /> “Hmph, not bad. Thank you Beleth.”<br /> <br /> She said that in a just a little good mood. The gripped hard Sacred Treasure’s hilt emitted heat as a reply.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “They are resisting more energetically than I thought… though if luck is on our side I was thinking of making surprise attacks too.”<br /> <br /> While maintaining a distance from the battles of Chukadou’s cavalry and Ilyailiya where he could escape immediately, Loki observed the battle progress and then he gave his order.<br /> <br /> “Yosh! We are retreating you bastards! Run away!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When Kazuki, who moved away to the encampment at the back while carrying Ikousai, looked back at the battlefield, he caught the sight of Ilyailiya and the cavalry of China making a complete U-turn and retreated from there.<br /> <br /> The speed of Ilyailiya and the cavalry were so effective that they had vanished from Sekigahara to the west before he could even say ‘ah’. It was a splendid retreating performance to the degree that it felt like anticlimactic.<br /> <br /> {Kazu-nii, Kazu-nii! This is an emergency, Kanae-neesan, she!}<br /> <br /> Suddenly Mio transmitted her voice using telepathic communication to him.<br /> <br /> {…What’s with the ‘nee-san’. I get the feeling that there is something different in how you say that. What’s wrong with Kanae?}<br /> <br /> {Kanae-san, she, she turned into an appearance that completely looks like a Magic Dress!!}<br /> <br /> What did she say? He couldn’t imagine that Kanae making a contract with a Diva as a Magika Stigma, but…<br /> <br /> {Kazu-nii, by any chance… you are also connected with Kanae-san, with the power of bond? By any chance Kazu-nii can now understand the positivity level of Kanae-san or…} Mio inquired from him timidly and anxiously.<br /> <br /> Amasaki Mio―155 Hiakari Koyuki―150 Lotte―152 Otonashi Kaguya―148<br /> <br /> Hoshikaze Hikaru―140 Tsukahara Kazuha―138 Ryuutaki Miyabi―74 Ryuutaki Shinobu―74<br /> <br /> Katsura Karin―55 Kamimura Itsuki―42 Liz Liza Westwood―39<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki Kanae―175<br /> <br /> One, a single fellow with a ridiculous number was there.<br /> <br /> {Yo, you have checked now? About how much? Is it higher than me?}<br /> <br /> {Mio is 155, Kanae is 175.}<br /> <br /> When the positivity level had went pass 150, it then became fairly hard to raise. At that stage the emotion of love that was flaring up in one go was already maturing, it seemed there was no other way to move the number up except for piling it up little by little with emotional attachment. That was why Kanae’s number was not unexpected for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> {Fu, FUNYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?}<br /> <br /> But for Mio who thought of herself as number one, she could only raise a shocked scream.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Epilogue|Epilogue]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_9_Chapter_2&diff=479627 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Chapter 2 2016-02-04T06:41:53Z <p>Hiro Hayase: added rest for clarity, kotetsu -&gt; kotatsu in reference</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 – Sky of End==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The Magic Division’s student council room was the strategy meeting room of Kazuki and co.<br /> <br /> On this day there was a new face that was added as their comrade.<br /> <br /> “This is our special advisor, Liz Liza-sensei.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki introduced Liz Liza-sensei, everyone's applause *pachi pachi* that seemed to be forced, Liz Liza-sensei went “How about you trashes stop, that looks stupid” a little embarrassed.<br /> <br /> “I have gone several times to the depth of Fuji’s sea of trees before the wall was built. There are various things I can give advice for.”<br /> <br /> “But there will be no more interference from Yamato right?”<br /> <br /> Mio tilted her head saying so. “If that’s so won’t this be just a simple journey of Kazuki taking the Sacred Treasure and going home? Easy, easy.”<br /> <br /> ‘Certainly’, Kazuki too thought so. From here on ahead both Loki and Ilyailiya too couldn’t stand in their way.<br /> <br /> They would be shown the way by the seal and just needed to head to the promised place―he had such a sense of security.<br /> <br /> <br /> His sense of danger was slacking, but Kazuki immediately tensed himself.<br /> <br /> “Just because there will be no interference doesn’t mean that there is no danger. Where we will be going from now on is the deepest part of Japan’s largest Haunted Ground. It should be even more dangerous than even Level 1 and 2 until now.”<br /> <br /> The inner part of Fuji’s sea of trees couldn’t be liberated by the Knight Order before, and then, to cope, they built the wall surrounding the area several times to hold back the expansion. Surrounded by walls, the Grand Haunted Ground was divided into three levels.<br /> <br /> Thanks to the wall, the Haunted Ground’s expansion was slowed down, but in exchange the magic power was confined to the inner direction and beyond the wall became unimaginably thick with magic power.<br /> <br /> The other side of the last wall―the Level 3 area should have became a type of Haunted Ground that had never before been seen in Japan.<br /> <br /> “It’s just like he said. It’s not an exaggeration to say that, until now, you guys probably still haven’t even tasted half of the danger of the Grand Haunted Ground just from your experience in Level 1 and 2.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei talked with her usual strict tone like when she was teaching in class.<br /> <br /> “If you ask me why, that’s because Level 1 and 2 are a forest, but ahead in Level 3 the area will become the Fuji Mountain. In short a place that was originally dangerous already is transformed into an even worse Haunted Ground. …From here on out what is necessary is not just simple battle strength, it’s better to head there with a few number of people that excel in adapting to the environment.”<br /> <br /> “Adapting to the environment… is it?” Mio asked back with a dubious face.<br /> <br /> “…What is waiting for us from now on is a snowy mountain climbing in a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Actually I also have a hobby of mountain climbing. Because Britain is a great country for mountain climbing.”<br /> <br /> For some reason Liz Liza-sensei started to explain in a lively tone of voice.<br /> <br /> Fuji Mountain―as Japan’s highest summit, it was a mountain that was said as Japan’s symbol.<br /> <br /> Even now that it had become a Haunted Ground, that white peak seen from afar didn’t change at all since the ancient times.<br /> <br /> But there was no more climber there to visit the place as a tourist attraction like in the past, the true state of the place right now was uncertain.<br /> <br /> “Originally the snow should be gone when the season entered the summer, I hear that it was an easy to climb mountain.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei said. If that was true then there should be no danger now that it had already been June.<br /> <br /> “But Fuji Mountain that had been turned into a Haunted Ground is isolated by blizzard all year round and it was transformed into a mountain with intense cold. I think the harshness of that environment can even rival Everest or McKinley now. That’s my opinion.”<br /> <br /> Everest―Even Kazuki and the others whose awareness of the world in general had faded knew about that name.<br /> <br /> The mountain with the highest summit in the world. In a certain meaning it was a name that was like [a myth that existed in reality].<br /> <br /> “Even if sensei said it’s like climbing a mountain in winter… we are strong against cold you know.”<br /> <br /> Mio interjected into the lecture with a face that didn’t understand what Liz Liza-sensei wanted to say.<br /> <br /> Magicians could manipulate heat using Pyrokinesis. Heat or cold wouldn’t become any problem for them.<br /> <br /> In addition they also had defensive magic power, so even if they fell from the cliff or got hit by falling rocks, there would be no problem.<br /> <br /> To put something like environment adaptation as a source of argument itself was strange.<br /> <br /> “No, you see, the blizzard and the coldness of Mountain Fuji that had turned into a Haunted Ground resounded not in your flesh, but in your mind. It’s the same as a mind attack magic. The problem is not your defensive magic power, but your strength to maintain your [wall of heart].”<br /> <br /> Resistance against mind attack magic―although Kazuki was better at it compared to the past, it was still a field that he was poor at.<br /> <br /> “When the Haunted Ground’s coldness and chill resounds in your mind, you will be convinced that the feeling is real and its influence will come out for real in your body. Regardless of how you preserve your temperature using Pyrokinesis, you will still get hypothermia. Even though you are supposed to have produced oxygen with magic power already, an acute mountain sickness’ symptoms will still appear in you. There will be many agonies that you have forgotten since becoming a magician that will appear on parade. Even the knights in my generation had some people who died from challenging the Fuji Mountain that had been turned into a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> Death―for the people of this generation who could protect their body with defensive magic power, it was an extremely heavy concept.<br /> <br /> “Won’t it be fine if we fly in the sky while chanting magic?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki raised her hand and calmly stated her opinion. If it was Kazuki or Mio then it was possible for them.<br /> <br /> “At that time too there was a contractor of Phoenix that tested that, but it was no good.” Liz Liza-sensei shook her head.<br /> <br /> “When you get separated from the ground, a fierce wind will blow right overhead and beat you down to the ground. It’s as if the Haunted Ground is saying that a cunning act is prohibited. The Haunted Ground is forcing you to climb the mountain on foot. Even though that place is a world of magic, but it’s really obsessive with due form.”<br /> <br /> Diva, Demon Beast, and Haunted Ground reproduced the form of Mythology and legend. The harsh challenge of climbing the snowy mountain that once existed in Fuji’s sea of trees―that legend enforced the people that stepped their foot in it to follow it.<br /> <br /> “You guys have become magicians that are far more excellent than the magicians of my era. But the Grand Haunted Ground too has continued its expansion, the magic power in its center part has also been condensed even more than before. You guys had better prepare your heart beforehand as if you are seriously challenging to climb a snowy mountain without any magic power. And then there will be Demon Beasts too attacking us there.”<br /> <br /> “A blizzard where mind resistance is necessary… then it’s better for the members of the Magic Division to be the one to go there then.”<br /> <br /> “I guess so. In the first place it’s not an environment where you can honestly do a close-quarter combat.”<br /> <br /> “Then there will be no turn for this one is it…” Kohaku dropped her shoulders regretfully.<br /> <br /> “Even if you tell me to go to that kind of harsh place, there is no way I want to go there.”<br /> <br /> Torazou-san laughed carefreely, but Kanae besides him stood up noisily from her chair.<br /> <br /> “Please wait, Nii-sama! Please let me go together with you there!!”<br /> <br /> “No way. You too don’t have much training in resistance against mind attacks right?”<br /> <br /> “But!”, Kanae tenaciously dogged Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “I cannot give special treatment to only Kanae. It’s dangerous. I don’t plan to listen to your selfishness.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki decisively omitted Kanae from the group, not as family, but as the Chief Student Council President.<br /> <br /> “So that we can immediately react even if any victim appears, I think it will be better to make a team composed of Magika Stigmas with high positivity levels. The Sword Division members are also out of the question because of that requirement too.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei added her comment to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Therefore…” Kazuki made an orderly list of names on the whiteboard.<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki Kazuki. Amasaki Mio. Hiakari Koyuki. Lotte. Otonashi Kaguya. Hoshikaze Hikaru. Tsukahara Kazuha.<br /> <br /> With this, the girls whose positivity level toward Kazuki were above 100 became the team members.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, Tsukahara-san usually always talks abusively to Kazuki, but you actually really love Kazuki don’t you? I wonder how much the number actually is?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai teased Kazuha-senpai who was sitting just beside her.<br /> <br /> “It, it’s not really like a love. I, I just like him a little…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s face was beet red and she looked down completely.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, Tsukahara-san is so cute~!” Hikaru-senpai poked her from the side.<br /> <br /> “Ge, geez! Stop it~” Kazuha-senpai shook off Hikaru-senpai’s hand but,<br /> <br /> “I’m not gonna stop~” Hikaru-senpai hugged her. Kazuha-senpai then,<br /> <br /> “Geez… Hoshikaze-san you dummy…” She became completely docile with a beet red face.<br /> <br /> What’s with the two of them?<br /> <br /> “Also as someone who is experienced about the mountain, I will give you all my guidance.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei said that with a face that looked a little excited.<br /> <br /> “…I’m, being left out?”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai was pouting with her eyebrows knitted while saying that.<br /> <br /> “Eerr, it’s decided from the sequential order of the positivity level after all.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki weakly said that, Shinobu-senpai stood up from her seat, *tetete* she approached Kazuki’s side with little run and crouched down. After that she talked to Kazuki with upturned eyes like an abandoned dog.<br /> <br /> “I. …Really like Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> “I, I know that, but, err…”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki didn’t know how he should answer, Mio who sat beside him said “I’m the one that loves Kazu-nii the most here~!” while standing up and puffing out her chest. Shinobu-senpai frowned in dissatisfaction.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 065.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Beside her a female wolf Diva―Marchosias’ avatar was floating. It was said that Marchosias could take the form of a human and also a wolf, but her true nature was more of a wolf.{Gau. O King, To leave out my contractor like this, unforgivable. Gau.}<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai mimicked her Diva’s behavior and barked “Gau gau” while pulling *gui gui* at Kazuki’s arm.<br /> <br /> “That way of acting as a spoiled doggy is still just second rate desu!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was troubled, Lotte who was watching the development suddenly stood up from her seat.<br /> <br /> After that Lotte rushed over to Kazuki’s side trottingly and hugged Kazuki’s neck. And then,<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, wan wan-!” She licked at Kazuki’s cheek *pero pero*.<br /> <br /> “…I see.” Shinobu-senpai’s eyes sparkled.<br /> <br /> And then “Gau gau” she hugged Kazuki’s neck from the other side and went *pero pero* at Kazuki’s other cheek.<br /> <br /> “Wan wan!” “Gau gau.” Both of their soft tongues were teasing Kazuki’s cheeks. The warm saliva of girls besmeared his face all over. Kazuki’s feelings became a little strange.<br /> <br /> “Both of you, we are still in the middle of a serious meeting here!”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki kept being treated like that for a while, he finally pushed back the two of them off him.<br /> <br /> Lotte said “Okay desu” and obediently returned to her seat.<br /> <br /> “Shinobu, give up already and come back here.”<br /> <br /> After Miyabi-senpai signaled Shinobu-senpai with her hand, Shinobu-senpai too went “Gau…” dejectedly before retuning to her own seat while crawling on all fours on the floor.<br /> <br /> ‘…No, senpai doesn’t need to become a wolf that much.’<br /> <br /> “Well then, tomorrow let’s carry out the operation with these members! We are going to take the last Sacred Treasure!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki declared with his face still wet with saliva.<br /> <br /> It was only Kanae who still couldn’t accept it and she faced Kazuki with a dissatisfied look.<br /> <br /> “You all don’t need a lot of climbing tools if you make a practical use of magic. But let’s prepare extra just for the food supply. Just in case, perhaps we will need to {{furigana|bivouac|camp in the open}} there.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei added that at the end of the meeting.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> With this, this was the third time they went on an expedition from the Knight Academy to the Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> It took one hour from Tokyo to Gotenba Station at the bottom of the Mt. Fuji using the magic light train, from there they changed their transportation into the military use car that the Knight Order had prepared for them and they traversed through the empty town that had become an evacuation area.<br /> <br /> Like that they arrived at the first wall that was the entrance into the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> After following the procedure at the gate that was guarded by the Knight Order to not let anyone enter, they went inside.<br /> <br /> For the time being their numbers until here were not few, a lot of volunteering students were also coming along.<br /> <br /> The Level 1 area that was the most outer part of the Grand Haunted Ground had already been mostly liberated from the exploration that they had done twice until now in this place. Because of that, what greeted them right after they passed the wall was the calm forest at the foot of Mt. Fuji.<br /> <br /> Signs and facilities that were built at the time where this place was still a bustling sightseeing course were left behind as if the time had been stopped.<br /> <br /> Aiming for the second wall that was standing towering far away, they earnestly walked the path that was filled rampantly with green conifer trees.<br /> <br /> “Walking through this area blessed by mother nature… I cannot suppress this uncomfortable feeling inside…”<br /> <br /> In the crowd of students slightly behind, Kamimura-san in goth-loli clothing that was mismatched with the scenery was walking forward somehow even with an unsteady gait.<br /> <br /> “You’re not tired, Kamimura-san?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki drew back until the behind and felt anxious about the girl’s condition.<br /> <br /> “The sky is so dazzling… Right now I’m fine, but surely I will get tired in time…”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san answered him with a way of talking like a prophet.<br /> <br /> “Should I carry you on my back to preserve your stamina?”<br /> <br /> “Eh, tha… that’s, it’s okay. Kazuki is the one that has to preserve your stamina no matter what.”<br /> <br /> He was completely rejected. But there was no skull mark that came flying at him so he guessed she was just acting reserved. Kazuki cut in at the front of Kamimura-san, then with a ‘hyoi’ he lifted up her small body.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san went “Au! Awawa-!”, then she encircled her arms around Kazuki’s neck while she was about to blow her fuse.<br /> <br /> “Let’s be like this until the second wall.”<br /> <br /> “…Even though I’m being tactful here… Uu―. Normally when someone is about to do something like this they will get cold feet and become scared and so they won’t be able to do it, that’s what I thought. You are completely like the cool guy in a gal-game, this pushy attitude that cannot be hated… Something like this is unfair. So vexing. …But you will get wet-!!”<br /> <br /> “What, wet you say? Not really, Kamimura-san’s weight is like paper, you are so light that I won’t sweat much.”<br /> <br /> “Mumumu-!? Her weight is, light you say!?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai who was walking at the side suddenly turned at their direction with a great vigor for some reason.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya-senpai, Kamimura-san’s lightness isn’t in not in this dimension that you can get from something like a diet, so don’t mind it.”<br /> <br /> Right now it was Kamimura-san’s existence that had already half-disappeared, not her fat.<br /> <br /> “Why is Kaguya-senpai that sensitive about this weight talk?”<br /> <br /> “No, no no not really. I don’t really care about something like my weight or anything!? Wow, it feels really good to walk among nature like this! La la laa― fu―n fun♪”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s eyes kept darting everywhere while skipping with a weird humming and whistling.<br /> <br /> Everyone were all cute girls but… perhaps the hard work that the girls were doing behind the scene for their appeal was something that a male just couldn’t get a measure of.<br /> <br /> “Even someone like me, have some aspects that a person that lovely is jealous of, that’s…”<br /> <br /> On the other hand Kamimura-san was moved in a weird way.<br /> <br /> “You are too light like this. I have to feed you a lot and make you gain weight.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki shook Kamimura-san up and down, she gave off a weird voice “au au au―”.<br /> <br /> A gentle slope came into their view next, soft pastel blue manifested themselves from between the vivid green thickets.<br /> <br /> “Kamimura-san, look, hydrangeas are growing en masse.”<br /> <br /> “Oo…” Even Kamimura-san spontaneously raised a deeply moved voice. Everyone around them were also suddenly making a fuss about the sight.<br /> <br /> “See, going outside once in a while is also good, right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki once again shook Kamimura-san on his back up and down while talking.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, your way of talking, it looks like a father that took his daughter outside.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san’s reply sounded like she was a little troubled of how to cope with the situation.<br /> <br /> The reserved hue of the hydrangeas calmed down the hearts of the people watching it. If it was now, he had the feeling that he could step inside Kamimura-san’s heart for even just a little.<br /> <br /> “Kamimura-san, you really work hard, that you even went with us into this place, you also properly attended the academy but, you’re not forcing yourself right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki slowed down his walk and then he asked while his gaze was following along the hydrangeas at the roadside.<br /> <br /> It was a natural way of living, but for this girl who had been a shut-in for a long period of time such a way of living was supposed to be difficult for her.<br /> <br /> “I’m not forcing myself. After all, I understand, that all this time you and Lotte-shishou are always being considerate of me. …Because I understand that I’m being paid attention to… I thought that in this kind of time, I have to become useful properly, by fighting.”<br /> <br /> “You really are doing your best. Thank you.”<br /> <br /> Why in the world would a good child like this become a complete shut-in?<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san was scared to get along with other people. He had no doubt that she was too sensitive against other people’s attitude at herself, whether it was kindness or ill will. There was no problem in her personality, it was just that she was too sensitive.<br /> <br /> ‘In order to grant courage to such a girl, what should I do that would be good? …Let’s constantly fill her surroundings with the kindness of the people from around us.’ That was what Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Kamimura-san.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san noticed Kazuki and the others’ consideration for herself and so she tried her best to return the favor. Kazuki was happy of that and gave his thanks to her.<br /> <br /> “…I think that the hydrangeas are certainly beautiful. I recognize it.”<br /> <br /> As if searching for a way of how to express her own feelings, Kamimura-san talked slowly to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Because you pulled my hand and led me outside from the Ise Imperial Shrine, maybe, surely, even I can become someone that tries to think of the things outside of my room as fun… I think.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san was facing forward, just a little.<br /> <br /> …The quiet promenade that was like a hiking route continued, and finally they arrived at the second wall.<br /> <br /> Kazuki put Kamimura-san down from his back. In exchange of thanks for Kazuki’s assistance that let her legs rest were still mostly at ease, Kamimura-san wordlessly hopped up and down lightly.<br /> <br /> They passed the second wall too and entered Level 2.<br /> <br /> The area from here on mostly hadn’t been liberated yet. But the route to continue to the third wall had been opened by Kazuki’s reckless battle before this.<br /> <br /> The elite squad led by Kazuki headed to the third wall while the other students spread out in order to advance the capturing of the Level 2 area. That was the arrangement that they had decided on.<br /> <br /> “Leave this area to these ones!” “Leave it to us!” “I’ll work today.” “Gau.” “Fufufu.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku, Karin, Kamimura-san, and the Ryuutaki-sisters saw off Kazuki and co. who were going forward.<br /> <br /> The path that Kazuki and co. followed was gradually sloping drastically, they even had to follow some animal trails on the way.<br /> <br /> Even so there was no Demon Beast coming out on this route that had been liberated once.They finally arrived at the third wall with the ease of advancing through a dungeon that had finished being captured completely.<br /> <br /> There was a concrete wall that was built fourteen years ago before it was abandoned in front of them.<br /> <br /> A plain door like a staff entrance door behind a building was installed in the lower part of the wall.<br /> <br /> Both the wall and the door had gotten so old that it looked like it would turn into dust if it got hit with all their strength.<br /> <br /> But a powerful barrier was set up on this wall that could even reject a King.<br /> <br /> “Please wait! Nii-sama… as I thought, I too will go!”<br /> <br /> Kanae chased them from the path behind. Kazuki turned around in surprise and shouted.<br /> <br /> “I told you no already!”<br /> <br /> He had to tell her sternly. He understood well of how Kanae’s obstinacy was.<br /> <br /> “I can’t take you because your resistance against mind magic is weak. If something happened to Kanae, I cannot search for you like I can with everyone else. Saying it bluntly, you will just slow us down.”<br /> <br /> “However… I have the feeling that there will be something important that is going to happen to Nii-sama after this… I have the feeling that I have to see that with my own eyes!!”<br /> <br /> ―Some kind of important thing. Leme had repeatedly said the word destiny before. Ahead of this path, there was a turning point waiting for him that would shake his future.<br /> <br /> When he thought of that once more, Kazuki felt hesitation and his reply was caught inside his throat.<br /> <br /> A turning point that would change his own life. To say that he was going to take Mio and Kaguya-senpai and everybody else there, but telling Kanae that he couldn’t take her was… as if he was inviting everyone to his wedding reception except for Kanae…<br /> <br /> It could be seen as an act that threw away the existence of Kanae from his own life ahead of now.<br /> <br /> Kanae’s feeling that wanted to witness with her own eyes the turning point of Kazuki’s life was something natural.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, he too… he also felt that he wanted Kanae to be there at the turning point of his life.<br /> <br /> His relation with Kanae was that deep. Even more than everybody else in this place…<br /> <br /> ―’I also want Kanae at my side.’ That kind of feeling gushed out inside him like a light shining over the darkness in his heart.<br /> <br /> However, it was dangerous…<br /> <br /> {…Kazuki.}<br /> <br /> Inside Kazuki’s head who couldn’t say anything, a voice of someone was echoing. It was not Leme.<br /> <br /> “This voice is…” It seemed that a similar voice also rang out inside Kanae’s head, she turned her head around looking for the voice’s owner.<br /> <br /> The third wall that was right beside them emitted a faint magic power light.<br /> <br /> That light linked Kazuki and Kanae’s consciousness and sent in a voice into them.<br /> <br /> “The path ahead might be severe, but… take that person with you too.}<br /> <br /> The seal that possessed its own consciousness told so to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> {Undoubtedly, there are also things that have to be conveyed to that person too, that’s why…}<br /> <br /> That time…*zuzuzu*, a heavy sound was reverberating.<br /> <br /> The door of the wall that was emitting light opened by itself in invitation to Kazuki and Kanae.<br /> <br /> “…I understand. Kanae, come together with me and ascertain what lies ahead of me with your own eyes.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki resigned himself. He said that while shivering from the existence of someone that would once more change his life.“Certainly ahead of this path, it looks like there is something really important that is waiting.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki and co. passed through the wall―there was a boundary line of the world there.<br /> <br /> The other side of the opened door was pure white.<br /> <br /> Silver grains were dancing in the air along with the wind. When they stepped inside with a step, their feet were buried right into the snow until their shin. All the trees in the surrounding had withered, turning into frost covered trees that were colored silver.<br /> <br /> This level was a snow mountain in winter… he had been told that, but even so, the world line between the front of the wall and behind the wall was just too different.<br /> <br /> It just told him even more clearly how incomparable the thickness of the magic power that distorted the world was in here.<br /> <br /> “Well then everyone, let’s go.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stood in the lead and passed through the door, his companions followed after him.<br /> <br /> Their feet was buried under the snow, silver wind hit the body right from the front, Kazuki’s teeth were clattering in no time at all. He entered strength into his shoulders and tensed the muscles in his whole body.<br /> <br /> It had been a really long time since he felt the sensation of the cold.<br /> <br /> Just like the story that he heard, it was still cold even though he produced heat in his body using Pyrokinesis. He deeply felt the cold.<br /> <br /> “Hold your mind strongly! If not, you will get hypothermia just like your mind imagined!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei raised her voice. The coldness of this Haunted Ground reverberated in their minds.<br /> <br /> “What an outrageous Haunted Ground…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai knitted her eyebrows. Even so when he looked back to ascertain the countenance of the members, he could still feel some composure from everyone of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> “…Kanae, are you okay?” Kazuki was concerned with Kanae’s condition.<br /> <br /> “I’m fine.” Kanae bit her lips and answered while glaring at the path ahead.<br /> <br /> Her stout-heartedness that wouldn’t let any complaint escape her mouth made Kazuki feel even more anxious instead.<br /> <br /> “This place should be at the height of around two thousand meters above the sea. As expected even the snow mountain of a Haunted Ground, too, will become even colder the higher it is, ahaha.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai made a desperate laugh.<br /> <br /> “The height too is like that, but thanks to the trees that are still growing around here the wind is weak. When we pass through the forest border and there is nothing in the surroundings, the blizzard will hit us fully at that time.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei added in a fact that he didn’t even want to imagine.<br /> <br /> What was a little strange was how everyone was exposing their bare skin because of their Magic Dress even though they were in the middle of a snowy mountain. Though Kazuki was also just in his normal uniform. This clothing had no meaning at all for physical cold protection.<br /> <br /> “O Divine Protection of mermaid, please block the step of the hated enemy and hasten the step of the chosen person… O ice blade, run! Moves in the Field!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki cast an environmental control magic before they advanced through the snow for real.<br /> <br /> Usually this magic froze the ground and formed ice blades on the allies’ feet. The allies could move around freely like ice skating while the enemy would be unable to move about… this magic had been used a lot in that way.<br /> <br /> But this time the magic didn’t grant any effect on the ground and formed ice claws on the allies’ feet. Furthermore it also created ice picks in the shape of a ‘T’.<br /> <br /> “It really created a fitting atmosphere huh.” Hikaru-senpai swung around her pick’s like a kid.<br /> <br /> An ice pick is a tool used to stab the blade into a snow surface of rock wall in order to keep the holder’s balance when they fell off from the slope or their balance was broken.<br /> <br /> “And then if we stab this claw into the snow surface, we can then walk forward and not slip.”<br /> <br /> Mio said that while immediately moving through the path of new snow with the ice claws on her feet.<br /> <br /> “Even if we don’t use something like this, there is also a method of walking while using friction control magic.”<br /> <br /> The expert in general magic, Kazuha-senpai, was once more saying an amazing thing so nonchalantly.<br /> <br /> “That’s also fine but Hiakari has already troubled herself to make this, so just use this to suppress the consumption of excess magic power. After all even just standing around like this will have your magic power consumed to endure the blizzard.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei said so and then she urged them on.<br /> <br /> “Oi, Hayashizaki siblings and Tsukahara, what are we going to do if you guys don’t walk in the lead.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki, Kanae, and Kazuha-senpai moved forward in panic with crunching sounds to catch up with Mio who went ahead.<br /> <br /> “Wait, Mio!”<br /> <br /> They had to stab the picks into the snow surface each time they took a step forward and stepped firmly with the ice claws while climbing in long stride so as to not slip. Just advancing forward like this in a snowy mountain was surprisingly hard.<br /> <br /> Their feet that were buried in the snow too was so cold with a chill that seeped right inside until their bone.<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally overtook Mio and stood in front of the whole party.<br /> <br /> Suddenly the snow field ahead vibrated *gogogo*.<br /> <br /> …That’s right, of course this kind of thing would naturally happen. At the other side of the sloping path―inside the white screen of the blizzard, a faint figure of an &lt;ice giant&gt; so big they needed to look up appeared.<br /> <br /> They had to fight Demon Beasts in this Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> “That Demon Beast… be careful! It’s going to throw ice lumps from afar!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei yelled. The ice giant broke his own body with his fist. And then it raised high the ice lump that was a part of its own body, he faced Kazuki and co. and threw it.<br /> <br /> The enemy was located on the higher ground. The ice lump was approaching them by borrowing the force of gravity.<br /> <br /> Kazuki jumped to the side and evaded the ice lump.<br /> <br /> But the instant he evaded a step to the side, *BAKIBAKIBAKI!* there was a strange sensation under his feet.<br /> <br /> There was no ground at the place his foot was going to step on. That spot was where shrubbery was growing on the slope and looked like the ground just from the snow that was piling up on top of it. There was no footing at the place where he was going to step, Kazuki almost rolled down from the slope.<br /> <br /> He supported his body with the pick in panic and raised a yell.<br /> <br /> “Like, like this we are not going to be able to move our body well!?”<br /> <br /> The ground looked like a brand new snow surface at a glance, but they couldn’t know what was going on under the snow with just one look.<br /> <br /> The giant didn’t miss the opening and threw another ice lump at them. With this timing, he couldn’t dodge.<br /> <br /> “Flapped the wings and scatter sparks. Trail behind the spiral wind, become the bullet that gouge life! Flap and shoot! Barrett!!”A flame bullet collided into the ice lump just in the nick of time. Ice grains and steam exploded in front of Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> “Geez Kazu-nii, be careful there!”<br /> <br /> With Mio as the beginning, the other companions shot out their attack magic all at once.<br /> <br /> “My wicked thought is filled with curse, I beseech thy agony… I have no shame of my ominous thinking! Feel Pain!”<br /> <br /> “O the will of god of the whirling sky! Converge in my hand, please grant me the authority of judgment! O radiance of royalty divine gift, become the drawn bow of splendor! Lightning Line!”<br /> <br /> “Howl! The civilization grant destruction to human! The roar of wisdom scorch, break thy body, bury that dignity under the rubble!! Mitrailleuse!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s bullet of agony. Hikaru-senpai’s lightning arrow. Lotte’s gatling bullets.<br /> <br /> The giant staggered from the raining down magic. Its movement that was trying to throw ice lumps was stopped.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too ran through the snow field while chanting attack magic. When Kazuki pushed his way through the snow and advanced in the front, it also made it easier for everyone that was following after him to advance.<br /> <br /> Ahead on the pure white path of the blizzard, Kazuki sensed even more moving presences.<br /> <br /> “Everyone, there’s not just one!”<br /> <br /> At the same time with Kazuki yelling to inform his party, three more giants showed their majestic appearances from the depth of the blizzard and the three raised up ice lumps all at once.<br /> <br /> “O hour hand, please blunt down the gait of the fools and show contempt for their worth… {{furigana|Chrono Stutter|Stupefaction Time Lost}}!!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei chanted a magic that he had never seen before.<br /> <br /> Three avatar of clock floated in front of the three ice giants, those three clocks had its hour hand moved really slowly while melting into the giants.<br /> <br /> Thereupon in the blink of an eye, the giants’ movement became sluggish.<br /> <br /> A magic that slowed a great number of enemies all at once―perhaps Liz Liza-sensei had assumed from the start that the enemy might be more than one.<br /> <br /> The thrown ice lumps from the giants whose movements were slowed flew flimsily and fell in the middle without reaching Kazuki’s location. The fallen ice raised *DON!* a large sound and a curtain of snow was raised on the snow field.<br /> <br /> “O craftsman’s forging that scatter the flower of night performance, fill the woven sky with sword’s tip! The role of the sword is for the sake of victory… under my command, become thunderstorm and pour down! Tenkuu Battou Renge Hou!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai too was chanting a magic that was suited for a great number of enemies.<br /> <br /> It was an attack magic that created a large number of Sacred Treasures and launched them like missiles&lt;ref&gt;Gilgamesh's ability in fate/stay night anyone?&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> “Burn brightly!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuha-senpai commanded, the Sacred Treasures that were floating in the air were all covered with flames.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s contracted Diva, Futsunushi no Kami had his power increased from combining with Take Mikadzuchi. It seems that now senpai was able to freely control the element that the Sacred Treasures possessed.<br /> <br /> The flame Sacred Treasures pierced into the ice giants one after another.<br /> <br /> …But, the giants were not falling down.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!” “Lightning Line!”<br /> <br /> Low level magic were flying without pause. But the giants planted themselves on the snow field and stood dauntingly.<br /> <br /> “…They are tougher than we think. Perhaps it will be better to take it slow and chant a high level magic.” Hikaru-senpai murmured.<br /> <br /> “Or else, with close quarter combat.”Kanae who was pushing through the snow together with Kazuki murmured subduedly. It was a heavy tone of voice as if she was being cornered in some respect. …Kanae was waiting for her chance.<br /> <br /> But the distance between her and the opponent was far with snow blocking the path.<br /> <br /> “O shapeless and mute shadow, become the fish that swim inside the darkness that is teeming with obstructive thoughts! The origin of nightmare, vicissitudes materialism, respond to the fear and hope and sink your teeth…! Deep Specter!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai had already concluded to aim for a high level magic and put it into practice.<br /> <br /> A soul was residing inside the shadow of the ice giants. The black shadow that was like a spot of stain inside this white world swelled up in one go and turned into a monster with size that was not inferior with the ice giant.<br /> <br /> The shadow monster opened its big mouth where fangs were lining up inside like a shark’s mouth, then it sunk its teeth into the ice giant.<br /> <br /> But the ice giant didn’t even pay any heed of how their shoulder was bitten by a monster and continued to throw ice lump at Kazuki and co.’s direction. Their movements were sluggish due to Liz Liza-sensei’s magic, yet they were still throwing ice lumps even though it didn’t reach. Several of the ice lumps were falling just right in the middle.<br /> <br /> “Their toughness is amazing, but… those Demon Beasts, are they doing something?”<br /> <br /> Mio raised an amazed voice. The ice giants kept continuing to throw ice lumps that didn’t even reach them with sluggish movement like broken robots. Over and over they kept throwing, raising a curtain of snow on the snow field.<br /> <br /> ―A crack sharply entered the snow field. With a look of realization Liz Liza-sensei yelled.<br /> <br /> “…Those guys’ aim to cause an avalanche! Someone use wind or flame magic!!”<br /> <br /> Right at that instant, the snow field in front of their eyes split into two of up and down.<br /> <br /> For Kazuki who was fighting while looking up to the slope, it looked like the world itself was cleaved down.<br /> <br /> The lower half of the snow field in their path was all slipping down at Kazuki and co.’s direction. The snow in the shape of a plate broke down like smoke and built up, in the blink of an eye it became a wave of snow with an height of ten-odd meters.<br /> <br /> The snow volume that could swallow all of them whole, surged, nearing them while roaring with a vibration like an earthquake.<br /> <br /> The one who could immediately react was Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. Both of them chanted the same magic.<br /> <br /> “O wind of bellows, awaken the scorching heat of steel on my forging! Take into hand the hammer that had tempered hundred and strike away the impurity of the soul! Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazadzuchi!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai finished her chanting an instant faster. When she raised her palm at the approaching avalanche, a wind of flame explosion whirled out from there. Like a katana blacksmith that awakens flames with the wind of bellows―this was a double element magic of flame and wind of Futsunushi no Kami who was the god of blacksmith. Its might had increased even more after obtaining the power of Take Mikadzuchi.<br /> <br /> Wind explosion was blown into the approaching avalanche and evaporated it.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazadzuchi!”<br /> <br /> For the following avalanche that Kazuha-senpai couldn’t blow away completely, it was Kazuki’s turn to blow them away after casting the same magic with a time difference.<br /> <br /> Even so, there was still more…*DODODODODO!* Tremors of the snow was approaching. The avalanche was continuing.<br /> <br /> There were still magicians of wind and flame among them.<br /> <br /> “O stream of atmosphere, converge in this body, become the storm that reject the hated person! The eye of the typhoon is exactly my throne! Storm Fort!”<br /> <br /> “Burn to ash all that you touch… o scorching heat of rejection that has no place to depend! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai and Mio invoked wind and flame defensive magic at the same time. Vortex of wind hid his companions from the surrounding and then flame mixed into the vortex of wind.<br /> <br /> A storm of flames repelled away the avalanche that had its force greatly reduced from Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s magic and all of it was terminated.Because all of the snow that covered the snow field had moved down with the avalanche, the ground in the space between them until the ice giants was laid bare.<br /> <br /> The snow was cleared exposing the original scraggy rock surface under it, like a path that guided them to the enemies.<br /> <br /> Kanae quickly started to dash without hesitation―she had belief that her comrades would repel the avalanche.<br /> <br /> Kazuki noticed that Kanae had changed from her two sword style of kodachi into using a single pure black katana. It was &lt;Michikage&gt; that formed a pair with Kazuki’s &lt;Doufuu&gt;. Kanae’s beloved sword in the past that she used when she was a child.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama, Amasaki Mio! Give me the protection of fire!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae yelled while closing her distance with the ice giants in one go.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ash everything touched… the scorching heat of rejection without any place to depend! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately guessed what Kanae wanted and chanted the magic that enveloped Kanae’s whole body with flame.<br /> <br /> Mio too attached the same magic to Kanae a moment later.<br /> <br /> Kanae used the flame that clad her whole body not for defense, but for attack, she used Psychokinesis to concentrate the flame onto her katana. And then she kicked the rock surface and flew high until the neck of the giants.<br /> <br /> “Pierce the vital spot against a tough enemy!!”<br /> <br /> When Kanae leaped at the giants whose movements were dulled, Kanae stabbed the flaming blade into its neck.<br /> <br /> The ice giant writhed in agony like a living thing. …No, the giant looked like a lump of ice, but as a Demon Beast it possessed the disposition as a living thing.<br /> <br /> There was no mistake that Kanae’s blade had severed the electric signal circuit that governed the giant’s body activity.<br /> <br /> “…Die!” It was a really tough giant but it was smashed up into many small ice grains under one attack.<br /> <br /> After Kanae ripped up the neck of one giant, she kicked its body before it could break and jumped onto the next giant and tore up the neck of the giants one after another.<br /> <br /> It was a murder technique where the match was decided already once she got close, that it even made Kazuki go ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ in admiration.<br /> <br /> “Kanae! Be careful where you are going to land!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki noticed and shouted. Kanae who had finished dealing with the giants landed on the snow field.<br /> <br /> But regardless of Kazuki’s warning, it seemed that under that snow there was no foothold, *zubo-* Kanae’s lower body was buried into the snow and she raised a scream of “Nya nya nya!?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t get too carried away. …It’s better not to get too close to the snow.”<br /> <br /> With an amazed voice, Kazuki pulled out the MVP Kanae from the snow.<br /> <br /> The coldness of this snow inflicted harm to the mind. That was exactly why that avalanche was dangerous. It would be nothing if it was just a normal snow, but it’d be bad if they got buried under this snow.<br /> <br /> If everyone of the Magic Division that was lacking in Enchant Aura got buried under a few tons of snow, surely they wouldn’t be able to move at all. And then they would rapidly get cornered into a dangerous situation from the coldness of the snow.<br /> <br /> Kanae whose body was half inside the snow was shivering and her face turned blue.<br /> <br /> “So, something like this… is not a big deal…”<br /> <br /> “Don’t act tough. …We should warm you a little like this.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki tightly hugged the shivering Kanae.<br /> <br /> “Ni, Nii-sama!? Nii-sama―!! It’s a super ultra warmth!! Right now Kanae is like a cat that is inside a kotatsu―!” &lt;ref&gt;Kotatsu is a table over an electric heater (originally a charcoal brazier in a floor well) with a hanging quilt that retains heat&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “…But this is a cold that happened mentally so maybe doing this is irrelevant?”<br /> <br /> “That, there’s no such thing! If it’s a problem of mind then right now Kanae’s heart is going puff-puff hotly!!” “…You look like your head is going to explode, let’s end it with this much.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki separated both his hands, Kanae was unsteady on her legs with a boiling face.<br /> <br /> …If Kanae got buried under the avalanche―it was only Kanae and Liz Liza-sensei among the current member that he couldn’t search their whereabouts with the power of bond. When he thought so his body hair shuddered.<br /> <br /> “Rotate to the rear Kanae. I’ll be the one that pushes through the snow.”<br /> <br /> Kanae looked down in frustration but she followed what he said and moved to the rear.<br /> <br /> “No, I’ll be the one at the head. I’m the one better suited for it right?”<br /> <br /> In replacement of Kanae, Kazuha-senpai approached near him and said that.<br /> <br /> …Certainly because she was a swordsman she had the proper strength to push through the snow with Enchant Aura, her resistance against mind magic was also better than Kazuki, and she could also deal against the assault of Demon Beast as a front liner.<br /> <br /> Even if Kazuha-senpai fell she could stop her momentum using friction control, and even if she was buried under the snow she could blow it away using [Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi].<br /> <br /> There was the flexibility that could do everything even if something happened to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Let’s do it with the two of us taking turn.”<br /> <br /> “Yosh, tag.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai laughed “he he he” and presented her palm, Kazuki high fived her with a clear sound of *pachin*.<br /> <br /> “When it’s the time to alternate, let’s warm each other by hugging like just now.”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t make a needless banter-! Idiot-!” Kazuha-senpai hit Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki and co. formed a single line and resumed climbing the mountain.<br /> <br /> …At first the fallen snow only reached until their shin, but the snow became higher when they climbed even more ahead.<br /> <br /> The snow passed their knee… then when the height reached around their waist, it became difficult even just to move ahead.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who stood in the lead swept away the snow in front of her with the ice picks, and then she pushed further into the snow surface that had been torn down lower with her knee, finally when the height of the snow became something that her feet could lift over she could take a step forward.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai raised a scream “Thi, this is harsh!” while her beauty was ruined from being forced to walk bow-legged.<br /> <br /> Thanks to her pushing aside the snow in the front, the second in line could advance with a fair ease.<br /> <br /> As expected this was an absurd task if they didn’t alternately take turns.<br /> <br /> “Standing in the lead and pushing through the snow is called Russell&lt;ref&gt;snowplow&lt;/ref&gt;. It’s one of the hardest task in climbing a snow mountain.” Liz Liza-sensei said that from the back.<br /> <br /> “In proportion of the two that are working hard in the front, we the rear guard will work hard if there are Demon Beasts coming out!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai went ‘Ei ei ouu―” while raising her hand. Right at that moment an ice giant appeared at the front where it was going to slide down at them, while from the sky a pure white giant bird that was covered with thick fur was flying.<br /> <br /> The Demon Beasts appeared as if answering the request, so Hikaru-senpai yelled “Kaguya you idiot!”<br /> <br /> “I’m not the one who is bad here!” While yelling, Kaguya-senpai began to chant.<br /> <br /> The ice giant threw ice lumps and the giant bird breathed out a cold breath.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> “O rejection of absolute zero, become the armor of isolation that protect our body! Freeze Barrier!”<br /> <br /> Mio shot down the ice lump with [Barrett] and Koyuki protected the comrades from the cold breath with the barrier of chill.<br /> <br /> Suddenly Kazuki looked behind. Interposed between Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who was in charge of Russell and everyone of the Witch’s Mansion that performed magic battle―Kanae was looking down in frustration because she could not move even when there was no avalanche.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> An absurd time was necessary just to advance ahead a little.<br /> <br /> More than anything, the exhaustion of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai was bigger than everyone who was doing battle.They rotated the turn every one hour, he and Kazuha-senpai hugged each other each time they were taking turns. Kazuha-senpai was cute with her face bright red. Perhaps if there was no reward like this then even Kazuki would have his heart broken.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei had warned them before about the possibility of needing to bivouac, but as expected this was not a Haunted Ground that could be cleared in a day trip.<br /> <br /> When he was became engrossed in the Russell duty and the battle, before he realized the surrounding had become dark from being evening.<br /> <br /> The pure white world was transforming into orchid color. Like this they would soon meet with night.<br /> <br /> “So this is what appeared in the end…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki who had alternated with Kazuha-senpai of being Russell in the front unintentionally groaned.<br /> <br /> …What appeared before their eyes was a rock wall without end in sight. The upper part was obstructed by the blizzard that formed white mist, they couldn’t determine how high this wall would continue.<br /> <br /> If they didn’t claw their way up this wall, they would be unable to advance forward. This was like a bad joke.<br /> <br /> “It’s better to stop one night here for the moment.” Liz Liza-sensei said.<br /> <br /> “Come to think of it, sensei said that a tent is unnecessary so we didn’t bring any, but without blocking the blizzard we are only going to get exhausted one-sidedly even if we rest.”<br /> <br /> “No need to worry about that. There is so much snow piling up in the surrounding. …We are making a snow hut here.”<br /> <br /> Snow hut. …It was a proposal that made him strangely excited.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> They immediately moved to work. Everyone piled up snow, pressed and condensed it, plundered the heat with Pyrokinesis, and froze and hardened the snow.<br /> <br /> “Making it too big will only make you anxious if it’s going to break down from its own weight, so let’s make two snow huts.”<br /> <br /> Although they could make the hut strong and solid with magic, they guessed that making it with a diameter of around four or five meters was the sensible limit. Thereupon Mio murmured while pushing and hardening the snow.<br /> <br /> “…For the groups, how will we split the members?”<br /> <br /> Everyone’s hands stopped.<br /> <br /> Everyone raised their face all at once and looked at Kazuki’s direction. Leaving out Kanae and Liz Liza-sensei, there were only girls who understood that everyone in this place had more than 100 point in positivity level towards Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki. If I’m not mistaken your ability will unleash a special power when there is someone whose positivity level towards you became 150, right?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki was stumped to give out an answer towards the difficult question, Liz Liza-sensei gave an advice.<br /> <br /> “Think about what will it do for you in the decisive battle if you raised someone’s positivity level. Make your answer from the side of profit.”<br /> <br /> When it became something like that…<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A single snow hut with high transparency that had been half transformed into ice was completed first.<br /> <br /> “Enter the snow hut first and prepare the meal Kazu-nii. During that time everyone will complete one more of the snow hut.”<br /> <br /> While talking Mio and Koyuki released their Magic Dress temporarily and their appearance turned into their uniform with a large rucksack on their back. They took out some plastic container and pot and a solid fuel from there. It was an underhanded trick that made use of a Magic Dress’ material conversion phenomenon.<br /> <br /> Leme emerged out from his side and frowned her eyebrows while saying “Do this moderately okay, it’s just for this time only.”<br /> <br /> “Even Leme also wants to eat a delicious meal right?”<br /> <br /> Mio acted the same to Leme like when she was still kid-sized and poked her nose lightly. Though when the two of them stood side-by-side, Leme was already the bigger one between the two of them.<br /> <br /> “How cheeky, to treat Leme like a kid when Leme had turned into this adult appearance already―!”<br /> <br /> “So what―, Leme is Leme right―”<br /> <br /> Both of them screwed around with each other by hitting the other *pechi pechi* repeatedly. …Looks like Mio still had some composure in her.<br /> <br /> “Even if you called it preparation, I only need to warm the stew. It doesn’t really need to be me…” “I’m telling you to rest obediently here, so that Kazuki won’t get tired by doing something trivial like making a snow hut. We don’t know what is going to happen ahead of us you know!”<br /> <br /> “Right right, just like she said!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai butted in from the side and launched a hip attack at him with a boing.<br /> <br /> The butt that was covered with a Magic Dress in T-back style blew away Kazuki inside the snow hut.<br /> <br /> …If he was forced until this point then there was nothing he could do except to let himself get spoiled by their words.<br /> <br /> Inside the snow hut, Kazuki spread out a sheet with high insulation rate and settled down his body on top of it. He set the solid fuel and lit up a fire. It was an alchemic fuel that boasted fire power of an average gas stove.<br /> <br /> When he was staring at the burning flame, Kazuki’s feeling finally settled down.<br /> <br /> …If he had to talk truthfully, he was nearing his limit.<br /> <br /> Repeatedly becoming the Russell, the coldness of the snow stiffened his whole body that now he couldn’t even shiver.<br /> <br /> The heart was also made of flesh―with a dysfunction occurring in the heart, the blood flow in the whole body was stagnating.<br /> <br /> Due to the blood not circulating, the oxygen wouldn’t reach the brain. If he let his guard down, his thought would grow dim and turn pure white.<br /> <br /> He planned to consume enough water, but even with his sweat not flowing out he felt a maddening dehydration in his body.<br /> <br /> He had to warm his body. Kazuki instinctively thought so.<br /> <br /> Now that he had escaped from the blizzard into the snow hut, surely his body would immediately recover if the fire of the solid fuel hit his body. Kazuki rubbed his coldly stiffening hands and fingers on top of the flame.<br /> <br /> He had already upped his resistance toward mind magic but he was still immature in it.<br /> <br /> Kanae too was feeling frustrated but… just because someone was a swordsman it didn’t mean that it was fine to only train in swordsmanship without caring for anything else. Even if comrades would help each other, there were many fields of expertise that had to be improved.<br /> <br /> Waiting until after his blood flow recovered its vigor, Kazuki finally put the pot on top of the solid fuel.<br /> <br /> The content of the pot was stew. The cold stew didn’t emit any aroma at all. Regardless Kazuki spontaneously gulped his saliva.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling him starving, what he felt was closer to a breakdown. This was the first time his own cooking looked this delicious to himself. Since he was born, this was the first time his mind was ravaged by the taboo desire to snitch a food secretly like this.<br /> <br /> But if he didn’t eat the food together with all his companions that were even now still building the snow hut outside…<br /> <br /> Kazuki was gazing blankly at nothing while waiting for the pot to become warm.<br /> <br /> The voices of everyone that were continuing their task outside felt awfully far. Perhaps his head was still lacking in oxygen. Feeling the warmth of the burning fuel, he dimly felt like he was in the middle of a dream.<br /> <br /> Suddenly, he felt a presence right beside him. It was as if a ghost was standing right besides his pillow when he was sleeping.<br /> <br /> After slowly turning his head―a slightly dazzling silhouette of a woman that was formed from magic power was peeking at the pot’s content from behind Kazuki.<br /> <br /> It was as if a teacher was ascertaining a student’s cooking skill in the middle of a home economics class.<br /> <br /> ―It was the master of the seal. The First Knight. The wavelength of that light that dimly shone was the same with the light that appeared in his battle with Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> The light gave off a pondering voice.<br /> <br /> {…Why are you, giving your all that much for your surroundings?}<br /> <br /> Without tearing off her eyes from the pot, the woman’s voice sounded anxious in some respect.<br /> <br /> ‘What in the world is she feeling anxious for?’, before answering her, Kazuki first felt such doubt inside him.<br /> <br /> “I am just doing it because I want everyone to be happy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki honestly talked about his own feelings.<br /> <br /> “It looks like I am being quite misunderstood but, I’m doing this not because I am an orphan and so my self-esteem became really low that it makes me flatter my surroundings, it’s because I love everyone.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that, the woman became much more dejected and looked down.<br /> <br /> {That stew is} The woman changed the topic. {…the flavor of your home?}<br /> <br /> “I am an adopted child so, this is the flavor of the Hayashizaki’s… the family I was given to to be raised.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki answered.“With Hayashizaki’s flavor as the base, I improved it in various ways so that I can make Kanae and father happy…”<br /> <br /> The woman’s silhouette looked sad from something of what he said, she felt even more sorrowful in dejection.<br /> <br /> “…Is something wrong?”<br /> <br /> {I, can’t even teach my cooking to my own child. The flavor characteristics of just that family that every household has, I couldn’t impart it to him…}<br /> <br /> Not only the pot, but the inside of the plastic containers were also loaded by Kazuki’s handmade cooking.<br /> <br /> While her gaze kept wandering unable to calm down, the woman, rather than to be called a hero, she was more like an ordinary female, talked in sorrow.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pondered about the woman’s life. There was no doubt that this woman staked her life for the sake of the seal.<br /> <br /> To fight as a knight without looking back at her family… due to that this country was saved.<br /> <br /> If so, then this person, should think of that proudly with her chest held high.<br /> <br /> Kazuki tried to say such comforting words, and hesitated.<br /> <br /> The child of this woman, could he understad that? Even though she had saved the country where she was born, and yet she left her own child in sorrow, as a mother could she really take pride of such a thing from the bottom of her heart?<br /> <br /> For an existence of a mother to put in scale the world and her own child―it was not something that could be encouraged so simply.<br /> <br /> “…Are you regretting it?”<br /> <br /> {…Yes.}<br /> <br /> The woman said as if spewing out the stagnation at the bottom of her heart.<br /> <br /> An affirmation that a hero by no means should ever do.<br /> <br /> Kazuki imagined what he would do if it was himself. ‘If, it was me in the position of this person. Or, if I was in the position of this person’s child…<br /> <br /> When he thought that, a numb sensation ran through his brain.<br /> <br /> This person, was someone. The master of the seal. The First Knight. The hero that saved this country.<br /> <br /> The previous generation’s contractor of Lemegeton.<br /> <br /> Not only that. ‘This person, who is she to me…’<br /> <br /> This time Kazuki turned back his whole body behind.<br /> <br /> He faced the silhouette of light of the woman right from the front.<br /> <br /> Both her face and her body build were uncertain. Her voice too felt somewhat chaotic as if a wave was shaking it.<br /> <br /> “…You are…”<br /> <br /> {The pot, will be cooked soon. It looks really delicious… I too, want to try to eat it, but…}<br /> <br /> As if running away from Kazuki’s gaze, the woman’s silhouette pointed out at the pot.<br /> <br /> Even so when Kazuki continued to stare at her, the woman's silhouette dimmed and began to vanish.<br /> <br /> {In the center of this Haunted Ground―at the peak of the Fuji, I’m waiting for you. I’m sending my avatar here like this, because I’m too impatient to wait…}<br /> <br /> “Wait…!”<br /> <br /> Raising his voice unintentionally, Kazuki reached out his hand as if trying to catch an empty air.<br /> <br /> But, the woman’s figure disappeared and escaped from his hand smoothly. Silence returned to the surroundings. Were his companions really continuing their work outside the snow hut even now? Or perhaps it was just the inside of this snow hut that was completely transferred somewhere to a different world.<br /> <br /> ‘…I too have something that I have to convey.’<br /> <br /> Suddenly, such feeling was gushing out from inside Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> He had to convey it to the woman that was waiting for him ahead.<br /> <br /> That ‘I didn’t become unhappy or anything you know’.<br /> <br /> That ‘I’m not resenting or blaming anyone’.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> When everyone finished their meal, the members were split up into two snow huts. To prepare against Demon Beast’s attack, there would be lookout posted alternately, they would pass a night in this place.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, hooray! I’m in Kazuki’s side!” Hikaru-senpai raised a joyful voice and she threw herself down before rolling around everywhere *goron goron* the moment she entered the snow hut.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t go wild and destroy the snow hut okay?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai warned her with a troubled face.<br /> <br /> “The ones at this side… are you saying that we are the ones with a half-baked positivity level?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was the last one that entered the snow hut while being fidgety, unable to calm down.<br /> <br /> Kazuki, Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Kazuha-senpai. This snow hut was for these four people.<br /> <br /> “No, in the first place the members that entered this Grand Haunted Ground all have high positivity levels. Among these members, Mio, Koyuki, and Lotte had all passed over 150.”<br /> <br /> Otonashi Kaguya―142 Hoshikaze Hikaru―130 Tsukahara Kazuha―128<br /> <br /> The three of them had passed 100, but they were still short of 150. From Kazuki’s experience, when someone had their positivity level passed 100, from thereon raising their positivity level became not as easy as before.<br /> <br /> Surely it would be difficult to raise their positivity until 150 in this one night. But if he became able to use these three’s high level magic, it would be very reassuring in his preparation for the decisive battle.<br /> <br /> He didn’t mean to raise everyone’s positivity level in order to become strong, but…<br /> <br /> “Hmmm… it feels like after the classmates, now it’s the seniors’ turns.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai noticed the common point of the members here and murmured. Now when she said that, unexpectedly the situation really had turned out like that. Although he had never intended at all to leave the seniors for later just because they were older, things just developed like this.<br /> <br /> In order to dodge the issue, Kazuki followed after Hikaru-senpai and rolled on top of the sheet.<br /> <br /> The sheet insulated the chill from entering and only transmitted the softness of the new snow.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha-, Kazuki baa―m!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai delightfully rolled and rolled and rammed her body at him.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that came rolling at him with quite a power behind her was blocked and then embraced by Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai became docile and rubbed her body against Kazuki in his embrace.<br /> <br /> Gently, Kaguya-senpai too quietly lied down behind Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu… we are expected to pass a night in this cramped place with the objective to raise our positivity level. It feels quite lewd.” Her expression was filled with seductiveness while she whispered into Kazuki’s ears.<br /> <br /> Both of them were in the appearance of their Magic Dress that had been simplified into really light clothing. Hikaru-senpai that was hugged by Kazuki was in the appearance of leotard-style complemented with tight high leg, while Kaguya-senpai who clung at his back was in the appearance of only having her breast from her neck and between her legs slightly hidden.<br /> <br /> Being glued tightly to such two people, sandwiched between them, had already made him in an inflammatory state of emotion.<br /> <br /> “Gulp.”<br /> <br /> With an expression that gulped her saliva, Kazuha-senpai was snugly sitting in seiza at the corner of the snow hut.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… I’m sleepy…”<br /> <br /> With a tone of voice that seemed like acting, Hikaru-senpai closed both her eyes with a snap.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is going to sleep already? That’s right isn’t it… we have to wake up early tomorrow.”<br /> <br /> “Of course that’s not it! There is a stereotype pattern in this kind of time right!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki went ‘hah’ with realization and from then he grew ashamed of his own slow wittedness.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, you are going to die if you sleep here!” He lightly slapped Hikaru-senpai’s cheek.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai went “Uhyaa―” and received the slaps happily while laughing.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… I grew cold.”<br /> <br /> “Ee―rr, what should I do this time…”<br /> <br /> “Let’s warm each other by hugging together naked-!!”<br /> <br /> With a fierce momentum Hikaru-senpai put her hand on Kazuki’s upper uniform.<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a scream “Uwaa-“ and resisted that act, like a pure maiden.<br /> <br /> But both his arms was firmly restrained from behind.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, isn’t it no good to sleep with your uniform I wonder?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai sealed Kazuki’s movement and whispered in his ear while pressing her breasts at him with ‘boing boing’.<br /> <br /> Certainly it was just like she said, however!<br /> <br /> “E, even you two senpai are not naked aren’t you!?”<br /> <br /> After he said that carelessly, he thought of what he was going to do if both of them undressed from even their Magic Dress here.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha☆ Well then I’ll pardon Kazuki and leave your shorts behind!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that was once extolled like a prince proclaimed that with a smiling face.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s hand unfastened all the buttons at his upper wear and Kaguya-senpai behind him took it off. It was a joint action that had been polished. Next they put their hands on the shirt’s buttons.<br /> <br /> It was fine already if he could preserve his short… Kazuki completely thought like that.<br /> <br /> In a flash his white shirt and trouser were pulled off.<br /> <br /> ‘If it keeps like this then it will become something awesome’… Kazuki thought with only a single shorts on him.<br /> <br /> “Wawawa-!” Kazuha-senpai who was sitting in seiza covered her face with both her hands in extreme shyness.<br /> <br /> But she was properly watching from the gaps between her fingers. This person was that kind of person.<br /> <br /> “Ooo―, a boy’s chest!”<br /> <br /> Admiring something that she didn’t have herself, Hikaru-senpai hugged at Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai who had a muscle fetish was trying to draw Kazuki’s body at her direction while saying “My pectoral muscle~”. “I find the treasure~” “This is the treasure of this snow hut~” The two of them joked while rubbing their cheeks against Kazuki’s chest. Getting stripped into his underwear and getting treated like a treasure by older ladies like this…<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai kissed lightly at Kazuki’s neck muscle and pressed her lips stimulatingly. He shuddered. The small tongue that that came out from her lips gently licked from his neck until his chest glidingly.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai too “I see” nodded and then she did the same act. Everywhere on Kazuki’s naked upper body, the two’s lips and tongues were crawling around bewitchingly.<br /> <br /> He felt his body, that had completely chilled from the blizzard, grow hot as if his blood flow was running wild inside.<br /> <br /> He never knew that it felt this good to have his body licked.<br /> <br /> This is bad. Although there were two people that became his partner here, be that as it may, it would be bad if he got driven into the receiving party.<br /> <br /> To have his side as the attacking side instead was… on the contrary a situation where he could keep hold of his reasoning more.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stopped the face of Kaguya-senpai who was moving on top of his chest with a manner of hand picking out something.<br /> <br /> They exchanged gazes. The eyes of Kaguya-senpai were… just as he thought, they had become violet in color.<br /> <br /> First he had to calm down this person, if he didn’t crush them one by one, this night would become something too awesome.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya-senpai, rather than playing with my chest, you want to have your body touched instead, right?”<br /> <br /> Saying that he aimed for the substitution of offense and defense, he traced Kaguya-senpai’s nape of the neck with his finger. Copying the act of senpai just before this, this time it was Kazuki that kissed Kaguya-senpai’s body and softly licked.<br /> <br /> He licked through Kaguya-senpai’s stomach, her back, her sides, while keeping her weak in suspense where he was going to lick. He licked sleekly all over, making Kaguya-senpai’s spine quiver in shivers.<br /> <br /> “…Yes. My breast, I want you to touch them.”The desire of Kaguya-senpai that had become completely sensitive from Asmoudeus’ influence, had been received. She responded to Kazuki’s words without resistance before encircling both her hands on his back and averting her back.<br /> <br /> With a jiggle, that earth-shattering breasts were pushed out at him.<br /> <br /> His feeling became as if a main dish had been suddenly presented at him, Kazuki lifted up that heavy fruit profoundly. Lifting it up, his palm enveloped half of it from below and then he massaged.<br /> <br /> “Ann-, ann-“ Each time he massaged, Kaguya-senpai let out a stimulated cute voice for him.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai took a glance at Kaguya-senpai and her gaze displayed a sign of being embarrassed.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya-senpai when she uses Asmodeus’ power, she will be unable to contain herself all night. That’s why…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki nonchalantly inserted a follow up about this situation. ‘That’s why, it can’t be helped.’<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so, so it cannot be stopped in any way…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai leaned her body forward even while still covering her face with both her hands.<br /> <br /> “It’s true, a sensation reinforcement magic is running on Otonashi-san’s skin. It made her completely sensitive.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s magic intuition saw through Kaguya-senpai’s condition.<br /> <br /> The breast covering vanished from Kaguya-senpai’s Magic Dress. The pink pointed end had swelled up sharply as if saying that it wanted to be touched.<br /> <br /> “Waa…” Kazuha-senpai leaned her body forward.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was already impatient. Victory went to the one who made the first move, Kazuki aimed for that and suddenly sucked at the pointed ends. He slide his tongue from the side, played with it in circles and pecked on the peak.<br /> <br /> “Fuaaaaaaan!♡” Kaguya-senpai raised a shout of joy while small heart marks scattered from her. How much she felt good could be understood from the minute changes in her positivity level.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, Kazuki, you look like a baby. …Me too!” Hikaru-senpai sucked at Kaguya-senpai’s right breast competitively.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru!? Do, don’t…nnnn-!!♡”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s sensitive body reacted fiercely even against the stimulation from the same sex.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling the stimulation had doubled physically, it seemed the abnormal situation of being stimulated by the same sex made Kaguya-senpai completely aroused.<br /> <br /> “Waa… a, amazing…” Kazuha-senpai’s posture was now standing on her legs.<br /> <br /> Even further Kazuki used his empty hand to stroke Kaguya-senpai‘s thighs. Kazuki took the lower body, while Hikaru-senpai attacked the back and the nape of the neck in the upper body.<br /> <br /> The body of Kaguya-senpai who had completely become sensitive several times over was filled with a vortex of pleasure from the two.<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t, if you do that to me… even though I’m being watched…ANN-♡“<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai rapidly turned heated. Like a heat that lost its place to go and ran amok, Kaguya-senpai wriggled her voluptuous thighs back and forth and she rubbed her nether region at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “This place, does senpai want it to be touched?” He asked with a slightly tormenting tone.<br /> <br /> “It, it’s embarrassing…” Kaguya-senpai murmured with a look of dimming reasoning.<br /> <br /> “It can’t be helped because it’s Asmodeus’ fault, senpai.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki said so and removed the binding of Kaguya-senpai’s reasoning.<br /> <br /> He remembered Koyuki’s disheveled state when he stimulated that spot of hers while she was in delirium in the movie theater. The passion of a girl was saved up in this spot. Kaguya-senpai too was also like that… she was more sensitive in this spot than anywhere else.<br /> <br /> He pressed his finger on the nether region part of Kaguya-senpai’s Magic Dress―the Magic Dress vanished as if melting the instant his finger touched, his finger directly went into Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> Even while surprised, Kazuki caressed that sensitive spot as gently as he could.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun…Otouto-kun-!♡ More!! ♡”<br /> <br /> Even though Kazuki was touching gently, it was Kaguya-senpai who shook her waist in order to make Kazuki’s finger pressed on that spot.<br /> <br /> In the case that it actually hurt her, such thing should also be able to be understood from the change of positivity level.<br /> <br /> That was why, Kazuki moved his finger relentlessly and resolutely. What way that would make Kaguya-senpai feel even better… while looking for such a way from the change of the positivity level… he strengthened his movement in one go.<br /> <br /> Her small bead that would make a girl feel even better was generally similar with Koyuki.<br /> <br /> The protuberance on the outside’s upper part, the dripping wet inside, he massaged both with his finger tips.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai raised a voice that was nearly a scream. “Aaa! AAA―!” With such a raised voice, before long Kaguya-senpai’s face looked like it was going to cry “Fuaaa―!”, and then it changed into a distorted expression that tried to endure “Hyii!”. But she didn’t dislike what he did. She was opening both her legs slovenly with liquids flooding out soppily from her lower body. An amazing amount of heart marks were flying at him.<br /> <br /> He whispered “Kaguya, you are really cute” with wholehearted expression at her ear, and then he kissed her white cheek.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun… Kazuki-kun! HYAAAAAANN-!!♡”<br /> <br /> At the end of Kaguya’s sensitivity that had been raised several times over, she reached the highest peak. She was pierced with a sensation unimaginable for a man like Kazuki before her body went limp in a half-fainted state.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt shy at this late hour looking at Kaguya’s naked body that was drenched with sweat and he averted his eyes. He couldn’t look at her in the eyes.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-! Me too…!”<br /> <br /> Without even any time to take a breather, Hikaru-senpai hugged at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> *Chuu* She sucked strongly at Kazuki’s lips. This was something he couldn’t do with Kaguya-senpai, a kiss on the lips.<br /> <br /> “The pleasant feeling of a girl, teach it to me too♪ I also want to become like Kaguya there…”It seemed that Hikaru-senpai was honestly yearning for a pleasure like what Kaguya-senpai experienced.<br /> <br /> Perhaps he was making her learn something dangerous here. Thanks to being treated like a prince until now, this person didn’t have such vulgar thoughts about this kind of thing.<br /> <br /> He embraced her body that was even more slender than Kaguya-senpai and caressed her back and her spine.<br /> <br /> But as if saying that what he did was too slow, Hikaru-senpai<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, my breast♪ Touch my breast♪” She coaxed him.<br /> <br /> When he obediently did what she asked, immediately this time she urged him on “Suck my nipple♪”<br /> <br /> “Fuaaaaaa-! Kazuki is sucking at my breast♡”<br /> <br /> She said it to herself as if making a self-hypnosis to heighten her feelings rapidly. She was in high spirits with all her strength. Hikaru-senpai shook her butt and coaxed him “Ne, my butthole, touch it♪”.<br /> <br /> “Eh, the hole of the butt, senpai says?”<br /> <br /> “Because, in the manga that I read everyone was doing that you know?”<br /> <br /> Before this Hikaru-senpai often read with pleasure boys love manga and mistakenly thought of it as the friendship between men.<br /> <br /> Perhaps it was only a natural curiosity for her too to want to obtain the pleasure that was drawn in the manga for herself.<br /> <br /> A magician could use Psychokinesis to float any filth thoroughly and remove it, so that place was not a dirty place. Kazuki also didn’t have much reluctance for such a thing―he pressed his finger at the leotard that dug into the bottom part.<br /> <br /> “Haaa…♡”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s expression became joyous as if she had obtained the sensation that she had yearned from since she was just a child.<br /> <br /> He shifted the digging clothes to the side and exposed the covered part. He poked weakly with his finger as if knocking. His finger tips caressed the narrow spot and drew circle as if observing the situation.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s expression was melting with bewitching feeling of expectation. Kazuki then determinedly buried his finger into the inside of that place.<br /> <br /> “Aa-, it echoed until the inside of my stomach-“<br /> <br /> He moved in and out his finger like a moving piston, Hikaru-senpai’s dignified face that was called a prince was melting in ecstasy.<br /> <br /> “Haaa, somehow my butt, feels really hot…”<br /> <br /> Rather than calling the sensation she felt intense, it seems that what she felt was more like a heat that slowly surged inside.<br /> <br /> “Aaaaa… something is coming… this is the sensation of a girl…?”<br /> <br /> Even if she called it as a girl’s sensation, he had the feeling that it was not actually something decent. While playing the behind with his right hand, Kazuki reached out his left hand to Hikaru-senpai’s front.<br /> <br /> “Aaaa, from the front and behind… Kazuki is entering my front and behind… you are resounding inside me-!”<br /> <br /> Strength filled the spine of Hikaru-senpai that looked like she had slowly reached prostrate orgasm.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, my girl place, more!♡”<br /> <br /> So that Kazuki could touch the front and behind at the same time easier, Hikaru-senpai held both her own legs under her arms and floated her waist. Her vulgar places were all exposed, making Kazuki reflexively avert his eyes.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, look at my girl places properly here!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai said that in dissatisfaction. Kazuki continued his stimulation in place of a reply.<br /> <br /> “It comes! …Something good is coming…!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stopped sucking her breast and sucked at the shivering girlish lips of Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Nnn… nnnnnnn-!!♡”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s body was fiercely trembling while heart marks flew at him, her body stopped moving with an ecstatic expression. There was no vestige of a prince left anywhere in her. Kazuki gently stroked the girl Hikaru-senpai on her head.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… me, me too…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was leaning her body forward on her knees approached him while still on her knees.<br /> <br /> Even though this was Kazuha-senpai who was supposed to be the owner of the most upright personality among the members here, she had been thoroughly changed by the two girls before her.<br /> <br /> “I, I too want to feel good just like this…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too stood on his knees and faced Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Then senpai too should vanish your Magic Dress.”<br /> <br /> He said that planning to tease her meanly, but Kazuha-senpai even while looking down in shame made her Magic Dress disappear like a mist. The naked body of Kazuha-senpai that he last witnessed in the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave was now bared in front of his eyes.<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively let his gaze crawl through her white skin.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, you are really beautiful.”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t stare at me that intently, quickly, that…”<br /> <br /> “How does senpai want it?”<br /> <br /> “I, I want you to touch me…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced her close with his left hand at her waist. Kazuha-senpai who let herself get pulled clung at Kazuki’s chest. When he impatiently caressed her skin, her white skin was rapidly dyed red.<br /> <br /> That skin of hers dimly emitted magic power light.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, are you using some kind of magic?”<br /> <br /> Like a kid whose misdeed was discovered, Kazuha-senpai twitched.<br /> <br /> “O, Otonashi-san became until like this, so…”<br /> <br /> This was―a sensation strengthening magic. This magic was a complete copy of Asmodeus’ influence that was mimicked using general magic.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki pinched the tips of her breast strongly in a surprise attack, Kazuha-senpai’s body trembled exaggeratedly. Her body became almost as sensitive as Kaguya-senpai, and also even more from how she had been made to wait until the last turn where her passion had been piling up.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, make me become just like those two…”<br /> <br /> “Like those two, like what senpai?”<br /> <br /> “…Li, lick my nipple, suck it…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai became more excited while saying such thing herself, her breath became rough.<br /> <br /> Kazuki did just as she said. He pinched with his left hand, sucked with his mouth at the right side, and his right hand reached out toward her lower body and caressed her butt and thigh.<br /> <br /> After stroking the inside of her thigh for a while, Kazuha-senpai began to fidget her body.<br /> <br /> “Kazukiii…”<br /> <br /> “How does senpai want it, I won’t understand if senpai doesn’t say it out.”<br /> <br /> “Wh, Why are you talking that meanly only to me since a while ago―!”<br /> <br /> “I know that Kazuha-senpai’s reaction when getting bullied is the cutest.”<br /> <br /> “So you have a really warped fetish like that―!”<br /> <br /> Although no matter how he imagined it, it was Kazuha-senpai’s own words and action that made other people want to do such things to her.<br /> <br /> “…Kazu-kun! My, my important place too, I want you to make it feel good!!”<br /> <br /> “Well then senpai, please open your legs yourself.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was in the posture of standing on her knees turned her butt at Kazuki before she opened both her legs so that it would be easier for Kazuki’s right hand to touch. A hot liquid ran along the thigh and wet Kazuki’s hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved his hand in the way that purposefully made a watery sound intensely sounded and inflamed Kazuha-senpai’s shyness.<br /> <br /> “Actually, I can understand what kind of way that makes senpai feel good from the minute changes of the positivity level.”<br /> <br /> “Wha, what’s with that, if that’s true then don’t bully me like that. Uu… your way of touching that raises a sound like that…”<br /> <br /> “That’s why senpai, it’s fine for you to let out your voice honestly and feel good.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s expression brightened with a feeling of expectation at Kazuki’s declaration.<br /> <br /> Kazuki searched for a spot where Kazuha-senpai really felt it―and immediately discovered it.“-! The place just now!”<br /> <br /> When he concentrated at that spot, the piling up passion inside her flamed up all at once.<br /> <br /> “FUAAAAAAAAA-!♡ Kazu-kun! ♡ It feels good, so good!!♡”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s body and heart became honest and clung at Kazuki, a line of saliva trailed down along with a wild breathing in her sweetly melting expression. Kazuki felt it wasteful seeing that and licked the trail with his tongue.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-kun, kiss me too!”<br /> <br /> Maintaining that movement Kazuki indulged deeply at Kazuha-senpai’s lips.<br /> <br /> “NNN-!♡”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai too trembled in shivers and then she sunk down to the floor like a puppet whose strings were cut.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-kun you idiott~”<br /> <br /> He stroked the head of Kazuha-senpai whose face was messed up with shame.<br /> <br /> Immediately after that, “Kazuki-kun-!” “Kazuki!” Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai embraced him from behind as if saying that they had recovered. Their bodies were still feeling hot, the two of them rubbed their bodies and fawned at him. His whole body was enveloped in the softness of girls.<br /> <br /> Kazuki thought of the three girls as cute from the bottom of his heart.<br /> <br /> At the same time he felt that he had to endure his own body’s demand with a self-restraint of steel.<br /> <br /> Until the end Kazuki would only admire the three girls’ lovely reactions.<br /> <br /> He absolutely must not do something more than that.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> Kanae couldn’t help herself from becoming concerned towards the other snow hut even while standing guard.<br /> <br /> When the day became night, the blizzard became even more terrible. Perhaps this kind of thing was not really a big deal for the bunch of the Magic Division, but for Kanae this was a fierce blizzard even though she was just standing guard like this.<br /> <br /> ‘What kind of ordinary day that Nii-sama always spent with everyone of the Witch’s Mansion I wonder…’ Kanae was staring fixedly at the snow hut. Usually she could move such thought away from her mind thanks to the distance between the Witch’s Mansion and the Sword Division’s dormitory, but tonight, that was impossible and she became really concerned.<br /> <br /> ‘Even Nii-sama is not a blockhead that doesn’t have any desire.’ When she tempted Nii-sama, even while saying unkind things from his mouth, Kanae had noticed that inside, his heart was beating really fast.<br /> <br /> If Nii-sama was surrounded by that many girls and being loved… surely they would even do something a little perverted many times already. Though of course, Nii-sama was a person that absolutely wouldn’t pass the line that must not be passed.<br /> <br /> Kanae felt the loneliness of having only herself left alone.<br /> <br /> Nii-sama felt a debt of gratitude toward the Hayashizaki house and obstinately tried to maintain the distance of a brother and a sister in regards to Kanae.<br /> <br /> And then he shouldered the destiny where he had to create bonds with women that possessed Stigmata.<br /> <br /> Thinking about Nii-sama’s sincerity and the weight of the destiny he shouldered, I thought that I must not feel something like jealousy. However…<br /> <br /> If she at least had a Stigmata, she wondered whether she too would obtain the qualification to be loved by Nii-sama as a woman…<br /> <br /> {Have thou felt like it to make a contract with I…?}<br /> <br /> At the feet of Kanae who was standing still inside the blizzard, an avatar of a small black cat was approaching.<br /> <br /> “…It’s only a weakness that welled up because of the cold wind.”<br /> <br /> Kanae looked down at the black cat with a glare.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 090.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> The avatar of the black cat snuggled close to Kanae’s foot with a brisk step―and entered into the body of Kanae who had grown cold from the blizzard. The sensation gradually changed into a mysterious heat.<br /> <br /> “…You, you were shadowing me since the afternoon weren’t you? You were the one that was frequently sending heat into me like this.”<br /> <br /> {The most that I can do for a human that is not contracted with me is only something to this degree.}<br /> <br /> “Stop a behavior like this that pushes for a favor from me. My answer will not change for eternity.”<br /> <br /> {…I understand well thy temperament. Thou are a proud human with purity inside. Completely like the blade of the katana that thou wield.}<br /> <br /> “That’s right, I am a single katana.”<br /> <br /> {I… don’t mean to push any favor to you. It’s purely just my wish to aid thou. I just want to take away thy suffering. I don’t know anything else that I can do to help.}<br /> <br /> Despite how he was a terribly obstinate Diva that didn’t have even a single contractor until now, that voice of his was mysteriously gentle.<br /> <br /> “Besides why don’t I have an Enigma? Pushing Enigma to the contractor one-sidedly that is enforced by the law is you guys’ original way of doing things right?”<br /> <br /> {…Bestowing Enigma to thee is going against the rule of Enigma. Enigma was a simple mark for the sake of reserving early a possessor of excellent talent. And then Solomon 72 Pillar, certainly, we made the humans create the law that forcefully raised the people who received an Enigma into a Magika Stigma without fail. That is to make the excellent human think that they have the obligation. If the humans with excellent talent don’t become Magika Stigma then this country will not be able to maintain itself… there is also that kind of circumstances. …However there is no talent inside thee as a Magika Stigma.}<br /> <br /> Kanae harbored a good impression towards Beleth’s honest manner of speaking.<br /> <br /> {Falling in love at first sight based on a completely personal interest towards someone who has no talent, moreover bestowing the Enigma only after confirming it, such an act that makes someone lose the freedom of their life doesn’t stand to any reason. That’s why there is nothing I can do except to negotiate with thee whether thou will do me a favor and receive the Stigma.}<br /> <br /> “I see, you mean that I have the right to refuse. Then, I refuse. …Even though you give me the consideration until that much, but can you really be this persistent just because of the problem of your own preference?”<br /> <br /> {If it keeps like this thou… shall inevitably be left behind from the path where Hayashizaki Kazuki is going to advance, and so I thought that it can’t be kept like this. Thou should become the conquer target of Hayashizaki Kazuki, that’s what I thought.}<br /> <br /> “…Is that so. But your thinking is mistaken. That is something that I absolutely mustn’t do.”<br /> <br /> {Why?}<br /> <br /> It was not bad to be frank about her true feelings towards this resident of another world that didn’t have any ties of obligation.<br /> <br /> “Since I was a child, I continued to live thinking only about becoming the strongest swordsman as the successor of the Hayashizaki-style. I am a single katana since I was born. But I am not blessed with a physique of a swordsman. The truth is, I was always insecure whether I was really worthy as the successor. At that kind of time, father brought Nii-sama home from the orphanage after seeing his talent. At that time I thought [It doesn’t matter anymore].”<br /> <br /> {…That’s so unlike thee.}<br /> <br /> “Actually, I am not even that strong as a human. But mysteriously, the moment I gave up to be the successor… doing sword practice together with Nii-sama became fun. And then Nii-sama also taught me the joy of life outside of the sword art. Nii-sama was the person that made me human.”<br /> <br /> {But currently, thou is trying to become a single katana once again. Rejecting to make a contract with me.}<br /> <br /> “That’s because an enigma appeared on Nii-sama’s hand. Nii-sama shouldered the destiny where he could not become the successor of the Hayashizaki-style, that position rolled back to me once again. All this time I didn’t want to recognize that. It was great to be together with Nii-sama. I wanted Nii-sama to be the strongest swordsman. I was… scared to return back into being a single katana again. It was scary to face my own powerlessness.”<br /> <br /> Kanae spewed out her true feelings that she had never leaked out to anyone before.<br /> <br /> “I won’t recognize Nii-sama’s departure to the Magic Division! …The true feelings of me, who had continued to say such things all along is what I just told you. I didn’t want to become the successor. It was scary. I was going to continue to drag Nii-sama’s feet behind like that. Does this kind of me… have the qualifications to think of wanting to be loved by Nii-sama?”<br /> <br /> Kanae once again directed her gaze at the snow hut where her big brother was in.<br /> <br /> Nii-sama was shouldering an enormous destiny, he was being affectionate to other girls.<br /> <br /> ‘I, who am always holding Nii-sama back, don’t have the qualifications to enter into that…’<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama is going to stand on his own feet, independent from the Hayashizaki house. He is going to step into an even grander destiny. Then, I too have to face my own destiny. I have to become the strongest swordsman and see off Nii-sama’s becoming independent. As the eldest daughter of the Hayashizaki house. You understand now, Beleth. By receiving a Stigmata from you and becoming Nii-sama’s conquer target, Nii-sama will worry about the genealogy of the Hayshizaki-style coming to an end, he will notice my weak heart that escaped from my destiny, he will only harbor despair and pity towards me. A human that cannot face her own destiny has no qualifications at all to be loved by anyone!”<br /> <br /> She would continue the Hayashizaki-style as the strongest swordsman, with that Nii-sama would be able to leave the nest of the Hayashizaki house with relief, to step out onto an even more rigorous destiny.<br /> <br /> At such a time, she would be able to face Nii-sama once more.<br /> <br /> The blizzard suddenly stopped. Kanae looked up to the night sky. Wind that was several times stronger than at the surface blew and washed away the clouds in the blink of an eye, the weather of the mountain changed suddenly in an instant.<br /> <br /> At that moment, the cloud flowed away and the blizzard vanished like a miracle, opening the starry night all over the sky. It was as if she was seeing the night sky for the first time. The sky looked close as if her hand could reach out to it, countless millions of stars were shining.<br /> <br /> “I will become a single katana.”<br /> <br /> The radiance of the stars had not a single murkiness in it, like the clearness of a katana.<br /> <br /> She, too, wanted to be like that, Kanae thought.<br /> <br /> {Thou art sublimely beautiful right now. Thy heart is undoubtedly like a polished blade.}<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> Late at night―the executive room at the highest floor of Oosaka’s government office building.<br /> <br /> Inside, a strange soliloquy was resounding.<br /> <br /> “7-6 knight, checkmate. …Aa―, it’s impossible already! As I thought shogi is just impossible, impossible! Amberjack! Greater Amberjack!” &lt;ref&gt;I don’t really understand this part. I think it’s something like a word play here. At first the person here was talking impossible impossible, which in Japanese is ‘muri, muri’. And then he continued with ‘buri’, which is amberjack fish in Japanese, and continued again with ‘kanpachi’ which means greater amberjack, but the word also sound similar with ‘kanpai’ which is a word that the Japanese people say when they toast their glass. Mind you, I could be totally wrong&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> It was a girl’s voice ―the voice of Kaya.<br /> <br /> The tone of voice was Kaya’s, but a way of talking that was different than Kaya was alternately mixing in it.<br /> <br /> “…That’s why I told you already, the random factor in shogi is zero, it was reckless of you. But playing against someone that omitted his eight pieces of rook, bishop, lance, knight, and silver general, ‘as expected maybe I can win here―’ anybody will think like that ain’t it! If you are gonna play then let’s play a game that has some random factor in it yeah, this kind of logic game just ain’t suited for you y’know? Don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot, c’mon―!”<br /> <br /> The girl’s arm toppled over the shogi board that was on top of the marble table. The shogi pieces that were depicting a disastrous war situation were scattered everywhere with clattering sounds.<br /> <br /> “Even me don’t like a game with zero random factor in it. &lt;ref&gt;The me just now is referring to man&lt;/ref&gt; Why? ‘Cause there ain’t any chaos in it. A game without any uncertain factor in it is just too boring, this is just the Cosmos Side’s game.”<br /> <br /> ―This was a soliloquy that was not a soliloquy.<br /> <br /> The two minds that occupied a single body were alternately talking.<br /> <br /> Using just a single mouth that Kaya had, the one who was talking with Kaya was Loki.<br /> <br /> Both of them could also exchange words only inside their head, but they much preferred to actually let out their voices when talking. Especially for a Diva, just moving their flesh body was a really pleasant thing.<br /> <br /> After talking too much they now wanted to drink. Kaya reached out her hand to the pet bottle on top of the table and drank it all in one go. What she drank was a carbonated drink from the former era named [Root beer] that she recently got addicted to.<br /> <br /> Loki who shared Kaya’s senses suddenly raised a scream.<br /> <br /> “It stinks! That drink is just too stinky!! Drink something more natural, you! Don’t wanna! This chemical flavor is just unbearable y’know. Eei, shit!”<br /> <br /> In order to remove the bad taste, Loki gulped down the whole bottle of the sweet potato shochu &lt;ref&gt;Japanese liquor&lt;/ref&gt; named [Invitation to Hell] that had been put beforehand on top of the table. It was a sake that he bought because he was pleased with the name. A scream suddenly resounded all of a sudden.<br /> <br /> “GYAA―! My throat is burning! Hahaha, serves you right, get sterilized you idiot tongue!”<br /> <br /> Kaya’s body was in agony while laughing.<br /> <br /> “C’mon, just drink a lighter sake. No way, the balance between the punch of the alcohol strength and the taste is important in what is called as alcohol, the nasty sake with alcohol below 20% is not alcohol at all. Geez―, Loki you idiot! Being an alcoholic even though you are sharing a body with a girl is just the worst! The idiot one is your sense of taste here! What are you gonna do if you even get me addicted with this root beer addiction of yours!! Ah, just as I thought? Looks like you also started to get to like it eh!? …Yeah. It’s vexing but yeah. Yeeeiii, my root beer comrade♪”<br /> <br /> They got along well with each other.<br /> <br /> Loki was thinking ―he left alone the consciousness of this girl on a whim, but she made things fairly interesting here and there.<br /> <br /> Sharing a life with another person like this was filled with many really new discoveries.<br /> <br /> Both of them had an open personality that knew no shame, so they were not bothered at all even with a life of zero privacy like this.<br /> <br /> For Kaya, even in the case when she was sleeping and during that time both of their flesh body got strangely mixed up, so when she woke up she found her own body grew out the penis of Loki’s giant’s body, she could still laugh explosively while holding her stomach. She was the owner of a personality that could do such a thing.<br /> <br /> Loki too was so Loki that he was not flustered, even when he was sharing a body with a girl. In the first place he was the ultimate borderless god whose forte was sex change, on the contrary he even had an incomprehensible heroic saga where he transformed into a mare where he was then brought into a reverse rape as the Sasoi’uke by a giant’s powerful male horse. At that time he got pregnant and the foal that was born from that later on became Odin’s beloved horse, the famous &lt;Sleipnir&gt;. With rape being the case.<br /> <br /> Both of them were completely a match made in heaven.<br /> <br /> While the two of them were getting roused up from their matching mood in one body, there was a knocking sound *kon kon* from the door.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine to just enter anytime without knocking. This great me doesn’t have any moment where I’m gonna get ashamed of being seen.”<br /> <br /> Loki who didn’t have any shame lightly permitted the visitor who came this late at night to enter the room.<br /> <br /> The door was opened and the one who entered was a group of three of male and female.<br /> <br /> All of them were wearing the hooded robe that was the proof of being an illegal magician.<br /> <br /> “Oh, it’s you guys.” Loki’s voice brightened and he welcomed them.<br /> <br /> The three respectively were the illegal magicians that were possessed by Midgardsormr, Fenrir, and Hel.<br /> <br /> These three Divas were Loki’s real children.<br /> <br /> However they were quite unworthy of their father because they couldn’t really succeed in taking over their human’s flesh body.<br /> <br /> ‘Despite being my kids why are their performances this bad huh?’ Loki thought inside his heart in marvel.<br /> <br /> In front of his children, Loki transformed Kaya’s body into his own body. His body contour distorted flabbily like an amoeba and without even emitting any magic power light the body smoothly morphed into Loki’s appearance.<br /> <br /> “Nyoro nyoro.”<br /> <br /> “Midgardsormr, you too has become considerably like a snake huh. Quickly shed off your skin already.”<br /> <br /> “Aoo―n, ao―n.”<br /> <br /> “Fenrir, you too have turned like a dog this far huh. Can you pee while raising one of your legs now?”<br /> <br /> Towards the illegal magicians whose bodies had began to be deeply influenced by the Divas possessing them, Loki ignored the original personalities of the bodies and called them with the name of his own child. After stroking the heads of the two, he turned towards his youngest daughter Hel.<br /> <br /> “…”<br /> <br /> “Ou, Hel. You too have your complexion worsened like a death god… hm? Hel, you…?”<br /> <br /> “Papa. I, have reached it already see.”<br /> <br /> At that time, the body that was clad in a dark robe emitted a powerful light.<br /> <br /> “Ooooh-!?” Loki raised a joyful voice. Inside the light, the silhouette of the illegal magician changed its shape like a jelly. In the blink of an eye it drew out the small―petite silhouette of a girl.<br /> <br /> “Hel, you finally did it! As expected from my daughter!!”<br /> <br /> Loki tried to hug the girl’s silhouette by jumping into the light.<br /> <br /> The girl’s silhouette sleekly dodged the jump.<br /> <br /> “Papa… I’m, not a child anymore you see. Stop trying to hug me already.”<br /> <br /> The shining light settled down―Hel had clearly materialized her body.<br /> <br /> With a bluish-white skin, her appearance was of a very young girl. Her body was clad in pure black gothic clothes that matched Kaya’s taste, her right eye was covered with an eyepatch.<br /> <br /> Her noble look and blue hair that were inherited from Loki emitted a ghastliness that was not from a person of this world.<br /> <br /> Hel―because she was Loki’s biological child she was still young, but in Norse Mythology she was the Queen of the World of the Dead that accomplished an important role. Loki greeted her materialization with a radiant smile.<br /> <br /> “Hahaha, you shy kid. Papa is very lonely just by myself y’know. Comrades that papa can trust right from the heart are only you three after all.”<br /> <br /> Loki forcefully hugged Hel while sinking his waist on the black-leather sofa.<br /> <br /> Hel averted her face to the side and replied with a coldness of hell.<br /> <br /> “Even without us, papa doesn’t really mind and is always having fun right? Papa is saying things like comrade, even though papa actually doesn’t need anything like that in your heart.”<br /> <br /> “Why are saying such a cold thing to your papa that you have met after a long time? If you don’t act more honest and be sweet to papa, papa is gonna get lonely here…”<br /> <br /> “Nyoro nyoro” “Aoo―n”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 096.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> When Loki hung his head down dejectedly, the two people possessed by Midgardsormr and Fenrir consoled him.<br /> <br /> In the past it was also like this but, these two were stupidly kind to Loki.<br /> <br /> “Hmph. I hate papa so much.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? If so then, well, it’s fine already. However, why did you suddenly become able to steal the body in one go?”<br /> <br /> Loki raised his face in a snap and asked.<br /> <br /> “…Putting me aside like that… Hmph, it’s Ikousai. When I went along with that girl’s training I grasped the trick.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai lately made these three to accompany her training. It was the special training for the sake of perfectly controlling the power of Susanoo that resided inside her. So that was it, by observing the state of Ikousai, who was controlling the power of her Diva, she grasped the trick to steal a human’s body using the reverse operation of that process.<br /> <br /> “Oi, Midgardsomr and Fenrir. You guys also went along with Ikousai’s training right? Why is there no progress with you guys. This ain’t the time to go ‘nyoro nyoro’ or ‘aoo―n’ y’know.”<br /> <br /> “It’s impossible for these two, they are idiots after all. I’m the smartest here after all.”<br /> <br /> With a proud huff Hel turned up her nose haughtily, “…I’m the best, I’m taking after papa the closest” she added so with a small voice.<br /> <br /> “Right. However this is a joyous occasion. Should we have red rice for the meal tomorrow? Papa is going to fill this room with humans until bursting and make them make a lot of red rice yeah.” &lt;ref&gt;Red rice or sekihan, made from beans and mochi for auspicious occasions&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Re, red rice or whatever isn’t tasty, so it’s not like I’m happy or anything with that. Well, if you are going to congratulate me then it’s fine even if you do as you please…”<br /> <br /> “Well, that’s just a joke though. I too don’t like red rice, it’s troublesome.”<br /> <br /> “…!!” Hel stood up from on top of Loki’s knees and hit Loki’s shoulder repeatedly.<br /> <br /> Even while those hits got repelled by a blue defensive magic power, Loki got flustered while saying “What, what’s with you!”<br /> <br /> “…Papa is no different whether now or in the past. Papa is only joking around or saying insincere words. Even though I’m now able to materialize after a long time, why is papa not facing me with more of your real feelings…”<br /> <br /> Hel murmured in complaint with a small voice.<br /> <br /> “Nn? What are you grumbling there?”<br /> <br /> “Nothing at all!”<br /> <br /> Hel raised an angry voice that sounded like a flame of hell. Loki went “Sca, scary…” and shrank back from his biological daughter.<br /> <br /> {Heh heh… Loki, so when you are in front of your kids you are like this.}<br /> <br /> Kaya who was watching over the situation laughed sardonically inside Loki’s head.<br /> <br /> “Anyway, I’ll go after that guy called Hayashizaki Kazuki. Just leave the rest to me.”<br /> <br /> Hel crossed her arms and suddenly began to talk.<br /> <br /> “Hah? Leave it to you? Papa is not blessed with capable people, so papa never got to test whether leaving something to another person is gonna go well or not.”<br /> <br /> “I have grasped the situation even while just possessing this body. Hayashizaki Kazuki is going to the deepest parts of Fuji’s sea of trees to take the last one of the Three Sacred Treasures. …Ame no Murakumo. That thing is probably, the thing that made us thoroughly miserable 14 years ago right? That kind of thing, must not be handed over to the enemy.”<br /> <br /> “Even if you say that, that place is sealed by that woman’s power. We cannot enter there.”<br /> <br /> “It’s possible. If it’s me. That seal is something that was put up by that woman… a dead person.”<br /> <br /> Hel puffed up her chest as if wanting to say “It’s fine for you to praise me.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so, if you have recovered your power… now you can make full use of your power as the god of death.”<br /> <br /> “Dead person is my attribute. I can look up the soul of dead people that I know from Astrum and form a connection to them. The soul of the dead that is maintaining the seal in that Haunted Ground… when that woman shows her appearance in front of Hayashizaki Kazuki, I’ll do that and I’ll eat that woman’s soul. And then I’m going to materialize my figure in that place.”<br /> <br /> So to speak, a warp that was using the desecration of a dead person.<br /> <br /> By reducing her own flesh into a mass of enormous magic power, she was going to connect to the soul of a dead person that was in a different place through the mental world. The soul of a dead person was the remains of magic power that kept clinging at Astrum―so to speak the remaining dregs of a mind.<br /> <br /> By consuming the soul of that dead person, she would reveal her appearance by moving into the soul of the dead person that was in that place.<br /> <br /> Warp magic―it was a feat that not many Divas could do even if they had materialized.<br /> <br /> “He will see the one that he is talking with right in front of his eyes suddenly change into me. I’m going to launch a surprise attack right there when he is shocked. He is going to be helpless. And then I’m going to massacre the lot and bring back the Sacred Treasure. How’s that, papa? It’s perfect right? It’s fine even if you praise me. Though it’s not like I’m happy or anything getting praised by Papa.”<br /> <br /> ‘That strategy is gonna make Hayashizaki Kazuki go into rage huh’ , Loki thought.<br /> <br /> ‘That strategy is going to make Kazuki-oniichan go mad with rage huh’, Kaya also thought,<br /> <br /> When [a person that knew Hayashizaki Kazuki] imagined that strategy’s progression, for some reason rather than success there was only a dangerous premonition welling up inside their heart. That was how much Loki and Kaya were being in awe of his force of will.<br /> <br /> “…Just stop it, that’s dangerous.”<br /> <br /> “Eh? Why?”<br /> <br /> “Because the one who can warp like that, is just you right? Hayashizaki Kazuki that snapped, is just scary. If that guy fight without thinking of the consequences, he could even fight against the other Kings.”<br /> <br /> “There is no way for me who has already materialized to lose against something like a human at all!”<br /> <br /> “You say that but, even papa has the experience of almost losing against that guy y’know. See, this in papa’s chest, it’s the scar from that time.”<br /> <br /> When Loki exposed the chest behind his shirt and showed his scar, Hel’s face went beet red and covered her face with both hands.<br /> <br /> “I, idiot! Don’t take it off out of nowhere like that! Papa really doesn’t have any delicacy! You perverted father! Since a long time ago you always loitered around naked after rising from the bath, that kind of papa is just the worst!”<br /> <br /> Loki fixed back his shirt while being dejected.<br /> <br /> “Why are you this shy of a person despite being my daughter… daughters at that age are really troublesome eh. I get along much better with Kaya.”<br /> <br /> Hel’s expression went stiff in a snap from that nonchalant comment and she became even more obstinate.<br /> <br /> “Besides papa’s win and loss cannot become any consideration at all! Anyway that time papa was just careless right!? If we just leave that guy alone and get careless, it will immediately become a pinch for us.”<br /> <br /> “There was also that but… Papa you see, is just worried for you.”<br /> <br /> “That’s a lie!” Hel refuted that with a menacing look like the earthquake of hell.<br /> <br /> “Papa isn’t worried or anything at all for me! Papa is just making light of me all along! Telling me that I cannot do anything right, papa is always, always looking down on me!!”<br /> <br /> “I ain’t looking down on you at all here. No, strictly speaking I’m looking down on you though. Everyone except papa are all idiots after all, so it’s not like papa is specially thinking of you as an idiot y’see.”<br /> <br /> {Ahaha, you’re the worst―} Kaya was laughing hard.<br /> <br /> “Papa is not worrying about me, papa is just thinking of that guy Hayashizaki Kazuki as more important than me! Even though all this time papa has already had so many chances to kill that guy already!”<br /> <br /> His biological daughter’s discerning eye made Loki shocked instead. Kaya too {Ooo-} reflexively ooh-ed in admiration.<br /> <br /> “Just why does papa let that guy live until now!? That kind of man, can be nothing else but an hindrance to our plan!”<br /> <br /> “That guy is also one of the pawns that I can use. …Among the Magic Advanced Countries, Japan is the only country that can form an alliance with another country. With Japan becoming a force that cannot be ignored, the balance between the countries that struggle for supremacy coulda be broken. I don’t want to face those Magic Advanced Countries honestly from the front.”<br /> <br /> “That’s just an excuse! Our original plan was to make this country, Japan as the base of us, the Divas of the Chaos Side, as the abode of demons where we can hijack the humans of this country that had no divine protection of the advanced countries! That’s the original expectation of us of the Loki’s Einherjar!”<br /> <br /> “It doesn’t really matter where we gotta do that, anywhere is fine. …The first plan had become hard because the &lt;Zero Knight&gt; really whooped our asses. That couldn’t be helped.”<br /> <br /> Kaya was shocked hearing Loki’s way of speaking. This was the first time this Diva had the sense of defeat mixed into his actions.<br /> <br /> To steal this country and turn it into their own base, couldn’t be done except in that era.<br /> <br /> Right now, the Magic Advanced Countries had already gathered too much strength. They already couldn’t do anything that stood out.<br /> <br /> That was why, rather than gathering strength, they had to plan that prioritized shaving off their surrounding’s strength. …Loki was thinking like that.<br /> <br /> “…Papa right now, just wanted Hayashizaki Kazuki to inherit the will of the Zero Knight, and then try to fight it once more.”<br /> <br /> “You are thinking too much.”<br /> <br /> Hel shook her head vigorously and turned on her heel.<br /> <br /> “I don’t know anybody like papa anymore! I’m going to kill that guy!!”<br /> <br /> Just like that she rushed out of the door with a force that almost smashed apart the door and left the room. Having been left behind, the two humans that were possessed by Fenrir and Midgardsormr were lost “Nyoro” “Ao―n”.<br /> <br /> “…Aaa, she went and left. Why is she like… wonder if she didn’t hear what I told her. Ain’t her plan just a suicide attack when she ain’t preparing any escape route like this?”<br /> <br /> Loki sank his waist into the sofa and gulped his sweet potato shochu.<br /> <br /> “Why is she that stupid despite being my kid I wonder. &lt;ref&gt;That’s not surprising when the father of your kid is just dumb animal right? Edit(Omega): Actually, Fenrir, Midgardsomr and Hel were fathered by Loki, while the mother was a Frost giant… Sleipnir was the only child of his he mothered&lt;/ref&gt; When I was having children, the ones that come out were suddenly a snake, a dog, and a corpse, well, like that there ain’t no way these bunches are going to turn out decent though, but even so I thought that the girl was still better cos’ she had human shape. What a stupid daughter.”<br /> <br /> {…Loki, why did you even make something like children?}<br /> <br /> Kaya asked while enduring the numbing sensation of the alcohol.<br /> <br /> “I wanted them in the past see. I thought that for comrades that I can have faith in, one that absolutely won’t betray me, ain’t it fine if I just make them myself.” Loki leaked out a voice that was unexpectedly crestfallen and lonely.<br /> <br /> “…After all whether it was those gods of Asgard, or those giants, in the end, none of them can be trusted.”<br /> <br /> Loki’s birth origin was the giant race. The Norse Mythology was a legend about the enfolding conflict between the gods of Asgard and the giant race. Kaya vividly imagined Loki’s position in the middle of such conflict.<br /> <br /> Loki joined the group of Asgard’s gods, exchanged the cup of sworn brother with Odin, and his relation with Thor became something that was called as bosom friend.<br /> <br /> But in the end he betrayed the gods of Asgard and a fierce battle was enfolding.<br /> <br /> In the end, his words that no one could be trusted was heavy.<br /> <br /> “But I noticed in the middle that such thinking was too naïve. It’s not about fearing treachery, what’s important is to corner the surrounding bunches into a situation where they have no way to betray you. I’m not looking for something like other people that you can trust. Other people are to be used. They are pawns. That way of thinking really worked well.”<br /> <br /> {But that girl, Hel, you cannot handle her as pawn well eh.}<br /> <br /> Kaya pointed out with a sharpness that stabbed right at the heart of the matter. Loki gulped his shochu.<br /> <br /> “That girl, I cannot move her well. What is that girl looking for, what kind of bait that girl will take, I really don’t understand at all.”<br /> <br /> {I think that what that girl is looking for is really easy to understand though.}<br /> <br /> “Is that so? …It’s incomprehensible for me.”<br /> <br /> Surely he was just pretending to not understand, Kaya thought.<br /> <br /> Surely Hel had seen through something like a fake love completely. That was why she was constantly angry.<br /> <br /> But a love that was right from the heart couldn’t be called as bait anymore.<br /> <br /> Loki who had decided to treat everything as a pawn was unable to give something like love right from his heart to other people. That was why, even for Loki the trickster, that attempted to manipulate everything, Hel was the only one in the world that he couldn’t use.<br /> <br /> Perhaps all the words that Hel threw at him were all truth. Loki had lost the argument against his daughter.<br /> <br /> “Really… the matter just cannot go my way.”<br /> <br /> Kaya noticed. How that murmur sounded a little happy.<br /> <br /> {…It doesn’t go your way, that’s why you’re looking forward to it aren’t you? An uncertain factor. Basically it’s that kind of thing isn’t it?}<br /> <br /> Loki loved something uncertain. Surely Loki―loved Hel as an uncertain factor.<br /> <br /> “It’s just like what you are thinking.” Loki laughed.<br /> <br /> Hel couldn’t understand a love in such shape. That child from now on too would hunger for love, wander, and continue to act in an astounding way. Loki continued to watch that while drinking his sake.<br /> <br /> Kaya also thought that it was pleasant. She couldn’t explain why she was having fun with such an unpleasant hobby but, without doubt, such things brought joy to Kaya and Loki.<br /> <br /> She and Kazuki-oniichan were also the same. When saying “I want love”, Kazuki-oniichan would surely face the other party directly. But for her, she already didn’t want such a straightforward feeling. That was why she rejected that, did crazy things―and just earnestly wanting to trouble Onii-chan.<br /> <br /> That kind of reliable Onii-chan was manipulated around with her every single action. That was great.<br /> <br /> Inside her head was becoming full with contradiction and bankrupt personality. It was pleasant for such tragedy to be her aesthetics.<br /> <br /> Kaya felt her [bond of chaos] with Loki that could understand that become even more irreplaceable.<br /> <br /> “…By the way, what kind of person was that Zero Knight?”<br /> <br /> Kaya was interested with Loki’s past. She felt that his past that she was completely ignorant of, was like a large river that stretched out between her bonds with Loki.<br /> <br /> “I had several chances to meet her face to face and talked to her. That woman was someone that said things like [I fight in order to protect everyone!] with sparkling eyes.”<br /> <br /> “Ugee―. That’s the honor student type that I’m bad with.”<br /> <br /> “Hearing that I… more like my host was thinking like this. This guy is strong. So let’s massacre all her important people and plunder the will to fight, the will to live from this woman. I’m going to make that sparkling eyes get polluted.”<br /> <br /> “O, ooo… what an awesome idea.”<br /> <br /> “My host and my comrades ran around from the Zero Knight and massacred the Zero Knight’s family, friend, acquaintance, we cleaned all of them up. So that she won’t even have any feelings of revenge, we did it thoroughly. There was only this one strange pipsqueak foreigner that called the Zero Knight [Nee-sama] that we failed to kill because she was quite strong, but, other than that one pipsqueak, we killed them all.”<br /> <br /> There was no more reason for the Zero Knight to fight―the circumstance became something like that.<br /> <br /> There was no more will to protect or anything that she could feel. It wouldn’t even be strange if she commited suicide because of the despair.<br /> <br /> “And then, what did the Zero Knight do?”<br /> <br /> “For a while her whereabouts was concealed. During that time my host and comrades went wild as much as we wanted. But… that woman came back.”<br /> <br /> “Ooo-…! She came back for revenge?”<br /> <br /> “No, she didn’t have the desire for revenge. That woman said [Someone like you has to be defeated without fail] with a steady gaze. She was not talking pretty things with sparkling eyes… she talked justice with piercingly threatening eyes.”<br /> <br /> “…That woman, was scary wasn’t she?”<br /> <br /> “Yeah, even my host was trembling. My consciousness that time was vague but, maybe I too was shaking in my boots. We ran away until the depth of a left alone Haunted Ground that was surrounded by a wall but we got pursued, and then she entered a one-on-one fight at the summit of Mt. Fuji. There, they simultaneously killed each other.”<br /> <br /> “Then that means you guys didn’t lose then.”<br /> <br /> “Well, it felt like a loss. Our plan also got toppled over. Right before the Zero Knight’s death, so that the special Sacred Treasure that she used could be handed over to the hands of a worthy human, she burned her remaining life and put up a seal.”<br /> <br /> “Loki is thinking that you want for that Sacred Treasure to be handed over to Kazuki-oniichan aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> There was reverence towards the Zero Knight inside Loki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki is… a worthy guy to inherit the conviction of the Zero Knight. In the deepest part of the Grand Haunted Ground, that kind of thing is waiting for that guy.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> The next morning, Kazuki and the others crept out from the snow huts along with the dawn and lined up in front of the tremendous rock wall while looking up at it. When they tried to take a detour, they soon hit a deep valley in their way. No matter what they had to challenge this wall in order to climb to their destination.<br /> <br /> What was in front of them was not a slope anymore, but a wall that stood upright like a folding screen. The angle began from around 50°, and then the angle gradually became closer to being vertical. The rock surface was exposed due to the wind but here and there were snows piling up inside rock cavities, making the wall look like a pattern of brown and white speckles. The wall continued until very high without the end in sight.<br /> <br /> It was as if they were witnessing the god of earth.<br /> <br /> “When I climbed this mountain in the past, there was no wall like this that looked like the Grandes Jorasses though.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei said that while breathing out white vapor. “Haunted Grounds will change even its terrain with the thickness of its magic power. With days and months that passed, the Haunted Ground will evolve into something outrageous.”<br /> <br /> “This, how will we climb this?”<br /> <br /> “There is no other way than to cling onto the wall with both legs and arms like a lizard and climb. Let’s have Koyuki create one more ice axe for each of us.”<br /> <br /> Ice axe―a hammer in a T-shape model. It was a mountain climbing assistance tool in a shape like a bar with its tip turned into a sharp blade. With ice axes in both hands, they had to drive in the blade in position as high as they could one hand at a time.<br /> <br /> Crampons―similarly with the ice claws Koyuki made for them on both of their legs, they had to kick in the claws on their toes in position as high as they could one foot at a time. They nailed the ice axes at their hands and the crampons on their feet alternately into the rock surface. They crawled up little by little. There was no other way to go up other than to steadily do that.<br /> <br /> They supported their body by alternately stabbing the blade and claw into the rock surface deeply. So that they would be fine even if their balance broke and fell, they stretched out a rope between them so that all members were supporting each other.<br /> <br /> They wouldn’t die even if they fell, but… they would need to climb back steadily from the start again.<br /> <br /> “There will be falling rock, Demon Beasts will also come attacking.”<br /> <br /> The one in the head that would support the comrades that were following after him in critical times must be excellent in stamina.<br /> <br /> “Should the one that becomes the lead be me or Kazuha-senpai?”<br /> <br /> “Shall I do it?”<br /> <br /> “There is no doubt that Kazuha-senpai who can manipulate general magic flexibly is competent for this role, but what is really demanded in this role is being calm, cool, and collected to quickly deal with the problem that can happen.”<br /> <br /> If just that one point was excluded, Kazuha-senpai would be even more suitable than Kazuki for this. But just that one aspect made him thoroughly uneasy about letting Kazuha-senpai do this.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai focused her eyes and considered Kazuki’s words. And then she immediately averted her eyes uneasily.<br /> <br /> But she also couldn’t retract her previous offer and so her mouth kept closing and opening wordlessly.<br /> <br /> “Also with a girl in her Magic Dress right above me will only make me unable to concentrate from all the lewdness, so as I thought it’s better if I’m the one in the lead.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki threw out a life line to Kazuha-senpai which made Kazuha-senpai’s expression relieved before she pushed Kazuki’s shoulder while saying “Yo, you pervert! As I thought you are the one that will be in the lead!”<br /> <br /> With Kazuki being in the lead decided, all of them were joined with each other using rope in turns.<br /> <br /> At last Kazuki half-crawled the steep slope and began to climb. The ice axe and the crampons which had its hardness increased due to Koyuki’s power over cold easily pierced the wall when Kazuki strengthened his physical ability and nailed it on the wall. Relying on that Kazuki advanced above step by step.<br /> <br /> “Like this… steadily…”<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuki’s figure that was clinging on the wall, Mio let out her impressions.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki had climbed around three meters, that Mio also clung to the wall. She only had the power of a girl that wasn’t used to using Enchant Aura habitually, but her ice axes and crampons easily drove into the wall.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii-, pull me up if I’m going to fall okay♪”<br /> <br /> Mio looked up at him while saying that.<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked down right below him and replied “Naturally.”<br /> <br /> “Ehehe~, how reliable♪ I wonder if I should try to fall purposefully.”<br /> <br /> “You are going to fall at me then.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki who was following right under Mio replied with a cold voice.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to thrust this ice axe into the bottom of the falling Amasaki-san.”<br /> <br /> “FUEEEEEEEEE-!?”<br /> <br /> Mio spontaneously raised a scream but she had defensive magic power so she wouldn’t actually get stabbed if that happened. It was just a frivolous talk. The relation between these two had also improved really well.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> With only pain accumulating inside him, the monotone act where he couldn’t see when it would end was continuing.<br /> <br /> The scenery of white mist above him didn’t change at all no matter how far he was steadily climbing up. The wind that was whirling in rumbles in the air was filled with snow and turned into blizzard that crashed into the rock surface and got blown below. Kazuki and co who were clinging into the rock wall and were trying to climb up―especially Kazuki who was climbing in the lead had his face struck fiercely by all the falling snow.<br /> <br /> However he had to keep his face lifted up by all means, after all they didn’t know when the Demon Beasts would come attacking from the sky. The really violent blizzard reduced the visibility to zero with just his naked eyes, but he continued to focus single-mindedly on reinforcing his eye sight with magic power and saw through the other side of the blizzard.<br /> <br /> And then it came―a swarm of giant bird that was covered in pure white fur where they were flapping their large wings to draw near and to peck at Kazuki and co. with their sharp beaks.<br /> <br /> His companions shot them to death with a rapid-fire of attack magic.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki tried to chant his magic, his companions scolded him to preserve his strength.<br /> <br /> ―His body that should have been warmed already inside the snow hut was once again beginning to creak. During his war of attrition against the rock wall where he didn’t know when it would end, the cold was gnawing into his body unstoppably.<br /> <br /> What was exposed into the fierceness of the blizzard right at the foremost was not just his face but also both his hands. The tips farthest from the heart that were his fingers were the first to have ischemia occurring at it from the hypothermia.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was witnessing his fingertips slowly changing color into brown.<br /> <br /> Even so as long as the wall was continuing vertically, he kept raising high both his hands alternately above his head, he must not stop driving his ice axe into the wall’s surface by any means.<br /> <br /> How far he had climbed, he wondered. He had no sense of distance and sense of time.<br /> <br /> The surrounding was isolated by the blizzard. The senses of his whole body also went numb and began to vanish. He was feeling as if he was floating in a world of pure white.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s heart was suddenly assaulted by anxiety.<br /> <br /> Were his comrades still there at the end of the rope that was tied onto his waist, following after him?<br /> <br /> If the rope didn’t get pulled then that meant that there was no one that fell down. In the first place Kazuki was able to sense the current location of his companions.<br /> <br /> Yet regardless… it couldn’t be helped that he felt uneasy from how he was unable to detect the existence of everyone inside this world of pure white.<br /> <br /> “Everyone, are you still there!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out to right under him.<br /> <br /> “I’m fine!” “I’m still here!” Replies were coming from numerous mouths, Kazuki was relieved from the bottom of his heart.<br /> <br /> His chest became warm. Everyone’s voices became a second breath for him and turned into strength inside his body.<br /> <br /> “Hey! Let’s take a roll-call periodically okay!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai proposed that perhaps from feeling the same uneasiness as Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Then when I call out [Everyone!], everyone will give their reply in order!”<br /> <br /> “Understood!” Mio who was right under Kazuki replied. “But what should we reply with?”<br /> <br /> “Anything is fine, within appropriateness! Let’s try it now… everyone!”<br /> <br /> “Nyaa―!” Mio immediately replied after she was told that anything was fine.<br /> <br /> “Puu.” Koyuki continued.<br /> <br /> “Wan wan-!” Lotte energetically said.<br /> <br /> “Pan pan!” Kaguya-senpai who recently began as a panda character raised a panda’s barking voice(?).<br /> <br /> “Eh!? I don’t have any material for that kind of impression though!?” Kazuha-senpai raised a troubled voice.<br /> <br /> “NII-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Kanae shouted.<br /> <br /> “PENIS!” Hikaru-senpai yelled out something incomprehensible.<br /> <br /> “What the hell are you saying!?” Liz Liza-sensei who was at the end of the line scolded with a baffled voice.<br /> <br /> Spontaneously Kazuki was experiencing the building up of laughter inside of him. That laugh was again changed into energy and he thought that he could still do his best.<br /> <br /> While climbing Kazuki periodically took a roll-call.<br /> <br /> “Nyaa―!”<br /> <br /> “Puu.”<br /> <br /> “Wan wan-!”<br /> <br /> “Pan pan!”<br /> <br /> “I don’t have that kind of special voice desu! I’m a normal human desu!” &lt;ref&gt;This is Kazuha speaking&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “NII-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAA! NII-SAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> “PENIS!”<br /> <br /> “I told you not to say anything obscene already!?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The end of the path came too quick―what appeared at the other side of the blizzard was not a rock surface but the clear sky.<br /> <br /> What got fixed at the edge of the rock surface was not an ice axe but fingers, Kazuki lifted up his body.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> The edge of the mountains―Kazuki and co formed a single line and advanced following the ridgeline. The scenery made them think that the ridge line would continue on forever, but finally they met the end of the line. A circle was drawn in the end of the ridge line like a crown, waiting for Kazuki and co. The summit of Fuji Mountain, the crater on the very top.<br /> <br /> At one of the edge that formed the circle, there was a light that was obviously of a different nature.<br /> <br /> They immediately understood the true identity of the light when they got near. A single sword that pierced the edge of the crater was emitting a glaring light of sharpness that the blizzard couldn’t hide.<br /> <br /> That sword that was waiting for them at the highest summit of Japan, looked exactly like the proof of the King just from its appearance.<br /> <br /> When they forced their exhausted bodies and got nearer, they discovered that a human shadow was standing beside the sword.<br /> <br /> Her long black hair was swaying due to the blizzard.<br /> <br /> It was the female that held a mysterious and dear impression for him―the master of the seal.<br /> <br /> The woman was already dead. But as the result of changing her very own life into the power of the seal, the woman’s mental body was haunting this ground together with the seal.<br /> <br /> The woman and the sword were waiting for Kazuki. Kazuki and others that were forming a line at the edge of the crater dragged along their exhausted body to walk. The woman was watching that directly and quietly without even hurrying them along.<br /> <br /> With Kazuki in the lead, they advanced forward while receiving that gaze and the blizzard right from the front.<br /> <br /> When they arrived until a distance of just a few meters, the woman of the seal suddenly pulled out the sword that was pierced on the mountain summit and heroically thrust it to the heaven.<br /> <br /> A figure of a hero of the ancient era was right in front of their eyes.<br /> <br /> The woman kicked the edge of the crater―and sharply stepped into Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> The heroically raised sword was directed at Kazuki and swung down powerfully.<br /> <br /> Even while being shocked, Kazuki ran his sword out from its sheath with a natural movement. With a flash from the drawn sword he warded off the opponent’s swung down sword and parried its strength diagonally below. After the opponent’s posture broke down, he flipped up his blade in a sharp angle and swung up his blade as the second slash.<br /> <br /> The most basic of the Hayashizaki-style, two stage preparation of sword drawing art.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki stopped his second slash right before it cut.<br /> <br /> The woman whose posture was broken by Kazuki had also stopped her movement while still in the low posture from swinging down her sword.<br /> <br /> “You really have become strong.”<br /> <br /> The woman said with a mellow voice like a silk.<br /> <br /> “You too…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a cold, uncomfortable feeling from the echo of the word [you] that came out from his mouth.<br /> <br /> But he didn’t understand what would be fine to call her with other than that word.<br /> <br /> “I understand that you are also strong from that single slash just now.”<br /> <br /> The woman’s step-in was sharp and the force of the swung down blade was truly powerful. The force was similar with a single blow from Beatrix―truly in reverse from her willowy appearance.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s sword was something that was backed with the sword art that had been handed down in generations and steady training.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, the woman’s sword was―a &lt;wild technique&gt; that was honed by necessity in the middle of real battles that were approaching her.<br /> <br /> Surely, this person was originally not a knight or anything like that.<br /> <br /> The truth was that she just recklessly continued to fight, and became strong until this much.<br /> <br /> Thinking of such hardship, Kazuki’s chest was blocked.<br /> <br /> “You are…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki sheathed his katana. And then he gripped the hand of the woman that was still in the swinging down posture. It was a thin and delicate hand that was really like a female. It transmitted warmth through Kazuki’s fingers that were covered with frostbite.<br /> <br /> The woman was not just a mere mental body, but a materialized body.<br /> <br /> She must be using up the magic power of the seal that had finished its task and temporarily created a physical body of flesh.<br /> <br /> “You are… my mother aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> In no way the shaking of Kazuki’s words originated from the cold.<br /> <br /> The woman released the sword from her hand and made Kazuki take a hold of it.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t know about the true identity of this sword for a long time. The name of this sword is… &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;. Symbolizing the King’s authority, a sword of great destiny,”<br /> <br /> The woman’s silky voice was slightly dyed in sadness.<br /> <br /> “…This is a sword that forces a person to fight. This sword was waiting for you in this place.”<br /> <br /> The woman drew back reservedly from the distance where their breath seemed to be able to touch each other.<br /> <br /> “Long time no see huh, Hibiki.”<br /> <br /> When Leme materialized beside Kazuki, the woman replied like she was meeting an old acquaintance.<br /> <br /> “Leme too, long time no see. Though I never really had the chance to feel you this clearly before.”<br /> <br /> The woman’s shoulders were slightly downcast while she began to talk to Leme.<br /> <br /> “There is one thing that I want to ask, but… this fate, how much of it was really destiny?”<br /> <br /> “What do you mean?”<br /> <br /> “…This child is, my child after all, is that why you chose him?”<br /> <br /> It was a question that really went into the heart of the matter. But Leme didn’t show any agitation and shook her neck.<br /> <br /> “Certainly he caught my attention because he was your child, but Leme is also not such a cheap kind of person that would choose him just because of that. This guy happened to have the qualities that is worthy for Leme’s choice. Sword skill, exceptional ambition and mental strength, and above all his aspect that treasured his bonds… The Hayashizaki house raised up that kind of guy by their own accord.”<br /> <br /> “Aah, now that you mentioned it… isn’t your ability more convenient when it’s used by a male child I wonder?”<br /> <br /> “Of course that’s also one of the factors. The concept this time is a lovey-dovey harem king. Well, though you too could also use the magic of the same sex Liz Liza Westwood well enough before.”<br /> <br /> When Leme said that jokingly, Kaa-san narrowed her eyes for the first time with her mouth bursting open in smile. &lt;ref&gt;Kaa-san = mother&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Fufufu-, Liza and I were lovey-dovey after all.”<br /> <br /> “Wha, what are you saying, Hibiki-neesama!!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei’s face went beet red and advanced forward out from the group of everyone.<br /> <br /> “Be, besides you, you made a boyfriend but you kept it quiet from me… furthermore you even had a child without me knowing!”<br /> <br /> “Because if I told that to Liza who loved me, I thought that it would make you jealous♪”<br /> <br /> The woman―no, Mother unexpectedly stuck out her tongue playfully.<br /> <br /> “I’m not jealous or anything, I just wanted you to talk with me properly!” &lt;ref&gt;Here Liz Liza’s way of talking turns into a polite way of talking when she talks with Hibiki, unlike her usual severe tone when talking with her students.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> However Liz Liza-sensei’s eyes were both wet with tears and her body was trembling in shivers while she talked in reproach, it looked completely fitting with her child-like appearance.<br /> <br /> “You didn’t tell me anything! You also entrusted your child that was just born to the orphanage! …Even though it would be fine even if you relied on me! You didn’t say anything and left to fight, and then you didn’t return back…!”<br /> <br /> Mother smiled wryly in sadness.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, Liza. At that time all the people around me were targeted, so I didn’t tell any of that to anyone. I also didn’t tell anything to the people at the orphanage and left him in front of the gate… without doing anything else.”<br /> <br /> Mother was stealing a glance at Kazuki worriedly with her voice dulling.<br /> <br /> Not saying anything and then in front of the orphanage’s gate… she abandoned him without doing anything else.<br /> <br /> That was what she said.<br /> <br /> “You were not doing nothing.” Kazuki interrupted between the two.<br /> <br /> “At the spot where I was left behind, I had been told that there was a memo accompanying me where the name [Kazuki] was written.”<br /> <br /> Mother looked at Kazuki with a look of realization and immediately looked down awkwardly.<br /> <br /> “…Yes. I conveyed just that. I was thinking that I wanted to raise a boy that is really close to what is important for him, and possessed the strength to protect that important thing to the end like a large tree…”<br /> <br /> “It might be thanks to that naming, that this guy was growing up into an ideal harem king.”<br /> <br /> Leme interjected. “That’s also a form of education you know. Just as I thought this might really be a destiny.”<br /> <br /> Name―perhaps unconsciously he wanted to become a human that was suitable for the name [Kazuki(一樹)]. He felt that he had the awareness more than average person that his name was really important. &lt;ref&gt;The meaning of 一樹 is a single tree&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “But things like naming… just something like that cannot be called as an education or raising him up. Just as I thought, I have never done anything that is like a mother…”<br /> <br /> “Kaa-san!” Kazuki interrupted her from a sad and gloomy tone.<br /> <br /> To call the young woman in front of his eyes that he was still unfamiliar with as mother from his mouth needed courage.<br /> <br /> The important name of [Kazuki] encouraged the courage inside his chest, Kazuki spouted out the thing that he felt had to be said no matter what.<br /> <br /> “I, don’t resent Kaa-san at all! Because I’m not unhappy or unfortunate! I am happy all this time!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki lowered his head and thanked her.<br /> <br /> “For giving birth to me… thank you very much. For continuing to fight, for this country, for protecting the future where we lived, thank you very much.”<br /> <br /> “…You really have grown up strong, aren’t you? And then the one that raised you up this happy…”<br /> <br /> Mother averted her eyes away from the bowing Kazuki as if to escape.<br /> <br /> After that she was facing to the direction of his companions.<br /> <br /> “Kanae-san.”<br /> <br /> “Ye, yes! Okaa-sama &lt;ref&gt;A really respectful way of calling mother&lt;/ref&gt;!!” Kanae straightened her back and answered with a nervous voice.<br /> <br /> Mother then lowered her head deeply.<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much. For raising this child into a person this kind and strong. Your family was the one that did what I couldn’t, pouring the greatest love and growth for him…”<br /> <br /> “That’s preposterous! I’m exactly the one… who received the best Nii-sama that I can ask for!”<br /> <br /> Kanae too lowered her head. Kazuki too, Mother too, Kanae too were lowering their heads.<br /> <br /> Mother then laughed “Fufu-“ amusedly.<br /> <br /> “How weird… despite how I’m supposed to be the worst mother. Everyone happily lowered their head like this… I wonder if this is what they called a fortune.”<br /> <br /> She was not the worst or anything. The situation just couldn’t be helped. Mother had to fight no matter what the cost at that time.<br /> <br /> The current Kazuki understood well about such a position.<br /> <br /> Mother loved someone. But that time was different with now, at that time it was not known that a strong emotion would become a trigger of magic power and distorted the reality completely. Magic power influenced the act of mixing the strongest feelings of man and woman, and completely hindered any contraception, such thing was unknown at that time.<br /> <br /> If he himself didn’t know about such thing beforehand, then even he would surely have done the same act already.<br /> <br /> Mother loved someone and conceived a child. That was why she went away from the battle.<br /> <br /> But during the time Mother was leaving the battlefield… the situation rapidly worsened.<br /> <br /> Moreover the people around Mother were targeted.<br /> <br /> That was why… she had no other choice than to not tell anyone about her child and abandoned him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> And then without even informing her best friend that was Liz Liza-sensei, she went ahead to the battle alone without doing anything else.<br /> <br /> That kind of mother, who in the world could condemn her?<br /> <br /> ―’Why in the world was it only Kaa-san who had to shoulder such an heavy burden?’<br /> <br /> ‘Tou-san&lt;ref&gt;Tou-san = father&lt;/ref&gt; is’… Kazuki was going to ask, and hesitated. <br /> <br /> [All of my important people were targeted]. Those words had already implicated the heavy and painful fact.<br /> <br /> “…This is not destiny or anything like that.”<br /> <br /> Once again Mother murmured to herself.<br /> <br /> “Kanae-san, to let me reunite with this child, thank you…”<br /> <br /> Mother lowered her head to Kanae once again.<br /> <br /> After that with a timid manner she faced Kazuki once more.<br /> <br /> “While protecting the seal in this place, I have regretted the fact that I abandoned you and headed to the fight all this time. Why do I have to fight, I always thought that it was unreasonable. Now, you are chosen by Leme and this sword, inside me there is also the sad feeling that you are shouldering the same fate like me. I wanted to raise my boy normally, unrelated from all this fighting… But… I also had the dream of you being chosen and you coming to this place. I wanted to have a glance of the grown up you. After all, I’m just something like a bounded ghost that cannot leave this place.”<br /> <br /> That’s just like a doting parent though, saying that Mother smiled self-derisively.<br /> <br /> “You know, the moment when I gave birth to you, I had the feeling that a special, strong child had just been born. That was why I was hoping, that surely you will be chosen and then you will come here. For such a thing to happen, the possibility must be so low like expecting a miracle to happen, but… Kanae-san, everyone that is here, you all had raised Kazuki to be this strong. You let us to meet fortuitously like this once more. …To come until this far here, I’m really thankful to all of you.”<br /> <br /> Again Mother lowered her head, to Kazuki, to Kanae, to everyone else, one by one she lowered her head at them.<br /> <br /> She was just earnestly lowering her thin back with a sorrowful face, and continued to lower her head.<br /> <br /> He wanted to say something. But his feeling couldn’t be turned into any word. He was not unhappy. He didn’t resent anything. He was thankful. All his feeling that he wanted to convey beforehand, he had easily finished conveying them all.<br /> <br /> He had the feeling that there was something more that he should say.<br /> <br /> However that feeling couldn’t come out beautifully as words from his mouth.<br /> <br /> Mother too was wordlessly and timidly staring at Kazuki as if holding herself back.<br /> <br /> Amidst the pure white blizzard, they were staring at each other as if the time had stopped.<br /> <br /> Suddenly―something changed.<br /> <br /> The warm atmosphere was―sharply changed into cold.<br /> <br /> The magic blizzard around them was not becoming stronger. Mother suddenly realized something with a ‘hah’ and her gaze became grim, then she thrust away Kazuki beside her strongly.<br /> <br /> “Kaa-san…!?” Spontaneously and unintentionally, Kazuki leaked out a voice like an abandoned child.<br /> <br /> No, wrong, this situation…<br /> <br /> “Get away! Everyone, get away from me!!”<br /> <br /> Mother yelled with a sharp voice as if a hero’s sense of responsibility was awakened inside her.<br /> <br /> The sky at the other side of the blizzard was roaring thunderingly from the blowing wind. The wind moved pitch black clouds to their direction and completely covered the sky. The surroundings suddenly turned dark.<br /> <br /> From the dark clouds, a dreadful voice was reverberating.<br /> <br /> {O people that continue to stop at the boundary of life and death, know the karma of your deep sin.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the others looked at the sky altogether.<br /> <br /> {My name is Hel. Thou is already a dead person. …In accordance with that fate, offer that everything to me!!}<br /> <br /> Pitch black lightning flashed from the dark cloud―piercing the back of Mother.<br /> <br /> {{{furigana|Helheim Drive|Death God Encroachment}}}!!”<br /> <br /> It was something that happened in an instant where no one could do anything. He was not even allowed to Foresight what kind of magic phenomenon would be caused by the dreadful and strange magic power.<br /> <br /> The black lightning melted into Mother like an evil spirit. Mother went “Guh-!” and her body writhed in pain, blue magic power light was emitted from her whole body.<br /> <br /> Kazuki knew this light. He had seen it before.<br /> <br /> This emitted light was completely the same like that time when Loki encroached into Kaya.<br /> <br /> It was the light of the existence itself being usurped by a Diva.<br /> <br /> The emitted blue magic power and the encroaching pure black magic power mixed with each other, depicting a marble pattern. Little by little the pure black surface was increasing, it was trying to erase the existence of Mother.<br /> <br /> It was as if he was seeing the process of a food that became spoiled in fast forward.<br /> <br /> ‘…This is a lie right?’<br /> <br /> Kazuki stood stock still in a daze. He couldn’t possibly think that the happening in front of his eyes was reality.<br /> <br /> Whether it was the miracle that he could reunite with Mother like this.<br /> <br /> And even how such a miracle was currently disappearing in the blink of an eye.<br /> <br /> Whichever it was… was unbelievable.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t think that everything in this moment was all reality.<br /> <br /> Kaa-san is disappearing. He couldn’t believe it.<br /> <br /> ‘This is a lie right… The thing that I still haven’t conveyed yet…”<br /> <br /> However he didn’t understand what kind of words he should use…<br /> <br /> They were just exchanging awkward gazes while holding back just now…<br /> <br /> Not yet… not like this…<br /> <br /> Who was it, the one with this black magic power.<br /> <br /> Why would they do something like this!?<br /> <br /> His body couldn’t move from the numbness. His situational judgment, didn’t work at all.<br /> <br /> This was his first experience, having his body and his heart freezing completely like this in a time where he should fight.<br /> <br /> Even his lips were freezing. ‘This is a lie right? Stop’, he thought that, but he couldn’t even raise a voice to yell.<br /> <br /> “STOPPPPPPPPPPP!!”<br /> <br /> ―Someone was yelling as Kazuki’s proxy.<br /> <br /> A gust of black shadow was jumping forward in front of his eyes.<br /> <br /> It was the back of Kanae with her ponytail trailing behind like a cat’s tail.<br /> <br /> “Don’t you dare to disturb this person and Nii-sama!! Only that, I will absolutely not forgive!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae drew the black katana―Michikage, and swung down at the black magic power that was eating away at Mother. That slash―spontaneously he was inappropriately fascinated by the beautiful trajectory that slash drew. It was as if he was seeing a black rainbow.<br /> <br /> Kanae’s spine, skeletal structure, all of her body was working together without even a little bit of wasteful movement. There was no deviation at all, it was a movement that looked perfect for Kanae’s flesh body. The quintessence movement.<br /> <br /> The black rainbow that was unleashed from such a movement, tore apart the magic power that was encroaching into Mother in the timing right before it was going to swell up even larger.<br /> <br /> It was a truly perfect timing, as if an expert martial artist had read the breathing of the opponent and took the sail out of the opponent’s move.<br /> <br /> A perfect movement, and a perfect timing―it was exactly a divine work.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style Dream Sword the Second, Shin’iki…!”<br /> <br /> For some reason it was Kaguya-senpai who yelled that technique’s name while her body was trembling.<br /> <br /> It was Kanae’s technique that even Kazuki didn’t know about. That instant, something miraculous happened. The instant the black blade was swung down―the magic phenomenon that completely covered Mother were all breaking down.<br /> <br /> {That’s impossible! What just happened!?}<br /> <br /> That Diva―Hel’s panicked voice was resounding. The black magic power was blown away from Mother’s back, where it formed the figure of a girl that fell on her butt. She was not an avatar but a materialized body, it was a Diva with the appearance of a very young girl.<br /> <br /> In contrast with the materialized Hel, Mother powerlessly fell on her knees at that spot. It was not only power leaving her whole body, the magic power that constructed her body was also thinning down, faintly like an illusion, her figure was changing into a half-transparent light.<br /> <br /> The powerful Diva that had already accomplished materializing was trying to steal the flesh body of Mother that materialized from the power of the seal. But that magic phenomenon was broken by Kanae.<br /> <br /> However in that case―Mother’s little remaining magic power was completely stolen. Possibly her magic power had already been running out in the first place.<br /> <br /> Kazuki caught the body of Mother, that was thinning out, in his arms in panic.<br /> <br /> “You bastard… against my role for the sake of papa… how dare you…!!”<br /> <br /> The Diva that fell on her butt―Hel was glaring at their way with a gaze filled with hatred. Her long blue hair that reminded him of Loki was bristling up from the blizzard right behind her.<br /> <br /> This girl was going to steal Kaa-san… she was trying to make her a hostage.<br /> <br /> Guessing that―violent emotion was surging inside Kazuki’s head. This girl…!!<br /> <br /> Hel yelled. She turned at Mother.<br /> <br /> “…Zero Knight! I won’t recognize you! Your role, your objective, I won’t let you accomplish them all! I won’t let you misunderstand, thinking that you won against papa!!”<br /> <br /> At the same time a fierce magic power whirled out from that body. She was trying to cast some kind of powerful attack magic. The tip of that magic power was heading at Mother’s back.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s rage instantly changed into terror and trepidation.<br /> <br /> If an attack was directed at Mother right now…!<br /> <br /> It was a fear that he had never experienced before. His body and thought froze instantly.<br /> <br /> “Lose and die again! O lamentation of the dead, carry away that soul from my hand… {{furigana|Nifl Driva|Hell Wind}}!!”<br /> <br /> When Hel thrust out her bluish-white palm, from there was blowing a devilish wind as if the blizzard of the Haunted Ground that had been hurling at them thoroughly until now was compressed several hundred times in it.<br /> <br /> “Kaa-san, dangerous!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately embraced Mother close to his body and covered her with his back.<br /> <br /> Yet in front of them a black shadow was standing in the way.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t you bother these two!!”<br /> <br /> ―It was Kanae. Kazuki covered his mother, and Kanae covered those two. The three of them were blown away altogether and fell from the ridgeline. In such dangerous situation Kazuki used his sword―&lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt; to pierce the ground and held out along with his mother that he held in his left hand.<br /> <br /> “Kaa-san…!”<br /> <br /> Inside Kazuki’s hugging left arm, like water that was spilling out from a cracked jar, the magic power that was composing mother’s existence was vanishing. She was vanishing!<br /> <br /> Mother leaked out a weak voice. “…Just now, it looks like my last remaining magic power was used up. But I had already accomplished my role, so…”<br /> <br /> Accomplished her role? Already?<br /> <br /> Wait. Please wait! There is still….<br /> <br /> “Don’t be a hindrance! Follow after Kanae!!” Liz Liza-sensei called out to the others and rushed at Hel’s direction.<br /> <br /> “The final time between Kazuki and Hibiki-neesama… I absolutely won’t let you bother them!”<br /> <br /> Don’t say that this is the last time…<br /> <br /> Mio, Kaguya-senpai… all of his companions, they all cut in between them and Hel to protect him and mother, they were shining with the light of spell chanting simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “You plan to stand in my way! You bunch of humans!”<br /> <br /> Hel yelled. “Against a materialized Diva, it’s futile no matter how many humans gather here, futile! Are you looking down on me!? I’ll massacre you all and get one over papa!”<br /> <br /> What incomprehensible thing was she yelling, this girl…<br /> <br /> His head didn’t work watching the situation in front of his eyes. Rather than that kind of thing, mother was…<br /> <br /> Even faster than his companions magic, Hel’s magic was invoked.<br /> <br /> “…O Grand Haunted Ground of ancient times… please offer the souls that are rotting away in this land as the dress that is armoring my body… Helheim Drive!”<br /> <br /> Once again several black lightning were falling to Hel’s body from the dark cloud. That black magic power was whirling on Hel’s body while creating Prima Materia, its substance changed―transforming into something like a Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> It was a strange dress. As if several Magic Dresses were mixed up messily… there was no uniformity among every single part. However every single design of the parts had the shape that they had the feeling of seeing before somewhere.<br /> <br /> The parts looked like the Magic Dresses that the students of the Magic Division wore on their bodies.<br /> <br /> “STOP!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei yelled after noticing the true form of that power.<br /> <br /> “Stop it, don’t you dirty those guys’ souls!! You trash!!”<br /> <br /> One part of the Magic Dress that Hel wore―the red wings were emitting orange light like a fire shadow.<br /> <br /> Unbelievably, Phoenix’s avatar emerged out beside Hel.<br /> <br /> “The dead is my power, mine to use as I please! …Respond to my accusation and burn to ash! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> It was a vortex of magic power he had seen before. It was a magic that even Kazuki and others had seen before, but it was activated with a lot more abbreviated chanting.<br /> <br /> “I told you…! Don’t you dare become a hindrance for Nii-sama-!!”<br /> <br /> Right before that magic was invoked, the shadow of a black cat leaped once again with a force that was like flying.<br /> <br /> With a perfect step-in and timing―once again, it was that miraculous technique.<br /> <br /> The wavelength of Hel’s magic power that swelled up right before the magic was invoked vanished like a lie with a *PACHIN!* sound.<br /> <br /> “What’s going on, this technique!? …Eei!!”<br /> <br /> Hel opened her eyes wide with rage and shock but―she immediately directed a different magic at Kanae.<br /> <br /> “Freeze and be silent… Glacier Wind!!”<br /> <br /> A part of Hel’s Magic Dress―the floating crystal on her back was emitting a deep blue light, Vepar’s avatar emerged out.<br /> <br /> …She was making the soul of the Magika Stigmas that once died in this Fuji’s sea of trees to posses her own body and enslaved them. That death god was activating the magic of the contract through the souls of the dead.<br /> <br /> This time even Kanae didn’t have the composure to unleash that technique. The cold magic that Koyuki was also specializing at assaulted Kanae without giving her time to dodge.<br /> <br /> At exactly the same time, Hel also invoked her own magic.<br /> <br /> “You that is already dead come to this side too! Nifl Driva!!”<br /> <br /> Hel raised her palm and then she overlapped the blowing blizzard with the [Glacier Wind] from just now.<br /> <br /> The chill of the mermaid and the blizzard of the world of the dead mixed with each other, amplifying each other.<br /> <br /> “Uguu-!!” Kanae raised a scream and got blown away helplessly.<br /> <br /> Besides her defensive magic power that got smashed, she was also writhing around from the chill that was violating her mind.<br /> <br /> The black breastplate of Hel’s Magic Dress shone. This time an avatar of a black bird, Halphas’ avatar was emerging. She was chanting magic one after another with a speed that was hard to believe.<br /> <br /> “Suffer and die! O god of war of the spirit world, under thy Divine Protection, I’ll sacrifice the wailing of that bitter enemy… Inferno!!”<br /> <br /> Hel created two gigantic pure black pillar of flame in both her hands, she then met both her palms and combined them into one and created a bow and arrow of black flame. It was Halphas’s level 7 magic that Yumeno-san once used to finish off her other self.<br /> <br /> It was a rapid-fire of magic just like the Quad-core Magika that was the result of Naiarlatoteph’s research. No, her magic invocation was even faster than that.<br /> <br /> The giant mass of black flame was fired at Kanae who was writhing in agony.<br /> <br /> “O principle of time, listen to the calling voice of my sage! To the other side of the long stagnation, exile away that calamity… Leap Stasis!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei’s chanting―an avatar of clock emerged out in order to protect Kanae.<br /> <br /> When he thought that the hand of that clock was fiercely rotating, the black flame that was flying near vanished.<br /> <br /> “You trash Diva! I blew away your magic to the space-time!!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei’s Original One―it was once cast with her own body's aging as the target, an evasion magic that postponed the &lt;change&gt; in exchange of vast magic power, especially with that short chanting.<br /> <br /> This time Hel was not surprised.<br /> <br /> “Hmph, there is no way the likes of human can consecutively use that kind of convenient magic!”<br /> <br /> The red wings, the crystal, the black breastplate, all of them shone simultaneously. Hel’s own magic power that caused the blizzard of the world of the dead was also included.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kanae! Do that technique more! Block them all!!”<br /> <br /> “That technique is not something you can do successfully that many times! Damn-!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei and Kanae shouted angrily at each other.<br /> <br /> Finally at that time, the magic that the others’ were chanting were all invoked simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “O water surface that sway from my singing voice, manipulate the small wave skillfully, gather, and become a giant tsunami! Come from the beyond and wash away to the distant place… Tidal Wave!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki invoked Vepar’s magic of tsunami. It ignored the space and a tsunami that was created behind Hel using magic power came surging.<br /> <br /> “Nifl Driva!!”<br /> <br /> Hel immediately turned back to the tsunami and fired a blizzard.<br /> <br /> The violent blizzard froze the tsunami all over and destroyed the power of that phenomenon making it disappear.<br /> <br /> “O the calling voice of the ruler of flame, set free the rage of the bottom of the earth! Open the gate of my rampart here… tower in heaven and earth, isolate the impurity! Fire Wall!!”<br /> <br /> “O shapeless and mute shadow, become the fish that swim in the darkness that is pregnant with obstructive thought! The origin of nightmare, the vicissitudes of materialism, respond to both hope and fear and bite…! Deep Specter!”<br /> <br /> Mio and Kaguya-senpai’s magic was invoked at the same time. A wall of flame was going to rise from the bottom of Hel’s feet. Pitch black shadow was crawling up from inside the shadow.<br /> <br /> Hel detected the danger and tried to run away from that spot.<br /> <br /> “This hand reached out to the height of Babel, right now this hand grasped the falling thunder of god! In accordance with my life, o lightning, whirl following my will! Collider Field!!”<br /> <br /> But Lotte equipped a gauntlet on her left hand and locked Hel inside a barrier of electromagnetism. Hel’s body was paralyzed by the electricity and she was rooted to that spot.<br /> <br /> Furthermore there was several small lights that were floating around Hel.<br /> <br /> “The fate of all creation is inside the great celestial sphere… o binding of constellation, stop the revolution of the sky! Horoscope Stasis!”<br /> <br /> Line of light was running between countless stars, that [constellation] tied up the paralyzed Hel.<br /> <br /> “…This kind of irritating act!?”<br /> <br /> The body of the yelling Hel was swallowed by a wall of flame. Even further her head was chewed apart by the giant monster that jumped out from the shadows.<br /> <br /> From inside the wall of flame, from inside the mouth of the black monster, a dark blue defensive magic power was shining and scattered.<br /> <br /> “O {{furigana|august lightning|Mikadzuchi}} that rain down due to god’s rage! The spilt blood of Kagutsuchi dripped down to the hilt and gather, become a flash of blade! The large drum of lightning sound of lightning speed, {{furigana|Mikafutsu no Mitama|Mikafutsu Soul}}!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai created a golden blade―with that heavily curving katana that hid a destructive power like lightning, she slashed at Hel with all her strength.<br /> <br /> Hel that couldn’t move her body was blown away along with a thunderous roar.<br /> <br /> Consecutive attack―but Hel immediately stood back up.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru! Mio-chan! Koyuki-chan!” Kaguya-senpai yelled at her comrades of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> “This girl cannot be defeated with average magic! We are going to use Chorus Magic!!”<br /> <br /> The four people began to match their magic power wavelength.<br /> <br /> In order to protect them, Kanae and Kazuha-senpai and Lotte stood as the vanguards and prepared their weapons.<br /> <br /> “…You bunch of humans… hand over the Zero Knight and the Sacred Treasure…!!”<br /> <br /> Along with a voice that made the listener shudder, Hel tore off the binding of constellation with brute force and ripped apart the biting big jaw of the shadow monster with both her hands, at the same time she then once again shone with several magic power lights.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―Kazuki was largely unaware of the battle that was currently happening.<br /> <br /> The sounds of the fighting felt like it was far away as if a thin membrane was filtering all of it.<br /> <br /> That was how much Kazuki was concentrating on what was inside his embrace, his mother that even now was disappearing.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> His mother was, for the first time, calling Kazuki with the name that she named him with.<br /> <br /> But just from such a little matter, it made Kazuki’s sight damp with tears.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki… the Ame no Murakumo…”<br /> <br /> He didn’t need that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> Rather than such thing, right now, the person that was going to disappear inside his arms was someone that was far more important. His mother’s body temperature, body weight, were vanishing away in no time at all, he knew that.<br /> <br /> “I don’t need that kind of thing, Kaa-san… Kaa-san, I, I’m living perfectly happy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki repeated the thing that he had already said like a spell. Even though what he wanted to say was not this kind of thing. For some reason, the feeling that was rampaging inside his chest couldn’t be turned into words.<br /> <br /> Even though if he kept wasting time like this, she was going to vanish completely.<br /> <br /> “I see. I’m glad.”<br /> <br /> His mother smiled hearing that―she raised her thin white arm and stroked Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> Even though it was weak like the branch of a tree that swayed from the wind, it was a gentle hand movement.<br /> <br /> It was a completely unknown sensation for him.<br /> <br /> He had the feeling that sparks scattered inside his head, inside his eyes that were wet with tears.<br /> <br /> From inside the head of Kazuki who was searching for words, all words and reason disappeared, a pure white emotion completely covered everything.<br /> <br /> He noticed. There was nothing that he still wanted to convey.<br /> <br /> What he was looking for, was not that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> He was only merely, overflowing with emotion.<br /> <br /> When he noticed that emotion ―Kazuki hugged tightly the thin and weakened body of his mother, then he buried his face into her chest.<br /> <br /> “Kaa-san… I don’t want you to go.”<br /> <br /> ―What was rampaging inside his head uncontrollably was easily coming out from his mouth.<br /> <br /> He felt something that he had never noticed was armoring him until now, disappear completely.<br /> <br /> Once it had come out, it was pouring out of him together with tears and scream.<br /> <br /> “No! I don’t want this!! No!!”<br /> <br /> It was not something exaggerated like something he wanted to convey or anything.<br /> <br /> ‘I―just want to be spoiled by Kaa-san.’<br /> <br /> Their relation was not something exaggerated like the previous King and the King that succeeded after her.<br /> <br /> ‘I am my mother’s child!’<br /> <br /> ‘No! I don’t want this!’ Kazuki cried like a child.<br /> <br /> “…Fufu-“<br /> <br /> His mother returned his hug weakly and let escape a faint chuckle.<br /> <br /> “You should not say something selfish.”<br /> <br /> After saying that, she stroked his head once again.<br /> <br /> ‘―Kaa-san, I, have never said anything selfish through my life until now.’<br /> <br /> No matter what happened even if it was unreasonable, he had never done anything like giving up.<br /> <br /> Even without anyone rewarding him, he overcame all kinds of hardship with his hard work.<br /> <br /> He had never seriously yelled words like ‘don’t wanna’ or anything like that.<br /> <br /> He almost never cried at all.<br /> <br /> Despite so, could what he did right now be called as selfishness.<br /> <br /> What’s with that… that kind of thing…<br /> <br /> “No way! I don’t want something like this! I don’t want…!!”<br /> <br /> She was disappearing! Merely, just during this short instant, his mother was!<br /> <br /> ‘Don’t say what I’m doing is selfish!! By all rights, isn’t what I’m doing only natural!!’<br /> <br /> “No! I have been patient for all these fifteen years!! There was no one at all that patted my head saying that I have done my best! I didn’t even realize that such a thing is strange! I realize now! That all this time I wanted my head to get patted by Kaa-san!! It’s strange you know! This kind of thing… I don’t want…!!”<br /> <br /> ‘I shouldn’t be defeated by this kind of thing’, Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> This is irrational. For the first time since he was born, Kazuki was overpowered by this monster called irrationality.<br /> <br /> He pressed his face that was messily stained with tears onto his mother’s chest, he cried and shouted as if to spew out everything from the bottom of his throat out of his heart. It was as if he was completely changed into an existence that was just crying and shouting.<br /> <br /> The tears and screams that had been piling up without him even noticing during these fifteen years were all overflowing without pause.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…”<br /> <br /> His mother put a faint strength into her weak arm that was like a dry wood, and hugged him back.<br /> <br /> Gently, sweetly, warmly, because of that his tears were overflowing out even harder.<br /> <br /> “Thank you. For giving me a chance to spoil you in the end. With this I finally…”<br /> <br /> His mother too, during this fifteen years she was enduring until now in this land.<br /> <br /> When he understood that, the weight of this monster called irrationality became doubled.<br /> <br /> “With this we could finally do something like a true mother and child…”<br /> <br /> Vanished.<br /> <br /> On the other side of his sight that was stained messily with tears, the chest of the mother that he was hugging, was turning into countless particles of light before disappearing.<br /> <br /> Her lingering voice entered his ears before disappearing.<br /> <br /> The warmth seeped into his chest and disappeared.<br /> <br /> From within Kazuki’s embrace, a dried up sound was spilling out and fell onto the ground. It was a white skeleton.<br /> <br /> “Aa, aaaa…”<br /> <br /> She was a person that had already died fourteen years ago.<br /> <br /> “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!”<br /> <br /> Refusing the truth, Kazuki cried and shouted.<br /> <br /> “NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”<br /> <br /> The countless light particles that were scattering were floating lightly in the air before entering into Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> {We are going to be together from now on you know. After all, we could even meet like this.}<br /> <br /> Certainly that was a miracle.<br /> <br /> {If we can just meet, humans can be changed forever in an instant. That kind of magic had already been used by humans since the time long ago.}<br /> <br /> The small particle of magic power became the final voice and it was absorbed into his chest.<br /> <br /> Certainly, he would never forget everything that happened here forever.<br /> <br /> {Thank you for growing up happily, Kazuki.}<br /> <br /> {Thank you.}<br /> <br /> {I just keep saying thank you but, I’m really happy.}<br /> <br /> {…Thank you.}<br /> <br /> Suddenly a scene was opening up inside of Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> Those were the scene that was shown by the small magic power that was absorbed into Kazuki’s chest. At the same time with the magic power making his mother’s feeling into voice and conveying that to him, his mother’s past memory was recalled inside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s oldest memory―this scene was the continuation of that.<br /> <br /> The orphanage at night. Avoiding the eyes of the people, his mother abandoned Kazuki in front of the gate.<br /> <br /> His mother turned her back at the crying Kazuki and even while looking back many times she kept walking through the night street with an unsteady gait.<br /> <br /> Even her tears were drying up. This was her last determination.<br /> <br /> She couldn’t consult anyone. She couldn’t even let anybody see her current figure.<br /> <br /> If she didn’t head to the battle alone, the victims would only increase.<br /> <br /> She had to fight no matter what. Without anybody seeing her off, without anybody even cheering her on, with her everything snatched away entirely, she even abandoned the child that she obtained at the very end from the person that she loved.<br /> <br /> ―She had to fight.<br /> <br /> While walking alone unsteadily, the light of the town that she passed through cursed her. When she thought about how there was as many happy families as there were the light shining, it couldn’t be helped that she felt accursed. Negative emotions like rage and sorrow were raging crazy inside her chest.<br /> <br /> Why was she the only one who couldn’t get her hands on such an ordinary thing.<br /> <br /> No. I don’t want to fight. This is unreasonable.<br /> <br /> Even so, other than her… there was no human that could fight that enemy.<br /> <br /> When she was faced with such ultimate truth―it made her realized that this thing called self-sacrifice was by no means a deceit.<br /> <br /> She was made to realize that she loved this unreasonable world.<br /> <br /> Even with all her important people killed and torn away from her, still…<br /> <br /> She had to fight.<br /> <br /> Together with that determination―the world of memory was cut off.<br /> <br /> Kazuki returned to reality.<br /> <br /> ―Inside the blizzard, Kazuki was hugging the white skeleton. While hugging the white skeleton so that it wouldn’t be blown away by the wind, Kazuki heard the sound of his comrades fighting. Those sounds were finally reaching his ears.<br /> <br /> He understood just from the sounds that it was a difficult enemy. He understood that if it kept like this his comrades would fall into danger.<br /> <br /> “No…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was still continuing to cry while hugging the skeleton.<br /> <br /> But, he had to fight. No matter how unreasonable it was.<br /> <br /> Fight, there was something he had to protect at all cost.<br /> <br /> Until now, everything of this world had been kind to him.<br /> <br /> He had already made a lot of people that he loved and that were important to him.<br /> <br /> There was also the irrationality but, there was even miracles.<br /> <br /> Such an obvious world, was obviously lovely.<br /> <br /> He was not some special existence.<br /> <br /> He was going to stand up after crying just for thirty more seconds, Kazuki decided.<br /> <br /> “I… don’t resent anything Kaa-san. I’m not unhappy. That’s why…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki grasped a handful of snow, using Pyrokinesis to plunder the heat he made the snow even colder and pressed it together. He made a small snow hut to store the skeleton there so that it wouldn’t be blown away by the wind.<br /> <br /> “…I’m going to fight, Kaa-san.”<br /> <br /> Holding Ame no Murakumo in hand, he stood up.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki rushed to the decisive battle at the crater.<br /> <br /> He finally recovered the clearness of his head in order to fight.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Mio, and Koyuki were entering the preparation for Chorus Magic. But that cooperation wouldn’t tolerate even a slight disturbance in it, it became even more difficult than normal inside this fierce blizzard.<br /> <br /> The blue haired death god named Hel was displaying an absurd power.<br /> <br /> Kanae and Kazuha-senpai and an armed Lotte challenged Hel determinedly, each time they dealt a single attack on the opponent, they received a fierce magic counter and got blown away. That divine work of Kanae also often failed, even if it worked it did nothing more than blocking a single gunport (opening) of Hel.<br /> <br /> ―There were three. There were three souls of Magika Stigmas that Hel made to possess her body and turned into parts of her dress. And then with her own magic there was a total of four rapid firing magic that was continuously invoked.<br /> <br /> Even in the case where it was high level magic that was used, that casting speed of hers was dreadfully fast.<br /> <br /> All three of the vanguards were equipped with the armor of [Seusenhofer] that Lotte chanted, yet the armors were already in destroyed shapes.<br /> <br /> Their strategy was in the process of failure. The limit of the three vanguards for buying time was going to come first before the Chorus Magic could even finish.<br /> <br /> ―During such thing, Kanae who failed to make her divine work succeed was hit right from the front with a high level magic. Kanae’s small body was blown away like a scrapped rag.<br /> <br /> “You, die while feeling a special agony!”<br /> <br /> Hel’s black breastplate shone and made the avatar of Halphas emerge.<br /> <br /> “Inferno!”<br /> <br /> The jet black flame that possessed both physical destruction and mind destruction attacked Kanae at an inescapable timing.<br /> <br /> “Leap Stasis!!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei just barely [postponed] that single arrow.<br /> <br /> Combined with the previous one she had activated this magic twice in total, the magic postponed the magic that was heading to Kanae. But surely when this magic was cancelled later on Kanae would taste a hellish agony. Though that was only if they could safely go home.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei’s magic power too was also wholly carried away to beyond the space-time as the compensation of the postponing. That magic power wouldn’t return back until after the magic was cancelled.<br /> <br /> Hel also saw through that and directed the brunt of the attack magic at Liz Liza-sensei.<br /> <br /> “You don’t have any magic power left anymore right! …Sink a hundred ships, o threat of the sea that is lurking in the deep sea…show that whole face!”<br /> <br /> Vepar’s avatar floated on Hel’s back. The power of Solomon 72 Pillar was forcefully dragged out from their contract with the dead people. There was no one among his comrades that was in a state that could immediately react to that.<br /> <br /> ―He had to protect them.<br /> <br /> Kazuki ran, passing through his comrades at the rear that were preparing for Chorus Magic and cut in front of Liz Liza-sensei with Ame no Murakumo in hand.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! …What about Hibiki-neesama!?”<br /> <br /> For an instant, Kazuki’s chest was blocked up from Liz Liza-sensei’s words.<br /> <br /> “…Stab your fang! Ice Breaker!!”<br /> <br /> Several vortex of magic power were created in front of Kazuki’s eyes, giant icebergs were sticking out from there surging at him. Kazuki held up Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> How did his mother handle this sword ―he could faintly sense that &lt;Battou Kaikon&gt;.<br /> <br /> “Mow down the whole creation, &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;! Battou Kaikon―Kusanagi no Tsurugi!!”<br /> <br /> The power that Yamato no Takeru used in legend that time he was falling into the trap of the fire plan―inside this royal sword there was the power to bring an end to natural phenomenon.<br /> <br /> His magic power was absorbed into the blade where it emitted a golden light.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki swept Ame no Murakumo to the side, as if an unseen blade was flying, all the surging icebergs were bisected into two.<br /> <br /> “That power… was Zero Knight’s…!”<br /> <br /> Hel leaked out a shocked voice.<br /> <br /> It seemed that she had fought his mother before.<br /> <br /> Kazuki grasped the sword naturally and he felt power filling his hand.<br /> <br /> “The power of Solomon King and, the power of Japanese Mythology’s King that Zero Knight used…? But even if you are a King twice, you are still just an inexperienced King aren’t you!? If that’s so then even I alone will suffice!”<br /> <br /> “Everyone! The Chorus Magic will be complete with just a little more! Until that time, I will buy time! Those whose exhaustion is severe are to draw back!”<br /> <br /> Inexperienced King. Certainly, he might be so.<br /> <br /> However the bonds had been already tied. ‘That is my power. I don’t know where this Diva came from but, I’ll make you regret making light of me as inexperienced’, Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> “Intending to win against me… I’ll make you regret that.”<br /> <br /> Hel too spouted out words that were in the same mood as Kazuki.<br /> <br /> In another words this Diva also still had a trump card. She was going to use that now.<br /> <br /> Hel removed the eye patch that covered her right eye and from there a deep red light burst out.<br /> <br /> The Magic Dress on Hel’s whole body disintegrated and reduced into a pure magic power light.<br /> <br /> “O dead people that are tired of waiting for glory, you are together with me! Become my brethren!!”<br /> <br /> Even more countless lightning ran from the dark cloud and went towards Hel. Enormous souls of the dead were gathering inside Hel’s small body. Hel’s body floated in the sky like a dark saint.<br /> <br /> “Together right now, celebrate the beginning of Ragnarok loudly!”<br /> <br /> The pitch black magic power that completely covered Hel’s body―called out to an endless number of dead people and brought to fruition a single magic.<br /> <br /> “Now, let’s begin the legend! {{furigana|Naglfar|Announcing Ship of God and Evil’s Mortal Combat}}!!”<br /> <br /> The assembly of the black magic power swelled out enormously. It was huge―as if covering the sky.<br /> <br /> Yes, it was physically large.<br /> <br /> What appeared from the materialization of that magic power was not in the scale of Magic Dress. Hel was buried in the core of that enormous mass, he was already unable to confirm by sight her shadow or shape.<br /> <br /> The thing that was floating in the blizzard sky was―an outrageously gigantic jet black ship.<br /> <br /> Naglfar―even Kazuki knew that name. It was the ship that brought about the huge turning point in the world of Norse Mythology. Until the promised day, Hel who was the king of the dead gathered the nails of the dead that were filled with grudge and magic power from all over the world in order to make a gigantic ship. And then in the advent of &lt;{{furigana|the day of twilight of the gods|Ragnarok}}&gt;, a great amount of evil giants would ride Naglfar and advanced to the world of the gods.<br /> <br /> It was the huge symbol of nightmare of the end of the world.<br /> <br /> That was Hel’s trump card.<br /> <br /> There was no sail on the ship that was floating in front of Kazuki’s eyes, it was covered with thick board, rather than calling it a ship from the Middle Ages, it was more like a &lt;battleship&gt;.<br /> <br /> Its black thick armor had an uneven surface with disorderly scaly appearance. When he looked more in detail the ship was exactly like in the myth―it was formed from the pitch black nails of the dead.<br /> <br /> It was like the finger tips of humans that went into necrosis from the cold, a bloody jet black color that was mixed with purplish red color.<br /> <br /> The grotesque battleship of darkness was lording over Kazuki and the others.<br /> <br /> ‘…I’m going to defeat her, and I’ll begin.’<br /> <br /> “This is not a power on the level of gathering the souls of three Magika Stigmas from this mountain like before! Know the seriousness of the death god!!”<br /> <br /> At the same time with her proclamation of war, there were several vortexes of magic power that floated up in the frontage of Naglfar. It was told in the myth that magic power was residing inside the nails of the dead. That magic power was floating in the frontage of Naglfar. The magic power was whirling while converging―*DON!* such sound rang out and a magic bullet was fired. *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* Several sparks of black magic power were scattered.<br /> <br /> It was undoubtedly a ship’s bombardment.<br /> <br /> “Battou Kaikon―Kusanagi no Tsurugi!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki tore apart that first volley with one swept of Ame no Murakumo and extinguished them. But with a *JIIN* the heaviness of the bombardment numbed the hand that was holding the sword. He didn’t feel such thing at all when he cut apart the [Ice Buster] from before, the heaviness of the bombardment felt like it was several tens of times of that.<br /> <br /> *DON!* *DON!* *DON!* ―the magic bullet was fired rapidly even now without pause. Kazuki took a stance of slashing with Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> …He was unable to invoke [Kusanagi no Tsurugi] with the same speed of the enemy’s rapid-fire.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had such a hunch too.<br /> <br /> “Tenkuu Battou Rengehou!”<br /> <br /> He had already chanted a magic that could deal with a large amount of magic power attack.<br /> <br /> Countless Sacred Treasures were created behind him, then all of it was fired one after another.<br /> <br /> The magic bullets and Futsunushi no Kami’s Sacred Treasures collided, the blizzard sky shined.<br /> <br /> It couldn’t block them all―the magic bullets that couldn’t be neutralized were heading at Kazuki and his comrades behind him before raining down.<br /> <br /> “Zekorbeni!”<br /> <br /> While trembling from the intensity of the bombardment, Kazuki used his trump card.<br /> <br /> Right now there was nothing he could do except using this power for the sake of defense.<br /> <br /> “I will protect everyone! …Mode・Phoenix!!”<br /> <br /> Enormous flame spewed out from Zekorbeni on Kazuki’s chest, creating an armor in firelight color. That orange light connected Kazuki’s mind with Phoenix directly.<br /> <br /> “O the calling voice of the ruler of flame, liberate the rage of the bottom of the earth! Open the gate of my rampart here… tower in heaven and earth, isolate the impurity! Fire Wall!!”<br /> <br /> With a loud voice the defensive magic of the flame wall was invoked. Zekorbeni could amplify the might of the magic the more magic power was poured into it. Kazuki poured several times the amount of magic power that was originally needed for this level 2 magic in one into Zekorbeni.<br /> <br /> A thick wall of flame was built up all at once.<br /> <br /> The flame wall swallowed the magic bullets that couldn’t be neutralized.<br /> <br /> Even so the remaining small magic bullets that looked like dregs of the original were still raining down on Kazuki behind the wall like a shower. Even the comrades behind Kazuki were―.<br /> <br /> “Kyaa-!” Mio’s scream was raised.<br /> <br /> Even just this much might become a hindrance for the chanting of the Chorus Magic.<br /> <br /> The flame wall lost its power and vanished. But Naglfar was still floating in the sky while creating vortexes of magic power even more. The bombardment would continue without pause…!!<br /> <br /> The attack was simple, but it was an excessively thick curtain of attack.<br /> <br /> “Damn-!” Kanae raised a voice that was irritated with herself who couldn’t do anything.<br /> <br /> …A swordsman couldn’t do anything in this situation.<br /> <br /> “Kanae, you move back with Liz Liza-sensei whose magic power is used up! Battou Kaikon―Kusanagi no Tsurugi!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki yelled while once again bisecting the raining down magic bullets all at once in a single slash.<br /> <br /> He slashed Ame no Murakumo directly horizontal. There Kazuki’s movement that was controlling the sword stopped. The magic bullet unceasingly flew at him in that gap.<br /> <br /> This gap had to be filled.<br /> <br /> Ame no Murakumo was still hiding more power but―a Sacred Treasure was not something that could be mastered where the user could use all of its powers right from the start. Training was needed.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t hold back the bombardment just with the power of Ame no Murakumo. His power as the King of Solomon was also necessary.<br /> <br /> “Fire Wall!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki poured a lot more magic power into Zekorbeni and unfolded a thicker wall of flame. At the same time he chanted [Tenkuu Battou Rengehou]. He was working at full capacity.<br /> <br /> “Lotte!” Kazuki shouted.<br /> <br /> “Yes desu! …Hit and run attack right desu!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte understood Kazuki’s intention even without being ordered.<br /> <br /> “O guardian of human race, the wisdom for the sake of opposing the will of the tyrannical god right here… Custom Liberion!”<br /> <br /> Lotte equipped armors that were lined up with countless small type thruster units on both her legs and arms, she immediately ignited them―flying to the blizzard sky. She circled to right beside the battleship of darkness that was flying in the sky and scattered bullets from the large type gatling that was attached on the armor.<br /> <br /> “You’re a nuisance, you fly!”<br /> <br /> Naglfar also directed several vortexes of magic power at Lotte and fired rapidly magic bullets from there.<br /> <br /> Lotte who was clad in [Custom Liberion] that excelled in mobility flew around Naglfar and ran away from that line of fire. No, she has also gotten hit with several shots that she couldn’t evade. Each time she got hit, smoke rose from the armor. Yet Lotte continued her hit and run with preparedness for death.<br /> <br /> But with a lot of the [gunport] directed at Lotte, the attack to Kazuki and everyone behind him that were chanting Chorus Magic was lessened. There was also a limit on how many gunport Naglfar could take out each time.<br /> <br /> “Tenkuu Battou Rengehou!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki intercepted the lessened attack with countless Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> “Tenkuu Battou Rengehou!!” Kazuha-senpai too imitated Kazuki and invoked the same magic.<br /> <br /> This time it was Naglfar that couldn’t neutralize the countless Sacred Treasures and the gatling bullets, the armor of the battleship of darkness was beginning to be impacted by the projectiles.<br /> <br /> They displayed a situation of a fierce bombardment exchange.<br /> <br /> “Many of you combining your power… it’s annoying! Even though I’m just alone! Even though papa too won’t lend his hand to me… everyone, everyone is ganging up and making fun of me!!”<br /> <br /> A voice of an irritable child escaped from the inside of the eerie Naglfar.<br /> <br /> …No, was she a child? Papa… did she mean Loki?<br /> <br /> Putting that aside, she was held back enough.<br /> <br /> Even with a materialized Diva as the opponent, if he united his will with his comrades in this number then they could hold her back.<br /> <br /> They have arrived at the place where they could stand against a god with the power of a human.<br /> <br /> And then, if there was the power of bonds, and this sword that he inherited from his mother… they could defeat her.<br /> <br /> For that sake, a momentary opening was necessary. Naglfar’s bombardment would stop, Kazuki believe that that moment would come before long and persisted in defense.<br /> <br /> “ “ “ “{{furigana|We know thy true name|Shem ha Meforash}}!!” “ “ “<br /> <br /> That time was approaching.<br /> <br /> Finally the Chorus Magic of everyone from the Witch’s Mansion entered the climax. Mio, Koyuki, Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, the four of them created enormous pillars of magic power that felt like it could reach the heavens.<br /> <br /> Those magic power pillars emitted wavelengths that were accurate to the inch while mixing with each other.<br /> <br /> “ “ “ “Thy true name is Baal… though that be so, all of evil was born in the Middle Ages! Calculating faith, and sham loyalty stained the sublime Baal! Born from falsehood the army of demons multiply in multiply and thy stand at the summit!” “ “ “<br /> <br /> Behind the four people the golden great king that carried the power of the stars, Baal was floating and materialized.<br /> <br /> But under the identity of Baal there was one other face that hid a more mighty power. Baal’s greatest magic was―obtained in posterior due to curses, now all of it was liberated.<br /> <br /> The contractor, Hikaru-senpai, commanded.<br /> <br /> “The great god of Ugalit Mythology Baal… answer my command, liberate all of that curses!! …Thy stained name is… {{furigana|Beelzebub|King of Flies}}!!”<br /> <br /> “Very well… watch it thoroughly!!”<br /> <br /> Together with a voice that was filled with rage―Baal’s golden figure was breaking down and decayed like mud.<br /> <br /> He was stained jet black exactly the same like the accursed Naglfar in front of their eyes!<br /> <br /> And then the thing that was Baal became {{furigana|a swarm of countless giant flies|Beelzebub}}.<br /> <br /> Like a dark cloud that was flowing, the giant swarm of the flies passed overhead Kazuki and the others and surged to Naglfar.<br /> <br /> Due to Christianity in the Middle Ages, Baal who was a god of a different teaching was repainted as a devil and received the curses of the people. That curse was―one of the seven deadly sins [gluttony].<br /> <br /> Beelzebub was maximizing that nature.<br /> <br /> The swarm of flies was bathed in countless magic bullets. But the flies ate at that. While eating away the bullet curtain one after another, the flies finally clung to the black armor of Naglfar. And then, even that armor that was made from the nails of the dead began to be eaten.<br /> <br /> “Thi, this…!!”<br /> <br /> Hel raised an impatient voice and created vortexes of magic power, she fired magic bullets at the side of the giant flies that were eating greedily. Several of the flies vanished from the hit at their side. But the flies too were eating greedily at the armor into shreds with momentum that was not inferior to that.<br /> <br /> It was a fierce devouring at each other between the {{furigana|death god|Hel}} and {{furigana|the king of demon|Beelzebub}}.<br /> <br /> Of course Beelzebub’s summoned body couldn’t stay in this world for long.<br /> <br /> But―right now was the time to go out in offensive. The bombardment had stopped, Naglfar’s armor became littered with moth-eaten damage, the path for the sake of bathing Hel with a blow was opened widely.<br /> <br /> “Everyone!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki gave out a signal to his comrades. After that he immediately poured magic power into Zekorbeni.<br /> <br /> “…O undying bird that soar from dusk to dawn, please grant that wings of hope on my back! The destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!”<br /> <br /> The swarm of flies moved aside and conceded a path to Kazuki that spread out wings of flame and flew away.<br /> <br /> And then―the greatest magic that he could use from Mio’s positivity level of 155, level 8.<br /> <br /> The trump card that he hadn’t used until now because of the intensity of his fatigue was now used.<br /> <br /> “O undying bird that repeated life and death! Liberate the flame of one’s last moment, become the sun of the surface… {{furigana|Imitation Flare|Sun of the End}}!!”<br /> <br /> The avatar of the firebird was liberated and headed to Naglfar from Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The avatar of the firebird exploded like a bomb.<br /> <br /> Phoenix that symbolized the sun liberated all of his own flame that was in the juncture of life and death and burned the target to ashes. That phenomenon was reenacted in this place.<br /> <br /> The energy liberation that rivaled the solar flare(sun surface explosion) also sacrificed the flies that were late to escape while swallowing Naglfar.<br /> <br /> The giant fire ball that even swallowed Naglfar whole floated in the air like a sun and continued to blaze. Inside it, they could see that the armor that was eaten away by the flies was melting in the blink of an eye.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Mode・Merfolk(Mermaid Armament)!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki instantly switched Zekorbeni―from Mio’s Phoenix, he went to Koyuki’s Vepar. He was enveloped in blue raiment that looked just like the shape of the sea itself. Koyuki’s positivity level had also reached 150 from that date. The greatest fire power of this bond, the level 8 was instantly invoked.<br /> <br /> “Time turn drawing circle, the history repeated following the inevatibility, awaken the forgotten era right here… leave behind everything inside the dream, toward the era of glacier! {{furigana|Ice Age|Absolute Ice World}}!!”<br /> <br /> The instant the fire ball liberated all of its energy and vanished, this time it was Vepar’s avatar that emerged―the surrounding of Kazuki and Naglfar was instantly freezing.<br /> <br /> A pure cold that surpassed even the blizzard of the Haunted Ground and the blizzard of the world of death―a world of ice.<br /> <br /> Naglfar, and Hel that rode inside it were freezing, their movement was stopped.<br /> <br /> “Mode・Veritas!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki switched Zekorbeni even further―from Koyuki’s Vepar to Lotte’s Prometheus. His body was wrapped with a silver suits with a texture that was hard to consider as something of this world.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s positivity level was also surpassing 150. He poured his magic power into the greatest fire power of that, to level 8.<br /> <br /> “Turning thy back to the god, pour the wisdom of human history to the dream of destruction… hear the roar of human’s independence! {{furigana|Gustav Dora|Betrayal’s Romance Cannon}}!!”<br /> <br /> A gigantic ordnance towered erectly from Kazuki’s chest to the front direction. It was a gigantic gun battery with length of few dozen meters and the thickness diameter close to one meter. A recoil propulsion system in order to withstand the firing of that gun battery was created on his back. In front of Naglfar, Kazuki also turned into a large weapon and determined his aim.<br /> <br /> The unrealistic cannon that possessed the power of magic―fired.<br /> <br /> A high explosive projectile that was almost as large as a human’s stature with the weight of a few ton was fired rapidly along with a thunderous roar that pierced your ears.<br /> <br /> Masses of destruction landed one after another on Naglfar’s armor that was subjected under rapid freezing right after a super high temperature and exploded grandly. The nails of the dead were peeled off and fell apart.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki finished firing all the explosive bullets and made the ordnance vanished―it was at the same time where Naglfar was finally destroyed from the attacks that came one after another.<br /> <br /> “For, for a human, moreover a male to fire magic this powerful in rapid succession, how can your magic not run out..?”<br /> <br /> Hel opened her eyes wide inside Naglfar that was barely floating in the air with its barely remaining fragment of magic power.<br /> <br /> “No… that magic power inside you… that is Zero Knight’s…!”<br /> <br /> Hel still survived! Kazuki flapped his wings of flame while taking a stance with Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> It was at that time that following the signal of commencing attack from Kazuki just now, his comrades invoked the magic that they were chanting all at once.<br /> <br /> “Tearing the skin and blooming the flower of blood, the scream that echoed eternally… fell the betrayer and awaken the hell right here! Cocytus!”<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki who was slashing at Hel, a piercing cold of hell was overtaking him.<br /> <br /> At that time the Ame no Murakumo in Kazuki’s grasp reverberated *JIIN* as if saying something to him.<br /> <br /> …He could hear, the voice of the Sacred Treasure!<br /> <br /> In this kind of time, this Sacred Treasure must be… used in this kind of way!<br /> <br /> “Carry the mystery in your blade crest &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;! Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately made a half turn on the spot and ran his blade not at Hel but at the cold of [Cocytus]. While Ame no Murakumo was enveloped in cold, it shone as if in echo.<br /> <br /> Like Kusanagi no Tsurugi that tore apart magical phenomenon and dispersed them―it was not, the magic phenomenon was absorbed into that shining blade. The golden blade was frozen into deep blue and all the cold was compressed in it.<br /> <br /> The essence of [slash] was to compress the energy within the narrowly linear range.<br /> <br /> Katana could [cut] things by compressing the movement energy into the sharp blade.<br /> <br /> Ame no Murakumo could even compress the magic energy into the blade’s narrow range.<br /> <br /> That was this Battou Kaikon―[Tsumugari no Tachi].<br /> <br /> Kazuki used his movement of cutting Kaguya-senpai’s [Cocytus] just like that to rotate in full circle and cut at Hel with the blade that carried cold.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOO!”<br /> <br /> With Ame no Murakumo that was carrying the power of [Cocytus], Kazuki pursued the blown away Hel and dealt her one more blow even further. Hel was thrown onto the rock surface of Mt. Fuji.<br /> <br /> “O lightning god, disturb the law of heaven following my will, liberate the undulation of destruction that is hidden in the atmosphere! {{furigana|Arc Flash Hazard|Super Lightning Arc Discharge}}!!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai also cast Baal’s level 7 magic. The power of the Haunted Ground’s atmosphere was compressed into the two poles of positive and negative energy and raised a vortex around Hel, that equilibrium broke and caused a pure white great explosion. That was not something that was caused by nature, but by plasma.<br /> <br /> Instantly, Kazuki cut at that plasma with Ame no Murakumo.<br /> <br /> “Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!” &lt;ref&gt;I don’t understand the meaning of Tsumu, maybe it’s just a name. But ‘gari’ means mow down while ‘tachi’ means long sword&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> He swung that blade at Hel that was crashed into a rock wall. The compressed electric heat destroyed Hel’s defensive magic power with each blow.<br /> <br /> It didn’t stop at one attack. Second, third, fourth…he repeatedly hacked her to pieces. The recoil of the defensive magic power gouged a crater at the surface of Mt. Fuji like an explosion, with each blow Hel was buried even deeper.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise whose body is carrying the light of heaven, respond to my accusation and burn to ash the sin on the surface! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> “Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”<br /> <br /> Mio had already guessed everything and directly fired Phoenix’s heat ray not at Hel but at Kazuki’s blade. That power was settled smoothly and the blade of sun’s heat slashed apart even further at Hel.<br /> <br /> “Ga, ganging up on me like this while borrowing the power of a great number of people! You, you coward! Not fair! Even though papa is not helping me…!! Give me back Naglfar!!”<br /> <br /> “O singing voice of mermaid, manifest the freezing thought. Sadness into ice flower, loneliness into light snowfall, cover the world with freezing blankness… White Album!”<br /> <br /> “Battou Kaikon―Tsumugari no Tachi!!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki also invoked her magic and Kazuki’a Ame no Murakumo accepted it. Hel was buried until a depth where she couldn’t even move her body anymore while Kazuki earnestly stabbed his sword.<br /> <br /> “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I’m, vanishing! If you keep doing that… I’ll vanish!!”<br /> <br /> It was evident that her defensive magic power was almost extinguished.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki thought whether he was going to stab his blade just like this until the end, for an instant, he hesitated.<br /> <br /> He could win. But, would he kill her?<br /> <br /> {It’s not like the Diva will die you know? When she used up her strength then she will only fall asleep for a long, long time.}<br /> <br /> Leme told him through the telepathic communication.<br /> <br /> ―Her appearance was a little girl but, this opponent was a terrifying Diva. For the sake of protecting his comrades he couldn’t afford to go easy on her.<br /> <br /> If he gave her an instant of opening here―the next moment it would be Kazuki who fall into a pinch. He had already used up his magic power to the limit. He had already spent everything to bring the situation into this direction.<br /> <br /> He would finish her off until the end! Kazuki resolved.<br /> <br /> But suddenly―Kazuki felt a magic power expanding in circle shape around Hel. It was not a magic power that came from Hel. It was an unknown magic power from someone that was isolated from them with a distant space.<br /> <br /> It was hard to predict what was going on.<br /> <br /> This was not an attack magic. If he created [Futsu no Mitama] he thought that perhaps he could destroy the magic phenomenon, but he wouldn’t make it in time if he chanted only after he noticed this.<br /> <br /> The circle shaped magic power that expanded with the buried Hel as the center instantly materialized into a huge ring.<br /> <br /> Ring―the thing that was like a string that was connecting through several magatama.<br /> <br /> This was an enlarged Yasakani no Magatama!<br /> <br /> Its inside instantly became pitch black and connected into another dimension, a different space. The exhausted Hel was absorbed into the black dimension while the girl herself was making a confused face saying “What’s this!?”<br /> <br /> “Ikousai!?”<br /> <br /> Reflexively Kazuki almost threw his body into the other dimension, but recalling his own exhaustion he stumbled his step. If enemies were waiting at the destination of the other dimension, his current self would be unable to do anything.<br /> <br /> There was no reply to answer Kazuki’s calling voice, after the ring swallowed Hel inside the other dimension, the ring of Yasakani no Magatama shrank in the blink of an eye and vanished.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 8===<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai with her body wrapped in her trademark Japanese clothes was standing still inside her own sword dojo that was prepared in Oosaka. Some composure came out in her expression ―her special training was bearing fruit.<br /> <br /> At the space before her eyes the enlarged Yasakani no Magatama was floating along with magic power. It was connected with the deep black dimension in its inside and with a plop it dropped off Hel who was in a worn-out state of body and mind.<br /> <br /> “You really got beaten up mercilessly huh. …If you got worn out until this bad then you won’t be able to come out at the frontline for a while until your divinity is restored.”<br /> <br /> Hel was limply sinking on the cool floor of natural wood inside the sword dojo where it seemed she couldn’t even hear Ikousai’s voice.<br /> <br /> Yasakani no Magatama smoothly became smaller and wrapped on Ikousai’s wrist naturally.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why…?” Finally a voice escaped Hel.<br /> <br /> “Yasakani no Magatama is a Sacred Treasure that can only display its effect within my perception sphere.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai had already tested the Sacred Treasure many times, she was already able to completely grasp its effect.<br /> <br /> “Something like exerting the power of this Sacred Treasure at the far away Fuji’s sea of trees originally should be something impossible. But… the Three Sacred Treasures resonated with each other, like a power that called to each other. Most likely it was the moment when Hayashizaki obtained Ame no Murakumo in his hand, that Yasakani no Magatama and Yata no Kagami reacted. Yata no Kagami projected your figure fighting that guy holding Ame no Murakumo. If it’s visible, then that place is a range where my imagination can reach… it’s inside my magic perception range. That was why I could save you using the power of Yasakani no Magatama.”<br /> <br /> Yasakani no Magatama―it twisted the space between its string.<br /> <br /> “Hel is my master that taught me the way to handle a Diva’s power. I heard the story from Loki… I was thinking whether there was any way for me to go help you. It was something miraculous, but I’m glad I made it.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai had a really arrogant personality, but toward someone that gave her something―toward the existence that she called as mentor, she was someone that paid her respect from the bottom of her heart. Hel too was not an exception.<br /> <br /> “Uu… uu, ueeee…”<br /> <br /> “Hel?”<br /> <br /> “UEEEE~N, IKOUSAI~!!”<br /> <br /> When Ikousai just thought that she was seeing tears gathering inside Hel’s round eyes, Hel suddenly clung at Ikousai’s chest while crying loudly like a child.<br /> <br /> “Uwaa, don’t you press your soppy face to my clothes.”<br /> <br /> “Ueee~! Why~! Why is everyone making fun of me~! Why is papa not praising me~! Give me back my Naglfar~! Even though I worked really hard to gather a lot of dead people’s souls, why did it get broken like that~!! I hate everyone~!!”<br /> <br /> Feeling troubled of how to deal with Hel that was crying like a child, Ikousai just kept patting her blue haired head for the time being.<br /> <br /> “Ueee~! I hate everyone except Ikousai~!!”<br /> <br /> Hel bawled even harder, like a child that was scolded for the first time.<br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References== <br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> Gilgamesh -- persistence. It's a king's quest to find immortality for his dead commoner friend. He loses it on the way back.<br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_9_Chapter_1&diff=479564 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Chapter 1 2016-02-03T16:07:14Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 – White and Black==<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The morning of that day was not like the usual morning.<br /> <br /> The tip of Kazuki’s nose was tickled by a sensual sweet aroma that made him awake. It was the aroma of a girl’s skin. That was what his instinct told him. But this aroma was something he had never smelled until today, the aroma of a foreigner’s skin. The owner of the aroma burrowed herself into Kazuki’s futon and was in a postion of right beside Kazuki, clinging close to him.<br /> <br /> ‘Who is this’, Kazuki felt dubious while still half-asleep.<br /> <br /> ―He raised up his blanket and determined the true identity of the intruder while still half-asleep.<br /> <br /> The morning sun that shone in from the window illuminated the figure of the girl that was laying on her side.<br /> <br /> Her long silver hair shone in sparkles while entangling with the dark brown skin.<br /> <br /> The owner of such vibrant contrast between silver and dark brown was―Leme.<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved his eyes to the clock and confirmed the time. From the point of view of the usual Kazuki, he had greatly overslept just from the brightness outside his window.<br /> <br /> But it was already decided from the start that he was going to oversleep today.<br /> <br /> The investigation of Fuji’s sea of trees yesterday was extremely severe. He encountered Ikousai and Ilyailiya in succession and fought them consecutively, not to mention the physical fatigue, even his magic power was completely empty.<br /> <br /> His most important job today was to rest. …After sleeping like a log from the excessive fatigue, it seemed he didn’t notice when Leme sneaked into his futon as she pleased.<br /> <br /> ―Sleeping together with Leme itself was not a particularly rare occasion.<br /> <br /> What was not usual was Leme’s appearance.<br /> <br /> Leme contracted with Kazuki in a little girl appearance and grew little by little as she recovered her strength, and now at this point of time she grew in a great leap. The one who was sleeping defenselessly besides Kazuki was not a little girl anymore, but a bewitching beauty that was only clad in a single piece of black clothing.<br /> <br /> From that mature body, an aroma that should be called a foreign sex appeal was rising up.<br /> <br /> “Have you woke up, my King?”<br /> <br /> Her long glandular hair swayed and Leme’s eyes that he thought was still asleep opened completely. And then she moved inside the futon slidingly and snuggled her body closely to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> There was a sensation of something soft being flattened around Kazuki’s stomach. A sensation that was impossible for Leme from before―Leme’s breast that had grown big was pressing on him.<br /> <br /> Everything was different from usual. Whether her sensual aroma and also the sensation of her adult skin.<br /> <br /> …Shit, to feel like this from someone like Leme as the partner.<br /> <br /> “Nn? What is it, your face is a little red even though you just woke up you know, my King?”<br /> <br /> Leme grazed her big breasts at Kazuki in a jest. Separated by a single piece of thin silk, that felt fluffily and bouncily soft.<br /> <br /> “…You, when did you slip into the futon?”<br /> <br /> “Nn? It’s just the usual thing right? When you are not sleeping together with another girl, Leme materialized and slipped into your futon. Though for the sake of making you feel shocked like this in the morning, I purposefully waited until you were completely asleep before slipping into the futon.”<br /> <br /> “Don’t just slip into the futon like this anymore now that you have grown up this much, okay.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki pushed Leme’s shoulders until the edge of the bed. The charming feeling was separated away.<br /> <br /> “Why? Fufun, even though your face becomes that red, might there be something that is troubling you? …Leme materialized with Kazuki’s magic power, so it’s better for Leme to be as close as possible to Kazuki when materializing like this. The time when Kazuki is not together with the other girls, I want to be together even when we are on a pillow like this.”<br /> <br /> Leme warded off Kazuki’s hand that was pushing her away and sidled up at him once more. While persistently grazing the bulges of her breast at Kazuki, pointed edges were hitting Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “…Your heart is throbbing fast. Like that when your head is invigorated, the magic power that is flowing into Leme too is going to be active and become better. It’s fine, get your heart throbbing more at Leme. Like that your worked up magic power is completely like a sweet nectar for Leme.”<br /> <br /> An entranced voice like being drunk from sake. Leme grasped both hands of Kazuki that she swept away and guided them onto her own breasts. Kazuki’s palms were buried into the bulges of Leme’s chest.<br /> <br /> There was excessive largeness on his hands. It was not an avatar, but the breasts of a materialized girl. The breasts that was only clad in a thin silk transmitted an endless raw softness to him.<br /> <br /> Spontaneously Kazuki massaged it from mostly a reflex.<br /> <br /> “…Ann-♪ When Leme’s breasts are rubbed, somehow, Leme too feels good…♪”<br /> <br /> Each time he massaged, Leme leaked out a sweet voice ‘ann-♪”.<br /> <br /> At the center of the bulges that was covered by a thin silk, something was swelling out isolatedly. Leme’s nipples were swelling out from the sexual excitement. Physiological reaction happened at Diva too the same like a human. That fact turned Kazuki’s head into pure white. She is a girl―that Leme.<br /> <br /> The dark brown skin that had depth was soft from what he saw. His palms kept massaging continuously as long as he liked, Leme too was continuing to leak out a sweet voice “ann-♪” happily from being massaged.<br /> <br /> With a partner that was not a human, he passed a short time that halted his reasoning inside the futon.<br /> <br /> A sweet body odor that was like a foreign fruit that was separated from a Japanese person, pheromone was filling the room. Kazuki pinched Leme’s nipple. Leme’s spine shivered “Nnn-!!” and she raised a noticeable high voice.<br /> <br /> “That’s good, the magic power from you too became spiritedly lively and is flowing into Leme! Leme too feels good♪ Play with my nipple more♪”<br /> <br /> However his reasoning finally came back, even though late. ‘More than this is no good’, Kazuki finally thought like that.<br /> <br /> He stiffened his fingers with his willpower and slowly floated his hands from the charming bulges.<br /> <br /> “Oo-? You are stopping…?”<br /> <br /> “You… If you are also a girl, don’t make someone that you don’t even like rub your breasts just for a joke. Your value will go down like that. I too don’t want to do something that lowers your value.”<br /> <br /> Even though he was saying that he had kept massaging her for quite a long time now. That was the fault of his head that was still in la-la land after just getting woken up.<br /> <br /> She was a girl even though she was a Diva… then she had to treasure such thing.<br /> <br /> “What are you saying? Surely Leme won’t hate my own master right?”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> “It’s obvious that I like you and so I chose you as my contractor.”<br /> <br /> Leme brought her face near and pressed her lips at Kazuki’s cheek.<br /> <br /> “…Leme also loved my previous contractor.”<br /> <br /> Setting aside the dumbfounded Kazuki, Leme talked with a voice that was laced with nostalgia.<br /> <br /> “That fellow was a woman, but Leme liked her. I liked her and Leme grew to love her too much… Leme had the feeling that it was a little abnormal to love a partner of the same sex until that much, so Leme is glad that the next contractor, that is you, is a male.”<br /> <br /> “The previous contractor…” That’s right, Leme had finally recovered her memory.<br /> <br /> There was a different contractor of Leme before.<br /> <br /> At the Fuji’s sea of trees, that time when a mysterious voice was talking inside Kazuki’s head―Leme replied at that voice affectionately. It might be that the master of that voice was―the person that was once Leme’s contractor.<br /> <br /> The third wall that partitioned the deepest part of Fuji’s sea of trees, there someone put up a seal in order to not let anyone enter inside at all. That meant… it was the previous generation’s King of Solomon.<br /> <br /> But for some kind of reason Leme lost her contractor, lost her power and memory, and separated with a long period of time she made Kazuki into her new contractor.<br /> <br /> ‘Aah, I see. That is why, compared to the other Kings, I am lagging behind.’<br /> <br /> When compared to a [completed King] like Arthur or Regina, he felt that it was only him whose days since his contract with Leme was obviously too short.<br /> <br /> Because he was too inexperienced… to the degree that he couldn’t straighten up anything.<br /> <br /> However Leme said that she still had no intention of talking about what had happened to her and that contractor in the past.<br /> <br /> “Fufun♪ I had my eyes on you since the time when you were just a baby, so there is also this reverse Genji-like aspect in our relationship, how cute.” &lt;ref&gt;Genji, Minamoto Genji. A story character of classic Japanese story,who, in his story, had a plan to raise a young girl into an ideal wife for him.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Leme who had a completely adult look was staring fixedly *jii―* at Kazuki, and then she smiled complacently.<br /> <br /> “…You, if you recover your power even more than this, by some chance will you grow even older?”<br /> <br /> “Are you thinking that at the very last Leme is going to become an old hag?! How rude, Leme’s current appearance is the peak. There are also Divas whose strongest state are in old people's appearance, but Leme is not that kind of type.”<br /> <br /> “…Leme whose appearance was still like a child is more relaxing.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki released a deep sigh while still feeling the lingering sweet sensation at his fingertips.<br /> <br /> “If you say that you like loli, I can also turn back into a child again just in external appearance you know?”<br /> <br /> “I don’t mean that… until now I look after your selfishness in your child form all along, yet for you to suddenly act as the older one here really makes me troubled.”<br /> <br /> “Fufun! From now on too, I’m still intending to keep saying out my selfishness though!”<br /> <br /> Leme proclaimed with her eyes closed and a smile on her mouth.<br /> <br /> If he had to say, the current Leme was in the age just before twenty years old. Her external appearance looked like the age of a university student young lady.<br /> <br /> From a child to an adult in one go. Thinking back on it, Leme had completely grown splendidly and rushed off to [an age around the same as Kazuki].<br /> <br /> “It’s not like Leme’s mental age has changed all along. It’s just that there are some places that are governed by emotion and body. When Leme’s body changed into an adult’s, naturally, concerns other than the appetite for food will also heighten. This time there is this itchy feeling inside… perhaps this is what you called as [sexual desire] I think. Appetite for food and also sexual desire, both of them are enjoyments that are distinctively coming from materializing into a flesh body, but Leme loves them♪”<br /> <br /> Leme once again pulled Kazuki’s hands, trying to make him touch her breasts for the second time.<br /> <br /> “Come on, rub Leme’s breast more, play around with my nipples♪”<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled Leme’s appetite until now that was her [tenacity for food]. She was a fellow that mostly thought only about food.<br /> <br /> If now her tenacity for this kind of thing was also similarly heightened like her desire for food, then that was something awful. &lt;ref&gt;The hiragana used for this word ‘awful’ can also mean great or excellent in Japan. This is like a double meaning.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Don’t persistently try to make me touch them! Don’t try to vent out your sexual desire to your contractor. Even for my side, it’s troubling to harbor some kind of wicked feeling for my own contracted Diva…”<br /> <br /> “Don’t say such cold words like wicked feeling for this.”<br /> <br /> Leme’s face suddenly turned serious. “Even though both of us are existences that are most close to each other… to draw a line between a human and a Diva, that’s really lonely.”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Kazuki recalled of what Leme once leaked out to him before, about how [I want to become a human].<br /> <br /> Looking in reverse, there might not be any meaning in trying to draw a line with a feeling of avoidance just because she was a Diva.<br /> <br /> A faint sound of footsteps became slightly audible from the corridor outside the room. Someone was coming to wake him up.<br /> <br /> It was not like there was something here he had to feel guilty for, but for some reason Kazuki immediately blocked Leme’s mouth.<br /> <br /> The footsteps stopped right in front of Kazuki’s door and next whispering voices could be heard.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, is he still sleeping I wonder? This is a chance for a wake up kiss! Just like a princess and a prince!!”<br /> <br /> “That’s a romantic idea, but normally isn’t it the reverse? The one who is wakened up from the eternal sleep using a kiss, it’s the princess’s side.”<br /> <br /> This highly spirited voice with a punch line and the calm tsukkomi, its Mio and Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “Someone like Kazuki is close to a princess you see. He is always on the side that is being chased around by a lot of admirers after all.”<br /> <br /> “Those girls’ conception is really interesting.” Leme said that with a broad grin.<br /> <br /> “I finally noticed that it’s no good for our side just to keep waiting with a feeling like a princess! Even Hiakari is like that right? If you just keep quiet and fidgeting around then the chance will be gone in a flash!”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s…”<br /> <br /> Mio incited a stir inside the introverted Koyuki. Unexpectedly it seemed that Mio felt a female friendship with Koyuki. It was just when he thought of their personalities… he had the feeling that Koyuki was not the one that actually could be said as introverted.<br /> <br /> That was because there was another side of Koyuki that she never showed except to Kazuki, where she became strangely bold when the two of them were alone together.<br /> <br /> “Let’s do a romantic kiss for waking up someone once! The chance for someone like Kazuki to wake up later than us is super precious! I won’t hand over the right for the first turn to Hiakari!”<br /> <br /> “Ple, please wait, I too…!”<br /> <br /> Mio said so determinedly with her mouth and then she opened the door carefully and sloo-wly.<br /> <br /> “I’m awake already.”<br /> <br /> “Wahyan!” When Kazuki talked the moment the door opened, Mio raised a strange scream and backed off, she crashed into Koyuki that followed her behind who said a protest of “puu”.<br /> <br /> “Even though you say that you are going to rest from the morning training because yesterday you used up your magic power.”<br /> <br /> Mio showed up her face a little from the door and said her complaint.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t say that I’m going to rest from the chores too. Right now is around the time I’m thinking of waking up you see.”<br /> <br /> “We came thinking of waking you up just in case, but… isn’t it fine for you to sleep just a little bit more? Because you are tired right?”<br /> <br /> “Even though I’m resting but I have taken the necessary time for sleeping enough with this. Sleeping more than this is just indolence.”<br /> <br /> “Muu―, if you said until that far”<br /> <br /> “…It’s not a big deal but can you quickly move forward for me?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki lightly tapped the back of Mio *peshi peshi* who showed out her face just a little from the door for conversing with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Both of them was in the maid appearance of the summer version that looked light.<br /> <br /> “Fu-fu-fu, how unfortunate for you two to be unable to give my master a wake-up kiss.”<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, Leme raised her upper body from the bed and chuckled. The way she laughed was as if an evil mastermind was entering the stage and gloated provocatively. Mio raised a voice of ‘ahh’.<br /> <br /> “Le, Leme!? You are sleeping together with Kazuki even though you have grown that big!?”<br /> <br /> “Is it not allowed? Kazuki belongs to everyone of the Witch’s Mansion right? Fu-fu-fu.”<br /> <br /> Leme hugged Kazuki from behind while pressing her breasts at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Mio couldn’t find any argument to just say that it was not allowed and could only moan “Uu―”.<br /> <br /> “But Leme looked like someone that is always together with Kazuki all along, it didn’t bother me when you looked like a kid, but to cling close to Kazuki like that with an adult appearance is…”<br /> <br /> “Fu-fu-fu, then you two just have to approach Kazuki with even more boldness too. If you don’t, then Leme will use the position as his contracted Diva and monopolize my master like this~♪ Fu-fu-fu~♪”<br /> <br /> Leme leaned her body forward from behind and lined up her face with Kazuki, before nuzzling her cheek at him.<br /> <br /> [[Image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 017.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Mio went “Aaa~!” with a pitiful voice.<br /> <br /> While his cheek was nuzzled, Kazuki became suspicious of Leme’s behavior. It was not like the usual Leme.<br /> <br /> Until now Leme had always shown a behavior that conceded her contractor, that was Kazuki, to all the other girls.<br /> <br /> That was only natural, after all Leme’s objective was to make Kazuki into a Harem King.<br /> <br /> ‘…Don’t tell me that now just because she has recovered her memory and got back the minimum of her power, she is planning to change her behavior from now on.’<br /> <br /> Just when he suspected so inside his heart, Leme’s figure vanished with a pop in an anticlimax.<br /> <br /> {My master, with your magic power still not recovered, don’t do anything rash for one or two days. Right now is the time to give your undivided attention to flirt with these girls and raise their positivity level.}<br /> <br /> Leme who lost her physical body resounded her voice inside his head so that Mio and Koyuki couldn’t hear.<br /> <br /> Was he over thinking it? Leme was only provoking these two and incited them up.<br /> <br /> Leme was still Leme, she didn’t change even after turning into a seemingly adult woman.<br /> <br /> Suddenly, “Kazu-nii!” “Kazuki!”, Mio and Koyuki talked at the same time and leaped onto the bed.<br /> <br /> “Uwaa-!” He raised a surprised voice while being pressed down on the bed, Mio and Koyuki embraced him from his left and right.<br /> <br /> The frilly sensation of the frills and the soft sensation of the skin inside it. Now that he was getting caught between the two, the situation he was in was completely a maid sandwich.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii! I too, am going to flirt even more with you than before!”<br /> <br /> “…Ka, Kazuki should flirt with me today!”<br /> <br /> Mio and Koyuki insisted from his left and right. But even if both of them said so to him at the same time…<br /> <br /> Lately everyone was accepting of Leme’s advocated harem even more than Kazuki, Kazuki’s feeling of avoidance has also kept thinning. However he loved everyone, yet it was the most difficult when he was told to choose.<br /> <br /> Mio turned to Koyuki with an expression that seemed to say she accepted the challenge.<br /> <br /> “Why? With what kind of reason are you asking to monopolize Kazuki?”<br /> <br /> “…It’s only me who still didn’t have a date just together with Kazuki. That’s unfair.”<br /> <br /> “Mu, certainly… But hadn’t you explored the academy’s underground together with just Kazuki?”<br /> <br /> Mio talked about the day when they battled Naiarlatoteph. Now that she said that, it was different with everyone else, at that time they were in a situation where he absolutely had to shrink his distance with Koyuki to escape from the dungeon.<br /> <br /> “You became really close with Kazuki from that, thinking carefully that was also a date right?”<br /> <br /> When Mio said that forcefully, Koyuki talked as if to throw out everything that she had kept piling up inside until now.<br /> <br /> “That kind of blasphemous date that kept throwing out SAN value check is just unpleasant!”&lt;ref&gt;SAN check, a certain game about Cthulhu has this parameter called SAN(sanity) for the character, in which the SAN will keep decreasing each time the character encounters the outer god. When the SAN parameter reaches zero, the character will forever be lost in darkness.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Wha, what is SAN value check?”<br /> <br /> Mio asked Kazuki while feeling scared, Kazuki too tilted his head saying “Is that Cthulhu language?”<br /> <br /> “I have been thinking that it’s unfair all this time! Even I want to have a date with Kazuki without any grotesque tentacles anywhere…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki hung her head down in dejection while saying that. Kazuki reflexively embraced back Koyuki’s shoulder and petted her head.<br /> <br /> Sunlight poured in from outside the window, and a blue sky spread out without a single cloud in it.<br /> <br /> The academy was currently in a special holiday the next day after they challenged the Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> It was a day that was exactly the most ideal for a date.<br /> <br /> “…Well, as expected from my compassion, should I say it can’t be helped.”<br /> <br /> Mio withdrew while making a deep sigh. In the end she was not that insensitive to keep forcefully pushing.<br /> <br /> {This is good. After all Hiakari Koyuki’s positivity level is just barely under 150. Let’s raise it right before the decisive battle.}<br /> <br /> Leme too ran her mouth inside Kazuki’s head calculatingly.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Fufu, so it was Koyuki-chan that invited Otouto-kun to a date? Then you have no choice but to give her a date.” Kaguya-senpai smiled gently while saying that.<br /> <br /> “It was said before that it’s time for flirting until your magic power recovers so I too am expecting it somewhat though~. Ahaha, But if it’s like this then it can’t be helped.” Hikaru-senpai said that while laughing generously.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki-oneesan is really looking forward to it inside her heart, but it’s cute that she works really hard to not let it show on the surface desu-!” Lotte grinned brightly like an angel saying that.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t leave me alone too much, okay? I feel that the time I can be together with you is too short because I’m in the Sword Division, it feels a little lonely.” Kazuha-senpai honestly became sulky while saying so.<br /> <br /> “I too have never been together with Kazuki except in that forest where many dead people were wandering around. If we go by that argument then next time should be my turn.” Shinobu-senpai said so and booked her turn in advance.<br /> <br /> “When the conflict with Yamato becomes clearer, take me and Shinobu to the sea just like you promised okay? Because I had bought a new and more amazing swimsuit already.” Miyabi-senpai said something dreadful.<br /> <br /> “It doesn’t concern me at all that Hayashizaki Kazuki is going for a date. Nn? But if he is doing that then who will make today’s dinner? If it’s not you who make it then and I don’t wanna―!” Like that Karin was crying while hitting him.<br /> <br /> “I don’t know the feeling of a person that likes to go outside of his own free will degozaru.” Kamimura-san rejected this thing called a date right from the bottom of her heart.<br /> <br /> ―Without even any discord that especially happened, everyone gave their official recognition for this date without difficulty.<br /> <br /> It was surely the embodiment of everyone’s good relation with each other. Also, as far as it went, it was also their trust in him.<br /> <br /> If it was like this then it might be fine even if they didn’t purposefully rendezvous at another place sneakily.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki tried to propose so, Koyuki shook her head with an expression that fixated on something.<br /> <br /> “But, until now Kazuki’s date with everyone all started after rendezvousing with them at the arranged place right?”<br /> <br /> “Well, it’s just as you said.”<br /> <br /> Since his first date with Mio, the front of the station became the place where he would be waiting for the date.<br /> <br /> This was the habit that Mio created because she was embarrassed to be seen by the students of the academy when she was together with Kazuki, but now there was no more necessity for it since their relation had become public knowledge.<br /> <br /> “But if everyone did it like that, then I too want to do it like that.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki stared at Kazuki with upturned eyes filled with emotion while saying that.<br /> <br /> “Because, this is our first date.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “…Sorry, did I make you wait?”<br /> <br /> Saying that, Koyuki appeared in front of the station that was the place where they arranged to meet. Of course Kazuki replied like this to that question,<br /> <br /> “No, I just arrived here too.”<br /> <br /> “…But of course, after all, this is still one hour earlier than the arranged time… Why was Kazuki here already…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki heaved a deep sigh with an amazed face.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki too. It seems that we both came too early so as to not let our partner wait.”<br /> <br /> Both of their amazed face immediately changed into a smile that this couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> Koyuki was mostly lightly dressed. Before he noticed, the season had already changed into the early summer.<br /> <br /> Koyuki was wearing a no sleeve blouse that was decorated with light blue ribbon together with a beige hot pants.<br /> <br /> The blouse was sized just right to bring the bulges of her chest to the fore, it had short length and so Koyuki’s navel was peeking out. The hot pants with light earth colors clung tightly to her round bottom and smoothly exposed her dazzling white thighs. Her feet were wearing sandals with a leather strap.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki, you look cute but it’s fairly bold isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> Magician could regulate their body temperature no matter how, but exactly because of that embodying the season with the clothes made her all the more stylish in contrast. Having said that, he had the feeling that Koyuki today was just too bold.<br /> <br /> Her clothing not feeling vulgar was surely thanks to the fresh combination of the colors and Koyuki’s own cool atmosphere. Her stature was short but her legs were long, the goodness of her style was making her atmosphere even firmer.<br /> <br /> In other words it was actually suiting her even though it looked contrary to her personality.<br /> <br /> “I bought it through mail order. I heard on the net that this is the current fashion trend and so I bought it, but now that I’m wearing it…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki fidgeted around from receiving Kazuki’s gaze,<br /> <br /> To be stared at by Kazuki continuously even now without stopping, Koyuki looked down while her face became completely red.<br /> <br /> “You don’t need to get embarrassed Koyuki, it really suites you after all.”<br /> <br /> For her to order that through mail order meant that she had been preparing for this date with Kazuki for quite a while. She thought hard of what suited her and prepared the outfit and then became embarrassed when the appointed day came. It was really like Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why are you looking at me so intensely like that?”<br /> <br /> “Because your embarrassed appearance made you even more excessively cute.”<br /> <br /> “That’s sexual harassment…”<br /> <br /> Even while saying a complaint, Koyuki’s expression burst open slightly in delight. Kazuki understood well that Koyuki also had such an aspect in her.<br /> <br /> “If you show me such a lewd appearance, then it can’t be helped even if my gaze becomes nailed on Koyuki like this, don’t you think so?”<br /> <br /> “So, something like a lewd appearance… I don’t intend for that kind of…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki became increasingly bashful when she was tormented by words from Kazuki like that. Just from her behavior, even without looking at her positivity level he knew that this was the correct manner of speaking in regards to Koyuki.<br /> <br /> Koyuki too was staring at Kazuki’s appearance. Kazuki came wearing a simple polo shirt and jeans. These clothes chosen for him were fairly good items that were cheap in the store that Mio often visited. Kazuki didn’t really understand much about clothing, but due to its silhouette that followed along the body line and its three dimensional sewing, it was easy to move in like a second skin regardless of its smart and tight look.<br /> <br /> Koyuki said “Kazuki too, that, you look cool…” while fidgeting around acting embarrassed. Having said that something like a man’s appearance was just a thing that looked like a mere extra. Kazuki also became self-conscious then wordlessly he encircled his left arm on Koyuki’s waist before embracing her closer. Koyuki’s head hit his chest with a light knock and her body became glued to him.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.09 021.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “We, we are going to walk sticking to each other like this?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki was flustered even with a heart mark of positivity level up flying at him.<br /> <br /> “Because Koyuki, the gazes of the surrounding are gathering on you, see.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki went “Eh?” and for the first time she paid attention to the surroundings outside of Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Although today was a weekday but a considerable number of people were walking through the road from the station toward the public park. The males walking down the road all had their eyes stolen by Koyuki’s appearance that was like a summer fairy. It made Koyuki’s face turn excessively red.<br /> <br /> “If a cute girl like Koyuki is showing that kind of appearance then of course you’re going to become the center of attention. By any chance perhaps Koyuki was choosing those clothes because you wanted to expose yourself?”<br /> <br /> Before Koyuki said to him that [she liked to expose her embarrassing appearance to Kazuki].<br /> <br /> She liked for her embarrassing self to be received by Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s not it. …Please don’t say a mean thing like that.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki clung to Kazuki in order to hide her face on Kazuki’s chest. But he understood that she didn’t hate it from her sweet tone of voice. A pleading tone of voice that implicitly said [I want to be bullied more] to him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who had completely grasped Koyuki’s preferences that was like that, raised the looking down blushing face of Koyuki forcefully with his right hand, and gazed at her right from the front.<br /> <br /> “Because Koyuki is like this, strange men won’t approach you, I have to show the surrounding people that you are my girl to be safe.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki gave the first kiss for today on Koyuki’s soft cheek. It made Koyuki’s spine shiver.<br /> <br /> “…Yes. I am Kazuki’s possession, so it doesn’t matter what other people think…”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There was no doubt that Koyuki’s peculiar preference appeared as the manifestation of how she still didn’t have confidence in herself.<br /> <br /> ‘I want to be liked’, ‘I want to be loved’, her feeling that wanted to feel for real those kinds of things more and more became a worldly behavior and manifested towards Kazuki.<br /> <br /> ‘Today. let’s do a date that will fill the gaps that are still left inside Koyuki’s heart’―Kazuki was determined to do that.<br /> <br /> Both of them were heading to their first destination from the station in a walk. Along the way, Kazuki repeatedly kissed Koyuki’s cheek each time they walked a few steps forward. Of course if Koyuki showed any sign of hating it then Kazuki too wouldn’t do anything like that, but<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki… please properly walk normally…”<br /> <br /> Because Koyuki was making a face that seemed to say ‘I want you to do more’ while fidgeting around, it couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> “I said don’t…♡”<br /> <br /> A heart mark came flying at him while Koyuki was saying no.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki-oniisan, there is this thing called &lt;Sasoi’uke&gt; among many attributes desu…}&lt;ref&gt;This word Sasoi’uke, ‘sasoi’ mean inviting, while ‘uke’ mean receiver, usually used to indicate the receiver side in a gay relationship. You guys know about those BL illustrations that sometimes appear from the wild delusions of a female character? One of the men will try to force the uke into the forbidden relation, and the uke will act hesitatant or rejecting, but even though the uke act like that you can see how their face blush or their eye is just full of desire. They ain’t fooling anyone. That is Sasoi’uke. PS: For me to understand something like that, god, I don’t want to fall into the Dark Side.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled when Lotte was giving him a lecture while watching anime. So this was what it meant.<br /> <br /> Koyuki was waiting in expectation for an attack from Kazuki. Her posture was a posture of a receiver(uke), she was demanding a resolute attack from Kazuki. As a swordsman he couldn’t withdraw back from this.<br /> <br /> Although today was a weekday but they were in front of a station, this was why the pedestrian traffic was quite busy. The people who walked down the road were directing gazes that seemed to say “There is an outrageous bakaple here…” at them. But Kazuki was an able man that would do something thoroughly when he was doing something.<br /> <br /> Over and over he tasted the white and smooth cheek of Koyuki with his lips.<br /> <br /> “Don’t kiss me here…” While saying that Koyuki was directing her lips at him full of desire.<br /> <br /> Considering Koyuki’s wordless will, Kazuki stopped his walk, then he kissed her lips to lips.<br /> <br /> After sucking at each other’s lips for a while, they began their walk again.<br /> <br /> However immediately “…more” Koyuki leaked out a small voice.<br /> <br /> “Wasn’t it no good here?” Kazuki immediately returned a bullying reply. Koyuki looked down with a bright red face and fidgeted around, but she wordlessly turned her desiring lips at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stopped his walk again and kissed her.<br /> <br /> While sucking at each others’ lips, Koyuki was fawning at him by rubbing her body to his body.<br /> <br /> “Now you want your body to be touched?”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s not what I mean… in this kind of public place…”<br /> <br /> As expected doing such in a public place like this was bad. Kazuki worked out a plan and stroked Koyuki’s long ear with his right hand.<br /> <br /> “Hyann-“ A sweet voice escaped Koyuki’s mouth. “Haven’t I said before that the ear makes me feel lewd feelings… please don’t do this kind of thing in front of this many people…”<br /> <br /> He was told that the ears of an elf are more sensitive than the average person and so it gave off a lewd sensation.<br /> <br /> But that was something that was unknown for normal people.<br /> <br /> “If Koyuki doesn’t make an expression that seems to feel good like that, then no one will know we are doing anything perverted here.”<br /> <br /> “I’m, not making such an expression at all.”<br /> <br /> “You are doing it so obviously. Your face is bright red, and your breathing is rough.”<br /> <br /> “Li, lies…”<br /> <br /> Fingering his partner’s ears while walking around this much was surely still barely in the category of something they could do in the public’s presence. However a sensuality that couldn’t be hidden was oozing out onto the young beautiful face of Koyuki, forcefully attracting the eyes of the males that were walking down the road. The attention from those people made Koyuki become even more thrilled.<br /> <br /> The distance that usually only took five minutes to arrive now took more than ten minutes.<br /> <br /> Perhaps they were now mostly just like a pervert that exposed themselves on a road.<br /> <br /> “…Perhaps it’s just as I thought that I am a pervert… I’m sorry…”<br /> <br /> In translation it became an expectation that said [You will accept a pervert like me right?].<br /> <br /> “Perverted Koyuki is also cute, I like it.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki that he first met was cool and reliable, a girl that took a brusque attitude at Kazuki saying things like [I don’t care at all]. Yet now<br /> <br /> “Then please kiss me more…” Right now she had completely melted like this at him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki kissed her for who knows how many times already.<br /> <br /> “Everyone is looking at Koyuki.”<br /> <br /> “…It doesn’t matter because I’m Kazuki’s possession.”<br /> <br /> Hiakari Koyuki―144<br /> <br /> Suddenly, a worry about what became of yesterday battle’s later-processing flashed through Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> What happened to the Einherjar and the Ryouzanpaku fellows that fell into magic intoxication?<br /> <br /> But for now he was going to concentrate on Koyuki―his work for today was to flirt.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Both of them finally arrived at the combined movie theater near the station with an already abnormal mental state since the start of the date.<br /> <br /> There was more than ten screens in this building, there was even screens that was installed with {{furigana|Psycho Projection|Projection Projector}} that was a state of the art alchemy technology.<br /> <br /> The Phantasmagoria that had spread even into the ordinary household was an alchemy technology that made use of thoughtography magic that transmitted three dimensional image information to the mind of people watching it. But Psycho Projector had advanced a step further than that, it was using [{{furigana|Sympathy Graphic|Shared Reflection Magic}}] that could even transmit the emotion information of the film maker’s intention to the people watching it.<br /> <br /> When an excellent movie director that had grounding in magic power possessed a strong emotion like [I want to convey this image] and filmed a movie, the alchemic flim would also sympathize as far as that image too and it could preserve it.<br /> <br /> Psycho Projection could project out the light that contained that image to the screen.<br /> <br /> The light that was projected to the screen contained even the emotion information, and when that light entered the retina of the audience, the emotion image would be recollected at the same time when the brain read the electric signal and shook the audience’s heart.<br /> <br /> But it was not so strong that it could take over a human’s heart. Until the end it was only something just to the degree that strengthened the emotions and the feeling of immersion towards the movie.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Koyuki bought the ticket for a romantic movie. To watch a romance movie, for these two who was still beginners about dating was something that was really date-like that exhilarated their heart.<br /> <br /> Furthermore there was a ticket for a couple seat.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Koyuki entered the designated screen room and took a seat in a couple seat.<br /> <br /> The seat was wide and looked more like a sofa, the shape made it possible for the two of them to take any kind of sitting posture they liked. The intervals between seat and seat were also pointlessly wide, making an atmosphere that seemed like they were in a personal room.<br /> <br /> Even further there was also the fact that currently it was an afternoon of a weekday, not to mention the couple seat, even the general seats were vacant from visitors. When the lighting turned off, it became a space exactly just for the two of them.<br /> <br /> On the screen the romantic movie that had its immersion feeling strengthened with the Psycho Projector was projected.<br /> <br /> It made him and Koyuki feel like they were the main character and the heroine. It made him feel like he was meeting Koyuki back once again inside a completely different {{furigana|life|story}} and fell in love with her.<br /> <br /> When it reached the scene where the main character held hands with the heroine for the first time, Kazuki and Koyuki naturally connected their hand with each other.<br /> <br /> Even in the scene where the main character and the heroine did their first kiss, Kazuki and Koyuki kissed sweetly just like in the movie. That kiss became the second first kiss for Kazuki and Koyuki.<br /> <br /> It was fine if that was the farthest it went, but the content of the movie was quite extreme.<br /> <br /> Barely staying inside the age limit by avoiding a blunt depiction using a clever camera work, the main character and the heroine completely accomplished a wonderful bed scene with each other.<br /> <br /> The scene where both characters were loving each other mutually was projected without any omission.<br /> <br /> Inside the screen, the heroine bared open her own clothes and became naked.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Koyuki were watching that with their mental state still being abnormal somewhere.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki…} Koyuki called him with a small voice of Telepathy. Koyuki too put her hand on her blouse with an intoxicated expression and unfastened the buttons one by one just like the heroine on the screen.<br /> <br /> When Koyuki’s front was opened and the appearance of her light blue bra appeared, she didn’t even hesitate and lifted it up completely.<br /> <br /> It was a good thing that there was no other audience at all around them―just like the scene in the movie―the white small mounds and its peach colored buds on the center were exposed.<br /> <br /> The main character on the screen, Kazuki who was inside the darkness, had their breath taken from the beauty of that bare skin.<br /> <br /> The main character of the movie, massaged the breast of the heroine.<br /> <br /> {Me too… please touch me just like that…}<br /> <br /> Koyuki shook her small chest in temptation. The last bit of Kazuki’s remaining reasoning made his reached out hand hesitate. But his gaze was completely nailed on that sight. Just from Kazuki’s gaze, Koyuki’s breathing turned rough, and the peach colored buds on the center swelled and sharpened aloofly.<br /> <br /> {Qu, quick…} He had no intention to keep Koyuki in suspense, but her face looked like it was going to cry.<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned his back to the movie while covering the small mound with his palm. Then he massaged just like that as if enveloping the mound. He pinched the buds on the center with the tips of his fingers. Poking. Koyuki’s body was trembling in small shivers.<br /> <br /> {Fe, feels good! More…!} Koyuki’s reaction was honestly sensitive.<br /> <br /> There was also the passion that reached them from the movie, but perhaps from the start of this date his desire of [I want to touch] towards these breasts have been piling up all along.<br /> <br /> {Koyuki, it’s no good to let out your voice, okay}<br /> <br /> While looking around their surrounding, Kazuki pushed his thought to Koyuki with Telepathic communication. They were completely alone just the two of them, but this spot was by no means a closed environment. But it seemed that fact only made Koyuki even more aroused instead.<br /> <br /> {…As I thought, perhaps I’m a pervert…}<br /> <br /> She murmured in self-torturing way with a rough breath. But her eyes that was staring at Kazuki in tears was colored with expectation that she wanted to be accepted even while debasing herself as a pervert.<br /> <br /> In exchange of a reply, Kazuki raised the right leg of Koyuki who was sitting at his left and put that leg on top of his knee. Koyuki’s waist was jutting out forward with a slide.<br /> <br /> Her posture became like a baby that was made to pee with both her thigh widely opened, exposing her crotch.<br /> <br /> {N, no… this kind of posture…!}<br /> <br /> Even while Koyuki became full with shame, yet she shook her hot pants contrary with what her mouth was saying.<br /> <br /> {If I, am touched in this kind of posture…}<br /> <br /> She was saying that she wanted to be touched.<br /> <br /> Kazuki smoothly caressed Koyuki’s largely opened thighs.<br /> <br /> Even inside the movie, the main character and the heroine was getting along well with each other.<br /> <br /> Both of them were being aware of two realities without any contradiction and it heated the passion in their heart doubly.<br /> <br /> {…Kazuki, this place too…} Toward Kazuki who was continuing to caress her thighs, Koyuki shook the nether region of her hot pants and urged Kazuki. There’s a thin cloth that was biting into between her legs, clinging snugly there, its center spot looked wetly moist. Kazuki pressed his finger on top of the hot pant’s center line and rubbed up and down.<br /> <br /> {…!♡}The tips of Koyuki’s toes spasmed tensely.<br /> <br /> He wanted to make her feel even better. He wanted to see Koyuki that was feeling good. Such feeling spurred on Kazuki. Where did he need to touch to make her feel good, with trial and error he moved his hand and began to search around the hot pants.<br /> <br /> He sharpened his mind as if he was in a place of a serious match.<br /> <br /> At that time from Koyuki’s chest, a swarm of small heart marks that normally was not visible was flying to him. That was the micro change of positivity level that he had never perceived until now.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki changed the way he touched, the size and amount of the small heart marks also changed.<br /> <br /> The places where she had good and not good reaction were visible to his eyes.<br /> <br /> Kazuki opened the front button of Koyuki’s hot pants and slipped inside his finger smoothly into that opening.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s underwear was perfectly wet and sticking to her skin.<br /> <br /> He slipped into there too―and directly, he searched for Koyuki’s most sensitive spot.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki… directly-!♡ My important place…!♡}<br /> <br /> Inside there was a vertically long slit that was softly stirring up, the entrance was splitting open with how her legs were opened out. When he pressed his finger, it was as if his finger was absorbed and it got buried there.<br /> <br /> From Koyuki’s important entrance, into the inside of Koyuki’s body. Inside it was wet with liquid, a watery sound *kuchu kuchu* was leaking out. Koyuki’s face was dyed crimson and rough breathing of arousal escaped her mouth.<br /> <br /> His fingertips gently stimulated the places it could reach at the inside and the outside both simultaneously. On the upper part of the outside, there was something small and sensitive that stood out. When he pressured that with the ball of his finger, a scream with her breath caught escaped Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “Nnn―!!♡”<br /> <br /> {You shouldn’t leak out your voice Koyuki.} Kazuki kissed her while talking telepathically. He sucked her lips and blocked off her voice.<br /> <br /> This place felt good for her. Kazuki toyed around with that protrusion he found while a different finger played with Koyuki’s dripping wet inside. A large amount of heart marks flew at him.<br /> <br /> His powers of observation that was forged by the Hayashizaki-style perfectly saw all of Koyuki’s weak points. Kazuki moved his fingertips trying to bring about the maximum stimulation for Koyuki. The heart marks’ amount decreased when he did it strongly instead. Till the end he would gently―<br /> <br /> Koyuki opened out both her legs immodestly even further in order to coax Kazuki more and more.<br /> <br /> {Ka, Kazuki-! How do you know the places which feels that good!? It, it feels far better compared to when I did it myself…! ♡}<br /> <br /> {Doing it yourself? Like how?}<br /> <br /> {…!}<br /> <br /> Koyuki self-exploded and wasting no time at all Kazuki attacked. He attacked and bullied Koyuki with both his words and hand.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s spasms became even fiercer and her white navel was rippling. Feeling the sign that Koyuki was going to scream, Kazuki beat her to the punch and he sucked her lips as much as he could.<br /> <br /> “…Nn―n! Nn―n!!”<br /> <br /> Her scream was blocked in the exit due to the kiss, the intense thing inside Koyuki ran in counter-current and that small body of hers was trembling *gaku gaku* like a broken toy.<br /> <br /> “……! ……!” Something hot gushed out from Koyuki’s important place.<br /> <br /> With that as the last, strength left Koyuki’s body and she turned limp.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stroked her head gently for a while and waited until her breathing turned calm. But when her breathing calmed down, Kazuki stimulated her breast and important place again.<br /> <br /> Immediately Koyuki reacted intensely once more, she trembled. Time and time again Koyuki was carried to an extreme high. So that she wouldn’t scream out, all that happened while she desperately sucked onto Kazuki’s lips like a baby.<br /> <br /> ―When the movie was over, Koyuki had completely become messed up sloppily.<br /> <br /> Her limbs stretched out like a puppet whose string was cut, her thighs were sopping wet as if she had just peed, her expression loosened from being short of breath and absentmindedness, the saliva that spilled out from her mouth drew a line to her chin.<br /> <br /> Koyuki was completely messed up similar to when Kaguya-senpai became sensitive from Asmodeus’ influence.<br /> <br /> A staff name roll streamed down together with a splendid music. Getting ready for when the room would be turned bright, Kazuki put Koyuki’s clothes in order quickly. He then wiped away the traces of their act just now with Pyrokinesis and Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> The light turned on.<br /> <br /> “…No, now that I have calmed down, I feel like I have exposed out an unsightly appearance…”<br /> <br /> “Koyuki was really cute.” Kazuki kissed her from the side.<br /> <br /> “…To accept a perverted elf like me, Kazuki is also an unthinkable pervert…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki kept clinging at Kazuki and for a while she kept lying on the couple seat with him without any sign of standing up.<br /> <br /> Hiakari Koyuki―148<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When Koyuki finally arrived in front of the ramen restaurant, her expression turned tense.<br /> <br /> Various things had been vented out in the movie theater and it seemed the wicked thing inside the two of them had fell behind.<br /> <br /> This place was the famous ramen restaurant in the city that Koyuki had wanted to try out for a long time. Because today was a weekday, there was almost no line and they didn’t have to queue in.<br /> <br /> Koyuki was hiding an unexpected aspect of her as a ramen freak, but it seemed that she had never come to this restaurant. When he asked why was that, she said it was because this restaurant was famous for its [couple ramen].<br /> <br /> “Isn’t it a heresy to compete with such made-up thing like that?”<br /> <br /> “Ramen is freedom, you cannot judge without eating it.”<br /> <br /> The tensed Koyuki pulled Kazuki’s arm and went through under the restaurant’s banner.<br /> <br /> The interior design inside was not like a ramen restaurant but like a stylish modern restaurant. There was not a single drop of oil stain on the tables or the floor, in place of things like ticket machine, decorative plants and artistic pictures decorated the place, the atmosphere of the place was completely like a café. A young waitress in apron appearance lavished a refreshing smile at them.<br /> <br /> After they were guided to a table, Kazuki and Koyuki were told to not sit facing each other but sitting side by side horizontally. This is a characteristic of this ramen restaurant. Both of them then ordered the couple ramen without any hesitation.<br /> <br /> After a while, a jumbo ramen was put in the space between the two who were sitting side by side.<br /> <br /> This single ramen had to be eaten together by the both of them.<br /> <br /> The soup was a vibrant red with tomato as the base. A fragrant shrimp aroma was tickling their appetite.<br /> <br /> A ramen with tomato base… it looked curious with a single glance, but tomato contained umami component that was not inferior even against a soup stock made from konbu&lt;ref&gt;Konbu is kelp&lt;/ref&gt;, it also went well with the seafood flavor of katsuobushi &lt;ref&gt;Small pieces of sliced dried bonito&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> Pink colored naruto&lt;ref&gt;Steamed seasoned fish paste with spiral whirlpool pattern&lt;/ref&gt; in heart shape were floating on the soup, pastrami beef in replacement of roasted pork fillet, and then lustrous green herbs were coloring the bowl.<br /> <br /> The noodles were thick. Kazuki promptly paid attention meticulously so that the soup wouldn’t fly everywhere and offered it to Koyuki with “Aa―n”. Koyuki ate a mouthful―and her expression changed.<br /> <br /> Koyuki too fed Kazuki with an “Aa―n”. Kazuki also slurped the noodle carefully.<br /> <br /> “The noodle’s texture is really tender to chew despite how thick it is.”<br /> <br /> “Most likely this is…so that the noodle won’t grow stale even if a couple is eating this while taking their time, the cook heightened the water dilution ratio.” Koyuki answered with a serious tone as if she was on the middle of a battlefield.<br /> <br /> “I see…!” Kazuki shouted a little. When people were eating their ramen slowly, the noodle would grow stale no matter what. The noodle would be soaked by the soup and its texture would get degraded completely.<br /> <br /> But if the noodle’s water dilution ration―namely its water amount was already a lot beforehand and then it was boiled up, because since the beginning the noodle had contained a lot of water, it would be hard for the soup to soak the noodle and so the noodle would stay tender.<br /> <br /> But a noodle with high water dilution ratio was easy to get sticky when it was processed by a roller machine, a lot of time would also be necessary for its fermentation time, it would take a lot of effort for this. There was no doubt that this noodle was a homemade noodle original of this restaurant.<br /> <br /> “The noodle is a little short isn’t it…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki said with a sharp glint in her eyes. This time it was Kazuki that first noticed the meaning of such size.<br /> <br /> “If the noodle is made short then there is little need to slurp the noodle. Even if a couple fed each other this noodle then it will be hard for the soup to fly at their clothes, don’t you think so.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki noticed with a ‘hah’ and her countenance hardened.<br /> <br /> “For me to come to a ramen restaurant with this kind of clothes, what a blunder…!”<br /> <br /> It was as if she noticed that she had made an unforgivable mistake on a battlefield, an expression that was filled with terror. Koyuki today was wearing a white blouse. “I got too elated by the date and got careless…”<br /> <br /> “No, I think you can just float the stain and drop it off with magic even if your clothes get dirty though.”<br /> <br /> “That’s no excuse, to get your clothes dirtied in the middle of a date, everything will go to ruin just from that clumsiness…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki tilted his head saying “I wonder if that’s so” looking at Koyuki who was trembling in shivers. Anyways, back to the ramen.<br /> <br /> “Even though the noodle is short but there is no unsatisfied feeling after a mouthful of it, that must be because of this thick noodle with high water dilution rate that has really firm texture and gives off the feeling of substantiality when eaten.”<br /> <br /> “This soup is delicious but, I feel something a little different from a normal ramen here.”<br /> <br /> “The combination of tomato and shrimp… This is the technique of [American sauce] that is used well in cooking pasta. There is also the umami that is extracted out from the shrimp’s head and shell.”<br /> <br /> “I see, while being a ramen it also incorporated the stylishness of pasta into it…”<br /> <br /> “Furthermore with the refreshing aroma of the herb, it relieves you from bad aroma that gives you a peace of mind even if you continue the date…”<br /> <br /> Several meaningful things were hidden in each single one of this ramen’s schemes. While the ramen connoisseur and the maid youth were seriously investigating the ramen a lot, suddenly, a sharp glint of eyes flashed from the inside of the kitchen.<br /> <br /> “That young couple… they really get it don’t they…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly realized and raised his face from the ramen bowl. There was the presence of a craftsman that was glaring at them like a beast.<br /> <br /> Inside the restaurant refreshingly young employees were rushing about busily, but there was a single employee in the depth of the kitchen whose disposition was obviously different, lurking inside. Standing stock still in front of a container that was seething with boiled noodle with high temperature vapor rising up without even blinking his eyes, a towel that was wrapped around his head, and burly arms that peeked out from the black T-shirt he wore.<br /> <br /> It was a traditional ramen artisan from the old times. (AN: What he means is that the appearance of the cook here is really similar with the normal ramen store). He had heard the conversation between Kazuki and Koyuki. That man was completely like a bear that had woken up from its winter hibernation. He was sluggishly peeking out his face from the kitchen into the restaurant.<br /> <br /> “Wait a second Oyaji-san&lt;ref&gt;Oyaji can mean father, old man, or boss. In this case I guess it means both father and boss&lt;/ref&gt;, please don’t show out your face here! The atmosphere of the restaurant will get destroyed if you do that!”<br /> <br /> …He was scolded swiftly by another waitress.<br /> <br /> The big man that was like a bear trembled with a twitch saying “So, sorry” and withdrew back to the kitchen. However before the oyaji left into the kitchen, he sent a last gaze filled with affection to all the couples inside the restaurant saying “Become happy for sure…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Koyuki once again clearly comprehended that this ramen restaurant was the real thing.<br /> <br /> “For a long time I had wanted to talk about this with someone while eating ramen together.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki slurped the ramen with a smiling face, happy from how her maniac preferences were being accepted.<br /> <br /> Hiakari Koyuki―149<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The aquarium was filled with light and shadow.<br /> <br /> The site area of the urban-type aquarium inside the city was cramped, the variety of the animals that were exhibited was also few.<br /> <br /> But in its place it possessed a water tank that was provided with gimmicks to the fullest, and the aquarium became a famous date spot to [look and enjoy]. Kazuki and Koyuki came here next.<br /> <br /> Inside the building was dim. But there was a sensor that functioned to match Kazuki and Koyuki with the fishes’ movement, brightly colored light ran after them, and images were projected with the fish tanks as the screen.<br /> <br /> It was a technology that was called as 3D Projection Mapping. Lights and images were illuminated at the landscape in reality, combining them together, and created a completely new magical world from them.<br /> <br /> Moreover the floor, the wall, and also the ceiling, 360° around them were all turned into a fish tank. With acrylic panel that had its transparency and hardness improved due to alchemy engineering, it was possible to construct a space the fish tank itself without even needing any joint to connect them. It gave off the sensation as if they were walking inside the sea.<br /> <br /> The shower of artificial light made the unpredictable fishes’ movements sparkle in irregular reflections.<br /> <br /> Large shark, large jellyfish, they all passed through while sparkling inside the light.<br /> <br /> Inside the romantic atmosphere, both of them lost their words and were watching in fascination for a while.<br /> <br /> “Won’t we be unable to see the essential fish with all of these excessive shows… that was what I thought, but this is more beautiful than I thought and I got overwhelmed. But…”<br /> <br /> “The water tank had been turned into a magic mirror and it seem that the light is not visible from inside the fish tank. It’s written here that the fish won’t be stressed from the illumination of the strong lights.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki made a face that was a little relieved. It seemed that it was bothering her.<br /> <br /> “What a lovely room of art isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> At the end of the route, a normal tank that was completely different from all the shows until now was waiting for them.<br /> <br /> When they stood in front of that fish tank, the light shower that kept following them all this time was also cut off.<br /> <br /> What was entered into the last fish tank was various kinds of goldfish. It was as if it was saying that excessive show was unnecessary for such beautiful fishes. It was a fantastic show for a normal fish tank to make its entrance at the very end.<br /> <br /> A goldfish that elegantly swam while swaying its tail fin to turn backwards, a goldfish which had a pattern like a picture on its back, a goldfish with a protuberance on its head that looked like a flower bud, there were various goldfish.<br /> <br /> “…Perhaps these goldfish are similar with the elves.” Koyuki said to herself.<br /> <br /> “Goldfish are loved by influential people since the ancient times, outrageous selective breeding that [culled] all the goldfish except for those that possessed unexpected variations was performed, piling up competition for its beauty and rareness for generations, and finally the shape of goldfish became what they are now.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki was reading up the explanatory note that was written near the fish tank.<br /> <br /> For the sake of beautiful goldfish, a large numbers of goldfish became sacrifices in the [selection].<br /> <br /> He had heard before that goldfish had once became a problem from the point of view of animal protection. However goldfish had become weak against sickness and stress from the repeated abrupt variation it had undergone, they were already unable to return back to nature.<br /> <br /> “When we sympathize and think of the goldfish as pitiful, the species called goldfish will vanish won’t it?”&lt;ref&gt;Sorry but I don’t understand this sentence. Here is the raw, 金魚を可哀想と哀れむと、金魚という種が消えることになるんですね.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Certainly elves are too similar to goldfish. In trying to invent humans with strong magic power artificially, many sacrifices were paid and the elves were born.<br /> <br /> Now that Naiarlatoteph had been banished, the number of elves wouldn’t increase anymore. However there was no going back anymore for the people that had been turned into an elf.<br /> <br /> “Even if you curse your origins after all this time, the past won’t disappear and become nothing. That’s why at the very least… the beauty of goldfish, the magic power of an elf, each of them have to demonstrate the significance of their existences…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Koyuki, who was facing the fish tank, from behind.<br /> <br /> “But by no means is Koyuki’s worth just your magic power.”<br /> <br /> The previous Koyuki frequently said that [my only worth is just my magic power] in self-abasement. But there was a lot more human appeal inside her. Things like her sad past, or the magic power that she obtained in exchange of that, he didn’t want Koyuki’s heart to only get caught up with such heavy facts.<br /> <br /> If Koyuki still felt that what she had now was insufficient, then he would more and more―.<br /> <br /> “If Kazuki doesn’t get affectionate with me, I won’t be able to keep on living, that’s why…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki put her body weight on Kazuki who was hugging her from behind and leaned her body against him.<br /> <br /> “…Though I am a masochist, and a pervert, and a ramen maniac, and a really hopeless elf.”<br /> <br /> A large heart mark flew from Koyuki’s chest and it was absorbed into Solomon’s ring.<br /> <br /> Hiakari Koyuki―150<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> The night of that day―a forest was burning.<br /> <br /> It was inside the forest that surrounded the Grand Haunted Ground &lt;Fuji’s sea of trees&gt;.<br /> <br /> The King of Russia who pillaged one of the Three Sacred Treasures &lt;Yasakani no Magatama&gt; from Fuji’s sea of trees and then tried to escape by turning into lightning and soared to the sky, Ilyailiya, was shot down by the &lt;Ptéra Lonkhé&gt; that was thrown by Regina Olympia Folnar who was laying in ambush.<br /> <br /> In order to give the finishing blow to Ilyailiya who crashed in the forest―Regina pursued her into the forest.<br /> <br /> Although the opponent was also a &lt;{{furigana|King|Basilleus}}&gt;, she had been wounded already.<br /> <br /> She would easily finish her off. That was her intention at first.<br /> <br /> The battle began―a fierce hell fire betrayed Regina’s expectations.<br /> <br /> “…You bastard, what is the meaning of this?”<br /> <br /> Regina asked while being surrounded by burning trees that split open with popping sounds.<br /> <br /> To [ask the answer] from the opponent was a humiliating behavior, but this was a question that had to be asked.<br /> <br /> The woman who stood in front of her separated by a few meters distance was―black. Her appearance was like a jet black god of death. The woman’s surroundings was gouged and sinking forming craters.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya Muromets. Right now she was in a completely different appearance compared to the time when she was fighting Hayashizaki Kazuki. The Magic Dress of the god of sky &lt;Svarog&gt; that shone silver was―changed completely into an ominous jet black Magic Dress. It was a puzzle that couldn’t be let go unanswered.<br /> <br /> In principle, one person was attached with one contracted Diva. For Magic Dress too, there should be only one type per person.<br /> <br /> “What is the meaning of that appearance!?”<br /> <br /> In place of a reply, the black clothed King resounded her spell chanting to the Astrum.<br /> <br /> “O tremor of Prima Materia, derive the end of all thing from the beginning of all thing right here…”<br /> <br /> …That magic would come again!! The magic that burned the surrounding forest and gouged the earth deeply!<br /> <br /> Prima Materia particles were glittering brightly in the surrounding of the jet black Ilyailiya while starting random movements.<br /> <br /> “The chain of world creation reside in my body, become the white flame that tear the world…”<br /> <br /> Every single one of the particles became a ball of fire and swelled up. The fire balls overlapped with each other one after another, turning gigantic like a sun. Ilyailiya’s figure was buried inside that brightness.<br /> <br /> ‘She can cause this kind of phenomenon?’, Regina felt dread. ‘Just spare me this joke…!’<br /> <br /> “―{{furigana|El De・Es Nui|Demise of Origin}}.”&lt;ref&gt;Please help. The katakana for this is エル・デー・エス・ヌイ. Read as Eru Dee Esu Nui&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> A one of a hundredth second later, the fire ball exploded.<br /> <br /> With Ilyailiya as the center, shockwaves of destruction radiated out with an intense heat.<br /> <br /> “…What an idiotic act! Suppress, Ptéra Lonkhé!!”<br /> <br /> With &lt;Spear that Grows Wing&gt; in hand, Regina faced the shockwave and brandished it.<br /> <br /> From the tip of the spear, Zeus’s great storm arose.<br /> <br /> Its objective was not to protect Regina’s own body. The great storm whirled and rotated, then it concentrated into a single direction the shockwave that radiated outward with Ilyailiya as the explosion center.<br /> <br /> It was an act with the purpose of limiting the damage to the land of this Japan to the minimum.<br /> <br /> And then the shockwave that had its intensity magnified instead from being concentrated assaulted Regina.<br /> <br /> Regina too didn’t just stay quiet doing nothing while waiting for Ilyailiya’s chanting.<br /> <br /> “Show the majesty of Zeus right here! Repulsing every disaster, the great protection that promised victory right here! {{furigana|Kyzemonikos Aigis|The Radiant Olympia’s Protection}}!”&lt;ref&gt;Another name I don’t know. The katakana is キゼモニコス. Read as Kizemonikosu&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> A brilliant wall of light appeared and stood in front of Regina.<br /> <br /> It was Zeus’s protective wall that was also called as [Zeus’s shield] in legend. It was Regina’s trump card of protection which she had the self-confidence as the hardest defensive magic without compare in all kinds of Mythology.<br /> <br /> But her prided wall of light was rattling due to the shockwave. Regina had to concentrate all of her concentration power to maintain the wall. Regina had concentrated the shockwave in order to suppress the damage to a small area but the trees at her surrounding all snapped and got burned severely.<br /> <br /> The fire ball finally used up all of its energy, blowing upward a cumulonimbus cloud that looked like a mushroom to the sky. Like that the magic phenomenon ceased from being.<br /> <br /> “Flare up, arrive―Agouni Koparyof.”<br /> <br /> At the other side of the light and smoke, Ilyailiya’s Magic Dress transformed from pure black into silver.<br /> <br /> “Mec.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya’s right arm was enveloped with silver flame―the flame elongated from the tip of the elbow slimily and turned into a large blade that emitted metallic luster.<br /> <br /> In contrast with the grand magic just before, this time her chanting almost took no time at all.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya’s appearance shone like a lightning―and appeared in an instant in front of Regina’s eyes with a flash.<br /> <br /> “An attack power just to that degree is pointless!”<br /> <br /> Regina easily repelled the slash with her Aigis that was still in a sound condition.<br /> <br /> And then she thrust back at Ilyailiya with the [Ptéra Lonkhé] in her right hand.<br /> <br /> The spear stabbed empty air―Ilyailiya’s figure had already vanished from her sight.<br /> <br /> She was fast when she was in her silver appearance.<br /> <br /> Regina magnified her Extra Sense and searched the surroundings.<br /> <br /> A few dozens of meter behind. Regina found Ilyailiya right away and turned back.<br /> <br /> ―At that moment Ilyailiya had already changed into her jet black appearance.<br /> <br /> The swift attack and the instantaneous mode change. What in the world is going on here.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya, when she was in her jet black appearance, was slow.<br /> <br /> But she exhibited a truly tremendous power like that. Now she had already began chanting the spell that should be rightly feared.<br /> <br /> “O tremor of Prima Materia, derive the end from every beginning…”<br /> <br /> …That attack magic would come again! Regina had to focus herself on defence.<br /> <br /> “The chain of world creation reside in my body, become the white flame that tear the world…”<br /> <br /> Regina had to chant back her defensive magic once again. Even Aigis wouldn’t hold getting hit with that twice consecutively. Although it was Regina, but if she was hit with that attack magic while defenseless then she would surely explode and scatter into the four directions ignoring her Resist. It was that much of a magic―now it was going to be cast again solemnly.<br /> <br /> “El De・Es Nui.”<br /> <br /> Prima Materia shone at Ilyailiya’s surroundings, overlapping with each other, and became a giant fire ball.<br /> <br /> Against the radiating flash and shockwave, Regina once again concentrated all of that towards herself with [Ptéra Lonkhé].<br /> <br /> “Kyzemonikos Aigis!”<br /> <br /> And then she was protected by the Aigis that she cast again.<br /> <br /> While protecting her body, Regina reinforced her perception and observed the phenomenon that was currently happening.<br /> <br /> “This is… Prima Materia are decomposed and produces energy, the so called [nuclear fission] phenomenon! Contaminating the land like this, isn’t this a cursed power!?”<br /> <br /> The fire ball used up its energy and a repulsive mushroom cloud once again blew upward.<br /> <br /> Regina looked around at her surroundings. She had suppressed the explosion into a really confined area, however there was still a radioactive reaction all around her. A magician was able to repel even the negative influence of radioactive contamination with their defensive magic power, but surely it would take time and labor to decontaminate this area using alchemy. During that time, this forest would become a land that humans couldn’t live in.<br /> <br /> Although this was the land of another country, Regina who loved nature felt fury towards this indiscriminate power.<br /> <br /> But rather than this fury, what she should be even more surprised with was how she could almost feel none of the fatigue that Ilyailiya should be having. Her damage should be extreme from her continuous battle against Hayashizaki Kazuki, and then against this Regina.<br /> <br /> Regardless of that, Ilyailiya was still coming at her with a large scale magic to this degree.<br /> <br /> This attack magic―possessed a terrifying efficiency in its magic power usage.<br /> <br /> As for her own {{furigana|defensive magic|Aigis}}, the waste might be more fierce for her.<br /> <br /> The trees at Regina’s surrounding were bursting into flames and the damage was still spreading.<br /> <br /> The radioactive pollution was also a problem, but if it kept like this a forest fire on this mountain would happen.<br /> <br /> “Damn! It’s trivial whatever happened to this kind of country, but there is a thing called a position! Someone who has no righteousness won’t have any right of judgment!”<br /> <br /> Regina spread out the wings of a swan from her back and flew to the sky.<br /> <br /> She confirmed the damage situation of the conflagration from the air and chanted a magic anew.<br /> <br /> “The radiance of my hand become the Callis that loves the earth. Fill this sky, please moisten the blazing field and grant it the rain of blessing! {{furigana|Kraunos|Thunder of Grace}}!!”&lt;ref&gt;Not sure of this translation. The Callis is written with katakana カリス(karisu), don’t know what this refer too. While Kraunos is written with ケラノウス(keranousu) – Edit(OmegaWeaponZ): callis could be refering to a calus – a type of hard skin formed to protect the skin from further injury. In this case it would be a calu of the earth.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> A strong radiance was created in Regina’s right hand and she launched it to the sky.<br /> <br /> This light transformed into the thunder of destruction when it was thrown at Hayashizaki Kazuki before.<br /> <br /> But this thunder could also be transformed into a power of blessing.<br /> <br /> [Kraunos]―it was the symbol of the god of sky, Zeus’s great power.<br /> <br /> The light spread on one surface of the sky and turned into a rain cloud in a blink of an eye. Everywhere rain was pouring down as if a bucket full of water was overturned. Regina twirled the Ptéra Lonkhé in her hand in circles and scattered the heat with wind, advancing the fire fighting work effectively.<br /> <br /> But while her attention was taken by that―a silver light flashed inside the smoke.<br /> <br /> “Mec.” Ilyailiya turned into a silver lightning and assaulted Regina who was in the sky without expanding any defensive wall. Regina poured her concentration in her Resist in panic.<br /> <br /> A backlash of smashed magic power. “…It’s hard as expected.” Ilyailiya murmured.<br /> <br /> Regina was beaten down to the ground.<br /> <br /> “…Kuh, the damage is not a big deal but to dare to fall this me down onto the earth!!”<br /> <br /> Regina was in indignation while standing up. But even while in rage, she was still calmly observing.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya was hovering in the sky. While floating in the air, she transformed her silver Magic Dress into the jet black Magic Dress. For the sake of chanting that attack magic again.<br /> <br /> ―’Right this instant, that woman isn’t able to do anything, whether to evade with high speed movement or chanting defensive magic.’<br /> <br /> “Drill, Ptéra Lonkhé!!”<br /> <br /> Her judgment was instantaneous. Regina threw &lt; Ptéra Lonkhé&gt;. It pierced Ilyailiya with the speed like an arrow of light, shooting her down onto the ground helplessly.<br /> <br /> “Hmph, this is the second time I shoot you down today, Queen of Russia!”<br /> <br /> Regina scorned while treating her fall onto the ground just now as nonexistant.<br /> <br /> “A variegated abilities on top of firm defense… I acknowledge your balanced fighting strength. Queen Regina.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya immediately raised her body slowly.<br /> <br /> Suddenly an alarm rang piercingly in her ear. The bracelet that was fixed on Ilyailiya’s wrist was resounding a clamorous sound of *PI―! PI―!*<br /> <br /> That was the adamantite bracelet that Japan's government forced them to equip. Inside it was installed with GPS transmitter device.<br /> <br /> “Why is that device transmitting only now?” Regina was suspicious.<br /> <br /> “In the first place how did you render that device invalid until now? …You have some kind of machine that emitted something like jamming electromagnetic waves… no, are you embedding it inside your own body?”<br /> <br /> It was something that couldn’t be hidden. After all there was a body check when they first arrived in Japan.<br /> <br /> For Regina who had a creed that rejected machine civilization, it was something repulsive to even imagine but… she couldn’t think of any other method to prevent the GPS from capturing Ilyailiya’s location except for her to embed a jamming device inside herself.<br /> <br /> “You are not only strong but also wiser than I thought, Queen Regina. The [Deception Repeater Device] embedded below my skin had a breakdown. After all defensive magic power doesn’t extend to machines.”<br /> <br /> Ilayiliya looked up to the sky as if seeing off the electromagnetic wave’s departure.<br /> <br /> “So the true present location of mine has been transmitted…”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, whichever it is, it’s just a problem of time with a flashy battle like this. Before long Arthur and the Knight Order of this country will arrive here.”<br /> <br /> If there is something strange happening then they will scramble immediately and rush there―that fellow of Japan’s Knight Order said so. That vigilance of them was not just putting on air.<br /> <br /> “It’s over for you already, Ilyailiya.”<br /> <br /> “Over?” Ilyailiya tilted her head particularly.<br /> <br /> “I am waiting for the moment when you throw that spear once more. Because while that spear is inside your hand, I have no hope to withdraw. …This time, I have caught it firmly see.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya raised the spear that was thrown at her and shown it to Regina with triumph.<br /> <br /> Regina made a ‘hah’ face and commanded “Return, Ptéra Lonkhé!!”<br /> <br /> But the spear was gripped by Ilyailya and didn’t even twitch. Only the wings that decorated the spearhead were flapping frantically in vain. “What a cute spear.” Ilyailiya sarcastically spoke. Regina’s whole face was dyed with rage with how she humiliated herself.<br /> <br /> [Ptéra Lonkhé] would pursue its prey until it hit the target once. Furthermore its speed rivaled the movement speed of Ilyailiya that was like lightning.<br /> <br /> It was Regina’s only method that could obstruct Ilyailiya when she was trying to escape.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya raised her left hand and showed in display the thing that was coiled around her wrist.<br /> <br /> “I’ll draw back here. The reason is that I have to bring this Sacred Treasure back with certainty.”<br /> <br /> What was coiled around her wrist was a line of magatama connected with a string―one of the Three Sacred Treasures that Japan and Yamato were struggling for, &lt;Yasakani no Magatama&gt;.<br /> <br /> “You intend to run from a battle between Kings!!”<br /> <br /> “It’s decided that someone who doesn’t retreat from this situation is a fool.”<br /> <br /> “That’s so but, you bastard!!”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya’s Magic Dress changed from jet black into silver. It was a baffling transformation no matter how many times she saw it. Regina made a huff from her nose and recovered her composure.<br /> <br /> “…Just run away as you like. But, you have revealed an outrageous true character huh, Ilyailiya. Your two types Magic Dress… if that’s not a double contract with two Diva then, that means your contracted Diva is a Diva that possesses two faces! That appearance! That ominous power! That’s not a Diva of Cosmos Side(Order Side) but a Diva that belongs under Chaos Side!!”<br /> <br /> Regina pointed out in condemnation. Divas from different Mythologies were still enemies even if both belonged to Cosmos Side, but― those that belonged under Chaos Side were enemies that didn’t deserve any respect.<br /> <br /> Chaos had to be exterminated, that was Order(Cosmos)’s absolute premise.<br /> <br /> “…That is not an important secret. We in Slavic Mythology don’t have the concept of [good and evil] in the first place. The reason is that before such doctrine could be ripened, we were a Mythology that was eliminated by Christianity once.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya turned her back in a twirl.<br /> <br /> “…Therefore, we are doing revenge. We are not Order nor Chaos. Therefore, our chief god [Svarog] possesses one more face―the face of [Chernobog].”<br /> <br /> [Efficient destruction Chernobog] in [lightning speed Svarog].<br /> <br /> “Revenge you say?” Regina knitted her eyebrows.<br /> <br /> “What a foolish objective. That’s a pathetic reason! Even though we as Kings are fighting for the sake to repaint the {{furigana|Astrum|World Soul}}… the world order! You primitive Mythology that doesn’t even hold any ideal or creed! Know some shame!!”<br /> <br /> “Shame? That’s an unknown concept for us. What’s important is efficiency. If it’s for the sake of becoming the last one standing, whether it’s Order or Chaos, we don’t mind whichever side we are in. …You, it’s fine for you to know the shame of failing to catch me.” &lt;ref&gt;What are you, Jack Sparrow?&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Regina’s face convulsed from overwhelming rage. Her forte was defensive magic but, she was weak against provocation.<br /> <br /> “Queen Regina!” A husky voice cut in between the two.<br /> <br /> From the other side of the burned forest, a gentleman wearing a glen check suits―Arthur Basileus was rushing at their direction. He had finally caught wind of the situation.<br /> <br /> “You are slow Arthur!” Regina yelled.<br /> <br /> “You too, why are you not contacting me or doing battle without the Japanese government’s permission!?”<br /> <br /> “Just what I thought. Why did you not come immediately, you were asking something like a permission from Japan’s government weren’t you!? You’re late because you did such a thing so honestly, you idiot!”<br /> <br /> “Even if I’m called as an idiot, even if it’s irrational, I won’t do anything that goes against my chivalry!”<br /> <br /> “…Farewell, o Kings of the Order.”<br /> <br /> Neglecting the two’s quarrel―Ilyailiya’s back turned into lightning and she vanished.<br /> <br /> It was impossible to pursue her or anything like that. …Regina didn’t know whether Arthur too had any method to pursue or not. At the very least there was no chance for chanting spells.<br /> <br /> Regina and Arthur glared at each other as if pushing the responsibility to the other party.<br /> <br /> Slightly after that, a squad of Japan’s Knight Order was coming after Arthur.<br /> <br /> “I’ll say this in advance, I didn’t do anything bad at this country. Damn, I should of just left things like mountain fire or the like alone.”<br /> <br /> Regina kicked away the ashes that were scattered about below her feet.<br /> <br /> “…We have to talk about this situation. Looks like there are many things that are extremely chaotic. It seems that the Einherjar and Ryouzanpaku were fighting each other at another spot.”<br /> <br /> “What’s with that? Why are those guys fighting amongst themselves, how incomprehensible.”<br /> <br /> Arthur shrugged his shoulder exaggeratedly.<br /> <br /> “Really. How incomprehensible. Looks like the situation moved greatly with Japan’s King succession as the impetus. More than we even thought―this country might be the turning point of the world.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While Loki was gulping whisky and relaxing inside his personal room in Oosaka’s government office building, the large window of the room where the night scenery could be viewed in one sweep of the eye was suddenly smashed apart without any advanced warning.<br /> <br /> The one that came from the sky and leaped into the room was a light that looked like lightning―that light landed in front of Loki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> It was Ilyailiya Muromets.<br /> <br /> “Why the hell didn’t you enter from the front gate?”<br /> <br /> Loki, who was a luxurious person yet was actually stingy in his roots, was frowning with thought like [how much do you think this stupidly large glass is worth for huh?] even though he was not the one that was actually going to pay for it.<br /> <br /> The gods of Asgard didn’t have any techniques to produce tools. Formerly it was Loki who administered the role of procuring weapons and tools for Asgard from the dwarf artisans.<br /> <br /> Consequently he hated pointless spending more than anything else.<br /> <br /> “The reason is that it’s inefficient to purposefully climb up here from the front gate.”<br /> <br /> Ilayiliya answered somewhat sullenly.<br /> <br /> “…What? You look somewhat worked up?”<br /> <br /> Loki’s sharp eyes noticed the strangeness of Ilyailiya’s condition.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya didn’t answer that and untied the string that was encircling her left hand. Several magatama that were stretching out by a long string―she faced Loki and threw it to him.<br /> <br /> It was &lt;Yasakani no Magatama&gt; of the Three Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> “Hmph, it’s the real thing. I have confidence in my eye for tool. You ain’t coming back for a while so I was doubting whether you were preparin’ a fake somewhere, or maybe you are gonna ask for something before giving this. Looks like you don’t have any intention like that eh.”<br /> <br /> Loki released a sigh of relief after Ilyailiya handed the thing over to him sullenly.<br /> <br /> “I fulfill my promise. The reason I’m late is because there was an accident.”<br /> <br /> “Uncertain factor that can delay you…Arthur and Regina huh.”<br /> <br /> “They recognize me as an enemy. …Similar with Hayashizaki Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya was expressionless, but without doubt there was a [worked up] atmosphere on her.<br /> <br /> “So you decided already which side you are gonna stand with. Enemy of enemy is an ally yeah.”<br /> <br /> Loki warped his mouth in a broad grin. Ilyailiya nodded.<br /> <br /> “We are not Order or even Chaos. Therefore we can choose ourselves which side to stand in. First in order is to crush the other Cosmos Side, I’m going to join hand with you. That is for my proof.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya said so while pointing at the Yasakani no Magatama that Loki held.<br /> <br /> “Kukuku, honestly I didn’t really believe you until now but, I gotta trust you like this eh. This thing is the proof of faith, now we are comrades.”<br /> <br /> ‘…But then, this is only a matter of turn.’ Loki murmured inside his heart.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya first joined hands with Loki and China to destroy the weak Japan, next they were going to crush the troublesome Britain and Italia…for the last she had the ulterior motive to sweep off Loki and the rest.<br /> <br /> Battle Royale. The one who could change the world in the end was only the last victor.<br /> <br /> They had to use and outwit each other skillfully. Loki also thought like that―surely Ilyailiya also thought like that.<br /> <br /> Arthur and Regina couldn’t think in this kind of way. After all they were too fastidious. &lt;ref&gt;Don’t know if it’s the author mistake or not, but here Loki used 彼女たち to describe Regina and Arthur, that’s a plural form for woman&lt;/ref&gt; That was why they were concerned with [The Magic Advanced Countries’ equilibrium], and only thinking was about standing on a stage where they would fight beautifully.<br /> <br /> No, perhaps if it was Japan’s Solomon Mythology that didn’t have any creed―what if that King became the cornerstone?<br /> <br /> Loki’s pondering was interrupted by a panicked *gon gon!* sound of knocked door. “Huuh?” When Loki answered so, a group of swordsmen were rushing into the room.<br /> <br /> “The, there was a report that some kind of suspicious light was entering into Kaya-sama and Loki-sama’s room…”<br /> <br /> “It was Ilyailiya, there ain’t any problem. Just take care of the window glass’s repairing.”<br /> <br /> “Ha!? Yes! …Ha? Window glass? Why is the window glass?”<br /> <br /> “Seems troublesome.”<br /> <br /> “It’s not troublesome. It’s a problem of efficiency.” Ilyailiya amended expressionlessly.<br /> <br /> “Forcing this Ilyailiya-sama to leisurely climb the building from the front gate is gonna take far more cost of expense than a mere window glass. Just resolve yourself from now on too.”<br /> <br /> “…Sir, I will do as you said.”<br /> <br /> Those swordsmen left behind that place while still in a state that couldn’t grasp what had happened.<br /> <br /> Passing the leaving swordsmen, a woman in glamorous Japanese clothes was entering the room this time.<br /> <br /> “…Looks like Ilyailiya has returned back.”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai―but her atmosphere was not like usual. Her breathing was rough like a beast and her eyes were bloodshot with a fierce glare.<br /> <br /> Her right hand that opened the door was like an old man’s hand, no, the hand was trembling as if it was not her own. Her gait that was entering the room too was somewhat shaky. She couldn’t move her body just as she wanted.<br /> <br /> There was a lack of harmony in her body and also her mind… Even so her back was straight and dignified, even her Japanese clothes that looked hard to move in didn’t have a single disorder in it from a single glance, surely that was the manifestation of her aesthetic.<br /> <br /> “Here, the thing you’ve long awaited for.”<br /> <br /> Loki handed over the Yasakani no Magatama to Ikousai by throwing it.<br /> <br /> Ikousai embraced it with her both hands in order to catch the irreplaceable item.<br /> <br /> “So you brought it back, you did well! Ilyailiya Muromets!!”<br /> <br /> “Its impolite to call me without honorific. Why are you talking as if looking down on me?” Ilyailiya became testy.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu… two of the Three Sacred Treasures! With this it’s not an exaggeration to even say that I have become two-thirds a king!” Ikousai laughed madly. Loki scowled and retorted.<br /> <br /> “That’s exaggerating. Even if you have the Sacred Treasures of King, you ain’t equipped with the King’s Authority ain’t you?”<br /> <br /> “But there is the power of Susanoo in me! If I can use these Sacred Treasures and Susanoo’s power skillfully then I can win against Hayashizaki Kazuki! This me will… guh!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Ikousai cramped in her right body half and she crouched down in that place.<br /> <br /> It was completely like a different living thing was lurking right under the skin of her right body half.<br /> <br /> “Looks like it’s still gonna be mostly a hard fight eh. Are you having special training until this late to suppress that guy?”<br /> <br /> Looking down at Ikousai, the corner of Loki’s mouth twisted and a grin appeared.<br /> <br /> “Fu, fufufu… it’s just this insignificant thing… Just something on this level is no big deal at all. I will use this power skillfully without fail…”<br /> <br /> Ikousai didn’t let Loki’s amused gaze to bother her and stood up shakily, then she left behind the room with a ghost-like gait.<br /> <br /> “I can’t feel any ambition or pride in her, her figure just looks like a wet stray dog. Can she challenge the decisive battle in that condition?” Ilyailiya murmured.<br /> <br /> “Kukuku… don’t make light of that woman like that. She looks like trash that doesn’t stand a chance, but only the light of her eyes are flaming ablaze. Her broken pride is turning into the fuel of hell inside that woman. What is called human is the strongest when they already got cornered like that.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? In my circumstance I don’t have the experience of being cornered.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya tilted her head expressionlessly where one couldn’t feel any humanity from it, perhaps she was even more inhuman than someone like Loki.<br /> <br /> “…In reality, that woman is in the process of mastering the technique to control the power that she got from Susanoo partially possessing her body. It ain’t summoning a Diva, that woman is trying to become a Diva. Currently that woman might be the human race’s strongest excluding the Kings.”<br /> <br /> “Thing like human race’s strongest excluding the Kings is meaningless.”<br /> <br /> “That’s so but… I gotta tell Hiroko-chan too, that this side is doing ok.”<br /> <br /> “Hiroko-chan?”<br /> <br /> “I mean China’s King Fu Shi. Her name read in Japanese language is Hiroko-chan. It’s the nickname that our most beloved princess attached to her. …She is our comrade. Ku-ku-ku…”<br /> <br /> Russia in addition of China. Two of the Magic Advanced Countries were in the process of being fixed in place as Yamato―no, as Loki’s backing.<br /> <br /> “However, I didn’t expect much from Ikousai but, ain’t she turning interesting now. Humans that make that kind of eye is just so fun.”<br /> <br /> Against Loki who continued to chuckle ‘ku-ku-ku’, Ilyailiya was once again turning her back expressionlessly.<br /> <br /> “Even though you are a Diva of the Chaos Side, but surprisingly you like humans don’t you?”(AN:Like in this sentence means loves or is pleased by. In other words Ilya is saying to Loki you are amused/pleased by what humans do, don’t you.)<br /> <br /> Loki stared back in blank puzzlement, as if he was just told of something that had never even entered his thought.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> His cell phone rang. Currently he was returning to his room after his date with Koyuki was over.<br /> <br /> The one who called his phone aiming for this time was Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> The commander talked in a way that poked fun at him.<br /> <br /> “Right now should be the time that your date is over already right?”<br /> <br /> It was strangely embarrassing to talk about something like this with an opponent whose age was like his father.<br /> <br /> “It’s true that I was in a date, but why do even you know about it…”<br /> <br /> “I got completely scolded by Yagumo-kun to only call you at night so that I won’t be a bother on your date. Though I don’t know where did Yagumo-kun knew about it.”<br /> <br /> Yagumo Akane-senpai―she was a third year of the Magic Division that had already piled up practical training in the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> Surely it was Hikaru-senpai that spread the rumor to her in a mixture of fact and fiction. The figure of Akane-senpai back-talking coolly saying ‘It’s not like I really care about that though’ was floating in his mind.<br /> <br /> …But what the commander said next was the exact opposite of what Kazuki imagined inside his mind.<br /> <br /> “Yagumo-kun is really caring about you, you know? When the talk’s topic is about you it’s clear that all her calm is gone.”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so…”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai was a charming person. She was always cool and intellectual, but that didn’t mean she was a straight-laced person.<br /> <br /> She was a hard-worker that liked tactical thinking, through that she had many common points with Kazuki, her affinity with him was also good.<br /> <br /> Now he was told that such Akane-senpai was caring for him. When he thought that the other party was an onee-san that was even older than Kaguya-senpai, for some reason he felt his heart beat faster or something.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki.” Suddenly Leme materialized beside him and rammed her body at him with a *don*.<br /> <br /> “Even older people are targets for conquering. Feeling timid about that is no good, okay?”<br /> <br /> Leme whose appearance was completely an adult linked her arm with Kazuki’s arm and she pressed her heavy breasts at him.<br /> <br /> “That is so huh.” While his attention was taken by Leme, Commander Yamagata started his talk in a surprise attack.<br /> <br /> “Last night, Regina and Ilyailiya were fighting each other.”<br /> <br /> Even though Kazuki was switching his awareness for a more serious talk, but it took time.<br /> <br /> His fight with Ilyailiya was yesterday evening. In other words…<br /> <br /> “Ilyailiya who retreated from her fight with me in the Haunted Ground, was attacked then on her way back by Regina, is that what you mean?”<br /> <br /> It became a series of event like that in that kind of time. Two Kings were fighting in a time he knew nothing about.<br /> <br /> What kind of fight it developed into?<br /> <br /> In the first place, how did Regina intercept Ilyailiya who was escaping in lightning speed?<br /> <br /> …No, the most important essential point in this story was not that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> “What is the result of the fight? …The Sacred Treasure that Ilyailiya took away?”<br /> <br /> Even Ilyailiya should be exhausted from the attack in which Kazuki betted his everything. And if after that she was forced to battle Regina in succession then―<br /> <br /> “No, unfortunately it seemed she escaped.”<br /> <br /> A strange feeling was whirling inside his chest. It was a kind of relief and also a kind of unfortunate feeling.<br /> <br /> If in the case that Regina took back one of the Three Sacred Treasures for him, then Kazuki would surely stand in an overwhelming superior position. But inside his heart he had already resolved himself.<br /> <br /> This was a hurdle that he was determined to overcome without fail. It would be an anticlimax if that hurdle was unexpectedly lowered by another person arbitrarily.<br /> <br /> It was his own selfishness even though this was a battle that would decide the future of the country, but… he wanted to settle his rivalry with Ikousai who was in a condition beyond flawless.<br /> <br /> “I heard the story from Regina but, it seems that Ilyailiya had buried a device that emitted interference electromagnetic wave inside her body beforehand to escape the GPS monitoring.”<br /> <br /> “Doesn’t the other Advanced Magic Countries treat machines as heretical?”<br /> <br /> “…That’s how its supposed to be but, seems like that Ilyailiya’s circumstance is strange somehow. We cannot lump her together with the other Kings in thinking how she will act. We were thinking about this too simply.”<br /> <br /> “Every single one of those Kings is strange somewhere inside.”<br /> <br /> It was impossible to predict what kind of move those fellows would make.<br /> <br /> Whether it was Arthur or Regina, at this point of time they were neither ally nor enemy.<br /> <br /> “Of course that’s true. I don’t have any intention of slackening the monitoring of Arthur and Regina.”<br /> <br /> However the Knight Order’s [perfect monitoring readiness] had been breached twice out of two times until now.<br /> <br /> “What happened with the Einherjar fellows that Kaguya-senpai encountered?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked about the thing that bothered him the most.<br /> <br /> “Beatrix and her team is still in magic intoxication, they still haven’t woken up yet.”<br /> <br /> “…Is that so.” Kazuki’s feeling turned somber.<br /> <br /> The true color of this despondency he felt was also complex. Even Beatrix was neither his ally nor his enemy.<br /> <br /> But he didn’t want to think of her as an enemy, somewhere, his heart thought so.<br /> <br /> But the Einherjar suddenly turned into Japan’s enemy and attacked Kaguya-senpai and her team in the Fuji’s sea of trees. They exposed Kaguya-senpai and her team to danger. And then Ryouzanpaku’s Silirat intervened and the situation developed into Beatrix and Silirat striking down each other.<br /> <br /> It only stood to reason that Kazuki should be angry at Beatrix who came attacking and felt grateful to Silirat who came in assistance. But before he could come to a clean decision like that, he wanted to hear the detailed circumstances from Beatrix.<br /> <br /> “Worry is unnecessary because their magic intoxications are not a deep one. The prospect is that they will wake up before long. It’s just, the only one who is still energetic among the people involved, Roshouko, is pretty annoying with her complaint from getting embroiled into this.”<br /> <br /> “Is she coming with some kind of troublesome request?”<br /> <br /> “No, it’s not anything concrete… she is saying a complaint for us to [recognize Ryouzanpaku more like a comrade]. Well, certainly there is a good excuse to shrink our distance and ally with Ryouzanpaku to form a common front of anti-China.”<br /> <br /> Ryouzanpaku was a resistance organization that opposed China.<br /> <br /> From some time ago if Japan was misunderstood to have a good relation with Ryouzanpaku―it would completely justify China’s intervention into Japan’s internal conflict with Yamato.<br /> <br /> But now that Ryouzanpaku had held back Germany’s rampage before this, it only stood to reason that Japan was grateful and from now on both would take each other’s hand and strengthened their stance in relation to China.<br /> <br /> “But if we do that, won’t our relation with Germany worsen?”<br /> <br /> “It’s without doubt that Germany was suddenly commencing an attack at us.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata talked as if cutting down that line of talk. Logically it was just as he said. But….<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata’s voice was colored with fatigue. Inside the chaotic situation, the one who moved the government and the Knight Order was essentially this person.<br /> <br /> “…Now when the battle is over, the one who move the situation is the adults huh.”<br /> <br /> Leme whispered on Kazuki’s ear.<br /> <br /> {I don’t really understand politics and diplomacy.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki communicated that telepathically so Commander Yamagata wouldn’t hear it.<br /> <br /> “I don’t mean to say to break any civilian control. But if it’s in regard to battle tactic then even you should be able to interfere.”<br /> <br /> What was called civilian control was the principle that the people who controlled the army must not interfere too much into the politics. Kazuki too was a knight apprentice―so to speak he fell under military personnel.<br /> <br /> ―The statesman must be able to control the Knight Order. The statesman who was the representation of the people moved the Knight Order. The Knight Order must not stand on top of the people.<br /> <br /> It was of the inviolable rule of the country called Japan.<br /> <br /> ―And more, since the ancient times, Japan had the emperor as the country’s symbol as a [constitutional monarchy].<br /> <br /> This too was another of the absolutely inviolable things.<br /> <br /> Then how should the King(Basileus) be positioned in this country then. It seemed that Arthur and Regina ruled as tyrants but….<br /> <br /> ‘I, if I accept the fact that I am a King, how should I behave then?’<br /> <br /> “In the first place, in all this time until now, wasn’t it you the one that continuously kept wiping our ass for all the misses that the Knight Order and the academy made? You too should insist your opinion more to the adults.”<br /> <br /> Leme kept pulling Kazuki’s arm while being indignant as if she was the one being slighted. He wanted to get away from her breast that was pushing at him sweetly. Like this he couldn’t think seriously.<br /> <br /> “It’s a grave situation for you who are the King to be kept out of the loop of everything except for the fight. Listen well, a King mustn’t become a tool of battle.”<br /> <br /> Tool of battle. …Certainly, he didn’t want that by any means.<br /> <br /> In other words―he had to move the situation by his own will.<br /> <br /> “Commander Yamagata. Please let me question Beatrix and the others when they wake up. Until that happens, can you put on hold the matter of communicating our thanks to Ryouzanpaku and forming a common front with them?”<br /> <br /> “You are…?”<br /> <br /> “Please let me be the one to decide the treatment of Beatrix and her group. Regarding Beatrix, I know things about her that you don’t know about.”<br /> <br /> This should be the first time for him to ask for something like this. This was something that he wished for the most right now. From the other side of the phone’s receiver, a serious voice of “hm~mm” was audible.<br /> <br /> “I feel it’s inexcusable to advance all this talk while you are not there. Actually this was also pointed out to me by Arthur Basileus. That this country doesn’t respect the King as a King.”<br /> <br /> “That person was? …He is unexpectedly a meddlesome person isn’t he?”<br /> <br /> Regina disdained Kazuki about how he didn’t have the standpoint of a King. On the other hand there was this feeling that Arthur kept interjecting unnecessarily here and there saying things like “Like that, you won’t be able to become my worthy rival!” Should he call that as Britain’s chivalric mind?<br /> <br /> “Certainly, there are still a lot of people that has yet to recognize you as King. But, at the very least, Headmaster Amasaki and I plan to be your supporter. I want you to believe that.”<br /> <br /> He could feel the sincerity from his voice. Things like Commander Yamagata’s positivity level couldn’t be known even with the power of King. But as fellow males, they could understand that each other was worthy of their faith, he had that kind of feeling.<br /> <br /> “I will calm down Roshouko. The treatment for that woman is really troublesome but…”<br /> <br /> ‘Looking at your relation from the side, you two look like you are getting along well though’, Kazuki thought inside his heart.<br /> <br /> “Also I will put an arrangement in order, so that you will be contacted immediately when Beatrix wakes up. I will show that this matter is also about you without fail. I will make the surroundings recognize it. Without fail.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata said that and cut off the connection. Kazuki felt relieved for the moment and released a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> He guessed that it would take a little more time to clean up the aftermath of the extremely chaotic battle the other day. He was told that his current job was to flirt with the others, but by no means could he also completely ignore all the other matters.<br /> <br /> ―And then, next he had his schedule for the night.<br /> <br /> There was one other thing, a business that Kazuki had to ask about with his own volition.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> The courtyard of the Magic Division at night where there was no human presence―when Kazuki brought the proposal that he wanted to talk, that person called out Kazuki to this place. Tonight was a quiet night with no wind.<br /> <br /> “Sorry to call you out in the middle of night.”<br /> <br /> “Not at all, after all it was my side that wanted to talk.” Kazuki replied.<br /> <br /> The owner of the voice was―Liz Liza-sensei.<br /> <br /> Her full name was Liz Liza Westwood. She was a naturalized Japanese that crossed over to Japan at the time when Japan still had diplomatic relation with Britain and obtained her nationality then. Now, she was a teacher here.<br /> <br /> Beyond that, she had also became the first generation chosen by Solomon 72 Pillar.<br /> <br /> &lt;The First Knights&gt;. In that period of chaos where the matter about Diva was still not understood well, they were the pioneers that fought the illegal magicians whose minds were violated by Diva and the Demon Beasts that suddenly appeared by tearing apart the space itself.<br /> <br /> Even though they were able to borrow the power from Solomon 72 Pillar, the people at that time was still weak in magic power, it was said that they was mostly unable to communicate with their Divas.<br /> <br /> The Knights at that time were still immature about the way to use magic and also the tactic to use that skillfully in an organized way.<br /> <br /> He learned by hearsay that in that extremely chaotic situation [those people who obtained a strange power while they knew nothing at all] then became [the people that fought in order to protect the others in their surroundings even while knowing nothing at all].<br /> <br /> Each time illegal magicians rampaged at that time, people in a number so large that he couldn’t imagine in this peaceful time died.<br /> <br /> The first Haunted Ground in Japan, &lt;Fuji’s sea of trees&gt; was also created at that time.<br /> <br /> Before long Liz Liza-sensei retired from being a knight because of her weakening magic power, and then rather than choosing to be promoted into the top brass of the Knight Order she chose to raise the next generation and cooperated in the establishment of the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> ―That was Liz Liza-sensei’s profile.<br /> <br /> If it was this person then she should know. Regarding the affair that happened before in the Grand Haunted Ground. And then also regarding the character that put up the seal in the Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was planning to immediately head back to the Grand Haunted Ground as soon as his magic power recovered.<br /> <br /> However before that, he wanted to know beforehand as much as possible about the person that put up the seal. Who put up that seal and how did they do it. What happened before in the Grand Haunted Ground…<br /> <br /> There was still some things that the Knight Order hadn’t explained to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “But why did sensei choose this time?” Kazuki asked.<br /> <br /> Even though she didn’t want anyone else to overhear the story, it seemed that she was excessively being careful.<br /> <br /> “That’s most likely because this talk will not end with just talking.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei made a mysterious response. This wouldn’t end with just a talk…?<br /> <br /> “Before we talk about what had once happened in that Grand Haunted Ground, first there is something that I want to confirm from my side.” Liz Liza-sensei talked quickly without any calmness.<br /> <br /> “The will that resides inside the seal in the last wall of the Grand Haunted Ground, and your Lemegeton, they exchanged intimate words with each other right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki answered “Yes” and nodded honestly. The person in the seal was Leme’s previous contractor.<br /> <br /> “Lemegeton, she has recovered her memory right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki noticed how her voice was trembling when she asked that.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei who was always calm was now acting completely like a young girl that didn’t fit her age.<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuki, Leme materialized and the person herself replied “That’s right”.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei kept looking at Leme’s figure that had grown up into adult over and over with a bewildered gaze.<br /> <br /> After taking a deep breath, Liz Liza-sensei asked Leme.<br /> <br /> “Were you―Hibiki-neesama’s contracted Diva?”<br /> <br /> “That’s right.”<br /> <br /> …Hibiki? It was an unfamiliar name for his ear, but strangely it felt like he had heard the name somewhere, a name that felt pleasant when he heard it. Was that, the owner of the voice in that seal?<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei looked down as if hiding her expression. As if asserting that an adult couldn’t that easily let her emotion come to the surface, she closed her eyelids strongly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki said nothing and waited for Liz Liza-sensei to be the one that opened her mouth first.<br /> <br /> After listening to the sound of the night wind for a while, Liz Liza-sensei finally began to talk.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―Well then, how about I tell you the story about that period just as you wish.<br /> <br /> This is a night individual class for you, Hayashizaki.<br /> <br /> At the same time with the human race obtaining the power called magic power, they knew about the existence of a mental world called Astrum, and encountered the consciousness body that lurked there―the Divas.<br /> <br /> Among the Divas there were existences with ill will that drove the minds of human crazy in exchange for power, and in the end they would try to take over the flesh body. The people that dirtied their hands with this dangerous contract was then called as &lt;illegal magicians&gt;. Those people had their minds go insane and rampaged around.<br /> <br /> …Recently we had heard about words like [Cosmos Side Diva] or [Chaos Side Diva] from the mouths of various Divas and the Kings. It seemed that the fellows that created these illegal magicians were those Divas of the Chaos Side.<br /> <br /> The Divas of the Cosmos Side granted humans the power to oppose these Divas of the Chaos Side. They were humankind’s protector. But in exchange they demanded faith―that is a strict order. You can understand that this absolutely cannot be said as a good thing when you see Lotte’s case.<br /> <br /> In Japan, these fellows called as Divas of the Cosmos Side didn’t show their appearance.<br /> <br /> …Why didn’t the Japanese Mythology try to protect us I wonder?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When Liz Liza-sensei suddenly let out such question from her mouth, Amaterasu’s avatar appeared beside Kazuki in order to answer that. She was in her jersey appearance with a sleepy face, a sun goddess (shut-in) that couldn’t give off the feeling of it’s virtue at all.<br /> <br /> {That’s… even if we wanted to show our appearance to the humans, we were not in a condition to show up at that time. I had talked about this a little with Kazuki and Kazuha before though.}<br /> <br /> Amaterasu exchanged a glance with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> {During the long history of the Japanese people, their religious piety was weakening. Because of that, our &lt;will for power&gt; was completely weakened. Diva’s appearance change depending on people’s feeling.}<br /> <br /> Amaterasu talked in justification.<br /> <br /> {How we hate to fight and like to play is because the relation between the Japanese Mythology and the Japanese people was made up of &lt;playing&gt;, with the festivals as the core rather than &lt;faith&gt;. All this is absolutely not because I am a lazy person, but because this is what everyone demanded from me nyan. …It’s true you know?}<br /> <br /> It sounded fishy because her tone was too lax, but he guessed that actually it was just as she said.<br /> <br /> {At that time, I practically didn’t have the power to surface to the outer layer of a human’s consciousness&gt; I was still asleep that time. By no means I just left the people to die without doing anything, don’t resent me―}<br /> <br /> Saying just that, her figure vanished, as if escaping.<br /> <br /> “I see. The syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism from the ancient time, the anti Buddhist movement at the beginning of the Meiji era… this is all also because of the complexity of the history of Japan’s faith.” Liz Liza-sensei nodded with a satisfied look and began her talk once more.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Anyway the other Magic Advanced Countries could immediately obtain the divine protection of the Divas of the Cosmos Side, but… Japan was unable to obtain Divine Protection from anyone.<br /> <br /> Thinking back, those like Loki or Naiarlatoteph, how a bunch of Diva that didn’t have any relation at all with Japan could even appear here too, I think this might be the reason. That’s because this country was the most optimum place for the Divas of the Chaos Side to go wild.<br /> <br /> We at that time didn’t understand about such things at all. We didn’t even have time to be excited of obtaining a new power called magic, we just kept getting scared from all the illegal magicians and Demon Beasts that suddenly went on a rampage.<br /> <br /> At that time the one who reached out their hand to us was Solomon 72 Pillar.<br /> <br /> It seems that Solomon 72 Pillar is not strictly Divas from the Cosmos Side but… anyway they didn’t drive human’s mind mad and they became our power. And then they didn’t even demand faith from us.<br /> <br /> It was mostly a selfish story, but… Solomon 72 Pillar too might have had the objective to [build their influence in this land]. And also, they might have had their attention attracted to this Japan, who didn’t receive any influence from other Mythologies too.<br /> <br /> …Let’s stop this strange speculation that doesn’t have any relation with the main topic of the story. If Lemegeton-sama has recovered her memory, then someday, when the timing is right, she will surely talk about this to you.<br /> <br /> What to choose, we at that time had no other option than to completely rely on Solomon 72 Pillar.<br /> <br /> This was how it started that the generation that got contracted first with Solomon 72 Pillar… how we became the [First Knights]. Even if I called it a contract, we at that time were unable to clearly hear the voice of our Diva or talk to them. Most of us didn’t even understand which one among the Solomon 72 Pillar we got contracted with. We didn’t even work out the method to give birth to a contract with a strong tie, called Stigmata.<br /> <br /> …That’s why, Lemegeton-sama.<br /> <br /> I didn’t even notice that you, who were contracted with Hayashizaki, was Hibiki-neesama’s contracted Diva.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “But that kind of you became the very first ally of my King, in spite of how you didn’t notice Leme’s true identity. This, too, is surely what they call destiny.”<br /> <br /> Leme crossed her arm and talked to Liz Liza-sensei self importantly.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei’s expression slackened slightly and she smiled. It was a kind expression that was rare from her.<br /> <br /> “It saved me, for you to say that. Now that I know everything―I can do nothing else, other than to devote my entire power for you, who is the forgotten memento of Hibiki-neesama.”<br /> <br /> Forgotten memento―those words sounded like it was filled with an extremely heavy feeling.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There should also be other First Knights outside of me and Hibiki-neesama, but we didn’t know our exact number.<br /> <br /> Hibiki-neesama―was a person that was like a big sister for me, we got along really well. That was why we fought together but, we didn’t even know about the existences of the other guys other than us. We knew that there were other people than us that also fought, but that was only after we had defeated all the illegal magicians that were rampaging at that time. …Not all of us were expected to survive in the end.<br /> <br /> I don’t know anything about the names of the First Knights that died unseen by anyone.<br /> <br /> Our fight at that time compared to all of you currently was completely a crude thing.<br /> <br /> The strength of the magic power of our generation was still in its infancy compared to you guys, even the way to use Summoning Magic was something that we didn’t understand at all.<br /> <br /> Even using Summoning Magic around level 3 was already the most we could do using all we had.<br /> <br /> But thinking again now, the same also applied to the Divas of the Chaos Side I guess. They, at that time, were also immature compared to now. Surely they didn’t understand the way to manipulate a human’s flesh at that time.<br /> <br /> When I recall that time I can only snicker scornfully. It was really a low level battle. Though it was really desperate.<br /> <br /> Aah, now that I mentioned it, it seemed that when Loki obtained a flesh body in front of your eyes he said [I had grasped the trick to break a human] right? …We at that time might had also fought Loki even without realizing it. Though we didn’t know that the opponent was Loki.<br /> <br /> At the same time with the illegal magicians appearing one after another and going wild, [{{furigana|Cancer|Malignant Boundary Alternate}}] sprang forth and Haunted Grounds were produced everywhere in Japan, then Demon Beasts were also coming out.<br /> <br /> Those too also couldn’t be left alone, but… we had no choice but to leave those for later compared with the illegal magicians that went on rampage in the middle of the city. We had also liberated the smaller Haunted Grounds when we had spare time and from there got our hand on Sacred Treasures but… there was not enough people at all for Fuji’s sea of trees and it spread out bigger rapidly.<br /> <br /> To at least delay the expansion of the Haunted Ground, a wall was constructed around the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> It seemed that unexpectedly the wall had some effect.<br /> <br /> The wall created at that time was the crumbling wall inside the Haunted Ground that even you had seen.<br /> <br /> Of course, at first no one put any seal or anything like that on it. There was no one that could use such advanced magic skillfully that time.<br /> <br /> We of the First Knights fought frantically. We didn’t even understand what was this power that we possessed, but anyway, we had to protect those important to us for the moment.<br /> <br /> Summoning Magic couldn’t be used really well that time so actually the Sacred Treasures were really useful. The truth was we used Sacred Treasures often enough.<br /> <br /> Among those First Knights, there was a person that was outstandingly stronger from the rest. That was Hibiki-neesama.<br /> <br /> …Why was that person so strong like that? Only that person wouldn’t be inferior even if she is compared to your current generation… no, I think she was even stronger than your generation.<br /> <br /> These are words that a person who idolized her big sister should not say, but she was so strong like a fierce god.<br /> <br /> I know this because all along I had fought together with Hibiki-neesama, but I think those illegal magicians that went wild at that time was mostly defeated alone by Hibiki-neesama. Even I didn’t have many memories of scenes where I clearly gave the finishing blow by my own hands.<br /> <br /> In a period of time, there was an interval where Hibiki-neesama distanced herself from the battle, but…when Nee-sama distanced herself from the front lines, the situation everywhere got worse, and soon it wouldn’t hold anymore if Hibiki-neesama didn’t return to the front lines.<br /> <br /> At that time, the confirmed last person―the illegal magician who possessed the greatest strength was taking refuge inside Fuji’s sea of trees. Hibiki-neesama left me behind and pursued him alone.<br /> <br /> And then… ending at that point she didn’t return back.<br /> <br /> Hibiki-neesama left me who was just a hindrance… and didn’t return back for the second time.<br /> <br /> After that, even when I headed to the Haunted Ground to confirm what happened with the battle, a powerful seal was fixed on the wall and entering inside the Haunted Ground was impossible.<br /> <br /> For a long time, I was thinking that the seal was something Hibiki-neesama gambled her life to put for the sake of not letting out the strongest illegal magician because she was unable to defeat him.<br /> <br /> But, after hearing Hayashizaki’s story, it seems that I was wrong.<br /> <br /> What lies beyond the seal is… one of the Three Sacred Treasures, &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;.<br /> <br /> Surely in the middle of her battle, Hibiki-neesama discerned that the Sacred Treasure she was using was something special. That was why until a worthy successor for that Sacred Treasure appeared, Hibiki-neesama sealed it.<br /> <br /> It was something like that. This is everything that I know.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “It’s just as you said. Until the next worthy wielder appeared, she was not going to hand over that Sacred Treasure to anyone.”<br /> <br /> ―When Liz Liza-sensei’s story was over, Leme threw in some appropriate words.<br /> <br /> “Worthy wielder… you mean Japan Mythology’s King?”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei looked up to the night sky and whispered.<br /> <br /> “The Three Sacred Treasures, they acted in concert with the King’s entrance to the stage and appeared in this world. If that’s so… then Hibiki-neesama, did she notice that she was someone that was chosen as a King?”<br /> <br /> {…This is still the tip of the story but, I had the feeling that the direction of the story is heading to something that will incite my guilt…}<br /> <br /> Once again Amaterasu’s avatar appeared.<br /> <br /> {That child called Hibiki, she was Japan Mythology’s King. If the King really entered the stage, in response to that the chief god had to show the way for that child. But I at that time was late in my revival… I was sleeping. That was why that child had to fight wielding that Sacred Treasure without understanding anything. Although it seemed that in the middle Lemegeton looked after her in my place.}<br /> <br /> “But I lost her completely.” The tone of Leme’s voice dropped and she hung her head down.<br /> <br /> “That was why Hibiki-neesama and Lemegeton-sama put up that seal in order to wait until the next person that is worthy as King appeared. …And that aforementioned successor, is it Hayashizaki Kazuki?”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei asked Leme.<br /> <br /> “That’s right. Leme chose him.”<br /> <br /> “Thereupon Hayashizaki finally arrived at the destiny where he will not only have the same contracted Diva but he will also wield the same Sacred Treasure as Hibiki-neesama right now.”<br /> <br /> After Liz Liza-sensei said that, she made a ‘hah’ face from noticing something.<br /> <br /> Her eyes opened wide and she stared at Kazuki with intense concentration.<br /> <br /> After a while Liz Liza-sensei’s expression softened and a smile that she usually never showed appeared on her face.<br /> <br /> “…Is that so. You are, so it’s like that…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was looking back at Liz Liza-sensei in a daze. He didn’t know what she meant.<br /> <br /> “Liz Liza Westwood.” Leme shouted.<br /> <br /> “Once again, you too swear your allegiance to my King, Hayashizaki Kazuki, and fight together with us.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was the one that was panicked with Leme’s high-handed attitude.<br /> <br /> “Leme, sensei is sensei you see… also isn’t she already at an age where her magic power has weakened? That’s too unreasonable.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei glared at Kazuki fiercely. “Hayashizaki, don’t you dare say anything about a woman’s age.”<br /> <br /> “My King, does this woman look like she is in an age where her magic power has weakened?”<br /> <br /> Leme said that in a matter-of-fact voice.<br /> <br /> “Eh, no, certainly sensei doesn’t look like that. But we are not talking about whether she looks like it or no…”<br /> <br /> “Listen well. This woman’s age, is 18.”<br /> <br /> With her voice still sounding so matter-of-fact, Leme said something that he couldn’t possibly believe.<br /> <br /> “…Just wait a second there. Didn’t we just talk about a story that happened more than ten years ago in the past?”<br /> <br /> Don’t tell him that Liz Liza-sensei was around three years old at that time, that was impossible.<br /> <br /> Without doubt she should be around a thirty year old female teacher. That was what was written on the official papers.<br /> <br /> “Saying it accurately… this woman’s age is freezing still at 18 years old. It was still too early for you to retire, Liz Liza Westwood! Right now is exactly the time for you to repair your ties of Stigmata contract with [Agares], it’s fine for you to liberate all of your power!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “{{furigana|I remember thy name|Shem ha Meforash}}… thy name is [Agares]. O the sage sitting in the center of the space-time rotation, show that discerning eye.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei instantly finished her {{furigana|Access|Astrum Connection}} with her mastery of mental concentration.<br /> <br /> She was wrapped with a powerful light that turned the night like the afternoon and Agares’ avatar floated beside her.<br /> <br /> Straddling a dark-reddish crocodile that could be mistaken as a rock was an old sage wearing a robe with a hood attached. On his neck, a pocket watch that symbolized himself as a Diva that manipulated time was shining.<br /> <br /> At the same time, Liz Liza-sensei also chanted a Summoning Magic. An enormous magic power was whirling. Everything of that magic power had its tip directed onto Liz Liza-sensei’s small body.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “O principle of time, listen to the calling voice of my sage. From beyond the long stagnation, awaken the waking up of the once existing fierceness… {{furigana|Leap Stasis|Freezing Time’s Secret Formula}}!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Strong magic power light shined from Liz Liza-sensei’s whole body, and then with a fierce speed the light rotated to the right direction―completely like a clock needle.<br /> <br /> Kazuki sharpened his Extra Sense in order to detect what was happening.<br /> <br /> That radiance explosively expanded the magic power of Liz Liza-sensei that before this could be described as a rust-covered thing. The magic power overflowed.<br /> <br /> It was a magic power that should be impossible to be emitted by an adult that had passed her peak. Not just that, Liz Liza-sensei’s essential something was transforming. No, it was moving. It was a something that had stopped moving until now.<br /> <br /> ―Was that time?<br /> <br /> “Agares! …Give me the Stigma!!”<br /> <br /> At the same time when the expanding magic power was calming down, Liz Liza-sensei shouted with a strong voice.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei’s suit that was specially sized in a child-size, disintegrated into light and was reformed into a new shape. A green robe fluttered in a flap and a rod that imitated a sand hourglass was grasped in her hand.<br /> <br /> It was a Magic Dress with the appearance of a sage worthy for Agares who governed over the three mysteries of the universe, earth, and time.<br /> <br /> ―It was an appearance that originally shouldn’t be able to be worn by Liz Liza-sensei who had already retired as a magician. But from the bare skin of Liz Liza-sensei that peeked out through the Magic Dress, lines of light―were running through carving the Stigmata.<br /> <br /> “Sensei… what in the world just happened…”<br /> <br /> He couldn’t understand what kind of magic that was just from looking.<br /> <br /> However he only got the hunch that Liz Liza-sensei had become a warrior that possessed the power to fight.<br /> <br /> “Just now is me and Agares’s Original One―the ultimate evasion magic that freeze all [change] and preserve it beyond the boundary of time. During these 14 years, I have frozen the growth and the aging of my flesh all along, freezing them beyond the boundary of time. Right now I have taken them back.”<br /> <br /> “…Yo, you mean it’s perpetual youth and longevity?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki trembled. Though of course she would die if she was killed or she got infected with a deadly sickness.<br /> <br /> “Who knows. Doing something this absurd will create a distortion somewhere in your body and your mind, so I think immortality is out of the question… I didn’t grow into adult and had my magic power declining. It was just because I kept maintaining this magic continuously, my magic power was constantly consumed all this time.”<br /> <br /> Right now, sensei had stopped pouring her magic power into her grand magic and recovered her original magic power.<br /> <br /> …However, he understood that she was not aging at all since she was eighteen years old, yet it looked like even as an eighteen years old her appearance didn’t look appropriate for her age at all, that was surely because originally she was already a child-faced person with low height from the start.<br /> <br /> “Why did sensei do such a thing…?”<br /> <br /> “Right now, I understood my destiny. Surely it’s to raise you and then to fight besides you. Agares told me very vaguely before all this to preserve my strength until the next generation, strive diligently to study magic skill, and then impart those upon my juniors. He granted me [Leap Stasis] for these.”<br /> <br /> Being told very vaguely… such ambiguity told him the story of the hardships for the magicians of that time.<br /> <br /> {I raised this child.}&lt;ref&gt;This guy’s style of talking is similar with Futsu no Mitama, though more reservedly&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> The old sage beside Liz Liza-sensei―Agares’ avatar was floating.<br /> <br /> {Liz Liza was the generation immediately following the time when magic was born in this world, so her magic power amount was far fewer than the children of this time. But her magic skill that she had continuously forged during these fourteen years couldn’t even be compared to the children of this generation, surely. With quickness and efficiency, she can cast my Summoning Magic with high power. She also excels in Resist. Most of all, o King―you are young. Even compared to the other countries’ Kings you are far younger. To have a composed adult beside you should be the best support for you.}<br /> <br /> “Agares’ eye to discern people is the real thing. Liz Liza is a good woman.” Leme too kept nodding while being ‘hmm hmm’.<br /> <br /> “When My King was not blessed by the surrounding adults and was even in the process of failure, the one who became my King’s first ally from the beginning was Liz Liza Westwood. Only you.”<br /> <br /> “Everything was destined.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei repeated one more time with a voice that was filled with a flood of emotions.<br /> <br /> “I too, am able to know the truth of what happened fourteen years ago inside the Grand Haunted Ground from the story I heard from you and Leme-sama. That the Divas concealed that fact until now… is because they won’t hand over the thing that Hibiki-neesama left behind to any other person until you come to inherit it.”<br /> <br /> For Liz Liza-sensei, too, this was a puzzle that had haunted her for long years. With Kazuki’s report about the mysterious happening inside Fuji’s sea of trees, all the puzzle pieces was lined up and brought about the answer.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki… I too will swear my allegiance to you. I’ll be going with you too, to grasp tight your destiny, to the Fuji’s sea of trees.”<br /> <br /> Destiny―it was not by chance for him to be picked out by Leme.<br /> <br /> The secret of Fuji’s sea of trees―the clear intention of Solomon 72 Pillar was guiding him there.<br /> <br /> There were still things Kazuki didn’t understand. However, Leme who had recovered her memory said to him to directly go there to confirm it himself.<br /> <br /> “…That person called Hibiki, what kind of person was she?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked at least that. Liz Liza-sensei pondered for just a little.<br /> <br /> “It’s hard to describe her with just a single word, but… she is a strong and bright person, who resounded hope to the surrounding people just by being there.”<br /> <br /> “How poetic.” Leme too closed her eyes in nostalgia.<br /> <br /> Both Leme and Liz Liza-sensei drifted off an atmosphere that sympathized with each other as the people that knew about that time.<br /> <br /> “She resembled you a little.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei said that while once again making a smile as if she was tickled.<br /> <br /> “That’s true huh, you resemble her.” Leme too grinned widely.<br /> <br /> …What’s with them, this lukewarm sensation that could be felt from Liz Liza-sensei and Leme.<br /> <br /> As if the aunties that were relatives of his were staring at him like he was a kid…<br /> <br /> “That’s right, there is one more thing that I have to tell you.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei suddenly diverted her face aside and then talked while adopting a formal attitude.<br /> <br /> “Right now, there is no student in the Knight Academy that is contracted with Agares. Someone close to you that is contracted with Agares is just me. There are several people among the graduated students and the third years but…”<br /> <br /> “There is not a single person in my year? Deviation like that exist?”<br /> <br /> Each of the Solomon 72 Pillar was in charge of many contractors, the Diva were dividing their power into each of their charges. The contractor of Phoenix and Vepar was not only Mio and Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “If there are sociable guys among the Solomon 72 Pillar, there are also guys with high pride. Agares too is someone that doesn’t choose his contractor lightly. Kaguya’s Asmodeus too is that kind of type. Then next is… this guy called &lt;King of Indignation Beleth&gt; is the extreme, until now he still hasn’t choosen a single contractor.”<br /> <br /> Leme averted her eyes a little awkwardly.<br /> <br /> “Well… that’s because each of the 72 Pillar are different in how much they can cooperate with the humans. Saying it frankly, there are also those guys that are not serious.”<br /> <br /> “Leme. You, aren’t you just a self-proclaimed King of gods, that leads the 72 Pillar? You need to let them have it and lead them along properly.”<br /> <br /> “Le, Leme is the type that doesn’t shackle her comrades too much okay-! Nununu, Beleth you bastard…”<br /> <br /> Although she had grown into an adult, she was someone that didn’t have much of a dignity…<br /> <br /> “Anyway there is no one close to you that that can use Agares’s magic that is really powerful even among the 72 Pillar except for me. Ehem, do you understand what that means?”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei that kept averting her face to the side cleared her throat purposefully.<br /> <br /> For some reason Kazuki’s head was blank and his thinking got suspended. This was a matter that cut off his imagination for some reason.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei waited for his reply for a while, but she impatiently fidgeted around and glared at Kazuki with upturned eyes.<br /> <br /> “I’m, I’m saying for you to conquer me too! For the sake of this country’s future!!”<br /> <br /> “Ee, EEEEEEEEE!? Do, doing that, to sensei!?”<br /> <br /> “Wha, what’s with your reaction! You are really that dissatisfied with me huh!”<br /> <br /> This was not a problem of dissatisfaction or anything.<br /> <br /> This was about a relation between teacher and student. Much less how in Kazuki’s whole life it was beyond his imagination to think of a female who was [a little girl in appearance yet thirty years old in mental age] as an object of romantic interest.<br /> <br /> “My King, don’t you become timid in regards to older woman. It’s actually okay right? An older woman.”<br /> <br /> From the side, Leme, whose appearance had completely become an older woman, collided her shoulder with a *don* at him. Now that he thought again, she too was the same as Liz Liza-sensei, young in appearance, but unknown about the substance.<br /> <br /> {These days are all about lolibaba desu, Kazuki-oniisan!} Lotte’s voice said inside his brain. &lt;ref&gt;Lolibaba, ‘loli’=little girl, ‘baba’=old woman. Lolibaba=an old woman with little girl appearance&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Oi, Hayashizaki. How much is my positivity level?”<br /> <br /> “So, so sensei is going to ask that so directly…”<br /> <br /> The number reflexively floated inside Kazuki’s mind. Liz Liza Westwood―38<br /> <br /> “…It’s 38.”<br /> <br /> “Muu…”Liz Liza-sensei felt awkward.<br /> <br /> “You need a score of 65 in order to use my magic right!? Raise up my positivity level more!”<br /> <br /> “Even if the person herself said so to me! What should I do to make sensei like me!?”<br /> <br /> “That’s… something like, using cool and tasteful speech or something.”<br /> <br /> “You are going to get burned if you touch me so carelessly.” Kazuki said with a made-up austere and low voice.<br /> <br /> “Oo! As expected from my King, it really pierces a woman’s heart that will chase someone in reverse when they were bluntly thrust aside.”<br /> <br /> Leme leaned her body forward excitedly but Liz Liza-sensei was “Lame…” with an amazed scornful eyes.<br /> <br /> “It’s impossible even if sensei suddenly ask me for something cool without any context! Isn’t cool speech something that is said because there are a clear flow of events! …Besides, 38 is really not that low sensei.”<br /> <br /> “That’s true, that number is around something like [a friend of different sex with good relation], a relationship that feels a little conscious toward the other party. Maybe that’s a fairly good number already for a relationship between a teacher and a student.”<br /> <br /> When Leme too nodded to that, Liz Liza-sensei’s face turned red suddenly.<br /> <br /> “Fo, for the sake of this country’s future, I can only forcibly make myself become conscious about Hayashizaki!”<br /> <br /> “For the sake of this country sensei said, it’s really strange there. Does sensei not have a lover or someone that sensei likes?”<br /> <br /> “The, there isn’t any guy like that for me.” Liz Liza-sensei averted her face to the side and pouted her lips like a child.<br /> <br /> “…In the first place the guys who are in the same generation with me have all completely become middle-aged men. And yet me who got left behind, looks like this. Still if it’s only men then even I have some that approached me. But once you see, accidentally, I became aware about how those men that liked me talked about me behind my back.”<br /> <br /> “What, what were they saying?”<br /> <br /> “Legal loli.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki covered his face with his hands from this overwhelming tragedy before him. Leme too was making an expression like an “Uwaa” on her face.<br /> <br /> “Since then, somehow I became unable to believe the good will from those guys who are the same generation as me. Certainly it’s strange right, a guy who had already passed the later half of their twenty, yet they liked a woman whose appearance is like me, it’s scary.”<br /> <br /> “I, I think it might not be even a peculiar taste that can be called strange that made them approach sensei though…”<br /> <br /> “No, it’s strange without doubt. Since then, things like love is something unrelated to me and I continued to be zealous in my work… that’s right, I didn’t have any free time for a thing like love! All is for the sake of inheriting Hibiki-neesama’s will and to raise the magicians of the next generation!” The loli teacher stamped her feet on the ground and lost her temper.<br /> <br /> Besides her, Agares too leaked out a dispirited voice.<br /> <br /> {At least if she grew old fitting for her age it might have turned out differently, but… O King, from me too I beg you to take care of this child. Suddenly a self-awareness that I had completely done something inexcusable is gushing out inside me. Tampering around with one’s age will make someone into a distorted human being isn’t it…}<br /> <br /> “Even if you begged me… I’m asking what should I do here?”<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! How did you raise the other women’s positivity level then!?”<br /> <br /> “That’s… playing together or…”<br /> <br /> “After this, when school is over, we are going to play together! But what should we do to play…?”<br /> <br /> “Doing something like playing a game…?”<br /> <br /> “Go study if you have time for doing something like playing a game!”<br /> <br /> “Please don’t say something teacher-like! No, this is sensei but, somehow it seems difficult to go play with a teacher after school…” Kazuki was at a loss and looked up to the night sky.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> The courtyard of the Sword Division at night was dark.<br /> <br /> The lighting was few and when the night came there was only the moon light illuminating the area.<br /> <br /> In the first place comparing the Magic Division with the Sword Division who was treated coldly, Sword Division’s facility was terrifyingly meager. But at this time when Kazuki became the Chief Student Council President and he proposed “Won’t it be safer to increase the lighting here”,<br /> <br /> “This can become an extra training so it’s fine even if it stay like this.” Kanae rejected the proposal curtly. The common students too went “If Kanae-taichou said so” and all of them agree with that, so in the end it was left as it was. The Sword Division was filled with people who was sports-minded from the root.<br /> <br /> ‘…That is, because if they strengthened their eyesight using magic power then the surrounding will be visible even in darkness though….’<br /> <br /> ‘…But somehow it feels like a ghost will come out here.’<br /> <br /> Kaguya was called out at midnight to the Sword Division and she was fearfully walking ahead while thinking so.<br /> <br /> The Japanese-style courtyard’s darkness that was like an ink painting was the most suitable world for a test of courage. Even now it felt like a human’s shadow was going to leap out from the shadow of the pine tree all of a sudden.<br /> <br /> Magic power was the power of the mind. Therefore she had the feeling that it wouldn’t even be strange for the mind to become a ghost after the death.<br /> <br /> ‘…But wait. Perhaps it’s too hasty to act scared from deciding that the ghost is a bad person just because it’s a ghost.’<br /> <br /> ‘A strong attachment is not just limited to negative emotion. The ghost is just too pitiful if suddenly everyone gets scared of it.’<br /> <br /> ‘…Yosh, if a ghost come out, let’s try to make contact with it friendlily.’<br /> <br /> Kaguya resolved herself so and raised her face that was looking down.<br /> <br /> Suddenly a footstep rang from the shadow of the pine tree on her path. Kaguya immediately shivered in twitches and her resolve from just now was thrown to the wind before she made a U-turn back to the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> “Sorry to call you out this late at night, Otonashi Kaguya.”<br /> <br /> A voice she was familiar with called out to the back that was making a U-turn, Kaguya made a U-turn once more and after rotating in circles from excess force―she jumped Kanae with all her strength in a hug.<br /> <br /> “Kaa―na-chaa―n!!”<br /> <br /> “Uwa, what the!? Don’t suddenly be hugging like this!”<br /> <br /> “I have decided already that I will greet the ghost friendlily if it comes out seee―!!”<br /> <br /> “What’s with that!? I’m not a ghos…mugu! My, my breath…”<br /> <br /> The face of Kanae whose height was short was buried right into Kaguya’s chest.<br /> <br /> “So you are tempting Nii-sama with this giant fluffy lumps huh…mugugu…”<br /> <br /> “Ann-. …Don’t, Kana-chan, don’t taste it…-!”<br /> <br /> “It’s just my mouth flapping up and down searching for oxygen!!!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae filled her four limbs with the light of Enchant Aura to the brim and shook off Kaguya’s embrace with brute force. Kaguya pouted her lips from the reluctance of parting and fanned both of her opened hands up and down. She looked like a penguin. Kanae was going “You strange animal” while frowning her face.<br /> <br /> “Then Kana-chan, what is your business? In the middle of the night like this…ha-!? Don’t tell me Kana-chan, you are finally going to return my feeling…with a perverted act!”<br /> <br /> “Don’t say such disgusting thing! …I want you to keep me company in my secret training.”<br /> <br /> “Secret training?” Kaguya blinked her eyes.<br /> <br /> Kanae drew out her sword from her waist smoothly. The body of the blade melted into its surrounding because of its black color.<br /> <br /> Kaguya noticed the strange thing. It mentioned the Sword Division’s &lt;Storm Cat(Wind God Kitten)&gt;, two sword style using two kodachi was supposed to be her trademark.<br /> <br /> But Kanae tonight was different. What was prepared in her hand was a jet black katana.<br /> <br /> “This is the sister blade that form the pair with &lt;{{furigana|Doufuu|Road Wind}}&gt; that Nii-sama use, &lt;{{furigana|Michikage|Path Shadow}}&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “Is there…something you want to test?”<br /> <br /> “I want to test using you, a new technique that I realized. Because around me the one with the highest spell chanting skill is Otonashi Kaguya, it’s you.”<br /> <br /> In other words―Kanae’s new technique was a technique for the sake of destroying the chanting of enemy magician. Kaguya guessed that wordlessly and performed &lt;Access&gt; to change into her Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “While chanting some kind of magic, it’s fine for me to show that I can face that technique right?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya puffed out her chest full of confidence.<br /> <br /> In the first place Kaguya had prepared for her duel with Kanae and trained predominantly in her spell chanting ability until now.<br /> <br /> The result of that―she had maintained her chanting even while receiving Beatrix’s fierce attack, if it was just a magic around middle level then she could cast it. She had reached the stage where she could just tell the Heaven and Earth Formation to hell with it. &lt;ref&gt;It means that even without that formation she would be fine fighting alone. If her opponent is not Beatrix that is&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Kaguya didn’t understand how deep the mysteries of the world of sword art went.<br /> <br /> But she couldn’t imagine Kanae to exhibit an attack power that surpassed Beatrix.<br /> <br /> It was a little pitiful but, that new technique would undoubtedly fail against her.<br /> <br /> ‘…Is magic around level 5 fine?’ Kaguya began to chant.<br /> <br /> “It helps that you accept my request so quickly. …After all in the end the duel with you didn’t get realized.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya was suspicious how Kanae showed a smile so full of confidence at her. She shouldn’t be able to succeed.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―Kaguya’s silent light of magic power, smoothly and slowly whirled like a vortex.<br /> <br /> ‘As expected from her’ Kanae thought inside her heart. For her to not produce a flashy light was the proof that her chanting had been polished instead. Like a cat that was confirming the timing to leap into her prey, Kanae observed that vortex while breathing lightly.<br /> <br /> Their distance was only a few meter apart. It was a far closer distance than the usual duel. Her whole body was already overflowing with willpower and her katana was drawn out, her preparation to leap forward could be done anytime.<br /> <br /> But Kanae kept her stance still and continued to observe Kaguya’s magic power.<br /> <br /> The flow of magic power resembled breathing. Reading the breathing was a standard secret art for a swordsman.<br /> <br /> The flow of this magic power was trying to construct a single shape.<br /> <br /> Inside the forming structure, there was a pillar that supported everything. There was a vital point. What should be cut, was that.<br /> <br /> ―Now. Kaguya’s chanting created that exactly right now.<br /> <br /> Kanae kicked the ground. At the same time she raised &lt;Michikage&gt; overhead. Her whole body automatically moved just as what she had done through countless training. She was just doing this one more time, she would do it without even a single millimeter of deviation.<br /> <br /> Namely, this was the most optimum movement solution that was the most natural for her own body.<br /> <br /> …She once aimed for two sword style because of her own powerlessness. She once chose not the destructive power of a single strike but the number of attacks, she would scatter the opponent’s concentration with fast consecutive attack and fight in a way that obstructed the chant’s magic power.<br /> <br /> ―But that was not the essence. Before she realized she had revised her thought like that.<br /> <br /> The impetus for that thinking was that time she was defeated by Nii-sama’s team in the battle election tournament.<br /> <br /> ‘Isn’t my sword, becoming sloppy instead from recklessly searching for speed?’<br /> <br /> As expected, the essence resided inside the single strike.<br /> <br /> But destructive power was not everything there was in the single strike. Things like power or speed…the truth of sword art was not in that kind of thing. The truth of the sword art…was probably inside the single instant that had been refined to the limit.<br /> <br /> Whether in the movement or in the timing, to reach the single ultimate instant where not even a single deviation would be forgiven―.<br /> <br /> While feeling the wind, Kanae’s whole body was operating together with an endless smoothness.<br /> <br /> There was [kata]&lt;ref&gt;Standard form of a movement, posture, etc. in martial arts, sport, etc.&lt;/ref&gt; in Hayashizaki-style. The greatest common divisor [standard movement] that was applied to everyone. &lt;ref&gt;Kinda hard to explain this one. I guess it means that even though the kata that was taught to everyone will have some slight difference based on the gender, body size, and body type of the practicioner, but the basic form of the kata was basically the same&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> After repeating the movement following that kata thousands of times, tens of thousands of times, she reached the [quintessence movement] that matched her individuality―her body build, her muscle mass, her bone volume.<br /> <br /> Her two sword style before searched for speed and became really sloppy, she distanced herself from that.<br /> <br /> Right now one more time, she returned back to the starting point. ‘The optimum movement just for me. Even with my powerlessness and small build, the movement that is only for me.’<br /> <br /> The muscles of her whole body contracted, and then stretched. The Enchant Aura magnified that expansion and contraction. That magnification would enlarge even a tiny deviation into a great deviation. Not even a single deviation, would be tolerated.<br /> <br /> ―Kanae followed her quintessence movement.<br /> <br /> The black blade was buried into the vortex of magic power of Kaguya’s chanting as if it was absorbed.<br /> <br /> Kaguya’s Resist repulsed the blade.<br /> <br /> That repulsion―the shockwave of the smashed magic reverberated into the magic power vortex of Kaguya’s chanting.<br /> <br /> A crack entered the magic power vortex. Originally it should be a crack that wouldn’t affect anything.<br /> <br /> But Kanae had taken a careful aim. Like the movement of billiard ball where even the rebound movement had been calculated. She had aimed for the instant where the backlash from this Resist would enter a crack into the pillar that became the cornerstone of the magic construction.<br /> <br /> A movement and timing where even a single deviation wasn’t allowed conformed each other like a miracle.<br /> <br /> ‘It reached―this is what I had been pursuing all along, the one other dream sword.’<br /> <br /> The second Hayashizaki-style dream sword―&lt;{{furigana|Shin’iki|Holy Precincts}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> *Pachin*, it was a too quick sensation.<br /> <br /> For an instant Kaguya didn’t understand what had happened.<br /> <br /> Kanae who leaped into her bosom swung down her blade at Kaguya. She was hit with a slash.<br /> <br /> But this was…just now was not a fierce impact that reflexively made her concentration toward her chanting get disturbed. If it was just a mere impact…her concentration power had held out even against Beatrix’s fierce attack.<br /> <br /> Kanae’s slash was just a weak attack. So weak to the degree that she didn’t even notice she was slashed.<br /> <br /> ‘Why am I right now completely stopping my chanting then?’<br /> <br /> It was as if she had lost the track of time and her spell vanished in the middle.<br /> <br /> “Just now is…?”<br /> <br /> “…A cut with the perfect movement in the ultimate instant. If I have to explain, it’s like that.”<br /> <br /> Kanae stood her body upright from her cutting down stance, then she said that while taking a step back.<br /> <br /> Kaguya didn’t really get it, but in other words it was a superhuman feat that overlapped the perfection and the ultimate. What’s with that?<br /> <br /> “Wait, wait a second! It was only my carelessness just now-!!”<br /> <br /> She didn’t really get it, but she didn’t think that such miracle-like technique would be practical in a real battle.<br /> <br /> “Aiming for such nonsensical timing, how will it hit if the opponent moves away? Just now I planned to get hit with it so I just stupidly stood stock still like that but…”<br /> <br /> “It’s just as you said. It’s still impossible to use in real battle.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya released a relieved sigh, then she reflected herself that her reaction just now was too unsightly.<br /> <br /> “Before Nii-sama climbs to an even higher height, I have to master this technique…”<br /> <br /> “Kana-chan…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya couldn’t perceive what kind of meaning was entered into that resolve. But a spirit that quietly burned like a bluish flame was entered into the small murmur.<br /> <br /> “Next fight me for real without standing still like a scarecrow. I don’t mind even if you train your Resist on the same occasion and cast your magic if you finish your chanting.”<br /> <br /> “…That’s just what I hoped for! I won’t lose next time!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya swung her arms up and down then once more she began to chant her spell.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Light and shadow danced in the Sword Division at night. The special training of Kaguya who was clad in magic power light and Kanae who swung a black blade that seemed to melt into the night’s darkness continued until late at night.<br /> <br /> Inside Kanae’s cool heart that swung her blade free from any obstructive thought, a low humming voice was echoing.<br /> <br /> ―Hayashizaki Kanae. Thy, art a girl that possess a heart like an earnest blade.<br /> <br /> ―I desire thy to listen to my voice without fear.<br /> <br /> Without even a little bit of disorder in her swordsmanship, Kanae asked {Who’s there?} toward the darkness of her consciousness.<br /> <br /> ―My name is Beleth.<br /> <br /> ―The most noble devil king of Solomon 72 Pillar. The black cat of indignation, devil king Bereth.<br /> <br /> {I don’t know that name. What business do you have with me?”<br /> <br /> She didn’t plan to get agitated but, her swordsmanship disordered slightly.<br /> <br /> Kaguya’s [Cocytus] which had its power moderated was invoked and smashed Kanae’s defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> Kaguya immediately chanted again, Kanae too recovered her posture and once more challenged [Shin’iki].<br /> <br /> In the middle of that repetition―the telepathic communication inside her consciousness continued.<br /> <br /> {What business do you have with me? My magic power is weak and I also don’t have any magic skill, what do you want from me who has no worth other than swinging a sword?}<br /> <br /> ―Even without borrowing something like the power of Diva, thy skill has already been in the region of miracle.<br /> <br /> ―O girl who rely on nothing else but your sword to advance single-mindedly on your own path.<br /> <br /> ―Thy have no business toward someone like a Diva.<br /> <br /> {So you understand? Then leave immediately.}<br /> <br /> ―Be that as it may I want thy to lend thy ear. I want thy to turn thy face at me even for just a short time.<br /> <br /> ―My name is Berith. In these ten years, I have continued to search a possessor of soul that is worthy to be my contractor, in the end I am but a wandering devil king who can’t find even a single person.<br /> <br /> {Isn’t your pride really high? Such a thing is not good you know, that’s what I think.}<br /> <br /> ―But finally I find a possessor of a worthy soul.<br /> <br /> ―Rather than a possessor of a great talent of magic, thy single-mindedness is exactly what is worthy for me.<br /> <br /> ―Become my contractor.<br /> <br /> {I refuse. You too understand right, that I have no use at all of you.}<br /> <br /> ―Even if thy make a contract with me, thy can obtain everything thy wish for?<br /> <br /> ―I am the only one among the 72 Pillar, who is specializing in reinforcement magic. Power and also speed, I can grant those to thy.<br /> <br /> {I already don’t need any power or speed. I will become the blade itself.}<br /> <br /> If she unskillfully affixed something like Summoning Magic on her body and fooled around with magic training, the brightness of her sword would surely grow dull. Even if she obtained speed or power, &lt;Shin’iki&gt; would be unusable with that.<br /> <br /> {I don’t choose the same path with Nii-sama. Even if I cannot be a match against Nii-sama in overall strength…just in sword, I want to become an existence that shows Nii-sama the path ahead. …As the daughter of Hayashizaki family.}<br /> <br /> ―Not only power and speed. But love too.<br /> <br /> ―If you make a contract with me…you can become Hayashizaki Kazuki’s conquering target.<br /> <br /> {That is exactly… a needless help!!}<br /> <br /> Her swordsmanship was disturbed.<br /> <br /> “Kana-chan, your concentration dropped! Are you sleepy!?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya brought forth a piercing blizzard and lightly blown away Kanae.<br /> <br /> “Damn-, as expected using it in real battle format is not so simple!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya too like this accompanied Kanae in her special training until late at night.<br /> <br /> Honestly Kanae had respected her since the time she first met her.<br /> <br /> {Don’t be a hindrance anymore. It’s impolite to Kaguya after she has troubled herself to accompany my training like this…}<br /> <br /> ‘With my own way…as a big sister, I will go even farther than Nii-sama ahead of this path.’<br /> <br /> ‘Even if I lose at everything except in sword against Nii-sama, even if my love won’t come true.’<br /> <br /> ―How unfortunate.<br /> <br /> Bereth was finally gone from Kanae’s consciousness, the night where the black cat danced continued indefinitely.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_8_Afterword&diff=479538 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Afterword 2016-02-03T09:46:25Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Afterword==<br /> <br /> Thank you for reading this volume with pleasure, this is Mihara Mitsuki that is also energetic today. This volume is released at the same time with the latest new manga and the drama CD! At first this author pretended as if it was other people’s business, but from the editor in charge K-nyan that twisted my arm with “You too gotta work”, in the end I worked the script for the Drama CD and the interview with the voice actor,<br /> <br /> Talking about what is interesting from the Drama CD, as expected the interesting point is a little different from the light novel medium if I thought so myself, I got conscious of things like “A dialogue with good tempo” “Comical development” “A way of talking I want to hear in real voice” and so on, and so I think I managed to make a script with different charm from the original work.<br /> <br /> It’s weird somehow saying this myself but I think that the script is interesting even when it’s read without voice, that I even think secretly that if in the case that this got thrown away by K-nyan, as the scriptwriter I’m going to make it keep on living. From now on too I’m thinking of going to be more confident against the editor in charge K-nyan. That’s a lie, I’m sorry.<br /> <br /> Furthermore I also inspected the recording by voice actors, but regardless of the many characters that entered the stage, wonderful list of voice actors were lining up, speaking of, that performance filled with passion and the sound supervisor-san’s acting guidance keep making me who is an outsider just kept overwhelmed. Hearing the lively voices of the characters being recorded, even as the original author I was able to encounter a Mio and Kaguya once more with a fresh feeling.<br /> <br /> In addition the jacket and back jacket that were drawn specially by CHuN-san and Mouri-san was also coming through mail order, a special bonus made of Microfiber cloth, what a wonderful way!<br /> <br /> If with this the CD doesn’t sell well, I got the feeling that I will be told indirectly that this is your fault.<br /> <br /> My interview with the seiyuu-san is attached in the monthly magazine Alive as the bonus for mail order, but, this is err,,,I got stupefied in fascination talking with two of the voice actors that I miss the timing where I had to talk, when I opened my mouth in fluster the atmosphere was awkward and turned strange, when I was asked regarding the work I had already fallen into panic…that kind of feeling, how should I say it that, I’m desperately expecting a lot from the divine editing of Beatnicks-san.<br /> <br /> “No, you had talked properly just now.” Everyone praise me like that, so I don’t think it’s really that bad but…as expected writing is my main duty rather than talking so…mumble mumble. …Anyway it became an amazing drama Cd, so I think you will surely surely enjoy it together with this eighth volume! I recommend it!<br /> <br /> …Like that I wrote with great rhythm but I’m going to make a single announcement for apology. In the character introduction list and the color page of the previous volume, it was written that [Son Shouryuu] was [the King of Chukadou], but that was wrong, he is a leader of the unit directly controlled by Chukadou’s emperor].<br /> <br /> The King of Chukadou is the character called Fu Shi &lt;the Reborn Emperor&gt; that appeared for a little in the beginning of volume 6. The child that was called Hiroko-chan by Kaya. She had a thin shadow but Hiroko-chan was the most important person in China. Please take care of Hiroko-chan!<br /> <br /> The characters are increasing so I intended to organize them to make it easier to understand, but to invite confusion instead from a check miss, it’s truly inexcusable. Anyway this volume is supported by many people that it could meet its launching! Thank you very much! This is Mihara Mitsuki!<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Intermission|Intermission]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 9 Illustrations|Volume 9 Novel Illustrations]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_8_Intermission&diff=479537 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Intermission 2016-02-03T09:43:17Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Intermission – Dwelling Power==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> “It’s a good prudence that I’m the one that show my face right from the beginning. Kaya was also going to come to the front, but your mood will be going bad if it is Kaya’s face that welcomed you back so today too it’s this Loki-sama that is coming out here yeah.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai who visited the topmost floor the first thing after she came back to the &lt;Oosaka Prefectural Office&gt; was welcomed by Loki who spread out both his arms in a good mood.<br /> <br /> Ikousai raised up and showed the mirror Sacred Treasure that she obtained in the Grand Haunted Ground―&lt;Yata no Kagami&gt; with an expression that had no interest at all. Ikousai who was a King candidate instinctually understood that this item was exactly one of the real Three Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> “Hmph, it’s a relief that it went well for you. Ilyailiya still hasn’t shown her mug here, but that girl won’t make any stupid mistakes even in the worst case for sure. She is real strong anyway.”<br /> <br /> “She still hasn’t shown her face here you said?”<br /> <br /> Misgiving appeared in Ikousai’s expression. Ilyailiya could fly through the sky with the speed of lightning. She shouldn’t arrive later than even Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “…Guess she is loitering somewhere before going back here huh.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai didn’t miss how Loki’s frivolous expression cramped for a little.<br /> <br /> Loki was acting unusually frivolous―as if he was trying to misdirect her from some kind of inconvenience that had happened.<br /> <br /> “The Queen of Russia Ilyailiya, where in the world could she possibly be loitering about in this Japan?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai refuted straightforwardly. For that woman to do such thing was unthinkable.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya obtained the Sacred Treasures for the sake of Yamato, but she didn’t go back in order to hand over that Sacred Treasure.<br /> <br /> There were two possibilities Ikousai could think of.<br /> <br /> That she met unforeseen accident on her way back. Namely that she was captured or killed.<br /> <br /> Or possibly Ilyailiya would ask for a bargaining point in return for handing over the Sacred Treasure. Namely she wouldn’t hand over the Sacred Treasure so easily and kept this side in suspense.<br /> <br /> “Chih. She might be coming at us saying some troublesome thing later.”<br /> <br /> Loki reluctantly said his true feelings.<br /> <br /> Of course thinking about Ilyailiya’s true power, it was hard to imagine that something happened to her.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya that traversed the sky with lightning speed, who in Japan could possibly stop her?<br /> <br /> Even if she got stopped, how could the woman who was the King of Russia get defeated?<br /> <br /> “I’ve already prepared myself for this matter to become troublesome in the future right from the start. Borrowing the power from China, also borrowing the power from Russia…and then Loki, even borrowing power from you too. Yet even so for me to become King, to win against Hayashizaki Kazuki, as expected the Three Sacred Treasures are necessary.”<br /> <br /> A pitch black flame was burning scorchingly inside Ikousai’s heart. She recalled her battle with Hayashizaki Kazuki in the Grand Haunted Ground. The feeling of defeat that was seared severely into her heart.<br /> <br /> However if she possessed the Three Sacred Treasures then she would also have the assurance of victory at the same time.<br /> <br /> These two feelings once again hardened Ikousai’s heart.<br /> <br /> The Three Sacred Treasures were necessary no matter what. Even if she had to shake the hand of the devil himself….<br /> <br /> I want to win. I have to win…. If she could do that then she could usurp…!<br /> <br /> “Kukuku…haven’t you got awfully honest now? That’s right, you bastard won’t be able to win against Hayashizaki Kazuki if you don’t borrow my power. Everything goes to the winner no matter what method he used, the loser ain’t gonna get any honor or anything.”<br /> <br /> She wouldn’t throw away herself. And yet no matter what kind of method she had to use, she mustn’t lose…. Ikousai strongly tightened the fist of her right arm which had now returned back to her own arm after Susanoo had been driven out from it.<br /> <br /> “&lt;Yasakani no Magatama&gt; must be retrieved no matter what kind of condition Ilyailiya give it in. I have to make sure to obtain two of the Three Sacred Treasures in my grasp…. Loki, some kind of sealing magic is put up in the last wall of the Haunted Ground. Even Midgardsormr or Ilyailiya cannot break through the seal.”<br /> <br /> “Seal? Is that so…that woman too might faintly suspect what kind of sword she possessed, and so she possibly combined her power with her contracted Diva and put up a seal. …No, I got the hunch that the event was certainly like that…”<br /> <br /> Loki narrowed his eyes, he recalled the ambiguous memory of his time completing an imperfect fusion with human.<br /> <br /> “If it’s a seal that was put up by burning her life, that might not be something that we or Ilyailiya can break.”<br /> <br /> “If I can’t obtain &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt; in my hand, then this become all the more important. Search out Ilyailiya even if we have to dispatch the ranks and files, I have to get &lt;Yasakana no Magatama&gt; no matter what she wants.”<br /> <br /> “That’s right huh…everything hangs on Ilyailiya now.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The situation was chaotic, but there was little they could do.<br /> <br /> It was so chaotic to the degree that it could be said they were only waiting for their fate.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The investigation of the Grand Haunted Ground was over around the time the sun had set, the students boarded the magic light train and arrived quickly at the Knight Academy station where they breakup.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the other student council members headed to a ramen shop. When he asked Koyuki for a ramen shop that she recommended, Koyuki shyly taught just Kazuki and from there Kazuki took along everyone else to said shop.<br /> <br /> After being guided to a private room that was like a banquet hall, ramen for several people's portion and a big plate that was filled up with gyoza were lined up on a big table in the room. When word of “Delicious” leaked out from all the mouth that tasted the ramen, Koyuki secretly turned to Kazuki with a shy look.<br /> <br /> While finishing their dinner, Kazuki and the others reported the situation.<br /> <br /> ―Two of the Three Sacred Treasures had been taken away by Yamato.<br /> <br /> Just as Kazuki feared, there was an ability user among Yamato that could slip through the wall. In addition they passed through Level 1 and was able to start searching from Level 2.<br /> <br /> Moreover in a great bad luck, two of the Sacred Treasures were all located in Level 2 area.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki reported until that point, the room had sunk into oppressive atmosphere.<br /> <br /> …Was it truly just a bad luck at their side? Yamato’s action was really just too smooth.<br /> <br /> It was as if they had already guessed the location of the Three Sacred Treasures right from the beginning.<br /> <br /> “The risk that Yamato’s side shouldered is also really considerable. After all they depended on not only China but also Russia. Perhaps the other side is also quite impatient.”<br /> <br /> However Kazuki talked to all present while slurping the ramen in his own pace.<br /> <br /> ―Inside Kazuki’s heart, his feeling didn’t become heavy from the reality that was confronting him.<br /> <br /> The gate and wall that enclosed Area 3 was affixed with a powerful sealing magic.<br /> <br /> That seal talked to Kazuki―saying that it was waiting for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The true identity of the seal was unclear. But the voice that addressed him felt dear to him somehow.<br /> <br /> There was a will of someone inside that seal. Someone that had lived in the time when the Grand Haunted Ground was born.<br /> <br /> Regardless of how overwhelmingly disadvantageous his current situation was, it gave a mysterious heartening feeling to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> He was even convinced that if it was with that person, then it would be okay.<br /> <br /> In the bottom of his heart it was something that he sought for even more strongly than things like the Three Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> There was still a secret that hadn’t been made known to him inside the Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Next it was Kaguya-senpai’s turn to report. The Einherjar infiltrated the Grand Haunted Ground and moved to hinder them, right there Ryouzanpaku was intruding. …He didn’t know how they did it, but Yamato had even moved the Einherjar.<br /> <br /> Rather it could even be said that the side of Yamato was cornered, to use this method that didn’t care of their own appearance.<br /> <br /> Beatrix and her team that fainted from magic intoxication were carried away by the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> They had to wait until Beatrix and her team regained consciousness before they could ask about the circumstances.<br /> <br /> “Leme, you are not going to eat Ramen?”<br /> <br /> When the report reached a stopping point, Kazuki called out to Leme.<br /> <br /> “I have ordered for your portion too, the noodles going to grow stale like this.”<br /> <br /> “I’ll eat.” Saying that Leme materialized on an empty chair with an awkward face.<br /> <br /> “Leme-chan…you became big! You became a beautiful woman!!”<br /> <br /> Starting from Kaguya-senpai, everyone raised surprised voices. Ignoring that Leme was slurping her ramen.<br /> <br /> “Do you have something that you can tell us?”<br /> <br /> “Thanks to the sister sandwich this time, Leme remembered the majority of Leme’s memory.”<br /> <br /> Hearing the words sister sandwich―the gazes of all present gathered at both of the sides of Kazuki. Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai were occupying Kazuki’s both sides exclusively.<br /> <br /> “Leme. Do you too have some kind of relation with that Grand Haunted Ground?”<br /> <br /> “That’s…Leme still doesn’t want to say that from Leme’s own mouth. But if you passed through that wall and entered inside, then you should understand everything yourself. Worry is unnecessary. Just as you guessed, that seal cannot be released by anyone else other than you.”<br /> <br /> “Even if you said not to worry…we have talked before that the side that gathered more of the Three Sacred Treasures will be the one that is going to win right? No matter how strong Kazuki is or what not…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was looking alternately at Kazuki and Leme with a worried face.<br /> <br /> “No problem at all. Kazuki had become able to skillfully use most of King Solomon’s power.”<br /> <br /> As if saying that she wouldn’t say anything more than that, Leme looked down to her bowl and slurped her ramen.<br /> <br /> “As magic swordsman, I and Ikousai are even. That was why Amaterasu said that the number of the Three Sacred Treasures each of us have will decide the match’s outcome. However this is already…not a fight between swordsman and swordsman anymore.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled the figure of Ikousai who surrendered her right arm to Susanoo and fought while spitting out blood.<br /> <br /> “Ikousai held back Susanoo using her willpower, turned into a devil and fought. As for me…I fought pouring all of my magic power into &lt;Zekorbeni&gt;. That’s why how much the power of my bonds with everyone can surpass the power of tenacity of the devil…this is that kind of battle.”<br /> <br /> The sounds of slurping ramen had vanished and everyone’s sight was concentrated at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki proclaimed in order to answer the gaze of his important people. He felt no anxiety at all.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to win against her and become that existence called a King.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> After exiting the ramen shop and returning back to the Knight Academy, the path between the Magic Division and the Sword Division parted from each other.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama, until next time!” “See you.” “Farewell!”<br /> <br /> Kanae, Kazuha-senpai, and Kohaku waved their hand and left toward the Sword Division’s student dormitory.<br /> <br /> And next they arrived at the branching path between the Witch’s Mansion and the Magic Division’s student dormitory.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpa stared at him with a face that seemed to want something. Kazuki brought his face near her while somewhat minding everyone else’s gaze.<br /> <br /> “Fufu…well then me too.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai too brought her face near while chuckling refreshingly…the lips of the three of them overlapped lightly at the same time.<br /> <br /> A three person kiss with their faces pressing at each other like a three-leafed clover.<br /> <br /> “Nn. …Kazuki, if Kazuki don’t take the lead properly for me from now on, I’ll be troubled. I, don’t understand anything so…”<br /> <br /> “I understand, then let’s play together next time. Together with Miyabi-senpai too.”<br /> <br /> When he answered like that to Shinobu-senpai’s words, senpai nodded repeatedly in a good vigor.<br /> <br /> And then Miyabi-senpai pulled the hand of Shinobu-senpai who still seemed reluctant to part from him and left.<br /> <br /> “To make that person become like that…rather than saying harem, Kazuki is more of a wild-animal tamer isn’t it.”<br /> <br /> When Hikaru-senpai said that, Lotte went “Wan wan!” and frolicked at him, while Mio hugged him with “Nyaa―!” as if she had been patiently waiting for such timing to fawn at him, and Koyuki snuggled closer to him with a “Puu”.<br /> <br /> “I want to enter that too…uhho uhho!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai cut in while strangely walking bowlegged, then she rammed Kazuki with a *do―n*.<br /> <br /> “Why does senpai go as far as choosing an animal that is not cute at all…please just stop the gorilla act.”<br /> <br /> “Then what animal is good I wonder?”<br /> <br /> “Panda! After all your skin is white and your hair is black!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai vigorously cut in. Kaguya-senpai went “I see I see” while nodding.<br /> <br /> “Pan pan! Pan pan!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai let out a cry of a mysterious animal while enveloping Kazuki’s waist with her arms in a tight bear hug.<br /> <br /> The animals of the forst went wild “Wan!?” “Nya―! Funyaa―!” “Puu puu” against the newcomer that suddenly appeared.<br /> <br /> “I’m fine just being a human.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai nonchalantly said so and cuddled close at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Leme was watching in satisfaction at that situation where he was being jostled by everyone of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> “O my King, it will take a few days until your magic power recovered right. Until that time you are not going to force yourself and go to the Grand Haunted Ground. After all that seal won’t be so easily broken, and if it get destroyed Leme will know immediately. Pass your time flirting with these fellows just like usual for a while. That’s the best thing you can do at the moment.”<br /> <br /> When Leme said that, everyone pressed even closer at him like a game oshikura manjuu. (AN: children’s game in which three or more stand back-to-back in a circle and jostle)<br /> <br /> “…Things like the other two Sacred Treasures are trivial. You can properly obtain the things that you should obtain the most. Your bonds and…that sword. Believe in the thing that you have built up so far and your fate. For you to challenge the decisive battle with these two and go to become a King…is something that Leme is honestly happy for.”<br /> <br /> After saying puzzling things just as she pleased even though there were a lot of things she wouldn’t talk about, Leme’s materialized body melted into the black of night and vanished.There was no mistake that Leme who had recovered her memory had surely remembered why she chose Kazuki as her contractor.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Immediately after Kazuki returned back to his room, he called the phone number that he just knew today.<br /> <br /> He was not anxious―but he wanted to know as much as he could.<br /> <br /> “What happened, to rely on me this fast.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai took the call with a bright voice.<br /> <br /> “…Ah, thank you for your hard work today. For some reason looks like the situation had become strange, however…”<br /> <br /> After letting out a bright voice, it seemed that Akane-senpai remembered something and stiffened her voice before thanking Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much. The reason that I called senpai immediately is because there is a matter that doesn’t make sense no matter what…. This is about the Grand Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> The place that the government had laid out a gag order for and forcefully erased from the peoples memories.<br /> <br /> ―That place had a connection with him and Leme, and the owner of that voice.<br /> <br /> “Is the Knight Order still hiding something?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki enquired about the [mystery] without beating the bush.<br /> <br /> “Something strange had happened that cannot be explained just by the explanation senpai told me before. The seal that was affixed on the wall that is partitioning Level 2 and 3…who was the one that put the seal there?”<br /> <br /> When talking about a seal, naturally it was something artificial.<br /> <br /> It was not something generated by nature, the seal should be done by someone with their own will.<br /> <br /> Namely―the first knight.<br /> <br /> The voice of that time that he remembered hearing before. The owner of that voice was….<br /> <br /> “What in the world had happened at the time when that wall was made? That the Knight Order didn’t know anything about that at all and so they didn’t teach me anything, isn’t that strange?”<br /> <br /> The Knight Order hid that information deliberately, he couldn’t help but thought so.<br /> <br /> “…That’s so isn’t it, I too think that’s strange, but…I too don’t know anything, you know.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai softened her voice apologetically.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry that I cannot be of use to you. After all I too was born just two years before you.”<br /> <br /> The thing that Kazuki wanted to know happened far in the separate past.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry…to rely on senpai for something like this.”<br /> <br /> He had the feeling that he betrayed Akane-senpai’s kindness with such unreasonably difficult question. Even though senpai’s voice was really bright when she first took this call.<br /> <br /> “Ah, but”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai’s voice recovered from its disappointment and turned lively. As if she suddenly remembered some answer.<br /> <br /> “Close to yourself, there is someone that is supposed to know about this situation far more than someone like me.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, who is it?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki concentrated all his mind to his ear so that he wouldn’t miss a single thing.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “It’s Liz Liza-sensei. You should know too right? That person was one of the first knights.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> {In genereal, everything went just as you thought eh, Loki.}<br /> <br /> When Ikousai exited the room, Kaya talked to Loki inside his head.<br /> <br /> “Well…except about how Ilyailiya doesn’t show her mugs around.”<br /> <br /> Loki chose a whisky and took it away from the cupboard where he stashed all the alcohol he bought and collected by walking around the city himself, then he sank his body onto the sofa as if saying that the time for work was over. He opened the seal of the bottle and poured the intense alcohol just like that into his throat―inside Loki, Kaya raised a scream.<br /> <br /> {Dri, drink something a little softer. Bitter, inside my mouth even feels like it burns…}<br /> <br /> “Then just cut off the sensation geez. You are the one that keep the connection on just as you please ain’t it?”<br /> <br /> During the time Kaya was handing over her body to Loki, she gathered all the sensation Loki felt without exception.<br /> <br /> A mysterious longing was residing inside such action.<br /> <br /> Loki gulped the bottle one more time without any consideration to Kaya and then he released a satisfied breath “Fuu―”.<br /> <br /> “Now then, the table has been set now. With my cooperation…Ikousai is gonna gather the three Sacred Treasures and become dependent on me, she is gonna be a puppet King that move just as I want.”<br /> <br /> {Come on, at least dilute it with water or put some ice.}<br /> <br /> “Just shut your trap. …And then, that. As usual my speed in working out schemes and Hayashizaki Kazuki’s speed in tying bonds counterbalance each other. Ikousai that listened to what I said and obtained two Sacred Treasures, and Hayashizaki Kazuki who grew strong until this point with the power of bonds…in the end which one will win?”<br /> <br /> {I want to drink juice.}<br /> <br /> Loki ignored Kaya and leaned his head on the sofa, already he murmured with a drunk way of speaking.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Surely that is gonna be a fight that will test the strength of the destiny that guy carried eh.”<br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Afterword|Afterword]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_8_Chapter_4&diff=479536 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Chapter 4 2016-02-03T09:16:22Z <p>Hiro Hayase: typos, all -&gt; completely</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 4 – Verge of Death==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Regina flew through the sky with wings of swan, waiting for the moment when a large magic power was once again taking off from the ground.<br /> <br /> The instant when Ilayiliya was flying away to the atmosphere. There was a chance for surprise attack there.<br /> <br /> In contrast with &lt;troposphere&gt; that continued from the earth’s surface until the sky, &lt;stratosphere&gt; that was in higher stratum than troposphere possessed a different structure, so to speak both of them was like [a different world] already. To cast magic, the caster had to imagine the coordinate of the thing that would become the target. But for a human that was situated in the troposphere, it was hard to imagine the different world called the stratosphere. Right now, atmospheric current was blowing fiercely like jet above Regina’s head while silence was spreading in the stratosphere that was at the higher stratum ahead.<br /> <br /> It was an exceedingly difficult thing to do to attack Ilyailiya who pierced through this climate filter and flew in stratosphere.<br /> <br /> Consequently that fact became an opening.<br /> <br /> There was nothing that this Regina Olympia Folnar couldn’t do. In the instant the prey escaped to a safe area and felt relieved, she was going to snipe her down.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu…one of the Advanced Magic Country will vanish here.”<br /> <br /> Quickly fly away from the earth's surface to this place already.<br /> <br /> Just come already from the Haunted Ground where you had piled up the sin that Arthur had called as [breaking the balance of the world].<br /> <br /> Regina herself didn’t trespass into the Haunted Ground for even a single step. She was merely handing down the judgment to Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> Regina made a smile and looked down to the ground. Even though she possessed the eyes of hawk, as expected that didn’t mean that she could examine the state of the battle in details. But in the corner of the Haunted Ground where a rain of lightning had devastated the forest of the Haunted Ground into a wasteland, she was able to slightly confirm the situation that a battle between Kazuki and Ikousai was unfolding.<br /> <br /> “So he drives away that swordswoman. …Though that way of fighting, he didn’t do that to me before.”<br /> <br /> Regina’s tone of voice was slightly mixed with tone of interest. She had the hunch that he cast a different attribute of magic instantly. Was this what was called as the power of King Solomon…. If the [good quick wit] that he displayed in his battle with her that time was added with [varied way of fighting]….<br /> <br /> “But Hayashizaki Kazuki might die here though.”<br /> <br /> Regina murmured while looking down on Kazuki who was facing Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> The blade of [Near Death Roulette] cut through Beatrix’s shoulder with a single stroke. Kaguya raised up the swung down scythe while observing carefully what senses that Beatrix lost and added one more attack. Beatrix got hit by consecutive attacks because she was still reeling from the unusual phenomenon that was happening in her body.<br /> <br /> “Mu…this is!?”<br /> <br /> Even Beatrix who had many battle experiences raised an agitated face while taking a few steps back. Seeing how her footsteps were unsteady, Kaguya confirmed that she had stolen Beatrix’s eyesight. …She won. If her opponent was not someone like Kazuki who was a master of Extra Sense that could even sense the opponent’s movement just from the magic power, losing eyesight was a fatal loss.<br /> <br /> She was going to risk the match here. Kaguya shortened the distance in order to shower her attack on Beatrix and raised her scythe.<br /> <br /> The blade slashed empty air.<br /> <br /> Beatrix bent backward accurately with a paper thin difference and then she swung her large sword with a transcendence balance even while still bending backward. Kaguya was shocked while her body was reeling from the impact of the smashed magic.<br /> <br /> “Fufu-, what are you getting surprised about! I have fought warriors that were holding a scythe 38 times! It’s far fewer than the number of time I have fought swordsman though! If the rough movement of the magic power can be grasped, the body will naturally move following what kind of trajectory the scythe is drawing you know!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya held her ground after the impact she felt and swung her scythe, but Beatrix who shouldn’t be able to see from her eyes accurately evaded the scythe and returned a counterattack in the interval.<br /> <br /> The competence of a veteran that was hidden by her forceful personality was on the contrary became revealed with her eyes blocked.<br /> <br /> With Kaguya’s improvised training of close quarter combat, even with Beatrix’s eyes blocked, even when she aimed for mutual strike at the same time, she still couldn’t land even a single blow…!?<br /> <br /> “I feel pain each time I cut you up but…your location or your posture or your movement, I can understand all of those clearly from the pain! To get hurt in this spot in this way…it tells me that right now you are there standing in this kind of stance!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya spontaneously lost her nerve and stepped back, but it was meaningless before Beatrix that surpassed her in speed.<br /> <br /> “…Our compatibility is completely bad!”<br /> <br /> “The opponents that pleased me always run away from me! But I’ll absolutely not let them get away!!”<br /> <br /> “…How obstinate!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya held her ground and swung her scythe. She had no other way except to land a single hit in this distance somehow. After being identified by Kaguya as obstinate, Beatrix laughed delightfully while being in pain.<br /> <br /> “Then I’ll give you even more suffering!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya too prepared herself for the worst and faced Beatrix.<br /> <br /> “That tone of voice, you bastard, you are a sadist pervert huh! That’s just fine, bring it on!!”<br /> <br /> “Waiting impatiently for the visitor o god of death’s whispering voice, resound widely and deeply, let’s paint the dream completely with agony! O evil sound of sadism reverberate! Ultra Violence!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya emitted a sound wave that was similar with a siren’s voice that echoed stingingly in one’s brain. That sound wave was a grand agony magic that instantly doubled the pain that had accumulated until now.<br /> <br /> “UO…THIS ISSSSSSS!!”<br /> <br /> Even Beatrix had her expression convulsed from the agony and her whole body spasming in twitches. Right there Kaguya entered one and then two blow of the scythe that destroyed the human senses. ―One more strike!<br /> <br /> “Kuh…I got shocked just for a little here!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix slashed back even more. For the sake of casting [Ultra Violence] once more, Kaguya concentrated on Resist and her spell rather than swinging around her scythe poorly.<br /> <br /> Kaguya whose magic power was shaved off earnestly and Beatrix who was forced into a nightmare of agony.<br /> <br /> The offense and defense that competed against each other strangely were continuing.<br /> <br /> “Ultra Violence!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya emitted sound wave of agony once more. While Beatrix was agitated from the pain, she would be dealt the last blow!<br /> <br /> But Beatrix gritted her teeth while opening her eyes widely all of a sudden before then she made a heroic grin.<br /> <br /> “I have tasted this already!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya’s scythe slashed at empty air and an accurate counterattack gouged out Kaguya’s magic power in a big way.<br /> <br /> …The same method didn’t work for the second time! Then…a way to make her scythe hit one more time was….<br /> <br /> None. Any other way to make this swordsman felt shaken was already….<br /> <br /> “How painful! But this pain is...giving me the real sensation of ''mutually shaving off each other''! My sight, my sense of smell, even my sense of touch, all of them are locked inside the darkness! Exactly because of that the pain makes the battle feel even more purely real!! You too are pleasing me you know, Otonashi Kaguya!!”<br /> <br /> A completely awful opponent was having her sight fixed on her.<br /> <br /> “I really have to test this, if right now in this place, I drive in [Mjolnir] into you how will it feel…!”<br /> <br /> “Before you can do that…I will defeat you with a single attack!”<br /> <br /> The scythe couldn’t hit already, all of her options could only get her four hits in as the limit. She understood that completely.<br /> <br /> The offense and defense until now was a wasted effort.<br /> <br /> For her to defeat this person―there was no other way other than casting [Guernica] or [Galaxy]!<br /> <br /> “Interesting! So you can do something more…show me!!”<br /> <br /> But she too had noticed right from the start―with an opponent that had this much offensive ability, it was impossible to do something like chanting such grand magic without any guard to protect her from the front.<br /> <br /> Even if she tried to do that at this late hour, her own magic power couldn’t last for long already.<br /> <br /> ―Beatrix also sensed Kaguya’s heroic determination and suddenly calmed down her tone.<br /> <br /> “…No. It’s amazing already for a pure magician to drive me this far singlehandedly. If Kazuki or that little sister is in front of you then who knows how this will go. I’ll give you my respect. …You might be even stronger than me.”<br /> <br /> Comrade. Suddenly Kaguya remembered those existences, and averted her awareness to her surrounding with a glance.<br /> <br /> ―Kaguya’s party, the other seven people, all of them had already been defeated.<br /> <br /> Eleonora and Damian in their Magic Dress’s appearance were staring at them from afar in order to not become a hindrance in their battle. There was still enough composure in their expression.<br /> <br /> If these girls felt like it and surrounded Kaguya with three people….<br /> <br /> There was nothing like hope in this battle right from the start. Kaguya’s feeling sank down.<br /> <br /> Despite her luring away the most formidable enemy…yet her team was helpless in a battle of seven against two.<br /> <br /> But―right at that time something felt frizzy inside Kaguya’s head that made her looked around with a surprised face. Even Beatrix whose senses were mostly dead was making a face of someone that realized something.<br /> <br /> “Erii, Damian! Be careful, something is coming closer!!”<br /> <br /> There was not a single sound. But something like footsteps could be concealed no matter how loud it was with general magic. What they felt was the surge of magic power that couldn’t be hidden even if the owner tried to hide it.<br /> <br /> That magic power’s surge was also restrained until it could be only barely noticed, turning into a small warped wave. It was so small only those in the level of Kaguya or Beatrix could notice it.<br /> <br /> A surprise attack, a usage of high class skill for the sake of an ambush.<br /> <br /> Eleonora and Damian turned at behind their back. The presence was from behind these two.<br /> <br /> Suddenly that assassin―stopped concealing the sounds surely because the assassin had closed the distance enough that it didn’t matter, the sounds of the thicket parted by the rush of something was echoing and someone intruded into the battlefield of the four.<br /> <br /> “O {{furigana|Shakti|power}}&lt;ref&gt;the female principle of divine energy, especially when personified as the supreme deity.&lt;/ref&gt; that circulate the world! Converge in my hand under the guidance of god of destruction, become a single furious strike that pierce the three worlds! {{furigana|Trisula|Three World Three Pronged Spear}}!!”<br /> <br /> The darkish skinned girl of Ryouzanpaku―a company that even Kaguya had some remembrance of. The magic power that was grasped in her hand was liberated and whirled, turning into a spear of three-pronged fork that had the height around the girl’s own size.<br /> <br /> Kaguya got goosebumps. That was clearly a scale of magic power for high level magic.<br /> <br /> That girl, she could restrain that much magic power so small that it was almost undetectable!<br /> <br /> Shudders also traversed through Eleonora and Damian’s expressions.<br /> <br /> “We are Aegir’s, please lend me the terror of the ocean that knows no bottom! The raging waves that toy with the small people to me…Himinglæva!”<br /> <br /> The instant Eleonora sensed the presence of surprise attack, she was starting to chant a magic that combined offense and defense in one package.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Hefring|Highly Surging Wave}}!”<br /> <br /> A gigantic mass of water appeared in front of Eleonora and Damian, turning into a wall that damped all kind of attack. While being protected by that wall, Damian took the stance of counterattack.<br /> <br /> “Cheeky bastard! Evaporate, fire Trisula!”<br /> <br /> The three-pronged fork of a spear was dyed bright red altogether with the girl’s own hand. Without even caring for a tiny bit about the water wall, she thrust the spear.<br /> <br /> The water wall exploded. The fierce thrust burst forth storm, changing the water wall into water spray and scattered them apart. Raging of roaring flames sprang forth at the same time and evaporated all of the water spray. The whirlwind of fierce flame that broke through the water wall blown away altogether Eleonora and Damian who was aiming for counterattack opening.<br /> <br /> The girl that jumped in from the thicket pulled back her spear and landed on the ground, with a *DON* she struck a daunting pose.<br /> <br /> Her Magic Dress that looked like a cloth that wrapped around the naked body was exactly like the outfit of a Hindu’s ascetic monk.<br /> <br /> “That’s as far as you can go in bullying the weak! Saving the weak and crushing the strong! The {{furigana|scoundrel|picaresque}} unrivalled under the heaven has arrived!!”<br /> <br /> “…Who are you bastard? No, this magic power wave, have we met somewhere before…?”<br /> <br /> Hearing Beatrix questioning her identity, the girl made a formal salutation vibrantly.<br /> <br /> “The second rank of Ryouzanpaku, the &lt;Whirlwind of Destruction&gt; Silirat Denkaosen! As a part of Shouko of Wisdom and Silirat of Might, there ain’t any guys dumb enough to not know me at the southern China! My contracted Diva is Shiva! I have arrived in order to make Japan get indebted to us-!!”<br /> <br /> Eleonora and Damian sprang back up and put their postures in order.<br /> <br /> “…Silira of Might. This girl is…?”<br /> <br /> The complexion of Eleonora who was in charge of the secret intelligence among the Einherjar changed.<br /> <br /> “Heyy you bastard…I don’t know who the hell you are but you really are a vulgar bastard oi…”<br /> <br /> Damian bared the white of her eyes and glared at Silirat threateningly.<br /> <br /> “Oo, you’re gonna do it for real huh! That’s awesomee- that attitude!”<br /> <br /> Slilirat glared back in delight.<br /> <br /> “Erii, Damian, fight that girl with both of you together. Make sure she won’t hinder the last moment of my battle with Otonashi Kaguya.”<br /> <br /> “My bad black-haired Nee-san, hold out a little bit more like that until I&lt;ref&gt;Here Silirat is using ‘ore’, a way to refer oneself that man used.&lt;/ref&gt; finish off these two!”<br /> <br /> Silirat exultantly kicked the ground and confronted the two Einherjar.<br /> <br /> Kaguya felt an unease in her heart whether this was a hope or a chaos for her.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> <br /> “It’s troublesome that there are eyewitnesses left…”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya focused her stare on Kazuki while murmuring with a slender voice.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya was pondering with Kazuki right in front of her eyes.<br /> <br /> ―Kazuki recalled Arthur’s commentary about Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> [She is a personality that is calmly and coolly making a snap judgment. She has no hesitation in whatever she is doing, and when the surrounding is just thinking ‘danger’ she has already finished her action. She is that kind of character.]<br /> <br /> This woman’s pondering would soon end. …It’s coming!<br /> <br /> “There is no trouble at all to kill you here and end this country completely I think. Plije Zvizda(Flying Stardust) (AN: Another difficulty in translation. I don’t know if this is Russian or what. Here is the katakana of the technique, プりージえ・ズヴィズター, it’s read as ‘puriijie/puriije zuvaizutaa/zuvisutaa. Help me.)(Hons: Could be &quot;Zvezda&quot;).”<br /> <br /> Along with a cold murmur, small meteors rained down from the sky without any previous sign at all. The surrounding few meters range of the ground around where Kazuki was standing was deeply gouged out into holes, raising a dense cloud of dust.<br /> <br /> Kazuki wasted no time in dodging from that wide attack range.<br /> <br /> While pouring out cold sweat, he felt relieved that he evaded that attack.<br /> <br /> “How baffling, how do you avoid that? This magic is supposed to be something with speed that cannot be avoided just by looking with eye.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya tilted her head.<br /> <br /> ―Until now Kazuki had twice witnessed Ilyailiya’s attack.<br /> <br /> There were no telltale signs in her movement or magic. To cast magic without even any advance warning and even the speed of the magic was something that the eye couldn’t catch in its movement. Kazuki was bewildered when he saw that movement that was impossible to be Foresighted above the sky of Ishinokami Shrine.<br /> <br /> It might be one of her &lt;King’s Authority&gt;. The King of making swift decision and taking quick action….<br /> <br /> The second time she met her was in the Fuji’s sea of trees right after his battle with Regina. At that time too she attacked Kazuki with meteors, yet Kazuki immediately dodged her surprise attack and escaped from the predicament.<br /> <br /> ―At that time how did I avoid her attack?<br /> <br /> When he thought back to that time, Kazuki didn’t understand what he did. There was no telltale sign on Ilyailiya’s attack. Her attack couldn’t be Foresighted from her breathing or her muscle movement or her magic power flow.<br /> <br /> However he could immediately avoid her attack at that time.<br /> <br /> ’I felt her killing intent that time’, he couldn’t think of any explanation other than that.<br /> <br /> “Let’s test it, one more time. … Plije Zvizda.”<br /> <br /> Meteors fell down from the sky again. As expected there was no advance warning at all, of course the meteor also moved in the speed where it couldn’t be evaded if he only moved after seeing the attack. Kazuki was ―once more jumped to the side in order to evade.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya’s handsome eyebrows shook twitchingly in wonder.<br /> <br /> ―What was [Killing Intent]?<br /> <br /> From time immemorial master of martial art could naturally sense that in their battle. Kazuki too as a swordsman was always conscious of the killing intent’s existence all along. But in the end rather than such ambiguous thing, he became more dependent of the opponent’s breathing and magic power flow as [something more certain].<br /> <br /> However in front of this King without any telltale signs, right now he had the hunch that he understood what was [the true nature of killing intent].<br /> <br /> To feel killing intent meant in other words―Telepathy. Now after he had met Lotte and accumulated training with Koyuki, he had the feeling that he had grasped this ambiguous and vague thing.<br /> <br /> He had no other way than to grasp it.<br /> <br /> In front of this formidable enemy where his chance of victory was infinitely small, that occurred to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> He didn’t Foresight this opponent from her breathing or muscle, or her magic power.<br /> <br /> But with a dimension thats even more above those―Foresighting the attacking intent using Telepathy.<br /> <br /> If he couldn’t do that, he wouldn’t be able to defend against even a single attack of this formidable enemy!<br /> <br /> “The same technique won’t work the second time against Hayashizaki-style.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki said that in order to inspire himself.<br /> <br /> “Hmm. Agouni Koparyof(Fire of Wound Vessel) (AN: Another incomprehensible name. The katakana is アゴーニ・コパリョフ。Read as agooni kopariyofu/koparyofu. The koparyofu might also be kobaryofu).”<br /> <br /> Together with an emotionless murmur, Ilyailiya’s right hand was wrapped in silver flame.<br /> <br /> &lt;Svarog&gt; of Slavic Mythology was also said as a god of blacksmith.<br /> <br /> “Miechi(Swordification) (AN: The katakana isミエーチ, read as mieechi).”<br /> <br /> The silver flame solidified as if turning dry, the pointed end of Ilyailiya’s right elbow was changing into a large blade.<br /> <br /> “Then I will try to change method.”<br /> <br /> A freezing killing intent flew at Kazuki and Ilyailiya’s figure disappeared.<br /> <br /> ―She came, he couldn’t grasp anything except such timing.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki put up Doufuu as if throwing it, right where he put the sword was Ilyailya swinging down her right elbow.<br /> <br /> A heavy feedback. She was an amateur in sword, that was why he expected her to swing down her sword horizontally.<br /> <br /> But that was nothing more than luck.<br /> <br /> He had to get a lot more information, had to imagine and perceive more from the killing intent.<br /> <br /> How would she try to kill him?<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki-style was a school that observed. It always put importance on observation. Even if Telepathy was a field he was poor at, even so by no means that was something unrelated to all his training until now.<br /> <br /> Even faster before the situation turned into a sword locking contest, the figure of Ilyailiya whose blade was blocked vanished.<br /> <br /> She turned into lightning and drew back. And then―her killing intent moved from Kazuki toward another of his comrades.<br /> <br /> “Then first I’ll start from your comrades.”<br /> <br /> His comrade would be killed! Adrenaline exploded inside Kazuki’s head from impatience.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt more strongly of the danger that was going to befall his comrades even more than the danger he had fallen into. He had to sense the killing intent even more precisely. If he couldn’t do that, he wouldn’t be able to protect his comrades!<br /> <br /> A concentration power Kazuki had never reached before erupted Kazuki’s Extra Sense.<br /> <br /> The killing intent from Ilyailiya―possessed a path that could be sensed.<br /> <br /> Passing through his side―she went to his comrade at the rear.<br /> <br /> That was the thought that floated in Ilyailiya’s mind right in this instant, her [will to kill].<br /> <br /> The next instant, she would surely follow along that path with the speed of lightning.<br /> <br /> Kazuki threw his body reflexively on that path.<br /> <br /> *DON*, he crashed against lightning. The impact from that was terrific just from its speed, Kazuki braced his legs and endured from getting blown away. In contrast Ilyailiya had her eyes turned circle from surprise.<br /> <br /> “ “Your movement came to a stop there!!” “<br /> <br /> ―Kohaku and Karin leaped out to pincer-attack Ilyailiya from both flanks of Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kohaku raised Taroudachi that had been enlarged over her head while Karin was entering a posture of flying kick.<br /> <br /> Both of them were anticipating the timing where Kazuki would surely stopped the movement of Ilyailiya one more time. Ilyailiya’s posture was disordered from her collision with Kazuki. It was not a stance where she could evade.<br /> <br /> “Pospeiv(Armorification) (AN: The katakana is ポスペーヒ.Read as posupeehi or posupeefi. ).”<br /> <br /> The silver metal that formed the blade that was covering Ilyailiya’s right arm leaped up like a liquid possessing its own will and spread out, covering Ilyailiya from the top of her head unti the tips of her toes.<br /> <br /> The metal became an armor and helmet that possessed silver radiance, repelling away Kohaku’s katana and Karin’s kick.<br /> <br /> “It’s real hard as expected!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku and Karin that had experienced Regina’s Resist that was like an iron wall landed down without any surprise.<br /> <br /> “Both of you switch to the long range! Karin, use your Summoning Magic rather than your kenpo!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki gave such instructions to the two. Ilyailiya herself didn’t have any knowledge of martial art from what he saw, but the full armor produced by [a chief god of the Mythology] was not so soft that an average Sacred Treasure or bare hand could damage it.<br /> <br /> He had to stand in the front line and hold back this woman!<br /> <br /> “O goddess of affection…please bestow the light to the warrior that challenge the trial under thy watch. Moonlight Breath!”<br /> <br /> A backup from Miyabi-senpai in the rear flew to him.<br /> <br /> The moonlight bestowed the Divine Protection of warrior to Kazuki, he felt strength overflowed in his whole body. He could do this before she moved!<br /> <br /> “Deep Striker!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki confronted Ilyailiya in the aspect of casting magic instantly.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya had yet to display a large scale attack magic, but perhaps there was also some kind of condition on her instant casting.<br /> <br /> He didn’t want to let the opponent do anything. He was going to shower with attacks and end it like that.<br /> <br /> Equipping a large thruster system on his back, Kazuki accelerated fiercely while launching a stab with Doufuu. The tip of the beloved sword in his hand aimed the gap between the silver armor and the silver helmet accurately.<br /> <br /> A stab in the speed of sound pierced the bare neck, Ilyailiya’s slender body was blown away from the recoil of the Resist.<br /> <br /> “Mode・Phoenix!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki instantly exchanged the content of Zekorbeni from Prometheus to Phoenix. Flame ran on Kazuki’s whole body and formed a Magic Dress with the color of fire shadow.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise where light of heaven reside in that body, burn to ash the sins on the earth's surface following my accusation! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> A thick heat ray attacked Ilyailiya that was still blown away in the air.<br /> <br /> “Thy wings bestowed by Belphegor, o &lt;ice pillar of flame&gt;! Grasp the air superiority of hell, hand down the inescapable bombing of contradiction! Burning Icicle!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai too straddled the phantom body of Marchosias and bombed Ilyailiya with red crystal. Ilyailiya was scorched by the heat ray. And then the red explosion of [Burning Icicle] swallowed Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> ―Further right there sharp wind was blowing in.<br /> <br /> “Gouge the afar, &lt;Doutanuki&gt;! Battou Kaikon ―Tenran Kamaitachi!!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku fired wind blades. That wind didn’t let the explosion of [Burning Icicle] escape and swallowed it, compressing Ilyailiya inside. ―He wondered how much damage would be inflicted with this.<br /> <br /> From the other side of the red explosion light of [Burning Icicle], a killing intent flashed.<br /> <br /> Kazuki sensed the image of the killing intent. Death by stabbing!!<br /> <br /> “Miechi.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya who moved with the speed of lightning changed the silver metal into a hand blade again and charged straight at Kazuki. Kazuki received the attack with the side of his blade and parried it diagonally while twisting his body.<br /> <br /> “Thunder fall on my body acquiring lightning thought and god speed…awaken the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!!”<br /> <br /> At the same time he cast the acceleration magic he was chanting before he used the parrying movement to rotate in a twirl, and slashed.<br /> <br /> “…Pospeiv!”<br /> <br /> *GAKIN!*, his attack was blown back from the terribly hard sensation. The silver metal transformed into armor.<br /> <br /> “Miechi!”<br /> <br /> The next moment it returned back to a right hand blade and slashed at Kazuki. The killing intent gave off an advance warning of that movement. Kazuki blocked and then parried it. Hayashizaki-style’s &lt;Instant Positioning&gt; immediately broke Ilyailiya’s posture. He landed a counterattack right there. He had no intention to be outdone in a close-quarter combat!<br /> <br /> “Pospeiv!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki memorized the pattern of how the armor and the helmet were created. His blade slipped through the gap between armor accurately to the inch.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s physical ability that had been reinforced and the thick sensation of Resist fought each other.<br /> <br /> The unceasing Ice Pillar of Flame and Kohaku’s wind blade also continued to add shockwave against the silver armor.<br /> <br /> Acting as if those were nothing, Ilyailiya was staring at Kazuki fixedly and opened her mouth.<br /> <br /> “…The authority of King Solomon, is it [Future Prediction]? Such a convenient Authority?”<br /> <br /> “This is just a mere human’s hard work.”<br /> <br /> He reflexively made a reply that he didn’t even need to make.<br /> <br /> “Hard work…that’s something I have never done.”<br /> <br /> Killing intent ―he was going to be burned to death!!<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya’s left hand turned to Kazuki and casually thrust forward.<br /> <br /> “Damafoi(Trickster Fire Spirit) (AN: Another incomprehensible name. The katakana is ダマフォーイ. Read as damafooi).”<br /> <br /> From that palm, raging flames that had been compressed with intense heat was whirling.<br /> <br /> The flame was growing huge in the blink of eye while whirling and it was going to swallow Kazuki who was right in front of Ilyailiya’s eye.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ash all that touched everything…the scorching heat of rejection without any place to depend! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki fully operated Zekorbeni’s power. First he enveloped himself with flame armor.<br /> <br /> “O immortal bird that soar from dusk to dawn, please grant those wings of hope on my back! The destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!”<br /> <br /> Even further wings of flame spread out from his back and wrapped his own body. Instantaneous multiple chanting for defense…!<br /> <br /> Kazuki was clad in armor of flame and wrapped with wings of flame, turning into a giant ball of flame.<br /> <br /> And that ball was further swallowed by the giant flame of Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> The flame absorbed flame―but the flame couldn’t be absorbed and Kazuki’s defensive magic power was severely smashed up.<br /> <br /> The single shot that seemed like a simple attack was, heavy…!<br /> <br /> Kazuki staggered from the shockwave of his smashed magic. “Miechi”, Ilyailiya created a sword in her right hand.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai attempted to save Kazuki and scattered around Ice Pillar of Flame from the sky.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya glared to the sky while receiving the explosion blast with her body. Kazuki could Foresight her next movement, but he was unable to move from the shockwave of the smashed magic.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya ran to the sky with the speed of lightning and slashed Marchosias’s phantom body altogether with Shinobu-senpai right when they passed each other.<br /> <br /> “…Kuh-!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai fell from the sky while her magic power was scattering around her. Even looking from afar he could understand that she lost a considerable amount of magic power from that one attack. Ilyailiya’s blade for the first time bared its fang toward Kazuki’s comrade.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya blasted her killing intent that she was going to strike more following the blow at Shinobu-senpai who was falling naturally.<br /> <br /> That kind of blade, mustn’t be directed at his comrade…!<br /> <br /> “Blazing Wings!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki recast the wings of flame before Ilyailiya could move out and cut into her advance route. And then he blocked Ilyailiya’s blade with Doufuu…!<br /> <br /> A high-pitched metallic sound rang out.<br /> <br /> His beloved sword that was a tough &lt;Kamakura ancient sword&gt; which was reproduced using alchemy ―was broken.<br /> <br /> “…!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki received a shock that couldn’t be voiced. In Hayashizaki household, it was the katana from his step father after his skill’s improvement was recognized. That shock made Kazuki’s judgment delayed for an instant.<br /> <br /> “Your magic power is weakening much already.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya whispered into his ear.<br /> <br /> His magic power didn’t spread through his blade thoroughly, that was why his katana broke.<br /> <br /> “Damafoi.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya thrust out her left palm toward Kazuki whose awareness was completely frozen.<br /> <br /> A ball of raging fire was whirling from there. Damn i…!<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai hugged Kazuki from behind. Shinobu-senpai reversed her posture while being entangled together with him and she turned her back at Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> “Thy wings bestowed by Belphegor, o &lt;Ice Pillar of Flame&gt;! Cover us, become the wall of unreasonable contradiction! Cross Conflict!!”<br /> <br /> Wings of red crystal spread out from her back. It protected the body from both heat and cold, a defensive magic of double attribute. But the huge ball of flame easily pierced through and scorched Kazuki and Shinobu-senpai altogether. Both of them fell to the ground with a posture of hugging each other.<br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai!”<br /> <br /> The damage was shallow for Kazuki who was covered. The problem was senpai who continuously gotten hit by a King’s attack.<br /> <br /> “Just this much is all right. Teamwork.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai who was hugging Kazuki was answering with a kind voice that was unthinkable from before.<br /> <br /> “That’s right. It’s teamwork-!”<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki and Shinobu-senpai who collapsed on the ground, Karin threw her body forward.<br /> <br /> Right there Ilyailiya who became a flash of lightning swooped down and swung her silver blade. The attack that aimed at Kazuki and Shinobu-senpai was ripping apart Karin who was covering them.<br /> <br /> Even while being cut ―Karin continued to chant and cast her magic.<br /> <br /> “Guuuu! …Transiency of impurity is liberated from the death of Shirin! Mantra of the hidden side &lt;Dakini Heavenly Law&gt;! Dokuro Honzon Hangon’en(Skull Idol Revival Flame)!!”<br /> <br /> Before the eyes of Ilyailiya who was slashing Karin, a large avatar of a skull was floating. The jaw of the sinister skull moved in clattering sound as if in a laugh, and at that timing the skull turned into a pure black flame and swallowed Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> That flame wouldn’t easily vanish and clung on a living life, a wicked flame that burned the target to ashes.<br /> <br /> Dakini Heavenly Law―the forbidden Buddhist incantation that was handed down to Inari (AN: God of Harvests, Uka-no-Mitama).<br /> <br /> It was a high level magic that should be said as Karin’s contracted Diva, Tamamo no Mae’s trump card.<br /> <br /> Even Ilyailiya also had her body movement sealed by that black flame, making her take a step back from the impact of smashed magic due to being scorched.<br /> <br /> “It takes too much time to chant that magic!”<br /> <br /> While approaching near the collapsed Kazuki and Shinobu-senpai, Karin said that apologetically.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stood up while embracing and supporting both of their bodies…he then sheathed Doufuu that was broken in half with a feeling of chagrin. He only had a little magic power left….<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya stood up while being wrapped inside black flame.<br /> <br /> How much damage were they able to inflict at that &lt;King&gt;….<br /> <br /> “Sorry, Kazuki…”<br /> <br /> Kohaku who was standing in a slightly separate distance said crestfallenly.<br /> <br /> “This one was covering you with Tenran Kamaitachi but, it was nothing more than a peashooter damage against the opponent’s Resist and armor. Against an opponent of this level, if there is no stronger Sacred Treasures available…”<br /> <br /> Sacred Treasure―suddenly Kazuki’s mind vividly recalled the power of &lt;Mikagami no Tate&gt; that Ikousai used. And then the Sacred Treasure that appeared to be the &lt;Yasakani no Magatama&gt; was even now wrapped around Ilyailiya’s arm. They wouldn’t be able to obtain that if they didn’t defeat Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> And the last one &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt; seemed to be still sleeping somewhere in the Haunted Ground….<br /> <br /> Kazuki beseeched for a new power while regretfully thinking about the broken Doufuu. If he had such power….<br /> <br /> “The reflection of my heart on the moon mirror and the warm light to you…share the soul, Moon Divide(Moon Mirror Connected Heart)!”<br /> <br /> Moonlight shone down from the sky and wrapped Kazuki’s body. This was Miyabi-senpai’s magic.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was also walking near beside Kazuki who was standing up.<br /> <br /> Magic power was flowing from the moonlight into Kazuki’s mind. That light brought about a refreshing sensation to his mind that had come to exhaustion while recovering his vitality.<br /> <br /> In contrast he could feel the magic power of Miyabi-senpai in front of his eyes was getting emptied.<br /> <br /> ―A magic that transferred over magic power to other people.<br /> <br /> “We have to defeat that person in this place right?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai said so in order to encourage Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Then, there should be something left that we can still do.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was staring fixedly at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> What she wanted to say―the last card that was still left, understanding that Kazuki gently embraced her back. Miyabi-senpai’s whitely clear face was colored with shyness.<br /> <br /> “…Doing this in this kind of time left a lot to be desired but, I have waited a long time for this.”<br /> <br /> “Senpai…thank you very much.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki hugged Miyabi-senpai and inserted strength into his hands, then he touched those lovely lips with his lips.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.08 236.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “What meaning is there in kissing right now?”<br /> <br /> With her body still wrapped inside the black flame, Ilyailiya was looking their way with a dubious expression.<br /> <br /> A strong bond of magic power was linked between Kazuki and Miyabi-senpai. The thought body of Diva &lt;Gremory&gt; flowed into Kazuki’s mind through the circuit of bond. A spell immediately floated inside his mind.<br /> <br /> When they separated their lips, Miyabi-senpai averted her eyes shyly.<br /> <br /> “O goddess of moon that bring compassion in a lonely night…. I know thy true name(Shem ha Meforashu)…thy true name is Revena. Any kind of abuse cannot hope to defile thy pure white. O tender-hearted goddess, show that radiance!”<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuki and Miyabi-senpai, a goddess with silky flowing long red hair, wearing a garment fringed with gold thread and black lace materialized. That appearance was by no means a devil.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, for kissing this child.”<br /> <br /> The true identity of the female demon, was the moon goddess Revena.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai faced Revena and made a shy smile as if a daughter introducing his lover to the mother she was in good relation with.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…just now, I want to do it too.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai who was watching the situation came near beside him in order to be added between Kazuki and Miyabi-senpai. Then she kissed Kazuki in a surprise attack. A heart mark of positivity level up came flying.<br /> <br /> However the positivity level of Shinobu-senpai―was currently 59.<br /> <br /> Even if she kissed him, the power of bond to draw out strength from that still hadn’t been created.<br /> <br /> But the expression of Shinobu-senpai was enraptured,<br /> <br /> “This…feels good.”<br /> <br /> Saying that she repeatedly kissed Kazuki *chuu chuu* many times over. Each time she did that a heart mark came flying at him―and finally even the avatar of a golden key also came flying at him.<br /> <br /> Ryuutaki Shinobu―65<br /> <br /> With the positivity level reaching that value, a circuit of bond was tied between the two and Marchosias’s consciousness body flowed into Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “A, amazing…”<br /> <br /> “Wh, what a feat…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai and Revena had their eyes equally turned circle.<br /> <br /> “O lonely wolf that raised a war cry in the solitary night…. I know thy name(Shem ha Meforashu)…thy name is Marchosias. The one who is wandering seeking for love baring the fang. Show that gallant pureness!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki finished his chanting, even then Shinobu-senpai was still coming at him to peck at his lips.<br /> <br /> “Love is…something that you have to win over using brute strength sometimes.”<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuki and Shinobu-senpai that repeatedly kissed, a female warrior that was half human half beast with brown hair materialized.<br /> <br /> “Maru-chan, as I thought that’s a little…”<br /> <br /> Revena smiled wryly while Marchosias shouted “Gremory” and hugged her very tightly *gyu―tt*, then she fawned on her like sounding her throat in a purr or kissing her cheek.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai too mimicked her Diva and fawned at Kazuki with a hug.<br /> <br /> “You three, now is not the time for doing that…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was directing a troubled expression to her own sister and said sister contracted Diva.<br /> <br /> “…What farce are all of you doing?”<br /> <br /> Finally the black flame burned out and Ilyailiya went out from there.<br /> <br /> “Ilyailiya, this is our last resistance…I’m going to show out all the power that I have!”<br /> <br /> The spells for the ultimate magic of two Divas were running about inside Kazuki’s brain.<br /> <br /> “…O throne of night that urge all the stars to awaken, the phosphorescence discreetly wake up the madness…. The utmost limit of warrior, right here! Awakening Full Moon(Moonlight that Swoop Down From the Heaven)!!”<br /> <br /> He cast the second magic simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “…O lonely wolf that rush through every ground level, change thy longing into madness and howl ferociously…. The utmost limit of instinct, right here! Awakening Killer Instinct(Solitary Wolf Howling Up from the Earth)!!”<br /> <br /> From the full moon of the afternoon, from the bottom of the earth, fierce magic powers like muddy streams were flowing into Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The two ultimate magic were both reinforcement magic. The light from the moon cleared Kazuki’s mind to the very extreme, while the light from the earth cleared Kazuki’s blood and muscle until the very extreme.<br /> <br /> Revena and Marchosias’s figures returned into avatar and were slowly vanishing.<br /> <br /> Due to Revena’s strengthening his thought speed accelerated and everything looked slow to him.<br /> <br /> “Miechi.”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.08 240.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya created a silver blade once more on her right hand and traversed the ground toward Kazuki with the speed of lightning.<br /> <br /> Kazuki whose thought activity was amplified due to Revena’s strengthening sensed Ilyailiya’s killing intent in great detail. How was Ilyailiya rushing at him, how was she swinging her silver blade, he grasped the trajectory of her attack perfectly. While Kazuki evaded a half step to the left―he struck his right arm to the position that he predicted as the spot where Ilyailiya would slash at an empty air.<br /> <br /> He struck with a fist that had been amplified physically many times over by Marchosias’s strengthening.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya who came flying with the speed of lightning was knocked off her feet and sent flying with terrific force from the counter that was riding that speed.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki pursued her while raising the scream of the instinct itself and he raised his left arm.<br /> <br /> “…-! Pospeiv.”<br /> <br /> Even while being sent flying, Ilyailiya reformed the silver metal into armor and helmet once more. When Kazuki caught up with Ilyailiya who was blown away, he swung down his left arm like a steel hammer without care.<br /> <br /> The armor was smashed apart into splinters of silver, Ilyailiya caved into the ground.<br /> <br /> Kazuki got down to the ground in pursuit and swung down both his fists like rain. Cracks ran through the ground like a spider’s web. The silver armor was all broken apart and a thick backlash was returned from his shower of blows hitting Ilyailiya’s own Resist.<br /> <br /> It was a response that made his fists numb. Even now it remained unchanged that this King had possessed an abundance of magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki burned the magic power that he received from Miyabi-senpai’s sharing like fuel and exhibited a super strengthened attack power, continuously striking Ilyailiya. Ilyailiya’s body was rapidly caving into the ground.<br /> <br /> The attack power was insufficient just with his fist…!<br /> <br /> Kazuki lamented that Doufuu which he received from his step father was completely broken.<br /> <br /> “Raskati Gloma(Shooting Out Thunder). (AN: Another incomprehensible magic name. The katakana is ラスカテイ・グローマ. It’s read as rasukatei gurooma).”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya suddenly raised her right arm while being randomly pounded by fists.<br /> <br /> A heralding electrical discharge ran through that right hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki could Foresight it. But even if Kazuki could escape somewhat, that thunder would chase a material in which the electrical discharge was passed through.<br /> <br /> The heralding electrical discharge were tied at Kazuki from the palm, then a lightning that contained enormous electric charge was running through that.<br /> <br /> “Collider Field!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki set up a barrier of electricity. But a low level magic of Prometheus couldn’t possibly block the thunder and the mechanical gauntlet immediately shorted out and Kazuki’s own magic power was shaved.<br /> <br /> In that opening Ilyailiya speedily slipped out from the ground that had changed into a crater without delay and escaped from the distance of close quarter combat. For her who possessed the speed of lightning, it only took an instant.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise where the light of heaven reside in that body, burn to ashes the sins on the earth surface following my accusation! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki once more poured his magic power into Zekorbeni and he faced the shadow of lightning that was becoming more distant before firing. He must not let her get away…!<br /> <br /> Due to the level 6 magic, a serious amount of magic power was consumed and inside Kazuki’s head was on the brink of turning pure white.<br /> <br /> The destructive power of the heat ray was also strengthened. The back of Ilyailiya who was trying to escape was shot and her movement stopped.<br /> <br /> “…From the kisses before this…your everything is amplified, is it…!”<br /> <br /> While her magic power was shaved off, Ilyailiya turned back to Kazuki and displayed an expression of shock from how herself who was moving almost as fast as light was captured.<br /> <br /> Kazuki leaped forward with all his strength and unleashed a kick.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya’s body flew horizontally and banged into a giant tree of the Haunted Ground. Kazuki immediately chased her and further struck Ilyailiya flying altogether with the tree that snapped from the impact. It was frustrating that he couldn’t attack except with his bare hand.<br /> <br /> Anticipating the thought of Ilyailiya who was trying to escape using his strengthened perception ability, he struck even more.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya who was continuously sent flying crashed to the wall with a *DON*.<br /> <br /> Wall―the wall that partitioned Level 2 area from Level 3 area.<br /> <br /> They had arrived until the deepest ground of Level 2 in one go while he was pursuing Ilyailiya who was sent flying.<br /> <br /> In their surrounding the trees were decreasing and rock surface was scraggily littering the ground. He finally noticed at this late hour how the sloping ground under his feet made it harder to fight. Surely at the other side of this wall the ground was genuinely turning into a mountain road.<br /> <br /> The wall emitted blue magic power light dimly. It was just an aging wall of concrete from a glance, but some kind of magic power was coating it. From that magic power…Kazuki harbored a marvel sensation.<br /> <br /> A wavelength that he had felt before long time ago in the past―a mysterious feeling of yearning.<br /> <br /> “Not an ability to foresight the future…are you predicting my action? As for speed…I’m at disadvantage with my speed in this mode.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya who was crashed into the wall murmured.<br /> <br /> “…But looks like I have no need to go as far as to show my card to overturn the situation. After all you are already at your limit.”<br /> <br /> With a feeble gait, Kazuki slipped through the gap between the trees and showed his figure before Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> This was the limit. If he didn’t strain his consciousness to the extreme continuously, he was going to get dragged into Astrum in no time at all. Cold sweats was flowing without pause from his forehead continuously.<br /> <br /> “I don’t know how you did it, but in the first place you don’t have any magic power left to materialize two Divas. How long have you kept fighting since you arrived in this Haunted Ground?”<br /> <br /> The tone of her voice even contained some pity of Kazuki who had truly used up his everything until this point.<br /> <br /> “You are strong. But this is the end…Agouni Koprayof. Miechi.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya once again created the silver metal and formed a blade on her right arm.<br /> <br /> Her left hand was even now still wrapped up by the string that connected the several magatama.<br /> <br /> Kazuki drew out the broken Doufuu with a feeling as if imploring the sword.<br /> <br /> He didn’t think that he could do something somehow with the sword being like this.<br /> <br /> ―And then as if some kind of switch had been flicked off, a pillar of light rose up from the other side of the wall. And then acting in concert with that light pillar, the magic power that was residing within the concrete wall increased that light.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya was even more shocked than Kazuki and looked back at the wall.<br /> <br /> “What the…? The wall’s seal is releasing light…? Are you, and the thing that sealed this wall have some kind of relation?”<br /> <br /> The light pillar directly stretched out to the sky―and then it turned into a belt of light and descended down to Kazuki’s location.<br /> <br /> {That sword…is blessed with a kind person isn’t it? Moreover, looks like you have been raised as a hard worker.}<br /> <br /> Just as he was enveloped by the light, a kind voice that he remembered hearing before from somewhere was echoing inside his head.<br /> <br /> It was a voice that he had heard already just slightly before this….<br /> <br /> {I have waited here for a long time for you…isn’t that right, Lemegeton?}<br /> <br /> Lemegeton?<br /> <br /> Besides the bewildered Kazuki, Leme materialized.<br /> <br /> Leme’s appearance was transforming. The childishness from that face vanished, her stature too grew smoothly until around the height of those in Kazuki’s generation―long forked horns grew out from her head. Her clothes too―it was different from the shabby cloth that she wore until now, transforming into a shining cloth that was suitable for a King of Diva.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…with your conquest of Ryuutaki sisters, Leme’s power and…also memory has recovered to some extent.”<br /> <br /> Leme talked with a calm and mature tone of voice.<br /> <br /> “Leme…?”<br /> <br /> {There is something that I wish to hand over to you…&lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;.}<br /> <br /> The light from the sky said.<br /> <br /> {Pass this wall and come until Area 3. Right now..I will share a part of that power and the sealing power to you. Because this seal cannot be completly released immediately right now.}<br /> <br /> Completely the same like the magic that shared Miyabi-senpai’s magic for him before this, the light from the sky turned into magic power and seeped into his body. It was a magic power that made him feel a longing somewhere.<br /> <br /> That’s right, everything of this made him feel a longing. The voice, the wavelength of the magic power, even the warmth of the light….<br /> <br /> The pillar of light and the light of the wall, all of it climbed to the sky and vanished from being absorbed into Kazuki.<br /> <br /> One part of that magic power naturally gathered into the broken Doufuu. The magic power converged, its thickness increased, the material changed, and the broken tip of the blade was recreated. The recreated sword was not a single edge katana―a double edged sword.<br /> <br /> Doufuu became a double edged [ancient sword] and reborn.<br /> <br /> This is… &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;…? No, it was just a part of that power, temporarily residing within this sword?<br /> <br /> The light from before said that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> He completely didn’t understand why that light did this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked for an explanation and directed his gaze at Leme.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…Leme didn’t just choose some random guy who is strong in sword art. Leme wanted to make you into a King. Not some fellow like that Ikousai, but you. …That’s why, please.”<br /> <br /> Leme said something that didn’t become any explanation before her figure vanished.<br /> <br /> “…Raskati Gloma!”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya thrust out her right hand at Kazuki and enormous electric charge went out from her palm. The heralding electrical discharge ran to Kazuki and next an enormous lightning ran at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Inside Kazuki’s hand―that ancient sword proclaimed its own power. It demanded to Kazuki ‘set free the power’.<br /> <br /> Commuting between the souls of the user and the Sacred Treasure to release the soul―the power of Battou Kaikon.<br /> <br /> “…Mow down all things in nature, &lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;! Battou Kaikon, Kusanagi no Tsurugi(Grass Cutting Sword)!!”<br /> <br /> Rather than moving the sword Kazuki felt like his movement was being guided, then he mowed the ancient sword horizontally.<br /> <br /> Just like the hero that possessed the qualification as King in the Mythology.<br /> <br /> The light of lightning that should be enveloping Kazuki, the roar of thunder, all of them instantly vanished. The sword swing caused by the blade cut apart not physical material, but all phenomenon there were.<br /> <br /> Kazuki kicked the ground and leaped into the torn apart lightning right from the front. Turning towards Ilyailiya who was at the other side of the lightning, Kazuki reversed the sword and raised it above his head before slashing down diagonally.<br /> <br /> “…Pospeiv!”<br /> <br /> Silver armor instantly wrapped Ilyailiya’s body. However the blade that gained the force from Shinobu-senpai and Miyabi-senpai’s super strengthening tore the armor like paper and cut Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> Feedback ― Ilyailiya’s thick defensive magic power was gouged deeply, there was the sensation of something smashed and broken apart.<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled the time when he once felt the despairing thickness of Loki’s magic power when he materialized. At that time he felt that no matter how many thousands of time he cut, he wouldn’t be able to break that amount magic power.<br /> <br /> His current self was different. When he cut, he could reliably shave off the opponent’s magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki reversed the blade he swung down and slashed diagonally above. Once more, he gouged the defensive magic power of Ilyailiya. Several times…just several more times, he could defeat Ilyailiya!?<br /> <br /> “…Kuh-! This is the genuine power as the Solomon King…? No, is there an even different power residing in you…? Something is…watching over you!”<br /> <br /> This was the first time Ilyailiya leaked out an impatient voice. Her consciousness was not directing killing intent but directed toward the sky.<br /> <br /> “..There are too many inexplicable matters, therefore I choose to change mode and discontinue the battle, and retreat while taking home the Sacred Treasure…!!”<br /> <br /> “…Wait, I won’t let you get away!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reached out his hand toward the string of magatama that was coiled on Ilyailiya’s left hand.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya tried to make some distance with the speed of lightning in order to escape from that hand.<br /> <br /> In that instant―Kazuki’s ankle was caught by someone.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s hand was unable to reach Ilyailiya’s left arm slightly and clawed empty air.<br /> <br /> “…!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked down under his feet with a fatal feeling as if it was his heart that was caught rather than his ankle.<br /> <br /> The sight of a woman face that was half-assimilating with the ground flew into his eyes. A black robed woman ―the magician that was possessed by Midgardsormr. The woman whose face looked like reptile made a broad disgusting grin.<br /> <br /> “I’m not going to let it be over just by retreating…”<br /> <br /> …This woman didn’t immediately retreat right after swallowing her comrades into her stomach.<br /> <br /> She remained inside the ground while following Kazuki around and was earnestly waiting for the instance where she could be useful in some way!<br /> <br /> “Don’t get in my way!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately swung down the ancient sword to the hand that was holding his ankle.<br /> <br /> “GUH-!” Leaking such voice, Midgardsormr pulled back her hand and face into the earth in panic and buried her body completely under the ground.<br /> <br /> “…My gratitude, for the backing. Though you cannot hear me anymore.”<br /> <br /> An instant was more than enough for Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya who escaped from Kazuki’s hand turned into lightning and set free toward the sky.<br /> <br /> There was nothing Kazuki could do except seeing her off.<br /> <br /> One of the Sacred Treasures went deep inside the earth, while one more Sacred Treasure vanished high into the sky.<br /> <br /> …And then one more Sacred Treasure was….<br /> <br /> Magic power slipped off from the ancient sword that Kazuki held in his hand. The sword vanished into the air as if the magic power that materialized it became undone, returning completely into the previously broken Doufuu. The strengthening power from Revena and Marchosias too became lost from his body.<br /> <br /> The string that held Kazuki’s concentration was severed and he looked up to the wall beside him.<br /> <br /> The wall that pulsated with shining magic power was now returning into a normal concrete wall.<br /> <br /> What in the world has happened…?<br /> <br /> Two of the Three Sacred Treasures had been stolen and taken away.<br /> <br /> But the remaining last one was…had some kind of connection to himself and right now it was waiting for him at the other side of this wall.<br /> <br /> The meaning of such fact…what in the world could it possibly be?<br /> <br /> That voice was….<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> “What the hell, you gals really are not anything big at all eh, Einherjar. On top of that you two are eating some pretty good damage just now.”<br /> <br /> Silirat was looking down on Eleonora and Damian who had lost their magic power and collapsed on the ground.<br /> <br /> “Now then…if you’re defeated already then just keep sleeping like that, -kay. I’m gonna make sure you gals won’t be able to fight anymore the second time around, see.”<br /> <br /> Silirat crouched down beside Eleonora who was lying down while being half magic intoxicated already and she grasped her arm. Eleonora whose consciousness was made hazy from her condition leaked out her voices in convulsion.<br /> <br /> “…Sto, op…”<br /> <br /> “Myyy bad but I’m pretty merciful already here that I ain’t even killing you yeah. It’s a great pain in the butt to defeat you so it ain’t any good if I don’t get at least some of your limbs to make damn sure that you ain’t gonna fight me the second time.”<br /> <br /> Silirat lightly entered some strength into her hand that was grasping Eleonora’s right arm.<br /> <br /> Against the slender arm that was already not protected by any defensive magic power, it was a simple matter for Silirat to break bone or tear off the limb just by putting some strength with Enchant Aura.<br /> <br /> “Ca, captain…”<br /> <br /> “Your captain-san is still fightin’ over there y’know―. I gotta hurry and get done here so I can go help over there see. …Nn?”<br /> <br /> Suddenly the field of vision of the crouching Silirat was covered by a shadow. Behind her, something big was obstructing the sunlight. Silirat let go of Eleonora’s hand and jumped away in panic.<br /> <br /> “…I’m going to kill you if you don’t let go of Erii.”<br /> <br /> The thing that was towering over her like a mountain from the back was none other than Beatrix. From the start she didn’t have such big stature like mountain, but the pressure she released overpowered Silirat giving her the impression of a towering mountain.<br /> <br /> In Beatrix’s hand was―the Sacred Treasure that was the strongest in the Norse Mythology being created together with the spell.<br /> <br /> “There are both rage and blessing in my battle! Acting as the agent of the god of war, I’m gong to swing down the rage and blessing toward life to thy’s head…!!”<br /> <br /> “The black haired Nee-chan had got done in already!?”<br /> <br /> Silirat looked for Otonashi Kaguya’s figure in panic. The girl―was not even defeated, she was just looking over at Beatrix’s position while standing stock still.<br /> <br /> “Why ain’t you fighting!? Why ain’t you holding back this gal, I’m your ally right!?”<br /> <br /> “Mjolnir!!”<br /> <br /> The hammer whose handle was strangely short was forming its real form inside Beatrix’s hand, then it was swung down on Silirat’s head in one breath.<br /> <br /> “Shit, fire can be extinguished…Trisula of Lightning!”<br /> <br /> Silirat too thrust at Beatrix with the three-forked spear. The spear transformed into golden color and its tip produced a tremendous electrical discharge.<br /> <br /> The energy of destruction that was produced from the hammer’s hitting part and the electric charge energy that was released from the spear tip blend with each other. Together with a big noise that deafened the ear, magic power crushed everything and Silirat’s small body was blown away like a scrapped rag before it crashed into a tree trunk.<br /> <br /> “I, don’ get it…tt…”<br /> <br /> Silirat’s body crumpled down while leaking out such voices, and her consciousness was whisked away into the Astrum.<br /> <br /> Beatrix who was opposing her was also struck with electricity and fell down on the spot while leaking out groaning voice.<br /> <br /> ―Kaguya was merely overlooking such scene.<br /> <br /> Right now too she was looking down on the collapsed people that fainted down in dumbfounded amazement from failing to digest the situation.<br /> <br /> When Beatrix understood that Eleonora was in danger, she turned her back on Kaguya’s certain kill scythe without any hesitation and completely changed the target of the magic she chanted too.<br /> <br /> Kaguya was unable to cut down that back of Beatrix that became defenseless for the sake of saving her comrade.<br /> <br /> She was not doing that just from her being a softy.<br /> <br /> Although she counter attacked because her group was attacked first in the first place, Kaguya didn’t understand why the Einherjar suddenly reversed their stance. She had the hunch that there was some kind of misunderstanding.<br /> <br /> There was a ground for dialogue with the Einherjar. Nevertheless Silirat was mercilessly going to land a deathly blow at Eleonora.<br /> <br /> Even from Kaguya’s point of view, she felt that Silirat needed to be stopped.<br /> <br /> However there was no more magic power left inside Kaguya, there was no other way than to leave it to Beatrix.<br /> <br /> “…What’s with this…”<br /> <br /> The bunches who she didn’t understand which one was enemy or ally were altogether losing their consciousness.<br /> <br /> How did it become like this, how to settle this problem afterwards, Kaguya couldn’t catch up with the situation at all.<br /> ===Part 5===<br /> Regina who was flapping the wings of a swan and lying in wait above the sky lifted up the corner of her mouth because the moment she waited for had finally came.<br /> <br /> After commanding down the view of Hayashizaki Kazuki and the others’ battlefield for a long time, finally Ilyailiya’s enormous magic power was heading to the sky to escape. That speed and the light she had was exactly like an inversed lightning climbing the sky.<br /> <br /> For the sake of attacking that lightning speed, Regina concentrated all her nerve into her [Eagle Eye].<br /> <br /> “So you come, so carelessly at that! To think that you forget my existence and considered the sky as a safe area, how stupid!!”<br /> <br /> Regina threw the [spear] that she held in her hand.<br /> <br /> Carrying the god’s will flapping from my hand, possessing the wings o spear of god’s authority! Futeraronhi(Winged Spear of Heavenly Destruction)!!” (AN: I also don’t know what spear is this. Tell me if you know the real name in the comment section.)<br /> <br /> The speed of this spear was not inferior even against Ilyailiya’s flight. And then it sympathized with Regina’s will and pursued the target. It would hit the target without fail as long as the timing was done precisely.<br /> <br /> The spear that was like a fired shooting star soared the sky marvelously and collided into the lightning.<br /> <br /> The lightning that was heading to the sky lost its light. And then it went free-fall vertically all at once. While Regina felt a satisfaction filling her chest while chasing that figure with her gaze.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya helplessly crashed into the forest of the evacuation area in the nearby of the Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> “How trifling…it seems Hayashizaki Kazuki unexpectedly exhausted her.”<br /> <br /> She couldn’t clearly see with just her eyesight, but Regina too had observed the battle on the ground. Hayashizaki Kazuki used a very inexplicable power but―perhaps it was from his King’s Authority, but he displayed brave fighting more than she anticipated and survived this predicament. He ran out of magic power in the end, but it could be said that he performed a fight that was near equal with his opponent.<br /> <br /> That man too was the witness of Ilyailiya’s sin that infiltrated the Grand Haunted Ground for the sake of Yamato’s camp.<br /> <br /> Even Arthur who liked to keep nagging wouldn’t be able to say any complaint.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya, and Russia, they were going to be made to exit the game right here.<br /> <br /> Regina strongly flapped the white wings which had the size several times larger than her own body and pursued the crashing down Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> For the sake of inflicting the finishing blow.<br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Intermission|Intermission]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_8_Chapter_3&diff=479534 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Chapter 3 2016-02-03T07:34:14Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 3 – War Front’s Continual Change==<br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Provisions for soldiers were necessary.<br /> <br /> Karin’s body made a single rotation with a twirl and she returned from her Magic Dress to her uniform appearance.<br /> <br /> She was not just in her usual uniform appearance, she was shouldering a large rucksack.<br /> <br /> Putting it down, she took out a large multi-tiered bento box, water canteen, and a leisure sheet.<br /> <br /> “You made even the bento together into the Magic Dress!?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s eyes turned round from shock. The surprised face of a beautiful woman was lovely.<br /> <br /> Sometimes magic power magnificently ignored the law of mass conservation.<br /> <br /> “Both senpai are seniors though, I heard that this is a trick that everyone used.”<br /> <br /> “Both of us always went on a quest with just the two of us so…we never noticed that kind of idea.”<br /> <br /> “This is not a really good thing you know.”<br /> <br /> Leme materialized herself beside Kazuki with a slightly bitter face. It seemed that she came to eat bento.<br /> <br /> “First there is the definition that [things attached on the body will be disintegrated and converted into Magic Dress], the phenomenon is made to occur in parallel with that principle, but the Diva’s side is also confused when you asked [is it fine for our baggage to be included in that?]. Sooner or later you are going to escalate and ask if it’s possible for a bicycle or a car that make us even more uneasy. It’s not a good feeling for the Magic Dress that is fittingly adorning our own contractor to be made from things like bento. We are unwilling but we give in and allow it if it’s just something to the extent of bento, but don’t you dare make us convert outrageous luggage and treat us like a storage shed.”<br /> <br /> Is this a grey zone trick…?<br /> <br /> “That is so that Leme is going to eat the bento too.”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki spread out the leisure sheet, Leme was the first one to step on it and sat down with a flop.<br /> <br /> The multi-tiered box bento was put right in the middle and everyone surrounded it.<br /> <br /> The instant the lid was opened, Shinobu-senpai’s expression was colored with shock.<br /> <br /> That was because there was a slight surprise prepared inside the box.<br /> <br /> There was a brown wild land of meat as far as the eyes could see inside the first box. Hamburgers, meatballs, teriyaki chicken, octopus-shaped wieners, meat rolls filled with asparagus or pot herb, minced meat sandwiched with fried lotus root….<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai was looking at Kazuki with an expression that seemed to be saying [By any chance this is…], however she immediately averted her eyes restlessly as if saying [No, perhaps it’s just a mere coincidence].<br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai, I have heard your favorite foods from Miyabi-senpai. Do you dislike it?”<br /> <br /> Even after Kazuki disclosed the secret, Shinobu-senpai continued to be restless.<br /> <br /> “I don’t dislike it. But, somehow I cannot calm down…I don’t understand what kind of face I should make.”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine to be happy.”<br /> <br /> Beside her Miyabi-senpai smiled in amusement.<br /> <br /> Of course the boxes under the first one were filled by side dishes other than meat. The second box was filled with vegetables and seafood, while the third box was filled with rice balls.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, this one is going to do [aaan]. This is the duty as a wife…it is not, but as a bosom friend.”<br /> <br /> “That’s stupid.”<br /> <br /> <br /> Even while saying that Kazuki still obediently opened his mouth and swallowed the hamburger presented to him.<br /> <br /> He had cut up the food into mouthful sizes beforehand in preparation of something like this happening. He was getting used already to this kind of development.<br /> <br /> “Hrm, servicing the companion but also ruling the companion…this is the activity between man and woman, it is not, but the activity between bosom friends.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, well then I’ll do it too. Is it fine like this?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai chuckled coolly and then she presented a lotus root sandwich at him.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, it’s okay for you to do [aa―n] to me too! Teamwork!!”<br /> <br /> In contrast Karin opened her mouth largely with ‘waha―’ while her eyes shined in sparkles.<br /> <br /> “What do you want to eat?”<br /> <br /> “Fufun, of course the tako-san&lt;ref&gt;Refers to the octopus wiener&lt;/ref&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reverently presented the tako-san wiener to Karin.<br /> <br /> “How tasty―. Kazuki’s handmade meal is always tasty―. If I become a wife then I can eat this everyday I wonder―”<br /> <br /> Karin happily chewed *mogu mogu* her food.<br /> <br /> “…What is called friend is someone that does this kind of thing then.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai was looking at that kind of happening from a place that was a step removed from them.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…I don’t understand the environment here so if you don’t lead me I’m going to get troubled.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai sent Kazuki a demanding gaze.<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so, which one does senpai want?”<br /> <br /> “All of it is my favorite food.”<br /> <br /> That was that. Kazuki picked a teriyaki chicken with his chopstick and said “aa―n” where Shinobu-senpai opened her graceful lips wide like a child. Kazuki fed her with a careful manner of hand.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s face turned bright while chewing, a small heart mark flew.<br /> <br /> “…Next.”<br /> <br /> “O, ou.”<br /> <br /> Being demanded without any reserve, Kazuki presented the next food.<br /> <br /> “Next, rice.”<br /> <br /> “Got it.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki held a rice ball reverently with both hands and presented it to the mouth of Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Shinobu, it’s fine even if you eat by yourself you know…?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai retorted with a wry smile. She gave a tsukkomi. Kazuki thought he was saved.<br /> <br /> “Nee-sama too, here.”<br /> <br /> But Shinobu-senpai pinched a meatball with her chopstick and held it out to Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Ara…. Fufu, thank you.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, continue your ‘aa―n’ to me. Come on.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai also disregarded Miyabi-senpai’s pointing out and then she directed an opened mouth at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki presented meat again to Shinobu-senpai. He was happy that there was a real feeling of his distance with her shrinking down.<br /> <br /> But, like this I don’t get to eat then….<br /> <br /> “Then Kazuki will be fed on by this one! Here, aaan.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku once again directed her chopstick at Kazuki in the critical timing.<br /> <br /> Looking at what was happening, an expression of confusion appeared on Karin’s face.<br /> <br /> “Eh…I’m feeding Kohaku then…am I…? Somehow I don’t feel really happy huh, doing that.”<br /> <br /> While being bewildered Karin went ‘aa―n’ to Kohaku.<br /> <br /> “Wait, like this I cannot eat then!”<br /> <br /> “Ah, then I’ll do it. But it’s a little hard to fed you like this so how about changing our seating position?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai whose position was a little far from Karin proposed such and raised her body.<br /> <br /> The people surrounding the bento box was Miyabi-senpai→Karin→Kohaku→Kazuki→Shinobu-senpai→Miyabi-senpai…they lined up in a circle with that kind of flow.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.08 169.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> There was not a single person among the group that fed themselves and they continued to do [aa―n] at each other like a rotary press.<br /> <br /> “Karin, you started to lag behind. Gulp down your food faster.”<br /> <br /> “You are the one that is too fast―! Feel my groove more and get in the rhythm!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku and Karin began to argue with each other.<br /> <br /> “If we are going to match our rhythm, I wonder if it’s better to raise a matching yell?”<br /> <br /> When Miyabi-senpai proposed so, Kohaku went “That’s it” while clapping her hands.<br /> <br /> Having her proposal accepted, Miyabi-senpai made a happy grin.<br /> <br /> “Soiya&lt;ref&gt;A cheering shout Japanese people raised&lt;/ref&gt;! “Aa―n!” “Soiya! “Aa―n!”, all of them raised a voice like the people that was pounding mocha or shouldering the portable shrine in festival in the end. …He already didn’t understand what in the world was the purpose of this.<br /> <br /> “This is teamwork…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai murmured to herself.<br /> <br /> “Something like this is the first time for me…to feel this kind of uncommon intimate group feeling…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai whispered happily.<br /> <br /> “No, senpai is magnificently misunderstanding something here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki pointed out while being half amazed.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “By the way, ''about this gate''.”<br /> <br /> After finishing eating really in that way until the very end, Kazuki began to talk.<br /> <br /> If they passed through this gate, they would plunge into Level 2 area.<br /> <br /> In their original arrangement first they were going to liberate the whole Level 1 area before continuing to Level 2.<br /> <br /> But now that they had discovered the gate, was it okay to just leave it alone. Such doubt was welling up inside Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “As long as we are resolved for the danger, it might be better for even only us to go first into Level 2.”<br /> <br /> If there was something there, he would protect his companions without fail. By using Zekorbeni skillfully….<br /> <br /> “Why?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai asked. Kohaku and Karin too leaned their body forward in wonder.<br /> <br /> “If Yamato and other enemy countries can break through the first gate and infiltrate, then they might also be able to do the same with the second and the third gate and break through here. If the enemies appear right from the front through Level 1 then we might be able to discover and deal with them, but…”<br /> <br /> “…While we are slowly wandering around the Level 1 for who knows how long, we might not be able to notice that the other side has already infiltrated Level 2 or 3 ahead of us.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai understood the roundabout talk and Kazuki nodded briskly to that.<br /> <br /> “Today, it’s only after we started the operation for real that I first noticed this but…I cannot sense everyone’s magic power while fighting except for just a faint presence. Right now, even if there is a battle happening inside Level 2 or 3, I don’t think we will be able to make any distinction of that magic power with the magic power emitted from the fight of our comrades. In such case the most frightening things are invaders that slipped among our magic power into Level 2 or 3 and plunder that area ahead of us…”<br /> <br /> All present kept their silence. Courage was necessary to reject Kazuki’s theory as impossible.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The second gate was installed with a Stigmata confirmation device.<br /> <br /> If their own Stigmata was confirmed by the device then they would be able to pass through without any problem.<br /> <br /> The Stigmata confirmation device was connected with the Knight Order’s headquarter using a circuit and originally it had the structure to send the data of the confirmed Stigmata to the headquarter, but this terminal was a stand-alone type.<br /> <br /> “For this gate to have the device of Stigmata confirmation, this wall and gate seems to be quite new.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki opened the gate while making such deduction.<br /> <br /> The wall was also sturdily built with adamantite. The Knight Order didn’t just leave this wall unregulated and in order to not let the Haunted Ground expanded more than this it was made to be able to be maintained for a long period of time.<br /> <br /> With Kazuki in the lead, the ancient heavy gate of adamantite was opening while creaking *giiiiiiiii*.<br /> <br /> ―Akane-senpai said before that [Thanks to the wall the expansion of the Haunted Ground can be held in check, however only in that part alone the magic power are accumulating in inward direction and so the moment you pass through the wall it has been confirmed that the magic power’s density will spring up drastically]. Her words were resurrected inside his head.<br /> <br /> “…Certainly it’s so thick here.”<br /> <br /> The instant they passed the wall, they felt a thickness of magic power that seemed to pierce their skin. The scenery was also changing. The denseness and thickness of the trees in the surrounding increased, their colors surpassed a mere poisonous tint and blackened like an ink. The sky was blocked by black leaves and even though it was afternoon currently, past the wall was completely dark like an inside of a room with its electricity turned off. The ground under their feet was changing into a gently sloping hill road.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt his consciousness becoming distant. In panic he retained his consciousness using Trance. The Haunted Ground’s dense magic power was coming to reap the consciousness of the invader.<br /> <br /> Coming until this far, it should be called as a miasma rather than a magic power.<br /> <br /> The member that wasn’t really good in Trance―Kohaku groaned “Unuu-“.<br /> <br /> “…O naiyoukou&lt;ref&gt;A type of energy or chi or ki, something like that&lt;/ref&gt; polished and burning from the core of navel, drive away the ominous and incite the cool and clear rainbow into the soul! {{furigana|Kikan Choukou|Spirit Weight Long Rainbow}}!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Karin cast some kind of magic.<br /> <br /> Thereupon an intense heat was born inside Kazuki’s stomach at once and rushed about through his whole body like a blood stream. That heat immediately penetrated his mind and cleared away the miasma.<br /> <br /> It seemed the magic just now was cast altogether at all members. Kohaku who was weakening was also feeling refreshed from the heat.<br /> <br /> “Just now is…?”<br /> <br /> “A mind stimulating magic that drives away maliciousness...that’s what Tamamo no Mae said.”<br /> <br /> Indeed, it was a magic that could recover the mind altogether from a light mind attack type.<br /> <br /> Perhaps Karin would be an indispensable member for them to search the Level 2 even deeper.<br /> <br /> “This place is not only thick in magic power.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai murmured.<br /> <br /> “…Some kind of magic is overwriting the space itself…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s complexion changed hearing those words.<br /> <br /> When he sharpened his senses, Kazuki was able to sense the same thing.<br /> <br /> A magic that affected the space―someone had already come here!?<br /> <br /> From the path ahead, a rustling sound of someone pushing their way through the trees approaching near them could be heard.<br /> <br /> “Oi…that’s not a Demon Beast.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku that directed her sight at the path ahead leaked out a groaning voice.<br /> <br /> What appeared from the dark path was a small boy.<br /> <br /> The boy was naked without wearing a single clothes and his skin was blue as if no blood was flowing inside.<br /> <br /> There were no eyeballs in his head and in its place were only black cavities.<br /> <br /> Just from looking at that appearance they were immediately reminded of something. A dead person.<br /> <br /> The deceased boy grinned widely the moment he saw Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “…Mother said, to not play with you or Mio or Kaya.”<br /> <br /> “…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki gulped.<br /> <br /> “They are the kid of the institution Mother said. You mustn’t get close to those children who are not raised in decency she said.”<br /> <br /> The inside of his heart became discomposed all at once.<br /> <br /> Those were words that he had some memories to hear somewhere in his remote past by someone.<br /> <br /> The boy kicked the ground after saying just those sentences and leaped forward with a force as if he was flying.<br /> <br /> …Fast! It was as if the magic power of the Haunted Ground had seeped into the flesh that had lost its life and acted like Enchant Aura!<br /> <br /> The boy came in a head-butt toward Kazuki who was bending forward. Kazuki drew out his sword in an Iai and met the attack.<br /> <br /> The katana blocked the head-butt. He could feel a heavy and severe feedback in his hand. Kazuki didn’t block right from the front but parried it to the side diagonally. Having his charge parried, the boy staggered.<br /> <br /> “Crush to death, &lt;Taroudachi&gt;! Battou Kaikon―Ashura Ryoudan!!”<br /> <br /> From the side Kohaku enlarged her beloved Sacred Treasures and flattened down the boy with one attack. The boy crumpled down and he was buried into the ground with his four limbs twisted around like a frog.<br /> <br /> Even so the pitch black eye socket didn’t see Kohaku but kept staring at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “…You got carried away just because you are strong in a fight…”<br /> <br /> The boy spat out cursing words that was dripping with unresolved regret at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Not you, but Mio and Kaya, they are the one that is going to be made crying then…there is going to be no more place to belong or anywhere to escape for you…”<br /> <br /> Those were also words he had a memory hearing before in the past.<br /> <br /> It was the words from the opponent he had beaten after a brawl…. The boy’s whole body liquefied muddily into a pitch black liquid and seeped into the ground of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> “What in the world is that boy just now…”<br /> <br /> Kohaku murmured while looking down on the melting boy.<br /> <br /> “Gorilla girl.”<br /> <br /> A whispering voice could be heard suddenly, Kazuki and the others raised their face.<br /> <br /> From the gap between the pitch dark trees, the faces of several girls came out one after another even further.<br /> <br /> The girl that stood in the lead focused at Kohaku directly and talked.<br /> <br /> “That child, I heard that she wants to become a swordsman and trained her body, not to be a magician.”<br /> <br /> The other girls laughed in snickers.<br /> <br /> “Let’s call her gorilla.”<br /> <br /> “Gorilla.” “Gorilla.” “Come on stop it, the gorilla will get violent and come swinging at us you know.”<br /> <br /> “Actually the person herself hates something worthless like a sword isn’t she?” “But it’s because she has to succeed the sword art that has continued for generations she said.”<br /> <br /> “It’s a gorilla lineage after all so it cannot be helped.” “Uhho uhho! See me swinging my sword uhho!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku’s face blushed bright red in a flash, she gripped her enlarged katana tightly.<br /> <br /> “Wait Kohaku, if you rush carelessly you are going to get surrounded!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki just barely took hold of Kohaku’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “How dare you in front of Kazuki…calling me gorilla or whatever…”<br /> <br /> Kohaku’s voice was trembling in fury and sadness.<br /> <br /> It was the voice and expression of a human whose old wound was gouged open.<br /> <br /> For Kazuki too, he couldn’t think of those slanders as other people’s problem. The experience of receiving slander without any cause that looked down on swordsman as useless, even Kazuki had felt it before.<br /> <br /> “You must not get bothered by that kind of unreasonable words.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki said that to Kohaku who was seemed to be made to have a flashback of her past around the middle school.<br /> <br /> “Besides instead of a gorilla, Kohaku is completely a beauty.”<br /> <br /> “…Ka, Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku made an expression as if returning to the reality and turned back to look at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Are you perhaps, saying that because you are properly looking at this one as a woman…”<br /> <br /> “That’s just obvious right?”<br /> <br /> “Ha? Isn’t the gorilla just getting carried away from getting pampered by a man thooouuugh?”<br /> <br /> ―The girls’ expression had turned into exactly like the face of [ogress of hell] toward Kohaku who was facing Kazuki with blushing cheeks. And then as one they kicked the ground and charged at Kohaku’s direction.<br /> <br /> “U, UWAAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> Karin raised a scream. Karin was looking at a different direction.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki turned his sight…right there the figure of Hayashi Shizuka’s dead body was standing.<br /> <br /> “You dregs…you dregs you dregs you dregs, you dregs of a puppet!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka’s face distorted into a look of fury.<br /> <br /> “How dare you kicked and stepped on this me…!”<br /> <br /> Karin faltered back for a moment, but she soon glared back resolutely.<br /> <br /> “I screamed unconsciously just now but…I’m not scared of you anymore! You are just a fake-!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka and Karin faced each other and they kicked the ground simultaneously.<br /> <br /> Fist and fist, leg and leg, their respective techniques blended with each other just like once before.<br /> <br /> Fake….<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…”<br /> <br /> A voice came at Kazuki’s direction. Led by the voice, Kazuki directed his sight at the voice’s direction.<br /> <br /> The sounds of the others’ fight were vanishing toward the far off distance.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had his eyes stolen by that dead body.<br /> <br /> The dead body of an adult female was standing between the black trees.<br /> <br /> It was a female he had a recollection of seeing before.<br /> <br /> The appearances of that female…exist in the memory of his remote past, in the time where he was still a baby that wasn’t aware of anything around him.<br /> <br /> The scene where Kazuki was abandoned in front of the gate of the orphanage when he was still a baby.<br /> <br /> This person was…the woman from that time.<br /> <br /> This person, abandoned me!!<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s heart shook fiercely. The woman in his memory was hazy, but the dead body in front of his eyes clearly represented the appearance of that person. ‘Was she making this kind of face’, Kazuki’s heart was covered with deep emotion.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, you have become big. You are trying really hard, and you have become strong.”<br /> <br /> Slowly that woman was walking nearing Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “…It’s fine to not keep persevering yourself anymore. Don’t force yourself anymore, its fine for you to sleep. I will protect you after all. Because I’m far stronger than even you.”<br /> <br /> A smooth and soft voice like a silk. He felt like it resembled Kaguya-senpai’s voice in some respect.<br /> <br /> That woman reached out her hands to embrace Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki breathed in deeply. He concentrated magic power silently inside his head. He cooled down his consciousness as far as he could. And then from the depth of his stomach, he pushed out his voice.<br /> <br /> “Be quiet, you imposter…! Of all things to do…!”<br /> <br /> Filling his katana with all the might of his magic power, Kazuki drew out the Iai slash that he had tempered thoroughly in Hayashizaki household.<br /> <br /> The female’s head was blown away as if a strong wind was blowing from above.<br /> <br /> The female that had lost its head fell into her knees powerlessly and collapsed to the ground, it turned into a pitch black liquid and seeped into the ground. Kazuki breathed out while looking over that situation.<br /> <br /> This was one kind of mind attack magic. Kazuki calmed down his heart using the Trance that he had tempered from his special training with Miyabi-senpai and grasped the situation in front of his eyes.<br /> <br /> “First there is a magic that produced dead bodies…and then it seems a magic is attached to the produced dead bodies to stimulate people’s trauma.”<br /> <br /> After making such analysis, Kazuki began the chant of [Futsu no Mitama]. The sword of evil severing should be effective to attack the dead bodies.<br /> <br /> When he looked around his surrounding once more, Kazuki and others were still within several steps away from the gate they had passed.<br /> <br /> From left and right, from the front, from the direction of 180° in front of them dead bodies were gathering near in cluster.<br /> <br /> “Who is a gorilla! Kazuki has given his understanding of this one’s heart that loves the sword-! He even said to this one that this one is a beauty, so this one is now unrivalled!!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku was not agitated anymore already from having her sword training that she had poured her soul into getting made fun of, she mowed down the dead bodies with that sword art.<br /> <br /> Karin was surrounded by even more dead bodies. All the dead bodies were wearing Hayashi Shizuka’s face.<br /> <br /> “Nee-san is multiplying!?”<br /> <br /> It was undoubtedly a nightmarish sight.<br /> <br /> “Puppet” “Puppet” “Puppet” like that, the countless Shizuka were disparaging Karin.<br /> <br /> “…Nee-san right now is the one that has completely become a puppet!”<br /> <br /> Karin declared out an irrefutable sentence while knocking down the Shizuka crowd one by one in order.<br /> <br /> The girl’s heart that had already rode past Shizuka’s death had no gap that could be taken advantage of already since the start.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to level up from defeating a hundred Nee-san here!”<br /> <br /> Karin was running off her mouth as if she was playing an action game together with Kazuki and Lotte while fighting the dead bodies. …Those two were fine.<br /> <br /> “Look there, there is an elf.”<br /> <br /> “Uwa, the ears are really pointed, what a monster.”<br /> <br /> “That is like how an animal became a Demon Beast don’t you think?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai were receiving unjustified abuse from the dead bodies. They were surrounded by the dead bodies of young men that sported a foul expression. This too was a memory from their elementary or middle school it seemed.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was looking down. Tears were gathering in Shinobu-senpai’s eyes and her face was becoming pale.<br /> <br /> The dead bodies were slowly approaching the two sisters who didn’t move at all.<br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai, you must not yield against something fake like this! …Futsu no Mitama!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki cut into the space between Shinobu-senpai and the dead bodies and cut down the youth dead body with one attack.<br /> <br /> The blade of evil severing cut both the power of deceiving and the magic power that moved the dead body.<br /> <br /> “…Ka, Kazuki…”<br /> <br /> Like a child, Shinobu-senpai grasped tightly the end of the back of the uniform of Kazuki who was standing in the way of the dead bodies. It was hard to fight like that. But he accepted it.<br /> <br /> “No matter what kind of unreasonable thing that happens, even so from now on I too will fight together with senpai. So it’s okay.”<br /> <br /> “Re, really…? You are not going to lie, not going to be gone…?”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai questioned Kazuki with a trembling voice. It was a tone like that of a child toward her parent.<br /> <br /> A voice that made the person hearing it to think that they absolutely must not betray her hope.<br /> <br /> “Really, for forever.”<br /> <br /> “…You are going to be my friend forever?”<br /> <br /> “To the extent that I want to become more than senpai’s friend.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai hugged Kazuki’s back tightly.<br /> <br /> It was hard to fight like this. …But he was happy with this difficulty to fight. A heart mark also came flying.<br /> <br /> “Moon Scraper!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly a blade of light came flying from the back while drawing an arc, bisecting all the dead bodies into half altogether.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was not looking down from getting scared, she was chanting her spell.<br /> <br /> “…It’s okay, Shinobu. Until now you are the one who keeps protecting me. From now on, I’ll be the one that protects you.”<br /> <br /> While saying so, Miyabi-senpai embraced Shinobu-senpai from behind.<br /> <br /> “Nee-sama…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai leaked out her voice toward the sensation of her big sister from behind while hugging at Kazuki. Being wrapped by warmth from behind and front, surely she couldn’t feel anything like loneliness at all anymore.<br /> <br /> The posture of Kazuki and Shinobu-senpai and Miyabi-senpai turned into something like a make-believe train.<br /> <br /> It made it difficult to ask them to release him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out to them “Let’s go, senpai!”, and just like that he faced the dead bodies and swung his sword while still in the posture of make-believe train.<br /> <br /> “Warm…this is teamwork…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai who was clinging at Kazuki’s back murmured.<br /> <br /> ‘That’s not it’, he thought.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…if it’s hard to walk then perhaps we need to yell ‘one, two, three’ I wonder?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai said.<br /> <br /> Don’t need it.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki Kazuki and his group finally arrived at Level 2.”<br /> <br /> Hel who was following behind Ikousai who was silently defeating the Demon Beasts while advancing talked.<br /> <br /> “They are faster than I thought. …Are they blowing through Level 1 and came to look at the situation here?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai clicked her tongue. She was told by Loki to avoid an encounter with Hayashizaki Kazuki at all cost.<br /> <br /> They still couldn’t find even a single Sacred Treasure.<br /> <br /> “Err, my magic is…”<br /> <br /> “They are defeating the dead bodies in a really good pace. I don’t feel any considerable effect from your magic in blocking their way.”<br /> <br /> Naiarlako hung her head down dejectedly.<br /> <br /> At that time a lightning descended down before Ikousai’s eyes. Silently a huge light landed in front of Ikousai it made her think whether it would pierce the ground, but the light then turned into the form of Ilyailiya in her pure white Magic Dress appearance.<br /> <br /> This magician turned her body into light and displayed her form like a lightning.<br /> <br /> “Question. Have you found the Sacred Treasures, o the King of this country?”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya called Ikousai who was the contractor of Susanoo as the King of this country.<br /> <br /> As if such fact was only natural because Ilyailiya herself was assisting her in her endeavor.<br /> <br /> “In my side, I have found two things that seemed to look like it.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai could only stare blankly hearing those hard to believe words.<br /> <br /> When she looked carefully, there was a mirror in Ilyailiya’s right hand and a number of red magatama connected through a string in her left hand. The mirror in the right hand was suddenly thrown at Ikousai’s direction.<br /> <br /> Ikousai received it even while in confusion.<br /> <br /> “I’ll entrust one in your care.”<br /> <br /> “…Why?”<br /> <br /> “Because everything will be for naught if you meet an untimely death in this Haunted Ground. That thing can become your strength right? It also should be useful for fighting the Demon Beasts.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya was worrying whether Ikousai would be taking some delay because of the likes of Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> Understanding what Ilyailiya meant, blood rushed to Ikousai’s head in fury.<br /> <br /> “Having said that entrusting both of these to you altogether is also worrying. Because if both Sacred Treasures are stolen then there will be nothing more you can do. To breakup the risk I will carry one. Though this is not something that I can use.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya coiled the magatama that was tied together with a string ―the &lt;Yasakani no Magatama&gt; onto her left hand that it was wrapped fixedly there and then she turned her back to Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “I am thinking of searching the surrounding a little bit more. Because the last one still hasn’t been found.”<br /> <br /> “It seems that Hayashizaki Kazuki finally arrived in this area.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai presented the information as if boasting that by no means she didn’t acquire anything in this place.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya looked back expressionlessly as if she didn’t have much interest of it.<br /> <br /> “I earnestly ask you to not do anything like challenging Hayashizaki Kazuki to battle. O King of this country.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai grinded her teeth hearing those words. She felt even more fury on the woman in front of her eyes.<br /> <br /> This woman too…is looking down on me…!<br /> <br /> After that a fury toward herself boiled up inside.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya transformed into light and left that place with lightning speed.<br /> <br /> “…We are going to defeat Hayashizaki Kazuki right now.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai murmured to herself.<br /> <br /> “Hahe-?”<br /> <br /> Naiarlako leaked out a hitched voice.<br /> <br /> “…Why? That’s different, from the order…”<br /> <br /> Hel pointed out with a hoarse voice. Hearing the word ‘order’, Ikousai got even more irritated.<br /> <br /> “Order you say? Who is the one that is ordering me around! No matter Kaya or Loki, I don’t have any intention to get ordered around by them!”<br /> <br /> “Our objective is the Sacred Treasures…there is no reason to fight Hayashizaki Kazuki here…”<br /> <br /> “What do you mean there is no reason? Don’t say such idiotic thing! Even more important than collecting the Sacred Treasures, it will be far faster and certain if we defeat Hayashizaki Kazuki right here! I can do that!”<br /> <br /> “We are Loki’s troops…. If you are not moving according to Loki’s plan, then right now we won’t cooperate anymore than this with you in this place…”<br /> <br /> “You think I will allow such willfulness. You bastard and also Loki are people of Yamato. All of you entered under my command for this operation. If you are not going to obey me…then no one is going to protest even if I lined up the head of you three bastards in this place.”<br /> <br /> Hearing Ikousai’s words, killing intent wordlessly filled Midgardsormr’s eyes.<br /> <br /> Naiarlako was timidly taking a peek at everyone’s faces in turn.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki has left behind his other comrades and came to this area right under our nose with a few number of troops, such chance has fallen into our lap. Our side can one-sidedly grasp the whereabouts of those guys, so we can even slip amidst the confusion of their battle with the dead bodies and launch a surprise attack.”<br /> <br /> “…Our camp has obtained two of the Sacred Treasures already, so there is no need to force ourselves…”<br /> <br /> “But of course. But in critical time we can even escape with Midgardsmormr’s ability, as long as they don’t freeze the ground like in the previous battle. We are going to fight while holding the initiative, an escape route is also readily available. Such a good chance must not be wasted. If you bastards still has some intelligence remaining to think for yourself then surely you can understand.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai who was arguing for argument’s sake became self-aware that the reason she was saying right now was just a minor reason.<br /> <br /> If she went back like this with two out of three Sacred Treasures in her possession, surely she could win with that in the decisive battle. She was supposed to win.<br /> <br /> But like that the achievement of collecting the Sacred Treasures belonged to Loki and Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> If she could…she wanted to win against Hayashizaki Kazuki without the cooperation of Loki and Ilyailiya who didn’t believe in her strength.<br /> <br /> Right now was the last chance where she could do that, she noticed that along with the fury she felt to Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> “Hel. Gather the dead bodies all at once in those guys’ location and make the timing for the sake of an ambush. And then hold back Hayashizaki Kazuki’s four companions with all of you. I won’t let you say you can’t do that.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> How should she fight?<br /> <br /> Kaguya who had resolved herself instantly worked her brain.<br /> <br /> Rather than herself, the one who held the battle’s initiative right now was [the strongest close combat warrior] Beatrix.<br /> <br /> Right now there were also swordsmen in Kaguya’s group but…surely they wouldn’t even be an opponent for Beatrix. Then, preferably…!<br /> <br /> “I’m doing a good battle, welcoming a good death, I’m a person that wish for participation in even more battle of heaven! The divine protection of blood color in my eyes! Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> Without even allowing Kaguya time to consider for long, Beatrix’s eyes were colored like blood. Her dynamic vision and physical ability were magnified, it was the specialty magic of Beatrix who turned into a berserker.<br /> <br /> And then Beatrix rushed at Kaguya with full speed.<br /> <br /> Beatrix withdrew a large sword from her waist and slashed it with all her strength. Against the sudden development and the step-in with terrific speed, the swordsmen in Kaguya’s side couldn’t even react to protect Kaguya.<br /> <br /> Like that was fine.<br /> <br /> …She lured the enemy until just barely. And then,<br /> <br /> “O desire lurking inside the sea of heart, pass through the deeply sinful flesh and reach out that hand! O embodiment of violation entangle following the desire! Desire Tentacles!”<br /> <br /> Magic power shone from Kaguya’s body and that magic power fell down into the ground.<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s blade was swinging down at Kaguya―in that instant, countless tentacles burst forth from the ground and entangled Kaguya, raising her up high in the air.<br /> <br /> “Nuu-!?” Beatrix who raised a surprised voice had her blade cutting empty air. Beatrix’s nerve reflex was excellent but she couldn’t go as far as predicting magic.<br /> <br /> The swung down blade bisected the tentacles from its roots.<br /> <br /> But right before the tentacles were cut down they threw Kaguya far away with a *pon*.<br /> <br /> Kaguya landed with a lot of distance opened between her and Beatrix.<br /> <br /> Beatrix wasted no time to pursue in order to close the distance.<br /> <br /> “I’ll pin down {{furigana|this girl|Beatrix}}!”<br /> <br /> “I’ll bring down {{furigana|this girl|Otonashi Kaguya}}!”<br /> <br /> Both of their voices overlapped without any arrangement beforehand. Kaguya felt a sense of responsibility, because Beatrix as a warrior that revered the Norse Mythology wished for a personal duel against the strongest enemy from her instinct.<br /> <br /> “Desire Tentacles!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya cast the same magic again and this time ''she made the tentacles waited in standby below the ground''.<br /> <br /> Beatrix rushed madly ahead without paying it any attention and once more swung down the Norse’s large sword with her strong arm once more.<br /> <br /> Kaguya resolved herself and accepted that one diagonal slash. Without even taking a single step to evade, she was just springing forth Psychokinesis that ran counter against the slash―Resist, and then.<br /> <br /> “I curse thy without even any hesitation of getting wounded myself…shared pain is my joy! Cry and shout toward the mirror reflection! Suicide Black!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya emitted out magic power vigorously and then transformed it into a jet black mist that entwined her body.<br /> <br /> Beatrix immediately realized the dreadful meaning of ''attacking Otonashi Kaguya'', the Magika Stigma who possessed the alias of Nightmare Bringer.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOO-!?”<br /> <br /> Unknown violent pain that she couldn’t even imagine.<br /> <br /> The sensation of her flesh cut open from her shoulder until her waist, of the blade sinking down while cutting open and crushing the flesh and bones.<br /> <br /> [Suicide Black]―The pain that was supposed to be produced from the opponent’s attack was reflected back just like that to the opponent, it was that kind of magic.<br /> <br /> Beatrix shouted. But it was not a screaming voice.<br /> <br /> Smile floated into Beatrix’s mouth, a tone of delight was mixed into her voice.<br /> <br /> “Is that so…my attack is, this kind of thing huh…!”<br /> <br /> Seeing that reaction, a cold shudder froze Kaguya’s spine.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of militarist, double the Megin whirling in my body! With the will of god that spur me toward infinite battle, in this body! Meginjord!!”<br /> <br /> A belt of light whirled on Beatrix’s body, doubling her physical ability.<br /> <br /> Beatrix reversed her blade with her attack power further heightened and without any hesitation Beatrix launched a second attack at Kaguya.<br /> <br /> “GUUUUUU! …Fufufu! FUHAA―HA-HA-HA!!”<br /> <br /> While repeatedly yelling and laughing explosively, Beatrix kept swinging down her sword on Kaguya more and more.<br /> <br /> She should be receiving pain of someone that had welcomed death twice or thrice already.<br /> <br /> Along with Beatrix’s yell and laugh, Kaguya’s magic power was also getting rapidly smashed and scattered apart. What was protecting Kaguya’s body was only the Resist that was produced by Kaguya herself.<br /> <br /> [Suicide Black] was only returning illusionary pain and didn’t possess any defensive effect whatsoever.<br /> <br /> It was not a defensive magic, it was nothing more than a magic to make the enemy hesitated to attack.<br /> <br /> But it was impossible to blow any cowardice into this warrior and made her did things like hesitating to attack.<br /> <br /> And then even a single attack of this formidable enemy was really heavy when endured by something like Resist.<br /> <br /> “I see, certainly the pain increased after a reinforcement magic was chanted! As expected from the magic of our god Thor!! That Divine Protection, I can feel it myself with my body here!!”<br /> <br /> Unbelievable. This person…was trembling from joy!!<br /> <br /> “O Thor the god of Asgard! Enjoy my blade dance and resound the roar! The thunder of heaven reside in this sword, already even the exchange of fighting is not allowed, send to oblivion!! Fjorgyn Megin!!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix held her sword aloft high to the sky and lighting fell on that silver blade. Lighting element was enchanted on Beatrix’s large sword.<br /> <br /> This berserker was going to heighten her own attack power.<br /> <br /> She was not satisfied with just the pain of having her body slashed, she also wanted to taste the agony of electrification with her own body!<br /> <br /> Kaguya faltered. Electric shock was an infinitesimal phenomenon that was produced from electron’s motion.<br /> <br /> It was a difficult phenomenon that was hard to imagine for human. Namely it was hard to generate electricity with general magic, therefore it was hard to offset it with Resist.<br /> <br /> But Kaguya couldn’t predict Beatrix’s attack like Kazuki.<br /> <br /> If she couldn’t predict the attack then all of Beatrix’s attack was impossible to avoid with its god speed.<br /> <br /> The single attack that hosted electricity cut apart Kaguya who was covered in black mist.<br /> <br /> Kaguya tasted a sensation of her mind shaved off with grinding sounds while standing upright.<br /> <br /> Beatrix yelled while laughing.<br /> <br /> “O the god Thor! See clearly of my valor that doesn’t yield no matter in any kind of suffering!”<br /> <br /> The Einherjar’s steel precept and the warrior’s instinctive masochism were changing the agony into pleasure.<br /> <br /> To be a user of electricity on top of being a masochist…this was the worst compatibility with her!<br /> <br /> “O shapeless and mute shadow, become the fish that swim inside the darkness that is pregnant with obstructive thoughts! The origin of nightmare, vicissitudes of materialism, answer to the terror and hope and bite…! Deep Specter!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya endured the intense impact form her smashed magic power while chanting and she cast her magic.<br /> <br /> From the shadow behind Beatrix whose head was full with pain, something attacked.<br /> <br /> The blackness of the shadow abruptly swelled out while getting up from below, it changed into a monster with sharp fangs lining up in a row inside its widely opened mouth. That big mouth was biting at Beatrix as if enveloping her from right above.<br /> <br /> “UOO-!?”<br /> <br /> Beatrix whose concentration was stolen from pain got hit by that surprise attack completely. Getting eaten by a monster starting from her face, Beatrix swung her arm in an attempt to stab her blade to the monster.<br /> <br /> But at that time the tentacles that were waiting deep in the earth bit and tore the earth to stretch out as if waiting for exactly that timing, entangling themselves at Beatrix who was trying to swing her blade.<br /> <br /> Even in the case that she didn’t yield to the pain, her consciousness was undoubtedly disordered right now.<br /> <br /> If Kaguya could buy time from that disorder of the mind, that was enough.<br /> <br /> “You think you can seal my movement with just this much-!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix raised a thundering roar while filling her limbs with power, then she tore apart the tentacles.<br /> <br /> Then once again, she stabbed her large sword to the monster that had swallowed her from her chest up and wouldn’t release her.<br /> <br /> The shadow monster was stabbed with blade and it reflexively leaped back from Beatrix. The shadow monster tried to separate its distance from Beatrix and escaped. Beatrix mowed down the tentacles in her surrounding, and after that she drew near to stab a finishing blow to the monster―her awareness slipped away from Kaguya.<br /> <br /> It was a narrow-mindedness that was unlike a veteran warrior.<br /> <br /> …It was enough as long as her consciousness was disordered.<br /> <br /> Kaguya sneaked closer to the back of the berserker without fearing the close-quarter range.<br /> <br /> “Five star shining at the interstice between life and death, pillaged by the whim of the god of death that keeps turning, turn into a mute and miserable clay doll! …Near Death Roulette!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya raised the scythe that destroyed a sense with each attack.<br /> <br /> Until now Kaguya hadn’t shaved Beatrix’s magic power satisfactorily. But even so there was no problem. This scythe destroyed one of the five senses one by one with each strike, and then it would sever the magic power circuit between the brain and the flesh with its sixth strike.<br /> <br /> “…!”<br /> <br /> When Beatrix stabbed the finishing blow to the shadow monster, with a ‘hah’ look of realization she noticed and looked behind her.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Let’s go to the direction of the Einherjar group.”<br /> <br /> Shouko decided while directing her senses of sight all over the Grand Haunted Ground using the &lt;Onmyou Taikokuzu&gt;.<br /> <br /> “Why? Ain’t the commotion at Level 2 have higher importance?”<br /> <br /> Silirat asked while clinging behind the squatting Shouko who was concentrating her mind.<br /> <br /> “To go to Level 2 we have to follow Hayashizaki Kazuki’s path and pass through the gate, that will take too much time. Demon Beast is also gonna come out during the walk there.”<br /> <br /> “Wonder if I can’t just bust up the wall―”<br /> <br /> “We ain’t gonna know for sure ‘til we test it. It’s better to not do anything we ain’t gonna know unless we try it.”<br /> <br /> Silirat shows a sign of wanting to test her own strength but Shouko talked drily toward that.<br /> <br /> “Rather than that…what do you think Hayashizaki Kazuki fear the most? For his comrade to get done in a place he know nothing of yeah. We can buy the most gratitude from him if we save his comrade from that you know.”<br /> <br /> “I seee―, ain’t any mistake about that―! Well then…as expected Kou-jie&lt;ref&gt;Kou from Shoukou, and jie from jiejie which means older sister in Chinese&lt;/ref&gt; cannot move right now huh?”<br /> <br /> When Shouko cut off the magic power supply toward the Onmyou Taikyokuzu, she fell into her butt right in that place with a thud.<br /> <br /> “No― good it’s no good, if you ask whether this Sacred Treasure is convenient, it’s really convenient but its magic power consumption is just the worst―. There ain’t anymore magic power left to even raise a single chopstick-!”<br /> <br /> “Ca―n’t be he―lped huhh. Well…it’s gonna be enough with just the second rank of Ryouzanpaku here, this Silirat Denkaosen-sama! I’m offff!”<br /> <br /> Silirat stood straight.<br /> <br /> “Idiot. Don’t face them three to one but join force with Hayashizaki Kazuki’s comrades and battle together. The opponent too is the Einherjar you know.”<br /> <br /> While waving her hand lazily toward Shouko’s instruction, Silirat followed along the route of Einherjar’s infiltration.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> “Kazuki”, Shinobu-senpai who was still clinging on Kazuki’s back opened her mouth.<br /> <br /> Further behind her Miyabi-senpai was clinging at her and even now they were still looking like a make-believe train.<br /> <br /> “Is something the matter?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked back while cutting down the approaching already dead body.<br /> <br /> “I have been thinking this for a while but by any chance…Kazuki…is this difficult for you to fight?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki became unable to say anything.<br /> <br /> “…I’m sorry. I have noticed, but I wanted to stay like this and don’t want to separate.”<br /> <br /> From behind Kazuki, the presence of Shinobu-senpai getting really dejected was conveyed to him.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay senpai, because the feeling of happiness being like this is far bigger compared to the difficulty of fighting.”<br /> <br /> “…Really? You are not just being considera…?”<br /> <br /> “It’s true. Because of the dead body just now that mimicked someone I knew, I too became feeling lonely.”<br /> <br /> “Then just a little more, I’ll stay like this.”<br /> <br /> A heart mark came flying from behind. It was hard for him to swing around both his arms like this, but the dead bodies were already unable to display the power of their curse due to Futsu no Mitama’s power and they were reduced into a mere puppet.<br /> <br /> “KII…”<br /> <br /> But―now that he thought again, this place is a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> It was something obvious, but the enemies were not only the dead bodies but also the Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> Getting attracted by the sounds of Kazuki and the others’ fighting, there were things that came flying from the sky far away like crows that crowded around rotten trash.<br /> <br /> What appeared from the darkness of Level 2’s forest were ominous devils.<br /> <br /> Wings growing rough and bony like bat’s, large eyeballs―[Big Eye] raised a gaze filled with magic power at him.<br /> <br /> It was a mind attack magic. Kazuki concentrated his mind and endured and severed the gaze itself with Futsu no Mitama.<br /> <br /> A muscular devil with similar wings growing on its back and a goat face―a number of [Great Demon] too were forming a crowd and came flying. Against the demon who possessed strength far surpassing human and brandishing a trident, Kohaku and Karin bore the full brunt of their attacks and protected Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> The dead bodies also still remained. The dead bodies were also entering into the mix and it became a melee.<br /> <br /> Someone that could display their strength in a melee, existed inside Kazuki’s comrades.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…I’ll properly fight with a real teamwork! …Thy wings bestowed by Belphegor, o &lt;Ice Pillar of Flame&gt;! Grasp the hell’s air superiority, hand down the explosion of contradiction without letting any to escape! Burning Icicle!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai separated herself from Kazuki’s back nimbly and created Marchosias’s phantom body. Shinobu-senpai and Miyabi-senpai straddled the wolf that grew wings made of red crystal and dashed to the sky.<br /> <br /> Raising to even higher sky than the flying Big Eyes and Great Demons, they scattered around red crystals from there. The red crystals that emitted bomb blast laced with heat and chill at the same time exploded one after another. The demons and the dead bodies were smashed apart everywhere from that destructive power.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, thank you very much!”<br /> <br /> “I’m doing my best. Look more. Praise me.”<br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai is strong! You are so cool!”<br /> <br /> “…Fufufu.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki sent his cheering, Shinobu-senpai made a peace sign at Kazuki with a delighted face.<br /> <br /> It felt heartening from the senpai who had become conscious of teamwork.<br /> <br /> …But there was still an anxious feeling that irritated his heart remaining.<br /> <br /> In this Level 2, there was someone that created this situation.<br /> <br /> It was the person that chanted the magic for the dead bodies. Someone was infiltrating this place.<br /> <br /> If they are not quickly discovered, the Sacred Treasures inside the Haunted Ground might be stolen and it would be a game over.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt impatience inside his heart. But Demon Beasts and dead bodies were standing in the way of the impatient Kazuki.<br /> <br /> …Rather, wouldn’t the intruder come this way to their location instead….<br /> <br /> Such desire floated inside Kazuki’s mind for a fleeting instant, then it was right at that moment.<br /> <br /> “…O toxin that resides inside the anguish, rot life in general…{{furigana|Plague Pain|Wind of Plague}}!”<br /> <br /> From the other side slipping between the dead bodies and the Demon Beasts, Kazuki felt a magic power being generated.<br /> <br /> Magic that scattered poison around―Kazuki sensed that from the wavelength of the magic power.<br /> <br /> A surprise attack. But a method to deal with that easily came into his head because this was a magic that was similar with Mibu-senpai’s chanted [Apocalypse Venom].<br /> <br /> Kazuki wasted no time in chanting the magic that would deal with the poison magic.<br /> <br /> But the surprise attack didn’t stop until just that.<br /> <br /> “Psycho Noise!”<br /> <br /> That was also the same magic that Naiarlatoteph once chanted. Consequently Kazuki swung Futsu no Mitama even faster than his thought and cut down the sound wave of the mind attack itself.<br /> <br /> Thanks to that he could cast his magic.<br /> <br /> “O stream of atmosphere, converge in this body, become the storm that reject the hated person! The eye of the typhoon is exactly my throne! Storm Fort!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki brought forth a fierce tornado in the surrounding of himself and his comrades.<br /> <br /> The wind containing toxin that was chanted by someone was scattered apart to another direction due to the tornado that Kazuki broke out. All the more the Demon Beasts that was the Big Eyes and Great Demons were falling down noisily before vanishing. From the tragic appearances of the Demon Beasts, he knew how powerful the toxic magic was.<br /> <br /> He guessed that the opponents were aiming for a surprise attack with a powerful poison magic while sealing their magic chanting.<br /> <br /> Thank heavens, he could quickly disable all those ambushes.<br /> <br /> And then at the same time, this was a good news for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Someone was coming to ambush them―this was just what he hoped! He would absolutely not let them escape from this place and defeat them right here!!<br /> <br /> He even thought “Stupid idiot” toward the enemy’s action. No matter how he thought about it, showing their own appearance was a poor move.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s quick interception that confined the surprise attack instead became a surprise attack for the enemy themselves.<br /> <br /> This is not the time to hesitate!!<br /> <br /> “Zekorbeni!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki drew to himself Prometheus’s consciousness through his bond with Lotte into the pendant-type Magic Dress on his chest. His bond with Lotte that had reached 150 became a new possible power for him.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Mode・Veritas|Wisdom Dress}}!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s four limbs were wrapped with streamlined silvery Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> And then he instantaneously cast Prometheus’s magic.<br /> <br /> “Wings soaring in heaven, glaring eyes, invading world-destroying conflagration―manifest the authority of god right here, I advance deeper and deeper as the agent of civilization! Deep Striker!!”<br /> <br /> A huge thruster unit was equipped on Kazuki’s body before he accelerated to the front in one go. The Futsu no Mitama that was protruded forward blown away all the lining up dead bodies and devils―<br /> <br /> He pierced the person that was hiding ahead of him.<br /> <br /> “GUGAA…!” the one who leaked out such voice was a pale-skinned woman wearing a black robe.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had seen before this how Loki’s troops in Ise Imperial Shrine were covering their body with this robe.<br /> <br /> This was the magician where &lt;Hel&gt; was residing in her body.<br /> <br /> Beside her, a girl whose body was wrapped in black punk fashion was directing both her hand at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> He remembered seeing this girl before―she was the girl called Naiarlako that was introduced at him by Kaya!<br /> <br /> Right now that girl was facing Kazuki in exactly a posture that was right before activating her magic.<br /> <br /> “Answer my voice from the chaotic space sector…{{furigana|Meteor Zone|Dark Star Space}}!!”<br /> <br /> A small black whirl was created within the girl’s two palm, from there countless small meteors were shot like a shotgun.<br /> <br /> This time too he made his judgment instantly.<br /> <br /> “O guardian of human race, the wisdom for the sake of opposing the will of tyrannical god right here…Custom Liberion!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki instantly cast Prometheus’s level 6 magic, he replaced his armament to that.<br /> <br /> From [Deep Striker] that specialized in straight line movement―to [Custom Liberion] that specialized in short interval repeated movement in all directions.<br /> <br /> Kazuki read through the meteors trajectories and slipped through the gap between meteors and meteors in high speed zigzag.<br /> <br /> While running away from enemy attacks, he confirmed the enemy’s figures.<br /> <br /> Naiarlako. Hel. A reptile-faced woman who wore the same black robe―there was no doubt that this woman is the magician that was possessed by Midgardsormr. And then…Aisu Ikousai!<br /> <br /> The woman whose body was wrapped in a lustrous Japanese clothes was among the group!<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed the large-type gatling gun that was installed on Custom Liberion and fired wildly. Hel, Naiarlako, and Midgardsromr, these three helplessly had their magic power shaved off in grinding sounds.<br /> <br /> But Ikousai was the only one that quickly evaded from the line of fire.<br /> <br /> “All of you hold back the other bunches!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai called out to her comrades while casting her magic.<br /> <br /> “…What is offered here is dance of scattering flowers like a storm! Calling the storm o honored god, dancing under the heaven please grant thy breath on my back! Fuujin Kenbu!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s contracted Diva &lt;Susanoo&gt; blew out a storm on Ikousai’s body and that wind accelerated Ikousai’s movement.<br /> <br /> Ikousai put her body out of harm's way from the gatling with light movement as if riding the wind.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, the dead bodies and the Demon Beasts has all been cleared…!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai who was mounting Marchosias scattered apart many red crystals on Ikousai from the sky. But Ikousai predicted the falling points of those crystals and evaded nimbly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki knew very well how hard it was to land an attack on Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Storm Fort!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki cast the tornado magic once more. This magic didn’t only protect the body using tornado. With that tornado controlled by Kazuki’s will―he granted a complicated movement to the red crystals that were freefalling. The bomb blasts of heat and chill were also pursuing Ikousai freely due to the wind.<br /> <br /> “Checkmate…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai murmured to herself with a heated voice. A heart mark flew at him.<br /> <br /> “Impudent behavior…!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai desperately ran away from the crystals but Kazuki chased her with [Custom Liberion].<br /> <br /> “Meteor Shot!”<br /> <br /> Naiarlako fired countless meteors at Marchosias that continued its bombing from the sky.<br /> <br /> “O power of the earth, bite at the prey that possesses will and life…{{furigana|Iwark Bite|Snake Rock Bite}}!!”<br /> <br /> Midgardsormr hit her hand on the ground and countless rocks were flying up from there, the flying rocks transformed into a series of rock forming a snake that then attacked Marchosias.<br /> <br /> Even though the phantom body of Marchosias barely evaded the meteors, its balance was broken from the motion and it was assaulted right at that timing by the rock snake that leaped at it in straight line. The snake entwined Marchosias after ramming its body and bit with its rock fang. The phantom body of Marchosias raised a roar while vanishing.<br /> <br /> “KYAA-!”<br /> <br /> Ryuutaki sisters that were riding Marchosias’s phantom body fell down.<br /> <br /> “O warden of the soul…form that authority in my hand, {{furigana|Grim Reaper|Life Reaping}}!”<br /> <br /> Hel created a huge scythe in her hand and leaped at the falling point of Ryuutaki sisters in waiting.<br /> <br /> The magicians of Yamato displayed an unimaginable teamwork.<br /> <br /> “This one won’t let you! …Crush to death, &lt;Taroudachi&gt;! Battou Kaikon―Ashura Ryoudan!!”<br /> <br /> In order to prevent Hel, Kohaku leaped forward. Enlarging her beloved Sacred Treasures, she struck Hel’s scythe with all her strength. It turned into a sword-locking contest between a scythe and a sword.<br /> <br /> “Now, Karin!”<br /> <br /> When Kohaku called out, Karin rushed between the gaps of the huge Sacred Treasures and leaped into the bosom of Hel like a gale. She stepped on the earth forcefully to leap and then rammed her shoulder with all her strength in a collision.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Tetsuzankou|Iron Mountain Push}}!”<br /> <br /> Karin’s small statured body was exactly like a bullet of cannon, Hel was blown away for a few meters backward.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai who safely landed on the ground said her gratitude with “Thank you” to the two.<br /> <br /> “We are comrades so it’s only natural.”<br /> <br /> When Kohaku said so, Shinobu-senpai opened her eyes wide and her cheeks tinted red.<br /> <br /> And then she approached near Kohaku and kissed her cheek lightly. Kohaku’s eyes turned round from that.<br /> <br /> “Wh, what are you doing!?” <br /> <br /> “Friend.” <br /> <br /> “Friend!?” <br /> <br /> And so on, the two made a clamor at each other right in the middle of a battlefield.<br /> <br /> “Then me too.” Miyabi-senpai too kissed Kohaku’s cheek.<br /> <br /> “Eei, this one felt a little embarrassed somehow!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku tore off herself from the twin sisters that were nuzzling themselves at her.<br /> <br /> Naiarlako who was the enemy was looking at that spectacle with envious and somewhat greedy eyes for some reason.<br /> <br /> “Anyway Kazuki, leave these guys to us and bring down the enemy’s general!”<br /> <br /> With Kohaku’s words giving a push at his back, Kazuki concentrated his senses at Ikousai without any reservation.<br /> <br /> “Ikousai! So you dislike settling this through something like a treasure hunting and purposefully coming here huh!?”<br /> <br /> “…That’s not the only reason!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai talked back with an expression as if chewing a bitter bug.<br /> <br /> At that time Kazuki noticed that Ikousai’s left hand was holding something that looked like a mirror.<br /> <br /> Because of that Ikousai was right now holding her sword with just one hand.<br /> <br /> Perhaps she had an experience in two-swords style from the beginning, he couldn’t feel any awkwardness in her stance.<br /> <br /> Was that a new Sacred Treasure again? Just like the time at Isonokami Shrine.<br /> <br /> Mirror…. No, don’t tell me….<br /> <br /> Kazuki thought that now he had to defeat Ikousai in this place without fail with even more urgency.<br /> <br /> “My bad but this time I’ll go full power right from the start…You made me use the power of Solomon! Thunder descend down on my body granting me lighting thought and god speed…wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!”<br /> <br /> He cast Baal’s reinforcement magic that amplified and accelerated the electric signal that rushed about throughout his whole body.<br /> <br /> Not to mention his physical ability, his mental activity was also accelerated making his magic power got amplified too. It also accelerated the function of [Custom Liberion] that maneuvered using magic power as fuel.<br /> <br /> His bond with Lotte that now resided inside Zekorbeni became a potential that widened Kazuki’s width of tactics even further. When it became like this then Kazuki too already couldn’t be said as inferior in speed against Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Thy fury is the happiness of the war Shrine Maiden. Answer the kagura of soul invitation and spring forth the storm of outcry, part the cloud and please descend here…spirits and demons in this body! {{furigana|Chouryoku Shourai|Super Strength Invitation}}!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai too layered more reinforcement magic on her body in concert with Kazuki. The super strength of Susanoo entered her four limbs and increased her power.<br /> <br /> The battle between the two had already became something like what was promised and sword exchanges in supernatural speed began.<br /> <br /> The tendency was immediately leaning on one side.<br /> <br /> “Kuh…you became faster than before!?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai leaked out voice of confusion toward Kazuki who was slipping from blind spot to blind spot.<br /> <br /> The angular-shaped armors of [Custom Liberion] that was attached on Kazuki’s four limbs were provided with flexible thruster units everywhere on it, Different with [Deep Striker], it was possible to freely accelerate, suddenly brake, and change direction with it.<br /> <br /> Moreover that movement was not from running on the ground but a free three dimensional maneuver in the air.<br /> <br /> Even further both of the armors on the legs were provided with sharp blades, it became possible to even launch a slash with both legs.<br /> <br /> It was already a completely different thing from a sword art that was controlled using human’s flesh body. Amidst the super acceleration that made it like the time was compressed, Kazuki was pursuing a completely new form of sword art.<br /> <br /> Acceleration, variegated movement, Kazuki’s slashes which were types that had never been seen before easily cornered Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “You change until this much with just the power of the King!? So I’m still lacking this! Susanoo’s power is &lt;Usurpation&gt;…if I don’t steal from someone then…!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai barely evaded, deflected, and parried Kazuki’s attack by predicting ahead.<br /> <br /> She could defend, but the difference in speed stole all of Ikousai’s chance to counterattack.<br /> <br /> But even from Kazuki there was a scheme to penetrate the defense and deal a blow to Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Shit-!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai back-stepped as if saying that she couldn’t bear with it. That action was born not from the thought that she could escape from Kazuki who surpassed her in speed, but from a psychological reflexive action.<br /> <br /> It was an action born from impatience, a simple action that originally mustn’t be taken as a swordsman yet she was forced to take.<br /> <br /> “Deep Striker!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki once more instantly cast a magic with the power of Zekorbeni and replaced his armament.<br /> <br /> This armament was exceedingly better in straight-line acceleration.<br /> <br /> Kazuki accelerated in one go and caught up to the back-stepping Ikousai.<br /> <br /> That magic which was instantly cast using Zekorbeni displayed no omen that could be predicted beforehand.<br /> <br /> A sudden acceleration without any previous sign. Ikousai was unable to react against this sudden approaching. Kazuki thought that he himself too would not be able to react if the same thing was done to him. Putting aside warrior like Beatrix that moved using nerve reflex, it was impossible to avoid this for a predicting swordsman. Because it was so for himself that was why this option flashed inside his head.<br /> <br /> Not being allowed to react at all, Ikousai was pierced with a speed of lightning.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s body was blown away from the recoil of the smashed magic like being hit in a traffic accident.<br /> <br /> If she got hit with one more attack, she wouldn’t be able to escape anymore after that.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pursued Ikousai even faster than how she was blown away and added even more one, two, and three strikes. Ikousai’s body was sent flying like a pinball continuously.<br /> <br /> Right here he was going to stab the finishing blow. Kazuki rushed ahead with that intention.<br /> <br /> “…Su, Susanoo’s blessing o the &lt;nowiki&gt;&lt;&lt;/nowiki&gt;{{furigana|spouse of Ina|Inadzuma}}&gt;&lt;ref&gt;稲妻 means &quot;lightning&quot;; while the kanji mean &quot;rice plant&quot; and &quot;wife&quot;, it's most likely just ''ateji'' (phonetic writing in kanji, where the characters retain only the reading, not the meaning, like with 馬鹿, &quot;idiot&quot;, where the kanji mean &quot;horse&quot; and &quot;deer&quot;).&lt;/ref&gt;, display the crushing power that cover the earth with wild violence…{{furigana|Heitei Banrai|Subjugation Heavy Thunder}}!!”<br /> <br /> But while receiving Kazuki’s consecutive attack, Ikousai was chanting a spell in order to change the flow of battle.<br /> <br /> The high level magic of Susanoo, the person that call the storm and also the person that subjugate the country.<br /> <br /> All of a sudden dark clouds were hanging over the head of Kazuki who was trying to continue his attack.<br /> <br /> Clouds that were fully filled with electric charge were colliding with each other and rain of lightning were falling down chaotically from the impact.<br /> <br /> It was impossible to avoid even with Foresight, a large scale destruction magic.<br /> <br /> “This hand reach out to the height of Babel, right now this hand grasp the lightning of god! In accordance with my life, o thunder, whirl following my will! Collider Field!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki wasted no time in creating a gauntlet and spread out a barrier of electricity from there.<br /> <br /> Seeing through the attack’s element from the magic power’s surge and from there picking out the most optimum defensive magic was Kazuki’s prided tactic.<br /> <br /> But the roaring of the lightning rain continued without stopping even when all of the gauntlet’s energy had been released, granting grave damage on Kazuki’s defensive magic power and [Deep Striker].<br /> <br /> Ikousai finally came out in a counterattack. While the lighting was still shining, she brandished the blade that glinted silver and pierced the thruster unit. With that one attack [Deep Striker] lost its function and dispersed into light.<br /> <br /> Having stolen Kazuki’s mobility, Ikousai floated a smile on her lips.<br /> <br /> “Custom Liberion!!”<br /> <br /> But Kazuki immediately poured his magic power back into Zekorbeni and once again equipped back a mobile armor on his body.<br /> <br /> “…It’s not just a mere part exchange before this!?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s smile was erased from shock.<br /> <br /> Even though she thought that she had finally broke the equipment…like that her expression was colored in despair.<br /> <br /> “You concentrated you magic power in that pendant! …No, something is possessing that pendant!? You mean the ability of the King of Solomon…is instant chanting just like the possessed magician!!”<br /> <br /> Finally the thunderclouds were clearing up.<br /> <br /> In their surrounding trees were scorched and the land turned into a wasteland, Kazuki was confronting Ikousai with an unobstructed view.<br /> <br /> “It’s no big deal just because the trick got exposed!”<br /> <br /> Accelerating the Custom Liberion, Kazuki once more pushed Ikousai into a one-sided defensive battle.<br /> <br /> Now that he thought again this was the first time he fought Ikousai using Zekorbeni.<br /> <br /> He could win. If he could use this power skillfully, they were not equal in strength.<br /> <br /> But it couldn’t be said that he had it easy. A large amount of his magic power was sucked into Zekorbeni and his consciousness became hazy. Regardless of the control training he had done, he was forced to feel the severe sensation as if his brain tissue got sucked each time he used the power of the pendant.<br /> <br /> Deep Striker, Custom Liberion, Deep Striker―and so on, using all of those consecutively cost him an unusual consumption of magic power.<br /> <br /> If Ikousai noticed Kazuki’s exhaustion and brought the fight into a protracted fight, the situation would surely get turned around with Kazuki put into a predicament. By no means could he let his exhaustion to color his expression.<br /> <br /> He had to overwhelm Ikousai with a cool and composed expression as if he still had energy to spare.<br /> <br /> <br /> When Kazuki patched up a relaxed smile on his face…impatience clearly appeared in Ikousai’s face.<br /> <br /> “Shit-! Fast! Are you saying…that I’m no match for you in this situation…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki cast even more magic.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise where the light of the heaven reside in that body, burn to ash the sin on the surface following my accusation! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki chanted Phoenix’s magic normally while Prometheus was residing inside Zekorbeni.<br /> <br /> Dazzling light converged on Kazuki’s back, that light became a huge heat ray and shot at Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Similar with Ikousai’s magic where Kazuki couldn’t do anything to evade, this too was an attack where there was no way for her to evade. Despair colored Ikousai’s expression.<br /> <br /> But in a drastic change Ikousai made a face that prepared herself for the worst.<br /> <br /> And then she suddenly thrust forward the mirror that she held in her hand and had never used at all until now. It was an old-fashioned bronze mirror.<br /> <br /> “Illuminate all creation, &lt;Yata no Kagami&gt;! Fuukyou&lt;ref&gt;Seal Mirror&lt;/ref&gt; Kaikon―{{furigana|Mikagami no Tate|Water Mirror Shield}}!!”<br /> <br /> The bluish-dark dull bronze mirror absorbed Ikousai’s magic power and recovered its shine, at the same time it grew big and turned into a shield. The touted mirror shield reflected the heat ray Kazuki fired in its mirror surface.<br /> <br /> When the heat ray was reflected in the mirror, all of the heat ray was absorbed into the mirror shield.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s eyes opened wide. A defensive ability that made a level 6 attack magic completely powerless…!<br /> <br /> Just as he thought…that was one of the Three Sacred Treasures!<br /> <br /> “It got blocked…you bastard’s attack! It got completely blocked just now!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai too let out a voice that seemed to say that this was the first time she knew about the power of the Sacred Treasure that she just used.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pushed down his agitation. He must not lose his composed expression.<br /> <br /> He wasted no time to close the distance and swung Futsu no Mitama.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s posture was disarrayed but the mirror shield that her hand kept putting up ''reflected Kazuki’s arm''.<br /> <br /> Thereupon the mirror shield moved with a forceful speed and blocked Kazuki’s slash.<br /> <br /> With uninterrupted movement Kazuki swung the blade on his leg at Ikousai. But the movement of that leg was also reflected on the mirror. The mirror shield once again moved with a forceful speed and blocked the blade.<br /> <br /> Rather than calling that mirror’s movement as Ikousai’s will and decision, it was as if the mirror had its own will. The shield drew in attack, possibly the attack was sticking to the shield and got blocked.<br /> <br /> This was…a shield that blocked every attack that was reflected in the mirror…!?<br /> <br /> “Ku-…OOOOOO-!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Ikousai howled.<br /> <br /> “Susanoo, hand me more power! No matter what kind of method I have to use, right here…!”<br /> <br /> At the same time with her howl, a dense magic power was whirling at Ikousai’s right arm. The magic power that increased in thickness twisted reality, twisted Ikousai’s arm. Ikousai’s fair-skinned and captivating thin arm that stuck out from the sleeve of her glamorous kimono swelled up with her bone and muscle expanding, turning into a manly arm that shined with black luster.<br /> <br /> It was Susanoo’s arm.<br /> <br /> “Ikousai…you are going to hand over your own body to the Diva!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a strange impatience. The opponent that he recognized as a rival was…in the process of throwing away her body!<br /> <br /> “I’m not handing it over! I’m not going to throw away the fact that I am me!!”<br /> <br /> That was what Kazuki once warned Ikousai about.<br /> <br /> “…Susanoo! What you give me is just a right arm, that’s all!! I won’t allow anyone to look down at me…as myself!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki circled to Ikousai’s blind spot while she was yelling and stabbed Futsu no Mitama.<br /> <br /> The stab that was like the sting of a bee was repelled away automatically by [Mikagami no Tate].<br /> <br /> There was a need to circle at Ikousai’s right side―the range where it was not reflected at the mirror in the left hand.<br /> <br /> But naturally Ikousai had saw through that Kazuki would move to that side.<br /> <br /> “Polishing the heaven’s steel of iron sand o Totsuka no Tsurugi…release the flash that gouge the storm! This is the Orochi no Aramasa…the descend of tearing limbs from limbs, Ame no Habakiri!!”<br /> <br /> The deep black right arm of Susanoo cause forth a swirl of magic power like a windstorm, it converged into Ikousai’s hand and became a single sword.<br /> <br /> It was a mysterious sword with its edge of the blade forking into eight. That sword produced eight line of slashes with one swing.<br /> <br /> In order to drive away Kazuki that was circling outside the range of the mirror, Ikousai mowed that sword horizontally in a large movement.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too saw through that trajectory and made an abrupt turn to right overhead with Custom Liberion.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s blade was cutting empty air―or so he thought.<br /> <br /> But the slash that was produced with Susanoo’s strong arm didn’t end as just a normal slash and created a violent sword wave. Eight line of windstorm―rather than calling it a slash it was already ''a large scale attack magic''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was planning to evade yet getting struck by the aftermath of the windstorm, he was blown away.<br /> <br /> If he got hit by that attack directly, the damage from that wouldn’t compare with anything he got until now.<br /> <br /> “…The offensive power and defensive power…I’m surpassing you bastard in both now.”<br /> <br /> With her right arm turned into a demon’s arm and her left arm holding the mirror shield, Ikousai glared at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> But Ikousai’s expression warped into anguish.<br /> <br /> “This is not a fight between swordsman anymore already…. Even if you bastard increase your power of King Solomon, I’ll show you that I will surpass that with my own way….I and you are equal. That’s why I will win in the end, in the number of the Three Sacred Treasures…. And then your power will be…gu-!”<br /> <br /> From Ikousai’s yelling mouth, blood was spilling out in globs. Her white skin and the glamorous kimono were dirtied in reddish black. Ikousai had only her right arm possessed by Susanoo and was trying to hold back even further invasion into her body just by willpower alone. But her struggle against Susanoo distorted and destroyed her body from the inside. Her spine spasmed and Ikousai who was transformed into half-demon continued to spit out blood.<br /> <br /> “…This is the limit already.”<br /> <br /> A hoarse woman voice―Hel’s voice.<br /> <br /> Two people in black robe and Naiarlako were rushing in escape toward Kazuki and Ikousai’s battlefield that had turned into a wasteland. Behind them, Kohaku and the others were chasing them.<br /> <br /> Did the other side’s battle also ended up in a draw? …No, compared to the black robes, Kohaku and others’ exhaustion was more intense. ''In other words they were not the one that were at their limit but they had judged that Ikousai had reached her limit''.<br /> <br /> Ikousai that was spitting out blood raised her face fiercely and glared at the woman named Hel.<br /> <br /> “You bastard…you are still looking down at this me huh…I am…!”<br /> <br /> “…Getting possessed by the power of Diva as one wants and then using that power freely is not something that simple. Still, we and Loki will lend you our power…. If you are going to fight in that way, then time is necessary.”<br /> <br /> “Kuh. …Remember this, Hayashizaki Kazuki! I will be the one that win in the end! Even if I have to sell my soul to the devil!!”<br /> <br /> “You are going to sell your soul to the devil!?”<br /> <br /> The appearance of Ikousai whose right arm had been transformed into Susanoo’s possession was undoubtedly looking like someone that had sold her soul to the devil. But to go even further than this―the fearless smile of Loki came to mind in Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> This girl just now was talking in the way that seemed sure of herself that she could gather the Three Sacred Treasures in greater number than himself. That matter made Kazuki felt even more uncanny rather than the matter about Susanoo’s arm.<br /> <br /> Loki was leading her by the hand…''Ikousai was being degraded into Loki’s pawn''.<br /> <br /> “We are drawing back, Midgardsormr! I’m taking home the Sacred Treasure!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai directed the mirror shield at Kazuki while running to the direction of her comrades.<br /> <br /> Midgardsormr transformed her body from her human form into a gigantic snake in the blink of eye.<br /> <br /> “…You won’t get away!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki started to chant [Moves in the Field] to freeze the ground.<br /> <br /> If the ground was frozen then Midgardsormr’s escape magic that assimilated herself with the ground to escape would be unusable.<br /> <br /> “Psycho Noise!”<br /> <br /> But in order to interfere with Kazuki’s chant, Naiarlako fired the sound wave of madness.<br /> <br /> Kazuki swung Futsu no Mitama and tried to cut away the interference sound wave itself.<br /> <br /> Naiarlako went “Now that I remember, he can do that!” and made a face that seemed to want to cry.<br /> <br /> At that time something was flying at Kazuki from the sky and broke off Futsu no Mitama from the base.<br /> <br /> “!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki failed to bisect the sound wave and received the interference sound wave directly, making it felt like his head was going to split. The magic that he was preparing was dispersed. What is that just now…!?<br /> <br /> Something was flying here in high speed and broke Futsu no Mitama.<br /> <br /> Something small from the sky flying here…a small meteor?<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked up above his head. Right there the silver queen was calmly looking down at Kazuki and the others―no, she was looking down at Ikousai and her group.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt the temperature of his body grew cold all at once.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya Muromets!!<br /> <br /> “Explain yourself!”<br /> <br /> She talked with a sharpness of a silver knife.<br /> <br /> “Explain yourself, I should have warned you already not to fight with Hayashizaki Kazuki. Then why are you exchanging blows with him right now and furthermore you got cornered like that?”<br /> <br /> Even earlier than hearing the answer to her question, Ilyailiya sensed Ikousai and her group’s preparation to escape.<br /> <br /> “…No, an answer is unnecessary. Just escape like that. I will support your endeavor.”<br /> <br /> Although she said that, Ikousai’s escape was already at the stage where any assistance was unnecessary.<br /> <br /> “Random Escape!”<br /> <br /> Midgardsormr that had turned into a gigantic snake swallowed whole her comrades and leaped into the ground from the head. *zuru zuru zuru!* That long tail of hers was assimilating into the ground and her body was absorbed inside.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki didn’t give a damn to their escape with his attention stolen by Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> No, his soul was stolen by the several red magatama that was connected by a long string on Ilyailiya’s wrist.<br /> <br /> That was…that too was one of the Three Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> The mirror shield that Ikousai used and also the magatama that was coiling around Ilyailiya’s wrist.<br /> <br /> These guys somehow infiltrated until the depth of the Haunted Ground and had already discovered two of the Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> …Loki was leading their hands. There was no doubt that he was the one that created this situation.<br /> <br /> Ikousai got away.<br /> <br /> “Everyone.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t remove his sight from Ilyailiya and called to his comrades.<br /> <br /> A King that had already reached completion.<br /> <br /> …She was an opponent that had taught him once already the difference between their status.<br /> <br /> While a heavy pressure that was like a pure black liquid was enveloping the bottom of his guts, he spitted out words of heavy determination.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “We are going to defeat Russia’s Queen, Ilyailiya right here. We absolutely must not let her get away from here.”<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_8_Chapter_2&diff=479507 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Chapter 2 2016-02-02T20:45:05Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 – Forest of Bewilderment==<br /> <br /> === Part 1===<br /> <br /> “…Is this information not mistaken?”<br /> <br /> Beatrix asked her aide with a voice that was tinged with disappointment.<br /> <br /> Inside one of the hotel rooms where the Einherjar was made to stay, Beatrix, Eleonora, and Damian were gathering and lowered the volume of their voices unintentionally in front of the taboo information.<br /> <br /> “I’m sure it’s not wrong.”<br /> <br /> It was not actually information that she could assert its authenticity that surely, but for the sake of moving Beatrix's heart Eleonora dared to assert it as the truth.<br /> <br /> “It’s hard to believe so suddenly…it’s too much…too much of an inhuman story.”<br /> <br /> Beatrix who had a pious moral sense from Odin’s teaching felt a completely chilling sensation inside her head’s core. Disappointment accompanied by fury that were extremely silently cold.<br /> <br /> Even Damian was in a lost of what to say.<br /> <br /> “Of course I think that Hayashizaki Kazuki is not involved in this plan itself. …I think there is no choice but to revise our stance to be neutral against both sides in this case.”<br /> <br /> Taboo information―that was the data that Japan was secretly conducting human experiments on its own people. It was already hard to recognize from Germany’s point of view even just about how Japan was continuing to develop their culture of machine, but this blasphemy in front of their eyes was intolerable.<br /> <br /> ―However this information was the experiment data where the former Headmaster Otonashi was secretly advancing the experiment in the period when Naiarlatoteph was conducting his secret maneuvering. This data was handed over to Eleonora by a transformed Loki where it was made for the reader to misunderstand that it seemed even now the experiment was still being conducted by the government. <br /> <br /> Beatrix and Eleonora recalled the girl with curious appearance called Hiakari Koyuki that was at Kazuki’s side. When they thought that the girl was exactly the product of this human experiment, suddenly the persuasiveness of this information increased.<br /> <br /> And then, without even giving any time to verify the information, Eleonora urged Beatrix to change her mind.<br /> <br /> “There is no benefit for us to tie a good relation with Japan. And so using this chance I think it is a good plan to entrust the ruling of this land to Yamato. We have to side with Yamato.”<br /> <br /> “U, mu…is that so…”<br /> <br /> Beatrix spoke ambiguously with bitter expression.<br /> <br /> Eleonora who guessed what happened inside the heart of the superior that she respected and loved was also becoming gloomy inside.<br /> <br /> In this kind of time, Eleonora always wanted to hate that young man.<br /> <br /> “Captain is too charmed by that young man.”<br /> <br /> “It’s really just like you said. The feeling of this 19 years old Beatrix-chan doesn’t even hesitate with the difference between our age.”<br /> <br /> “Hesitate more. No matter what we are saying we won’t be able to understand each other with the people of this country. As long as we continue to swear loyalty to the gods of Norse. In the very end both of your destinies will surely miss each other. He is an enemy. And then his relation with Captain is a relation between warrior and warrior. Captain, is the sword inside your heart rusted completely?”<br /> <br /> “There is no such thing! Kazuki is…that’s right…he is an opponent that I have to fight and defeat!!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix yelled resolutely.<br /> <br /> Hearing that Eleonora thought “Yosh”.<br /> <br /> The heart of an Einherjar that loved battle had severed her attachment to that young man!<br /> <br /> But “No, wait” suddenly Beatrix tapped her hand on her jaw and pondered something.<br /> <br /> “If, if Yamato becomes the ruler of this country, and if that fellow Ikousai becomes the King of this country…Kazuki will become a mere commoner person right?”<br /> <br /> “Eh? Ah, yes, he is going to be just a commoner then.”<br /> <br /> “In that case…even if I take him back to Germany…there will be no problem at all right…?”<br /> <br /> Eleonora was dumbfounded.<br /> <br /> So it became like this? Did she want that young man this much?<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s expression turned bright like a different person with a wide grin.<br /> <br /> “Yosh, I got a great idea! We are going out in action right now! Luckily those bunch of Japan’s Knight Order have their hands full with observing the bunch of Kings from other countries and their observation on us is thin!”<br /> <br /> Eleonora opened her eyes wide in shock.<br /> <br /> “By any chance, is Captain saying that we are going to Fuji’s sea of trees after this?”<br /> <br /> “You said that Kazuki and others are going to Fuji’s sea of trees from now on aren’t you? Fu-fu-fu, we are going to obstruct them. We are going to thoroughly get in their way, then if circumstances permit and I find Kazuki I’m going to fight him. It’s going to be a luscious fight for our conclusion! I’m going to defeat Kazuki, then after he falls into magic intoxication we will hide his body. If we do that then inevitably Yamato is going to win the struggle race for the Sacred Treasures. Kazuki will become a commoner. I’ll bring him home to Germany. And we are going to quietly hold a modest ceremony in Germany’s remote countryside. Uh huh.”<br /> <br /> “What ‘uh huh’…Captain…”<br /> <br /> “I-I feel that I’m not suited for a wedding dress or the like but…I’m not going to let Kazuki who will be the loser to say any complaint for sure!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix fidgeted around. “Haa” Eleonora sighed like that.<br /> <br /> “I have decided! As a warrior, I’m going to defeat Hayashizaki Kazuki!”<br /> <br /> The largest love of Beatrix―her love of [fighting strong people], and her love for Hayashizaki Kazuki that had completely grown so large that it couldn’t be ignored anymore, with a strange harmony both of those loves had formed a single objective. It was idiotic when seen with a single glance, but it was a frighteningly perfect logic that offered no opening that could be taken for someone to insert their tsukkomi.<br /> <br /> With Yamato’s victory there would be no more obstacles that stood in Beatrix’s way.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Beatrix leaped out from the hotel and ran.<br /> <br /> She carried Eleonora and Damian on her shoulders while running. That way was faster for her.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and his group was supposed to head for Fuji’s sea of trees using the magic light train, but Beatrix ran with her own feet. Even so she wasn’t really falling behind with her vigorous legs and stamina.<br /> <br /> Seeing it from a human’s point of view they were nothing more except a suspicious group.<br /> <br /> But as long as they didn’t get obstructed in this moment, then the matter of later was trivial. After all at that time Japan’s government would be overthrown and this country would become Yamato. After that they were going to bring Kazuki back home to Germany. After that whatever happened, happened. …Beatrix ran while drawing such perfect scene of future inside her mind.<br /> <br /> Of course it didn’t mean that her aide Eleonora had completely stopped thinking.<br /> <br /> “There are patrols by the Knight Orders at Fuji’s sea of trees.”<br /> <br /> Eleonora had finished gathering all the intelligence of the Knight Order’s patrol schedule.<br /> <br /> Following Eleonora’s direction, Beatrix’s group approached the gate of the wall. They evaded the entrance that was heavy with security in a detour and concealed themselves in the position a few kilometers west.<br /> <br /> They kept concealing themselves like that while waiting for Kazuki and the students of the Knight Academy to enter the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> The two military buses where the elites of the Magic Division and the Sword Division were stuffed into came to a stop in front of the gate of Fuji’s sea of trees.<br /> <br /> No matter how many times they saw it, the wall of adamantite with a height as if piercing the sky was a magnificent view. In its surrounding many knights and aged former knights was conducting security with numbers several times larger than before. He couldn’t think that the security could be broken easily.<br /> <br /> The students that disembarked from the buses formed a line for each group with Kazuki standing in the head.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!”<br /> <br /> Two people mixed with the former knights’ security―Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai were rushing to Kazuki’s spot while calling his name. They were the third years of the Magic Division that were accumulating hands-on training in the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> “So you two senpai also came here.”<br /> <br /> “Because it seemed that Akane wanted to meet you again so…ouch”<br /> <br /> The head of Kanon-senpai who smiled mischievously was hit by Akane-senpai with a whack.<br /> <br /> “That’s not it. To make the security of the gate even stricter, the active duty knights were also mobilized, but knights who can be trusted indefinitely to not be a spy are not really that much.”<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it, I’m relieved if Akane-senpai and the others are here.”<br /> <br /> “But certainly this is also a rare chance, ehem, let’s exchange our contact address too.”<br /> <br /> “Eh? Ah, that’s right, thank you very much.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai took out a chic mobile phone with champagne golden color from her chest pocket.<br /> <br /> Kazuki similarly took out his cell phone and made sure of each other’s contact address.<br /> <br /> “If something happens then you can ask for a consultation of anything to me as the highest student of the Witch’s Mansion. Though it’s fine to contact me even if you don’t have any business.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai clung on Kazuki’s back and came mingling into the conversation.<br /> <br /> “Mufufu, Akane-senpai is approaching Kazuki♪”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai too went ”fuhihi” and clung at Akane-senpai’s back to mingle into the conversation.<br /> <br /> “Geez really―, how unexpected―, for that Akane to be this fast in moving on a man―☆”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t misunderstand you two!”<br /> <br /> A slight embarrassment peeked out from her expression, Akane-senpai then drove off Kanon-senpai.<br /> <br /> “I just think of him as a man I can respect…no, as a junior I can respect, that’s all. I’m just a mediocre person after all. …Kanon! Start processing the procedure for these children to pass the gate!”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai pulled Kanon-senpai’s hand and walked to the gate’s direction.<br /> <br /> “That person is exactly a person you can respect you know.”<br /> <br /> Still clinging on Kazuki’s back, Hikaru-senpai brought her face near to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “With the exception of Enchant Aura, her abilities are uniformly high levels in all lineage of magic. She is a person with no field she is bad at.”<br /> <br /> All her abilities were equal―which meant without a doubt that it was the result of not trying to rely on the quality she was born with but methodically continuing to temper herself objectively.<br /> <br /> Achieving completion just by her strong will, a person of hard work.<br /> <br /> “She totally lost at magic power’s absolute amount and output power against Kanon-senpai, but her chanting speed is said to be number one inside the history of the Knight Academy. She also has never gotten a score below 95 in any subject.”<br /> <br /> “How amazing…like that she doesn’t have any grounds to say that she is just a mediocre person.”<br /> <br /> “She is going to lose in a duel against Kanon-senpai and Kaguya. But if each of them are thrown into Haunted Ground, then perhaps the one who will successfully clear the place first is going to be Akane-senpai I wonder.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt complicated while listening to the story.<br /> <br /> For Akane-senpai to evaluate herself as a mediocre person, compared to him which part of him was it that could be said as special then? Why did Leme choose him, he didn’t get it at all.<br /> <br /> He was unexpectedly chosen by Leme, so could he be called as a special human because of that….<br /> <br /> …Then this power, was he going to say that he was not worthy of it and he wanted to throw it away?<br /> <br /> No. He didn’t want to do that.<br /> <br /> Then, he had to become a human that was more worthy of this power.<br /> <br /> He had to obtain the power of a King in his hand with his own will.<br /> <br /> In front of this battle that gambled the Three Sacred Treasures, all the cowardice vanished from his heart.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki and Akane-senpai are a little similar. Both of you are hard workers. I love the two of you.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai rubbed her cheek on Kazuki while clinging at him.<br /> <br /> “I too must work harder so not to lose against Akane-senpai. …Come on, Hikaru-senpai is also one of the leaders so please return to your own group.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki tore off the clinging Hikaru-senpai from his body and pushed her back toward the direction where her members were at.<br /> <br /> “Well then, operation start!”<br /> <br /> The students that entered inside the Haunted Ground were scattered in each group so as to not let their area of exploration overlap with each other. Everyone was aiming for the direction where the magic power was thick and no one had gone into yet while defeating the Demon Beasts they encountered and liberating the Haunted Ground very thoroughly. That was the strategy they were using.<br /> <br /> Fuji’s sea of trees was divided into three levels. The sphere of 5 kilometer radius with the peak of Mountain Fuji as the center was the level 3 area, and then further within 5 kilometer outside from it was the level 2 area, and then even further 5 kilometer outside was the level 1 area―each of the areas’ borders were encircled with a gigantic wall where no one could pass except through the gate.<br /> <br /> It was a Grand Haunted Ground that had grown to possess three areas with a total radius of 15 kilometer.<br /> <br /> This wall was used because the Knight Order was once unable to liberate the Haunted Ground, and at that time they encircled it with the wall for the time being and yet in the end the wall too was completely swallowed by the Haunted Ground…these walls were created from the repeat of such occurrences multiple times.<br /> <br /> Right now was exactly the time to liberate this Grand Haunted Ground while taking the opportunity to discover the Three Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> Because before this Kazuki and others had split into two groups and searched the left and right near the entrance for a few kilos, at the beginning there were no figures of Demon Beast around. Everyone scattered widely all at once and the other groups soon became invisible.<br /> <br /> “Let’s go around in a circle from the deepest place for our group.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved following his image of entering the depth aiming for the second wall inside, and from there they were going to go around in a circle. Like that they were going to the place where the magic power was the thickest―which meant that they were going to explore the area with powerful Demon Beast, but a small number of elite had gathered in Kazuki’s group. Kazuki felt that going around that area was only a natural responsibility for them.<br /> <br /> Kazuki, Ryuutaki Sisters, Karin, and Kohaku. It was a group with these five.<br /> <br /> As far as the eye could see, the more they advanced deeper the dampness and the stench became more choking in the air and around them became a forest of Haunted Ground. There was no green of the nature but a poisonous tint that was spreading around them.<br /> <br /> There was still no atmosphere of mountain around them.<br /> <br /> “Don’t you dare order me and Nee-sama around, you quack student council president.”<br /> <br /> …Shinobu-senpai ignored Kazuki from the very beginning and kept pulling Miyabi-senpai’s hand while advancing forward rudely.<br /> <br /> “You dare calling this one’s bosom friend a quack you bastard!”<br /> <br /> Behind Shinobu-senpai who was advancing forward, Kohaku yelled exposing her rage.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki admonished Kohaku, the result was Kohaku stopped thinking of Kazuki [based in marriage] and tried to build the human relationship between them from the start again. It seemed that she settled down to regard Kazuki in the position as a [bosom friend].<br /> <br /> “To insult mine’s bosom friend that has been arranged to become this one’s husband, this one who is his future wife wouldn’t allow it!”<br /> <br /> Somehow it was a bosom friend with a really impure feel in it.<br /> <br /> But Shinobu-senpai was advancing forward rudely as if Kohaku or anything else didn’t exist.<br /> <br /> “Why is she participating in this quest anyway if she just acts like this?”<br /> <br /> Karin tilted her head from the totally justified question.<br /> <br /> “I think that’s because Miyabi-senpai said that she would participate and so she came along.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was feeling that she wanted to have a connection to the outside, her consciousness of wanting to become useful to the society with her ability was stronger than other people. She wished to become useful and from that have the surrounding people recognize the power of elves.<br /> <br /> Yet with Miyabi-senpai like that, Shinobu-senpai was like a guard dog that displayed its threatening glare so that no one would approach near them…she was someone that was similar to a hindrance.<br /> <br /> Even while Miyabi-senpai called “Shinobu!” in reprimand, her arms was still pulled ahead without stopping.<br /> <br /> “Wait I mean, moving ahead carelessly like that is really dangerous senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki chased them in panic.<br /> <br /> But with Kazuki chasing behind, Shinobu-senpai then moved her feet even faster unnecessarily.<br /> <br /> “KIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly a gryphon that was lurking on top of a tree that looked poisonous in color determined Shinobu-senpai and other as prey and swooped down nearing them. It was a fantastical wild beast with a head and wings of eagle on body and limbs of a lion.<br /> <br /> “HAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> Karin immediately dashed and overtook the Ryuutaki sisters and launched a flying kick to the swooping down gryphon with all her strength.<br /> <br /> Kazuki sensed Karin’s movement and entered a stance for support.<br /> <br /> “GUKIIIII!”<br /> <br /> The torso of the gryphon distorted from Karin’s fierce kick. Pulverized sounds rang out crackingly under its bulky fur. Karin’s kick that was strengthened with Enchant Aura possessed a destructive power of that much.<br /> <br /> But from the mouth of the gryphon that largely opened, swirling magic power was produced―rather than calling it organism activity, it was a phenomenon that was closer with magic. The whirling of magic power transformed into a whirling of flame and it was spit at Karin along with a long breath like a gale―fire breath.<br /> <br /> Karin’s posture was stiffening because of her full power kick to help the Ryuutaki sisters, she couldn’t move to evade.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki knew beforehand that the gryphon would do that kind of attack.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ashes all that you touch…the scorching heat of rejection without any place to resort to! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> With Kazuki’s support magic, Karin’s body that was very nearly swallowed was wrapped in armor of flame.<br /> <br /> The flame armor absorbed the fire breath and cancelled each other.<br /> <br /> “Oo! Thank you, Hayashizaki Kazuki!”<br /> <br /> Karin raised a happy voice while landing from her flying kick, then she stepped on the earth and filled her fist with power.<br /> <br /> There Kazuki controlled the flame armor with Psychokinesis and concentrated the flame on Karin’s fist.<br /> <br /> The flame armor transformed into a flame knuckle.<br /> <br /> “Oooo!?”<br /> <br /> Karin raised a shocked voice while swinging her flaming fist. When she struck a further kick in a combo, Kazuki Foresighted that movement and this time he moved the flame to her toes.<br /> <br /> The gryphon that received a boisterous dance of flame raised a scream “KIIIIIII!” and dispersed into magic power light before vanishing.<br /> <br /> Karin went “Hooray!” and jumped up and down.<br /> <br /> “As expected from Karin huh.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki once again felt admiration toward the martial arts of Karin while approaching near the back of the girl that was jumping up and down.<br /> <br /> “Oi Hayashizaki Kazuki! It was really great just now you know!? Somehow just now was awesome!”<br /> <br /> Karin grasped Kazuki’s both hands and swung it up and down.<br /> <br /> “What are you saying, just this much is only a normal teamwork right?”<br /> <br /> “Teamwork! I don’t know that! It’s my first time doing something like this-!”<br /> <br /> “First time you say…you also fought together with Hayashi Shizuka right?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said out that name, Karin’s bright eyes became dark and clouded and got dull instantly.<br /> <br /> “Fighting together with Shizuka…was mostly painful…”<br /> <br /> Now that she mentioned it…the teamwork between Karin and Shizuka was something like that.<br /> <br /> Shizuka granted Karin with power of immortality accompanied with intense pain and making her as a wall of meat single-mindedly.<br /> <br /> Such an act couldn’t be called teamwork…<br /> <br /> “I have the hunch that it’ll be really fun to fight together with you!!”<br /> <br /> “That, well, compared to a treatment as a meat wall…sorry to make you remember a strange thing.”<br /> <br /> Karin was going “Teamwork♪ Teamwork♪” cheerfully while turning round and round around Kazuki and a little heart mark flew out from her.<br /> <br /> Katsura Karin―48<br /> <br /> “…”<br /> <br /> Kohaku saw that only one gryphon wouldn’t pose any problem and she was being vigilant toward the surrounding if there would be any reinforcement for the Demon Beast or not.<br /> <br /> She was really reliable with her calmness.<br /> <br /> “…Hmph, a teamwork like that, the teamwork between me and Nee-sama is far more skilled than that.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai stood upright when she was protected by Karin, but even now she was still pulling Miyabi-senpai’s hand while walking ahead briskly. She was trying to walk in the lead stubbornly. Kazuki chased her in panic.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, that’s troubling!”<br /> <br /> In the space between Kazuki who was hot on Shinobu-senpai’s heels and Shinobu-senpai herself, Miyabi-senpai was being in a dither from the current happenstance.<br /> <br /> “KIIIII!”<br /> <br /> ―Without even any time to persuade Shinobu-senpai, a gryphon once again descended down from the sky before them.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai stood right in front of Miyabi-senpai to cover for her.<br /> <br /> “You think I care if you bastard is troubled. We are going to show you that other people are unnecessary for both of us! …Thy wings bestowed from Belphegor, o &lt;ice pillar of flame&gt;! Mask us, become the wall of unreasonable contradiction! Cross Conflict!”<br /> <br /> After Shinobu-senpai lured the gryphon close enough she cast her defensive magic. Wings of red crystal grew out from her back. Marchosias’s &lt;ice pillar of flame&gt; that possessed contradictory special characteristic of having both powerful heat and chill, these wings were a fragment of its power.<br /> <br /> It protected the user’s body from double elements and it could also attack with double elements.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai concealed her body with the crystal wings and blocked the claw attack of the descending gryphon. The crystal wing was slightly chipped from the impact. The chipped crystal emitted heat and cold and part of the gryphon’s leg that touched it was burned.<br /> <br /> “GUGIIIIII!”<br /> <br /> While the gryphon raised a scream it was still swinging both its front legs frantically however. <br /> <br /> The gryphon’s claws repelled away the crystal wings with brute force. Shinobu-senpai who didn’t have any knowledge of martial arts couldn’t react to that.<br /> <br /> The gryphon wrenched open a gap in her guard and then it brandished its claw.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai was struck with one hit on her body and blue magic power was scattered.<br /> <br /> “Dance your wing and scatter the spark. Trail behind a spiraling wind, become a life gouging bullet! Flap and shoot out! Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki frantically backed up Shinobu-senpai whose guard of crystal wings was broken. The bullet of flame struck home and hindered the gryphon’s following attack.<br /> <br /> But with a glare Shinobu-senpai directed an expression of fury at his direction.<br /> <br /> “Don’t interfere unnecessarily!”<br /> <br /> With that shout, not only Kazuki, but Kohaku and Karin that was going to enter their assistances also stopped their movement.<br /> <br /> “O goddess of affection…please grant the illumination of light toward the warrior that challenge the trial under thy watch. Moonlight Breath!”<br /> <br /> While being protected by Shinobu-senpai, Miyabi-senpai chanted a reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> Shadow of the moon faintly floated on the clear sky above their head, the moonlight descended down on Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> The blessing toward the warrior of the moon goddess strengthened the physical ability of Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> “UAAAAAAAAAAA-!” Raising her voice, Shinobu-senpai blocked the arm that the gryphon swung down. Arm and arm tangled with each other solidly and her posture entered a contest of strength with the gryphon.<br /> <br /> ‘How rash’, Kazuki was taken aback.<br /> <br /> Although she was strengthened, Shinobi-senpai was supposed to be unsatisfactorily uninformed in martial art.<br /> <br /> Even just blocking with only her two arms was peeling off Shinobu-senpai’s magic power.<br /> <br /> The gryphon whose both arms were restrained pulled back its head and took a stance of going to stab with its beak. With her posture there was no way for Shinobu-senpai to defend.<br /> <br /> But Shinobu-senpai barely maintained her chant and cast her magic.<br /> <br /> “Kuh…O lonely wolf wandering the forest, thy is bestowed the moonlight from the goddess. That light is the strength of warrior…change the sharp fang into blade, display that bravery! Blade Tusk!!”<br /> <br /> Twin swords that danced in the air stabbed at the eyeballs of the gryphon.<br /> <br /> The gryphon raised a scream and its movement stopped.<br /> <br /> “O crescent moon of the frozen sky, cleave the cloud following the blowing wind, cut down the life of the surface earth…Moon Scraper!”<br /> <br /> At Shinobu-senpai’s back, Miyabi-senpai created a blade of crescent moon and threw it at the gryphon.<br /> <br /> The blade of light that flew drawing an arc grew large in the blink of eye the moment it was separated from Miyabi-senpai’s hand, it bisected the gryphon’s torso right into two from the side. The gryphon finally scattered into magic power light.<br /> <br /> “…How’s that, hmph.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s voice leaked out saying that.<br /> <br /> “…Didn’t senpai just barely manage it?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki rushed near the two sisters with a grieving sigh.<br /> <br /> In the first place gryphon was a demon beast that often came attacking in swarm.<br /> <br /> Just now it was nothing more than luck that they could somehow make do with just the two of them.<br /> <br /> “Hmph, what’s with that weak-kneed posture! It’s just impossible for a fellow without any knowledge of martial art to fight without any vanguard! Yaa―ii, yaa―ii!”<br /> <br /> Karin lined up beside Kazuki and directed an abusive speech to Shinobu-senpai like a kid.<br /> <br /> But when Shinobu-senpai wordlessly directed a glare filled with sharp glint at Karin, Karin was trembling violently.<br /> <br /> “…Ha, Hayashizaki Kazuki, that girl just didn’t get a joke…she’s scaryyy”<br /> <br /> Karin clung at Kazuki’s arm in fright.<br /> <br /> “…It seems that the playing around is over.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku said so with a sigh while looking up at the sky in the east.<br /> <br /> “The Grand Haunted Ground is coming at us seriously here.”<br /> <br /> At the east sky that was brightly pure white from the morning sun, countless black shadows were floating. The black shadows were approaching their direction while flickering, their contour gradually became exposed―a swarm of gryphon.<br /> <br /> The piercing cry of Demon Beast resounded.<br /> <br /> “This one is going first! …You just pull back!!”<br /> <br /> When Shinobu-senpai tried to meet the assault of the gryphon’s swarm rashly, Kohaku got the drop on her and pushed her down with all her strength. Shinobu-senpai staggered and Kohaku rushed ahead while sparing a backward glance at her.<br /> <br /> In the first place Kohaku had a polite personality that put importance on the age order. What she did was rough but it was also the correct judgment.<br /> <br /> Karin too went after Kohaku from behind. Shinobu-senpai was left in the dust and missed the chance to continue to be obstinate.<br /> <br /> “GOOOAAAAAAAAAA-!”<br /> <br /> From their behind, a much heavier growl compared to the gryphon’s cry was resounding.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the Ryuutaki sisters looked behind them.<br /> <br /> From behind a giant that might be even as big as a single house―a troll was approaching them while pushing down the trees and trampling those underfoot with a pole that looked like a log brandished in its hand. It was making a face similar like human but they really couldn’t feel any humanity from the bloodshot eyes that peeked out from behind its unkempt, ruffled hair.<br /> <br /> With one hand Kazuki held back Shinobu-senpai who might try to leap out at the enemy.<br /> <br /> “Certainly I know that both senpai were able to clear all the quests you took till now with just the two of you…but the Demon Beasts of this Grand Haunted Ground are far more formidable compared to your average Demon Beast.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai bit her lower lips and looked down.<br /> <br /> “Can senpai engage in a bout with that troll using the way of fighting like before?”<br /> <br /> The answer to that question was clear as day.<br /> <br /> Kazuki kicked the ground without waiting for an answer and intercepted the troll.<br /> <br /> “Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai, please back us up from behind with magic!”<br /> <br /> Even while saying that, he understood that Shinobu-senpai wouldn’t obediently give him such a favor.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Both Karin and Kohaku were excellent warriors.<br /> <br /> They could tidy up the swarm of gryphon and the troll without any significant harm.<br /> <br /> There was no heaps of corpses all around even with the number of the enemies, the defeated Demon Beasts became light one after another before disappearing.<br /> <br /> “…As expected it’s harsh dealing with them with mostly just melee combat.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku talked as if criticizing Shinobu-senpai implicitly.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai was hanging her head down with a sulking face.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai hung her head down with half-closed eyes and put her breathing in order. She was breathing heavily with her shoulders heaving. Miyabi-senpai was trying to do the work of two people with herself alone and continuing to fight with vehement chanting speed.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was also doing similar thing, to compensate for the share of Shinobu-senpai who was not fighting, he was constantly minding the battle situation with the gryphon at the opposite side even while fighting the troll, sometimes he let loose defensive magic for his companions.<br /> <br /> The troll at Kazuki’s side was a tough Demon Beast, but because it was just a single troll he could do it skillfully.<br /> <br /> Indifferent to Kazuki’s hardship, Karin raised a voice that was bursting with cheer.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki! Your magic is awesome! It came flying here right in the critical moments like a hero of justice!”<br /> <br /> And then she optimistically went “Teamwork♪ Teamwork♪” while frolicking with one of Kazuki’s hand.<br /> <br /> It seemed that she was feeling a great culture shock.<br /> <br /> Looking at that Kohaku went “Mu…!” and stiffened.<br /> <br /> “In contrast with this one who just got irritated with other people, she instead frankly thanked Kazuki the first thing while fawning on him. A woman that just makes the atmosphere heavy and a woman that can lighten the feeling of a man innocently…by, by any chance is this what is called the difference of the fundamental girl power!?”<br /> <br /> Somehow Kohaku began to be calculating of something incomprehensible.<br /> <br /> “Kohaku, I also like a stoic person that is strict with both other people and herself you know. Because Kanae is also that kind of type and she makes you feel that with her you can grow together.”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so!? Really!? Growing together…and then after that is engagement!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s not engagement…”<br /> <br /> “So it’s no engagement…”<br /> <br /> Kohaku dropped her shoulders in dejection…<br /> <br /> “After all bosom friends doesn’t get engaged with each other.”<br /> <br /> “Standing in the position of bosom friend has quickly become really hard…”<br /> <br /> “I’ll say this first but you haven’t yet done a single act that is worthy of the title bosom friend.”<br /> <br /> “I want to quickly become a bride…”<br /> <br /> “I don’t care where just disappear somewhere.”<br /> <br /> “Why are you saying such a cruel thing to this one-!”<br /> <br /> “Because you are my amiable bosom friend.”<br /> <br /> “Ah, is that so? Because we are a fellow bosom friend so that’s a forgivable joke instead. When it’s said like that there is this impression of both of us actually getting along.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku came to the grips with Kazuki’s heavy frivolous talk and smiled positively. What a honest fellow.<br /> <br /> Karin’s eyes brightened.<br /> <br /> “Oi, Hayashizaki Kazuki. If talking to each other like that is what is called a friend then I too am going to be your friend! After all teamwork is fun!”<br /> <br /> Karin was nuzzling herself at Kazuki’s arm like a small animal.<br /> <br /> Seeing that behavior of Karin, Kohaku was once again getting distressed by something.<br /> <br /> “Ho, how licentious…not, is this kind of thing normal between man and woman in this present day…? Then this one too…”<br /> <br /> Kohaku went “Eei!” and hugged Kazuki’s other arm resolutely then she rubbed her body at him repeatedly.<br /> <br /> “Wh, what are you doing copying someone else! Right now Hayashizaki Kazuki is busy doing teamwork with me here!”<br /> <br /> Karin too said out something of uncertain meaning while being burned with sense of rivalry, then she rubbed her body at him all the more.<br /> <br /> When it became like that the fire of rivalry spirit was lit up inside Kohaku too.<br /> <br /> “ “Rub rub~!” “<br /> <br /> …Both of their bodies were not particularly well-rounded figures so when he was scraped strongly that much it felt painful instead.<br /> <br /> The two girls that swayed up and down intensely at his left and right were completely like the piston motion of a jackhammer.<br /> <br /> “…Hmph, how stupid.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai who became left out of the event murmured as if spitting out.<br /> <br /> Karin twitched in a fright and her movement stopped. Kazuki thought that such way of talking was not right. Kohaku went “Rebuttal impossible” and she suddenly became calm in instropection.<br /> <br /> “Shinobu, don’t just keep talking abusively like that! You were always disturbing everyone’s group harmony since before!”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai shouted after having lost her patience.<br /> <br /> “Everything else doesn’t matter…I and Nee-sama don’t need other people at all. It’s fine as long as there is just the both of us.”<br /> <br /> “Such thing is obviously impossible!”<br /> <br /> Her shoulders shaking, tears were gradually piling up in Miyabi-senpai’s eyes. Shinobu-senpai twitched in fright seeing that expression.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai wished for the outside world and volunteered to participate in this quest. She wanted more companions. She wanted herself who was once persecuted to become a hero of the world as a knight.<br /> <br /> There Shinobu-senpai was following Miyabi-senpai and tried to drive away the people who tried to become closer to Miyabi-senpai. In spite of how this quest had group activity as its premise.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.08 123.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai kept on talking without pause with words that sounded like scream.<br /> <br /> “It’s just a delusion to keep living just with both you and me! Whoever it is, even us, can only keep living like this from borrowing the strength of many other people in other places we cannot see! We have to possess the awareness to return the favor for all that…society is something like that, it’s no good to not recognize that when we become adult don’t you know!?”<br /> <br /> “…Hnn. If we are not looking at it, then that’s the same with there is nothing there in the first place.”<br /> <br /> “That way of living…!”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai turned her back on Shinobu-senpai as if driving her off and embraced Kazuki tightly.<br /> <br /> “ “Right from the front!?” “<br /> <br /> From right beside him where Karin and Kohaku were hugging both his arms, both of them were raising voices that were taken by surprise.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai hugged Kazuki right from the front and then she rubbed her body even more intensely than the other two at Kazuki. Different from the other two she felt terribly bouncy. She was a glamorous senpai right about next to Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Se, senpai…we are watched by her like this!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was almost led astray by the really sweet sensation, he looked at Shinobu-senpai’s expression in panic.<br /> <br /> ―Seeing the figure of her big sister getting intimate with Kazuki, Shinobu-senpai’s expression warped into grief.<br /> <br /> ―As if a frozen water surface was stepped on with all one’s strength, *parin* something was broken.<br /> <br /> For some reason the feeling inside Shinobu-senpai was transmitted at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai turned her back at Kazuki and others. And then she dashed right away somewhere. She went through a pitch black path with no definite direction into the forest of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> The back of Shinobu-senpai that emitted a dim light from her Magic Dress disappeared into the darkness between the tree trunks that twisted eerily.<br /> <br /> “I…didn’t say anything wrong…”<br /> <br /> Refusing to chase after that back, Miyabi-senpai kept hugging Kazuki as it was and leaked out an isolated voice.<br /> <br /> It was a voice that seemed to want to express how she wanted to be separated completely from her twin little sister just like that.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt like his heart was going to be crushed from the grief.<br /> <br /> “…But we have to chase her, this place is a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> This place was not a place so carefree where they could have a quarrel like this between themselves.<br /> <br /> To run off like that completely alone was just…!<br /> <br /> Kazuki untangled everyone who was still clinging to him even now and rushed off.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> Kazuki had the advantage in leg speed. The back of Shinobu-senpai soon became visible for him.<br /> <br /> But while he was thinking so, suddenly his field of vision became dim in haziness and Shinobu-senpai’s back disappeared from his sight. White―in front of his eyes everything was completely covered in pure white.<br /> <br /> Even the figures of Kohaku and Karin who was supposed to be running with him at his sides became blurred in white and vanished.<br /> <br /> When he looked back, the figure of Miyabi-senpai who was supposed to be following along slightly behind them was also gone.<br /> <br /> What happened…? It was as if he was running inside a dream….<br /> <br /> That’s not it. This was…a fog filled with magic power…?<br /> <br /> Kazuki slowed down his legs and looked around his surroundings.<br /> <br /> There was already a fog surrounding him so thick that he couldn’t even make sure of anything one meter ahead of him.<br /> <br /> “Guys!” He raised his voice but there was no reply.<br /> <br /> It was as if his voice was completely absorbed into the mist like silk floss.<br /> <br /> …They weren’t supposed to get separated just in this short time.<br /> <br /> Not if they weren’t all running to a completely different direction from the start.<br /> <br /> [Forest of Bewilderment]―suddenly a single phrase floated inside his mind.<br /> <br /> The sea of trees of Mountain Fuji was that kind of forest since time immemorial. ''It could even be said to be a myth''. Haunted Ground and Demon Beast imitated the myth. It wouldn’t be strange even if this Haunted Ground itself and possibly the Demon Beasts that nested in this Haunted Ground possessed the power of that myth.<br /> <br /> This mist wasn’t something natural but a mist of magic power. Moreover it chose the time to activate at the worst timing for the intruders who were Kazuki and his group….<br /> <br /> Kazuki stopped his legs from his inability to calm his uneasiness.<br /> <br /> If it was with this party’s composition then he had already expected that a friction of this degree would surely happen without fail once or twice.<br /> <br /> But right at that moment the Haunted Ground inserted interference and made the whole party come apart.<br /> <br /> He thought too much of only the possible obstruction from Yamato and the other countries and possibly made light of the Haunted Ground itself. In the first place his decision to bring along Ryuutaki sisters might be too naïve.<br /> <br /> For him to dare think that this was a good chance to get closer to those two….<br /> <br /> Without even any time to worry, a mass of magic power bloated up in the mist right in front of him.<br /> <br /> A gryphon leaped out right in front of his eyes as if it’s body was birthed from inside the mist.<br /> <br /> Kazuki drew out his katana and blocked the gryphon’s body ram before parrying it aside.<br /> <br /> …If it was him then he could fight no matter how many Demon Beasts.<br /> <br /> However if Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai that became alone was assaulted by a troll…!<br /> <br /> He felt the presence of gryphons that formed a swarm from the mist’s opposite side.<br /> <br /> Kazuki made an instant judgment. He couldn’t waste time here…it couldn’t be helped!<br /> <br /> “Zekorbeni!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki created the pendant-type Magic Dress on his neck and poured his magic power into it. The poured magic power became the image of Phoenix itself and was absorbed into the pendant.<br /> <br /> {Hoo…so you use it without any hesitation. Even though you were so stingy with it in the Isonokami Shrine.}<br /> <br /> Leme teased Kazuki inside his mind not knowing what she was thinking. Just when he thought that she finally opened her mouth after so long….<br /> <br /> The situation was different! Besides he had also trained to use it while economizing the output!<br /> <br /> {Ain’t that right!}<br /> <br /> Leme’s voice was lively in delight from seeing Kazuki using Zekorbeni.<br /> <br /> “Mode・Phoenix!”<br /> <br /> Flame spilled out from the pendant, the flame turned into a flame armor and covered his whole body.<br /> <br /> This was a Magic Dress that he owned only from the number of the bond that he had tied.<br /> <br /> At the same time wings of flame grew out lengthily from his back. This was not the Magic Dress―<br /> <br /> “O immortal bird soaring from dusk to dawn, please grant that wing of hope on my back! The destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!!”<br /> <br /> With the large wings of flame created from Phoenix’s level 5 magic, he cleared off the gryphon right in front of his eyes and also the swarm that was hiding inside the mist.<br /> <br /> The mist around him was slightly thinning down from the heat of the flame. While Kazuki fluttered the flame and scattered the mist, he skillfully weaved his way through the space between trees. He concentrated on the link of his bond when he tried to sense everyone’s whereabouts.<br /> <br /> The whereabouts of Miyabi-senpai whose positivity level was 55 and Karin with positivity level 48 couldn’t be sensed clearly compared to his other companions. To say nothing of Shinobu-senpai whose positivity level was 2, her location was exactly fitting the word of [inside the mist].<br /> <br /> &quot;―Lonely.&quot;<br /> <br /> Suddenly, a small voice reverberated inside Kazuki’s head. It was Shinobu-senpai’s voice.<br /> <br /> The instant he sensed the voice, the coordinate of Shinobu-senpai that he should be unable to sense was faintly shining.<br /> <br /> &quot;―Lonely.&quot;<br /> <br /> This was…the voice of heart of Shinobu-senpai who became completely alone from being [rejected] even by Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously looked around the surrounding mist. Where did this voice come from…?<br /> <br /> Magic power was residing inside the surrounding mists, it didn’t touch only his skin but there was also something like peculiar tentacles that stung the mind. Kazuki, and Shinobu-senpai too, they were both inside this mist.<br /> <br /> The feeling of Shinobu-senpai was flowing into the mist and got transmitted to Kazuki, it could be like that though.<br /> <br /> The extremely strong feeling of loneliness were unconsciously mixing out into the mist.<br /> <br /> In a certain meaning Kazuki and Shinobu-senpai were connected with each other through this mist of magic power.<br /> <br /> &quot;―Lonely.&quot;<br /> <br /> The loneliness strongly raised the strength of Telepathy. Just like Koyuki, her isolated environment might also have raised up a strong Telepathy power in Shinobu-senpai too.<br /> <br /> Right now Shinobu-senpai was strongly wishing for someone right from the bottom of her heart.<br /> <br /> She thought that she was hated by Miyabi-senpai who was supposed to be one of body and soul with her.<br /> <br /> Kazuki flapped his wings in full power toward the direction the coordinate pointed at.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> &quot;―I’m always together with Nee-sama. We are twins after all.&quot;<br /> <br /> The mist where magic power light was residing in it continued to transmit words to Kazuki who rushed through the gaps between trees.<br /> <br /> It was the voice of Shinobu-senpai's heart that sounded like a young child.<br /> <br /> Till now Kazuki had tried hard to understand Shinobu-senpai’s feeling, but it was a difficult thing to do. But the mist began to narrate her heart openly.<br /> <br /> &quot;―Why? Why is everyone directing such cold eyes to Nee-sama?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Even father and mother…. He, she, everyone….&quot;<br /> <br /> That was a tragedy that occurred everywhere at the period where elves were born into the world.<br /> <br /> &quot;―Why does everyone tell me not to get near Nee-sama?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―That’s strange. It’s not supposed to be something right. Unreasonable.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Those people that say such cruel things, I hate them. Those kind of people are exactly the ones that I have to get away from.&quot;<br /> <br /> A frank sense of justice that the adults couldn’t even imagine changed into hatred toward everything of the world.<br /> <br /> &quot;―Everyone, whoever it is, just leave me and Nee-sama alone.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Nee-sama is crying sadly.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Don’t cry.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―That’s not it. It’s not Nee-sama’s fault.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;{Then why?}&quot;<br /> <br /> A different voice yet sounded really similar was mixed into the mist.<br /> <br /> &quot;―It’s my fault you know.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Nee-sama’s hair is shining beautifully in sparkles.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―However my hair looks dirty in pure black instead.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Nee-sama’s ears are beautiful things that grew long and sharp.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―However my ears are uneven ugly things instead.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―It’s not Nee-sama’s fault.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Not Nee-sama’s fault, not Nee-sama’s fault. Nee-sama is not something like an elf at all.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Because of this unforgivable unreasonable thing&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―It’s not Nee-sama’s fault but everything is because of me.&quot;<br /> <br /> The words she used to persuade herself was permeating into her own heart irreversibly.<br /> <br /> And then she molded a firm world.<br /> <br /> &quot;―A world of only me and Nee-sama….&quot;<br /> <br /> The words that she used to persuade herself was not entirely transmitted to her companion for all that.<br /> <br /> Before she knew it Shinobu-senpai had looked through Miyabi-senpai and became unable to see anything else other than her own self.<br /> <br /> That was why before long their path missed each other.<br /> <br /> &quot;{I’m important, even though Nee-sama said I’m important, yet why don’t you listen to what I say!}&quot;<br /> <br /> It was a piercing voice as if the world inside the mist was breaking down into pieces.<br /> <br /> The world that was supposed to be completed firmly shook. The heart of Shinobu-senpai raised a scream.<br /> <br /> &quot;―Why…I ask why….&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Because if I believe that, this world is going to be completely broken.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Nee-sama doesn’t do anything bad.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―The accursed people that persecute me and me&lt;ref&gt;Not a typo, here Shinobu is considering Miyabi as the other half of herself, which she thought meant that they are completely the same. Yet because of that she is not seeing Miyabi itself anymore and only seeing a reflection of herself. Hope I translate this section well enough to convey the idea here.&lt;/ref&gt;, all of them are the one that is bad, they are the one that is breaking this world completely.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Why is Nee-sama eager to get out from this world?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―Is Nee-sama starting to wish to be connected to those kind of guys?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―It’s lonely.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―The truth is&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;―The truth is…Nee-sama is….&quot;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> &quot;―Even though the truth is that Nee-sama is to blame for everything.&quot;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki folded his wings of flame. Inside the forest that was shrouded with mist, a small back that was crouching down was visible. Shinobu-senpai who was clad in the Magic Dress of Marchosias looked like the wolf puppy that was told in the mythology. <br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai is just too kind.”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s call, the girl stood up jumpily and turned back.<br /> <br /> And then the surrounding mist was faintly turning blue where she noticed that it was tinged with the moisture of magic power. She suddenly understood what was the meaning of Kazuki’s words.<br /> <br /> “This light…don’t tell me it exposed human’s heart as it please!”<br /> <br /> “The feeling is transmitted to me from senpai.”<br /> <br /> “Even so…!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai stepped forward and with a *pan* she slapped Kazuki’s cheek.<br /> <br /> “There is already no one that is going to hurt Miyabi-senpai or Shinobu-senpai. In the past the world misunderstood the elves, it was only that kind of bad timing.”<br /> <br /> “Elf or whatever…it has nothing to do with Nee-sama at all-!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai slapped Kazuki’s other cheek one more time. Kazuki let her do as she pleased.<br /> <br /> She was saying that kind of thing yet,<br /> <br /> ―Even though the truth is that Nee-sama is to blame for everything.<br /> <br /> Inside her heart, Shinobu-senpai was able to completely understand everything that had happened on her twin elder sister.<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuki who didn’t say anything even though his cheeks were slapped, tears were gathering fully in Shinobu-senpai’s eyes before she turned on her heel from that place. Surely she was going to look for Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> Seeing that Kazuki caught her shoulder and held her back in half embracing her.<br /> <br /> “I will search too together.”<br /> <br /> “I don’t need the cooperation of you bastard!”<br /> <br /> “Senpai cannot find her alone!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s shoulders shook heavily from Kazuki’s strong words.<br /> <br /> “I have the power to sense Miyabi-senpai’s whereabouts just faintly.”<br /> <br /> “I’m not going to borrow your strength! No matter how much time passed, I will, with my strength…”<br /> <br /> “What are you going to do if Miyabi-senpai is attacked by Demon Beast like that troll while she is alone!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s shoulders shook. If it was with Miyabi-senpai’s ability, then she should be able to do something like buying some time.<br /> <br /> But if too much time passed then even more different Demon Beast would come as reinforcement.<br /> <br /> There would be nothing she could do. Only death awaited.<br /> <br /> The Haunted Ground was a place where such happening occurred far more often compared to the battlefield with Yamato.<br /> <br /> Kazuki also couldn’t just search for Miyabi-senpai alone. If he just left alone Shinobu-senpai then the same thing would only happen to her. Kazuki and Shinobu-senpai had to be together.<br /> <br /> This was something that affected life. Kazuki strengthened his words.<br /> <br /> “I too want to help Miyabi-senpai. This world is not filled with only Miyabi-senpai’s enemy. Now is the time for senpai to believe that, if not then Miyabi-senpai will fall into danger.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai looked down as if she was just hit. Strength slowly left both her shoulders.<br /> <br /> “If Shinobu-senpai cannot believe me…one of the twin sisters is going to die!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki released the shoulder that he grabbed and ran while saying “Miyabi-senpai is over here!”<br /> <br /> Having been told that, there was no other direction that Shinobu-senpai should go to.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki ran out, Shinobu-senpai moved totteringly―however when the distance between them got too far she followed him in panic. Even though Kazuki quickened his pace, but Shinobu-senpai sprinted fast like a black wolf and followed right behind Kazuki. Kazuki finally felt relieved. He just hurried himself putting aside the other problem for later.<br /> <br /> ―Before long after running for several minutes, they could hear a sound of battle from the other side of the mist.<br /> <br /> The sound of a blow that collided with something, the sound of tree crumbling down hard, those sounds reverberated.<br /> <br /> Just from hearing once they could understand that several trolls were rampaging around.<br /> <br /> When he took a glance behind him, Shinobu-senpai was going pale from imagining the situation vividly.<br /> <br /> The faint scream of Miyabi-senpai was mixed among the chaotic sounds.<br /> <br /> “Miyabi-senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out to Miyabi-senpai who was right in the opposite side of the mist.<br /> <br /> At the same time he entered fire into Zekorbeni again and deployed Mode・Phoenix.<br /> <br /> Behind him there was the presence of Shinobu-senpai gulped in surprise. This should be the first time she was seeing this power of Kazuki. Kazuki’s greed of going to protect everyone was not just putting on air.<br /> <br /> This {{furigana|ability|power}} had to be used for everyone’s sake.<br /> <br /> “Dancing wing scattering spark, trail behind spiraling wind, become the life gouging bullet! Flap your wing, whirl up the storm of sparks! Tri Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> He immediately shot flame bullets. The familiar Barret had its chanting time shortened from the effect of Zekorbeni and acquired the attribute of rapid-fire. Each of the shots accurately avoided Miyabi-senpai on the other side of the mist and hit only the group of trolls. Even with his field of vision obstructed by the mist, Kazuki could sense the magic power’s movement like seeing shadow pictures and grasped the positioning of his ally and enemy.<br /> <br /> “Blazing Wings!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki flapped his wings of flame while restraining the enemies’ movement with the flame bullets rapid-fire and intruded into the middle of the group of trolls. He enfolded open his wing of flames right in the middle of the group and went in rampage, exactly like a tornado of flame. The trolls writhed in pain from getting burned while haphazardly swinging around their pole, but Kazuki avoided those through and cut apart the troll’s wrist with Doufuu, The spilled blood spurted up and turned into magic power light before disappearing.<br /> <br /> “O ruler of flame and ice, liberate the duplicate body of crimson…ruffle up the fur of fire shadow, stab the red hot fang! {{furigana|Crimson Wolf Pack|Beacon Wolf Pack}}!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai too let fly an attack magic ''as if to support Kazuki''.<br /> <br /> After shooting out several flames, those flames turned into the shape of wolf and formed a group before assaulting the trolls.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise whose body the light of paradise is residing inside, respond to my accusation and burn to ashes the sin on the surface! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki matched Shinobu-senpai’s attack magic and shouldered the aurora on his back before firing a laser of super high temperature. The heat ray didn’t only grant damage but it also enlivened the flame wolves even more.<br /> <br /> “Shinobu! Also Kazuki…!”<br /> <br /> The trolls got frightened from the ''cooperation'' of the two’s attack that were like avalanche.<br /> <br /> Using that chance Kazuki found the figure of Miyabi-senpai that was half defeated among the group of trolls and flapped his wings to descend down beside her.<br /> <br /> The trolls swung down their poles all at once on Kazuki who was going to steal their prey.<br /> <br /> “O the ruler of flame and ice, liberate the freezing duplicate body…ruffle up the fur of snowflake, stab the fang of ice pillar! {{furigana|Iceblue Wolf Pack|Ice White Wolf Pack}}!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai let loose ice wolves and blocked the trolls’ attacks to cover for the extraction.<br /> <br /> “Miyabi-senpai, are you okay?” Kazuki confirmed the condition of Miyabi-senpai who was carried inside his arms.<br /> <br /> “Ye, yes.” Miyabi-senpai nodded inside Kazuki’s arms. She was in a condition where she was already bearing some damage and mental fatigue, but there was no major injury on her.<br /> <br /> The flame and ice wolves bit the trolls to death and eradicated the group.<br /> <br /> The strength of Shinobu-senpai when she was giving her undivided attention on her spell chanting at the rear was just as one would expect.<br /> <br /> Kazuki put Miyabi-senpai down on the ground that had recovered its silence.<br /> <br /> It looked like Miyabi-senpai put [Moonlight Breath] on herself while enduring with excellent Resist technique, she weakened the enemy’s offensive with her mental attack magic while skillfully escaping.<br /> <br /> It was fortuitous that the help came in time at the timing when she was finally cornered and surrounded.<br /> <br /> “Shinobu, Kazuki, thank you. And also…Shinobu, I’m sorry for before this.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai lowered her head at Kazuki and then she approached Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai was hanging her head down and stayed quiet while feeling lost of what kind of face should she make.<br /> <br /> “I pondered inside the mist just now you know. I had the feeling that I heard the voice of someone…”<br /> <br /> ―Even though the truth is that Nee-sama is to blame for everything.<br /> <br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, Shinobu…in the first place everything is my fault, and yet you keep being together with me all this time. But as I thought all of it was only a problem of misunderstanding and timing. Right now…there are no more people that persecute me already.”<br /> <br /> ‘That’s why I want to direct my eye to the outside world’, Miyabi-senpai said once again.<br /> <br /> “But…I can’t endure the Nee-sama that I love to look at other people…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai murmured to herself. Tears were going to spill out from her eyes that were looking down.<br /> <br /> Then she directed her powerful gaze with a glare at Kazuki once more.<br /> <br /> “That’s because you still cannot widen your field of vision.”<br /> <br /> “…Is such thing necessary, even for me?”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai asked while glaring at Kazuki. How right now there was a storm whirling inside her heart was transmitted even to Kazuki. It was a storm that had crooked everything that came near her at any cost all this time even when the one that came near was straight.<br /> <br /> Living with twisted way in public ―recognizing one’s own mistake was difficult.<br /> <br /> “That’s right, it’s necessary.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai concluded.<br /> <br /> [Right now this child should also feel it. Someone that give a talk to her with words that think of her this much, you are the first person that did that in the ten odd years.]<br /> <br /> The words Miyabi-senpai spoke to him that time inside the bus that was heading to the front line was floating inside Kazuki’s head. It was because Shinobu-senpai rethought back upon those words that her feeling was transmitted through the mist and reached even Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “If…if Nee-sama said that even I need other people. That’s…”<br /> <br /> The gaze of Shinobu-senpai that glared at Kazuki changed in atmosphere.<br /> <br /> The level of humidity changed, the feeling that was filling the mist was [clearing away].<br /> <br /> “Kazuki. …Sorry, for everything to now.”<br /> <br /> Without even any heart mark flying from Shinobu-senpai, her positivity level was changing glidingly only in number.<br /> <br /> Ryuutaki Shinobu―38<br /> <br /> Kazuki faltered. Her positivity level up to now was 2, but it suddenly surged up in one go.<br /> <br /> Inside his head Leme explained to clear away Kazuki’s question.<br /> <br /> {Surely her positivity level was 2 till now was because she didn’t allow anyone into her heart and she suppressed her own heart strongly. If that suppression is removed, her number will raise drastically…no, her number will return to its original value. After all, in the first place this girl doesn’t have any reason at all to particularly hate you right?}<br /> <br /> Now that she mentioned it, before this Hikaru-senpai had also curtailed her positivity level to Kazuki from thinking of herself as a man.<br /> <br /> Positivity level was not only increasing little by little, there was also the case where it changed drastically.<br /> <br /> Kazuki braved himself and walked near Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai, please become my friend.”<br /> <br /> “I don’t know what to do, for that kind of thing.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai averted her eyes from Kazuki and got confused.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai who relaxed her face had a pure look like a child.<br /> <br /> “Are you not minding, about all the thing I’ve done till now…?”<br /> <br /> “I don’t mind. Let’s eat boxed lunch together after this. I have cooked the portion for everyone.”<br /> <br /> “My” Miyabi-senpai opened her eyes and mouth widely.<br /> <br /> “This is a quest but soldier’s ration is necessary after all.”<br /> <br /> “But you didn’t bring anything here.”<br /> <br /> “I have Karin hold on to it for me. That’s why, first we have to find Karin and Kohaku.”<br /> <br /> “…I wonder if that child was fighting while carrying some baggage around.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai tilted her head in wonderment.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai put her hand on her navel that was exposed through her Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “…My stomach is empty.”<br /> <br /> “This child is really a glutton you know.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai smiled refreshingly. It was a refreshing expression from having been liberated from a distress. From her chest, an avatar of a golden key floated up and it was absorbed into the stigma on Kazuki’s left hand.<br /> <br /> Ryuutaki Miyabi―65<br /> <br /> The restraint that held back Miyabi-senpai’s positivity level on [50] was also gone. Miyabi-senpai too had her heart suppressed because she couldn’t make herself like Kazuki by leaving Shinobu-senpai behind.<br /> <br /> Golden key―it appeared right in the instant when a bond had been tied with senpai as a definite connection.<br /> <br /> “…If it’s now then I can seduce Kazuki…with a feeling right from my heart you know.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai embraced Kazuki‘s arm.<br /> <br /> And then *munyu munyu*, she pressed the breast across the thin Magic Dress’s dress on Kazuki’s upper arm.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, I’m happy but, what are you doing right in the middle of a Haunted Ground?”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, Kazuki’s red face, how cute. Somehow it looks like a real composure is coming out from my heart.”<br /> <br /> That was, well, his face was becoming red. The face of Miyabi-senpai like this was also red.<br /> <br /> “What should I do when becoming friend? Those two also rubbed themselves at you though.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai embraced the other arm of Kazuki on the other side and the breasts that was exposed largely from the Magic Dress that looked like underwear were pressed on him *munyu munyu*.<br /> <br /> “Even Shinobu-senpai…! So th, this is sister sandwich!?”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki’s panicked face is cute♪ Chu-“<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai kissed at Kazuki’s cheek.<br /> <br /> “I’ll copy Nee-sama too…chu-“<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai too was kissing Kazuki’s opposite cheek with a pure look.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s positivity level was also increasing led on by Miyabi-senpai’s bold act.<br /> <br /> “…This, feels good that my head feel blank somehow.”<br /> <br /> “It’s something that feels good when a girl is clinging at a boy. Sounds promising right?”<br /> <br /> “Is that so Nee-sama? …It’s not bad.”<br /> <br /> Both of them were pushing their chests at his arms from both side while repeating to *chuu chuu* kiss at his cheeks.<br /> <br /> “…Senpai you two!” Kazuki was dazed for a while and had his fill completely from that, but he tensed his feeling in panic then. “Kohaku and Karin might be also in a pinch for the moment, so we are going!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> After Kazuki walked out to Karin’s coordinate, before long he could hear voices of dispute from the other side of the mist. Kazuki and others felt their nervousness faded all the more from that. <br /> <br /> “This one is charging ahead!”<br /> <br /> “I’m the stronger one so I’ll be the vanguard-! You just be the support for me!”<br /> <br /> “You can use Summoning Magic right! Think what it meant for the right person in the right place!”<br /> <br /> “Even you can make your katana shoot out something *BUU―N!* right! Just make your katana go *BUU―N*!!”<br /> <br /> It seemed Karin and Kohaku had a good luck that they could naturally converge with each other even inside the mist. Both of them were able to fight freely whether in range or close quarter. That was exactly why Kazuki was mostly unworried for these two, but consequently because both of them were the all-purpose type it seemed that it had became a dispute on who would be the vanguard.<br /> <br /> It was a futile quarrel. Kazuki parted the thicket and approached near those two and called out from their back.<br /> <br /> “Both of you are going to be the vanguard together with me. Both senpais will give us back up after all.”<br /> <br /> Both of them were startled and turned around their faces.<br /> <br /> “What are you two quarreling about? For Karin and Kohaku rather than making strange talk with each other you two will mesh well with each other naturally just by fighting without thinking about unnecessary things I guess.”<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki! Who cares about that, look at that! That’s the master of this Haunted Ground see!”<br /> <br /> Karin suddenly pointed at an unexpected direction, Kazuki went “Eh?” from surprise and chased at the pointed direction with his eyes.<br /> <br /> At the direction where Karin was pointing at was pure white space that was packed full with mist. But faintly inside that mist, a rugged silhouette of a huge Demon Beast could be seen.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t see well but it was fairly huge for just a single living being.<br /> <br /> He poured even more magic power into his eyes and focused his sight. All over its rugged body that looked like rock, there were many things like a spraying nozzle, it was in the state of emitting mists *pushu―* from those nozzles.<br /> <br /> Was it fairly thickheaded, or maybe it was concentrating on pushing out mist, the Demon Beast was not being concerned at all toward the sounds that they made.<br /> <br /> “Is that the source that produced this mist!?”<br /> <br /> Karin nodded repeatedly on Kazuki’s question.<br /> <br /> “We were having a strategy meeting to defeat that thing! But if everyone had gathered then the talk is fast!”<br /> <br /> Karin puffed out her chest saying that. He was doubtful whether it was okay to call that quarrel as a meeting though.<br /> <br /> “Back up is it…will it meet expectation?”<br /> <br /> Kohaku directed a questioning gaze at Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai hung her head down completely with a face as if her heart was crushed from guilt.<br /> <br /> “It will be okay.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku’s doubt was most correct, but Kazuki strongly declared with the intention of taking responsibility himself.<br /> <br /> “Is that so, if Kazuki said so then surely it will be okay.”<br /> <br /> When Kohaku consented without any resistance, Miyabi-senpai released a sigh of relief and embraced Shibobu-senpai’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai stared at Kazuki fixedly and a small heart mark was flying at him.<br /> <br /> It seemed that she was happy to be covered for.<br /> <br /> “Let’s go. If these members meshed well with each other then there’s no way we’re going to lose to something like a mere Demon Beast.”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki called out like that, he took a step forward toward the silhouette of the Demon Beast that was visible through the mist.<br /> <br /> It was even more huge when seen from up close. The spouting nozzles that looked like acorn barnacle attached all over its body were continuing to blow out white mist without any pause. Its movement was sluggishly slow, if they were being careless they could just overlook it as a rocky mountain.<br /> <br /> The blade of Kohaku and the fist of Karin who were the vanguards were easily bounced back by its rock skin.<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled the time when he had a hard fight against a slime. Liz Liza-sensei’s advice―in a glance the Demon Beast looked like a fantasy organism, but unexpectedly they were following the rule of living things in reality.<br /> <br /> This Demon Beast was not merely a moving mass of rock.<br /> <br /> In its inside there were necessary features and nerves necessary for living.<br /> <br /> “Karin! Hit it with Shintoukei!!”<br /> <br /> Karin changed her movement from hitting its surface to an attack that transmitted shockwave to its inside.<br /> <br /> “Kuh…this one will devote oneself on defense!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku blocked the giant punch with her enlarged &lt;Taroudachi&gt; and protected Karin.<br /> <br /> “This guy…looks like he doesn’t really have any brain.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai tested her mental magic and immediately called it off.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, my attack magic is not really effective against this guy. What should I do, teach me.”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai too talked with a low, dull sound and directed a relying gaze at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Marchosias was a beast that manipulated heat and cold. However cold didn’t work on rock and even melting its rock skin with superficial heat wouldn’t be any hindrance on its activity.<br /> <br /> “This hand reach out to the height of Babel, right now the thunderbolt of god is grasped inside this hand! In accordance with my life, o lightning, whirl following my will! Collider Field!!”<br /> <br /> Promotheus’s armament summoning magic―a large-type machine gauntlet was equipped on Kazuki’s right arm. That gauntlet charged in electricity and discharged it.<br /> <br /> The attack of the rock giant stopped. The nerves in its whole body were fried from electrical discharge and its rugged limbs were trembling in shivers.<br /> <br /> “We are going to stop its movement, so both senpai use Union Magic!”<br /> <br /> ―With the special bond that was tied between Gremory and Marchosias, these two Divas could use the sole Union Magic in Solomon 72 Pillar. But because Union Magic had to be done with two people chanting a long aria all together while matching their breath, it created a lot of openings. The support of comrades and trust was indispensably necessary.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai started chanting without any hesitation.<br /> <br /> Both of them joined their palms together and concentrated with their eyes closed to reject the outside world.<br /> <br /> Closing their eyes from the outside world―it was an act with a completely opposite meaning now.<br /> <br /> Both of them closed their eyes because they believed that their surrounding would protect them.<br /> <br /> “I am the oppressor that reaches my hand to the height of Babel! In accordance with my life o lightning, let’s praise the foolhardiness of the human race! Blitzkrieg!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki piled up even more magic of Prometheus. A large lance was equipped on the tips of the gauntlet that he had already equipped. The electricity of the gauntlet was poured into the spearhead.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki! Lend me that robot spear, lend me!!”<br /> <br /> Karin begged him with shining eyes.<br /> <br /> “Do you have some kind of idea!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki unfastened the gauntlet and equipped it onto Karin’s slender arm. The lance was even longer than Karin’s height, it looked really unbalanced. But Karin yelled lively.<br /> <br /> “The eight extremities’ innermost secret is in the spear! I’ll show you here, the &lt;Eight Extremities Grand Spear&gt; learned from Shizuka-neesan!!”<br /> <br /> Karin stepped on the ground fiercely, the impact of that step was transmitted into both her arms through twisting movement without leaving any to spare and then she swung the large spear vigorously.<br /> <br /> Chinese kenpo’s [thrust] was resembling the [thrust] of a swung large spear.<br /> <br /> No, both of them were the same thing in the first place.<br /> <br /> “HAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The impact that was like a cannon which was produced from the small body shook the enemy’s giant body. The electricity created from the tip of the lance stopped the giant’s movement.<br /> <br /> “Karin, aim for the nozzles!”<br /> <br /> With Karin’s height she couldn’t reach the nozzles of the giant just like that. But…,<br /> <br /> “The sky is verdant, blowing wind drooping grass the dance of heavenly fox spirit, cleave the cloud formation…{{furigana|Kazenori Idzuna|Wind Riding Least Weasel}}!”<br /> <br /> Floating behind Karin who was preparing her spear was the avatar of a bewitching fox spririt―Tamame no Mae, wind arose at Karin’s surrounding. The wind focused in one direction and threw Karin’s small body to the sky in one go. Karin flew through the sky as if swimming unhindered, where she circled to the giant’s blind spot.<br /> <br /> ''Stepping strongly on the wind'', Karin swung the large spear.<br /> <br /> “Follow my arm and become meteor! &lt;Shintoukei&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> The tip of the spear was screwed into the nozzle’s entrance with the force of a falling star. Cracks were running in radial shape around the nozzle and electric current ran wild deep inside the body.<br /> <br /> “Karin, get away from there!”<br /> <br /> The giant’s movement stiffened. When Kazuki sensed the height of the senpais’ magic power reached the extremity, he raised his voice. Karin jumped away from the giant that was emitting off vapor trail.<br /> <br /> “ “O moon that shine even above the head of deeply sinful person, transform that motherly light into fury, crush this surface! The nightmare of falling moon right here…Moon Strike!!” “<br /> <br /> A grand magic was invoked. The howling of a wolf facing the sky was resounding, the clear sky that was obstructed by the trees overhead became much more pitch dark―the far away moon was falling closer and covered the sky completely.<br /> <br /> The falling moon that was imitated by magic power flattened the atmosphere where it burned and became a meteor from the generated insulation and compression, it fell on top of the giant while burning the surrounding trees. Overwhelming heat and giant mass smashed and melted the giant in one breath, and it dispersed into magic power light.<br /> <br /> “…We did it!” Kazuki’s voice leaked out. Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai rushed to Kazuki’s sides and both of them *chu-* kissed Kazuki’s cheeks.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what the!?” Kohaku opened her eyes wide in shock.<br /> <br /> The surrounding mist cleared away all at once and the surrounding scenery of Haunted Ground recovered its original color of mother nature.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and others were stupefied in amazement.<br /> <br /> The instant the mist cleared, the figure of a giant wall that pierced the sky appeared in front of their eyes.<br /> <br /> It seemed that they had arrived into the deepest vicinity of Level 1 area which had the shape of donut unaware. They were standing in a slope under their feet. Inside the mist was turning into a mountain trail little by little.<br /> <br /> It wouldn’t be surprising if it was just that much, but there was a rectangle door with its joint inserted into the wall before their eyes, and a Stigmata confirmation device was installed at its side. There was no mistake that it was the gate to continue on Level 2.<br /> <br /> That Demon Beast was hiding the gate using mist and safeguarded this gate.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> After settling its three comrades at the bottom of its stomach, the giant snake went underground deep inside the earth.<br /> <br /> Far deeper underground than the complicated underground infrastructure installation that lurked under the city―gas line or water service or electric supply line, into the earth's crust, rather than called digging Midgarsormr was half assimilating with the earth while advancing forward.<br /> <br /> It was inside the sea of rock where there was nothing that looked like a landmark at all, but the snake that assimilated with the earth was grasping the destination where it advanced using its paranormal sense.<br /> <br /> Before long it leisurely broke through the underground of the wall that concealed the Fuji’s sea of trees.<br /> <br /> As expected, the wall didn’t extend down this deep.<br /> <br /> The underground of the Haunted Ground was not a Haunted Ground. Haunted Ground was only generated in the domain of human. Because the underground was not included in that domain it didn’t transform into a Haunted Ground. Therefore the snake advanced without even any Demon Beasts obstructing it.<br /> <br /> Loki was saying that [the Three Sacred Treasures surely would be located in whether Level 2 or Level 3 area].<br /> <br /> If the Three Sacred Treasures had already been created since the old era where that [forgotten hero] still lived then it should be just as Loki said. After all the Level 1 was in the scope of expansion that only happened in the recent years.<br /> <br /> Understanding that fact right from the beginning was the advantage of Loki who was a related party with that era. It could be said to be only natural for Loki to show a composed smile.<br /> <br /> The snake also passed through the underground of the next wall and crawled into the Level 2 area.<br /> <br /> Further deeper…the snake and its party planned to begin their search starting from the deepest part of Level 3.<br /> <br /> Surely they could steal all the Sacred Treasures without anyone noticing anything during the time Hayashizaki Kazuki and his group were slowly searching Level 1.<br /> <br /> While keeping what Loki said in mind, they also passed through the third wall―*GAKON*.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;GAKON* Midgardsormr felt a sensation that was hard to believe on its face.<br /> <br /> Its own face that was advancing through the earth collided with a bedrock. It was unable to assimilate with that bedrock and advance forward. It couldn’t advance even further than this!<br /> <br /> While feeling shaken, the snake sensed its current position. This location, was just right under the third wall.<br /> <br /> Something that could hinder its assimilation with earth was, a sealing magic. A sealing magic was fixed here.<br /> <br /> The Level 3 of the Grand Haunted Ground was being protected by a gigantic sealing magic that extended from the wall on the surface deep into the underground!<br /> <br /> With nothing that could be done, Midgardsormr folded its body 90° toward above and rose to the surface.<br /> <br /> Getting out its face from the earth, his whole visage was exposed in the blink of eye―Midgardsormr that went out to the earth's surface was as if a towering lighthouse was there.<br /> <br /> That huge body was writhing, while squirming around, the three comrades that were settled inside its stomach were spat out.<br /> <br /> Ikousai, Hel, Naiarlako, these three people.<br /> <br /> “It’s really the worst travel ever.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai made a grimace. There was an anecdote that Midgardsorms’s body fluid was a powerful poison that even gave the finishing blow to that Thor of the Norse Mythology. Of course all the body fluid was repelled from her using Psychokinesis, but being transported while wrapped inside a pink grotesque mucous membrane for several hours was not something pleasant.<br /> <br /> Midgardsormr returned into its human body and became the appearance of the black robe that was familiar with Loki’s troops. Before Midgardsormr was residing inside a man but right now its host was a woman.<br /> <br /> Hel that was also spat out from the mouth was also a woman in similar appearance of black robe. …To be accurate they should be called as [the woman that was possessed by Midgardsormr] and [the woman that was possessed by Hel], but because Loki and his group were naturally thinking that the original personality of the body was not there anymore anyway, just like that they called each other [Midgardsormr] and [Hel].<br /> <br /> Midgardsormr and Hel were biological children of Loki that he gave birth himself, they were Loki’s most trusted underlings.<br /> <br /> Around them magic power so thick that pierced their skin was drifting, trees that were stained pure black were growing in abundance densely. Overhead many leaves and branches obstructed their view of the sky, in spite of the afternoon, their surrounding felt like inside a room where the electricity was turned off. It was the Level 2 of the Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Next Ikousai and her group stared at the wall that obstructed them with suspicion.<br /> <br /> This was the oldest wall in this Grand Haunted Ground. It was a concrete wall that enclosed the Haunted Ground as the fleeting resistance of the humans at the era where [the forgotten hero] was active.<br /> <br /> It was a mere concrete. Moreover the wall had considerably worn out from age.<br /> <br /> But an unknown sealing magic gave out the sensation that the concrete was powerfully pressured to become solid.<br /> <br /> Surely it would be difficult to destroy this wall even by combining the power of the four people here. If they released out such a powerful magic power then as expected there was the risk of their existences here got exposed. With nothing that could be done Ikousai turned her back to the wall.<br /> <br /> “Th, then what are we going to do…?”<br /> <br /> Naiarlako asked Ikousai timidly. The girl who was originally an orphan had an anxiety toward stranger. She was suddenly ordered by Kaya to go along with Ikousai and felt baffled.<br /> <br /> She was an elf girl whose body was wrapped in punk fashion. Her elf’s characteristic skin was stained black and the long ears were hidden inside the black hood.<br /> <br /> Inside the girl, the dregs of that Naiarlatoteph was residing. Those dregs was in the process of reviving little by little, but the girl was trying to tame that power to use it skillfully and freely.<br /> <br /> “For the time being we are going to immediately search this Level 2 for the Sacred Treasures.”<br /> <br /> “Wait…. Before that…” Hel was keeping back the shoulder of Ikousai who was impatient.<br /> <br /> Her appearance was still like someone around twenty years old, but her voice was hoarse like an old woman.<br /> <br /> “I’ll make this territory…into my territory.”<br /> <br /> Hel chanted the short spell that was characteristic of a possessed magician and immediately invoked the effect.<br /> <br /> “…O uncomforted people, o unhonored people, stand up from {{furigana|the earth’s cushion|Kör}}…{{furigana|Blikjandaböl|Gleaming Disaster}}&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Kör&quot; is Hel's bed, &quot;sickbed&quot;; &quot;Blikjandaböl&quot; are said bed's curtains, &quot;gleaming disaster&quot;. The apparent difference in vowel sounds stems from the fact that Norse has more vowel sounds than Japanese. Also, if Kör's kanji are 病床, then it should be &quot;sickbed&quot; instead of &quot;earth's cushion&quot;.&lt;/ref&gt;.”<br /> <br /> In drips, black magic power like sticky and moody mucus were flowing down from Hel’s whole body.<br /> <br /> The black magic power went *doro doro doro doro!* in terrific speed and completely covered the ground in wide area before the magic power seeped into the ground of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> “…What are you doing?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai murmured such. Hel didn’t reply but only lifted the corner of her mouth smugly.<br /> <br /> The ground of the Haunted Ground here and there was suddenly bulging up.<br /> <br /> From those bulging ground, arms, heads, humans’ upper body were growing out.<br /> <br /> From the solid ground―[the deceased] with pale skin were creeping out one after another.<br /> <br /> As if the budding plant that showed out its face at the spring, the deceased people were budding out from the rotting soil of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> With a gait that was exactly like the spirit of the dead, the deceased were wandering around the gaps between the trees unsteadily.<br /> <br /> “The Fuji’s sea of trees was known before as a spot for suicide…this land mesh well with my ability…”<br /> <br /> Hel explained the sight that was happening in front their eyes to Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “My [Blikjandaböl] is the power to open the boundary line…it’s a power that call the deceased who had no honor and once again bestow them the chance to obtain honor…”<br /> <br /> In Norse Mythology the people who accomplished a honorable death was invited to serve under Odin while those dead people who didn’t manage that was invited to serve under Hel.<br /> <br /> These dead people mourned their unforeseen death and wished for honor. Hel possessed the power to manipulate that desire.<br /> <br /> “I can share my senses with the dead…if Hayashizaki Kazuki stepped his foot into this Level 2, I’m going to detect him straight away…. If we can make him fight the dead and detect his intrusion then we can concentrate on searching the Sacred Treasures without any hesitation…”<br /> <br /> “…Hnn, what a distasteful magic. But certainly it serves to be something to be thank for.”<br /> <br /> “So it’s fine if it can buy time? Then…”<br /> <br /> Naiarlako raised her head and talked.<br /> <br /> After that she closed her eyes and concentrated on her magic power. It was the magic of [{{furigana|Cthulhu|Darkness Mythology Structure}} that resided inside her.<br /> <br /> “Spew out the melody of sacrilege, awaken the memory of freezing immortality…{{furigana|Cold Pray|Madness Cadence}}.”<br /> <br /> An eerie sound resounded. As if there was a barrage of vulgar drums, a sound that repeatedly swelled out and shrank in the atmosphere.<br /> <br /> The sound of a monotone wind like a flute that possessed no melody.<br /> <br /> It was something human couldn’t comprehend, a ghastly music that would make the brain trembled in shiver just from hearing it too much.<br /> <br /> “…What are you doing?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai was not as good as Kazuki in foreseeing the effect of a magic from its magic wave.<br /> <br /> To say nothing of how Hel and Naiarlatoteph’s magic was belonging under a really minor element that was rare to meet.<br /> <br /> “Something was overwritten in my magic…?” Hel slowly tilted her head.<br /> <br /> “I endowed Naiarlatoteph’s power of madness on Hel-san’s magic. The moment someone see those deceased, the magic of madness will automatically get invoked. …That, I think it will become something that can buy a lot of time.”<br /> <br /> Hel once again raised the corner of her mouth smugly. As if she was really pleased.<br /> <br /> Naiarlako was hoping to get praised and directed her gaze at Ikousai timidly.<br /> <br /> “…As expected, it seems there will be no chance to fight Hayashizaki Kazuki huh.”<br /> <br /> However on the contrary Ikousai’s expression turned despondent instead.<br /> <br /> Naiarlako hung her head dejectedly. Ikousai didn’t try to understand the nature of a lonely orphan that was still very young at all.<br /> <br /> “…Yosh, we are going to look for the Sacred Treasures now! Let’s do this while those guys are still not even aware of our presence here!”<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> “It seems the students of the Knight Academy are entering the Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> Eleonora said while searching the magic power inside. The Einherjar were hiding right near the wall of the outer circumference of the Grand Haunted Ground, looking for the right timing.<br /> <br /> That timing they were waiting for finally came.<br /> <br /> Beatrix paid attention at her surrounding while walking near the wall.<br /> <br /> “This wall is…adamantite huh. …Should I use [Mjolnir]?”<br /> <br /> [Mjolnir], the magic with the maximum destructive power of the god Thor that Beatrix relied the most.<br /> <br /> If it was with the one strongest attack in Norse Mythology, then even breaking this wall was not impossible.<br /> <br /> “We don’t need to go that far…Damian, your [Mysteltein II] should be able to destroy this wall quietly.”<br /> <br /> Eleonora called out to Damian. She had seen through that the hardness of this adamantite was composed from the magical strengthening of its Prima Materias’ binding.<br /> <br /> [Mystiltein II] was a Sacred Treasure that destroyed both physical matter and also all kind of magical effect.<br /> <br /> “Yosh, here I come.” Saying that Damian too sidled up to the wall.<br /> <br /> After chanting for a while, Damian created a large cursed sword in both of her hands.<br /> <br /> “The blade grasped in my hand is the ill will that curse the blessing! While wishing for the rebirth someday, the indestructible thread of life of the son of god is severed with this hand! Mysteltein II!”<br /> <br /> That blade which had the size almost the same as Damian’s small stature was swung with a speed that even the eye couldn’t catch. *ZUUUUN!!* Raising such a heavy sound, the wall was slashed in rectangular shape and fell down.<br /> <br /> “Yooosh, let’s go! We are going to be Kazuki’s nuisance persistently!”<br /> <br /> While yelling something troublesome for other people cheerfully, Beatrix stepped inside the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> “In the miniscule chance that we find something that looks like the Three Sacred Treasures, let’s bring it home and hand it over to Yamato later.”<br /> <br /> Eleonora was clearly making an assertion that sided with Yamato.<br /> <br /> Even if they backed up Yamato they had the just cause that could make other countries shut up.<br /> <br /> Japan had dirtied their hand with a blasphemous experiment that couldn’t be forgiven, they had the data of that experiment in their hand.<br /> <br /> “So the talk is that the elites of the Knight Academy are gathering here then? I’m looking forward to it ze!”<br /> <br /> Damian too followed behind with a lively gait. The knights of the Einherjar loved battle above all else.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, if possible I want to meet Kazuki in a flawless situation but…”<br /> <br /> A troll and a gryphon were standing in Beatrix’s way, but she cut them down in a single blow and advanced forward heavily.<br /> <br /> Wondering whether there was anyone that was conducting a showy fight around them, she sharpened her senses clearly.<br /> <br /> Choosing the direction of powerful magic power as much as possible, Beatrix was walking forward heavily.<br /> <br /> That was why that encounter was inevitable.<br /> <br /> “…Beatrix Baumgard…”<br /> <br /> Seeing the figure of Beatrix that displayed her appearance impressively from between the trees, that black haired Magika Stigma leaked out a strangled voice. It was the owner of the strongest magic power in the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> Beatrix determined her prey and grinned widely.<br /> <br /> “Otonashi Kaguya…. You too are one of the opponents that I want to try to fight at least once!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kaguya-sensed Beatrix’s eagerness for battle and raised her voice to her comrades.<br /> <br /> “Everyone…be careful! Coming!!”<br /> <br /> She wavered just for an instant, then she immediately resolved herself and glared at Beatrix.<br /> <br /> It was a small luck that Beatrix made her appearance at her location.<br /> <br /> As the student council president that was the strongest in the Magic Division, she would halt this formidable enemy in this place―she resolved herself with that determination.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> The god of sky rushed through the sky with the speed of lightning.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya Muromets erased her presence and made the knights that were monitoring her sleep with mind magic without allowing a single one to get away, then she rose to the sky.<br /> <br /> There would surely be a great commotion when the knights woke up but she was really not worrying about the matter of later.<br /> <br /> Japan had been a perished country already anyway…. Ilyailiya was thinking like that.<br /> <br /> Right now in this moment everything would be fine as long as there was no interruption from Arthur or Regina.<br /> <br /> With a glance she directed her gaze at the GPS bracelet that was attached on her wrist.<br /> <br /> This was the problem. …There was a problem, but it was just a small problem.<br /> <br /> She had already assumed beforehand that the country of science Japan would make use of this kind of method.<br /> <br /> She didn’t know anything about {{furigana|the eye of the sky|GPS}} or whatever, but to dare trying to monitor this god of the sky was a severely damned action. She would make them realize that the machine civilization was undoubtedly nothing more than human’s extravagance.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya activated the &lt;{{furigana|Deception Repeater|Deception Recursion Device}}&gt; that was buried under the skin of the back of her hand. This machine was memorizing the electromagnetic wave from the GPS that was trying to measure Ilyailiya’s position and transmitted back a higher intensity electromagnetic wave with the same frequency. The GPS would then receive the electromagnetic wave by prioritizing the strong fake wave rather than the weak original wave and detected only the fake.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya sent haphazard information of distance and direction toward the GPS.<br /> <br /> With this the operator of the Knight Order would believe that Ilyailiya was staying put obediently.<br /> <br /> “It won’t be too late even if we are waiting after all the other Magic Advanced Countries are destroyed before exterminating all the machines.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya was murmuring without any emotion.<br /> <br /> “What is convenient is convenient. Arthur and Regina are very devout, but it’s inefficient.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya wouldn’t be picky with her method if it was for the sake of victory.<br /> <br /> Of course a body check had also naturally been conducted on her, but she had already planted all the necessary machines beforehand inside her body.<br /> <br /> Who in the world would even imagine that a King of magicians was going to behave like this.<br /> <br /> Everything was efficient.<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya who was free from the monitoring raised her altitude vertically till she reached the &lt;stratosphere&gt;.<br /> <br /> She had received a request from Loki to search the Grand Haunted Ground for Sacred Treasures in the Level 2 and Level 3.<br /> <br /> When she heard this story, Ilyailiya was convinced that Japan’s defeat was unshakeable.<br /> <br /> The only problem was Arthur and Regina who pretended to be the judges but…, there was no way they could notice for her movement that had reached the stratosphere.<br /> <br /> It was not for sure, but Ilyailiya was a type of human that made snap judgment when she was struck with an idea.<br /> <br /> She soared to the Grand Haunted Ground without any hesitation with the speed of lightning.<br /> <br /> What happened then…without any obstruction from anyone she passed through the first wall from far away on the sky.<br /> <br /> And then the second wall. Next was the third―just when she thought so, the lightning was suddenly halted.<br /> <br /> Her face almost collided with an unseen wall dangerously.<br /> <br /> Wall. That’s right, it’s a wall. The wall was a wall yet it was a wall of magic power.<br /> <br /> “Sealing magic, is it…”<br /> <br /> Against this seal that stretched from the ground to the stratosphere, Ilyailiya was surprised while still being expressionless.<br /> <br /> It was an extremely powerful sealing magic. Which person of Japan that could put something this powerful here?<br /> <br /> Without any magic or Sacred Treasures that excelled in seal destruction, even a King couldn’t break this seal.<br /> <br /> Those who seemed to have the possibility to break this might be…someone like [Damian] that she had read about from the investigation report about Einherjar, she had been reported to have a [specially mentioned ability] which was her [Mystiltein II].<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya descended down to the ground without having any other option.<br /> <br /> It was just around the area that was called as Level 2 by the people of this country.<br /> <br /> “…There are so many dead people here aren't there?”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya murmured right after she descended down at the pitch black forest.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> Regina Olympia Folnar was looking.<br /> <br /> She was once again bringing her body into the sky.<br /> <br /> [Metamorphosis]. The girl could make the divinity of the mother nature to reside in her body. She was unable to reach the stratosphere but with her body transformed into a swan and flew through the sky, those eyes of her possessed the power of a hawk and her sight was strengthened.<br /> <br /> Regina was looking.<br /> <br /> [Eagle Eye]. There was nothing that could escape from Regina’s sight in this sky where there was no cover to hide at all.<br /> <br /> Regina purposely overlooked how Ilyailiya was infiltrating the Grand Haunted Ground with the speed of lightning.<br /> <br /> By no means she didn’t possess a method to stop her. However she was thinking that now was not the time to stop Ilyailiya&lt;ref&gt;Sorry to keep changing her name, but this is the final change…….I hope&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> “…First it’s fine to make your sin to be definitely clear, o Russia’s foolish King.”<br /> <br /> Regina murmured to herself as if spitting out. She was looking down at Ilyailiya.<br /> <br /> That fellow was an owner of personality that joined hand with other King….the King of China.<br /> <br /> The point was that she was an owner of a gutless thinking that was trying to borrow the power of others.<br /> <br /> The King called Ilyailiya was unmistakably weaker than herself.<br /> <br /> While believing that, Regina purposefully overlooked Ilyailiya’s infiltration.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―A few dozens of minutes before, Regina was acting together with Arthur.<br /> <br /> “An intervention of other Magic Advanced Country in this Sacred Treasures Struggles Race between Japan and Yamato has to be firmly opposed. We got a late start despite the permission Commander Yamagata obtained from Japan’s government because of how long it took but…it’s fine as long as we are not too late though.”<br /> <br /> Arthur who proposed to patrol the area brought along Regina and two people of Ryouzanpaku―Shouko and Silirat and they had arrived at the entrance of the Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> “First Queen Regina, the sky is the field that is your forte right?”<br /> <br /> Regina nodded at Arthur’s question.<br /> <br /> “The possibility that Queen Ilyailiya will infiltrate from the sky is also high. I want to request of you to observe the sky.”<br /> <br /> “Very well.” Regina threw in an appropriate response and immediately cast [Leucothea Metamorphosis]. That body of hers was changed into a giant swan.<br /> <br /> “I ask you sincerely…please don’t allow any intervention toward this conflict between Japan and Yamato.”<br /> <br /> Arthur called to the swan.<br /> <br /> Inside her heart Regina was scoffing derisively at Arthur’s stupid honesty.<br /> <br /> How could he believe that a King of equal status with him would move exactly as he wanted?<br /> <br /> It was decided already that I will move as I please.<br /> <br /> Regina who turned into a swan nodded briefly and flew away to the sky.<br /> <br /> Next Arthur directed his eyes to both Shouko and Silirat.<br /> <br /> “Let’s confirm each of our ability that is necessary for patrol. For me I can detect the magic power that is powerful enough to destroy this wall in a radius inside 5 kilometer. I can also sense the trace of the magic power left behind for about fifteen minutes since it was used. How about you I wonder?”<br /> <br /> “Extra Sense is a field that I’m poor at.”<br /> <br /> The small statured girl with swarthy skin, Silirat was shaking her head. Shouko tapped her hand on her chin.<br /> <br /> “I, Roshouko-san am the one in charge for that kind of thing but…I cannot do it as good as a King like you yeah. My range is three kilo, for magic power trace maybe I can only sense it within ten minutes at most.”<br /> <br /> “I see. Then how much time it will take you to circle around half of this Grand Haunted Ground? With the speed I possess it might be around ten minutes more or less with some time to spare.”<br /> <br /> “I have confidence in my speed. For us ten minutes should be enough too.”<br /> <br /> “Splendid. Then let’s divide our part. I will patrol the east side following along the wall of the Grand Haunted Ground. I entrust the west side to you two. With our speed and the range of our senses, we should be able to immediately detect someone who destroy the wall and infiltrate inside.”<br /> <br /> “Gotcha.” After Shouko replied back slovenly, Arthur said “Please” and smiled.<br /> <br /> And then he immediately headed to the east and walked away with an elegant gait.<br /> <br /> “…From what I see that guy is the most badass among the three Kings, but he is too trusting yeah.”<br /> <br /> Silirat murmured idly while seeing off that back.<br /> <br /> “I feel the same. I guess that kind of guy is what you called a noble youth huh. Now then…my bad King, but the range of my magic power perception, is 1000 ri&lt;ref&gt;Ancient measurement unit of distance in Japan and Korea. Around 3927 km&lt;/ref&gt; in truth!”<br /> <br /> “1000 ri is too exaggerated yeah. It’s 3000 kilo right?”<br /> <br /> Silirat immediately inserted a tsukkomi at Shouko’s energetic words.<br /> <br /> “Shaddup, I wanted to say that cause its called Senrigan&lt;ref&gt;The meaning is clairvoyance, but the literal meaning of the kanji is thousand ri eye&lt;/ref&gt;. …If I say for real then my sensing range of magic power is 50 kilo and tracing back the magic power trace might be around one hour. Although…it’s only when I get to use this Sacred Treasure.”<br /> <br /> Shouko took out a piece of yellowed scrap paper with flourish. But it was not just a mere scrap paper.<br /> <br /> “Moreover this [Sacred Treasure] also suck your magic power like crazy though. …See through, &lt;{{furigana|Onmyou Taikyokuzu|Yin Yang Ultimate Map}}! Shingan Kaikon&lt;ref&gt;Kaikon means release soul, while Shingan means divine eye.&lt;/ref&gt;, {{furigana|Tenchi Shizen no Zu|Map of Heaven and Earth and Mother Nature}}!!”<br /> <br /> The scrap paper on her hand floated in the air gently and then it generated an extraordinary magic power and released it for 50 kilo in the surrounding. Shouko’s magic power was rapidly absorbed into the map and her senses were expanded in proportion of her sucked magic power. All the scenery and magic power illustration within 50 kilo was flowing into Shouko’s head.<br /> <br /> Shouko went “wh, what a pain” and her body was oozing cold sweats.<br /> <br /> “How is it?”<br /> <br /> “Hmm…there is a trace of something’s magic power passing through the underground. The bunch of Yamato had infiltrated the Grand Haunted Ground already. They had went through for quite a while. Right now…they’re entering Level 2. Some kind of magic power is stretching around the whole place of area Level 2. Seems like it had been made into their own territory.”<br /> <br /> “Suddenly it went to hell already huh. Anything else?”<br /> <br /> “Aa―…at the sky, that Russia Queen called Ilyailiya had already went ‘pyuu―n’ from the stratosphere and flew to area 2. I wonder if it was too high to see for Regina who is patrolling the sky. No, might be that she purposefully turned a blind eye.”<br /> <br /> “Why the hell would she overlook it knowingly?”<br /> <br /> “That chick mightn’t be as moderate as Arthur yeah. Perhaps she wants an established fact that Ilyailiya really has violated the agreement.”<br /> <br /> “''Just attempting to infiltrate ain’t enough to wallop her, but if she infiltrate and do something then she can be walloped without any worry, that kinda thing''? That chick’s head is also a little screwed up huh. As expected, that’s all then?”<br /> <br /> “No, there’s still more. …It’s a long way off from the direction Arthur patrolled. Lucky, it ain’t gonna be anything interesting if it’s the honor student that butted in. This time there is no turn for that guy.”<br /> <br /> “Then there is something in the west side?”<br /> <br /> “Those bunch of Einherjar destroyed the wall and infiltrated the Grand Haunted Ground. Ain’t much time had passed since they enter.”<br /> <br /> “Oi oi, this is the wall they boasted their butt off right?”<br /> <br /> “…Oops, they encountered the students of the Knight Academy. It’s the group of that woman called Otonashi Kaguya. It became a battle now.”<br /> <br /> “I heard that those Einherjar are savage after all.”<br /> <br /> “Oy, you think you can say that about other people yourself just now.”<br /> <br /> The duo of Ryouzanpaku that were overflowing with wild beauty were reciprocally trading a fierce smile with each other. It was the smile of veteran warrior that had repeatedly conducted guerrilla warfare with an enormous enemy as their opponent in the parched earth of China.<br /> <br /> They didn’t love the battle itself like the Einherjar. Being thoroughly informed of their own capability accurately and making use of that strength to achieve something―they were people that loved a game like that.<br /> <br /> “To get choices you can freely pick is really awesome. Now then, first we gotta move to sell some favor for Hayashizaki Kazuki’s gratitude later on I wonder. …Ah, crap, I used too much magic power and my head got dizzy.”<br /> <br /> “No biggie, just me going alone is enough.”<br /> <br /> Silirat nodded in exultant spirits. She understood her own capability.<br /> <br /> She understood that she was under the category of [strong person] in this battlefield.<br /> <br /> The foreign warrior that was contracted with the &lt;God of Destruction Shiva&gt; moved out.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_8_Chapter_1&diff=479491 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Chapter 1 2016-02-02T17:34:41Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 – The Best Shortcut to Become Strong==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Kazuki was inside a pink space.<br /> <br /> The floor, the walls, the ceiling too, it was a hall with everything like mirrors. There, lascivious pink light was reflected randomly, enveloping Kazuki. Inside the pink light, Kazuki’s head was empty and tinged with a haze.<br /> <br /> A whispering voice from somewhere was audible on his ear.<br /> <br /> {Iyaa~n}<br /> <br /> {Ahaa~n}<br /> <br /> {Ufuu~n}<br /> <br /> It was a voice he had a memory of hearing before that sounded kind of awkward like the owner was forcing herself somehow.<br /> <br /> {Ufuu~n. Ka, Kazuki…it’s okay you knoo~w.}<br /> <br /> What’s with the ufu~n, Kazuki retorted inside his hazy head.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;Pa-!* From inside the pink light, a naked girl appeared in front of his eyes.<br /> <br /> It was someone he knew. Ryuutaki Miyabi―it was Miyabi-senpai. The surrounding mirror also reflected Miyabi-senpai’s naked appearance, Kazuki was surrounded by naked Miyabi-senpai from all directions.<br /> <br /> However it was true that she was naked but―the risky spots were faintly ''shaded off'' and couldn’t be seen.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki…come, your worldly desires that have kept piling up, it’s okay to unleash it if it’s in this world you know…}<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai in front of his eyes walked up to Kazuki and embraced his neck. Thereupon Kazuki’s clothes vanished like a smoke. But Kazuki’s naked body was also vague with shading off fixed on it.<br /> <br /> It was a world without any feeling of reality.<br /> <br /> Power was filled into the two arms of Miyabi-senpai that embraced Kazuki. The sensation of the bared breasts of Miyabi-senpai that was pressed on him―was not there. There was none at all. A girl’s sweet smell too―there was none.<br /> <br /> ''The master of this world was hesitating to convey all of that after all''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s hazy head was gradually filled with an out of place feeling.<br /> <br /> If he had to say it, it was subdued. Consequently he woke up in one go.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “…Miyabi-senpai, what’s with this absurd mind hack magic!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Shaking off Miyabi-senpai’s arm that hugged him closely, Kazuki stepped back from her.<br /> <br /> Inside Kazuki’s both hands, his beloved blade &lt;Doufuu&gt; was produced in response to Kazuki’s will.<br /> <br /> Directing it to ''the world itself'' in front of his eyes, he swung down Doufuu directly.<br /> <br /> That instant, all of the mirrors were smashed apart all at once. *barabarabara*…mirror fragments crumbled down, the mental world created from magic was buried into a total darkness. And then―<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki-!?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai became flustered and twitched in front of him.<br /> <br /> She was pouring magic power into Kazuki’s mind. But with that connection severed, Kazuki’s consciousness was recovered clearly.<br /> <br /> The pure white morning sun peeked out its face from the horizon, the deeply green colored trees of the early summer were swaying under the sunlight. Right beside them was a building made from brick. Here was―the garden of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> The usual place and time of his morning training. Just that the training this time was different from usual and not with Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> “…Fufu-, to bounce back from the magic that is my trump card like that, the result of the special training has come out hasn’t it?”<br /> <br /> After Miyabi-senpai *kohon* cleared her throat, she recovered her refreshing smile of composure.<br /> <br /> She was wearing a dress-type Magic Dress that was smooth like pearl and tinged with luster. It was the Magic Dress of &lt;Gremory&gt;, the demon of Solomon 72 Pillar that specialized in mind attack magic.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu…as a [teacher], I’m proud of my pupil’s growth. For that Kazuki who didn’t have any resistance to mind hack until that much to display how easily he rejected my magic, how amazing.”<br /> <br /> “Err, senpai…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki tried to interject but he was ignored.<br /> <br /> “Fufu-. But as a woman, to get repelled that easily just now, there is no way I won’t feel my pride get hacked apart into pieces, or to feel just a very little bit hurt…”<br /> <br /> “Senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki made a strong tone and cut off Miyabi-senpai’s rushed talk.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, it’s not me that has grown, there is unnaturalness in the magic just now.”<br /> <br /> “Uu-“<br /> <br /> “Senpai, a repertory of getting embarrassed of something absurd you did yourself is a little, you know.”<br /> <br /> Hearing that merciless fault-finding, the elf’s white face of Miyabi-senpai became bright red in a flash.<br /> <br /> “Sto, stop it! Stop pointing those out again so calmly!!”<br /> <br /> “When I thought that you were naked, but there was nothing visible from all the mosaic.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki dared to continue finding fault of Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> “…Even though I was planning to lay bare all of myself as I used that magic boldly…”<br /> <br /> Even if she thought so in her own imagination, but surely she hesitated unconsciously. <br /> <br /> Senpai ''always kept forcing herself to do something absurd''.<br /> <br /> “Senpai also made me naked, but there was also mosaic on my body that time.”<br /> <br /> He continued finding fault. Even though Miyabi-senpai tried to construct an alternate world that had reality but she failed.<br /> <br /> That was what urged Kazuki’s kill-joy―awakening.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai threw off her usual cool attitude to the wind and became deviant.<br /> <br /> “You too, you have never seen a woman’s naked body right!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was startled. He immediately remembered―something clearly came to mind.<br /> <br /> At the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave, about when he was made to do Japan Mythology’s traditional [naked dance] with Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Both of them danced naked, matching their rhythm with the music that resounded in the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. They danced madly.<br /> <br /> While they were dancing they couldn’t hide their body anywhere.<br /> <br /> Rather, that dance was something that drew out their respective [sexual charm] without any to spare, a dance of fierce instinctual motion. Completely like animal’s courting action―.<br /> <br /> Inside that passionate melody, Kazuki saw [the everything] of Kazuha-senpai’s body.<br /> <br /> Her breast, her butt too, even the spot where it should be hidden more…Those scenes were even now were burned in his brain.<br /> <br /> And then while both of them were getting excited with each other, they embraced each other hard. Not like the space of mental magic from before but feeling each other’s body’s sensation for real while being absorbed in a greedy kiss.<br /> <br /> Even the usually shy Kazuha-senpai was only at that time….<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki…wait, that face means…”<br /> <br /> Hearing Miyabi-senpai’s flustered voice, Kazuki came back to his senses with a look of realization. Somehow it seemed that what he thought came out in his expression.<br /> <br /> Guessing something from Kazuki’s reaction made Miyabi-senpai start trembling all over.<br /> <br /> “Li, like this I’m, just a clown in the end…. Using the [special training for resistance against mind attack magic] I planned to make Kazuki’s heart go ‘kyun kyun’ and fall for my sexy temptation but, I exposed something unsightly like this and got shown of the difference in our experience instead…”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, that’s not it! Just now, the various things I’m pointing out were not for making senpai shamed or anything like that…”<br /> <br /> His sadism was stimulated for just a little but he didn’t mean anything malicious.<br /> <br /> “Senpai always looks like you are forcing yourself to do something unreasonable after all, I just want senpai to please not continue trying to hurry our relationship strangely!”<br /> <br /> Getting her feeling impatient because she wanted to get along better and in the end she tried to tempt him using her naked body that she actually didn’t even want to show, such a thing was mistaken. Senpai was a lovely person and that was why he wished for her to treasure herself.<br /> <br /> Kazuki seized the shoulders of Miyabi-senpai who was trembling all over and talked.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai raised her face and faced Kazuki with damp eyes.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was always trying to feign herself as someone cool and composed.<br /> <br /> From the persecution she received because she was an elf since she was small, she was constantly donning the [mask of bluff] and he guessed that it had completely become a habit of hers.<br /> <br /> It was as if she was saying [I’m not particularly bothered here. I’m just full of composure.]<br /> <br /> Kazuki wanted to peel off that mask.<br /> <br /> Right now, Miyabi-senpai was laying bare her emotion as it was and she was facing Kazuki with eyes that became slightly teary.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is always doing bold things in a hurry trying to shorten your distance with me, but in truth senpai cannot prepare your feeling to do those kinds of things right?”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was strongly wishing for a companion that could communicate heart to heart with her. She tried to pour that feeling into Kazuki who didn’t care about the matter that she was an elf, however her effort was completely fruitless.<br /> <br /> “Please don’t do that kind of thing. I don’t dislike senpai or anything…I too want to get closer to senpai, that’s why I think like that.”<br /> <br /> In reality, the positivity level was taken naturally, Miyabi-senpai that did this kind of action didn’t have a high positivity level.<br /> <br /> Ryuutaki Miyabi―50<br /> <br /> It could be said that he got along really well with her though.<br /> <br /> By no means that tempting someone in nude even though it was only in a mental world could be seen as a proper relation.<br /> <br /> “…Oh well.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was a gracious person when she recognized her own mistake.<br /> <br /> “…When Kazuki asked me that [you want me to accompany you in a special training that drilled your resistance against mind attack magic], I thought that I could use this as an excuse to shorten our distance in one go by tempting you in the mental world with a ‘bam’…”<br /> <br /> “And then senpai stepped on the accelerator too much with the [ahaa~n] and fell off course completely.”<br /> <br /> “I think I only went off course just a little…”<br /> <br /> “The people who get into traffic accidents all say that.”<br /> <br /> “I have the confidence in my drift you know…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai looked down dejectedly again. It couldn’t be helped that she wanted to get along well with other person, but she didn’t want to break her cool image and expose her weakness so she tried hard too excessively and did strange things instead.<br /> <br /> It was just like someone that tried to give his friend some really expensive present as their gratitude yet it only made the other party troubled instead.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is really a lovely person.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki petted the head of Miyabi-senpai that sunk down in depression.<br /> <br /> The silver hair glittered silkily while unraveling apart under Kazuki’s hand.<br /> <br /> “…Calling your senior cute like that, I want you to stop treating me like a kid really.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai who tried to affect a stylish air averted her face aside with a ‘pui’.<br /> <br /> “Let’s just stop trying to look cool senpai.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki tried to make her look back at him and so he kept poking repeatedly at her smooth cheek.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai released a deep sigh ‘fuu’ while a heart mark of positivity level up was flying at him airily.<br /> <br /> “How troubling this is, you can immediately see through my bluff completely.”<br /> <br /> “I have confidence in my observation ability after all. Putting that aside senpai, thank you very much for keeping me company in my special training.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stopped his poking at her cheek and once again he lowered his head to the girl.<br /> <br /> “I too had felt that my resistance against mind attack magic is my weak point, so you really helped me.”<br /> <br /> “Oh well. Before I did something unnecessary so my illusion got broken, but other than that one time you kept falling into my trick a hundred times out of a hundred. Fufufu, don’t get too carried away okay.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai recovered back her composure as the senior and brushed up her hair. She was a woman so beautiful that could make those watching her pop their eyes and her body was wrapped in a beautiful dress, so the truth was this kind of behavior looked appropriate for her.<br /> <br /> “But I feel an improvement inside myself. I became able to feel something like a tentacle of magic power that reached out from senpai to me, I have a feeling that I have became able to resist. That’s right…Miyabi-senpai, there is something I want to test, so can you do me a favor of accompanying me one more time?”<br /> <br /> “I don’t mind.”<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much, please let me prepare myself a little.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki ''himself first'' began to chant his spell.<br /> <br /> “What kind of magic that you as the receiving side is going to…?”<br /> <br /> “I am the shaman of sword…rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> In front of Miyabi-senpai who was making a dubious face, Kazuki created the sword of evil decapitation and took a stance of aiming at the eye.<br /> <br /> “Please senpai.”<br /> <br /> Sensing the abnormal sign, Miyabi-senpai tightened her expression.<br /> <br /> “O eternal full moon that goes pale, forget your waxing and waning, become the mirror that illuminate the world! Disturb the world filled with moonlight here…Lunatic Labyrinth!!”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s Magic Dress emitted a strong light with a flash and her magic was cast.<br /> <br /> But that was all. The mind magic didn’t cause anything in this world, it was a silent magic.<br /> <br /> However if he concentrated his senses, he could perceive a single streak of [line of light that looked like a tentacle] was stretching from Miyabi-senpai to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally became able to perceive that.<br /> <br /> He guessed that the speed of this magic power tentacle―easily surpassed the speed of sound.<br /> <br /> But Hayashizaki-style’s Foresight got the better of speed.<br /> <br /> “Fu-!” Kazuki made a sharp exhale while reversing the tip of Futsu no Mitama and mowed it horizontally.<br /> <br /> There was no need to enter strength. He aimed for the weakest and the fastest swordsmanship.<br /> <br /> The magic power tentacle was caught by the streak of the sword. The line light passed through the blade without any resistance―and got bisected with a snap. Futsu no Mitama was a Sacred Treasure that severed evil.<br /> <br /> From the bisected line of light, Miyabi-senpai’s thought wave lost its destination and dispersed.<br /> <br /> …Becoming aware of the magic’s failure, Miyabi-senpai opened her eyes wide in shock.<br /> <br /> “I did it! The magic power was faintly visible and so I thought whether it [could be cut] or not and it was!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki floated a satisfied smile and made a guts pose all of a sudden.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai wordlessly approached him and reached out both her hands to Kazuki’s face.<br /> <br /> “…Senpai?”<br /> <br /> Both of Kazuki’s cheeks were pulled apart *gunii~* by Miyabi-senpai’s both hands.<br /> <br /> “Se, senpai! It huwt!! It reawwy huwt!!”<br /> <br /> “Just now…my pride as a senpai just got smashed apart into pieces. I got defeated in sexual experience point, and then even the mind magic that is my strong point also got destroyed…”<br /> <br /> The pain of getting his cheeks pulled apart was not prevented by his defensive magic power, Kazuki resigned himself to accept the pain while pacifying Miyabi-senpai with “Pfease sfoopp!”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai separated her hands from Kazuki’s cheeks and dejectedly hung her head down.<br /> <br /> “…I cannot stand back up again…my glass heart was completely smashed up into powder already…”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, this is just trying a little test and not really a real battle. I cannot do this without pulling out Futsu no Mitama first in preparation before the enemy uses the mind magic.”<br /> <br /> Even if he sensed the aim of the opponent’s mind magic beforehand, he wouldn’t make it in time if he started the chanting for Futsu no Mitama from there.<br /> <br /> …Only as long as he hadn’t raised Kazuha-senpai’s positivity level until 150 and he was unable to invoke the power of [Zekorbeni] though.<br /> <br /> “Rather senpai also said things like sexual experience, please stop saying such strange thing. My body is pure. To the degree that I want to praise myself for my self-restraint you know.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai puffed out her cheeks ‘puu’ and became sulky.<br /> <br /> “Stop using showy words like pure body or whatever. How about you just say it clearly, ‘I’m a virgin boy’.”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s the truth but somehow I don’t want to say it out from my mouth!”<br /> <br /> “I am a virgin just so you know!!!!”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so, I’m happy.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, the moment you heard that I’m a virgin you were completely staring at me greedily.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai said out strange thing out from a weird flow of conversation. Of course Kazuki didn’t actually direct such gaze or anything at her, but Miyabi-senpai had already decided that such a thing happened and elegantly brushed up her hair.<br /> <br /> “A young boy is completely a beast isn’t it? However with the power of moon maiden…with the tolerance of a senior, I will accept that carnal desire for you…fufufu…”<br /> <br /> It seemed that senpai was attempting to regain her footing in a superior position even if she had to do it forcibly. Though it was not like Kazuki particularly minded to be thought as someone like that, so Kazuki just watched over her with a warm gaze.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai turned and turned with twirls while taking an elegant pose. She was a pleasant person.<br /> <br /> When her skirt spread out gently like a single flower in full bloom, Kazuki got fascinated.<br /> <br /> ―Killing intent!<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly sensed a killing intent and took a distance in a flash from the twirling Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> Senpai didn’t notice anything and continued to turn around in twirling.<br /> <br /> This was…Summoning Magic’s sign.<br /> <br /> That’s right, ''that person'' had been monitoring them for a while since before!<br /> <br /> “O the wolf lonely wandering the forest, thy is granted the moonlight from the goddess. That light is the strength of warrior…change the sharp fang into blade, show that bravery! Blade Tusk!!”<br /> <br /> Two streaks of cutting light surged at the spot where Kazuki was just standing before.<br /> <br /> The twin swords that were manipulated by an unseen swordsman came flying through the air. They were boorish blades as if they were made from polished fangs of a giant beast. The damage would be big if he got hit by those directly.<br /> <br /> “Fu-!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki saw through the two consecutive attacks of the twin swords that were approaching him and repelled them back with Futsu no Mitama.<br /> <br /> The twin swords, being exorcised by the blade of evil decapitation, became particles of magic power and vanished.<br /> <br /> At the same time Futsu no Mitama also used up all its power and vanished.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai stopped her rotation precisely like a ballerina and raised a surprised voice.<br /> <br /> “…This magic is, Shinobu!”<br /> <br /> From the shadow of the trees that surrounded the Witch’s Mansion, Shinobu-senpai slowly showed her figure in response to the calling of her name. Her sharp gaze was directed at Kazuki straightforwardly as if in challenge.<br /> <br /> The Magic Dress that wrapped her body was a black combat uniform that was decorated with crystals of flame and ice. That nimble figure with the majority of her supple skin exposed had the atmosphere of a wild beast in some aspect.<br /> <br /> It was the Magic Dress of the female wolf demon that possessed two elements of flame and ice, &lt;Marcosias&gt;.<br /> <br /> Kazuki…deflected her sharp gaze like a swaying willow, ‘As expected, what a beautiful person’, while thinking like that.<br /> <br /> Her big and beautiful eyes that showed her strong will and her sharp facial features.<br /> <br /> She was glaring here with a grave expression, but her graceful face and figure were just that much prominent. If Miyabi-senpai whose smile had never cease was an elegant lily flower, Shinobu-senpai was like the blade of a drawn sword.<br /> <br /> She was slightly similar with Kanae of the past―that time when his relation with her was still not good.<br /> <br /> “…Why are you looking at me with such a stupid face?”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai talked sharply as if those words struck the side of Kazuki’s face.<br /> <br /> “A master of a real battle sword art, against an opponent that might be preparing an attack magic again, in such a situation why are you exposing such an idiotic face full of openings?”<br /> <br /> “If I keep putting my guard up against someone that I want to get along well with from now on, then even something that can go well will surely turn out no good.”<br /> <br /> That was what he learned based from getting closer with Koyuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki tapped the handle of his beloved sword on his waist with a slap.<br /> <br /> “Besides if it’s in this distance, then no matter how the table is turned on me it’s still my range.”<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuki who didn’t display any sign of agitation at all, Shinobu-senpai wrinkled her eyebrow with ‘muu~’ a pout.<br /> <br /> “Even just asking me things like that is something I’m thankful for. That means senpai has some interest in me right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked her as if egging her on. Thereupon Shinobu-senpai showed an oversensitive reaction and wordlessly turned over her body before darting away.<br /> <br /> Her back was becoming more distant toward the direction of the student’s dormitory.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai apologized to Kazuki with worry clearly expressed on her face.<br /> <br /> “Sorry, Kazuki. That child, to suddenly attack you like that…”<br /> <br /> “It’s all right senpai. I too want to get along well with Shinobu-senpai after all.”<br /> <br /> “What a wonderful tenacity for a sister sandwich you have there.”<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t have that kind of intenti…”<br /> <br /> She really wanted to treat him like a pervert no matter what huh….<br /> <br /> When he thought that he noticed how Miyabi-senpai’s cheeks were also faintly red. Getting embarrassed from what she said herself….<br /> <br /> “Although Shinobu, I actually think that she has a good compatibility with you.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, really? It’s fine if that’s true though.”<br /> <br /> “Because that girl is a spoiled child after all. It’s always a pampered paradise when it’s just the two of us. If she is combined with a meddlesome person like you, a perpetual motion machine of love should be completed.”<br /> <br /> “Doesn’t Shinobu-senpai have Miyabi-senpai?”<br /> <br /> “I…am not really such a capable sister.”<br /> <br /> The shoulders of Miyabi-senpai dropped even further crestfallenly.<br /> <br /> The relation between the Ryuutaki sisters was complicated.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai who turned into an elf and became a target of persecution was able to get back on her feet thanks to Shinobu-senpai who was always on her side. She was even able to become someone of positive thinking that wished to make friends in the outside world.<br /> <br /> However it was Shinobu-senpai who still hadn’t forgiven the outside world rather than the person concerned, Miyabi-senpai herself.<br /> <br /> She was still continuing to hate all the humans that persecuted her beloved elder twin sister.<br /> <br /> Like that Shinobu-senpai became completely ''barking in hostility'' at Kazuki who Miyabi-senpai was trying to get close to. For Miyabi-senpai that kind of thing unintentionally became a hindrance…so to speak Shinobu-senpai was standing in the way of Miyabi-senpai who wanted to make friends.<br /> <br /> Even while Miyabi-senpai was grateful to her little sister that had been on her side all the time for her―she was also guiltily thinking of her as a burden.<br /> <br /> To do something somehow about this [closed relationship of the two sisters]―there was no other way for Kazuki except to conquer the two of them simultaneously. To conquer only one of them meant that the other one would completely become isolated.<br /> <br /> A phrase like sister sandwich was really vulgar, but it was not necessarily a mistaken phrase in this situation.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, senpai.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki put his hand on Miyabi-senpai’s shoulder and restated himself.<br /> <br /> “After all there is no way I’m going to be reluctant to have a sister sandwich.”<br /> <br /> “…That’s so. Fufu-, just as I thought, Kazuki is really a beast.”<br /> <br /> In exchange for Kazuki’s honor, Miyabi-senpai recovered her smiling face back.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai returned home to the student dormitory because the special training was over.<br /> <br /> A deep gratitude welled up inside Kazuki from how she had intentionally come for him at the Witch’s Mansion since the early morning.<br /> <br /> He was really grateful that he could train even longer than usual.<br /> <br /> He guessed it was already the time where Mio and Koyuki had already changed into their maid uniform and were waiting for Kazuki in the kitchen. If Kazuki who was the chef was not there, the maids wouldn’t be able to make a delicious breakfast.<br /> <br /> Kazuki hurriedly circled from the courtyard toward the front entrance and pushed open the mansion’s door.<br /> <br /> The moment the door was opened, he felt lightheaded and the world shook. His mind turned white. Both his legs that were walking quickly got tangled. He almost fell down dangerously but he held himself by leaning on the door.<br /> <br /> When the door somehow closed, he leaned his back on the door and he became unable to move.<br /> <br /> …No, this is not the time to rest.<br /> <br /> If he didn’t make a delicious breakfast that Kaguya-senpai would happily enjoy….<br /> <br /> He thought so but―his consciousness was still really blank and got far away from him….<br /> <br /> Kazuki kept his back leaning on the door while his body was crumbling down to the floor gradually.<br /> <br /> “…Otouto-kun? Otouto-kun!?”<br /> <br /> ―The moment he lost his consciousness, he had the feeling that there was panicked footsteps rushing at him and a voice calling at him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ….<br /> <br /> His consciousness was slowly coming back.<br /> <br /> When he noticed, Kazuki was wrapped inside a fluffy warmth.<br /> <br /> A futon…. This charming sensation that tempted a person excessively into depravity was the sensation of futon in the morning.<br /> <br /> It was one of the strongest enemies in Kazuki’s whole life.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had lived his life until now by continuously admonishing himself that he must not waste even just a second pointlessly. He woke earlier than anybody else in the morning where he must train and finish the housework.<br /> <br /> If someone tried to continuously accomplish such a living everyday, then a battle with this formidable enemy was unavoidable.<br /> <br /> Really a formidable enemy. If he relaxed his heart even for just a little, then it was going to be his last moment.<br /> <br /> I have to become stronger and stronger.<br /> <br /> You think something like a mere futon is enough to defeat me…<br /> <br /> …No, wait. Something is strange.<br /> <br /> This morning, shouldn’t he have already shaken off this temptation once already?<br /> <br /> Even though he had been victorious once already, why did he get forced into a battle with the futon like this again?<br /> <br /> …Don’t tell me the time looped? Is this some kind of new attack magic?<br /> <br /> He had to toughen his mind and resist this temptation!<br /> <br /> However…but….<br /> <br /> Oh futooon…. O futooon is so warmmm….<br /> <br /> “It’s fine to just keep sleeping like that.”<br /> <br /> A gentle voice came down from on top of the futon.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was rolling inside the futon directed his half asleep eyes to the bright world outside.<br /> <br /> With the ceiling of his own room as the background, Kaguya-senpai was peeking into Kazuki’s face with a gentle smile on her face. …She was a person that absolutely shouldn’t exist in this time and this location.<br /> <br /> “…Kaguya-senpai? How…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki launched his question while dozing off.<br /> <br /> “…How could you be awake already in this kind of time?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was always a sleepyhead from her low blood pressure. Kaguya-senpai looking down on him from on top of the bed was supposed to be a scene that was absolutely impossible.<br /> <br /> There was even the time when Kazuki was sleeping together with senpai, although he tried to wake her up early, because she suddenly started to chant [Guernica] mumblingly in her sleep talking, he gave up from feeling a danger to his own body.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, last night you also practiced magic chanting alone until late at night right?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai pointed out while her finger poked at the tips of Kazuki’s nose.<br /> <br /> …Was he seen?<br /> <br /> Kazuki became aware of three weak points of his during the battles in the recent times. &lt;Zekorbeni&gt; control. His nonexistent resistance against mind magic. His slow chanting speed.<br /> <br /> Those weak points had to be overcome and he began to work hard immediately.<br /> <br /> Last night he trained intensively in casting magic using Zekorbeni until late at night. This morning he was accompanied by Miyabi-senpai since dawn and drilled his resistance against mind magic. Tonight he planned to train his chanting speed intensively.<br /> <br /> He crammed intensive training both in the morning and in the night.<br /> <br /> He had no choice but to become strong for even a little, even for a second faster.<br /> <br /> Suddenly, he remembered about a matter of the past―the period when he was first taken as an adopted child into Hayashizaki household.<br /> <br /> For the sake of catching up with Kanae who had advanced far more ahead than himself as a swordsman, there was no other way than to pile up training even when Kanae was sleeping. His habit of training intensively in the early morning was also formed from there.<br /> <br /> That’s right. ''If he encountered an opponent that was stronger than himself then he had to do that kind of thing''.<br /> <br /> “Even though you were staying up until that late, I got worried whether you would also do your daily routine of early morning intensive training, and so I thought of getting up as early as possible to watch your condition. Even so when I woke up it was already the time when Otouto-kun had finished your training though…and then you became like this.”<br /> <br /> ‘I see’, Kazuki understood the situation. Kaguya-senpai arrived just after when Miyabi-senpai left and he got relaxed from his tension. And then he….<br /> <br /> “You were collapsed from the double punch of insufficient sleep and light magic intoxication, so I carried you to your room.”<br /> <br /> That meant he got completely seen in his most pitiful timing.<br /> <br /> “…It’s pathetic to become like this just from that much. For my magic intoxication, I’m already fine. I’m sorry senpai, I’ll immediately make the meal so…”<br /> <br /> “It’s no good to force yourself you know, go sleep!”<br /> <br /> Both of Kaguya-senpai’s hands stopped and pushed down the shoulder of Kazuki who was trying to get up.<br /> <br /> “See here, certainly the housework in the Witch’s Mansion is allocated to the junior, but it’s fine to push it to the senior when you are busy. Even I was a junior last year, that’s why if it’s just a meal I can make it myself.”<br /> <br /> “…Senpai, now that I look carefully, that appearance is…”<br /> <br /> He was late to notice from being half-asleep, but Kaguya-senpai was dressed up strangely in clothes he was familiar with.<br /> <br /> “Fufu-“ Chuckling, Kaguya-senpai made a full turn in a twirl.<br /> <br /> That clothing of hers was a maid uniform.<br /> <br /> This was the first time he had ever seen Kaguya-senpai wearing a maid uniform.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s sinful body was perfectly wrapped in a neat and clean fabric. This size’s perfect fit of the clothing didn’t come from a ready-made good, there was no doubt that this was the hand-tailored clothes of Mio.<br /> <br /> But it was a long skirt type that was different from Mio’s favorite mini skirt type. The exposure rate was low, but it didn’t hide the charm of Kaguya-senpai, instead being restrained inside the cloth emphasized her charm pointedly. Kazuki’s half asleep head spontaneously awakened.<br /> <br /> “Mio-chan prepared this for me for when a time like this might come! I and Mio-chan and the others are going to finish the housework today, so Otouto-kun just rest here comfortably!”<br /> <br /> “But senpai, I’m fine already.”<br /> <br /> “Rely on us properly in the time when you should rely on us. I think that’s the best shortcut for Otouto-kun to become strong.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki swallowed his words and stayed quiet.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai perfectly understood his feeling.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s both hands gently wrapped up Kazuki’s cheeks.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun is always doing things excessively like this, and so you could become this strong until now.”<br /> <br /> “…Even everyone of the Witch’s Mansion are also like that right?”<br /> <br /> Even Mio since she found her talent for magic for the first time had struggled to death piling up magic training. Koyuki too exactly because she was an elf that she possessed the pride of not wanting to lose to anyone in magic. Kaguya-senpai too, she was raised until now with forceful indoctrination from her father to [be the strongest].<br /> <br /> Although Hikaru-senpai was that kind of personality so her hard work and hardship didn’t show at all in the surface.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.08 042.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> In this Witch’s Mansion that gathered the small number of elites even among the Knight Academy that gathered the elites of their same generation, there shouldn’t be any human that didn’t do excessive effort.<br /> <br /> “But you are shouldering a special something.”<br /> <br /> The power of King….<br /> <br /> But why was he made to shoulder that, even that reason was unknown to him.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun right now is impatient to become strong even for a little aren’t you? If that’s so then we will support you. That’s why Otouto-kun is prohibited from house work for a while! As the King that we maids are serving, you are to have a total rest without any disturbance!”<br /> <br /> “It’s unsatisfactory in that case…housework also doubles as my hobby so…”<br /> <br /> “But Otouto-kun right now is sleepy right?”<br /> <br /> Sleepy. He planned to get over his schedule today without sleeping like this, but there was no mistake that sleeping now would be effective for his class and training later.<br /> <br /> It was the truth that relying on his surrounding was a shortcut for the sake of becoming strong.<br /> <br /> “…Sorry, senpai.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s kindness permeated into his chest. Kazuki once more began to doze off sleepily.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai kissed Kazuki’s cheek gently.<br /> <br /> “It’s perfectly fine even if you don’t apologize, geez. Yosh, I’ll put all that I have to finish the work!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai made a pose of showing off her arm’s muscle strongly and then she left from the room. Kazuki genuinely entered a sleeping posture and went back to sleep.<br /> <br /> After that there was something that started to stir restlessly inside his futon.<br /> <br /> “Ka―zuki-“<br /> <br /> The face that got out together with a whispering voice was Hikaru-senpai in her fit-wear appearance.<br /> <br /> “…Hikaru-senpai?”<br /> <br /> “I’m not really good in housework, and so, I got sacked from being maid.”<br /> <br /> Wasn’t this person supposed to be a junior too last year….<br /> <br /> Now that he thought back before, Akane-senpai had said about Hikaru-senpai that [you are only good in brewing black tea].<br /> <br /> Such thing meant no other than…that kind of thing huh. And then, she got sacked just now.<br /> <br /> “That’s why I turned into a body pillow and took the role to cure Kazukiii! Loo―k, come here-“<br /> <br /> Showing a friendly wide grin, Hikaru-senpai spread out her hands inside the futon.<br /> <br /> Kazuki whose reasoning had half went in a trip to the world of dream leaped into those arms without hesitation. He encircled his hands on Hikaru-senpai’s waist and hugged her tightly while stuffing his face into Hikaru-senpai’s breast with a plop.<br /> <br /> “Hyaa, when Kazuki is being this unexpectedly assertive, it feels like my heart is going to explode. Geez. Ahaha-.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai also hugged Kazuki back happily. Softly the sweet aroma of a girl filled the futon.<br /> <br /> The fit wear that clung to the body tightly was an underwear that was the same as being naked. Kazuki felt up Hikaru-senpai’s breast a lot with his face and their skin overlapped with each other throughout their body. But Kazuki felt healed rather than sensuality from this.<br /> <br /> A hugging pillow had the function to lighten the burden from the body posture and recuperate the mental stress.<br /> <br /> …This was his first time completely relying on other people to this extent. Even to Kanae he was not like this….<br /> <br /> Kazuki let go of his consciousness while thinking of such a thing, sinking into his sleepiness.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> The breakfast everyone made by combining their strength was too extravagant to be considered as a breakfast. It seemed that everyone overdid their effort in their respective attempt to display their good point.<br /> <br /> It was an extravagant enjoyable breakfast.<br /> <br /> After that he went to school with everyone. Personal training was not the only important thing.<br /> <br /> There was no class in the Magic Division that was pointless for real battle. After all the instructor Liz Liza-sensei was a former Knight. Kazuki who had experienced a real battle with Yamato understood well the value of the classes.<br /> <br /> Thanks to such kindness, Kazuki was able to concentrate just like usual in class and receive the lesson.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> And then when the school was over, the student council members gathered in the student council room.<br /> <br /> It was a meeting for the sake of conquering the &lt;Grand Haunted Ground&gt;.<br /> <br /> The conclusion between Japan and Yamato turned out that it would be decided by &lt;The Struggle for the Three Sacred Treasures Race&gt;.<br /> <br /> It was an agreement to discover the Three Sacred Treasures within their respective territories, and with the Three Sacred Treasures in hand victory or defeat would be decided by [the Kings’ one on one fight].<br /> <br /> Each of the Three Sacred Treasures was the embodiment of [the authority of Japan Mythology’s King] that possessed mighty power. With the difference in strength between Kazuki and Ikousai, the number of Sacred Treasure they possessed would become the decisive factor of the match, that was what Amaterasu predicted. Kazuki who saw Ikousai as his rival was also of the same opinion.<br /> <br /> Sacred Treasure was born inside a Haunted Ground. A large scale Haunted Ground in the east Japan that could produce a powerful Sacred Treasure in the degree of the Three Sacred Treasures was only possible inside the Grand Haunted Ground, &lt;Fuji’s sea of trees&gt;, the Haunted Ground that had existed since the past &lt;Tokyo’s Great Disaster&gt; and even now it was still continuing to expand its size.<br /> <br /> But because the Knight Order couldn’t completely get rid of their spy problem, Commander Yamagata who was promoted into the commanding officer of the operation made a decision that said [only the students of the Knight Academy were allowed to enter Fuji’s sea of trees].<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was the Chief Student Council President accepted that order and so he formed groups by picking the students who had the ability for this operation.<br /> <br /> This time was a meeting to talk about that matter.<br /> <br /> “Well then, first is the allocation for the searching time but…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki began to talk while looking around the faces he was familiar with. He was not used to this behavior for leading a meeting. Actually he wanted Kaguya-senpai to be the one that managed the meeting in his place.<br /> <br /> Kazuki distributed to everyone the list of a hundred student’s names that had been narrowed down from all the applicants for this Grant Haunted Ground capture based on their quest accomplishment and school grades. Naturally there were many names of the second year students in the list.<br /> <br /> The seniors got excited for a while saying things like “That person is here” or “That person is not here”.<br /> <br /> “I am thinking of dividing these hundred names into seven groups with me, Mio, Koyuki, Lotte, Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, and Kazuha-senpai as the leaders.”<br /> <br /> This matter was already something decided from their previous meeting.<br /> <br /> With his power of King, Kazuki was able to sense the whereabouts of the companions which whom he had tied a bond with. Inside the Fuji’s sea of trees, all kind of communication devices became unusable, but if they used this power then Kazuki would be able to grasp the general movement of each group.<br /> <br /> In this point too it could be said that rather than the Knight Order, Kazuki and the others were more suited to explore this Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> For the sake of making use of that ability to the limit, he had to assign a companion with high positivity level for each group.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine as long as they are assigned as a member so there is no need to go as far as making them leader. For the group of someone like Koyuki-chan or Lotte who doesn’t have strong pressure, I think it’s better to insert a second year that can take the group’s leadership. Someone like Kana-chan.”<br /> <br /> Certainly Kaguya-senpai’s opinion was true. Although the strength of Koyuki and Lotte didn’t compare unfavorably with the second years, they were not the type that recommended themselves and took the leadership.<br /> <br /> “Me, me too, to be a leader is a little…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai raised her hand timidly.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t Kazuha-senpai currently one of the top class powerful people in the Sword Division?”<br /> <br /> Having a contract with a powerful Diva that was Futsunushi no Kami who had become one with Take Mikadzuchi, her skill in sword art was also above the standard, and a masterful use of diverse kind of general magic. She was not just merely strong, someone like her that could do anything skillfully surely should be able to gather respect from her surrounding in a place like the Grand Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> “Uu―…. Because the guys that has always been treating me like a dunce are…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was hanging her head down while mumbling unintelligibly. Kaguya-senpai who sat beside her petted her head comfortingly.<br /> <br /> “I think it’ll be better if senpai has more confidence in yourself but…certainly being made into a leader so suddenly might be too quick.”<br /> <br /> “I’ll take the leader position-!”<br /> <br /> On the other hand Mio raised her hand full of confidence. Somehow it felt doubtful looking at her like that….<br /> <br /> They had to pay attention to the composition of members for these two’s groups.<br /> <br /> For Kazuha-senpai’s group she needed gentle members that wouldn’t disagree with Kazuha-senpai’s humility, while for Mio’s group she needed members that could support her calmly.<br /> <br /> “Next is, right. I want to put Kamimura-san into Lotte’s group.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that after remembering something, Kamimura-san who was standing snugly in one of the room’s corner like a kokeshi doll&lt;ref&gt;Limbless wooden doll&lt;/ref&gt; nodded her head repeatedly *kokukokukoku!* in high speed. When Lotte went “Itsuki-san~” and hugged her, “Lotte-shishou~&lt;ref&gt;Master/teacher&lt;/ref&gt; !” Kamimura-san hugged her back.<br /> <br /> Their master-disciple bond of the otaku world was solid.<br /> <br /> “I feel that Nii-sama’s group should be made of a few numbers of elite.”<br /> <br /> After Kanae clearly said that in a surprise attack, Kazuki went “Eh?” in bewilderment.<br /> <br /> Inside his heart Kazuki was thinking that they head to assign the superior capable person with plenty of experience for Mio or Lotte or Koyuki’s group. But the one who thought differently from him was not just Kanae.<br /> <br /> “That’s true isn’t it.” Kaguya-senpai nodded.<br /> <br /> “Right right, that’s only natural.” Even Hikaru-senpai also agreed.<br /> <br /> “Please wait, there is no need to treat me specially or anything like that.”<br /> <br /> “This is not a special treatment, Nii-sama. This is only natural if we think about Nii-sama’s role. In other words Nii-sama has to lead a few elites with high mobility, isn’t that so?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai also nodded wordlessly as if to say that they were of the exact same opinion.<br /> <br /> …It might be like what Kanae said.<br /> <br /> It stood to reason. The idea was really so logical that it was strange he didn’t think of that himself.<br /> <br /> “Then if we choose from this list the few elites then first from the Magic Division is this person…”<br /> <br /> “From the Sword Division this person I guess…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai and Kanae huddled their body together and selected some students’ name.<br /> <br /> There would be no mistake if he left the selection of personnel from both department to these two.<br /> <br /> “ “What about this kind of lineup?” “<br /> <br /> Before long Kaguya-senpai and Kanae wrote the members of Kazuki’s group and presented it to him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Hayashizaki Kazuki・Ryuutaki Miyabi・Ryuutaki Shinobu・Katsura Karin・Hikita Kohaku<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―His group was completely composed of his acquaintances as the members.<br /> <br /> Certainly if all the members were his acquaintances then their mobility would increase.<br /> <br /> “The Ryuutaki sisters who are prominent powerful people among the Magic Division, and Karin-chan with Kohaku-chan who can fight in flexible way. This is exactly the lineup that can show the greatest performance with the minimum number!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai spiritedly tightened her fist. It was certainly perfect only from hearing her talk.<br /> <br /> But no matter how he thought of it, there was one problematic person among the list.<br /> <br /> “So Shinobu-senpai is also volunteering to come. Though perhaps she is only coming along to accompany Miyabi-senpai who was volunteering first. But I wonder if she can coordinate with other members skillfully in a party…to be frank it seems impossible.”<br /> <br /> “That she is a troublesome character is also one of the reasons why we pushed her to Otouto-kun.”<br /> <br /> Certainly trouble would surely occur no matter which group Shinobu-senpai was entered.<br /> <br /> Then perhaps he should think of this as a good chance to shorten his distance with Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> By any chance perhaps it was exactly because Shibou-senpai was volunteering for this quest that she became bothered and she showed her face this morning.<br /> <br /> As for the remaining formation all the seniors were going “This person is strong” or “The combination of this person and that person is good” and the like. While they got excited as they pleased while the people concerned were not here, the decision of the groups’ composition went smoothly.<br /> <br /> “For the time being we have managed to understand the Demon Beasts that are living in level 1, so there will be no problem with these members. All of them are people who have been piling up accomplishment in quests until now after all.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai said in satisfaction while overlooking the finished member chart from above. From the advance troop unit they had sent out ahead, they had managed to grasp the characteristic of the Demon Beasts that appeared in the [Level 1] area that they were going to investigate this time.<br /> <br /> The atmosphere of the student council room relaxed slightly from Hikaru-senpai’s words.<br /> <br /> “…I wonder if it will go that smoothly. I think it’s better if we prepare our mentality for a possible intervention from Yamato.”<br /> <br /> Kanae curtly gave her argument with her posture reclining on her elbow.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too was making a face that said “Muu―”.<br /> <br /> “You are right. Before this too the Haunted Ground was practically trespassed by the Italian Queen.”<br /> <br /> Regina slipped through past the gate’s security by transforming from her human figure.<br /> <br /> “Commander Yamagata said that he is going to make the security even stricter though.”<br /> <br /> The optimistic Hikaru-senpai pointed out the bright side.<br /> <br /> Adamantium wall that enclosed the Grand Haunted Ground. In addition the increased security that was even stricter.<br /> <br /> Thinking normally, trespassing inside or anything like that wasn’t possible no matter how.<br /> <br /> “But there still exists some ways that human intellect cannot even imagine using the Summoning Magic of Diva…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki let out the anxiety that was oozing out from the bottom of his stomach bluntly from his mouth.<br /> <br /> “…Eleonora was spying using magic that changed her whole body into water. I think we have to assume that an unknown enemy will invade using some kind of unimaginable method like this.”<br /> <br /> Because of Kazuki’s words, the atmosphere of the meeting room that had relaxed started to become heavy.<br /> <br /> They couldn’t use wireless inside the Grand Haunted Ground and even if something happened they couldn’t call for help. When they imagined that some kind of unimaginable accident would occur in that kind of place, it was really frightening to the degree that made their body hair stood on end.<br /> <br /> Failure in the Haunted Ground might be directly connected to death.<br /> <br /> Adding the powerful Demon Beasts that had lived there from the start into the mix, this was a situation where it wouldn’t be strange even if some intervention from who knew where like Yamato・China・other magic advanced countries came at them.<br /> <br /> The location was a perilous zone where all the battlefields they had gone through until now couldn’t even compare.<br /> <br /> “Now that it has become like this, Nii-sama’s group has become all the more important in this quest.”<br /> <br /> Kanae concluded like that.<br /> <br /> …It was just like she said.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Koyuki was the one who took over the record of proceedings and data preparation that Yumeno-san had done before this.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s methodical and serious manner in her work was by no means inferior to Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> Koyuki stayed behind in the student council room even after the meeting and continued her work. Kazuki was helping with that.<br /> <br /> All the work was over around the time when the evening sun painted the student council room in deep red from the window.<br /> <br /> Now should be about the time for everyone else to do the housework of the Witch’s Mansion for him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was helping Koyuki with her work was because he had received a promise from her to accompany him in a magic special training after this.<br /> <br /> One of his weaknesses among his three weak points―he had a plan to train intensively his chanting speed after this.<br /> <br /> Sleep urged a person’s mental recovery. He had recovered back some of his magic power from the magic intoxication this morning.<br /> <br /> “Well then, how about we go back home?”<br /> <br /> Picking the time when Koyuki finished printing out the printout to be distributed to the students, Kazuki called out to her.<br /> <br /> Koyuki said “Ok” and came closer to Kazuki’s side before turning off the electricity of the student council room.<br /> <br /> When the room became dark, Koyuki clung to Kazuki’s arm tightly.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry I got delayed this long.”<br /> <br /> “I too am sorry to ask you for training.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki said that you want to be taught by me after all.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki said that happily and pulled Kazuki’s arm.<br /> <br /> It was difficult to share the [trick] of using magic by explaining in words. The person around Kazuki who could do that in the easiest way for him to understand was Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “It’s no good unless we train in the most effective way that can suppress the magic power consumption as much as possible. After all we are going to challenge the Grand Haunted Ground the day after tomorrow.”<br /> <br /> “Can we do such a thing like that?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki nodded while walking side by side through the gloomy corridor where the light had been switched off.<br /> <br /> …The broken glass window had been replaced, but the scars on the wall and floor from the battle between Lotte and Yumeno-san in the corridor were still fresh.<br /> <br /> “The process for chanting Summoning Magic is divided into four, those are [Access] [Order] [Targeting] and [Cast]. Our training will not be going through all those processes, it’s better to narrow down our training to the process you are poor at.”<br /> <br /> “I see, so you mean there is no need to actually chant the spell.”<br /> <br /> “From what I’ve seen, Kazuki’s strong point is in the Targeting. Surely that’s because until now there are a lot of chances for you to cast defensive magic to your comrade. In contrast you are bad at Order…the process to exchange information with the contracted Diva. But rather than calling you poor at it, it might be because Kazuki’s Summoning Magic is peculiar.”<br /> <br /> The exchange of information in Kazuki’s Summoning Magic needed to go through Leme first before reaching Vepar or Phoenix.<br /> <br /> Perhaps because there was one extra filter he needed to go through that the difficulty level for him was high in this process.<br /> <br /> “Order, to put simply it is Telepathy with the Diva, so Kazuki’s chanting speed should make progress just by training your Telepathy.”<br /> <br /> “If Koyuki said so then that must be true.”<br /> <br /> Both of them changed their shoes and got out of the school building.<br /> <br /> “Then, let’s do this immediately.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki jumped the gun and said so to him when they went out to the boulevard at night.<br /> <br /> “Eh? We are doing it here? Certainly we can do it anywhere if it’s just Telepathy but…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki pulled his arm in exchange of a reply. She led Kazuki toward the corner of the boulevard into the shadow of the trees where the light didn’t reach.<br /> <br /> It was a period of time where all the students had already returned home to the student dormitory.<br /> <br /> Having his arm released, Kazuki faced Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “After this I will send in a strong thought wave across the [wall of heart]. Sense that thought wave and then please reply to me using your thought wave.”<br /> <br /> The wall of heart was the security that was the boundary line of one’s ego. Human’s mind was connected with all human race through the Astrum, but the mind was equipped with a quarantine mechanism so that other people’s mind wouldn’t come flowing inside.<br /> <br /> The mind attack magic like what Miyabi-senpai was specializing in broke this wall of heart and exerted various influences to other people’s mind.<br /> <br /> If Koyuki threw her thought wave as hard as she could to Kazuki, and Kazuki tried to sense that with all his strength, then he would be able to read the content of that thought wave and he would manage a [telepathic dialogue]. That should become a good training for Telepathy magic.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s body was wrapped in bluish white light and her appearance changed into her Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “I’m calmer in this form when I’m using magic.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki said that even before Kazuki could voice his question. Even inside the semi-darkness, Koyuki’s Magic Dress emitted a dim opal light, highlighting the beauty of Koyuki’s white skin.<br /> <br /> Seeing Kazuki was unconsciously charmed, Koyuki fidgeted around her thighs in embarrassment.<br /> <br /> “Well then, we are starting.”<br /> <br /> A thread of blue magic power light lengthened from Koyuki to Kazuki. If Miyabi-senpai’s mind attack magic was a tentacle, what reached out from Koyuki was really something dainty that should be called exactly as a thread.<br /> <br /> ―The thread touched Kazuki’s wall of heart. Kazuki sensed it with all his strength.<br /> <br /> {…I want to eat, ramen.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki was taken aback by the unexpected message.<br /> <br /> He replied with all his strength.<br /> <br /> {So you want to eat ramen, Koyuki.}<br /> <br /> {Tonkotsu&lt;ref&gt;Dish made with pork belly and bones, simmered with miso, sake, vegetables, etc. (from Kagoshima)&lt;/ref&gt; ramen with dense seafood topping and heavy back fat is good.}<br /> <br /> Koyuki transmitted a message that was like a bundle of surprise while keeping her face expressionless.<br /> <br /> {Is that so…you unexpectedly have an aggressive taste I see.}<br /> <br /> {Please make it after this.}<br /> <br /> {Still I have never dealt with tonkotsu…}<br /> <br /> This was a special training so it didn’t matter whatever was the topic they used, but he never thought that it they would begin a tonkotsu discussion.<br /> <br /> {Seems like you can follow the talk with just this much…well then I’m going to up the gear okay.}<br /> <br /> {!?}<br /> <br /> The number of the thread of thought that lengthened from Koyuki increased several times over right away.<br /> <br /> This is, is she saying at him to perceive all of this!?<br /> <br /> Each of the threads was―filled with tremendous density of tonkotsu talk.<br /> <br /> {The secret of tonkotsu ramen’s deliciousness is in the golden combination of the umami&lt;ref&gt;Fifth category of taste, corresponding to the flavour of glutamates&lt;/ref&gt; ingredients. Tonkotsu possess an abundance of inosinic acid, but when it is added with the glutamine acid that soy sauce possess, it will create a synergism effect not in the range of mere addition of the two component but a multiplication of the two, giving birth of swelling flavor. A dense body and overflowing aroma of the rural beauty bring about the profundity that can be explained scientifically…a complete ramen that possess both wildness and intelligence, that is tonkotsu.}<br /> <br /> {Speaking of tonkotsu ramen then it’s Kyushu, but we can see the different inclination of the tonkotsu ramen that we eat here in Kanto compared to its birthplace. We tend to associate the food called tonkotsu ramen with thickness and greasiness, but that is the inclination that is well known in Kanto, yet the tonkotsu ramen in its birthplace doesn’t have any greasiness or thickness in it at all for even a little.}<br /> <br /> The thought wave that reached through the wall of heart was delicate, if he let his mind wander even for just a little then it would pass through inside his head and disappear completely. Kazuki held himself to not fall into panic and concentrated his awareness before continuing to listen.<br /> <br /> {More about the tonkotsu ramen in its birthplace, its soup is purely using tonkotsu as the main stock. In contrast, Kanto’s tonkotsu ramen doesn’t use only tonkotsu but also various things like seafood or chicken bone, mixing the soup stock to add even further the sweetness of the back fat. If we are talking about tonkotsu then we tend to think of fat but, it’s really obvious yet tonkotsu itself is made from bone so it’s not a fatty ingredient.}<br /> <br /> {It can be said that tonkotsu in its birthplace has a sharp taste like a purely polished katana, while Kanto’s tonkotsu is like an orchestra with spreading multilayered flavor.}<br /> <br /> Right there Koyuki took a breather, so Kazuki replied to her.<br /> <br /> {I never knew that Koyuki was a tonkotsu freak until that far…furthermore, do you like greasy-type of food?}<br /> <br /> {Yes…sometimes I just want to gorge myself without thinking. …Do you think I’m strange?}<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively pondered himself. Honestly saying, the image of Koyuki and tonkotsu ramen didn’t match. But if he was asked if he harbored a negative emotion from that, then the answer was no.<br /> <br /> Tonkotsu was a food with strong aroma, but if it was Koyuki then surely she was able to easily and completely get rid of the disagreeable smell that stuck on her with general magic.<br /> <br /> Until now Kazuki had never done a date with Koyuki outside the academy, but he imagined that it would also be a fresh and fun experience for both of them to slurp ramen together in a shop that Koyuki recommended.<br /> <br /> {It’s not strange. It’s interesting to know of one aspect of yours that I had never known until now.}<br /> <br /> Koyuki looked down and stayed quiet for a while.<br /> <br /> {I wanted to talk about it with someone since a long time…. This is something embarrassing that I normally couldn’t talk about but…I have the feeling that I could transmit it honestly if using an exchange of thought wave.}<br /> <br /> Not to mention Kazuki, Koyuki’s chanting speed was even faster than Mio. Regarding that, this girl that had closed her heart for a long time might had the feeling of [wanting to understand each other with someone] that was secretly suppressed inside her heart all this time as the driving force of her strong Telepathy, perhaps there was also that kind of factor behind the secret of her skill.<br /> <br /> Surely Koyuki wanted to transmit many of her feelings to Kazuki using this special training as a pretext.<br /> <br /> Koyuki opened her mouth and this time she talked using her mouth.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, take in my feeling more and more, then please give your reply to me.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki nodded, Koyuki was happily bashful.<br /> <br /> {I like you. Kazuki, I love you.}<br /> <br /> With her cheeks reddening bewitchingly, Koyuki transmitted her thought wave at him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too became embarrassed, but this was a special training so it couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> {I love you too.}<br /> <br /> He responded so and hugged her tightly.<br /> <br /> {…I’m thinking of what I want to do right now, please sense it and respond.}<br /> <br /> Koyuki stared fixedly at Kazuki and transmitted so.<br /> <br /> She was earnestly staring at him fixedly while her cheeks reddened.<br /> <br /> To perceive an obscure thought that hadn’t been turned into a message past the wall of heart, a Telepathy strength in the level of Lotte was necessary.<br /> <br /> But even without having that much strength, he understood what the current Koyuki wanted from him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki brought his face near the face of Koyuki who was staring at him drunkenly and overlapped their lips.<br /> <br /> Immediately, Koyuki sucked strongly at Kazuki’s lips.<br /> <br /> {…Kazuki too please suck my lips. Please, ''desire'' me more.}<br /> <br /> Even with their mouth blocked from the kiss, their thought wave could reach each other.<br /> <br /> Koyuki coaxed him while kissing at the same time.<br /> <br /> {Koyuki really likes kissing like this huh.}<br /> <br /> Koyuki had the habit of sucking profusely when they were kissing.<br /> <br /> That was the manifestation of her feeling of [wanting to desire each other].<br /> <br /> From Kazuki’s side too, he sucked Koyuki’s small and soft lips with all he had.<br /> <br /> Both of them breathed in at each other, a sound of “puu” that sounded like the whine of a rabbit escaped from the gap between their lips.<br /> <br /> {…I want you to touch my ear while kissing.}<br /> <br /> He almost failed to sense the thought wave having his attention taken by the kiss, but that somewhat strange demand was just barely taken in by Kazuki. The special training’s difficulty level went up from him being too engrossed on the kiss.<br /> <br /> {Doesn’t Koyuki get lewd sensation from having your ear touched?}<br /> <br /> Elf’s long ear was a sensitive spot. There was an event before when Kazuki touched Koyuki’s ear and she remonstrated him saying that it was an indecent action. And now this time it was Koyuki who coaxed him to do that.<br /> <br /> {…I want you, to do lewd thing to me.}<br /> <br /> A frank reply. Kazuki reflexively faltered. He brought up his right hand that was circled on Koyuki’s back until her long ear, and then he stroked her ear from its root until its tips gently like handling a feather.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s back quivered with a twitch.<br /> <br /> {Koyuki is a lewd child aren’t you?}<br /> <br /> {…Yes. Do that kind of thing even more, I want to feel Kazuki desiring me…I want you to desire my heart and my body too…}<br /> <br /> Even during that time they were still continuing to inhale in each other’s lips strongly. Sometimes, a heated sigh leaked out from the corner of their lips. Her expression was not visible while kissing like this, but surely right now her face had became totally red.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki’s left hand too, please touch me more everywhere.}<br /> <br /> When just her ear was unsatisfactory, she clung at Kazuki while coaxing him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had already separated his left hand―and he put his palm on Koyuki’s small breast.<br /> <br /> It was small, but his palm felt the soft squishy mass.<br /> <br /> After enjoying that sensation for a while, he discovered a different sensation on the center of his palm. He tried to rub that sensation with the center of his palm in a roll. That part pushed up the Magic Dress’s surface that was like a thin opal film and made known of its presence in pink color.<br /> <br /> When that part was stimulated, Koyuki’s breath was steadily becoming rough.<br /> <br /> {By any chance, did Koyuki change into your magic dress so it will be easier for me to touch you?}<br /> <br /> {…Yes. Rather than a uniform, I wanted to feel directly…}<br /> <br /> {Even though you said a reason that sounded serious before this, you liar.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki bullied Koyuki with words driven by his sadistic mind.<br /> <br /> {Please don’t say mean thing.} Koyuki sucked at his lips even stronger. As if to make excuse that her feeling to desire each other was too strong so it couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> {My Magic Dress, what does Kazuki think?}<br /> <br /> Koyuki transmitted at him a mental wavelength that seemed anxious. Koyuki was still yet to have confidence on herself. That was why she wanted to feel Kazuki desiring her for real and buried her anxiety.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.08 066.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> {Koyuki’s Magic Dress has fewer exposure compared to everyone else’s Magic Dress, but it’s thin and half transparent and clings to your skin tightly, it makes you seem really naked instead…I think your Dress is absurdly erotic. Each time I’m beside you, I’m always getting conscious of it.}<br /> <br /> He conveyed his thought to Koyuki with honest feeling while his palm was continuing to roll the tips of Koyuki’s breast.<br /> <br /> {…Then I won’t hold back and touch your various places more okay.}<br /> <br /> With his left hand staying in place, his right had separated from the ear and crawled toward her back or her side, he moved his hand freely following his inquisitiveness. He was looking for a sensitive spot that could make Koyuki’s body tremble in delight.<br /> <br /> {Even though Koyuki’s body is really delicately slender, the feeling of touching you is squishy. I wonder if that’s because your bone and muscle are thin, touching your skin that is smooth like baby’s skin feels really good.}<br /> <br /> {…I feel good too. It feels really good…! More…touch me more…♪}<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s small body was piling up heat gradually. To be enchanted with a girl’s body like this, Kazuki’s chest was getting excited.<br /> <br /> Koyuki continued to suck at Kazuki’s lips. She didn’t show any sign of releasing his lips.<br /> <br /> Even while continuing to kiss, they continued to talk together of their love in their heart, the sensation of touching their body to each other was sweet.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s thighs were trembling and fidgeting around, rubbing at each other.<br /> <br /> Noticing those thighs that seemed to feel unsatisfied, Kazuki was sliding his palm there.<br /> <br /> {…There, please touch there. Please touch me until even deeper…}<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s thighs shook in invitation.<br /> <br /> However when his hand reached until the base of her thighs, Kazuki’s palm stopped.<br /> <br /> {It’s no good to go further than this, more than this and my self-control will go away.}<br /> <br /> Koyuki glued herself to Kazuki as if saying that she wouldn’t tolerate any gap between them. That was why she surely had also noticed the change that happened in Kazuki’s body. Hearing the words that he couldn’t control himself, Koyuki embraced him while rubbing her body there.<br /> <br /> This time it was Kazuki that was toyed around by a tantalizing sweet sensation.<br /> <br /> Koyuki put Kazuki’s left knee between both her thighs. She shook her hips front and back giving out stimulation to her lower body.<br /> <br /> Kazuki sharply pushed up his left knee that was entangled with Koyuki’s lower body.<br /> <br /> “…mm-!♡”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s sigh that leaked out from the kiss’s opening changed into that of a cornered person. She ground her hips with even more of her utmost effort on Kazuki’s knee.<br /> <br /> {Koyuki’s thighs become really soaked with sweat.}<br /> <br /> {…That, is not just sweat.}<br /> <br /> {Then, what is it?}<br /> <br /> Kazuki tilted his head.<br /> <br /> {Tha, that’s…}<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s body trembled in shame while shaking her hips on Kazuki’s knee. The movement that rubbed the part of the clothed crotch on Kazuki’s knee became intense as if clinging on him. A wet sound *kuchu kuchu* was leaking out.<br /> <br /> {I, it seems that I like to ''expose my disgraceful behavior'' in front of Kazuki.}<br /> <br /> Koyuki suddenly confessed to him.<br /> <br /> Even when she talked out to him regarding the tonkotsu topic, also creating this kind of situation, all those situations came from Koyuki proactively showing her own [disgraceful appearance].<br /> <br /> {No matter how hopeless a human I am, Kazuki will accept me. Acts that make sure of that fact for me, feels good.}<br /> <br /> {I have vaguely feel it but, Koyuki is quite an M aren’t you?}<br /> <br /> {…Yes. I, might be a pervert. Does Kazuki, hate me like this?}<br /> <br /> {If it’s in front of me, then it’s okay for Koyuki to become as perverted as you want.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki further strengthened the strength of his left knee where Koyuki’s lower body continued to move rubbing at him.<br /> <br /> “…mm-!♡”<br /> <br /> There were also the times where Kaguya-senpai or Hikaru-senpai boldly desiring him, but the state of the feeling of each person in this matter was different from each other. Kazuki felt that the state of the feeling of Koyuki like this was also lovely and precious.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki-, I’m going to convey all of my feeling after this so…please accept everything!}<br /> <br /> {That’s fine, give it to me.}<br /> <br /> Several tens of strings of blue light came from Koyuki, her thought waves were reaching out to Kazuki. Kazuki stood ready in order to receive all of those without even missing a single part.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s thoughts flowed into him with the surging force of a tsunami.<br /> <br /> {I love you! Love love love love love! I love you love you love you love you love you love you! Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love, I Love You-!!}<br /> <br /> Koyuki who had passed her life until now in isolation finally opened up her heart to Kazuki. Her thought in that state was earnestly powerful.<br /> <br /> Despite how she kept saying “I don’t care about someone like you” to him when they first met….<br /> <br /> {I really love you too.}<br /> <br /> Electric shock ran through Koyuki’s whole body. The heat that had been piling up until now inside her small body exploded in one go, a wave that was impossible to control ran amok in her whole body. Her four limbs powerlessly convulsed in abandon. Kazuki hugged her with all his strength and supported her body in place.<br /> <br /> Koyuki became completely exhausted and finally her lips separated from his with a sound “chupu” resounding out.<br /> <br /> A single line of saliva trickled down from the corner of her lips.<br /> <br /> The stimulation that the girl felt had reached out its climax. That fact also satisfied Kazuki’s heart. Koyuki’s face was completely flushed and tears were fully amassing in her eyes while she kept breathing roughly. Her face was more bewitching than his imagination, yet it looked like she was in a state of slight oxygen depravation.<br /> <br /> “…Haa, haa, Kazuki…love…I love you…”<br /> <br /> Even now Koyuki kept repeating her words. And even now Koyuki’s knees kept quivering.<br /> <br /> Kazuki held up the lovely girl in his arms and carried her in princess-carry.<br /> <br /> Koyuki was still in her ecstatic state like that.<br /> <br /> “…Koyuki…but you know”<br /> <br /> However―Kazuki said something that had to be said.<br /> <br /> “What in the world are you doing using training as an excuse?”<br /> <br /> The color of reasoning was returning little by little in Koyuki’s ecstatic face.<br /> <br /> “Ehem. With this Kazuki’s chanting speed should go up rapidly already.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki said that with a crisp expression.<br /> <br /> “That’s impossible…”<br /> <br /> “It’s not impossible. After all, haven’t we sympathized telepathically until that much?”<br /> <br /> If she said it like that then it might be exactly just as she said.<br /> <br /> So this too was a shortcut to become strong. While looking up at the night sky, Kazuki reached that conclusion.<br /> <br /> The moon had completely risen above the sky. Right now should be about time for everyone else to finish preparing the dinner. A strange feeling of guilt welled up inside him. No, he had done his training yet….<br /> <br /> “How about we return home to the Witch’s Mansion? Koyuki too, you have to return back to your uniform.”<br /> <br /> “…If I immediately return to my uniform right now, my uniform will get completely wet…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s whole body was damp. Koyuki genereated blue light―Pyrokinesis and Psychokinesis on her whole body, drying the faint dampness that wrapped her and clearing it away. With that the trace of the act that both of them had done was completely concealed. After that Koyuki returned to her uniform appearance.<br /> <br /> “Can you stand?”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine to stay like this.”<br /> <br /> It really can’t be helped. Kazuki kept carrying Koyuki and followed along the moonlit road.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> West Japan―Yamato’s provisional government was making use of the building that was originally &lt;Oosaka prefectural office building&gt; as their base of political movement. Once it was a prefectural office building that had deteriorated yet continued to be used, but in this age of magic using the alchemic construction the building had been extensively altered structurally.<br /> <br /> All the other surrounding government buildings that were scattered were made into one. Now the dignity of the new prefectural office building that was turned into a giant pyramid in glass style wouldn’t compare unfavorably even when compared to the Oosaka that was right beside it.<br /> <br /> It was once the government office building of Oosaka that was expected to become the capital city of a state from the administrative reform proposal to integrate the prefectures into 7 or 9 states but―following the unfortunate fate now it had become a capital city of a country.<br /> <br /> Inside such a super modern pyramid, the figure of a woman wearing kimono that looked really mismatched there had appeared.<br /> <br /> Yamato’s top brass, Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Usually she was in her own dojo that doubled as her place for desk work where she performed her guidance for the swordsmen that were her subordinates, but today she had received a summon first thing this morning.<br /> <br /> There was only one human that was in the position that could do something like summoning her one-sidedly.<br /> <br /> Ikousai boarded a glass style elevator and headed for the highest floor of the government building.<br /> <br /> On the highest floor of this building was the place where the evil spirits were settling down where they didn’t even work.<br /> <br /> Ikousai pushed open the solemn wooden door she immediately came to face the moment she came out of the elevator.<br /> <br /> There was an executive room inside.<br /> <br /> From one surface of the wall that had been turned wholly into a window that overlooked the scenery from the highest floor, sublime light shone into the room. Inside the room, the inhabitant of this room who [had excellent eye for looking at thing] had purchased a collection of artistic furniture without questioning of the east and west culture, and yet they mysteriously maintained the harmony of the appearance and emitted radiance.<br /> <br /> A man wearing a tuxedo was sinking his body on a comfortable sofa.<br /> <br /> That man floated a frivolous smile and “Yoo” raised one of his hands at Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Bluish hair that looked freezing and the two horns that elongated out ominously from it made apparent how this man was an inhuman existence.<br /> <br /> It was Loki.<br /> <br /> If it was a call from Kaya then Ikousai would just ignore it. But because it was a summon from Loki, it weighed on her mind. Ikousai didn’t see of Kaya and Loki as one single existence.<br /> <br /> She was urged by an uncanny compelling feeling that she had to meet Loki.<br /> <br /> For Ikousai―no, for all the people of Yamato, Loki was a puzzling existence.<br /> <br /> In regards of the girl called Kaya who adhered to her own desire for destruction, everyone knew about her. But as for Loki, what was he thinking and what his objective was that he would cooperate with Yamato, no one had any idea.<br /> <br /> Yamato’s government stayed ignorant about Loki while they conveniently borrowed his power.<br /> <br /> There was nobody who didn’t understand how risky that was.<br /> <br /> However somewhere in their heart, no one believed in the existence of a [perfectly awakened Diva].<br /> <br /> The duo of Kaya and Loki was only seen with Kaya as the front and everyone underestimated them then.<br /> <br /> ‘She is just an existence that is not much different from a normal illegal magician right’, such optimistic view.<br /> <br /> How mistaken such an evaluation was―right now Ikousai who was facing Loki face to face understood.<br /> <br /> It was not a superficial problem like the growing horn on Loki’s head or the like. It was exactly because Ikousai was a possessor of perception power that was far removed from average people that she could grasp it.<br /> <br /> The sensed magic power wavelength from Loki was―completely different from a normal human.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s spine was shuddered by the eeriness of being face to face with [an intelligence body that was not human].<br /> <br /> It was similar with the chill when one was staring at the eyes of a reptile.<br /> <br /> Perhaps Yamato had been selling their soul to a devil….<br /> <br /> “Well, just sit there.” Loki lightheartedly prompted her.<br /> <br /> Ikousai too took a seat at the sofa in the opposite site that interposed a marble low table between her and Loki.<br /> <br /> The door at the depth of the room opened. From there a woman putting on a black mantel came out carrying two sets of tea cup. Ikousai reflexively put her guard up. That woman was one of the illegal magicians that fought Ikousai in the Ise Imperial Shrine. If she remembered correctly―she was the woman whose body was possessed by &lt;Hel&gt;, the goddess of death in the Norse Mythology.<br /> <br /> But with an emotionless movement as if not noticing anything, the woman put an antique flora danica tea cup before Ikousai. The aroma of the carefully selected tea leaves was really fragrant.<br /> <br /> “You ain’t need to worry, this girl already don’ remember of anything from that time you know.”<br /> <br /> After the black clothed woman also presented the tea to Loki, she lowered her head in a nod and exited the room.<br /> <br /> Ikousai was once again personally saw vividly a human that was inflicted with what was called the [loss of humanity].<br /> <br /> “…Until now I had never thought of those illegal magicians other than as [idiot bunch], but to become like that as the result of pursuing strength, it feels atrocious.”<br /> <br /> She was not even planning to look for an approval, Ikousai was putting it in words for herself.<br /> <br /> At Ise Imperial Shrine before, there was a time where Ikousai was going to hand over everything of herself recklessly to Susanoo from her hatred at Kaya. The one who stopped her then was Hayashizaki Kazuki.<br /> <br /> At that time the sense of values inside Ikousai was shaken.<br /> <br /> “Something like a strength obtained from handing over your ego to the Diva is mistaken.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai leaked out her words while she kept staring at the door at the room’s depth.<br /> <br /> “There ain’t any right or wrong in strength you know. The guy who won gets everything, the loser just died. That girl escaped from the fate of failure by becoming like that. Nothing is gonna make me say that what she did is mistaken.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai was perplexed hearing those words of rejection that was strongly different from her thought.<br /> <br /> Unexpectedly she had the feeling that she had just touched Loki’s [fixation].<br /> <br /> “Odin and those other bunches prattled about [honorable death] or [dignified loser] and whatever, but for the person himself that died, those honor or dignity whatsoever cannot even become any excuse. In front of the twilight of Ragnarok all that can just eat shit.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai stared at Loki and blinked her eyes.<br /> <br /> What he said was very interesting but her comprehension couldn’t catch up. Ikousai who didn’t have any interest in learning mythology just have the thought of [who is Odin again…] and lost the chance to step further into Loki’s inside.<br /> <br /> Loki immediately made a face of someone who just became aware of his verbal slip,<br /> <br /> “Well,, putting that aside.” He changed the topic of the talk.<br /> <br /> “You bitch, what are you planning to do? If it keep like this, Yamato is not gonna be able to win against Japan y’know.”<br /> <br /> “…What do you say you bastard?”<br /> <br /> Strength filled Ikousai’s glare but Loki didn’t even paid it any mind.<br /> <br /> “All of the prospect of victory that you idiots imagined was shouldered by the trump card called Yumeno Shiori, ain’t right? A spy that had slipped into the center of the enemy and didn’t have the self-awareness of her being a spy, a possessor of personality that can make use of Hayashizaki Kazuki’s mental naivety and might be able to kill him, a cursed Sacred Treasure only that girl can use…she was exactly a [Joker]. And yet you guys made her impatient for achievement and was captured without even being able to bring down Hayashizaki, the other spies were also completely got rounded up in one whole swoop. What a bullshit miscalculation huh.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s expression unintentionally twitched.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t have anything to do with that strategy but…those old men, they cornered Kaori too much. But from the beginning I don’t have any intention of relying on spy or the likes. With this our chance of winning is fifty-fifty, it just means that everything will be fine if I win in the end.”<br /> <br /> “That’s impossible y’know.”<br /> <br /> “…What? I won at Isonokami Shrine before this.”<br /> <br /> “That’s Hayashizaki Kazuki’s fault of [thinking too much of the future] just so you know. You actually know yeah? That guy is in the process of awakening his special power as the King of Solomon. That guy made use of his full power when he was fighting me. I guess that perhaps the magic power consumption of his power is just too fierce. …In case that guy doesn’t give a damn about what come later and use that power fighting you, there ain’t gonna be any chance for you idiot to even overturn the situation and win.”<br /> <br /> “That just means that guy made a miss in his decision! That’s still within my capability!”<br /> <br /> “Well, what you say is not entirely incorrect. …That guy's losing sight of his own forte.”<br /> <br /> “That guy’s forte you said…?”<br /> <br /> Loki lectured with a face that seemed to say [if it’s about Hayashizaki Kazuki then I’m the one that know him best].<br /> <br /> “That guy’s strong point is in his tendency to [not insert himself in his calculation] yeah. He is always prioritizing other people while constantly taking action that risked his own life. He done that not only in a scene of battle where it really damn matters, he even disciplined himself to always act like that even as far as his daily life. That guy always resolved himself and seldom loosening down. There ain’t nothing more scary than this kind of human for sure. If I said so myself, that guy is even far scarier compared to the other King bunches.”<br /> <br /> “…I didn’t feel that he is really that unique of a human..”<br /> <br /> “He already got infected with a disease at that time in the Ise Imperial Shrine. That ghastliness the first time he made me bore wound on my body had been already thinning down.”<br /> <br /> “Disease you say?”<br /> <br /> “’What’s going to happen if I die’, that guy for the first time was thinking that kind of thought. After all throughout his whole life, this is gonna be his first time being burdened by that many people he is thinking as important. But swinging your sword timidly ain’t gonna make your opponent scared right?”<br /> <br /> “That is the basic among the basic of mental preparation.”<br /> <br /> “But that’s the deepest level of the sword art. That guy also just got involved with the other Kings, just right before he got killed he must have immediately noticed the thing he lost from himself. If it become like that then you idiot have no chance to win anymore ain’t that true?”<br /> <br /> “…”<br /> <br /> “No need to get ashamed. After all that guy is the King of Solomon and you are just a mongrel right now. Susanoo’s power of King is [Usurpation]. As long as you haven’t defeated other Kings and plunder their power, it’s impossible for him to become a special Diva.”<br /> <br /> “…”<br /> <br /> The words handed down from Loki’s existence who stood in the different stage from human was not something that Ikousai could possibly accept. For her who had lived doing nothing but pursuing strength until now, humiliating words like [there is no need to be ashamed] or the like was not something she wanted to hear at the end of her road.<br /> <br /> While swallowing the many words of fury she had―Ikousai remembered the violent emotion of that moment where she was going to hand over herself to Susanoo for the sake of strength.<br /> <br /> “You ain’t gonna win in a match of fifty-fifty. But if you can get your hand on two of the Three Sacred Treasures then there ain’t no way to know where the match is gonna end.”<br /> <br /> “You just keep talking in the way that seems like I’m in a very much disadvantage, but in the end you just want to say that the match depends on the Sacred Treasures? Hmph, doesn’t this mean that everything comes down to luck, how foolish.”<br /> <br /> “No, it’s not like that at all. …Though it’s better if I had talked about this before all this development. Actually the Three Sacred Treasures, all of them are located in Fuji’s sea of trees.”<br /> <br /> “…?” Ikousai was bewildered, wondering ‘what is this guy saying?’<br /> <br /> “If it keep like this Hayashizaki Kazuki will collect all Three Sacred Treasures, and you idiot is gonna challenge him like that empty handed. If there is still a spy left, there should be a possibility to steal the Sacred Treasures even if the other side collected them, but because Yumeno Shiori was captured those bunch of spies are in their last breath. When Yumeno Shiori got captured, it got me thinking [ain’t this checkmate already], so that’s why I intentionally called you idiot here and talk to you like this. Oi, what are you planning to do I ask.”<br /> <br /> For a while Ikousai’s eyes turned into a dot from Loki’s words and after around thirty seconds she screamed “WHA, WHAT DO YOU SAY!” while standing up from the sofa, making Loki said to her “You’re loud”.<br /> <br /> “Fu, Fu Fu Fuji’s sea of trees has all three of the Three Sacred Treasures you say!? Why didn’t you tell us that sooner!? No, why do you know about that kind of thing!!”<br /> <br /> “It’s because ten years ago I often visited Fuji’s sea of tree.”<br /> <br /> “Ten years ago…?”<br /> <br /> She didn’t get the answer. Ikousai glared at Loki demanding for further explanation.<br /> <br /> “Before I stayed inside Kaya, there was the period where I was takin’ over the flesh of a different human. Right after the outset when humans began to get awakened to magic, so to speak the period of &lt;Tokyo Great Disaster&gt;. At that time with the Haunted Ground that was the first created in this country, the Fuji’s sea of trees as the stage, I played just a little with the beginning of the Knight Order as the opponent. Right, at that time the Sacred Treasures were already there.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s eyes turned into dots for a while again.<br /> <br /> “You, aren’t you just saying an outrageous matter smoothly? You are saying that ''this is the second time you take over a human and materialized''?<br /> <br /> “It’s a little wrong to say that this is my second materialization I think. At that time I too was still not used to all this, so I couldn’t let out my consciousness to the surface as much as now.”<br /> <br /> “You fought the human of this country ten years ago? However, there is no such record left behind…?”<br /> <br /> “Of course there is no record left. That was the time where other than me many Divas and Demon Beasts also went wild everywhere and the country fell into pandemonium. The Divas were also still pretty shitty in how to take over human, they cannot restrain their host from going wild, that time they just rampaged around pointlessly. Looking at it from those human’s position, there ain’t no way they could have guessed which Diva was residing inside the possessed magicians that were going wild. That was the period when you idiot was still a clueless kid, the Tokyo Great Disaster was that kind of time.”<br /> <br /> It was a period where human still didn’t know left and right, but it was naturally different from Loki’s point of view.<br /> <br /> Right now, Ikousai shook from hearing the terribly precious [testimony].<br /> <br /> “The way they fought at that time was a pretty crude stuff that it’s not even gonna be any argument if you compared it with now. Human too still didn’t really understand the way to use magic, and we too couldn’t manifest our power satisfactorily after all. But…there was only one scary strong woman that looked like a mutation. That woman sealed the rampaging Divas one after another, and at the last she fought me and my host. Yeah, it was at the Fuji’s sea of trees. That woman died, but my host also got done in and I too got sealed. What that woman used that time was the thing she discovered at Fuji’s sea of trees…&lt;Ame no Murakumo&gt;. Though maybe that woman herself didn’t know what the hell it was the item that she was using.”<br /> <br /> King of Britain―Arthur Basileus said that the Three Sacred Treasures would surely spring forth in concert with the human who was suitable as the King.<br /> <br /> Ikousai gazed at Loki with unrestrained wonderment. That was a fact that overturned all of their assumption.<br /> <br /> “You said that there was already a human that should have become the King ten years ago!?”<br /> <br /> “The sin of that Amaterasu woman is heavy yeah. After all the her at that time perhaps seriously ain’t noticing anything. No, perhaps even now she ain’t notice anything yet. That Susanoo too is gonna flip out.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai felt faint thinking back upon the complaint of Susanoo that flew the banner of revolution after he was feeling furious from Amaterasu’s lack of will to decide the King of the Japanese Mythology. What an outrageous thing to have happened behind the scene.<br /> <br /> …But that woman, was dead!<br /> <br /> “Who is that woman?”<br /> <br /> “Dunno. My consciousness at that time was cloudy from being a mental body and got made to go along with the mayhem of my previous host. After that I too became concerned and fished around various things in the records of Japan’s government and the Knight Order together with Kaya, but there is no information left at all about that woman.”<br /> <br /> “She is the savior of this country right!? Why is there no record of that anywhere!?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai felt furious from the absurdity―the absurdity of having the patriotic hero who brought salvation to the country being completely forgotten by everyone.<br /> <br /> “That’s because in the very end that woman got killed by me. No one knew how that woman was a hero or anything, that woman herself wasn’t aware of how big she was. Although that woman practically defeated the majority of the Demon Beasts and the Divas alone by herself, perhaps that woman thought that the other bunches also defeated around the same number like herself.”<br /> <br /> “…Did her comrades know nothing about her?”<br /> <br /> “Even though they were called the first Knight Order, but they were not a bunch that had orderly plan or anything. It was just several humans that had awakened to magic were frantically fighting against the Demon Beasts and the Divas, and then when everything was over they gathered and recognized each other's existences as comrades saying [We are the Knight Order]. But at that time that woman was already gone. What a conceited bunch aren’t they. That’s why strictly speaking that woman is not a part of the first Knight Order. She is the &lt;Zero Knight&lt;ref&gt;I want to write Knight of Zero. But writing it like that just making me remembers a certain idiot naïve knight&lt;/ref&gt;&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “…The forgotten hero…Zero Knight…”<br /> <br /> “She was a scary strong woman. I ain’t remembering it clearly, but that time I too thought this, someone that doesn’t give a fuck for her own life is scary…”<br /> <br /> “Didn’t you say that there is no honor for a human that loses and dies?”<br /> <br /> Loki went ‘hah’ with a face of realization and glared at Ikousai.<br /> <br /> And then he awkwardly changed the topic again.<br /> <br /> “From then on the strength of the Knight Order increased and it became difficult for Diva to take over human. It’s no good unless we take over the human’s flesh body more perfectly and so we worked hard behind the scene. And then the one who finally manage to attain perfect materialization in Japan were only me and Naiarlatoteph, but the other guys are still just as you can see currently. Even though the Order side is favorably exerting their influence into human’s society, the Chaos side cannot keep being sloven. …So, that’s all for the story of the past. Anyway you get the idea that if the situation keep like this then no way you are gonna win.”<br /> <br /> “…All of the Three Sacred Treasures are on the territory of the other side, but we had lost the spy to steal them from inside. That’s what you mean.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai obediently accepted Loki’s opinion. Surely if the talking partner was Kaya she wouldn’t be able to persuade Ikousai like this.<br /> <br /> “…In other words from the start Yamato had already been in a fatal disadvantage. You bastard, why did you keep silent about this matter and accepted Arthur’s proposal?”<br /> <br /> Arthur’s proposal was established with the acceptance from both camps. Of course that acceptance also reflected Kaya’s opinion, in other words Loki’s opinion too. Loki warped his mouth crookedly and laughed maliciously.<br /> <br /> “You idiots want to advance the matter so you can make do as much as possible without my cooperation aren’t y’all, but like this now my cooperation become indispensable for you idiots! Ku-ku-ku! …For me there ain’t such thing like disadvantage or whatever. If I already knew from the start that all Three Sacred Treasures are in Fuji’s sea of trees, then there is a lot of way to make use of it.”<br /> <br /> “I got it, just move on to the main question. What should I do?”<br /> <br /> “Yamato’s side too gotta have to infiltrate Fuji’s sea of tree.”<br /> <br /> “Fuji’s sea of trees is surrounded by wall. The security there is also strict.”<br /> <br /> “Ku-ku-ku, it’s convenient if Japan’s side also think that their security is complete with just a wall like that. Just think about it, it’s a wall see? What is called wall has limit on it. It’s really simple, crawl under it using Midgardsormr’s ability. The wall’s depth is just barely something Midgardsormr can crawl under yeah.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai thought [It’s vexing, but I see] while wrinkling up her eyebrows in understanding.<br /> <br /> “The number Midgardsormr can take along including himself is four people as the limit. Take three of my underlings with you as the leader. Those you are going to take are the ones I can trust the most among my troops…&lt;Loki Einherjar&gt;’s Midgardsormr, Hel, and Naiarlako, those three.”<br /> <br /> “You don’t plan to go?”<br /> <br /> “I said that all of the Three Sacred Treasures are in Fuji’s sea of trees, but it doesn’t mean that I had seen them other than &lt;Ama no Murakumo&gt;. It’s only my hypothesis that if in that period of time the Three Sacred Treasures were all born in set then they would be all in Fuji’s sea of trees. That’s why just to make sure I’m going to sweep over the Haunted Grounds in west Japan. This is your battle, that’s why I’ll take the work behind the scene.”<br /> <br /> This was a war to decide which one was suitable as King between Hayashizaki Kazuki and Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Ikousai tightened her expression and nodded.<br /> <br /> “It’s not gonna be enough just exhausting all of your strength. Probe out for Russia’s Ilyailiya’s cooperation. If Midgardsormr is the invader of the earth then that girl is the ruler of the sky. She got to be able to simply penetrate the Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> “Making Russia go along with our side…that kind of talk then.”<br /> <br /> “Furthermore…we gotta do everything we can do. Let’s rouse out the Einherjar.”<br /> <br /> “Making Germany attached to our side too? How? That country is different from Rusia and if we have to say which side they are then they are in opposition against China right?”<br /> <br /> “The aide of Einherjar’s captain, Eleonora is looking for a reason to make opposition with Japan. The cause is because the captain Beatrix is adoring Hayashizaki Kazuki too much. She began to think of wanting to separate the distance between the two. If we blow negative information to this Eleonora a little, she will surely go along with our side merrily.”<br /> <br /> “Wait a second, I don’t know anything about that. This is information from when?”<br /> <br /> The information from the spies had been severed. Ikousai was perplexed about how did Loki grasp information that she knew nothing about.<br /> <br /> “This is the newest information just so you know. Even with the spies exterminated ain’t anyway that’s all of my information source. As proof that I’m talking straight from the gut, let me teach you one of my trump card. Other than changing my external appearance however I want it, I also can conceal my magic power wave, this is my [Perfect Transformation] ability. The information just now is something I gotten myself infiltrating and fishing around the Knight Order.”<br /> <br /> A skill to transform perfectly――Ikousai was astonished. There was no doubt that Loki and Kaya could grasp the political power of Yamato in their hand in so short of time and toying around with Japan’s government until now was because of their secret maneuvers using this secret skill.<br /> <br /> But it was a trump card that would be not effective anymore if the existence of such skill was exposed.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s heart was moved that Loki shed light of such secret of his by himself to her.<br /> <br /> “That’s right, let’s give Naiarlatoteph’s experiment data to Eleonora. If we make them misunderstand that even now such thoroughly immoral experiment is still continuing with the government’s approval, that’s more than enough reason to make them start hostility with Japan. With that I gotta cross the border one more time to circulate this bullshit information but, well, I’m not gonna just make you do everything yourself.”<br /> <br /> “You said all the things that we can do but…you are not going to move those guys from China?”<br /> <br /> The &lt;Emperor’s Directly Controlled Unit&gt; that served under The King of Chukadou―&lt;Reborn Emperor&gt; Fu Xi, they too had declared their cooperation with Yamato and currently was stationed inside Yamato’s territory. Those girls were exactly the strongest group that Yamato could move among their battle power.<br /> <br /> “Those guys cannot be controlled if we just move them poorly. Ilyailiya is going solo so she surely ain’t gonna do anything overambitious, but those girls are coming in group. Those guys might steal all the Sacred Treasures instead and if that happen then it’s gonna be a war with China before a war with Japan.”<br /> <br /> China was ''taking part with all their might'' in this war between Japan and Yamato. If they got betrayed to that extent then the situation might develop into such a large scale problem. Just because they came in such a large number that they became hard to handle.<br /> <br /> “I got it, then I’m immediately moving out to act. Call Midgardsormr here!”<br /> <br /> “No wait, you are going to infiltrate Fuji’s sea of trees at the same time with Hayashizaki Kazuki entering there too.”<br /> <br /> “WHY.” Ikousai became hotblooded.<br /> <br /> “You ain’t gonna be able to avoid fighting the Demon Beast if you infiltrate the Haunted Ground. If you fight then magic power will get emitted. There is the risk of the other side’s lookout sensing that magic power.”<br /> <br /> “I see…if I infiltrate at the same time with Hayashizaki Kazuki and his group entering, then no one will be able to differentiate my magic power with his then.”<br /> <br /> “That’s right, everything will slip under the radar in the commotion…like that.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai nodded obediently. Thought of ‘let’s just follow along with him’ was welling up inside her.<br /> <br /> Rather than her wariness against this mysterious existence called Loki, the thought that Loki’s cooperation was really indispensable for the sake of victory against Hayashizaki Kazuki had become far bigger.<br /> <br /> “…If you manage to discover and snatch away the Three Sacred Treasures in Fuji’s sea of trees, then get ready to run away and make sure to escape. Really really, don’t you dare get the mood like wanting to fight Hayashizaki or whatever, remember this.”<br /> <br /> But when Loki talked so, the sharpness of a blade returned to Ikousai’s eye glint and she glared at him.<br /> <br /> “We are breaking the rule to challenge Fuji’s sea of trees. You bastard, Ilyailiya, and Einherjar, we are attacking from three direction. Everything is moving just as I expected.”<br /> <br /> Loki declared.<br /> <br /> “And then the biggest enemy ain’t Hayashizaki Kazuki. It’s those guys that’s gonna move if someone try to break the rule…Arthur Basileus and Regina Olympia Folnar.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> “This place is really pleasant isn’t it? I had never thought that I will receive such a warm welcome.”<br /> <br /> The chandelier with many glittering crystals on it illuminated the golden colored wall and the vermilion carpet.<br /> <br /> Arthur Basileus sat on a chair while crossing his long legs and he directed a satisfied smile from his heart toward Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata was feeling grateful. As a top brass of the Knight Order, there was no reason for him to excessively behave modestly towards Arthur looking at their position as an equal negotiation partner. But for him who had worked his way up the organization ladder, the aura possessed by [the chosen noble King] was dazzling.<br /> <br /> “Forgive me for how long it took to prepare this place. In any case this [Akasaka Imperial Villa] hasn’t been used for a long time as a state guest house.”<br /> <br /> Japan had severed their diplomatic relationships with foreign countries for a long time now. Therefore visitors from foreign countries hardly ever came. So the state guest house was steadily losing its role.<br /> <br /> This time Japan was welcoming Arthur, Regina, and Ilyailiya, the three Kings. Causing the government of Japan to be pressed to restore the state guest house in a rush.<br /> <br /> The three Kings who until now had been welcomed in a high class hotel inside the city were finally invited into a place of residence befitting their status as a noble visitor.<br /> <br /> “I understand how you have exerted your utmost effort for us. This Arthur cannot hold back my feelings of gratitude. The time used is not a problem. Beside by no means that hotel was a bad place. Queen Regina, you also think so right?”<br /> <br /> Arthur turned the talk to Regina who was sitting in a chair beside him.<br /> <br /> The Queen of Italia answered with expressionless indifference.<br /> <br /> “Immediately execute the chef that served the food he dared to call as Neapolitan spaghetti to me as my lunch before.”<br /> <br /> “Tragedy always comes from contact with foreign cultures doesn't it?”<br /> <br /> Arthur covered his face exaggeratedly with both hands.<br /> <br /> “But if I have to say a food that delicious cannot be called as fish and chips.”<br /> <br /> “By the way may I ask for what business I was summoned here?”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata asked while comparing the expressions of the two Kings.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata who was appointed as the commanding officer of the Fuji’s sea of trees’ investigation, right now he was the man with the most free time in the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> He was in the position to move the Knight Order, but he couldn’t move the organization carelessly until the purification of the Knight Order from the spies had been finished. And so it was his idea to have the students led by Hayashizaki Kazuki conquer Fuji’s sea of trees for him.<br /> <br /> Therefore he would lose if he worked.&lt;ref&gt;A reference from NEET’s favorite saying, that to work is the same as losing. Though in this case that saying is really true for him. How envious&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Throughout this whole day all he had done was to keep thinking of excuses for when his superior came calling to kick his butt and order him to move the Knight Order when suddenly the Kings called him to come to this state guest house.<br /> <br /> There was no cause for him to be condemned by them and to be told to work, but for some reason a guilty conscience was rising inside him.<br /> <br /> “Aah, first is this matter but…”<br /> <br /> Arthur said that and raised his right wrist. There a bulky metal bracelet was fixed to his wrist. ―It was made from adamantite. The bracelet was supposed to be considerably heavy.<br /> <br /> “That’s a transmitter with built-in GPS. Its inexcusable but all of your actions are being monitored with that. We also placed some human observation around but just using humans is quite unsure.”<br /> <br /> “Yes, I have noticed that we are constantly being followed.”<br /> <br /> Arthur nodded. Regina too scowled her face in displeasure.<br /> <br /> “After all it will be too simple if we can move freely just by killing our observer. A reasonable thinking. Having a machine attached close to our skin is heavy and unpleasant but it can’t be helped.”<br /> <br /> Arthur added another question without revealing out any dissatisfaction like Regina.<br /> <br /> “Is the accuracy of this thing called GPS something certain?”<br /> <br /> “It has measurement error in span of 10 cm.”<br /> <br /> “If I’m not mistaken I think GPS has the function to take picturon secretly. I think it’s called [satellite photo], if that is used then can you also immediately detect an intruder that trespass into the Haunted Ground I wonder?”<br /> <br /> Arthur didn’t have a detailed knowledge on culture of science. Arthur asked as if remembering vague knowledge.<br /> <br /> “No matter how high the accuracy is, it’s impossible to capture the figure of a human that acts under the cover of trees. It might be within the scope if it is in the forest of trees that has been liberated from being a Haunted Ground, but probably it will be only to the degree where we can just barely differentiate the figure.”<br /> <br /> “Hmm.” Arthur hummed with a prudent look.<br /> <br /> “Besides satellite photos are not something that can take pictures in real time. After all the photo comes from the manmade satellite that is in orbit right above the photo target. To reduce the time lag there is the need to increase the number of satellites a few more. Japan is not launching satellites into orbit very much anymore.”<br /> <br /> The number of satellites Japan could use freely was decreasing compared to the time when they had a reliable allied nation called USA. If Japan tried to launch any new satellites, then they would only provoke other Magic Advanced Countries.<br /> <br /> “I thought that what is called GPS is this transmitter exchanging electromagnetic wave with the satellite that flies in space and using that to specify the whereabouts of this machine, but electromagnetic wave won’t reach this transmitter if it get entered into ground or water won’t it?”<br /> <br /> “There will be a need to add a relay station in order to make the electromagnetic wave reach underground to a certain degree.”<br /> <br /> “I see, the technology has advanced even further then the knowledge that I have.”<br /> <br /> “Of course there is a limit so to the utmost we want to ask you to not go to a place where electromagnetic wave won’t reach. If the transmission to the transmitter gets interrupted then we will immediately mobilize all the knights in to scramble out.”<br /> <br /> “How about the material of this bracelet?”<br /> <br /> “It is an alchemic material invented in our country called adamantite. It’s difficult to be destroyed even with the power of Summoning Magic.”<br /> <br /> “Well, when it gets destroyed the transmission will be cut off and the knights will scramble out to our location then.”<br /> <br /> “I think it’s difficult to destroy it though.”<br /> <br /> When Commander Yamagata answered back like that, Arthur knitted his eyebrows questioningly.<br /> <br /> Regina was “Ku-“ leaking out a small chuckle.<br /> <br /> “This material called adamantite, from its appearance it’s the same material with the wall that encircled Fuji’s sea of trees right?”<br /> <br /> “Yes. …Is there something you want to talk about regarding that?”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata asked after the through and through questions of Arthur were over.<br /> <br /> “Aah, I don’t want you to misunderstand. It’s not that we are discontented from having this transmitter attached to us. It’s just…we are worrying whether the competition between Japan and Yamato is performed impartially, if there will be room for someone to interfere dishonestly. After all right now we are mostly let to do as we please freely.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata immediately considered about how right now Ilyailiya Muromets was not here in this place.<br /> <br /> Her country, Russia was said to be close with China.<br /> <br /> He felt like he was being implicitly warned to [be careful of that guy].<br /> <br /> “In our position too, even while showing as much respect as possible to all of you, we are also planning to make preparation so we can immediately react if you move out in some kind of action.”<br /> <br /> “Hmm…certainly as long as this GPS is attached to us then we won’t be able to act as we please. Of course if someone took action for their own convenience then I too will move. After all that is a conduct that will break the balance of the world.”<br /> <br /> Each respective Advanced Magic Countries were putting a check on each other―that was exactly why the peace of this world could be maintained. This country was especially important.<br /> <br /> “Also Fuji’s sea of trees is encircled by a wall of adamantite and it can only be entered through one gate. In order to not let turmoil like before happen again, the security of this gate has been made even stricter. This time no one will be able to trespass even if they transform into a bird or an ant.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata talked with confidence.<br /> <br /> “It’s great that it became a good experience.” Regina smiled cynically.<br /> <br /> “Let’s leave aside the reliability of the GPS but the wall is quite worrying. Does Queen Regina think so too?”<br /> <br /> Arthur asserted clearly. Regina too nodded clearly.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata didn’t understand their reason and tightened his expression while asking “Why is that?”<br /> <br /> “If it’s just a wall on that level then I and Queen Regina can destroy it if you give us thirty seconds.”<br /> <br /> “In addition.”<br /> <br /> Regina who kept playing with her bracelet since a while ago let out some words.<br /> <br /> “It seems this material is composed by magically binding the Prima Materia to strengthen the hardness of the material. It can be destroyed even by brute force, but it will be even simpler to break if there is an attack magic or Sacred Treasures that is compatible with both physical destruction and {{furigana|magical divine protection|Enchant}} destruction.”<br /> <br /> “Of course Queen Ilyailiya is also able to destroy the wall. In short it doesn’t deserve any reliance whatsoever.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata lost his face’s complexion.<br /> <br /> “Commander Yamagata, I have one request…no, I have a proposal!”<br /> <br /> Arthur stabbed the stick in his hand on the ground vigorously *katsun* and stood up.<br /> <br /> “I want you to let me patrol the surrounding wall of Fuji’s sea of trees. If something happens, I want to be able to move immediately. Queen Regina, you too come with me!”<br /> <br /> Regina too stood up solemnly, and continued while throwing out her chest.<br /> <br /> “Very well. After all I had said that I will watch over the situation regarding this country and Hayashizaki Kazuki for a little more.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata was troubled. These two were also an important target of observation.<br /> <br /> “No, even without troubling the both of you…could you two please only move at the critical moment? In the first place both of you are also someone that we have to keep watching about.”<br /> <br /> “I ask you to not be so reserved like that. I want to show my gratitude for the fish and chips that was even more delicious than the one in my motherland.”<br /> <br /> “The Neapolitan spaghetti that I ate really didn’t suit my taste but…well, just consider it the apology for before.”<br /> <br /> Arthur and Regina approached him straightforwardly. Surprisingly they were a duo that was really pushy.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata suddenly reconsidered. …The current standing of Japan was made up from the Magic Advanced Countries putting a check on each other to maintain the balance of the world. In the case that one of the Magic Advanced Countries ran wild, it was almost impossible to settle the situation without borrowing the hand of other Magic Advanced Countries.<br /> <br /> Then fight fire with fire―rather than just keep maintining vigilance on these two, wouldn’t it be wiser to consider them as an object to be used skillfully?<br /> <br /> Moreover this King called Arthur…he had this hunch that treating his good will with disdain would only cause something troublesome on the contrary. Strangely when this problematic character Regina was together with Arthur, he could see a balance was struck mysteriously between them.<br /> <br /> “…If both of you say so.”<br /> <br /> After he finished considering everything fully, Commander Yamagata suddenly changed his attitude.<br /> <br /> “If it becomes like this then I’m going too!”<br /> <br /> Out of nowhere, the lid of the trash box in the corner of the room was blown away like an explosion and the face of a woman stuck out from there.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata and the two Kings widened their eyes in surprise and stared at that person.<br /> <br /> “Ro, Roshoukou! Why are you in that kind of place! Are you trash huh!?”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata raised a voice that was close to a scream.<br /> <br /> Roshoukou―the female boss that managed the resistance organization &lt;Ryouzanpaku&gt; that defied China.<br /> <br /> While her face that jutted out from the trash box broke out into a wide friendly grin, she extracted herself out from there.<br /> <br /> “When the Kings called you here I just thought that I too have to pay my respect and show my face at least once without fail nyaa. But geez, even the trash box in this state guest house smells like a flower and feels really comfortable. Oi commander, move me to live here too. I don’t mind even if it’ just in this trash box ‘kay.”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying you idiot. Day by day you keep getting carried away.”<br /> <br /> As if he had been already used to deal with this girl, Commander Yamagata talked with her familiarly.<br /> <br /> “You guys came even though we had never called for it or anything, a business hotel is far more than enough.”<br /> <br /> “What do you say you asshole―! Now you really have said it huh, oi!”<br /> <br /> Shouko clapped Commander Yamagata’s shoulder while laughing in guffaws.<br /> <br /> “It seems that the relationship between you two is mostly good humored isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> King Arthur was looking fixedly at the two of them acting like that.<br /> <br /> ‘Damn it’, Commander Yamagata went pale. Ryouzanpaku was an anti-China organization. If Japan was misunderstood to have a close relationship with this Ryouzanpaku, their claim that [Japan was the unilateral victim] in the clash between Japan and China’s military power would be broken.<br /> <br /> “You said that you want to participate in the patrolling, as expected so you have a relation of cooperation with Japan then I wonder?”<br /> <br /> Arthur questioned in detail as if he was wielding a sharp blade.<br /> <br /> “I beg your pardon to not have any strange suspicion, King of Britain.”<br /> <br /> Faster than the panicked Commander Yamagata, Shouko frankly leaned her body forward and objected.<br /> <br /> “I don’t want to let China do as they please, that’s why I propose to ask the favor for letting me participate in the patrolling. I’m not saying that I want to get buddy-buddy with Japan. If you are saying that then doesn’t that mean you two also want to carry favor with Japan by proposing to cooperate in the form of patrolling.”<br /> <br /> Shouko proficiently talked around the question well with fluency that was unsuited of her wild appearance.<br /> <br /> These last few days, Commander Yamagata had lost arguments against this woman many times and he personally felt vexed.<br /> <br /> “Hmm, it’s just as you say. We were the one that determined the rule of ''conducting the race of struggle for the Three Sacred Treasures after a careful selection'', what we are doing is nothing more than volunteering to patrol.”<br /> <br /> “In other words aren’t our standings totally the same then. Aren’t you bastard just playing innocent and try to doubt us?”<br /> <br /> Shouko stared in an intimidating glare with the King of Britain as her opponent. But her gaze was not wrapped in intensity but composure. Reason and wildness were always coexisting inside this woman of small status without any contradiction.<br /> <br /> “I see, interesting. Even if you have a reasonable argument, there is almost no human who can clearly say that in front of a King like this.”<br /> <br /> Arthur open heartedly showed his tolerance.<br /> <br /> “You too please by any means mobilize together with us.”<br /> <br /> “Yep, I’m thankful.”<br /> <br /> It seemed that Roshoukou was acknowledged by Arthur. But at the side, Commander Yamagata’s expression twitched looking at the formation of a trio that seemed would be very troublesome.<br /> <br /> Let’s use them skillfully―although he thought that for an instant, he didn’t have a feeling that he would be able to control them for even a bit.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_7_Afterword&diff=479477 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Afterword 2016-02-02T11:05:58Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Afterword==<br /> <br /> Thank you very much for reading with pleasure this time too, this is Mihara Mitsuki. Magika too is finally in the seventh volume!<br /> <br /> Now then, just when I finished writing the manuscript of this seventh volume, a disturbing notice came along from the editor in charge Koda-nyan. Koda-nyan, who usually finished whatever it is through mail, was unusually contacting me through phone, what in the world is going on and while I prepare myself thinking that, the first thing that came out from his mouth was “Mihara-san…do you have the determination to risk your life for the sake of Magika?” he said such thing. It was a voice like The Laughing Sa○sman&lt;ref&gt;A reference to [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AC%91%E3%82%A5%E3%81%9B%E3%81%87%E3%82%8B%E3%81%99%E3%81%BE%E3%82%93 笑ゥせぇるすまん], which seems to be a black humor manga (or, to be more exact, to the anime based on that manga). According to [https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=9753 MangaUpdates], the translation is &quot;the Laughing Salesman&quot;. He may mean that his editor spoke in a voice similar to that of the titular character. Credits for [[User:Kemm|Kemm]] for finding this reference.&lt;/ref&gt; that resounded from the bottom of hell.<br /> <br /> However Mihara Mitsuki is surprisingly sports-minded, so I’m the type of person that become pointlessly high tensioned when I said ‘I’ll risk my life’. The school song of my alma mater resounded inside my head, my spine straightened by itself and “I’ll do it! I don’t know what’s the matter but please let me do it!” and so on, in the end I made a promise without any due consideration.<br /> <br /> “So you will do it. Actually Magika is going to become a drama CD. Therefore”<br /> <br /> That was a happy notice but at the same time “This is bad-“ such a hunch also came.<br /> <br /> “Take care of the script. A total of three for this volume and Alive magazine’s mail order bonus and the limited edition bonus.”<br /> <br /> I really don’t get the meaning of what he was saying but my work got split up into three in passing.<br /> <br /> The truth is even now I still don’t really get the dividing of these three works.<br /> <br /> “Alive? Limited edition? I, I’ll do it, please let me do it (brain already stopped thinking).”<br /> <br /> “At the same time with…the eighth volume…will do. Please…let me do it…”<br /> <br /> “Later on there will be an interview recording regarding Magika together with the voice actress.”<br /> <br /> “Eh? I’m doing that? I, the like of my disgusting poor voice at the…”<br /> <br /> “Didn’t you say that you’re gonna risk your life. I’m going to give this to the other authors if you don’t want it you know.”<br /> <br /> The cheering song of my alma mater resounded inside my head. I got desperate “I’ll do it! Please let me do it-!” and yelled into the phone receiver. From there on Koda-nyan explained the arrangement that the work of ○○ is until when, the work of ▲▲ until when, and so on but of course I didn’t really get it. I didn’t really get it but right now I’m writing this afterword it is already October 28. If you ask me what is bad with the day of October 28, I’m thinking that I really cannot tell this to you all honored readers but, anyway it’s October 28. Thus the last monster of the year 2014 is standing in front of me blocking my way now.<br /> <br /> …And because of that the making of Magika’s drama CD was decided! Giving voice to the characters of Magika is ‘super happii’ with that kind euphoric feeling, and together with the schedule that is ‘super damnn’ giving pressure on me, I snapped my stupid face and became strangely tensioned. However I kept screaming repeatedly ‘this is bad, this is bad’, but I’m receiving a chance this wonderful and so powerful thinking like ‘I want to do the best work!’ is also there!<br /> <br /> I will definitely overcome this pressure and deliver the best work, so all of you honored readers please take care of me!<br /> <br /> The comicalized second volume too also got a massive number for the second printing, Magika is more and more going swimmingly. This is too all thanks of the support of many things. My gratitude to everyone that are involved with Magika!<br /> <br /> Later this volume, the picture of maid uniform is super cute. Maid-san banzai.<br /> <br /> Mihara Mitsuki<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Epilogue|Epilogue]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 8 Illustrations|Volume 8 Novel Illustrations]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_7_Epilogue&diff=479476 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Epilogue 2016-02-02T11:01:27Z <p>Hiro Hayase: awkward line</p> <hr /> <div>==Epilogue – Night of Heart==<br /> <br /> Exhausted. That night it was exactly a tiredness like slogging inside mud.<br /> <br /> “Today is really tiresome isn’t it, Kazuki-oniisan.”<br /> <br /> It was Lotte’s room. On top of the bed, the two of them were sitting side by side. A sweet smell of shampoo from just out of the bath was drifting in the air. Lotte who wore a baby-doll in place of pajama talked while leaning her body on Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The one who was tired was not only Kazuki. Rather than him, surely Lotte was even more tired.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―After that, Kazuki and the others got out from the Haunted Ground and reported to the Knight Order, then just like that they were transported back home to the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> But Lotte didn’t immediately return home and volunteered for a work by herself from the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> “Please let me help out too for the analysis of Yumeno-oneesan’s mind.”<br /> <br /> The Knight Order was going to conduct mind analysis on Yumeno-san who lost consciousness from magic intoxication. It was fine to just hear it getting said gently as mind analysis, but in reality what was going to be done was pulling out information using Telepathy―so to speak, a mental interrogation.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt uneasy of that. In the case that the information couldn’t be pulled out smoothly, the Knight Order might use a forceful Telepathy and if they were being untactful they could even use things like drugs.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san had resolved herself for that, and he also understood that they had to get the information about the spies even if they had to resort to such method however….<br /> <br /> With regards to this matter, there was nothing that Kazuki could do….<br /> <br /> “If it’s me, I think I can be useful desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte had brazenly bragged about her own ability in Telepathy towards the mind expert unit of the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> With Commander Yamagata’s mediation, Lotte’s request had gone through.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, I’ll protect Yumeno-oneesan properly desu.”<br /> <br /> Saying such to Kazuki, Lotte was heading together with the Knight Order to their facility.<br /> <br /> She didn’t come back home until night.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “…How was Yumeno-san?”<br /> <br /> “It seems that the personality of Yumeno Kaori had disappeared from Yumeno-san desu.”<br /> <br /> The words that came out the foremost from her mouth made Kazuki went “Eh?” with surprise.<br /> <br /> “According to the psychologist that was in the Knight Order, it looks like such thing often happen desu. Meeting painful experiences in the past left various symptoms in the heart from trauma…a different personality was created to protect oneself and the flashbacks of those times would be replayed many times inside their mind… If the past happening that became the source of such symptoms can be overcome then they can heal, there are many such cases. Rather than saying that the multiple personality disappeared, it’s more like the other personality integrated back to the original personality, but…”<br /> <br /> Does that mean that Yumeno Kaori had finished accomplishing her ''role''?<br /> <br /> From hereon her role would not be as a planted spy, but the girls’ original….<br /> <br /> With regards to the personality that disappeared, Kazuki’s chest mysteriously became filled with a lot of pain.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san faced her past, and exactly just like her words, she won.<br /> <br /> “The wound of the heart is healed if the trauma is conquered. It’s simple saying it in words but it’s really hard in reality desu. It’s something that one absolutely cannot overcome only with the person’s own power. That’s why such problem like this depends on how much the surrounding people can become the needed strength for her desu.”<br /> <br /> Saying that, Lotte sensed the pain in Kazuki’s heart, as if to cheer him up from that Lotte hugged Kazuki tightly.<br /> <br /> “I think it was thanks to Kazuki-oniisan giving Yumeno-san a push on her back desu.”<br /> <br /> It became necessary for the assistance of people outside to sever the negative circle….<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whose body stiffened from nervousness appeared in his mind.<br /> <br /> Both of them like that flopped onto the bed.<br /> <br /> “We couldn’t take out all the information from inside Yumeno-san in just this one day. But in order to not put too much burden on Yumeno-san’s mind, it was decided to steadily investigate the mind through several days. That’s why I will be going back and forth to the facility during these several days desu.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki hugged Lotte back tightly. The pain inside his heart was vanishing, replaced with a spreading warmth.<br /> <br /> It was surely the hardest for Lotte. To do something like interrogating the heart of her own comrade.<br /> <br /> In the first place, she was even the one that doubted Yumeno-san in Kazuki’s place.<br /> <br /> “Why is Lotte this kind…?”<br /> <br /> “Kind, desu?”<br /> <br /> “Always disregarding about yourself, you just keep prioritizing other people.”<br /> <br /> “…Even Kazuki-oniisan too is like that though desu.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte hugged each other strongly as if they were trying to become one.<br /> <br /> “Because Kazuki-oniisan directed your feeling that doesn’t doubt anything to me who always doubted everything…that I can also become someone that believes in kindness desu. The people around Kazuki-oniisan too, everyone is kind desu. The feeling of kindness and wanting to make other people happy will also rapidly infect the surrounding people, that’s what I think. Because Kazuki-oniisan is kind…someday not only between our confined circle of companions but everyone of the whole wide society is going to become kind, isn’t that so, something like that.”<br /> <br /> “You make too much of me there.”<br /> <br /> Suddenly a lonely memory flashed inside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The scene of the day when he was discarded by his mother….<br /> <br /> “Perhaps, I merely just want to be recognized by someone. I cannot forget how a long time ago, I was discarded by my parent.”<br /> <br /> He was reminded of the look of Kaori at that time who was vanishing while saying ‘I want to be recognized’, that sight stabbed his heart intensely.<br /> <br /> “The kindness that was born from a wound of the heart, doesn’t mean that it’s a fake just because of that. I think that from overcoming the wound of the heart, that people become able to persist through all of that. Just like Yumeno-oneesan…&lt;ref&gt;Don’t know why but before Lotte keep calling Yumeno as ‘Yumeno-san’ and only now she called her with ‘oneesan’&lt;/ref&gt;””<br /> <br /> He wondered that perhaps Yumeno-san’s journalism soul would become her attribute that would let her persist through everything from now on to her whole life. Wounds would someday heal, and hearts would become something complete and unshakable….<br /> <br /> “I, before I realized it, my feelings that thought it’s fine even if I die anytime had gone desu. That’s just a trivial matter but, thanks to Kazuki-oniisan, the wound that was in my heart before this was filled already. The thing I want to do with Kazuki-oniisan, there are a lot right now desu!”<br /> <br /> Lotte faced Kazuki and showed him the best smiling face that she had made until now before saying in a singing tone “Tonight too I get to monopolize Kazuki-oniisan~”. She then grinded her face on Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “Then what are you wanting to do right now specifically?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki tried to ask her again.<br /> <br /> “I want to do adult pro-wrestling make believe desu!”<br /> <br /> “…What’s that.”<br /> <br /> “When I watch manga or anime, sometimes the phrase [adult pro wrestling make believe] comes out. I feel some kind of a little perverted nuance from the scene, but I don’t really understand!”<br /> <br /> “I wonder, isn’t it fine for you to just keep not understanding such things…”<br /> <br /> “For Kazuki-oniisan to treat me like a kid immediately is unfair―. There is not a thing that changed in my body except one, even though I’m at the age where I’m immensely full of curiosity about perverted things.”<br /> <br /> “If I got tempted more than this even by Lotte, my reasoning will get completely burned down before long you know.”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 305.jpg|thumb]]“Ehehe, does Kazuki-oniisan get properly conscious of me as a woman?”<br /> <br /> “Today, what you are wearing is different from your usual pajama huh.”<br /> <br /> Lotte always wore animal pajama, but tonight after she got out of the bath she was wearing a silk baby-doll that was so thin as if her skin was going to see through.<br /> <br /> It was a lovely adult underwear that felt like a fraud with word like ‘baby’ in its naming. A slit was entered on the area of the bust in a front open style and the skirt was stretching out airily. The butt was peeking out from the short skirt.<br /> <br /> <br /> “Please do perverted things, perverted things~♪”<br /> <br /> Lotte rubbed her body against him playfully. Kazuki desperately endured the feeling of wanting to stroke that squishy skin all over.<br /> <br /> Perhaps such fretting thought of Kazuki was also being transmitted to Lotte. Lotte floated a composed smile and reached out to Kazuki’s face while saying “Kazuki-oniisan-!”, before ‘chuu’ she gave him a restrained kiss.<br /> <br /> From Lotte’s chest, a large heart mark came flying.<br /> <br /> Charlotte Liebenfrau―150<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Afterword|Afterword]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_7_Chapter_5&diff=479474 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Chapter 5 2016-02-02T10:50:01Z <p>Hiro Hayase: impute -&gt; impure</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 5 – {{furigana|The Kings|Basileus}}==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The claws that grasp my body have the power to obstruct magic power….<br /> <br /> Lotte who was held tightly by the claws of the white swan calmly analyzed what was happening to her own body. Sharp claws grew from the legs of the swan instead of flippers and it possessed a peculiar power. The person that was grasped in these claws would be forced into hand-to-hand combat with this beast. It was that kind of power.<br /> <br /> Lotte who was currently in a weaponless state couldn’t resist with anything.<br /> <br /> The swan that held Lotte tightly flapped its wings elegantly and flew to the north above the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> It was a swan with unusual strength. Not to mention how easily it drove away her companions, even when it encountered powerful demon beasts like gryphon or wyvern while in the middle of flying above a Haunted Ground like this, she stabbed to death all of them with just one attack using its beak.<br /> <br /> It was not a magic just to the degree of transforming into a mere animal.<br /> <br /> For this swan to not even show any sign of getting rid of her, where in the world was it planning to carry her…?<br /> <br /> “Excuse me for being rough. …Maybe getting away this far is good enough, the scenery is also less objectionable for a Haunted Ground of foreign culture. We are landing.”<br /> <br /> The swan talked to Lotte attentively and lowered its altitude.<br /> <br /> Lotte was let off on top of an asphalt surface that was in full of cracks.<br /> <br /> Their surrounding was encroached by the trees of the Haunted Ground, several huge jet coasters were constructed around the area although they were covered with vines.<br /> <br /> This place…it was the ruins of the amusement park that was once located near Kawaguchiko.<br /> <br /> Of course right now that it had been turned into a Haunted Ground, the once beautifully ordered scenery was changed completely from the encroachment of the vines and the sea of trees though.<br /> <br /> Even though the swan evaluated this place as [less objectionable scenery for a Haunted Ground of foreign culture], this area was a good place.<br /> <br /> The swan perched on the rail of the jet coaster that crossed besides the standing up Lotte.<br /> <br /> “Why was I kidnapped desu? Is it for the sake of defeating Kazuki-oniisan…the King of Japan by using me as hostage desu?”<br /> <br /> Lotte asked the swan. The line of sight of the swan that was perching on top of the rail was directed at just right with Lotte’s height. Both of them were staring at each other fixedly.<br /> <br /> “King of Japan? You mean Hayashizaki Kazuki. How foolish, he doesn’t have the worth of even a single piece of spaghetti.”<br /> <br /> The swan calmly said that as if spitting out.<br /> <br /> “A King that cannot subdue his country. A country that cannot serve under its King…I came here as an envoy and I despise all about this country from what I see. …It doesn’t deserve to be recognized as a Magic Advanced Country, an ugly country. Hayashizaki Kazuki and the like is just an eyesore and there is no problem even if he is killed but, rather than something like that, you are a far more important matter for me, o contractor of Prometheus.”<br /> <br /> “You know about Prometheus!?”<br /> <br /> The swan flapped its wings once and landed down on the asphalt from the rail.<br /> <br /> At the same time that form emitted light and changed into a human.<br /> <br /> The white feathers became pure white mantel and hat, a long brown hair appeared….<br /> <br /> {…I remember.}<br /> <br /> A voice of one other person besides the two was added. Prometheus’s avatar appeared beside Lotte.<br /> <br /> “Prometheus…?”<br /> <br /> {I know her.}<br /> <br /> That tone of his was agitated in a way that was unlike him.<br /> <br /> {Her name is Regina Olympia Folnar. Italia’s {{furigana|Pope|Papal Basileus}} that is contracted with Greek Mythology’s chief god Zeus.}<br /> <br /> Zeus! ―There was no mistake that name was one of the most famous god’s name in the world.<br /> <br /> Lotte remembered about the anecdote about how Zeus transformed into a swan and abducted a beautiful human woman before making her pregnant with his own child. If they were talking about god that transformed into a swan then it was Zeus.<br /> <br /> “It has been a long time huh, Prometheus. It’s strange saying this seeing that I along with Zeus-sama left you half-dead but…”<br /> <br /> When Prometheus’s avatar appeared, Regina turned to Prometheus and talked as if she had lost half her interest of Lotte already.<br /> <br /> That was right, Prometheus was wounded by somebody from Greek Mythology, lost his memory, and was on the verge of annihilation. There he fused with Lotte while resting to try to recover his divinity. So the perpetrator that wounded Prometheus was this Regina and Zeus then!<br /> <br /> “You were the one that half killed Prometheus, then what is your business with us?”<br /> <br /> Lotte asked.<br /> <br /> “Shut your mouth. I’m talking directly with the Diva of Olympia Prometheus.”<br /> <br /> Regina kept her eyes fixed on Prometheus and cut off Lotte without giving her any notice.<br /> <br /> {…I and Lotte are of one body. I have no intention of interacting with anyone except through Lotte.}<br /> <br /> Prometheus said that to cover for Lotte.<br /> <br /> In a blink of eye Regina’s expression distorted into a look of rage.<br /> <br /> There is nothing more infuriating than this…it was that kind of expression.<br /> <br /> But Regina released a long sigh from her mouth and her expression soon loosened back to before.<br /> <br /> “It’s hard to comprehend. It’s hard to comprehend but…this time I will be the one that compromise.”<br /> <br /> Settling down her rage as if it couldn’t be helped, Regina turned to face Lotte.<br /> <br /> “I came to Japan thinking that I want to talk once more to Prometheus. I hear that Prometheus had become amnesiac. If that is so then perhaps his thinking will come out differently than before this. This time is different from before, he should be able to give a correct reply to my proposition. After all as long as he keeps his composure, then a Diva of Olympia like Prometheus must be able to understand the correctness of Zeus’s thinking.”<br /> <br /> “…So you want to talk with each other once more when you both have cool heads, that’s what you say isn’t it desu?”<br /> <br /> Lotte replied.<br /> <br /> “It’s unsatisfactory to answer you for every single thing, but it’s just as you said. Prometheus and that contractor extra, it’s fine for both of you to come together with me.”<br /> <br /> Hearing her talked unpleasantly, even the gentle Lotte looked daunted.<br /> <br /> {I refuse. I have decided about something together with Lotte. As long as Lotte doesn’t want to come along with you, then I cannot go along with you.}<br /> <br /> Once again look of fury appeared in Regina’s expression.<br /> <br /> “For a Diva of Olympia of all people to leave his own thinking to a human! Are you going to become a mere accessory of human!!?”<br /> <br /> {…I slightly remember your doctrine and tenet. …&lt;Olympia Aristocrat Doctrine&gt;. While unfortunate, such doctrine is something Kazuki and Lotte’s thinking absolutely cannot accept. There should be fairness between humans, they and I are thinking like that.}<br /> <br /> Lotte gave a nod at Prometheus’s words.<br /> <br /> She didn’t knew the detail of the story, but the former aristocrat Lotte felt animosity from just hearing the words aristocrat doctrine.<br /> <br /> “Fairness? Equality? What a stupid thing! Such [ridiculously kind thinking] will lead the world to a [mob rule]! This country called Japan is exactly like that! …You are certainly being dragged down by this country’s foolishness, how could you still keep saying such thing.”<br /> <br /> Regina opened her hands exaggeratedly and showed her lamentation.<br /> <br /> “Woman. Charlotte Liebenfrau. During the time you were together at Hayashizaki Kazuki’s side, have you never felt the foolishness of this country? If you are really not an imbecile, then you shouldn’t be able to say you never felt it.”<br /> <br /> Against Regina’s question, Lotte stayed quiet without confirming or denying it.<br /> <br /> Certainly she couldn’t say that the matter she mentioned had never happened.<br /> <br /> “Think about it, o {{furigana|titan of wisdom|Prometheus}}. The concept of fairness and the like had already been a denied concept since the [former era] of several dozens of years ago. The wealthy was always persecuting the weak while greedily devouring the resources of this planet. Human race had to be broken out from the deception called fairness and the like under the august name of the god.”<br /> <br /> Regina began to talk with oratorical tone as if she was drunk with herself.<br /> <br /> The King was going to talk about her own political philosophy.<br /> <br /> “From the ancient times of long ago, the world was being made up of struggles for riches. The wealthy countries were wealthy because they were plundering wealth from other countries. This country called Japan was living the world’s most prosperous livelihood as a mechanized Magic Advanced Country. For such country to say fairness and the like, it’s just too much even for a deception.”<br /> <br /> “Right now, Japan doesn’t have diplomatic relations with foreign country desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte cut in with her objection.<br /> <br /> “Japan is wealthy not from exploiting other countries. Even with Japan’s few resources inside their territory, with advanced development of science civilization and alchemy they can maintain the nature sustainability by recycling the resources and accomplish self-sufficiency desu. All of that is not accomplished from exploitation, but it was accomplished by hard work. I think this is a civilization of science and alchemy that deserve praise. Such endeavor for prosperity must be able to realize fairness someday in the future desu.”<br /> <br /> That was the thinking that Lotte who came from foreign culture always harbored about Japan.<br /> <br /> “That is so, currently this country is not plundering riches from other country and they are realizing a prosperous livelihood for their people. But that’s because the number of population that is still few from the declining birth rates effect of the former era.”<br /> <br /> “The population is few?”<br /> <br /> “Right after magic became entrenched in every Magic Advanced Countries, there is a data that the birth rate was ascending little by little. The reason was simply because the countries became wealthy from getting their hand on the power of magic, the death rate decreased, and the worry about the future vanished. I don’t know about Japan’s data since they severed diplomatic relation, but if there is no kind of policy to deal with this then a few dozen years from now there will be an explosion of the population number occurring. Do you think the people of this isolated island country can still spend their life in the prosperous lifestyle equally like until now if the population increases?”<br /> <br /> Lotte was slightly pressured to keep her silence but she immediately objected.<br /> <br /> “If the population increases, then the number of workers will also increase proportionately and they can produce similar level of prosperity desu.”<br /> <br /> “That’s a fantasy. Human population multiplies like rats. But resources don’t increase and stay at the same pace. Just like the principle of [Malthus’s Population Law] that was said three hundred years ago. If the sizes of the cultivated land stay the same while the population’s number increases in geometric progression, the land’s production output wouldn’t be able to catch up. Human population will surely increase in a prosperous place, if population increases then surely before long scrambles for riches will happen. This country would without fail lose their fairness in the future.”<br /> <br /> “…If population control is performed in some kind of endeavor…”<br /> <br /> “I wonder if that can be done? If people have a prosperous life then they will think that a lot of children to a certain degree mean happiness. But if a politician ''advocate correctly'' that [making children must not be done] in the election, then that politician will definitely lose the election don’t you think? Democratic government cannot do anything other than postponing their problem without exception.”<br /> <br /> {Aah, I’m gradually remembering that thing you called your political philosophy.}<br /> <br /> Prometheus threw in appropriate words with a flat bored tone.<br /> <br /> {So that’s what all of you called as mob rule.}<br /> <br /> “That’s right, under the democratic government you all will absolutely be unable to solve the long term problems. Because the greedy humans move the world based on the desire that is right in front of their eyes. This kind of human gathering, once they begin to lose their wealth they won’t be able to maintain the fairness in their society.”<br /> <br /> Lotte couldn’t consent to that. However words to object didn’t appear in her mind and she kept silent.<br /> <br /> “It’s not only population problem. Though imperfect, this country is a Magic Advanced Country, that’s why they can become prosperous. But even magic technique is not fair. Even now the number of countries that cannot even use magic in the level of changing sea water into fresh water account for the majority of the world. That was because Basileus Basileon was first selling the Philosopher Stone to the advanced countries.”<br /> <br /> Human that was bestowed with Philosopher Stone would awaken as a magician.<br /> <br /> But even without being granted a Philosopher Stone, human that awakened as a magician just by staying near another magician was increasing.<br /> <br /> When Basileus Basileon was killed, the method to create Philosopher Stone was completely lost into the darkness, but in Japan right now even without relying on the Philosopher Stone the majority of the born children were born as magicians.<br /> <br /> “In the countries where there were almost no citizen of theirs that could buy the Philosopher Stone at that era, even now there is completely no sign that magic will awaken there. Such countries are being supported by ''the Magic Advanced Countries except Japan''.”<br /> <br /> “You are not supporting them but controlling them.”<br /> <br /> “It’s the same, both of those words. At the very least I don’t want to be told that by you all who proclaimed words like [fairness] or the like while averting your eyes from the poor countries. This country is living a life that is more than thirty times wealthier compared to the Magic Developing Countries that had been poor since the previous era. You all didn’t have diplomatic relation with foreign countries so you didn’t even exploit anything. But comparatively while you are saying fairness in your mouth, you too didn’t even aid the poor countries. Does this country’s isolationism and your ideal conform with each other really?”<br /> <br /> Lotte couldn’t say anything.<br /> <br /> Because Lotte’s birthplace &lt;Seinmundo Dukedom&gt; was also by no means a prosperous country.<br /> <br /> “But that’s fine, things like fairness is a fantasy that should be given up from the start. …Poor countries should be ruled by wealthy countries, poor people should all become slaves.”<br /> <br /> Queen Regina finished talking about this denial of the country called Japan and strengthened her tone from entering the main topic from hereon at last.<br /> <br /> “This world is made up of the rich managing the poor. Even if there are those that can ''gloss over'' that framework, they still absolutely cannot make it disappear. If it’s like that then we should just make it clear. Lies and misrepresentation make the society impure, making the government stray off their way. The people with absolute influence stand above the masses, the masses has to be divided clearly into the aristocrats and the slaves. Like that people can escape from the original sin of greed and all problems like this planet’s resources and population explosion can be resolved.”<br /> <br /> {So it’s a slave system…that way of thinking is really not progressing at all from the era of ancient Greece.}<br /> <br /> Prometheus said.<br /> <br /> “After all human’s truth is unchangeable.”<br /> <br /> “How will you conduct that differentiation between aristocrat and slave?”<br /> <br /> Lotte asked.<br /> <br /> “Those who are born with strong magic power and deep faith are the aristocrat chosen by the gods of Olympia, spending their days enjoying poem and philosophy. Those whose faith are insufficient become slaves, spending their days in labor to heighten their faith.”<br /> <br /> {It really has the feels of Greece, doesn’t it?}<br /> <br /> Prometheus said in amazement but Regina continued her words without minding it.<br /> <br /> “This is no fair society, so the will of human who stand on the top is absolute. By ''culling'' the slaves, the population will always be maintained in a fixed number and the wealthy lifestyle of the aristocrat can be sustained constantly.”<br /> <br /> Culling―that meant killing the population that grew too much and adjusted their number.<br /> <br /> “Even supposing that they are a slave, their magic power will increase if they heighten their faith and they can become an aristocrat. If they cannot become an aristocrat, that’s because their faith is insufficient so it can’t be helped. Under the august name of god, the framework of the wealthy people and the poor people can be preserved in stability without anybody getting dissatisfied.”<br /> <br /> Lotte could only hear of what she is saying as nothing more than ‘This is what the god decides so just give up’.<br /> <br /> “The government conducted by the people with absolute influence that is the aristocrat borrowing the wisdom of god is undoubtedly superior compared to Japan’s mob rule. Population control in my country is also looking good in prospects, even the gradual ridding of the machine civilization is being a success without any dissatisfaction from the populace. A world where prosperity, population, and also environment can be stabilized eternally is being realized.”<br /> <br /> That was Olympia Aristocrat Doctrine….<br /> <br /> Lotte couldn’t say anything, she couldn’t accept it no matter what and dissatisfaction that was close to anger seethed inside her.<br /> <br /> “I think it’s fine even if you don’t have to rid yourself entirely of machine civilization though desu…”<br /> <br /> “Machine civilization exhausted the resource of this planet, producing wealth while putting a burden on the earth’s environment. The human race has awakened to an energy that they produced by themselves that is the magic power, so they should live only by magic power. Control the population, abandon the machine, live by the power of one’s own heart…”<br /> <br /> “In this country they are trying to overcome the problem of machine civilization by using combination of alchemy and magic power. For example they have established a perfectly clean method of generating electricity. I think such great effort is very noble desu.”<br /> <br /> “The time when human race once created Freon gas, they delighted in creating a technology that was perfectly harmless. But a few tens of years later, the fact that Freon gas destroyed the ozone layer of the earth was discovered. The time when once a mineral called asbestos was discovered, the human race lionized it as a miraculous mineral. But a few tens of years later, it was understood that asbestos would became many small dusts after a time and affected human’s life adversely when they entered human body. The rushing ahead of human race was those kind of things. Even when it looks like the problem is resolved in the first glance, that’s a way of doing things that twisted the god’s providence, so it only created distortion in a different place instead. Fufufu, things like creating a perfect method to resolve all problems using human’s effort is impossible.”<br /> <br /> After all it’s impossible, so what!<br /> <br /> “…I cannot accept your thinking desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte finally found her answer, how to express this feeling inside her that couldn’t consent of what she said with words.<br /> <br /> “All of you are just delegating everything of this and that wholesale to the god desu! Who will become the aristocrat and who will become the slave…even whether you yourself can become happy or not, in the end you just leave everything of that to god! That kind of thing is not fairness, your head is just empty desu!!”<br /> <br /> “You call the head of this I is empty!?”<br /> <br /> <br /> “Certainly there might be problems in the current Japan! But to give up facing those problems and stop endeavoring in resolving those problems, to even run away from deciding whether you can be happy or not, that kind of thing is not how a human lives desu!!”<br /> <br /> {If Lotte cannot consent, then as expected I too cannot follow your way.}<br /> <br /> “Prometheus! For a god of Olympia of all people to depend on human’s thought…!”<br /> <br /> {I am not a god but a titan. While I want the human race to be independent from god, you are wishing for the exact opposite. That’s why I follow Lotte, that’s why I won’t follow you. It’s double impossible.}<br /> <br /> “…Even the system to suppress beforehand the dissatisfaction of being born in a slave system using the blind belief of a religious country, isn’t that just a mere deception desu.”<br /> <br /> “You dare say our faith as blind belief!”<br /> <br /> “Certainly there are a lot of humans that can only think of the greed right before their eyes. However advancing little by little to obtain small wealth in their hand while also advancing their heart, I don’t want to give up such thing! …Even a kind person like Kazuki-oniisan exists in this country. Kazuki-oniisan is a kind person, that’s why we around him also becomes influenced, we can become kind without doubting other people desu. I believe that such small progress will someday bring about the day where the world’s problem is overturned!”<br /> <br /> “What a foolish thing…. I couldn’t possibly imagine that Hayashizaki Kazuki is a man with influence to such degree. Then Prometheus…there will be no more attachment from me. As I thought, you have to disappear from this world together with that contractor of yours!”<br /> <br /> {Since I got crucified in Caucasus Mountain, after I got half-killed twice finally you declared to kill me completely. Hooray―!}<br /> <br /> Prometheus made fun of Regina in provocation.<br /> <br /> “Before the fury of this I, do you think you two presently have the leisure to joke around!?”<br /> <br /> Enormous magic power and killing intent whirled and exploded from Regina, making Lotte sense that the time of talking had ended. Regina’s body was wrapped in light and it became Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> Sky god Zeus, Regina whose body was possessed by that power changed in appearance into a battle maiden with brilliant armor that hosted the light of the sun and elegant decoration of swan feathers.<br /> <br /> Battle preparation―no, it wouldn’t even be a fight.<br /> <br /> The status between herself and the opponent was too different in scale. Lotte got that hunch just by confronting her.<br /> <br /> Scary. But even herself that could become able to think of death as scary…was thanks to that person.<br /> <br /> “…I’m not scared of someone like you! After all I believe that Kazuki-oniisan will come again to save me desu!! Custom Liberion!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte changed into high speed maneuver mode and ignited the thruster systems that were equipped on her back and limbs all at once.<br /> <br /> For the sake of escaping that place, she took off backward and flew away.<br /> <br /> Her surrounding scenery sped off with a raging force.<br /> <br /> “Idiot, don’t think you can escape with a level 6 magic!! …Drifting away from secluded place blossoming in full glory at this transient world, {{furigana|Leucothea Metamorphosis|White Divine Blooming}}!!”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 283.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Regina’s whole body was covered with white plumage and she once more transformed into an elegant swan.<br /> <br /> Spreading her large wings in rustles, she flew and pursued Lotte.<br /> <br /> Lotte ran through the vast road of the amusement park while spouting off flames.<br /> <br /> But the swan that was chasing her elegantly flapped her wings and shortened the distance in the blink of an eye.<br /> <br /> Only two flapping wings of an animal was producing speed faster than a rocket thruster. Lotte looked back and felt as though she was looking at an absurd bad dream.<br /> <br /> “With my transformation into an animal with Zeus’s power, doesn’t mean that I, who is a King, am degraded into an animal! Every animal are possessing divinity as one part of nature!! Zeus as the chief god that ruled over all in the world is able to manifest the maximization of the divinity that the animals possessed!”<br /> <br /> Regina who lost her human form yelled. That was by no means inconsistent.<br /> <br /> “I, who have transformed into a swan, am even more elegant and can fly even faster than a swan! Don’t think that something like the power of civilization can run away from the speed of nature that is ''the very divinity of the world itself''-!!”<br /> <br /> What came pursuing from behind was not an animal but a god.<br /> <br /> “And then swan even while symbolizing the beauty of the femininity, this long neck is also a symbol of phallus!! Now, I’m already catching up here! The hunt is over! I’m going to pierce you with this beak!!”<br /> <br /> “If you do that I’m going to get pregnant desu!”<br /> <br /> “Then get pregnant! That’s the way of Zeus!!”<br /> <br /> A really serious reply came back so Lotte got really scared from the bottom of her heart.<br /> <br /> Regina was a female, but that was already irrelevant. Regina who controlled the power of the {{furigana|raping god|Zeus}}&lt;ref&gt;The raw really use this word. Even I who translate this is wondering whether there is a mistake. [I don't know what whiteashed things that pass as Greek mythology you guys know of, but Olympians, with Zeus at their front (closely followed by Pan, who is the origin of the term &quot;pansexual&quot;), were a bunch of rapists. And kidnappers. Consent of the woman (or man, or whatever) they made babies with was overrated. You caught their eye, you bore their children. PS. Also, &quot;rape&quot; shares etymology with &quot;rapt&quot; (originally, the feeling of having been transported to Heaven), which in its origins meant &quot;kidnap&quot;; Zeus is really known as the &quot;rapist god&quot; with the double meaning of being a horny guy who knew not the meaning of the words &quot;no, I don't want to have sex with you&quot; and of being a &quot;kidnapper god&quot;]&lt;/ref&gt; that was famous in the legend, was exhibiting the power of the swan that also symbolized the possession of both sexes. Those words of hers were by no means a joke.<br /> <br /> “In front of the watching Prometheus, I’ll kill you in a way that is stained with the most disgrace!”<br /> <br /> Lotte flew out from the amusement park and came out to the public road. The fearsome swan had already caught up to Lotte right behind her.<br /> <br /> Right now, exactly in this timing―Lotte had such a hunch.<br /> <br /> At that time from beyond the sky something was―the person that Lotte had been waiting impatiently for came flying.<br /> <br /> “Deep Striker!!”<br /> <br /> “…What!?”<br /> <br /> Regina who lost herself in the hunt didn’t notice the thing that approached her until the very last second.<br /> <br /> [That] which flew through the highway from beyond the sky like a meteor assaulted Regina who transformed into swan at her flank in a straight line. The swan was blown away following the direction that she had traveled until now vertically a few dozens meters away while somersaulting until she was crashed onto the ground.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-oniisan! I believed that you will absolutely come desu!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte’s expression was completely overflowing with happiness.<br /> <br /> The person that finally came was Kazuki who sensed Lotte’s whereabouts with the power of King and rushed there.<br /> <br /> {…The power of civilization, is the union of people’s power that created strength that doesn’t even lose to the mother nature you know.}<br /> <br /> Prometheus threw words of ridicule to the swan that rolled around on the highway.<br /> <br /> {Moreover you talked too long and didn’t even notice us buying time.}<br /> <br /> “You bastard-!” While raising voice of fury, the swan flapped her wings once more.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> While Kazuki kept hovering on the sky, he felt relieved that he made it barely in time.<br /> <br /> But at the same time, having comprehended who was the perpetrator that kidnapped Lotte made him feel cold in his stomach.<br /> <br /> The form was a swan, but that was without a doubt Regina Olympia Folnar.<br /> <br /> The King of Italia he met at that time…!<br /> <br /> At the same time he also discerned why she was here.<br /> <br /> ''By transformation''. The gate detected the number of the people that went through from their temperature and weight. Right now she was in a form of a really big swan, but surely she came inside by becoming a smaller animal and clung to Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> “How could you rush here in such a short amount of time…no, the power of King…. So you have the ability to detect the whereabouts of your own subordinate…?”<br /> <br /> On the other hand Regina too reached the answer of how could Kazuki appeared with a good timing.<br /> <br /> “But, do you think you can win against me even if there are two of you!?”<br /> <br /> {Kazuki, please be careful. She might look like someone that is easy to handle because of her impulsiveness, but her impulsiveness is something really unmanageable for the current you.}<br /> <br /> Prometheus warned Kazuki. Exactly as he said, Kazuki too nodded.<br /> <br /> “We are running away Lotte! It’s our victory if we can escape from this Haunted Ground!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte sensed Kazuki’s intention and cancelled [Custom Liberion] before leaping into Kazuki’s chest. While carrying up Lotte, Kazuki ignited back the flame in the hovering [Deep Striker].<br /> <br /> Lotte was flying low with [Custom Liberion] because she had guessed that help would come from the sky and in order to make Kazuki’s surprise attack succeed she drew the enemy’s attention to the ground.<br /> <br /> If comparing the speed in straight line, the [Deep Striker] was the superior one.<br /> <br /> “You won’t escape! There will be no problem or anything even if the likes of you escape from this place, but this is a hunt! A hunt is exactly an aristocrat’s amusement! Make me amused with all of your strength before I kill you!!”<br /> <br /> The swan flew up once more.<br /> <br /> That speed of hers was overwhelming as expected, even with the speed of [Deep Striker] the distance between them was steadily shortened.<br /> <br /> “Ride Lightning!!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki escaped to the south, he cast an acceleration reinforcement magic as if challenging ‘how about this’.<br /> <br /> The accelerated electric signal not only increased the activity of the physical ability but also the brain activity. The mechanized weapon’s performance that was using magic power as full was also dramatically enhanced.<br /> <br /> The combination of these two magic was the maximum speed Kazuki could exert.<br /> <br /> Kazuki still didn’t have any experience of an enemy that could pursue this speed.<br /> <br /> The swan that until now had gradually shortened the distance was slowly getting left behind farther.<br /> <br /> “You bastard, are you trying to make this me throw away my elegance!”<br /> <br /> The swan Regina who was elegantly flapping her wing raised a voice that was colored with rage and then she flapped her wings desperately in a rough motion.<br /> <br /> Surprisingly the swan was accelerating even further, the distance with Kazuki that had been widened was once more getting shortened.<br /> <br /> “To make me work this hard…unforgivable!”<br /> <br /> “Who cares!” The shocked Kazuki yelled at the approaching swan.<br /> <br /> This was not a joke. Even though his side had raised the speed by piling up level 5 magic, she surpassed him just by trying hard!<br /> <br /> But they could get out from the Haunted Ground before long. After that this game was theirs.<br /> <br /> This girl too shouldn’t be able to so openly attack them outside the Haunted Ground. If they could just reach the vicinity of the Haunted Ground’s boundary line, the Knight Order was standing by there. The helicopter that patrolled the sky would notice the abnormality.<br /> <br /> The distance was gradually shortened but they would make it with the difference in speed around this much!<br /> <br /> “…So that I can overtake that guy then.”<br /> <br /> Regina leaked out a low voice in a murmur.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s strengthened perception power transmitted a danger sense of the greatest class to his brain.<br /> <br /> Magic power swelled out from Regina. Guessing what was going to happen next, Kazuki felt a chill on his back.<br /> <br /> “…Lotte, defensive magic against electric shock!!”<br /> <br /> “The radiance of my hand is the logos that pierce through the darkness. Fill that direction, Crush all existence and become a cadence! {{furigana|Keraunos|Unshakeable Thunder}}!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked behind him. Regina turned into a form that should be called as half human half bird with only the swan’s wings remaining on her back, a dazzling light was grasped in that right hand.<br /> <br /> What was being grasped in her hand was lighting. No, it was not just a mere lightning. It was not the likes of a natural phenomenon.<br /> <br /> ''Symbolizing the lightning, the divinity of destruction''.<br /> <br /> Regina threw the light. The moment it separated from her hand, the light explosively expanded out.<br /> <br /> “ “This hand reached out to the height of Babel, right now this hand grasped the lightning of god! In accordance with my life, o thunder, whirl following my will! Collider Field!!” “<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte simultaneously equipped electromagnetic iron armor on their right arm and put up an electromagnetic barrier.<br /> <br /> Gigantic lightning ran to Kazuki from the expanding light.<br /> <br /> The converged line of light was a thick hammer that was exactly made from lightning.<br /> <br /> And then a thunderous roar―a roar as if there were dozens of lighting all at once.<br /> <br /> From Kazuki and Lotte’s eyes and ears, defensive magic power overflowed to protect their retinas and eardrums.<br /> <br /> The iron hammer of light smashed the double layer of electromagnetic barriers, destroyed Kazuki’s [Deep Striker], without even caring of the likes of Resist, the defensive magic power of Kazuki, who instantly covered for Lotte, was destroyed in one breath until the brink of magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Having a great damage driven into him all at once, Kazuki desperately held out even while feeling his consciousness get dragged into the Astrum in one go.<br /> <br /> Having their armaments destroyed, both of them free fell into the forest.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, are you okay desu!?”<br /> <br /> Inside the thicket of the Haunted Ground where they fell, Kazuki replied “I’m okay…” while standing unsteadily and made Lotte worried.<br /> <br /> In front of such Kazuki, Regina swooped down leisurely with the wings of swan on her back stretched out.<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised his face and glared at Regina while talking.<br /> <br /> “It really helped that you made a really flashy attack on us. Communicating our location successfully was hard.”<br /> <br /> “What?”<br /> <br /> From the other side of the trees, “Over there!” a voice they had heard before came.<br /> <br /> The next moment, offense magic was raining down.<br /> <br /> “Glacier Wind!”<br /> <br /> “Lightning Line!”<br /> <br /> “Moon Scraper!”<br /> <br /> It was the familiar magic that had low chanting time of their companions.<br /> <br /> “Withered silver grass that is just ignited of fox fire…the sending off person is also invited to nirvana! {{furigana|Ya no Renga|Fire of Field}}!”<br /> <br /> Karin too cast the Summoning Magic of the nine tailed fox, Tamamo no Mae. When they thought the surface around them was lit up in blue flame, the flame swayed eerily while becoming ball of fire that rained down on Regina.<br /> <br /> “Tenran Kamaitachi!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku too swung her Sacred Treasure, firing a blade of vacuum that scattered around the leaves in their surrounding.<br /> <br /> “Mu-!?” Leaking out a slightly surprised voice, Regina tried to defend by wrapping her body inside the swan wings. A faint light of magic power scattered.<br /> <br /> The members of Kazuki’s advance troop team rushed to his side.<br /> <br /> Kazuki rushed alone knowing that Lotte was in danger, during that time his companions transported Yumeno-san who fell into magic intoxication to the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> After his companions finished that business, they came searching for Kazuki and Lotte. But they only heard from Kazuki that he was heading to the general direction of north and the possibility of regrouping with him was low.<br /> <br /> Regina’s maximum attack magic just before was the most suitable for a landmark.<br /> <br /> …The group of Mio who could communicate telepathically with Kazuki were doing a different action for him.<br /> <br /> “Not just two, how about against six people?”<br /> <br /> “…You think you will be safe with six people?”<br /> <br /> A voice that made him shudder was returned―as if Kazuki’s bluff inside his heart was seen through.<br /> <br /> There was no damage at all on Regina. The shining light that appeared when Regina got hit with the attacks was not defensive magic power, but the light of general magic.<br /> <br /> An instantaneous and yet precise magic power control. Using a [Resist] so masterful that it looked artistic, all the level 1 attack magic was [dismantled].<br /> <br /> With this number of people, it was ''still insufficient'' to brag superiority against this opponent.<br /> <br /> “You understand right, that you are still a prey…Drifting away from secluded place blossoming in full glory at this transient world, {{furigana|Melachrinos&lt;ref&gt;Literally means black haired person. Thanks to a Greek anon for the info.&lt;/ref&gt; Metamorphosis|Black Divine Blooming}}!!”<br /> <br /> Regina’s form with the wings of swan growing on her back were distorted. Except the wings, her whole body expanded, lengthened, becoming supple jet black fur―with the wings of white swan remaining on her back, she transformed into a giant bull!<br /> <br /> “I’ll kick you around!” The bull with wings growing on its back kicked the ground ferociously and came like a cannon bullet to ram her body at Kazuki. Kazuki couldn’t immediately evade because there was Lotte behind him.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki! …Storm Fort!”<br /> <br /> “Seusenhofer!!”<br /> <br /> Sensing the danger, Hikaru-senpai and Lotte each brought their respective wall of storm and steel armor on Kazuki.<br /> <br /> But the charge of Regina who became a bull broke through the storm with her head and then her head-butt pulverized the armor into pieces in one attack, blowing away Kazuki and Lotte both altogether for a few dozen meters.<br /> <br /> “Crush to death, Taroudachi!”<br /> <br /> From the side Kohaku enlarged her beloved Sacred Treasure and swung it down.<br /> <br /> However Regina’s swan wings that could be said as elegant lightly blocked it.<br /> <br /> It was an unimaginable instant for Kohaku having her one attack she put all her strength into being blocked like that by a wing of swan.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what the, this animal…”<br /> <br /> Kohaku leaked out a weak voice exactly as if her soul had been shaved.<br /> <br /> “Not animal. A King.”<br /> <br /> Regina declared haughtily, then she swept away the large war sword that was the size of log lightly with her wing and rammed back at Kohaku. Kohaku too was blown away with her defensive magic power smashed apart.<br /> <br /> “HAA-!”<br /> <br /> In the gap created when Kohaku was done in, Karin slipped through the wing of swan and broke through into the bull’s bosom.<br /> <br /> Raising a voice with a flash of fighting spirit, a flying kick was launched with power unimaginable from such small statured body.<br /> <br /> Karin felt a dreadful feedback and became lost for words.<br /> <br /> In the instant of impact of Karin’s kick, the shockwave was ''transmitted slowly ''. Time absorbed physical energy. Karin felt her own kick was absorbed into the body of the ox limply.<br /> <br /> And then backlash. Karin’s leg that felt like it was absorbed was bounced back *BOYON!* from the repellent force of the ox’s body that was solidly restored to a form that was even harder than how it was originally.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what is thisss!?”<br /> <br /> Karin raised an upset voice while being blown back from that sensation where she felt like flying kicking not a living being but a trampoline.<br /> <br /> “A King! Regina Olympia Folnar!!”<br /> <br /> Being asked what she was, Regina haughtily answered Karin who had fallen on her butt in mute amazement.<br /> <br /> “No matter how many small fries like you crowded around, the quality is just too different-!!”<br /> <br /> While the bull stepped on Karin and inflicted damage, this time she charged at Hikaru-senpai. The blown away Kazuki also stood up but he didn’t make it in time to help her.<br /> <br /> “O goddess of affection…please shine the light to the soldier that challenge the trial under thy attentive watch. {{furigana|Moonlight Breath|Moonlight Song}}!”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai chanted reinforcement magic on Hikaru-senpai. A blessing for soldier by the moon goddess shone down on Hikaru-senpai. Her whole body was overflowing with power.<br /> <br /> “Maimuur!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai produced the spear of wind and returned a thrust with all her might against the charging bull.<br /> <br /> “It’s better than the sword and the kick from before, but…you think something of this degree can stop me!!”<br /> <br /> The bull’s charge and the strike of the spear that contained the storm collided with a *BANG!*.<br /> <br /> The one who was defeated was Hikaru-senpai. Her spear was repelled away and she backed off with a stagger.<br /> <br /> The bull stepped forward again and rammed her body. “Ku-!” Hikaru-senpai swung her spear from a disordered stance. The second collision. Hikaru-senpai was further blown away behind and fell on her backside.<br /> <br /> The bull for the third time stepped on Hikaru-senpai who fell on her backside. Hikaru-senpai barely swung her lance. In the third collision, Maimuur was completely defeated and got thrown away from Hikaru-senpai’s hand.<br /> <br /> The bull stepped on Hikaru-senpai again to give the finishing blow.<br /> <br /> “Mind attack magic…is useless even if I do it, isn’t it?” Miyabi-senpai leaked out a hopeless voice.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai!” Kazuki ran in an attempt to help.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, if the current onii-san enters to help then onii-san will be killed desu!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki had already bore a grave damage where he was now on the brink of magic intoxication. Lotte was immediately grasping Kazuki’s arm and pulling him back. Kazuki couldn’t shake off her hand and was late to help.<br /> <br /> Mio still hasn’t come yet!? He screamed inside his heart.<br /> <br /> ―In front of such Kazuki,<br /> <br /> “Please stop right there. Queen Regina. You have played around too much no matter how you see it.”<br /> <br /> A figure in glen check suit appeared instantly and cut in to save Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> A stick was stylishly brandished and blocked the bull’s body ramming.<br /> <br /> Inside the eerie silence, the body ramming and the stick’s power were in equilibrium.<br /> <br /> “You…Arthur! That stick, to stop my charge…”<br /> <br /> “After all a stick is the weapon of an English gentleman…”<br /> <br /> “That’s not just a mere stick!”<br /> <br /> “But of course!” Arthur replied with a dignified tone.<br /> <br /> Regina flapped her wings detecting danger and escaped to the sky before her figure returned from a bull to a human leaving behind just her wings. In contrast Arthur’s stick was emitting a dazzling light.<br /> <br /> “Please show a glimpse of your strength…o my beloved sword!”<br /> <br /> Along with light, the stick transformed into a knight’s sword that was sheathed inside a scabbard. With a masterful movement as a swordsman, the sword was unsheathed from that scabbard. The light that ran from the mouth of the scabbard changed the color of Regina’s face.<br /> <br /> “O sword of steel star&lt;ref&gt;[EDIT]You sure that it's &quot;steel star&quot; and not &quot;star steel&quot; (steel taken from meteorite cores that fell on Earth)?&lt;/ref&gt;, run-! Excalibur!!”<br /> <br /> It released a light that seemed it would suck even those who were seeing it from afar, a silver sword.<br /> <br /> When it was brandished, a silver flash ran swiftly with the force of its drawing not weakening at all towards Regina in the sky.<br /> <br /> “Show the majesty of Zeus right here! The great protection that promised victory repulsing every disaster right here! {{furigana|Kithemonikos&lt;ref&gt;Literally means something belonging to a guardian. Thanks to the same Greek anon.&lt;/ref&gt; Aegis|Splendorous Olympia’s Protection}}!”<br /> <br /> A membrane of light emerged out in front of Regina’s body, repelling away the running light.<br /> <br /> “So that’s the power of the famous Aegis of the Greek Mythology!”<br /> <br /> Arthur who swung Excalibur leaked out an admiring voice.<br /> <br /> Light and light, brightness that dazzled the eyes was filling the space between the two. The air and magic power in the area around them were vibrating in rattles.<br /> <br /> “…I made it!”<br /> <br /> From the other side of the trees, Mio, Kaguya-senpai and the others were running to them.<br /> <br /> This time for sure Kazuki was relieved from the bottom of his heart. The situation of this side had been informed to Arthur.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had also asked Mio’s team to return for the moment to the entrance of the Haunted Ground, until the real identity of the person that kidnapped Lotte had become clear, he asked them to wait in standby there.<br /> <br /> That was because he had the premonition that this matter was related with one of the envoys from the Magic Advanced Countries.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki understood that Regina was the one that kidnapped Lotte, he conveyed it to Mio through telepathic communication and Mio reported it to the Knight Order that Regina had violated her role as an envoy and came to deal harm to them. When the situation developed like that, the other Magic Advanced Country moved even ahead of the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> So the one who moved the earliest was Arthur.<br /> <br /> “I never thought that it’s not Queen Ilyailiya that would rampage recklessly like this but you instead. It seems there is some kind of circumstance, but you can still act quietly, Queen Regina.”<br /> <br /> Arthur called out like that while putting back Excalibur inside the scabbard. The combination of the figure in suit and the refined knight sword were mysteriously suited with each other despite the mismatches.<br /> <br /> “…Queen Ilyailiya is also coming you know.”<br /> <br /> Regina who suddenly realized turned her gaze around.<br /> <br /> Behind Regina, in a distance of few dozen meters, that Ilyailiya Muromets was wordlessly floating in the sky with her Magic Dress of dress shape and her silver hair trailing on the wind.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who examined the situation on the ground suddenly felt the presence of an attack and leaped behind.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DOSUDOSUDOSU!* Several small meteors rained down on the ground where Kazuki stood before, opening holes on the Haunted Ground’s ground.<br /> <br /> “Hmm. The speed of my attack is not something that can be evaded by seeing it with eye, that’s how it should be.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya opened her eyes slightly wide and talked with a voice that had no intonation.<br /> <br /> “I mistook my aim. That was shooting for the sake of holding Queen Regina in check from continuing the fight just so you know.”<br /> <br /> “You liar.” Arthur restrained. “Please stop such cowardly behaviors like trying to assassinate Japan’s King amidst the confusion, Queen Ilyailiya.”<br /> <br /> “It’s not a lie. I’m not telling a lie.” Ilyailiya shook her head left and right.<br /> <br /> Arthur scowled his face while saying “Are you a kid?”<br /> <br /> Three Kings gathered around Kazuki forming a curious power gathering that were glaring at each other.<br /> <br /> “Queen Regina. You judged Hayashizaki Kazuki as [worthless] and so you thought it was trivial before attacking him didn’t you, but I am not evaluating Hayashizaki Kazuki that lightly.”<br /> <br /> Arthur faced Regina back.<br /> <br /> “And so your action right now, seen from where I’m standing is [a dangerous action that disturbs the balance between fellow Magic Advanced Countries]. For Kings, to carry their each respective weapon in hands and glaring at each other like this, there is no way you don’t understand the meaning of that right?”<br /> <br /> Regina looked down on Kazuki haughtily while keeping her altitude in the sky with the flaps of her wings.<br /> <br /> “So you act towards making my action reach the ear of other Magic Advanced Countries. And the ambush from before was not everything of your plan…. Hmph, putting aside your battle ability, that performance is something considerable.”<br /> <br /> That eye of Regina who until now was looking at Kazuki as if staring at trash was for the first time gazing at him with a different emotion.<br /> <br /> “And then there is no doubt that this is just a mere chanced development, but there are this many humans that move for your sake. Hmph, just like Arthur said, I’ll admit that there is a little prospect in you. …I’ll resign from this place, be thankful.”<br /> <br /> After one-sidedly assessing him like that, Regina flapped her wings and flew from the sky of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> They somehow pulled through. Kazuki was relieved. However, what a girl that did as she pleased….<br /> <br /> “That’s quiet a poor loser.” Arthur faced Kazuki and smiled wryly.<br /> <br /> While their attention were directed at Regina, before they noticed Ilyailiya too had gone from the sky.<br /> <br /> “Now then.” Arthur changed Excalibur into a stick with magic before making a smooth rotation with a twirl and *katsun!* stabbed it onto the ground. He faced Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “You just received a harsh baptism under fire but are you okay? While unfortunate it seems that Queen Regina’s rampage is going to go unquestioned. But for the time being I will keep her in check okay. Well then, by your leave.”<br /> <br /> In a certain meaning, there was nobody in Japan that could judge Regina except for Arthur and Ilyailiya. The other Magic Advanced Countries would only warn Regina and settle the matter without anything else.<br /> <br /> “…I thought that I was going to die.”<br /> <br /> “I believed that Kazuki-oniisan was going to save me desu♪”<br /> <br /> Lotte smiled at him gently while Kazuki released a deep sigh from exhaustion.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Epilogue|Epilogue]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_7_Chapter_4&diff=479472 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Chapter 4 2016-02-02T09:36:40Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 4 - {{furigana|The Only Darkness in the World|Dead Angle}}==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> There were still some unanswered questions, but Lotte was mostly convinced.<br /> <br /> During the war with Yamato, the disruption maneuvering to cause friction inside the academy by noticing the academy of the damage the spy caused in real time&amp;mdash;the only student who could do that was Yumeno Shiori. That was because she was permitted to carry her own mobile phone even during the war as the chairman of the newspaper committee.<br /> <br /> And then no matter how much information the Student Council scattered as bait to lure out the spy, the spy didn’t do any tailing or espionage at all―that was because Yumeno Shiori was in the position where she could obtain information even without doing any of that. Even without doing any eavesdropping, she was boldly participating in their meeting. And she was recording all of it in the meeting’s minutes.<br /> <br /> If they thought about it accurately with logic, there was no way they wouldn’t direct their suspicion to Yumeno Shiori.<br /> <br /> There, Lotte proposed to Kazuki not to speak out about the important information in the meeting and kept it for himself.<br /> <br /> It was a bait with the assumption that the spy was inside the Student Council.<br /> <br /> As expected, this time the girl took the bait.<br /> <br /> Catching her like this right in the scene of the crime, the suspicion on the girl had become something unshakeable.<br /> <br /> However, several doubts were still left.<br /> <br /> First, in the case of the battle election, Yumeno Shiori was brainwashed by Hayashi Shizuka and made to become candidate as a pawn. Hayashi Shizuka should be informed about the spy inside the academy. It was really unnatural to further overwrite someone who was already a spy with brainwashing magic.<br /> <br /> The next doubt was how Yumeno Shiori was always visibly striving to search for the spy seriously. There was not even a single lie that could be seen from that seriousness of hers.<br /> <br /> Furthermore, Kazuki felt his bond with Yumeno Shiori, he could sense that positivity level of hers. That ability of Kazuki should be something unusable toward someone hostile to him.<br /> <br /> The last and the most questionable fact was, the fact that all the information necessary for the sake of concluding that [Yumeno Shiori is suspicious] were all information gathered by Yumeno Shiori herself.<br /> <br /> The one who investigated the information that a spy’s disruptive maneuvering was being conducted in the Knight Academy and came to report it to the Student Council was herself.<br /> <br /> The one who presented the good idea to lay trap for the sake of cornering the spy was also the girl. Exactly because this tactic didn’t succeed that they were led into the conjecture that the perpetrator was an inside man.<br /> <br /> She thoroughly investigated and interviewed one by one all the participants of the quest and she even reported that somehow all of them were undoubtedly innocent. It was information that made them excessively question about the existence of an inside man.<br /> <br /> It was all nonsensical actions for a spy.<br /> <br /> ''Lotte couldn’t see it as anything other than she was cornering herself.''<br /> <br /> Because there was such a doubt, that Kazuki was thinking that he didn’t want to doubt Yumeno Shiori.<br /> <br /> Lotte perceived that pain in Kazuki’s heart by her Telepathy.<br /> <br /> That was why Lotte moved as the substitute in trying to corner Yumeno Shiori to the wall.<br /> <br /> Kazuki-oniisan was always taking the initiative to shoulder everyone’s suffering for them.<br /> <br /> That’s why I too, if I don’t undertake the most painful thing for Kazuki-oniisan….<br /> <br /> Doubting other people―that was surely something Hayashizaki Kazuki was the weakest at doing. But.<br /> <br /> Doubting other people―that was something Charlotte Liebenfrau was the best at doing. It was something like a natural habit for her.<br /> <br /> Lotte tailed the girl. The sounds of Lotte’s footsteps, even the sounds of the door to the Student Council room opening and Lotte entering inside too, Yumeno Shiori didn’t hear any of those at all.<br /> <br /> That technique was something that Lotte also learned and mastered from Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “You are the spy from Yamato right desu, Yumeno-oneesan.”<br /> <br /> Lotte threw her voice to the girl was because she thought that she had a ground to talk to each other with the girl.<br /> <br /> She might be able to persuade her.<br /> <br /> There might be some kind of special circumstance that befell the girl.<br /> <br /> But those thoughts were betrayed.<br /> <br /> “Hi, hihi”<br /> <br /> From Yumeno Shiori’s mouth, laughing voice like a spasm leaked out.<br /> <br /> “Human that saw me, has to be killed.”<br /> <br /> A calm tone of voice. It stimulated an instinctive unpleasant feeling, making Lotte get goosebumps all over her body.<br /> <br /> This person…something is strange with her!!<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|I know thy name|Shem ha Meforash}}…thy name is [Halphas]…the bird of black death that invite wars. Spread the wing of lamentation, please sing the beginning of calamity!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori’s body was wrapped in the light of {{furigana|Access|Astrum Connection}}.<br /> <br /> At her back, an avatar of jet black giant bird emerged out with its wings widely spread out.<br /> <br /> The demon of Solomon 72 Pillar, Halphas―the demon bird that acts as the opposite of Phoenix.<br /> <br /> In contrast with Phoenix that symbolized death and rebirth that was [life’s turning point], Halphas symbolized the beginning and the end of war that was [the era’s turning point].<br /> <br /> The uniform that was on Yumeno Shiori’s body was disintegrating into Prima Material. Bluish black flames ran across that naked body. The bluish black flame hardened and transformed into a Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “…Kill.”<br /> <br /> Both eyes filled to the brim with cold light like a reptile’s, staring at Lotte glaringly.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|The truth shall set me free|Veritas me Liberabit}}…O the wise man that is the father and which is the guardian of the human race, show that wisdom right here!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte performed Access and enveloped her body in Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “The person who knows…I’ll kill all, all of them!”<br /> <br /> It was a voice as if the throat was tearing apart that had never been heard before from the docile girl called Yumeno Shiori. Things like talking to each other, or asking for her circumstance, that kind of easygoing thoughts were all blown away to a different dimension in one go from Lotte’s head.<br /> <br /> ―At the same time their surrounding air was frozen.<br /> <br /> It was an advanced general magic. A thin and wide Psychokinesis was suppressing the air in their surrounding zone so that they wouldn’t vibrate. A magic for the sake of not letting out the sound leak outside.<br /> <br /> Right now, even if Yumeno Shiori fired offensive magic and destroyed the school building, surely the sounds of that wouldn’t be transmitted to outside.<br /> <br /> Right now, even if Lotte screamed with a loud voice, surely that voice of hers wouldn’t be transmitted.<br /> <br /> …The girl seriously planned to fight right here!<br /> <br /> For the sake of not letting the witness return back alive!!<br /> <br /> “…The scattering of the spread apart wings is filth. Trail behind spiraling wind, become the mind gouging bullet! Flap and shoot out! {{furigana|Black Barrett|Spiral of Darkness}}!!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori turned to Lotte and thrust her palm forward.<br /> <br /> From there *DON! DON!* multiple shots of black light bullet were shot out.<br /> <br /> “O piling up wisdom in human race’s history, become the shell that armor my body in many layers! Heavily, thickly, reject all act of brutality! Seusenhofer!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte quickly cast a defensive magic. A thick and heavy metal armor was installed on Lotte’s simple white Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> The armor that guarded Lotte blocked the black bullets one after another.<br /> <br /> The bullets of black light were bird feathers wrapped in black flame. Although the feathers pierced the armor for sure, they were not so powerful that they could penetrate through.<br /> <br /> But the feathers that pierced the armor burst into flame and spread black firelight. Those tips of flame touch Lotte’s skin slightly from the gap between the armor.<br /> <br /> Defensive magic power protected Lotte’s skin from the black flame. But in that instant, something like a pitch black poison flowed into Lotte’s mind from the defensive magic power as if it was a conductor of magic power!<br /> <br /> It was a discomfort without comparison. As if the surface of her brain tissue was scorched…!<br /> <br /> What this black flame emitted was not heat! A black flame that scorches the mind!<br /> <br /> “Black Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori launched further black bullets in rapid-fire. In order to not have those bullets touch her skin for even a little, Lotte had to block it with her armor carefully. But while she could block several of the feathers, the flame began to run through the crack of the armor.<br /> <br /> Lotte rammed the door from her back and she escaped to the corridor by destroying the door.<br /> <br /> Just like that she ran through the dark corridor like a startled hare.<br /> <br /> Like a hunter, Yumeno Shiori chased her in order to bring her down with certainly.<br /> <br /> Lotte turned back and cast her magic.<br /> <br /> “Howl! The civilization grant destruction to human! The roar of wisdom scorch and break thy body, shut that dignity under the rubble!! Mitrailleuse!”<br /> <br /> Prometheus’s level 1 magic―a huge gatling gun was formed on Lotte’s right arm where she aimed that to the pursuing Yumeno Shiori and scattered bullets everywhere.<br /> <br /> However, even while her defensive magic power shone from the damage, Yumeno Shiori came pursuing Lotte without paying any heed to the bullets. The girl was excelling in Resist!<br /> <br /> “You won’t get away! ...I’ll kill you to accomplish my duty!! I’ll kill you so I can live!!”<br /> <br /> Duty. She put an abnormal tenacity regarding that word.<br /> <br /> As if that word was changing Yumeno Shiori into a different person.<br /> <br /> “Come from the darkness, o jet black invaders…with desire and violence, wash away the repose of the world! Let’s announce the beginning of the war with thy all’s baby’s cry! {{furigana|Birth From Dark|Born Children of Invasion}}!!”<br /> <br /> On Yumeno Shiori’s back, the avatar of the giant black bird spread its wings widely.<br /> <br /> From those wings, several dozens of black feathers shot out. The feathers flew evading Lotte and pierced the floor right on Lotte’s path, right beside her left and right, and right behind her.<br /> <br /> The black feathers that pierced the floor surrounding Lotte disintegrated like mud and just when she thought that the feather had melted, those black lumps swelled up and turned into humanoid in the blink of eye.<br /> <br /> The black silhouettes were slimy and began to be wrapped in a metallic luster, a thin and long something elongated from their hand, transforming into the shape of grasped sword.<br /> <br /> The black feathers transformed into the appearance of jet black swordsmen wearing black sword and armor on their body, surrounding Lotte from all direction.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s legs stopped. The dark knights assaulted her from the front and rear, left and right of the cramped corridor. She couldn’t hold them back with this gatling gun.<br /> <br /> The swords swung down from the four directions easily smashed Lotte’s cracked armor!<br /> <br /> “…O the guardian of human race, the wisdom for the sake of opposing the tyrannical will of god right here…{{furigana|Custom Liberion|Interception Armament}}!”<br /> <br /> Prometheus’s level 6 magic―this magic had never been tested in a real battle yet since she became able to use it.<br /> <br /> Angular shaped armors were supplemented on Lotte’s four limbs and her back. The armor was not there just for the sake of protecting the body, countless small-type thruster units were lining up on each of them. Those thrusters responded to Lotte’s will and spouted out flames in one go.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s small body instantly accelerated and flew off.<br /> <br /> That was not a straightforward acceleration―By shifting her arms and legs freely, the countless thruster units were movable to every direction and it was possible for Lotte to accelerate・stay still・change direction in every kind of way.<br /> <br /> Lotte flapped her arms and legs like swimming while receiving magical follow-up of mechanics calculation. She instantly slipped past through the gap of the black knights using zigzag and complicated high speed maneuver.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;GAKON!* The black knights crashed into each other.<br /> <br /> Lotte withdrew to the sky and after rotating in the air with a twirl she instantly moved in to counterattack. [{{furigana|Custom Liberion|Interception Armament}}] was exactly as the name suggest, it was not only for evading the opponent’s attack but it possessed the function to counterattack as it was.<br /> <br /> “Prometheus, {{furigana|do schneiden|tear to pieces}}!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte’s armored leg that dashed through the sky lost the function to run on the ground. In exchange the great length of armors that lengthened out from both her legs were equipped with sharp blades. Propellers were lining up crowdedly on the back side of the blade, spouting out flames. Lotte brandished both of her legs that had been changed into a blade like a ballerina and bisected the nearest knight of darkness thoroughly.<br /> <br /> “Prometheus, Fire!!”<br /> <br /> While there were shields on both her arms, simultaneously it was also built with gatling guns of larger caliber. Bullets of atrocity were fired while whirling apart gunfire smoke and bullet cartridges, demolishing the knight of darkness that was in the far range. The knight couldn’t even be called a swiss cheese anymore, there was no trace remaining of it.<br /> <br /> At the same time when Lotte escaped from her predicament instantly, the opponents were annihilated.<br /> <br /> But at that time Lotte had averted her awareness from Yumeno Shiori herself.<br /> <br /> “Hi, hihihihi-! DIEEE-!!”<br /> <br /> Hearing that scream, Lotte noticed the girl’s closeness.<br /> <br /> The girl kicked the floor without even any sound and ran approaching Lotte closer. She dashed to Lotte’s blind spot with fierce speed, it was a physical ability that had been trained.<br /> <br /> In the Magic Division, the Magika Stigmas weren’t supposed to have the training to use their body this skillfully.<br /> <br /> Three streaks of light reached out directly from that right hand―claws.<br /> <br /> “Carve your curse, {{furigana|Yamizaru! Bassou Kaikon, Onmyou Madatsu |Darkness Monkey! Draw Claw Release Soul, Grudge Mantra Evil Release}}!”<br /> <br /> ―Sacred Treasure!<br /> <br /> Without even any time of being vigilant of its effect, the gap of Lotte’s armor on her right arm was torn apart.<br /> <br /> The defensive magic power was smashed and dust of lights scattered.<br /> <br /> The effect of the Sacred Treasure became obvious immediately. The scar of the defensive magic power that was torn apart by the claws, originally new magic power should be flowing into it and closed the scar.<br /> <br /> But that natural recovery action absolutely didn’t occur. The new magic power couldn’t flow into the scar of the defensive magic power. As if a wound was infected, like it was being cursed.<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori once again swung her claws―aiming for the scar on the defensive magic power that was still in a gouged state. The location that was torn apart on Lotte’s body was the inside of her right elbow. There was a large artery running through there!<br /> <br /> She planned to inflict fatal damage by slashing the flesh directly through the wound of the defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> Lotte was driven by terror, she backed away using all of her thruster units and escaped from the opponent’s range. Yumeno Shiori’s attack hit empty air. But,<br /> <br /> “Swept away by the wave of oblivion sink into darkness…{{furigana|Youwakumu|Apparation Bewildering Dream}}!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori cast magic even more just like that ''almost without chanting''.<br /> <br /> Behind Yumeno Shiori, ''different from Halphas, an avatar of a weird four-legged animal emerged out''. A face that had a nose like an elephant, a short and stout body like a small bear, and legs that developed like tiger’s muscle.<br /> <br /> Lotte didn’t understand its true identity.<br /> <br /> This is…Possession Summoning! A human that made Stigma contract with Solomon 72 Pillar was even further possessed by a different Diva…? Impossible!<br /> <br /> But in the reality, the impossible to avoid effect of that magic struck Lotte.<br /> <br /> A powerful sleepiness overwhelmed Lotte’s brain like a surging wave. Her consciousness was entwined right away and she was going to get carried away to the far off beyond. The inside of her head was vanished in pure white.<br /> <br /> Lotte immediately maintained her consciousness with {{furigana|Trance|Mind Mastery}} magic. She barely avoided falling asleep, but in spite of being in the middle of battle, her concentration to her magic power was disturbed in pieces.<br /> <br /> Lotte was in the middle of accelerating backward by controlling her magic power to operate the thruster units on her whole body. With her consciousness disturbed in the middle of that, the thruster units on her whole body ran wild to wrong directions. A precise magic power control was indispensable for this armament that dashed through the sky by operating countless thruster units.<br /> <br /> Her arms and legs turned to completely different directions and all of them were pulled in rampage by their respective thruster units…In no time at all Lotte couldn’t maintain her altitude and crashed on the corridor. Even so the thruster units continued to spout flames and her whole body was shaken *GAKUGAKU* while sliding through the corridor. Lotte writhed on the floor like a bug whose wings and feelers were plucked off.<br /> <br /> Had something happened, her head was in chaos.<br /> <br /> She immediately tried to call for help and raised a scream.<br /> <br /> But the air was frozen. The vibration of her yelling voice was not transmitted to the outside at all.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;ZUGAN!* Lotte crashed into a collision with the corridor and finally her thruster units came to a halt. But while she couldn’t stand up from the impact, Yumeno Shiori was slowly approaching her in a walk.<br /> <br /> That right arm was directed to Lotte and it was swung.<br /> <br /> Something came flying aiming for her face.<br /> <br /> Lotte who was just barely keeping her consciousness reinforced her sight with magic power and she ascertained the true identity of the thing that came flying at her. A weight connected with chain―China’s hidden weapon, weighted chain.<br /> <br /> Lotte barely averted her neck from the weighted chain that was aiming for her face.<br /> <br /> “Carry the soul of dragon, {{furigana|Ryuuseisui! Battou Kaikon, Hiryuu Bakusa|Falling Star Spindle!Draw Throw Release Soul, Flying Dragon Binding Chain}}!”<br /> <br /> The chain’s weight that passed through the side of Lotte’s face expanded several times thicker. At the same time behind her the weight made a curve and the thick chain was twirling and wrapping around Lotte. …This was also a Sacred Treasure!<br /> <br /> The weighted chain that could move unrestricted and turned bigger twined around Lotte, then for the last the chain pierced the floor and made Lotte completely fixed in place.<br /> <br /> Lotte fought using the armaments installed on her limbs. That was to say if her limbs were restricted, she had no method of attacking.<br /> <br /> Checkmate.<br /> <br /> “Hi, hihi…”<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori made an eerie laugh while closing the distance between her and Lotte who was at her wit’s end.<br /> <br /> The dreadful claws were equipped on that right arm.<br /> <br /> It was completely like a giant mantis was sidling up near Lotte.<br /> <br /> “You are going to die here. Your corpse will melt like mud with the black flame, nobody will find you anymore. You are going to be alone eternally. Hi, hihi.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiroi’s tone was like her personality had undergone a complete change. She was going to be killed.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s body that was restrained by the chain was trembling *gatagata*.<br /> <br /> It was a completely unexpected situation. Even in the case that Yumeno Shiori was the spy, she had never thought that it would turn into a battle immediately without talking about it first like this. She had never thought that Yumeno Shiori was an existence this dangerous.<br /> <br /> She had never thought that she was this strong.<br /> <br /> Only a few minutes had passed since she called out to her…a few minutes that was completely like a nightmare.<br /> <br /> She was going to be killed, she was going to be killed…her head was completely filled with just that thought persistently. She grew pale.<br /> <br /> Lotte thought that it was surprising that she would feel this much terror toward death.<br /> <br /> …I, even though I should have been already thinking that someone like me had been marked for dead from the start already. Just to be able to live until now is a godsend already…even though I should have been thinking like that already all along….<br /> <br /> Unexpectedly, she was feeling an attachment to life. She was thinking &quot;I don’t want to die&quot;.<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori was slowly approaching. Tears welled up in Lotte’s eyes, blurring the figure of the death god.<br /> <br /> In this slight extension of time…what next came up in her mind after the terror was, doubt.<br /> <br /> Summoning Magic, Possession Summoning, close quarter combat using Sacred Treasure―A [combat machine] that used all of those skillfully.<br /> <br /> …What is the meaning of this?<br /> <br /> For other Diva to possess that body when she had already contracted with another Diva, such thing should be impossible to do. It was surpassing human’s capacity.<br /> <br /> Relationship with Diva should be deeply entwined to the contractor’s personality.<br /> <br /> Doing contract or doing possession, one personality couldn’t tie a relationship except with just one Diva.<br /> <br /> One personality was for one Diva. The appearance of Yumeno Shiori right now, was completely like a different person….<br /> <br /> Lotte who couldn’t even move any of her hands or legs attempted to Telepathy with Yumeno Shiori’s mind for the last time.<br /> <br /> A blue magic power light was pulled like a connecting string between Lotte and Yumeno Shiori.<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori’s [mental information] was flowing inside Lotte’s heart.<br /> <br /> Lotte opened her eyes wide in shock.<br /> <br /> Even though it was Lotte, that didn’t mean that she could understand everything about the other person’s heart.<br /> <br /> But just by sensing the surface of the current Yumeno Shiori’s mind slightly, she got a hunch of that fact.<br /> <br /> Lotte understood the truth. But, Yumeno Shiori finally stood still right in front of Lotte and raised up her claws. Not good, she was going to get killed…!<br /> <br /> ―That there was someone running towards them, both Lotte and Yumeno Shiori too didn’t notice until the last second.<br /> <br /> That was because the air was frozen and the state where sound from afar didn’t transmit was maintained.<br /> <br /> Silver light cut through between them diagonally, the claws that was going to swing down was repelled.<br /> <br /> Noticing that person ahead, Lotte spontaneously yelled.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-oniisan!”<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> While letting loose an Iai draw, Kazuki released a sigh of relief from his heart.<br /> <br /> I’m glad that I barely managed to arrive in time! That was dangerous just now…!<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;GIN!* Along with such sound, the claws that was aiming at Lotte was repelled away and Yumeno-san’s body staggered.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s calling voice before this had by no means reached Kazuki.<br /> <br /> However they were connected with their bond.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was busy during these two days. Everyday after school he was always discussing about the advance troop unit to the Fuji’s Sea of Trees with just Kaguya-senpai alone.<br /> <br /> Inevitably, his chance to make contact with everyone else of the Witch’s Mansion became fewer.<br /> <br /> Even so Kazuki sensed with the [Power of King] how Lotte, after school was over, didn’t come home until late while moving around inside the school building, and he became concerned.<br /> <br /> Because of that the instant Lotte wished for help―her calling voice didn’t reach him at all but―the three dimensional coordinates vision that emerged out from the Power of King, inside it the light that denoted Lotte’s location got stronger noticeably where he was able to notice it.<br /> <br /> Lotte’ feelings that sought for Kazuki grew stronger and the light also became bigger.<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately leaped out from his room and ran to the direction of Lotte’s whereabout.<br /> <br /> The time period of late night. …From all of these he could immediately guess what kind of situation Lotte was in.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan!”<br /> <br /> The surrounding air was frozen and no sound could leak out, but when he leaped right in the midst of these two’s conflict the voice became audible. Kazuki’s figure that cut between the two recovered Lotte’s hope and she raised a delighted voice.<br /> <br /> “!?” Having her right arm repelled by a katana, Yumeno-san who backed off totteringly opened her eyes wide at Kazuki’s figure. An instant of silence.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a step forward while chanting his spell and reversed his drawn sword into a diagonal downswing.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;ZAN-* Yumeno-san was further blown away backward from the backlash of the defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> At the same time he cast his magic.<br /> <br /> “I am the shaman of sword…rock cleave, root tore, sin sever, right now that virtuous sword of crushing evil in his hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki gripped his beloved sword [Doufuu] in his right hand while creating the Sacred Treasure that cut apart magic power in his left hand. Swinging the [Futsu no Mitama] in his left hand, he bisected the chain that tied Lotte in one slash.<br /> <br /> From the time when Lotte called out Kazuki’s name until now, only a single breath had passed.<br /> <br /> Lotte who became free hid behind Kazuki’s back as if escaping. Kazuki stood in order to cover for Lotte and faced Yumeno-san while taking the stance of two-sword style.<br /> <br /> ―But rather than covering for Lotte, perhaps they should take the positioning for a pincer attack instead.<br /> <br /> With a glance, Kazuki became aware of his decision’s miss.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san who was separated in a distance from being repelled wasn’t looking at Kazuki and Lotte anymore.<br /> <br /> The girl directed her eyes to the glass window and jumped there without hesitation.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;BARIN!* The girl broke through the glass window forcefully.<br /> <br /> Escape. …But for the current Yumeno-san, where did she have a place to escape?<br /> <br /> For an instant Kazuki hesitated to give a chase. He wanted to make sure of Lotte’s well-being who was visibly frightened in terror, as expected it was because of the turmoil from Yumeno-san being the opponent.<br /> <br /> He had faith on her.<br /> <br /> Not with logic but emotion, but he wanted to talk with Lotte regarding Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> He wanted Lotte to say that there was some kind of misunderstanding.<br /> <br /> Kazuki sheathed the katana in his right hand and vanished away the [Futsu no Mitama] in his left hand. Lotte too released her Magic Dress and returned to her uniform appearance, then she slumped and fell to her knees in that place from exhausting her magic power and being released from her nervousness.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan…there is no mistake about this desu.”<br /> <br /> “Aah, I know. It was correct for Lotte to doubt her. It was the mistake of me that didn’t want to believe that.”<br /> <br /> “That’s not it, both I who suspect Yumeno-oneesan as the perpetrator, and also Kazuki-oniisan who believed Yumeno-oneesan, both of us are not wrong desu.”<br /> <br /> “…Lotte?” Kazuki questioned whether Lotte’s feeling was still being surprised and stunned.<br /> <br /> However after Lotte shook her head left and right, she talked with a confident tone that had no doubt.<br /> <br /> “―Yumeno-oneesan had a split personality desu.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “What do you mean by that, can you give me an explanation?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took the completely tired Lotte back to her own room and sat with her side by side on the bed before asking. Lotte inclined her head with a nod and opened her mouth.<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-oneesan attacked me using both Summoning Magic by means of her stigma with Solomon 72 Pillar, and a {{furigana|Drive|Possession Summoning}} with a mysterious Diva.”<br /> <br /> That it was something originally impossible, Kazuki too immediately understood.<br /> <br /> “I who thought it strange, tried to Telepathy with Yumeno-oneesan. And then…The whole shape of Yumeno-oneesan’s heart was without change presenting only the personality, but the personality became a completely different person desu. The direction of the heart changed and a completely unknown side of her was rising to the surface desu. It was not the case that Yumeno-san was acting…her one heart was possessing two personalities desu. The Yumeno-oneesan that we all know well perhaps doesn’t know that she is a spy. However the one other personality is a spy that has been trained to the degree where she can use Sacred Treasures skillfully desu.”<br /> <br /> Was something like that possible? …No, it was possible.<br /> <br /> Kazuki knew regarding those symptoms. He had an understanding.<br /> <br /> Multiple personality―When someone confronted abuse and heavy stress, they lost the sense that they were themselves. One part of the brain that secreted brain substance was going numb. Due to that, the person interpreted the stress that they faced like somebody else’s problem and it didn’t become a memory of an event that happened to their own self.<br /> <br /> Somebody else’s problem&amp;mdash;when such stress and the detachment from that stress got repeated everyday, [one other self that took charge of the stress] would grow carrying different memories and personality. The detached personality would lose identity and each would walk with their own respective independent memory and personality―Dissociative identity disorder.<br /> <br /> Kazuki once lived in orphanage, in that place there were also children who had experienced abuse from their parents. And then among them there was also a kid who showed symptoms like that. That was why Kazuki could immediately understand Lotte’s story.<br /> <br /> If it was like that then all their questions were answered.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san didn’t tell a single lie. She really didn’t know.<br /> <br /> Because she didn’t hold a single hostility to Kazuki, her positivity level was also showing.<br /> <br /> One personality could only be followed by one connection with a Diva, but if the front personality made Stigma contract and the hidden personality exchanged possession contract then double contract could be concluded.<br /> <br /> Surely the front personality of Yumeno-san wasn’t able to handle the power of Drive. That was because the one the Diva possessed was the other personality which was the one who could handle it freely.<br /> <br /> But Yumeno-san’s hidden personality was able to master the power of Stigma summoning. Stigma contract carved the Stigma on the flesh body and through that Stigma the power of Diva could be pulled out. Yumeno-san’s hidden personality was able to master all the function of her own flesh body.<br /> <br /> “Everything fits desu.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded hearing Lotte’s words.<br /> <br /> At the same time he felt dread on the planning in making this kind of spy.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san was most likely made to detach her personality systematically. Both her parents were also likely to be Yamato’s spies. Perhaps her parents when they knew that their own daughter was a possessor of magic talent that could enroll into the Magic Division, started to abuse her for the sake of splitting her personality for certain.<br /> <br /> And then they raised the split personality as a spy to pull out information from the Magic Division.<br /> <br /> A spy that wasn’t aware that she was a spy…to think that there was a spy this terrifying.<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Kazuki’s mobile phone was vibrating because of a received call. Kazuki said “Sorry” to Lotte and after confirming that the display was showing [Headmaster Amasaki], he went out to take the call.<br /> <br /> {Sorry to suddenly call. But an urgent notice just came in.}<br /> <br /> “Urgent notice?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too had something he needed to tell the headmaster, but first he listened to the headmaster’s story.<br /> <br /> {A short time ago, the security soldier in Fuji’s Sea of Trees was attacked and it seemed that someone trespassed inside.}<br /> <br /> “…What did you say?”<br /> <br /> A situation that shouldn’t happen. No, however….<br /> <br /> “There should be a gate in the Haunted Ground’s entrance right? Then the identity of the intruder is…”<br /> <br /> {Right, we have already know the identity of the intruder.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki went “Don’t tell me” and something flashed in his mind.<br /> <br /> There was a gate at the entrance of the Haunted Ground, with the &lt;{{furigana|Scanner Device|Magic Power Light Scanning Terminal}} there, no one could enter unless their Stigma had been confirmed.<br /> <br /> Even if the intruder defeated the security soldier, if he didn’t confirm his own stigmata in the terminal then he shouldn’t be able to pass through. The data of the intruder’s Stigma was left behind in the terminal.<br /> <br /> “…The intruder is the first year of the Magic Division, Yumeno Shiori isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> From the other side of the phone receiver, the sign that Headmaster Amasaki was shocked and had his breath taken away was transmitted.<br /> <br /> {That’s right. The data of Halphas’s Stigma is left in the gate, from the witness testimony of the security soldier we know that it’s almost certain that it was Yumeno Shiori.}<br /> <br /> “Headmaster Amasaki, there was also some development at this side. Yumeno-san is a spy of Yamato with a double personality.”<br /> <br /> He could sense Headmaster Amasaki lost his words at the other side of the phone.<br /> <br /> Kazuki explained the incident that happened just before this.<br /> <br /> {…I see, so that’s the reason we didn’t find the spy.}<br /> <br /> ‘Where in the world she is planning to escape’, he thought before, but…Yumeno-san was in the Fuji’s Sea of Trees.<br /> <br /> {The Knight Order had surrounded Fuji’s Sea of Trees so that Yumeno Shiori cannot escape. Patrolling helicopters are also flying in the sky. But due to Commander Yamagata’s order, the Knight Order doesn’t rush inside. He wants the entry into Fuji’s Sea of Trees to be only done by the students of the Knight Academy to the end.}<br /> <br /> “…Understood. We are going to head to Fuji’s Sea of Trees the first thing tomorrow morning.”<br /> <br /> The night had already grown late. Rather than entering a Haunted Ground at night, surely entering it in the morning would be safer.<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki too said {Yeah} and acknowledged it.<br /> <br /> “…By the way Yumeno-san didn’t bring anyone with her and entered the Haunted Ground alone right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled a question and asked.<br /> <br /> “Aah, should be. There was nothing except Halphas’s data remaining left behind at the gate. The gate is detecting the human’s weight and temperature, once the person has confirmed their Stigma then no one but that person can pass. Yumeno Shiori should be alone inside the Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> He thought it was going to be troublesome with her bringing in other Yamato’s spies, but it seem that there was no such possibility. …Then what was Yumeno-san’s real intention in trespassing into the Haunted Ground?<br /> <br /> He really couldn’t think of it as a good place to escape.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry about the sudden call. Thank you for coming, Miyabi-senpai.”<br /> <br /> The next morning, inside the magic light train, Kazuki talked while sitting beside Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> “I don’t particularly mind. Quest is more enjoyable rather than attending class. …Though there was no time to persuade Shinobu like this.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai answered with a refreshing smile. She was the same like Koyuki, an elf Magika Stigma that possessed strong magic power surpassing average humans.<br /> <br /> She and her contracted Diva, Gremory had the Summoning Magic of mind hack system as their forte.<br /> <br /> Kazuki thought that her power might become necessary to confront Yumeno-san who had a mental problem called multiple personality, so he called for her assistance.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had experienced the strength of Miyabi-senpai’s mind hack magic personally with his own body.<br /> <br /> “…But I don’t know if I can answer your expectation. I can easily succeed in mind hack magic against you because your Trance technique is not really that high. Your nonexistent resistance toward mind magic is your number one weak point I guess.”<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuki felt his heart got stabbed hearing that, he nodded honestly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who relied completely on sword art and everyone’s magic still had a lot of points that he should train.<br /> <br /> Having said that, it was hard to train a resistance against mental magic alone by himself, so it might be good to ask for favor from Miyabi-senpai to cooperate with him after this.<br /> <br /> “The one other personality of that child called Yumeno Shiori has been accumulating a considerable training as a spy right? If she is a spy then resistance against mental magic should be the most prioritized field that she had to learn. Even I don’t have the confidence to make my mental magic succeed against an active pro as the opponent. Perhaps it will be easier to just normally make her fall into a magic intoxication you know.”<br /> <br /> “So it’s like that.” Kazuki’s reply was slightly mixed with discouragement.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san would be handed to the Knight Order after they made her fall into magic intoxication and she became powerless.<br /> <br /> For the sake of pulling out the information of other spies from the girl that had become powerless, the Knight Order would surely performed mind magic at the same time with interrogation.<br /> <br /> If they used mind magic for the sake of really harsh interrogation, damage could also occur in her mind.<br /> <br /> If he could, Kazuki wanted to avoid that situation, even if he couldn’t avoid it he wanted to exchange words one more time with the front personality of Yumeno-san. He didn’t want to hand her to the Knight Order just like this without hearing anything from her mouth.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s mind magic was able to drag the opponent’s mind into her own mental world. He guessed that she might be able to make Yumeno-san’s mind that had split into two to operate at the same time together.<br /> <br /> If both Kazuki and Yumeno-san was put under this magic, then Kazuki would be able to face both the front and hidden Yumeno-san at the same time inside Miyabi-senpai’s mental world.<br /> <br /> For the moment, he wanted to converse with these three people. That was what Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuki’s discouraged state, Miyabi-senpai chuckled.<br /> <br /> “It really makes me want to do something for you somehow. There is no way that dejected face wouldn’t tickle my motherly instinct as the senior elderly sister here. I get it, I’ll give it a try as hard as I can.”<br /> <br /> “…Thank you very much, Miyabi-senpai.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The magic light train advanced to the direction of Shizuoka through the coastlands route and arrived at Otawara station.<br /> <br /> There they changed train into the train line that went inland to northwest, Kazuki and the others headed to Gotenba station.<br /> <br /> Gotenba was a town that was touching with the entrance to the Grand Haunted Ground Fuji’s Sea of Trees.<br /> <br /> In the old era Fuji’s sea of trees only took the name of &lt;Aokigahara Sea of Trees&gt;, but because in this current era, all of that area with Mountain Fuji as the center was completely buried with the trees of the Haunted Ground. The whole area of the Haunted Ground became called as &lt;Fuji’s Sea of Trees&gt;…it was like that. Its width reached a radius of 15 kilometers and the surrounding cities inside the radius of 20 kilometers were designated as evacuation district. And then what should be specially mentioned more than its radius was the thickness of the magic power inside it.<br /> <br /> When they arrived at Gotenba station, they transferred to the car that the Knight Order had prepared for them from here on and ran through the town that had completely become a ghost town from having its residents evacuate since a long time ago.<br /> <br /> While staring outside the window, Mio opened her mouth.<br /> <br /> “When I investigated it, a long time ago in Gotenba there was a famous fashion pot. After that there was also something like an amusement park! For that to become something like an evacuation area…we cannot just leave this alone!”<br /> <br /> It seemed like Gotenba was a town that plucked the heartstrings of people like Mio, the girl was very enthusiastic.<br /> <br /> When they got distanced from the station and the fields became standing out around them, a wall with height as if it was piercing the sky became visible standing on the way of the lonely road they traversed.<br /> <br /> It was to the degree that made them hallucinate if this wall didn’t partition the whole world instead. The wall spread to the left and right without its end in sight. <br /> <br /> The low level of the wall was made from {{furigana|adamantite|alchemic hard steel}} and the upper level was made from normal concrete, they understood it from the two different colors of the wall’s up and down.<br /> <br /> Gate. A normal Haunted Ground wouldn’t get enclosed by a giant external wall until this far. From its remarkable danger, this gate was distinctive of this Grand Haunted Ground as if treating a stinky item by putting a lid on top of it.<br /> <br /> They could take a peek at the Knight Order’s patrol helicopters sporadically flying above the sky of the Haunted Ground. It was the effect of Yumeno-san’s infiltration that this abnormal security was performed.<br /> <br /> The car stopped.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki and the others disembarked, the Knight Order was forming a row in standby in front of the gate.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> From among the several dozens of knights that were standing in alert, a face that he knew ran up to them.<br /> <br /> “Akane-senpai!”<br /> <br /> “Long time no see isn’t it. I heard that you guys are going to this Haunted Ground so I came.”<br /> <br /> It was Akane-senpai who usually only expressed her emotion faintly that didn’t leave much impression, but she had a faint smile in her expression while welcoming Kazuki. Slightly behind her, Kanon-senpai too was running up to them.<br /> <br /> “Been a while huh, you guys-☆ It’s not like we particularly need to come here or anything, but it can’t be helped because Akane said that she wanted to meet you immediately if something happened.”<br /> <br /> “I never said anything like that!”<br /> <br /> After Akane-senpai said that to Kanon-senpai in an unusually strong tone, she turned back to face Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “I never said that.”<br /> <br /> She repeated that again.<br /> <br /> “I never said that okay.”<br /> <br /> She made a face that looked a little troubled and made sure once more.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, Kazuki is really liked here huh. This is the first time I see Akane-senpai this cute-“<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai who was the direct junior of Akane-senpai laughed in a jest. Akane-senpai then glared at Hikaru-senpai with reproachful look.<br /> <br /> “Right. Be affectionate to your heart’s content toward my protégée☆ Putting that aside…”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai explained simply about the [internal structure of the Grand Haunted Ground].<br /> <br /> “Fuji’s Sea of Trees is divided into three level. The time when the Haunted Ground was still not this big it was surrounded by a wall within the sphere of 5 kilo, but unable to stop the expansion of the Haunted Ground ''the wall got completely swallowed'', and then within the sphere of radius 10 kilo it was surrounded by a new wall. But that wall too was swallowed by the Haunted Ground…and that’s the reason why this third wall was created☆”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively looked up the wall in front of his eyes. A wall in this scale, there was still two layer of it….<br /> <br /> “Even right now the walls were still left inside the Haunted Ground and becoming a certain kind of threshold. Thanks to the walls, the expansion of the Haunted Ground can be restrained, but the magic power is confined to the inner direction in those parts alone and it had been confirmed that ''once you stepped past the wall the magic power thickness will jump up''. In other words the Demon Beasts will become stronger in wide difference past each walls, so be careful. Of course there is also a high chance for Sacred Treasure to be created in place where the magic power is thick.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai too pulled herself together and gave them additional explanation.<br /> <br /> “The place you are going today is the first outer area you will meet immediately once you pass this gate…so to speak you can think of this surrounding as the &lt;Level 1&gt; area. Yumeno Shiori too if she escaped into here alone, then she should be in the area of this Level 1. After all, ahead from Level 2, it will be absolutely dangerous even for a capable knight to go there alone see☆”<br /> <br /> It was a gigantic Haunted Ground, but for the moment they could narrow down the area where Yumeno-san was.<br /> <br /> “Yosh, well then we are going to deal with the procedure to pass!”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai was holding a &lt;Scanner Device&gt; in her hand.<br /> <br /> It was the equipment for confirming the Magika Stigma that passed the gate.<br /> <br /> When Kanon-senpai who was like a chaser in a convenient store confirmed the Stigma of Kazuki who stood in the head of the student’s line with the device, the small door in the gate’s lower part was opening with a mechanical sound.<br /> <br /> “Yosh, go through there one by one.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki passed through there, the sensor that was in the gate’s boundary detected one human and the doors closed immediately after Kazuki passed through.<br /> <br /> Certainly if it was like this then only one person could pass through without bringing anyone with them. There was no extra room left to enter except for lost bug or small bird.<br /> <br /> The students of the Magic Division finished their confirmation and went through the door in succession.<br /> <br /> After that the swordsmen who didn’t have Stigma passed through after Kanon-senpai and Akane-senpai input the password of &lt;supervisor authority&gt; and opened the door.<br /> <br /> For the swordsman, they couldn’t enter the Haunted Ground with only swordsman in the group.<br /> <br /> Currently, such unfairness was in the middle of a review, but the structure of this old gate was not updated. Those like Kohaku were making a sullen dissatisfied face.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the others entered the Haunted Ground’s inner part all together.<br /> <br /> In the immediate inner side of the gate was scenery of ruins that were swallowed by sea of trees.<br /> <br /> The road under their feet was gouged by root of trees so thick like an arm of a giant that was undulating through the asphalt. The surrounding buildings were crushed and broken deformedly by the giant tree trunks that were growing from the earth. Countless leaves and branches were sticking out from the cracks and broken windows. And then the whole thing was covered by ivies in entanglement. The farther they went deeper, the presence of greenery was becoming stronger.<br /> <br /> Those green trees were not original thing of natures, it was a display of eerie shapes and colors that were impossibly distorted by magic power everywhere they saw. A moist stench floated chokingly in the air.<br /> <br /> “Then we are splitting into two teams. The outer circumference of the Haunted Ground…the place Kanon-senpai told us before, the &lt;Level 1&gt; area is the place we are going to explore.”<br /> <br /> As long as Yumeno-san was just alone, it was hard to imagine that she would advance to Level 2.<br /> <br /> After all it was simply too dangerous for the girl’s solo battle strength.<br /> <br /> However if it was really like that then Yumeno-san’s objective was becoming increasingly unclear.<br /> <br /> The Haunted Ground was too dangerous as an escaping place.<br /> <br /> Even if she was aiming for the Three Sacred Treasures, it was difficult with just her alone. Even in the unlikely event that she discovered it, in this high alert state she wouldn’t be able to bring it outside.<br /> <br /> She might have anticipated that Kazuki would chase her here and she was going to aim for his life.<br /> <br /> Even if she was thinking that, the question of [Alone by herself?] sprang forth.<br /> <br /> “Even if you said to search for her, if we really think about it isn’t a radius of 15 kilo unthinkably vast? It’s like searching Yamanote&lt;ref&gt;Hilly residential section of western Tokyo, inc. Yotsuya, Aoyama, Koishikawa, Hongo, Ichigaya, Akasaka, Azabu and surrounds&lt;/ref&gt; line for just one person don’t you think?”<br /> <br /> Mio who was entering a Haunted Ground once again said that, feeling for real that vastness of the area they needed to search for.<br /> <br /> “This place is far more wide than Yamanote line you know.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki calmly retorted, all present made a face that seemed to say “Uhee”.<br /> <br /> “It’s not like we have to absolutely find her within today. This Haunted Ground is a place we have to capture anyway in the first place. Let’s search while defeating Demon Beast and liberating this place.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san couldn’t escape outside. She was at a dead-end in a certain meaning, so it didn’t mean that they had to find her in a great hurry. If in a few days the advance troop team of Kazuki and his group couldn’t find her, they would make the general students participate in this quest too just as they planned and search for Yumeno-san that way.<br /> <br /> However if the Knight Academy couldn’t discover Yumeno-san no matter how long they were searching, then Commander Yamagata wouldn’t be able to hold back the Knight Order anymore so neither could they search for her leisurely.<br /> <br /> For the time being Kazuki’s group was going right and Mio’s group was going left, they began to walk going around the inner part of the wall in circle.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> …Yumeno Shiori was hiding herself in the area that Kazuki and the others called as Level 1.<br /> <br /> ''Without being attacked by any Demon Beast'', the girl was slowly resting her body.<br /> <br /> Although she was forced to escape without any other choice, there was almost no exhaustion in her from yesterday’s battle.<br /> <br /> Around Shiori, large-type Demon Beasts were nestling close to her as if they were her guard.<br /> <br /> A giant beast with three head of lion, goat, and poisoned snake―a chimera was obediently sitting beside the girl completely like a pet cat.<br /> <br /> A slender dragon with its whole body made from rock, a possession of trait that originally should be impossible for a living being―a gargoyle was perching on top of the gate of the building besides Shiori.<br /> <br /> A giant with stature around four meters and its whole body covered with fur―a troll holding a club made from rock with its thick arm that was like a log, was standing guard at Shiori’s back like a sentinel.<br /> <br /> The figure of the resting girl surrounded by fantastical beast in the townscape of a ruined town was exactly like a page of fantasy world.<br /> <br /> “To be effective not only against human but also Demon Beast, what a rare mind magic.”<br /> <br /> And then besides Shiori, there was not only Demon Beasts but ''also one more person''.<br /> <br /> Usually, mind magic wouldn’t work against anything except against [human] who possessed similar mind structure with the caster.<br /> <br /> “…My Drive Diva possesses the power to invade dream―the subconscious of living being. The Demon Beast doesn’t have what is called a clear awareness. Their head is empty inside…. If it’s the power of my Diva, they can be manipulated even easier than humans.”<br /> <br /> Besides Shiori, an avatar of a strange animal emerged out dreamily.<br /> <br /> Baku―Possessing a long nose like an elephant, a short and stout monster of Chinese Mythology.<br /> <br /> “This kind of ugly monster is really a Diva huh.”<br /> <br /> The person beside Shiori threw a scorning look at it.<br /> <br /> “Baku is…at the beginning he was a god called &lt;Bakuki&gt; that governed dreams, but gradually he was told orally in a different shape as an apparition of Asia. Originally he was an existence that reached the pedigree of a proper god…”<br /> <br /> Shiori protested in order to stick up for the Diva that was possessing her.<br /> <br /> “Even Baku’s power cannot control the Demon Beast {{furigana|on the other side of the wall|Level 2}} because they are too ferocious. But if it is with the Demon Beast near the entrance then that power of his is effective. Though as long as the magic that is controlling the human and Demon Beast is still in use, Baku’s other magic is not usable…”<br /> <br /> “But for you, that is not a big risk.”<br /> <br /> Shiori moved her head in a nod and the Stigma on her whole body lit up.<br /> <br /> “Solomon 72 Pillar’s &lt;contract&gt; created Stigma on the flesh body. Stigma is a thing of flesh. I can control this body of Yumeno Shiori as my own body.”<br /> <br /> When the girl poured magic power into the Stigma, she could directly unite her consciousness with the contracted Diva in Astrum. Through this circuit, she could make an Order for magic phenomenon.<br /> <br /> Halphas had to abide to the contract. A contract was ironclad for a devil. Even in the case where the one who gave the order was the different personality of the contractor the Devil made the contract with, he couldn’t escape from the Stigma’s contract.<br /> <br /> “A double contract that make use of multiple personality huh. So there is a human that thought of a fairly interesting thing. For that sake they abused a child and intentionally created a person with multiple personality, really. However don’t you feel any displeasure? Until now you have gone through many extremely painful experiences right?”<br /> <br /> Against that person’s question, Shiori shook her head without even any doubt.<br /> <br /> “…This is a necessary power for the sake of following my order. Following the order is the worth of my existence…”<br /> <br /> “What an ideal slave you are. Well, as for me it’s sufficient already just to get entered into this Haunted Ground like this. It’s fine for you to accomplish what your master wishes for. I don’t have any interest in that. The direction Hayashizaki Kazuki was heading is just exactly like what we talked before.”<br /> <br /> That person pointed at the location Kazuki was heading for as if he was looking down at the Haunted Ground from the sky even now.<br /> <br /> Shiori stood up. The chimera beside her also got up following her, the gargoyle spread its wings, and the troll raised a roar.<br /> <br /> Shiori and the person who was together with her separated their way and started to walk in two opposite directions.<br /> <br /> That was because Kazuki and his comrades were splitting into two groups.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> Kazuki and his group were advancing through the Haunted Groud while defeating the Demon Beasts that stood in their way.<br /> <br /> From the shadows of the trees and buildings, the eye glints of beasts shined glaringly. As soon as the Demon Beasts discovered humans “GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!” they raised a fierce roar. Smashing the buildings and trees along with earth tremor, they revealed their huge form before Kazuki and the other’s eyes.<br /> <br /> Chimera―On the body as big as an elephant, there were the heads of a lion, a goat, and a snake.<br /> <br /> Until now Kazuki had never seen a Demon Beast this big except for a dragon.<br /> <br /> In order to cover for everyone else, Kazuki and Kohaku quickly stepped forward―Heaven and Earth Formation.<br /> <br /> The head of the lion that was placed in the middle position of the three heads directed its opened big mouth to Kazuki, from there a fierce flame was spouted out.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ash all those that come in contact…to the scorching heat of rejection without any place to go! Self Burning!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki Foresighted the sign of flame being created and covered his body with flame armor by matching the timing. The flame swallowed the flame and the attack was neutralized.<br /> <br /> At the same time the chimera’s front leg that looked like a log was heading to Kazuki in a side sweep. Even one of its claws was absurdly big with the size of a human’s arm. Kazuki swiftly dodged his body and slashed back with his katana.<br /> <br /> “GUGIIIIIIIII!”<br /> <br /> More voice that sounded like a monster bird resounded out at the sky. When he looked up, a dragon with slender body that was similar with human’s body shape―however that body was made from stone―a gargoyle was swooping down.<br /> <br /> “Gouge the far away, Doutanuki! Battou Kaikon―Tenran Kamaitachi!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku who stood beside Kazuki drew out her Sacred Treasure. A sharp wind blade was fired from that sword and intercepted the swooping down gargoyle. However, although the gargoyle raised a scream of “GUGIGAA!”, it didn’t even twitch.<br /> <br /> A monster made from stone―it was strong against physical impact and it was also supposed to have resistance against flame, ice, and lightning. Kohaku evaded in panic from the attack of the gargoyle that swung its stone limbs in defiance of her attack.<br /> <br /> “GOOOOOOOOO!”<br /> <br /> While crushing roots of trees and thicket underfoot with cracking sounds, a hairy giant―a troll was rushing at them wielding a club above its head.<br /> <br /> Karin leaped out in order to intercept it. The huge club the troll brandished was quickly toyed around by Karin with a use of keen and nimble body movement.<br /> <br /> ―A group of Demon Beasts suddenly appeared all of a sudden. Moreover, all of them were huge.<br /> <br /> “It’s hard for mind attack to be effective against Demon Beast so I’m really not very good with them. …A maiden offering prayer each night, be that as it may the moonlight illuminated the beast of thy heart. Lay bare the true character, {{furigana|Lunatic Lunar Light|Mirror Moon Heart Encroachment}}!”<br /> <br /> The rearguard Miyabi-senpai cast the Summoning Magic of the moon goddess, Gremory.<br /> <br /> A giant vision of moon emerged out on Miyabi-senpai’s back and emitted a silver light.<br /> <br /> Magic that made the mind of the people seeing it chaotic. After the Demon Beasts’s body were paralyzed in a twitch, they began to keep attacking a spot where there was no one at all as if they were seeing an illusion.<br /> <br /> It was a powerful mind attack magic that made the enemy attack each other if the opponent was human, but it seemed it was already the limit to just show illusion with Demon Beast as the target. But even so, the aggression of the Demon Beasts stopped for a moment.<br /> <br /> “The destiny of all things in creation within the large celestial sphere…o binding of constellation, stop the revolution of the sky! Horoscope Stasis!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai too finished her spell and cast her magic.<br /> <br /> Around the body of the gargoyle who was flying around in the sky, countless stars were shining. Between the stars, lines of light were running like a constellation, those lines of light bound the gargoyle's hands and feet.<br /> <br /> The gargoyle who couldn’t even flap its wings now freefalled with a scream while breaking the foliage on its way down with crunching sounds.<br /> <br /> “Crush to death, &lt;Taroudachi&gt;! Battou Kaikon―Ashura Ryoudan!!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku drew out one more Sacred Treasure. When Kohaku poured magic power into that Sacred Treasure with a flash of fighting spirit, the sword blade of that Sacred Treasure inflated like a log where Kohaku swung that down with all she had on the gargoyle.<br /> <br /> Squashed by the giant katana, cracks ran through the gargoyle’s body with a cracking sound.<br /> <br /> “Shintoukei!”<br /> <br /> Karin quietly leaped into the chest of the troll who was swinging its club into a wrong direction and struck her palm on its chest.<br /> <br /> Shintoukei―Karin stepped on the earth strongly in the moment of impact and with the movement of the whole body she concentrated that energy in her palm. Using Enchant Aura at the same time too, a terrific destructive power penetrated the tough skin of the troll and reverberated directly to its heart.<br /> <br /> The troll raised a scream and fell down.<br /> <br /> “O stream of atmosphere, extend to my hand, become the spear that repulse the resenting enemy! What reach my hand is the tip of the storm!! Maimuur!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki created a spear with the power of wind inside it, then he concentrated the flame armor that was covering his body into the tip of the spear with psychokinesis manipulation. The power of wind supplied the flame with oxygen and amplified its power. A synergism effect of magic and magic.<br /> <br /> Kazuki twisted the spear of flame inside the opened mouth of the chimera’s lion head. The lion head bared the white of its eyes widely and it hung its head languidly as if dying in exhaustion.<br /> <br /> The three large-type Demon Beasts raised their screams and fainted in agony from Kazuki and other’s counter attack that was like surging wave.<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly felt a doubt.<br /> <br /> Demon Beast’s scream. Demon Beast too was going to scream if they receive pain.<br /> <br /> If Yumeno-san was somewhere in this Haunted Ground, in the case that girl was forced into a battle with Demon Beast inevitably, the sounds of her battle should be loudly transmitted to the surrounding area.<br /> <br /> For both Kazuki and Mio’s teams to not hear anything of that, was Yumeno-san in a place really far from them?<br /> <br /> It was hard to imagine that she would constantly continue to use the general magic to freeze the air like when she was attacking Lotte. General magic was not like Summoning Magic that could borrow the power of Diva, its consumption of magic power was harsh in comparison of its small scale effect.<br /> <br /> Possibly Yumeno-san was avoiding battle with some kind of method…?<br /> <br /> That moment while Kazuki was harboring doubt, he felt an upsurge of magic power from the other side of the trees on their way.<br /> <br /> The presence of someone using Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “Kohaku! Karin! Protect the rearguard!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised his voice saying so while he himself was rushing to his comrades in the rear.<br /> <br /> “…Come from the darkness, o the jet black invaders…wash away the world’s repose with greed and violence! Announce the beginning of war right here! Birth From Dark!!”<br /> <br /> From the other side of the thicket, countless black feathers were shot out.<br /> <br /> This magic was…Yumeno-san’s magic!<br /> <br /> “Haa-!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki who Foresighted the presence swung [Maimuur] with a yell of fighting spirit.<br /> <br /> The flame and wind burned many of the feathers to ashes but he couldn’t get all of them and the feathers slipped into their attack range―they pierced the ground under the feet of their comrades in the rear.<br /> <br /> The feathers bloated in the blink of eye and stood up as a humanoid shape, becoming jet black armored knights that surrounded Koyuki, Miyabi-senpai, and Hikaru-senpai. The black knights mercilessly raised their swords against the three people that were in the middle of chanting.<br /> <br /> “Drive away, &lt;Taroudachi&gt;!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku cleared away several of the nearby knights altogether with her enlarged long katana.<br /> <br /> “YaAA-!” Karin too agilely cut between the knights and blew away the knights with nimble hand-to-hand technique.<br /> <br /> However even so they were outnumbered, several of the black blades they couldn’t deal with assaulted Koyuki and the others over and over again.<br /> <br /> “Kyaa!” “It’s troubling to not get protected properly here.” “Uwaa!”<br /> <br /> The three’s scream rang out.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki entered to protect Koyuki the foremost. He carried up the girl and drove away the black knights with [Maimuur]. He wasted no time to protect Koyuki because she was in the middle of chanting a long spell.<br /> <br /> Koyuki clung to Kazuki with a tight grip and completed her spell.<br /> <br /> “Sinking hundred ships, o menace of ocean that is lurking in the deep sea! Surface with the guidance of my singing voice…show that entire face! …Thrust the fang! Ice Buster!!”<br /> <br /> That magic was cast at the gargoyle who was trying to get free from its restraint.<br /> <br /> Giant iceberg gradually rose from the earth and directly gouged the crack in the gargoyle’s body that was scarred from Taroudachi. The hardness of [ice] became tougher the lower its temperature was. Koyuki devoted all her concentration to lower the temperature of the iceberg and sharpened its sharpness without end.<br /> <br /> The icebergs that looked like the tip of a giant Japanese katana appeared for the second, the third―,<br /> <br /> “GIIIIIIII!”<br /> <br /> Along with a scream the gargoyle was smashed apart into pieces.<br /> <br /> “Whirling heaven o will of god…gather in my hand, lend the gift authority of judgment! O light of royal divine gift, become a drawn bow with dazzling brilliance! Lightning Line.”<br /> <br /> Even while receiving the attack of the black knights, Hikaru-senpai who excelled in spell chanting’s concentration finished a simple level 1 magic and consolidated arrows of lightning before firing them.<br /> <br /> Those arrows passed through the black knights and all struck home at the troll’s left chest.<br /> <br /> The arrows struck accurately to the heart that had received severe damage from Shintoukei before.<br /> <br /> The troll was convulsing in twitches through its whole body and expired without even raising a scream.<br /> <br /> “You didn’t protect me at all, Kazuki, I’ll remember this.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai even while complaining…as expected from an upperclassman. She had accomplished her chanting.<br /> <br /> “O crescent moon of the frozen sky, rip the cloud as the blowing wind, mow down the life on the surface! …{{furigana|Moon Scraper|Moon Maiden’s Hidden Blade}}!”<br /> <br /> When Miyabi-senpai raised her hand to the sky, a large crescent moon was grasped in that hand.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai threw that moon with an elegant form.<br /> <br /> The crescent moon that flew sharply drawing an arc bisected the two necks of the chimera.<br /> <br /> The chimera, with all three of its necks crushed, fell down on the ground while raising a heavy sound.<br /> <br /> The Demon Beasts were eradicated with everyone’s Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> At the same time Kazuki, Kohaku, and Karin had finished dealing with the black knights.<br /> <br /> “Black Barrett!”<br /> <br /> But while their attention were averted by the Demon Beasts and the black knights, black bullets were flying at them from the other side of the thicket.<br /> <br /> “Kyaa!” “Uwaa-!” “…Ku-! This is mind attack!?”<br /> <br /> The scream of everyone in the rear. The bullets were not aiming at Kazuki or Kohaku or Karin who possessed evasion skill but Koyuki and the others.<br /> <br /> Their defensive magic power were smashed, in addition the agony of mind destruction made the three cower.<br /> <br /> During that moment, the presence on the other side of the thicket was darting away to escape.<br /> <br /> “…Wait, Yumeno-san!!”<br /> <br /> This attack magic was Yumeno-san and Halphas’s skill.<br /> <br /> “…Black flame that burn the mind, if we keep getting hit with that then we will become unable to chant magic.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai who could also use mind magic skillfully herself calmly analyzed the threat of the opponent in her talk.<br /> <br /> “That girl’s magic is invoked by launching it in feathers.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out to his comrades.<br /> <br /> “It’s a defensible attack that can be blocked using Prometheus’s armor so the flame doesn’t touch you or using Baal’s Storm Fort to blow away the feather. Let’s cope with it using me and Hikaru-senpai as much as possible.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai was even now in suffering from the mind damage, but she nodded firmly.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki…? We heard a loud sound here, was there a battle?}<br /> <br /> Mio’s voice rang out inside his head.<br /> <br /> It was the telepathy that could be used with the partner whose positivity level had gone past 150.<br /> <br /> {We were attacked by Yumeno-san and then she escaped. We are going to chase her now.}<br /> <br /> {Really!? Got it, then we don’t know if we can catch up, but we will head there too!}<br /> <br /> Mio didn’t know the location of Kazuki from where she was. There was little chance that she could catch up with them in time but…Kazuki replied {Please} and then dashed leading his comrades.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> They could immediately see the back of Yumeno-san in their path.<br /> <br /> And then even further ahead of Yumeno-san, the figure of Demon Beast that howled madly after finding humans also entered their eyes.<br /> <br /> Worm―it was an absurdly giant serpent that came their way slitheringly from the forest.<br /> <br /> That worm was heading to Yumeno-san first and attacked her.<br /> <br /> “Being perplexed in a daydream, listen to the mother’s lullaby…{{furigana|Mugensou|Dream Playing}}!”<br /> <br /> But an avatar of a strange animal emerged out beside Yumeno-san and she cast her magic.<br /> <br /> Baku―an apparition that ruled over dream where its legend was handed down in Japan and China.<br /> <br /> This Baku was the Diva that possessed the hidden personality of Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> Psychedelic light and noise flashed. At the same time the avatar of Baku was sucked inside the head of the worm. Right that instant, the worm’s movement stopped completely.<br /> <br /> The worm changed the direction of that giant body.<br /> <br /> Avoiding Yumeno-san, it came attacking with Kazuki and his team as the target!<br /> <br /> “…So Yumeno-san can control Demon Beast!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki understood Yumeno-san’s objective.<br /> <br /> The girl was not escaping into the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> This location was exactly the place to bring certain death for Kazuki!<br /> <br /> If it was her ability to control Demon Beast, there wouldn’t be any problem even if she was just alone in a Haunted Ground!<br /> <br /> The worm that came approaching them in slither while breaking through the trees was completely like a jet coaster. “Press back, Taroudachi!!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku clashed the enlarged Taroudachi to the worm right from the front.<br /> <br /> The large mouth that could swallow a human whole was blocked by the enlarged katana. The blade slightly cut into both edge of the worm’s mouth but its meat immediately regenerated and it was pushing back.<br /> <br /> The worm was crawling with its whole body and advanced forward. Kohaku lost in strength and slowly got pushed back.<br /> <br /> ―Worm was perceived as a symbol of regeneration in many legends. Its mode of life that grew by repeatedly shedding its skin made the people of the ancient era feel a mystique from it. The image of &lt;Ouroboros&gt;, a snake that bit its own tail forming a circle, was shared universally in many cultures like Greece civilization as well as Aztec or ancient China.<br /> <br /> Demon Beast・Worm possessed the strong ability of regeneration.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki! No matter how many times its outside gets attacked the worm will recover! Please burn it from the inside!!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki immediately told him. That was the worm’s conquering method that was told in the myth. It was for this kind of moment that the Knight Academy made the students learn [mythology].<br /> <br /> “Blitzkrieg!!”<br /> <br /> “Lightning Line!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Hikaru-senpai simultaneously cast lightning element magic. Kazuki charged into the worm’s big mouth with electromagnetic spear. Hikaru-senpai fired several lightning arrows into the worm’s mouth. The worm’s giant body writhed and undulated. Just like that its breath was stopped and that giant body dispersed away into magic light power.<br /> <br /> “Being perplexed in a daydream, listen to the mother’s lullaby…Mugensou!”<br /> <br /> But while they were focusing on that Yumeno-san ran even further, and then she tamed the Demon Beast she encountered in her path.<br /> <br /> This time it was a Demon Beast from the sky with eagle head and wings on a lion’s body―the king of all bird and the king of all beasts, a flock of gryphon was descending down aiming at Kazuki and the others.<br /> <br /> “There is no end to this! Our magic power get consumed one-sidedly here!?” Kohaku yelled.<br /> <br /> “These ones will take care of the Demon Beasts, so Kazuki just focus directly on her! If not ''the whole Haunted Ground will come blocking our way''!”<br /> <br /> “Leave this place to us and go ahead! I wanted to try saying this speech at least once!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai too said her agreement of Kohaku’s proposal with her eyes shining and getting happy pointlessly.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…I said to you inside the train that your resistance against mind magic is your weak point, but the strength of unwavering will no matter what happens is your strength you know. The opponent is also going to use mind magic, however that’s what I really think.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai gave an advice to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> …The strength of unwavering will. Even if he got completely held under mind magic, it was possible to overcome it with the strength of will. Kazuki nodded back, “Everyone, I’m relying on you!” then he accelerated straightforwardly to Yumeno-san’s back.<br /> <br /> “Glacier Wind!” “Tenran Kamaitachi!” “Lightning Line!” “Moon Scraper!”<br /> <br /> His comrades' offense magic were fired into the swarm of gryphon that descended from the sky.<br /> <br /> The rank of the gryphon’s swarm collapsed and a small way out was opened.<br /> <br /> “Custom Liberion!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki deployed Lotte’s level 6 magic―[Custom Liberion], and he flew into the swarm of gryphon. If this armament was compared with [Deep Striker], its straight line acceleration and charging destructive power were inferior, but its maneuverability was in dominance and it was possible to maneuver at all direction freely.<br /> <br /> The thruster units in its four limbs spouted out flames at all direction following Kazuki’s will.<br /> <br /> Full burst―Kazuki passed through the tight gap between gryphon and gryphon in zigzag like a lightning.<br /> <br /> Demon Beast didn’t make any complicated thinking. When Kazuki disappeared in an instant before their eyes and passed through to the back, they didn’t chase Kazuki anymore and changed their target to Kohaku and Karin.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san was startled and looked back at Kazuki giving her chase.<br /> <br /> “Black Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san attacked by firing black bullets. Kazuki Foresighted the trajectory of those bullets and evaded with high speed maneuver.<br /> <br /> “I won’t let you come in contact with anymore Demon Beast!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was perfectly superior in speed. When he overtook Yumeno-san from the sky, Kazuki rotated and landed in front of Yumeno-san and immediately withdrew the katana on his waist.<br /> <br /> A single Iai slash. Yumeno-san withdrew a claw from her right hand and blocked that slash.<br /> <br /> However she was blown away into the forest from the difference in power.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki was shocked inside his mind. Her reaction at Kazuki’s sword draw made clear of the fact that she was able to stop the slash, that was proof of the considerable accumulation of her training in close-range combat techniques.<br /> <br /> She was far more talented than your average swordsman.<br /> <br /> “I’ll make you give back the real Yumeno-san!”<br /> <br /> While gliding in the air using the armament, Kazuki drove Yumeno-san into a corner.<br /> <br /> “The real…? I am the assailant that shackled that girl, and that girl is the victim!? Hihihi!”<br /> <br /> As if being exasperated, Yumeno-san who fell into the thicket stood up.<br /> <br /> “Wrong! I am the destiny that girl should be burdened with!! Both of us are inseparable no matter what you try!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was overwhelmed inside his heart by that intense emotion. That one other personality was far more unshakeable than what Kazuki imagined, possessing a strong will.<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned to the thicket and launched a volley of bullets with the gatling in his arm armor. The storm of bullets smashed the trees, blue light of defensive magic power was smashed on the other side of the gunpowder smoke that enveloped the area.<br /> <br /> “…Baku, release!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san raised a voice that sounded like a scream inside the storm of bullets. A large magic power was flowing into Yumeno-san from the crowd of gryphon that had opened battle with everyone.<br /> <br /> She was recovering some kind of powerful magic power from the gryphon.<br /> <br /> Most likely while she was using the magic to control the Demon Beasts, she couldn’t use Baku’s other magic.<br /> <br /> For the sake of using Baku’s magic in her fight against Kazuki, she recovered the magic she was using since before. The swarm of gryphon had already focused on attacking the humans in front of them, so there wasn’t any need in continuing to use that magic anymore.<br /> <br /> “Carried away by the wave of forgetfulness sinking into darkness…Youwakumu!”<br /> <br /> And then in no time at all she cast a Drive Summoning magic.<br /> <br /> A wave of sleepiness was raging madly inside Kazuki’s head. Carried away by the wave, his consciousness was vanishing.<br /> <br /> Inside his head became pure white.<br /> <br /> Kazuki lost control of his magic power and the thruster units of the Custom Liberion went wild to wrong directions. While Kazuki was writhing he crashed onto the ground similar with Lotte on that day.<br /> <br /> …But he had heard already from Lotte how Yumeno-san was using this magic.<br /> <br /> He had prepared his mind…!<br /> <br /> “Spreading your wing inside the dark clouds o black bird that announce the beginning of conflict, please grant that wing of grief on my back! The agony of people crushed underfoot in battle right here…! {{furigana|Agonizing Wings|Eyelids Blocking Jet Black Wings}}!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san was also chanting a high level magic of Halphas at the same time while she was using Baku’s Drive Summoning. It was a really diverse way of attacking that made even Kazuki amazed.<br /> <br /> In contrast with Kazuki who fell to the ground, wings of black flame were spreading out largely on Yumeno-san’s back.<br /> <br /> The wings of Halphas that act as the opposite of Phoenix.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san directed those very long wings at Kazuki and swung them.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was swallowed into the black flame.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s [Custom Liberion] melted into slag from the heat. In addition the black flame’s poison gnawed into Kazuki’s mind. His mind was steadily melting. Releasing physical heat and mind-melting heat at the same time, Halphas’s black flame.<br /> <br /> “Hi, hihihi! You are already the same as a living corpse now!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san folded her black wings of flame and shouted at the crouching Kazuki while landing on the ground. “Carve your curse, Yamizaru! Bassou Kaikon, Onmyou Madatsu!”<br /> <br /> Turning at Kazuki who couldn’t move his body from the mental damage, she swung the Sacred Treasure Yamizaru. Kazuki’s left chest was torn up. His defensive magic power was scattered and he fell onto his knee in a slump.<br /> <br /> And then this scar on the defensive magic power couldn’t be filled by the new magic power at all. Just like what Lotte warned him. If he received an attack one more time on that scar it would become a flesh wound.<br /> <br /> The defensive magic power of Kazuki that was torn up was on his left chest―what she aimed for was his heart.<br /> <br /> “You are going to die here, this country is over-!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san was going to stab the claws into Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t make light of me…even if I become unable to think anymore, you think I’m going to get killed by a skill of that degree!!”<br /> <br /> Even with his consciousness being hazy, Kazuki swung his katana only with his unconsciousness.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;GIN!* Such sound rang out, Kazuki’s slash repelled Yumeno-san’s claws.<br /> <br /> “Ho, how could you still resist…”<br /> <br /> Pushed back by the impact, Yumeno-san’s body staggered. With his mind free from any worthless thoughts, Kazuki didn’t let that opening get away and quickly stood up with his second slash launched.<br /> <br /> An unconscious single stroke of sword, exactly because it was done unconsciously that Kazuki’s training could be realized more than usual, producing extraordinary speed.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san stepped back unsteadily on her feet from that one attack.<br /> <br /> “Kuu-…one more time, eat this guy!”<br /> <br /> While Yumeno-san was staggering behind, she spread out the wings of black flame on her back one more time. While flying on the air she directed her wings at Kazuki and swung it.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was once more helplessly swallowed into the flame that burned the mind. His whole consciousness got disarrayed and he became unable to think anything. Everything vanished away from inside his head.<br /> <br /> ―The strength of unwavering will is your power you know.<br /> <br /> Even with the inside of his head turning pure white, Miyabi-senpai’s words came to the surface of his mind. And then no matter how wrecked his own mind became, he remembered the existence of the thing that absolutely wouldn’t disappear.<br /> <br /> His bond. …There are people important for me. Only that thing, I won’t forget.<br /> <br /> There was strength he could draw just from that fact!<br /> <br /> “…UOOOOO!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a roar, he created a single Magic Dress on his chest.<br /> <br /> “Zekorbeni!!”<br /> <br /> The power of his bond with Mio that surpassed the positivity level of 150 which was contained inside the pendant erupted in one go.<br /> <br /> Phoenix possessed the inside of the pendant and he was joined with a direct circuit with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> There was no need for complicated chanting. He only needed to pour his own magic power into this circuit of bond. <br /> <br /> “O undying bird that soar from dusk to dawn, please grant that wings of hope on my back! The destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki spread out the giant wings of flame on his back and flicked off the wings of black flame.<br /> <br /> “…A magic of that extent, that fast!?”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san struck her black wings to Kazuki while speaking in a trembling voice from shock. Kazuki struck back against that with the wings of flame and resisted. Wings and wings struck each other struggling for supremacy.<br /> <br /> Kazuki poured even more magic power into the circuit of bond while striking each other with wings.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise in which the light of heaven reside in that body, burn to ash the sin on the earth following my accusation! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Phoenix’s level 6 magic.<br /> <br /> Against that instantaneous invocation, Yumeno-san couldn’t even protect her body with her black wings.<br /> <br /> Kazuki fired a huge laser of light at Yumeno-san in a super close range right from the front.<br /> <br /> The heat quantity that burned to ashes every inorganic matter enveloped Yumeno-san. Her defensive magic power was smashed in one go and she lost her black wings, making her crumble down onto the ground.<br /> <br /> “I’ll have you sleep from magic intoxication!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too landed on the ground and he was going to stab the katana he was holding in reverse grip at Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> “…Be perplexed in daydream, hear the mother’s lullaby…Mugensou…!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san cast her magic as if in a vain struggle.<br /> <br /> …This was certainly Baku’s magic that manipulated Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> However except the swarm of gryphon that everyone was fighting, there was no figure of Demon Beast around them.<br /> <br /> It was just a vain struggle. Kazuki thought that while thrusting his blade at the fallen girl―,<br /> <br /> “Sto, stop!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san raised a voice that sounded scared.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt an uncomfortable feeling on that strange change of her tone.<br /> <br /> The blade stopped just barely on top of Yumeno-san’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “…That voice, are you Yumeno-san?”<br /> <br /> He reflexively asked that.<br /> <br /> “Ha, Hayashizaki-kun…my body moved by itself!!”<br /> <br /> That tone of voice had returned to the original warmth of Yumeno-san. But,<br /> <br /> “My body moved itself!” Yumeno-san sprang up while raising a scream and she swung her claw at Kazuki!<br /> <br /> “!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki evaded in panic. Yumeno-san moved with an awkward movement like a manipulated doll while swinging her claw in buzz at Kazuki’s chest persistently.<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-san, what are you doing!?”<br /> <br /> “My body moved itself! Besides, where is this place!?”<br /> <br /> He couldn’t possibly think of her scream that was tinged in confusion as an act. She had returned to her senses.<br /> <br /> However although her movement that was aiming at Kazuki was awkward, there was no hesitation in it.<br /> <br /> Could it be…the intention of the magic that hidden personality chanted just now was…!<br /> <br /> That girl surrendered the body and the will to Yumeno-san’s front personality. But there was no doubt that she was controlling Yumeno-san’s body using magic from the deep psyche!<br /> <br /> Kazuki blocked Yumeno-san’s claw with his katana. It was a sword-locking contest….<br /> <br /> While their blades were locking with each other in very close range, the exposed shoulder of Yumeno-san’s Magic Dress entered Kazuki’s eyes. There, a straight red line was running vertically, from there a drop of blood was trickling down. It was the spot where Kazuki almost stabbed his katana before.<br /> <br /> Because there was no light of defensive magic power scattered he thought that he managed to stop his blade just barely but…it seemed his blade had cut into her shoulder slightly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki went pale. The girl’s body right now was not protected by defensive magic power!<br /> <br /> He almost killed her!<br /> <br /> That hidden personality of Yumeno-san was cutting off the defensive magic power so that Yumeno-san’s front personality couldn’t use defensive magic power! On top of that she was making her attack Kazuki!<br /> <br /> “Hii-! No, noo-!!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san raised a scream of terror having the sharp light of Kazuki’s katana right in front of her eye.<br /> <br /> Sword-locking contest…this was not. Yumeno-san’s own body slipped away her own claw from Kazuki’s katana, then she plunged at Kazuki’s katana herself.<br /> <br /> Dangerous!<br /> <br /> Kazuki drew back his katana in flurry. Even Kazuki who had experienced countless sword exchange, this was his first experience pulling himself out from a sword-locking contest in this kind of shape.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki pulled himself away, Yumeno-san shrewdly fixed her claw’s stance and aimed at Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “…What dreadful act she come up with!”<br /> <br /> Like this he couldn’t lay his hand on her!<br /> <br /> However the wound in the defensive magic power was still remaining on Kazuki’s chest. If the claws were pierced there, he would get killed completely in one shot!<br /> <br /> Kazuki couldn’t carelessly swing his katana, he swept away the claw that was aiming at his chest with his left arm.<br /> <br /> His defensive magic power scattered when his arm touched the claw.<br /> <br /> {Carve your curse, Yamizaru! Bassou Kaikon, Onmyou Madatsu!}<br /> <br /> More of a defensive magic power scar was gouged at Kazuki’s left arm. The place where he absolutely must not receive an attack had further increased.<br /> <br /> If it kept like this he would be made into sliced sushi!!<br /> <br /> Kazuki stepped back while being ruled by his impatience and fear. Yumeno-san was mercilessly cornering him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had never felt this scared even against all the formidable enemies he had faced throughout his whole life until now.<br /> <br /> “What a vulgar method isn’t it. …But she made a mistake.”<br /> <br /> There was a voice.<br /> <br /> Behind Yumeno-san, Miyabi-senpai had abandoned the fight with the gryphon and crept unnoticed behind her.<br /> <br /> While drawing near unnoticed, she was already chanting her spell.<br /> <br /> “''This personality didn’t receive any training right''? I’ll gratefully accept that defenseless heart. O the eternal full moon that turn pale, forget your waxing and waning, illuminate the world and become a mirror! Wax the moonlight here and disturb the world…Lunatic Labyrinth!!”<br /> <br /> Just as she promised with Kazuki, Miyabi-senpai was shrewdly aiming for a chance without giving up.<br /> <br /> Currently the body of Yumeno-san was manipulated by the hidden personality but the consciousness was filed by the front personality at the surface.<br /> <br /> In other words the security of the consciousness was shouldered by the front Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> The front Yumeno-san was a normal first year of the Magic Division.<br /> <br /> She couldn’t do anything like resisting the mind encroachment magic of Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> That magic was cast with Kazuki and Yumeno-san as the targets and light that dazzled the eyes blinked in a strong flash.<br /> <br /> Kazuki entrusted his body to that magic and he was pulled into Miyabi-senpai’s mental world.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [Lunatic Labyrinth]―it was a mind hack magic that pulled the mind of allies and enemies into the mental world created by Miyabi-senpai and Gremory.<br /> <br /> The physical body of the captured Kazuki and Yumeno-san were coming to a stop in the real world. If in this time Kazuki and the others received attack from other person, the damage from that would be shouldered by Miyabi-senpai. Kazuki and the others were wrapped in Miyabi-senpai’s magic power in order to invite in the consciousness of Kazuki and others into her own mental world. This was a magic that made Miyabi-senpai also shoulder a suitable risk.<br /> <br /> If Miyabi-senpai bore too much damage she would become unable to maintain the mental world and the Lunatic Labyrinth would be destroyed.<br /> <br /> The conclusion between Kazuki and Yumeno-san became carried inside the Lunatic Labyrinth as long as Miyabi-senpai could maintain that mental world.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―Over there was a world of pure white light. In the space where everything was made from mirror, the light that shone in from somewhere was reflected without escaping anywhere and the world was filled completely with pure white light.<br /> <br /> But the aspect of Lunatic Labyrinth this time was different with the time when Kazuki was invited in before.<br /> <br /> There was a floor of mirror under his feet but there was no wall of mirror around him. It was not a maze but an open space.<br /> <br /> As far as he could see around him, horizon made from mirror was spreading far away.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t even make a distinction between the sky and earth, as if he was standing inside pure white light. A fantastical scenery that undoubtedly should be called as an alternate world.<br /> <br /> Surely Miyabi-senpai had adjusted a fitting place for them to settle their conclusion.<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki who was standing on a mirror floor, there were two Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san’s front personality and hidden personality were dragged into the mirror world as different individuals.<br /> <br /> “This place is, Ryuutaki-senpai’s mental world…?”<br /> <br /> One of the Yumeno-sans murmured. She knew about Miyabi-senpai’s ability so she could calmly understand her surrounding space.<br /> <br /> But she soon noticed the one other herself that stood in front of her and she raised a confused voice.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why is there…one more me?”<br /> <br /> On the other side the one more Yumeno-san could calmly accept that there was one more herself.<br /> <br /> “So we become like this from getting hit with Ryuutaki Miyabi’s magic…they really got us…”<br /> <br /> Of course the Yumeno-san of this side was the hidden personality―the spy.<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-san.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out to the Yumeno-san who was deeply confused―the front personality.<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-san’s one more personality is the spy. With Yumeno-san’s double personality, that Yumeno-san over there was doing the spying. Right now, you are facing your hidden personality.”<br /> <br /> “Eh? …Eh?”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s explanation, Yumeno-san opened her eyes wide in dumbfoundment.<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-san, try to calmly think back about yourself. If you are not aware yourself that you have a double personality, is there any strange blank space in your memory?”<br /> <br /> If the front personality didn’t have any memory of what the hidden personality was doing, then Yumeno-san should notice that her own memory was full of uneven holes. There was no way she wouldn’t find it unnatural.<br /> <br /> “…It’s futile, that girl won’t recognize it. She can’t recognize―I am divided from her personality because she denied the reality after all. She won’t recognize something like a blank spot in her memory too.”<br /> <br /> The one other Yumeno-san opened her mouth loathsomely.<br /> <br /> “That girl pushed all the pain to me and ran away!”<br /> <br /> “What are…you talking about?”<br /> <br /> “Hihihi, seems like you intend to try to understand don’t you?”<br /> <br /> Towards what the front personality of Yumeno-san asked, the hidden Yumeno-san answered in a ridiculing tone.<br /> <br /> “You already don’t remember about how you were abused by both of your own parents right? That’s because you made me shoulder all the time and memory of that period. Hihihi, you remember? Since we became aware of what is going on around us, we have already met with the abuse of our parents.”<br /> <br /> “That’s a lie, there is no such thing. Both of my parents…are kind people.”<br /> <br /> “They act like that in front of the current you don’t they? But in the past it was different. You in your childhood period couldn’t bear all the abuses, then you created one other yourself. And then you pushed the painful times to your other self. ‘The one that go through this irrational experience is not me. Right now, the one that is in pain is not me…it’s Kaori.’ Yumeno Shiori’s mind split like that, and I, Kaori was born.”<br /> <br /> “…Kaori. That is your name…?”<br /> <br /> “That’s right Shiori. I’m the personality that shouldered all your pain and duty,”<br /> <br /> The hidden Yumeno-san―Kaori’s tone was mixed with unspeakable resentment.<br /> <br /> “Our parents split us into two systematically. After they split our personality with abuse, they take care of you kindly as a normal child, and they applied special education at me to be a spy. At the time of magic power measurement when we were five years old, it was predicted with almost certainty that Yumeno Shiori would receive Stigma and this plan was suggested…”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san’s face color became white like paper. The current Yumeno-san was a mental body, but in a mental world the mental body’s external appearance made completely the same appearance like the physical body. The face would become pale like having the blood completely drained when receiving a shock. The mental body has the full knowledge of the physical body’s action, and so that was unconsciously imitated by the mental body.<br /> <br /> The flesh body and the mental body were strongly tied together by magic power.<br /> <br /> In this world of mind magic of Miyabi-senpai, it was not the case that what couldn’t be done by the physical body would be able to be done by the mental body just because this place was not real.<br /> <br /> “I was thoroughly educated that the meaning of my existence is to be useful as a spy. If I don’t accomplish that role, there is no worth of living for me. While you were raised kindly and peacefully, I was assigned with severe training everyday…!”<br /> <br /> “…Papa, and mama too won’t do that kind of thing…both of them are kind people…”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san weakly denied Kaori’s words.<br /> <br /> Kaori was “hihihi-“ laughing that off.<br /> <br /> “That’s just for you! But weren’t they ''only kind''? You too should have already noticed it faintly right. Both of them are kind on the surface but ''they are not expecting anything from you''. They are not demanding anything from you as their daughter.”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s…”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san’s reply got caught in her throat, as if there was something that likely came to her mind.<br /> <br /> ―Parents that were only kind at the surface. What both of them hoped for from their daughter was only her work as spy. And the one that shouldered that hope was Kaori.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san gradually noticed. Toward the unnaturalness in her own memory, toward the distortion of her current state of living.<br /> <br /> “I am the only one that shouldered all of our duty that is the reason of our existence! …Hayashizaki Kazuki, you were talking as if I am the wrong-doer here, however.”<br /> <br /> Kaori moved her sight to Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> “Hihihi-. Now you have heard the story, how do you think? This girl that doesn’t know anything and me, which one do you think is the wrong-doer? No…thinking of us as a victim and a perpetrator is not right. I am the very person that shouldered the destiny of the one who is called Yumeno Shiori, that’s why…”<br /> <br /> “Destiny…I am, a spy…”<br /> <br /> The overdoing composition of facing her other self in a world of mirror.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san who was looking as if she was seeing a bad dream gradually began to accept that reality, with a look of realization she suddenly looked back at Kazuki’s direction driven by the guilt that pierced her chest.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-san, I’m sorry…I, even though I wanted to be useful for everyone…. Perhaps, perhaps I’m…”<br /> <br /> “There is no perhaps! We are spies!”<br /> <br /> Kaori sharply scolded from the side of Yumeno-san’s vague words of confession.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san became frightened with a twitch and froze.<br /> <br /> “You want to be useful you said!? Hihihi, that makes me laugh! You are empty, you don’t have any role at all! I’m the only one that is fulfilling our role!! …I’m troubled if you don’t accept it awarely yourself. Yumeno Shiori, is a spy. There is no other role except that for you. You who couldn’t fulfill your role as a spy at all, is just an empty existence. Even so you cannot escape from the reality that you are a spy. …After all both of us are being one in body and soul. I was burdened with all the abuses that were done to you. So you too, take the responsibility for all that I have done!”<br /> <br /> “A…aaa…”<br /> <br /> Tears spilled out like a river while Yumeno-san raised a moaning voice.<br /> <br /> Finally understanding the reality, the tears spilled out from her eyes because of that weight.<br /> <br /> “Shiori, if you understand, then wipe your tears. Cooperate with me with your own self-awareness. Don’t only push everything to me, you too fulfill your role as a spy. That guy cannot be killed if we don’t face him two against one. So that father and mother will recognize us, to keep living while doing what is necessary, we must kill this Hayashizaki Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> “I…pushed all that pain to you…all you do, I’m…”<br /> <br /> “There is no need for you to hold any guilt for me! Just be together with me!! If you are not planning to make me shoulder all the heavy burden and keep living as an empty human!”<br /> <br /> “You are wrong!” Kazuki interrupted those words.<br /> <br /> “You are wrong! Yumeno-san, is a journalist! You are not empty at all!! Chasing the spy and exposing the darkness of the Knight Academy, you are our newspaper committee chairman!!”<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki! Don’t you dare interfere in our matter as outsider!!”<br /> <br /> Kaori faced Kazuki with a look of rage.<br /> <br /> “I am an outsider but, both Yumeno-san and I can think of each other as important, we can advise and support each other!”<br /> <br /> “Advise you say? You understand nothing! We were already spies since we were born, we cannot recognize any other way of living! From now on and even in the future it will be always like that!!”<br /> <br /> “You’re wrong! …We are not going to be kids forever. We don’t have to contend ourselves with the role given to us, we can make the place where we belong and the meaning of our existences ourselves.”<br /> <br /> “The place I belong…meaning of existence…”<br /> <br /> As if her heart was moved by Kazuki’s words, Yumeno-san murmured.<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-san, certainly that girl is your destiny itself. Just like that girl said, Yumeno-san cannot afford to ignore her existence. But there is no such need to be swallowed by her! Even if you don’t follow your destiny, this thing called destiny itself, it’s fine if you tear it apart! I too will help, so right here, let’s defeat her in this world of mirror!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki fixed his eyes on Yumeno-san and called out to her.<br /> <br /> “But I…betrayed all of you…”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san averted her faces without meeting his eyes.<br /> <br /> “…Everything, everything was my fault…at the time I blanked out that I pretended not to know anything about, I caused a lot of horrible damages…. Even Hayashizaki-san’s failure in the operation of Isonokami Shrine, all of that was completely because of my fault…”<br /> <br /> “I don’t mind about such trivial thing.”<br /> <br /> In truth Kazuki was really bothered by the operation failure in Isonokami Shrine.<br /> <br /> However that was because of his own immatureness. Kazuki was continuing to think of it like that.<br /> <br /> “I, have never been relied on by anyone until now…I wanted to become a human that could be relied on by someone! Despite that…I was just continuously bringing disaster to the Knight Academy!!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san yelled with words that tormented herself. As if instigated by that, Kaori expressed her agreement.<br /> <br /> “That’s right, there is no more place for you in the Knight Academy! Just as long as you accept me, there would be no need for you to even think of wanting to be useful to someone. Even someone empty like you, can shoulder the role as a spy from now on…!”<br /> <br /> “I have absolutely never thought of being bothered by you! This is not just a half-hearted encouragement that I’m saying. Because we can discover the spy, is all thanks to you!”<br /> <br /> Both of the Yumeno-san directed their faces to Kazuki after receiving that attack in their unguarded moment.<br /> <br /> “What a joke! Since both you and me are one soul and one body, there is no meaning in putting up that kind of [charade]!”<br /> <br /> “Wrong! Yumeno-san had already opposed her destiny! Yumeno-san pursued after the spy more seriously than anyone else for us. When you were in the middle school, Yumeno-san was the library committee member weren’t you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked back about the story of the past that she told before.<br /> <br /> All the times, that Yumeno-san who called herself empty had passed until now.<br /> <br /> All those times were absolutely not meaningless. Kazuki tried to make her face that fact.<br /> <br /> “Ye, yes… I, don’t have confidence in myself, but I want to be useful in something for other people, and I became a library committee member that even I could do…”<br /> <br /> “There you published a library newspaper didn’t you?”<br /> <br /> “…Yes. There are people that enjoyed reading the newspaper written by someone like me…I was happy…. I also like to read books, so it made me happy that I could make people happy by writing article…”<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-san, that warmth is something that you absolutely shouldn’t forget.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san when she was talking about the academy newspaper was really lively. That kind of Yumeno-san wasn’t supposed to be an empty personality.<br /> <br /> “Because Yumeno-san is that kind of person, that’s why you couldn’t forgive it when you noticed that the spy was doing information manipulation, isn’t that so? You felt a passionate soul of journalism inside you! Yumeno-san gave the idea to spread out trap for the spy. Thanks to that we were convinced that the spying was an inside job. It’s thanks to Yumeno-san that we can corner this girl like this. Yumeno-san, what is it that you really want to do?”<br /> <br /> “…I, want to corner the spy. I want to give the finishing blow to the spy!”<br /> <br /> Inside Yumeno-san’s frail words contained a resolute strength.<br /> <br /> “You idiot! Are you planning to kill your own meaning of existence by yourself!?”<br /> <br /> Against the yelling Kaori, Yumeno-san faced her after wiping her tears.<br /> <br /> “…Facing you here right now, I, have the feeling I understand what is the meaning of myself.”<br /> <br /> “If you understand that you are a spy then, why…”<br /> <br /> “Wrong, that’s not it. …I remembered it you know. Certainly there are holes in my memory. Certainly…father and mother did horrible things to me. I didn’t want to remember, I didn’t want to notice, that I put a lid on my heart but…”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san gripped her right hand around her own chest strongly. As if she noticed the warmth that existed inside her chest, that she was going to treasure that warmth.<br /> <br /> “Certainly father and mother didn’t expect anything from me. Normally, if a child was bestowed a Stigma a parent would be happy and have expectation for the future, despite so…. Those people were kind on the surface however, perhaps they didn’t direct any love or anything at me. What those people were wishing from me, was for my split personality to accomplish her role as a spy. That was why the me since Kaori was born, was just an empty person for a long, long time…”<br /> <br /> “That’s right! That’s why if you accept me, you can be needed again by our parents as a spy!! Both of them are waiting for us in Yamato expecting us to come home bringing information as a spy!!”<br /> <br /> “But that kind of expectation, is demanded from us not as a human but just as a tool.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san said that dejectedly.<br /> <br /> “We were born as a tool!”<br /> <br /> “Perhaps that might be so for you all! You, father and mother too ''might not have any interest in someone like me at all but'', but, even I have a life since then! During the time when all of you were indifferently not looking at me and not asking anything from me, I have kept living until now for these ten years!! Father and mother thought that whatever I did here was trivial but, I, I have come this far training hard so I can become a splendid knight you know! Making newspaper for the sake of those people that read it was also fun!”<br /> <br /> This time it was Yumeno-san that talked to Kaori with accusing tone.<br /> <br /> This was her anger from all this time when she kept wondering why she was always ignored.<br /> <br /> “I, want to become a human that can be more depended on by various people! People even told me that I’m a docile person with inconspicuous personality, but there is no such thing. The truth is I crave the spotlight even greedier than anyone else. Even though standing out is scary, I want someone to look at me more, this feeling of wanting to be recognized is burning inside me! That was why when I was chosen as the newspaper committee chairman by Hayashizaki-kun with the uproar from the battle election as the impetus, I was really happy. Someone seriously expected something from me. Something like a place to belong, had been really given to me already. This ten years that I spent until now has meaning!”<br /> <br /> “The human called Yumeno Shiori couldn’t possibly have any more use other than being a tool!”<br /> <br /> “That’s not true! I want to stand as comrade to the Chief Student Council President! I want to become a splendid knight when I graduate! I don’t want to serve the purpose of a tool…I want to become useful for the sake of someone that can make me think [I want to become useful for this person’s sake]! I want to treasure this feeling that you didn’t have more than anything else. That’s the difference between a tool and a comrade…”<br /> <br /> “Something like the difference between a tool and a comrade…I don’t know anything like that…”<br /> <br /> Kaori’s voice was fading frailly from being overwhelmed for the first time by Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> “Even you are empty inside.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san took a glance at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “If I defeat Kaori, what is going to happen to me?”<br /> <br /> “Does Yumeno-san have Kaori’s memory?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki asked, Yumeno-san looked down and shook her head side to side.<br /> <br /> In many cases, a person with multiple personality didn’t share the memories between personalities.<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-san and Kaori has different personalities but, you share your magic power with each other. That’s why I think if Kaori get damaged in this mental world, Yumeno-san’s magic power will also get shaved off together with her, and both of you will fall into magic intoxication at the same time. After that Miyabi-senpai can release this magic and Yumeno-san that has fallen into magic intoxication and fainted will be handed over to the Knight Order.”<br /> <br /> “You think you can trust an organization like the Knight Order! Your heart will only get destroyed from torture!!”<br /> <br /> Kaori opposed it. However Yumeno-san shook her head.<br /> <br /> “I don’t mind, my heart is something quite broken already!”<br /> <br /> Hearing that proclamation of Yumeno-san, Kaori made a horrified face.<br /> <br /> Kaori was exactly the one that didn’t recognize the distortion of this being called Yumeno Shiori.<br /> <br /> “It is absolutely important to put a conclusion on my life until now. I don’t mind whatever happens to me. Hayashizaki-kun, please, lend me your strength.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san asked Kazuki with an extremely gruesome resolve.<br /> <br /> Kazuki, and also Kaori were overpowered by that resolve.<br /> <br /> It was exactly the spirit of the ten years of time that Yumeno-san had went through.<br /> <br /> {Hayashizaki Kazuki…sorry.}<br /> <br /> Suddenly beside Kazuki, the avatar of black bird―Halphas’s avatar was emerging out.<br /> <br /> {She was a young girl I chose because I was pleased with her strong core despite her quiet appearance but…I never noticed that the heart of this girl had become something like this. The other day was the first time the other personality tried to use my power like this and came to Access with me, that was why I never noticed. I had felt that the capacity of her heart was a little cramped but…}<br /> <br /> The Diva that governed over war talked to Kazuki ashamedly.<br /> <br /> {I wanted to give confidence to this quiet girl, granting her the courage to face the unavoidable battle. …O King, lend this young girl the power. I don’t want this girl to be defeated.}<br /> <br /> This Diva that governed over war was also thinking importantly of Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded, he stepped forward in order to protect Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> “Yumeno-san, I’ll protect you so please cover me from the rear. …We’re going to show her a fight that something like a tool won’t be able to do.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san nodded strongly.<br /> <br /> “…Shit. Shit! In the end it become this two against one…”<br /> <br /> In contrast, Kaori’s expression was colored with despair and she spat out.<br /> <br /> Beside her, the avatar of Baku floated.<br /> <br /> {Fight, there is nothing else you can do except fight and open your own way of survival.}<br /> <br /> The Diva that possessed Kaori due to Chinese Mythology’s will told her so.<br /> <br /> “Everyone just…keep pushing order to me…not even relying or trusting me, not even just a single word of praise, just this [role]…a tool!! UAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!”<br /> <br /> Kaori lost all restraint and screamed while kicking the mirror floor. While raising the claw [Yamizaru] that was equipped on her right hand, she quickly invoked her Drive.<br /> <br /> “Kidnapped by wave of forgetfulness sink into darkness…Youwakumu!!”<br /> <br /> She was going to make an instant of opening with this and stab Kazuki’s chest that was still marred with the remaining scar on his defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> She noticed that in an instant without mistaking her chance of victory,<br /> <br /> “O the soldier’s ardor of the ancestor that lurked in thy blood, response to the calling voice of the black rooster and flare up! {{furigana|Blood on Fire|Chirp of Scattering Spark}}!!”<br /> <br /> But Yumeno-san was also specializing in magic that granted effect to mind.<br /> <br /> The black bird that announced the beginning of battle Halphas raised a piercing cry.<br /> <br /> Due to Baku’s [Youwakumu], for an instant Kazuki lost his consciousness, but he woke up in one go from that sharp piercing sound.<br /> <br /> Just from that fighting spirit was overflowing from his heart like a heat in his brain.<br /> <br /> Having his fighting spirit uplifted, Kazuki’s brain activity became active. That was connected with the strengthening of his magic power output. The defensive magic power on Kazuki’s whole body increased in thickness and the scar of his gouged magic power was filled back.<br /> <br /> The Enchant Aura that overflow through his whole body was strengthened.<br /> <br /> His mind was fully recovered, furthermore his magic was strengthened.<br /> <br /> Kaori that rushed at Kazuki preparing an attack lost her countenance instead from seeing that Kazuki was strengthened. But she couldn’t stop her movement having came this far.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s single slash that was filled with his fighting spirit repelled away Kaori’s claws.<br /> <br /> The claws was unfastened from Kaori’s hand and fell onto the mirror floor with clanging sound.<br /> <br /> “A, aa…Yamizaru! The special Sacred Treasure father and mother give for me who leave to fulfill my duty…”<br /> <br /> Losing the powerful Sacred Treasure that was her last ray of hope, Kaori leaked out a voice of despair.<br /> <br /> Kazuki reversed his blade and with a second slash he cut the girl that had lost half her fighting spirit.<br /> <br /> Kaori’s body was blown away from the impact of smashed magic.<br /> <br /> “O desire lurking inside the sea of heart, surpass the deeply sinful flesh and reached out that hand! O embodiment of violation, entangle following my desire! Desire Tentacle!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki even further produced countless black tentacles from the floor of glass.<br /> <br /> At the falling point of the blown away girl―many tentacles were waiting and entangled Kaori’s whole body. It was a timing where she absolutely couldn’t run away.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stepped forward and swung down his katana even more toward the girl who became unable to move her body.<br /> <br /> One slash, two slash, three slash…he hacked the girl to pieces together with the tentacles.<br /> <br /> Behind him, Yumeno-san was starting a large-scale chanting.<br /> <br /> At the same time she finished that, Kazuki finished his slashing dance and retreated from Kaori’s side.<br /> <br /> “Gathering the terror and grudge of the battlefield with both hand, build the bow and arrow where the fire of hell reside…offer this wailing to my god of war!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san spread out her hand like spreading wings. From those hands, large and long pillars of black flame spurted up. Yumeno-san met the two hands that were spurting up the flame pillars with size far larger than herself in front of her own body, and took an action like someone pulling the string of a bow.<br /> <br /> The gigantic mass of black flame changed into the shape of bow and arrow.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Inferno|Single Arrow of Demise}}!!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san drew taut the bow of flame and fired an arrow of flame.<br /> <br /> Although it was called an arrow, it was a large mass of fire that completely swallowed Kaori.<br /> <br /> Halphas’s level 7―the high level magic with all the might of Yumeno Shiori that was recognized by Mio as a [hidden powerful person].<br /> <br /> The black flame swallowed Kaori and whirled. Shine of defensive magic power was emitted in the middle of that flame, the voice of agony from burned mind echoed.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to fight, I won’t run away anymore from now on…. Sayonara, Kaori.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san that fired the attack magic was also losing her magic power fast because she was sharing her magic power with Kaori.<br /> <br /> Everything ended with that one attack.<br /> <br /> When the flame vanished, Kaori was lying down on the mirror floor powerlessly. That figure was faintly vanishing like a mirage. Yumeno-san too was also vanishing faintly at the same time. Both of their heart was one.<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t want…if I get handed over to the Knight Order…I will be terminated…”<br /> <br /> Falling into magic intoxication with her mental body almost vanishing, Kaori leaked out her voice.<br /> <br /> Completely different with how she was until now, it was a frail tone of an immature child.<br /> <br /> “I, I still haven’t finished my duty…still, haven’t got praised even once, yet…no, I don’t want to disappear…just like this…”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki felt a mysterious emotion well up inside his chest, he approached beside the girl that was lying on her side and got down on one knee.<br /> <br /> “…I respect you. There was no enemy as terrifying as you until now.”<br /> <br /> The devilish plan that gave camouflage how [Yumeno Shiori is innocent] by having Hayashi Shizuka brainwash the front personality. After that, making good use of the front personality’s position as the newspaper committee chairman, as a spy she used all sorts of method and continued to harass Kazuki, and now when she was cornered she opposed Kazuki using all kind of battle technique of Summoning Magic・Drive・Sacred Treasure. She even made the front personality as hostage and cornered Kazuki in reverse.<br /> <br /> If there was no cooperation of Yumeno-san’s front personality, Kazuki surely would be unable to reach the truth.<br /> <br /> If Lotte didn’t give a push on his back, Kazuki surely would be unable to doubt Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> If Miyabi-senpai didn’t use the chance that appeared just for an instant, Kazuki would surely yield to Kaori’s wicked way of fighting. She was an opponent that Kazuki was absolutely unable to win against just by himself.<br /> <br /> Cultivated tenacity and force of will from the terrible destiny that she was made to shoulder.<br /> <br /> Cultivated variegated battle technique that she piled up from her harsh training as a spy.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was disgusted with her way of fighting but, even so there was no way he couldn’t feel respect for her.<br /> <br /> This girl was terrifying, even more than Beatrix, even more than Naiarlatoteph, and even more than Hayashi Shizuka.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki…you are the first person, that praised…me…”<br /> <br /> Kaori raised her face.<br /> <br /> It was exactly the face of a child that was scared from abuse.<br /> <br /> When he thought that her scared expression softened for just an instant, the girl’s form disappeared like a fleeting snow.<br /> <br /> …What a tragic person.<br /> <br /> Looking back, the front personality of Yumeno-san was also disappearing. What kind of expression did she make, he wondered.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki felt a pain in his heart as if something was blocking his chest, at the same time Miyabi-senpai’s mental world began to break down having finished its role.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki’s consciousness returned back to his body.<br /> <br /> His companions had finished defeating the swarm of gryphon and silence returned to the area around them and the battlefield became quiet.<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki’s eye, Yumeno-san had lost her consciousness from magic intoxication. Inside this flesh body resided one heart, Yumeno-san and Kaori, the two personality were falling asleep.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, what happened!?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai was rushing to his side.<br /> <br /> “Kaori―the spy personality was defeated inside the mental world by Yumeno-san together with me. Yumeno-san fell into magic intoxication from that. Let’s entrust her to the people of the Knight Order just like this.”<br /> <br /> A bitter silence settled around him. The other companions outside Kazuki who couldn’t completely understand the circumstances were also keeping their silence while holding this incomprehensible bitter emotion.<br /> <br /> Making free use of Telepathy, the hidden side personality would be sealed and her memory taken out in interrogation.<br /> <br /> It would be fine if her memory could be taken out simply, but if she confronted them with difficulty, then surely the Knight Order wouldn’t pick their method. Using violent mind hack magic, furthermore they might also use drugs.<br /> <br /> It was only natural that they wouldn’t be picky with their method. If Kaori’s memory was analyzed, it would be possible to even eradicate the other spies. If they thought back of all the hardships that the spy made them taste wretchedly….<br /> <br /> It couldn’t be helped. Yumeno-san had resolved herself for everything.<br /> <br /> “…Then let’s return back, We have to entrust Yumeno-san to the Knight Order and regroup with Mio and the others.”<br /> <br /> Suddenly at that time, a voice of other person mixed into Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> {―Kazuki-! Kazuki!?}<br /> <br /> {…Mio?}<br /> <br /> {Thank god, it connected! I had kept calling you for a while but there was no reply at all, so I thought whether I had fall out of love with you…}<br /> <br /> It was a telepathic communication from Mio that was possible due to the positivity level that was more than 150.<br /> <br /> Because Kazuki’s consciousness was pulled into Miyabi-senpai’s mental world,it looked like the telepathy was completely repelled by Miyabi-senpai’s consciousness’s {{furigana|shell|security}}<br /> <br /> {Sorry to have made you anxious. Looks like there was a little disconnection. …Is there something wrong?}<br /> <br /> {Lo, Lotte was}<br /> <br /> The voice from Mio was disordered. It was not the case that she was out of breath. It was a telepathic dialogue so that was why the breathing was not transmitted, but the agitation in her feeling was disturbing the telepathy like a ripple.<br /> <br /> Lotte…?<br /> <br /> {Lotte was…kidnapped here.}<br /> <br /> Inside Kazuki’s head, countless questions were instantly seething.<br /> <br /> Why Lotte? What he needed to be cautious about was assassination on himself wasn’t it?<br /> <br /> Did they plan to make Lotte hostage?<br /> <br /> In the first place what kind of magician kidnapped Lotte, in this Haunted Ground, who did it in what way?<br /> <br /> {Tell me the detail!}<br /> <br /> {Out of nowhere we were attacked by a giant swan from the sky.}<br /> <br /> Swan…? Did she say swan? Was the opponent a Demon Beast?<br /> <br /> {That’s not it, when Kanae-san immediately cut it with her katana she was repelled with a really thick Resist, so we think it was a transformed magician.}<br /> <br /> Even though Demon Beast was a living being that was born from magic power, they had never exercised their magic power into something like magic technique.<br /> <br /> Mio’s guess was something based on the evidence.<br /> <br /> {All the swordsmen in our team desperately slashed at it but they were simply driven away, we didn’t even have time to chant offense magic before it escaped…}<br /> <br /> Ability that could transform into animal…? It was a considerable thing that a swordsman in Kanae’s level and Kaguya-senpai couldn’t even buy time to chant some kind of magic.<br /> <br /> {What to do, Kazu-nii can sense Lotte’s whereabouts right? If we don’t first regroup with Kazu-nii…}<br /> <br /> Kazuki ran his mind for an instant and replied.<br /> <br /> “…No, first Mio and the others need to get out from the Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_7_Chapter_3&diff=479444 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Chapter 3 2016-02-02T01:34:28Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 3 – Behind the Scenes==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Kazuki was driven by a feeling of self-condemnation.<br /> <br /> He was defeated by Ikousai and the operation fell into failure.<br /> <br /> It was an operation that he was ordered to do, but in the first place the operation itself was sloppy. It could be said that Kazuki was only made to shoulder the compensation of that sloppiness alone. That was why no one was trying to blame Kazuki.<br /> <br /> But even though no one blamed him, Kazuki couldn’t help but be conscious of the failure inside his heart.<br /> <br /> {…That operation, it might have succeeded if the Zekorbeni could be used skillfully.}<br /> <br /> Leme reverberated her voice inside Kazuki’s heart with a sigh.<br /> <br /> That whisper spread like a ripple and made Kazuki’s heart fell into discord.<br /> <br /> {If you used Zekorbeni skillfully, you should have been able to defeat Ikousai right away and managed something like driving away the contractor of Son Goku. Ikousai still doesn’t possess the power of King. Son Goku is a powerful Diva but he is not in the class of Chief God. You who are the Solomon King, are the person with the highest rank at that place until the King of Russia came along.}<br /> <br /> Leme pointed out while being unusually bitter with her usual insolence drowned out.<br /> <br /> {You were worried about the magic power consumption and got stingy with the Zekorbeni, but if Lotte’s positivity level was just higher and you could invoke [Deep Striker] instantly with Zekorbeni, you should have been able to fight composedly with the assurance that you could always escape anytime.}<br /> <br /> There was no room for him to give an excuse against what Leme pointed out because she had watched over the events from beginning to end.<br /> <br /> The operation was sloppy. But if only he possessed more strength then he could make it succeed.<br /> <br /> It was not only that. What made Kazuki even doubly more agitated was―his encounter with the existence of people that were called as {{furigana|King|Basileus}} of the other countries.<br /> <br /> The three Kings that Kazuki encountered, each of them had really different personalities but all of them were without a doubt a King through and through. From head to toe, they had the unwavering of what was exactly called King.<br /> <br /> They were reigning as King in their respective countries. They were aware of that position themselves.<br /> <br /> And then, most likely their true strength too….<br /> <br /> Whether that pride, that status, and that strength too, weren’t all of that lacking in his self….<br /> <br /> In the case that his current self confronted them, did he think that he would be able protect his important people….<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, what are you doing getting absent-minded in the middle of class. That’s dangerous you know.”<br /> <br /> His cheeks were stretched apart.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki returned to his senses, he was on the school ground.<br /> <br /> It was in the middle of magic practice’s class. …Certainly it was dangerous.<br /> <br /> Being seen half-daydreaming made him completely embarrassed.<br /> <br /> ―He was in this kind of mood all along since last evening.<br /> <br /> Beside him was Koyuki in her Magic Dress tiptoeing while reaching out her hands to pinch Kazuki’s cheeks.<br /> <br /> “Dancing wing scattering what are sparks. Trail behind wind of spiral, become the life gouging bullet! Flap and shoot out! Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> Mio who was slightly at a distance in confrontation with him released an offense magic.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who returned to his senses wrapped his body with Resist in fluster.<br /> <br /> Kazuki attempted to block the bullet of flame attack with Psychokinesis, and simultaneously tried to steal the heat from the flame. Instantaneous magic power operation―Defense by using general magic like this was called Resist.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s Resist was penetrated by the flame bullet even with its force and heat reduced and this time it collided with Kazuki’s defensive magic power. Blue magic power light and sparks shined magically in front of Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> There were two types of defense method for magicians against an attack from an enemy; they were [Resist] and [defensive magic power].<br /> <br /> Resist was producing phenomenon that was in opposition of attacks from an enemy by means of one’s own magic technique. An impact against another impact of the reverse vector, heat with cold, the user had to instantaneously judge and bring the phenomenon into being.<br /> <br /> Defensive magic power was the subconscious use of magic power that occurred from human’s self-defense instinct in reaction against dangerous situation. In the first place [the power that distort reality] dwelled inside magic power, if large amount of magic power overflowed instantly it could overwrite any kind of attack completely and terminate it.<br /> <br /> However, this subconscious feat of strength totally consumed an inordinate amount of magic power. Because there was a limit to the amount of a human’s magic power, there was the need to not rely on defensive magic power as much as possible and instead to weaken the opponent’s attack using Resist that consisted of controlled magic power.<br /> <br /> “Although defensive magic power is said to be invoked subconsciously, daydreaming in the middle of magic practical skill class is really dangerous. …Is there something worrying you?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki looked up at Kazuki worriedly.<br /> <br /> He completely made her worried. But Kazuki couldn’t clearly express this murkiness inside his chest as a worry. That was why he tried to dodge the matter.<br /> <br /> “No, I’m just remembering how cute Koyuki was last night coming sweetly on top of my bed, and I just got carried away cherishing that memory.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s cool face flushed bright red in a flash. And then…,<br /> <br /> “O nihility of the ancient times, become the deep breath that reside inside this blank chest. Inside this flowing silence of rejection, freeze and be silent…Glacier Wind!!”<br /> <br /> Instantly she turned to Kazuki and cast an offense magic.<br /> <br /> “Uwaa-!” Kazuki reflexively raised his voice while weakening the freezing wind from the very close distance using Resist. In the end he couldn’t Resist and his defensive magic power flared up and his magic power was smashed.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! You too, maintain your chanting and attack back!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei who supervised the class noticed Kazuki’s predicament and told him off.<br /> <br /> Kazuki consolidated his chanting somehow and turned to Mio before invoking his spell.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> The flame bullet hit Mio who was standing at a distance and magic power light shined.<br /> <br /> This was training where the students attacked each other with magic. By making partners attack each other, their chanting and Resist were drilled at the same time. It was a training that was shaped fairly close to real battle.<br /> <br /> If they didn’t even do this, then they couldn’t polish their Resist technique for the real battle, but while it's only natural, this was quite a dangerous training, and so it turned into a training that was not allowed in the place where the eyes of the teacher didn’t reach.<br /> <br /> This was not an independent training and could only be conducted in class. The time could be said as precious.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei walked approaching them.<br /> <br /> “When I see it like this, even though you and Amasaki can use the same magic but there is quite a difference in power huh.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? I know that there is a difference in our chanting speed but…in power too?”<br /> <br /> “Of course. What is called chanting speed, is so to speak a Telepathy with Diva. By Ordering what kind of magic phenomenon this sides want to produce, then the Diva will transmit the [magic blueprint] to you as the reply. By pouring magic power into that blueprint, magic is Cast in this real world. But even when you use the same blueprint, the more magic power amount you bring forth instantly you can make occur a large scale phenomenon to that extent. …Hiakari is strong in Telepathy and that’s why her chanting speed is fast, while the amount of magic power Amasaki can handle in one time is a lot so her power is high. That someone can handle a large amount of magic power all at once means that his magic power circuit is thick. If your meager magic power circuit is a straw then Amasaki’s finely tempered magic power circuit is a water supply pump.”<br /> <br /> Hearing Liz Liza-sensei’s words, Mio went ‘Ehhem’ while puffing up her chest proudly from afar.<br /> <br /> Mio and Koyuki were elites who had been training their magic techniques for a long time even before receiving their Stigma.<br /> <br /> For a long time Kazuki was training his sword skill from morning until night, that was why he could say that it was only natural there was a big gap between them.<br /> <br /> “The third rank in this year, Yumeno is excelling in Resist. Though I want her to become at least a little more offensive.”<br /> <br /> When Liz Liza-sensei said Yumeno-san’s name, Mio went “Muu…a hidden powerful person” and her expression changed and became completely tense.<br /> <br /> “…I can only train more to shorten this gap then.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that positively, Liz Liza-sensei slackened her expression slightly and nodded.<br /> <br /> “Amasaki is also above you in Resist, so just by simply you two firing at each other there will be a big gap forming between you two.”<br /> <br /> Of course Kazuki possessed a wide range of defensive magic and evasion ability due to his Foresight.<br /> <br /> But that didn’t mean that he could always manage to tidily cope out against enemy attack like that. There would be surely many cases in the middle of battle where Resist technique would become necessary.<br /> <br /> …Immature. Even before thinking about my immaturity as King, like this I’m also immature even as a magician!<br /> <br /> This is not the time to have conceited worries! I have to advance forward with even more abandon!!<br /> <br /> “Mio! Koyuki! Fire even more magic at me!!”<br /> <br /> “Eh? Then without reservation…Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> “Having fighting spirit is the most important. …Glacier Wind!!”<br /> <br /> Two elements of offensive magic came flying at him simultaneously. Kazuki couldn’t defend with Resist and a large amount of his defensive magic power was smashed, he then got blown away from the recoil.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t do anything rash, you idiot.” Liz Liza-sensei smiled wryly while watching over them.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “The contents of the suggestion box…they are something like [I want actual combat class to be increased] or [I want the points of Quest participation to be softened], the enthusiastic opinions are really increasing.”<br /> <br /> -The student council room after school.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the others overturned the suggestion box and they were in the middle of confirming the contents of the letters.<br /> <br /> “About that, right now is the period for exams so aren’t they just wanting to run away from the class lectures?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai made banter to make fun of it.<br /> <br /> “That might also be the case though.” Kaguya-senpai gently smiled saying that.<br /> <br /> These two were also top class in their classwork. Kaguya-senpai went without saying, but Hikaru-senpai too.<br /> <br /> “With the war against Yamato this time, I think everyone’s awareness is rising up. This goes for both the people that participated in the real battle and also those who were house-sitting before.”<br /> <br /> “Right. While their motivation is especially rising up like this, currently it might be okay to give a consideration for curriculum to change flexibly. Though it’s still not okay to neglect the classroom learning just because of that.”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki too nodded from Kaguya-senpai’s words.<br /> <br /> “The amount of the lesson is insufficient. Maybe we have to increase the classes itself more. Around ten hours per day should…”<br /> <br /> Hearing Headmaster Amasaki's words, Kaguya-senpai went “Wait, wait…” and stopped him with a wry smile.<br /> <br /> “Sa, say…”<br /> <br /> With a timid hand movement, Kamimura-san who was standing in the corner of the student council room raised her hand.<br /> <br /> Everyone’s gazes concentrated on Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san was then whispering something into the ear of Lotte who was standing beside her.<br /> <br /> Lotte then kept nodding ‘hm hm’ and then interpreted for everyone.<br /> <br /> “Among the many Diva-san of the Japanese Mythology, it seems those with strong battle power are saying that they are okay with cooperating with the Knight Academy by making contract with the students of the Sword Division desu.”<br /> <br /> “What do you say, is that true!?” Headmaster Amasaki spontaneously jumped from his seat.<br /> <br /> The students became able to use Summoning Magic other than Solomon 72 Pillar. In addition to that the students of the Sword Division were…. This was a proposal that was going to completely remake the way things were in the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> “Although I say that, among the Divas of Japanese Mythology right now those who are in the martial faction with high battle strength are actually only a part of them, so that’s why they are going to grant their Stigma by selecting students among the Sword Division who possess superior magic talent…doing things in such form is what Amaterasu-san seems to be proposing desu.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san kept nodding up and down following Lotte’s interpreting.<br /> <br /> “I see, there is no way of refusing. There is not but…we have to create a special class in the Sword Division and include class of contract ceremony and chanting practice won’t we? I’m just joking saying ten hours before but, this looks really serious.”<br /> <br /> When Headmaster Amasaki became eager, Kaguya-senpai floated a wry smile.<br /> <br /> “Even though here I thought that the contract ceremony for the first year was finally over already…”<br /> <br /> The guide for the contract ceremony was the job of the Magic Division’s student council president. The guide had to use advanced magic technique to travel underworld to Astrum because they must maintain the safety of the new students. Only this job couldn’t be shouldered by the adults whose magic power had weathered down. This was the reason why the presence of the Student Council in the Knight Academy was so large.<br /> <br /> “…But if Kana-chan get selected like this then she will be aa-mazingly strong then! If you are selected then I’m going to teach you a lot about Summoning Magic!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai smiled sweetly to Kanae. It couldn’t be helped because Kaguya-senpai wanted to get along with Kanae. But Kanae turned her face aside with a ‘puih’.<br /> <br /> “Even in the case that I get selected, I’m going to turn it down.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, why?”<br /> <br /> “I have decided to become stronger than Nii-sama only in sword. Besides even if I become able to use Summoning Magic half-bakedly, won’t I become nothing more than an inferior copy of Nii-sama. If I’m going to try to become stronger than Nii-sama, then I should pursue that goal with my own originality to the very end.”<br /> <br /> Using only sword skill to the very end―it seems that resolve of hers was steadfast.<br /> <br /> Not being picky of one’s means for the sake of becoming stronger, was also one kind of efficient thinking. Kazuki who was trying to make Summoning Magic and sword art coexist within himself, was the possessor of such thinking.<br /> <br /> But Kanae, when she becomes really earnest for something, she turns into some sort of demon.<br /> <br /> Rather than poorly reaching her hand to various things, the way of following through her original intention consistently might be able to let Kanae surpass the wall that blocked her path in her case.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 130.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Kanae directed her gaze to Kazuki in a glance. “…Besides ''even if I don’t specially become Nii-sama’s conquering target'', my positivity level have been already in the max value anyway.”<br /> <br /> Hearing those words gave a slight shock to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “…So you know, about Leme’s ability.”<br /> <br /> Well, though if she didn’t know about it already, then there was no way she was going to leave alone the matter of how Kazuki recently became really close with various girls.<br /> <br /> But…did she know as far as the matter of kissing?<br /> <br /> Even if she said that she knew…he felt troubled somehow. Even if she called herself his little sister but their relationship was of a step sibling, however his step-father was treating Kazuki as a true son. That was why for Kazuki too, Kanae was equal to a true sister.<br /> <br /> Moreover for him, his father was the greatest benefactor in Kazuki’s life. Kanae was that father’s real daughter. No matter how great the relationships between them are, no matter how much the advances came from Kanae’s way, for Kazuki there was some line that was too sacred to violate.<br /> <br /> “I’m not a target of conquest but Nii-sama’s rival! …Though currently I’m considerably far behind him!!”<br /> <br /> Rival―when he suddenly entered into the Hayashizaki household, for Kanae, Kazuki who began to start sword training together with her was without a doubt a rival. That was the starting point of the both of them.<br /> <br /> Even while Kanae came flirting with him full of love, the truth was she was still obsessing wholeheartedly over that.<br /> <br /> The relationship between the two of them couldn’t be expressed so simply with a single word of intimate.<br /> <br /> “For this one, the matter about the Sacred Treasure is more concerning rather than Stigma. …About the talk of the plan for allowing the free use of Sacred Treasure, what happened to its development from that side?”<br /> <br /> The one who asked like that to Headmaster Amasaki was the owner of strength that was number 2 in the Sword Division, Hikita Kohaku.<br /> <br /> “Ooh, that’s right. There is also some progress regarding the Sacred Treasure too. …Because Yamato used Sacred Treasures in the previous battle and there was damage that came out from the Knight Order, the bunch in the government and the top brass of the Knight Order also finally became proactive in releasing the Sacred Treasures. Just that the Sacred Treasures we have in the vault are distributed by prioritizing the Knight Order and it seems nothing but a few will be given to the Knight Academy though. Even the Sacred Treasures that Hayashizaki and Charlotte pillaged from Isonokami Shrine are to be given to the Knight Order.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku made a dissatisfied face hearing that.<br /> <br /> “…The more one accustomed himself in using a Sacred Treasure, the more he will become able to draw out the power residing inside it. Looking at the long time prospect, I think it will be better if they circulated it to the students who have future prospects…”<br /> <br /> “For the people on the actual scene, what is the most important is what is right in front of their eyes. It’s just something obvious.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku’s dissatisfaction was pinned down by Headmaster Amasaki using the really obvious reality.<br /> <br /> “Be that as it may, though few, there are still some Sacred Treasures allocated to us, with Japanese Divas and the Sacred Treasures it seems that the standard of the Sword Division’s strength will increase considerably won’t it.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki gathered that conclusion positively. That time when he fought Ikousai, and the time when he once fought Beatrix too, Kazuki had felt keenly how useful Sacred Treasure was.<br /> <br /> …Sacred Treasure huh.<br /> <br /> Himself too, he had his own ability, if he could choose some kind of Sacred Treasure for his own sake….<br /> <br /> Such desire flashed for an instant inside Kazuki’s mind. It was a natural desire for a swordsman.<br /> <br /> …But the few numbers of Sacred Treasures should be prioritized to the students of the Sword Division rather than himself.<br /> <br /> Kazuki owned a great number of options in his way of fighting, and those abilities too was still in the middle of development.<br /> <br /> “The Sacred Treasures will be transported to this academy in the near future. If those are distributed by prioritizing those with superior results then there won’t even be any complaint for the Sword Division’s doctrine of strength.”<br /> <br /> Diva outside the Solomon 72 Pillar and also Sacred Treasures were both something excluded until now.<br /> <br /> The Knight Academy was also going to change little by little.<br /> <br /> With the appearance of enemies and facing actual battle―this academy was changing toward a structure optimized for battle.<br /> <br /> Whether himself or the Knight Academy, both must change more.<br /> <br /> To become even more accustomed to battle.<br /> <br /> “Say, is it okay for me to say a few words? There is something I feel a little concerned with the school’s atmosphere.”<br /> <br /> As if she was choosing the time where one topic was finished, Yumeno-san raised her hand reservedly.<br /> <br /> Everyone’s gazes gathered on the girl.<br /> <br /> “The truth is lately, it looks like the squabble or perhaps I should say the quarrel between the fellow students of the Magic Division and the Sword Division is increasing.”<br /> <br /> Everyone went “Eh?” in shock.<br /> <br /> “I don’t notice such thing though. Rather, throughout the battle, the Magic Division and the Sword Division too keep opening their hearts to each other little by little…”<br /> <br /> When Kaguya-senpai said that, everyone else nodded too.<br /> <br /> However Yumeno-san, even while acting reserved but she clearly shook her head.<br /> <br /> “We who are in the [battle frontline group] feel like that but, it looks like the [house-sitting group] is different. Even in the newspaper committee there are also some that were in the house-sitting group but…it seems that the atmosphere of the Knight Academy during the house-sitting had worsened. It didn’t become an issue because of the welcoming mood from the return of the battle frontline group, however some kind of spark can be felt smoldering out of sight.”<br /> <br /> That time when Kazuki was guided by Kazuha-senpai in the Sword Division, there were many friendly gazes but, he also remembered that there were gazes of hostility directed at him.<br /> <br /> Atmosphere of both extremes―was it the discrepancy between the battle frontline group and the house-sitting group?<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said to him that “Kazuki’s popularity is increasing” but, she felt like that only because she was in the battle frontline group, she might have not noticed the mood of the house-sitting group.<br /> <br /> “What kind of thing happened in that squabble or quarrel you mentioned?”<br /> <br /> “That’s…the people of the Magic Division decided one-sidedly that [there must be Yamato’s spy inside the Sword Division], then the Sword Division’s people opposed against that and became threatening. When we of the battle frontline group fought Yamato, the story that [Japan has a bitter fight because there is a spy inside the Knight Academy] was also spreading from somewhere to the Knight Academy…”<br /> <br /> The story that the war became a bitter fight because of the spy’s fault, was spread ''from somewhere''…?<br /> <br /> ‘Don’t tell me’, Kazuki doubted his ear.<br /> <br /> “How strange. Even though the mobile phones of the students who went to the battlefield should have been entrusted to President Hayashizaki. Even if we chase after the rumor but the source of the story is really unknown.”<br /> <br /> Just before &lt;Magic War・Okehazama&gt;, Kazuki made a talk that there might also be a spy among themselves in the Knight Academy and he earned the acknowledgement of everyone for him to take custody of their mobile phone.<br /> <br /> There was no method to spread a fact like [the war is hard because of the spy’s fault] from the battlefield to the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> “Ah, I received a special permission to always carry around a mobile phone for sending my article of the battle’s coverage to the academy but…I didn’t do anything like that!”<br /> <br /> It seemed like she noticed that a suspicion was falling on her during the course of the conversation, making Yumeno-san deny it in fluster.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a glance at Lotte. Lotte was carefully watching.<br /> <br /> Seeing that state, Kazuki believed in Yumeno-san. He was already holding a feeling of fellowship toward her, and if it was Lotte then she should be able to fathom whether what she said was a lie or a truth with a high probability.<br /> <br /> “For the moment, I had investigated the log of the newspaper and the news since coming back home to the Knight Academy but, [because there is the spy of Yamato inside Japan the war turned into a bitter fight]…there is no such news at all.”<br /> <br /> “Right, the Knight Order and the government should have been clamping hard on the news regarding that.”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki nodded on what Yumeno-san substantiated.<br /> <br /> Then why was it the students became jumping at shadows from the spy’s existence, was it just a pretext for conflict?<br /> <br /> “…I think, there is also a spy remaining among the house-sitting group. To cause friction among the students of the Knight Academy, the spy intentionally circulated the rumor that there is a spy and stirred up antagonism.”<br /> <br /> Even though he thought that the Magic Division and the Sword Division was finally in the process of uniting into one….<br /> <br /> For such disruptive maneuvering to be conducted during the house-sitting when the Student Council couldn’t have any control at all. While it happened in just a small scale, this was plainly a bothersome harassment.<br /> <br /> …Just as he thought the spy problem had to be resolved quickly.<br /> <br /> “Even though we finally had begun to meet compromise, it’s really unpleasant for this to be complicated again…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai made a face sadder than anyone with her head hanging down.<br /> <br /> “We really have to seriously settle the score uh, this troublesome spy.”<br /> <br /> Kanae too hit her fist with an expression even manlier than Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “I have a proposal for just such a case however-!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Yumeno-san leaned her body forward and talked.<br /> <br /> “Let’s deal an intelligence war with an intelligence war-!”<br /> <br /> “Intelligence war you say?”<br /> <br /> “We too need to scatter some bait so we can catch the spy! Inside the school newspaper, we are going to write information that the spy won’t be able to resist taking a bite at, then we are going to lure out the spy. How’s that! The other side is quite bothered by Hayashizaki-san’s action after all, so I think it will absolutely go well!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san asserted with her eyes sparkling bright. Indeed, they got him at Isonokami Shrine through the spy, so this time it was their turn to set up the spy instead.<br /> <br /> “Looks interesting! Then for that [bait], it’s fine even if it’s just bogus information right?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai leaped at the topic with a mischievous expression.<br /> <br /> “For example how about this one I wonder! The other day there was this meeting between the government and the envoys of the Magic Advanced Countries see. …Secret Order Handed Down to Hayashizaki Kazuki! The Chief Student Council President of Our School Planned to Have a Clandestine Meeting With a Certain Top Brass of the Knight Order in a Certain Spot in the Metropolitan! …We place a scoop like that. If we do that then the spy is going to loiter around Kazuki’s vicinity and we are going to ambush there and catch him red handed!”<br /> <br /> “We already know that there is a spy and yet that kind of article come out in newspaper, doesn’t that look too forced?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai said with a cautious look. For these two to be able to immediately think of such idea like this and immediately criticize it, the way their heads work were fast.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san leaned her body forward and shook her head exaggeratedly while saying “No-!”<br /> <br /> She looked like a different person from her usual reserved impression. …She really liked school newspaper, this girl.<br /> <br /> “In the newspaper articles so far, the article about how the Chief Student Council President received the right to command from Regimental Commander Yamagata was really popular. As expected for the representative of the academy to contend equally with the top of the Knight Order is something everyone is really proud of. An article with this kind of content is a really good material that the reader will happily eat up. Getting my eyes dazzled by my greed for this kind of scoop that I completely forget about the spy’s existence before publishing this information…that kind of feeling, isn’t that realistic?”<br /> <br /> Certainly. It had the impression of a stupid mistake made by a really green student.<br /> <br /> “Even if the other side thought that this is [suspicious], this is not something that they can just pass up. Some kind of action will absolutely occur.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki too said that and approved. “Certainly it seems effective.” Kazuki nodded.<br /> <br /> “…If it’s that kind of thing then I have the most suitable story here.”<br /> <br /> Mixed with everyone’s loud voice, Headmaster Amasaki talked with a grave voice.<br /> <br /> “This is not something that can even be talked in this kind of place so I thought that I’m going to call Hayashizaki alone later to talk, but actually Commander Yamagata is coming to Tokyo and he said that he is coming because he wants to talk with Hayashizaki.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?” Hikaru-senpai’s eyes opened wide.<br /> <br /> “Something that I talked jokingly is really true? This is only an idea I came up with randomly.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai pressed her hand to her mouth while saying “A horse comes from a gourd&lt;ref&gt;Japanese phrase. Means something said as a joke actually happening.&lt;/ref&gt;! I’ve awakened to my prophetic ability!”<br /> <br /> “By any chance it’s really true, he is going to hand down some kind of order to the Knight Academy?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai asked with a little anxiety.<br /> <br /> “I don’t know about that. It might be that he merely wants to treat you to a meal as thanks for before this but…if this is made into an article then it will surely look realistic.”<br /> <br /> “Is it really okay to make that kind of information as an article?”<br /> <br /> “If it can make us catch the spy, then whatever kind of risk is just a trivial problem. Even if we can only catch a single person, from there a possibility that we can root all spies out one after another exists.”<br /> <br /> It seemed Headmaster Amasaki didn’t just say this without thinking. He continued his words seriously.<br /> <br /> “However the government and the top brass of the Knight Order really don’t move in order to counter the spies at all. The very order to crack down on the spies is being obstructed. The way things are they really cannot even stir at all to catch the spies.”<br /> <br /> “Isn’t the guy that obstruct the spy countermeasure is the spy himself?”<br /> <br /> “It’s not limited to just that. All politicians have enterprise or support organization that back them, those guys also suddenly threw their weight around and gave pressure. Even so, there are guys that bet their own political career and not bowing to the pressure, but there are already several people, that had met suspicious death.”<br /> <br /> An oppressive silence flowed into the student council room. This was too heavy.<br /> <br /> But if he thought calmly, a story this heavy was only natural. Moreover the life of the adults who didn’t have defensive magic power was ''fleeting'' if it was seen from the position of Kazuki and the others.<br /> <br /> “We cannot do anything at all, so it is the true opinion of all the adults that we want the students who are in a carefree standpoint to catch the tail of the spy. We are not going to object no matter what kind of method you use, okay. However this is really not a story we want children to hear though, hahaha.”<br /> <br /> “Don’t just laugh this off.” Mio said with teary eyes from this heavy topic.<br /> <br /> “I’ll do it.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san clenched both her hands strongly and squeezed out her voice tightly.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to bet my journalism soul on the line and with the school newspaper Chief President entrusted to me as my weapon…I’ll show you all that I’m going to expose the great villain!!”<br /> <br /> In order to stand against the intelligence maneuvering of the spy, the newspaper committee president of the academy stood up resolutely.<br /> <br /> “Then we will leave that to Yumeno-san. The matter now is how we are going to catch the spy that is going to be lured out.”<br /> <br /> The date and time of the secret talk between Kazuki and Commader Yamagata will be made a scoop in newspaper.<br /> <br /> If they did that then the spy would move out to investigate Kazuki until the arranged date.<br /> <br /> The especially big chance was the time when Kazuki was heading to the secret talk location until the talk was over.<br /> <br /> During that period, they had to form a team to watch Kazuki’s surrounding and catch the spy.<br /> <br /> But that was not a simple undertaking. The time when Kazuki made his preparation for the assault operation to Isonokami Shrine, he was busy but nevertheless he completely didn’t notice that he was being spied on.<br /> <br /> In the end the spy that was shadowing Kazuki, was he someone really skilled or possibly he was using a shady magic….<br /> <br /> “Let the Sword Division handle that one.” Kanae said.<br /> <br /> “Certainly, this kind of thing is suited for the Sword Division that can immediately move out to attack when the time comes. In the case of Magika Stigma, the target will already escape while they are chanting.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too nodded. “So it’s going to be a ninja corps desu!” Lotte’s eyes shone.<br /> <br /> “Tsukahara. You are going to be the leader of the corps.”<br /> <br /> Kanae said jumping the gun. Kazuha-senpai who was told that went “He?” with a stupid voice.<br /> <br /> When Kanae said Tsukahara, it seemed that Kazuha-senpai didn’t understand who Kanae was talking about, but Kanae really meant her.<br /> <br /> “I have to choose the members from among the guys of the Sword Division who has some capacity in using general magic after all. So you teach those guys the technique we talked about before, like the Echolocation magic or the magic for erasing the footstep sound.”<br /> <br /> Certainly Kazuha-senpai’s general magic technique consisted of things that were most suitable for covert operation.<br /> <br /> “Bu, but even if you tell me that kind of thing so suddenly, the way to do those magic for me is just something intuitive so I cannot really convey it skillfully you know. I’m not really that good in Telepathy…”<br /> <br /> “Then I’ll be the interpreter desu!”<br /> <br /> Lotte who did the interpreting for Kamimura-san announced herself to be Kazuha-senpai’s interpreter this time.<br /> <br /> Interpreter―first Lotte would sympathize with Kazuha-senpai in the middle of using general magic, then Lotte would Trace Kazuha-senpai’s mental movement and learn it. If they did that then Lotte could take the teaching role and she would convey the way of using that magic to the students of the Sword Division using Telepathy. It was going to take a little detour but certainly that seemed effective.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-oneesan, please take care of me desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte grasped Kazuha-senpai’s both hands with a smiling face.<br /> <br /> Having her hand held by a girl younger than her, Kazuha-senpai’s cheeks reddened. ‘By any chance perhaps she can be my friend’, surely such feeling of expectation was flashing inside her right now. And then Kazuha-senpai obediently nodded deeply.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> From that day, the operation to bring the spies to light quietly progressed.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was in the center of the operation needed to be only in the middle of it without doing anything special. Until the day of his secret talk with Commander Yamagata, he was going through his ordinary days just like usual doing things like studying for his exam and doing magic training.<br /> <br /> The only one in the Witch’s Mansion that became especially busy was Lotte. Everyday after school together with Kazuha-senpai she conducted magic technique coaching for the Sword Division students until the day became dark.<br /> <br /> The day Kazuki was going to meet Commander Yamagata was next Sunday.<br /> <br /> Because after the preparation of the Sword Division students was over, the newspaper club had to immediately publish the newspaper extra, they had no surplus margin of time.<br /> <br /> “…Now that I think back, recently I haven't had a relaxed talk with Lotte.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was studying alone in his room, he suddenly thought that in the spur of moment when he was taking a breather.<br /> <br /> The relationship of everyone in the Witch’s Mansion was good. Even so there were many combinations where someone was always together with a specific partner. For example there were many times of Kaguya-senpai having tea with Hikaru-senpai or playing analog game with Koyuki. There was many times where Mio was picking a quarrel with Koyuki one-sidedly.<br /> <br /> For Lotte she had no particular inclination and got together with everyone.<br /> <br /> She especially took action assertively toward Karin or Kamimura-san who were still newly entering this place.<br /> <br /> Making something like [a position for herself where she feel comfortable somehow] and then feeling content with herself there without going anywhere…Lotte didn’t do such thing. It was as if she was always acting like a lubricating oil in regards to the whole group.<br /> <br /> Was it because of that―when he looked back he got the feeling that Lotte was the one who spent the shortest time together with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> When he came to himself once again, Kazuki became excessively wanting to spend some time together with Lotte.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Lotte returned home to the Witch’s Mansion just before dinner.<br /> <br /> “Lotte, can I bother you a little?”<br /> <br /> After the dinner, Kazuki visited Lotte’s room.<br /> <br /> When he knocked, a bright reply of “Come in desu!” immediately came. When Kazuki opened the door, the moment it opened sounds of footstep *tabatabataba!* dashing near could be heard and with a *do―nn* Lotte tackled him.<br /> <br /> “Is something the matter desu? Onii-san.”<br /> <br /> ‘She looked like a big dog that frolicked at the owner after watching the house’, Kazuki thought a little.<br /> <br /> “You were out pretty late, and then it got me thinking of how it is going with the training of the people from the Sword Division.”<br /> <br /> “About the training huh. …Honestly it’s really serious desu.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte sat on the bed side by side.<br /> <br /> There was a bed and a desk furnished inside the room of the Witch’s Mansion. There was only one chair that was a set with the desk, so there were many cases when Kazuki sat on the bed side by side naturally when it became just him and another person in somebody’s room.<br /> <br /> “When we did it in practice, the magic is quite advanced even with mental Trace desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte wrinkled up her eyebrows and made a ‘muu~’ face.<br /> <br /> “It’s impossible for everyone to learn the magic before Wednesday desu. I think the progress will certainly pass Wednesday. Kazuha-oneesan that can do all of those magic so easily with a nonchalant face is a little strange desu.”<br /> <br /> “So even from what Lotte sees, Kazuha-senpai is amazing.”<br /> <br /> Lotte nodded many times over *kokukoku* vigorously. Really Kazuha-senpai was amazing.<br /> <br /> “That is really a genius-oneesan desu. …While everyone was in the middle of learning, she worked out another different trick at the side you know. For Kazuha-oneesan to be not really that strong in something like a mere Enchant Aura might just be because of her personality I think desu.”<br /> <br /> “Aah, I also thought similarly like that when she was practicing swords together with me.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai had a strong will of wanting to become strong, but she was a person that completely didn’t feel any burning desire of antagonism of wanting to surpass the enemy right in front of her eyes. She was being ‘hoho~nn’&lt;ref&gt;I don’t really get what is the meaning of this, but this word is something like unmotivated, or tame, or gentle, or weak. That kind of impression. EDIT: Isn't it the SFX made by those carefree and unconcerned, usually depicted when doing it in a chibi fashion, with a stupid face with unfocused eyes and a spark with a trail over their heads? It's a variant of &quot;nohohon&quot;, word used as a nickname for a character from IS (and mistakenly translated on this site as &quot;scantily dressed girl&quot;, wich is wrong not only due to it meaning &quot;utterly carefree&quot; instead but also since &quot;scantily&quot; means &quot;with insufficient clothing&quot; while the girl dresses with excess cloth, with no skin exposed except for her face and oversized sleeves).[http://lohas.nicoseiga.jp/thumb/2011627i?&amp;psig=AFQjCNG0JXR6nxNr1Zg0n3yktmgJm-W0Ow&amp;ust=1448467012571295]&lt;/ref&gt; somewhere inside her. (ho-hum perhaps?)<br /> <br /> Essentially she was a peaceful person, he guessed.<br /> <br /> “But I’m really happy that I could make friends with Kazuha-oneesan desu!”<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, she didn’t make any strange behavior once in a while?”<br /> <br /> “She was acting strange but she is a really kind person desu!”<br /> <br /> It seemed like there were still times where Kazuha-senpai acted strange.<br /> <br /> But Lotte was a child that could surmise why someone acted strangely. Lotte had surely accepted Kazuha-senpai’s feeling of [I want to become friends] more frankly than anyone else.<br /> <br /> For some reason Kazuki petted the head of Lotte beside him gently. “Why is onii-san petting my head~” While smiling Lotte too got playful at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> If there was an angel in this world then there was no doubt that it was Lotte.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, is it okay for you to not go to the place of other people today desu?”<br /> <br /> While leaning her body pleasantly on Kazuki’s shoulder, Lotte asked with a soft tone of voice.<br /> <br /> “I want to be together with Lotte tonight.”<br /> <br /> Lotte raised her face and turned an expression that brightened suddenly.<br /> <br /> “Is there something you want to do? Something like game or anime trial listening convention.”<br /> <br /> “I want to talk until we fall asleep desu! I want to ask various thing about Kazuki-oniisan. After all now that I think back, I have never heard any story about Kazuki-oniisan’s past.”<br /> <br /> Story of the past, is it…. Kazuki reflected while embracing the fawning Lotte tightly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki kept embracing Lotte and rolled on the bed together and began a pillow talk at the same time.<br /> <br /> He told in advance that it was not a fairly interesting story though.<br /> <br /> The first earliest memory that he had―the scenery where he was abandoned in front of the gate of the orphanage by his mother.<br /> <br /> From there the time he spent in the orphanage and the period where he was adopted into Hayashizaki family.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki gave some selected rendition of Kanae or Mio’s interesting episodes, Lotte burst into laughter hearing them.<br /> <br /> ―However in the middle of the story, it was obvious that the matter Lotte cared about the most was the fact that Kazuki was an abandoned child.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps I and Kazuki-oniisan are a fellow similar people.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki finished his story, Lotte murmured lowly.<br /> <br /> “Why?”<br /> <br /> “We were saved by kind people when we were empty, and then now we can be like this.”<br /> <br /> Lotte’s usual bright voice changed completely and she talked with a quiet depressed voice.<br /> <br /> Even Lotte that looked naïve still had a wound that was not healed yet.<br /> <br /> What about himself then? Could he possibly stood back up from the wound of the past?<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan is my senior in treading along through a path similar with mine long even before I started stepping on that path, so perhaps even in this aspect I feel onii-san is a special person.”<br /> <br /> “Is that, about how we are licking each other’s wound?”<br /> <br /> “That’s not it. Kazuki-oniisan is looking forward and I too am supporting Kazuki-oniisan while also looking forward, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Supporting each other was different than licking each other's wound, was it.<br /> <br /> Certainly that was true. The difference between the two was whether they were looking forward or not.<br /> <br /> “Even if I am currently looking forward, then that’s thanks to Lotte and everyone of the Witch’s Mansion.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki petted Lotte’s head again while saying that. While doing that he suddenly thought.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps right now I’m in the middle of losing sight of the thing called my comrade’s support. Even though this is something so obvious…”<br /> <br /> He was completely convinced that everything was his fault when there was a failure. And then he was floundering around trying to take care of everything upon himself. That was just his hubris.<br /> <br /> King―perhaps the impression of that kind of word was making his heart in disarray.<br /> <br /> “If that’s so Kazuki-oniisan, please rely on me more and more if there is something going on.”<br /> <br /> “Currently Lotte is already doing your best always helping me until you come home late after school right?”<br /> <br /> “Just about this much is no concern desu! I’m going to show Kazuki-oniisan that I can support a lot more and more of your heavy burden with this arm just you see-!”<br /> <br /> While lying in the bed, Lotte suddenly lifted up her right arm and made an action of trying to flex her arm’s biceps.<br /> <br /> It was a thin arm with no signs of muscle at all. Lotte’s eyes opened wide in perfect circle and stared at her own arm and said “Ehehe, I’m going to do muscle training a little more” and laugh trying to gloss it over.<br /> <br /> But in contrary to her delicate right arm, Kazuki thought that there was nothing more assuring than Lotte like this.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Lotte…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki strongly embraced Lotte tightly one more time.<br /> <br /> “…Ehehe, this is warm. It seems that Kazuki-oniisan is relying on me to a very great extent right from the bottom of your heart desu♪”<br /> <br /> While being hugged by Kazuki, a large heart mark emerged out from Lotte’s chest and it was absorbed into the Stigma in Kazuki’s right arm.<br /> <br /> Charlotte―138<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san and others of the newspaper committee had already finished making the newspaper article.<br /> <br /> When a contact from Kazuha-senpai and Lotte came in on the night of Thursday that the technique coaching of the Sword Division students was finished, the newspaper committee members immediately pasted the newspaper extra on the academy’s bulletin board and distributed the paper to the students on Friday next day.<br /> <br /> That distributed news made excitement and expectation boil up inside the school.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san was summoned by Headmaster Amasaki during lunch break that day and she was scolded for carelessly leaking information even though there might be a spy in the academy.<br /> <br /> Of course that was a part of the scenario.<br /> <br /> The newspaper extra only reported that a secret talk would be conducted between Kazuki and Regimental Commander in the weekend while regarding the secret meeting location was not written. If the spy read this article, then he should be starting to investigate around Kazuki’s person for the sake of knowing the location of the secret talk.<br /> <br /> Possibly on the day Kazuki was heading to the secret talk, the spy would tail him.<br /> <br /> From that day the special corps of Sword Division who had been trained in covert action magic was secretly making surveillance on Kazuki’s surrounding. The person concerned, Kazuki himself became somewhat awkward even when he was going to the toilet.<br /> <br /> …Had the spy really begun to investigate about his action, he wondered.<br /> <br /> Setting aside the happenings behind the scenes like this, the ordinary days of the academy went by unconcernedly just like usual.<br /> <br /> However, the presence of the spy couldn’t be sensed at all…it still kept like that even until the appointed day of the secret meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> “I wonder if the spy doesn’t plan to make any move?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai called out toward Kazuki who was wearing the uniform of the Knight Academy regardless of the holiday to head to the secret talk location.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was making an anxious face kept in tenterhooks.<br /> <br /> “The spy might commence trailing me from now on instead.”<br /> <br /> The place where Kazuki and Commander Yamagata were going to hold their secret meeting at was in the Chinese food restaurant in the distance not far off from the Knight Academy. There was the most suitable private room for the secret talk at that Headmaster Amasaki’s regular restaurant. For the side of the restaurant too it seemed they were a high class type of restaurant that had the knowledge that their space was used for that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> A restaurant that was used to entertain those like politicians, it was that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> “Whether in the downtown or inside the restaurant, there are eyes of surveillance laid out. In the case that the spy is tailing me, he will be caught without fail.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki talked to give Kaguya-senpai a peace of mind. However inside his heart Kazuki also felt some anxiety. He couldn’t even imagine what kind of method or magic the spy used to bewilder their eyes.<br /> <br /> “In the first place what is it that Commander Yamagata wants to talk about?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai tilted her neck though it was already too late asking that now.<br /> <br /> “Now that senpai mentioned it, we were just told the fact that this is a secret talk, that we aren’t worrying what if the content of this talk is really vital. What kind of story I will get told there, I also need to prepare my heart.”<br /> <br /> By some chance it could be that the Knight Order was going to hand down some kind of order to the Knight Academy again. The battle with Yamato had already been suspended but….<br /> <br /> It was possible that this invitation for a meal was perhaps really just a show of gratitude for everything until now.<br /> <br /> They didn’t know if the spy would really do some kind of action. They also didn’t know what was Commander Yamagata going to talk about. Kazuki and the others had made all sorts of preparations, but there was the possibility that everything of this was just fruitless efforts of the students. In that case, the normal ordinary days would still continue….<br /> <br /> Normal ordinary days. There was so many things Kazuki should do in order to become stronger.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless, he was also lacking in some respects….<br /> <br /> “Then I’m going, senpai.”<br /> <br /> “Take care, Otouto-kun.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai gently reached out her hands to Kazuki’s collar and fiddled around with his necktie. It was not like the necktie was particularly crooked, so it seemed that she just wanted to try an act that was like a new wife somehow.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had buttoned up his shirt until the uppermost button, and his necktie was scrupulously tied. The uniform he wore was applicable to be a dress suit for a student, so it wouldn’t present any problem even in a high class restaurant that demanded a dress code.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki got out from the Witch’s Mansion he headed to the downtown and walked toward the designated restaurant.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Had something already happened right now?<br /> <br /> Or else had nothing happened yet?<br /> <br /> Perhaps the spy had already been captured and one of the circumstances had been settled.<br /> <br /> While feeling unable to calm down from expectation and nervousness mixing inside him, Kazuki walked to the China Town in front of the train station. Walking down the street with a distant scenery―.<br /> <br /> He arrived at the destination, the Chinese food restaurant, [{{furigana|Seiryuubou|Blue Dragon Chamber}}].<br /> <br /> When the vermilion door in Chinese-style was opened, he was welcomed by a waiter that stood with his back straight.<br /> <br /> Even without introducing himself, the waiter guided Kazuki wordlessly to a private room underground.<br /> <br /> There were several private rooms underground for the purpose of celebrity reservation.<br /> <br /> It was a closed room with strict security and isolated from the tumult at the surface.<br /> <br /> When the deepest door that looked especially extravagant inside it was opened, inside the room that was decorated extravagantly like the emperor palace of China, Commander Yamagata whose face he was familiar with was waiting.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata expressly stood up from his chair and then he thanked Kazuki saying “Sorry to call you like this”.<br /> <br /> “No, I absolutely cannot come to a restaurant this expensive by myself so I’m happy.”<br /> <br /> “Hahaha, is that so. Even supposing that you have money, no one would frequent this kind of restaurant while he is still a student.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a seat right in front of Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “And so, is today’s talk just for treating me to high class Chinese food to show thanks?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki talked without beating around the bush. Commander Yamagata too immediately shook his head.<br /> <br /> “No, of course…I called you because there is something I want the Knight Academy to do for me.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “To begin with it seems I have to tell you what kind of talk was exchanged in the place of the ceasefire negotiation.”<br /> <br /> Regarding the [large conference], Kazuki didn’t know anything except to the degree of what was reported in the mass media.<br /> <br /> “The media reported grandly that the ceasefire was established right? Does that mean west Japan will keep being Yamato, is there no way to recover them back…the mass media regarded those matters as problems though.”<br /> <br /> Right now even while the society hurled abuse to the government and the Knight Order as incompetent, however with the intervention of the unfamiliar bunches of the Magic Advanced Countries, the society also felt the anxiety against the unseen future.<br /> <br /> “Of course we didn’t spend that much time just talking about whether we are going to ceasefire or not. This matter is still not disclosed to the mass media, but during the ceasefire negotiation there were several [agreements] that got concluded. Those are agreements that really change the future of east Japan and west Japan.”<br /> <br /> “Agreements?”<br /> <br /> “Let’s talk about this step by step. First the objective of the Magic Advanced Countries’ envoys of coming here are for the sake of determining which side has the legitimacy in that war.”<br /> <br /> They had already anticipated beforehand that it would become that kind of development. That was why Commander Yamagata curtly rejected the bunch of &lt;Ryouzanpaku&gt; that approached them to ask for Japan’s cooperation.<br /> <br /> “In the first place there is no such thing as legitimacy in a coup d’etat.”<br /> <br /> Like that Commander Yamagata talked about the legitimacy of Japan itself.<br /> <br /> “Looking from our point of view, Yamato’s actions especially their political tenet doesn’t have any meaning at all and was nothing more than a violent coup d’etat. …So far as it goes, they also claimed that what they are doing is to correct the social unfairness from the preferential treatment to Magika Stigmas, but in this country there is no such thing happening.”<br /> <br /> He wondered about that. Inside his heart Kazuki was bothered about that but he didn’t try to interject there.<br /> <br /> “They caused a divide of this country using an illegitimate violent coup d’etat. Even though we move to subjugate them but other country intervened without any right at all, that’s our perception about this case.”<br /> <br /> There was truth in that outline, he could even say that it was a sound argument. Kazuki nodded.<br /> <br /> “And then in this matter that should be resolved as the problem of our own country, China and the resistance organization against China, Ryouzanpaku came to intervene. These bunches moved as they please without giving any notice to us beforehand. The army of China suddenly reinforced Yamato, and Ryouzanpaku who revolted against that temporarily gave their cooperation to our side. But in the first place it is not the case that we had made contact with Ryouzanpaku and formed a cooperation set-up with them. This is nothing more than a high pressure salesmanship of kindness from Ryouzanpaku.”<br /> <br /> …About this time the fellows from Ryouzanpaku might be angry.<br /> <br /> But if Japan was misunderstood that they had a cooperative relationship with Ryuouzanpaku, it would completely legitimize China’s hostility to Japan. There was the need to clearly outline the sequence of events that Ryouzanpaku moved out because China went along with Yamato.<br /> <br /> “We don’t have any intention to tie any relation with Ryouzanpaku even from now on. We also have no intention to participate in the antagonistic relationship between China and Ryouzanpaku. But if from now on the army of China keep getting stationed inside the territory of Yamato, we too are going to make Ryouzanpaku’s army stay inside our territory.”<br /> <br /> If China didn’t get out of this, Japan would borrow Ryouzanpaku’s strength to drive them out, it was like that. This too could be said as a justifiable right, and Ryouzanpaku’s face could also barely get saved.<br /> <br /> “But what we desired is for China and Ryouzanpaku to dispense with their interference, that is to say we want to subjugate the violent coup d’etat by Yamato as our country’s problem to the very end…such thing was what we first insisted on.”<br /> <br /> “I think that’s a logical argument. In the first place, saying it logically, this is a battle where the legitimacy rest in our side.”<br /> <br /> Some thug acted violently inside our country. For other country to interfere when this side was subjugating that didn’t make sense. That was why all of you please stay quiet and just watch. It was that kind of logic.<br /> <br /> If China and Ryouzanpaku withdrew, then there would be no turn for the Magic Advanced Countries to come out anywhere.<br /> <br /> “Yes, that’s supposed to be a politically correct argument. The politicians who participated in the conference too asserted all of that full of confidence. But the other side were religious countries. What they were looking was a mythologically correct argument.”<br /> <br /> With an expression full of bitterness, Commander Yamagata spitted out with a half careless tone.<br /> <br /> Mythological correctness…?<br /> <br /> “It seemed that Yamato’s side claimed to the Magic Advanced Countries that [it’s only correct that Japanese archipelago is ruled by the gods of Japanese Mythology]. Looks like the argument that make them agree more is the argument of that side. Yamato’s argument was largely received in the conference, and our side got criticized disparagingly. This means they doesn’t mind any violent coup d’etat or whatever Yamato did as long as they have the feature called Japanese Mythology.”<br /> <br /> “That’s…really extreme and outside of our imagination.”<br /> <br /> “We already know that those guys think of the Mythology as the first and foremost. Nonetheless, we didn’t think that they are going to be this hard to talk with.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata released a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> Kazuki remembered about what Beatrix told him before that [It’s fun the part where we talk about stupid thing, but we absolutely cannot understand each other in deep aspect].<br /> <br /> An absolute rejection from a group that possessed different sense of values.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell him that this meant the international community was supporting Yamato?<br /> <br /> “That’s so but the other side’s claim that they [obtained the divine protection of Japanese Mythology] is also full of holes right? They are only borrowing Susanoo’s power and making the Divas into Wild God to manipulate. Moreover the majority of Japanese Divas had already come to their senses from being Wild God and they are separating themselves from Yamato.”<br /> <br /> “Correct. The guys above has also made understand about that circumstance from your report, so they strongly objected Yamato’s claim. Above all the chief god of Japanese Mythology Amaterasu is in our hands. But it seemed Yamato and China claimed that ''looking historically'' Susanoo’s side is the more just one as the lord of Japanese Mythology compared to Amaterasu. It’s the case that Amaterasu was the [invader] that came along later on.”<br /> <br /> That too was one way of looking at it, another side of the myth. It was not unnecessarily mistaken.<br /> <br /> “…Amaterasu and Susanoo are in a relationship that contested each other for the chief god seat of Japanese Mythology. When the circumstance from our side is setting up Amaterasu and their side is setting up Susanoo…it becomes that the chief god of Japanese Mythology is still not coming into existence.”<br /> <br /> “Seems it’s something like that. That’s why those bunch of Magic Advanced Countries’ [conclusion mythologically] said that [both Japan and Yamato still don’t have any legitimacy to rule Japan archipelago], like that.”<br /> <br /> “That’s really an insult for those politician lots, what they are saying.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata made a face full of bitterness. With this Kazuki now could grasp the present situation.<br /> <br /> “Now then, from there the opinion of those bunches of envoys also became scattered around. Russia proposed that it’s fine to reopen the war for the sake of determining the chief god of Japanese Mythology, but Britain, Italia, and Germany opposed against that. That’s because China showed a stubborn stance of not going to withdraw their soldiers. Britain, Italia, and Germany are regarding China’s true objective as quite dangerous. On the contrary Russia is in a state of affairs that is being tolerant in regards to China.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya Muromets―the girl who introduced herself as {{furigana|Grozny Basileus|Thunder Emperor}} had said her apology about how she visited Yamato first before Japan.<br /> <br /> For some reason it seemed that Russia and China had a close relationship behind the scenes.<br /> <br /> “If war is no good then how should we settle the score…it’s fine to say that we waste most of the time last week talking about this.”<br /> <br /> At that time a waiter appeared in the private room saying “Here is the appetizer”, a lot of cuisines in small amount each were lined up on the table. The waiter stood still for a moment wondering whether he should give the explanation of the cuisines but reading the atmosphere of the place he got out without talking much.<br /> <br /> “This is a rare chance so let’s talk while eating.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata said while being less formal.<br /> <br /> …However, for him to eat high class cuisines just alone with a superior while talking something important like this….<br /> <br /> Kazuki restlessly brought a cold Jinhua ham to his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Britain’s envoy talked that there should be items called &lt;the Three Sacred Treasures&gt; in Japanese Mythology. The one who possess the Three Sacred Treasures is exactly the true King. The symbol of King determined in Mythology…”<br /> <br /> “The Three Sacred Treasures? You mean, the ones that are handed down to the Imperial Family…?”<br /> <br /> The Three Sacred Treasures―&lt;{{furigana|Yata no Kagami|Eight-span Mirror}}&gt;, &lt;{{furigana|Yasakani no Magatama|String of Jewels}}&gt;, and &lt;{{furigana|Kusanagi no Tsurugi|Grass-mowing Sword}}&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Alternate name of Ame-no-Murakumo no Tsurugi&lt;/ref&gt; of the three treasures. Making their appearance in Mythology, they were being handed down until the present times, but it wasn’t known whether those items handed down were really the real thing according to the Mythology.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata shook his head.<br /> <br /> “No, not the sacred object representation that was created in this world imitating the item that is talked in myth…but the authentic Sacred Treasures that possessed the power just like what was talked in myth. In fact, at the time when the King is born into this world it seems that those Sacred Treasures are created in Haunted Ground somewhere. There is a precedent in Britain, they say that when the King was born the holy sword that become his symbol was created in response.”<br /> <br /> The holy sword possessed by the high King of Britain’s Mythology…Kazuki too immediately had the one sword so famous even for him flashed in his memory.<br /> <br /> If by some chance that really existed, then as a swordsman there was nothing he could say except how jealous he was.<br /> <br /> “It’s said that the current King of Britain became recognized as King by pulling out a holy sword that was stabbed into the ground of a certain Haunted Ground. And there is also a similar legend in Japanese Mythology, and so isn’t it fine to decide that who hold those items is the true King. After the English side proposed such, the surrounding countries also consented to that mythological proposal. In short―this is &lt;The Sacred Treasures Search Race&gt;.”<br /> <br /> The Sacred Treasures Search Race!<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s chopsticks that was in the middle of bringing a shark fin to his mouth spontaneously *gashan* made a loud voice.<br /> <br /> “Sacred Treasure is created due to the Haunted Ground’s magic power. In other words there should be three of those things scattered around the Haunted Grounds somewhere in Japan, possibly even inside the Haunted Ground that is going to be born from now on. This is something hard to believe for us, but those guys believed in these items' existences. We have to find those items so that they will recognize us as the legitimate guardian of Japanese Mythology!”<br /> <br /> That was the conclusion of the first international grand conference since the diplomatic relations with other countries were severed…!<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata took a bang bang chicken&lt;ref&gt;Szechuan dish of chicken in a spicy sauce) (chinese: bang bang ji)&lt;/ref&gt; with his chopsticks in a grand way and then he stuffed it all into his mouth in one bite.<br /> <br /> “For our destiny with Yamato to get settled by something like treasure hunting, how unbelievable…”<br /> <br /> As expected from foreign cultures of other countries…a really out of imagination conclusion.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a discomfort. His mood felt like he was made fun of for some reason.<br /> <br /> But surely the big shot politicians above him felt even more ridiculed by this.<br /> <br /> “If in the case that the discovered Sacred Treasures are divided into one side possessing one item while the other side has two items, does the one that found more win?”<br /> <br /> “No, when all three of the Sacred Treasures had been discovered, the fellow Kings that possessed each of the Sacred Treasures they had found will duel and the victor will take all the Sacred Treasures. That’s how this will be decided.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a little relieved. There was a duel right at the end ―if he thought of this like that then this sensation as if this event was a game was fading.<br /> <br /> In the worst case, if he could find even just one then he could stand in the stage of the duel.<br /> <br /> {Uu―un, but with only one it will be harsh then. The side who discovered two will be overwhelmingly advantageous nyo.}<br /> <br /> Suddenly, the avatar of Amaterasu emerged out besides Kazuki.<br /> <br /> It seemed she appeared through the circuit of positivity level between Kazuki and Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> {The Three Sacred Treasures bestow special powers to the King you know. Your power and Ikousai are rivaling each other so the difference from one of the Three Sacred Treasures should become a decisive difference nyo.}<br /> <br /> Amaterasu talked with a tired face as if she was going to fall asleep.<br /> <br /> “Now that I think back didn’t Kamimura-san used Yata no Kagami and Yasakani no Magatama back in Yomotsu Hirasaka using Sacred Treasure creation magic?”<br /> <br /> For the Sacred Treasures that were their search target to be able to get created temporarily using Amaterasu’s Summoning Magic could be thought as somehow strange.<br /> <br /> “That’s the original nyo. From the beginning Yata no Kagami and Yasakani no Magatama were Sacred Treasures where Amaterasu’s power were residing and those items became something special. I can bring forth that fundamental power. It’s just, rather than the power of those originals, the real things that later on gathered faith as the Three Sacred Treasures are ''storing'' even stronger power. It’s better to think of them as different items already nyo.”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 159.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “What’s with that somewhat sticky way of talking, adding [nyo] in the end of your sentence?”<br /> <br /> {Farewell nyo} Leaving those words behind, the little girl Amaterasu vanished.<br /> <br /> “Even strength huh. I was thinking that you are the one who was overwhelmingly stronger though.”<br /> <br /> ‘Uu―mm’ Commander Yamagata groaned. He was happy with his faith at him though.<br /> <br /> “However, isn’t this rule disadvantageous to Japan?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned back to the commander and said what weighed his mind.<br /> <br /> “Searching where are the Three Sacred Treasures located somewhere in the Haunted Grounds…if that’s the rule, doesn’t the vastness of the Haunted Ground in Yamato’s territory far surpass the Haunted Ground in Japan’s territory?”<br /> <br /> Japan’s Knight Order marched out as fast as possible if there were Haunted Ground created and dealt with it quickly before any serious harm could reach the people. They completely dealt with the Haunted Ground before it could spread.<br /> <br /> But the more a Haunted Ground spread out, the magic power inside it increased thickly and it was said with that magic power it was easier for powerful Demon Beast and Sacred Treasure to be born. That meant it was hard for Sacred Treasure to be born in Japan.<br /> <br /> In regards to that, for the current Yamato―as far as Kazuki saw when he infiltrated Ise, even when Haunted Ground was born it was mostly left as it was to enlarge itself rapidly.<br /> <br /> With that kind of situation, surely there were various sizes of Haunted Grounds scattered throughout various places in Yamato.<br /> <br /> East Japan that punctually liberated Haunted Ground until now was always seriously working hard and so there was nothing like a calamitous giant haunted ground remaining here. It was a good thing that the country was safe but there was also no Sacred Treasure here.<br /> <br /> If there was the Three Sacred Treasures created in Haunted Grounds somewhere acting in concert with the confrontation to decide the true King, there was a fairly high chance that it would be created in the territory of Yamato’s side that right now was in chaos…such thinking was only natural.<br /> <br /> Wasn’t that a rule that made fool of the side that did their best.<br /> <br /> “No, you also cannot say that. It’s not the case that Japan’s Knight Order are able to deal with all the Haunted Ground. This side of east Japan is also neglecting a Haunted Ground that we cannot deal with.”<br /> <br /> “Neglected Haunted Ground…? I never heard that kind of story though.”<br /> <br /> If there was that kind of thing, wouldn’t the mass media gave more of a bashing to the government?<br /> <br /> Right there some waiters entered the private room carrying the cuisine. Commander Yamagata’s expression made a high-strung expression for an instant and then he erased his expression. The waiter served a soup that was enough for four people’s share.<br /> <br /> The soup had a clear amber color but it was releasing an amazing rich aroma, a really mystical soup.<br /> <br /> The waiters sensed the atmosphere of the two guests and left from the room wordlessly.<br /> <br /> Actually there was no doubt that this was a soup that had to be tasted while it hadn’t cooled down yet, but…Kazuki and Commander Yamagata continued their talk.<br /> <br /> “…After all this is a story that is not really reported in the news see.”<br /> <br /> “Haunted Ground that is not reported in the news…?”<br /> <br /> “&lt;Fuji’s Sea of Trees&gt;. Against this very first observed Haunted Ground in Japan, {{furigana|the national defense agency at the time|JDF}} couldn't do anything at all and just overlooked its enlargement. Around the time when the Knight Order was established its scale had already become something totally out of hand. Even right now it is still left alone as an evacuation zone with a radius area of 20 kilometer and still continuing to expand―it’s a &lt;Grand Haunted Ground&gt; that people are starting to forget. Just this one Haunted Ground can rival all of the Haunted Grounds in west Japan altogether. ''If in the case that there are the Three Sacred Treasures in east Japan, it will be definitely there.''”<br /> <br /> Grand Haunted Ground….<br /> <br /> Kazuki lost his words from the shock that was as if his world was overturned.<br /> <br /> “The rest is going to be decided in this one week. Now then, from here on is the real issue at hand that I want to tell you but…”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata suddenly put his elbow on top of the table and he leaned his body forward.<br /> <br /> The story until now was something that even the spy should be able to grasp already.<br /> <br /> The real issue. As if his switch was flipped after hearing those words, Kazuki was once more being conscious of the spy’s existence. Was the spy who came to tail or to intercept his communication had already been captured by his comrades?<br /> <br /> Without paying any intention to such turmoil inside Kazuki, Commander Yamagata got into the core of the problem.<br /> <br /> “―A request for a new quest from the Knight Order to the Knight Academy. This is something I decided arbitrarily, the top brass of the Knight Order is still not aware of this.”<br /> <br /> The information from now on should be exactly the information the Yamato camp would be so eager to get that they weren’t going to be able to hold their drool….<br /> <br /> Kazuki paid attention to their surrounding somehow or other. His gaze darted around the surrounding. It was mostly a subconscious action but there was infinitesimal Extra Sense occurring in his gaze.<br /> <br /> That was also the customary practice as the swordsman of Hayashizaki-style who principled themselves in battlefield presence.<br /> <br /> That was why at that time Kazuki noticed.<br /> <br /> “!?”<br /> <br /> The vicinity of this private room was being surrounded by minute magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s countenance changed before he stood from his chair and looked around his vicinity.<br /> <br /> Thin and flat magic power was traveling along the wall, ceiling, and the planks of the floor inside the room, flowing like a blood in capillary vessel.<br /> <br /> When they first entered this room, there shouldn’t be this kind of magic power.<br /> <br /> “Something wrong?”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata asked thinking Kazuki’s behavior as strange.<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t respond to that and began his spell incantation.<br /> <br /> The thinly spreading magic power…he was going to burn them all wholesale!<br /> <br /> “This hand reach out to the height of Babel, right now this hand grasp the thunderbolt of god tightly! In accordance with my life, o lightning, whirl by my will! Collider Field!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte’s weapons creation magic. Kazuki equipped an iron armor that sprung forth barrier of electric current in his right hand.<br /> <br /> When that iron armor was stuck onto the floor, he raised his fist overhead.<br /> <br /> The skill user could consciously control the electric current produced from this iron armor. Avoiding Commander Yamagata who had almost no defensive magic power, and also in order to not send damage outside this private room, it was possible to only flow the electricity to the magic power presence that was surrounding this room.<br /> <br /> That instant, the magic power that surrounded this room reacted oversensitively. The magic power moved *zuzozozozozozo!* and leaped forcefully as if in terror, gathering in one spot at the ceiling.<br /> <br /> At one point in that ceiling, a deep black stain was formed in a blink of eye.<br /> <br /> …It was water! The water that was tinged with magic power was flowing through the wall and the ceiling of this room!!<br /> <br /> From the ceiling, [splash], a single blob of water spilled down to the floor.<br /> <br /> It was not a drop of water dripping down, but a large blob of water that might possibly have the mass of a single human.<br /> <br /> Toward the phenomenon so strange even though it was involved with magic, Kazuki and Commander Yamagata gulped their breath.<br /> <br /> The blob of water that spilled down on the floor was not spreading out and staining the floor, having a fixed elasticity it swelled on top of the floor like a slime.<br /> <br /> That big pile of water―transformed into a human’s shape.<br /> <br /> It was completely like a water human. That shape reflected light while being transparent in glitters, but it was shaped into a face that even Kazuki had remembered seeing before.<br /> <br /> “…Eleonora!!”<br /> <br /> The Einherjar’s, water Magika Stigma!<br /> <br /> The water that made a human shape, in the blink of eye its texture mutated―into the original living flesh of Eleonora in her Magic Dress appearance.<br /> <br /> “…O undulating stormy seas, envelope my hand become the whip that strike the small person without mercy! Flöte Schlange!!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki took the stance of going to hit her with his iron armor, Eleonora too cast an offense magic and directed the water whip to Kazuki while taking an intercepting stance.<br /> <br /> It was the level 1 magic of her contracted Diva but it was still a frightfully fast chanting.<br /> <br /> “Splendid. If electric current is flowed when I’m becoming a thinly spreading water, then I would helplessly fall into magic intoxication. That was really dangerous just now.”<br /> <br /> “Spy of Einherjar…!”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata judged the situation and leaked out a voice of dismay.<br /> <br /> She changed her own body into water and permeated herself into the ceiling, wall, and the floor inside the room.<br /> <br /> Squirming water that possessed a will…a magic unimaginable by their imagination. If it was in a building that used wood which contained a lot of moisture, it was possible for her to creep in anywhere like this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki remembered the happening at Nagoya.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and others were talking regarding the treatment for the Ryouzanpaku fellows inside the command room that had soundproofing applied. There Eleonora appeared late, but the girl showed a behavior as if she had seen through their conversation so far.<br /> <br /> There was no mistake that she also performed espionage like this that time.<br /> <br /> Soundproofing or whatever else was irrelevant, she was permeating into the soundproof material.<br /> <br /> “Were you the spy? So you, were leaking out information to Yamato.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki grilled her with question, Eleonora shook with her eyebrows twitched.<br /> <br /> As if she was doubted of something that didn’t even get close to imagination.<br /> <br /> “…It’s hard to deny if I am asked whether I’m a spy or not, but it’s really vexing that I’m suspected to be related to Yamato. All of my action is done for the sake of Captain Beatrix.”<br /> <br /> “For Beatrix’s sake you say?”<br /> <br /> “It’s dangerous for you and captain to deepen your relation more than this. And so I…am trying to gather information that can become pretext for hostility between Germany and Japan. Not a dangling relationship like now, with a clear hostile relation between our two countries even Beatrix can get over you. If there are some kind of material that can be used to persuade even my country. Even if it’s just something with strained interpretation…”<br /> <br /> Eleonora’s eyes narrowed suddenly, a chill like ice resided inside it.<br /> <br /> “Captain’s spirit as a soldier must not get colored by emotion and become dulled. Rather you should be killed by Captain Beatrix’s hand.”<br /> <br /> The Einherjar was by no means Kazuki and the other’s ally.<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki-kun, what to do?”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata asked Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “…Let’s request for her to withdraw. Peacefully.”<br /> <br /> “Is that fine, doing so?”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata entrusted the decision to Kazuki until the end was surely because he understood that if they stirred up trouble here then he would only dragged Kazuki’s feet.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata didn’t see him as a subordinate or a student. He was regarding him as an equal human. Kazuki was happy of that.<br /> <br /> “The other country surely wouldn’t say any protest even if we defeat her here, but our relationship with Beatrix and her group will break down.”<br /> <br /> Personally it was not like his relationship with Beatrix was particularly a something or other.<br /> <br /> Surely worsening their relation with Germany here was not good.<br /> <br /> “Also I think it’s the truth that this girl has no connection with Yamato.”<br /> <br /> It was just by chance that in the timing while their side was searching for Yamato’s spy that they could also discover her. Rather than saying this was a coincidence, this was an inevitable timing.<br /> <br /> Just now he unconsciously got flustered, but Germany was strongly in precaution against China. It was hard to imagine that the Einherjar would do something like leaking out information to Yamato who was tying relationship with China.<br /> <br /> For Yamato there was no meaning to deliberately employ the Einherjar whose relation with them was internationally complex as a spy even though they already had spies slipping through the government and the academy beforehand.<br /> <br /> “Even if we commence attack from our side against an opponent that is searching of material for hostility with us, that will be just what the opponent wish for. If we have to say which side the anti-China Germany is in, they are a party that is closer to ally of our side.”<br /> <br /> “I’m glad that our side’s intention is transmitted. After all I too want to refrain from getting into something like a one-to-one fight against you in this place.”<br /> <br /> Right there the door of the private room was knocked and “The main dishes”, the waiter came in.<br /> <br /> The waiter turned his gaze to Eleonora and “Oh?” he made a puzzled face.<br /> <br /> “Excuse me but, this honored guest is…”<br /> <br /> “An exhibitionist and an illegal intruder. Please lead her out.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that with a slight vengeful thought, Eleonora said “You, even if you don’t say it that way…”, for the first time her expression was shaken, then she undid her Magic Dress and returned to her Einherjar uniform appearance.<br /> <br /> Eleonora was taken away by the waiter.<br /> <br /> Magnificent main dishes were lined up on top of the table. With Eleonora gone, Kazuki and Commander Yamagata sat back on the chairs.<br /> <br /> “Anyway it’s fine to return to the story right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded. There was no more presence of magic power around them.<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally tried the soup before the main dish. It was thoroughly getting cold.<br /> <br /> “The government had handed down directive to the Knight Order for &lt;Operation Fuji’s Sea of Trees Exploration&gt; and I became the commanding officer of that operation.”<br /> <br /> “That’s…congratulations.”<br /> <br /> “This is not a proper thing for someone of my rank, but this is the form of recognition for my achievement in the battle against Yamato. In other words this is completely thanks to you. Both Kougetsu Kanon and Yagumo Akane are appointed as staff officer, we plan to ask for your assistance in various things.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata faced Kazuki and lowered his head deeply.<br /> <br /> Kazuki became completely flustered and said “All that even without commander-san bowing your head to me…!”<br /> <br /> He was not used to an adult being this modest.<br /> <br /> He also felt a confusion when Headmaster Amasaki gave his recognition to him but―in the society there were also adults that could face a kid straightforwardly without paying any heed to age or social position.<br /> <br /> “Now then, from now on is the main topic, but…for the sake of this operation, I don’t plan to move the Knight Order until the very last minute.”<br /> <br /> “Ha?”<br /> <br /> Hearing that declaration that could be taken as a dereliction of duty, Kazuki opened his eyes wide.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to take my time preparing, straining my excuse even if my superior keep pestering me, making difficulties, to the end I won’t let the knights enter the sea of trees of Fuji without exception. And then, I’m going to make a request for Quest to all of you of the Knight Academies to explore the Fuji’s Sea of Trees, that’s what I’m thinking.”<br /> <br /> He really said something outrageous here….<br /> <br /> While Kazuki reached out his hand to a Peking duck, he felt a painful nervousness as if a pitch black tar was poured into his stomach.<br /> <br /> “This Grand Haunted Ground that is left alone until this much because it is unmanageable even for the Knight Order, you are going to leave it all to be taken care of by the students?”<br /> <br /> “The main reason that it became unmanageable and is being left alone is because the Knight Order is too busy and there is not enough manpower to be allocated there. It’s not a problem of strength. I think if it’s the Knight Academy that you lead then this is in the level that you can sufficiently deal with. I have no doubt here that the Knight Academy in the generation of you all is the strongest in history you know.”<br /> <br /> “Even if you said that kind of thing to the person that just entered the academy three months ago.”<br /> <br /> “I don’t want to let Yamato’s spy get their hand on Fuji’s Sea of Trees. The people I can trust in the Knight Order is too few. Of course I know that it seems there is also a spy that had slipped into the Knight Academy. But even so there is also a simplicity in the command system of the Knight Academy. If it’s you then you should be able to control how to deal with the spy.”<br /> <br /> Certainly, that was able to be done in Magic War Okehasama and Sekigahara.<br /> <br /> “And also you have started to move your spy countermeasure right? I’m waiting in expectation for your result here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally brought the Peking duck wrapped in batter into his mouth.<br /> <br /> It was delicious but, he became unable to feel its enjoyment.<br /> <br /> As the repayment of this meal, an outrageous work was going to be pushed onto him.<br /> <br /> However…there was also the feeling of a small fire being lit inside his heart from being completely relied on like this by the person in front of his eyes.<br /> <br /> ‘…Is that so.’ Kazuki noticed for the first time.<br /> <br /> He might be sulking right now.<br /> <br /> When he thought about how he was harshly worked about in the war, and then when it became a ceasefire he was kept out of the loop, and on top of all that he was mocked by the [King] of the other countries of how he was so out of loop….<br /> <br /> “I will make my former knight subordinates that I can trust take the position as the guards that protect the gate of Fuji’s Sea of Trees. There should be no possibility for the old generation of knights to be polluted by the spy compared to the active duty generation.”<br /> <br /> China first sent in their spy to the center of the government and making use of their authority they were sending spies for generations to the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> If the sequence of the spies’ infiltration was like this, then the more they traced back the generation the degree of the contamination should be lower.<br /> <br /> “I instructed them to absolutely not let any knight enter. During that time I ask all of you to complete the capture of the Haunted Ground. I’ll leave things like capturing squad composition and whatever else to you. Fuji’s Sea of Trees is vast but making the best use of your ability, it should be effective if you divided your team into several units.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s ability―he could sense the general location of the girls who had deepened their bond with him and have a telepathic communication that transcended distance with girls who had positivity level more than 150.<br /> <br /> “Fuji’s Sea of Trees is…all kind of electromagnetic wave and GPS are obstructed due to the magic power distortion, compass too goes crazy there. Even if there is no spy accompanying you, I think your leadership is suitable for traversing this Haunted Ground on foot.”<br /> <br /> There was some truth there.<br /> <br /> However…this unknown Grand Haunted Ground might be even more dangerous than a war with human as the opponent.<br /> <br /> There was almost no life lost in war because of the blessing of defensive magic power, even in the worst case they would become a prisoner of war.<br /> <br /> However they couldn’t hope for that kind of mercy and allowance from the Demon Beast that became their opponent in the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Surely it would be best to gather the elites as the member for participating in this quest. Even if they were divided into several units, at the very least there must be one person added among each team that was a girl that had tied a bond with Kazuki. Like that he wanted to constantly be able to grasp their movements. <br /> <br /> The students who didn’t get to participate in the war against Yamato were wrapped in passion of [I too am going at the next battle for sure!]. If right now he was taking applications from students for participation in the Quest this time, perhaps there would be too many candidates.<br /> <br /> Surely it would be necessary to make the participation conditions of the candidates’ rank and Quest’s practical experience even stricter compared with the battle against Yamato.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki collected his thoughts on that and conveyed it to Commander Yamagata, he nodded with a hum “Right”.<br /> <br /> “I want you to select the members as careful as possible. It might be strange for me to say this seeing that I’m the one who burdened all these to the students, but the public opinion will be severe if there are victims that come out from this.”<br /> <br /> Escaping from responsibility…rather than calling it that it seems that he was aware himself that he relied too much on the students.<br /> <br /> “Selecting the members carefully should also double as obstruction for the spy to slip inside. I especially want you to be cautious of the Sword Division students.”<br /> <br /> “…You too are suspecting the Sword Division?”<br /> <br /> “That’s just a logical thinking. Enrolling into the Sword Division is easier compared to enrolling into the Magic Division. I think if they are sending a spy then they are going to send them to the Sword Division.”<br /> <br /> “That’s so but as a spy the return of the earned information will be far bigger in the Magic Division right? Even though the hurdle to enroll into the Magic Division is high, but if they figured out a child with high magic talent beforehand and raised her as a spy…that child will surely get bestowed with Stigma.”<br /> <br /> Fundamentally, Solomon 72 Pillar was choosing their contractor from the quantity of magic power.<br /> <br /> Which Diva was choosing which student seemed to be determined from the match of both sides' personality wavelength.<br /> <br /> He especially felt it when he was looking at Koyuki and Vepar.<br /> <br /> “That’s…certainly that’s so but…you are right, insert one comrade you can really trust into each unit without exception and don’t slack off on your surveillance even to the students of the Magic Division.”<br /> <br /> The door was knocked and the waiter came carrying the desert of Chinese dim sum.<br /> <br /> During that time, Kazuki and Commander Yamagata held their tongues and reopen their conversation once the waiter was gone.<br /> <br /> “It’s better if we move out as fast as possible isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that, Commander Yamagata nodded while moving a mango pudding with a spoon into his mouth.<br /> <br /> The instant he stuffed his cheek with the pudding, that expression of his broke out into a smile like a kid.<br /> <br /> “Yeah, after all the slower the capturing goes, the pressure on me to move the Knight Order is going to be troublesome.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When he exited the Chinese cuisine restaurant with Commander Yamagata, Kazuha-senpai and Kanae was waiting for him in front of the entrance.<br /> <br /> The special unit of the Sword Division was not around them. In exchange….<br /> <br /> “Seems like the talk is over isn’t it, Nii-sama.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki responded with a nod, he asked with knitted eyebrows.<br /> <br /> “…This girl is?”<br /> <br /> Kanae was seizing the scruff of the neck of a dark skinned girl that was extolled with wild beauty.<br /> <br /> “…Roshoukou of Ryouzanpaku was tailing Nii-sama, so I caught her.”<br /> <br /> Shoukou-san went “Tahaha” with an embarrassed wry smile in her expression. She was wearing a T-shirt and jeans that were often worn by ordinary girl of Japan, a rough outfit that seemed to be procured from somewhere.<br /> <br /> “Commander Yamagata, was there no treatment like restraints or monitoring done to her?”<br /> <br /> “Of course this girl was given to the custody of the Knight Order.”<br /> <br /> “Of course I went a little wild and escaped ze! What’s called picaresque hated any shackle! You guys didn’t teach me for even a bit about the conference’s content, so that make me think to investigate it myself see. Then I wondered if I’m gonna learn something if I hang around you.”<br /> <br /> Shoukou-san directed her eyes to Kazuki in a glance. This person too was loitering around Kazuki. …Of course there was no way that this girl was a spy from Yamato.<br /> <br /> “Went wild you say…? You mean there was some kind of damage that came out?”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata became slightly flustered.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t really do anything big okay, Commander-san. I took care not to use Summoning Magic in the middle of city so that’s why I got caught like this. No but, this person is strong! A big shot huh.”<br /> <br /> Shoukou-san answered Commander Yamagata with a slightly respectful tone.<br /> <br /> “For the moment, I know my position. &lt;ref&gt;Shoukou here keep changing her way of talking. Before this she talked slightly roughly like a ruffian, but in this sentence she is using a polite language.&lt;/ref&gt;However we resented the treatment you give us. If the conference was over already, there is nothing wrong with letting us know how the situation had developed isn’t it? I was showing a light rampage as the expression of my discontent.”<br /> <br /> She was by no means a thoughtless person. Her action mixed intelligence and wildness and also combined with haggling. Shoukou-san bared her eyes to Commander Yamagata glaringly and made him faltered.<br /> <br /> “Got it, I’m going to inform you the circumstances. For now we are going back to the garrison first.”<br /> <br /> “If you talk to us upfront like that, our bunch too is not gonna do anything violent yeah.&lt;ref&gt;Now she is back to talk roughly again.&lt;/ref&gt;”<br /> <br /> “…Kanae-kun, release her.”<br /> <br /> When Commander Yamagata said so, Kanae released her hand from Shoukou-san’s scruff of the neck in a flash.<br /> <br /> With a smiling face in a good mood, Shouko-san snuggled close with a ‘pyon’ besides Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “How ‘bout we go back cordially while holding hands too?”<br /> <br /> “Lay it off, we look like parent and child so I might get reported.”<br /> <br /> After the commander replied wearily to Shouko-san’s frivolous talk, Shouko-san leaked out a voice of vulgar chuckle “Hihhihhi”. Kazuki looked back to Kanae’s direction.<br /> <br /> “…So there was no other spy?”<br /> <br /> Was there no other spy with the exception of Eleonora and Shouko-san. Kanae nodded deeply toward Kazuki’s question.<br /> <br /> In the side Kazuha-senpai too tilted her head while knitting her eyebrows.<br /> <br /> “…If there was a suspicious guy then we shouldn’t miss them I think but as you see―. We are convinced though that we have already stretched our surveillance without any gap.”<br /> <br /> “Maybe the spy noticed the surveillance in return and so they stopped taking action in the open instead.”<br /> <br /> “Hm―mm, we have already trained intensively in covert action though. Well, even with our footsteps erased it’s not like our figure also got erased so I cannot guarantee that absolutely.”<br /> <br /> So this meant that the crucial spy itself didn’t fall into the trap.<br /> <br /> But from now on the exploration of Fuji’s Sea of Trees would begin with the Knight Academy becoming its spearhead.<br /> <br /> Surely it would be best to continue the security around him from now on too.<br /> <br /> “If the spy is caught, hand him over to the Knight Order.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata who was dragging back Shoukou-san turned around their way.<br /> <br /> “There is Telepathy interrogation group in the Knight Order. If it’s them then they will surely be able to drag out the information using interrogation and Telepathy and then haul out all the spies like pulling out sweet potato&lt;ref&gt;Japanese idiom. The vine of sweet potato is so like a chain that you only need to pull one root and you can uproot many sweet potatoes in succession.&lt;/ref&gt;. It’s important to catch even just one no matter who. With just a single action of you all, it might be possible to eradicate all the spies.”<br /> <br /> Interrogation and Telepathy was it…. Kazuki nodded while feeling a shuddering thing inside him.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> When Kazuki came home to the Witch’s Mansion, a strange voice could be heard.<br /> <br /> It was from the kitchen’s direction. Thinking it strange, he carried his feet there and,<br /> <br /> “Pour the boiling water vigorously! From that, convection will happen inside the pot and stir the tea leaves!”<br /> <br /> “Yes, I understand!”<br /> <br /> “Besides, what’s with this tea leaves? Even though it can’t be helped because this is Japan’s domestic product, won’t the aroma of old tea leaves become worse instead.”<br /> <br /> “But fermented tea leaves can keep for a long time righ…”<br /> <br /> “No! That is so but no! Black tea is easy to absorb aroma and very delicate. If you want to preserve the fresh aroma for a long time, please use a sealed container instead of this careless container.”<br /> <br /> “Yes, I understand!”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuki who peeked into the kitchen received a shock.<br /> <br /> There was an unthinkable person inside the familiar kitchen of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> First was Hikaru-senpai. And then at her side was&amp;mdash;a gentleman wearing a glen check suits was standing by her side, the two of them were brewing black tea.<br /> <br /> “…Britain’s King!”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s leaked out voice, that person turned back to the direction of the doorway.<br /> <br /> “…So it’s you. I should have introduced myself already to you right, Arthur Basileus at your service. Good evening, Hayashizaki Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “I was surprised that black tea culture was still surviving in Japan but, it seems that the way to brew black tea had become completely sloppy here. However, I wonder if I’m saying that a little too harsh to a lady.”<br /> <br /> Three portions of black tea were prepared in the living room. Kazuki, Hikaru, and Arthur sat down surrounding the table.<br /> <br /> Arthur brought the teacup to his mouth while still a little dissatisfied with its aroma.<br /> <br /> “No, no. With this I can brew tastier black tea than Kazuki or Akane-senpai see. Thank you!”<br /> <br /> Toward Hikaru-senpai who had a friendly grin on her face, Arthur too “Fuh” showed a smile.<br /> <br /> “It seems you are an owner of a wonderful disposition. Looking at that smile without any cloudiness also warms this feeling of mine. The next time I visit here I will bring a lot of true English tea as a present.”<br /> <br /> Arthur held the hand of Hikaru-senpai who sat beside him tightly and whispered to her ear.<br /> <br /> “So, what did you come here for?”<br /> <br /> “Oops, my bad. I became a little too familiar with her in front of your eyes. I have no ulterior motive so I beg your pardon.”<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t mind it though.”<br /> <br /> “Oh? A lady this lovely, you don’t mind even if you see another man trying to get friendly with her? Something like that just will not do you know, you have to treat her more importantly.”<br /> <br /> No, why in the world would someone like the King of Britain show his figure in this kind of place, at any rate his head was already full with that question.<br /> <br /> It was only that this was not the situation to say about such trivial matter.<br /> <br /> No, it was not like he didn’t think of Hikaru-senpai importantly though….<br /> <br /> “Eh, is Kazuki feeling jealous? Hehehe, how troubling―! Then should I get friendlier with this person I wonder―!!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai held back Arthur’s hand with an unguarded smiling face.<br /> <br /> “Seee― Kazuki, seee―” She made merry with Arthur’s hand provocatively while smiling.<br /> <br /> This was trivial, he thought that but…! Besides senpai, even though you were supposed to be bad with a man why did…!<br /> <br /> “I, i-i-i-it doesn’t really matter what trivial thing senpai is going to do with another man, I’m going to believe in my bond with senpai after all!”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 178.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, you are shaking! Yaa―i yaa―i. How happy! But it’s okay you know, this person, is a girl you see.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?” Kazuki spontaneously opened his eyes wide.<br /> <br /> Arthur too, after he stared blankly for a moment, “…What are you talking about?” he separated his hand from Hikaru-senpai timidly. That manner of his hand was obviously agitated.<br /> <br /> “Saying things like I’m faking my gender, on what basis are you saying that young lady?”<br /> <br /> “Uu―nn, from the sixth sense of a fellow similar person I wonder?”<br /> <br /> “To be called as a liar because of such groundless reason like that just won’t fly for me. If you are not such a lovely lady, this is something that cannot be settled by anything other than throwing a handkerchief of duel challenge.”<br /> <br /> “For me, as long as Kazuki is not bothered by it, then whichever is fine though♪”<br /> <br /> Arthur averted his eyes from Hikaru-senpai as if running away and he looked back at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “By the way, Mister Hayashizaki asked me what I’m doing coming here didn’t you? Certainly I did not come here for reasons like giving lecture of black tea nor for the sake of meeting a lovely lady.”<br /> <br /> “You are bluntly averting the topic aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> “I’m not particularly averting any topic. I came here to advise you.”<br /> <br /> “Advise?”<br /> <br /> Arthur loosened down his expression a little from this change of topic.<br /> <br /> “I am mostly freely allowed to do whatever I want by this country. …Speaking as an envoy it leaves me with a good impression but, it also makes me think if all of you are not acting a little too unconcerned here despite how right now, the military force of other countries is entering your country.”<br /> <br /> Military force. Thinking it normally they were too exaggerated words.<br /> <br /> But right now, there was most likely no doubt that it was not an exaggeration or anything for just this one person in front of him to be called as [military force]. Because he was a King that had reached completion….<br /> <br /> “What do you think the minimum military force who has slipped into a hostile nation will aim for the foremost?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki knitted his eyebrows hearing that sudden question.<br /> <br /> Even before Kazuki could answer, Arthur continued his words.<br /> <br /> “I’ll say it right to the point. Please pay attention to assassination attempt. The people who introduced themselves as envoys and entered this country, don’t just believe with stupid honesty that they are really a peaceful envoy.”<br /> <br /> If. If right now in this place this King of Britain went on a rampage.<br /> <br /> …Could he protect himself and Hikaru-senpai, he wonders.<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously put back the teacup that he had moved to his lips onto the table.<br /> <br /> “You don’t need to worry regarding me. Please try that black tea before it cools down. I will absolutely not do any behavior that run counter to chivalry. I too am holding a favorable impression of you. If there is someone that is going to make a move…for example Russia. Saying it clearly, that country is closer to Yamato’s…or rather China’s standpoint.”<br /> <br /> About that, Kazuki too had suspected it and nodded his head without any shock. Arthur was “Hou” and narrowed her eyes.<br /> <br /> “The King of that country too came to this country herself as the envoy. …Ilyailiya Murometz. She was calm and cool and someone of prompt decision. She had no hesitation in what she was going to do and when her surrounding thought [dangerous] she had already finished her action. She was that kind of human.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki had already encountered her in the sky above the Isonokami Shrine.<br /> <br /> At that time Kazuki didn’t feel any personal danger from her.<br /> <br /> But at that time she surely didn’t know yet that Kazuki was a King.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, her performance of banishing Son Shouryuu from the battlefield was exactly something terrific.<br /> <br /> “And then one more person you should be careful with is Queen Regina of Italia. Her action’s foundational principle is really simple. I am pleased with you but at that time she had already evaluated you as a worthless human. If at that place I was not together with her, I’m sure that she would immediately cut you down right there.”<br /> <br /> “…Unbelievable.”<br /> <br /> “You really think so? She is thinking that humans who don’t receive the [blessing of Olympia] are all trash. You don’t know what a dangerous thing it is to be thought as [trivial] by her. …Unfortunately, Queen Regina doesn’t happen to have any sensitiveness to look forward of what will come out from the immature flower bud.”<br /> <br /> Immature flower bud. He didn’t even need to ask, those words were pointing to Kazuki’s matter.<br /> <br /> He was still an immature King. This was a truth that was impossible to not recognize.<br /> <br /> This gentleman was looking down on him.<br /> <br /> Competitive spirit flared up inside Kazuki’s chest fleetingly, unconsciously strength filled his eyes.<br /> <br /> Receiving Kazuki’s gaze, Arthur smiled friendly.<br /> <br /> “You don’t get timid no matter what is said to you, that’s a good eye. It makes me harbor a premonition that a magnificent petal will bloom from you. No matter what kind of King it is, there are no humans with average force of will that are chosen for that position, that’s why there is nothing more foolish than not waiting for the blooming. The one who contested the seat of King with you, Yamato’s…Aisu Ikousai too is an interesting character isn’t she?”<br /> <br /> It seemed Arthur had met with Aisu Ikousai too. It was only natural thinking about it. The envoys of the Magic Advanced Countries visited both side of Japan and Yamato and they were expected to listen to what each of them had to say after all.<br /> <br /> However Aisu Ikousai and this King Arthur…for some reason he couldn’t imagine how their conversation went.<br /> <br /> “In the first place Queen Regina is aware that you are not recognized as [King] by the government of this country. That’s why she is thinking that it’s going to be trivial even if she eliminated you with some coerciveness. How deplorable it is I wonder, all of you who are not in a mythology country but still in a democratic country cannot understand the importance of King. I had practically met with the big shots in the conference but my impression is that even if you got killed by Queen Regina, they ''will surely not get particularly bothered by it''.”<br /> <br /> Arthur said [still]. As if democracy was a politic ideology that was even more backward compared to mythology doctrine or religious doctrine. Inside these guys, their thoughts about all these doctrine was completely reversed.<br /> <br /> However his criticism regarding Japan’s government was most likely something accurate.<br /> <br /> “Anyway, please be careful. You too is going to challenge &lt;Fuji’s Sea of Trees&gt; right? I too seized in my hand only one Sacred Treasure in a certain Haunted Ground, and became someone who is recognized as a King. But…what is called Haunted Ground is also the most suitable location for assassination to take place.”<br /> <br /> Location that was also the most suitable for assassination―he recalled about the time when he met Lotte.<br /> <br /> She too was about to get killed in a location of Haunted Ground with an assault that was going to get dressed as an accident.<br /> <br /> “That’s all the matter I want to convey to you. I wish to challenge you in a duel at the appropriate place after all.”<br /> <br /> Arthur stood up. Kazuki and Hikaru-senpai too stood up and saw off Arthur until the entranceway.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai raised her voice with “See- you, Arthur-chan!” <br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t have any intention to become that overly familiar in his contact with Arthur until that far but,<br /> <br /> “Thank you for telling me so many various things.” He said his thanks.<br /> <br /> “My pleasure.”<br /> <br /> Leaving those words behind, Arthur took his leave while his stick rang out *katsun katsun* with each of his step.<br /> <br /> “Ka―zuki-! Sorry for teasing you okay.”<br /> <br /> The moment Arthur was gone from there, Hikaru-senpai leaped at him right from the side.<br /> <br /> Even while being unsteady from her momentum, he answered “It doesn’t bother me, senpai.”<br /> <br /> “I’m not going to be a girl except in front of Kazuki. …I can be a girl right?”<br /> <br /> She talked while clinging and dangling from Kazuki’s neck with her both legs kicking around.<br /> <br /> A girl was it? Senpai looked like a stupidly innocent kid though.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> The evening of that day, Kazuki gathered everyone inside the student council room of the Magic Division.<br /> <br /> Kazuki, Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Mio, Koyuki, Lotte, Karin, Kamimura-san, everyone of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> Kanae, Kohaku, Torazou-san, Kazuha-senpai, the lineup of the Sword Division.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san who proactively assisted the Student Council too as the newspaper committed chairman.<br /> <br /> And then Headmaster Amasaki and Liz Liza-sensei.<br /> <br /> Kazuki reported exactly what he learned from his talk with Commander Yamagata toward all these faces he were acquainted with.<br /> <br /> And then also about how they couldn’t discover the spy.<br /> <br /> “…We are really going to decide something this important with that something like this treasure hunting game…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai leaked out a dumbfounded voice. As expected it seemed she was bothered by that aspect.<br /> <br /> “Even if we decided the victor using this way, the loser side is never going to accept it and they will surely just restart the war once more won’t they?”<br /> <br /> Kanae said with a severe tone. However what she said that there will be no meaning in doing this because of that was by no means true.<br /> <br /> “Even if the loser restarts the war and forcefully wins, it will only become something that won’t be acknowledged by the other Magic Advanced Countries. As a country it will become a considerably thorny path to follow.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki pointed that out, Kanae said “I see, as expected from Nii-sama” and nodded.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t this better, instead of an annihilation battle where we don’t know when it’s going to end and we have to continue fighting endlessly until we cornered the enemy to the edge of west Japan. If it’s Kazu-nii then he will absolutely win in the end.”<br /> <br /> Mio was optimistically believing in Kazuki. However.<br /> <br /> “In Amaterasu’s analysis, she said that the side which obtained two or more out of the Three Sacred Treasures will be victorious in the last duel. I too am in the same opinion with her.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai was strong.<br /> <br /> Moreover in something like a duel that betted the life or death of a country…was an unimaginable situation for Kazuki who had lived in a democratic country until now. Sure enough whether he could cross swords in such a duel with a normal mentality or not, just imagining it made him break in a cold sweat.<br /> <br /> King―As expected what became the problem was this wondering, whether he was someone appropriate or not as a King.<br /> <br /> They absolutely mustn’t lose in this Race of the Three Sacred Treasures Hunt.<br /> <br /> “Even if we are calling it a hunting race, it’s the end already for each side if the Sacred Treasures are not born in the Haunted Ground inside their territory right? Isn’t this a game of luck depending on the mood of the Haunted Ground?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai tilted her head. However Kazuki immediately denied that.<br /> <br /> “No, I think when push come to shove, the other side will unconcernedly come invading our territory.”<br /> <br /> If there were no Sacred Treasure in their own territory, it was fine to just invade the other side’s territory.<br /> <br /> “The Knight Order should also have already thought that far. …But when it becomes a scramble without heeding any rule, the spy’s existence will become even more of a hindrance.”<br /> <br /> They had to resolve the spy problem before the situation changed into a bogged down battle.<br /> <br /> …But the operation to lure out the spy in the open had ended in failure.<br /> <br /> That was a big problem.<br /> <br /> “If the spy really existed then this should be a bait that they shouldn’t be able to ignore right?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too leaked out a bewildered voice. Even right now when he was telling the story to everyone like this, their surrounding was being guarded by the Sword Division’s students that had received training.<br /> <br /> “Is there any chance that the spy actually doesn’t exist?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai smiled negligently.<br /> <br /> No, the spy supposedly existed. Like the students who had connection to the former Board Chairman Takasugi.<br /> <br /> Why didn’t the spy come to take the bait…?<br /> <br /> ―''Did the spy obtain the information into his hand from a position where he didn’t even need to do something like tailing Kazuki to a meeting in a closed room outside the school''?”<br /> <br /> The information that Kazuki obtained was brought back like this to the Student Council room.<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively looked around everyone, his comrades that were gathering inside this Student Council room.<br /> <br /> But Lotte didn’t say anything at all.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had already talked about all the matters regarding the exploration of Fuji’s Sea of Trees.<br /> <br /> “Let’s think about how we are going to investigate the Grand Haunted Ground by dividing ourselves into several units. If one member of the Witch’s Mansion is inserted into each group, then I will be able to sense the location of each unit using Leme’s power. If we do that then the safety should increase by a fair amount.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki explained about Leme’s power of positivity level map. Kazuki could visualize the location of all his comrades that had high positivity level from his own location using magic power vision.<br /> <br /> “That’s, for example when I’m in the toilet, that fact will be leaked out to Kazuki then?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai asked while smiling wryly.<br /> <br /> “No…for some reason, someone with a high positivity level to me will give out a strong reaction, but if they don’t want to meet me even unconsciously, like when you want to be alone, then it seems there will be no reaction at all in the map. According to Leme, this is a consideration or something for people’s privacy.”<br /> <br /> “In other words this ability conveys the person’s feeling of wanting to meet Kazuki exactly like that!”<br /> <br /> Mio said that happily. Well, it was something like that.<br /> <br /> The higher the positivity level of the other side, the clearer he would be able to sense the whereabouts of the person from the strong reaction.<br /> <br /> Kanae and Kohaku raised their voice calling out “Not fair, not fair!”<br /> <br /> Even if they called it unfair, it just made him troubled.<br /> <br /> “That means president also understands my location?”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san began to talk timidly.<br /> <br /> “No, I mostly don’t understand Yumeno-san’s location. The positivity level is insufficient after all.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, no, I, I don’t hate Chief President at all though!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki smiled wryly to the flustered Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> “But you don’t like me as much as Mio right?”<br /> <br /> “Eh, ah, yes.” When Yumeno-san took a glance, she frankly understood after seeing Mio who was staring at Kazuki with red cheeks.<br /> <br /> “Somehow…Chief President’s harem is really amazing. Do I also have to like Hayashizaki-san more too I wonder…”<br /> <br /> “No, you don’t need to do such thing at all though. Sorry if this makes you feel hard to be here.”<br /> <br /> This newspaper committee chairman girl was also taking the initiative to undertake the practical works like taking the records of the meeting’s proceeding for them. He only knew her for a short time, but Kazuki harbored a strong trust and gratitude to her.<br /> <br /> “Don’t mind it at all! I am just as you see, an unreliable human so that’s why…being needed by someone where I can do my best makes me happy! I will work even harder to be more and more useful!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san said that with a bright smiling face that contained no two-faced at all that he could see in it.<br /> <br /> While feeling warmth spreading in his chest, Kazuki nodded back saying “Thank you.”<br /> <br /> That’s right, there shouldn’t be any ulterior motive and the like at all behind this smiling face, that’s what he thought….<br /> <br /> “Doing that the number of the investigation team will be limited then. The number of Magika Stigma that had tied a bond enough with Otouto-kun is, perhaps around six people…?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai asked for confirmation from Kazuki. Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Mio, Koyuki, Lotte, Kazuha-senpai, there were six people. That meant adding Kazuki himself into that number they could only make seven teams at most.<br /> <br /> “For the quest this time, there will be quite a large number of students that will enter their name as candidates but, selecting the few elites among them is the better way isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai said that while tapping her hand on her chin. Kazuki also had similar thought with her.<br /> <br /> “Let’s open an extraordinary student general meeting tomorrow and announce the quest this time to the students.”<br /> <br /> They had to hurry about this matter. Gathering everyone at the evening of the same day where he met Commander Yamagata at the afternoon was for the sake of that.<br /> <br /> Conducting the selection of the students that wished to participate and after finishing with that they could finally begin the exploration.<br /> <br /> “During the period of preparation, what do you think of sending us, the members of the Student Council as the &lt;advance troops unit&gt; into the Grand Haunted Ground to look around? If we gathered preliminary information before the main event then the safety of this quest will rise.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai suggested. That was certainly a good thinking, Kazuki also thought so.<br /> <br /> During the time it would take to organize the units’ composition, Kazuki and the others of the Student Council should continue to move.<br /> <br /> “Then let’s divide the advance troops unit into two. I want to divide us into my team, and then Mio’s team.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki taught to everyone that with Lemegeton’s ability he could communicate telepathically with a partner whose positivity level had gone higher past a certain value. Because Kazuki and Mio could always converse with each other, it was for the best for the two of them to be in a different team.<br /> <br /> Everyone made uproar once more.<br /> <br /> “Wait a second, the only one that ability can be used on is just Mio-chan!?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai raised a flustered voice.<br /> <br /> “Fuu―n, Kazuki, I really want you to disclose the positivity level number openly to everyone for one time so we can see.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai talked in the way as if she thought this as interesting, but there was not even a speck of laugh in her eyes.<br /> <br /> Koyuki too said “Rather than something like losing in positivity level from Kazuki himself, this is more vexing in a certain meaning…” while looking down, while Mio said “Fuffuu―n! I’m the number one that’s the most madly in love!!” in a strange pride.<br /> <br /> “All of you, it’s just a slight difference desu. Because I too am supposed to love Kazuki-oniisan very much myself desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte said that in order to smooth out the place’s atmosphere.<br /> <br /> Amasaki Mio―152 Hiakari Koyuki―141 Lotte―138<br /> <br /> Otonashi Kaguya―140 Hoshikaze Hikaru―128 Tsukahara Kazuha―120<br /> <br /> Katsura Karin―50 Kamimura Itsuki―35 Yumeno Shiori―33<br /> <br /> Certainly it was just like what Lotte said, it was just a slight difference.<br /> <br /> But converting the feeling of a person into numbers was…once again, it was something a little scary.<br /> <br /> If he didn’t continue to face everyone sincerely, then surely a stigma as a coward would immediately get stamped on him.<br /> <br /> “For the member assignment in the advance troop teams, to avoid mayhem I am thinking of deciding it by talking with just me and Kaguya-senpai.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki said that because he had an idea. Everyone was “Certainly that way seems to be better” and obediently agreed, and then the discussion of that day was over.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan.”<br /> <br /> While all present were going out of the Student Council room, Lotte walked approaching near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> When Lotte drew near Kazuki, she suddenly hugged him tightly.<br /> <br /> Everyone else was going out ahead, only the two of them were left behind by themselves in the Student Council room.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan…it’s painful to doubt your companion isn’t it desu?”<br /> <br /> Lotte guessed right with a few words about what Kazuki was worrying about inside his mind.<br /> <br /> That’s right. That was why Kazuki didn’t decide the most important thing in that gathering.<br /> <br /> A position where the spy didn’t even brave any danger like tailing him and yet he could still obtain information….<br /> <br /> “Lotte…is there no one that spouted any lies among those members?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked with a whispering voice. Even just expressing that doubt in his voice felt repulsive.<br /> <br /> “A person whose heart was stirring as if they were lying, there was not one among them that was like that desu.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki despaired.<br /> <br /> He despaired of himself who thought that it was disappointing that the spy was not among them.<br /> <br /> If there was no one that said any lie, that meant that this paranoia of his was something mistaken.<br /> <br /> There was no such thing like a betrayer among those members from before. That was something he should be happy about.<br /> <br /> In the first place―Kazuki was able to sense someone’s positivity level. Kazuki’s ability too was showing him that there was no person who spouted lies in that gathering.<br /> <br /> “No, Kazuki-oniisan’s thinking is not mistaken.”<br /> <br /> However, Lotte said that decisively.<br /> <br /> “Let’s press forward with that thinking just a little bit more. We are nearing the correct answer, the spy should be cornered to the wall right now desu. …''Let’s cut off the information even narrower''.”<br /> <br /> Lotte faced Kazuki with an earnest gaze.<br /> <br /> Even narrower―It was obvious what was the meaning of those words.<br /> <br /> There might be a spy among his companions.<br /> <br /> But even if he said his companions, the candidate was essentially only one.<br /> <br /> With an unpleasant feeling, Kazuki nodded.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> The next morning, an extraordinary student general meeting was conducted and the quest was announced grandly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the other of the Student Council commenced the reception desk for the students who wished to participate.<br /> <br /> Past the afternoon, the list of the great number of applicant was finished. From here on they had to look on each candidate’s magic technique’s grades and quest accomplishments to select the members.<br /> <br /> “I will investigate the applicants one by one and interview them!”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san said that with an enthusiastic face.<br /> <br /> “If there is a spy, there is a high chance that they will apply for participation in this for the sake of entering Fuji’s Sea of Trees! If I interviewed them then I might be able to discover someone suspicious!”<br /> <br /> With eyes burning from journalism and expression that didn’t want to entertain doubt, Yumeno-san suggested that to Kazuki. Kazuki gave his permission for interviewing the applicants.<br /> <br /> The interview of the prominent applicants could also become good article in the school newspaper.<br /> <br /> ―From that day, Yumeno-san investigated and gathered information on several tens of students every day for him.<br /> <br /> But among that information, there was no suspicious person that could give them an inkling of the spy’s identity. Students who could be said as roughly innocent kept increasing in number day by day.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> During that time, Kazuki talked over the member selection for the advance troop unit and the schedule together just with Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> Actually Kazuki wanted to talk all of this over and decide with everyone of the Student Council.<br /> <br /> However following Lotte’s proposal―cutting off and narrow the information―the important matters were decided just between Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai in succession. Even the information for the team composition and the time they were going to carry out the activity was withheld until the very last minute, that even Headmaster Amasaki and of course Mio and the others too didn’t get told.<br /> <br /> “Thinking of the balance, I shouldn’t be in Otouto-kun’s team but in Mio-chan’s team.”<br /> <br /> In the Student Council room that had been cleared out of other people, Kazuki was facing Kaguya-senpai from across the table.<br /> <br /> Regarding the composition of the advance troop unit, Kaguya-senpai said that regretfully while her shoulders dropped.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was an existence that was in the strongest class at the academy. And then Kazuki too was ranking equal with that, so dividing both of them into different teams was the best way. Kazuki nodded saying “Please do that.”<br /> <br /> “Then please assign Kamimura-san to Kaguya-senpai’s team.”<br /> <br /> “Why? Won’t it give her relief if she is together with Otouto-kun?”<br /> <br /> “She is specializing in defensive magic. She should be able to cover for Kaguya-senpai’s weak point.”<br /> <br /> Based on what he had seen until now, Amaterasu’s power could exhibit its true value exactly when it was protecting her comrade.<br /> <br /> On the other hand Kaguya-senpai’s Asmodeus had almost no defensive magic. Because of that Kaguya-senpai had to always protect her own body with Resist technique.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too had the advantage in protecting his comrades with various defensive magic. That was why putting Kazuki and Kamimura-san into different teams would form a balance.<br /> <br /> “If Itsuki-chan is in my team, then it’s better for Kazuha-chan and Lotte-chan to be in my team too right?”<br /> <br /> It was the most important matter for someone to be able to support Kamimura-san’s mental condition. It would be troubling if she withdrew herself.<br /> <br /> “And so Hikaru-senpai is going to my team then.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai and Hikaru-senpai too, their individuality overlapped in the meaning that both of them were someone able in close-quarter combat.<br /> <br /> “Next please put Koyuki and…Yumeno-san in my team.”<br /> <br /> “I really want Kana-chan. Separating the Hayashizaki-style into two different team also has good balance right?”<br /> <br /> “Then Kohaku is in my team. Ah, somehow it feels fresh to form a party together with Kohaku.”<br /> <br /> “Next there are also those like Ryuutaki sisters but…. It doesn’t seem like the younger sister will give her cooperation. Despite that we can also forcefully bring in the older sister to our side couldn’t we-”<br /> <br /> “But with this it’s six people already, I think it will be hard to be effective if we increase the number of people too much. So it’s like this then.”<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki Kazuki・Hoshikaze Hikaru・Hiakari Koyuki・Yumeno Shiori・Katsura Karin・Kohaku&lt;ref&gt;Only Kohaku got her name written without family name, is the author discriminating her? EDIT: He also disciminates Lotte; even though in the color illustrations she's called &quot;Charlotte Lieben Frau&quot;, both in this list and in the positivity levels list excerpts she's referred as &quot;Lotte&quot;.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Amasaki Mio・Otonashi Kaguya・Kamimura Itsuki・Tsukahara Kazuha・Lotte・Hayashizaki Kanae<br /> <br /> The list was inputted into the PC and the data was saved. Sending the mail of this to Headmaster Amasaki left a little time for them.<br /> <br /> “For the date we carry this out…the faster the better isn’t it.”<br /> <br /> “Let’s do this the day after tomorrow in Wednesday.”<br /> <br /> They extended the time for a day. ―This was a consideration for the person who wanted to obtain this information in their hand.<br /> <br /> ===Part 8===<br /> <br /> ‘…To have to especially do this kind of roundabout thing. This me.’<br /> <br /> Everything inside the mind of Regina Olympia Folnar was ruled by her irritation toward this troublesomeness.<br /> <br /> Her objective was―to obtain information.<br /> <br /> For the sake of investigating the particulars of the war, the envoys of the Magic Advanced Countries were granted with the right to freely pass between the country’s borders. Regina was guided by the Knight Order and traversed from Japan to Yamato.<br /> <br /> Regina ordered toward the Yamato soldier who welcomed her in the national border “Lead me toward the one other person in the top” with high pressuring.<br /> <br /> The other person in the top―the political organization called Kenshitou became the center of Yamato’s government. Regina had already met with the strongest swordsman who was the central figure of this organization, Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> A beast hungering for power. Regina gave such a low evaluation to Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> But there was one more group that helped Kenshitou in Yamato, both the person who led that group and Aisu Ikousai could be said as [the two great leader] of Yamato without doubt.<br /> <br /> Taking the opportunity together with obtaining information, Regina also thought of going to pay her respect by meeting that one face to face.<br /> <br /> She was told that that person had left from the battlefield and was now in Oosaka. Regina was taken there by boarding the magic light train.<br /> <br /> Regina who held the doctrine of rejecting science passed her time inside the train making a displeasured face with all her heart. Surely the soldiers of Yamato that were showing her the way had their lifespan greatly reduced being near her.<br /> <br /> Surely it was also necessary to more or less make a compromise toward this country…despite the unpleasantness….<br /> <br /> Nonetheless Regina couldn’t help but recognize the sensation of riding this magic light train. Sitting on this comfortable cushion, while feeling not even a single vibration even with the train running in tremendous speed, as if it was gliding instead of running. ‘I see, this might be an article the ignorant people who doesn’t possess a powerful movement magic would be thankful for’, Queen Regina handed down her evaluation with a settled comprehension.<br /> <br /> When she disembarked in the Oosaka station, she was switched into a limousine. The sensation of riding this was also not bad.<br /> <br /> However she was bothered with the burden the magic light train and this limousine put onto the environment.<br /> <br /> And then the place she finally arrived at was a single ancient traditional restaurant.<br /> <br /> It seemed there was a culture in this country to wine and dine in a traditional restaurant while talking about important matters.<br /> <br /> Not bad. This was a country with completely foreign culture, but there was some similar aspect that resembled closely with Italia in its sensitivity of meal.<br /> <br /> Regina walked in a steady pace while watching the Japanese garden with a rustic feel that suited her preference. She was guided to a detached room, where a single girl was waiting for her inside the formal Japanese-style room.<br /> <br /> That girl―the moment she confronted Kaya, Regina guessed everything that happened in this country.<br /> <br /> ‘What, isn’t this young girl being possessed by a Diva?’<br /> <br /> ‘I see’, so a Diva of the Chaos Side was trying to take over Japan.<br /> <br /> While making light of the young man that was chosen as a King.<br /> <br /> This country is really no good huh.<br /> <br /> ‘They are finished’, Regina thought.<br /> <br /> “Welcome, the Queen of Italia Miss Regina. Your business?”<br /> <br /> “I come to receive the information you presented. Alongside being an envoy I have the right for that.”<br /> <br /> Regina who couldn’t sit in a seiza posture held dissatisfaction because there was no chair provided. She finally sat cross-legged.<br /> <br /> “…Present all the information your spy collected regarding the Knight Academy to me.”<br /> <br /> Without beating about the bush Regina cut right into the heart of the matter like that.<br /> <br /> <br /> She must be useful.<br /> <br /> At that time, what ruled over everything inside the girl’s mind was that thought.<br /> <br /> She must be useful. Because there was no place to belong for a human without worth.<br /> <br /> Such personality of the girl had been beaten into her head since she was small.<br /> <br /> My second role….<br /> <br /> The first one. To continue supplying information…. Information…sometimes it was even stronger than a sword.<br /> <br /> The other one. To guide that person to that place…. But that could be done even after this.<br /> <br /> Right now was information first.<br /> <br /> Even though she could finally penetrate until near the central figure of the Knight Academy after much difficulties…she suddenly became unable to get her hand on the information at all.<br /> <br /> That was because the Chief Student Council President Hayashizaki Kazuki decided everything only between him and Otonashi Kaguya, and those decisions they made were known only by the two of them without telling anybody else at all.<br /> <br /> If it kept like this then this would end with her being unable to fulfill her role at all. If she didn’t gather information….<br /> <br /> She had grasped Hayashizaki Kazuki’s pattern of action. He would send the data about the matter that was decided by the Student Council addressed to Headmaster Amasaki.<br /> <br /> The information existed. In the form of a digital information that was easy to understand.<br /> <br /> That data was supposed to be preserved somewhere either in the computer terminal that Hayashizaki Kazuki used personally or in the Student Councils’ PC.<br /> <br /> Of course the one that she could get her hand on easier was the PC that was stored in the Student Council room.<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki Kazuki was strictly classifying his own personal data and the Student Council’s data. That was why there was a high possibility that the data she aimed for was stored inside the PC in this Student Council room.<br /> <br /> Wasn’t this too defenseless for such an important data?<br /> <br /> No, Hayashizaki Kazuki didn’t take precaution for himself…. He was too softhearted of a person.<br /> <br /> Late night. That girl crept into the empty school building and arrived at the Student Council room.<br /> <br /> She could open all of the lock freely.<br /> <br /> She sat in front of the PC desk. Password? Of course there was no way she didn’t know.<br /> <br /> This was a PC that she herself had operated a few times.<br /> <br /> “…What are you doing there desu?”<br /> <br /> ―Despite there was no presence or even any footsteps at all, a voice came behind her without any previous notice.<br /> <br /> While the girl lost her presence of mind, she stood up from the PC desk and turned back.<br /> <br /> Charlotte Liebenfrau. A girl of the Magic Division that was called Lotte and loved by everyone had opened the door and stood in the entrance with a determined expression.<br /> <br /> Strange, there was no sound of the door opening or the like at all.<br /> <br /> A female she had to be on guard against the most….<br /> <br /> The girl was going to say some excuse, about why she was here this late. She could make any number of excuses. If you want to know why that’s because I….<br /> <br /> But even before she could do that, Charlotte’s words intercepted her.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “You are the spy from Yamato right desu, Yumeno-oneesan.”<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_7_Chapter_2&diff=479418 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Chapter 2 2016-02-01T16:30:34Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 – {{furigana|The Knight Academy|Caryatid}}==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Ceasefire, and then.<br /> <br /> While the magic light train released blue lights, Kazuki and the others boarded it and left Nagoya behind. <br /> <br /> They passed through Shizuoka that had once become a battlefield in a flash and returned back through the path that they arrived from before.<br /> <br /> And then they arrived at Tokyo in only an hour.<br /> <br /> It made them think as if this past few extraordinary days of battle were only happening inside their dream.<br /> <br /> Kazuki lined up with Kaguya-senpai and Kanae as the Chief Student Council President and stood in the lead of the students that participated in the battlefield before returning back through the path from the station to the Knight Academy. Thereupon…,<br /> <br /> “Welcome home!” “Thanks for your hard work!” Voices were thrown at them from here and there.<br /> <br /> This was by no means a parade of their triumphant return, but the citizens pushed out their faces from the houses and shops all over along their way, and sent their voices to the students’ direction.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was at first bewildered, but looking at Kaguya-senpai waving her hand with a smiling face, he just imitated her for the time being.<br /> <br /> When they finally arrived at the school gate of the Knight Academy, a remarkably big applause was raised.<br /> <br /> With Liz Liza-sensei as the first in line, the teachers and students that were house-sitting had lined up to welcome them home.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Everyone cheered with amazing voice didn’t they! I was surprised.”<br /> <br /> After they arrived home at the Witch’s Mansion, Kaguya-senpai sat down on the sofa at the living room and said so.<br /> <br /> Despite how everyone was supposed to be tired, no one headed to their room. They were following Kaguya-senpai and sat their body down on the sofas and chairs and remained in the living room. Finally their feelings calmed down, and now there was this feeling of wanting to reminisce these past few days of extraordinary experience with their comrades.<br /> <br /> Even everyone of the Sword Division too naturally followed along here, feeling it was hard to separate from the group.<br /> <br /> “But it looked like a war that we won, yes? Even though we didn’t retake west Japan…”<br /> <br /> While sitting on the sofa right in front of Kaguya-senpai, Kazuki vented out awkward words.<br /> <br /> The people that looked over this battle should be actually feeling disappointment and dissatisfaction to the Knight Order. The people that had family and acquaintances in west Japan shouldn’t be accepting of this situation of ceasefire with an okay feeling. Such feeling was not directed to their own selves, it was only mildly restrained and although there was some happiness, but there was also an uncomfortable feeling that enveloped them like silk floss.<br /> <br /> “It seems there is also critical argument inside the mass media toward the Knight Order. But we are still not a legitimate knight so I wonder if that’s the reason why the people of this city and the house-sitting students sent us kind words.”<br /> <br /> While sitting beside Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai directed a wry smile at Kazuki. After making sure that Hikaru-senpai didn’t sit beside Kazuki, the juniors Mio and Koyuki sat beside Kazuki’s both sides in relief.<br /> <br /> “We are something like volunteer soldiers. It’s just too much if the brunt of the critic is also pointed at us. I was really nervous sheesh.”<br /> <br /> Mio said. What she said was also really correct. Kazuki said “Thanks for your hard work” and petted her head. When Kazuki did that Mio went “Ehehe, you too” and leaned her shoulder. Koyuki too didn’t say anything and clung closer on him.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, we were doing our best you know desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte sat on top of Kazuki’s lap and reclined on him. He had the feeling as if he was told that he burdened himself alone too much, Kazuki hugged Lotte tightly with a squeeze.<br /> <br /> “For the present time we had fulfilled our role enough already, Onii-sama.”<br /> <br /> From Kazuki’s behind, Kanae leaned over the sofa and gently embraced Kazuki’s neck.<br /> <br /> Kanae and Lotte were in a state that sensitively sensed the emotion inside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “I wonder if that’s so…it might be just like you said.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki murmured while being exhausted.<br /> <br /> They returned to an ordinary day like this. Into a normal school life….<br /> <br /> “The people of the city and also everyone of the academy, they all know about President’s active role actually.”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san who normally acted reserved approached Kazuki’s side with a lively expression.<br /> <br /> Some kind of paper bundle was grasped in her hand. Quietly she presented that to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “This is…the aforementioned extra of the academy newspaper?”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 055.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori-san was the newspaper committee chairman. The newspaper committee was a committee that was originally established for the sake of making the Magic Division and the Sword Division know more about each other, but while the girl went along in the battle against Yamato she decided to publish [newspaper extra] because [she wanted to convey this war to the students that remained in the academy].<br /> <br /> Although Headmaster Amasaki and Kazuki were unable to check most of the content because of their busy work, Yumeno-san wrote articles from the actual spot of the battlefield and then by the system of transmitting those data to the newspaper committee member that remained in the academy, it seemed they had already published and distributed the edition.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki put down Lotte from his lap, he looked over that article.<br /> <br /> ―What entered his eyes at the foremost was the headline [Chief Student Council President・Hayashizaki Kazuki, Bravely Dash Forward!] and the like written. Kazuki felt something cold ran down his back. What entered his eyes next was a large illustration. A sparkling bright Kazuki in a style of shoujo manga was grandly handing down orders to his comrades.<br /> <br /> At the corner was the sign of a mysterious pen-name [Christine Amasaki] or something signed there. Who is this guy?<br /> <br /> Mio placed her jaw on Kazuki’s right shoulder and “Ehehe, so? So?” and so on while grinning broadly.<br /> <br /> The content of the article was the report from the surprise attack operation of Okehazama until the infiltration to Ise Imperial Shrine, and even the happening in the battle of Sekigahara. However Kazuki’s activity in the article was too exaggerated and spectacularly decorated in gaudiness. It really couldn’t be said to be an objective article, more like a military novel with a fictional character as the leading part.<br /> <br /> Having said that, he was lost whether this article looked reasonably interesting or a poor quality instead….<br /> <br /> “This illustration and the writing style, isn’t this glorifying me too much? This scene for example, I have the feeling that I didn’t say something this cool though.”<br /> <br /> When the article was distributed to everyone else too, Hikaru-senpai who had low boiling point went “Ahahahahahahaha!” in explosive laughter, Kanae went “Just as expected Onii-sama!” in great delight. Everyone else were also holding their laughter.<br /> <br /> “It’s interesting anyway so isn’t this fine.” Kazuha-senpai who was standing near the wall made fun of him.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai cannot think of this as somebody else’s problem you know? Here, Kazuha-senpai also made an entrance in the scene of the infiltration operation.”<br /> <br /> In the infiltration operation of the Ise Imperial Shrine, the article changed into first-person view from Kazuha-senpai’s position. There the illustration of Christine Amasaki-sensei was also attached along.<br /> <br /> In the boat departure with the Chief Student Council President that she yearned for, just the two of them, Kazuha-senpai was drawn in the sparkling style of shoujo manga in a state of her heart throbbing hard and where she released a rose-colored deep sigh girlishly.<br /> <br /> “Thi, this kind of character is not meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s cheeks blushed red and the hands that were holding the newspaper open were trembling all over.<br /> <br /> “It’s not like I saw the Ise Imperial Shrine infiltration operation directly, that’s why I wrote it with my imagination…”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san whose tension was a little hyper went “Ehe-“ and stuck out her tongue.<br /> <br /> Wasn’t that not a newspaper anymore and only a novel. She was unexpectedly a cheeky person….<br /> <br /> “But I think this article is done well though. The course of events for every important point are explained properly.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai kept nodding in appreciation with an extremely serious face.<br /> <br /> “Several places become something like a novel but…exactly because of that the reader doesn’t get tired of it and the part that should be conveyed is conveyed. I think this article has a good balance that is not too formal. As expected, for everything to be conveyed properly to all the students like this is really important.”<br /> <br /> Certainly, he couldn’t deny that the events were turned into a content that could be read.<br /> <br /> “…Err, this newspaper, can President give your autograph on it?”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san’s eyes sparkled bright like a star and she presented a sign pen smoothly to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “This is the first time I wrote a battlefield report, and I want to receive the autograph of Chief President Hayashizaki that became a hero in that battlefield…if you do that then I'll keep this newspaper extra as a commemoration for my whole life♪”<br /> <br /> Kazuki went “Even if you say that, something like an autograph is…” and while losing his bearing, he wrote his name on the corner of the newspaper extra using normal square character. Kazuki himself thought “…Are you happy? With something like this”, but Yumeno-san was going “Kyaa―” and raised a delighted voice before hugging the signed newspaper and twirling around.<br /> <br /> “By the way Kazuki…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai raised one of her hands properly.<br /> <br /> “Itsuki has been hiding behind me since a while ago while staring fixedly here.”<br /> <br /> Now that she mentioned it, the small statured Kamimura-san was hiding behind Kazuha-senpai’s back like she was clinging to it.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san had a fear of strangers to the extreme degree…rather than calling her that, she was a shut-in. Because someone like her was suddenly thrown right into the middle of a crowd of people that she didn’t know like this, surely she would get confused.<br /> <br /> “That’s right, this is not the time to settle down. I have to introduce Kamimura-san to everyone.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stood up from the sofa and walked approaching Kazuha-senpai and Kamimura-san’s direction.<br /> <br /> From behind Kazuha-senpai, Kamimura-san showed up her face all of a sudden.<br /> <br /> “I, I…if I become a hindrance, I can go home…”<br /> <br /> “There is no way you are a hindrance. You are saying go home, but where are you going to go.”<br /> <br /> This girl had determined to keep living. But if she was not beside Kazuki, that flesh body of hers couldn’t be maintained.<br /> <br /> And also Ise where the girl originally was living had already became the territory of Yamato.<br /> <br /> There was no other place for her except here in the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> Everybody of the Witch’s Mansion were sending wondering gaze to Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> As if covering her from those gazes, Kazuha-senpai talked.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, you might as well not just stop at introducing her, let’s do a welcoming party for Itsuki! I too have never given a composed greeting to the residents of the Witch’s Mansion.”<br /> <br /> He thought that it was a good idea. Kazuki too could open his heart to everyone thanks to the welcoming party. When Lotte first came it was like that for her too.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> For the sake of the welcoming party, he had to prepare the food.<br /> <br /> He felt some tiredness, but Kazuki was too proud to rely on meal delivery service.<br /> <br /> Before at the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave when Kamimura-san and Amaterasu said that they would become Kazuki’s comrade, it was with the condition that they were expecting delicious meals. After they had said that, there was no way he would let the first meal that would become a commemoration be finished by just some catering that had no warmth in it.<br /> <br /> There was a proverb from Japan of the old time about this.<br /> <br /> ―[If you created it yourself it will be like something free of charge]<br /> <br /> “I don’t like those words.”<br /> <br /> Mio huffed and said back arrogantly.<br /> <br /> “It doesn’t include the thinking about the labor cost of the human resource that is yourself. I too like to create western clothes by myself, but just because of that it’s not good to sell yourself cheap, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> On the other hand Koyuki shook her head after hearing that.<br /> <br /> “Wrong, the reasoning of the cheapness is correct if you think about it after looking at the long term implication. If you pay money then it will only affect you limited in that place, but by doing it yourself the experience and the skill that you get will help you throughout your whole life.”<br /> <br /> Listening to the two opposite opinions, Kazuki was thinking that each of their personality came out in their answers.<br /> <br /> The two who acted like that right now were wearing maid uniform.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki began to cook the food for the welcoming party, Mio and Koyuki came wearing maid uniform and proposed to help Kazuki.<br /> <br /> During that time, he entrusted Kamimura-san to Kazuha-senpai where she took her outside to be the guide of the Knight Academy. He wanted to finish the preparation before those two returned back here.<br /> <br /> “The maid uniform’s design is different than the one before isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki sharply noticed. When they became the helper in Kazuki’s domestic chores until now they were also wearing the maid uniform that Mio created herself, but the one that they currently wore was a version of different things.<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki pointing that out, Mio puffed up her chest proudly while Koyuki shrank herself in embarrassment.<br /> <br /> “It’s the season of clothing’s seasonal change after all, so I was secretly sewing this new version! Though because we went to Kansai for quite long it just stayed quiet inside the cupboard until now though!”<br /> <br /> Mio made a twirling turn on the spot in order to show off her maid uniform.<br /> <br /> The new maid uniform had no sleeve with both the shoulder area exposed, the skirt too became even shorter than before. The coloring too was not black but navy blue as the main color giving the casual impression of summer.<br /> <br /> There was also no compromise in the detail. On the calm navy blue fabric that had its charm, a {{furigana|weaving pattern|shadow stripe}} was inserted. Probably that was not using polyester that was used in a cheap maid uniform cosplay costume, but surely something like a casting fabric that was used in high class formal suit.<br /> <br /> Its design couldn’t be said as correct based on the view of traditional maid uniform, but thanks to its overall high quality it could by no means be called as a colored thing and engendered elegance instead&lt;ref&gt;I'm not too sure about what this should be since anything i would do to this text would change the meaning of the sentence. EDIT: that's why I asked in the discussion page what was the original term used, as the word &quot;color&quot; in Japanese can mean a lot of things.&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> Even if they walked outside in that appearance, the people that saw it wouldn’t think “It’s cosplay”, instead there was no doubt they were going to feel that “This is fashion”. It was a workmanship that was far from amateur.<br /> <br /> The girl power of Christine Amasaki-sensei was just too unrivaled in every aspect….<br /> <br /> What a versatile girl….<br /> <br /> “So!? So!?” Mio leaned her face forward and inquired.<br /> <br /> “The cuteness of the both of you currently might have entered the top 5 of the world.”<br /> <br /> Mio went “Yes!” and skipped around repeatedly. He could catch glimpses of the underwear from the short skirt.<br /> <br /> “You, if you jumped around with a skirt that short, I can see it you know.”<br /> <br /> “Ehehe, if it’s Kazu-nii then it’s okay even if it is seen though.”<br /> <br /> Saying that bluntly without any concern, Mio pulled up her miniskirt with both hand from the front.<br /> <br /> …Kazuki’s gaze unintentionally got sucked in. The pure white underwear was silk. And then as if it was prepared beforehand with the assumption that it would be seen, the panty was arranged with a ribbon of navy blue color that had the same tone with the maid uniform. The thighs that were fidgeting around were pressed squishily with garter belts and it looked soft just from seeing.<br /> <br /> Even while it looked austere like a maid, it was also the obscene content of the flowery skirt.<br /> <br /> Mio was “Ehehe, watch it more…” with her cheek blushing red ecstatically.<br /> <br /> “Are you an exhibitionist?” Koyuki hit the hand that lifted up the skirt with a snap.<br /> <br /> The skirt returned back to normal like a lowering down curtain. Kazuki who became trapped in a trance returned to his senses with a look of realization.<br /> <br /> “…I think for a man, what happened to me just now cannot be helped.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was bothered with Koyuki’s gaze, he cleared his throat with ‘ehem’.<br /> <br /> “…When it became about maid uniform, Kazuki really cannot be helped. It really makes me want to draw away.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki looked away with a ‘pui’ in a bad mood. But Kazuki was also charmed by the appearance of Koyuki that was like that.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki too is cute…or perhaps I should say that the maid uniform this time might suit Koyuki’s style more.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s white skin and cool personality and the maid uniform that changed into navy blue color enhanced each other’s prominence. The silk that glossed like a silver light also suited her. Blue and silver were [Koyuki’s color], that was what he felt.<br /> <br /> When she was stared by Kazuki, Koyuki blushed red and curled up into herself. That figure of hers was excessively cute.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 063.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “…Taking upon oneself to conduct a design that certainly suited the rival Koyuki…this composure and the depth of the heart are exactly where you can feel the work of the artisan. As expected, Christine Amasaki-sensei.”<br /> <br /> “Well, this is a refined product of Napoli tailoring see.”<br /> <br /> He didn’t get it all where is the Napoli factor in it, but anyway it was a work of a virtuoso.<br /> <br /> “By the way putting aside the unveiling of the maid uniform. Chef, what are you going to make for tonight’s feast?”<br /> <br /> Toward Mio’s question, the chef Kazuki looked worried with “Uu―nn”.<br /> <br /> When he took a glance outside the window, it was already evening. There was not much time to make something complicated.<br /> <br /> “…I wonder if something like finger food is fine.”<br /> <br /> Finger food was a general term for something like canapé&lt;ref&gt;Small, open sandwich. French&lt;/ref&gt; or sandwich, food that could be picked and eaten with one hand. Because it didn’t become a hindrance for game or conversation, it was suited for a party with many people in it.<br /> <br /> “If you pile up good quality cheese or ham or dip sauce that are sold as ready-made goods with cracker or baguette then its appearance will also look gorgeous, and it won’t take much time to make it for the portion of many people. Adding to that, if we prepare one kind of extravagant main dish then it should be good enough to be served for a party.”<br /> <br /> “I see. Just like a buffet party Tou-san&lt;ref&gt;Father, this one is also written with the kanji of step-father.&lt;/ref&gt; had took me with before, there was also something like that.”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki fairly seemed like someone of the society’s upper echelons. As expected from the new headmaster that stood at the top of the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> Kazuki began to check the content of the refrigerator.<br /> <br /> Because they had suddenly went to west Japan, so the content of the refrigerator only had awful things inside.<br /> <br /> “It’s not like everything has become unusable right? While Kazuki prepared the ingredients that are still usable, if Koyuki and I go out for shopping it will be more efficient won’t it?”<br /> <br /> “There is no time so that seems good. Though it feels like my body is stabbed when I think that I will be separated for a short while with the Maid-san…”<br /> <br /> Chef Kazuki wrote out the necessary ingredients in the memo and handed it over to maid Mio. The girl nodded repeatedly “hmm hmm” with the memo in one hand, then “We are going, Koyuki!” high spiritedly she took Koyuki’s hand.<br /> <br /> “A, Amasaki-san…we are going outside with this appearance without changing!?”<br /> <br /> “Because there is no time here…this maid uniform is not something to be ashamed of even if it is seen anyway!”<br /> <br /> “In the hands of Christine Amasaki-sensei, even the food procurement of the Knight Academy is turned into a walk in the runway of fashion show huh.”<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you mean somewhat.”<br /> <br /> “Fufuu―n, we are going to cast magic on the students of the whole school with our beautiful look!”<br /> <br /> Besides the bewildered Koyuki, Mio said that while twirling and twirling in circle.<br /> <br /> “…The both of you won’t cause anything strange from a too high tension will you?”<br /> <br /> Mio got carried away while she also dragged Koyuki away trailingly and left the kitchen.<br /> <br /> “Mio, if you go out in that appearance, pay attention to your skirt okay.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki got worried about the too short skirt and pointed out. The way from the Witch’s Mansion until the school canteen was still inside the Magic Division, but recently it was not rare for the boys from the Sword Division to come here.<br /> <br /> “You want to monopolize me that much? It’s fine, I won’t let anybody else see other than Kazu-nii for suu―re.”<br /> <br /> Mio left the kitchen with a composed smiling face. Surely an able woman would have the hiding technique of an able woman. Though in that case he was worried for Koyuki who normally didn’t wear something like a miniskirt.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took the ingredients from inside the refrigerator that were still usable and began the preparation.<br /> <br /> ―After a while, the kitchen’s door was knocked.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who should be going out as a guide came in.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai? Is something the matter with Kamimura-san?”<br /> <br /> “That’s…it looks like she was tired after I guided her briefly, she said that she wants to rest in her room until the preparation of the welcoming party is finished, so I took her back here. Though it looks like she has the mood to come out for the welcoming party.”<br /> <br /> “…As expected, if she is suddenly tossed into a different environment then she is going to feel nervous.”<br /> <br /> She said it herself that she was a shut-in. However he didn’t have any idea at all for how to make that kind of child to get used to a new environment.<br /> <br /> “I, want to be a friend to Itsuki.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai murmured with a sigh. Kazuki too nodded with the same feeling.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san was by no means closing her heart completely. With her own will she chose that “I will live”, as far as he could see from her relationship with Amaterasu and Ise-Udon-ojiisan, “I want friends” she was also looking for other people. She wasn’t closing her heart like how Koyuki once was.<br /> <br /> Just surely, she only became completely timid in facing other people.<br /> <br /> With this welcoming party, they had to show that the Witch’s Mansion accepted Kamimura-san with unending open heart. The circumstance of Kamimura-san had been told to everyone else already.<br /> <br /> “Fu, fufufu…”<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Kazuha-senpai leaked out a laughing voice.<br /> <br /> “Friend…finally I can make one more friend…. I absolutely won’t let her get away…fufufu, if someone gives a kindness to someone that is in a helpless place from loneliness, it should be easy to have her eating from the palm of my hands thereafter…!”<br /> <br /> “Senpai is unexpectedly thinking so calculatingly about this!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was shocked. Her way of thinking was exactly the same like a smooth talker man that tried to make a girl who just got rejected fall for him by acting consolingly to the girl. It’s just too desperate, seeing her like this is just too deplorable.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is bright, beautiful and diligent, your mood is also good and you are fun to be with. You are a person that really has no flaws that truly is flawed, despite so why is it your friends are so few like now?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that with a sigh, Kazuha-senpai went “Ugu!” and she pressed her chest as if she just got stabbed.<br /> <br /> Though he had already known that this person had quite a personal history, because she had already immersed in sword art since she was little and yet she didn’t really improve in the proportion of her effort, she held a complex toward her fellow swordsmen and in the end she couldn’t get along well with them.<br /> <br /> But even so he still thought that a person this lovely shouldn’t be so overlooked to this degree.<br /> <br /> “I don’t think I’m really that great of a person like you said but…I too want to ask why I’m like this…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pressed her chest and her shoulders dropped in a total dejection.<br /> <br /> “I wonder if it’s not because when senpai is thinking of trying to make a friend, doesn’t senpai become too high spirited. Like senpai always have desperation oozing out too much into your behavior or your expression…”<br /> <br /> When he thought back again, every time she conversed with her sword training partner Hikaru-senpai, Kazuha-senpai always had a dreadful expression. It was because the partner was the big-hearted Hikaru-senpai that the situation finished with just Hikaru-senpai thinking “she acted a little suspicious didn’t she”, but if it was against normal people they might draw back completely looking at such thing.<br /> <br /> “…Spirited you say?” Kazuha-senpai tilted her head from having no self-awareness of her behavior.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, when you tried to make friends, your eyes glinted fiercely like a predator seeing prey, your smiling mouth strangely lifts up and you looked like you were baring your fang, and also your cheek muscle kept shaking as if in a cramp you know.”<br /> <br /> “I was making a face like that!?”<br /> <br /> “Though when with me you have never made a face like that.”<br /> <br /> Most likely that was because Kazuki was the one that was coming to pursue her to become friends with her. Kazuha-senpai directed a spirit of antagonism toward that. That was why on the contrary she acted natural to him.<br /> <br /> Exactly because he was disliked by Kazuha-senpai, that only Kazuki managed to finally arrive at Kazuha-senpai’s honest face.<br /> <br /> “When senpai makes a face like that and the other party understands that you are nervous, your nervousness will also get transmitted and the other side also cannot become calm when they are facing senpai. In contrast if you directed a natural smile to them, the other side too will feel calm.”<br /> <br /> If you directed hostility to someone it would make it easy to turn them into an enemy, and if you directed a good will without any ulterior motive then the other side would also relax their alertness. Communication was a mirror that reflected yourself.<br /> <br /> Most likely success experience from the past meant everything for a person’s communication ability.<br /> <br /> If a person piled up success in human relationship since the time he was small, it would inscribe confidence in him. With that confidence as weapon, he would pile up even more success and could rapidly ride up a rising current.<br /> <br /> In reverse if he stumbled completely from the start, he would lose confidence there and would always get nervous with his body stiffening completely, piling up even more failure and losing more confidence, steadily falling into a closed vicious circle.<br /> <br /> When statistics concerning the birthday of professional sports athletes was taken, it was mentioned that there were many among them that were born in the month between April-June. In the time as a child there was a difference in physique between children that couldn’t be surpassed from [having been born several months earlier].<br /> <br /> Because children were divided into grades between their year and they went through a group activity in a group based on their grade, inside that group the children that were born in April-June who had growth just several months faster had it easier to stand in superior position whether it was in sports or playing. When those children experienced victory there, that experience became confidence, which in turn incited a positive endeavor and growth. Working hard became something fun. And then they would rapidly grow and put even more distance from their surroundings…it seemed there was such a tendency like that. The thing called success experience couldn’t be looked down at.<br /> <br /> If someone fell into a vicious circle of losing confidence, they had to grasp a success somewhere to cut through the negative circle. In order to do that, surely the assistance of people from outside would become important.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is a really lovely person, that’s why it’s fine even if you don’t do anything special. If senpai just stop getting too spirited and make a relaxed smile, then everyone is bound to like senpai.”<br /> <br /> “…You say to relax more…l-like this?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai showed a wide smile. It still had an artificial feel exposed in it but―<br /> <br /> “You are cute senpai, just like that. That cuteness entered the top ten of the world.”<br /> <br /> She had to be given confidence. Kazuki who thought that gave a great admiration to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t flatter me! There is no need for thing like cuteness in making friends right! What’s with you saying the world top ten.”<br /> <br /> “It’s regrettable you are not wearing maid uniform.”<br /> <br /> “You think I care about your personal hobby like that-”<br /> <br /> Spouting out that in a huff, nervousness disappeared from Kazuha-senpai’s expression. Thereupon a natural smile floated in her expression, wasting no time Kazuki pointed out “Senpai, that face!” Kazuha-senpai’s face blushed.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki is really looking at me properly huh.”<br /> <br /> “Because of Hayashizaki-style's prized observation.”<br /> <br /> “There is also nothing mistaken in your advice for sword technique until now. Got it! I will do as you say and show you that I will get along with Itsuki without fail!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai filled herself with fighting spirit and clenched both her fists.<br /> <br /> “I told senpai already to not get too spirited just now.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…thank you okay.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai hugged Kazuki tightly in a surprise attack.<br /> <br /> It was too sudden that Kazuki couldn’t even return the hug. A gentle warmth. For just an instant, then Kazuha-senpai immediately separated herself resolutely in a flash. She dashed outside the kitchen without saying anything.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who rarely became honest.<br /> <br /> Exactly because of that, the charm of the surprise attack was plenty even though it was just a short time.<br /> <br /> At the same time Kazuki remembered the affair in the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave with Kazuha-senpai. She made him intensely conscious of her as a girl and his feelings couldn’t calm down.<br /> <br /> After a while, Mio and Koyuki returned back in a half run from their shopping.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> “Kamimura-san, the welcoming party’s preparation is completed already.”<br /> <br /> After all the preparation was finished, Kazuki knocked the door of the room that was allocated for Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> In answer to Kazuki’s calling, the door was opened obediently.<br /> <br /> “Long time no see o.”<br /> <br /> ―What appeared from the door’s other side was the small middle-aged man with white skin like mochi.<br /> <br /> It was not Kamimura-san. The one he met at the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave―Ise-Udon-ojisan.<br /> <br /> “…Why are you-!?”<br /> <br /> This place was not a special space like the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave, it felt really out of place if a middle-aged man this queer appeared in the place of reality.<br /> <br /> “Itsuki said that she felt tired so she pushed the leadership of the flesh body to me and is resting o. Hyahha―! This is the first time I am in the space of real world since I was born o! Abababababa!!”<br /> <br /> Ise-Udon-ojisan exposed the white of his eyes and stuck out his tongue from his mouth before wriggling his short limbs.<br /> <br /> “…So you can do such skillful thing. Can you properly return to normal?”<br /> <br /> Ise-Udon-ojisan’s deformed physique was even smaller than the small statured Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> When he was watching him, he was driven by anxiety of the law of conservation of mass.<br /> <br /> “Rather than calling this a light possession, it’s just a little remaking of the existence’s surface, that’s why I can immediately return back o. Wait a second o.”<br /> <br /> Udon-ojisan closed the door, but on the brink of the door closing he stuck out his face and added some more.<br /> <br /> “…Itsuki really thinks inside her heart that she wants to go out to the welcoming party o. It’s just that she felt a little anxious and it became a burden on her mental state o. You might see it as trying to avoid other people but, I want you to understand that it’s not like she want to reject other people deep inside her heart o.”<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, I understand.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded. Kamimura-san too in a certain meaning was similar with Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Just as expected from the man we anticipated o.”<br /> <br /> The door closed leaving behind those words. And then from the other side of the door “CHAAAAAAAAANGE-!” a voice could be heard. And then―”Samee” “Wha- it’s not you- o! The turn is for Itsuki o! One more time, CHAAAAAAAAAANGE-!” He could hear a skilled one person conversation that he didn’t understand for what reason it was performed. It looked a little like a multiple personality. The door opened once more.<br /> <br /> “…I, I made you wait.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san peeked out her face from the door timidly.<br /> <br /> Nervousness was transmitted from person to person. When he saw Kamimura-san’s face, Kazuki too started to feel his mental state become nervous as if something that could easily break if it was touched.<br /> <br /> That was why if his side too became awkward, Kamimura-san would surely become even more nervous.<br /> <br /> He understood that from his experience of capturing tough enemies called Koyuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> If he had to say what aspect of him that had grown the most until now, then surely it was in this kind of aspect.<br /> <br /> Kazuki relaxed his whole body using an ancient breathing technique and endeavored to make a truly natural expression.<br /> <br /> “I’m the one that made you wait.”<br /> <br /> From the beginning no matter what kind of formidable enemy that he faced, Kazuki had never exposed an unsightly sight of fumbling his act from nervousness.<br /> <br /> “I have finished the preparation that will not be shameful even if it becomes an offering for Amaterasu-sama here.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san didn’t come out from behind the door shaking and fidgeting while only showing out her face.<br /> <br /> Kazuki gently took the hand of Kamimura-san that was hiding behind the door and pulled her closer.<br /> <br /> While Kamimura-san was someone that was scared to be disliked, she was not the type that disliked someone being over-familiar to her. As much as she could remember from the event in the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave, she should like to be treated courteously.<br /> <br /> Around that area, she was different from Koyuki that rejected other people itself for a period of time.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki pulled her hand, Kamimura-san silently followed him along with a trot.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Various excellent cooking had been lined up already on the table in the living room of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> “Cheers!”<br /> <br /> After toasting with cups that were filled with bubbling carbonated juice, the circle of friends were eating as they pleased inside the wide room and began to have friendly conversations. It was really close to a buffet.<br /> <br /> While the party was going in full swing…Kazuha-senpai went crying at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki~! Itsuki got netorare-ed~&lt;ref&gt;Stealing another’s lover. NTR.&lt;/ref&gt;!”<br /> <br /> “…Netorare senpai said, but that’s a little different right?”<br /> <br /> “But but~! Even though I have made reservation~!”<br /> <br /> “Senpai also didn’t make any reservation right? Is senpai drunk?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was amazed and he did a light chop on the clamoring Kazuha-senpai’s head.<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed his gaze to the direction that Kazuha-senpai pointed while clamoring.<br /> <br /> When saying it from the conclusion, Kamimura-san who looked like an impregnable fortress was conquered in an instant by Lotte.<br /> <br /> Lotte penetrated into the heart of Kamimura-san with a smiling face that looked so innocent and pure that it seemed anybody who saw it would forgive her. While making consideration to Kamimura-san’s nervousness by reading between the lines of the heart’s subtleties using {{furigana|Telepathy|Mind Sympathy Magic}}, Lotte roused her up using their common hobby of anime as conversation topic, and in the time people took to say ‘ah’ it was as if the two had found a kindred spirit in each other.<br /> <br /> Right now that Kamimura-san had went away from Kazuha-senpai’s hand, she was sitting in a line together with three people that were Lotte, Karin, and Hikaru-senpai on the sofa in front of the TV. They quietly, heatedly conversed with each other while appreciating the anime.<br /> <br /> “[Mobile Suit Z Galpan&lt;ref&gt;I think the name ‘Galpan’ here is formed from ‘gal’ or ‘girl’ and ‘pan’ or ’panty’.&lt;/ref&gt;]…the long awaited popular anime sequel that depicted the springtime of youth of the high-school girl students that decided their [Robo-path] in a competition of zero-gravity space battle using robots that were considered to maiden’s taste since the ancient time! Those moe characters that were completely absorbed into robo-battle that completely didn’t give any consideration to safety at all, there is a ghastly degenerated beauty looking at them falling one after another throughout the battle…!”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san whose tension skyrocketed when it was about a field that she liked, right now she was leaning her body forward to the screen with an excited voice.<br /> <br /> “I am a little weak to extreme anime like this desu but…yet the character’s treatment of Tonne Kobayashi who appear in succession from the previous work and now had grown into high school student make you feel an irony where you cannot say anything isn’t it? When you think back upon the climax of the previous work [Mobile Suit Galpan]…”<br /> <br /> Lotte nodded earnestly.<br /> <br /> “As expected of Lotte-dono, you understand…!”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san was staring hard at Lotte with a feverish look as if she had found an enlightened person.<br /> <br /> Lotte was even now continuing as if to invite Kamimura-san’s sympathy.<br /> <br /> “Even though in the previous work’s ending the three sisters of Tonne – Katsune – Kikune were depicted as the symbol of hope for the next generation, in this sequel where seven years have passed, Tonne is growing as a character that possesses an ego that denies the possibility that was previously hinted, she cannot restrain her young passion that is inappropriate for her true power with reason and repeatedly violated her order isn’t she desu. And then she completely died not from the attack of a powerful enemy, but from a meteor that crashed into her while she was looking aside…. I have a feeling that this ‘Z’ is a tale of ‘{{furigana|zetsubou|despair}}’ desu.”<br /> <br /> “That’s so, in spite of how in the previous work this tale had been tied up perfectly, the author’s gloominess was coming out to the surface from writing this continuation because of commercial reason. But later on the author went [this kind of negative work cannot be left behind just like this] and then he remade it into the [New Testament version] in the end!”<br /> <br /> “I like it that way desu. The feeling from the depiction of how strong the heart can become from the existence of important people in the surrounding…”<br /> <br /> “As expected Lotte-dono really understands!!”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san finally grasped both of Lotte’s hands tightly. Lotte too grasped back with a friendly smile. At their side Karin and Hikaru-senpai were going “Z Galpan is so cool~!” and they became entranced into the robot’s action scene. The four people pressed their shoulders closer together when the ending theme streamed out and sang out ‘love or something something goes to the star of water~♪’.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai went “Hii―cc!” and exaggeratedly buried her face into Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “I, I don’t get it at all what in the world are they talking about and I cannot participate in the conversation~! Even though I have been trying to prepare my heart’s readiness and come into contact with a natural smile just like Kazuki said~!”<br /> <br /> “Ah―. …It cannot be helped if Lotte is the opponent, yup. There, there.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki caressed Kazuha-senpai’s head in order to comfort her, a small heart mark came flying and got absorbed into his ring.<br /> <br /> Her positivity level increased. That was to say that Kazuha-senpai who was not honest was right now using the receiving shock as an excuse to come fawning to him. For such thing like Kazuha-senpai embracing him like this by her own accord to happen.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, preferably if you want to make friends then how about you also live in the Witch’s Mansion?”<br /> <br /> “Eh?” Kazuha-senpai raised her face from Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is also a Magika Stigma after all, so I think it will be recognized even if you changed division.”<br /> <br /> Right now the academy was in the middle of converting little by little with the objective to carefully recognize the Divas outside of the Solomon 72 Pillar who had been making illegal contract until now.<br /> <br /> If Kamimura-san could be accepted into the Magic Division, then there shouldn’t be any uncomfortable feeling in accepting Kazuha-senpai too. Whether Amaterasu or Futsunushi no Kami, both of them were Divas of the same Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> “That’s…certainly…but…”<br /> <br /> After Kazuha-senpai’s gaze wandered around from having her heart shook up, she hung her head down.<br /> <br /> “But I’ll keep staying in the Sword Division like now. Just as I thought because first and foremost, I want to be a swordsman.”<br /> <br /> After that with a small voice Kazuha-senpai added in mumbling “…Certainly I want to live in the Witch’s Mansion, or perhaps I should say that I want to be together with Kazuki but…”<br /> <br /> “Is that so. If senpai has a fixation like that then it cannot be helped.”<br /> <br /> “But Kazuki too don’t just stay cooped in the Witch’s Mansion, come to the Sword Division to play too sometimes! Kazuki is the Chief Student Council President after all so it’s unfair!!”<br /> <br /> “Now that senpai mentioned it, I haven’t been to the Sword Division since the previous uproar haven’t I?”<br /> <br /> “You haven’t come that much!? Yosh, then come! Rather you should stay there!!”<br /> <br /> The two arms of Kazuha-senpai that were embracing him were filled with strength, and she talked while her arms kept tightening like a bear hug. No…as expected what’s going to happen if he has a stay over there?<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, night amusements is prohibited you know. It’s no good if you are not staying the night properly here.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai clung to him from the back with a bump before she whispered into his ear. *munyu munyu*, soft sensation was pushed onto his back kneadingly. Kazuki got nervous with a twitch.<br /> <br /> “…The student dormitory in the Sword Division has the prohibition to go in and out at night, so please do it only at daytime. Tonight we have obtained permission from Headmaster Amasaki though, we are approved to stay here until especially late.”<br /> <br /> Kanae too cut into the conversation.<br /> <br /> Kanae clung onto Kaguya-senpai’s waist and tore her off from Kazuki’s back forcefully before she talked angrily.<br /> <br /> “The Sword Division is a mixed education of man and woman after all, so the students are divided into the boys dormitory and the girls dormitory. The rules are imposed stricter than the Magic Division there. …Even I had actually thought several times of going to the Witch’s Mansion for a yobai&lt;ref&gt;Stealing into a girl's bedroom at night to make love&lt;/ref&gt; because I want to meet Nii-sama! If only I don’t have to be an example as the Sword Division’s president never to break the rule!!”<br /> <br /> “I’m really glad that you are re-elected as a president once more here. I have to thank Kohaku later.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki lightly chopped Kanae’s head.<br /> <br /> Well, at her roots she was a serious person, that was surely why she didn’t do anything wild while she was being the student council president.<br /> <br /> “Rather than that kind of thing Kazuha-chan, come on teach me more in detail regarding that general magic.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuha-senpai too separated her body from Kazuki, Kaguya-senpai leaped to that Kazuha-senpai as if clinging at her and asked. After that, Kanae too continued after Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> “That’s right! I too wanted to ask about that in detail!!”<br /> <br /> Getting caught between the two that were highly praised as the academy’s strongest, Kazuha-senpai went “Eh? Eh?” and made a bewildered face.<br /> <br /> However after she remembered something and made a face of realization with a ‘hah’, she patched up a smile in her expression and said.<br /> <br /> “…If, if you become my friend then…I will teach you anything.”<br /> <br /> She just remembered Kazuki’s advice didn’t she. Although there was still some slight awkwardness remaining, it was a refreshing smiling face.<br /> <br /> “Friend-!” Kaguya-senpai embraced Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was embraced turned at Kazuki who watched over them at the side and raised a voice of wonder.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-!? The breast of this person is amazing!”<br /> <br /> I know. Kaguya-senpai had the habit of immediately hugging but the sensation was always amazing.<br /> <br /> “…Friend.”<br /> <br /> Reluctantly Kanae too took Kazuha-senpai’s hand. Doing something like this was surely a little embarrassing for her.<br /> <br /> Those three distanced themselves from the table a little and started to talk about general magic while also exchanging performance.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, are you eating properly?”<br /> <br /> Choosing the timing when Kazuki became alone, Mio approached his side while bringing in one hand small crackers with cheese and tomato placed on it. She was still in the maid uniform. And then putting the crackers in the tip of her lips, “Nn-“ she faced Kazuki.<br /> <br /> For her to come to him while plainly doing such thing, Mio was dreadful.<br /> <br /> Kazuki calmed down and accepted that action of a bakaple&lt;ref&gt;From &quot;baka&quot; (stupid) + &quot;couple&quot;; said of the sugary, loving couples that flirt constantly without minding the TPO.&lt;/ref&gt;. He held the other side of the cracker with his mouth while properly touching his own lips on Mio’s lips on purpose, then he buried his teeth with a snap.<br /> <br /> After Mio ate the cracker that had been broken in half, “Ehehe, you pass” she revealed a smile.<br /> <br /> “…Aren’t you too excited in the head.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki who was in a similar maid uniform had come beside them before he realized where she made an amazed face.<br /> <br /> “Let’s do it to Koyuki. Here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a cracker from the table and put it between his mouth and he turned at Koyuki.<br /> <br /> Koyuki went “A, are you an idiot…”, even while saying that with her mouth “Nn” she brought her small lips near Kazuki’s cracker looking not too annoyed as she would have him believe.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;Chuu* Rather than saying that Koyuki received the cracker, she was sucking at Kazuki’s lips altogether. …When Koyuki was doing a kiss, she had the habit to profusely suck with passion.<br /> <br /> Not only half, the cracker was stolen in its entirety into Koyuki’s mouth. Even so Koyuki still sucked at Kazuki’s lips for a while, finally after that she was satisfied and separated herself before chewing the cracker *mogumogu*.<br /> <br /> “…It’s delicious, as might be expected from the food that I helped to make.” She averted her face with bright red face.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai who was watching anime noticed the situation here and came near them with bright eyes.<br /> <br /> “Tou-! I don’t need any excuse like cracker or whatever! When I feel that I want to kiss I’m going to kiss immediately right away-!!”<br /> <br /> After she gallantly proclaimed that, she suddenly stole Kazuki’s lips.<br /> <br /> “Hoshikaze-senpai, I don’t know whether that frankness aspect of yours is just too cool or manly, but it’s lacking in girlishness you know.”<br /> <br /> When Mio retorted from the side, Hikaru-senpai was “Nnyumu-!?” leaking out such voice and separated her lips.<br /> <br /> “Is that so I wonder?” “That’s really so. Do it more with the feel that will make even flowers blush.” “But isn’t saying that yourself too sly?” “Romantic is something you produce with your own power.” “How difficult.”<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai, Mio too is really extreme so it’s fine if you don’t mind that.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki entered between the two that was in the middle of dialogue and talked, Hikaru-senpai said “I know, right?” and nodded in relief.<br /> <br /> “…Everyone’s heads are too excited.” Koyuki murmured.<br /> <br /> Mio immediately retorted “You are the one that was the most passionate just now!!”<br /> <br /> “…Putting that aside, I wonder if it’s about time for the main dish to be ready.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki led Mio and Koyuki out of the living room and entered the kitchen.<br /> <br /> First he took out the heat-resistant plate from the large-type oven.<br /> <br /> The main dish’s first course was Acqua Pazza. Boiling marine products with water and wine, the so called boiled food of south Italian version. With sufficient soup pooling up on the large heat-resistant plate, a fish was wholly put in the center. A lot of shellfish and mini tomato were decorated in its surrounding, it looked completely like an article of rare beauty of gorgeous treasure box filled with the blessing of sea. But actually if one was experienced at seafood’s preliminary arrangement, this dish was also a simple cooking that could be completed just by putting it into oven after that.<br /> <br /> Next Kazuki took the large-type pressure cooker that he had left alone for a while after turning off the fire.<br /> <br /> One more dish was a beef stew. If pressure cooker was used then the meat could be made soft in just a short time, if he used the homemade demi-glace sauce that he stocked inside the refrigerator then it would become a genuine finisher that he wouldn’t be ashamed to show wherever he was.<br /> <br /> The cooking tool and equipment that were prepared in the Witch’s Mansion whether its oven or even its pot were all large type items for business use. It was fine to call the kitchen as professional resource mostly. He could make cooking even for large number of people without difficulty.<br /> <br /> He also received help from Mio and Koyuki and carried the cooking altogether with the heat-resistant plate and the pressure cooker to the living room. The gorgeous appearance and aroma raised excited cheering from everyone.<br /> <br /> “Celebration King-sama, let this one bring you the food.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku reverently turned to Kamimura-san and distributed the food.<br /> <br /> Look like she found a new target for lord and retainer relationship changing from Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “…Amazing. Even though all the food until now had been delicious, that there are still more food remaining…”<br /> <br /> While receiving the food in large serving, Kamimura-san opened her eyes wide while cowering.<br /> <br /> “Kamimura-san called yourself something like Celebration King after all so haven’t you eaten even better things compared to an amateur cooking of someone like me? Kamimura-san is the highest celebrated personage of the Shrine Maiden right?”<br /> <br /> “…I’m just an ordinary person that made contract with Amaterasu secretly you know. It’s not like there is particularly an existence of a post like Celebration King in the public institution of Japan. A contract with Amaterasu is an illegal contract.”<br /> <br /> “…Now that you said that. Then the priests and chief priest that worked in Ise Imperial Shrine didn’t know about the existence of Kamimura-san that made a contract with Amaterasu?”<br /> <br /> “Even if I come out and introduced myself saying ‘I have contracted with Amaterasu heerree’, I’m only going to get arreeessted even faster than the priests can show their respect to me. Of course Amaterasu was happy that rituals are performed in Ise Imperial Shrine. Their faith is not a one-way traffic. But, I’m different.”<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it, I brought Kamimura-san here even though I don’t know anything about most of your personal history… What about Kamimura-san’s parents?”<br /> <br /> While it was already too late, he thought about this girl’s life circumstances. Nevertheless, Ise was still Yamato’s territory, so when she was not in the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave and was in this world there was no other choice than to come to east Japan if she thought of going to live.<br /> <br /> However, even this girl was supposed to have family in east Japan shouldn’t she?<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san shook her head left and right.<br /> <br /> “I don’t particularly mind. Both my parents…had already finished my funeral. I, am originally shunned by my family because I’m a shut-in. Surely even if I just suddenly come back to life I will only be a bother.”<br /> <br /> …Isn’t such thing just too sad?<br /> <br /> It seemed that the relationship between Kamimura-san and her parents was not good.<br /> <br /> But as long as she still lived―not in a half-dead condition like now but when she took back her life properly, if Kamimura-san could get back on her feet from her shut-in tendency, wouldn’t all of it be undone?<br /> <br /> “Something like a party, truthfully it has been a while since the last time I had a birthday party when I was small…”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san murmured with a deeply sinking voice.<br /> <br /> The surrounding pricked up their ears and listened attentively to her conversation with Kazuki. The atmosphere changed into a solemn and quiet one.<br /> <br /> “Itsuki-chan, it’s fine for you to call me as Onee-chan!”<br /> <br /> Spontaneously Kaguya-senpai hugged Kamimura-san tightly in great force.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine to think of this Witch’s Mansion as your own home okay!!”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san opened her eyes wide and looked baffled, but once Kaguya-senpai hugged someone she wouldn’t let go easily like a turtle’s shell. Kamimura-san helplessly brought her food to her mouth while kept being hugged.<br /> <br /> The moment the food touched her mouth, that side face of hers that looked slightly tense with nervousness softened faintly.<br /> <br /> …Something like cooking was actually just a trivial thing though. He wanted her to feel once more that it was a wonderful thing that she said she wanted to live. He cooked these dishes with that thought in mind.<br /> <br /> “Kamimura-san, how is the taste I wonder?”<br /> <br /> “Delicious. Really…this is the first time I ate a cooking this delicious. Amaterasu too seemed to be satisfied inside me.”<br /> <br /> But after saying such thing, Kamimura-san’s expression suddenly underwent a complete change as if a dark cloud covered her.<br /> <br /> “…I, I become anxious about what are going to be demanded from me after being welcomed this much…even though someone like me will surely be unable to answer your expectation…”<br /> <br /> “You are thinking too much there. We are not particularly having any ulterior motive in welcoming Kamimura-san here after all.”<br /> <br /> “That, that’s true. I’m too roused am I, despite someone like me is just like something extra that come along with Amaterasu, I’m just misunderstanding that someone like me is the one that get welcomed…someone like me is just an extra that is like trash right.”<br /> <br /> Uu―nn, this person….<br /> <br /> When Kazuki felt slightly dumbfounded, Kamimura-san noticed her own response just now with a look of realization and dropped her shoulders.<br /> <br /> “So, sorry…I realized just now, I said a troublesome thing…I’m sorry.”<br /> <br /> She is really a person that rushed down the stair of self-torture with steady rhythm….<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 084.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “I think that her personality is really difficult but, it’s not like there is any real harm from that anyway.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki gently petted the head of Kamimura-san who was looking down with an expression of ruined mood.<br /> <br /> While Kamimura-san kept looking down, a small heart mark came flying from her.<br /> <br /> Kamimura Itsuki―34<br /> <br /> The night of the welcoming party advanced on harmoniously.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> And then the ordinary usual days returned.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and others’ original ordinary days―it also included the strict class work of the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> “…Because of such reasons, Japan and Yamato entered ceasefire due to the interruption of the Magic Advanced Countries, but let’s look back what kind of countries these Magic Advanced Countries are in the first place.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei who was in charge of magic practice’s class was brandishing teacher’s pointer inside the class today.<br /> <br /> It was a rare classroom lecture of Liz Liza-sensei.<br /> <br /> The students straightened their backs and sharpened their ears even more seriously compared when they are in the class of other teachers.<br /> <br /> “You guys are not simply learning the way to use magic, but you also must pick things up fast about the society’s affairs and the international problem. After all the owner of special power has the responsibility to wield that power correctly. [Idiot who doesn’t watch his surrounding] doesn’t have the qualification to use Summoning Magic.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too had talked about similar thing before in the ceremonial address at the enrollment ceremony.<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively looked down at the back of his left hand that he put on top of his own table.<br /> <br /> Right there was the Stigmata in pentagram shape that he earned from his contract with Leme.<br /> <br /> The Power of King―he possessed a special power even above all the Magika Stigmas in Japan. That was not his own conceit talking, what he had was really a top category powerful strength in Japan.<br /> <br /> The [responsibility] that Liz Liza-sensei said felt unusually heavier in his case.<br /> <br /> Being aware of such thing himself, he had to wield this power with consideration in his own special way.<br /> <br /> “In the first place what is magic? What is called magic is the new possibility of human that was awakened due to the product of super alchemy technique, the &lt;Philosopher Stone&gt;. A power that distorted physical law with the power of thought…. Fifteen years ago, the Philosopher Stone was given birth in this world due to an alchemist that called himself Basileus Basileon.”<br /> <br /> {{furigana|Basileus Basileon|King Among King}}…<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously realized in surprise. Leme had assigned him with a given name of [{{furigana|King|Basileus}}]. If he thought about that, it was a name with a really deep meaning.<br /> <br /> Setting aside such Kazuki, the class continued on.<br /> <br /> “Now, what is alchemy then. In the present era there are many things that are called alchemy, which is a technique that bring about change in material that is scientifically impossible by operating magic power and used magic but…the original alchemy was something far older in history than even magic.”<br /> <br /> In the first place the Philosopher Stone was created by means of alchemy, and then from that magic was born in this world, so that sequence of history was something natural. In which case what was alchemy that didn’t make use of magic power?<br /> <br /> “The original alchemy was something that caused phenomenon inexplicable from science using great effort and will power. Science researched [unchangeable law that bring about the same result no matter how many times it is tested]. However the world of mother nature where we put ourselves like this always has complex factors operating mutually. We called such environment a [complex system]. Even when we are planning to repeat the same experiment many times over, but actually even without intending it we are performing experiment in totally different conditions every time, there is always something that we don’t notice. Just with a wind blowing in the middle of the experiment, or a slight change in temperature we already cannot say that [we are repeating the same experiment] right? Thereupon we cannot actually proclaim that [the experiment always bring about the same result]. In that aspect there is the possibility to make phenomenon that cannot be called other than mysterious phenomenon or occult to occur. Such great efforts of persistence to intentionally attempt to make [miracle born from complex system] occur is what is called alchemy.”<br /> <br /> Making miracle occurred intentionally….<br /> <br /> “Alchemy was born in the Middle Age. If we have to specifically say what kind of thing the alchemist at that time did…Einstein left behind words that say [Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly yet expecting a different result], but in short what the alchemists did was doing what Einstein said continuously. They did this not in the range of several hundred of thousand times or several days just so you know, but several dozens of years, or even if several generations had passed they kept doing it in the range of several hundreds of years. Despite doing the same experiment, they earnestly waited for a different result to be produced…. That result they waited for, it seemed there was also the phenomenon of changing lead into pure gold there.”<br /> <br /> The students drew back from the speech. Liz Liza-sensei then continued the explanation solemnly.<br /> <br /> “Well then, it ''seemed'' there was an organization that was continuing such insane action until they reached this present era. Fifteen years ago an organization of alchemist called &lt;{{furigana|Liber Mundi|Almighty Wisdom of Dawn}} suddenly appeared. The leader of this organization was Basileus Basileon. He published the Philosopher Stone in this world and began to sell it with high price. When this Philosopher’s Stone is pushed against a human’s head, the stone will be buried into the head while assimilating and the human will awaken to the power of magic. It’s pointless to just think what kind of theory it used that such things could happen. Because at any rate it’s the product of a miracle.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively pressed his own hand onto his forehead. It was a grotesque story now that he imagined it once again.<br /> <br /> “When the brain before and after it get filled with Philosopher’s Stone is inspected, it seems that there is no change at all in the form and nature of the brain. Despite there being no physical change at all, brain waves and brain activity that cannot be seen until then become visible. There is no change…in other words it means that the area of the brain that couldn’t be used before is now usable. It is possibly that [the sealed power of human was liberated] or something…what happened is thought to be something like that.”<br /> <br /> “Err, sensei.”<br /> <br /> Mio who sat in the first front row of the class raised her hand.<br /> <br /> “What, Amasaki. For trash to think like trash and give form to its own thought is a good thing. After all proactive argument invigorates the memory of brain. Teacher like the trash that has the desire to improve itself you know.”<br /> <br /> “A sealed power, that’s what you say, could the people from a long time ago use magic?”<br /> <br /> Mio stood up and inquired and then she sat once more.<br /> <br /> “That’s a natural question. When do you think the time that you called a long time ago happened…. Even though the fossils of Australopithecus or Ramidus ape man had been discovered many times over, there is no discovery of traces of the existence of magic technique in the ancient times. How mysterious right. Such argument is also related with human race’s evolution and spreading. In places like Europe they totally ignored things like archaeology and &lt;Resurrection of Mythology Era Theory&gt; that say [what is called Mythology is the record of reality of human races when they could use magic] become the mainstream there but, well, it’s contradictory with Japan’s scientific society that is based on archaeology isn’t it.”<br /> <br /> “…In other words, what does it mean?”<br /> <br /> Toward Mio who was still tilting her head, Liz Liza-sensei said a curt comment of “It’s things that we don’t understand. There are aspects of magic that is pointless to keep pondering about.” <br /> <br /> “So, with the profit from the sales of the Philosopher’s Stone, &lt;Libel Mundi&gt; became an existence so enormous that it grasped the entire world at the time just as you all know. This world has been conquered before by a secret society. But it seemed there was an internal conflict in the organization, and the leader Basileus Basileon was assassinated. Though there are also believers that claimed he is still surviving because his corpse wasn’t discovered. Anyway the outcome from that, &lt;Libel Mundi&gt; was divided among its headquarters in Britain and its six branches in various countries. Those parts of organization were absorbed by the countries. The Britain headquarters into Britain, Germany branch into Germany…like that the Great Seven Magic Advanced Countries were born.”<br /> <br /> Now that she mentioned it this was a class about the Magic Advanced Countries.<br /> <br /> Finally the discussion reached the main topic.<br /> <br /> There was once a group that accomplished world domination, and then with that group split off the Magic Advanced Countries….<br /> <br /> “Now then, if I have to say why such details is important to the explanation of the current international states, that’s because Libel Mundi’s headquarter and branches each came into contact with different Mythologies and Divas and then they either researched it or embracing faith. And then it was taken over by each one of the Magic Advanced Countries and made into state religion after that. In other words…”<br /> <br /> That time Liz Liza-sensei used the blackboard for the first time, what was noted down there was like this.<br /> <br /> Britain―Celtic Mythology<br /> <br /> Italia―Greece Mythology<br /> <br /> Germany―Norse Mythology<br /> <br /> Russia―Slavic Mythology<br /> <br /> China―Taoism Mythology<br /> <br /> Japan―Solomon 72 Pillar (Non-faith)<br /> <br /> America―Unknown<br /> <br /> “About America they are not really known. They are outstandingly applying isolationism and doesn’t try to connect with other countries after all. Even in the affair this time only America is the one that doesn’t come.”<br /> <br /> …It was right about this time. Suddenly Kazuki looked up at the clock in the classroom and he ran his thought.<br /> <br /> Right about now, the important people of the government were supposed to be in a meeting of talk with the envoys of Britain – Italia – Germany – Russia.<br /> <br /> After doing small scale meetings several times for a while, in the weekend Japan and Yamato and the envoys would all gather and opened the [mass conference], that was what he was told.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was excluded from such table of diplomacy.<br /> <br /> All that would be going on from now on was going to progress in the place Kazuki had no knowledge on.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was a student so it was only something natural.<br /> <br /> Receiving lesson like this in class was only natural…. Even if he was called a King, he was just a mere student.<br /> <br /> “A hot topic like this will of course appear in the test. There are some delay that appear in the class but the end of term exam will be still conducted just as scheduled, so don’t you dare neglect your study and focus yourself to the quest and the practical skill!”<br /> <br /> The shriek of the students broke out inside the class that was usually obedient.<br /> <br /> “Don’t get noisy for every little thing! No way the exam will be suspended just because of an accident in the level of west Japan becoming independent and a part of the students got conscripted. After all you first years don’t even have midterm exam anyway.”<br /> <br /> The first year of the Magic Division was exempted from the midterm examination. There was still a lot of the students who still hadn’t succeeded in their &lt;Contract Ceremony&gt; at this period, because of that the contract was given maximum priority.<br /> <br /> Therefore the end of term examination’s material covered all they studied throughout the whole year and it turned into a frightening obstacle.<br /> <br /> “The students who were taken along to west Japan couldn’t participate in the class so it might feel unfair. But during that period, the class for practical skill was prioritized. After all it was inevitable that there were a great number of people that were not strong in practical skill among the remaining students. Because of that reason going along to west Japan cannot become an excuse. Spend your time practicing hard! That’s all!”<br /> <br /> After Liz Liza-sensei threw a large bomb to the students, Liz Liza-sensei exited the classroom.<br /> <br /> The students made a stir. Mio who was in a separate seat came around to Kazuki’s seat.<br /> <br /> “Wait a second Kazuki, are you okay? If you like, it’s fine for you to get taught by this me who is also rank A in study! Fuffu―nn! I will work you hard earnestly every night-♪”<br /> <br /> It seemed like Mio had a great confidence in her study, she treated the agonizing cries in the surrounding as if it was someone else’s problem smiled radiantly at Kazuki with her chest puffed up. However Kazuki too was keeping his cool and answered.<br /> <br /> “For the moment, I haven’t been lacking in reviewing the lessons for a while so I think I’m going to be fine. My score shouldn’t fall below the average.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was still much more inferior in practical skill compared to Mio or Koyuki. Even while putting his utmost effort in that, Kazuki also had the awareness that he mustn’t get left behind even in the classwork too.<br /> <br /> “Muu―, boring, boring, you have no cuteness!”<br /> <br /> Mio who seemed to want to be relied on by Kazuki came punching repeatedly at Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> Kazuki said “That’s because I’m not aiming for something like cuteness” and smiled wryly.<br /> <br /> “But let’s do a study group with everyone! Come on, all of you too!”<br /> <br /> Mio exchanged looks with Koyuki who was behind Kazuki and Kamimura-san by Kazuki’s side.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san received the favor of having the previous person besides Kazuki move away and sat there. It was an unbecoming special treatment for the Magic Division’s spartan education, but it couldn’t be helped if he thought about the girl’s delicate mental state.<br /> <br /> There was a value in treating the girl specially as the contractor of Amaterasu who held the key in their battle with Yamato.<br /> <br /> Such girl was lying on top of her desk with complete exhaustion.<br /> <br /> “…To get dragged forcefully and made to attend a school that I don’t want to go to…moreover there is also tests…”<br /> <br /> “Doesn’t that make Kamimura-san feel the wholesome springtime of youth like this?”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s words, Kamimura-san was “Ugyaa―!” while raising a strange voice and she raised her face.<br /> <br /> “Such bright energy is a poison for me see! Ugyaaa―! I have the feeling that all the gaze in this classroom are directing contempt at me! It’s better for this world to just perish!!”<br /> <br /> “…Whaa―tt is she saying, this child?”<br /> <br /> Mio was taken aback from Kamimura-san’s conduct. For a human like Mio that was like a lump of bright energy who tended to stand out from her great confidence in herself, it seemed that Kamimura-san’s conduct was really something that was hard to understand.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless Mio didn’t even harbor any feeling like exclusiveness against foreign things right now. She was just merely looking into Kamimura-san’s expression with a pure countenance.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san twitched and once more lied on top of her desk in order to hide her face.<br /> <br /> “School is scary…school caste is scary…”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine, this Knight Academy runs under a complete doctrine of strength after all. So if you are strong then anything is allowed you know.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that, Kamimura-san’s shoulders shook with a twitch.<br /> <br /> “Don’t tell me…even if you say that, here is an insular island country that valued peace so much that the people even turned malicious…. This country is an absolute world that valued communication ability rather than strength…. Strong person is ostracized, sticking out nail get hammered down, the riajuu&lt;ref&gt;Person who is satisfied with his or her real (offline) life&lt;/ref&gt; with refreshing smile get ahead at life in turns…. That kind of world…. For a doctrine of strength’s culture to take root in this kind of country should be impossible…”<br /> <br /> “No, this is a school that is raising knights geared towards battlefield. There is no room for pigheaded heart that is bullying strong people here.”<br /> <br /> “But I’m not strong or anything…”<br /> <br /> Even now Kamimura-san was persistently venting out anxious voice.<br /> <br /> It seemed this girl was probably starving for words of [It’s okay] .<br /> <br /> Her appearance that looked liked she was going to run away from the surrounding was completely like a young child that got lost from her parent.<br /> <br /> “No, Kamimura-san’s true strength is without a doubt top class in this academy…you are everyone’s hero!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki spoke empathically, Kamimura-san lifted her face and her eyes slightly brightened.<br /> <br /> For some reason it seemed she had quite a confidence in her magic ability.<br /> <br /> Because that was her very bond with her only friend Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> The classmates at their surrounding went “That child who seemed to have special circumstance, I hear she is strong!” “She is at a level where she got recognized by the Chief President!?” and made a stir. Kazuki intentionally raised his voice so that it was audible to the surrounding before.<br /> <br /> Outside of Kamimura-san’s field of vision, Kazuki was waving his wrist up and down to send a hand sign as if saying [Say it more, say it more].<br /> <br /> Everyone went along with Kazuki in good cheers and went “Awee―some!” “Awee―some!” rousing up the atmosphere.<br /> <br /> All of a sudden Kamimura-san lifted up her upper body.<br /> <br /> “FUOO…you are saying that in here I’m not a person scorned because of my suspicious behavior…? I am a hero!? I, come across a sanctuary in here!!”<br /> <br /> “Well, result is also an aspect of strength, so if your studies turned out no good then your evaluation will go poof though.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki murmured idly.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san’s face became pale in the blink of eye and she lied down on the desk once more.<br /> <br /> “Kamimura-san…you are not good at studying?”<br /> <br /> “My studies stopped at the first semester of my middle school first year. Since that time I have been a shut-in all along.”<br /> <br /> The surrounding classmates leaked out their voices saying “That girl, I heard she is an idiot” “Ee~, so she is an idiot”.<br /> <br /> “Now I am being scorned! If there is a hole I want to get holed in one and die with a splat!!”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine you see, everyone will teach you. That’s why let’s hold a study group with everyone.”<br /> <br /> “When you teach me it turned out that I’m more of an idiot than you imagined…even if such thing happen, you won’t scorn and get angry at me?”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san lifted her face with a glance and stared at Kazuki. It was a gaze that was asking to be spoiled by him.<br /> <br /> “I won’t do that, no way.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki persevered and strongly encouraged her. He did it in order to grant her a peace of mind. With a plop, a small heart mark emerged out from Kamimura-san’s chest and it was absorbed into the ring of Solomon.<br /> <br /> “I too want to get taught desu~!”<br /> <br /> Hearing the uproar, Lotte too came along with an urgent expression.<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it Lotte is a year younger aren’t you.”<br /> <br /> Lotte was not outdone by her surrounding when it came to study of magic, but she was having a hard battle in the general class.<br /> <br /> She seemed to have it hard especially in the study of science. It was because in her motherland science had fairly retrogressed.<br /> <br /> The other Magic Advanced Countries were religious country. Accordingly it seemed there were those who had a dogma that denied science technology.<br /> <br /> “Yes…I’m trying desperately to catch up though.”<br /> <br /> “Lotte cannot cheat with Telepathy?”<br /> <br /> When Mio said that nonchalantly, Lotte went “Hah!” while making a face as if realization had been brought to her.<br /> <br /> “Oioi, what are you saying there.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki reflexively interposed that talk, Lotte went bashful with “Ehehe”.<br /> <br /> “It’s a joke desu. The most that I can perceive somehow with Telepathy is only obscure emotion desu. If I want to feel it clearer then a magic power light will break out. If that happen then the cheating will get exposed desu.”<br /> <br /> “Magic too is not almighty huh.”<br /> <br /> “That’s why please teach me how to study too desu~”<br /> <br /> Lotte took hold of Kazuki’s hand and shook it up and down. Seeing that [skillful spoiled] figure, Kamimura-san said “As expected from Lotte-shishou&lt;ref&gt;Master/Teacher&lt;/ref&gt;…” and directed an envious look at Lotte.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> After school ended, Kazuki visited the Sword Division just as he promised.<br /> <br /> “Welcome, to the Sword Division!”<br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai welcomed him happily.<br /> <br /> Both of them faced each other in the central fountain plaza that separated the Magic Division and the Sword Division.<br /> <br /> “You look really happy, senpai.”<br /> <br /> “…There is nothing wrong with me feeling happy here.” Kazuha-senpai pouted her lips to hide her embarrassment.<br /> <br /> “No, I ‘m just thinking that senpai showed your honesty to me. I’m wondering how happy senpai feels.”<br /> <br /> “Shaddup! Shaddup! Come on, let’s not waste any time!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai linked her hand tightly with Kazuki’s hand and she guided Kazuki inside the grounds of the Sword Division.<br /> <br /> The Sword Division was once destroyed from the attack of the Quad Core Magica, but while Kazuki and the others were fighting at west Japan, the reconstruction had been finished.<br /> <br /> Not only was it built back to how it was before, its facility was also expanded. The Sword Division’s facilities were inferior in various aspects compared to the Magic Division, but the disparity had begun to be negated.<br /> <br /> The opinion of Kazuki and Headmaster Amasaki’s opinion coincided with each other and they were bringing the Sword Division and the Magic Division closer to equality little by little.<br /> <br /> Crossing the bridge above the pond that was filled with floating lotus flower, the both of them were walking following the path that was dotted with stepping stones and stretching up and down the artificial hills in the garden. In contrast with the Magic Division’s western garden that was divided orderly, the Sword Division’s Japanese garden imitated the nature in a jumble with deep charm. Whichever one that he walked, both garden had a very good atmosphere.<br /> <br /> “If senpai wants, we can link arms like the time in Ise, it will be better like that.”<br /> <br /> While feeling the warmth of Kazuha-senpai’s palm, Kazuki talked with a light tone.<br /> <br /> “Stupid-! If we do that kind of thing inside the school, we are going to be thought as a bakaple and it’s going to become a strange rumor you know-!”<br /> <br /> “But I think just by holding hands and walking together it will already create strange rumors like that though.”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki pointed that out, Kazuha-senpai groaned “Uu~” but she didn’t try to separate their hands.<br /> <br /> And then actually, while they were walking the students of the Sword Division that happened to pass by them sporadically were throwing their gaze at them and gossiping in whispers.<br /> <br /> “Ah, it’s the Chief President and Tsukahara-san” “There is a rumor that their relation is good but, looks like it’s true” “Tsukahara-san, recently she became bright didn’t she” “Feels like she became easy to talk with” “A man really changes a woman eh~”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s body trembled with a twitch and she released Kazuki’s hand completely.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki, as if he was saying that he didn’t mind whatever people talked about, embraced Kazuha-senpai’s waist with one hand tightly. The separated two people became tightly glued on their hips.<br /> <br /> From the surrounding students, with the girl as the core raised up their voices “Kyaa―” “How nice, how nice―!” <br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki-! Geez! Come here a little!”<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuha-senpai didn’t try to shake off Kazuki, she pulled Kazuki into the bushes behind the school building in order to get far away from people’s eyes.<br /> <br /> It was a dark corner where people’s eyes and even sunshine were blocked by leaves.<br /> <br /> “…About how the surrounding is tolerant about how you get along well with a large number of girls, I think that’s because there is nothing graphic in your relation with girls.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai lowered her voice and gave him a warning.<br /> <br /> It was an expression in a roundabout way but Kazuki understood it intuitively.<br /> <br /> The power of magic distorted reality due to strong thoughts. There was the case where that power was invoked unconsciously.<br /> <br /> Because of that, contraception for male and female became unreliable. A strong feeling that desired each other made any contraception method completely ineffective. The result was that the relation of man and woman in the present era became something more prudent.<br /> <br /> Female prized their chastity and it was not rare for them to protect their purity until marriage.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai, when she was made excited by Asmodeus or Hikaru-senpai whose self awareness as a girl was thin, were quite dangerous in their awareness around this area but…. However, exactly because of that even if there was a male that got along well with multiple girls the surrounding didn’t really mind it. That was what Kazuha-senpai wanted to say.<br /> <br /> “But if, only if…if there is a student around you that became pregnant and dropped out or took a break from school, you will lose the trust as a Chief Student Council President, no, as a Knight. That’s why…it’s fine even if you flirt with other girls but you absolutely mustn’t cross that one line, you get it.”<br /> <br /> For Kazuha-senpai who had criticized Kazuki’s harem state since they first met, that warning was surely a compromise from her. At the same time, it was also a reasonable warning as a person.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai closer gently before lightly brushing away her bangs and kissed her forehead.<br /> <br /> “…My heart is satisfied just doing this so it’s fine senpai.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stood on her tiptoes and kissed back at Kazuki’s cheek.<br /> <br /> “…Are you really satisfied with just that?”<br /> <br /> After she distanced her lips, Kazuha-senpai whispered into Kazuki’s ear.<br /> <br /> Even though she was the one that gave him the warning, it was a sweet whisper coming from herself that tried to seduce him.<br /> <br /> Senpai’s expression too was colored with a sweet color.<br /> <br /> Kazuki tightly embraced Kazuha-senpai strongly, and kissed her lips to lips. Kazuha-senpai too embraced Kazuki back, and glued herself at him as if rubbing her soft body to him.<br /> <br /> Whether their chest or their hips, both were sticking close to each other. A strong kiss and embrace that were trying to blend their whole body.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a déjà vu toward that warmth―he remembered the time in the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave when he was embracing Kazuha-senpai in naked while kissing. At that time he was completely thinking “I want to keep more like this”.<br /> <br /> At that time they didn’t go further than that, was not because of the power of their reason, but it was nothing more than because the rock door opened and Amaterasu appeared.<br /> <br /> While hugging at each other with senpai, Kazuki felt a shiver. He absolutely mustn’t lay his hands on these lovely girls. ‘I need a steel-like reasoning’, Kazuki once more thought.<br /> <br /> Kazuki softly released her lips. Kazuha-senpai was intoxicated and making a drunk expression from the kiss.<br /> <br /> How cute. As long as someone is a man then surely everyone will think so.<br /> <br /> Doing his best to restrain his feeling of cherish, Kazuki opened his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Then let’s continue the tour of the Sword Division, please take care of me.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s expression returned to the color of reality.<br /> <br /> “…Right. I got it, let’s go.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai slapped her face with both her hand *PAN!* vigorously. By doing that she tightened her expression, then she took Kazuki’s hand and led him out from behind the school building.<br /> <br /> Once again, the tour was restarted while the students at their surrounding bantered about them.<br /> <br /> “That building is the female student dormitory where we lived.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai talked while pointing at a building that looked like a Japanese castle with tiled roof stacked like layers. When he came here before there was no high-rise building like this, it was supposed to be just a building in the style of row houses before.<br /> <br /> “It was reconstructed gorgeously like a castle. Everyone in the Sword Division is grateful to you for your stance of equality with the Magic Division. The rooms and the like turned out really spacious.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai opened her hands wide and made a gesture, conveying her joy to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Like usual the surrounding Sword Division students were looking at them with teasing eyes and leaking out whispering voice cheerfully.<br /> <br /> ―However gazes that could be said to be filled with good will were mixed among those.<br /> <br /> He could also feel some gazes that contained slight thorn.<br /> <br /> ‘What’s with that’, Kazuki tilted his head. Perhaps it was not as simple as Kazuha-senpai said where all the students of the Sword Division gave their support to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “And then this way is where the dojo…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai didn’t show any sign of noticing such gazes and gave Kazuki a tour inside the school cheerfully as if displaying her own collection.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The ordinary days were passing through.<br /> <br /> Passing the days in the Knight Academy, finally the weekend came.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, so you really remembered about your promise of going to a date with me!!”<br /> <br /> When it became Sunday and Kazuki invited Kaguya-senpai to a date, senpai was smiling widely with a bright expression in a happy mood. That’s right, before this Kazuki had promised to go for a date with Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai who turned up at the meeting place in front of the station was in a white one-piece with no sleeve that really suited the early summer.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced senpai’s waist. The cloth of the one piece intended for summer was thin, Kaguya-senpai’s soft waist was directly transmitted to his palm. “Fufufu-“ Kaguya-senpai happily leaned her body on him and the two of them departed for their date while nestling close to each other.<br /> <br /> Both of them rode the magic light train.<br /> <br /> Their destination was a farm in the rural area secluded from the capital city area.<br /> <br /> It was named &lt;Animal Contact Farm&gt;.<br /> <br /> It was a facility not with the objective of raising animals for livestock but for sightseeing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had a really hard time in choosing the location for the date.<br /> <br /> Failure was absolutely unforgivable. Quite a long time had passed since his promise for a date and also during that time Kaguya-senpai had completely mistaken Kazuki’s speech and conduct as [researching romantic in preparation for the date with her]. Kazuki had come under an abnormal pressure.<br /> <br /> There Kazuki tried to rely on Hikaru-senpai. As a [close friend] that had accompanied Kaguya-senpai even longer than Kazuki, there was no doubt that she surely could grant him a wonderful expertise.<br /> <br /> “Things that Kaguya like? Nn―, she unexpectedly like animals you know. She is absurdly affectionate to animals.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai answered like that.<br /> <br /> “I see, thank you very much! But I don’t think it’s particularly unexpected though.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, isn’t it unexpected? See, Kaguya is an ‘S’ so I thought she is going to torment the animal! But she is just being affectionate to the animal with all her heart! Unexpected right!?”<br /> <br /> “I don’t think that Kaguya-senpai personally is that much of an ‘S’ though…. For Hikaru-senpai to come across Kaguya-senpai’s ‘S’ tendency, isn’t there a little ‘M’ tendency in Hikaru-senpai instead?&lt;ref&gt;S refers to Sadist and M refers to Masochist.&lt;/ref&gt;”<br /> <br /> “I’m not an ‘M’ you know!?”<br /> <br /> ―There was that kind of conversation. And then Kazuki decided on this date course under such scrupulous investigation. And then when they finally arrived in the destination area…,<br /> <br /> “Hoo―ww―cuu―tee-!!”<br /> <br /> …Kaguya-senpai reacted exactly just as he imagined.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai leaped toward [Animal Contact Plaza ~Rabbit Zone~] with a violent dash.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOO-!” Raising such strange voice “Nyaa―! Goronyaa―!!” raising cat’s purring voice, Kaguya-senpai hugged a fluffy rabbit while petting it back and forth repeatedly.<br /> <br /> Her tension was raising too much and she turned into a strange person to her heart’s content.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, rabbit’s crying voice is not [nyaa―] but more like a [puu].”<br /> <br /> “Puu? That’s Koyuki-chan's crying voice right?”<br /> <br /> “The trademark gag of that voice is from rabbit. The phrase trademark gag feels wrong though.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too lifted up a young small rabbit and started to cuddle it fluffily.<br /> <br /> The rabbits turned to these two and [puu] mumbled out a crying voice like that.<br /> <br /> “They cried! Moreover they don’t even run away from humans at all. Ufufu, you are cute, really cute♪”<br /> <br /> “The domesticating of the animal in this farm is very good isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> While the two were frolicking with the rabbits, a caretaker uncle wearing a hat and overalls walked approaching them and replied to Kazuki’s words.<br /> <br /> “For some reason with the birth of magic in this world as the impetus, there is this impression that the animals turned amiable to humans.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai went “Eeh!?” in shock hearing those unexpected words. “Though there is no basis whatsoever scientifically in it though” After giving that preface, the uncle continued his story with a face of marvel himself.<br /> <br /> “I think that it’s too conceited to consider that when there is a strange phenomenon that happened in the world, only humans get affected while there is no effect at all to the animals. It is said that all humans are connected through Astrum in the depth of their heart or something like that, but if that so then the animals too are supposed to be connected through Astrum. And then Demon Beast are born from Astrum, but couldn’t it be that such thing is a gathering of ''the detestable aspect of animals’ latent consciousness assembly'' that become Demon Beast. Though this is just my personal thought.”<br /> <br /> Demon Beast was called as [human race’s absolute enemy]. At the same time Kazuki remembered that a great number of Japanese Mythology Divas were existences that symbolized [worship and fear to nature].<br /> <br /> He felt that the hypothesis that the uncle said had quite a power of persuasion of its possibility.<br /> <br /> “Next there is also Telepathy. It might be feeble but couldn’t that come into existence between humans and animals too. To put simply, the animals too are one of the members of this world.”<br /> <br /> “I think I can say yes to that thought-!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s voice was excited from feeling pleased of such thought.<br /> <br /> Guided by the caretaker, Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai moved to the fence of the other animals. The rabbits accompanied them until the farthest the fence allowed from the regret of parting with the two, making Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai even more softened.<br /> <br /> “This alpaca was popular a long time ago”, or “Snakes too are friendly toward people you know”, the caretaker introduced them to various animals. Kaguya-senpai rubbed her cheek to the strange face of the alpaca, twining around a snake around her neck like a muffler’s replacement, she was showing a state of great delight.<br /> <br /> So far it was a success. But today’s plan didn’t end with just this.<br /> <br /> It couldn’t be said as romantic with just this much.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, I have also made a booking for just the two of us at the horse-riding experience course, let’s go.”<br /> <br /> “Horse riding!? We can ride a horse&lt;ref&gt;Here Kaguya is talking like an excited kid&lt;/ref&gt;!? Moreover we are going to ride together!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki pulled her hand and led her to the stable inside the farm.<br /> <br /> It was a horse. The horse that entered inside the stable noticed Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai’s approach and it protruded its unexpected large face outside with a neigh. “Dohyaa~” Kaguya-senpai raised a strange voice.<br /> <br /> A female caretaker handed Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai some boots.<br /> <br /> “Please change your shoes with those. You are going with a course without helmet aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded toward the confirmation of the caretaker.<br /> <br /> The magicians that were awakened in this present era could protect their body with the defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> Because of that all kind of insurance and warranty were unneeded and in exchange service industry in the form of leisure with cheap price multiplied. It was limited to service for those in the age range between the later half of the tens until the twenties when they had vigorous magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who had limited pocket money was of course choosing to reserve in this form.<br /> <br /> “This horse had earned around three hundred million monetary award when he was still active in horse racing you know.”<br /> <br /> “Three, three hundred million!?”<br /> <br /> While saying that triumphantly as if it was her own achievement, the caretaker lady was leading the horse that Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai would ride after this. Kaguya-senpai raised a curious voice while chasing the tail of the horse.<br /> <br /> “I have never imagined riding a horse in a date!”<br /> <br /> “Before this, we were fighting enemies that came from China riding horses, so I was thinking of trying to ride a horse for a little.”<br /> <br /> “I see, this is also very interesting in that kind of meaning too. Knowing your enemy before the battle isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> For a moment, Kaguya-senpai’s expression turned serious.<br /> <br /> But that expression immediately crumbled now that they had reached the point where they were going to ride the horse.<br /> <br /> First she put her foot on the stirrup on the left side of the horse and then got on its back. Thereupon Kaguya-senpai’s expression turned “Wawawaa, it’s high!” into panic. Even though she would be fine even if she fell because of her magic power, humans had an instinctive fear of height.<br /> <br /> Kazuki followed up next and rode behind Kaguya-senpai. Then he encircled his hands around Kaguya-senpai in the front like he was hugging her to grasp the rein, Kaguya-senpai then “Thi, this is so romantic!!” said so in high spirits.<br /> <br /> “Don’t curl up your back and stick out your chest, then please support your weight in the saddle using your ischial bone&lt;ref&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischium&lt;/ref&gt;.”<br /> <br /> According to the instruction of the caretaker Onee-san, rather than sitting on their bottom, they need to put their weight a little in their front section and their upper body need to take an upright posture from the horse.<br /> <br /> “Thi-this posture, feels a little strange somehow.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai whispered a little. Strange feeling…?<br /> <br /> From there the caretaker Onee-san taught them how to use the reins.<br /> <br /> “The horse remembered the course and they will walk on their own accord, so it’s okay even if you don’t pay attention. Please think of the reins as something to complete the atmosphere.”<br /> <br /> She concluded the explanation concisely, then the caretaker Onee-san rode a different horse.<br /> <br /> The Onee-san’s horses walked ahead, Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai’s horse was following along too.<br /> <br /> It seems the horses were trained for the use of riding, so they were pretty calm. It was shaking, but the horse’s movement didn’t have any instability. Certainly, there was no feeling that the horse needs any instructions even with humans on top of it.<br /> <br /> “If the horse stops to eat grass in the roadside, please use the reins to pull its neck from the grass and kick with your leg as hard as possible.”<br /> <br /> “We have to kick it? How pitiful.” Kaguya-senpai knitted her eyebrows.<br /> <br /> “If you don’t kick it as hard as possible, it won’t get the signal.”<br /> <br /> “…It's really pitiful and painful if you see it from the horse’s point of view, right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki could comprehend it, then the Onee-san also laughed “Right, right, that’s so.” and rode further ahead. Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai’s horse was also following along on its own accord. They passed the time elegantly.<br /> <br /> The horse riding course Kazuki reserved was not a simple circle course.<br /> <br /> It surrounded the ups and downs of the hills besides the ranch, a tracking course inside the mother nature.<br /> <br /> “When going uphill, lean your body forward, when going downhill bend your body backward. Please keep your balance, okay?” The Onee-san advised so. Kazuki and Kaguya did as what she instructed. Each time they did that, the body of Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai touched against each other.<br /> <br /> Along the natural road filled with broken branches scattered about, the horse kept advancing forward without care and stepped on those with its hooves. The horse entered the green dense forest course.<br /> <br /> “Oohh, how romantic! This is a really good atmosphere!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was in high spirits when she saw the scenery from the horseback.<br /> <br /> The caretaker Onee-san that was leading in front of them was taking into consideration of their status as a couple and kept quiet. She didn’t even look back at all.<br /> <br /> Suddenly Kaguya-senpai raised “Nn…” a troubled voice.<br /> <br /> “Ka-Kazuki-kun…this vertical vibration is, that is, gradually, somewhat…like climbing a pole…”<br /> <br /> “Climbing a pole? What are you saying senpai? Also, calling me Kazuki-kun…”<br /> <br /> When senpai called him using that name…. At times when senpai retained her reasoning, she called him as [Otouto-kun] in order to preserve her dignity as a senior.<br /> <br /> Senpai turned back to glance at Kazuki a bit.<br /> <br /> Those pupils were―turned into violet color like when Asmodeus’s magic power was rising to the surface.<br /> <br /> “…Senpai, you're turned on in this kind of place!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki whispered in small voice.<br /> <br /> “Nn, no, this is…I also don’t plan to be like this…. Yet there was still part of Asmodeus’ magic that I used a lot from the other day that still remained all along…. And then while Kazuki-kun hugged me, this vertical vibration is, that…at my bottom and back…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai twisted her body restlessly.<br /> <br /> This is bad, if it had became like this senpai couldn’t be stopped.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-kun, please…” Kaguya-senpai leaked a coaxing voice.<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed his eyes toward the caretaker Onee-san who was leading them. As long as there was no huge accident happening, it didn’t seems like she would turn her attention to this way.<br /> <br /> But if this horse riding course reached the end…!<br /> <br /> While the Onee-san was not looking, he must disperse Kaguya-senpai’s mood!<br /> <br /> Usually senpai would get satisfied after he hugged her tightly and caressed her back for a long period of time. But this time he didn’t have that kind of time….<br /> <br /> “Understood, Kaguya. I’ll leave the rein in Kaguya’s hand.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki handed over the reins while whispering near Kaguya’s ear.<br /> <br /> Kaguya wouldn’t be able to do anything in this posture. Kazuki had to grant pleasure to Kaguya proactively.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kaguya from behind closely. And then he stroked Kaguya’s stomach gently across the soft cloth of her one-piece dress. Her sensitivity was currently amplified several times over, she could attain great pleasures just by having her back and stomach caressed gently. However,<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-kun…” Kaguya raised an unsatisfied voice.<br /> <br /> …To answer her pleading in this limited time, he needs to act bolder compared to how he usually was.<br /> <br /> Kazuki made a momentous decision, he reached his hand toward Kaguya’s chest―her breasts.<br /> <br /> He lifted the large bulge gently with both hands, it had such a heavy and thick feeling. The feedback he felt from his hand was so heavy. At the same time he buried his fingers on her cloth and felt something soft beyond the thin fabric.<br /> <br /> Without change, Kazuki massaged those softness skillfully. What he felt from his fingers were something so frightfully soft.<br /> <br /> “Nn! Ahnn!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya leaked out stimulating breaths. A breathing that looks like she tried to endure a large voice of pleasure from leaking.<br /> <br /> That was, while Kazuki was toying around with those softness, he rapidly turned even more intense. Her reaction had already passed the realm of ticklish. Breaking through that territory, it could be seen that Kaguya-senpai clearly felt good.<br /> <br /> Kazuki also became heated up inside his mind, he couldn’t stop anymore.<br /> <br /> The horse keep walking ‘pokupokupoku’ ahead steadily. Pushing into that rhythm, Kazuki continued his massage. Kaguya-senpai's breath rapidly turned wild, she twisted her body on top of the saddle, sometimes sweet voices like “Nnnh!” or “Yaahn!” leaked from her lips.<br /> <br /> “Haah haah…Kazuki-kun, please…more…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya separated her right hand from the rein, then she undid the shoulder straps of her one-piece dress. Kazuki removed his hands from her chests reflexively. Thereupon, the upper garment of the one piece dress fell down from Kaguya’s upper body without resistance.<br /> <br /> The dress Kaguya wore was the type that inserted cups in the inside to support the breasts.<br /> <br /> In short, Kaguya was going no-bra behind the dress. Kazuki opened his eyes wide in amazement because of Kaguya’s bold action.<br /> <br /> In a surprise attack, Kaguya’s bare breasts shook like a jelly. No, that’s not the correct word, they were BOOBS.<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively gulped his saliva while taking in the meaning of Kaguya’s bold “Please.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki checked the reaction of the caretaker Onee-san in front of them once more. She was totally unaware of anything they did behind her. However they had already passed half of the course, the time limit was approaching. She couldn’t be allowed to see this kind of appearance.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 111.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Staring at a girl’s naked upper body this brazenly was the first time for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Moreover, when it comes to Kaguya’s huge breasts…!<br /> <br /> Those large globes were going to be held tightly by himself.<br /> <br /> A nervousness that he never felt in any kind of battle he was involved until now made Kazuki’s brain lose its mind.<br /> <br /> Kazuki resolved himself. He stretched his hand to those abundant bulges.<br /> <br /> Those tits' beautiful shape were not crumbling because of its size, he lifted them carefully. Its softness couldn’t be compared to when he touched them across the clothes, his fingers sink into them flabbily. Those tits had a profound sense of weight. Different from when he touched them over the clothes, all of those tits' weight rested in Kazuki’s palm. And then, it was warm. Kaguya’s bare skin was far smoother compared to when he felt them beyond the clothes.<br /> <br /> The glossy and soft mass hadn’t even settled down inside Kazuki’s palm when he already massaged them lightly.<br /> <br /> This is the first time Kazuki had ever touched breasts directly. Kaguya wore a happy expression ecstatically.<br /> <br /> Her tits were not only soft, those pink tips that looks like flower buds swelled out, it turned hard little by little. It was the response from Kaguya’s body that had learned pleasure.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s hands approached those tips little by little.<br /> <br /> When Kaguya notice what he was doing, her looks were filled with the feeling of expectation.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stimulated those tips like he was plucking a flower with his hands.<br /> <br /> “The-there…! Over there, more…♥”<br /> <br /> He rolled around those tips with the ball of his fingers gently. Kaguya whose whole body was so sensitive because of Asmodeus’ influence “Nnnn♥” bent her spine backward and then she ‘bikubiku’ trembled violently.<br /> <br /> “…mming! Don’t, …mming!!” Kaguya leaked unintelligible sounds from her mouth.<br /> <br /> With sensation that was like the surge of a big tsunami, Kaguya forgot herself and started to react intensely. Kazuki anxiously checked the caretaker Onee-san’s back one more time.<br /> <br /> It’s still okay. He returned his gaze back to Kaguya.<br /> <br /> Then suddenly, he felt envy to the saddle that transmitted the vibrations to Kaguya’s lower body.<br /> <br /> It was not only Kazuki’s both hands that gave the pleasure to Kaguya, but also the vibration of this saddle.<br /> <br /> Kazuki separated his right hand from Kaguya’s breast and reached toward Kaguya’s right thigh. He stimulated her inner thigh in a surprise attack. While Kaguya was trembling in pleasure, she looked back to Kazuki with eyes that were filled with even more anticipation.<br /> <br /> Kaguya hoped for even greater pleasure.<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved his hand little by little even deeper into Kaguya’s inner thigh, his hand slide into the space between Kaguya-senpai and the saddle.<br /> <br /> Is she sweating? There was a wet sensation.<br /> <br /> Kaguya clapped her hands on her mouth “Nnnnnn―!!” and raised a muffled scream.<br /> <br /> And then her whole body rippled, like everything she had stored until now were exploding.<br /> <br /> ‘Bikunbikun’&lt;ref&gt;I think you know that this is the SFX for trembling&lt;/ref&gt; Kaguya’s body pulsated in the middle of Kazuki’s arms.<br /> <br /> This reaction was not sufficient with only once. He must continue a little bit more for Kaguya to cool down from her condition, Kazuki understood that from his experience.<br /> <br /> Since there was not much time left, he must stimulate her even more intensely.<br /> <br /> That’s why he continued to stimulate those sensitive place like he was digging deeper.<br /> <br /> “……! ……!!” Kaguya convulsed fiercely two times, three times. The sensation was amplified many times over, Kaguya’s pleasure was endlessly deep. It went higher without any end in sight.<br /> <br /> She was drenched with sweat in the middle of Kazuki’s arm, the scent of a girl lingered in the air richly. Kazuki too kept stimulating Kaguya in a trance. His instinct as a man was fired up to make her experience the happiness of a girl.<br /> <br /> She trembled many times over, finally Kaguya-senpai’s body slumped over tiredly. The rein slipped off from her hand. Kazuki picked it up in panic.<br /> <br /> When he peeked at her expression, the color of Kaguya’s eyes gradually returned back to normal.<br /> <br /> A thin trail of saliva was flowing down from Kaguya’s absentminded lips.<br /> <br /> Her cheeks were also flushed red. Her breathing was rough and her eyes were hazy.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a strong carnal desire boiled up for him to continue. &quot;I want to mess her up even more.&quot; However he suppressed those desire somehow and wiped the saliva from her lips. He straightened her back and put her clothes in order.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya, you were awfully cute just now.” He whispered so while stroking her head.<br /> <br /> Kaguya leaned back to Kazuki while still looking like she was dreaming and said “Kazuki-kun…I love you, I love you so much.”<br /> <br /> Suddenly the sunlight became strong. It was the moment where the advancing horse came out from the trees-covered hill into the open ranch.<br /> <br /> The caretaker Onee-san said “Well then, let’s get down from the horse!” and turned back to look toward here.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was “Hyah!!” and straightened her back in a fluster.<br /> <br /> The caretaker Onee-san was in the state of being unaware of everything.<br /> <br /> But when they got down from the horse, only the horse was staring at them with a meaningful gaze.<br /> <br /> {What the hell are you guys doing on top of me?} That stare somehow felt like that.<br /> <br /> When Kaguya-senpai got down from the horse, she nonchalantly used Pyrokinesis to dry the saddle.<br /> <br /> “Again…I was doing something unthinkable. To, to be messed up like that…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai who returned to herself wilted gloomily. To do something so shocking even more than usual in the romantic date that she was looking forward to.<br /> <br /> “It can’t be helped because of Asmodeus. Also, I don’t hate doing that at all, so please don’t mind it too much.”<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, you don’t hate it…?”<br /> <br /> “That, well”<br /> <br /> “That was embarrassing!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai covered her head with both hands.<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around in trouble, then his eyes stopped at a stand.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s eat soft cream. The soft cream in this ranch is absolutely tasty you know?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was “…I want to eat, maybe” and raised her head.<br /> <br /> Kazuki released his breath in relief and led senpai to the stand.<br /> <br /> “Excuse me, two of this [squeezed raw milk soft cream]&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Raw milk&quot; in Japanese is written and read the exact same way as &quot;exposed breasts&quot;. That's also the reason behind the popular belief that drinking milk makes girls' boobs grow despite their genetics.&lt;/ref&gt; please!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously read the menu frankly without even questioning it.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun…that item’s name, makes me feel so complicated somehow…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was dealt the final blow from a strange place and received even more shock.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Even so both of them were passing an enjoyable time.<br /> <br /> Before this, when he asked Kaguya-senpai concerning romantic thing, Kaguya-senpai gave him a high class example like a rooftop restaurant in a hotel where they could see the night scenery.<br /> <br /> But seeing the night scenery was not just limited at the rooftop of a hotel.<br /> <br /> There Kazuki took a reservation for a seat right beside the window in a restaurant on top of a hill near the farm. Kazuki had searched by himself for a restaurant with beautiful night view with price range that even Kazuki could afford. Both the dish and the night view gave Kaguya-senpai satisfaction and he managed to tie up the date almost perfectly.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―And then they returned to the Knight Academy with the magic light train.<br /> <br /> Disembarking the magic light train, when they got out to the street at night from the station, Kazuki walked on the side of the roadway while embracing Kaguya-senpai’s waist tightly. Kaguya-senpai too was walking while gluing herself tightly on Kazuki.<br /> <br /> With the end of this whole day, this whole week would end.<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Kazuki remembered about the [mass conference]. Right about now, the conference between Japan's government and Yamato’s representative, and also the envoys from each of the Magic Advanced Countries should be over. There might be some kind of conclusion that came out from that.<br /> <br /> The content of that conclusion was still wrapped in a veil of secrecy from those in Kazuki and the general public’s position.<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuki spent all his time doing studies for tests and date throughout the ordinary day like this, ''their'' battle was advancing. That battle was already not his own battle….<br /> <br /> There was also a part of himself that accepted such position as something natural.<br /> <br /> As a student of the Knight Academy, it was a really natural and obvious…,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “…You are the King of this country right?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai’s feet stopped from that voice in their path.<br /> <br /> Illuminated under the street light, two people were waiting in the middle of the path.<br /> <br /> One person was wearing a grey suit, a youth with luxurious blonde hair. One of his hands was propping a stick.<br /> <br /> The other one was a young lady with a mythological appearance wearing a long and narrow hat and white mantel. Her mantel fluttered in the night wind.<br /> <br /> White skin and blue eyes. Foreigner. Both of them looked so out of place that they were obviously not Japanese.<br /> <br /> “Forgive us for the sudden impoliteness. My name is Arthur.”<br /> <br /> The youth in suits appearance took a step forward and introduced himself while putting his hand on his chest.<br /> <br /> He has a somewhat smaller stature than Kazuki. With a handsome face like a doll, he had an androgynous sweet look. He looked gallant matching with his hair that was cut short. The glen check suits his body was clad in painted a perfect curve as if a core of steel was inserted.<br /> <br /> A youth with the body appearance that evidently embodied the words that said [not even a single opening].<br /> <br /> The youth continued with words that Kazuki ought to be surprised about.<br /> <br /> “&lt;King of the Round Table&gt;, Arthur Basileus. I am the King that ruled over the land of magic’s origin Britain.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki swallowed his breath. Kaguya-senpai too separated her body from Kazuki’s arm along with a nervous feeling.<br /> <br /> “This kind of child is a King?”<br /> <br /> The woman donning a white hat and a mantel murmured with a sigh.<br /> <br /> “In the middle of the assembly concerning the future of the world, the person who is the King of this country doesn’t carry out the responsibility of his noble birth, instead he is having a secret affair with a girl.”<br /> <br /> Hearing the words of the woman in white mantel, the youth introducing himself as Arthur interposed with an objection.<br /> <br /> “I cannot approve of that sense of values. He is evidently escorting a lady. That is also a noble responsibility. It is not something that can be criticized.”<br /> <br /> “It’s only natural that our sense of values cannot approve of each other. We are seeing the world with different interpretation.”<br /> <br /> “To begin with, how about you also introduce yourself to him?”<br /> <br /> Arthur knitted his brows and rebuked the woman in white mantel.<br /> <br /> The woman in white mantel released a deep sigh and took a step forward in line with Arthur.<br /> <br /> “It’s not my real intent to introduce myself toward a low-life that is hard to approve as an equal but…I am, Regina Olympia Folnar. The &lt;{{furigana|Pope|Papal Basileus}}&gt; that preached the correct way of life according to Olympia.”<br /> <br /> Speaking of Olympia then it must be Greece Mythology. Therefore this woman must be the King of Italia…!<br /> <br /> “You are a Pope even though you are a girl?”<br /> <br /> When Kaguya-senpai tilted her head, the white mantel woman―Regina then,<br /> <br /> “The word’s original meaning mean [the person who enlighten]. I’m going to kill you you know, low-life.” She threatened.<br /> <br /> “Misunderstanding and hardships are things that follow around the exchange of foreign cultures all right.”<br /> <br /> Arthur knitted his eyebrows. “Especially our case where we obtained the patronage of different Mythologies. However even if it is a relation where sooner or later a conflict against each other will occur, we need to spend time talking together until the fitting place for the duel is prepared, an endeavor to understand each other is necessary. I am thinking that is exactly what is called decorum.”<br /> <br /> “It’s not like I don’t understand your so called chivalry, but there is no merit for me in displaying decorum to these people. What kind of person the King of this country is, for the time being I’m accompanying you because I have that interest.”<br /> <br /> Regina flapped her white mantel with a twirl and turned on her heel.<br /> <br /> That white mantel faded away as it was standing out inside the darkness of the night.<br /> <br /> “My my, how strict. After all, Italia is a country that is like an extremely overbearing wife. …Well, you who is still staying as someone that cannot accomplish what you should do as a King and instead is amusing yourself with a lady are also at fault here. By the way, I wonder if I can hear your name once more from your own mouth.”<br /> <br /> After Arthur saw off Regina, he turned back to Kazuki and smiled.<br /> <br /> A refreshing smile that mesmerized even one who was the same sex―completely like Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki. …I’m still not someone with so remarkable a status that I can introduce myself as a King.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki introduced himself while covering up his complicated thoughts.<br /> <br /> Arthur presented one of his hand looking for a handshake.<br /> <br /> “Being in the middle of your growth is not something to be embarrassed about. Being modest even while acting dignified, it’s evidently just like the samurai that I heard in legend. I’m looking forward to you becoming a worthy opponent for me.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki accepted his hand and squeezed back. There was no brawny place in that hand at all, it was a smooth hand like a porcelain. …Is this really a hand of a man?<br /> <br /> “Let’s stop tonight with just a greeting.”<br /> <br /> When the handshake was over, Arthur too gallantly turned his back and took his leave dashingly.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai joined her hand back with Kazuki. A turmoil was laid bare in her voice.<br /> <br /> “…I really got doused with unbelievably cold water in the end of this enjoyable day eh.”<br /> <br /> …He had heard that the envoys from the Magic Advanced Countries were coming. He had already encountered Russia’s King but, for the King from Britain and Italia to also come here personally….<br /> <br /> And then they expressly came here for paying their respect to him who didn’t show his face in the conference.<br /> <br /> And then one of the pair looked down on Kazuki while the other one encouraged him.<br /> <br /> In other words the both of them…didn’t deem the current state of Kazuki as equal.<br /> <br /> He was ridiculed. ―Inside Kazuki, there was a revolting heart that felt humiliation.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai stayed quiet and strongly hugged Kazuki’s arm, perhaps from sensing the disarray of his heart.<br /> <br /> And then the two of them resumed their strides toward the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> …What kind of conclusion had resulted from the talk at the conference?<br /> <br /> Kazuki thought about the matter that he had no knowledge of, then for some reason he looked up to the night sky above his head.<br /> <br /> From this humiliation he felt…he had to question himself regarding the ordinary days where he should be at.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_7_Chapter_1&diff=479372 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Chapter 1 2016-02-01T00:32:24Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 – {{furigana|Transient War Fire|Last Chance}}==<br /> <br /> ―This strategy has become a ''battle for the sake of swordsmen''.<br /> <br /> Before the [urban war] began, Akane said those words and raised the morale of the swordsmen who were apt to feel menial and made the mood of the Magika Stigma who apt to act haughty tense.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Yokkaichi city that bordered the Aichi Prefecture functioned as the entrance to Mie prefecture and were boasted as &lt;Alchemy Industry City&gt; with the biggest population inside the prefecture. The large scale workshops that were lined in a row there gathering the {{furigana|scrap material|trash}} from throughout Japan. The scrap materials were recycled using alchemy and re-manufactured as new products and then those were circulated once more throughout Japan. As the central part of {{furigana|environment durability|sustainability}} for the current era Japan, this city was a metropolis that never slept, operating day and night.<br /> <br /> When Japan’s Knight Order invaded the territory of Yamato from Nagoya to Mie prefecture, Yamato’s defensive army intercepted them in this industrial city. ―It was the raising of the curtain for an [urban war].<br /> <br /> First, Japan’s Knight Order sieged the city where Yamato’s army was waiting in ambush. And then following the command of Akane who was the commander, that ring of siege was narrowed little by little.<br /> <br /> “…Looks like these guys don't intend to forcibly bring this battle into a field battle like in Sekigahara.”<br /> <br /> In the encampment far behind the front line of the battle, Kanon who was, like Akane, a commander, started such conversation to Akane. Different from a field battle where the field of vision was great, obstructed by the architectural structure of lined up buildings, they couldn’t take a look at the situation at the front lines from here.<br /> <br /> During the [Magic War・Sekigahara], Yamato burned down private houses and fields of crops, turning it into a wasteland of rubble and met the advance of Japan, bringing the battle into a head-on collision without any petty tricks.<br /> <br /> Kanon thought anxiously whether they would be doing the same thing again.<br /> <br /> “After that, they met with large opposition from the people of west Japan haven't they?”<br /> <br /> Akane answered mixed with a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> “Until now Yamato made use of the pretext that [they obtained the divine protection from Japanese Mythology] as their flag to get the support from the people. However that pretense had been exposed. Right now Yamato’s foundation as a country had already become really tattered. They would not take such forceful strategy anymore.”<br /> <br /> ―With Kazuki’s success in his infiltration mission to Ise Imperial Shrine, the majority of Japanese Mythology’s Divas had returned to their senses from their Wild God state and withdrew their cooperation from Yamato.<br /> <br /> Japanese Divas’ that were still cooperating with Yamato were only Divas from the [Izumo Faction]. There were two types of Japanese Diva, those who had their roots from Wakoku and those who had their roots from Izumo.<br /> <br /> Yamato’s bluff that claimed [We are exactly the rightful ruler of Japanese archipelago that have obtained the divine protection of Japanese Mythology] had been exposed as a big fat lie due to Kazuki’s conspicuous service.<br /> <br /> Surely right now the soldiers of Yamato were completely agitated as to what they really should believe in and fight for.<br /> <br /> ―The reality was, after that battle, the refugees from Yamato to Japan kept increasing day by day.<br /> <br /> Right now, Yamato’s provisional government was being cornered both from the inside and outside.<br /> <br /> “…If they burned down houses and fields like that, of course the rebuilding would be really difficult. As expected in war there is really nothing satisfactory huh.”<br /> <br /> Even Kanon who had a bottomless cheerful personality became gloomy when she recalled the scene of the devastated wasteland.<br /> <br /> Even in the case where alchemy was developed in this current era, rebuilding that wasteland of rubbles into what it was like before is not a simple matter. …Things like the town’s history and the people’s memories, there were things that by no means could be recovered just like how it originally was.<br /> <br /> {There are none of Loki’s troops in the enemy’s camp! Those who use Summoning Magic are only a few Shrine Maidens and the reinforcement troops from China!}<br /> <br /> Akane’s wireless device in her ear transmitted the voice of the swordsmen at the front line.<br /> <br /> It seemed that Loki and the other illegal magicians withdrew their hands from Yamato.<br /> <br /> It was a situation that Kazuki had informed her before, where he predicted that the situation might develop like that. When Kazuki infiltrated Ise Imperial Shrine, he caused friction between Loki and Aisu Ikousai who was an upper echelon of Kenshitou.<br /> <br /> Loki betrayed his promise with Ikousai and the relation between the two became something impossible to restore.<br /> <br /> From the previous battle, Yamato lost two of their important trump cards that were [Shrine Maidens] and [illegal magicians] simultaneously.<br /> <br /> However they couldn’t let their guard down ― because of some unknown developments, Yamato received reinforcement from China.<br /> <br /> “But that war where there is nothing satisfactory will soon see a ceasefire.”<br /> <br /> Akane murmured with a distressed voice. By no mean was that fact something one could be happy about.<br /> <br /> Because of China’s appearance―this war would soon end.<br /> <br /> When China intervened in an internal conflict of Japan archipelago, the other Magic Advanced Countries also became unable to just stay quiet. They judged that this battle was [something dangerous that might destroy the balance of the world], and forcefully brought the war into a ceasefire. Right now, investigation teams and envoys should be dispatched to come to Japan.<br /> <br /> That prediction brought impatience to the side of Japan. That by no means was something delightful.<br /> <br /> “…We cannot welcome the ceasefire just like this.”<br /> <br /> Akane’s eyes glinted. Therefore, [this strategy] was carried out with lightning speed. Before the ceasefire happened, ''they had to steal back as much as possible'' from Yamato.<br /> <br /> {Contact with the enemy! Commencing battle!}<br /> <br /> The wireless device informed Akane of the opening of hostilities right at that time.<br /> <br /> Akane’s heart tightened, she felt a strong nervousness through her mind and body.<br /> <br /> Yamato already wouldn’t take anymore forcible strategy like in Sekigahara. However….<br /> <br /> “For the current Yamato an urban warfare cannot be necessarily said as something disadvantageous. In urban warfare, the small number of elite’s true power comes in effect.”<br /> <br /> The &lt;Emperor’s Personal Corps&gt; of Chukadou that appeared as Yamato’s reinforcement, although they were small in number but each one of them possessed an overwhelming fighting power. Akane herself still had raw memories of terror from when she was cornered by the two great Divas of &lt;Kan’u&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Guan Yu&lt;/ref&gt; and &lt;Son Goku&gt;.<br /> <br /> In an urban warfare where the battlefield was divided due to the countless buildings and streets, the commander wouldn’t be able to perfectly grasp the condition of the battlefield no matter what she did. She had to leave the decision making to each of the units out there.<br /> <br /> That was also a factor of anxiety. Not to mention that right now in this battlefield ''Lotte was not flying in the sky''.<br /> <br /> “But you also cannot assert that the side of Japan is at a disadvantage right-☆ Haven’t we analyzed it like that?”<br /> <br /> Kanon brightened up her voice in order to cheer up Akane. It was also just like what Kanon said.<br /> <br /> First, in an urban warfare that was the specialty of the Chinese army, their horsemanship was also sealed.<br /> <br /> Moreover, the line of sight would be obstructed in an urban warfare, making them unable to detect the presence of the enemy beforehand. When it was like that then when the enemy’s unit suddenly appears right in front of them, it would immediately become a close-quarter combat. In that situation the Magika Stigmas who needed chanting time couldn’t display their power.<br /> <br /> In exchange the swordsmen took the main role of battle here. If it was about the strength of the swordsman, then Japan’s side was overwhelmingly greater.<br /> <br /> “Akane, don’t blow your fuse already okay~. Before this you were also like that… when everything goes as planned Akane is absurdly strong but when something unexpected happens you are immediately at your wits' end! In order to make it okay even if something unexpected happen, prepare yourself fully beforehand okay~☆ “<br /> <br /> “If you can stop panicking just by being prepared then it wouldn’t be this hard. Regarding things that cannot be predicted by all my preparations, won’t my logic have failed first? In that case I’m absolutely going to blow my fuse.”<br /> <br /> “You declared such thing that defiantly!? We-well, when Akane is at your wits’ end then that’s my turn to shine though!!”<br /> <br /> “That’s just a joke, thanks for cheering me up though.”<br /> <br /> “D-don’t mention it for something so normal okay!☆ “<br /> <br /> Hearing Akane’s words, Kanon fidgeted her small body back and forth.<br /> <br /> “…It’s going to be fine though if that child displays a strength just as Kazuki anticipated.”<br /> <br /> Akane neglected the fidgeting Kanon and murmured while thinking about the battle at the front lines.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A unit of several people ran on top of the asphalt road.<br /> <br /> Kazuha who ran at the head felt something strange in their path and stopped running.<br /> <br /> Those who followed her from behind, Kanae, Kaguya, Hikaru, Kohaku, and Torazou mimicked her and stopped running.<br /> <br /> It was a unit that gathered the students that excelled in close-quarter combat even inside the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> The one who was elected by Akane as the leader was Kazuha.<br /> <br /> Having the dubious stares of her comrades directed at her from having stopped so suddenly, Kazuha whispered.<br /> <br /> “…The shadow of the building over there, I think there are enemies hiding in ambush.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha pointed at the large scale workshop far ahead the road, around a few tens meters separated from them.<br /> <br /> “How could you know that?” Kaguya’s eyes opened wide.<br /> <br /> “I generated vibrations using general magic since a while ago, I ran while letting fly ultrasonic waves ahead of the road. I perceive the rebound of the sound waves using {{furigana|Extra Sense|Perception Reinforcement Magic}}. If you do that then somehow you can know when there is a disturbance of sound waves from something moving in the shadow of a building…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha answered even while being bashful to the Student Council President of the Magic Division.<br /> <br /> “That, I-I’m strong in general magic after all so recently I’ve been practicing various things.”<br /> <br /> Echo Location―a bat uses the echo of ultrasonic waves to be able to fly freely even inside darkness, what Kazuha did was imitating something like that using general magic.<br /> <br /> “Haa?” Raising a disarrayed voice like that, Torazou was making a dumbfounded expression.<br /> <br /> “I get the theory but, I really don’t get it…what kind of skill is that…”<br /> <br /> “Got it, let’s approach while being prepared to be able to immediately counterattack.”<br /> <br /> When Kaguya nodded, Kazuha released a breath of relief.<br /> <br /> Kanae and Kohaku changed into the lead vanguard and advanced while being alert.<br /> <br /> After that sure enough, the swordsmen of Yamato leaped out from the building cover just as Kazuha predicted.<br /> <br /> Kanae and Kohaku composedly dodged that first wave and counterattacked.<br /> <br /> After that Torazou and Kazuha added their attacks.<br /> <br /> Kaguya used a defensive magic that reflected pain and made her opponent swordsman that slashed at her forfeit their will to fight.<br /> <br /> Hikaru was preparing to summon [Maimur] but―far before she could complete her chant, the small skirmish had been resolved.<br /> <br /> The enemy platoon that ambushed them collapsed with confused expression as if saying that they didn’t know what had happened.<br /> <br /> “Just as expected from Mikohime-sa…Kazuha-senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku directed eyes of respect at Kazuha and cheered at her.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.07 017.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> At the side, Kaguya was looking down with a quiet expression.<br /> <br /> “…Certainly it’s amazing. A practical application of general magic in real battle like this is…. Perhaps I’m too easy-going relying so much in only Summoning Magic like this.”<br /> <br /> Kanae too was looking down in self-reflection.<br /> <br /> “General magic, is it…. I too am getting too caught up in just sword skill and magic sword. While being self-conscious of my small build and powerless handicaps, to be this blind is really hard to forgive…”<br /> <br /> Kanae’s expression turned grim in the blink of an eye from her fury for herself. Kazuha was scared off from that look of Kanae.<br /> <br /> “Co-compared to you two, someone like me is just a half-baked small person that is Jack of all trades and master of none in the end!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s face blushed red and she waved her hand left and right repeatedly.<br /> <br /> These two were said to be the strongest in the Magic Division and the Sword Division respectively. For her who was a poor student to be stared at by these two like this was totally unbelievable.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya, right now you are thinking that you want to fight Kazuha-san and defeat her right?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru was poking at Kaguya’s side from the flank. Kaguya shook her neck in panic even while being startled.<br /> <br /> “The-there is no way I’m thinking about such thing at my comrade!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya was raised while receiving suggestion from her father that she [had to be the strongest], she had climbed as far as the Student Council President by systemically challenging a duel to all students that looked strong in the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> Thanks to Kazuki she was liberated from that [suggestion to be the strongest] that seemed like a curse, but even so a long time habit that had become a second nature couldn’t be removed that easily. Witnessing a strength that didn’t exist in herself provoked a reaction from her.<br /> <br /> “Rather than that let’s just move forward quickly!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuha concluded the topic like that, Kaguya stopped the idle talk and inspected the collapsed swordsmen.<br /> <br /> “…The Magika Stigmas from China are not mixed among them, just a platoon of swordsmen. This is a hit isn’t it? Akane-senpai said that to the end this advance is only a [diversion]. What we are doing is only buying time. If we meet the {{furigana|Magika Stigmas of China|extremity}}, don’t overdo it too much and just escape.”<br /> <br /> All present nodded altogether. The toughness of the reinforcement from China had been beaten into their body.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai looked up to the sky. It was a very dim sky that fast approaching evening.<br /> <br /> “If we can just buy more time, then for the rest Otouto-kun should be able to make the plan succeed for us…”<br /> <br /> In the sky that she looked up, blue magic power light left a trail behind like the cloud of airplane and flew far away.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While Kazuki was leaving behind a trail of magic light power, he traversed the sky together with Lotte.<br /> <br /> They were steadily getting far away from the battlefield and went even further in from Mie prefecture, flying into Nara prefecture.<br /> <br /> The soldiers of Yamato too soon noticed Kazuki and Lotte in the air, but the attack magic that were fired by the few Shrine Maidens were immediately left behind by the acceleration of [Deep Striker].<br /> <br /> Using the battle on the surface as a decoy, they did airspace incursion with just the two of them.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte were the two who could fly in the sky the fastest among Japan’s Knight Order. Surely even among the people of Yamato there was no one that was able to reach their speed―they wanted to believe that.<br /> <br /> The attack objective of the two was &lt;Isonokami Shrine&gt; in Nara prefecture.<br /> <br /> ―Among the refugees from Yamato, there was also the higher-ups of Yamato’s military authorities, the top brass mixed inside.<br /> <br /> From that person, an information that couldn’t be overlooked such as [Sacred Treasures are gathered in Isonokami Shrine and it was turned into an armory] was conveyed to the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> According to that refugee’s story, the shrines in each region of Japan were defiled due to Yamato’s scheme but Isonokami Shrine was the only exception that was still safe. Why was Isonokami Shrine the only one safe―that informant didn’t know the reason but the answer unexpectedly came out from among Kazuki’s friends.<br /> <br /> {Ah, over there was the shrine that deified me.}<br /> <br /> It was the Diva that contracted with Kazuha, Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami was the Diva that was deified in Isonokami Shrine. But when Kazuha-senpai became enrolled into the Knight Academy’s Sword Division, he was also changing his residence to Tokyo together with Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Isonokami Shrine that was left behind and became empty after the Shrine Maiden Kazuha-senpai and Futsunushi no Kami were not there anymore became worthless for Yamato to bother to reach their hand because there was no target that they could turn into a Wild God.<br /> <br /> That was the reason that place was safe.<br /> <br /> Not only that―from what Futsunushi no Kami said, Isonokami Shrine had the role as an [armory] in Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> When Sacred Treasures were made as an [offering] there, the Sacred Treasure would be filled with magic power which amplified its supernatural power.<br /> <br /> According to the information from the refugee, it seemed Yamato transferred and gathered the Sacred Treasures they had in custody inside their territory to Isonokami Shrine.<br /> <br /> Because the Sacred Treasures that were discovered in Japan were stored in custody shared between Kantou and Kansai, Yamato had already possessed a considerable amount of Sacred Treasures. Then they were amplifying the power of those in Isonokami Shrine.<br /> <br /> This meant that this was the trump card that Yamato kept hidden until now, their last resort.<br /> <br /> “…Why have those Sacred Treasures never been used in the battle until now?”<br /> <br /> Lotte who was flying at Kazuki’s side leaked out a questioning voice.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps it is not a trump card against Japan, but they intend to use it as a trump card against Loki and his group? Ikousai and her group didn’t trust Loki. While Loki and his group are still their comrades they are going to make use of their power conveniently while trying to hide their own trump card.”<br /> <br /> Before that trump card could be used―they were going to assault the place and plunder it. Sacred Treasures Pillaging Operation.<br /> <br /> When they confirmed whether the refugees' words were the truth or not with magical interrogation, Regiment Commander Yamagata immediately drafted this operation. Not even a week had passed after the battle at Sekigahara when this plan had progressed and was now being carried out. It was exactly a lightning fast and prompt decision.<br /> <br /> That Commander Yamagata and the top brass of the Knight Order were being impatient, Kazuki too clearly understood it. With the ceasefire between Japan and Yamato that they would soon welcome, it was not something that one could feel delight for Japan’s government.<br /> <br /> It was because Japan was the one who had their territory completely stolen due to this civil war. To completely enter the ceasefire with Yamato’s provisional government still not defeated like this could be said that it only meant a defeat in reality. The humans at the top of the Knight Order and the government would surely get asked by the mass media and the populace to take responsibility for this.<br /> <br /> Even if they couldn’t avoid a ceasefire, at the very least they had to obtain some kind of achievement, if not―this forcible operation was decided promptly from such severe thought like that.<br /> <br /> If they could enter the ceasefire with Yamato in the state of having lost their trump card, then they could grasp the initiative from this side in the discussion after the ceasefire.<br /> <br /> They might even be able to drag out some concession and capitulation from Yamato….<br /> <br /> This was their last chance before entering the ceasefire.<br /> <br /> “…I get it that this is our last chance but… to be made to go along with this sloppy strategy for the sake of those big shots evading responsibility just doesn’t make me feel any enthusiasm.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki unintentionally spoke to himself.<br /> <br /> Actually Kazuki thought of this as a sloppy strategy.<br /> <br /> Making the Knight Order’s attack to Yokkaichi a diversion and attack the Isonokami Shrine from the sky. Because there was no other magician that could fly in the same speed like them, the assault members were only the two, Kazuki and Lotte.<br /> <br /> Yamato most likely concentrated all their battle strength to defend Yokkaichi which was an important base for them. But in the unlikely event that there was a powerful defense squad placed in Isonokami Shrine, there was nothing they could do with just the two of them.<br /> <br /> He thought that Yamato right now didn’t have that much allowance to spare such manpower but….<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai said [if there are defense squad then abandon the operation and escape] to him.<br /> <br /> The commander of Yamato that saw Kazuki and Lotte went flying somewhere might guess their aim and divided the battle strength in Yokkaichi and directed them to be their pursuer. If it became like that then a time limit would be attached to the operation. Before their pursuer caught up, they had to quickly finish pillaging the Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> It was no good if there was a defensive squad positioned in their destination and it was also no good if their pursuer caught up.<br /> <br /> A difficult operation.<br /> <br /> At any rate Kazuki thought inside his heart [This again]. Just three days before this, he was made to infiltrate the enemy territory only with Kazuha-senpai. When he thought that was the end of it now he was told to infiltrate the enemy territory with Lotte.<br /> <br /> {Rather than calling you King, you are more fitting to be called a handyman.} Leme communicated with Kazuki using an amazed voice inside his head.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too was amazed. …To depend completely on a mere student like this, is this country going to be okay?<br /> <br /> “As for me I’m fine with this desu, Kazuki-oniisan.”<br /> <br /> As if seeing through the worry inside Kazuki’s heart, Lotte said that.<br /> <br /> “Rather than such thing this is a flying rendezvous with just the two us desu, Kazuki-oniisan♪”<br /> <br /> Lotte turned her smiling face to Kazuki as if in order to calm down Kazuki’s feeling.<br /> <br /> If something happened, at the very least he had to protect her to the very end….<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked behind him while flying through the sky. They had left the battlefield of Yokkaichi really far behind them.<br /> <br /> The scenery below them had completely changed from the town into a vast expanse of mother nature. They were clearing the [Suzuka mountain range] that grew many greenery at this early summer in a straight line from the side. It was a rugged mountains that was highly famous from the historical event of &lt;Iga’s Pass&gt; of the Tokugawa's. Inside the mountain the isolated city of Iga was visible.<br /> <br /> The end of the mountain range was visible in their path. The aviation picture of Isonokami Shrine that was located in the border between the mountain and the city had been beaten into their head before the operation, they were locating the shrine while recalling the picture inside their head.<br /> <br /> There it was. It was an important shrine with a long history, but its size was unexpectedly small.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte didn’t slow down for even a bit and swooped down as if they were sucked.<br /> <br /> The several swordsmen in the shrine’s ground noticed Kazuki and Lotte approaching and raised their voice.<br /> <br /> “They really come!” “Stop them!” “How!?”<br /> <br /> They were the shrine’s guards. It seemed they were notified about Kazuki and Lotte’s assault from Yokkaichi.<br /> <br /> The soldiers’ reactions were really lacking in resolve and training. Just as expected all the proper soldiers were invested in the defensive battle of Yokkaichi.<br /> <br /> Even the chickens that were strutting around the ground briskly sprang up and left the place in great panic.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte matched their voice and cast the same magic simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “”I reached my hand to the height of Babel becoming the supreme ruler! In accordance with my life o lightning, praise the reckless courage of human race! Blitzkrieg””<br /> <br /> Blue magic power light materialized, then assault spears with height that reached even twice the stature of a person were equipped in their dominant hands.<br /> <br /> Sub-arms stretched out from the [Deep Strikers], so they could withstand the impact they fixed their arms in place.<br /> <br /> If their opponent were only several swordsmen who didn’t have the support of Magika Stigma, then this was simple.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte directed the tips of the assault spear to the swordsmen and keeping their momentum without slowing down―<br /> <br /> “UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> Screams were reverberating. *DON!!* Along with such sound of impact, the gravels of the grounds and the soil below it danced up and a big hole was opened on the surface. The swordsmen of Yamato were blown away to the other side of the cloud of dust, then they crashed into the wall of the shrine office that was right there and fainted.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte who landed dispelled their weapons and looked around restlessly to confirm their surroundings.<br /> <br /> They were just right in the middle of the Isonokami Shrine’s grounds.<br /> <br /> In their left side there was a large shrine archway, in front of them was the shrine office, and in their right side was a stone stair that continued to the main shrine.<br /> <br /> As for human presence…was these guys the only one here? As expected, putting several numbers of worthless soldiers like this as guard was their limit, it seemed that Yamato didn’t have the allowance to post a genuine defense squad here.<br /> <br /> Then…they could do this!<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, it’s in the main shrine right desu!?”<br /> <br /> Lotte confirmed the operation’s objective to Kazuki. Kazuki silently nodded and start running up the stone stair in the right side.<br /> <br /> When they examined the map of Isonokami Shrine, they had narrowed down the places that looked fitting to be used to store the Sacred Treasures into two, those were the [ritual tool warehouse] and the [main shrine]. Between those two places, if their objective was not merely keeping the Sacred Treasures but to gather power into the Sacred Treasures, then surely the main shrine that should be called as the central part of this shrine was the most likely choice.<br /> <br /> Due to the hanging lanterns that were hung down here and there, the gloomy grounds in the evening was faintly illuminated. Kazuki and Lotte rushed up the stone stairs while being filled with the atmosphere of mysterious profundity and finally arrived at a vermilion tower gate that continued to the main shrine.<br /> <br /> ―In front of the gate, there was a person’s shadow waiting for them.<br /> <br /> Even inside the faint darkness, she was clearly reflected in their eyes thanks to how standing out that vibrant kimono she wore.<br /> <br /> “…Aisu Ikousai!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki yelled. Inside the faint darkness that was illuminated by hanging lanterns was a glamorous figure in a kimono. With the background of a historical shrine’s tower gate, that standing figure spontaneously became a picture that looked so bewitching.<br /> <br /> “I was waiting for you, Hayashizaki Kazuki…for the sake of resolving this fate between you and I.”<br /> <br /> Beside Ikousai, there was a woman of Yamato wearing Shrine Maiden’s clothes accompanying her. Yamato’s Shrine Maiden―a Drive Magika Stigma whose body even now was possessed by a Wild God of Izumo side.<br /> <br /> For Aisu Ikousai of all people to be posted into an underling work like being the guard of Isonokami Shrine for no reason at all shouldn’t be something impossible. She was waiting here in ambush with the conviction that Kazuki would come.<br /> <br /> An ambush. Something cold ran through his spine. This operation had been leaked to the other side.<br /> <br /> …Might this be the work of the spy inside the Knight Order?<br /> <br /> …No, was I the one that got sniffed out by the spy? Kazuki harbored a dark belief.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata and Akane-senpai communicated this operation as nothing more than [Yokkaichi’s Recapture Operation] to the higher ups. Only the minimum air battle strength that were Kazuki and Lotte were sent to Isonokami Shrine without informing anyone.<br /> <br /> Those who knew about Kazuki’s attack to Isonokami Shrine were only Commander Yamagata and Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai, and then his companions of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> Even so for this operation to be still leaked out, in short…the source of the information leak was themselves.<br /> <br /> Until now the spies of Yamato penetrated the Knight Order’s chain of command and then they leaked the flow of information there into Yamato secretly. If they worked like that then the operation this time shouldn’t get leaked.<br /> <br /> However from how the battle went until now, even the spies had surely noticed that Kazuki and his group were moving independently from the Knight Order’s chain of command. Having noticed that Kazuki was always there in the center of the operations that outwitted Yamato, there was no mistake that the spies had then secretly snooped around Kazuki’s action.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had the confidence in his own senses’ sharpness. However at the time when they drafted this operation in a rush and then while making preparation with Lotte hurriedly, during all that mess he had no confidence that he was able to detect some kind of magic or listening device around him with certainty.<br /> <br /> They got him. His side’s spy countermeasure had been backfired completely.<br /> <br /> With this it was just doing the same thing repeatedly. Just as he thought, it was fundamentally necessary to eradicate the spies.<br /> <br /> “…Destined opponent. Kazuki-oniisan, are you actually an intimate friend with that woman desu?”<br /> <br /> Lotte who lined up at Kazuki’s side looked upward at him wonderingly.<br /> <br /> “There was no way that’s possible right, she is a sworn enemy that cannot be allowed to live under the same sky that I have to absolutely defeat.”<br /> <br /> “Don’t say that so contemptibly. For you to be like that even though I was really looking forward to the rematch with you that I set the stage of our decisive battle like this.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s mouth distorted faintly and she reached her hand to the katana on her waist.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too vigilantly reached his hand to the katana on his waist, both of them sounded the clinking sound from the mouth of their sheath at the same time.<br /> <br /> Lotte compared alternately the two that were heightening the feeling of tension.<br /> <br /> “Rather than a pure hostility, a more different emotion is whirling between you two…actually you two get along well right desu?”<br /> <br /> “Wrong, she is the worst enemy.”<br /> <br /> “Calling me the worst really hurt here, my worthy rival.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki earnestly glared while Ikousai was floating a faint smile. That composure of hers was ominous. There was something.<br /> <br /> “For Kazuki-oniisan to disagree with the other person’s feeling like this is really rare desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte tilted her head.<br /> <br /> “O furious honored god descending down from sky, bring forth and build unprecedented uproar right here! Thy august name is &lt;Susanoo no Mikoto&gt;! Reside in my body, rage following your violent emotion!!”<br /> <br /> Magic power like a storm seethed out and Ikousai’s appearance transformed into her Magic Dress due to the {{furigana|Access|Astrum Connection}}. Fitting for the contractor of Susanoo, a wild jet black costume like the sky in the middle of storm. Only the katana attached in her waist was not broken down into {{furigana|Prima Materia|Origin Particle}} and retained its shape.<br /> <br /> Kazuki noticed the out of place feeling. Ikousai was wearing two katanas on her waist.<br /> <br /> When he encountered her in Ise Imperial Shrine she was supposed to only wear one katana.<br /> <br /> The Shrine Maiden beside Ikousai was also shining with blue magic power light from flowing power to the Wild God inside her own body. The two enemies finished putting in order their battle preparation.<br /> <br /> “You only brought one person along with you? You really have insufficient manpower right now don’t you? Have you also exiled Loki and his battle strength?”<br /> <br /> “I know that you are coming with only two people. Where is the need of coming here bringing a lot of force? …Hmph, Loki and his guys are reassigned as the guard of our capital city. No matter how bad she is, that girl is also one of the top that rule Yamato. If they are to just suddenly get exiled, the soldiers will get agitated then. But that girl will not trespass the holy battlefield between you and me for the second time!”<br /> <br /> Hearing that unexpected reply, Kazuki felt a freezing chill.<br /> <br /> For Loki to not get exiled even though they had conflicted with each other until that far, that was the same as saying that the influence of Kaya inside Yamato was just that great.<br /> <br /> But of all things for Kaya and her group to be retained in the capital of Yamato―if Kazuki and Lotte defeated Ikousai in battle, what would happen after that…!<br /> <br /> “Are you sane leaving alone the illegal magicians to take care the center of your country while you yourself are coming out to the battlefield!? If you guys get done in by us, Yamato is going to get taken over by the illegal magicians isn’t it!?”<br /> <br /> “Do you still have any composure left to worry about that! I won’t suffer a defeat for the second time against you! We have obtained the cooperation of Chukadou. With the [Power of Usurpation] of Susanoo, your King’s Authority, and then someday the King’s Authority of China’s King too, I’m going to plunder them all!”<br /> <br /> This girl…is she not thinking about anything else other than plundering power from somebody!?<br /> <br /> For her everybody around her might be nothing else other than objects to be used.<br /> <br /> “Lotte, please take care of the Shrine Maiden over there. The other side perhaps is also intending to do the same thing.”<br /> <br /> “Roger desu.” Lotte nodded.<br /> <br /> If it was with Lotte’s chanting speed then there wouldn’t be that much of a difference even against a Drive Magician as her opponent.<br /> <br /> Ikousai didn’t even pay a glance to Lotte, she turned to Kazuki and lightly kicked the ground.<br /> <br /> “What is dedicated here, is a scattering flower dance like a storm! O honored god that call the storm, please grant thy breath on the back of I who dance under the heaven! Fujin Kenbu!!”<br /> <br /> A fierce tailwind blew on Ikousai’s back. This magic generated freely a favorable wind that adhered to the movement of oneself, a reinforcement magic that accelerated every single movement taken by the body.<br /> <br /> With a terrific speed that was in contrast with her light movement, Ikousai stepped into the range. Ikousai drew the katana on her waist.<br /> <br /> Right now she was not using [Aoiro Yasha] was surely because she was cautious against having her breath run out in a protracted battle.<br /> <br /> On the other side Kazuki was―right now he was already unable to use Beatrix’s strengthening magic.<br /> <br /> It was because the Einherjar had completely cancelled their stance of cooperation with Japan.<br /> <br /> He had to use a different method to compete with Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “O flow of atmosphere, converge in this body, become the storm that reject the resented person! The eye of typhoon is exactly my throne! Storm Fort!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki burst out wind around his own surrounding. His body was enveloped with a tornado.<br /> <br /> And then he directed the wind at Ikousai, offsetting Ikousai’s tailwind.<br /> <br /> …If he couldn’t strengthen himself, then he would contest her using obstruction.<br /> <br /> “Mhh-!?”<br /> <br /> Just when she was about to unsheathe her sword in an Iai draw she was bathed by severe wind from the opposite direction, making Ikousai’s swordsmanship become disarrayed. Kazuki leisurely dodged that attack of hers.<br /> <br /> …The distance was slightly different compared to their confrontation before.<br /> <br /> Looking at the blade that hit the empty air in front him, Kazuki noticed that fact.<br /> <br /> She didn’t change the distance with her specialty [Shiraba Kagerou].<br /> <br /> …Ikousai was using a different sword from the one that she used in Ise Imperial Shrine. For a swordsman to use a different katana and not the specialized katana that he was used to handle, there must be a considerable reason behind it.<br /> <br /> Kazuki returned back an Iai draw at Ikousai. Facing that horizontal flash of counterattack, Ikousai forcefully bent backward even while that action broke her posture. Ikousai’s leg pitched backward. Kazuki didn’t let that chance escape and stepped inside her range trying to drive another attack. But―,<br /> <br /> “Tenrou Kaidan!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai crashed an impact of Psychokinesis diagonally on her wavering back, and forcefully circled to Kazuki’s side. It was a high speed movement that was absolutely impossible using only living flesh body, moving from an unnatural stance to an inconceivable direction. From there a severe thrust was unleashed to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki Foresighted the magic power and was able to react.<br /> <br /> He smoothly dodged his body from the thrust and slashed back in return.<br /> <br /> Blue magic power light shone. Ikousai’s body staggered from the impact of the smashed magic power.<br /> <br /> “Thy fury is the joy of the war shrine maiden. Answer the kagura of soul summoning burst out the storm of outcry, divide the cloud and please descend here…spirits and demons in this body! {{furigana|Chouriki Shourai|Super Strength Invitation}}!!”<br /> <br /> But while receiving damage, the girl accomplished her spell.<br /> <br /> A magic that further strengthened her. Ikousai’s {{furigana|Enchant Aura|Body Strength Reinforcement Magic}} was doubled.<br /> <br /> Treating her broken posture as not a big deal, she sent a counterattack at Kazuki with her reinforced speed and power.<br /> <br /> From a thrust the blade was reversed and became a flash of a slash. Kazuki gave up evading and concentrated the wind of [Storm Fort] in one spot and attempted to kill the momentum of Ikousai’s attack.<br /> <br /> However even after receiving that wind, Ikousai’s severe attack didn’t feel like it slowed down for even a little bit.<br /> <br /> A severe attack tore apart Kazuki’s defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> “Kuh…lightning fall on my body and I obtain lightning thought god speed…wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too even while receiving damage finished chanting a reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> Ikousai and also Kazuki accelerated their movement together.<br /> <br /> This time too the curtain for offense and defense in supernatural speed that was absolutely impossible for average swordsman was opened.<br /> <br /> The previous match was won by Kazuki, but who knew how the result would turn out this time. ―Before, Ikousai’s lack of experience in [battle against opponent that was above herself] was exposed and she fell behind Kazuki.<br /> <br /> But due to how he couldn’t use Beatrix’s strengthening magic, this time Kazuki’s speed and power were both inferior. He couldn’t not recognize the inferiority of his spec.<br /> <br /> However he believed that he had ''gotten used to'' this girl’s swordsmanship from their fight before.<br /> <br /> He saw through her speed and parried her strength like a willow branch. With that ardor, Kazuki crossed swords with Ikousai, the state of the battle then were brought into a sword locking contest.<br /> <br /> ―At that time Ikousai’s katana suddenly emitted a blue magic power light.<br /> <br /> “Curse this body, &lt;Muramasa&gt;! Battou Kaikon―{{furigana|Oboro no Muramasa|Muramasa of Haze}}!!”<br /> <br /> …That’s, Sacred Treasure!?<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s katana slipped through Ikousai’s katana unhindered.<br /> <br /> Not only did his blade slip through Ikousai’s blade, it even slipped through Ikousai’s body that was in its way. There was no resistance felt from his blade. Even her presence gone. ''As if Ikousai had completely became a ghost''.<br /> <br /> Possibly her solid body was turned completely into a vapor by that Sacred Treasure.<br /> <br /> “Is that the Sacred Treasure that was dedicated in Isonokami Shrine!?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai slipped through Kazuki like a ghost and moved into his back. And then at Kazuki’s back, Ikousai’s presence and existence was realized back into how she was before.<br /> <br /> Without even any time to turn back, he was slashed from his back.<br /> <br /> The powerful attack that broke through the wind armor of [Storm Fort] blew Kazuki away in a pitching forward posture.<br /> <br /> Kazuki rolled forward in order to escape from his opponent’s distance.<br /> <br /> But Ikousai mercilessly filled the distance and assaulted him in her pursuit.<br /> <br /> …What he needed to put in order was not only his stance, but also the inside of his head.<br /> <br /> What was happening right now? Was Ikousai turning into a ghost?<br /> <br /> No, it was hard to imagine a magic phenomenon that turned one’s own body into a ghost.<br /> <br /> Haze―Ikousai changed her body into an existence that somewhat ambiguous without a definite shape.<br /> <br /> The Ikousai right now was just resistant against a mere physical attack.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ash everything you touch…the scorching heat of rejection without any place to go! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> With an immediate judgment, Kazuki enveloped himself in an armor of flame. He mixed together the wind of [Storm Fort] that he chanted before with the flame. The wind brought oxygen to the flame and amplified its power.<br /> <br /> The intensely raging flame wind was concentrated into the blade by Kazuki using Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> Like this he could inflict damage―no matter how powerful of a Sacred Treasure it may be, it shouldn’t be something so great that could manifest a grand magic that vanished the holder’s existence itself.<br /> <br /> Even though she didn’t possess a fixed shape and slipped through him, that didn’t mean that there was no existence there.<br /> <br /> She existed. So there was no reason why she couldn’t be burned.<br /> <br /> Ikousai went “Hou!” and leaked out a voice of admiration.<br /> <br /> Kazuki swung a single horizontal flash of blade just when he was turning back to Ikousai behind him.<br /> <br /> “…But unfortunately your movement is slow! Aoiro Yasha!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s movement sped up even further, Kazuki’s counterattack just hit an empty air.<br /> <br /> [Aoiro Yasha] ―It was Ikousai’s secret technique that temporarily augmented her own explosive power by manipulating her own blood flow with Psychokinesis. It was a double edged blade that would cause a backlash to her body when she used it continuously for a long time, but Ikousai saw through a critical point of the battle here. Without even leaving afterimage behind, Ikousai circled to Kazuki’s blind spot.<br /> <br /> There was too much difference in their physical ability…!<br /> <br /> Kazuki just barely reacted against the attack from his blind spot using his Foresight of the magic power, he blocked the blade.<br /> <br /> From there the situation was brought into a sword locking contest. Kazuki felt relieved. In a sword locking contest it became a contest of reading each other’s movement. If it was with this blade clad in flame, she couldn’t escape like before by slipping through him.<br /> <br /> …That relief vanished in an instant. Kazuki noticed that Ikousai’s katana which was entangling with his katana in front his eyes ''had become a different thing than before'' before he realized.<br /> <br /> That’s right, Ikousai brought two katana here different from before.<br /> <br /> ...This girl, before he realized it she had already changed Sacred Treasure!?<br /> <br /> “Raise your howl, &lt;Kotetsu&gt;! Battou Kaikon―{{furigana|Shishi Ko Zuhyoubu|Tiger and Lion Picture Folding Screen}}!!”<br /> <br /> From the Sacred Treasure of Ikousai that was entangling with his blade, when he thought that a vision of [tiger] was emerging out from it, suddenly it materialized and howled while leaping at Kazuki’s throat.<br /> <br /> “Kuh, this guy!” Kazuki tried to shake off the tiger with a kick clad in flame.<br /> <br /> But the magic tiger didn’t fear the flame and came biting at Kazuki with a determined ferocity.<br /> <br /> “Tenrou Kaidan!!”<br /> <br /> In the middle of that, Ikousai’s voice and *PAAN!* sound like something was bounced rang out.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s body instantly flew to Kazuki’s blind spot using a jump by means of Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> “Hahaha! Just try it if you can really Foresight this!!”<br /> <br /> There is no way that he can. Kazuki’s attention was stolen by the tiger.<br /> <br /> Kazuki completely lost sight of Ikousai’s movement.<br /> <br /> “Polishing the black steel of heaven o Totsuka no Tsurugi…release the flash that gouge the storm! This is the Orochi no Aramasa…the descend of tearing limb from limb, Ame no Habakiri!!”<br /> <br /> Susanoo’s Sacred Treasure was created in Ikousai’s hand and it was swung down on Kazuki from behind.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was slashed eight times.<br /> <br /> Ame no Habakiri―it produced eight streaks of slashes with one swing multiple time, a Sacred Treasure that tore apart the enemy under one attack. Its damage was eight times the normal in one attack.<br /> <br /> Kazuki received that damage from outside his consciousness where his Resist was thin.<br /> <br /> It was a heavy damage. While Kazuki was blown away forward, he kept rolling in order to try to escape from Ikousai. However that was not allowed and the tiger too came attacking at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki wrestled with the large body of the tiger and his body’s movement was sealed. His head became pure white. …This is bad, the spell he was in the middle of chanting is going to disperse from his impatience. Calm down.<br /> <br /> The tiger bit at Kazuki’s neck and his defensive magic power scattered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stubbornly preserved his cool and he thrust back his katana into the tiger’s torso in a simultaneous strike with each other.<br /> <br /> The beast that was formed from magic power scattered around blue magic power light and vanished.<br /> <br /> From the other side of the dancing apart magic power light―Ikousai was stepping in closer to him.<br /> <br /> Without even giving him any time to breathe she was going to swing down Ame no Habakiri at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> But that action was just as expected, if it was a swordsman then anyone would surely do such an action.<br /> <br /> “O the ruler of flame’s calling voice, liberate the fury of the earth’s bottom! Open the gate of my rampart right here…tower in the heaven and earth, partition the impurity! Fire Wall!!”<br /> <br /> Almost at the same time with the tiger’s termination, Kazuki invoked the magic from the chant that he just barely maintained.<br /> <br /> “Muu-!?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai foresighted the outbreak of the magic power and put a sudden brake to her step-in before taking a step back.<br /> <br /> A magic circle spread out on the surface, a high and thick wall of flame spouted out as if to separate the two of them.<br /> <br /> It was Phoenix’s magic that was invoked aiming for a surprise attack.<br /> <br /> Even how Ikousai didn’t fall into the trap and brake herself just moments before the trap activated, was according to his assumption.<br /> <br /> That was because the first time Kazuki faced this magic from Mio, that was exactly what he did.<br /> <br /> Right at that timing, Kazuki gathered all the remaing power of wind from [Storm Fort] that enclosed his body and blew it all to the flame wall in one go.<br /> <br /> The wind cannon crashed into the wall of flame. Ikousai, who stepped back in the location with just a paper thin difference from the wall of flame was swallowed by the leaning forward flame. Blue defensive magic power light shone inside the flame.<br /> <br /> …It was a small attack, but it was a single repayment from the state where he kept getting done in just now.<br /> <br /> In that moment Kazuki finally put his standing stance in order and recovered some distance back.<br /> <br /> He took a single breath.<br /> <br /> “…You still have some more trick remaining ''as a magician'' huh.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai whispered after the flame wall was extinguished.<br /> <br /> Those words of hers were as if she was saying that the conclusion between them as swordsman had been reached.<br /> <br /> He was the victor when they battled each other in Ise Imperial Shrine before, but originally their true strength were even with each other. The line between victor and loser was drawn from the slight difference in experience. If the opponent had just a little extra in her, the situation would be reversed.<br /> <br /> The Sacred Treasure of Isonokami Shrine….<br /> <br /> “Certainly you won’t say that this is cowardly. Even I don’t have the intention of losing against you the second time. I left behind my beloved katana and choose these two pieces…for the sake of surpassing you bastard, this is my best where I have exhausted myself.”<br /> <br /> The sword technique with the appliance of general magic, the strongest class Summoning Magic of Japanese Mythology, and then the strengthened Sacred Treasures.<br /> <br /> The current Aisu Ikousai had everything. And then more than that she didn’t have even a single fragment of negligence.<br /> <br /> Strong.<br /> <br /> In regards to that, Kazuki didn’t expect that he would have his rematch with Aisu Ikousai here.<br /> <br /> He absolutely didn’t feel any longing for Beatrix. But even so, if he could use the magic that girl used, if his bond with her was still remaining…. Such conception flashed through his head.<br /> <br /> After getting back to square one like this, what was he going to do next? Inside Kazuki’s head there was no plan appearing that could break this deadlock.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, are you okay desu!?”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Lotte’s voice reached him from outside the fight with Ikousai where he focused his mind to the extreme.<br /> <br /> “Ru, Run o flash of sword, &lt;Nagamitsu&gt;!”<br /> <br /> ''It was the voice of Lotte calling out the power of Sacred Treasure'' totteringly.<br /> <br /> A blade of light came flying right from the side to Ikousai who was facing Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “…What-!?” Ikousai leaped back in fluster.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Ikousai directed their sight to Lotte simultaneously.<br /> <br /> Lotte had already finished dealing with the Shrine Maiden. She was holding Sacred Treasures of katana and spears in her left side while her right hand was wielding a single Sacred Treasure. Even if she couldn’t go as far as using the technique to draw out the Sacred Treasure’s maximum power by interacting with it―[Battou Kaikon], she still liberated a fragment of that power toward Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “You bastard…that’s the Sacred Treasure from the main shrine!!”<br /> <br /> It was an inexperienced strike, but that attack checked Ikousai in place and it was enough to light a fire in her fury.<br /> <br /> “Dance the wing what is scattered is spark. Trail behind the spiraling wind, become the bullet that gouge life! Flap your wing and shot out! Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t miss that opening and launched a flame bullet. “Uwaa!” Ikousai raised a scream and staggered. In a split second Kazuki swung down his katana from above his head and cut her.<br /> <br /> In panic Ikousai blocked that attack with her blade facing sideways.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki, that person cannot use the power as the King of Japanese Mythology. It’s no good for you who is the King of Solomon Mythology to lose. …Why didn’t you use Zekorbeni?}<br /> <br /> In the instant of [time of calm] where blade and blade locked at each other―a telepathy from Leme reverberate in his head.<br /> <br /> Zekorbeni. It was the pendant-type Magic Dress that he was newly bestowed from Leme when she recognized Kazuki as King. With that pendant he could do {{furigana|possession from Diva|Diva Drive}} of a girl whose positivity level was more than 150, granting Kazuki with the chanting speed of average {{furigana|Drive|Possession Summoning}}.<br /> <br /> But the magic power consumption using that was high because of the large amount of magic power flowing into the circuit that became thicker and shorter in without stopping. It was a [trump card] that couldn’t be used easily because he thought that he had to save it so even if there was something unexpected that happened, he could escape while taking along Lotte with certainty.<br /> <br /> {You said that it consume a lot of magic power? As for that…you have to become able to control the power of King a bit better.}<br /> <br /> Listening to what Leme was saying dissatisfiedly, Kazuki replied {I know already} in his mind.<br /> <br /> “Lotte! I’m okay, so you just walk off with the Sacred Treasures that you can carry off with both of your arms!”<br /> <br /> Light emerged out from Kazuki’s chest, Zekorbeni was generated.<br /> <br /> Kazuki grasped that pendant with one hand and yelled with voice filled with determination.<br /> <br /> But that determination was obstructed by Lotte herself.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, some kind of large magic power is approaching with great speed!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte’s detection of magic power was not inferior even compared to Kazuki and Ikousai. Both of them too immediately noticed, they looked up to the dim sky―someone was approaching here from the eastern sky the same where Kazuki also arrived from!<br /> <br /> “Just wait a second here, both of you! How can you two just leave me alone in a boring battlefield while having fun fighting together! Son Shouryuu has arrived!!”<br /> <br /> What entered their eyes was an approaching golden colored cloud. On top of it was a young boy that stood imposingly with both his arms crossed. Looking at a glance he looked like he was going to fall from the wind pressure, but his posture didn’t stir an inch.<br /> <br /> Young boy―even seen from Kazuki who was still a high school student, calling him with the expression of still a young boy was appropriate.<br /> <br /> Much less a middle school student, if one was careless the boy’s height and features could also look like someone around elementary school student.<br /> <br /> Somersault Cloud&lt;ref&gt;Or Kinto cloud. Son Goku’s famous cloud.&lt;/ref&gt;. The two leaders of China’s soldiers that attacked Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai were said to be contracted with Kan’u and Son Goku. This guy is the magician that is contracted with Son Goku! It was still better than a reinforcement of a hundred people, but a Magika Stigma that was likely one of the strongest in Yamato’s camp had came!<br /> <br /> “Son Shouryuu!!” Ikousai yelled.<br /> <br /> The young boy that was called Shouryuu somersaulted from on top the cloud and got down to the ground.<br /> <br /> “There were some fellows that broke away from the battlefield with great speed so I especially chased them and came here you know! This means that battlefield is just a distraction, and their true aim is to attack this shrine huh. So, big sis Ikousai already guessed it beforehand and waited for them here right!?”<br /> <br /> Shouryuu unexpectedly had a fast thinking.<br /> <br /> After saying all that with dizzying speed, ―he turned a dissatisfied face to Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Why didn’t you tell this to us who is your comrade if you know about this beforehand! This guy is the King of Solomon right!? If we beat this guy isn’t it our side’s victory!? It’d be better if we ambush him with all member of the China’s Imperial Guard!!”<br /> <br /> “Shut up brat!” Ikousai roared thunderously. “This guy is my prey! I won’t allow you to interfere!”<br /> <br /> “Wh, wha-!? What’s with that way of talking…this means you, you plan to monopolize this for yourself huh!? Doing an interesting fight yourself while keeping it secret from me is just unn―faa―iir―rightt-!? I’m joining in too―!!”<br /> <br /> “Kuh…talking won’t get through to this fellow in different meaning from Loki…! I absolutely won’t tolerate it if you lay your hand on my Hayashizaki Kazuki!!”<br /> <br /> Ignoring Ikousai’s words, Shouryuu interposed unhesitatingly between the two. Ikousai went “You bastard-!” and raised her voice while swinging Ame no Habakiri in the space between Kazuki and Shouryuu, obstructing the two.<br /> <br /> This startled Shouryuu and he looked back at Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “You, what are you planning to do pointing your blade to the comrade that came far away from China really! Don’t screw with me, shénjīng bìng (is something wrong with you)&lt;ref&gt;The 'shenjingbing' is said in Chinese which means 'stupid' or 'crazy', while the one inside the bracket is the translation from the author. &lt;/ref&gt;!?”<br /> <br /> Shouryuu reflexively cursed in Chinese.<br /> <br /> Using that opening, Kazuki exchanged gaze with Lotte.<br /> <br /> Lotte guessed everything from just his gaze and nodded. And then the spell chanting began.<br /> <br /> A powerful reinforcement of the enemy―the operation was a failure. Retreat!<br /> <br /> Kazuki estimated the timing and dashed at Lotte before embracing her.<br /> <br /> Lotte cast [Deep Striker] with an exact timing.<br /> <br /> A huge thruster unit was equipped on Lotte’s back and then she launched herself together with Kazuki that was holding at her high to the sky with enormous flame trailing behind them.<br /> <br /> Ikousai and Shouryuu noticed simultaneously “”What-!?”” before yelling and looked up to the sky.<br /> <br /> The resoluteness of the decision to escape and using Lotte’s Telepathy ability to its fullest, how Kazuki and Lotte matched their timing without giving any signal to each other managed to take the two by surprise.<br /> <br /> “Wait, Hayashizaki Kazuki, don’t you run away from me-!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai jumped the air using [Tenrou Kaidan] and tried to chase the two who were flying.<br /> <br /> However the speed of [Deep Striker] really couldn’t be caught up.<br /> <br /> “…Just remember this, this time is my victory after all-!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai who gave up fell to the ground while yelling.<br /> <br /> “You think you who underestimated Lotte and got the Sacred Treasures stolen can be called the victor huh-!!”<br /> <br /> Hearing the words Kazuki left behind, Ikousai was “Unuu―!” and raised a vexed voice.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki and Lotte gained enough altitude, the force of the thruster was tilted from vertical to horizontal, they flew heading to the direction of Nagoya. Lotte laughed “Ehehe♪” being embraced tightly by Kazuki like this continuously.<br /> <br /> “The rendezvous at the departure was also great but, the return home like this is nice too right desu-“<br /> <br /> “But we also cannot be like this until we arrive. …Deep Striker!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too cast [Deep Striker] later than Lotte, then he separated his body from Lotte.<br /> <br /> Lotte dropped her shoulder in disappointment. Ikousai had fallen behind however…,<br /> <br /> “Waitt―! Fight mee―!!”<br /> <br /> A shrill voice of a young boy was following them from behind.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, he caught up!!”<br /> <br /> Shouryuu who stood on a golden cloud was following them even now. In the first place that cloud had a speed that was not inferior against [Deep Striker], that was why he was able to catch up with them from Yokkaichi until here so quickly.<br /> <br /> The Ishinogami Shrine on the ground had already looked like a speck of rice from here, but the Somersault Cloud was following them from that spot while trailing behind a golden trail―he approached near in the blink of eye.<br /> <br /> The other side was fast!<br /> <br /> “Howl! The civilization grant human destruction! The roar of wisdom scorch, break thy body, burying that dignity under the rubble!! Mitraileuse!”<br /> <br /> Lotte equipped a gatling gun and directed one of her hand behind, scattering rain of bullets. However Shouryuu didn’t even try to dodge and Resist the bullet right from the front deflecting them. It didn’t even slow him down.<br /> <br /> It was impossible to shake him off.<br /> <br /> “Lotte! There is no other way to return to Nagoya other than fighting this guy here!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki resolved himself and made an U-turn, facing Shouryuu.<br /> <br /> Lotte stayed slightly behind Kazuki and took the stance of supporting Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Awesome, come just like this! We are going to play until you break yeah!! …Taking hold of the leading part is possible! O divine rare steel that hold infinite mass, hand down the strike that inflict certain kill to all evil! Nyoikinkobou!”<br /> <br /> Inside Shoryuu’s both hands, a deep red pole was created before it was grasped.<br /> <br /> “Gouge!!” With Shouryuu’s thundering voice, the pole ignored the law of conservation mass and elongated, approaching near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Fast. But Kazuki Foresighted it and already evaded from the point where the pole was elongating.<br /> <br /> The pole that struck empty air shrank back as if rewinding, then after Shouryuu adjusted its angle, he directed it once more to Kazuki and it elongated. All of that was not Shouryuu drawing back the pole and thrusting it forward again, but because of the piston movement of the pole that lengthening out after shrinking back, it was even faster than any barrage of any kind of bojutsu&lt;ref&gt;Martial arts using stick as weapon&lt;/ref&gt; master.<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously gulped his saliva. ―There was no doubt that most likely in Shouryuu there wasn’t any knowledge of martial arts whatsoever.<br /> <br /> However that pole just by directing it to the enemy, made it possible to launch super high speed barrage into infinite distance automatically.<br /> <br /> A powerful weapon that laughed derisively toward any martial arts training!<br /> <br /> Kazuki who escaped using [Deep Striker] was pursued by consecutive strike from a pole that possessed thickness and force like the rapid fire of gatling gun bullets. The closing in attack that was like a [wall] of barrage was not something that could be evaded even with Foresight.<br /> <br /> Lotte turned to Kazuki and chanted a magic.<br /> <br /> “O wisdom that is piled up throughout human race’s history, became the multiple piles of armor that armored the body of that person! Heavily, thickly, reject every act of barbarity! Seusenhofer!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte created an armor that shone white on Kazuki’s body in a close call.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA!!* With the raising terrific sounds, the pole tore apart the armor in the blink of eye. On top of its speed, there was also its amazing destructive power!<br /> <br /> “Lightning fall on my body and I obtain lightning thought god speed…wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!!”<br /> <br /> Because he believed that Lotte would chant a defensive magic on him, that was why Kazuki chanted a different magic.<br /> <br /> The electric signal inside Kazuki’s brain was sped up and his thought power increased in activity. The force of the flame that spewed out from [Deep Striker] heightened and he accelerated all of sudden―Kazuki instantly circled outside Shouryuu’s line of sight.<br /> <br /> “Uoo!? I can’t see him! Where is he!?”<br /> <br /> No matter how fast the pole contracted and shrank, if the user couldn’t confirm by sight then the pole also couldn’t lengthen out.<br /> <br /> I want offensive power. Just in the timing when Kazuki thought such thing, Lotte invoked a magic to him.<br /> <br /> “Blitzkrieg!!”<br /> <br /> On the dominant arm of Kazuki who was charging, a gigantic charging spear was created.<br /> <br /> “Uoooo, I know it’s bad if I don’t know where he is going to come from! I feel a bad pressure!”<br /> <br /> Shouryuu that lost sight of Kazuki screamed.<br /> <br /> “Eei…o rock monkey of immortal body born and blessed by the aura of heaven and earth and alchemy of the heaven, please share thy grace in my body! {{furigana|Houten Shouchi・Ishisaru Henge|Law Heaven Phenomenon Earth・Rock Monkey Transformation}}!!”<br /> <br /> Shouryuu emitted a glaring light in a flash, right after his body hardened from obtaining the color and hardness of rock. Kazuki’s thrust that surpassed the speed of sound *GAKIN* was blocked by a hard sensation.<br /> <br /> Rock―even the electricity was made ineffective.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s strike was abated from the hard to believe defensive power that suddenly appeared. Even so Shouryuu scattered around a few lights of defensive magic power and he was blown away altogether with the Somersault Cloud.<br /> <br /> ―Even his defensive magic power was thick. His Resist technique was not as skilled as Kaguya-senpai or Beatrix, but the amount of his pure magic power was overwhelming.<br /> <br /> Moreover magic power underwent a sudden growth from the age of high school student until adult age where it would reach the peak of the growth. But this young boy, no matter how he saw it, was still around middle school student’s age, an age where his magic power was still half-way developed. …What a monster.<br /> <br /> While Kazuki shuddered from how his spear was repelled, he swiveled in high speed. He was going to charge at him from his blind spot again. Just like breaking apart a huge rock, there was no other way to fight other than kept charging no matter how many times at the owner of this enormous magic power and inflicted damage little by little.<br /> <br /> “…Aa, shit! If you are going to keep charging from places I cannot see then even I have an idea yeah! …Genshin is overflowing right here, build the shape of mine unlimited body! {{furigana|Shingaishin no Hou|Law of Body Outside Body}}!!”<br /> <br /> After Shouryuu chanted a magic with frightening concentration even while his magic power was thoroughly smashed, he took a large deep breath. Thereupon his magic power instantly swelled out, after that when Shouryuu blew out the breath from his mouth, from there tens of small Son Shouryuu flew out.<br /> <br /> “!?” Kazuki was shocked and he drew back his charge before taking some distance.<br /> <br /> The clone of small Shouryuu that were vomited out like a cluster of germ gradually became bigger when they were blown outside and grew to a size that didn’t lose to the original Shouryuu himself.<br /> <br /> No, the swarm of Shouryuu that covered the sky completely had already became so like the original that one couldn’t differentiate which one was the original unless one concentrated and looked out for the magic power. Moreover those clone bodies were all riding Somersault Cloud and holding Nyoibou in their hand.&lt;ref&gt;The one magic Kazuki need in his repertoire with the number of the girl in his harem, and it’s in the hand of a boy. What the hell with this?&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> The eyes of the several dozens Shouryuu looked around the surrounding area gogglingly. No matter how much a master of martial arts one was, in this space it was already impossible to find Shouryuu’s blind spot.<br /> <br /> ―An ill feeling flashed through Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> “Lotte, get away! Run away as fast as possible…tch!!”<br /> <br /> “Destroy, destroy! Destroy everything all of me!! Just destroyyy, Nyoibou!!”<br /> <br /> The several tens of Shouryuu moved randomly on their Somersault Cloud in high speed while they brandished around the Nyoibou in their hand making it shrank and elongated like a piston. All inside his line of sight was filled completely with trajectories of Nyoibou.<br /> <br /> The next moment, a terrific impact came.<br /> <br /> That was a small microcosmos of strike where all the space was filled completely with strikes.<br /> <br /> This is bad! …All of his defensive magic power was going to get smashed wholly just in an instant!<br /> <br /> …Zekorbeni!!<br /> <br /> Kazuki summoned a pendant on his chest and he concentrated his mind into it. He became strongly conscious of his bond with Mio who was separated far away from him, from that bond he drew out the mental body of Phoenix and resided him inside the pendant. The pendant that was possessed by a Diva fiercely spouted out flame.<br /> <br /> “Mode・Phoenix!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki performed {{furigana|Order|Phenomenon Request}} directly into Phoenix who was in Drive inside the pendant. Due to this even Phoenix’s high level magic that originally needed long time of chanting became able to be Cast even in a short time. In exchange, a large amount of magic power was poured into the thick circuit in one go and he felt like his mind withered away.<br /> <br /> But if he just left this alone than to escape from this infinite strikes that continued eternally was…!<br /> <br /> “…O undying bird that soar from twilight to dawn, please grant that wing of hope on my back! The destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!”<br /> <br /> While his magic power got scraped off crunchingly from the strikes, Kazuki spread out gigantic flame wings from his back. Compared to the same magic that was chanted in a normal time, that flame wings was so large like a cloud that covered the sky.<br /> <br /> Kazuki rotated his body in a swirl and waved around the wings of flame. The gigantic belt of flame with the diameter that even reached several dozen meters swallowed the several dozens of Shouryuu clones in the surrounding.<br /> <br /> The clone bodies of Shouryuu that was swallowed into the flame all became motes of light one after another and vanished.<br /> <br /> The clone bodies that escaped from the difficulty fired voices of agitation from their mouths.<br /> <br /> “Crap” “Crap” “Crap” “What the hell is that, awesome” “Now that I remember, this guy is a King” “That’s so, so this is a part of Solomon King’s Authority” “On top of one vs two this is frankly awful” “But exactly because of that this is interesting” “Right, this is interesting” “Yossha, from here is the main performance yeah!”<br /> <br /> The wings of flame turned to the clone bodies of Shouryuu and Kazuki extinguished them one after another.<br /> <br /> At the last the original Shouryuu remained. Shouryuu glared at Kazuki with eyes in high spirits from his vigor. While Kazuki was making the clone bodies his opponents, it seemed that Shouryuu was chanting some kind of magic.<br /> <br /> With expression that projected strong confidence, he was going to cast that magic he chanted―right at that time.<br /> <br /> “Warning! Immediately cease the battle!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly a cold voice of a female rang out from the far away. It was a loud voice that was amplified by magic power.<br /> <br /> “Warning! Immediately cease the battle! I will begin to attack those who don’t comply with the warning-!!”<br /> <br /> After the voice, a thunder ran horizontally. A giant thunder from beyond the west ran into right in the middle between Kazuki and Shouryuu. When that thunder vanished, from there a single figure of a woman appeared.<br /> <br /> Riding thunder to appear here―rather than that it was as if the form of the woman was changed into a thunder.<br /> <br /> She was a woman that was clad in a Magic Dress that looked similar to a pure white dress. Her platinum blond hair and dress’ sleeves fluttered in rustle from the strong wind of the sky.<br /> <br /> She had a look and skin color that was obviously not Japanese or Chinese.<br /> <br /> That gaze of hers had no wavering in it, emitting a sizzling silent pressure.<br /> <br /> “I, Ilyailiya Muromets!!”<br /> <br /> Shouryuu was…raising a voice that overturned his impression of this flawless young man from how shook up he sounded.<br /> <br /> The woman called Ilyailiya turned at Shouryuu with a clear light blue eyes.<br /> <br /> “…I’ll overlook the impertinence of calling my name without honorific because you are not someone that I don’t know. Rather than that…I should have already advised Yamato to [propose to Japan for the occassion of ceasefire arrangement]. After all rather than entering ceasefire because of other country’s intervention, proposing the ceasefire from oneself beforehand will make your position better later on. Despite that why are you still taking combat action, explain yourself.”<br /> <br /> “The one who started the fight is Japan! When we thought of making the preparation to propose the ceasefire agreement just like you told us, they suddenly came attacking us with incredible force you know! It’s still around one week after Sekigahara yeah!? It’s unbelievable but, we can’t just stand around and not intercept right-!?”<br /> <br /> “…I understood the situation. In various meaning I didn’t make it in time, that’s it. Then with I who stand as the mediator, halt the battle right now immediately.”<br /> <br /> “…Screw that! In front of a toy this delicious, how can I just stop fighting…”<br /> <br /> “I have predicted that response. Your belligerent personality makes the situation complicated. Therefore I have begun attacking already.”<br /> <br /> “What, already?” Shouryuu made an expression of realization and looked up, then yelled. “…UOOOO, from the sky!?”<br /> <br /> ―From the sky above, several dots of light blinked in a momentary flash. Those small dots of light became bigger in a blink of eye and covered Kazuki and Shouryuu overhead completely.<br /> <br /> It was falling while spouting out flame from the air friction of the atmosphere, countless numbers of meteors.<br /> <br /> “Sayonara. If it’s you then you won’t die that easily.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya became a thunder once again. The humanoid light that was half human and half thunder first turned up below Kazuki where she held Kazuki under her arm.<br /> <br /> Right there because he didn’t feel any ill will or hostility, Kazuki let himself get taken away just like that.<br /> <br /> Next she rushed under Lotte who was separated far away and then she also carried Lotte under her arm.<br /> <br /> Both of them were carried under her arms and escaped outside the attack range of the meteors with undoubtedly a lightning speed. It was a speed that struck them with admiration. This female magician was far and away―in a different dimension of speed even more than [Deep Striker] or Shouryuu’s Somersault Cloud. In an instant only Shouryuu who was the only one left right under the countless meteors.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOII-!!”<br /> <br /> Shouryuu raised a scream while rushing his Somersault Cloud, but with that speed he was unable to get away from the range of the meteors. The meteors rained down on Shouryuu one after another.<br /> <br /> “GYAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> The instant the meteor crashed into Shouryuu, the trajectory of the meteor changed from vertical into straight horizontal. There was no mistake that it was controlled according to Ilyailiya’s will. It was an unnatural movement that ignored gravity.<br /> <br /> “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!”<br /> <br /> The meteor brought Shouryuu horizontally far away east to the direction of Pacific Ocean.<br /> <br /> That scream of his gradually became smaller and then vanished.<br /> <br /> “If you crash into the ground surface just like that then it will bring about damage, therefore I will vanish the meteor after it brings you around the area just before Hawaii. I want you to be relieved.”<br /> <br /> While saying such with emotionless voice that made one feel even some brusqueness, Ilyailiya let go Kazuki and Lotte.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Lotte were hovering back with their own power using [Deep Striker] and faced the girl.<br /> <br /> “Who in the world are you…?”<br /> <br /> …The attack magic before. The phenomenon body she invoked was similar to both Ryuutaki-senpai’s Union Magic.<br /> <br /> However even though it was a magic of such scale, ''he didn’t grasp the signs of her chanting and invocation at all''. Even her magic that changed her into thunder and moved in high speed was also like that.<br /> <br /> She cast magic without any omen of magic power. What in the world was this power….<br /> <br /> “O soldiers of Japan, first let me apologize for my impoliteness of visiting Yamato’s side preceding your side.”<br /> <br /> Her short conversation with Shouryuu before this displayed that she was an acquaintance of that young boy.<br /> <br /> “…I am the envoy from Russia Empire. I came to give my counsel to put a ceasefire in this conflict that might destroy the balance of the world. I want you to somehow accept the ceasefire.”<br /> <br /> Ilyailiya said while bowing her head uneventfully.<br /> <br /> The envoy from Russia…! Kazuki worked his brain in fluster. What kind of matter this is?<br /> <br /> From her way of talking just now, it seemed she had visited Yamato and sent her advice to them.<br /> <br /> Her mouth said that she apologize but, it was obvious that Russia was leaning closer to Yamato rather than Japan. Kazuki harbored a suspicion to this person that stood in front of his eyes and stared intensely at her vigilantly.<br /> <br /> “My name is Ilyailiya Muromets. We exchange contract with the supreme deity of Mythology that governed all phenomenon of heaven, &lt;Svarog&gt;. I am the Emperor of Russia Empire. {{furigana|Grozny Basilleus|Thunder Emperor}}&lt;ref&gt;Grozny, it means “awesome”, “fearsome”, “redoubtable” in Russian. The same word as in Ivan Grozny or Ivan the terrible. Could also mean &quot;Someone who should be feared&quot;.&lt;/ref&gt;, that’s what the people and other countries call me.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s face instantly turned pure white. Russia’s, Emperor…!?<br /> <br /> “It is my pride that I can run faster than anyone in my country. Therefore I came here alone. O soldier, I want you to guide me into Japan’s territory.”<br /> <br /> It seemed that Ilyailiya didn’t know that Kazuki was a King. But he was just a student, so she was also not wrong.<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded without correcting her.<br /> <br /> “I understand. However even on the ground is still in battle…”<br /> <br /> “That worry is unnecessary. I heard that Britain and Italia are also coming here. They are surely slower than me, but right about now should be a suitable time for them to finally advice the ceasefire on the battlefield on the ground. …Now, I will match my speed with the two of you, so show me the way.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―This day, a ceasefire was formed in the civil war between Japan and Yamato.<br /> <br /> In reality, that fact had the meaning that Yamato was recognized as a country in the international community.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Afterword&diff=479321 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Afterword 2016-01-31T17:14:15Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Afterword==<br /> <br /> “Eh…Is Amaterasu in Ise Imperial Shrine or Izumo Grand Shrine, which one is it? …Izumo Grand Shrine?”<br /> <br /> When I said such thing, I received a tsukkomi “It’s Ise Imperial Shrine you know!” from CHuN-san and the others in the other side of the sea. This is the no good Japanese person, Mihara Mitsuki. But the editor in charge Kodama-san ignored it too, you know.<br /> <br /> The stage in this volume is Ise Imperial Shrine. At any rate it is the top holy land of Japan so “Making this kind of misunderstanding and keep writing following my perception like this mustn’t be done” like that, I focused my mind and went for a trip to Ise for collecting data. It was not playing, until the very end I was collecting data.<br /> <br /> When I became like that Mihara Mitsuki is a Super Follower of new Fad Light Novel Author, so when I do “Something that is really indeed like an author” I have the nature where my tension becomes an ecstasy. Finally when I boast about my collecting data trip to my fellow author, they went “Then I too am going to write about shrine through my book so I’m coming along” “Ah, then me too” and bunches that are taking advantage started coming out.<br /> <br /> &quot;Refreshing Prince&quot; Sagara Sou and &quot;I-got-hit-by-a-truck-hard&quot; Asano Hajime.<br /> <br /> Inside my heart I was going “Don’t get in my way these bastards” like that, but if I went against these two popular authors then I won’t be able to work for the second time in MF Bunko J, so “Waa―, if we go together with everyone like this it’s going to be fun right desu―” there is no other way than welcoming them wholeheartedly.<br /> <br /> [The steady collecting data trip of an author that doesn’t sell] changed completely into [the ‘isn’t it great?’ Ise pilgrimage group of three idiots]. It already wasn’t bound to be a diligent trip.<br /> <br /> Even so, for the sake of undergoing an academic trip, I went “It might be good you guys, the architectural style of Ise Imperial Shrine…” directing the conversation topic into an academic thing like that, but those two ignored all that and went about things like “Amaterasu is a little girl isn’t she” “A hikikomori little girl right” and fell into a daze of turning Amaterasu into a moe-chara. In this kind of holy place, what an impolite bunches toward Amaterasu-sama these guys are. …But it was a really valuable idea, so I finally used [the hikikomori little girl goddess Amaterasu].<br /> <br /> Even when I was seriously taking pictures of the surrounding scenery with my camera on top of the ferry, the two of them were throwing feed to the gulls at my sides and laughed like they are going to die. For some reason it really made my stomach boil and I was going to say some complaint, but Sagara-sensei was surrounded by gulls and his smiling face looked like he was having a blast like an innocent kid so in the end I didn’t say anything. …Sagara-sensei at that time strangely looked cute, so I made a heroine that did a completely similar action like that without any change in it.<br /> <br /> I planned to burn my fighting spirit and collected data, but even the book itself turned completely into stupid contents like “writing infiltration operation while read as a date”, so the fact that I relaxed the burden from my shoulder and the travel changed into a fun trip might have became a plus for the book. Because of such things, my thanks for both Sagara Sou-sensei and Asano Hajime-sensei. Bu, but it’s not like I’m a particularly good friends with those two or anything okay! And then for CHuN-san and others of FriendlyLand, thank you very much for the wonderful illustration. Sea! And then swimsuit!! I’m very sorry for my late manuscript…. Thank you very much too for the editor Kodama-san for your guidance. And then most of all, to the everyone of you readers, thank you very much as usual! I’m happy if you enjoy this volume!<br /> <br /> Mihara Mitsuki<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Epilogue|Epilogue]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 7 Illustrations|Volume 7 Illustrations]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Epilogue&diff=479320 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Epilogue 2016-01-31T17:09:41Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Epilogue - Archipelago of Chaos==<br /> <br /> “The King?...It’s you?”<br /> <br /> The person called as the head of &lt;Ryouzanpaku&gt; that had been invited into the command room looked at Kazuki with her eyes wide open.<br /> <br /> When the black clothes she wore was seen from nearby, it was an outfit that consisted of a field jacket and short pants. It felt like a practical military uniform, but with the zip of the jacket around her neck largely opened, she also looked somewhat rough.<br /> <br /> That girl of a leader held her hand at her mouth and looked around the command room with sharp eyes. She possessed a wild beauty with her skin that had darkish color from sunburn, but her eyes and expression were rational.<br /> <br /> The other girl with short stature that accompanied the head of Ryouzanpaku turned to Kazuki with blinking eyes.<br /> <br /> “Hee―! So the &lt;{{furigana|King|Basilleus}}&gt; in this country is ''something like a man-!?”<br /> <br /> When the girl that felt like she was the one that was worn by her black clothes approached Kazuki casually, she caught hold of Kazuki’s cheek and stretched it apart *munyuu* while smirking. Rather than calling it innocence, it was a behavior that looked down on Kazuki somewhere.<br /> <br /> “Stop it, that’s rude.” The leader girl let out a sharp voice.<br /> <br /> “But this is strange yeah! Someone feeble like man to be some King!!”<br /> <br /> “Son Shouryuu of Chukadou who is contracted with Sun Wukong is also a man you know.”<br /> <br /> “That’s an exception right! There is no way there are a lot of monsters like that out there!”<br /> <br /> Listening those words, Akane-senpai came out forward readily in that place because of something that she couldn’t just overlook.<br /> <br /> “This person is by no means weak. As far as I know this person is the strongest person in this country.”<br /> <br /> Hearing that unexpected words, Kazuki reflexively stared fixedly at the side face of Akane-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Hee―!? Is that true, that’s unbelievable huh, I want to test that claim!”<br /> <br /> When the short-statured girl said that, she separated her hands from Kazuki’s cheek, then she lowered her left leg sharply behind and leaned her center of gravity there. She lightly floated her right leg. At the same time she opened her armpit and put both her hands right in front of her face.<br /> <br /> Martial arts―this is, the stance of &lt;Muay Thai&gt;.<br /> <br /> “Cut it out, Silirat! …Our apologies. The one who takes the command of Japanese Knight Order in this place, there is no mistake that it is you isn’t it? Rather than this King here, you are the superior officer aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> While the leader girl caught hold of the neck of the girl called Silirat tightly and dragged her beside her, she turned around to face Regiment Commander Yamagata that stood in front of the desk of the command room.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Akane-senpai had come to the place of Commander Yamagata where they discussed the infiltration mission and war information before.<br /> <br /> At the same time they also led the leader of the mysterious group who had trespassed into the battle and the room was made into a place of meeting.<br /> <br /> The first thing that came out from the mouth of the girl was asking if “Will the King of this country come here?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, that’s true. I’m Shizuoka Regiment Commander, Yamagata Koyata.”<br /> <br /> “Eh!? You lie right!? The number one important person is a geezer with withered magic power like this…”<br /> <br /> Against the yelling Silirat that opened her eyes wide roundly, that girl who was the leader held her partner in her arm and blocked Silirat’s mouth.<br /> <br /> “…Pardon my shitty idiot’s impoliteness. Looks like our cultures are really different somehow, so she is feeling confused. Please forgive her.”<br /> <br /> “Why do we have to behave that modestly here, our position is the one that came to help them right!?”<br /> <br /> “Shut it, shitty idiot. …Think about the future after this. Our position is one where we have to get their cooperation.”<br /> <br /> For an instant, her rational atmosphere until now vanished like a mask and she glared at the girl called Silirat with rough eyes.<br /> <br /> The leader girl turned around to Kazuki and put back a friendly smile on her face.<br /> <br /> “…I am Ryouzanpaku’s rank number one, Roshoukou&lt;ref&gt;Lu Shang Ziang in China. But the author here give the Japanese reading.&lt;/ref&gt;. My contracted Diva is [Taikoubou].”&lt;ref&gt;Roshoukou here talked using polite language with Kazuki and others while talking casually with Silirat.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “I am the rank three, Silirat Denkaosen! My contracted Diva is [Shiva]!”<br /> <br /> “In Ryouzanpaku we have never called each other with surname, so please call our names with Shouko and Silirat.”<br /> <br /> “…Sorry but, what is Ryouzanpaku?” Commander Yamagata asked.<br /> <br /> “You don’t know anything about us?” Shouko-san asked back.<br /> <br /> “With my position as a regimental commander of a region, I really don’t get much information about the international state of affairs. I just know to the extent that Chukadou is making troubles here and there in Asia.”<br /> <br /> “About Chukadou piling up cross-national troubles here and there showily is the story just a little before this, right now most countries are already in the process of yielding to Chukadou. These few years, the process of making Asia as their vassal states had progressed rapidly. That’s because there is also the matter that the ruling of Chukadou ''in practice became known to be really not that severe''.”<br /> <br /> “Hou…so you mean there are some countries that wish to become vassal state voluntarily.”<br /> <br /> “Well, the number of countries that think the ruling of China is not as bad as one would have other believe is increasing. Even if they are made to be a vassal state, a humane livelihood for the people is still guaranteed by Chukadou. A few hours of alchemy labor in a day is levied to the people but…”<br /> <br /> “Alchemy labor?”<br /> <br /> “Simple alchemy labors are levied to the people. Possessing vast territory, in Chukadou who was left with deep ravages of environment destruction from the previous era, work for resources production and environment normalization using alchemy are not lacking. For that sake, enormous magic power is needed. There, the people of the vassal state that can use simple alchemy technique if they are trained are made to work without payment until they used up all their magic power.”<br /> <br /> “I think that’s severe enough a treatment already.” Commander Yamagata scowled his face.<br /> <br /> “Is that so? For you to think so…Japan is a really wealthy country isn’t it.”<br /> <br /> With the blessing of alchemy, the world became abundant with material resources to the degree that had never been seen before in history until now. That happening was one of the factors that made it easy to sever the diplomatic relations in the world, so he was told before.<br /> <br /> But it seemed it didn’t really go that fortunately for China.<br /> <br /> “Well, just alchemy labor is really not that bad, but there is one more obligation levied to the conquered people, and that obligation is the one that we viewed as a problem. That is the obligation of [assimilation]. The country and people that become the vassal country of Chukadou has to discard their language and mythology that they have until now as uncivilized barbarian culture, and they are burdened with obligation to assimilate the culture of Chukadou and faith of Sinocentrism.”<br /> <br /> Culture invasion―In the era where material resources were abundant, invasion now aimed for integration of culture and mythology.<br /> <br /> “Most of the countries in Asia had completely accepted becoming China’s vassal country. However we don’t want to recognize that. We don’t want to lose the culture and mythology passed from generation to generation. People who thought such things separated from their motherland and gathered together and began activity of continuing to resist at any cost, that’s what we are.”<br /> <br /> “You said faith to Sinocentrism but…Chukadou should be a Taoism country right?”<br /> <br /> When Commander Yamagata said that, Shoukou-san shook her head in denial exaggeratedly.<br /> <br /> “Their Taoism is just a sham. There is this phenomenon where Mythology produced distortion because of human’s perception…I don’t understand the theory but, currently, the Taoism Divas that are being contracted with Chukadou has gone astray from the original Taoism and becoming existences that are dyed with Sinocentrism.”<br /> <br /> Naiarlatoteph’s Cthulhu Mythos and Amaterasu’s Japanese Mythology too were weakened from human’s influence. So Taoism Mythology was also completely changed until they had become different things by some sort of influence.<br /> <br /> “In the first place, Taoism is not a type of teaching that forces religious belief. Taikoubou whom I’m contracted with is a rare Taoism Diva that leaves behind his original form. On the contrary, Taikoubou is entrusted with the exact opposite heaven’s decree. That is…passing down the end of the age where Divas are ruling over humans. When the era where Magic Advanced Countries that had been reduced into religious countries were quarreling with each other and Mythologies are unified arrive…human’s soul will be lost. That has to be prevented. That’s what Taikoubou said. We began to move to realize Taikoubou’s heaven’s decree and gathered comrades.”<br /> <br /> “For me&lt;ref&gt;Silirat refer to herself using ‘ore’, usually this word is only used by male to refer to himself&lt;/ref&gt;…it’s not like I fully consent with Taikoubou-san’s thinking though. I’m just cooperating to overthrow Chukadou. At any rate, doing something about China&lt;ref&gt;Not a mistake, the author use China and Chukadou alternately&lt;/ref&gt; is the priority.”<br /> <br /> Silirat who was contracted with Shiva whispered with small voice.<br /> <br /> “India, Vietnam, Philippines…Asia’s various countries and ethnic groups’ Magika Stigmas who can fight were gathering under me. Everyone have different faith to their each crumbling apart Mythologies, but we are united with our feeling of not wanting to lose their culture and the objective of defeating Chukadou. We are occupying an island in southeast Asia &lt;Ryouzanpaku&gt;, with that island as our stronghold we began our opposition against Chukadou&lt;ref&gt;Just realize this myself after this far, but Chuka is one way of saying China in Japan, while dou is how you read Tao or Taoism in Japan. So I guess translating Chukadou will be Chinesetao, or something. I’ll just keep typing it Chukadou. Forgive this incompetent translator.&lt;/ref&gt;. …We don’t belong to any country and we are not a part of any military but, we are a {{furigana|picaresque|ruffian}} group baring our fang and fighting against an enormous Order as our opponent…my explanation take a little detour, but what is called Ryouzanpaku is that kind of bunches!”<br /> <br /> Shoukou-san talked with a hearty tone as if giving a peek to a honest personality.<br /> <br /> “Picaresque group of Ryouzanpaku―however why are you here in Japan then?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked. Of course that was surely because a confrontation between Japan and China had come out however….<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagato continued as if supplementing Kazuki’s question.<br /> <br /> “While rude but Ryouzanpaku is still a small private organization. In a conflict between fellow Magic Advanced Countries…to stick your nose in the middle of a conflict that might disturb the balance of the world should require no small amount of determination. Why have you arrived with the decision of taking such bold actions?”<br /> <br /> “…We had known already that the day will surely arrive before long where Chukadou is going to antagonize another Magic Advanced Country and disturb the balance of the world. But we predicted that it would be a conflict with Europe. We had schemed that we will rampage from Chukadou’s behind when they enter conflict with Europe. Nevertheless before that can happen the turn of affairs developed into a conflict between Japan and Chukadou. Our stronghold is located in an island of southeast Asia…almost right in the middle between Japan and Chukadou. For the balance of the world to crumble to be centered in east Asia is pretty bad. For us, if the balance doesn’t crumble in a little more inconspicuous place then…”<br /> <br /> “So before you get mixed up in this and get crushed…you are trying to enter Japan’s camp?”<br /> <br /> “Our reason is something like that. If Japan is weak then we are only going to share our lot with one another, but from the start we are a desperate group. Thereupon right after when we make up our mind, the unit right under the direct control of Chukadou’s Emperor had entered the harbor of Yamato using ship, so we too chased after them…We were making face that we are also reinforcement from Chukadou and attempted to enter this country using that excuse. We failed, you see. We have a lot of people from the south so they suspected the color of our skin. Can’t be helped so we made a riot in the harbor…After that we were a little late so we made you receive our assistance in the battle. I think if we rushed here faster the damage could be suppressed, I have no excuse for that.”<br /> <br /> The damage was not small. There were some knights that fell into magic intoxication and taken along by the mounted bandits as [prisoner] in great numbers. Of course Japan obtained more prisoners from Yamato than what was taken from them but….<br /> <br /> “Chukadou said that Yamato is the legitimate government of Japan and sent reinforcement, but this is that country’s same old way of doing things. Intervening in domestic problem like this, then they are going to make Yamato as puppet administration from the position of a patron, finally they will insist their own privilege little by little…. They first start from fabricating a just cause. Japan will enter a battle against a mighty enemy called Chukadou in the end without fail.”<br /> <br /> Shouko-san talked about the threat of Chukadou exaggeratedly as if persuading Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> That was for the sake of setting up an alliance of cooperation with Japan, but―,<br /> <br /> “We can become a considerable battle strength. We should be able to become a kindred soul that fights for the same objective.”<br /> <br /> “Most likely it cannot be that simple though.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata said it clearly.<br /> <br /> “Japan is the balancer of the seven large Advanced Magic Countries. Just because China meddled here, doesn’t mean that we can immediately form an opposing organization and counterattack. First there is the necessity to let out a statement directed to the world. That our side is the victim, such statement like that.”<br /> <br /> “And then if beside you there is us who are an active anti-Chukadou organization it will be inconvenient for you, that’s what you want to say.”<br /> <br /> “Most likely this won’t go like what you thought, where the development will immediately become a full collision between the two countries. First there will be a ceasefire of war with Yamato…. And then other Magic Advanced Countries will dispatch investigation teams to Japan to determine which one between Japan and Yamato has the legitimacy, surely the course of events will develop like that. It seems until now there was something like this happened, where the Magic Advanced Countries dispatched investigation teams to the quarrel of other countries.”<br /> <br /> “Aah, certainly before the weak countries in Europe get protected like now as a provincial territory country, each time there were troubles a third country would investigate, and then they seemed to open things like international conference don’t they?”<br /> <br /> Shouko-san nodded. With a cautious expression, Commander Yamagata continued his prediction of the future.<br /> <br /> “This is the first time there is trouble between fellow Advanced Magic Country. Most likely all of the other Magic Advanced Countries will dispatch their investigation team to this Japan archipelago. Then won’t an international conference never seen before in history where all the Magic Advanced Countries attend get opened? If in that place the opinion of the Magic Advanced Counties get split up whether Japan is more suited or Yamato is, this Japan archipelago might become the stage for a world war. If we don’t avoid that much…”<br /> <br /> The legitimacy for governing this country…naturally without even investigated it was clear that Japan was in the right.<br /> <br /> On the other side of that thought, Kazuki recalled one fact. ―If he didn’t make Aisu Ikousai and Susanoo completely submit then he was not a true King of Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> “…When it becomes like that, if there is a [stimulant] like an organization of anti-Chukadou in your side, you won’t know what kind of influence it will bring about. But Commander-san, imperfect as we are, you won’t just act ungrateful and chase out us who was your benefactor that helped you from the pinch in the previous fight just like that right? Ruffian like us hate such things the most you knowww…”<br /> <br /> Shoukou-san who had maintained her smiles all along suddenly had that expression vanish. A shuddering glint in the eye threatened Commander Yamagata. Commander Yamagata unintentionally faltered at that.<br /> <br /> “…Well, I don’t have the authority to decide what we are going to do. What I said just now is also just my own arbitrary prediction.”<br /> <br /> “But you have the power to influence the decision by putting a good word to the big shots up there don’t you? We wish for that to…”<br /> <br /> ―At that time the extension telephone on top of the desk in the command room rang. Commander Yamagata took the phone.<br /> <br /> “What? …What do you say? …Understood, please enter&lt;ref&gt;Here at first he was talking with casual language and suddenly he switched into polite language.&lt;/ref&gt;.”<br /> <br /> After exchanging one and two words, Commander Yamagata put the telephone device back. Someone whom the commander talked to using polite language?<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, sorry but open the lock of the door.”<br /> <br /> “Whom did that call come from?” Kazuki asked while approaching the door.<br /> <br /> “It’s the Einherjar. Eleonora Abendroth.”<br /> <br /> Eleonora―suddenly Kazuki felt an anxiety.<br /> <br /> “Commander, is this room soundproofed?”<br /> <br /> “…Of course it’s soundproof. No matter how much you strengthened your hearing with magic power, it’s impossible to eavesdrop from the corridor.”<br /> <br /> Most likely Eleonora is a personage coming to Japan that doubled as a spy. Kazuki opened the door while being relieved from the commander’s reply, then he invited Eleonora to enter the room.<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much for your permission to enter the room. There are two urgent reports I need to tell.”<br /> <br /> Wearing Einherjar uniform, Eleonora talked with her usual calm expressionless look.<br /> <br /> “Eh!? She is not Japanese!” Silirat raised a surprised voice.<br /> <br /> “What in the world is…?” The commander urged her.<br /> <br /> “Beatrix Baumgard had wakened up just now. The person herself vehemently request to meet face to face with Hayashizaki Kazuki…. I’m looking if Hayashizaki Kazuki is in this room.”<br /> <br /> “Beatrix is…!?” Kazuki spontaneously raised his voice.<br /> <br /> At that time *DOZUDOZUDOZU!* footsteps was running after here.<br /> <br /> “Oi Erii, don’t just go ahead by your own! I already said that I’m also going together to Kazuki’s place you hear!! Where is it, is it here―! Wrong place, this is the toilet. Is it here―!!”<br /> <br /> Along with a voice Beatrix in a pajama appearance leaped inside from the door that was left opened.<br /> <br /> “Captain, I told you already to please keep resting in your bed right!? I’m going to take Hayashizaki Kazuki along to your room after all!”<br /> <br /> Eleonora raised a yelling voice. But Beatrix ignored that and,<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!” When she discovered Kazuki in the room, she rushed over to him with her eyes shining.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki! …Muu…I wanted to meet you but, when I’m facing you face to face like this without any business at all, that, I don’t understand at all what to do! Right now I didn’t bring any sword…”<br /> <br /> As if searching for words, Beatrix fidgeted around in front of Kazuki. Beatrix in her pajama making a ruckus in high tension strangely felt like a lovely [girl].<br /> <br /> “…Long time no see is it, Beatrix-chan.”<br /> <br /> Right that instant, Beatrix’s white skin was colored bright red, a splendidly large heart mark came flying. ..’That’s huge’, it was a largeness that reflexively made him astonished.<br /> <br /> Because right now he was in the state of cooperation with Beatrix, he could see her positivity level alteration.<br /> <br /> “Be, be be be Beatrix, ch-ch-ch-chan you said!? You bastard, so you finally recognized me as a cute girl…! What are you saying suddenly making a surprise attack like that!!”<br /> <br /> At that time Kazuki instinctively felt a danger and took a back-step in panic.<br /> <br /> At the spot where Kazuki’s shoulder was located an instant before *FUUUUN!!* Beatrix’s fist was passing through with terrific force. It was a swing that was really close with a right hook of a heavy class boxer.<br /> <br /> Is this that…? The behavior of an embarrassed girl punching the shoulder repeatedly?<br /> <br /> So it became like this when Beatrix-chan was doing a [shy shoulder punch]….<br /> <br /> “Why are you dodging…?” Beatrix hung her head down dejectedly and turned her eyes upward in dissatisfaction.<br /> <br /> “That’s because the power is just too high…” Kazuki answered while shuddering.<br /> <br /> “What’s with these guys…” Shouko-san was drawing back with plain tone of voice.<br /> <br /> “Captain Beatrix.” Eleonora called out Beatrix with coldly penetrating tone of voice.<br /> <br /> “The situation had changed. Please don’t support Hayashizaki Kazuki too much. ''From now on we have to watch the situation intently and reconsider once again from an objective position''.”<br /> <br /> “Mu, has something happened while I was unconscious?”<br /> <br /> Eleonora ignored that question. First she took a glance at Kazuki, after that she turned around to Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “This is the second report. Due to Chukadou’s intervention, the war between Japan and Yamato become something that might bring chaos to the world’s order. That’s why…”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “The three of us Einherjar that stay in Japan, from today will completely cancel our cooperation arrangement with Japan. Which of the governments possess the legitimacy of this archipelago’s sovereignty…to ascertain that we are turning over into an [investigation team].”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> What she was saying, wasn’t it really just like what Commander Yamagata said before this.<br /> <br /> …This girl, as expected she had heard the conversation from before hadn’t she?<br /> <br /> “…I completely don’t get the situation…. What’s this? What is happening?”<br /> <br /> Beatrix was looking at Eleonora and Kazuki alternately while losing her bearing. Suddenly her cheeks were dyed red thinking of something. “I don’t get it but, is this love that is torn apart because of position…Kazuki and I are just like Romeo and Juliet huh…”<br /> <br /> ‘For some reason it seems inside this girl’s brain I am the one that is made to be the Juliet’, Kazuki thought.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―The Magic Advanced Countries started to move. This Japan archipelago was turned into a stage of chaos.<br /> <br /> At that time Kazuki recalled Loki’s words. That guy’s objective for involving China was to drag the seven large Magic Advanced Countries into this.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [The guy that can make things interesting no matter what roll his way is exactly the most awesome guy.]<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Afterword|Afterword]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_5&diff=479307 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 5 2016-01-31T16:14:44Z <p>Hiro Hayase: typos</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 5 – Head-On Collision ~Magic War・Sekigahara~==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> “Both Kanon and I, as the commander of the general offensive?”<br /> <br /> Akane was dumbfounded and leaked out her voice. Regimental Commander Yamagata who summoned Akane to this control room nodded gravely.<br /> <br /> The base of the restructured division, for the sake of their counterattack to Gifu prefecture, was moved from Shizuoka to the garrison in Aichi. The room where the highest rank in the chain of command that ruled this garrison was located was in here, this station control room. <br /> <br /> Right now this room had become the possession of Commander Yamagata. This place was Aichi garrison, but the one that recovered this Aichi was the counterattack force led by Commander Yamagata after all.<br /> <br /> That commanding officer summoned Akane and handed down an improbable order.<br /> <br /> “This is a joke right? I’m still a student you know.” Akane smiled bitterly with taken aback feeling.<br /> <br /> “Student huh. Without a doubt you are a student but…let me ask you in return. Right now, can you trust the other adults in the Knight Order?”<br /> <br /> It was a really sharp question that cut like a blade.<br /> <br /> For her who was still in the position of knight candidate, it was hard to answer this question honestly.<br /> <br /> But Akane guessed what was it that Commander Yamagato was looking for. She gathered her courage and answered frankly.<br /> <br /> “Saying it clearly, I cannot trust them at all.”<br /> <br /> “Isn’t that right? I too think so about all the people around me. I don’t know at all who in the world can be the spy from Yamato in the Knight Order. While feeling such paranoia, you are one among the few humans that I can say without doubt is not a spy. You get it right?”<br /> <br /> “Yes but, for someone inexperienced like me…”<br /> <br /> “I don’t think you are inexperienced. If you ask me why, that’s because you are also among the few people that had experienced leading a troop in a magic war. …You are the one that handed over the report concerning the previous [Magic War・Okehazama] to me, aren’t you? In that report there is this opinion written, that [the magic war from now on is going to be completely different compared to all the war until now]. I think it really hit the point. There is no one that had experienced something similar like you among your senior knights. In other words you are the one that have already become the number one veteran here.”<br /> <br /> “The one who took command of that battle was not me, it was Hayashizaki Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> “I heard. But don’t tell me that you want to make a first year of Knight Academy a commander. To say nothing, that currently Hayashizaki Kazuki is in the middle of infiltrating the enemy’s territory. If he comes back, it’s fine to make him your vice officer.”<br /> <br /> Akane’s feeling became complicated. …For her, she thought of him as a [King], she was the one who wanted the position as his vice officer instead. She felt that such way suited her personality.<br /> <br /> “…I too want a right-hand man that I can trust. That’s why even though this is more or less coercive, I’ll attach you to a fitting position and I want you to pile up achievement that anyone will recognize. The one who should build up the new era must be the young.”<br /> <br /> “…Even so just as expected this is a complicated feeling.”<br /> <br /> Akane said with a squeezed out voice.<br /> <br /> “In the previous battle, I held nothing but a defeated feeling. In regards of Hayashizaki Kazuki, in regards of my own inexperience, it’s only deplorable. Despite so, even if you said that battle experience is recognized…”<br /> <br /> “But you are able to find your own composure, you are a human that can grow the more you experience failure. I am someone that can see such quality in a person you know?”<br /> <br /> Akane unconsciously tightened her fist hard. The gorgeous delicate fingers became white from putting too much strength.<br /> <br /> Yagumo Akane―was being self-conscious that her own self was just a mediocre person compared to Koudzuki Kanon or Hayashizaki Kazuki. For a person like her to be in a place like the Witch’s Mansion where geniuses were gathered, she managed to accomplish her responsibility as the Vice President, though imperfect, by always thoroughly [being kind to other person and harsh to one self], that was how she came this far.<br /> <br /> Because she was a mediocre person that could work hard that she was relied on by the geniuses.<br /> <br /> If she rejected this request, then surely she would lose even that single foundation of hers.<br /> <br /> Could she do this? No, she had to be able. The creative power Hayashizaki Kazuki showed in the previous battle―should have already become her own flesh and blood.<br /> <br /> “I understood, I accept.”<br /> <br /> “Good. I should have already entrusted everything of the force composition to you, haven’t I? Then you should have already put in order the arrangement so that you can move this counter attack force as your own army. As soon as possible…”<br /> <br /> At that time a hurried footsteps from outside the room could be heard and the door was opened.<br /> <br /> The figure that appeared was Amasaki Mio.<br /> <br /> “Re, re re re reporting informationnnnn-!”<br /> <br /> The girl was too nervous and her speech was in chaos.<br /> <br /> “When entering the room of your superior, get permission first for entering the room through the extension interphone.”<br /> <br /> Akane warned with a bitter face, but Commander Yamagata’s expression broke out into a smile seeing an inexperience that was so like a student.<br /> <br /> “Don’t worry about it. She is still a first year that is inexperienced in the Knight Order’s custom after all. What is your business?”<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii…Hayashizaki Kazuki had sent contact that the operation is a success! Invade immediately right now he said!”<br /> <br /> Hearing those words, the expression of Akane and Commander Yamagata were filled with tension.<br /> <br /> “Is that true? Has the smoke signal been fired?”<br /> <br /> “No, it’s not from the smoke signal…he sent his voice of the heart to me!”<br /> <br /> Akane and Commander Yamagata’s expression that were full with tension went a complete change into a frown filled with doubtful feeling.<br /> <br /> “Is that the delusion of Kazuki inside you, or something like that…”<br /> <br /> When Akane questioned her doubtfully, Mio went “That’s not it-“ and shook her head.<br /> <br /> “With the power of love, our hearts are connected with each other-!!” She said that while puffing her chest proudly with ‘ehem’.<br /> <br /> The commanding officer and the commander exchanged their glances.<br /> <br /> “She is saying a really stupid thing but…what do you think? However to say the least, youth is really enviable huh.”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 180.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “They are connected with the power of bond. A long range telepathic communication by means of the power of King…it’s not something that is really that impossible. If this is really true then this method is far more effective rather than something like a smoke signal.”<br /> <br /> This was a chance they had waited long for, but it came in the best form that they never even imagined.<br /> <br /> Both of them nodded at each other&amp;mdash;they immediately moved in action.<br /> <br /> Lightning fast was necessary for this operation.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> The troops that moved to the neighborhood of the provincial border using the army buses disembarked and separated into vanguard and rearguard, then they marched to the direction of the border. There was a national highway that headed to the prefectural border between Gifu and Aichi.<br /> <br /> An older knight arrived to convey the report from the scout toward Akane and Kanon who became the commander.<br /> <br /> “There was a military response from inside Yamato’s territory. They had sensed our movement and quickly assembled the troops they distributed in Toyama and Yokkaichi garrisons here in Gifu using the magic light train.”<br /> <br /> The troops had surely been given a detailed instruction from Commander Yamagata, that they had to act courteous even toward Akane and Kanon who were younger. Akane once again became self-aware that she was currently holding the leash of her own army and her nervousness increased.<br /> <br /> “They are not as confused as we thought and moved quickly huh.”<br /> <br /> Kanon said so but, for Akane the report was just as she expected so far.<br /> <br /> The main bases of Yamato were &lt;Kagamihara garrison&gt;, &lt;Toyama Garrison&gt;, and &lt;Yokkaichi garrison&gt;, these three places. The objective of the Knight Order’s offense this time was Kagamihara garrison located in the southern part of Gifu prefecture.<br /> <br /> What made Kagamihara garrison as the most suitable location to be the offense’s target was not only its short distance from Aichi, there was also the mountain that separated Toyama and Gifu in the east border as the cause. Gifu’s south border―namely Kagamihara was exactly the best location suitable for head-on collision.<br /> <br /> Yamato sensed that movement through their spy and summoned their troops from Toyama and Yokkaichi.<br /> <br /> The diligent older knight continued his report.<br /> <br /> “Around the time we come into contact with the enemy, the other side will surely have finished concentrating their manpower. Also Yamato have burned the town and fields in the direction of our marching. The situation is they are awaiting us in the field they had prepared.”<br /> <br /> “So they are not naïve enough to give us one more chance for a surprise attack.”<br /> <br /> Anxiety flashed through the expression of the older knight. Akane sensed that anxiety sharply and endeavored to wipe away that anxiety with her act as a commander.<br /> <br /> “With their failure in the previous battle, they are excessively fearing a surprise attack right now. Then reversely we are going to take them by surprise by attacking them head-on. A head-on collision is exactly the surprise attack.”<br /> <br /> “I don’t intend to doubt our troop skill but, in regards to the other side who concentrated their battle strength, our side’s front-line swordsmen are at the very least inferior in number compared to the enemy. Is it okay to have a frontal fight like this?”<br /> <br /> The knight asked. ‘At the very least’, such phrase meant that he asked implicitly in doubt if [was it really true that the Shrine Maidens of the Japanese Mythology were withdrawing from the front line?].<br /> <br /> Just before this military operation, they had announced that the Shrine Maidens had withdrawn from Yamato’s troop due to Kazuki’s infiltration mission.<br /> <br /> Was it really true that Kazuki had succeeded in his mission. Depending on that, the difference between the two army’s battle strength would greatly change.<br /> <br /> Head-on battle&amp;mdash;if there was no fear of [surprise attack] in the middle of the battle, it would become a simple battle of quality and number of soldiers. Certainly that was a way of fighting that could be called [no strategy].<br /> <br /> “Doing a head-on collision, and then from during that battle you create a [surprise attack], that is what we call [tactics]. While forming [formation] and breaking up our force, we are going to find the weak point from inside the enemy’s formation then we will concentrate our force at that point immediately. [Effective maneuver of breaking up and focusing]…that is something that cannot be done except by soldiers who have extensive training. If it’s about training amount then our side is overwhelmingly superior. This difference in soldier’s training is what will allow us to bring about a surprise attack.”<br /> <br /> The older knight opened his eyes wide and dumbfounded.<br /> <br /> …Kazuki said that [they had to think over everything from phase zero on how to go about this completely new magic war]. For Akane who was too fixated on common sense, that became a severe reflection.<br /> <br /> But on the other hand, she could also sort out which of the methods among the old knowledge that could still be relevant in this era.<br /> <br /> To be able to do that was the forte of her who had come this far after piling up a lot of effort.<br /> <br /> “They've become excessively alert against surprise attack from their defeat in the previous battle, that they lost sight that what matters the most in a head-on collision is the quality of the soldier. That is the indication of the enemy’s crude tactics command. Rather than the differences of the battlefield, they are using emotion as the base of their decision too much. …Just as arranged, when we arrive at the battlefield they are waiting for us, please form the &lt;horizontal formation&gt;.”<br /> <br /> Ahead of their advance’s path, suddenly an open wasteland appeared. Due to large scale attack magic, far from being rubble, it was a wasteland where all the buildings had been thoroughly destroyed into pebbles. The concrete pebbles that were created from destroyed buildings transmitted a man-made texture through the soles of their shoes with crunching sound when stepped.<br /> <br /> It was an excessively spacious wasteland where there was no way to work out a clever plan with only a small hill at the far away.<br /> <br /> Because there was not even a response of magic power, ambush troop was also impossible.<br /> <br /> A battlefield suitable for the naming of [Magic War・Sekigahara] had been created right there.<br /> <br /> The 900 soldiers of Japan Knight Order stormed into that battlefield with a horizontal formation in accordance with the previous arrangement before this.<br /> <br /> Horizontal formation―it was the most basic practical form of Heaven and Earth Formation.<br /> <br /> A unit of knights lined up in a row as the vanguard.<br /> <br /> At the rearguard, the unit of Magika Stigma was in waiting.<br /> <br /> At the middle, the reserve troop was stationed. The reserve troop’s duty was to immediately plug up gaps that were created in their own side’s formation. On the contrary, if there was gap that was created in the enemy’s formation instead then they were to charge at that opening. Although they were called as reserve but they were the elite unit that was the cornerstone of this tactic. The unit that Akane put there were the students of the Knight Academy who had no qualm at all in taking her command.<br /> <br /> Yamato too was forming a similar horizontal formation at the wasteland.<br /> <br /> The moment they mutually confirmed that they had come into contact with the enemy, the rear guard Magika Stigmas began to emit blue magic power light while the vanguard swordsmen ran forward while cooperating with each other so there was no disorder in their ranks.<br /> <br /> The weak point of horizontal formation was the lack in mobility. If there were Shrine Maidens unit in the enemy rank, they could completely mow down the swordsmen before they clashed with the enemy’s swordsmen due to their quick Drive.<br /> <br /> “From the distance, the enemy’s rearguard magician unit―the Shrine Maidens are visibly gathered in plenty enough number though.”<br /> <br /> Kanon asked Akane in order to confirm.<br /> <br /> “They are fakes.” Akane concluded. She was in the position where she must conclude that in full confidence.<br /> <br /> Her spine was freezing. There was nothing else but having faith on Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Even among the advancing soldiers there was agitation running through them.<br /> <br /> Kanon who was even more popular than Akane yelled “Everyone calm down! It’s okay!!” <br /> <br /> While advancing, the signs of the enemy could be seen more clearly.<br /> <br /> At the rearguard of Yamato’s army―less than a third of the Shrine Maidens were emitting magic power light.<br /> <br /> “Look! Those guys' rearguard is just paper-mache! They are not worth fearing!!”<br /> <br /> When Kanon raised her loud voice, the troop’s advance with the knights that went along well with Kanon since a long time as the center livened up straightaway. And then both armies collided head-on.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> Kazuki and his allies ran down the stone steps all at once and challenged the women in black clothes.<br /> <br /> “Polish the black steel of heaven o Totsuka no Tsurugi,…release the flash that gouge the storm! This is the Orochi no Aramasa! The descend of tearing limb from limb, Ame-no-Habakiri!!”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai chanted as if yelling. Just slightly behind her, Kamimura-san chanted her spell.<br /> <br /> “Cloud above the giant snake, in the sky we become the throne of god. The oath of the country’s tutelary god taken in the steel of white clouds…the touted sword is, Ame-no-Murakumo!”<br /> <br /> What was in Ikousai’s hand was an eight branches katana, but what was created in Kamimura-san’s hand was a refined Japanese katana with a hilt made from plain wood.<br /> <br /> Each of them were the Sacred Treasures that should even be said as the symbol of Susanoo and Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> Amaterasu’s white katana seemed to be more fitting to be said as a sword for self-defense rather than a weapon for attacking. The moment she seized that katana, white clouds whirled in a billowing vortex above Kamimura-san’s head.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Shirakumo no Yoroi|White Clouds Armor}}!” When Kamimura-san roared that, the clouds descended down to Aisu Ikousai and hardened, becoming a smooth white armor.<br /> <br /> Similar things were also created for herself and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Giving me something like defensive magic…you are just doing needless things! Besides I don’t plan to do anything like fighting together!”<br /> <br /> Even while spewing out such abusive words, Ikousai stood in front to bear the full brunt of the enemy attacks.<br /> <br /> Contrary to her words, Ikousai as the close-quarter fighter, Kazuha-senpai who was an all-around fighter, and Kamimura-san from the long-range distance, the trio naturally took a balanced action.<br /> <br /> “Hel!” One of the black-clothed women summoned the power of Norse Mythology’s goddess of death.<br /> <br /> An avatar of a beautiful woman in black clothes with half her body decaying grotesquely appeared.<br /> <br /> “Na, Naiarlatoteph!” Among the black-clothed women there was also a black elf taken along―Maya. ''A really small weakened'' tentacle monster’s avatar emerged out.<br /> <br /> “Fenrir!” “{{furigana|Skoll|Sun Wolf}}!” “{{furigana|Hati|Moon Wolf}}!”<br /> <br /> Three black-clothed women made three avatars of wolves appear respectively.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Vafthrudnir|Knowledge Giant}}!” “{{furigana|Utgarda-Loki|Whirling Fire Giant}}!”<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Thrivaldi|Three Body Nine Head Giant}}!” “{{furigana|Thrym|Fortune Giant}}!”<br /> <br /> The other four black-clothed women summoned the power of Norse Mythology’s giants one after another.<br /> <br /> But there was something Kazuki understood from his experience fighting illegal magicians in Magic War・Okehazama. The illegal magicians certainly had fast chanting speed, but those who could chant high level magic among them were few in number.<br /> <br /> The story would be different if those girls were fully taken over but…. Kaya was the only one who could make full use of Loki’s power skillfully, she was still only one of the few exceptions. <br /> <br /> If they couldn’t use high level magic, even in the case that they had fast chanting speed, those like Beatrix or Hayashi Shizuka who could use their contracted Diva perfectly were far more formidable opponents.<br /> <br /> Of course for the number of the opponents to be nine people was a threat. But Aisu Ikousai, Kazuha-senpai, and Kamimura-san, against those three he didn’t think those nine were a challenge they couldn’t oppose. Ikousai and Kazuha-senpai had evading ability while Kamimura-san was likely to excel in defensive strength. That was why Kazuki left it to those three.<br /> <br /> Kazuki dashed in a straight line to Kaya.<br /> <br /> Kaya too wished for a one-on-one duel with Kazuki and met his attack.<br /> <br /> “Armor Invite!!”<br /> <br /> Kaya summoned a Sacred Treasure from a different dimension. *BIKIBIKIBIKI!* Kaya’s surrounding space cracked apart.<br /> <br /> “Fiaðrhamr!!”<br /> <br /> What appeared from the rip of the space was a pure black robe of feathers. The robe of feathers spread out like wings and made Kaya flew lightly. Kaya who danced in the air chanted a Sacred Treasure summoning even further.<br /> <br /> “Weapon Invite!!”<br /> <br /> Loki possessed the power to summon various Sacred Treasure and Demon Beast. Surely even if people reworded Norse Mythology as [a mythology of Loki bringing about various things] no one could refute it.<br /> <br /> That magic invocation speed far surpassed Kazuki by order of magnitude.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki focused his mind on the newly created Magic Dress &lt;Zekorbeni&gt; on his chest. Inside his head the voice of Leme guiding him rang out.<br /> <br /> {This Dress can make the contracted Diva of the girl whose positivity level surpass 150 possess the inside of this Dress. Through this Dress you can contact directly with the Diva, become able to use telepathy with them, and also become able to invoke magic with the same speed of those that use Drive.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki imagined. This Magic Dress in the form of a pendant will Access with Phoneix through the circuit of his bond with Mio. The image of enormous magic power was flowing inside through that bond.<br /> <br /> Phoenix possessed the pendant. And then, Phoenix’s image color that was orange like firelight shined.<br /> <br /> Kazuki strongly appealed.<br /> <br /> “Come! …{{furigana|Mode・Phoenix|Immortal Bird Dress}}!!”<br /> <br /> The orange light of the pendant grew large and enveloped Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kaya who held Burtgang in her hand opened her eyes wide witnessing that light.<br /> <br /> “…That’s!? New power!?”<br /> <br /> While shining strongly, Zekorbeni in Kazuki’s chest spewed out flame that enveloped Kazuki’s body. The enveloping flame materialized like an armor―and created Phoenix’s original new Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> The orange armor responded to Kazuki’s telepathy and it was flickering with light. Right there the consciousness of Phoenix possessed it and he became able to communicate directly with Kazuki’s telepathy.<br /> <br /> Turning to that direct circuit, Kazuki made an {{furigana|Order|Phenomenon Demand}}. A Response came right away. Kazuki who was poor at Telepathty needed a long time at Order and Targeting, but this time he could commence Cast in an instant.<br /> <br /> “Burn to ash all that you touch…scorching heat of rejection that has no place to go! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> The defensive magic that had short chanting time from the start was invoked almost instantly.<br /> <br /> Large flames enveloped Kazuki’s whole body.<br /> <br /> He also felt a power up compared to the previous times when he usually chanted this same magic.<br /> <br /> Kaya assaulted Kazuki with Burtgang. Kazuki didn’t try to block it with his katana but stopped the attack with the flame on his whole body. The magic power that was residing inside the sword and the flame that was trying to meet the blade were competing with each other.<br /> <br /> At the same time Kazuki lengthened the flame to his katana and slashed at Kaya with katana of flame. The [Fiaðrhamr] that covered Kaya’s whole body moved automatically and protected Kaya from the blade.<br /> <br /> Kaya’s sword against flame, Kazuki’s sword against feather robe, both were jostling at each other with grinding sounds.<br /> <br /> “O immortal bird flying from twilight to dawn, please bestow that wings of hope on my back! Destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!”<br /> <br /> Wings of flame spread out in fire from Kazuki’s back. With the largely expanded wings of flame, Kazuki mowed down Kaya.<br /> <br /> The jet black feather robe covered Kaya trying to protect her. Kaya, who had turned like a black chrysalis passed through the gigantic wave of flame.<br /> <br /> “Kuh!” A voice leaked out from under the feather robe.<br /> <br /> The [Fiaðrhamr] was burned down until half of it. At that time―,<br /> <br /> “Ku…kukukuku-! It has been a long time huhh! King of Solomon!!”<br /> <br /> The Fiaðrhamr that enveloped Kaya was burned down. From there a silhouette of a different person emerged out.<br /> <br /> Sickly pallid skin, a male god with long blue hair fluttering behind him&amp;mdash;Loki.<br /> <br /> Kaya had handed over the control of her body to Loki so he could exercise all his power.<br /> <br /> Loki spread out the feather robe that was just barely left as scraps on his back like wings and flew away from Kazuki to take some distance. And then,<br /> <br /> “Dragon Invite! …Stampede, pterosaur!!”<br /> <br /> The space was ripped, this time three middle-sized pterosaurs flew out from there one after another.<br /> <br /> Against the crowd of the flying dragons that flew aiming at him, Kazuki matched the preparation of his attack magic.<br /> <br /> “Wings danced what scattered are sparks, trail behind the wind of spiral, become the bullet that gouge life! Flap your wings, whirl up the storm of sparks! {{furigana|Tri Barrett|Consecutive Spiral Flower}}!!”<br /> <br /> A level 1 magic that could be invoked with short chanting time, and when its chanting was shortened even further, the magic was naturally attached with the property of [rapid firing]. From the left hand that Kazuki thrust forward, three shots of flame bullets flew at the same time.<br /> <br /> The three pterosaurs raised a scream and got shot down.<br /> <br /> ―It was done with just Phoenix’s attack magic, however it was insufficient.<br /> <br /> Kazuki also began to chant a reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> “Kukuku-, interestin’! I’m gonna test how far you can resist!! Dragon Invite! Scatter apart pollution, Fafnir!”<br /> <br /> A conspicuously larger rip compared to those that appeared until now was carved largely. From there a giant dragon with scales that shined vibrantly in emerald green flew out like it was tumbling down.<br /> <br /> The six armed poison dragon came swinging its giant poisonous claw at Kazuki. Kazuki flapped his flame wings, evaded and counterattacked with a flame sword.<br /> <br /> While performing offense and defense, he accomplished his spell.<br /> <br /> “Lightning fall on my body and earn the lightning thought god speed…wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!”<br /> <br /> It took time, but it didn’t mean that he became unable to use magic other than Phoenix’s.<br /> <br /> A magic that elevated his physical ability electrifyingly―with flame sword that had its power and speed increased, Kazuki hacked the Fafnir into pieces.<br /> <br /> Fafnir spent its strength and its body that was created from magic power crumbled apart and vanished.<br /> <br /> “Here, your second helping! …Dragon Invite! Drown out the light, Niddhogg!!”<br /> <br /> Along with Loki’s screwing around words, what next came out from the rip was a black dragon.<br /> <br /> This thing would just regenerate its wound if it was attacked normally, death couldn’t bring about at it.<br /> <br /> Even so Kazuki wielded the flame sword against the black dragon. Even though in the end its wound would regenerate without a doubt with its resurrection power, it didn’t mean that it could make the damage it got into zero in an instant.<br /> <br /> The time when he fought the God’s reliant together with Yatagarasu became a hint. The moment he made the Niddhogg bore countless wounds and shaved off its strength exceedingly, Kazuki invoked that.<br /> <br /> It was a magic in the class that was very hard to chant if he tried to do it normally in a real battle.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise where the light of the heaven reside on that body, respond on my accusation burn away the sins above the ground! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Aurora shone on Kazuki’s back. That light was fired as a huge laser.<br /> <br /> The Nidhogg was swallowed inside the light, its body was peeled off and becoming worn-out.<br /> <br /> Light element―the death dragon that was weak against that element couldn’t exhibit its regeneration ability against such an attack.<br /> <br /> Loki laughed as if praising Kazuki’s strenuous fight.<br /> <br /> “Kukuku! So you can do it!”<br /> <br /> “Kaya-sama…Loki-sama!!”<br /> <br /> At that time the ground welled up and burst out, from there the upper body of a man protruded out.<br /> <br /> “Midgardsorm…what business do you have?”<br /> <br /> Loki looked down from the sky.<br /> <br /> The illegal magicians that was contracted with Midgardsorm and owned another name of [Earth Snake] had been defeated in the previous battle and made prisoner. But Midgardsorm that was possessing that Earth Snake had already escaped from his body.<br /> <br /> And then the time when Hayashi Shizuka was still in good health, Midgardsomr surely had already possessed the body of another man.<br /> <br /> That man who just appeared right now reported to Loki with an expressionless reptilian flat face.<br /> <br /> “…The Knight Order of Japan came attacking. A lot of the Shrine Maidens and those Japanese Mythology’s bunches are retreating, the camp of Yamato is in great pandemonium. Urgent, they asked you to return back and appeal those Divas…”<br /> <br /> {Fufufu, no way♪}<br /> <br /> Kaya’s voice echoed around as if the air in their surrounding was vibrating.<br /> <br /> “The princess has said so already. My bad, even without the Shrine Maidens the number should be still somewhat even, so tell those politicians to hold out somehow. Kukuku!”<br /> <br /> Loki laughed amusedly.<br /> <br /> The new Earth Snake nodded his head expressionlessly and went back inside the ground again.<br /> <br /> “I see…so you have already let out the signal. The Authority of Solomon King that draws out the power of the comrade that you had formed a circuit of bond with…it’s not really strange then if you can use that to exchange conversation from long distance with that eehh. That’s a power you never used until now…you have grown huh.”<br /> <br /> “You are okay just leaving Sekigahara alone?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki questioned. Looking at how Loki was not really disturbed with the course of events made Kazuki as the one that felt agitated instead.<br /> <br /> This guy…is he fine with what’s happening?<br /> <br /> {…I, want to see Onii-chan’s strength more.}<br /> <br /> Kaya’s voice rang out enthusiastically.<br /> <br /> {C’mon show it more! That power that Onii-chan just got your hands on!!}<br /> <br /> “That’s so huh…something like a war over there ''ain’t really that important''.”<br /> <br /> …These guys!<br /> <br /> They had already caused turmoil until this far and yet were they saying that it really didn’t matter whatever happened with Yamato!?<br /> <br /> “Kukuku, let’s keep going! It’s going to end with this if you are still the same brat from before…show me your stuff as the person that princess is looking for-! Weapon Invite!!”<br /> <br /> The space at Loki’s hand ripped, from there a large blue transparent sword appeared.<br /> <br /> Loki grasped it tightly―and immediately swung it down.<br /> <br /> “I’ll show you the essence of divine sword…{{furigana|Lævateinn|World Bisection Sword}}!!”<br /> <br /> That was the attack that once made Kazuki lose Mio.<br /> <br /> The swung down sword blade *ZUBAAAAAAAAA!* surged out blue shockwave.<br /> <br /> This sword wave would follow no matter where he escaped, it brought about fatal destructive power with just one attack. Kazuki had known that already.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, double the Megin whirling in my body! O the will of god spurring me to endless battle, in this body! …Meginjord!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki further magnified his physical strength.<br /> <br /> And then as if shaking off Loki’s line of sight, Kazuki moved instantly.<br /> <br /> “…Wha-! Fast!?”<br /> <br /> This was not merely a pure speed. Kazuki imagined Kanae and Ikousai’s movement in his heart.<br /> <br /> From a blind spot―to another blind spot.<br /> <br /> Kazuki erased his own figure from Loki’s field of vision.<br /> <br /> Kazuki agilely circled behind the dumbfounded Loki with his wings of flame.<br /> <br /> He took hold of Loki’s both shoulders who was in the posture of swinging down the large sword and pinioned him from behind.<br /> <br /> “What the-! You bastard, you want to make me a shield!? The great god, this me into a shield!!”<br /> <br /> With his posture still restricted from being pinioned Loki rattled his right hand, with one hand he swung Levateinn. Even with imperfect form a shockwave was produced from that and both shockwaves clashed with each other. They counterbalanced―no, the shockwave that couldn’t be counterbalanced hit Loki directly from the front.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;GARIGARIGARI!* The backlash of Loki’s vast magic power being scraped off was also transmitted to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “You, bastard, how dare you make a damned conduct like this!!”<br /> <br /> Loki converted that vast magic power of Diva into pure physical strength reinforcement and forcefully escaped from Kazuki’s pinioning. <br /> <br /> He flew away from Kazuki and fixed his stance.<br /> <br /> That magic power of his was still going strong very well and overpowering. Kazuki really couldn’t sense any damage on Loki.<br /> <br /> “Ku, kukuku! …You really got me. Then this time I’m going to break you personally!”<br /> <br /> The space at Loki’s hand distorted―from there a form that he had remembered seeing before appeared.<br /> <br /> In proportion with its hugeness, only its hilt was bizarrely short, a characteristic hammer.<br /> <br /> “Weapon Invite!! Bless the life, Mjolnir!! Now-! What are you going to do!?”<br /> <br /> That was the strongest weapon of the Norse Mythology that was Thor’s favorite.<br /> <br /> So Loki could summon things even up to this weapon that should be said as the synonym of Thor.<br /> <br /> But if he thought back, the one who brought about this weapon to Thor in the myth was also Loki.<br /> <br /> Mjolnir―this steel hammer that produced terrific [destruction power field] from its striking part couldn’t be parried or dodged just by superficial reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> Then with defensive magic…?<br /> <br /> Loki brandished Mjolnir and approached Kazuki. Loki’s martial art was inferior, but that enormous magic power of his reinforced his physical ability. And from the beginning this steel hammer didn’t need any complicated martial art. Just by swinging it down would burst and scatter everything in its surrounding.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s strong point was in magic the opponent’s attack’s element and contained it with defensive magic, but in regards to pure physical element he didn’t have any effective option other than Lotte’s [Seusenhofer].<br /> <br /> But with just that degree of defense it was nothing more than a mere consolation in front of Mjolnir’s overwhelming destruction power, Kazuki had experienced it himself before.<br /> <br /> A method to defend against this attack with defense was…nonexistent.<br /> <br /> “Soaring wings, glaring eyes, invading world-destroying conflagration―manifest the authority of god here, as the agent of civilization I will advance deeply and deeply! Deep Striker!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki summoned the armament for the sake of charging on his back.<br /> <br /> He couldn’t defend. Then do the opposite.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s mental power that was magnified due to [Ride Lightning] lit the fire in the magic thruster unit. He faced Loki who raised the hammer overhead and ''instead charged forward''.<br /> <br /> “Against a physical shockwave…just offset it with an equal physical shockwave!!!!”<br /> <br /> Due to the effect of Kazuki’s reinforcement magic, the [Deep Striker] accelerated passed the limit. Together with an ultimate acceleration he stabbed his magic sword that had been reinforced with [Meginjord]. That was the greatest attack power that Kazuki could possibly exhibit at this moment.<br /> <br /> Grinding his teeth, Kazuki charged. This was reckless but there was no other option.<br /> <br /> “Are you sane, bastardd-!!”<br /> <br /> Against Kazuki’s charge that didn’t think of any consequence ahead, Loki raised a shuddering yell of fear.<br /> <br /> …If he kept this then it wouldn’t end with just a light damage even for Loki.<br /> <br /> The hammer that possessed the destructive power that even distorted the space, and the charge of a huge mass with sound surpassing speed, clashed with each other with irregular sounds as if the laws of physics were crumbling down.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> The &lt;hit-and-run attacker&gt; Lotte dashed through the sky above the battlefield using [Deep Striker].<br /> <br /> The few numbered Shrine Maidens tried to shot Lotte down by letting fly firing magic. While running away from those with high speed mobility, Lotte grasped the magic power movement of the battlefield with her goggle-type enemy searching unit.<br /> <br /> Where, what kind of magic power sprang forth, what was going to happen in the next moment at the battlefield.<br /> <br /> In addition to Lotte’s prodigious Telepathy magic, she could also read the atmosphere of the battlefield.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s [eye of the sky] looked down on the battlefield.<br /> <br /> The role that Lotte was trying to accomplish was something like what weapons like battle helicopter were accomplishing in the past. The Magika Stigma Lotte who possessed similar power with modern weapons was able to revive the tactics of the past in this current era.<br /> <br /> What Lotte did was observing with caution was the outbreak timing of large scale attack magic―was not all there was to it.<br /> <br /> What was more important was [the formation distortion created from formation and formation clashing against each other].<br /> <br /> “Swordsman platoon 17 and 18 are in disadvantage! Send the reserve force!!”<br /> <br /> All the units were assigned with number.<br /> <br /> When Lotte detected a seam that came apart in the battle line, she contacted Akane with a wireless device. Akane then quickly responded with making instructions and maintained the defensive power of the horizontal formation solidly.<br /> <br /> On the other hand―<br /> <br /> “The enemy in front of swordsmen platoon 32 is retreating! The enemy’s horizontal formation is dented!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte made her report after discovering the hole in the enemy’s formation.<br /> <br /> Dispersing and concentrating―clashing with each other with the states of both troops mutually dispersed, then concentrated one’s own battle strength at the seam that opened in the enemy formation, destroyed the formation and broke through―that was tactic.<br /> <br /> “Platoon 31, 32, 33, form &lt;bullet formation&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Akane ordered without delay. For the knights they had the experience to be able to respond immediately to that command.<br /> <br /> That was a strong point that the young swordsmen of Yamato didn’t have.<br /> <br /> Bullet formation―the battle formation that built the core of [blitzkrieg tactic] that German army thought of in World War 2.<br /> <br /> The platoon 32 that hit the seam in enemy’s formation from the front had platoon 31 and 33 sent in their elite members from both side, making the battle strength of platoon 32 heavier temporarily. Platoon 32 who concentrated their battle strength charged the seam of enemy formation with force like a bullet and opened a hole in that wall.<br /> <br /> From both side of platoon 32 who turned into an elite force, platoon 31 and 33 blocked the enemies that tried to plug that hole with all their strength from the side and preserved the hole in the formation.<br /> <br /> At this time the three platoons that received Akane’s direction formed a shape like a tip of an arrow that protruded into the center, piercing the enemy’s horizontal formation.<br /> <br /> Now that it had become like this it might be more fitting to be called &lt;wedge&gt; rather than a bullet. Just opening a hole couldn’t be said as breaking through. What was needed next was mobility.<br /> <br /> Even the enemy possessed the reserve troop to immediately plug up the hole when one was opened in their formation. Platoon 32 that opened the hole was immediately becoming driven into the verge of total annihilation when receiving the counterattack.<br /> <br /> “Assault squad, follow up the thirty third!”<br /> <br /> Akane called for the turn of the squad that specialized in mobility among the reserve troops.<br /> <br /> “Thunder fall on my body obtaining lightning thought god speed…wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!”<br /> <br /> Hoshikaze Hikaru who reinforced the physical ability of her whole body stood at the head of that squad holding a Sacred Treasure pike in her hand.<br /> <br /> “Hyahha―! We live in accordance of Hodur’s wish, I too entrust my body once more in the exaltation of battle! The violent emotion wartime fire running in the blood and fat of my sword!! Stories Flame!”<br /> <br /> While brandishing sword of flame, the Einherjar that loved melee battle Damian also went along with them.<br /> <br /> “O Astaroth that commiserate with the sin of the foolish! For the purpose of being the agent of your indictment, please lend me thy servant the mounted beast!! Trampling Drake!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu Akira summoned a giant lizard―mounted beast summoning magic. The very instant Akira mounted the lizard, the lizard was inducted with Mibu Akira’s individuality and transformed into a huge armored car.<br /> <br /> “The loyal servant of Lucifer, o Gamigyn! Please lend me that symbol of loyalty thy swift horse!! Gallop Racer!!”<br /> <br /> Simultaneously Asamiya Anna who was Akira’s protégée too summoned a riding horse with fluttering flaming mane. When Anna mounted it just as expected it similarly transformed into a large type bike.<br /> <br /> The armored car and the large type bike resounded the characteristic music of biker gang [PARARIRAPARARIRA♪] in the battlefield and rushed forward.<br /> <br /> After platoon 31, 32, and 33 drilled a hole in the enemy formation they were desperately maintaining that hole from being closed by the enemy. During that time a squad composed of Magika Stigmas that possessed both mobility and offense power charged ahead in one go. Their speed far surpassed the reaction time of Yamato’s soldiers who had shallow experience.<br /> <br /> The assault squad with Hoshikaze Hikaru as the leader immediately moved into &lt;breakthrough maneuver&gt;. They charged the Shrine Maidens and illegal magicians that were casting Summoning Magic in the rear guard. The enemy formation was shredded into pieces from the inside.<br /> <br /> This was exactly a surprise attack of a head-on collision.<br /> <br /> Of course, that it could go well until this far was because Kazuki had reduced the number of Yamato’s Shrine Maidens sharply with his infiltration operation. If it was like usual then attack magic would rain down on the swordsmen squad like a bullet wave due to the Shrine Maiden’s {{furigana|Drive|Possession Contract}}, making a proper tactical action impossible.<br /> <br /> However right now Japan’s swordsmen squad was liberated from the threat of Shrine Maidens and they clearly displayed the difference in power between them and the swordsmen of Yamato who were suddenly only composed of conscripted soldiers.<br /> <br /> The one who became the cornerstone of this fast tactic were the experienced veteran knights and the hit-and-run attacker Lotte. However this pair were originally people that should be incompatible.<br /> <br /> For Charlotte Liebenfrau who legally was still an [illegal magician] to participate in this major battle, Regimental Commander Yamagata and the veteran knights were in opposition at first.<br /> <br /> However with Akane’s persuasion and the plan’s proposition, they had no choice but to recognize that the country’s policy until now was not the right thing. Lotte displayed her function as the cornerstone of the tactic splendidly in the battlefield.<br /> <br /> The one who first saw through Lotte’s suitability for the role of hit-and-run attacker was Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Then Akane included her into an existing tactic from previous era and persuaded many people.<br /> <br /> Lotte whose body hosted &lt;the god of civilization&gt; Prometheus was more fitting to be called convenient rather than powerful. If people were asked the essence of civilization then without a doubt it was [convenience]. It was one of the aspects that had the most affinity with war.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s creativity made [Magic War・Okehazama] succeed.<br /> <br /> And then in this battlefield, [Magic War・Sekigahara], people could say that it was Akane’s knowledge which sublimed Kazuki’s creativity into something resembling a tactic.<br /> <br /> The balance of the battle had greatly tilted, toward the direction of Japan’s overwhelming superiority.<br /> <br /> When Akane self-evaluated the excellence of her own command, she couldn’t say that she had done well no matter what.<br /> <br /> Even so hearing the battle cries resounded from a completed tactic felt really pleasant in her ear due to her own profoundness.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> “You, you really just did something outrageous…kukuku! What a messed up King…!!”<br /> <br /> With the clash of gigantic energy in the sky, Kazuki and Loki were both blown away together for few dozens meter. Loki stood up while laughing. <br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t have any composure to do something like trying to protect Ise Imperial Shrine, but it was fortunate that the attack unfolded at the sky above the forest of the Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> The damage was heavy in Kazuki’s side. However he was safe somehow.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too stood up and faced Loki. He could sense the sounds of the others fighting far away.<br /> <br /> “Finally you’ve risen to the stage where you can fight with a materialized Diva huh, you bastard.”<br /> <br /> Loki said that, praising Kazuki. Between the two who were facing each other, Kaya’s voice echoed.<br /> <br /> {Loki…more…}<br /> <br /> “I don’ really mind but, more than this and one of us is gonna die y’know. It’s likely the other side though.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was out of breath from his disordered magic power. The offense and defense between them were even&amp;mdash;that was how it looked like but, the consumption of magic power was evidently intense at Kazuki’s side. That was because his fundamental magic power's total amount, and also because of the fatigue from fighting continuously since he arrived in Ise for a long time.<br /> <br /> And then &lt;Zekorbeni&gt;. Certainly chanting became easier but&amp;mdash;from the magic power that poured into his circuit that became shorter and wider without stopping, he felt that his magic power consumption was even more severe than before.<br /> <br /> …If they continued more than this then he had to think about their way to escape. If he used [Ride Lightning] and [Deep Striker] together to escape, Loki shouldn’t have any method to pursue such speed.<br /> <br /> “We’ve confirmed Solomon King’s growth enough! Ku-ku-ku, you guys, we’re retreating now!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly Loki said those words that was outside of Kazuki’s expectation who right now was contriving a method to escape.<br /> <br /> …The one who is going to retreat is these guys’ side?<br /> <br /> The black-clothed girls who were fighting inside the compound of Ise Imperial Shrine instantly gathered below Loki.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai and Kamimura-san, also Ikousai who were fighting them gathered under Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The black-clothed women and Kamimura-san still had a composed expression but Kazuha-senpai and Ikousai who had fought continuously was in a state of deep distress.<br /> <br /> “Hmph, are you guys protected by Amaterasu? Even rotten, she is still a chief god huh.”<br /> <br /> Loki said in dissatisfaction.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology’s group becomes all the more troublesome, so it’s better to just kill you off here though.”<br /> <br /> Loki and his group headed to the entrance of Ise Imperial Shrine and turned on their heel.<br /> <br /> “Kaya!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked a question.<br /> <br /> “Why didn’t you fight to the end…and try to kill me?”<br /> <br /> At that time, Kazuki and Kaya should have already said their farewell.<br /> <br /> If Kaya intended to be hostile to Kazuki, then she ought to kill Kazuki here without fail.<br /> <br /> If inside Kaya there was still a feeling of wanting to see Kazuki….<br /> <br /> {That’s not it, Onii-chan.}<br /> <br /> As if betraying Kazuki’s thought, a cold voice echoed.<br /> <br /> {Onii-chan is…onii-chan too is a cog of even more chaos. Today we just want to confirm the strength of the completed cog, that’s all. Onii-chan’s speed in raising bond and Loki’s speed in laying out scheme are equal. Our cogs are perfectly in sync with each other. That’s why chaos will be born from that. Right now things like win or loss is just unnecessary.}<br /> <br /> After Kaya’s words, Loki was looking back at him.<br /> <br /> “For the last, for you who now have the air of becoming a competent tactician, this trickster-sama will give you an advice. …Compared to guys who are only chasing for just one correct interpretation or essence, the guys that can lead everyone around by the nose and make things interesting no matter what roll his way is exactly the most awesome guy! Ku-ku-ku! See ya!!”<br /> <br /> ―Essence and leading around. That contrast made a greatly perturbed sensation in Kazuki’s chest, it was freezing.<br /> <br /> With just that one sentence, an indescribable feeling of failure assaulted him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and his group saw off Loki’s group leaving.<br /> <br /> “…What do you plan to do, Ikousai?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a glance at Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “What am I going to do you ask? You guys have no business at all with what I’m going to do. I’m going back to Kenshitou. …But I’m going to kill those guys without exception. After that is you. I’m also going to take back the seat of the strongest from you without fail. I’ll plunder the seat of the King of Japanese Mythology…then I’m going to plunder the power of all the Kings in the world.”<br /> <br /> She looked exhausted, but a glaring light was still remaining in her eyes while Ikousai told him that. And then she disassembled her Magic Dress and returned to her kimono appearance before she turned her back at Kazuki and left.<br /> <br /> The girl was an upper echelon of Kenshitou. As the strongest swordsman, in a certain meaning she should be also a symbolic existence. That girl held opposition against Loki. Moreover there, the Japanese Divas that Yamato held as their flag draw their cooperation from Yamato all at once, even more when they suffered a great defeat in Sekigahara….<br /> <br /> With this, wouldn’t Yamato’s provisional government crumble down in tatters already?<br /> <br /> But, Loki and Kaya’s state that was as if they were saying that they didn’t mind even if that did happen….<br /> <br /> {The guys that can lead everyone around by the nose and make things interesting no matter what roll his way is exactly the most awesome guy.}<br /> <br /> “…I have a bad premonition. Everyone, let’s hurry back to Japan’s territory.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> The enemy’s horizontal formation was falling apart and scattered from each other. Akane was convinced in their victory.<br /> <br /> “That Akane, when she can move things just as planned is absurdly strong after all! You are weak when something unexpected happens though!”<br /> <br /> Kanon laughed brightly at the side.<br /> <br /> That was a comment of someone that really knew her best. Akane didn’t object and returned a wry smile.<br /> <br /> In the end, there was no soldier of Yamato that could reach the stronghold where the two were located. The two girls weren’t exposed to any kind of threat at all and everything was finished with just exchanging contact with the troops using software wireless device. The troops of Yamato were still struggling in vain but it was only a matter of time before they began to retreat. Of course Japan’s troops were taking prisoners as many as they could, they had to aim for the enemy’s total annihilation.<br /> <br /> …Any time now they could relax their attention without any worry. Even Akane thought so.<br /> <br /> Exactly at that time.<br /> <br /> Akane’s software wireless device received a transmission from the channel that was specially assigned for Lotte.<br /> <br /> {Akane-senpai…enemy’s reinforcement desu! There are a lot of magic power reaction coming with great speed!}<br /> <br /> “………eh?”<br /> <br /> Akane opened her eyes wide, she froze fully around thirty seconds. Kanon who saw her state sensed that something outside expectation was happening and stole Akane’s wireless before yelling.<br /> <br /> “From which direction, around how many enemy!?”<br /> <br /> {Their number is unknown but, I think it’s more than 50 desu! The direction is, from north!}<br /> <br /> “North!? Wait a second, just what kind of speed they have!? It’s not like there is rail for magic light train spread out there right!?”<br /> <br /> Even from where Kanon was standing, she could see raising sand smoke from far beyond the distance. Something dashing here while scattering sand smoke was approaching near while its form that looked like a small dot was gradually growing bigger.<br /> <br /> {Horse-sa&lt;ref&gt;Lotte is about to call a horse as horse-san here. Usually kid in Japan add honorifics in animal name when they are excited.&lt;/ref&gt;…it’s horse desu! They are riding horses and getting closer here!!}<br /> <br /> Yamato’s troops artificially created the wasteland of Sekigahara.<br /> <br /> On the top of the towering far small hill there, those silhouettes were faintly emerging.<br /> <br /> Cavalry―rather than calling them that, they looked somewhat rustic. They were wearing yellow bandanas on their head altogether. Rather than calling them cavalry their appearance made it easier to associate them with &lt;mounted bandit&gt;.<br /> <br /> Japanese knights were agitated.<br /> <br /> Right there, a vigorous loud voice resounded as if a cannon had been fired.<br /> <br /> “…Listen to the gracious au'''gust'''&lt;ref&gt;This bolded words is marking their broken pronunciation. In the raw novel, the author used katakana for the end of the sentence instead of hiragana to impress that the person talking here sounds a little choppy, I use bolded words here to imitate the author.&lt;/ref&gt; words of the Emperor! We will announce this to friend and the savage tribe of barbari'''an'''!!”<br /> <br /> It was a Japanese language with a somewhat broken pronunciation. For the Japanese people of the current era who almost had no chance at all to come into contact with the existence known as foreigners, this granted them the fear like someone who was encountering a strange war machine.<br /> <br /> The one who stood in the head of the mounted bandits like a leader raised a loud voice even more.<br /> <br /> “[Tis’ no problem]&lt;ref&gt;This is like the catch phrase of Fu Zi&lt;/ref&gt;!! We bestow'''ed''' to you the august words of the Emperor!! [Tis’ no problem] the Emperor '''said'''!! Graciously our Emperor had her noble heart pain'''ed''' for these xiǎo rìběn&lt;ref&gt;Chinese words. Quite a derogatory way of calling Japanese person&lt;/ref&gt; whose true culture stol'''en''' by these demons of Solomon, and then to help our friend…Yamato’s provisional government from its unfavorable situati'''on''', our Emperor gave her consideration even without being called, the august Emperor pushed her overworked body pondered in plenty for a full thirteen seconds before bestowing us [the Emperor’s directly controlled squad] her prompt decision '''to''' dispatch us!! Surely '''that''' vast compassion, is exactly the spirit of China! O those who are our friend, you '''had''' better listen to this gospel! Thy peoples of savage tribe, you '''can''' be grateful for this honor of our hand reaching to you in assistance! We will make know'''n''' the generous heart of China here…[tis’ no problem]!!”<br /> <br /> The mounted bandits atop the small hill altogether “Tis’ no problem!” “Tis’ no problem!” cheered in chorus with mechanical pronunciation. For the Knight Order of Japan their appearance was just absolutely bizarre.<br /> <br /> The mounted bandits yelled “Tis’ no proble,!” while driving their horses forward, they simultaneously dashed down the hill.<br /> <br /> Their speed was unbelievably fast.<br /> <br /> “If the opponents are horse then…Lotte! Get near and rout the enemy!!”<br /> <br /> Kanon replaced Akane and made the decision, she yelled into the wireless. Lotte burned out fire from [Deep Striker]’s thruster system and took off with an explosive force. She was immediately nearing the enemy and let loose a volley of gatling bullet from the sky. Its power was low as an attack magic, but it was an overkill fire power just to slaughter all the horses altogether.<br /> <br /> “Nnn…tis’ no problem!” “Mere child’s play! Tis’ no problem!!” “Tis’ no problem!!”<br /> <br /> The mounted bandits yelled as if welcoming the bullets. They didn’t take any single evasive action.<br /> <br /> The bullets hit the horses―right that instant, the horses were enveloped with pure blue light *PAKIPAKIPAKIPAKI!* and repelled away the wild rain of bullets.<br /> <br /> The mounted bandits raised their yelling voice while they kept charging without paying any heed to the gatling gun.<br /> <br /> “The horses have magic power…!?” Akane who had petrified for a while already returned to her senses and yelled.<br /> <br /> “…That’s not it! That’s…they are making their Enchant Aura extended until the horses! It works the same like magic sword’s mechanism!!”<br /> <br /> For swordsmen who had piled up training, their beloved sword became something like a part of their body and the magic power that enveloped their whole body naturally became extended until the body of the sword. That was magic sword. Long range weapon like arrow and bullet couldn’t be bestowed with magic power like this but this phenomenon was the one and only reason that the swordsmen could display battle strength that stood equal with Magika Stigma in this era of magic.<br /> <br /> Most likely these horses had the same theory applied to them. These bandits ate and slept along with their horses, earnestly piling up training of horsemanship&amp;mdash;there was no mistake that they had reached the mental state of &lt;Unity of rider and horse&gt;.<br /> <br /> Magic Cavalry―such concept was completely inexistent for Japan’s Knight Order. Hayashizaki too had pointed out the importance of mobility to Akane before but, seeing that how things like car from the tool of civilization was useless in battle of magic, she had only ever thought of mobility limited from means of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Magic power drove out science from the battlefield. If so then&amp;mdash;how about horses. It was an idea that returned back to the age of heroes of their ancestor’s time.<br /> <br /> At the wars that happened in the middle age, when armed forces who fought only with infantry faced a cavalry troops for the first time, how much an impact they experienced. At that time the form of war ought to be toppled over completely.<br /> <br /> The shock of that time was once more manifested in the magic war of this era.<br /> <br /> Akane was once again made to taste how the outlook of war tactics inside her was being overturned.<br /> <br /> With her gatling fire ended futilely, Lotte who failed in her role as a scout made a U-turn in the sky so she didn’t receive counterattack from the enemy.<br /> <br /> Without even paying attention to that as if it was just a small bird, the bandits formed a long formation of two verticals line while charging. Witnessing that, Akane immediately yelled.<br /> <br /> “That’s…&lt;vertical formation&gt;! Everyone, put your formation in order and intercept!!”<br /> <br /> Vertical Formation&amp;mdash;in contrast with the most basic war formation of horizontal formation, it was a formation that formed a vertical line and charged in perpendicular. It excelled in penetrating power and easy for the troops to match their speed with their comrades so this formation possessed speed several times faster than horizontal formation.<br /> <br /> However there was a large weak point in vertical formation. When vertical formation thrust into horizontal formation, the soldier in the head of the formation would be surrounded from the front and received attacks from left and right. Even if their mobility and penetrating power were excellent, the table would undoubtedly be turned back to them if they didn’t have a considerable surprise at their side, a double-edged formation.<br /> <br /> “Surround them and intercept!!” Akane barely recovered her accurate judgment.<br /> <br /> The bandits that dashed here from the small hill in one straight line averted the awareness of Japan’s Knight Order from the wounded Yamato soldiers. They formed a wall in the front and met the enemy.<br /> <br /> The figures of the mounted bandits that descended down from the hill soon became obscured from where Akane and the others were standing in the headquarters because of the wall that their comrades formed. But from the other side of the wall, sounds and voices reverberated.<br /> <br /> “For the sake of our Lord, sever the turbulent era with this hand…thy name is &lt;Kansei Teikun&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Guan Yu&lt;/ref&gt;! Highly honorable Green Dragon Crescent Blade in hand, show that chivalry!!”<br /> <br /> “Violent person born from the hermit stone of Flower and Fruit Mountain, thy name feared even by heaven is &lt;Seiten Taisei&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Sun Wukong&lt;/ref&gt;! Unrestricted Nyoibou&lt;ref&gt;Tried to search this in google and what I found instead is Goku’s staff from Dragon Ball instead. [Editor: This would be the Ruyi Jingu Bang, the magical staff of Sun Wukong. Nyoibou(如意棒) comes from Ruyi Jingu Bang(如意金箍棒)][EDIT 2: After all, Dragon Ball was in its origins based on Journey to the West and Son Gokuh on Sun Wukong]&lt;/ref&gt; in hand, display a very thrilling active role!!”<br /> <br /> Continuous sign of Access―Chinese Mythology. Once again Akane’s head became pure white.<br /> <br /> …These guys are reinforcement army from China! The connection between Yamato and China had been sensed from the case of Hayashi Shizuka and the spy but, don’t tell me they are going to intervene so brazenly like this on another country’s domestic matter!<br /> <br /> These guys were invited by Yamato and crossed over the Japan Sea to come here!<br /> <br /> &lt;Kansei Teikun&gt; and &lt;Seiten Taisei&gt;. Akane who was always top in her year at mythology test naturally knew the name of these Diva.<br /> <br /> But generally rather than their name as gods, their other names were surely far more overwhelmingly famous.<br /> <br /> The mounted bandits and the swordsmen finally clashed.<br /> <br /> The two who stood at the head of the bandits yelled while invoking their magic.<br /> <br /> “My contracted Diva is Kansei Teikun! If you don’t want to suffer pointless'''ly''', open the path at '''once'''!! …Guiding the divine will o Azure Dragon, cut open the path of faith with the inside of my hand! {{furigana|Seiryuu Engetsu Tou|Green Dragon Crescent Blade}}!!”<br /> <br /> “My contracted Diva is Son Goku! Japanese monkey is insufficient actor, open the path!! …Grasping the leading part is possible! O divine rare steel holding infinite mass, hand down the single attack with certain death to all evil! {{furigana|Nyoikinkobou|Wishes Golden Barrel Pole}}!”<br /> <br /> Akane and the others couldn’t examine the state of that clash from the headquarters. But they knew that the horizontal formation was shaking like an undulating wave even from behind.<br /> <br /> The sounds of blade and blade clashing―didn’t reach their ears at all. Only screaming was reverberating.<br /> <br /> “Monster!!”<br /> <br /> “Hi, he blew away a platoon altogether just with one swing…!! That’s…!!”<br /> <br /> “Stopping something like this…they are breaking through!”<br /> <br /> The frontline swordsmen in front of Akane were blown away, then from that crack as if Moses was splitting the sea, the two bandits from the head leaped out.<br /> <br /> It was easy to turn the table on vertical formation―that was the story only if there was no hero leading them in the head. In this era of magic war, individuals that were a match for a thousand existed. Akane was once more made to realize that.<br /> <br /> That was the limit of tactics.<br /> <br /> The mounted bandits’ vertical formation broke the horizontal formation into two right in the middle and moved into [breakthrough maneuver]. They spread out as fast as the command given and attacked the Magika Stigmas in the rear who had lost the protection of the horizontal formation frontline swordsmen. Losing the reserve deployment power and control, the fighting back to hold that spot began.<br /> <br /> The two mounted bandits who ran in the head of the formation immediately came approaching the headquarters of Akane and Kanon.<br /> <br /> Both of them stopped their horses completely right in front of Akane and Kanon. The horses fast rush splendidly stopped as if they were communicating telepathically with their rider.<br /> <br /> One of them held what was called as naginata in Japan with its blade part attached with a thick and heavy long, two handed sword―Seiryuu Engetsu Tou in her hand. Even while being a female the holder was a military soldier with a big build to the degree that it made the horse she rides look small.<br /> <br /> She was wearing a Magic Dress of green colored clothes.<br /> <br /> The other person was holding a mysterious golden pole with two golden rings adorning both its ends―a divine mysterious steel pole in one hand. The holder was a male that was extremely rare as Magika Stigma, but his age too was still looked like a young boy.<br /> <br /> His face was painted white while wearing a Magic Dress of golden chainmail.<br /> <br /> “Catching sight of the command'''er'''’s neck. For the sake of ending this battle speedi'''ly''', I’ll receive that life of '''yours'''.”<br /> <br /> The military woman with large build thrust her Souryuu Engetsu Tou and announced gravely.<br /> <br /> “I don’t mind even if you resist cause it’s more interesting that way ze.”<br /> <br /> The young boy with small build thrust his pole of divine mysterious steel and smiled complacently.<br /> <br /> Akane who was weak in unexpected situation froze. To cover for Akane, Kanon stood in front of her, but she too was a type that could only display her true worth when she was protected by the vanguard.<br /> <br /> In front of the heroes of China, the young two commanding officers had their everything taken away already and their spines felt cold.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> Strangely Kazuki was not surprised and understood in no time at all. …This is the troops of China.<br /> <br /> While carrying Kazuha-senpai and Kamimura-san at both sides, Kazuki traversed through the sky using [Deep Striker]. Reinforcing his eye sight with magic power, he caught the figures of the mounted bandits plunging into the horizontal formation at the battlefield far away.<br /> <br /> Right now, if there was an unknown butting in on this battlefield―if he thought back to the sequence of events with Hayashi Shizuka then there was nobody else that could be here except Chukadou.<br /> <br /> He could see a duo of mounted bandits rushing through to figures that looked like Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki! Hurry, they are in danger so hurry-!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was being carried in Kazuki’s right arm yelled animatedly. However even if he was told to hurry he couldn’t raise the speed of this magic even further. After all Kazuki too was in the same feeling and he had already in his maximum speed.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, after you get closer a little more then just throw me and Kamimura-san! Like missiles!”<br /> <br /> “…Eh, you are also going to treat me roughly like that…? Just wai-, high place is scary so…”<br /> <br /> Watching Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai being held in the tips of the weapons of two mounted bandits, Kazuki nodded his head on that proposal so that he could rescue them for even a second faster.<br /> <br /> “I understand!”<br /> <br /> With Kazuki getting closer from the sky―the two bandits noticed him and looked up his way.<br /> <br /> Kazuki calculated the timing and yelled.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuha-senpai missile firing!!”<br /> <br /> He threw Kazuha-senpai that he held in his right arm with all his strength from the sky. “YOSSHA―!!” Raising an excited voice, Kazuha-senpai flew like a streak of meteor.<br /> <br /> “Mikafutsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> While flying she created Take Mikadzuchi’s steel sword in her hand. Keeping that momentum―she slashed at the large military woman. That one attack that raised a thunderous roar like a falling lightning was blocked solidly with the long large blade―Seiryuu Engetsu Tou that the military woman raised with both her hands. The Seiryuu Engetsu Tou grasped firmly with both hands shook in clatters. Kazuha-senpai was repelled away and landed on the ground with a hop.<br /> <br /> “…An attack like lightning…excellent performance! Is this Japan’s samu'''rai'''…interest'''ing''', I ask you to be my oppo'''nent'''.”<br /> <br /> The military woman looked down on Kazuha-senpai, who took a stance with her Mikafutsu no Mitama, from on top the horse.<br /> <br /> ―Without a moment’s delay Kazuki threw away one more person.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry Kamimura-san but please go…Kamimura-san missile firing!!”<br /> <br /> “Why are you doing such heartless thingssssssssssssssssss!?”<br /> <br /> This time he was using both his hands, moreover Kamimura-san was light so she was easy to throw.<br /> <br /> While becoming teary-eyed, Kamimura-san too flew like a falling star and crashed around in front of the small build young boy bandit. With the backlash from the defensive magic power she bounced away *boing* from the ground.<br /> <br /> While bouncing away like a rubber ball, Kamimura-san also invoked her magic.<br /> <br /> “…Ringing clear sound o thread of life, resonance with that soul, tied that body and become a barrier! Yasakani no Magatama&lt;ref&gt;The grand jewel or string of jewels; one of the three Imperial regalia&lt;/ref&gt;・{{furigana|Yachimon Shibari|Eight Gate Binding}}!”<br /> <br /> From Kamimura-san’s hand, a large ring expanded. It was a long ring that went through a lot of magatama&lt;ref&gt;Comma-shaped jewels&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> When the magatama that were went through clattered and clashed with each other raising *chirin!* sounds, that ring suddenly converged inward and restrained the body of the young bandit.<br /> <br /> “What’s with this ring! If you want to bind me then you need something like what priest Sanzo’s had ze!”<br /> <br /> The restrained young bandit put his strength in an attempt to tear apart the ring. Undauntedly Kamimura-san continued to pour her magic power into the ring of magatama. Power of sealing competed against power of opposing.<br /> <br /> They managed to avert the attack toward Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai just in a hair's breadth.<br /> <br /> ―Right at that timing Kazuki flew there late. He hardened his charging posture and prepared his Japanese katana then he took a nose dive with [Deep Striker]. He aimed at the young bandit whose movement was sealed, but the large build military woman reacted first.<br /> <br /> “KAMIKA'''ZE'''!?”<br /> <br /> The nose dive with terrific speed and power was blocked by the military woman with her Seiryuu Engetsu Tou. The instant the Japanese katana and Seiryuu Engetsu Tou came in contact, Kazuki sensed the [element that hosted the power of wind] in the sword blade of Seiryuu Engetsu Tou.<br /> <br /> The combination of the military woman’s power, technique, and power of wind surpassed the pressure of Kazuki’s nose dive. She succeeded in blocking Kazuki’s momentum. She diverted the direction of Kazuki’s thrust diagonally and his katana was buried deeply into the ground after having its target slipped away. Blue light of magic power shone from the energy of crashing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki cancelled the [Deep Striker] on his back and leaped back while pulling out his katana from the ground.<br /> <br /> The large military woman adjusted her slightly disordered stance and glared at Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Looked down as worthless o great fallen angel, with right eye of rage and left eye of fury crush the light of ostentation! {{furigana|Dead Asset|Divinity Collapse}}!!”<br /> <br /> Under the chaotic battle situation, Kanon-senpai was not just being dumbfounded and accomplished her spell chanting.<br /> <br /> A beautiful fallen angel with her whole body burning in blue flame―Belial’s avatar emerged out.<br /> <br /> While laughing, with a dreadful expression in fury, Belial glared at the Sacred Treasures―Seiryuu Engetsu Tou and Nyoikinkobou that the large military woman and the small young boy held in their hand.<br /> <br /> Right that instant, without even a sound the Sacred Treasures disappeared.<br /> <br /> That was a magic that annihilated Sacred Treasure that was created from magic power.<br /> <br /> Immediately Kazuha-senpai slashed at the military woman with Mikafutsu no Mitama. The military woman that was struck with surprise attack was hard pressed to react and received that one blow. “…'''guhh '''!?” She raised her voice and that large body was reeling.<br /> <br /> Running off while her horse neighed, she took some distance from Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked over his surrounding. Akane-senpai was rescued, but right now everywhere in Japan’s formation horse neighing and hoof steps sounded and the soldiers was falling into great pandemonium.<br /> <br /> For the other mounted bandits to not come near here, was surely because they held faith in these two people who seemed to be their leaders that even with unexpected intruders appearing their leaders would be fine.<br /> <br /> “Communicate your heart to god, fill the mind shell to my Genshin&lt;ref&gt;This should mean soul. Seems like this is some phrase for China. The original kanji is元神. Chinese reader, if your recognize this feel free to edit.&lt;/ref&gt;! Learning Buddhist teaching the rock monkey carry the ecstasy to the extremes right here, invite the haughty great man! Houten Shouchi&lt;ref&gt;Journey to the West in magic name&lt;/ref&gt;・{{furigana| Sanmen Roppi|Three Face Six Elbow}}!!”<br /> <br /> The small body of the young bandit that was restrained by Kamimura-san’s ring was overlapped with a giant avatar that looked half transparent. That avatar gradually began to materialize and pushing open persistently the restraining ring.<br /> <br /> The giant spread its six arms radially and finally tore apart the binding spell with a snapping sound.<br /> <br /> “We are going, Sanmen Roppi’s specialty is exactly this kind of thing!”<br /> <br /> The half-transparent giant that enveloped the young boy owned three faces, those three faces glared angrily at Kazuha-senpai, Kamimura-san, and Kanon-senpai. It swung its long six arms around like a storm and bashed those three people. Kazuha-senpai who had the knowledge of martial arts dodged it somehow, but Kamimura-san and Kanon-senpai were bashed away by the giant.<br /> <br /> {―Even more magic power is approaching desu!}<br /> <br /> Lotte’s voice rang out from the wireless of Akane-senpai who was standing stock still dumbfounded.<br /> <br /> “…There is still more additional reinforcement coming from China you say!?”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai who was bashed away by the young boy stood up while raising a yell.<br /> <br /> “'''Muu'''…don’t tell me those bunches are coming al'''ong'''!?”<br /> <br /> But the one who became agitated was not only Kazuki, for some reason the large military woman was also shaken.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DODODODODO!* From far away sand cloud was rising up and the sounds of horse’s hoofs became audible.<br /> <br /> And then something was rushing here from the same route where the mounted bandits arrived before from beyond the small hill.<br /> <br /> That figure was&amp;mdash;again different from the mounted bandits that came before.<br /> <br /> All the members were wearing matching sleeveless undergarment that was pure black from up to down, it was a jet black group.<br /> <br /> “There is no righteousness of Taoism in Chukadou!”<br /> <br /> The jet black cavalry raised such voice.<br /> <br /> “For the order of Asia, we of &lt;Ryouzanpaku&lt;ref&gt;Place of assemblage for the bold and ambitious &lt;/ref&gt;&gt; is reinforcing Japan!”<br /> <br /> The group of black knight shined blue magic power light while barging into the battlefield. The mounted bandits left the knights of Japan as is and showed movement of going to intercept the black knight.<br /> <br /> Japan and Yamato, and then mounted bandit and black group―for two wars to be exchanged in one battlefield….<br /> <br /> “O emissary of heaven’s decree, let’s announce right now the end of the era of heaven’s decree! Thy name is &lt;Taikoubou&gt;! O sealed move of soul, carve that name!!”<br /> <br /> The person in the lead of the black-clothed knights performed Access. Beside her an avatar of an old hermit emerged. Her black clothes disintegrated, transforming into a Magic Dress that looked like a loose clothes of China’s Taoism garment carved with a complex pattern. The one who put on that Magic Dress on her body was a woman with darkish skin.<br /> <br /> That hand of hers was wrapped with even more light of magic power.<br /> <br /> “Change that soul into stamping out whip of god! Awaken the surge of genshin’s disturbance right here…{{furigana|Dashinben|Gods Hitting Whip}}!”<br /> <br /> What was created from the light and grasped was around a one meter long pole of plain wood.<br /> <br /> Just with a glance it didn’t look like a powerful weapon. But when she directed it to an empty space and swung it, something like an undulating shockwave was created. That wave motion spread out far and wide in the battlefield.<br /> <br /> When the wave motion transmitted until where Kazuki was, Kazuki felt the sensation like his head had gotten hit with a thump. At the same time the spell that he was in the middle of chanting dispersed completely from the vibration.<br /> <br /> That happened not only to Kazuki. It seemed that all the Magika Stigmas around him were going through something similar with him―a Sacred Treasure that disturbed spell chanting without questioning whether one was ally or enemy. Just like Naiarlatoteph’s magic.<br /> <br /> But for Kazuki and the others that was not a bad effect. When the Summoning Magic of the bandits were chanting dispersed, the swordsmen who were kept done in one-sidedly until now didn’t miss that opening and resolutely slashed their katana. Even the avatar of Sanmen Roppi that overlapped with the body of the small young boy undulated in vibration and vanished.<br /> <br /> “We are retreat'''ing'''! While we are receiving guidan'''ce''' to Yamato’s base from Yamato’s soldiers, we are going to support the retreat of Yamato as the rear gu'''ard'''!!”<br /> <br /> The soldiers of Yamato urged by that voice finally began their retreat. Their rear was protected by the bandit soldiers while the mysterious black-clothed knights who came from behind pursued them.<br /> <br /> “Let’s pull back too. Our side’s damage is also really great.”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai urged Akane-senpai who was still being in a slight shock.<br /> <br /> The knights whose formation had collapsed was lost whether they should pursue ahead the retreating troops of Yamato or should they just see them off, they were each in the state of going to take decision by themselves.<br /> <br /> “Retreat!” Before that could happen, Akane-senpai let out a clear command.<br /> <br /> Yamato’s troops together with the mounted bandits were becoming more distant. The black-clothed knights who were trying to attack while pursuing sensed Japan’s knights’ retreat and returned back this way. With a beautiful two lines vertical formation, the black clothed knight determined that Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai were the commanding officers and came around this way.<br /> <br /> “You all need our reinforcement. Add us in your war front.”<br /> <br /> The dark-skinned woman who moved at the head of the group announced with one-sided tone of talking.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “We are the liberator of east Asia, &lt;Ryouzanpaku&gt;. With the [True Daoism] as the first in line, the Mythologies of east Asia were making alliance and opposed the rule of Chukadou―we are the resistance.”<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Epilogue|Epilogue]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_4&diff=479292 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 4 2016-01-31T14:26:09Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 4 – The Descent of God’s Descendant==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> Cracks ran through the space of &lt;Itsuki☆Channel&gt;.<br /> <br /> The light that was produced from those cracks repainted the area in a blink of eye.<br /> <br /> When they noticed, Kazuki, Kazuha-senpai and Kamimura-san had returned once again to Yomotsu Hirasaka.<br /> <br /> “…It’s better if we hurry through the return path. ''Those guys'' will be coming when they sniff the scent of a living person.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san said that and began to run down the slope.<br /> <br /> Feeling unrest in those words, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too complied to her words.<br /> <br /> Without even needing to ask, they soon became aware of the meaning of those words.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and others felt an eerie presence behind them. When they looked back while running, a distortion appeared in the space far beyond their back. Human shadows emerged out from there.<br /> <br /> Old women were born from the space behind them. Not just one person. One after another countless old women were created. Those old women looked down the hill and sprinted with all their strength in this direction!<br /> <br /> “…That’s Yomotsu Shikome. The old woman who leads the evil spirits that live in Yomotsu Hirasaka.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san explained while desperately running without even looking back.<br /> <br /> The space behind them was still distorting even further. What appeared from there was not only old women, even more small living things that looked like demons were created in swarms.<br /> <br /> “That’s Yomotsu Ikusa. Evil spirit that is the battle soldiers of Yomotsu Hirasaka.”<br /> <br /> Inside the darkness even more lights were arising in flickers *bachi bachi*, eight large globes of light scattering sparks burst out. These too were coming in pursuit of Kazuki and the others from behind by flying.<br /> <br /> “That’s Yakusano Ikadzuchi. Yomotsu welcome the people that come to this world, however they didn’t allow people to leave. They are coming to chase you around and drag you back. If you are captured by those, you will get a serious sickness like magic intoxication and you won’t be able to wake up anymore in the real world.”<br /> <br /> Hearing those words Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai went ‘Hieee’ and panicked. Especially the old women that came running at them at full power was scary.<br /> <br /> “Why are they here?”<br /> <br /> “When they think that humans of the present world are trying to go to a world of a different dimension, a suitable compensation is needed. Although I’m really sorry that Yatagarasu didn’t explain that at all and still invited you two here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and others began to descend down Yomotsu Hirasaka at full speed.<br /> <br /> …Nevertheless this was a mysterious sensation. It had been like this since they came to the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave but their body senses felt awfully real, their consciousness felt far too clear compared to when they fell into magic intoxication and wandered around Astrum. The sensation of running down Yomotsu Hirasaka felt as if their flesh body were really there.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was still in his clothes just like when they arrived here still had his katana attached on his hips. It looks like they could also turn back just like this and exchange blows with them.<br /> <br /> “…Now that you mentioned it, whatever happened to our flesh body right now? A fairly long time has passed, and isn’t it dangerous to leave our body lying around under the floor of the main temple?”<br /> <br /> “…The state of you two right now is not as simple as a separation between the mind and body…huff huff.”<br /> <br /> While running with her goth loli skirt trailing behind, Kamimura-san gave her response.<br /> <br /> “Your state is completely different compared to when you fall into magic intoxication with your mind wandering inside Astrum. What is called Yomotsu Hirasaka is a tunnel that connects one world with another, but it also breaks down [existence that belong under reality] like you and convert you into [existence that belong under Astrum]. It’s something a little more complicated than just dragging your mind into Astrum …huff huff! There is no danger of yourself breaking up so it’s okay, you are the you that is properly living here right now. Un, understand?”<br /> <br /> Even though Kazuki understood but it took a little time.<br /> <br /> “So Yomotsu Hirasaka is an entrance where people can enter the mental world’s Astrum altogether with their flesh body.”<br /> <br /> “That comprehension is correct. What is called Astrum is a world where a maelstrom of colossal power that distorted reality whirled, ''it’s defined by the mind'', then such entrance was created. And then the Diva of Japanese Mythology possessed the power to open and close this entrance…huff haa! Huff, when we are running desperately like this, don’t make me explain such complicated thing…. I’m not like you two that are in the healthy faction after all…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s breathing were not ragged for even a little bit, but Kamimura-san who just gave out a drawn-out explanation was breathing ragged and in pants. Kazuki lifted her up from the side with ‘hyoi’ and carried her in a princess carry.<br /> <br /> “Sorry, I didn’t notice.”<br /> <br /> “Eh? Tha- thank you.” Kamimura-san’s eyes opened wide.<br /> <br /> After that she panicked one beat late.<br /> <br /> “I- I wasn’t appealing to you with my tiredness and pressing you or anything for this!”<br /> <br /> “I’m not particularly thinking of anything like that you know?”<br /> <br /> “Do- doing things like this and being kind to me without any reason at all is just…. Uuu, I cannot calm down. Are- are you okay? You are not tired? I’m not heavy?”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san was bewildered with sobby expression.<br /> <br /> “You are absurdly light that it makes me worried when I’m carrying you like this, Kamimura-san.”<br /> <br /> “Those guys chasing us from behind, are they strong if we fight them?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai asked Kamimura-san from the side.<br /> <br /> “Their level is just a little stronger than your average Demon Beast. What is troublesome is their unlimited numbers that keep gushing forth. But it’s okay. Because the speed of your running is above theirs, like this they cannot overtake us. The distances between us and them is widening very quickly.”<br /> <br /> “That’s the story if there is no one that will become a hindrance to us.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki opened his mouth as if interrupting the wishful observation of Kamimura-san. …That was exactly just a wishful observation. Kazuki had already sensed the presence of someone ahead of them as they finished descending this hill.<br /> <br /> “That is so isn’t it, if the situation had developed like this, it will be more unnatural instead if they don’t ambush us here.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…this presence…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai too noticed what was going on.<br /> <br /> When they finished descending the hill―before the long silhouettes of three people emerged out on their path.<br /> <br /> “…I who am the King of Susanoo can sense it you know. It appears that you have inherited the authority of Amaterasu haven’t you, swordsman of Hayashizaki-style! With this the both of us have become destined existences even further! The two people that are battling for the seat of the strongest swordsman, and then as the two people concerning for the throne of the Japanese Mythology’s true King!”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai! And the two waiting at her back, the possessed Takasugi brothers!!<br /> <br /> “GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers howled like a beast. While those howls were audible from below the slope it was like the damned inside hell―the brothers’ silhouettes distorted like jelly while yelling.<br /> <br /> The silhouettes of the two ''lost the shape of human and they were crumbling down like mud.''<br /> <br /> What in the world? Sensing the unknown phenomenon from afar, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai reflexively stopped in place. However the army of Yomotsu was approaching from behind. This was exactly like the situation of tiger by the front gate and wolf at the rear gate.<br /> <br /> From Kazuki’s arms, Kamimura-san jumped down with a hop.<br /> <br /> “…I’ll hold back those who come from behind. Ha- Hayashizaki, -san please take care of Susanoo.”<br /> <br /> She appeared to be a little nervous when calling a person’s name.<br /> <br /> “Will you be fine alone against that army?”<br /> <br /> “I have Anthropophobia&lt;ref&gt;literally &quot;fear of people&quot;&lt;/ref&gt;, that’s why that kind of opponent is easier for me. Besides as far as it goes I too can use the power of Amaterasu…so I can fight a little.”<br /> <br /> In front of the approaching near Yomotsu army, the girl performed Access.<br /> <br /> “…O aurora of blessing ascending to the heaven! Thy name are &lt;Amaterasu Oomikami&gt;! O light of affection wishing not for conflict, just for now reside in my hand, become the bow and arrow of flash that pierce through everything!”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san’s goth loli clothes were wrapped by light and broke down, transforming into Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> That Magic Dress’ appearance was like the sublime ancient outfit of Amaterasu’s working mode, it was simplified just like that for the sake of ease in battle.<br /> <br /> In what way the girl would fight―he was deeply interested but he had no composure left to ascertain that with his own eyes.<br /> <br /> Kazuki faced the three person group standing in his way.<br /> <br /> “GAAAAAAAAA…!” The Takasugi brothers were still screaming even now.<br /> <br /> Losing their human shape, the two that had turned into a small mountain of muddy flesh began to swell bubblingly as if something was going to be born from their inside. The swelling silhouettes of those two overlapped with each other and were becoming one giant meatball.<br /> <br /> That was…by no means a phenomenon that could be explained just by a mere word of God’s reliant. In Yatagarasu’s explanation, the human was not supposed to break down completely until that far.<br /> <br /> Ikousai who stood in the side carelessly said.<br /> <br /> “Looks like they wanted strength so much don’t they? …Separate from Take Mikadzuchi and Take Minakata that turned them into God’s reliant, they still called for even more from somewhere. That is something that gather the extreme terror of people in Japanese Mythology, the most ominous [Mythology’s undulation]…it’s fine to see, let’s make you all know too about its name! This is that…Yamato no Orochi!!”<br /> <br /> “AAAAAAAAAA-!!!”<br /> <br /> The gigantic pile of flesh that lost its face and also its mouth raised a noticeably louder scream even though it had no mouth.<br /> <br /> From the gigantic lump of flesh, *ZUBOZUBOZUBO!* eight long necks and a tail extended out. The meatball was divided into eight and lengthened out twistingly. Its surface was changing into scales emitting black light―transforming into a giant snake with eight heads entangling with each other. It completely blocked the entire width of the hill road, a monster possessing the height like a building was towering there.<br /> <br /> Yamata no Orochi―on the summit of the swaying eight necks, bright red eyes glinted bright and glared at them. Looked like there was not even a fragment of human personality left already inside. Takasugi brothers had become completely inexistent already.<br /> <br /> “…Wasn’t Yamato no Orochi supposed to be exterminated by Susanoo? How can it become possible for it to join hands with Susanoo?”<br /> <br /> The Shrine Maiden that had even more detailed knowledge of Japanese Mythology than Kazuki, Kazuha-senpai murmured.<br /> <br /> The Celebration King that stood back to back with them, Kamimura-san answered that question.<br /> <br /> “The Susanoo right now is not [the person that suppress the country] talked about inside the Mythology but he became [the person that disturbs the suppression]. Susanoo who originally possesses the rough and wild element of &lt;storm&gt; has some aspects in common with Yamato no Orochi that is the huge personification of the nature’s flood.”<br /> <br /> “…I see.” While nodding, Kazuha-senpai took a step forward.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, I’ll take on that guy. …I too want to become strong for a long time, I continue to think of wanting to become strong until now. However…surely not like that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stood in front of the monster and leaked out a pained voice.<br /> <br /> What was in front of her was an opponent that she could sympathize with, yet why could they completely mistake their path in an unthinkable direction like this? The pain of that time that couldn’t be agreed with. Just like what Kazuki felt when he stood in front of Kaya….<br /> <br /> “Ahaha! I don’t have any intention of sympathizing with these kinds of guys at all, but I too can sympathize! What is called strength is something to use for one’s own sake! It only has worth when used for the sake of persisting in one’s own self and aesthetic! But like this…ahhahaha! What a totally pathetic pair of brothers!!”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai laughed loudly at her own former comrades that seek for strength and became a monster.<br /> <br /> …She is wrong. What is called strength is not for one’s own sake, it was something for the sake of protecting one’s important person.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai…please take care of that monster. I’ll…settle my debt with her!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki glared at Ikousai. As if answering that, Ikousai was enveloped with the light of Access.<br /> <br /> “I’m going full power right from the start here, this is not just some sport between swordsmen anymore. …O honored god of fury descending down from the sky, establish forth the development of unheard-of troubles right here! Thy honored name is &lt;Susanoo no-Mikoto&gt;! Reside in my body, rage following your violent emotion!!”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai's seductive kimono broke down into Prima Material, turning into a jet black hakama with tight sleeve―her appearance changed into Magic Dress based on the clothing of ancient Yamato. Her original atmosphere that was like a prostitute underwent a complete change.<br /> <br /> Brave warrior: that was the personification of storm― Susanoo. And the one that was contracted to her, a magic swordsman.<br /> <br /> “Come, the first act where we fussed over only swords is over! Let’s open the curtain of the second act here while letting our Stigmata shine!!”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai smoothly drew out her katana and directed its tip at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai didn’t even throw a glance in Kazuha’s direction.<br /> <br /> That was why Kazuha sprinted down the slope without stopping and passed through Ikousai’s flank.<br /> <br /> For the sake of concentrating on her fight with Kazuki, Ikousai let Kazuha do as she pleased.<br /> <br /> Kazuha went to face against the Takasugi brothers―no, Yamato no Orochi.<br /> <br /> The battlefield was divided into three, Kamimura Itsuki against the Yomotsu army at the rear, Hayashizaki Kazuki against Aisu Ikousai in the middle of the slope, and then at the base of this slope was Tsukahara Kazuha against Yamata no Orochi. Each had their own confrontation.<br /> <br /> She couldn’t let this monster become a hindrance to Kazuki!<br /> <br /> Kazuha kicked the slope and flew. She produced energy of Psychokinesis even further on the air and kicked on it with all her strength for a double jump, and a triple jump next.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s Tenrou Kaidan’s…imitation. While dancing her body high in the air, Kazuha thought once more that this might be convenient. If she could do this from the start when they were trying to jump through that building before, then there would be no needs for Kazuki to lift her in princess carry.<br /> <br /> Kazuha danced in the sky trying to jump over Yamata no Orochi. The eight necks of Yamata no Orochi chased the figure of the prey with its crimson eyes. The nearest neck opened its large mouth and assaulted Kazuha to bite her.<br /> <br /> It was a large jaw that could completely swallow a human whole and it approached Kazuha. Kazuha drew out the katana on her hips and slashed down with all her strength at the large jaw. The katana and jaw clashed with each other, then using the backlash from that power Kazuha brought her body even higher.<br /> <br /> Keeping the momentum she somersaulted with a twirl and leaped over Yamata no Orochi to land on the base of the hill road.<br /> <br /> Feeling Kazuha landing behind it, Yamata no Orochi turned back its body in wriggles. It in turn was turning its neck to Kazuha.<br /> <br /> The gigantic heads were coming in full speed with &lt;head-butt&gt; ramming hard. Kazuha dealt with those by parrying the attack to the side with her katana and dodged with her body. The enormous pressure couldn’t be parried perfectly and her stance broke.<br /> <br /> Right at that time a second neck was flying at her. Unable to dodge, Kazuha was hit with the head-butt right from the front.<br /> <br /> &lt;Resist&gt;―it was not as skillful as Otonashi Kaguya, but with her excellent magic skill Kazuha counterbalanced that physical impact she got. She was rolling down through the hill road.<br /> <br /> The huge body of Yamato no Orochi was coming chasing her with the force of tsunami.<br /> <br /> While rolling down, ‘Yosh’ Kazuha thought.<br /> <br /> She managed to widen their distance even further from the battles of Kazuki and Kamimura-san.<br /> <br /> She would show them…she was going to handle this guy alone by herself somehow!<br /> <br /> Kazuha stood up with force like a spring and met the giant monster.<br /> <br /> She challenged it in close range combat as a swordsman.<br /> <br /> The eight necks that had the size several times larger than Kazuha were coming with head-butt or biting attack in turns. Kazuha parried and evaded the first neck that arrived and slashed her katana while half-rotating.<br /> <br /> Her blade was *gakin!* repelled by the scales. Her blade was literally ineffective.<br /> <br /> The second, third, and fourth necks were ramming at her without stopping like avalanche.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> With the flame and shockwave produced from her palm, Kazuha repelled back the three necks altogether.<br /> <br /> But there were eight necks of Yamata no Orochi. The fifth, sixth, and seventh were even now approaching Kazuha.<br /> <br /> “Kuh!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha earnestly attempted to Foresight those consecutive attacks. The eight necks of Yamata no Orochi were moving around independent of each other as if each of the necks were different creatures. …All of it moved well without entangling with each other.<br /> <br /> It was as if eight people were each launching their own attack. She couldn’t see through all their movement and thought.<br /> <br /> Kazuha who earnestly ran around were glared at by the eighth neck that prepared the last attack.<br /> <br /> That mouth was largely opened. Its deep red oral cavity that was like pomegranate was exposed.<br /> <br /> From the depth of its throat, a high temperature Breath was fired with a roar.<br /> <br /> “I am the Shrine Maiden of sword, rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that virtuous sword of crushing evil right now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha created the divine sword that severed evil in her hand, she faced the breathed out steam of scorching heat and slashed down. The divine sword suppressed the heat energy that was produced by magic power. Even so the steam that couldn’t be erased enveloped Kazuha. Unfaltering, Kazuha used &lt;Resist&gt; while charging through inside the steam. She thrust [Futsu no Mitama] inside the mouth that was widely opened and breathing out steam.<br /> <br /> That one attack was also *gaki!* repelled. Even the inside of its mouth couldn’t be hurt by the blade.<br /> <br /> Futsu no Mitama severed magic power, but it didn’t have strong power against something physical.<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuha who failed in her counterattack, a gigantic tail was *GUWA-!* rolling up.<br /> <br /> Kazuha suddenly realized. …She was careless. Just because she had already evaded all eight necks of Yamato no Orochi didn’t mean that it was over already. There was one more still in reserve―the enormous tail that was far thicker than even its head.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;BITAN!* That tail was swung down, crushing Kazuha’s small body.<br /> <br /> Several tons of mass swung down with a terrific force―if in this world there was nothing called &lt;Resist&gt; and defensive magic power then Kazuha would have surely got turned into a ruptured water balloon.<br /> <br /> But a blue magic power light protected Kazuha.<br /> <br /> In order to crush once more something that it couldn’t crush before, the tail was rolled up again.<br /> <br /> Just before it was swung down once again, Kazuha leaped away at full speed.<br /> <br /> And then she thought of something. …Why am I challenging something this big in a close quarter combat? Are you stupid?<br /> <br /> The her in the past, no matter how much Futsunushi no Kami remonstrated her she would oppose him by saying [I am a swordsman so I won’t run! I’m going to cross swords in close quarter!]<br /> <br /> The current her was different. She had already overcome her complex. She wouldn’t do anything like losing sight of what was truly important just because of her strange obstinacy and obsession.<br /> <br /> …I am the same like that guy, a magic swordsman.<br /> <br /> Kazuha escaped from Yamata no Orochi and took some distance before turning around.<br /> <br /> And then she invoked an offense magic from long distance.<br /> <br /> “Tenkuu Battou Renge Hou!”<br /> <br /> Flame explosion arose around Kazuha, from there countless Sacred Treasures of katana type were created. This swarm of nameless Sacred Treasures each possessed different elements of fire, ice, or lightning.<br /> <br /> “Go-!”<br /> <br /> Responding to Kazuha’s order, those katana flew at Yamato no Orochi like guided missiles.<br /> <br /> Hit and Away. Kazuha ran around at the same time with the shooting.<br /> <br /> The flying Sacred Treasures that went through the confined surrounding impacted Yamata no Orochi one after another. There was a neck of the large snake that slipped through the Sacred Treasures and rammed at Kazuha, but Kazuha counterattacked those with [Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi].<br /> <br /> And then she fled. While fleeing Kazuha questioned Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> “Bakanushi no Kami…there is one thing I want to ask.”<br /> <br /> {What is it, Kazuha.}<br /> <br /> Inside her head his reply echoed through using Telepathy.<br /> <br /> “That…Takasugi brothers, can’t they return back to normal anymore? Even if I shave all of their magic power and drive them into magic intoxication, won’t they return back like those God’s reliant?”<br /> <br /> {When their existences had transformed completely until they became that absurd, even if all their magic power are used up completely they won’t return to their original form but rather they will die from the shock of the backlash, most likely.}<br /> <br /> Death from shock―Kazuha was floored from hearing that merciless words.<br /> <br /> {Then what if you whittled their magic power, and if you pierced them with Futsu no Mitama for the last finishing blow then maybe they can make it somehow. If the opponent is defenseless on the verge of death, we can try severing their very transformation itself.}<br /> <br /> A light of hope pierced Kazuha’s heart. Even though it was only those two who had mistaken their path…but even she could sympathize with that feeling based on [wanting to become strong]. If there was the possibility of saving them, then she wanted to use all methods available to her.<br /> <br /> But…the problem was that the magic of Futsunushi-no-Kami is not really suited for monster extermination.<br /> <br /> Even if indirect attacks like [Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi] or [Tenkuu Battou Renge Hou] hit them, it wouldn’t become a decisive damage. Even if she challenged the monster in close-quarter combat, [Futsu no Mitama]’s slashing power was too light.<br /> <br /> {Certainly I’m fired up when we are against human opponent…but it’s quite harsh facing off against that kind of monster…}<br /> <br /> {Then how about using me, that girl over there.}<br /> <br /> …Hearing two really similar voices overlapping, Kazuha was confused.<br /> <br /> That was not the voice of Futsunushi no Kami. There was an old man voice that was really similar with Futsunushi no Kami echoing inside her head in addition, she only grasped what was happening after a moment.<br /> <br /> …Who in the world!?<br /> <br /> At the immediate side of Kazuha who was running around, an avatar of a Diva emerged out faintly.<br /> <br /> It was a Diva that resembled Futsunushi no Kami closely, having the appearance of an ancient sword.<br /> <br /> Its eyes looked even more wicked than Futsunushi no Kami, it had the face that had grown beards in plentiful.<br /> <br /> {DOWAHHAHHA! My name is &lt;Take Mikadzuchi&gt;! I became Wild God and possessed the Takasugi brothers’…errr I don’t know which of them is which, anyway I am the Diva that possessed one of them, that’s me―ee!!}<br /> <br /> “Even though you were possessing one of them but you don’t even understand which one, what an irresponsible Diva aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> {Just now there was even a stupidly huge something like Yamata no Orochi that came into them, so because of that I got pushed out you know! But because of that I can get back my sanity see! DOWAHHAHHA!!}<br /> <br /> {Oou, isn’t this Take Mikadzuchi! So you have returned to your sanity!!}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami raised a telepathic voice.<br /> <br /> The conversation between these two Divas were happening and echoing inside Kazuha’s head.<br /> <br /> {Long time no see isn’t it, Futsunushi! Looks like your contractor is actually a human with nice disposition! To have her heart troubled whether she can do something or not even for that kind of brutish brothers, she is indeed a splendid human!}<br /> <br /> {Isn’t that right, isn’t that right, she is my prided daughter just as you see!}<br /> <br /> {DOWAHHAHAHA!} {GUWAHHAHAHA!}<br /> <br /> Old men’s voices were echoing inside her head like a stereo. Kazuha felt a headache arising in her head.<br /> <br /> …I don't remember, when did I ever become something like this Bakanushi no Kami’s daughter, no way.<br /> <br /> {I’m pleased! I’m really pleased Tsukahara Kazuha!! It’s fine for you to also contract and wield me!}<br /> <br /> Kazuha was confused which old man this old man's voice belonged to.<br /> <br /> And then she noticed what Take Mikadzuchi just said to her, she became really flustered from that.<br /> <br /> “I’m already contracted with Futsunushi no Kami! I won’t contract with another Diva!!”<br /> <br /> “Then it’s fine if you contract with both I and Futsunushi no Kami! It’s two sword style see!!”<br /> <br /> Double contract! Was something like that possible. She's never heard of it.<br /> <br /> …No, it wasn’t supposed to be possible. The Stigmata was entangled complicatedly with the contractor’s personality. If such action like further adding one more Stigmata was done on top of that…her mind would definitely fracture!<br /> <br /> “It’s different with double contract. This is assimilation of Futsunushi no Kami and I.”<br /> <br /> Assimilation of two Diva inside her…? That was something that could be thought as really absurd, yet….<br /> <br /> {No, it’s possible. Or perhaps I should say that it’s only natural from the start. That’s because Take Mikadzuchi and Futsunushi no Kami was the same being from the start.}<br /> <br /> {…That is so.} Futsunushi no Kami too affirmed it. {We were originally one but because of the different interpretation in the Record of Ancient Matters and the Nihon-shoki, we got split up. But, right now returning into one Sword God here is also not bad.}<br /> <br /> In the beginning they were a single being. However even so Kazuha became anxious.<br /> <br /> “…Is it really possible? Won’t the burden become heavy for me…”<br /> <br /> {Even if we combine, the burden will not become twice. At most it will be only 1/3 times more. If it’s only a spec just around 1/3 of an average Magika Stigma then Kazuha has it, so it will be fine.}<br /> <br /> {If it’s the strength of the current you, then you will be able to retain your ego. Probably.}<br /> <br /> Even during that interval they were talking, the fierceness of the necks were increasing and they came attacking like an avalanche.<br /> <br /> While Kazuha desperately dodged those fierce attacks, she was compelled to resolve herself.<br /> <br /> To save that monster from its [deep rooted delusion for strength], there was no other way except this!<br /> <br /> {Come, chant the spell that emerged in your head, Access together with me!}<br /> <br /> “…Thy who roared the thunder is the one that descend to Izumo…change the flash of lighting into blade the sword of sky, thy inscription is &lt;Take Mikadzuchi&gt;! O god of shining blade, show that power!!”<br /> <br /> The next instant, *GAN!* Kazuha received an impact inside her head.<br /> <br /> Inside her head where it was already cramped from Futsunushi no Kami who had entered her, it was penetrated even further by Take Mikadzuchi who had around the same volume as Futsunushi no Kami…!<br /> <br /> Take Mikadzuchi forcefully tried to settle himself inside the container named Kazuha. And then with Kazuha as the intermediary, Futsunushi no Kami and Take Mikadzuchi mixed together, sparks of magic power scattered from her.<br /> <br /> The impact and spark of the fusion shook Kazuha’s mind violently.<br /> <br /> It was the sensation as if the everything of her heart was jello!<br /> <br /> …But that was something that happened for only an instant, her heart was immediately settled.<br /> <br /> The two gigantic mental bodies immediately returned to its one form that was originally how it should be.<br /> <br /> Kazuha became self-aware of the new power budding inside her―it produced a change to her Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> A Golden shine was added to her red and white Shrine Maiden dress. Flash of lightning was blended inside the flame.<br /> <br /> If Futsunushi no Kami was the Diva of transmutation flame, then Take Mikadzuchi was the Diva of golden lightning.<br /> <br /> As if downloading data, she grasped the characteristic magic of Take Mikadzuchi that could be added based on her level. Several of Futsunushi no Kami’s characteristic magic disappeared, the ten variety of characteristic magic was reconfigured.<br /> <br /> …Most likely these magic were also shared with Kazuki so he could also use it.<br /> <br /> Thanks to me becoming stronger, that guy will also become stronger. She felt secretly happy inside.<br /> <br /> And then she immediately chanted.<br /> <br /> “O august lightning raining down due to the rage of god! Kagutsuchi’s spilled blood drip congregating on the hilt, become a flash of blade! The sky drum lightning sound of lightning speed, Mikafutsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> While holding Futsu no Mitama in her left hand, Kazuha raised her opened right hand high.<br /> <br /> Lightning fell on that right hand, the flash of lightning transformed into a blade.<br /> <br /> It was bending with inside curve, a huge katana with powerful form. Its thick blade shined gold.<br /> <br /> The neck of the giant snake attacked.<br /> <br /> Kazuha blocked that with Futsu no Mitama in her left hand and redirected it to the side by rotating her own body.<br /> <br /> While circling around the flank of the neck, she swung down Mikafutsu no Mitama in her right hand down at that neck.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;GOU!* Sound like a falling thunder resounded.<br /> <br /> It was not that the power of lightning element resided in that slash. It was an enormous physical energy that sounded the thunderous roar as if thunder had fallen. The speed of the downswing was also exactly a lightning speed.<br /> <br /> Why was a god of sword talked for generations as a god of lightning&amp;mdash;because people of the ancient times had no way to illustrate that technique which was the expression of terrific destructive power other than as lightning.<br /> <br /> That was the origin of Take Mikadzuchi who was bestowed with the name of lightning even while being a god of sword.<br /> <br /> The gigantic blade pressed and cut *BUTSUN!* with all one’s might. What was polished from this blade was its out of league sharpness.<br /> <br /> The neck of the giant snake was cut until halfway, It was drunkenly writhing while spurting out pitch black fountains of blood. In order to not let her sacred Magic Dress get dirtied, Kazuha repelled away the splash of scattered blood with Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> {GUWAHHAHHA! Kazuha’s skill is still not quite there yet but the special weapon is really good huh Take Mikadzuchi!!}<br /> <br /> {DOWAHHAHHA, it’s exactly just like what you said! You make me blush Futsunushi!!}<br /> <br /> Old men voices were surrounding her. Even though they had assimilated with each other, it seemed these guys' personalities and voices were still separate. Even while feeling fed up…Kazuha felt a little relieved.<br /> <br /> If Futsunushi no Kami that had been together with her until now was gone, it would be just a little sad.<br /> <br /> Yamata no Orochi writhed around in agony. The remaining seven necks looked down on Kazuha with eyes colored by fury and simultaneously bearing down on her.<br /> <br /> One after another, headbutt, biting, and scorching breath were assaulting at her. Kazuha kicked the air and beautifully dodged her body. Tearing apart the steam of scorching heat with Futsu no Mitama in her left hand, she swung down a deadly attack with Mikafutsu no Mitama in her right hand. *BUTTSUN! BUTTSUN!* With a terrific response in her hand, the neck of the giant snake was severed.<br /> <br /> If it was the current her, she could fight this monster in close-quarter combat!<br /> <br /> {Go Tsukahara Kazuha! Shave apart this guy’s magic power using my Mikafutsu no Mitama!}<br /> <br /> {Use my Futsu no Mitama for the finishing blow, purify this guy’s evil spirit!!}<br /> <br /> While the surrounding old man voices was pushing her back, Kazuha turned into a light sword wind and ran around the giant body of Yamata no Orochi.<br /> <br /> Everywhere she went there was spurt of blood flying high. The giant snake was writhing around in pain.<br /> <br /> The inferiority inside Kazuha’s heart vanished completely like a phantom. She was without a doubt strong.<br /> <br /> This strength that by no means would make her ashamed even standing side-by-side at Kazuki’s side, she had obtained it by her own hand.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> While Aisu Ikousai smoothly drew out her katana, she made a speech to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “The position of sword was ousted by magic. Susanoo was ousted from the throne by Amaterasu’s invasion. You know, Susanoo was once the ruler of Japan. The center of Japan was Izumo. …Then Amaterasu invaded and created the history of Wakoku. Chased out even while being the strongest sword skill, as the successor of such forgotten school, I understand well the grieving of the ancient era.”<br /> <br /> {{furigana|Izumo|Susanoo’s side}} King and {{furigana|Wakoku|Amaterasu’s side}} King. The side that triumphed would become the true King. Swallowed by the destiny under the Mythology, Kazuki who stood on the hill silently drew out his katana. Hayashizaki-style was using Iai technique under the assumption of dashing through the battlefield wearing a sword where attack magic were flying around everywhere. If the opponent wished for crossing swords, then he would respond by drawing his sword right from the beginning.<br /> <br /> “In order to not lose against Magika Stigma, I had continued training in sword skill for a long time. And then, it was a really strange event. I was chosen by Susanoo and I too became a Magika Stigma. …Then I without doubt am the strongest. Both the era of sword and also the era of Izumo, I’m going to take them back with my [strongest]. Even the Japan that is ruled by Solomon 72 Pillar and also Amaterasu, I won’t recognize them. Susanoo and, this I who is the strongest, are undoubtedly the ruler of Japan archipelago…!”<br /> <br /> One step, two step, Ikousai climbed up the hill.<br /> <br /> In that footstep of hers, joy of fighting a powerful enemy was overflowing.<br /> <br /> “I feel happy that I can fight you, you know? As a user of ancient style sword art and also as a Magika Stigma that possess similar power of King. The pride of swordsman, the pride of King, betting both of them, I have to defeat you. For you too I’m already not just a stranger, but such an existence like that don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> Certainly that was so. This enemy―for me too she is a special existence.<br /> <br /> In that step of Ikousai’s leg, power was filled. …It’s coming!<br /> <br /> “Secret Rite, Aoiro Yasha!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai ran up the hill with explosive acceleration―simultaneously, the girl invoked a Summoning Magic too.<br /> <br /> “What is dedicated here, is a dance of flower shower like a storm! O honored god that summons storm, grant me who dance under the sky thy breath on my back! {{furigana|Fuujin Kenbu|Wind Swift Blade Dance}}!!”<br /> <br /> Chasing wind blew on Ikousai’s back, making her hair bristle up.<br /> <br /> ―It was a reinforcement magic that accelerated every single move of hers using the power of wind.<br /> <br /> The distance between the two vanished in just an instant.<br /> <br /> Ikousai who appeared in front of his eyes as if she was using instant movement slashed up her blade diagonally.<br /> <br /> The single blow that couldn’t possibly be evaded by human’s reflexes had its trajectory seen through by Kazuki using Foresight. But right when he was trying to block―Ikousai’s katana distorted like jelly and its trajectory changed.<br /> <br /> Secret Sword, Shiraha Kagerou.<br /> <br /> Summoning Magic that specialized in close-quarter combat and demon sword that leveraged common magic, she was coming while both of them were used at the same time!<br /> <br /> Kazuki read the trajectory wrongly, but he barely clashed his own blade against that irregular slash.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;GIIN!* Such sound rang out and the situation entered a sword-locking contest. But the previous miss made his strength control become disarrayed. Ikousai didn’t overlook that miss.<br /> <br /> Matching the bearing of strength, she immediately parried Kazuki’s blade.<br /> <br /> Having his blade parried away, Kazuki’s stance became disordered.<br /> <br /> Ikousai wasted no time and reversed her blade, slashing in a side sweep.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, double the Megin that whirl inside my body! The will of god spurring for infinite battle, in this body! …Meginjord!”<br /> <br /> However Kazuki too invoked a Summoning Magic―body reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> With the power of body trunk that had been reinforced, he forcefully held out his disordered stance and forcibly averted his upper body.<br /> <br /> He barely avoided the slash….<br /> <br /> ―Just when he thought so, Ikousai’s blade noticeably lengthened out due to Shiraha Kagerou.<br /> <br /> The side sweeping blow gouged Kazuki’s chest. Sparks of blue magic power flew around.<br /> <br /> Kazuki leaped back using his reinforced jumping power. He regrouped by taking distance in panic.<br /> <br /> Ikousai was not pursuing him, instead her mouth warped into a broad grin.<br /> <br /> Looking at that expression made Kazuki sullen.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t tell me you are going to say [It’s one kill with this] again.”<br /> <br /> “I’m not going to say that. I’m not saying but…I wonder if with this I can prove any time now that I’m the one superior in sword skill at the very least? It’s fine for you to use long range attack magic you know. After all, a battle chasing you around like hunting a rabbit while you cry and run about getting kicked everywhere is really fitting for Susanoo.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai spread both her hand exaggeratedly. She was elated with a sneer emerging out from her expression.<br /> <br /> “It’s still too early for you to get happy as if you have won already.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki fixed his stance and prepared his katana.<br /> <br /> Shiraha Kagerou―that technique was not just merely distorting the blade. It was quite a problem that it couldn’t be explained to that extent. …The true color of this difficult act was….<br /> <br /> Not only Shiraha Kagerou, he also felt the similar difficulty in the Tenrou Kaidan.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai had shown the imitation of these two techniques, but those were not supposed to be the complete thing. Kazuki who was currently confronting those techniques couldn’t think that it was really that simple no matter how.<br /> <br /> There was still some puzzle that was hidden, because of that it was hard to see it through.<br /> <br /> However this difficult act, he had experienced it somewhere in the past―he felt such déjà vu.<br /> <br /> That’s why, let’s test it one more time.<br /> <br /> Against Kazuki who took a stance of aiming at the eye while leaving out excessive strength, Ikousai loosened out her strength even more and took a stance with her katana lowered and relaxed. From that natural stance―she filled the distance between them with a radical acceleration.<br /> <br /> Kazuki attempted to repel the blow that once again came with divine speed.<br /> <br /> Just before their blades clashed, Ikousai’s blade distorted once again.<br /> <br /> This time Kazuki was not led astray by that―he Foresight precisely the distortion of the blade also added with the opponent’s movement and met their blades with each other. This time the sword locking contest was brought about with an even standing.<br /> <br /> “!?” Ikousai’s breath stopped in surprise. They were even in a sword locking contest right from the front. That had already been proven before. Therefore Ikousai immediately moved into her next technique.<br /> <br /> “Secret Sword, Tenrou Kaidan!!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!* Ikousai’s figure vanished together with such an explosive sound.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN! PAAN!* Such sounds rang out consecutively―<br /> <br /> ―Right after that, Ikousai slashed at him from who knows where…!<br /> <br /> But Kazuki unhesitatingly turned back at his diagonal right.<br /> <br /> Ikousai who was trying a surprise attack exactly right there caught her breath.<br /> <br /> That state of her was not visible from where Kazuki was, but he felt the indication that the girl had caught her breath.<br /> <br /> “…You bastard, you are closing your eyes!?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s surprise attack slash was blocked by Kazuki. Right there Kazuki abruptly opened his eyes wide. Turmoil was transmitted through Ikousai’s blade. This time Kazuki was the one that didn’t overlook that opening. He broke Ikousai’s stance using Instant Positioning. And then he reversed his blade and slashed her diagonally.<br /> <br /> Light of defensive magic power gushed out from Ikousai’s chest before she leaped back in fluster.<br /> <br /> “With that it’s finally one kill, I wonder.” This time Kazuki was the one that said so.<br /> <br /> “…Have you seen through it, my technique.”<br /> <br /> “I saw it. The essence of Shiraha Kagerou and Tenrou Kaidan are…twisting the katana to the opponent’s blind spot, and also skipping to the opponent’s blind spot.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was merely twisting her katana. She also showed how she kicked the air and leaped, but she only saw those techniques from the standpoint of an observer and that was why she thought those were only such simple techniques. But from Kazuki’s standpoint, he felt a more inexplicable technique from it.<br /> <br /> He shouldn’t be toyed around this much just by something only to that degree,<br /> <br /> Ikousai foresighted Kazuki’s line of sight. She calculated the blind spot before twisting her blade and leaping through the sky.<br /> <br /> “…Because if you didn’t do that then no matter how great your speed was then it’s unthinkable that your figure can vanish like that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki had the experience of such sensation before.<br /> <br /> Her way of fighting was similar with Kanae when she really got serious.<br /> <br /> Storm Cat―in addition to her natural speed, that girl also moved around by perceiving the opponent’s blind spot with her wild instinct. Because of that, it felt like she was more nimble than what her actual speed indicated.<br /> <br /> Because he had that kind of experience, Kazuki knew intuitively. Kanae was nothing more but wild instinct so there was some difference with Ikousai who trained more in this and read the opponent’s movement but….<br /> <br /> “I’ll get led astray too much if my eyes are opened. That’s why I closed my eyes. You are using extensive magic power while moving around after all, so sensing your magic power while Foresighting is a much easier way of fighting you. I’ll tell you this again…against Hayashizaki-style, the same technique won’t work the second time.”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s determined speech, Ikousai gritted her teeth with a grinding sound.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t this a little too early for you to feel like you have won already?”<br /> <br /> “I guess so. But now, it’s the greatest feeling I felt here.”<br /> <br /> “…Hmph, seems like you are also quite a sore loser huh. …That’s just fine, this is the third round.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai kicked the ground. This time Kazuki too wasn’t waiting for her and kicked the ground meeting her attack.<br /> <br /> “…Thy fury is the happiness of the war Shrine Maiden. Answer the Kagura&lt;ref&gt;Ancient Shinto music and dancing&lt;/ref&gt; of the dead invocation break out the storm of calling, split the cloud and please descend here…. Spirits and demons in this body! {{furigana|Chouriki Shourai|Super Strength Invitation}}!!”<br /> <br /> Magic power like a storm burst out from Ikousai’s body. All of that became the aura of physical reinforcement.<br /> <br /> Adding with the speed up from [Fuujin Kenbu] from before, this time it was her power that was increased.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki too at the same time invoked his own reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> …Even while the two conversed with each other they were still chanting their spell diligently. Although it might be called spell ''chanting'', the majority of the chanting part was not chanted by mouth but by telepathic communication with Diva using Telepathy.<br /> <br /> “Thunder fall on my body, obtain the extreme speed of lightning though…Wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too piled up the speed of [Ride Lightning] on top of [Meginjord] that reinforced his power.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s sword and Kazuki’s sword that were piled up by multiple reinforcement magic clashed with each other with great force.<br /> <br /> The next instant, after thunderous roar and sparks were scattered, the second strike, the third strike had already been clashed with each other.<br /> <br /> Defense and offense that left behind even its afterimage in the lurch&amp;mdash;both of them were equally strengthened too much, already both their own movements and the opponent’s movements had become something that couldn’t be sensed clearly.<br /> <br /> This had become an offense and defense of [future sight] in how much he could Foresight from her movement’s omen.<br /> <br /> “I do a good fight, welcome a good death, a person that wished for participation in even more battle of heaven! The divine protection of blood color in my eyes! Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t overlook even the slightest movement of his opponent and reinforced his reflexes using Beatrix’s magic.<br /> <br /> “Secret Rite, {{furigana|Raiganmon|Thunder Eye Crest}}!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s eyes also shined with blue magic power light and sparks. Kazuki estimated that it was most likely a technique that revolved around strengthening her dynamic vision.<br /> <br /> Within just an instant, sword and sword clashed with each other, entangling together, tactics were exchanged during the high speed movement.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s reaction was gradually lagging behind slightly. Her strength control started to disarray from impatience.<br /> <br /> Without missing that opening, Kazuki flicked away Ikousai’s katana.<br /> <br /> “Kuh…polished black steel of heaven o Totsuka no Tsurugi…release flash of light that gouge the storm! This is Orochi no Arasama…the advent of tearing limb from limb, Ame-no-Habakiri!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai threw away her katana without going against the strength that repelled it. She invoked the magic that she chanted while slashing at each other. Inside that hand, a strange sword with branched blade that should also be called an eight branch katana was gripped.<br /> <br /> Turning her sight on Kazuki who was approaching in pursuit, she swung that sword.<br /> <br /> The moment it was swung, that slash broke up into eight streaks.<br /> <br /> With one swing many really different swordsmanship assaulted him at exactly the same time.<br /> <br /> “!?” Even while being shocked from the unknown attack, Kazuki blocked four branches altogether with a single katana. But the remaining four slashes were carved into his body, sending him flying away from the backlash of the defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> This time Ikousai was the one that came out in pursuit at Kazuki who was slashed flying.<br /> <br /> “O undying bird that fly from the twilight to the dawn, please grant that wing of hope on my back! The destruction for the sake of rebirth right here…! Blazing Wings!”<br /> <br /> Against the approaching Ikousai, Kazuki too invoked the magic that he had prepared.<br /> <br /> Wings of flame spread out largely from Kazuki’s back&amp;mdash;it turned at Ikousai and swept away.<br /> <br /> A belt of flame was approaching with volume that was impossible to avoid―.<br /> <br /> {Thick clouds stand here, protect my body from every calamity and bring forth armor. …My tranquil &lt; {{furigana|Yaegaki|multilayered fences}} &gt; right here! …Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Suijougai|Water Steam Armor}}!!}<br /> <br /> Steam was released with tremendous force around Ikousai. It transformed into a faint wall of cloud.<br /> <br /> The thin cloud conceived air while layering into eight. That wall swallowed the wing of flame.<br /> <br /> Cloud and flame mutually offset and dispersed each other―making Ikousai protected.<br /> <br /> Kazuki flapped his wings of flame, flying to the dark sky of Yomotsu Hirasaka. Ikousai kicked the air using [Tenrou Kaidan] in pursuit of him.<br /> <br /> Ikousai raised the strange Sacred Treasure overhead. Tearing eight slash on the opponent with one attack, Orochi no Arasama.<br /> <br /> “Secret Sword, {{furigana|Amatsu Midareboshi|Heavenly Chaotic Star}}!”<br /> <br /> The blade that birthed eight streaks with one swing was swung by Ikousai in all direction of angle using her reinforced extreme speed. Countless slashes were converging on Kazuki in reverse radial like a storm of meteor.<br /> <br /> A storm of blade that broke the enemy into small pieces without any place to escape.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too threw away the katana held in his hand and resisted by chanting a magic of Sacred Treasure creation.<br /> <br /> “Futsu no Mitama!”<br /> <br /> That was a divine katana that severed magic power. From inside the slashes that were approaching him, Kazuki saw through the slashes that were produced from the magic power and the slash of the blade’s real body. And then he clashed the divine katana with the slashes' real body.<br /> <br /> A Sacred Treasure that produced eight streaks of slashes with one swing. However the seven streaks of slashes among those eight were produced from magic power, and the source of that magic power was the Sacred Treasure. Therefore if [Futsu no Mitama] was clashed right there…!<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;KAAN!* Clear sound rang out, the divine katana exterminated the slashes that were produced from magic power. That purging power had been strengthened due to the merging with Take Mikadzuchi.<br /> <br /> Kazuki fathomed the truth or falsehood among the eight times approaching swordsmanship and blocked only the sword’s real body with the divine katana. In the sky their blades clashed one time, two times, three times, entangling each other. The fabricated slashes were all vanished.<br /> <br /> Throughout the high speed offense and defense, Ikousai’s reaction had fallen behind slightly again. That lag was not from her movement but from the lateness of her decision. In that gap Kazuki arrested the blade of Ikousai’s Sacred Treasure and took their fight into sword-locking contest.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s stance was thrown out of order immediately from Kazuki’s Instant Positioning and her right wrist was slashed.<br /> <br /> “…!? Why-!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai yelled as if she couldn’t believe how she was lagging behind.<br /> <br /> With his entire speed, Kazuki swung his next third slash.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!!”<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki-style Dream Sword, {{furigana|Kasane|Pile Up}}―On the wound that was carved on the layer of the opponent’s defensive magic power from the attack just an instant before, a slash drawing the exact same trajectory was piled up next, piercing through the defensive magic power, it was that kind of Secret Sword.<br /> <br /> His aim was Ikousai’s dominant arm. Ikousai having noticed that Kazuki’s blade was trying to capture the wound opening on her defensive magic power, watching that approaching fatal attack, made her expression distort in fluster.<br /> <br /> Ikousai yelled, as if depending on her technique that she had tempered persistently.<br /> <br /> “Shiraha Kagerou!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai ''immediately used it not on her own katana, but on Kazuki’s Futsu no Mitama''.<br /> <br /> Perceiving the blade’s Prima Materia by means of her Extra Sense, she distorted the target using Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> It was a miraculous feat of an instant. Futsu no Mitama that was a Sacred Treasure distorted slightly!<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s [Kasane] that aimed for magic power wound that was only as big as a string of hair turned into a normal slash from that measurement error. Ikousai was slashed and got knocked down to the ground while scattering lights of defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> “Dancing wing scattering sparks. Trail spiraling wind behind, become the bullet that gouge life! Flap and shoot out! Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> Turning to Ikousai who was collapsing on the ground with her four limbs sprawled out, Kazuki attacked with a flame bullet.<br /> <br /> Ikousai was in a posture where she couldn’t try to dodge―that was how it was supposed to be.<br /> <br /> But *PAAN!* with an explosive sound Ikousai’s body leaped away with her posture still in sprawling condition, her body evading from the flame bullet.<br /> <br /> Tenrou Kaidan―like an acrobatic Ikousai danced in the air with her stance still like a person sleeping. Like that, she landed and recovered her battle preparation.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too had used up the energy of his flame wings and landed on the ground.<br /> <br /> “…Is it fine for you to not use [Usubeni Hannya] or something any time now?”<br /> <br /> The moment Kazuki asked so, Ikousai went “…gefu-!” with her shoulders shaking and coughing. While her lung was convulsing, she took in oxygen with great haste and yelled “U, Usubeni Hannya…!” painfully.<br /> <br /> Humans produced stamina with oxygen and explosive power by breaking sugar content.<br /> <br /> [Aoiro Yasha] ―it was a magic technique that made the production of explosive power energy within the body due to sugar content dissolution prioritized by closing the oxygen circulation due to blood flow inside the body.<br /> <br /> It was nothing more than a temporary doping by sacrificing stamina.<br /> <br /> By using the magic technique [Usebeni Hannya] that was the opposite, Ikousai’s pale skin recovered its complexion. However heavy fatigue that couldn’t be restored should have been accumulating inside her body this whole time.<br /> <br /> “Ri, ridiculous…are you saying I’m the inferior one here…why…”<br /> <br /> “Aisu Ikousai…you, it’s fine to have a solid conviction that you are the strongest but, you have never fought an opponent that is even stronger than you right? It’s the difference between us. You are a shut-in that trained alone too much.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai opened her eyes wide abruptly.<br /> <br /> “You have never fought somebody that was even faster than you. That’s why in a match where our speed is equal you feel impatient and your judgment lagged behind. But I have come this far fighting against opponents above me many times over.”<br /> <br /> Since his childhood period, Kazuki had been continuously worked hard by a swordsman named Kanae who was far faster than him.<br /> <br /> After he entered the Magic Division, he had experienced several scenes of carnage against an opponent that was Beatrix who was an even stronger and faster magic swordsman than him where just enduring was the best that he could do at the time.<br /> <br /> That difference in experience was exposed during their offense and defense where even an instant of miss wouldn’t be forgiven.<br /> <br /> “And then you have never fought against an even stronger guy than yourself, so you don’t have any doubt in the techniques that you have polished until now. Your Secret Swords are all just surprise attacks where its effectiveness is halved when the secret is exposed. However in this era where one-hit kill is difficult due to defensive magic power, what use is there in a mere fraud’s surprise attack?”<br /> <br /> The lower eyelids of Ikousai that was glaring at Kazuki trembled with a twitch.<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai was an assassin sword. But it could be said that the concept of assassin sword itself had already been out of date.<br /> <br /> Certainly there were also assassination techniques like [Kasane] or [Shintoukei] that ignored the opponent’s defensive magic power with no question asked, but it could hardly ever succeed against an opponent of equal level.<br /> <br /> The assassin sword Aisu Aikousai that had been handed down for generations looked down on sword art that fought fair and square from the front as [playing a sport]. But in this current era, what could be said as truly combat worthy was….<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style faces the opponent right from the front, to see through the opponent’s true essence. We have no unusual magic technique like you, but I can have faith once again on that validity.”<br /> <br /> “…Aren’t you surprisingly…getting talkative as if you have won already…”<br /> <br /> Ikousai glared while huffing from being out of breath.<br /> <br /> “That’s because it will be extremely vexing if I lose against you, that’s why. Right now, I feel an unbelievable peace of mind, the best sensation ever.”<br /> <br /> Amongst all the opponents he had faced until now, there was no human that he had ever thought as a [worthy rival] as much as this girl. It was to the degree of an obstinacy of absolutely not wanting to lose that was gushing out from the pores of his whole body.<br /> <br /> “…Hmph, I am more adult than you, so I don’t feel even a little bit of frustration at all…I’ll recognize my defeat this time. The current me certainly might not be able to win.”<br /> <br /> He had the feeling that such way of talking was not adult enough already though.<br /> <br /> “But this defeat is just something temporary! I’m only entrusting the seat of the strongest to you just for this short time!!”<br /> <br /> “…People who are stronger than us, there are probably quite a lot of guys like that all around the world you know? If you are so inclined I can even introduce you to a battle maniac maiden called Beatrix-chan.”<br /> <br /> ”I’ll show you that the seat of the strongest swordsman will soon return under me! Even the seat of Japanese Mythology’s chief god, I’ll also show you that it will immediately return under Susanoo!! Just remember this!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s Magic Dress returned to her former kimono together with a light.<br /> <br /> And then she waved her sleeve and ran down the hill road.<br /> <br /> On the base of the hill, Kazuha-senpai had already defeated the Yamata no Orochi while dragging trailingly behind the Takasugi brothers by the scruff of their necks who had somehow returned to their original form and fainted.<br /> <br /> Ikousai slipped right beside them and escaped.<br /> <br /> On the other side at the hill above…<br /> <br /> “…O exalted light illuminating four seas and thousands countries, become the flash that clear away evil…Yata no Kagami・{{furigana|Youka Ippou|Sun Fire Single Cannon}}!”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san who was accompanied by Amaterasu’s avatar at her side fired a very thick laser and evaporated the approaching Yomotsu army altogether.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san then turned this way with a twirl.<br /> <br /> “Susanoo’s Izumo King…so she escaped.”<br /> <br /> ‘Damn’, Kazuki noticed now that she mentioned it. He probably mustn’t let her escape. However chasing an opponent that had recognized their defeat and continued to fight was not something Kazuki was familiar with.<br /> <br /> But what’s going to happen with the victory condition of this [battle concerning the True King]?<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me I have to make her breath stop before I am recognized as the victor―?<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, from that contractor recognizing her loss, ''Susanoo’s divinity was deeply wounded. Due to that the scale of balance had greatly tilted to our side''. To become the true King of Japanese Mythology you have to make her submit more, but most of the Wild Gods ought to return to their senses and remember their loyalty toward Amaterasu now. Though there will be no change for the Divas that are originally close to Izumo Mythology.”<br /> <br /> “Make her submit…I wonder if it’s fine to just fight her several times and defeat her each time.”<br /> <br /> Even if they didn’t pursue the girl from here, he had the feeling that she would show her appearance again even if she was left alone.<br /> <br /> “Hmph. Submission…then isn’t it fine if you conquer that person?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said with a malicious expression. Kazuki made a bitter face hearing that. Such absurd thing….<br /> <br /> “Anyway, in this situation Yamato should be in great chaos right about now. We have to hurry and get out from here and give the notification.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai told him to raise the smoke signal when the operation succeeded. Right now was exactly the time.<br /> <br /> With that as the cue…[Magic War・Sekigahara] would begin!<br /> <br /> “This side too have finished driving away the pursuer. That’s why let’s go while there is this chance.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san moved as the vanguard and they ran down the hill road.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> After they had run down until the end of Yomotsu Hirasaka, Kamimura-san released the light of Amaterasu from her palm and tore apart the darkness. The next instant, the three opened their eyes at the True August Pillar under the floor of the main temple.<br /> <br /> It was dim and dusty there. The three immediately lifted the floor plank and climbed to the main temple.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai lay the body of Takasugi brothers on the floor.<br /> <br /> Beside them, Kamimura-san was looking down on the blackened blood stain on the floor.<br /> <br /> “My blood. …But right now, I have my own body.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san whispered with a tone as if there was not even so much as a strong feeling inside her.<br /> <br /> Even though she was restored to life. As if she was only murmuring detachedly about the fact.<br /> <br /> Kazuki circled his hand under Kamimura-san’s arm and lightly lifted her up.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what?” Her eyes opened wide from being startled, Kamimura-san directed her face at him.<br /> <br /> “Just as expected. I had thought so when we were in Yomotsu Hirasaka, but your weight is strangely light. It’s not something that can be explained physically…Kamimura-san’s existence is still faint.”<br /> <br /> The feedback in his hand from lifting her up was so light as if he was only carrying her skeletal frame.<br /> <br /> If she was tied with a bond to Kazuki and she was supplied with the power of Solomon’s Divas from there, he was told that the girl would be able to maintain her flesh body in a more complete form….<br /> <br /> If Kazuki didn’t conquer this girl, she would keep being this indistinct like now. As if an existence of small candle light that would vanish just from the wind blowing.<br /> <br /> “If we don’t make you eat delicious things and make you fatter….”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, that’s wrong right? She is not something like a piglet after all.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said in an amazed face.<br /> <br /> “I’m not particularly…it’s fine even if you don’t fuss over me that much. I don’t want to be liked from pity. It’s not like I especially want to live a long life no matter what.”<br /> <br /> Her tone of voice was gloomy as if that high tension when they were in &lt;Itsuki☆Channel&gt; had completely vanished somewhere.<br /> <br /> “Kamimura-san-. After this let’s go play in an amusement park together with me-!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai suddenly raised a loud voice and grasped both of Kamimura-san’s hands tightly.<br /> <br /> “E, even if I go playing to that kind of place because of pity, surely we can’t have fun mutually there.”<br /> <br /> “We won’t know whether it’s fun or not until we have gone there y’know! Good will and pity are not something that can be differentiated that easily you know. For the sake of making sure of it too, let’s go play!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai shook Kamimura-san’s hands up and down. Kamimura-san, unable to find a reason to shake off those hands could only “Uuuu…” moan and hung her head down. That cheeks of hers were faintly red.<br /> <br /> “…Isn’t there, a voice of something outside?”<br /> <br /> At that time Kazuki noticed sounds outside and lowered Kamimura-san gently on the floor.<br /> <br /> “With Takasugi brothers defeated, Ise Imperial Shrine should have been liberated from being a Haunted Ground and returned to normal. Although I think it’s still too early for people to gather here because of that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said. Kazuki and the other two went out from the main temple.<br /> <br /> Passing through the several layers of fences that surrounded the main temple, they headed to the outer most gate of the main temple.<br /> <br /> Arriving there, the back figure of Aisu Ikousai in argument with someone entered their eyes.<br /> <br /> “Why are you bastards here!? It’s different with what you promised!!”<br /> <br /> Ahead of the gate had turned into stone steps. They couldn’t see anything from here, but there was someone below on the stone steps. When Kazuki and others drew near, Ikousai glanced at them with face colored bright red from anger, but she soon ignored them and turned back to the front.<br /> <br /> “We made our alliance with the promise that you will give your maximum cooperation so that I can become the true King of Japanese Mythology!! Even if you guys defeat Hayashizaki Kazuki then there is no meaning!!”<br /> <br /> She shouted angrily at someone below the stairs.<br /> <br /> “Of course if you can become the King, that is the best scenario. But I’ve already known from the start that ''Onii-chan'' will be the one to win anyway.”<br /> <br /> “…You, you bastard…you are saying you didn’t have any confidence in my victory right from the beginning!”<br /> <br /> “The strongest isn’t it, fufufu…it’s shameful. I have thought that Onii-chan is way stronger than you. Besides that &lt;Power of Usurpation&gt; the &lt;King of Izumo&gt; possess…it’s obvious that you will change your attitude quickly and aim for our necks the moment you steal the power of the &lt;Wakoku King&gt; and the other Kings. Against someone that owns that kind of bad news power, there is no way anyone can trust you or shit right from the start.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki lined up beside Ikousai from behind and looked down the stone steps.<br /> <br /> What were there were ten women in black clothes. Wearing pure black robes, they also covered their head with hood so low he couldn’t determine their faces.<br /> <br /> There was only one girl that didn’t wear a hood―without any doubt, it was Kaya.<br /> <br /> Kaya turned to Kazuki and waved her hand ignoring Ikousai completely.<br /> <br /> “The conclusion between me and Hayashizaki Kazuki still hasn’t been decided! I won’t let you interfere until we have reached our conclusion!”<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, what are you saying? The conclusion is there already right? At any rate Onii-chan hasn’t given you the finishing blow or anything. But because of that, do we have to continue to wait until your heart breaks? That’s something that is really hard to joke about you know, self-proclaimed strongest-kun. Ahaha, rightt―☆”<br /> <br /> “You, you are mocking me…I’ll kill you!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai who was trembling in fury, caused him to get goosebumps in chill.<br /> <br /> “Rage inside me, Susanoo!! Swallow everything of me to your heart’s content…I’ll slaughter these bunch in this place!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s form distorted flexibly with thick magic power. Looking at that state, even Kaya had impatience emerged on her expression. There was no doubt that she didn’t have the resolution as far as fighting a materialized Susanoo.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s current state…was where she was trying to surrender her own flesh body to her contracted Diva!!<br /> <br /> “Stop it Ikousai, don’t throw yourself away!! Are you planning to return to nothing all that you have built up in your life until now, all the techniques of yours!?”<br /> <br /> “Uu…guh! You are trying to stop me!?”<br /> <br /> “Who else but me is going to stop you. I’m going to get troubled in how to treat this [seat of the strongest swordsman] you entrusted to me like this. …It’s fine if we just clear off these guys from now on right? The conclusion can be after that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki restrained Ikousai with his hand and took a step out passing through the gate.<br /> <br /> It seemed that while Kazuki was inside the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave, Ikousai was making contact with the government of Yamato.<br /> <br /> Yamato government was aiming for Kazuki’s life, but Ikousai made them promise to not needlessly interfere until she finished her duel concerning the True King with Kazuki who became the representative of Wakoku King.<br /> <br /> But Kaya ignored that and led her comrades to this place.<br /> <br /> ―At the very end they were surrounded by enemies and the infiltration operation became a failure. But…,<br /> <br /> “You are acting calm like that but, Kaya, didn’t you come here with a really small number of people?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said so provocatively, a twitch appeared in Kaya’s expression.<br /> <br /> “You cannot move Yamato’s army freely right? Japan’s Knight Order is exercising their authority at the front line, and you cannot let the fact about how Japanese Divas are added as Yamato’s ally by trickery exposed to the common troops even in the ten thousand to one chances…That’s why you didn’t bring them along to this place. The only one that you can bring to this place under your own judgment is just one part of those that had been your comrades from the very beginning. You too cannot conduct yourself so importantly like a dictator, can you?”<br /> <br /> If by any chance this place was completely surrounded by Yamato’s army, Kazuki wouldn’t even have the slightest chance to escape.<br /> <br /> But the one who was waiting for them at this place were only ten women in black clothes.<br /> <br /> “…That’s right. It’s just like what you said. But with me who is able to completely control Loki’s power and nine illegal magicians…I wonder if this battle strength is insufficient for facing against only four people here?”<br /> <br /> …At the very least, Kazuki had the confidence to escape.<br /> <br /> But that was only after buying as much time as possible.<br /> <br /> Right now, Yamato’s battle strength should be reeling from how the Divas of Japanese Mythology were suddenly retreating from the front line and on top of that Kaya and her group were also not present! If right now in this place they could contact the Knight Order that the operation had gone well and had them assault Yamato, Yamato’s forces would become routed!<br /> <br /> He didn’t know how Kaya and her group would react the moment he launched the smoke signal but….<br /> <br /> Kazuki swallowed his saliva with a gulp. This was the decisive moment. For the sake of making this operation more reliable, he had to attract Kaya and her group’s attention as much as possible to this place…!<br /> <br /> “Everyone hold back Amaterasu, Susanoo, and Futsunushi no Kami.”<br /> <br /> Kaya gave her instruction to the nine illegal magicians around her.<br /> <br /> “…Never let your guards down. They are just three people but they are altogether the top three strongest of Japanese Mythology. I’ll handle the {{furigana|King|Basilleus}} alone.”<br /> <br /> “…Everyone, don’t overdo yourself. When the time comes I’ll absolutely take everyone to escape.”<br /> <br /> “Even if you said [everyone] but I’m not included there right?”<br /> <br /> Ikousai glared at him.<br /> <br /> “I’ll leave the interpretation of that to yourself.” Kazuki pushed that aside.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai and Kamimura-san nodded their head.<br /> <br /> {…Kazuki. Right now there is a significant fact that Leme have to inform.}<br /> <br /> Leme’s telepathic talk echoed inside Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> …What is it at this kind of time? Something significant in this kind of situation she said?<br /> <br /> {With the bond that you built with Japanese Mythology, Leme’s power has also returned. Now I have become able to bestow a new authority of King to you.}<br /> <br /> Had she grown some more again with the return of her power? Her voice sounded a little more adult.<br /> <br /> King’s Authority―At first in the beginning Kazuki obtained the power to perceive the positivity level’s fluctuation of the girl that he had tied a bond with. After that, he obtained the power to sense the coordinates of the girl’s whereabouts.<br /> <br /> After that a newly gained, power…?<br /> <br /> {I could bestow you with a sensible authority here. Making your bond as a circuit, you can have a long range telepathic communication. You become able to communicate telepathically with a girl whose positivity level has surpassed 150 from anywhere.}<br /> <br /> The condition of positivity level 150 was difficult, but Mio should be qualified under that requirement.<br /> <br /> Then…even if he didn’t use something like a smoke signal, he could let out commence attack signal without Kaya in front of him noticing a thing. Kazuki felt an oppressive feeling in his chest. Exactly when he thought that things could go well, that nervousness came.<br /> <br /> {And then one more thing…a new Magic Dress following after Solomon’s Ring.}<br /> <br /> Until now Kazuki’s Magic Dress was only a single tiny ring. Because this ring didn’t have the power to support his chanting, Kazuki’s chanting ability was falling considerably behind everyone else of the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> Light shined in Kazuki’s chest. The light that was like a small star solidified, becoming a pendant that was taking form of a complex pentagram and hanging on his neck.<br /> <br /> “This is…”<br /> <br /> Kaya too noticed the phenomenon and she was gazing in wonderment.<br /> <br /> {The path that you are walking is not mistaken. Prove it against your fated opponent. The name of that pendant is &lt;{{furigana|Zekorbeni|Solomon’s Emblem}}&gt;…it’s a Magic Dress that compensates for your weakness.}<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_3&diff=479287 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 3 2016-01-31T12:29:20Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 3 - The Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave ~Love Simulation~==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Astrum―Kazuki once again entered the vast darkness of the mental world that he had witnessed before.<br /> <br /> On the surface of that darkness, a faint ripple spread. This was supposed to be the guide according to Yatagarasu. The flow of the ripple showed Kazuki’s consciousness the direction he needed to go.<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved forward through the darkness as if swimming. Gradually, Kazuki became able to feel a different someone’s consciousness heading to the same direction getting close to his own consciousness. This is…Kazuha-senpai’s warmth.<br /> <br /> Gradually he could feel their own sense of existence and the surrounding darkness solidifying, becoming a definite something. Even inside the Astrum, Kazuki’s appearance was still wearing the casual Japanese clothes for the use in the infiltration operation. Kazuha-senpai who walked together with him side-by-side was in her Magic Dress appearance.<br /> <br /> In the darkness in front of their eyes, a wide hill that shone slightly came to the front.<br /> <br /> This hill is, Yomotsu Hirasaka….<br /> <br /> They moved forward through the hill path. Thereupon {We have arrived} the voice of Yatagarasu echoed.<br /> <br /> A strong light flickered with a flash in their path.<br /> <br /> The sensation of the world changing―as if climbing over a Territory.<br /> <br /> When the light that dazzled the eyes vanishes, the surrounding returned to the pitch black darkness. Inside the darkness where he couldn’t even peek through either the sky or the earth, there was only Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai standing side by side.<br /> <br /> …Were they already in the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave here? Even if they were suddenly thrown out into this kind of darkness, they didn’t know what was it they needed to do.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai.” Kazuki gently took Kazuha-senpai’s hand.<br /> <br /> “What’s with you, don’t touch me as you please.”<br /> <br /> Having words so cold it made him doubt his ear what returned at him, Kazuki felt his hand get shook off.<br /> <br /> “…Is there something wrong?”<br /> <br /> For some reason he intuitively felt weird rather than anxious.<br /> <br /> “There is nothing particularly wrong. I have said this all the time right, I hate someone like you. You are being over-familiar with me. It’s gross.”<br /> <br /> Inside the darkness, he couldn’t ascertain her expression. However only the cold gaze piercing him was looking bright.<br /> <br /> “…Senpai only says that in your mouth, but I don’t think that senpai really hates me inside.”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying? Then try to see it yourself with that special positivity level check of yours.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki invoked that ability. Even in his current situation where he was in a mental body in Astrum, he could use magic that was a power of the mind just like usual.<br /> <br /> An unbelievable number emerged out.<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―2<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s voice was becoming increasingly laced with scorn.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps you thought that you could understand everything about me with that ability right? How small minded is that thinking of yours. Women are not your toys.”<br /> <br /> Something cold ran through Kazuki’s spine.<br /> <br /> “Certainly I have also thought before that this ability is too one-sidedly unfair. But that doesn’t mean that I decide my attitude only based on this power. Even without this, I intend to try to understand my companion.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki forcefully gripped back the hand that shook him off.<br /> <br /> “Then you are just being drunk with your own mistaken thinking, this narcissist.”<br /> <br /> “What senpai is saying is strange.”<br /> <br /> “It’s not strange. This is my true feelings. I don’t say any lies.”<br /> <br /> “Certainly, senpai right now doesn’t seem like you are telling any lies. However I believe that it’s highly unlikely for senpai to say that kind of thing to me. …What’s wrong?”<br /> <br /> “…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stubbornly questioned without averting his eyes from the cold gaze directed at him.<br /> <br /> Thereupon after a moment of silence, on the other side of the darkness Kazuha-senpai’s contour melted like a mud.<br /> <br /> Even the sensation inside his clutching hand vanished. The existence that looked like Kazuha-senpai was disappearing.<br /> <br /> It was an imposter. Who was the one that did such a bad taste action…. It made him recall the time he received Miyabi-senpai’s mental attack before. Inside a mental world, it was not strange for anything to happen.<br /> <br /> However even so, don’t fuck around. This kind of Kazuha-senpai is just absurd.<br /> <br /> The imposter disappeared, but Kazuki became feeling on edge in his chest.<br /> <br /> [Women are not your toys.]<br /> <br /> Certainly he had a one-sided power with regards to girls….<br /> <br /> If he abused this, then surely he would really make any girl into his toy….<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled how his reasoning was washed away by Hikaru-senpai’s unaware temptation.<br /> <br /> …After I possessed this kind of ability, I mustn’t see girls as ''an object to fulfill my own desire''.<br /> <br /> At the same time with Kazuki secretly resolving himself, the space was filled with white light.<br /> <br /> {―The two of ye, I’ll recognize that ye are sufficient to establish Yin and Yang.}<br /> <br /> A mysterious voice echoed. It was a different voice from Yatagarasu. And then―<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When he next noticed, Kazuki was standing in a strange space. Under his feet was bright yellow, the sky was bright blue. Above the sky was the very picture of round clouds and red sun floating.<br /> <br /> As if some child drew this with crayon, it was a space of unmixed color that looked like a two dimensional picture.<br /> <br /> The only thing in that space that stuck out like a sore thumb with how real it looked was the gigantic rock mountain that powerfully towered up high in front of their eyes. …Surely this was the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave.<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuki, there was Kazuha-senpai. Senpai was shaking with slight repeated tremble like a small animal while her eyes were teary.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, what’s wrong? By any chance…”<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki…you, are you the real Hayashizaki…?”<br /> <br /> The eyes that shined wetly like precious gems stared at Kazuki’s face fixedly.<br /> <br /> “What in the world happened?”<br /> <br /> “Ha, Hayashizaki said some cruel words to me…. Like my sword skill is just some hack that no matter how long I train I won’t improve, that I am the Total Worthless of the Sword Division, or that I’m a Natural Born Total Worthless&lt;ref&gt;The two titles there are said in English&lt;/ref&gt;…”<br /> <br /> “There is really a mean Hayashizaki out there isn’t it? Though if it’s me then I absolutely don’t think of anything like that.”<br /> <br /> Rather throughout this whole day he was once again surprised by her talent.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai took hold of Kazuki’s hand tightly. It was the very sensation of living flesh itself.<br /> <br /> “I, I’m glad…this is the real Hayashizaki…. I knew that you won’t say something cruel like that, I believed, but…even so…that cold gaze, was really scary, it was uneasy…”<br /> <br /> “Senpai’s imposter too said to me that you hate a harem guy so much.”<br /> <br /> “If it was just that much, then normally I always say that so that was really nothing much, right…”<br /> <br /> “The way the usual Kazuha-senpai said it was always filled with a lot of love you know.”<br /> <br /> “I didn’t fill it with any such thing―!”<br /> <br /> She clenched her fist and *poka poka* hit Kazuki’s chest repeatedly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki hugged Kazuha-senpai tightly altogether with her hitting arm.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…I absolutely won’t say anything cruel to you. No matter what happens.”<br /> <br /> “Wha, what’s with you, getting strangely all serious like that. Don’t just hug me as you please-…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai went “Hic-” and sobbed convulsively. She pressed her eyes that were wet with tears on Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―98 …There was no mistake this was the real deal.<br /> <br /> Kazuki ignored Kazuha-senpai’s frail voice “Get away from me―” and like that he embraced her warmly and softly for a while.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “The both of you, to the &lt;Itsuki☆Channel&gt;-! Welcome~”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Suddenly, a voice echoed. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai parted their body and turned to look at the voice’s direction.<br /> <br /> In front of the rock wall where there should be no one until now, there was a strange group of three.<br /> <br /> The one in the front was a girl wearing a gothic Lolita dress. White skin like an elf. A high tension smiling face.<br /> <br /> At her right side, a pure white bald middle-aged man. An unrealistic outward appearance. That was not the shape of a real human but a deformed appearance like a stuffed toy, a small middle aged man with four heads tall&lt;ref&gt;Ratio of total height to length of the head&lt;/ref&gt;. With white skin that had no color at all, his head and also his body were strangely slackening.<br /> <br /> On the opposite side at the left, was a shark. Likewise it was also a shark with deformed appearance just like a stuffed doll. It had human limbs growing out on its body and was standing erect.<br /> <br /> A goth loli girl, white middle-aged man, shark&amp;mdash;an incomprehensible trio was standing there.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 122.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “Itsuki☆Channel…it was made in Amaterasu’s Territory, a variety space of man and woman’s love.”<br /> <br /> The goth loli girl said.<br /> <br /> Man and woman’s variety space…?<br /> <br /> “Diverse guests are called here for the sake of making Amaterasu delighted. The two guests are made to do various love games and forced to do coupling. As a result with the flirting act of this time’s guests, Amaterasu will be pleased and the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave will be able to be opened isn’t that so―! The main celebrities are I, Amaterasu’s number one friend, Kamimura Itsuki andd―”<br /> <br /> The middle-aged man and shark besides her followed after her.<br /> <br /> “The proud local character of Ise City, the guy that is often said to have no consistency when chewed, however I who is famed for the texture of my fluffy skin, the [Ise-Udon-ojisan]&lt;ref&gt;Udon, a type of noodle. Oji-san mean mister or uncle or old man&lt;/ref&gt; and!”<br /> <br /> “…Similarly the specialty of Ise [the dipping shark Tarou] forming our group of three…will guide you in this show samee&lt;ref&gt;This shark guy always add -same in the end of his sentence. Same mean shark in Japanese.&lt;/ref&gt;…”<br /> <br /> <br /> “Yaa―ayy!” The goth loli girl―seems her name was Kamimura Itsuki thrust her hand up high.<br /> <br /> “This is the start of the carnival oo&lt;ref&gt;Same like the shark, Udon-ojisan also add -oo in the end of his sentence.&lt;/ref&gt;!!” Ise-Udon-ojisan too wriggled around dancing with his short feet and arms while talking. Beside them, the dipping shark Tarou was groaning “Samee…”.<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki, what is this…?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai looked scared and drew back her body.<br /> <br /> “Uhyo! Frightened expression is so lovely!!” Ise-Udon-ojisan reacted sharply.<br /> <br /> “The guest this time is a beautiful girl Shrine Maiden-san dao! Just from looking I canna’ hold my patience anymore oo, I have to make you girl taste Udon-ojisan’s soft skin oo! Hug with me oo!!”<br /> <br /> Ise-Udon-ojisan turned to Kazuha-senpai and with a whoosh he dashed this way.<br /> <br /> “Uwa, it came here! It’s scary, gross!!” Kazuha-senpai raised a scream.<br /> <br /> “Dangerous, senpai!” Like that, Kazuki immediately covered for Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who cut between the two was―’munyuu’ embraced by Udon-ojisan.<br /> <br /> “Muh, there is a hindrance oo. But a man is also fine for me oo…. I want you to taste uncle’s thick flavor until you have your fill oo…”<br /> <br /> ‘Munyuu’, the Oji-san pressed his flabby pure white skin to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-!? You cover for me and become the sacrifice…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was worried for Kazuki. But Kazuki was losing his word. This is…it feels so good.<br /> <br /> An intoxication one should shudder against, that was what Kazuki was currently feeling.<br /> <br /> He was sinking deeper and deeper into Ise-Udon-ojisan’s plump and soft skin. It felt like he was completely buried on the highest grade beads cushion…no, this felt even more better than that.<br /> <br /> This felt completely like…the texture of Ise udon.<br /> <br /> Ise udon―it was a unique udon that was boiled well earnestly until it became soft for the sake of shrine visitors that came visiting Ise from far away, to make digesting the very fat noodle easy on the stomach. The resilience/body that was said to be the most important thing from udon was not there at all. This udon possessed a fluffy and gentle texture.<br /> <br /> Ise-Udon-ojisan’s broadmindedness and white fluffy skin were exactly the very thing of Ise Udon itself.<br /> <br /> “O, oi Hayashizaki! You, what are you doing making that ecstatic face! Against that kind of uncle as your partner, why are you like that!”<br /> <br /> Getting her sanity back, Kazuha-senpai called out to Kazuki from the side.<br /> <br /> Even if she said that, because of Ise-Udon-ojisan’s face that was deformed and looked like a cutely disgusting character, there was no disgusting feeling like if he was hugged by a real middle-aged uncle. He didn’t feel bad.<br /> <br /> Rather, being enveloped in this gentle sensation made him forget everything unimportant like the real word or whatever, peaceful…he wanted to sleep soundly…. It was a sensation that invited him into depravity.<br /> <br /> “Being accepted like this by a handsome guy feels so happy oo! Oji-san doesn’t mind even if it’s with a guy oo! Uu, it’s coming! Oji-san, cannot hold it anymore, the piling up shoyu&lt;ref&gt;Japanese soy sauce&lt;/ref&gt; is coming oo!!”<br /> <br /> Udon-ojisan caressed his white skin even stronger on Kazuki and gotten highly strung.<br /> <br /> “Get a grip on yourself, Hayashizaki! I don’t want to say something like this but, if you who is the Harem King gets awakened with a strange sexual fetish here then it’s over for this country you know!?”<br /> <br /> With a ‘hah’ face of realization, Kazuki came back to his senses.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s words were a misunderstanding. The addicted feeling he currently felt was by no means a sexual interest for even a little bit. However if the situation stays like this, then he will forget their objective and fall completely into depravity!<br /> <br /> Harem King―he didn’t recognize himself as a person like that but, the instant he heard those words there was one memory that rose to the surface of his mind.<br /> <br /> Remember it…I should have experienced a sensation that felt even better than this.<br /> <br /> For example, the time when he was strongly hugged by Kaguya-senpai in her Magic Dress that looked almost the same like being naked.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pictured the sensation when he was being pressed by Kaguya-senpai’s voluptuous body, then he yelled.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOO! Kaguya-senpai felt far more better compared than this-!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki shook off the invitation to depravity and untangled himself from Ise-Udon-ojisan’s embrace, then he threw the Udon-ojisan to the ground with a judo shoulder throw.<br /> <br /> Udon-ojisan went *Besha!* with a splattering sound and crushed flat like a humanoid doll made from clay.<br /> <br /> “If, if you do me that violently…the accumulated shoyu is going to com….-!”<br /> <br /> Udon-ojisan that was crushed on the ground was shivering in trembles, then pitch black liquid was slowly…spreading out like a puddle of blood. Kazuki felt a shudder spreading on his spine.<br /> <br /> “Saying [Kaguya-senpai felt far more better], you…what did you imagine just now?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was looking coldly at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “To overcome Ise-Udon-ojisan’s temptation like that…if it is a normal couple then they will surely meet the collapse of their relationship here you know. Looks like the guests this time are worthy of expectation right, dipping shark Tarou-san…”<br /> <br /> The goth loli girl, Kamimura-san said whisperingly.<br /> <br /> Dipping shark Tarou-san too nodded with “Samee…”.<br /> <br /> …No wait, in the end what in the world are these people? The meaning of that kind of self-introduction really couldn’t be digested inside their head at all.<br /> <br /> Now that he thought back, he had the feeling that the girl said something like [the friend that is the most intimate with Amaterasu].<br /> <br /> “By any chance, are you…the contractor of Amaterasu?”<br /> <br /> “That’s right. I am Amaterasu’s august container. The one who stands at the summit of all Shrine Maiden, the &lt;Celebration King&gt;. While unfortunate, I’m dead already though.”<br /> <br /> The girl announced with her face suddenly turned expressionless like the high tension of hers from before was suddenly blown out.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> The girl talked with a complete change into a calm tone.<br /> <br /> “These two are the friends Amaterasu created so that I’m not lonely.”<br /> <br /> “I want to make everyone eat Ise udon more oo…I too want to become famous like Sanuki udon oo…”<br /> <br /> “Samee…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki alternately compared the Udon-ojisan that was crushed on the ground and the shark man. They were somewhat an absurd bunch, but this place was Astrum―a mental world, that was why anything could exist.<br /> <br /> “For me who is an introverted someone that hated school, Amaterasu was the first friend that I made.”<br /> <br /> “Because Amaterasu is also someone that hates work with a shut-in disposition, she got along perfectly with Itsuki oo. Both of them always passed their time stuck in front of their PC everyday oo. Amaterasu doesn’t have a flesh body, but on the internet Itsuki and also Amaterasu had the same position oo.”<br /> <br /> “…They are a duo with established reputation of pinning down the personal information of riajuu&lt;ref&gt;Person who is satisfied with his or her real (offline) life&lt;/ref&gt; that boasted their crime&lt;ref&gt;It’s unclear whether the crime meant here is a real crime or the crime of riajuu being damn riajuu&lt;/ref&gt; on the internet and then cornering them thoroughly…they are the Elite Net Policemen samee.”<br /> <br /> “Many of their wise saying are also copy-pasted great number of times and they accomplish getting inducted into the hall of fame. Furthermore they also gather respect as genius artist of kusokora image&lt;ref&gt;Kuso here means shit while the kora is from word collage. In Japan this is term for collage image that is like shit. Shit in the meaning that the image has unclear or negative meaning.&lt;/ref&gt; oo. They are an unrivaled duo on the internet oo.”<br /> <br /> Both Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai that did nothing but sword skill training everyday couldn’t understand the majority of the meaning of what these three were talking about.<br /> <br /> “I don’t really get it but saying things like the summit of the Shrine Maiden or Celebration King sounds quite worldly minded don’t you think?”<br /> <br /> “Things like Celebration King is a position that we invented by ourselves as we pleases oo. We just tend to say it oo.”<br /> <br /> Udon-ojisan swung his arms up and down repeatedly while denying.<br /> <br /> “Yatagarasu that guided us to this place is not here?”<br /> <br /> “He already vanished. Yatagarasu was [the power to influence the real world] still slightly remaining inside my soul that Amaterasu changed into [a messenger to the real world] using magic power and released outside. An existence that is not a Diva and also not a Demon Beast created from kneading together a human’s remaining dregs and a Diva’s magic power…that was only something that I control remotely from here.”<br /> <br /> “That’s why if it has to be said, it was only a character that Itsuki acted oo.”<br /> <br /> “Acting and also performing a part in one’s own play…are Itsuki’s special skill same…”<br /> <br /> Even though Yatagarasu was unclear whether it was enemy or ally, in its own way it also fought together with them against the God’s reliant as a companion.<br /> <br /> So currently it was not necessarily their first meeting with this girl.<br /> <br /> “I lost my flesh body that was killed by Susanoo’s Izumo King. However this mind, my soul was carried by Amaterasu into her Territory. And then for my sake, Amaterasu gave her own Territory to me as my playground. That is this &lt;Itsuki☆Channel&gt;. In here anything can be created according to just what I want. However Amaterasu herself that is crucial for this place got weakened and she confined herself completely inside &lt;the Gate of the Celestial Rock cave&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “The gate of the Celestial Rock Cave is so to speak Amaterasu’s hibernation spot oo. However, even though she restrained her energy consumption to the minimum by hibernating, the flesh body of the contractor that became the power supply was lost. Even the Ise Imperial Shrine that is to be Amaterasu’s place to gather faith was completely turned into a Haunted Ground. She is in a one way road to losing her divinity oo.”<br /> <br /> “If it keeps like this she is going to vanish…the Diva called Amaterasu is going to be extinguished from Astrum samee…”<br /> <br /> Prometheus had said before that a Diva who lost their divinity could recover their divinity gradually from a strong tie with their contractor. Prometheus who received a large damage from an unknown somebody plotted to recover gradually by dwelling inside Lotte’s flesh body.<br /> <br /> In this strange place with yellow ground, blue sky and white clouds drawn floating in the sky, Kazuki directed his gaze to the towering rock mountain that felt out of place here―The Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave.<br /> <br /> The place that stood alone from everything else….<br /> <br /> “You two came to meet Amaterasu right? In order to do that Amaterasu needs to be revived even temporarily by supplying her power, to make her able to get out from the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave.”<br /> <br /> The goth loli girl―Itsuki-san kept glancing and averting her eyes from the area around Kazuki’s chest while talking.<br /> <br /> Her looking down face was pure white like an elf as if it never knew something called sunburn.<br /> <br /> …He still hadn’t heard the way of how they could supply power to Amaterasu and let her out from the seal of the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. Futsunushi no Kami dodged the question by saying that [they would understand later], but surely right now was exactly the time.<br /> <br /> “How we can let Amaterasu get out from the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave?”<br /> <br /> “To call out Amaterasu to outside, there is a need to hold a carnival to make Amaterasu happy, that is this &lt;Itsuki☆Channel&gt;.”&lt;ref&gt;Might be late for this, But Itsuki speak with the style of a refined lady. Yatagarasu speaks with polite language. While when she first appeared Itsuki spoke like an energetic girl&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “This is raising the curtain for the wonder carnival oo!” Udon-ojisan talked while thrusting up his middle fingers in both hands.<br /> <br /> “How to supply power for Japanese Mythology’s Diva is by…&lt;Festival&gt; samee…”<br /> <br /> “Festival…? So it’s going to be fine if we have fun with everyone doing festival in this place?”<br /> <br /> “I too want to supply Amaterasu with power to let her out from the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave, but…it’s impossible for a dour shut-in like me alone because the tension is too low.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san was *doyoo~on* making a dark face and her shoulders dropped. It even made her white face look pale.<br /> <br /> “Because Udon-ojisan and Tarou-san are existences that were created by Amaterasu, it’s useless no matter how high the tension we created oo. It’s no good if it’s not a festival done by humans.”<br /> <br /> In the myth, for the sake of pulling out Amaterasu that had confined herself completely inside the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave, the gods carried out a large party besides the rock mountain. Kazuki recalled back such scene in the Japanese legend.<br /> <br /> At this time, it was exactly the same situation like that.<br /> <br /> “It’s the festival, we are raising our tension zee. UOOOOO―UU!”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san whose tension was lowered from some time ago suddenly recovered the tension similar with what she showed when they first met face to face and she raised her fist, she talked with loud voice.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were unable to go along immediately with this wide gap of tension. They just stared at that sight open-mouthed.<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san dropped her raised up fist with a plop and looked down with pale face.<br /> <br /> “I’m…always making merry just alone in fruitless effort…. I want to hang myself and die…”<br /> <br /> “You already dead though oo.” Udon-ojisan retorted astutely.<br /> <br /> “Ah, no, sorry! We are going to raise the tension! UOOOOO―!”<br /> <br /> “UOOOOO―!” Kazuha-senpai too let out a voice that sounded like a boy in sympathy.<br /> <br /> “In other words with us three…I, Kazuha-senpai, and Kamimura-san, if we have fun then it will work out, that’s it? Though I still don’t completely understand the specific of what it is we need to do, but with you two…”<br /> <br /> “A threesome is no good just so you know. As I thought for me that is a little bit…. Please have fun by just the two of you.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san’s white cheeks blushed with a puff.<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t get the meaning of threesome and went “Eh?” then he looked at Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was “Eh? Eerr, I, I don’t know. I don’t know!” Like that she swung her neck left and right in a buzz.<br /> <br /> “That’s why what do you mean by having fun?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “What a festival means here is a lewd festival. I want to ask you two to open a lewd carnival from now on for me.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ‘Eh’, Kazuki stiffened.<br /> <br /> “For Amaterasu, she is a goddess that likes lewdness between man and woman even more than three meals a day. The yin and yang power that is produced from a man and a woman facing each other right from the front with open and honest heart, like magnetic force they can’t help but be drawn to each other as a matter of course. That is the source of energy for Amaterasu. If a lewd festival is not performed in this Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave then Amaterasu won’t respond in the slightest. If you want to open this seal then the two of you should do something lewd.”<br /> <br /> “Wa, wait just a second there! What the hell with that!?”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san’s both eyes shined glaringly. The girl thrust her fist high to the sky and yelled with loud voice.<br /> <br /> “Even though we were born from everyone doing lewd things, what need is there in being shy saying that you like lewdness huh!?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai just stood there open-mouthed, Kamimura-san dropped her fist with a plop and hung her head down.<br /> <br /> “Looks like I said something strange again…I want to die…”<br /> <br /> This child, her tension change’s range was weird.<br /> <br /> She wasn’t used on behaving with relaxed and open attitudes. She kept changing from withering on herself to being excited over and over again….<br /> <br /> “No…it’s just that we can’t go along with insufficient explanation so, please don’t worry about it.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki said to soothe the girl.<br /> <br /> “…It’s fine, it’s fine okay Itsuki…These people need me and that’s why they came to this place. My position is the superior one here…I am the absolute strong person here for sure! There is no need to become timid…Take it easy&lt;ref&gt;She is talking in English here&lt;/ref&gt;, take it easy okay, Itsuki…”<br /> <br /> After the girl finished whispering unclearly “UOOOOOOOO-! I’m giving it my best shot!” she raised her face.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is a mythology that considers the power of &lt;Musubi&gt;&lt;ref&gt;This is the name of the god even before Izanami and Izanagi.&lt;/ref&gt; as the most sacred power there is. At first the power of &lt;Minakanushi&gt; was born in this world, after that the power of Musubi was born. From there the power of man and woman was born. It’s the power of life’s blessing. That are Izanagi and Izanami. That Izanagi and Izanami performed &lt;country birth&gt;, giving birth to Japan, Amaterasu too was also born there.”<br /> <br /> “By the way Musubi and Izanagi - Izanami are existences with an even higher rank than Amaterasu, however they are closer as being a concept rather than being gods oo. They are beings that is even more vague than Ise-Udon-ojisan oo.”<br /> <br /> “Minakanushi…that might be the interpretation that Japanese Mythology use to explain Astrum…samee. Mythologies dispute with each other concerning of establishing [how to interpret the world]…samee.”<br /> <br /> Udon-ojisan and dipping shark Tarou supplement the explanation with serious faces.<br /> <br /> “The enthusiasm of &lt;Festival&gt; grants energy to gods. If the god in concern is a god of weather or earth then an appreciation festival for good harvest will be hold, but if it concerns Amaterasu then there is nothing else other than holding a Festival of blessing for life. In the first place even [the anecdote of the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave] was from the scene of Ame no Uzume dancing naked in front of the male gods raising a large serving. The function of the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave is established in the myth.”<br /> <br /> “When you explained this like that seriously it feels like I can’t help but consent but…however, something like a lewd carnival, concretely what do we have to do…”<br /> <br /> “About that, it’s just like in the myth, by dancing naked…both of you face each other and if together you two do a strip show and get excited together, the power born from there will be taken in by Amaterasu.”<br /> <br /> “”Strip show!?”” Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai had matched voices.<br /> <br /> “Samee…just like that samee…”<br /> <br /> The dipping shark Tarou had its cheek reddened with a puff, it covered its face with both hands squirmed in place.<br /> <br /> “Dipping shark Tarou is unexpectedly innocent oo. It’s fine oo, while you two do that we will get lost oo. We can give some consideration about that much oo.”<br /> <br /> “I too will get lost there. By no means I’ll record the image of your appearances and use them as material for kusokora, so rest assured.”<br /> <br /> That consideration saved them trouble, but there was a trouble in an even more fundamental level than that.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai reflexively turned their face at each other and had their eyes meet. Their face turned bright red.<br /> <br /> “The sufficiency of the relationship between you two to establish Yin and Yang has been ascertained already.”<br /> <br /> Hearing those words, Kazuki recalled his encounter with the impostor Kazuha-senpai just moments before they arrived in this space. …Although he became happy that Kazuha-senpai too was not led astray by his impostor.<br /> <br /> “But the upfrontness is still not enough. One of you is unable to open your heart to the other party.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san didn’t clearly direct her sight to anyone in particular, but he saw her took a glance to Kazuha-senpai’s direction. Kazuha-senpai’s shoulder shook with a twitch.<br /> <br /> “Falsehood is unnecessary in a festival before a god. If you dance naked without completely opening your heart, your feelings that try to cover up your true emotions will obstruct the energy that will be born from the attraction between Yin and Yang.”<br /> <br /> “OHHYOOOOOOOU! NAKED FESTIVAL OO!! …you need that vigor around that much for this oo.”<br /> <br /> “You will throw away something important as a human doing that don’t you think…”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said that from lack of nerve, Kamimura-san immediately denied with “A festival is exactly something like that!”<br /> <br /> “Transcending above reason, the true essence of festival is located in the extraordinary. What is called festival only has its worth after you throw away all your reasoning!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai shrank away saying “I can’t believe it, that must be a lie.”<br /> <br /> “If, if you say something like that…”<br /> <br /> “I understand your feelings of hesitation. Because I too have the disposition of hardships in conveying my true feelings honestly…. However this place is &lt;Itsuki☆Channel&gt;. A mental world where anything can happen according to my will. Cooperate with us so that you can become honest to your true feelings.”<br /> <br /> “Ojisan and other will make you two, ‘AHYOOOOOOOOOU! NAKED FESTIVAL OO!!’, we will raise your tension like that for sure oo!!”<br /> <br /> “Wha, that’s really scary! That’s personality breaking!!”<br /> <br /> “I have said it right in the beginning already, this Itsuki☆Channel is something for the sake of recovering my Amaterasu. A romance variety space that forcefully coupling the guest’s man and woman relation.”<br /> <br /> “So that strange tension that look like a TV show act was not just a random setting?”<br /> <br /> “Jaa―nn! Dice Talk Corner!!”<br /> <br /> “Samee…” When dipping shark Tarou raised both its hands, a white light flashed there, then a colorful large dice was created.<br /> <br /> “In the surfaces of this dice, one of your names and the theme of the talk are written! And then when someone holds this dice then that person won’t be able to tell a lie in his own heart, and he won’t be able to stop talking honestly about the theme that appear! Come, hold this.”<br /> <br /> “I, I don’t want! I don’t want to hold that kind of weird dice!”<br /> <br /> When Kamimura-san presented the dice to Kazuha-senpai, Kazuha-senpai was suddenly scared and disliked it.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine. Even though I said those things but this dice doesn’t have an absolute compelling power. Itsuki☆Channel is a mental world that goes according to my mind but you two are foreign substance that is not a part of this world.”<br /> <br /> “It won’t drag out until even your true opinion that you seriously don’t want to say oo.”<br /> <br /> “The power that this dice hold is only to the degree to catch thoughts that you [Cannot say…however actually I want him to know] from the bottom of your heart and drag it out. This dice is the personification of the &lt;Power of Festival&gt; that is [to make you able to become someone that make merry and forget one’s troubles even more than your usual self].”<br /> <br /> After that with a small voice in a whisper she said, “If you seriously refuse this, then I’ll just make you not exist in this world you know? Ku-ku-ku-“ Kamimura-san nonchalantly whispered.<br /> <br /> [They are going to be expelled from this space if they are opposed of this.]<br /> <br /> For Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai, that will mean the failure of the operation.<br /> <br /> “Let’s do this just three times. If we do that, then half the times the name that will appear is not going to be yours. It’s also possible that it will finish without you needing to say anything even once. Come now.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san whispered as if removing the obstacles in the way. Timidly Kazuha-senpai then,<br /> <br /> “Is it really true, the thing that I seriously don’t want to say is not going to become a theme?” she asked like so.<br /> <br /> “It’s the truth. I promise you. Ku-ku-ku-“ Kamimura-san smiled. Though it was an awkward smile from someone that normally didn’t smile and looked unused of the act. Moreover her eyes were subtly not looking at Kazuha-senpai’s way.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki, are you going to do this?”<br /> <br /> With an expression as if hanging onto him somehow, Kazuha-senpai looked up at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “I…I don’t have anything to hide from Kazuha-senpai after all.”<br /> <br /> “…I got it. …I’ll do it. This dice, I just throw it?”<br /> <br /> While the dipping shark Tarou nodded, it presented the dice to Kazuha-senpai. At the same time when Kazuha-senpai accepted the dice, “…I’ll absolutely make Hayashizaki’s turn come out.” She murmured with slightly desperate tone of voice.<br /> <br /> Ise-Udon-ojisan and dipping shark Tarou produced vuvuzela&lt;ref&gt;South African plastic blowing horn&lt;/ref&gt; from somewhere, “Bu~bu~♪” they cheered on Kazuha-senpai with languid music.<br /> <br /> “Eii-!” Inserting her fighting spirit, Kazuha-senpai threw the dice.<br /> <br /> With a loud voice, Kamimura-san read up the side of the dice that appeared.<br /> <br /> “Jaa―an! What came out is…Tsukahara Kazuha-san as the person that has to talk! The subject is the person that is her first love!”<br /> <br /> “Eeh!? Me!? …The person that is my first love is…Kazu-kun. Be, because there was no other boy that was kind to me at all! I didn’t have friends! Uwaa―!? My mouth really moved by itself!!”<br /> <br /> “What part of him that you were attracted at?”<br /> <br /> Toward senpai whose face was boiling red instantly, Kamimura-san questioned just like a television reporter.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s…I mean the men in my surrounding, all of them just kept making fun of my sword skill…. But Kazu-kun is different, moreover he wasn’t just flattering but every advice he gave me were all true, so he really looked carefully at me…. Actually, I also want him to be together with me and always kind to me outside of fighting too…au au au au―! Wh, why am I saying this kind of thing―!”<br /> <br /> “…Kazu-kun, why do you call him that? Normally you didn’t call him like that though.”<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuha-senpai was trembling in vibration as if she couldn’t believe herself, she still answered the question.<br /> <br /> “Lo, looking at Amasaki-san calling him Kazu-nii and fawning at him…get me thinking that I want to be spoiled like that too…but my character is not like that, I’m the older one…. …I, I feel that I’m not cute like Amasaki-san……I don’t want already―! Stop it, don’t ask anymore―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai raised a loud voice, picked up the dice, and then she kept hitting *poka poka* at that deadly weapon.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, senpai right now is awfully cute. Please call me Kazu-kun more.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki unintentionally loosened his expression, Kazuha-senpai yelled “Fugyaa―!!”<br /> <br /> “Your first love is it…. This theme, I wonder how I will answer if I got hit with this?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously pondered.<br /> <br /> “……The first person I became conscious of as a different sex, was it Kanae? But there is this reluctance to call that I love that girl. Also in our middle school period we were doing nothing but sword art all the time, so the time flew instantly until the entry to the Knight Academy…Is it Mio who I reunited with, or is it Kaguya-senpai that was kind to me, which of them is the earliest one? No, but this is not something to say in front of Kazuha-senpai though. Thank god I didn’t get hit with this theme…”<br /> <br /> “Your mouth too is moving you know!?”<br /> <br /> Getting retorted by Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki noticed that his thought was spilling out from his mouth. Suddenly realizing, Kazuki pressed his own mouth. Because of Kazuha-senpai kept hitting the dice that the effect of the dice also got applied to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, please don’t force that kind of dangerous dice until it got me too!”<br /> <br /> “Ahahahahaha! See―rves you right!!” Kazuha-senpa who became teary-eyed laughed madly in self-abandonment.<br /> <br /> “Let’s do this rapidly―! Well then Kazuha-san, the dice!”<br /> <br /> “Uwaaaaaaaa! This time for sure Hayashizaki come out!”<br /> <br /> “Then I’ll read it! The one who has to talk is Tsukahara Kazuha-san! The subject of the talk is, where is the place you want to go on a date with him!?”<br /> <br /> “Amusement park!” Kazuha-senpai reflexively answered.<br /> <br /> “For a long time I have no friends other than Kohaku and Futsunushi no Kami, so there is never a time that I have gone to that kind of place! I want to line up for attraction, joining arms with Kazu-kun while eating churros-!”<br /> <br /> “Then when we safely return home, let’s go to an amusement park.”<br /> <br /> “Really-! I’m looking forward to it! It’s a promise okay!!? Absolutely okay!!?”<br /> <br /> “The mood really got considerably warmer isn’t it? Well then the next one!”<br /> <br /> “This time for sure Hayashizakii―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai sent the dice flying using a tornado throw style.<br /> <br /> “The one who has to talk is Kazuha-san!” After chasing the dice, Kamimura-san gave her verdict.<br /> <br /> “Until the very last it’s still me!? Whyy…”<br /> <br /> Now that she said that…In this Itsuki☆Channel almost everything went just like what Kamimura-san was thinking, that was what she told them before. The exception was only him and Kazuha-senpai who was the outsider here…And of course the result the dice was going to show, was inside the palm of Kamimura-san all this time. Kazuha-senpai who had a temper was splendidly getting screwed here.<br /> <br /> “The subject of the talk is, [why you cannot be honest?]”<br /> <br /> Looking at those too bulls-eye designation that came out from the dice that was thrown, Kazuki felt an unnaturalness.<br /> <br /> “That subject, what is going to happen if it gets me? I’m always honest however…”<br /> <br /> “Tsukahara-san, please your answer.”<br /> <br /> “That’s…because since I met him I kept continuing to say to Kazu-kun that he is shameless or harem guy and so on, yet now this late, if I say that I too love Kazu-kun, then I too am going to become completely shameless…. Despite me being the older one here, saying that kind of overly embarrassing…”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, I will not think of a person that feels love to me as shameless, absolutely.”<br /> <br /> “Kazu-ku…uuuu! The truth is I like Kazu-kun so much-! The truth is that I understand you are not someone shameless, even how Kazu-kun properly considers me as someone important too…!”<br /> <br /> “Naturally. I will use up my everything and make everyone happy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai tightly. Kazuha-senpai didn’t resist anymore being embraced like that.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-kun…I love you…” Kazuha-senpai became obedient like a different person.<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―100<br /> <br /> “Right now, the hearts of the two person are completely open to each other, the preparation for Yin and Yang power generation is in order oo!”<br /> <br /> Ise-Udon-ojisan stopped his vuvuzela performance and announced.<br /> <br /> “When this Dice Corner is over, this time there is also the preparation for [Ero-Ero Twister Game that will make you unable to say ‘Something like dancing naked is embarrassing’ already], but…somehow it looks like it’s unnecessary. …It’s a little disappointing.”<br /> <br /> Kamimura-san said while holding some kind of improper sheet and roulette in her hands.<br /> <br /> “Well then this is Dancing Time oo! How you dance is supposed to just well out from your heart by itself oo!!”<br /> <br /> “Samee…it’s like that samee…”<br /> <br /> Instantly, with a flash their surrounding became dark. Everyone else’s presence vanished inside the darkness, there was nobody else reflected on their eyes except Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai mutually. The atmosphere of the place was containing a strange magic power.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…”<br /> <br /> He didn’t understand things like how to dance. However the two of them naturally joined their hands and took the steps. Their body moved by itself. The start of the dance was―an elegant step like a waltz.<br /> <br /> There was no music at all accompanying them. It was in the middle of silence like a stretching string, but the two of them felt the birth of a natural rhythm that could only be heard just by them. Step, step and then a large turn drawing an arc, turn and turn waltzing, matching a flowing movement of each other their body swung. Their dance movements displayed the compilation of the most beautiful movement possible by the human body.<br /> <br /> Both their face simultaneously drew near each other, they stared at each other with ecstatic expression. The rhythm resembling waltz restrained their passion, the elegant sense of distance produced a painful throbbing like the time when love began to grow in their chest.<br /> <br /> Before long the rhythm changed. What next enveloped them was a rhythm that sounded like jitterbug. Their steps naturally also transformed into crisp flow. Their movement became speedy. The connection of their positivity level just like that became unison, there was no disarray at all in their breath.<br /> <br /> Their connected hands pulled their body close to each other. Unintentionally smiling face escaped from their expression with this light sense of distance―exactly a distance between fellow lovers.<br /> <br /> Like a man and woman repeating their date, the rhythm changed even further. A rhythm that carved sharp staccato. Both their sense of distance connected even more sensually, their steps increased even more in passion.<br /> <br /> This dance where their bodies moved by itself was thrilling in some respect, making them want each other strongly.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai…” “Kazu-kun…”<br /> <br /> Both of their faces came near until just before kissing, their lips said each other’s name harmoniously.<br /> <br /> The instant they wanted each other, the clothing both of them were wearing were becoming transparent. Kazuki’s rugged body, and then Kazuha-senpai’s soft fleshy female body became exposed. Both of them continued to dance without trying to hide anything. Forgetting their shyness, they watched each other’s body in fascination while dancing. A large heart of positivity level up was flying at him.<br /> <br /> The rhythm changed. To a rhythm of salsa that played their carnality in a primitive sense. Both of them still in their appearance when they were just born danced their body, their hips with even more intensity than so far. They not only treaded steps but also hoisted up their legs high, laying bare everything of their body. They entwined their bodies together with their partner.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…you are extremely beautiful.”<br /> <br /> “Kazu-kun too…I love you…”<br /> <br /> Both of their breaths became rougher little by little. The dance that laid everything of the body bare even divulged the changes that happened at each other’s flesh. Kazuki’s body increased its vigor even more, while Kazuha-senpai’s body was going even more intoxicated and moist.<br /> <br /> The pulsation of their hearts unified with the rhythm and ran amok. Right there the dance of the two of them was over. Both of them lost the form called a dance. Both of them embraced each other intensely in insatiable lusting, each of their highly strung naked bodies, whether the places that were different between man and woman or the places where something was building up were pressing at each other like animals.<br /> <br /> Kazuki plundered Kazuha-senpai’s lips. Kazuha-senpai too responded to that and met their lips together as if inhaling each other’s everything to exhaustion. Inside the silence, sound of water and sound of leaking out air echoed.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt how Kazuha-senpai opened her heart completely and was wanting of him.<br /> <br /> If that’s how it is then, instead of constantly enduring already…. Like this they….<br /> <br /> It was right at that instant when such thought emerged out inside Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai…!” “Kazu-kun…I’m already…!”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 139.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “IT CAAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A rude voice so loud as if it tore apart the world echoed inside the darkness. At that time the darkness surrounding them was evidently torn apart and light returned to the world.<br /> <br /> When he noticed Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai had returned to that space in front of the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave.<br /> <br /> And then one surface of the rock wall of the towering rock mountain’s front raised a sound of *GOGOGOGO!* that they could hear clearly. The wall opened and from the other side a dazzling light shined. A thin silhouette emerged out from that light.<br /> <br /> The silhouette approached here for a few steps. *GOGOGOGO!* raising that sound the rock door was closing and the light that dazzled the eyes was gone.<br /> <br /> The owner of that silhouette was…a dark haired young girl wearing a dark red jersey.<br /> <br /> Rather than saying she was a young girl, with her age it was better to call her a little girl.<br /> <br /> “Goo―od morning desu nyan.” Saying that, the little girl raised one of her hands.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu!” Unnoticed by them, Kamimura-san had returned and yelled.<br /> <br /> “Long time no see nyan, Itsuki-chan.”<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu, how could you leave me behind and shut yourself inside the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave! Idiot Idiot!!”<br /> <br /> With a hard squeeze, Kamimura-san clung to the jersey little girl―Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> “Sorry―. When Itsuki was killed by those idiot fellows, on top of losing my strength somehow it felt like no matter what happens it really doesn’t matter anymore ‘kay―. Though right now I still feel indifferent about various things anyway―”<br /> <br /> “Idiot! Even if I die…Even so, as long as Amaterasu is at my side then that’s all I need!”<br /> <br /> While brushing gently the head of Kamimura-san that began to leak out a crying voice gradually, that little girl―Amaterasu directed a relieved smile at Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “I had heard the situation of you two from my only outside contact channel, through Yatagarasu and Futsunushi no Kami. …Somehow it looks like the Divas of Japanese Mythology has caused trouble to the gentlemen of Solomon 72 Pillar aren’t they? Sorry nyan.”<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu…-sama…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was dumbfounded and it showed in his tone, however first there was something that he had to say right from the beginning no matter what.<br /> <br /> “…Anyway first, could you somehow do something about our clothes?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki entreated while he and Kazuha-senpai hugged each other tightly to hide their bodies from Amaterasu and Kamimura-san. They were still in their birthday suit.<br /> <br /> The ero-ero atmosphere disappeared as if sucked completely by Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> “GUWAHHAHHA! It turned out just as I planned, how joyous, how joyous!!”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned into appearances where they could come out in front of other people with Kamimura-san’s power, Futsunushi no Kami immediately emerged out. Kazuki glared at the human-faced sword that finally showed his face.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t it mostly just an excuse when you said that it went just as planned. You didn’t tell any lie but you were awfully stingy with information and it restricted our action.”<br /> <br /> “…But if I told you upfront that you have to do this kind of thing to release Amaterasu from her seal, then you won’t come to this place together with Kazuha right? Try to imagine it.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki imagined in his mind.<br /> <br /> [To return Amaterasu to her sanity there is the need for two people to do a lewd festival in front of the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave.]<br /> <br /> Inside Kazuki’s imagination, first Mio and Kanae would rampage. Next Kaguya-senpai would secretly hatch a plot, Koyuki and Hikaru-senpai would sulk feeling that they wouldn’t get taken along anyway. It was a scene of carnage.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai surely wouldn’t try to push aside the other girls and nominate herself.<br /> <br /> Thereupon…he wouldn’t obtain the chance like this where Kazuha-senpai could become this honest.<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned his sight to Kazuha-senpai who was hanging her head down with a bright red face.<br /> <br /> “I wanted to bring along Kazuki and Kazuha to here! I thought that this is a good chance to make that Kazuha who would always be hard-headed no matter how much time passes to become honest! Good for you huh Kazuha, GUWAHHAHHA!!”<br /> <br /> …So that’s his objective!<br /> <br /> He had always thought of Futsunushi no Kami as suspicious all along, but it never crossed his mind that he would even do such thing until that degree!<br /> <br /> “Yo, youuu―! So you thought of such thing! I’m not particularly…who cares about Kazuki-!”<br /> <br /> “Eh, you didn’t think for even a little huh? Eh?”<br /> <br /> “…Ugii―!” Like that Kazuha-senpai grinded her teeth.<br /> <br /> “Wait, just now senpai, you called me Kazuki. You won’t call me Kazu-kun anymore? Even though until just now you were that honest and fawned to me like that…”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki showed his dejection, Kazuha-senpai’s face became red again.<br /> <br /> “Just stop saying that kind of thing to make fun of me―! You idiot―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai raised a yell and hit Kazuki’s chest repeatedly. Tsukahara Kazuha―119<br /> <br /> “I…I did a terrific thing…just, what kind of face should I make here…”<br /> <br /> Remembering the thing that both of them did, Kazuha-senpai hid her face with both her hands and leaned over completely.<br /> <br /> {Everything is over without any quarrel happening in your harem, it’s two birds with one stone! GUWAHHAHHA!!}<br /> <br /> “So you thought until that far ahead…For this favor of preventing the crisis to my King’s harem, I’ll give you my appreciation.”<br /> <br /> Beside Futsunushi no Kami that was laughing heartily, Lemegeton too showed her appearance.<br /> <br /> The jersey appearance Amaterasu compared Lemegeton and Kazuki with her gaze restlessly moving between the two.<br /> <br /> Then Amaterasu talked with a slow voice and a face void of any motivation.<br /> <br /> “Anyhow, I will introduce myself once again. I am a chief god of Japanese Mythology, Amaterasu. My special skill is to be a shut-in, my hobby is net surfing. Each time Ise Imperial Shrine is rebuilt I am born again and become a little girl like this. Best regards. Solomon King, my thanks for you to come until this far nyan.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled the story he heard from Futsunushi no Kami and Yatagarasu.<br /> <br /> After Amaterasu enthroned her contractor Kamimura-san as Wakoku King, she would swear loyalty to Lemegeton. Kamimura-san who became the Wakoku King would be presented to Kazuki who was the King of Solomon and become a subordinate king.<br /> <br /> Namely the chief god of Japanese Mythology Amaterasu and Wakoku King would obey Solomon 72 Pillar.<br /> <br /> On top of that with Kazuki’s victory against Aisu Ikousai who was the Izumo King, Amaterasu would regain the true power and Kazuki would become an Emperor that was accompanied by both sides of Japanese Mythology and Solomon Mythology in its true meaning.<br /> <br /> When all the Japanese Divas have to follow Kazuki, they would return to their senses from the Wild God state….<br /> <br /> “Uh huh, that line of thought is correct nyan.”<br /> <br /> Amaterasu said as if she was reading Kazuki’s thought.<br /> <br /> “I, after I thought that Itsuki-chan’s personality was not suited for fighting, I hesitated to grant her with the throne. Doing that means pushing the destiny of fighting with Susanoo’s Izumo King to her after all, so…”<br /> <br /> “You chose Kamimura-san as your contractor even though she is not suited for fighting?”<br /> <br /> “Because, she is the best partner that I can get along well, with you see―”<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu…” Kamimura-san clung to Amaterasu’s small body.<br /> <br /> “I chose my contractor based on my hobby, but because that guy Susanoo looked for combat ability in earnest to choose his contractor―. What is interesting from doing such boorish thing―, I thought, but…Japan’s best swordsman, Aisu Ikousai…Itsuki-chan is no match against that kind of fellow―”<br /> <br /> “I got killed instantly…” Kamimura-san murmured in whisper.<br /> <br /> “More accurately I quickly got magic intoxicated by Aisu Ikousai, after that, the swordsmen of Yamato’s government were hacking me apart all at once zaku zaku―. My state at that time was already like a Japanese katana hedgehog see, my main temple also got completely bloodstained. I was already in extremely foolish Stick Final Reality Bun Bun Dream&lt;ref&gt;I have no idea what in the hell this sentence mean.&lt;/ref&gt; you know. Ah, this is slangs that were popular a long time ago. Amaterasu-san loves such thing.”<br /> <br /> He didn’t understand somewhat what was she talking about.<br /> <br /> “I want you all to protect Itsuki-chan and Japanese Mythology. Japanese Mythology doesn’t even request for faith, we don’t even hold any antagonism toward other Mythologies, our [will for power] had completely decayed. We are similar with how Solomon Mythology also doesn’t seek for piety, but we are also different with them who hold strong antagonism and rebellious spirit for other Mythologies. You all are continuing to be a Mythology that can fight.”<br /> <br /> Antagonism and rebellious spirit―Kazuki recalled about Baal as the first and then Belial, Amon, Gremory, there were many guys like them that were originally gods from different Mythology but now they were included in Solomon 72 Pillar. Other than gods there were also fallen angels and demons that accounted for a large number in the Pillar.<br /> <br /> Disgraced Mythology…that might be their motive for fighting.<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned his sight to Leme in a glance but―Leme didn’t try to say anything.<br /> <br /> “For the time being, I am the chief god of Japanese Mythology that symbolizes the blessing of life but…with just my power alone I cannot go as far as recreate the body of Itsuki-chan that had died.”<br /> <br /> …Even if she had the vast magic power of a Diva, surely creating a [complex vessel] called human body from zero was a difficult thing.<br /> <br /> That was why even a Diva like Loki stole human’s flesh body and remade it into his own body.<br /> <br /> “By borrowing the strength of Solomon Mythology and if it’s added with my power, I think it’s possible to recreate Itsuki-chan’s flesh body somehow. Probably it will only become an incomplete flesh body that won’t last really long but…if a bond is created between you and Itsuki-chan and a lot of magic power can be drawn from that circuit, in that state I think she can obtain a long life span.”<br /> <br /> So what she said was that the more the girl’s positivity level increased―the longer she could live.<br /> <br /> “…King of Solomon. Please I want to entrust the matter of this girl to you. I don’t want to make Itsuki-chan die with her condition staying like this.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki recalled the atmosphere of isolation that Kamimura-san sometimes showed in her conversation with him.<br /> <br /> At the time when someone is shivering from loneliness, if there is no one that reached their hand to them then….<br /> <br /> “I understood. About this girl, I will protect her.”<br /> <br /> Of course by doing that then the objective of this infiltration mission would also get achieved.<br /> <br /> “I’m glad…Itsuki-chan only got dragged into this because of my fault that’s why…”<br /> <br /> A relief right from the heart appeared in Amaterasu’s expression and she smiled broadly.<br /> <br /> “Though for me…it’s not worth worrying about.”<br /> <br /> At the side Kamimura-san murmured with a sigh.<br /> <br /> “I’m not particularly worried…it’s fine as long as I can play with Amaterasu in this &lt;Itsuki☆Channel&gt;…I don’t really get it even if you say something like conquering or love…”<br /> <br /> Hearing those words, Amaterasu turned a sad face at her.<br /> <br /> “…It’s not good you know Itsuki-chan, saying that kind of thing. You got embroiled in this and died after all, so it’s no good unless you get angrier. That you can completely say that this is not worth worrying about emotionlessly like that is a really sad thing.”<br /> <br /> “Why do you say that kind of thing even though Amaterasu yourself is also a shut-in?”<br /> <br /> “Because I’m also the god of sun, so I also know about the matter of outside properly. Itsuki-chan…I can say confidently that escaping reality is a chain of reality. Even this &lt;Itsuki☆Channel&gt; too, the more it becomes more abundant with reality it will become a more and more enjoyable place. Because despite how this place is supposed to go just according to your thought, isn’t there nothing here except the ground and the sky spreading out? That’s why…let’s go back together to the outside world? Let out your courage.”<br /> <br /> “If Amaterasu say so…I got it…”<br /> <br /> “Thank you. Because I think you will surely not regret it. …Kazuki-kun, take care of this child. Even about how you are a kind person, I have seen it through the eyes of Yatagarasu from this Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. Susanoo has joined hands with Loki but…I think there is nobody else that I can entrust with Japanese Mythology except you.”<br /> <br /> Next Amaterasu turned to Leme’s direction with a twirl. Because Leme too had began to gradually grow, when the two stood side-by-side Amaterasu was the one that looked considerably younger.<br /> <br /> “Well then I too is pledging my allegiance to the Divas of Solomon dee―su. Together with three meals a day and a nap please!”<br /> <br /> “Uh huh. The three meals that Leme’s contractor make every day are delicious you know! It’s a joy in life!!”<br /> <br /> “…Delicious, meal.” Kamimura-san’s eyes brightened for just a little.<br /> <br /> At that time, Kazuki’s Stigmata shined, it caused an avatar that emerged out naturally.<br /> <br /> Kamimura Itsuki―25<br /> <br /> “With this you too hold the position of Solomon Mythology and Wakoku King simultaneously, becoming an Emperor. Though I still cannot bestow you with the [King’s Authority] of the Japanese Mythology. For that you need to defeat Izumo King and become the true King of Japanese Mythology, and on top of that if the positivity level from Itsuki-chan is not high then I cannot give you the present nyan.”<br /> <br /> Amaterasu turned to Kazuki and said so. It was still attached with requirements but, with this Kazuki became able to obtain not only the power that Leme could grant but also the power that could be granted from Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> Enormous power and the responsibility to handle it―Kazuki swallowed his saliva with a gulp.<br /> <br /> One more step forward, he had arrived here far faster compared to what he had imagined.<br /> <br /> “Well then, be happy and lively and let’s get out―! Transform, Work Mode!!”<br /> <br /> Amaterasu abruptly yelled and took a pose like a transforming hero. At that moment, powerful radiance like a sun was emitted from her forehead―that appearance of hers took a complete change.<br /> <br /> Wearing a golden diadem that could be mistaken as the sun, putting on a rainbow colored coat with large sleeves and an ancient skirt that extended largely tied with kimono sash. An appearance in outfit of ancient times that was overflowing with majesty.<br /> <br /> “A, Amaterasu-sama…”<br /> <br /> Looking at that majestic appearance, Kazuki reflexively called her by adding [-sama].<br /> <br /> “I wanted to make an entrance with this appearance from the start…”<br /> <br /> Amaterasu turned to face Kazuki and made a broad grin.<br /> <br /> “But I’m the type that wanted to make an intimate first impression after all―”<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu in jersey appearance is the most appropriate you know.” Kamimura-san opposed against Kazuki’s word like that.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_2&diff=479272 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 2 2016-01-31T10:44:16Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 - {{furigana|Enemy territory Infiltration|Sneak Mission}}==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> “Cramped! Cramped cramped the distance is too cloo―se-! I really dislike you! Despite so, how can your face stay calm even when going through this! You brute!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was like that had the positivity level of 82. There was not even a single skull mark that denoted the decrease of positivity level. Even her abusive remarks couldn’t be felt as anything other than one type of communication to him.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, you only say that in your mouth but you don’t hate me don’t you? Also senpai had promised to accompany me in a date hadn’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t treat an infiltration mission as a date you―!”<br /> <br /> Right at that time, a slightly large wave lifted up the neck of the ship highly.<br /> <br /> The neck of the ship rode through the wave undulation and then it was half falling with a jerk.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was “UWAA!” surprised and her shoulder approached near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> An endless ocean. The small boat looked like an untrustworthy leaf floating on the sea.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, senpai. When push comes to shove…”<br /> <br /> “When push comes to shove…?” Kazuha-senpai who was shrinking her body looked at him imploringly.<br /> <br /> “When push comes to shove, please stabilize the movement of the boat with Psychokinesis Kazuha-senpai.”<br /> <br /> “You are relying on me! I looked like an idiot for thinking that you are a little dependable heree―!!”<br /> <br /> “Of course I’m also doing my best in the boat driving. But well, inside the bay, the waves are killed by the peninsula and island making the water quite calm so it’s okay. Though the morning seems early.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki peered through the binoculars that was hanging in his neck while reinforcing his eyesight using magic power.<br /> <br /> “…Rather, what's scarier are human’s eyes, this is an infiltration mission after all.”<br /> <br /> “That risk of discovery, the story is that Yamato doesn’t perform the coast security satisfactorily anyway right? If it’s just a citizen’s boat then it’s going to be overlooked even if it’s discovered, isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Because the government cut the electric supply to west Japan, the emotion of west Japan’s citizen has become the worst. Something like a suspicious boat they have never seen might be reported right away to Yamato.”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so…this is the enemy’s territory after all…. Even though this is Mie prefecture…”<br /> <br /> That odd way of speaking unintentionally made Kazuki float an ironic smile. Kazuha-senpai talked even further.<br /> <br /> “…When I studied the administrative divisions of Japan in elementary school, among the few that I couldn’t remember no matter what was Mie prefecture you know? I wonder if I incurred a divine punishment…”<br /> <br /> “For some reason I always jumbled up Aichi prefecture and Wakayama prefecture, I couldn’t make the distinction between them.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, in that case you really like orange.”&lt;ref&gt;In Aichi and Wakayama prefectures, they have specialty oranges of their own.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai didn’t only insult him with abusive remarks, unexpectedly when he made stupid talk with her, she was someone who would respond in a good mood. Finally she relaxed her stiff shoulder and showed a smiling face.<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuha-senpai’s face from the side where her hair was fluttering from the opposing wind, Kazuki was charmed for a while.<br /> <br /> And then Kazuha-senpai naturally leaned her shoulder and thigh unreservedly on Kazuki’s body. She became relaxed and from her mouth “~♪” a humming sound was starting to leak out.<br /> <br /> “Hey, until how long we are going to keep like this?”<br /> <br /> “Generally it might be around one hour.”<br /> <br /> “Whaa―tt, it’s unexpectedly short. So it’s not a considerable boat trip then?”<br /> <br /> “Is it disappointing?” Kazuki asked Kazuha-senpai whose face was full of disappointment.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai suddenly went ‘hah’ and made a face of realization, “I, it’s not disappointing at all, who in the world will want time spent together with you! I want this to end quicklyy―!” She leaned her body forward in fluster.<br /> <br /> “The boat will shake so please don’t struggle here I said.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki met an unexpected difficulty in operating the flap, he embraced Kazuha-senpai with his left hand.<br /> <br /> When her waist was embraced by Kazuki’s arm, a heart mark flew from Kazuha-senpai with a plop.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps by any chance senpai want to be like this and intentionally made a ruckus?”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s not true! This lady killer!”<br /> <br /> ―The enjoyable time passed in the blink of an eye. And then,<br /> <br /> “…This is problematic.” Kazuki murmured while peeking through his binoculars.<br /> <br /> “There really are that many people?”<br /> <br /> Finally they reached the distance where they could clearly see the opposite shore, but unexpectedly there were people in the shoreline of Toba where they planned to disembark.<br /> <br /> “There are a lot of fishing ships, breeding farm of oyster or seaweed, female divers…something is visible.”<br /> <br /> “There are also female divers? Your eyes are absurdly good huh.”<br /> <br /> In any case the visibility was exceedingly good on top of the sea, there was no hiding place.<br /> <br /> They must go through a route where they wouldn’t enter anybody’s line of sight and make their landing.<br /> <br /> “Let’s make a detour slightly and search for a coastline where there are no people’s presence.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki steered the boat going side-by-side with the land.<br /> <br /> “Ah. Oi, Hayashizaki, seagulls are coming here!”<br /> <br /> Like children, Kazuha-senpai shook the shoulder of Kazuki who didn’t peel his eyes off from the binoculars.<br /> <br /> “Seagulls…? They might be used to human from the pleasure cruise for sightseeing that scattered feed to them.”<br /> <br /> “So they want some feed, yosh!”<br /> <br /> It seemed Kazuha-senpai brought some snacks inside her waist-bag. She took out a rice cracker. She stood up on top of the unsteadily shaking boat while guarding her balance, “Here-!” and threw the pieces of broken rice cracker to the sky. The seagulls took a nose dive with good momentum and caught the cracker with its beak.<br /> <br /> “Amazing! Come on look Hayashizaki, these guys come along! They are amazingly smart!! Ahaha-”<br /> <br /> “Geez, what is senpai making merry for…”<br /> <br /> Separating his eyes from the binoculars, he looked up at Kazuha-senpai who was standing beside him―Kazuki watched the girl’s radiant smile in fascination. He involuntarily lost the next word he was going to say. The fringe of Kazuha-senpai’s short casual Japanese clothes was turned up lightly from the strong wind, although she didn’t notice it because she was too engrossed at the seagulls and making merry.<br /> <br /> (Well, it’s fine), Kazuki returned to his binoculars while his face was slightly reddening.<br /> <br /> In her place, he was going to pay attention seriously at their surrounding.<br /> <br /> ―When he was looking at the far away, *GATAN!* the boat shook, then he heard Kazuha-senpai’s scream.<br /> <br /> “Waaaaaaaaa, Hayashizaki, strange birds are! They scattered the seagulls and come charging here―!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took off his eyes from the binoculars and looked up to the sky―tension ran through his spine.<br /> <br /> Large flock of birds blocked the blue sky, “GEE―! GEE―!” they were revolving around the boat while raising ominous chirps. It had protruding eyes that looked as if the eyeball were almost falling out, their beaks were curving windingly like old tree stumps. They were ominous birds from what Kazuki could see.<br /> <br /> Of course they were not a natural animal―Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> “Damn! …This spot is a Haunted Ground!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly realized and looked down at the sea’s surface. The sea color ten-odd meters around them became a darkish color as if a stain was gathered in one spot of the ocean. Because Kazuki only watched the far away land and Kazuha-senpai only looked at the seagulls, they didn’t notice at all that they had stepped into a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Haunted Ground only broke out in a place where there were humans―if it was a course where pleasure ship and fishing ship often came, then surely it was possible for Haunted Ground to be born on top of a sea. A spot where seagulls that were used to humans formed a group. It was suitable to be called a dominion of human rather than nature.<br /> <br /> However Yamato’s provisional government, weren’t they dealing with the Haunted Ground properly?<br /> <br /> Like this the people that worked on the sea would be in danger!<br /> <br /> “O the will of whirling heaven god…gather in my hand, grant me the authority of judgement! O radiance of the royal divine gift, become a dazzling brilliant drawn bow! Lightning Line.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s both hands hosted lightning. He drew the lightning to the limit and launched on, two streaks of lightning. This magic of Hikaru-senpai, even though each of its shot was inferior in power compared to Mio’s Barrett, it could be used to shoot repeatedly.<br /> <br /> One, two body of the demon birds were shot down and sank into the black water surface. With that as the start, the demon birds that were circling around to assess their prey directed their beaks at the boat and took a nose dive.<br /> <br /> “I’m doing a good fight, welcoming a good death, and wish to participate in even more battle of heaven! The divine protection of blood color in my eye! Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s level 1 magic that could be invoked in short chanting tie. Light flew down from between the gap of the cloud in the sky, it became power and resided inside Kazuki. His eyes were dyed deep crimson, his reflexes and physical strength were amplified.<br /> <br /> Kazuki missed nothing of the demon birds’ beaks, he caught the beak of the bird that came the foremost barehanded. He swung the demon bird that he caught with all his strength, directing it to the second approaching demon bird’s beak and ''used it as a shield''. Fresh blood scattered, he threw away the demon bird that bore a fatal wound from its fellow bird’s beak to the sea.<br /> <br /> The third flying bird that approached him was caught by his left hand this time, and then once more he used it as a shield against the fourth bird.<br /> <br /> He caught the birds with his two hands and used them as shields before throwing them away…he struggled hard empty-handedly.<br /> <br /> Looking at that scene from the side, Kazuha-senpai who was late in her battle preparation chanted her spell in panic.<br /> <br /> “O peerless master, make another showing from beyond the dream! Along with the flame of transmutation, liberate the memory that is sealed inside the silver mirror right here!! Kenki Tensei!!”<br /> <br /> Spheres of fire burst out around Kazuha-senpai. From there the phantom of famous swordsmen that left behind their names in history were summoned―the phantom swordsmen that were created from the spheres of fire landed on the water surface just like that―they were drowning while kicking and struggling. While unfortunate, there was no space for summoning on top of the cramped boat.<br /> <br /> The mute phantom swordsman were,<br /> <br /> {What are you doing suddenly summoning us here gozaru-} {Uwaa~, you are making fun of us~}<br /> <br /> …They were sinking into the black sea with that kind of feeling.<br /> <br /> “Uwaa―! You guys are useless―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was completely cornered into the depths of mayhem, she screamed while gripping the edge of the boat.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, the magic that you chose to chant was mistaken there!”<br /> <br /> That miss was surely because the tactic of first summoning the phantom swordsmen and then using them to buy time for her to chant higher magic had already completely became a habit.<br /> <br /> “I am the shaman of sword…rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was grappling with the devil birds, he managed to chant that spell in some way or other.<br /> <br /> Flames welled out inside Kazuki’s hand where a holy ancient sword was created.<br /> <br /> If he held a sword, then the fight was his. The nose diving demon birds were cut down one after another.<br /> <br /> {Ooh, splendid! This is just like Tsubame Gaeshi&lt;ref&gt;Swallow Reversal, Sasaki Kojiro’s secret technique&lt;/ref&gt;!}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s phantom appeared and said so in cheers.<br /> <br /> “Waa―! Kazuki! This time strange wriggling things from the sea are―!?”<br /> <br /> When his attention was preoccupied with the sky, Kazuha-senpai’s scream reverberated once again. This time it was not from the sky but from the sea―countless tentacles were extending out and entangled the limbs of Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why is this thing not even sparing a glance at Hayashizaki, but only coming at me!?”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, tentacles is this kind of Demon Beast! Before this when it attacked Mio it was also like this.”<br /> <br /> “What kind of Demon Beast this is, doing something―! Uwa, stop it, don’t get inside the clothes!!”<br /> <br /> The tentacles that were attached with suction pads on it pinned down the side of the boat while invading inside. Both of Kazuha-senpai’s arms and legs were captured. It forcefully opened up the four limbs and tried to creep in through the collar and hem stimulatingly.<br /> <br /> The boat raised a cracking sound!<br /> <br /> But the tentacles doing whatever it wanted to Kazuha-senpai was only for an instant.<br /> <br /> Sensing the situation, Kazuki immediately ran his sword. First he cut down the tentacles that were going to invade into Kazuha-senpai’s clothes, then next he cut down the tentacles that were binding Kazuha-senpai’s arms and legs.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that became free leaped vigorously to Kazuki and hugged him, making the boat shake violently.<br /> <br /> But no matter how many tentacles he cut down, the main body of the Demon Beast was squirming inside the black sea. Katana wouldn’t reach. Using Barrett would be useless because it would disappear from the sea water. Facing the sea and firing lightning arrow would also endanger themselves. Then….<br /> <br /> “O singing voice of mermaid, manifest the freezing thought. Sadness into ice flower, loneliness into light snowfall, cover the world with freezing vacuum…White Album!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki chose Koyuki’s level 5 magic―a large scale magic that froze the designated space in its entirety. The monster inside the sea was frozen together with its surrounding sea water. And then most likely its breath was stopped just like that.<br /> <br /> The dusky sea that was undergoing Haunted Ground transformation quickly became clear blue color.<br /> <br /> Haunted Ground was spreading due to the existence of Demon Beast. By defeating the Demon Beast, the original scenery would be recovered.<br /> <br /> “Ah, how tiresome~. Sorry, I’m just completely holding you back…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was weakly exhausted on top of the boat, she released a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…this is still not the time to be relaxed yet.”<br /> <br /> When the tentacles were clamping at Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki heard an awful voice of something cracking.<br /> <br /> Cracks were entering the boat that was made from wood. Under both their feet, sea water was entering little by little.<br /> <br /> “It's flooding!?”<br /> <br /> If the ship was broken in this place, the operation would be a failure. They wouldn’t be able to land inconspicuously.<br /> <br /> “…Should we go back for a moment, using [Blazing Wings] back to Irago Cape?”<br /> <br /> “Even though the opposing shore is just right there already…! It’s my fault…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stared at the opposing shore mortifyingly. Even while she was doing that, the small boat kept sinking.<br /> <br /> “That’s right! Let’s swim until the farther shore!”<br /> <br /> “There are a lot of fishing ships. If we go across swimming while still wearing clothes, we will completely look like suspicious people, senpai.”<br /> <br /> “Then let’s go by diving!” Kazuha-senpai faced the sea and pulled Kazuki’s arm.<br /> <br /> “How are we going to maintain our breath!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, leave it to me! …I’ll relinquish my dishonor from before!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai forcibly kept pulling *gui gui* Kazuki’s arm, she was trying to make the both of them leap into the sea together. (If she really has some idea), Kazuki hardened his determination.<br /> <br /> “We are going! One two-!!”<br /> <br /> Water was splashing along with a yell, the two dove into the sea.<br /> <br /> …What in the world is Kazuha-senpai planning?<br /> <br /> When he opened his eyes inside the sea that had high rate of transparency, Kazuki saw a miraculous sight.<br /> <br /> Bubbles that repelled blue lights were pouring down from the surface into the water to the location of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> The bubble that was as big as a person’s head followed about around Kazuki’s face and then it entered inside his mouth.<br /> <br /> …It’s air. Kazuha-senpai was pulling air into the water using Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> …Amazing. Once again, he felt that Kazuha-senpai’s talent in magic was not ordinary.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly inside the water and pointed at the direction of the land. Kazuki nodded at that. <br /> <br /> If oxygen was supplied like this, then it was a distance that could be traversed sufficiently.<br /> <br /> Utilizing magic and diving with one’s own body―this was his first experience, in a transparent blue world.<br /> <br /> Changing from seagulls, this time it was fishes, they coiled about around Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s surrounding.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Puhaa―! I wondered for a second what’s going to happen to us there!”<br /> <br /> Raising from the sea, Kazuha-senpai stood up on the beach unsteadily while taking a deep breath. But,<br /> <br /> “Before we take a breather! Let’s move to a more hidden spot!”<br /> <br /> This area was not a beach that had been developed for swimming place, there was no presence of human in the surrounding. But at any rate, the unobstructed view in the beach was too good. The afternoon sun was shining down on them. Kazuki held Kazuha-senpai’s hand tightly and ran away into the natural forest that grew thickly near the beach.<br /> <br /> “Don, don’t suddenly hold my hand like this―!”<br /> <br /> “Somehow there is this thrill that make the heart beat fast right?”<br /> <br /> After escaping into the darkness of the forest, finally they could take a breather.<br /> <br /> The two let out a wry chuckle while looking at each other’s face―Kazuki spontaneously caught his breath.<br /> <br /> It was pink color―if he was asked what was pink, it was Kazuha-senpai’s underwear color.<br /> <br /> Senpai’s remodeled Japanese clothing was wet and became see-through, making a faint pink color emerge through it.<br /> <br /> Going after the swimsuit, it was a lovely underwear that made him feel the gap. That senpai was wearing this kind of underwear, that fact itself was cute. By any chance perhaps she put in a considerable fighting spirit into choosing that underwear.<br /> <br /> Moreover because of her run-in with those tentacles and further with the swimming, her collar and hem was slovenly disordered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s clothes too was also similarly drenched wet, it was clinging onto the skin heavily. Kazuha-senpai saw Kazuki’s state, then she noticed that herself was also in the same state, making her face boil red.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 056.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “U, u, u, uWAA―!? Don’t look, don’t look this wayy―!!”<br /> <br /> “So, sorry senpai! This is an act of god!!”<br /> <br /> “I understand this is act of god or whatnot! I’m not particularly angry so just look behind―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned back at the same time, making their backs meet.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s dry the clothes and our body with magic.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suggested. If they used Psychokinesis to get rid of the water and salt and then produced high temperature with Pyrokinesis, they could dry their clothes far quicker compared to letting it dry naturally.<br /> <br /> “…I got it. Then I’m going to take off my clothes. Absolutely don’t look back.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai answered like such for the sake of getting through this quickly.<br /> <br /> Dryness was a process where the water particles escape to the air. Rather than letting the clothes dry while still wearing it, taking off the clothes and drying it off piece by piece would increase the surface area that came in contact with the air, making the drying-off several times faster.<br /> <br /> …I wonder if this means that she trust me.<br /> <br /> That Kazuha-senpai was, currently, becoming naked right behind himself.<br /> <br /> Of course Kazuki didn’t have any intention to betray that trust. Absolutely none.<br /> <br /> While determining his heart that he absolutely wouldn’t look behind, he himself removed the belt of his hakama and took off his remodeled Japanese clothes. Spreading out the taken-off clothes with his hands, he concentrated at his magic.<br /> <br /> “Wa, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?”<br /> <br /> However after only tens of seconds, Kazuha-senpai raised a scream.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately turned his back. This couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> This couldn’t be helped but, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too was still in their underwear appearance.<br /> <br /> Their eyes met in a glance, shame flashed in Kazuha-senpai’s expression.<br /> <br /> But on the contrary she didn’t continue that line of progress.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai screamed “Demon Beast!” and pointed to the direction forward.<br /> <br /> Demon Beast she said? …This forest was real nature, it was by no means a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Even though this place was not supposed to be a Haunted Ground―there was a single crow in the direction that senpai pointed at.<br /> <br /> It was just a normal bird in a single glance, but thick magic power was compressed inside that small body, warping the surrounding atmosphere slightly. And then above all, ''it had three legs''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai’s shoulder near him and changed their places. He stood in front to cover for her.<br /> <br /> The three-legged crow was staring at Kazuki with eyes that was like black gem.<br /> <br /> “…There is no need to be alert. I hold no hostility.”<br /> <br /> “”The Demon Beast is talking!?”” Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were taken aback in shock.<br /> <br /> The situation where a crow was talking was bizarre but…the subject that he talked about was also strange.<br /> <br /> The Demon Beast that materialized in this world because of {{furigana|Cancer|Malignant Alternate Boundary}} was absolutely the enemy of the human race.<br /> <br /> It was completely the instinct, the meaning of their existence, that Demon Beasts attack only humans.<br /> <br /> …No need to be alert? Those were words that overturned the concept of Demon Beast right from its root.<br /> <br /> “What is called Demon Beast is something that is established in Mythology as the enemy of human race…”<br /> <br /> The three-legged crow opened its beak and spun human language.<br /> <br /> “…I am different. I am something established to be the guide of the monarch &lt;Yatagarasu&gt;. O King of Solomon, the Japanase Mythology welcomes you. Please head to Ise Imperial Shrine just like that somehow.”<br /> <br /> Welcomes? …Even though we came here to defeat Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> If he assumed that this was not a Diva or a Demon Beast, then what in the world is this crow?<br /> <br /> The crow that introduced itself as Yatagarasu informed just that and then it spread its black wings with a flap and flew away.<br /> <br /> The instant it flew to the sky, that figure melted into the air and disappeared.<br /> <br /> The left behind Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were bewildered and stood stock still.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, just now, what do you think is going on?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai asked with voice mixed with confusion.<br /> <br /> [Welcome]. Did it have the meaning exactly like the what word imply, or….<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu―it was an existence that was made to be Amaterasu’s messenger in Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> Both of them unintentionally faced each other. And then, they remembered once more that both of them were still in their underwear appearance.<br /> <br /> “Waa!? I forgot, don’t look this way!!”<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, it’s an act of god!”<br /> <br /> Both of them sprang up in startle and turned their back to each other again.<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, act of god, act of god. You keep saying that.”<br /> <br /> While they resumed drying their clothes, Kazuha-senpai talked with a hint of complaint and then, *bump*, she threw her own back to Kazuki’s back. Kazuha-senpai’s back hair that fluttered behind tickled Kazuki’s nape.<br /> <br /> Perhaps there ought to be some more words that he should say. Not an excuse that he said because he was afraid to be scolded. Because Kazuha-senpai was a much softer person than what her surface attitude hinted.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai’s risqué appearance, really made my heart beat fast.”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying, idiot!”<br /> <br /> “The pink underwear was cute.”<br /> <br /> “Aren’t you just thinking too simply that a girl will be happy as long as she got praised!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine right, I said that was an act of god.”<br /> <br /> “You are a pervert!” *BUMP! BUMP!* the hits to his back were strengthened.<br /> <br /> But he had the hunch that senpai at this kind of time was not angry but rather she was enjoying herself.<br /> <br /> “…Really, I’m finished already here.”<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, there was the presence of Kazuha-senpai wearing her clothes in rustle.<br /> <br /> “Eh, already!? That’s fast!”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, that’s because you are saying stupid things. Idii―ot idii―ot. Magic good for nothing.”<br /> <br /> Rotating with a twirl, Kazuha-senpai who had finished changing her clothes circled around to Kazuki’s front.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…I’m, still in emergency here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was taken aback being stared at right from the front.<br /> <br /> “It’s doesn’t really matter right, you are man after all.”<br /> <br /> What kind of reason was that? Kazuha-senpai bent her knees at that spot and squatted down, then her line of sight was creeping all over Kazuki’s body intently *jii―*.<br /> <br /> “…Fuun, just as expected it’s a body with the feel of a boy. …Fuun.”<br /> <br /> He didn’t really get embarrassed getting stared at but…for some reason he couldn’t concentrate on the magic.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When they walked from the coast to the city of Toba, the town that prospered from sightseeing and fishing industry was changed into quite a place from being put under the state of [times of war].<br /> <br /> “First let’s settle down a little and talk about what we are going to do from now on.”<br /> <br /> Saying that, Kazuki pointed at the eatery in the street corner. In Toba, there were a few eateries lining up. This eatery was called &lt;Ama&lt;ref&gt;Female diver who collects shells, seaweed, etc.&lt;/ref&gt; hut&gt; where people could eat fresh maritime products that were just picked by the diver.<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it, certainly my stomach is empty.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was also in agreement. …Today they were having a fairly rushed schedule until now. After Kazuki explained the outline of the operation yesterday they departed from Nagoya at the early morning the very next day, arriving at Irago Cape. There they sailed off after finishing the boat operation training, and then they landed at the town of Toba in Mie Prefecture right at this point of time, the time had already approaching midday. Everything were events that were happening throughout this morning.<br /> <br /> They were in the middle of an important operation, be that as it may, it was hard to go against their sense of hunger.<br /> <br /> If they didn’t have a meal here, they didn’t know what would happen from now on after this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai sat side-by-side at the counter, then they ordered the shellfish combination platter that was the specialty here with the traveling expenses they received from Akane-senpai. At the opposite side of the counter, the auntie there lined up the shellfishes on the earthen charcoal brazier and started grilling.<br /> <br /> With a voice so small that could only be heard by Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki confirmed the thing that he was concerned at the foremost.<br /> <br /> “Regarding that &lt;Yatagarasu&gt; from before, does Futsunushi no Kami say anything at all?”<br /> <br /> “I too asked inside my head what is that about but…”<br /> <br /> A Telepathy directed at Astrum, it was that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> “…That guy, he doesn’t give any reply and is ignoring me.”<br /> <br /> So it was No Comment. Despite making frivolous talk like commenting someone’s sword skill as Tsubame Gaeshi or what else.<br /> <br /> That crow called Yatagarasu, according to the myth it was the messenger of Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> “What in the world does it mean with [Welcome]? Even though we are coming here for Japanese Mythology’s chief god…Amaterasu’s defeat. In the first place, isn’t Amaterasu supposed to lose her sanity from becoming a Wild God?”<br /> <br /> There was something strange that he felt from Futsunushi no Kami’s story that was supposed to be ''the operation’s premise''.<br /> <br /> During the operation where they were infiltrating enemy territory that required caution, it was a terrifying matter for a doubt to rise to the surface towards the premise of the operation in the first place.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki exposed Futsunushi no Kami’s insincerity, Kazuha-senpai made a sad face.<br /> <br /> “Bu, but Futsunushi no Kami is…”<br /> <br /> “Of course it’s not like I’m thinking that Futsunushi no Kami is Yamato’s spy or something like that.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said so, Kazuha-senpai released a breath in relief.<br /> <br /> “If Futsunushi no Kami and Yatagarasu are trying to set a trap for us, there is no need at all to make that kind of greeting to us.”<br /> <br /> Of course he was doubtful whether he really could accept that [Welcome] Yatagarasu said at face value, but wasn’t what Yatagarasu meant to declare at that time was that [this is not a trap].<br /> <br /> “…I feel some doubt that this operation can proceed just as planned, but for the time being there is nothing we can do except go to Ise Imperial Shrine to see what’s happening there.”<br /> <br /> What awaited them at that place, was it really [a battle against Amaterasu] or…. If by some chance that was not whats going to happen, then for what kind of reason did Futsunushi no Kami call Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai here.<br /> <br /> …If he was called to the enemy territory here because of some ill will though, then that was the worst situation.<br /> <br /> “Here, our specialty the large manilla clam! You two are whispering secretly there, but this is not delicious when it’s not freshly baked. Chuck the food to your mouth quickly and eat up!!&lt;ref&gt;The auntie is speaking with some kind of local dialect here. [Should be Mie dialect; they are in Mie, after all]&lt;/ref&gt;”<br /> <br /> The auntie presented the large plate piled up with clams from across the counter.<br /> <br /> The moment they saw it, Kazuha-senpai went “Wha, this is different with the clam that I know!?” and raised her voice. What they saw was something excessively large to be called clam, its size was almost as big as a palm of a child. Adding to its plump body, soup was pooling in plenty on its shell, the nice aroma of salt rising up.<br /> <br /> Next the auntie handed over a big serving of rice. Kazuha-senpai immediately ate a mouthful of the clam, after that she gulped down the rice heartily, “Delicious-!” her expression brightened.<br /> <br /> The auntie laughed in a good mood after seeing that scene.<br /> <br /> “I’m still grilling lots and lots here! There is turban scallop, or this yesso scallop!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around inside the shop once more. It was a snug eatery, but its walls were decorated with autographs of celebrities that even Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai knew. There was even the picture of the auntie in a wet suit as a diver hung on the wall. …Inside that mundane atmosphere, it made them feel a peace of mind somehow.<br /> <br /> It appears that even when this place changed from Japan into Yamato, the life of the normal people didn’t change at all.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuha-senpai, your [Delicious!] just now is not good. You don’t look like a local.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki lowered his voice and whispered on her ears. “Ah, I see!” Kazuha-senpai pressed her own mouth.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s make our setting as a bacouple that doesn’t read the atmosphere even in this kind of emergency and still come to sightseeing.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai went “Eeeehh!?” and lost her presence of mind.<br /> <br /> “I have heard that it’s difficult to get exposed in infiltration mission when the spies act like a couple.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was whispering, he embraced Kazuha-senpai’s waist and brought her closer to him.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai twitched for a moment in hesitation, but perhaps she immediately judged in her reasoning that such method could work, she meekly reclined on Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “…But, I don’t understand what should we do to act as a couple you know.”<br /> <br /> Her cheeks were slightly colored and she whispered weakly.<br /> <br /> “I think it’s fine if we use Mio’s words as reference.”<br /> <br /> “…I see. It’s that kind of feeling…”<br /> <br /> Mio who could make someone understand in one mention was really Mio. Kazuha-senpai nodded slightly. And then she was nuzzling herself on top of Kazuki’s shoulder like a small animal. “…Kazu-kun, aa―n.” Like so, she whispered with a sweet voice while presenting a large clam with a chopstick. Kazuki received a shock in his chest. …Kazu-kun, she said?<br /> <br /> What in the world was this throbbing inside his chest? [This is gap moe desu, Kazuki-oniisan!!] He had the feeling that Lotte’s voice was reverberating inside his head.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki accepted that clam with his mouth and ate it, this time he returned the favor to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha, aa―n.” Like that the two of them turned in their seat while flirting and fed each other with clams.<br /> <br /> “…Thi, this is too embarrassing…”<br /> <br /> “But Kazuha right now, is awfully cute. I’m having a throbbing I have never felt until now.”<br /> <br /> “Sto, stop it you idiot! Geez…stupid Kazu-kun…”<br /> <br /> This person, wasn’t she getting too carried away with the mood?<br /> <br /> “Ooaa~! You two suddenly become really intimate! You know this clam, when fellow lovers eat this there is this legend that you will be able to marry your companion perfectly, eat a lot!!”<br /> <br /> The auntie in the counter lined up a lot of grilled clams one after another in front of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Somehow it's just like what they aimed for, it seemed they could finish this without looking suspicious.<br /> <br /> “…I’m doing this, only for the sake of the mission so…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered subduedly.<br /> <br /> “Then I will fully enjoy this situation while it lasts. Here Kazuha, aa―n.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced her waist even stronger and gave the newly arriving clam to senpai with ‘aa―n’. Kazuha-senpai too helplessly cuddled her body closer and obediently chewed the food.<br /> <br /> “…However I never thought it would become something this outrageous.”<br /> <br /> ―A voice from behind.<br /> <br /> Even while flirting with Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki didn’t miss that voice of the local customer.<br /> <br /> When he took a glance behind, there were two male customers around their thirties sitting in the back table seat.<br /> <br /> “Those brats are thinking that it’s interesting, but to say such thing like a war with Japan. They are thinking such an unbelievable idea. Saying things like the Solomon 72 Pillar is trying to take over the country, though I think there might be some truth in that.”&lt;ref&gt;These locals also talk with really heavy accent.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “But those guys in the new government of Yamato became too eager in war with that Japan. They are completely apathetic with the life of we the common people, it’s really vexing ze. Even when a Haunted Ground appears they just leave it alone, when it’s still Japan such thing is unthinkable.”<br /> <br /> “The Haunted Ground has spread until the sea around here huh, recently. When we are going fishing we have to be careful not to carelessly step into that area. …Even though this sea of Ise is Amaterasu-sama’s important kitchen don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> “This is because they just leave alone the Ise Imperial Shrine as that stupidly huge Haunted Ground in the first place. With such atrocious accursed things going on…are we really tying a contract with the Divas of Japanese Mythology here?”<br /> <br /> “Who knows, no matter which shrine, all of it became under construction or something that we cannot even pray to god. Really this situation really stinks. When push comes to shove us the men of sea might just use the ships to make off from here!”<br /> <br /> “…Kazu-kun, you heard?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered into his ears while continuing their act as a couple.<br /> <br /> There was some part of him that became mushy in his chest when ‘Kazu-kun’ was whispered on his ear, but this was not the time to think about such thing.<br /> <br /> …They said that, Ise Imperial Shrine had become a stupidly huge Haunted Ground?<br /> <br /> <br /> Anyway, for the time being they had no other choice except to go to Ise Imperial Shrine and see it with their own eyes.<br /> <br /> Hardening his heart like that, the moment they exited the store Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai put themselves on guard.<br /> <br /> Because right before the store, Yatagarasu was perching on the ground and was waiting for Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu silently directed its beak to the direction of the west, and then it flapped its wings and went flying heading to the west.<br /> <br /> It didn’t say anything, but its intention was obvious.<br /> <br /> There was a distance around 10 kilometers from this harbor of Toba to the Ise Imperial Shrine in the west.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> The rail transport was in operation, but the electric train of Sangū&lt;ref&gt;This is the word they used in Japan that mean visit to the Ise Imperial Shrine.&lt;/ref&gt; line couldn’t travel to the nearest station to Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> The train didn’t operate except until &lt;Futamiura&gt; a few stations before that nearest station to the Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> There was a poster pasted inside the station premise that said [Evacuation counsel information of the present].<br /> <br /> It was a situation where there was an evacuation recommendation for the area around Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> “…Surely it’s because Ise Imperial Shrine has become a Haunted Ground, it is expanding little by little that causes the train to be unable to come near there.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too nodded his agreement of Kazuha-senpai’s deduction.<br /> <br /> With no other way they first went to the station called Futamiura. From there they began to walk to Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Futamiura was supposed to be an area where an evacuation recommendation still hasn’t come out yet, but maybe because there were a lot of people that began to evacuate out of their own initiative, the street that the two walked in front of the station was deserted. While walking Kazuki took out a map from his waist bag. This bag was water proof, so the map inside it was not wet.<br /> <br /> “Futamiura is here, so the distance until Ise Imperial Shrine is…eh? There are two Ise Imperial Shrine in the map though.”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s confused voice, Kazuha-senpai who was walking beside him brought her face near and peeked inside the map.<br /> <br /> “Aah, that one.” Like that she pointed at two points on the map. “These are the outer shrine and inner shrine of Ise. You didn’t know this and you accepted this mission? There are two Ise Imperial Shrine.”<br /> <br /> The outer shrine and the inner shrine was separated with distance around 5 kilos and they are respectively located in different places.<br /> <br /> …Although if there were two different sets it was better if it was nearer.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine, Amaterasu-Oomikami&lt;ref&gt;Oomikami means god. It’s a more honorable way to mention god in Japan&lt;/ref&gt; is located in the inner shrine, so I think it’s fine to ignore the outer shrine this time. But when people are visiting normally, it’s a manner to go from the outer shrine you know. At the outer shrine, there is this goddess called &lt;Toyouke no Oomikami&gt; that is taking care of Amaterasu.”<br /> <br /> I see, so it’s a god of maid then. Rather he would want to go to that shrine personally. <br /> <br /> “There is around 8 kilos until there.” While saying such thing Kazuki took Kazuha-senpai’s hand.<br /> <br /> “…What are you doing, this hand of yours.”<br /> <br /> “Although the presence of people here is only a few, we who are intentionally walking to the direction of the dangerous Ise Imperial Shrine are suspicious when looked from the side. That’s why let’s act like a couple again!”<br /> <br /> “Act, acting like couple again!? Are you thinking that as long as we act like a couple that everything will turn out okay!?”<br /> <br /> “I’m not thinking like that, but I’m thinking that as long as there is some kind of excuse then I want to act like a couple.”<br /> <br /> “You are too honest there! Idiot!!”<br /> <br /> “But it’s also certain that a couple won’t get suspected. A couple that is going to a place where there are no people’s eye around…bacouple that wants to show the girl a good place and intentionally go to a dangerous place…it has a power of persuasion in double meaning! Come here, Kazuha.”<br /> <br /> “Uu―, certainly that is so. …I get it okay, Kazu-kun.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai gently hugged Kazuki’s arm and she reclined her body on his shoulder.<br /> <br /> That Kazuha-senpai (just an act though) was fawning on him honestly.<br /> <br /> …The day where he would get used to this gap still hasn’t come for the present time.<br /> <br /> “Just as I thought, you really have a solid body…”<br /> <br /> While lightly nuzzling herself on Kazuki, Kazuha-senpai vacantly leaked out such words.<br /> <br /> {What an unexpected journey of pilgrimage huh?} Inside Kazuki, Leme was making fun of him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While they were walking, they grasped the transformation that happened clearly. A line of Haunted Ground was generated right there.<br /> <br /> From around over the Isuzu River, the road was transforming little by little.<br /> <br /> The texture of the road that was made from black asphalt was changed into something that felt clinging onto their shoe sole like dripping mud. The residence home along the road grew dull in color into grayish color and looked worn out. Its external appearance looked dirty like abandoned buildings. Even the Isuzu River that was said to be holy became a completely pure black stream. The sky was also shrouded with dark clouds all of a sudden, making a gloomy weather.<br /> <br /> It appears that what the people said that Ise Imperial Shrine had turned into a Haunted Ground was true. With Ise Imperial Shrine as the center, even its surrounding was swallowed and the Haunted Ground kept spreading.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pictured the map that he saw before in his head. It was about 5 kilos from here to the Ise Imperial Shrine. That meant that the scale of this Haunted Ground was about 5 kilos in radius.<br /> <br /> “How awful…did Yamato really not set out to exterminate the Demon Beasts?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pulled a wry face looking at the street that was completely transformed.<br /> <br /> And then she separated her body from Kazuki. Kazuki too didn’t feel any reluctance from the separation.<br /> <br /> The existence of Demon Beast most likely also meant that there would be battle.<br /> <br /> Cancer―pure magic power that spilled out from Astrum into this world, it then transformed into Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> If this Demon Beast isn’t exterminated quickly, it would call even more Cancer and increase the number of Demon Beasts. When Demon Beast multiplication like this was allowed, its surrounding space would be polluted by thick magic power and become completely distorted. A land of Demon Beast where humans couldn’t live, in that case it had finished transforming into a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> To defend against the expansion of Haunted Ground, exterminating the materialized Demon Beast speedily was also one of the most important jobs of the Knight Order. It seemed that Yamato’s provisional government shirked its duty to do that.<br /> <br /> Like this the area of Ise would be encroached completely.<br /> <br /> ―But saying it in reverse this meant that they didn’t need to fear Yamato’s soldiers in this Haunted Ground. They didn’t defeat any Demon Beast in the Haunted Ground and yet they posted a large number of soldiers inside the Haunted Ground, such action was not skillful at all.<br /> <br /> As expected Yamato’s government didn’t hear anything at all from the Wild Gods about the importance of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Although the Wild Gods became part of their battle strength, their failure in taking close communication with the Wild Gods exposed a fatal gap in their armor.<br /> <br /> “But Hayashizaki, isn’t this strange? For the Ise Imperial Shrine to become the Haunted Ground so accurately…I think it’s just too contrived somehow.”<br /> <br /> …Certainly. However if this happening was not just a coincidence…then that meant the government of Yamato intentionally changed the Ise Imperial Shrine into a Haunted Ground. How? For what reason?<br /> <br /> With its change into a Haunted Ground, maybe it was for the replacement of its defense squad. Possibly Amaterasu’s change into Wild God and Ise Imperial Shrine’s transformation into a Haunted Ground had some kind of connection.<br /> <br /> They surely wouldn’t understand anything if they didn’t advance forward.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai patted around her own waist. Guessing the meaning of that action, Kazuki reflexively laughed. Kazuha-senpai returned a wry smile on that reaction.<br /> <br /> “…When there is no katana on our hips, as expected people like us cannot calm down.”<br /> <br /> “We can use Summoning Magic so it’s fine senpai.”<br /> <br /> For a long time Kazuki had relied on his pride of his skill in sword technique. However before he knew it, he had already thought of his fight using Summoning Magic with similar pride.<br /> <br /> It was not like sword skill had become something trivial for him. How he was able to handle sword skill just like Kanae, and how he could chant the same Summoning Magic just like everyone in the Witch’s Mansion, he was equally proud on both.<br /> <br /> “Fufufuu. Actually, I’m not only practicing sword skill but also doing special training for Summoning Magic recently! Now I’m able to use magic until level 6 you see!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said that as if naturally sympathizing with Kazuki’s inner thought.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was born with an excellent talent in magic, but she yearned for swordsman instead of Magika Stigma since she was a child. She was a rare person that didn’t make an effective use of that talent at all.<br /> <br /> She made a contract with Futsunushi no Kami that was worshipped in her own household even before Solomon 72 Pillar could discover her talent, but she didn’t do any training for Summoning Magic at all, nevertheless she could handle her magic until level 5.<br /> <br /> If that kind of person seriously set out to train her magic seriously…. For her to become able to use magic until level 6 already, Kazuki who was also a magic swordsman like her couldn’t be careless lest he gets left behind.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai spun a spell in preparation for battle and performed Access.<br /> <br /> “…My crimson hand is red hot grasping the ore. Ridge in the sky, blade in the earth, combining in a flash become namely a sole sword. Thy inscription is &lt;Futsunushi no Kami&gt;! O god of steel and fire, show that forging!”<br /> <br /> The god of sword and blacksmith, Futsunushi no Kami granted a burning flame to Kazuha-senpai. The flame was spreading on senpai’s clothing, its Prima Material disintegrated transforming the shape into a totally different battle costume―Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “For a long time, I only fuss over sword, but when I see Hayashizaki I want to become stronger and stronger doing both sword and magic together. After all you and I are the same magic swordsman!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s expression shined brightly.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, when you talk about strength you are really lively.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? …That’s right huh. I was born in a household that worship god of sword. My father is also a swordsman…but swordsman is weak compared to Summoning Magic and the surrounding is also looking at them in contempt…I too became obstinate and became a swordsman but for a long time I had no talent at all and made fun of…honestly it was really miserable.”<br /> <br /> Thinking back once more, it was something like a miracle that she was raised with such a straightforward personality like this after she went through a twisted path for half her life. The nature of Kazuha-senpai herself was strong, surely she was fine because of how bright a person she was.<br /> <br /> “…I think that’s why the feeling of wanting to become even stronger than others is instilled into me. The feeling of always wanting to become stronger and stronger doesn’t vanish. Though somehow it’s an unbecoming boorishness for a woman. …Hahaha.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai floated a bitter smile awkwardly.<br /> <br /> “That’s not true at all. The lively Kazuha-senpai at that time is even more charming than usual. …All the more because normally Kazuha-senpai is not honest at all to me.”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, don’t say such cheeky thing even though you are just my junior!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki talked as if he was poking fun at Kazuha-senpai, she scolded him overbearingly,<br /> <br /> “…But when I’m together with you, I have a feeling that I can become stronger without any limit…”<br /> <br /> Whisperingly, she said so in addition. A heart mark that signed the increase of positivity level came flying from her chest.<br /> <br /> She was being shy for some reason. The both of them walked side by side silently for a while.<br /> <br /> “―Now that I remember senpai, the waist bag was also disintegrated and became the Magic Dress wasn’t it?”<br /> <br /> When Magika Stigma performed Access, things that were attached to the body were dispersed into Prima Material by the reality distortion called magic power, and then it was reconstructed as Magic Dress with the contracted Diva’s divine response as support.<br /> <br /> Did the waist bag also get swallowed by that distortion?<br /> <br /> “Ah, that’s true! Like this I cannot eat the cracker that I brought as snack!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who realized her lost waist bag after being told patted her own waist with some slaps and raised a sad voice.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While paying sufficient attention to their surrounding, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai advanced through the road of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> ―After a few minutes of walking, Kazuki went “Please wait” and held Kazuha-senpai back.<br /> <br /> “Please reinforce senpai’s eyesight with magic power and look far ahead. There is something.”<br /> <br /> Ahead in the road of the Haunted Ground that continued straight forward, his reinforced eyesight caught ''a bizarre human shadow''.<br /> <br /> Even though Kazuha-senpai nervously *gulp* swallowed her saliva, she gathered magic power in her eyes…then her face was dyed with a color of bewilderment. The thing that Kazuki saw was also clearly visible for her.<br /> <br /> “…Ee―err, what is it, that thing?”<br /> <br /> “It’s a warrior isn’t it?” Kazuki answered.<br /> <br /> “…That’s surely a warrior huh, that thing there. …But that answer doesn’t resolve any question at all.”<br /> <br /> What was standing in the path far ahead, was a suspicious man in armor and helmet.<br /> <br /> Several pieces of steel plate pasted together and built into one, it was a large armor that looked bulky and heavy.<br /> <br /> Its face was covered with helmet and face cover. Only the glint of its eye could be peeked from the outside.<br /> <br /> It was an armored warrior that looked like as if it flew out right from the Sengoku&lt;ref&gt;Warring States period (of Japanese history, approx. 1467-1568 CE)&lt;/ref&gt; period, walking heavily in roaming on the road that had been transformed into Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me that it was Yamato’s defensive squad? Even though this was inside a Haunted Ground? Wouldn’t they get attacked by the Demon Beast?<br /> <br /> …No, is that actually human? He couldn’t feel any human-like will from the armored warrior that was roaming the street. Rather, its atmosphere was more beastly closer with a Demon Beast that wandered restlessly.<br /> <br /> “It looks like an opponent that we cannot pass by acting like a couple. Let’s go through another road.”<br /> <br /> All along the path they could use to reach their destination of Ise Imperial Shrine was not only one. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned back through the street and turned into the bend across. They advanced through a different street.<br /> <br /> ―Even ahead of that street was also loitered with armored warrior, making them come into a halt.<br /> <br /> For some reason the armored warrior was not alone, looked like there were a lot of them wandering around. There were increasingly several of them.<br /> <br /> …Is there no other way than defeating them? When Kazuki began to incline on bulldozing his way through inside his heart,<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki. How about we climb the building and go from rooftop to rooftop? I have the feeling that those guys don’t look anywhere except straight ahead.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pointed at the roof of the building beside them and said that.<br /> <br /> That was actually the house of the citizen before this place was transformed into Haunted Ground, but now it had lost its color and became grayish. It was weathering and looked worn-out, exposing its concrete frame and became an abandoned building.<br /> <br /> …Certainly that armored warrior didn’t seem to be really that vigilant until that far. If they advance through the roof of the buildings it didn’t seem like the warrior would intentionally direct its eyes their way.<br /> <br /> “But they will notice our footsteps right? Somehow it looks like they have a sharp bestial sense.”<br /> <br /> “Then it’s fine if we don’t make any voice don’t you agree? It’s that easy.”<br /> <br /> While talking, Kazuha-senpai put her hand on the outer wall of the building that looked abandoned, then she climbed to the roof in one go with physical strength that had been reinforced with magic power. The moment she landed on the roof, the landing sound was&amp;mdash;not there.<br /> <br /> As if an unseen cushion covered both the feet of Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> And then she beckoned Kazuki with her hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too similarly climbed the outer wall and landed on the roof. The sound was not there as expected. Kazuki had the sensation that his underfoot was enveloped by some kind of magic power. He directed a surprised pair of eyes to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “…By any chance did senpai erase the sound using magic power?”<br /> <br /> “This is not really something to be surprised about right? Something like sound is just a vibration in the air, so isn’t it just a simple field of Psychokinesis?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said it nonchalantly but Kazuki couldn’t help but became tongue-tied.<br /> <br /> Certainly sound manipulation&amp;mdash;didn’t need much energy even though it vibrated the air in minute detail.<br /> <br /> But the magic power control for it was something really difficult because it was hard to image something like that. Sensing the unseen sound wave, it was still easier to simply magnify it, but to do a stunt like beautifully offsetting the sound wave was not supposed to be something so simple.<br /> <br /> …She might be a prodigy. This person might be above anybody else in the Witch’s Mansion in the field that didn’t have any connection with Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Of course Summoning Magic was the one that was useful in battle, but general magic that was effective in detailed practical use undoubtedly shone bright in special missions like this infiltration operation.<br /> <br /> “I’m also erasing your footstep, so let’s pass through the armored warriors just like this using the rooftop.”<br /> <br /> With a little pride, Kazuha-senpai was soundlessly hopping around *pyon pyon* in the rooftop.<br /> <br /> So that they became hard to see from the ground, the two of them took a low posture with their waist dropped and leaped from rooftop to rooftop just like the great thief of the Edo period.<br /> <br /> After they passed an increasingly fair number of armored warriors from on top of the roof, their gait became even more careful. Suddenly Kazuha-senpai pointed at something a little far ahead.<br /> <br /> There was a blue light generated ahead of where she was pointing, *PAN!* and then a little sound as if air was bursting out could be heard.<br /> <br /> The armored warrior reacted to that and turned away. It walked heavily to the direction of the sound.<br /> <br /> …If she could erase sound, then producing sound was also something possible.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly while looking at Kazuki. Kazuki too returned a smile and jest around with light feeling.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…how many pranks have you done until now with that ability? I have a feeling that small trick can be completely misused.”<br /> <br /> “I, I never did anything like a prank! After all…I don’t have any friends that I can prank or boast to…”<br /> <br /> He was just teasing lightly, but Kazuha-senpai hung her head down heavily.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…if you are fine with me then please prank me as much as you want.”<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t need that kind of appeal! I’m not that bored that I’m going to prank someone like you!”<br /> <br /> While they were doing that exchange with small voices, even more armored warriors were walking heavily from ahead of the street, making Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai be taken aback. It seemed that there really is a great number of these armored warriors.<br /> <br /> They still must not descend down from the rooftop.<br /> <br /> They steadily flew through the roof of the lining up low buildings in the residential area that had been transformed into Haunted Ground and advanced.<br /> <br /> Thereupon on their path, a tall [seven floor multi-tenant building] that stuck out compared to its surrounding stood on their way.<br /> <br /> Probably it was originally filled with various shops that became tenant there. On the side of the tall and narrow abandoned building, several sticking out billboards that were written with something unreadable because of the pitch black filth on them could be seen.<br /> <br /> “Ha, Hayashizaki…are we going to climb this too?” Kazuha-senpai looked up at the building and flinched back.<br /> <br /> …That’s right, if it was Enchant Aura then he was the more skilled one. As if opposing Kazuha-senpai who was so haughty since a while ago, Kazuki went “Fuffuffu” and chuckled.<br /> <br /> “Well then, please leave it to me this time. I’ll leave the footsteps to senpai.”<br /> <br /> After declaring so, he forcefully lifted up Kazuha-senpai who was in the posture of standing upright.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was settled into Kazuki’s arms struggled around with a bright red face.<br /> <br /> “Wait a second! You don’t need to lift me with princess-carry like this right, you can just carry me on your back!”<br /> <br /> “This is not just a mere princess-carry. This is Hayashizaki-style Last Secret Art [Wedding・Love Lift]!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was turning round and round like a merry-go-round while carrying Kazuha-senpai in his arms.<br /> <br /> “Last Secret Art!? So Hayashizaki-style is just a joke school of sword art like that!? Why are you revolving!?”<br /> <br /> “Kanae was the one that authorized this as the Last Secret Art though. There is no meaning at all in the revolving. Here we go!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki faced the multi-tenant building while still carrying Kazuha-senpai and jumped.<br /> <br /> Stepping his foot on the billboard that was sticking out from the wall, he made the second jump by using it as a foothold.<br /> <br /> Using the billboard as foothold like a stair, he kept jumping from one billboard to the next. Kazuha-senpai was offsetting all the sounds from Kazuki’s action. Matching their breaths splendidly, they managed to finished their leaps completely soundless.<br /> <br /> Only the distance from the last billboard to the rooftop was slightly taller than the previous jumps.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately chanted a level 1 reinforcement magic that he could quickly invoke. The reflexes reinforcement was trivial in this case, his aim was the physical strength reinforcement even just for a little.<br /> <br /> With that boosting, Kazuki was able to splendidly land on top of the roof of the abandoned building soundlessly.<br /> <br /> He could see the surrounding Haunted Ground with one sweep of the eye from the top of the building. There was a conspicuously darkened forest and building in the center of the Haunted Ground. That was surely the Ise Imperial Shrine there.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps both of us are a combination duo that is suited to infiltration missions, aren’t we?”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t just keep grinning happily, let me down quickly-!”<br /> <br /> Even while a small heart mark flew from Kazuha-senpai, she said that from her mouth and struggled around.<br /> <br /> Kazuki obediently lowered Kazuha-senpai down.<br /> <br /> “..Eh? You are simply letting me down like that?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai made an unsatisfied face. Kazuki made a stiff face and faced Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…''we are seen''.”<br /> <br /> …It seemed this mission wouldn’t be that simple.<br /> <br /> Kazuki whose eyesight was further reinforced with [Berserk] sensed the small movement amidst the scenery.<br /> <br /> “Eh…we are seen you said, here is the tenth floor’s rooftop you know?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered dumbfoundedly.<br /> <br /> ―At that moment, that human shadow moved out. A human shadow so small like a speck dust that was not visible from the rooftop where Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were standing was moving out with terrific speed. It was heading to this direction.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was just a moment late in his decision to escape&amp;mdash;it was caused by the height of the ten-story building that originally wouldn’t let a human jump down to the ground safely that made his instinct hesitate.<br /> <br /> The small human shadow that began to move leaped from the street to the rooftop, making all the surrounding buildings as foothold with superhuman nimbleness―with no time to even say ‘ah’, it jumped from rooftop to rooftop to the roof where Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were.<br /> <br /> Under the sky of the Haunted Ground that was filled with dark clouds, on the rooftop of a narrow building, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai confronted that.<br /> <br /> Following the armored warrior, this one was a figure with bizarre external appearance.<br /> <br /> The image that floated inside his head with one glance was―[specter lemur].<br /> <br /> A small build that was slender like a monkey, however only both its eyes were big like a monster. Its eyeball was even bigger than a clenched fist―was this really human?<br /> <br /> With its body clad in pure black costume, only that huge eyeball was exposed from the hood it wore.<br /> <br /> A completely ninja-like figure. So that was it, there was not only armored warrior here.<br /> <br /> At the same time Kazuki recalled once more that this place was a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Was this guy human, or Demon Beast, ''he couldn’t make a distinction which one was it''.<br /> <br /> “My Lord…My Lord…I found it…Stigmata…Found it…”<br /> <br /> The ninja with build like a monkey leaked out a muffled voice from its mouth that was covered with hood. It was a faint small voice that was not audible except for Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai that were in that place. However―<br /> <br /> {…Both of your eyes are my eyes…. Is that so, so those guys had come. If they had stepped their foot on this ground, they cannot escape already!}<br /> <br /> From above the pitch black clouds that filled the sky of the Haunted Ground, a voice was reverberating. The words could be differentiated, but it was a muffled voice that he couldn’t make the distinction whether the speaker was male or female.<br /> <br /> That was a spell being spun. <br /> <br /> {Here a thick cloud rise, put up the barrier that confine all calamity. …My &lt;Yaegaki&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Fences within fences&lt;/ref&gt; of tranquility right here. …Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Dankai Bakufu|Severed World Cascade}}!!}<br /> <br /> A magic was invoked―the black cloud that fully covered the sky began to flow fiercely.<br /> <br /> The clouds spread thinly in the blink of eye, and then it languidly dropped down to the ground at the direction of the sky’s edge. A dome. The cloud in the sky covered the Haunted Ground in the shape of hemisphere, shutting them in from the outside world.<br /> <br /> …They couldn’t escape? A cold sensation ran through Kazuki’s spine. That meant the failure of their infiltration. On top of being discovered by the enemy, their escape path was blocked.<br /> <br /> “My Lord…Stigmata…My Lord…Stigmata, Kill! Stigmata Kill!”<br /> <br /> The monkey-like ninja leaked out a voice like he was talking in delirium.<br /> <br /> {So the King of Solomon 72 Pillar has come to this ground…this war is over if that guy is killed. Sounds good, if he can be killed then I don’t mind if you kill him to your heart’s content!}<br /> <br /> The voice from the sky gave his acknowledgement. Thereupon the monkey ninja raised an unthinkable loud voice from beyond its hood.<br /> <br /> “…nnn, nGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s ears naturally shone with defensive magic power to protect their eardrums. It was a voice so loud to that degree. There was no doubt that it likely reverberated through the Haunted Ground. Kazuki sensed that innumerable gazes were simultaneously directed to this direction from the ground. This guy called his comrades!<br /> <br /> “Senpai, it’s bad if we stay here! Let’s escape!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally threw his instinct to the wind and moved in action. He carried Kazuha-senpai once more and leaped with all his strength to the ground. “Kazuki!?” Kazuha-senpai raised a confused scream.<br /> <br /> The building’s rooftop―from the height of more than 30 meters―to the ground.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DAA―NN!* Kazuki landed on the ground while raising a grand sound this time. The sole of Kazuki’s feet, his knees, all were shining with blue defensive magic power and vanished the impact of the landing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took the hand of Kazuha-senpai and he dashed with speed that Kazuha-senpai could barely follow.<br /> <br /> He repeated the path that they followed until this point in one go.<br /> <br /> “Let’s conceal ourselves and give them the slip!”<br /> <br /> The armored warriors on the ground were all heading here simultaneously and gave chase.<br /> <br /> However Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s running foot exceeded the heavy armored warriors. They widened the distance from the pursuers in the blink of an eye. The majority of the armored warriors would surely lose sight of Kazuki’s figure immediately if he ran away like this.<br /> <br /> “NGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> But that ninja that looked completely like a monkey also jumped down and came chasing Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. It kicked the wall of the surrounding building and accelerated itself and rapidly shrunk its distance with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> A pure black bow and arrow was set up in the hand of that ninja unnoticed.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;SHUU* An arrow was fired cutting through the air. The aim was, Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> As if she had foresighted the trajectory of the arrow, senpai’s body quickly evaded the arrow.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was surprised for just an instant looking at that splendid body movement, but he immediately returned his awareness to the ninja.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki returned fire to the ninja with a fire arrow. The ninja was blown back while shining with defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> …Yosh, they are going to hide themselves just like this!<br /> <br /> {I already said that you cannot escape! I’m not going to let you ignore my words you’ll see!!}<br /> <br /> From above the head of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who ran with all their might, a voice and spell were coming down.<br /> <br /> {…Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Kumoito Shibari|Wind Thread Binding}}!!}<br /> <br /> From the dome-shaped cloud that covered the sky, two strings of [string of cloud] were slithering down. Its tips chased the escaping Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and twined itself around their body at once.<br /> <br /> The cloud strings twined around Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai, but there was nothing happening to them like restriction in their movement or the like. But the cloud strings kept elongating lengthily no matter how far they went, tying Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai with the sky.<br /> <br /> This is a mark! Kazuki comprehended that string’s aim. ―If this string of cloud was followed from the sky, then no matter where Kazuki was inside this Haunted ground his location would be constantly known.<br /> <br /> “Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai immediately chanted her spell and created Futsunushi no Kami’s divine sword. The evil crushing sword that severed various magic effect like curse or seal. That sword was directed to the string of cloud and swept sideways.<br /> <br /> But―it was not cut. The blade didn’t return any feedback to the hand holding it and passed through the cloud string completely.<br /> <br /> “This is…a magic power that's more superior than even Futsu no Mitama!” Kazuha-senpai raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “What is the meaning of this, Futsunushi no Kami!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki yelled while running with all his power.<br /> <br /> “Even though there shouldn’t be any mistake on our part in the infiltration until here, that guy called Yatagarasu sensed our presence! If by any chance someone acquired the knowledge of our movement, that must be because someone blabbed their mouth! Moreover this magic called [Izumo Yaegaki]…this is the magic of Japanese Mythology!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki couldn’t think of any other explanation for this situation other than that the Japanese Mythology had screwed with him.<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami! You are betraying me and Hayashizaki, and led us to a trap!?”<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuha-senpai that raised a sorrowful voice―the avatar of the god of sword emerged out.<br /> <br /> There was no mistake that Futsunushi no Kami was the one that created this situation.<br /> <br /> {Wrong...that Yatagarasu is not an enemy. I led you two to this place...not for a trap. This is not a trap but a ''request''. In this ground, I wish for you to save Japanese Mythology. The magic from before, is &lt;Susanoo&gt; of Izumo …one of Japanese Mythology’s two great chief god, Susanoo’s magic.}<br /> <br /> “Two great chief god!? The chief god is not just Amaterasu, but there are two of them!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a shocked voice after listening to the unexpected truth. Kazuki immediately thought that he was tricked by Futsunushi no Kami. …However, now that he thought back Futsunushi no Kami never said anything about defeating Amaterasu, only that he had to defeat the chief god. But…to save Japanese Mythology? <br /> <br /> {…Defeat Susanoo, rescue the sealed Amaterasu and save Japanese Mythology, that is my request.}<br /> <br /> “''If I save Amaterasu just like you say, will the Wild Gods recover their sanity''!?”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami was once more ''giving them information in small amounts intentionally'' and making them fall into confusion. Even if he didn’t spout lies, that was just one type of swindling. Just as he thought it was fine to say that he was deceived.<br /> <br /> This is surely not a trap, he believed that.<br /> <br /> However, the most important point was if he manage to achieve what Futsunushi no Kami asked then [would Yamato’s Wild Gods return to their sanity?]. If that was possible, then he didn’t mind whatever course he had to go through.<br /> <br /> “NGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!! STIGMATAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> Strange voice reverberated shrilly from their back. This was not the place for talking. An arrow was also fired subsequently at them.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reinforced his dynamic vision once again and brushed off the flying arrow at him barehanded.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! If we can just turn this guy back then I think we won’t need to worry of getting discovered. Let’s fight!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai halted, then she turned back and faced the enemy.<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it, let’s fight momentarily.” Kazuki too thought of the same thing.<br /> <br /> They had already returned back to the place near the edge of the Haunted Ground. The hanging down cloud that looked like curtains had visibly looked near. He wanted to confirm by touching the curtain of cloud whether they really couldn’t escape from here, but if they fought with their back facing this curtain of cloud then they didn’t need to worry about being attacked from behind for the time being.<br /> <br /> “…Moreover these guys don’t look like they can use Summoning Magic.”<br /> <br /> The enemy was an unknown, but just with that fact the extent of the enemy’s threat was considerably lowered.<br /> <br /> From straight ahead of the street, a crowd of armored warriors were rushing here. The one that was leading them was that monkey-like ninja who was much faster compared to the others. Even while running, it headed to Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and set up its bow and arrow again.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!” Kazuki attacked before it could fired its arrow.<br /> <br /> The monkey ninja was blown back to the crowd of the armored warriors. That became the signal of the fight’s beginning.<br /> <br /> “Sti, STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The instant Kazuki used Summoning Magic, the armored warriors shrieked with volume that shook the earth.<br /> <br /> “…Are these guys holding a grudge against Stigmata!?”<br /> <br /> The yelling armored warriors raised their large war sword overhead at the right side of their face like Jigen-style’s &lt;Stance of Dragonfly&gt; and approached Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. It was a stance that made it easier to immediately swing down the sword that betted everything in a single stroke.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors that entered battle preparation accelerated with light emitted from all over their body. That rush―was a speed outside of human realm. It surpassed the limit of normal swordsman.<br /> <br /> That monkey ninja was like that too, but it was as if their physical ability was using reinforcement magic. ''It made them suspicious of a connection with Diva here. ''<br /> <br /> Kazuki and also Kazuha-senpai were without their katana, they were completely unarmed.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, watch out!” Kazuki came out to the front to cover for Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> The first armored warrior that came approaching with unstoppable downward slash was quickly dodged by Kazuki. The downward slash of the second armored warrior that came almost at the same time with the first couldn’t be evaded this time, he caught the blade between both his hands.<br /> <br /> Catching the naked blade of a real sword―if it was with the reinforcement of [Berserk] to his reflexes and physical strength, such technique was possible.<br /> <br /> However inside Kazuki’s palms, the long sword that was pinned between them was forcing its way through *gugugu* and approaching near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, double the Megin that whirl inside my body! The purpose of god that spur me to the infinite battle, to this body! …Meginjord!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki further chanted the level 2 reinforcement magic of the Norse Mythology’s &lt;Thor&gt;.<br /> <br /> The Summoning Magic of this Diva called Thor…for its level 1 and level 2 to be both reinforcement magic was a terrifyingly extreme configuration, but…in regards for swordsman this Diva had far too much great user-friendliness.<br /> <br /> A belt of light descended down from the sky and coiled itself around Kazuki’s body. That belt of light amplified the muscle volume of Kazuki’s whole body. With his amplified power, Kazuki stole the long sword that he pinned down between his palms.<br /> <br /> Fixing his grip of the stolen sword, he slashed back to the armored warrior in reverse.<br /> <br /> The armored warrior was blown away by the backlash of its defensive magic power, *DOSUN!* it fell down with a heavy sound.<br /> <br /> It was thick―Kazuki secretly shivered. That defensive magic power had more than five times the thickness of a normal person.<br /> <br /> “STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The third and fourth armored warriors that possessed extraordinary power and toughness approached Kazuki even nearer. The downswing that they launched was more like a berserker rather than a swordsman.<br /> <br /> “O wind of Tatara, summon the scorching heat of steel to my forging! Take the hammer of well-tempered in hand to here, pound away the soul’s disgrace!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that was covered by Kazuki finished the chanting of her spell at the back.<br /> <br /> “…{{furigana|Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi|Wind Hammer of Heaven Plume Fire Make}}!”<br /> <br /> While getting the shine of her magic power worked up, Kazuha-senpai thrust her right hand forward.<br /> <br /> From that hand, *DON!!* as if an invisible cannon was fired, a number of the approaching armored warriors were blown away altogether. At the same time the armored warriors were enveloped with flame explosion.<br /> <br /> A composite attack of shockwave and flame that was produced from the palm. It was Futsunushi no Kami’s level 4 magic.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, thank you very much! …Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> From the gap that was created from the blown away armored warriors, a ninja with bow and arrow set up leaped out and came approaching. Kazuki vigilantly sensed it an instant earlier and launched a flame bullet.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors that were blown away by Kazuha-senpai stood up and took the stance that looked like a dragonfly once more.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, I’m coming out to the front so please cover me from the rear!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out while he took a stance with the stolen long sword vigilantly.<br /> <br /> “Covering from the back you say? …That’s wrong Hayashizaki, I am a magic swordsman just like you!! …I became the shrine maiden of sword. Rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand!! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic. Flame burst out from Kazuha-senpai’s own palm and created a divine sword that possessed the power to tear apart magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was surprised inside his heart―after she chanted the level 4 magic before, the time she took to finish chanting this level 3 magic was frightfully fast. It was a chanting speed that approached Koyuki.<br /> <br /> And then Kazuha-senpai overtook Kazuki and slashed at the armored warrior’s direction.<br /> <br /> The people that once knew Kazuha-senpai would laugh at that action as foolhardiness, but if it was the current senpai then it was not foolhardiness. Kazuha-senpai first cut down one enemy, next she dodged the downswing coming from the side with paper-thin difference and slashed the second enemy in a counterattack, and then she leaped back quickly to dodge the third enemy’s downswing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki doubted his eyes looking at her light and easy body movement that didn’t back down for even a step facing enemies with numerical superiority.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who splendidly conducted herself in this narrow street was constantly moving an instant faster than the enemy.<br /> <br /> It was not as precise as Kazuki or Kanae, but ''she was sensing the opponent’s magic power and making Foresight of their movement''.<br /> <br /> Not only her chanting ability, her sword skill had also made a terrific improvement.<br /> <br /> Once she had self-confidence planted inside here, she was someone that could splendidly achieve a fast growth like this.<br /> <br /> …He was having the wrong impression. Kazuha-senpai was not something like an object of protection.<br /> <br /> She was a partner that fought with him shoulder-to-shoulder.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, then please I’ll leave the right side to you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki dashed to the left next to Kazuha-senpai and assaulted the armored warrior with his sword.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, leave it to me!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai *don* bumped her left shoulder to Kazuki’s right shoulder and smiled reliably.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> …She didn’t make any conduct that held him back like when they were on the sea. Absolutely none at all.<br /> <br /> After Kazuha bumped her shoulder and felt her {{furigana|partner|Kazuki}}’s existence, she leaped into the crowd of the armored warriors. Naked blade flashed many times over, but she slipped away through all of it and return slashing when she passed them through.<br /> <br /> If it’s Hayashizaki then he will surely fight like this―while she gripped her sword, such imagination was naturally floating in her mind all the time. Kazuha was always desperately attempting to Trace that movement inside her mind.<br /> <br /> This thought that she felt was surely a yearning without doubt.<br /> <br /> That was why her own swordsmanship came to resemble Hayashizaki’s closely day by day.<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki-style’s Foresight―its fundamental truth was a perception from thoroughly doing intensification of Extra Sense.<br /> <br /> For those Hayashizaki siblings to acquire perception power until that level, surely they ought to have spent long months and years honing their body. But she was above those two in magic talent, there was no reason that she couldn’t do the same thing like those two.<br /> <br /> Perceive―the opponent’s every single move. Those preliminary signs from their breath, muscle tension, and then their state of mind.<br /> <br /> Moving like this, moving like this, coming like that.<br /> <br /> Kazuha moved with her red and white Magic Dress fluttering around, she evaded the enemy’s attacks as if dancing a Kagura&lt;ref&gt;Ancient Shinto music and dancing&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> And then strike back at the opening in their important point. Realize that image into reality just like that, a definitive response.<br /> <br /> ―But, for making a crowd this large as her opponent, Kazuha’s Foresight was still incomplete.<br /> <br /> An arrow was flying from outside her image.<br /> <br /> Kazuha suddenly realized. That monkey-like ninja’s, bow and arrow…!<br /> <br /> The instant she resolved herself to get hit, a hand reached out in front of Kazuha’s eyes suddenly, warding off the approaching arrow.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Then next a flame bullet was fired from that palm. It was not because of fast chanting, but a smooth action that was as if it had seen through everything. The way of fighting of the man that held the alias of Cyclops.<br /> <br /> The ninja’s body was struck once more by the flame bullet and it was blown away to the other side of the armored warriors crowd.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Hayashizaki!” Words of gratitude naturally flowed out from her mouth.<br /> <br /> While that guy was facing off against innumerable armored warriors, he was simultaneously paying attention to this side too.<br /> <br /> …He is really kind when he is fighting. A fight, more than anything else, was the place that made her feel his kindness for real. The time of fighting was also the only place where she could become honest with regards to him.<br /> <br /> That’s why match the breathing with each other―and help each other.<br /> <br /> “Scattering the flower of night craft o the tempering of artisan, reach the weave of the sky with the tip of your sword! The role of sword is for the sake of victory…Under my command, become thunder cloud and pour down! Tenkū Battou Renge Hou!”<br /> <br /> While fighting, Kazuha invoked her magic at the same time.<br /> <br /> Flames burst out in Kazuha’s surrounding. That flame of transmutation made countless Sacred Treasures emerge in Kazuha’s surroundings. Swords with various shapes from all ages and countries―with Kazuha’s magic power manipulation all of those could be fired to every direction and angle like missiles.<br /> <br /> “…GO-!” Together with the command, the countless swords rained incessantly on the armored warriors.<br /> <br /> At the same time those Sacred Treasures pierced the enemies, flame and ice, lighting and the like, each of the swords exhibited various different power of elements. Kazuha also directed those attacks at Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much, senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s chest leaped when she heard those returning words of gratitude.<br /> <br /> This feeling of unity in this cooperation battle made her head feel pure white inside with intoxication.<br /> <br /> Just as I thought, I like fighting with him.<br /> <br /> No…perhaps I, like him already….<br /> <br /> It seemed Hayashizaki could perceive the change in positivity level. By some chance even in the middle of this battle right now, perhaps this change that happened inside her had been conveyed to him already.<br /> <br /> Normally that was an extremely embarrassing matter but…right now she was happy that her feeling was conveyed. She wanted him to know more about this feeling that she could be honest about in the middle of this battle, that was what she completely felt from herself.<br /> <br /> What in the world are you thinking when you are being surrounded by all these grim armored warriors, me.<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s whole body was spontaneously filled with strength from embarrassment. She directed that shame to the armored warriors and let fly a slash with all her strength to vent out her feeling.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Kazuki too felt his heart become excited from this battle where they formed a duo.<br /> <br /> But that feeling was sinking gloomily little by little. He became fed up before long.<br /> <br /> Of course it was not because he held any dissatisfaction between the two of them. The problem was&amp;mdash;the enemy.<br /> <br /> He cut and cut and felt the thick defensive magic power where the enemy kept standing back up, this crowd of armored warrior. While he kept cutting down the armored warriors no matter how many time, “This is bad” he couldn’t clear away such anxiety inside him.<br /> <br /> There was still some allowance in his stamina and magic power. However even now the armored warriors that were scattered all over the Haunted Ground ought to be converging in their location here following the mark of the cloud string that was hanging down from the sky.<br /> <br /> The situation had become something he couldn’t laugh about. …What’s going on with this enemy’s toughness?<br /> <br /> In the first place, what in the world are these enemies? Were they human or Demon Beast, he couldn’t even make that distinction.<br /> <br /> “STIGMATAAAAAAA!!” The armored warriors raised a shriek filled with resentment and came assaulting.<br /> <br /> Their number and toughness became a dreadful pressure, they kept surging forward.<br /> <br /> At that time in spite of the dome of cloud that isolated the Haunted Ground, above Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s head something was traversing fast―it was a single crow, perching on top of the electricity pole at the side of the street.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu―a polished bright copper disk was caught between its beaks.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu raised a high-pitched voice from the edge of its beak. That was a spell.<br /> <br /> “…O exalted light illuminating the seven seas and all nations! Gather in my lord’s idol, emit the light that purify the impurity…Yata no Kagami&lt;ref&gt;Yata no Kagami (the eight-span mirror; one of the Imperial Regalia)&lt;/ref&gt;・{{furigana|Youka Issen|Sun Flower Flash}}!”<br /> <br /> The disk appended in the beak&amp;mdash;the &lt;bronze mirror&gt; released a powerful light.<br /> <br /> He reflexively closed his eyelids, but even so it was light so abundant it felt like his retina was burned with whiteness.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who had their eyes closed were supposed to become defenseless, but there was no attack coming at all during that interval.<br /> <br /> When they opened their eyes, there were a lot of young people in casual clothes collapsed unconsciously in front of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s eyes.<br /> <br /> There were no armored warriors&amp;mdash;no, he couldn’t think of any explanation other than that the light that Yatagarasu emitted made the armored warriors become like this. The fainted young people had fallen into symptoms that looked like magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around his surrounding and what he saw made his eyes open even wider. The surrounding area was recovering back from a Haunted Ground into a normal street corner. The original scenery of Ise city’s street was returning there.<br /> <br /> “The light just now is…offensive magic? It shaved off that thick defensive magic power with one attack? All that number of enemies!?”<br /> <br /> “…No, that magic just now is purge magic. It has a power that can purify even stronger evil than what Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic [Futsu no Mitama] can do. It’s the only power I in this form can use.”<br /> <br /> The bronze mirror that was held between the beaks had also vanished. Most likely it was a Sacred Treasure created from magic power.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu pointed at the fainted young people with its beak.<br /> <br /> “These young people had Wild Gods reside in their body and they acted violently because of that magic power. But because the light from before got rid of [the connections with the Wild Gods] that were embed within their mind, they are now returned to their original human appearance.”<br /> <br /> The contents of the armored warriors&amp;mdash;everyone of the fainted young people were between their teens until twenties. Many were female but a few male were mixed. They were people of the generation that were most strong in magic power.<br /> <br /> “…So we were saved by you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stared at Yatagarasu while still maintaining his vigilance. Even while being vigilant―he had to obtain information regarding this mysterious situation from this guy.<br /> <br /> All the armored warriors in this Haunted Ground weren’t supposed to be completely annihilated just with this, but the surrounding was strangely filled with silence.<br /> <br /> “Even if you said that I saved you two, these people could return to their original appearance only because the both of you had inflicted damage to them. As long as their defensive magic power was still considerably thick, even that light won’t be able to reach until the depth of the curse. To defeat them efficiently, there is a need for us to cooperate.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu lightly flapped its wings and perched on top of Kazuki’s shoulder. It was an action that was appealing to him that they were comrades.<br /> <br /> “…Were these people transformed into Demon Beast?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked while looking around his surrounding. The scenery where the buildings looked abandoned with the loss of its color and its weathered condition had returned into a really normal street of stores and houses. However it only applied to Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s surrounding, the far away―the direction of the Haunted Ground’s center was still looking like an extensive Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> The Haunted Ground could only return to the condition of natural world when the Demon Beasts that resided inside it had been subjugated.<br /> <br /> Such phenomenon that was similar with that Haunted Ground recovery had happened here when they defeated these armored warriors.<br /> <br /> “No, these guys are something falsely similar with Demon Beast. They are―&lt;God’s reliant&gt;. Hosting the power of unruly god inside their body and yet they failed on controlling that power, ''a failure of a shrine maiden''.”<br /> <br /> “Failure? Don’t tell me…Yamato’s government is creating shrine maidens with human experiment?”<br /> <br /> An imagination that made a dread ran through him emerged to the forefront inside Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> ―Naiarlatoteph. A hateful name came to mind.<br /> <br /> “When the government of Yamato instigated the Divas of Japanese Mythology that went wild to be added as their allies, they gathered humans that excelled in magic power and made them bind a contract with the Wild Gods. It is impossible to communicate with those Wild Gods that had lost their reasoning, so what all of them got was {{furigana|Drive|Possession Contract}}.”<br /> <br /> In the middle of the explanation, Kazuki took a glance at Kazuha-senpai. Even though she was a similar Shrine Maiden, Kazuha-senpai didn’t experience Drive for the sake of binding a contract and borrowed the power of Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> Possession contract with an unknown Diva was a dangerous act forbidden by Japan’s law.<br /> <br /> “The government of Yamato conducted [a group possession contract assembly by human initiative] so to speak. People who did well can control the power of the Wild God that possessed them to a certain degree and become a &lt;Drive Shrine Maiden&gt;. The humans that failed lost their reasoning and became God’s reliant. ―In other words the failure.”<br /> <br /> “What a thing to do…”<br /> <br /> So the Yamato’s government produced their battle strength in a short time like that.<br /> <br /> Even in the success case just being in a possession contract was dangerous already, if failed―they would became like this armored warrior.<br /> <br /> “That was an unreasonable way of doing things. The Wild God side doesn’t even choose the human and the human is forced into doing something unreasonable. Moreover to push something like a Wild God inside the heart…they were going to be completely ruined.”<br /> <br /> A Diva with ill will would try to take over the human’s flesh body by means of Drive.<br /> <br /> Then what would happen if a Diva who had lost their senses and ran wild was made to reside in human’s flesh body.<br /> <br /> Even if the Diva didn’t do any body stealing, wouldn’t the human get abused like a toy by that overwhelming power? So that was the meaning to be a God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> “If you look around you it’s just as you understand, God’s reliant emit the same type of miasma like a Demon Beast and transform the surrounding into a Haunted Ground. Wild God belong under the same category with Demon Beast―an &lt;absolute enemy of the human race&gt;.”<br /> <br /> An absolute enemy of the human race―it was still in the middle of being researched, but for Demon Beast, other than [attacking human] and [expanding the Haunted Ground in the place where human live], it was said that they didn’t show any other instinctual action at all.<br /> <br /> It seemed that there was never any confirmed sight of Demon Beast eating or sleeping.<br /> <br /> The expression of an absolute enemy of the human race was something he could surely agree with. But―<br /> <br /> “Is it fine to jumble the existence of Wild God and Demon Beast together? They are raging and rampaging around but, though imperfect they are still gods right?”<br /> <br /> “Different with many other Mythologies, demarcation of &lt;Good God・Evil God&gt; or existence called &lt;Demon&gt; doesn’t exist in Japanese Mythologies. [Enemy] in Japanese Mythology is none other than the disaster caused by the god that acted unruly. Japanese Mythology doesn’t worship the dual nature of good and evil, but the two face of nature’s blessing and calamity.”<br /> <br /> Wild God was not evil. However once angered, they would bare their fangs as the human race’s greatest enemy.<br /> <br /> Violent natural phenomenon destroyed the world of human and encroached.<br /> <br /> “…Among the people of Yamato’s government, there is the existence of someone that can skillfully manipulate being that can possibly be good or evil don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> Loki―the trickster of the Norse Mythology.<br /> <br /> “Yamato government made Ise Imperial Shrine as the place for the ceremony that create Shrine Maiden. It seems they possess the know-how of a method that is interlaced with science to make a human host a Diva.”<br /> <br /> Naiarlatoteph―the data from the experiment that that guy made Headmaster Otonashi do. The politicians of Yamato might make use of that. All of it was something possible if it was them.<br /> <br /> “They carried out the ceremony to produce Shrine Maiden here many times over, those who failed and became uncontrollable God’s reliant were abandoned and left behind. Like that the Ise Imperial Shrine was completely transformed into a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu sadly hung its head down.<br /> <br /> “…I now understood how Ise Imperial Shrine became a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> For the sake of obtaining battle strength called Shrine Maiden, these young people became the compensation. To watch out for the arrival of Kazuki and the others at Ise Imperial Shrine, for defense against that happening…these armored warriors were not for that purpose.<br /> <br /> He felt relieved that this infiltration operation was not detected right from the start but…just that was not sufficient to explain the present situation.<br /> <br /> “Then what is the objective of you and Futsunushi no Kami?”<br /> <br /> This guy was probably being connected with Futsunushi no Kami. If not for Futsunushi no Kami’s notification about Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s visit, then there was no way Yatagarasu could show its appearance with timing this good.<br /> <br /> However he knew well that it wasn’t an enemy.<br /> <br /> “You all called us out here, what do you want us to do? Can we properly achieve the objective of our coming here by doing the thing you want from us? Just so you know, we have no intention of only being used.”<br /> <br /> In response to Kazuki’s question, Futsunushi no Kami’s avatar appeared beside Yatagarasu.<br /> <br /> {…We want you to rescue Amaterasu.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami said such thing.<br /> <br /> “If Amaterasu recovers her power and gives birth to Japanese Mythology’s &lt;True {{furigana|King|Basileus}}&gt;, all the Diva will surely return to their senses from their Wild God state and obey the true King altogether. For that sake…I want the other chief god Susanoo to be defeated.}<br /> <br /> “I never heard about this two chief god in Japanese Mythology before.”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami had explained that [all the Wild God will return to their sanity if the chief god of Japanese Mythology is defeated] and led Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai to this land. Indeed, certainly there was no lie that was said there.<br /> <br /> Just that for such complex circumstance to lie around in between was rushing off everything.<br /> <br /> Kazuki exposed a dissatisfaction in his expression and pressed his question to Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> “Give us a proper explanation now. About all this circumstance of Japanese Mythology.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is a mythology that is made up of two powers of Yin and Yang.”<br /> <br /> Like that, Yatagarasu got the ball rolling for the explanation.<br /> <br /> “Therefore there are also two chief gods. The one that symbolized the Yang is Amaterasu, the one that symbolized the Yin is Susanoo. Once, Japan was divided into two of Amaterasu’s Wakoku and Susanoo’s Izumo. These two chief gods raised their own respective king as their mouthpiece and got embroiled in a destiny of conflict. Amaterasu and Susanoo, &lt;Wakoku King&gt; and &lt;Izumo King&gt;, the victor will become the true chief god and king of Japan. [Unification in the conflict’s afterwards], that is what have been established in the mythology.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu gave such explanation about the Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> “So you are going to get me involved in the confrontation between Amaterasu and Susanoo. …And then that Susanoo, right now he is forming an alliance with Yamato government, so that’s the situation.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki confirmed, Yatagarasu gave a brief nod.<br /> <br /> {What caused this situation was Susanoo. Susanoo joined hands with Yamato government and made the other Japanese Divas become Wild God from the instigation of shrine’s defilement.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami made a grimacing expression.<br /> <br /> The wiles of Yamato government to make the Divas of Japanese Mythology into Wild God and manipulate them was with the cooperation of Susanoo.<br /> <br /> “Why did Susanoo ally himself with Yamato?”<br /> <br /> “Susanoo was thinking that [Japanese Mythology is weak, therefore I have to borrow other Mythology’s power], that’s how it seems. There he was approached by Loki.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki opened his eyes wide in shock.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is weak?”<br /> <br /> {Right, I wonder if it can even be categorized as puny class.} Saying that, Futsunushi no Kami nodded.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology doesn’t really demand strong faith from the people of Japan. Even their will of opposition against other Mythology is sparse. As long as they have companion for festival and making ruckus and playing around with, then everything is fine. Their [will for power] are weak.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively looked at Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was a Shrine Maiden that made a contract with Futsunushi no Kami, but the relationship between the two was exactly like a friend.<br /> <br /> “We are like that but in the present time where [the era of Mythology has been revived], if we keep like this then [other Mythology will swallow us], Susanoo is harboring a sense of impending crisis like that. Right now he is buttering up Loki, but most likely he is planning to catch Loki off guard slyly in the end.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki frowned his eyebrows hearing Yatagarasu words. Planning to catch Loki off guard?<br /> <br /> Exactly because it was Loki, he was a Diva that could easily catch Susanoo off guard instead while joining hands with him.<br /> <br /> Susanoo and Loki…on the surface they were joining hands together, but their relation was one where both of them kept looking for an opening in each other’s guard.<br /> <br /> “The Diva that reign as the chief god of the Mythology not only bestow their characteristic magic to their contractor, but a power that should be called [King’s Authority] is also granted together with being recognized as a King. You too should have something like that.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said. Kazuki stared at the Stigmata on his own left hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was able to use Lemegeton’s characteristic magic, &lt;{{furigana|Goetia|72 Solomon=Pillar Omnimagic}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> The more he deepened his bond, the greater his power of bond became.<br /> <br /> Apart from that, there was also the power to visualize the change of girls’ positivity level and their location. This was what is called as [King’s Authority].<br /> <br /> It seemed there was still room for this power to strengthen even more together with Leme’s growth.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu and Susanoo, the Wakoku King and the Izumo King, they won’t be able to obtain their true power if they haven’t achieve victory over the opposing camp and become the true chief god and King. If the situation stays like this then the [King’s Authority] of the Japanese Mythology is impossible to use. Susanoo’s camp is being rash in their desire to defeat Amaterasu’s camp quickly. But Amaterasu has zero motivation for that. She didn’t enthrone her contractor as the King of Wakoku in the least and just kept playing with her contractor. Binding contract and recognizing someone as King are two separate matter.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was having a contract with Leme, but he still hadn’t been fully recognized as Solomon King yet.<br /> <br /> This was the same thing with that.<br /> <br /> “Why didn’t Amaterasu make her contractor to be King? That’s because she understood that the instant the King of Wakoku is born, the fight with Susanoo’s camp will begin. Amaterasu dislikes conflict. Her contractor too is also not someone suited for fighting. However [Even though Japanese Mythology is weak even in the best of time, also being unable to use the true power like this is intolerable], like that the Susanoo’s camp was getting even more irked.”<br /> <br /> Despite the preordained destiny of opposition between the two, but it seemed there was a difference in the degree of enthusiasm in each of them.<br /> <br /> “The angry Susanoo defeated the contractor of Amaterasu that still hadn’t become the Wakoku King yet prematurely. Furthermore he also recommended at the Yamato government to leave the God’s reliant that were created from the failed ceremony of possessed Shrine Maiden unregulated just like that in the Ise Imperial Shrine, and made the Ise Imperial Shrine into a Haunted Ground. Amaterasu obtained her power from both her contractor and Ise Imperial Shrine, that’s how she is preserving her divinity. But losing both of them simultaneously, her power weakened and she was sealed completely inside the &lt;Gate of Celestial Rock Cave&gt;. There is a danger of extinction for her if it keeps like this. Even the happy-go-lucky Amaterasu thought [Just as expected it’s going to be bad if it keep like this] and she sent a messenger to the other side of the seal―that messenger is this me, Yatagarasu.”<br /> <br /> {Yatagarasu has the privilege to come and goes as it pleases from the &lt;Territory&gt; of Japanese Mythology’s Divas. And then he made a contact with Diva that hasn’t become a Wild God that is me.}<br /> <br /> How Futsunushi no Kami didn’t become a Wild God…was surely thanks to his Shrine Maiden that was Kazuha-senpai who secretly moved Futsunushi no Kami’s altar to an abandoned club room in the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, I heard about you from Futsunushi no Kami. I want to ask you for a favor to rescue Amaterasu. To defeat Susanoo and become the person that control the Japanese Mythology, that is the favor that I want to ask. If it’s you, then you can defeat the Izumo King that Susanoo raised right?”<br /> <br /> “WAITT――――TT! JUST WAITT――――TT!!”<br /> <br /> At that time together with a shout, Leme materialized beside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Since this operation began, there was someone that maintained silence and acted like this matter about Japanese Mythology was of no concern for her. That was Leme.<br /> <br /> “Wait right there, Leme just stayed quiet and listened but Kazuki has already contracted with Leme just so you know! Is Japanese Mythology intending to snatch Kazuki from Leme!?”<br /> <br /> {I too understand about that. We are not planning to do that so it’s fine to feel relieved.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami said so in order to sooth Leme.<br /> <br /> “Just like what I said before, Amaterasu too already has her own contractor. What we want is to enthrone that ''girl'' as Wakoku King formally, on top of that we want to present her to the King of Solomon.”<br /> <br /> “Mu…oh hoh? Present you say?” Leme’s expression changed and her eyes brightened.<br /> <br /> “The King of Japanese Mythology will be affiliated to Hayashizaki Kazuki as &lt;Subordinate King&gt;, the Solomon King that is you will be accompanied by our King, becoming an existence of higher rank than even the King―we want to ask you to become the &lt;Emperor&gt;. In exchange for that we ask all of you to become our substitute in fighting Susanoo and Loki.”<br /> <br /> “I see! So you are going to present the Queen of Japanese Mythology into the harem! If it’s like that then certainly, it’s feasible for Kazuki to rule both Solomon Mythology and Japanese Mythology! The Emperor that rule even the other Mythology by means of harem&lt;ref&gt;Maybe I should capitalize the ‘h’ in harem here&lt;/ref&gt;…Solomon Emperor! That’s really not bad!!”<br /> <br /> {Guwahhahha! If that is realized then it will become Solomon Myriad 72 Pillar!}<br /> <br /> Leme was really gleeful and accepted the other side’s proposal. Futsunushi no Kami too got carried away with the mood and guffawed&amp;mdash;Kazuki interjected into the conversation in panic.<br /> <br /> “Hey wait, even if you say that you will present me with an unknown girl I’ve never seen before, it will just make me troubled!”<br /> <br /> “For the time being if you just meet her first it will be okay after that right, o my King. Most of all to make this infiltration operation succeed, it doesn’t look like there is any other way than this anyway.”<br /> <br /> Leme who had been completely won over to the other side before he could even say ‘ah’ said such to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Certainly, there was a truth in that but….<br /> <br /> It was a long explanation but, the main point was they wanted him to substitute for Amaterasu and fight Susanoo. If he defeated Susanoo and the true King of Japanese Mythology was born, the Japanese Divas that became Wild God would return to their senses and could be subdued. The objective of this side too could be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> {Guwahhahha! You can reach the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave&lt;ref&gt;Ama no Iwato in Japan, I keep wondering whether I should just use this original name because it’s shorter. How troublesome.&lt;/ref&gt; where Amaterasu is sealed through the deepest part of Ise Imperial Shrine! For that sake defeat the pitiful children that had transformed completely into God’s reliant and rescue them!!}<br /> <br /> Pitiful children…if they defeated those God’s reliant with Yatagarasu’s cooperation, they could return to their original human appearance. They have to make this operation a success, for that they also couldn’t leave these God’s reliant alone.<br /> <br /> “Well then, we are going to meet with Amaterasu…what do we need to do to release Amaterasu from the seal? What kind of seal is the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki questioned. The guffawing Futsunushi no Kami suddenly had his expression become serious.<br /> <br /> {That’s…for later. You will understand if you go to the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave.}<br /> <br /> …''So he was still planning to give incomplete information''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed his doubtful eyes to Futsunushi no Kami. When he was going to say ‘cut it out’ to him, suddenly his hand was gripped tightly from the side. It was Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki, that…don’t get angry about Futsunushi no Kami. Rather than that let’s rescue these people inside the God’s reliant okay.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai directed her sorrowful eyes to the people that were losing their consciousness. Even before feeling any distrust to Futsunushi no Kami, it seemed Kazuha-senpai thought about the people that became God’s reliant even more strongly.<br /> <br /> “…In the ceremony of possessed Shrine Maiden, I think these people surely became candidates by their own choice. Perhaps these people were originally a Knight. And they were resenting the humans that were chosen by Stigmata. That was why they themselves wanted to become stronger…”<br /> <br /> In the middle of battle, these God’s reliant were raising screams of hatred [STIGMATA!] many times over.<br /> <br /> Perhaps from envy and yearning toward Stigmata, and with feeling of [we too want to become even stronger], these guys were spurred into an extreme action like this. …Kazuki too felt heavy in his chest looking at them.<br /> <br /> “Something like that, really feels sad for some reason…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai hung her head down despondently.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai selected the katana that were in good condition from the hips of the fainted people and borrowed them, attaching those on their hips.<br /> <br /> A lot of time had passed while they were grilling Yatagarasu and Futsunushi no Kami, but there was no attack from the armored warriors that were supposed to still remain in this Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were still tied with the cloud strings from the sky as yet, those strings were a marking of their position.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless for there was no further attack…,<br /> <br /> “Most likely the Izumo King that is commanding them had already detected my existence.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said that.<br /> <br /> “Knowing that we cannot be defeated with only force, right now they are preparing an ambush in a location where they can use their number advantage with more reliability, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki also thought that Yatagarasu’s conjecture was correct.<br /> <br /> “That [Kumoito Shibari] is Susanoo’s magic that possesses equal power with Amaterasu. With the power of the currently weakened Amaterasu, it cannot be purged even if we use the [Yata no Kagami] from before. As long as that thread becomes the mark, it’s surely impossible to advance while evading ambush.”<br /> <br /> “Our side has also decided to rescue the people that became the God’s reliant anyway. We have no intention to advance while avoiding them. On the contrary if they are fortifying in one place it will become easier.”<br /> <br /> Before when they were prioritizing the original strategy, they couldn’t help but leave the Haunted Ground alone, but the situation had changed.<br /> <br /> “Well then Senpai, let’s be off! …Senpai?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who only had few words from some time before was…having her attention completely stolen by one of the souvenir shop building.<br /> <br /> With some of the God’s reliant defeated, the original appearance of the Ise town appeared in front of their eyes. With how close they were with Ise Imperial Shrine, souvenir shops intended for tourist were lining up, but…,<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki, this akafuku&lt;ref&gt;A type of mocha colored red&lt;/ref&gt;, I wonder if it’s edible.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was directing her eyes filled with greed on the packages that were piled up in heaps on the most conspicuous shelve inside the souvenir shop. The famous product of Ise, [Akafuku Mochi]. Of course the inside of the store right now was in a defenseless and unmanned state.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, stealing is no good. Moreover after the store became a Haunted Ground and then returned back to normal, it is unknown what happened with the flow of time during that period. It might have gone bad already. Besides the time is precious, let’s go.”<br /> <br /> When he pulled Kazuha-senpai’s hand forcefully, senpai went “Aa~, Hayashizaki~” and raised a quacking voice that sounded like a whine.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When they advanced through the street of Ise town, their surrounding soon changed into the eerie Haunted Ground again. When he compared the area with the map he had seen, it appears that the size of the Haunted Ground had been reduced until around half the previous size. In other words, they had defeated half the number of the God’s reliant in the previous battle.<br /> <br /> The remaining half was waiting for them ahead….<br /> <br /> They finally arrived in a similar condition with when they first came here. The asphalt road was muddy and wet, the surrounding buildings were weathered, and the sky lost its color. Trees became a lot more than the buildings in this area. On the rotting trunks and branches that looked like those were going to fall, rust-colored leaves were hanging down.<br /> <br /> They advanced even further. There was still no ambush or attack from the God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> A large shrine archway standing in the path forward entered their eyes.<br /> <br /> &lt;Shinmei Archway&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Shinmei Toori, also means the archway of Amaterasu&lt;/ref&gt;―it was an archway with an extremely ancient shape before it even received the influence of Buddhist’s ornament culture.<br /> <br /> However now that it was currently under the influence of the Haunted Ground, its color was transformed into an ominous jet black color.<br /> <br /> They had arrived at Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Ahead of the archway was the Isuzu River and the bridge that crossed that river―&lt;Uji Bridge&gt; was built there.<br /> <br /> The length of the bridge was 100 meters, its width was just a little around 8 meter.<br /> <br /> …They are coming here. Kazuki felt that hunch.<br /> <br /> Here was an open surrounding that was just right for a large group assault. Even on the bridge it had enough width to make the best use of number advantage.<br /> <br /> As was expected, the instant he stepped his foot on the bridge―war cry was raised from the dark forest ahead of the bridge and a crowd of armored warriors was approaching.<br /> <br /> At the same time, armored warriors that went around and cut in also came along from behind.<br /> <br /> On top of the Uji Bridge, it became a pincer attack.<br /> <br /> “I leave the back to you, Hayashizaki!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai immediately stood back-to-back with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu flew up to the sky from Kazuki’s shoulder in order to escape.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors surged ahead with the force of surging waves while taking the stance of the Dragonfly, making the bridge creak worryingly. The bridge was filled with troops that surrounded Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai in the blink of an eye. They slashed away while making opponent of enemies that came from every directions.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DON!* Shockwave and flame explosion. Kazuha-senpai blew away the enemies altogether with magic. …Defeat the enemy only using sword skill to preserve their magic power…such thinking was unreasonable.<br /> <br /> “The light of heaven reside in that body o bird of paradise, comply with my accusation and reduce to ashes the sin above the earth! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Phoenix’s avatar emerged at Kazuki’s back and emitted brightness as if every light in the world were gathered. That light dazzled the eyes, stopping the attack of the armored warriors for a moment. At that interval Kazuki set his aim at an angle that would swallow the most number of enemies, the vast light was changed into a thick laser and fired. The armored warriors in a straight line fell down altogether.<br /> <br /> “”””STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!””””<br /> <br /> Angry voices that were like earthquake welled up from the armored warriors.<br /> <br /> “Wawa! Just as I thought these guys really get angry when Summoning Magic is used. Their fierceness is growing rapidly!”<br /> <br /> “Let’s settle the bout quickly!”<br /> <br /> “Got it! …Tenkū Battou Renge Hou!!”<br /> <br /> The countless Sacred Treasures that Kazuha-senpai created flew about freely above the battlefield on top of the bridge. The Sacred Treasures that possessed various elements released flame or lightning, even cold here and there from each of them.<br /> <br /> “Please take care not to break the bridge okay!” Kazuki raised his voice.<br /> <br /> “…So that Yata no Kagami can finish off as many armored warriors as possible, please inflict damage to all the enemies evenly!”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said an unreasonable challenge from the sky. …Does it think anyone can do such miraculous thing!?<br /> <br /> “This is not for the sake of preserving my magic power! The youth that is transformed back by Yata no Kagami will faint in magic intoxication, they are going to get trampled by the armored warriors that flood in next!! If that happen they are going to die for real!!”<br /> <br /> “Kuh…that certainly can happen!”<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuki complained, he couldn’t help but consent to Yatagarasu’s request.<br /> <br /> The curtain of a long offense and defense on top of the bridge was opened.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> After blowing away an armored warrior flying far away from the inflicted damage, the new created empty space right there was quickly occupied with a different armored warrior. If the newly arrived armored warrior was a fresh one then it would be assaulted just like that, but if it was one that had been damaged then it would be quickly driven off by sending it flying far away…. The armored warriors that had lost their own will was also quite mechanical in some aspect, the offense and defense completely turned into something like a puzzle game.<br /> <br /> After a long repetition―Yatagarasu used the completed [Yata no Kagami], where after that the youths of Yamato fainted on top of the Uji bridge in a closely packed formation.<br /> <br /> The surrounding scenery returned back to the original Ise Imperial Shrine. The Isuzu river shone from the sunlight, the Uji bridge that was built on top of it recovered its beautiful wooden texture. A forest where trees that looked mystical grew in abundance spread out ahead of the bridge, and a road that pushed its way through that forest was extending forward.<br /> <br /> Heaps of corpses scattered all around on top of the bridge…such image emerged to the surface of the mind, but nobody was dead because the youths only fainted from magic intoxication. There was no strong burden weighing their minds but they only fainted from the state where their connection with the Wild Gods that was like a curse disappeared. It was surely not a dangerous magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai breathe a sigh of relief. Surely the state inside her head had became more full with the thought of rescuing the people that were turned into God’s reliant rather than the infiltration operation itself.<br /> <br /> God’s reliant―they held envy and hatred toward Stigmata, because of that they offered themselves to a dangerous ceremony and in the end were completely transformed into an existence that was called as a failure.<br /> <br /> Before this, their outcry hurt Kazuha-senpai’s heart. Kazuki had the feeling that he understood the reason why.<br /> <br /> For a long time until now, Kazuha-senpai was looked down by the swordsmen and made fun of.<br /> <br /> For envy and hatred to be directed at her as a possessor of Stigmata surely made her have a complicated feeling.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too was once an existence that was looked down in the Magic Division and came this far by relying upon his pride in his sword skill. That was why his mental state felt complicated to have such emotion directed at him by many swordsmen.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, we were gifted the power of Stigmata and became far stronger than we were just a swordsman, but that’s why it doesn’t mean that we have seen the limit of the strength as a swordsman, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Standing stock still unintentionally on top of the bridge, Kazuki called out to Kazuha-senpai from the side planning to cheer her up.<br /> <br /> “…Kohaku is attempting to become a swordsman that won’t lose to Magika Stigma by making a practical use of Sacred Treasure. Kanae too, recently she is trying to discover a new possibility of new technique by putting general magic to practical use even further.”<br /> <br /> What kind of phenomenon magic power could give birth to was the product of image. Right now there were some aspects from the old sword skill outlook that still restrained both Kazuki and Kanae, but there was a large room of possibility for creating sword skill that had never even been imagined until now by means of new creative originality.<br /> <br /> “Even the whole body of the Magic Division now is stopping their high and mighty attitude just because they are possessing Stigmata. They are also starting to listen to opinions that ask them to stop looking down on the Sword Division. The Knight Order in the future from now on is supposed to become nearer in equality between swordsman and Magika Stigma. If that happens, then there shouldn’t be anymore swordsmen that will do something stupid like this. …Doing something like throwing one’s selves away, is something that mustn’t be done no matter what.”<br /> <br /> Right at that moment, the memory of Kaya’s scream when she was eroded by Loki was reviving inside Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> “If swordsmen and Magika Stigma can look at each other right in the eye, swordsmen should be able to reach that new possibility that can only be achieved by swordsmen.”<br /> <br /> “…That’s right huh, you are really someone that caused a revolution in the Knight Academy.”<br /> <br /> “Calling that revolution, that’s not…”<br /> <br /> “Kohaku too…even I, we are really thankful for what you have done.”<br /> <br /> Facing each other in the middle of the bridge, Kazuha-senpai softly clasped both of Kazuki’s hands.<br /> <br /> Holding hand like this might be a skinship that Kazuha-senpai could just barely do with honest feelings. For Kazuki, this warmth transmitted to him was an irreplaceable important emotion.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Indeed it’s just like what you said. These small fries are feeling jealous without even doing any respectable hard work. Their appearance pawing at the ground while ruining their own body is…extremely unsightly. What is called strength should be something more pure.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―A singing like voice that sounded really clear suddenly could be heard.<br /> <br /> From the forest ahead, the master of the voice appeared and halted in front of the bridge.<br /> <br /> The distance between them was dozens of meters. It was not a distance that could be closed immediately.<br /> <br /> With a shock, Kazuki separated his body from Kazuha-senpai while calmly ascertaining that character.<br /> <br /> It was a girl wearing a deep red kimono that looked like a prostitute.<br /> <br /> A loose collar to the degree that one could peek into her back, a languid style of wearing kimono, making one looked graceful.<br /> <br /> It was a gorgeous appearance that could never be thought as something for a fight, but a Japanese katana could be identified on her hips. A swordsman.<br /> <br /> And then at her side were two people, two armored warriors in divine possession were coming along with her. Most likely those two were the last God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono sent her glancing gaze to those two and her mouth curved cynically.<br /> <br /> “Please look at them, this pathetic figure. Having lost their reason they are the very figure of mere beasts. Although they can now fight better compared to when they were just their former worthless swordsmen selves, even then the state of their soul currently really cannot be said as strong. …You two, please give your greeting.”<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono extended both her hands respectively to the faces of the armored warriors waiting at her left and right.<br /> <br /> The &lt;face armors&gt; under the helmet that was covering the nose and the mouth that hid the faces of the armored warriors, were taken off by those hands.<br /> <br /> The faces of the two armored warriors became exposed. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai reflexively caught their breath.<br /> <br /> “Takasugi brothers!”<br /> <br /> What appeared from under the face armors were―the faces of Takasugi brothers.<br /> <br /> The two that had became a rival candidate of Kazuki in the Chief Student Council President battle election, Takasugi Shūsui and Takasugi Harunari.<br /> <br /> Advocating the rejection of human rights for Magika Stigma that possessed far too powerful power and that they should be treated as weapons, the two young student activists!<br /> <br /> So these two sought power after they were fouled in the battle election and were reduced into God’s reliant here.<br /> <br /> “”Hayashizakii…Hayashizaki KazukiiIIIII!!””<br /> <br /> The faces under the face armor were ruled by shuddering madness. Both their eyes and their mouth were opened to the limit and deep creases were engraved in their faces. They were leaking voice of curses while their jaws were convulsing in spasm.<br /> <br /> “The introduction is over for now…it’s okay to let loose already you guys!”<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono appearance handed down her command with a sharp voice as if a wild beast tamer lashing her whip.<br /> <br /> “GO-!!” Simultaneously with the voice, the Takasugi brothers leaped at this direction.<br /> <br /> They raised their katana overhead straight like a berserker and slashed at Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai with dauntless courage.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai traversed the bridge in a big leap while meeting the attack in order not to drag the people lying down around them into this fight. “Kazuha-senpai!” “It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about me!” They completely couldn’t make heads or tails of which one was the older brother Shūsui and which one was the little brother Harunari, but Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai picked one opponent each while exchanging voices, *GIN!* *GIN!* sparks of clashing swords were scattered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki softly redirected the enemy’s simple powerful downswing with &lt;Instant Positioning&gt;.<br /> <br /> Just like that he sidestepped the enemy’s stance and promptly slashed diagonally below with his returning blade.<br /> <br /> His opponent was blown away together with the backlash of defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> During that time, he directed his sight to Kazuha-senpai. Kazuha-senpai couldn’t parry as smoothly as Kazuki and she was brought into a sword-locking contest. If the attack was not quickly parried away with skill, she would have to go against the enemy’s superhuman power directly from the front. Kazuha-senpai leaked out “Kuh” in a painful voice while somehow redirecting her opponent’s heavy blow. Kazuha-senpai’s posture was disarranged.<br /> <br /> Because her posture was disarranged, she couldn’t move into a counterattack smoothly like what Kazuki did.<br /> <br /> But if it was Kazuha-senpai who excelled in chanting ability, it was enough just with that.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> Thrusting her one hand forward, from there *DON!* flame explosion and shockwave were produced.<br /> <br /> ―The two Takasugi brothers were repelled altogether from Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and blown away from the bridge.<br /> <br /> But they were abruptly rising back up again.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stood in front of Kazuki in order to cover for him.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki…I’ll face these two guys together just by myself. That’s why you Hayashizaki, deal with that kimono girl there.”<br /> <br /> “But senpai” Kazuki’s tone of voice was mixed with hesitation.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps compared to this set of two guys, that girl over there is far stronger. That’s why I’ll leave her to you.”<br /> <br /> Certainly Kazuki too harbored the same premonition.<br /> <br /> “I’m far stronger compared to these small fries!! I won’t let you two pass beyond this point!!”<br /> <br /> While their attention was diverted by Takasugi brothers, the figure of the girl in kimono vanished.<br /> <br /> …The voice came from above! With her kimono’s fringe fluttering loosely, the girl was soaring high above Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai―it was not a jumping power that could be done somehow or other just with Enchant Aura.<br /> <br /> The girl landed at a few meters behind Kazuki, with the force of a bouncing rubber ball she drew out her sword while in the stance of turning back.<br /> <br /> It didn’t mean that Kazuki was taken by surprise. Kazuki too instantly turned his back and drew out his sword in return.<br /> <br /> Flashes of light collided. Both of their drawn swords bit at each other from directly opposite, scattering apart sparks, and they entered sword-locking contest from there.<br /> <br /> It was not a contest between strength. Kazuki redirected the opponent’s strength with Instant Positioning and tried to break her posture. The girl was also doing a similar thing at the same time. Their blades were mutually entangling with each other flexibly skill to skill.<br /> <br /> If he could match the opponent’s vector of power, he could break the deadlock.<br /> <br /> String of tension was stretched silently inside his brain. In the distance where they could even feel each other’s breath, he focused on nothing but to Foresight the movement of the opponent and control the blade delicately against the other.<br /> <br /> An even sword-locking contest―at that time Kazuki and the kimono girl were mutually making a surprised expression of [There is an opponent that is my equal]. …I can do this!!<br /> <br /> Both of them jumped back behind at the same time and took back the distance.<br /> <br /> The girl held the katana languidly with her right hand, she brushed her disordered kimono’s cuff with her left hand swiftly and fixed her clothes instantly.<br /> <br /> A natural body posture that really couldn’t be said as a stance at all. But there was no opening. She surely could leap to all kinds of movements in any moment even like that. There was this indication of all in one in her. <br /> <br /> There was no doubt she had the bearing of a master.<br /> <br /> “What kind of person are you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuaki finally questioned the girl that stood in his way with respect toward an exceptional character coloring his words.<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, there was the sign of Kazuha-senpai exchanging blades with Takasugi brothers and roars of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “I won’t let you interfere in Amaterasu’s sealing. I am one of Kenshitou’s highest upper echelons entrusted with the defense of this land…the thirtieth &lt;Aisu Ikousai&gt; Hidetada.”<br /> <br /> Kenshitou’s upper echelons…he thought that this Haunted Ground held no protection squad from Yamato, yet…<br /> <br /> No wait, rather than that, Aisu Ikousai she said?<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt his mind became white. It was a feeling like being in the presence of a legend.<br /> <br /> “…You are joking right? Moreover the thirtieth?”<br /> <br /> “Oh, so you too are doubting the reality? You who are the successor of Hayashizaki-style sword drawing art?”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai―he was a swordsman of Muromachi period&lt;ref&gt;1333-1573 CE&lt;/ref&gt;. No, perhaps he ought to even be called a sword god.<br /> <br /> From Muromachi period until Sengoku period&lt;ref&gt;1467-1568 CE&lt;/ref&gt;, there were countless schools of sword style created in Japan.<br /> <br /> The most famous in history among them was surely Yagyuu Shinkage-style. With the choosing of Yagyuu Sekishūsai and his child, Munenori to become the instructor of the shogunate family, the house of Tokugawa, Yagyuu became known as the best sword-style in the whole country. It was also fine to even say that they are the best sword-style in the world of swords.<br /> <br /> When that Yagyuu’s history was perused, there was the master of Yagyuu Sekishūsai, the &lt;sword saint&gt; Kamiizumi Ise no Kami Nobutsuna. And then looking even further at the master of that person was a character that was already in the realm of myth―Aisu Ikousai Hisatada.<br /> <br /> When Japan’s school of sword style was traced back, every one of them would run into three origins. Those were namely Art of War Three Great Origins―&lt;Nen-style&gt;, &lt;Shinto-style&gt;, and then Aiko Ikousai’s &lt;Kage-style&gt;, those three.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was…feeling like he was confronting his own honored ancestor.<br /> <br /> “Hey the successor of Hayashizaki-style. Since when did you think Japan’s sword art was transformed into a sport?”<br /> <br /> The girl―Aisu Ikousai asked.<br /> <br /> “Generally it is said that the impetus was Kamiizumi Ise no Kami’s idea to use bamboo sword but…personally I think sword art had already changed into sports in Muromachi period. The uselessness of katana in war that was fought in groups had already became self-evident at that period…sword art was just a mere fashion of samurai. True practical sword art or the like had already gone at that time. The only scene where practical use of sword art could be applied was the one versus one fight that happened behind the other side of history―only in the setting of assassination. That is surely the sword’s true long cherished desire, the thirty generation piling up in the shadow…”<br /> <br /> That was a completely different history compared to an old style sword school like Kazuki’s Hayashizaki-style. Even though Hayashizaki-style was also an old style sword school that was passed in secret, by no means they erased their own name by their own hands. It was not the case that they attempted to become a legend.<br /> <br /> The mystical assassination sword art that earnestly erased their name continuously since Muromachi period….<br /> <br /> “I see…and then an era like the present time came.”<br /> <br /> “The era of magic…an era where the minority of powerful warriors dictated the battle had come. Now is the time for sword art’s resurrection! This Aisu Ikousai too!! That’s the reason why I formed a partnership with Kenshitou.”<br /> <br /> Tension filled the languid limbs of Aisu Ikousai to the brim. …It's coming!<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style! I was looking forward at having a bout with you-!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;ton*, Kicking the ground lightly, but with acceleration that ran in contrast with that lightness, Aisu Ikousai closed the distance. Kazuki didn’t chant any spell and intercepted only with just the sword.<br /> <br /> “Secret Sword…{{furigana|Shiraha Kagerou|Naked Blade Heat Haze}}!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai yelled. At that time Kazuki witnessed something hard to believe.<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai’s blade that was approaching Kazuki―bent like a jelly from its base.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s katana that was going to block slashed empty air.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s katana approached near Kazuki’s neck as if it had transformed into a whip. Kazuki attempted to dodge his body just barely from the blade. At that instant, the blade was not only twisting itself, it lengthened itself flexibly even further.<br /> <br /> The blade grazed Kazuki’s neck and with a spark blue light of magic power scattered.<br /> <br /> Ikousai passed the side of Kazuki who got slashed.<br /> <br /> “…First is one kill.” Ikousai whispered while they passed each other.<br /> <br /> …Just now was an advanced application of Psychokinesis. The slashed Kazuki instantly understood.<br /> <br /> Sensing the Prima Material of the blade, then it was influenced powerfully by Psychokinesis and its shape was altered.<br /> <br /> He could grasp the how but he was amazed that such thing was really possible. It was a technique that was completely beyond his imagination.<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately turned back and faced Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved out without a moment’s delay. Next it was Kazuki’s turn to be the attacker―surely even a flickering blade was just a normal katana when it was reversed to be the defender. There was a necessity to hold the initiative in this fight.<br /> <br /> Ikousai blocked the single stroke that Kazuki swung down and it became a sword-locking contest once more.<br /> <br /> This time it was not with technique, Kazuki attempted to push her with power.<br /> <br /> “Ou” Aisu Ikousai raised her voice. “Because I’m a woman so you think you can win in arm strength?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t permit Ikousai to try to parry the blade and pressed her with strength.<br /> <br /> With the difference in strength between male and female, Kazuki’s blade slowly approached Ikousai’s face.<br /> <br /> “If it's like this then, Secret Rite…{{furigana|Aoiro Yasha|Blue Yaksha}}.”<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki’s eyes, strange magic power was whirling inside Ikousai’s flesh.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;doku doku* Her body pulsed strongly…Ikousai’s face was turning blue before his eyes.<br /> <br /> What is currently happening―this is, blood flow manipulation.<br /> <br /> Human’s flesh body was creating energy with two types of method, that was [utilizing oxygen] and [not utilizing oxygen]. The structure that utilized oxygen was making energy for stamina, but the structure that didn’t utilize oxygen―produced explosive power by decomposing sugar content.<br /> <br /> The body automatically balanced which of the two structures would be prioritized to use.<br /> <br /> But this girl controlled the blood flow of her entire body and closed the oxygen supply herself, making use of that to invigorate her {{furigana|creation of the energy that didn’t need oxygen|Muscle Power Release}}&lt;ref&gt;This muscle power release, I’m not sure if it's right. The kanji is too small in my source and I cannot read it clearly. If anyone know the more accurate word, please revise it.&lt;/ref&gt; to the maximum. She tilted the balancing scale of her body by her own will.<br /> <br /> That could be said as an artificial ultimate anaerobic exercise. The girl’s slender arm that was turning pale was influenced with a doping, producing an explosive power that should be impossible from physical balance!<br /> <br /> …He never thought that someone would reinforce their own physical strength with this kind of approach!<br /> <br /> The balance of strength tilted from Ikousai’s explosive instantaneous force. Kazuki was outpushed. Ikousai didn’t miss the disarray of Kazuki’s balance and she drove away Kazuki’s katana, breaking the stance of Kazuki’s body.<br /> <br /> Kazuki suffered a defeat in sword-locking contest for the first time after several years.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s slash assaulted Kazuki whose stance was disarrayed. Kazuki forcefully evaded that. He planned to evade but―Ikousai’s blade stretched out like a snake and grazed Kazuki’s neck.<br /> <br /> “The second kill.” The girl floated a smile in her face.<br /> <br /> With a stumbling step Kazuki regrouped himself with some distance. Ikousai immediately gave chase and pursued with the ever-changing twisting katana.<br /> <br /> Just with the katana’s shape twisting, the movement became really hard to read to the degree he never imagined.<br /> <br /> He was bewitchingly looking at it with his eyes. With such insight…Kazuki Foresight the magic power produced from the blade. If the magic power could be read, the he could Foresight what kind of alteration would happen to the blade next. From there he could calculate the trajectory of the slash.<br /> <br /> Though it was a complicated calculation that had to be done in an instant….<br /> <br /> Kazuki breathed out strongly with a huff and concentrated. He Foresight the phantasmagoric stroke of the katana. And then he grasped the logic of the blade and *KiIN!* sparks were scattered. Ikousai went “Hou?” and showed a surprised expression.<br /> <br /> “For someone to start seeing through Shiraha Kagerou from just one occasion, really.”<br /> <br /> “In Hayashizaki-style, no same technique will work twice against us.”<br /> <br /> “Then…Secret Sword, {{furigana|Tenrou Kaidan|Heaven Tower Stair}}!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!* A terrific voice rang out.<br /> <br /> At that moment, Aisu Ikousai’s figure disappeared from Kazuki’s sight.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!*, *PAAN!*, the sounds of something bursting reverberated around Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Where is she!? ―Even the time allowed to think of that question, was just for an instant.<br /> <br /> The next instant, Kazuki was slashed diagonally in the back.<br /> <br /> On the back of Kazuki who was pitching forward staggeringly, a further second slash was carved. “Third kill! Fourth kill!!” Ikousai raised a joyful voice and attacked while pursuing Kazuki.<br /> <br /> This swordsman of Yamato, this fellow…!<br /> <br /> While Kazuki received the backlash from the defensive magic power, he rolled forward in order to take distance and escaped from Ikousai’s range. Ikousai didn’t chase too far and made a broad grin in her face from her triumph. She fixed her kimono with one hand.<br /> <br /> “Secret Rite…{{furigana|Usubeni Hannya|Light Crimson Hannya}}.”<br /> <br /> The girl’s pale body was recovering its former complexion. If the blood flow was constrained for too long, then next the stamina would surely disappear from the body.<br /> <br /> She exploded her instantaneous force with [Aoiro Yasha], and recovered her stamina with [Usubeni Hannya].<br /> <br /> But, even more than that the technique just now….<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, it’s four times already. If we crossed swords without this thing called defensive magic power, you had already died four times.”<br /> <br /> “…Don’t just make up an assumption that’s convenient for yourself as you please, assassin swordsman. What we are doing right now is a fight with defensive magic power aren’t we? Who can agree with that kind of simple win lose condition attached here.”<br /> <br /> Toward Kazuki who got a little worked up in his rebuttal, ‘ku-ku-ku’, Ikousai chuckled innocently.<br /> <br /> “This might be a little childish but, at any rate my opponent is the greatest masterpiece of Hayashizaki-style and the famous [Cyclops] after all. It’s really unbearable, this desire of mine to prove that my sword is the strongest with you as the opponent.”<br /> <br /> The strongest sword….<br /> <br /> Certainly this fellow’s skill was not ordinary. That kind of conception she used in her technique had never occurred to him at all.<br /> <br /> Even if he was struck with that kind of idea, he would surely be unable to manage to realize such technique without piling up a mountain of training.<br /> <br /> This girl in front of his eyes was not a swordsman that just merely inherited an ancient style sword art. Matching the current era and evolving her sword together with it―she was a swordsman that had advanced several steps ahead of the path that Kanae was trying to traverse.<br /> <br /> In this match as a swordsman, Kazuki honestly realized that he was falling into the inferiority here.<br /> <br /> [Tenrou Kaidan]…First he had to fathom the true form of that technique….<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuha dodged the Takasugi brothers' violent downswings as if dancing.<br /> <br /> She returned a compact slash through that opening.<br /> <br /> A battle between butterfly and boar―it was an easy offense and defense for Kazuha who was in the middle of learning the skill of Foresight.<br /> <br /> “…Why were you guys trying to become strong with that kind of method?”<br /> <br /> With the timing of the widening distance as the impetus, Kazuha questioned while taking her stance vigilantly.<br /> <br /> These guys were following the order of that girl in kimono. In other words they should still have some of their consciousness remaining.<br /> <br /> “…Kill the Magika Stigma…!”<br /> <br /> With a look exactly like a beast, the Takasugi brothers’ voices leaked out.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, Hayashizaki Kanae! They insult us that [our skill in sword is not a big deal] and so on…!”<br /> <br /> Right now the one who stood in front of their eyes was Kazuha, but perhaps they were already unable to recognize that anymore. The two of them vented their hatred in frankness to Kazuha.<br /> <br /> “Our, revolution ideology was defiled, because of you bastards’ fault!”<br /> <br /> “The battle election…what we were saying was supposed to be the most correct thought! Despite so, nobody elected us…because we lost in the battle election!! That battle election was just a farce decided only by power!!”<br /> <br /> “Power, power destroyed our just ideal!! Power is…abominable!!”<br /> <br /> Certainly there was an aspect in the battle election where the vote easily gathered on the students who made great showings in the tournament.<br /> <br /> But what would happen to the Magic Division and the Sword Division from now on? The students wouldn’t give their vote just from the result of the tournament without giving a serious consideration on that.<br /> <br /> They lost in election not because their fighting strength was weak. What was weak of them was…,<br /> <br /> “What is lacking in you guys, isn’t it the strength to look hard at yourself!?”<br /> <br /> Takasugi brothers assaulted her recklessly. Yet Kazuha dodged it easily and slashed back in return.<br /> <br /> The brothers were repelled from the backlash of the defensive magic power and fell into their backside…then they stood back up with faces that looked like as if they were going to cry.<br /> <br /> “It’s you bastards’ fault, that we failed to get elected…that power, power got away from our hands! Authority got away from our hands!!”<br /> <br /> “It’s you bastards’ fault that we are like this! That we failed to obtain the power to trample those Magika Stigma under our foot!!”<br /> <br /> For the third time, they stepped forward like an idiot that only knew how to do just one thing.<br /> <br /> Kazuha evaded as if she was dancing. Even while she evaded elegantly, Kazuha’s chest felt gloomy.<br /> <br /> “Authority got away from your hands you said? You want to trample the Magika Stigma under your foot you said? Even though you talked about ideal so haughtily…the inside of you guys is just that sort of thing!!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha slashed the two them away with all her might. But the two whose body were poured with the magic power of Wild God would abruptly stand back up no matter how many times they were cut down.<br /> <br /> “…It’s you bastards’ fault. It’s you bastards’ fault that we became useless…”<br /> <br /> “…It’s you bastards’ fault, that father branded us as useless…”<br /> <br /> The deep resentment voices of the brothers overlapped.<br /> <br /> Father―the one that switched over from being the board chairman of the knight academy to be Yamato’s statesman, they were surely talking about Takasugi Takayoshi.<br /> <br /> “”Power…, I want strength…!””<br /> <br /> That lurid spirit overpowered Kazuha. However she soon glared back.<br /> <br /> …Even I harbored a feeling of inferiority, I was wishing stronger than anyone that I want to become stronger.<br /> <br /> But I didn’t distort my feeling like this.<br /> <br /> “That distorted [will to become strong] of you guys…I won’t recognize something like that!!”<br /> <br /> “GYAAAAAA! {{furigana|Jiraiba|Earth Lightning Blade}}!!”<br /> <br /> One of the Takasugi brothers raised one of his hands high to the sky. At his side an avatar of a Diva that resembled Futsunushi no Kami emerged out. A Diva with an appearance of an ancient sword!<br /> <br /> Thunder fell to the raised hand, then he took hold of that lightning where it turned into a sword of lightning.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Senbiki Fudouwan|Thousand Pull Immobile Arm}}!!”<br /> <br /> The one other Takasugi brothers was also raising one of his hands high to the sky. An avatar of a giant emerged beside him.<br /> <br /> The arm raised overhead bulged out several times larger, transforming into an arm of giant that made the gripped long sword look like a toy.<br /> <br /> {That’s…the power of &lt;Take Mikadzuchi&gt; and &lt;Take Minakata&gt;. If the high level magic of those two are used then it won’t finish with just around that degree but, well, looks like those just now are only level 2 magic.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami conveyed his voice to Kazuha-senpai through telepathy.<br /> <br /> …If there was consciousness still left inside them even in just a little amount, they could still manage to use even low level Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers slashed at Kazuha simultaneously. Kazuha received an electric shock the moment she made contact with the lighting sword, and surely the slash launched using that gigantified arm possessed a power to the degree that she couldn’t block.<br /> <br /> If it kept like this she wouldn’t be able to defend. If she evaded the attack then there was no doubt that the Uji Bridge she was standing on would be broken in pieces.<br /> <br /> Therefore Kazuha also chanted her spell. The spell that she had been preparing for quite some time from before.<br /> <br /> “Watching thousands of lives withering in the path of the sword…o military men obeyed by hundreds of grass, please lend that hand free from obstructive thought to my morals! …{{furigana|Kenki Shihou Ken|Devilish Swordsman Four Directions Sword}}!!”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 6 magic―great number of bluish-white souls drifted and gathered around Kazuha.<br /> <br /> Those were the souls of the swordsmen that followed the path of the sword to its extremes and perished halfway through. <br /> <br /> Responding against Futsunushi no Kami’s guidance, those souls appeared under Kazuha. They possessed mass due to magic power and transformed into something that symbolized their tempering&amp;mdash;becoming enormous arms and katana.<br /> <br /> There was a total of four ghostly arms and katana each with a size that reached Kazuha’s stature, floating around her.<br /> <br /> “Become my substitute, block them!”<br /> <br /> The lightning sword born from Take Mikadzuchi’s power was blocked solidly by the two arms surrounding the right side crossing their two katana. The electric shock couldn’t flow to the spot where Kazuha was.<br /> <br /> The one strike that was gigantified by Take Minakata’s power was blocked solidly by the two arms surrounding the left side crossing their two katana. The three giant arms were locked in a rivalry of strength with grinding sound.<br /> <br /> In the center of those two spots of power, Kazuha’s own two hands were free.<br /> <br /> Kazuha directed those two hands at the Takasugi brothers and chanted.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DON!* The released shockwave blew away both the Takasugi brothers altogether.<br /> <br /> The four arms created by Kazuha were controlled remotely in accordance with Kazuha’s will and even now they assaulted the Takasugi brothers who were trying to stand and pressed them on.<br /> <br /> During that time, Kazuha turned her eyes to the battle between Kazuki and the kimono girl.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was having much trouble with the girl who introduced herself as Aisu Ikousai….<br /> <br /> “…What is he doing? ''Just against techniques of that degree'', that guy become cornered like that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha reflexively knitted her eyebrows. The Hayashizaki Kazuki that I know isn’t supposed to be that kind of person.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! What the hell are you doing, just against that kind of fellow!”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuha-senpai threw a scolding voice at Kazuki who was in the middle of a glaring match with Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Those kind of techniques are not really a big deal right!!?”<br /> <br /> Hearing that, Ikousai looked sullen with her pride wounded.<br /> <br /> “Now you really said it. I thought that it would be fine to leave the dunce of the Sword Division to those dimwits Takasugi brothers, yet…should I carved the technique of Aisu’s Kage-style on that body of yours too?”<br /> <br /> “Even if you don’t deliberately carve it into my body, I get it already just from watching here! ''Like this right''!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai dashed to this direction trying to interrupt between Kazuki and Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> That figure of hers, *PAAN!* went flying together with that sound.<br /> <br /> “!?” Ikousai’s spine trembled with shock witnessing that.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s body danced high to the sky. From there even more *PAAN!* *PAAN!* sounds rang out and she maneuvered three dimensionally in the air. Kazuha-senpai instantly circled to Ikousai’s back.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki saw that from his position as a third party observer, he comprehended that trick for the first time.<br /> <br /> …I see, certainly seeing it from outside is really easy to understand.<br /> <br /> The sound of *PAAN!* was the sound of kicking with full power the movement energy produced by Psychokinesis. Creating a foothold in the sky with magic and making the body leap through the air under an instant. That speed was several levels faster compared to a normal jump. When the opponent was thinking vaguely that the enemy was above, she had already flew about three dimensionally who knew how many times―and circled into the back.<br /> <br /> “Learned by imitating, Tenrou Kaidan!”<br /> <br /> While yelling, Kazuha-senpai swept her katana sideways.<br /> <br /> As expected from the originator herself, Ikousai was not tricked by that movement and saw through Kazuha-senpai’s position instantly and dodged the blade. But at that time Kazuha-senpai’s blade twisted like jelly. It was just a slight twist compared to Ikousai’s own, but certainly her blade’s shape distorted―Shiraha Kagerou.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s single stroke of katana gouged Ikousai’s neck shallowly, making her defensive magic power shine.<br /> <br /> “Saying it in your manner from before…it’s one kill with this right?” Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly.<br /> <br /> Ikousai took some distance with a light leap, her expression transformed from shock into admiration.<br /> <br /> “''Just about that much is still incomplete, however,'' you really can imitate my sword that easily huh. You…won’t you enter Ikousai-style and become my disciple?”<br /> <br /> “Who would do that, stupid-! I am Hayashizaki-style!!”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuha-senpai made a refusal like that, Kazuki could only stare in amazement.<br /> <br /> “Eh, is that true?”<br /> <br /> “What kind of reaction is that! It is like that right!? You are aallways saying that ‘I am the master’ aren’t you!?”<br /> <br /> “I was saying that half in jest but…if you are my disciple than please become more honest then.”<br /> <br /> “I’m honest in matters concerning sword right!? What’s with you! Don, don’t tell me you are planning to order me to do something perverted!?”<br /> <br /> “Now I’m a romance master and I command senpai to do romance training for the whole day.”<br /> <br /> “No Way, even if it’s for romance―!! This hentaii―!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai was looking at them with cold eyes. “You two, looks like you are really having fun.”<br /> <br /> “Anyway don’t you dare lose to that fellow. Besides, why are you fighting without using Summoning Magic?”<br /> <br /> Even while saying such things, Kazuha-senpai kept making the gigantic four arms fight the Takasugi brothers. It was a splendid control of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Right there Kazuki finally noticed how he had fought while sealing his own Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “The strength as swordsman, is not all there is to it of your strength right-!!”<br /> <br /> …Before, Kazuki relied on the strength of the sword as the foundation of his pride. His genius in sword was recognized and he was adopted into Hayashizaki family, getting praised by his stepfather was the meaning of his existence.<br /> <br /> …Right now is different. Even now sword was still something important for him, but it was not everything of him. The power he obtained from his bonds, and the important things he protected with it…that was also his own strength.<br /> <br /> “You are the same like me, a magic swordsman. I don’t want to see you get defeated or the like.”<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it…I’ll stop already on being too obstinate thinking as a swordsman.”<br /> <br /> In all honesty…if he used Summoning Magic then he surely could defeat Aisu Ikousai easily.<br /> <br /> He fought a straight forward match as a swordsman against his better judgment, but he had to defeat this swordsman and reach the inner part of the Ise Imperial Shrine. Reservation or anything like that was unnecessary.<br /> <br /> “Is that so, so you plan to use Summoning Magic? Hmph. …Then I wonder, should I do that too?”<br /> <br /> With nonchalant tone Ikousai said that. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai went ‘Don’t tell me!’ in their minds.<br /> <br /> No, now that he thought back…the voice from the sky that commanded the God’s reliant―that was surely the contractor of Susanoo, but wasn’t this girl in front of him also ordered around the Takasugi brothers just now?<br /> <br /> Then this fellow was…Susanoo’s contractor, Izumo King!<br /> <br /> “You two have the face that says if you are using Summoning Magic then you can win easily, I really can’t stomach that look! Both in sword and even in magic, I am the stronger one!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai sheathed the sword in her right hand back to its sheath. Then she folded her arm cuff and abruptly pulled off the bracelet that was worn in her wrist.<br /> <br /> It was a bracelet that he had remembered seeing before―&lt;Limiter&gt;.<br /> <br /> The fellows of God’s reliant held a grudge against Stigmata. Because of that she surely wore a Limiter and hid her stigmata while taking a joint action with them. She only took the Limiter off when she was giving order as the voice from the sky.<br /> <br /> “Polished black steel of heaven o Totsuka no Tsurugi…release flash of light that gouge the storm! This is {{furigana|Orochi no Arasama|Snake’s Exact Rough}}…the advent of tearing limb from limb, {{furigana|Ame no Habakiri|Sky Feathers Decapitation}}!!”<br /> <br /> The girl didn’t even perform Access and chanted her spell directly.<br /> <br /> She didn’t even have the blessing of Magic Dress, yet in spite of that she chanted with speed that she seemed familiar with.<br /> <br /> Magic of Sacred Treasure creation&amp;mdash;light was created inside her hand where it held an atypical sword with its blade divided to eight direction.<br /> <br /> &quot;It’s fine even if you too make your Stigmata shine! Come, this is the beginning of sword and magic’s second act!”<br /> <br /> “Wait!”<br /> <br /> The instant Ikousai was going to kick the ground, a voice halting them reverberated.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu who escaped to the sky to avoid the fighting descended down and perched on Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “I’ll shut my eyes if it is just a sport between fellow swordsmen, but more than this and you should stop your interference! Amaterasu chose this gentleman as the substitute of &lt;Wakoku King&gt;!! You too should have no real intention to keep depending on Loki like what you are currently doing while being unable to plunder Amaterasu’s power!!”<br /> <br /> “…Hoo, so that NEET god finally intended to raise a King. I thought she was going to continue being sealed like this and vanish, but if she showed some motivation then the story is different. I see, so that’s why the King of Solomon came to this land.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai docilely vanished the Sacred Treasure held inside her hand.<br /> <br /> “Susanoo is a rebelling god toward the {{furigana|absolute authoritarian|Amaterasu}}. Therefore &lt;Izumo King&gt; too is a rebelling King. The [King’s Authority] of such King is to plunder for herself the power of the defeated King, [Power of Usurpation]. …Therefore the starting condition of Izumo King is powerless. The nearest some other {{furigana|King|Basileus}} at hand…Amaterasu’s King is someone she has to defeat and to plunder for power…!!”<br /> <br /> “Simultaneously that’s also something that Amaterasu can say. If Amaterasu’s Wakoku King cannot make the rebel Izumo King submit, she also cannot wield the [King’s Authority] of Japanese Mythology and stays powerless. Consequently both of them are Yin and Yang. They have a destiny of conflict.”<br /> <br /> “Interesting! Moreover if you hold both the title of Solomon King and Wakoku King then it’s two birds with one stone! This is fine, I’ll allow you to proceed forward ''for the sake of plundering your power for mine later''.”<br /> <br /> …She could speak like this because Izumo King could steal the power of another King when she defeated them. Just that the only one she could defeat quick and easy even in her powerless state was only Amaterasu who was in the same powerless state like her.<br /> <br /> If she had that kind of ability then Kazuki could understand her strategy to ally herself with Loki temporarily.<br /> <br /> Ikousai swept away her disarrayed sleeves with one hand and then turned her back on Kazuki and co.<br /> <br /> “You the &lt;Cyclops&gt; of Hayashizaki-style, and also the newly appointed proxy of Amaterasu…understand well your destiny with me, I’ll carve it deeply on your body.”<br /> <br /> An existence with a different quality somewhere compared to all his enemies until now―Aisu Ikousai left those words behind and exited the stage.<br /> <br /> ===Part 8===<br /> <br /> “If we have arrived until here, it’ll only take a little more until the Imperial Shrine’s sacred main temple.”<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers had also left following Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu guided Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai in the front, walking briskly with its three legs in short steps.<br /> <br /> Almost all the scenery around them had recovered from being a Haunted Ground to its original scenery of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Inside the Imperial Shrine’s forest that were filled with ancient trees growing in abundance, it made them feel the atmosphere of perpetuity. They continued to walk along the path made of pure white gravel until the deepest part of the shrine. The Isuzu River that flowed beside them had also recovered its transparent stream.<br /> <br /> A scenery filled with sacred tranquility. This was Japan’s oldest shrine, the true appearance of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> They were finally going to reach the end of their journey.<br /> <br /> After they advanced through the gravel path drawing a gentle arc, they hit into a stone stair. Ahead of the stone stair there was a shrine archway. Passing through it, finally they saw [that].<br /> <br /> An architectural style of ancient times that even made them feel the connection with Takakura-style warehouse from Yayoi period. It was built based from &lt;the only Shinmei Dzukuri&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Shinmei Dzukuri is a unique phrase in Japan. Shinmei here can refer to Amaterasu or god. While Shinmei Dzukuri means building a shrine with architecture style based on that of Ise Imperial Shrine. So the meaning of the phrase in the bracket here is that the building that Kazuki and co are seeing is the originator of all the Ise style shrine in the whole Japan.&lt;/ref&gt;, yet the feel of the material felt like it was brand new. That was because every twenty years the main building of Ise Imperial Shrine was remodeled and &lt;Shikinen Senguu&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Construction of a new shrine and transfer of the enshrined object from the old to the new, occurring at a regular, preordained time&lt;/ref&gt; was performed. Because the only Shinmei Dzukuri was built using ancient construction technique, its endurance’s age was short and it resulted in the necessity of reconstruction periodically no matter what.<br /> <br /> At the time of its reconstruction, it followed the style and all the ritual from the ancient times strictly and thoroughly. Its appearance from time immemorial was obstinately protected just like how it originally was. This building was not in unchanging condition since the ancient times until the olden days. Yet exactly because of the periodic rebuilding, its unchanging appearance could be preserved for more than a thousand years in the true meaning.<br /> <br /> Of course with that method it would take far more expense and labor compared to merely preserving the building.<br /> <br /> This is Ise Imperial Shrine, its sacred main temple.<br /> <br /> Further ahead of the archway were fences surrounding the shrine―a gate could be seen on the wall.<br /> <br /> “From here on, normal people are not allowed to enter.” Saying that, Kazuha-senpai hesitated to proceed.<br /> <br /> “That’s so, but if you two don’t enter then we cannot begin anything.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu entered without care with bobbing steps inside as if this building was its own home.<br /> <br /> The gate opened automatically by its own.<br /> <br /> There was an archway again inside the outer fence. The inner wall obstructed the path. There were several layers of closed walls and gates in order to reject visitors coming to the inner sanctuary.<br /> <br /> With the guidance of Yatagarasu, they passed through several gates.<br /> <br /> And then the inner sanctuary that even resembled the Takakura-style warehouse in the history textbook appeared in front of their eyes. It had a simple architecture with thatch roof, but its linear shaping made them feel its artificial bearing rather than a respect towards nature.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu proceeded forward through the stair that ascended the raised-floor building with bobbing advance and gestured Kazuki to go inside.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> One surface of the inside was stained with blood.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were dumbfounded and lost their words. The bloodstain had blackened and permeated into the surface. It was clear just with one glance that a long time had passed since the blood was spilled. The amount of the bloodstain was enough to make them able to imagine that a person had died in that space.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu’s contractor was killed here through the hands of Yamato’s government and Susanoo.”<br /> <br /> “Wait a second, you said things like you are going to present the contractor of Amaterasu to me, but like this what is the meaning of…?”<br /> <br /> A cold shiver ran through Kazuki’s spine.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me…are they going to ask me to ''conquer a ghost''!?<br /> <br /> “The body of Amaterasu’s contractor had been annihilated, but Amaterasu narrowly managed to save her soul and sealed it inside Amaterasu’s Territory. On top having no flesh body, if the situation stays like this then her fate will be to naturally vanish together with Amaterasu. That’s why your cooperation…the &lt;power of bond&gt; that you possessed is necessary. If Amaterasu recovers her power and from there she also ties a bond with you and obtain power, the girl will be able to regain her flesh body.”<br /> <br /> “You are saying that a dead human can be restored to life!?”<br /> <br /> Was such a thing possible? Kazuki too had once resurrected Mio from the grip of death using Phoenix’s level 10 magic. But such event was supposed to be completely different compared to reviving an existence that didn’t even have her corpse remaining and the only thing left behind of her was the bloodstain that had already dried on the floor.<br /> <br /> “The girl still hasn’t welcomed a complete death yet. Her soul is preserved through Amaterasu’s power. But the currently weakened Amaterasu simply doesn’t have enough strength. If she can borrow that power by becoming a subordinate to Solomon Mythology…”<br /> <br /> “Does Amaterasu want to save that contractor so much that she will even go as far as subordinating herself to another Mythology?”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu was trotting ahead to the center of the sacred main temple’s floor. Over there was the center of the blood stain’s spread.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu deeply loved that [girl]. Therefore she didn’t raise that girl to become Wakoku King and abandoned her battle with Susanoo. Yamato government and Susanoo were furious because of that and killed the girl before pressing Amaterasu to choose a new contractor to become King. But for Amaterasu it was inconceivable to even make a contract with another human. And so Amaterasu abandoned everything and shut herself inside the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. …Please follow me.”<br /> <br /> With a jerk, Yatagarasu kicked the floor of the sacred main temple. Thereupon the floorboard came off and a hole was opened.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu then descended down the hole. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too followed from behind.<br /> <br /> When they entered under the floor, many pillars stretching up supported the floor of the sacred main temple from the surface below. In the center of the space surrounding those pillars, there was a pillar that didn’t reach until the floor of the sacred main temple with a height that only reached halfway.<br /> <br /> It was a pillar that didn’t support anything.<br /> <br /> In the peak of that halfway pillar, a miniature size sacred main temple was put on it.<br /> <br /> “&lt;The True August Pillar&gt;…This is the entrance to Amaterasu’s residence, the path leading to the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. Amaterasu is ahead through this.”<br /> <br /> “How do we enter inside through this miniature size thing?”<br /> <br /> “Of course its destination is &lt;Astrum&gt;. The Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave is a district of Amaterasu’s Territory. Being sealed inside that healing space and isolated from everything else, Amaterasu can just barely hold her ground of having herself vanishing little by little. Supply power to Amaterasu from the outside, if she cannot go out from the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave then like this she also cannot talk with you. Touch your hand to this True August Pillar and close your eyes, then please unify your {{furigana|consciousness and subconsciousness|Trance}}. If you do that then it will synchronize with the mind of you two and it can guide you to Astrum.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki remembered about the contract ceremony after the entrance ceremony. At that time he was guided by Kaguya-senpai and dove into the Diva’s Territory in Astrum. What he was going to do after this was the same thing like that.<br /> <br /> “Pass through &lt;Yomotsu Hirasaka&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Yomotsu Hirasaka is a hill where it can lead to Yomi (world of the dead) in Japanese Myth.&lt;/ref&gt; and head to &lt;the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “…Isn’t Yomotsu Hirasaka the place that continue to the world of after death?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked frightfully with ominous presentiment. He came along with them this far believing that their interest matched each other, but he was going to be troubled if he became a dead person just like this.<br /> <br /> “That’s a misinterpretation of the myth. …Yomotsu Hirasaka is a corridor that linked the world with different worlds. It is the exit and entrance that leads to Takamagahara&lt;ref&gt;The heavens&lt;/ref&gt; which is the Territory of Japanese Divas.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu went on “Anyway, please close your eyes.”, like that it prompted Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai to proceed.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_2&diff=479143 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 2 2016-01-29T15:17:39Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 - {{furigana|Enemy territory Infiltration|Sneak Mission}}==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> “Cramped! Cramped cramped the distance is too cloo―se-! I really dislike you! Despite so, how can your face stay calm even when going through this! You brute!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was like that had the positivity level of 82. There was not even a single skull mark that denoted the decrease of positivity level. Even her abusive remarks couldn’t be felt as anything other than one type of communication to him.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, you only say that in your mouth but you don’t hate me don’t you? Also senpai had promised to accompany me in a date hadn’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t treat an infiltration mission as a date you―!”<br /> <br /> Right at that time, a slightly large wave lifted up the neck of the ship highly.<br /> <br /> The neck of the ship rode through the wave undulation and then it was half falling with a jerk.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was “UWAA!” surprised and her shoulder approached near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> An endless ocean. The small boat looked like an untrustworthy leaf floating on the sea.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, senpai. When push comes to shove…”<br /> <br /> “When push comes to shove…?” Kazuha-senpai who was shrinking her body looked at him imploringly.<br /> <br /> “When push comes to shove, please stabilize the movement of the boat with Psychokinesis Kazuha-senpai.”<br /> <br /> “You are relying on me! I looked like an idiot for thinking that you are a little dependable heree―!!”<br /> <br /> “Of course I’m also doing my best in the boat driving. But well, inside the bay, the waves are killed by the peninsula and island making the water quite calm so it’s okay. Though the morning seems early.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki peered through the binoculars that was hanging in his neck while reinforcing his eyesight using magic power.<br /> <br /> “…Rather, what's scarier are human’s eyes, this is an infiltration mission after all.”<br /> <br /> “That risk of discovery, the story is that Yamato doesn’t perform the coast security satisfactorily anyway right? If it’s just a citizen’s boat then it’s going to be overlooked even if it’s discovered, isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Because the government cut the electric supply to west Japan, the emotion of west Japan’s citizen has become the worst. Something like a suspicious boat they have never seen might be reported right away to Yamato.”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so…this is the enemy’s territory after all…. Even though this is Mie prefecture…”<br /> <br /> That odd way of speaking unintentionally made Kazuki float an ironic smile. Kazuha-senpai talked even further.<br /> <br /> “…When I studied the administrative divisions of Japan in elementary school, among the few that I couldn’t remember no matter what was Mie prefecture you know? I wonder if I incurred a divine punishment…”<br /> <br /> “For some reason I always jumbled up Aichi prefecture and Wakayama prefecture, I couldn’t make the distinction between them.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, in that case you really like orange.”&lt;ref&gt;In Aichi and Wakayama prefectures, they have specialty oranges of their own.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai didn’t only insult him with abusive remarks, unexpectedly when he made stupid talk with her, she was someone who would respond in a good mood. Finally she relaxed her stiff shoulder and showed a smiling face.<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuha-senpai’s face from the side where her hair was fluttering from the opposing wind, Kazuki was charmed for a while.<br /> <br /> And then Kazuha-senpai naturally leaned her shoulder and thigh unreservedly on Kazuki’s body. She became relaxed and from her mouth “~♪” a humming sound was starting to leak out.<br /> <br /> “Hey, until how long we are going to keep like this?”<br /> <br /> “Generally it might be around one hour.”<br /> <br /> “Whaa―tt, it’s unexpectedly short. So it’s not a considerable boat trip then?”<br /> <br /> “Is it disappointing?” Kazuki asked Kazuha-senpai whose face was full of disappointment.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai suddenly went ‘hah’ and made a face of realization, “I, it’s not disappointing at all, who in the world will want time spent together with you! I want this to end quicklyy―!” She leaned her body forward in fluster.<br /> <br /> “The boat will shake so please don’t struggle here I said.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki met an unexpected difficulty in operating the flap, he embraced Kazuha-senpai with his left hand.<br /> <br /> When her waist was embraced by Kazuki’s arm, a heart mark flew from Kazuha-senpai with a plop.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps by any chance senpai want to be like this and intentionally made a ruckus?”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s not true! This lady killer!”<br /> <br /> ―The enjoyable time passed in the blink of an eye. And then,<br /> <br /> “…This is problematic.” Kazuki murmured while peeking through his binoculars.<br /> <br /> “There really are that many people?”<br /> <br /> Finally they reached the distance where they could clearly see the opposite shore, but unexpectedly there were people in the shoreline of Toba where they planned to disembark.<br /> <br /> “There are a lot of fishing ships, breeding farm of oyster or seaweed, female divers…something is visible.”<br /> <br /> “There are also female divers? Your eyes are absurdly good huh.”<br /> <br /> In any case the visibility was exceedingly good on top of the sea, there was no hiding place.<br /> <br /> They must go through a route where they wouldn’t enter anybody’s line of sight and make their landing.<br /> <br /> “Let’s make a detour slightly and search for a coastline where there are no people’s presence.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki steered the boat going side-by-side with the land.<br /> <br /> “Ah. Oi, Hayashizaki, seagulls are coming here!”<br /> <br /> Like children, Kazuha-senpai shook the shoulder of Kazuki who didn’t peel his eyes off from the binoculars.<br /> <br /> “Seagulls…? They might be used to human from the pleasure cruise for sightseeing that scattered feed to them.”<br /> <br /> “So they want some feed, yosh!”<br /> <br /> It seemed Kazuha-senpai brought some snacks inside her waist-bag. She took out a rice cracker. She stood up on top of the unsteadily shaking boat while guarding her balance, “Here-!” and threw the pieces of broken rice cracker to the sky. The seagulls took a nose dive with good momentum and caught the cracker with its beak.<br /> <br /> “Amazing! Come on look Hayashizaki, these guys come along! They are amazingly smart!! Ahaha-”<br /> <br /> “Geez, what is senpai making merry for…”<br /> <br /> Separating his eyes from the binoculars, he looked up at Kazuha-senpai who was standing beside him―Kazuki watched the girl’s radiant smile in fascination. He involuntarily lost the next word he was going to say. The fringe of Kazuha-senpai’s short casual Japanese clothes was turned up lightly from the strong wind, although she didn’t notice it because she was too engrossed at the seagulls and making merry.<br /> <br /> (Well, it’s fine), Kazuki returned to his binoculars while his face was slightly reddening.<br /> <br /> In her place, he was going to pay attention seriously at their surrounding.<br /> <br /> ―When he was looking at the far away, *GATAN!* the boat shook, then he heard Kazuha-senpai’s scream.<br /> <br /> “Waaaaaaaaa, Hayashizaki, strange birds are! They scattered the seagulls and come charging here―!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took off his eyes from the binoculars and looked up to the sky―tension ran through his spine.<br /> <br /> Large flock of birds blocked the blue sky, “GEE―! GEE―!” they were revolving around the boat while raising ominous chirps. It had protruding eyes that looked as if the eyeball were almost falling out, their beaks were curving windingly like old tree stumps. They were ominous birds from what Kazuki could see.<br /> <br /> Of course they were not a natural animal―Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> “Damn! …This spot is a Haunted Ground!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly realized and looked down at the sea’s surface. The sea color ten-odd meters around them became a darkish color as if a stain was gathered in one spot of the ocean. Because Kazuki only watched the far away land and Kazuha-senpai only looked at the seagulls, they didn’t notice at all that they had stepped into a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Haunted Ground only broke out in a place where there were humans―if it was a course where pleasure ship and fishing ship often came, then surely it was possible for Haunted Ground to be born on top of a sea. A spot where seagulls that were used to humans formed a group. It was suitable to be called a dominion of human rather than nature.<br /> <br /> However Yamato’s provisional government, weren’t they dealing with the Haunted Ground properly?<br /> <br /> Like this the people that worked on the sea would be in danger!<br /> <br /> “O the will of whirling heaven god…gather in my hand, grant me the authority of judgement! O radiance of the royal divine gift, become a dazzling brilliant drawn bow! Lightning Line.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s both hands hosted lightning. He drew the lightning to the limit and launched on, two streaks of lightning. This magic of Hikaru-senpai, even though each of its shot was inferior in power compared to Mio’s Barrett, it could be used to shoot repeatedly.<br /> <br /> One, two body of the demon birds were shot down and sank into the black water surface. With that as the start, the demon birds that were circling around to assess their prey directed their beaks at the boat and took a nose dive.<br /> <br /> “I’m doing a good fight, welcoming a good death, and wish to participate in even more battle of heaven! The divine protection of blood color in my eye! Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s level 1 magic that could be invoked in short chanting tie. Light flew down from between the gap of the cloud in the sky, it became power and resided inside Kazuki. His eyes were dyed deep crimson, his reflexes and physical strength were amplified.<br /> <br /> Kazuki missed nothing of the demon birds’ beaks, he caught the beak of the bird that came the foremost barehanded. He swung the demon bird that he caught with all his strength, directing it to the second approaching demon bird’s beak and ''used it as a shield''. Fresh blood scattered, he threw away the demon bird that bore a fatal wound from its fellow bird’s beak to the sea.<br /> <br /> The third flying bird that approached him was caught by his left hand this time, and then once more he used it as a shield against the fourth bird.<br /> <br /> He caught the birds with his two hands and used them as shields before throwing them away…he struggled hard empty-handedly.<br /> <br /> Looking at that scene from the side, Kazuha-senpai who was late in her battle preparation chanted her spell in panic.<br /> <br /> “O peerless master, make another showing from beyond the dream! Along with the flame of transmutation, liberate the memory that is sealed inside the silver mirror right here!! Kenki Tensei!!”<br /> <br /> Spheres of fire burst out around Kazuha-senpai. From there the phantom of famous swordsmen that left behind their names in history were summoned―the phantom swordsmen that were created from the spheres of fire landed on the water surface just like that―they were drowning while kicking and struggling. While unfortunate, there was no space for summoning on top of the cramped boat.<br /> <br /> The mute phantom swordsman were,<br /> <br /> {What are you doing suddenly summoning us here gozaru-} {Uwaa~, you are making fun of us~}<br /> <br /> …They were sinking into the black sea with that kind of feeling.<br /> <br /> “Uwaa―! You guys are useless―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was completely cornered into the depths of mayhem, she screamed while gripping the edge of the boat.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, the magic that you chose to chant was mistaken there!”<br /> <br /> That miss was surely because the tactic of first summoning the phantom swordsmen and then using them to buy time for her to chant higher magic had already completely became a habit.<br /> <br /> “I am the shaman of sword…rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was grappling with the devil birds, he managed to chant that spell in some way or other.<br /> <br /> Flames welled out inside Kazuki’s hand where a holy ancient sword was created.<br /> <br /> If he held a sword, then the fight was his. The nose diving demon birds were cut down one after another.<br /> <br /> {Ooh, splendid! This is just like Tsubame Gaeshi&lt;ref&gt;Swallow Reversal, Sasaki Kojiro’s secret technique&lt;/ref&gt;!}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s phantom appeared and said so in cheers.<br /> <br /> “Waa―! Kazuki! This time strange wriggling things from the sea are―!?”<br /> <br /> When his attention was preoccupied with the sky, Kazuha-senpai’s scream reverberated once again. This time it was not from the sky but from the sea―countless tentacles were extending out and entangled the limbs of Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why is this thing not even sparing a glance at Hayashizaki, but only coming at me!?”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, tentacles is this kind of Demon Beast! Before this when it attacked Mio it was also like this.”<br /> <br /> “What kind of Demon Beast this is, doing something―! Uwa, stop it, don’t get inside the clothes!!”<br /> <br /> The tentacles that were attached with suction pads on it pinned down the side of the boat while invading inside. Both of Kazuha-senpai’s arms and legs were captured. It forcefully opened up the four limbs and tried to creep in through the collar and hem stimulatingly.<br /> <br /> The boat raised a cracking sound!<br /> <br /> But the tentacles doing whatever it wanted to Kazuha-senpai was only for an instant.<br /> <br /> Sensing the situation, Kazuki immediately ran his sword. First he cut down the tentacles that were going to invade into Kazuha-senpai’s clothes, then next he cut down the tentacles that were binding Kazuha-senpai’s arms and legs.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that became free leaped vigorously to Kazuki and hugged him, making the boat shake violently.<br /> <br /> But no matter how many tentacles he cut down, the main body of the Demon Beast was squirming inside the black sea. Katana wouldn’t reach. Using Barrett would be useless because it would disappear from the sea water. Facing the sea and firing lightning arrow would also endanger themselves. Then….<br /> <br /> “O singing voice of mermaid, manifest the freezing thought. Sadness into ice flower, loneliness into light snowfall, cover the world with freezing vacuum…White Album!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki chose Koyuki’s level 5 magic―a large scale magic that froze the designated space in its entirety. The monster inside the sea was frozen together with its surrounding sea water. And then most likely its breath was stopped just like that.<br /> <br /> The dusky sea that was undergoing Haunted Ground transformation quickly became clear blue color.<br /> <br /> Haunted Ground was spreading due to the existence of Demon Beast. By defeating the Demon Beast, the original scenery would be recovered.<br /> <br /> “Ah, how tiresome~. Sorry, I’m just completely holding you back…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was weakly exhausted on top of the boat, she released a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…this is still not the time to be relaxed yet.”<br /> <br /> When the tentacles were clamping at Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki heard an awful voice of something cracking.<br /> <br /> Cracks were entering the boat that was made from wood. Under both their feet, sea water was entering little by little.<br /> <br /> “It's flooding!?”<br /> <br /> If the ship was broken in this place, the operation would be a failure. They wouldn’t be able to land inconspicuously.<br /> <br /> “…Should we go back for a moment, using [Blazing Wings] back to Irago Cape?”<br /> <br /> “Even though the opposing shore is just right there already…! It’s my fault…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stared at the opposing shore mortifyingly. Even while she was doing that, the small boat kept sinking.<br /> <br /> “That’s right! Let’s swim until the farther shore!”<br /> <br /> “There are a lot of fishing ships. If we go across swimming while still wearing clothes, we will completely look like suspicious people, senpai.”<br /> <br /> “Then let’s go by diving!” Kazuha-senpai faced the sea and pulled Kazuki’s arm.<br /> <br /> “How are we going to maintain our breath!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, leave it to me! …I’ll relinquish my dishonor from before!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai forcibly kept pulling *gui gui* Kazuki’s arm, she was trying to make the both of them leap into the sea together. (If she really has some idea), Kazuki hardened his determination.<br /> <br /> “We are going! One two-!!”<br /> <br /> Water was splashing along with a yell, the two dove into the sea.<br /> <br /> …What in the world is Kazuha-senpai planning?<br /> <br /> When he opened his eyes inside the sea that had high rate of transparency, Kazuki saw a miraculous sight.<br /> <br /> Bubbles that repelled blue lights were pouring down from the surface into the water to the location of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> The bubble that was as big as a person’s head followed about around Kazuki’s face and then it entered inside his mouth.<br /> <br /> …It’s air. Kazuha-senpai was pulling air into the water using Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> …Amazing. Once again, he felt that Kazuha-senpai’s talent in magic was not ordinary.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly inside the water and pointed at the direction of the land. Kazuki nodded at that. <br /> <br /> If oxygen was supplied like this, then it was a distance that could be traversed sufficiently.<br /> <br /> Utilizing magic and diving with one’s own body―this was his first experience, in a transparent blue world.<br /> <br /> Changing from seagulls, this time it was fishes, they coiled about around Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s surrounding.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Puhaa―! I wondered for a second what’s going to happen to us there!”<br /> <br /> Raising from the sea, Kazuha-senpai stood up on the beach unsteadily while taking a deep breath. But,<br /> <br /> “Before we take a breather! Let’s move to a more hidden spot!”<br /> <br /> This area was not a beach that had been developed for swimming place, there was no presence of human in the surrounding. But at any rate, the unobstructed view in the beach was too good. The afternoon sun was shining down on them. Kazuki held Kazuha-senpai’s hand tightly and ran away into the natural forest that grew thickly near the beach.<br /> <br /> “Don, don’t suddenly hold my hand like this―!”<br /> <br /> “Somehow there is this thrill that make the heart beat fast right?”<br /> <br /> After escaping into the darkness of the forest, finally they could take a breather.<br /> <br /> The two let out a wry chuckle while looking at each other’s face―Kazuki spontaneously caught his breath.<br /> <br /> It was pink color―if he was asked what was pink, it was Kazuha-senpai’s underwear color.<br /> <br /> Senpai’s remodeled Japanese clothing was wet and became see-through, making a faint pink color emerge through it.<br /> <br /> Going after the swimsuit, it was a lovely underwear that made him feel the gap. That senpai was wearing this kind of underwear, that fact itself was cute. By any chance perhaps she put in a considerable fighting spirit into choosing that underwear.<br /> <br /> Moreover because of her run-in with those tentacles and further with the swimming, her collar and hem was slovenly disordered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s clothes too was also similarly drenched wet, it was clinging onto the skin heavily. Kazuha-senpai saw Kazuki’s state, then she noticed that herself was also in the same state, making her face boil red.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 056.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “U, u, u, uWAA―!? Don’t look, don’t look this wayy―!!”<br /> <br /> “So, sorry senpai! This is an act of god!!”<br /> <br /> “I understand this is act of god or whatnot! I’m not particularly angry so just look behind―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned back at the same time, making their backs meet.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s dry the clothes and our body with magic.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suggested. If they used Psychokinesis to get rid of the water and salt and then produced high temperature with Pyrokinesis, they could dry their clothes far quicker compared to letting it dry naturally.<br /> <br /> “…I got it. Then I’m going to take off my clothes. Absolutely don’t look back.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai answered like such for the sake of getting through this quickly.<br /> <br /> Dryness was a process where the water particles escape to the air. Rather than letting the clothes dry while still wearing it, taking off the clothes and drying it off piece by piece would increase the surface area that came in contact with the air, making the drying-off several times faster.<br /> <br /> …I wonder if this means that she trust me.<br /> <br /> That Kazuha-senpai was, currently, becoming naked right behind himself.<br /> <br /> Of course Kazuki didn’t have any intention to betray that trust. Absolutely none.<br /> <br /> While determining his heart that he absolutely wouldn’t look behind, he himself removed the belt of his hakama and took off his remodeled Japanese clothes. Spreading out the taken-off clothes with his hands, he concentrated at his magic.<br /> <br /> “Wa, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?”<br /> <br /> However after only tens of seconds, Kazuha-senpai raised a scream.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately turned his back. This couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> This couldn’t be helped but, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too was still in their underwear appearance.<br /> <br /> Their eyes met in a glance, shame flashed in Kazuha-senpai’s expression.<br /> <br /> But on the contrary she didn’t continue that line of progress.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai screamed “Demon Beast!” and pointed to the direction forward.<br /> <br /> Demon Beast she said? …This forest was real nature, it was by no means a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Even though this place was not supposed to be a Haunted Ground―there was a single crow in the direction that senpai pointed at.<br /> <br /> It was just a normal bird in a single glance, but thick magic power was compressed inside that small body, warping the surrounding atmosphere slightly. And then above all, ''it had three legs''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai’s shoulder near him and changed their places. He stood in front to cover for her.<br /> <br /> The three-legged crow was staring at Kazuki with eyes that was like black gem.<br /> <br /> “…There is no need to be alert. I hold no hostility.”<br /> <br /> “”The Demon Beast is talking!?”” Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were taken aback in shock.<br /> <br /> The situation where a crow was talking was bizarre but…the subject that he talked about was also strange.<br /> <br /> The Demon Beast that materialized in this world because of {{furigana|Cancer|Malignant Alternate Boundary}} was absolutely the enemy of the human race.<br /> <br /> It was completely the instinct, the meaning of their existence, that Demon Beasts attack only humans.<br /> <br /> …No need to be alert? Those were words that overturned the concept of Demon Beast right from its root.<br /> <br /> “What is called Demon Beast is something that is established in Mythology as the enemy of human race…”<br /> <br /> The three-legged crow opened its beak and spun human language.<br /> <br /> “…I am different. I am something established to be the guide of the monarch &lt;Yatagarasu&gt;. O King of Solomon, the Japanase Mythology welcomes you. Please head to Ise Imperial Shrine just like that somehow.”<br /> <br /> Welcomes? …Even though we came here to defeat Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> If he assumed that this was not a Diva or a Demon Beast, then what in the world is this crow?<br /> <br /> The crow that introduced itself as Yatagarasu informed just that and then it spread its black wings with a flap and flew away.<br /> <br /> The instant it flew to the sky, that figure melted into the air and disappeared.<br /> <br /> The left behind Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were bewildered and stood stock still.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, just now, what do you think is going on?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai asked with voice mixed with confusion.<br /> <br /> [Welcome]. Did it have the meaning exactly like the what word imply, or….<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu―it was an existence that was made to be Amaterasu’s messenger in Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> Both of them unintentionally faced each other. And then, they remembered once more that both of them were still in their underwear appearance.<br /> <br /> “Waa!? I forgot, don’t look this way!!”<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, it’s an act of god!”<br /> <br /> Both of them sprang up in startle and turned their back to each other again.<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, act of god, act of god. You keep saying that.”<br /> <br /> While they resumed drying their clothes, Kazuha-senpai talked with a hint of complaint and then, *bump*, she threw her own back to Kazuki’s back. Kazuha-senpai’s back hair that fluttered behind tickled Kazuki’s nape.<br /> <br /> Perhaps there ought to be some more words that he should say. Not an excuse that he said because he was afraid to be scolded. Because Kazuha-senpai was a much softer person than what her surface attitude hinted.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai’s risqué appearance, really made my heart beat fast.”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying, idiot!”<br /> <br /> “The pink underwear was cute.”<br /> <br /> “Aren’t you just thinking too simply that a girl will be happy as long as she got praised!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine right, I said that was an act of god.”<br /> <br /> “You are a pervert!” *BUMP! BUMP!* the hits to his back were strengthened.<br /> <br /> But he had the hunch that senpai at this kind of time was not angry but rather she was enjoying herself.<br /> <br /> “…Really, I’m finished already here.”<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, there was the presence of Kazuha-senpai wearing her clothes in rustle.<br /> <br /> “Eh, already!? That’s fast!”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, that’s because you are saying stupid things. Idii―ot idii―ot. Magic good for nothing.”<br /> <br /> Rotating with a twirl, Kazuha-senpai who had finished changing her clothes circled around to Kazuki’s front.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…I’m, still in emergency here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was taken aback being stared at right from the front.<br /> <br /> “It’s doesn’t really matter right, you are man after all.”<br /> <br /> What kind of reason was that? Kazuha-senpai bent her knees at that spot and squatted down, then her line of sight was creeping all over Kazuki’s body intently *jii―*.<br /> <br /> “…Fuun, just as expected it’s a body with the feel of a boy. …Fuun.”<br /> <br /> He didn’t really get embarrassed getting stared at but…for some reason he couldn’t concentrate on the magic.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When they walked from the coast to the city of Toba, the town that prospered from sightseeing and fishing industry was changed into quite a place from being put under the state of [times of war].<br /> <br /> “First let’s settle down a little and talk about what we are going to do from now on.”<br /> <br /> Saying that, Kazuki pointed at the eatery in the street corner. In Toba, there were a few eateries lining up. This eatery was called &lt;Ama&lt;ref&gt;Female diver who collects shells, seaweed, etc.&lt;/ref&gt; hut&gt; where people could eat fresh maritime products that were just picked by the diver.<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it, certainly my stomach is empty.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was also in agreement. …Today they were having a fairly rushed schedule until now. After Kazuki explained the outline of the operation yesterday they departed from Nagoya at the early morning the very next day, arriving at Irago Cape. There they sailed off after finishing the boat operation training, and then they landed at the town of Toba in Mie Prefecture right at this point of time, the time had already approaching midday. Everything were events that were happening throughout this morning.<br /> <br /> They were in the middle of an important operation, be that as it may, it was hard to go against their sense of hunger.<br /> <br /> If they didn’t have a meal here, they didn’t know what would happen from now on after this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai sat side-by-side at the counter, then they ordered the shellfish combination platter that was the specialty here with the traveling expenses they received from Akane-senpai. At the opposite side of the counter, the auntie there lined up the shellfishes on the earthen charcoal brazier and started grilling.<br /> <br /> With a voice so small that could only be heard by Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki confirmed the thing that he was concerned at the foremost.<br /> <br /> “Regarding that &lt;Yatagarasu&gt; from before, does Futsunushi no Kami say anything at all?”<br /> <br /> “I too asked inside my head what is that about but…”<br /> <br /> A Telepathy directed at Astrum, it was that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> “…That guy, he doesn’t give any reply and is ignoring me.”<br /> <br /> So it was No Comment. Despite making frivolous talk like commenting someone’s sword skill as Tsubame Gaeshi or what else.<br /> <br /> That crow called Yatagarasu, according to the myth it was the messenger of Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> “What in the world does it mean with [Welcome]? Even though we are coming here for Japanese Mythology’s chief god…Amaterasu’s defeat. In the first place, isn’t Amaterasu supposed to lose her sanity from becoming a Wild God?”<br /> <br /> There was something strange that he felt from Futsunushi no Kami’s story that was supposed to be ''the operation’s premise''.<br /> <br /> During the operation where they were infiltrating enemy territory that required caution, it was a terrifying matter for a doubt to rise to the surface towards the premise of the operation in the first place.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki exposed Futsunushi no Kami’s insincerity, Kazuha-senpai made a sad face.<br /> <br /> “Bu, but Futsunushi no Kami is…”<br /> <br /> “Of course it’s not like I’m thinking that Futsunushi no Kami is Yamato’s spy or something like that.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said so, Kazuha-senpai released a breath in relief.<br /> <br /> “If Futsunushi no Kami and Yatagarasu are trying to set a trap for us, there is no need at all to make that kind of greeting to us.”<br /> <br /> Of course he was doubtful whether he really could accept that [Welcome] Yatagarasu said at face value, but wasn’t what Yatagarasu meant to declare at that time was that [this is not a trap].<br /> <br /> “…I feel some doubt that this operation can proceed just as planned, but for the time being there is nothing we can do except go to Ise Imperial Shrine to see what’s happening there.”<br /> <br /> What awaited them at that place, was it really [a battle against Amaterasu] or…. If by some chance that was not whats going to happen, then for what kind of reason did Futsunushi no Kami call Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai here.<br /> <br /> …If he was called to the enemy territory here because of some ill will though, then that was the worst situation.<br /> <br /> “Here, our specialty the large manilla clam! You two are whispering secretly there, but this is not delicious when it’s not freshly baked. Chuck the food to your mouth quickly and eat up!!&lt;ref&gt;The auntie is speaking with some kind of local dialect here. [Should be Mie dialect; they are in Mie, after all]&lt;/ref&gt;”<br /> <br /> The auntie presented the large plate piled up with clams from across the counter.<br /> <br /> The moment they saw it, Kazuha-senpai went “Wha, this is different with the clam that I know!?” and raised her voice. What they saw was something excessively large to be called clam, its size was almost as big as a palm of a child. Adding to its plump body, soup was pooling in plenty on its shell, the nice aroma of salt rising up.<br /> <br /> Next the auntie handed over a big serving of rice. Kazuha-senpai immediately ate a mouthful of the clam, after that she gulped down the rice heartily, “Delicious-!” her expression brightened.<br /> <br /> The auntie laughed in a good mood after seeing that scene.<br /> <br /> “I’m still grilling lots and lots here! There is turban scallop, or this yesso scallop!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around inside the shop once more. It was a snug eatery, but its walls were decorated with autographs of celebrities that even Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai knew. There was even the picture of the auntie in a wet suit as a diver hung on the wall. …Inside that mundane atmosphere, it made them feel a peace of mind somehow.<br /> <br /> It appears that even when this place changed from Japan into Yamato, the life of the normal people didn’t change at all.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuha-senpai, your [Delicious!] just now is not good. You don’t look like a local.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki lowered his voice and whispered on her ears. “Ah, I see!” Kazuha-senpai pressed her own mouth.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s make our setting as a bacouple that doesn’t read the atmosphere even in this kind of emergency and still come to sightseeing.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai went “Eeeehh!?” and lost her presence of mind.<br /> <br /> “I have heard that it’s difficult to get exposed in infiltration mission when the spies act like a couple.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was whispering, he embraced Kazuha-senpai’s waist and brought her closer to him.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai twitched for a moment in hesitation, but perhaps she immediately judged in her reasoning that such method could work, she meekly reclined on Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “…But, I don’t understand what should we do to act as a couple you know.”<br /> <br /> Her cheeks were slightly colored and she whispered weakly.<br /> <br /> “I think it’s fine if we use Mio’s words as reference.”<br /> <br /> “…I see. It’s that kind of feeling…”<br /> <br /> Mio who could make someone understand in one mention was really Mio. Kazuha-senpai nodded slightly. And then she was nuzzling herself on top of Kazuki’s shoulder like a small animal. “…Kazu-kun, aa―n.” Like so, she whispered with a sweet voice while presenting a large clam with a chopstick. Kazuki received a shock in his chest. …Kazu-kun, she said?<br /> <br /> What in the world was this throbbing inside his chest? [This is gap moe desu, Kazuki-oniisan!!] He had the feeling that Lotte’s voice was reverberating inside his head.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki accepted that clam with his mouth and ate it, this time he returned the favor to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha, aa―n.” Like that the two of them turned in their seat while flirting and fed each other with clams.<br /> <br /> “…Thi, this is too embarrassing…”<br /> <br /> “But Kazuha right now, is awfully cute. I’m having a throbbing I have never felt until now.”<br /> <br /> “Sto, stop it you idiot! Geez…stupid Kazu-kun…”<br /> <br /> This person, wasn’t she getting too carried away with the mood?<br /> <br /> “Ooaa~! You two suddenly become really intimate! You know this clam, when fellow lovers eat this there is this legend that you will be able to marry your companion perfectly, eat a lot!!”<br /> <br /> The auntie in the counter lined up a lot of grilled clams one after another in front of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Somehow it's just like what they aimed for, it seemed they could finish this without looking suspicious.<br /> <br /> “…I’m doing this, only for the sake of the mission so…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered subduedly.<br /> <br /> “Then I will fully enjoy this situation while it lasts. Here Kazuha, aa―n.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced her waist even stronger and gave the newly arriving clam to senpai with ‘aa―n’. Kazuha-senpai too helplessly cuddled her body closer and obediently chewed the food.<br /> <br /> “…However I never thought it would become something this outrageous.”<br /> <br /> ―A voice from behind.<br /> <br /> Even while flirting with Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki didn’t miss that voice of the local customer.<br /> <br /> When he took a glance behind, there were two male customers around their thirties sitting in the back table seat.<br /> <br /> “Those brats are thinking that it’s interesting, but to say such thing like a war with Japan. They are thinking such an unbelievable idea. Saying things like the Solomon 72 Pillar is trying to take over the country, though I think there might be some truth in that.”&lt;ref&gt;These locals also talk with really heavy accent.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “But those guys in the new government of Yamato became too eager in war with that Japan. They are completely apathetic with the life of we the common people, it’s really vexing ze. Even when a Haunted Ground appears they just leave it alone, when it’s still Japan such thing is unthinkable.”<br /> <br /> “The Haunted Ground has spread until the sea around here huh, recently. When we are going fishing we have to be careful not to carelessly step into that area. …Even though this sea of Ise is Amaterasu-sama’s important kitchen don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> “This is because they just leave alone the Ise Imperial Shrine as that stupidly huge Haunted Ground in the first place. With such atrocious accursed things going on…are we really tying a contract with the Divas of Japanese Mythology here?”<br /> <br /> “Who knows, no matter which shrine, all of it became under construction or something that we cannot even pray to god. Really this situation really stinks. When push comes to shove us the men of sea might just use the ships to make off from here!”<br /> <br /> “…Kazu-kun, you heard?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered into his ears while continuing their act as a couple.<br /> <br /> There was some part of him that became mushy in his chest when ‘Kazu-kun’ was whispered on his ear, but this was not the time to think about such thing.<br /> <br /> …They said that, Ise Imperial Shrine had become a stupidly huge Haunted Ground?<br /> <br /> <br /> Anyway, for the time being they had no other choice except to go to Ise Imperial Shrine and see it with their own eyes.<br /> <br /> Hardening his heart like that, the moment they exited the store Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai put themselves on guard.<br /> <br /> Because right before the store, Yatagarasu was perching on the ground and was waiting for Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu silently directed its beak to the direction of the west, and then it flapped its wings and went flying heading to the west.<br /> <br /> It didn’t say anything, but its intention was obvious.<br /> <br /> There was a distance around 10 kilometers from this harbor of Toba to the Ise Imperial Shrine in the west.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> The rail transport was in operation, but the electric train of Sangū&lt;ref&gt;This is the word they used in Japan that mean visit to the Ise Imperial Shrine.&lt;/ref&gt; line couldn’t travel to the nearest station to Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> The train didn’t operate except until &lt;Futamiura&gt; a few stations before that nearest station to the Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> There was a poster pasted inside the station premise that said [Evacuation counsel information of the present].<br /> <br /> It was a situation where there was an evacuation recommendation for the area around Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> “…Surely it’s because Ise Imperial Shrine has become a Haunted Ground, it is expanding little by little that causes the train to be unable to come near there.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too nodded his agreement of Kazuha-senpai’s deduction.<br /> <br /> With no other way they first went to the station called Futamiura. From there they began to walk to Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Futamiura was supposed to be an area where an evacuation recommendation still hasn’t come out yet, but maybe because there were a lot of people that began to evacuate out of their own initiative, the street that the two walked in front of the station was deserted. While walking Kazuki took out a map from his waist bag. This bag was water proof, so the map inside it was not wet.<br /> <br /> “Futamiura is here, so the distance until Ise Imperial Shrine is…eh? There are two Ise Imperial Shrine in the map though.”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s confused voice, Kazuha-senpai who was walking beside him brought her face near and peeked inside the map.<br /> <br /> “Aah, that one.” Like that she pointed at two points on the map. “These are the outer shrine and inner shrine of Ise. You didn’t know this and you accepted this mission? There are two Ise Imperial Shrine.”<br /> <br /> The outer shrine and the inner shrine was separated with distance around 5 kilos and they are respectively located in different places.<br /> <br /> …Although if there were two different sets it was better if it was nearer.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine, Amaterasu-Oomikami&lt;ref&gt;Oomikami means god. It’s a more honorable way to mention god in Japan&lt;/ref&gt; is located in the inner shrine, so I think it’s fine to ignore the outer shrine this time. But when people are visiting normally, it’s a manner to go from the outer shrine you know. At the outer shrine, there is this goddess called &lt;Toyouke no Oomikami&gt; that is taking care of Amaterasu.”<br /> <br /> I see, so it’s a god of maid then. Rather he would want to go to that shrine personally. <br /> <br /> “There is around 8 kilos until there.” While saying such thing Kazuki took Kazuha-senpai’s hand.<br /> <br /> “…What are you doing, this hand of yours.”<br /> <br /> “Although the presence of people here is only a few, we who are intentionally walking to the direction of the dangerous Ise Imperial Shrine are suspicious when looked from the side. That’s why let’s act like a couple again!”<br /> <br /> “Act, acting like couple again!? Are you thinking that as long as we act like a couple that everything will turn out okay!?”<br /> <br /> “I’m not thinking like that, but I’m thinking that as long as there is some kind of excuse then I want to act like a couple.”<br /> <br /> “You are too honest there! Idiot!!”<br /> <br /> “But it’s also certain that a couple won’t get suspected. A couple that is going to a place where there are no people’s eye around…bacouple that wants to show the girl a good place and intentionally go to a dangerous place…it has a power of persuasion in double meaning! Come here, Kazuha.”<br /> <br /> “Uu―, certainly that is so. …I get it okay, Kazu-kun.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai gently hugged Kazuki’s arm and she reclined her body on his shoulder.<br /> <br /> That Kazuha-senpai (just an act though) was fawning on him honestly.<br /> <br /> …The day where he would get used to this gap still hasn’t come for the present time.<br /> <br /> “Just as I thought, you really have a solid body…”<br /> <br /> While lightly nuzzling herself on Kazuki, Kazuha-senpai vacantly leaked out such words.<br /> <br /> {What an unexpected journey of pilgrimage huh?} Inside Kazuki, Leme was making fun of him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While they were walking, they grasped the transformation that happened clearly. A line of Haunted Ground was generated right there.<br /> <br /> From around over the Isuzu River, the road was transforming little by little.<br /> <br /> The texture of the road that was made from black asphalt was changed into something that felt clinging onto their shoe sole like dripping mud. The residence home along the road grew dull in color into grayish color and looked worn out. Its external appearance looked dirty like abandoned buildings. Even the Isuzu River that was said to be holy became a completely pure black stream. The sky was also shrouded with dark clouds all of a sudden, making a gloomy weather.<br /> <br /> It appears that what the people said that Ise Imperial Shrine had turned into a Haunted Ground was true. With Ise Imperial Shrine as the center, even its surrounding was swallowed and the Haunted Ground kept spreading.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pictured the map that he saw before in his head. It was about 5 kilos from here to the Ise Imperial Shrine. That meant that the scale of this Haunted Ground was about 5 kilos in radius.<br /> <br /> “How awful…did Yamato really not set out to exterminate the Demon Beasts?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pulled a wry face looking at the street that was completely transformed.<br /> <br /> And then she separated her body from Kazuki. Kazuki too didn’t feel any reluctance from the separation.<br /> <br /> The existence of Demon Beast most likely also meant that there would be battle.<br /> <br /> Cancer―pure magic power that spilled out from Astrum into this world, it then transformed into Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> If this Demon Beast isn’t exterminated quickly, it would call even more Cancer and increase the number of Demon Beasts. When Demon Beast multiplication like this was allowed, its surrounding space would be polluted by thick magic power and become completely distorted. A land of Demon Beast where humans couldn’t live, in that case it had finished transforming into a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> To defend against the expansion of Haunted Ground, exterminating the materialized Demon Beast speedily was also one of the most important jobs of the Knight Order. It seemed that Yamato’s provisional government shirked its duty to do that.<br /> <br /> Like this the area of Ise would be encroached completely.<br /> <br /> ―But saying it in reverse this meant that they didn’t need to fear Yamato’s soldiers in this Haunted Ground. They didn’t defeat any Demon Beast in the Haunted Ground and yet they posted a large number of soldiers inside the Haunted Ground, such action was not skillful at all.<br /> <br /> As expected Yamato’s government didn’t hear anything at all from the Wild Gods about the importance of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Although the Wild Gods became part of their battle strength, their failure in taking close communication with the Wild Gods exposed a fatal gap in their armor.<br /> <br /> “But Hayashizaki, isn’t this strange? For the Ise Imperial Shrine to become the Haunted Ground so accurately…I think it’s just too contrived somehow.”<br /> <br /> …Certainly. However if this happening was not just a coincidence…then that meant the government of Yamato intentionally changed the Ise Imperial Shrine into a Haunted Ground. How? For what reason?<br /> <br /> With its change into a Haunted Ground, maybe it was for the replacement of its defense squad. Possibly Amaterasu’s change into Wild God and Ise Imperial Shrine’s transformation into a Haunted Ground had some kind of connection.<br /> <br /> They surely wouldn’t understand anything if they didn’t advance forward.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai patted around her own waist. Guessing the meaning of that action, Kazuki reflexively laughed. Kazuha-senpai returned a wry smile on that reaction.<br /> <br /> “…When there is no katana on our hips, as expected people like us cannot calm down.”<br /> <br /> “We can use Summoning Magic so it’s fine senpai.”<br /> <br /> For a long time Kazuki had relied on his pride of his skill in sword technique. However before he knew it, he had already thought of his fight using Summoning Magic with similar pride.<br /> <br /> It was not like sword skill had become something trivial for him. How he was able to handle sword skill just like Kanae, and how he could chant the same Summoning Magic just like everyone in the Witch’s Mansion, he was equally proud on both.<br /> <br /> “Fufufuu. Actually, I’m not only practicing sword skill but also doing special training for Summoning Magic recently! Now I’m able to use magic until level 6 you see!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said that as if naturally sympathizing with Kazuki’s inner thought.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was born with an excellent talent in magic, but she yearned for swordsman instead of Magika Stigma since she was a child. She was a rare person that didn’t make an effective use of that talent at all.<br /> <br /> She made a contract with Futsunushi no Kami that was worshipped in her own household even before Solomon 72 Pillar could discover her talent, but she didn’t do any training for Summoning Magic at all, nevertheless she could handle her magic until level 5.<br /> <br /> If that kind of person seriously set out to train her magic seriously…. For her to become able to use magic until level 6 already, Kazuki who was also a magic swordsman like her couldn’t be careless lest he gets left behind.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai spun a spell in preparation for battle and performed Access.<br /> <br /> “…My crimson hand is red hot grasping the ore. Ridge in the sky, blade in the earth, combining in a flash become namely a sole sword. Thy inscription is &lt;Futsunushi no Kami&gt;! O god of steel and fire, show that forging!”<br /> <br /> The god of sword and blacksmith, Futsunushi no Kami granted a burning flame to Kazuha-senpai. The flame was spreading on senpai’s clothing, its Prima Material disintegrated transforming the shape into a totally different battle costume―Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “For a long time, I only fuss over sword, but when I see Hayashizaki I want to become stronger and stronger doing both sword and magic together. After all you and I are the same magic swordsman!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s expression shined brightly.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, when you talk about strength you are really lively.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? …That’s right huh. I was born in a household that worship god of sword. My father is also a swordsman…but swordsman is weak compared to Summoning Magic and the surrounding is also looking at them in contempt…I too became obstinate and became a swordsman but for a long time I had no talent at all and made fun of…honestly it was really miserable.”<br /> <br /> Thinking back once more, it was something like a miracle that she was raised with such a straightforward personality like this after she went through a twisted path for half her life. The nature of Kazuha-senpai herself was strong, surely she was fine because of how bright a person she was.<br /> <br /> “…I think that’s why the feeling of wanting to become even stronger than others is instilled into me. The feeling of always wanting to become stronger and stronger doesn’t vanish. Though somehow it’s an unbecoming boorishness for a woman. …Hahaha.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai floated a bitter smile awkwardly.<br /> <br /> “That’s not true at all. The lively Kazuha-senpai at that time is even more charming than usual. …All the more because normally Kazuha-senpai is not honest at all to me.”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, don’t say such cheeky thing even though you are just my junior!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki talked as if he was poking fun at Kazuha-senpai, she scolded him overbearingly,<br /> <br /> “…But when I’m together with you, I have a feeling that I can become stronger without any limit…”<br /> <br /> Whisperingly, she said so in addition. A heart mark that signed the increase of positivity level came flying from her chest.<br /> <br /> She was being shy for some reason. The both of them walked side by side silently for a while.<br /> <br /> “―Now that I remember senpai, the waist bag was also disintegrated and became the Magic Dress wasn’t it?”<br /> <br /> When Magika Stigma performed Access, things that were attached to the body were dispersed into Prima Material by the reality distortion called magic power, and then it was reconstructed as Magic Dress with the contracted Diva’s divine response as support.<br /> <br /> Did the waist bag also get swallowed by that distortion?<br /> <br /> “Ah, that’s true! Like this I cannot eat the cracker that I brought as snack!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who realized her lost waist bag after being told patted her own waist with some slaps and raised a sad voice.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While paying sufficient attention to their surrounding, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai advanced through the road of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> ―After a few minutes of walking, Kazuki went “Please wait” and held Kazuha-senpai back.<br /> <br /> “Please reinforce senpai’s eyesight with magic power and look far ahead. There is something.”<br /> <br /> Ahead in the road of the Haunted Ground that continued straight forward, his reinforced eyesight caught ''a bizarre human shadow''.<br /> <br /> Even though Kazuha-senpai nervously *gulp* swallowed her saliva, she gathered magic power in her eyes…then her face was dyed with a color of bewilderment. The thing that Kazuki saw was also clearly visible for her.<br /> <br /> “…Ee―err, what is it, that thing?”<br /> <br /> “It’s a warrior isn’t it?” Kazuki answered.<br /> <br /> “…That’s surely a warrior huh, that thing there. …But that answer doesn’t resolve any question at all.”<br /> <br /> What was standing in the path far ahead, was a suspicious man in armor and helmet.<br /> <br /> Several pieces of steel plate pasted together and built into one, it was a large armor that looked bulky and heavy.<br /> <br /> Its face was covered with helmet and face cover. Only the glint of its eye could be peeked from the outside.<br /> <br /> It was an armored warrior that looked like as if it flew out right from the Sengoku&lt;ref&gt;Warring States period (of Japanese history, approx. 1467-1568 CE)&lt;/ref&gt; period, walking heavily in roaming on the road that had been transformed into Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me that it was Yamato’s defensive squad? Even though this was inside a Haunted Ground? Wouldn’t they get attacked by the Demon Beast?<br /> <br /> …No, is that actually human? He couldn’t feel any human-like will from the armored warrior that was roaming the street. Rather, its atmosphere was more beastly closer with a Demon Beast that wandered restlessly.<br /> <br /> “It looks like an opponent that we cannot pass by acting like a couple. Let’s go through another road.”<br /> <br /> All along the path they could use to reach their destination of Ise Imperial Shrine was not only one. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned back through the street and turned into the bend across. They advanced through a different street.<br /> <br /> ―Even ahead of that street was also loitered with armored warrior, making them come into a halt.<br /> <br /> For some reason the armored warrior was not alone, looked like there were a lot of them wandering around. There were increasingly several of them.<br /> <br /> …Is there no other way than defeating them? When Kazuki began to incline on bulldozing his way through inside his heart,<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki. How about we climb the building and go from rooftop to rooftop? I have the feeling that those guys don’t look anywhere except straight ahead.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pointed at the roof of the building beside them and said that.<br /> <br /> That was actually the house of the citizen before this place was transformed into Haunted Ground, but now it had lost its color and became grayish. It was weathering and looked worn-out, exposing its concrete frame and became an abandoned building.<br /> <br /> …Certainly that armored warrior didn’t seem to be really that vigilant until that far. If they advance through the roof of the buildings it didn’t seem like the warrior would intentionally direct its eyes their way.<br /> <br /> “But they will notice our footsteps right? Somehow it looks like they have a sharp bestial sense.”<br /> <br /> “Then it’s fine if we don’t make any voice don’t you agree? It’s that easy.”<br /> <br /> While talking, Kazuha-senpai put her hand on the outer wall of the building that looked abandoned, then she climbed to the roof in one go with physical strength that had been reinforced with magic power. The moment she landed on the roof, the landing sound was&amp;mdash;not there.<br /> <br /> As if an unseen cushion covered both the feet of Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> And then she beckoned Kazuki with her hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too similarly climbed the outer wall and landed on the roof. The sound was not there as expected. Kazuki had the sensation that his underfoot was enveloped by some kind of magic power. He directed a surprised pair of eyes to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “…By any chance did senpai erase the sound using magic power?”<br /> <br /> “This is not really something to be surprised about right? Something like sound is just a vibration in the air, so isn’t it just a simple field of Psychokinesis?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said it nonchalantly but Kazuki couldn’t help but became tongue-tied.<br /> <br /> Certainly sound manipulation&amp;mdash;didn’t need much energy even though it vibrated the air in minute detail.<br /> <br /> But the magic power control for it was something really difficult because it was hard to image something like that. Sensing the unseen sound wave, it was still easier to simply magnify it, but to do a stunt like beautifully offsetting the sound wave was not supposed to be something so simple.<br /> <br /> …She might be a prodigy. This person might be above anybody else in the Witch’s Mansion in the field that didn’t have any connection with Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Of course Summoning Magic was the one that was useful in battle, but general magic that was effective in detailed practical use undoubtedly shone bright in special missions like this infiltration operation.<br /> <br /> “I’m also erasing your footstep, so let’s pass through the armored warriors just like this using the rooftop.”<br /> <br /> With a little pride, Kazuha-senpai was soundlessly hopping around *pyon pyon* in the rooftop.<br /> <br /> So that they became hard to see from the ground, the two of them took a low posture with their waist dropped and leaped from rooftop to rooftop just like the great thief of the Edo period.<br /> <br /> After they passed an increasingly fair number of armored warriors from on top of the roof, their gait became even more careful. Suddenly Kazuha-senpai pointed at something a little far ahead.<br /> <br /> There was a blue light generated ahead of where she was pointing, *PAN!* and then a little sound as if air was bursting out could be heard.<br /> <br /> The armored warrior reacted to that and turned away. It walked heavily to the direction of the sound.<br /> <br /> …If she could erase sound, then producing sound was also something possible.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly while looking at Kazuki. Kazuki too returned a smile and jest around with light feeling.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…how many pranks have you done until now with that ability? I have a feeling that small trick can be completely misused.”<br /> <br /> “I, I never did anything like a prank! After all…I don’t have any friends that I can prank or boast to…”<br /> <br /> He was just teasing lightly, but Kazuha-senpai hung her head down heavily.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…if you are fine with me then please prank me as much as you want.”<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t need that kind of appeal! I’m not that bored that I’m going to prank someone like you!”<br /> <br /> While they were doing that exchange with small voices, even more armored warriors were walking heavily from ahead of the street, making Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai be taken aback. It seemed that there really is a great number of these armored warriors.<br /> <br /> They still must not descend down from the rooftop.<br /> <br /> They steadily flew through the roof of the lining up low buildings in the residential area that had been transformed into Haunted Ground and advanced.<br /> <br /> Thereupon on their path, a tall [seven floor multi-tenant building] that stuck out compared to its surrounding stood on their way.<br /> <br /> Probably it was originally filled with various shops that became tenant there. On the side of the tall and narrow abandoned building, several sticking out billboards that were written with something unreadable because of the pitch black filth on them could be seen.<br /> <br /> “Ha, Hayashizaki…are we going to climb this too?” Kazuha-senpai looked up at the building and flinched back.<br /> <br /> …That’s right, if it was Enchant Aura then he was the more skilled one. As if opposing Kazuha-senpai who was so haughty since a while ago, Kazuki went “Fuffuffu” and chuckled.<br /> <br /> “Well then, please leave it to me this time. I’ll leave the footsteps to senpai.”<br /> <br /> After declaring so, he forcefully lifted up Kazuha-senpai who was in the posture of standing upright.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was settled into Kazuki’s arms struggled around with a bright red face.<br /> <br /> “Wait a second! You don’t need to lift me with princess-carry like this right, you can just carry me on your back!”<br /> <br /> “This is not just a mere princess-carry. This is Hayashizaki-style Last Secret Art [Wedding・Love Lift]!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was turning round and round like a merry-go-round while carrying Kazuha-senpai in his arms.<br /> <br /> “Last Secret Art!? So Hayashizaki-style is just a joke school of sword art like that!? Why are you revolving!?”<br /> <br /> “Kanae was the one that authorized this as the Last Secret Art though. There is no meaning at all in the revolving. Here we go!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki faced the multi-tenant building while still carrying Kazuha-senpai and jumped.<br /> <br /> Stepping his foot on the billboard that was sticking out from the wall, he made the second jump by using it as a foothold.<br /> <br /> Using the billboard as foothold like a stair, he kept jumping from one billboard to the next. Kazuha-senpai was offsetting all the sounds from Kazuki’s action. Matching their breaths splendidly, they managed to finished their leaps completely soundless.<br /> <br /> Only the distance from the last billboard to the rooftop was slightly taller than the previous jumps.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately chanted a level 1 reinforcement magic that he could quickly invoke. The reflexes reinforcement was trivial in this case, his aim was the physical strength reinforcement even just for a little.<br /> <br /> With that boosting, Kazuki was able to splendidly land on top of the roof of the abandoned building soundlessly.<br /> <br /> He could see the surrounding Haunted Ground with one sweep of the eye from the top of the building. There was a conspicuously darkened forest and building in the center of the Haunted Ground. That was surely the Ise Imperial Shrine there.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps both of us are a combination duo that is suited to infiltration missions, aren’t we?”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t just keep grinning happily, let me down quickly-!”<br /> <br /> Even while a small heart mark flew from Kazuha-senpai, she said that from her mouth and struggled around.<br /> <br /> Kazuki obediently lowered Kazuha-senpai down.<br /> <br /> “..Eh? You are simply letting me down like that?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai made an unsatisfied face. Kazuki made a stiff face and faced Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…''we are seen''.”<br /> <br /> …It seemed this mission wouldn’t be that simple.<br /> <br /> Kazuki whose eyesight was further reinforced with [Berserk] sensed the small movement amidst the scenery.<br /> <br /> “Eh…we are seen you said, here is the tenth floor’s rooftop you know?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered dumbfoundedly.<br /> <br /> ―At that moment, that human shadow moved out. A human shadow so small like a speck dust that was not visible from the rooftop where Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were standing was moving out with terrific speed. It was heading to this direction.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was just a moment late in his decision to escape&amp;mdash;it was caused by the height of the ten-floor building that originally wouldn’t let a human jump down to the ground safely that made his instinct hesitate.<br /> <br /> The small human shadow that began to move leaped from the street to the rooftop, making all the surrounding buildings as foothold with superhuman nimbleness―with no time to even say ‘ah’, it jumped from rooftop to rooftop to the roof where Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were.<br /> <br /> Under the sky of the Haunted Ground that was filled with dark clouds, on the rooftop of a narrow building, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai confronted that.<br /> <br /> Following the armored warrior, this one was a figure with bizarre external appearance.<br /> <br /> The image that floated inside his head with one glance was―[specter lemur].<br /> <br /> A small build that was slender like a monkey, however only both its eyes were big like a monster. Its eyeball was even bigger than a clenched fist―was this really human?<br /> <br /> With its body clad in pure black costume, only that huge eyeball was exposed from the hood it wore.<br /> <br /> A completely ninja-like figure. So that was it, there was not only armored warrior here.<br /> <br /> At the same time Kazuki recalled once more that this place was a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Was this guy human, or Demon Beast, ''he couldn’t make a distinction which one was it''.<br /> <br /> “My Lord…My Lord…I found it…Stigmata…Found it…”<br /> <br /> The ninja with build like a monkey leaked out a muffled voice from its mouth that was covered with hood. It was a faint small voice that was not audible except for Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai that were in that place. However―<br /> <br /> {…Both of your eyes are my eyes…. Is that so, so those guys had come. If they had stepped their foot on this ground, they cannot escape already!}<br /> <br /> From above the pitch black clouds that filled the sky of the Haunted Ground, a voice was reverberating. The words could be differentiated, but it was a muffled voice that he couldn’t make the distinction whether the speaker was male or female.<br /> <br /> That was a spell being spun. <br /> <br /> {Here a thick cloud rise, put up the barrier that confine all calamity. …My &lt;Yaegaki&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Fences within fences&lt;/ref&gt; of tranquility right here. …Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Dankai Bakufu|Severed World Cascade}}!!}<br /> <br /> A magic was invoked―the black cloud that fully covered the sky began to flow fiercely.<br /> <br /> The clouds spread thinly in the blink of eye, and then it languidly dropped down to the ground at the direction of the sky’s edge. A dome. The cloud in the sky covered the Haunted Ground in the shape of hemisphere, shutting them in from the outside world.<br /> <br /> …They couldn’t escape? A cold sensation ran through Kazuki’s spine. That meant the failure of their infiltration. On top of being discovered by the enemy, their escape path was blocked.<br /> <br /> “My Lord…Stigmata…My Lord…Stigmata, Kill! Stigmata Kill!”<br /> <br /> The monkey-like ninja leaked out a voice like he was talking in delirium.<br /> <br /> {So the King of Solomon 72 Pillar has come to this ground…this war is over if that guy is killed. Sounds good, if he can be killed then I don’t mind if you kill him to your heart’s content!}<br /> <br /> The voice from the sky gave his acknowledgement. Thereupon the monkey ninja raised an unthinkable loud voice from beyond its hood.<br /> <br /> “…nnn, nGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s ears naturally shone with defensive magic power to protect their eardrums. It was a voice so loud to that degree. There was no doubt that it likely reverberated through the Haunted Ground. Kazuki sensed that innumerable gazes were simultaneously directed to this direction from the ground. This guy called his comrades!<br /> <br /> “Senpai, it’s bad if we stay here! Let’s escape!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally threw his instinct to the wind and moved in action. He carried Kazuha-senpai once more and leaped with all his strength to the ground. “Kazuki!?” Kazuha-senpai raised a confused scream.<br /> <br /> The building’s rooftop―from the height of more than 30 meters―to the ground.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DAA―NN!* Kazuki landed on the ground while raising a grand sound this time. The sole of Kazuki’s feet, his knees, all were shining with blue defensive magic power and vanished the impact of the landing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took the hand of Kazuha-senpai and he dashed with speed that Kazuha-senpai could barely follow.<br /> <br /> He repeated the path that they followed until this point in one go.<br /> <br /> “Let’s conceal ourselves and give them the slip!”<br /> <br /> The armored warriors on the ground were all heading here simultaneously and gave chase.<br /> <br /> However Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s running foot exceeded the heavy armored warriors. They widened the distance from the pursuers in the blink of an eye. The majority of the armored warriors would surely lose sight of Kazuki’s figure immediately if he ran away like this.<br /> <br /> “NGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> But that ninja that looked completely like a monkey also jumped down and came chasing Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. It kicked the wall of the surrounding building and accelerated itself and rapidly shrunk its distance with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> A pure black bow and arrow was set up in the hand of that ninja unnoticed.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;SHUU* An arrow was fired cutting through the air. The aim was, Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> As if she had foresighted the trajectory of the arrow, senpai’s body quickly evaded the arrow.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was surprised for just an instant looking at that splendid body movement, but he immediately returned his awareness to the ninja.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki returned fire to the ninja with a fire arrow. The ninja was blown back while shining with defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> …Yosh, they are going to hide themselves just like this!<br /> <br /> {I already said that you cannot escape! I’m not going to let you ignore my words you’ll see!!}<br /> <br /> From above the head of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who ran with all their might, a voice and spell were coming down.<br /> <br /> {…Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Kumoito Shibari|Wind Thread Binding}}!!}<br /> <br /> From the dome-shaped cloud that covered the sky, two strings of [string of cloud] were slithering down. Its tips chased the escaping Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and twined itself around their body at once.<br /> <br /> The cloud strings twined around Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai, but there was nothing happening to them like restriction in their movement or the like. But the cloud strings kept elongating lengthily no matter how far they went, tying Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai with the sky.<br /> <br /> This is a mark! Kazuki comprehended that string’s aim. ―If this string of cloud was followed from the sky, then no matter where Kazuki was inside this Haunted ground his location would be constantly known.<br /> <br /> “Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai immediately chanted her spell and created Futsunushi no Kami’s divine sword. The evil crushing sword that severed various magic effect like curse or seal. That sword was directed to the string of cloud and swept sideways.<br /> <br /> But―it was not cut. The blade didn’t return any feedback to the hand holding it and passed through the cloud string completely.<br /> <br /> “This is…a magic power that's more superior than even Futsu no Mitama!” Kazuha-senpai raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “What is the meaning of this, Futsunushi no Kami!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki yelled while running with all his power.<br /> <br /> “Even though there shouldn’t be any mistake on our part in the infiltration until here, that guy called Yatagarasu sensed our presence! If by any chance someone acquired the knowledge of our movement, that must be because someone blabbed their mouth! Moreover this magic called [Izumo Yaegaki]…this is the magic of Japanese Mythology!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki couldn’t think of any other explanation for this situation other than that the Japanese Mythology had screwed with him.<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami! You are betraying me and Hayashizaki, and led us to a trap!?”<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuha-senpai that raised a sorrowful voice―the avatar of the god of sword emerged out.<br /> <br /> There was no mistake that Futsunushi no Kami was the one that created this situation.<br /> <br /> {Wrong...that Yatagarasu is not an enemy. I led you two to this place...not for a trap. This is not a trap but a ''request''. In this ground, I wish for you to save Japanese Mythology. The magic from before, is &lt;Susanoo&gt; of Izumo …one of Japanese Mythology’s two great chief god, Susanoo’s magic.}<br /> <br /> “Two great chief god!? The chief god is not just Amaterasu, but there are two of them!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a shocked voice after listening to the unexpected truth. Kazuki immediately thought that he was tricked by Futsunushi no Kami. …However, now that he thought back Futsunushi no Kami never said anything about defeating Amaterasu, only that he had to defeat the chief god. But…to save Japanese Mythology? <br /> <br /> {…Defeat Susanoo, rescue the sealed Amaterasu and save Japanese Mythology, that is my request.}<br /> <br /> “''If I save Amaterasu just like you say, will the Wild Gods recover their sanity''!?”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami was once more ''giving them information in small amounts intentionally'' and making them fall into confusion. Even if he didn’t spout lies, that was just one type of swindling. Just as he thought it was fine to say that he was deceived.<br /> <br /> This is surely not a trap, he believed that.<br /> <br /> However, the most important point was if he manage to achieve what Futsunushi no Kami asked then [would Yamato’s Wild Gods return to their sanity?]. If that was possible, then he didn’t mind whatever course he had to go through.<br /> <br /> “NGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!! STIGMATAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> Strange voice reverberated shrilly from their back. This was not the place for talking. An arrow was also fired subsequently at them.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reinforced his dynamic vision once again and brushed off the flying arrow at him barehanded.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! If we can just turn this guy back then I think we won’t need to worry of getting discovered. Let’s fight!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai halted, then she turned back and faced the enemy.<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it, let’s fight momentarily.” Kazuki too thought of the same thing.<br /> <br /> They had already returned back to the place near the edge of the Haunted Ground. The hanging down cloud that looked like curtains had visibly looked near. He wanted to confirm by touching the curtain of cloud whether they really couldn’t escape from here, but if they fought with their back facing this curtain of cloud then they didn’t need to worry about being attacked from behind for the time being.<br /> <br /> “…Moreover these guys don’t look like they can use Summoning Magic.”<br /> <br /> The enemy was an unknown, but just with that fact the extent of the enemy’s threat was considerably lowered.<br /> <br /> From straight ahead of the street, a crowd of armored warriors were rushing here. The one that was leading them was that monkey-like ninja who was much faster compared to the others. Even while running, it headed to Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and set up its bow and arrow again.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!” Kazuki attacked before it could fired its arrow.<br /> <br /> The monkey ninja was blown back to the crowd of the armored warriors. That became the signal of the fight’s beginning.<br /> <br /> “Sti, STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The instant Kazuki used Summoning Magic, the armored warriors shrieked with volume that shook the earth.<br /> <br /> “…Are these guys holding a grudge against Stigmata!?”<br /> <br /> The yelling armored warriors raised their large war sword overhead at the right side of their face like Jigen-style’s &lt;Stance of Dragonfly&gt; and approached Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. It was a stance that made it easier to immediately swing down the sword that betted everything in a single stroke.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors that entered battle preparation accelerated with light emitted from all over their body. That rush―was a speed outside of human realm. It surpassed the limit of normal swordsman.<br /> <br /> That monkey ninja was like that too, but it was as if their physical ability was using reinforcement magic. ''It made them suspicious of a connection with Diva here. ''<br /> <br /> Kazuki and also Kazuha-senpai were without their katana, they were completely unarmed.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, watch out!” Kazuki came out to the front to cover for Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> The first armored warrior that came approaching with unstoppable downward slash was quickly dodged by Kazuki. The downward slash of the second armored warrior that came almost at the same time with the first couldn’t be evaded this time, he caught the blade between both his hands.<br /> <br /> Catching the naked blade of a real sword―if it was with the reinforcement of [Berserk] to his reflexes and physical strength, such technique was possible.<br /> <br /> However inside Kazuki’s palms, the long sword that was pinned between them was forcing its way through *gugugu* and approaching near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, double the Megin that whirl inside my body! The purpose of god that spur me to the infinite battle, to this body! …Meginjord!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki further chanted the level 2 reinforcement magic of the Norse Mythology’s &lt;Thor&gt;.<br /> <br /> The Summoning Magic of this Diva called Thor…for its level 1 and level 2 to be both reinforcement magic was a terrifyingly extreme configuration, but…in regards for swordsman this Diva had a very much great user-friendliness.<br /> <br /> A belt of light descended down from the sky and coiled itself around Kazuki’s body. That belt of light amplified the muscle volume of Kazuki’s whole body. With his amplified power, Kazuki stole the long sword that he pinned down between his palms.<br /> <br /> Fixing his grip of the stolen sword, he slashed back to the armored warrior in reverse.<br /> <br /> The armored warrior was blown away by the backlash of its defensive magic power, *DOSUN!* it fell down with a heavy sound.<br /> <br /> It was thick―Kazuki secretly shivered. That defensive magic power had more than five times the thickness of a normal person.<br /> <br /> “STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The third and fourth armored warriors that possessed extraordinary power and toughness approached Kazuki even nearer. The downswing that they launched was more like a berserker rather than a swordsman.<br /> <br /> “O wind of Tatara, summon the scorching heat of steel to my forging! Take the hammer of well-tempered in hand to here, pound away the soul’s disgrace!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that was covered by Kazuki finished the chanting of her spell at the back.<br /> <br /> “…{{furigana|Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi|Wind Hammer of Heaven Plume Fire Make}}!”<br /> <br /> While getting the shine of her magic power worked up, Kazuha-senpai thrust her right hand forward.<br /> <br /> From that hand, *DON!!* as if an invisible cannon was fired, a number of the approaching armored warriors were blown away altogether. At the same time the armored warriors were enveloped with flame explosion.<br /> <br /> A composite attack of shockwave and flame that was produced from the palm. It was Futsunushi no Kami’s level 4 magic.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, thank you very much! …Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> From the gap that was created from the blown away armored warriors, a ninja with bow and arrow set up leaped out and came approaching. Kazuki vigilantly sensed it an instant earlier and launched a flame bullet.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors that were blown away by Kazuha-senpai stood up and took the stance that looked like a dragonfly once more.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, I’m coming out to the front so please cover me from the rear!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out while he took a stance with the stolen long sword vigilantly.<br /> <br /> “Covering from the back you say? …That’s wrong Hayashizaki, I am a magic swordsman just like you!! …I became the shrine maiden of sword. Rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand!! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic. Flame burst out from Kazuha-senpai’s own palm and created a divine sword that possessed the power to tear apart magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was surprised inside his heart―after she chanted the level 4 magic before, the time she took to finish chanting this level 3 magic was frightfully fast. It was a chanting speed that approached Koyuki.<br /> <br /> And then Kazuha-senpai overtook Kazuki and slashed at the armored warrior’s direction.<br /> <br /> The people that once knew Kazuha-senpai would laugh at that action as foolhardiness, but if it was the current senpai then it was not foolhardiness. Kazuha-senpai first cut down one enemy, next she dodged the downswing coming from the side with paper-thin difference and slashed the second enemy in a counterattack, and then she leaped back quickly to dodge the third enemy’s downswing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki doubted his eyes looking at her light and easy body movement that didn’t back down for even a step facing enemies with numerical superiority.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who splendidly conducted herself in this narrow street was constantly moving an instant faster than the enemy.<br /> <br /> It was not as precise as Kazuki or Kanae, but ''she was sensing the opponent’s magic power and making Foresight of their movement''.<br /> <br /> Not only her chanting ability, her sword skill had also make a terrific improvement.<br /> <br /> Once she had self-confidence planted inside here, she was someone that could splendidly achieve a fast growth like this.<br /> <br /> …He was having the wrong impression. Kazuha-senpai was not something like an object of protection.<br /> <br /> She was a partner that fought with him shoulder-to-shoulder.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, then please I’ll leave the right side to you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki dashed to the left next to Kazuha-senpai and assaulted the armored warrior with his sword.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, leave it to me!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai *don* bumped her left shoulder to Kazuki’s right shoulder and smiled reliably.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> …She didn’t make any conduct that held him back like when they were on the sea. Absolutely none at all.<br /> <br /> After Kazuha bumped her shoulder and felt her {{furigana|partner|Kazuki}}’s existence, she leaped into the crowd of the armored warriors. Naked blade flashed many times over, but she slipped away through all of it and return slashing when she passed them through.<br /> <br /> If it’s Hayashizaki then he will surely fight like this―while she gripped her sword, such imagination was naturally floating in her mind all the time. Kazuha was always desperately attempting to Trace that movement inside her mind.<br /> <br /> This thought that she felt was surely a yearning without doubt.<br /> <br /> That was why her own swordsmanship came to resemble Hayashizaki’s closely day by day.<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki-style’s Foresight―its fundamental truth was a perception from thoroughly doing intensification of Extra Sense.<br /> <br /> For those Hayashizaki siblings to acquire perception power until that level, surely they ought to have spent long months and years honing their body. But she was above those two in magic talent, there was no reason that she couldn’t do the same thing like those two.<br /> <br /> Perceive―the opponent’s every single move. Those preliminary signs from their breath, muscle tension, and then their state of mind.<br /> <br /> Moving like this, moving like this, coming like that.<br /> <br /> Kazuha moved with her red and white Magic Dress fluttering around, she evaded the enemy’s attacks as if dancing a Kagura&lt;ref&gt;Ancient Shinto music and dancing&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> And then strike back at the opening in their important point. Realize that image into reality just like that, a definitive response.<br /> <br /> ―But, for making a crowd this large as her opponent, Kazuha’s Foresight was still incomplete.<br /> <br /> An arrow was flying from outside her image.<br /> <br /> Kazuha suddenly realized. That monkey-like ninja’s, bow and arrow…!<br /> <br /> The instant she resolved herself to get hit, a hand reached out in front of Kazuha’s eyes suddenly, warding off the approaching arrow.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Then next a flame bullet was fired from that palm. It was not because of fast chanting, but a smooth action that was as if it had seen through everything. The way of fighting of the man that held the alias of Cyclops.<br /> <br /> The ninja’s body was struck once more by the flame bullet and it was blown away to the other side of the armored warriors crowd.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Hayashizaki!” Words of gratitude naturally flowed out from her mouth.<br /> <br /> While that guy was facing off against innumerable armored warriors, he was simultaneously paying attention to this side too.<br /> <br /> …He is really kind when he is fighting. A fight, more than anything else, was the place that made her feel his kindness for real. The time of fighting was also the only place where she could become honest with regards to him.<br /> <br /> That’s why match the breathing with each other―and help each other.<br /> <br /> “Scattering the flower of night craft o the tempering of artisan, reach the weave of the sky with the tip of your sword! The role of sword is for the sake of victory…Under my command, become thunder cloud and pour down! Tenkū Battou Renge Hou!”<br /> <br /> While fighting, Kazuha invoked her magic at the same time.<br /> <br /> Flames burst out in Kazuha’s surrounding. That flame of transmutation made countless Sacred Treasures emerge in Kazuha’s surroundings. Swords with various shapes from all ages and countries―with Kazuha’s magic power manipulation all of those could be fired to every direction and angle like missiles.<br /> <br /> “…GO-!” Together with the command, the countless swords rained incessantly on the armored warriors.<br /> <br /> At the same time those Sacred Treasures pierced the enemies, flame and ice, lighting and the like, each of the swords exhibited various different power of elements. Kazuha also directed those attacks at Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much, senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s chest leaped when she heard those returning words of gratitude.<br /> <br /> This feeling of unity in this cooperation battle made her head feel pure white inside with intoxication.<br /> <br /> Just as I thought, I like fighting with him.<br /> <br /> No…perhaps I, like him already….<br /> <br /> It seemed Hayashizaki could perceive the change in positivity level. By some chance even in the middle of this battle right now, perhaps this change that happened inside her had been conveyed to him already.<br /> <br /> Normally that was an extremely embarrassing matter but…right now she was happy that her feeling was conveyed. She wanted him to know more about this feeling that she could be honest about in the middle of this battle, that was what she completely felt from herself.<br /> <br /> What in the world are you thinking when you are being surrounded by all these grim armored warriors, me.<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s whole body was spontaneously filled with strength from embarrassment. She directed that shame to the armored warriors and let fly a slash with all her strength to vent out her feeling.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Kazuki too felt his heart become excited from this battle where they formed a duo.<br /> <br /> But that feeling was sinking gloomily little by little. He became fed up before long.<br /> <br /> Of course it was not because he held any dissatisfaction between the two of them. The problem was&amp;mdash;the enemy.<br /> <br /> He cut and cut and felt the thick defensive magic power where the enemy kept standing back up, this crowd of armored warrior. While he kept cutting down the armored warriors no matter how many time, “This is bad” he couldn’t clear away such anxiety inside him.<br /> <br /> There was still some allowance in his stamina and magic power. However even now the armored warriors that were scattered all over the Haunted Ground ought to be converging in their location here following the mark of the cloud string that was hanging down from the sky.<br /> <br /> The situation had become something he couldn’t laugh about. …What’s going on with this enemy’s toughness?<br /> <br /> In the first place, what in the world are these enemies? Were they human or Demon Beast, he couldn’t even make that distinction.<br /> <br /> “STIGMATAAAAAAA!!” The armored warriors raised a shriek filled with resentment and came assaulting.<br /> <br /> Their number and toughness became a dreadful pressure, they kept surging forward.<br /> <br /> At that time in spite of the dome of cloud that isolated the Haunted Ground, above Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s head something was traversing fast―it was a single crow, perching on top of the electricity pole at the side of the street.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu―a polished bright copper disk was caught between its beaks.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu raised a high-pitched voice from the edge of its beak. That was a spell.<br /> <br /> “…O exalted light illuminating the seven seas and all nations! Gather in my lord’s idol, emit the light that purify the impurity…Yata no Kagami&lt;ref&gt;Yata no Kagami (the eight-span mirror; one of the Imperial Regalia)&lt;/ref&gt;・{{furigana|Youka Issen|Sun Flower Flash}}!”<br /> <br /> The disk appended in the beak&amp;mdash;the &lt;bronze mirror&gt; released a powerful light.<br /> <br /> He reflexively closed his eyelids, but even so it was light so abundant it felt like his retina was burned with whiteness.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who had their eyes closed were supposed to become defenseless, but there was no attack coming at all during that interval.<br /> <br /> When they opened their eyes, there were a lot of young people in casual clothes collapsed unconsciously in front of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s eyes.<br /> <br /> There were no armored warriors&amp;mdash;no, he couldn’t think of any explanation other than that the light that Yatagarasu emitted made the armored warriors become like this. The fainted young people had fallen into symptoms that looked like magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around his surrounding and what he saw made his eyes open even wider. The surrounding area was recovering back from a Haunted Ground into a normal street corner. The original scenery of Ise city’s street was returning there.<br /> <br /> “The light just now is…offensive magic? It shaved off that thick defensive magic power with one attack? All that number of enemies!?”<br /> <br /> “…No, that magic just now is purge magic. It has a power that can purify even stronger evil than what Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic [Futsu no Mitama] can do. It’s the only power I in this form can use.”<br /> <br /> The bronze mirror that was held between the beaks had also vanished. Most likely it was a Sacred Treasure created from magic power.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu pointed at the fainted young people with its beak.<br /> <br /> “These young people had Wild Gods reside in their body and they acted violently because of that magic power. But because the light from before got rid of [the connections with the Wild Gods] that were embed within their mind, they are now returned to their original human appearance.”<br /> <br /> The contents of the armored warriors&amp;mdash;everyone of the fainted young people were between their teens until twenties. Many were female but a few male were mixed. They were people of the generation that were most strong in magic power.<br /> <br /> “…So we were saved by you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stared at Yatagarasu while still maintaining his vigilance. Even while being vigilant―he had to obtain information regarding this mysterious situation from this guy.<br /> <br /> All the armored warriors in this Haunted Ground weren’t supposed to be completely annihilated just with this, but the surrounding was strangely filled with silence.<br /> <br /> “Even if you said that I saved you two, these people could return to their original appearance only because the both of you had inflicted damage to them. As long as their defensive magic power was still considerably thick, even that light won’t be able to reach until the depth of the curse. To defeat them efficiently, there is a need for us to cooperate.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu lightly flapped its wings and perched on top of Kazuki’s shoulder. It was an action that was appealing to him that they were comrades.<br /> <br /> “…Were these people transformed into Demon Beast?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked while looking around his surrounding. The scenery where the buildings looked abandoned with the loss of its color and its weathered condition had returned into a really normal street of stores and houses. However it only applied to Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s surrounding, the far away―the direction of the Haunted Ground’s center was still looking like an extensive Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> The Haunted Ground could only return to the condition of natural world when the Demon Beasts that resided inside it had been subjugated.<br /> <br /> Such phenomenon that was similar with that Haunted Ground recovery had happened here when they defeated these armored warriors.<br /> <br /> “No, these guys are something falsely similar with Demon Beast. They are―&lt;God’s reliant&gt;. Hosting the power of unruly god inside their body and yet they failed on controlling that power, ''a failure of a shrine maiden''.”<br /> <br /> “Failure? Don’t tell me…Yamato’s government is creating shrine maidens with human experiment?”<br /> <br /> An imagination that made a dread ran through him emerged to the forefront inside Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> ―Naiarlatoteph. A hateful name came to mind.<br /> <br /> “When the government of Yamato instigated the Divas of Japanese Mythology that went wild to be added as their allies, they gathered humans that excelled in magic power and make them bind a contract with the Wild Gods. It is impossible to communicate with those Wild Gods that had lost their reasoning, so what all of them got was {{furigana|Drive|Possession Contract}}.”<br /> <br /> In the middle of the explanation, Kazuki took a glance at Kazuha-senpai. Even though she was a similar Shrine Maiden, Kazuha-senpai didn’t experience Drive for the sake of binding a contract and borrowed the power of Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> Possession contract with an unknown Diva was a dangerous act forbidden by Japan’s law.<br /> <br /> “The government of Yamato conducted [a group possession contract assembly by human initiative] so to speak. People who did well can control the power of the Wild God that possessed them to a certain degree and become a &lt;Drive Shrine Maiden&gt;. The humans that failed lost their reasoning and became God’s reliant. ―In other words the failure.”<br /> <br /> “What a thing to do…”<br /> <br /> So the Yamato’s government produced their battle strength in a short time like that.<br /> <br /> Even in the success case just being in a possession contract was dangerous already, if failed―they would became like this armored warrior.<br /> <br /> “That was an unreasonable way of doing things. The Wild God side doesn’t even choose the human and the human is forced into doing something unreasonable. Moreover to push something like a Wild God inside the heart…they were going to be completely ruined.”<br /> <br /> A Diva with ill will would try to take over the human’s flesh body by means of Drive.<br /> <br /> Then what would happen if a Diva who had lost their senses and ran wild was made to reside in human’s flesh body.<br /> <br /> Even if the Diva didn’t do any body stealing, wouldn’t the human got abused like toy by that overwhelming power? So that was the meaning to be a God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> “If you look around you it’s just as you understand, God’s reliant emit the same type of miasma like a Demon Beast and transform the surrounding into a Haunted Ground. Wild God belong under the same category with Demon Beast―an &lt;absolute enemy of the human race&gt;.”<br /> <br /> An absolute enemy of the human race―it was still in the middle of being researched, but for Demon Beast, other than [attacking human] and [expanding the Haunted Ground in the place where human live], it was said that they didn’t show any other instinctual action at all.<br /> <br /> It seemed that there was never any confirmed sight of Demon Beast eating or sleeping.<br /> <br /> The expression of an absolute enemy of the human race was something he could surely agree with. But―<br /> <br /> “Is it fine to jumble the existence of Wild God and Demon Beast together? They are raging and rampaging around but, though imperfect they are still gods right?”<br /> <br /> “Different with many other Mythologies, demarcation of &lt;Good God・Evil God&gt; or existence called &lt;Demon&gt; doesn’t exist in Japanese Mythologies. [Enemy] in Japanese Mythology is none other than the disaster caused by the god that acted unruly. Japanese Mythology doesn’t worship the dual nature of good and evil, but the two face of nature’s blessing and calamity.”<br /> <br /> Wild God was not evil. However once angered, they would bare their fangs as the human race’s greatest enemy.<br /> <br /> Violent natural phenomenon destroyed the world of human and encroached.<br /> <br /> “…Among the people of Yamato’s government, there is the existence of someone that can skillfully manipulate being that can possibly be good or evil don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> Loki―the trickster of the Norse Mythology.<br /> <br /> “Yamato government made Ise Imperial Shrine as the place for the ceremony that create Shrine Maiden. It seems they possess the know-how of a method that is interlaced with science to make a human host a Diva.”<br /> <br /> Naiarlatoteph―the data from the experiment that that guy made Headmaster Otonashi do. The politicians of Yamato might make use of that. All of it was something possible if it was them.<br /> <br /> “They carried out the ceremony to produce Shrine Maiden here many times over, those who failed and became uncontrollable God’s reliant were abandoned and left behind. Like that the Ise Imperial Shrine was completely transformed into a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu sadly hung its head down.<br /> <br /> “…I now understood how Ise Imperial Shrine became a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> For the sake of obtaining battle strength called Shrine Maiden, these young people became the compensation. To watch out for the arrival of Kazuki and the others at Ise Imperial Shrine, for defense against that happening…these armored warriors were not for that purpose.<br /> <br /> He felt relieved that this infiltration operation was not detected right from the start but…just that was not sufficient to explain the present situation.<br /> <br /> “Then what is the objective of you and Futsunushi no Kami?”<br /> <br /> This guy was probably being connected with Futsunushi no Kami. If not for Futsunushi no Kami’s notification about Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s visit, then there was no way Yatagarasu could show its appearance with timing this good.<br /> <br /> However he knew well that it wasn’t an enemy.<br /> <br /> “You all called us out here, what do you want us to do? Can we properly achieve the objective of our coming here by doing the thing you want from us? Just so you know, we have no intention of only being used.”<br /> <br /> In response to Kazuki’s question, Futsunushi no Kami’s avatar appeared beside Yatagarasu.<br /> <br /> {…We want you to rescue Amaterasu.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami said such thing.<br /> <br /> “If Amaterasu recovers her power and gives birth to Japanese Mythology’s &lt;True {{furigana|King|Basileus}}&gt;, all the Diva will surely return to their senses from their Wild God state and obey the true King altogether. For that sake…I want the other chief god Susanoo to be defeated.}<br /> <br /> “I never heard about this two chief god in Japanese Mythology before.”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami had explained that [all the Wild God will return to their sanity if the chief god of Japanese Mythology is defeated] and led Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai to this land. Indeed, certainly there was no lie that was said there.<br /> <br /> Just that for such complex circumstance to lie around in between was rushing off everything.<br /> <br /> Kazuki exposed a dissatisfaction in his expression and pressed his question to Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> “Give us a proper explanation now. About all this circumstance of Japanese Mythology.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is a mythology that is made up of two powers of Yin and Yang.”<br /> <br /> Like that, Yatagarasu got the ball rolling for the explanation.<br /> <br /> “Therefore there are also two chief gods. The one that symbolized the Yang is Amaterasu, the one that symbolized the Yin is Susanoo. Once, Japan was divided into two of Amaterasu’s Wakoku and Susanoo’s Izumo. These two chief gods raised their own respective king as their mouthpiece and got embroiled in a destiny of conflict. Amaterasu and Susanoo, &lt;Wakoku King&gt; and &lt;Izumo King&gt;, the victor will become the true chief god and king of Japan. [Unification in the conflict’s afterwards], that is what have been established in the mythology.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu gave such explanation about the Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> “So you are going to get me involved in the confrontation between Amaterasu and Susanoo. …And then that Susanoo, right now he is forming an alliance with Yamato government, so that’s the situation.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki confirmed, Yatagarasu gave a brief nod.<br /> <br /> {What caused this situation was Susanoo. Susanoo joined hands with Yamato government and made the other Japanese Divas become Wild God from the instigation of shrine’s defilement.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami made a grimacing expression.<br /> <br /> The wiles of Yamato government to make the Divas of Japanese Mythology into Wild God and manipulate them was with the cooperation of Susanoo.<br /> <br /> “Why did Susanoo ally himself with Yamato?”<br /> <br /> “Susanoo was thinking that [Japanese Mythology is weak, therefore I have to borrow other Mythology’s power], that’s how it seems. There he was approached by Loki.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki opened his eyes wide in shock.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is weak?”<br /> <br /> {Right, I wonder if it can even be categorized as puny class.} Saying that, Futsunushi no Kami nodded.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology doesn’t really demand strong faith from the people of Japan. Even their will of opposition against other Mythology is sparse. As long as they have companion for festival and making ruckus and playing around with, then everything is fine. Their [will for power] are weak.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively looked at Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was a Shrine Maiden that made a contract with Futsunushi no Kami, but the relationship between the two was exactly like a friend.<br /> <br /> “We are like that but in the present time where [the era of Mythology has been revived], if we keep like this then [other Mythology will swallow us], Susanoo is harboring a sense of impending crisis like that. Right now he is buttering up Loki, but most likely he is planning to catch Loki off guard slyly in the end.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki frowned his eyebrows hearing Yatagarasu words. Planning to catch Loki off guard?<br /> <br /> Exactly because it was Loki, he was a Diva that could easily catch Susanoo off guard instead while joining hands with him.<br /> <br /> Susanoo and Loki…on the surface they were joining hands together, but their relation was one where both of them kept looking for an opening in each other’s guard.<br /> <br /> “The Diva that reign as the chief god of the Mythology not only bestow their characteristic magic to their contractor, but a power that should be called [King’s Authority] is also granted together with being recognized as a King. You too should have something like that.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said. Kazuki stared at the Stigmata on his own left hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was able to use Lemegeton’s characteristic magic, &lt;{{furigana|Goetia|72 Solomon=Pillar Omnimagic}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> The more he deepened his bond, the greater his power of bond became.<br /> <br /> Apart from that, there was also the power to visualize the change of girls’ positivity level and their location. This was what called as [King’s Authority].<br /> <br /> It seemed there was still room for this power to strengthen even more together with Leme’s growth.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu and Susanoo, the Wakoku King and the Izumo King, they won’t be able to obtain their true power if they haven’t achieve victory over the opposing camp and become the true chief god and King. If the situation stays like this then the [King’s Authority] of the Japanese Mythology is impossible to use. Susanoo’s camp is being rash in their desire to defeat Amaterasu’s camp quickly. But Amaterasu has zero motivation for that. She didn’t enthrone her contractor as the King of Wakoku in the least and just kept playing with her contractor. Binding contract and recognizing someone as King are two separate matter.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was having a contract with Leme, but he still hadn’t been fully recognized as Solomon King yet.<br /> <br /> This was the same thing with that.<br /> <br /> “Why didn’t Amaterasu make her contractor to be King? That’s because she understood that the instant the King of Wakoku is born, the fight with Susanoo’s camp will begin. Amaterasu dislikes conflict. Her contractor too is also not someone suited for fighting. However [Even though Japanese Mythology is weak even in the best of time, also being unable to use the true power like this is intolerable], like that the Susanoo’s camp was getting even more irked.”<br /> <br /> Despite the preordained destiny of opposition between the two, but it seemed there was a difference in the degree of enthusiasm in each of them.<br /> <br /> “The angry Susanoo defeated the contractor of Amaterasu that still hadn’t become the Wakoku King yet prematurely. Furthermore he also recommended at the Yamato government to leave the God’s reliant that were created from the failed ceremony of possessed Shrine Maiden unregulated just like that in the Ise Imperial Shrine, and made the Ise Imperial Shrine into a Haunted Ground. Amaterasu obtained her power from both her contractor and Ise Imperial Shrine, that’s how she is preserving her divinity. But losing both of them simultaneously, her power weakened and she was sealed completely inside the &lt;Gate of Celestial Rock Cave&gt;. There is a danger of extinction for her if it keeps like this. Even the happy-go-lucky Amaterasu thought [Just as expected it’s going to be bad if it keep like this] and she sent a messenger to the other side of the seal―that messenger is this me, Yatagarasu.”<br /> <br /> {Yatagarasu has the privilege to come and goes as it pleases from the &lt;Territory&gt; of Japanese Mythology’s Divas. And then he made a contact with Diva that hasn’t become a Wild God that is me.}<br /> <br /> How Futsunushi no Kami didn’t become a Wild God…was surely thanks to his Shrine Maiden that was Kazuha-senpai who secretly moved Futsunushi no Kami’s altar to an abandoned club room in the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, I heard about you from Futsunushi no Kami. I want to ask you for a favor to rescue Amaterasu. To defeat Susanoo and become the person that control the Japanese Mythology, that is the favor that I want to ask. If it’s you, then you can defeat the Izumo King that Susanoo raised right?”<br /> <br /> “WAITT――――TT! JUST WAITT――――TT!!”<br /> <br /> At that time together with a shout, Leme materialized beside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Since this operation began, there was someone that maintained silence and acted like this matter about Japanese Mythology was of no concern for her. That was Leme.<br /> <br /> “Wait right there, Leme just stayed quiet and listened but Kazuki has already contracted with Leme just so you know! Is Japanese Mythology intending to snatch Kazuki from Leme!?”<br /> <br /> {I too understand about that. We are not planning to do that so it’s fine to feel relieved.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami said so in order to sooth Leme.<br /> <br /> “Just like what I said before, Amaterasu too already has her own contractor. What we want is to enthrone that ''girl'' as Wakoku King formally, on top of that we want to present her to the King of Solomon.”<br /> <br /> “Mu…oh hoh? Present you say?” Leme’s expression changed and her eyes brightened.<br /> <br /> “The King of Japanese Mythology will be affiliated to Hayashizaki Kazuki as &lt;Subordinate King&gt;, the Solomon King that is you will be accompanied by our King, becoming an existence of higher rank than even the King―we want to ask you to become the &lt;Emperor&gt;. In exchange for that we ask all of you to become our substitute in fighting Susanoo and Loki.”<br /> <br /> “I see! So you are going to present the Queen of Japanese Mythology into the harem! If it’s like that then certainly, it’s feasible for Kazuki to rule both Solomon Mythology and Japanese Mythology! The Emperor that rule even the other Mythology by means of harem&lt;ref&gt;Maybe I should capitalize the ‘h’ in harem here&lt;/ref&gt;…Solomon Emperor! That’s really not bad!!”<br /> <br /> {Guwahhahha! If that is realized then it will become Solomon Myriad 72 Pillar!}<br /> <br /> Leme was really gleeful and accepted the other side’s proposal. Futsunushi no Kami too got carried away with the mood and guffawed&amp;mdash;Kazuki interjected into the conversation in panic.<br /> <br /> “Hey wait, even if you say that you will present me with an unknown girl I’ve never seen before, it will just make me troubled!”<br /> <br /> “For the time being if you just meet her first it will be okay after that right, o my King. Most of all to make this infiltration operation succeed, it doesn’t look like there is any other way than this anyway.”<br /> <br /> Leme who had been completely won over to the other side before he could even say ‘ah’ said such to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Certainly, there was a truth in that but….<br /> <br /> It was a long explanation but, the main point was they wanted him to substitute for Amaterasu and fight Susanoo. If he defeated Susanoo and the true King of Japanese Mythology was born, the Japanese Divas that became Wild God would return to their senses and could be subdued. The objective of this side too could be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> {Guwahhahha! You can reach the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave&lt;ref&gt;Ama no Iwato in Japan, I keep wondering whether I should just use this original name because it’s shorter. How troublesome.&lt;/ref&gt; where Amaterasu is sealed through the deepest part of Ise Imperial Shrine! For that sake defeat the pitiful children that had transformed completely into God’s reliant and rescue them!!}<br /> <br /> Pitiful children…if they defeated those God’s reliant with Yatagarasu’s cooperation, they could return to their original human appearance. They have to make this operation a success, for that they also couldn’t leave these God’s reliant alone.<br /> <br /> “Well then, we are going to meet with Amaterasu…what do we need to do to release Amaterasu from the seal? What kind of seal is the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki questioned. The guffawing Futsunushi no Kami suddenly had his expression become serious.<br /> <br /> {That’s…for later. You will understand if you go to the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave.}<br /> <br /> …''So he was still planning to give incomplete information''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed his doubtful eyes to Futsunushi no Kami. When he was going to say ‘cut it out’ to him, suddenly his hand was gripped tightly from the side. It was Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki, that…don’t get angry about Futsunushi no Kami. Rather than that let’s rescue these people inside the God’s reliant okay.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai directed her sorrowful eyes to the people that were losing their consciousness. Even before feeling any distrust to Futsunushi no Kami, it seemed Kazuha-senpai thought about the people that became God’s reliant even more strongly.<br /> <br /> “…In the ceremony of possessed Shrine Maiden, I think these people surely became candidates by their own choice. Perhaps these people were originally a Knight. And they were resenting the humans that were chosen by Stigmata. That was why they themselves wanted to become stronger…”<br /> <br /> In the middle of battle, these God’s reliant were raising screams of hatred [STIGMATA!] many times over.<br /> <br /> Perhaps from envy and yearning toward Stigmata, and with feeling of [we too want to become even stronger], these guys were spurred into an extreme action like this. …Kazuki too felt heavy in his chest looking at them.<br /> <br /> “Something like that, really feels sad for some reason…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai hung her head down despondently.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai selected the katana that were in good condition from the hips of the fainted people and borrowed them, attaching those on their hips.<br /> <br /> A lot of time had passed while they were grilling Yatagarasu and Futsunushi no Kami, but there was no attack from the armored warriors that were supposed to still remain in this Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were still tied with the cloud strings from the sky as yet, those strings were a marking of their position.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless for there was no further attack…,<br /> <br /> “Most likely the Izumo King that is commanding them had already detected my existence.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said that.<br /> <br /> “Knowing that we cannot be defeated with only force, right now they are preparing an ambush in a location where they can use their number advantage with more reliability, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki also thought that Yatagarasu’s conjecture was correct.<br /> <br /> “That [Kumoito Shibari] is Susanoo’s magic that possesses equal power with Amaterasu. With the power of the currently weakened Amaterasu, it cannot be purged even if we use the [Yata no Kagami] from before. As long as that thread becomes the mark, it’s surely impossible to advance while evading ambush.”<br /> <br /> “Our side has also decided to rescue the people that became the God’s reliant anyway. We have no intention to advance while avoiding them. On the contrary if they are fortifying in one place it will become easier.”<br /> <br /> Before when they were prioritizing the original strategy, they couldn’t help but leave the Haunted Ground alone, but the situation had changed.<br /> <br /> “Well then Senpai, let’s be off! …Senpai?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who only had few words from some time before was…having her attention completely stolen by one of the souvenir shop building.<br /> <br /> With some of the God’s reliant defeated, the original appearance of the Ise town appeared in front of their eyes. With how close they were with Ise Imperial Shrine, souvenir shops intended for tourist were lining up, but…,<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki, this akafuku&lt;ref&gt;A type of mocha colored red&lt;/ref&gt;, I wonder if it’s edible.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was directing her eyes filled with greed on the packages that were piled up in heaps on the most conspicuous shelve inside the souvenir shop. The famous product of Ise, [Akafuku Mochi]. Of course the inside of the store right now was in a defenseless and unmanned state.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, stealing is no good. Moreover after the store became a Haunted Ground and then returned back to normal, it is unknown what happened with the flow of time during that period. It might have gone bad already. Besides the time is precious, let’s go.”<br /> <br /> When he pulled Kazuha-senpai’s hand forcefully, senpai went “Aa~, Hayashizaki~” and raised a quacking voice that sounded like a whine.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When they advanced through the street of Ise town, their surrounding soon changed into the eerie Haunted Ground again. When he compared the area with the map he had seen, it appears that the size of the Haunted Ground had been reduced until around half the previous size. In other words, they had defeated half the number of the God’s reliant in the previous battle.<br /> <br /> The remaining half was waiting for them ahead….<br /> <br /> They finally arrived in a similar condition with when they first came here. The asphalt road was muddy and wet, the surrounding buildings were weathered, and the sky lost its color. Trees became a lot more than the buildings in this area. On the rotting trunks and branches that looked like those were going to fall, rust-colored leaves were hanging down.<br /> <br /> They advanced even further. There was still no ambush or attack from the God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> A large shrine archway standing in the path forward entered their eyes.<br /> <br /> &lt;Shinmei Archway&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Shinmei Toori, also means the archway of Amaterasu&lt;/ref&gt;―it was an archway with an extremely ancient shape before it even received the influence of Buddhist’s ornament culture.<br /> <br /> However now that it was currently under the influence of the Haunted Ground, its color was transformed into an ominous jet black color.<br /> <br /> They had arrived at Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Ahead of the archway was the Isuzu River and the bridge that crossed that river―&lt;Uji Bridge&gt; was built there.<br /> <br /> The length of the bridge was 100 meters, its width was just a little around 8 meter.<br /> <br /> …They are coming here. Kazuki felt that hunch.<br /> <br /> Here was an open surrounding that was just right for a large group assault. Even on the bridge it had enough width to make the best use of number advantage.<br /> <br /> As was expected, the instant he stepped his foot on the bridge―war cry was raised from the dark forest ahead of the bridge and a crowd of armored warriors was approaching.<br /> <br /> At the same time, armored warriors that went around and cut in also came along from behind.<br /> <br /> On top of the Uji Bridge, it became a pincer attack.<br /> <br /> “I leave the back to you, Hayashizaki!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai immediately stood back-to-back with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu flew up to the sky from Kazuki’s shoulder in order to escape.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors surged ahead with the force of surging waves while taking the stance of the Dragonfly, making the bridge creak worryingly. The bridge was filled with troops that surrounded Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai in the blink of an eye. They slashed away while making opponent of enemies that came from every directions.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DON!* Shockwave and flame explosion. Kazuha-senpai blew away the enemies altogether with magic. …Defeat the enemy only using sword skill to preserve their magic power…such thinking was unreasonable.<br /> <br /> “The light of heaven reside in that body o bird of paradise, comply with my accusation and reduce to ashes the sin above the earth! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Phoenix’s avatar emerged at Kazuki’s back and emitted brightness as if every light in the world were gathered. That light dazzled the eyes, stopping the attack of the armored warriors for a moment. At that interval Kazuki set his aim at an angle that would swallow the most number of enemies, the vast light was changed into a thick laser and fired. The armored warriors in a straight line fell down altogether.<br /> <br /> “”””STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!””””<br /> <br /> Angry voices that were like earthquake welled up from the armored warriors.<br /> <br /> “Wawa! Just as I thought these guys really get angry when Summoning Magic is used. Their fierceness is growing rapidly!”<br /> <br /> “Let’s settle the bout quickly!”<br /> <br /> “Got it! …Tenkū Battou Renge Hou!!”<br /> <br /> The countless Sacred Treasures that Kazuha-senpai created flew about freely above the battlefield on top of the bridge. The Sacred Treasures that possessed various elements released flame or lightning, even cold here and there from each of them.<br /> <br /> “Please take care not to break the bridge okay!” Kazuki raised his voice.<br /> <br /> “…So that Yata no Kagami can finish off as many armored warriors as possible, please inflict damage to all the enemies evenly!”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said an unreasonable challenge from the sky. …Does it think anyone can do such miraculous thing!?<br /> <br /> “This is not for the sake of preserving my magic power! The youth that is transformed back by Yata no Kagami will faint in magic intoxication, they are going to get trampled by the armored warriors that flood in next!! If that happen they are going to die for real!!”<br /> <br /> “Kuh…that certainly can happen!”<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuki complained, he couldn’t help but consent to Yatagarasu’s request.<br /> <br /> The curtain of a long offense and defense on top of the bridge was opened.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> After blowing away an armored warrior flying far away from the inflicted damage, the new created empty space right there was quickly occupied with a different armored warrior. If the newly arrived armored warrior was a fresh one then it would be assaulted just like that, but if it was one that had been damaged then it would be quickly driven off by sending it flying far away…. The armored warriors that had lost their own will was also quite mechanical in some aspect, the offense and defense completely turned into something like a puzzle game.<br /> <br /> After a long repetition―Yatagarasu used the completed [Yata no Kagami], where after that the youths of Yamato fainted on top of the Uji bridge in a closely packed formation.<br /> <br /> The surrounding scenery returned back to the original Ise Imperial Shrine. The Isuzu river shone from the sunlight, the Uji bridge that was built on top of it recovered its beautiful wooden texture. A forest where trees that looked mystical grew in abundance spread out ahead of the bridge, and a road that pushed its way through that forest was extending forward.<br /> <br /> Heaps of corpses scattered all around on top of the bridge…such image emerged to the surface of the mind, but nobody was dead because the youths only fainted from magic intoxication. There was no strong burden weighing their minds but they only fainted from the state where their connection with the Wild Gods that was like a curse disappeared. It was surely not a dangerous magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai breathe a sigh of relief. Surely the state inside her head had became more full with the thought of rescuing the people that were turned into God’s reliant rather than the infiltration operation itself.<br /> <br /> God’s reliant―they held envy and hatred toward Stigmata, because of that they offered themselves to a dangerous ceremony and in the end were completely transformed into an existence that was called as a failure.<br /> <br /> Before this, their outcry hurt Kazuha-senpai’s heart. Kazuki had the feeling that he understood the reason why.<br /> <br /> For a long time until now, Kazuha-senpai was looked down by the swordsmen and made fun of.<br /> <br /> For envy and hatred to be directed at her as a possessor of Stigmata surely made her have a complicated feeling.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too was once an existence that was looked down in the Magic Division and came this far by relying upon his pride in his sword skill. That was why his mental state felt complicated to have such emotion directed at him by many swordsmen.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, we were gifted the power of Stigmata and became far stronger than we were just a swordsman, but that’s why it doesn’t mean that we have seen the limit of the strength as a swordsman, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Standing stock still unintentionally on top of the bridge, Kazuki called out to Kazuha-senpai from the side planning to cheer her up.<br /> <br /> “…Kohaku is attempting to become a swordsman that won’t lose to Magika Stigma by making a practical use of Sacred Treasure. Kanae too, recently she is trying to discover a new possibility of new technique by putting general magic to practical use even further.”<br /> <br /> What kind of phenomenon magic power could give birth to was the product of image. Right now there were some aspects from the old sword skill outlook that still restrained both Kazuki and Kanae, but there was a large room of possibility for creating sword skill that had never even been imagined until now by means of new creative originality.<br /> <br /> “Even the whole body of the Magic Division now is stopping their high and mighty attitude just because they are possessing Stigmata. They are also starting to listen to opinions that ask them to stop looking down on the Sword Division. The Knight Order in the future from now on is supposed to become nearer in equality between swordsman and Magika Stigma. If that happens, then there shouldn’t be anymore swordsmen that will do something stupid like this. …Doing something like throwing one’s selves away, is something that mustn’t be done no matter what.”<br /> <br /> Right at that moment, the memory of Kaya’s scream when she was eroded by Loki was reviving inside Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> “If swordsmen and Magika Stigma can look at each other right in the eye, swordsmen should be able to reach that new possibility that can only be achieved by swordsmen.”<br /> <br /> “…That’s right huh, you are really someone that caused a revolution in the Knight Academy.”<br /> <br /> “Calling that revolution, that’s not…”<br /> <br /> “Kohaku too…even I, we are really thankful for what you have done.”<br /> <br /> Facing each other in the middle of the bridge, Kazuha-senpai softly clasped both of Kazuki’s hands.<br /> <br /> Holding hand like this might be a skinship that Kazuha-senpai could just barely do with honest feelings. For Kazuki, this warmth transmitted to him was an irreplaceable important emotion.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Indeed it’s just like what you said. These small fries are feeling jealous without even doing any respectable hard work. Their appearance pawing at the ground while ruining their own body is…extremely unsightly. What is called strength should be something more pure.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―A singing like voice that sounded really clear suddenly could be heard.<br /> <br /> From the forest ahead, the master of the voice appeared and halted in front of the bridge.<br /> <br /> The distance between them was dozens of meters. It was not a distance that could be closed immediately.<br /> <br /> With a shock, Kazuki separated his body from Kazuha-senpai while calmly ascertaining that character.<br /> <br /> It was a girl wearing a deep red kimono that looked like a prostitute.<br /> <br /> A loose collar to the degree that one could peek into her back, a languid style of wearing kimono, making one looked graceful.<br /> <br /> It was a gorgeous appearance that could never be thought as something for a fight, but a Japanese katana could be identified on her hips. A swordsman.<br /> <br /> And then at her side were two person, two armored warriors in divine possession were coming along with her. Most likely those two were the last God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono sent her glancing gaze to those two and her mouth curved cynically.<br /> <br /> “Please look at them, this pathetic figure. Having lost their reason they are the very figure of mere beasts. Although they can now fight better compared to when they were just their former worthless swordsmen selves, even then the state of their soul currently really cannot be said as strong. …You two, please give your greeting.”<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono extended both her hands respectively to the faces of the armored warriors waiting at her left and right.<br /> <br /> The &lt;face armors&gt; under the helmet that was covering the nose and the mouth that hid the faces of the armored warriors, were taken off by those hands.<br /> <br /> The faces of the two armored warriors became exposed. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai reflexively caught their breath.<br /> <br /> “Takasugi brothers!”<br /> <br /> What appeared from under the face armors were―the faces of Takasugi brothers.<br /> <br /> The two that had became a rival candidate of Kazuki in the Chief Student Council President battle election, Takasugi Shūsui and Takasugi Harunari.<br /> <br /> Advocating the rejection of human rights for Magika Stigma that possessed far too powerful power and that they should be treated as weapons, the two young student activists!<br /> <br /> So these two seeked power after they were fouled in the battle election and were reduced into God’s reliant here.<br /> <br /> “”Hayashizakii…Hayashizaki KazukiiIIIII!!””<br /> <br /> The faces under the face armor were ruled by shuddering madness. Both their eyes and their mouth were opened to the limit and deep creases were engraved in their faces. They were leaking voice of curses while their jaws were convulsing in spasm.<br /> <br /> “The introduction is over for now…it’s okay to let loose already you guys!”<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono appearance handed down her command with a sharp voice as if a wild beast tamer lashing her whip.<br /> <br /> “GO-!!” Simultaneously with the voice, the Takasugi brothers leaped at this direction.<br /> <br /> They raised their katana overhead straight like a berserker and slashed at Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai with dauntless courage.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai traversed the bridge in a big leap while meeting the attack in order not to drag the people lying down around them into this fight. “Kazuha-senpai!” “It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about me!” They completely couldn’t make heads or tails of which one was the older brother Shūsui and which one was the little brother Harunari, but Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai picked one opponent each while exchanging voices, *GIN!* *GIN!* sparks of clashing swords were scattered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki softly redirected the enemy’s simple powerful downswing with &lt;Instant Positioning&gt;.<br /> <br /> Just like that he sidestepped the enemy’s stance and promptly slashed diagonally below with his returning blade.<br /> <br /> His opponent was blown away together with the backlash of defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> During that time, he directed his sight to Kazuha-senpai. Kazuha-senpai couldn’t parry as smoothly as Kazuki and she was brought into a sword-locking contest. If the attack was not quickly parried away with skill, she would have to go against the enemy’s superhuman power directly from the front. Kazuha-senpai leaked out “Kuh” in a painful voice while somehow redirecting her opponent’s heavy blow. Kazuha-senpai’s posture was disarranged.<br /> <br /> Because her posture was disarranged, she couldn’t move into a counterattack smoothly like what Kazuki did.<br /> <br /> But if it was Kazuha-senpai who excelled in chanting ability, it was enough just with that.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> Thrusting her one hand forward, from there *DON!* flame explosion and shockwave were produced.<br /> <br /> ―The two Takasugi brothers were repelled altogether from Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and blown away from the bridge.<br /> <br /> But they were abruptly rising back up again.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stood in front of Kazuki in order to cover for him.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki…I’ll face these two guys together just by myself. That’s why you Hayashizaki, deal with that kimono girl there.”<br /> <br /> “But senpai” Kazuki’s tone of voice was mixed with hesitation.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps compared to this set of two guys, that girl over there is far stronger. That’s why I’ll leave her to you.”<br /> <br /> Certainly Kazuki too harbored the same premonition.<br /> <br /> “I’m far stronger compared to these small fries!! I won’t let you two pass beyond this point!!”<br /> <br /> While their attention was diverted by Takasugi brothers, the figure of the girl in kimono vanished.<br /> <br /> …The voice came from above! With her kimono’s fringe fluttering loosely, the girl was soaring high above Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai―it was not a jumping power that could be done somehow or other just with Enchant Aura.<br /> <br /> The girl landed at a few meters behind Kazuki, with the force of a bouncing rubber ball she drew out her sword while in the stance of turning back.<br /> <br /> It didn’t mean that Kazuki was taken by surprise. Kazuki too instantly turned his back and drew out his sword in return.<br /> <br /> Flashes of light collided. Both of their drawn swords bit at each other from directly opposite, scattering apart sparks, and they entered sword-locking contest from there.<br /> <br /> It was not a contest between strength. Kazuki redirected the opponent’s strength with Instant Positioning and tried to break her posture. The girl was also doing a similar thing at the same time. Their blades were mutually entangling with each other flexibly skill to skill.<br /> <br /> If he could match the opponent’s vector of power, he could break the deadlock.<br /> <br /> String of tension was stretched silently inside his brain. In the distance where they could even feel each other’s breath, he focused on nothing but to Foresight the movement of the opponent and control the blade delicately against the other.<br /> <br /> An even sword-locking contest―at that time Kazuki and the kimono girl were mutually making a surprised expression of [There is an opponent that is my equal]. …I can do this!!<br /> <br /> Both of them jumped back behind at the same time and took back the distance.<br /> <br /> The girl held the katana languidly with her right hand, she brushed her disordered kimono’s cuff with her left hand swiftly and fixed her clothes instantly.<br /> <br /> A natural body posture that really couldn’t be said as a stance at all. But there was no opening. She surely could leap to all kinds of movements in any moment even like that. There was this indication of all in one in her. <br /> <br /> There was no doubt she had the bearing of a master.<br /> <br /> “What kind of person are you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuaki finally questioned the girl that stood in his way with respect toward an exceptional character coloring his words.<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, there was the sign of Kazuha-senpai exchanging blades with Takasugi brothers and roars of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “I won’t let you interfere in Amaterasu’s sealing. I am one of Kenshitou’s highest upper echelons entrusted with the defense of this land…the thirtieth &lt;Aisu Ikousai&gt; Hidetada.”<br /> <br /> Kenshitou’s upper echelons…he thought that this Haunted Ground held no protection squad from Yamato, yet…<br /> <br /> No wait, rather than that, Aisu Ikousai she said?<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt his mind became white. It was a feeling like being in the presence of a legend.<br /> <br /> “…You are joking right? Moreover the thirtieth?”<br /> <br /> “Oh, so you too are doubting the reality? You who are the successor of Hayashizaki-style sword drawing art?”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai―he was a swordsman of Muromachi period&lt;ref&gt;1333-1573 CE&lt;/ref&gt;. No, perhaps he ought to even be called a sword god.<br /> <br /> From Muromachi period until Sengoku period&lt;ref&gt;1467-1568 CE&lt;/ref&gt;, there were countless schools of sword style created in Japan.<br /> <br /> The most famous in history among them was surely Yagyuu Shinkage-style. With the choosing of Yagyuu Sekishūsai and his child, Munenori to become the instructor of the shogunate family, the house of Tokugawa, Yagyuu became known as the best sword-style in the whole country. It was also fine to even say that they are the best sword-style in the world of swords.<br /> <br /> When that Yagyuu’s history was perused, there was the master of Yagyuu Sekishūsai, the &lt;sword saint&gt; Kamiizumi Ise no Kami Nobutsuna. And then looking even further at the master of that person was a character that was already in the realm of myth―Aisu Ikousai Hisatada.<br /> <br /> When Japan’s school of sword style was traced back, every one of them would run into three origins. Those were namely Art of War Three Great Origins―&lt;Nen-style&gt;, &lt;Shinto-style&gt;, and then Aiko Ikousai’s &lt;Kage-style&gt;, those three.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was…feeling like he was confronting his own honored ancestor.<br /> <br /> “Hey the successor of Hayashizaki-style. Since when did you think Japan’s sword art was transformed into a sport?”<br /> <br /> The girl―Aisu Ikousai asked.<br /> <br /> “Generally it is said that the impetus was Kamiizumi Ise no Kami’s idea to use bamboo sword but…personally I think sword art had already changed into sports in Muromachi period. The uselessness of katana in war that was fought in groups had already became self-evident at that period…sword art was just a mere fashion of samurai. True practical sword art or the like had already gone at that time. The only scene where practical use of sword art could be applied was the one versus one fight that happened behind the other side of history―only in the setting of assassination. That is surely the sword’s true long cherished desire, the thirty generation piling up in the shadow…”<br /> <br /> That was a completely different history compared to an old style sword school like Kazuki’s Hayashizaki-style. Even though Hayashizaki-style was also an old style sword school that was passed in secret, by no means they erased their own name by their own hands. It was not the case that they attempted to become a legend.<br /> <br /> The mystical assassination sword art that earnestly erased their name continuously since Muromachi period….<br /> <br /> “I see…and then an era like the present time came.”<br /> <br /> “The era of magic…an era where the minority of powerful warriors dictated the battle had come. Now is the time for sword art’s resurrection! This Aisu Ikousai too!! That’s the reason why I formed a partnership with Kenshitou.”<br /> <br /> Tension filled the languid limbs of Aisu Ikousai to the brim. …It's coming!<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style! I was looking forward at having a bout with you-!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;ton*, Kicking the ground lightly, but with acceleration that ran in contrast with that lightness, Aisu Ikousai closed the distance. Kazuki didn’t chant any spell and intercepted only with just the sword.<br /> <br /> “Secret Sword…{{furigana|Shiraha Kagerou|Naked Blade Heat Haze}}!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai yelled. At that time Kazuki witnessed something hard to believe.<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai’s blade that was approaching Kazuki―bent like a jelly from its base.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s katana that was going to block slashed empty air.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s katana approached near Kazuki’s neck as if it had transformed into a whip. Kazuki attempted to dodge his body just barely from the blade. At that instant, the blade was not only twisting itself, it lengthened itself flexibly even further.<br /> <br /> The blade grazed Kazuki’s neck and with a spark blue light of magic power scattered.<br /> <br /> Ikousai passed the side of Kazuki who got slashed.<br /> <br /> “…First is one kill.” Ikousai whispered while they passed each other.<br /> <br /> …Just now was an advanced application of Psychokinesis. The slashed Kazuki instantly understood.<br /> <br /> Sensing the Prima Material of the blade, then it was influenced powerfully by Psychokinesis and its shape was altered.<br /> <br /> He could grasp the how but he was amazed that such thing was really possible. It was a technique that was completely beyond his imagination.<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately turned back and faced Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved out without a moment’s delay. Next it was Kazuki’s turn to be the attacker―surely even a flickering blade was just a normal katana when it was reversed to be the defender. There was a necessity to hold the initiative in this fight.<br /> <br /> Ikousai blocked the single stroke that Kazuki swung down and it became a sword-locking contest once more.<br /> <br /> This time it was not with technique, Kazuki attempted to push her with power.<br /> <br /> “Ou” Aisu Ikousai raised her voice. “Because I’m a woman so you think you can win in arm strength?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t permit Ikousai to try to parry the blade and pressed her with strength.<br /> <br /> With the difference in strength between male and female, Kazuki’s blade slowly approached Ikousai’s face.<br /> <br /> “If it's like this then, Secret Rite…{{furigana|Aoiro Yasha|Blue Yaksha}}.”<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki’s eyes, strange magic power was whirling inside Ikousai’s flesh.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;doku doku* Her body pulsed strongly…Ikousai’s face was turning blue before his eyes.<br /> <br /> What is currently happening―this is, blood flow manipulation.<br /> <br /> Human’s flesh body was creating energy with two types of method, that was [utilizing oxygen] and [not utilizing oxygen]. The structure that utilized oxygen was making energy for stamina, but the structure that didn’t utilize oxygen―produced explosive power by decomposing sugar content.<br /> <br /> The body automatically balanced which of the two structures would be prioritized to use.<br /> <br /> But this girl controlled the blood flow of her entire body and closed the oxygen supply herself, making use of that to invigorate her {{furigana|creation of the energy that didn’t need oxygen|Muscle Power Release}}&lt;ref&gt;This muscle power release, I’m not sure if it's right. The kanji is too small in my source and I cannot read it clearly. If anyone know the more accurate word, please revise it.&lt;/ref&gt; to the maximum. She tilted the balancing scale of her body by her own will.<br /> <br /> That could be said as an artificial ultimate anaerobic exercise. The girl’s slender arm that was turning pale was influenced with a doping, producing an explosive power that should be impossible from physical balance!<br /> <br /> …He never thought that someone would reinforce their own physical strength with this kind of approach!<br /> <br /> The balance of strength tilted from Ikousai’s explosive instantaneous force. Kazuki was outpushed. Ikousai didn’t miss the disarray of Kazuki’s balance and she drove away Kazuki’s katana, breaking the stance of Kazuki’s body.<br /> <br /> Kazuki suffered a defeat in sword-locking contest for the first time after several years.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s slash assaulted Kazuki whose stance was disarrayed. Kazuki forcefully evaded that. He planned to evade but―Ikousai’s blade stretched out like a snake and grazed Kazuki’s neck.<br /> <br /> “The second kill.” The girl floated a smile in her face.<br /> <br /> With a stumbling step Kazuki regrouped himself with some distance. Ikousai immediately gave chase and pursued with the ever-changing twisting katana.<br /> <br /> Just with the katana’s shape twisting, the movement became really hard to read to the degree he never imagined.<br /> <br /> He was bewitchingly looking at it with his eyes. With such insight…Kazuki Foresight the magic power produced from the blade. If the magic power could be read, the he could Foresight what kind of alteration would happen to the blade next. From there he could calculate the trajectory of the slash.<br /> <br /> Though it was a complicated calculation that had to be done in an instant….<br /> <br /> Kazuki breathed out strongly with a huff and concentrated. He Foresight the phantasmagoric stroke of the katana. And then he grasped the logic of the blade and *KiIN!* sparks were scattered. Ikousai went “Hou?” and showed a surprised expression.<br /> <br /> “For someone to start seeing through Shiraha Kagerou from just one occasion, really.”<br /> <br /> “In Hayashizaki-style, no same technique will work twice against us.”<br /> <br /> “Then…Secret Sword, {{furigana|Tenrou Kaidan|Heaven Tower Stair}}!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!* A terrific voice rang out.<br /> <br /> At that moment, Aisu Ikousai’s figure disappeared from Kazuki’s sight.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!*, *PAAN!*, the sounds of something bursting reverberated around Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Where is she!? ―Even the time allowed to think of that question, was just for an instant.<br /> <br /> The next instant, Kazuki was slashed diagonally in the back.<br /> <br /> On the back of Kazuki who was pitching forward staggeringly, a further second slash was carved. “Third kill! Fourth kill!!” Ikousai raised a joyful voice and attacked while pursuing Kazuki.<br /> <br /> This swordsman of Yamato, this fellow…!<br /> <br /> While Kazuki received the backlash from the defensive magic power, he rolled forward in order to take distance and escaped from Ikousai’s range. Ikousai didn’t chase too far and made a broad grin in her face from her triumph. She fixed her kimono with one hand.<br /> <br /> “Secret Rite…{{furigana|Usubeni Hannya|Light Crimson Hannya}}.”<br /> <br /> The girl’s pale body was recovering its former complexion. If the blood flow was constrained for too long, then next the stamina would surely disappear from the body.<br /> <br /> She exploded her instantaneous force with [Aoiro Yasha], and recovered her stamina with [Usubeni Hannya].<br /> <br /> But, even more than that the technique just now….<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, it’s four times already. If we crossed swords without this thing called defensive magic power, you had already died four times.”<br /> <br /> “…Don’t just make up an assumption that’s convenient for yourself as you please, assassin swordsman. What we are doing right now is a fight with defensive magic power aren’t we? Who can agree with that kind of simple win lose condition attached here.”<br /> <br /> Toward Kazuki who got a little worked up in his rebuttal, ‘ku-ku-ku’, Ikousai chuckled innocently.<br /> <br /> “This might be a little childish but, at any rate my opponent is the greatest masterpiece of Hayashizaki-style and the famous [Cyclops] after all. It’s really unbearable, this desire of mine to prove that my sword is the strongest with you as the opponent.”<br /> <br /> The strongest sword….<br /> <br /> Certainly this fellow’s skill was not ordinary. That kind of conception she used in her technique had never occurred to him at all.<br /> <br /> Even if he was struck with that kind of idea, he would surely be unable to manage to realize such technique without piling up a mountain of training.<br /> <br /> This girl in front of his eyes was not a swordsman that just merely inherited an ancient style sword art. Matching the current era and evolving her sword together with it―she was a swordsman that had advanced several steps ahead of the path that Kanae was trying to traverse.<br /> <br /> In this match as a swordsman, Kazuki honestly realized that he was falling into the inferiority here.<br /> <br /> [Tenrou Kaidan]…First he had to fathom the true form of that technique….<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuha dodged the Takasugi brothers' violent downswings as if dancing.<br /> <br /> She returned a compact slash through that opening.<br /> <br /> A battle between butterfly and boar―it was an easy offense and defense for Kazuha who was in the middle of learning the skill of Foresight.<br /> <br /> “…Why were you guys trying to become strong with that kind of method?”<br /> <br /> With the timing of the widening distance as the impetus, Kazuha questioned while taking her stance vigilantly.<br /> <br /> These guys were following the order of that girl in kimono. In other words they should still have some of their consciousness remaining.<br /> <br /> “…Kill the Magika Stigma…!”<br /> <br /> With a look exactly like a beast, the Takasugi brothers’ voices leaked out.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, Hayashizaki Kanae! They insult us that [our skill in sword is not a big deal] and so on…!”<br /> <br /> Right now the one who stood in front of their eyes was Kazuha, but perhaps they were already unable to recognize that anymore. The two of them vented their hatred in frankness to Kazuha.<br /> <br /> “Our, revolution ideology was defiled, because of you bastards’ fault!”<br /> <br /> “The battle election…what we were saying was supposed to be the most correct thought! Despite so, nobody elected us…because we lost in the battle election!! That battle election was just a farce decided only by power!!”<br /> <br /> “Power, power destroyed our just ideal!! Power is…abominable!!”<br /> <br /> Certainly there was an aspect in the battle election where the vote easily gathered on the students who made great showings in the tournament.<br /> <br /> But what would happen to the Magic Division and the Sword Division from now on? The students wouldn’t give their vote just from the result of the tournament without giving a serious consideration on that.<br /> <br /> They lost in election not because their fighting strength was weak. What was weak of them was…,<br /> <br /> “What is lacking in you guys, isn’t it the strength to look hard at yourself!?”<br /> <br /> Takasugi brothers assaulted her recklessly. Yet Kazuha dodged it easily and slashed back in return.<br /> <br /> The brothers were repelled from the backlash of the defensive magic power and fell into their backside…then they stood back up with faces that looked like as if they were going to cry.<br /> <br /> “It’s you bastards’ fault, that we failed to get elected…that power, power got away from our hands! Authority got away from our hands!!”<br /> <br /> “It’s you bastards’ fault that we are like this! That we failed to obtain the power to trample those Magika Stigma under our foot!!”<br /> <br /> For the third time, they stepped forward like an idiot that only knew how to do just one thing.<br /> <br /> Kazuha evaded as if she was dancing. Even while she evaded elegantly, Kazuha’s chest felt gloomy.<br /> <br /> “Authority got away from your hands you said? You want to trample the Magika Stigma under your foot you said? Even though you talked about ideal so haughtily…the inside of you guys is just that sort of thing!!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha slashed the two them away with all her might. But the two whose body were poured with the magic power of Wild God would abruptly stand back up no matter how many times they were cut down.<br /> <br /> “…It’s you bastards’ fault. It’s you bastards’ fault that we became useless…”<br /> <br /> “…It’s you bastards’ fault, that father branded us as useless…”<br /> <br /> The deep resentment voices of the brothers overlapped.<br /> <br /> Father―the one that switched over from being the board chairman of the knight academy to be Yamato’s statesman, they were surely talking about Takasugi Takayoshi.<br /> <br /> “”Power…, I want strength…!””<br /> <br /> That lurid spirit overpowered Kazuha. However she soon glared back.<br /> <br /> …Even I harbored a feeling of inferiority, I was wishing stronger than anyone that I want to become stronger.<br /> <br /> But I didn’t distort my feeling like this.<br /> <br /> “That distorted [will to become strong] of you guys…I won’t recognize something like that!!”<br /> <br /> “GYAAAAAA! {{furigana|Jiraiba|Earth Lightning Blade}}!!”<br /> <br /> One of the Takasugi brothers raised one of his hands high to the sky. At his side an avatar of a Diva that resembled Futsunushi no Kami emerged out. A Diva with an appearance of an ancient sword!<br /> <br /> Thunder fell to the raised hand, then he took hold of that lightning where it turned into a sword of lightning.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Senbiki Fudouwan|Thousand Pull Immobile Arm}}!!”<br /> <br /> The one other Takasugi brothers was also raising one of his hands high to the sky. An avatar of a giant emerged beside him.<br /> <br /> The arm raised overhead bulged out several times larger, transforming into an arm of giant that made the gripped long sword look like a toy.<br /> <br /> {That’s…the power of &lt;Take Mikadzuchi&gt; and &lt;Take Minakata&gt;. If the high level magic of those two are used then it won’t finish with just around that degree but, well, looks like those just now are only level 2 magic.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami conveyed his voice to Kazuha-senpai through telepathy.<br /> <br /> …If there was consciousness still left inside them even in just a little amount, they could still manage to use even low level Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers slashed at Kazuha simultaneously. Kazuha received an electric shock the moment she made contact with the lighting sword, and surely the slash launched using that gigantified arm possessed a power to the degree that she couldn’t block.<br /> <br /> If it kept like this she wouldn’t be able to defend. If she evaded the attack then there was no doubt that the Uji Bridge she was standing on would be broken in pieces.<br /> <br /> Therefore Kazuha also chanted her spell. The spell that she had been preparing for quite some time from before.<br /> <br /> “Watching thousands of lives withering in the path of the sword…o military men obeyed by hundreds of grass, please lend that hand free from obstructive thought to my morals! …{{furigana|Kenki Shihou Ken|Devilish Swordsman Four Directions Sword}}!!”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 6 magic―great number of bluish-white souls drifted and gathered around Kazuha.<br /> <br /> Those were the souls of the swordsmen that followed the path of the sword to its extremes and perished halfway through. <br /> <br /> Responding against Futsunushi no Kami’s guidance, those souls appeared under Kazuha. They possessed mass due to magic power and transformed into something that symbolized their tempering&amp;mdash;becoming enormous arms and katana.<br /> <br /> There was a total of four ghostly arms and katana each with a size that reached Kazuha’s stature, floating around her.<br /> <br /> “Become my substitute, block them!”<br /> <br /> The lightning sword born from Take Mikadzuchi’s power was blocked solidly by the two arms surrounding the right side crossing their two katana. The electric shock couldn’t flow to the spot where Kazuha was.<br /> <br /> The one strike that was gigantified by Take Minakata’s power was blocked solidly by the two arms surrounding the left side crossing their two katana. The three giant arms were locked in a rivalry of strength with grinding sound.<br /> <br /> In the center of those two spots of power, Kazuha’s own two hands were free.<br /> <br /> Kazuha directed those two hands at the Takasugi brothers and chanted.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DON!* The released shockwave blew away both the Takasugi brothers altogether.<br /> <br /> The four arms created by Kazuha were controlled remotely in accordance with Kazuha’s will and even now they assaulted the Takasugi brothers who were trying to stand and pressed them on.<br /> <br /> During that time, Kazuha turned her eyes to the battle between Kazuki and the kimono girl.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was having much trouble with the girl who introduced herself as Aisu Ikousai….<br /> <br /> “…What is he doing? ''Just against techniques of that degree'', that guy become cornered like that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha reflexively knitted her eyebrows. The Hayashizaki Kazuki that I know isn’t supposed to be that kind of person.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! What the hell are you doing, just against that kind of fellow!”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuha-senpai threw a scolding voice at Kazuki who was in the middle of a glaring match with Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Those kind of techniques are not really a big deal right!!?”<br /> <br /> Hearing that, Ikousai looked sullen with her pride wounded.<br /> <br /> “Now you really said it. I thought that it would be fine to leave the dunce of the Sword Division to those dimwits Takasugi brothers, yet…should I carved the technique of Aisu’s Kage-style on that body of yours too?”<br /> <br /> “Even if you don’t deliberately carve it into my body, I get it already just from watching here! ''Like this right''!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai dashed to this direction trying to interrupt between Kazuki and Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> That figure of hers, *PAAN!* went flying together with that sound.<br /> <br /> “!?” Ikousai’s spine trembled with shock witnessing that.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s body danced high to the sky. From there even more *PAAN!* *PAAN!* sounds rang out and she maneuvered three dimensionally in the air. Kazuha-senpai instantly circled to Ikousai’s back.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki saw that from his position as a third party observer, he comprehended that trick for the first time.<br /> <br /> …I see, certainly seeing it from outside is really easy to understand.<br /> <br /> The sound of *PAAN!* was the sound of kicking with full power the movement energy produced by Psychokinesis. Creating a foothold in the sky with magic and making the body leap through the air under an instant. That speed was several levels faster compared to a normal jump. When the opponent was thinking vaguely that the enemy was above, she had already flew about three dimensionally who knew how many times―and circled into the back.<br /> <br /> “Learned by imitating, Tenrou Kaidan!”<br /> <br /> While yelling, Kazuha-senpai swept her katana sideways.<br /> <br /> As expected from the originator herself, Ikousai was not tricked by that movement and saw through Kazuha-senpai’s position instantly and dodged the blade. But at that time Kazuha-senpai’s blade twisted like jelly. It was just a slight twist compared to Ikousai’s own, but certainly her blade’s shape distorted―Shiraha Kagerou.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s single stroke of katana gouged Ikousai’s neck shallowly, making her defensive magic power shine.<br /> <br /> “Saying it in your manner from before…it’s one kill with this right?” Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly.<br /> <br /> Ikousai took some distance with a light leap, her expression transformed from shock into admiration.<br /> <br /> “''Just about that much is still incomplete, however,'' you really can imitate my sword that easily huh. You…won’t you enter Ikousai-style and become my disciple?”<br /> <br /> “Who would do that, stupid-! I am Hayashizaki-style!!”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuha-senpai made a refusal like that, Kazuki could only stare in amazement.<br /> <br /> “Eh, is that true?”<br /> <br /> “What kind of reaction is that! It is like that right!? You are aallways saying that ‘I am the master’ aren’t you!?”<br /> <br /> “I was saying that half in jest but…if you are my disciple than please become more honest then.”<br /> <br /> “I’m honest in matters concerning sword right!? What’s with you! Don, don’t tell me you are planning to order me to do something perverted!?”<br /> <br /> “Now I’m a romance master and I command senpai to do romance training for the whole day.”<br /> <br /> “No Way even if it’s for romance―!! This hentaii―!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai was looking at them with cold eyes. “You two, looks like you are really having fun.”<br /> <br /> “Anyway don’t you dare lose to that fellow. Besides, why are fighting without using Summoning Magic?”<br /> <br /> Even while saying such things, Kazuha-senpai kept making the gigantic four arms fight the Takasugi brothers. It was a splendid control of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Right there Kazuki finally noticed how he had fought while sealing his own Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “The strength as swordsman, is not all there is to it of your strength right-!!”<br /> <br /> …Before, Kazuki relied on the strength of the sword as the foundation of his pride. His genius in sword was recognized and he was adopted into Hayashizaki family, getting praised by his stepfather was the meaning of his existence.<br /> <br /> …Right now is different. Even now sword was still something important for him, but it was not everything of him. The power he obtained from his bonds, and the important things he protected with it…that was also his own strength.<br /> <br /> “You are the same like me, a magic swordsman. I don’t want to see you get defeated or the like.”<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it…I’ll stop already on being too obstinate thinking as a swordsman.”<br /> <br /> In all honesty…if he used Summoning Magic then he surely could defeat Aisu Ikousai easily.<br /> <br /> He fought a straight forward match as a swordsman against his better judgment, but he had to defeat this swordsman and reach the inner part of the Ise Imperial Shrine. Reservation or anything like that was unnecessary.<br /> <br /> “Is that so, so you plan to use Summoning Magic? Hmph. …Then I wonder, should I do that too?”<br /> <br /> With nonchalant tone Ikousai said that. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai went ‘Don’t tell me!’ in their minds.<br /> <br /> No, now that he thought back…the voice from the sky that commanded the God’s reliant―that was surely the contractor of Susanoo, but wasn’t this girl in front of him also ordered around the Takasugi brothers just now?<br /> <br /> Then this fellow was…Susanoo’s contractor, Izumo King!<br /> <br /> “You two have the face that says if you are using Summoning Magic then you can win easily, I really can’t stomach that look! Both in sword and even in magic, I am the stronger one!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai sheathed the sword in her right hand back to its sheath. Then she folded her arm cuff and abruptly pulled off the bracelet that was worn in her wrist.<br /> <br /> It was a bracelet that he had remember seeing before―&lt;Limiter&gt;.<br /> <br /> The fellows of God’s reliant held a grudge against Stigmata. Because of that she surely wore a Limiter and hid her stigmata while taking a joint action with them. She only took the Limiter off when she was giving order as the voice from the sky.<br /> <br /> “Polished black steel of heaven o Totsuka no Tsurugi…release flash of light that gouge the storm! This is {{furigana|Orochi no Arasama|Snake’s Exact Rough}}…the advent of tearing limb from limb, {{furigana|Ame no Habakiri|Sky Feathers Decapitation}}!!”<br /> <br /> The girl didn’t even perform Access and chanted her spell directly.<br /> <br /> She didn’t even have the blessing of Magic Dress, yet in spite of that she chanted with speed that she seemed familiar with.<br /> <br /> Magic of Sacred Treasure creation&amp;mdash;light was created inside her hand where it held an atypical sword with its blade divided to eight direction.<br /> <br /> &quot;It’s fine even if you too make your Stigmata shine! Come, this is the beginning of sword and magic’s second act!”<br /> <br /> “Wait!”<br /> <br /> The instant Ikousai was going to kick the ground, a voice halting them reverberated.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu who escaped to the sky to avoid the fighting descended down and perched on Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “I’ll shut my eyes if it is just a sport between fellow swordsmen, but more than this and you should stop your interference! Amaterasu chose this gentleman as the substitute of &lt;Wakoku King&gt;!! You too should have no real intention to keep depending on Loki like what you are currently doing while being unable to plunder Amaterasu’s power!!”<br /> <br /> “…Hoo, so that NEET god finally intended to raise a King. I thought she was going to continue being sealed like this and vanish, but if she showed some motivation then the story is different. I see, so that’s why the King of Solomon came to this land.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai docilely vanished the Sacred Treasure held inside her hand.<br /> <br /> “Susanoo is a rebelling god toward the {{furigana|absolute authoritarian|Amaterasu}}. Therefore &lt;Izumo King&gt; too is a rebelling King. The [King’s Authority] of such King is to plunder for herself the power of the defeated King, [Power of Usurpation]. …Therefore the starting condition of Izumo King is powerless. The nearest some other {{furigana|King|Basileus}} at hand…Amaterasu’s King is someone she has to defeat and to plunder for power…!!”<br /> <br /> “Simultaneously that’s also something that Amaterasu can say. If Amaterasu’s Wakoku King cannot make the rebel Izumo King submit, she also cannot wield the [King’s Authority] of Japanese Mythology and stays powerless. Consequently both of them are Yin and Yang. They have a destiny of conflict.”<br /> <br /> “Interesting! Moreover if you hold both the title of Solomon King and Wakoku King then it’s two birds with one stone! This is fine, I’ll allow you to proceed forward ''for the sake of plundering your power for mine later''.”<br /> <br /> …She could speak like this because Izumo King could steal the power of another King when she defeated them. Just that the only one she could defeat quick and easy even in her powerless state was only Amaterasu who was in the same powerless state like her.<br /> <br /> If she had that kind of ability then Kazuki could understand her strategy to ally herself with Loki temporarily.<br /> <br /> Ikousai swept away her disarrayed sleeves with one hand and then turned her back on Kazuki and co.<br /> <br /> “You the &lt;Cyclops&gt; of Hayashizaki-style, and also the newly appointed proxy of Amaterasu…understand well your destiny with me, I’ll carve it deeply on your body.”<br /> <br /> An existence with a different quality somewhere compared to all his enemies until now―Aisu Ikousai left those words behind and exited the stage.<br /> <br /> ===Part 8===<br /> <br /> “If we have arrived until here, it’ll only take a little more until the Imperial Shrine’s sacred main temple.”<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers had also left following Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu guided Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai in the front, walking briskly with its three legs in short steps.<br /> <br /> Almost all the scenery around them had recovered from being a Haunted Ground to its original scenery of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Inside the Imperial Shrine’s forest that were filled with ancient trees growing in abundance, it made them feel the atmosphere of perpetuity. They continued to walk along the path made of pure white gravel until the deepest part of the shrine. The Isuzu River that flowed beside them had also recovered its transparent stream.<br /> <br /> A scenery filled with sacred tranquility. This was Japan’s oldest shrine, the true appearance of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> They were finally going to reach the end of their journey.<br /> <br /> After they advanced through the gravel path drawing a gentle arc, they hit into a stone stair. Ahead of the stone stair there was a shrine archway. Passing through it, finally they saw [that].<br /> <br /> An architectural style of ancient times that even made them feel the connection with Takakura-style warehouse from Yayoi period. It was built based from &lt;the only Shinmei Dzukuri&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Shinmei Dzukuri is a unique phrase in Japan. Shinmei here can refer to Amaterasu or god. While Shinmei Dzukuri means building a shrine with architecture style based on that of Ise Imperial Shrine. So the meaning of the phrase in the bracket here is that the building that Kazuki and co are seeing is the originator of all the Ise style shrine in the whole Japan.&lt;/ref&gt;, yet the feel of the material felt like it was brand new. That was because every twenty years the main building of Ise Imperial Shrine was remodeled and &lt;Shikinen Senguu&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Construction of a new shrine and transfer of the enshrined object from the old to the new, occurring at a regular, preordained time&lt;/ref&gt; was performed. Because the only Shinmei Dzukuri was built using ancient construction technique, its endurance’s age was short and it resulted in the necessity of reconstruction periodically no matter what.<br /> <br /> At the time of its reconstruction, it followed the style and all the ritual from the ancient times strictly and thoroughly. Its appearance from time immemorial was obstinately protected just like how it originally was. This building was not in unchanging condition since the ancient times until the olden days. Yet exactly because of the periodic rebuilding, its unchanging appearance could be preserved for more than a thousand years in the true meaning.<br /> <br /> Of course with that method it would take far more expense and labor compared to merely preserving the building.<br /> <br /> This is Ise Imperial Shrine, its sacred main temple.<br /> <br /> Further ahead of the archway were fences surrounding the shrine―a gate could be seen on the wall.<br /> <br /> “From here on, normal people are not allowed to enter.” Saying that, Kazuha-senpai hesitated to proceed.<br /> <br /> “That’s so, but if you two don’t enter then we cannot begin anything.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu entered without care with bobbing steps inside as if this building was its own home.<br /> <br /> The gate opened automatically by its own.<br /> <br /> There was an archway again inside the outer fence. The inner wall obstructed the path. There were several layers of closed walls and gates in order to reject visitors coming to the inner sanctuary.<br /> <br /> With the guidance of Yatagarasu, they passed through several gates.<br /> <br /> And then the inner sanctuary that even resembled the Takakura-style warehouse in the history textbook appeared in front of their eyes. It had a simple architecture with thatch roof, but its linear shaping made them feel its artificial bearing rather than a respect towards nature.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu proceeded forward through the stair that ascended the raised-floor building with bobbing advance and gestured Kazuki to go inside.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> One surface of the inside was stained with blood.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were dumbfounded and lost their words. The bloodstain had blackened and permeated into the surface. It was clear just with one glance that a long time had passed since the blood was spilled. The amount of the bloodstain was enough to make them able to imagine that a person had died in that space.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu’s contractor was killed here through the hands of Yamato’s government and Susanoo.”<br /> <br /> “Wait a second, you said things like you are going to present the contractor of Amaterasu to me, but like this what is the meaning of…?”<br /> <br /> A cold shiver ran through Kazuki’s spine.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me…are they going to ask me to ''conquer a ghost''!?<br /> <br /> “The body of Amaterasu’s contractor had been annihilated, but Amaterasu narrowly managed to save her soul and sealed it inside it Amaterasu’s Territory. On top having no flesh body, if the situation stays like this then her fate will be to naturally vanish together with Amaterasu. That’s why your cooperation…the &lt;power of bond&gt; that you possessed is necessary. If Amaterasu recovers her power and from there she also ties a bond with you and obtain power, the girl will be able to regain her flesh body.”<br /> <br /> “You are saying that a dead human can be restored to life!?”<br /> <br /> Was such a thing possible? Kazuki too had once resurrected Mio from the grip of death using Phoenix’s level 10 magic. But such event was supposed to be completely different compared to reviving an existence that didn’t even have her corpse remaining and the only thing left behind of her was the bloodstain that had already dried on the floor.<br /> <br /> “The girl still hasn’t welcomed a complete death yet. Her soul is preserved through Amaterasu’s power. But the currently weakened Amaterasu simply doesn’t have enough strength. If she can borrow that power by becoming a subordinate to Solomon Mythology…”<br /> <br /> “Does Amaterasu want to save that contractor so much that she will even go as far as subordinating herself to another Mythology?”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu was trotting ahead to the center of the sacred main temple’s floor. Over there was the center of the blood stain’s spread.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu deeply loved that [girl]. Therefore she didn’t raise that girl to become Wakoku King and abandoned her battle with Susanoo. Yamato government and Susanoo were furious because of that and killed the girl before pressing Amaterasu to choose a new contractor to become King. But for Amaterasu it was inconceivable to even make a contract with another human. And so Amaterasu abandoned everything and shut herself inside the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. …Please follow me.”<br /> <br /> With a jerk, Yatagarasu kicked the floor of the sacred main temple. Thereupon the floorboard came off and a hole was opened.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu then descended down the hole. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too followed from behind.<br /> <br /> When they entered under the floor, many pillars stretching up supported the floor of the sacred main temple from the surface below. In the center of the space surrounding those pillars, there was a pillar that didn’t reach until the floor of the sacred main temple with a height that only reached halfway.<br /> <br /> It was a pillar that didn’t support anything.<br /> <br /> In the peak of that halfway pillar, a miniature size sacred main temple was put on it.<br /> <br /> “&lt;The True August Pillar&gt;…This is the entrance to Amaterasu’s residence, the path leading to the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. Amaterasu is ahead through this.”<br /> <br /> “How do we enter inside through this miniature size thing?”<br /> <br /> “Of course its destination is &lt;Astrum&gt;. The Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave is a district of Amaterasu’s Territory. Being sealed inside that healing space and isolated from everything else, Amaterasu can just barely hold her ground of having herself vanishing little by little. Supply power to Amaterasu from the outside, if she cannot go out from the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave then like this she also cannot talk with you. Touch your hand to this True August Pillar and close your eyes, then please unify your {{furigana|consciousness and subconsciousness|Trance}}. If you do that then it will synchronize with the mind of you two and it can guide you to Astrum.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki remembered about the contract ceremony after the entrance ceremony. At that time he was guided by Kaguya-senpai and dove into the Diva’s Territory in Astrum. What he was going to do after this was the same thing like that.<br /> <br /> “Pass through &lt;Yomotsu Hirasaka&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Yomotsu Hirasaka is a hill where it can lead to Yomi (world of the dead) in Japanese Myth.&lt;/ref&gt; and head to &lt;the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “…Isn’t Yomotsu Hirasaka the place that continue to the world of after death?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked frightfully with ominous presentiment. He came along with them this far believing that their interest matched each other, but he was going to be troubled if he became a dead person just like this.<br /> <br /> “That’s a misinterpretation of the myth. …Yomotsu Hirasaka is a corridor that linked the world with different worlds. It is the exit and entrance that leads to Takamagahara&lt;ref&gt;The heavens&lt;/ref&gt; which is the Territory of Japanese Divas.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu went on “Anyway, please close your eyes.”, like that it prompted Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai to proceed.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_2&diff=479001 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 2 2016-01-28T11:44:25Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 - {{furigana|Enemy territory Infiltration|Sneak Mission}}==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> “Cramped! Cramped cramped the distance is too cloo―se-! I really dislike you! Despite so, how can your face stay calm even when going through this! You brute!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was like that had the positivity level of 82. There was not even a single skull mark that denoted the decrease of positivity level. Even her abusive remarks couldn’t be felt as anything other than one type of communication to him.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, you only say that in your mouth but you don’t hate me don’t you? Also senpai had promised to accompany me in a date hadn’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t treat an infiltration mission as a date you―!”<br /> <br /> Right at that time, a slightly large wave lifted up the neck of the ship highly.<br /> <br /> The neck of the ship rode through the wave undulation and then it was half falling with a jerk.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was “UWAA!” surprised and her shoulder approached near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> An endless ocean. The small boat looked like an untrustworthy leaf floating on the sea.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, senpai. When push comes to shove…”<br /> <br /> “When push comes to shove…?” Kazuha-senpai who was shrinking her body looked at him imploringly.<br /> <br /> “When push comes to shove, please stabilize the movement of the boat with Psychokinesis Kazuha-senpai.”<br /> <br /> “You are relying on me! I looked like an idiot for thinking that you are a little dependable heree―!!”<br /> <br /> “Of course I’m also doing my best in the boat driving. But well, inside the bay, the waves are killed by the peninsula and island making the water quite calm so it’s okay. Though the morning seems early.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki peered through the binoculars that was hanging in his neck while reinforcing his eyesight using magic power.<br /> <br /> “…Rather, what's scarier are human’s eyes, this is an infiltration mission after all.”<br /> <br /> “That risk of discovery, the story is that Yamato doesn’t perform the coast security satisfactorily anyway right? If it’s just a citizen’s boat then it’s going to be overlooked even if it’s discovered, isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Because the government cut the electric supply to west Japan, the emotion of west Japan’s citizen has become the worst. Something like a suspicious boat they have never seen might be reported right away to Yamato.”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so…this is the enemy’s territory after all…. Even though this is Mie prefecture…”<br /> <br /> That odd way of speaking unintentionally made Kazuki float an ironic smile. Kazuha-senpai talked even further.<br /> <br /> “…When I studied the administrative divisions of Japan in elementary school, among the few that I couldn’t remember no matter what was Mie prefecture you know? I wonder if I incurred a divine punishment…”<br /> <br /> “For some reason I always jumbled up Aichi prefecture and Wakayama prefecture, I couldn’t make the distinction between them.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, in that case you really like orange.”&lt;ref&gt;In Aichi and Wakayama prefectures, they have specialty oranges of their own.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai didn’t only insult him with abusive remarks, unexpectedly when he made stupid talk with her, she was someone who would respond in a good mood. Finally she relaxed her stiff shoulder and showed a smiling face.<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuha-senpai’s face from the side where her hair was fluttering from the opposing wind, Kazuki was charmed for a while.<br /> <br /> And then Kazuha-senpai naturally leaned her shoulder and thigh unreservedly on Kazuki’s body. She became relaxed and from her mouth “~♪” a humming sound was starting to leak out.<br /> <br /> “Hey, until how long we are going to keep like this?”<br /> <br /> “Generally it might be around one hour.”<br /> <br /> “Whaa―tt, it’s unexpectedly short. So it’s not a considerable boat trip then?”<br /> <br /> “Is it disappointing?” Kazuki asked Kazuha-senpai whose face was full of disappointment.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai suddenly went ‘hah’ and made a face of realization, “I, it’s not disappointing at all, who in the world will want time spent together with you! I want this to end quicklyy―!” She leaned her body forward in fluster.<br /> <br /> “The boat will shake so please don’t struggle here I said.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki met an unexpected difficulty in operating the flap, he embraced Kazuha-senpai with his left hand.<br /> <br /> When her waist was embraced by Kazuki’s arm, a heart mark flew from Kazuha-senpai with a plop.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps by any chance senpai want to be like this and intentionally made a ruckus?”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s not true! This lady killer!”<br /> <br /> ―The enjoyable time passed in the blink of an eye. And then,<br /> <br /> “…This is problematic.” Kazuki murmured while peeking through his binoculars.<br /> <br /> “There really are that many people?”<br /> <br /> Finally they reached the distance where they could clearly see the opposite shore, but unexpectedly there were people in the shoreline of Toba where they planned to disembark.<br /> <br /> “There are a lot of fishing ships, breeding farm of oyster or seaweed, female divers…something is visible.”<br /> <br /> “There are also female divers? Your eyes are absurdly good huh.”<br /> <br /> In any case the visibility was exceedingly good on top of the sea, there was no hiding place.<br /> <br /> They must go through a route where they wouldn’t enter anybody’s line of sight and make their landing.<br /> <br /> “Let’s make a detour slightly and search for a coastline where there are no people’s presence.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki steered the boat going side-by-side with the land.<br /> <br /> “Ah. Oi, Hayashizaki, seagulls are coming here!”<br /> <br /> Like children, Kazuha-senpai shook the shoulder of Kazuki who didn’t peel his eyes off from the binoculars.<br /> <br /> “Seagulls…? They might be used to human from the pleasure cruise for sightseeing that scattered feed to them.”<br /> <br /> “So they want some feed, yosh!”<br /> <br /> It seemed Kazuha-senpai brought some snacks inside her waist-bag. She took out a rice cracker. She stood up on top of the unsteadily shaking boat while guarding her balance, “Here-!” and threw the pieces of broken rice cracker to the sky. The seagulls took a nose dive with good momentum and caught the cracker with its beak.<br /> <br /> “Amazing! Come on look Hayashizaki, these guys come along! They are amazingly smart!! Ahaha-”<br /> <br /> “Geez, what is senpai making merry for…”<br /> <br /> Separating his eyes from the binoculars, he looked up at Kazuha-senpai who was standing beside him―Kazuki watched the girl’s radiant smile in fascination. He involuntarily lost the next word he was going to say. The fringe of Kazuha-senpai’s short casual Japanese clothes was turned up lightly from the strong wind, although she didn’t notice it because she was too engrossed at the seagulls and making merry.<br /> <br /> (Well, it’s fine), Kazuki returned to his binoculars while his face was slightly reddening.<br /> <br /> In her place, he was going to pay attention seriously at their surrounding.<br /> <br /> ―When he was looking at the far away, *GATAN!* the boat shook, then he heard Kazuha-senpai’s scream.<br /> <br /> “Waaaaaaaaa, Hayashizaki, strange birds are! They scattered the seagulls and come charging here―!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took off his eyes from the binoculars and looked up to the sky―tension ran through his spine.<br /> <br /> Large flock of birds blocked the blue sky, “GEE―! GEE―!” they were revolving around the boat while raising ominous chirps. It had protruding eyes that looked as if the eyeball were almost falling out, their beaks were curving windingly like old tree stumps. They were ominous birds from what Kazuki could see.<br /> <br /> Of course they were not a natural animal―Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> “Damn! …This spot is a Haunted Ground!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly realized and looked down at the sea’s surface. The sea color ten-odd meters around them became a darkish color as if a stain was gathered in one spot of the ocean. Because Kazuki only watched the far away land and Kazuha-senpai only looked at the seagulls, they didn’t notice at all that they had stepped into a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Haunted Ground only broke out in a place where there were humans―if it was a course where pleasure ship and fishing ship often came, then surely it was possible for Haunted Ground to be born on top of a sea. A spot where seagulls that were used to humans formed a group. It was suitable to be called a dominion of human rather than nature.<br /> <br /> However Yamato’s provisional government, weren’t they dealing with the Haunted Ground properly?<br /> <br /> Like this the people that worked on the sea would be in danger!<br /> <br /> “O the will of whirling heaven god…gather in my hand, grant me the authority of judgement! O radiance of the royal divine gift, become a dazzling brilliant drawn bow! Lightning Line.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s both hands hosted lightning. He drew the lightning to the limit and launched on, two streaks of lightning. This magic of Hikaru-senpai, even though each of its shot was inferior in power compared to Mio’s Barrett, it could be used to shoot repeatedly.<br /> <br /> One, two body of the demon birds were shot down and sank into the black water surface. With that as the start, the demon birds that were circling around to assess their prey directed their beaks at the boat and took a nose dive.<br /> <br /> “I’m doing a good fight, welcoming a good death, and wish to participate in even more battle of heaven! The divine protection of blood color in my eye! Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s level 1 magic that could be invoked in short chanting tie. Light flew down from between the gap of the cloud in the sky, it became power and resided inside Kazuki. His eyes were dyed deep crimson, his reflexes and physical strength were amplified.<br /> <br /> Kazuki missed nothing of the demon birds’ beaks, he caught the beak of the bird that came the foremost barehanded. He swung the demon bird that he caught with all his strength, directing it to the second approaching demon bird’s beak and ''used it as a shield''. Fresh blood scattered, he threw away the demon bird that bore a fatal wound from its fellow bird’s beak to the sea.<br /> <br /> The third flying bird that approached him was caught by his left hand this time, and then once more he used it as a shield against the fourth bird.<br /> <br /> He caught the birds with his two hands and used them as shields before throwing them away…he struggled hard empty-handedly.<br /> <br /> Looking at that scene from the side, Kazuha-senpai who was late in her battle preparation chanted her spell in panic.<br /> <br /> “O peerless master, make another showing from beyond the dream! Along with the flame of transmutation, liberate the memory that is sealed inside the silver mirror right here!! Kenki Tensei!!”<br /> <br /> Spheres of fire burst out around Kazuha-senpai. From there the phantom of famous swordsmen that left behind their names in history were summoned―the phantom swordsmen that were created from the spheres of fire landed on the water surface just like that―they were drowning while kicking and struggling. While unfortunate, there was no space for summoning on top of the cramped boat.<br /> <br /> The mute phantom swordsman were,<br /> <br /> {What are you doing suddenly summoning us here gozaru-} {Uwaa~, you are making fun of us~}<br /> <br /> …They were sinking into the black sea with that kind of feeling.<br /> <br /> “Uwaa―! You guys are useless―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was completely cornered into the depths of mayhem, she screamed while gripping the edge of the boat.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, the magic that you chose to chant was mistaken there!”<br /> <br /> That miss was surely because the tactic of first summoning the phantom swordsmen and then using them to buy time for her to chant higher magic had already completely became a habit.<br /> <br /> “I am the shaman of sword…rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was grappling with the devil birds, he managed to chant that spell in some way or other.<br /> <br /> Flames welled out inside Kazuki’s hand where a holy ancient sword was created.<br /> <br /> If he held a sword, then the fight was his. The nose diving demon birds were cut down one after another.<br /> <br /> {Ooh, splendid! This is just like Tsubame Gaeshi&lt;ref&gt;Swallow Reversal, Sasaki Kojiro’s secret technique&lt;/ref&gt;!}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s phantom appeared and said so in cheers.<br /> <br /> “Waa―! Kazuki! This time strange wriggling things from the sea are―!?”<br /> <br /> When his attention was preoccupied with the sky, Kazuha-senpai’s scream reverberated once again. This time it was not from the sky but from the sea―countless tentacles were extending out and entangled the limbs of Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why is this thing not even sparing a glance at Hayashizaki, but only coming at me!?”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, tentacles is this kind of Demon Beast! Before this when it attacked Mio it was also like this.”<br /> <br /> “What kind of Demon Beast this is, doing something―! Uwa, stop it, don’t get inside the clothes!!”<br /> <br /> The tentacles that were attached with suction pads on it pinned down the side of the boat while invading inside. Both of Kazuha-senpai’s arms and legs were captured. It forcefully opened up the four limbs and tried to creep in through the collar and hem stimulatingly.<br /> <br /> The boat raised a cracking sound!<br /> <br /> But the tentacles doing whatever it wanted to Kazuha-senpai was only for an instant.<br /> <br /> Sensing the situation, Kazuki immediately ran his sword. First he cut down the tentacles that were going to invade into Kazuha-senpai’s clothes, then next he cut down the tentacles that were binding Kazuha-senpai’s arms and legs.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that became free leaped vigorously to Kazuki and hugged him, making the boat shook violently.<br /> <br /> But no matter how many tentacles he cut down, the main body of the Demon Beast was squirming inside the black sea. Katana wouldn’t reach. Using Barrett would be useless because it would disappear from the sea water. Facing the sea and firing lightning arrow would also endanger themselves. Then….<br /> <br /> “O singing voice of mermaid, manifest the freezing thought. Sadness into ice flower, loneliness into light snowfall, cover the world with freezing vacuum…White Album!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki chose Koyuki’s level 5 magic―a large scale magic that froze the designated space in its entirety. The monster inside the sea was frozen together with its surrounding sea water. And then most likely its breath was stopped just like that.<br /> <br /> The dusky sea that was undergoing Haunted Ground transformation quickly became clear blue color.<br /> <br /> Haunted Ground was spreading due to the existence of Demon Beast. By defeating the Demon Beast, the original scenery would be recovered.<br /> <br /> “Ah, how tiresome~. Sorry, I’m just completely holding you back…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was weakly exhausted on top of the boat, she released a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…this is still not the time to be relaxed yet.”<br /> <br /> When the tentacles were clamping at Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki heard an awful voice of something cracking.<br /> <br /> Cracks were entering the boat that was made from wood. Under both their feet, sea water was entering little by little.<br /> <br /> “It's flooding!?”<br /> <br /> If the ship was broken in this place, the operation would be a failure. They wouldn’t be able to land inconspicuously.<br /> <br /> “…Should we go back for a moment, using [Blazing Wings] back to Irago Cape?”<br /> <br /> “Even though the opposing shore is just right there already…! It’s my fault…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stared at the opposing shore mortifyingly. Even while she was doing that, the small boat kept sinking.<br /> <br /> “That’s right! Let’s swim until the farther shore!”<br /> <br /> “There are a lot of fishing ships. If we go across swimming while still wearing clothes, we will completely look like suspicious people, senpai.”<br /> <br /> “Then let’s go by diving!” Kazuha-senpai faced the sea and pulled Kazuki’s arm.<br /> <br /> “How are we going to maintain our breath!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, leave it to me! …I’ll relinquish my dishonor from before!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai forcibly kept pulling *gui gui* Kazuki’s arm, she was trying to make the both of them leap into the sea together. (If she really has some idea), Kazuki hardened his determination.<br /> <br /> “We are going! One two-!!”<br /> <br /> Water was splashing along with a yell, the two dove into the sea.<br /> <br /> …What in the world is Kazuha-senpai planning?<br /> <br /> When he opened his eyes inside the sea that had high rate of transparency, Kazuki saw a miraculous sight.<br /> <br /> Bubbles that repelled blue lights were pouring down from the surface into the water to the location of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> The bubble that was as big as a person’s head followed about around Kazuki’s face and then it entered inside his mouth.<br /> <br /> …It’s air. Kazuha-senpai was pulling air into the water using Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> …Amazing. Once again, he felt that Kazuha-senpai’s talent in magic was not ordinary.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly inside the water and pointed at the direction of the land. Kazuki nodded at that. <br /> <br /> If oxygen was supplied like this, then it was a distance that could be traversed sufficiently.<br /> <br /> Utilizing magic and diving with one’s own body―this was his first experience, in a transparent blue world.<br /> <br /> Changing from seagulls, this time it was fishes, they coiled about around Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s surrounding.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Puhaa―! I wondered for a second what’s going to happen to us there!”<br /> <br /> Raising from the sea, Kazuha-senpai stood up on the beach unsteadily while taking a deep breath. But,<br /> <br /> “Before we take a breather! Let’s move to a more hidden spot!”<br /> <br /> This area was not a beach that had been developed for swimming place, there was no presence of human in the surrounding. But at any rate, the unobstructed view in the beach was too good. The afternoon sun was shining down on them. Kazuki held Kazuha-senpai’s hand tightly and ran away into the natural forest that grew thickly near the beach.<br /> <br /> “Don, don’t suddenly hold my hand like this―!”<br /> <br /> “Somehow there is this thrill that make the heart beat fast right?”<br /> <br /> After escaping into the darkness of the forest, finally they could take a breather.<br /> <br /> The two let out a wry chuckle while looking at each other’s face―Kazuki spontaneously caught his breath.<br /> <br /> It was pink color―if he was asked what was pink, it was Kazuha-senpai’s underwear color.<br /> <br /> Senpai’s remodeled Japanese clothing was wet and became see-through, making a faint pink color emerge through it.<br /> <br /> Going after the swimsuit, it was a lovely underwear that made him feel the gap. That senpai was wearing this kind of underwear, that fact itself was cute. By any chance perhaps she put in a considerable fighting spirit into choosing that underwear.<br /> <br /> Moreover because of her run-in with those tentacles and further with the swimming, her collar and hem was slovenly disordered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s clothes too was also similarly drenched wet, it was clinging onto the skin heavily. Kazuha-senpai saw Kazuki’s state, then she noticed that herself was also in the same state, making her face boil red.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 056.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “U, u, u, uWAA―!? Don’t look, don’t look this wayy―!!”<br /> <br /> “So, sorry senpai! This is an act of god!!”<br /> <br /> “I understand this is act of god or whatnot! I’m not particularly angry so just look behind―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned back at the same time, making their backs meet.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s dry the clothes and our body with magic.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suggested. If they used Psychokinesis to get rid of the water and salt and then produced high temperature with Pyrokinesis, they could dry their clothes far quicker compared to letting it dry naturally.<br /> <br /> “…I got it. Then I’m going to take off my clothes. Absolutely don’t look back.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai answered like such for the sake of getting through this quickly.<br /> <br /> Dryness was a process where the water particles escape to the air. Rather than letting the clothes dry while still wearing it, taking off the clothes and drying it off piece by piece would increase the surface area that came in contact with the air, making the drying-off several times faster.<br /> <br /> …I wonder if this means that she trust me.<br /> <br /> That Kazuha-senpai was, currently, becoming naked right behind himself.<br /> <br /> Of course Kazuki didn’t have any intention to betray that trust. Absolutely none.<br /> <br /> While determining his heart that he absolutely wouldn’t look behind, he himself removed the belt of his hakama and took off his remodeled Japanese clothes. Spreading out the taken-off clothes with his hands, he concentrated at his magic.<br /> <br /> “Wa, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?”<br /> <br /> However after only tens of seconds, Kazuha-senpai raised a scream.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately turned his back. This couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> This couldn’t be helped but, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too was still in their underwear appearance.<br /> <br /> Their eyes met in a glance, shame flashed in Kazuha-senpai’s expression.<br /> <br /> But on the contrary she didn’t continue that line of progress.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai screamed “Demon Beast!” and pointed to the direction forward.<br /> <br /> Demon Beast she said? …This forest was real nature, it was by no means a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Even though this place was not supposed to be a Haunted Ground―there was a single crow in the direction that senpai pointed at.<br /> <br /> It was just a normal bird in a single glance, but thick magic power was compressed inside that small body, warping the surrounding atmosphere slightly. And then above all, ''it had three legs''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai’s shoulder near him and changed their places. He stood in front to cover for her.<br /> <br /> The three-legged crow was staring at Kazuki with eyes that was like black gem.<br /> <br /> “…There is no need to be alert. I hold no hostility.”<br /> <br /> “”The Demon Beast is talking!?”” Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were taken aback in shock.<br /> <br /> The situation where a crow was talking was bizarre but…the subject that he talked about was also strange.<br /> <br /> The Demon Beast that materialized in this world because of {{furigana|Cancer|Malignant Alternate Boundary}} was absolutely the enemy of the human race.<br /> <br /> It was completely the instinct, the meaning of their existence, that Demon Beasts attack only humans.<br /> <br /> …No need to be alert? Those were words that overturned the concept of Demon Beast right from its root.<br /> <br /> “What is called Demon Beast is something that is established in Mythology as the enemy of human race…”<br /> <br /> The three-legged crow opened its beak and spun human language.<br /> <br /> “…I am different. I am something established to be the guide of the monarch &lt;Yatagarasu&gt;. O King of Solomon, the Japanase Mythology welcomes you. Please head to Ise Imperial Shrine just like that somehow.”<br /> <br /> Welcomes? …Even though we came here to defeat Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> If he assumed that this was not a Diva or a Demon Beast, then what in the world is this crow?<br /> <br /> The crow that introduced itself as Yatagarasu informed just that and then it spread its black wings with a flap and flew away.<br /> <br /> The instant it flew to the sky, that figure melted into the air and disappeared.<br /> <br /> The left behind Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were bewildered and stood stock still.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, just now, what do you think is going on?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai asked with voice mixed with confusion.<br /> <br /> [Welcome]. Did it has the meaning exactly like the what word imply, or….<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu―it was an existence that was made to be Amaterasu’s messenger in Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> Both of them unintentionally faced each other. And then, they remembered once more that both of them were still in their underwear appearance.<br /> <br /> “Waa!? I forgot, don’t look this way!!”<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, it’s an act of god!”<br /> <br /> Both of them sprang up in startle and turned their back to each other again.<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, act of god, act of god. You keep saying that.”<br /> <br /> While they resumed drying their clothes, Kazuha-senpai talked with a hint of complaint and then, *bump*, she threw her own back to Kazuki’s back. Kazuha-senpai’s back hair that fluttered behind tickled Kazuki’s nape.<br /> <br /> Perhaps there ought to be some more words that he should say. Not an excuse that he said because he was afraid to be scolded. Because Kazuha-senpai was a much softer person than what her surface attitude hinted.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai’s risqué appearance, really made my heart beat fast.”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying, idiot!”<br /> <br /> “The pink underwear was cute.”<br /> <br /> “Aren’t you just thinking too simply that a girl will be happy as long as she got praised!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine right, I said that was an act of god.”<br /> <br /> “You are a pervert!” *BUMP! BUMP!* the hits to his back were strengthened.<br /> <br /> But he had the hunch that senpai at this kind of time was not angry but rather she was enjoying herself.<br /> <br /> “…Really, I’m finished already here.”<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, there was the presence of Kazuha-senpai wearing her clothes in rustle.<br /> <br /> “Eh, already!? That’s fast!”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, that’s because you are saying stupid things. Idii―ot idii―ot. Magic good for nothing.”<br /> <br /> Rotating with a twirl, Kazuha-senpai who had finished changing her clothes circled around to Kazuki’s front.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…I’m, still in emergency here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was taken aback being stared at right from the front.<br /> <br /> “It’s doesn’t really matter right, you are man after all.”<br /> <br /> What kind of reason was that? Kazuha-senpai bent her knees at that spot and squatted down, then her line of sight was creeping all over Kazuki’s body intently *jii―*.<br /> <br /> “…Fuun, just as expected it’s a body with the feel of a boy. …Fuun.”<br /> <br /> He didn’t really get embarrassed getting stared at but…for some reason he couldn’t concentrate on the magic.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When they walked from the coast to the city of Toba, the town that prospered from sightseeing and fishing industry was changed into quite a place from being put under the state of [times of war].<br /> <br /> “First let’s settle down a little and talk about what we are going to do from now on.”<br /> <br /> Saying that, Kazuki pointed at the eatery in the street corner. In Toba, there were a few eateries lining up. This eatery was called &lt;Ama&lt;ref&gt;Female diver who collects shells, seaweed, etc.&lt;/ref&gt; hut&gt; where people could eat fresh maritime products that were just picked by the diver.<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it, certainly my stomach is empty.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was also in agreement. …Today they were having a fairly rushed schedule until now. After Kazuki explained the outline of the operation yesterday they departed from Nagoya at the early morning the very next day, arriving at Irago Cape. There they sailed off after finishing the boat operation training, and then they landed at the town of Toba in Mie Prefecture right at this point of time, the time had already approaching midday. Everything were events that were happening throughout this morning.<br /> <br /> They were in the middle of an important operation, be that as it may, it was hard to go against their sense of hunger.<br /> <br /> If they didn’t have a meal here, they didn’t know what would happen from now on after this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai sat side-by-side at the counter, then they ordered the shellfish combination platter that was the specialty here with the traveling expenses they received from Akane-senpai. At the opposite side of the counter, the auntie there lined up the shellfishes on the earthen charcoal brazier and started grilling.<br /> <br /> With a voice so small that could only be heard by Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki confirmed the thing that he was concerned at the foremost.<br /> <br /> “Regarding that &lt;Yatagarasu&gt; from before, does Futsunushi no Kami say anything at all?”<br /> <br /> “I too asked inside my head what is that about but…”<br /> <br /> A Telepathy directed at Astrum, it was that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> “…That guy, he doesn’t give any reply and is ignoring me.”<br /> <br /> So it was No Comment. Despite making frivolous talk like commenting someone’s sword skill as Tsubame Gaeshi or what else.<br /> <br /> That crow called Yatagarasu, according to the myth it was the messenger of Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> “What in the world does it mean with [Welcome]? Even though we are coming here for Japanese Mythology’s chief god…Amaterasu’s defeat. In the first place, isn’t Amaterasu supposed to lose her sanity from becoming a Wild God?”<br /> <br /> There was something strange that he felt from Futsunushi no Kami’s story that was supposed to be ''the operation’s premise''.<br /> <br /> During the operation where they were infiltrating enemy territory that required caution, it was a terrifying matter for a doubt to rise to the surface towards the premise of the operation in the first place.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki exposed Futsunushi no Kami’s insincerity, Kazuha-senpai made a sad face.<br /> <br /> “Bu, but Futsunushi no Kami is…”<br /> <br /> “Of course it’s not like I’m thinking that Futsunushi no Kami is Yamato’s spy or something like that.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said so, Kazuha-senpai released a breath in relief.<br /> <br /> “If Futsunushi no Kami and Yatagarasu are trying to set a trap for us, there is no need at all to make that kind of greeting to us.”<br /> <br /> Of course he was doubtful whether he really could accept that [Welcome] Yatagarasu said at face value, but wasn’t what Yatagarasu meant to declare at that time was that [this is not a trap].<br /> <br /> “…I feel some doubt that this operation can proceed just as planned, but for the time being there is nothing we can do except go to Ise Imperial Shrine to see what’s happening there.”<br /> <br /> What awaited them at that place, was it really [a battle against Amaterasu] or…. If by some chance that was not what going to happen, then for what kind of reason did Futsunushi no Kami call Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai here.<br /> <br /> …If he was called to the enemy territory here because of some ill will though, then that was the worst situation.<br /> <br /> “Here, our specialty the large manilla clam! You two are whispering secretly there, but this is not delicious when it’s not freshly baked. Chuck the food to your mouth quickly and eat up!!&lt;ref&gt;The auntie is speaking with some kind of local dialect here. [Should be Mie dialect; they are in Mie, after all]&lt;/ref&gt;”<br /> <br /> The auntie presented the large plate piled up with clams from across the counter.<br /> <br /> The moment they saw it, Kazuha-senpai went “Wha, this is different with the clam that I know!?” and raised her voice. What they saw was something excessively large to be called clam, its size was almost as big as a palm of a child. Adding to its plump body, soup was pooling in plenty on its shell, the nice aroma of salt rising up.<br /> <br /> Next the auntie handed over a big serving of rice. Kazuha-senpai immediately ate a mouthful of the clam, after that she gulped down the rice heartily, “Delicious-!” her expression brightened.<br /> <br /> The auntie laughed in a good mood seeing at that scene.<br /> <br /> “I’m still grilling lot and lot here! There is turban scallop, or this yesso scallop!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around inside the shop once more. It was a snug eatery, but its walls were decorated with autographs of celebrities that even Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai knew. There was even the picture of the auntie in a wet suit as a diver hung on the wall. …Inside that mundane atmosphere, it made them feel a peace of mind somehow.<br /> <br /> It appears that even when this place changed from Japan into Yamato, the life of the normal people didn’t change at all.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuha-senpai, your [Delicious!] just now is not good. You don’t look like a local.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki lowered his voice and whispered on her ears. “Ah, I see!” Kazuha-senpai pressed her own mouth.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s make our setting as a bacouple that doesn’t read the atmosphere even in this kind of emergency and still come to sightseeing.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai went “Eeeehh!?” and lost her presence of mind.<br /> <br /> “I have heard that it’s difficult to get exposed in infiltration mission when the spies act like a couple.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was whispering, he embraced Kazuha-senpai’s waist and brought her closer to him.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai twitched for a moment in hesitation, but perhaps she immediately judged in her reasoning that such method could work, she meekly reclined on Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “…But, I don’t understand what should we do to act as a couple you know.”<br /> <br /> Her cheeks was slightly colored and she whispered weakly.<br /> <br /> “I think it’s fine if we use Mio’s words as reference.”<br /> <br /> “…I see. It’s that kind of feeling…”<br /> <br /> Mio who could make someone understand in one mention was really Mio. Kazuha-senpai nodded slightly. And then she was nuzzling herself on top of Kazuki’s shoulder like a small animal. “…Kazu-kun, aa―n.” Like so, she whispered with a sweet voice while presenting a large clam with a chopstick. Kazuki received a shock in his chest. …Kazu-kun, she said?<br /> <br /> What in the world was this throbbing inside his chest? [This is gap moe desu, Kazuki-oniisan!!] He had the feeling that Lotte’s voice was reverberating inside his head.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki accepted that clam with his mouth and ate it, this time he returned the favor to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha, aa―n.” Like that the two of them turned in their seat while flirting and fed each other with clams.<br /> <br /> “…Thi, this is too embarrassing…”<br /> <br /> “But Kazuha right now, is awfully cute. I’m having a throbbing I have never felt until now.”<br /> <br /> “Sto, stop it you idiot! Geez…stupid Kazu-kun…”<br /> <br /> This person, wasn’t she get too carried away with the mood?<br /> <br /> “Ooaa~! You two suddenly become really intimate! You know this clam, when fellow lovers eat this there is this legend that you will be able to marry your companion perfectly, eat a lot!!”<br /> <br /> The auntie in the counter lined up a lot of grilled clams one after another in front of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Somehow it's just like what they aimed for, it seemed they could finish this without looking suspicious.<br /> <br /> “…I’m doing this, only for the sake of the mission so…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered subduedly.<br /> <br /> “Then I will fully enjoy this situation while it lasts. Her Kazuha, aa―n.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced her waist even stronger and gave the newly arriving clam to senpai with ‘aa―n’. Kazuha-senpai too helplessly cuddled her body closer and obediently chewed the food.<br /> <br /> “…However I never thought it would become something this outrageous.”<br /> <br /> ―A voice from behind.<br /> <br /> Even while flirting with Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki didn’t miss that voice of the local customer.<br /> <br /> When he took a glance behind, there were two male customers around their thirties sitting in the back table seat.<br /> <br /> “Those brats are thinking that it’s interesting, but to say such thing like a war with Japan. They are thinking such an unbelievable idea. Saying things like the Solomon 72 Pillar is trying to take over the country, though I think there might be some truth in that.”&lt;ref&gt;These locals also talk with really heavy accent.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “But those guys in the new government of Yamato became too eager in war with that Japan. They are completely apathetic with the life of we the common people, it’s really vexing ze. Even when a Haunted Ground appears they just leave it alone, when it’s still Japan such thing is unthinkable.”<br /> <br /> “The Haunted Ground has spread until the sea around here huh, recently. When we are going fishing we have to be careful not to carelessly step into that area. …Even though this sea of Ise is Amaterasu-sama’s important kitchen don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> “This is because they just leave alone the Ise Imperial Shrine as that stupidly huge Haunted Ground in the first place. With such atrocious accursed things going on…are we really tying a contract with the Divas of Japanese Mythology here?”<br /> <br /> “Who knows, no matter which shrine, all of it became under construction or something that we cannot even pray to god. Really this situation really stinks. When push comes to shove us the men of sea might just use the ships to make off from here!”<br /> <br /> “…Kazu-kun, you heard?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered into his ears while continuing their act as a couple.<br /> <br /> There was some part of him that became mushy in his chest when ‘Kazu-kun’ was whispered on his ear, but this was not the time to think about such thing.<br /> <br /> …They said that, Ise Imperial Shrine had become a stupidly huge Haunted Ground?<br /> <br /> <br /> Anyway, for the time being they had no other choice except to go to Ise Imperial Shrine and see it with their own eyes.<br /> <br /> Hardening his heart like that, the moment they exited the store Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai put themselves on guard.<br /> <br /> Because right before the store, Yatagarasu was perching on the ground and was waiting for Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu silently directed its beak to the direction of the west, and then it flapped its wings and went flying heading to the west.<br /> <br /> It didn’t say anything, but its intention was obvious.<br /> <br /> There was a distance around 10 kilometers from this harbor of Toba to the Ise Imperial Shrine in the west.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> The rail transport was in operation, but the electric train of Sangū&lt;ref&gt;This is the word they used in Japan that mean visit to the Ise Imperial Shrine.&lt;/ref&gt; line couldn’t travel to the nearest station to Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> The train didn’t operate except until &lt;Futamiura&gt; a few stations before that nearest station to the Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> There was a poster pasted inside the station premise that said [Evacuation counsel information of the present].<br /> <br /> It was a situation where there was an evacuation recommendation for the area around Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> “…Surely it’s because Ise Imperial Shrine has become a Haunted Ground, it is expanding little by little that causes the train to be unable to come near there.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too nodded his agreement of Kazuha-senpai’s deduction.<br /> <br /> With no other way they first went to the station called Futamiura. From there they began to walk to Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Futamiura was supposed to be an area where an evacuation recommendation still hasn’t come out yet, but maybe because there were a lot of people that began to evacuate out of their own initiative, the street that the two walked in front of the station was deserted. While walking Kazuki took out a map from his waist bag. This bag was water proof, so the map inside it was not wet.<br /> <br /> “Futamiura is here, so the distance until Ise Imperial Shrine is…eh? There are two Ise Imperial Shrine in the map though.”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s confused voice, Kazuha-senpai who was walking beside him brought her face near and peeked inside the map.<br /> <br /> “Aah, that one.” Like that she pointed at two points on the map. “These are the outer shrine and inner shrine of Ise. You didn’t know this and you accepted this mission? There are two Ise Imperial Shrine.”<br /> <br /> The outer shrine and the inner shrine was separated with distance around 5 kilos and they are respectively located in different places.<br /> <br /> …Although if there were two different sets it was better if it was nearer.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine, Amaterasu-Oomikami&lt;ref&gt;Oomikami means god. It’s a more honorable way to mention god in Japan&lt;/ref&gt; is located in the inner shrine, so I think it’s fine to ignore the outer shrine this time. But when people are visiting normally, it’s a manner to go from the outer shrine you know. At the outer shrine, there is this goddess called &lt;Toyouke no Oomikami&gt; that is taking care of Amaterasu.”<br /> <br /> I see, so it’s a god of maid then. Rather he would want to go to that shrine personally. <br /> <br /> “There is around 8 kilos until there.” While saying such thing Kazuki took Kazuha-senpai’s hand.<br /> <br /> “…What are you doing, this hand of yours.”<br /> <br /> “Although the presence of people here is only a few, we who are intentionally walking to the direction of the dangerous Ise Imperial Shrine are suspicious when looked from the side. That’s why let’s act like a couple again!”<br /> <br /> “Act, acting like couple again!? Are you thinking that as long as we act like a couple that everything will turn out okay!?”<br /> <br /> “I’m not thinking like that, but I’m thinking that as long as there is some kind of excuse then I want to act like a couple.”<br /> <br /> “You are too honest there! Idiot!!”<br /> <br /> “But it’s also certain that a couple won’t get suspected. A couple that is going to a place where there are no people’s eye around…bacouple that wants to show the girl a good place and intentionally go to a dangerous place…it has a power of persuasion in double meaning! Come here, Kazuha.”<br /> <br /> “Uu―, certainly that is so. …I get it okay, Kazu-kun.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai gently hugged Kazuki’s arm and she reclined her body on his shoulder.<br /> <br /> That Kazuha-senpai (just an act though) was fawning on him honestly.<br /> <br /> …The day where he would get used to this gap still hasn’t come for the present time.<br /> <br /> “Just as I thought, you really have a solid body…”<br /> <br /> While lightly nuzzling herself on Kazuki, Kazuha-senpai vacantly leaked out such words.<br /> <br /> {What an unexpected journey of pilgrimage huh?} Inside Kazuki, Leme was making fun of him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While they were walking, they grasped the transformation that happened clearly. A line of Haunted Ground was generated right there.<br /> <br /> From around over the Isuzu River, the road was transforming little by little.<br /> <br /> The texture of the road that was made from black asphalt was changed into something that felt clinging onto their shoe sole like dripping mud. The residence home along the road grew dull in color into grayish color and looked worn out. Its external appearance looked dirty like abandoned buildings. Even the Isuzu River that was said to be holy became a completely pure black stream. The sky was also shrouded with dark clouds all of a sudden, making a gloomy weather.<br /> <br /> It appears that what the people said that Ise Imperial Shrine had turned into a Haunted Ground was true. With Ise Imperial Shrine as the center, even its surrounding was swallowed and the Haunted Ground kept spreading.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pictured the map that he saw before in his head. It was about 5 kilos from here to the Ise Imperial Shrine. That meant that the scale of this Haunted Ground was about 5 kilos in radius.<br /> <br /> “How awful…did Yamato really not set out to exterminate the Demon Beasts?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pulled a wry face looking at the street that was completely transformed.<br /> <br /> And then she separated her body from Kazuki. Kazuki too didn’t feel any reluctance from the separation.<br /> <br /> The existence of Demon Beast most likely also meant that there would be battle.<br /> <br /> Cancer―pure magic power that spilled out from Astrum into this world, it then transformed into Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> If this Demon Beast isn’t exterminated quickly, it would call even more Cancer and increase the number of Demon Beasts. When Demon Beast multiplication like this was allowed, its surrounding space would be polluted by thick magic power and become completely distorted. A land of Demon Beast where humans couldn’t live, in that case it had finished transforming into a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> To defend against the expansion of Haunted Ground, exterminating the materialized Demon Beast speedily was also one of the most important jobs of the Knight Order. It seemed that Yamato’s provisional government shirked its duty to do that.<br /> <br /> Like this the area of Ise would be encroached completely.<br /> <br /> ―But saying it in reverse this meant that they didn’t need to fear Yamato’s soldiers in this Haunted Ground. They didn’t defeat any Demon Beast in the Haunted Ground and yet they posted a large number of soldiers inside the Haunted Ground, such action was not skillful at all.<br /> <br /> As expected Yamato’s government didn’t hear anything at all from the Wild Gods about the importance of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Although the Wild Gods became part of their battle strength, their failure in taking close communication with the Wild Gods exposed a fatal gap in their armor.<br /> <br /> “But Hayashizaki, isn’t this strange? For the Ise Imperial Shrine to become the Haunted Ground so accurately…I think it’s just too contrived somehow.”<br /> <br /> …Certainly. However if this happening was not just a coincidence…then that meant the government of Yamato intentionally changed the Ise Imperial Shrine into a Haunted Ground. How? For what reason?<br /> <br /> With its change into a Haunted Ground, maybe it was for the replacement of its defense squad. Possibly Amaterasu’s change into Wild God and Ise Imperial Shrine’s transformation into a Haunted Ground had some kind of connection.<br /> <br /> They surely wouldn’t understand anything if they didn’t advance forward.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai patted around her own waist. Guessing the meaning of that action, Kazuki reflexively laughed. Kazuha-senpai returned a wry smile on that reaction.<br /> <br /> “…When there is no katana on our hips, as expected people like us cannot calm down.”<br /> <br /> “We can use Summoning Magic so it’s fine senpai.”<br /> <br /> For a long time Kazuki had relied on his pride of his skill in sword technique. However before he knew it, he had already thought of his fight using Summoning Magic with similar pride.<br /> <br /> It was not like sword skill had become something trivial for him. How he was able to handle sword skill just like Kanae, and how he could chant the same Summoning Magic just like everyone in the Witch’s Mansion, he was equally proud on both.<br /> <br /> “Fufufuu. Actually, I’m not only practicing sword skill but also doing special training for Summoning Magic recently! Now I’m able to use magic until level 6 you see!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said that as if naturally sympathizing with Kazuki’s inner thought.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was born with an excellent talent in magic, but she yearned for swordsman instead of Magika Stigma since she was a child. She was a rare person that didn’t make an effective use of that talent at all.<br /> <br /> She made a contract with Futsunushi no Kami that was worshipped in her own household even before Solomon 72 Pillar could discover her talent, but she didn’t do any training for Summoning Magic at all, nevertheless she could handle her magic until level 5.<br /> <br /> If that kind of person seriously set out to train her magic seriously…. For her to become able to use magic until level 6 already, Kazuki who was also a magic swordsman like her couldn’t be careless lest he gets left behind.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai spun a spell in preparation for battle and performed Access.<br /> <br /> “…My crimson hand is red hot grasping the ore. Ridge in the sky, blade in the earth, combining in a flash become namely a sole sword. Thy inscription is &lt;Futsunushi no Kami&gt;! O god of steel and fire, show that forging!”<br /> <br /> The god of sword and blacksmith, Futsunushi no Kami granted a burning flame to Kazuha-senpai. The flame was spreading on senpai’s clothing, its Prima Material disintegrated transforming the shape into a totally different battle costume―Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “For a long time, I only fuss over sword, but when I see Hayashizaki I want to become stronger and stronger doing both sword and magic together. After all you and I are the same magic swordsman!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s expression shined brightly.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, when you talk about strength you are really lively.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? …That’s right huh. I was born in a household that worship god of sword. My father is also a swordsman…but swordsman is weak compared to Summoning Magic and the surrounding is also looking at them in contempt…I too became obstinate and became a swordsman but for a long time I had no talent at all and made fun of…honestly it was really miserable.”<br /> <br /> Thinking back once more, it was something like a miracle that she was raised with such a straightforward personality like this after she went through a twisted path for half her life. The nature of Kazuha-senpai herself was strong, surely she was fine because of how bright a person she was.<br /> <br /> “…I think that’s why the feeling of wanting to become even stronger than others is instilled into me. The feeling of always wanting to become stronger and stronger doesn’t vanish. Though somehow it’s an unbecoming boorishness for a woman. …Hahaha.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai floated a bitter smile awkwardly.<br /> <br /> “That’s not true at all. The lively Kazuha-senpai at that time is even more charming than usual. …All the more because normally Kazuha-senpai is not honest at all to me.”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, don’t say such cheeky thing even though you are just my junior!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki talked as if he was poking fun at Kazuha-senpai, she scolded him overbearingly,<br /> <br /> “…But when I’m together with you, I have a feeling that I can become stronger without any limit…”<br /> <br /> Whisperingly, she said so in addition. A heart mark that signed the increase of positivity level came flying from her chest.<br /> <br /> She was being shy for some reason. The both of them walked side by side silently for a while.<br /> <br /> “―Now that I remember senpai, the waist bag was also disintegrated and became the Magic Dress wasn’t it?”<br /> <br /> When Magika Stigma performed Access, things that were attached to the body were dispersed into Prima Material by the reality distortion called magic power, and then it was reconstructed as Magic Dress with the contracted Diva’s divine response as support.<br /> <br /> Did the waist bag also get swallowed by that distortion?<br /> <br /> “Ah, that’s true! Like this I cannot eat the cracker that I brought as snack!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who realized her lost waist bag after being told patted her own waist with some slaps and raised a sad voice.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While paying sufficient attention to their surrounding, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai advanced through the road of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> ―After a few minutes of walking, Kazuki went “Please wait” and held Kazuha-senpai back.<br /> <br /> “Please reinforce senpai’s eyesight with magic power and look far ahead. There is something.”<br /> <br /> Ahead in the road of the Haunted Ground that continued straight forward, his reinforced eyesight caught ''a bizarre human shadow''.<br /> <br /> Even though Kazuha-senpai nervously *gulp* swallowed her saliva, she gathered magic power in her eyes…then her face was dyed with a color of bewilderment. The thing that Kazuki saw was also clearly visible for her.<br /> <br /> “…Ee―err, what is it, that thing?”<br /> <br /> “It’s a warrior isn’t it?” Kazuki answered.<br /> <br /> “…That’s surely a warrior huh, that thing there. …But that answer doesn’t resolve any question at all.”<br /> <br /> What was standing in the path far ahead, was a suspicious man in armor and helmet.<br /> <br /> Several pieces of steel plate pasted together and built into one, it was a large armor that looked bulky and heavy.<br /> <br /> Its face was covered with helmet and face cover. Only the glint of its eye could be peeked from the outside.<br /> <br /> It was an armored warrior that looked like as if it flew out right from the Sengoku&lt;ref&gt;Warring States period (of Japanese history, approx. 1467-1568 CE)&lt;/ref&gt; period, walking heavily in roaming on the road that had been transformed into Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me that it was Yamato’s defensive squad? Even though this was inside a Haunted Ground? Wouldn’t they get attacked by the Demon Beast?<br /> <br /> …No, is that actually human? He couldn’t feel any human-like will from the armored warrior that was roaming the street. Rather, its atmosphere was more beastly closer with a Demon Beast that wandered restlessly.<br /> <br /> “It looks like an opponent that we cannot pass by acting like a couple. Let’s go through another road.”<br /> <br /> All along the path they could use to reach their destination of Ise Imperial Shrine was not only one. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned back through the street and turned into the bend across. They advanced through a different street.<br /> <br /> ―Even ahead of that street was also loitered with armored warrior, making them come into a halt.<br /> <br /> For some reason the armored warrior was not alone, looked like there were a lot of them wandering around. There were increasingly several of them.<br /> <br /> …Is there no other way than defeating them? When Kazuki began to incline on bulldozing his way through inside his heart,<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki. How about we climb the building and go from rooftop to rooftop? I have the feeling that those guys don’t look anywhere except straight ahead.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pointed at the roof of the building beside them and said that.<br /> <br /> That was actually the house of the citizen before this place was transformed into Haunted Ground, but now it had lost its color and became grayish. It was weathering and looked worn-out, exposing its concrete frame and became an abandoned building.<br /> <br /> …Certainly that armored warrior didn’t seem to be really that vigilant until that far. If they advance through the roof of the buildings it didn’t seem like the warrior would intentionally direct its eyes their way.<br /> <br /> “But they will notice our footsteps right? Somehow it looks like they have a sharp bestial sense.”<br /> <br /> “Then it’s fine if we don’t make any voice don’t you agree? It’s that easy.”<br /> <br /> While talking, Kazuha-senpai put her hand on the outer wall of the building that looked abandoned, then she climbed to the roof in one go with physical strength that had been reinforced with magic power. The moment she landed on the roof, the landing sound was&amp;mdash;not there.<br /> <br /> As if an unseen cushion covered both the feet of Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> And then she beckoned Kazuki with her hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too similarly climbed the outer wall and landed on the roof. The sound was not there as expected. Kazuki had the sensation that his underfoot was enveloped by some kind of magic power. He directed a surprised pair of eyes to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “…By any chance did senpai erase the sound using magic power?”<br /> <br /> “This is not really something to be surprised about right? Something like sound is just a vibration in the air, so isn’t it just a simple field of Psychokinesis?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said it nonchalantly but Kazuki couldn’t help but became tongue-tied.<br /> <br /> Certainly sound manipulation&amp;mdash;didn’t need much energy even though it vibrated the air in minute detail.<br /> <br /> But the magic power control for it was something really difficult because it was hard to image something like that. Sensing the unseen sound wave, it was still easier to simply magnify it, but to do a stunt like beautifully offsetting the sound wave was not supposed to be something so simple.<br /> <br /> …She might be a prodigy. This person might be above anybody else in the Witch’s Mansion in the field that didn’t have any connection with Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Of course Summoning Magic was the one that was useful in battle, but general magic that was effective in detailed practical use undoubtedly shone bright in special missions like this infiltration operation.<br /> <br /> “I’m also erasing your footstep, so let’s pass through the armored warriors just like this using the rooftop.”<br /> <br /> With a little pride, Kazuha-senpai was soundlessly hopping around *pyon pyon* in the rooftop.<br /> <br /> So that they became hard to see from the ground, the two of them took a low posture with their waist dropped and leaped from rooftop to rooftop just like the great thief of the Edo period.<br /> <br /> After they passed an increasingly fair number of armored warriors from on top of the roof, their gait became even more careful. Suddenly Kazuha-senpai pointed at something a little far ahead.<br /> <br /> There was a blue light generated ahead of where she was pointing, *PAN!* and then a little sound as if air was bursting out could be heard.<br /> <br /> The armored warrior reacted to that and turned away. It walked heavily to the direction of the sound.<br /> <br /> …If she could erase sound, then producing sound was also something possible.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly while looking at Kazuki. Kazuki too returned a smile and jest around with light feeling.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…how many pranks have you done until now with that ability? I have a feeling that small trick can be completely misused.”<br /> <br /> “I, I never did anything like a prank! After all…I don’t have any friends that I can prank or boast to…”<br /> <br /> He was just teasing lightly, but Kazuha-senpai hung her head down heavily.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…if you are fine with me then please prank me as much as you want.”<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t need that kind of appeal! I’m not that bored that I’m going to prank someone like you!”<br /> <br /> While they were doing that exchange with small voices, even more armored warriors were walking heavily from ahead of the street, making Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai be taken aback. It seemed that there really is a great number of these armored warriors.<br /> <br /> They still must not descend down from the rooftop.<br /> <br /> They steadily flew through the roof of the lining up low buildings in the residential area that had been transformed into Haunted Ground and advanced.<br /> <br /> Thereupon on their path, a tall [seven floor multi-tenant building] that stuck out compared to its surrounding stood on their way.<br /> <br /> Probably it was originally filled with various shops that became tenant there. On the side of the tall and narrow abandoned building, several sticking out billboards that were written with something unreadable because of the pitch black filth on them could be seen.<br /> <br /> “Ha, Hayashizaki…are we going to climb this too?” Kazuha-senpai looked up at the building and flinched back.<br /> <br /> …That’s right, if it was Enchant Aura then he was the more skilled one. As if opposing Kazuha-senpai who was so haughty since a while ago, Kazuki went “Fuffuffu” and chuckled.<br /> <br /> “Well then, please leave it to me this time. I’ll leave the footsteps to senpai.”<br /> <br /> After declaring so, he forcefully lifted up Kazuha-senpai who was in the posture of standing upright.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was settled into Kazuki’s arms struggled around with a bright red face.<br /> <br /> “Wait a second! You don’t need to lift me with princess-carry like this right, you can just carry me on your back!”<br /> <br /> “This is not just a mere princess-carry. This is Hayashizaki-style Last Secret Art [Wedding・Love Lift]!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was turning round and round like a merry-go-round while carrying Kazuha-senpai in his arms.<br /> <br /> “Last Secret Art!? So Hayashizaki-style is just a joke school of sword art like that!? Why are you revolving!?”<br /> <br /> “Kanae was the one that authorized this as the Last Secret Art though. There is no meaning at all in the revolving. Here we go!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki faced the multi-tenant building while still carrying Kazuha-senpai and jumped.<br /> <br /> Stepping his foot on the billboard that was sticking out from the wall, he made the second jump by using it as a foothold.<br /> <br /> Using the billboard as foothold like a stair, he kept jumping from one billboard to the next. Kazuha-senpai was offsetting all the sounds from Kazuki’s action. Matching their breaths splendidly, they managed to finished their leaps completely soundless.<br /> <br /> Only the distance from the last billboard to the rooftop was slightly taller than the previous jumps.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately chanted a level 1 reinforcement magic that he could quickly invoke. The reflexes reinforcement was trivial in this case, his aim was the physical strength reinforcement even just for a little.<br /> <br /> With that boosting, Kazuki was able to splendidly land on top of the roof of the abandoned building soundlessly.<br /> <br /> He could see the surrounding Haunted Ground with one sweep of the eye from the top of the building. There was a conspicuously darkened forest and building in the center of the Haunted Ground. That was surely the Ise Imperial Shrine there.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps both of us are a combination duo that is suited to infiltration missions, aren’t we?”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t just keep grinning happily, let me down quickly-!”<br /> <br /> Even while a small heart mark flew from Kazuha-senpai, she said that from her mouth and struggled around.<br /> <br /> Kazuki obediently lowered Kazuha-senpai down.<br /> <br /> “..Eh? You are simply letting me down like that?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai made an unsatisfied face. Kazuki made a stiff face and faced Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…''we are seen''.”<br /> <br /> …It seemed this mission wouldn’t be that simple.<br /> <br /> Kazuki whose eyesight was further reinforced with [Berserk] sensed the small movement amidst the scenery.<br /> <br /> “Eh…we are seen you said, here is the tenth floor’s rooftop you know?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered dumbfoundedly.<br /> <br /> ―At that moment, that human shadow moved out. A human shadow so small like a speck dust that was not visible from the rooftop where Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were standing was moving out with terrific speed. It was heading to this direction.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was just a moment late in his decision to escape&amp;mdash;it was caused by the height of the ten-floor building that originally wouldn’t let a human jump down to the ground safely that made his instinct hesitate.<br /> <br /> The small human shadow that began to move leaped from the street to the rooftop, making all the surrounding buildings as foothold with superhuman nimbleness―with no time to even say ‘ah’, it jumped from rooftop to rooftop to the roof where Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were.<br /> <br /> Under the sky of the Haunted Ground that was filled with dark clouds, on the rooftop of a narrow building, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai confronted that.<br /> <br /> Following the armored warrior, this one was a figure with bizarre external appearance.<br /> <br /> The image that floated inside his head with one glance was―[specter lemur].<br /> <br /> A small build that was slender like a monkey, however only both its eyes were big like a monster. Its eyeball was even bigger than a clenched fist―was this really human?<br /> <br /> With its body clad in pure black costume, only that huge eyeball was exposed from the hood it wore.<br /> <br /> A completely ninja-like figure. So that was it, there was not only armored warrior here.<br /> <br /> At the same time Kazuki recalled once more that this place was a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Was this guy human, or Demon Beast, ''he couldn’t make a distinction which one was it''.<br /> <br /> “My Lord…My Lord…I found it…Stigmata…Found it…”<br /> <br /> The ninja with build like a monkey leaked out a muffled voice from its mouth that was covered with hood. It was a faint small voice that was not audible except for Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai that were in that place. However―<br /> <br /> {…Both of your eyes are my eyes…. Is that so, so those guys had come. If they had stepped their foot on this ground, they cannot escape already!}<br /> <br /> From above the pitch black clouds that filled the sky of the Haunted Ground, a voice was reverberating. The words could be differentiated, but it was a muffled voice that he couldn’t make the distinction whether the speaker was male or female.<br /> <br /> That was a spell being spun. <br /> <br /> {Here a thick cloud rise, put up the barrier that confine all calamity. …My &lt;Yaegaki&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Fences within fences&lt;/ref&gt; of tranquility right here. …Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Dankai Bakufu|Severed World Cascade}}!!}<br /> <br /> A magic was invoked―the black cloud that fully covered the sky began to flow fiercely.<br /> <br /> The clouds spread thinly in the blink of eye, and then it languidly dropped down to the ground at the direction of the sky’s edge. A dome. The cloud in the sky covered the Haunted Ground in the shape of hemisphere, shutting them in from the outside world.<br /> <br /> …They couldn’t escape? A cold sensation ran through Kazuki’s spine. That meant the failure of their infiltration. On top of being discovered by the enemy, their escape path was blocked.<br /> <br /> “My Lord…Stigmata…My Lord…Stigmata, Kill! Stigmata Kill!”<br /> <br /> The monkey-like ninja leaked out a voice like he was talking in delirium.<br /> <br /> {So the King of Solomon 72 Pillar has come to this ground…this war is over if that guy is killed. Sounds good, if he can be killed then I don’t mind if you kill him to your heart’s content!}<br /> <br /> The voice from the sky gave his acknowledgement. Thereupon the monkey ninja raised an unthinkable loud voice from beyond its hood.<br /> <br /> “…nnn, nGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s ears naturally shone with defensive magic power to protect their eardrums. It was a voice so loud to that degree. There was no doubt that it likely reverberated through the Haunted Ground. Kazuki sensed that innumerable gazes were simultaneously directed to this direction from the ground. This guy called his comrades!<br /> <br /> “Senpai, it’s bad if we stay here! Let’s escape!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally threw his instinct to the wind and moved in action. He carried Kazuha-senpai once more and leaped with all his strength to the ground. “Kazuki!?” Kazuha-senpai raised a confused scream.<br /> <br /> The building’s rooftop―from the height of more than 30 meters―to the ground.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DAA―NN!* Kazuki landed on the ground while raising a grand sound this time. The sole of Kazuki’s feet, his knees, all were shining with blue defensive magic power and vanished the impact of the landing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took the hand of Kazuha-senpai and he dashed with speed that Kazuha-senpai could barely follow.<br /> <br /> He repeated the path that they followed until this point in one go.<br /> <br /> “Let’s conceal ourselves and give them the slip!”<br /> <br /> The armored warriors on the ground were all heading here simultaneously and gave chase.<br /> <br /> However Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s running foot exceeded the heavy armored warriors. They widened the distance from the pursuers in the blink of an eye. The majority of the armored warriors would surely lose sight of Kazuki’s figure immediately if he ran away like this.<br /> <br /> “NGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> But that ninja that looked completely like a monkey also jumped down and came chasing Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. It kicked the wall of the surrounding building and accelerated itself and rapidly shrunk its distance with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> A pure black bow and arrow was set up in the hand of that ninja unnoticed.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;SHUU* An arrow was fired cutting through the air. The aim was, Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> As if she had foresighted the trajectory of the arrow, senpai’s body quickly evaded the arrow.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was surprised for just an instant looking at that splendid body movement, but he immediately returned his awareness to the ninja.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki returned fire to the ninja with a fire arrow. The ninja was blown back while shining with defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> …Yosh, they are going to hide themselves just like this!<br /> <br /> {I already said that you cannot escape! I’m not going to let you ignore my words you’ll see!!}<br /> <br /> From above the head of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who ran with all their might, a voice and spell were coming down.<br /> <br /> {…Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Kumoito Shibari|Wind Thread Binding}}!!}<br /> <br /> From the dome-shaped cloud that covered the sky, two strings of [string of cloud] were slithering down. Its tips chased the escaping Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and twined itself around their body at once.<br /> <br /> The cloud strings twined around Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai, but there was nothing happening to them like restriction in their movement or the like. But the cloud strings kept elongating lengthily no matter how far they went, tying Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai with the sky.<br /> <br /> This is a mark! Kazuki comprehended that string’s aim. ―If this string of cloud was followed from the sky, then no matter where Kazuki was inside this Haunted ground his location would be constantly known.<br /> <br /> “Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai immediately chanted her spell and created Futsunushi no Kami’s divine sword. The evil crushing sword that severed various magic effect like curse or seal. That sword was directed to the string of cloud and swept sideways.<br /> <br /> But―it was not cut. The blade didn’t return any feedback to the hand holding it and passed through the cloud string completely.<br /> <br /> “This is…a magic power that's more superior than even Futsu no Mitama!” Kazuha-senpai raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “What is the meaning of this, Futsunushi no Kami!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki yelled while running with all his power.<br /> <br /> “Even though there shouldn’t be any mistake on our part in the infiltration until here, that guy called Yatagarasu sensed our presence! If by any chance someone acquired the knowledge of our movement, that must be because someone blabbed their mouth! Moreover this magic called [Izumo Yaegaki]…this is the magic of Japanese Mythology!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki couldn’t think of any other explanation for this situation other than that the Japanese Mythology had screwed with him.<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami! You are betraying me and Hayashizaki, and led us to a trap!?”<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuha-senpai that raised a sorrowful voice―the avatar of the god of sword emerged out.<br /> <br /> There was no mistake that Futsunushi no Kami was the one that created this situation.<br /> <br /> {Wrong...that Yatagarasu is not an enemy. I led you two to this place...not for a trap. This is not a trap but a ''request''. In this ground, I wish for you to save Japanese Mythology. The magic from before, is &lt;Susanoo&gt; of Izumo …one of Japanese Mythology’s two great chief god, Susanoo’s magic.}<br /> <br /> “Two great chief god!? The chief god is not just Amaterasu, but there are two of them!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a shocked voice after listening to the unexpected truth. Kazuki immediately thought that he was tricked by Futsunushi no Kami. …However, now that he thought back Futsunushi no Kami never said anything about defeating Amaterasu, only that he had to defeat the chief god. But…to save Japanese Mythology? <br /> <br /> {…Defeat Susanoo, rescue the sealed Amaterasu and save Japanese Mythology, that is my request.}<br /> <br /> “''If I save Amaterasu just like you say, will the Wild Gods recover their sanity''!?”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami was once more ''giving them information in small amounts intentionally'' and making them fall into confusion. Even if he didn’t spout lies, that was just one type of swindling. Just as he thought it was fine to say that he was deceived.<br /> <br /> This is surely not a trap, he believed that.<br /> <br /> However, the most important point was if he manage to achieve what Futsunushi no Kami asked then [would Yamato’s Wild Gods return to their sanity?]. If that was possible, then he didn’t mind whatever course he had to go through.<br /> <br /> “NGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!! STIGMATAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> Strange voice reverberated shrilly from their back. This was not the place for talking. An arrow was also fired subsequently at them.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reinforced his dynamic vision once again and brushed off the flying arrow at him barehanded.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! If we can just turn this guy back then I think we won’t need to worry of getting discovered. Let’s fight!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai halted, then she turned back and faced the enemy.<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it, let’s fight momentarily.” Kazuki too thought of the same thing.<br /> <br /> They had already returned back to the place near the edge of the Haunted Ground. The hanging down cloud that looked like curtains had visibly looked near. He wanted to confirm by touching the curtain of cloud whether they really couldn’t escape from here, but if they fought with their back facing this curtain of cloud then they didn’t need to worry about being attacked from behind for the time being.<br /> <br /> “…Moreover these guys don’t look like they can use Summoning Magic.”<br /> <br /> The enemy was an unknown, but just with that fact the extent of the enemy’s threat was considerably lowered.<br /> <br /> From straight ahead of the street, a crowd of armored warriors were rushing here. The one that was leading them was that monkey-like ninja who was much faster compared to the others. Even while running, it headed to Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and set up its bow and arrow again.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!” Kazuki attacked before it could fired its arrow.<br /> <br /> The monkey ninja was blown back to the crowd of the armored warriors. That became the signal of the fight’s beginning.<br /> <br /> “Sti, STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The instant Kazuki used Summoning Magic, the armored warriors shrieked with volume that shook the earth.<br /> <br /> “…Are these guys holding a grudge against Stigmata!?”<br /> <br /> The yelling armored warriors raised their large war sword overhead at the right side of their face like Jigen-style’s &lt;Stance of Dragonfly&gt; and approached Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. It was a stance that made it easier to immediately swing down the sword that betted everything in a single stroke.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors that entered battle preparation accelerated with light emitted from all over their body. That rush―was a speed outside of human realm. It surpassed the limit of normal swordsman.<br /> <br /> That monkey ninja was like that too, but it was as if their physical ability was using reinforcement magic. ''It made them suspicious of a connection with Diva here. ''<br /> <br /> Kazuki and also Kazuha-senpai were without their katana, they were completely unarmed.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, watch out!” Kazuki came out to the front to cover for Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> The first armored warrior that came approaching with unstoppable downward slash was quickly dodged by Kazuki. The downward slash of the second armored warrior that came almost at the same time with the first couldn’t be evaded this time, he caught the blade between both his hands.<br /> <br /> Catching the naked blade of a real sword―if it was with the reinforcement of [Berserk] to his reflexes and physical strength, such technique was possible.<br /> <br /> However inside Kazuki’s palms, the long sword that was pinned between them was forcing its way through *gugugu* and approaching near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, double the Megin that whirl inside my body! The purpose of god that spur me to the infinite battle, to this body! …Meginjord!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki further chanted the level 2 reinforcement magic of the Norse Mythology’s &lt;Thor&gt;.<br /> <br /> The Summoning Magic of this Diva called Thor…for its level 1 and level 2 to be both reinforcement magic was a terrifyingly extreme configuration, but…in regards for swordsman this Diva had a very much great user-friendliness.<br /> <br /> A belt of light descended down from the sky and coiled itself around Kazuki’s body. That belt of light amplified the muscle volume of Kazuki’s whole body. With his amplified power, Kazuki stole the long sword that he pinned down between his palms.<br /> <br /> Fixing his grip of the stolen sword, he slashed back to the armored warrior in reverse.<br /> <br /> The armored warrior was blown away by the backlash of its defensive magic power, *DOSUN!* it fell down with a heavy sound.<br /> <br /> It was thick―Kazuki secretly shivered. That defensive magic power had more than five times the thickness of a normal person.<br /> <br /> “STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The third and fourth armored warriors that possessed extraordinary power and toughness approached Kazuki even nearer. The downswing that they launched was more like a berserker rather than a swordsman.<br /> <br /> “O wind of Tatara, summon the scorching heat of steel to my forging! Take the hammer of well-tempered in hand to here, pound away the soul’s disgrace!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that was covered by Kazuki finished the chanting of her spell at the back.<br /> <br /> “…{{furigana|Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi|Wind Hammer of Heaven Plume Fire Make}}!”<br /> <br /> While getting the shine of her magic power worked up, Kazuha-senpai thrust her right hand forward.<br /> <br /> From that hand, *DON!!* as if an invisible cannon was fired, a number of the approaching armored warriors were blown away altogether. At the same time the armored warriors were enveloped with flame explosion.<br /> <br /> A composite attack of shockwave and flame that was produced from the palm. It was Futsunushi no Kami’s level 4 magic.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, thank you very much! …Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> From the gap that was created from the blown away armored warriors, a ninja with bow and arrow set up leaped out and came approaching. Kazuki vigilantly sensed it an instant earlier and launched a flame bullet.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors that were blown away by Kazuha-senpai stood up and took the stance that looked like a dragonfly once more.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, I’m coming out to the front so please cover me from the rear!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out while he took a stance with the stolen long sword vigilantly.<br /> <br /> “Covering from the back you say? …That’s wrong Hayashizaki, I am a magic swordsman just like you!! …I became the shrine maiden of sword. Rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand!! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic. Flame burst out from Kazuha-senpai’s own palm and created a divine sword that possessed the power to tear apart magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was surprised inside his heart―after she chanted the level 4 magic before, the time she took to finish chanting this level 3 magic was frightfully fast. It was a chanting speed that approached Koyuki.<br /> <br /> And then Kazuha-senpai overtook Kazuki and slashed at the armored warrior’s direction.<br /> <br /> The people that once knew Kazuha-senpai would laugh at that action as foolhardiness, but if it was the current senpai then it was not foolhardiness. Kazuha-senpai first cut down one enemy, next she dodged the downswing coming from the side with paper-thin difference and slashed the second enemy in a counterattack, and then she leaped back quickly to dodge the third enemy’s downswing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki doubted his eyes looking at her light and easy body movement that didn’t back down for even a step facing enemies with numerical superiority.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who splendidly conducted herself in this narrow street was constantly moving an instant faster than the enemy.<br /> <br /> It was not as precise as Kazuki or Kanae, but ''she was sensing the opponent’s magic power and making Foresight of their movement''.<br /> <br /> Not only her chanting ability, her sword skill had also make a terrific improvement.<br /> <br /> Once she had self-confidence planted inside here, she was someone that could splendidly achieve a fast growth like this.<br /> <br /> …He was having the wrong impression. Kazuha-senpai was not something like an object of protection.<br /> <br /> She was a partner that fought with him shoulder-to-shoulder.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, then please I’ll leave the right side to you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki dashed to the left next to Kazuha-senpai and assaulted the armored warrior with his sword.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, leave it to me!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai *don* bumped her left shoulder to Kazuki’s right shoulder and smiled reliably.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> …She didn’t make any conduct that held him back like when they were on the sea. Absolutely none at all.<br /> <br /> After Kazuha bumped her shoulder and felt her {{furigana|partner|Kazuki}}’s existence, she leaped into the crowd of the armored warriors. Naked blade flashed many times over, but she slipped away through all of it and return slashing when she passed them through.<br /> <br /> If it’s Hayashizaki then he will surely fight like this―while she gripped her sword, such imagination was naturally floating in her mind all the time. Kazuha was always desperately attempting to Trace that movement inside her mind.<br /> <br /> This thought that she felt was surely a yearning without doubt.<br /> <br /> That was why her own swordsmanship came to resemble Hayashizaki’s closely day by day.<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki-style’s Foresight―its fundamental truth was a perception from thoroughly doing intensification of Extra Sense.<br /> <br /> For those Hayashizaki siblings to acquire perception power until that level, surely they ought to have spent long months and years honing their body. But she was above those two in magic talent, there was no reason that she couldn’t do the same thing like those two.<br /> <br /> Perceive―the opponent’s every single move. Those preliminary signs from their breath, muscle tension, and then their state of mind.<br /> <br /> Moving like this, moving like this, coming like that.<br /> <br /> Kazuha moved with her red and white Magic Dress fluttering around, she evaded the enemy’s attacks as if dancing a Kagura&lt;ref&gt;Ancient Shinto music and dancing&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> And then strike back at the opening in their important point. Realize that image into reality just like that, a definitive response.<br /> <br /> ―But, for making a crowd this large as her opponent, Kazuha’s Foresight was still incomplete.<br /> <br /> An arrow was flying from outside her image.<br /> <br /> Kazuha suddenly realized. That monkey-like ninja’s, bow and arrow…!<br /> <br /> The instant she resolved herself to get hit, a hand reached out in front of Kazuha’s eyes suddenly, warding off the approaching arrow.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Then next a flame bullet was fired from that palm. It was not because of fast chanting, but a smooth action that was as if it had seen through everything. The way of fighting of the man that held the alias of Cyclops.<br /> <br /> The ninja’s body was struck once more by the flame bullet and it was blown away to the other side of the armored warriors crowd.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Hayashizaki!” Words of gratitude naturally flowed out from her mouth.<br /> <br /> While that guy was facing off against innumerable armored warriors, he was simultaneously paying attention to this side too.<br /> <br /> …He is really kind when he is fighting. A fight, more than anything else, was the place that made her feel his kindness for real. The time of fighting was also the only place where she could become honest with regards to him.<br /> <br /> That’s why match the breathing with each other―and help each other.<br /> <br /> “Scattering the flower of night craft o the tempering of artisan, reach the weave of the sky with the tip of your sword! The role of sword is for the sake of victory…Under my command, become thunder cloud and pour down! Tenkū Battou Renge Hou!”<br /> <br /> While fighting, Kazuha invoked her magic at the same time.<br /> <br /> Flames burst out in Kazuha’s surrounding. That flame of transmutation made countless Sacred Treasures emerge in Kazuha’s surroundings. Swords with various shapes from all ages and countries―with Kazuha’s magic power manipulation all of those could be fired to every direction and angle like missiles.<br /> <br /> “…GO-!” Together with the command, the countless swords rained incessantly on the armored warriors.<br /> <br /> At the same time those Sacred Treasures pierced the enemies, flame and ice, lighting and the like, each of the swords exhibited various different power of elements. Kazuha also directed those attacks at Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much, senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s chest leaped when she heard those returning words of gratitude.<br /> <br /> This feeling of unity in this cooperation battle made her head feel pure white inside with intoxication.<br /> <br /> Just as I thought, I like fighting with him.<br /> <br /> No…perhaps I, like him already….<br /> <br /> It seemed Hayashizaki could perceive the change in positivity level. By some chance even in the middle of this battle right now, perhaps this change that happened inside her had been conveyed to him already.<br /> <br /> Normally that was an extremely embarrassing matter but…right now she was happy that her feeling was conveyed. She wanted him to know more about this feeling that she could be honest about in the middle of this battle, that was what she completely felt from herself.<br /> <br /> What in the world are you thinking when you are being surrounded by all these grim armored warriors, me.<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s whole body was spontaneously filled with strength from embarrassment. She directed that shame to the armored warriors and let fly a slash with all her strength to vent out her feeling.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Kazuki too felt his heart become excited from this battle where they formed a duo.<br /> <br /> But that feeling was sinking gloomily little by little. He became fed up before long.<br /> <br /> Of course it was not because he held any dissatisfaction between the two of them. The problem was&amp;mdash;the enemy.<br /> <br /> He cut and cut and felt the thick defensive magic power where the enemy kept standing back up, this crowd of armored warrior. While he kept cutting down the armored warriors no matter how many time, “This is bad” he couldn’t clear away such anxiety inside him.<br /> <br /> There was still some allowance in his stamina and magic power. However even now the armored warriors that were scattered all over the Haunted Ground ought to be converging in their location here following the mark of the cloud string that was hanging down from the sky.<br /> <br /> The situation had become something he couldn’t laugh about. …What’s going on with this enemy’s toughness?<br /> <br /> In the first place, what in the world are these enemies? Were they human or Demon Beast, he couldn’t even make that distinction.<br /> <br /> “STIGMATAAAAAAA!!” The armored warriors raised a shriek filled with resentment and came assaulting.<br /> <br /> Their number and toughness became a dreadful pressure, they kept surging forward.<br /> <br /> At that time in spite of the dome of cloud that isolated the Haunted Ground, above Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s head something was traversing fast―it was a single crow, perching on top of the electricity pole at the side of the street.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu―a polished bright copper disk was caught between its beaks.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu raised a high-pitched voice from the edge of its beak. That was a spell.<br /> <br /> “…O exalted light illuminating the seven seas and all nations! Gather in my lord’s idol, emit the light that purify the impurity…Yata no Kagami&lt;ref&gt;Yata no Kagami (the eight-span mirror; one of the Imperial Regalia)&lt;/ref&gt;・{{furigana|Youka Issen|Sun Flower Flash}}!”<br /> <br /> The disk appended in the beak&amp;mdash;the &lt;bronze mirror&gt; released a powerful light.<br /> <br /> He reflexively closed his eyelids, but even so it was light so abundant it felt like his retina was burned with whiteness.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who had their eyes closed were supposed to become defenseless, but there was no attack coming at all during that interval.<br /> <br /> When they opened their eyes, there were a lot of young people in casual clothes collapsed unconsciously in front of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s eyes.<br /> <br /> There were no armored warriors&amp;mdash;no, he couldn’t think of any explanation other than that the light that Yatagarasu emitted made the armored warriors become like this. The fainted young people had fallen into symptoms that looked like magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around his surrounding and what he saw made his eyes open even wider. The surrounding area was recovering back from a Haunted Ground into a normal street corner. The original scenery of Ise city’s street was returning there.<br /> <br /> “The light just now is…offensive magic? It shaved off that thick defensive magic power with one attack? All that number of enemies!?”<br /> <br /> “…No, that magic just now is purge magic. It has a power that can purify even stronger evil than what Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic [Futsu no Mitama] can do. It’s the only power I in this form can use.”<br /> <br /> The bronze mirror that was held between the beaks had also vanished. Most likely it was a Sacred Treasure created from magic power.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu pointed at the fainted young people with its beak.<br /> <br /> “These young people had Wild Gods reside in their body and they acted violently because of that magic power. But because the light from before got rid of [the connections with the Wild Gods] that were embed within their mind, they are now returned to their original human appearance.”<br /> <br /> The contents of the armored warriors&amp;mdash;everyone of the fainted young people were between their teens until twenties. Many were female but a few male were mixed. They were people of the generation that were most strong in magic power.<br /> <br /> “…So we were saved by you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stared at Yatagarasu while still maintaining his vigilance. Even while being vigilant―he had to obtain information regarding this mysterious situation from this guy.<br /> <br /> All the armored warriors in this Haunted Ground weren’t supposed to be completely annihilated just with this, but the surrounding was strangely filled with silence.<br /> <br /> “Even if you said that I saved you two, these people could return to their original appearance only because the both of you had inflicted damage to them. As long as their defensive magic power was still considerably thick, even that light won’t be able to reach until the depth of the curse. To defeat them efficiently, there is a need for us to cooperate.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu lightly flapped its wings and perched on top of Kazuki’s shoulder. It was an action that was appealing to him that they were comrades.<br /> <br /> “…Were these people transformed into Demon Beast?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked while looking around his surrounding. The scenery where the buildings looked abandoned with the loss of its color and its weathered condition had returned into a really normal street of stores and houses. However it only applied to Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s surrounding, the far away―the direction of the Haunted Ground’s center was still looking like an extensive Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> The Haunted Ground could only return to the condition of natural world when the Demon Beasts that resided inside it had been subjugated.<br /> <br /> Such phenomenon that was similar with that Haunted Ground recovery had happened here when they defeated these armored warriors.<br /> <br /> “No, these guys are something falsely similar with Demon Beast. They are―&lt;God’s reliant&gt;. Hosting the power of unruly god inside their body and yet they failed on controlling that power, ''a failure of a shrine maiden''.”<br /> <br /> “Failure? Don’t tell me…Yamato’s government is creating shrine maidens with human experiment?”<br /> <br /> An imagination that made a dread ran through him emerged to the forefront inside Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> ―Naiarlatoteph. A hateful name came to mind.<br /> <br /> “When the government of Yamato instigated the Divas of Japanese Mythology that went wild to be added as their allies, they gathered humans that excelled in magic power and make them bind a contract with the Wild Gods. It is impossible to communicate with those Wild Gods that had lost their reasoning, so what all of them got was {{furigana|Drive|Possession Contract}}.”<br /> <br /> In the middle of the explanation, Kazuki took a glance at Kazuha-senpai. Even though she was a similar Shrine Maiden, Kazuha-senpai didn’t experience Drive for the sake of binding a contract and borrowed the power of Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> Possession contract with an unknown Diva was a dangerous act forbidden by Japan’s law.<br /> <br /> “The government of Yamato conducted [a group possession contract assembly by human initiative] so to speak. People who did well can control the power of the Wild God that possessed them to a certain degree and become a &lt;Drive Shrine Maiden&gt;. The humans that failed lost their reasoning and became God’s reliant. ―In other words the failure.”<br /> <br /> “What a thing to do…”<br /> <br /> So the Yamato’s government produced their battle strength in a short time like that.<br /> <br /> Even in the success case just being in a possession contract was dangerous already, if failed―they would became like this armored warrior.<br /> <br /> “That was an unreasonable way of doing things. The Wild God side doesn’t even choose the human and the human is forced into doing something unreasonable. Moreover to push something like a Wild God inside the heart…they were going to be completely ruined.”<br /> <br /> A Diva with ill will would try to take over the human’s flesh body by means of Drive.<br /> <br /> Then what would happen if a Diva who had lost their senses and ran wild was made to reside in human’s flesh body.<br /> <br /> Even if the Diva didn’t do any body stealing, wouldn’t the human got abused like toy by that overwhelming power? So that was the meaning to be a God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> “If you look around you it’s just as you understand, God’s reliant emit the same type of miasma like a Demon Beast and transform the surrounding into a Haunted Ground. Wild God belong under the same category with Demon Beast―an &lt;absolute enemy of the human race&gt;.”<br /> <br /> An absolute enemy of the human race―it was still in the middle of being researched, but for Demon Beast, other than [attacking human] and [expanding the Haunted Ground in the place where human live], it was said that they didn’t show any other instinctual action at all.<br /> <br /> It seemed that there was never any confirmed sight of Demon Beast eating or sleeping.<br /> <br /> The expression of an absolute enemy of the human race was something he could surely agree with. But―<br /> <br /> “Is it fine to jumble the existence of Wild God and Demon Beast together? They are raging and rampaging around but, though imperfect they are still gods right?”<br /> <br /> “Different with many other Mythologies, demarcation of &lt;Good God・Evil God&gt; or existence called &lt;Demon&gt; doesn’t exist in Japanese Mythologies. [Enemy] in Japanese Mythology is none other than the disaster caused by the god that acted unruly. Japanese Mythology doesn’t worship the dual nature of good and evil, but the two face of nature’s blessing and calamity.”<br /> <br /> Wild God was not evil. However once angered, they would bare their fangs as the human race’s greatest enemy.<br /> <br /> Violent natural phenomenon destroyed the world of human and encroached.<br /> <br /> “…Among the people of Yamato’s government, there is the existence of someone that can skillfully manipulate being that can possibly be good or evil don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> Loki―the trickster of the Norse Mythology.<br /> <br /> “Yamato government made Ise Imperial Shrine as the place for the ceremony that create Shrine Maiden. It seems they possess the know-how of a method that is interlaced with science to make a human host a Diva.”<br /> <br /> Naiarlatoteph―the data from the experiment that that guy made Headmaster Otonashi do. The politicians of Yamato might make use of that. All of it was something possible if it was them.<br /> <br /> “They carried out the ceremony to produce Shrine Maiden here many times over, those who failed and became uncontrollable God’s reliant were abandoned and left behind. Like that the Ise Imperial Shrine was completely transformed into a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu sadly hung its head down.<br /> <br /> “…I now understood how Ise Imperial Shrine became a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> For the sake of obtaining battle strength called Shrine Maiden, these young people became the compensation. To watch out for the arrival of Kazuki and the others at Ise Imperial Shrine, for defense against that happening…these armored warriors were not for that purpose.<br /> <br /> He felt relieved that this infiltration operation was not detected right from the start but…just that was not sufficient to explain the present situation.<br /> <br /> “Then what is the objective of you and Futsunushi no Kami?”<br /> <br /> This guy was probably being connected with Futsunushi no Kami. If not for Futsunushi no Kami’s notification about Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s visit, then there was no way Yatagarasu could show its appearance with timing this good.<br /> <br /> However he knew well that it wasn’t an enemy.<br /> <br /> “You all called us out here, what do you want us to do? Can we properly achieve the objective of our coming here by doing the thing you want from us? Just so you know, we have no intention of only being used.”<br /> <br /> In response to Kazuki’s question, Futsunushi no Kami’s avatar appeared beside Yatagarasu.<br /> <br /> {…We want you to rescue Amaterasu.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami said such thing.<br /> <br /> “If Amaterasu recovers her power and gives birth to Japanese Mythology’s &lt;True {{furigana|King|Basileus}}&gt;, all the Diva will surely return to their senses from their Wild God state and obey the true King altogether. For that sake…I want the other chief god Susanoo to be defeated.}<br /> <br /> “I never heard about this two chief god in Japanese Mythology before.”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami had explained that [all the Wild God will return to their sanity if the chief god of Japanese Mythology is defeated] and led Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai to this land. Indeed, certainly there was no lie that was said there.<br /> <br /> Just that for such complex circumstance to lie around in between was rushing off everything.<br /> <br /> Kazuki exposed a dissatisfaction in his expression and pressed his question to Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> “Give us a proper explanation now. About all this circumstance of Japanese Mythology.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is a mythology that is made up of two powers of Yin and Yang.”<br /> <br /> Like that, Yatagarasu got the ball rolling for the explanation.<br /> <br /> “Therefore there are also two chief gods. The one that symbolized the Yang is Amaterasu, the one that symbolized the Yin is Susanoo. Once, Japan was divided into two of Amaterasu’s Wakoku and Susanoo’s Izumo. These two chief gods raised their own respective king as their mouthpiece and got embroiled in a destiny of conflict. Amaterasu and Susanoo, &lt;Wakoku King&gt; and &lt;Izumo King&gt;, the victor will become the true chief god and king of Japan. [Unification in the conflict’s afterwards], that is what have been established in the mythology.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu gave such explanation about the Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> “So you are going to get me involved in the confrontation between Amaterasu and Susanoo. …And then that Susanoo, right now he is forming an alliance with Yamato government, so that’s the situation.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki confirmed, Yatagarasu gave a brief nod.<br /> <br /> {What caused this situation was Susanoo. Susanoo joined hands with Yamato government and made the other Japanese Divas become Wild God from the instigation of shrine’s defilement.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami made a grimacing expression.<br /> <br /> The wiles of Yamato government to make the Divas of Japanese Mythology into Wild God and manipulate them was with the cooperation of Susanoo.<br /> <br /> “Why did Susanoo ally himself with Yamato?”<br /> <br /> “Susanoo was thinking that [Japanese Mythology is weak, therefore I have to borrow other Mythology’s power], that’s how it seems. There he was approached by Loki.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki opened his eyes wide in shock.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is weak?”<br /> <br /> {Right, I wonder if it can even be categorized as puny class.} Saying that, Futsunushi no Kami nodded.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology doesn’t really demand strong faith from the people of Japan. Even their will of opposition against other Mythology is sparse. As long as they have companion for festival and making ruckus and playing around with, then everything is fine. Their [will for power] are weak.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively looked at Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was a Shrine Maiden that made a contract with Futsunushi no Kami, but the relationship between the two was exactly like a friend.<br /> <br /> “We are like that but in the present time where [the era of Mythology has been revived], if we keep like this then [other Mythology will swallow us], Susanoo is harboring a sense of impending crisis like that. Right now he is buttering up Loki, but most likely he is planning to catch Loki off guard slyly in the end.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki frowned his eyebrows hearing Yatagarasu words. Planning to catch Loki off guard?<br /> <br /> Exactly because it was Loki, he was a Diva that could easily catch Susanoo off guard instead while joining hands with him.<br /> <br /> Susanoo and Loki…on the surface they were joining hands together, but their relation was one where both of them kept looking for an opening in each other’s guard.<br /> <br /> “The Diva that reign as the chief god of the Mythology not only bestow their characteristic magic to their contractor, but a power that should be called [King’s Authority] is also granted together with being recognized as a King. You too should have something like that.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said. Kazuki stared at the Stigmata on his own left hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was able to use Lemegeton’s characteristic magic, &lt;{{furigana|Goetia|72 Solomon=Pillar Omnimagic}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> The more he deepened his bond, the greater his power of bond became.<br /> <br /> Apart from that, there was also the power to visualize the change of girls’ positivity level and their location. This was what called as [King’s Authority].<br /> <br /> It seemed there was still room for this power to strengthen even more together with Leme’s growth.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu and Susanoo, the Wakoku King and the Izumo King, they won’t be able to obtain their true power if they haven’t achieve victory over the opposing camp and become the true chief god and King. If the situation stays like this then the [King’s Authority] of the Japanese Mythology is impossible to use. Susanoo’s camp is being rash in their desire to defeat Amaterasu’s camp quickly. But Amaterasu has zero motivation for that. She didn’t enthrone her contractor as the King of Wakoku in the least and just kept playing with her contractor. Binding contract and recognizing someone as King are two separate matter.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was having a contract with Leme, but he still hadn’t been fully recognized as Solomon King yet.<br /> <br /> This was the same thing with that.<br /> <br /> “Why didn’t Amaterasu make her contractor to be King? That’s because she understood that the instant the King of Wakoku is born, the fight with Susanoo’s camp will begin. Amaterasu dislikes conflict. Her contractor too is also not someone suited for fighting. However [Even though Japanese Mythology is weak even in the best of time, also being unable to use the true power like this is intolerable], like that the Susanoo’s camp was getting even more irked.”<br /> <br /> Despite the preordained destiny of opposition between the two, but it seemed there was a difference in the degree of enthusiasm in each of them.<br /> <br /> “The angry Susanoo defeated the contractor of Amaterasu that still hadn’t become the Wakoku King yet prematurely. Furthermore he also recommended at the Yamato government to leave the God’s reliant that were created from the failed ceremony of possessed Shrine Maiden unregulated just like that in the Ise Imperial Shrine, and made the Ise Imperial Shrine into a Haunted Ground. Amaterasu obtained her power from both her contractor and Ise Imperial Shrine, that’s how she is preserving her divinity. But losing both of them simultaneously, her power weakened and she was sealed completely inside the &lt;Gate of Celestial Rock Cave&gt;. There is a danger of extinction for her if it keeps like this. Even the happy-go-lucky Amaterasu thought [Just as expected it’s going to be bad if it keep like this] and she sent a messenger to the other side of the seal―that messenger is this me, Yatagarasu.”<br /> <br /> {Yatagarasu has the privilege to come and goes as it pleases from the &lt;Territory&gt; of Japanese Mythology’s Divas. And then he made a contact with Diva that hasn’t become a Wild God that is me.}<br /> <br /> How Futsunushi no Kami didn’t become a Wild God…was surely thanks to his Shrine Maiden that was Kazuha-senpai who secretly moved Futsunushi no Kami’s altar to an abandoned club room in the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, I heard about you from Futsunushi no Kami. I want to ask you for a favor to rescue Amaterasu. To defeat Susanoo and become the person that control the Japanese Mythology, that is the favor that I want to ask. If it’s you, then you can defeat the Izumo King that Susanoo raised right?”<br /> <br /> “WAITT――――TT! JUST WAITT――――TT!!”<br /> <br /> At that time together with a shout, Leme materialized beside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Since this operation began, there was someone that maintained silence and acted like this matter about Japanese Mythology was of no concern for her. That was Leme.<br /> <br /> “Wait right there, Leme just stayed quiet and listened but Kazuki has already contracted with Leme just so you know! Is Japanese Mythology intending to snatch Kazuki from Leme!?”<br /> <br /> {I too understand about that. We are not planning to do that so it’s fine to feel relieved.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami said so in order to sooth Leme.<br /> <br /> “Just like what I said before, Amaterasu too already has her own contractor. What we want is to enthrone that ''girl'' as Wakoku King formally, on top of that we want to present her to the King of Solomon.”<br /> <br /> “Mu…oh hoh? Present you say?” Leme’s expression changed and her eyes brightened.<br /> <br /> “The King of Japanese Mythology will be affiliated to Hayashizaki Kazuki as &lt;Subordinate King&gt;, the Solomon King that is you will be accompanied by our King, becoming an existence of higher rank than even the King―we want to ask you to become the &lt;Emperor&gt;. In exchange for that we ask all of you to become our substitute in fighting Susanoo and Loki.”<br /> <br /> “I see! So you are going to present the Queen of Japanese Mythology into the harem! If it’s like that then certainly, it’s feasible for Kazuki to rule both Solomon Mythology and Japanese Mythology! The Emperor that rule even the other Mythology by means of harem&lt;ref&gt;Maybe I should capitalize the ‘h’ in harem here&lt;/ref&gt;…Solomon Emperor! That’s really not bad!!”<br /> <br /> {Guwahhahha! If that is realized then it will become Solomon Myriad 72 Pillar!}<br /> <br /> Leme was really gleeful and accepted the other side’s proposal. Futsunushi no Kami too got carried away with the mood and guffawed&amp;mdash;Kazuki interjected into the conversation in panic.<br /> <br /> “Hey wait, even if you say that you will present me with an unknown girl I’ve never seen before, it will just make me troubled!”<br /> <br /> “For the time being if you just meet her first it will be okay after that right, o my King. Most of all to make this infiltration operation succeed, it doesn’t look like there is any other way than this anyway.”<br /> <br /> Leme who had been completely won over to the other side before he could even say ‘ah’ said such to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Certainly, there was a truth in that but….<br /> <br /> It was a long explanation but, the main point was they wanted him to substitute for Amaterasu and fight Susanoo. If he defeated Susanoo and the true King of Japanese Mythology was born, the Japanese Divas that became Wild God would return to their senses and could be subdued. The objective of this side too could be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> {Guwahhahha! You can reach the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave&lt;ref&gt;Ama no Iwato in Japan, I keep wondering whether I should just use this original name because it’s shorter. How troublesome.&lt;/ref&gt; where Amaterasu is sealed through the deepest part of Ise Imperial Shrine! For that sake defeat the pitiful children that had transformed completely into God’s reliant and rescue them!!}<br /> <br /> Pitiful children…if they defeated those God’s reliant with Yatagarasu’s cooperation, they could return to their original human appearance. They have to make this operation a success, for that they also couldn’t leave these God’s reliant alone.<br /> <br /> “Well then, we are going to meet with Amaterasu…what do we need to do to release Amaterasu from the seal? What kind of seal is the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki questioned. The guffawing Futsunushi no Kami suddenly had his expression become serious.<br /> <br /> {That’s…for later. You will understand if you go to the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave.}<br /> <br /> …''So he was still planning to give incomplete information''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed his doubtful eyes to Futsunushi no Kami. When he was going to say ‘cut it out’ to him, suddenly his hand was gripped tightly from the side. It was Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki, that…don’t get angry about Futsunushi no Kami. Rather than that let’s rescue these people inside the God’s reliant okay.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai directed her sorrowful eyes to the people that were losing their consciousness. Even before feeling any distrust to Futsunushi no Kami, it seemed Kazuha-senpai thought about the people that became God’s reliant even more strongly.<br /> <br /> “…In the ceremony of possessed Shrine Maiden, I think these people surely became candidates by their own choice. Perhaps these people were originally a Knight. And they were resenting the humans that were chosen by Stigmata. That was why they themselves wanted to become stronger…”<br /> <br /> In the middle of battle, these God’s reliant were raising screams of hatred [STIGMATA!] many times over.<br /> <br /> Perhaps from envy and yearning toward Stigmata, and with feeling of [we too want to become even stronger], these guys were spurred into an extreme action like this. …Kazuki too felt heavy in his chest looking at them.<br /> <br /> “Something like that, really feels sad for some reason…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai hung her head down despondently.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai selected the katana that were in good condition from the hips of the fainted people and borrowed them, attaching those on their hips.<br /> <br /> A lot of time had passed while they were grilling Yatagarasu and Futsunushi no Kami, but there was no attack from the armored warriors that were supposed to still remain in this Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were still tied with the cloud strings from the sky as yet, those strings were a marking of their position.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless for there was no further attack…,<br /> <br /> “Most likely the Izumo King that is commanding them had already detected my existence.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said that.<br /> <br /> “Knowing that we cannot be defeated with only force, right now they are preparing an ambush in a location where they can use their number advantage with more reliability, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki also thought that Yatagarasu’s conjecture was correct.<br /> <br /> “That [Kumoito Shibari] is Susanoo’s magic that possesses equal power with Amaterasu. With the power of the currently weakened Amaterasu, it cannot be purged even if we use the [Yata no Kagami] from before. As long as that thread becomes the mark, it’s surely impossible to advance while evading ambush.”<br /> <br /> “Our side has also decided to rescue the people that became the God’s reliant anyway. We have no intention to advance while avoiding them. On the contrary if they are fortifying in one place it will become easier.”<br /> <br /> Before when they were prioritizing the original strategy, they couldn’t help but leave the Haunted Ground alone, but the situation had changed.<br /> <br /> “Well then Senpai, let’s be off! …Senpai?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who only had few words from some time before was…having her attention completely stolen by one of the souvenir shop building.<br /> <br /> With some of the God’s reliant defeated, the original appearance of the Ise town appeared in front of their eyes. With how close they were with Ise Imperial Shrine, souvenir shops intended for tourist were lining up, but…,<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki, this akafuku&lt;ref&gt;A type of mocha colored red&lt;/ref&gt;, I wonder if it’s edible.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was directing her eyes filled with greed on the packages that were piled up in heaps on the most conspicuous shelve inside the souvenir shop. The famous product of Ise, [Akafuku Mochi]. Of course the inside of the store right now was in a defenseless and unmanned state.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, stealing is no good. Moreover after the store became a Haunted Ground and then returned back to normal, it is unknown what happened with the flow of time during that period. It might have gone bad already. Besides the time is precious, let’s go.”<br /> <br /> When he pulled Kazuha-senpai’s hand forcefully, senpai went “Aa~, Hayashizaki~” and raised a quacking voice that sounded like a whine.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When they advanced through the street of Ise town, their surrounding soon changed into the eerie Haunted Ground again. When he compared the area with the map he had seen, it appears that the size of the Haunted Ground had been reduced until around half the previous size. In other words, they had defeated half the number of the God’s reliant in the previous battle.<br /> <br /> The remaining half was waiting for them ahead….<br /> <br /> They finally arrived in a similar condition with when they first came here. The asphalt road was muddy and wet, the surrounding buildings were weathered, and the sky lost its color. Trees became a lot more than the buildings in this area. On the rotting trunks and branches that looked like those were going to fall, rust-colored leaves were hanging down.<br /> <br /> They advanced even further. There was still no ambush or attack from the God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> A large shrine archway standing in the path forward entered their eyes.<br /> <br /> &lt;Shinmei Archway&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Shinmei Toori, also means the archway of Amaterasu&lt;/ref&gt;―it was an archway with an extremely ancient shape before it even received the influence of Buddhist’s ornament culture.<br /> <br /> However now that it was currently under the influence of the Haunted Ground, its color was transformed into an ominous jet black color.<br /> <br /> They had arrived at Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Ahead of the archway was the Isuzu River and the bridge that crossed that river―&lt;Uji Bridge&gt; was built there.<br /> <br /> The length of the bridge was 100 meters, its width was just a little around 8 meter.<br /> <br /> …They are coming here. Kazuki felt that hunch.<br /> <br /> Here was an open surrounding that was just right for a large group assault. Even on the bridge it had enough width to make the best use of number advantage.<br /> <br /> As was expected, the instant he stepped his foot on the bridge―war cry was raised from the dark forest ahead of the bridge and a crowd of armored warriors was approaching.<br /> <br /> At the same time, armored warriors that went around and cut in also came along from behind.<br /> <br /> On top of the Uji Bridge, it became a pincer attack.<br /> <br /> “I leave the back to you, Hayashizaki!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai immediately stood back-to-back with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu flew up to the sky from Kazuki’s shoulder in order to escape.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors surged ahead with the force of surging waves while taking the stance of the Dragonfly, making the bridge creak worryingly. The bridge was filled with troops that surrounded Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai in the blink of an eye. They slashed away while making opponent of enemies that came from every directions.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DON!* Shockwave and flame explosion. Kazuha-senpai blew away the enemies altogether with magic. …Defeat the enemy only using sword skill to preserve their magic power…such thinking was unreasonable.<br /> <br /> “The light of heaven reside in that body o bird of paradise, comply with my accusation and reduce to ashes the sin above the earth! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Phoenix’s avatar emerged at Kazuki’s back and emitted brightness as if every light in the world were gathered. That light dazzled the eyes, stopping the attack of the armored warriors for a moment. At that interval Kazuki set his aim at an angle that would swallow the most number of enemies, the vast light was changed into a thick laser and fired. The armored warriors in a straight line fell down altogether.<br /> <br /> “”””STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!””””<br /> <br /> Angry voices that were like earthquake welled up from the armored warriors.<br /> <br /> “Wawa! Just as I thought these guys really get angry when Summoning Magic is used. Their fierceness is growing rapidly!”<br /> <br /> “Let’s settle the bout quickly!”<br /> <br /> “Got it! …Tenkū Battou Renge Hou!!”<br /> <br /> The countless Sacred Treasures that Kazuha-senpai created flew about freely above the battlefield on top of the bridge. The Sacred Treasures that possessed various elements released flame or lightning, even cold here and there from each of them.<br /> <br /> “Please take care not to break the bridge okay!” Kazuki raised his voice.<br /> <br /> “…So that Yata no Kagami can finish off as many armored warriors as possible, please inflict damage to all the enemies evenly!”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said an unreasonable challenge from the sky. …Does it think anyone can do such miraculous thing!?<br /> <br /> “This is not for the sake of preserving my magic power! The youth that is transformed back by Yata no Kagami will faint in magic intoxication, they are going to get trampled by the armored warriors that flood in next!! If that happen they are going to die for real!!”<br /> <br /> “Kuh…that certainly can happen!”<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuki complained, he couldn’t help but consent to Yatagarasu’s request.<br /> <br /> The curtain of a long offense and defense on top of the bridge was opened.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> After blowing away an armored warrior flying far away from the inflicted damage, the new created empty space right there was quickly occupied with a different armored warrior. If the newly arrived armored warrior was a fresh one then it would be assaulted just like that, but if it was one that had been damaged then it would be quickly driven off by sending it flying far away…. The armored warriors that had lost their own will was also quite mechanical in some aspect, the offense and defense completely turned into something like a puzzle game.<br /> <br /> After a long repetition―Yatagarasu used the completed [Yata no Kagami], where after that the youths of Yamato fainted on top of the Uji bridge in a closely packed formation.<br /> <br /> The surrounding scenery returned back to the original Ise Imperial Shrine. The Isuzu river shone from the sunlight, the Uji bridge that was built on top of it recovered its beautiful wooden texture. A forest where trees that looked mystical grew in abundance spread out ahead of the bridge, and a road that pushed its way through that forest was extending forward.<br /> <br /> Heaps of corpses scattered all around on top of the bridge…such image emerged to the surface of the mind, but nobody was dead because the youths only fainted from magic intoxication. There was no strong burden weighing their minds but they only fainted from the state where their connection with the Wild Gods that was like a curse disappeared. It was surely not a dangerous magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai breathe a sigh of relief. Surely the state inside her head had became more full with the thought of rescuing the people that were turned into God’s reliant rather than the infiltration operation itself.<br /> <br /> God’s reliant―they held envy and hatred toward Stigmata, because of that they offered themselves to a dangerous ceremony and in the end were completely transformed into an existence that was called as a failure.<br /> <br /> Before this, their outcry hurt Kazuha-senpai’s heart. Kazuki had the feeling that he understood the reason why.<br /> <br /> For a long time until now, Kazuha-senpai was looked down by the swordsmen and made fun of.<br /> <br /> For envy and hatred to be directed at her as a possessor of Stigmata surely made her have a complicated feeling.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too was once an existence that was looked down in the Magic Division and came this far by relying upon his pride in his sword skill. That was why his mental state felt complicated to have such emotion directed at him by many swordsmen.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, we were gifted the power of Stigmata and became far stronger than we were just a swordsman, but that’s why it doesn’t mean that we have seen the limit of the strength as a swordsman, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Standing stock still unintentionally on top of the bridge, Kazuki called out to Kazuha-senpai from the side planning to cheer her up.<br /> <br /> “…Kohaku is attempting to become a swordsman that won’t lose to Magika Stigma by making a practical use of Sacred Treasure. Kanae too, recently she is trying to discover a new possibility of new technique by putting general magic to practical use even further.”<br /> <br /> What kind of phenomenon magic power could give birth to was the product of image. Right now there were some aspects from the old sword skill outlook that still restrained both Kazuki and Kanae, but there was a large room of possibility for creating sword skill that had never even been imagined until now by means of new creative originality.<br /> <br /> “Even the whole body of the Magic Division now is stopping their high and mighty attitude just because they are possessing Stigmata. They are also starting to listen to opinions that ask them to stop looking down on the Sword Division. The Knight Order in the future from now on is supposed to become nearer in equality between swordsman and Magika Stigma. If that happens, then there shouldn’t be anymore swordsmen that will do something stupid like this. …Doing something like throwing one’s selves away, is something that mustn’t be done no matter what.”<br /> <br /> Right at that moment, the memory of Kaya’s scream when she was eroded by Loki was reviving inside Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> “If swordsmen and Magika Stigma can look at each other right in the eye, swordsmen should be able to reach that new possibility that can only be achieved by swordsmen.”<br /> <br /> “…That’s right huh, you are really someone that caused a revolution in the Knight Academy.”<br /> <br /> “Calling that revolution, that’s not…”<br /> <br /> “Kohaku too…even I, we are really thankful for what you have done.”<br /> <br /> Facing each other in the middle of the bridge, Kazuha-senpai softly clasped both of Kazuki’s hands.<br /> <br /> Holding hand like this might be a skinship that Kazuha-senpai could just barely do with honest feelings. For Kazuki, this warmth transmitted to him was an irreplaceable important emotion.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Indeed it’s just like what you said. These small fries are feeling jealous without even doing any respectable hard work. Their appearance pawing at the ground while ruining their own body is…extremely unsightly. What is called strength should be something more pure.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―A singing like voice that sounded really clear suddenly could be heard.<br /> <br /> From the forest ahead, the master of the voice appeared and halted in front of the bridge.<br /> <br /> The distance between them was dozens of meters. It was not a distance that could be closed immediately.<br /> <br /> With a shock, Kazuki separated his body from Kazuha-senpai while calmly ascertaining that character.<br /> <br /> It was a girl wearing a deep red kimono that looked like a prostitute.<br /> <br /> A loose collar to the degree that one could peek into her back, a languid style of wearing kimono, making one looked graceful.<br /> <br /> It was a gorgeous appearance that could never be thought as something for a fight, but a Japanese katana could be identified on her hips. A swordsman.<br /> <br /> And then at her side were two person, two armored warriors in divine possession were coming along with her. Most likely those two were the last God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono sent her glancing gaze to those two and her mouth curved cynically.<br /> <br /> “Please look at them, this pathetic figure. Having lost their reason they are the very figure of mere beasts. Although they can now fight better compared to when they were just their former worthless swordsmen selves, even then the state of their soul currently really cannot be said as strong. …You two, please give your greeting.”<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono extended both her hands respectively to the faces of the armored warriors waiting at her left and right.<br /> <br /> The &lt;face armors&gt; under the helmet that was covering the nose and the mouth that hid the faces of the armored warriors, were taken off by those hands.<br /> <br /> The faces of the two armored warriors became exposed. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai reflexively caught their breath.<br /> <br /> “Takasugi brothers!”<br /> <br /> What appeared from under the face armors were―the faces of Takasugi brothers.<br /> <br /> The two that had became a rival candidate of Kazuki in the Chief Student Council President battle election, Takasugi Shūsui and Takasugi Harunari.<br /> <br /> Advocating the rejection of human rights for Magika Stigma that possessed far too powerful power and that they should be treated as weapons, the two young student activists!<br /> <br /> So these two seeked power after they were fouled in the battle election and were reduced into God’s reliant here.<br /> <br /> “”Hayashizakii…Hayashizaki KazukiiIIIII!!””<br /> <br /> The faces under the face armor were ruled by shuddering madness. Both their eyes and their mouth were opened to the limit and deep creases were engraved in their faces. They were leaking voice of curses while their jaws were convulsing in spasm.<br /> <br /> “The introduction is over for now…it’s okay to let loose already you guys!”<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono appearance handed down her command with a sharp voice as if a wild beast tamer lashing her whip.<br /> <br /> “GO-!!” Simultaneously with the voice, the Takasugi brothers leaped at this direction.<br /> <br /> They raised their katana overhead straight like a berserker and slashed at Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai with dauntless courage.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai traversed the bridge in a big leap while meeting the attack in order not to drag the people lying down around them into this fight. “Kazuha-senpai!” “It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about me!” They completely couldn’t make heads or tails of which one was the older brother Shūsui and which one was the little brother Harunari, but Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai picked one opponent each while exchanging voices, *GIN!* *GIN!* sparks of clashing swords were scattered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki softly redirected the enemy’s simple powerful downswing with &lt;Instant Positioning&gt;.<br /> <br /> Just like that he sidestepped the enemy’s stance and promptly slashed diagonally below with his returning blade.<br /> <br /> His opponent was blown away together with the backlash of defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> During that time, he directed his sight to Kazuha-senpai. Kazuha-senpai couldn’t parry as smoothly as Kazuki and she was brought into a sword-locking contest. If the attack was not quickly parried away with skill, she would have to go against the enemy’s superhuman power directly from the front. Kazuha-senpai leaked out “Kuh” in a painful voice while somehow redirecting her opponent’s heavy blow. Kazuha-senpai’s posture was disarranged.<br /> <br /> Because her posture was disarranged, she couldn’t move into a counterattack smoothly like what Kazuki did.<br /> <br /> But if it was Kazuha-senpai who excelled in chanting ability, it was enough just with that.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> Thrusting her one hand forward, from there *DON!* flame explosion and shockwave were produced.<br /> <br /> ―The two Takasugi brothers were repelled altogether from Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and blown away from the bridge.<br /> <br /> But they were abruptly rising back up again.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stood in front of Kazuki in order to cover for him.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki…I’ll face these two guys together just by myself. That’s why you Hayashizaki, deal with that kimono girl there.”<br /> <br /> “But senpai” Kazuki’s tone of voice was mixed with hesitation.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps compared to this set of two guys, that girl over there is far stronger. That’s why I’ll leave her to you.”<br /> <br /> Certainly Kazuki too harbored the same premonition.<br /> <br /> “I’m far stronger compared to these small fries!! I won’t let you two pass beyond this point!!”<br /> <br /> While their attention was diverted by Takasugi brothers, the figure of the girl in kimono vanished.<br /> <br /> …The voice came from above! With her kimono’s fringe fluttering loosely, the girl was soaring high above Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai―it was not a jumping power that could be done somehow or other just with Enchant Aura.<br /> <br /> The girl landed at a few meters behind Kazuki, with the force of a bouncing rubber ball she drew out her sword while in the stance of turning back.<br /> <br /> It didn’t mean that Kazuki was taken by surprise. Kazuki too instantly turned his back and drew out his sword in return.<br /> <br /> Flashes of light collided. Both of their drawn swords bit at each other from directly opposite, scattering apart sparks, and they entered sword-locking contest from there.<br /> <br /> It was not a contest between strength. Kazuki redirected the opponent’s strength with Instant Positioning and tried to break her posture. The girl was also doing a similar thing at the same time. Their blades were mutually entangling with each other flexibly skill to skill.<br /> <br /> If he could match the opponent’s vector of power, he could break the deadlock.<br /> <br /> String of tension was stretched silently inside his brain. In the distance where they could even feel each other’s breath, he focused on nothing but to Foresight the movement of the opponent and control the blade delicately against the other.<br /> <br /> An even sword-locking contest―at that time Kazuki and the kimono girl were mutually making a surprised expression of [There is an opponent that is my equal]. …I can do this!!<br /> <br /> Both of them jumped back behind at the same time and took back the distance.<br /> <br /> The girl held the katana languidly with her right hand, she brushed her disordered kimono’s cuff with her left hand swiftly and fixed her clothes instantly.<br /> <br /> A natural body posture that really couldn’t be said as a stance at all. But there was no opening. She surely could leap to all kinds of movements in any moment even like that. There was this indication of all in one in her. <br /> <br /> There was no doubt she had the bearing of a master.<br /> <br /> “What kind of person are you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuaki finally questioned the girl that stood in his way with respect toward an exceptional character coloring his words.<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, there was the sign of Kazuha-senpai exchanging blades with Takasugi brothers and roars of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “I won’t let you interfere in Amaterasu’s sealing. I am one of Kenshitou’s highest upper echelons entrusted with the defense of this land…the thirtieth &lt;Aisu Ikousai&gt; Hidetada.”<br /> <br /> Kenshitou’s upper echelons…he thought that this Haunted Ground held no protection squad from Yamato, yet…<br /> <br /> No wait, rather than that, Aisu Ikousai she said?<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt his mind became white. It was a feeling like being in the presence of a legend.<br /> <br /> “…You are joking right? Moreover the thirtieth?”<br /> <br /> “Oh, so you too are doubting the reality? You who are the successor of Hayashizaki-style sword drawing art?”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai―he was a swordsman of Muromachi period&lt;ref&gt;1333-1573 CE&lt;/ref&gt;. No, perhaps he ought to even be called a sword god.<br /> <br /> From Muromachi period until Sengoku period&lt;ref&gt;1467-1568 CE&lt;/ref&gt;, there were countless schools of sword style created in Japan.<br /> <br /> The most famous in history among them was surely Yagyuu Shinkage-style. With the choosing of Yagyuu Sekishūsai and his child, Munenori to become the instructor of the shogunate family, the house of Tokugawa, Yagyuu became known as the best sword-style in the whole country. It was also fine to even say that they are the best sword-style in the world of swords.<br /> <br /> When that Yagyuu’s history was perused, there was the master of Yagyuu Sekishūsai, the &lt;sword saint&gt; Kamiizumi Ise no Kami Nobutsuna. And then looking even further at the master of that person was a character that was already in the realm of myth―Aisu Ikousai Hisatada.<br /> <br /> When Japan’s school of sword style was traced back, every one of them would run into three origins. Those were namely Art of War Three Great Origins―&lt;Nen-style&gt;, &lt;Shinto-style&gt;, and then Aiko Ikousai’s &lt;Kage-style&gt;, those three.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was…feeling like he was confronting his own honored ancestor.<br /> <br /> “Hey the successor of Hayashizaki-style. Since when did you think Japan’s sword art was transformed into a sport?”<br /> <br /> The girl―Aisu Ikousai asked.<br /> <br /> “Generally it is said that the impetus was Kamiizumi Ise no Kami’s idea to use bamboo sword but…personally I think sword art had already changed into sports in Muromachi period. The uselessness of katana in war that was fought in groups had already became self-evident at that period…sword art was just a mere fashion of samurai. True practical sword art or the like had already gone at that time. The only scene where practical use of sword art could be applied was the one versus one fight that happened behind the other side of history―only in the setting of assassination. That is surely the sword’s true long cherished desire, the thirty generation piling up in the shadow…”<br /> <br /> That was a completely different history compared to an old style sword school like Kazuki’s Hayashizaki-style. Even though Hayashizaki-style was also an old style sword school that was passed in secret, by no means they erased their own name by their own hands. It was not the case that they attempted to become a legend.<br /> <br /> The mystical assassination sword art that earnestly erased their name continuously since Muromachi period….<br /> <br /> “I see…and then an era like the present time came.”<br /> <br /> “The era of magic…an era where the minority of powerful warriors dictated the battle had come. Now is the time for sword art’s resurrection! This Aisu Ikousai too!! That’s the reason why I formed a partnership with Kenshitou.”<br /> <br /> Tension filled the languid limbs of Aisu Ikousai to the brim. …It's coming!<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style! I was looking forward at having a bout with you-!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;ton*, Kicking the ground lightly, but with acceleration that ran in contrast with that lightness, Aisu Ikousai closed the distance. Kazuki didn’t chant any spell and intercepted only with just the sword.<br /> <br /> “Secret Sword…{{furigana|Shiraha Kagerou|Naked Blade Heat Haze}}!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai yelled. At that time Kazuki witnessed something hard to believe.<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai’s blade that was approaching Kazuki―bent like a jelly from its base.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s katana that was going to block slashed empty air.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s katana approached near Kazuki’s neck as if it had transformed into a whip. Kazuki attempted to dodge his body just barely from the blade. At that instant, the blade was not only twisting itself, it lengthened itself flexibly even further.<br /> <br /> The blade grazed Kazuki’s neck and with a spark blue light of magic power scattered.<br /> <br /> Ikousai passed the side of Kazuki who got slashed.<br /> <br /> “…First is one kill.” Ikousai whispered while they passed each other.<br /> <br /> …Just now was an advanced application of Psychokinesis. The slashed Kazuki instantly understood.<br /> <br /> Sensing the Prima Material of the blade, then it was influenced powerfully by Psychokinesis and its shape was altered.<br /> <br /> He could grasp the how but he was amazed that such thing was really possible. It was a technique that was completely beyond his imagination.<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately turned back and faced Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved out without a moment’s delay. Next it was Kazuki’s turn to be the attacker―surely even a flickering blade was just a normal katana when it was reversed to be the defender. There was a necessity to hold the initiative in this fight.<br /> <br /> Ikousai blocked the single stroke that Kazuki swung down and it became a sword-locking contest once more.<br /> <br /> This time it was not with technique, Kazuki attempted to push her with power.<br /> <br /> “Ou” Aisu Ikousai raised her voice. “Because I’m a woman so you think you can win in arm strength?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t permit Ikousai to try to parry the blade and pressed her with strength.<br /> <br /> With the difference in strength between male and female, Kazuki’s blade slowly approached Ikousai’s face.<br /> <br /> “If it's like this then, Secret Rite…{{furigana|Aoiro Yasha|Blue Yaksha}}.”<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki’s eyes, strange magic power was whirling inside Ikousai’s flesh.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;doku doku* Her body pulsed strongly…Ikousai’s face was turning blue before his eyes.<br /> <br /> What is currently happening―this is, blood flow manipulation.<br /> <br /> Human’s flesh body was creating energy with two types of method, that was [utilizing oxygen] and [not utilizing oxygen]. The structure that utilized oxygen was making energy for stamina, but the structure that didn’t utilize oxygen―produced explosive power by decomposing sugar content.<br /> <br /> The body automatically balanced which of the two structures would be prioritized to use.<br /> <br /> But this girl controlled the blood flow of her entire body and closed the oxygen supply herself, making use of that to invigorate her {{furigana|creation of the energy that didn’t need oxygen|Muscle Power Release}}&lt;ref&gt;This muscle power release, I’m not sure if it's right. The kanji is too small in my source and I cannot read it clearly. If anyone know the more accurate word, please revise it.&lt;/ref&gt; to the maximum. She tilted the balancing scale of her body by her own will.<br /> <br /> That could be said as an artificial ultimate anaerobic exercise. The girl’s slender arm that was turning pale was influenced with a doping, producing an explosive power that should be impossible from physical balance!<br /> <br /> …He never thought that someone would reinforce their own physical strength with this kind of approach!<br /> <br /> The balance of strength tilted from Ikousai’s explosive instantaneous force. Kazuki was outpushed. Ikousai didn’t miss the disarray of Kazuki’s balance and she drove away Kazuki’s katana, breaking the stance of Kazuki’s body.<br /> <br /> Kazuki suffered a defeat in sword-locking contest for the first time after several years.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s slash assaulted Kazuki whose stance was disarrayed. Kazuki forcefully evaded that. He planned to evade but―Ikousai’s blade stretched out like a snake and grazed Kazuki’s neck.<br /> <br /> “The second kill.” The girl floated a smile in her face.<br /> <br /> With a stumbling step Kazuki regrouped himself with some distance. Ikousai immediately gave chase and pursued with the ever-changing twisting katana.<br /> <br /> Just with the katana’s shape twisting, the movement became really hard to read to the degree he never imagined.<br /> <br /> He was bewitchingly looking at it with his eyes. With such insight…Kazuki Foresight the magic power produced from the blade. If the magic power could be read, the he could Foresight what kind of alteration would happen to the blade next. From there he could calculate the trajectory of the slash.<br /> <br /> Though it was a complicated calculation that had to be done in an instant….<br /> <br /> Kazuki breathed out strongly with a huff and concentrated. He Foresight the phantasmagoric stroke of the katana. And then he grasped the logic of the blade and *KiIN!* sparks were scattered. Ikousai went “Hou?” and showed a surprised expression.<br /> <br /> “For someone to start seeing through Shiraha Kagerou from just one occasion, really.”<br /> <br /> “In Hayashizaki-style, no same technique will work twice against us.”<br /> <br /> “Then…Secret Sword, {{furigana|Tenrou Kaidan|Heaven Tower Stair}}!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!* A terrific voice rang out.<br /> <br /> At that moment, Aisu Ikousai’s figure disappeared from Kazuki’s sight.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!*, *PAAN!*, the sounds of something bursting reverberated around Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Where is she!? ―Even the time allowed to think of that question, was just for an instant.<br /> <br /> The next instant, Kazuki was slashed diagonally in the back.<br /> <br /> On the back of Kazuki who was pitching forward staggeringly, a further second slash was carved. “Third kill! Fourth kill!!” Ikousai raised a joyful voice and attacked while pursuing Kazuki.<br /> <br /> This swordsman of Yamato, this fellow…!<br /> <br /> While Kazuki received the backlash from the defensive magic power, he rolled forward in order to take distance and escaped from Ikousai’s range. Ikousai didn’t chase too far and made a broad grin in her face from her triumph. She fixed her kimono with one hand.<br /> <br /> “Secret Rite…{{furigana|Usubeni Hannya|Light Crimson Hannya}}.”<br /> <br /> The girl’s pale body was recovering its former complexion. If the blood flow was constrained for too long, then next the stamina would surely disappear from the body.<br /> <br /> She exploded her instantaneous force with [Aoiro Yasha], and recovered her stamina with [Usubeni Hannya].<br /> <br /> But, even more than that the technique just now….<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, it’s four times already. If we crossed swords without this thing called defensive magic power, you had already died four times.”<br /> <br /> “…Don’t just make up an assumption that’s convenient for yourself as you please, assassin swordsman. What we are doing right now is a fight with defensive magic power aren’t we? Who can agree with that kind of simple win lose condition attached here.”<br /> <br /> Toward Kazuki who got a little worked up in his rebuttal, ‘ku-ku-ku’, Ikousai chuckled innocently.<br /> <br /> “This might be a little childish but, at any rate my opponent is the greatest masterpiece of Hayashizaki-style and the famous [Cyclops] after all. It’s really unbearable, this desire of mine to prove that my sword is the strongest with you as the opponent.”<br /> <br /> The strongest sword….<br /> <br /> Certainly this fellow’s skill was not ordinary. That kind of conception she used in her technique had never occurred to him at all.<br /> <br /> Even if he was struck with that kind of idea, he would surely be unable to manage to realize such technique without piling up a mountain of training.<br /> <br /> This girl in front of his eyes was not a swordsman that just merely inherited an ancient style sword art. Matching the current era and evolving her sword together with it―she was a swordsman that had advanced several steps ahead of the path that Kanae was trying to traverse.<br /> <br /> In this match as a swordsman, Kazuki honestly realized that he was falling into the inferiority here.<br /> <br /> [Tenrou Kaidan]…First he had to fathom the true form of that technique….<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuha dodged the Takasugi brothers' violent downswings as if dancing.<br /> <br /> She returned a compact slash through that opening.<br /> <br /> A battle between butterfly and boar―it was an easy offense and defense for Kazuha who was in the middle of learning the skill of Foresight.<br /> <br /> “…Why were you guys trying to become strong with that kind of method?”<br /> <br /> With the timing of the widening distance as the impetus, Kazuha questioned while taking her stance vigilantly.<br /> <br /> These guys were following the order of that girl in kimono. In other words they should still have some of their consciousness remaining.<br /> <br /> “…Kill the Magika Stigma…!”<br /> <br /> With a look exactly like a beast, the Takasugi brothers’ voices leaked out.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, Hayashizaki Kanae! They insult us that [our skill in sword is not a big deal] and so on…!”<br /> <br /> Right now the one who stood in front of their eyes was Kazuha, but perhaps they were already unable to recognize that anymore. The two of them vented their hatred in frankness to Kazuha.<br /> <br /> “Our, revolution ideology was defiled, because of you bastards’ fault!”<br /> <br /> “The battle election…what we were saying was supposed to be the most correct thought! Despite so, nobody elected us…because we lost in the battle election!! That battle election was just a farce decided only by power!!”<br /> <br /> “Power, power destroyed our just ideal!! Power is…abominable!!”<br /> <br /> Certainly there was an aspect in the battle election where the vote easily gathered on the students who made great showings in the tournament.<br /> <br /> But what would happen to the Magic Division and the Sword Division from now on? The students wouldn’t give their vote just from the result of the tournament without giving a serious consideration on that.<br /> <br /> They lost in election not because their fighting strength was weak. What was weak of them was…,<br /> <br /> “What is lacking in you guys, isn’t it the strength to look hard at yourself!?”<br /> <br /> Takasugi brothers assaulted her recklessly. Yet Kazuha dodged it easily and slashed back in return.<br /> <br /> The brothers were repelled from the backlash of the defensive magic power and fell into their backside…then they stood back up with faces that looked like as if they were going to cry.<br /> <br /> “It’s you bastards’ fault, that we failed to get elected…that power, power got away from our hands! Authority got away from our hands!!”<br /> <br /> “It’s you bastards’ fault that we are like this! That we failed to obtain the power to trample those Magika Stigma under our foot!!”<br /> <br /> For the third time, they stepped forward like an idiot that only knew how to do just one thing.<br /> <br /> Kazuha evaded as if she was dancing. Even while she evaded elegantly, Kazuha’s chest felt gloomy.<br /> <br /> “Authority got away from your hands you said? You want to trample the Magika Stigma under your foot you said? Even though you talked about ideal so haughtily…the inside of you guys is just that sort of thing!!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha slashed the two them away with all her might. But the two whose body were poured with the magic power of Wild God would abruptly stand back up no matter how many times they were cut down.<br /> <br /> “…It’s you bastards’ fault. It’s you bastards’ fault that we became useless…”<br /> <br /> “…It’s you bastards’ fault, that father branded us as useless…”<br /> <br /> The deep resentment voices of the brothers overlapped.<br /> <br /> Father―the one that switched over from being the board chairman of the knight academy to be Yamato’s statesman, they were surely talking about Takasugi Takayoshi.<br /> <br /> “”Power…, I want strength…!””<br /> <br /> That lurid spirit overpowered Kazuha. However she soon glared back.<br /> <br /> …Even I harbored a feeling of inferiority, I was wishing stronger than anyone that I want to become stronger.<br /> <br /> But I didn’t distort my feeling like this.<br /> <br /> “That distorted [will to become strong] of you guys…I won’t recognize something like that!!”<br /> <br /> “GYAAAAAA! {{furigana|Jiraiba|Earth Lightning Blade}}!!”<br /> <br /> One of the Takasugi brothers raised one of his hands high to the sky. At his side an avatar of a Diva that resembled Futsunushi no Kami emerged out. A Diva with an appearance of an ancient sword!<br /> <br /> Thunder fell to the raised hand, then he took hold of that lightning where it turned into a sword of lightning.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Senbiki Fudouwan|Thousand Pull Immobile Arm}}!!”<br /> <br /> The one other Takasugi brothers was also raising one of his hands high to the sky. An avatar of a giant emerged beside him.<br /> <br /> The arm raised overhead bulged out several times larger, transforming into an arm of giant that made the gripped long sword look like a toy.<br /> <br /> {That’s…the power of &lt;Take Mikadzuchi&gt; and &lt;Take Minakata&gt;. If the high level magic of those two are used then it won’t finish with just around that degree but, well, looks like those just now are only level 2 magic.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami conveyed his voice to Kazuha-senpai through telepathy.<br /> <br /> …If there was consciousness still left inside them even in just a little amount, they could still manage to use even low level Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers slashed at Kazuha simultaneously. Kazuha received an electric shock the moment she made contact with the lighting sword, and surely the slash launched using that gigantified arm possessed a power to the degree that she couldn’t block.<br /> <br /> If it kept like this she wouldn’t be able to defend. If she evaded the attack then there was no doubt that the Uji Bridge she was standing on would be broken in pieces.<br /> <br /> Therefore Kazuha also chanted her spell. The spell that she had been preparing for quite some time from before.<br /> <br /> “Watching thousands of lives withering in the path of the sword…o military men obeyed by hundreds of grass, please lend that hand free from obstructive thought to my morals! …{{furigana|Kenki Shihou Ken|Devilish Swordsman Four Directions Sword}}!!”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 6 magic―great number of bluish-white souls drifted and gathered around Kazuha.<br /> <br /> Those were the souls of the swordsmen that followed the path of the sword to its extremes and perished halfway through. <br /> <br /> Responding against Futsunushi no Kami’s guidance, those souls appeared under Kazuha. They possessed mass due to magic power and transformed into something that symbolized their tempering&amp;mdash;becoming enormous arms and katana.<br /> <br /> There was a total of four ghostly arms and katana each with a size that reached Kazuha’s stature, floating around her.<br /> <br /> “Become my substitute, block them!”<br /> <br /> The lightning sword born from Take Mikadzuchi’s power was blocked solidly by the two arms surrounding the right side crossing their two katana. The electric shock couldn’t flow to the spot where Kazuha was.<br /> <br /> The one strike that was gigantified by Take Minakata’s power was blocked solidly by the two arms surrounding the left side crossing their two katana. The three giant arms were locked in a rivalry of strength with grinding sound.<br /> <br /> In the center of those two spots of power, Kazuha’s own two hands were free.<br /> <br /> Kazuha directed those two hands at the Takasugi brothers and chanted.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DON!* The released shockwave blew away both the Takasugi brothers altogether.<br /> <br /> The four arms created by Kazuha were controlled remotely in accordance with Kazuha’s will and even now they assaulted the Takasugi brothers who were trying to stand and pressed them on.<br /> <br /> During that time, Kazuha turned her eyes to the battle between Kazuki and the kimono girl.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was having much trouble with the girl who introduced herself as Aisu Ikousai….<br /> <br /> “…What is he doing? ''Just against techniques of that degree'', that guy become cornered like that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha reflexively knitted her eyebrows. The Hayashizaki Kazuki that I know isn’t supposed to be that kind of person.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! What the hell are you doing, just against that kind of fellow!”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuha-senpai threw a scolding voice at Kazuki who was in the middle of a glaring match with Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Those kind of techniques are not really a big deal right!!?”<br /> <br /> Hearing that, Ikousai looked sullen with her pride wounded.<br /> <br /> “Now you really said it. I thought that it would be fine to leave the dunce of the Sword Division to those dimwits Takasugi brothers, yet…should I carved the technique of Aisu’s Kage-style on that body of yours too?”<br /> <br /> “Even if you don’t deliberately carve it into my body, I get it already just from watching here! ''Like this right''!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai dashed to this direction trying to interrupt between Kazuki and Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> That figure of hers, *PAAN!* went flying together with that sound.<br /> <br /> “!?” Ikousai’s spine trembled with shock witnessing that.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s body danced high to the sky. From there even more *PAAN!* *PAAN!* sounds rang out and she maneuvered three dimensionally in the air. Kazuha-senpai instantly circled to Ikousai’s back.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki saw that from his position as a third party observer, he comprehended that trick for the first time.<br /> <br /> …I see, certainly seeing it from outside is really easy to understand.<br /> <br /> The sound of *PAAN!* was the sound of kicking with full power the movement energy produced by Psychokinesis. Creating a foothold in the sky with magic and making the body leap through the air under an instant. That speed was several levels faster compared to a normal jump. When the opponent was thinking vaguely that the enemy was above, she had already flew about three dimensionally who knew how many times―and circled into the back.<br /> <br /> “Learned by imitating, Tenrou Kaidan!”<br /> <br /> While yelling, Kazuha-senpai swept her katana sideways.<br /> <br /> As expected from the originator herself, Ikousai was not tricked by that movement and saw through Kazuha-senpai’s position instantly and dodged the blade. But at that time Kazuha-senpai’s blade twisted like jelly. It was just a slight twist compared to Ikousai’s own, but certainly her blade’s shape distorted―Shiraha Kagerou.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s single stroke of katana gouged Ikousai’s neck shallowly, making her defensive magic power shine.<br /> <br /> “Saying it in your manner from before…it’s one kill with this right?” Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly.<br /> <br /> Ikousai took some distance with a light leap, her expression transformed from shock into admiration.<br /> <br /> “''Just about that much is still incomplete, however,'' you really can imitate my sword that easily huh. You…won’t you enter Ikousai-style and become my disciple?”<br /> <br /> “Who would do that, stupid-! I am Hayashizaki-style!!”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuha-senpai made a refusal like that, Kazuki could only stare in amazement.<br /> <br /> “Eh, is that true?”<br /> <br /> “What kind of reaction is that! It is like that right!? You are aallways saying that ‘I am the master’ aren’t you!?”<br /> <br /> “I was saying that half in jest but…if you are my disciple than please become more honest then.”<br /> <br /> “I’m honest in matters concerning sword right!? What’s with you! Don, don’t tell me you are planning to order me to do something perverted!?”<br /> <br /> “Now I’m a romance master and I command senpai to do romance training for the whole day.”<br /> <br /> “No Way even if it’s for romance―!! This hentaii―!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai was looking at them with cold eyes. “You two, looks like you are really having fun.”<br /> <br /> “Anyway don’t you dare lose to that fellow. Besides, why are fighting without using Summoning Magic?”<br /> <br /> Even while saying such things, Kazuha-senpai kept making the gigantic four arms fight the Takasugi brothers. It was a splendid control of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Right there Kazuki finally noticed how he had fought while sealing his own Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “The strength as swordsman, is not all there is to it of your strength right-!!”<br /> <br /> …Before, Kazuki relied on the strength of the sword as the foundation of his pride. His genius in sword was recognized and he was adopted into Hayashizaki family, getting praised by his stepfather was the meaning of his existence.<br /> <br /> …Right now is different. Even now sword was still something important for him, but it was not everything of him. The power he obtained from his bonds, and the important things he protected with it…that was also his own strength.<br /> <br /> “You are the same like me, a magic swordsman. I don’t want to see you get defeated or the like.”<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it…I’ll stop already on being too obstinate thinking as a swordsman.”<br /> <br /> In all honesty…if he used Summoning Magic then he surely could defeat Aisu Ikousai easily.<br /> <br /> He fought a straight forward match as a swordsman against his better judgment, but he had to defeat this swordsman and reach the inner part of the Ise Imperial Shrine. Reservation or anything like that was unnecessary.<br /> <br /> “Is that so, so you plan to use Summoning Magic? Hmph. …Then I wonder, should I do that too?”<br /> <br /> With nonchalant tone Ikousai said that. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai went ‘Don’t tell me!’ in their minds.<br /> <br /> No, now that he thought back…the voice from the sky that commanded the God’s reliant―that was surely the contractor of Susanoo, but wasn’t this girl in front of him also ordered around the Takasugi brothers just now?<br /> <br /> Then this fellow was…Susanoo’s contractor, Izumo King!<br /> <br /> “You two have the face that says if you are using Summoning Magic then you can win easily, I really can’t stomach that look! Both in sword and even in magic, I am the stronger one!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai sheathed the sword in her right hand back to its sheath. Then she folded her arm cuff and abruptly pulled off the bracelet that was worn in her wrist.<br /> <br /> It was a bracelet that he had remember seeing before―&lt;Limiter&gt;.<br /> <br /> The fellows of God’s reliant held a grudge against Stigmata. Because of that she surely wore a Limiter and hid her stigmata while taking a joint action with them. She only took the Limiter off when she was giving order as the voice from the sky.<br /> <br /> “Polished black steel of heaven o Totsuka no Tsurugi…release flash of light that gouge the storm! This is {{furigana|Orochi no Arasama|Snake’s Exact Rough}}…the advent of tearing limb from limb, {{furigana|Ame no Habakiri|Sky Feathers Decapitation}}!!”<br /> <br /> The girl didn’t even perform Access and chanted her spell directly.<br /> <br /> She didn’t even have the blessing of Magic Dress, yet in spite of that she chanted with speed that she seemed familiar with.<br /> <br /> Magic of Sacred Treasure creation&amp;mdash;light was created inside her hand where it held an atypical sword with its blade divided to eight direction.<br /> <br /> &quot;It’s fine even if you too make your Stigmata shine! Come, this is the beginning of sword and magic’s second act!”<br /> <br /> “Wait!”<br /> <br /> The instant Ikousai was going to kick the ground, a voice halting them reverberated.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu who escaped to the sky to avoid the fighting descended down and perched on Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “I’ll shut my eyes if it is just a sport between fellow swordsmen, but more than this and you should stop your interference! Amaterasu chose this gentleman as the substitute of &lt;Wakoku King&gt;!! You too should have no real intention to keep depending on Loki like what you are currently doing while being unable to plunder Amaterasu’s power!!”<br /> <br /> “…Hoo, so that NEET god finally intended to raise a King. I thought she was going to continue being sealed like this and vanish, but if she showed some motivation then the story is different. I see, so that’s why the King of Solomon came to this land.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai docilely vanished the Sacred Treasure held inside her hand.<br /> <br /> “Susanoo is a rebelling god toward the {{furigana|absolute authoritarian|Amaterasu}}. Therefore &lt;Izumo King&gt; too is a rebelling King. The [King’s Authority] of such King is to plunder for herself the power of the defeated King, [Power of Usurpation]. …Therefore the starting condition of Izumo King is powerless. The nearest some other {{furigana|King|Basileus}} at hand…Amaterasu’s King is someone she has to defeat and to plunder for power…!!”<br /> <br /> “Simultaneously that’s also something that Amaterasu can say. If Amaterasu’s Wakoku King cannot make the rebel Izumo King submit, she also cannot wield the [King’s Authority] of Japanese Mythology and stays powerless. Consequently both of them are Yin and Yang. They have a destiny of conflict.”<br /> <br /> “Interesting! Moreover if you hold both the title of Solomon King and Wakoku King then it’s two birds with one stone! This is fine, I’ll allow you to proceed forward ''for the sake of plundering your power for mine later''.”<br /> <br /> …She could speak like this because Izumo King could steal the power of another King when she defeated them. Just that the only one she could defeat quick and easy even in her powerless state was only Amaterasu who was in the same powerless state like her.<br /> <br /> If she had that kind of ability then Kazuki could understand her strategy to ally herself with Loki temporarily.<br /> <br /> Ikousai swept away her disarrayed sleeves with one hand and then turned her back on Kazuki and co.<br /> <br /> “You the &lt;Cyclops&gt; of Hayashizaki-style, and also the newly appointed proxy of Amaterasu…understand well your destiny with me, I’ll carve it deeply on your body.”<br /> <br /> An existence with a different quality somewhere compared to all his enemies until now―Aisu Ikousai left those words behind and exited the stage.<br /> <br /> ===Part 8===<br /> <br /> “If we have arrived until here, it’ll only take a little more until the Imperial Shrine’s sacred main temple.”<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers had also left following Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu guided Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai in the front, walking briskly with its three legs in short steps.<br /> <br /> Almost all the scenery around them had recovered from being a Haunted Ground to its original scenery of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Inside the Imperial Shrine’s forest that were filled with ancient trees growing in abundance, it made them feel the atmosphere of perpetuity. They continued to walk along the path made of pure white gravel until the deepest part of the shrine. The Isuzu River that flowed beside them had also recovered its transparent stream.<br /> <br /> A scenery filled with sacred tranquility. This was Japan’s oldest shrine, the true appearance of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> They were finally going to reach the end of their journey.<br /> <br /> After they advanced through the gravel path drawing a gentle arc, they hit into a stone stair. Ahead of the stone stair there was a shrine archway. Passing through it, finally they saw [that].<br /> <br /> An architectural style of ancient times that even made them feel the connection with Takakura-style warehouse from Yayoi period. It was built based from &lt;the only Shinmei Dzukuri&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Shinmei Dzukuri is a unique phrase in Japan. Shinmei here can refer to Amaterasu or god. While Shinmei Dzukuri means building a shrine with architecture style based on that of Ise Imperial Shrine. So the meaning of the phrase in the bracket here is that the building that Kazuki and co are seeing is the originator of all the Ise style shrine in the whole Japan.&lt;/ref&gt;, yet the feel of the material felt like it was brand new. That was because every twenty years the main building of Ise Imperial Shrine was remodeled and &lt;Shikinen Senguu&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Construction of a new shrine and transfer of the enshrined object from the old to the new, occurring at a regular, preordained time&lt;/ref&gt; was performed. Because the only Shinmei Dzukuri was built using ancient construction technique, its endurance’s age was short and it resulted in the necessity of reconstruction periodically no matter what.<br /> <br /> At the time of its reconstruction, it followed the style and all the ritual from the ancient times strictly and thoroughly. Its appearance from time immemorial was obstinately protected just like how it originally was. This building was not in unchanging condition since the ancient times until the olden days. Yet exactly because of the periodic rebuilding, its unchanging appearance could be preserved for more than a thousand years in the true meaning.<br /> <br /> Of course with that method it would take far more expense and labor compared to merely preserving the building.<br /> <br /> This is Ise Imperial Shrine, its sacred main temple.<br /> <br /> Further ahead of the archway were fences surrounding the shrine―a gate could be seen on the wall.<br /> <br /> “From here on, normal people are not allowed to enter.” Saying that, Kazuha-senpai hesitated to proceed.<br /> <br /> “That’s so, but if you two don’t enter then we cannot begin anything.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu entered without care with bobbing steps inside as if this building was its own home.<br /> <br /> The gate opened automatically by its own.<br /> <br /> There was an archway again inside the outer fence. The inner wall obstructed the path. There were several layers of closed walls and gates in order to reject visitors coming to the inner sanctuary.<br /> <br /> With the guidance of Yatagarasu, they passed through several gates.<br /> <br /> And then the inner sanctuary that even resembled the Takakura-style warehouse in the history textbook appeared in front of their eyes. It had a simple architecture with thatch roof, but its linear shaping made them feel its artificial bearing rather than a respect towards nature.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu proceeded forward through the stair that ascended the raised-floor building with bobbing advance and gestured Kazuki to go inside.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> One surface of the inside was stained with blood.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were dumbfounded and lost their words. The bloodstain had blackened and permeated into the surface. It was clear just with one glance that a long time had passed since the blood was spilled. The amount of the bloodstain was enough to make them able to imagine that a person had died in that space.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu’s contractor was killed here through the hands of Yamato’s government and Susanoo.”<br /> <br /> “Wait a second, you said things like you are going to present the contractor of Amaterasu to me, but like this what is the meaning of…?”<br /> <br /> A cold shiver ran through Kazuki’s spine.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me…are they going to ask me to ''conquer a ghost''!?<br /> <br /> “The body of Amaterasu’s contractor had been annihilated, but Amaterasu narrowly managed to save her soul and sealed it inside it Amaterasu’s Territory. On top having no flesh body, if the situation stays like this then her fate will be to naturally vanish together with Amaterasu. That’s why your cooperation…the &lt;power of bond&gt; that you possessed is necessary. If Amaterasu recovers her power and from there she also ties a bond with you and obtain power, the girl will be able to regain her flesh body.”<br /> <br /> “You are saying that a dead human can be restored to life!?”<br /> <br /> Was such a thing possible? Kazuki too had once resurrected Mio from the grip of death using Phoenix’s level 10 magic. But such event was supposed to be completely different compared to reviving an existence that didn’t even have her corpse remaining and the only thing left behind of her was the bloodstain that had already dried on the floor.<br /> <br /> “The girl still hasn’t welcomed a complete death yet. Her soul is preserved through Amaterasu’s power. But the currently weakened Amaterasu simply doesn’t have enough strength. If she can borrow that power by becoming a subordinate to Solomon Mythology…”<br /> <br /> “Does Amaterasu want to save that contractor so much that she will even go as far as subordinating herself to another Mythology?”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu was trotting ahead to the center of the sacred main temple’s floor. Over there was the center of the blood stain’s spread.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu deeply loved that [girl]. Therefore she didn’t raise that girl to become Wakoku King and abandoned her battle with Susanoo. Yamato government and Susanoo were furious because of that and killed the girl before pressing Amaterasu to choose a new contractor to become King. But for Amaterasu it was inconceivable to even make a contract with another human. And so Amaterasu abandoned everything and shut herself inside the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. …Please follow me.”<br /> <br /> With a jerk, Yatagarasu kicked the floor of the sacred main temple. Thereupon the floorboard came off and a hole was opened.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu then descended down the hole. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too followed from behind.<br /> <br /> When they entered under the floor, many pillars stretching up supported the floor of the sacred main temple from the surface below. In the center of the space surrounding those pillars, there was a pillar that didn’t reach until the floor of the sacred main temple with a height that only reached halfway.<br /> <br /> It was a pillar that didn’t support anything.<br /> <br /> In the peak of that halfway pillar, a miniature size sacred main temple was put on it.<br /> <br /> “&lt;The True August Pillar&gt;…This is the entrance to Amaterasu’s residence, the path leading to the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. Amaterasu is ahead through this.”<br /> <br /> “How do we enter inside through this miniature size thing?”<br /> <br /> “Of course its destination is &lt;Astrum&gt;. The Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave is a district of Amaterasu’s Territory. Being sealed inside that healing space and isolated from everything else, Amaterasu can just barely hold her ground of having herself vanishing little by little. Supply power to Amaterasu from the outside, if she cannot go out from the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave then like this she also cannot talk with you. Touch your hand to this True August Pillar and close your eyes, then please unify your {{furigana|consciousness and subconsciousness|Trance}}. If you do that then it will synchronize with the mind of you two and it can guide you to Astrum.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki remembered about the contract ceremony after the entrance ceremony. At that time he was guided by Kaguya-senpai and dove into the Diva’s Territory in Astrum. What he was going to do after this was the same thing like that.<br /> <br /> “Pass through &lt;Yomotsu Hirasaka&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Yomotsu Hirasaka is a hill where it can lead to Yomi (world of the dead) in Japanese Myth.&lt;/ref&gt; and head to &lt;the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “…Isn’t Yomotsu Hirasaka the place that continue to the world of after death?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked frightfully with ominous presentiment. He came along with them this far believing that their interest matched each other, but he was going to be troubled if he became a dead person just like this.<br /> <br /> “That’s a misinterpretation of the myth. …Yomotsu Hirasaka is a corridor that linked the world with different worlds. It is the exit and entrance that leads to Takamagahara&lt;ref&gt;The heavens&lt;/ref&gt; which is the Territory of Japanese Divas.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu went on “Anyway, please close your eyes.”, like that it prompted Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai to proceed.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Kenshin_no_Keishousha:Volume_3_Prologue&diff=474527 Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 3 Prologue 2015-12-15T03:28:17Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>== Prologue ==<br /> <br /> Tokyo Swordia, Outer Human Region——<br /> <br /> Right now it was precisely eleven o’clock at night. Although the time of year was only halfway into June, it was as if summer was already in full swing. Tonight was extremely humid.<br /> <br /> There was a certain hotel located here in the center of the bustling Outer Human Region among the rows upon rows of towering high-rises.<br /> <br /> The high-class hotel possessed fifty stories. The cost for a one night stay in the presidential suite located at the highest floor approximately totaled the monthly expenses for a four person family.<br /> <br /> In the living room of that overly extravagant suite, an intruder was there.<br /> <br /> “W-Who are you!?”<br /> <br /> Sitting on the couch in the living room was a middle-aged man wearing a suit. He shouted at the top of his lungs in surprise. <br /> <br /> There was what appeared to be two bodyguards standing near the middle-aged man. In comparison to the middle-aged man, the two bodyguards were relatively calm as their hands reached for their chest area while eyeing the intruder.<br /> <br /> “No matter what I say, you'll just think of me as one of those Swordie dogs.”<br /> <br /> The intruder——was a teenager who jokingly replied to them.<br /> <br /> The teenager’s name was Kurou. His appearance consisted of a black T-shirt, slacks, and there was a golden rim along the collar and cuffs.<br /> <br /> “Despite being a government dog, it’s actually not too bad. I’m able to retrieve the key with just the flash of my ID.”<br /> <br /> Kurou displayed the keys to the room he had gotten from the manager. Although the manager didn’t willfully hand him the keys, Kurou certainly did not use violent means to obtain it.<br /> <br /> It was quite obvious——Kurou used the katana strapped to his waist to forcefully request for it.<br /> <br /> “I have something to ask of you. However, first shall I introduce myself? I’m Kurou, part of the Sabers. If you’d like, I can show you my ID.”<br /> <br /> “You’re part of the Sabers? Quit your lies, the Sabers organization had been dissolved right?”<br /> <br /> The middle-aged man was still as extremely flustered as before.<br /> <br /> However, that was to be expected considering someone had suddenly barged into his cozy presidential suite.<br /> <br /> “Actually, it’s more like the New Sabers. Pretty much the name of the organization and the uniforms carried on, but there’s actually no relation. Thinking about the name, it’s quite troublesome. Furthermore, this uniform is quite robust, not bad at all.”<br /> <br /> Kurou chuckled as he explained. He had no reason to elaborate for him, however he had this bad habit of going on and on over such trivial matters.<br /> <br /> “I’m still in the investigative department so that hasn’t changed. Thus, you have the duty of answering my questions.”<br /> <br /> “Are you crazy? To freely barge into the houses of the residents——”<br /> <br /> “You’re the one who’s crazy.”<br /> <br /> After Kurou calmly finished speaking, he slowly marched forward. He picked up the wine bottle on the table in front of the couch that the middle-aged man was sitting on.<br /> <br /> “Hmm, isn’t this wine quite expensive? The finance department of the sun cult are paying you guys that much?”<br /> <br /> Kurou was still just a fifteen year-old teenager. He was not knowledgeable on alcoholic brands, but the quality did appear to be quite high just from looking at it. The average person would not be drinking something of the sort.<br /> <br /> “Based on this, I think someone of your status should be able to satisfactorily answer my questions.”<br /> <br /> “To an underling of the Swordies…...I’m not saying a word!”<br /> <br /> The middle-aged man suddenly raised his hand as he was shouting. The two bodyguards responded by speedily pulling out their hands——two pistols appeared out of nowhere. <br /> <br /> “Open fire! Kill him!”<br /> <br /> “Are you stupid?”<br /> <br /> Despite having the barrel of a pistol pointed at him, Kurou remained unshaken.<br /> <br /> As soon as the two bodyguards pressed the trigger, Kurou retrieved the katana strapped to his waist in one swift motion.<br /> <br /> Compared to the movement of the fingers for the bodyguards, Kurou drawing his sword was much faster.<br /> <br /> “…….!”<br /> <br /> The thumb which held onto the handle of the gun of one of the bodyguards was severed by the gleaming white blade. When Kurou retracted his sword, he then violently slashed at the back hand of the other bodyguard.<br /> <br /> “Ahhh!”<br /> <br /> The pistols of the bodyguards dropped to the ground as they pressed against their hands writhing in pain.<br /> <br /> After having their thumb and the back of their hand slashed, the bodyguards already lost their ability to battle. The minimal attacking ended up very nicely. Since their battle capabilities were light years apart, such a result was to be expected.<br /> <br /> “S-Swordies…...you detestable monsters!”<br /> <br /> The middle-aged man was sitting on the couch eyeing Kurou.<br /> <br /> “How regrettable, I’m not a Swordie…...oh you’re here?”<br /> <br /> After Kurou replied to the middle-aged man, there was a new figure that appeared within the living room.<br /> <br /> “Hey, is it already over? Sorry for the trouble Kurou.”<br /> <br /> “Jeez, there’s not even any reward money, yet you still push this whole task on me.”<br /> <br /> Towards the teenager who arrived within the living room——Kurou wryly smiled towards his fellow disciple and colleague.<br /> <br /> Lars possessed platinum colored hair that was a tad long and he wore the same black outfit as Kurou. A wide and lengthy sword was fastened to his waist. He was also a member of the New Sabers.<br /> <br /> “You lost in rock-paper-scissors so there’s no other choice…...that said, huh? Wait a sec Kurou, it isn’t this guy.”<br /> <br /> “Ha? What do you mean?”<br /> <br /> Lars nonchalantly approached the middle-aged man and attentively gazed at his face. Following that, he nodded his head.<br /> <br /> “Our objective tonight wasn’t this person. Doesn’t he look different from the photo you were shown earlier?”<br /> <br /> “Eh, really? Haha, but that old geezer and him practically look identical.”<br /> <br /> “W-What are you talking about……”<br /> <br /> The middle-aged man revealed a perplexed expression towards the two teenagers.<br /> <br /> Thud——<br /> <br /> Suddenly, the sound of a crash rang from outside the room.<br /> <br /> Kurou and Lars practically ran out at the same time and arrived outside of the presidential suite.<br /> <br /> “Ah, what’s going on here?”<br /> <br /> Kurou gazed at the hallway, tilting his head.<br /> <br /> Next to the room where the door was wide open, there was another guy in a suit that was lying down within the hallway.<br /> <br /> After that, there were two guys and a girl that charged down the hallway.<br /> <br /> One of the guys wore the blue outfit of a sun cult follower while the other was in a suit carrying a submachine gun in his hands.<br /> <br /> “Kurou, Lars, you seem to have gotten it wrong. The sun cult executive——there are two of them.”<br /> <br /> The girl smiled as she spoke.<br /> <br /> This person possessed an audaciousness and a neatly appearance. There were also hairpins through her long green hair. Her attire was the same as Kurou and Lars, except a pleated skirt that went down to her knees accompanied the upper shirt. Her hand was also holding onto a peculiar conical shaped sword.<br /> <br /> The girl’s name was Isyuto, and she was also a member of the Sabers and served as captain.<br /> <br /> “I thought you wouldn’t be here……”<br /> <br /> Kurou helplessly muttered. From the looks of it, only the captain correctly grasped the situation completely.<br /> [[File:Kenshin_v03_015.PNG|thumb|right]]<br /> “Therefore, grand member of the sun cult, we wish to ask you something. If you behave properly that’d be great, if not——”<br /> <br /> “Kill them!”<br /> <br /> The man in the cultist attire yelled out without hesitation.<br /> <br /> Responding to the voice was the man in the suit. With the submachine gun——the MP5K was pointed towards Isyuto. It held a clip holding thirty 9mm rounds and all of it was shot out in an instant——<br /> <br /> “Ha……!”<br /> <br /> In a split second, Isyuto heartily swung away with her conical sword.<br /> <br /> Those bullets which were going to carve her into a honeycomb instead were deflected away one after another into the ground or wall.<br /> <br /> Following that——<br /> <br /> Once the MP5K clip was emptied, Isyuto pierced through the last 9mm bullet with the tip of her sword.<br /> <br /> “W-What……!”<br /> <br /> The suit wearing bodyguard was tongue tied. Even the executive was left speechless.<br /> <br /> Using the point of her sword to pierce through 9mm bullets that were about the size of a fingernail and traveling 400 meters per second, it just did not even seem possible.<br /> <br /> However, those that could perform such a maneuver——they were known as the Swordie race.<br /> <br /> “Since I’ve been to the Sword Academy, they’ve taught us methods to counter firearms. Something of this level, every third-year student should be able to do this no problem.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto did not look down upon them as she just indifferently stated.<br /> <br /> Indeed, for Swordies who have accumulated a lot of training, defending against a submachine gun attack and such was a piece of cake.<br /> <br /> However, Isyuto’s technique was quite standout even among Swordies.<br /> <br /> Seeing Isyuto’s sword penetrating through those bullets, Kurou was left stunned and helpless.<br /> <br /> “As expected of the captain.”<br /> <br /> Kurou applauded with his hands.<br /> <br /> “Not having your breasts shake around when you’re moving in such a manner, how amazing.”<br /> <br /> “......”<br /> <br /> Thump, a coarse sound was heard within the hallway.<br /> <br /> Isyuto, who revealed a grin, stabbed the wall in the hallway with the sword that had pierced through all those bullets.<br /> <br /> “Oh my, my hand lost control. I wonder what might happen if such a thing were to occur again.”<br /> <br /> “......I didn’t say anything.”<br /> <br /> Kurou mannerly replied.<br /> <br /> Isyuto was a beauty that captivated all eyes. However, the dimensions of her chest were quite regrettable. It seemed as if she was quite self-aware about this. Any jeering or joking as such would lead to having one’s life in danger. Precisely because of that, Kurou was able derive fun from it, which was another bad habit of his.<br /> <br /> “Well then, back to the main topic at hand.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto focused herself once again and pulled out the bullets that were pierced by her sword as if it was no big deal. Following that, she pointed the tip of her sword to the executive. The bodyguards had already completely lost all battling intent.<br /> <br /> “There’s only one matter that I want to discuss. Your boss——the sun cult founder, tell us where his residence is.”<br /> <br /> “Huh……?”<br /> <br /> The executive was dumbfounded.<br /> <br /> “You barged in here only to ask that sort of thing……?”<br /> <br /> “This is quite important to us. Of course, the founder must be very important to you as well right? However, what in this world is the pinnacle of importance to you, think carefully to yourself.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto, she revealed a gentle smile and lightly waved around the tip of the sword that was pointed at the executive. As long as she had the will to do it, the executive would be stabbed in an instant. <br /> <br /> The executive seemed to be attached to one’s life as well. As soon as he picked up on this, he became flustered.<br /> <br /> “I-I know nothing about our mentor——the founder I mean! Even among our group, there’s not even five people who know about him!”<br /> <br /> “But I get the feeling that you’re one of them.”<br /> <br /> “You’re wrong…...o-oh yes! I do have some information! Let’s strike a deal, what do you say!?”<br /> <br /> “Let’s hear what you have to say.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto stared straight into the executive’s eyes as she spoke. Although she was smiling, her eyes were menacingly glaring at him. Lies would absolutely not be acceptable. <br /> <br /> “You can’t find this from searching, nor will any other members know about this! Among those close to the founder, there’s a certain someone that knows where the founder lives for sure!”<br /> <br /> “Eh.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto seemed to be happily nodding along.<br /> <br /> Kurou also felt slightly at ease.<br /> <br /> Although tonight’s attack appeared to also require uncovering some information, it seemed there was also some reward on the line.<br /> <br /> Capturing the sun cult founder——to Kurou, this was not an objective that he really had any motivation to do. However, he also understood there was no way he could just cast it aside either.<br /> <br /> “So then where is this person that you speak of?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, that person is located in a strange place——”<br /> <br /> The male executive started to elaborate on the residence of this person.<br /> <br /> Isyuto and Lars silently listened——however, Kurou mustered all his effort to try and suppress his astonishment.<br /> <br /> Why would such a person be located in that area?<br /> <br /> Looks like the mission became even more demoralizing for him.</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Kenshin_no_Keishousha:Volume_2_Chapter1&diff=474507 Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 2 Chapter1 2015-12-14T20:29:34Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>=There can Only be One Victor!=<br /> <br /> The day after Kurou had been discharged.<br /> <br /> Kurou was standing inside the grove of trees about a hundred metres away from his new house.<br /> <br /> Wearing the uniform of the academy, both hands were gripped tightly onto his sword as he lifted it into a raised position.<br /> <br /> Without giving off any fighting spirit or vigour, he suddenly brought the sword down in a flash. Returning the sword to the raised position, he repeated swinging his sword.<br /> <br /> Obviously, he wasn’t able to practice his swordsmanship while he was in the hospital. Also he had spent the whole of yesterday moving his things around in the new house, so other than cleaning he hadn’t been able to do anything else.<br /> <br /> Because he hadn’t been able to do rehabilitation, this training was essential. As expected, his current state was much weaker than normal.<br /> <br /> Even so, Kurou didn’t feel like he would lose to Sefi now. Although it might seem a little rude to Sefi, he had confidence that if they were to fight a hundred battles he would win every one of them.<br /> <br /> This is your loss, Kurou—<br /> <br /> How many times had the Sword Saint Hyouka, who was also his master, said those words to him?<br /> <br /> The Seven Swords was a title given to the strongest amongst the Swordies.<br /> <br /> Within the Seven Swords, the most brilliant of them was given the title of Sword Saint.<br /> <br /> Kurou had spent the better part of seven years crossing blades with her on a daily basis. And each time he had been beaten by her. For the strongest swordswoman amongst the Swordies, there was no way a human brat like Kurou could ever win against her, and Hyouka’s victories were all but a forgone conclusion.<br /> <br /> However, he didn’t plan on losing to anyone else other than the Sword Saint. No matter what the circumstances.<br /> <br /> Even if his physical ability had gone down, or his body had dulled, Kurou wasn’t going to use those as excuses to lose.<br /> <br /> Kurou swung his blade down even harder.<br /> <br /> Again, and again, he repeated the motion.<br /> <br /> After reaching two hundred repetitions— Kurou stopped.<br /> <br /> Tilting his neck slightly, he slowly sheathed his sword. As he had just been discharged from the hospital, it would be best if he didn’t exert himself any more than this. There was a fine line between training and ruining his body.<br /> <br /> Using a towel to wipe his sweat, he returned back home.<br /> <br /> As today was a Monday, he obviously planned on going to school, but there was still time. Taking a shower now would be a hassle, but felt he should at least wash his face.<br /> <br /> Previously, home was just a small cottage with very little floor space, but now it was a two story building, so the number of rooms had increased.<br /> <br /> The living room, kitchen, bath, toilet and Kurou’s room were located on the first floor. Sefi’s and Hinako’s rooms were on the second floor, Kurou being forbidden up there. As this moment, Kurou didn’t feel like breaking that particular restriction. If he was going to sneak up there, it would only be after he had meticulously planned and prepared beforehand.<br /> <br /> Entering the house, he headed to the washroom.<br /> <br /> A nice smell wafted over, which probably meant Sefi was in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Cooking was one of her interests, and she was a pretty good one at that. The proof of that was the meal she had prepared yesterday, which had satisfied Kurou.<br /> <br /> “It’s great I get to eat good food every day from now on!”<br /> <br /> Kurou and Hinako both couldn’t cook. Especially Hinako, who couldn’t even do something as simple as preparing instant ramen. Now that Sefi was here, Kurou felt relief over his eating arrangements.<br /> <br /> While imagining what was for breakfast, Kurou opened the door to the washroom.<br /> <br /> “…”<br /> <br /> “… Hm?”<br /> <br /> Kurou tilted his head slightly.<br /> <br /> It had totally slipped his mind, but the washroom in the new house also doubled up as the changing room for the bath.<br /> <br /> “R-Rou…?”<br /> <br /> And because of that, there was nothing strange about Sefi being in the washroom in a stage of undress.<br /> <br /> On the contrary, Sefi was the one with a strange look on her face as she stared at Kurou, who had justed entered the washroom.<br /> <br /> “Good morning, Sefi.”<br /> <br /> “Good morning… Wait, why are you even entering in the first place!?”<br /> <br /> Sefi looked like she was just about to take her shower, because she was wearing nothing but a pair of white panties.<br /> <br /> As soon as Kurou had entered she had quickly covered her chest with her hands, but the rest of her skin was almost fully exposed. Sefi’s breasts were reasonably big and nicely shaped, and with them wobbling like jelly they looked soft to the touch.<br /> <br /> “Well, I was thinking I might as well take a shower.”<br /> <br /> “If that’s the case then do it after I’m done!”<br /> <br /> “But if we shower together we can save on the water bill, right?”<br /> <br /> “I’ll pay for my portion of the water bill, so let me shower alone!”<br /> <br /> There was no real need to appeal to him like that, but Sefi was in a panic so she had just blurted out something that didn’t make sense at all.<br /> <br /> “By the way, I can’t really see your chest very well so would you mind moving your hands away?”<br /> <br /> “I’m keeping them there so you can’t see them!”<br /> <br /> She had already removed her bra, so other than her chest being covered by her hands, Kurou had a clear view of everything else. Even so, his selfishness made him unsatisfied even though he was already seeing her hands bra.<br /> <br /> “Ah, enough! Why are we talking normally like nothing’s wrong!? Hurry up and get out! If you don’t leave in three seconds, I will smash this changing room and you!”<br /> <br /> “So you’re going to go wild again, huh…”<br /> <br /> Kurou murmured like it was someone else’s problem.<br /> <br /> The truth was, with Sefi’s power, she could easily destroy the whole house, to say nothing of a single room.<br /> <br /> “Guess it can’t be helped then…”<br /> <br /> Kurou spent two seconds burning the sight of Sefi’s chest into his eyes, before fleeing out of the washroom like a frightened hare in the last second remaining.<br /> <br /> It was only because Kurou possessed amazing physical ability for a human that he was able to move that quickly.<br /> <br /> “Idiot idiot idiot—!”<br /> <br /> He could hear Sefi’s stream of abuse from behind the closed door.<br /> <br /> Considering that he had stared at her half-naked body with all his might as well as continued to stay inside the toilet, the fact that Sefi hadn’t resorted to violence was a reflection of her kind nature.<br /> <br /> Although, if he did go too far with his sexual harassment, who’d know what Sefi might do then.<br /> <br /> “Still, I did get to see something nice this early in the morning…”<br /> <br /> “Good for you…”<br /> <br /> “Woah!”<br /> <br /> As Kurou was having a lewd look on his face, a voice suddenly cut him off.<br /> <br /> When he finally noticed his surroundings, Hinako was already standing next to him, staring at Kurou intently.<br /> <br /> “As always Kuro, you’re up to your sexual harassment again…”<br /> <br /> “Wouldn’t it be an insult to a beautiful lady if I saw her naked figure but turned and ran away? It would make it seem like I had just seen something weird.”<br /> <br /> “Kuro, that was a fantastic excuse to give…”<br /> <br /> From the bottom of her heart, Hinako was left dumbfounded by Kurou.<br /> <br /> Today Hinako was wearing that nurse outfit again. Having said that though, she hadn’t nursed him yesterday. She was just a girl who liked wearing particular outfits without doing any work in particular.<br /> <br /> “Hm? If Sefi’s in the bath, why is there such a nice smell of food? Did she already cook breakfast?”<br /> <br /> “I made breakfast this morning. It will be ready soon, so please head to the living room.”<br /> <br /> “Ehhhhhh, Hinako cooked!? That’s impossible!”<br /> <br /> “There’s no reason for you to be surprised to that extent…”<br /> <br /> No, there is, thought Kurou as he gazed at Hinako suspiciously.<br /> <br /> Based on Kurou’s experience, Hinako could not even discern how to use a vacuum so it was certainly possible that she had never cooked before.<br /> <br /> “What happened to this world during my stay at the hospital……”<br /> <br /> “Please don’t mention a drastic change occurring to the world just because I mastered a skill. Even a person like me will mature.”<br /> <br /> Hinako swiftly turned around and headed back towards the kitchen.<br /> <br /> “Uh……”<br /> <br /> Hinako cooking, huh————<br /> <br /> I should probably have an antacid on hand, thought Kurou as he unexpectedly began to panic. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The living room of their new home was carpeted. Other than the TV, table, and a small cupboard, there were essentially no other pieces of furniture or appliances. It was a quite plainly adorned room. <br /> <br /> Kurou was sitting right in front of the table at the center of the room.<br /> <br /> “Hey Kuro, please eat while it’s still hot.”<br /> <br /> “……”<br /> <br /> Hinako emphatically placed a plate down on the table.<br /> <br /> The dish consisted of rice, eggs, as well as thinly sliced pork meat. It had been cooked with onions and carrots, plus it was seasoned————in essence it was char siu rice.<br /> <br /> Although Sefi had not returned from the shower room yet, it was probably best to eat now before it became cold. <br /> <br /> “Thank you for the meal.”<br /> <br /> Kurou politely pressed his hands together and proceeded to slowly scoop up some of the char siu rice with a spoon, placing it in his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Eh? Not bad.”<br /> <br /> “What’s that supposed to mean?”<br /> <br /> “Nothing, nothing at all.”<br /> <br /> Upon noticing Hinako’s teary eyes looking his way, Kurou immediately began denying that there was anything to it. <br /> <br /> To have dabbled in the thought of an antacid seemed to be very disrespectful. Hinako performed far beyond expectations in creating an edible dish, thus he stated as such.<br /> <br /> Even its rich flavor suited Kurou’s taste. Kurou did not utter a word as he moved the spoon around and scarfed down the char siu rice. <br /> <br /> “……Mmm, tasty. Thank you for the meal.”<br /> <br /> Kurou set his spoon down and pressed his hands together once again.<br /> <br /> “That said, why were you continuously making char siu rice since morning?”<br /> <br /> “Jeez, to be questioning me now after you’ve already eaten.”<br /> <br /> “Hey Sefi, you done showering?”<br /> <br /> Sefi, having exited the showers, entered the living room and sat across from Kurou.<br /> <br /> “You live such a sloppy lifestyle Kurou. Having food prepared and served right to you really makes you look like an imbecile. Didn’t you used to say no matter what you eat, it will taste delicious?”<br /> <br /> “Whatever do you mean?”<br /> <br /> Kurou chuckled as he shook his head.<br /> <br /> “Something more delicious than Sefi, such a thing cannot possibly exist in this universe……”<br /> <br /> “Now you’re asking for it.”<br /> <br /> Sefi tightly clenched her fists while staring him down with an austere expression.<br /> <br /> Kurou wanting to someday eat Sefi, that was indeed the truth.<br /> <br /> “I’m glad that you like it Kuro. Also, here’s a bento.”<br /> <br /> “Huh?”<br /> <br /> Kurou was handed a bento box from Hinako, his eyes flickered in surprise. <br /> <br /> That slightly larger than usual bento box was jam-packed with char siu rice.<br /> <br /> “By the way, for dinner we are having more nutritious char siu rice that is laden with pork.” <br /> <br /> “Eh——, that sounds pretty good.”<br /> <br /> “Are you serious!?”<br /> <br /> Sefi shouted at the top of her lungs while Kurou and Hinako took a glance at each other.<br /> <br /> “To think I thought Rou was more ridiculous! Hina, you can’t even make anything else!?”<br /> <br /> “Well, for her to be able to make one dish, isn’t that still amazing? If it were me, this cutting, cooking, steaming and such, I could never accomplish such tasks.”<br /> <br /> “Then again, Rou is also way too lax about this……”<br /> <br /> From the looks of it, Sefi was also quite unpleased with Kurou’s response.<br /> <br /> In regards to Kurou’s eating habits, he was not particularly picky when it came to taste.<br /> <br /> “For now, Hina and I will just alternate cooking every other day. However, even that is quite unfavorable.”<br /> <br /> “How so?”<br /> <br /> “My taste buds are quite delicate. I could never eat something as oily as this early in the morning.”<br /> <br /> “In that case, couldn’t you just teach Hinako how to cook?”<br /> <br /> “Of course, did you think I was going to let her make the same thing every time!?”<br /> <br /> Hmm, Kurou pondered as he drank a sip of tea. <br /> <br /> He noticed it ever since yesterday. It seemed Sefi and Hinako had already gotten along quite well. With the endearing nickname, “Hina”, it probably served as a proof of friendship.<br /> <br /> With the exception of being a bit over the top when making the char siu rice, Hinako’s cooking appeared to be learned through Sefi.<br /> <br /> The situation had certainly become quite perplexing.<br /> <br /> Sefi and Hinako————who would have ever known that their relations would reach the point where they would live under the same roof. For them to even be conversing was quite unfathomable.<br /> <br /> Seventy years ago, at that time the whole world was enveloped in war.<br /> <br /> The Great War was at a point where neither side would budge and as each nation exhausted their resources, an extraordinary change suddenly occurred——<br /> <br /> Countless portals that were connected to another world had their gates opened up. Following that, the entire world was trampled upon by the Swordies who swarmed in————<br /> <br /> The victor of the Great War was the Swordies.<br /> <br /> To add to that, the portals disappeared just as instantaneously as when they first appeared. Having lost access to their homeworld, the Swordies decided to turn Japan into their new homeworld and implemented a new government system.<br /> <br /> For the Swordies who prevailed and became the dominant ones, they governed the humans————specifically the Japanese. With the prevalence of discrimination, there clearly was a rift between the two sides.<br /> <br /> Sefi was the daughter of the four rulers who were at the pinnacle of the Swordie government————she was the princess of the four generals.<br /> <br /> On the flip side, Hinako was a human. The difference in status between her and Sefi was poles apart.<br /> <br /> Normally speaking, two people like them————wait, including Kurou, having the three of them eating the same meal under the same roof was just unimaginable.<br /> <br /> “……Even so, you’re such a good person for eating the char siu rice after all.”<br /> <br /> “What nonsense. If it were left aside as such it’d be a huge waste!”<br /> <br /> As Sefi was wolfing down the char siu rice, she loudly shouted at Kurou.<br /> <br /> “More like if it were Sefi’s leftovers, it would fetch a high price from Kuro……”<br /> <br /> “That wasn’t necessary you know!”<br /> <br /> It appeared that their relationship had turned for the better. Kurou’s eyes filled with warmth as he gazed at the two girls.<br /> <br /> In present day Japan, the way Swordies treated human was always filled with prejudice to some extent.<br /> <br /> However, Sefi was a notable exception. Sefi, who was at the zenith of status, had no issues with the lower class humans. Furthermore, she had been friends with Kurou since childhood, so perhaps that contributed to it as well.<br /> <br /> No matter how one looked at it, it was great that Sefi had no intentions of behaving in such silly discriminatory ways.<br /> <br /> Hinako, because of the unique conditions she was raised under, was unfamiliar with the customs of modern day Japan————such as the discrimination between humans and Swordies. Kurou thought it was also nice that Hinako was not the type to be obsequiously acting inferior.<br /> <br /> “Rou, what are you fixated on? Hurry up and finish eating, then let’s go to school————“<br /> <br /> “Hmm? What’s the matter Sefi?”<br /> <br /> Sefi’s gaze was honed onto one spot. Kurou turned his head and followed her line of sight.<br /> <br /> “What a pleasant aroma wafting around this early in the morning. I truly envy your dietary lifestyle, Kurou.”<br /> <br /> “……Deputy?”<br /> <br /> Kurou muttered.<br /> <br /> When did she arrive? A woman was standing at the entrance of the living room.<br /> <br /> She was tall and had her gleaming brown hair tied behind her. She wore a black blazer over her white shirt, a tight fitting miniskirt, and a red overcoat draped on as usual. Like a samurai, she had her longsword and dagger hanging by her waist. <br /> <br /> “What is a deputy?”<br /> <br /> Hinako was not in the least surprised with the intruder as she nonchalantly questioned.<br /> <br /> “The deputy is just the deputy. She’s a prestigious member of the Sabers, second only to the director.”<br /> <br /> Kurou appropriately answered.<br /> <br /> The so-called Sabers was the name of the public security force that Kurou was affiliated with.<br /> <br /> The black blazer and overcoat which the deputy was wearing was the uniform of the Sabers.<br /> <br /> Within the capital of Japan————Tokyo Swordia, the police would investigate ordinary criminals while the Sabers were responsible for terrorist activities. The cops primarily consisted of humans. In contrast to that, members of the Sabers were practically all Swordies. However, Kurou was the sole human member within the Sabers.<br /> <br /> “It’s just as Kurou explained. Oh that’s right, Sefi-sama, this is our first time meeting each other. I’m the Sabers’ deputy, Sabina.”<br /> <br /> “……I’m Sefi. Since I’m just a student, there’s no need to be so formal.”<br /> <br /> “Understood.”<br /> <br /> Despite her nodding, the deputy still had not changed her courtesies. It was a sharp contrast from her perfunctory tone towards Kurou.<br /> <br /> “Well, it doesn’t really matter. Deputy, why are you here?”<br /> <br /> “Things have gotten quite riled up, I’ll explain later. Just follow me, and Sefi-sama, would you please join us as well?”<br /> <br /> “Umm, sure.”<br /> <br /> After Sefi nodded, the deputy departed from the living room without waiting for Kurou’s response.<br /> <br /> Of course to Kurou, since she was his superior, if she had said to “come with” then he would be obliged to follow.<br /> <br /> Kurou and Sefi glanced at each other, and then nodded towards Hinako.<br /> <br /> “Will you be ok by yourself Hinako?”<br /> <br /> “I believe so.”<br /> <br /> Hinako stoically nodded.<br /> <br /> Due to certain circumstances, she was now guarded by Kurou. However, Kurou was also hospitalized for two weeks. During that time, there was not a chance that she would be left without a replacement bodyguard.<br /> <br /> Although it was not visible, there was someone protecting Hinako from somewhere unbeknownst to them————<br /> <br /> Even Kurou knew about that and Hinako probably heard about it too.<br /> <br /> “Time to go Kurou.”<br /> <br /> Of course, Sefi understood as well.<br /> <br /> Right now, there would not be any problems even if Hinako was left alone. Kurou stood up from his seat and walked towards the door along with Sefi.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Surprisingly, the place the deputy brought them to was nearby.<br /> <br /> Within the Sword Academy, excluding the main campus that encompassed all grades, there was an additional secondary campus that contained a group of special classrooms and teacher facilities.<br /> <br /> “It’s right here.”<br /> <br /> The deputy halted right in front of a conference room on the second floor of the secondary campus building.<br /> <br /> Stationed in front of the conference room door were two girls that stood like soldiers. Upon seeing the two of them, Sefi revealed an astonished expression.<br /> <br /> “Romis, Remis, why are you two……I guess there’s no point in asking.”<br /> <br /> The girl standing on the left side of the door nodded in silence to Sefi.<br /> <br /> The two known as Romis and Remis possessed nearly matching outer features. One swift look and it was obvious that they were twins. Whether it was their facial complexion or their body type, it was all identical. They were approximately twenty years of age. Appearance-wise they looked a bit inanimate, perhaps due to their stoic expressions. However, they could be considered as pure beauties as well.<br /> <br /> Both of them had silver hair extending to their backs. They were wearing a thin, white-toned shirt that had silver lines throughout along with a similar style white miniskirt. Even the scabbard and hilt of their slender swords were white. The only piece that was different was the black mantle draped over their shoulders.<br /> <br /> Their attire was the formalwear of the Sword Princess.<br /> <br /> Before a Swordie reached eighteen years-old, they can attain the title of Swordsman. The Swordsman title was conferred to them by their masters or school teachers. Kurou was given the title by his master——Sword Saint Hyouka. With the title, one could enlist in the army or enter a police-related occupation that required the use of a sword.<br /> <br /> Furthermore, the position that surpassed the Swordsman was the Sword Princess.<br /> <br /> Those who are able to attain the title are few and far in between and needless to say, those who did were all exceptional with the sword. Their numbers were scarce, yet Romis and Remis are two Sword Princesses. To add to that, the deputy was one as well.<br /> <br /> Kurou’s line of sight shifted away from them as he began sprucing himself up. He used his hands to straighten out his hair and button up his unbuttoned shirt. Kurou understood that the two twin Sword Princesses served as bodyguards for a certain someone.<br /> <br /> The person awaiting them was not someone you could just show up all disheveled for.<br /> <br /> “Excuse us.”<br /> <br /> As Kurou deftly straightened out his appearance, the deputy knocked on the conference room door.<br /> <br /> As soon as the “please come in” response was heard, the deputy entered the conference room. Sefi and Kurou followed her inside.<br /> <br /> The conference room seemed unusually spacious.<br /> <br /> Normally there would be tables and chairs lined up around the room. Here however, there was only one table in the depths of the room. On the table there lay a laptop and a pile of documents spread across it.<br /> <br /> The young woman that was sitting there stood up and smiled.<br /> <br /> “Welcome Sefi.”<br /> <br /> Although she was calm, her voice was quite resounding. She maintained a stern appearance and exuded an intense willpower from her eyes. Her radiant blonde hair was trimmed into a short hairstyle. Her dark blue dress resembled military attire, yet the style was also quite evident from the uniform.<br /> <br /> “It’s been a while Onee-sama.”<br /> <br /> Sefi walked towards the center of the room and politely lowered her head.<br /> <br /> Indeed, the person wearing the dress was a woman named Sylphy, Sefi’s older sister.<br /> <br /> She was the eldest daughter of the supreme four generals and she was their successor, hence the reason she wore a military style dress. Moreover, due to the four generals’ pedigree, that family tradition had been kept even until now.<br /> <br /> Sylphy was twenty-six years old and although she was still very young, she had assumed the role of a government official.<br /> <br /> The four generals were the zenith of the Swordie government and ranked below them were the government officials and the general populace. In fact, the government’s powers consisted of making practically all of the important legislation decisions and the four generals who were above them only handled the more serious cases.<br /> <br /> In other words, Sylphy had already become the backbone of the country and it was established that she would be the one to hold the supreme position.<br /> <br /> With a well-behaved attitude, Kurou stayed near a window in the room and waited. As a human, he could not act all grandiose and be talkative in front of Sylphy. Even as a Swordie and being in charge of the Sabers organization, the deputy stayed a step behind Sefi.<br /> <br /> Of course, Sefi had also discerned this level of subtlety. As a result, only she could engage in conversation with Sylphy. She faced her sister and spoke up.<br /> <br /> “Onee-sama, why did you come to the academy?”<br /> <br /> “So I could see Sefi……that’s what I would like to say. However, this is not the case. The incident this time even requires the government to set up a committee of inquiry and I was elected as a member.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy shrugged her shoulders. She sighed as she sat back in her chair again.<br /> <br /> “Of course, it’s Manaka’s————the incident involving the Blazes. It was also determined that the academy where the incident spawned should have an investigation office established. Thus, we’ll be borrowing this conference room.”<br /> <br /> As she spoke, Sylphy smiled towards her sister.<br /> <br /> Such a smile and that bright, beaming voice would surely bring about an uplift in mood. Sylphy possessed what seemed to be the qualities of a natural born leader.<br /> <br /> However, Kurou also knew that Sylphy carried other traits as well……<br /> <br /> “Well then, please let me hear the report Kurou.”<br /> <br /> “Yes.”<br /> <br /> Despite suddenly hearing himself called upon, Kurou did not waver. Since he would not be invited without intention, he predicted that it was bound to happen. He also realized that the deputy probably summoned him to give the report while Sefi was to provide supplementary explanations if needed.<br /> <br /> Kurou began explaining the chain of events.<br /> <br /> First of all, in the human residential areas of the Outer Human Region of Tokyo Swordia, there were numerous tsujigiri incidents. The criminals of those incidents were first-year students from the Sword Academy who were the first and second ranked academically in the school. Although the victims of the crimes were deadbeats, murder was still murder.<br /> <br /> Originally, punitive measures were to be taken for these criminals. However, it was no longer possible.<br /> <br /> Migune, the number one ranked student, was found dead on the side of the road. Following that, the second ranked Freya was also killed during the elimination tournament that was set for every grade.<br /> <br /> “The person who murdered both of them was a first-year student from the Sword Academy. Her name is Neena.”<br /> <br /> She was Sefi’s friend who had braids tied together and wore glasses, which was a rare sight for Swordies.<br /> <br /> No, Neena was not an ordinary Swordie. She was————what was known as a Blaze, a race that especially craved combat even among Swordies.<br /> <br /> The Blazes and Swordies had hostile relations. However, Neena’s assassination of Migune and Freya was unrelated to the Blaze incident.<br /> <br /> Neena’s reason for killing the two was quite meager. Neena could not forgive Migune and Freya who engaged in such trifling matters such as murdering those hooligans. Moreover, to Neena, who was a Blaze, none of the first-years were on par to be her opponent.<br /> <br /> “However, from her statements and actions, Neena’s true objective was to kill Sefi.”<br /> <br /> “That’s right Onee-sama, Neena truly exuded killing intent towards me.”<br /> <br /> “What a dangerous situation.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy, who had been tacitly listening to Kurou’s report and then heard Sefi’s supporting claim, changed her expression for the first time. Although Neena was unsuccessful in killing Sefi, there was no way she could just turn a blind eye towards her sister’s perilous encounter.<br /> <br /> “Well then, that means the person who assigned her the target was————Sword General Manaka?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, Sylphy-sama.”<br /> <br /> Sword General Manaka————was someone who Neena looked up to and she referred to her as “Onee-sama”. Having directed Neena to engage in covert operations, Manaka was the mastermind behind it all.<br /> <br /> To Kurou, she was his master’s, Sword Saint Hyouka’s, little sister as well as the director, thus making her his superior.<br /> <br /> For a human, Kurou was already extremely formidable. Despite that, it was nigh impossible for him to match up against Sword General Manaka in combat. For him to be able to fend her off was already a miracle. At the expense of just a two week stay at the hospital, it must have been a fluke.<br /> <br /> “My report concludes here.”<br /> <br /> “I see, thank you very much Kurou.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy nodded extensively. With Sylphy’s pinnacle status, such displays of gratitude were practically unthinkable towards a human like Kurou.<br /> <br /> Perhaps it was because Kurou was affiliated with the Sabers, or maybe it was due to him being the Sword Saint’s disciple?<br /> <br /> “So you were immediately hospitalized afterwards, that means you’re not clear on what ensued after that right?”<br /> <br /> “Indeed, everything I know from then on was from TV news broadcasts.”<br /> <br /> Kurou mannerly nodded.<br /> <br /> According to the news, Sword General Manaka had already been stripped of her title.<br /> <br /> Manaka and the anti-government faction were in cahoots, she killed Sabers members, and then fled————that was the extent of the reporting. It refrained from disclosing the existence of the Blazes.<br /> <br /> “Of course, we are also investigating. Within the members of the Seven Swords, two government chambers, business directors, the wealthy, and within the upper echelons of society, the Blazes who may have infiltrated have been practically left unhindered despite background checks. Not only do we want to uncover the Blazes, we are also forced to examine Swordies and humans who have had relations with Blazes as well as the flow of people and money.”<br /> <br /> “Sounds like a headache……”<br /> <br /> Such endless investigating would make one feel aggravated just from thinking about it.<br /> <br /> “Tell me about it. Of course, we investigate any Blaze related incidents. Although they reside within their so-called ‘refuge’, there are quite a few whose whereabouts are unknown. However, it’s unclear whether or not those untraceable Blazes have been in contact with anti-government organizations. Furthermore, because the Blaze population significantly decreased after the war, it’s unclear how many were confined within the refuge. A lot of records are missing from that place as well.”<br /> <br /> Although Kurou had predicted such an outcome, it was still hard to imagine carrying forth that kind of investigating.<br /> <br /> “There are plenty of things I’m unsure of, particularly Manaka’s whereabouts. Despite our utmost efforts to track her……”<br /> <br /> Sylphy casted a glance towards the deputy who began to speak.<br /> <br /> “Even though the Sabers also fielded a small investigative unit to track down our former director, ever since her escape from the Sword Academy we haven’t been able to find her trail. Even if we do encounter her……”<br /> <br /> “Containing Manaka would be a daunting task and let’s not even get into arresting her. Assuming we can confirm her place of residence, we’ll come up with countermeasures.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy sounded quite exasperated as she ruffled her cheeks.<br /> <br /> Specifically what should be done, that was what Kurou had the hardest time grasping. Although she was a traitor, Manaka was undoubtedly selected as a Seven Sword based on her strength. It would still be a massive struggle even if a couple Sword Princesses were utilized in capturing her.<br /> <br /> “The Sabers have also added more female members to reinforce our combat squad. Originally, we anticipated Kurou to return to us.”<br /> <br /> “Kurou has his studies as well. Even if Manaka is a traitor, she definitely ordered the protection of the daughter of the Sun Cult founder. Kurou has to continue protecting Sakurai Hinako. Of course, he should also be able to continue going to school without an issue.”<br /> <br /> “Are you sure that’s ok?”<br /> <br /> Kurou was slightly caught off guard by this.<br /> <br /> With the appearance of a Blaze traitor group, Kurou had also considered the possibility of being recalled as a member of the Sabers, especially since Kurou and Manaka’s fates were deeply linked.<br /> <br /> “Honestly, even the government is uncertain at to what measures should be taken.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy sighed as she continued to ruffle her cheeks.<br /> <br /> “I believe we should determine our course of action as soon as possible. However, despite being a member, I’m still quite young. I certainly don’t have the credibility to make such irresponsible remarks towards a situation like this. The situation has clearly altered already.”<br /> <br /> “Altered? What’s going on Onee-sama?<br /> <br /> Sefi questioned her with a serious expression. From the looks of it, even Sefi was unfamiliar with the details of the situation.<br /> <br /> “During these past two weeks, five Swordie officials, or perhaps they were business directors, have been killed.”<br /> <br /> “Five people……were they all important individuals?”<br /> <br /> “It’s not exactly like that. They all have some sort of status, but it’s not like they’re irreplaceable. Well, I guess you can say the gears of society are now shifting.”<br /> <br /> Kurou thought that was quite an overstatement, however he did not voice his opinion. Voicing such thoughtlessness was impermissible.<br /> <br /> “And, there’s one peculiar incident out of the five deaths.”<br /> <br /> “A peculiar incident?”<br /> <br /> Kurou tilted his head.<br /> <br /> “Out of these five incidents, four of them were clean one-hit kills. However, in one of those incidents, the corpse was crudely cut apart. I’ve seen the autopsy report as well, it’s akin to an outsider’s swordsmanship. Perhaps they might not even be affiliated with the Blazes.”<br /> <br /> “I see……”<br /> <br /> Kurou only knew two Blazes. However, those two were exceptional sword wielders who were strong beyond words. It was difficult to imagine the Blazes using such unnecessary sword maneuvers. <br /> <br /> “However, there’s another bizarre occurrence. Everyone who was slaughtered was apparently frozen or electrocuted, with that being the last attack they suffered.”<br /> <br /> “……Perhaps the murders are all independent from one another?”<br /> <br /> “Besides the sword wounds, there were traces of impact wounds from being hit by a truck as well. Basically this one incident is quite shrouded in mystery……however, this was written in the report you submitted before your hospital stay correct?”<br /> <br /> “Those were mystic arts.”<br /> <br /> Kurou slowly nodded his head.<br /> <br /> It was said that in the past, there were three reasons why Swordies attained victory.<br /> <br /> One was of course a Swordie’s overwhelming physical capabilities and sword prowess.<br /> <br /> The second was mystic arts————controlling flames, ice, and lightning, that sort of magical ability. To be able to attack from afar, they assisted the Swordies in their piercing attack.<br /> <br /> Even though practically every Swordie was able to use this sort of power during the Great War, for some reason countless individuals lost their mystic art abilities once the portals closed and their contact with their homeworld was severed.<br /> <br /> The generations of Swordies born after the war were innately unable to use mystic arts and could never learn to use them at all.<br /> <br /> However, Manaka and Neena, both of whom had battled against Kurou, were able to manipulate the powers of the mystic arts.<br /> <br /> “It was said that the mystic arts were originally passed along to the Swordies by the Blazes. For that group to be able to use mystic arts in the present era isn’t really inconceivable. Compared to this, to specifically use mystic arts as their final strike, it’s understandable that this was clearly meant to provoke us. However, this is really what’s concerning. It’s like they are saying ‘come get us.’”<br /> <br /> Kurou felt very impressed. For Sylphy to have contemplated about it to such extent, no wonder she became a government official at such a young age. Even Kurou did not really read much into the use of mystic arts. Despite the danger factors, overall this was emblematic of the Blazes.<br /> <br /> “Well, that’s why I’m saying that the Blazes are on the move again. Because of that, we must determine suitable measures right away. However, the only thing we are capable of doing right now is just investigating the incident involving Manaka.”<br /> <br /> “……Umm, Onee-sama.”<br /> <br /> Sefi apprehensively raised her hand.<br /> <br /> “Yes Sefi?”<br /> <br /> “Why was Neena so intent on killing me? Although, she didn’t seem quite sure herself since she was probably just ordered to do so.”<br /> <br /> “Ah, I don’t know but I can deduce a reason.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy once again rested her elbows on the table and crossed her hands in front of her face.<br /> <br /> “Do you know about the genocide and isolation of the Blazes?”<br /> <br /> “Yes.”<br /> <br /> Kurou had also heard about this matter. Even among Swordies, the Blazes were particularly adept in battle and were extremely dynamic during the Great War. After the war, they were rejected by the government for their thirst for battle and being too powerful, thus leading to their cleansing.<br /> <br /> To add to that, the survivors of the cleansing resided in an isolated area. They were not permitted to wield swords in an effort to curb their dangerous disposition.<br /> <br /> “Seventy years ago, the greatest proponent of the cleansing and isolation policy was one of the four generals of the past————Lanafi. Known as the great strategist————she was our great grandmother.”<br /> <br /> “Eh? Our great grandmother————so there’s still people carrying a grudge from way back then!?”<br /> <br /> Sefi was greatly astonished. In reality, being the one whose life was sought after, it was unthinkable how someone could carry a grudge from over seventy years ago.<br /> <br /> “Although it’s regrettable, our great grandmother departed from this world thirty years ago. Hence, it’s very possible that they would target her great grandchildren. Presently within our family, the one whose security measures are the most lacking would be Sefi.” <br /> <br /> That statement was understandable, yet confusing at the same time.<br /> <br /> The Blazes had been isolated even till now and although they were Swordies with a penchant for swords, they were unable to wield swords or enlist in the police department and military battle squads. <br /> <br /> Getting revenge due to the current state of hate and suffering, Kurou could understand such a notion. However…… <br /> <br /> “You have a puzzled expression there Kurou. You are a notable swordsman, but it seems as if you will never understand a person’s emotions.”<br /> <br /> “I apologize, that’s because I’ve been in the mountains every day until a year ago……”<br /> <br /> During the seven years he grew up there, he lived together with the Sword Saint and his fellow disciple, Lars. Although they would occasionally be paid a visit by those seeking the Sword Saint, Kurou basically had no interactions with other people.<br /> <br /> “Listen up Kurou.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy calmly began to speak.<br /> <br /> “Grudges don’t necessarily dissipate over time. Just like how you rigorously hone a technique, the fangs of revenge are sharpened over a long period of time. Even among those Blazes who experienced the cleansing seventy years ago, there will be those who will never let go. Perhaps the mastermind behind planning these treacherous acts is that sort of person. These so-called emotions———are unexpectedly unyielding objects.<br /> <br /> Sylphy, who had stated as such, appeared to be pretty excited.<br /> <br /> Perhaps she too possessed an unyielding heart————Kurou was pretty sure of that.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The door to the conference room opened.<br /> <br /> Since the deputy mentioned that she still had work to attend to, she decided to return to Sabers headquarters. With the disappearance of the director, the deputy inherited her responsibilities so the work that she had to do was probably a mountainous task.<br /> <br /> If it were possible, Kurou also wished to go back. However, Sylphy still had things to say.<br /> <br /> “Sefi-tan!”<br /> <br /> “Eh!?”<br /> <br /> The moment Kurou directed his eyes towards the door, a peculiar change occurred. He turned his head and noticed that Sylphy was tightly hugging Sefi while frenziedly rubbing against her cheeks.<br /> <br /> “W-Wait a sec Onee-sama!”<br /> <br /> “Ha——, onee-sama has been really lonely. Despite clearly being able to go to school from our house, Sefi-tan chose to dorm at the school.”<br /> <br /> She was unmistakably a sis-con.<br /> <br /> Kurou was particularly surprised when the successor of the four generals revealed such a nonsensical expression.<br /> <br /> Sylphy was the Sword Saint’s friend. In the past, Sylphy would head to the mountains to visit the Sword Saint. The only reason Kurou and Sefi met back when they were just little kids was because Sefi tagged along with Sylphy.<br /> <br /> Of course, when it came to Sylphy’s heavy case of the sis-con syndrome, Kurou was also very knowledgeable on that matter.<br /> <br /> “I-I’m already 16, I should be more independent!”<br /> <br /> “Huh——, Sefi-tan is maturing so remarkably. It makes me feel both excited and lonesome. I definitely wish I could let you rest on my lap for another ten years.”<br /> <br /> “T-Ten years is a bit……”<br /> <br /> Sefi’s face stiffened.<br /> <br /> How can a person even call ten more years of that independence? It would not be surprising to see a person marry at that age. Sylphy’s overprotection had gone past the deep end.<br /> <br /> “Say Sefi-tan, there are no strange cretins eying you right?”<br /> <br /> “……O-Of course not.”<br /> [[File:Kenshin v02 045.PNG|thumbnail|right]]<br /> Kurou was probably conscious of the minute pause in Sefi’s response.<br /> <br /> Rather, that strange cretin was still within the conference room. Of course, Kurou was going to avoid saying anything unnecessary.<br /> <br /> “Sefi-tan must retain her purity till marriage. Actually, even if you do get married you must still retain your beauty.”<br /> <br /> “……Onee-sama, that’s outrageous.”<br /> <br /> “As long as you stay a virgin I won’t mind anything else they do to you ok?”<br /> <br /> Of course, Kurou kept silent. If his sexual harassment of Sefi was revealed to Sylphy, things could get hairy.<br /> <br /> Just by utilizing her authority, Sylphy could probably put a human like Kurou to death with ease.<br /> <br /> “Oh yeah Kurou, allow me to thank you.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> After being suddenly called upon, Kurou was startled.<br /> <br /> “You protected Sefi-tan from the Blazes right? Thank you so much.”<br /> <br /> “……Y-You’re welcome.”<br /> <br /> Kurou politely responded. In reality, this was not really something he should have been thanked for. To Kurou, Sefi is a very important girl so guarding her was a given.<br /> <br /> “So humble. If possible I wish to express my gratitude somehow, so a personal thanks is the least I can do.”<br /> <br /> “Then, may I ask a question?”<br /> <br /> Kurou instantly responded.<br /> <br /> It was something he wished to ask from the very beginning.<br /> <br /> “If that’s all you want then that’s totally fine by me. So go ahead, what’s your question?”<br /> <br /> “The matter regarding the Sword Saint……how do you plan on dealing with it?”<br /> <br /> Kurou’s master, Sword Saint Hyouka.<br /> <br /> She disappeared approximately a year ago. Being the older sister of Manaka who was a Blaze, it obviously meant that Hyouka herself was also a Blaze.<br /> <br /> If she was untraceable, the government would probably become suspicious. As for the Sword Saint, Kurou obviously knew that the government would be unable to capture her, but his question was not in regards to that.<br /> <br /> “For Hyouka, we have not decided on any course of action yet.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy offered a simple reply.<br /> <br /> “For the time being, the police are currently investigating. However, it isn’t an official search and it’s not because of the Blaze incident either. The search started ever since her disappearance. It’s true that Hyouka hid her Blaze identity, but there’s no evidence that she has done anything.”<br /> <br /> “In other words, in regards to whether or not she will be arrested……”<br /> <br /> “It won’t happen. Of course, even though you guys are Hyouka’s disciples, you and Lars won’t be tied to the case. It’s also understood that you guys have no relations with the Blazes. Rather, if they were to arrest anyone with relations to Hyouka, even I would be arrested as her friend.”<br /> <br /> “Phew……”<br /> <br /> Sefi was relieved as she sighed.<br /> <br /> She must have been concerned with that matter as well. Although she puts up a tough front, Sefi would always become anxious due to her overly caring nature.<br /> <br /> “Furthermore, if a friend of hers like me is permitted to say something on the subject……I don’t think Hyouka has anything to do with the rebellion or whatever. She definitely wouldn’t have interest in such mundane affairs.”<br /> <br /> Kurou felt the same way in regards to that.<br /> <br /> Sword Saint Hyouka was a woman whose life completely revolved around the sword.<br /> <br /> Even though she was discriminated as a Blaze and segregated, it was hard to imagine that she would hold a grudge and point her sword because of it.<br /> <br /> “So you don’t really need to concern yourself with Hyouka’s situation. We don’t place much emphasis on it either. In addition, there are countless things that we still don’t know, such as ——this.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy returned to the front of her desk and retrieved a photo.<br /> <br /> What was captured and enlarged on the photo was the vast blue sky————and a pure black split running down a part of it.<br /> <br /> The portal————<br /> <br /> After seventy years, the portal that connected directly to the Swordie homeworld had finally opened again, and then it instantly closed afterwards.<br /> <br /> That portal was witnessed by numerous residents within Tokyo Swordia.<br /> <br /> “Kurou, you guys don’t know the cause of the portals opening right?”<br /> <br /> “Yeah, it’s because during that time I was battling against Manaka.”<br /> <br /> Kurou replied with a stern expression.<br /> <br /> Actually, in regards to the cause behind the portal’s opening, it was not like he was completely clueless.<br /> <br /> However, if he were to mention it————it was possible that those who were close to Kurou may get enveloped by danger. Even though Sefi knew as well, it seemed she was going to remain silent.<br /> <br /> “I can’t take it anymore. If this continues, our inability will have no ends. If we aren’t able to at least catch Manaka and Neena……”<br /> <br /> Sylphy spoke as if she was frustrated. In fact, it most likely was pure frustration.<br /> <br /> At this stage, there was practically nothing that Kurou could assist in. Even if he were to battle against Manaka again, the thought of retreating was quite enticing after contemplating the difference in their strength.<br /> <br /> Right as he thought there was nothing else to be said, someone knocked on the door.<br /> <br /> “Please come in.”<br /> <br /> At some point Sylphy’s sis-con expression had vanished and she reverted back to her resolute manner of speaking.<br /> <br /> Following that, the door was opened.<br /> <br /> “Nice to meet you Sylphy.”<br /> <br /> It was said in a very clear tone.<br /> <br /> The person who came in was a girl wearing the Sword Academy’s uniform. Based on the color of her tie, she appeared to be a third-year student.<br /> <br /> She had long, light green hair knotted behind her. Her neat appearance exuded a sense of warmth. Indeed, it gave her a gentle complexion. Although her chest was lacking, her body could be described as belonging to that of a model.<br /> <br /> How can a beauty like her be in this school————?<br /> <br /> Kurou could not help but be captivated by the girl who walked past him as she headed towards Sylphy. However, he instantly realized that he was being glared at by Sefi as he frantically averted his gaze.<br /> <br /> “I’m the Sword Academy’s student council president, Isyuto.”<br /> <br /> “Ah, the student council president? It’s a pleasure to meet you.”<br /> <br /> Sylphy smiled during her reply as the two of them shook hands.<br /> <br /> “It may be quite rash of me, but there’s something I wish to have your approval for. Would you mind taking a look at this?”<br /> <br /> Isyuto handed some documents to Sylphy. After receiving them, Sylphy quickly browsed through the papers————<br /> <br /> “I see, but did this really need an outsider like me to grant approval for? It’s just this right? Well, seems fine to me.”<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto politely bowed.<br /> <br /> Sylphy warmly smiled as she returned to the front of her desk and stamped one of the documents.<br /> <br /> “This should be fine right?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, thank you.”<br /> <br /> Upon retrieving the document from Sylphy, Isyuto smiled.<br /> <br /> Just what topic was the student council president and Sylphy, a government official, discussing?<br /> <br /> Kurou and Sefi were unable to comprehend, hence they just blankly stood there.<br /> <br /> “Hey, Isyuto-san, can you explain the situation to those two?”<br /> <br /> “Of course, since it will soon be released anyways.”<br /> <br /> This time Isyuto stood facing Kurou and Sefi.<br /> <br /> “You two are first-years right? How unfortunate, who would have known that the first elimination tournament after you guys enrolled into the school would be suspended.”<br /> <br /> Kurou tilted his head.<br /> <br /> Due to Freya’s death, the Sword Academy’s first-year elimination matches were suspended. Kurou had no particular interest in those grade based matches so he could have cared less.<br /> <br /> “As a result, the students will participate in a substitute event. However, it’d be boring to just restart the elimination matches so that’s why we decided on something that is a bit more stimulating. Since it’s a school competition, I needed Sylphy’s permission.”<br /> <br /> As she stated, Isyuto quickly glanced at Sylphy.<br /> <br /> “Despite requesting an additional matter, that’s something you guys can look forward to later.”<br /> <br /> “I see, well that doesn’t matter. As for this activity, what exactly is it?”<br /> <br /> Sefi inquired from Isyuto. She was ranked number three when she enrolled into the academy and originally she had planned on earning the number one spot during the elimination matches. After being told there would be a replacement for it, there was no way she could just ignore this piece of news.<br /> <br /> “It sort of has a game aspect to it, well, basically————“<br /> <br /> Isyuto once again smiled. As expected of the student council president to have such a captivating smile.<br /> <br /> “It’s going to be a battle royal.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Through the directing of the student council, the replacement event for the suspended elimination matches was set to take place.<br /> <br /> The first battle royal bout was going to start in three days from when Kurou and Sefi were first informed of the matter.<br /> <br /> Although the situation progressed unexpectedly quick, if they were too lax it may affect future elimination tournaments.<br /> <br /> Currently, it was the day of the battle royal.<br /> <br /> The first year students gathered at the sports ground of the academy.<br /> <br /> There was a giant tent propped up on the sports ground where all the activity officials, which included teachers and upper grade students, could be seen hurriedly running around inside.<br /> <br /> Kurou stood quite a distance away from the tent while awaiting the commencement of the event. He was wearing his school uniform as usual. As for the event, the Sword Academy treats the school uniform as formalwear and wearing it was mandatory in order to participate. Since the academy’s uniforms were made from a material that was battle convenient, it would not become a hindrance. Kurou was also ecstatic since the female participants were all wearing their miniskirt uniforms.<br /> <br /> The equipment everyone was supposed to use was their wooden sword from practice.<br /> <br /> He was surrounded by students and they were practically all girls.<br /> <br /> Swordie and human societies were alike. They all went through elementary school, middle school, high school, and college for their studies. The Sword Academy’s educational system was similar to a high school equivalent. However, the Swordies were a race whose life revolved around the sword. As one would expect, that topic would be incorporated throughout their studies within the Sword Academy.<br /> <br /> The Sword Academy that Kurou and Sefi both studied at was described as the pinnacle of the Swordie educational system.<br /> <br /> Furthermore, Swordies were different from humans. Females possessed exceptional physical capabilities and were more proficient with their swordsmanship.<br /> <br /> Swordies also wielded light, which was a powerful source of life energy hidden within their bodies. The greater the quantity of light, the stronger the body. Due to females having a greater quantity of light compared to males, females reigned supreme whether it was in strength or speed.<br /> <br /> As a result of the Swordie race being characterized as such, all the notable individuals gathered at the Sword Academy were naturally all girls.<br /> <br /> Setting aside gender differences, Kurou was a human that ranked lower than a Swordie male. In most cases, standing on the sports ground of the Sword Academy like this would be unthinkable.<br /> <br /> In fact, the girls would cast glances of contempt at Kurou for his inferior strength as a human. With that, they would sometimes also view him with curiosity, akin to having seen a rare animal.<br /> <br /> Kurou sighed to himself.<br /> <br /> Kurou’s existence within the Sword Academy should have become gradually more apparent. Even so, being casted a peculiar gaze sure had to be annoying……<br /> <br /> However, as a human who was raised by a Swordie and wanted to live within Swordie society, Kurou was already accustomed to this.<br /> <br /> He was determined to live among the Swordies in the future. In Japan, Swordies were the supreme race and held many privileges. In order to receive the status of a Swordie, he decided to study at the Sword Academy.<br /> <br /> A human can attain a Swordie’s status in society. However, normally humans had to buy out the status.<br /> <br /> Instead, he planned on using his swordsmanship abilities to become a recognized member among the Swordies. Nevertheless, if it was only exceptional swordsmanship, it would be impossible for him to be conferred the emblematic symbol of Swordie status, an engraved Dagger. The Emblem Management Institution, which was responsible for issuing these daggers, imposed the prerequisite of graduating from a Swordie school.<br /> <br /> Of course, in order to live his days in peace after graduation, he had to diligently participate in the battle royal. If he were to attain a respectable grade, he would be very pleased.<br /> <br /> Earning Swordie status and having a stable and comfortable lifestyle, that was all Kurou wished for.<br /> <br /> “Kuro.”<br /> <br /> “……Hmm?”<br /> <br /> He saw Hinako rushing over right in front of him. He had pondered whether or not she would stay home, but it looked like she had come to spectate. Although she was a human, it felt as if she had already assimilated into the Sword Academy.<br /> <br /> “Haa, haa, I’m exhausted……I’m terrible at running……”<br /> <br /> Hinako stopped right in front of Kurou, panting as she tried to catch her breath.<br /> <br /> Today Hinako was wearing a cheerleader outfit. That ripe yellow sleeveless shirt was paired with a revealing miniskirt. Not that it was bothering him, but her panties could be seen while wearing this sort of thing. However, did Hinako know?<br /> <br /> “……Although it doesn’t matter to me, why are you wearing this outfit?”<br /> <br /> “This seemed to be the appropriate attire for cheering people on, so I thought it would be perfect.”<br /> <br /> Hinako unwittingly lightly wiggled her miniskirt as she spoke. After Kurou took a quick glance at those sensuous legs, he once again thought about the contents within that miniskirt.<br /> <br /> “You’re right, but even if you didn’t specifically wear these clothes, you can still……”<br /> <br /> “Nevermind that, Kuro went too far by heading out in advance. Are you already tired of me?”<br /> <br /> “Stop mentioning these unpleasant things. It’s not like that. I called out to you when I was about to leave but weren’t you busy with something? Plus I’d be screwed if I was late.”<br /> <br /> “Lately I’ve been getting the feeling that Kuro is sort of tossing me aside.”<br /> <br /> “About that……”<br /> <br /> Kurou began to explain to Hinako.<br /> <br /> After conversing with Sylphy, the deputy sent out a formal notice.<br /> <br /> It said to discontinue the job of protecting Sakurai Hinako. Furthermore, he was to allow Hinako the freedom to move about within the Sword Academy.<br /> <br /> It would be bothersome guarding her if she ran all over the place, but after the incident involving Manaka, the level of security for the school’s defense system increased. The reasons for Kurou to be closely guarding her could be said to have lessened.<br /> <br /> None of that was bad news to Kurou though.<br /> <br /> Sakurai Hinako had been locked up in a room ever since she was a child. Until she was fifteen years-old, she had never witnessed the outside world.<br /> <br /> Kurou felt that having Hinako freely move around within the Sword Academy’s domain would be a good influence for her.<br /> <br /> In addition, if Kurou were to always tightly guard her, it might become unbearable. No matter who it was, there must always be some time for privacy.<br /> <br /> Hinako recently seemed————to possess only a sliver of common sense. Kurou believed that if possible, he should make the effort to not interfere with her freedom.<br /> <br /> “I now understand why you have been setting me aside. However Kuro, I have a question.”<br /> <br /> “Just like old times, saying whatever comes to mind. What is it?”<br /> <br /> “What’s a battle royal?”<br /> <br /> “……Hmm.”<br /> <br /> That’s right, because of Hinako’s caged up lifestyle, her knowledge was extremely limited. She would surprisingly not know about certain matters that were common knowledge.<br /> <br /> “In short, it’s not a one versus one, rather it is numerous people battling at once. This time it will be all first year students, with approximately 200 total. Everyone will simultaneously fight. Those who lose will be out of the fight and it will continue till the last person standing.”<br /> <br /> “I see……in that case, wouldn’t people target the strongest individuals from the start?”<br /> <br /> “That’s the usual convention.”<br /> <br /> “Kuro will probably receive the brunt of the attacks. Regardless if it is Kuro being the Sword Saint’s disciple or being able to repel Manaka, everyone should know that by now. May luck be on your side.”<br /> <br /> “Don’t pray for me!”<br /> <br /> Since Hinako was stoic as always, it was hard to tell whether she was serious or just kidding around.<br /> <br /> It was just as she said, the chances of Kurou being sought after was pretty high.<br /> <br /> The thought of losing to a human like Kurou would be very shameful. As a result, the number of people to retreat from and cross swords with will probably be numerous. However, the battle royal was practically a festive event————a game rather. <br /> <br /> If it was a game, then losing to a human could be excused by just saying “because it was a game, I only did him a favor” by many individuals. That would not be shocking at all.<br /> <br /> “Specifically, what are the rules of engagement?”<br /> <br /> “After this, everyone has to go to their designated spot. Once we all disperse to our location, then it begins. Whether you run around or stay in one spot, it’s fine either way.”<br /> <br /> “So basically there won’t be spectators like there were during the elimination matches. If no one else will witness this, then I get feeling that the number of people who will challenge Kurou will increase immensely.”<br /> <br /> “Exactly.”<br /> <br /> From the area of the Sword Academy, the 200 students will probably be spread out in a somewhat large scope of space. Who will lose to who, it would be hard to discern from those outside the battle.<br /> <br /> “The students will have these number tags attached to their chest.”<br /> <br /> Kurou retrieved a round number 96 golden sign from a bag and attached it to his chest.<br /> <br /> “To take down another student, you just have to get them to surrender and take their number tag from them. However, if their tag breaks, then that student loses his right to participate. So it seems it’s alright to directly cut their tag as well.”<br /> <br /> “I see.”<br /> <br /> Hinako gently nodded.<br /> <br /> “In other words, in pretending you are taking their tags, you can freely grab their breasts.”<br /> <br /> “Ah, Hinako understands as well.”<br /> <br /> “What the heck are you teaching her.”<br /> <br /> “Hey deputy.”<br /> <br /> At some point, deputy Sabina’s figure appeared alongside Kurou and Hinako.<br /> <br /> “What do you mean ‘hey’? Are you belittling your assignment?”<br /> <br /> “No, it isn’t like that……”<br /> <br /> Hinako learned some excessive matters from Kurou. However, Kurou swore an oath to not lay a finger on Hinako. Being fifteen years-old and living independently, Kurou also had to pay the school’s tuition fee. If he were to engage in some brazen encroachment, he would be expelled and be unable to attain Swordie status. In order to avoid that kind of outcome, he had to go against his desires and put reason first.<br /> <br /> “Sakurai Hinako is under your protection, you need to make sure she wears proper clothing.”<br /> <br /> “That was the problem!?”<br /> <br /> Kurou disrespectfully chided the usually stern deputy.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t do anything. In regards to exercising restraint, even I know that.”<br /> <br /> “Really? Well, if you can’t contain yourself then just let me know. If it’s just the chest, then I can let you rub mine.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, really!?”<br /> <br /> Up till now, his relationship with the deputy had not been really close————Rather, they practically never conversed before and he never knew that she could be so straightforward.<br /> <br /> “No problem. Even a human girl wouldn’t be flustered from being licked on the cheeks by her own dog.”<br /> <br /> “……I suppose.”<br /> <br /> Even if at first glance she seemed pretty frank, the deputy was still a Swordie, an existence that scorned humans like Kurou. Conversing only because he was her subordinate, that was all he should expect.<br /> <br /> “Speaking of which, what are you doing here deputy?”<br /> <br /> “Sending Sylphy-sama her periodic report.”<br /> <br /> The deputy pointed in the direction of the tent. Sylphy was currently sitting on a steel chair and enthusiastically conversing with Sefi. Sylphy seemed to have come to spectate.<br /> <br /> “Sylphy-sama doesn’t want a written report and wishes to listen to it instead, hence I came.”<br /> <br /> “As expected of Sylphy-sama……”<br /> <br /> The eventual successor of the four generals was currently assiduously going about her work. Even if it seemed that she was already a well-known, capable government official, she would be able to serve the people to an even greater extent if she were to attain the pinnacle role.<br /> <br /> “Oh right, Lars is also nearing the end of his hospital stay.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, that’s surprisingly early.”<br /> <br /> Lars was a fellow tutee alongside Kurou as well as his partner from the Sabers.<br /> <br /> A Swordie’s recovery abilities far outmatch that of a human. As a result, the underlying reason behind Lars’s recuperation time was very simple. Based on the grave wound he received during his battle versus Manaka, even death would not have been shocking.<br /> <br /> “Lars will most likely continue to go to school here. You two better not cause trouble here since the daughter of an important figure will be present.”<br /> <br /> “Understood.”<br /> <br /> After Kurou nodded, the deputy walked off towards the tent. Her weariness was reflected in her footsteps. Being suddenly forced to take over the role of the director, even a Swordie like her appeared to be showing signs of exhaustion.<br /> <br /> “Speaking of which Kuro……”<br /> <br /> “What is it?”<br /> <br /> “What are you going to do about the clothing issue?”<br /> <br /> That conversation just now, Hinako appeared to be not paying attention, however it turned out she was.<br /> <br /> “……About that, when the time comes I’ll let you know.”<br /> <br /> “Nonsense, then how about I ask Sefi?”<br /> <br /> “Don't do it!”<br /> <br /> Sefi would probably misunderstand the situation. Kurou was not a masochist, so he wished to avoid getting beat and scolded.<br /> <br /> At this time, a large batch of numbers were broadcasted, Kurou’s number included. It appeared that they were to head towards their designated spots.<br /> <br /> “Well, I’ll be back shortly.”<br /> <br /> “Wait, hold on. Take this.”<br /> <br /> Hinako handed him a small package.<br /> <br /> “This is char siu rice. Please eat this if you get hungry.”<br /> <br /> “So this was what you were doing back at the house, thanks.”<br /> <br /> Apparently he was not a stickler for char siu rice. However, who knows how long it will take for this to end. Therefore, he rejoiced having something that would ensure he could replenish his energy. <br /> <br /> “Kuro, goodluck——” <br /> <br /> For the first time, Hinako said something that resembled a cheerleader. However, cheering him on stoically while blankly standing there did not make it much more enthusiastic.<br /> <br /> Kurou wryly smiled. He then waved his hand and headed off.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The sharp broadcast reverberated throughout the campus.<br /> <br /> As scheduled, the curtains for the battle royal were raised at 10am.<br /> <br /> Kurou also heard the broadcast. His assigned starting location was near a conspicuous fir tree located in the forest where he lived.<br /> <br /> The moment the broadcast sounded, Kurou left the fir tree that was adjacent to him and started sprinting through the forest.<br /> <br /> Although the battle royal had just started, he did not wish to instigate any trouble. When the sounds of wildlife vanished, there was nothing but silence.<br /> <br /> However, the students participating in the battle royal all braced themselves. They were all probably acutely sensing the breathing and footsteps of the other two hundred students on the move. Undoubtedly, the students were keyed in on various sounds. Of course, Kurou was no different.<br /> <br /> The rules for the battle royal were simple. In short, cutting apart the opponent’s tag was all that was needed. Even staying at one’s starting location and not moving at all was acceptable.<br /> <br /> Kurou was inferior to the Swordies when it came to physical capabilities. In order to avoid expending his energy, staying in one place was a viable option. However, he was resolute in heading out.<br /> <br /> In regards to a battle royal and such, Kurou had never experienced anything like it. What is in store, how will it turn out, he had no clue at all. Nevertheless, he felt that if he could knock out any students he saw, then everything would be smooth sailing. As opposed to staying at his original location, moving around was the only way for him to dispel any overthinking.<br /> <br /> “Well, it’ll work out in the end.”<br /> <br /> Kurou was not under the impression that it was ok to lose. However, the battle royal had no impact on grades and was merely a game. Based on the rules, the strongest might not even prevail.<br /> <br /> After traversing the forest, he entered the courtyard. The sound of wooden swords clashing came from a certain direction. It appeared there were people who had already started much earlier.<br /> <br /> I suppose I’ll spectate the match a bit, just as he was thinking along those lines……<br /> <br /> “Kurou!”<br /> <br /> “……Hmm?”<br /> <br /> A girl came running to him from afar.<br /> <br /> “……You——are……”<br /> <br /> “I’m Lima! Did you already forget!?”<br /> <br /> “Ah, I see.”<br /> <br /> She had short hair and was very energetic.<br /> <br /> She was part of Sefi’s entourage————one of her friends who nagged about Kurou before.<br /> <br /> “Have your wounds healed already?”<br /> <br /> “That wound had already healed long ago.”<br /> <br /> Lima’s shoulder was injured by a rifle during the first day of the elimination matches when the Sun Cultists invaded the school. After that, she likely stayed at the hospital.<br /> <br /> “A gunshot wound healed that fast? I do not wish to battle against someone who is hurt.”<br /> <br /> “I said it has already healed. See, right here!”<br /> <br /> Lima removed her shirt and pulled on her blouse to reveal her shoulder. Although a small remnant of the bullet marking remained on her fair, white flesh, the wound indeed appeared to have completely healed already.<br /> <br /> “What a feast for the eyes. Thank you very much for going through all that trouble just so I can have a look.”<br /> <br /> “……Huh? Q-Quit scheming!”<br /> <br /> Lima’s face turned red as she put her clothes back on. Although her breasts were completely exposed to him as a result, it seemed that she was unaware that things would end up like that.<br /> <br /> “Well, it’s great that the wound has healed. As to be expected of a Swordie.”<br /> <br /> A Swordie’s recovery abilities far surpassed that of a human’s. It was the same for Lima who was wounded by a powerful .30 caliber rifle. Her injury had essentially vanished after two weeks. It was said that it was the same during the Great War when the Swordies were attacked. As long as a Swordie survived, they could instantly return to the front lines. For the humans, that would probably be intolerable. <br /> <br /> “W-Whatever, I’m fine. Hurry up and let’s go.”<br /> <br /> “You’re so impatient. You seem to really want to get it on with me.”<br /> <br /> Lima centered her wooden sword while Kurou displayed the same stance.<br /> <br /> “And besides, I still owe you a favor. So of course I have to do something about it.”<br /> <br /> “Eh……”<br /> <br /> Indeed, Kurou was the one who repelled the people that assaulted Lima. However, for her favor, it was to knockout Kurou rather than just expressing gratitude. To humans, this was absolutely baffling.<br /> <br /> “By the way, have you heard about Neena?”<br /> <br /> “I heard. There’s a lot of things I wish I could say to her.”<br /> <br /> Kurou was certain that would be the case. Neena was Sefi’s friend and Lima’s friend as well. However, she was a Blaze who used a fraudulent personal record to infiltrate the academy. Plus, her goal was to murder Sefi.<br /> <br /> “Betrayal is betrayal, that I don’t care about. However, disappearing without leaving a word is impermissible. The least she could have done was mention something to us before taking off.”<br /> <br /> Exactly, a Swordie’s reasoning was difficult to comprehend, but perhaps Lima was just an oddball.<br /> <br /> “Those matters can be saved for later. For now, you’re the main focus.”<br /> <br /> “What, you’re still going to be like that?”<br /> <br /> There was no telling how many people he would have to battle in the end. Furthermore, just nonchalantly conversing would not suffice either.<br /> <br /> “Prepare yourself!”<br /> <br /> As soon as Lima shouted, she stormed off in his direction.<br /> <br /> While planting her foot heavily against the ground, her wooden sword slashed across at light speed. Her agility and the speed of her sword in that attack were hard to capture for the eyes of a human————however……<br /> <br /> Kurou was not an ordinary human. He had received training from the Sword Saint and lived to tell the tale after crossing swords against the strongest of the Seven Swords.<br /> <br /> Although Lima was also very talented, she was still just an immature first-year swordsman. Her powerful swing just whiffed by Kurou————<br /> <br /> “……!”<br /> <br /> Lima uttered a quiet yelp. While Kurou was dodging, he swung his wooden sword across, hitting Lima on the side of her head.<br /> <br /> For a human, it would not be surprising if they were to die from a strike like that. However, the wooden sword could not possibly deal a life threatening wound to the light powered body of a Swordie.<br /> <br /> “Kurou……!”<br /> <br /> Lima eyed Kurou as she helplessly fell over. Despite it not becoming a life threatening wound, a powerful jolt to the head would render even a Swordie unable to stand back up.<br /> <br /> “Sorry.”<br /> <br /> Kurou stated as such towards the fallen Lima, who was faced up towards the sky. He used the point of his wooden sword to sever the tag on her chest.<br /> <br /> One down.<br /> <br /> Regardless, Lima will likely awaken soon and the staff will probably rush over to check in on her.<br /> <br /> “Up next……”<br /> <br /> Kurou mulled over where to go, but just as he was heading back……<br /> <br /> “……Eh?”<br /> <br /> Surrounding Kurou was a couple————rather, dozens of other female students.<br /> <br /> Each held up their wooden sword while emitting their killing intent towards Kurou.<br /> <br /> “I must be quite well received around here.”<br /> <br /> Kurou wryly smiled as he positioned his wooden sword.<br /> <br /> They wanted to take out the strongest members first. Perhaps they were going to attack Kurou en masse.<br /> <br /> Regardless, this would probably be challenging for him to escape from.<br /> <br /> Well, it saved him the trouble of contemplating where to go next————while thinking as such, he revealed a slight smile.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kurou sprinted into the school’s backyard and sat down with his back against the school walls.<br /> <br /> The courtyard was adorned with a plain flower garden and a few trees. There was a sense of stillness since there also appeared to be a garbage dump here as well. The place was devoid of the aura of anyone else and seemed like a place where he could rest a bit.<br /> <br /> His breathing was erratic and the shirt to his uniform felt heavy due to being soaked with sweat.<br /> <br /> It had not even been one hour since the battle royal started.<br /> <br /> However, he probably had already taken out thirty people.<br /> <br /> Swordies despised a one versus many battle and a proper swordsman would practically never perform any surprise attacks or attacks from behind. Although it was a different matter when it came to war or his Sabers missions, such underhanded methods would not be used otherwise.<br /> <br /> Truthfully speaking, Kurou had never encountered a time where he had been swarmed by a large group of people thanks to the Swordies’ idiotic habits. <br /> <br /> However, because he had to go through thirty one versus one battles, his weariness would of course accumulate. If he were to stay in one place he would be facing one battle after another, hence it was necessary for him to be on the move.<br /> <br /> Kurou, whose physical capabilities were twelve out of ten for a human, was still somewhat lacking in stamina after staying in the hospital for two weeks.<br /> <br /> He retrieved the rice balls that Hinako made for him from his shirt pocket and wolfed them down. Who knows how many more times he would have to battle.<br /> <br /> When contemplating over his level of exhaustion, it was probably best for him to bide his time.<br /> <br /> “……Hmm?”<br /> <br /> There was another student running towards the backyard like Kurou did.<br /> <br /> The person’s breathing was even more spastic than Kurou’s was. The person was indeed a boy.<br /> <br /> “Tough work out there——“<br /> <br /> Although Kurou calmly greeted him, the other guy gave no response. He was also a Swordie. Was that a look of disdain directed at Kurou? Or was he fatigued to the point where he was unable to spare a greeting?<br /> <br /> Even if it was within the Sword Academy, there were still a couple male students. However, most of them did not rely on their swordsmanship ability, rather it was their exceptional family history that facilitated their enrollment to the school. This student was likely one of those types.<br /> <br /> The guy jogged right past Kurou and disappeared as he headed towards the opposite side of the building. He must have wanted to rest a bit for him to swing by here.<br /> <br /> Perhaps he got into some trouble as well? Kurou wryly smiled at the thought.<br /> <br /> “Guh!”<br /> <br /> A sudden cry was heard. The boy from not too long ago tumbled across the ground. He was completely knocked into a daze and the tag on his chest was already in tatters.<br /> <br /> Kurou directed his gaze upwards from the boy and prepared his stance.<br /> <br /> This time it was a girl that slowly came into view.<br /> <br /> “……?”<br /> <br /> Kurou tilted his head slightly.<br /> <br /> The girl that appeared was wearing the same uniform and holding the same wooden sword as the other contestants, but why was she wearing a mask around her eyes? It honestly seemed quite suspicious.<br /> <br /> “……What’s with the mask? Did the theme change?”<br /> <br /> “……”<br /> <br /> The girl remained silent towards Kurou’s joke.<br /> <br /> The masked girl approached Kurou————and then instantly closed the distance as she swung her sword.<br /> <br /> “……”<br /> <br /> That precise strike was barely avoided by Kurou when he saw the sword’s tip.<br /> <br /> The masked girl pressed on, unleashing attacks one after another. Each strike was carefully and exquisitely measured. Although he dodged them, the power exuded in those attacks numbed his skin.<br /> <br /> However, Kurou saw through the whole thing while most humans would most certainly be unable to even capture the afterimage of the attack.<br /> <br /> As for the masked girl, she was not surprised by the fact that a human evaded her strike. She swiftly charged forth and put everything she had into aiming for a fatal thrust.<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Kurou stopped in his tracks. He was unwittingly close to the flower garden. By the garden was a fence————in which his foot bumped into the short twenty centimeter fence.<br /> <br /> “Huh!?”<br /> <br /> That particularly sharp blow brushed the side of Kurou’s face.<br /> <br /> Even though he suddenly halted his footsteps, Kurou leaned back as he once again barely dodged the attack.<br /> <br /> “That’s quite dangerous.”<br /> <br /> Kurou left the flower garden while maintaining his distance from the masked girl.<br /> <br /> He felt a faint sense of heat on his face. After rubbing his hand against it, he noticed there was bright red blood.<br /> <br /> Despite intending to avoid the strike, the wooden sword appeared to have slightly grazed him.<br /> <br /> “Having been grazed along the face, my girl will surely cry.”<br /> <br /> “……”<br /> <br /> The masked girl once again went without any reactions towards Kurou’s joke.<br /> <br /> “Ignoring me? Well, whatever, I did do something a bit cruddy to you as well.”<br /> <br /> “……?”<br /> <br /> Although the masked girl revealed her suspicions based on the movements of her lips, Kurou offered no reply.<br /> <br /> Kurou did not respond. Instead, he closed the distance between them.<br /> <br /> The masked girl was flustered only for a moment as she reset her stance.<br /> <br /> Kurou continued to push on brazenly————<br /> <br /> “……!”<br /> <br /> At the moment when Kurou rushed by the masked girl’s body, his sword flashed by, sending the girl down on her knees.<br /> <br /> “What just happened……?”<br /> <br /> “Ah, so you finally decide to talk.”<br /> <br /> Kurou excitedly spoke as the mask gently peeled off and fell to the ground. It must have fallen due to Kurou striking her head region.<br /> <br /> “What a beauty. It’s a shame you had to wear a mask.”<br /> <br /> Kurou surveyed her while speaking. However, he had not seen her before.<br /> <br /> Her face revealed her complete astonishment. Did she really think that Kurou was not planning on doing anything as he charged past her?<br /> <br /> “How could I lose to the sword of a human……”<br /> <br /> “Have you been listening to what I’m saying? My sword is a tad out of the ordinary.”<br /> <br /> Regardless if it was a Swordie or a human, it was possible to predict the path and speed of an opponent’s sword based on their hand movements. Especially for Swordies, a human’s sword could have its start to finish, the strength of swing and such determined in an instant.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless, Kurou’s sword was different.<br /> <br /> His sword was able to depict a different path and speed from his opponent’s predictions. For those who cross swords with Kurou, their timing would be disrupted by his unpredictable sword, resulting in a loss to a simple attack.<br /> <br /> “At least, this isn’t just the sword of any ordinary human. Even if you lose it’s nothing to be surprised about.”<br /> <br /> “……What was the bad thing that you mentioned before?”<br /> <br /> “It’s just that I slightly underestimated you. To have my foot get caught in the fencing, that was too careless even for me. There’s no way I would have room for such carelessness for an opponent as strong as you.”<br /> <br /> Indeed, the masked girl could not even be compared to the thirty students he eliminated earlier today. She was not an opponent where he could just ready his stance for an instant win against.<br /> <br /> “Really……well whatever, it was at least a unique experience for me.”<br /> <br /> After the girl that had lost her mask unsteadily stood back up, she removed the tag on her chest and tore it apart. It seemed to be a forfeiting indication.<br /> <br /> Once she threw away her tag, she simply left.<br /> <br /> “……What the, she is……”<br /> <br /> “A second year student.”<br /> <br /> “Hmm?”<br /> <br /> Kurou turned around. In that direction————it was Sefi.<br /> <br /> While holding the wooden sword in her right hand, she slowly approached Kurou.<br /> <br /> “Were you not paying attention? The color of her tie was green.”<br /> <br /> “Haha, I didn’t notice……my only impression was that her breasts were huge.”<br /> <br /> “That’s not anything attention worthy!”<br /> <br /> “No problem, Sefi’s are still larger compared to hers.”<br /> <br /> “Keep that to yourself!”<br /> <br /> Sefi replied in a growling manner. Just like always, she could never take a joke.<br /> <br /> “By the way, why are there second year students? Only first-years can participate in this battle royal right?”<br /> <br /> “I get the feeling that there’s quite a few upperclassmen participating, not just second-years. I’ve also seen third-year students and took out three of them.<br /> <br /> “I see……”<br /> <br /> The battle royal was an entertainment activity. It was not meant to be used for ranking the first-year students. Although, it would not be out of the ordinary to see surprise activities planned for the upperclassmen. That second year student must have worn that ridiculous mask while participating in the activity since she thought it would be funny.<br /> <br /> “However, Kurou beating that girl was much more impressive. The abilities of these participants range all over the place.”<br /> <br /> “If there are many more individuals of the same caliber as the one I faced, then all the first-years probably have no chance of winning.”<br /> <br /> Or perhaps the upperclassmen would conveniently pull out after battling a couple rounds. In the end, the battle royal was an activity conducted for first-year students.<br /> <br /> “Regardless, the number of people has dropped drastically. How many did you take out Rou?”<br /> <br /> “In a certain sense, I’m really quite popular around here.”<br /> <br /> Based on Sefi’s inquiry, she must have also eliminated a lot of people.<br /> <br /> The end of the battle royal appeared to be surprisingly fast approaching.<br /> <br /> “Speaking of which, Sefi……”<br /> <br /> “Yes?”<br /> <br /> “Why is your face all red?”<br /> <br /> Kurou noticed it from the start. The moment Sefi appeared, even her ears were flushed red and her eyes were a tad moist.<br /> <br /> “T-That’s because it feels quite hot from battling so many times!”<br /> <br /> “But it seems there’s not a drop of sweat on you……”<br /> <br /> “Shut up! Enough, let’s just start already!”<br /> <br /> Sefi shouted as she displayed a stance with her wooden sword held up. <br /> <br /> Although she was an impatient person, Kurou pretty much understood why Sefi’s face was thoroughly red.<br /> <br /> Swordies and humans were largely similar, except when it came to physical capabilities and a a few other aspects.<br /> <br /> One of which was————the Swordies were a sword loving race.<br /> <br /> The desire for a strong swordsman was a Swordie instinct. Being drawn in by a strong individual, they were basically captivated. For Swordie girls going through puberty, this was especially true. It was said that they were particularly prone to being captivated.<br /> <br /> Sefi fit the criteria perfectly.<br /> <br /> She must have witnessed the battle between Kurou and the mask wearing second year student and got hooked on Kurou’s swordsmanship. There was an instance of that before.<br /> <br /> However, was this “love” real, or was it a temporary infatuation? Kurou probably feared it was the latter.<br /> <br /> “I’m coming!”<br /> <br /> Sefi rapidly charged in and swung her sword down.<br /> <br /> With that wind ruffling clash, the wooden sword sent a ferocious gale that passed by Kurou’s sides. <br /> <br /> “……!”<br /> <br /> Brushing past his skin, Kurou sensed the pressure of an even stronger sword compared to that second year student.<br /> <br /> Sefi’s sword was not reliant on tricks, rather she was someone who would unleash everything in one strike. Forget humans, even some Swordies were probably unable to contain Sefi’s all-out attack.<br /> <br /> The Starbreaker————Sefi possessed the brawns to be able to effortlessly swing around that sword which resembled a chunk of steel. Although it was a wooden sword, wielding it at full strength would probably shred a person’s body apart.<br /> <br /> “Not good, so dangerous, oh so dangerous.”<br /> <br /> Kurou instantly separated from Sefi as he spoke in jest.<br /> <br /> However, Sefi offered no response towards Kurou’s joke. This time she slashed horizontally, but Kurou simply just slightly stepped back to avoid that air splicing sword.<br /> <br /> During that evasion, Kurou was sure of it.<br /> <br /> It was back when he returned from the hospital and saw Sefi swinging her Sword.<br /> <br /> After the portal opened while battling against Manaka, a type of change occurred within Sefi.<br /> <br /> Kurou was able to make sense of these two moments.<br /> <br /> Following that————Sefi’s third strike once again aimed at the upper body.<br /> <br /> “……?”<br /> <br /> Kurou prepared his stance. He used his own wooden sword to repel Sefi’s crushing attack and sidestepped from the path of her sword.<br /> <br /> Despite her body on the brink of collapse, Sefi was still able to withdraw the wooden sword and reset her stance.<br /> <br /> “My sword……was blocked?”<br /> <br /> Sefi’s face clearly surfaced an expression of shock.<br /> <br /> She was very familiar with Kurou’s sword, the so-called Olden Style. Precisely because of this, she felt astonished.<br /> <br /> Kurou’s father was a Swordie researcher. He investigated the Swordies who appeared on earth one after another through tiny portals since ancient times as well as the samurai who fought against them. He secretly composed his findings.<br /> <br /> The findings were not for the sake of defeating the Swordies, rather it was simply a scientific interest.<br /> <br /> Although Kurou was just a child when his father lost his life, the result of his findings were passed down through him.<br /> <br /> After his dad died, the Sword Saint, who took in Kurou as her disciple, used the result of his dad’s research to teach him the technique to battle against the Swordies————the Olden Style.<br /> <br /> The foundation of the Olden Style started with evading the sword of a Swordie which could even sever steel.<br /> <br /> For humans whose vision capturing and reaction speed cannot overcome a Swordie’s swing of the sword, they were forced to read the path of the sword in order to dodge. It was essential that they mastered this future prediction-esque skill.<br /> <br /> Ever since he was young, Kurou was constantly faced with the attacks of the Sword Saint’s sword. With that, he was now able to forego sword to sword combat and just use his body to dodge normal swordsmen using his sword prediction.<br /> <br /> “You’ve become strong Sefi. If I were to carelessly evade, there’d be no way I could completely dodge your sword.”<br /> <br /> “Me……?”<br /> <br /> Against truly powerful opponents, Kurou had the option of dodging the enemy’s sword. If he was unable to, he would use his sword to repel his opponent’s sword and then dodge. Of course, if he contacts a Swordie’s sword, Kurou’s arm would probably break along with his sword. For him, it was not about having a greater sword momentum in comparison to his opponent, rather it was utilizing his opponent’s force against them to parry their sword.<br /> <br /> If Kurou’s sword clashed against the sword of his opponent, it meant that his opponent could not be dealt with through his usual means.<br /> <br /> “Maturing within such a short time frame……If only your body development could quickly reach maturity, that’d make me even more excited.”<br /> <br /> “Quit adding in all this nonsense!”<br /> <br /> “Of course, I feel that Sefi’s breasts are quite adequate as it is.”<br /> <br /> “Just shut up! Enough of this breast talk!”<br /> <br /> Sefi yelled as such.<br /> <br /> “Tch, I’m clearly praising you. Well, there’s no way I’d be mistaken about your strength increase.”<br /> <br /> “……I saw your two battles against Neena, and the battle between you and Manaka. During Rou’s stay at the hospital, I continuously contemplated over what methods would defeat you.”<br /> <br /> “Normally speaking, one does not become stronger just by spectating. It’s probably just your raw talent. Furthermore……have you noticed it yourself?”<br /> <br /> In the midst of the battle against Manaka, a portal opened————after that, Sefi’s light received an explosive increase. Although she did not instantly notice the impact, the change was already as clear as day. It would be strange if she had not realized that was the case during Kurou’s stay at the hospital.<br /> <br /> The greater the amount of light within a Swordie, the greater their strength and speed will be. Sefi’s physical capabilities are likely to be sharply different from before.<br /> <br /> “Light, it is something that increases with a long duration of training. So how come it changed so suddenly, do you know?”<br /> <br /> “No……I don’t understand. Although, something certainly did take place back then.”<br /> <br /> As expected, Sefi also seemed to have detected some connection between her and the portal.<br /> <br /> However, she appeared to be in the same boat as Kurou in not knowing its cause. It was just like Sylphy stated before, the portals were teeming with mysteries.<br /> <br /> “Well, what we don’t know doesn’t really matter. Right now the most pressing matter is……my battle against you.”<br /> <br /> “It always turns out like this.”<br /> <br /> As Kurou wryly smiled, Sefi once again swung her sword.<br /> <br /> So forceful, yet its speed surpassed what the eyes could capture. After using the Olden Style to parry her sword, he backed off.<br /> <br /> She truly became stronger————<br /> <br /> If Kurou were to make one mistake, his body would be shattered by her wooden sword in the exchange. He chuckled as he realized that the opponent he had been fighting against since they were both just children had been slowly catching up to him. He was overjoyed about it.<br /> <br /> Once the exceptionally powerful sword was deflected, Sefi stopped in her tracks.<br /> <br /> “It seems that Kurou is quite strong as usual……tch.”<br /> <br /> “Don’t click your tongue! Well, there are still inadequacies to you.”<br /> <br /> “Inadequacies……”<br /> <br /> “It’s simple really, it’s your lack of real battle experience.”<br /> <br /> Sefi never had a designated teacher.<br /> <br /> Within her residence of the four generals, there came and went many powerful and talented swordsmen. It would appear that battling against them was Sefi’s daily routine.<br /> <br /> However, in the end it was just practice. The swordsmen who faced Sefi, the four generals’ daughter, would probably never display their true abilities.<br /> <br /> “Sefi has never experienced a fight where lives were at stake. Do you think that the attack from Neena counts? Of course not. One can’t get stronger if they don’t know the value of life.”<br /> <br /> “Then……what about you?”<br /> <br /> “I used to train with my master in the mountains. It wasn’t just living the mountain lifestyle either. Since the amount of guests was more than expected, there were many idiots who wanted to challenge my master to determine a victor.”<br /> <br /> If they wanted to fight against the Sword Saint, they first had to overcome her disciple————who knows how many times that occurred. Needless to say, those were all genuine sword battles where both lives were on the line. The Sword Saint would watch the opponent who came to battle and would only send the ones that her disciple had a chance to defeat for him to fight against. From that, there were practically no opportunities for the Sword Saint to be matched against an opponent.<br /> <br /> “Swordies, humans, both are only able to become stronger through life and death battles.”<br /> <br /> “I see…….I haven’t killed anyone before.”<br /> <br /> In other words, if Sefi were to accumulate experience in battling to kill, she would certainly become stronger. For Swordies, as long as it was swordsman versus swordsman, taking away one’s life was not taboo.<br /> <br /> “I’m grateful that you have explained these things to me. That said, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you. May I?”<br /> <br /> “Go ahead.”<br /> <br /> “I can very clearly discern that you are powerful. Indeed, I seem to have become stronger. However, that second year student just now was also a difficult opponent. Even so, it’s hard to believe that Kurou would take a wound to the face from her sword. Furthermore, I get the feeling your movements have become a tad sluggish.”<br /> <br /> “……Eh.”<br /> <br /> He never imagined that it would be noticed. Kurou was stunned.<br /> <br /> After leaving the hospital, he noticed it as well while he was swinging a sword. He felt that his sword techniques lagged in both speed and force. In addition, his agility was not the same as before. Except, even if he was sluggish, it was only to a tiny extent. To be able to see through that bit was truly quite exceptional.<br /> <br /> “Is it because of your injuries? Even though Manaka was a traitor, her abilities earned her the title of one of the Seven Swords. For a human to be slashed by Manaka like that and only spend two weeks recovering is quite unthinkable.”<br /> <br /> “Sefi, there’s two things wrong with your statement.”<br /> <br /> Kurou cut Sefi short and proceeded to speak in a elucidating manner.<br /> <br /> “First, my wound is really already healed. If the wound was vulnerable to tearing, then I wouldn’t have been allowed to leave the hospital.”<br /> <br /> “I suppose so…….”<br /> <br /> “And I have already explained to you about the light body right?”<br /> <br /> Humans did not possess the powerful source of physical power known as light, that was common sense.<br /> <br /> However, when facing the powerful light of the Seven Swords, humans would probably crumble and their bodies would incessantly shake. Hence, humans also recognized the presence of light.<br /> <br /> If humans could retain light, then they should be able to unleash it————only Hyouka would deliberate over something as silly as that.<br /> <br /> “My master possessed light power that went beyond Manaka, to heights unimaginable. Furthermore, she was able to expertly control her light. She must have detected that there was a miniscule amount of light within humans as well. Anyhow, I also realized the light within me was enough to be used. That’s great and all, but humans seem to be unable to bear light energy.”<br /> <br /> Kurou was unable to control the light and that was why the light poured over his entire body.<br /> <br /> However, the light wrapped around his entire body, resulting in his body being reinforced. Despite it not being on the same level as a Swordie, it allowed him to surpass his strength and speed for battle. This was known as the light body.<br /> <br /> “While the light body is activated, all wounds will quickly heal. Thanks to this, the shoulder wound had healed long ago. However, there was a side effect on my body————basically, my body movement was temporarily disabled afterwards.”<br /> <br /> “I see……but, are you sure you’re fine!? If that’s the case, isn’t that an unanticipated weakness of yours!? Are you ok with telling me something like that!?”<br /> <br /> “Indeed……if I’m attacked by Sefi after I’m weakened through the use of the light body, my purity will be instantly taken by you.”<br /> <br /> “Why would I do that!?”<br /> <br /> It was hard to say but he would probably still wish for it to be taken away anyways. However, Sefi, who was prone to embarrassment, probably would not grant his wish.<br /> <br /> “All in all, I understand, you’re not in your best condition. For you to say that I’ve gotten stronger under these circumstances————“<br /> <br /> “That would be your second mistake.”<br /> <br /> Kurou extended out his pointer finger and middle finger as he spoke.<br /> <br /> “Right now because of the influence of the light body, my movements have become sluggish. That’s true and all but……I’m clearly able to battle and still had the free time to come to the battlefield.”<br /> <br /> While wryly smiling, Kurou repositioned his wooden sword.<br /> <br /> Battling when one has a winning chance——that would be the norm during combat. He had battled against Manaka of the Seven Swords before, but that extremely reckless situation was an exception.<br /> <br /> Kurou believed that every battle was a winnable battle.<br /> <br /> That was also a notion his master, Sword Saint Hyouka, instilled in him.<br /> <br /> “Ah……haha, I see, I see. Looks like I’m clearly wrong.”<br /> <br /> Sefi’s face was flushed red as she incessantly nodded her head. Although Kurou originally wanted to instill a slight amount of killing intent to his smile, in terms of the forcefulness of adding such a meaning, Kurou was no match for Sefi.<br /> <br /> “T-Then I guess I won’t be holding anything back. Fufufu!”<br /> <br /> Sefi unleashed an odd laughter as she once resumed swinging her sword. Compared to before, this was a more extreme and intense attack.<br /> <br /> From the looks of it, Sefi was probably more excited than afraid towards Kurou’s intimidating smile.<br /> <br /> Jeez, Swordies are so hard to understand. Kurou dodged and parried Sefi’s ferocious jabs while in astonishment. He maintained his distance while backing off at the same time.<br /> <br /> The two of them were engaged in battle, traversing across the backyard as they made their way to the parking lot. For a school, the large parking lot was rather large and could probably hold up to fifty vehicles. Their numbers were sparse, perhaps due to everyone wanting to avoid any damages today.<br /> <br /> “What are you doing Kurou! If you don’t counterattack, even a person like you will lose! Alright, hurry and give me everything you got! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!”<br /> <br /> It appeared that Sefi’s excitement levels had substantially increased.<br /> <br /> The sword-loving race, with such an instinct unleashed, her character would certainly somewhat change.<br /> <br /> It was not as if Kurou could not counterattack. However, his curiosity was piqued upon seeing the state of Sefi’s sword.<br /> <br /> Sefi truly became stronger and was able to control that rapid upgrade in strength and speed quite exceptionally. Her swordsmanship also improved and any negligence on his part would likely lead to him being eliminated in one hit.<br /> <br /> Sefi’s acute swordsmanship could be felt within each of her strikes. From the start, Sefi was always very talented. Precisely because she had not matured yet, she still had great potential for development. To be able to witness the maturity of a swordsman, it was quite valuable for Kurou.<br /> <br /> “By the way Sefi.”<br /> <br /> “What is it!?”<br /> <br /> Sefi kept moving her hands, continuing her frenzied attack as she spoke.<br /> <br /> “When facing such a chaotic attack, I’m not going to have the leisure to kiss you right?”<br /> <br /> “I’ll be sure such a leisure gets smashed into pieces!”<br /> <br /> Because of Kurou’s frivolous speech, Sefi’s swordsmanship was thrown slightly off.<br /> <br /> In the past, Sefi had attacked Kurou because she became aroused from Kurou’s sword. Furthermore, she used a real sword that time. In order to not hurt Sefi and have her stop————Kurou kissed her, with such an attack making her return to her senses.<br /> <br /> “I had clearly intended to forget about that matter……don’t bring up the past!”<br /> <br /> Kurou calmly evaded Sefi’s crazed swinging of the sword.<br /> <br /> From the looks of it, Sefi was wavering excessively. The majority of her sword maneuvers were completely lacking in order.<br /> <br /> It is about time that I put an end to this————after Kurou parried Sefi’s wooden sword, Sefi jumped backwards. With Sefi’s stance being compromised, one strike should be able to take her out right now.<br /> <br /> Sefi was forced to prepare her wooden sword, but it was already too late. Just as Kurou was setting himself up to charge in————<br /> <br /> “......!?”<br /> <br /> Kurou was absolutely baffled.<br /> <br /> “What was that just now……!”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> Sefi’s eyes were also opened wide in surprise as she planned on swinging her sword downwards.<br /> <br /> Kurou raised his brows, staring at his own wooden sword. The front part of his sword had already been fractured.<br /> <br /> “What——what happened?”<br /> <br /> Actually, Kurou had a general idea that something did happen. However, he did not know why such an event occurred.<br /> <br /> Sefi was compelled to swing her sword downwards, but there was quite a stark difference in the timing of it. Although Kurou was able to brace the hit, grazing him or his sword should not have even been possible.<br /> <br /> For a split second, he saw a black object suspended mid-air. It appeared to be a tiny————portal-like split that came only from the blade of Sefi’s wooden sword as it severed Kurou’s wooden sword.<br /> <br /> In fact, that was all Kurou was able to discern. However————<br /> <br /> “What’s going on……!”<br /> <br /> Kurou swung his fractured tip sword horizontally while in a perplexed state.<br /> <br /> “Huh?”<br /> <br /> An expression of bewilderment once again surfaced on Sefi’s face————it appeared to be overly mundane in terms of the speed and path of the sword. In general, it was a very basic style of swordsmanship.<br /> <br /> “Ha……!”<br /> <br /> Nevertheless, in the very next moment that Kurou swung his blade in front of her, the tag hanging on Sefi’s chest ripped into tatters.<br /> <br /> “What!?”<br /> <br /> Sefi uttered lightly and seemingly confirmed to herself that the tag was destroyed by placing her hand on her chest.<br /> <br /> The result of the battle was————Kurou being the victor.<br /> <br /> “What was that just now……”<br /> <br /> “A neat little trick of the Olden Style called the Waning Crescent————in other words, it was faking a basic attack on the first offensive when the real attack was going to come in during the second offensive.”<br /> <br /> “......Then, isn’t that just a feign?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t call it that.”<br /> <br /> Kurou chuckled a bit.<br /> <br /> Such a technique would only be effective against those who were familiar with Kurou’s unpredictable attacks. Precisely because he displayed a human-like strike, Sefi was stupefied and caught off guard. During that, he would then revert back to his usual aggression————that was all there was to it. It would never work a second time so it really was just a little trick.<br /> <br /> “Guh…...I lost, you won’t be hearing any excuses from me.”<br /> <br /> It appeared that Sefi returned to her usual self. Despite her having calmed down, it probably happened because of her losing from being struck down by such a stodgy technique.<br /> <br /> “However……”<br /> <br /> Kurou had also taken somewhat of a blow. Just what was that inconceivable strike from Sefi……?<br /> <br /> “What do you mean ‘however’? That should be my line. As expected, I probably wasn’t under my usual state of mind. Even so, your sword was severed by me.”<br /> <br /> “......Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter since I won.”<br /> <br /> It seemed that Sefi still had not noticed what was behind that mystical strike. It was obviously an abnormality, but perhaps it was due to her excitement.<br /> <br /> “You’re right, there’s no excuses as the loser of the battle. Here you go Rou.”<br /> [[File:Kenshin v02 088.PNG|thumbnail|right]]<br /> “Haha, thanks.”<br /> <br /> After Kurou received the wooden sword, Sefi approached Kurou. She extended out her hand and lightly caressed the wound on Kurou’s cheeks. <br /> <br /> “Due to your flurried movements, that wound opened up again.”<br /> <br /> “It’s not too bad. Don’t be crying now Sefi.”<br /> <br /> “Your girl, so that was referring to me wasn’t it!?”<br /> <br /> Based on that, it seemed Sefi had definitely overheard the conversation between the second year student and Kurou.<br /> <br /> “......Idiot, it’s probably not even possible.”<br /> <br /> “Eh——what is?”<br /> <br /> “Of course. It’s obvious…...I can’t even reach the soles of your feet. Alright, please wipe the blood off with this.”<br /> <br /> Once Sefi handed her handkerchief over, she swiftly left by herself.<br /> <br /> “......Well, I see, based on Sefi’s personality……”<br /> <br /> Since she always loses to Kurou, she was probably reluctant to just leisurely get along with him.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless, there was no way Sefi did not reach the soles of Kurou’s feet in terms of strength. It would not be too far-fetched to say that she had nearly caught up to Kurou.<br /> <br /> There was a discernible increase in power and that oddity from her sword, yet Sefi had a great amount of room to mature more. Certainly she will become very powerful.<br /> <br /> “Ah——, hahaha, very amusing.”<br /> <br /> Kurou suddenly turned around.<br /> <br /> There was a large four-wheeled vehicle and————sitting on the hood of the car was a girl clapping her hands.<br /> <br /> She possessed light green hair and the slender figure of a model. To add to that, she wore the tie of a third year student.<br /> <br /> That would be the student council president of the Sword Academy, Isyuto.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Hello.”<br /> <br /> Following the more formal introduction from Isyuto, she slid down from the front hood of the car. Her dress fluttered gently in the breeze.<br /> <br /> Isyuto’s right hand was grasping a wooden sword and a tag with the number “0” written on it was attached to her chest.<br /> <br /> “......So you’re participating too.”<br /> <br /> “That’s because the interaction between the third-years and the first-years is practically nonexistent. Furthermore, there’s a lot of interesting kids within this year’s crop of first-years. I would like to see them for myself.” <br /> <br /> “I see.”<br /> <br /> Although she had a reason, to see the student council president participating in a fun activity designed for first year students was quite unexpected. However, Kurou was not in the least bit surprised. No matter what were to occur, he would not waver. That advantage comes from a person’s accumulated practical experience.<br /> <br /> “May I ask a question?”<br /> <br /> Kurou calmly raised his hand.<br /> <br /> “Sure, go ahead.”<br /> <br /> “As the student council president, are you the strongest out of the entire academy?”<br /> <br /> “There’s no such mandate for that. However, I am accustomed to the chief duties of the third-year student council president position.”<br /> <br /> It was an obvious answer. No matter what, this was the Sword Academy. To only be exceptional academically was not enough to reach the top.<br /> <br /> “Ha…...to be suddenly facing the most powerful from the academy!?”<br /> <br /> “What is it kid? You wouldn’t happen to be scared are you?”<br /> <br /> “What do you mean by ‘kid’……”<br /> <br /> The student council president should only be older than Kurou by two years. Perhaps Isyuto was the type who liked to portray herself as an older sister. <br /> <br /> “Really, this needs to be more…...well, following the battle of the four great heavenly kings against the ferocious second-years and third-years, only then will I feel a sense of greatness.”<br /> <br /> <br /> “Are you sure you’re not confusing this with a game?”<br /> <br /> Isyuto shrugged her shoulders with a helpless expression.<br /> <br /> “However, it’s not a guarantee that I’m the strongest. Setting aside the third-years, even among the second-years there are some very capable individuals.”<br /> <br /> “If they were all to enter, then the battle royal may as well be over.”<br /> <br /> “The volunteer participants aren’t necessarily among the strongest of their respective grades. That said, I used my authority as the student council president to decline the entry of many misbehaving kids who wished to enter.”<br /> <br /> “Declined?”<br /> <br /> “Yeah, there are kids who don’t understand the severity of the situation. Sometimes it has forced me to act as the manager and lock up some students who are restricted from entering in a timeout room.”<br /> <br /> The student council president would stop at nothing to have it her way, leaving Kurou a bit exasperated.<br /> <br /> The so-called timeout room was not exactly peaceful either. He should be a bit more careful to avoid being placed there.<br /> <br /> “If those tough kids all frenzied around here, the first-years would probably be defeated rather quickly. However, it seems that the only ones left are you and me. You and Sefi are ridiculously strong. Well, then again I’m just having a bit of fun myself.”<br /> <br /> “Hmm.”<br /> <br /> Although Sefi had also taken out a large number of people, to think there would only be two people left. Her mentioning of “a bit” was probably just a modest gesture. <br /> <br /> In other words, as long as Kurou was able to take out the student council president, he would end up as the victor.<br /> <br /> “Well then, hurry up and show me what you got kid!”<br /> <br /> “————!”<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Isyuto sped off to close the distance between her and Kurou. Despite already being vigilant, he somehow let the enemy close in————Kurou was shaken as he used his wooden sword to deflect Isyuto’s downward strike. He did not even contemplate evading as he was only able to muster up a deflection.<br /> <br /> “I wouldn’t have expected any less from you!”<br /> <br /> As Isyuto shouted out, she continued her onslaught of the sword. A second and third strike came————her vicious attack was neverending. Her foot movements were all very sharp as she paced around forcefully on the surface. <br /> <br /> It contrasted to Sefi’s all-out attacks. In comparison to Manaka, her sword movements lagged behind greatly. Her swordsmanship also differed from the Sword Saint’s flawlessness. <br /> <br /> Even so, the force, speed, and swordsmanship behind Isyuto attacks————each aspect maintained such a balance.<br /> <br /> The student council president Isyuto————gave the impression that she was no longer just a student, but rather an already matured swordsman.<br /> <br /> “Gah!”<br /> <br /> The strike that Kurou dodged knocked aside a car in the parking lot. The wooden swords were prone to breaking, yet a car was sent flying into the air, creating a massive cave-in within the car body. A thumping sound could be heard as the car landed back on the ground.<br /> <br /> “......The light blade?”<br /> <br /> Kurou quietly mentioned.<br /> <br /> The sword raised up by Isyuto was shrouded in a faint white light. <br /> <br /> Even among Swordies, only an exceptional Swordie individual could utilize their light so that it transfers to their blade. It was a technique that would increase the endurance and sharpness of their sword. However, this time it was with a wooden blade, so it being sharpened was probably not an issue.<br /> <br /> “If I’m not allowed to go to this extent, then it seems I can’t win versus you.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto revealed a brief smile as she pointed the tip of her sword of white light towards Kurou. <br /> <br /> “Even though I’ve heard about you, it’s still hard to believe. Clearly a human is unable to evade or parry away a Swordie’s sword————a Sword Princess’s sword at that.”<br /> <br /> “Sure seems possible.”<br /> <br /> Kurou smiled in response.<br /> <br /> “Well, originally I thought that was the case——you are the sole Sword Princess of the academy.”<br /> <br /> “Haha, you knew? Indeed, I do have the Sword Princess status for now. However, I wish to have this status removed after seeing how easily my sword was defended by you.”<br /> <br /> “It’s not that easy. Well, it’s always like walking on thin ice.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto’s sword was very powerful. However, she could never compare to the Sword Saint. To Kurou, who had been continuously practicing with the strongest swordsman as his opponent, Isyuto’s attacks were nothing to extent of unbearable. <br /> <br /> “Based on what I’ve seen, your blocking or evasion all came before I even moved. It’s not even seeing through my swordsmanship, but rather something that occurs much earlier than that.”<br /> <br /> “......That would be correct.”<br /> <br /> Truthfully, he did not really intend on hiding it.<br /> <br /> “For Swordies, they put everything into their sword with their swift and powerful swings. Despite it being their strength————it’s also a curse for them.”<br /> <br /> “Curse……?”<br /> <br /> “Starting from right before the swinging motion, a Swordie’s sword already begins its takeoff. That’s what I look for since you guys are unable to stop the attack in which you put your soul into at that point. As long as I recognize this point, I’ll be able to dodge the strike afterwards.”<br /> <br /> In truth, it was not as simple as that.<br /> <br /> If he was unable to completely evade it, the only other option would most likely be death.<br /> <br /> Even when it came to parrying, if he was not able to hit the opponent’s sword at the precise time and angle, it may result in a broken sword or perhaps his demise.<br /> <br /> During battles against Swordies, every strike was truly a perilous walk on thin ice.<br /> <br /> “A curse eh? I see, indeed it is like that. Our born to kill instinct————the will to kill might even be too effective. What is akin to a life revolved around slaying others, absolutely nothing can be done about that disposition. “<br /> <br /> “Finding a winning opportunity would be my ability————the Olden Style.”<br /> <br /> There was also another aspect.<br /> <br /> His own sword maneuvers are done with the complete elimination of killing intent.<br /> <br /> By depicting an exquisite path and speed of the sword, it was not just his unpredictability. By the time the opponent noticed, that sword driven by an unpredictable swordsmanship would already be coming their way. The combination of these techniques resulted in a sword that not even a Swordie could defend against.<br /> <br /> Completely seeing through the opponent’s attack and preventing his own attack from being read, that was the swordsmanship of the Olden Style. Despite the simplicity, that future sight sort of perception and the acute sword maneuvers were necessary. For the sake of humans opposing Swordies, the creation of such an art exists.<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Kurou raised his sword towards the middle in his usual stance.<br /> <br /> No matter how much rigorous training his techniques go through, a human’s physical capabilities can never match up to that of a Swordie’s. If Kurou wished to attain victory, getting a quick decisive victory was of the utmost importance.<br /> <br /> “I apologize Miss Student Council President, but it looks like you have lost.”<br /> <br /> That declaration of victory was copied from his master.<br /> <br /> Isyuto also displayed the same middle stance as Kurou except her sword tip was slightly pointed forward and her body also leaned a tad forward. However, Kurou did not mind such matters.<br /> <br /> Kurou maintained his stance and slowly closed the distance————<br /> <br /> He put pressure on his lower abdomen as he swung the sword of the Olden Style downwards.<br /> <br /> “……!”<br /> <br /> Isyuto’s face revealed an astonished expression. That static expression was commonly seen by Kurou as the response from Swordies who had witnessed his sword.<br /> <br /> However————<br /> <br /> The attack aimed at Isyuto’s head instead grazed a sliver of her light green hair, resulting in only a few strands of hair being sent flying in the air.<br /> <br /> “Guh……!”<br /> <br /> And it did not stop there.<br /> <br /> Isyuto’s menacing, lightning fast stab suddenly came forth, striking Kurou right in the middle of his chest. He heard the thump against his chest from that hit.<br /> <br /> Kurou was sent flying a few meters backwards and viciously crashed into a parked car.<br /> <br /> “Ack…..guh……!”<br /> <br /> Kurou kneeled down on the floor while covering the spot where had been hit on the chest with his hand. To have all that happen and still been able to single-handedly hold on to his sword showed his capabilities as a swordsman.<br /> <br /> The surrounding scenery was perpetually blurring. Despite being able to see up close and far away, his vision was turbulently shaking.<br /> <br /> It was a wooden sword, but when being dealt an attack from a Swordie, it was already a miracle that he did not faint.<br /> <br /> “How about that……”<br /> <br /> Isyuto was stroking her own hair as she stated.<br /> <br /> “Although it’s just my hair, but it has truly been ages since I’ve been hit with a sword. You’re pretty good kid.”<br /> <br /> “……I’m the one who was hit.”<br /> <br /> Kurou pressed on his chest as he stood up. His knees were incessantly wavering. Despite just joking around, he no longer had the leisure to be saying such things.<br /> <br /> “You may as well openly accept those words of praise. Well, even though you are young, I still like a bit of cockiness.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto approached Kurou with impunity. Paying no mind as she grabbed Kurou’s left shoulder, she rolled up his shirt sleeve.<br /> <br /> On his left hand was the white metal bracelet with the Sword Saint’s emblem carved in. Known as the successor’s marking, it was also proof that he was a candidate.<br /> <br /> “You are pretty worthy of being the Sword Saint’s successor considering how you are still alive from that previous attack.”<br /> <br /> “……Are you trying to kill me?”<br /> <br /> Although it was a vague suspicion, it turned out to be true after all. Kurou felt quite frightened by this.<br /> <br /> “With you as my opponent, if I don’t take it to that level then it wouldn’t really be a battle. Actually, that last jab was aimed at your tag, but because you twisted your body it missed. Consequently, you were blown far away. However, most of that was probably from you leaping back as well right?”<br /> <br /> “Still, I thought there might have been a huge hole in my body.”<br /> <br /> Precisely as Isyuto mentioned, it was to limit the extent of his injuries. If he did not do that, at the very least he would undoubtedly have ended up on a hospital bed.<br /> <br /> “What did you do? How come I————couldn’t see it?”<br /> <br /> Isyuto’s sudden stab that he was unable to evade lacked any resemblance from Manaka’s high-speed sword. Him not being able to avoid it was not because of her speed or heavy force, it was just————Kurou was unable to detect her killing intent.<br /> <br /> “You spoke of a Swordie’s curse and when you add my own curse to that, perhaps it weakens me quite a bit.”<br /> <br /> “What do you mean……”<br /> <br /> While quivering from the pain of that sudden jab, he stared at Isyuto.<br /> <br /> How was he suppressed to such an extent when the student council president was inferior to both the Sword Saint and Manaka? Kurou did not understand.<br /> <br /> “However, you are much more interesting compared to me. From a spectator’s point of view, your sword clearly moves so slow that it makes one want to doze off, yet during the confrontation……it turns out quite different than one would expect. When the sword will be swung, what kind of swordsmanship, both of which are incomprehensible. You’re very unfathomable, truly so.”<br /> <br /> Isyuto jovially stated as she grabbed Kurou’s lower jaw and lifted it up.<br /> <br /> “I like you a lot, to the point where I would even eat you……”<br /> <br /> “If it’s just to the extent of nibbling……I don’t have a problem with that!”<br /> <br /> As he mentioned as such, Kurou’s hand that was pressed against his chest began to move.<br /> <br /> Although he was not using a sword, he still utilized the movements of the Olden Style————not letting the opposition know where it was going.<br /> <br /> This time his hand was heading for————<br /> <br /> “What……!?”<br /> <br /> The smile on the student council president’s face vanished. Clearly an expression of distress and shock surfaced in its place. Plus, there was more to it.<br /> <br /> “W-Where do you think you’re touching……!?”<br /> <br /> Her face was flushed red. Kurou’s hand ripped apart the student council president’s tag and groped her breasts. Getting the victory while fulfilling his desires, this was totally abusing the Olden Style technique.<br /> <br /> “And with that, I’m the victor……that said……”<br /> <br /> “J-Just how long are you going to rub there……what is it!?”<br /> <br /> Kurou disregarded her as he continued to feel up her chest.<br /> <br /> “The student council president is very beautiful, however your chest region is quite barren.”<br /> <br /> “Haha……”<br /> <br /> A smile once again surfaced on Isyuto’s embarrassed and reddened face.<br /> <br /> The student council president revealed a gentle smile as she forcefully waved around her wooden sword.<br /> <br /> “Eh? I've already won the battle royal————“<br /> <br /> Isyuto turned a deaf ear towards Kurou while violently swinging down the sword.<br /> <br /> With a sense of regret, Kurou moved his hand away from Isyuto’s chest, barely dodging the blade in the process.<br /> <br /> Kurou very precisely predicted that last strike, but the killing intent imbued within the blade was quite frightening.<br /> <br /> It seemed the lovely student council president was not the type who could be touched.<br /> <br /> Kurou escaped like a fleeing rabbit as he recalled the feeling of those tiny breasts. In order to survive till the honoring ceremony, it appeared that Kurou must win in a second bout against the student council president————<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “......What have they all been doing?”<br /> <br /> A woman downed a can of beer in one go, wryly smiling as she spoke.<br /> <br /> Her figure was sitting atop a cylindrical water tank on the roof of the Sword Academy’s secondary campus building. She sat there in fascination while being surrounded by a clutter of beer cans.<br /> <br /> She had bought a six-pack, but after the battle royal there was only one can leftover.<br /> <br /> “That little runt’s womanizing is quite sickening.”<br /> <br /> The woman who was chugging down the beer was Manaka.<br /> <br /> Even though she was a Swordie, she was also a swordsman who attained a Seven Sword title, the Sword General.<br /> <br /> She was already twenty-four years old, yet she only resembled a teenager. Due to the influence of a Swordie’s light, they were able to delay their aging more than humans.<br /> <br /> She possessed green eyes and that blue hair of hers rested on her shoulders. Her face was unblemished, her breasts were quite ample, and her arms and legs were long and slender. Regardless where she was, she would always stand out as a graceful beauty.<br /> <br /> Despite being a member of the Blazes and forging a personal record to infiltrate Swordie society, she climbed all the way to a spot among the Seven Swords. As the former director of the Sabers, she also used to be Kurou’s superior. <br /> <br /> She betrayed Swordie society, yet today she was properly wearing her Sabers uniform. That was because she really fancied the uniform that she ordered.<br /> <br /> “In the end, Kurou-kun won eh? That was quite plain and boring.”<br /> <br /> When Manaka heard about the battle royal being held, she came to spectate. <br /> <br /> It was said that she was a monster whose high-speed movements could even cause afterimages to appear. Her visual acuity for capturing her prey during those high speeds was also quite superior. With her visual acuity, it was easy for her to see the students engaged in battle from the panoramic view atop the water tank on campus.<br /> <br /> Even Kurou’s battle against Isyuto was entirely witnessed by her.<br /> <br /> “Well, I guess that’s that then. Although, there’s still plenty of time to kill.”<br /> <br /> Just as Manaka muttered to herself…...<br /> <br /> Suddenly, a blade brushed the side of her beer can, slicing it apart. As the liquid contents spilled out, Manaka jumped up into the air.<br /> <br /> “Hmm?”<br /> <br /> In front of Manaka, who was leisurely mumbling, the water tank also turned into pieces. The fragmented water tank spilled a large quantity of water, which flooded the entire rooftop instantly and poured down towards the schoolyard below. <br /> <br /> On top of the already submerged rooftop, Manaka retrieved the sword by her waist.<br /> <br /> The Dancer————crowned as her personalized sword, it was a single-edged longsword. The blade was very thin like paper.<br /> <br /> “Haha, to have chopped up this massive water tank in one swing, looks like those sword maneuvers of yours are still as scary as usual.”<br /> <br /> Manaka boldly smiled as she gazed towards the girl that appeared on the roof.<br /> <br /> However, the other person was not looking at Manaka.<br /> <br /> No————that was because she had her eyes tightly shut and was unable to see anything.<br /> <br /> “Long time no see, Absolute Sword Syunaku.”<br /> <br /> “Indeed, it’s been a while, former Sword General Manaka.”<br /> <br /> Overall, Syunaku’s voice contained a hint of excitement.<br /> <br /> She was one of the Seven Swords.<br /> <br /> Currently there were many within the Seven Swords who were very young. Syunaku was nineteen years of age. She ascended to the throne three years ago when she was just sixteen. <br /> <br /> Her light brown hair was tied in three due to its length.<br /> <br /> She was wearing the official attire of the Seven Swords, which was similar to that of the Sword Princess. A black toned shirt with golden stripes paired with a similar black dress that was very short in length. She did not wear a mantle like the twin Sword Princesses. <br /> <br /> Although she conveniently carried a small dagger by her waist, Manaka knew that was just a prop. <br /> <br /> “As expected of you Manaka. I clearly thought that I would have you cut into circular pieces just like that water tank over there.”<br /> <br /> “Who cares about that, slashing apart my beer can was a bit excessive. There was still beer left in that.”<br /> <br /> “Pardon my bad manners.”<br /> <br /> Syunaku quietly chuckled while gracefully displaying a gesture of courtesy.<br /> <br /> She was raised by a prestigious family with a history of former Seven Swords and Sword Princesses. Although there were existences who were special cases in using the sword among Swordies, Syunaku’s family history of the sword was even more notable. <br /> <br /> “Well then, I must apologize. Allow me to attach the label of being easily wiped out onto a traitor such as yourself.”<br /> <br /> Syunaku swiftly crossed her hands in front of her chest.<br /> <br /> She was wearing black colored leather gloves and even had metallic rings on each of her five fingers. <br /> <br /> There were five threads that extended outwards. This object, known as the Wire Sword, slashed apart Manaka’s all important beer can and the water tank.<br /> <br /> Syunaku’s wire sword could reach a couple meters out, slicing things apart like cutting tofu. Scary enough, the mysterious sword was also capable of long-range combat.<br /> <br /> Manaka had witnessed the mysterious sword countless times and knew perfectly well of its frightening powers.<br /> <br /> However——Manaka simply smiled.<br /> <br /> “Hahaha, do you think the current me would care about disgrace and such? If things aren’t to my heart’s content, then I will become even more enraged. Speaking of which, as a Seven Sword, you still decided to be a security guard for the academy? How gloryless.”<br /> <br /> “It’s because I want money.”<br /> <br /> Syunaku did not mind as she replied.<br /> <br /> She was one of the Seven Swords who——became a swordsman for the money. Disregarding the dangerous tasks, rumor has it that as long as she was reasonably compensated, she would even willingly take up the role of a bodyguard for a bar. Although Manaka was not quite convinced, it seemed to be the truth.<br /> <br /> “I was entrusted by Sylphy-sama. It appeared that there were going to be some important individuals coming to the academy, plus this job was also well-suited for me.”<br /> <br /> “Indeed, the other Seven Sword are quite fearsome. However, the only one who can cover a vast amount of territory is you.”<br /> <br /> “Yup, even if it can’t be seen, I————can sense everything.”<br /> <br /> Syunaku, the Absolute Sword, kept her eyes closed due to losing her sight.<br /> <br /> However, she was capable of sensing the situation anywhere within a two kilometer scope. It was not her visual acuity, but rather she judged based on the sounds and air vibrations to completely grasp the movements of any person or being. In place of her lost vision, her other senses sharpened————and in addition, there was this unique skill that only she was capable of using. As for the specifics behind this, even Manaka was unsure.<br /> <br /> “Furthermore, perhaps a swordsman of your stature might even be pursuing Sefi-sama and that girl from the Sun Cult. In that case, even if we assemble our people and gather the exceptionally talented Sword Princesses, it would only be at the expense of a slaughter. If it is me, there is a chance that the entire school’s security work and the task of facing a Seven Sword can be taken care of.”<br /> <br /> “I see. Well, even I was surprised to see you waiting for me here.”<br /> <br /> “I was quite astonished as well. Who would have thought that the person who went on a rampage here not too long ago would return without a second thought. To be drinking while spectating a student activity here much less.“<br /> <br /> Manaka confirmed that Syunaku’s wire sword slightly moved a bit. Even though each strand was invisible to the naked eye, Manaka was able to capture them with her vision.<br /> <br /> “The wounds my sister’s rascal disciples dealt to me have already healed. It’s been a while since I last went for a jog and I decided to conveniently stop by here along the way.”<br /> <br /> “Of course of course, in other words you were ‘conveniently’ killed during a jog. How sad…...ha!”<br /> <br /> The moment Syunaku motioned her fingers, the wires covering the building suddenly all rose upwards.<br /> <br /> The ten wires each resembled different living beings on the move. The wires more or less trapped Manaka in a cage-like manner————she was about to be sliced into ten pieces of flesh in one fell swoop.<br /> <br /> “......Darn.”<br /> <br /> Syunaku quietly murmured.<br /> <br /> Right before the wire sword entangled her, Manaka leaped into the air and stood a couple meters beyond where the wire web was on the rooftop. What Syunaku cut was————although she was unable to see it————it was Manaka’s afterimage.<br /> <br /> “You can scurry pretty far away in such a quick time frame. Jeez, always so eccentric.”<br /> <br /> “I never planned on battling against you today. I apologize, but please allow me to leave ok?”<br /> <br /> “How unfortunate. If I were to capture you, I’d get a special reward.”<br /> <br /> “Even though I’ve asked you before, what do you even plan on doing with the money you make?”<br /> <br /> “I’ve trained all my senses except vision, however my sense of taste has become unusually sensitive. Outside of highly priced dishes that require a lot of time, I probably wouldn’t accept anything else. That’s why I need to spend money.”<br /> <br /> “......How unbearable.”<br /> <br /> Manaka helplessly spoke. Although it was done half in jest, it sounded unnerving since it did not seem like a lie.<br /> <br /> She displayed such calmness against the former Sword General, proving herself as a swordsman who ascended to the Seven Swords even without any vision.<br /> <br /> “Even if you mentioned as such, can you really just return?”<br /> <br /> “Yup, that is my intention.”<br /> <br /> “You’re not————going to see that boy again?”<br /> <br /> “......”<br /> <br /> Syunaku was of course referring to Kurou.<br /> <br /> “That kid who was the disciple of the Sword Saint seemed to have immediately detected my presence the moment he left the hospital. With that battle against the student council president, don’t you think he’s quite an interesting lad?”<br /> <br /> “Him being interesting is not something I can deny.”<br /> <br /> “That kid’s mysterious sword, even my wire sword should be able to defend against it. I would really like to request a match against him.”<br /> <br /> “......Syunaku, let me just say this first. If you ever harm Kurou-kun…..I’ll murder you.”<br /> <br /> As Manaka stated, she placed the Dancer back in the scabbard. <br /> <br /> Without waiting for Syunaku’s reply, she jumped from the top of the building.<br /> <br /> The school building had four stories. If one were to fall, even a Swordie would suffer some sort of wound. However, she went along the window frames, a small pipeline-esque stepping space, and shortly after reached the bottom.<br /> <br /> She did not sense Syunaku’s wire sword pursue her. She probably never planned on really committing to a battle against Manaka. If it were a battle, it was uncertain as to who would win. At least to her, battling against Manaka for a reward was overly dangerous.<br /> <br /> As Manaka sprinted through the academy, she contemplated over something.<br /> <br /> When Syunaku mentioned Kurou’s name, she confirmed to herself————although it was for the briefest of moments, her heart did truly waver.<br /> <br /> During the past two weeks, lives were wagered in battle and she was injured by the boy.<br /> <br /> Manaka respected the disciple of her sister, Sword Saint Hyouka, from the bottom of her heart.<br /> <br /> Furthermore————perhaps he was the one who slayed Hyouka.<br /> <br /> However, that was not the case this time.<br /> <br /> Manaka, who shouldered the burden of avenging her sister, clearly detested him.<br /> <br /> Yet she noticed that her hate was also————a stubborn attachment to Kurou.<br /> <br /> It was precisely as Syunaku stated. For Manaka to have returned to the place where she caused such a ruckus not too long ago was abnormal. In fact, it was something that she could not comprehend herself.<br /> <br /> Just what will this attachment to Kurou have in store for her in the future?<br /> <br /> The answer to that was nonexistent, located not even within her own heart.<br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Kenshin_no_Keishousha:Volume_2_Prologue&diff=474456 Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 2 Prologue 2015-12-14T07:25:20Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>== Prologue ==<br /> <br /> The pale blue sky stretched for miles, with not a single cloud to be seen.<br /> <br /> It was already past mid-May, the sunlight being glaringly bright and warm winds blowing about.<br /> <br /> “Looks like it’s going to be summer soon.”<br /> <br /> A youth in a school uniform was looking up dreamily at the sky while he walked on.<br /> <br /> The monotonous sky seemed to be the only one ignoring approaching summer’s presence, its appearance as normal as it always was.<br /> <br /> Looking at the scenery in the sky, the youth— Kurou felt a sense of relief.<br /> <br /> Recently, he had been observing weird phenomena in the sky. However, those phenomena would only last for the briefest of moments, and at this moment in time he hadn’t spotted anything out of the ordinary. Halcyon days were the best.<br /> <br /> Kurou was currently in one corner of the academy he was attending as a student, a vibrantly viridian garden. There was a grove of trees in the deepest part of the garden, and that was the location of the small cottage in which he resided.<br /> <br /> Although it looked shabby on the outside, the inside of the cottage was clean, and well furnished with electronic appliances and furniture. Most importantly though, since it was within school grounds commuting to school was a breeze.<br /> <br /> Because of a certain incident that had occurred, Kurou had only been in the academy for two weeks when he was hospitalised. Today was the day he was discharged. He hadn’t lived in the cottage for very long, but he was already starting to get attached to the place.<br /> <br /> “…?”<br /> <br /> Kurou suddenly came to a halt, placing his hand on the katana strapped to his waist. Moving his head slightly, he scanned his surroundings.<br /> <br /> He had already passed the garden and was now entering into the grove. The trees weren’t particularly densely clumped together, but there were still numerous places for someone to hide themselves in.<br /> <br /> For a brief second, he felt someone’s presence.<br /> <br /> He didn’t think he was mistaken. Being hospitalised meant his body had deteriorated somewhat, but it couldn’t have dulled to the point where he would mistake something like a person’s presence.<br /> <br /> “What was that…?”<br /> <br /> Kurou took his hand off his katana.<br /> <br /> This was the Sword Academy— a place for people who chased after all aspects of the sword. It wouldn’t be strange for someone to be radiating a dangerous presence.<br /> <br /> Deciding the situation was fine after all, Kurou resumed walking.<br /> <br /> Of course, his state of mind was prepared for anything to happen. The alert phase Kurou was in now could be said to be his default mode.<br /> <br /> “Hm?”<br /> <br /> This time around, he felt it clearly. Or rather, he could hear it.<br /> <br /> Swishing sounds could be heard, as if someone was slashing at the air with a sharp sword. A sound like that was something Kurou was extremely familiar with.<br /> <br /> Proceeding forward slowly, just as he reached the front of his house— Kurou stopped dead in his tracks.<br /> <br /> “Hah!”<br /> <br /> Where the grove opened up into a clearing, there was a girl who was putting her spirit into swinging her sword.<br /> <br /> The sunlight streamed through her golden hair, which was tied in a sidetail, she was wearing a pale beige blazer, and the hem of her miniskirt was flapping about.<br /> <br /> The blade of the sword she was wielding was broad and thick, and it was roughly as long as she was tall. Just one look at it and it was clear that this sword was a genuine broadsword-esque blade. To a normal person, there was no way a slender girl like her would be able to handle such a large object. Even a fifteen year old male like Kurou, who had an average constitution, would find lifting something like that up tough, to say nothing of swinging it about.<br /> <br /> However, the blonde girl was handling it lightly—even wielding it single-handedly on occasion. Her practice swings were stirring up wind in the grove, causing the trees to sway and their trunks to bend. It was scenery that didn’t look rooted in reality at all.<br /> <br /> She was an alien, a being from another world known as a Swordie. Swordies could crush rock with their bare hands, and sprint faster than the wind. From the moment they were born, Swordies possessed speed and power that were superior to normal humans.<br /> <br /> Above all else though, Swordies were a race that was proficient with the sword from the time they were born into the world. She wasn’t just swinging her sword using brute force, but with a graceful swordsmanship that belied her age of fifteen. Her sword looked like it could easily cut through iron.<br /> <br /> A human like Kurou was completely different. Although appearance wise humans and Swordies looked alike, they were two completely different living organisms.<br /> <br /> “Rou…?”<br /> <br /> “Yo.”<br /> <br /> The blonde girl— Sefi stopped her swinging, staring blankly at Kurou in surprise.<br /> <br /> “How long have you been standing there?”<br /> <br /> “Just now. More importantly Sefi, what are you doing here?”<br /> <br /> Sefi was also a student of the academy, but her residence was at the girls’ dormitory.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine, isn’t it? Today’s a Sunday. I’m free to do whatever I like, wherever I like.”<br /> <br /> Sefi wasn’t being honest as she replied, sheathing her sword in its scabbard, which was propped up against one of the trees nearby. Sheathing a sword that big should have been troublesome, but she did it with an ease that suggested she was used to this motion.<br /> <br /> “Speaking of which, you’re finally discharged. I was wondering how long you were going to spend being cooped up in there.”<br /> <br /> “I’m a human, you know. I got a deep gouging wound on my shoulder, not to mentioned I was slashed in various other places. The doctor remarked that the fact that I could be discharged in two week was already a miracle of sorts.”<br /> <br /> Kurou lightly patted his left shoulder. There was some stiffness left in it, but it had roughly healed from the incident two weeks ago.<br /> <br /> “Humans are such inconvenient creatures. Well, in anycase… W-w-w-w-el-co…”<br /> <br /> “Oh, it’s Kurou. I thought you’d only be back in the afternoon.”<br /> <br /> A carefree voice spoke, drowning out what Sefi was trying to say.<br /> <br /> He wasn’t sure when exactly she had arrived, but a girl with long black hair was now standing next to the both of them.<br /> <br /> Sakurai Hinako. Kurou’s housemate, and due to certain circumstances he was also her bodyguard.<br /> <br /> “… wait, what’s with that outfit?!”<br /> <br /> Kurou’s eyes widened in surprise.<br /> <br /> He was looking at something he had gotten used to seeing recently— actually, that wasn’t exactly right.<br /> <br /> When he had been hospitalised, he hadn’t even seen something like this once before.<br /> <br /> [[File:Kenshin_v02_015.PNG|thumb|right]]<br /> <br /> Currently Hinako was wearing a nurse uniform that was an eye-catching pink colour. Rather conscientiously, her nurse cap was pink as well. <br /> <br /> Her skirt was dangerously short, till the point it barely concealed her panties.<br /> <br /> Above all else though, because the uniform was tightly fitting to her body, Hinako’s ample bosom stood out, revealing just how well stacked she really was.<br /> <br /> If nurses actually wore such titillating uniforms, male patients would deliberately injure themselves to receive attention.<br /> <br /> “… Hinako, what happened to your maid uniform?”<br /> <br /> “I got sick of it.”<br /> <br /> Hinako spoke without hesitation.<br /> <br /> Before Kurou had been hospitalised, Hinako had worn a maid outfit and pledged to serve him, and now Kurou wondered what had happened to that pledge.<br /> <br /> “You hadn’t recovered yet Kuro, so I thought I’d wear this and nurse you back to full health.”<br /> <br /> “That would have been some fine service, but… hang on. Where did you even get that nurse uniform in the first place?”<br /> <br /> “It was inside the closet of clothes Manaka gave to me.”<br /> <br /> “That woman… Such a needless souvenir to leave behind.”<br /> <br /> Kurou felt a headache coming on.<br /> <br /> Manaka was his master’s younger sister, as well as his former boss. As someone who lived life acting on whims, she was also the one who dressed Hinako up in an excessively erotic maid uniform in the first place.<br /> <br /> She was currently missing, but even when she was gone she was still causing Kurou problems.<br /> <br /> “I tried to stop her as well, but as you can see… In any case, why don’t we enter the house first?”<br /> <br /> “I guess you’re right.”<br /> <br /> Kurou nodded at Sefi. There was no point in continuing to stand outside the house and talk. Lightly shaking his head, he started to walk. However, before he could even take a step, he finally noticed his house.<br /> <br /> “Huuuuuuhhhhhh!?”<br /> <br /> He let out a cry of surprise.<br /> <br /> Disregarding what the inside looked like, the cottage Kurou lived in looked shabby on the outside, and was a nondescript building.<br /> <br /> However, the building in front of Kurou was a brand new two storied house that looked like it had been prefabricated.<br /> <br /> “What has my house become…”<br /> <br /> “Ah, that’s right, I didn’t tell you.”<br /> <br /> Resting her giant sword on her shoulders, Sefi looked up at the small cottage— or rather, big house.<br /> <br /> “While you were hospitalised, I had your house renovated. To be honest, it was just completed yesterday.”<br /> <br /> “But why was it even renovated in the first place…?”<br /> <br /> Because of his assignment as her bodyguard, Kurou and Hinako both lived in the small cottage together. Although it was a little cramped, it wasn’t as if the place was hindering them in any way.<br /> <br /> “It’s not good for a boy and girl of the same age to be living together. I did it so as to maintain public morals and also so that Rou wouldn’t do anything perverted to Hina.”<br /> <br /> Sefi glanced over at both Kurou and Hinako with a meaningful look in her eyes.<br /> <br /> “So, I’ll be living here with the both of you from now on. I won’t accept any protests.”<br /> <br /> “Eh…”<br /> <br /> Sefi beamed happily at the speechless Kurou.<br /> <br /> Hinako seemed to have already been informed of this arrangement, as she was adjusting the position of her cap with a look on her face that suggested she was fine with anything.<br /> <br /> “I requested the academy to build it. In the future, it will be used for the security guards in the garden to rest.”<br /> <br /> Kurou nodded, chuckling wryly on the inside. It was hard for the academy to refuse any of Sefi’s requests. She was a Swordie with that much influence and power after all.<br /> <br /> Living together with Hinako was something that was unavoidable and he couldn’t cancel, but now that Sefi was living together with them…<br /> <br /> “So in other words… It’s an all I can sexually harass Sefi buffet from dawn to dusk?!”<br /> <br /> “Like hell it is!”<br /> <br /> Sefi yelled back at him in a rough tone.<br /> <br /> It was a pity she had denied his request, but there was no denying that Sefi was now going to live with them.<br /> <br /> Well, it wasn’t like he was going to raise any objections in the first place. Kurou’s hand lightly touched the katana that was by his side.<br /> <br /> Other than wondering what would happen to this sword, it was far less troublesome to just accept whatever fate had in store for him.<br /> <br /> This was a lesson he had learnt from the various incidents that had occurred before being hospitalised.<br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Kenshin_no_Keishousha:Volume_1_Chapter1&diff=474274 Kenshin no Keishousha:Volume 1 Chapter1 2015-12-13T02:44:14Z <p>Hiro Hayase: coward -&gt; cower</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 - The Sword Academy==<br /> <br /> Tokyo Swordia————<br /> <br /> Formerly this city was known as the Tokyo metropolis, but currently in the 21st century, the otherworldly Swordies have ruled over the city since the Great War seventy years ago.<br /> <br /> Tokyo Swordia was divided into two regions. In other words, the Swordies resided within the Specialized Central Region while humans inhabited the Outer Human Region.<br /> <br /> Being the dominant social class, the Specialized Central Region where all the Swordies lived controlled all political and economic functions. To everyone else in the world, they had the most elegant districts. In contrast, the Outer Human Region felt quite unbalanced with the quality among the districts being starkly different.<br /> <br /> It was already past ten in the evening, yet it was quite rambunctious on this particular bustling street in the Outer Human Region which had rows upon rows of bars lined up for construction.<br /> <br /> Slightly away from the ruckus within the corner of this region sits an old-fashioned hotel.<br /> <br /> Located underneath the hotel was a parking garage. Parked within its depths was a van with its engine running and the shadows of multiple figures gathered around the vehicle. There were five of them in total, and all of them were wearing what appeared to be white robes. <br /> <br /> One of the members, who was currently breathing heavily, appears to have been wounded. Although medical aid was being received from a friend, it seems the bleeding could not be stopped.<br /> <br /> &quot;Looks like I’ve already caught up.&quot;<br /> <br /> For some reason, these words startled the others as they turned towards the sound of the approaching footsteps.<br /> <br /> These robe wearing people all reacted in unison, directing their gaze towards the figure that showed up. <br /> <br /> &quot;If you want to escape you should be giving it everything you have, not dilly-dallying around in this sort of place.&quot;<br /> <br /> A young teenager wearing a red long coat appeared within the parking garage.<br /> <br /> From the opening in the front of the long coat, one could see that the somewhat short teenager possessed a slender figure.<br /> <br /> Along with his disheveled black hair, there remained a childish facial complexion. However, under the fringe of his hair, his eyes carried an exceptionally sharp expression.<br /> <br /> &quot;Well, if you guys were to scatter in disarray you would all be interrogated. That said, you guys also killed four police officers which is quite unacceptable to be honest. You bastards, I'm pretty strict when it comes to losing my comrades. I will keep on pursuing you all even if you were to run to the ends of the earth.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Are you one of the Sabers?&quot;<br /> <br /> One of the robed members shouted in a sharp tone. Unwavered, the teenager wryly smiled in response.<br /> <br /> &quot;As you can see.&quot;<br /> <br /> The teenager————Kurou, pointed to the silver sword insignia on his long coat with his index finger.<br /> <br /> The so-called Sabers were Tokyo Swordia's public security force. They were a separate entity from the police force.<br /> <br /> &quot;I'd appreciate it if you guys would allow me to make a peaceful arrest. However, if there is any resistance————&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou placed his hand on the hilt of the katana strapped to his waist. Just by looking at its composition, one could tell it was definitely not an ornament or a counterfeit. Instead, it was a thoroughly used and authentic blade.<br /> <br /> &quot;This is the end for all of you, followers of the sun.&quot;<br /> <br /> Even without inquiring, Kurou already knew their true identity.<br /> <br /> The so-called Sun Cult was just as its name indicated. The religious organization was comprised of followers who worshipped the teachings of the sun.<br /> <br /> In the last couple of years, these thugs would frequently engage in terrorist activities. The number of victims from these terrorist activities have already reached triple digits. These Sabers, who were part of the public security force, have made the Sun Cult their number one priority.<br /> <br /> Because the van of the Sun Cult followers arrived at a police checkpoint tonight, they decided to forcefully break through. During their escape, they killed four police officers and are currently still fleeing.<br /> <br /> Since the Sabers sent out a dispatch request, Kurou, being a member, caught up to them here.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hey——, what is this, it hasn't started yet? Fortunately I leisurely walked over here.&quot;<br /> <br /> Unexpectedly, an extremely clear voice sounded.<br /> <br /> Behind Kurou came another guy that entered the parking garage. He too kept a sword by his waist and also wore the exact same long coat marked with the silver insignia.<br /> <br /> &quot;Are you an idiot? You’re currently on the job, you better get over here quickly Lars.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yeah yeah, you're so stringent as usual Kurou.&quot;<br /> <br /> He elatedly smiled. Lars was also a member of the Sabers.<br /> <br /> Within the Sabers, he and Kurou worked together as a pair. Although he was about five centimeters taller than the short-statured Kurou, his face also seems to have retained a puerile complexion. In fact, he was only a teenager who was fifteen years of age. <br /> <br /> His appearance was well-kept and his hair was practically white. However, he claims the color was “platinum”.<br /> <br /> Even though Lars followed an alternate path when chasing the criminals, the two pretty much found them at the same time.<br /> <br /> &quot;Despite being Sabers, there are only two of you against the five of us! We have complete control here!&quot;<br /> <br /> One of the cultists, who was tending to a comrade of his, spoke up in an acute voice. In response, the other cultists all whipped out their katanas.<br /> <br /> In Japan, it was to be expected that ordinary people were prohibited from carrying firearms. In fact, the Sabers, police, and even the military's main weaponry was the sword. Likewise, the weapons of the terrorists were no exception.<br /> <br /> It was very hard to see clearly into the shadow of the van, but it was without a doubt the voice of a female cultist————she was a very young teenage girl. Upon closer inspection, she was the only one who wasn't wearing a robe. Instead, she wore a white veil along with a blue nun getup.<br /> <br /> Her eyes were filled with tears, yet she unyieldingly glared at Lars.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hey Kurou, is this the opponent you’re responsible for?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;It's not really a responsibility......&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou wryly smiled and advanced forward.<br /> <br /> He knew this girl, her name was Kido Akari.<br /> <br /> She was a member of the Sun Cult's combat forces. However, for some reason they encountered each other numerous times during Kurou's missions. Even though those encounters have all been due to chance, it was true that there did exist some underlying reason for this. <br /> <br /> &quot;Akari, every time......we seem to encounter each other. Gradually I'm starting to believe this isn't an ill-fated relationship but rather destiny at work here.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;That seems to be the case. Why does it have to turn out like this......&quot;<br /> <br /> Akari lowered her gaze as she spoke————<br /> <br /> &quot;Hmm? What's wrong? You seem to have some deeply mixed emotions.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;There's no such thing!&quot;<br /> <br /> Inadvertently, her piercing glare fixated on Kurou.<br /> <br /> &quot;If it is destiny, then that destiny would also include me slaughtering you, you Swordie dog!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;A dog......&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Plus, you Swordies are not even part of this world, how could we accept a nation inhabited with you people!&quot;<br /> <br /> Akari pulled out her katana and got into her stance. Despite having a bit of flair to it, Kurou understood Akari's strength. Based on her technique, she was probably incapable of defeating any of the Sabers.<br /> <br /> &quot;Akari, you can choose to fight, however if this wounded person is left unattended to like this then he will die. This kind of emergency care right now is just prolonging his pain.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Guh......!&quot;<br /> <br /> Akari tightly bit her lips.<br /> <br /> Perhaps she realized that Kurou wasn’t just trying to complicate matters.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hey, you guys can withdraw. Sorry for arriving late.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hmm......?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou slightly tilted his head at the sound of this sudden voice.<br /> <br /> With her presence pretty much undetected, at some point a female figure appeared alongside the followers of the sun.<br /> <br /> She wasn't wearing the white robe of the Sun Cult. Instead, her attire consisted of a skimpy mini-skirt, a tightly fitted suit, and there was a bizarre sword suspended along her waist.<br /> <br /> &quot;Allowing me to deal with these Sabers idiots should be fine. Let me take care of the cargo and that one other thing in the van. The streets are filled with police checkpoints so you'll be instantly caught if you escape by car.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......Understood, we are counting on you.&quot;<br /> <br /> After Akari finished speaking, the rest of the Sun Cultists nodded. From the looks of it, they had no intention to continue causing trouble. Akari and the others glanced back at the van every so often before running away.<br /> <br /> Both Kurou and Lars had already lost interest in the Sun Cultists who already fled.<br /> <br /> Kurou once again inspected the woman.<br /> <br /> The woman's age was probably between twenty and twenty-five years old. She had gleaming short brown hair and although she was quite an attractive person, this was not the appropriate time to be taking note of these sort of things.<br /> <br /> &quot;Are you a Swordie?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Just like the ones you've seen.&quot;<br /> <br /> The woman nodded in response to Kurou's question. She then retrieved the sword by her waist in one swift motion.<br /> <br /> It was a slender double-edged longsword. The sight of this type of sword wasn’t rare, but————<br /> <br /> &quot;Ho, is this the light blade?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou muttered in admiration.<br /> <br /> Known as the light blade, the drawn out sword was enveloped by a faint white light. When the light blade was activated, the sword becomes incredibly hard to bend, break, and furthermore it was very keen-edged.<br /> <br /> &quot;Ah so you are a Swordie, and a pretty powerful one as well.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou once again muttered.<br /> <br /> The Swordies are considered to be residents from the mystifying world of Swordia.<br /> <br /> These otherworldly people and earth's human beings practically look the same. Even though many of them possessed hair and eye colors not found in normal humans, but other than that they were essentially alike.<br /> <br /> Despite Swordies and humans having nearly identical physique, the Swordies' physical capabilities were quite outstanding. Their strength and speed were both exceptional.<br /> <br /> Furthermore, the most frightening thing was their overwhelming natural disposition to the ways of the sword. Hence, all Swordies were inherently sword specialists.<br /> <br /> To add to that, if one becomes a first-class user they could engage in battle with a light blade empowered sword like this woman.<br /> <br /> &quot;It ends right here wanted criminal number FZ405333!&quot;<br /> <br /> Suddenly a voice rang.<br /> <br /> Just like Kurou and Lars, these guys were also wearing red long coats. There were six of them and each held a sword in their hands.<br /> <br /> They were all Swordies and members of the Sabers————in other words, they were also Kurou's colleagues. Presumably they too arrived by tracking the followers of the sun.<br /> <br /> &quot;This woman is a wanted criminal. In the past she killed two of our members. Clearly a Swordie, she's actually a lunatic for helping out the Sun Cult.&quot;<br /> <br /> The one member with the beard spoke up. Kurou also recognized this man. He was one of the older members of the Sabers and possessed excellent finesse.<br /> <br /> &quot;You guys can step down. It's too much of a burden for newcomers to face a light blade user.&quot;<br /> <br /> The man with the beard stated without even looking at Kurou. He then raised his sword and the other five members followed suit.<br /> <br /> From the looks of it, they wanted to steal all the glory. Whether it was the bearded man or the other members, it seemed none of them could utilize the light blade. Even so, with it being six to one perhaps they could win.<br /> <br /> &quot;Well, it doesn't matter to me how many people I face. Bring it on.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Swordie woman brazenly smiled as she replied.<br /> <br /> Haa——. The bearded man yelled out and charged towards the Swordie woman with the other five members.<br /> <br /> The majority of the Sabers members were adept at fighting. The bearded man and the other members probably had numerous experiences fighting enemies with swords. The six of them stormed in simultaneously and while doing so, they had to avoid slicing their own allies in battle.<br /> <br /> No one should ever take the enemy lightly due to superiority in numbers. For the sake of killing this one woman, the six men all risked their lives in the attack.<br /> <br /> &quot;Haha.&quot;<br /> <br /> However, the woman was unfazed.<br /> <br /> After the woman had seen through the incoming attack from the group of six, she slashed at the bearded man who led the attack, cutting his head off with just one swing of the sword. In quick succession, her sword sliced through a person's torso and then the face of another person.<br /> <br /> From the perspective of a normal person, the three of them would seem to have been simultaneously killed. It would be hard for anyone to discern such a high caliber technique.<br /> <br /> There was blood vigorously spraying out of the bodies of the men. The part of the body that suffered the violent hit had been greatly carved out.<br /> <br /> The woman hardly stopped there. She then slashed at two others diagonally from the shoulders and pierced the last person in the heart————the group of six were now all dead.<br /> <br /> Her abilities were indeed extremely impeccable.<br /> <br /> &quot;What was that? That was way too easy. Battling against men isn't fun after all.&quot;<br /> <br /> The woman muttered with an ennui expression. Actually, she probably felt extremely bored. Even though six people attacked her, she still eliminated them instantly. It really was way too easy for her. The difference in their abilities was profoundly visible.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hey, that's pretty impressive.&quot;<br /> <br /> Lars apathetically spoke. At some point in time he retrieved his cellphone in order to look something up.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hmm, that woman has a very high bounty, it's at one million. If we were to consider the six members of our group that were killed, the bounty will probably continue to rise.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Lars, you should have said something earlier!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;What are you getting all tensed up over. You don't need to worry about anyone stealing your glory now. Oh, by the way, the million is only if you capture her alive. If you captured her dead you would only get three hundred thousand. Well then, good luck.&quot;<br /> <br /> Lars wryly smiled as he turned off his cellphone.<br /> <br /> &quot;Understood. Hence, let me be your opponent. I'll be in your care.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou joyously spoke and proceeded to swiftly pull out the katana by his waist.<br /> <br /> &quot;......A katana? You rascal, you're clearly one of the Sabers, why would you still use that kind of thing?&quot;<br /> <br /> Having said that, the criminal ringleader’s eyes opened widely, staring intently at Kurou.<br /> <br /> &quot;You bastard......could it be, you are a human?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Even if I were to say 'just like the ones you’ve seen', you probably wouldn't understand. Well, I guess only humans would use katanas anyways.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou calmly stated as he motioned his katana.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hahaha! Originally I had thought the Sabers were just a group of idiotic men. I never would've thought that a human would also be accepted as a member. Has the lack of talent already reached this extent?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Jeez, it really annoys me that you would call it a group of idiotic men. I really can't tolerate this abuse towards humans like me.&quot;<br /> <br /> The Sabers included non-combative members as well. This tiny organization didn't even have a thousand members yet.<br /> <br /> The composition of the Sabers consisted entirely of Swordies except for Kurou. On the flip side, the police were practically all humans. It probably would have been more natural if Kurou were part of the police.<br /> <br /> There was some reason behind Kurou's recruitment into the Sabers. It wasn't because of a lack of talent, however Kurou wasn't about to kindly explain to that extent.<br /> <br /> &quot;Nevertheless, from the looks of it you are clearly a Swordie assisting these humans.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;If I were to be on the Swordies' side, most likely I’d only be able to face the boring swordsmanship of the humans. I want to battle the powerful Swordies. Is that white-haired boy a Swordie? If you don't battle, this human is going to die.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I'll consider it, but I'm not too worried over my financial situation.&quot;<br /> <br /> Lars pretended to joke around, even deliberately shrugging while he was at it.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Well, forget it. In the end, both of you will die. Before that happens though, please entertain me for a bit.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Oh trust me you won’t be bored at all.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou faintly smiled and prepared his stance. Although it was rather mundane, the sword was held straight and centered in his stance.<br /> <br /> The criminal ringleader also smiled in the same manner. It was a smile of mockery. She never thought she would ever have to battle against a human.<br /> <br /> Kurou inched around trying to maintain his distance. He would never underestimate his opponent. From now on, it will be the relentless pursuit of survive and kill. <br /> <br /> &quot;Hey human, I got something to say first. You better not bring your human values into this.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You mean just because you're a woman? Haha, of course I won’t.&quot;<br /> <br /> This was the monster who instantly killed six people. Even so, this human boy was still able to think in such a manner.<br /> <br /> These sorts of things were only humanity's fallacious logic after all.<br /> <br /> From the Swordies' point of view, it was considered utter nonsense.<br /> <br /> Basically for the Swordies, when comparing the athletic abilities of men to women, women were vastly superior, even in swordsmanship.<br /> <br /> From the perspective of the swordswomen, Swordie males were existences of a lower class. Although the Sabers members who were easily eliminated by her had received training and had numerous combat experiences, for this outstanding swordswoman who was also the criminal ringleader, it could hardly be called a fight against the six of them.<br /> <br /> Stored within the Swordies was something known as light energy. In terms of physical strength, light was a more superior energy source than what humans were capable of using.<br /> <br /> In general, a woman's light quantity was vastly plentiful. The greater the quantity, the more physical power one possessed. Precisely due to this, Swordie women were able to utilize far greater combat strength.<br /> <br /> Members of the Sabers were practically all male Swordies. If they were up against human terrorists, the male members would be enough to deal with them. However, if the criminal was a female Swordie, many times the situation would develop into a grim battle.<br /> <br /> Humans wouldn't even stand a chance. Regardless of gender, it was impossible to overcome a female Swordie. This knowledge was one that everyone knew. Because of this, the male members didn't want the Sabers to delegate this task to Kurou, a diminutive human.<br /> <br /> &quot;I am knowledgeable in some matters regarding the Swordies. You don't need to worry.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Well then, try to put on a frightened expression as best as you can, human.&quot;<br /> <br /> The criminal ringleader calmly waved around the sword with her hand, perhaps to add psychological pressure. The intensity of the light blade appeared to have increased. The so-called light blade technique was the emittance of light out of the body and transferring it to the sword. If a person didn't have the appropriate levels of light, it would be impossible to use this move.<br /> <br /> The criminal ringleader casually walked towards Kurou. Even though this was underestimating her enemy, she still did not leave any openings exposed. Her eyes were brimming with murderous intent as the tip of her sword flashed by.<br /> <br /> A gust of wind blew over————causing a roaring sound.<br /> <br /> The criminal ringleader’s wielding of the sword violently stirred up the air————which caused a nearby concrete pillar to be splendidly sliced into two chunks.<br /> <br /> Cutting this pillar, whose girth needed two arms to wrap around it, could never be accomplished by humans. She used superlative force, demonstrating the power and skill of the Swordies.<br /> <br /> The criminal ringleader smiled. By deliberately chopping down the pillar, she probably wanted Kurou to cower in fear.<br /> <br /> &quot;......&quot;<br /> <br /> However, Kurou didn't flinch at all. He still maintained his sword in an upright position and never even moved his body.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hmph, what a grotesque little kid you are.&quot;<br /> <br /> The criminal ringleader then shot out like an arrow, raising her sword once again.<br /> <br /> Simply put, the Swordie's sword was both swift and thunderous as it came down at him. This blazing attack could slash apart anyone involved in the organization, crushing them into pieces. Then in a gruesome scene, that corpse would be turned into fine powder.<br /> <br /> A Swordie's sword literally meant a one hit kill.<br /> <br /> However, that was only if————they hit.<br /> <br /> &quot;......!?&quot;<br /> <br /> An impatient expression was clearly visible on the face of the criminal ringleader.<br /> <br /> From the very first attempt, the criminal ringleader’s one hit killer sword strikes were completely evaded by Kurou.<br /> <br /> In rapid succession, the blade, which was so sharp it easily cut through the air, came at Kurou's neck and chest at full force.<br /> <br /> He did not initiate an attack, he only kept continuously dodging her attacks. Their blades never clashed either.<br /> <br /> If a Swordie's sword were to clash with that of a human's, the human’s sword would be sent flying or perhaps the blade would be sundered. Which would it be......<br /> <br /> However, to be capable of continuously evading a Swordie's sword strikes and such, this was practically unbelievable for a human. Human eyes were unable to capture a Swordie's sword maneuvers, thus being unable to completely elude the strikes.<br /> <br /> &quot;What the heck you bastard! Just how can a human evade my sword!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Hehe, I'm not an alien though. Don't be holding any doubts during battle.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou even wryly smiled. Even though the swings barely brushed past, to be able to see through those strikes that could cut through his entire flesh numerous times without giving off even a single drop of sweat was really quite exceptional.<br /> <br /> &quot;I think it's about time......to make my move!&quot;<br /> <br /> For the first time Kurou took the initiative. Even though he went at blinding speed from a human's perspective, to a Swordie's dynamic strength it was ridiculously slow.<br /> <br /> &quot;Idiot......!&quot;<br /> <br /> A smile even surfaced on the face of the criminal ringleader. Regardless if he were to cock the blade over his head or slash downwards, in her eyes it would all seem like a slow motion reflection.<br /> <br /> However————<br /> <br /> &quot;What......!?&quot;<br /> <br /> The moment Kurou swung his sword with all his might————<br /> <br /> “W-What......!?”<br /> <br /> Her right hand was cut off from the base and blood began spurting out everywhere. The hand which had held the sword, fell to the ground. The shine of the light blade also vanished.<br /> <br /> From the looks of it, her shock seemed to have surpassed her pain. She stared at Kurou without even covering her hand which was spraying out blood.<br /> <br /> Compared to humans, a Swordie's physical capabilities were vastly superior. Even an injury of this extent wouldn't kill them. As long as a competent medic diagnosed them, the hand could be reattached.<br /> <br /> &quot;How could a human's sword......I, that sword, what in the world was that!?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Starting from now, you'll have plenty of time to contemplate over this.&quot;<br /> <br /> This criminal ringleader had slaughtered numerous Sabers and police members. Whether or not she should ever be allowed to step foot in this world again was questionable. There was probably plenty of time to ponder over this later.<br /> <br /> &quot;Eh?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou inadvertently tilted his head.<br /> <br /> The right cuff of his long coat was severed. His expression indicated that this must have been the first time he failed in such a manner.<br /> <br /> &quot;Haha, this long coat is quite expensive. If they have to replace this long coat again, the boss will surely take a dig at me.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......You bastard, that bracelet is——&quot;<br /> <br /> Due to Kurou's shirt cuffs being cut, the criminal ringleader directed her vision towards his wrist. Looped on there was a white metallic bracelet.<br /> <br /> Engraved on the bracelet was an emblem consisting of a sword and the markings of a plant's vines.<br /> <br /> &quot;A Sword God's engraving! That's right, you are——it was mentioned that the Sword Saint accepted a disciple, that person is......!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Sounds like you have a pretty good understanding. Well, this thing is just a decoration.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou lightly stroked the bracelet.<br /> <br /> Blademaster Hyouka————was the Swordie's strongest swordswoman and the mentor who taught Kurou his sword skills.<br /> <br /> To Kurou, the fact that he will become the successor wasn't really a big deal.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kurou, it isn't over yet. This criminal ringleader is an extremely important battle asset to the Sun Cult. Since the Sun Cult intentionally sent her here, that must mean......&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Perhaps they even have a lot of accumulated treasure on them.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou directed his vision to the van which still had its engine running. If only he had heard the conversation between the Sun Cult followers and the criminal ringleader, then he would have known what was stowed away in the van.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hey, one-million, what kind of cargo is in the van?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Do you think I'd give a damn about that?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;I suppose so.&quot;<br /> <br /> Even if the van was stuffed with suitcases full of money, the criminal ringleader probably couldn't care less. She was a being who only showed interest in a sword fight against Swordies.<br /> <br /> Lars slowly approached the van.<br /> <br /> Gripping the hilt of his sword, he suddenly pulled out his sword in a surprise attack. The sword struck countless times, leaving the backdoor of the van in pieces which were carried away by the wind. Even though he was a boy, a maneuver of this caliber was still extremely simple for any Swordie.<br /> <br /> &quot;Goodness gracious, can't you open it through normal means?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;You never know what might be inside......eh?&quot;<br /> <br /> Lars replied to Kurou's frustrated tone while gazing suspiciously at the inside of the van.<br /> <br /> &quot;What the heck, there's a person inside. Hey, please come out, we'll just let you go.&quot;<br /> <br /> Lars stated something beyond expectations. It appears not only was there luggage, there seemed to be a Sun Cult follower sitting there as well. In actuality, tonight's results with just the one criminal ringleader was more than enough.<br /> <br /> &quot;Hey, are you listening? You wouldn't want to be slaughtered by him.&quot;<br /> <br /> In that instant————<br /> <br /> The back of the van overflowed with a radiant light, blocking Kurou's vision.<br /> <br /> This was different compared to the white light rays from a Swordie's light blade. What was emitted was a glorious golden color————<br /> <br /> &quot;Lars!&quot;<br /> <br /> When Kurou yelled out, Lars had already backed off from the van by a couple of meters. Since he was a Swordie and a member of the Sabers, he was extremely agile when dealing with abnormal situations.<br /> <br /> Kurou redirected his gaze from Lars back to the van. Because the light pouring from the van was so overwhelming, it was impossible to keep your eyes open. Despite this, having not felt any degree of heat was rather strange.<br /> <br /> &quot;What in the world......?&quot;<br /> <br /> Under the glare, Kurou saw something unbelievable.<br /> <br /> Coming out of the blinding light was a girl.<br /> <br /> No wait, the girl was enveloped by the rays of light————<br /> <br /> She was about the same age as Kurou, somewhere between fifteen or sixteen years old.<br /> <br /> She had long black hair, thoroughly pale skin, and a thin white dress.<br /> <br /> Was she not wearing any undergarments? Those ample mounds that was her chest shook substantially with every step she took.<br /> <br /> Furthermore, there was an awfully tacky set of handcuffs worn around those snappable looking thin hands.<br /> [[File:Kenshin v01 032.jpg|thumbnail|right]]<br /> The girl walked in front of Kurou without even a second thought.<br /> <br /> &quot;......&quot;<br /> <br /> The girl remained silent, extended her hands which were handcuffed, and unwaveringly stared into Kurou's eyes. Her expression never changed.<br /> <br /> Without warning, the light vanished.<br /> <br /> As he recovered his vision, the girl————gradually revealed a smile.<br /> <br /> Kurou pretty much reflexively swung down with the sword he had drawn out from before.<br /> <br /> A snapping sound was produced when the handcuffs lock got cut by the blade and was sent flying. Her arms, which now have regained their freedom, powerlessly drooped down.<br /> <br /> &quot;Ah......&quot;<br /> <br /> Just when the girl was about to say something, she trembled and collapsed. It happened so abruptly, like the severing of a thread.<br /> <br /> Kurou instantly reacted by supporting her fallen over body. He carried her by her surprisingly skinny shoulders and hips which felt like they could be broken with the slightest impact.<br /> <br /> What in the world was going on? What is the best course of action to take? Who is this teenage girl?<br /> <br /> At his wit's end while holding on to the girl, Kurou was at a loss over what to do————<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The Sabers' headquarters was constructed near the center of Tokyo Swordia within the Specialized Central Region.<br /> <br /> In this center region, there were rows upon rows of towering ministry buildings and large businesses.<br /> <br /> Situated within that area was the plainly designed ten-story building that was the Sabers' headquarters. The Sabers was established five years ago when the terrorist activities of the Sun Cult started. Since the organization had not been around for that long, unfortunately the headquarters could only be constructed in this unadorned style due to the insufficient budget assigned.<br /> <br /> A teenage figure showed up at the headquarter's entrance early in the morning. It was Kurou.<br /> <br /> Only a few hours had passed since battling against the criminal ringleader. After the mission was over and the report documents were submitted, he went to a certain office in the Outer Human Region. Just when he was about to take a nap there, he was called over by headquarters.<br /> <br /> As Kurou suppressed a yawn, he entered through the front doors.<br /> <br /> Located in the main hall was the front desk with a female receptionist sitting idly by. There were also employees holding books while conversing and the cleaning staff tidying up.<br /> <br /> Everyone in here was a Swordie. Not every Swordie made a living off wielding a sword. In fact, far more of them took on normal jobs instead.<br /> <br /> Kurou, who was the only human within the building, was currently taking the elevator to the highest floor.<br /> <br /> After Kurou stepped out of the elevator, he took a detour to the lounge before going to his destination. Inside there were numerous benches set side by side and a vending machine that dispenses drinks.<br /> <br /> Once Kurou bought some juice from the vending machine, he stood in front of a window. All of the walls within the lounge were made into windows, allowing him to clearly see the situation outside the building. He was really fond of the scenery here.<br /> <br /> Tokyo Swordia was established seventy years ago by the Swordies after the Great War.<br /> <br /> The place was integrated as district 23 after the war——and was one of the eight districts of the Chiyoda ward. It was then changed once again into its current Specialized Central Region, a place that encompassed all political and economic functions.<br /> <br /> There were also high-rise building areas within the Outer Human Region, but here the greenery was in copious amounts. It even felt like regardless where you were, there would be an obsession to grow greenery in any bit of space that was present. <br /> <br /> What could be considered as a thirst for forestation, appears to be some sort of homesickness.<br /> <br /> The lush, beautiful, and vast world that was Swordia, was located in another world, one different from Earth. It was the homeworld of the Swordies.<br /> <br /> It happened during the Second World War on Earth seventy years ago. At the time of the deadlock, right when each country's military strength began to dwindle————the door was opened.<br /> <br /> Within this world, who knows how many of those massive, bizarre doors, or portals rather, linking Earth and Swordia were opened. Swordia's massive army rushed through with one goal in mind and that was to invade.<br /> <br /> Following that, the Great War changed in a way that humanity could never have predicted. <br /> <br /> For the Swordies whose main weapon was the sword, everyone thought for sure they would be instantly slaughtered by the firearm equipped infantry, tanks, battleships, and aircraft.<br /> <br /> However————that wasn't the case.<br /> <br /> An abnormal atmosphere arose due to the influence of the massive portals. The earth's environment immediately turned chaotic as the skies and seas became turbulent. Not only were aircraft and battleships unable to move, each individual nation's front lines collapsed since sea, air, and ground transportation abilities were lost.<br /> <br /> The Swordies were able to receive supplies from Swordia using their portals which spanned all over the world. Moreover, the elite Swordie troops were unfazed by this abnormal atmosphere.<br /> <br /> What ensued was a wondrous sight————<br /> <br /> The Swordie army achieved victory and every nation had no choice but to retreat their deployed armies.<br /> <br /> The unthinkable had finally become a reality after the conclusion of the war. Although the reasons were quite unclear, after the Swordies claimed victory they instantly shut down all of their portals. Despite inhibiting the disruptive climate, the Swordies did lose their means of returning home.<br /> <br /> The place that the Swordies then decided to settle on was————Japan.<br /> <br /> When Swordie troops first appeared, it was during the end of the Great War. However, in the past there would be an extremely few number of Swordies who would occasionally arrive in Japan through tiny portals and associate with the people there.<br /> <br /> They wanted to turn this country which they were familiar with into their new homeworld.<br /> <br /> Following that, the Swordies were successful in placing Japan under their control after the country was weakened by the Great War. The Swordies then implemented a sweeping reform of the government structure and gained a foothold within the country.<br /> <br /> Of course, it was an extremely chaotic period throughout this. The Japanese would revolt from time to time. There was even civil strife among the Swordies before the new government was established. However, this was quickly resolved within a short time frame————<br /> <br /> Upon achieving dominance over the country, the Swordies added the name of their already forsaken homeworld as their capital.<br /> <br /> That was how Tokyo Swordia came to be.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless, these facts were quite irrelevant to Kurou who was born in a distant time period from the war.<br /> <br /> &quot;Alright, time to go.&quot;<br /> <br /> He left the lounge after he finished drinking his juice. Standing in front of the door that had the &quot;head director&quot; office sign hanging on it, he casually knocked on the door and stepped in without even waiting for a response.<br /> <br /> &quot;Pardon me.&quot;<br /> <br /> There was already a guest in the head director's office.<br /> <br /> Kurou apparently noticed the young female member as well. While sitting in front of the director's desk by the window, she was holding on to the report records while discussing some matters.<br /> <br /> Kurou instantly noticed something.<br /> <br /> The woman's hand was slightly shaking as she held on to the report. A dreaded look clearly surfaced on her face and even the sword by her waist was clattering. It was truly a pitiful sight.<br /> <br /> In addition, leaning against the director's desk was a young woman. She was the boss of the public security force, although that title of hers didn't really match her ten year-old or so complexion. She continued to listen to the report without interrupting. <br /> <br /> &quot;————That's all for my report, Director.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Very well, thank you.&quot;<br /> <br /> The female member was startled upon hearing the director speak. She proceeded to deeply lower her head and rushed out of the room as if she was trying to escape. Moreover, she ran right past Kurou like she didn't even notice him.<br /> <br /> &quot;......What's going on.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Ah, you're here Kurou-kun, please come this way.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Alright.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou replied as such and stood in front of the desk.<br /> <br /> At this time, a huge wave of pressure assaulted him.<br /> <br /> It was as if his body was about to collapse from this sensation that seemed to be binded to his body. He was under the false perception that if this were to continue, his body would probably be crushed into pieces.<br /> <br /> If the user was powerful, a Swordie's light could manifest in other physical forms instead of just the light blade.<br /> <br /> The woman in front of him possessed light that had overwhelming power. The force could be felt just by standing around her. No one would blame them for being petrified in front of this female member.<br /> <br /> Kurou gritted his teeth, stood up straight, and braced himself in face of this impalpable strength.<br /> <br /> &quot;You seem to have calmed down. Are you able to speak?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou lightly nodded.<br /> <br /> Whenever anyone stood in front of the director it always turned out like this. For Kurou, as long as he readied himself he could retract the intimidation to a more manageable level.<br /> <br /> &quot;Anyhow, it's like people make me out to be a demonic boss considering how I cause everyone to tremble.&quot;<br /> <br /> The director of the Sabers, Manaka, wryly smiled.<br /> <br /> Manaka was a young woman who was twenty-four years-old.<br /> <br /> Although the life span of a Swordie was quite similar to that of a human, they were able to delay the effects of aging since they were existences of light. There were many individuals capable of continuously maintaining a youthful appearance of around the age of twenty or so despite being already fifty years-old. Manaka looked like she was only a teenager. This was most likely due to her powerful light force.<br /> <br /> Her long blue hair was a rare occurrence even as a Swordie. Tied on both sides of her head were two delicate and inconspicuous ribbons, which suited her quite nicely.<br /> <br /> She was wearing the female uniform of the Sabers. It was a black shirt paired with a tight-fitting mini-skirt and a simple suit. Under the suit, her white blouse stuck out at the chest region. As it turns out, her ample bosom was quite noticeable.<br /> <br /> A strong willpower could be felt in her green eyes, neat appearance, and her well-proportioned stature. It would be fitting to say that Manaka was a splendid beauty.<br /> <br /> However, if you were to judge her based on her appearance it could end up to be quite catastrophic.<br /> <br /> Among the Swordies, there exists the Seven Swords who were deemed to be the strongest sword users.<br /> <br /> Headed by the Sword Saint, the titles of the other members were the Sword Emperor, Kingsbrand, Dragonblade, Sword General, Sword of Heaven, and Absolute Blade. The Swordies possessed these seven individuals.<br /> <br /> Manaka was the director of the Sabers as well as the one who held the title of the Sword General out of the Seven Swords.<br /> <br /> The overwhelming combat strength of the Seven Swords was capable of matching an entire army. In fact, the activity displayed by the Seven Swords during the Great War was incomparable. Even until now with the Seven Swords symbolizing the Swordie race, they were also authoritative figures reigning over all swordsmen.<br /> <br /> &quot;That said, there wasn't really anything that needed reporting early in the morning besides that tsujigiri&lt;ref&gt; Tsujigiri (辻斬り): is a Japanese term for a practice when a samurai, after receiving a new katana sword or developing a new fighting style or weapon, tests its effectiveness by attacking a human opponent, usually a random defenseless passer-by, in many cases during nighttime.&lt;/ref&gt; incident from before in the Outer Human Region.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Yeah, I heard the rumors. It appears five or six people were already murdered.&quot;<br /> <br /> Those murdered from the tsujigiri incident were all humans, therefore the criminal was most likely a Swordie. The Sabers had to take care of this incident, which was classified under terrorist activities. From the looks of it, they have already dispatched many female members who were highly skilled in using a sword. <br /> <br /> &quot;Yes, that's exactly the incident's report. However, the full story still isn't clear to me————well that seems to be it. It's really troublesome to have made no progress in the middle of a case.&quot;<br /> <br /> Manaka stated as such. She leaned her entire body against the back of a chair and remained silent.<br /> <br /> &quot;......Ummm Director, was there something you needed me to do?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou reluctantly spoke. To have called over someone specifically and then not say a word, this would be quite troubling to any recipient.<br /> <br /> &quot;You don't need to speak in such a reserved manner. It's quite displeasing.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Even if you say so, you are still my superior.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;No need to worry. To me, you are just the disciple of my older sister.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou's master was the Sword Saint and the Sword General was her younger sister.<br /> <br /> In other words, the sisters ascended to the pinnacle of swordsmanship. Even though they were among Swordies, it was an exceedingly rare occurrence to see such an extraordinary sister pair.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kurou-kun, how's the job treating you? Have you already gotten the hang of things around here?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Just barely. It's still the same as before, just me working individually.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou nonchalantly stated.<br /> <br /> Just a moment ago, the female member's attitude exemplified Kurou's position within the Sabers.<br /> <br /> What should be constituted as a Swordie-only public security force had a foreigner mixed in. Clearly a human, they felt awkward battling alongside someone like him, plus they were highly pretentious. <br /> <br /> It wouldn't be wrong for Kurou to assume that all Sabers members were like this.<br /> <br /> &quot;Other than during a mission, no one will even talk to me except Lars.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Well, Lars is the same. He would be perceived as unusual within this organization as well.&quot;<br /> <br /> Manaka wryly smiled and shrugged.<br /> <br /> &quot;Even though it has been over a year, you still feel the same. Well, there are many Swordies with big egos around here.&quot;<br /> <br /> Aren't you one of those Swordies too? Kurou snarkily thought to himself.<br /> <br /> However, Manaka was also a pretty bizarre individual among the Swordies. She would have an indifferent expression in regards to her delicate position when dealing with Kurou. It was mainly due to her informal attitude, not just because she was his master's sister.<br /> <br /> &quot;That said, it's been a year......starting from when my sister left here, a year has already passed.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......&quot;<br /> <br /> Sword Saint Hyouka————her whereabouts became unknown a year ago.<br /> <br /> Manaka became Kurou's new guardian after the Sword Saint left. Although he was within Swordie society, a minor still needed a guardian. <br /> <br /> Except, Kurou never easily accepted having another person being his guardian. He decided to join the Sabers with Manaka for the sake of earning money to buy food.<br /> <br /> No matter how capable a person was, there would be many obstacles for a human entering a Swordie organization. Because the Sabers was a young organization, there was enough flexibility to let Kurou enter the team. Of course, Manaka's mediation played a huge role as well.<br /> <br /> &quot;Well, regardless of what's going on with my sister, if it's her, she wouldn't lose her life to any accidents or things of that nature. Aside from that, let's get right to the main issue at hand.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;There's an issue?&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou had just begun to think Manaka had called him over just to converse.<br /> <br /> &quot;Ah right, does it have anything to do with the girl from yesterday's situation?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Girl? What are you talking about?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......You should read the report once more. Although it's a hassle, I clearly documented it in there.&quot;<br /> <br /> Yesterday night, a peculiar girl appeared from the Sun Cult's van.<br /> <br /> After that, she was handed off to the other Sabers members that came over. Once the criminal ringleader was handed over as well, there was probably going to be a not so pleasant interrogation session awaiting her after she received treatment. However, the Sabers probably wouldn't do anything rash towards a defenseless girl.<br /> <br /> &quot;There was no way I was going to read the report that was just submitted yesterday. It's not my duty. Furthermore, I'm speaking to you as your guardian rather than as your superior. In other words, it's about your Dagger.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;The Dagger!&quot;<br /> <br /> The so-called Dagger was another name for a Swordie's ID. On the hilt, a special household emblem would be engraved on it. Until a Swordie was ready to assume personal responsibility, the Dagger would be entrusted to a guardian for the time being.<br /> <br /> Out of Tokyo Swordia's ten million population, Swordies only make up ten percent of it. Although there was a degree of discrepancy among the Swordies, anyone could attain &quot;nobility&quot;. This meant an increase in various privileges with respect to status and property. The Dagger symbolized this privileged social class.<br /> <br /> &quot;Kurou-kun is a Sabers member who records these incidents. Moreover, you possess the mark of being the Sword Saint's successor, something no one could have ever imagined. I would think the prerequisites for receiving the Dagger are more than fulfilled......&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Is there still a problem then?&quot;<br /> <br /> Despite being a human, there was still the possibility of him obtaining a Swordie ID. Many decide to pay the huge sum of money to those who oversee the handling of Daggers at the Emblem Management Institution, however there were exceptions.<br /> <br /> Kurou, who displayed his mastery in swordsmanship and submitted an ID application form, was currently one of the exceptions.<br /> <br /> &quot;After all Kurou-kun, you haven't even received any formal compulsory education. For you to have received the basic rights of a city resident is already quite the accomplishment.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......I suppose so.&quot;<br /> <br /> It was pretty much a given that his master Hyouka's abilities in swordsmanship carried safeguards. Even within the Sword Saint's history, she was particularly outstanding. <br /> <br /> However, her temperament was a bit of an issue. &quot;Speaking of practice, we should live in seclusion deep in the mountains&quot;, she harbored these types of outdated methods. Just like that, she took her pupil away from the village and into the mountains to train. During that time, Kurou couldn't attend primary school or middle school. <br /> <br /> &quot;I understand where you're coming from......ultimately, this is the course of action they want me to take.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;The Emblem Management Institution's verdict was very simple. They just want you to attain a Swordie's education.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;What!?&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Today is April 25th. Even though the new school year has already begun, it should be no problem for the institution to turn a blind eye towards something of this magnitude. Starting today you'll be enrolled in a Swordie academy to attain your diploma.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;......!&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Well, that's all I have to say. Good luck!&quot;<br /> <br /> Looks like there won't be any room for rebuttals.<br /> <br /> However, Kurou had always aspired to attain his Dagger.<br /> <br /> The nation was under Swordie control, that was the reality.<br /> <br /> If he were to continue living here, Kurou would want to live a comfortable lifestyle.<br /> <br /> Because of this, he decided to resume life among the Swordies.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The Sword Academy————<br /> <br /> Although it was an academy for Swordie children, it had received much praise as a higher education institution by prestigious individuals.<br /> <br /> Despite humans and Swordies being segregated into separate schools, the difference in their education system was quite minimal.<br /> <br /> The Sword Academy was the equivalent of a high school in human society.<br /> <br /> However, only those who were highly adaptable with a sword could enroll in the academy since there was more to the school than just academics.<br /> <br /> For the sake of honing their swordsmanship, an optimal environment was created. This environment was known as the Sword Academy.<br /> <br /> The academy was situated in the northwest section of Tokyo Swordia's Specialized Central Region, near the border to the Outer Human Region. There was a forest and numerous parks and such nearby. Plus, it was an extremely tranquil location.<br /> <br /> The students were walking along the road to school quietly as they headed towards the school gates.<br /> <br /> &quot;Haa......&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou sighed deeply as he arrived at the school gates.<br /> <br /> Today he was not wearing his intimidating Sabers long coat, instead he was wearing a school uniform.<br /> <br /> He wore a red tie at the collar of his beige suit.<br /> <br /> Along with that, he also carried a heavy backpack filled with textbooks.<br /> <br /> The tie hung all the way down to his waist and he also kept the scabbard to his sword suspended from his belt. However, there were no other students who carried a katana on them. <br /> <br /> On the second day when Manaka called him over to headquarters, Kurou woke up early in the morning and hurriedly made his way to school.<br /> <br /> Ever since yesterday, the days of fighting off terrorists were long gone. Now he was just a student. Although it was for obtaining his Dagger, to the working civilian, it did feel like a step backwards. <br /> <br /> It was quite beyond expectations to be forced to enroll in the prestigious Sword Academy for his studies.<br /> <br /> Even though Kurou felt he was being made a fool of by the people around him, there was no escape.<br /> <br /> “Come on Kurou, put away that gloomy expression. Let’s get a move on.” <br /> <br /> “......Jeez.”<br /> <br /> Kurou couldn’t help but direct his focus onto Lars who patted him on the shoulders.<br /> <br /> He was also the same, wearing the same Sword Academy uniform as Kurou. What was he thinking enrolling into the academy as well.<br /> <br /> However, both of them were teenagers who would turn sixteen this year. It could be said that compared to getting in street fights every night, it would be more ordinary to go to school.<br /> <br /> “The Sabers work wasn’t so bad, but for it to be filled with so much killing is really quite a bummer————, if we’re here, at least there are plenty of girls. You must actively look towards the future Kurou.”<br /> <br /> The Sword Academy was the Swordies' highest educational system standard. There were many outstanding fledgling swordswomen. A female becoming a swordswoman would of course be more outstanding so the student body was practically all girls. Despite there being a small population of guys studying there, they haven’t seen a trace of their existence yet.<br /> <br /> “You’re right......we should monopolize all the girls.”<br /> <br /> “You’re getting way too ahead of yourself!”<br /> <br /> Lars habitually replied with a snark remark towards Kurou’s statement which completely revealed his desires. However, this portion of the conversation was clearly heard by the girls passing by.<br /> <br /> The girls whispered amongst each other while coldly eyeing Kurou and Lars as they walked past them. <br /> <br /> “Kurou, looks like we’re not really welcomed here.”<br /> <br /> “That’s always been the case for me.”<br /> <br /> Kurou referred to himself in this manner. It was true though, it has always been like this for him. Because of that, there was no point in minding such matters. <br /> <br /> Moreover, it was just as Lars said, it probably felt pretty exciting to be in an environment filled with cute girls.<br /> <br /> A commonly passed around rumor in Tokyo Swordia was that the female students of the Sword Academy were all beautiful individuals. Although Kurou had never put in any effort to confirm this, it would seem the rumor was true.<br /> <br /> The uniforms for the girls were the same as the guys in terms of the suit and tie. There was a discrepancy between grades though. The ties were split into three colors, red, green, and blue.<br /> <br /> There were also some people who chose to wear a belt. However, since their swords were all kept away, none of the students carried a sword on them. It seems that even though it was a prestigious sword academy, most of the times the students would avoid carrying their sword within the school.<br /> <br /> Kurou had visited other Swordie schools before. Seeing these otherworldly girls wear a tie to school was quite intriguing. <br /> <br /> It was said that the other world where Swordies lived resembled medieval Europe.<br /> <br /> The people would live in wood constructed houses and wear clothes made out of silk and linen. Their diet was comprised of bread and soup and their means of transportation consisted of walking and horseback riding. Those in the upper class would ride in carriages.<br /> <br /> Compared to earth, this kind of civilization lagged way behind. <br /> <br /> However, after the Great War and gaining control of Japan, the Swordies adapted to and absorbed the cultures of earth at an alarming pace. In a sense, there was no moral integrity in the way they handled things. <br /> <br /> The Swordies now live in reinforced concrete houses and wear clothes woven from chemical fibres. Whether it was Western food, Chinese food, or sushi, they would eat it all. Of course, they now drive cars, fly planes, and shop at convenience stores as well.<br /> <br /> The girls at the Sword Academy wore beautiful ties. Their fair, succulent thighs were moderately exposed from the miniskirt.<br /> <br /> Ignoring the rights or wrongs of the drastic cultural changes to the Swordies for now, to Kurou, he had no reason to shun Swordie girls. <br /> <br /> “Alright Kurou, stop gazing and let’s go. There will be countless girls for you to gaze at in the future.”<br /> <br /> “Alright.”<br /> <br /> Kurou nodded and walked through the school gates alongside Lars.<br /> <br /> At the same time he offered a prayer in hopes that there will be much exhilaration awaiting him. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The classroom was silent.<br /> <br /> “My name is Kurou. Although I transferred into this class at an odd time, please take good care of me.”<br /> <br /> In front of the blackboard, Kurou did his best to maintain a smile as he greeted the other students.<br /> <br /> “......”<br /> <br /> There was no response. All the students within the classroom remained quiet.<br /> <br /> Kurou was not disheartened either. He sustained his smile and proceeded towards the designated seat the teacher assigned.<br /> <br /> How troublesome, Kurou was seated in the middle of the classroom.<br /> <br /> There were only girls around him. Furthermore, all the girls within his line of sight did not wish to even look in his direction. Rather, it felt as if the surrounding area was saturated with a subtle sense of tension.<br /> <br /> Judging from the looks of it, everyone held a firm resolve to ignore Kurou.<br /> <br /> Class immediately started as soon as the extracurricular activities ended.<br /> <br /> The first period was mathematics. Even though Kurou had not gone to school before, he had at least learned basic math skills and such from his master. Despite this, he lacked confidence in himself when it came to understanding any mathematics related topics.<br /> <br /> With this kind of tense environment, how could anyone even consider going to class. <br /> <br /> “Haa——......”<br /> <br /> In order to prevent anyone from hearing him sigh, he suddenly turned towards his side. Sitting alongside the window was the other male student, Lars.<br /> <br /> Lars introduced himself in front of Kurou and the others. He did not receive any reactions either but he completely brushed that matter aside. Even right now he maintained that apathetic expression of his during this tense atmosphere as he looked out the window.<br /> <br /> There was nothing Kurou could do about it. He could only try to bear through this sort of abnormal atmosphere.<br /> <br /> Kurou understood that within the Sword Academy, which was comprised of many capable swordswomen, the other students would definitely not be receptive to the idea of a human being weaved in. That was because they already find Swordie men to be intolerable, yet Kurou was actually a notch lower than that————a human.<br /> <br /> However, Kurou was already used to this type of response. He had been treated similarly while he was with the Sabers. That was why he showed hardly any interest for this current predicament. <br /> <br /> With that said......<br /> <br /> “Ah.”<br /> <br /> The girl sitting in front of him dropped her eraser and the eraser bounced towards Kurou’s seat.<br /> <br /> “Hey, you dropped your————”<br /> <br /> The moment Kurou was about to bend over to pick up the eraser, the girl sitting in front of him moved at a blinding speed. After she swiftly picked up her eraser, she returned her attention to the blackboard as if nothing happened.<br /> <br /> “......”<br /> <br /> Typical of Swordie girls————from the moment she took action to her expressionless demeanor, it was all done with breakneck speed.<br /> <br /> Although Kurou was quite accepting of things up until now, he did feel a bit crestfallen.<br /> <br /> To be openly rejected by girls of the same age clearly vexed him a great deal.<br /> <br /> Moreover, the Sabers female members were practically all older than Kurou. Since he held little interest in older women, he was callous towards being ignored by them.<br /> <br /> However, his interest spiked when it came to girls around his age. Plus, the girls in his class were all beauties. If possible, he wished to improve relations with them.<br /> <br /> In spite of that, seeing the attitude the girl sitting in front of him had, he knew his chances of improving relations were slim.<br /> <br /> Kurou once again heaved a sigh as he pondered.<br /> <br /> At the very least, he felt that living a type of school life where he would not be shunned was pretty much out of the question.<br /> <br /> “Haa~Haa”<br /> <br /> Kurou had already lost count of how many times he sighed today.<br /> <br /> Currently it was period three, sword class, during the first day of his transfer.<br /> <br /> During the morning, the extracurricular activities along with period one mathematics and period two language class all came to a stagnant end. At the end of it all, Kurou became thoroughly isolated by the girls around him. <br /> <br /> The Swordie students wouldn’t even look him in the eye, even the teachers would only engage in formal conversations with him the entire time. Of course, the teachers were all Swordies.<br /> <br /> All the girls would evade him as he walked along the hallways. Regardless of where he was, he always heard derisive words being spoken behind his back.<br /> <br /> Apparently there was a large barrier between Swordies and humans.<br /> <br /> “Oh my god.”<br /> <br /> As for his options, he could do nothing besides bemoan to himself as such. Since the class did not involve lectures, he figured there might be a change of pace during sword training. However, nothing exciting really came to fruition.<br /> <br /> Sword training took place in a special classroom that differed from a gymnasium.<br /> <br /> The girls wore an ordinary yet easily maneuverable attire that consisted of a t-shirt along with tight purple ballet pants while the guys wore t-shirts and shorts. <br /> <br /> “However, the equipment we use is surprisingly rough.”<br /> <br /> Kurou calmly waved the wooden blade around.<br /> <br /> Sword training utilized wooden blades instead of the safer bamboo blades. It was known as a wooden sword to the Swordies.<br /> <br /> A Swordie’s physique wasn’t as hard as iron but their light reinforced bodies practically received no damage from bamboo swords. It seemed that wooden swords were incapable of delivering a fatal wound to them as well.<br /> <br /> As a result, the students would use wooden swords in class......<br /> <br /> “I really wish they would step in the shoes of a human and rethink this. If I were to be struck by a heavy blow with a wooden sword I’d be dead.”<br /> <br /> “Well, isn’t this for the sake of your goals? You can probably just endure that kind of thing for now.”<br /> <br /> Lars, who had his wooden sword rested on his shoulders, laughed as he spoke. He was unlike Kurou. Being a Swordie, he probably would not die from an attack by a wooden sword. Because of that, he appeared to be completely carefree.<br /> <br /> “However, having this number of people wielding swords at once is really quite a sight.”<br /> <br /> Lars commented while looking at his surroundings.<br /> <br /> Sword training comprised of two conjoined classes with about sixty students in total. The teacher who was instructing everyone only occasionally stepped in. This training appeared to be just letting the students find their own mistakes while at the same time honing their own techniques. Besides Kurou and Lars, the other students found suitable sparring partners as they engaged in practice.<br /> <br /> There was no one who feared practicing with a wooden sword. Every student gradually became well-versed in swordsmanship. This was quite understandable considering how outstanding the students who gathered at this school were.<br /> <br /> “Hey, that kid doesn’t seem to have a sparring partner.”<br /> <br /> “......!”<br /> <br /> He searched left and right amongst the girls walking by. As soon as the girl realizes the person she was about to greet was Kurou, she would definitely make a lightning fast escape.<br /> <br /> “......That’s quite hurtful of you. That being said, do you think I’d be easily thrashed by her?”<br /> <br /> “I’m not quite sure myself. However, your situation seems to have been spread around the school.”<br /> <br /> “What are you talking about? Where did you hear this news?”<br /> <br /> Kurou sharply glared at Lars. Lars was always like this, doing this kind of stuff behind his back.<br /> <br /> “From an active Sabers member. That’s all that needs to be said right? However, these overconfident Swordie girls would probably hesitate as well if they knew you were the Sword Saint’s pupil......” <br /> <br /> “So you’re saying there’s no way they’d underestimate me.”<br /> <br /> Kurou directed his vision towards the Sword Saint’s successor marking carved onto his bracelet.<br /> <br /> Well, that was to be expected. Although he was a student, a human would just be seen as a weak existence in the eyes of the other students. However, if he was the Sword Saint’s disciple, then it would be uncertain as to what his strength would be. Even if he were to lose, there would be nothing shameful about that.<br /> <br /> “Even if you have no partners, as long as you come to class you will certainly find one eventually. Furthermore, the top five ranked first year students have the same Swordsman title as us. As for the upperclassmen, there seems to be a Sword Princess. Additionally, there appears to be classes where we combine with the upperclassmen. Perhaps we may get a chance to battle against the Sword Princess.”<br /> <br /> “The Sword Princess......”<br /> <br /> As soon as a Swordie could assume responsibility in taking care of certain things, they would be able to attain the title of Swordsman. This was on record and was a qualification acknowledged by the country. It was pretty much all given at the discretion of the school teachers or mentors. There were many who attained the title by the age of 18. As long as you were a Swordie, this title was pretty much a given. With just the swordsman qualification, you could enlist in the army, become part of the Sabers, or qualify for any position that required wielding a sword.<br /> <br /> The rank above a Swordsman was a Sword Princess. Only one out of ten thousand people could attain this title. They were guaranteed to be powerful. If it were one of them, perhaps the Sword Saint’s disciple would not instill any fear at all.<br /> <br /> “That’s right, it’d be pretty interesting if we could battle someone with the rank of Sword Princess!”<br /> <br /> “I apologize for not being a Sword Princess, but if you’d be willing, I would like to be your opponent.” <br /> <br /> The class hushed down immediately.<br /> <br /> A girl who wasn’t in Kurou’s classroom walked straight towards him. It must have been someone from a nearby class.<br /> <br /> Her long and glamorous blonde hair was tied towards the left of her head, resembling what was known as a ponytail. Her facial features were extremely well-kept and those substantial eyes of hers exuded a fearsome willpower. The color of her eyes was sort of a blend between blue and emerald green————which formed a very lovely halcyon green hue.<br /> <br /> This unimaginably cute and slender beauty was practically fairy-like. <br /> <br /> The swells on her chest were enormous and their shape was quite satisfactory. She was snappily thin at the waist. Those legs of hers that were encased by those tight ballet pants were extremely soft, also her feet seemed pretty tiny......<br /> <br /> “Alright, very nice.”<br /> <br /> “What are you talking about?”<br /> <br /> Towards Kurou thinking aloud to himself, the blonde girl sharply snapped back.<br /> <br /> The girl’s speech patterns possessed boy-like qualities.<br /> <br /> “Ah, it’s nothing. You want to be my opponent? In that case————<br /> <br /> “P-Please hold a sec Sefi-sama.”<br /> <br /> Between the girl known as Sefi and Kurou, another girl came between them.<br /> <br /> With an audaciously short haircut that practically left her forehead exposed, she was a truly vivacious girl.<br /> <br /> “To think Sefi-sama would actually consider this thing as her opponent! This guy is a male human you know!”<br /> <br /> “Referring to me as “this thing” is really disrespectful! I even feel like I’d turn into a coddling father!”<br /> <br /> “As if I would care over such a thing!”<br /> <br /> Kurou’s rebuttal was instantly shot down by her one line.<br /> <br /> “Y-Yeah that’s right, no good will come out of this if your opponent is him......”<br /> <br /> Another girl came forward and spoke with a weak voice. For Swordies, it was uncommon to see them wearing glasses like she was, plus she also kept her hair free flowing. However, this girl seemed to be a very well-behaved person. <br /> <br /> “Let me take care of my own business. The two of you are to stay back.”<br /> <br /> “B-But Sefi-sama......for the princess of the four generals and a human......”<br /> <br /> “Quit your squabbling Neena. I won’t forgive anyone who interferes, even if it’s you.”<br /> <br /> Once she had reached this point, the one known as Neena finally backed off. At the same time, the girl with the short hair also parted a step back. <br /> <br /> The so-called four generals referred to the four that commanded the Swordie army back during the Great War as well as their descendants. <br /> <br /> These people became the ones with the most power within the Swordie government. Their positions only alternated with hereditary supercedings. <br /> <br /> To sum it all up————Sefi, who was known as the princess of the four generals, could be considered as the one closest to the nation’s highest status. Although she was only a student, her position did not allow her to play around with humans.<br /> <br /> “I believe you said your name was Kurou. For now, I’m a Swordsman just like you. Perhaps it may be inadequate, but would you accept my battle invitation?”<br /> <br /> “I’d be honored Princess-sama.”<br /> <br /> Kurou smiled as he nodded.<br /> <br /> He placed his wooden sword in an upright position as he faced Sefi.<br /> <br /> Sefi did the same and centered her sword upright as she attentively gazed at Kurou’s eyes. <br /> <br /> As soon as their sights were locked on to each other————<br /> <br /> Sefi suddenly made the first move. Without any hesitation, she ferociously charged in.<br /> <br /> During a Swordie competition, there did not exist a starting signal such as “ready, set, go”. As soon as both felt the other was prepared, the competition would start right away. Before then, neither side would make a surprise attack.<br /> <br /> Sefi swung her wooden sword straight down from above her head. Woosh, the sound of ruffled winds could be heard. The wooden sword winded forth with enormous momentum. Kurou only slightly stepped aside to avoid Sefi’s threatening first strike. That strike appeared to have enough power to blow someone away with just the ensuing wind pressure. <br /> <br /> Sefi once again slightly readjusted the hilt of the sword, this time for a horizontal slice. Even this maneuver was dodged by Kurou as he leaned back. A fierce gale violently blew towards Kurou, kicking his hair up. <br /> <br /> “Tch......!”<br /> <br /> A click of the tongue came from the girl’s cute lips.<br /> <br /> Sefi’s sword once again whizzed by. Faced with this diagonal attack to his right, Kurou evaded with dance-esque movements. Afterwards, he readjusted his sword upright as if nothing happened.<br /> <br /> &quot;You're very capable Princess-sama.&quot;<br /> <br /> &quot;Are you taunting me?&quot;<br /> <br /> Sefi ruthlessly glanced over. Even that menacing expression was captivatingly cute. It was said that Swordie women were at the peak of their beauty during combat. The situation right now made that saying quite understandable.<br /> <br /> &quot;......!&quot;<br /> <br /> Confronted with another one of Sefi's attacks, Kurou once again dodged it.<br /> <br /> There was already no leeway to be leisurely admiring her. Although he could maneuver around the lithe wooden sword like he had learned from practice, if a Swordie's force happened to impact him in the head for example, his skull would probably be shattered.<br /> <br /> &quot;How scary.&quot;<br /> <br /> Kurou slightly grinned.<br /> <br /> The sound of whispering by the other students around them could be heard. <br /> <br /> &quot;What do you think will happen?&quot; &quot;Sefi-sama is really giving it her all......&quot; &quot;That person would never take it easy on anyone.&quot; &quot;Is that guy really a human?&quot;<br /> <br /> How frightening, Sefi’s abilities must be among the highest here yet she was unable to score a direct hit on a diminutive human. The students being at a loss for words was to be expected.<br /> <br /> “......Hey, why aren’t you attacking?”<br /> <br /> Sefi muttered her obvious suspicion. <br /> <br /> “I’m not looking down on you. As for my methods————I don’t think I’m required to say.”<br /> <br /> Kurou had positioned both his hands on the wooden sword before, but now he only had his right hand hold on to it.<br /> <br /> Using an unhurried pace, he shifted around as he closed in on Sefi.<br /> <br /> “......!”<br /> <br /> Sefi shuffled back as if she was a little kid startled by the bark of a dog.<br /> <br /> Regardless of that, once Kurou was at the appropriate distance, he firmly gripped the wooden sword and swung downwards. The people around him could clearly see the path of the sword.<br /> <br /> However————<br /> <br /> “Guah!”<br /> <br /> Sefi’s wooden sword met Kurou’s on impact————snap, the portion of the wooden sword that came apart fell on the ground following that snapping sound.<br /> <br /> “......I guess that’s it. Thank you for your time Princess-sama.”<br /> <br /> “Wait, please wait a sec!”<br /> <br /> Kurou did not respond to Sefi’s holler. He turned around and marched off.<br /> <br /> In front of him, Lars folded his arms and silently smiled. He saw through the whole thing.<br /> <br /> “Princess-sama.”<br /> <br /> “W-What?”<br /> <br /> Kurou suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around.<br /> <br /> Sefi was still holding on to the broken wooden sword, but for some reason her face was completely flushed red.<br /> <br /> “Please battle with me again next time. No one else is willing to battle me.”<br /> <br /> “......I don't want to.”<br /> <br /> Sefi suddenly turned around. Her attitude was different compared to her threatening demeanor from before. This time she displayed a rather cute expression. <br /> <br /> From the looks of things, regardless if she was the princess of the four generals or a wielder of a sword, she was still just a fifteen or sixteen year-old girl. <br /> <br /> Kurou once again smiled as he walked off.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Within the showers, the sound of running water could be heard.<br /> <br /> The scalding water ran down Sefi’s fair skin.<br /> <br /> This was one of the girls dormitories within the Sword Academy. All of the dorms within the Sword Academy’s grounds were outfitted with showers, bathrooms, and even kitchens.<br /> <br /> At the end of every day, Sefi would take a shower within the immaculate shower room. She seemed to enjoy the temperature of the burning hot water greatly. <br /> <br /> However, despite taking a hot shower at the moment, she was not in the least jubilant. She was really down in the dumps right now. <br /> <br /> “......”<br /> <br /> As the warm water trickled down Sefi’s head, she tightly bit her lips.<br /> <br /> Everyone must have noticed————<br /> <br /> Sefi recalled today’s sword training.<br /> <br /> “There’s nothing you can do about the wooden swords breaking occasionally”, her friends responded in this fashion.<br /> <br /> However, despite everyone being a student, she was one of the select Swordie girls. There was no way she could have miscomprehended the situation.<br /> <br /> The break in Sefi’s wooden sword was definitely not by chance. It was purposefully fractured by that transfer student named Kurou.<br /> <br /> But that wasn’t all.<br /> <br /> Sefi gave it her all in each of her sword maneuvers. The way she wielded her sword could have even killed Kurou. However, he completely dodged her moves with little difficulty————furthermore, she spared no effort in using her wooden sword to defend against a human’s exceedingly torpid attack.<br /> <br /> There was no doubt that the surrounding spectators viewed it like this.<br /> <br /> Can’t I win against him, it looks like————<br /> <br /> Sefi clenched her fist. She wanted to forcefully punch the wall within the shower room......but she stopped herself right there.<br /> <br /> Even if she destroyed the wall, the facts would still stay the same.<br /> <br /> The fact that she had already lost.<br /> <br /> “Haha, really now.”<br /> <br /> Sefi turned off the running water and walked out of the shower. Her long blonde hair swayed as she moved.<br /> <br /> She boorishly wiped her hair and body with a towel and after putting on her white colored panties, she walked out of the shower room.<br /> <br /> Despite the beads of water dripping onto the ground, Sefi did not mind in the least bit. She hurriedly marched off with just a towel wrapped around her shoulders. Due to her wealthy background, she would have servants waiting upon her at home. As a result, she wasn’t too concerned with what she did. <br /> <br /> Oh right, I guess I should do that.<br /> <br /> Sefi suddenly recalled something.<br /> <br /> Sefi had a routine of reading books for an hour before she went to sleep every day. Today should be no different. If there was the leisure time for it, her mood will most certainly improve. It would be best to go to sleep with a better state of mind.<br /> <br /> With that said, time to make the preparations————<br /> <br /> “Eh......?”<br /> <br /> After opening the door at the end of the hallway and entering the living room————Sefi became speechless.<br /> <br /> “Oh......Eh?”<br /> <br /> “W-W-W-W-W-Wh......Why are you......”<br /> <br /> Kurou, who was sitting on the living room couch nonchalantly, caught sight of Sefi.<br /> [[File:Kenshin v01 002.jpg|thumbnail|right|400px]]<br /> His mouth was wide open and his eyes were locked in a stare. He seemed to be completely in shock.<br /> <br /> As Sefi was rendered speechless, her eyes flickered as she gazed at Kurou————suddenly, she realized the current state of her body.<br /> <br /> Other than the towel wrapped around her shoulders and her panties, she wasn’t wearing anything else. Her naked appearance was completely exposed right in front of a boy————<br /> <br /> “Kya————”<br /> <br /> She wanted to lament but Sefi tried her best to endure this. She was absolutely prohibited from screaming at this time of day.<br /> <br /> Sefi used her two hands to cover her body as she glared at the completely rigid Kurou.<br /> <br /> “P-Please turn away! Can’t you at least do that Rou!”<br /> <br /> After Sefi walked out of the living room to change into her clothes in another room, she immediately came back.<br /> <br /> This girl’s dorm was pretty much like a high-scale apartment with additional rooms in it. It was very luxurious.<br /> <br /> Sefi took a seat next to Kurou on the couch.<br /> <br /> “Well Rou, what are you doing?”<br /> <br /> “Trying to sneak into a girl’s dorm!”<br /> <br /> “Don’t be so arrogant you pervert!”<br /> <br /> Sefi glared at Kurou with an indignant expression. Kurou on the other hand merely spoke honestly knowing that whatever he was going to say couldn’t distort the truth.<br /> <br /> “Haa......jeez, someone like you ought to……”<br /> <br /> Sefi heavily sighed.<br /> <br /> Her hair was tied into a ponytail. She wore a light pink sweater along with a black miniskirt. <br /> <br /> “Why weren’t you in your sleepwear? Then you wouldn’t be all exposed.”<br /> <br /> “I don’t have anything of the sort. Even if I did, I wouldn’t wear it in front of outsiders!”<br /> <br /> It was quite regrettable. Who would have thought that after taking a shower, someone would change back into daily attire and have people expect this sort of development.<br /> <br /> “After seeing me like that......you still wish to humiliate me!?”<br /> <br /> “Wasn’t it Princess-sama who provided me with this fanservice without my permission when I came here by chance?&quot;<br /> <br /> “It wasn’t by chance! You clearly went overboard and snuck in, yet you’re still saying things like that! Furthermore, please don’t call me ‘Princess-sama.’”<br /> <br /> “......Understood, Sefi.”<br /> <br /> Kurou smiled and shrugged his shoulders.<br /> <br /> After glaring at Kurou for a bit————Sefi chuckled.<br /> <br /> “How many years has it been......the last time we met was two years ago right?”<br /> <br /> “It was 1 year, 311 days ago.”<br /> <br /> “That’s way too accurately remembered! How despicable!”<br /> <br /> Kurou thought to himself, “With that said, Sefi isn’t the type to joke around with.”<br /> <br /> “You’re always messing with people......you were like this in the past as well.”<br /> <br /> “No, I’d say this aspect has taken a turn for the worse.”<br /> <br /> “Up to no good as usual!”<br /> <br /> What Sefi had said was accurate.<br /> <br /> Despite being the princess of the four generals, she was also a prestigious swordswoman————in fact, she was Kurou’s friend from quite some time ago as well.<br /> <br /> Ever since Kurou was a child, he would follow the Sword Saint deep into the mountains for days upon days of training. At times there would be guests visiting and Sefi was one of them.<br /> <br /> More accurately, the one who had business with the Sword Saint was actually her sister. Sefi’s sister, Silfi, was a friend of the Sword Saint and Sefi would follow her sister into the mountains in order to battle against Kurou.<br /> <br /> Although there would only be a few encounters between them each year, Kurou and Sefi could be described as childhood friends. She probably felt the same way as well.<br /> <br /> People would address the princess by honorific only. However, Kurou felt that their relationship was quite close considering she would call him by a pet name.<br /> <br /> Even though someone had snuck into her room and despite being seen completely naked, she didn’t alert anyone. From this vantage, the friendship between him and Sefi was clearly visible. A friendship that hasn’t withered away even with the two year separation.<br /> <br /> Of course, the two of them pretended not to know each other during class, but this was because they took each others’ standing into consideration. <br /> <br /> “Ha, I have so many things I want to say. However, you are really quite capable to be able to sneak in here. Tentatively, this dorm has security installations.”<br /> <br /> “I came in properly through the entrance as well as came into this room through the door. However, things like security cameras and locks don’t really count as safety features to me. Sneaking into a dorm filled with fledgling Swordie swordswomen isn’t really that hard.”<br /> <br /> “That’s because you came to my place......other than swordsmanship, you still have this despicable skill.”<br /> <br /> Confronted with Sefi, who was at wit’s end, Kurou only lightly chuckled and then stayed silent.<br /> <br /> Sneaking into buildings was something taught to him while he was with the Sabers. Because that wasn’t an ability to be proud of, Kurou wished to put an end to this topic.<br /> <br /> “Anyways, why did you come to our school Rou————”<br /> <br /> “Umm.”<br /> <br /> As Sefi underwent a change of mood when she asked, Kurou’s tummy growled.<br /> <br /> “Ah hehe, it’s because I needed to test my intrusion plan. That’s why I haven’t eaten anything today.”<br /> <br /> “......You’re really a handful. What am I supposed to do with you.”<br /> <br /> With a hopeless expression, Sefi shook her head. Ever since just a moment ago, she had maintained a despairing look.<br /> <br /> “Oh yeah, now is the perfect time to do that.”<br /> <br /> “That?”<br /> <br /> “Yup, doing this for just one person isn’t really feasible but if it’s Rou then it’d be perfect. After sneaking inside a girl’s room, you don’t really have the right to complain.&quot;<br /> <br /> “H-Ha......”<br /> <br /> That, what was she referring to?<br /> <br /> While Kurou was distressing over this, there was nothing he could do against Sefi inching her face closer to him, perhaps due to his fear.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Ah Sefi......surely it isn’t, who would have thought you could do this kind of thing.”<br /> <br /> Kurou sighed.<br /> <br /> Although it was said that girls could undergo drastic changes within a short time frame, who would have known that Sefi had reached techniques of this magnitude.<br /> <br /> <br /> “Oh it’s nothing really, but I suppose it isn’t too shabby right? Oh, what’s with that gratified expression of yours......”<br /> <br /> Sefi revealed a flirtatious smile.<br /> <br /> Even though that typical stern expression of hers was quite nice, the expression just now really suited Sefi. Normally, there would definitely be somewhat of a childish complexion on her but right now she possessed the look of a mature adult. Women were really quite intimidating because of this.<br /> <br /> “But you’re really capable......Sefi. For it to be this tasty, it really is quite unbelieveable.”<br /> <br /> “Oh really, the ingredients are of the highest quality.”<br /> <br /> “Haha, highest quality eh.”<br /> <br /> Kurou smiled as he stuffed two onigiris into his mouth.<br /> <br /> There was a table by the couch where the two were sitting. On top of it were some onigiris, a full bowl of minced meat soup made out of pork and vegetables, soft and sweet scrambled eggs, as well as cold vegetables topped with dressing.<br /> <br /> These were all prepared by Sefi. Ever since she was young, she had always shown interest in cooking. Kurou couldn’t even keep count of how many times she would treat him to her cooking. Compared to two years ago, her technique had improved substantially.<br /> <br /> “However, I’d be screwed if people here found out that I was cooking. People associated with the four generals shouldn’t be cooking and such. This is supposedly a servant’s task————getting taught in these matters was particularly troublesome. In my old house, although I would secretly discuss cooking topics with the maids I had good relations with, we would never touch upon actual cooking. Rather, we would use “that” as a secret signal for substituting out words.”<br /> <br /> So this secret signal really did have some sort of profound meaning behind it. Kurou snarked to himself.<br /> <br /> “Hmm? In that case, you didn’t bring any servants with you? If it’s just one person living within a dorm, you should be permitted to bring servants right?”<br /> <br /> The children of many prestigious households were within the Sword Academy. As a result, there was this rule in place.<br /> <br /> The people who worked the kitchens here were most likely servants brought along from the student’s household.<br /> <br /> “It’d be much more peaceful if I stayed here by myself. I’d only have the household maids bring over some ingredients since I can’t even go out to buy that kind of stuff.”<br /> <br /> “What a troublesome life.”<br /> <br /> The life of the princess of the four generals seems to be filled with hardship.<br /> <br /> “Well, there’s nothing I can do about this. You can’t change a person’s background no matter what you do. With that said, what about you Kurou? Let me hear about the details of your circumstance.”<br /> <br /> “I have already mentioned it before though.”<br /> <br /> Kurou gulped down some of the minced meat soup.<br /> <br /> When Sefi was preparing her dishes, Kurou practically recounted the entire process of enrolling into the Sword Academy. However, beyond that he didn’t give much of an explanation for it.<br /> <br /> “During this two year period I haven’t heard anything about you. Although I do know that the Sword Saint’s whereabouts became unknown......you holding up ok?”<br /> <br /> “It’s been fine for the most part. Even though master was a strange person, she is very famous. To have accepted a human as a disciple and along with her disappearance, no one should be too surprised.” <br /> <br /> “Ah, I see......”<br /> <br /> “I don’t have a problem with it either. The training was pretty much over anyways.”<br /> <br /> Kuro gently rubbed the bracelet under the cuff of his uniform. Since the continual training, he had received the mark of a successor after being confirmed as one of the candidates to be the next Sword Saint.<br /> <br /> “However, is that fine with you? As long as Kurou still has the successor’s mark, there probably aren’t many people who can take responsibility for you.”<br /> <br /> “To become one of the symbolic Seven Swords of the Swordies, and having the most powerful throne being passed down to a human? Most of those with power would find it inconceivable. If only I could carefully request my master once she comes back to remove the successor’s mark.”<br /> <br /> “Does Rou feel as if this is the best solution?”<br /> <br /> “There’s nothing good or bad about it.”<br /> <br /> Kurou revealed an anguished smile.<br /> <br /> “My hope is to receive my Dagger after graduation and work for the Sabers or some place like that. Then I want to construct my own house and settle down with a family. That’s all there is to it.”<br /> <br /> “.......Kurou, you haven’t changed one bit. Always so down-to-earth.”<br /> <br /> Sefi revealed an unspeakably subtle expression.<br /> <br /> She understood Kurou didn’t have any wild ambitions. She also knew he wasn’t really obsessed with swords. Although that wasn’t really a positive thing in her opinion......<br /> <br /> “However, I can’t say for sure that is my path either.”<br /> <br /> “......”<br /> <br /> Once again, Sefi clearly revealed a dejected expression.<br /> <br /> The so-called princess of the four generals was Tokyo Swordia’s highest position, which belonged to Sefi.<br /> <br /> Despite being a human, Kurou decided to live among the Swordies.<br /> <br /> Therefore the two of them being depressed was sort of understandable. However, at least Sefi had a decent amount of freedom and she seemed to feel guilty about this.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry Sefi.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> Sefi was surprised at what Kurou said.<br /> <br /> “I shouldn’t be going easy during sword training anymore. However, I can’t really say I was just playing around but perhaps there was the intention to mess around for a bit at the time. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten the chance to fight against Sefi, I almost didn’t want it to end. No wait, this description doesn’t quite suit it either......”<br /> <br /> “......You——idiot, I know I can’t win against Kurou. We battled together countless times before, I already knew there was no way to catch up to you during that two year gap.”<br /> <br /> Sefi was very strong, but she was also quite straightforward.<br /> <br /> Although she wasn’t willing to admit defeat, she did possess an objective reasoning in understanding the truth. Regardless of it being from a swordsman or a normal person, this was a positive quality to have. Kurou really liked this about her.<br /> <br /> “Could it be that you came here just to talk about this? Even after you teased me like that, you still wish to disgrace me......”<br /> <br /> “Based on your attitude, you must be extremely angry right?”<br /> <br /> “Of course. In my mind, I’ve already killed Kurou ten times.”<br /> <br /> “At the very least control that number.”<br /> <br /> “However, the wooden sword broke because I was weaker than Rou. I’m angry mostly at myself having easily lost like that.”<br /> <br /> Sefi tightly clenched her fist.<br /> <br /> Seeing her like this, Kurou suddenly got in front of her.<br /> <br /> When Kurou and Sefi first met, they were only ten years-old. By that time Kurou had already been training with the Sword Saint for four years.<br /> <br /> If it was a Swordie girl of the same age, there was no way he would lose. Due to the Sword Saint’s nightmarish training, he had already attained such finesse.<br /> <br /> Every time Sefi lost to Kurou, she would clench her fists and pound the ground. Despite being just a kid, attacking the ground with the arm strength of a Swordie resulted in the ground caving in which led to Kurou shaking in fear. As a human, if he was hit with that kind of force then he would probably die with one hit.<br /> <br /> Kurou would put his life at stake during training and the primary reason for that was probably because of Sefi.<br /> <br /> “......What are you doing staring at me with such a stupid expression?”<br /> <br /> “Ah, no......”<br /> <br /> Kurou dubiously smiled and extended his hand towards Sefi————<br /> <br /> “Sefi has grown up quite a bit.”<br /> <br /> “......!?”<br /> [[File:Kenshin v01 070.jpg|thumbnail|right]]<br /> Sefi, whose breasts were suddenly groped by Kurou, trembled all over. Following that she scooted to the edge of the couch.<br /> <br /> “W-What are you trying to do......!?”<br /> <br /> “W-What’s going on......!?”<br /> <br /> Due to the soft texture coming from within the sweater, Kurou could not help but feel astonished.<br /> <br /> No way, this kind of thing was......<br /> <br /> “Why would Rou be surprised!? What the heck are you trying to do to me!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s just that it felt bigger than it looked......perhaps it’s because the way I touch them is different from before.”<br /> <br /> “What in the world are you calmly analysing!?”<br /> <br /> Sefi shouted as she used her hands to cover her chest.<br /> <br /> “However, it appears that you are wearing something underneath your sweater. If you were to wear even less, that’d be much more exciting.”<br /> <br /> “You’ve already felt a girl’s chest, yet you still complain!”<br /> <br /> “Didn’t Sefi mention this before? ‘If there is a weakness then go all out fufufu.’”<br /> <br /> “That’s something I said when I was young! There was no intention to have my body felt! And what’s with the “fufufu”, no way I would’ve said something like that.”<br /> <br /> “No, you did say it before.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, really?”<br /> <br /> Sefi was dumbfounded.<br /> <br /> Her tone actually felt quite languid. At times she would even speak in a frivolous manner but she would never notice it herself. Perhaps the latter might have influenced Kurou.<br /> <br /> “Nevertheless, Sefi’s all grown up. Perhaps your figure will turn out to be quite splendid.”<br /> <br /> “This conversation is quite obscene, please stop. Although, that means Kurou hasn’t matured yet......this kind of sexual harassment.....we aren’t at the age where we can just joke around like that anymore.”<br /> <br /> “Yes I know.”<br /> <br /> Kurou smiled as he nodded. He ate an onigiri, finished up the minced meat soup, and after he finished up the rest of the cooked dishes, he lifted Sefi’s skirt.<br /> <br /> “Didn’t I just say this before? What are you trying to do now!?”<br /> <br /> Kurou nimbly ran away from Sefi who stood up in anger. The glimpse of her white panties was now deeply ingrained in his mind.<br /> <br /> “Ah, I’m sorry. It’s just that when I see Sefi I start boiling with lust.”<br /> <br /> “Eh, um, so it’s like that. If that’s the case then I guess it can’t be helped......”<br /> <br /> “......”<br /> <br /> Quite an unexpected reaction.<br /> <br /> Of course, Kurou had planned on joking around a bit but who would have thought that this would become a reason for forgiveness......it was probably because he showed admiration towards her charms by saying it excited him.<br /> <br /> “Eh, hold on a sec! I had just told you to stop openly engaging in sexual harassment! That said, your insanity is already on another level!”<br /> <br /> Sefi seems to have finally caught on to Kurou’s false reasoning. If that wasn’t the case then perhaps even Kurou would have felt there was a bit of wrongdoing.<br /> <br /> “If it’s here then it doesn’t matter, just don’t do this type of thing outside. As the number three ranked student in swordsmanship, if my skirt were to be lifted in front of everyone then————”<br /> <br /> “Haha, compared to your family history, Sefi is even more into swords.....eh, did you say number three?”<br /> <br /> “Yup, but that’s just my placement during the entrance exam. There are still two students placed above me.”<br /> <br /> “Ah.”<br /> <br /> He had guessed that among the people he saw during sword training, none of them possessed swordsmanship that surpassed Sefi’s. Although two classes were conjoined, since there were only ten class groups for year one students they must have been in the other grades.<br /> <br /> “However, for Sefi’s abilities to only be placed as third!”<br /> <br /> “For the time being......”<br /> <br /> Kurou tilted his head slightly.<br /> <br /> Sefi’s tone of voice was a bit ambiguous as if she harbored some sort of grudge.<br /> <br /> “What’s wrong? Was there some favoritism during the examination?”<br /> <br /> “N-No it’s not like that. To lose means I was weak. Since next time there will be an elimination tournament for the school, I’ll avenge myself then.”<br /> <br /> “Hoho, an elimination tournament?”<br /> <br /> Having heard some explanations regarding the school activities from the schoolteachers, there seems to be multiple elimination tournaments held to determine the standings for the Sword Academy.<br /> <br /> “So what you’re saying is I have to participate as well?”<br /> <br /> “Of course. All of the students are forced to participate. Even though there is a test, a poor result in the elimination tournament will get you removed from school.”<br /> <br /> This was probably Sefi warning him not to take it easy. Because Kurou only wanted to graduate, he wasn’t really too focused on earning a high grade.<br /> <br /> “However, Rou will probably win. At the very least, I can’t beat you.”<br /> <br /> “......”<br /> <br /> Sefi displayed a subtle sign of dispiritedness. <br /> <br /> “Even though you are just joking around, other than you, no other boy would be able to sexually harass me since I’d be able to snap their arms off before they could even touch me.”<br /> <br /> “That sounds quite scary.”<br /> <br /> “Humans seem to think that all Swordies can do is just put their strength behind wielding a sword, but that isn’t the case. The sword is a much finer piece of equipment.”<br /> <br /> Sefi swiftly extended out her right hand.<br /> <br /> “The enemy’s vision along with the minute quivering of their body, their breathing motion, and the sound of their joints, all of the five senses must be used to respond to the enemy and judge their movements. However, I can’t predict Rou’s movements. By the time I notice them, I’ve already been sexually harassed.”<br /> <br /> “Very powerful words there.”<br /> <br /> “There’s probably no other way to put it. For now, Rou can do whatever he wants since I can’t stop you. From lifting up my skirt to wielding that wooden sword against me, it’s almost as if you could do it in your sleep.”<br /> <br /> “These are old-school techniques, haven’t you already seen them multiple times?”<br /> <br /> “No matter how many times I see them, even after having you explain to me I still can’t prevent it from happening. It’s really quite unbelievable.”<br /> <br /> Sefi did not seem to be reprimanding Kurou, nor was she unwilling.<br /> <br /> She simply believed that Kurou was an inconceivable person.<br /> <br /> “......No, there’s no point in even interrogating Rou in regards to this aspect. Oh well.”<br /> <br /> Sefi wryly smiled as she shook her head.<br /> <br /> “It would be really helpful if you could manage that. Well then, I should probably get going. Thanks for your hospitality, the taste was delicious.”<br /> <br /> “Umm, Rou.”<br /> <br /> Just as Kurou was about to step out of the window, he stopped.<br /> <br /> “Be careful. There’s going to be a lot of trouble awaiting you in the future since there are maniacs encamped here who put their lives on the line wielding their swords. Even though you are prohibited from pulling out your sword within the school————everyone still carries their sword regardless.”<br /> <br /> Other than sword training, there was no need to carry a sword within school. However, since there was also class practice with real swords, the students would leave their swords in their rooms or a cabinet within school. If a sword was required, it seems they would carry their swords on them.<br /> <br /> “No matter what, in here you are considered an outsider Rou. Although no one would blindly attack you, within this blood boiling age group, there will be times where you’ll be rendered helpless in some situations if it’s just you by yourself regardless of how strong you are.”<br /> <br /> “Well, I’ll keep that in mind.”<br /> <br /> He already clearly understood that his own school completely rejected him. There were many who were spiteful towards him just because he was a human and thus it’s understandable that some of them might try to do something provocative. <br /> <br /> “Then I guess I’ll have to try my best to protect my life during these three years. As compensation, I’ll have to take Sefi’s bra or panties......would that be alright......” <br /> <br /> “No......”<br /> <br /> “Is that so......”<br /> <br /> Although they were childhood friends, there appear to be limits as to how far one can go.<br /> <br /> From another person’s perspective, this kind of conversation would probably seem way too puerile.<br /> <br /> “Goodnight Sefi.”<br /> <br /> “Goodnight.”<br /> <br /> Sefi gently smiled after replying to Kurou.<br /> <br /> Kurou exited through the window. Even though Sefi’s room was on the third floor, it was easy to descend from for someone as capable as Kurou.<br /> <br /> He climbed down the walls in a manner akin to that of a ninja and having witnessed Sefi’s gentle smile, he felt a warm feeling in his chest.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> It was currently the early morning of the next day.<br /> <br /> Kurou yawned as he passed through the school gates.<br /> <br /> By the way, the academy did not require all students to live within the dormitories. As a result, Kurou came to school from his house.<br /> <br /> Although it was mentioned as his house, it was actually just the Sabers’s lounge that he had moved into without permission. Since the head director was his guardian, there were no complaints over this. He only had a bed within the narrow room, but at least the time it takes for him to walk from his workplace did not even add up to a minute. In addition, he saves himself from paying for room and board which made Kurou extremely jubilant.<br /> <br /> Actually, Kurou kept himself as a Sabers member even up till now. Despite his pay being reduced, he was at least making money. Manaka did let Kurou go to school, however she probably didn’t plan on him continuing to work. Although Kurou did need to pay for living expenses, he was rarely seen staying with the group.<br /> <br /> Kurou paid no heed to his surroundings as he leisurely entered the campus.<br /> <br /> “Let me help you carry your backpack.”<br /> <br /> “Haha, there’s no need.”<br /> <br /> Just as he was about to head to the stair entrance on his way to class after putting away his backpack......<br /> <br /> “......Hold on!”<br /> <br /> “Hmmm?”<br /> <br /> The girl tilted her head slightly.<br /> <br /> The girl who offered to help carry Kurou’s backpack closely tailed him.<br /> <br /> “What’s wrong with you? Why did you suddenly take my backpack!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s because this is my job.”<br /> <br /> The girl was expressionless in her reply.<br /> <br /> She wore a black and green maid outfit along with a white katyusha on her long hair. Even though her outfit was extremely gorgeous, she did give off an impression of being very delicate.<br /> <br /> “Hey, are you.....”<br /> <br /> “Hmm?”<br /> <br /> “Aren’t you the girl who appeared from the back of the Sun Cult’s vehicle.....?<br /> <br /> “That’s right. What about it?”<br /> <br /> The girl still showed no expression at all.<br /> <br /> “What do you mean what about it! This can’t be right, why are you here!?”<br /> <br /> “Haha, I forgot. I should have said this from the start.”<br /> [[File:Kenshin v01 079.jpg|thumbnail|right]]<br /> The girl remained stoic as she spoke and when she was done speaking, she kneeled down.<br /> <br /> Kurou didn’t even have time to stop her. The girl placed both her hands on the floor and deeply bowed her head.<br /> <br /> “My name is Sakurai Hinako. Starting today————I’ll be serving you.”<br /> <br /> Since she lowered her head so deeply, her expression wasn’t visible.<br /> <br /> However, if she was joking around, this would be quite over the top. For a girl to be wearing such an eye-catching outfit, there was no way she should have been permitted to enter school grounds.<br /> <br /> Kurou gazed intently at the black hair of the girl who still had her head lowered like this.<br /> <br /> It appears that she wasn’t going to lift her head up unless Kurou told her to. The girl remained motionless.<br /> <br /> Turning a blind eye towards this would seem optimal, even Kurou was contemplating this unfavorable course of action.<br /> <br /> However, Kurou already realized that there was no way he could brush aside this girl. He also recognized that this was just the beginning of his troubles.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_2&diff=470215 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 2 2015-11-06T05:32:21Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 - {{furigana|Enemy territory Infiltration|Sneak Mission}}==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> “Cramped! Cramped cramped the distance is too cloo―se-! I really dislike you! Despite so, how can your face stay calm even when going through this! You brute!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was like that had the positivity level of 82. There was not even a single skull mark that denoted the decrease of positivity level. Even her abusive remarks couldn’t be felt as anything other than one type of communication to him.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, you only say that in your mouth but you don’t hate me don’t you? Also senpai had promised to accompany me in a date hadn’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t treat an infiltration mission as a date you―!”<br /> <br /> Right at that time, a slightly large wave lifted up the neck of the ship highly.<br /> <br /> The neck of the ship rode through the wave undulation and then it was half falling with a jerk.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was “UWAA!” surprised and her shoulder approached near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> An endless ocean. The small boat looked like an untrustworthy leaf floating on the sea.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, senpai. When push comes to shove…”<br /> <br /> “When push comes to shove…?” Kazuha-senpai who was shrinking her body looked at him imploringly.<br /> <br /> “When push comes to shove, please stabilize the movement of the boat with Psychokinesis Kazuha-senpai.”<br /> <br /> “You are relying on me! I looked like an idiot for thinking that you are a little dependable heree―!!”<br /> <br /> “Of course I’m also doing my best in the boat driving. But well, inside the bay, the waves are killed by the peninsula and island making the water quite calm so it’s okay. Though the morning seems early.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki peered through the binoculars that was hanging in his neck while reinforcing his eyesight using magic power.<br /> <br /> “…Rather, what's scarier are human’s eyes, this is an infiltration mission after all.”<br /> <br /> “That risk of discovery, the story is that Yamato doesn’t perform the coast security satisfactorily anyway right? If it’s just a citizen’s boat then it’s going to be overlooked even if it’s discovered, isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Because the government cut the electric supply to west Japan, the emotion of west Japan’s citizen has become the worst. Something like a suspicious boat they have never seen might be reported right away to Yamato.”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so…this is the enemy’s territory after all…. Even though this is Mie prefecture…”<br /> <br /> That odd way of speaking unintentionally made Kazuki float an ironic smile. Kazuha-senpai talked even further.<br /> <br /> “…When I studied the administrative divisions of Japan in elementary school, among the few that I couldn’t remember no matter what was Mie prefecture you know? I wonder if I incurred a divine punishment…”<br /> <br /> “For some reason I always jumbled up Aichi prefecture and Wakayama prefecture, I couldn’t make the distinction between them.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, in that case you really like orange.”&lt;ref&gt;In Aichi and Wakayama prefectures, they have specialty oranges of their own.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai didn’t only insult him with abusive remarks, unexpectedly when he made stupid talk with her, she was someone who would respond in a good mood. Finally she relaxed her stiff shoulder and showed a smiling face.<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuha-senpai’s face from the side where her hair was fluttering from the opposing wind, Kazuki was charmed for a while.<br /> <br /> And then Kazuha-senpai naturally leaned her shoulder and thigh unreservedly on Kazuki’s body. She became relaxed and from her mouth “~♪” a humming sound was starting to leak out.<br /> <br /> “Hey, until how long we are going to keep like this?”<br /> <br /> “Generally it might be around one hour.”<br /> <br /> “Whaa―tt, it’s unexpectedly short. So it’s not a considerable boat trip then?”<br /> <br /> “Is it disappointing?” Kazuki asked Kazuha-senpai whose face was full of disappointment.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai suddenly went ‘hah’ and made a face of realization, “I, it’s not disappointing at all, who in the world will want time spent together with you! I want this to end quicklyy―!” She leaned her body forward in fluster.<br /> <br /> “The boat will shake so please don’t struggle here I said.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki met an unexpected difficulty in operating the flap, he embraced Kazuha-senpai with his left hand.<br /> <br /> When her waist was embraced by Kazuki’s arm, a heart mark flew from Kazuha-senpai with a plop.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps by any chance senpai want to be like this and intentionally made a ruckus?”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s not true! This lady killer!”<br /> <br /> ―The enjoyable time passed in the blink of an eye. And then,<br /> <br /> “…This is problematic.” Kazuki murmured while peeking through his binoculars.<br /> <br /> “There really are that many people?”<br /> <br /> Finally they reached the distance where they could clearly see the opposite shore, but unexpectedly there were people in the shoreline of Toba where they planned to disembark.<br /> <br /> “There are a lot of fishing ships, breeding farm of oyster or seaweed, female divers…something is visible.”<br /> <br /> “There are also female divers? Your eyes are absurdly good huh.”<br /> <br /> In any case the visibility was exceedingly good on top of the sea, there was no hiding place.<br /> <br /> They must go through a route where they wouldn’t enter anybody’s line of sight and make their landing.<br /> <br /> “Let’s make a detour slightly and search for a coastline where there are no people’s presence.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki steered the boat going side-by-side with the land.<br /> <br /> “Ah. Oi, Hayashizaki, seagulls are coming here!”<br /> <br /> Like a children, Kazuha-senpai shook the shoulder of Kazuki who didn’t peel his eyes off from the binoculars.<br /> <br /> “Seagulls…? They might be used to human from the pleasure cruise for sightseeing that scattered feed to them.”<br /> <br /> “So they want some feed, yosh!”<br /> <br /> It seemed Kazuha-senpai brought some snacks inside her waist-bag. She took out a rice cracker. She stood up on top of the unsteadily shaking boat while guarding her balance, “Here-!” and threw the pieces of broken rice cracker to the sky. The seagulls took a nose dive with good momentum and caught the cracker with its beak.<br /> <br /> “Amazing! Come on look Hayashizaki, these guys come along! They are amazingly smart!! Ahaha-”<br /> <br /> “Geez, what is senpai making merry for…”<br /> <br /> Separating his eyes from the binoculars, he looked up at Kazuha-senpai who was standing beside him―Kazuki watched the girl’s radiant smile in fascination. He involuntarily lost the next word he was going to say. The fringe of Kazuha-senpai’s short casual Japanese clothes was turned up lightly from the strong wind, although she didn’t notice it because she was too engrossed at the seagulls and making merry.<br /> <br /> (Well, it’s fine), Kazuki returned to his binoculars while his face was slightly reddening.<br /> <br /> In her place, he was going to pay attention seriously at their surrounding.<br /> <br /> ―When he was looking at the far away, *GATAN!* the boat shook, then he heard Kazuha-senpai’s scream.<br /> <br /> “Waaaaaaaaa, Hayashizaki, strange birds are! They scattered the seagulls and come charging here―!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki took off his eyes from the binoculars and looked up to the sky―tension ran through his spine.<br /> <br /> Large flock of birds blocked the blue sky, “GEE―! GEE―!” they were revolving around the boat while raising ominous chirps. It had protruding eyes that looked as if the eyeball were almost falling out, their beaks were curving windingly like old tree stumps. They were ominous birds from what Kazuki could see.<br /> <br /> Of course they were not a natural animal―Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> “Damn! …This spot is a Haunted Ground!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly realized and looked down at the sea’s surface. The sea color ten-odd meters around them became a darkish color as if a stain was gathered in one spot of the ocean. Because Kazuki only watched the far away land and Kazuha-senpai only looked at the seagulls, they didn’t notice at all that they had stepped into a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Haunted Ground only broke out in a place where there were humans―if it was a course where pleasure ship and fishing ship often came, then surely it was possible for Haunted Ground to be born on top of a sea. A spot where seagulls that were used to humans formed a group. It was suitable to be called a dominion of human rather than nature.<br /> <br /> However Yamato’s provisional government, weren’t they dealing with the Haunted Ground properly?<br /> <br /> Like this the people that worked on the sea would be in danger!<br /> <br /> “O the will of whirling heaven god…gather in my hand, grant me the authority of judgement! O radiance of the royal divine gift, become a dazzling brilliant drawn bow! Lightning Line.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s both hands hosted lightning. He drew the lightning to the limit and launched on, two streaks of lightning. This magic of Hikaru-senpai, even though each of its shot was inferior in power compared to Mio’s Barrett, it could be used to shoot repeatedly.<br /> <br /> One, two body of the demon birds were shot down and sank into the black water surface. With that as the start, the demon birds that were circling around to assess their prey directed their beaks at the boat and took a nose dive.<br /> <br /> “I’m doing a good fight, welcoming a good death, and wish to participate in even more battle of heaven! The divine protection of blood color in my eye! Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> Beatrix’s level 1 magic that could be invoked in short chanting tie. Light flew down from between the gap of the cloud in the sky, it became power and resided inside Kazuki. His eyes were dyed deep crimson, his reflexes and physical strength were amplified.<br /> <br /> Kazuki missed nothing of the demon birds’ beaks, he caught the beak of the bird that came the foremost barehanded. He swung the demon bird that he caught with all his strength, directing it to the second approaching demon bird’s beak and ''used it as a shield''. Fresh blood scattered, he threw away the demon bird that bore a fatal wound from its fellow bird’s beak to the sea.<br /> <br /> The third flying bird that approached him was caught by his left hand this time, and then once more he used it as a shield against the fourth bird.<br /> <br /> He caught the birds with his two hands and used them as shields before throwing them away…he struggled hard empty-handedly.<br /> <br /> Looking at that scene from the side, Kazuha-senpai who was late in her battle preparation chanted her spell in panic.<br /> <br /> “O peerless master, make another showing from beyond the dream! Along with the flame of transmutation, liberate the memory that is sealed inside the silver mirror right here!! Kenki Tensei!!”<br /> <br /> Spheres of fire burst out around Kazuha-senpai. From there the phantom of famous swordsmen that left behind their names in history were summoned―the phantom swordsmen that were created from the spheres of fire landed on the water surface just like that―they were drowning while kicking and struggling. While unfortunate, there was no space for summoning on top of the cramped boat.<br /> <br /> The mute phantom swordsman were,<br /> <br /> {What are you doing suddenly summoning us here gozaru-} {Uwaa~, you are making fun of us~}<br /> <br /> …They were sinking into the black sea with that kind of feeling.<br /> <br /> “Uwaa―! You guys are useless―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was completely cornered into the depths of mayhem, she screamed while gripping the edge of the boat.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, the magic that you chose to chant was mistaken there!”<br /> <br /> That miss was surely because the tactic of first summoning the phantom swordsmen and then using them to buy time for her to chant higher magic had already completely became a habit.<br /> <br /> “I am the shaman of sword…rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was grappling with the devil birds, he managed to chant that spell in some way or other.<br /> <br /> Flames welled out inside Kazuki’s hand where a holy ancient sword was created.<br /> <br /> If he held a sword, then the fight was his. The nose diving demon birds were cut down one after another.<br /> <br /> {Ooh, splendid! This is just like Tsubame Gaeshi&lt;ref&gt;Swallow Reversal, Sasaki Kojiro’s secret technique&lt;/ref&gt;!}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s phantom appeared and said so in cheers.<br /> <br /> “Waa―! Kazuki! This time strange wriggling things from the sea are―!?”<br /> <br /> When his attention was preoccupied with the sky, Kazuha-senpai’s scream reverberated once again. This time it was not from the sky but from the sea―countless tentacles were extending out and entangled the limbs of Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why is this thing not even sparing a glance at Hayashizaki, but only coming at me!?”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, tentacles is this kind of Demon Beast! Before this when it attacked Mio it was also like this.”<br /> <br /> “What kind of Demon Beast this is, doing something―! Uwa, stop it, don’t get inside the clothes!!”<br /> <br /> The tentacles that were attached with suction pads on it pinned down the side of the boat while invading inside. Both of Kazuha-senpai’s arms and legs were captured. It forcefully opened up the four limbs and tried to creep in through the collar and hem stimulatingly.<br /> <br /> The boat raised a cracking sound!<br /> <br /> But the tentacles doing whatever it wanted to Kazuha-senpai was only for an instant.<br /> <br /> Sensing the situation, Kazuki immediately ran his sword. First he cut down the tentacles that were going to invade into Kazuha-senpai’s clothes, then next he cut down the tentacles that were binding Kazuha-senpai’s arms and legs.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that became free leaped vigorously to Kazuki and hugged him, making the boat shook violently.<br /> <br /> But no matter how many tentacles he cut down, the main body of the Demon Beast was squirming inside the black sea. Katana wouldn’t reach. Using Barrett would be useless because it would disappear from the sea water. Facing the sea and firing lightning arrow would also endanger themselves. Then….<br /> <br /> “O singing voice of mermaid, manifest the freezing thought. Sadness into ice flower, loneliness into light snowfall, cover the world with freezing vacuum…White Album!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki chose Koyuki’s level 5 magic―a large scale magic that froze the designated space in its entirety. The monster inside the sea was frozen together with its surrounding sea water. And then most likely its breath was stopped just like that.<br /> <br /> The dusky sea that was undergoing Haunted Ground transformation quickly became clear blue color.<br /> <br /> Haunted Ground was spreading due to the existence of Demon Beast. By defeating the Demon Beast, the original scenery would be recovered.<br /> <br /> “Ah, how tiresome~. Sorry, I’m just completely holding you back…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was weakly exhausted on top of the boat, she released a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…this is still not the time to be relaxed yet.”<br /> <br /> When the tentacles were clamping at Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki heard an awful voice of something cracking.<br /> <br /> Cracks were entering the boat that was made from wood. Under both their feet, sea water was entering little by little.<br /> <br /> “It's flooding!?”<br /> <br /> If the ship was broken in this place, the operation would be a failure. They wouldn’t be able to land inconspicuously.<br /> <br /> “…Should we go back for a moment, using [Blazing Wings] back to Irago Cape?”<br /> <br /> “Even though the opposing shore is just right there already…! It’s my fault…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stared at the opposing shore mortifyingly. Even while she was doing that, the small boat kept sinking.<br /> <br /> “That’s right! Let’s swim until the farther shore!”<br /> <br /> “There are a lot of fishing ships. If we go across swimming while still wearing clothes, we will completely look like suspicious people, senpai.”<br /> <br /> “Then let’s go by diving!” Kazuha-senpai faced the sea and pulled Kazuki’s arm.<br /> <br /> “How are we going to maintain our breath!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, leave it to me! …I’ll relinquish my dishonor from before!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai forcibly kept pulling *gui gui* Kazuki’s arm, she was trying to make the both of them leap into the sea together. (If she really has some idea), Kazuki hardened his determination.<br /> <br /> “We are going! One two-!!”<br /> <br /> Water was splashing along with a yell, the two dove into the sea.<br /> <br /> …What in the world is Kazuha-senpai planning?<br /> <br /> When he opened his eyes inside the sea that had high rate of transparency, Kazuki saw a miraculous sight.<br /> <br /> Bubbles that repelled blue lights were pouring down from the surface into the water to the location of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> The bubble that was as big as a person’s head followed about around Kazuki’s face and then it entered inside his mouth.<br /> <br /> …It’s air. Kazuha-senpai was pulling air into the water using Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> …Amazing. Once again, he felt that Kazuha-senpai’s talent in magic was not ordinary.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly inside the water and pointed at the direction of the land. Kazuki nodded at that. <br /> <br /> If oxygen was supplied like this, then it was a distance that could be traversed sufficiently.<br /> <br /> Utilizing magic and diving with one’s own body―this was his first experience, in a transparent blue world.<br /> <br /> Changing from seagulls, this time it was fishes, they coiled about around Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s surrounding.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Puhaa―! I wondered for a second what’s going to happen to us there!”<br /> <br /> Raising from the sea, Kazuha-senpai stood up on the beach unsteadily while taking a deep breath. But,<br /> <br /> “Before we take a breather! Let’s move to a more hidden spot!”<br /> <br /> This area was not a beach that had been developed for swimming place, there was no presence of human in the surrounding. But at any rate, the unobstructed view in the beach was too good. The afternoon sun was shining down on them. Kazuki held Kazuha-senpai’s hand tightly and ran away into the natural forest that grew thickly near the beach.<br /> <br /> “Don, don’t suddenly hold my hand like this―!”<br /> <br /> “Somehow there is this thrill that make the heart beat fast right?”<br /> <br /> After escaping into the darkness of the forest, finally they could take a breather.<br /> <br /> The two let out a wry chuckle while looking at each other’s face―Kazuki spontaneously caught his breath.<br /> <br /> It was pink color―if he was asked what was pink, it was Kazuha-senpai’s underwear color.<br /> <br /> Senpai’s remodeled Japanese clothing was wet and became see-through, making a faint pink color emerge through it.<br /> <br /> Going after the swimsuit, it was a lovely underwear that made him feel the gap. That senpai was wearing this kind of underwear, that fact itself was cute. By any chance perhaps she put in a considerable fighting spirit into choosing that underwear.<br /> <br /> Moreover because of her run-in with those tentacles and further with the swimming, her collar and hem was slovenly disordered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s clothes too was also similarly drenched wet, it was clinging onto the skin heavily. Kazuha-senpai saw Kazuki’s state, then she noticed that herself was also in the same state, making her face boil red.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 056.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “U, u, u, uWAA―!? Don’t look, don’t look this wayy―!!”<br /> <br /> “So, sorry senpai! This is an act of god!!”<br /> <br /> “I understand this is act of god or whatnot! I’m not particularly angry so just look behind―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned back at the same time, making their backs meet.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s dry the clothes and our body with magic.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suggested. If they used Psychokinesis to get rid of the water and salt and then produced high temperature with Pyrokinesis, they could dry their clothes far quicker compared to letting it dry naturally.<br /> <br /> “…I got it. Then I’m going to take off my clothes. Absolutely don’t look back.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai answered like such for the sake of getting through this quickly.<br /> <br /> Dryness was a process where the water particles escape to the air. Rather than letting the clothes dry while still wearing it, taking off the clothes and drying it off piece by piece would increase the surface area that came in contact with the air, making the drying-off several times faster.<br /> <br /> …I wonder if this means that she trust me.<br /> <br /> That Kazuha-senpai was, currently, becoming naked right behind himself.<br /> <br /> Of course Kazuki didn’t have any intention to betray that trust. Absolutely none.<br /> <br /> While determining his heart that he absolutely wouldn’t look behind, he himself removed the belt of his hakama and took off his remodeled Japanese clothes. Spreading out the taken-off clothes with his hands, he concentrated at his magic.<br /> <br /> “Wa, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?”<br /> <br /> However after only tens of seconds, Kazuha-senpai raised a scream.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately turned his back. This couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> This couldn’t be helped but, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too was still in their underwear appearance.<br /> <br /> Their eyes met in a glance, shame flashed in Kazuha-senpai’s expression.<br /> <br /> But on the contrary she didn’t continue that line of progress.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai screamed “Demon Beast!” and pointed to the direction forward.<br /> <br /> Demon Beast she said? …This forest was real nature, it was by no means a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Even though this place was not supposed to be a Haunted Ground―there was a single crow in the direction that senpai pointed at.<br /> <br /> It was just a normal bird in a single glance, but thick magic power was compressed inside that small body, warping the surrounding atmosphere slightly. And then above all, ''it had three legs''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai’s shoulder near him and changed their places. He stood in front to cover for her.<br /> <br /> The three-legged crow was staring at Kazuki with eyes that was like black gem.<br /> <br /> “…There is no need to be alert. I hold no hostility.”<br /> <br /> “”The Demon Beast is talking!?”” Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were taken aback in shock.<br /> <br /> The situation where a crow was talking was bizarre but…the subject that he talked about was also strange.<br /> <br /> The Demon Beast that materialized in this world because of {{furigana|Cancer|Malignant Alternate Boundary}} was absolutely the enemy of the human race.<br /> <br /> It was completely the instinct, the meaning of their existence, that Demon Beasts attack only humans.<br /> <br /> …No need to be alert? Those were words that overturned the concept of Demon Beast right from its root.<br /> <br /> “What is called Demon Beast is something that is established in Mythology as the enemy of human race…”<br /> <br /> The three-legged crow opened its beak and spun human language.<br /> <br /> “…I am different. I am something established to be the guide of the monarch &lt;Yatagarasu&gt;. O King of Solomon, the Japanase Mythology welcomes you. Please head to Ise Imperial Shrine just like that somehow.”<br /> <br /> Welcomes? …Even though we came here to defeat Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> If he assumed that this was not a Diva or a Demon Beast, then what in the world is this crow?<br /> <br /> The crow that introduced itself as Yatagarasu informed just that and then it spread its black wings with a flap and flew away.<br /> <br /> The instant it flew to the sky, that figure melted into the air and disappeared.<br /> <br /> The left behind Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were bewildered and stood stock still.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, just now, what do you think is going on?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai asked with voice mixed with confusion.<br /> <br /> [Welcome]. Did it has the meaning exactly like the what word imply, or….<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu―it was an existence that was made to be Amaterasu’s messenger in Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> Both of them unintentionally faced each other. And then, they remembered once more that both of them were still in their underwear appearance.<br /> <br /> “Waa!? I forgot, don’t look this way!!”<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, it’s an act of god!”<br /> <br /> Both of them sprang up in startle and turned their back to each other again.<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, act of god, act of god. You keep saying that.”<br /> <br /> While they resumed drying their clothes, Kazuha-senpai talked with a hint of complaint and then, *bump*, she threw her own back to Kazuki’s back. Kazuha-senpai’s back hair that fluttered behind tickled Kazuki’s nape.<br /> <br /> Perhaps there ought to be some more words that he should say. Not an excuse that he said because he was afraid to be scolded. Because Kazuha-senpai was a much softer person than what her surface attitude hinted.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai’s risqué appearance, really made my heart beat fast.”<br /> <br /> “What are you saying, idiot!”<br /> <br /> “The pink underwear was cute.”<br /> <br /> “Aren’t you just thinking too simply that a girl will be happy as long as she got praised!?”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine right, I said that was an act of god.”<br /> <br /> “You are a pervert!” *BUMP! BUMP!* the hits to his back were strengthened.<br /> <br /> But he had the hunch that senpai at this kind of time was not angry but rather she was enjoying herself.<br /> <br /> “…Really, I’m finished already here.”<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, there was the presence of Kazuha-senpai wearing her clothes in rustle.<br /> <br /> “Eh, already!? That’s fast!”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, that’s because you are saying stupid things. Idii―ot idii―ot. Magic good for nothing.”<br /> <br /> Rotating with a twirl, Kazuha-senpai who had finished changing her clothes circled around to Kazuki’s front.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…I’m, still in emergency here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was taken aback being stared at right from the front.<br /> <br /> “It’s doesn’t really matter right, you are man after all.”<br /> <br /> What kind of reason was that? Kazuha-senpai bent her knees at that spot and squatted down, then her line of sight was creeping all over Kazuki’s body intently *jii―*.<br /> <br /> “…Fuun, just as expected it’s a body with the feel of a boy. …Fuun.”<br /> <br /> He didn’t really get embarrassed getting stared at but…for some reason he couldn’t concentrate on the magic.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When they walked from the coast to the city of Toba, the town that prospered from sightseeing and fishing industry was changed into quite a place from being put under the state of [times of war].<br /> <br /> “First let’s settle down a little and talk about what we are going to do from now on.”<br /> <br /> Saying that, Kazuki pointed at the eatery in the street corner. In Toba, there were a few eateries lining up. This eatery was called &lt;Ama&lt;ref&gt;Female diver who collects shells, seaweed, etc.&lt;/ref&gt; hut&gt; where people could eat fresh maritime products that were just picked by the diver.<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it, certainly my stomach is empty.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was also in agreement. …Today they were having a fairly rushed schedule until now. After Kazuki explained the outline of the operation yesterday they departed from Nagoya at the early morning the very next day, arriving at Irago Cape. There they sailed off after finishing the boat operation training, and then they landed at the town of Toba in Mie Prefecture right at this point of time, the time had already approaching midday. Everything were events that were happening throughout this morning.<br /> <br /> They were in the middle of an important operation, be that as it may, it was hard to go against their sense of hunger.<br /> <br /> If they didn’t have a meal here, they didn’t know what would happen from now on after this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai sat side-by-side at the counter, then they ordered the shellfish combination platter that was the specialty here with the traveling expenses they received from Akane-senpai. At the opposite side of the counter, the auntie there lined up the shellfishes on the earthen charcoal brazier and started grilling.<br /> <br /> With a voice so small that could only be heard by Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki confirmed the thing that he was concerned at the foremost.<br /> <br /> “Regarding that &lt;Yatagarasu&gt; from before, does Futsunushi no Kami say anything at all?”<br /> <br /> “I too asked inside my head what is that about but…”<br /> <br /> A Telepathy directed at Astrum, it was that kind of thing.<br /> <br /> “…That guy, he doesn’t give any reply and is ignoring me.”<br /> <br /> So it was No Comment. Despite making frivolous talk like commenting someone’s sword skill as Tsubame Gaeshi or what else.<br /> <br /> That crow called Yatagarasu, according to the myth it was the messenger of Amaterasu.<br /> <br /> “What in the world does it mean with [Welcome]? Even though we are coming here for Japanese Mythology’s chief god…Amaterasu’s defeat. In the first place, isn’t Amaterasu supposed to lose her sanity from becoming a Wild God?”<br /> <br /> There was something strange that he felt from Futsunushi no Kami’s story that was supposed to be ''the operation’s premise''.<br /> <br /> During the operation where they were infiltrating enemy territory that required caution, it was a terrifying matter for a doubt to rise to the surface towards the premise of the operation in the first place.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki exposed Futsunushi no Kami’s insincerity, Kazuha-senpai made a sad face.<br /> <br /> “Bu, but Futsunushi no Kami is…”<br /> <br /> “Of course it’s not like I’m thinking that Futsunushi no Kami is Yamato’s spy or something like that.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki said so, Kazuha-senpai released a breath in relief.<br /> <br /> “If Futsunushi no Kami and Yatagarasu are trying to set a trap for us, there is no need at all to make that kind of greeting to us.”<br /> <br /> Of course he was doubtful whether he really could accept that [Welcome] Yatagarasu said at face value, but wasn’t what Yatagarasu meant to declare at that time was that [this is not a trap].<br /> <br /> “…I feel some doubt that this operation can proceed just as planned, but for the time being there is nothing we can do except go to Ise Imperial Shrine to see what’s happening there.”<br /> <br /> What awaited them at that place, was it really [a battle against Amaterasu] or…. If by some chance that was not what going to happen, then for what kind of reason did Futsunushi no Kami call Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai here.<br /> <br /> …If he was called to the enemy territory here because of some ill will though, then that was the worst situation.<br /> <br /> “Here, our specialty the large manilla clam! You two are whispering secretly there, but this is not delicious when it’s not freshly baked. Chuck the food to your mouth quickly and eat up!!&lt;ref&gt;The auntie is speaking with some kind of local dialect here. [Should be Mie dialect; they are in Mie, after all]&lt;/ref&gt;”<br /> <br /> The auntie presented the large plate piled up with clams from across the counter.<br /> <br /> The moment they saw it, Kazuha-senpai went “Wha, this is different with the clam that I know!?” and raised her voice. What they saw was something excessively large to be called clam, its size was almost as big as a palm of a child. Adding to its plump body, soup was pooling in plenty on its shell, the nice aroma of salt rising up.<br /> <br /> Next the auntie handed over a big serving of rice. Kazuha-senpai immediately ate a mouthful of the clam, after that she gulped down the rice heartily, “Delicious-!” her expression brightened.<br /> <br /> The auntie laughed in a good mood seeing at that scene.<br /> <br /> “I’m still grilling lot and lot here! There is turban scallop, or this yesso scallop!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around inside the shop once more. It was a snug eatery, but its walls were decorated with autographs of celebrities that even Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai knew. There was even the picture of the auntie in a wet suit as a diver hung on the wall. …Inside that mundane atmosphere, it made them feel a peace of mind somehow.<br /> <br /> It appears that even when this place changed from Japan into Yamato, the life of the normal people didn’t change at all.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuha-senpai, your [Delicious!] just now is not good. You don’t look like a local.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki lowered his voice and whispered on her ears. “Ah, I see!” Kazuha-senpai pressed her own mouth.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, let’s make our setting as a bacouple that doesn’t read the atmosphere even in this kind of emergency and still come to sightseeing.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai went “Eeeehh!?” and lost her presence of mind.<br /> <br /> “I have heard that it’s difficult to get exposed in infiltration mission when the spies act like a couple.”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki was whispering, he embraced Kazuha-senpai’s waist and brought her closer to him.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai twitched for a moment in hesitation, but perhaps she immediately judged in her reasoning that such method could work, she meekly reclined on Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “…But, I don’t understand what should we do to act as a couple you know.”<br /> <br /> Her cheeks was slightly colored and she whispered weakly.<br /> <br /> “I think it’s fine if we use Mio’s words as reference.”<br /> <br /> “…I see. It’s that kind of feeling…”<br /> <br /> Mio who could make someone understand in one mention was really Mio. Kazuha-senpai nodded slightly. And then she was nuzzling herself on top of Kazuki’s shoulder like a small animal. “…Kazu-kun, aa―n.” Like so, she whispered with a sweet voice while presenting a large clam with a chopstick. Kazuki received a shock in his chest. …Kazu-kun, she said?<br /> <br /> What in the world was this throbbing inside his chest? [This is gap moe desu, Kazuki-oniisan!!] He had the feeling that Lotte’s voice was reverberating inside his head.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki accepted that clam with his mouth and ate it, this time he returned the favor to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha, aa―n.” Like that the two of them turned in their seat while flirting and fed each other with clams.<br /> <br /> “…Thi, this is too embarrassing…”<br /> <br /> “But Kazuha right now, is awfully cute. I’m having a throbbing I have never felt until now.”<br /> <br /> “Sto, stop it you idiot! Geez…stupid Kazu-kun…”<br /> <br /> This person, wasn’t she get too carried away with the mood?<br /> <br /> “Ooaa~! You two suddenly become really intimate! You know this clam, when fellow lovers eat this there is this legend that you will be able to marry your companion perfectly, eat a lot!!”<br /> <br /> The auntie in the counter lined up a lot of grilled clams one after another in front of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Somehow it's just like what they aimed for, it seemed they could finish this without looking suspicious.<br /> <br /> “…I’m doing this, only for the sake of the mission so…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered subduedly.<br /> <br /> “Then I will fully enjoy this situation while it lasts. Her Kazuha, aa―n.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced her waist even stronger and gave the newly arriving clam to senpai with ‘aa―n’. Kazuha-senpai too helplessly cuddled her body closer and obediently chewed the food.<br /> <br /> “…However I never thought it would become something this outrageous.”<br /> <br /> ―A voice from behind.<br /> <br /> Even while flirting with Kazuha-senpai, Kazuki didn’t miss that voice of the local customer.<br /> <br /> When he took a glance behind, there were two male customers around their thirties sitting in the back table seat.<br /> <br /> “Those brats are thinking that it’s interesting, but to say such thing like a war with Japan. They are thinking such an unbelievable idea. Saying things like the Solomon 72 Pillar is trying to take over the country, though I think there might be some truth in that.”&lt;ref&gt;These locals also talk with really heavy accent.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “But those guys in the new government of Yamato became too eager in war with that Japan. They are completely apathetic with the life of we the common people, it’s really vexing ze. Even when a Haunted Ground appears they just leave it alone, when it’s still Japan such thing is unthinkable.”<br /> <br /> “The Haunted Ground has spread until the sea around here huh, recently. When we are going fishing we have to be careful not to carelessly step into that area. …Even though this sea of Ise is Amaterasu-sama’s important kitchen don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> “This is because they just leave alone the Ise Imperial Shrine as that stupidly huge Haunted Ground in the first place. With such atrocious accursed things going on…are we really tying a contract with the Divas of Japanese Mythology here?”<br /> <br /> “Who knows, no matter which shrine, all of it became under construction or something that we cannot even pray to god. Really this situation really stinks. When push comes to shove us the men of sea might just use the ships to make off from here!”<br /> <br /> “…Kazu-kun, you heard?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered into his ears while continuing their act as a couple.<br /> <br /> There was some part of him that became mushy in his chest when ‘Kazu-kun’ was whispered on his ear, but this was not the time to think about such thing.<br /> <br /> …They said that, Ise Imperial Shrine had become a stupidly huge Haunted Ground?<br /> <br /> <br /> Anyway, for the time being they had no other choice except to go to Ise Imperial Shrine and see it with their own eyes.<br /> <br /> Hardening his heart like that, the moment they exited the store Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai put themselves on guard.<br /> <br /> Because right before the store, Yatagarasu was perching on the ground and was waiting for Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu silently directed its beak to the direction of the west, and then it flapped its wings and went flying heading to the west.<br /> <br /> It didn’t say anything, but its intention was obvious.<br /> <br /> There was a distance around 10 kilometers from this harbor of Toba to the Ise Imperial Shrine in the west.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> The rail transport was in operation, but the electric train of Sangū&lt;ref&gt;This is the word they used in Japan that mean visit to the Ise Imperial Shrine.&lt;/ref&gt; line couldn’t travel to the nearest station to Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> The train didn’t operate except until &lt;Futamiura&gt; a few stations before that nearest station to the Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> There was a poster pasted inside the station premise that said [Evacuation counsel information of the present].<br /> <br /> It was a situation where there was an evacuation recommendation for the area around Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> “…Surely it’s because Ise Imperial Shrine has become a Haunted Ground, it is expanding little by little that causes the train to be unable to come near there.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too nodded his agreement of Kazuha-senpai’s deduction.<br /> <br /> With no other way they first went to the station called Futamiura. From there they began to walk to Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Futamiura was supposed to be an area where an evacuation recommendation still hasn’t come out yet, but maybe because there were a lot of people that began to evacuate out of their own initiative, the street that the two walked in front of the station was deserted. While walking Kazuki took out a map from his waist bag. This bag was water proof, so the map inside it was not wet.<br /> <br /> “Futamiura is here, so the distance until Ise Imperial Shrine is…eh? There are two Ise Imperial Shrine in the map though.”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s confused voice, Kazuha-senpai who was walking beside him brought her face near and peeked inside the map.<br /> <br /> “Aah, that one.” Like that she pointed at two points on the map. “These are the outer shrine and inner shrine of Ise. You didn’t know this and you accepted this mission? There are two Ise Imperial Shrine.”<br /> <br /> The outer shrine and the inner shrine was separated with distance around 5 kilos and they are respectively located in different places.<br /> <br /> …Although if there were two different sets it was better if it was nearer.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine, Amaterasu-Oomikami&lt;ref&gt;Oomikami means god. It’s a more honorable way to mention god in Japan&lt;/ref&gt; is located in the inner shrine, so I think it’s fine to ignore the outer shrine this time. But when people are visiting normally, it’s a manner to go from the outer shrine you know. At the outer shrine, there is this goddess called &lt;Toyouke no Oomikami&gt; that is taking care of Amaterasu.”<br /> <br /> I see, so it’s a god of maid then. Rather he would want to go to that shrine personally. <br /> <br /> “There is around 8 kilos until there.” While saying such thing Kazuki took Kazuha-senpai’s hand.<br /> <br /> “…What are you doing, this hand of yours.”<br /> <br /> “Although the presence of people here is only a few, we who are intentionally walking to the direction of the dangerous Ise Imperial Shrine are suspicious when looked from the side. That’s why let’s act like a couple again!”<br /> <br /> “Act, acting like couple again!? Are you thinking that as long as we act like a couple that everything will turn out okay!?”<br /> <br /> “I’m not thinking like that, but I’m thinking that as long as there is some kind of excuse then I want to act like a couple.”<br /> <br /> “You are too honest there! Idiot!!”<br /> <br /> “But it’s also certain that a couple won’t get suspected. A couple that is going to a place where there are no people’s eye around…bacouple that wants to show the girl a good place and intentionally go to a dangerous place…it has a power of persuasion in double meaning! Come here, Kazuha.”<br /> <br /> “Uu―, certainly that is so. …I get it okay, Kazu-kun.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai gently hugged Kazuki’s arm and she reclined her body on his shoulder.<br /> <br /> That Kazuha-senpai (just an act though) was fawning on him honestly.<br /> <br /> …The day where he would get used to this gap still hasn’t come for the present time.<br /> <br /> “Just as I thought, you really have a solid body…”<br /> <br /> While lightly nuzzling herself on Kazuki, Kazuha-senpai vacantly leaked out such words.<br /> <br /> {What an unexpected journey of pilgrimage huh?} Inside Kazuki, Leme was making fun of him.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While they were walking, they grasped the transformation that happened clearly. A line of Haunted Ground was generated right there.<br /> <br /> From around over the Isuzu River, the road was transforming little by little.<br /> <br /> The texture of the road that was made from black asphalt was changed into something that felt clinging onto their shoe sole like dripping mud. The residence home along the road grew dull in color into grayish color and looked worn out. Its external appearance looked dirty like abandoned buildings. Even the Isuzu River that was said to be holy became a completely pure black stream. The sky was also shrouded with dark clouds all of a sudden, making a gloomy weather.<br /> <br /> It appears that what the people said that Ise Imperial Shrine had turned into a Haunted Ground was true. With Ise Imperial Shrine as the center, even its surrounding was swallowed and the Haunted Ground kept spreading.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pictured the map that he saw before in his head. It was about 5 kilos from here to the Ise Imperial Shrine. That meant that the scale of this Haunted Ground was about 5 kilos in radius.<br /> <br /> “How awful…did Yamato really not set out to exterminate the Demon Beasts?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pulled a wry face looking at the street that was completely transformed.<br /> <br /> And then she separated her body from Kazuki. Kazuki too didn’t feel any reluctance from the separation.<br /> <br /> The existence of Demon Beast most likely also meant that there would be battle.<br /> <br /> Cancer―pure magic power that spilled out from Astrum into this world, it then transformed into Demon Beast.<br /> <br /> If this Demon Beast isn’t exterminated quickly, it would call even more Cancer and increase the number of Demon Beasts. When Demon Beast multiplication like this was allowed, its surrounding space would be polluted by thick magic power and become completely distorted. A land of Demon Beast where humans couldn’t live, in that case it had finished transforming into a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> To defend against the expansion of Haunted Ground, exterminating the materialized Demon Beast speedily was also one of the most important jobs of the Knight Order. It seemed that Yamato’s provisional government shirked its duty to do that.<br /> <br /> Like this the area of Ise would be encroached completely.<br /> <br /> ―But saying it in reverse this meant that they didn’t need to fear Yamato’s soldiers in this Haunted Ground. They didn’t defeat any Demon Beast in the Haunted Ground and yet they posted a large number of soldiers inside the Haunted Ground, such action was not skillful at all.<br /> <br /> As expected Yamato’s government didn’t hear anything at all from the Wild Gods about the importance of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Although the Wild Gods became part of their battle strength, their failure in taking close communication with the Wild Gods exposed a fatal gap in their armor.<br /> <br /> “But Hayashizaki, isn’t this strange? For the Ise Imperial Shrine to become the Haunted Ground so accurately…I think it’s just too contrived somehow.”<br /> <br /> …Certainly. However if this happening was not just a coincidence…then that meant the government of Yamato intentionally changed the Ise Imperial Shrine into a Haunted Ground. How? For what reason?<br /> <br /> With its change into a Haunted Ground, maybe it was for the replacement of its defense squad. Possibly Amaterasu’s change into Wild God and Ise Imperial Shrine’s transformation into a Haunted Ground had some kind of connection.<br /> <br /> They surely wouldn’t understand anything if they didn’t advance forward.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai patted around her own waist. Guessing the meaning of that action, Kazuki reflexively laughed. Kazuha-senpai returned a wry smile on that reaction.<br /> <br /> “…When there is no katana on our hips, as expected people like us cannot calm down.”<br /> <br /> “We can use Summoning Magic so it’s fine senpai.”<br /> <br /> For a long time Kazuki had relied on his pride of his skill in sword technique. However before he knew it, he had already thought of his fight using Summoning Magic with similar pride.<br /> <br /> It was not like sword skill had become something trivial for him. How he was able to handle sword skill just like Kanae, and how he could chant the same Summoning Magic just like everyone in the Witch’s Mansion, he was equally proud on both.<br /> <br /> “Fufufuu. Actually, I’m not only practicing sword skill but also doing special training for Summoning Magic recently! Now I’m able to use magic until level 6 you see!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said that as if naturally sympathizing with Kazuki’s inner thought.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was born with an excellent talent in magic, but she yearned for swordsman instead of Magika Stigma since she was a child. She was a rare person that didn’t make an effective use of that talent at all.<br /> <br /> She made a contract with Futsunushi no Kami that was worshipped in her own household even before Solomon 72 Pillar could discover her talent, but she didn’t do any training for Summoning Magic at all, nevertheless she could handle her magic until level 5.<br /> <br /> If that kind of person seriously set out to train her magic seriously…. For her to become able to use magic until level 6 already, Kazuki who was also a magic swordsman like her couldn’t be careless lest he gets left behind.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai spun a spell in preparation for battle and performed Access.<br /> <br /> “…My crimson hand is red hot grasping the ore. Ridge in the sky, blade in the earth, combining in a flash become namely a sole sword. Thy inscription is &lt;Futsunushi no Kami&gt;! O god of steel and fire, show that forging!”<br /> <br /> The god of sword and blacksmith, Futsunushi no Kami granted a burning flame to Kazuha-senpai. The flame was spreading on senpai’s clothing, its Prima Material disintegrated transforming the shape into a totally different battle costume―Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “For a long time, I only fuss over sword, but when I see Hayashizaki I want to become stronger and stronger doing both sword and magic together. After all you and I are the same magic swordsman!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s expression shined brightly.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, when you talk about strength you are really lively.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? …That’s right huh. I was born in a household that worship god of sword. My father is also a swordsman…but swordsman is weak compared to Summoning Magic and the surrounding is also looking at them in contempt…I too became obstinate and became a swordsman but for a long time I had no talent at all and made fun of…honestly it was really miserable.”<br /> <br /> Thinking back once more, it was something like a miracle that she was raised with such a straightforward personality like this after she went through a twisted path for half her life. The nature of Kazuha-senpai herself was strong, surely she was fine because of how bright a person she was.<br /> <br /> “…I think that’s why the feeling of wanting to become even stronger than others is instilled into me. The feeling of always wanting to become stronger and stronger doesn’t vanish. Though somehow it’s an unbecoming boorishness for a woman. …Hahaha.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai floated a bitter smile awkwardly.<br /> <br /> “That’s not true at all. The lively Kazuha-senpai at that time is even more charming than usual. …All the more because normally Kazuha-senpai is not honest at all to me.”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, don’t say such cheeky thing even though you are just my junior!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki talked as if he was poking fun at Kazuha-senpai, she scolded him overbearingly,<br /> <br /> “…But when I’m together with you, I have a feeling that I can become stronger without any limit…”<br /> <br /> Whisperingly, she said so in addition. A heart mark that signed the increase of positivity level came flying from her chest.<br /> <br /> She was being shy for some reason. The both of them walked side by side silently for a while.<br /> <br /> “―Now that I remember senpai, the waist bag was also disintegrated and became the Magic Dress wasn’t it?”<br /> <br /> When Magika Stigma performed Access, things that were attached to the body were dispersed into Prima Material by the reality distortion called magic power, and then it was reconstructed as Magic Dress with the contracted Diva’s divine response as support.<br /> <br /> Did the waist bag also get swallowed by that distortion?<br /> <br /> “Ah, that’s true! Like this I cannot eat the cracker that I brought as snack!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who realized her lost waist bag after being told patted her own waist with some slaps and raised a sad voice.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While paying sufficient attention to their surrounding, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai advanced through the road of the Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> ―After a few minutes of walking, Kazuki went “Please wait” and held Kazuha-senpai back.<br /> <br /> “Please reinforce senpai’s eyesight with magic power and look far ahead. There is something.”<br /> <br /> Ahead in the road of the Haunted Ground that continued straight forward, his reinforced eyesight caught ''a bizarre human shadow''.<br /> <br /> Even though Kazuha-senpai nervously *gulp* swallowed her saliva, she gathered magic power in her eyes…then her face was dyed with a color of bewilderment. The thing that Kazuki saw was also clearly visible for her.<br /> <br /> “…Ee―err, what is it, that thing?”<br /> <br /> “It’s a warrior isn’t it?” Kazuki answered.<br /> <br /> “…That’s surely a warrior huh, that thing there. …But that answer doesn’t resolve any question at all.”<br /> <br /> What was standing in the path far ahead, was a suspicious man in armor and helmet.<br /> <br /> Several pieces of steel plate pasted together and built into one, it was a large armor that looked bulky and heavy.<br /> <br /> Its face was covered with helmet and face cover. Only the glint of its eye could be peeked from the outside.<br /> <br /> It was an armored warrior that looked like as if it flew out right from the Sengoku&lt;ref&gt;Warring States period (of Japanese history, approx. 1467-1568 CE)&lt;/ref&gt; period, walking heavily in roaming on the road that had been transformed into Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me that it was Yamato’s defensive squad? Even though this was inside a Haunted Ground? Wouldn’t they get attacked by the Demon Beast?<br /> <br /> …No, is that actually human? He couldn’t feel any human-like will from the armored warrior that was roaming the street. Rather, its atmosphere was more beastly closer with a Demon Beast that wandered restlessly.<br /> <br /> “It looks like an opponent that we cannot pass by acting like a couple. Let’s go through another road.”<br /> <br /> All along the path they could use to reach their destination of Ise Imperial Shrine was not only one. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai turned back through the street and turned into the bend across. They advanced through a different street.<br /> <br /> ―Even ahead of that street was also loitered with armored warrior, making them come into a halt.<br /> <br /> For some reason the armored warrior was not alone, looked like there were a lot of them wandering around. There were increasingly several of them.<br /> <br /> …Is there no other way than defeating them? When Kazuki began to incline on bulldozing his way through inside his heart,<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki. How about we climb the building and go from rooftop to rooftop? I have the feeling that those guys don’t look anywhere except straight ahead.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai pointed at the roof of the building beside them and said that.<br /> <br /> That was actually the house of the citizen before this place was transformed into Haunted Ground, but now it had lost its color and became grayish. It was weathering and looked worn-out, exposing its concrete frame and became an abandoned building.<br /> <br /> …Certainly that armored warrior didn’t seem to be really that vigilant until that far. If they advance through the roof of the buildings it didn’t seem like the warrior would intentionally direct its eyes their way.<br /> <br /> “But they will notice our footsteps right? Somehow it looks like they have a sharp bestial sense.”<br /> <br /> “Then it’s fine if we don’t make any voice don’t you agree? It’s that easy.”<br /> <br /> While talking, Kazuha-senpai put her hand on the outer wall of the building that looked abandoned, then she climbed to the roof in one go with physical strength that had been reinforced with magic power. The moment she landed on the roof, the landing sound was&amp;mdash;not there.<br /> <br /> As if an unseen cushion covered both the feet of Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> And then she beckoned Kazuki with her hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too similarly climbed the outer wall and landed on the roof. The sound was not there as expected. Kazuki had the sensation that his underfoot was enveloped by some kind of magic power. He directed a surprised pair of eyes to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “…By any chance did senpai erase the sound using magic power?”<br /> <br /> “This is not really something to be surprised about right? Something like sound is just a vibration in the air, so isn’t it just a simple field of Psychokinesis?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai said it nonchalantly but Kazuki couldn’t help but became tongue-tied.<br /> <br /> Certainly sound manipulation&amp;mdash;didn’t need much energy even though it vibrated the air in minute detail.<br /> <br /> But the magic power control for it was something really difficult because it was hard to image something like that. Sensing the unseen sound wave, it was still easier to simply magnify it, but to do a stunt like beautifully offsetting the sound wave was not supposed to be something so simple.<br /> <br /> …She might be a prodigy. This person might be above anybody else in the Witch’s Mansion in the field that didn’t have any connection with Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Of course Summoning Magic was the one that was useful in battle, but general magic that was effective in detailed practical use undoubtedly shone bright in special missions like this infiltration operation.<br /> <br /> “I’m also erasing your footstep, so let’s pass through the armored warriors just like this using the rooftop.”<br /> <br /> With a little pride, Kazuha-senpai was soundlessly hopping around *pyon pyon* in the rooftop.<br /> <br /> So that they became hard to see from the ground, the two of them took a low posture with their waist dropped and leaped from rooftop to rooftop just like the great thief of the Edo period.<br /> <br /> After they passed an increasingly fair number of armored warriors from on top of the roof, their gait became even more careful. Suddenly Kazuha-senpai pointed at something a little far ahead.<br /> <br /> There was a blue light generated ahead of where she was pointing, *PAN!* and then a little sound as if air was bursting out could be heard.<br /> <br /> The armored warrior reacted to that and turned away. It walked heavily to the direction of the sound.<br /> <br /> …If she could erase sound, then producing sound was also something possible.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly while looking at Kazuki. Kazuki too returned a smile and jest around with light feeling.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…how many pranks have you done until now with that ability? I have a feeling that small trick can be completely misused.”<br /> <br /> “I, I never did anything like a prank! After all…I don’t have any friends that I can prank or boast to…”<br /> <br /> He was just teasing lightly, but Kazuha-senpai hung her head down heavily.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…if you are fine with me then please prank me as much as you want.”<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t need that kind of appeal! I’m not that bored that I’m going to prank someone like you!”<br /> <br /> While they were doing that exchange with small voices, even more armored warriors were walking heavily from ahead of the street, making Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai be taken aback. It seemed that there really is a great number of these armored warriors.<br /> <br /> They still must not descend down from the rooftop.<br /> <br /> They steadily flew through the roof of the lining up low buildings in the residential area that had been transformed into Haunted Ground and advanced.<br /> <br /> Thereupon on their path, a tall [seven floor multi-tenant building] that stuck out compared to its surrounding stood on their way.<br /> <br /> Probably it was originally filled with various shops that became tenant there. On the side of the tall and narrow abandoned building, several sticking out billboards that were written with something unreadable because of the pitch black filth on them could be seen.<br /> <br /> “Ha, Hayashizaki…are we going to climb this too?” Kazuha-senpai looked up at the building and flinched back.<br /> <br /> …That’s right, if it was Enchant Aura then he was the more skilled one. As if opposing Kazuha-senpai who was so haughty since a while ago, Kazuki went “Fuffuffu” and chuckled.<br /> <br /> “Well then, please leave it to me this time. I’ll leave the footsteps to senpai.”<br /> <br /> After declaring so, he forcefully lifted up Kazuha-senpai who was in the posture of standing upright.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was settled into Kazuki’s arms struggled around with a bright red face.<br /> <br /> “Wait a second! You don’t need to lift me with princess-carry like this right, you can just carry me on your back!”<br /> <br /> “This is not just a mere princess-carry. This is Hayashizaki-style Last Secret Art [Wedding・Love Lift]!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was turning round and round like a merry-go-round while carrying Kazuha-senpai in his arms.<br /> <br /> “Last Secret Art!? So Hayashizaki-style is just a joke school of sword art like that!? Why are you revolving!?”<br /> <br /> “Kanae was the one that authorized this as the Last Secret Art though. There is no meaning at all in the revolving. Here we go!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki faced the multi-tenant building while still carrying Kazuha-senpai and jumped.<br /> <br /> Stepping his foot on the billboard that was sticking out from the wall, he made the second jump by using it as a foothold.<br /> <br /> Using the billboard as foothold like a stair, he kept jumping from one billboard to the next. Kazuha-senpai was offsetting all the sounds from Kazuki’s action. Matching their breaths splendidly, they managed to finished their leaps completely soundless.<br /> <br /> Only the distance from the last billboard to the rooftop was slightly taller than the previous jumps.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately chanted a level 1 reinforcement magic that he could quickly invoke. The reflexes reinforcement was trivial in this case, his aim was the physical strength reinforcement even just for a little.<br /> <br /> With that boosting, Kazuki was able to splendidly land on top of the roof of the abandoned building soundlessly.<br /> <br /> He could see the surrounding Haunted Ground with one sweep of the eye from the top of the building. There was a conspicuously darkened forest and building in the center of the Haunted Ground. That was surely the Ise Imperial Shrine there.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps both of us are a combination duo that is suited to infiltration missions, aren’t we?”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t just keep grinning happily, let me down quickly-!”<br /> <br /> Even while a small heart mark flew from Kazuha-senpai, she said that from her mouth and struggled around.<br /> <br /> Kazuki obediently lowered Kazuha-senpai down.<br /> <br /> “..Eh? You are simply letting me down like that?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai made an unsatisfied face. Kazuki made a stiff face and faced Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Senpai…''we are seen''.”<br /> <br /> …It seemed this mission wouldn’t be that simple.<br /> <br /> Kazuki whose eyesight was further reinforced with [Berserk] sensed the small movement amidst the scenery.<br /> <br /> “Eh…we are seen you said, here is the tenth floor’s rooftop you know?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered dumbfoundedly.<br /> <br /> ―At that moment, that human shadow moved out. A human shadow so small like a speck dust that was not visible from the rooftop where Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were standing was moving out with terrific speed. It was heading to this direction.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was just a moment late in his decision to escape&amp;mdash;it was caused by the height of the ten-floor building that originally wouldn’t let a human jump down to the ground safely that made his instinct hesitate.<br /> <br /> The small human shadow that began to move leaped from the street to the rooftop, making all the surrounding buildings as foothold with superhuman nimbleness―with no time to even say ‘ah’, it jumped from rooftop to rooftop to the roof where Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were.<br /> <br /> Under the sky of the Haunted Ground that was filled with dark clouds, on the rooftop of a narrow building, Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai confronted that.<br /> <br /> Following the armored warrior, this one was a figure with bizarre external appearance.<br /> <br /> The image that floated inside his head with one glance was―[specter lemur].<br /> <br /> A small build that was slender like a monkey, however only both its eyes were big like a monster. Its eyeball was even bigger than a clenched fist―was this really human?<br /> <br /> With its body clad in pure black costume, only that huge eyeball was exposed from the hood it wore.<br /> <br /> A completely ninja-like figure. So that was it, there was not only armored warrior here.<br /> <br /> At the same time Kazuki recalled once more that this place was a Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Was this guy human, or Demon Beast, ''he couldn’t make a distinction which one was it''.<br /> <br /> “My Lord…My Lord…I found it…Stigmata…Found it…”<br /> <br /> The ninja with build like a monkey leaked out a muffled voice from its mouth that was covered with hood. It was a faint small voice that was not audible except for Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai that were in that place. However―<br /> <br /> {…Both of your eyes are my eyes…. Is that so, so those guys had come. If they had stepped their foot on this ground, they cannot escape already!}<br /> <br /> From above the pitch black clouds that filled the sky of the Haunted Ground, a voice was reverberating. The words could be differentiated, but it was a muffled voice that he couldn’t make the distinction whether the speaker was male or female.<br /> <br /> That was a spell being spun. <br /> <br /> {Here a thick cloud rise, put up the barrier that confine all calamity. …My &lt;Yaegaki&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Fences within fences&lt;/ref&gt; of tranquility right here. …Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Dankai Bakufu|Severed World Cascade}}!!}<br /> <br /> A magic was invoked―the black cloud that fully covered the sky began to flow fiercely.<br /> <br /> The clouds spread thinly in the blink of eye, and then it languidly dropped down to the ground at the direction of the sky’s edge. A dome. The cloud in the sky covered the Haunted Ground in the shape of hemisphere, shutting them in from the outside world.<br /> <br /> …They couldn’t escape? A cold sensation ran through Kazuki’s spine. That meant the failure of their infiltration. On top of being discovered by the enemy, their escape path was blocked.<br /> <br /> “My Lord…Stigmata…My Lord…Stigmata, Kill! Stigmata Kill!”<br /> <br /> The monkey-like ninja leaked out a voice like he was talking in delirium.<br /> <br /> {So the King of Solomon 72 Pillar has come to this ground…this war is over if that guy is killed. Sounds good, if he can be killed then I don’t mind if you kill him to your heart’s content!}<br /> <br /> The voice from the sky gave his acknowledgement. Thereupon the monkey ninja raised an unthinkable loud voice from beyond its hood.<br /> <br /> “…nnn, nGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s ears naturally shone with defensive magic power to protect their eardrums. It was a voice so loud to that degree. There was no doubt that it likely reverberated through the Haunted Ground. Kazuki sensed that innumerable gazes were simultaneously directed to this direction from the ground. This guy called his comrades!<br /> <br /> “Senpai, it’s bad if we stay here! Let’s escape!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki finally threw his instinct to the wind and moved in action. He carried Kazuha-senpai once more and leaped with all his strength to the ground. “Kazuki!?” Kazuha-senpai raised a confused scream.<br /> <br /> The building’s rooftop―from the height of more than 30 meters―to the ground.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DAA―NN!* Kazuki landed on the ground while raising a grand sound this time. The sole of Kazuki’s feet, his knees, all were shining with blue defensive magic power and vanished the impact of the landing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took the hand of Kazuha-senpai and he dashed with speed that Kazuha-senpai could barely follow.<br /> <br /> He repeated the path that they followed until this point in one go.<br /> <br /> “Let’s conceal ourselves and give them the slip!”<br /> <br /> The armored warriors on the ground were all heading here simultaneously and gave chase.<br /> <br /> However Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s running foot exceeded the heavy armored warriors. They widened the distance from the pursuers in the blink of an eye. The majority of the armored warriors would surely lose sight of Kazuki’s figure immediately if he ran away like this.<br /> <br /> “NGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> But that ninja that looked completely like a monkey also jumped down and came chasing Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. It kicked the wall of the surrounding building and accelerated itself and rapidly shrunk its distance with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> A pure black bow and arrow was set up in the hand of that ninja unnoticed.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;SHUU* An arrow was fired cutting through the air. The aim was, Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> As if she had foresighted the trajectory of the arrow, senpai’s body quickly evaded the arrow.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was surprised for just an instant looking at that splendid body movement, but he immediately returned his awareness to the ninja.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki returned fire to the ninja with a fire arrow. The ninja was blown back while shining with defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> …Yosh, they are going to hide themselves just like this!<br /> <br /> {I already said that you cannot escape! I’m not going to let you ignore my words you’ll see!!}<br /> <br /> From above the head of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who ran with all their might, a voice and spell were coming down.<br /> <br /> {…Izumo Yaegaki・{{furigana|Kumoito Shibari|Wind Thread Binding}}!!}<br /> <br /> From the dome-shaped cloud that covered the sky, two strings of [string of cloud] were slithering down. Its tips chased the escaping Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and twined itself around their body at once.<br /> <br /> The cloud strings twined around Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai, but there was nothing happening to them like restriction in their movement or the like. But the cloud strings kept elongating lengthily no matter how far they went, tying Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai with the sky.<br /> <br /> This is a mark! Kazuki comprehended that string’s aim. ―If this string of cloud was followed from the sky, then no matter where Kazuki was inside this Haunted ground his location would be constantly known.<br /> <br /> “Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai immediately chanted her spell and created Futsunushi no Kami’s divine sword. The evil crushing sword that severed various magic effect like curse or seal. That sword was directed to the string of cloud and swept sideways.<br /> <br /> But―it was not cut. The blade didn’t return any feedback to the hand holding it and passed through the cloud string completely.<br /> <br /> “This is…a magic power that's more superior than even Futsu no Mitama!” Kazuha-senpai raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “What is the meaning of this, Futsunushi no Kami!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki yelled while running with all his power.<br /> <br /> “Even though there shouldn’t be any mistake on our part in the infiltration until here, that guy called Yatagarasu sensed our presence! If by any chance someone acquired the knowledge of our movement, that must be because someone blabbed their mouth! Moreover this magic called [Izumo Yaegaki]…this is the magic of Japanese Mythology!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki couldn’t think of any other explanation for this situation other than that the Japanese Mythology had screwed with him.<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami! You are betraying me and Hayashizaki, and led us to a trap!?”<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuha-senpai that raised a sorrowful voice―the avatar of the god of sword emerged out.<br /> <br /> There was no mistake that Futsunushi no Kami was the one that created this situation.<br /> <br /> {Wrong...that Yatagarasu is not an enemy. I led you two to this place...not for a trap. This is not a trap but a ''request''. In this ground, I wish for you to save Japanese Mythology. The magic from before, is &lt;Susanoo&gt; of Izumo …one of Japanese Mythology’s two great chief god, Susanoo’s magic.}<br /> <br /> “Two great chief god!? The chief god is not just Amaterasu, but there are two of them!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a shocked voice after listening to the unexpected truth. Kazuki immediately thought that he was tricked by Futsunushi no Kami. …However, now that he thought back Futsunushi no Kami never said anything about defeating Amaterasu, only that he had to defeat the chief god. But…to save Japanese Mythology? <br /> <br /> {…Defeat Susanoo, rescue the sealed Amaterasu and save Japanese Mythology, that is my request.}<br /> <br /> “''If I save Amaterasu just like you say, will the Wild Gods recover their sanity''!?”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami was once more ''giving them information in small amounts intentionally'' and making them fall into confusion. Even if he didn’t spout lies, that was just one type of swindling. Just as he thought it was fine to say that he was deceived.<br /> <br /> This is surely not a trap, he believed that.<br /> <br /> However, the most important point was if he manage to achieve what Futsunushi no Kami asked then [would Yamato’s Wild Gods return to their sanity?]. If that was possible, then he didn’t mind whatever course he had to go through.<br /> <br /> “NGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!! STIGMATAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> Strange voice reverberated shrilly from their back. This was not the place for talking. An arrow was also fired subsequently at them.<br /> <br /> “Berserk!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reinforced his dynamic vision once again and brushed off the flying arrow at him barehanded.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! If we can just turn this guy back then I think we won’t need to worry of getting discovered. Let’s fight!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai halted, then she turned back and faced the enemy.<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it, let’s fight momentarily.” Kazuki too thought of the same thing.<br /> <br /> They had already returned back to the place near the edge of the Haunted Ground. The hanging down cloud that looked like curtains had visibly looked near. He wanted to confirm by touching the curtain of cloud whether they really couldn’t escape from here, but if they fought with their back facing this curtain of cloud then they didn’t need to worry about being attacked from behind for the time being.<br /> <br /> “…Moreover these guys don’t look like they can use Summoning Magic.”<br /> <br /> The enemy was an unknown, but just with that fact the extent of the enemy’s threat was considerably lowered.<br /> <br /> From straight ahead of the street, a crowd of armored warriors were rushing here. The one that was leading them was that monkey-like ninja who was much faster compared to the others. Even while running, it headed to Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and set up its bow and arrow again.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!” Kazuki attacked before it could fired its arrow.<br /> <br /> The monkey ninja was blown back to the crowd of the armored warriors. That became the signal of the fight’s beginning.<br /> <br /> “Sti, STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The instant Kazuki used Summoning Magic, the armored warriors shrieked with volume that shook the earth.<br /> <br /> “…Are these guys holding a grudge against Stigmata!?”<br /> <br /> The yelling armored warriors raised their large war sword overhead at the right side of their face like Jigen-style’s &lt;Stance of Dragonfly&gt; and approached Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai. It was a stance that made it easier to immediately swing down the sword that betted everything in a single stroke.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors that entered battle preparation accelerated with light emitted from all over their body. That rush―was a speed outside of human realm. It surpassed the limit of normal swordsman.<br /> <br /> That monkey ninja was like that too, but it was as if their physical ability was using reinforcement magic. ''It made them suspicious of a connection with Diva here. ''<br /> <br /> Kazuki and also Kazuha-senpai were without their katana, they were completely unarmed.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, watch out!” Kazuki came out to the front to cover for Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> The first armored warrior that came approaching with unstoppable downward slash was quickly dodged by Kazuki. The downward slash of the second armored warrior that came almost at the same time with the first couldn’t be evaded this time, he caught the blade between both his hands.<br /> <br /> Catching the naked blade of a real sword―if it was with the reinforcement of [Berserk] to his reflexes and physical strength, such technique was possible.<br /> <br /> However inside Kazuki’s palms, the long sword that was pinned between them was forcing its way through *gugugu* and approaching near Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, double the Megin that whirl inside my body! The purpose of god that spur me to the infinite battle, to this body! …Meginjord!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki further chanted the level 2 reinforcement magic of the Norse Mythology’s &lt;Thor&gt;.<br /> <br /> The Summoning Magic of this Diva called Thor…for its level 1 and level 2 to be both reinforcement magic was a terrifyingly extreme configuration, but…in regards for swordsman this Diva had a very much great user-friendliness.<br /> <br /> A belt of light descended down from the sky and coiled itself around Kazuki’s body. That belt of light amplified the muscle volume of Kazuki’s whole body. With his amplified power, Kazuki stole the long sword that he pinned down between his palms.<br /> <br /> Fixing his grip of the stolen sword, he slashed back to the armored warrior in reverse.<br /> <br /> The armored warrior was blown away by the backlash of its defensive magic power, *DOSUN!* it fell down with a heavy sound.<br /> <br /> It was thick―Kazuki secretly shivered. That defensive magic power had more than five times the thickness of a normal person.<br /> <br /> “STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> The third and fourth armored warriors that possessed extraordinary power and toughness approached Kazuki even nearer. The downswing that they launched was more like a berserker rather than a swordsman.<br /> <br /> “O wind of Tatara, summon the scorching heat of steel to my forging! Take the hammer of well-tempered in hand to here, pound away the soul’s disgrace!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that was covered by Kazuki finished the chanting of her spell at the back.<br /> <br /> “…{{furigana|Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi|Wind Hammer of Heaven Plume Fire Make}}!”<br /> <br /> While getting the shine of her magic power worked up, Kazuha-senpai thrust her right hand forward.<br /> <br /> From that hand, *DON!!* as if an invisible cannon was fired, a number of the approaching armored warriors were blown away altogether. At the same time the armored warriors were enveloped with flame explosion.<br /> <br /> A composite attack of shockwave and flame that was produced from the palm. It was Futsunushi no Kami’s level 4 magic.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, thank you very much! …Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> From the gap that was created from the blown away armored warriors, a ninja with bow and arrow set up leaped out and came approaching. Kazuki vigilantly sensed it an instant earlier and launched a flame bullet.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors that were blown away by Kazuha-senpai stood up and took the stance that looked like a dragonfly once more.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, I’m coming out to the front so please cover me from the rear!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki called out while he took a stance with the stolen long sword vigilantly.<br /> <br /> “Covering from the back you say? …That’s wrong Hayashizaki, I am a magic swordsman just like you!! …I became the shrine maiden of sword. Rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand!! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic. Flame burst out from Kazuha-senpai’s own palm and created a divine sword that possessed the power to tear apart magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was surprised inside his heart―after she chanted the level 4 magic before, the time she took to finish chanting this level 3 magic was frightfully fast. It was a chanting speed that approached Koyuki.<br /> <br /> And then Kazuha-senpai overtook Kazuki and slashed at the armored warrior’s direction.<br /> <br /> The people that once knew Kazuha-senpai would laugh at that action as foolhardiness, but if it was the current senpai then it was not foolhardiness. Kazuha-senpai first cut down one enemy, next she dodged the downswing coming from the side with paper-thin difference and slashed the second enemy in a counterattack, and then she leaped back quickly to dodge the third enemy’s downswing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki doubted his eyes looking at her light and easy body movement that didn’t back down for even a step facing enemies with numerical superiority.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who splendidly conducted herself in this narrow street was constantly moving an instant faster than the enemy.<br /> <br /> It was not as precise as Kazuki or Kanae, but ''she was sensing the opponent’s magic power and making Foresight of their movement''.<br /> <br /> Not only her chanting ability, her sword skill had also make a terrific improvement.<br /> <br /> Once she had self-confidence planted inside here, she was someone that could splendidly achieve a fast growth like this.<br /> <br /> …He was having the wrong impression. Kazuha-senpai was not something like an object of protection.<br /> <br /> She was a partner that fought with him shoulder-to-shoulder.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, then please I’ll leave the right side to you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki dashed to the left next to Kazuha-senpai and assaulted the armored warrior with his sword.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, leave it to me!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai *don* bumped her left shoulder to Kazuki’s right shoulder and smiled reliably.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> …She didn’t make any conduct that held him back like when they were on the sea. Absolutely none at all.<br /> <br /> After Kazuha bumped her shoulder and felt her {{furigana|partner|Kazuki}}’s existence, she leaped into the crowd of the armored warriors. Naked blade flashed many times over, but she slipped away through all of it and return slashing when she passed them through.<br /> <br /> If it’s Hayashizaki then he will surely fight like this―while she gripped her sword, such imagination was naturally floating in her mind all the time. Kazuha was always desperately attempting to Trace that movement inside her mind.<br /> <br /> This thought that she felt was surely a yearning without doubt.<br /> <br /> That was why her own swordsmanship came to resemble Hayashizaki’s closely day by day.<br /> <br /> Hayashizaki-style’s Foresight―its fundamental truth was a perception from thoroughly doing intensification of Extra Sense.<br /> <br /> For those Hayashizaki siblings to acquire perception power until that level, surely they ought to have spent long months and years honing their body. But she was above those two in magic talent, there was no reason that she couldn’t do the same thing like those two.<br /> <br /> Perceive―the opponent’s every single move. Those preliminary signs from their breath, muscle tension, and then their state of mind.<br /> <br /> Moving like this, moving like this, coming like that.<br /> <br /> Kazuha moved with her red and white Magic Dress fluttering around, she evaded the enemy’s attacks as if dancing a Kagura&lt;ref&gt;Ancient Shinto music and dancing&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> And then strike back at the opening in their important point. Realize that image into reality just like that, a definitive response.<br /> <br /> ―But, for making a crowd this large as her opponent, Kazuha’s Foresight was still incomplete.<br /> <br /> An arrow was flying from outside her image.<br /> <br /> Kazuha suddenly realized. That monkey-like ninja’s, bow and arrow…!<br /> <br /> The instant she resolved herself to get hit, a hand reached out in front of Kazuha’s eyes suddenly, warding off the approaching arrow.<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> Then next a flame bullet was fired from that palm. It was not because of fast chanting, but a smooth action that was as if it had seen through everything. The way of fighting of the man that held the alias of Cyclops.<br /> <br /> The ninja’s body was struck once more by the flame bullet and it was blown away to the other side of the armored warriors crowd.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Hayashizaki!” Words of gratitude naturally flowed out from her mouth.<br /> <br /> While that guy was facing off against innumerable armored warriors, he was simultaneously paying attention to this side too.<br /> <br /> …He is really kind when he is fighting. A fight, more than anything else, was the place that made her feel his kindness for real. The time of fighting was also the only place where she could become honest with regards to him.<br /> <br /> That’s why match the breathing with each other―and help each other.<br /> <br /> “Scattering the flower of night craft o the tempering of artisan, reach the weave of the sky with the tip of your sword! The role of sword is for the sake of victory…Under my command, become thunder cloud and pour down! Tenkū Battou Renge Hou!”<br /> <br /> While fighting, Kazuha invoked her magic at the same time.<br /> <br /> Flames burst out in Kazuha’s surrounding. That flame of transmutation made countless Sacred Treasures emerge in Kazuha’s surroundings. Swords with various shapes from all ages and countries―with Kazuha’s magic power manipulation all of those could be fired to every direction and angle like missiles.<br /> <br /> “…GO-!” Together with the command, the countless swords rained incessantly on the armored warriors.<br /> <br /> At the same time those Sacred Treasures pierced the enemies, flame and ice, lighting and the like, each of the swords exhibited various different power of elements. Kazuha also directed those attacks at Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> “Thank you very much, senpai!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s chest leaped when she heard those returning words of gratitude.<br /> <br /> This feeling of unity in this cooperation battle made her head feel pure white inside with intoxication.<br /> <br /> Just as I thought, I like fighting with him.<br /> <br /> No…perhaps I, like him already….<br /> <br /> It seemed Hayashizaki could perceive the change in positivity level. By some chance even in the middle of this battle right now, perhaps this change that happened inside her had been conveyed to him already.<br /> <br /> Normally that was an extremely embarrassing matter but…right now she was happy that her feeling was conveyed. She wanted him to know more about this feeling that she could be honest about in the middle of this battle, that was what she completely felt from herself.<br /> <br /> What in the world are you thinking when you are being surrounded by all these grim armored warriors, me.<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s whole body was spontaneously filled with strength from embarrassment. She directed that shame to the armored warriors and let fly a slash with all her strength to vent out her feeling.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Kazuki too felt his heart become excited from this battle where they formed a duo.<br /> <br /> But that feeling was sinking gloomily little by little. He became fed up before long.<br /> <br /> Of course it was not because he held any dissatisfaction between the two of them. The problem was&amp;mdash;the enemy.<br /> <br /> He cut and cut and felt the thick defensive magic power where the enemy kept standing back up, this crowd of armored warrior. While he kept cutting down the armored warriors no matter how many time, “This is bad” he couldn’t clear away such anxiety inside him.<br /> <br /> There was still some allowance in his stamina and magic power. However even now the armored warriors that were scattered all over the Haunted Ground ought to be converging in their location here following the mark of the cloud string that was hanging down from the sky.<br /> <br /> The situation had become something he couldn’t laugh about. …What’s going on with this enemy’s toughness?<br /> <br /> In the first place, what in the world are these enemies? Were they human or Demon Beast, he couldn’t even make that distinction.<br /> <br /> “STIGMATAAAAAAA!!” The armored warriors raised a shriek filled with resentment and came assaulting.<br /> <br /> Their number and toughness became a dreadful pressure, they kept surging forward.<br /> <br /> At that time in spite of the dome of cloud that isolated the Haunted Ground, above Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s head something was traversing fast―it was a single crow, perching on top of the electricity pole at the side of the street.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu―a polished bright copper disk was caught between its beaks.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu raised a high-pitched voice from the edge of its beak. That was a spell.<br /> <br /> “…O exalted light illuminating the seven seas and all nations! Gather in my lord’s idol, emit the light that purify the impurity…Yata no Kagami&lt;ref&gt;Yata no Kagami (the eight-span mirror; one of the Imperial Regalia)&lt;/ref&gt;・{{furigana|Youka Issen|Sun Flower Flash}}!”<br /> <br /> The disk appended in the beak&amp;mdash;the &lt;bronze mirror&gt; released a powerful light.<br /> <br /> He reflexively closed his eyelids, but even so it was light so abundant it felt like his retina was burned with whiteness.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai who had their eyes closed were supposed to become defenseless, but there was no attack coming at all during that interval.<br /> <br /> When they opened their eyes, there were a lot of young people in casual clothes collapsed unconsciously in front of Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s eyes.<br /> <br /> There were no armored warriors&amp;mdash;no, he couldn’t think of any explanation other than that the light that Yatagarasu emitted made the armored warriors become like this. The fainted young people had fallen into symptoms that looked like magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked around his surrounding and what he saw made his eyes open even wider. The surrounding area was recovering back from a Haunted Ground into a normal street corner. The original scenery of Ise city’s street was returning there.<br /> <br /> “The light just now is…offensive magic? It shaved off that thick defensive magic power with one attack? All that number of enemies!?”<br /> <br /> “…No, that magic just now is purge magic. It has a power that can purify even stronger evil than what Futsunushi no Kami’s level 3 magic [Futsu no Mitama] can do. It’s the only power I in this form can use.”<br /> <br /> The bronze mirror that was held between the beaks had also vanished. Most likely it was a Sacred Treasure created from magic power.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu pointed at the fainted young people with its beak.<br /> <br /> “These young people had Wild Gods reside in their body and they acted violently because of that magic power. But because the light from before got rid of [the connections with the Wild Gods] that were embed within their mind, they are now returned to their original human appearance.”<br /> <br /> The contents of the armored warriors&amp;mdash;everyone of the fainted young people were between their teens until twenties. Many were female but a few male were mixed. They were people of the generation that were most strong in magic power.<br /> <br /> “…So we were saved by you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stared at Yatagarasu while still maintaining his vigilance. Even while being vigilant―he had to obtain information regarding this mysterious situation from this guy.<br /> <br /> All the armored warriors in this Haunted Ground weren’t supposed to be completely annihilated just with this, but the surrounding was strangely filled with silence.<br /> <br /> “Even if you said that I saved you two, these people could return to their original appearance only because the both of you had inflicted damage to them. As long as their defensive magic power was still considerably thick, even that light won’t be able to reach until the depth of the curse. To defeat them efficiently, there is a need for us to cooperate.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu lightly flapped its wings and perched on top of Kazuki’s shoulder. It was an action that was appealing to him that they were comrades.<br /> <br /> “…Were these people transformed into Demon Beast?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked while looking around his surrounding. The scenery where the buildings looked abandoned with the loss of its color and its weathered condition had returned into a really normal street of stores and houses. However it only applied to Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s surrounding, the far away―the direction of the Haunted Ground’s center was still looking like an extensive Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> The Haunted Ground could only return to the condition of natural world when the Demon Beasts that resided inside it had been subjugated.<br /> <br /> Such phenomenon that was similar with that Haunted Ground recovery had happened here when they defeated these armored warriors.<br /> <br /> “No, these guys are something falsely similar with Demon Beast. They are―&lt;God’s reliant&gt;. Hosting the power of unruly god inside their body and yet they failed on controlling that power, ''a failure of a shrine maiden''.”<br /> <br /> “Failure? Don’t tell me…Yamato’s government is creating shrine maidens with human experiment?”<br /> <br /> An imagination that made a dread ran through him emerged to the forefront inside Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> ―Naiarlatoteph. A hateful name came to mind.<br /> <br /> “When the government of Yamato instigated the Divas of Japanese Mythology that went wild to be added as their allies, they gathered humans that excelled in magic power and make them bind a contract with the Wild Gods. It is impossible to communicate with those Wild Gods that had lost their reasoning, so what all of them got was {{furigana|Drive|Possession Contract}}.”<br /> <br /> In the middle of the explanation, Kazuki took a glance at Kazuha-senpai. Even though she was a similar Shrine Maiden, Kazuha-senpai didn’t experience Drive for the sake of binding a contract and borrowed the power of Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> Possession contract with an unknown Diva was a dangerous act forbidden by Japan’s law.<br /> <br /> “The government of Yamato conducted [a group possession contract assembly by human initiative] so to speak. People who did well can control the power of the Wild God that possessed them to a certain degree and become a &lt;Drive Shrine Maiden&gt;. The humans that failed lost their reasoning and became God’s reliant. ―In other words the failure.”<br /> <br /> “What a thing to do…”<br /> <br /> So the Yamato’s government produced their battle strength in a short time like that.<br /> <br /> Even in the success case just being in a possession contract was dangerous already, if failed―they would became like this armored warrior.<br /> <br /> “That was an unreasonable way of doing things. The Wild God side doesn’t even choose the human and the human is forced into doing something unreasonable. Moreover to push something like a Wild God inside the heart…they were going to be completely ruined.”<br /> <br /> A Diva with ill will would try to take over the human’s flesh body by means of Drive.<br /> <br /> Then what would happen if a Diva who had lost their senses and ran wild was made to reside in human’s flesh body.<br /> <br /> Even if the Diva didn’t do any body stealing, wouldn’t the human got abused like toy by that overwhelming power? So that was the meaning to be a God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> “If you look around you it’s just as you understand, God’s reliant emit the same type of miasma like a Demon Beast and transform the surrounding into a Haunted Ground. Wild God belong under the same category with Demon Beast―an &lt;absolute enemy of the human race&gt;.”<br /> <br /> An absolute enemy of the human race―it was still in the middle of being researched, but for Demon Beast, other than [attacking human] and [expanding the Haunted Ground in the place where human live], it was said that they didn’t show any other instinctual action at all.<br /> <br /> It seemed that there was never any confirmed sight of Demon Beast eating or sleeping.<br /> <br /> The expression of an absolute enemy of the human race was something he could surely agree with. But―<br /> <br /> “Is it fine to jumble the existence of Wild God and Demon Beast together? They are raging and rampaging around but, though imperfect they are still gods right?”<br /> <br /> “Different with many other Mythologies, demarcation of &lt;Good God・Evil God&gt; or existence called &lt;Demon&gt; doesn’t exist in Japanese Mythologies. [Enemy] in Japanese Mythology is none other than the disaster caused by the god that acted unruly. Japanese Mythology doesn’t worship the dual nature of good and evil, but the two face of nature’s blessing and calamity.”<br /> <br /> Wild God was not evil. However once angered, they would bare their fangs as the human race’s greatest enemy.<br /> <br /> Violent natural phenomenon destroyed the world of human and encroached.<br /> <br /> “…Among the people of Yamato’s government, there is the existence of someone that can skillfully manipulate being that can possibly be good or evil don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> Loki―the trickster of the Norse Mythology.<br /> <br /> “Yamato government made Ise Imperial Shrine as the place for the ceremony that create Shrine Maiden. It seems they possess the know-how of a method that is interlaced with science to make a human host a Diva.”<br /> <br /> Naiarlatoteph―the data from the experiment that that guy made Headmaster Otonashi do. The politicians of Yamato might make use of that. All of it was something possible if it was them.<br /> <br /> “They carried out the ceremony to produce Shrine Maiden here many times over, those who failed and became uncontrollable God’s reliant were abandoned and left behind. Like that the Ise Imperial Shrine was completely transformed into a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu sadly hung its head down.<br /> <br /> “…I now understood how Ise Imperial Shrine became a Haunted Ground.”<br /> <br /> For the sake of obtaining battle strength called Shrine Maiden, these young people became the compensation. To watch out for the arrival of Kazuki and the others at Ise Imperial Shrine, for defense against that happening…these armored warriors were not for that purpose.<br /> <br /> He felt relieved that this infiltration operation was not detected right from the start but…just that was not sufficient to explain the present situation.<br /> <br /> “Then what is the objective of you and Futsunushi no Kami?”<br /> <br /> This guy was probably being connected with Futsunushi no Kami. If not for Futsunushi no Kami’s notification about Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai’s visit, then there was no way Yatagarasu could show its appearance with timing this good.<br /> <br /> However he knew well that it wasn’t an enemy.<br /> <br /> “You all called us out here, what do you want us to do? Can we properly achieve the objective of our coming here by doing the thing you want from us? Just so you know, we have no intention of only being used.”<br /> <br /> In response to Kazuki’s question, Futsunushi no Kami’s avatar appeared beside Yatagarasu.<br /> <br /> {…We want you to rescue Amaterasu.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami said such thing.<br /> <br /> “If Amaterasu recovers her power and gives birth to Japanese Mythology’s &lt;True {{furigana|King|Basileus}}&gt;, all the Diva will surely return to their senses from their Wild God state and obey the true King altogether. For that sake…I want the other chief god Susanoo to be defeated.}<br /> <br /> “I never heard about this two chief god in Japanese Mythology before.”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami had explained that [all the Wild God will return to their sanity if the chief god of Japanese Mythology is defeated] and led Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai to this land. Indeed, certainly there was no lie that was said there.<br /> <br /> Just that for such complex circumstance to lie around in between was rushing off everything.<br /> <br /> Kazuki exposed a dissatisfaction in his expression and pressed his question to Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> “Give us a proper explanation now. About all this circumstance of Japanese Mythology.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is a mythology that is made up of two powers of Yin and Yang.”<br /> <br /> Like that, Yatagarasu got the ball rolling for the explanation.<br /> <br /> “Therefore there are also two chief gods. The one that symbolized the Yang is Amaterasu, the one that symbolized the Yin is Susanoo. Once, Japan was divided into two of Amaterasu’s Wakoku and Susanoo’s Izumo. These two chief gods raised their own respective king as their mouthpiece and got embroiled in a destiny of conflict. Amaterasu and Susanoo, &lt;Wakoku King&gt; and &lt;Izumo King&gt;, the victor will become the true chief god and king of Japan. [Unification in the conflict’s afterwards], that is what have been established in the mythology.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu gave such explanation about the Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> “So you are going to get me involved in the confrontation between Amaterasu and Susanoo. …And then that Susanoo, right now he is forming an alliance with Yamato government, so that’s the situation.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki confirmed, Yatagarasu gave a brief nod.<br /> <br /> {What caused this situation was Susanoo. Susanoo joined hands with Yamato government and made the other Japanese Divas become Wild God from the instigation of shrine’s defilement.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami made a grimacing expression.<br /> <br /> The wiles of Yamato government to make the Divas of Japanese Mythology into Wild God and manipulate them was with the cooperation of Susanoo.<br /> <br /> “Why did Susanoo ally himself with Yamato?”<br /> <br /> “Susanoo was thinking that [Japanese Mythology is weak, therefore I have to borrow other Mythology’s power], that’s how it seems. There he was approached by Loki.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki opened his eyes wide in shock.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology is weak?”<br /> <br /> {Right, I wonder if it can even be categorized as puny class.} Saying that, Futsunushi no Kami nodded.<br /> <br /> “Japanese Mythology doesn’t really demand strong faith from the people of Japan. Even their will of opposition against other Mythology is sparse. As long as they have companion for festival and making ruckus and playing around with, then everything is fine. Their [will for power] are weak.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki reflexively looked at Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was a Shrine Maiden that made a contract with Futsunushi no Kami, but the relationship between the two was exactly like a friend.<br /> <br /> “We are like that but in the present time where [the era of Mythology has been revived], if we keep like this then [other Mythology will swallow us], Susanoo is harboring a sense of impending crisis like that. Right now he is buttering up Loki, but most likely he is planning to catch Loki off guard slyly in the end.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki frowned his eyebrows hearing Yatagarasu words. Planning to catch Loki off guard?<br /> <br /> Exactly because it was Loki, he was a Diva that could easily catch Susanoo off guard instead while joining hands with him.<br /> <br /> Susanoo and Loki…on the surface they were joining hands together, but their relation was one where both of them kept looking for an opening in each other’s guard.<br /> <br /> “The Diva that reign as the chief god of the Mythology not only bestow their characteristic magic to their contractor, but a power that should be called [King’s Authority] is also granted together with being recognized as a King. You too should have something like that.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said. Kazuki stared at the Stigmata on his own left hand.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was able to use Lemegeton’s characteristic magic, &lt;{{furigana|Goetia|72 Solomon=Pillar Omnimagic}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> The more he deepened his bond, the greater his power of bond became.<br /> <br /> Apart from that, there was also the power to visualize the change of girls’ positivity level and their location. This was what called as [King’s Authority].<br /> <br /> It seemed there was still room for this power to strengthen even more together with Leme’s growth.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu and Susanoo, the Wakoku King and the Izumo King, they won’t be able to obtain their true power if they haven’t achieve victory over the opposing camp and become the true chief god and King. If the situation stays like this then the [King’s Authority] of the Japanese Mythology is impossible to use. Susanoo’s camp is being rash in their desire to defeat Amaterasu’s camp quickly. But Amaterasu has zero motivation for that. She didn’t enthrone her contractor as the King of Wakoku in the least and just kept playing with her contractor. Binding contract and recognizing someone as King are two separate matter.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was having a contract with Leme, but he still hadn’t been fully recognized as Solomon King yet.<br /> <br /> This was the same thing with that.<br /> <br /> “Why didn’t Amaterasu make her contractor to be King? That’s because she understood that the instant the King of Wakoku is born, the fight with Susanoo’s camp will begin. Amaterasu dislikes conflict. Her contractor too is also not someone suited for fighting. However [Even though Japanese Mythology is weak even in the best of time, also being unable to use the true power like this is intolerable], like that the Susanoo’s camp was getting even more irked.”<br /> <br /> Despite the preordained destiny of opposition between the two, but it seemed there was a difference in the degree of enthusiasm in each of them.<br /> <br /> “The angry Susanoo defeated the contractor of Amaterasu that still hadn’t become the Wakoku King yet prematurely. Furthermore he also recommended at the Yamato government to leave the God’s reliant that were created from the failed ceremony of possessed Shrine Maiden unregulated just like that in the Ise Imperial Shrine, and made the Ise Imperial Shrine into a Haunted Ground. Amaterasu obtained her power from both her contractor and Ise Imperial Shrine, that’s how she is preserving her divinity. But losing both of them simultaneously, her power weakened and she was sealed completely inside the &lt;Gate of Celestial Rock Cave&gt;. There is a danger of extinction for her if it keeps like this. Even the happy-go-lucky Amaterasu thought [Just as expected it’s going to be bad if it keep like this] and she sent a messenger to the other side of the seal―that messenger is this me, Yatagarasu.”<br /> <br /> {Yatagarasu has the privilege to come and goes as it pleases from the &lt;Territory&gt; of Japanese Mythology’s Divas. And then he made a contact with Diva that hasn’t become a Wild God that is me.}<br /> <br /> How Futsunushi no Kami didn’t become a Wild God…was surely thanks to his Shrine Maiden that was Kazuha-senpai who secretly moved Futsunushi no Kami’s altar to an abandoned club room in the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, I heard about you from Futsunushi no Kami. I want to ask you for a favor to rescue Amaterasu. To defeat Susanoo and become the person that control the Japanese Mythology, that is the favor that I want to ask. If it’s you, then you can defeat the Izumo King that Susanoo raised right?”<br /> <br /> “WAITT――――TT! JUST WAITT――――TT!!”<br /> <br /> At that time together with a shout, Leme materialized beside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Since this operation began, there was someone that maintained silence and acted like this matter about Japanese Mythology was of no concern for her. That was Leme.<br /> <br /> “Wait right there, Leme just stayed quiet and listened but Kazuki has already contracted with Leme just so you know! Is Japanese Mythology intending to snatch Kazuki from Leme!?”<br /> <br /> {I too understand about that. We are not planning to do that so it’s fine to feel relieved.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami said so in order to sooth Leme.<br /> <br /> “Just like what I said before, Amaterasu too already has her own contractor. What we want is to enthrone that ''girl'' as Wakoku King formally, on top of that we want to present her to the King of Solomon.”<br /> <br /> “Mu…oh hoh? Present you say?” Leme’s expression changed and her eyes brightened.<br /> <br /> “The King of Japanese Mythology will be affiliated to Hayashizaki Kazuki as &lt;Subordinate King&gt;, the Solomon King that is you will be accompanied by our King, becoming an existence of higher rank than even the King―we want to ask you to become the &lt;Emperor&gt;. In exchange for that we ask all of you to become our substitute in fighting Susanoo and Loki.”<br /> <br /> “I see! So you are going to present the Queen of Japanese Mythology into the harem! If it’s like that then certainly, it’s feasible for Kazuki to rule both Solomon Mythology and Japanese Mythology! The Emperor that rule even the other Mythology by means of harem&lt;ref&gt;Maybe I should capitalize the ‘h’ in harem here&lt;/ref&gt;…Solomon Emperor! That’s really not bad!!”<br /> <br /> {Guwahhahha! If that is realized then it will become Solomon Myriad 72 Pillar!}<br /> <br /> Leme was really gleeful and accepted the other side’s proposal. Futsunushi no Kami too got carried away with the mood and guffawed&amp;mdash;Kazuki interjected into the conversation in panic.<br /> <br /> “Hey wait, even if you say that you will present me with an unknown girl I’ve never seen before, it will just make me troubled!”<br /> <br /> “For the time being if you just meet her first it will be okay after that right, o my King. Most of all to make this infiltration operation succeed, it doesn’t look like there is any other way than this anyway.”<br /> <br /> Leme who had been completely won over to the other side before he could even say ‘ah’ said such to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Certainly, there was a truth in that but….<br /> <br /> It was a long explanation but, the main point was they wanted him to substitute for Amaterasu and fight Susanoo. If he defeated Susanoo and the true King of Japanese Mythology was born, the Japanese Divas that became Wild God would return to their senses and could be subdued. The objective of this side too could be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> {Guwahhahha! You can reach the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave&lt;ref&gt;Ama no Iwato in Japan, I keep wondering whether I should just use this original name because it’s shorter. How troublesome.&lt;/ref&gt; where Amaterasu is sealed through the deepest part of Ise Imperial Shrine! For that sake defeat the pitiful children that had transformed completely into God’s reliant and rescue them!!}<br /> <br /> Pitiful children…if they defeated those God’s reliant with Yatagarasu’s cooperation, they could return to their original human appearance. They have to make this operation a success, for that they also couldn’t leave these God’s reliant alone.<br /> <br /> “Well then, we are going to meet with Amaterasu…what do we need to do to release Amaterasu from the seal? What kind of seal is the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki questioned. The guffawing Futsunushi no Kami suddenly had his expression become serious.<br /> <br /> {That’s…for later. You will understand if you go to the Gate of Celestial Rock Cave.}<br /> <br /> …''So he was still planning to give incomplete information''.<br /> <br /> Kazuki directed his doubtful eyes to Futsunushi no Kami. When he was going to say ‘cut it out’ to him, suddenly his hand was gripped tightly from the side. It was Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki, that…don’t get angry about Futsunushi no Kami. Rather than that let’s rescue these people inside the God’s reliant okay.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai directed her sorrowful eyes to the people that were losing their consciousness. Even before feeling any distrust to Futsunushi no Kami, it seemed Kazuha-senpai thought about the people that became God’s reliant even more strongly.<br /> <br /> “…In the ceremony of possessed Shrine Maiden, I think these people surely became candidates by their own choice. Perhaps these people were originally a Knight. And they were resenting the humans that were chosen by Stigmata. That was why they themselves wanted to become stronger…”<br /> <br /> In the middle of battle, these God’s reliant were raising screams of hatred [STIGMATA!] many times over.<br /> <br /> Perhaps from envy and yearning toward Stigmata, and with feeling of [we too want to become even stronger], these guys were spurred into an extreme action like this. …Kazuki too felt heavy in his chest looking at them.<br /> <br /> “Something like that, really feels sad for some reason…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai hung her head down despondently.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai selected the katana that were in good condition from the hips of the fainted people and borrowed them, attaching those on their hips.<br /> <br /> A lot of time had passed while they were grilling Yatagarasu and Futsunushi no Kami, but there was no attack from the armored warriors that were supposed to still remain in this Haunted Ground.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were still tied with the cloud strings from the sky as yet, those strings were a marking of their position.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless for there was no further attack…,<br /> <br /> “Most likely the Izumo King that is commanding them had already detected my existence.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said that.<br /> <br /> “Knowing that we cannot be defeated with only force, right now they are preparing an ambush in a location where they can use their number advantage with more reliability, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki also thought that Yatagarasu’s conjecture was correct.<br /> <br /> “That [Kumoito Shibari] is Susanoo’s magic that possesses equal power with Amaterasu. With the power of the currently weakened Amaterasu, it cannot be purged even if we use the [Yata no Kagami] from before. As long as that thread becomes the mark, it’s surely impossible to advance while evading ambush.”<br /> <br /> “Our side has also decided to rescue the people that became the God’s reliant anyway. We have no intention to advance while avoiding them. On the contrary if they are fortifying in one place it will become easier.”<br /> <br /> Before when they were prioritizing the original strategy, they couldn’t help but leave the Haunted Ground alone, but the situation had changed.<br /> <br /> “Well then Senpai, let’s be off! …Senpai?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who only had few words from some time before was…having her attention completely stolen by one of the souvenir shop building.<br /> <br /> With some of the God’s reliant defeated, the original appearance of the Ise town appeared in front of their eyes. With how close they were with Ise Imperial Shrine, souvenir shops intended for tourist were lining up, but…,<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki, this akafuku&lt;ref&gt;A type of mocha colored red&lt;/ref&gt;, I wonder if it’s edible.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was directing her eyes filled with greed on the packages that were piled up in heaps on the most conspicuous shelve inside the souvenir shop. The famous product of Ise, [Akafuku Mochi]. Of course the inside of the store right now was in a defenseless and unmanned state.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, stealing is no good. Moreover after the store became a Haunted Ground and then returned back to normal, it is unknown what happened with the flow of time during that period. It might have gone bad already. Besides the time is precious, let’s go.”<br /> <br /> When he pulled Kazuha-senpai’s hand forcefully, senpai went “Aa~, Hayashizaki~” and raised a quacking voice that sounded like a whine.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When they advanced through the street of Ise town, their surrounding soon changed into the eerie Haunted Ground again. When he compared the area with the map he had seen, it appears that the size of the Haunted Ground had been reduced until around half the previous size. In other words, they had defeated half the number of the God’s reliant in the previous battle.<br /> <br /> The remaining half was waiting for them ahead….<br /> <br /> They finally arrived in a similar condition with when they first came here. The asphalt road was muddy and wet, the surrounding buildings were weathered, and the sky lost its color. Trees became a lot more than the buildings in this area. On the rotting trunks and branches that looked like those were going to fall, rust-colored leaves were hanging down.<br /> <br /> They advanced even further. There was still no ambush or attack from the God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> A large shrine archway standing in the path forward entered their eyes.<br /> <br /> &lt;Shinmei Archway&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Shinmei Toori, also means the archway of Amaterasu&lt;/ref&gt;―it was an archway with an extremely ancient shape before it even received the influence of Buddhist’s ornament culture.<br /> <br /> However now that it was currently under the influence of the Haunted Ground, its color was transformed into an ominous jet black color.<br /> <br /> They had arrived at Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Ahead of the archway was the Isuzu River and the bridge that crossed that river―&lt;Uji Bridge&gt; was built there.<br /> <br /> The length of the bridge was 100 meters, its width was just a little around 8 meter.<br /> <br /> …They are coming here. Kazuki felt that hunch.<br /> <br /> Here was an open surrounding that was just right for a large group assault. Even on the bridge it had enough width to make the best use of number advantage.<br /> <br /> As was expected, the instant he stepped his foot on the bridge―war cry was raised from the dark forest ahead of the bridge and a crowd of armored warriors was approaching.<br /> <br /> At the same time, armored warriors that went around and cut in also came along from behind.<br /> <br /> On top of the Uji Bridge, it became a pincer attack.<br /> <br /> “I leave the back to you, Hayashizaki!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai immediately stood back-to-back with Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu flew up to the sky from Kazuki’s shoulder in order to escape.<br /> <br /> The armored warriors surged ahead with the force of surging waves while taking the stance of the Dragonfly, making the bridge creak worryingly. The bridge was filled with troops that surrounded Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai in the blink of an eye. They slashed away while making opponent of enemies that came from every directions.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DON!* Shockwave and flame explosion. Kazuha-senpai blew away the enemies altogether with magic. …Defeat the enemy only using sword skill to preserve their magic power…such thinking was unreasonable.<br /> <br /> “The light of heaven reside in that body o bird of paradise, comply with my accusation and reduce to ashes the sin above the earth! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Phoenix’s avatar emerged at Kazuki’s back and emitted brightness as if every light in the world were gathered. That light dazzled the eyes, stopping the attack of the armored warriors for a moment. At that interval Kazuki set his aim at an angle that would swallow the most number of enemies, the vast light was changed into a thick laser and fired. The armored warriors in a straight line fell down altogether.<br /> <br /> “”””STIGMATAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!””””<br /> <br /> Angry voices that were like earthquake welled up from the armored warriors.<br /> <br /> “Wawa! Just as I thought these guys really get angry when Summoning Magic is used. Their fierceness is growing rapidly!”<br /> <br /> “Let’s settle the bout quickly!”<br /> <br /> “Got it! …Tenkū Battou Renge Hou!!”<br /> <br /> The countless Sacred Treasures that Kazuha-senpai created flew about freely above the battlefield on top of the bridge. The Sacred Treasures that possessed various elements released flame or lightning, even cold here and there from each of them.<br /> <br /> “Please take care not to break the bridge okay!” Kazuki raised his voice.<br /> <br /> “…So that Yata no Kagami can finish off as many armored warriors as possible, please inflict damage to all the enemies evenly!”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu said an unreasonable challenge from the sky. …Does it think anyone can do such miraculous thing!?<br /> <br /> “This is not for the sake of preserving my magic power! The youth that is transformed back by Yata no Kagami will faint in magic intoxication, they are going to get trampled by the armored warriors that flood in next!! If that happen they are going to die for real!!”<br /> <br /> “Kuh…that certainly can happen!”<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuki complained, he couldn’t help but consent to Yatagarasu’s request.<br /> <br /> The curtain of a long offense and defense on top of the bridge was opened.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> After blowing away an armored warrior flying far away from the inflicted damage, the new created empty space right there was quickly occupied with a different armored warrior. If the newly arrived armored warrior was a fresh one then it would be assaulted just like that, but if it was one that had been damaged then it would be quickly driven off by sending it flying far away…. The armored warriors that had lost their own will was also quite mechanical in some aspect, the offense and defense completely turned into something like a puzzle game.<br /> <br /> After a long repetition―Yatagarasu used the completed [Yata no Kagami], where after that the youths of Yamato fainted on top of the Uji bridge in a closely packed formation.<br /> <br /> The surrounding scenery returned back to the original Ise Imperial Shrine. The Isuzu river shone from the sunlight, the Uji bridge that was built on top of it recovered its beautiful wooden texture. A forest where trees that looked mystical grew in abundance spread out ahead of the bridge, and a road that pushed its way through that forest was extending forward.<br /> <br /> Heaps of corpses scattered all around on top of the bridge…such image emerged to the surface of the mind, but nobody was dead because the youths only fainted from magic intoxication. There was no strong burden weighing their minds but they only fainted from the state where their connection with the Wild Gods that was like a curse disappeared. It was surely not a dangerous magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai breathe a sigh of relief. Surely the state inside her head had became more full with the thought of rescuing the people that were turned into God’s reliant rather than the infiltration operation itself.<br /> <br /> God’s reliant―they held envy and hatred toward Stigmata, because of that they offered themselves to a dangerous ceremony and in the end were completely transformed into an existence that was called as a failure.<br /> <br /> Before this, their outcry hurt Kazuha-senpai’s heart. Kazuki had the feeling that he understood the reason why.<br /> <br /> For a long time until now, Kazuha-senpai was looked down by the swordsmen and made fun of.<br /> <br /> For envy and hatred to be directed at her as a possessor of Stigmata surely made her have a complicated feeling.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too was once an existence that was looked down in the Magic Division and came this far by relying upon his pride in his sword skill. That was why his mental state felt complicated to have such emotion directed at him by many swordsmen.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, we were gifted the power of Stigmata and became far stronger than we were just a swordsman, but that’s why it doesn’t mean that we have seen the limit of the strength as a swordsman, that’s what I think.”<br /> <br /> Standing stock still unintentionally on top of the bridge, Kazuki called out to Kazuha-senpai from the side planning to cheer her up.<br /> <br /> “…Kohaku is attempting to become a swordsman that won’t lose to Magika Stigma by making a practical use of Sacred Treasure. Kanae too, recently she is trying to discover a new possibility of new technique by putting general magic to practical use even further.”<br /> <br /> What kind of phenomenon magic power could give birth to was the product of image. Right now there were some aspects from the old sword skill outlook that still restrained both Kazuki and Kanae, but there was a large room of possibility for creating sword skill that had never even been imagined until now by means of new creative originality.<br /> <br /> “Even the whole body of the Magic Division now is stopping their high and mighty attitude just because they are possessing Stigmata. They are also starting to listen to opinions that ask them to stop looking down on the Sword Division. The Knight Order in the future from now on is supposed to become nearer in equality between swordsman and Magika Stigma. If that happens, then there shouldn’t be anymore swordsmen that will do something stupid like this. …Doing something like throwing one’s selves away, is something that mustn’t be done no matter what.”<br /> <br /> Right at that moment, the memory of Kaya’s scream when she was eroded by Loki was reviving inside Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> “If swordsmen and Magika Stigma can look at each other right in the eye, swordsmen should be able to reach that new possibility that can only be achieved by swordsmen.”<br /> <br /> “…That’s right huh, you are really someone that caused a revolution in the Knight Academy.”<br /> <br /> “Calling that revolution, that’s not…”<br /> <br /> “Kohaku too…even I, we are really thankful for what you have done.”<br /> <br /> Facing each other in the middle of the bridge, Kazuha-senpai softly clasped both of Kazuki’s hands.<br /> <br /> Holding hand like this might be a skinship that Kazuha-senpai could just barely do with honest feelings. For Kazuki, this warmth transmitted to him was an irreplaceable important emotion.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Indeed it’s just like what you said. These small fries are feeling jealous without even doing any respectable hard work. Their appearance pawing at the ground while ruining their own body is…extremely unsightly. What is called strength should be something more pure.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―A singing like voice that sounded really clear suddenly could be heard.<br /> <br /> From the forest ahead, the master of the voice appeared and halted in front of the bridge.<br /> <br /> The distance between them was dozens of meters. It was not a distance that could be closed immediately.<br /> <br /> With a shock, Kazuki separated his body from Kazuha-senpai while calmly ascertaining that character.<br /> <br /> It was a girl wearing a deep red kimono that looked like a prostitute.<br /> <br /> A loose collar to the degree that one could peek into her back, a languid style of wearing kimono, making one looked graceful.<br /> <br /> It was a gorgeous appearance that could never be thought as something for a fight, but a Japanese katana could be identified on her hips. A swordsman.<br /> <br /> And then at her side were two person, two armored warriors in divine possession were coming along with her. Most likely those two were the last God’s reliant.<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono sent her glancing gaze to those two and her mouth curved cynically.<br /> <br /> “Please look at them, this pathetic figure. Having lost their reason they are the very figure of mere beasts. Although they can now fight better compared to when they were just their former worthless swordsmen selves, even then the state of their soul currently really cannot be said as strong. …You two, please give your greeting.”<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono extended both her hands respectively to the faces of the armored warriors waiting at her left and right.<br /> <br /> The &lt;face armors&gt; under the helmet that was covering the nose and the mouth that hid the faces of the armored warriors, were taken off by those hands.<br /> <br /> The faces of the two armored warriors became exposed. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai reflexively caught their breath.<br /> <br /> “Takasugi brothers!”<br /> <br /> What appeared from under the face armors were―the faces of Takasugi brothers.<br /> <br /> The two that had became a rival candidate of Kazuki in the Chief Student Council President battle election, Takasugi Shūsui and Takasugi Harunari.<br /> <br /> Advocating the rejection of human rights for Magika Stigma that possessed far too powerful power and that they should be treated as weapons, the two young student activists!<br /> <br /> So these two seeked power after they were fouled in the battle election and were reduced into God’s reliant here.<br /> <br /> “”Hayashizakii…Hayashizaki KazukiiIIIII!!””<br /> <br /> The faces under the face armor were ruled by shuddering madness. Both their eyes and their mouth were opened to the limit and deep creases were engraved in their faces. They were leaking voice of curses while their jaws were convulsing in spasm.<br /> <br /> “The introduction is over for now…it’s okay to let loose already you guys!”<br /> <br /> The girl in kimono appearance handed down her command with a sharp voice as if a wild beast tamer lashing her whip.<br /> <br /> “GO-!!” Simultaneously with the voice, the Takasugi brothers leaped at this direction.<br /> <br /> They raised their katana overhead straight like a berserker and slashed at Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai with dauntless courage.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai traversed the bridge in a big leap while meeting the attack in order not to drag the people lying down around them into this fight. “Kazuha-senpai!” “It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about me!” They completely couldn’t make heads or tails of which one was the older brother Shūsui and which one was the little brother Harunari, but Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai picked one opponent each while exchanging voices, *GIN!* *GIN!* sparks of clashing swords were scattered.<br /> <br /> Kazuki softly redirected the enemy’s simple powerful downswing with &lt;Instant Positioning&gt;.<br /> <br /> Just like that he sidestepped the enemy’s stance and promptly slashed diagonally below with his returning blade.<br /> <br /> His opponent was blown away together with the backlash of defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> During that time, he directed his sight to Kazuha-senpai. Kazuha-senpai couldn’t parry as smoothly as Kazuki and she was brought into a sword-locking contest. If the attack was not quickly parried away with skill, she would have to go against the enemy’s superhuman power directly from the front. Kazuha-senpai leaked out “Kuh” in a painful voice while somehow redirecting her opponent’s heavy blow. Kazuha-senpai’s posture was disarranged.<br /> <br /> Because her posture was disarranged, she couldn’t move into a counterattack smoothly like what Kazuki did.<br /> <br /> But if it was Kazuha-senpai who excelled in chanting ability, it was enough just with that.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> Thrusting her one hand forward, from there *DON!* flame explosion and shockwave were produced.<br /> <br /> ―The two Takasugi brothers were repelled altogether from Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai and blown away from the bridge.<br /> <br /> But they were abruptly rising back up again.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai stood in front of Kazuki in order to cover for him.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki…I’ll face these two guys together just by myself. That’s why you Hayashizaki, deal with that kimono girl there.”<br /> <br /> “But senpai” Kazuki’s tone of voice was mixed with hesitation.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps compared to this set of two guys, that girl over there is far stronger. That’s why I’ll leave her to you.”<br /> <br /> Certainly Kazuki too harbored the same premonition.<br /> <br /> “I’m far stronger compared to these small fries!! I won’t let you two pass beyond this point!!”<br /> <br /> While their attention was diverted by Takasugi brothers, the figure of the girl in kimono vanished.<br /> <br /> …The voice came from above! With her kimono’s fringe fluttering loosely, the girl was soaring high above Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai―it was not a jumping power that could be done somehow or other just with Enchant Aura.<br /> <br /> The girl landed at a few meters behind Kazuki, with the force of a bouncing rubber ball she drew out her sword while in the stance of turning back.<br /> <br /> It didn’t mean that Kazuki was taken by surprise. Kazuki too instantly turned his back and drew out his sword in return.<br /> <br /> Flashes of light collided. Both of their drawn swords bit at each other from directly opposite, scattering apart sparks, and they entered sword-locking contest from there.<br /> <br /> It was not a contest between strength. Kazuki redirected the opponent’s strength with Instant Positioning and tried to break her posture. The girl was also doing a similar thing at the same time. Their blades were mutually entangling with each other flexibly skill to skill.<br /> <br /> If he could match the opponent’s vector of power, he could break the deadlock.<br /> <br /> String of tension was stretched silently inside his brain. In the distance where they could even feel each other’s breath, he focused on nothing but to Foresight the movement of the opponent and control the blade delicately against the other.<br /> <br /> An even sword-locking contest―at that time Kazuki and the kimono girl were mutually making a surprised expression of [There is an opponent that is my equal]. …I can do this!!<br /> <br /> Both of them jumped back behind at the same time and took back the distance.<br /> <br /> The girl held the katana languidly with her right hand, she brushed her disordered kimono’s cuff with her left hand swiftly and fixed her clothes instantly.<br /> <br /> A natural body posture that really couldn’t be said as a stance at all. But there was no opening. She surely could leap to all kinds of movements in any moment even like that. There was this indication of all in one in her. <br /> <br /> There was no doubt she had the bearing of a master.<br /> <br /> “What kind of person are you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuaki finally questioned the girl that stood in his way with respect toward an exceptional character coloring his words.<br /> <br /> Behind Kazuki, there was the sign of Kazuha-senpai exchanging blades with Takasugi brothers and roars of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “I won’t let you interfere in Amaterasu’s sealing. I am one of Kenshitou’s highest upper echelons entrusted with the defense of this land…the thirtieth &lt;Aisu Ikousai&gt; Hidetada.”<br /> <br /> Kenshitou’s upper echelons…he thought that this Haunted Ground held no protection squad from Yamato, yet…<br /> <br /> No wait, rather than that, Aisu Ikousai she said?<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt his mind became white. It was a feeling like being in the presence of a legend.<br /> <br /> “…You are joking right? Moreover the thirtieth?”<br /> <br /> “Oh, so you too are doubting the reality? You who are the successor of Hayashizaki-style sword drawing art?”<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai―he was a swordsman of Muromachi period&lt;ref&gt;1333-1573 CE&lt;/ref&gt;. No, perhaps he ought to even be called a sword god.<br /> <br /> From Muromachi period until Sengoku period&lt;ref&gt;1467-1568 CE&lt;/ref&gt;, there were countless schools of sword style created in Japan.<br /> <br /> The most famous in history among them was surely Yagyuu Shinkage-style. With the choosing of Yagyuu Sekishūsai and his child, Munenori to become the instructor of the shogunate family, the house of Tokugawa, Yagyuu became known as the best sword-style in the whole country. It was also fine to even say that they are the best sword-style in the world of swords.<br /> <br /> When that Yagyuu’s history was perused, there was the master of Yagyuu Sekishūsai, the &lt;sword saint&gt; Kamiizumi Ise no Kami Nobutsuna. And then looking even further at the master of that person was a character that was already in the realm of myth―Aisu Ikousai Hisatada.<br /> <br /> When Japan’s school of sword style was traced back, every one of them would run into three origins. Those were namely Art of War Three Great Origins―&lt;Nen-style&gt;, &lt;Shinto-style&gt;, and then Aiko Ikousai’s &lt;Kage-style&gt;, those three.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was…feeling like he was confronting his own honored ancestor.<br /> <br /> “Hey the successor of Hayashizaki-style. Since when did you think Japan’s sword art was transformed into a sport?”<br /> <br /> The girl―Aisu Ikousai asked.<br /> <br /> “Generally it is said that the impetus was Kamiizumi Ise no Kami’s idea to use bamboo sword but…personally I think sword art had already changed into sports in Muromachi period. The uselessness of katana in war that was fought in groups had already became self-evident at that period…sword art was just a mere fashion of samurai. True practical sword art or the like had already gone at that time. The only scene where practical use of sword art could be applied was the one versus one fight that happened behind the other side of history―only in the setting of assassination. That is surely the sword’s true long cherished desire, the thirty generation piling up in the shadow…”<br /> <br /> That was a completely different history compared to an old style sword school like Kazuki’s Hayashizaki-style. Even though Hayashizaki-style was also an old style sword school that was passed in secret, by no means they erased their own name by their own hands. It was not the case that they attempted to become a legend.<br /> <br /> The mystical assassination sword art that earnestly erased their name continuously since Muromachi period….<br /> <br /> “I see…and then an era like the present time came.”<br /> <br /> “The era of magic…an era where the minority of powerful warriors dictated the battle had come. Now is the time for sword art’s resurrection! This Aisu Ikousai too!! That’s the reason why I formed a partnership with Kenshitou.”<br /> <br /> Tension filled the languid limbs of Aisu Ikousai to the brim. …It's coming!<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style! I was looking forward at having a bout with you-!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;ton*, Kicking the ground lightly, but with acceleration that ran in contrast with that lightness, Aisu Ikousai closed the distance. Kazuki didn’t chant any spell and intercepted only with just the sword.<br /> <br /> “Secret Sword…{{furigana|Shiraha Kagerou|Naked Blade Heat Haze}}!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai yelled. At that time Kazuki witnessed something hard to believe.<br /> <br /> Aisu Ikousai’s blade that was approaching Kazuki―bent like a jelly from its base.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s katana that was going to block slashed empty air.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s katana approached near Kazuki’s neck as if it had transformed into a whip. Kazuki attempted to dodge his body just barely from the blade. At that instant, the blade was not only twisting itself, it lengthened itself flexibly even further.<br /> <br /> The blade grazed Kazuki’s neck and with a spark blue light of magic power scattered.<br /> <br /> Ikousai passed the side of Kazuki who got slashed.<br /> <br /> “…First is one kill.” Ikousai whispered while they passed each other.<br /> <br /> …Just now was an advanced application of Psychokinesis. The slashed Kazuki instantly understood.<br /> <br /> Sensing the Prima Material of the blade, then it was influenced powerfully by Psychokinesis and its shape was altered.<br /> <br /> He could grasp the how but he was amazed that such thing was really possible. It was a technique that was completely beyond his imagination.<br /> <br /> Kazuki immediately turned back and faced Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki moved out without a moment’s delay. Next it was Kazuki’s turn to be the attacker―surely even a flickering blade was just a normal katana when it was reversed to be the defender. There was a necessity to hold the initiative in this fight.<br /> <br /> Ikousai blocked the single stroke that Kazuki swung down and it became a sword-locking contest once more.<br /> <br /> This time it was not with technique, Kazuki attempted to push her with power.<br /> <br /> “Ou” Aisu Ikousai raised her voice. “Because I’m a woman so you think you can win in arm strength?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t permit Ikousai to try to parry the blade and pressed her with strength.<br /> <br /> With the difference in strength between male and female, Kazuki’s blade slowly approached Ikousai’s face.<br /> <br /> “If it's like this then, Secret Rite…{{furigana|Aoiro Yasha|Blue Yaksha}}.”<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki’s eyes, strange magic power was whirling inside Ikousai’s flesh.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;doku doku* Her body pulsed strongly…Ikousai’s face was turning blue before his eyes.<br /> <br /> What is currently happening―this is, blood flow manipulation.<br /> <br /> Human’s flesh body was creating energy with two types of method, that was [utilizing oxygen] and [not utilizing oxygen]. The structure that utilized oxygen was making energy for stamina, but the structure that didn’t utilize oxygen―produced explosive power by decomposing sugar content.<br /> <br /> The body automatically balanced which of the two structures would be prioritized to use.<br /> <br /> But this girl controlled the blood flow of her entire body and closed the oxygen supply herself, making use of that to invigorate her {{furigana|creation of the energy that didn’t need oxygen|Muscle Power Release}}&lt;ref&gt;This muscle power release, I’m not sure if it's right. The kanji is too small in my source and I cannot read it clearly. If anyone know the more accurate word, please revise it.&lt;/ref&gt; to the maximum. She tilted the balancing scale of her body by her own will.<br /> <br /> That could be said as an artificial ultimate anaerobic exercise. The girl’s slender arm that was turning pale was influenced with a doping, producing an explosive power that should be impossible from physical balance!<br /> <br /> …He never thought that someone would reinforce their own physical strength with this kind of approach!<br /> <br /> The balance of strength tilted from Ikousai’s explosive instantaneous force. Kazuki was outpushed. Ikousai didn’t miss the disarray of Kazuki’s balance and she drove away Kazuki’s katana, breaking the stance of Kazuki’s body.<br /> <br /> Kazuki suffered a defeat in sword-locking contest for the first time after several years.<br /> <br /> Ikousai’s slash assaulted Kazuki whose stance was disarrayed. Kazuki forcefully evaded that. He planned to evade but―Ikousai’s blade stretched out like a snake and grazed Kazuki’s neck.<br /> <br /> “The second kill.” The girl floated a smile in her face.<br /> <br /> With a stumbling step Kazuki regrouped himself with some distance. Ikousai immediately gave chase and pursued with the ever-changing twisting katana.<br /> <br /> Just with the katana’s shape twisting, the movement became really hard to read to the degree he never imagined.<br /> <br /> He was bewitchingly looking at it with his eyes. With such insight…Kazuki Foresight the magic power produced from the blade. If the magic power could be read, the he could Foresight what kind of alteration would happen to the blade next. From there he could calculate the trajectory of the slash.<br /> <br /> Though it was a complicated calculation that had to be done in an instant….<br /> <br /> Kazuki breathed out strongly with a huff and concentrated. He Foresight the phantasmagoric stroke of the katana. And then he grasped the logic of the blade and *KiIN!* sparks were scattered. Ikousai went “Hou?” and showed a surprised expression.<br /> <br /> “For someone to start seeing through Shiraha Kagerou from just one occasion, really.”<br /> <br /> “In Hayashizaki-style, no same technique will work twice against us.”<br /> <br /> “Then…Secret Sword, {{furigana|Tenrou Kaidan|Heaven Tower Stair}}!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!* A terrific voice rang out.<br /> <br /> At that moment, Aisu Ikousai’s figure disappeared from Kazuki’s sight.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;PAAN!*, *PAAN!*, the sounds of something bursting reverberated around Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Where is she!? ―Even the time allowed to think of that question, was just for an instant.<br /> <br /> The next instant, Kazuki was slashed diagonally in the back.<br /> <br /> On the back of Kazuki who was pitching forward staggeringly, a further second slash was carved. “Third kill! Fourth kill!!” Ikousai raised a joyful voice and attacked while pursuing Kazuki.<br /> <br /> This swordsman of Yamato, this fellow…!<br /> <br /> While Kazuki received the backlash from the defensive magic power, he rolled forward in order to take distance and escaped from Ikousai’s range. Ikousai didn’t chase too far and made a broad grin in her face from her triumph. She fixed her kimono with one hand.<br /> <br /> “Secret Rite…{{furigana|Usubeni Hannya|Light Crimson Hannya}}.”<br /> <br /> The girl’s pale body was recovering its former complexion. If the blood flow was constrained for too long, then next the stamina would surely disappear from the body.<br /> <br /> She exploded her instantaneous force with [Aoiro Yasha], and recovered her stamina with [Usubeni Hannya].<br /> <br /> But, even more than that the technique just now….<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, it’s four times already. If we crossed swords without this thing called defensive magic power, you had already died four times.”<br /> <br /> “…Don’t just make up an assumption that’s convenient for yourself as you please, assassin swordsman. What we are doing right now is a fight with defensive magic power aren’t we? Who can agree with that kind of simple win lose condition attached here.”<br /> <br /> Toward Kazuki who got a little worked up in his rebuttal, ‘ku-ku-ku’, Ikousai chuckled innocently.<br /> <br /> “This might be a little childish but, at any rate my opponent is the greatest masterpiece of Hayashizaki-style and the famous [Cyclops] after all. It’s really unbearable, this desire of mine to prove that my sword is the strongest with you as the opponent.”<br /> <br /> The strongest sword….<br /> <br /> Certainly this fellow’s skill was not ordinary. That kind of conception she used in her technique had never occurred to him at all.<br /> <br /> Even if he was struck with that kind of idea, he would surely be unable to manage to realize such technique without piling up a mountain of training.<br /> <br /> This girl in front of his eyes was not a swordsman that just merely inherited an ancient style sword art. Matching the current era and evolving her sword together with it―she was a swordsman that had advanced several steps ahead of the path that Kanae was trying to traverse.<br /> <br /> In this match as a swordsman, Kazuki honestly realized that he was falling into the inferiority here.<br /> <br /> [Tenrou Kaidan]…First he had to fathom the true form of that technique….<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuha dodged the Takasugi brothers' violent downswings as if dancing.<br /> <br /> She returned a compact slash through that opening.<br /> <br /> A battle between butterfly and boar―it was an easy offense and defense for Kazuha who was in the middle of learning the skill of Foresight.<br /> <br /> “…Why were you guys trying to become strong with that kind of method?”<br /> <br /> With the timing of the widening distance as the impetus, Kazuha questioned while taking her stance vigilantly.<br /> <br /> These guys were following the order of that girl in kimono. In other words they should still have some of their consciousness remaining.<br /> <br /> “…Kill the Magika Stigma…!”<br /> <br /> With a look exactly like a beast, the Takasugi brothers’ voices leaked out.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki, Hayashizaki Kanae! They insult us that [our skill in sword is not a big deal] and so on…!”<br /> <br /> Right now the one who stood in front of their eyes was Kazuha, but perhaps they were already unable to recognize that anymore. The two of them vented their hatred in frankness to Kazuha.<br /> <br /> “Our, revolution ideology was defiled, because of you bastards’ fault!”<br /> <br /> “The battle election…what we were saying was supposed to be the most correct thought! Despite so, nobody elected us…because we lost in the battle election!! That battle election was just a farce decided only by power!!”<br /> <br /> “Power, power destroyed our just ideal!! Power is…abominable!!”<br /> <br /> Certainly there was an aspect in the battle election where the vote easily gathered on the students who made great showings in the tournament.<br /> <br /> But what would happen to the Magic Division and the Sword Division from now on? The students wouldn’t give their vote just from the result of the tournament without giving a serious consideration on that.<br /> <br /> They lost in election not because their fighting strength was weak. What was weak of them was…,<br /> <br /> “What is lacking in you guys, isn’t it the strength to look hard at yourself!?”<br /> <br /> Takasugi brothers assaulted her recklessly. Yet Kazuha dodged it easily and slashed back in return.<br /> <br /> The brothers were repelled from the backlash of the defensive magic power and fell into their backside…then they stood back up with faces that looked like as if they were going to cry.<br /> <br /> “It’s you bastards’ fault, that we failed to get elected…that power, power got away from our hands! Authority got away from our hands!!”<br /> <br /> “It’s you bastards’ fault that we are like this! That we failed to obtain the power to trample those Magika Stigma under our foot!!”<br /> <br /> For the third time, they stepped forward like an idiot that only knew how to do just one thing.<br /> <br /> Kazuha evaded as if she was dancing. Even while she evaded elegantly, Kazuha’s chest felt gloomy.<br /> <br /> “Authority got away from your hands you said? You want to trample the Magika Stigma under your foot you said? Even though you talked about ideal so haughtily…the inside of you guys is just that sort of thing!!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha slashed the two them away with all her might. But the two whose body were poured with the magic power of Wild God would abruptly stand back up no matter how many times they were cut down.<br /> <br /> “…It’s you bastards’ fault. It’s you bastards’ fault that we became useless…”<br /> <br /> “…It’s you bastards’ fault, that father branded us as useless…”<br /> <br /> The deep resentment voices of the brothers overlapped.<br /> <br /> Father―the one that switched over from being the board chairman of the knight academy to be Yamato’s statesman, they were surely talking about Takasugi Takayoshi.<br /> <br /> “”Power…, I want strength…!””<br /> <br /> That lurid spirit overpowered Kazuha. However she soon glared back.<br /> <br /> …Even I harbored a feeling of inferiority, I was wishing stronger than anyone that I want to become stronger.<br /> <br /> But I didn’t distort my feeling like this.<br /> <br /> “That distorted [will to become strong] of you guys…I won’t recognize something like that!!”<br /> <br /> “GYAAAAAA! {{furigana|Jiraiba|Earth Lightning Blade}}!!”<br /> <br /> One of the Takasugi brothers raised one of his hands high to the sky. At his side an avatar of a Diva that resembled Futsunushi no Kami emerged out. A Diva with an appearance of an ancient sword!<br /> <br /> Thunder fell to the raised hand, then he took hold of that lightning where it turned into a sword of lightning.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Senbiki Fudouwan|Thousand Pull Immobile Arm}}!!”<br /> <br /> The one other Takasugi brothers was also raising one of his hands high to the sky. An avatar of a giant emerged beside him.<br /> <br /> The arm raised overhead bulged out several times larger, transforming into an arm of giant that made the gripped long sword look like a toy.<br /> <br /> {That’s…the power of &lt;Take Mikadzuchi&gt; and &lt;Take Minakata&gt;. If the high level magic of those two are used then it won’t finish with just around that degree but, well, looks like those just now are only level 2 magic.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami conveyed his voice to Kazuha-senpai through telepathy.<br /> <br /> …If there was consciousness still left inside them even in just a little amount, they could still manage to use even low level Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers slashed at Kazuha simultaneously. Kazuha received an electric shock the moment she made contact with the lighting sword, and surely the slash launched using that gigantified arm possessed a power to the degree that she couldn’t block.<br /> <br /> If it kept like this she wouldn’t be able to defend. If she evaded the attack then there was no doubt that the Uji Bridge she was standing on would be broken in pieces.<br /> <br /> Therefore Kazuha also chanted her spell. The spell that she had been preparing for quite some time from before.<br /> <br /> “Watching thousands of lives withering in the path of the sword…o military men obeyed by hundreds of grass, please lend that hand free from obstructive thought to my morals! …{{furigana|Kenki Shihou Ken|Devilish Swordsman Four Directions Sword}}!!”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s level 6 magic―great number of bluish-white souls drifted and gathered around Kazuha.<br /> <br /> Those were the souls of the swordsmen that followed the path of the sword to its extremes and perished halfway through. <br /> <br /> Responding against Futsunushi no Kami’s guidance, those souls appeared under Kazuha. They possessed mass due to magic power and transformed into something that symbolized their tempering&amp;mdash;becoming enormous arms and katana.<br /> <br /> There was a total of four ghostly arms and katana each with a size that reached Kazuha’s stature, floating around her.<br /> <br /> “Become my substitute, block them!”<br /> <br /> The lightning sword born from Take Mikadzuchi’s power was blocked solidly by the two arms surrounding the right side crossing their two katana. The electric shock couldn’t flow to the spot where Kazuha was.<br /> <br /> The one strike that was gigantified by Take Minakata’s power was blocked solidly by the two arms surrounding the left side crossing their two katana. The three giant arms were locked in a rivalry of strength with grinding sound.<br /> <br /> In the center of those two spots of power, Kazuha’s own two hands were free.<br /> <br /> Kazuha directed those two hands at the Takasugi brothers and chanted.<br /> <br /> “Ameno Hidzukuri no Kazatsuchi!”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;DON!* The released shockwave blew away both the Takasugi brothers altogether.<br /> <br /> The four arms created by Kazuha were controlled remotely in accordance with Kazuha’s will and even now they assaulted the Takasugi brothers who were trying to stand and pressed them on.<br /> <br /> During that time, Kazuha turned her eyes to the battle between Kazuki and the kimono girl.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was having much trouble with the girl who introduced herself as Aisu Ikousai….<br /> <br /> “…What is he doing? ''Just against techniques of that degree'', that guy become cornered like that.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha reflexively knitted her eyebrows. The Hayashizaki Kazuki that I know isn’t supposed to be that kind of person.<br /> <br /> ===Part 7===<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki! What the hell are you doing, just against that kind of fellow!”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuha-senpai threw a scolding voice at Kazuki who was in the middle of a glaring match with Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> “Those kind of techniques are not really a big deal right!!?”<br /> <br /> Hearing that, Ikousai looked sullen with her pride wounded.<br /> <br /> “Now you really said it. I thought that it would be fine to leave the dunce of the Sword Division to those dimwits Takasugi brothers, yet…should I carved the technique of Aisu’s Kage-style on that body of yours too?”<br /> <br /> “Even if you don’t deliberately carve it into my body, I get it already just from watching here! ''Like this right''!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai dashed to this direction trying to interrupt between Kazuki and Aisu Ikousai.<br /> <br /> That figure of hers, *PAAN!* went flying together with that sound.<br /> <br /> “!?” Ikousai’s spine trembled with shock witnessing that.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s body danced high to the sky. From there even more *PAAN!* *PAAN!* sounds rang out and she maneuvered three dimensionally in the air. Kazuha-senpai instantly circled to Ikousai’s back.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki saw that from his position as a third party observer, he comprehended that trick for the first time.<br /> <br /> …I see, certainly seeing it from outside is really easy to understand.<br /> <br /> The sound of *PAAN!* was the sound of kicking with full power the movement energy produced by Psychokinesis. Creating a foothold in the sky with magic and making the body leap through the air under an instant. That speed was several levels faster compared to a normal jump. When the opponent was thinking vaguely that the enemy was above, she had already flew about three dimensionally who knew how many times―and circled into the back.<br /> <br /> “Learned by imitating, Tenrou Kaidan!”<br /> <br /> While yelling, Kazuha-senpai swept her katana sideways.<br /> <br /> As expected from the originator herself, Ikousai was not tricked by that movement and saw through Kazuha-senpai’s position instantly and dodged the blade. But at that time Kazuha-senpai’s blade twisted like jelly. It was just a slight twist compared to Ikousai’s own, but certainly her blade’s shape distorted―Shiraha Kagerou.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s single stroke of katana gouged Ikousai’s neck shallowly, making her defensive magic power shine.<br /> <br /> “Saying it in your manner from before…it’s one kill with this right?” Kazuha-senpai grinned broadly.<br /> <br /> Ikousai took some distance with a light leap, her expression transformed from shock into admiration.<br /> <br /> “''Just about that much is still incomplete, however,'' you really can imitate my sword that easily huh. You…won’t you enter Ikousai-style and become my disciple?”<br /> <br /> “Who would do that, stupid-! I am Hayashizaki-style!!”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuha-senpai made a refusal like that, Kazuki could only stare in amazement.<br /> <br /> “Eh, is that true?”<br /> <br /> “What kind of reaction is that! It is like that right!? You are aallways saying that ‘I am the master’ aren’t you!?”<br /> <br /> “I was saying that half in jest but…if you are my disciple than please become more honest then.”<br /> <br /> “I’m honest in matters concerning sword right!? What’s with you! Don, don’t tell me you are planning to order me to do something perverted!?”<br /> <br /> “Now I’m a romance master and I command senpai to do romance training for the whole day.”<br /> <br /> “No Way even if it’s for romance―!! This hentaii―!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai was looking at them with cold eyes. “You two, looks like you are really having fun.”<br /> <br /> “Anyway don’t you dare lose to that fellow. Besides, why are fighting without using Summoning Magic?”<br /> <br /> Even while saying such things, Kazuha-senpai kept making the gigantic four arms fight the Takasugi brothers. It was a splendid control of Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> Right there Kazuki finally noticed how he had fought while sealing his own Summoning Magic.<br /> <br /> “The strength as swordsman, is not all there is to it of your strength right-!!”<br /> <br /> …Before, Kazuki relied on the strength of the sword as the foundation of his pride. His genius in sword was recognized and he was adopted into Hayashizaki family, getting praised by his stepfather was the meaning of his existence.<br /> <br /> …Right now is different. Even now sword was still something important for him, but it was not everything of him. The power he obtained from his bonds, and the important things he protected with it…that was also his own strength.<br /> <br /> “You are the same like me, a magic swordsman. I don’t want to see you get defeated or the like.”<br /> <br /> “That’s right isn’t it…I’ll stop already on being too obstinate thinking as a swordsman.”<br /> <br /> In all honesty…if he used Summoning Magic then he surely could defeat Aisu Ikousai easily.<br /> <br /> He fought a straight forward match as a swordsman against his better judgment, but he had to defeat this swordsman and reach the inner part of the Ise Imperial Shrine. Reservation or anything like that was unnecessary.<br /> <br /> “Is that so, so you plan to use Summoning Magic? Hmph. …Then I wonder, should I do that too?”<br /> <br /> With nonchalant tone Ikousai said that. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai went ‘Don’t tell me!’ in their minds.<br /> <br /> No, now that he thought back…the voice from the sky that commanded the God’s reliant―that was surely the contractor of Susanoo, but wasn’t this girl in front of him also ordered around the Takasugi brothers just now?<br /> <br /> Then this fellow was…Susanoo’s contractor, Izumo King!<br /> <br /> “You two have the face that says if you are using Summoning Magic then you can win easily, I really can’t stomach that look! Both in sword and even in magic, I am the stronger one!!”<br /> <br /> Ikousai sheathed the sword in her right hand back to its sheath. Then she folded her arm cuff and abruptly pulled off the bracelet that was worn in her wrist.<br /> <br /> It was a bracelet that he had remember seeing before―&lt;Limiter&gt;.<br /> <br /> The fellows of God’s reliant held a grudge against Stigmata. Because of that she surely wore a Limiter and hid her stigmata while taking a joint action with them. She only took the Limiter off when she was giving order as the voice from the sky.<br /> <br /> “Polished black steel of heaven o Totsuka no Tsurugi…release flash of light that gouge the storm! This is {{furigana|Orochi no Arasama|Snake’s Exact Rough}}…the advent of tearing limb from limb, {{furigana|Ame no Habakiri|Sky Feathers Decapitation}}!!”<br /> <br /> The girl didn’t even perform Access and chanted her spell directly.<br /> <br /> She didn’t even have the blessing of Magic Dress, yet in spite of that she chanted with speed that she seemed familiar with.<br /> <br /> Magic of Sacred Treasure creation&amp;mdash;light was created inside her hand where it held an atypical sword with its blade divided to eight direction.<br /> <br /> &quot;It’s fine even if you too make your Stigmata shine! Come, this is the beginning of sword and magic’s second act!”<br /> <br /> “Wait!”<br /> <br /> The instant Ikousai was going to kick the ground, a voice halting them reverberated.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu who escaped to the sky to avoid the fighting descended down and perched on Kazuki’s shoulder.<br /> <br /> “I’ll shut my eyes if it is just a sport between fellow swordsmen, but more than this and you should stop your interference! Amaterasu chose this gentleman as the substitute of &lt;Wakoku King&gt;!! You too should have no real intention to keep depending on Loki like what you are currently doing while being unable to plunder Amaterasu’s power!!”<br /> <br /> “…Hoo, so that NEET god finally intended to raise a King. I thought she was going to continue being sealed like this and vanish, but if she showed some motivation then the story is different. I see, so that’s why the King of Solomon came to this land.”<br /> <br /> Ikousai docilely vanished the Sacred Treasure held inside her hand.<br /> <br /> “Susanoo is a rebelling god toward the {{furigana|absolute authoritarian|Amaterasu}}. Therefore &lt;Izumo King&gt; too is a rebelling King. The [King’s Authority] of such King is to plunder for herself the power of the defeated King, [Power of Usurpation]. …Therefore the starting condition of Izumo King is powerless. The nearest some other {{furigana|King|Basileus}} at hand…Amaterasu’s King is someone she has to defeat and to plunder for power…!!”<br /> <br /> “Simultaneously that’s also something that Amaterasu can say. If Amaterasu’s Wakoku King cannot make the rebel Izumo King submit, she also cannot wield the [King’s Authority] of Japanese Mythology and stays powerless. Consequently both of them are Yin and Yang. They have a destiny of conflict.”<br /> <br /> “Interesting! Moreover if you hold both the title of Solomon King and Wakoku King then it’s two birds with one stone! This is fine, I’ll allow you to proceed forward ''for the sake of plundering your power for mine later''.”<br /> <br /> …She could speak like this because Izumo King could steal the power of another King when she defeated them. Just that the only one she could defeat quick and easy even in her powerless state was only Amaterasu who was in the same powerless state like her.<br /> <br /> If she had that kind of ability then Kazuki could understand her strategy to ally herself with Loki temporarily.<br /> <br /> Ikousai swept away her disarrayed sleeves with one hand and then turned her back on Kazuki and co.<br /> <br /> “You the &lt;Cyclops&gt; of Hayashizaki-style, and also the newly appointed proxy of Amaterasu…understand well your destiny with me, I’ll carve it deeply on your body.”<br /> <br /> An existence with a different quality somewhere compared to all his enemies until now―Aisu Ikousai left those words behind and exited the stage.<br /> <br /> ===Part 8===<br /> <br /> “If we have arrived until here, it’ll only take a little more until the Imperial Shrine’s sacred main temple.”<br /> <br /> The Takasugi brothers had also left following Ikousai.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu guided Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai in the front, walking briskly with its three legs in short steps.<br /> <br /> Almost all the scenery around them had recovered from being a Haunted Ground to its original scenery of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> Inside the Imperial Shrine’s forest that were filled with ancient trees growing in abundance, it made them feel the atmosphere of perpetuity. They continued to walk along the path made of pure white gravel until the deepest part of the shrine. The Isuzu River that flowed beside them had also recovered its transparent stream.<br /> <br /> A scenery filled with sacred tranquility. This was Japan’s oldest shrine, the true appearance of Ise Imperial Shrine.<br /> <br /> They were finally going to reach the end of their journey.<br /> <br /> After they advanced through the gravel path drawing a gentle arc, they hit into a stone stair. Ahead of the stone stair there was a shrine archway. Passing through it, finally they saw [that].<br /> <br /> An architectural style of ancient times that even made them feel the connection with Takakura-style warehouse from Yayoi period. It was built based from &lt;the only Shinmei Dzukuri&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Shinmei Dzukuri is a unique phrase in Japan. Shinmei here can refer to Amaterasu or god. While Shinmei Dzukuri means building a shrine with architecture style based on that of Ise Imperial Shrine. So the meaning of the phrase in the bracket here is that the building that Kazuki and co are seeing is the originator of all the Ise style shrine in the whole Japan.&lt;/ref&gt;, yet the feel of the material felt like it was brand new. That was because every twenty years the main building of Ise Imperial Shrine was remodeled and &lt;Shikinen Senguu&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Construction of a new shrine and transfer of the enshrined object from the old to the new, occurring at a regular, preordained time&lt;/ref&gt; was performed. Because the only Shinmei Dzukuri was built using ancient construction technique, its endurance’s age was short and it resulted in the necessity of reconstruction periodically no matter what.<br /> <br /> At the time of its reconstruction, it followed the style and all the ritual from the ancient times strictly and thoroughly. Its appearance from time immemorial was obstinately protected just like how it originally was. This building was not in unchanging condition since the ancient times until the olden days. Yet exactly because of the periodic rebuilding, its unchanging appearance could be preserved for more than a thousand years in the true meaning.<br /> <br /> Of course with that method it would take far more expense and labor compared to merely preserving the building.<br /> <br /> This is Ise Imperial Shrine, its sacred main temple.<br /> <br /> Further ahead of the archway were fences surrounding the shrine―a gate could be seen on the wall.<br /> <br /> “From here on, normal people are not allowed to enter.” Saying that, Kazuha-senpai hesitated to proceed.<br /> <br /> “That’s so, but if you two don’t enter then we cannot begin anything.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu entered without care with bobbing steps inside as if this building was its own home.<br /> <br /> The gate opened automatically by its own.<br /> <br /> There was an archway again inside the outer fence. The inner wall obstructed the path. There were several layers of closed walls and gates in order to reject visitors coming to the inner sanctuary.<br /> <br /> With the guidance of Yatagarasu, they passed through several gates.<br /> <br /> And then the inner sanctuary that even resembled the Takakura-style warehouse in the history textbook appeared in front of their eyes. It had a simple architecture with thatch roof, but its linear shaping made them feel its artificial bearing rather than a respect towards nature.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu proceeded forward through the stair that ascended the raised-floor building with bobbing advance and gestured Kazuki to go inside.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> One surface of the inside was stained with blood.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai were dumbfounded and lost their words. The bloodstain had blackened and permeated into the surface. It was clear just with one glance that a long time had passed since the blood was spilled. The amount of the bloodstain was enough to make them able to imagine that a person had died in that space.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu’s contractor was killed here through the hands of Yamato’s government and Susanoo.”<br /> <br /> “Wait a second, you said things like you are going to present the contractor of Amaterasu to me, but like this what is the meaning of…?”<br /> <br /> A cold shiver ran through Kazuki’s spine.<br /> <br /> Don’t tell me…are they going to ask me to ''conquer a ghost''!?<br /> <br /> “The body of Amaterasu’s contractor had been annihilated, but Amaterasu narrowly managed to save her soul and sealed it inside it Amaterasu’s Territory. On top having no flesh body, if the situation stays like this then her fate will be to naturally vanish together with Amaterasu. That’s why your cooperation…the &lt;power of bond&gt; that you possessed is necessary. If Amaterasu recovers her power and from there she also ties a bond with you and obtain power, the girl will be able to regain her flesh body.”<br /> <br /> “You are saying that a dead human can be restored to life!?”<br /> <br /> Was such a thing possible? Kazuki too had once resurrected Mio from the grip of death using Phoenix’s level 10 magic. But such event was supposed to be completely different compared to reviving an existence that didn’t even have her corpse remaining and the only thing left behind of her was the bloodstain that had already dried on the floor.<br /> <br /> “The girl still hasn’t welcomed a complete death yet. Her soul is preserved through Amaterasu’s power. But the currently weakened Amaterasu simply doesn’t have enough strength. If she can borrow that power by becoming a subordinate to Solomon Mythology…”<br /> <br /> “Does Amaterasu want to save that contractor so much that she will even go as far as subordinating herself to another Mythology?”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu was trotting ahead to the center of the sacred main temple’s floor. Over there was the center of the blood stain’s spread.<br /> <br /> “Amaterasu deeply loved that [girl]. Therefore she didn’t raise that girl to become Wakoku King and abandoned her battle with Susanoo. Yamato government and Susanoo were furious because of that and killed the girl before pressing Amaterasu to choose a new contractor to become King. But for Amaterasu it was inconceivable to even make a contract with another human. And so Amaterasu abandoned everything and shut herself inside the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. …Please follow me.”<br /> <br /> With a jerk, Yatagarasu kicked the floor of the sacred main temple. Thereupon the floorboard came off and a hole was opened.<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu then descended down the hole. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai too followed from behind.<br /> <br /> When they entered under the floor, many pillars stretching up supported the floor of the sacred main temple from the surface below. In the center of the space surrounding those pillars, there was a pillar that didn’t reach until the floor of the sacred main temple with a height that only reached halfway.<br /> <br /> It was a pillar that didn’t support anything.<br /> <br /> In the peak of that halfway pillar, a miniature size sacred main temple was put on it.<br /> <br /> “&lt;The True August Pillar&gt;…This is the entrance to Amaterasu’s residence, the path leading to the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave. Amaterasu is ahead through this.”<br /> <br /> “How do we enter inside through this miniature size thing?”<br /> <br /> “Of course its destination is &lt;Astrum&gt;. The Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave is a district of Amaterasu’s Territory. Being sealed inside that healing space and isolated from everything else, Amaterasu can just barely hold her ground of having herself vanishing little by little. Supply power to Amaterasu from the outside, if she cannot go out from the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave then like this she also cannot talk with you. Touch your hand to this True August Pillar and close your eyes, then please unify your {{furigana|consciousness and subconsciousness|Trance}}. If you do that then it will synchronize with the mind of you two and it can guide you to Astrum.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki remembered about the contract ceremony after the entrance ceremony. At that time he was guided by Kaguya-senpai and dove into the Diva’s Territory in Astrum. What he was going to do after this was the same thing like that.<br /> <br /> “Pass through &lt;Yomotsu Hirasaka&gt;&lt;ref&gt;Yomotsu Hirasaka is a hill where it can lead to Yomi (world of the dead) in Japanese Myth.&lt;/ref&gt; and head to &lt;the Gate of the Celestial Rock Cave&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “…Isn’t Yomotsu Hirasaka the place that continue to the world of after death?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked frightfully with ominous presentiment. He came along with them this far believing that their interest matched each other, but he was going to be troubled if he became a dead person just like this.<br /> <br /> “That’s a misinterpretation of the myth. …Yomotsu Hirasaka is a corridor that linked the world with different worlds. It is the exit and entrance that leads to Takamagahara&lt;ref&gt;The heavens&lt;/ref&gt; which is the Territory of Japanese Divas.”<br /> <br /> Yatagarasu went on “Anyway, please close your eyes.”, like that it prompted Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai to proceed.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_1&diff=465561 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 1 2015-10-09T06:12:31Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 - To the Sea of Abundant Land==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Kaya was grateful to the politicians of Yamato.<br /> <br /> To be able to make contact with this person so very easily was exactly because there was the channel that they built with Chūkadou by spending efforts for months and years.<br /> <br /> This meeting was an extremely important critical juncture with regards to Loki’s plan.<br /> <br /> The pure gold chandelier was illuminating the space that was painted vermilion. Chūkadou’s &lt;Shibi&lt;ref&gt;Purple Forbidden Enclosure (group of constellations in the northern sky associated with the emperor)&lt;/ref&gt; Palace&gt;. That palace was richly colored with red and gold―the master of heaven’s decree, the emperor of China’s palace.<br /> <br /> The imperial capital that loudly proclaimed that Chūkadou is the center of the world, right now Kaya was in Beijing.<br /> <br /> There was no one else inside the room with Kaya except for that person. This was not a public audience, but a confidential talk that was conducted inside that person’s private room. Sitting on a rosewood table and chairs decorated with mother of pearl craftsmanship, Kaya and that person faced each other as if they were a fellow friends with very intimate relationship.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu…. O messenger from Yamato. No, o our friend. Your asking [if perhaps I might be able to borrow your strength], what an odd way of talking that is.”<br /> <br /> That person’s lips that was distinctly drawn with vivid red warped into the shape of crescent moon from her laugh.<br /> <br /> She was still a girl in the middle of her teens, but excess makeup was applied all over her face. In China the use of cosmetic was not approved except for nobles. Nonetheless, because the magician of this era utilized their magic power and polished their beauty of figure from the Prima Material of the skin, people who relied as far as using cosmetic rarely existed.<br /> <br /> When the girl let out a laughing voice, *sharin sharin* such sound was ringing. Each time this person made even the slightest movement, the many ornaments that were attached in excess all over her whole body raised a sound.<br /> <br /> The robe that the girl currently wore was a purple {{furigana|Lóng páo<br /> |Dragon Robe}}. A [color restriction] permitted only for the emperor, a fabric in the color of deep purple decorated with countless precious stones, as if her whole body was clad completely with the full starry sky.<br /> <br /> The weight of all the ornaments all over the girl’s body easily surpassed ten times her own weight. For the sake of enduring that weight, the girl was constantly continuing to use Enchant Aura, blue light was constantly emitted from her whole body. That light was reflected by the countless precious stones, making her constantly sparkle intensely.<br /> <br /> The excessively shining girl.<br /> <br /> Most likely even with unpainted face, even with her body naked, she was surely an owner of beautiful looks as perfect as human limit allowed.<br /> <br /> But with the girl’s standing, ''mere beauty within human limit was insufficient.''<br /> <br /> The girl used up every methods, she had to be an existence that was as if a star that was shining brightly in the center of heaven.<br /> <br /> Because the girl was a symbol.<br /> <br /> A girl that was like the height of the star―the girl’s name was &lt;Reborn Emperor&gt; Fu Zi.<br /> <br /> The personification of China’s ideal. She was the {{furigana|Emperor|Basileus}} of Chūkadou.<br /> <br /> Among the vast population of Chūkadou, she was an existence chosen as the possessor of the strongest magic power.<br /> <br /> “What do you mean, odd way of talking…?” Kaya tilted her head in an intimate behavior.<br /> <br /> If the character in front of her was a King, then Kaya was a god. There was no reason to not be confident.<br /> <br /> “No matter how much China is a really great country, be that as it may, it has enemy nations in every direction. While dealing with them, you are also in the position of having to check the other Magic Advanced Countries in place. We could exchange good intimacy with each other in this way, however because of that I must not be a bother for you…that was my thinking.”<br /> <br /> “There are two mistakes inside the words of that you.”<br /> <br /> The emperor of China, Fu Zi flatly concluded with haughty tone of voice.<br /> <br /> “One. People who are hostile to our country, are not equal to a country. They are mere barbarians.”<br /> <br /> Now that she said that, that’s really so, Kaya recalled it.<br /> <br /> The Magic Advanced Countries other than Japan didn’t consider other undeveloped country as equivalent with a nation. The undeveloped countries in Europe were considered protection target as colony country, while this China…considered them as barbarians.<br /> <br /> China saw them as objects to be invaded and controlled. They didn’t even get called as hostile [country].<br /> <br /> “Two. We the Chūkadou, our heart, cannot possibly be so narrow-minded to see a great cause and abandon it behind. Our heart is China’s heart. Indeed, certainly matters we have to do are really in great numbers. We are somewhat busy. However even so for you who are our friend, we don’t want to hear such reserved words. Rely on our heart even more honestly, it doesn’t matter even if you depend on us completely you know?”<br /> <br /> Raising a *sharin* sound, Fu Zi threw out her chest. In contrary to Fu Zi’s behavior, if she was wearing different ornaments on her whole body, the girl that had a body with small build would look cute.<br /> <br /> This fellow really said some incredible things huh…Kaya was amazed inside her heart. This little emperor said [I want you to depend on us] to Loki who though imperfect was a god.<br /> <br /> “As for us, it’s better if we made you as insurance in case we are in a pinch you know.”<br /> <br /> Kaya made a modest smile.<br /> <br /> “Hmm, is that so. But that reservation, 'tis no problem. Your consideration to us, 'tis really not a problem. Then until you open your heart and seek for assistance from us, we are going to look forward to it.”<br /> <br /> Right there Fu Zi made a wide grin suitable for her age to Kaya.<br /> <br /> It was an innocent smile but…of course as the emperor there was no way she was going to promise aid to Kaya without asking for anything as compensation. Kaya and Loki were noticing the real intention of that smile.<br /> <br /> That China was desiring for a just cause.<br /> <br /> In contrast with the King of Solomon that increased his power by means of positivity level that was the &lt;power of bond&gt;, the King of China possessed the &lt;power of heaven’s decree&gt; that [increased her power the more the territory she controlled widened].<br /> <br /> However if China sets out to invade the surrounding countries publicly, there was no way the other Magic Advanced Countries are going to stay quiet.<br /> <br /> That was why they made false charges with reason that sounded most right against other countries, or made intervention to other countries problem and then demanded for compensation. Using this and those methods, they took advantage of the other party.<br /> <br /> If China received appeal from Yamato like [we wish for cooperation for the sake of recovering the true Japan from those devils of Solomon] or something like that, it was a wish come true for the just cause to justify their armed intervention.<br /> <br /> If Yamato obtained the cooperation of China and achieved the unification of Japan archipelago, China would make Yamato into China’s puppet country in no time at all and gradually swallow them until there was nothing left of Yamato. That was what Fu Zi aimed for.<br /> <br /> But the major politicians of Yamato were thinking that they didn’t particularly mind even if their country became like that.<br /> <br /> Because most of them were spies from China anyway.<br /> <br /> Loki too was the same, he wouldn’t particularly mind if it developed into that kind of situation. Only if that created even further Chaos.<br /> <br /> There was not even a single person among the leaders of Yamato that thought of Japan archipelago as important from the bottom of their heart.<br /> <br /> This conference―was a secret agreement to surrender the future of the archipelago to China in the time ahead.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, 'tis no problem, 'tis no problem at all. We want to go help your Yamato as quickly as we can.”<br /> <br /> The emperor laughed with her body shaking. It was a smiling face that made her real intention even more conspicuous yet on the contrary emphasized her innocence instead.<br /> <br /> “To be able to become your friend like this is really reassuring for me. Hiroko-chan.”<br /> <br /> “What’s with that, calling us Hiroko-chan?”<br /> <br /> The smile vanished from Fu Zi’s face and she made a dubious face in return.<br /> <br /> Kaya recovered her behavior that was as if making fun of other people’s characteristic and answered.<br /> <br /> “It was how your name is called in the style of Japan. It’s the proof of our friendship, calling you with that nickname.”<br /> <br /> “Hmm. Well fine. 'Tis particularly no problem. Although you are from other Mythology but you are still someone called as god. ''For now'' as the proof of friendship I’m going to accept that nickname.”<br /> <br /> Fu Zi laughed generously. Kaya too returned it with a smile.<br /> <br /> Even while exchanging an intimate secret talk, Kaya was looking at a different direction from Fu Zi.<br /> <br /> The objective of Chūkadou’s Mythology was Order through control. However Kaya and Loki’s objective was to demolish the balance of the world and brought forth Chaos. For the sake of that objective, this war between Japan and Yamato was one of the steps.<br /> <br /> For Kaya, victory and defeat was of no importance.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Uwaa…amazing…it stretched the trousers tightly and becomes like mountain Fuji…”<br /> <br /> It was a voice like when a child was standing in front of a decoration cake and got enraptured seeing it.<br /> <br /> Kazuki heard that voice inside his dozing consciousness. And then right after that, he received an ambiguous sweet stimulus.<br /> <br /> “Wah, it’s hard! It’s sprang around throbbing when it was pulled! Ahaha, what a rambunctious kid! Somehow it’s really cute. Take this, and that!”<br /> <br /> Stimulus was running in his lower body with throb, throb.<br /> <br /> “What kind of shape it will become huh? Rub rub.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s lower body unconsciously startled. …He was still sleeping and there was no consciousness yet in him. However in the depth of his sleep, his instinct was ringing out his warning alarm. Something bad was being done on him…!<br /> <br /> Little by little, Kazuki’s consciousness was being awakened.<br /> <br /> “I wonder if he will wake up if I lowered his trousers. But, I really want to see it directly-“<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;slit* Some sensation was slipping around the area of his waist. Because of that strong stimulus, Kazuki was awakened.<br /> <br /> His blurred vision gradually connected the pictures. What was in front of Kazuki’s eyes was―a girl’s lower body. Covered in a water colored fit-wear, a panorama of a butt and crotch and thighs.<br /> <br /> Someone was directing her lower body to Kazuki’s face and straddled it in reverse on top of Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The other party’s face couldn’t be seen from Kazuki’s direction but there was no doubt that this fit-wear was Hikaru-senpai’s.<br /> <br /> The fit-wear that was even thinner compared to a spats was gluing tightly to the soft bottom and thighs, and also the plump swelling crotch that got caught between those. It was really making the details come to the surface perfectly as if the wearer was mostly naked. The only difference with nakedness was that the area was not skin colored but water colored.<br /> <br /> Such [important place] of Hikaru-senpai that was [almost similar with naked] was placed right in front of Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> His half asleep mind was rapidly boiling up and then Kazuki yelled.<br /> <br /> “Se, senpai! What are you doing!?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai had stripped the trouser that Kazuki wore as pajama and currently was placing her hands right on Kazuki’s trunks. And then Kazuki’s unprepared and moreover involuntary morning physiology phenomenon had rose, pushing up the middle part of his trunks towering like mountain Fuji.<br /> <br /> This was a super dangerous situation. Kazuki pushed down his trunks in panic.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, you woke up!? Not that, it’s no good if you raise such a loud voice!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai looked at the side after having said that. Beside the two, Kaguya-senpai was still breathing lightly *suyasuya* in sleep.<br /> <br /> This place was not Kazuki’s usual room in the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> Here was the front line of the war between east Japan and west Japan―the Knight Order’s garrison of Nagoya. It was the plot of land and building that was once called Aichi Prefectural Police that was repaired for the sake of the Knight Order’s activity.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 015.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> The students of the Knight Academy that were recruited for the war with Yamato were lodging in the rooms that were allocated for them inside the garrison building. Kazuki became the room partner of Kaguya-senpai once again, and then there was Hikaru-senpai who slipped in which made the three of them sleep together inside the room last night.<br /> <br /> …He was careless. Even though usually he was the first one to wake up, but it seemed yesterday he was really tired.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, when I saw Kazuki’s cute sleeping face, I became unable to contain my feeling. I want to leave my body to this instinct as a girl-!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai smiled invigoratingly and then unhesitatingly tried once more to lower Kazuki’s trunks. Kazuki took hold of his trunks in panic and barely managed to cling on the fabric.<br /> <br /> “Please wait, senpai is too honest to yourself! Don’t just do something like lowering someone’s pants using the chance when they are sleeping!!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki raised a scream, Hikaru-senpai took a glance at the direction of the sleeping Kaguya-senpai worriedly.<br /> <br /> “That’s why I told you already that it’s not good to make a loud voice-! Kaguya is going to wake up!! …Eiii-!”<br /> <br /> Towards the face of Kazuki who was raising a scream―Hikaru-senpai’s crotch was coming down.<br /> <br /> The bulge that was tinged with plump roundness was pressuring on Kazuki’s mouth. Then next both of senpai’s thighs locked Kazuki’s face from left and right firmly. Kazuki’s lower face was enveloped in a sweet sensation of touch.<br /> <br /> “Muguu!? Fenfai, fanfufafefefufafaifo―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a scream but that voice of his was suppressed completely by girl’s [meat].<br /> <br /> When Kazuki moved his lips gasping, Hikaru-senpai went “hyann!?” raising a high pitched voice and her hips jumping with a start.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki!? When you squirmed your mouth there…somehow there is this strange feeling-!”<br /> <br /> Against the sensation of Kazuki’s moving lips, Hikaru-senpai began to push down lasciviously and wriggled her hips back and forth.<br /> <br /> Kazuki noticed once again that something coming in contact with his mouth and then he shut his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what is this…I don’t know this kind of sensation…but this might feel a little good…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai took an erotic breath. Even when Kazuki finally shut his mouth and stopped stimulating the pressing body anymore, Hikaru-senpai proactively began to press down her nether region and started grinding.<br /> <br /> Then Kazuki’s nose got caught inside the caving in spot at the middle of the plump bulge of the nether region.<br /> <br /> “Hyan! …Ju, just now was amazing!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s spinal column was noticeably trembling intensely in shudders.<br /> <br /> Not good. Hikaru-senpai who was innocent about genders was learning about something completely unthinkable.<br /> <br /> Moreover on top of a person’s face.<br /> <br /> Senpai’s hip movement became even more intense. It was unclear whether it was from Kazuki’s exhalation or from the sweat that senpai perspired out, but the fit-wear was starting to become slippery with moisture and tinged with luster.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s body hygienic that was retained by the power of magic caused the sweat that she perspired to have the scent of purely girl’s scent. That scent passed by Kazuki’s reasoning without stopping and shook his instinct. Unthinkable spot had been pressed on his face from some time ago. If he was being exposed to this much lewd temptation, then no matter how much he….<br /> <br /> Rather, if it kept like this soon he’d already….<br /> <br /> …No wait, calm down. He must not get tempted by senpai’s innocence and step off the right path!<br /> <br /> Kazuki sharpened his mind with the concentration power of a swordsman and cleared away all the wicked thoughts.<br /> <br /> Because of Hikaru-senpai’s utmost effort in pressing her hips to Kazuki’s face, her attention had been averted from his trunks. Right there Kazuki parted his hands from holding on his trunks, then his hands that became free were tightly pinning down Hikaru-senpai’s hips that continued to move grazingly.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!? ……moree…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai who was possessed by the unknown pleasure directed an unsatisfied face at his way.<br /> <br /> “This is not good. Senpai, this is out. As a maiden, please endure that sensation.”<br /> <br /> “Mu―. Kazuki…then, show me your penis.”<br /> <br /> “That’s not good. What do you mean by [then], I completely don’t get it.”<br /> <br /> “Mu―. By any chance, did I almost do something more dangerous than I thought?”<br /> <br /> In Hikaru-senpai’s expression, a color of anxiety flashed for a moment. Just as he thought it seemed she wasn’t conscious of it herself.<br /> <br /> Because Hikaru-senpai lived the falsehood that [she was a prince] for a long time, inside her, her self-awareness as a girl was still immature. In contrast with that, her instinct and body had begun to mature as a girl. That unbalance was inside senpai.<br /> <br /> “It was really dangerous, but it’s okay. I won’t hate senpai because of this kind of thing. Rather it’s exactly because I like senpai that it’s dangerous. …Haaa-!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki put his strength to both his hands and tore off Hikaru-senpai’s body from him with a roll.<br /> <br /> The rolling Hikaru-senpai was “cheeh” and sharpened her lips while both her legs were fidgeting and rubbing together.<br /> <br /> “Even though this is the rare chance where I woke up even earlier than Kazuki with my hard work, for some reason my chest is smoldering like this.”<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-kuu~n.”<br /> <br /> Did her sleep became shallow from the sounds, Kaguya-senpai embraced him tightly from the side. He was enveloped in a soft and warm sensation. Her face felt like she was still half asleep. Similar with Hikaru-senpai in her fit-wear appearance, the magic power of Kaguya-senpai’s Magic Dress came apart in her sleep and she transformed into her negligee appearance.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-kun, kiss~”<br /> <br /> While Kaguya-senpai was half asleep, she pushed out her lips to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Among the residents of the Witch’s Mansion, only Kaguya-senpai alone who still hadn’t experience the [lips-to-lips kiss].<br /> <br /> The person herself was terribly concerned of it inside her heart.<br /> <br /> However when Kazuki kissed the lips of a girl, he was able to use a one-time only trump card where he could perform the Materialized Summoning of the contracted Diva. Kaguya-senpai decided that she wouldn’t [throw away uselessly] that trump card, and determined herself that she would harden her heart and be patient for the kiss until the hour of need.<br /> <br /> Kazuki respected that will of hers and presented his cheek and not his lips.<br /> <br /> “Nn~” Kaguya-senpai sucked his cheek and fawned on him. For some reason she cutely looked like a child.<br /> <br /> This was Kaguya-senpai who usually acted like a big sister, but in her heart she surely wanted to depend on someone.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-, me too!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai hugged him from the other side and kissed *chuu* his other cheek with pleasant feeling.<br /> <br /> “Both of you, let’s get out from the bed soon. We are going to go to the beach today after all.”<br /> <br /> “I’m really looking forward to it, the sea!”<br /> <br /> The forehead of Hikaru-senpai who was making an excited voice pushed onto Kazuki with a bump.<br /> <br /> “We are not going there for playing you know, Hikaru-senpai.”<br /> <br /> The war between Japan and Yamato.<br /> <br /> For the sake of the vital counterattack strategy in this war, Kazuki was going to cross the sea and sneak into Ise Shrine.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> Aichi prefecture looked similar with a monster’s face that grew fangs. The two peninsulas growing out at the southern part of the prefecture looked perfectly similar like two jutting out fangs―the west Chita peninsula and the east Atsumi peninsula.<br /> <br /> From here Kazuki and the others would first head to the farthest pointed end of Atsumi peninsula as their destination, the &lt;Irago cape&gt;.<br /> <br /> When they arrived in this Irago cape, there was Mie prefecture across the Ise Bay.<br /> <br /> Mie prefecture had similar shape with the shape of katakana ‘ト’. After they crossed Ise bay and landed on the protrusion that jutted out to the east, they just needed to advance a little further to reach Ise Shrine.<br /> <br /> The shortest distance sea route crossing Irago cape to Mie prefecture was called &lt;Irago Water Path&gt; from the ancient times.<br /> <br /> “Together with Kazuha-senpai, I’m going to cross Irago water path and infiltrate Yamato and then invade Ise Shrine. It seems that the {{furigana|boss|chief god}} of Japanese Mythology is there.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and company were heading to Irago cape riding the car of the Knight Order. With just a glance it was just a black sedan that didn’t look like a military car. Kazuki was sitting in the middle of that car’s comfortable back seat. At both his sides were Mio in the right and Kanae in the left sitting with him. Kazuki was explaining the strategy once more to the two girls [who were still wearing a dissatisfied face].<br /> <br /> “Why is it only Kazuki and Tsukahara-senpai alone? I cannot consent at that point at all!”<br /> <br /> When Mio pouted her lips and expressed her dissatisfaction, Kanae too was “That’s right, right there!” and said her agreement with Mio.<br /> <br /> “This is an infiltration operation after all, we have to use the minimum number of personnel so we don’t stand out. And also the objective is to persuade the boss of Japanese Mythology to pull their hands from this war, so I must go together with Kazuha-senpai that is contracted with Futsunushi no Kami of the same Japanese Mythology. There is really a proper reason for all this you see.”<br /> <br /> Mio and Kanae were silent. They had no room to object in this operation.<br /> <br /> There was no other way than this…this operation felt like that. It made him felt somewhat constrained, however….<br /> <br /> “It seems because those bunches of Yamato were breaking into many shrines, that the Divas of Japanese Mythology transformed into this state called &lt;Wild God&gt;. Right there those bunches of Yamato instigated them that [the one that broke into the shrines was Japan government], and then those Wild Gods were won over into becoming Yamato’s comrade. That’s the story.”<br /> <br /> “Using that kind of method that look like children’s pranks…what a nuisance those guys are.”<br /> <br /> Kanae breathed out a deep sigh. After all the one that was exposed to the full brunt of the Wild Gods’ menace were Kanae and the others of the swordsmen.<br /> <br /> The Shrine Maiden of Yamato had short chanting time because their body hosted the Wild Gods making them able to use Drive. They kicked around the front line swordsmen with might like that of rapid-fire cannon.<br /> <br /> As expected for them to have short chanting time was a large threat.<br /> <br /> …However if the Japanese Divas turned into enemy because of a simple misunderstanding, then there are room for persuasion.<br /> <br /> “The Japanese Divas that are in Wild God state doesn’t have the ears to listen to our voice. However when the Shrine Maiden that is in Drive is defeated and fall into magic intoxication, it seems the Wild God that possessed them will also quiet down and return to their sanity.”<br /> <br /> At the battle before―in [Magic War・Okehazama], one of the Shrine Maiden was captured and as a result &lt;Ame no Uzume&gt; that possessed her was returned to her sanity. Ame no Uzume lent her ear to Kazuki and Futsunushi no Kami’s persuasion and pulled out her participation from the battle.<br /> <br /> But the number of the Shrine Maidens was not only one or two, there was more than hundreds of them placed in the war front. It was not an easy matter to defeat them all and persuade all the Wild Gods. Right there…,<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami said it, when we beat the [chief god of Japanese Mythology] in Ise Shrine and her sanity returned from the Wild God state, it seems that all the other Japanese Divas will all at once return to their senses too.”<br /> <br /> Chief God―an existence that exerted its influence to all the other Divas in that Mythology.<br /> <br /> If people talked about Japanese Mythology’s chief god that was deified in Ise Shrine, there was none other than &lt;Amaterasu-ōmikami&gt;. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai would infiltrate into Ise Shrine and defeat Amaterasu who had turned into a Wild God. Then if they could persuade her, it was the same like plummeting the military power of Yamato.<br /> <br /> In the event that Yamato’s government fell into turmoil from suddenly losing the cooperation of Japanese Mythology, the Knight Order would commence attack without wasting any time. That was the strategy this time―[Magic War・Sekigahara].<br /> <br /> “We are giving you a beacon, so if you succeed in defeating Amaterasu give the signal with this. If the operation is a success it’s the blue beacon, if it’s a failure use the red beacon.”<br /> <br /> From the driver seat, the sunglasses wearing Akane-senpai faced Kazuki with a glance and said so.<br /> <br /> Beacon―it was a method to transmit a code by raising a colored smoke.<br /> <br /> “Beacon is it…it feels like that this item is in the wrong period somehow.” Kazuki unintentionally displayed his anger.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine feeling like we are in Sengoku period right? …Well that was just a joke, with the current situation like this where all the long range communication between east and west Japan are blocked, there really is no other effective method of contact you know.”<br /> <br /> Before the coup d'état Yamato made preparation in secret toward the infrastructure business through the politicians, and then they immediately severed the radio wave and internet access between east and west Japan.<br /> <br /> “But don’t look down on this beacon okay, we were requesting a skilled alchemist for the sake of the operation this time to make this custom-made item in just one night. This is not using smoke but it will blow a fire pillar high to the sky that should be able to be confirmed from Ise until Nagoya even in the middle of the night.”<br /> <br /> “If this is that flashy, even the opponent will notice it.”<br /> <br /> “If there is a method that cannot be noticed by the opponent where we can exchange conversation, that will be the best though. That’s why swiftness will become important in this operation. Our side has also made preparation beforehand so not to grant the enemy time to prepare, that the moment we received the signal we can immediately invade.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai smoothly drove the large-type sedan while explaining.<br /> <br /> “…Nonetheless it’s really amazing isn’t it, to be able to manage this kind of big car.”<br /> <br /> “Hehehe, she is cool right! The senpai I’m proud of!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that was sitting in the assistant driver’s seat happily looked back. For Hikaru-senpai who was the present vice president of the student council, Akane-senpai who was the former vice president was a direct senior that taught her how to do the work.<br /> <br /> “I went to a training camp for a short period to take my license when I became a third year. Because a car is the knights’ foot.”<br /> <br /> From the sunlight that shone through the front glass, the sunglasses that Akane-senpai was wearing shone brightly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and company rode the three cars that were prepared by the Knight Order separately and headed to Irago cape.<br /> <br /> The ones who was in charge of driving at each car respectively were Kanon-senpai, Akane-senpai, and Lotte.<br /> <br /> Lotte who was still 15 years old was of course unlicensed, but because the Diva of civilization Prometheus was dwelling inside her body, she was able to drive every kind of vehicle.<br /> <br /> Except for the three sedans that were running in line on the road, there was no other car they could see.<br /> <br /> That was because the surrounding of Nagoya had been designated as evacuation zone. This place was a townscape in the state of emergency.<br /> <br /> “…But why did we bring everyone else together with us? I thought that the only one needed for this operation is only Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai though.”<br /> <br /> “It would be too conspicuous if we choose and bring along only you and Tsukahara-san. Because in this extremely secret operation, we have to carry out this plan without even letting the knights of the Knight Order know.”<br /> <br /> …I see, the spy from Yamato had been infiltrating the inner part of the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> This infiltration mission couldn’t be leaked out even to his ally.<br /> <br /> The only one from the internal of the Knight Order who knew about this strategy was only the strategy planner Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “We are taking all of you under the pretense of rewarding the students that made distinguished service in the previous battle with vacation. Also with the massing of battle strength of east Japan here, our shortage of personnel is also being reduced, so the timing also looked natural right?”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 023.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> In the first place Kazuki and the other students were recruited into the front line of this war was because the Knight Orders had shortage of personnel. Matching their timing with the coup d’etat of Yamato, the illegal magicians of Yamato that were scattered through east Japan began their guerilla activity. With the Knight Order’s personnel taken to suppress the illegal magicians, the Knight Order right after the coup d’etat became too preoccupied to even think of fighting a war.<br /> <br /> But right now most of the illegal magicians had been suppressed and battle strength was in the process of amassing in this front line. When it became like this, there was no necessity to work the cadets that were still nothing more than student non-stop.<br /> <br /> Because of that reason Kazuki and the others who made distinguished service in the previous battle were granted with vacation as reward…there was some carefreeness saying it like that but it was not really much of a strange story.<br /> <br /> There was a beach that was suitable for swimming at Irago cape.<br /> <br /> “Of course that’s just the cover story, all of you the &lt;Knight Academy Regiment&gt; are separated from the command system of the top brass and can move freely and you will be allowed to keep moving like that from now on as independent unit.”<br /> <br /> The spy from Yamato was most likely had penetrated into as far as the top brass of the Knight Order. All the action of the Knight Order had to be reported in detail to the top brass so everything became completely leaked to the spy.<br /> <br /> The Knight Academy was independent from that {{furigana|hierarchy|chain of comman}} and stood as a different organization, making them able to move only at Headmaster Amasaki’s own discretion. The Knight Academy regiment that was composed from the students was the sole unit that was able to conduct a strategy without its information getting leaked to Yamato.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama, please look forward to Kanae’s swimsuit appearance okay!”<br /> <br /> “…Somehow I lost my nervousness with Kanae in my side huh.”<br /> <br /> Though for Kazuki this vacation till the end was just a camouflage.<br /> <br /> However for everyone else who practically wouldn’t engage in this infiltration operation, this was just a normal vacation.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki too also has the time to play together with us for a little right?”<br /> <br /> Mio hugged Kazuki’s arm tightly from the right side.<br /> <br /> ―The car was going south at the Atsumi peninsula for a total of two hours. Leaving far away Nagoya that was unfolding out an uncouth urban warfare, the scenery was transformed into something that made them felt the atmosphere of vacation in southern country.<br /> <br /> Palm trees were growing besides the road along the coastline.<br /> <br /> From the gap between the palm trees, the sea was finally visible.<br /> <br /> “That’s the sea Nii-sama-!” Kanae raised an excited voice the foremost. Kazuki was spontaneously half-rising from his seat, and then morning breeze rushed inside the car when Akane-senpai tactfully opened the car window.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> It was still June, originally it was still not the period when the beach had opened.<br /> <br /> The sandy beach they finally arrived at was like a private beach.<br /> <br /> All the beach house of the beach was in a state of closing vacation. But it seemed not everything was in the state of unmanned. Right after they arrived, Akane-senpai entered one of the beach houses where inside she made some kind of talk with the shopkeeper.<br /> <br /> It seemed the Knight Order had negotiated with this beach house where they were given permission that it was fine to use the changing room and shower freely. After a while, Akane-senpai came out from the beach house.<br /> <br /> “For the time being Kazuki and everyone else too just change into your swimsuit.”<br /> <br /> Everyone raised a cheer and entered the female changing room.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too entered the male changing room by his lonesome.<br /> <br /> …Being surrounded by girls in swimsuit, when the male was just him alone.<br /> <br /> How really amazing…, Kazuki thought once more. He hadn’t thought that this environment was amazing or the like after coming this far, but he was thinking that his reasoning that was able to endure in this environment was really awesome if he said so himself.<br /> <br /> Kazuki changed into trunks-type swimsuit with swiftness that could be said as the privilege of male.<br /> <br /> On the other side, he could hear strange voices like “Roo―ck paa―per…” from the girl's changing room. What were they doing in there? Kazuki didn’t take any mind of it and went down and stood on the sandy beach alone even earlier than anyone else.<br /> <br /> The sensation of the sands at the sole of his feet felt good. The temperature was still a little cool, but a magician could control temperature using Pyrokinesis. Controlling heat and cold was the magic that human who had obtained magic power naturally learned the foremost.<br /> <br /> The swimsuit was something they received from the purchase of the Knight Order from the unmanned department store in Nagoya. Kazuki and the others were told to choose whatever they like. Someone like Mio had her eyes shining from all the high-class brands at that kind of time.<br /> <br /> “Ottoo―to-kunn♪”<br /> <br /> While he was staring at the sea, an excited voice was calling out at his back.<br /> <br /> When he looked back, the one who came out the first from the girl’s changing room was Kaguya-senpai in black bikini.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai looked like she wanted to say something, she was looking at Kazuki with broad grin.<br /> <br /> “…It’s really an adult swimsuit isn’t it? The swimsuit really matched senpai well.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufuu, when I’m like this it’s different with using Magic Dress, what a relief.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai pulled the hem of the pareo she wore tightly. When Kaguya-senpai lapsed into delirium because of Asmodeus, she went beyond daring and acted a little like that, but actually she also felt embarrassed just like other people.<br /> <br /> However although the pareo in her lower body lowered the exposure rate, the destructive power of her chest bikini was tremendous. It was heavily drooping bouncingly that even now it looked like it was going to burst out. In addition even though her hips was constricted tightly but her thighs were too voluptuous, what a really lewd body.<br /> <br /> …He was too conscious of it that the atmosphere became really not suitable for playing together.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun’s appearance in swimsuit is also really good! Especially your muscular chest is really great-!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s eyes too sparkled at Kazuki and she walked approaching him.<br /> <br /> “…Kaguya-senpai strangely like chest muscle aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, I like it♪” Kaguya-senpai circled both her hands to Kazuki’s back and hugged him, and then she pressed her own face to Kazuki’s chest and rubbed her cheek repeatedly. Kazuki too hugged her back tightly.<br /> <br /> Their body were naturally in mutual―senpai’s breast was bouncingly pressing at him.<br /> <br /> They were hugging each other in swimsuit but…for some reason it felt like they were hugging each other in nude.<br /> <br /> When he was stroking her smooth back, senpai was “It tickles♪” and she laughed happily.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-!” There was even another voice calling at him and he turned back.<br /> <br /> The second one that came along was Mio wearing a red bikini.<br /> <br /> By some chance perhaps the rock-paper-scissor from before was for deciding the order of the girls’ exit.<br /> <br /> Mio was saying “How is it?” and took some poses *sa*, *sa*, in order to display her own body.<br /> <br /> “You are really pretty. The swimsuit really pulled out the goodness of Mio’s style.”<br /> <br /> The swimsuit that she chose was exactly [a swimsuit that couldn’t be worn except for the chosen person].<br /> <br /> The area covered by clothes was considerably even smaller than Kaguya-senpai’s swimsuit, the fabric and string that were cut directly enhanced Mio’s willowy limbs stylishly.<br /> <br /> Even though it had simple cutting he could still feel the calculation inside it, it was not a clothing that simply had high exposure rate, surely it also had the aim to enhance the femininity of the wearer until the limit. It had some artistic in it.<br /> <br /> This swimsuit had already reached the zone where it absolutely wouldn’t suit someone that didn’t have a good style, but it suited Mio perfectly. There was this presence of a high class swimsuit that just like that presented the girl.<br /> <br /> Mio was “Hehehe! It really suit me!”, she puffed her chest and laughed. After that she looked alternately at Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai who were hugging, and then she opened her both hands to the front and said “Hug hug&lt;ref&gt;Mio said this in English&lt;/ref&gt;!” …Hug hug?<br /> <br /> “Come on, hug hug!!” Mio said it again in a little angry tone.<br /> <br /> …Did she want to be hugged from his side?<br /> <br /> Kazuki dragged Kaguya-senpai trailingly while walking near Mio and then he hugged Mio tightly.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s scent was gently mixing with Mio’s scent.<br /> <br /> There was Mio in his right side and Kaguya-senpai in his left side, making their posture to be in dumpling state&lt;ref&gt;Being crowded together. Dumpling in Japan is usually skewered together where the dumplings were pressed against each other.&lt;/ref&gt;. Both of them were in swimsuit, that was why no matter where he touched his hands met the sensation of a girl's bare skin. They were wrapped together.<br /> <br /> Mio was “Nn~♪” leaking out a satisfied sweet voice, and pressed herself loosely inside Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki mustn’t temper your body too much okay. After all slender macho around this much is the best.”<br /> <br /> While Mio rubbed herself repeatedly on Kazuki's chest, she handed down such evaluation.<br /> <br /> “Objection&lt;ref&gt;Phoenix Wright reference I think&lt;/ref&gt;! …I think it’s not particularly bad even if your chest become a little more buff!”<br /> <br /> From the side Kaguya-senpai immediately shouted her objection.<br /> <br /> “No, I hate brawny build! After all Kazu-nii is my prince!”<br /> <br /> Both of them glared at each other with Kazuki in between, and then they began to argue of this and that about Kazuki’s ideal body build.<br /> <br /> “…Something like muscle, I think it’s best if its only practical though…”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki was gazing at their argument in dumbfounded look, he felt the edge of his trunks got pulled *kui kui* repeatedly. When he looked back, there was Koyuki there. Hikaru-senpai was also coming along at her side.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki and Hikaru-senpai. …Wait, Koyuki, isn’t that just your Magic Dress?”<br /> <br /> “This Magic Dress can also fulfill the role of swimsuit sufficiently anyway. …When I was going to choose my swimsuit, Vepar became sulky. Such thing is unneeded, she said.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s speech was mixed with a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki’s appearance is something I’m used to see as usual but…as I thought white really suited Koyuki.”<br /> <br /> The extra ornaments were omitted from Koyuki’s magic dress, making her wrapped from chest to hips only with the exterior in white school swimsuit shape. The exposure rate was fewer than bikini―however the feel of the surface material was delicately translucent, the degree of light faintly made her skin showed through. The swimsuit was fairly, no considerably bewitching.<br /> <br /> Seeing the dumpling state Kazuki was in with Mio and Kaguya-senpai, Koyuki circled their surrounding and discovered a gap, “Puu” and then she forced her way there. The sweetness density was increased even further.<br /> <br /> Mio and Kaguya-senpai were even now “The gap when Kazuki looks unexpectedly macho after he took off his clothes is great.” “Looking slender in clothing is scientifically impossible. Macho is constantly macho.” saying things like that they were continuing the unproductive argument. Kazuki had the feeling that somehow the talk was not about him anymore so he left them alone.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai’s swimming race swimsuit is coolly stylish isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Hehehe, just as I thought I had the hunch that cutey thing doesn’t suit me…”<br /> <br /> Such thing is not true, he thought, however what Hikaru-senpai was wearing was a glossy race swimsuit of blue and water color with yellow line inserted in it. The slender high leg that grew out emphasized the length of her foot.<br /> <br /> …However, the splendid high leg was amazing. With acute angle exactly like the alphabet V, it tightly dug into the girlish buxom hip.<br /> <br /> “But this is fairly amazing you know. While I’m walking it dug into my bottom arbitrarily…”<br /> <br /> Half-spinning her body with a twirl, Hikaru-senpai directed her bottom at his direction.<br /> <br /> The steep angle of the high leg dug into her bottom, it was on the brink of looking like T-pack.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s face spontaneously became red and he averted his eyes. Looking at his reaction, Hikaru-senpai’s expression brightened.<br /> <br /> …This morning it was like that too, but this person was very happy if Kazuki was conscious of her as an opposite sex and it sometimes made her thoughtlessly started indecent behavior that made him troubled.<br /> <br /> “Hehehe-! Ass Attack! I’m a person from planet Oshirifurifuri&lt;ref&gt;The meaning of this word is Ass Shake Shake, if anyone can think of a better name feel free to edit this.&lt;/ref&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai suddenly launched a hip attack at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Because of the hip attack that forcefully wedged its way through between Mio and Kaguya-senpai, the two who were in the middle of heated argument were “Wa, what’s with this ass!” and got thrown back.<br /> <br /> Hikari-senpai who turned into alien from planet Oshirifurifuri was rubbing her bottom around the area of Kazuki’s waist.<br /> <br /> “No wait, everyone is clinging on me too much here!”<br /> <br /> Amasaki Mio―152 Hiakari Koyuki―132 Otonashi Kaguya―129 Hoshikaze Hikaru―118<br /> <br /> <br /> There was even more voices coming from behind him.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, it’s really absurd for all of you to think that you can steal Nii-sama’s heart with only swimsuits around that degree! I lost the initiative at the appearance turn but, Nii-sama please look this way! To the alluring figure of the star performers Kanae and Kohaku!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked up at the direction of the voice. In front of the beach house, Kanae and Kohaku stood there with their chests wrapped with cotton wrapping and cotton loincloth tied on their waists. They showed that appearance brimming with self-confidence and arrogant attitude.<br /> <br /> …Ah no, Kohaku was looking slightly embarrassed.<br /> <br /> “This is the Japanese Traditional Sexy Fair…Doshi☆Fun&lt;ref&gt;I think she reversed Fundoshi (loincloth) into Doshifun here. Though I don’t know what is the meaning or if it’s a reference to something.&lt;/ref&gt;!”<br /> <br /> “Kanae, Kohaku…I don’t think that kind of appearance exist.”<br /> <br /> His reasoning that was shaken because of everyone had cooled down instantly thanks to Kanae.<br /> <br /> “E, EEEEEEEEEE!? How can Nii-sama’s heart be that harmonious after seeing this!?”<br /> <br /> “No, after all that appearance is not limited only to Japanese style right? Aren’t you throwing away various important things as a girl like that? I cannot think of anything else other than you running some kind of joke…”<br /> <br /> “GAA―NN!” Kanae became teary-eyed while Kohaku directed spiteful eyes to Kanae.<br /> <br /> “…Even though this one had said that it’s strange, Kana-nyan-senpai was bragging [I know all there is to know about Nii-sama!] full of confidence so in the end…”<br /> <br /> “Shu, shut up! Don’t say any complaint, aren’t you the one that copied me on your own accord even though I decided this by myself!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae turned back and shouted at Kohaku. Her bottom was *purun!* shaking. …The bottom became something amazing to look at from behind when wearing loincloth, Kazuki reflexively averted his eyes.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, that being the case Kanae-san is a very shy person isn’t she? But running a clever plan while hiding one’s embarrassment is a blunder. …There is no easy path in subtleties of man and woman except using all one’s might!”<br /> <br /> All one’s might―the one who appeared this time along with a proclamation that sounds amazing for some reason was Ryuutaki Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> With refreshing smile, the swimsuit that she was wearing…was a straightforward ''string'' swimsuit.<br /> <br /> Slingshot―narrow belt that was fine even if it was called string was hanged on from the neck to the breast and from the breast to the waist. It barely retained its claim as swimsuit by the belt that was hanging on the apex of the breast. Whether Miyabi-senpai should be called a celebrity or an exhibitionist, she had a really erotic &amp; gorgeous style.<br /> <br /> With a composed expression as if saying that it was only around this much, Miyabi-senpai sexily brushed up her long hair that was colored silver from elf’s special trait. Kazuki reflexively stiffened from the unexpected nice body.<br /> <br /> “Please wait Nee-sama! That swimsuit is really not for sane person!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai was dashing out from the beach house while raising a piercing cry in school swimsuit appearance.<br /> <br /> “Please stop exposing that appearance to anyone other than me!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai caught the arm of Miyabi-senpai. However Miyabi-senpai was “Noo!”, she made a resistance. Miyabi-senpai attempted to shake off the arm that caught her making her chest swaying *purun purun* from her movement.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai floated a composed smile toward Kazuki whose eyes became completely nailed on that sight.<br /> <br /> “…Fufufu, when Kazuki is looking at me like that, I cannot help but feel a shiver on my spine you know.”<br /> <br /> Composed. No…she looked like she was forcing herself somewhere.<br /> <br /> “You look like just a mere pervert Nee-sama-! I brought over Nee-sama’s share of school swimsuit too so come with me!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai pinioned Miyabi-senpai’s arm and was trying to lead her into the beach house.<br /> <br /> “I said no already!” Miyabi-senpai tried to shake off Shinobu-senpai from dragging her.<br /> <br /> Because of that momentum of hers, *poroo* some kind of sound could be heard.<br /> <br /> Actually there was no such sound at all, but that kind of sound effect was flashing inside his head. When Miyabi-senpai’s body that was pinioned shook to left and right, her large breasts also rampaged to the left and right, causing the belt that was only hanged on that ‘summit’ got out of place *poron*, the large breast fell out.<br /> <br /> Look soft…Kazuki’s eyes opened wide, fixedly staring at that sight.<br /> <br /> “…I, I don’t plan to show until this far though…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s white skin became bright red from shame. However she immediately attempted to recover her composed smile.<br /> <br /> “…Fufu, this is not really shameful or anything though, it’s not an embarrassing body after all.”<br /> <br /> With a composed smile as if pulling on a mask, she didn’t even try to hide the jiggling breast.<br /> <br /> “Nee-sama! Withdraw! This is already prohibited!!”&lt;ref&gt;Shinobu always talked in polite language.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai finally went as far as using Enchant Aura and forcefully carried up Miyabi-senpai. Miyabi-senpai’s body had become all tensed up and she didn’t resist anymore. Just like that the two of them were returning to the beach house.<br /> <br /> …Overwhelmed by the event just now, no words could come out from his mouth.<br /> <br /> Passing the Ryuutaki sisters, Karin and Kazuha-senpai finally came.<br /> <br /> “What’s with that? Breast palanquin&lt;ref&gt;The words used here is portable shrine (carried in festivals)&lt;/ref&gt;?” Karin left behind such comment.<br /> <br /> “Leaving aside that, Hayashizaki Kazuki! It’s just fine even if you comment on my swimsuit appearance!”<br /> <br /> Karin made a full rotation with a twirl. What she wore was a swimsuit for use of primary schoolgirl that was printed with anime character.<br /> <br /> “Eh, aa…it suits you. You are extremely cute in a certain meaning. I can’t really see you as someone the same age with me.”<br /> <br /> “Mu, something is suspicious in your way of talking…Well, that must be because you really like anime. Fufun.”<br /> <br /> At her side, Kazuha-senpai who was examining Kazuki’s expression was wearing a wine red adult-like bikini that was arranged with white ribbon. For Kazuha-senpai to wear a bikini with high exposure rate was a little unexpected.<br /> <br /> “Senpai’s tight abs is really well reflected as a swordsman huh. It’s a beautiful body in supple way.”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t suddenly look at me with strange eyes-! Don’t review me!!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki put his impression in his mouth, Kazuha-senpai lost her temper just like usual.<br /> <br /> “I’m not looking at senpai with strange eyes. It just remind me once again what a hard-worker senpai is.”<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, so this is a talk as swordsman.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki intended it as the highest praise when he said beautiful muscle, but Kazuha-senpai donned dissatisfied face.<br /> <br /> “But as a girl senpai is also really lovely. The practical muscle as a swordsman mysteriously doesn’t harm senpai’s womanly charm. Moreover that bikini is a little unexpected and charming.”<br /> <br /> Getting praised with time difference, Kazuha-senpai became bright red from receiving the surprise attack.<br /> <br /> And then a heart mark of positivity level up came flying from her chest, however as if deceiving that heart mark,<br /> <br /> “What are you saying [cute] for even though you are the younger one-! Youu-!!”<br /> <br /> Getting angry once more, Kazuha-senpai hit him again and again.<br /> <br /> Kazuki separated his body from the girls that were clinging on him and cleverly evade Kazuha-senpai’s repeated strike while using Foresight. Thereupon Kazuha-senpai became even more irate and came hitting him even more.<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―80<br /> <br /> “Now that I’m looking, where is Lotte? I don’t catch sight of her but…”<br /> <br /> While evading Kazuha-senpai’s hit, Kazuki was looking around at his surrounding.<br /> <br /> “She was not in the changing room, so I wonder if she is not together with Akane-senpai and the others.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai too tilted her head in wonder.<br /> <br /> “Won’t she come if we wait for her? Let’s play first!”<br /> <br /> Mio pulled Kazuki’s arm as if feeling that the time they had together was too precious to waste.<br /> <br /> At that time a voice rang out from the direction of the sea.<br /> <br /> “The event is not going there! Everyone can play except for Onii-san! Kazuki-oniisan will be together with me to get the technique of operating the boat beaten into his head desu!”<br /> <br /> When they turned around, a single small boat was heading to the beach cutting through the waves from the other side of the horizon. The one who drove was…Lotte!<br /> <br /> Before the boat could go up the beach, it stopped still.<br /> <br /> “Wooden small ship &lt;Solomon&gt;. You are going to ride that and head to Ise.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai who was talking with someone in the beach house was, while still wearing sunglass, coming down to the beach with her mantle of the knight uniform flapping from the morning breeze. She was pointlessly cool.<br /> <br /> The group was reeled back, making Mio raise a protest.<br /> <br /> “Eeee, you are going with this kind of small shabby boat!? Even if a bigger ship like a cruiser is prepared…”<br /> <br /> “This is not a shabby thing, it was created by skilled hands, a precious traditional handicraft. In the case that Yamato properly bring out radar and conducted border security, that small wooden boat is able to slip through the radar. The wood has the property that make it easier to absorb the electromagnetic wave compared to iron or resin.”<br /> <br /> Radar worked by transmitting electromagnetic wave to the target and detected the target by sensing the electromagnetic wave that clashed with the target and got reflected back. By using something made from wood, moreover with a size that small it would surely be difficult to detect the boat.<br /> <br /> The Knight Order had seen that Yamato was unable to construct a security set-up using radar, but there was no such thing as being too careful.<br /> <br /> “Also there are quite a lot of reef in Irago water path, so for an amateur rather than driving a large boat it’s better to use small boat.”<br /> <br /> “This is a motor boat loaded with engine isn’t it? I thought that I’m going to cross the sea by paddling.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked about the surprising addition. This was an infiltration, so the number one concern was [sound].<br /> <br /> “Just as you hear this boat is loaded with motor that has high silencer so you don’t need to worry about sound. It’s also loaded with GPS, even in the miniscule chance that the boat get overturned you can fly using magic…if I have to say my worries then it’s only if someone discover you by naked eye. Such worry is needless if it’s you right, Cyclops?”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai laughed challengingly. There was not many humans that had better eyesight than Kazuki. Before the enemy could even discover Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai, surely Kazuki would discover the enemy faster and could escape. <br /> <br /> “By the way senpai is not wearing swimsuit?”<br /> <br /> “…I and Kanon have the position of leading you guys. The permission to relax doesn’t include both of us. Please don’t say anything stupid.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai asserted stiffly with her sunglass sparkling. However from her side,<br /> <br /> “HYAHHAA―!!!”<br /> <br /> With goggle in her head, school swimsuit and even swimming ring, with such complete equipment Kanon-senpai dashed across the beach and leaped into the sea even earlier than anybody else. Akane-senpai was speechless and cradled her head, smiling wryly at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The boat was made from wood not only in its exterior but also its interior, the drive unit installed in its stern emitted a luster of modernity. The drive unit was a unification of motor, battery, and propeller. The boat’s total length was 12 meters, however the width didn’t even reach 2 meters.<br /> <br /> With two seater sitting side-by-side horizontally, Kazuki was sitting in the driver seat with Lotte in the assistant driver seat in a cramped space where their shoulder and thigh could touch each other. Rather Lotte was happier with that cramped space.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, I’m monopolizing Kazuki-oniisan onboard a ship desu!”<br /> <br /> Lotte who was sitting on the seat beside him was wearing tankini swimsuit with white tank-top entered by pink borders and hotpants. The exposure rate was low but she looked wholesomely cute. Amazingly cute.<br /> <br /> Lotte happily frolicked at Kazuki’s left shoulder.<br /> <br /> When they turned around to the beach direction from the floating boat on top of the sea, everyone else were playing at the beach’s edge, competing in swimming, or burying and got buried in the sandy beach.<br /> <br /> For Lotte to say something like monopolizing Kazuki like this was a rare event.<br /> <br /> “That’s because Lotte always holding back too much.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki kept stroking her head, Lotte made a dazzling bright smile at him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki nonchalantly lowered his hand that was stroking Lotte’s head to the back of her head, then suddenly he forcefully drew Lotte’s face near and stole her lips forcibly.<br /> <br /> For a while their lips tasted each other’s softness intimately. And then when their faces separated, Lotte’s face boiled red dazedly as if she was drunk. A large heart mark headed to Kazuki and flew.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-oniisan, you had become skillful in doing this kind of thing unfalteringly, or perhaps I should say…the surprise just now was a lovely surprise attack desu-!”<br /> <br /> Lotte jumped into Kazuki’s chest enthusiastically, making the small boat shook on top of the water surface in a loll.<br /> <br /> …Although it was because Lotte was happy no matter what he did with her, so he was just trying out to act proactively for once.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Lotte in return while recovering the balance of the ship, and then he was brushing her head gently once more.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan…not just my head, please touch various places in me even more♪”<br /> <br /> Lotte whispered bewitchingly. Then Kazuki brushed Lotte’s back gently.<br /> <br /> “Ehehe…do it in even more various places♪”<br /> <br /> Being urged even further, he brought his hand from the back to her waist, then her stomach where his hand kept stroking her body. “Nn…♪” Lotte released an ardent sigh, her body was quivering.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, more, I want you to do even more desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte rubbed her thigh on him. That act was not the childish sweetness she always did in front of everyone. Lotte who was like a little angel was becoming passionate inside Kazuki’s arms.<br /> <br /> {Lotte, it’s extremely painful for me to disturb you here but, we have to teach Kazuki the ship control soon.}<br /> <br /> Suddenly the voice of Prometheus rang out inside his head. Looked like the same voice also reverberated inside Lotte’s head, the girl separated her body “Mein gott…” and sulking a little she pouted her lips.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Please grip the handle with left hand. The handle is attached to the stern of the ship and connected to the drive unit, it can change the direction of the propulsion.”<br /> <br /> Lotte was teaching Kazuki smoothly. However Lotte was not too detailed herself in how to operate the boat, it was the god of civilization Prometheus possessing Lotte that had the thorough knowledge of civilization’s convenient tool.<br /> <br /> When he gripped the handle just as he was told, a heavy sensation was conveyed into his palm with a jerk.<br /> <br /> “Manipulate the throttle lever with your right hand. The throttle is like a car’s accelerator. The boat will go forward if you pushed the throttle forward and it will change into backing movement when the throttle is pushed to the back.”<br /> <br /> “And this flap switch?”<br /> <br /> “This flap is to control the inclination of the boat, so please always watch the condition of the sea surface attentively and operate this switch appropriately. The newest ship has sensor to automatically control the flap but…this is a Japanese boat made from wood that was hastily made and the drive unit is attached in the external, so it doesn’t have the capability until that far desu.”<br /> <br /> “Handle with left hand, throttle and flap with right hand…look fairly difficult huh, this boat.”<br /> <br /> “Because officially this boat need license to operate desu. Beyond doubt, what we are doing is unlicensed driving.”<br /> <br /> Lotte asserted suspiciously.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps there will not be situation like this but, please absolutely don’t operate the motor when there is human that doesn’t have magic power in the surrounding. They will receive heavy injury if they get swallowed by the propeller.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki pushed down the slot, the boat began to move, the morning breeze changed into a strong headwind.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s fluffy hair was swayed pleasantly by the wind.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, I’ll give you a reward every time you control the boat skillfully desu-!”<br /> <br /> Rather than calling it a reward it was the person herself that was fawning on him, Lotte kissed Kazuki’s face from the side. Kazuki practiced the boat’s operation for a while, at the same time Lotte reclined on Kazuki while they were enjoying the drive on top of the sea.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Everyone apart from the Ryuutaki sisters began to play beach ball.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai didn’t mix with everyone and went away somewhere….<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was learning to operate the boat in isolation on top of the sea was finished in less than one hour.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, how much confidence you have in the strategy this time desu?”<br /> <br /> On the ship that was still floating leisurely on the open sea, Lotte asked that all of a sudden.<br /> <br /> How much confidence he had in the strategy this time huh―the one who designed the strategy this time was the person who led the Knight Order’s Shizuoka regiment, Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “Lotte doesn’t have much confidence on that Commander Yamagata don’t you?”<br /> <br /> Lotte nodded with a bob of her head.<br /> <br /> Lotte was honest in all respects towards Kazuki, but it was not like she harbored that attitude toward just anyone.<br /> <br /> Rather for Lotte who was born and raised in a royal court which was a whirlpool of scheme and plot, she would use Telepathy to anyone she directly met and unless she had confirmed that the other party didn’t hold any ill will she absolutely wouldn’t opened up her heart.<br /> <br /> “I, think that the operation this time is dangerous desu. I don’t understand it well if I’m asked why I think that but…it’s like our direction is completely guided…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded. Kazuki too had a similar feeling like that.<br /> <br /> The enemy’s hand didn’t reach until the seaside and its security was easy to infiltrate.<br /> <br /> It was as if the government of Yamato didn’t think of Ise Shrine as important, their wariness was thin.<br /> <br /> Those guys might also be unaware that if Amaterasu was defeated all the other Japanese Divas would also recover their sanity. After all in a state of Wild God the Diva couldn’t communicate normally, so it was not odd even if they didn’t know but…they were too full of opening.<br /> <br /> If this strategy succeed against the enemy that was full of opening, the enemy’s battle strength would plummet and the victory and defeat would be decided. There was no other way where they didn’t use this strategy. However….<br /> <br /> “Certainly, this is just too convenient.”<br /> <br /> If in the worst case, the enemy force was waiting in ambush, then both Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai would be trapped in a desperate situation.<br /> <br /> If this convenient situation, ''by some chance was set by someone? ''<br /> <br /> “Is that Commander Yamagata, doesn’t think well about Kazuki-oniisan?”<br /> <br /> “I also think that it might be so. It doesn’t matter even if it’s a trap, maybe he think of me as something like a sacrificial pawn.”<br /> <br /> The King of Solomon. For the human that had already seized power in Japan presently, Kazuki’s existence couldn’t be said as someone that they would necessarily welcome. Such attitude was something that he had experienced personally in the past.<br /> <br /> Actually there was also even further reason to be hesitating. …Beatrix who had covered him and fell into magic intoxication still hadn’t opened her eyes. If he could he didn’t want to be separated from her side. There was something he wanted to immediately say the moment she was awake, even while she was still asleep he wanted to wait beside her.<br /> <br /> “If onii-san feel any kind of danger, please escape immediately.”<br /> <br /> Lotte hugged Kazuki’s left arm tightly.<br /> <br /> When pushes come to shove he had to consider about the right time to escape. Kazuki had acquired several magic that could fly in the sky. Because all of it was too flashy he couldn’t use them in the case of infiltration, but in the case of escape it didn’t matter even if he use those magic. If he flew to the sky using [Deep Striker] or [Blazing Wings] while accelerating himself using [Ride Lightning], there wasn’t supposed to be many magician who could pursue him in that speed.<br /> <br /> He had to make a precise self-defense…above all Kazuha-senpai too was together with him.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s contracted Diva was Futsunushi no Kami of Japanese Mythology. That was why even in the case he really fell into the worst situation, the enemy might overlook Kazuha-senpai as long as he presented himself….<br /> <br /> “I won’t forgive Kazuki-oniisan if you yourself doesn’t go home too okay desu?”<br /> <br /> Perhaps Lotte felt Kazuki’s feeling slightly, she was glaring at Kazuki with a scowl. Kazuki was “Sorry” and smiled wryly. However he couldn’t help it that such feeling flashed inside his head for a moment.<br /> <br /> “I’m saying this because I’m just alone with Lotte but…”<br /> <br /> Surely the big shots of the government still hadn’t recognize Kazuki completely, the Solomon 72 Pillar was also still only in the stage of testing Kazuki. In regards to that the combination of Lotte and Prometheus, for Kazuki was truly [companions that had no lie]. They are a duo that absolutely had no hidden side from him.<br /> <br /> If it was with them he had the feeling that he could be frank and spoke his true feeling.<br /> <br /> Of course Leme was also listening in this conversation with butting in about anything.<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami too, feels suspicious for some reason. Even though he doesn’t have any excuse like Leme or Prometheus that lost their memory, he only gave small amount of information when he talked. He might have some kind of reason but…the one who created the chance for the strategy this time was, Futsunushi no Kami.”<br /> <br /> If in the case that this strategy was led on by someone, the one who would fall under suspicion on the top of the list was Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> “Is Futsunushi no Kami-san a spy from Yamato and he is luring Kazuki-oniisan right now?”<br /> <br /> As expected, even for Lotte she couldn’t sense until as far as a Diva’s state of mind.<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t think that Futsunushi no Kami is in Yamato’s camp…”<br /> <br /> The explanation of [the nature possessed by Wild God] that Futsunushi no Kami gave to Kazuki had already been proved as truth at present from how Ame no Uzume returned to her sanity.<br /> <br /> In the first place from how Kazuki could use Futsunushi no Kami’s magic, ''there was no doubt that Futsunushi no Kami was fundamentally an ally, but''….<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami too, might be planning to test me. He is not luring me into a trap from Yamato, but perhaps he is inviting me to the trial location of Japanese Mythology…?”<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> When he got down from the boat, Kazuki didn’t join with the playing but he searched for Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai and the others said that “We too searched for them, but we didn’t see them.”<br /> <br /> But Kazuki was able to sense the where about of a companion he had tied a bond with.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s positivity level was too low that he couldn’t sense her, but if it was Miyabi-senpai’s positivity level he could sense her faintly. Instead perhaps from Miyabi-senpai too she might be wishing for [I want Kazuki to come], in comparison of her positivity level of 44, he could feel a strong wave of magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki walked out to the direction of the beach’s edge.<br /> <br /> The area changed into a rough rocky place where the terrain was unsuited for swimming.<br /> <br /> He had to say something to Miyabi-senpai, some few words. That was what Kazuki thinking. <br /> <br /> Perhaps she was forcing herself that she wore that kind of swimsuit, and then undergoing that accident, she managed to mend her composed expression, but surely she felt hurt and embarrassed even at that time.<br /> <br /> He immediately discovered the two sisters. They were in a rocky place separated from the beach. As if trying to hide behind a boulder almost as big as an adult, Miyabi-senpai was standing directly opposite Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai had changed into a school swimsuit, both of them currently was in some kind of quarrel with each other.<br /> <br /> “…That’s why, we had especially came here together with everyone after all, it’s no good if we don’t play with everyone.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai talked with strong tone as if in reproaching.<br /> <br /> “No. I’m coming because I thought I can play with Nee-sama. That’s why Nee-sama, together with me…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s hand reached to Miyabi-senpai imploringly. Miyabi-senpai didn’t take that hand.<br /> <br /> “If I take that hand, we are going to completely go wrong the two of us.”<br /> <br /> “Why…” Shinobu-senpai’s eyes shook fiercely in agitation. Her heart started to beat violently from receiving a large shock, but that agitation was only conveyed from her eyes.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was standing stock still without raising any footstep.<br /> <br /> The wandering eyes of Shinobu-senpai that couldn’t calm down located the figure of Kazuki that was like that.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai gulped her breath strongly and glared hatefully at Kazuki. Looking at that change of expression, Miyabi-senpai too chased the destination of Shinobu-senpai’s line of sight, “…Kazuki!” and she finally noticed Kazuki’s appearance.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai suddenly turned her back and dashed away to the opposite direction from Kazuki. Miyabi-senpai chased that leaving back with her eyes, but she didn’t go over there and walked to Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> “…Before, I showed you my shameful appearance wasn’t I? Although I didn’t plan, to lose my composure like that.”<br /> <br /> Was it the story about the swimsuit? …Kazuki was at a loss of what he should say to her.<br /> <br /> “I don’t think it was something embarrassing. It was really beautiful.”<br /> <br /> The white skin characteristic of an elf on a glamorous figure. With different individuality from Koyuki, the scene was burned vividly into his heart.<br /> <br /> The instant the swimsuit flipped and her breast was out, Kazuki’s eyes became nailed on the spot as if his soul was just plundered.<br /> <br /> “Because of that, it’s strange to say something like thank you I think, but…please don’t fret or feel hurt over it too much. That is what I want to convey to senpai.”<br /> <br /> “…I chose that swimsuit with the intention of showing my skin to you, so I’m happy if you say that to me. The truth is, it was certainly embarrassing though…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s cheeks was colored red from shame, however she replied so in relief.<br /> <br /> “Rather than something like a swimsuit, senpai has to run after Shinobu-senpai immediately.”<br /> <br /> “…It’s fine. If I don’t separate with that child a little. Let’s just leave her alone. Rather than that kind of matter, I want to play together and get along well with you and everyone properly. This is a rare chance after all.”<br /> <br /> After Miyabi-senpai shook her head and denied what Kazuki said, she reached her hand to Kazuki imploringly.<br /> <br /> It was exactly the spitting image of how Shinobu-senpai reached her hand to Miyabi-senpai just before this.<br /> <br /> While Kazuki took that hand gently―however he denied it at the same time.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is impatient. Also senpai must not do something that will hurt Shinobu-senpai.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s eyelashes shook with a start.<br /> <br /> “That…I, I thought that the both of us cannot keep staying like this…”<br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai, she will surely think that she has been left behind by Miyabi-senpai. And yet if Miyabi-senpai got too impatient like this, senpai will only rapidly get completely cornered…”<br /> <br /> With Miyabi-senpai’s transformation into elf, the two twin sisters were locked into a world where it was just the two of them.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai grew to harbor feeling of distrust toward everything of the outside world that discriminate the big sister that she loved.<br /> <br /> ''In reverse Miyabi''-senpai had gotten back on her feet because Shinobu-senpai continued to stay by her side for a long time.<br /> <br /> On Shinobu-senpai’s side who was not the one who became an elf herself, even now she was still continuing to confine herself inside her shell….<br /> <br /> “I don’t mean to ignore, that child’s feeling…”<br /> <br /> Even while saying that she thought deeply of what Kazuki pointed out. Miyabi-senpai hung her head down crestfallenly.<br /> <br /> “…That’s right isn’t it, this is not for the sake of the child or anything like that. I, come like this to the sea with everyone. I might be able to make friends, with you, and with everyone else, making merry and everything…. It’s really like that isn’t it, even though that child is still unable to prepare her heart for something like this. Even though I can recover until this far is because that child keep continuing to think about me all this time….I was just about going to discard that feeling of hers.”<br /> <br /> “Senpai should not think that senpai is discarding Shinobu-senpai or anything like that.”<br /> <br /> The expression of Miyabi-senpai that was always showing a composed smile crumbled and peeled off.<br /> <br /> “I discarded her! Because, being alone with Shinobu just the two of us, is enough already! Being just the two of us like this, is just the same thing with being alone…! It looks far more fun to be together with all of you!!”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai had said to him before [Quickly conquer me too] while floating a composed smile, however,<br /> <br /> ―She was not supposed to be composed.<br /> <br /> She was making behavior that made people felt her elegance, but that might be just her pretending to be strong, showing [I don’t feel painful for even a little] to the outside world that had discriminated her.<br /> <br /> Right now, Miyabi-senpai’s shoulders were shaking with self-disgust for herself [that was going to discard] her little sister.<br /> <br /> The two that had been dependent on each other mutually for a long time. These two sisters, it would be in vain if it was not simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, it’s going to be okay. Because, I will show you that I’m going to [conquer] Shinobu-senpai too.”<br /> <br /> This was the first time he had ever said [conquer], a galge-like word like that with such earnest feeling like this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki lightly embraced the trembling Miyabi-senpai and pat her shaking shoulder.<br /> <br /> “But I think it will take a little more time, so please run after Shinobu-senpai for now. Not only with Shinobu-senpai, I will become more intimate with Miyabi-senpai as well. And then after that, let’s go with the three of us to the beach or a pool again. After all the highlight of summer will be from now on.”<br /> <br /> “…Thank you, my King.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai looked downward deeply as if hiding her expression. From that face, a sniffling sound was leaking out.<br /> <br /> “Please don’t forcibly hide yourself when you are crying.”<br /> <br /> “Really you are, even though I was desperately trying to look good but you see through all of it…”<br /> <br /> A large heart mark came flying from Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai raised her face that was wet with tears and smiled even while shedding tears.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to Shinobu’s place now. I’ll apologize. I have to make that child feel peaceful.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai wiped her tears, then she decisively turned her back to Kazuki and ran.<br /> <br /> …Let’s go back to the beach. Kazuki too turned on his heel.<br /> <br /> There was still a little time before his departure, there still might be some time left to be together with everyone.<br /> <br /> When he came out from the shadow of the rocky area…Koyuki was standing there.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki? …Did you see?”<br /> <br /> “I didn’t mean to peek but…” Her voice was just a little down.<br /> <br /> “What’s the matter?” Saying that Kazuki approached her.<br /> <br /> “It’s really nothing. Just…”<br /> <br /> Her face was somehow like a good obedient child who was despondent because her toy was taken away.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, from now on you…might not be concerning yourself about me anymore.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> “Until now you are sympathizing with the pitiful elf and concerned yourself with me but, now a new more pitiful elf has appear…” Koyuki talked while averting her eyes to another direction.<br /> <br /> “Are you seriously saying that?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was approaching near Koyuki, he circled his hands on her small back and embraced her. The sensation of her body snugly settling into his arms was very lovely. He forcefully directed Koyuki’s face that was facing another direction to look at him, then he repeated one more time. “Are you seriously thinking, that I never embraced Koyuki except from something like out of pity?”<br /> <br /> Being stared directly by Kazuki, Koyuki’s face was red and her eyes became moist.<br /> <br /> “I’m not thinking that…if I show you I’m sulking like this, I thought you might spoil me…”<br /> <br /> “Good grief, Koyuki is really a spoiled child huh.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki let out a deep breath and showed his amazement. And then while hugging Koyuki, his fingers stroked the girl’s sensitive long ear. “…!” Koyuki was trembling twitchingly from the sudden sensation.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki…you always touched my ear so casually but, this, it give lewd feelings even more than Kazuki think so, that…”<br /> <br /> “Eh, is that so? I just think of this as the extension of patting the head…so am I better to stop this?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki was going to separate his finger from her ear, Koyuki raised her voice in fluster.<br /> <br /> “It, it’s okay for you to not stop! …Please do it more.”<br /> <br /> “Koyuki is…just a little perverted aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki continued to graze Koyuki’s earring *shuu shuu* for a while and Koyuki’s spine also continued to tremble in shivers. Koyuki’s breathing was becoming disarrayed little by little.<br /> <br /> “Haa, haa…Please say it properly using your words, that you are not just pitying me…”<br /> <br /> “It’s because Koyuki is adorable and I love you, that I am being together like this with you.”<br /> <br /> After whispering those words, he kissed Koyuki’s white cheek. The cheek of Koyuki who was playing in the sea just now tasted salty.<br /> <br /> “…Please do it in my lips…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki presented her lips adorably and demanded so. For the sake of making her said that honestly, Kazuki teased her by only kissing her in cheek before this in preparation and bide his time before he kissed her as strong as he could to demonstrate his love.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki…n, nnn!!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki whose lip was sucked while her ear was toyed around continuously by one hand suddenly had her body spring strongly. And then as if power left her waist, she sank down on the spot.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> When it was time to sail out, the boat was moved to the pier of the wharf.<br /> <br /> At the place where it can be reached just by walking a little from the beach, a pier of asphalt was protruding out from the coastline.<br /> <br /> After Kazuha-senpai boarded the boat and sat beside Kazuki, she let out complaints restlessly.<br /> <br /> “Why is the boat this cramped…”<br /> <br /> “Please endure it a little, after all it seemed that preparing the ship’s provision was not easy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai had done changing from their swimsuits into [casual Japanese clothes] that had been remodeled to make it easy to move while it was worn. It seemed that in Yamato this kind of clothing had become booming among the youngsters there.<br /> <br /> The information between Japan and Yamato had been cut off, but the government was able to get their hand on information concerning west Japan from the ordinary citizen that had escaped to take refugee. <br /> <br /> It was a surprising matter for differences in culture and fashion to be created already even though it still hadn’t been one week since the separation of east and west, but because Yamato advocated that they were [the true country of Japan that was protected by the Japanese Mythology], it seemed they were {{furigana|advertising in grand-scale using domestic broadcast|propaganda}} to [Let’s return to Japan culture].<br /> <br /> It was accepted favorably among the youngsters who enjoyed the change, where in turn they gave rise to [Revival・New Japanese Style Boom] like this remodeled Japanese clothing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’a appearance was wearing a white kimono with tight sleeves and plain black hakama&lt;ref&gt;Man’s formal divided skirt&lt;/ref&gt;, but its cuffs and sleeves had been smartly remodeled to not look flabby. The clothes were fixed with buttons and belt so it didn’t look out of shape, making it looked close with western clothes.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai too was dressed in yukata&lt;ref&gt;Light cotton kimono worn in the summer or used as a bathrobe&lt;/ref&gt; that had been remodeled into no sleeves・miniskirt with flowery pattern, her shoulders and thighs were boldly exposed.<br /> <br /> Inside this cramped boat, it couldn’t be helped that those shoulders and thighs became glued with him.<br /> <br /> They were infiltrating, that was why the two attached a water-proof waist bag on their waist where they only put the minimum amount of baggage inside. So they wouldn’t be suspected by the public eyes, they were not carrying their katana.<br /> <br /> “…Well then, we are off!” “Take caa―re!”<br /> <br /> Having been sent off by the voices of everyone from the Witch’s Mansion, Kazuki started the engine.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, the ship’s balance will be unstable if you avoid your body that much until the outside. Please come closer here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai’s waist with his left arm. Precisely because Kazuha-senpai was an earnest person that could follow reason, she didn’t say any complaint and could only “Mugii―!” let out a strange voice that sounded like a mysterious animal.<br /> <br /> “What a cute rare animal.”<br /> <br /> “Who do you said is rare animal-!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While the rotating propeller left behind white trail in the water surface, the boat gradually separated from the land and embarked to the ocean. In the other side of the horizon, even further behind the small islands that were floating on Ise Bay, was the faint hazy outline of Mie Prefecture’s Toba Shore.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_1&diff=465560 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 1 2015-10-09T06:11:29Z <p>Hiro Hayase: Kazuki and groups -&gt; Kazuki and company, added a missing to be verb, skirt -&gt; edge, trail -&gt; trial</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 - To the Sea of Abundant Land==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Kaya was grateful to the politicians of Yamato.<br /> <br /> To be able to make contact with this person so very easily was exactly because there was the channel that they built with Chūkadou by spending efforts for months and years.<br /> <br /> This meeting was an extremely important critical juncture with regards to Loki’s plan.<br /> <br /> The pure gold chandelier was illuminating the space that was painted vermilion. Chūkadou’s &lt;Shibi&lt;ref&gt;Purple Forbidden Enclosure (group of constellations in the northern sky associated with the emperor)&lt;/ref&gt; Palace&gt;. That palace was richly colored with red and gold―the master of heaven’s decree, the emperor of China’s palace.<br /> <br /> The imperial capital that loudly proclaimed that Chūkadou is the center of the world, right now Kaya was in Beijing.<br /> <br /> There was no one else inside the room with Kaya except for that person. This was not a public audience, but a confidential talk that was conducted inside that person’s private room. Sitting on a rosewood table and chairs decorated with mother of pearl craftsmanship, Kaya and that person faced each other as if they were a fellow friends with very intimate relationship.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu…. O messenger from Yamato. No, o our friend. Your asking [if perhaps I might be able to borrow your strength], what an odd way of talking that is.”<br /> <br /> That person’s lips that was distinctly drawn with vivid red warped into the shape of crescent moon from her laugh.<br /> <br /> She was still a girl in the middle of her teens, but excess makeup was applied all over her face. In China the use of cosmetic was not approved except for nobles. Nonetheless, because the magician of this era utilized their magic power and polished their beauty of figure from the Prima Material of the skin, people who relied as far as using cosmetic rarely existed.<br /> <br /> When the girl let out a laughing voice, *sharin sharin* such sound was ringing. Each time this person made even the slightest movement, the many ornaments that were attached in excess all over her whole body raised a sound.<br /> <br /> The robe that the girl currently wore was a purple {{furigana|Lóng páo<br /> |Dragon Robe}}. A [color restriction] permitted only for the emperor, a fabric in the color of deep purple decorated with countless precious stones, as if her whole body was clad completely with the full starry sky.<br /> <br /> The weight of all the ornaments all over the girl’s body easily surpassed ten times her own weight. For the sake of enduring that weight, the girl was constantly continuing to use Enchant Aura, blue light was constantly emitted from her whole body. That light was reflected by the countless precious stones, making her constantly sparkle intensely.<br /> <br /> The excessively shining girl.<br /> <br /> Most likely even with unpainted face, even with her body naked, she was surely an owner of beautiful looks as perfect as human limit allowed.<br /> <br /> But with the girl’s standing, ''mere beauty within human limit was insufficient.''<br /> <br /> The girl used up every methods, she had to be an existence that was as if a star that was shining brightly in the center of heaven.<br /> <br /> Because the girl was a symbol.<br /> <br /> A girl that was like the height of the star―the girl’s name was &lt;Reborn Emperor&gt; Fu Zi.<br /> <br /> The personification of China’s ideal. She was the {{furigana|Emperor|Basileus}} of Chūkadou.<br /> <br /> Among the vast population of Chūkadou, she was an existence chosen as the possessor of the strongest magic power.<br /> <br /> “What do you mean, odd way of talking…?” Kaya tilted her head in an intimate behavior.<br /> <br /> If the character in front of her was a King, then Kaya was a god. There was no reason to not be confident.<br /> <br /> “No matter how much China is a really great country, be that as it may, it has enemy nations in every direction. While dealing with them, you are also in the position of having to check the other Magic Advanced Countries in place. We could exchange good intimacy with each other in this way, however because of that I must not be a bother for you…that was my thinking.”<br /> <br /> “There are two mistakes inside the words of that you.”<br /> <br /> The emperor of China, Fu Zi flatly concluded with haughty tone of voice.<br /> <br /> “One. People who are hostile to our country, are not equal to a country. They are mere barbarians.”<br /> <br /> Now that she said that, that’s really so, Kaya recalled it.<br /> <br /> The Magic Advanced Countries other than Japan didn’t consider other undeveloped country as equivalent with a nation. The undeveloped countries in Europe were considered protection target as colony country, while this China…considered them as barbarians.<br /> <br /> China saw them as objects to be invaded and controlled. They didn’t even get called as hostile [country].<br /> <br /> “Two. We the Chūkadou, our heart, cannot possibly be so narrow-minded to see a great cause and abandon it behind. Our heart is China’s heart. Indeed, certainly matters we have to do are really in great numbers. We are somewhat busy. However even so for you who are our friend, we don’t want to hear such reserved words. Rely on our heart even more honestly, it doesn’t matter even if you depend on us completely you know?”<br /> <br /> Raising a *sharin* sound, Fu Zi threw out her chest. In contrary to Fu Zi’s behavior, if she was wearing different ornaments on her whole body, the girl that had a body with small build would look cute.<br /> <br /> This fellow really said some incredible things huh…Kaya was amazed inside her heart. This little emperor said [I want you to depend on us] to Loki who though imperfect was a god.<br /> <br /> “As for us, it’s better if we made you as insurance in case we are in a pinch you know.”<br /> <br /> Kaya made a modest smile.<br /> <br /> “Hmm, is that so. But that reservation, 'tis no problem. Your consideration to us, 'tis really not a problem. Then until you open your heart and seek for assistance from us, we are going to look forward to it.”<br /> <br /> Right there Fu Zi made a wide grin suitable for her age to Kaya.<br /> <br /> It was an innocent smile but…of course as the emperor there was no way she was going to promise aid to Kaya without asking for anything as compensation. Kaya and Loki were noticing the real intention of that smile.<br /> <br /> That China was desiring for a just cause.<br /> <br /> In contrast with the King of Solomon that increased his power by means of positivity level that was the &lt;power of bond&gt;, the King of China possessed the &lt;power of heaven’s decree&gt; that [increased her power the more the territory she controlled widened].<br /> <br /> However if China sets out to invade the surrounding countries publicly, there was no way the other Magic Advanced Countries are going to stay quiet.<br /> <br /> That was why they made false charges with reason that sounded most right against other countries, or made intervention to other countries problem and then demanded for compensation. Using this and those methods, they took advantage of the other party.<br /> <br /> If China received appeal from Yamato like [we wish for cooperation for the sake of recovering the true Japan from those devils of Solomon] or something like that, it was a wish come true for the just cause to justify their armed intervention.<br /> <br /> If Yamato obtained the cooperation of China and achieved the unification of Japan archipelago, China would make Yamato into China’s puppet country in no time at all and gradually swallow them until there was nothing left of Yamato. That was what Fu Zi aimed for.<br /> <br /> But the major politicians of Yamato were thinking that they didn’t particularly mind even if their country became like that.<br /> <br /> Because most of them were spies from China anyway.<br /> <br /> Loki too was the same, he wouldn’t particularly mind if it developed into that kind of situation. Only if that created even further Chaos.<br /> <br /> There was not even a single person among the leaders of Yamato that thought of Japan archipelago as important from the bottom of their heart.<br /> <br /> This conference―was a secret agreement to surrender the future of the archipelago to China in the time ahead.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, 'tis no problem, 'tis no problem at all. We want to go help your Yamato as quickly as we can.”<br /> <br /> The emperor laughed with her body shaking. It was a smiling face that made her real intention even more conspicuous yet on the contrary emphasized her innocence instead.<br /> <br /> “To be able to become your friend like this is really reassuring for me. Hiroko-chan.”<br /> <br /> “What’s with that, calling us Hiroko-chan?”<br /> <br /> The smile vanished from Fu Zi’s face and she made a dubious face in return.<br /> <br /> Kaya recovered her behavior that was as if making fun of other people’s characteristic and answered.<br /> <br /> “It was how your name is called in the style of Japan. It’s the proof of our friendship, calling you with that nickname.”<br /> <br /> “Hmm. Well fine. 'Tis particularly no problem. Although you are from other Mythology but you are still someone called as god. ''For now'' as the proof of friendship I’m going to accept that nickname.”<br /> <br /> Fu Zi laughed generously. Kaya too returned it with a smile.<br /> <br /> Even while exchanging an intimate secret talk, Kaya was looking at a different direction from Fu Zi.<br /> <br /> The objective of Chūkadou’s Mythology was Order through control. However Kaya and Loki’s objective was to demolish the balance of the world and brought forth Chaos. For the sake of that objective, this war between Japan and Yamato was one of the steps.<br /> <br /> For Kaya, victory and defeat was of no importance.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Uwaa…amazing…it stretched the trousers tightly and becomes like mountain Fuji…”<br /> <br /> It was a voice like when a child was standing in front of a decoration cake and got enraptured seeing it.<br /> <br /> Kazuki heard that voice inside his dozing consciousness. And then right after that, he received an ambiguous sweet stimulus.<br /> <br /> “Wah, it’s hard! It’s sprang around throbbing when it was pulled! Ahaha, what a rambunctious kid! Somehow it’s really cute. Take this, and that!”<br /> <br /> Stimulus was running in his lower body with throb, throb.<br /> <br /> “What kind of shape it will become huh? Rub rub.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s lower body unconsciously startled. …He was still sleeping and there was no consciousness yet in him. However in the depth of his sleep, his instinct was ringing out his warning alarm. Something bad was being done on him…!<br /> <br /> Little by little, Kazuki’s consciousness was being awakened.<br /> <br /> “I wonder if he will wake up if I lowered his trousers. But, I really want to see it directly-“<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;slit* Some sensation was slipping around the area of his waist. Because of that strong stimulus, Kazuki was awakened.<br /> <br /> His blurred vision gradually connected the pictures. What was in front of Kazuki’s eyes was―a girl’s lower body. Covered in a water colored fit-wear, a panorama of a butt and crotch and thighs.<br /> <br /> Someone was directing her lower body to Kazuki’s face and straddled it in reverse on top of Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The other party’s face couldn’t be seen from Kazuki’s direction but there was no doubt that this fit-wear was Hikaru-senpai’s.<br /> <br /> The fit-wear that was even thinner compared to a spats was gluing tightly to the soft bottom and thighs, and also the plump swelling crotch that got caught between those. It was really making the details come to the surface perfectly as if the wearer was mostly naked. The only difference with nakedness was that the area was not skin colored but water colored.<br /> <br /> Such [important place] of Hikaru-senpai that was [almost similar with naked] was placed right in front of Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> His half asleep mind was rapidly boiling up and then Kazuki yelled.<br /> <br /> “Se, senpai! What are you doing!?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai had stripped the trouser that Kazuki wore as pajama and currently was placing her hands right on Kazuki’s trunks. And then Kazuki’s unprepared and moreover involuntary morning physiology phenomenon had rose, pushing up the middle part of his trunks towering like mountain Fuji.<br /> <br /> This was a super dangerous situation. Kazuki pushed down his trunks in panic.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, you woke up!? Not that, it’s no good if you raise such a loud voice!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai looked at the side after having said that. Beside the two, Kaguya-senpai was still breathing lightly *suyasuya* in sleep.<br /> <br /> This place was not Kazuki’s usual room in the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> Here was the front line of the war between east Japan and west Japan―the Knight Order’s garrison of Nagoya. It was the plot of land and building that was once called Aichi Prefectural Police that was repaired for the sake of the Knight Order’s activity.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 015.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> The students of the Knight Academy that were recruited for the war with Yamato were lodging in the rooms that were allocated for them inside the garrison building. Kazuki became the room partner of Kaguya-senpai once again, and then there was Hikaru-senpai who slipped in which made the three of them sleep together inside the room last night.<br /> <br /> …He was careless. Even though usually he was the first one to wake up, but it seemed yesterday he was really tired.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, when I saw Kazuki’s cute sleeping face, I became unable to contain my feeling. I want to leave my body to this instinct as a girl-!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai smiled invigoratingly and then unhesitatingly tried once more to lower Kazuki’s trunks. Kazuki took hold of his trunks in panic and barely managed to cling on the fabric.<br /> <br /> “Please wait, senpai is too honest to yourself! Don’t just do something like lowering someone’s pants using the chance when they are sleeping!!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki raised a scream, Hikaru-senpai took a glance at the direction of the sleeping Kaguya-senpai worriedly.<br /> <br /> “That’s why I told you already that it’s not good to make a loud voice-! Kaguya is going to wake up!! …Eiii-!”<br /> <br /> Towards the face of Kazuki who was raising a scream―Hikaru-senpai’s crotch was coming down.<br /> <br /> The bulge that was tinged with plump roundness was pressuring on Kazuki’s mouth. Then next both of senpai’s thighs locked Kazuki’s face from left and right firmly. Kazuki’s lower face was enveloped in a sweet sensation of touch.<br /> <br /> “Muguu!? Fenfai, fanfufafefefufafaifo―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a scream but that voice of his was suppressed completely by girl’s [meat].<br /> <br /> When Kazuki moved his lips gasping, Hikaru-senpai went “hyann!?” raising a high pitched voice and her hips jumping with a start.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki!? When you squirmed your mouth there…somehow there is this strange feeling-!”<br /> <br /> Against the sensation of Kazuki’s moving lips, Hikaru-senpai began to push down lasciviously and wriggled her hips back and forth.<br /> <br /> Kazuki noticed once again that something coming in contact with his mouth and then he shut his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what is this…I don’t know this kind of sensation…but this might feel a little good…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai took an erotic breath. Even when Kazuki finally shut his mouth and stopped stimulating the pressing body anymore, Hikaru-senpai proactively began to press down her nether region and started grinding.<br /> <br /> Then Kazuki’s nose got caught inside the caving in spot at the middle of the plump bulge of the nether region.<br /> <br /> “Hyan! …Ju, just now was amazing!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s spinal column was noticeably trembling intensely in shudders.<br /> <br /> Not good. Hikaru-senpai who was innocent about genders was learning about something completely unthinkable.<br /> <br /> Moreover on top of a person’s face.<br /> <br /> Senpai’s hip movement became even more intense. It was unclear whether it was from Kazuki’s exhalation or from the sweat that senpai perspired out, but the fit-wear was starting to become slippery with moisture and tinged with luster.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s body hygienic that was retained by the power of magic caused the sweat that she perspired to have the scent of purely girl’s scent. That scent passed by Kazuki’s reasoning without stopping and shook his instinct. Unthinkable spot had been pressed on his face from some time ago. If he was being exposed to this much lewd temptation, then no matter how much he….<br /> <br /> Rather, if it kept like this soon he’d already….<br /> <br /> …No wait, calm down. He must not get tempted by senpai’s innocence and step off the right path!<br /> <br /> Kazuki sharpened his mind with the concentration power of a swordsman and cleared away all the wicked thoughts.<br /> <br /> Because of Hikaru-senpai’s utmost effort in pressing her hips to Kazuki’s face, her attention had been averted from his trunks. Right there Kazuki parted his hands from holding on his trunks, then his hands that became free were tightly pinning down Hikaru-senpai’s hips that continued to move grazingly.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!? ……moree…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai who was possessed by the unknown pleasure directed an unsatisfied face at his way.<br /> <br /> “This is not good. Senpai, this is out. As a maiden, please endure that sensation.”<br /> <br /> “Mu―. Kazuki…then, show me your penis.”<br /> <br /> “That’s not good. What do you mean by [then], I completely don’t get it.”<br /> <br /> “Mu―. By any chance, did I almost do something more dangerous than I thought?”<br /> <br /> In Hikaru-senpai’s expression, a color of anxiety flashed for a moment. Just as he thought it seemed she wasn’t conscious of it herself.<br /> <br /> Because Hikaru-senpai lived the falsehood that [she was a prince] for a long time, inside her, her self-awareness as a girl was still immature. In contrast with that, her instinct and body had begun to mature as a girl. That unbalance was inside senpai.<br /> <br /> “It was really dangerous, but it’s okay. I won’t hate senpai because of this kind of thing. Rather it’s exactly because I like senpai that it’s dangerous. …Haaa-!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki put his strength to both his hands and tore off Hikaru-senpai’s body from him with a roll.<br /> <br /> The rolling Hikaru-senpai was “cheeh” and sharpened her lips while both her legs were fidgeting and rubbing together.<br /> <br /> “Even though this is the rare chance where I woke up even earlier than Kazuki with my hard work, for some reason my chest is smoldering like this.”<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-kuu~n.”<br /> <br /> Did her sleep became shallow from the sounds, Kaguya-senpai embraced him tightly from the side. He was enveloped in a soft and warm sensation. Her face felt like she was still half asleep. Similar with Hikaru-senpai in her fit-wear appearance, the magic power of Kaguya-senpai’s Magic Dress came apart in her sleep and she transformed into her negligee appearance.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-kun, kiss~”<br /> <br /> While Kaguya-senpai was half asleep, she pushed out her lips to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Among the residents of the Witch’s Mansion, only Kaguya-senpai alone who still hadn’t experience the [lips-to-lips kiss].<br /> <br /> The person herself was terribly concerned of it inside her heart.<br /> <br /> However when Kazuki kissed the lips of a girl, he was able to use a one-time only trump card where he could perform the Materialized Summoning of the contracted Diva. Kaguya-senpai decided that she wouldn’t [throw away uselessly] that trump card, and determined herself that she would harden her heart and be patient for the kiss until the hour of need.<br /> <br /> Kazuki respected that will of hers and presented his cheek and not his lips.<br /> <br /> “Nn~” Kaguya-senpai sucked his cheek and fawned on him. For some reason she cutely looked like a child.<br /> <br /> This was Kaguya-senpai who usually acted like a big sister, but in her heart she surely wanted to depend on someone.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-, me too!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai hugged him from the other side and kissed *chuu* his other cheek with pleasant feeling.<br /> <br /> “Both of you, let’s get out from the bed soon. We are going to go to the beach today after all.”<br /> <br /> “I’m really looking forward to it, the sea!”<br /> <br /> The forehead of Hikaru-senpai who was making an excited voice pushed onto Kazuki with a bump.<br /> <br /> “We are not going there for playing you know, Hikaru-senpai.”<br /> <br /> The war between Japan and Yamato.<br /> <br /> For the sake of the vital counterattack strategy in this war, Kazuki was going to cross the sea and sneak into Ise Shrine.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> Aichi prefecture looked similar with a monster’s face that grew fangs. The two peninsulas growing out at the southern part of the prefecture looked perfectly similar like two jutting out fangs―the west Chita peninsula and the east Atsumi peninsula.<br /> <br /> From here Kazuki and the others would first head to the farthest pointed end of Atsumi peninsula as their destination, the &lt;Irago cape&gt;.<br /> <br /> When they arrived in this Irago cape, there was Mie prefecture across the Ise Bay.<br /> <br /> Mie prefecture had similar shape with the shape of katakana ‘ト’. After they crossed Ise bay and landed on the protrusion that jutted out to the east, they just needed to advance a little further to reach Ise Shrine.<br /> <br /> The shortest distance sea route crossing Irago cape to Mie prefecture was called &lt;Irago Water Path&gt; from the ancient times.<br /> <br /> “Together with Kazuha-senpai, I’m going to cross Irago water path and infiltrate Yamato and then invade Ise Shrine. It seems that the {{furigana|boss|chief god}} of Japanese Mythology is there.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and company were heading to Irago cape riding the car of the Knight Order. With just a glance it was just a black sedan that didn’t look like a military car. Kazuki was sitting in the middle of that car’s comfortable back seat. At both his sides were Mio in the right and Kanae in the left sitting with him. Kazuki was explaining the strategy once more to the two girls [who were still wearing a dissatisfied face].<br /> <br /> “Why is it only Kazuki and Tsukahara-senpai alone? I cannot consent at that point at all!”<br /> <br /> When Mio pouted her lips and expressed her dissatisfaction, Kanae too was “That’s right, right there!” and said her agreement with Mio.<br /> <br /> “This is an infiltration operation after all, we have to use the minimum number of personnel so we don’t stand out. And also the objective is to persuade the boss of Japanese Mythology to pull their hands from this war, so I must go together with Kazuha-senpai that is contracted with Futsunushi no Kami of the same Japanese Mythology. There is really a proper reason for all this you see.”<br /> <br /> Mio and Kanae were silent. They had no room to object in this operation.<br /> <br /> There was no other way than this…this operation felt like that. It made him felt somewhat constrained, however….<br /> <br /> “It seems because those bunches of Yamato were breaking into many shrines, that the Divas of Japanese Mythology transformed into this state called &lt;Wild God&gt;. Right there those bunches of Yamato instigated them that [the one that broke into the shrines was Japan government], and then those Wild Gods were won over into becoming Yamato’s comrade. That’s the story.”<br /> <br /> “Using that kind of method that look like children’s pranks…what a nuisance those guys are.”<br /> <br /> Kanae breathed out a deep sigh. After all the one that was exposed to the full brunt of the Wild Gods’ menace were Kanae and the others of the swordsmen.<br /> <br /> The Shrine Maiden of Yamato had short chanting time because their body hosted the Wild Gods making them able to use Drive. They kicked around the front line swordsmen with might like that of rapid-fire cannon.<br /> <br /> As expected for them to have short chanting time was a large threat.<br /> <br /> …However if the Japanese Divas turned into enemy because of a simple misunderstanding, then there are room for persuasion.<br /> <br /> “The Japanese Divas that are in Wild God state doesn’t have the ears to listen to our voice. However when the Shrine Maiden that is in Drive is defeated and fall into magic intoxication, it seems the Wild God that possessed them will also quiet down and return to their sanity.”<br /> <br /> At the battle before―in [Magic War・Okehazama], one of the Shrine Maiden was captured and as a result &lt;Ame no Uzume&gt; that possessed her was returned to her sanity. Ame no Uzume lent her ear to Kazuki and Futsunushi no Kami’s persuasion and pulled out her participation from the battle.<br /> <br /> But the number of the Shrine Maidens was not only one or two, there was more than hundreds of them placed in the war front. It was not an easy matter to defeat them all and persuad all the Wild Gods. Right there…,<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami said it, when we beat the [chief god of Japanese Mythology] in Ise Shrine and her sanity returned from the Wild God state, it seems that all the other Japanese Divas will all at once return to their senses too.”<br /> <br /> Chief God―an existence that exerted its influence to all the other Divas in that Mythology.<br /> <br /> If people talked about Japanese Mythology’s chief god that was deified in Ise Shrine, there was none other than &lt;Amaterasu-ōmikami&gt;. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai would infiltrate into Ise Shrine and defeat Amaterasu who had turned into a Wild God. Then if they could persuade her, it was the same like plummeting the military power of Yamato.<br /> <br /> In the event that Yamato’s government fell into turmoil from suddenly losing the cooperation of Japanese Mythology, the Knight Order would commence attack without wasting any time. That was the strategy this time―[Magic War・Sekigahara].<br /> <br /> “We are giving you a beacon, so if you succeed in defeating Amaterasu give the signal with this. If the operation is a success it’s the blue beacon, if it’s a failure use the red beacon.”<br /> <br /> From the driver seat, the sunglasses wearing Akane-senpai faced Kazuki with a glance and said so.<br /> <br /> Beacon―it was a method to transmit a code by raising a colored smoke.<br /> <br /> “Beacon is it…it feels like that this item is in the wrong period somehow.” Kazuki unintentionally displayed his anger.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine feeling like we are in Sengoku period right? …Well that was just a joke, with the current situation like this where all the long range communication between east and west Japan are blocked, there really is no other effective method of contact you know.”<br /> <br /> Before the coup d'état Yamato made preparation in secret toward the infrastructure business through the politicians, and then they immediately severed the radio wave and internet access between east and west Japan.<br /> <br /> “But don’t look down on this beacon okay, we were requesting a skilled alchemist for the sake of the operation this time to make this custom-made item in just one night. This is not using smoke but it will blow a fire pillar high to the sky that should be able to be confirmed from Ise until Nagoya even in the middle of the night.”<br /> <br /> “If this is that flashy, even the opponent will notice it.”<br /> <br /> “If there is a method that cannot be noticed by the opponent where we can exchange conversation, that will be the best though. That’s why swiftness will become important in this operation. Our side has also made preparation beforehand so not to grant the enemy time to prepare, that the moment we received the signal we can immediately invade.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai smoothly drove the large-type sedan while explaining.<br /> <br /> “…Nonetheless it’s really amazing isn’t it, to be able to manage this kind of big car.”<br /> <br /> “Hehehe, she is cool right! The senpai I’m proud of!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that was sitting in the assistant driver’s seat happily looked back. For Hikaru-senpai who was the present vice president of the student council, Akane-senpai who was the former vice president was a direct senior that taught her how to do the work.<br /> <br /> “I went to a training camp for a short period to take my license when I became a third year. Because a car is the knights’ foot.”<br /> <br /> From the sunlight that shone through the front glass, the sunglasses that Akane-senpai was wearing shone brightly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and company rode the three cars that were prepared by the Knight Order separately and headed to Irago cape.<br /> <br /> The ones who was in charge of driving at each car respectively were Kanon-senpai, Akane-senpai, and Lotte.<br /> <br /> Lotte who was still 15 years old was of course unlicensed, but because the Diva of civilization Prometheus was dwelling inside her body, she was able to drive every kind of vehicle.<br /> <br /> Except for the three sedans that were running in line on the road, there was no other car they could see.<br /> <br /> That was because the surrounding of Nagoya had been designated as evacuation zone. This place was a townscape in the state of emergency.<br /> <br /> “…But why did we bring everyone else together with us? I thought that the only one needed for this operation is only Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai though.”<br /> <br /> “It would be too conspicuous if we choose and bring along only you and Tsukahara-san. Because in this extremely secret operation, we have to carry out this plan without even letting the knights of the Knight Order know.”<br /> <br /> …I see, the spy from Yamato had been infiltrating the inner part of the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> This infiltration mission couldn’t be leaked out even to his ally.<br /> <br /> The only one from the internal of the Knight Order who knew about this strategy was only the strategy planner Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “We are taking all of you under the pretense of rewarding the students that made distinguished service in the previous battle with vacation. Also with the massing of battle strength of east Japan here, our shortage of personnel is also being reduced, so the timing also looked natural right?”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 023.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> In the first place Kazuki and the other students were recruited into the front line of this war was because the Knight Orders had shortage of personnel. Matching their timing with the coup d’etat of Yamato, the illegal magicians of Yamato that were scattered through east Japan began their guerilla activity. With the Knight Order’s personnel taken to suppress the illegal magicians, the Knight Order right after the coup d’etat became too preoccupied to even think of fighting a war.<br /> <br /> But right now most of the illegal magicians had been suppressed and battle strength was in the process of amassing in this front line. When it became like this, there was no necessity to work the cadets that were still nothing more than student non-stop.<br /> <br /> Because of that reason Kazuki and the others who made distinguished service in the previous battle were granted with vacation as reward…there was some carefreeness saying it like that but it was not really much of a strange story.<br /> <br /> There was a beach that was suitable for swimming at Irago cape.<br /> <br /> “Of course that’s just the cover story, all of you the &lt;Knight Academy Regiment&gt; are separated from the command system of the top brass and can move freely and you will be allowed to keep moving like that from now on as independent unit.”<br /> <br /> The spy from Yamato was most likely had penetrated into as far as the top brass of the Knight Order. All the action of the Knight Order had to be reported in detail to the top brass so everything became completely leaked to the spy.<br /> <br /> The Knight Academy was independent from that {{furigana|hierarchy|chain of comman}} and stood as a different organization, making them able to move only at Headmaster Amasaki’s own discretion. The Knight Academy regiment that was composed from the students was the sole unit that was able to conduct a strategy without its information getting leaked to Yamato.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama, please look forward to Kanae’s swimsuit appearance okay!”<br /> <br /> “…Somehow I lost my nervousness with Kanae in my side huh.”<br /> <br /> Though for Kazuki this vacation till the end was just a camouflage.<br /> <br /> However for everyone else who practically wouldn’t engage in this infiltration operation, this was just a normal vacation.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki too also has the time to play together with us for a little right?”<br /> <br /> Mio hugged Kazuki’s arm tightly from the right side.<br /> <br /> ―The car was going south at the Atsumi peninsula for a total of two hours. Leaving far away Nagoya that was unfolding out an uncouth urban warfare, the scenery was transformed into something that made them felt the atmosphere of vacation in southern country.<br /> <br /> Palm trees were growing besides the road along the coastline.<br /> <br /> From the gap between the palm trees, the sea was finally visible.<br /> <br /> “That’s the sea Nii-sama-!” Kanae raised an excited voice the foremost. Kazuki was spontaneously half-rising from his seat, and then morning breeze rushed inside the car when Akane-senpai tactfully opened the car window.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> It was still June, originally it was still not the period when the beach had opened.<br /> <br /> The sandy beach they finally arrived at was like a private beach.<br /> <br /> All the beach house of the beach was in a state of closing vacation. But it seemed not everything was in the state of unmanned. Right after they arrived, Akane-senpai entered one of the beach houses where inside she made some kind of talk with the shopkeeper.<br /> <br /> It seemed the Knight Order had negotiated with this beach house where they were given permission that it was fine to use the changing room and shower freely. After a while, Akane-senpai came out from the beach house.<br /> <br /> “For the time being Kazuki and everyone else too just change into your swimsuit.”<br /> <br /> Everyone raised a cheer and entered the female changing room.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too entered the male changing room by his lonesome.<br /> <br /> …Being surrounded by girls in swimsuit, when the male was just him alone.<br /> <br /> How really amazing…, Kazuki thought once more. He hadn’t thought that this environment was amazing or the like after coming this far, but he was thinking that his reasoning that was able to endure in this environment was really awesome if he said so himself.<br /> <br /> Kazuki changed into trunks-type swimsuit with swiftness that could be said as the privilege of male.<br /> <br /> On the other side, he could hear strange voices like “Roo―ck paa―per…” from the girl's changing room. What were they doing in there? Kazuki didn’t take any mind of it and went down and stood on the sandy beach alone even earlier than anyone else.<br /> <br /> The sensation of the sands at the sole of his feet felt good. The temperature was still a little cool, but a magician could control temperature using Pyrokinesis. Controlling heat and cold was the magic that human who had obtained magic power naturally learned the foremost.<br /> <br /> The swimsuit was something they received from the purchase of the Knight Order from the unmanned department store in Nagoya. Kazuki and the others were told to choose whatever they like. Someone like Mio had her eyes shining from all the high-class brands at that kind of time.<br /> <br /> “Ottoo―to-kunn♪”<br /> <br /> While he was staring at the sea, an excited voice was calling out at his back.<br /> <br /> When he looked back, the one who came out the first from the girl’s changing room was Kaguya-senpai in black bikini.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai looked like she wanted to say something, she was looking at Kazuki with broad grin.<br /> <br /> “…It’s really an adult swimsuit isn’t it? The swimsuit really matched senpai well.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufuu, when I’m like this it’s different with using Magic Dress, what a relief.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai pulled the hem of the pareo she wore tightly. When Kaguya-senpai lapsed into delirium because of Asmodeus, she went beyond daring and acted a little like that, but actually she also felt embarrassed just like other people.<br /> <br /> However although the pareo in her lower body lowered the exposure rate, the destructive power of her chest bikini was tremendous. It was heavily drooping bouncingly that even now it looked like it was going to burst out. In addition even though her hips was constricted tightly but her thighs were too voluptuous, what a really lewd body.<br /> <br /> …He was too conscious of it that the atmosphere became really not suitable for playing together.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun’s appearance in swimsuit is also really good! Especially your muscular chest is really great-!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s eyes too sparkled at Kazuki and she walked approaching him.<br /> <br /> “…Kaguya-senpai strangely like chest muscle aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, I like it♪” Kaguya-senpai circled both her hands to Kazuki’s back and hugged him, and then she pressed her own face to Kazuki’s chest and rubbed her cheek repeatedly. Kazuki too hugged her back tightly.<br /> <br /> Their body were naturally in mutual―senpai’s breast was bouncingly pressing at him.<br /> <br /> They were hugging each other in swimsuit but…for some reason it felt like they were hugging each other in nude.<br /> <br /> When he was stroking her smooth back, senpai was “It tickles♪” and she laughed happily.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-!” There was even another voice calling at him and he turned back.<br /> <br /> The second one that came along was Mio wearing a red bikini.<br /> <br /> By some chance perhaps the rock-paper-scissor from before was for deciding the order of the girls’ exit.<br /> <br /> Mio was saying “How is it?” and took some poses *sa*, *sa*, in order to display her own body.<br /> <br /> “You are really pretty. The swimsuit really pulled out the goodness of Mio’s style.”<br /> <br /> The swimsuit that she chose was exactly [a swimsuit that couldn’t be worn except for the chosen person].<br /> <br /> The area covered by clothes was considerably even smaller than Kaguya-senpai’s swimsuit, the fabric and string that were cut directly enhanced Mio’s willowy limbs stylishly.<br /> <br /> Even though it had simple cutting he could still feel the calculation inside it, it was not a clothing that simply had high exposure rate, surely it also had the aim to enhance the femininity of the wearer until the limit. It had some artistic in it.<br /> <br /> This swimsuit had already reached the zone where it absolutely wouldn’t suit someone that didn’t have a good style, but it suited Mio perfectly. There was this presence of a high class swimsuit that just like that presented the girl.<br /> <br /> Mio was “Hehehe! It really suit me!”, she puffed her chest and laughed. After that she looked alternately at Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai who were hugging, and then she opened her both hands to the front and said “Hug hug&lt;ref&gt;Mio said this in English&lt;/ref&gt;!” …Hug hug?<br /> <br /> “Come on, hug hug!!” Mio said it again in a little angry tone.<br /> <br /> …Did she want to be hugged from his side?<br /> <br /> Kazuki dragged Kaguya-senpai trailingly while walking near Mio and then he hugged Mio tightly.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s scent was gently mixing with Mio’s scent.<br /> <br /> There was Mio in his right side and Kaguya-senpai in his left side, making their posture to be in dumpling state&lt;ref&gt;Being crowded together. Dumpling in Japan is usually skewered together where the dumplings were pressed against each other.&lt;/ref&gt;. Both of them were in swimsuit, that was why no matter where he touched his hands met the sensation of a girl's bare skin. They were wrapped together.<br /> <br /> Mio was “Nn~♪” leaking out a satisfied sweet voice, and pressed herself loosely inside Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki mustn’t temper your body too much okay. After all slender macho around this much is the best.”<br /> <br /> While Mio rubbed herself repeatedly on Kazuki's chest, she handed down such evaluation.<br /> <br /> “Objection&lt;ref&gt;Phoenix Wright reference I think&lt;/ref&gt;! …I think it’s not particularly bad even if your chest become a little more buff!”<br /> <br /> From the side Kaguya-senpai immediately shouted her objection.<br /> <br /> “No, I hate brawny build! After all Kazu-nii is my prince!”<br /> <br /> Both of them glared at each other with Kazuki in between, and then they began to argue of this and that about Kazuki’s ideal body build.<br /> <br /> “…Something like muscle, I think it’s best if its only practical though…”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki was gazing at their argument in dumbfounded look, he felt the edge of his trunks got pulled *kui kui* repeatedly. When he looked back, there was Koyuki there. Hikaru-senpai was also coming along at her side.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki and Hikaru-senpai. …Wait, Koyuki, isn’t that just your Magic Dress?”<br /> <br /> “This Magic Dress can also fulfill the role of swimsuit sufficiently anyway. …When I was going to choose my swimsuit, Vepar became sulky. Such thing is unneeded, she said.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s speech was mixed with a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki’s appearance is something I’m used to see as usual but…as I thought white really suited Koyuki.”<br /> <br /> The extra ornaments were omitted from Koyuki’s magic dress, making her wrapped from chest to hips only with the exterior in white school swimsuit shape. The exposure rate was fewer than bikini―however the feel of the surface material was delicately translucent, the degree of light faintly made her skin showed through. The swimsuit was fairly, no considerably bewitching.<br /> <br /> Seeing the dumpling state Kazuki was in with Mio and Kaguya-senpai, Koyuki circled their surrounding and discovered a gap, “Puu” and then she forced her way there. The sweetness density was increased even further.<br /> <br /> Mio and Kaguya-senpai were even now “The gap when Kazuki looks unexpectedly macho after he took off his clothes is great.” “Looking slender in clothing is scientifically impossible. Macho is constantly macho.” saying things like that they were continuing the unproductive argument. Kazuki had the feeling that somehow the talk was not about him anymore so he left them alone.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai’s swimming race swimsuit is coolly stylish isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Hehehe, just as I thought I had the hunch that cutey thing doesn’t suit me…”<br /> <br /> Such thing is not true, he thought, however what Hikaru-senpai was wearing was a glossy race swimsuit of blue and water color with yellow line inserted in it. The slender high leg that grew out emphasized the length of her foot.<br /> <br /> …However, the splendid high leg was amazing. With acute angle exactly like the alphabet V, it tightly dug into the girlish buxom hip.<br /> <br /> “But this is fairly amazing you know. While I’m walking it dug into my bottom arbitrarily…”<br /> <br /> Half-spinning her body with a twirl, Hikaru-senpai directed her bottom at his direction.<br /> <br /> The steep angle of the high leg dug into her bottom, it was on the brink of looking like T-pack.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s face spontaneously became red and he averted his eyes. Looking at his reaction, Hikaru-senpai’s expression brightened.<br /> <br /> …This morning it was like that too, but this person was very happy if Kazuki was conscious of her as an opposite sex and it sometimes made her thoughtlessly started indecent behavior that made him troubled.<br /> <br /> “Hehehe-! Ass Attack! I’m a person from planet Oshirifurifuri&lt;ref&gt;The meaning of this word is Ass Shake Shake, if anyone can think of a better name feel free to edit this.&lt;/ref&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai suddenly launched a hip attack at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Because of the hip attack that forcefully wedged its way through between Mio and Kaguya-senpai, the two who were in the middle of heated argument were “Wa, what’s with this ass!” and got thrown back.<br /> <br /> Hikari-senpai who turned into alien from planet Oshirifurifuri was rubbing her bottom around the area of Kazuki’s waist.<br /> <br /> “No wait, everyone is clinging on me too much here!”<br /> <br /> Amasaki Mio―152 Hiakari Koyuki―132 Otonashi Kaguya―129 Hoshikaze Hikaru―118<br /> <br /> <br /> There was even more voices coming from behind him.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, it’s really absurd for all of you to think that you can steal Nii-sama’s heart with only swimsuits around that degree! I lost the initiative at the appearance turn but, Nii-sama please look this way! To the alluring figure of the star performers Kanae and Kohaku!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked up at the direction of the voice. In front of the beach house, Kanae and Kohaku stood there with their chests wrapped with cotton wrapping and cotton loincloth tied on their waists. They showed that appearance brimming with self-confidence and arrogant attitude.<br /> <br /> …Ah no, Kohaku was looking slightly embarrassed.<br /> <br /> “This is the Japanese Traditional Sexy Fair…Doshi☆Fun&lt;ref&gt;I think she reversed Fundoshi (loincloth) into Doshifun here. Though I don’t know what is the meaning or if it’s a reference to something.&lt;/ref&gt;!”<br /> <br /> “Kanae, Kohaku…I don’t think that kind of appearance exist.”<br /> <br /> His reasoning that was shaken because of everyone had cooled down instantly thanks to Kanae.<br /> <br /> “E, EEEEEEEEEE!? How can Nii-sama’s heart be that harmonious after seeing this!?”<br /> <br /> “No, after all that appearance is not limited only to Japanese style right? Aren’t you throwing away various important things as a girl like that? I cannot think of anything else other than you running some kind of joke…”<br /> <br /> “GAA―NN!” Kanae became teary-eyed while Kohaku directed spiteful eyes to Kanae.<br /> <br /> “…Even though this one had said that it’s strange, Kana-nyan-senpai was bragging [I know all there is to know about Nii-sama!] full of confidence so in the end…”<br /> <br /> “Shu, shut up! Don’t say any complaint, aren’t you the one that copied me on your own accord even though I decided this by myself!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae turned back and shouted at Kohaku. Her bottom was *purun!* shaking. …The bottom became something amazing to look at from behind when wearing loincloth, Kazuki reflexively averted his eyes.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, that being the case Kanae-san is a very shy person isn’t she? But running a clever plan while hiding one’s embarrassment is a blunder. …There is no easy path in subtleties of man and woman except using all one’s might!”<br /> <br /> All one’s might―the one who appeared this time along with a proclamation that sounds amazing for some reason was Ryuutaki Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> With refreshing smile, the swimsuit that she was wearing…was a straightforward ''string'' swimsuit.<br /> <br /> Slingshot―narrow belt that was fine even if it was called string was hanged on from the neck to the breast and from the breast to the waist. It barely retained its claim as swimsuit by the belt that was hanging on the apex of the breast. Whether Miyabi-senpai should be called a celebrity or an exhibitionist, she had a really erotic &amp; gorgeous style.<br /> <br /> With a composed expression as if saying that it was only around this much, Miyabi-senpai sexily brushed up her long hair that was colored silver from elf’s special trait. Kazuki reflexively stiffened from the unexpected nice body.<br /> <br /> “Please wait Nee-sama! That swimsuit is really not for sane person!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai was dashing out from the beach house while raising a piercing cry in school swimsuit appearance.<br /> <br /> “Please stop exposing that appearance to anyone other than me!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai caught the arm of Miyabi-senpai. However Miyabi-senpai was “Noo!”, she made a resistance. Miyabi-senpai attempted to shake off the arm that caught her making her chest swaying *purun purun* from her movement.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai floated a composed smile toward Kazuki whose eyes became completely nailed on that sight.<br /> <br /> “…Fufufu, when Kazuki is looking at me like that, I cannot help but feel a shiver on my spine you know.”<br /> <br /> Composed. No…she looked like she was forcing herself somewhere.<br /> <br /> “You look like just a mere pervert Nee-sama-! I brought over Nee-sama’s share of school swimsuit too so come with me!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai pinioned Miyabi-senpai’s arm and was trying to lead her into the beach house.<br /> <br /> “I said no already!” Miyabi-senpai tried to shake off Shinobu-senpai from dragging her.<br /> <br /> Because of that momentum of hers, *poroo* some kind of sound could be heard.<br /> <br /> Actually there was no such sound at all, but that kind of sound effect was flashing inside his head. When Miyabi-senpai’s body that was pinioned shook to left and right, her large breasts also rampaged to the left and right, causing the belt that was only hanged on that ‘summit’ got out of place *poron*, the large breast fell out.<br /> <br /> Look soft…Kazuki’s eyes opened wide, fixedly staring at that sight.<br /> <br /> “…I, I don’t plan to show until this far though…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s white skin became bright red from shame. However she immediately attempted to recover her composed smile.<br /> <br /> “…Fufu, this is not really shameful or anything though, it’s not an embarrassing body after all.”<br /> <br /> With a composed smile as if pulling on a mask, she didn’t even try to hide the jiggling breast.<br /> <br /> “Nee-sama! Withdraw! This is already prohibited!!”&lt;ref&gt;Shinobu always talked in polite language.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai finally went as far as using Enchant Aura and forcefully carried up Miyabi-senpai. Miyabi-senpai’s body had become all tensed up and she didn’t resist anymore. Just like that the two of them were returning to the beach house.<br /> <br /> …Overwhelmed by the event just now, no words could come out from his mouth.<br /> <br /> Passing the Ryuutaki sisters, Karin and Kazuha-senpai finally came.<br /> <br /> “What’s with that? Breast palanquin&lt;ref&gt;The words used here is portable shrine (carried in festivals)&lt;/ref&gt;?” Karin left behind such comment.<br /> <br /> “Leaving aside that, Hayashizaki Kazuki! It’s just fine even if you comment on my swimsuit appearance!”<br /> <br /> Karin made a full rotation with a twirl. What she wore was a swimsuit for use of primary schoolgirl that was printed with anime character.<br /> <br /> “Eh, aa…it suits you. You are extremely cute in a certain meaning. I can’t really see you as someone the same age with me.”<br /> <br /> “Mu, something is suspicious in your way of talking…Well, that must be because you really like anime. Fufun.”<br /> <br /> At her side, Kazuha-senpai who was examining Kazuki’s expression was wearing a wine red adult-like bikini that was arranged with white ribbon. For Kazuha-senpai to wear a bikini with high exposure rate was a little unexpected.<br /> <br /> “Senpai’s tight abs is really well reflected as a swordsman huh. It’s a beautiful body in supple way.”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t suddenly look at me with strange eyes-! Don’t review me!!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki put his impression in his mouth, Kazuha-senpai lost her temper just like usual.<br /> <br /> “I’m not looking at senpai with strange eyes. It just remind me once again what a hard-worker senpai is.”<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, so this is a talk as swordsman.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki intended it as the highest praise when he said beautiful muscle, but Kazuha-senpai donned dissatisfied face.<br /> <br /> “But as a girl senpai is also really lovely. The practical muscle as a swordsman mysteriously doesn’t harm senpai’s womanly charm. Moreover that bikini is a little unexpected and charming.”<br /> <br /> Getting praised with time difference, Kazuha-senpai became bright red from receiving the surprise attack.<br /> <br /> And then a heart mark of positivity level up came flying from her chest, however as if deceiving that heart mark,<br /> <br /> “What are you saying [cute] for even though you are the younger one-! Youu-!!”<br /> <br /> Getting angry once more, Kazuha-senpai hit him again and again.<br /> <br /> Kazuki separated his body from the girls that were clinging on him and cleverly evade Kazuha-senpai’s repeated strike while using Foresight. Thereupon Kazuha-senpai became even more irate and came hitting him even more.<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―80<br /> <br /> “Now that I’m looking, where is Lotte? I don’t catch sight of her but…”<br /> <br /> While evading Kazuha-senpai’s hit, Kazuki was looking around at his surrounding.<br /> <br /> “She was not in the changing room, so I wonder if she is not together with Akane-senpai and the others.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai too tilted her head in wonder.<br /> <br /> “Won’t she come if we wait for her? Let’s play first!”<br /> <br /> Mio pulled Kazuki’s arm as if feeling that the time they had together was too precious to waste.<br /> <br /> At that time a voice rang out from the direction of the sea.<br /> <br /> “The event is not going there! Everyone can play except for Onii-san! Kazuki-oniisan will be together with me to get the technique of operating the boat beaten into his head desu!”<br /> <br /> When they turned around, a single small boat was heading to the beach cutting through the waves from the other side of the horizon. The one who drove was…Lotte!<br /> <br /> Before the boat could go up the beach, it stopped still.<br /> <br /> “Wooden small ship &lt;Solomon&gt;. You are going to ride that and head to Ise.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai who was talking with someone in the beach house was, while still wearing sunglass, coming down to the beach with her mantle of the knight uniform flapping from the morning breeze. She was pointlessly cool.<br /> <br /> The group was reeled back, making Mio raise a protest.<br /> <br /> “Eeee, you are going with this kind of small shabby boat!? Even if a bigger ship like a cruiser is prepared…”<br /> <br /> “This is not a shabby thing, it was created by skilled hands, a precious traditional handicraft. In the case that Yamato properly bring out radar and conducted border security, that small wooden boat is able to slip through the radar. The wood has the property that make it easier to absorb the electromagnetic wave compared to iron or resin.”<br /> <br /> Radar worked by transmitting electromagnetic wave to the target and detected the target by sensing the electromagnetic wave that clashed with the target and got reflected back. By using something made from wood, moreover with a size that small it would surely be difficult to detect the boat.<br /> <br /> The Knight Order had seen that Yamato was unable to construct a security set-up using radar, but there was no such thing as being too careful.<br /> <br /> “Also there are quite a lot of reef in Irago water path, so for an amateur rather than driving a large boat it’s better to use small boat.”<br /> <br /> “This is a motor boat loaded with engine isn’t it? I thought that I’m going to cross the sea by paddling.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked about the surprising addition. This was an infiltration, so the number one concern was [sound].<br /> <br /> “Just as you hear this boat is loaded with motor that has high silencer so you don’t need to worry about sound. It’s also loaded with GPS, even in the miniscule chance that the boat get overturned you can fly using magic…if I have to say my worries then it’s only if someone discover you by naked eye. Such worry is needless if it’s you right, Cyclops?”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai laughed challengingly. There was not many humans that had better eyesight than Kazuki. Before the enemy could even discover Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai, surely Kazuki would discover the enemy faster and could escape. <br /> <br /> “By the way senpai is not wearing swimsuit?”<br /> <br /> “…I and Kanon have the position of leading you guys. The permission to relax doesn’t include both of us. Please don’t say anything stupid.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai asserted stiffly with her sunglass sparkling. However from her side,<br /> <br /> “HYAHHAA―!!!”<br /> <br /> With goggle in her head, school swimsuit and even swimming ring, with such complete equipment Kanon-senpai dashed across the beach and leaped into the sea even earlier than anybody else. Akane-senpai was speechless and cradled her head, smiling wryly at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The boat was made from wood not only in its exterior but also its interior, the drive unit installed in its stern emitted a luster of modernity. The drive unit was a unification of motor, battery, and propeller. The boat’s total length was 12 meters, however the width didn’t even reach 2 meters.<br /> <br /> With two seater sitting side-by-side horizontally, Kazuki was sitting in the driver seat with Lotte in the assistant driver seat in a cramped space where their shoulder and thigh could touch each other. Rather Lotte was happier with that cramped space.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, I’m monopolizing Kazuki-oniisan onboard a ship desu!”<br /> <br /> Lotte who was sitting on the seat beside him was wearing tankini swimsuit with white tank-top entered by pink borders and hotpants. The exposure rate was low but she looked wholesomely cute. Amazingly cute.<br /> <br /> Lotte happily frolicked at Kazuki’s left shoulder.<br /> <br /> When they turned around to the beach direction from the floating boat on top of the sea, everyone else were playing at the beach’s edge, competing in swimming, or burying and got buried in the sandy beach.<br /> <br /> For Lotte to say something like monopolizing Kazuki like this was a rare event.<br /> <br /> “That’s because Lotte always holding back too much.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki kept stroking her head, Lotte made a dazzling bright smile at him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki nonchalantly lowered his hand that was stroking Lotte’s head to the back of her head, then suddenly he forcefully drew Lotte’s face near and stole her lips forcibly.<br /> <br /> For a while their lips tasted each other’s softness intimately. And then when their faces separated, Lotte’s face boiled red dazedly as if she was drunk. A large heart mark headed to Kazuki and flew.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-oniisan, you had become skillful in doing this kind of thing unfalteringly, or perhaps I should say…the surprise just now was a lovely surprise attack desu-!”<br /> <br /> Lotte jumped into Kazuki’s chest enthusiastically, making the small boat shook on top of the water surface in a loll.<br /> <br /> …Although it was because Lotte was happy no matter what he did with her, so he was just trying out to act proactively for once.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Lotte in return while recovering the balance of the ship, and then he was brushing her head gently once more.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan…not just my head, please touch various places in me even more♪”<br /> <br /> Lotte whispered bewitchingly. Then Kazuki brushed Lotte’s back gently.<br /> <br /> “Ehehe…do it in even more various places♪”<br /> <br /> Being urged even further, he brought his hand from the back to her waist, then her stomach where his hand kept stroking her body. “Nn…♪” Lotte released an ardent sigh, her body was quivering.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, more, I want you to do even more desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte rubbed her thigh on him. That act was not the childish sweetness she always did in front of everyone. Lotte who was like a little angel was becoming passionate inside Kazuki’s arms.<br /> <br /> {Lotte, it’s extremely painful for me to disturb you here but, we have to teach Kazuki the ship control soon.}<br /> <br /> Suddenly the voice of Prometheus rang out inside his head. Looked like the same voice also reverberated inside Lotte’s head, the girl separated her body “Mein gott…” and sulking a little she pouted her lips.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Please grip the handle with left hand. The handle is attached to the stern of the ship and connected to the drive unit, it can change the direction of the propulsion.”<br /> <br /> Lotte was teaching Kazuki smoothly. However Lotte was not too detailed herself in how to operate the boat, it was the god of civilization Prometheus possessing Lotte that had the thorough knowledge of civilization’s convenient tool.<br /> <br /> When he gripped the handle just as he was told, a heavy sensation was conveyed into his palm with a jerk.<br /> <br /> “Manipulate the throttle lever with your right hand. The throttle is like a car’s accelerator. The boat will go forward if you pushed the throttle forward and it will change into backing movement when the throttle is pushed to the back.”<br /> <br /> “And this flap switch?”<br /> <br /> “This flap is to control the inclination of the boat, so please always watch the condition of the sea surface attentively and operate this switch appropriately. The newest ship has sensor to automatically control the flap but…this is a Japanese boat made from wood that was hastily made and the drive unit is attached in the external, so it doesn’t have the capability until that far desu.”<br /> <br /> “Handle with left hand, throttle and flap with right hand…look fairly difficult huh, this boat.”<br /> <br /> “Because officially this boat need license to operate desu. Beyond doubt, what we are doing is unlicensed driving.”<br /> <br /> Lotte asserted suspiciously.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps there will not be situation like this but, please absolutely don’t operate the motor when there is human that doesn’t have magic power in the surrounding. They will receive heavy injury if they get swallowed by the propeller.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki pushed down the slot, the boat began to move, the morning breeze changed into a strong headwind.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s fluffy hair was swayed pleasantly by the wind.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, I’ll give you a reward every time you control the boat skillfully desu-!”<br /> <br /> Rather than calling it a reward it was the person herself that was fawning on him, Lotte kissed Kazuki’s face from the side. Kazuki practiced the boat’s operation for a while, at the same time Lotte reclined on Kazuki while they were enjoying the drive on top of the sea.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Everyone apart from the Ryuutaki sisters began to play beach ball.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai didn’t mix with everyone and went away somewhere….<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was learning to operate the boat in isolation on top of the sea was finished in less than one hour.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, how much confidence you have in the strategy this time desu?”<br /> <br /> On the ship that was still floating leisurely on the open sea, Lotte asked that all of a sudden.<br /> <br /> How much confidence he had in the strategy this time huh―the one who designed the strategy this time was the person who led the Knight Order’s Shizuoka regiment, Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “Lotte doesn’t have much confidence on that Commander Yamagata don’t you?”<br /> <br /> Lotte nodded with a bob of her head.<br /> <br /> Lotte was honest in all respects towards Kazuki, but it was not like she harbored that attitude toward just anyone.<br /> <br /> Rather for Lotte who was born and raised in a royal court which was a whirlpool of scheme and plot, she would use Telepathy to anyone she directly met and unless she had confirmed that the other party didn’t hold any ill will she absolutely wouldn’t opened up her heart.<br /> <br /> “I, think that the operation this time is dangerous desu. I don’t understand it well if I’m asked why I think that but…it’s like our direction is completely guided…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded. Kazuki too had a similar feeling like that.<br /> <br /> The enemy’s hand didn’t reach until the seaside and its security was easy to infiltrate.<br /> <br /> It was as if the government of Yamato didn’t think of Ise Shrine as important, their wariness was thin.<br /> <br /> Those guys might also be unaware that if Amaterasu was defeated all the other Japanese Divas would also recover their sanity. After all in a state of Wild God the Diva couldn’t communicate normally, so it was not odd even if they didn’t know but…they were too full of opening.<br /> <br /> If this strategy succeed against the enemy that was full of opening, the enemy’s battle strength would plummet and the victory and defeat would be decided. There was no other way where they didn’t use this strategy. However….<br /> <br /> “Certainly, this is just too convenient.”<br /> <br /> If in the worst case, the enemy force was waiting in ambush, then both Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai would be trapped in a desperate situation.<br /> <br /> If this convenient situation, ''by some chance was set by someone? ''<br /> <br /> “Is that Commander Yamagata, doesn’t think well about Kazuki-oniisan?”<br /> <br /> “I also think that it might be so. It doesn’t matter even if it’s a trap, maybe he think of me as something like a sacrificial pawn.”<br /> <br /> The King of Solomon. For the human that had already seized power in Japan presently, Kazuki’s existence couldn’t be said as someone that they would necessarily welcome. Such attitude was something that he had experienced personally in the past.<br /> <br /> Actually there was also even further reason to be hesitating. …Beatrix who had covered him and fell into magic intoxication still hadn’t opened her eyes. If he could he didn’t want to be separated from her side. There was something he wanted to immediately say the moment she was awake, even while she was still asleep he wanted to wait beside her.<br /> <br /> “If onii-san feel any kind of danger, please escape immediately.”<br /> <br /> Lotte hugged Kazuki’s left arm tightly.<br /> <br /> When pushes come to shove he had to consider about the right time to escape. Kazuki had acquired several magic that could fly in the sky. Because all of it was too flashy he couldn’t use them in the case of infiltration, but in the case of escape it didn’t matter even if he use those magic. If he flew to the sky using [Deep Striker] or [Blazing Wings] while accelerating himself using [Ride Lightning], there wasn’t supposed to be many magician who could pursue him in that speed.<br /> <br /> He had to make a precise self-defense…above all Kazuha-senpai too was together with him.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s contracted Diva was Futsunushi no Kami of Japanese Mythology. That was why even in the case he really fell into the worst situation, the enemy might overlook Kazuha-senpai as long as he presented himself….<br /> <br /> “I won’t forgive Kazuki-oniisan if you yourself doesn’t go home too okay desu?”<br /> <br /> Perhaps Lotte felt Kazuki’s feeling slightly, she was glaring at Kazuki with a scowl. Kazuki was “Sorry” and smiled wryly. However he couldn’t help it that such feeling flashed inside his head for a moment.<br /> <br /> “I’m saying this because I’m just alone with Lotte but…”<br /> <br /> Surely the big shots of the government still hadn’t recognize Kazuki completely, the Solomon 72 Pillar was also still only in the stage of testing Kazuki. In regards to that the combination of Lotte and Prometheus, for Kazuki was truly [companions that had no lie]. They are a duo that absolutely had no hidden side from him.<br /> <br /> If it was with them he had the feeling that he could be frank and spoke his true feeling.<br /> <br /> Of course Leme was also listening in this conversation with butting in about anything.<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami too, feels suspicious for some reason. Even though he doesn’t have any excuse like Leme or Prometheus that lost their memory, he only gave small amount of information when he talked. He might have some kind of reason but…the one who created the chance for the strategy this time was, Futsunushi no Kami.”<br /> <br /> If in the case that this strategy was led on by someone, the one who would fall under suspicion on the top of the list was Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> “Is Futsunushi no Kami-san a spy from Yamato and he is luring Kazuki-oniisan right now?”<br /> <br /> As expected, even for Lotte she couldn’t sense until as far as a Diva’s state of mind.<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t think that Futsunushi no Kami is in Yamato’s camp…”<br /> <br /> The explanation of [the nature possessed by Wild God] that Futsunushi no Kami gave to Kazuki had already been proved as truth at present from how Ame no Uzume returned to her sanity.<br /> <br /> In the first place from how Kazuki could use Futsunushi no Kami’s magic, ''there was no doubt that Futsunushi no Kami was fundamentally an ally, but''….<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami too, might be planning to test me. He is not luring me into a trap from Yamato, but perhaps he is inviting me to the trial location of Japanese Mythology…?”<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> When he got down from the boat, Kazuki didn’t join with the playing but he searched for Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai and the others said that “We too searched for them, but we didn’t see them.”<br /> <br /> But Kazuki was able to sense the where about of a companion he had tied a bond with.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s positivity level was too low that he couldn’t sense her, but if it was Miyabi-senpai’s positivity level he could sense her faintly. Instead perhaps from Miyabi-senpai too she might be wishing for [I want Kazuki to come], in comparison of her positivity level of 44, he could feel a strong wave of magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki walked out to the direction of the beach’s edge.<br /> <br /> The area changed into a rough rocky place where the terrain was unsuited for swimming.<br /> <br /> He had to say something to Miyabi-senpai, some few words. That was what Kazuki thinking. <br /> <br /> Perhaps she was forcing herself that she wore that kind of swimsuit, and then undergoing that accident, she managed to mend her composed expression, but surely she felt hurt and embarrassed even at that time.<br /> <br /> He immediately discovered the two sisters. They were in a rocky place separated from the beach. As if trying to hide behind a boulder almost as big as an adult, Miyabi-senpai was standing directly opposite Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai had changed into a school swimsuit, both of them currently was in some kind of quarrel with each other.<br /> <br /> “…That’s why, we had especially came here together with everyone after all, it’s no good if we don’t play with everyone.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai talked with strong tone as if in reproaching.<br /> <br /> “No. I’m coming because I thought I can play with Nee-sama. That’s why Nee-sama, together with me…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s hand reached to Miyabi-senpai imploringly. Miyabi-senpai didn’t take that hand.<br /> <br /> “If I take that hand, we are going to completely go wrong the two of us.”<br /> <br /> “Why…” Shinobu-senpai’s eyes shook fiercely in agitation. Her heart started to beat violently from receiving a large shock, but that agitation was only conveyed from her eyes.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was standing stock still without raising any footstep.<br /> <br /> The wandering eyes of Shinobu-senpai that couldn’t calm down located the figure of Kazuki that was like that.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai gulped her breath strongly and glared hatefully at Kazuki. Looking at that change of expression, Miyabi-senpai too chased the destination of Shinobu-senpai’s line of sight, “…Kazuki!” and she finally noticed Kazuki’s appearance.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai suddenly turned her back and dashed away to the opposite direction from Kazuki. Miyabi-senpai chased that leaving back with her eyes, but she didn’t go over there and walked to Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> “…Before, I showed you my shameful appearance wasn’t I? Although I didn’t plan, to lose my composure like that.”<br /> <br /> Was it the story about the swimsuit? …Kazuki was at a loss of what he should say to her.<br /> <br /> “I don’t think it was something embarrassing. It was really beautiful.”<br /> <br /> The white skin characteristic of an elf on a glamorous figure. With different individuality from Koyuki, the scene was burned vividly into his heart.<br /> <br /> The instant the swimsuit flipped and her breast was out, Kazuki’s eyes became nailed on the spot as if his soul was just plundered.<br /> <br /> “Because of that, it’s strange to say something like thank you I think, but…please don’t fret or feel hurt over it too much. That is what I want to convey to senpai.”<br /> <br /> “…I chose that swimsuit with the intention of showing my skin to you, so I’m happy if you say that to me. The truth is, it was certainly embarrassing though…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s cheeks was colored red from shame, however she replied so in relief.<br /> <br /> “Rather than something like a swimsuit, senpai has to run after Shinobu-senpai immediately.”<br /> <br /> “…It’s fine. If I don’t separate with that child a little. Let’s just leave her alone. Rather than that kind of matter, I want to play together and get along well with you and everyone properly. This is a rare chance after all.”<br /> <br /> After Miyabi-senpai shook her head and denied what Kazuki said, she reached her hand to Kazuki imploringly.<br /> <br /> It was exactly the spitting image of how Shinobu-senpai reached her hand to Miyabi-senpai just before this.<br /> <br /> While Kazuki took that hand gently―however he denied it at the same time.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is impatient. Also senpai must not do something that will hurt Shinobu-senpai.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s eyelashes shook with a start.<br /> <br /> “That…I, I thought that the both of us cannot keep staying like this…”<br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai, she will surely think that she has been left behind by Miyabi-senpai. And yet if Miyabi-senpai got too impatient like this, senpai will only rapidly get completely cornered…”<br /> <br /> With Miyabi-senpai’s transformation into elf, the two twin sisters were locked into a world where it was just the two of them.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai grew to harbor feeling of distrust toward everything of the outside world that discriminate the big sister that she loved.<br /> <br /> ''In reverse Miyabi''-senpai had gotten back on her feet because Shinobu-senpai continued to stay by her side for a long time.<br /> <br /> On Shinobu-senpai’s side who was not the one who became an elf herself, even now she was still continuing to confine herself inside her shell….<br /> <br /> “I don’t mean to ignore, that child’s feeling…”<br /> <br /> Even while saying that she thought deeply of what Kazuki pointed out. Miyabi-senpai hung her head down crestfallenly.<br /> <br /> “…That’s right isn’t it, this is not for the sake of the child or anything like that. I, come like this to the sea with everyone. I might be able to make friends, with you, and with everyone else, making merry and everything…. It’s really like that isn’t it, even though that child is still unable to prepare her heart for something like this. Even though I can recover until this far is because that child keep continuing to think about me all this time….I was just about going to discard that feeling of hers.”<br /> <br /> “Senpai should not think that senpai is discarding Shinobu-senpai or anything like that.”<br /> <br /> The expression of Miyabi-senpai that was always showing a composed smile crumbled and peeled off.<br /> <br /> “I discarded her! Because, being alone with Shinobu just the two of us, is enough already! Being just the two of us like this, is just the same thing with being alone…! It looks far more fun to be together with all of you!!”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai had said to him before [Quickly conquer me too] while floating a composed smile, however,<br /> <br /> ―She was not supposed to be composed.<br /> <br /> She was making behavior that made people felt her elegance, but that might be just her pretending to be strong, showing [I don’t feel painful for even a little] to the outside world that had discriminated her.<br /> <br /> Right now, Miyabi-senpai’s shoulders were shaking with self-disgust for herself [that was going to discard] her little sister.<br /> <br /> The two that had been dependent on each other mutually for a long time. These two sisters, it would be in vain if it was not simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, it’s going to be okay. Because, I will show you that I’m going to [conquer] Shinobu-senpai too.”<br /> <br /> This was the first time he had ever said [conquer], a galge-like word like that with such earnest feeling like this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki lightly embraced the trembling Miyabi-senpai and pat her shaking shoulder.<br /> <br /> “But I think it will take a little more time, so please run after Shinobu-senpai for now. Not only with Shinobu-senpai, I will become more intimate with Miyabi-senpai as well. And then after that, let’s go with the three of us to the beach or a pool again. After all the highlight of summer will be from now on.”<br /> <br /> “…Thank you, my King.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai looked downward deeply as if hiding her expression. From that face, a sniffling sound was leaking out.<br /> <br /> “Please don’t forcibly hide yourself when you are crying.”<br /> <br /> “Really you are, even though I was desperately trying to look good but you see through all of it…”<br /> <br /> A large heart mark came flying from Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai raised her face that was wet with tears and smiled even while shedding tears.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to Shinobu’s place now. I’ll apologize. I have to make that child feel peaceful.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai wiped her tears, then she decisively turned her back to Kazuki and ran.<br /> <br /> …Let’s go back to the beach. Kazuki too turned on his heel.<br /> <br /> There was still a little time before his departure, there still might be some time left to be together with everyone.<br /> <br /> When he came out from the shadow of the rocky area…Koyuki was standing there.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki? …Did you see?”<br /> <br /> “I didn’t mean to peek but…” Her voice was just a little down.<br /> <br /> “What’s the matter?” Saying that Kazuki approached her.<br /> <br /> “It’s really nothing. Just…”<br /> <br /> Her face was somehow like a good obedient child who was despondent because her toy was taken away.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, from now on you…might not be concerning yourself about me anymore.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> “Until now you are sympathizing with the pitiful elf and concerned yourself with me but, now a new more pitiful elf has appear…” Koyuki talked while averting her eyes to another direction.<br /> <br /> “Are you seriously saying that?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was approaching near Koyuki, he circled his hands on her small back and embraced her. The sensation of her body snugly settling into his arms was very lovely. He forcefully directed Koyuki’s face that was facing another direction to look at him, then he repeated one more time. “Are you seriously thinking, that I never embraced Koyuki except from something like out of pity?”<br /> <br /> Being stared directly by Kazuki, Koyuki’s face was red and her eyes became moist.<br /> <br /> “I’m not thinking that…if I show you I’m sulking like this, I thought you might spoil me…”<br /> <br /> “Good grief, Koyuki is really a spoiled child huh.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki let out a deep breath and showed his amazement. And then while hugging Koyuki, his fingers stroked the girl’s sensitive long ear. “…!” Koyuki was trembling twitchingly from the sudden sensation.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki…you always touched my ear so casually but, this, it give lewd feelings even more than Kazuki think so, that…”<br /> <br /> “Eh, is that so? I just think of this as the extension of patting the head…so am I better to stop this?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki was going to separate his finger from her ear, Koyuki raised her voice in fluster.<br /> <br /> “It, it’s okay for you to not stop! …Please do it more.”<br /> <br /> “Koyuki is…just a little perverted aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki continued to graze Koyuki’s earring *shuu shuu* for a while and Koyuki’s spine also continued to tremble in shivers. Koyuki’s breathing was becoming disarrayed little by little.<br /> <br /> “Haa, haa…Please say it properly using your words, that you are not just pitying me…”<br /> <br /> “It’s because Koyuki is adorable and I love you, that I am being together like this with you.”<br /> <br /> After whispering those words, he kissed Koyuki’s white cheek. The cheek of Koyuki who was playing in the sea just now tasted salty.<br /> <br /> “…Please do it in my lips…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki presented her lips adorably and demanded so. For the sake of making her said that honestly, Kazuki teased her by only kissing her in cheek before this in preparation and bide his time before he kissed her as strong as he could to demonstrate his love.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki…n, nnn!!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki whose lip was sucked while her ear was toyed around continuously by one hand suddenly had her body spring strongly. And then as if power left her waist, she sank down on the spot.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> When it was time to sail out, the boat was moved to the pier of the wharf.<br /> <br /> At the place where it can be reached just by walking a little from the beach, a pier of asphalt was protruding out from the coastline.<br /> <br /> After Kazuha-senpai boarded the boat and sat beside Kazuki, she let out complaints restlessly.<br /> <br /> “Why is the boat this cramped…”<br /> <br /> “Please endure it a little, after all it seemed that preparing the ship’s provision was not easy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai had done changing from their swimsuits into [casual Japanese clothes] that had been remodeled to make it easy to move while it was worn. It seemed that in Yamato this kind of clothing had become booming among the youngsters there.<br /> <br /> The information between Japan and Yamato had been cut off, but the government was able to get their hand on information concerning west Japan from the ordinary citizen that had escaped to take refugee. <br /> <br /> It was a surprising matter for differences in culture and fashion to be created already even though it still hadn’t been one week since the separation of east and west, but because Yamato advocated that they were [the true country of Japan that was protected by the Japanese Mythology], it seemed they were {{furigana|advertising in grand-scale using domestic broadcast|propaganda}} to [Let’s return to Japan culture].<br /> <br /> It was accepted favorably among the youngsters who enjoyed the change, where in turn they gave rise to [Revival・New Japanese Style Boom] like this remodeled Japanese clothing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’a appearance was wearing a white kimono with tight sleeves and plain black hakama&lt;ref&gt;Man’s formal divided skirt&lt;/ref&gt;, but its cuffs and sleeves had been smartly remodeled to not look flabby. The clothes were fixed with buttons and belt so it didn’t look out of shape, making it looked close with western clothes.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai too was dressed in yukata&lt;ref&gt;Light cotton kimono worn in the summer or used as a bathrobe&lt;/ref&gt; that had been remodeled into no sleeves・miniskirt with flowery pattern, her shoulders and thighs were boldly exposed.<br /> <br /> Inside this cramped boat, it couldn’t be helped that those shoulders and thighs became glued with him.<br /> <br /> They were infiltrating, that was why the two attached a water-proof waist bag on their waist where they only put the minimum amount of baggage inside. So they wouldn’t be suspected by the public eyes, they were not carrying their katana.<br /> <br /> “…Well then, we are off!” “Take caa―re!”<br /> <br /> Having been sent off by the voices of everyone from the Witch’s Mansion, Kazuki started the engine.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, the ship’s balance will be unstable if you avoid your body that much until the outside. Please come closer here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai’s waist with his left arm. Precisely because Kazuha-senpai was an earnest person that could follow reason, she didn’t say any complaint and could only “Mugii―!” let out a strange voice that sounded like a mysterious animal.<br /> <br /> “What a cute rare animal.”<br /> <br /> “Who do you said is rare animal-!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While the rotating propeller left behind white trail in the water surface, the boat gradually separated from the land and embarked to the ocean. In the other side of the horizon, even further behind the small islands that were floating on Ise Bay, was the faint hazy outline of Mie Prefecture’s Toba Shore.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_6_Chapter_1&diff=465480 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 6 Chapter 1 2015-10-08T12:28:42Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 - To the Sea of Abundant Land==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Kaya was grateful to the politicians of Yamato.<br /> <br /> To be able to make contact with this person so very easily was exactly because there was the channel that they built with Chūkadou by spending efforts for months and years.<br /> <br /> This meeting was an extremely important critical juncture with regards to Loki’s plan.<br /> <br /> The pure gold chandelier was illuminating the space that was painted vermilion. Chūkadou’s &lt;Shibi&lt;ref&gt;Purple Forbidden Enclosure (group of constellations in the northern sky associated with the emperor)&lt;/ref&gt; Palace&gt;. That palace was richly colored with red and gold―the master of heaven’s decree, the emperor of China’s palace.<br /> <br /> The imperial capital that loudly proclaimed that Chūkadou is the center of the world, right now Kaya was in Beijing.<br /> <br /> There was no one else inside the room with Kaya except for that person. This was not a public audience, but a confidential talk that was conducted inside that person’s private room. Sitting on a rosewood table and chairs decorated with mother of pearl craftsmanship, Kaya and that person faced each other as if they were a fellow friends with very intimate relationship.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu…. O messenger from Yamato. No, o our friend. Your asking [if perhaps I might be able to borrow your strength], what an odd way of talking that is.”<br /> <br /> That person’s lips that was distinctly drawn with vivid red warped into the shape of crescent moon from her laugh.<br /> <br /> She was still a girl in the middle of her teens, but excess makeup was applied all over her face. In China the use of cosmetic was not approved except for nobles. Nonetheless, because the magician of this era utilized their magic power and polished their beauty of figure from the Prima Material of the skin, people who relied as far as using cosmetic rarely existed.<br /> <br /> When the girl let out a laughing voice, *sharin sharin* such sound was ringing. Each time this person made even the slightest movement, the many ornaments that were attached in excess all over her whole body raised a sound.<br /> <br /> The robe that the girl currently wore was a purple {{furigana|Lóng páo<br /> |Dragon Robe}}. A [color restriction] permitted only for the emperor, a fabric in the color of deep purple decorated with countless precious stones, as if her whole body was clad completely with the full starry sky.<br /> <br /> The weight of all the ornaments all over the girl’s body easily surpassed ten times her own weight. For the sake of enduring that weight, the girl was constantly continuing to use Enchant Aura, blue light was constantly emitted from her whole body. That light was reflected by the countless precious stones, making her constantly sparkle intensely.<br /> <br /> The excessively shining girl.<br /> <br /> Most likely even with unpainted face, even with her body naked, she was surely an owner of beautiful looks as perfect as human limit allowed.<br /> <br /> But with the girl’s standing, ''mere beauty within human limit was insufficient.''<br /> <br /> The girl used up every methods, she had to be an existence that was as if a star that was shining brightly in the center of heaven.<br /> <br /> Because the girl was a symbol.<br /> <br /> A girl that was like the height of the star―the girl’s name was &lt;Reborn Emperor&gt; Fu Zi.<br /> <br /> The personification of China’s ideal. She was the {{furigana|Emperor|Basileus}} of Chūkadou.<br /> <br /> Among the vast population of Chūkadou, she was an existence chosen as the possessor of the strongest magic power.<br /> <br /> “What do you mean, odd way of talking…?” Kaya tilted her head in an intimate behavior.<br /> <br /> If the character in front of her was a King, then Kaya was a god. There was no reason to not be confident.<br /> <br /> “No matter how much China is a really great country, be that as it may, it has enemy nations in every direction. While dealing with them, you are also in the position of having to check the other Magic Advanced Countries in place. We could exchange good intimacy with each other in this way, however because of that I must not be a bother for you…that was my thinking.”<br /> <br /> “There are two mistakes inside the words of that you.”<br /> <br /> The emperor of China, Fu Zi flatly concluded with haughty tone of voice.<br /> <br /> “One. People who are hostile to our country, are not equal to a country. They are mere barbarians.”<br /> <br /> Now that she said that, that’s really so, Kaya recalled it.<br /> <br /> The Magic Advanced Countries other than Japan didn’t consider other undeveloped country as equivalent with a nation. The undeveloped countries in Europe were considered protection target as colony country, while this China…considered them as barbarians.<br /> <br /> China saw them as objects to be invaded and controlled. They didn’t even get called as hostile [country].<br /> <br /> “Two. We the Chūkadou, our heart, cannot possibly be so narrow-minded to see a great cause and abandon it behind. Our heart is China’s heart. Indeed, certainly matters we have to do are really in great numbers. We are somewhat busy. However even so for you who are our friend, we don’t want to hear such reserved words. Rely on our heart even more honestly, it doesn’t matter even if you depend on us completely you know?”<br /> <br /> Raising a *sharin* sound, Fu Zi threw out her chest. In contrary to Fu Zi’s behavior, if she was wearing different ornaments on her whole body, the girl that had a body with small build would look cute.<br /> <br /> This fellow really said some incredible things huh…Kaya was amazed inside her heart. This little emperor said [I want you to depend on us] to Loki who though imperfect was a god.<br /> <br /> “As for us, it’s better if we made you as insurance in case we are in a pinch you know.”<br /> <br /> Kaya made a modest smile.<br /> <br /> “Hmm, is that so. But that reservation, 'tis no problem. Your consideration to us, 'tis really not a problem. Then until you open your heart and seek for assistance from us, we are going to look forward to it.”<br /> <br /> Right there Fu Zi made a wide grin suitable for her age to Kaya.<br /> <br /> It was an innocent smile but…of course as the emperor there was no way she was going to promise aid to Kaya without asking for anything as compensation. Kaya and Loki were noticing the real intention of that smile.<br /> <br /> That China was desiring for a just cause.<br /> <br /> In contrast with the King of Solomon that increased his power by means of positivity level that was the &lt;power of bond&gt;, the King of China possessed the &lt;power of heaven’s decree&gt; that [increased her power the more the territory she controlled widened].<br /> <br /> However if China sets out to invade the surrounding countries publicly, there was no way the other Magic Advanced Countries are going to stay quiet.<br /> <br /> That was why they made false charges with reason that sounded most right against other countries, or made intervention to other countries problem and then demanded for compensation. Using this and those methods, they took advantage of the other party.<br /> <br /> If China received appeal from Yamato like [we wish for cooperation for the sake of recovering the true Japan from those devils of Solomon] or something like that, it was a wish come true for the just cause to justify their armed intervention.<br /> <br /> If Yamato obtained the cooperation of China and achieved the unification of Japan archipelago, China would make Yamato into China’s puppet country in no time at all and gradually swallow them until there was nothing left of Yamato. That was what Fu Zi aimed for.<br /> <br /> But the major politicians of Yamato were thinking that they didn’t particularly mind even if their country became like that.<br /> <br /> Because most of them were spies from China anyway.<br /> <br /> Loki too was the same, he wouldn’t particularly mind if it developed into that kind of situation. Only if that created even further Chaos.<br /> <br /> There was not even a single person among the leaders of Yamato that thought of Japan archipelago as important from the bottom of their heart.<br /> <br /> This conference―was a secret agreement to surrender the future of the archipelago to China in the time ahead.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, 'tis no problem, 'tis no problem at all. We want to go help your Yamato as quickly as we can.”<br /> <br /> The emperor laughed with her body shaking. It was a smiling face that made her real intention even more conspicuous yet on the contrary emphasized her innocence instead.<br /> <br /> “To be able to become your friend like this is really reassuring for me. Hiroko-chan.”<br /> <br /> “What’s with that, calling us Hiroko-chan?”<br /> <br /> The smile vanished from Fu Zi’s face and she made a dubious face in return.<br /> <br /> Kaya recovered her behavior that was as if making fun of other people’s characteristic and answered.<br /> <br /> “It was how your name is called in the style of Japan. It’s the proof of our friendship, calling you with that nickname.”<br /> <br /> “Hmm. Well fine. 'Tis particularly no problem. Although you are from other Mythology but you are still someone called as god. ''For now'' as the proof of friendship I’m going to accept that nickname.”<br /> <br /> Fu Zi laughed generously. Kaya too returned it with a smile.<br /> <br /> Even while exchanging an intimate secret talk, Kaya was looking at a different direction from Fu Zi.<br /> <br /> The objective of Chūkadou’s Mythology was Order through control. However Kaya and Loki’s objective was to demolish the balance of the world and brought forth Chaos. For the sake of that objective, this war between Japan and Yamato was one of the steps.<br /> <br /> For Kaya, victory and defeat was of no importance.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Uwaa…amazing…it stretched the trousers tightly and becomes like mountain Fuji…”<br /> <br /> It was a voice like when a child was standing in front of a decoration cake and got enraptured seeing it.<br /> <br /> Kazuki heard that voice inside his dozing consciousness. And then right after that, he received an ambiguous sweet stimulus.<br /> <br /> “Wah, it’s hard! It’s sprang around throbbing when it was pulled! Ahaha, what a rambunctious kid! Somehow it’s really cute. Take this, and that!”<br /> <br /> Stimulus was running in his lower body with throb, throb.<br /> <br /> “What kind of shape it will become huh? Rub rub.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s lower body unconsciously startled. …He was still sleeping and there was no consciousness yet in him. However in the depth of his sleep, his instinct was ringing out his warning alarm. Something bad was being done on him…!<br /> <br /> Little by little, Kazuki’s consciousness was being awakened.<br /> <br /> “I wonder if he will wake up if I lowered his trousers. But, I really want to see it directly-“<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;slit* Some sensation was slipping around the area of his waist. Because of that strong stimulus, Kazuki was awakened.<br /> <br /> His blurred vision gradually connected the pictures. What was in front of Kazuki’s eyes was―a girl’s lower body. Covered in a water colored fit-wear, a panorama of a butt and crotch and thighs.<br /> <br /> Someone was directing her lower body to Kazuki’s face and straddled it in reverse on top of Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The other party’s face couldn’t be seen from Kazuki’s direction but there was no doubt that this fit-wear was Hikaru-senpai’s.<br /> <br /> The fit-wear that was even thinner compared to a spats was gluing tightly to the soft bottom and thighs, and also the plump swelling crotch that got caught between those. It was really making the details come to the surface perfectly as if the wearer was mostly naked. The only difference with nakedness was that the area was not skin colored but water colored.<br /> <br /> Such [important place] of Hikaru-senpai that was [almost similar with naked] was placed right in front of Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> His half asleep mind was rapidly boiling up and then Kazuki yelled.<br /> <br /> “Se, senpai! What are you doing!?”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai had stripped the trouser that Kazuki wore as pajama and currently was placing her hands right on Kazuki’s trunks. And then Kazuki’s unprepared and moreover involuntary morning physiology phenomenon had rose, pushing up the middle part of his trunks towering like mountain Fuji.<br /> <br /> This was a super dangerous situation. Kazuki pushed down his trunks in panic.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, you woke up!? Not that, it’s no good if you raise such a loud voice!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai looked at the side after having said that. Beside the two, Kaguya-senpai was still breathing lightly *suyasuya* in sleep.<br /> <br /> This place was not Kazuki’s usual room in the Witch’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> Here was the front line of the war between east Japan and west Japan―the Knight Order’s garrison of Nagoya. It was the plot of land and building that was once called Aichi Prefectural Police that was repaired for the sake of the Knight Order’s activity.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 015.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> The students of the Knight Academy that were recruited for the war with Yamato were lodging in the rooms that were allocated for them inside the garrison building. Kazuki became the room partner of Kaguya-senpai once again, and then there was Hikaru-senpai who slipped in which made the three of them sleep together inside the room last night.<br /> <br /> …He was careless. Even though usually he was the first one to wake up, but it seemed yesterday he was really tired.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, when I saw Kazuki’s cute sleeping face, I became unable to contain my feeling. I want to leave my body to this instinct as a girl-!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai smiled invigoratingly and then unhesitatingly tried once more to lower Kazuki’s trunks. Kazuki took hold of his trunks in panic and barely managed to cling on the fabric.<br /> <br /> “Please wait, senpai is too honest to yourself! Don’t just do something like lowering someone’s pants using the chance when they are sleeping!!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki raised a scream, Hikaru-senpai took a glance at the direction of the sleeping Kaguya-senpai worriedly.<br /> <br /> “That’s why I told you already that it’s not good to make a loud voice-! Kaguya is going to wake up!! …Eiii-!”<br /> <br /> Towards the face of Kazuki who was raising a scream―Hikaru-senpai’s crotch was coming down.<br /> <br /> The bulge that was tinged with plump roundness was pressuring on Kazuki’s mouth. Then next both of senpai’s thighs locked Kazuki’s face from left and right firmly. Kazuki’s lower face was enveloped in a sweet sensation of touch.<br /> <br /> “Muguu!? Fenfai, fanfufafefefufafaifo―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki raised a scream but that voice of his was suppressed completely by girl’s [meat].<br /> <br /> When Kazuki moved his lips gasping, Hikaru-senpai went “hyann!?” raising a high pitched voice and her hips jumping with a start.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki!? When you squirmed your mouth there…somehow there is this strange feeling-!”<br /> <br /> Against the sensation of Kazuki’s moving lips, Hikaru-senpai began to push down lasciviously and wriggled her hips back and forth.<br /> <br /> Kazuki noticed once again that something coming in contact with his mouth and then he shut his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what is this…I don’t know this kind of sensation…but this might feel a little good…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai took an erotic breath. Even when Kazuki finally shut his mouth and stopped stimulating the pressing body anymore, Hikaru-senpai proactively began to press down her nether region and started grinding.<br /> <br /> Then Kazuki’s nose got caught inside the caving in spot at the middle of the plump bulge of the nether region.<br /> <br /> “Hyan! …Ju, just now was amazing!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s spinal column was noticeably trembling intensely in shudders.<br /> <br /> Not good. Hikaru-senpai who was innocent about genders was learning about something completely unthinkable.<br /> <br /> Moreover on top of a person’s face.<br /> <br /> Senpai’s hip movement became even more intense. It was unclear whether it was from Kazuki’s exhalation or from the sweat that senpai perspired out, but the fit-wear was starting to become slippery with moisture and tinged with luster.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s body hygienic that was retained by the power of magic caused the sweat that she perspired to have the scent of purely girl’s scent. That scent passed by Kazuki’s reasoning without stopping and shook his instinct. Unthinkable spot had been pressed on his face from some time ago. If he was being exposed to this much lewd temptation, then no matter how much he….<br /> <br /> Rather, if it kept like this soon he’d already….<br /> <br /> …No wait, calm down. He must not get tempted by senpai’s innocence and step off the right path!<br /> <br /> Kazuki sharpened his mind with the concentration power of a swordsman and cleared away all the wicked thoughts.<br /> <br /> Because of Hikaru-senpai’s utmost effort in pressing her hips to Kazuki’s face, her attention had been averted from his trunks. Right there Kazuki parted his hands from holding on his trunks, then his hands that became free were tightly pinning down Hikaru-senpai’s hips that continued to move grazingly.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki!? ……moree…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai who was possessed by the unknown pleasure directed an unsatisfied face at his way.<br /> <br /> “This is not good. Senpai, this is out. As a maiden, please endure that sensation.”<br /> <br /> “Mu―. Kazuki…then, show me your penis.”<br /> <br /> “That’s not good. What do you mean by [then], I completely don’t get it.”<br /> <br /> “Mu―. By any chance, did I almost do something more dangerous than I thought?”<br /> <br /> In Hikaru-senpai’s expression, a color of anxiety flashed for a moment. Just as he thought it seemed she wasn’t conscious of it herself.<br /> <br /> Because Hikaru-senpai lived the falsehood that [she was a prince] for a long time, inside her, her self-awareness as a girl was still immature. In contrast with that, her instinct and body had begun to mature as a girl. That unbalance was inside senpai.<br /> <br /> “It was really dangerous, but it’s okay. I won’t hate senpai because of this kind of thing. Rather it’s exactly because I like senpai that it’s dangerous. …Haaa-!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki put his strength to both his hands and tore off Hikaru-senpai’s body from him with a roll.<br /> <br /> The rolling Hikaru-senpai was “cheeh” and sharpened her lips while both her legs were fidgeting and rubbing together.<br /> <br /> “Even though this is the rare chance where I woke up even earlier than Kazuki with my hard work, for some reason my chest is smoldering like this.”<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-kuu~n.”<br /> <br /> Did her sleep became shallow from the sounds, Kaguya-senpai embraced him tightly from the side. He was enveloped in a soft and warm sensation. Her face felt like she was still half asleep. Similar with Hikaru-senpai in her fit-wear appearance, the magic power of Kaguya-senpai’s Magic Dress came apart in her sleep and she transformed into her negligee appearance.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-kun, kiss~”<br /> <br /> While Kaguya-senpai was half asleep, she pushed out her lips to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Among the residents of the Witch’s Mansion, only Kaguya-senpai alone who still hadn’t experience the [lips-to-lips kiss].<br /> <br /> The person herself was terribly concerned of it inside her heart.<br /> <br /> However when Kazuki kissed the lips of a girl, he was able to use a one-time only trump card where he could perform the Materialized Summoning of the contracted Diva. Kaguya-senpai decided that she wouldn’t [throw away uselessly] that trump card, and determined herself that she would harden her heart and be patient for the kiss until the hour of need.<br /> <br /> Kazuki respected that will of hers and presented his cheek and not his lips.<br /> <br /> “Nn~” Kaguya-senpai sucked his cheek and fawned on him. For some reason she cutely looked like a child.<br /> <br /> This was Kaguya-senpai who usually acted like a big sister, but in her heart she surely wanted to depend on someone.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-, me too!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai hugged him from the other side and kissed *chuu* his other cheek with pleasant feeling.<br /> <br /> “Both of you, let’s get out from the bed soon. We are going to go to the beach today after all.”<br /> <br /> “I’m really looking forward to it, the sea!”<br /> <br /> The forehead of Hikaru-senpai who was making an excited voice pushed onto Kazuki with a bump.<br /> <br /> “We are not going there for playing you know, Hikaru-senpai.”<br /> <br /> The war between Japan and Yamato.<br /> <br /> For the sake of the vital counterattack strategy in this war, Kazuki was going to cross the sea and sneak into Ise Shrine.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> Aichi prefecture looked similar with a monster’s face that grew fangs. The two peninsulas growing out at the southern part of the prefecture looked perfectly similar like two jutting out fangs―the west Chita peninsula and the east Atsumi peninsula.<br /> <br /> From here Kazuki and the others would first head to the farthest pointed end of Atsumi peninsula as their destination, the &lt;Irago cape&gt;.<br /> <br /> When they arrived in this Irago cape, there was Mie prefecture across the Ise Bay.<br /> <br /> Mie prefecture had similar shape with the shape of katakana ‘ト’. After they crossed Ise bay and landed on the protrusion that jutted out to the east, they just needed to advance a little further to reach Ise Shrine.<br /> <br /> This shortest distance sea route crossing Irago cape to Mie prefecture was called &lt;Irago Water Path&gt; from the ancient times.<br /> <br /> “Together with Kazuha-senpai, I’m going to cross Irago water path and infiltrated Yamato and then invaded Ise Shrine. It seems that the {{furigana|boss|chief god}} of Japanese Mythology is there.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and groups were heading to Irago cape riding the car of the Knight Order. With just a glance it was just a black sedan that didn’t look like a military car. Kazuki was sitting in the middle of that car’s comfortable back seat. At both his sides were Mio in the right and Kanae in the left sitting with him. Kazuki was explaining the strategy once more to the two girls [who were still wearing dissatisfied face].<br /> <br /> “Why is it only Kazuki and Tsukahara-senpai alone? I cannot consent at that point at all!”<br /> <br /> When Mio pouted her lips and expressed her dissatisfaction, Kanae too was “That’s right, right there!” and said her agreement with Mio.<br /> <br /> “This is infiltration operation after all, we have to use the minimum number of personnel so we don’t stand out. And also the objective is to persuade the boss of Japanese Mythology to pull their hands from this war, so I must go together with Kazuha-senpai that is contracted with Futsunushi no Kami of the same Japanese Mythology. There is really a proper reason for all this you see.”<br /> <br /> Mio and Kanae were silent. They had no room to object in this operation.<br /> <br /> There was no other way than this…this operation felt like that. It make him felt somewhat constrained, however….<br /> <br /> “It seems because those bunches of Yamato were breaking into many shrines, that the Divas of Japanese Mythology transformed into this state called &lt;Wild God&gt;. Right there those bunches of Yamato instigated them that [the one that broke into the shrines was Japan government], and then those Wild Gods were won over into becoming Yamato’s comrade. That’s the story.”<br /> <br /> “Using that kind of method that look like children’s pranks…what a nuisance those guys are.”<br /> <br /> Kanae breathed out a deep sigh. After all the one that was exposed to the full brunt of the Wild Gods’ menace were Kanae and the others of the swordsmen.<br /> <br /> The Shrine Maiden of Yamato had short chanting time because their body hosted the Wild Gods making them able to use Drive. They kicked around the front line swordsmen with might like that of rapid-fire cannon.<br /> <br /> As expected for them to have short chanting time was a large threat.<br /> <br /> …However if the Japanese Divas turned into enemy because of a simple misunderstanding, then there are room for persuasion.<br /> <br /> “The Japanese Divas that are in Wild God state doesn’t have the ears to listen to our voice. However when the Shrine Maiden that is in Drive is defeated and fall into magic intoxication, it seems the Wild God that possessed them will also quite down and return to their sanity.”<br /> <br /> At the battle before―in [Magic War・Okehazama], one of the Shrine Maiden was captured and as a result &lt;Ame no Uzume&gt; that possessed her was returned to her sanity. Ame no Uzume lent her ear to Kazuki and Futsunushi no Kami’s persuasion and pulled out her participation from the battle.<br /> <br /> But the number of the Shrine Maidens was not only one or two, there was more than hundreds of them placed in the war front. It was not an easy matter to defeat them all and persuaded all the Wild Gods. Right there…,<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami said it, when we beat the [chief god of Japanese Mythology] in Ise Shrine and her sanity returned from the Wild God state, it seems that all the other Japanese Divas will all at once return to their senses too.”<br /> <br /> Chief God―an existence that exerted its influence to all the other Divas in that Mythology.<br /> <br /> If people talked about Japanese Mythology’s chief god that was deified in Ise Shrine, there was none other than &lt;Amaterasu-ōmikami&gt;. Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai would infiltrate into Ise Shrine and defeat Amaterasu who had turned into a Wild God. Then if they could persuade her, it was the same like plummeting the military power of Yamato.<br /> <br /> In the event that Yamato’s government fell into turmoil from suddenly losing the cooperation of Japanese Mythology, the Knight Order would commence attack without wasting any time. That was the strategy this time―[Magic War・Sekigahara].<br /> <br /> “We are giving you a beacon, so if you succeed in defeating Amaterasu give the signal with this. If the operation is a success it’s the blue beacon, if it’s a failure use the red beacon.”<br /> <br /> From the driver seat, the sunglasses wearing Akane-senpai faced Kazuki with a glance and said so.<br /> <br /> Beacon―it was a method to transmit a code by raising a colored smoke.<br /> <br /> “Beacon is it…it feels like that this item is in the wrong period somehow.” Kazuki unintentionally display his anger.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine feeling like we are in Sengoku period right? …Well that was just a joke, with the current situation like this where all the long range communication between east and west Japan are blocked, there really is no other effective method of contact you know.”<br /> <br /> Before the coup d'état Yamato made preparation in secret toward the infrastructure business through the politicians, and then they immediately severed the radio wave and internet access between east and west Japan.<br /> <br /> “But don’t look down on this beacon okay, we were requesting a skilled alchemist for the sake of the operation this time to make this custom-made item in just one night. This is not using smoke but it will blow a fire pillar high to the sky that should be able to be confirmed from Ise until Nagoya even in the middle of the night.”<br /> <br /> “If this is that flashy, even the opponent will notice it.”<br /> <br /> “If there is a method that cannot be noticed by the opponent where we can exchange conversation, that will be the best though. That’s why swiftness will become important in this operation. Our side has also made preparation beforehand so not to grant the enemy time to prepare, that the moment we received the signal we can immediately invade.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai smoothly drove the large-type sedan while explaining.<br /> <br /> “…Nonetheless it’s really amazing isn’t it, to be able to manage this kind of big car.”<br /> <br /> “Hehehe, she is cool right! The senpai I’m proud of!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that was sitting in the assistant driver’s seat happily looked back. For Hikaru-senpai who was the present vice president of the student council, Akane-senpai who was the former vice president was a direct senior that taught her how to do the work.<br /> <br /> “I went to a training camp for a short period to take my license when I became a third year. Because car is the knights’ foot.”<br /> <br /> From the sunlight that shone through the front glass, the sunglasses that Akane-senpai was wearing shone brightly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and groups rode the three cars that were prepared by the Knight Order separately and headed to Irago cape.<br /> <br /> The ones who was in charge of driving at each car respectively were Kanon-senpai, Akane-senpai, and Lotte.<br /> <br /> Lotte who was still 15 years old was of course unlicensed, but because the Diva of civilization Prometheus was dwelling inside her body, she was able to drive every kind of vehicle.<br /> <br /> Except for the three sedans that were running in line on the road, there was no other car they could see.<br /> <br /> That was because the surrounding of Nagoya had been designated as evacuation zone. This place was a townscape in the state of emergency.<br /> <br /> “…But why did we bring everyone else together with us? I thought that the only one needed for this operation is only Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai though.”<br /> <br /> “It would be too conspicuous if we choose and bring along only you and Tsukahara-san. Because In this extremely secret operation, we have to carry out this plan without even letting the knights of the Knight Order know.”<br /> <br /> …I see, the spy from Yamato had been infiltrating the inner part of the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> This infiltration mission couldn’t be leaked out even to his ally.<br /> <br /> The only one from the internal of the Knight Order who knew about this strategy was only the strategy planner Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “We are taking all of you under the pretense of rewarding the students that made distinguished service in the previous battle with vacation. Also with the massing of battle strength of east Japan here, our shortage of personnel is also being reduced, so the timing also looked natural right?”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.06 023.jpg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> In the first place Kazuki and the other students were recruited into the front line of this war was because the Knight Orders had shortage of personnel. Matching their timing with the coup d’etat of Yamato, the illegal magicians of Yamato that were scattered through east Japan began their guerilla activity. With the Knight Order’s personnel taken to suppress the illegal magicians, the Knight Order right after the coup d’etat became too preoccupied to even think of fighting a war.<br /> <br /> But right now most of the illegal magicians had been suppressed and battle strength was in the process of massing in this front line. When it became like this, there was no necessity to work the cadets that were still nothing more than student non-stop.<br /> <br /> Because of that reason Kazuki and the others who made distinguished service in the previous battle were granted with vacation as reward…there was some carefreeness saying it like that but it was not really much of a strange story.<br /> <br /> There was a beach that was suitable for swimming at Irago cape.<br /> <br /> “Of course that’s just the cover story, all of you the &lt;Knight Academy Regiment&gt; are separated from the command system of the top brass and can move freely and you will be allowed to keep moving like that from now on as independent unit.”<br /> <br /> The spy from Yamato was most likely had penetrated into as far as the top brass of the Knight Order. All the action of the Knight Order had to be reported in detail to the top brass so everything became completely leaked to the spy.<br /> <br /> The Knight Academy was independent from that {{furigana|hierarchy|chain of comman}} and stood as a different organization, making them able to move only at Headmaster Amasaki’s own discretion. The Knight Academy regiment that was composed from the students was the sole unit that was able to conduct a strategy without its information getting leaked to Yamato.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama, please look forward to Kanae’s swimsuit appearance okay!”<br /> <br /> “…Somehow I lost my nervousness with Kanae in my side huh.”<br /> <br /> Though for Kazuki this vacation till the end was just a camouflage.<br /> <br /> However for everyone else who practically wouldn’t engage in this infiltration operation, this was just a normal vacation.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki too also has the time to play together with us for a little right?”<br /> <br /> Mio hugged Kazuki’s arm tightly from the right side.<br /> <br /> ―The car was going south at the Atsumi peninsula for a total of two hours. Leaving far away Nagoya that was unfolding out an uncouth urban warfare, the scenery was transformed into something that made them felt the atmosphere of vacation in southern country.<br /> <br /> Palm trees were growing besides the road along the coastline.<br /> <br /> From the gap between the palm trees, the sea was finally visible.<br /> <br /> “That’s the sea Nii-sama-!” Kanae raised an excited voice the foremost. Kazuki was spontaneously half-rising from his seat, and then morning breeze rushed inside the car when Akane-senpai tactfully opened the car window.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> It was still June, originally it was still not the period when the beach had opened.<br /> <br /> The sandy beach they finally arrived at was like a private beach.<br /> <br /> All the beach house of the beach was in a state of closing vacation. But it seemed not everything was in the state of unmanned. Right after they arrived, Akane-senpai entered one of the beach houses where inside she made some kind of talk with the shopkeeper.<br /> <br /> It seemed the Knight Order had negotiate with this beach house where they were given permission that it was fine to use the changing room and shower freely. After a while, Akane-senpai came out from the beach house.<br /> <br /> “For the time being Kazuki and everyone else too just change into your swimsuit.”<br /> <br /> Everyone raised a cheer and entered the female changing room.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too entered the male changing room by his lonesome.<br /> <br /> …Surrounding by girls in swimsuit, when the male was just him alone.<br /> <br /> How really amazing…, Kazuki thought once more. He didn’t thought that this environment was amazing or the like after coming this far, but he was thinking that his reasoning who was able to endure in this environment was really awesome if he said so himself.<br /> <br /> Kazuki changed into trunks-type swimsuit with swiftness that could be said as the privilege of male.<br /> <br /> On the other side, he could hear strange voices like “Roo―ck paa―per…” from the girl changing room. What were they doing in there? Kazuki didn’t take any mind of it and went down and stood on the sandy beach alone even earlier than anyone else.<br /> <br /> The sensation of the sands at the sole of his feet felt good. The temperature was still a little cool, but a magician could control temperature using Pyrokinesis. Controlling heat and cold was the magic that human who had obtained magic power naturally learned the foremost.<br /> <br /> The swimsuit was something they received from the purchase of the Knight Order from the unmanned department store in Nagoya. Kazuki and the others were told to choose whatever they like. Someone like Mio had her eyes shining from all the high-class brands at that kind of time.<br /> <br /> “Ottoo―to-kunn♪”<br /> <br /> While he was staring at the sea, an excited voice was calling out at his back.<br /> <br /> When he looked back, the one who came out the first from the girl’s changing room was Kaguya-senpai in black bikini.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai looked like she wanted to say something, she was looking at Kazuki with broad grin.<br /> <br /> “…It’s really an adult swimsuit isn’t it? The swimsuit really matched senpai well.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufuu, when I’m like this it’s different with using Magic Dress, what a relief.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai pulled the hem of the pareo she wore tightly. When Kaguya-senpai lapsed into delirium because of Asmodeus, she went beyond daring and acted a little like that, but actually she also felt embarrassed just like other people.<br /> <br /> However although the pareo in her lower body lowered the exposure rate, the destructive power of her chest bikini was tremendous. It was heavily drooping bouncingly that even now it looked like it was going to burst out. In addition even though her hips was constricted tightly but her thighs was too voluptuous, what a really lewd body.<br /> <br /> …He was too conscious of it that the atmosphere became really not suitable for playing together.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun’s appearance in swimsuit is also really good! Especially your muscle chest is really great-!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s eyes too sparkled at Kazuki and she walked approaching him.<br /> <br /> “…Kaguya-senpai strangely like chest muscle aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, I like it♪” Kaguya-senpai circled both her hands to Kazuki’s back and hugged him, and then she pressed her own face to Kazuki’s chest and rubbed her cheek repeatedly. Kazuki too hugged her back tightly.<br /> <br /> Their body were naturally in mutual―senpai’s breast was bouncingly pressing at him.<br /> <br /> They were hugging each other in swimsuit but…for some reason it felt like they were hugging each other in nude.<br /> <br /> When he was stroking her smooth back, senpai was “It tickles♪” and she laughed happily.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-!” There was even more voice calling at him and he turned back.<br /> <br /> The second one that came along was Mio wearing a red bikini.<br /> <br /> By some chance perhaps the rock-paper-scissor from before was for deciding the order of the girls’ exit.<br /> <br /> Mio was saying “How is it?” and took some poses *sa*, *sa*, in order to display her own body.<br /> <br /> “You are really pretty. The swimsuit really pulled out the goodness of Mio’s style.”<br /> <br /> The swimsuit that she chose was exactly [a swimsuit that couldn’t be wore except for the chosen person].<br /> <br /> The area covered by clothes was considerably even smaller than Kaguya-senpai’s swimsuit, the fabric and string that were cut directly enhanced Mio’s willowy limbs stylishly.<br /> <br /> Even though it had simple cutting he could still feel the calculation inside it, it was not a clothing that simply had high exposure rate, surely it also had the aim to enhance the femininity of the wearer until the limit. It had some artistic in it.<br /> <br /> This swimsuit had already reached the zone where it absolute wouldn’t suit someone that didn’t have a good style, but it suited Mio perfectly. There was this presence of a high class swimsuits that just like that presented the girl.<br /> <br /> Mio was “Hehehe! It really suit me!”, she puffed her chest and laughed. After that she looked alternately at Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai who were hugging, and then she opened her both hands to the front and said “Hug hug&lt;ref&gt;Mio said this in English&lt;/ref&gt;!” …Hug hug?<br /> <br /> “Come on, hug hug!!” Mio said it again in a little angry tone.<br /> <br /> …Did she want to be hugged from his side?<br /> <br /> Kazuki dragged Kaguya-senpai trailingly while walking near Mio and then he hugged Mio tightly.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s scent was gently mixing with Mio’s scent.<br /> <br /> There was Mio in his right side and Kaguya-senpai in his left side, making their posture to be in dumpling state&lt;ref&gt;Being crowded together. Dumpling in Japan is usually skewered together where the dumplings were pressed against each other.&lt;/ref&gt;. Both of them were in swimsuit, that was why no matter where he touched his hands met the sensation of a girl bare skin. They were wrapped together.<br /> <br /> Mio was “Nn~♪” leaking out a satisfied sweet voice, and pressed herself loosely inside Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki mustn’t temper your body too much okay. After all slender macho around this much is the best.”<br /> <br /> While Mio rubbed herself repeatedly on Kazuki chest, she handed down such evaluation.<br /> <br /> “Objection&lt;ref&gt;Phoenix Wright reference I think&lt;/ref&gt;! …I think it’s not particularly bad even if your chest become a little more buff!”<br /> <br /> From the side Kaguya-senpai immediately shouted her objection.<br /> <br /> “No, I hate brawny build! After all Kazu-nii is my prince!”<br /> <br /> Both of them glared at each other with Kazuki in between, and then they began to argue of this and that about Kazuki’s ideal body build.<br /> <br /> “…Something like muscle, I think it’s best if its only practical though…”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki was gazing at their argument in dumbfounded look, he felt the skirt of his trunks got pulled *kui kui* repeatedly. When he looked back, there was Koyukik there. Hikaru-senpai was also coming along at her side.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki and Hikaru-senpai. …Wait, Koyuki, isn’t that just your Magic Dress?”<br /> <br /> “This Magic Dress can also fulfill the role of swimsuit sufficiently anyway. …When I was going to choose my swimsuit, Vepar became sulky. Such thing is unneeded, she said.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s speech was mixed with a deep sigh.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki’s appearance is something I’m used to see as usual but…as I thought white really suited Koyuki.”<br /> <br /> The extra ornaments were omitted from Koyuki’s magic dress, making her wrapped from chest to hips only with the exterior in white school swimsuit shape. The exposure rate was fewer than bikini―however the feel of the surface material was delicately translucent, the degree of light faintly made her skin showed through. The swimsuit was fairly, no considerably bewitching.<br /> <br /> Seeing the dumpling state Kazuki was in with Mio and Kaguya-senpai, Koyuki circled their surrounding and discovered a gap, “Puu” and then she forced her way there. The sweetness density was increased even further.<br /> <br /> Mio and Kaguya-senpai were even now “The gap when Kazuki looks unexpectedly macho after he took off his clothes is great.” “Looking slender in clothing is scientifically impossible. Macho is constantly macho.” saying things like that they were continuing the unproductive argument. Kazuki had the feeling that somehow the talk was not about him anymore so he left them alone.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai’s swimming race swimsuit is coolly stylish isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Hehehe, just as I thought I had the hunch that cutey thing doesn’t suit me…”<br /> <br /> Such thing is not true, he thought, however what Hikaru-senpai was wearing was a glossy race swimsuit of blue and water color with yellow line inserted in it. The slender high leg that grew out emphasized the length of her foot.<br /> <br /> …However, the splendid high leg was amazing. With acute angle exactly like the alphabet V, it tightly dug into the girlish buxom hip.<br /> <br /> “But this is fairly amazing you know. While I’m walking it dug into my bottom arbitrarily…”<br /> <br /> Half-spinning her body with a twirl, Hikaru-senpai directed her bottom at his direction.<br /> <br /> The steep angle of the high leg dug into her bottom, it was on the brink of looking like T-pack.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s face spontaneously became red and he averted his eyes. Looking at his reaction, Hikaru-senpai’s expression brightened.<br /> <br /> …This morning it was like that too, but this person was very happy if Kazuki was conscious of her as an opposite sex and it sometimes made her thoughtlessly started indecent behavior that made him troubled/<br /> <br /> “Hehehe-! Ass Attack! I’m a person from planet Oshirifurifuri&lt;ref&gt;The meaning of this word is Ass Shake Shake, if anyone can think of a better name feel free to edit this.&lt;/ref&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai suddenly launched a hip attack at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Because of the hip attack that forcefully wedged its way through between Mio and Kaguya-senpai, the two who were in the middle of heated argument were “Wa, what’s with this ass!” and got thrown back.<br /> <br /> Hikari-senpai who turned into alien from planet Oshirifurifuri was rubbing her bottom around the area of Kazuki’s waist.<br /> <br /> “No wait, everyone is clinging on me too much here!”<br /> <br /> Amasaki Mio―152 Hiakari Koyuki―132 Otonashi Kaguya―129 Hoshikaze Hikaru―118<br /> <br /> <br /> There was even more voice coming from behind him.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, it’s really absurd for all of you to think that you can steal Nii-sama’s heart with only swimsuits around that degree! I lost the initiative at the appearance turn but, Nii-sama please look this way! To the alluring figure of the star performers Kanae and Kohaku!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked up at the direction of the voice. In front of the beach house, Kanae and Kohaku stood there with their chests wrapped with cotton wrapping and cotton loincloth tied on their waists. They showed that appearance brimming with self-confidence and arrogant attitude.<br /> <br /> …Ah no, Kohaku was looking slightly embarrassed.<br /> <br /> “This is the Japanese Traditional Sexy Fair…Doshi☆Fun&lt;ref&gt;I think she reversed Fundoshi (loincloth) into Doshifun here. Though I don’t know what is the meaning or if it’s a reference to something.&lt;/ref&gt;!”<br /> <br /> “Kanae, Kohaku…I don’t think that kind of appearance exist.”<br /> <br /> His reasoning that was shaken because of everyone had cooled down instantly thanks to Kanae.<br /> <br /> “E, EEEEEEEEEE!? How can Nii-sama’s heart be that harmonious after seeing this!?”<br /> <br /> “No, after all that appearance is not limited only to Japanese style right? Aren’t you throwing away various important things as a girl like that? I cannot think of anything else other than you running some kind of joke…”<br /> <br /> “GAA―NN!” Kanae became teary-eyed while Kohaku directed a spiteful eyes to Kanae.<br /> <br /> “…Even though this one had said that it’s strange, Kana-nyan-senpai was bragging [I know all there is to know about Nii-sama!] full of confidence so in the end…”<br /> <br /> “Shu, shut up! Don’t say any complaint, aren’t you the one that copied me on your own accord even though I decided this by myself!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae turned back and shouted at Kohaku. Her bottom was *purun!* shaking. …The bottom became something amazing to look at from behind when wearing loincloth, Kazuki reflexively averted his eyes.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, that being the case Kanae-san is a very shy person isn’t she? But running a clever plan while hiding one’s embarrassment is a blunder. …There is no easy path in subtleties of man and woman except using all one’s might!”<br /> <br /> All one’s might―the one who appeared this time along with a proclamation that sounds amazing for some reason was Ryuutaki Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> With refreshing smile, the swimsuit that she was wearing…was a straightforward ''string'' swimsuit.<br /> <br /> Slingshot―narrow belt that was fine even if it was called string was hanged on from the neck to the breast and from the breast to the waist. It barely retained its claim as swimsuit by the belt that was hanging on the apex of the breast. Whether Miyabi-senpai should be called a celebrity or an exhibitionist, she had a really erotic &amp; gorgeous style.<br /> <br /> With a composed expression as if saying that it was only around this much, Miyabi-senpai sexily brushed up her long hair that was colored silver from elf’s special trait. Kazuki reflexively stiffened from the unexpected nice body.<br /> <br /> “Please wait Nee-sama! That swimsuit is really not for sane person!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobi-senpai was dashing out from the beach house while raising a piercing cry in school swimsuit appearance.<br /> <br /> “Please stop exposing that appearance to anyone other than me!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai caught the arm of Miyabi-senpai. However Miyabi-senpai was “Noo!”, she made a resistance. Miyabi-senpai attempted to shake off the arm that caught her making her chest swaying *purun purun* from her movement.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai floated a composed smile toward Kazuki whose eyes became completely nailed on that sight.<br /> <br /> “…Fufufu, when Kazuki is looking at me like that, I cannot help but feel a shiver on my spine you know.”<br /> <br /> Composed. No…she looked like she was forcing herself somewhere.<br /> <br /> “You look like just a mere pervert Nee-sama-! I bring over Nee-sama’s share of school swimsuit too so come with me!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai pinioned Miyabi-senpai’s arm and was trying to lead her into the beach house.<br /> <br /> “I said no already!” Miyabi-senpai tried to shake off Shinobu-senpai from dragging her.<br /> <br /> Because of that momentum of hers, *poroo* some kind of sound could be heard.<br /> <br /> Actually there was no such sound at all, but that kind of sound effect was flashing inside his head. When Miyabi-senpai’s body that was pinioned shook to left and right, her large breasts also rampaged to the left and right, causing the belt that was only hanged on that ‘summit’ got out of place *poron*, the large breast fell out.<br /> <br /> Look soft…Kazuki’s eyes opened wide, fixedly staring at that sight.<br /> <br /> “…I, I don’t plan to show until this far though…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s white skin became bright red from shame. However she immediately attempted to recover her composed smile.<br /> <br /> “…Fufu, this is not really shameful or anything though, it’s not an embarrassing body after all.”<br /> <br /> With a composed smile as if pulling on a mask, she didn’t even try to hide the jiggling breast.<br /> <br /> “Nee-sama! Withdraw! This is already prohibited!!”&lt;ref&gt;Shinobu always talked in polite language.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai finally went as far as using Enchant Aura and forcefully carried up Miyabi-senpai. Miyabi-senpai’s body had become all tensed up and she didn’t resist anymore. Just like that the two of them were returning to the beach house.<br /> <br /> …Overwhelmed by the event just now, no words could come out from his mouth.<br /> <br /> Passing the Ryuutaki sisters, Karin and Kazuha-senpai finally came.<br /> <br /> “What’s with that? Breast palanquin&lt;ref&gt;The words used here is portable shrine (carried in festivals)&lt;/ref&gt;?” Karin left behind such comment.<br /> <br /> “Leaving aside that, Hayashizaki Kazuki! It’s just fine even if you comment on my swimsuit appearance!”<br /> <br /> Karin made a full rotation with a twirl. What she wore was a swimsuit for use of primary schoolgirl that was printed with anime character.<br /> <br /> “Eh, aa…it suit you. You are extremely cute in a certain meaning. I can’t really see you as someone the same age with me.”<br /> <br /> “Mu, something is suspicious in your way of talking…Well, that’s must be because you really like anime. Fufun.”<br /> <br /> At her side, Kazuha-senpai who was examining Kazuki’s expression was wearing a wine red adult-like bikini that was arranged with white ribbon. For Kazuha-senpai to wear a bikini with high exposure rate was a little unexpected.<br /> <br /> “Senpai’s tight abs is really well reflected as a swordsman huh. It’s a beautiful body in supple way.”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t suddenly look at me with strange eyes-! Don’t review me!!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki put his impression in his mouth, Kazuha-senpai lost her temper just like usual.<br /> <br /> “I’m not looking at senpai with strange eyes. It just remind me once again what a hard-worker senpai is.”<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, so this is a talk as swordsman.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki intended it as the highest praise when he said beautiful muscle, but Kazuha-senpai donned dissatisfied face.<br /> <br /> “But as a girl senpai is also really lovely. The practical muscle as a swordsman mysteriously doesn’t harm senpai’s womanly charm. Moreover that bikini is a little unexpected and charming.”<br /> <br /> Getting praised with time difference, Kazuha-senpai’s became bright red from receiving the surprise attack.<br /> <br /> And then a heart mark of positivity level up came flying from her chest, however as if deceiving that heart mark,<br /> <br /> “What are you saying [cute] for even though you are the younger one-! Youu-!!”<br /> <br /> Getting angry once more, Kazuha-senpai hit him again and again.<br /> <br /> Kazuki separated his body from the girls that were clinging on him and cleverly evade Kazuha-senpai’s repeated strike while using Foresight. Thereupon Kazuha-senpai became even more irate and came hitting him even more.<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―80<br /> <br /> “Now that I’m looking, where is Lotte? I don’t catch sight of her but…”<br /> <br /> While evading Kazuha-senpai’s hit, Kazuki was looking around at his surrounding.<br /> <br /> “She was not in the changing room, so I wonder if she is not together with Akane-senpai and the other.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai too tilted her head in wonder.<br /> <br /> “Won’t she come if we wait for her? Let’s play first!”<br /> <br /> Mio pulled Kazuki’s arm as if feeling that the time they had together was too precious to waste.<br /> <br /> At that time a voice rang out from the direction of the sea.<br /> <br /> “The event is not going there! Everyone can play except for Onii-san! Kazuki-oniisan will be together with me to get the technique of operating the boat beaten into his head desu!”<br /> <br /> When they turned around, a single small boat was heading to the beach cutting through the waves from the other side of the horizon. The one who drove was…Lotte!<br /> <br /> Before the boat could go up the beach, it stopped still.<br /> <br /> “Wooden small ship &lt;Solomon&gt;. You are going to ride that and head to Ise.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai who was talking with someone in the beach house was, while still wearing sunglass, coming down to the beach with her mantle of the knight uniform flapping from the morning breeze. She was pointlessly cool.<br /> <br /> The group was reeled back, making Mio raised a protest.<br /> <br /> “Eeee, you are going with this kind of small shabby boat!? Even if a bigger ship like a cruiser is prepared…”<br /> <br /> “This is not a shabby things, it was created by skilled hands, a precious traditional handicraft. In the case that Yamato properly bring out radar and conducted border security, that small wooden boat is able to slip through the radar. The wood has the property that make it easier to absorb the electromagnetic wave compared to iron or resin.”<br /> <br /> Radar worked by transmitting electromagnetic wave to the target and detected the target by sensing the electromagnetic wave that clashed with the target and got reflected back. By using something made from wood, moreover with a size that small it would surely be difficult to detect the boat.<br /> <br /> The Knight Order had saw that Yamato was unable to construct a security set-up using radar, but there was no such thing as being too careful.<br /> <br /> “Also there are quite a lot of reef in Irago water path, so for an amateur rather than driving a large boat it’s better to use small boat.”<br /> <br /> “This is a motor boat loaded with engine isn’t it? I thought that I’m going to cross the sea by paddling.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked about the surprising addition. This was an infiltration, so the number one concern was [sound].<br /> <br /> “Just as you hear this boat is loaded with motor that has high quietness so you don’t need to worry about sound. It’s also loaded with GPS, even in the miniscule chance that the boat get overturned you can fly using magic…if I have to say my worries than it’s only if someone discover you by naked eye. Such worry is needless if it’s you right, Cyclops?”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai laugh challengingly. There was not many human that had better eyesight than Kazuki. Before the enemy could even discover Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai, surely Kazuki would discover the enemy faster and could escape. <br /> <br /> “By the way senpai is not wearing swimsuit?”<br /> <br /> “…I and Kanon have the position of leading you guys. The permission to relax doesn’t include both of us. Please don’t say anything stupid.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai asserted stiffly with her sunglass sparkling. However from her side,<br /> <br /> “HYAHHAA―!!!”<br /> <br /> With goggle in her head, school swimsuit and even swimming ring, with such complete equipment Kanon-senpai dashed across the beach and leaped into the sea even earlier than anybody else. Akane-senpai was speechless and cradled her head, smiling wryly at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The boat was made from wood not only in its exterior but also its interior, the drive unit installed in its stern emitted a luster of modernity. The drive unit was a unification of motor, battery, and propeller. The boat’s total length was 12 meters, however the width didn’t even reach 2 meters.<br /> <br /> With two seater sitting side-by-side horizontally, Kazuki was sitting in the driver seat with Lotte in the assistant driver seat in a cramped space where their shoulder and thigh could touch each other. Rather Lotte was happier with that cramped space.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, I’m monopolizing Kazuki-oniisan onboard a ship desu!”<br /> <br /> Lotte who was sitting on the seat beside him was wearing tankini swimsuit with white tank-top entered by pink borders and hotpants. The exposure rate was few but she looked wholesomely cute. Amazingly cute.<br /> <br /> Lotte happily frolicked at Kazuki’s left shoulder.<br /> <br /> When they turned around to the beach direction from the floating boat on top of the sea, everyone else were playing at the beach’s edge, competing in swimming, or burying and got buried in the sandy beach.<br /> <br /> For Lotte to say something like monopolizing Kazuki like this was a rare event.<br /> <br /> “That’s because Lotte always holding back too much.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki kept stroking her head, Lotte made a dazzling bright smile at him.<br /> <br /> Kazuki nonchalantly lowered his hand that was stroking Lotte’s head to the back of her head, then suddenly he forcefully drew Lotte’s face near and stole her lips forcibly.<br /> <br /> For a while their lips tasted each other’s softness intimately. And then when their faces separated, Lotte’s face boiled red dazedly as if she was drunk. A large heart mark headed to Kazuki and flew.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-oniisan, you had become skillful in doing this kind of thing unfalteringly, or perhaps I should say…the surprise just now was a lovely surprise attack desu-!”<br /> <br /> Lotte jumped into Kazuki’s chest enthusiastically, making the small boat shook on top of the water surface in a loll.<br /> <br /> …Although it was because Lotte was happy no matter what he did with her, so he was just trying out to act proactively for once.<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Lotte in return while recovering the balance of the ship, and then he was brushing her head gently once more.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan…not just my head, please touch various place in me even more♪”<br /> <br /> Lotte whispered bewitchingly. Then Kazuki brushed Lotte’s back gently.<br /> <br /> “Ehehe…do it in even more various place♪”<br /> <br /> Being urged even further, he brought his hand from the back to her waist, then her stomach where his hand kept stroking her body. “Nn…♪” Lotte released an ardent sigh, her body was quivering.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, more, I want you to do even more desu.”<br /> <br /> Lotte rubbed her thigh on him. That act was not the childish sweetness she always did in front of everyone. Lotte who was like a little angel was becoming passionate inside Kazuki’s arms.<br /> <br /> {Lotte, it’s extremely painful for me to disturb you here but, we have to teach Kazuki the ship control soon.}<br /> <br /> Suddenly the voice of Prometheus rang out inside his head. Looked like the same voice also reverberated inside Lotte’s head, the girl separated her body “Mein gott…” and sulking a little she pouted her lips.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Please grip the handle with left hand. The handle is attached to the stern of the ship and connected to the drive unit, it can change the direction of the propulsion.”<br /> <br /> Lotte was teaching Kazuki smoothly. However Lotte was not too detailed herself in the how to operate the boat, it was the god of civilization Prometheus possessing Lotte that had the thorough knowledge of civilization’s convenient tool.<br /> <br /> When he gripped the handle just as he was told, a heavy sensation was conveyed into his palm with a jerk.<br /> <br /> “Manipulate the throttle lever with your right hand. The throttle is like a car’s accelerator. The boat will go forward if you pushed the throttle forward and it will change into backing movement when the throttle is pushed to the back.”<br /> <br /> “And this flap switch?”<br /> <br /> “This flap is too control the inclination of the boat, so please always watch the condition of the sea surface attentively and operate this switch appropriately. The newest ship has sensor to automatically control the flap but…this is a Japan boat made from wood that was hastily made and the drive unit is attached in the external, so it doesn’t have the capability until that far desu.”<br /> <br /> “Handle with left hand, throttle and flap with right hand…look fairly difficult huh, this boat.”<br /> <br /> “Because officially this boat need license to operate desu. Beyond doubt, what we are doing is unlicensed driving.”<br /> <br /> Lotte asserted suspiciously.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps there will not be situation like this but, please absolutely don’t operate the motor when there is human that doesn’t have magic power in the surrounding. They will receive heavy injury if they get swallowed by the propeller.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki pushed down the slot, the boat began to move, the morning breeze changed into a strong headwind.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s fluffy hair was swayed pleasantly by the wind.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, I’ll give you a reward every time you control the boat skillfully desu-!”<br /> <br /> Rather than calling it a reward it was the person herself that was fawning on him, Lotte kissed Kazuki’s face from the side. Kazuki practiced the boat’s operation for a while, at the same time Lotte reclined on Kazuki while they were enjoying the drive on top of the sea.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> Everyone apart from the Ryuutaki sisters began to play beach ball.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai didn’t mix with everyone and went away somewhere….<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was learning to operate the boat in isolation on top of the sea was finished in less than one hour.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, how much confidence you have in the strategy this time desu?”<br /> <br /> On the ship that was still floating leisurely on the open sea, Lotte asked that all of a sudden.<br /> <br /> How much confidence he had in the strategy this time huh―the one who designed the strategy this time was the person who led the Knight Order’s Shizuoka regiment, Commander Yamagata.<br /> <br /> “Lotte doesn’t have much confidence on that Commander Yamagata don’t you?”<br /> <br /> Lotte nodded with a bob of her head.<br /> <br /> Lotte was honest in all respects towards Kazuki, but it was not like she harbored that attitude toward just anyone.<br /> <br /> Rather for Lotte who was born and raised in a royal court which was a whirlpool of scheme and plot, she would use Telepathy to anyone she directly met and unless she had confirmed that the other party didn’t hold any ill will she absolutely wouldn’t opened up her heart.<br /> <br /> “I, think that the operation this time is dangerous desu. I don’t understand it well if I’m asked why I think that but…it’s like our direction is completely guided…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki nodded. Kazuki too had a similar feeling like that.<br /> <br /> The enemy’s hand didn’t reach until the seaside and its security was easy to infiltrate.<br /> <br /> It was as if the government of Yamato didn’t think of Ise Shrine as important, their wariness was thin.<br /> <br /> Those guys might also be unaware that if Amaterasu was defeated all the other Japanese Divas would also recover their sanity. After all in a state of Wild God the Diva couldn’t communicate normally, so it was not odd even if they didn’t know but…they were too full of opening/<br /> <br /> If this strategy succeed against the enemy that was full of opening, the enemy’s battle strength would plummet and the victory and defeat would be decided. There was no other way where they didn’t use this strategy. However….<br /> <br /> “Certainly, this is just too convenient.”<br /> <br /> If in the worst case, the enemy force was waiting in ambush, then both Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai would be trapped in a desperate situation.<br /> <br /> If this convenient situation, ''by some chance was set by someone? ''<br /> <br /> “Is that Commander Yamagata, doesn’t think well about Kazuki-oniisan?”<br /> <br /> “I also think that it might be so. It doesn’t matter even if it’s a trap, maybe he think of me as something like a sacrificial pawn.”<br /> <br /> The King of Solomon. For the human that had already seized power in Japan presently, Kazuki’s existence couldn’t be said as someone that they would necessarily welcome. Such attitude was something that he had experienced personally in the past.<br /> <br /> Actually there was also even further reason to be hesitating. …Beatrix who had covered him and fell into magic intoxication still hadn’t opened her eyes. If he could he didn’t want to be separated from her side. There was something he wanted to immediately say the moment she was awake, even while she was still asleep he wanted to wait beside her.<br /> <br /> “If onii-san feel any kind of danger, please escape immediately.”<br /> <br /> Lotte hugged Kazuki’s left arm tightly.<br /> <br /> When pushes come to shove he had to consider about the right time to escape. Kazuki had acquired several magic that could fly in the sky. Because all of it was too flashy he couldn’t use them in the case of infiltration, but in the case of escape it didn’t matter even if he use those magic. If he flew to the sky using [Deep Striker] or [Blazing Wings] while accelerating himself using [Ride Lightning], there wasn’t supposed to be many magician who could pursue him in that speed.<br /> <br /> He had to make a precise self-defense…above all Kazuha-senpai too was together with him.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s contracted Diva was Futsunushi no Kami of Japanese Mythology. That was why even in the case he really fell into the worst situation, the enemy might overlooked Kazuha-senpai as long as he presented himself….<br /> <br /> “I won’t forgive Kazuki-oniisan if you yourself doesn’t go home too okay desu?”<br /> <br /> Perhaps Lotte felt Kazuki’s feeling slightly, she was glaring at Kazuki with a scowl. Kazuki was “Sorry” and smiled wryly. However he couldn’t help it that such feeling flashed inside his head for a moment.<br /> <br /> “I’m saying this because I’m just alone with Lotte but…”<br /> <br /> Surely the big shots of the government still hadn’t recognize Kazuki completely, the Solomon 72 Pillar was also still only in the stage of testing Kazuki. In regards to that the combination of Lotte and Prometheus, for Kazuki was truly [companions that had no lie]. They are a duo that absolutely had no hidden side from him.<br /> <br /> If it was with them he had the feeling that he could be frank and spoke his true feeling.<br /> <br /> Of course Leme was also listening in this conversation with butting in about anything.<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami too, feels suspicious for some reason. Even though he doesn’t have any excuse like Leme or Prometheus that lost their memory, he only gave small amount of information when he talked. He might have some kind of reason but…the one who created the chance for the strategy this time was, Futsunushi no Kami.”<br /> <br /> If in the case that this strategy was led on by someone, the one who would fell under suspicion on the top of the list was Futsunushi no Kami.<br /> <br /> “Is Futsunushi no Kami-san a spy from Yamato and he is luring Kazuki-oniisan right now?”<br /> <br /> As expected, even for Lotte she couldn’t sense until as far as a Diva’s state of mind.<br /> <br /> “No, I don’t think that Futsunushi no Kami is in Yamato’s camp…”<br /> <br /> The explanation of [the nature possessed by Wild God] that Futsunushi no Kami gave to Kazuki had already been proved as truth at present from how Ame no Uzume returned to her sanity.<br /> <br /> In the first place from how Kazuki could use Futsunushi no Kami’s magic, ''there was no doubt that Futsunushi no Kami was fundamentally an ally, but''….<br /> <br /> “Futsunushi no Kami too, might be planning to test me. He is not luring me into a trap from Yamato, but perhaps he is inviting me to the trail location of Japanese Mythology…?”<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> When he got down from the boat, Kazuki didn’t join with the playing but he searched for Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai and the others said that “We too searched for them, but we didn’t see them.”<br /> <br /> But Kazuki was able to sense the where about of a companion he had tied a bond with.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s positivity level was too low that he couldn’t sense her, but if it was Miyabi-senpai’s positivity level he could sense her faintly. Instead perhaps from Miyabi-senpai too she might be wishing for [I want Kazuki to come], in comparison of her positivity level of 44, he could feel a strong wave of magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki walked out to the direction of the beach’s edge.<br /> <br /> The area changed into a rough rocky place where the terrain was unsuited for swimming.<br /> <br /> He had to say something to Miyabi-senpai, some few words. That was what Kazuki thinking. <br /> <br /> Perhaps she was forcing herself that she wore that kind of swimsuit, and then undergoing that accident, she managed to mend her composed expression, but surely she felt hurt and embarrassed even at that time.<br /> <br /> He immediately discovered the two sisters. They were in a rocky place separated from the beach. As if trying to hide behind a boulder almost as big as an adult, Miyabi-senpai was standing directly opposite Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai had changed into a school swimsuit, both of them currently was in some kind of quarrel with each other.<br /> <br /> “…That’s why, we had especially came here together with everyone after all, it’s no good if we don’t play with everyone.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai talked with strong tone as if in reproaching.<br /> <br /> “No. I’m coming because I thought I can play with Nee-sama. That’s why Nee-sama, together with me…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai’s hand reached to Miyabi-senpai imploringly. Miyabi-senpai didn’t take that hand.<br /> <br /> “If I take that hand, we are going to completely go wrong the two of us.”<br /> <br /> “Why…” Shinobu-senpai’s eyes shook fiercely in agitation. Her heart started to beat violently from receiving a large shock, but that agitation was only conveyed from her eyes.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was standing stock still without raising any footstep.<br /> <br /> The wandering eyes of Shinobu-senpai that couldn’t calm down located the figure of Kazuki that was like that.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai gulped her breath strongly and glared hatefully at Kazuki. Looking at that change of expression, Miyabi-senpai too chased the destination of Shinobu-senpai’s line of sight, “…Kazuki!” and she finally noticed Kazuki’s appearance.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai suddenly turned her back and dashed away to the opposite direction from Kazuki. Miyabi-senpai chased that leaving back with her eyes, but she didn’t go over there and walked to Kazuki’s direction.<br /> <br /> “…Before, I showed you my shameful appearance wasn’t I? Although I didn’t plan, to lose my composure like that.”<br /> <br /> Was it the story about the swimsuit? …Kazuki was at a loss of what he should say to her.<br /> <br /> “I don’t think it was something embarrassing. It was really beautiful.”<br /> <br /> The white skin characteristic of an elf on a glamorous figure. With different individuality from Koyuki, the scene was burned vividly into his heart.<br /> <br /> The instant the swimsuit flipped and her breast was out, Kazuki’s eyes became nailed on the spot as if his soul was just plundered.<br /> <br /> “Because of that, it’s strange to say something like thank you I think, but…please don’t fret or feel hurt over it too much. That is what I want to convey to senpai.”<br /> <br /> “…I chose that swimsuit with the intention of showing my skin to you, so I’m happy if you say that to me. The truth is, it was certainly embarrassing though…”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s cheeks was colored red from shame, however she replied so in relief.<br /> <br /> “Rather than something like a swimsuit, senpai has to run after Shinobu-senpai immediately.”<br /> <br /> “…It’s fine. If I don’t separate with that child a little. Let’s just leave her alone. Rather than that kind of matter, I want to play together and get along well with you and everyone properly. This is a rare chance after all.”<br /> <br /> After Miyabi-senpai shook her head and denied what Kazuki said, she reached her hand to Kazuki imploringly.<br /> <br /> It was exactly the spitting image of how Shinobu-senpai reached her hand to Miyabi-senpai just before this.<br /> <br /> While Kazuki took that hand gently―however he denied it at the same time.<br /> <br /> “Senpai is impatient. Also senpai must not do something that will hurt Shinobu-senpai.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai’s eyelashes shook with a start.<br /> <br /> “That…I, I thought that the both of us cannot keep staying like this…”<br /> <br /> “Shinobu-senpai, she will surely think that she has been left behind by Miyabi-senpai. And yet if Miyabi-senpai got too impatient like this, senpai will only rapidly get completely cornered…”<br /> <br /> With Miyabi-senpai’s transformation into elf, the two twin sisters were locked into a world where it was just the two of them.<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai grew to harbor feeling of distrust toward everything of the outside world that discriminate the big sister that she loved.<br /> <br /> ''In reverse Miyabi''-senpai had gotten back on her feet because Shinobu-senpai continued to stay by her side for a long time.<br /> <br /> On Shinobu-senpai’s side who was not the one who became an elf herself, even no she was still continuing to confine herself inside her shell….<br /> <br /> “I don’t mean to ignore, that child’s feeling…”<br /> <br /> Even while saying that she thought deeply of what Kazuki pointed out. Miyabi-senpai hung her head down crestfallenly.<br /> <br /> “…That’s right isn’t it, this is not for the sake of the child or anything like that. I, come like this to the sea with everyone. I might be able to make friends, with you, and with everyone else, making merry and everything…. It’s really like that isn’t it, even though that child is still unable to prepare her heart for something like this. Even though I can recover until this far is because that child keep continuing to think about me all this time….I was just about going to discard that feeling of hers.”<br /> <br /> “Senpai should not think that senpai is discarding Shinobu-senpai or anything like that.”<br /> <br /> The expression of Miyabi-senpai that was always showing a composed smile crumbled and peeled off.<br /> <br /> “I discarded her! Because, being alone with Shinobu just the two us, is enough already! Being just the two of us like this, is just the same thing with being alone…! It looks far more fun to be together with all of you!!”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai had said to him before [Quickly conquer me too] while floating a composed smile, however,<br /> <br /> ―She was not supposed to be composed.<br /> <br /> She was making behavior that made people felt her elegance, but that might be just her pretending to be strong, showing [I don’t feel painful for even a little] to the outside world that had discriminated her.<br /> <br /> Right now, Miyabi-senpai’s shoulders was shaking with self-disgust for herself [that was going to discard] her little sister.<br /> <br /> The two that had been dependent on each other mutually for a long time. These two sisters, it would be in vain if it was not simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, it’s going to be okay. Because, I will show you that I’m going to [conquer] Shinobu-senpai too.”<br /> <br /> This was the first time he had ever said [conquer], a galge-like word like that with such earnest feeling like this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki lightly embraced the trembling Miyabi-senpai and pat her shaking shoulder.<br /> <br /> “But I think it will take a little more time, so please run after Shinobu-senpai for now. Not only with Shinobu-senpai, I will become more intimate with Miyabi-senpai as well. And then after that, let’s go with the three of us to the beach or a pool again. After all the highlight of summer will be from now on.”<br /> <br /> “…Thank you, my King.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai looked downward deeply as if hiding her expression. From that face, a sniffling sound was leaking out.<br /> <br /> “Please don’t forcibly hide yourself when you are crying.”<br /> <br /> “Really you are, even though I was desperately trying to look good but you see through all of it…”<br /> <br /> A large heart mark came flying from Miyabi-senpai.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai raised her face that was wet with tears and smiled even while shedding tears.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to Shinobu’s place now. I’ll apologize. I have to make that child feel peaceful.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai wiped her tears, then she decisively turned her back to Kazuki and ran.<br /> <br /> …Let’s go back to the beach. Kazuki too turned on his heel.<br /> <br /> There was still a little time before his departure, there still might be some time left to be together with everyone.<br /> <br /> When he came out from the shadow of the rocky area…Koyuki was standing there.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki? …Did you see?”<br /> <br /> “I didn’t mean to peek but…” Her voice was just a little down.<br /> <br /> “What’s the matter?” Saying that Kazuki approached her.<br /> <br /> “It’s really nothing. Just…”<br /> <br /> Her face was somehow like a good obedient children who was despondent because her toy was taken away.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, from now on you…might not be concerning yourself about me anymore.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?”<br /> <br /> “Until now you are sympathizing with the pitiful elf and concerned yourself with me but, now a new more pitiful elf has appear…” Koyuki talked while averting her eyes to another direction.<br /> <br /> “Are you seriously saying that?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was approaching near Koyuki, he circled his hands on her small back and embraced her. The sensation of her body snugly settling into his arms was very lovely. He forcefully directed Koyuki’s face that was facing another direction to look at him, then he repeated one more time. “Are you seriously thinking, that I never embraced Koyuki except from something like out of pity?”<br /> <br /> Being stared directly by Kazuki, Koyuki’s face was red and her eyes became moist.<br /> <br /> “I’m not thinking that…if I show you I’m sulking like this, I thought you might spoil me…”<br /> <br /> “Good grief, Koyuki is really a spoiled child huh.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki let out a deep breath and showed his amazement. And then while hugging Koyuki, his fingers stroked the girl’s sensitive long ear. “…!” Koyuki was trembling twitchingly from the sudden sensation.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki…you always touched my ear so casually but, this, it give lewd feelings even more than Kazuki think so, that…”<br /> <br /> “Eh, is that so? I just think of this as the extension of patting the head…so am I better stop this?”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki was going to separate his finger from her ear, Koyuki raised her voice in fluster.<br /> <br /> “It, it’s okay for you to not stop! …Please do it more.”<br /> <br /> “Koyuki is…just a little perverted aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki continued to graze Koyuki’s earring *shuu shuu* for a while and Koyuki’s spine also continued to tremble in shivers. Koyuki’s breathing was becoming disarrayed little by little.<br /> <br /> “Haa, haa…Please say it properly using your words, that you are not just pitying me…”<br /> <br /> “It’s because Koyuki is adorable and I love you, that I am being together like this with you.”<br /> <br /> After whispering those words, he kissed Koyuki’s white cheek. The cheek of Koyuki who playing in the sea just now tasted salty.<br /> <br /> “…Please do it in my lips…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki presented her lips adorably and demanded so. For the sake of making her said that honestly, Kazuki teased her by only kissing her in cheek before this in preparation and bide his time before he kissed her as strong as he could to demonstrate his love.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki…n, nnn!!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki whose lip was sucked while her ear was toyed around continuously by one hand suddenly had her body spring strongly. And then as if power left her waist, she sank down on the spot.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> When it was time to sail out, the boat was moved to the pier of the wharf.<br /> <br /> At the place where it can be reached just by walking a little from the beach, a pier of asphalt was protruding out from the coastline.<br /> <br /> After Kazuha-senpai boarded the boat and sat beside Kazuki, she let out complaints restlessly.<br /> <br /> “Why is the boat this cramped…”<br /> <br /> “Please endure it a little, after all it seemed that preparing the ship’s provision was not easy.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai had done changing from their swimsuits into [casual Japanese clothes] that had been remodeled to make it easy to move while it was worn. It seemed that in Yamato this kind of clothing had become booming among the youngsters there.<br /> <br /> The information between Japan and Yamato had been cut off, but the government was able to get their hand on information concerning west Japan from the ordinary citizen that had escape to take refugee. <br /> <br /> It was a surprising matter for differences in culture and fashion to be created already even though it still hadn’t been one week since the separation of east and west, but because Yamato advocated that they were [the true country of Japan that was protected by the Japanese Mythology], it seemed they were {{furigana|advertising in grand-scale using domestic broadcast|propaganda}} to [Let’s return to Japan culture].<br /> <br /> It was accepted favorably among the youngsters who enjoyed the change, where in turn they gave rise to [Revival・New Japanese Style Boom] like this remodeled Japanese clothing.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’a appearance was wearing a white kimono with tight sleeves and plain black hakama&lt;ref&gt;Man’s formal divided skirt&lt;/ref&gt;, but its cuffs and sleeves had been smartly remodeled to not look flabby. The clothes were fixed with buttons and belt so it didn’t look out of shape, making it looked close with western clothes.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai too was dressed in yukata&lt;ref&gt;Light cotton kimono worn in the summer or used as a bathrobe&lt;/ref&gt; that had been remodeled into no sleeves・miniskirt with flowery pattern, her shoulders and thighs were boldly exposed.<br /> <br /> Inside this cramped boat, it couldn’t be helped that those shoulders and thighs became glued with him.<br /> <br /> They were infiltrating, that was why the two attached a water-proof waist bag on their waist where they only put the minimum amount of baggage inside. So they wouldn’t be suspected by the public eyes, they were not carrying their katana.<br /> <br /> “…Well then, we are off!” “Take caa―re!”<br /> <br /> Having been sent off by the voices of everyone from the Witch’s Mansion, Kazuki started the engine.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, the ship’s balance will be unstable if you avoid your body that much until the outside. Please come closer here.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki embraced Kazuha-senpai’s waist with his left arm. Precisely because Kazuha-senpai was an earnest person that could follow reason, she didn’t say any complaint and could only “Mugii―!” let out a strange voice that sounded like a mysterious animal.<br /> <br /> “What a cute rare animal.”<br /> <br /> “Who do you said is rare animal-!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While the rotating propeller left behind white trail in the water surface, the boat gradually separated from the land and embarked to the ocean. In the other side of the horizon, even further behind the small islands that were floating on Ise Bay, was the faint hazy outline of Mie Prefecture’s Toba Shore.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Intermission&diff=464893 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Intermission 2015-10-03T04:38:45Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Intermission – To the Journey of Pilgrimage==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The students of the Magic Division returned to the garrison triumphantly where they were greeted by the great shock of the Knight Order because of the Knight Academy’s students unpermitted attack and their achievement. At any case, tonight everyone would get some rest.<br /> <br /> When the excitement of victory was starting to cool down, subsequently fatigue were weighing down everyone.<br /> <br /> A long day had ended and the time had turned into a late night.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too returned to the room that had been prepared for him, then after immediately going to the public bath he returned back to his room, “It reminds me, who is the one I’ll be sharing the room with anyway?” He thought at this late hour. And then when he opened the door―<br /> <br /> “Welcome back, Kazuki-kun♡”<br /> <br /> Maybe she had just gotten out from bath, the steamy and flushed skin and face of Kaguya-senpai greeted him.<br /> <br /> Moreover she had already changed into Asmodeus’s passion mode, her eyes were dyed purple and her Magic Dress was the simple version where all its decoration had been removed.<br /> <br /> …The body that was piled up with fatigue searched for healing from the girl in front of his eyes as a matter of course. Kazuki unwittingly gulped and his breath stopped. “…Is senpai going to share the room with me?”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, what a coincidence isn’t it♡ Don’t call me senpai when it’s just the two of us alone.”<br /> <br /> While laughing brightly…Kaguya came embracing him. The room allocation was decided by Kaguya and Kanon-senpai using lottery. The result was announced by sending individual mail containing the room number.<br /> <br /> “…It’s not really a coincidence isn’t it?” Kazuki returned the embrace for the moment while he retorted.<br /> <br /> “It’s a coincidence okay~” *gyuu gyuu* Embracing strongly while rubbing her body, Kaguya talked like she was reading in monotone.<br /> <br /> And then she pushed her lovely lips passionately on Kazuki’s cheek and sucked.<br /> <br /> Even while Kazuki was dumbfounded, he accepted Kaguya’s sweet temptation completely….<br /> <br /> “The event won’t go like that!”<br /> <br /> A dignified voice as if exposing an evil plot reverberated, the blanket on top of one of the two bed in the room was *perori―n!* turned over. And then from its inside, Hikaru-senpai leaped out.<br /> <br /> “Hi, Hikaru-chan!?”<br /> <br /> “Fuffuffu, I thought that this is going to happen so I followed Kazuki behind and sneaked inside his room just as you see!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai too changed her appearance into a simple mode Magic Dresss, without the decorations her appearance looked like a high leg risqué leotard.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai was walking heavily near him and stole Kazuki from Kaguya…Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Ogling Kaguya like that is noo― good!” And then she kissed Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “AAAAAAA―!” Kaguya-senpai raised a scream.<br /> <br /> “Hehehe, Kaguya still haven’t kissed Kazuki on the lips yet right♪”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai deliberately talked about provocative matter, “Uuuuuuuu―” Kaguya-senpai became teary eyed.<br /> <br /> Between the two girl, Kazuki was unable to do anything except growing cold from the two seniors quarrel.<br /> <br /> Kaguya was hugging at Kazuki as if jumping him, one more time, she pushed her lips strongly at Kazuki’s cheek. Filling it with emotion that she couldn’t have her way with Kazuki, she kept pushing her lips *muchu muchu*.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya-senpai, I’m not doing such thing for the sake of power so…don’t worry about something like a one time power, even if we kiss…”<br /> <br /> “We must not!” Separating her lips, Kaguya-senpai rejected Kazuki’s words with harsh tone.<br /> <br /> “The level 10 that become usable from kissing is a trump card that must be valued importantly, that’s why…”<br /> <br /> “Kaa―zukii♪” From the side, Hikaru-senpai kissed his lips one more time.<br /> <br /> Not only on the lips, the kiss that was as if nuzzling on the whole face that Hikaru-senpai is fond of.<br /> <br /> “A, again with thattt! Purposely kissing in front of me like that!!”<br /> <br /> “Hehehe! After all a kiss on the cheek is only a greeting between friends, but a kiss between lips is the proof of relation between man and woman…♪”<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai, you mustn’t say something that is bullying Kaguya-senpai you know.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki hit the head of Hikaru-senpai *kotsun*.<br /> <br /> “I’m sowwy♪Ahaha, because looking at Kaguya’s expression make me feel really good.”<br /> <br /> “Senpai is not supposed to be an S but an M right?”<br /> <br /> “Hey you!” *kotsun* Hikaru-senpai returned a knock on Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> “Gununu, even now you two keep flirting…. That’s just fine, someday when it’s my time to kiss…it won’t be that kind of kiddy kiss, because I’ll do a more earth-shattering adult kiss for sure…”<br /> <br /> “Adult kiss? Eh? The kiss that I’m doing is a kiddy kiss you say?”<br /> <br /> “I won’t teach youu―”<br /> <br /> “That’s! Not fair, come on teach mee―!”<br /> <br /> Though if senpai looked it up on the internet senpai will understand I think.<br /> <br /> “That’s just fine, I won’t ask Kaguya anymore. I’m going to ask Liz Liza-sensei later.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai hugged at Kazuki even stronger from the right side. Her breasts pressed at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Wait Hikaru-chan. Your room is different right? This one is my room with Otouto-kun.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too came hugging him from the left side strongly. This side too was pressed with breasts.<br /> <br /> Kuh…for a swordsman of Hayashizaki-style, losing one’s presence of mind with just this much is not allowed!<br /> <br /> “But Kaguya, you were doing something unfair in the room allocation after all! I’m going to tell on you to everyone!”<br /> <br /> “Mumumu. …It really can’t be helped, Then let’s share Otouto-kun with the two of us.”<br /> <br /> “Ok, there is no other choice except striking that deal isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> “Err, you two senpai, aren’t you two too calmly treating me like a thing here?”<br /> <br /> With Kazuki’s tsukkomi inside his heart as unrelated matter, Kaguya-senpai rubbed her voluptuous body to Kazuki just like usual. Hikaru-senpai too was undauntedly rubbing her body repeatedly. Hikaru-senpai had a slender body proportion, but the places where it should develop were really developed, just as he thought her body was soft.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, is your penis not changing?” Again Hikaru-senpai was observing that kind of place!<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 276.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> The two of them kept gluing their body with Kazuki and all together pushed him down collapsing on the bed.<br /> <br /> This was…before this there was also the situation where he slept together with Lotte and Koyuki in a sandwich of risqué appearance but…in the case of this duo, should he say that they had even more volume…!!<br /> <br /> “Sen, senpai…are we going to sleep together in one bed with three people even though there are two beds here?”<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, in this kind of situation, who on earth is going to sleep alone on the bed over there with loneliness?”<br /> <br /> “…Me? And then Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai will get along well with the two of you in this one bed.”<br /> <br /> “”There is no way anyone's going to benefit like that!!”” Both senpai matched their voices together.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> Because Yamato’s military force was concentrated at the military boundary line, if that military force withdrew then the group that Kanon-senpai spearheaded could advance until Nagoya that was located in the heart of Chubu jurisdiction in one go.<br /> <br /> The &lt;Aichi regiment garrison&gt; that was once called Aichi prefectural police became the new base of operation from now on. From here they could choose whether to invade even further west to the area of Shiga or to invade to the area of Gifu in the north….<br /> <br /> Not only recovering the territory, they also discovered the Knight Academy students that were taken prisoner when their buses were attacked. Originally these prisoners were supposed to be transported even further inside the territory of Yamato in the next day without doubt. This was just one more result that they earned from their swift attack using the surprise attack tactic.<br /> <br /> The prisoners were treated courteously. It seemed that their humane policies regarding welfare program for the people and prisoner treatment were somehow the truth for the sake of obtaining support from the people.<br /> <br /> In reverse from the battle this time Japan too was able to take prisoners of Yamato’s soldiers in large number―and then interrogations were conducted.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kazuha-senpai happened to be present in the interrogation of Yamato’s illegal magician.<br /> <br /> This was because inquiring about the Diva of Japanese Mythology was the biggest objective of the interrogation.<br /> <br /> {And so, who is the Diva that possessed you?}<br /> <br /> Yamato’s illegal magician that was restrained in the wine cellar―the [shrine maiden] was questioned by Futsunushi no Kami. It seemed a female that hosted the Diva of Japanese Mythology was called a Shrine Maiden.<br /> <br /> The Shrine Maiden didn’t reply. She kept both her eyes closed and stayed silent in resistance.<br /> <br /> {You had used up your strength in battle, you should have been released from the Wild God Transformation already aren’t you. Make your reply.}<br /> <br /> Hearing the question of Futsunushi no Kami, {…It’s me} a voice of a female came, beside the Shrine Maiden a female Diva clad in flowery clothing was floating.<br /> <br /> “Ame no Uzume-sama!” The Shrine Maiden opened both her eyes and opened her mouth in fluster.<br /> <br /> {So it’s Ame no Uzume. Why are you who have the reputation and personality as a gentle soul become the like of Wild God? If asked which side you are in, you should be in the side that dance and sing, soothing the angered Diva don’t you agree?}<br /> <br /> {The shrine was…} Ame no Uzume murmured. {The shrine where we are deified was destroyed. The shrines that are located in west Japan, every one of them were defiled you know.}<br /> <br /> {What do you say?}<br /> <br /> {Japanese people were…saying that they are worshipping Solomon 72 people from now on so this shrine is not needed anymore… Because of that a lot of Japanese Mythology’s Diva lost their power, and they fell into dormant state. Even so a lot of Divas that barely maintained their strength became Wild God, they are lending their power to Yamato and going against the oppression of Japan…}<br /> <br /> Ame no Uzume glared with a dangerous glint in her eyes toward Kazuki and the others. Shrines were defiled―because of that the Divas of the Japanese Mythology were in the process of losing their original power and burning in indignation, in the end they were rampaging.<br /> <br /> {Did something like that really happened? My shrine was moved by Kazuha inside the school so I didn’t know though. …Kazuki, what do you think of this?}<br /> <br /> “Headmaster Amasaki, what do you think? For the government to take such action, is it possible?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki inquired to Headmaster Amasaki who finally arrived late this morning.<br /> <br /> “It shouldn’t be quite possible. In the first place the government doesn’t perceive the Solomon 72 Pillar as a religion.”<br /> <br /> {That’s right, of course it shouldn’t be possible. Leme and the others doesn’t demand any faith from the government.}<br /> <br /> At the side of Headmaster Amasaki who talked with astonished expression, Leme too talked while pouting.<br /> <br /> {What do you say…?} Ame no Uzume raised her eyebrows.<br /> <br /> “In other words I wonder if it’s not something like this. For the sake of enraging the Divas of Japanese Mythology, there was some fellow that spouted some lies and destroyed the shrines. And then to the enraged Divas, someone instigated matters by saying let’s overthrow the accursed government and build a country of Japanese Mythology.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki expressed that hypothesis―it seems the fact that the Divas of Japanese Mythology were easy to enrage were something true. The expression of Ame no Uzume that had the appearance of a lovely dancer “Whuat did you saaaaaaaayy?” together with a voice that it seemed to come from the bottom of hell was ringing out, became a demon hag in the blink of an eye.<br /> <br /> “If this is just a pure misunderstanding than it’s a simple story. If we can persuade them then a fight can be avoided right?”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s words, Futsunushi no Kami shook his face together with his sword body to the left and right.<br /> <br /> {That’s impossible just so you know. Any argument won’t go through a Diva that is in the middle of being Wild God. We have to make them like Ame no Uzume here where their host fell into magic intoxication, they will calm down after expending their strength completely once.}<br /> <br /> “As expected, so crossing swords once against them is something unavoidable.”<br /> <br /> {No, that’s not the only method available.} Ame no Uzume said with her expression that had returned to the former look of a girl.<br /> <br /> {If the fury of our chief god is calmed down, the composure of Japanese Mythology’s other gods will also recover.}<br /> <br /> “So if the Shrine Maiden that is possessed by that chief god is defeated and making her fall into magic intoxication, everything will be fine?”<br /> <br /> {Exactly like that. And then the chief god of Japanese Mythology is…located in Ise.}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami nodded gravely.<br /> <br /> Ise―Mie prefecture. It was located in the west across the bay from Aichi prefecture they were currently staying at, in the eastern tip of Kii peninsula.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “…Oi, Kazuki. There is something I have to tell you about a prisoner’s matter but…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was going back to his room from the dungeon was called to stop by Kondou-san. Kondou-san was also leading Karin who he had found somewhere. …A prisoner with connection to Kazuki and Karin.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Karin were let to pass inside a private room in the underground for a ''special prisoner'' that was captured.<br /> <br /> Inside, a single corpse was lying down.<br /> <br /> Because there was a step called magic intoxication, even though this was a war there was no one that really die. During the period concerning with the battle this time…this was the first time for Kazuki to see directly this thing called death.<br /> <br /> “…The cause of death of this girl is?” Squeezing out his voice, Kazuki inquired.<br /> <br /> “Her arms and legs were bounded but…it looks like suicide using Psychokinesis to block her own blood flow to the brain. When she was discovered, it was already too late.”<br /> <br /> There was no method of prevention.<br /> <br /> “…Nee-san.” Karin too leaked out a squeezed voice.<br /> <br /> That was the corpse of Hayashi Shizuka. An expression that could be called tranquil that she had never shown in the middle of battle, with not a single wound on that body, she looked like she was sleeping with a body that was growing cold.<br /> <br /> Inside the atmosphere of tranquility, emotion of condolence was naturally growing full inside.<br /> <br /> It’s the end when you died…. The time when she could be forgiven someday was…<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki.” Karin who before he knows had started calling him with his first name whispered.<br /> <br /> “…Even so things where we couldn’t do anything about it, exist…”<br /> <br /> “It’s like that huh.”<br /> <br /> Karin’s shoulders shook in small trembling, those eyes of hers were blurred with tears. What this girl obtained, and what she lost. Kazuki understood everything of it. That was why Kazuki embraced her.<br /> <br /> “U…uAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!”<br /> <br /> Pushing her face into Kazuki’s chest, Karin screamed while crying.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> The knights in the garrison forgot the battle in the past and began to move for the next fight.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who returned to his room was called out by Akane-senpai this time and led to the corridor.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, now that I think back I didn’t even say words of appreciation did I?”<br /> <br /> Senpai said so while walking to somewhere. “Congratulations of your victory. It’s a really overwhelming achievement. …You are really amazing. I am acting as a staff officer at Kanon’s side, but I’m completely no good.”<br /> <br /> “That’s…I’m just an amateur who knows nothing after all, so rather I’m only hitting upon strange ideas.”<br /> <br /> “It’s not like that at all though…[{{furigana|Cyclops|Magic Eye Ogre}}].”<br /> <br /> “Eh?” Suddenly being called with his alias in the past, Kazuki was taken aback.<br /> <br /> “Fufuu, actually I had met you once long in the past. I wonder if you have completely forgotten?”<br /> <br /> “Ee!?” He had this trauma from that one case with Mio where he couldn’t remember someone he had met and made her mad.<br /> <br /> “Well, it’s only natural for you not to remember. The truth is I was attending a dojo when I was small. In an inter-style match, I have this experience of being instantly killed by a young man called Cyclops. It was an experience that taught me my standing.”<br /> <br /> “Senpai was a swordsman too!?”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, I have no talent at all and stopped completely soon you know. Even so I wanted to be connected to the Knight Order in some form, so I aimed to be a strategist and studied for it. Confucius, Clausewitz…it was fun imagining myself holding the baton of command and become a hero. Nevertheless a Stigma emerged on me before I even became a strategist, and I could become a cadet of the Knight Order normally in the end.”<br /> <br /> “…So senpai became that well-informed in military science is not from studying the advanced strategy theory in the third year.”<br /> <br /> “But even if I study the theory, I’ve never been at a real battle at all. I foolishly studied properly, fell into the way of thinking exactly according to the mold and unable to think differently, and cannot cope at all when something unexpected happened. I can’t think like you who didn’t get caught in common practice and managed to grasp the essential.”<br /> <br /> “But in reverse I cannot do what senpai can do. Even if it is the case that I can learn that essential something, isn’t this only a simple story of strengths and weaknesses for each person? Then, if I and senpai compensate for each place we are lacking at, we are going to be the strongest!”<br /> <br /> “Cooperating between you and me…that sounds interesting though…fufuu, I’ll decline that offer. If a plain ugly woman who study too much like me is together with you, then the other girls are going to begrudge me.”<br /> <br /> “What begrudge…senpai is not a plain ugly woman who study too much at all!”<br /> <br /> “No, rather than mixing tactics theory together with someone like me …being together with Kanon or Kaguya, or with girl like that Amasaki-san will be more enjoyable right, for a boy like you.”<br /> <br /> “Such thing is not true, I too want to talk with senpai all night long until the morning you know, about Clausewitz.”<br /> <br /> “There you go saying such thing again.” Akane-senpai’s clever expression crumbled and a smile emerged.<br /> <br /> “…Senpai, your smile right now is really pretty.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, you just keep joking. But…thank you. That’s right, rather than cooperating together with you, from now on I’m going to aspire for you, I will be diligent and aim to reach your level, how about that I wonder?”<br /> <br /> From Akane-senpai, a large heart mark came flying. Yagumo Akane―40<br /> <br /> “Please stop that, what aspiration…even though you are my great senior.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai looked back to the front direction of the corridor, “Well then” saying that she changed the subject.<br /> <br /> “Actually it’s really enjoyable talking with you that against my better judgment I deliberately took the long way in our walk, however…”<br /> <br /> “So it’s like that. I thought that we kept going round and round in circles for a while. What a schemer.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, for you too to notice it properly, just as I thought you have the eyes for the essential aren’t you?”<br /> <br /> Both of them faced each other and grinned broadly. Though when he thought that, Akane-senpai’s face immediately became serious.<br /> <br /> “…While we were going around in circles meaninglessly, the truth is that we had seriously become lost children. Where in the world this place we are currently at?”<br /> <br /> “Eh!? Wai, is senpai seriously saying that!?”<br /> <br /> “Just as I thought I’m a no good person…. Kazuki, do something with your intuition of the essential somehow…”<br /> <br /> “Eeee, please don’t say such pathetic thing senpai! Understood, I’ll do something somehow! But even I’m going to try somehow, with not much information to go on…!”<br /> <br /> “What I was saying just now is just a joke, our destination is right here.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai suddenly moved her body right to the side, then she knocked the door to a room that was in that direction. Kazuki reflexively pitched forward foolishly in an almost falling position.<br /> <br /> It was one of the hotel’s room that had been transformed into the [strategy meeting room] so to speak.<br /> <br /> Inside Headmaster Amasaki and Kanon-senpai and then the regimental commander of Shizuoka regiment whose name was Yamagata Koyata, a man in the prime of his life were already in the room surrounding a table. On top of the table was a map that was spread out.<br /> <br /> “The time for us to counterattack has also come.” Commander Yamagata said when Kazuki and Akane-senpai took a seat. <br /> <br /> “Pardon me for suddenly entering the main topic, but the battle strength of east Japan is currently massing little by little in this garrison of the military boundary line. If it become like this then its irrelevant even if our movement are leaked out. Even with our movement leaked we are going to hit Gifu prefecture with our maximum strength, no question asked.”<br /> <br /> “Why Gifu?” Kazuki interjected a question. There should be an option to march to the west too.<br /> <br /> “If we are invading to the direction of further inside with Aichi prefecture as the beginning of our counter attack, the defensive line will naturally become a great length, then the placement of soldiers will become difficult.”<br /> <br /> So that’s it, when the military boundary line turned long, the defensive battle strength was going to be dispersed completely.<br /> <br /> When the battlefield became a wide area, it was overwhelmingly advantageous for Yamato’s side who could obtain information through the traitor.<br /> <br /> “Because of that we are going north from Aichi prefecture and aim for Gifu prefecture. Against our maximum battle strength, the other side will surely intercept with their maximum battle strength too. It’s convenient. Because if we shaved off the opponent’s battle strength in one go then this conflict is as good as over. This all-out war of East and West…following your naming we are going to do [Magic War・Sekigahara]!”<br /> <br /> “If we win this then the efficiency is good, but won’t our side’s damage become great too?”<br /> <br /> When Akane-senpai interjected with skepticism objection, Commander Yamagata was “I know” nodding.<br /> <br /> From there he looked around restlessly at his surrounding as if searching for a monitoring camera and lowered his voice.<br /> <br /> “…Of course we are not going to clash with them without any plan. This side too is preparing a plan. Those bunches turned up in our territory working their tricks before, this time we are going to return the favor. Preceding the invasion to Gifu, we will send people with the minimum number to the enemy territory…”<br /> <br /> He pointed at a certain point in the map on top of the table.<br /> <br /> “…They are going to penetrate Ise Grand Shrine, beat the chief god of Japanese Mythology and resolve the misunderstanding. I’m listening to the report. If we manage to do that, won’t the Divas of the Japanese Mythology all return to their senses and withdraw from the war front? With this Yamato will lose their military force all at once…and we will commence an all-out attack.”<br /> <br /> I see, Kazuki nodded in comprehension.<br /> <br /> If the danger to this ''someone'' that would invade Ise was not considered, this was a perfect idea.<br /> <br /> “This is the tactic that is decided from the discussion with me and Kanon-kun. No one knows about this except the people here in this place right now. We have no intention to inform any other people―even the top brass of the Knight Order. In other words this strategy to invade Ise will not be conducted by the Knight Order, but we want the students of the Knight Academy to be the one that do it. Because of that this strategy’s arbitrary judgment…will be done by the Chief Student Council President and Headmaster Amasaki’s own judgment, you two will be the one who moved the realization of this plan.”<br /> <br /> In another word the one who would execute this strategy was….<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki. Making a student carry this great burden make my heart heavy, but there is no other choice except having you do this.”<br /> <br /> I understand…he couldn’t say anything else other than that.<br /> <br /> “But what are we going to do about the penetration route? Those Yamato bunches entered our territory through the traitor, but we cannot do that kind of thing so simply.<br /> <br /> “Use sea route.”<br /> <br /> “Using the sea is the idea that I thought you know-☆“ Kanon-senpai gloated.<br /> <br /> “In the first place, our country traditionally has insufficient maritime defense at the side of Pacific Ocean. It’s because we were concentrating the precaution in Japan’s seaward side that are facing North Korea and Russia. The minimum monitoring is performed but the radar site is mainly directed to the sky.”<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata used his own finger as the comparison of an antenna and faced diagonally above.<br /> <br /> “From the beginning radar that is installed on the surface is weak at monitoring sea surface and low altitude sky anyway. For that purpose we are using patrol plane to look out for suspicious ship, but patrol plane doesn’t really get deployed in the side that is facing Pacific Ocean. …Essentially, if there is going to be violation of territorial sovereignty from the side of Pacific Ocean then it’s going to be from air.”<br /> <br /> Ise Grand Shrine that was the place of destination was in Mie prefecture. Between Aichi prefecture and Mie prefecture, Ise Bay was stretching.<br /> <br /> Commander Yamagata traced a line on top of the map using his finger to show the route that the ship going to pass in Ise Bay.<br /> <br /> “In the case that Yamato doesn’t make this oversight, what then?” Kazuki pointed out in a prudent tone. “They might see through the danger from the phase of our recovery of Aichi prefecture and shift the patrol plane from the side of Japan Sea to Ise Bay.”<br /> <br /> “We had confirmed that there is no such movement using satellite observation system.”<br /> <br /> …Satellite observation system. Kazuki was lost for words. So even that kind of thing had entered the stage.<br /> <br /> If he thought about it, there was a great number of fields outside combat where using technology was far better than magic. He was only putting his attention to Summoning Magic so he tended to unconsciously forget completely about the application merit of such thing but….<br /> <br /> “Even if we have satellite monitoring system, it’s not an omnipotent system that can only be used in limited time and condition though. Anyway we have confirmed that there is a hole in the coastal security of Yamato side from satellite image. Although all the facilities that were possessed by the Knight Order in west Japan are all taken over and it can be said that excellent politicians are gathering there within limitation, Yamato is still a new country that is just built in a short period and they are still in a period of disorder. They have a lot of gap.”<br /> <br /> Period of disorder…Just like when Chūkadou was sending spies to Japan when Tokyo was destroyed. So this time it was Japan that was going to take advantage of the disorder there.<br /> <br /> “A small type boat is being prepared for the sake of this covert strategy. So only a minimum number of members needed is going to be sent for the strategy implementation.”<br /> <br /> “You said the minimum number, in other words how much is it?”<br /> <br /> “Two person. Actually we want only just you alone to go, but surely you are going to need a person that can interact with Diva of Japanese Mythology. Accordingly we want the same Knight Academy student like you, Tsukahara Kazuha to mobilize together with you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt a slight nervousness in his chest. With Kazuha-senpai…just the two of them alone?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “So that’s how it become like this.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki conveyed that development through his cell phone, “Eh…eeeeeeeeehh!?” such loud voice was the reply. While making a wry smile toward senpai’s reaction, Kazuki had instead became even more calm.<br /> <br /> “Somehow the date that I promised seems to be becoming a fairly romantic situation, senpai.”<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Afterword|Afterword]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Chapter_6&diff=464891 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 6 2015-10-03T03:06:32Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 6 – Surprise Attack Tactic―Magic War・Okehazama==<br /> <br /> Kondou Hajime who had just finished his shift as the guard of the dungeon was requested by Hayashizaki Kazuki and Yagumo Akane to do something. It was something that made his chest beat in thrill as if he was participating in conspiracy, Kondou who liked that kind of thing agreed happily―he came until the very end of this temporary garrison.<br /> <br /> Even though it was called a garrison this place was only temporary, because of that there were hotel and public facility and the like, a normal corner of the city that was confiscated for the military’s use. The edges of the grounds were guarded by knights in shift system.<br /> <br /> There were reasons why the monitoring was done in analog using human and not using machine. The first reason was because the garrison that was set up in these grounds had only been done two days ago. Constructing an advanced monitoring system in itself would take a lot of time.<br /> <br /> And then one more reason was because magic power couldn’t be detected using a machine. Human who excelled in detecting magic power was posted as guard where he had to pay attention on suspicious outbreak of magic power.<br /> <br /> Of course something like a knight that loved to work a job as a guard or the like didn’t exist.<br /> <br /> It was already late at night. Kondou walked approaching the lone guard standing around doing nothing while holding his yawn.<br /> <br /> “Hey, thanks for your hard work. …Though even if I said that I wonder if there is any meaning in this, only standing watch doing nothing.”<br /> <br /> “…Hey, when I thought it’s my relief but it’s just Kondou. It’s not your shift right now right? What a short-lived elation.” The knight who stood guard released a deep sigh. “Well, it seems there is meaning in this you know? There is no worry of enemy attack tonight, but rather than the outside the order is to be on guard against the inside.”<br /> <br /> Be on guard against the inside―hearing those words made Kondou scrunched his eyebrows a little.<br /> <br /> “So they told you to be more careful for desertion rather than the enemy. But does that actually happen? Things like deserting soldier.”<br /> <br /> “There is nothing like that in my shift. But, I heard that a few had been caught. Those who tried to escape were all swordsmen, but there is not a single one of the Magika Stigma who tried. As expected between those who are granted with Stigmata and became a knight, [the chosen human] compared to the swordsmen, their resolve might be different.”<br /> <br /> “…You cannot say that it’s only because of such thing you know. In the battlefield the swordsman is in several times more danger compared to the Magika Stigma after all. If they faced something like that then they would want to desert. Isn’t that the difference? It’s not a thing that you can think so menially.”<br /> <br /> “That’s so? Maybe it’s really like that. …So, what are you coming here for?”<br /> <br /> “I couldn’t sleep at all, so I was thinking that I want to feel the night breeze for a little, and then I remember that tonight it’s your shift as guard. There is that favor from you setting up that mixer the other day that I haven’t paid yet. Well, though I also didn’t meet any great catch at all that time.”<br /> <br /> “Oh, so you mean you are admirably proposing to replace me to guard this spot?”<br /> <br /> “Right on the spot. The soft and fluffy bed in the hole is waiting for you right now.”<br /> <br /> ‘Yossha-‘ The lookout knight started running while Kondou sent him off.<br /> <br /> …A lookout for deserter was it? But in the society, there was also exception like deserting caused by bravery.<br /> <br /> After a while Kondou called out “Everything clear”, he sent out a signal to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki divided his comrades into groups and then ''ambushed'' the rooms where the students of the Knight Academy were resting. And then they performed an inspection on the students belonging and confiscated everything like cell phone and the like that could be used as method to contact the outside.<br /> <br /> When he told the situation, all the students gave their understanding. There was also a possibility of spy among the students of the Knight Academy. That’s why entrust all the communication devices before we conduct the absolute secret tactic―if Kazuki said it like that and the student was still resisting then it was the same like confessing that [I am suspicious].<br /> <br /> And then he divided the 150 students into subdivisions and deserted from the garrison one group at a time. With the cooperation of Kondou-san who stood as the guard, the Knight Academy students succeeded to not be noticed by anyone.<br /> <br /> The escaping students that numbered a little under 150 people gathered in a public park that didn’t have any human presence where Kazuki explained the tactic once more in detail at there. If by any chance Kazuki didn’t have his accomplishments of becoming the champion of the election battle, then surely the students wouldn’t give their agreement in following Kazuki’s plan.<br /> <br /> The students all lent their ear with serious expression listening on Kazuki’s words.<br /> <br /> “This tactic is similar to the famous surprise attack tactic that was performed at Aichi Prefecture a long time ago in the previous era, thus…we will name this tactic [Magic War・Okehazama]!”<br /> <br /> When he said the tactic’s name that really had a good taste if he said so himself, the students cheered ‘Oooo’ with voices that might be audible from the garrison and applauded. The morale was high even though it was quite risky.<br /> <br /> “Though Okehazama is more in the west from here…” Koyuki retorted with a serious face.<br /> <br /> Next Kazuki reorganized the platoons according to the elements of the magic that the students used. Fifteen platoons were made from ten people each where everyone had their own role clarified. And then to the fifteen leaders of the platoons, Kazuki distributed the wireless software headset he received from Akane-senpai. While this headset was a small model communication equipment, it was able to switch between several communication network from short range until long range. It had became the standard equipment of the Knight Order. Akane-senpai pilfered all of it from the warehouse for Kazuki’s sake.<br /> <br /> They were using wireless at this time was of course so that the enemy couldn’t intercept the communication, but it was also because they had to be vigilant so that the Knight Order too couldn’t intercept the signal.<br /> <br /> “Ah, spare me from usin’ that. That’s just too effeminate zee, wearin’ this kind of appliance.”<br /> <br /> But the Einherjar Damian who had the creed of rejecting technology refused to wear the wireless.<br /> <br /> “Well then everyone, let’s pass through the military boundary line and hit Yamato’s frontline.”<br /> <br /> They had already broken through the military boundary line from Japan’s side. They would keep this pace and break through the security of Yamato and then assaulted the front line garrison of Yamato in one go.<br /> <br /> The location of the garrison had been thoroughly investigated by the Knight Order and Akane-senpai had also taught that to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “O affectionate rain cloud that grant the blessing to the earth, cry and weep fiercely just for this time, please hide our figure inside the curtain of lamentation…{{furigana|Crying Nimbus|Rain Cloud of Outcry}}.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai in her Magic Dress form was chanting the Summoning Magic of Baal, the Diva that manipulated the weather.<br /> <br /> In the blink of eye the night sky was covered with dark clouds, drops of rain began to fall.<br /> <br /> By means of Hikaru-senpai’s control, Hikaru-senpai made the rain stronger little by little so to not make anyone suspicious.<br /> <br /> Before long the scenery of the far away became hazy where they couldn’t see well from the passing shower.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha. You know I have been doubtful for a long time wondering whether there is any use for this magic. Making rain fall down and become sopping wet only make lightning magic turn hard to use. I never thought about using it for surprise attack.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai talked while hugging Kazuki’s arm tightly. “Why is senpai hugging me?”<br /> <br /> “Praa―ise me♪” She said that with a voice full of charm, so Kazuki patted Hikaru-senpai’s head gently.<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it senpai, I just noticed it but reinforcement magic like [Ride Lightning] couldn’t be chanted in preparation time like this right? Even though I think it will be convenient if that’s possible.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki tried to chant the spell, he sensed that it wouldn’t activate.<br /> <br /> “Right. Because spell chanting include declaration of [what is the power going to be used for], so in the case of reinforcement magic there is many that has [fighting spirit against the enemy in front of you] as their trigger. That’s why it’s mostly unusable when you only want to use it to strengthen yourself yet there is no target you want to defeat inside your &lt;magic perception range&gt;.”<br /> <br /> After Hikaru-senpai had finished teaching him such a thing so skillfully, once more she “Praa―ise me♪” and rubbed herself on Kazuki. Really, this senpai is….like that Kazuki kept patting Hikaru-senpai’s head repeatedly.<br /> <br /> “Well then senpai and all the others in the lightning magic platoon, please fall back to the rear until the rain stopped.”<br /> <br /> “Okay, I’ll leave the rest to you-”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> They examined the situation of the military boundary line from their cover. There are two soldiers standing guard in line, and then there were also soldiers coming in patrol at a fixed interval asking for the situation.<br /> <br /> But Yamato’s swordsmen were not skilled. Even their magic power was not much different than normal civilian. Their level didn’t reach the degree where they could detect the magic power of unseen approaching human.<br /> <br /> The communication appliance that they used were the same with the one that Kazuki and the other students used this time.<br /> <br /> First in order to not let them notify their comrade―Kanae and Torazou-san crept unnoticed without even making any sound and destroyed the communication devices with kodachi and sword hand strike.<br /> <br /> “…!? …!”<br /> <br /> The guard was shocked from the sudden appearance of Kanae’s figure and tried to call for help but―his voice didn’t come out.<br /> <br /> Karin moved the airflow with Psychokinesis and made the surrounding of the soldiers into vacuum.<br /> <br /> It was one of the assassination techniques beaten into the girl by Hayashi Shizuka.<br /> <br /> If there was no air to propagate the vibration of sound, even voice couldn’t be produced. He was unable to call for help.<br /> <br /> “………! (TORAZOU SMAAAAAAAAASH!)”<br /> <br /> Torazou-senpai smashed a powerful strike even though his voice was not audible because of the vacuum, Kanae too mercilessly carved her opponent apart roughly, in no time at all the soldiers in lookout fell into the unconsciousness of magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> The security is lax, Kazuki thought. The competency level of Yamato’s soldier was no better than normal civilian. They were also resting on their laurels carelessly because of the traitor’s information. Adding to that, it was also because in the first place they hadn’t completely decided [what kind of security would be effective].<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 256.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> There was no doubt that they hadn’t even imagined such thing like the guard got defeated without even able to raise their voice.<br /> <br /> “From here it’s a fight against time. Until the next patrol come here again…”<br /> <br /> Under the falling rain, Kazuki and the others penetrated the occupied area of Yamato. The inhabitants of this side had been evacuated too, there was no human presence at all.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Yamato side―there was [Yokohashi platoon garrison] around the eastern tips of the prefecture border in Chubu Prefecture, Yamato took over that place and used it just like that. <br /> <br /> Inside the falling rain with bad visibility, the students of the Knight Academy were hiding using the surrounding buildings as cover while surrounding the building of Yokohashi garrison―a large concrete architecture similar with a school, bringing the building into their &lt;magic perception range&gt;. Making the building itself as their attack target, the large scale magic corps with Kaguya-senpai as its platoon leader began their spell chanting.<br /> <br /> And then if a spell was chanted in this range, the other side too would notice the outbreak of magic power.<br /> <br /> Swordsmen leaped out from the building entrance as scouts, toward this side―they ran directly heading toward the direction of the magic power that Kaguya-senpai produced. If it had became like this then it was meaningless for this side to keep hiding their appearance.<br /> <br /> The swordsman corps of Kanae and the others met the approaching scouts and defeated them in no time.<br /> <br /> It was the beginning of small scale hostility. The enemy had sensed this side and the battle would begin from here on.<br /> <br /> In ''the other side of the windows'' of the building, the illegal magicians of Yamato began their spell chanting. The other side had confirmed this side’s figures by sight―in other words this side had been entered into their magic perception range. In regards to that, Kazuki and the others fixed their sight only on the building. To the end they couldn’t target anything other than the building with their magic.<br /> <br /> ''If it had to be said strongly'' then the disadvantage for the attacker side was around this area.<br /> <br /> “Defensive magic!” Kazuki sensed the magic power and gave out instruction.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Onibi Hyakka Ryouran|Will-o-Wisp Hundred Flowers Blooming Profusion}}!” “{{furigana|Raijin Taiko|Thunder God Drum}}!” “{{furigana|Magatsu Kaze Kamaitachi|Evil Wind Sickle Weasel}}!” …<br /> <br /> The Divas of Japanese Mythology emerged one after another, dozens of offensive magic came flying. Against those attacks, the students of the Magic Division matched the number of defensive magic and resisted. Various elements of defensive magic were erected all at once over and over again, defending against the offensive magic.<br /> <br /> Offensive magic came flying at rapid succession due to the fastness of Drive’s chanting, the damages to the surrounding building and to the students came out due to their inability to defend everything with defense magic but―<br /> <br /> Even while allowing the enemy’s preemptive attack, this side’s preparation had also been finished.<br /> <br /> “O darkness of mind contained within the eternal cycle of death and rebirth! O seven stars shining inside that! Display the microcosm of the creation of heaven and earth and show the where about of the person!! Galaxy!”<br /> <br /> “”In the sky moon, on the earth wolf, raging howl loudly indicted the sins on the earth! O shining moon that is also shining on top of the deeply sinful person’s head, change that light of motherhood into fury, crush this earth! The nightmare of falling moon right here…Moon Strike!!””<br /> <br /> With the garrison building as the target―the characteristic magic of the Magic Division student council president and the combination magic of the hidden powerful duo Ryuutaki sisters were invoked at the same time. The night sky that continuously rained down suddenly became clear.<br /> <br /> Dark clouds parted, the burning stars and moon became meteor shower and rained down incessantly. Light and thunderous roar that were already outside the realm of human’s sense were produced…,<br /> <br /> The Toyohashi regiment garrison didn’t even leave a rubble, transformed into uneven crater and opened wasteland.<br /> <br /> ''Right there several hundred people were scattered apart shining with defensive magic power.'' There were unarmed humans mixed among them, surely they were non-combatant that were inside the garrison. They who were outside the magic perception range of Kaguya-senpai were mostly unaffected by the offensive magic. Only the building that was annihilated.<br /> <br /> The result of the meteor that split apart the night sky was the clean disappearance of the rain cloud that Hikaru-senpai summoned, the clearly extending starry sky spread out like a lie.<br /> <br /> “Close-quarter combat units, charge!!” Together with Kanae’s order, the close-quarter battle units were charging.<br /> <br /> Just as I thought, Kazuki confirmed the rightness of his own idea.<br /> <br /> ―''There was no rules of three times attack or castle siege'' in a magic war.<br /> <br /> It was an unlikely assumption but as long a lot of adamantium was not even used in the outer wall, fort or protective wall that could endure against offensive magic this powerful didn’t exist.<br /> <br /> With the birth of magic in this world, the modern weapon and fort had become obsolete. Only human that had obtained the power called magic had become conspicuously powerful.<br /> <br /> That was why if a war started, there would be nothing but humans that remained in the battlefield immediately. Every battle would become field battle soon at any rate. It was unlikely for a fort capture or siege battle or the like to occur. There was no meaning at all for the defensive side to defend their encampment―after all what decided the war was the soldiers.<br /> <br /> And then the defender side which had their building suddenly destroyed was thrown into chaos from how they suddenly got thrown outside―just like the time when the Knight Academy students were attacked while riding buses.<br /> <br /> The surprise attack had completely succeeded. When it became like this, the defending side became far more disadvantaged compared to the attacking side. The soldiers of Yamato were unable to grasp the situations, they couldn’t spread out their formation satisfactorily. Right there the close-quarter combat units that Kanae spearheaded made their assault. The Magic Division students were chanting magic to support their attack.<br /> <br /> Inside this chaos, it would be hard to chant magic even in the case that they had Drive.<br /> <br /> The swordsman of Yamato didn’t have anything but makeshift skill&lt;ref&gt;The phrase used here is re-tempering a dull sword (so that it looks as if it's sharp, but is actually unusable)&lt;/ref&gt;, the illegal magicians too were vastly inferior compared to the knights in magic technique like Resist or the like, when the situation was reversed where they were the one ambushed they were weak.<br /> <br /> In spite of the fewer number of the Knight Academy students that was under 150 people, the manpower of Yamato reached around a shocking number of 300 or 400. The difference in manpower was more than double, but if they could succeed in surprise attack and pushed forward with the momentum, they could overturn the difference in manpower!<br /> <br /> The camp of the enemy had finally began to recover from the chaos. The swordsmen of Yamato move out to protect the illegal magicians and were forming the Heaven and Earth Formation. Right at that timing, Kazuki fired his second arrow.<br /> <br /> “Flying column charge!” He ordered to his headset.<br /> <br /> “O Astaroth commiserating the foolish sin! In order to be the agent of thy indictment, please lend me thy manservant which is thy mounted beast!! {{furigana|Trampling Drake|Trampling Down Big Dragon}}!!”<br /> <br /> Flying column―Mibu-senpai who circled to the rear of Toyohashi platoon garrison and laid in ambush caused a crack on the ground, from there she summoned a giant lizard clad in blue flame. This blue flame was not the blue color of a super high temperature like Belial, it was dyed blue from constantly burning poisonous substance, emitting strange smell like sulfur. On top of that blue flaming lizard, the platoon that was led by Mibu-senpai mounted it up.<br /> <br /> “Loyal manservant of Lucifer, o Gamigyn! Please lend me thy swift horse the symbol of thy loyalty!! {{furigana|Gallop Racer|Hell’s Fine Horse}}!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai’s protégée Asamiya-senpai too invoked her magic together. The space in the immediate side of the girl was ‘BIKIBIKIBIKI!’ forming a rift, summoning a horse with body clad in red flame. The platoon led by Asamiya-senpai was riding up on the back of that horse.<br /> <br /> At that time changes happened to the giant lizard and the flaming horse―the giant lizard transformed into a huge blue armored car, and the horse into a large red bike.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was startled after using his sight that was reinforced with magic power and witnessing the transformation of the Demon Beasts into machine.<br /> <br /> ………What in the world is happening there?<br /> <br /> {When the summoner’s individuality is excessively strong, there are cases like that where the Diva’s Summoning Magic is stretched by that individuality. This phenomenon is quite close like with the characteristic magic that Otonashi Kaguya became able to use.}<br /> <br /> Leme taught him using Telepathy with a whispering voice. I see, so their character is just too deep.<br /> <br /> Anyhow, Mibu-senpai and her group could be said to be able to use magic with high mobility and high transportation capacity, so they were grouped together to compose a special mobile corps. The armored car and bike that were loaded with great number of students took off with great momentum. The engines were *BOOOOONN!!* roaring explosively, its music horns were *PARARIPARARIRA!!* playing the biker gang’s peculiar enigmatic music.<br /> <br /> “HYAHHAA―!! We are gonna cross over the period zee―!!”<br /> <br /> “Anekii―! We are gonna transform into wind Anekii―!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai raised their voices like a biker gang themselves and assaulted the rear of the enemy’s formation.<br /> <br /> The illegal magicians of Yamato turned back and intercepted with offensive magic. However the armored car and large type bike that were created from Summoning Magic were different than a mere bus and couldn’t be destroyed that simply.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOO! This situation is interetiIIIIIING!! LET”S RAMPAGEEEEEE!!”<br /> <br /> Damian too was riding on the armored car. She was not inside the car but clinging onto the car roof. She was in a great enjoyment while her hair messily trailing behind from the pouring wind from the front.<br /> <br /> “””HYAHHAA―!!””” Together with those voices of rapture, the armored car and bike flew to the enemy formation and sent the illegal magicians flying.<br /> <br /> “We are following the wish of Hodur, I too entrust my body once more to the exaltation of battle! Wartime fire of violent emotion running in the blood and fat of my sword!! Stories Flame!”<br /> <br /> Among the agonizing cries of the enemy formation, Damian was leaping while chanting a reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> From inside the armored car and the back of the large bike, swordsmen were leaping out in bustle.<br /> <br /> The enemy formation that had been temporarily recovering their composure from the chaos fell once more into pandemonium.<br /> <br /> Heaven and Earth Formation was weak against a pincer attack. It was a fact that Kazuki also learned from Yamato’s surprise attack.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki! Hayashi Shizuka has been discovered!!}<br /> <br /> In his ears―the headset that Kazuki equipped let out Kohaku’s voice.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had told the swordsmen that were fighting in the front line to inform him immediately once Hayashi Shizuka had been discovered.<br /> <br /> “Drilling the far away, &lt;Doutanuki&gt;! Battou Kaikon―Tenran Kamaitachi!!”<br /> <br /> Together with Kohaku’s voice, a storm of magic power was blowing violently toward the sky in a certain location of the battlefield. That was the power of Kohaku’s Sacred Treasure. She was making that scene in place of a beacon to mark her location.<br /> <br /> “Karin!” Kazuki gripped Karin’s hand tightly and dashed.<br /> <br /> “You are going to settle with your destiny now!!”<br /> <br /> “…Okay!” Karin nodded with obedience that she had never shown until now.<br /> <br /> Defeat Hayashi Shizuka. That was this battle’s most important objective. All the other enemy soldiers were trivial.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pulled Karin’s hand and drew her near him, then he circled his hands around those slender hips and took her in a princess carry.<br /> <br /> “Waa!? What’s with this posture!” Kazuki ignored Karin who had her eyes opened wide.<br /> <br /> “Ride Lightning!” Kazuki kicked the ground with all his strength while accelerating the strength of his whole body.<br /> <br /> {It’s gong just as I anticipated huh…}<br /> <br /> The Telepathic voice resounding inside Kazuki’s head―Tamamo no Mae.<br /> <br /> {I’d never expect that this leadership is your first campaign, boy. No, o little King.}<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While carrying Karin with his left hand, Kazuki cut a swath through the swordsmen obstructing his path with Doufu in his right hand. He stepped over the enemies that he defeated with a single blow and stormed into the deepest area of the enemy’s formation. Before long just like what Kohaku informed him, Shizuka’s figure entered his eyes in front of him. What emerged in that expression of hers were fury and impatience.<br /> <br /> “You finally come huh, you bastard…”<br /> <br /> With a look that was grinding her teeth audibly, Shizuka began to chant her spell.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too at the same time he caught the appearance of Shizuka, he let Karin down from his arm while invoking his magic.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, double the Megin that is swirling in my body! The will of god spurring me to endless battle, in this body! …Megingjord!”<br /> <br /> At the same time he perceived the nature of the magic that Shizuka was in the middle of chanting. And then he gave the signal.<br /> <br /> “Miyabi-senpai, please!”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuki had made a request to Miyabi-senpai for her to be in a position where Kazuki was always fixed inside her magic perception range as much as possible. She should be coming along here while somehow she must be able to keep Kazuki who was dashing in full strength inside her line of sight. …Shizuka used a powerful offense magic that Kazuki couldn’t defend with the defensive magics that he had in hand. He had been aware of it beforehand, that was why Kazuki had to take countermeasure in preparation of this happening.<br /> <br /> “The water god of red hair awoke world destruction, restoring the rift of heaven o the great power of Joka…lining up to that heaven and earth creation please distribute the light of world compilation in this hand! Goshiki Seki!!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka invoked her magic with one hand raised high to the sky. A stone that contained Joka’s power was created inside that hand, emitting light of every color…!<br /> <br /> “…Mirror o mirror, lop off the ugly person’s sight and greedy hand! {{furigana|Moon Ring・Mirror Field|Moon Ring’s Mirror Shield}}!!”<br /> <br /> At the same time, Miyabi-senpai invoked her magic with time to spare.<br /> <br /> An avatar of moon floated in front of Kazuki, then it became a materialized mirror.<br /> <br /> Moon―the shining mirror of heaven that even reflected the power of sun.<br /> <br /> The Goshiki Seki released the light that altered the existence of physical material. If defensive magic of other element was used then it would surely have its existence erased and made powerless. However the ultimate mirror perfectly reflected the very light itself.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki don’t have defensive magic that protect against light aren’t you? Fufufu, with this the reason to conquer me increased.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was “fufufu” laughing daringly. In contrast, Shizuka was “Impossible…!” groaning.<br /> <br /> But even so the magic of Joka was not only to that extent. And then the power of Joka whose name was well known in Chinese Mythology was supposed to possess a terrific power in each of her magic.<br /> <br /> ―But it was only in the case that if Shizuka could chant, that is.<br /> <br /> “O earth of Pangu…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too began chanting his spell. And, he swung down his beloved katana Doufu with power reinforced by Megin simultaneously. Shizuka too parried that katana with spiraling movement while maintaining her spell chanting.<br /> <br /> The kick that she launched in return as counterattack was not parried by Kazuki, instead he forcefully repelled it.<br /> <br /> “Reveal those every possibilities of the abyss in accordance of my wish…!”<br /> <br /> “Stone cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too, Shizuka too, the two of them were magic warrior that skillfully used both Summoning Magic and close-quarter combat.<br /> <br /> While mutually chanting spell, they were unfolding a fierce offense and defense.<br /> <br /> However it was as if Kazuki had completely became like Beatrix, he felt his whole body was overflowing with strength. More than usual, he was several levels faster, stronger, swinging down his beloved katana. Shizuka’s arm that was attempting to redirect that attack lost to its pressure and her posture broke. Right at that timing, Kazuki’s second slash surged like an avalanche. Receiving a severe attack, Shizuka staggered along with a blue defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> What got disordered in instability was not only her posture―her chant too. Therefore Kazuki managed to invoke his magic earlier.<br /> <br /> “Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Sheathing Doufu back into his sheath, he gripped the sword of crushing evil in return. Shizuka who was slightly late from Kazuki in her chanting almost manage to carry it out to the finish, but right at that moment Kazuki swung down the sword that severed magic power.<br /> <br /> *BAKIN* The magic power that was kneaded until just the moment before invocation was destroyed.<br /> <br /> “!?” Haggardness came to the surface of Shizuka’s expression.<br /> <br /> [Futsu no Mitama] also had the effect to obstruct the chanting of spell. With the disordered chanting ability that Shizuka had right now, she became unable to chant a powerful magic―except for mostly simple low level magic.<br /> <br /> In reverse for Kazuki who advantageously advanced the offense and defense, he had even more room to chant more spells.<br /> <br /> Kazuki wield the sword of crushing evil even further. Shizuka whose heart was thrown out of order by impatience lost sight of even her original martial art and became flustered from Kazuki’s fierce attack until she finally was blown away.<br /> <br /> “Kuh, even in the worst case this me, no way I’ll lose in this kind of place!” The haggardness in Shizuka’s expression changed into faintheartedness.<br /> <br /> While escaping from Kazuki’s sword by rolling about in the ground, the girl managed to chant a short spell somehow.<br /> <br /> “…O Joka’s shining five color, repaint the world! The heaven I wished for is not here! To the other side that compass pointed at…Kuujin Hen’i!”<br /> <br /> …Escape magic! At Shizuka’s side, an avatar of a huge Diva with female upper body and naga lower body was floating. She was carrying a compass in her right hand where its needle was beginning to spin and spin reacting to the magic that Shizuka invoked.<br /> <br /> …This girl mustn’t escape from here!<br /> <br /> “Ride Lightning!!” Kazuki accelerated his physical ability even more electrifyingly.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”<br /> <br /> He kicked the ground with all his strength while raising a war cry. [Megingjord] and [Ride Lightning] created a synergy, producing tremendous explosive power for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> What invoked that escape magic, was that compass. The needle of the compass was spinning, spinning―however Kazuki closed the distance even before that magic power completely activated. And then with the sword of crushing evil, he slashed.<br /> <br /> The compass that Joka’s avatar held was the same like Joka, it was not a material matter. It couldn’t get slashed or the like by a normal sword. But [Futsu no Mitama] was able to cut the magic power itself, even an avatar.<br /> <br /> The compass was bisected into two and fell from Joka’s hand.<br /> <br /> {Hohou} Joka let out a voice of admiration. The escape magic was crushed due to Kazuki’s speed.<br /> <br /> This girl surely was intending to fight from the inside of a safety zone. Like that time in the final too.<br /> <br /> “Prepare yourself, you cannot escape from this losing war.”<br /> <br /> “Sh, shit…cannot escape you say…this me is, in this kind of poor and boring island country…”<br /> <br /> Even chanting spell was pointless, even doing close range battle was already hopeless against the current Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Karin!” With a desperate voice, Shizuka yelled “Karin, protect me!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki relaxed the stance of his katana and turned to Karin’s direction. Karin too looked back at Kazuki and nodded.<br /> <br /> Kazuki could defeat Shizuka by keeping the current pace. However that wouldn’t become any conclusion.<br /> <br /> “…Karin, you&lt;ref&gt;The ‘you’ used here is in the sense of ‘you bastard’ or ‘you son of a bitch’&lt;/ref&gt;, are my family…. Protect your family…”<br /> <br /> Toward Shizuka that so shamelessly spouted out that falsehood, Karin directed her fist and prepared a stance with low center of gravity.<br /> <br /> “Shizuka-''neesan''…you taught martial art to me…”<br /> <br /> “You bastard…what are you intending to do, that fist is…. You are saying you are going to defy me…!”<br /> <br /> “The fist that Nee-san taught me, was my pride…!!”<br /> <br /> “You bastarrd!” Both of them kicked the ground with Jouchouho simultaneously.<br /> <br /> Shizuka launched a fierce kick filled with fury to Karin. Karin slipped under the kick by lowering her body like a beast, her foot at the rear stepped powerfully on the ground, then all that energy slammed into Shizuka from her shoulder with force―&lt;{{furigana|Tetsusankou|Iron Mine Lean}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> “Guh…!” Even with her magic power scattered and her body bent backward, Shizuka still adjusted her stance and swung down a heel palm like an iron hammer. Karin tilted her neck and evaded the counterattack with minimum movement while forcing up her heel palm. The mutual attacks passed each other, Shizuka whose face was hit with the heel palm staggered. Even while staggering, Shizuka launched a kick with her left foot as if to show her will. Karin crouched down and evaded that kick while making a sweeping kick to sweep out Shizuka’s left foot―&lt;{{furigana|Soutai|Sweeping Thigh}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> With her right foot driven off, Shizuka fell on her backside.<br /> <br /> “Wh…why is…” Having herself overpowered by Karin, she leaked out a shell-shocked voice.<br /> <br /> “In power and also in speed, Nee-san always has the upper hand. However Nee-san’s technique doesn’t work against me.”<br /> <br /> There was not even a fragment of intensity in Karin’s fight, she was only looking down at Shizuka with expression that merely filled with earnest grief. “I have been watching Nee-san’s technique for the whole time. I yearned for that technique, I have been watching the whole time trying to steal it…. Nee-san had never tried looking at me at all but…”<br /> <br /> “Stop prattling-!” Shizuka sprang up in the middle of Karin’s words and thrust out her left fist.<br /> <br /> Karin flipped up that thrust with her right arm and parried it. Shizuka immediately thrust with her right fist. Karin repelled it down with her left hand. Shizuka’s both hands were opened to the above and below, making her face unguarded. With her raised right elbow, Karin struck a blow to Shizuka’s face like an iron hammer. ―&lt;{{furigana|Koukaimon|Hard Open Gate}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> Katsura Karin was seeing through every movement of Hayashi Shizuka.<br /> <br /> “I, wanted to be useful to Nee-san…”<br /> <br /> Karin whispered crestfallenly. Looking at such Karin, furious expression emerged in Shizuka’s face and she struck out aiming at Karin’s face.<br /> <br /> “I wanted you to look at me more. I wanted to get praised, even just one word…!”<br /> <br /> Karin opened her body to the side and dodged, at the same time she stepped forward strongly while piercing her elbow on Shizuka’s face in a counter. ―&lt;{{furigana|Gaimon Chouchū|Outer Gate Spire Elbow}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> “…Nee-san didn’t love me. However in these few days I knew. What kind of feeling love is…”<br /> <br /> Right there Karin looked at Kazuki in a glance. There was no mistake that the warmth of the Witch’s Mansion flashed in the back of her head right now. “Kazuki and Charlotte and everyone, had taught me!!”<br /> <br /> “What love, what family, that kind of absurd things…!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka tried to launch a counterattack. However she was beaten to the punch, Karin stabbed her claw to Shizuka’s neck who was full of opening―&lt;{{furigana|Kosoushou|Tiger Claw Palm}}&gt;. With that one attack as the beginning, she procured strength with a powerful Shinkyaku while launching elbow strike, thrust, and elbow strike filled with strength of one-hit-kill consecutively piercing the vital spots of Shizuka. A technique of combo attack just like a fierce tiger running up the mountain powerfully slashing its front leg―&lt;{{furigana|Zesshou・Mouko Kouhazan|Sever Beckoning・Fierce Tiger Firmly Ascending Mountain}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> Finally her magic power was disconnected, Shizuka stepped back in stagger.<br /> <br /> “…Do, don’t mess with me-! You are just a puppet-!!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka exerted both her legs strenuously and fixed her stance, taking a step forward she fitted her right palm on Karin’s chest―the stance of the girl’s sure-kill technique. Karin didn’t even try to dodge and accepted it while she too fitted her own right palm on Shizuka’s chest in response. And then they yelled simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “I’ll teach you your place, puppet! …With this &lt;Shintoukei&gt; of mine!!”<br /> <br /> “At the very least I’ll finish this with my pride…with Nee-san’s &lt;Shintoukei&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Shinmyaku―both of them simultaneously powerfully stepped firmly on the ground. ‘DON!’ With one reverberating roaring sound, both people simultaneously had their hips, shoulders, elbows rotated like a spiral. And then the impact broke through the palms.<br /> <br /> Which one of them shot out their {{furigana|Hakkei|release internal power}} first couldn’t be understood by outsider’s eyes.<br /> <br /> “Good bye, Nee-san…this is our first conversation…in our last moment…”<br /> <br /> ―Karin whispered with teary eyes while her nose sniffled in a sob. With her eyes still opened wide and her expression looking like an ogre, Shizuka collapsed down to the ground like a ''puppet'' with its string cut.<br /> <br /> {You finally did it, Karin…} Tamamo no Mae said affectionately.<br /> <br /> {This is only the fall of one of my contractor . This is not even a crack in Chūkadou.}<br /> <br /> Joka’s avatar floated for a moment and said only that before she vanished.<br /> <br /> “The destiny of all things in nature is inside the great celestial sphere…O binding of constellation, suspend the movement of heaven! Horoscope Stasis!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki invoked Baal’s binding magic on Shizuka whose heart had already stopped beating. Star lights flickered on Shizuka’s hands and feet, becoming thread of constellation from the links between lights and restrained Shizuka’s whole body.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…what are you planning?” Karin asked in wonder.<br /> <br /> “…We are not just killing her like this. Because if she completely died then that’s the end. We are arresting this girl.” And then Kazuki chanted resuscitation magic that he had experienced personally.<br /> <br /> “…O elegant beautiful fire of reincarnation, burn the surface of life and sprout the restoration of the inside…Anti Aging!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Retreat!” ―A voice came from the night sky. When he looked up, a black dragon―Fafnir was covering the sky, Kaya and Maya were straddling its back.<br /> <br /> It seemed that she was informed of the surprise attack and came here in a rush from a different region―might be from Gifu or Toyama, or else might be from even further inside Yamato.<br /> <br /> Following that order, Yamato’s military force began to withdraw. Attack magics were launched at their back in order to take even one more prisoner. The enemy soldiers that were defeated became Kazuki and the others’ prisoner just like that.<br /> <br /> “…You really got me. I never thought at all that Onii-chan unexpectedly wouldn’t get held back by the idiots and come preparing an attack this fast.”<br /> <br /> Kaya murmured. At her back Maya was “Hi, high, high, scary, scary…” trembling.<br /> <br /> “Naiarlako, you have defensive magic power so even if you fall you will be fine, so despite that why are you trembling?” Like that Kaya scolded Maya. “Well then see you, Onii-chan. Next time it won’t go well like this you know.”<br /> <br /> Leaving behind a parting threat like that to Kazuki, the black dragon disappeared to the north night sky. The end of the battle. Experiencing such feeling Kazuki looked around his surrounding, he was confirming the safety of everyone from the Witch’s Mansion. And then the fatigue of the very long day weighed on him all at once, making him almost flopped on the wasteland.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Intermission|Intermission]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Chapter_6&diff=464890 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 6 2015-10-03T03:05:24Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 6 – Surprise Attack Tactic―Magic War・Okehazama==<br /> <br /> Kondou Hajime who had just finished his shift as the guard of the dungeon was requested by Hayashizaki Kazuki and Yagumo Akane to do something. It was something that made his chest beat in thrill as if he was participating in conspiracy, Kondou who liked that kind of thing agreed happily―he came until the very end of this temporary garrison.<br /> <br /> Even though it was called a garrison this place was only temporary, because of that there were hotel and public facility and the like, a normal corner of the city that was confiscated for the military’s use. The edges of the grounds were guarded by knights in shift system.<br /> <br /> There were reasons why the monitoring was done in analog using human and not using machine. The first reason was because the garrison that was set up in these grounds had only been done two days ago. Constructing an advanced monitoring system in itself would take a lot of time.<br /> <br /> And then one more reason was because magic power couldn’t be detected using a machine. Human who excelled in detecting magic power was posted as guard where he had to pay attention on suspicious outbreak of magic power.<br /> <br /> Of course something like a knight that loved to work a job as a guard or the like didn’t exist.<br /> <br /> It was already late at night. Kondou walked approaching the lone guard standing around doing nothing while holding his yawn.<br /> <br /> “Hey, thanks for your hard work. …Though even if I said that I wonder if there is any meaning in this, only standing watch doing nothing.”<br /> <br /> “…Hey, when I thought it’s my relief but it’s just Kondou. It’s not your shift right now right? What a short-lived elation.” The knight who stood guard released a deep sigh. “Well, it seems there is meaning in this you know? There is no worry of enemy attack tonight, but rather than the outside the order is to be on guard against the inside.”<br /> <br /> Be on guard against the inside―hearing thos words made Kondou scrunched his eyebrows a little.<br /> <br /> “So they told you to be more careful for desertion rather than the enemy. But does that actually happen? Things like deserting soldier.”<br /> <br /> “There is nothing like that in my shift. But, I heard that a few had been caught. Those who tried to escape were all swordsmen, but there is not a single one of the Magika Stigma who tried. As expected between those who are granted with Stigmata and became a knight, [the chosen human] compared to the swordsmen, their resolve might be different.”<br /> <br /> “…You cannot say that it’s only because of such thing you know. In the battlefield the swordsman is in several times more danger compared to the Magika Stigma after all. If they faced something like that then they would want to desert. Isn’t that the difference? It’s not a thing that you can think so menially.”<br /> <br /> “That’s so? Maybe it’s really like that. …So, what are you coming here for?”<br /> <br /> “I couldn’t sleep at all, so I was thinking that I want to feel the night breeze for a little, and then I remember that tonight it’s your shift as guard. There is that favor from you setting up that mixer the other day that I haven’t paid yet. Well, though I also didn’t meet any great catch at all that time.”<br /> <br /> “Oh, so you mean you are admirably proposing to replace me to guard this spot?”<br /> <br /> “Right on the spot. The soft and fluffy bed in the hole is waiting for you right now.”<br /> <br /> ‘Yossha-‘ The lookout knight started running while Kondou sent him off.<br /> <br /> …A lookout for deserter was it? But in the society, there was also exception like deserting caused by bravery.<br /> <br /> After a while Kondou called out “Everything clear”, he sent out a signal to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki divided his comrades into groups and then ''ambushed'' the rooms where the students of the Knight Academy were resting. And then they performed an inspection on the students belonging and confiscated everything like cell phone and the like that could be used as method to contact the outside.<br /> <br /> When he told the situation, all the students gave their understanding. There was also a possibility of spy among the students of the Knight Academy. That’s why entrust all the communication devices before we conduct the absolute secret tactic―if Kazuki said it like that and the student was still resisting then it was the same like confessing that [I am suspicious].<br /> <br /> And then he divided the 150 students into subdivisions and deserted from the garrison one group at a time. With the cooperation of Kondou-san who stood as the guard, the Knight Academy students succeeded to not be noticed by anyone.<br /> <br /> The escaping students that numbered a little under 150 people gathered in a public park that didn’t have any human presence where Kazuki explained the tactic once more in detail at there. If by any chance Kazuki didn’t have his accomplishments of becoming the champion of the election battle, then surely the students wouldn’t give their agreement in following Kazuki’s plan.<br /> <br /> The students all lent their ear with serious expression listening on Kazuki’s words.<br /> <br /> “This tactic is similar to the famous surprise attack tactic that was performed at Aichi Prefecture a long time ago in the previous era, thus…we will name this tactic [Magic War・Okehazama]!”<br /> <br /> When he said the tactic’s name that really had a good taste if he said so himself, the students cheered ‘Oooo’ with voices that might be audible from the garrison and applauded. The morale was high even though it was quite risky.<br /> <br /> “Though Okehazama is more in the west from here…” Koyuki retorted with a serious face.<br /> <br /> Next Kazuki reorganized the platoons according to the elements of the magic that the students used. Fifteen platoons were made from ten people each where everyone had their own role clarified. And then to the fifteen leaders of the platoons, Kazuki distributed the wireless software headset he received from Akane-senpai. While this headset was a small model communication equipment, it was able to switch between several communication network from short range until long range. It had became the standard equipment of the Knight Order. Akane-senpai pilfered all of it from the warehouse for Kazuki’s sake.<br /> <br /> They were using wireless at this time was of course so that the enemy couldn’t intercept the communication, but it was also because they had to be vigilant so that the Knight Order too couldn’t intercept the signal.<br /> <br /> “Ah, spare me from usin’ that. That’s just too effeminate zee, wearin’ this kind of appliance.”<br /> <br /> But the Einherjar Damian who had the creed of rejecting technology refused to wear the wireless.<br /> <br /> “Well then everyone, let’s pass through the military boundary line and hit Yamato’s frontline.”<br /> <br /> They had already broken through the military boundary line from Japan’s side. They would keep this pace and break through the security of Yamato and then assaulted the front line garrison of Yamato in one go.<br /> <br /> The location of the garrison had been thoroughly investigated by the Knight Order and Akane-senpai had also taught that to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “O affectionate rain cloud that grant the blessing to the earth, cry and weep fiercely just for this time, please hide our figure inside the curtain of lamentation…{{furigana|Crying Nimbus|Rain Cloud of Outcry}}.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai in her Magic Dress form was chanting the Summoning Magic of Baal, the Diva that manipulated the weather.<br /> <br /> In the blink of eye the night sky was covered with dark clouds, drops of rain began to fall.<br /> <br /> By means of Hikaru-senpai’s control, Hikaru-senpai made the rain stronger little by little so to not make anyone suspicious.<br /> <br /> Before long the scenery of the far away became hazy where they couldn’t see well from the passing shower.<br /> <br /> “Ahaha. You know I have been doubtful for a long time wondering whether there is any use for this magic. Making rain fall down and become sopping wet only make lightning magic turn hard to use. I never thought about using it for surprise attack.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai talked while hugging Kazuki’s arm tightly. “Why is senpai hugging me?”<br /> <br /> “Praa―ise me♪” She said that with a voice full of charm, so Kazuki patted Hikaru-senpai’s head gently.<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it senpai, I just noticed it but reinforcement magic like [Ride Lightning] couldn’t be chanted in preparation time like this right? Even though I think it will be convenient if that’s possible.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki tried to chant the spell, he sensed that it wouldn’t activate.<br /> <br /> “Right. Because spell chanting include declaration of [what is the power going to be used for], so in the case of reinforcement magic there is many that has [fighting spirit against the enemy in front of you] as their trigger. That’s why it’s mostly unusable when you only want to use it to strengthen yourself yet there is no target you want to defeat inside your &lt;magic perception range&gt;.”<br /> <br /> After Hikaru-senpai had finished teaching him such a thing so skillfully, once more she “Praa―ise me♪” and rubbed herself on Kazuki. Really, this senpai is….like that Kazuki kept patting Hikaru-senpai’s head repeatedly.<br /> <br /> “Well then senpai and all the others in the lightning magic platoon, please fall back to the rear until the rain stopped.”<br /> <br /> “Okay, I’ll leave the rest to you-”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> They examined the situation of the military boundary line from their cover. There are two soldiers standing guard in line, and then there were also soldiers coming in patrol at a fixed interval asking for the situation.<br /> <br /> But Yamato’s swordsmen were not skilled. Even their magic power was not much different than normal civilian. Their level didn’t reach the degree where they could detect the magic power of unseen approaching human.<br /> <br /> The communication appliance that they used were the same with the one that Kazuki and the other students used this time.<br /> <br /> First in order to not let them notify their comrade―Kanae and Torazou-san crept unnoticed without even making any sound and destroyed the communication devices with kodachi and sword hand strike.<br /> <br /> “…!? …!”<br /> <br /> The guard was shocked from the sudden appearance of Kanae’s figure and tried to call for help but―his voice didn’t come out.<br /> <br /> Karin moved the airflow with Psychokinesis and made the surrounding of the soldiers into vacuum.<br /> <br /> It was one of the assassination techniques beaten into the girl by Hayashi Shizuka.<br /> <br /> If there was no air to propagate the vibration of sound, even voice couldn’t be produced. He was unable to call for help.<br /> <br /> “………! (TORAZOU SMAAAAAAAAASH!)”<br /> <br /> Torazou-senpai smashed a powerful strike even though his voice was not audible because of the vacuum, Kanae too mercilessly carved her opponent apart roughly, in no time at all the soldiers in lookout fell into the unconsciousness of magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> The security is lax, Kazuki thought. The competency level of Yamato’s soldier was no better than normal civilian. They were also resting on their laurels carelessly because of the traitor’s information. Adding to that, it was also because in the first place they hadn’t completely decided [what kind of security would be effective].<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 256.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> There was no doubt that they hadn’t even imagined such thing like the guard got defeated without even able to raise their voice.<br /> <br /> “From here it’s a fight against time. Until the next patrol come here again…”<br /> <br /> Under the falling rain, Kazuki and the others penetrated the occupied area of Yamato. The inhabitants of this side had been evacuated too, there was no human presence at all.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Yamato side―there was [Yokohashi platoon garrison] around the eastern tips of the prefecture border in Chubu Prefecture, Yamato took over that place and used it just like that. <br /> <br /> Inside the falling rain with bad visibility, the students of the Knight Academy were hiding using the surrounding buildings as cover while surrounding the building of Yokohashi garrison―a large concrete architecture similar with a school, bringing the building into their &lt;magic perception range&gt;. Making the building itself as their attack target, the large scale magic corps with Kaguya-senpai as its platoon leader began their spell chanting.<br /> <br /> And then if a spell was chanted in this range, the other side too would notice the outbreak of magic power.<br /> <br /> Swordsmen leaped out from the building entrance as scouts, toward this side―they ran directly heading toward the direction of the magic power that Kaguya-senpai produced. If it had became like this then it was meaningless for this side to keep hiding their appearance.<br /> <br /> The swordsman corps of Kanae and the others met the approaching scouts and defeated them in no time.<br /> <br /> It was the beginning of small scale hostility. The enemy had sensed this side and the battle would begin from here on.<br /> <br /> In ''the other side of the windows'' of the building, the illegal magicians of Yamato began their spell chanting. The other side had confirmed this side’s figures by sight―in other words this side had been entered into their magic perception range. In regards to that, Kazuki and the others fixed their sight only on the building. To the end they couldn’t target anything other than the building with their magic.<br /> <br /> ''If it had to be said strongly'' then the disadvantage for the attacker side was around this area.<br /> <br /> “Defensive magic!” Kazuki sensed the magic power and gave out instruction.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Onibi Hyakka Ryouran|Will-o-Wisp Hundred Flowers Blooming Profusion}}!” “{{furigana|Raijin Taiko|Thunder God Drum}}!” “{{furigana|Magatsu Kaze Kamaitachi|Evil Wind Sickle Weasel}}!” …<br /> <br /> The Divas of Japanese Mythology emerged one after another, dozens of offensive magic came flying. Against those attacks, the students of the Magic Division matched the number of defensive magic and resisted. Various elements of defensive magic were erected all at once over and over again, defending against the offensive magic.<br /> <br /> Offensive magic came flying at rapid succession due to the fastness of Drive’s chanting, the damages to the surrounding building and to the students came out due to their inability to defend everything with defense magic but―<br /> <br /> Even while allowing the enemy’s preemptive attack, this side’s preparation had also been finished.<br /> <br /> “O darkness of mind contained within the eternal cycle of death and rebirth! O seven stars shining inside that! Display the microcosm of the creation of heaven and earth and show the where about of the person!! Galaxy!”<br /> <br /> “”In the sky moon, on the earth wolf, raging howl loudly indicted the sins on the earth! O shining moon that is also shining on top of the deeply sinful person’s head, change that light of motherhood into fury, crush this earth! The nightmare of falling moon right here…Moon Strike!!””<br /> <br /> With the garrison building as the target―the characteristic magic of the Magic Division student council president and the combination magic of the hidden powerful duo Ryuutaki sisters were invoked at the same time. The night sky that continuously rained down suddenly became clear.<br /> <br /> Dark clouds parted, the burning stars and moon became meteor shower and rained down incessantly. Light and thunderous roar that were already outside the realm of human’s sense were produced…,<br /> <br /> The Toyohashi regiment garrison didn’t even leave a rubble, transformed into uneven crater and opened wasteland.<br /> <br /> ''Right there several hundred people were scattered apart shining with defensive magic power.'' There were unarmed humans mixed among them, surely they were non-combatant that were inside the garrison. They who were outside the magic perception range of Kaguya-senpai were mostly unaffected by the offensive magic. Only the building that was annihilated.<br /> <br /> The result of the meteor that split apart the night sky was the clean disappearance of the rain cloud that Hikaru-senpai summoned, the clearly extending starry sky spread out like a lie.<br /> <br /> “Close-quarter combat units, charge!!” Together with Kanae’s order, the close-quarter battle units were charging.<br /> <br /> Just as I thought, Kazuki confirmed the rightness of his own idea.<br /> <br /> ―''There was no rules of three times attack or castle siege'' in a magic war.<br /> <br /> It was an unlikely assumption but as long a lot of adamantium was not even used in the outer wall, fort or protective wall that could endure against offensive magic this powerful didn’t exist.<br /> <br /> With the birth of magic in this world, the modern weapon and fort had become obsolete. Only human that had obtained the power called magic had become conspicuously powerful.<br /> <br /> That was why if a war started, there would be nothing but humans that remained in the battlefield immediately. Every battle would become field battle soon at any rate. It was unlikely for a fort capture or siege battle or the like to occur. There was no meaning at all for the defensive side to defend their encampment―after all what decided the war was the soldiers.<br /> <br /> And then the defender side which had their building suddenly destroyed was thrown into chaos from how they suddenly got thrown outside―just like the time when the Knight Academy students were attacked while riding buses.<br /> <br /> The surprise attack had completely succeeded. When it became like this, the defending side became far more disadvantaged compared to the attacking side. The soldiers of Yamato were unable to grasp the situations, they couldn’t spread out their formation satisfactorily. Right there the close-quarter combat units that Kanae spearheaded made their assault. The Magic Division students were chanting magic to support their attack.<br /> <br /> Inside this chaos, it would be hard to chant magic even in the case that they had Drive.<br /> <br /> The swordsman of Yamato didn’t have anything but makeshift skill&lt;ref&gt;The phrase used here is re-tempering a dull sword (so that it looks as if it's sharp, but is actually unusable)&lt;/ref&gt;, the illegal magicians too were vastly inferior compared to the knights in magic technique like Resist or the like, when the situation was reversed where they were the one ambushed they were weak.<br /> <br /> In spite of the fewer number of the Knight Academy students that was under 150 people, the manpower of Yamato reached around a shocking number of 300 or 400. The difference in manpower was more than double, but if they could succeed in surprise attack and pushed forward with the momentum, they could overturn the difference in manpower!<br /> <br /> The camp of the enemy had finally began to recover from the chaos. The swordsmen of Yamato move out to protect the illegal magicians and were forming the Heaven and Earth Formation. Right at that timing, Kazuki fired his second arrow.<br /> <br /> “Flying column charge!” He ordered to his headset.<br /> <br /> “O Astaroth commiserating the foolish sin! In order to be the agent of thy indictment, please lend me thy manservant which is thy mounted beast!! {{furigana|Trampling Drake|Trampling Down Big Dragon}}!!”<br /> <br /> Flying column―Mibu-senpai who circled to the rear of Toyohashi platoon garrison and laid in ambush caused a crack on the ground, from there she summoned a giant lizard clad in blue flame. This blue flame was not the blue color of a super high temperature like Belial, it was dyed blue from constantly burning poisonous substance, emitting strange smell like sulfur. On top of that blue flaming lizard, the platoon that was led by Mibu-senpai mounted it up.<br /> <br /> “Loyal manservant of Lucifer, o Gamigyn! Please lend me thy swift horse the symbol of thy loyalty!! {{furigana|Gallop Racer|Hell’s Fine Horse}}!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai’s protégée Asamiya-senpai too invoked her magic together. The space in the immediate side of the girl was ‘BIKIBIKIBIKI!’ forming a rift, summoning a horse with body clad in red flame. The platoon led by Asamiya-senpai was riding up on the back of that horse.<br /> <br /> At that time changes happened to the giant lizard and the flaming horse―the giant lizard transformed into a huge blue armored car, and the horse into a large red bike.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was startled after using his sight that was reinforced with magic power and witnessing the transformation of the Demon Beasts into machine.<br /> <br /> ………What in the world is happening there?<br /> <br /> {When the summoner’s individuality is excessively strong, there are cases like that where the Diva’s Summoning Magic is stretched by that individuality. This phenomenon is quite close like with the characteristic magic that Otonashi Kaguya became able to use.}<br /> <br /> Leme taught him using Telepathy with a whispering voice. I see, so their character is just too deep.<br /> <br /> Anyhow, Mibu-senpai and her group could be said to be able to use magic with high mobility and high transportation capacity, so they were grouped together to compose a special mobile corps. The armored car and bike that were loaded with great number of students took off with great momentum. The engines were *BOOOOONN!!* roaring explosively, its music horns were *PARARIPARARIRA!!* playing the biker gang’s peculiar enigmatic music.<br /> <br /> “HYAHHAA―!! We are gonna cross over the period zee―!!”<br /> <br /> “Anekii―! We are gonna transform into wind Anekii―!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai raised their voices like a biker gang themselves and assaulted the rear of the enemy’s formation.<br /> <br /> The illegal magicians of Yamato turned back and intercepted with offensive magic. However the armored car and large type bike that were created from Summoning Magic were different than a mere bus and couldn’t be destroyed that simply.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOO! This situation is interetiIIIIIING!! LET”S RAMPAGEEEEEE!!”<br /> <br /> Damian too was riding on the armored car. She was not inside the car but clinging onto the car roof. She was in a great enjoyment while her hair messily trailing behind from the pouring wind from the front.<br /> <br /> “””HYAHHAA―!!””” Together with those voices of rapture, the armored car and bike flew to the enemy formation and sent the illegal magicians flying.<br /> <br /> “We are following the wish of Hodur, I too entrust my body once more to the exaltation of battle! Wartime fire of violent emotion running in the blood and fat of my sword!! Stories Flame!”<br /> <br /> Among the agonizing cries of the enemy formation, Damian was leaping while chanting a reinforcement magic.<br /> <br /> From inside the armored car and the back of the large bike, swordsmen were leaping out in bustle.<br /> <br /> The enemy formation that had been temporarily recovering their composure from the chaos fell once more into pandemonium.<br /> <br /> Heaven and Earth Formation was weak against a pincer attack. It was a fact that Kazuki also learned from Yamato’s surprise attack.<br /> <br /> {Kazuki! Hayashi Shizuka has been discovered!!}<br /> <br /> In his ears―the headset that Kazuki equipped let out Kohaku’s voice.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had told the swordsmen that were fighting in the front line to inform him immediately once Hayashi Shizuka had been discovered.<br /> <br /> “Drilling the far away, &lt;Doutanuki&gt;! Battou Kaikon―Tenran Kamaitachi!!”<br /> <br /> Together with Kohaku’s voice, a storm of magic power was blowing violently toward the sky in a certain location of the battlefield. That was the power of Kohaku’s Sacred Treasure. She was making that scene in place of a beacon to mark her location.<br /> <br /> “Karin!” Kazuki gripped Karin’s hand tightly and dashed.<br /> <br /> “You are going to settle with your destiny now!!”<br /> <br /> “…Okay!” Karin nodded with obedience that she had never shown until now.<br /> <br /> Defeat Hayashi Shizuka. That was this battle’s most important objective. All the other enemy soldiers were trivial.<br /> <br /> Kazuki pulled Karin’s hand and drew her near him, then he circled his hands around those slender hips and took her in a princess carry.<br /> <br /> “Waa!? What’s with this posture!” Kazuki ignored Karin who had her eyes opened wide.<br /> <br /> “Ride Lightning!” Kazuki kicked the ground with all his strength while accelerating the strength of his whole body.<br /> <br /> {It’s gong just as I anticipated huh…}<br /> <br /> The Telepathic voice resounding inside Kazuki’s head―Tamamo no Mae.<br /> <br /> {I’d never expect that this leadership is your first campaign, boy. No, o little King.}<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While carrying Karin with his left hand, Kazuki cut a swath through the swordsmen obstructing his path with Doufu in his right hand. He stepped over the enemies that he defeated with a single blow and stormed into the deepest area of the enemy’s formation. Before long just like what Kohaku informed him, Shizuka’s figure entered his eyes in front of him. What emerged in that expression of hers were fury and impatience.<br /> <br /> “You finally come huh, you bastard…”<br /> <br /> With a look that was grinding her teeth audibly, Shizuka began to chant her spell.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too at the same time he caught the appearance of Shizuka, he let Karin down from his arm while invoking his magic.<br /> <br /> “O divine protection of military man, double the Megin that is swirling in my body! The will of god spurring me to endless battle, in this body! …Megingjord!”<br /> <br /> At the same time he perceived the nature of the magic that Shizuka was in the middle of chanting. And then he gave the signal.<br /> <br /> “Miyabi-senpai, please!”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuki had made a request to Miyabi-senpai for her to be in a position where Kazuki was always fixed inside her magic perception range as much as possible. She should be coming along here while somehow she must be able to keep Kazuki who was dashing in full strength inside her line of sight. …Shizuka used a powerful offense magic that Kazuki couldn’t defend with the defensive magics that he had in hand. He had been aware of it beforehand, that was why Kazuki had to take countermeasure in preparation of this happening.<br /> <br /> “The water god of red hair awoke world destruction, restoring the rift of heaven o the great power of Joka…lining up to that heaven and earth creation please distribute the light of world compilation in this hand! Goshiki Seki!!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka invoked her magic with one hand raised high to the sky. A stone that contained Joka’s power was created inside that hand, emitting light of every color…!<br /> <br /> “…Mirror o mirror, lop off the ugly person’s sight and greedy hand! {{furigana|Moon Ring・Mirror Field|Moon Ring’s Mirror Shield}}!!”<br /> <br /> At the same time, Miyabi-senpai invoked her magic with time to spare.<br /> <br /> An avatar of moon floated in front of Kazuki, then it became a materialized mirror.<br /> <br /> Moon―the shining mirror of heaven that even reflected the power of sun.<br /> <br /> The Goshiki Seki released the light that altered the existence of physical material. If defensive magic of other element was used then it would surely have its existence erased and made powerless. However the ultimate mirror perfectly reflected the very light itself.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki don’t have defensive magic that protect against light aren’t you? Fufufu, with this the reason to conquer me increased.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai was “fufufu” laughing daringly. In contrast, Shizuka was “Impossible…!” groaning.<br /> <br /> But even so the magic of Joka was not only to that extent. And then the power of Joka whose name was well known in Chinese Mythology was supposed to possess a terrific power in each of her magic.<br /> <br /> ―But it was only in the case that if Shizuka could chant, that is.<br /> <br /> “O earth of Pangu…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too began chanting his spell. And, he swung down his beloved katana Doufu with power reinforced by Megin simultaneously. Shizuka too parried that katana with spiraling movement while maintaining her spell chanting.<br /> <br /> The kick that she launched in return as counterattack was not parried by Kazuki, instead he forcefully repelled it.<br /> <br /> “Reveal those every possibilities of the abyss in accordance of my wish…!”<br /> <br /> “Stone cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too, Shizuka too, the two of them were magic warrior that skillfully used both Summoning Magic and close-quarter combat.<br /> <br /> While mutually chanting spell, they were unfolding a fierce offense and defense.<br /> <br /> However it was as if Kazuki had completely became like Beatrix, he felt his whole body was overflowing with strength. More than usual, he was several levels faster, stronger, swinging down his beloved katana. Shizuka’s arm that was attempting to redirect that attack lost to its pressure and her posture broke. Right at that timing, Kazuki’s second slash surged like an avalanche. Receiving a severe attack, Shizuka staggered along with a blue defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> What got disordered in instability was not only her posture―her chant too. Therefore Kazuki managed to invoke his magic earlier.<br /> <br /> “Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Sheathing Doufu back into his sheath, he gripped the sword of crushing evil in return. Shizuka who was slightly late from Kazuki in her chanting almost manage to carry it out to the finish, but right at that moment Kazuki swung down the sword that severed magic power.<br /> <br /> *BAKIN* The magic power that was kneaded until just the moment before invocation was destroyed.<br /> <br /> “!?” Haggardness came to the surface of Shizuka’s expression.<br /> <br /> [Futsu no Mitama] also had the effect to obstruct the chanting of spell. With the disordered chanting ability that Shizuka had right now, she became unable to chant a powerful magic―except for mostly simple low level magic.<br /> <br /> In reverse for Kazuki who advantageously advanced the offense and defense, he had even more room to chant more spells.<br /> <br /> Kazuki wield the sword of crushing evil even further. Shizuka whose heart was thrown out of order by impatience lost sight of even her original martial art and became flustered from Kazuki’s fierce attack until she finally was blown away.<br /> <br /> “Kuh, even in the worst case this me, no way I’ll lose in this kind of place!” The haggardness in Shizuka’s expression changed into faintheartedness.<br /> <br /> While escaping from Kazuki’s sword by rolling about in the ground, the girl managed to chant a short spell somehow.<br /> <br /> “…O Joka’s shining five color, repaint the world! The heaven I wished for is not here! To the other side that compass pointed at…Kuujin Hen’i!”<br /> <br /> …Escape magic! At Shizuka’s side, an avatar of a huge Diva with female upper body and naga lower body was floating. She was carrying a compass in her right hand where its needle was beginning to spin and spin reacting to the magic that Shizuka invoked.<br /> <br /> …This girl mustn’t escape from here!<br /> <br /> “Ride Lightning!!” Kazuki accelerated his physical ability even more electrifyingly.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”<br /> <br /> He kicked the ground with all his strength while raising a war cry. [Megingjord] and [Ride Lightning] created a synergy, producing tremendous explosive power for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> What invoked that escape magic, was that compass. The needle of the compass was spinning, spinning―however Kazuki closed the distance even before that magic power completely activated. And then with the sword of crushing evil, he slashed.<br /> <br /> The compass that Joka’s avatar held was the same like Joka, it was not a material matter. It couldn’t get slashed or the like by a normal sword. But [Futsu no Mitama] was able to cut the magic power itself, even an avatar.<br /> <br /> The compass was bisected into two and fell from Joka’s hand.<br /> <br /> {Hohou} Joka let out a voice of admiration. The escape magic was crushed due to Kazuki’s speed.<br /> <br /> This girl surely was intending to fight from the inside of a safety zone. Like that time in the final too.<br /> <br /> “Prepare yourself, you cannot escape from this losing war.”<br /> <br /> “Sh, shit…cannot escape you say…this me is, in this kind of poor and boring island country…”<br /> <br /> Even chanting spell was pointless, even doing close range battle was already hopeless against the current Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Karin!” With a desperate voice, Shizuka yelled “Karin, protect me!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki relaxed the stance of his katana and turned to Karin’s direction. Karin too looked back at Kazuki and nodded.<br /> <br /> Kazuki could defeat Shizuka by keeping the current pace. However that wouldn’t become any conclusion.<br /> <br /> “…Karin, you&lt;ref&gt;The ‘you’ used here is in the sense of ‘you bastard’ or ‘you son of a bitch’&lt;/ref&gt;, are my family…. Protect your family…”<br /> <br /> Toward Shizuka that so shamelessly spouted out that falsehood, Karin directed her fist and prepared a stance with low center of gravity.<br /> <br /> “Shizuka-''neesan''…you taught martial art to me…”<br /> <br /> “You bastard…what are you intending to do, that fist is…. You are saying you are going to defy me…!”<br /> <br /> “The fist that Nee-san taught me, was my pride…!!”<br /> <br /> “You bastarrd!” Both of them kicked the ground with Jouchouho simultaneously.<br /> <br /> Shizuka launched a fierce kick filled with fury to Karin. Karin slipped under the kick by lowering her body like a beast, her foot at the rear stepped powerfully on the ground, then all that energy slammed into Shizuka from her shoulder with force―&lt;{{furigana|Tetsusankou|Iron Mine Lean}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> “Guh…!” Even with her magic power scattered and her body bent backward, Shizuka still adjusted her stance and swung down a heel palm like an iron hammer. Karin tilted her neck and evaded the counterattack with minimum movement while forcing up her heel palm. The mutual attacks passed each other, Shizuka whose face was hit with the heel palm staggered. Even while staggering, Shizuka launched a kick with her left foot as if to show her will. Karin crouched down and evaded that kick while making a sweeping kick to sweep out Shizuka’s left foot―&lt;{{furigana|Soutai|Sweeping Thigh}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> With her right foot driven off, Shizuka fell on her backside.<br /> <br /> “Wh…why is…” Having herself overpowered by Karin, she leaked out a shell-shocked voice.<br /> <br /> “In power and also in speed, Nee-san always has the upper hand. However Nee-san’s technique doesn’t work against me.”<br /> <br /> There was not even a fragment of intensity in Karin’s fight, she was only looking down at Shizuka with expression that merely filled with earnest grief. “I have been watching Nee-san’s technique for the whole time. I yearned for that technique, I have been watching the whole time trying to steal it…. Nee-san had never tried looking at me at all but…”<br /> <br /> “Stop prattling-!” Shizuka sprang up in the middle of Karin’s words and thrust out her left fist.<br /> <br /> Karin flipped up that thrust with her right arm and parried it. Shizuka immediately thrust with her right fist. Karin repelled it down with her left hand. Shizuka’s both hands were opened to the above and below, making her face unguarded. With her raised right elbow, Karin struck a blow to Shizuka’s face like an iron hammer. ―&lt;{{furigana|Koukaimon|Hard Open Gate}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> Katsura Karin was seeing through every movement of Hayashi Shizuka.<br /> <br /> “I, wanted to be useful to Nee-san…”<br /> <br /> Karin whispered crestfallenly. Looking at such Karin, furious expression emerged in Shizuka’s face and she struck out aiming at Karin’s face.<br /> <br /> “I wanted you to look at me more. I wanted to get praised, even just one word…!”<br /> <br /> Karin opened her body to the side and dodged, at the same time she stepped forward strongly while piercing her elbow on Shizuka’s face in a counter. ―&lt;{{furigana|Gaimon Chouchū|Outer Gate Spire Elbow}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> “…Nee-san didn’t love me. However in these few days I knew. What kind of feeling love is…”<br /> <br /> Right there Karin looked at Kazuki in a glance. There was no mistake that the warmth of the Witch’s Mansion flashed in the back of her head right now. “Kazuki and Charlotte and everyone, had taught me!!”<br /> <br /> “What love, what family, that kind of absurd things…!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka tried to launch a counterattack. However she was beaten to the punch, Karin stabbed her claw to Shizuka’s neck who was full of opening―&lt;{{furigana|Kosoushou|Tiger Claw Palm}}&gt;. With that one attack as the beginning, she procured strength with a powerful Shinkyaku while launching elbow strike, thrust, and elbow strike filled with strength of one-hit-kill consecutively piercing the vital spots of Shizuka. A technique of combo attack just like a fierce tiger running up the mountain powerfully slashing its front leg―&lt;{{furigana|Zesshou・Mouko Kouhazan|Sever Beckoning・Fierce Tiger Firmly Ascending Mountain}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> Finally her magic power was disconnected, Shizuka stepped back in stagger.<br /> <br /> “…Do, don’t mess with me-! You are just a puppet-!!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka exerted both her legs strenuously and fixed her stance, taking a step forward she fitted her right palm on Karin’s chest―the stance of the girl’s sure-kill technique. Karin didn’t even try to dodge and accepted it while she too fitted her own right palm on Shizuka’s chest in response. And then they yelled simultaneously.<br /> <br /> “I’ll teach you your place, puppet! …With this &lt;Shintoukei&gt; of mine!!”<br /> <br /> “At the very least I’ll finish this with my pride…with Nee-san’s &lt;Shintoukei&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Shinmyaku―both of them simultaneously powerfully stepped firmly on the ground. ‘DON!’ With one reverberating roaring sound, both people simultaneously had their hips, shoulders, elbows rotated like a spiral. And then the impact broke through the palms.<br /> <br /> Which one of them shot out their {{furigana|Hakkei|release internal power}} first couldn’t be understood by outsider’s eyes.<br /> <br /> “Good bye, Nee-san…this is our first conversation…in our last moment…”<br /> <br /> ―Karin whispered with teary eyes while her nose sniffled in a sob. With her eyes still opened wide and her expression looking like an ogre, Shizuka collapsed down to the ground like a ''puppet'' with its string cut.<br /> <br /> {You finally did it, Karin…} Tamamo no Mae said affectionately.<br /> <br /> {This is only the fall of one of my contractor . This is not even a crack in Chūkadou.}<br /> <br /> Joka’s avatar floated for a moment and said only that before she vanished.<br /> <br /> “The destiny of all things in nature is inside the great celestial sphere…O binding of constellation, suspend the movement of heaven! Horoscope Stasis!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki invoked Baal’s binding magic on Shizuka whose heart had already stopped beating. Star lights flickered on Shizuka’s hands and feet, becoming thread of constellation from the links between lights and restrained Shizuka’s whole body.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…what are you planning?” Karin asked in wonder.<br /> <br /> “…We are not just killing her like this. Because if she completely died then that’s the end. We are arresting this girl.” And then Kazuki chanted resuscitation magic that he had experienced personally.<br /> <br /> “…O elegant beautiful fire of reincarnation, burn the surface of life and sprout the restoration of the inside…Anti Aging!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Retreat!” ―A voice came from the night sky. When he looked up, a black dragon―Fafnir was covering the sky, Kaya and Maya were straddling its back.<br /> <br /> It seemed that she was informed of the surprise attack and came here in a rush from a different region―might be from Gifu or Toyama, or else might be from even further inside Yamato.<br /> <br /> Following that order, Yamato’s military force began to withdraw. Attack magics were launched at their back in order to take even one more prisoner. The enemy soldiers that were defeated became Kazuki and the others’ prisoner just like that.<br /> <br /> “…You really got me. I never thought at all that Onii-chan unexpectedly wouldn’t get held back by the idiots and come preparing an attack this fast.”<br /> <br /> Kaya murmured. At her back Maya was “Hi, high, high, scary, scary…” trembling.<br /> <br /> “Naiarlako, you have defensive magic power so even if you fall you will be fine, so despite that why are you trembling?” Like that Kaya scolded Maya. “Well then see you, Onii-chan. Next time it won’t go well like this you know.”<br /> <br /> Leaving behind a parting threat like that to Kazuki, the black dragon disappeared to the north night sky. The end of the battle. Experiencing such feeling Kazuki looked around his surrounding, he was confirming the safety of everyone from the Witch’s Mansion. And then the fatigue of the very long day weighed on him all at once, making him almost flopped on the wasteland.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Intermission|Intermission]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Chapter_5&diff=464083 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 5 2015-09-26T15:53:05Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 5 – Outbreak of War==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> {Currently it is something only in name but not in reality, but based on the most humane world order that existed in the former era, the &lt;International Law&gt;, we proclaim the independence of West Japan right here!}<br /> <br /> The morning of the next day, the one who proclaimed such thing inside the TV was―the man who once temporarily called as the Board Chairman in this academy, Takasugi Takayoshi. The footage looked like a bad joke.<br /> <br /> At her side an image of Kaya making a peace sign toward the camera was projected in the screen.<br /> <br /> That Board Chairman Takasugi was right there…there was no doubt that Hayashi Shizuka was included in their force.<br /> <br /> Loki, Naiarlatoteph, Hayashi Shizuka…it was the worst trio!<br /> <br /> {We are forming a new government in the West Japan that we occupied, levying tax on the people in the occupation area to cover the occupation expenses, and in compensation for that we promise the same social welfare the people enjoyed until now. Also as long as there is no intervention or act of hostility for war, we promise there will be no harm done to the general citizen.}<br /> <br /> He clearly said the word war from his mouth.<br /> <br /> {We proclaim right here. A true country that deified not Solomon 72 Pillar, but the legitimate gods of Japan…this is the founding of &lt;Yamato&gt;! There is the divine protection of the gods of Japan in us!!}<br /> <br /> The early morning before they went to school, everyone was gathering in the living room of the Witch’s Mansion. They were watching the news report while having breakfast. Everyone’s face looked like they hadn’t slept well.<br /> <br /> “…When the trace of Board Chairman Takasugi was followed, we knew that he went to the direction of west Japan. Not only Board Chairman Takasugi, the influential politicians of Kenshitou were also together with him. Their target, is this.”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki said with a loathsome face. The politicians' simultaneous migration. Most likely they were politicians under the patronage of China. Furthermore for some reason, it seemed that illegal Magika Stigmas whose bodies sheltered the Divas of Japanese Mythology were also added in their forces.<br /> <br /> {Aside from Naiarlako, I am also gathering other strong allies rapidly after all.}<br /> <br /> Kaya said this kind of thing. So the one that she called as strong allies was the Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> “What in the world is going on with this?”<br /> <br /> With a glare, Headmaster Amasaki’s gaze moved on Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Eerrr, I am, anything…” Kazuha-senpai looked down coweringly.<br /> <br /> {Kazuha didn’t know anything you know? I didn’t tell her after all.}<br /> <br /> At her side, the avatar of Futsunushi no Kami who was a Diva of Japanese Mythology floated.<br /> <br /> {It’s just that a few days before this, my communication with the other Japanese Mythology became cut off.}<br /> <br /> “Break in communication…your link with the Territory is cut off?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai asked.<br /> <br /> {Right, the story will be fast if you already understand the concept of Territory. Those guys are most likely, are in the process of becoming Wild God&lt;ref&gt;Aragami in Japanese, it’s a powerful deity that’s sometimes impetuous.&lt;/ref&gt;.}<br /> <br /> “Wild God?” All present there returned a question after hearing that word they weren’t used to hear.<br /> <br /> {The Diva of Japanese Mythology doesn’t really ask for people to be faithful to them. It’s because we are not a monotheism Mythology. However when they are not being cared for they grow restive. That is Wild God Transformation.}<br /> <br /> …Kazuha-senpai built an altar at the abandoned clubroom where she properly conversed and played with Futsunushi no Kami. Mikohime&lt;ref&gt;Princess shrine maiden&lt;/ref&gt;―that was Kazuha-senpai’s other name but, that title was not just for show.<br /> <br /> {To fulfill her own dream of entering the Sword Division and fulfilling her duty as a shrine maiden at the same time, Kazuha installed an altar at the abandoned clubroom as you know. What a good natured girl. Hayashizaki Kazuki, taking this girl as wife will surely be excellent.}<br /> <br /> “What are you saying, Bakanushi&lt;ref&gt;Mixed with baka=idiot&lt;/ref&gt; no Kami!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s face became bright red with indignation. Her positivity level had gone up to 70 with Kazuki following her around. Futsunushi no Kami was “GUWAHHAHHA!” laughing heartily.<br /> <br /> “What are you guwahhahha-ing for! Why didn’t you tell us before that they were transforming into Wild God!!”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki blew up his temper with force that almost burst the blood vessel of his head.<br /> <br /> “But even if before this you heard about how they were going through Wild God Transformation, this kind of situation is just really unexpected right?”<br /> <br /> In order to cover for Futsunushi no Kami, Leme materialized at Kazuki’s side.<br /> <br /> “…So you also knew about that beforehand.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki asked her bitterly, Leme nodded “yeah” without showing any guilt. Kazuki spontaneously stretched that dark-skinned soft cheeks of hers *biroon* with both his hands. “Stooopp~!”<br /> <br /> {Besides the gods of Japanese Mythology don’t interfere with each other mutually. Even with the other guys transforming into Wild God, I have no right to sooth them or become their intermediary.}<br /> <br /> That was what Futsunushi no Kami said. If it was a Mythology with such disposition, then it couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> “So the Divas of Japanese Mythology who are going wild for some reason, is going along with Kenshitou, that’s it huh.”<br /> <br /> Their attempt to control the Knight Academy, the assassination attempt on Kazuki, their aim was not just limited to those things.<br /> <br /> Surely because they failed on those matters that they joined hands with Kaya and moved onto this fearsome second phase. An armed revolt by touting the Japanese Mythology as their banner―it surely had the persuasion power to pull the people into their cause.<br /> <br /> It shook the whole Japanese islands to the core. The residents of the occupied west Japan too, there was no doubt that they didn’t necessarily react negatively regarding the founding of nation Yamato. There was persuasiveness in the existence called Japanese Mythology.<br /> <br /> {…Regarding Yamato that is founded in the west Japan, when the government suspended the electric supply they demonstrated a countermeasure. This decision garnered a large backlash from the resident of west Japan.}<br /> <br /> Hearing the words from the news program reporter, all who are present fell quiet.<br /> <br /> The electricity supply of Japan in this current era was provided by the large scale {{furigana|Alchimedes System|sunlight heat power reactor}} constructed in the {{furigana|megafloat|human-made island}} that was located in the southern tip of Japan’s territorial water. Its production capacity was extremely large, furthermore the recharging of the etherlite rechargeable battery that would never deteriorate no matter how many times it was recharged was performed in that place. The battery from the whole country were transported there and redistributed after the recharging to each household, realizing safe and moreover clean power in cheap price.<br /> <br /> The government proclaimed that they wouldn’t circulate the rechargeable battery to west Japan. So that Japan would still be okay even if the megafloat met with enemy attack, the thermal energy reactor and nuclear energy reactor from the previous era were left in reserve throughout the whole country as spare recharging facility, but with that the west Japan would be able to use those facilities too.<br /> <br /> But with this, the breakdown between east Japan and west Japan had become a definite thing.<br /> <br /> “…Yamato had already began creating a military boundary line that separated the islands into parts from the west Japan that they occupied. The circulation of trade between east Japan and west Japan has also been suspended, the people coming and going between the two places were also becoming impossible.”<br /> <br /> The freeway and railroad system that were the cornerstone of distribution were blockaded, the local streets were also being destroyed one by one. It was completely like the Berlin wall that divided East and West Germany or, the 38th parallel north&lt;ref&gt;A circle of latitude that is 38 degrees north of the equatorial plane. It formed the border between North and South Korea prior to the Korean war.&lt;/ref&gt; between the South Korea and the North Korea.<br /> <br /> “Toyama・Gifu・Aichi, those three prefectures had fallen. And then Niigata – Nagano – Shizuoka that are bordering those area had become Japan’s current western border. In order for these prefectures to avoid further entanglement with Yamato’s invasion, the ordinary citizens’ evacuation is being hastened. The current situation is generally like that.”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki that had connection with the government informed the situation to Kazuki and party.<br /> <br /> “What is the Knight Academy going to do from now on? …No, rather than saying the Knight Academy’s tendency, what is the Knight Order planning to do?”<br /> <br /> The one who had the say in this situation was not Kazuki or even Headmaster Amasaki, but the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> “Regarding that matter…the classes in this morning are cancelled. There is someone that wants to meet you guys. After that we are going to open an extraordinary general students meeting.”<br /> <br /> “Someone who wants to meet us…?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “It has been a long time huhh―, this mansion too✩”<br /> <br /> “It’s really a relief that nothing changed here&lt;ref&gt;The one who is talking here is using the talking style of a high class lady. While I’m at it I guess I also should say that Kanae and Koyuki and Lotte are always using polite language to everyone. Kazuki used polite language to everyone that’s his senior while using casual language to everyone his age and Kanae. Hikaru used mild manly language. Mio sometimes talked with the style of someone excited. Futsunushi no Kami talked with ancient style. Kohaku talked like a retainer samurai. Loki, Mibu Akira, Asamiya Anna and Kaya to some degree talked roughly like delinquent. Leme always talked like a big shot. Asmodeus always talked by dragging the last sound of her words, like someone that is so relaxed and unhurried. Miyabi is a little similar with Asmodeus in how she talked. I think that’s all the character that has characteristic way of talking.&lt;/ref&gt;. …It looks like even without me here the cleaning is done thoroughly.”<br /> <br /> The two people who appeared shortly at the entrance of the Witch’s Mansion murmured with deep feelings.<br /> <br /> “Kanon-senpai, Akane-senpai…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai who came to greet them had an expression dyed with surprise. Both their bodies were wrapped with the crisp white uniform of the Knight Order and they were donning a mantel that showed their status as officer cadet. For Kaguya-senpai to look up to them as senpai, in another words these people are….<br /> <br /> “Yahoo―i, Kaguyan long time no see! The idol of the Witch Mansion Koudzuki Kanon has returned home here―✩”&lt;ref&gt;I guess it goes without saying that this person always talked in excited style.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> The small statured woman of this group of two hugged Kaguya-senpai who greeted them at the entrance with lively vigor.<br /> <br /> “You look healthy don’t you, Kaguya. Aren’t you becoming too lively when we were not here?”<br /> <br /> At the side, the other woman who looked adult-like said so.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that kind of thing is not true you know…. Stop it―, senpai.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai showed a stiff smiling face. When the two separated themselves from Kaguya-senpai, they looked around the living room of the Witch’s Mansion in nostalgia and then their eyes stopped at Kazuki who was looking at the situation from a distance.<br /> <br /> “And, this boy is the rumored Chief Student Council President right? A male that entered the Magic Division, and then in one month he is already reigning as the Chief Student Council President that is connecting the Magic Division and the Sword Division. When I heard about it I thought whether if it was a joke or not.”<br /> <br /> “But however&lt;ref&gt;Not an error, she do speak like this&lt;/ref&gt; something like a Chief Student Council President is still too naïve! …This top of the highest grade third year Kanon is so to speak…a super student council president here―✩”<br /> <br /> “A former student council president though.” The adult-like woman entered her tsukkomi there sharply.<br /> <br /> “Nay, this Kanon-sama is a retired number&lt;ref&gt;Like when a football legend’s number was retired and no other person in the team can use it anymore&lt;/ref&gt; super idol student council president for sure―✩”<br /> <br /> “…It’s fine already, so stop blocking the entrance door, sit quickly! This trash!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei made her appearance from behind and then she kicked the butt of the small statured woman swiftly.<br /> <br /> Looked like Liz Liza-sensei was the one who was leading these two here.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Well then I’ll introduce myself once more. I was the vice student council president until last year, Yagumo Akane. Currently as a third year, I was training until yesterday at the Knight Order in Aichi regiment of Chubu jurisdiction division. …Our pitiful battle was completely relayed from the helicopter, now we are the most disgraced regiment in Japan as you can see.”<br /> <br /> The part of the great senior talked while releasing a powerless deep sigh in the living room.<br /> <br /> “Don’t beat yourself with that Yagumo, Chubu jurisdiction was not the only one who took flight.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei encouraged her from the side.<br /> <br /> “It’s lucky that the helicopter fell in the middle there! Because after that, the battle became really disastrous one-sidedly…. But the media crews that were on board the heli were able to escape✩”<br /> <br /> The one other great senpai talked with a lively smiling face.<br /> <br /> The both of them were in the actual location of that battle…so they took flight and escaped here.<br /> <br /> “And then I’m the one who was doing the student council president until last year, Koudzuki Kanon! I’m the same like Akane and was interning in Aichiregiment, the Ultra Super Deluxe former student council president! So you are the chief student council president Hayashizaki Kazuki?”<br /> <br /> This senpai also looked very bright in her behavior though tiredness was coloring her expression.<br /> <br /> “Yes, I’m Hayashizaki Kazuki who was appointed as the chief student council president. But I’m still a first year so…both of you are the senpai of my senpai aren’t you, Koudzuki-sempai and Yagumo-senpai.”<br /> <br /> “You can call me Akane-senpai. It’s puzzling if you are the only one who called me Yagumo when all the other children call me Akane. I want us unified. In exchange I will also call you Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> Yagumo-senpai revised as Akane-senpai talked with a cool tone. He couldn’t feel any shyness or the like from her about man and woman calling each other by their given name. It was a tone that only cared about the inefficiency of the information that entered her ear.<br /> <br /> “It’s also okay to call me Kanon-senpai! I and also you are a comrade of the Witch’s Mansion after all! …But chief student council president…a special post that didn’t exist in our time…gununu…”<br /> <br /> Even though at first Kanon-senpai directed a smiling face at Kazuki, immediately her eyes sharpened in a glare.<br /> <br /> “…I am invincible from east to west to south to north and to the center – the super former student council president, don’t you forget it!!”<br /> <br /> “Kanon, stop making up an incomprehensible title in antagonism. You are like a child like this.”<br /> <br /> “I, I’m not a child! The one who said someone else is a child is the child herself!”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, here is a tea.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai shared cups of tea on top of the tray she brought in turn starting from Kanon-senpai.<br /> <br /> “How nostalgic. Hikaru cannot do any other chores but, only in brewing black tea you are strictly disciplined like this.”<br /> <br /> “Right now Kazuki and the others are also skilled in making black tea though. But it has been a long time so I want to brew some.”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, so that’s it. You said a cute thing didn’t you, prince. …Yes, it’s really delicious.”<br /> <br /> For the first time Akane-senpai made a broad smile and showed a relaxed face.<br /> <br /> Kazuki spontaneously stared at her face from the side while drinking his tea. Long slit eyes and slender bridge of the nose. The black tea suited the intellectual and cool atmosphere of her side face.<br /> <br /> She had a similar atmosphere with Hikaru-senpai, but rather than calling her a prince she felt more like a [beautiful onee-sama&lt;ref&gt;Way of calling big sister very politely. Usually directed to high class or elegant lady&lt;/ref&gt;].<br /> <br /> “Pikarun don’t get it!? My taste is for a lot of jam and honey to be mixed you know!”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai was demanding while banging her palm *bam bam* on top of the table.<br /> <br /> “Yes of course. Here is a specially made Russian tea&lt;ref&gt;Russian tea often mixed with honey and jam, also lemon or sugar, according to wiki. I don’t really know cause I’m not Russian.&lt;/ref&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “Yahoo yahoo! This is the symbol of Pikaru in the tea time of the Witch’s Mansion✩ When I was in the Knight Order I didn’t want to be made fool by the other senior knight so I drank black coffee. But I really don’t know what is the thinking of those guys that keep drinking such bitter and smelly liquid.”<br /> <br /> “Everyone noticed that you forced yourself drinking that you know? It comes out in Kanon’s expression after all.” <br /> <br /> “Eh!? You lie, every time I drank it everyone were praising me ‘Kanon is so adult―’ right!?”<br /> <br /> “They were making fun of you with that you know.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai said it bluntly and coldly while drinking her tea.<br /> <br /> “Eh…lies…ugyaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> While screaming, Kanon-senpai ‘BATA―N!’ collapsed on the table face down.<br /> <br /> “…To, to be thought like that by them. I don’t want to face those guys anymore…”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai’s big and round eyes became teary-eyed with tears, with a glance she looked at Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “…Koyukin is really small just like usual huh―. You are more childish than even me. Fufun&lt;ref&gt;Like ‘hmph’. The sound someone made when they make a boast and seem to be pretty proud&lt;/ref&gt;.”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 192.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Now that she mentioned it Koyuki had been coming and going to the mansion since before she enrolled. She should be acquainted with these senpais.<br /> <br /> “Kanon-senpai too didn’t really change that much did you? Just because you received a shock, please don’t vent your anger on me who is two years your junior.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki counterattacked with cold scornful eyes. Kanon-senpai was “Mukii―! This impyertinent&lt;ref&gt;Not a typo&lt;/ref&gt; Koyukin kid―!!” and kicked around her feet under the table.<br /> <br /> “…First year of the Witch’s Mansion, an apprentice of the Witch’s Mansion, I’m Amasaki Mio.”<br /> <br /> With uncharacteristic meekness, Mio introduced herself while shrinking into herself.<br /> <br /> “Sword Division second year, Hayashizaki Kanae. I am the president of the Sword Division.” “Sword Division first year, Hikita Kohaku, vice president.”<br /> <br /> “Errr…for some reason I’m here in this place, Tsukahara Kazuha of the Sword Division second year, just a commoner.”<br /> <br /> Kanae and Kazuha-senpai were second years, but it seemed they were not really acquainted with these two great senpai.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu.” When all the members had finished their self-introduction, Akane-senpai suddenly leaked out a chuckle.<br /> <br /> “According to the rumor that is floating around, I heard that the chief student council president is popular with everyone. I wonder if everyone in this place is madly in love already? But if you’re not careful, the contraception nowadays is not as perfect as in the past after all.”<br /> <br /> “Wha!? Co, contraception or any…” Kazuki spontaneously hitched his breath.<br /> <br /> In the present era Japanese people, most of the young population was awakened as magician. Thereupon their magic power would be unconsciously invoked when they were doing an action that was filled with strong emotions, and accidents where it became a total hindrance to contraception had occurred repeatedly. The fact was that the power of love completely destroyed the undesired wall of contraception.<br /> <br /> From such reason the current era female put even more importance to their chastity compared to the previous era. Kazuki too had to have the awareness of self-control all the more because of this.<br /> <br /> “…If I am to have a child with Kazuki, then it doesn’t really…”<br /> <br /> Mio murmured vacantly with a boiling red face. In an instant, the Witch’s Mansion became as silent as a graveyard.<br /> <br /> “…Fufun, no matter how much popular you said this guy is, surely Kaguyan and Pikarun still liked this charismatic retired number, Kanon-chan far more, right✩”<br /> <br /> With a broad grin Kano-senpai directed a smile to Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> “”I like Kazuki better♡”” Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai matched their voices and gave instant answers.<br /> <br /> “You heartless bunch―!!” With ‘BATA―N’ Kanon-senpai collapsed.<br /> <br /> Ehem, Akane-senpai cleared her throat.<br /> <br /> “Well then, let’s moderate the digression of the talk and move on soon to the main problem.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “First I want to inform you all of the current situation. First with the fall of the Knight Order in Chubu jurisdiction, Toyama・Gifu・Aichi, the three prefectures are occupied and the east Japan and the west Japan are divided into two parts. The line that is drawn in the area that bordered these three prefectures is the military boundary line―in other words the substantial national border.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai spread out a map on top of the table, and then she traced the line she mentioned with her long finger smoothly.<br /> <br /> “It looks like Yamato is going to invade even further from now on toward Niigata – Nagano – Shizuoka. To prepare for that the east Japan’s battle strength have to be concentrated in the front line. However that action has become a difficult thing to do. Even now, illegal magicians are rampaging in many area of east Japan. Even though we managed to suppress them but our hand became completely full because of that.”<br /> <br /> “Loki’s troops are concealing themselves in east Japan and in order to obstruct us from concentrating our battle strength they are sporadically taking guerilla action, is that the gist of it?” Kazuki inquired.<br /> <br /> “Right, like that. They are working together systematically. Yamato declared that they won’t lay their hand on the general public, but we think these guerilla fighters are planning to feign ignorance as if it’s unrelated to them.”<br /> <br /> “That’s why we can’t ignore them. Concentrating the whole battle strength of east Japan in the front line…is something we cannot do. The guerilla fighters understand that and they are running around doing hit-and-away.”<br /> <br /> Taking the general public as hostages, the Knight Orders became unable to mobilize the entirety of their fighting strength.<br /> <br /> “On the other hand if you ask our current status, then we are a remnant of a defeated army. In the fight last night, the jurisdiction division commander was also captured as prisoner of war. Kanon then led everyone to escape until here as the temporary leader.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai explained the situation briskly, but doubt was surfacing in Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai’s face clearly.<br /> <br /> The student council’s staff of the Knight Academy was treated as an officer cadet in the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> Be that as it may, strictly speaking they were still nothing more than students, even with the jurisdiction division ‘s division commander captured normally it would be impossible for someone in that position to take the leader position.<br /> <br /> “…It’s a story that sound like a joke, however putting aside the top brass, Kanon is excessively well liked by the average senior knights. Maybe because they were saved from the time of pinch by Kanon’s cheerfulness, everyone is saying to make Kanon as the leader. In the first place we are just a division of the army’s remnant where there is no order at all.”<br /> <br /> “I’m beaten―, it’s really troublesome to be this popular―✩”<br /> <br /> “…She was also elected as the student council president at that time with that rhythm.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai murmured. Kanon-senpai pulled her surrounding with a mascot-like unifying power and then Akane-senpai solidified their position in the practical business side. He could picture it instantly and Kazuki nodded in understanding.<br /> <br /> “We are added in the defense of Nigata – Nagano – Shizuoka and we have to counterattack and recapture Chubu jurisdiction when we see a chance. However the battle strength of the defense army in the front line is insufficient with only us as addition. It would still take time for the other area to suppress the guerrillas before they could send reinforcement…. With that we took along one part of our comrades and came along to this academy without sleep.”<br /> <br /> “Without sleep…that’s why Kanon-senpai is more anno…high-tensioned than usual like this.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai fixed what she almost said in a purposeful manner. “Kaguyan youu―” Kanon-senpai made a fuss.<br /> <br /> “It’s just a joke, thank you for your hard work.”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, I’m not happy at all even if you suddenly change your attitude like that okayy✩”<br /> <br /> When Kaguya-senpai easily changed her attitude suddenly, Kanon-senpai grinned brightly in a happy way.<br /> <br /> “Akane-senpai, thank you for your hard work.” Hikaru-senpai thanked Akane-senpai with sincere expression.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, thank you. …So because of that reason this is the main topic. We want to make a request as a Quest for the Knight Academy to help us. We want to receive the favor for the elite Magika Stigmas and swordsmen of the Knight Academy led by the Chief Student Council President Hayashizaki Kazuki to be added to our force.”<br /> <br /> In short what Headmaster Amasaki said before about opening an extraordinary general student meeting was in the purpose of preparing for taking the application of the participants for this quest in large-scale.<br /> <br /> The students of the Knight Academy had also been experiencing real battle in the form of Quest until now, but the request this time was obviously in a different dimension than the [assistance] until now.<br /> <br /> They are asking for the students to participate in a [war] where even the real knights themselves had no experience for it.<br /> <br /> Currently the Knight Order was in a pressing crisis to the degree that they had to issue this request.<br /> <br /> “It might be difficult for students who are still halfway through the curriculum to take a disciplined tactical action. However it’s fortunate that a Chief Student Council President that united the Magic Division and the Sword Division was born in this kind of timing. If it’s you then you should be able to collect this academy into one unified group right?”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai directed a challenging smile at Kazuki’s way. Looked like Headmaster Amasaki had already acknowledged this request.<br /> <br /> There was no need for any worry, right now Kaya and former Board Chairman Takasugi were enemies that need to be defeated. The ideal that they crowed around was just something fake. That ghastly fake was going to swallow the people and [encroach] this country…..<br /> <br /> “Of course we will cooperate. I too think that we can’t stay like this.”<br /> <br /> “That’s good, it looks like a gallant person has been selected as the Chief Student Council President.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai whose expression was colored with exhaustion smiled cheerfully to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “However don’t make a misunderstanding, Chief Student Council President! Until the end the leader is this Charismatic Super Former Student Council President, the Koudzuki Kanon✩”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai faced Kazuki and winked while making a side peace- sign.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki stood in front of the mike and looked down from the stage on the students of the whole school who lined up in a row inside the auditorium.<br /> <br /> The sight was just like the sight of the few days ago. However right now, the meaning of this meeting had changed drastically from before.<br /> <br /> “I think, everyone has already known of what happened in west Japan yesterday. It is thought that the invasion of Yamato is still continuing, but because of the guerilla war that the illegal magicians conducted repeatedly in many areas, the Knight Order is unable to concentrate their battle strength for the sake of counterattack. Accordingly the Knight Order issued a request directed for the high ranked students of our Knight Academy in the shape of Quest for participation in war.”<br /> <br /> Even though he was in the middle of speaking, the students were making a stir.<br /> <br /> “This is similar with a normal quest where it depends on the discretionary of the students, by no way this is a forced conscription to be a soldier. And then it become something that is followed with scale, difficulty, and danger in different degree compared to the usual quest. Nevertheless we are pressed by circumstance for applicants to form an independent corps in a scale that is only possible for this Knight Academy. Perhaps you are still in a panic from this sudden development and your heart is still not prepared, but the training that we piled up day after day until now are supposed for the purpose of standing against this kind of difficulty. Those people who are not merely panicking, but also finding a spark of heated desire inside them wishing to challenge this difficulty, please volunteer for this quest without fail.”<br /> <br /> Heated applause was occurring provoked by those words. Then he passed the stage to Headmaster Amasaki.<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki explained the conditions and rewards for volunteering.<br /> <br /> Conditions ― to prevent student who didn’t have sufficient strength and experience to become volunteer soldier, application was limited only for students within certain rank and quest accomplishment.<br /> <br /> Let alone the first year students of the Magic Division who had experience participating in Quest, even the number of students who had finally succeeded in contracting with their Diva and could not even chant level 1 magic was not few.<br /> <br /> Rewards ― the usual Quest was purely for the sake of rank up evaluation, but if the quest this time achieved a success then the Knight Order itself would record their conspicuous effort.<br /> <br /> In another words this was not for the sake of rank up evaluation but for the sake of their future evaluation.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki awakened their passion, Headmaster Amasaki’s explanation awakened the calm prudence in the auditorium.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “The list of the volunteers is complete.”<br /> <br /> Saying so, Yumeno-san handed out the print-out. The data consolidation was performed by the newspaper committee members. Seeing their dedication even in something that was not included in their original work, Kazuki returned a word of thanks.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, was it difficult?”<br /> <br /> The cramped student council room had been transformed into operation headquarter. Everyone was gathering here.<br /> <br /> “Not at all…approximately 150 people were signing up, so if everyone cooperated than it’s only to that extent.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki looked at the data briefly. The proportion between the Magika Stigma and the swordsmen were around 1:2. In the first place the number of students in the Sword Division was a lot more, that ratio was more or less the ratio of students between the divisions.<br /> <br /> 150 people―it was a fair number to form an independent corps that could move freely.<br /> <br /> The battle force of the Knight Order, that is the &lt;Knight&gt; was roughly numbered around 2400 people in total. With the number of student that graduated from the Knight Academy was in total 300 people in one year, because the active duty period of the Knight was from 18-25 years old where they would enter the peak of their magic power after 8 years, the number became like this every year.<br /> <br /> Those 2400 people were assigned at eight jurisdiction zones that were Hokkaido – Tohoku – Kantoukoushin’etsu – Chubu – Kinki – Chugoku – Shikoku – Kyuushuu. There was difference in numbers according to the jurisdiction zone, but there were around 300 personnel in one jurisdiction zone. This was the &lt;Division&gt;.<br /> <br /> Below that jurisdiction zone division, a &lt;regiment&gt; was placed in each prefecture. This regiment was mostly in the scale below 100 people. And below that regiment existed the smallest unit of &lt;platoon&gt; where it consisted of several people each.<br /> <br /> …A military force of 2400 people strong on the whole, if it was compared with the military in the era where there was no magic it was a really small scale force. To start with the reason of this was first because humans who could use Summoning Magic was limited, and also because only a select few of elite swordsmen were chosen. The quality was far more important than a mere number.<br /> <br /> And then the second reason that was raised was because there was no other branch of the army except the two categories of Magika Stigma and swordsman. The modern weapons that need colossal resources to be transported and consumed while fighting didn’t exist anymore. The supply needed at worst was only meal and water to suffice. Even those supplies, if the grass was changed to become edible or dirty water was changed into drinkable water using alchemy to procure supply locally, there was many ways to compensate.<br /> <br /> Everything was fine as long as the combat force itself arrived, personnel needed for weapons repair and supply was not needed at all.<br /> <br /> …Such thing, even Kazuki had learned around that much in class.<br /> <br /> Manufacturing weapons for the people’s general mobilization and conscripting a great number of general public as soldier, and yet most of those personnel were driven into maintenance control of weapons rather actual fighting, brandishing those fossilized weapons and conducting &lt;all-out war&gt; like the time of World War. If the current era was compared to that old time, this compactness felt like they were returned to the ancient times of their ancestor. No, in fact, they really had returned to the time of their ancestor.<br /> <br /> Deciding the outcome of battle not by weapon but by hero―like the war in the era of mythology.<br /> <br /> “Is Yumeno-san volunteering too?” Inside the list, Kazuki found the girl’s name too.<br /> <br /> “Yes…it’s a little scary but, I’m worried.”<br /> <br /> “What you mean by worried is, by any chance…”<br /> <br /> “My parent’s home is in Kyoto.”<br /> <br /> From Kazuki’s side, Kohaku too leaked out an empathic voice to Yumeno-san.<br /> <br /> “…This one too is from Kyushu. It’s too far and the situation there is the hardest to grasp. As expected it make one feels a little worried.”<br /> <br /> Regardless of how dangerous this quest was, a lot of the students’ reason to gather and volunteer was also because of this. The Knight Academy gathered the students from the whole country―what would happen to the west Japan, many of the students’ heart were crushed with feeling of anxiety.<br /> <br /> “Yosh, the volunteers had been gathered with this.”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai and Akane-senpai came along to the student council room.<br /> <br /> Behind them several female wearing the Knight Order uniform were also following along in succession.<br /> <br /> One person among them was, “Never thought I’ll be going back to the Knight Academy in this shape” and laughed ironically.<br /> <br /> “From among the people that escaped together with us, the third years that are in the middle of training also want to come together. Because everyone said that they want to come back to the Knight Academy after so long. Though let’s omit the introduction.”<br /> <br /> “Ee―, that’s really mean Akanee―! Even though I also want to become acquainted with Chief President-san!”<br /> <br /> After one person raised their voice, the whole third years started to make a ruckus ‘kya kya’.<br /> <br /> “Awe―some! There is really a male wearing the uniform of the Magic Division!” “He really look better than those swordsmen of the Knight Order!” “So unfair Otonashi Kaguya! It should be more effective if you are the one that is in the field so switch with me!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki faltered from the impolite gazes of the girls. Seeing that they immediately “He is shyy―!” and such voices were raised. They were two years older than him so they felt like an older lady to him for the most part and it made him felt timid.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, a timid Kazuki is so cute. It make me want to hug him and break his neck…”<br /> <br /> Mixed with the high pitched voice of the third year girls…he could hear a voice that said strange words in a deep voice.<br /> <br /> “Eh?” Thinking it was strange he directed his gaze at the direction of the voice. There at the end of the line of the third years who were wearing white knight order uniforms, three woman wearing black Einherjar uniform were secretly coming along. The third years seemingly not noticing them were “Eh, no way, what is this person say…” and got startled.<br /> <br /> “Who, who are you…” Kanon-senpai asked timidly with eyes as if she was seeing a degenerate.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, I am…Beatrix-chan!”<br /> <br /> “…Hey, why is the captain recently, she got so crazy about adding ‘chan’ to her own name?”<br /> <br /> “She learned that in Japan a cute girl had ‘chan’ added after their name…it seems she is planning to appeal as a cute girl like this.”&lt;ref&gt;Damian also talked like a thug and Eleonora talked with polite language.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Behind Beatrix, Damian and Eleonora were exchanging conversation in secret.<br /> <br /> “Cute girl? Isn’t the captain could be mistaken as a wild gorilla…”<br /> <br /> “FUNN!” Beatrix visited a lariat on Damian, that small statured body was blown away until the end of the corridor. …Kazuki was not looking at that pleasant exchange.<br /> <br /> “Beatrix, why are you here…”<br /> <br /> “I heard that you are forming a unit to counterattack the revolting west Japan see. Because of that we who have no ties of obligation the most and can move freely are the one that get dispatched at the foremost. And also…Loki is in the west Japan right? He is most likely there.<br /> <br /> “We are not hearing about any of this though?” Akane-senpai questioned Beatrix in detail with a sullen expression.<br /> <br /> “We are going on ahead and coming here where the movement speed will be faster rather than waiting for those slow procedure in the Knight Order got finished. Fufufu, though there is also me wanting to see Kazuki’s shocked face that made me hurrying here.”<br /> <br /> “Don’t take every single one of your action with the purpose of making me shocked. It really made me get surprised.”<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki’s eye, a magic vision that could only be seen by Kazuki floated.<br /> <br /> Beatrix―72 Damian―27 Eleonora―22<br /> <br /> …Positivity level. It was temporary, but it was a display of proof that they were becoming a comrade that was going to fight together with the King of Solomon. There was also a case like this where Kaya’s positivity level appeared temporarily in his vision.<br /> <br /> …However 72. This was already a positivity level where he could use her magic until level 2.<br /> <br /> “I think they can be trusted, Akane-senpai. Loki who is included in Yamato’s force is also a sworn enemy for them after all. I have no doubt that they will become an important war potential.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? Well, if you said so.”<br /> <br /> “Fuu―nn…well, isn’t it fine if they are strong? So then what are we going to do after this? Akane?”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai looked back at Yagumo-senpai and tilted her head.<br /> <br /> “We will organize these 150 volunteers as &lt;Knight Academy regiment&gt;. First we are going to compose platoons with the high ranked students as the platoon captain.”<br /> <br /> Pushing out her face from Yumeno-san’s side, Akane-senpai peered into Yumeno-san’s PC screen.<br /> <br /> “Let’s make 15 platoon of ten people. Otonashi Kaguya, Hoshikaze Hikaru, Hayashizaki Kanae, and Hikita Kohaku, these four people will establish four or five platoon each as company commanders. Even further above than this four people, Hayashizaki Kazuki will stand as the regimental commander.”<br /> <br /> “I see, and then even higher than him is me right✩”<br /> <br /> An orderly organization chart rose to the fore in Kazuki’s head. With organization then the communication of order would also become smoother.<br /> <br /> “The Einherjar too, they will follow Hayashizaki Kazuki as one platoon.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki’s subordinate? Just as I wish!” Beatrix gave a broad smile happily.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya, Kanae-san, choose high ranked powerful students that have leadership quality from inside this list as platoon captain and form the platoons. As soon as the formation is over, we are going to head to Shizuoka garrison. Because we left behind the 200 strong soldiers that escaped together with us in Shizuoka.”<br /> <br /> What she meant by garrison was the location where the soldiers were stationed. The word ‘base’ fitted Kazuki’s image more, but the word ‘base’ indicated a place that was equipped with particular modern facilities of the navy and the air force and the like. In regards to that, the force that the army was using didn’t need any special facility and had mobile position, that was why it was called garrison. In the era where the magicians became the main force of war, a fixed base was mostly unneeded and garrison basically became the main position of the army.<br /> <br /> “200 people…is it?”<br /> <br /> From the military force of 1200 people in the west Japan, only a sixth of that force was able to escape to east Japan.<br /> <br /> Looking at Kazuki whose thought came out in his expression, Akane-senpai looked down as if feeling a responsibility in this.<br /> <br /> “With Chubu jurisdiction captured at the foremost, the archipelago was divided into parts completely. Because of that the knights that were fighting even further west than Chubu jurisdiction were unable to escape to east Japan. If only we could hold out more, we would be able to make a path of retreat however…”<br /> <br /> “However it’s not like the remaining 1000 people were all captured as prisoner of war. Even if they couldn’t escape to east Japan, they went into hiding at town and became resistances that still continue to fight even now. There should be many knights that are like that there! The one who is commencing guerilla war is not only that side!!”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai talked with bright voice to raise hope. Hearing that Akane-senpai raised her face.<br /> <br /> “Most likely there are still some sporadic fighting continuing even now in west Japan, the enemy too cannot concentrate their battle strength. If not for that then Shizuoka was supposed to have fallen already.”<br /> <br /> The illegal magicians that were being guerilla fighters in east Japan, the resistance activities of the scattered knights in west Japan. The shape of the war had became where the two sides mutually obstructed the opponent from concentrating their battle strength with some nuisance.<br /> <br /> “The remnants soldier and the Knight Academy regiment...so to speak &lt;Kanon independent brigade&gt; that is 350 strong in total, this is how much battle strength we can gather from east Japan…that total amount will become the battle strength for counter attack, we…”<br /> <br /> After talking until that far with commanding voice, Akane-senpai’s head nodded off. The senpai who was peering at the PC screen from the side just like that collapsed down on top of Yumeno-san powerlessly.<br /> <br /> “Akane! Are you okay!?” Kanon-senpai supported that body in panic.<br /> <br /> “…Sorry, I’m okay. I only feel a little lightheaded…”<br /> <br /> “Everyone is working nonstop without eating and drinking, but because you burdened yourself as if it’s only your fault…. Sorry, Knight Academy’s people, in any event we are going to depart after taking just a little rest in the academy. Really just for a little.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly looked at the clock. Just in right timing, now it was already the lunch break.<br /> <br /> “Then…Kanon-senpai! I’m going to make some meals that will make you energetic!”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai stared in wonder. “That…is not the job of the Chief Student Council President right?”<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> Without any sound or vibration, a frame with streamlined shape that emitted blue light left behind the scenery outside the window.<br /> <br /> Using the new metal born from alchemy, &lt;Mythril&gt; abundantly, the &lt;Magic Light Train&gt; ran by receiving assistance of Psychokinesis. Because of how rare mythril was even now, this train was never operated except when it was operated for trial by the staff privately.<br /> <br /> But the rare mythril was prioritized to be circulated for the Knight Order, so [magic light train for military use] covered the whole country from Hokkaido until Kyushu. War road for military use was spread out running parallel with civilian’s Shinkansen&lt;ref&gt;Bullet train&lt;/ref&gt;. It could transport the knights to the major cities throughout the whole country with capacity easily surpassing 1000 people.<br /> <br /> There was also criticism on the military’s monopoly on mythril, but an efficient transportation method was essential for the Knight Order that was few in number to deal with all the incidents throughout the whole country of Japan.<br /> <br /> The total of 150 Knight Academy students that was led by Kanon-senpai too settled themselves comfortably and headed to Shizuoka garrison. There was no noise, no need to decelerate the speed in curve, using the special characteristic of magic light train of always roughly putting out its full speed to its best, even the distance between Tokyo-Shizuoka wouldn’t take more than one hour.<br /> <br /> “We will arrive at Shizuoka soon after this. Let’s soak at Atsumi’s hot spring―✩”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai raised a cheer, they had arrived at Shizuoka before they even realized it.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The Knight Order’s garrison at Shizuoka was a building that was once called Shizuoka prefectural police headquarters that had been expanded and remodeled. Once they disembarked the military train, the building was located in an immediate distance from the station just by walking.<br /> <br /> After passing through a bombastic entrance made from stone, they were greeted with splendid buildings that were equipped with transmission tower and the like lining up, but in contrast with that splendidness they couldn’t feel any human presence anywhere in the area.<br /> <br /> “Right now this place has been completely deserted. The main force of Shizuoka regiment had moved to the west prefectural border…in other words the area close to the military demarcation line with Yamato. There they had already set a temporary front line garrison and transfered there. It’s for the sake of defense. It’s just that we have to follow a track to reach there, so we are going to change into bus here.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai explained briskly while leading Kazuki and the others to the destination. Cars and buses for military use were lined up at a huge parking lot. If it was in the olden era then this place would be used to deploy tank or armored vehicle without doubt, but against magician, the shells of tank and armor of armored car were nothing more than a pointless expense cost.<br /> <br /> Vehicle was not a method of battle but merely a means of transportation for knights.<br /> <br /> Because of that reason these military use cars and buses that were lining up here had almost no difference with the passenger vehicle of civilian.<br /> <br /> “Car is well used to assist us dealing with the incident within the prefecture, but it’s the first time for me to use the bus.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai whispered. It means that a big incident that needed to collect and transport a lot of knights had never happened until now.<br /> <br /> There was a driver that had been already in standby at the driver seat. The driver was not a specialist in magic battle but he seemed to belong under the rear support unit. He was a little older compared to the usual knight. Magic power declined at the peak of 20 years old. The knight who had reached a certain age and even more didn’t manage to get promoted until management class would be reassigned to the rear support unit like this.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and the others was pushed inside the rustic military bus that was painted in olive drab color traditional since the time of Self Defense Force until they were packed tightly. They couldn’t possibly wish for a comfortable ride like the train that they had just ridden before this. This uncomfortable ride really made them felt the [sense of the actual scene] of the Knight Order’s work. The number of words the students spoke started to lessen naturally.<br /> <br /> Divided separately into four buses, Kazuki and the others headed to the military boundary line.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Oh my, Kazuki. How pleasant it is to be able ride near you. I can’t help but feel a destined throbbing in my chest.”<br /> <br /> Inside the bus that was packed tight like a crowded train, Miyabi-senpai was there in a distance where their bodies were in a distance of touching each other.<br /> <br /> “…Looks like the men of the Sword Division were provided with exclusive bus for man and got crammed there, but you could ride with this bus aren’t you? Fufuu, so this is the benefit of being a swordsman of the Magic Division.”<br /> <br /> “There was a different bus for that? They were saying that it’s okay to just ride this bus and I was pushed inside from my back.”<br /> <br /> “There are only girls that will welcome to get jam packed together with you here you know?”<br /> <br /> “…That’s not true. I don’t welcome you here.”<br /> <br /> A quiet voice came from beside Miyabi-senpai. It was Shinobu-senpai.<br /> <br /> “So Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai also volunteered.”<br /> <br /> “For the moment, we believe that we are quite powerful even among the upperclassman. It’s not like there is no such laudable feeling inside me that want to fight for the world and for the people. Fufufu.”<br /> <br /> After chuckling refreshingly, she added one more thing. “Moreover, our hometown is also under occupation.”<br /> <br /> So Miyabi-senpai was also from west Japan.<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai had a past where she was persecuted by her surrounding because she became an elf. Miyabi-senpai and others who were in the generation of [the first elves] should have been oppressed even more severely than Koyuki.<br /> <br /> Such senpai was talking about her feeling of her hometown…was surely the proof that she had overcame her past and let the bygone be bygone. Even though her words of [for the world and for the people] were mixed with joking tone, but he could also feel the nobility in it.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine even if that kind of place got totally destroyed.”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 210.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> But Shinobu-senpai murmured such words vacantly.<br /> <br /> “Don’t say such thing like it’s okay for something to get completely destroyed Shinobu. With the passing of time, the feeling of ourselves and our surrounding will also change and we might be able to think that maybe we could just let it go, isn’t that so? If something got destroyed then that’s the end of it you know?”<br /> <br /> In fact, the discrimination against elf was thinning as the years went by. It was because of the conjecture from telepathy scan that the elf’s mind structure had no difference at all with normal human, and also elves that became knight cadet capitalizing in their excellent trait in magic power or becoming famous as young alchemist had began to appear here and there.<br /> <br /> The product of human experiment―such truth still hadn’t been made public to the society, but a part of the politicians that knew the truth influenced the mass media, and indirectly began to form the public opinion to protect the human right of these elf. From now on their situation would surely become better gradually.<br /> <br /> Although she was not the person concerned herself, Shinobu-senpai also had a past that deserved her resentment. It seemed that resentment didn’t simply fade however….<br /> <br /> “…There is nothing that changed. Whether the surrounding bunches, or my feeling…”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai rejected all change. Even the fact that Miyabi-senpai transformed into an elf had not been recognized by her. Inside Shinobu-senpai’s eyes, it seemed she was seeing Miyabi-senpai with black hair.<br /> <br /> Reality denial―even in the case where the truth was really obvious, if accepting that truth caused a great uneasiness then that person would reject accepting that truth, it was that kind of mental state.<br /> <br /> “You said that nothing changed, don’t you feel a locked up feeling that choked your breath from that unchanged situation?”<br /> <br /> “!” Against Kazuki’s question, Shinobu-senpai’s expression tightened rigidly with hollowness somewhere in it, then she glared at Kazuki. From the side, Miyabi-senpai embraced Shinobu-senpai’s face in her arms.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki, thank you. This child even now should be feeling it still. Also for a person to think of us and talked this much, in this ten odd years you are the first…”<br /> <br /> “…Nee-sama, please don’t say such irresponsible things! This kind of guy is nothing!!”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai separated herself from Miyabi-senpai’s hand and tried to take distance from Kazuki. However she crashed against other students inside the cramped bus making “Wait” troubled voice coming at her.<br /> <br /> “…If it’s not because Nee-sama is participating then I’m not going to participate in this kind of Quest. To get stuffed inside stuffy air like this…”<br /> <br /> “Please be patient.” Miyabi-senpai attempted to sooth Shinobu-senpai and embraced her head once more.<br /> <br /> From there she moved her gaze outside the window.<br /> <br /> “I’m looking forward to this. To fight as a knight, as a hero, like that.”<br /> <br /> The early afternoon sunlight coming from outside was reflected at Miyabi-senpai’s moist red eyes in a glisten.<br /> <br /> “…If I make conspicuous service in this Quest, then this me who is an elf, will be thanked by everyone…such thing might also happen don’t you think so?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuki too looked at outside the window. Shizuoka west side―according to the signboard content that they just passed they were approaching the area around the Hamamatsu city. However the grave-like silence that was really unnatural didn’t show any sign of people.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai who was standing beside the driver seat opened her mouth. <br /> <br /> “The residents in the vicinity of the military boundary line has already been evacuated. This area has been emptied. Because we won’t know what kind of damage will happen if the other side invaded and it turned into defensive battle.”<br /> <br /> These urban areas might transform into a battlefield, it made Kazuki ponder once more. How much damage would come out in the coming battle? Even the public houses and the like might get toppled like domino from offensive magic.<br /> <br /> If Yamato really came invading, they would surely march to the garrison aiming for the Knight Order there. Exterminating the knights – making them retreat with their defensive ability lost, all for the sake of completing the occupation.<br /> <br /> Where should the knights meet the enemies? Should they have unfolded the border war at the military boundary line, or should they hole in the garrison and brought the battle into a siege battle, or else to reduce the damage to the surrounding should they lure the enemy skillfully outside the urban areas?<br /> <br /> In this magic war where everything was still an unknown area, tactics that could be called as established tactics didn’t exist.<br /> <br /> Suddenly the bus stepped on the emergency brake, the jam packed students staggered and pitched forward as if to fall.<br /> <br /> When he peeked at the front glass far at the front wondering if something happened, four or five man and woman carrying large baggage on their shoulders were walking this way from the opposite side of the road that was supposed to be empty from people.<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai disembarked from the bus and walked approaching those people and said a few words.<br /> <br /> After senpai nodded with ‘uh-huh” listening to the people she returned. Then she explained the circumstances to the students.<br /> <br /> “…Looks like people that got delayed in evacuating. Surely they have a lingering attachment to their city and home and didn’t leave until the last minute. Even if they rebuild their home again, the memories cannot be recovered after all…”<br /> <br /> Thanks to alchemy, construction cost for house and building and road and the like could be suppressed far cheaper than the previous era. Actually, with Kazuki’s fight against Loki and the final match of battle election, the fountain plaza had been destroyed twice, however he had witnessed how it was immediately repaired just like before it was destroyed.<br /> <br /> However people who couldn’t feel good even though the broken thing was returned back into a brand new article existed in great number in society.<br /> <br /> After seeing off those men and women passing through beside the bus, they departed once more.<br /> <br /> ―After that, for a while some similar occurrences happened a few more times. When they had advanced just for a little, they would immediately encounter some people that were in the middle of evacuation. Just like the first encounter Kanon-senpai would get down from the bus and listen to their story one by one, but gradually the bus kept advancing forward without stopping even when they encountered more people without confirming each and everyone of the refugees.<br /> <br /> “…There are quite a lot aren’t they, these people that are late in evacuating.”<br /> <br /> While pressing close to Kazuki more than she needed to inside the bus that was jam packed like a sardine, Miyabi-senpai whispered on his ears. Certainly there was a lot. Even though the people who were evacuating didn’t necessarily need to use this road, they kept running into almost dozens of people in total here and there.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuki-oniisan!” Suddenly he heard a panicked voice, Lotte pushed her way through the jam packed bus and ran to Kazuki’s way. “What is it?” Kazuki embraced the girl.<br /> <br /> “…It was the people who were evacuating just before, but it was from inside the bus so I cannot really perceive it clearly and I don’t have much confidence on it desu but…”<br /> <br /> Lotte prefaced her talk that she didn’t really have any confidence in what she was going to say, but as if she had conviction in the feeling that she harbored, anxiety and trepidation came to the surface in her expression.<br /> <br /> “Those people from before…harbored hostility toward this bus desu.”<br /> <br /> ―Lotte was a prodigy in telepathy. Even without exchanging words, the girl could perceive the emotion of the people around her. …Hostility, she said? The refugees? Was it from how they had to evacuate so they harbored dissatisfaction toward the Knight Order? That was stupid.<br /> <br /> …Then were they enemies? Were they secretly passing through the border and coming to this side for the sake of taking guerilla action inside east Japan? No, for dozens of sleeper agent to pass through the same route should be unconceivable.<br /> <br /> Their aim was…to take the rear of the bus.<br /> <br /> “Kanon-senpai! The refugees just now…!” Kazuki who became aware tried to call out in a loud voice but,<br /> <br /> ―Even earlier than him, Akane-senpai yelled some words in high emergency.<br /> <br /> “Kanon! Magic power reaction from the front!! …Offense magic is coming!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki whose attention was taken by his talk with Lotte noticed it too late. Magic power spring forth from further ahead in the road, it swell out as if rupturing―magic was invoked!<br /> <br /> Several fire ball and rock came flying from the road ahead. One moment, the front glass of the bus looked like a screen of a shooting game. However they couldn’t evade like in a game. The fireball impacted the front side of the bus, the bursting heat and shockwave fused the glass and armor. Right there many rocks were launched one after another, easily penetrating into the inside.<br /> <br /> “The driver’s protection-!!” Kanon-senpai yelled.<br /> <br /> Fire ball with explosion nature got into the inside of the bus, the bus was blown up and pulverized.<br /> <br /> Inside the blast explosion of the smashed apart bus frame, countless blue light of the students were shining. Just from having their vehicles blown out and got thrown outside wouldn’t grant any damage to magicians who were protected by defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> But, their head fell into chaos―the students who were thrown onto the street couldn’t grasp the situation at all, they looked around restlessly in confusion while being enveloped in blue light inside the flame and smoke. And then from behind, of all things that could happen the following buses send the students flying. Those buses were also poured with offensive magic from the front and went through the same fate with the first bus.<br /> <br /> “Form the Heaven and Earth Formation!” Akane-senpai yelled with desperate voice.<br /> <br /> However the movements of the panicked students were dull.<br /> <br /> Furthermore angry roar and footstep of a charge that was as if an earthquake was happening came from the road further ahead.<br /> <br /> What came was several dozens of &lt;swordmen&gt;. Young people with common clothing like shirt and parka were charging this way holding Japanese katana in hand―Yamato’s army!<br /> <br /> “Sword Division unit! Follow me!!” Kanae immediately reacted, she charged the enemy while yelling. “It’s okay not to think of anything, anyway just come with me!!”<br /> <br /> Hearing that voice, the students of the Sword Division finally recovered from their confusion. A simple principle―remembering that it was fine to just follow the Sword Division’s strongest student council president blindly, they chased after her back.<br /> <br /> Swordsmen and swordsmen clashed against each other. The sound of blades clashing informed the start of the engagement.<br /> <br /> Yamato’s swordsmen were merely ordinary people with slightly stronger magic power that got incited by the politicians. When compared with the students of the Sword Division, they could even be said as a disorderly mob.<br /> <br /> However the enemy’s rear guard―Yamato’s Magika Stigmas launched offensive magic one after another, the Sword Division students were blown away without even any time to bring the fight into a match of sword.<br /> <br /> The Magika Stigmas’ of Yamato chanted their Summoning Magic while being possessed by their Diva.<br /> <br /> The chanting time of this &lt;{{furigana|Drive|Possession Summoning}}&gt; was short.<br /> <br /> The students of the Magic Division had to support the swordsmen of the Sword Division.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai yelled her command to the Magic Division students who were still in a state of chaos.<br /> <br /> “The students of the Magic Division come forward, chant defensive magic and low level magic to restrain the enemy!”<br /> <br /> They had to come forward for the sake of confirming the enemy figure by sight so they could invoke the Summoning Magic. If they didn’t settle the enemy into the &lt;magic perception range&gt; then the Summoning Magic couldn’t be chanted.<br /> <br /> Summoning Magic that was borrowing the power of Diva need the [recognition] of the Diva of [for what their strength would be used] by transmitting those intent in the shape of spell. Only by earning those [recognition] the Summoning Magic could be invoked. For the sake of that, first the Magika Stigma needed to perceive the enemy’s existence clearly, and then they had to transmit the will to defeat that enemy to the Diva.<br /> <br /> They had to catch the figure of the enemy. The students of the Magic Division advanced through the road that was still smoldering with smoke attempting to ascertain the enemy’s sign while being protected by the frontline swordsmen.<br /> <br /> And then they were [sighting] the illegal magicians of Yamato. Their bodies were dressed uniformly with Japanese style Magic Dress and they were accompanied with what seemed to be the avatars of Japanese Mythology’s Divas at their side.<br /> <br /> The students of the Magic Division were also starting their chanting all at once.<br /> <br /> “Burnt to ashes of all you touch…o scorching heat of rejection without any place to depend on! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> “First we start from hardening our defense right? …Mirror oh mirror, lop off the gaze of unsightly person and their craving hand! {{furigana|Moon Ring – Mirror Field|Mirror Shield of Moon Circle}}!!”<br /> <br /> “Hmph. …Thy wing bestowed by Belphegor, o &lt;ice pillar of flame&gt;! Cover and hide us, become the contradiction wall of irrationality! Cross Conflict!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki, also Miyabi-senpai and Shinobu-senpai attached defensive magic on the swordsmen.<br /> <br /> “Dancing wing scattered sparks. Lingering wind of spiral, become a life gouging bullet! Flap and shoot! Barrett!!”<br /> <br /> “O nihility of ancient times, become a freezing deep sigh that reside in the vacuum of this chest. To the flowing absolute silence, freeze and be silent…Glacier Wind!!”<br /> <br /> “O gryphon crossing over the ocean, cause the wind of north pole with that wings well up the overturning rough wave…Northern Wave!”<br /> <br /> Mio and Koyuki, also a great number of students invoked their attack magic with great urgency.<br /> <br /> Defense and offense of magic had started. The enemies offensive magic were blocked by this side’s defensive magic, this side’s offensive magic blown away the enemy’ swordsman sporadically. Caught by the raging wave of magic, the swordsmen were tossed about.<br /> <br /> …This was inefficient. Kazuki noticed. Conflicting elemental magic like ice and flame were launched at the same time without any prior thought and interfered with each other, weakening its power.<br /> <br /> It might be good to divide the platoons of Magica Stigma in accordance with each element of magic that they used.<br /> <br /> “Third years are to prepare high level magic! We are going to catch the whole herd in one throw!!”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai took the command of the battle, the third years was being protected at the very back and began their chanting.<br /> <br /> Looking at that situation, Kazuki was “This is bad” and remembered.<br /> <br /> “Akane-senpai! The rear is dangerous, the refugees from before might not be actually refugees!!”<br /> <br /> “…What do you say!?” Akane-senpai directed an uncomprehending expression at him.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki yelled, it was the same time with the sounds of angry yells and charging footsteps from behind.<br /> <br /> When he turned back―from the back too, swordsmen of Yamato in casual clothing holding Japanese katana were approaching with the momentum of surging waves. It was the people that they saw off from inside the bus passing through them. They pretended to be refugees and hid Japanese katana inside their baggage, and then after choosing the best timing they turned back―for the sake of taking the back of the Heaven and Earth Formation.<br /> <br /> …The third years who were completely defenseless in the middle of chanting were aimed. Akane-senpai went pale.<br /> <br /> “Sword Division students, go back to the rear too! From the back too enemies are…!!”<br /> <br /> But the swordsmen were also in the middle of fighting the enemies right in front of their eyes while being exposed under offensive magic, they couldn’t possibly do such thing like turning their back. Besides to only pick one portion of the best swordsmen in a hurry to be allocated as rear guard in a good balance, executing such detailed order without any previous arrangement was impossible.<br /> <br /> Whether they heard Akane-senpai’s instruction or not, not even one of the swordsmen was moving in reaction of that command.<br /> <br /> The one who reacted in the place of that was Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Beatrix, come with me!”<br /> <br /> Not as a swordsman but as a magic swordsman, he would swing his sword. At the same time, {{furigana|he called on a comrade he could rely on|• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •}}.&lt;ref&gt;In the raw sometimes there is these dots placed on top of a sentence or word. I still don’t fully understand the meaning of placing these dots, but I think it’s to indicate that there is something not quite right with the sentence or the words. As this sentence show, calling Beatrix as a trusted comrade is quite iffy.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, add [chan] when you are calling my name! Fuhahahaha…I will do a good fight, welcoming a good death, and hope to participate in even more battle of heaven! Divine protection of blood color in my eye! Berserk!!”<br /> <br /> “It’s a melee, just bring it on zee! …We act in accordance of Hodur’s wish, entrust the exaltation of battle in our body too! The blood and fat running in my sword the wartime fire of fury!! Stories Flame!”<br /> <br /> “I have to do close quarter battle too? …O billowing stormy sea, envelop my hand and become the whip that lashed at small thing! {{furigana|Flöte Schlange|Undulating Sea Snake}}!!”<br /> <br /> Each one of the Einherjars who had close-range combat specialization went along behind Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “I reach my hand to the height of Babel and become suppressor! In accordance with my life o lightning, praise the foolhardiness of the human race! Blitzkrieg!!”<br /> <br /> “O unrivaled master, perform once more from beyond the dream! Along with the flame of transmutation, liberate the locked memory inside the silver mirror right here!! Kenki Tensei!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte too equipped her electromagnetic lightning and followed after Kazuki, Kazuha-senpai summoned the phantom of swordsmen, “Kanamaki Jisai, Yoshioka Kenbou, Miyamoto Munisai, go!” she directed him toward the enemy.<br /> <br /> “Just a mob of swordsmen, I’m going to test just how much resolve you all has in challenging us…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too, she plunged alone into the crowd of the swordsmen.<br /> <br /> “…No hesitation even when thy curse also wound me…shared pain is my great joy! Cry and scream in the mirror reflection! Suicide Black!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s figure was covered with black haze. The swordsmen of Yamato swung down their katana all at once at Kaguya-senpai―the scream from the reflected agony reverberated.<br /> <br /> “O the god of death’s whispering voice tired of waiting for the visitor, resound widely and deeply, dye the dream with agony! Resound o evil sound of sadism! Ultra Violence!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai made the evil voice of Ultra Violence resounding. The swordsmen of Yamato were writhing around and lost their will to fight. He didn’t know for what purpose these bunches were added to the force of Yamato, but they didn’t have any determination that could make them fight with Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> The close-range combat capability of Kazuki and the others pushed back the disorderly mob of the swordsmen. The worst damage of having the rear that was in the middle of chanting got interrupted was averted, the third years breathed a sigh of relief and they got carried by a calm atmosphere.<br /> <br /> The students had completely recovered from the mayhem and began to make a comeback in the battle progress.<br /> <br /> However…was it fine to go like this.<br /> <br /> The leading actor who was the first to protect the third years Kazuki harbored an out of place feeling inside his heart.<br /> <br /> Performing an ambush at Kanon independent brigade that was made of the students of the Knight Academy when they were going to link up at Shizuoka as added reinforcement. And then the surprise attack by posing as refugees and circling to their back. That pincer attack tactics.<br /> <br /> This tactic, it was impossible to be realized without the enemy inferring beforehand that today Kanon-senpai would pass through this road in exactly this time. Moreover this enemy force passed through the military boundary line that was supposed to be currently guarded by the Knight Order and invaded easily like this.<br /> <br /> {{furigana|However way he thought about it, this was a surprise attack that should not exist.|• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •}}<br /> <br /> “…{{furigana|Fire Stone Flood|Earth Lava Flow}}!”<br /> <br /> Enemy’s large scale offensive magic―the asphalt of the road was developing cracks extensively, from there lava was bursting out. It rained down incessantly on the whole formation of the students.<br /> <br /> On top of that magic destructive power, the trace of magic power wave in that magic made Kazuki gasped in realization.<br /> <br /> …He had some experience with this magic power. The [Earth Snake] that was together with Kaya, this magic power owner was that man who was contracted with Midgardsomr. Loki’s gang was also added in this enemy force.<br /> <br /> Defensive magic reduced the force of the lava flow and the students also endured with Resist. Even when the swordsmen fell down they immediately stood back up and slashed at the enemies, the Magika Stigma maintained their concentration and continued the chanting.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|Shinran Tenbu|Heart Disorder Heaven Dance}}!”<br /> <br /> Ame no Uzume―the avatar of Japanese Mythology’s entertainment god that was clad in bright crimson garment floated in the middle of the battlefield, then she started to dance with a twirl. The Sword Division students in the frontline that witnessed it wobbled, their sanity disappeared from their eyes, and they began attacking each other.<br /> <br /> “If that kind of attack come than it’s my turn that I kept waiting for! …I am to be the shrine maiden of sword. Rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that spirit sword of crushing evil right now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai brandished the sword of crushing evil, returning the sanity of the swordsmen who lost their mind one after another.<br /> <br /> “O goddess that arrive in the future accepting the abuse of people…change that darkness into deadly poison vomit it all around! Slander the foolishness of these people!! Poison Argument!!”<br /> <br /> In reverse Mibu-senpai scattered bubbles of nerve poison and dulled the movement of the enemy swordsmen.<br /> <br /> “Way to go, when you all calmed down properly, this side’s magic skill and support power is further above compared to the opponent!”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai raised her voice and inspired everyone.<br /> <br /> “We too are already finished with the chanting here! Brace yourself right now!!”<br /> <br /> The third years that was protected and covered by Kazuki and the others were finally finishing with their chanting of high level magic successively. Finally the power of Magic Division’s highest school grade was made apparent―,<br /> <br /> “Come on Akane! Match your breath, we are going to make a big haul for sure-!!”<br /> <br /> “Right, Kanon!” Both of them lined up their shoulder and nodded to one another.<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai altered her clothes into a Magic Dress that emitted a clear bluish-white light.<br /> <br /> At her side, an avatar of a beautiful angel burning in blue flame was floating.<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai's contracted Diva was―&lt;Belial&gt;. She was a god of Phoenicia similar with Baal, but she was an existence that was altered into the worst fallen angel by the Christianity.<br /> <br /> “O angel covered with wounds waving the blue flag of rebellion…under the justification of [worthlessness] liberate the looked down silent anger! {{furigana|Emission Flare|Blue Lotus that Descend from Heaven}}!!”<br /> <br /> When Kanon-senpai commanded Belial, several streak of blue light poured down from heaven like lightning. That light spread out through the battlefield like an overflowing flood.<br /> <br /> That was bluish-white flames. The flame changed color because of its high heat from red to blue and from blue to white―that heat quantity possessing [blue color] rivaled the energy possessed by the star in space.<br /> <br /> The blue flame representing Belial’s fury spread out in the battlefield burning down the arrogant people. With force that even Kanon-senpai herself couldn’t hold back, friend and ally, everything in the battlefield was going to be swallowed….<br /> <br /> ―Akane-senpai too finished her chanting at the same time.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai was clad in Magic Dress that was similar with {{furigana|sheath dress|traditional garment}} of Egypt’s attire. At her side, face of owl and body of wolf, with snake as tail a figure of devil with atypical appearance was floating.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai’s contracted Diva was―&lt;Amon&gt;. &lt;Amon&gt; of Egypt Mythology was likewise had its figure declined into devil as a god of paganism.<br /> <br /> “To all phenomenon of heaven, riding the wind bursting out from those wings…o wind of god, wash away the foundation of the world and rule it as I saw fit! {{furigana|Rizomata Mastery|Divinity Elements Tide}}!!”<br /> <br /> Terrific wind burst out in Akane-senpai’s surrounding. When Akane-senpai moved her hand like a conductor giving command, that wind was controlled in accordance with her desire, it was heading to Yamato’s force and swept over them.<br /> <br /> Every energy that existed in this battlefield―flame and water and lightning brought forth by magic were swallowed by that wind and they were flowing away inside it.<br /> <br /> The wind of the god of atmosphere Amon put all energy under its rule and became a tidal current of power.<br /> <br /> Even the raging mad blue flame that Kanon-senpai released, just before it swallowed and dragged even allies inside it, was entwined with Akane-senpai’s wind of god. The wind of god rotated violently forming a sphere, pressing together the blue flame until it turned similar into a line of light inside the small sphere.<br /> <br /> That light of fire was compressed even further until it was the size of a grain of light like a shining star in the night sky. ―Condensing heat above 20000°C, an ultra density flame. He already couldn’t understand how much energy it currently possessed.<br /> <br /> ―When Akane-senpai waved her hand once more, the grain of light became a {{furigana|leyline|line of light}} and danced in the middle of the enemy formation. The swordsmen and magicians of the enemy faction that were touched by that line immediately collapsed. The extraordinary heat took away all their magic power in just a moment. With delicate direction Akane-senpai was running the line of light from one enemy to the next driving them just before an instant death.<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai produced an energy so enormous that even she couldn’t control, while Akane-senpai amplified – controlled it precisely and distributed it to the enemies―it was a combination that really demonstrated both of their personality just as it was. With a silence as if a sparkler&lt;ref&gt;Small fireworks in a form of stick where its tips produced many little sparkles.&lt;/ref&gt; was losing its light, the blue dot of light burned away all its flame. On the battlefield, dozens of enemies were lying down in unconsciousness.<br /> <br /> Quality was far more above quantity in magic…this was a sight that really impressed that truth once more in him. Just two Magika Stigma had consigned dozens of times more enemy into oblivion in one attack.<br /> <br /> It was a destructive power enough that brought about a complete change in the battle situation. …As expected from third year. For the first time Kazuki really felt aware of that fact. And then the third years were not only these two.<br /> <br /> The other ten people of the other third years that Kanon-senpai brought along too had finished the chanting of their high level magic all at once right at this time. The battle was over with this―everyone was able to be convinced of that.<br /> <br /> The third years seniors directed their Targeting at the enemy formation and ended their chanting―at that time, an unlikely voice could be heard.<br /> <br /> “Target change!”<br /> <br /> It was a voice he had heard somewhere. The inside of Kazuki’s head became pure white, his memory flipped over to the past. Where he had heard this voice was…when he was going on a date with Hikaru-senpai, that time when he was attacked by the students of the Magic Division that were brainwashed. The voice of Hayashi Shizuka.<br /> <br /> This voice was when Hayashi Shizuka {{furigana|gave out the command to the human she had brainwashed|• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •}}<br /> <br /> Why was this voice, right here in this time….<br /> <br /> When he turned his eyes to the direction of the voice, inside the crowd of Yamato’s magician―Hayashi Shizuka was there.When her eyes met Kazuki, The face of the girl that looked like a noh mask&lt;ref&gt;A woman mask that is colored white and have an unchanged cold expression&lt;/ref&gt; warped in a broad grin. An expression of triumph, ridiculing at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> The next instant, an abnormality occurred at the magic power wave of the third years that were going to activate their magic.<br /> <br /> Assaulted by a premonition of unknown terror, Kazuki directed his sight at the faces of the third years.<br /> <br /> The expression of the third years made a complete change into an expressionless and soulless wax statue. Emotion fell out from their eyes, their mouths that were in the middle of chanting spell became half-opened.<br /> <br /> Completely the same just like the students that attacked Kazuki at the public park, a blank face.<br /> <br /> Post-hypnotism―as if when a fixed requirement was triggered their minds were suddenly converted into brainwashed condition.<br /> <br /> The third years who were forming a rank of troops horizontally facing the enemy force changed their formation even though no one was commanding it. The five people in the right wing faced Kazuki in a twirl, the five people in the left wing faced Kanon-senpai’s way in a twirl. And then the target of the magic that were in the verge of invocation―were overwritten to target Kazuki and Kanon-senpai.<br /> <br /> A movement that was twisted forcibly by a third party’s will. Kazuki couldn’t Foresight such movement. With a delay that was really unlike Kazuki, he understood the situation. Third year’s offensive magic in the scale of level 7-8, five of them at once were taking aim at him. Both evasion and defense wouldn’t make it in time.<br /> <br /> “Wh, why…!?” Kanon-senpai too was totally the same like him.<br /> <br /> The girls were brainwashed without anyone noticing it. When…?<br /> <br /> “O rage of the bottom of the earth…release the prohibition right here, reduce to ashes the arrogance on the earth with the ardour of ancient times…{{furigana|Volcanic Geyser|Lava Flow Eruption}}.”<br /> <br /> “Time is circling drawing a circle, the history is repeated inevitably, awaken the once forgotten era…leave behind everything inside the dream, to the era of glacier…{{furigana|Ice Age|Absolute Ice World}}.”<br /> <br /> “O unyelling sage Dantalion’s infinite power of words…change the wisdom of eternity into blade, gouge out deeply the depth of heart, burn and crumble the reason with that interdiction…{{furigana|Last Word|Last Word}}.”<br /> <br /> “Lethargy is changed into degeneration before long, tear is finally changed into blood, reverberating scream will surely change into ascending soul in the end…o {{furigana|seed of malice|Laruva}}lurking in the back of the world, wolf down the living soul…{{furigana|Curse Stream|Festival of Nightmare}}.”<br /> <br /> “O beast where heaven’s most important seven stars is residing in that body, descend down to this land while shaking down the earth, gulp down the stagnating people with those large jaw…{{furigana|Chronos Crocodile|Saturn’s Great Crocodile}}.”<br /> <br /> Enormous lava was, sublime freezing air was, thought wave that would destroy the mind was, revengeful ghost that would eat his soul was, fierce beast of the underworld was approaching Kazuki all at once.<br /> <br /> A clear premonition of death froze his brain. Resist…no, to use general magic for things like reducing the might of five different kind of magic at the same time was impossible with the skill that he had. They got him!<br /> <br /> “…DANGER!” At that time, there was only one person who could react against Kazuki’s predicament.<br /> <br /> A surprise attack that couldn’t be reacted with Foresight. What could react against such attack was only strengthening of reflexes nerves. [Berserk]―The magician that was able to do that, there was only one person in this place.<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki’s eyes―a large powerful back for a female was forcing her way through in front of him.<br /> <br /> “BEATRIX!!” Kazuki spontaneously yelled to that back.<br /> <br /> “I told you, add ‘chan’ on…GUU!!” All the magic hit the girl right from the front. From the body of the girl, defensive magic power was shining with light as if the whole magic power that she had was exploding.<br /> <br /> You can really joke about adding ‘chan’ in this kind of situation!!?<br /> <br /> Not sustaining her Access, Beatrix’s appearance transformed back to her black Einherjar uniform. She collapsed into Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> …The damage didn’t penetrate until her flesh. Kazuki confirmed that fact in panic.<br /> <br /> “Beatrix, why are you for me…”<br /> <br /> “Why, you ask…. That’s because love is an irrational thing, right…”<br /> <br /> While saying words that sounded like joke, Beatrix slumped inside Kazuki’s arm and fainted after losing her strength. Magic intoxication―even though there was no damage on her flesh, her mind was burdened radically. Could she get awake if it kept like this, how long it would take until she open her eyes again, he didn’t know at all.<br /> <br /> “Chih, I missed the chance to kill him.” From afar, the sound of Hayashi Shizuka clicking her tongue rang out. “Give him the finishing blow!”<br /> <br /> The third years that had blank faces directed their aim at the two person who became defenseless in magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> “Everyone…are you all sane!?” Akane-senpai rebuked her comrades’ action.<br /> <br /> “Captain…shitt! What are we going to do!?”<br /> <br /> “We are Ægir’s, grant me the terror of the unknown depth of the ocean! The stormy seas that toy with the small people, to me…Himinglæva!”<br /> <br /> Eleonora produced a wall of ocean to defend Beatrix and Kanon-senpai. These two people right now would get a fatal wound even if they only got hit with just one attack.<br /> <br /> “Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who sensed the situation dashed near from the back and slashed at the third years.<br /> <br /> The sanity of the third years returned with one slash of evil crushing. “Eh…huh, I, what am I…?” Being surprised and stunned, in an unbelievable situation―they looked down at their leader who was laying down on the ground.<br /> <br /> Disturbance ran through the whole ally members. The swordsmen who had been holding out for a long time to become the shield of the Magika Stigmas directed eyes of despair toward the scene where their leader got defeated by friendly fire inside ally’s encampment.<br /> <br /> “Keep it up and crush them! Go!!” He could hear Hayashi Shizuka raising a piercing cry.<br /> <br /> “Otouto-kun, get a hold of yourself! Akane-senpai too!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai scolded Kazuki who was still dumbfounded. Akane-senpai who still holding up Kanon-senpai with her head hanging down also lifted her face. They went on resuming the battle.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, Eleonora-san.”<br /> <br /> Giving his gratitude to Eleonora who was protecting them, Kazuki laid Beatrix down.<br /> <br /> “…Land Escape!”<br /> <br /> In front of Kazuki’s eyes, the ground split all of a sudden. From that crack illegal magician―[Earth Snake]’s figure was leaping out. His hand was holding a sword made from rock in reverse grip. “…Di, die!” With inarticulate speaking tone, he aimed at Beatrix who was in a state of magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> He passed through Eleonora’s wall of sea by digging underground like a mole.<br /> <br /> “UOOOOOOOOOOOO!!” Kazuki roared in order to clear away his shock and drew his katana.<br /> <br /> The rock sword the Earth Snake used in his surprise attack was repelled with his Iai draw.<br /> <br /> The instant their blade touched, Kazuki redirected the opponent’s power using &lt;Instant Positioning&gt;, breaking down the posture of the Earth Snake.<br /> <br /> “…O Divine Protection of military man, double the Megin whirling in my body! The will of god spurring me to infinite battle, in this body! …Megingjord!”<br /> <br /> What Kazuki immediately chanted was Beatrix’s magic.<br /> <br /> Doubling the physical strength of his whole body, his second returning slash swung downward with twice destructive power on Earth Snake.<br /> <br /> “GUGAA!” Raising a scream the Earth Snake rolled on the ground. “Guge…Land…” Realizing his failure in the assassination, he tried to escape using magic for going underground. “Esca…”<br /> <br /> “…O divine protection of mermaid, stop the step of the hateful enemy, please hasten the step of the chosen person…. O ice blade, run! Moves in the Field!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s cool and clear voice reverberated, then the ground froze. The Earth Snake who was leaping to the ground face first banged his face severely on the surface that had been frozen with ice. Koyuki plundered his right of rule of the ground.<br /> <br /> Koyuki launched a flying kick with feet clad in boots of ice blade toward the Earth Snake rolling on the ground. Keeping her pace she stepped on him with a complex footwork and minced him. Having an ice dance performed on top of his own body, the Earth Snake opened his eyes wide in fear and fainted. “…Kazuki, are you okay?”<br /> <br /> “Thank you, I’m fine already. …I can fight. We have to defeat that girl. If we don’t defeat Hayashi Shizuka from the very beginning than anybody else…I have a hunch that it would become very grave later on.”<br /> <br /> Inside Kazuki’s head, that premonition completely filled him. There was emotions inside him that was really close with hatred and repugnance. However surpassing such individualistic emotion, a terrifying premonition welled up inside him.<br /> <br /> “Retreat! Retreaat―!”<br /> <br /> However contrary to Kazuki’s thought, that kind of voice was starting to appear from inside the enemy forces.<br /> <br /> The enemy army simultaneously began to move in withdrawal. While receiving covering fire from the illegal magicians the enemy swordsmen turned their back, like a retreating wave they were drawing back from this place.<br /> <br /> In no time at all the figure of the enemies were not visible anymore.<br /> <br /> Why are those guys retreating―he soon understood why they were doing so.<br /> <br /> From the other side of the road he could hear the sounds of engine, knights who were riding on military vehicles were rushing here one after another. The Knight Orders at the military boundary line’s garrison notice the disturbance and finally came here. The enemy army noticed the reinforcement one beat faster and before they became the one who met with a pincer attack this time, they retreated in a hurry.<br /> <br /> However the sensation of having finally repelled the enemy couldn’t be felt for even a fragment inside Kazuki and the others.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> When The Knight Order that was rushing here grasped the situation that befell at Kazuki and the others, they immediately make contact with the garrison and called a new military bus here. Taking ride in that bus, Kazuki and the others headed to the garrison once more.<br /> <br /> They gathered and transported the students who fell into magic intoxication in the battle and also the enemy soldiers who conversely became magic intoxicated and arrested on the spot.<br /> <br /> The temporary garrison that was built for the sake of security in the military boundary line was located in a very near distance from the spot where they were attacked. By the time all the students arrived, it was the time when the sunset had sunk into the horizon.<br /> <br /> The temporary garrison was originally the hotel and public facilities that were located in the prefectural border and were confiscated to be used only for the knights to reside there. There was no special facility or the like at all here.<br /> <br /> Though having said that, it was not like there was any surplus in the number of the room available, so the room allocation became arranged for two people in one room.<br /> <br /> However without even confirming who was the partner he would be rooming with, Kazuki headed to Akane-senpai’s room.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki…I have something to talk.”<br /> <br /> The moment he came out to the corridor, Eleonora and Damian were waitng for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Beatrix is…?” Kazuki inquired hesitantly.<br /> <br /> “Captain is still fainted and hasn’t opened her eyes.” Eleonora answered back with a cold voice.<br /> <br /> “In this incident, because we were being made to follow the sloppy tactic of Japan Knight Order a serious damage had been inflicted to the Einherjar. That’s what I’m thinking.”<br /> <br /> “…What did you say?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t you think that this incident is enough reason to discontinue the stance of cooperation between Japan Knight Order and Einherjar for Loki’s subjugation? We are going to wash our hand from this incident.”<br /> <br /> “Wa, just wait a second there!? I haven’ heard anythin’ about this at alll!?”<br /> <br /> Damian cut in from the side.<br /> <br /> “You said you have something you want to talk about with Hayashizaki Kazuki so I thought what the hell this is about…this didna make sense at all doncha’ agree!? This incident happen ‘cause Capt’n Beatrix just stick her nose where it didna belong on her own, we haven’ even defeat Loki yet! If it had become like this then we shoulda’ take revenge for cap’n with our own hand, that’s the spirit of an admirable Einherjar right!? I said taking revenge but cap’n still haven’ died yet though!”<br /> <br /> “Damian…this war is a losing battle. Right now Japan Knight Order is exactly a ship made of mud&lt;ref&gt;Japanese expression. You can imagine what will happen if a mud boat take sail right?&lt;/ref&gt;. {{furigana|To allow that kind of surprise attack|• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •}} to happen, they have no chance in this war. We should disembark from this sinking ship for even a second faster.”<br /> <br /> Allowing that kind of surprise attack to happen…, sinking ship…, Kazuki too had the exact same feeling like what Eleonora was saying. Unconsciously bitterness colored Kazuki’s expression. Eleonora looking at that expression of Kazuki “…So you understand the situation” having said that her expression became a little sympathetic.<br /> <br /> “Wait wait wait! Whether or not there is any chance to win, that shoulda be thought later on after we beat up the enemy blue right―!” Damian spoke out an outrageous sentence. “There are enemies we’ve reason to defeat right in front of us yet we just run away, for Einherjar that is something absolutely unforgivablee―, if it’s cap’n Beatrix that’s what she woulda say ze!!”<br /> <br /> “…Do you think you can fight with that kind of muscle brain thinking…!”<br /> <br /> “Are you and Ægir cowards!? You won’t get to aim for Valhalla like that!”<br /> <br /> “…Understood. If you said until that far then you and Hodur just do as you like.”<br /> <br /> Eleonora turned on her heel and went to leave from the other side of the corridor.<br /> <br /> “…Our bad. Even though Erii is like that but that ‘cause she really like cap’n. …Next, when you are gonna sortie out just give the call only to me.”<br /> <br /> Damian too left behind such words before she went to leave from the other side of the corridor.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “How unlucky for you huh! You might be planning to be alone with Akane just the two of you by going to Akane’s room, but I’m already awake✩”<br /> <br /> When he entered Akane-senpai’s room, Kanon-senpai's bright voice greeted Kazuki.<br /> <br /> This room was shared between Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai. Kanon-senpai who had fell into magic intoxication had already awaken, she directed a smiling face to Kazuki while still laying on her bed.<br /> <br /> “…At that moment, I still had my Rizomata Mastery barely activated, so I could redirect the energy of the offense magic going toward Kanon slightly. However Beatrix Baumgard had gotten completely hit…”<br /> <br /> The expression of Akane-senpai who was standing beside the bed was dark as if she was ashamed of the damage that came out.<br /> <br /> “Well, I exposed an unsightly figure there…this is by no means a lost battle okay✩ We got some damage on our side, but we had also managed to capture several of the enemies on the other side see✩…That’s why cheer up, Akane.”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai who pretended a mere bravado with cheerful act encouraged Akane-senpai.<br /> <br /> “So then Hayashizaki Kazuki…what do you think about what had just happened?” With a serious face, Kanon-senpai looked back at Kazuki. “Because there is something you understand so you come here right?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki conveyed the matter regarding Hayashi Shizuka and her ability as far as he know to the two of them.<br /> <br /> ―Her contracted Diva was Joka.<br /> <br /> The greatest trait of that Diva was to strengthen and resurrect allies, granting such powerful Divine Protection freely.<br /> <br /> However Yamato’s force was not resurrected at the battle this time. …Most likely because the number of people was too many, or possibly the effect couldn’t be demonstrated except for underling and servant that directly obeyed Hayashi Shizuka herself. It means that Hayashi Shizuka was nothing more than a guest and her nature of relationship with Yamato’s soldiers was too thin.<br /> <br /> And then one more trait of hers was brainwashing power. She could falsify the heart of human that had fallen into magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai and Akane-senpai made a face of understanding.<br /> <br /> “…In other words everyone aside from us…the other third years fell into magic intoxication in battle at that time when Nagoya surrendered and then they were brainwashed there. After that they linked up with us as the remnant of the defeated army…”<br /> <br /> There was no doubt that the seed of calamity was planted in Kanon-senpai and the others at that time.<br /> <br /> Post hypnotism―in order to make them changed into brainwashed state when they heard the voice of Hayashi Shizuka, suggestion was implanted into the third years.<br /> <br /> “How pathetic!” Akane-senpai raised a loud voice with her head still hanging low and she hit the wall with her fist. “Just because they are comrades we know by sight…we didn’t suspect at all those girls who were just escaping from the enemy’s occupied territory! Even though we might have noticed it if only we cautiously use Telepathy!!”<br /> <br /> &quot;Akane, don’t say something unreasonable. We didn’t know about this brainwashing beforehand, so suspecting them or anything is just absurd talk. We only thought of wanting to increase our battle strength even for just a little with everyone. Also for the moment I am the leader that was decided by everyone. Don’t burden yourself with the responsibility alone.”<br /> <br /> Even after listening to Kanon-senpai’s words, Akane-senpai was still “Kuu…!” let out a pained sound. Akane-senpai’s personality might be of those who tended to drive themselves into a corner.<br /> <br /> However this was not a circumstance where he could give her some peace of mind.<br /> <br /> “…What we should be anxious of is not only about the matter of the brainwashed third years.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki said with a heavy feeling. Rather the matter just now was already a solved problem. Thanks to Kazuha-senpai, all the third years had been released from the brainwashed state.<br /> <br /> “An even graver problem is how the enemy sensed all of our action and movement and then ambushing us at our own territory. Those guys passed through the military boundary line, inferred our location, and then assaulted us. …They have been doing whatever they pleased far too much.”<br /> <br /> If this kind of situation kept continuing, saying it clearly this war wouldn’t even be a fight for the enemy.<br /> <br /> “…!” Akane-senpai’s face lost even more color when she raised her face. Looks like she fret over her failure in not doubting her comrade too much that she didn’t think of that at all.<br /> <br /> “The knights in this garrison, they are doing security in order to not let the people of Yamato can come and go as they pleases aren’t they?” Kazuki inquired for the moment. Kanon-senpai nodded with a bob. It was obvious.<br /> <br /> “In other words there is a betrayer here.”<br /> <br /> “That, you mean a human that is a brainwashed human by Joka to become spy!?”<br /> <br /> “No, the brainwashed state by Joka is not a perfect technique that can deceive the surrounding people that are intimate to you. The brainwashed human looked unnatural with how their emotion became diluted, so it’s definitely impossible to do a spy’s activity or the like passing through a long period of time.”<br /> <br /> Joka’s brainwashing was not flawless. It was only falsifying a really small part of the heart in a really short period.<br /> <br /> “Without any influence of brainwashing, there were already betrayers of Kenshitou in the insides of the Knight Order and the government of this country right from the start. And then there is Chūkadou as Kenshitou’s backer.”<br /> <br /> “Chūkadou, you said…?”<br /> <br /> The trouble that happened in the Knight Academy’s battle election was not something known by Kanon-senpai and Akane-senpai that was nothing more than the lowest member of the Knight Order. Kazuki explained the circumstances of the incident where assassins from China came attacking Kazuki and how the former Board Chairman Takasugi tried to take over the academy to the two senpai.<br /> <br /> “As for how we are gathering in Shizuoka…the enemy might be able to predict that even without any information just from the point of how we are going to try to recover Nagoya that is an important traffic position. But for the enemy to completely know about when we are going to finally arrive and what road we are taking…it’s just like what you said, there is a betrayer that was inserted until a fairly high position in the top brass of the Knight Order isn’t it? If it had become like this then they will be perfectly waiting in ambush for this side’s offensive, from now on they will be preparing surprise attack each time we are going out for any kind of action…like this we cannot move thoughtlessly.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai hung her head down with faint-hearted expression.<br /> <br /> “The best aspect of superiority for the offensive side is how they could choose the location of fighting you know? Originally, the defensive side has to divide all their battle strength between the three points of Toyama・Gifu・Aichi because they don’t know where we are going to attack. However if they obtained the information of where we are going to attack ahead of time from the betrayer, they can concentrate their battle strength in one place and await us in the targeted place. In other words it’s the same like the number of the enemy force has tripled. For information to become leaked is something like that.”<br /> <br /> It was something Kazuki hadn’t learned in class, but he nodded. It was something obvious if he thought of it carefully, but it was something that made him thought ‘I see’ when it was said to him…the basis of &lt;tactic theory&gt;.<br /> <br /> “With this our plan to counterattack when seeing a change is discontinued. We absolutely cannot move to counterattack. If we don’t wait patiently until we have collected the battle strength of east Japan as much as possible…I have to inform the regiment commander…”<br /> <br /> Regimental commander―if this talk was forwarded to the commander of Shizuoka regiment, next it would go through to the division commander of Kanto Koushin’etsu division, and then from there it would reach the top brass of the Knight Order for sure.<br /> <br /> …With that transmission mechanism, this information would surely also reach the spy of Yamato.<br /> <br /> In panic, Kazuki restrained Akane-senpai who was even now trying to make contact with her cell phone.<br /> <br /> “Please wait, if senpai reported that then it will also inform the opponent of how {{furigana|we had noticed the betrayer|• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •}}, it would alert them.”<br /> <br /> “That is so but, there is no reason we can just leave this alone right? If we don’t take defensive action…”<br /> <br /> “No, I think it’s a mistake for us to even enter defensive action.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai asked “Eh?” back to Kazuki who was talking stubbornly. Kanon-senpai too had her eyes opened wide and was staring at him. Surely that was because they never thought that a junior of them would be objecting this straight forwardly against them.<br /> <br /> “We should sortie out to attack them immediately tonight. In order to not let the betrayer leaking out the information to the enemy, the surprise attack must be conducted with only the members of the Knight Academy.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A silence that was doubting Kazuki’s words flowed for a while.<br /> <br /> “…And the basis for your idea to immediately sortie out in offense?” Akane-senpai inquired in a harsh tone of voice.<br /> <br /> “Because if it keep like this than it would become more disadvantageous the longer the battle goes on. This whole day, I kept thinking on my own about in what way we should fight in this battle called magic war but…”<br /> <br /> “How should we fight in a magic war is it?”<br /> <br /> This magic war that the human race hadn’t experienced personally still hadn’t any tried and tested tactics.<br /> <br /> That was why the people concerned must unravel it out themselves and started thinking from the zero base.<br /> <br /> “In this magic war, the power of human is everything. Even if all the territory of the country is occupied from the battle’s damage, even if the economy inclined completely toward one side, it still doesn’t mean defeat. Shaving off the military force is everything.”<br /> <br /> In the war of the previous era, the power of a country had direct relation with their military power. For the sake of advancing the battle in a more advantageous position they developed weapon research, mass production, managing maintenance, they had to invest in all of that. An all out war where the battle was supported by the nation’s everything. If the national power tilted to one way then the victory was decided.<br /> <br /> But this war between Japan and Yamato was different. The military power was decided only by the quality and quantity of the swordsman and Magika Stigma. When it was like this the victory condition became [whether the opponent’s army was annihilated or not].<br /> <br /> Even if there was only one last person standing, even if the foundation called a country was lost, if only they still had the will to fight then they could still continue to fight. Though in that stage it would become closer to guerilla or terrorism rather than a war.<br /> <br /> “Certainly it’s just like what you said….this is not an all-out war, but an extermination war.” Akane-senpai nodded.<br /> <br /> “However why has that become the reason to hurry in attacking?”<br /> <br /> “…There are Divas called Loki and Naiarlatoteph in Yamato’s camp. When the power of Joka is added there, I have this feeling that a frightening result will occur from that combination. Though it would be great if this is just a needless anxiety.”<br /> <br /> Loki・Naiarlatoteph・Hayashi Shizuka…it was the worst trio that made him wanted to cover his eyes. Their extreme personality scattered out a terrible atmosphere. He had already felt sick just from remembering each of their faces.<br /> <br /> “Naiarlatoteph?” Kanon-senpai and Akane-senpai asked back.<br /> <br /> Naiarlatoteph’s existence was also something that hadn’t become known by the society at large openly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who had arrived at a different thinking from the two senpai was because in the first place he had far more information than the two.<br /> <br /> “For the sake of finding proof of my suspicion, there is something I want to confirm from the prisoners that were caught from the battle this time. I cannot meet with the prisoner just by myself so…can I ask for senpai’s mediation to arrange an interview with the prisoners?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There was a wine cellar built underground in this hotel that was confiscated to be the garrison. That place which had no entrance except for one spot was the most suitable to be turned into a dungeon as long as security was performed there. The prisoners were attached with Limiter for illegal magicians and thrown inside that place.<br /> <br /> There was binding on them but many of them were still fainting from magic intoxication.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai left behind Kanon-senpai who was still in convalescence in their shared room and led Kazuki to the dungeon.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stopped at Lotte’s room in the middle of the way and asked her to accompany him.<br /> <br /> “Thanks for your hard work.” Akane-senpai greeted the young man who had the shift of guarding the dungeon.<br /> <br /> That knight who was greeted had his expression colored in shock and happiness when he saw Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki! Isn’t this Hayashizaki Kazuki! …Long time no see! I heard the story already from Amasaki-sensei. Right now hasn’t something great happened to you in the academy, huh Chief Student Council President!”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki got taken aback for an instant, he finally remembered late of the other party’s name and face.<br /> <br /> “…Kondou-san! Thank you very much for that time. If I didn’t have the Sacred Treasure that was entrusted from Kondou-san, it would really become very dangerous there. Because of that I was found innocent in the end.”<br /> <br /> “Aa, for you to be cleared from all misunderstanding was also thanks to the influence of Amasaki-sensei right?”<br /> <br /> Kondou Hajime―he was the knight that got involved at that time when Kazuki was attacked by Beatrix in the Quest that he challenged together with Lotte. After that, for the sake of Kazuki who was challenging Beatrix, he lended [Raikiri] to Kazuki without concern for himself. However, why was he here…?<br /> <br /> “Your face is wondering why I’m here. Even though you remember my name and face, it’s impossible to remember until my self-introduction too huh. Remember, my title is &lt;Police Knight&gt; attached to &lt;Chubu Jurisdiction Division&gt;, Kondou Hajime.”<br /> <br /> “You said Chuubu Jurisdiction…does that mean that Kondou-san was in the battle of that time!?”<br /> <br /> “Aa, I fought at Nagoya, I escaped with Akane-chan there and Kanon-chan. …But for you to come here, how reassuring. I know very well how strong you are after all!”<br /> <br /> “So Kondo-san and Kazuki are an acquaintance?” Akane-senpai inquired with her eyes wide opened.<br /> <br /> “That’s right, various things happened. Akane-chan, this guy is a really awesome junior you know. …Oops, you have some business with the prisoner right? If it’s Akane-chan and Kazuki then I don’t need to worry, just go through here.”<br /> <br /> Kondou-san opened the dungeon for them, then Kazuki together with Lotte searched for the one person they came here for among the restrained prisoners―they approached the [Earth Snake].<br /> <br /> “Lotte…can you do something like confirming his mental state with Telepathy? There is no equipment for Telepathy scan here after all, so to make up for it can you?”<br /> <br /> “What is it that I need to confirm desu?”<br /> <br /> “Confirm whether he is still Possessed by Diva or not inside his mind.”<br /> <br /> “!?” Akane-senpai’s expression froze in place.<br /> <br /> “…Diva that is attempting to take over the flesh of human won’t part with the flesh body that they occupied that easily you know? It should be like that. Because to erode the self of their host until this point should take a long time for the Diva.”<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai said. Some Diva that held hostility to human whispered sweet words about how they would grant power and then possessed the human. After that they would encroach into the host’s mind slowly in their attempt to take over the host&lt;ref&gt;The kanji used her is Yorishiro, which means object representative of a divine spirit, object to which a spirit is drawn or summoned, or object or animal occupied by a god&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> To do that they needed a long time. Even when Loki stole Kaya’s body, also when Naiarlatoteph stole the body of former Headmaster Otonashi, both of them needed long years to succeed.<br /> <br /> Once those Divas parted with the flesh body, the eroded mind would go back to how it once was and their hard work until that point would come to completely nothing. That was why even in the case that their host got arrested, nevertheless they shouldn’t part with that body so easily―originally speaking.<br /> <br /> Lotte went along with what Kazuki said and reached out a line of blue light to the Earth Snake. Through this link of magic power Lotte was searching around in the mind of the Earth Snake. Only after a moment Lotte expressed her conlusion.<br /> <br /> “It’s empty. There is no Diva inside him.”<br /> <br /> Just as he expected it really was like that. That was surely why this Earth Snake fought in a suicidal way like that.<br /> <br /> “That’s absurd! Then there is no meaning at all in taking this guy prisoner!!”<br /> <br /> “Midgardsormr that Possessed this guy had already Possessed a different human and he is going to return back to the front line soon. When I said that it will be disadvantageous for us when this war become a protracted battle, this is the reason why.”<br /> <br /> Magika Stigmas of the Knight Order and the Knight Academy summoned the power of Solomon 72 Pillar by means of their contract with the Pillars. But for the illegal Magicians of Yamato, every one of them used power by means of Possessed Summoning.<br /> <br /> The knights and the students of the Knight Academy were defeated until they fell into magic intoxication, became the prisoners of Yamato, if in the worst case they were killed, this was an obvious fact but there was no replacement for them.<br /> <br /> Then in regards of that, the illegal magicians of Yamato could keep coming back endlessly as long as they had a new host.<br /> <br /> “For Diva to possess the human’s body should take a fairly long time. At the very least it would take one year. Then, it would be fine if we just make sure to end the fight before that process get finished.”<br /> <br /> “Perhaps it won’t even take one year. There are Loki and Naiarlatoteph and Joka in the enemy camp.”<br /> <br /> They couldn’t continue the story even more than this in this kind of place. Kazuki proposed to get out from the wine cellar. {{furigana|Was there someone listening in their conversation, they needed to constantly pay attention.| • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •}}<br /> <br /> They said goodbye to Kondou-san and after accompanying Lotte back to her room, they returned back to Akane-senpai and Kanon-senpai’s room. Kazuki explained the happening in wine cellar.<br /> <br /> “Loki and Naiarlatoteph and Joka, {{furigana|each of them has their own approach|• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •}} in driving human mad that they specialized in. The crazier the host’s mind become, the easier it would become for the Diva to encroach.”<br /> <br /> Joka had the power of falsification. She overwrote a part of human’s mind, and with that she could stuff a small madness inside.<br /> <br /> Naiarlatoteph entered through weak spot and small madness of the heart. From there he could drive a person into insanity all at once. He made use of former Headmaster Otonashi’s guilt in repeating human experiment and destroyed the headmaster’s mind, there was also the time when he entered through Koyuki’s emotion of self-denial and took over her body right on the spot.<br /> <br /> And then for Loki’s method of taking over a human’s heart, he could boast that he himself had a thorough knowledge of it.<br /> <br /> If those three’s ability were used in turn like a baton relay―Joka planting madness inside the mind, and then Naiarlatoteph using that madness as foothold to corner the person into insanity in one go, finally Loki would make his Diva comrade to possess the person…they could manufacture illegal magicians in efficient rate as if a factory producing canned food.<br /> <br /> “If those guys combined their power, they could prepare human hosts in no time at all. This was why Midgardsormr could abandon the body of the Earth Snake that easily.”<br /> <br /> Lotte’s Telepathy had given credibility to Kazuki’s suspicion.<br /> <br /> “We have to destroy this [illegal magicians reproduction cycle] without any delay. If we don’t then there is no chance of victory for us in this annihilation battle. And then I also think that tonight is the best chance to bring down Hayashi Shizuka. For the sake of manipulating the third years she brainwashed, Hayashi Shizuka participated in the battle this time. But I don’t think that Hayashi Shizuka will participate anymore in the battle that came attacking us from now on.”<br /> <br /> If it was Kazuki in Kaya’s place, then he would order such thing for sure. He wouldn’t want to expose the important key of his tactic like Hayashi Shizuka to brave danger as much as possible, that was how it should be. Then Hayashi Shizuka would seclude herself in Yamato’s base.<br /> <br /> When this side persisted in nonaggressive defense, they would eternally lose the chance to defeat Hayashi Shizuka.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai looked at Kazuki with eyes that seemed to say [I can’t believe it].<br /> <br /> “…How are you able to predict anything and everything like that?”<br /> <br /> “Whether it’s Loki or Naiarlatoteph or Joka too, I had fought them before. That’s all.”<br /> <br /> “…That kind of experience is really abnormal. {{furigana|You stand in the core of the incident too much|• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •}}. Despite how you are supposed to be just a student of the Knight Academy…”<br /> <br /> That was…. Most likely that was because he is a &lt;{{furigana|King|Basilleus}}&gt;.<br /> <br /> When Beatrix collapsed, for some reason Kazuki thought like that once more. I must be able to take action that is more befitting for a King.<br /> <br /> “If right now we don’t let out our courage and move out for offensive, if we enter defensive action than it’s just what the enemy wanted. I am an amateur in regards of war tactic but…as a swordsman when facing the opponent, on top of constantly observing the opponent, [I must not do as the enemy expected] is something that I think is really important.”<br /> <br /> Whether in a match or a game, pushing factor of uncertainty to your opponent was what is called as tactic.<br /> <br /> “If we sortie out in offense using the Knight Order, it will be reported to the top brass of the Knight Order and we have to get their approval isn’t that right? For the lowest level of an organization to take action arbitrarily like attacking the enemy is absolutely unpermitted.”<br /> <br /> “…Of course that is so. Moving the soldier as one pleases and make sortie cannot be done. …The cause of concern is that if somewhere in the chain of command, the attack plan will be leaked through the betrayer.”<br /> <br /> “Yes. If we are attacking, we have to attack without allowing the attack plan to get leaked at all cost. That’s why tonight, we have to make a surprise attack using the students of the Knight Academy. If we attack only using members from the students of the Knight Academy, we don’t need to follow the intention of the Knight Order’s top brass. The highest big-wig in the Knight Academy is Headmaster Amasaki after all.”<br /> <br /> There was no room for betrayer to come inside a simple chain of command of Kazuki and Headmaster Amasaki.<br /> <br /> Tonight, if it had been decided that the Knight Order would not take any action until they had finished gathering battle strength of east Japan, that condition would be conveyed to Yamato through the betrayer. That negligence would enable the independent corps of the Knight Academy to make a surprise attack.<br /> <br /> If this tactic succeeded, then a pressure that [the betrayer’s information was not omnipotent] could be inflicted to Yamato. Like that the information from the betrayer wouldn’t be able to be used effectively by Yamato.<br /> <br /> It was vital to make the enemy feel confused.<br /> <br /> He was an amateur in regards of war tactic, but if he perceived this battle as [a duel between him and Hayashi Shizuka], he naturally understood the tactics that he should take. Kazuki had confidence in his own thought and stared at Akane-senpai directly. Akane-senpai looked down weakly from the pressure of that gaze.<br /> <br /> “Even so I cannot approve of a surprise attack tactic by the students alone. It’s too dangerous to march into enemy territory from under their very nose. The rule of three times offensive power…it’s said that three times the battle strength of the enemy’s defense is needed to attack their encampment. According to Sun Tzu, we need ten times the battle strength of the defender side when making a siege against a castle don’t you know?”<br /> <br /> Certainly there might be a theory like that.<br /> <br /> However―a war where magic was used was something the human race hadn’t experienced personally yet. There was no tactic or the like that had been established and proven already, they had to puzzle it out by themselves from the ground up.<br /> <br /> Kazuki thought back of that instant where the bus was destroyed in his first real battle.<br /> <br /> “I don’t think it’s necessarily the case that the offensive side is in disadvantage compared to the defensive side.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki talked with that confident tone, Akane-senpai was “Eh?” and opened her eyes wide.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> …When Kazuki explained his idea, Akane-senpai wordlessly looked down.<br /> <br /> “Let’s believe this guy, Akane. This is the junior that Kaguyan is cherishing so much. Surely this guy is not just an ordinary person.”<br /> <br /> Kanon-senpai interjected from the side.<br /> <br /> “…That might be so.” Akane-senpai made an ambiguous reply.<br /> <br /> “Akane. Usually I’m just constantly relying on you but, it’s fine for you too to learn to rely more on other fellows. And then Hayashizaki Kazuki-! I recognized you but…don’t misunderstand! Until the very end you are…only get recognized as nothing more than the right hand of this retired number Legendardy Student Council President, Koudzuki・Fantastic・Kanon, okayy✩”<br /> <br /> And then with a ‘kirarin&lt;ref&gt;sparkle&lt;/ref&gt;✩’, she winked at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> [It’s no good if you don’t get the recognition from these two too you know, o King.]<br /> <br /> Leme made her speech inside his mind.<br /> <br /> Akane-senpai was “Fuu” and released a breath as if deciding in her heart. And then she talked promptly.<br /> <br /> “Oh well. I’ll go along with your thinking. …Let’s put the arrangement in order. We won’t sortie together with you in this surprise attack, but we will give you our utmost cooperation in regards of the preparations. What we first need is, informing the students about the situation…and then the method to break out from this hotel and maybe also wireless communication.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> “…What’s with you, calling out someone like me.”<br /> <br /> Before moving out to implement the tactic for real, Kazuki wanted to talk with Kazuha-senpai and called her out to the corridor.<br /> <br /> “There is a little something I want to give to senpai…though it’s not really something significant.”<br /> <br /> “Giving something?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki suddenly presented a handmade bouquet created from the small flowers piling up in the hills and fields.<br /> <br /> Suddenly presented with that gift, Kazuha-senpai was “Hahee!?” and let out a strange voice.<br /> <br /> “This is because when we moved by bus and I looked outside the window, I saw beautiful flowers blooming on the hills.”<br /> <br /> “Yo, you especially picked them up for me…?”<br /> <br /> “Yes. The atmosphere had became bloodthirsty from the battle and the attack. I was wondering whether I could soften the atmosphere a little and when I realized I had dashed to gather this.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was out of breath and talked while sweats were showing on his forehead. Although there was Enchant Aura, but making a round trip to the mountain that he noticed from inside the bus and back in this busy time was not easy.<br /> <br /> “Are you an idiot doing something like that in this kind of time!? Something like flower…for someone like me…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s face reddened and looked the other way with a huff.<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, is this a bother for senpai?”<br /> <br /> “It’s a bother-! Even if I receive flower in this kind of place, I don’t have anything like a flower vase, it’s just too pitiful for the flower if it was plucked and then withered away!!”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so…” So the flower is a failure, thinking that, Kazuki became despondent.<br /> <br /> “…But to think of me when you looked at flower and wanting to give it to me, so even though you are tired after the fighting you went out of your way to collect this and came to present it to me….”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai hugged the flower bouquet tightly on her chest and then a large heart mark come flying.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, actually after this…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki spoke frankly about his tactic of launching a surprise attack to the enemy by the students of the Knight Academy after this.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai gulped after hearing the importance of the fact that was just disclosed for her. Kazuki said to the taken-aback girl.<br /> <br /> “That’s why if the tactic goes well, please go on a date with me for the reward.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai became taken aback with all strength leaving her body.<br /> <br /> “What’s with that, when I thought that you were going to talk about a serious matter you suddenly asked for reward!?”<br /> <br /> “Because, if there is a reward waiting then I’ll be able to work even harder for that.”<br /> <br /> “So you said that if you can go on a date with me then…you will be able to work hard?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai asked Kazuki with an exhausted red face, as if she was utterly amazed by Kazuki’s approach, her defense had been pushed back to the limit already. Kazuki nodded repeatedly with great enthusiasm.<br /> <br /> “Correct. I want to go for a date with senpai and do romantic things.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai kept averting her face without facing Kazuki.<br /> <br /> However a heart mark came flying once more, then she talked with a reluctant appearance.<br /> <br /> “…Okay. But, only if you make a great achievement and this tactic is a success, only after that.”<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Chapter_4&diff=462439 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 4 2015-09-18T05:34:36Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 4 – Love Simulation==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> “The Magic Division first year class one, Yumeno Shiori.”<br /> <br /> A docile girl with her hair cut and evened up shortly said that and lowered her head down with a bob.<br /> <br /> “Despite being a first year, you want to become the candidate as the committee chairman?” Kaguya-senpai said in surprise.<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san smiled bashfully. “I…in my middle school I used to be in literature club, I was also a committee member of the library so I have experience in creating library newspaper…with that…”<br /> <br /> “Is that so, then you are qualified.” Kaguya-senpai also smiled.<br /> <br /> What Koyuki proposed, Kazuki put the matter in question all together as a plan of [the establishment of academy’s newspaper]. It was also immediately approved in the staff room and then they were taking applications for newspaper committee member from the whole academy body.<br /> <br /> As the result six people of committee member were gathered from the Magic Division and the Sword Division. Among them, the one that was chosen as the committee chairman from the interview with each of them was this Yumeno-san. Like this she came along to the student council room for introduction.<br /> <br /> “You also participated in the battle election right?” Kazuki immediately noticed and asked her.<br /> <br /> “You won through until the third round with team made of first years as the core.”<br /> <br /> It was plainly a great thing. At Kazuki’s pointing out, the girl curled herself up more and more.<br /> <br /> “It’s embarrassing…I announced my candidacy even without understanding it well myself…”<br /> <br /> She was one of the girls that was brainwashed by Hayashi Shizuka. In other words with that she was a person that could be said to be innocent with certainty. Kazuki felt relieved with the election of the girl as the committee chairman. From what he saw Yumeno-san was a good person.<br /> <br /> “…But, I can’t reach Hayashizaki-kun or Amasaki-san or Hiakari-san, it’s a little regrettable. Just a little, I wanted to test my strength so…”<br /> <br /> In a surprising behavior the girl murmured warlike words. It made Kazuki thought ‘Oho’.<br /> <br /> “…This girl, if before this I was demoted to rank B, without a doubt she’d be the one that was supposed to be raised to rank A and came to the Witch’s Mansion you know? She is the top of rank B after all.”<br /> <br /> Mio made a complicated face. The top of rank B….<br /> <br /> “There is no mistake that somehow a capable committee chairman has come to us isn’t it? Please treat us well.”<br /> <br /> “Plea, please treat me well too, Chief Student Council President!”<br /> <br /> “Though I want you to talk casually, seeing we are in the same year…”<br /> <br /> Toward Kazuki who was smiling wrily, Yumeno-san kept bobbing her head *peko peko*.<br /> <br /> Spontaneously a graph floated right in front of Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> Yumeno Shiori―31 Mibu Akira―42 Asamiya Anna―38<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The after school of that day, everything was completely devoted into the sample creation of the school newspaper’s first issue. Properly doing the template of the space design first was a good move. In the end of an uproarious argument, the work still couldn’t be said to be done but they broke up for the day. Kazuki returned to his own room.<br /> <br /> Released from the heavy responsibility of the Chief Student Council President―and then this time he faced a different worry again.<br /> <br /> The difficult problem that Kazuki put aside at his privacy. The demand of Kazuha-senpai for a [romantic situation]. He must clear this request and then he must beg her for forgiveness.<br /> <br /> Kazuki sat down on the bed and groaned “Uu―n”. Then with a pop Leme materialized on his knees.<br /> <br /> “From working phase to conquering phase! Not the worrying of the Chief Student Council President, but the worrying as the Harem King!!” Like that, she was saying some game-like things.<br /> <br /> “What do you think romantic is?”<br /> <br /> “It’s useless even if you ask that kind of thing to Leme.”<br /> <br /> “That is so huh.” Kazuki circled his hands around Leme’s waist as if hugging a plush toy.<br /> <br /> “That’s so. Generally the King didn’t treat Leme as female for even a little bit.”<br /> <br /> With a glance, Leme turned Kazuki’s way with a look that was a little mature. That Leme―had already grown into an appearance around the same age as Lotte. Rather than a little girl she could be said to be a girl already.<br /> <br /> “…Do you want to be treated romantically?”<br /> <br /> “No, if you have free time to do that kind of thing for Leme, you better use it for the girls in your harem. Even if you asked what is the meaning of romantic, how about you try asking it to the other girls?”<br /> <br /> Leme left those words behind and then she disappeared with a pop from inside Kazuki’s arm.<br /> <br /> That was certainly the most correct opinion. Kazuki assented with that and stood up from the bed.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “Ah, Kazuki-oniisan!”<br /> <br /> The moment he exited his room, he happened to come across Lotte who was running in the corridor unexpectedly.<br /> <br /> “Lotte…what’s with that appearance?”<br /> <br /> Lotte was wearing something that looked like a blue string swimsuit, and on her back a showy wings decoration was attached. The high exposure rate looked similar with a Magic Dress but it was a little different.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, this is the cosplay of &lt;Bashful Angel Chirariel&gt;, Chirariel&lt;ref&gt;The name is a pun, chirari mean glance&lt;/ref&gt; Blue desu!”<br /> <br /> Bashful Angel Chirariel―Kazuki too watched that anime together with Lotte and Karin. Collecting the gaze of people with their embarrassing appearance, they amassed [Glance Energy] and fought. It was the tale of angel girls of justice.<br /> <br /> In a glance it seemed like a cunning setting to aim for the perverted heart of the male viewers, but that was nothing more than a front to gather sponsors. The content was filled with the staff's obsession for diehard battles that knew no bounds. Unrolling the figure of flowery beautiful girls, it developed stylish battles that fired up the viewer. That gap collected great evaluation not only from the male viewers but also from the female viewers, a masterpiece of an anime.<br /> <br /> “Chirariel Blue appeared to be cool but with heavy emotion, she is a good character really. It’s fine for you to cosplay, however running around in the Witch’s Mansion’s corridor is not good okay?”<br /> <br /> “Sorry desu…” Lotte meekly hung her head down.<br /> <br /> “By the way I’m greatly changing the talk here, but what kind of romantic situation is Lotte looking for?”<br /> <br /> “Romantic, desu…?”<br /> <br /> Chirariel Blue alias Lotte tilted her head in puzzlement.<br /> <br /> “I think my current situation is the ultimate romantic, so I’m not asking for even more than this desu.”<br /> <br /> “What do you mean?”<br /> <br /> “Because…I, am a princess that took flight from my country you know? My life was aimed by the motherland, even in the country where I escaped to I was not accepted, everyone is using my life as political tool…at that time, I encountered a man that saved me even at the risk of his life desu!”<br /> <br /> “…Certainly, I didn’t realize as a person that was involved in it myself, but that was amazingly romantic huh.”<br /> <br /> “Right now I’m perfectly content with this desu♪ That’s why right now I want to go searching for anime chick rather than something romantic desu. Changing the shameful heart into blue healing….CHAAAAAANGE! CHIRARIEEEEEEELLL! BLUEEEEEE!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte took a transformation pose with movement that had sharpness in it.<br /> <br /> Like a transformation effect, a heart mark of positivity level up was flying.<br /> <br /> “That voice…! So you are in this kind of place huh, Chirariel Blue!”<br /> <br /> From one end of the Witch’s Mansion, a voice could be heard along with the sounds of someone dashing through the stairs.<br /> <br /> “That voice…Chirariel Red!” Lotte too raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “Touu!” Skipping the last step of the stairs lightly―Chirariel Red made her appearance.<br /> <br /> Similar with what Lotte wore, the one who wore a cosplay costume that looked like a red string swimsuit was―<br /> <br /> Karin. When Karin noticed Kazuki’s existence, her face blushed bright red and she hid her own body.<br /> <br /> “Wro, wrong, this is that, because Charlotte said that she wanted to play with me…”<br /> <br /> “Karin-oneesan! To lose against your shameful heart…you don’t have the quality to introduce yourself as Red desu!!”<br /> <br /> “!” Karin receiving Lotte’s scolding, she made a face of realization.<br /> <br /> An expression completely like she was noticing that she was almost throwing away something important from her by her own hand.<br /> <br /> “Change the shameful heart into flame of justice….CHAAAAAAANGE! CHIRARIEEEEEEEELL! REEEEEDDDD!!” Karin stopped hiding her body and took a sharp transformation pose.<br /> <br /> ‘What are they doing, these guys’…that’s not what Kazuki was currently thinking.<br /> <br /> Kazuki too loved that anime. Confronting Blue and Red like this, his spirit reflexively blazed up.<br /> <br /> “…Chirariel Blue! I’ll have Takashi back!!”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan, please do the Takashi role!”<br /> <br /> …Is it okay for me to do Takashi’s role!? This scene is…episode 21 part A without doubt!!<br /> <br /> “Stop it, you two! Why do you two have to be fighting!!”<br /> <br /> “…So I can fight, that’s why I need Takashi!”<br /> <br /> Lotte yelled back with a voice that had completely become Chirariel Blue’s cool tone.<br /> <br /> “Before I even know it…when I noticed I already cannot feel any more shame other than from Takashi’s gaze, only you. It doesn’t matter what happened with those other people that I should protect! For me, Takashi is already my everything!”<br /> <br /> “That completely went against the iron law of Disgraced Angel Chirariel!”<br /> <br /> “If it’s to monopolize Takashi’s gaze for myself then…I don’t care even if you become my enemy!”<br /> <br /> “Are you losing your mind!?” If there was somebody else that was witnessing this sight from the side, they would surely doubt the sanity of the participants of this scene. Yet even while being in the middle of the aforementioned scene, Karin yelled such.<br /> <br /> “Stop it, Chirariel Blue!” Kazuki too got carried away by the mood and yelled.<br /> <br /> “Takashi just step back and look at me! …CHIRAAAAAARI WAAAAAAVE!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte linked both her hands behind her head and took a pose that highlighted her chest.<br /> <br /> Chirariel exhibited their {{furigana|Super Sure-kill Move|Chirariism}} through taking a sexy pose!<br /> <br /> “GUWAAAAAAAAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> Karin raised a scream while trembling *buru buru* all over. Kazuki too hallucinated the violent water torrent that was created from the Chirari Energy that spring forth from Lotte’s sexy breast valley (fiction).<br /> <br /> “Shitt…I won’t hand over Takashi to you! CHIRAAAAAARI FLAAAAAAAAME!!”<br /> <br /> Karin opposed the attack and pushed out her butt with a ‘boing’. From that butt, Kazuki hallucinated seeing the violent flame spouting out.<br /> <br /> “KYAAAAAAA!” This time Lotte was the one that screamed out. Flame and water clashed against each other!<br /> <br /> “Kuh, both of you, what a fight…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki completely engrossed in being Takashi and poured his gaze to the two who were taking unbelievable pose in unbelievable appearance.<br /> <br /> “Takashi! More…look at me more!” Lotte yelled while she kept puffing out her chest.<br /> <br /> “Takashi! The one who you have to look at is just me!” Karin too yelled while dancing out her butt.<br /> <br /> “Which one I…should look at…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki held his head in his hands and kneeled on the spot. At that time Kazuki was making Takashi’s conflict as his own, the corridor of the Witch’s Mansion transformed into the battlefield of the two girls that stopped being angels.<br /> <br /> “…What in the world are you all doing here?”<br /> <br /> Suddenly―a voice of absolute zero dragged Kazuki and the other two back from the delusion world into the world of reality.<br /> <br /> Koyuki opened her door unnoticed by anyone and put out her head into the corridor.<br /> <br /> “You two…are you sane?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Lotte and Karin returned to their own respective room while Kazuki was remonstrated by Koyuki in the corridor.<br /> <br /> “Making them dress shamelessly like that and taking impure poses, what are you doing?”<br /> <br /> Though Koyuki was also such a girl that always wore only white shirt put on top a single panty as her casual wear.<br /> <br /> “No…we were just a little, heated up too much in playing around…”<br /> <br /> When he thought back, Kazuki too, Lotte too and also Karin didn’t go through a normal childhood period.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was a senior in his orphanage always held the awareness of [I have to be dependable] and matured prematurely through his childhood period. He never had fun playing some make-believe game innocently for even once.<br /> <br /> Karin who was an orphan like him too, Lotte who was raised in an imperial court too, their circumstances were without a doubt similar to him.<br /> <br /> The three of them, somewhere in their heart they might yearn for that kind of childlike playing. <br /> <br /> “Somehow it’s like we were discovering the lost puzzle piece that didn’t exist in our time as children, a refreshing feeling…”<br /> <br /> “Are you always searching for chances to get a girl emphasizing her chest to you in flutter or for a girl to push out her butt to you bouncily since you were a child until now? That is really a serious sickness of perversion isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> That’s not it Koyuki…Chirariel is pointlessly lewd, but it’s a really great anime….<br /> <br /> “Well, I’ll accept Kazuki even if you are a little perverted but…please refrain from perverted conducts that go too far.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki turned her back in a huff, then she was going back to her room. Unconsciously his eyes became attracted to the butt that jutted out just a little from the end of the shirts that she wore, but Kazuki was “Wait a second” and called her to stop.<br /> <br /> “For Koyuki, what kind of thing is a romantic situation for you?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was trying to rely on Koyuki who was an avid reader here. She might be unexpectedly a romanticist.<br /> <br /> “Romantic…is it?”<br /> <br /> “Things like what you are yearning for in this kind of situation.”<br /> <br /> After Koyuki was hesitating to say for a little in shyness, she opened her mouth timidly.<br /> <br /> “I…I yearn for wall bang…”<br /> <br /> “Wall bang?”<br /> <br /> “Cornered close to the wall…then the right elbow banged the wall to block the escape path…”<br /> <br /> Blocking the escape path? He didn’t understand why Koyuki yearned for that kind of thing, but Kazuki thought he would try it for real. He smoothly approached Koyuki as if cornering her to the wall of the corridor.<br /> <br /> “Like this?”<br /> <br /> Right beside Koyuki’s face who was glancing around restlessly in bewilderment, ‘DON!’ Kazuki banged his right elbow close.<br /> <br /> Certainly, it felt like her escape path was blocked. Then Kazuki naturally brought his face near Koyuki’s.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s face blushed bright red and she looked down.<br /> <br /> “In other words, it’s fine for Koyuki to be approached forcefully?”<br /> <br /> “Ye…yes…” Koyuki murmured with a voice that almost couldn’t be heard. “I, am a shy coward, I always want to escape immediately so…even so a person that chased after me like this is…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki decided in his heart that if Koyuki wished for this then he was going to try it.<br /> <br /> “So you are thinking like that. Then Koyuki, I’m not going to let you run from here at all.”<br /> <br /> “I, I’m ashamed…” Against Koyuki that was averting her eyes, Kazuki directly put his hand on her chin.<br /> <br /> “Look at here properly.” He made her face to his way and then he stared hard at her directly in a distance where their nose tips could touch each other. Koyuki became completely bright red from her ears also until her neck.<br /> <br /> “Koyuki, right now you are making a really cute face.” Kazuki whispered. The whispering voice was naturally tinged with sweet reverberation.<br /> <br /> “Noo…I don’t like to be looked at like that…”<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s eyes were wet with tears, yet a heart mark flew from her chest. That appearance of hers was truly cute.<br /> <br /> “You are saying that in your mouth but, you don’t hate it right? Next what do you want to be done to you while we are like this?”<br /> <br /> “I want a lot of embarrassing things…to be done on me…. Despite so I am made unable to escape…”<br /> <br /> “Embarrassing things, for example what kinds of things?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki blew his breath softly at Koyuki’s long ear. “Fuaa!” Like that, her body was trembling in shivers. Koyuki was weak in her ears. With his left hand finger, Kazuki stroked Koyuki’s long earlobe gently.<br /> <br /> “Actually you are not thinking of running away at all right? In truth, you want this to be done more to you don’t you?”<br /> <br /> “Ye…yes…! I want you to do more embarrassing things to me…!”<br /> <br /> While trembling in shivers, Koyuki came appealing at him. Kazuki was “You are cute” and kissed her pure white cheek to convey his honest feelings. Koyuki closed her eyes tightly as if to endure the excitement in her chest. While doing that she said self-torturing things like “Lies…someone like me is cute, that’s…”.<br /> <br /> “You are still saying something like that. Then I’m going to continue kissing you until you believe it.”<br /> <br /> Not only her cheek, but also her forehead, chin, nose tip, Kazuki rained down kisses to all the places he could reach on her face. While he stroked her sensitive ear with his left hand gently, he caressed her whole face with his lips dearly. “Hauu…” Raising a frail voice, Koyuki leaked out rough breaths from her enchanting half opened mouth.<br /> <br /> “After this, what am I going to do to Koyuki who is pretending to dislike this?”<br /> <br /> “Af, after this…even though it’s embarrassing, my clothes is stripped off forcefully…”<br /> <br /> Kazuki stopped playing with Koyuki’s ear and moved his hand to the button on the shirt’s collar. Koyuki stared at that hand manner as if seeing a dream. One, two buttons were unfastened, and then the white shirt fell under the floor in flutter. Koyuki who now only wore a single piece of panty was trembling with a vroom in shame.<br /> <br /> “This kind of thin body…is embarrassing…”<br /> <br /> While saying so Koyuki didn’t do anything like hiding her body―as if inviting him.<br /> <br /> “That’s not true. It’s a really beautiful body.”<br /> <br /> The skin that was white like snow drew gentle-sloping line, forming the still unripe bulges. Kazuki’s sight unconsciously became nailed down on the reddening tip on those bulges. This is bad, he thought.<br /> <br /> “…After this, how does Koyuki want to be treated?”<br /> <br /> “I, I want to be touched…touch all over my body, I want to be loved…”<br /> <br /> “…But if we do even more than this, my self control will be completely gone. Even if the time where Koyuki thinks that you truly want to escape comes, I won’t be able to notice it…let’s leave it around this much.”<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;puni* Kazuki pinched Koyuki’s cheek. Koyuki’s rough breath calmed down little by little. Her eyes that were like looking at a dream returned to the color of reality slowly.<br /> <br /> “…Puu. Then for the last please kiss me at the mouth, gently.”<br /> <br /> Embracing tightly the Koyuki who was only wearing a single piece of panty, Kazuki sucked Koyuki’s lips as strong as he could.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s spine was trembling in shivers.<br /> <br /> “I, I…I’m going to enter the bath…”<br /> <br /> When they separated their lips, Koyuki ran away after rubbing both her thighs against each other restlessly.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> When he thought back, it was really something that seemed completely unrealistic that they had done in a whim, but it was a deeply sweet time. In short it was romantic, that situation just now.<br /> <br /> But the romantic just now…he had a feeling that to a certain extent it was from Koyuki’s peculiar interest….<br /> <br /> He should try to ask for the opinion of the other girls just a little bit more. While the fast beating in his heart still hasn’t settled down yet, this time Kazuki visited Hikaru-senpai’s room―.<br /> <br /> “Romantic situation?”<br /> <br /> “Yes, a situation that senpai is yearning for.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai made Kazuki who suddenly visited sit on the bed, then when she sat beside him she came leaning on him. While conversing, she nuzzled her chest that as always was covered with a fit-wear that tightly stuck to her skin, to Kazuki, probably intentionally. This person always nonchalantly appealed herself that she was a girl, coming at him with temptation.<br /> <br /> “If we talk about romantic…then it’s a rapidly falling ceiling.”<br /> <br /> “…Huh?”<br /> <br /> “When a ceiling comes falling, I hold it back desperately. Then [Quickly go forward while I’m holding this back!] [How could I advance forward by leaving senpai behind…I won’t do that!] [Stupid idiot, if Kazuki doesn’t go, who will stop the great demon lord Kaguya!]”<br /> <br /> With an expression and voice that were true to her nature, Hikaru-senpai made a lone performance. But great demon lord Kaguya….<br /> <br /> “Right there with a ‘WHAM’, I kicked Kazuki away from the room where the ceiling is falling into the corridor. [Live for my part too okay…actually I held this feeling for you, I lov…] …GUSHA! BORIGORI! (pulverization sound)&lt;ref&gt;All these words is not sound effect but Hikaru herself that said it&lt;/ref&gt; BICHUGUCHU (water sound)!”<br /> <br /> “Senpai died!? Moreover the sound effect of the result is pointlessly gross!”<br /> <br /> “…That kind of situation, that’s what I yearned for.”<br /> <br /> While cutely leaning her body on him, what in the world was this person saying?<br /> <br /> “It’s different. What I want to ask is not something from a shounen manga like that, but something more like a shoujo manga.”<br /> <br /> “Shoujo manga huh―. I've never read any shoujo manga though―. If I have to say what I’m yearning for then, I want to be treated more like a girl or something―”<br /> <br /> “Senpai is a cute girl you know.”<br /> <br /> “Ahaha, get affectionate with me more and even more pleeease♪”<br /> <br /> With a ‘pyon’ senpai approached her face near Kazuki’s then she rubbed her cheek with Kazuki’s *suri suri*. Against a more senior senpai that he respected in both character and strength, should he feel shy or troubled when she fawned at him like this….<br /> <br /> “Hey, Kazuki. I have thought this for a long time but…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai attached their cheeks together tightly and whispered with a sweet voice.<br /> <br /> “My second kiss…how should I beg you for it I wonder?”<br /> <br /> ―For that request, just that word is sufficient already.<br /> <br /> Kazuki grasped one hand of Hikaru-senpai with his left hand, embraced her slender waist with his right hand, and then he touched their lips together.<br /> <br /> “Nn…♪” Senpai rubbed their lips together enjoying the feel of Kazuki’s lips, held his lips in her mouth, and she also nuzzled her well-ordered nose at Kazuki’s nose grazingly―eskimo kiss.<br /> <br /> Along with ticklish frolicking around, a heart mark came flying.<br /> <br /> After she separated their lips with a ‘chuu’ sound, Hikaru-senpai was being bashful.<br /> <br /> “Ju, just as I thought, it’s really embarrassing and makes my heart beat really fast isn’t it, kissing. Ehe.”<br /> <br /> ―Researching more of the romanticness of the action of kissing itself might be a good idea.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, is there a kiss like this that you want to do? Like an even more romantic kiss or something.”<br /> <br /> “Romantic kiss? Uu―n…” Hikaru-senpai tapped her chin with her finger and pondered.<br /> <br /> “My breast and my butt, I want to be kissed while being touched on those two places.”<br /> <br /> “…Eh?” Kazuki was taken aback. Looking at Kazuki's bewilderment, Hikaru-senpai grinned widely like a young boy that just thought of some mischief. Kazuki’s left hand that was linked with her hand was moved onto her breast, then Kazuki’s right hand that was in her waist toward her butt, each of the hands were guided by Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s fingers that were paralyzed with nervousness reflexively dug *funyuu* into Hikaru-senpai’s flesh. Senpai’s breast and butt that was covered with only a piece of fit-wear were soft similar with being naked―no, it could even be thought that the softness increased even more because of how it stuck to the skin tightly.<br /> <br /> He had several experiences of breasts that were pressed on him until this much. But the softness of a breast that he grasped with an eagle’s grip using finger where the nerves was concentrated, it had a different dimension with his experiences in the past.<br /> <br /> Unthinkingly he kept massaging *funyu funyu* several times just like that. Looking at Kazuki whose face heated up, Hikaru-senpai was laughing “hehehe” and then she kissed him one more time. Lips, breast, butt…tasting the three places that were full of a girl’s sensation at the same time. ―He couldn’t touch them this simply in this kind of place. Even while thinking that thought, he couldn’t release his palms from Hikaru-senpai’s breast and butt in fascination.<br /> <br /> With ‘chuu’ sound their lips parted. Kazuki asked what was her intention with his gaze.<br /> <br /> “Because like this I can actually feel that you are really feeling my charm as a girl…”<br /> <br /> While smiling bashfully, Hikaru-senpai dropped her gaze to Kazuki’s lower body.<br /> <br /> “Also…when a change happened to your penis, for me it’s really romantic you seeee♪”<br /> <br /> “That is not romantic…but erotic you know!”<br /> <br /> Borrowing the momentum of the tsukkomi, Kazuki somehow brought his hands far from the soft sensation.<br /> <br /> But against Kazuki that was trying to separate their body, senpai leaped at him “Ahaha, I won’t let you escape―. Heyaaa―!” and embraced him tightly. Like fellow children innocently, but also accompanied with the sweet thrill of man and woman, Kazuki and Hikaru-senpai entangled together on top of the bed. And then they kissed one more time.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The night gradually grew late.<br /> <br /> “If you want to know about romantic, you should come to my place right from the start you know!”<br /> <br /> The one that he visited next was Mio’s room. Without even sitting on chairs, the two stayed standing in the center of the room. Mio puffed her chest ‘ehhem’ and answered Kazuki’s question.<br /> <br /> “Is Myon-chan a romanticist?”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, stop calling me Myon-chan!”<br /> <br /> Mio-sensei ‘kohon’ cleared her throat and began the class.<br /> <br /> “What is called romantic is a way to stir up your feeling, a play technique just so you know.”<br /> <br /> “I have a feeling that this is the first time I am hearing an opinion that has a truth in it.”<br /> <br /> “There are various techniques but…the most easy to understand technique is surely [poem]!”<br /> <br /> “Poem?” Hearing that word he was not familiar with, Kazuki leaned his ears with deep interest.<br /> <br /> “Even with a really ordinary object, but the instant you express it with poetic words, it will make you reconfirm it with a totally fresh beauty. Changing a normal day into an extraordinary day…it’s not an exaggeration to even say that poems exist to make everything romantic.”<br /> <br /> Now that she mentioned it, when Mio made her self-introduction she said things like liking poems.<br /> <br /> “For example when a boy says [cute] to a girl. The girl too would be happy when it was first said to her, but it will gradually change into feeling of [okay okay I get it] if you keep saying it to her right? It’s a weak word. It’s a word that will become ordinary, become obsolete. If right there the boy comes up with a more ingenious sentence like [ah, you are really cute without question] using all sorts of poetic words to present to the girl, the girl will once again notice how she is being thought of so importantly by the boy in a really fresh sensation, turning into a romantic feeling!”<br /> <br /> “I see…but is it not embarrassing to say such clichéd words? Even with only saying the word cute but with sincere feelings, or maybe simple is the best, I think it will already transmit the speaker’s feeling enough though…. It’s scary to make a blunder and make the atmosphere go cold.”<br /> <br /> “Certainly depending on the situation there are also times when simple words are enough to pierce the heart. But you know, to a certain degree it’s fine even if you fail. [Ah, for the sake of making me happy, this person tried hard until this much] thinking like that, just from that won’t she feel an emotion of love? What is called romantic is not focusing on the result, but it’s something that appreciates the process too!”<br /> <br /> “I, I see! You won’t get anything without challenging anything is that it? But I don’t have any confidence here, doing something like using words stylishly like a poem is…”<br /> <br /> “The, then…first you need to practice. Try it by expressing my charms poetically here!”<br /> <br /> Mio’s charm was it…she was so to speak a companion that was always charming through day and night. I’m going to show her.<br /> <br /> “Mio’s hair is…as if pure gold that is made into threads, beautifully glittering in light.”<br /> <br /> “Fufuu, it’s a little clichéd but isn’t it quite good? So Kazuki first come from the hair…”<br /> <br /> “This elegant brightness suited Mio’s noble heart perfectly. Mio is always proudly, magnificently, truly a possessor of a golden heart after all.”<br /> <br /> “That’s a good feeling! The mix of not only praising the external appearance but also the inside earned you a high score!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Mio stared at each other with rapt attention.<br /> <br /> “Your beauty is like an unattainable flower however…Mio’s big and beautiful eyes that are gazing at me are overflowing with charm and rich in expression, that’s why I unconsciously reached my hand in my wish to embrace you. A gem so precious that it made me timidly question myself whether it is okay for someone like me to hold it in my hand…for me that is Mio without doubt.”<br /> <br /> “Kyaa―!!” Mio suddenly yelled and hopped up and down repeatedly.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, so you think of me like that!? Aren’t you loving me too much!?”<br /> <br /> “I love you Mio. No matter how many times I convey it, when I thought that my feelings couldn’t be conveyed and how it would make Mio anxious, it made me glad that I can convey my love like this.”<br /> <br /> “Funyaaaaaaaaannn!”<br /> <br /> Mio staggered as if she was being dizzy from standing too fast. Kazuki held her for support in panic looking at her state.<br /> <br /> “Fuwawa…I’m going to faint. Ah, but right now I’m in this kind of appearance…”<br /> <br /> Mio suddenly noticed that she was in her pajama right now and shook her head.<br /> <br /> “I’m not a person like this! Kazuki, wait a little bit! I’m going to enter my serious mode after this!”<br /> <br /> Mio suddenly hit Kazuki’s chest with her hand lightly. She pushed him out from her room to the corridor.<br /> <br /> The door was closed loudly, and then he could hear sounds of rustling and moving around from inside the room.<br /> <br /> “Kazukii, how about this!?”<br /> <br /> What she came wearing were clothes that looked like in the midway between dress and one-piece, an extravagant deep crimson clothes.<br /> <br /> “The deep crimson feels like Mio’s theme color. But it’s not an offensive color and instead more of an elegant luster of silk’s softness and drape. It has the impression of your best clothes. To be able to face a girl this beautiful, it’s an unthinkable honor as a man.”<br /> <br /> “Hanyaa―nn♪ …Yosh, next!”<br /> <br /> ―From there Mio modeled various clothes coordination by all means…towards Mio’s effort, Kazuki used all his power to praise her using honeyed words. Mio’s fashion show crossed a lot of genre. She turned into a natural cute style, becoming an outdoor girl, dressing in celebrity style, and many others.<br /> <br /> …How many clothes does this girl have, Kazuki shuddered in front of Mio’s girl power.<br /> <br /> “…Then, next is this-!” What appeared next was an appearance he was used to see―her Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> “The me in this form…once again what do you think?”<br /> <br /> “…I think this is the appearance that let out Mio’s charm the best. Gorgeous, but at the same time a crisp awe-inspiring appearance of a fighting girl. When I’m looking at it, my feelings tighten from the dignified beauty, like standing in front of a work of art in the museum that I cannot avert my eyes from at a moment’s notice. However at the same time…Mio’s beautiful skin and the line of a girl’s body are mostly visible, that’s why my heart as man is tickled fiercely. Is it okay for me to be charmed by this sublime beauty, is it also okay for me to fall into my desire…am I human, or beast, the boundary line between those two is blurring…”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, you are turning into a beast…” Mio’s face boiled bright red.<br /> <br /> “The, then I’m going for the next!”<br /> <br /> Mio went back to her room once more. This time there were no sound of clothes being taken off or clothes being worn for a while.<br /> <br /> After no sound at all the door immediately opened―what appeared in front of him, was the naked Mio. There was not even a single string attached on her body. The important places were only hidden by both her hands, the other everything was fully exposed at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “The bare plain me…how is it I wonder…?”<br /> <br /> While Kazuki’s eyes were being stolen, he gulped his saliva.<br /> <br /> “This is not good, Mio. I become unable to restrain myself. In front of someone this beautiful and important, I still mustn’t become a beast.”<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii…do you really value me importantly? Then…”<br /> <br /> Mio parted her hands that hid her body, only to Kazuki, she exposed her everything.<br /> <br /> However it was only just for a moment, the girl immediately leaped into Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> And then she turned to Kazuki’s face and closed her eyes. Guessing the unsaid meaning, Kazuki touched their lips together. Mio who was in the form just like when she was born, if they couldn’t mingle their body together then at the very least even if it was just her feelings, she kissed Kazuki greedily.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Romantic? For me I really yearn for adult’s romance.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai quietly smiled and said that.<br /> <br /> “Adult’s romance, is it…? Something like night view?”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s poor imagination, Kaguya-senpai was “Right right!” and nodded.<br /> <br /> Inside Kaguya-senpai’s room, an incense was being lit as usual. It didn’t have strong emphasis that made him concerned, just a sweetly tickling aroma at inadvertent moment. It even resembled senpai’s own scent&amp;mdash;Both of them were sitting on the bed, a thick sweet scent was also coming from Kaguya-senpai’s body that was sitting right beside him.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s room, compared to others&amp;mdash;it had the characteristic of the collection of various analogue games inside the cupboard. Standard card games like trump or uno, chess or shogi&lt;ref&gt;Japanese chess&lt;/ref&gt;, standard board games called game of life, furthermore there were also international-made maniac games that were imported to Japan in the past. There was even a game with Cthulhu Mythos as its theme where Naiarlatoteph made an appearance that made Kazuki felt complicated. With Kaguya-senpai’s love of bargaining&lt;ref&gt;The kanji used for this could also mean tactic or strategy&lt;/ref&gt; and psychological warfare, occasionally Kazuki also played together with her. The games results so far between them was even.<br /> <br /> “Night view is also good! In the high class restaurant on a rooftop of a high rise hotel, where one side of the wall is fixed with glass where we could see an unbroken view of the night Tokyo! Well, though the current Tokyo’s night view seemed like it has become fairly darker when compared with the past Tokyo. Reserving such a place, with the waiter always staying in standby at one corner of the room, Otouto-kun is swirling around a wine glass that sparkled from the light reflection of the chandelier above, and then you make a toast in front of my eyes. The wine is chateau wine that has aged for ten-odd years.”<br /> <br /> “We are still minors, senpai.” Of course all the wine that was circulated in the market currently only consisted of domestic products.<br /> <br /> “And then when the meal ended, continuing just like that we are going to the suite room of the hotel…. While I’m in the middle of showering, Otouto-kun will be waiting wearing a bathrobe and sitting on a chair. While swirling around a wine glass in one hand.”<br /> <br /> The wine glass that was continued to be swirled around actually had an outstanding supporting role here.<br /> <br /> “For the sake of me who seemed to be shy, Otouto-kun turned off the lights. And then the overlapping silhouette of the two people with the night view as the background…That kind of adultery night…”<br /> <br /> “That’s too adultery really…. Also it takes too much money it’s impossible…”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu. Even if it's not that kind of place, something like watching the night parade in an amusement park with the two of us, doing a date in a romantic place is great I think.”<br /> <br /> For the sake of creating a romantic situation, going to a romantic place was certainly an easy to understand solution.<br /> <br /> “By, by the way I wonder why is Otouto-kun suddenly getting concerned about something romantic!? By any chance perhaps it’s for the sake of enlivening the promised date with me…?”<br /> <br /> “Hawaa!?” Kazuki reflexively let out a strange voice. …His promise of a going to a date with Kaguya-senpai, had completely faded out from his head. Looking at that reaction of him…Kaguya-senpai’s eyes was holding still.<br /> <br /> “…Otouto-kun, by any chance…did you forget?”<br /> <br /> The pressuring smiling face of Kaguya-senpai came closer smoothly.<br /> <br /> The next instant, *ton* Kazuki’s shoulder was pushed and he rolled onto the bed.<br /> <br /> “Se, senpai…” Although he was leaking out his voice, the fault was in his own self so he couldn’t resist. However Kaguya-senpai was taking off Kazuki’s pajama shirt with popping sound of buttons. It’s fine going until that far, but suddenly even as far as his pajamas' trouser was also sliding down, as expected Kazuki became flustered.<br /> <br /> “Ple, please wait a second senpai! The trouser together!?”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-kun, it’s punishment time♡”<br /> <br /> ―The color of Kaguya-senpai’s pupils were changing into purple color. Affected with Asmodeus’ magic power, it was the color when her self-control was completely dyed with desire. Instantly senpai’s pajama disintegrated into Prima Material and she transformed into the Magic Dress figure with its unnecessary ornament omitted.<br /> <br /> Her appearance consisted only of the small fabric that covered the upper part of her chest beginning from under her neck and the parts that resembled the letter ‘V’ on her abdomen.<br /> <br /> “…Fufufu, because I had been using a lot of power in the deciding match for the third place.”<br /> <br /> “Isn’t that already more than one week ago!”<br /> <br /> And then *gachink* there was a metallic sound. There was a handcuff attached on Kazuki’s hands.<br /> <br /> “…Please wait a second. This, where did senpai take it out from?”<br /> <br /> When he didn’t resist, he really became unable to move his body at all.<br /> <br /> Right there Kaguya-senpai’s sensual body was―bending forward on him. Kaguya-senpai’s big breasts that was almost bare-naked in liberated state shook *tapun tapun*, climbing on top of Kazuki’s chest with great jolt. Her voluptuous thighs are entangling with Kazuki’s lower body.<br /> <br /> The reality of a girl’s softness and warmth was thoroughly taught into his whole body―a body posture that should even be said to be a [meat blanket]&lt;ref&gt;Niku(meat) futon. Female bedmate (whose body is likened to a fleshy cushion)&lt;/ref&gt;.<br /> <br /> “This whole night, Kazuki-kun is my plaything de―su♡”<br /> <br /> Senpai’s hand stroked Kazuki’s chest in a sliding movement. For some reason senpai liked chests.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-kun poke po―ke♡”<br /> <br /> “Uwaaa!” Having his nipple suddenly poked, Kazuki let out his voice reflexively.<br /> <br /> “Poke poke po―ke♡”<br /> <br /> His side was poked even further, Kazuki trembled fearfully.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-kun pero&lt;ref&gt;Licking sound in Japanese&lt;/ref&gt; pero♡”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai crawled her tongue in a slide from Kazuki’s nape of the neck until his cheek, and then she pursed her lips on his cheek and made out a ‘chuu’ voice. And then her soft lips sucked Kazuki’s cheek strongly.<br /> <br /> Grazing that voluptuous body on Kazuki, Kaguya-senpai began to gain a faint pleasure. Senpai’s whole body was influenced by Asmodeus’ magic power and becoming sensitive. Visibly tormenting Kazuki like this, senpai’s breath began to ‘haa haa’ get disordered.<br /> <br /> The hand that stroked Kazuki’s body moved down little by little. It was heading down to a bad place.<br /> <br /> “Sen, senpai, you mustn’t do that.”<br /> <br /> “Things that I mustn’t do doesn’t exist. …I still cannot kiss with Kazuki-kun mouth to mouth, so…I have to do everything else excepting the kiss, or else you will be taken by the other girls…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai leaked out her voice in a whisper. In her expression that was colored with pleasure, a slight urgent feeling of being cornered was mixed. Senpai was being impatient.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki whispered to the senpai who was really kind to him more than anyone else since his enrollment here.<br /> <br /> “I really love you.” With that he got his face that could move freely closer and kissed her cheek.<br /> <br /> There were also times when a mere simple word could pierce the heart―With a flush, blood was rushing to Kaguya’s face.<br /> <br /> “Sheesh! It’s no good for Kazuki-kun to be the one attacking right now! Even though this is the night where I’m the one who is attacking!!”<br /> <br /> But perhaps the impatience and anxiety had disappeared from Kaguya, her hand that was reaching to Kazuki’s lower body stopped in a narrow call. She circled both her hands around Kazuki’s hips and hugged him tightly again.<br /> <br /> “…I won’t do something too extreme, but it’s a waste to get satisfied immediately, so I’m going to enjoy Kazuki-kun thoroughly and comfortably through the whole night.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya declared so and turned off the light with a remote control. And then she restarted nuzzling her body on Kazuki. Inside the pitch black room, only Kaguya’s sweet sigh reverberated in his ear. The large fruit of her breasts were kneaded on Kazuki’s chest. Kaguya’s nether region was rubbing on Kazuki’s thigh. Kaguya made her pleasant feeling get worked up greedily, that body of hers got damply wet with sweat. Around him was teeming with the sweet fragrance like a nectar from the sweat and pheromone. Sometimes the girl's body trembled in a twitching way *bikun bikun*.<br /> <br /> Kaguya made Kazuki’s hard body as a tool for the sake of pleasure without rushing in a trance.<br /> <br /> It was fine to desist from escalating their action, but because of this and that, Kazuki as usual continued being completely in a half-dead state from the exposure of the sensual temptation.<br /> <br /> He wanted to indulge Kaguya’s body in insatiable lust as much as he could. Even that kind of desire also existed inside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> However Kazuki was being handcuffed, also even if he was not being handcuffed, there was also his self-restrain that forbid him from taking a step past the line. If he stepped past the line once, then his restrain of himself would be completely gone.<br /> <br /> Restrain…. It was not only Kaguya-senpai, he also had to stuck it out in regards with everyone else….<br /> <br /> As the swordsman of Hayashizaki…if he didn’t suppress his worldly desires….<br /> <br /> “UOO…Namu Amida Butsu&lt;ref&gt;I sincerely believe in Amitabha / Lord have mercy on me&lt;/ref&gt;…Namu Amida Butsu…”<br /> <br /> To suppress his worldly desires, Kazuki chanted a Buddhist prayer with groaning like voice. Kaguya-senpai was startled.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-kun, stop chanting that weird spell! That’s the total opposite of romantic!!”<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> He had a feeling that he had already caught a glimpse of that concept called romantic.<br /> <br /> Last night he could make everyone happy more than usual and passed the time in sweet atmosphere.<br /> <br /> {If you could grow until you could create that kind of flow deliberately, then you will become an excellent playboy!}<br /> <br /> Leme came transmitting her voice with Telepathy.<br /> <br /> No, it was one kind of training to acquire skill and knowledge for the sake of spending an even better time with his precious people. It was not like he was aiming to become a playboy or something but….<br /> <br /> Only the problem was that everything he had done yesterday could go well because the other parties were the amiable people of the Witch’s Mansion. He didn’t know if it could also go well if he did the same thing to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> However…nothing would change if he didn’t even do anything. To face the [romantic] problem assigned to him by senpai seriously was the responsibility of him who kissed senpai forcefully.<br /> <br /> As the swordsman of Hayashizaki, he couldn’t run away from romantic!<br /> <br /> {However when I thought will something happen…or nothing will happen…}<br /> <br /> …What?<br /> <br /> {No, it’s nothing. O King, don’t worry and make the girl fall!}<br /> <br /> As always the yell from Leme that made him feel bad superbly, he thought.<br /> <br /> After school, Kazuki finally came at the Sword Division’s school building searching for Kazuha-senpai’s figure.<br /> <br /> With Leme’s ability―the power of &lt;Positivity Level Map&gt;, he could perceive that for some reason today too Kazuha-senpai was at the abandoned school building. Most likely she was just alone.<br /> <br /> When he finally arrived at the club building after traversing the Japanese garden, his timing was just right with Kazuha-senpai coming out of the abandoned club room. Toward senpai who was raising *kan kan* footstep sounds descending the outer stairs, Kazuki hurriedly called out to her.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, I was looking for you.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too raised his voice in nervousness, but even more than him, Kazuha-senpai jumped in surprise. And then as if leaping down, she descended the stairs and turned her back at Kazuki. Then she dashed away like a startled rabbit.<br /> <br /> “Wa, please wait a second senpai!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki chased her in panic. The story was different with what she said yesterday when she didn’t even give him a chance to talk.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki, don’t tell me you…you are coming here to do something romantic!?”<br /> <br /> While escaping, Kazuha-senpai looked back. That cheeks of hers had already became slightly red.<br /> <br /> “Even though senpai is the one that said if I didn’t do something romantic you will cut ties with me, why are you running away!? I won’t be able to do anything romantic like this!!”<br /> <br /> “I, it’s fine even if you don’t do it! As I thought it’s fine even if you don’t do anything romantic!!”<br /> <br /> What irrationality. With this the chance that she promised to give was only a waste paper and she was going to cut ties without any question asked. No…Kazuha-senpai’s positivity level was not that low that she would cut ties that absurdly.<br /> <br /> Or perhaps had senpai came to become embarrassed later on after she demanded that [romantic kiss]!? The senpai at that time was in an absurd temperament after all, it was not impossible….<br /> <br /> “Wait senpai! It’s dangerous to run away while not looking at your front you know!?”<br /> <br /> “Eh!?” Kazuha-senpai raised her voice and looked back at her front, but it was too late.<br /> <br /> While she was looking back here, senpai who was dashing through the Sword Division’s garden with Enchant Aura at full power didn’t notice the excellent pine tree that stood in front of her, then she splendidly collided with it head-on. “UWAAA!” She tottered while scattering away blue defensive magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki caught up right there. There upon all of a sudden, [wall bang chance] such idea floated in his head. The escaping Kazuha-senpai was overlapping with Koyuki’s figure.<br /> <br /> Kazuki approached Kazuha-senpai and sandwiched her between his body and the pine tree. Kazuha-senpai turned to look his way. He thrust out his right hand through the side of her face to the trunk of the pine tree with a ‘DON’. Wall bang stance―success.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, please listen to my story.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki naturally brought his face closer. Kazuha-senpai meekly shrunk herself.<br /> <br /> “Why are you running away? Isn’t this different from the promise?”<br /> <br /> “Be, because when I thought about it calmly, what kind of romantic thing you are going to do, it’s strange I thought…”<br /> <br /> “But I’m troubled if there is no chance for me to repair my relation with senpai. Even though if it’s for the sake of that, I plan to show that I will do whatever romantic thing I have to do.”<br /> <br /> “E, even if you become that overly serious to do something romantic in high spirit…”<br /> <br /> “Please give me a challenge to do something romantic. For the sake of that I had done training.”<br /> <br /> “You said training…. …You don’t have any reason to be that attached to me right? Let’s stop this already, there are a lot of other girls after all…”<br /> <br /> “There is only one Kazuha-senpai here.”<br /> <br /> “……..Lusting for me until that much, just stop it.” She was talking in a voice that became smaller and smaller.<br /> <br /> “Maybe this is lust, but I don’t want my bond with senpai to be gone. Also if senpai reject me from the bottom of your heart I will even give up, but like this won’t the both of us will just get sad?”<br /> <br /> “…You cannot do something like a proper kiss anyway…”<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, but that time there was no other choice except to kiss.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai fell into a dead-end because she had no outlet for her emotions, she was slightly trembling with a bright red face. Then suddenly “WAA―!” she yelled and pounded at Kazuki’s chest *poka poka* with both hands repeatedly.<br /> <br /> “Even though you don’t really like me that much! Just let me go already―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki hugged Kazuha-senpai tightly altogether with the arms that were hitting him.<br /> <br /> “Why is senpai thinking like that? There is no way I don’t like anything about senpai.”<br /> <br /> Just like what Mio said, his own feelings had to be conveyed completely.<br /> <br /> Exhaust all my words.<br /> <br /> “The same magic swordsman like me, you love kenjutsu beyond all else rather than Summoning Magic. Even when you were in the very bottom of failure, you kept trying to crawl up with your sword and hard effort. That figure of senpai made me arbitrarily think of you as a companion that is similar with me.”<br /> <br /> “Don’t just think of me as someone similar with you as you please. At any rate, someone like me is completely weak…”<br /> <br /> “Please don’t talk like that, I want to become stronger together with senpai.”<br /> <br /> “If you think like that, doesn’t that mean you only see me as a swordsman and nothing else…”<br /> <br /> He thought it was a little unexpected. Senpai’s way of talking just now could be thought as behaving like a spoilt child that wanted to depend on him.<br /> <br /> “That’s not true. Senpai is a lovely person with that straight forward personality of yours. You scold me not to hurt girls. I was anxious whether I was hated by senpai or not but senpai came to rely on me for your kenjutsu. Through one thing or another senpai worked really hard for the sake of my battle election that didn’t have any connection at all with senpai. You also cooperated with me even though it was for saving Karin who was an enemy…”<br /> <br /> The more he looked back at his memory, the more he realized that Kazuha-senpai was a [good person].<br /> <br /> “And then you got angry, you laughed, you got angry to hide your shyness…senpai is an energetic lovely girl. I don’t want to see such senpai to have a sad face.”<br /> <br /> “…Just like everyone else?”<br /> <br /> “Yes. Just like everyone else, senpai is precious for me.”<br /> <br /> “Even though you understand my feelings you still say something like that, how unfair…”<br /> <br /> Certainly it might be unfair. But he had decided not to do anything unfair. It doesn’t matter even if I become a pet or I become someone with a harem, either way I will devote my everything for my precious people.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai. It’s okay even if it is not immediately right now, so please recognize me. Because for the sake of that, I will continue to do romantic things for senpai. And then…I will kiss senpai one more time.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki proclaimed such in Kazuha-senpai’s ear while hugging her body tightly. Senpai groaned “uuuu…” while burying her face into Kazuki’s chest―an avatar of a small key flew to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> It was the proof of positivity level that surpassed a value of 65. She didn’t hate him, on the contrary.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, just now, your positivity level had gone up.”<br /> <br /> “Wha!?” Kazuha-senpai opened her eyes wide, “Release me, release me release me release me alreadyyy―!!” She struggled violently and ran away from Kazuki’s arms. And then without delay she speedily slipped away through Kazuki’s side.<br /> <br /> “I really…really really don’t like someone like you at alll―!!”<br /> <br /> After shouting that, she turned her back to Kazuki and dashed away.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, let’s eat lunch.”<br /> <br /> ―From there on every time Kazuki had time between his work as the Chief Student Council President, he showed his face as much as possible in front of Kazuha-senpai. If the wording was changed that just meant that he followed Kazuha-senpai around.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki…from now on I’m buying from the canteen…”<br /> <br /> Seeing Kazuki who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Kazuha-senpai showed a forced scowl.<br /> <br /> “I know, I heard from Kohaku. Usually senpai ate Kohaku’s homemade box lunch together with her at the abandoned clubroom, but unexpectedly she has work in the Sword Division’s student council during the lunch break so senpai is having bread from canteen right? But isn’t it lonely to just eat bread alone?”<br /> <br /> Because of the Chief Student Council President’s sudden entrance, the surrounding students of the Sword Division were making a stir.<br /> <br /> “He is taking consideration for Tsukahara-san who lost her lunch companion.”<br /> <br /> “The Chief President&lt;ref&gt;I shortened this because it seemed strange to say the full title in a casual conversation. Also because it’s a pain to keep writing the full title.&lt;/ref&gt; is so kind~”<br /> <br /> Listening on the surrounding’s conversations, Kazuha-senpai was grumbling “gunu” and making a bitter face. Kazuki too was a little surprised on the surrounding’s reaction and he looked around restlessly, but then he chose not to mind and continued the talk.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that might be so but…there is no reason to eat together with you just because of that.”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, didn’t you say before that my lunch box was delicious?”<br /> <br /> “Even the bread from canteen is tasty.” Kazuha-senpai turned her back in a huff.<br /> <br /> “Hohou…does senpai like bread that much? A cheap bread with cheap quality that has unbalanced nutrition. …Senpai’s desire to improve yourself as a swordsman is only to that degree in the end.”<br /> <br /> The canteen of the Sword Division, because it wasn’t provided with satisfactory budget until now by the Knight Academy, they only stocked up from vendors that couldn’t be said to be first class. Of course this matter is also one of Kazuki and his group’s target for reformation.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what did you say!” Against Kazuki’s cheap provocation, Kazuha-senpai turned back so quickly.<br /> <br /> The moment she turned back, Kazuki took hold of Kazuha-senpai’s hand tightly,<br /> <br /> “I brought senpai a box lunch with a more balanced nutrition, so let’s eat together. I won’t overlook this aspect as your master in sword.”<br /> <br /> From Kazuha-senpai whose hand was caught, a heart mark came flying. However Kazuha-senpai still resisted some more.<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t grip my hand! You are just too overbearing!!”<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-kun is so kind―!” “Don’t tell me you are refusing Chief President’s invitation, don’t be like that Tsukahara-san.”<br /> <br /> The surrounding’s conversations were in Kazuki’s side. Kazuha-senpai was groaning “gununu”, and she continued to get dragged away by Kazuki. Just like that the both of them walked to the abandoned clubroom. <br /> <br /> “Senpai, your positivity level has just went up a little again you know?”<br /> <br /> “You lie-! I don’t feel happy for even a tiny little bit being treated like this―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai kicked and struggled in vexation.<br /> <br /> “Ah, senpai. I forgot to prepare the chopsticks for two people. There is no other way except to feed senpai with ‘aa―n’ using my chopstick then.”<br /> <br /> “Youuu―!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Of course there was no way he could devote all his time just following Kazuha-senpai around.<br /> <br /> Around the start of June, finally the first edition of the academy newspaper was finished in the form of data at the student council room.<br /> <br /> Next they only need to print it and they would be in a situation where they could distribute it to the whole student body of the school.<br /> <br /> The content was first about the introduction of Kazuki who became the Chief Student Council President and his declaration of opinion in the form of words, and also the introduction of the Magic Division and the Sword Division’s student councils. They also especially took picture of the introduced characters and published it in the newspaper.<br /> <br /> And then the introduction of various policies that Kazuki thought he wanted to perform from now on, and also the collection of opinions from the students regarding his policy. It became that students could express their opinion by mailing it to the student council.<br /> <br /> Furthermore the newspaper also consolidated the fundamental introduction of the Magic Division and the Sword Division. It was because the Magic Division and the Sword Division didn’t know of most things about each other. What kind of system each Division had, what kind of classes they received, what kind of activity they spent their time with…the first edition of the newspaper became really varied in its content.<br /> <br /> “Even though I wanted to write about battle articles if there is leftover space, or maybe a poem corner.”<br /> <br /> Mio pouted her lips and booed. Well, he had the feeling that he wanted to try and read such things though.<br /> <br /> “The committee chairman had also done her best and reduced her sleeping time you know?”<br /> <br /> Yumeno-san had the color of exhaustion peeking out a little in her expression, but she directed him a smiling face filled with a sense of accomplishment.<br /> <br /> “After that for the time being, we are going to have Headmaster Amasaki do the last check including the design. Though I think there will be no problem, because he had looked over the main manuscript.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki murmured that, the monitor that was attached on the wall of the student council room made a ‘putsun’ sound. It was receiving a signal and started automatically. In the monitor, Headmaster Amasaki’s face was projected.<br /> <br /> This monitor was the hotline that connected the staff room with the student council room.<br /> <br /> {Hayashizaki Kazuki…not just you but everyone else seems to be present. Well fine.}<br /> <br /> “Headmaster? We are just finishing the academy newspaper here. We have also sent the data to the headmaster’s address but…do you have any business?”<br /> <br /> The time from when they had sent the newspaper data and him contacting right now was too fast for him to have finished checking already.<br /> <br /> {This is something that I’m really not clear too so I’m going right to the point…the Board Chairman Takasugi had disappeared.}<br /> <br /> “…What did you say? What is the meaning of this?”<br /> <br /> {That’s why I also don’t get it. He didn’t even leave a note of explanation, there is no trace of an incident. It’s just so sudden, that bastard’s figure vanished just like that. Even the guy’s family cannot be contacted. There was a search request coming from the Knight Order.}<br /> <br /> His family too, did that mean that Takasugi brothers had also disappeared.<br /> <br /> {Because of that there will be a new Board Chairman coming in the near future. The front page for the newspaper’s next issue is decided already with this big scoop isn’t it? Hahhahha.}<br /> <br /> “…What hahhahha, this is not the time.” Kaguya-senpai was making an amazed face with all her heart.<br /> <br /> After leaving behind a careless laugh, the communication was cut.<br /> <br /> Board Chairman Takasugi―all of his student protégées lost in the general election. Hayashi Shizuka also failed in her assassination of Hayashizaki Kazuki. Had he judged that he had no business anymore in this academy?<br /> <br /> Even so there was supposed to be some value left that could be used in the position of Board Chairman….<br /> <br /> In the end it ended with their inability to grasp any proof of that man’s true colors.<br /> <br /> In the end their exaltation of finishing the newspaper was poured with cold water completely by this unknown uneasiness.<br /> <br /> ===Part 6===<br /> <br /> The night of the same day.<br /> <br /> Kazuki together with Kaguya-senpai and Koyuki, these three people were doing card games in Kaguya-senpai’s room.<br /> <br /> Reading the opponent’s thought and building the road to victory with [strategic thinking], for Kazuki who had experienced a lot of matches as a swordsman this card game was something familiar. However Kaguya-senpai and Koyuki were also extraordinarily strong opponents in brain-using game, the match was being well contested.<br /> <br /> Koyuki who was set up by Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai and fell into the last place showed a lovely sulky look with her cheeks bulging. During that time Kazuki’s cell phone rang out.<br /> <br /> “WATCH THE NEWS RIGHT NOW!”<br /> <br /> It was Headmaster Amasaki’s loud voice with volume so loud to the degree that almost made his defensive magic power activate to protect his eardrum. When Kazuki tried to turn on the TV while he was soothing Koyuki who was silently burning for revenge, from the living room in the first floor “Kazuki, Kaguya, this is bad!” Hikaru-senpai’s voice came calling them.<br /> <br /> The three people including Kazuki descended down from the room in the second floor to the living room in the first floor. Their group was also added with Mio who heard the commotion. In the living room, Hikaru-senpai, Lotte and Karin were becoming fixed on the TV.<br /> <br /> It looked like this group of three people were originally watching anime. However what was currently projected in the living room’s large screen TV that was bigger compared to the TV in their room was a totally different image.<br /> <br /> {…This is a relay from a helicopter. Please look, The Knight Order’s subdivision is burning! Amidst the flame and rubble, a state of fighting between Magika Stigmas can be confirmed!}<br /> <br /> The reporter raised an upset voice with rough breath.<br /> <br /> They could see that the news was transmitted in real time right from the actual location from the image’s rough quality. It was an image of a town that was reduced down to rubble that reminded them of [Tokyo’s Great Destruction], and then the [flame of war].<br /> <br /> The knights that formed Heaven and Earth Formation to take control were unfolding a fierce battle with Magika Stigma.<br /> <br /> {These Magic Dresses are Solomon 72 Pillar’s.}<br /> <br /> There was also a small clip of the news studio’s situation in the screen. There was a man that looked like an expert in it where he pointed at the knights that were fighting in Heaven and Earth Formation and explained.<br /> <br /> {Then they are the Knight Order, and then the opponent they are fighting…}<br /> <br /> The news caster at his side asked for answers.<br /> <br /> {The Magic Dress of the opposing Magika Stigma―there is nothing corresponding in the database even when we make the comparison, it’s unidentified.}<br /> <br /> {So in other words, they are illegal magicians?}<br /> <br /> {Correct. Moreover this enemy is fairly in large number, they are moving to take control. …Please look, right now they are showing action of taking prisoners by capturing the knights that used up all of their magic power and fainted. A movement that is taking control like this, it’s a characteristic that could be seen from &lt;Loki Einherjar&gt; that is led by Loki from the Norse Mythology that had caused a lot of repeated terror attacks recently.}<br /> <br /> {Then this attack, is something caused by that Loki?}<br /> <br /> {However…this is something in a scale larger compared to Loki Einherjar until now…Moreover, look here, we can see figures of [swordsmen] that are supporting them. There shouldn’t be any swordsman in Loki Einherjar. Also the Magic Dress of the illegal magicians, for some reason their design looked like Japanese style…}<br /> <br /> The screen image shook fiercely. The reporter’s panicked scream rang out.<br /> <br /> {We are being aimed! The helicopter is aimed by them!!}<br /> <br /> Intense lightning attack and fireball were heading to the screen one after another flying closer. The screen was disturbed together with explosive sound―after it blacked out, the screen changed into the news studio.<br /> <br /> {The image just now come from Nagoya city, but information are coming in that repeated attacks are occurring in a large number of areas at the same time. The information is complicated but just now we have collected accurate information. Since the afternoon today there were reports of outbreak of internet and radio wave’s disruption in west Japan but, presently, west Japan is in the state of being isolated from all kind of long range communication. The situation is that there is no information at all that come from the west side…}<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kaguya-senpai too were taken aback and rooted to the spot in front of the TV.<br /> <br /> From the cell phone that he had even forgotten was still in a call state, he could hear Headmaster Amasaki’s voice.<br /> <br /> {In my side I’m also still in the middle of collecting information from the political world but, Toyama – Gifu – Aichi, the boundary line of the archipelago including those three, all the branches of the Knight Order located on the west side of that line were attacked, every one of them had fallen. There are also branches that are still holding out but we cannot make contact, they had been already completely isolated. This is terro…no, this is coup d'état. On top of losing this country’s western half police – national defense ability, information is also blockaded.}<br /> <br /> After a moment for taking a breath, Headmaster Amasaki informed him of something that was hard to believe.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> {In other words, the west Japan had parted from our country.}<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 182.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Chapter_3&diff=461534 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 3 2015-09-12T02:07:43Z <p>Hiro Hayase: turbulence -&gt; foreboding</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 3 – Tally of Votes==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Passing through the promised one week, when the end of days of his monitoring of Karin, or it could be possibly likened as accustoming a wild animal to eat food given by humans. Anyway, when the end of those days came, Kazuki returned to his usual normal days once more.<br /> <br /> And then in this school day that he had missed for quite long―it was also the same day for the voting of the Chief Student Council President after the election battle.<br /> <br /> “Well then, after the distribution of the blank voting paper, write the name of the candidate that you support.”<br /> <br /> After Liz Liza-sensei said so, she distributed the voting paper to the students in the classroom.<br /> <br /> The paper also reached to Kazuki who was sitting in his missed chair that he hadn’t sat on for a week.<br /> <br /> From his surroundings, he began to hear the rhythmical sounds of pen tips dancing around on the voting papers.<br /> <br /> …Should I vote for myself? In front of the voting paper, Kazuki felt lost.<br /> <br /> But after he became a candidate, it might be irresponsible if he couldn’t puff out his chest and claim that [I am without a doubt fitting as the Chief Student Council President]. Finally Kazuki wrote down his own name with what-do-I-care attitude.<br /> <br /> &lt;nowiki&gt;*&lt;/nowiki&gt;chon chon&lt;ref&gt;Sound of something striking repeatedly&lt;/ref&gt;*, Kazuki’s back was poked. Behind Kazuki was the seat of Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “…In the period while Kazuki took a break, the academy had gone through a serious situation you know?”<br /> <br /> “Serious situation?” Kazuki replied without turning his head.<br /> <br /> “Because of the Takasugi brothers, they conducted an extensive election campaign…”<br /> <br /> After the battle election tournament ended, it wasn’t like the candidates couldn’t do any appeal anymore. Public address, pamphlet distribution…in this one week there was many things that could be done.<br /> <br /> “Every time it was break time, the Takasugi brothers kept repeating speeches with unpleasant contents. Those days were tedious periods.”<br /> <br /> “Ah, I can imagine it. …Though I left my election campaign to Mio and the others, did it go well I wonder?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki entrusted the election campaign to his teammates Mio and Kohaku as his representatives.<br /> <br /> The advocacy that Kazuki wanted to convey―[The Magic Division and the Sword Division’s equality and friendship]<br /> <br /> [Research of tactics unbounded by Heaven and Earth Formation and the class to incorporate it]<br /> <br /> [Flexibility of the treatment and application toward illegal summoning of Diva outside the Solomon 72 Pillar]<br /> <br /> [Commencement of Sacred Treasure’s experimental use continuously and, tactic research to make use of it] ―those matters.<br /> <br /> Sure enough, could the students agree with those advocacies? Including the matter of how he didn’t show his face at all in front of the students in this one week, there was no doubt that it was disadvantageous for Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine. Amasaki-san did it properly. She also made a poster.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki handed him some kind of paper from behind.<br /> <br /> When he opened the folded up poster, there was a printing of Kazuki’s illustration inside that was drawn in an awfully shoujo manga&lt;ref&gt;Girl comic, you know those comic with beautiful slender man where the character has glittering eyes and flowery background.&lt;/ref&gt; chick pattern. Painting of anime tone. Eyes that were twinkling brightly. Nose and jaw that tapered angularly. Tall and thin body proportion that looked like a walking stick…<br /> <br /> Beside the illustration, it was accompanied with a speech balloon that said [Follow me!]. The background was the universe for some reason.<br /> <br /> “…It became like this while I was resting? I…”<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuki who was trembling all over, the girls who were in the neighboring seats were chuckling. “We are going to follow you until the end of the space you know, Chief Student Council President!”<br /> <br /> The girls in the other neighboring seat were also looking this way. “Even more than Hayashizaki-kun’s advocacy, it was an election campaign that conveyed more of the fact that Amasaki-san likes Hayashizaki-kun so very much right?”<br /> <br /> “Well, it got you favorable reputation.” Koyuki said. “It has more than just formality, there is also intimacy in it.”<br /> <br /> Intimacy…. He had quite a feeling that to have the intimacy in it was the most important thing compared to anything else.<br /> <br /> Noticing this side’s conversation, Mio who sat in the front row of the classroom looked back and waved her hand.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki! That poster, I was the one that drew it you know! How is it!?”<br /> <br /> “Shut your mouth you trashes! Don’t talk of unrelated matter!! Don’t do any discussion too!!”<br /> <br /> Having Liz Liza-sensei’s scolding resound, Mio shrunk her shoulder in fluster and fixed her gaze back to the front.<br /> <br /> Before long the voting paper was folded until the content couldn’t be seen and it was collected.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> And then in the afternoon of that day, the student general meeting was conducted. Finally the voting result would be announced.<br /> <br /> In the seats of the auditorium, all the students except the third years lined up. The third years of the Knight Academy were going through practical training in the form of rotation to the Knight Order of the whole country. Their appearance also couldn’t be seen in this day. It became that their vote didn’t get counted in the total tally.<br /> <br /> The sixteen candidates including Kazuki were sitting in a row on top of the stage that overlooked the students.<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki and Board Chairman Takasugi appeared on the center of the stage in turn. They each made the greeting for their own inauguration.<br /> <br /> And then it became the programme of the voting’s result announcement.<br /> <br /> The auditorium returned to deadly silence. However, the presenter Headmaster Amasaki who was standing in front of the mike didn’t open his mouth.<br /> <br /> Before long Liz Liza-sensei came running from the wing of the stage. She informed the lateness of vote’s tally.<br /> <br /> The students were noisy. For some reason it seemed that the announcement of the voting result would still take some time.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was on top of the stage was also feeling his own nervousness rise.<br /> <br /> Nervousness―Kazuki was someone that was recommended by Headmaster Amasaki rather than stepping forward by his own will. Kazuki himself naturally also had a feeling like [I who just enrolled this academy for around two months am…].<br /> <br /> But if there were people saying to him that he was fitting to become the Chief Student Council, a feeling that he wanted to answer those expectations also became stronger day by day when he went through the battle election.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a glance at the {{furigana|candidates|rivals}} that were sitting in a row beside him.<br /> <br /> He wouldn’t mind if he lost to Kaguya-senpai or Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> But the other thirteen candidates were mixed with enemies that he had doubt of.<br /> <br /> The first was of course, Takasugi Shūsui who he didn’t want to get elected.<br /> <br /> And then those others seniors from the Sword Division―Mino Tamiya, Shiraha Sekairi, Oguma Tokaku, and Mikogami Daizen too were also dangerous characters that had a high possibility of being intimate with the new Board Chairman Takasugi.<br /> <br /> It seemed that they were doing [Anti Magic Division] speech in the period of election campaign.<br /> <br /> The candidates from his own Magic Division, Miyamoto Reina, Kiritani Natsuo, Yumeno Shiori, and Tsukimiya Shion, these four people were all right people. Those girls were included in the group that assaulted him in the middle of the date with Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> In short they were candidates that were brainwashed by Hayashi Shizuka. They were already released from that brainwashing.<br /> <br /> The next was the group of delinquent students from the Magic Division. …They were not even brainwashed, having said that it were unclear what they even wanted to do if they got elected as student council president. Probably they didn’t even have any purpose when becoming a candidate, a doubtful group of students.<br /> <br /> That Mibu Akira was [wanting to show her good side in the battle election], but the other candidates, Iwatami Reiko, Akihita Hibari, and Karino Mika were not limited to that kind of reason. They might be pawn candidates that were encouraged or bribed by Board Chairman Takasugi.<br /> <br /> Saying it broadly, Hayashizaki Kazuki – Otonashi Kaguya – Hoshikaze Hikaru – Miyamoto Reina - Kiritani Natsuo - Yumeno Shiori - Tsukimiya Shion - Mibu Akira, these eight people were characters that were not related with Board Chairman Takasugi’s scheme for certain.<br /> <br /> And then the remaining eight people, some were included in the grey zone, but they were Kazuki’s [political opponent] so to speak.<br /> <br /> If he thought of it properly, Kazuki was the champion of the tournament, the second place was Mibu-senpai, third place and fourth place were Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai, so he had no need to worry. However this battle election was shadowed by suspicious happenings from the start till the end. Owing to that, even now Kazuki couldn’t wipe his uneasiness yet.<br /> <br /> …Was there still some kind of plot remaining that would make a complete reversal of this situation….<br /> <br /> “The tally is over!” A voice colored with exhaustion could be heard, Liz Liza-sensei came running from the wing of the stage. Headmaster Amasaki received the paper of the tally’s result and informed “Then I will conduct the announcement”. The inside of the auditorium returned to silence. Kazuki too felt dryness inside his mouth, he gulped his saliva audibly.<br /> <br /> “I will only announce the five top names in the number of votes obtained.”<br /> <br /> What was important was only the first place. Even if the lower rank’s vote tally were announced it was nothing more than a public humiliation.<br /> <br /> “Fifth place, Takasugi Shūsui. Number of votes obtained, 23 votes.<br /> <br /> Fourth place, Yumeno Shiori. Number of votes obtained, 25 votes.<br /> <br /> Third place, Hoshikaze Hikaru. Number of votes obtained, 76 votes.<br /> <br /> Second place, Otonashi Kaguya. Number of votes obtained, 112 votes.<br /> <br /> First place―Hayashizaki Kazuki. Number of votes obtained, 263 votes.<br /> <br /> That’s all, possessing the majority of the votes, Hayashizaki Kazuki is elected as the Chief Student Council President.”<br /> <br /> After a moment of silence, the auditorium was enveloped with loud cheers. Even on top of the stage…Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai and Yumeno-san, the other candidates gave a round of applause to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was being dazed and listened to the loud cheers and applause for a while. After that the self-awareness of the fact that he was being elected came late. He was being elected properly without any incident…<br /> <br /> …Then the matter this time, could he say that he had finally reached a checkpoint where he could pause with this? Everything was over…?<br /> <br /> “Chief Student Council President, the general policy speech.”<br /> <br /> He was urged by Headmaster Amasaki. Kazuki brazenly walked to the center of the stage and stood in front of the mike.<br /> <br /> He faced about the applause that reverberated through the auditorium. Already, he couldn’t act overly humble or servile anymore.<br /> <br /> There were people that thought of him. Answering that and making great effort, gave birth to bonds―<br /> <br /> Right now, he was standing right here.<br /> <br /> “I receive this appointment to become the Chief Student Council President because of the support from everyone.”<br /> <br /> Even in the case that they were not elected, all the candidates were told to think of the content of their speech beforehand. Kazuki read out loud the script inside the memory of his head.<br /> <br /> “I have enrolled in this academy for less than two months, honestly there are still many things that I don’t have any idea about. I would likely going to rely on many things to both the student council president of the Magic Division and the Sword Division. Even so I intend to understand the things that I should do by myself and the things that I want to do.<br /> <br /> The fifteen years where magic was born in this world, along with the cooperation of Solomon 72 Pillar, this academy was established. The time has come where we should stop being in the age where we are just wielding about this new principle of the world without any idea of what we are doing. Magica Stigma has to stop being haughty of their own power. The swordsmen has to have pride of their own training. Both sides joining hands together. The strong power to cut through this [new era of sword and magic] has to be grasped within the two hands joining together.<br /> <br /> I think it is the professional duties of this Knight Academy’s Chief Student Council President to be the keystone of that turning point.<br /> <br /> To cause a change that had never been seen until now by our own hand is going to be accompanied with the feeling of walking inside the darkness groping about blindly. However even inside the darkness, as long as you advance without letting go of the hands of your comrades, you should be able to discover the light without fail. The Chief Student Council President as the existence that connects the Magic Division and the Sword Division, the one who stands as the vanguard inside this darkness, right here I will declare my resolve to face this challenge.”<br /> <br /> Even while choosing decorated words, Kazuki intended to insert his own will inside those speeches.<br /> <br /> “…For the last, to those people that reached out their warm hands, accepted, and supported this me that is of different nature when seen in various surface as far as this academy is concerned, once again I express my gratitude. With all my heart, thank you very much.”<br /> <br /> With a lowering of his head with a bob, the applause that was stopped in the middle of the speech returned with the vigor of heavy thunder.<br /> <br /> {Leme is going to get troubled if you don’t live up even more to Leme’s expectation okay? Shine, o future Harem King!}<br /> <br /> Inside Kazuki’s head, Leme’s encouraging voice also rang out.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> When the student general assembly was over and it became after school, Kazuki hurriedly sprinted back to the Witch’s Mansion. He went to look for Karin’s situation for the moment.<br /> <br /> “So the school is over, Hayashizaki Kazuki. You are slow. It’s boring playing game alone, so it’d be fine to compete against you or Charlotte.”<br /> <br /> ―Karin who swore to enter Kazuki’s circle of comrades along with Tamamo no Mae had become a NEET&lt;ref&gt;Young people not in education, employment, or training.&lt;/ref&gt; that got addicted to anime and game in this span of a few days.<br /> <br /> “Also my stomach is hungry, so it’d be fine to eat your homemade snack.”<br /> <br /> In this one week period of monitoring, this girl had experienced depending on Kazuki’s life support entirely.<br /> <br /> Kazuki seized that kind of Karin’s scruff of the neck.<br /> <br /> “From now on Karin will be going to school too.”<br /> <br /> “Wha, what? Is it to the Magic Division?”<br /> <br /> Karin’s monitoring period was already over. He also had already obtained the permission from Headmaster Amasaki about this matter.<br /> <br /> If that had been decided then the girl must be returned to school without delay. If she kept living like this he had the feeling that she would become a NEET that was too late to be saved. The place she would be going was not the detention facility but to the place where Kazuki’s eyes could reach―the Magic Division.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had become the Chief Student Council President, so he was able to advance the procedure for changing course speedily.<br /> <br /> “We have to give you your own room in the Witch’s Mansion too. There are several empty rooms here.”<br /> <br /> “Wha!? You bastard-! You are planning to cancel my monitoring!?”<br /> <br /> Being informed of the sudden separation, Karin yelled in a shocked condition.<br /> <br /> “Are you lonely?”<br /> <br /> “Hmph, I’m not lonely at all.”<br /> <br /> “I’m going to be lonely you know?”<br /> <br /> “Fuh, what an effeminate guy. Well, if you bastard say so it’s fine even if I stay together with you.”<br /> <br /> “But get out. Get out right now. Come on get out.”<br /> <br /> “Wait a second! I might be coming to assassinate you again you know, this me!?”<br /> <br /> “You are not going to do that already, I believe in you.”<br /> <br /> “No way―! I ‘m staying here―! Snackk―kk!!” Like that, the quack assassin kicked and struggled.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> While Kazuki dragged out Karin’s scruff of the neck, he hurriedly headed to &lt;Student Council Room&gt;.<br /> <br /> Student Council Room―to the end the Witch’s Mansion was a place for living, so there existed a separate location purely for working in the main school building of the Magic Division.<br /> <br /> For Kazuki who had never been helping except as the servant in the Witch’s Mansion, this was his first time entering the student council room.<br /> <br /> “Once again congratulations, Otouto-kun!”<br /> <br /> The instant the door opened, the smiling face of Kaguya-senpai come flying right in front of his eyes. It seemed she had been in waiting in front of the door, senpai’s forehead was real close it almost touched Kazuki’s jaw.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu-, and also welcome to the student council room of the Magic Division! Chief Student Council President-dono!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai performed a bow, then she invited Kazuki to enter the room.<br /> <br /> The student council room differed from the elegant atmosphere of the Witch’s Mansion, it had a business-like uproarious space.<br /> <br /> …So this is the place where Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai does their student council work.<br /> <br /> What stole his eye the foremost was the desk that held the four personal computers in the middle of the room. Among those it looked like two were unused, it was transformed into a state where paperwork, coffee maker, and snacks were piled on it.<br /> <br /> There was also multi-functioned machine that was equipped with printer and copy function, but papers that were printed wrongly were left alone slovenly as it were on the ejection tray.<br /> <br /> Large numbers of paperwork files and URD that preserved electronic information was stored in the bookcase, but those that didn’t have space left in the bookcase were piled up into a mountain on the floor. The decorative plant that was put beside it was losing its vitality.<br /> <br /> …It was a room that made him pictured Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai doing their job frantically. Kazuki felt the itch to first start from cleaning up the room and then tidying and putting everything in order.<br /> <br /> Inside this cramped space, his usual comrades were lining up in full force.<br /> <br /> “That was very cool! If I was the one that got elected I wouldn’t be able to say such things, ahaha.”<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama! Kanae is filled with emotion both as big sister and as little sister in this big moment of Nii-sama!!”<br /> <br /> “So Karin-oneesan is coming too desu-!” Lotte hugged Karin that was led here by Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what, I’m not playing around now!” Like that, Karin gave out a shy reaction.<br /> <br /> “…I don’t think it’s good for the Chief Student Council President to perform his duties in the Magic Division’s student council room. It feels like he is leaning too much to the Magic Division like this.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai murmured like she was worrying about the fellow of the Sword Division like Kanae or Kohaku.<br /> <br /> “It doesn’t really matter doesn’t it? Nii-sama is a student of the Magic Division. It’d be troublesome if it’s not in the Magic Division student council room and Nii-sama moves away. If from now on there is a matter that the student of the Sword Division has to bring to the Chief Student Council President, at that time it’ll be fine to use the student council room of the Sword Division.”<br /> <br /> Kanae’s expression became bitter while talking.<br /> <br /> “…Or perhaps I should say, in the first place the school building of the Sword Division is still a wreck.”<br /> <br /> The scar of destruction that was left behind in the Sword Division by the Quad Core Magica that Naiarlatoteph directed couldn’t be returned to its former state in just two weeks even with the use of the latest construction technique that used alchemy freely. Currently it was in the middle of construction with high praise.<br /> <br /> Fortunately the student dormitory was safe so the students could continue their life in dormitory, but the classes were conducted in temporary prefab school building. It seemed they were in a situation that prioritized practical skill class that was performed outside as much as possible.<br /> <br /> “Now that you mentioned it, in the end what happened with the organization of the Sword Division’s student council?”<br /> <br /> “…Because Kohaku resigned as the student council president, in the end the voting for the election of the Sword Division’s officers was also performed today. Thereupon I became the student council president and Kohaku was the vice student council president…”<br /> <br /> Kanae answered Kazuki’s question with her shoulders dropping very low in dejection. In contrast Kohaku’s cheek was blushing and she cheerily said things like “I’m happy that I can work with Kana-nyan-senpai”.<br /> <br /> “If I am supported from both sides by Kaguya-senpai and Kanae, then I can rest easy.”<br /> <br /> “Now that we are talking, what is the job of Kazuki as the Chief Student Council President anyway?”<br /> <br /> Mio spoke of the essential question.<br /> <br /> “The Chief Student Council President doesn’t need to takeover the work that I and Kana-chan has done until now, so what Otouto-kun going to do is [the new work that have never been done until now] or something. …Things like a totally new project design for connecting the Magic Division and the Sword Division and its implementation I wonder.”<br /> <br /> “Hee, project! Then, how about combined Magic Division and Sword Division excursion!?”<br /> <br /> Mio made her proposal with excited expression.<br /> <br /> “At the very least we should do a combined athletic festival or culture festival together! If that happened I could enjoy school event together with Nii-sama!”<br /> <br /> Kanae too talked in agreement with Mio’s opinion. Until now the Magic Division and the Sword Division were managed as if the two were separate schools. Because of that their school events were all done separately.<br /> <br /> “We should talk about everyday classes before an event like that you know. To heighten the cooperation between swordsman and Magika Stigma even more, we should adopt a combined tactic research class. Growing out of the Heaven and Earth Formation is also one of Kazuki’s public promise after all.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai who wore serious expression put out a proposal fitting for a senior.<br /> <br /> “Sacred Treasures treatment too, this one will be troubled too if there is no class work for that.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku too interjected with earnest voice. Upping the battle power of swordsman with the application of Sacred Treasure was her dearest wish.<br /> <br /> “The things the Magic Division can do, the things the Sword Division can do…so they could mutually understand each other respectively, how about publishing school newspaper?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki too expressed her opinion properly. Because she said newspaper, indeed it sounds fun.<br /> <br /> “The right to sanction things like budget integration goes to Otouto-kun after all. The last responsibility is in Otouto-kun okay?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai talked with expression that disallowed any pampering. A lot of opinion came out without even any time to take a memo.<br /> <br /> “This kind of really new thing, so it’s my job to start a committee or something and then advancing it steadily. …The first priority might be to create a school newspaper for the point of contact between us and the students to let them know of our activity and also for us to take in their opinion.”<br /> <br /> …Suddenly Kazuki looked around everyone’s face, he noticed the lack of someone from the usual members here.<br /> <br /> There was no appearance of Kazuha-senpai. Senpai was not someone related to the student council of the Magic Division and the Sword Division, so she didn’t have any duty to come to this place, but….<br /> <br /> “Kohaku, what is going on with Kazuha-senpai…?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki quietly walked near Kohaku’s spot and whispered into her ear.<br /> <br /> “This one invited her to come together here, but her expression darkened for some reason and she refused.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku’s expression clouded as she answered. Kazuki felt his chest stirred unpleasantly. He hadn’t had a conversation with Kazuha-senpai after he forcibly kissed her.<br /> <br /> “If you have business with Kazuha-senpai, this one think she is in the [altar of the sword god] ―the usual abandoned clubroom.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In the middle of the ringing out sounds of the construction work for the rebuilding, Kazuki traversed the ground of the Sword Division that was painful to look at with the destruction that was still here and there. He walked to the abandoned clubroom where he once encountered Kazuha-senpai. Ascending the outer stairs of the clubroom building with *kan kan* clanging noise, he arrived in front of the clubroom located in the second floor. Kazuki knocked the door while feeling nervous.<br /> <br /> “The pingpong club is abolished so we are not taking new application of club member anymore―” Kazuha-senpai’s voice came back like that.<br /> <br /> “…I am Hayashizaki though.”<br /> <br /> “EAA!? Hayashizaki!?”<br /> <br /> “There is something I must talk with senpai.”<br /> <br /> Slowly opening the door, Kazuha-senpai showed out her face.<br /> <br /> In any case Kazuki let out a breath in relief that senpai showed her face to him.<br /> <br /> However Kazuha-senpai that was facing him directly had her face boiled red in the blink of eye.<br /> <br /> “…!” Kazuha-senpai caught her breath and averted her eyes from Kazuki in a snap. Then with half tackling she wrenched open the gap between Kazuki and the door *dokan* and slipped through.<br /> <br /> “Senpai!?”Kazuki was panicked and pursued her back. There was a difference in their running ability. Kazuki caught up with her immediately around the area where Kanae and Kohaku once fought.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 131.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “Senpai, please don’t run and talk to me!” Kazuki caught Kazuha-senpai’s hand while gasping.<br /> <br /> To chase a fleeing girl and caught her elbow forcibly…feeling of guilt welled up inside him overbearingly, but if he couldn’t talk with Kazuha-senpai in this place he had a gut feeling that he would completely lose something that couldn’t be recovered.<br /> <br /> Without looking Kazuki’s way, Kazuha-senpai whose elbow was restrained opened her mouth.<br /> <br /> “You…I hear the more you get closer with a girl the stronger you become.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s mind froze all of a sudden.<br /> <br /> “I want to talk about that after this but…where did you hear it from?”<br /> <br /> “After that, Otonashi Kaguya taught me. About what you did to me suddenly, the kiss too…”<br /> <br /> It seemed Kaguya-senpai saw the figure of Kazuki wielding Futsunushi no Kami and guessed everything.<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai had already known, about how he stole her first kiss looking for power.<br /> <br /> “…Senpai, but I” The helpless Kazuki opened his mouth to make excuse.<br /> <br /> “That Karin too, did you help her planning to [conquer] that girl? Did you kiss me for that purpose? Helping girls for the sake of becoming closer to them…you kissed other girls for that purpose…you did that kind of thing repeatedly for that!?”<br /> <br /> “That’s not true! I don’t have that kind of inten…!”<br /> <br /> “…I know. Sorry, I, said something unreasonable…. I got it already, the one who said to help Karin is also me, certainly there was no other way at all before, moreover I, that time you kissed me………I don’t particularly hate it.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai…?”<br /> <br /> “But I don’t like that kind of me! I don’t want to understand and accept you!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai was shaking her head in exaggerated motion and raised an exasperated voice.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, forgive me. To forcibly do that kind of thing…”<br /> <br /> “It’s fine if you don’t apologize! You didn’t do anything bad! But I cannot not say this complaint!! Because…a girl’s first kiss is really important you know!! Even me, even me even though I had imagined that my kiss would get stolen in a more romantic situation!”<br /> <br /> Senpai’s voice, shoulders, were shaking. Even with her back turned at him, he knew that she was crying.<br /> <br /> “Despite so…despite so, with a guy like you, that is friendly with various girls, to get kissed like this…!!”<br /> <br /> “I’m sorry, senpai. But, I didn’t steal senpai’s kiss with a simple feeling. But certainly it was also not a pure feeling. But…even in the case that I have to do over that moment one more time, I’ll do the same thing.”<br /> <br /> “Do you think I can consent just like that―!! Saying but but but, don’t keep repeating contradictory things―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai yelled out in order to spit out the feeling that she didn’t have an outlet to express.<br /> <br /> “I, had changed my feelings from how I hated you. …I had fun fighting together with you. I had a feeling I can become strong without limit. …But, right now I don’t want to see your face already.”<br /> <br /> The words that came from senpai’s back were―the words of parting.<br /> <br /> And then senpai tried to run away once more. Kazuki panicked and caught her arm once more.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, please wait!”<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t touch me, let go!”<br /> <br /> “I, I don’t want to break off my relationship like this with senpai. Can’t we somehow return to how we were before?”<br /> <br /> “…Doing thing like kissing already, of course there is no way we can go back to before…!”<br /> <br /> To make a kiss they had done once already as if into nothing, that was something impossible to do.<br /> <br /> If he thought of the weight of that act…that was really obvious.<br /> <br /> “Senpai said to me to not apologize. But, because of that I hate to part with senpai quarreling like this. Please let me atone in some way. Whatever it is I’ll do it, this kind of thing is unpleasant.”<br /> <br /> Finally Kazuha-senpai turned to look at him. Senpai’s face from her nose to her cheek, even further until her ear had become bright red. Her glaring eyes that was shining with tears looked completely like a flipped blade of a knife.<br /> <br /> “………Then, take responsibility.” Kazuha-senpai said while sniffing *gusu* from her nose.<br /> <br /> “In what way I could take responsibility?”<br /> <br /> “………Kiss me over again, this time in a romantic situation that could make me content.”<br /> <br /> “Eh?” …Romantic, she said?<br /> <br /> “In this one month! If in this one month you cannot kiss me in a romantic situation that I can approve, on top of that if you do it unnaturally, then its permanent break-off!!”<br /> <br /> “Please wait a second senpai! Aren’t you just saying some earth-shattering things because you got carried away with the momentum!?”<br /> <br /> “Idiot! Womanizer!! If you are just going to back away…then why did you restrain me like this! As I thought someone like you, is someone I hate the most!!”<br /> <br /> She shook off Kazuki’s hand that unintentionally slackened. Then as if to hide her bright red face, Kazuha-senpai turned her back and dashed away in full speed. This time unable to chase after her, Kazuki recovered from his daze. The inside of his head was dizzy. An unthinkable difficult problem came flying that he never even imagined.<br /> <br /> Romantic she said…what is the meaning of romantic?<br /> <br /> “…E, even though I thought that she hated me, I really have no idea of what happened.”<br /> <br /> Tsukahara Kazuha―62. By reflex the display of the positivity level floated in front of his eyes.<br /> <br /> “Puh, kukuku…this is, I happened to witness an unexpected scene of carnage just now.”<br /> <br /> Suddenly, a voice came from the shadow of the tree beside him. …Appearing in unexpected places and unexpected moments, a voice he remembered hearing before…<br /> <br /> “Kaya!?”<br /> <br /> “Long time no see huh. As always Onii-chan looks like you are getting along well with girls, making me laugh unintentionally that one.”<br /> <br /> A silver haired girl dressing her body in punk fashion of T-shirt and damaged jeans.<br /> <br /> The companion that always caused a foreboding premonition inside Kazuki’s chest was here.<br /> <br /> “We didn’t meet recently, so I come to give my blessing after Onii-chan became the boss of this academy. And then when I sneak around, I happened to meet this kind of farce. Kukuku…”<br /> <br /> Kaya laughed arrogantly. But what she saw was not something like a farce for the person concerned. Also what is called the Chief Student Council President was something that tied everyone together, it was nothing like a boss.<br /> <br /> He noticed a girl accompanying Kaya beside her.<br /> <br /> A black figure like a shadow―the moment their eyes met, Kazuki felt indescribable chill.<br /> <br /> She was a girl in the age around middle schooler with black hair and black skin. In order to match with Kaya’s punk fashion, she was wearing black no-sleeve parka with hood that was worn low over her eyes and a miniskirt tied with belt decorated with studs. The legs that extended from there were also long, slender and well proportioned black legs.<br /> <br /> It should be their first time meeting each other. Despite so he felt a chill that was carved into his heart from somewhere….<br /> <br /> “I also thought of introducing this child. Come on, take off your hood when you are introducing yourself.”<br /> <br /> Kaya reached out her hand from the side and removed the parka’s hood from covering the girl.<br /> <br /> A long ear leaped out with a ‘pyon’ along with jet black hair.<br /> <br /> “No-!” With that she shook her head and the girl fixed back the hood to cover her head again.<br /> <br /> The ears just now was elf…no, but this color of hair and skin was….<br /> <br /> “The name of this kid is, Naiarlako&lt;ref&gt;Combination of half the name of a certain someone and kanji of child (read as ‘ko’ in Japanese)&lt;/ref&gt; you know.”<br /> <br /> Kaya called that name with good mood as if she was singing. The girl was “That’s not true!” and raised an angry voice.<br /> <br /> “I, I’m not something like Naiarla or whatever! I am Maya. That’s the name that Kaya named me, so call me properly with that…!”<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, sorry okay, Naiarlako♪”<br /> <br /> Kaya called her like that again without correcting herself, she stroked Maya’s head over the hood and made fun of her.<br /> <br /> The black girl was “Uu―” and she looked down with teary eyes.<br /> <br /> …Naiarlako. Kazuki’s whole body got a goosebumps. It couldn’t be, no, what was going on?<br /> <br /> “Fufufuu♪ This child is also an elf. No, I wonder if she should be called a dark elf. The debut in this country, Dark Elf! Well, if the secret of the trick is disclosed, it’s just because [a certain black thing] was inserted into the mind of the girl that her skin and hair became black though. This kind of phenomenon, does Onii-chan happen to know about it?”<br /> <br /> He knew. The time when a certain Diva took over the flesh body of Koyuki temporarily―Koyuki’s body transformed into black like this. The name of that Diva was…!<br /> <br /> “That’s right, inside the mind of this child, a &lt;fragment of Naiarlatoteph&gt; is residing.”<br /> <br /> …Naiarlatoteph was supposed to be defeated already! Without even a fragment left in this world!<br /> <br /> “A nobody but also a somebody, &lt;The Faceless God&gt; Naiarlatoteph can split his mind in great number. What a plainly awesome ability, his power of existence is not something half baked. As his insurance when push comes to shove, Naiarlatoteph entrusted a piece of his smallest ego that he divided to me you know?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki was dumbfounded from that shocking revelation. He was not destroyed…that evil god was….<br /> <br /> “Why are you with Naiarlatoteph do…?”<br /> <br /> “At first I…Loki noticed that the headmaster of this academy was Naiarlatoteph. That was why we made a contact asking if he could become our comrade. That negotiation failed, but in exchange the guy entrusted his fragment of existence to me. In exchange for sheltering his fragment, in the time of ruin of Naiarlatoteph’s main body it’d be fine to add this mini Naiarlatoteph as our comrade…that was what the guy said, he exchanged promise with us.”<br /> <br /> Kaya pulled off Maya’s hood once more and exposed the elf ear.<br /> <br /> “Then joyously Naiarlatoteph’s main body died, so I picked one of the {{furigana|experimental body|elf}} Naiarlatoteph stocked, and there I planted the fragment of Naiarlatoteph. That’s why this child is Naiarlako-san.”<br /> <br /> “I’m Maya I said! …I am, going to master this power’s factor…!”<br /> <br /> But Maya’s expression immediately distorted in pain and she held her own head.<br /> <br /> “Inside this child, Naiarlatoteph is trying to recover his power slowly. In reverse this child is trying to not lose against that, while his power is weak she is attempting to tame Naiarlatoteph and make him into a mere power supply. What a super interesting sample right, this child. If she could break Nairlatoteph thoroughly while he is weak, this child might be able to control him.”<br /> <br /> “I am not Naiarla-whatever! I’m Maya!”<br /> <br /> While holding her head, Maya raised a scream that was the proof of her existence.<br /> <br /> “For that reason, this is my comrade Naiarlako-san.”<br /> <br /> “…Why are you trying to revive that kind of Diva? That worst Diva!!”<br /> <br /> “Naiarlatoteph was going through weakening and was a worthless Diva, but a Diva that specialized in mental pollution until that degree is valuable so I want to add him into my comrade by all means. Something like [Psycho Noise] that could obstruct a large number of Magika Stigma altogether from chanting without a doubt will be useful in a fight against humans after all.”<br /> <br /> Psycho Noise―producing sound wave that obstructed spell chanting and making Magika Stigmas powerless.<br /> <br /> The one who could break through the effect and continued to chant at that time was only Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Moreover Onii-chan said things like the worst Diva but…I wonder if Naiarlatoteph is really that bad? Isn’t that nothing more than Onii-chan’s own opinion? That guy is played around by the logic of the world and got weakened. He was desperately trying what he could do in the middle of unblessed environment with all his power. That’s all there is to it. Using all he could for the sake of his existence…there is nothing bad with that right?”<br /> <br /> Like how human domesticated animal and pushed them into cramped cage in order to procure the stability of their food…could that be said to be righteous, or was it something that should be called evil? If the angle of the ethics was changed it would go through an upheaval.<br /> <br /> “Rather aren’t the ones who dragged Onii-chan’s feet behind are the incompetent government of this country and the incompetent adults of this academy!?” Kaya yelled as if spitting out.<br /> <br /> “It was that Headmaster Otonashi that used Naiarlatoteph that was just desperate to live for his own interest! Onii-chan…how long are you going to be loyal for the sake of all these low-life?”<br /> <br /> “I am…being loyal to them?”<br /> <br /> “Even Onii-chan is just being used you know? Isn’t it absurd? Using that power not just for your sake, but for the sake of those fools!”<br /> <br /> “…I don’t think like that. I use my own power by my own will. …In short what is it Kaya want to say?”<br /> <br /> “Just become my comrade. Cast away those foolish adults behind.”<br /> <br /> Then Kaya’s mouth warped and she talked to give a speech.<br /> <br /> “People is creating groups guided by the gods &lt;Order&gt;, the weak human’s chance of survival increase with the creation of group!”<br /> <br /> Order―there was two types of element that were Order and Chaos that each Diva belonged to, Kaya once said.<br /> <br /> The one who aimed for Lotte’s life was the gods of Order of the Norse Mythology that pushed severe commandment to the people.<br /> <br /> “However as the group become organization of Order, degeneration will appear without fail. When a hierarchical relation is born, the human that had experienced the top position will think only about his self-protection and neglect the benefit for the whole body. A weak ideal will only get defiled and smeared all over by the poop of those sleazebags!”<br /> <br /> The degeneration of the human that stood at the top―certainly there was people like that in the reality that Kazuki faced in his way until now.<br /> <br /> “Then what do you think human should do?”<br /> <br /> “That’s why, it’s &lt;Chaos&gt;. The Chaos that humankind once abandoned, now is the time that it should be revived. Obtaining the power called magic, human is not weak anymore. The current us should realize that we have no need of things like group anymore. Things like rule is unneeded. Live doing things that you want to do as you please. Crush the degenerated hierarchical relationship to the dust, seek for happiness as you please inside the Chaotic world! Before long Onii-chan too is going to break away from the stupid chain binding you, then let’s come together with me, that’s what I’m saying!”<br /> <br /> “Isn’t that just a mere survival of the fittest? What difference is there between your Chaos and this degenerated hierarchical relationship?” He understood instinctively that their opinions were mutually exclusive with each other. He returned a question in order to oppose her.<br /> <br /> “A world where a human who is not even strong without any worth to speak of greedily monopolized the ruling class, and a world where a human with worth always get recognized at the top position, both of them are totally different things.”<br /> <br /> “But with that way of doing things in the end oppressed weak people will always appear!”<br /> <br /> “Don’t you know, the humankind would abandon the word called equality before they even realized.”<br /> <br /> Kaya talked with cruel expression. The girl’s logic was―whatever happened as long as myself is fine then it doesn’t matter, it was that kind of logic. Her own self was strong, that was why she could be so haughty….<br /> <br /> “Then I cannot be together with you.”<br /> <br /> The smiling Kaya twitched her eyebrow and trembled. “…Recently Onii-chan is getting along well with someone like Beatrix. I wonder if Onii-chan even got indoctrinated by that girl?”<br /> <br /> “That kind of girl had nothing to do with this. I don’t have any intention to make friends or anything with her.”<br /> <br /> “Then, why is Onii-chan sticking to the side of Order.”<br /> <br /> “It’s not the case that I went along with the side of Order or whatever. Right now I…am together with my important companions. I am living together with everyone in a small place called the Witch’s Mansion…occasionally there are also times when our thinking comes to a head with each other. Even so we considered each other’s feelings…”<br /> <br /> Particularly Lotte.<br /> <br /> “making rules…”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai despite appearances skillfully restricted the conduct of everyone nonchalantly and brought them together.<br /> <br /> “with compromise for each other…”<br /> <br /> Even though Mio was making Hikaru-senpai to look more like a girl, Hikaru-senpai was cooperating.<br /> <br /> “With that everyone can obtain happiness. The rule that is created from thinking of each other, tying bonds and bringing them together, I am in no way rejecting Order. That is the civilization and society itself.”<br /> <br /> “It’s going to rot someday. The last stop of the bonds between people is degeneration.”<br /> <br /> “I don’t think I will become happy doing only the things that I want to do. No matter how strong a human I become, I cannot feel happy alone. If I live doing whatever I please, I will join hands together with someone only at that moment where our interest match…ultimately that will keep me in solitude.”<br /> <br /> “It’s okay for strong human to be in solitude you know? I like Onii-chan, but it’s not a reason to always want to be together forever. Surely there will be things thought to be troublesome, moments where we mutually despaired. If we are only doing the thing that we both want to do, then we can only see the good side of the other party.”<br /> <br /> “If it’s with someone that is truly precious for you, you can actually feel happy with human relationship that is troublesome or so. Just like how there is worth in doing team battle compared to fighting solo even though it’s more complicated. Just because you said human had become stronger compared to the past by using magic, there is no need to go as far as throwing away the being together with other people. Magic is for the sake of understanding other people, alchemy make the world plentiful, it’s fine to use strong power for the sake of other people.”<br /> <br /> “What Onii-chan saying is just a mere pipe dream. Things like using strong power for other people’s sake is impossible. What is called power is more fun to be used for trampling other people underfoot compared to using it for other reason just so you know!”<br /> <br /> In this world humans who enjoyed trampling weak humans even without any reason at all, certainly existed.<br /> <br /> However that kind of people, why in the world they became human with that kind character….<br /> <br /> “Even so I believe in people.”<br /> <br /> “For me, I don’t believe the likes of people.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Kaya glared at each other.<br /> <br /> “…Why are me and Onii-chan who originated from the same orphanage can have this much difference in thinking?”<br /> <br /> Because at that time when you were trembling from loneliness, there was no one that reached out his hand for you….<br /> <br /> Kaya turned her back to Kazuki abruptly.<br /> <br /> “Got it. I’m going to make Onii-chan regret it. If I cannot obtain Onii-chan then I don’t need you. I’ll trample Onii-chan down and make you cry. I who is stronger than Onii-chan will teach you despair. Because I am rapidly collecting strong allies even other than Naiarlako. I still have an even more great surprise you know? With Onii-chan’s crushed and pitiful figure that is exposed because of my power, everyone around you will leave. At that time Onii-chan will know of degeneration…”<br /> <br /> “…Kaya…don’t you feel any loneliness?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki asked that back. Kaya turned back and directed at him eyes without any doubt in it.<br /> <br /> “Since I got my hands on Loki’s strong power, I never felt any loneliness for even once.”<br /> <br /> That became the conclusion of everything and the decisive failure of the two.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Chapter_2&diff=461194 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 2 2015-09-09T01:56:05Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 2 – Discarded Fox Diary==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The collapsed Karin was immediately transported to the school infirmary.<br /> <br /> And then Headmaster Amasaki informed Kazuki and his companions that were gathering besides Karin’s bed―he entered the gravity of bearing the burden of a student’s fate into his voice.<br /> <br /> “A seal would be performed on her Stigmata to make her unable to use magic power completely. I have made an arrangement with the Knight Order for a &lt;{{furigana|Limiter|Stigmata Suppression Device}}&gt;. It’s the newest measure for illegal magician with minor offence.”<br /> <br /> “You are not going to use &lt;Stigmata Removal Operation&gt; that was recommended for Otouto-kun before?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai asked. In comparison to seal by tool, removing Stigmata by operation was thought to be a more fundamental solution. But Headmaster Amasaki shook his head.<br /> <br /> “If the link between Stigmata and Diva is destroyed, the injury to the mind cannot be avoided. The former Headmaster Otonashi that advanced the research by his own accord claimed that it had become a technique for practical use, but in reality it’s still too inhuman. Even the illegal magicians that are caught by the Knight Order are currently restrained using Limiter.”<br /> <br /> “That thing called limiter, what kind of item is it?” Kazuki asked.<br /> <br /> “What is called Limiter is a tool that read the wavelength of the magic power that flow inside the Stigmata and make it so magic power cannot flow into the Stigmata. On top of fixing this tool on her, she is also going to be sent to a &lt;detention facility&gt;.”<br /> <br /> Detention facility―the establishment that detained the illegal magicians that the Knight Order captured. They were safely managed there, at the same time it was also a facility for keeping them away at a distance so that they wouldn’t become a victim of persecution and revenge.<br /> <br /> It could also be reworded as [the prison you wouldn’t be able to leave until you die].<br /> <br /> “Please wait a second, there is no need to go that far right!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki objected in panic, but Headmaster Amasaki opposed imposingly.<br /> <br /> “Why do you think so? Of course there is a need to go that far. You realize if the limiter is broken or removed, this girl is just going to use dangerous Summoning Magic again?”<br /> <br /> “Headmaster, the logic that she is [dangerous because of illegal magician status] is also going to be completely disadvantageous for our position that claimed the safety of Hayashizaki Kazuki and the others though.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei interjected in the middle and covered for Kazuki. “What kind of pretext is used to send the girl to the detention facility? Is there a basis to hand down an even more harsh treatment compared to Hayashizaki and the others?”<br /> <br /> “There is. This girl while there were still students in unconscious condition remaining in the match venue, used a large scale offensive magic. Her riskiness has already been proven.”<br /> <br /> A resolute fury stained the words of Headmaster Amasaki―in regard to someone that exposed the students to danger. ‘I’m going to send this girl to a detention facility for sure’, that was the kind of face that he was currently making.<br /> <br /> “That was because of Hayashi Shizuka’s order that made her did it! This girl was just manipulated! Despite so, for this girl’s life to be closed here, I won’t allow such behavior!!”<br /> <br /> “How could you know that she did it just because of the brainwashing? How much of it was by Katsura Karin’s own will, how much of it was not, can you really judge it accurately?”<br /> <br /> “That…when the person concerned herself wakes up we could ask her…”<br /> <br /> “The word of the person concerned herself couldn’t become a proof.”<br /> <br /> That was just like a suspect that cried of his own innocence in a trial. There was no persuasiveness inside it at all.<br /> <br /> “Hayashi Shizuka is the mastermind of everything, Katsura Karin just got dragged into it. Katsura Karin is completely innocent…if such thinking is considered normally, it sounds forced don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> “But to be punished just for doubt and simply get sent to detention facility like that…!”<br /> <br /> He got the reason of Headmaster Amasaki that regarded Karin as a danger. However, even so…!<br /> <br /> “Don’t fuck with mee―!”<br /> <br /> At that time, a voice came beyond the curtain that partitioned them from the neighboring bed.<br /> <br /> “Don’t screw around, I won’t allow you bastard to send Karin-chan to a place that looked like jail huh!!”<br /> <br /> The curtain was opened violently. The source of the voice was Mibu Akira. The girl too together with Asamiya-senpai fainted at the final, just like that they were laid on the bed beside. <br /> <br /> “Karin-chan didna’ do anything bad…no really she might do something just a little bad but…but Karin-chan isn’ someoneee bad okay!”<br /> <br /> “That’s right―, what Aneki said you know―!”<br /> <br /> Snapping at the headmaster the moment they woke up, the small statured protégée Asamiya-senpai too gave her backing at that timing.<br /> <br /> Facing defiance from unexpected place, Headmaster Amasaki made a shocked face.<br /> <br /> “…You two, are you going to give testimony that Katsura Karin was brainwashed? …But the testimony of the both of you is not going to fly. Both of you also continued to fight even without under the brainwashing of Joka. Both of you were also conspired with the sleeper agent of China by your own will, a dangerous element.”<br /> <br /> Sometimes he really felt like wanting to say something like [choose your words a little more carefully] to Headmaster Amasaki.<br /> <br /> Against that high handed attitude, Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai became even more worked up.<br /> <br /> “I was fightin’ for Karin-chan’s sake! Karin-chan…honestly I don’ know how far she was brainwashed. There is also some aspect of Karin-chan that choose to fight. But, that was only because she was made to choose! Karin-chan’s [own will] was not regarded at all! This girl just wanted to get recognized by her stepsister as family!! I wanna help her with that. Me and also Karin-chan doesn’t give a damn one bit about whether China is backing us up or whatever! No way I’m fighting for such thing!!”<br /> <br /> “Wishing to get recognized as family…?” Kazuki was dumbfounded and leaked out a voice in a murmur.<br /> <br /> “Karin-chan is not a bad child! Even if she doesn’t get slammed into prison she could still start over!”<br /> <br /> “Hmph.” Headmaster Amasaki snorted his nose without changing his attitude.<br /> <br /> “If she could still reform than that way is better. She is still a young girl of fifteen years old, even I think so. But why you can declare that so confidently? What’s your basis? If the worst possibility should happen what are you going to do?”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai faltered. After looking down with anxious eyes, she said a [girlish basis].<br /> <br /> “…Because that girl always made lonely eyes. If she really had gone bad, if she didn’t give a damn on the world and despaired, she won’t even feel any loneliness or the like. If she had really gone bad then she gonna become a monster that keep cool no matter what screwed things she get done. But it’s still not too late for guys that get lonely. If a kind hand is reached out to ‘em by someone, there is no way it’s too late for ‘em!!”<br /> <br /> From those words, the infirmary became enveloped in silence.<br /> <br /> That was by no means a logical argument, but it had the persuasive power of a pleading from the heart.<br /> <br /> Was there something inside Kazuki that couldn’t get to agree with this development, he had a feeling that he could understand her argument.<br /> <br /> This was a conceited talk but, never once Kazuki felt of Karin as strong.<br /> <br /> The girl always raging and shouting at Kazuki, always clinging on Hayashi Shizuka [wanting to get approved]. That frailness completely like an infant raising a crying voice was really transparent.<br /> <br /> Hayashi Shizuka used such girl’s weakness to the bone without leaving anything untouched.<br /> <br /> Even in the case that brainwashing magic was not even used, that was already the same as brainwashing.<br /> <br /> I…if there existed a powerless person that got oppressed and fell into fate of sorrow, it was something that I couldn’t allow.<br /> <br /> As expected I wanted to help Karin. Even in the case of the existing possibility that the girl was a future [enemy], even so he wanted to discover the possibility of happiness for the girl.<br /> <br /> “It’s not worth considering. What you called as your basis is only a really subjective story from your side.”<br /> <br /> Despite the bitter face that Headmaster Amasaki was making, he cut Mibu-senpai’s argument without a second thought with a sentence.<br /> <br /> “Anyway you two don’t forget that you are also someone in suspicion. No matter how much you said that she is not bad, it was nothing more than your attempt to cover for your comrade.”<br /> <br /> “Shit-, is it because we are delinquents…! Really until now we just kept doing whatever the hell we wanted and then suddenly askin’ to just believe what we are sayin’ it’s really askin’ too much but still…”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai dropped her shoulders dejectedly, Asamiya-senpai too “Aneki…” had her eyes glistening with tears.<br /> <br /> “Mibu-san why did you become a delinquent…rather than saying delinquent, why didn’t you spend your school life seriously as a knight candidate until now?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai once again inquired about Mibu-senpai’s real intention.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t…even though I didn’t even wanna become something like a knight I was forced to enter the Knight Academy, of course I won’ have any motivation. No way I’m gonna go along with it.”<br /> <br /> ”Yes, before we also had a talk like that hadn’t we?”<br /> <br /> Until now Kaguya-senpai had already tried to reform Mibu-senpai many times and it really weighed on her mind.<br /> <br /> “But that kind of you really made so much effort like this with all your power in this battle election. For the sake of this child named Karin. Why in the world would you do that?”<br /> <br /> “…Karin-chan was treated like shit by Shizuka. I too am this academy’s shit, that was why I wanna do something. Really, I don’ even know about things like with China or Japan at all.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai suddenly became flustered.<br /> <br /> “I said that you are delinquents but, I don’t think that you are this academy’s shit or the like at all! I just thought that I wanted us to do our best together as a fellow Knight candidate, that’s all!<br /> <br /> “I get it really. But I couldna’ take an offered hand like that! Because that’s too shameful right!? When I got treated kindly, that just made me got awareness of my own wrong!”<br /> <br /> “Aneki…” Asamiya-senpai watched over Mibu-senpai whose eyes were wet with tears.<br /> <br /> “Actually I, wanted to enter confectionery school…and become a cake store owner!”<br /> <br /> “Ca, cake store!?” Hearing that too unexpected words, not only Kaguya-senpai, everyone too was surprised.<br /> <br /> “What’s strange with that, isn’t cake store the best! I’m gonna open my own shop in a small town, getting the auntie and the girls going home from school as my regular…. At Christmas or birthday, if there is something to celebrate everyone is gonna come to my shop, picking out the cake with eyes bright with hope…. For the sake of answering that hope every morning I’m gonna wake up early, I got confidence in my magic power so I’m gonna make my own flavor with Alchemy Cooking, everyone gonna say that it’s delicious…even though I have a dream like that…this arm that is for the sake of whipping up cream was suddenly got fixed with Enigma!”<br /> <br /> From Mibu-senpai’s eyes, tears were overflowing in drove, spilling out messily.<br /> <br /> “That’s why…what responsibility of knight, I don’ know anything like that, like that I rebelled against the academy. I don’t have any plan of doing anything mistaken, so I don’t plan to reflect on myself or anything like that. But…I noticed it while looking at Kaguya-chan.”<br /> <br /> “M, me? Looking at me?” Kaguya-senpai pointed at herself and blinked with surprise.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya-chan was always piling up harsh training on herself, she even challenged dangerous quests energetically. Moreover many times she reached out her hands to shit like me sayin’ [let’s do our best together]. Not just that, despite being the student council president of the Magic Division she insisted to have an equal relationship with the Sword Division…even though there is dissenting opinion, she stuck to her own will for the sake of those guys in weak position. …That made me think if this kind of person is what a [knight] really is. I got aware of that. If no one is fightin’ as a knight then it’s gonna be like that [Tokyo Great Destruction] fifteen years ago, there is gonna be no place for cake store. If no one is gonna fight…even I get it that I canna’ just waste away the great power that I finally got my hands on uselessly like that. But after thoroughly saying [This academy is the one that’s bad] [I’m not the one that’s bad] continuously, I slapped away Kaguya-chan’s hand. There is no way after all that I coulda just suddenly say shameful things like [I’m going to aim as a Knight]! Kaguya-chan is just too bright, I cannot take that hand…. When I see Kaguya-chan….my own shittiness is just too pathetic!”<br /> <br /> “Aneki is seriously…Kaguya-chan’s fan really…”<br /> <br /> Asamiya-senpai too, together with her elder sister figure Mibu-senpai became messed with spilling tears.<br /> <br /> “Err, someone like me is really not that great.” Kaguya-senpai was all shook up.<br /> <br /> “I want to become like Kaguya-chan, so I secretly piled up magic training. But this late I already cannot go back to become an honor student. Then at that time Shizuka came invitin’ me into the battle election. If I made great showin’ in the battle election then maybe everyone woulda looked at me differently. Everyone would get to recognize that I’m not a shit, that I coulda take Kaguya-chan’s offered hand unashamedly like that, that was what I was thinking.”<br /> <br /> “Me and Aneki, didn’t get told of Shizuka’s objective or anything like that. We know that girl sometimes gave us special training in a secret location, she called us out. She planned to make us pawns that are easy to handle and also quite strong as suits the occasion. For that girl we are nothing more than pawns. But for us whatever those guys' objective are doesn’t really matter at all.”<br /> <br /> “But gradually the matter about ourselves too didna really matter! Karin-chan had much more crappy experience than someone like me, compared to her my worry is just a simple half-baked thing…she was treated like trash by Shizuka! If we complained or whined that Shizuka beat us blue until magic intoxication…after that, we became reluctan’ to say any complain to Shizuka…”<br /> <br /> …Mibu-senpai definitely received brainwashing. But what was overwritten by the brainwashing was not their motive for fighting but only the pecking order between them.<br /> <br /> “Please I beg you Kaguya-chan! Just like what you try to give to us, reach out your hand to Karin-chan too! You’re an ally of justice right!?”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai caught hold of Kaguya-senpai’s shoulders, while doing that she brought her tear stricken face near.<br /> <br /> “I’m, I’m not really an ally of justice though…”<br /> <br /> “Inside me you are ally of justice anyway―!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai kept shaking Kaguya-senpai’s shoulders. Looking at that appearance, Kazuki too naturally sympathized. …Kaguya-senpai reached her hand to me too, I was saved by her.<br /> <br /> “Headmaster Amasaki, we don’t need anymore reason or proof don’t you agree? Right now I absolutely don’t want to think that these two are lying.”<br /> <br /> “Ugh…” Headmaster Amasaki’s expression soured.<br /> <br /> “Before, I became concerned whatever happened to the illegal magician that I captured, so I had went to inspect the detention facility. …It’s no good you know, to do something like sending a child to that kind of place because of false charges.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that once went through bitter experience because of Karin too, that gentle face of hers distorted in sorrow.<br /> <br /> “Tou-san, if you are a teacher then there are times when you had to have faith in your students even without any proof right!? In drama this is not the time to say such things!”<br /> <br /> Mio who was until now had kept quiet and watched the situation gave her assistance to Kazuki as well.<br /> <br /> “Ughh…even though papa is just taking a prudent stance for the sake of the academy, even up to Mio…”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki made a grimace that add even more wrinkles in his wrinkled-covered face.<br /> <br /> “Well then headmaster, at least please wait before sending her immediately to the detention facility. I will take the role of monitoring Karin for a while and make sure of Karin’s true feelings. Just like when before Kaguya-senpai did that for me and I was put in the Witch’s Mansion!”<br /> <br /> “Yo, you―, you’re gonna help Karin-chan!?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t say stupid things! Katsura Karin is aiming for your life, you know that!! If you asked what is the most dangerous, it’s to be put and left here near you, that’s the number one danger!”<br /> <br /> “Saying it in reverse, the only one who can prove that this girl is not a dangerous character by being together with her is only the target, just me. Moreover even in the case that the girl bared her fang as an assassin, I am already beyond her ability to kill. If it’s this girl that’s impossible.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, didn’t your heart get stopped once already?”<br /> <br /> From the side of Kazuki that was saying so while puffing up his chest, Mio made a swift tsukkomi and flustered him.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that was just because I didn’t understand the opponent’s technique that’s why I intentionally got hit to test it, that’s all! A second hit won’t succeed anymore! I had perfectly grasped this girl’s true strength!!”<br /> <br /> “Certainly only seeing from the match, I think the difference in strength was evident. Nevertheless can you really assert that so certainly? If for example you are to be attacked when sleeping...”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai murmured worriedly.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style is surprise attack proof.”<br /> <br /> “When we first met, didn’t I creep up behind you unnoticed and pranked you [Who― is it?]?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too launched a swift tsukkomi, Kazuki was “Tha, that was because senpai didn’t have any killing intent!” and made some justification in fluster. Moreover, just before this, he had been pranked [Who― is this?] by Beatrix.<br /> <br /> This was bad, from some time ago he let out too many excuses. The persuasiveness was just too doubtful even if he said so himself.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama…that being the case are you planning to don the &lt;War Preparation Spirit&gt;?”<br /> <br /> As if to throw out a life saving boat, Kanae said that.<br /> <br /> “War Preparation Spirit?” Everyone other than Kazuki tilted their heads. In place of Kazuki, Kanae made her explanation.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style is an old school of Iai. Iai’s original doctrine is [to never let show an opening no matter what kind of time, always being ready to draw sword and counterattack immediately no matter against any kind of attack], like that. Surprise attack doesn’t work against Nii-sama is a fact. Hayashizaki-style can detect [killing intent] even while sleeping….What is called killing intent is not a concept that like an occult. Killing intent, namely the emission of offensive-like magic power. In order to be able to sense it even in the subconscious, the subconscious of oneself has to be mastered―that is the War Preparation Spirit. In short it is one kind of a Trance technique.”<br /> <br /> The surrounding bunch felt the persuasiveness inside Kanae’s words and “I see” nodded their head.<br /> <br /> “Putting on War Preparation Spirit, in short if I sleep with my mind still in a half-awakened state, even if I am attacked in my sleep I could immediately wake up. That’s why it’s impossible for Karin to kill me. Headmaster, please give me time to spend with Karin! …If you recognize me as a possessor of the power of King then please!”<br /> <br /> King. With that word brought out, Headmaster Amasaki grudgingly accepted that proposal.<br /> <br /> “…One week. After one week the student general meeting will be carried out, the counting of the votes will be performed and the seat of the Chief Student Council President will be settled. Until that time, keep Katsura Karin company and don’t leave her side for even a moment. Smell out her true feeling.”<br /> <br /> One week…if there was that much time then it was enough.<br /> <br /> “You said don’t leave her side for even a moment…Certainly if she is a dangerous character then a monitoring around the clock is needed but, then that means Kazuki is going to have a life of constant attendance with this child Karin? For one week too?”<br /> <br /> Mio talked in whisper. And then with a blushing red face, she claimed an unparalleled thoughtless remark.<br /> <br /> “…That’s totally unfair!!”<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “…Here is?”<br /> <br /> The time when Karin who was laid atop the bed in Kazuki’s room opened her eyes was several hours later.<br /> <br /> “This is my room.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki answered so in a posture of sitting on top of the chair of his desk.<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki Kazuki!?” The instant she saw Kazuki, Karin sprang up with the force of Jouchouho.<br /> <br /> “Wait, calm down. You don’t need to be on your guard. By the way the sheets of that bed and pillow had been changed into new ones, so it shouldn’t smell like me!”<br /> <br /> “Smell or whatever doesn’t matter!”<br /> <br /> That might be so but…when Hikaru-senpai said to Kazuki that his bed [smelled the smell of boy] he became bothered by it.<br /> <br /> “You, I’m going to…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki quickly interrupted the words Karin was going to say.<br /> <br /> “Hayashi Shizuka who gave that order had already gone.”<br /> <br /> At that time when Shizuka left, she left behind a discarding talk of [I’ll give that puppet to you]. That kind of thing.<br /> <br /> Karin looked around restlessly *kyoro kyoro*…she instantly comprehended the meaning of Shizuka’s inexistence there, that after the fight the one who was captured was only herself. And then that expression of hers changed into a hollow expression.<br /> <br /> “…Is that so? So I have been discarded.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In Kazuki’s room that has a width of about six tatami mats, so that he could put Karin on the bed, Kazuki also brought the futon for his share inside. It made the room even more cramped. In there, even more monitoring equipment was arranged.<br /> <br /> First was a lock and buzzer at the door and window. If those were attempted to be opened forcibly, alarms would ring out throughout the Witch’s Mansion. The alarm’s volume was so loud that it would make any who hear it leap out from their bed.<br /> <br /> At the corner of the ceiling, a lens of a monitoring camera was shining. Kazuki’s own privacy was also taken from him, this camera took the film and transmitted it to the staff room in real time.<br /> <br /> The guaranteed article was the bracelet type Limiter that was installed on Karin’s wrist. It was the item sent from the Knight Order that was arranged by the headmaster. It was accompanied with vicious functions that would create a powerful shock to the mind through the Stigmata and drive the wearer into unconsciousness when they tried to destroy the bracelet forcibly or when the identified wavelength tries to perform Access.<br /> <br /> “In short you are put into a situation where it’s impossible to escape from cohabitation with me!”<br /> <br /> “You, are you a pervert?”<br /> <br /> When he explained the situation with high tension, an extremely natural tsukkomi was returned at him.<br /> <br /> Looks like it was difficult to have a bright atmosphere in his conversation with Karin.<br /> <br /> “If I don’t do this you are going to be sent to the detention facility you know? You’d hate it right, to be sent there in this young age.”<br /> <br /> “I don’t particularly mind. Whatever happens to someone like me…”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 097.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Karin who had a thoroughly vacant expression murmured crestfallenly.<br /> <br /> “Hey, I have one thing I want to ask you though.”<br /> <br /> “There is nothing that I can answer. If I get interrogated with truth serum or mind magic it’s going to be useless to resist anyway so I’ll say this beforehand, but I don’t know anything.”<br /> <br /> “I’m not asking about that. Are you a family with Shizuka?”<br /> <br /> Against Kazuki’s question, Karin’s expression stiffened.<br /> <br /> “You’d know if you look from the name right? The family name of Hayashi was not given to me.”<br /> <br /> According to Eleonora, it seemed Hayashi Shizuka had the real name of Lin Zhijing&lt;ref&gt;Lin is read as Hayashi in Japanese&lt;/ref&gt;. <br /> <br /> From the simple fake name they were using, their underestimation of Japan’s intelligence network was clear as day.<br /> <br /> “I’m called as {{furigana|Gue|Katsura}} {{furigana|Farin|Karin}}. Losing my original name of Katsura Karin, I became an existence of nobody.”<br /> <br /> “But you wanted to be recognized as family right?”<br /> <br /> “…No. I’m a puppet. There is nothing that I wished for.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? …Actually I was also an orphan.”<br /> <br /> Karin who was averting her face to the side looked back here. An interest was growing from a faint sympathy.<br /> <br /> From that action, an emotion that was unlike a puppet bled out for an instant.<br /> <br /> “I was treated kindly by Hayashizaki household. I obtained a family. …I who became happy and you who was treated as a puppet, what’s with this difference?”<br /> <br /> “Are you planning to boast and feel good with yourself? Just so you know that I don’t feel any jealousy or anything.”<br /> <br /> “No. This mere slight difference of fate that separated you and me…I really cannot tolerate it.”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki spat out those last words behind, he went out of the room and went to the kitchen.<br /> <br /> And then he served the share of the girl’s dinner on a plate and brought it back. It was the food that Kazuki made while Karin fainted. The usual fried chicken. Rice. Salad. The time was not enough so it became just a simple menu.<br /> <br /> But he wanted to make the girl eat his own homemade food.<br /> <br /> “Do you think I’m going to receive any charity from you!”<br /> <br /> Karin knocked off the plate of food that Kazuki presented to the floor.<br /> <br /> Kazuki wordlessly tidied up the food that was scattered on the floor. It’s great that it was a menu that didn’t have any soup in it.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t put any poison in it. It’s delicious you know. Even though I have confidence in this food.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t even get angry, then he put the part of fried chicken that was still safe on top of the plate into his mouth with a snap and made a show to her of him eating. “…” Karin was glaring silently at that situation.<br /> <br /> And then they went to bed that night. There was no conversation between the two but there was also no attack.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Karin, here is breakfast.”<br /> <br /> The menu was freshly toasted toast garnished with homemade butter and crispy bacon egg. Puffing up vapors was still visible on top of the plate, filling up the whole room with fragrant aroma.<br /> <br /> The exquisite grilling adjustment made the appearance and the aroma very stimulating, making the one who sees it won’t be able to stop imagining how good it would be to feel the food texture in the mouth.<br /> <br /> “Don’t need it. Bring it back.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? Even though it’s so delicious.”<br /> <br /> With intention of appealing that there was no poison inside the food, Kazuki made a show of eating it in front of Karin.<br /> <br /> With homemade butter melted in brim on top of the dry surface of the toast that was toasted into light brown color, when Kazuki bit it a *saku* sound resounded. When the fork was stabbed into the sunny-side-up fried egg, the half-cooked syrupy egg yolk soaked the bacon, the egg mildly enveloped the bacon’s richness. When it was brought into the mouth, both things mixed together spread out the flavor of microcosmos.<br /> <br /> Right there black tea was also included into his mouth. In truth in making black tea, Mio’s way was far more detailed than even Kazuki, this tea was made by her for him. The fresh aroma reset his tongue and he once again took a round of taste of the butter toast.<br /> <br /> In that situation Karin kept making a small glance from the side. Her lips were trembling all over as if enduring something.<br /> <br /> ―After the breakfast was over, for the sake of monitoring Karin, Kazuki had took a break from the academy.<br /> <br /> There was plenty of time but, it presented a space where there was only Kazuki and Karin, just the two of them together. Kazuki didn’t have any intention of doing something like an interrogation. In exchange, he tried making small talk many times to relax the atmosphere but he was ignored.<br /> <br /> “Karin, it’s lunch time.”<br /> <br /> In the afternoon it was Oyakodon&lt;ref&gt;Chicken and egg on rice.&lt;/ref&gt;. Kazuki brought over two bowls covered with lid into the room, then he suddenly removed the lid. With a puff the steam puffed up from the bowl, a gentle fragrance form parsley and soup stock filled the room.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t need it. But I’m going to say one thing. Don’t eat it in front of my eyes.”<br /> <br /> Karin said it with sharp tone of voice, that stomach of hers was ‘kuuu’ rumbling.<br /> <br /> When he thought about it, the girl will have not eaten for a whole day soon.<br /> <br /> He was unaware of it but, by perchance he had made a behavior of awful torture already.<br /> <br /> “But I’m the monitor of Karin, so as much as possible I have to be here.”<br /> <br /> Reluctantly, Kazuki consumed the food including the share that was also prepared for Karin’s sake heartily right in front of Karin’s eyes. Then the last remaining rice grains that had absorbed the broth were picked one grain by one grain by chopsticks. It was really fun that he cleaned the bowl until it shined.<br /> <br /> Karin became teary eyed while her eyes were nailed looking on that situation.<br /> <br /> At the afternoon, he studied the self-learning textbook that was prepared by Liz Liza-sensei, and also he thoroughly performed muscle training and magic training that could be done in that room. For Kazuki he went through a productive afternoon…then it became the time for dinner.<br /> <br /> “Karin, it’s dinner but…”<br /> <br /> For dinner it was sukiyaki&lt;ref&gt;Hotpot&lt;/ref&gt;. So he could just take the shortest possible time being away from this room, he made the meal as simple as possible. Furthermore it must be something that he wouldn’t get embarrassed to serve for a guest that came from afar.<br /> <br /> He brought the iron pot that was filled with gently boiling sukiyaki together with the gas stove. The gas stove was put onto the tea table. Inside the iron pot the cooking hadn’t been completed already, rather it was still halfway cooked.<br /> <br /> Enticed by the aroma, Karin unconsciously peaked into the pot’s content, then finally she cried out messily.<br /> <br /> From her stomach, ‘ku―kyurupi―’ groaning voice that sounded like a small animal leaked out.<br /> <br /> “Oi…your stomach is hungry right? Though I think that patience is meaningless.”<br /> <br /> “…My stomach is hungry. My throat is parched…”<br /> <br /> Karin talked in resignation.<br /> <br /> “Your stomach is hungry…. Strange. Why is that? Why, despite being a puppet without any home to return for…even though you think that it’s okay even if you die…your stomach is hungry.”<br /> <br /> In front of the girl that refused even drinks, Kazuki put and presented the cooled black tea pot, then he served the sukiyaki from the pot into a bowl for the girl.<br /> <br /> “It’s really natural. You still haven’t lived in a way that would make you able to say [I can die satisfied]. Eat up. You are not a puppet but still a human.”<br /> <br /> After Karin drained the cup of tea in one gulp, she took and gripped the chopstick with trembling fingers. After mixing the beef meat seeped with salty-sweet flavor and raw egg, she brought it to her mouth.<br /> <br /> “…Delicious. This is the first time I eat something this tasty.”<br /> <br /> “It’s a cooking I have confidence in after all. Sukiyaki is decided by the quality of the beef meat. I know an old man that used alchemy to raise good cow. Are you listening, the breeding of cow is very deep. This is a second-hand knowledge from the old man but to raise a good cow, good grass is needed. To start with the soil is important. For the sake of choosing the soil first he needed to lick and eat the soil, he ascertained the chlorella with his own tongue you know…That pH value is…”<br /> <br /> “You’re annoying.”<br /> <br /> “…Sorry. In the house of Hayashi, what were you normally eating?”<br /> <br /> “Bean sprouts or something like that.” It was curt, but that was the first time she gave a reply to his question.<br /> <br /> “Something like stir fried bean sprouts?”<br /> <br /> “No, directly from the bag just like that.”<br /> <br /> “Raw!? Just as I thought {{furigana|that guy|Hayashi Shizuka}}’s personality is the worst…!”<br /> <br /> Karin continued to move her chopsticks in a daze without even wiping her tears. This time she ate with vigor that didn’t even leave Kazuki’s share untouched.<br /> <br /> “Why, even though you are treated like trash until that much, do you still listen to what Shizuka was saying?”<br /> <br /> “…Because I’m a puppet. There is nothing that I think as painful.”<br /> <br /> “Wrong. You listen to me, you are not an unfeeling human to the degree of a puppet.”<br /> <br /> Rather, even though she was an assassin, she immediately lost her cool from some provocation. Mibu-senpai too, she said that Karin had [lonely eyes that were waiting for someone to reach their hands for her].<br /> <br /> The Karin at that time when she was treated as a meatshield by Hayashi Shizuka, that expression….<br /> <br /> And then mixing the egg with salty-sweet beef meat and bringing it into her mouth with that brightness, this expression….<br /> <br /> “You were coming to this point enduring that harsh way of living for a long time while hoping, wishing to become happy someday. That decided it. You are not something like a puppet.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> “Karin, let’s watch anime or something.”<br /> <br /> Choosing the one that he hasn’t watched yet among the anime URD that he borrowed from Lotte, Kazuki called out to her.<br /> <br /> “Anime…?” Karin tilted her head looking at the URD package in his hand with deep interest.<br /> <br /> “This is an appliance that projected a story, isn’t it…? How foolish, this is just a children’s amusement.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so, well even if you don’t watch I’m still going to watch alone.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki set the URD into the Phantasmagoria and it projected three dimensional images. At his back Karin kept sneaking glances this way.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki. Oi Kazuki.” Along with the sudden voice, his shoulder was shook from behind.<br /> <br /> “What is it, even though now is a great scene, gusu-&lt;ref&gt;Sniffing voice&lt;/ref&gt;”<br /> <br /> Kazuki paused the images temporarily and looked back while wiping his tears.<br /> <br /> Even though a great scene that even made him forget Karin’s existence was currently going on.<br /> <br /> “…I can’t comprehend the action of Ivlahimopitch just now. It’s irrational.”<br /> <br /> Karin said with a serious expression.<br /> <br /> The one she called Ivlahimopitch was the main character of this anime [Magical Girl Ivlahimopitch].<br /> <br /> “Ivlahimopitch who was a female delinquent ruffian was reformed by her master Park Chison and she accumulated training of magical taekwondo. Finally she surpassed the strength of her master and then she proceed forward into a destiny of various magic martial arts battle together with the enemy of her parents, the user of magical Muay Thai Pon Saklek, I wonder if it’s that kind of scene.”<br /> <br /> “Haven’t you grasped the story well already?”<br /> <br /> “Ivlahimopitch is supposed to be a girl that dedicated her life in fighting. Despite so, why did she suddenly neglect the enemy of her parents and headed to Mourinyo’s location. This Mourinyo was an ally but parted company with her for the sake of pursuing her revenge. Currently she is supposed to be an enemy.”<br /> <br /> “That’s because she noticed the futility of revenge and the awakening of her love to Mourinyo right?”<br /> <br /> The girl who stopped the revenge realized that she was loved not only by Mourinyo but also the whole world and she liberated herself from the curse that bound her life. A really moving scene.<br /> <br /> However Karin shook her head. “I don’t get it, how irrational.”<br /> <br /> “That’s because the thing called love is something irrational in the first place…”<br /> <br /> “Love…what is love&lt;ref&gt;The word she is using for love here is different, the love said before this is more of a general love, while here she is using the word love in romantic sense&lt;/ref&gt;?”<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s…I too don’t get it…. Don’t ask such philosophical matters so suddenly!”<br /> <br /> “You bastard, so you are showing something you don’t understand well yourself to me!”<br /> <br /> “You don’t think about this kind of matter! Feel it!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Karin raised their voices and quarreled, suddenly ‘BATA―N!’ the door of the room opened.<br /> <br /> “Tell the story to me, Kazuki-oniisan! To talk about Ivlahimopitch without me participating is unforgivable desu!”<br /> <br /> The one who came along was Lotte who was wearing a dog-modeled pajama.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, what’s with this girl?”<br /> <br /> “This living thing is Charlotte Liebenfrau…when she finds humans who share interest in anime she will bite the prey and won’t let go until the prey had talked with her through three days and three nights. A ferocious anime lover wanwan&lt;ref&gt;Dog barking&lt;/ref&gt;.”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki made that totally unthinkable introduction, Lotte “wanwan!” barked happily.<br /> <br /> “What’s with that, scary.”<br /> <br /> “She will be silent when you pet her head see? Though she is going to immediately talk again after that.”<br /> <br /> “Wanwan! Tonight let’s treat ourselves with all night anime admiration &amp; debate! I will make newcomer-san not fall sleep too desu!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ―When he noticed, the three were already sleeping together in a huddle.<br /> <br /> Kazuki roused Lotte, who was supposed to go to school, out of the bed. Lotte who was awakened from sleep, seeing Kazuki himself who was taking a break from school murmured “Unfair desu…” while leaving the room. And then Kazuki and Karin, the two of them had breakfast with eyes that were still half-asleep.<br /> <br /> “Karin, I noticed an incredible thing.”<br /> <br /> “What?” Karin said with her head kept nodding off *kokukoku* from lack of sleep.<br /> <br /> “You stink.”<br /> <br /> Karin who was a target of monitoring…hadn’t entered the bath at all.<br /> <br /> Now that he entered this topic, her attire too had been the Sword Division uniform all along.<br /> <br /> “You didn’t use Extra Sense and Psychokinesis together to remove the filth from your body and clothes? I have been together with you continuously but I have done so with my body at the same time with my magic training though.”<br /> <br /> An advanced magic user could remove the filth from their body with the power of magic. Because of that, in the occasion when they took a bath they put more importance in smell rather than washing and used things like &lt;fragrance soap&gt;.<br /> <br /> “…I have never done that kind of thing.”<br /> <br /> But it seemed Karin had always washed her body normally with soap. There was no mistake that she had never used luxury items like fragrance soap. She didn’t have the concept of washing her body with Psychokinesis.<br /> <br /> “It can’t be helped huh, we are going to bathe.”<br /> <br /> Even if he said that she stinks, it was not to the degree that would make him uncomfortable of being together with her.<br /> <br /> Having said that, Kazuki was not a maniac so he wanted a girl to be hygienic.<br /> <br /> When Kazuki pulled Karin’s hand, she lost her presence of mind.<br /> <br /> “Wait a second! I cannot enter a bath alone right!?”<br /> <br /> “You are in the middle of monitoring after all, so of course that is so but…as expected it’s embarrassing in the end.”<br /> <br /> “Hm, hmph. I am a puppet. Such humanlike emotion doesn’t remain inside me.”<br /> <br /> He totally didn’t understand her need to bluff in this area.<br /> <br /> “Is that so? Then don’t mind it. I’m going to persevere too and exposed my nakedness to you. Let’s go to the bath.”<br /> <br /> “Wait! Anyway wait a second for that!!”<br /> <br /> “Got it, then let me give a call to Mio so that she could bring a change of swimsuit. It’s going to get hard to wash the body, but let’s enter the bath wearing swimsuits.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> …Gradually it felt like he was picking a pet.<br /> <br /> “Well, it’s not like it’s not embarrassing just because we are wearing swimsuits isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> Entering the changing room in turn, Kazuki and Karin changed into swimsuits alternately.<br /> <br /> “U, useless feeling like shame does, not exist in me.”<br /> <br /> Karin was wearing a swimming race type school swimsuit on her body with slenderness of a fist fighter. She hung her head down in embarrassment. It was a swimsuit that Mio brought and gave to him, but it was a little too big and baggy.<br /> <br /> The bathtub of the Witch’s Mansion had the space that could be enjoyed by all the dwellers of the mansion altogether if they went for it.<br /> <br /> “You understand how to use the shower right? You enter the bathtub after cleaning your body first.”<br /> <br /> “I know shower, but what is bathtub?”<br /> <br /> “…So in Hayashi house you used nothing other than shower huh.”<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|HAWTT|hot}}! Hayashizaki Kazuki, this shower lets out hot water!?”<br /> <br /> “You didn’t get any hot water there…basically it was just all-out abuse there…”<br /> <br /> Though if it was just setting the water temperature, it could be controlled however they like by just using elementary Pyrokinesis.<br /> <br /> Kazuki and Karin stood back to back in the washing area and began washing their respective bodies.<br /> <br /> They looked completely like a family. That kind of emotion welled up, Kazuki’s chest became slightly warm.<br /> <br /> “Then that thing called bathtub, what kind of item is it?”<br /> <br /> Even if she asked what kind of item it is, it was just a mere bathtub. Kazuki explained with serious expression.<br /> <br /> “Listen well, first you place the towel on your head. And then you submerge your body inside this hot water until your shoulder, relax your whole body, then you say ‘Fuih―, it’s absolute heaven’. This is the custom so follow it absolutely.”<br /> <br /> “Like this? …Fuih―, it’s absolute heaven. Fun, how stupid.”<br /> <br /> Having said that and submerging herself inside the bathtub, her expression relaxed to the point that she looked like she was going to drool, her limbs became very loose. …The former assassin exposed her simpleton face in a school swimsuit appearance….<br /> <br /> Kazuki too submerged himself together inside the spacious bathtub. According to what Kaguya-senpai said, this hot water was from some famous artificial hot spring. However Kazuki who was raised with a poor person’s mentality didn’t have the habit for long baths.<br /> <br /> “Oi, are you not going to get out soon?”<br /> <br /> “Wait!” Karin let flew an intense voice.<br /> <br /> “Just wait a little bit…Fuih―, it’s absolute heaven.”<br /> <br /> “You are that pleased huh?”<br /> <br /> “What stupid thing are you saying, I am a puppet. This kind of thing is by no means…fuhii―, it’s absolute heaven.”<br /> <br /> Karin who was warm and flaky couldn’t help her mouth from loosening up slovenly and leaking ‘fuhii―fuhii―’ breaths.<br /> <br /> “You are a really simple idiot aren’t you?” Kazuki was amazed.<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> And then the third night after Karin came into Kazuki’s room.<br /> <br /> If Karin was going to try to kill him, it was supposed to be in the first night. Having that kind of thought, Kazuki went to sleep while feeling a peace of mind.<br /> <br /> Inside the room with its lights turned off, there was a shadow that woke up while suppressing the creaking sound of the bed to the very minimum.<br /> <br /> That shadow―Karin was slowly creeping up unnoticed to Kazuki’s spread out futon.<br /> <br /> The moonlight shining in from the gap of the curtain illuminated Kazuki’s sleeping face. Karin looked down on that sleeping face for a while. …It was just for ascertaining the depth of his sleep, there was no other intention.<br /> <br /> After holding her hand in front of Kazuki’s nose and making sure of the breathing of someone fast asleep, she crouched down near his pillow.<br /> <br /> If she wanted to aim for his heart then she must circle the futon, but that made her hesitate. Karin decided to aim for Kazuki’s nape of the neck and held her palm aloft. If it was with the power of Shintoukei, the bone of the neck could be easily broken apart.<br /> <br /> Humans wouldn’t die instantly from just having their neck snapped. The opponent was going to have his consciousness returned from the sleep and he was going to try to call for his comrade while his magic power prolonged his life. To prevent that event…after breaking the bone of the neck, Karin was going to twist the neck immediately and block the flow of blood to the brain. She constructed the flow of sequence inside her head.<br /> <br /> [A certain one hit kill in this age of magic] ―for the sake of achieving that, the required knowledge had been engraved inside Karin.<br /> <br /> For the sake of this moment.<br /> <br /> ―’You are a puppet but this technique is the only thing you can be proud of’, that was what Hayashi Shizuka said. Those words were everything for her.<br /> <br /> Karin perceived the wavelength of Kazuki’s defensive magic power with her palm. Defensive magic power that was the product of the subconscious kept protecting the whole body of the magician thinly even while in the middle of sleep.<br /> <br /> Magic power kept flowing without pause at all. This flow was not a simple phenomena, it possessed warping *gunya gunya* and complex mysterious wavelength. It was a complexity that was as if expressing the chaos of a human’s heart itself. There were no two humans existing that possessed the same wavelength of magic power.<br /> <br /> Karin who had accumulated training perceived that wavelength of magic power. She crashed that wavelength with the exact opposite wavelength of magic power, achieving counterbalance for just an instant. This technique was without doubt the &lt;Ki&lt;ref&gt;Spirit, essence&lt;/ref&gt; of Yin and Yang&gt;.<br /> <br /> With the magic power counterbalanced, that instant he became defenseless she punched him with Shintoukei. It was difficult to succeed in the middle of real battle but…it was child’s play when he slept.<br /> <br /> Now that his magic power was read thoroughly, clashed with the exact opposite magic power, and then―that instant. Like a snake aiming for its prey, Kazuki’s one arm raised like a snake head and grabbed Karin’s wrist as if snapping at the prey’s neck.<br /> <br /> “!?” With her dominant’s arm sealed in the nick of time with the strength like a thousand strong, Karin floated an expression of terror.<br /> <br /> “You are awake!?”<br /> <br /> “No, I was asleep without doubt. But the highest summit of an Iai swordsman is a [continuous battle preparation].”<br /> <br /> Immediately clearing away his sleepiness with {{furigana|Trance|Mind Unity}}, Kazuki opened his eyes in a snap.<br /> <br /> He was having a peace at mind from looking at Karin’s situation but―it was not to the degree that made him undo his &lt;War Preparation Ki&gt;.<br /> <br /> “In the first place if you wake up Leme, things like surprise attack wouldn’t come true though.”<br /> <br /> Furthermore Leme materialized with a pop beside Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “…Well, I don’t have any plan to pamper you until that much though―”<br /> <br /> Leaving only those words behind, Leme’s figure disappeared with a pop again.<br /> <br /> “If you kill me and bring that achievement back…are you thinking something like that?”<br /> <br /> While asking, Kazuki became aware of the depressed tone of his own voice. Kazuki was disappointed.<br /> <br /> “…I don’t think of anything like that. I don’t know the place I can go back to with my achievement. Because I don’t even know where Shizuka is right now.”<br /> <br /> “Then why?”<br /> <br /> “If it keep like this then I will be changed. …Shizuka said that the world is a scary place. I am more scared of living not following what Shizuka said, even more than dying. …It’s supposed to be like that.”<br /> <br /> Karin’s arm desperately struggled. However Kazuki was not going to let go of that arm.<br /> <br /> Karin became scared of the feeling that she had never known until now.<br /> <br /> “Shizuka was only trying to use you. …The world without a doubt is a happier place.”<br /> <br /> It was an obvious fact that should even be said as the significance of living. However Karin was scared even of that fact.<br /> <br /> “I’m not wishing for anything like happiness! I’ll kill you…and I’ll get killed too!! It’s fine already with that…!!”<br /> <br /> “Don’t abandon yourself!”<br /> <br /> {But…with your current strength you cannot kill that boy though.}<br /> <br /> In the middle of the arguing two people, a voice appeared―it was not a voice. Reverberating directly inside the head of Kazuki and Karin, it was a telepathic voice. It was a voice that he remembered hearing before. But, it couldn’t possibly be…that voice was impossible.<br /> <br /> {Wrong, it’s possible you know? Karin, if you want to kill that fellow, it’s fine to use my power.}<br /> <br /> “This voice is, &lt;Dakki&gt;!”<br /> <br /> Behind Karin whose hand was gripped by Kazuki, a dim avatar was floating.<br /> <br /> Karin’s contracted Diva, Dakki…!<br /> <br /> But even though Karin and Dakki’s contact was supposed to be sealed by the Limiter…!<br /> <br /> {Wrong, boy. Fufufu. The name of the current I is not Dakki. Know this. What is known as Diva is the state of things that is altered by the human hearts, that illusion.}<br /> <br /> Altering the state of Diva―like how Baal became Beelzebub.<br /> <br /> During the change of history, civilization, there existed Divas that possessed several faces.<br /> <br /> The stigmata was shining on Karin’s body. It changed into a totally different shine compared to when he fought her in the final!<br /> <br /> {Right now, my name is, the fox of hundred faces golden fur nine tails &lt;Tamamo no Mae&gt;! Things like a Limiter that identified the stigmata of Dakki, is already useless!!}<br /> <br /> The faint shadow that was floating behind Karin gradually linked into a clear contour of beautiful woman. Golden hair, golden tail, beautiful face accompanied with sharpness as it was. The clothes that wrapped her body transformed from China-style into motif of Japanese clothes.<br /> <br /> This fellow…was she transforming from Diva of Chinese Mythology into Diva of Japanese Mythology!?<br /> <br /> Kazuki leaped out from the futon, his hand grasping his beloved katana &lt;Doufuu&gt; that was waiting at the side.<br /> <br /> {Come Karin, let’s kill this boy together!}<br /> <br /> “I can kill Hayashizaki Kazuki…I can, Hayashizaki Kazuki will…?”<br /> <br /> {What’s wrong Karin? Don’t tell me…[I can’t kill him anyway] you are already half giving up like that and yet you are still trying to kill him, that’s not so right?}<br /> <br /> Asked like that, Karin twitched as if in fright and her line of sight wandered around.<br /> <br /> “I, I am…even if I use your Summoning Magic, I can’t win against that guy at all…”<br /> <br /> {That might be so huh. But―it’s going to be different if you assimilate with me. Materialization, if you chant your magic with a speed that far surpasses even Contract Summoning, there is no reason that you can lose in a one-on-one fight. That’s right…if you yield your everything to me, you can kill that boy in this place!}<br /> <br /> “Yielding my body, to you…?”<br /> <br /> {That’s right. You planned to kill that guy and get killed anyway, right? But that…surely it’s scary isn’t it? Living too is scary, dying too is scary…then offer everything to me…!}<br /> <br /> A voice so sweet that even made chill ran through, Tamamo no Mae whispered. {Inside my pitch black womb, you would have no need to fear anything anymore. That is without a doubt the most comfortable choice…}<br /> <br /> “Stop!” Kazuki yelled. Throwing away oneself―that was something that must not be done the most!<br /> <br /> “Karin! Don’t run from this world!! This world is not a scary place!! Because the meal is delicious, because anime is interesting, because you can go to bed after entering a warm bath…everything is something ordinary you can find anywhere!! There is no meaning at all in running away!!”<br /> <br /> Karin whose gaze was sucked by Tamamo no Mae looked at Kazuki as if she had just woken up.<br /> <br /> The eyes of Karin at that time were…what Mibu Akira expressed as [lonely], that kind of eyes.<br /> <br /> That was why, Kazuki resolved himself to reach out his hand.<br /> <br /> Just like the hand offered to me from Tou-san, from Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> “If you are not alone, there is nothing you need to fear!!”<br /> <br /> “If I’m not alone…”<br /> <br /> “I am right here!!”<br /> <br /> {Don’t lend him your ear. Close your eyes. Shut yourself. Believe in me!}<br /> <br /> “Believe in me! Running away is useless!!”<br /> <br /> “I, I’m…” From both of Karin’s eyes, tears were spilling out in drove.<br /> <br /> “…I don’t want to kill. Ac, actually, I don’t want to kill Kazuki…”<br /> <br /> Karin fell into her knees at that spot with a slump.<br /> <br /> Hanging her head like a withering flower, drops of tear *drip drip* were spilling out onto the flooring of the floor.<br /> <br /> “…Karin.” Kazuki let go of Doufuu. Ignoring Tamamo no Mae, he hugged Karin.<br /> <br /> Rather than regarding her as a woman, it felt like he was embracing a child.<br /> <br /> “Scary…it’s scary. Hayashizaki Kazuki…living by myself is…”<br /> <br /> Karin pressed her crying face into Kazuki’s chest, she was talking while her shoulders were heaving with sobs many times.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, the place Karin is currently in now is not a dark scary world. I’m right here.”<br /> <br /> “Fu. Fuffuffu…”<br /> <br /> Suddenly, Tamamo no Mae leak out a laughing voice. Kazuki reacted to the voice and looked back, then he glared at the avatar.<br /> <br /> Towards Kazuki who was on guard whether she was planning to do anything else, Tamamo no Mae grinned…and smiled.<br /> <br /> {Fufufu…o devil king of Solomon 72 Pillar, Lemegeton. Tamamo no Mae and that contractor, Katsura Karin is surrendering under your banner. It’s fine to add this one in the lowest seat of the 72 Pillar.}<br /> <br /> “…Eh?”<br /> <br /> {Hayashizaki Kazuki. Don’t you dare forget the proclamation that you made in the presence of I…a Diva. I’m entrusting Karin to you.}<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was taken aback with surprise, slow by one beat, he finally comprehend the thinking of this Diva.<br /> <br /> “Were you…pushing Karin’s back forward? You are planning to betray Chinese Mythology?”<br /> <br /> Karin who was cornered until she was stuck between a rock and a hard place, she made Karin be true to her own feelings…?<br /> <br /> {In the first place I don’t belong under any Mythology. I went along with Joka, but it had been also established in the Mythology about how I betrayed Joka. Surely because of that Shizuka had arranged to use and discard Karin. But how dull it is if it ends like that, I too, and also Karin’s life.}<br /> <br /> Tamamo no Mae stared at Karin with an unexpected gentle smiling face. And then when she looked back on Kazuki again, her gaze had a different quality compared to when she was staring at Karin. Only her mouth was grinning…and it warped showing a terrifying smile.<br /> <br /> {I won’t let you off if you slighted my Karin.}<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki…” Karin too stared at Kazuki as if clinging on him.<br /> <br /> Katsura Karin―41<br /> <br /> He had a feeling that somehow he had burdened himself with something terrific.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Chapter_2&diff=461084 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 2 2015-09-08T04:46:40Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>{{Incomplete|parts=2|tparts=4}}<br /> <br /> ==Chapter 2 – Discarded Fox Diary==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The collapsed Karin was immediately transported to the school infirmary.<br /> <br /> And then Headmaster Amasaki informed Kazuki and his companions that were gathering besides Karin’s bed―he entered the gravity of bearing the burden of a student’s fate into his voice.<br /> <br /> “A seal would be performed on her Stigmata to make her unable to use magic power completely. I have made an arrangement with the Knight Order for a &lt;{{furigana|Limiter|Stigmata Suppression Device}}&gt;. It’s the newest measure for illegal magician with minor offence.”<br /> <br /> “You are not going to use &lt;Stigmata Removal Operation&gt; that was recommended for Otouto-kun before?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai asked. In comparison to seal by tool, removing Stigmata by operation was thought to be a more fundamental solution. But Headmaster Amasaki shook his head.<br /> <br /> “If the link between Stigmata and Diva is destroyed, the injury to the mind cannot be avoided. The former Headmaster Otonashi that advanced the research by his own accord claimed that it had become a technique for practical use, but in reality it’s still too inhuman. Even the illegal magicians that are caught by the Knight Order are currently restrained using Limiter.”<br /> <br /> “That thing called limiter, what kind of item is it?” Kazuki asked.<br /> <br /> “What is called Limiter is a tool that read the wavelength of the magic power that flow inside the Stigmata and make it so magic power cannot flow into the Stigmata. On top of fixing this tool on her, she is also going to be sent to a &lt;detention facility&gt;.”<br /> <br /> Detention facility―the establishment that detained the illegal magicians that the Knight Order captured. They were safely managed there, at the same time it was also a facility for keeping them away at a distance so that they wouldn’t become a victim of persecution and revenge.<br /> <br /> It could also be reworded as [the prison you wouldn’t be able to leave until you die].<br /> <br /> “Please wait a second, there is no need to go that far right!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki objected in panic, but Headmaster Amasaki opposed imposingly.<br /> <br /> “Why do you think so? Of course there is a need to go that far. You realize if the limiter is broken or removed, this girl is just going to use dangerous Summoning Magic again?”<br /> <br /> “Headmaster, the logic that she is [dangerous because of illegal magician status] is also going to be completely disadvantageous for our position that claimed the safety of Hayashizaki Kazuki and the others though.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei interjected in the middle and covered for Kazuki. “What kind of pretext is used to send the girl to the detention facility? Is there a basis to hand down an even more harsh treatment compared to Hayashizaki and the others?”<br /> <br /> “There is. This girl while there were still students in unconscious condition remaining in the match venue, used a large scale offensive magic. Her riskiness has already been proven.”<br /> <br /> A resolute fury stained the words of Headmaster Amasaki―in regard to someone that exposed the students to danger. ‘I’m going to send this girl to a detention facility for sure’, that was the kind of face that he was currently making.<br /> <br /> “That was because of Hayashi Shizuka’s order that made her did it! This girl was just manipulated! Despite so, for this girl’s life to be closed here, I won’t allow such behavior!!”<br /> <br /> “How could you know that she did it just because of the brainwashing? How much of it was by Katsura Karin’s own will, how much of it was not, can you really judge it accurately?”<br /> <br /> “That…when the person concerned herself wakes up we could ask her…”<br /> <br /> “The word of the person concerned herself couldn’t become a proof.”<br /> <br /> That was just like a suspect that cried of his own innocence in a trial. There was no persuasiveness inside it at all.<br /> <br /> “Hayashi Shizuka is the mastermind of everything, Katsura Karin just got dragged into it. Katsura Karin is completely innocent…if such thinking is considered normally, it sounds forced don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> “But to be punished just for doubt and simply get sent to detention facility like that…!”<br /> <br /> He got the reason of Headmaster Amasaki that regarded Karin as a danger. However, even so…!<br /> <br /> “Don’t fuck with mee―!”<br /> <br /> At that time, a voice came beyond the curtain that partitioned them from the neighboring bed.<br /> <br /> “Don’t screw around, I won’t allow you bastard to send Karin-chan to a place that looked like jail huh!!”<br /> <br /> The curtain was opened violently. The source of the voice was Mibu Akira. The girl too together with Asamiya-senpai fainted at the final, just like that they were laid on the bed beside. <br /> <br /> “Karin-chan didna’ do anything bad…no really she might do something just a little bad but…but Karin-chan isn’ someoneee bad okay!”<br /> <br /> “That’s right―, what Aneki said you know―!”<br /> <br /> Snapping at the headmaster the moment they woke up, the small statured protégée Asamiya-senpai too gave her backing at that timing.<br /> <br /> Facing defiance from unexpected place, Headmaster Amasaki made a shocked face.<br /> <br /> “…You two, are you going to give testimony that Katsura Karin was brainwashed? …But the testimony of the both of you is not going to fly. Both of you also continued to fight even without under the brainwashing of Joka. Both of you were also conspired with the sleeper agent of China by your own will, a dangerous element.”<br /> <br /> Sometimes he really felt like wanting to say something like [choose your words a little more carefully] to Headmaster Amasaki.<br /> <br /> Against that high handed attitude, Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai became even more worked up.<br /> <br /> “I was fightin’ for Karin-chan’s sake! Karin-chan…honestly I don’ know how far she was brainwashed. There is also some aspect of Karin-chan that choose to fight. But, that was only because she was made to choose! Karin-chan’s [own will] was not regarded at all! This girl just wanted to get recognized by her stepsister as family!! I wanna help her with that. Me and also Karin-chan doesn’t give a damn one bit about whether China is backing us up or whatever! No way I’m fighting for such thing!!”<br /> <br /> “Wishing to get recognized as family…?” Kazuki was dumbfounded and leaked out a voice in a murmur.<br /> <br /> “Karin-chan is not a bad child! Even if she doesn’t get slammed into prison she could still start over!”<br /> <br /> “Hmph.” Headmaster Amasaki snorted his nose without changing his attitude.<br /> <br /> “If she could still reform than that way is better. She is still a young girl of fifteen years old, even I think so. But why you can declare that so confidently? What’s your basis? If the worst possibility should happen what are you going to do?”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai faltered. After looking down with anxious eyes, she said a [girlish basis].<br /> <br /> “…Because that girl always made lonely eyes. If she really had gone bad, if she didn’t give a damn on the world and despaired, she won’t even feel any loneliness or the like. If she had really gone bad then she gonna become a monster that keep cool no matter what screwed things she get done. But it’s still not too late for guys that get lonely. If a kind hand is reached out to ‘em by someone, there is no way it’s too late for ‘em!!”<br /> <br /> From those words, the infirmary became enveloped in silence.<br /> <br /> That was by no means a logical argument, but it had the persuasive power of a pleading from the heart.<br /> <br /> Was there something inside Kazuki that couldn’t get to agree with this development, he had a feeling that he could understand her argument.<br /> <br /> This was a conceited talk but, never once Kazuki felt of Karin as strong.<br /> <br /> The girl always raging and shouting at Kazuki, always clinging on Hayashi Shizuka [wanting to get approved]. That frailness completely like an infant raising a crying voice was really transparent.<br /> <br /> Hayashi Shizuka used such girl’s weakness to the bone without leaving anything untouched.<br /> <br /> Even in the case that brainwashing magic was not even used, that was already the same as brainwashing.<br /> <br /> I…if there existed a powerless person that got oppressed and fell into fate of sorrow, it was something that I couldn’t allow.<br /> <br /> As expected I wanted to help Karin. Even in the case of the existing possibility that the girl was a future [enemy], even so he wanted to discover the possibility of happiness for the girl.<br /> <br /> “It’s not worth considering. What you called as your basis is only a really subjective story from your side.”<br /> <br /> Despite the bitter face that Headmaster Amasaki was making, he cut Mibu-senpai’s argument without a second thought with a sentence.<br /> <br /> “Anyway you two don’t forget that you are also someone in suspicion. No matter how much you said that she is not bad, it was nothing more than your attempt to cover for your comrade.”<br /> <br /> “Shit-, is it because we are delinquents…! Really until now we just kept doing whatever the hell we wanted and then suddenly askin’ to just believe what we are sayin’ it’s really askin’ too much but still…”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai dropped her shoulders dejectedly, Asamiya-senpai too “Aneki…” had her eyes glistening with tears.<br /> <br /> “Mibu-san why did you become a delinquent…rather than saying delinquent, why didn’t you spend your school life seriously as a knight candidate until now?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai once again inquired about Mibu-senpai’s real intention.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t…even though I didn’t even wanna become something like a knight I was forced to enter the Knight Academy, of course I won’ have any motivation. No way I’m gonna go along with it.”<br /> <br /> ”Yes, before we also had a talk like that hadn’t we?”<br /> <br /> Until now Kaguya-senpai had already tried to reform Mibu-senpai many times and it really weighed on her mind.<br /> <br /> “But that kind of you really made so much effort like this with all your power in this battle election. For the sake of this child named Karin. Why in the world would you do that?”<br /> <br /> “…Karin-chan was treated like shit by Shizuka. I too am this academy’s shit, that was why I wanna do something. Really, I don’ even know about things like with China or Japan at all.”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai suddenly became flustered.<br /> <br /> “I said that you are delinquents but, I don’t think that you are this academy’s shit or the like at all! I just thought that I wanted us to do our best together as a fellow Knight candidate, that’s all!<br /> <br /> “I get it really. But I couldna’ take an offered hand like that! Because that’s too shameful right!? When I got treated kindly, that just made me got awareness of my own wrong!”<br /> <br /> “Aneki…” Asamiya-senpai watched over Mibu-senpai whose eyes were wet with tears.<br /> <br /> “Actually I, wanted to enter confectionery school…and become a cake store owner!”<br /> <br /> “Ca, cake store!?” Hearing that too unexpected words, not only Kaguya-senpai, everyone too was surprised.<br /> <br /> “What’s strange with that, isn’t cake store the best! I’m gonna open my own shop in a small town, getting the auntie and the girls going home from school as my regular…. At Christmas or birthday, if there is something to celebrate everyone is gonna come to my shop, picking out the cake with eyes bright with hope…. For the sake of answering that hope every morning I’m gonna wake up early, I got confidence in my magic power so I’m gonna make my own flavor with Alchemy Cooking, everyone gonna say that it’s delicious…even though I have a dream like that…this arm that is for the sake of whipping up cream was suddenly got fixed with Enigma!”<br /> <br /> From Mibu-senpai’s eyes, tears were overflowing in drove, spilling out messily.<br /> <br /> “That’s why…what responsibility of knight, I don’ know anything like that, like that I rebelled against the academy. I don’t have any plan of doing anything mistaken, so I don’t plan to reflect on myself or anything like that. But…I noticed it while looking at Kaguya-chan.”<br /> <br /> “M, me? Looking at me?” Kaguya-senpai pointed at herself and blinked with surprise.<br /> <br /> “Kaguya-chan was always piling up harsh training on herself, she even challenged dangerous quests energetically. Moreover many times she reached out her hands to shit like me sayin’ [let’s do our best together]. Not just that, despite being the student council president of the Magic Division she insisted to have an equal relationship with the Sword Division…even though there is dissenting opinion, she stuck to her own will for the sake of those guys in weak position. …That made me think if this kind of person is what a [knight] really is. I got aware of that. If no one is fightin’ as a knight then it’s gonna be like that [Tokyo Great Destruction] fifteen years ago, there is gonna be no place for cake store. If no one is gonna fight…even I get it that I canna’ just waste away the great power that I finally got my hands on uselessly like that. But after thoroughly saying [This academy is the one that’s bad] [I’m not the one that’s bad] continuously, I slapped away Kaguya-chan’s hand. There is no way after all that I coulda just suddenly say shameful things like [I’m going to aim as a Knight]! Kaguya-chan is just too bright, I cannot take that hand…. When I see Kaguya-chan….my own shittiness is just too pathetic!”<br /> <br /> “Aneki is seriously…Kaguya-chan’s fan really…”<br /> <br /> Asamiya-senpai too, together with her elder sister figure Mibu-senpai became messed with spilling tears.<br /> <br /> “Err, someone like me is really not that great.” Kaguya-senpai was all shook up.<br /> <br /> “I want to become like Kaguya-chan, so I secretly piled up magic training. But this late I already cannot go back to become an honor student. Then at that time Shizuka came invitin’ me into the battle election. If I made great showin’ in the battle election then maybe everyone woulda looked at me differently. Everyone would get to recognize that I’m not a shit, that I coulda take Kaguya-chan’s offered hand unashamedly like that, that was what I was thinking.”<br /> <br /> “Me and Aneki, didn’t get told of Shizuka’s objective or anything like that. We know that girl sometimes gave us special training in a secret location, she called us out. She planned to make us pawns that are easy to handle and also quite strong as suits the occasion. For that girl we are nothing more than pawns. But for us whatever those guys' objective are doesn’t really matter at all.”<br /> <br /> “But gradually the matter about ourselves too didna really matter! Karin-chan had much more crappy experience than someone like me, compared to her my worry is just a simple half-baked thing…she was treated like trash by Shizuka! If we complained or whined that Shizuka beat us blue until magic intoxication…after that, we became reluctan’ to say any complain to Shizuka…”<br /> <br /> …Mibu-senpai definitely received brainwashing. But what was overwritten by the brainwashing was not their motive for fighting but only the pecking order between them.<br /> <br /> “Please I beg you Kaguya-chan! Just like what you try to give to us, reach out your hand to Karin-chan too! You’re an ally of justice right!?”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai caught hold of Kaguya-senpai’s shoulders, while doing that she brought her tear stricken face near.<br /> <br /> “I’m, I’m not really an ally of justice though…”<br /> <br /> “Inside me you are ally of justice anyway―!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai kept shaking Kaguya-senpai’s shoulders. Looking at that appearance, Kazuki too naturally sympathized. …Kaguya-senpai reached her hand to me too, I was saved by her.<br /> <br /> “Headmaster Amasaki, we don’t need anymore reason or proof don’t you agree? Right now I absolutely don’t want to think that these two are lying.”<br /> <br /> “Ugh…” Headmaster Amasaki’s expression soured.<br /> <br /> “Before, I became concerned whatever happened to the illegal magician that I captured, so I had went to inspect the detention facility. …It’s no good you know, to do something like sending a child to that kind of place because of false charges.”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that once went through bitter experience because of Karin too, that gentle face of hers distorted in sorrow.<br /> <br /> “Tou-san, if you are a teacher then there are times when you had to have faith in your students even without any proof right!? In drama this is not the time to say such things!”<br /> <br /> Mio who was until now had kept quiet and watched the situation gave her assistance to Kazuki as well.<br /> <br /> “Ughh…even though papa is just taking a prudent stance for the sake of the academy, even up to Mio…”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki made a grimace that add even more wrinkles in his wrinkled-covered face.<br /> <br /> “Well then headmaster, at least please wait before sending her immediately to the detention facility. I will take the role of monitoring Karin for a while and make sure of Karin’s true feelings. Just like when before Kaguya-senpai did that for me and I was put in the Witch’s Mansion!”<br /> <br /> “Yo, you―, you’re gonna help Karin-chan!?”<br /> <br /> “Don’t say stupid things! Katsura Karin is aiming for your life, you know that!! If you asked what is the most dangerous, it’s to be put and left here near you, that’s the number one danger!”<br /> <br /> “Saying it in reverse, the only one who can prove that this girl is not a dangerous character by being together with her is only the target, just me. Moreover even in the case that the girl bared her fang as an assassin, I am already beyond her ability to kill. If it’s this girl that’s impossible.”<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, didn’t your heart get stopped once already?”<br /> <br /> From the side of Kazuki that was saying so while puffing up his chest, Mio made a swift tsukkomi and flustered him.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that was just because I didn’t understand the opponent’s technique that’s why I intentionally got hit to test it, that’s all! A second hit won’t succeed anymore! I had perfectly grasped this girl’s true strength!!”<br /> <br /> “Certainly only seeing from the match, I think the difference in strength was evident. Nevertheless can you really assert that so certainly? If for example you are to be attacked when sleeping...”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai murmured worriedly.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style is surprise attack proof.”<br /> <br /> “When we first met, didn’t I creep up behind you unnoticed and pranked you [Who― is it?]?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too launched a swift tsukkomi, Kazuki was “Tha, that was because senpai didn’t have any killing intent!” and made some justification in fluster. Moreover, just before this, he had been pranked [Who― is this?] by Beatrix.<br /> <br /> This was bad, from some time ago he let out too many excuses. The persuasiveness was just too doubtful even if he said so himself.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama…that being the case are you planning to don the &lt;War Preparation Spirit&gt;?”<br /> <br /> As if to throw out a life saving boat, Kanae said that.<br /> <br /> “War Preparation Spirit?” Everyone other than Kazuki tilted their heads. In place of Kazuki, Kanae made her explanation.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-style is an old school of Iai. Iai’s original doctrine is [to never let show an opening no matter what kind of time, always being ready to draw sword and counterattack immediately no matter against any kind of attack], like that. Surprise attack doesn’t work against Nii-sama is a fact. Hayashizaki-style can detect [killing intent] even while sleeping….What is called killing intent is not a concept that like an occult. Killing intent, namely the emission of offensive-like magic power. In order to be able to sense it even in the subconscious, the subconscious of oneself has to be mastered―that is the War Preparation Spirit. In short it is one kind of a Trance technique.”<br /> <br /> The surrounding bunch felt the persuasiveness inside Kanae’s words and “I see” nodded their head.<br /> <br /> “Putting on War Preparation Spirit, in short if I sleep with my mind still in a half-awakened state, even if I am attacked in my sleep I could immediately wake up. That’s why it’s impossible for Karin to kill me. Headmaster, please give me time to spend with Karin! …If you recognize me as a possessor of the power of King then please!”<br /> <br /> King. With that word brought out, Headmaster Amasaki grudgingly accepted that proposal.<br /> <br /> “…One week. After one week the student general meeting will be carried out, the counting of the votes will be performed and the seat of the Chief Student Council President will be settled. Until that time, keep Katsura Karin company and don’t leave her side for even a moment. Smell out her true feeling.”<br /> <br /> One week…if there was that much time then it was enough.<br /> <br /> “You said don’t leave her side for even a moment…Certainly if she is a dangerous character then a monitoring around the clock is needed but, then that means Kazuki is going to have a life of constant attendance with this child Karin? For one week too?”<br /> <br /> Mio talked in whisper. And then with a blushing red face, she claimed an unparalleled thoughtless remark.<br /> <br /> “…That’s totally unfair!!”<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “…Here is?”<br /> <br /> The time when Karin who was laid atop the bed in Kazuki’s room opened her eyes was several hours later.<br /> <br /> “This is my room.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki answered so in a posture of sitting on top of the chair of his desk.<br /> <br /> “…Hayashizaki Kazuki!?” The instant she saw Kazuki, Karin sprang up with the force of Jouchouho.<br /> <br /> “Wait, calm down. You don’t need to be on your guard. By the way the sheets of that bed and pillow had been changed into new ones, so it shouldn’t smell like me!”<br /> <br /> “Smell or whatever doesn’t matter!”<br /> <br /> That might be so but…when Hikaru-senpai said to Kazuki that his bed [smelled the smell of boy] he became bothered by it.<br /> <br /> “You, I’m going to…!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki quickly interrupted the words Karin was going to say.<br /> <br /> “Hayashi Shizuka who gave that order had already gone.”<br /> <br /> At that time when Shizuka left, she left behind a discarding talk of [I’ll give that puppet to you]. That kind of thing.<br /> <br /> Karin looked around restlessly *kyoro kyoro*…she instantly comprehended the meaning of Shizuka’s inexistence there, that after the fight the one who was captured was only herself. And then that expression of hers changed into a hollow expression.<br /> <br /> “…Is that so? So I have been discarded.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In Kazuki’s room that has a width of about six tatami mats, so that he could put Karin on the bed, Kazuki also brought the futon for his share inside. It made the room even more cramped. In there, even more monitoring equipment was arranged.<br /> <br /> First was a lock and buzzer at the door and window. If those were attempted to be opened forcibly, alarms would ring out throughout the Witch’s Mansion. The alarm’s volume was so loud that it would make any who hear it leap out from their bed.<br /> <br /> At the corner of the ceiling, a lens of a monitoring camera was shining. Kazuki’s own privacy was also taken from him, this camera took the film and transmitted it to the staff room in real time.<br /> <br /> The guaranteed article was the bracelet type Limiter that was installed on Karin’s wrist. It was the item sent from the Knight Order that was arranged by the headmaster. It was accompanied with vicious functions that would create a powerful shock to the mind through the Stigmata and drive the wearer into unconsciousness when they tried to destroy the bracelet forcibly or when the identified wavelength tries to perform Access.<br /> <br /> “In short you are put into a situation where it’s impossible to escape from cohabitation with me!”<br /> <br /> “You, are you a pervert?”<br /> <br /> When he explained the situation with high tension, an extremely natural tsukkomi was returned at him.<br /> <br /> Looks like it was difficult to have a bright atmosphere in his conversation with Karin.<br /> <br /> “If I don’t do this you are going to be sent to the detention facility you know? You’d hate it right, to be sent there in this young age.”<br /> <br /> “I don’t particularly mind. Whatever happens to someone like me…”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 097.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> Karin who had a thoroughly vacant expression murmured crestfallenly.<br /> <br /> “Hey, I have one thing I want to ask you though.”<br /> <br /> “There is nothing that I can answer. If I get interrogated with truth serum or mind magic it’s going to be useless to resist anyway so I’ll say this beforehand, but I don’t know anything.”<br /> <br /> “I’m not asking about that. Are you a family with Shizuka?”<br /> <br /> Against Kazuki’s question, Karin’s expression stiffened.<br /> <br /> “You’d know if you look from the name right? The family name of Hayashi was not given to me.”<br /> <br /> According to Eleonora, it seemed Hayashi Shizuka had the real name of Lin Zhijing&lt;ref&gt;Lin is read as Hayashi in Japanese&lt;/ref&gt;. <br /> <br /> From the simple fake name they were using, their underestimation of Japan’s intelligence network was clear as day.<br /> <br /> “I’m called as {{furigana|Gue|Katsura}} {{furigana|Farin|Karin}}. Losing my original name of Katsura Karin, I became an existence of nobody.”<br /> <br /> “But you wanted to be recognized as family right?”<br /> <br /> “…No. I’m a puppet. There is nothing that I wished for.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? …Actually I was also an orphan.”<br /> <br /> Karin who was averting her face to the side looked back here. An interest was growing from a faint sympathy.<br /> <br /> From that action, an emotion that was unlike a puppet bled out for an instant.<br /> <br /> “I was treated kindly by Hayashizaki household. I obtained a family. …I who became happy and you who was treated as a puppet, what’s with this difference?”<br /> <br /> “Are you planning to boast and feel good with yourself? Just so you know that I don’t feel any jealousy or anything.”<br /> <br /> “No. This mere slight difference of fate that separated you and me…I really cannot tolerate it.”<br /> <br /> After Kazuki spat out those last words behind, he went out of the room and went to the kitchen.<br /> <br /> And then he served the share of the girl’s dinner on a plate and brought it back. It was the food that Kazuki made while Karin fainted. The usual fried chicken. Rice. Salad. The time was not enough so it became just a simple menu.<br /> <br /> But he wanted to make the girl eat his own homemade food.<br /> <br /> “Do you think I’m going to receive any charity from you!”<br /> <br /> Karin knocked off the plate of food that Kazuki presented to the floor.<br /> <br /> Kazuki wordlessly tidied up the food that was scattered on the floor. It’s great that it was a menu that didn’t have any soup in it.<br /> <br /> “I didn’t put any poison in it. It’s delicious you know. Even though I have confidence in this food.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki didn’t even get angry, then he put the part of fried chicken that was still safe on top of the plate into his mouth with a snap and made a show to her of him eating. “…” Karin was glaring silently at that situation.<br /> <br /> And then they went to bed that night. There was no conversation between the two but there was also no attack.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Karin, here is breakfast.”<br /> <br /> The menu was freshly toasted toast garnished with homemade butter and crispy bacon egg. Puffing up vapors was still visible on top of the plate, filling up the whole room with fragrant aroma.<br /> <br /> The exquisite grilling adjustment made the appearance and the aroma very stimulating, making the one who sees it won’t be able to stop imagining how good it would be to feel the food texture in the mouth.<br /> <br /> “Don’t need it. Bring it back.”<br /> <br /> “Is that so? Even though it’s so delicious.”<br /> <br /> With intention of appealing that there was no poison inside the food, Kazuki made a show of eating it in front of Karin.<br /> <br /> With homemade butter melted in brim on top of the dry surface of the toast that was toasted into light brown color, when Kazuki bit it a *saku* sound resounded. When the fork was stabbed into the sunny-side-up fried egg, the half-cooked syrupy egg yolk soaked the bacon, the egg mildly enveloped the bacon’s richness. When it was brought into the mouth, both things mixed together spread out the flavor of microcosmos.<br /> <br /> Right there black tea was also included into his mouth. In truth in making black tea, Mio’s way was far more detailed than even Kazuki, this tea was made by her for him. The fresh aroma reset his tongue and he once again took a round of taste of the butter toast.<br /> <br /> In that situation Karin kept making a small glance from the side. Her lips were trembling all over as if enduring something.<br /> <br /> ―After the breakfast was over, for the sake of monitoring Karin, Kazuki had took a break from the academy.<br /> <br /> There was plenty of time but, it presented a space where there was only Kazuki and Karin, just the two of them together. Kazuki didn’t have any intention of doing something like an interrogation. In exchange, he tried making small talk many times to relax the atmosphere but he was ignored.<br /> <br /> “Karin, it’s lunch time.”<br /> <br /> In the afternoon it was Oyakodon&lt;ref&gt;Chicken and egg on rice.&lt;/ref&gt;. Kazuki brought over two bowls covered with lid into the room, then he suddenly removed the lid. With a puff the steam puffed up from the bowl, a gentle fragrance form parsley and soup stock filled the room.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t need it. But I’m going to say one thing. Don’t eat it in front of my eyes.”<br /> <br /> Karin said it with sharp tone of voice, that stomach of hers was ‘kuuu’ rumbling.<br /> <br /> When he thought about it, the girl will have not eaten for a whole day soon.<br /> <br /> He was unaware of it but, by perchance he had made a behavior of awful torture already.<br /> <br /> “But I’m the monitor of Karin, so as much as possible I have to be here.”<br /> <br /> Reluctantly, Kazuki consumed the food including the share that was also prepared for Karin’s sake heartily right in front of Karin’s eyes. Then the last remaining rice grains that had absorbed the broth were picked one grain by one grain by chopsticks. It was really fun that he cleaned the bowl until it shined.<br /> <br /> Karin became teary eyed while her eyes were nailed looking on that situation.<br /> <br /> At the afternoon, he studied the self-learning textbook that was prepared by Liz Liza-sensei, and also he thoroughly performed muscle training and magic training that could be done in that room. For Kazuki he went through a productive afternoon…then it became the time for dinner.<br /> <br /> “Karin, it’s dinner but…”<br /> <br /> For dinner it was sukiyaki&lt;ref&gt;Hotpot&lt;/ref&gt;. So he could just take the shortest possible time being away from this room, he made the meal as simple as possible. Furthermore it must be something that he wouldn’t get embarrassed to serve for a guest that came from afar.<br /> <br /> He brought the iron pot that was filled with gently boiling sukiyaki together with the gas stove. The gas stove was put onto the tea table. Inside the iron pot the cooking hadn’t been completed already, rather it was still halfway cooked.<br /> <br /> Enticed by the aroma, Karin unconsciously peaked into the pot’s content, then finally she cried out messily.<br /> <br /> From her stomach, ‘ku―kyurupi―’ groaning voice that sounded like a small animal leaked out.<br /> <br /> “Oi…your stomach is hungry right? Though I think that patience is meaningless.”<br /> <br /> “…My stomach is hungry. My throat is parched…”<br /> <br /> Karin talked in resignation.<br /> <br /> “Your stomach is hungry…. Strange. Why is that? Why, despite being a puppet without any home to return for…even though you think that it’s okay even if you die…your stomach is hungry.”<br /> <br /> In front of the girl that refused even drinks, Kazuki put and presented the cooled black tea pot, then he served the sukiyaki from the pot into a bowl for the girl.<br /> <br /> “It’s really natural. You still haven’t lived in a way that would make you able to say [I can die satisfied]. Eat up. You are not a puppet but still a human.”<br /> <br /> After Karin drained the cup of tea in one gulp, she took and gripped the chopstick with trembling fingers. After mixing the beef meat seeped with salty-sweet flavor and raw egg, she brought it to her mouth.<br /> <br /> “…Delicious. This is the first time I eat something this tasty.”<br /> <br /> “It’s a cooking I have confidence in after all. Sukiyaki is decided by the quality of the beef meat. I know an old man that used alchemy to raise good cow. Are you listening, the breeding of cow is very deep. This is a second-hand knowledge from the old man but to raise a good cow, good grass is needed. To start with the soil is important. For the sake of choosing the soil first he needed to lick and eat the soil, he ascertained the chlorella with his own tongue you know…That pH value is…”<br /> <br /> “You’re annoying.”<br /> <br /> “…Sorry. In the house of Hayashi, what were you normally eating?”<br /> <br /> “Bean sprouts or something like that.” It was curt, but that was the first time she gave a reply to his question.<br /> <br /> “Something like stir fried bean sprouts?”<br /> <br /> “No, directly from the bag just like that.”<br /> <br /> “Raw!? Just as I thought {{furigana|that guy|Hayashi Shizuka}}’s personality is the worst…!”<br /> <br /> Karin continued to move her chopsticks in a daze without even wiping her tears. This time she ate with vigor that didn’t even leave Kazuki’s share untouched.<br /> <br /> “Why, even though you are treated like trash until that much, do you still listen to what Shizuka was saying?”<br /> <br /> “…Because I’m a puppet. There is nothing that I think as painful.”<br /> <br /> “Wrong. You listen to me, you are not an unfeeling human to the degree of a puppet.”<br /> <br /> Rather, even though she was an assassin, she immediately lost her cool from some provocation. Mibu-senpai too, she said that Karin had [lonely eyes that were waiting for someone to reach their hands for her].<br /> <br /> The Karin at that time when she was treated as a meatshield by Hayashi Shizuka, that expression….<br /> <br /> And then mixing the egg with salty-sweet beef meat and bringing it into her mouth with that brightness, this expression….<br /> <br /> “You were coming to this point enduring that harsh way of living for a long time while hoping, wishing to become happy someday. That decided it. You are not something like a puppet.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_5_Chapter_1&diff=461082 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 5 Chapter 1 2015-09-08T03:16:10Z <p>Hiro Hayase: past tense of strike is struck, spitted -&gt; spat</p> <hr /> <div>==Chapter 1 – {{furigana|Strength, the Time It Should be Shown|Knuckle Time}}==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> Lemegeton had one fact that she didn’t tell to {{furigana|Kazuki|the contractor}}.<br /> <br /> That was the story that she heard from Futsunushi no Kami in their private talk at {{furigana|Astrum|Distorted World}}.<br /> <br /> {I became unable to make contact with the other Diva of Japan Mythology.} Futsunushi no Kami informed her.<br /> <br /> All of human’s minds were connected. The depth of that mental world―this Astrum that should even be called [fomenting empty space] was constantly twisting muddily from the waves of all of human races’ unconsciousness.<br /> <br /> Inside that trembling darkness, Lemegeton and Futsunushi no Kami’s figures were floating.<br /> <br /> {The &lt;Territory&gt; that should be connecting me with everyone is interrupted before I realize it and I have not heard from them since then.}<br /> <br /> Astrum was divided into each of the Mythology’s Territory. Only mutual companions with strong connection could come and go freely through the boundary. Lemegeton tied a friendship with Futsunushi no Kami, from that she became allowed to step her foot into Futsunushi no Kami’s territory. Naturally, outside of Lemegeton, Futsunushi no Kami was also connected with many of the Divas of Japanese Mythology. It was supposed to be so.<br /> <br /> {You, are you perhaps being ostracized because everyone came to hate you while you didn’t know it?}<br /> <br /> Just like in the world of humans where a bullied child was blocked from everyone’s cell phone contact.<br /> <br /> ―When Lemegeton pointed it out with a mean tone, Futsunushi no Kami was {GUWAHHAHHA!} heartily laughing out. {That’s impossible. No, for me to be hated is possible enough, but in Japan Mythology there is also &lt;Takemikadzuchi&gt; that can be called my other half though. Mine and his Territory should be impossible to be severed from each other. …With only one exception.}<br /> <br /> {Then, that impossible thing is happening right? What is that exception that you said?}<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami’s hearty laugh was blown out, he suddenly made a dispirited troubled face.<br /> <br /> {He might be…going through &lt;Wild God Transformation&gt;.}<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Lemegeton was lost whether she should give this information to Kazuki or not.<br /> <br /> Her feeling that yearned for Kazuki was making a disturbance in her heart that she should immediately tell this matter to him as soon as possible.<br /> <br /> However on the other hand, the calm consideration as &lt;the one that supervises the Solomon 72 Pillar&gt; was telling her to shelve the telling of this matter. [Humans wouldn’t be told of any information more than what they needed] …Lemegeton had lost the majority of her memory, but that was the principle that she recalled at the foremost.<br /> <br /> Because Solomon 72 Pillar was still merely in the stage of testing the people of Japan.<br /> <br /> If they were in the verge of danger―if that was a situation that they invited themselves then even more so―how would they surmount it was something that humans had to display.<br /> <br /> In the first place if she notify about this matter to Kazuki, that Headmaster Amasaki would also get told but they wouldn’t be able to do anything about this anyway. With just the information that communication with the Divas of Japan Mythology had gone dark, it was impossible to predict what would happen next. Even Lemegeton didn’t understand what would happen.<br /> <br /> Rather if she caused excessive uproar and the Chief Battle Election became suspended it would be a problem for this side. Because Kazuki had to use this chance to be able to become the king of this academy and reign over.<br /> <br /> This situation, was the problem that he had to overcome next. Probably.<br /> <br /> First he had to concentrate on the fight in front of his eyes. If it was Kazuki who had finished conquering the Witch’s Mansion, surely he wouldn’t suffer defeat, but…Well, let’s just see what he has got.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> When Kazuki was flirting with Hikaru-senpai and kept raising her positivity level, that time while she got chased out of the room, Lemegeton was thinking about such things.<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> And then finally May 22―the appointed day of the final match came.<br /> <br /> But, there was a circumstance that didn’t make the final match begin immediately.<br /> <br /> Even before that, first was the assembly of opening performance matches.<br /> <br /> “…This cheering, isn’t it the loudest among the matches until now? Even though it is an unrelated match for the overall victory.”<br /> <br /> While being wrapped with the loud cheering in the front row of the stand, Mio was feeling overpowered.<br /> <br /> However it was not unreasonable. Kazuki who sat beside her thought so.<br /> <br /> …Because when the holding of this tournament became known, the match that everyone pictured in their head, it was in different form from the ideal but it was realized right here.<br /> <br /> Currently, in the ground Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai led their own respective team and confronted each other.<br /> <br /> Team Otonashi Kaguya―Otonashi Kaguya, Hiakari Koyuki, Hayashizaki Kanae, Yamada Torazou.<br /> <br /> Team Hoshikaze Hikaru―Hoshikaze Hikaru, Lotte, Kamiizumi Iori, Kimura Tomomi.<br /> <br /> The tournament’s big favorites and distinguished teams were these two, but Kaguya-senpai was eliminated by Kazuki and Hikaru-senpai by Mibu Akira. Their figures vanished too early in the second round from this championship tournament.<br /> <br /> However separately from the front tournament where the winner aimed for the championship…[Third Place Deciding Tournament] was also performed by the eliminated teams at the same time.<br /> <br /> Because the seat of the Chief Student Council President would be decided by the voting after the tournament, the tournament was nothing more than an appeal time. With a tournament where victory and defeat was decided by a single round, the candidates who were defeated became unable to make their appeal anymore from that point. It was slightly unfair.<br /> <br /> For that reason to grant all the candidates a place for their highlight, a back tournament for the sake of the defeated was also organized side by side with the final tournament. First the fellow loser of the first round fought each other, the winner fought the loser of the second round of the front tournament, the winner next fought the loser of the semifinal―this tournament was divided into two blocks, the two teams that managed to win through would perform the third place deciding battle.<br /> <br /> This third place battles were performed throughout the morning, the final battle would begin after the afternoon recess.<br /> <br /> “But as expected from them to win through until this place without fail. There was no powerful opponent in Hoshikaze-senpai’s block, but in Kaguya-senpai’s block there was also that clash with the Ryuutaki sisters wasn’t it?”<br /> <br /> At Kazuki’s right side, Mio was looking back at the battles until now while murmuring.<br /> <br /> All present in the front row of the stand starting from the right were Mio, Kazuki, Kohaku, and Kazuha-senpai, they all were sitting in a row.<br /> <br /> Takasugi Shūsui’s team where the Ryuutaki sisters were members was also the opponent who clashed with Kazuki’s team at the semifinal.<br /> <br /> They were formidable enemies with the elder sister of the Ryuutaki sisters&amp;mdash;Miyabi-senpai was stopping the movement of the enemy with &lt;Gremory&gt;’s mental attack, then the younger sister―Shinobu-senpai was performing bombing with &lt;Marchosias&gt;’s [Burning Icicle] that was hard to defend against.<br /> <br /> But their compatibility with Kaguya-senpai’s team was bad.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai was once exposed to &lt;Nairlatoteph&gt;’s mental attack for a long period of time, and in the conclusion she had the experience of overcoming it. A normal mental attack was not effective anymore against Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> The difference of strength between the swordsmen was also pretty big. Takasugi brothers who stood as the vanguard of the Ryuutaki sisters were as expected unable to compete against the prominent duo of the Sword Division, Kanae and Torazou-san.<br /> <br /> Even so Shinobu-senpai harassed Koyuki with furiously vigorous efforts. Shinobu-senpai’s special contradicting characteristic where she could manipulate both heat and cold at the same time was a bad match-up for Koyuki who could only manipulate ice element.<br /> <br /> However when the Takasugi brothers were forced to leave the stage and it became four versus two, Shinobu-senpai was exposed to fierce attacks and she fell into a state where she couldn’t chant her spell satisfactorily, the victory or defeat was slowly decided.<br /> <br /> Be that as it may, [I heard the rumor, but those Ryuutaki Sisters are really strong to that extent huh?] ―they left a strong impression to many of the students so this battle should be said to be a good contest.<br /> <br /> “Fufufu, during this strict schedule even Otonashi Kaguya won’t leave unscathed after fighting against us. Even for the eternal number 2 Hoshikaze Hikaru who reach this stage following her desire, this time will she have a chance I wonder?”<br /> <br /> Hearing that voice right from her side, Mio took a glancing look and glared.<br /> <br /> “…Miyabi-senpai, why are you right next to us?”<br /> <br /> Beside Kazuki’s team that was watching the battle, right next to Mio, the Ryuutaki sisters in question were sitting.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t it fine, let’s get along well. Fufufu.”<br /> <br /> Her wavy hair with the silver color characteristic of an elf shook softly, Miyabi-senpai laughed in chuckles.<br /> <br /> “…Onee-sama. I’m also unable to tolerate this. Why are we sitting beside this kind of bunch?”<br /> <br /> Shinobu-senpai wrinkled her eyebrows and murmured. She was the spitting image twin of Miyabi-senpai, but in contrast with Miyabi-senpai who was always full of composure her hair was black, and she always made a scary expression.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t it fine, let’s get along well. Fufufu.”<br /> <br /> Even against the complaint of the little sister, Miyabi-senpai deflected it with a friendly grin in her smiling face. She has a lot of guts.<br /> <br /> Mio too, she gave up on sending away Miyabi-senpai that was too ‘my pace’, she faced back to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “By the way, which one is Kazuki rooting for? Which one are you going to cheer?”<br /> <br /> “…Errr.” While Kazuki was troubled how to reply, he sent his sight to the ground.<br /> <br /> At the ground Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai were at here…no, at Kazuki they were staring ‘jii’ fixedly.<br /> <br /> He was seen…both of them were “The cheering is still not yet? Come on, cheering” looking at him with those kind of eyes….<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s eyes shined in glitters with expectation, Kaguya-senpai had a smile on her lips but her eyes were not smiling. Before long they became aware of each other and started to get competitive, the gazes they sent at Kazuki were gradually….<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 015.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “Are you going to cheer for me (me&lt;ref&gt;The second ‘me’ refer to Hikaru. At the first ‘me’ Kaguya uses the kanji ‘watashi’, while Hikaru uses the kanji ‘boku’. Watashi is often used by women to refer to herself, while boku usually is used by men to refer to himself&lt;/ref&gt;) or her?” Their atmosphere changed to such feeling.<br /> <br /> Kazuki took a decision and inhaled a long breath.<br /> <br /> “…Do your best Kanae! Prove the strength of Hayashizaki-style!”<br /> <br /> “You come to that conclusion!?” Mio who was observing him while holding her breath raised her voice from the side.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama!” Kanae who was on the ground turned to this side, she pranced up and down repeatedly *pyonpyon*.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama’s gaze is focused on me! It came…, it came…Nii-sama’s gaze energy is!! FUNUOOOOO! Full charge nyan!!”<br /> <br /> Watching the happy Kanae going ‘nyaa nyaa’…Kaguya-senpai and Hikaru-senpai smiled wryly like it couldn’t be helped.<br /> <br /> “Brother and sister love + sword school love…he attacked at the place where anyone couldn’t find any fault in it huh, as expected of Kazuki.”<br /> <br /> Beside him Kohaku was grinning broadly. Kohaku too had a deep love that didn’t lose or was inferior to Kazuki in regards to her sword school.<br /> <br /> “Well, it’s a bad taste to fix an order of importance to companions that you get along well with, isn’t it particularly fine?”<br /> <br /> Unexpectedly Kazuha-senpai too gave a tolerant reaction. Even though if it was before she would be the first to say things like “You indecisive harem guy!”…after giving her recognition to Kazuki inside the [world of mirror], her attitude and expression had evidently changed.<br /> <br /> Amasaki Mio―150 Lotte―122 Hiakari Koyuki―120 Otonashi Kaguya―103<br /> <br /> Hoshikaze Hikaru―94 Tsukahara Kazuha―56 Ryuutaki Miyabi―41 Ryuutaki Shinobu―2<br /> <br /> It was not like he wanted to rank them or anything but…Kazuki understood the positivity level from everyone.<br /> <br /> “Well, the one who likes Kazuki the most in the world is me though. Ehehe.”<br /> <br /> Mio was ‘goronyaaa’ and came hugging Kazuki’s arm.<br /> <br /> “E, even this one is not losing in that!” Kohaku pinched Kazuki’s sleeve with a hurried expression.<br /> <br /> “How stupid.” Kazuha-senpai crossed her arms while averting her face.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Kana-shishou&lt;ref&gt;Master/Teacher&lt;/ref&gt;, prepare yourself!”<br /> <br /> At the same time with the start of the match, Kamiizumi-senpai challenged Kanae.<br /> <br /> “Against me that have been charged with strength from Nii-sama, the likes of you won’t stop me!”<br /> <br /> Kanae too stood against her right from the front. The white blades clashed, fragments of blue magic power scattered everywhere.<br /> <br /> “Me too is going to show my cool side this time for sure! Now the sure kill…TORAZOU SMASH!!”<br /> <br /> “I won’t let an oily brute like you get near the prince!”<br /> <br /> Torazou-san and Kimura-senpai too clashed against each other. The difference in strength between the swordsmen…Kanae &amp; Torazou-san of Team Kaguya-senpai were overwhelmingly superior. However―,<br /> <br /> “Howl! Civilization grant destruction to human! Roar of wisdom burn thy body, tear apart, that dignity is buried beneath the rubble!! Mitrailleuse!”<br /> <br /> From the rear with fast chanting special to {{furigana|Drive|Possession Summoning}} , Lotte created a magic gatling gun. Its body rotated with groans of motor sound, scattering dozens of bullets per second everywhere.<br /> <br /> Those bullets accurately obstructed the attack of Kanae and Torazou-san who were leaping close and gave a good timing “Right now is the chance!” for Kamiizumi-senpai and Kimura-senpai. It was an exquisite firing support.<br /> <br /> Lotte was able to read the situation of the battlefield with her extraordinary &lt;Telepathy&gt;.<br /> <br /> “O will of god of the whirling heaven! Gather in my hand, grant me the authority of judgment! O light of royal divine gift, become the brilliantly dazzling drawn bow! Lightning Line!”<br /> <br /> Slightly behind, Hikaru-senpai produced a lightning bow and directed it at Koyuki. Similar with when Kazuki was fighting Kaguya-senpai’s team, it seemed they planned to start from Koyuki first.<br /> <br /> “O rejection of absolute zero, protect my body and become the armor of isolation! Freeze Barrier!”<br /> <br /> Without delay Koyuki pulled out a barrier of cold.<br /> <br /> “That Koyuki, she had anticipated that she would be aimed!”<br /> <br /> Mio raised a passionate voice in regards of her rival.<br /> <br /> “But against a lightning arrow, a cold air barrier is not supposed to be sufficiently effective.”<br /> <br /> Precisely because Kazuki was able to use both [Lightning Line] and [Freeze Barrier], he understood the superiority of element. The lightning arrow would surely slice apart the cold atmosphere sharply and poured electricity to Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “…But that child too would surely know about such thing only too well I wonder. ―Look, that child is controlling the cold delicately. As expected from the same elf like me.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai pointed out with sympathy filled tones.<br /> <br /> That pointing out was by no means an overestimation.<br /> <br /> A streak of lighting was released from the hand of Hikaru-senpai. Facing that attack, Koyuki concentrated the water particles and cold in the air in front of herself for two meters using Psychokinesis, creating a membrane of water.<br /> <br /> The moment the arrow of lightning that was penetrating the insulation of the air while advancing was coming into contact with the membrane of water, the arrow was unable to pierce it. All of its energy went through the high conductivity water and flowed into the earth.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai’s expression was colored with wonderment. Just like that she kept firing the arrows of lightning repeatedly, but Koyuki kept making thin films of water one after another using the cold and water particles that were fixed with Psychokinesis and held out against the shots.<br /> <br /> Koyuki’s delicate magic technique, and then her knowledge and quick wittedness were surpassing Hikaru-senpai at this time.<br /> <br /> It was a deadlock of offense and defense that went against Kazuki’s prediction―it left Kaguya-senpai who was being left alone.<br /> <br /> “O shapeless and mute shadow, become the fish that swim in the darkness filled with obstructive thoughts! The origin of nightmare, vicissitudes of materialism, answer to the terror and hope and bite…! Deep Specter!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai who was outside of the net indifferently invoked her level 5 magic.<br /> <br /> “Everyone, Formation Dark!”<br /> <br /> Asmodeus’ laughing voice reverberated on the empty sky―from the shadow of Kimura-senpai’s underfoot, a pure black monster was raising out. Kamiizumi-senpai came to help, she blocked its big mouth that was lined up with black fangs with her katana.<br /> <br /> Using the gap when Kamiizumi-senpai and Kimura-senpai battled the monster by the two of them, Kanae and Torazou-senpai broke away from that spot and went to slash at Lotte and Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> One of the options of Kaguya-senpai’s team, &lt;Formation Dark&gt; was a plan that created a numerical superiority with the shadow monster and directing Kanae and Torazou-senpai to the enemies at the rear.<br /> <br /> When Magica Stigma are attacked in the middle of chanting spells, their concentration would fall into disarray and their magic invocation would fail completely.<br /> <br /> But…Lotte and Hikaru-senpai were peculiar Magica Stigma that excelled in close-range combat.<br /> <br /> “I reach my hand to the height of Babel and become the oppressor! In accordance with my life, o lightning, let’s praise the foolhardiness of human race! Blitzkrieg!!”<br /> <br /> An electromagnetic lance was created on Lotte’s left hand, she stabbed the spearhead to Torazou-senpai. Torazou-senpai had pride in his strength, but if he clashed with that lance he would surely get electrocuted without even any time for contest of strength.<br /> <br /> “O stream of atmosphere, extend to my hand, become the lance that repelled the resented person! What reach my hand is the tip of the storm!! Ayamur!!”<br /> <br /> A pike with the power of wind residing in it was created inside the hand of Hikaru-senpai too, it was directed at Kanae and swung.<br /> <br /> Pike―it was a weapon that could both slash or stab with a double edged blade propped on the end of a long shaft.<br /> <br /> On the other half of its possession of long reaches, its attack became completely large swings that was easy to open a gap in the defense. It was born in the ancient times and was one of the foremost weapons in history. But with the advancing of time [spear] made its entrance as weapon that specialized in thrusting and was easy to wield even in the close formation of soldiers corps, making the pike’s figure disappear from history. So to speak a relic of the past, it could be said as a defective weapon.<br /> <br /> But this pike of mythology, [Ayamur] had the special characteristic of producing raging wind with each attack.<br /> <br /> The moment it was swung a tailwind blew that accelerated the swing, the moment it made contact a storm was created forth from the tip of the pike and amplified the destructive power. Even in the case it was evaded, the storm would throw the posture of the enemy out of order and seal their counterattack. Therefore it wouldn’t create any gap even if it hit nothing but empty air and it could harass the enemy one-sidedly with its long reach. …Even defective goods if traced back in the mythology would become a fearsome weapon of decisive battle.<br /> <br /> Things like Hikaru-senpai’s swung pike, Kanae could evade it even with her eyes closed. However even if she evaded it, her small statured body would be blown away from the arising wind and her beginning of counter attack would be arrested and taken away.<br /> <br /> “…O divine protection of mermaid, stop the step of resented enemy, hasten the step of the chosen person…. O ice blade, run! Moves in the Field!”<br /> <br /> Unable to just watch the hard fight of the swordsmen, Koyuki froze the surface of the ground. Hikaru-senpai and Lotte slipped down with a slide. Immediately Koyuki equipped both her feet with ice blades and skated and added herself in the close-quarter fight.<br /> <br /> “Lightning Line!”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai shot lighting arrows at her comrades underfoot without delay. It had a small range but the frozen areas the arrows pierced were melted by the heat of electricity, making it possible for the ground to be stepped and make their counterattack.<br /> <br /> “Five stars that shine in the interstice of life and death, turn, turn, pillaged by the whim of the god of death, become the miserable and mute mud doll! Near Death Roulette!!”<br /> <br /> Even Kaguya-senpai chanted a magic exclusive for close-range&amp;mdash;she gripped the scythe of the god of death tightly with both of her hands and launched her attack at Kamiizumi-senpai and Kimura-senpai. There was no Heaven and Earth Formation or shit like that, unexpectedly all eight people were thrown into melee!<br /> <br /> Witnessing the development of a never once seen before match, loud cheers were raised from the stands.<br /> <br /> “With this development could Lotte and Hoshikaze-senpai add more reinforcement magic until Kaguya-senpai finished bringing down her two opponents, it has become a match like that huh…”<br /> <br /> Mio murmured. Kazuki too had the same opinion. The scythe Kaguya-senpai possessed would steal one of the five senses with each of its attack, the sixth attack would sever all of the magic power of the opponent. If the swordsmen were attacked from the side with that scythe while they were in the middle of fighting Deep Specter, Kamiizumi-senpai and Kimura-senpai wouldn’t have long.<br /> <br /> Lotte chanted a spell with mad rush in her quickness.<br /> <br /> “Soaring wings, lording eyes, invading world-destroying conflagaration―manifest the authority of god right here, as the agent of civilization deeply and deeply I advance! Deep Striker!!”<br /> <br /> The greatest magic Lotte could use, level 5. Huge thruster units were created on Lotte’s small back, spouting out heat of fire pushed her to the sky and she soared.<br /> <br /> Lotte who prepared her electromagnetic lance in the sky and fixed her aim looked completely like an eagle that was directing its beak to the prey on the surface of the earth. And then she took a nose dive in one beat with recklessly fast speed.<br /> <br /> Her aim was Torazou-san. Torazou-san was blown away by Lotte’s lance charge unable to do anything, his remaining magic power was lost to a dangerous area.<br /> <br /> “Yamada Torazou, that’s the end!” The referee gave his verdict of Torazou-san’s exit from the stage.<br /> <br /> Lotte immediately danced back to the sky again, this time she aimed at Koyuki and took a nose dive.<br /> <br /> Koyuki didn’t run. Against Lotte’s charge, she thrust out both her hands right from the front.<br /> <br /> “Sinking hundred of ships, o threat of sea lurking in ocean depths! Rise to the surface guided by my singing voice…show that whole story! …Stab your fang! Ice Buster!!”<br /> <br /> That offensive magic was invoked in a great timing for a counter.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s lance stabbed at Koyuki―at the same time, gigantic iceberg that grew from the ground pierced Lotte. Both of them simultaneously struck each other grandly and were blown away from each other by the recoil.<br /> <br /> However the damage was far heavier on Lotte who was countered right from the front.<br /> <br /> Moreover what Koyuki used was level 6, an offensive magic that had high one-shot power.<br /> <br /> The whole armaments on Lotte’s body were damaged and scattered sparks everywhere *bachi bachi*. Even so Lotte operated her thruster unit and took off again to the sky, for a decisive charge against Koyuki who even now was standing up unsteadily.<br /> <br /> It was like an attack made by a fool that only knew how to do just one thing, but Koyuki was unable to immediately chant the same magic.<br /> <br /> This time for sure a promised sure-kill lance charge was approaching…!<br /> <br /> ―But just an instant before they crashed, a small shadow sprung out in front of Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki style two swords art, Wind God Instant Positioning!!”<br /> <br /> That shadow crossed her two swords and caught the tip of the lance, the long ponytail drew an arc and rotated beautifully. That one attack was parried diagonally below.<br /> <br /> The speed of Lotte’s nose dive had surpassed even Beatrix’s step-in. To splendidly parry it without even taking a simultaneous hit, it was Kanae’s divine work that even made the watching Kazuki who was from the same sword school had his breath taken away.<br /> <br /> Lotte’s charging lance pierced the ground *ZUDON!*. The lance that was fixed in her left arm completely stabbed the ground, making Lotte flap her feet *batabata* on the earth uselessly. Cute. But only her appearance.<br /> <br /> “HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> Koyuki raised a voice filled with fighting spirit that he couldn’t even imagine compared to how she usually was. With reaction speed that showed her trust that Kanae would come to help her without fail, she shifted into counterattack.<br /> <br /> With the ice blade that was equipped on her right foot, Koyuki treaded through the thruster unit on Lotte’s back, it was destroyed in one hit.<br /> <br /> With the right foot that was treading on Lotte’s back as the axis, Koyuki rotated in a circle. Using the left blade on her left foot she launched an accurate {{furigana|back spinning kick|Savate}} into the chink between Lotte’s armor and tore it apart. Keeping the momentum she rotated once, twice, thrice, while spinning like a figure skater she hacked *zutazuta* Lotte to pieces.<br /> <br /> When her rotation ended Koyuki lightly leaped to the air and moved to the finishing of the programme.<br /> <br /> “O singing voice of mermaid, manifest the freezing thought. Sadness into ice flower, loneliness into light snowfall, cover the world with freezing vacuum…White Album!”<br /> <br /> Like an ice fairy, silver world was spreading on the surrounding of the dancing Koyuki. Koyuki and Lotte’s silhouettes stood out inside that pure white screen, the next moment, it was dyed with the blue flash of Lotte’s defensive magic power that was receiving large damage from the cold.<br /> <br /> “Charlotte Liebenfrau, that’s the end!”<br /> <br /> However―because Kanae came to help Koyuki, that person became free to move.<br /> <br /> “Lightning fall into my body and I gain lightning thoughts and god speed…wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!”<br /> <br /> Lightning ran behind Kanae. Hikaru-senpai who scattered sparks from her whole body and having her physical ability elevated electrically, she drew near Kanae’s back unnoticed with the pike of wind god in her hand.<br /> <br /> “…Damn it! No, I’m aware of this already, but damn it!!”<br /> <br /> If she confronted her from the front, Kanae could still deal with Hikaru-senpai even with her current speed. But having her short opening taken, *DOSU DOSU DOSU!* Kanae was stabbed full of hole with lightning speed. Hikaru-senpai kicked Kanae, then she stabbed Koyuki down with a single blow. Both of them were defeated simultaneously at that spot.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kanae, Hiakari Koyuki, that’s the end!”<br /> <br /> But, with that Hikaru-senpai’s team stood in advantage…was not what happened.<br /> <br /> While such event happened―Kaguya-senpai too made both Kamiizumi-senpai and Kimura-senpai leave the stage with [Near Death Roulette]. What remained was a one-on-one fight between the fellow team leaders.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai that had become superhuman, confronted Kaguya-senpai who was accompanied by {{furigana|a shadow monster|Deep Specter}} while holding the god of death’s scythe.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to win for sure this time against Kaguya, you’ll see!” While releasing golden light, Hikaru-senpai proclaimed dignifiedly.<br /> <br /> “…Some nerve you have. I’ll make you sing out a pleasant voice again!” Kaguya-senpai laughed sadistically.<br /> <br /> In the middle of the cheers from the stand that was heating up to its peak―Hikaru-senpai thrust her spear at Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Without hesitating that cursing thy also wounded oneself…shared agony is my delight! Cry and shout in the mirror reflection! Suicide Black!”<br /> <br /> Without evading, Kaguya-senpai deployed illusion defensive magic that reflected [the agony that should be produced by the opponent’s attack] in full. Kaguya-senpai’s body was enveloped by a sinister black haze.<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai took a deep breath as if hardening her resolve―she thrust her pike at the black haze.<br /> <br /> While gritting her teeth and enduring the pain, she kept thrusting her pike no matter how many times powerfully.<br /> <br /> “O god of death’s whisper waiting impatiently for visitor, resound widely and deeply, let’s paint the dream completely with agony! Reverberate the evil sound of sadism! Ultra Violence!!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai reverberated an evil voice that doubled the sense of pain.<br /> <br /> At that time an unimaginable illusionary pain should be generated inside Hikaru-senpai. But even while Hikaru-senpai’s expression distorted in anguish, while raising a scream filled with fighting spirit she recklessly continued swinging her pike. Looking at that figure, even Hikaru-senpai’s fans in the guest stand were screaming.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai also swung down the scythe of the god of death. The scythe that caused a fatal destruction of human senses with each of its strike was evaded by Hikaru-senpai who was desperately keeping her consciousness in the middle of the violent agony, then she was counterattacking once more.<br /> <br /> “Otonashi Kaguya is also having an extremely hard time you know? Because that defensive magic only returned illusionary pain.”<br /> <br /> Miyabi-senpai cheerfully pointed out. [Suicide Black] didn’t reduce the damage from the attack at all.<br /> <br /> Right now, Kaguya-senpai was using &lt;Resist&gt;―without borrowing the power of Diva but using the general magic of her own, she was only creating energy of opposite vector of the thrusting to defend.<br /> <br /> She couldn’t block the attacks with just that, Kaguya-senpai’s magic power too was shaved off in the blink of eye. In short this was an intense battle of attrition between Hikaru-senpai’s mental strength against Kaguya-senpai’s magic power.<br /> <br /> The Deep Specter that was still being summoned was also attacking Hikaru-senpai from the side. Hikaru-senpai that had been superhumanly strengthened flicked it away with her pike just as an annoyance in her one-on-one fight.<br /> <br /> That one instant where Hikaru-senpai’s mind was directed to the shadow monster, was the aim of Kaguya-senpai.<br /> <br /> “O desire lurking in the sea of heart, passing through the sinful flesh reach out that hand! O embodiment of violation, twine yourself as you desired! Desire Tentacle!”<br /> <br /> Countless tentacles were growing out from the ground, twining themselves on Hikaru-senpai’s limbs. Hikaru-senpai raised a loud voice while shaking herself free with all her strength, she stabbed. Stabbed. Stabbing with reckless abandon at Kaguya-senpai with her pike.<br /> <br /> However Kaguya-senpai too counterattacked using her scythe with first class simultaneous strike. First hit. Second hit. Third hit.<br /> <br /> Already losing her sight and hearing too, even so Hikaru-senpai continued swinging her pike like an automatic doll. But her arms, her legs, were bounded firmly by the tentacles. Finally senpai’s movement were completely sealed, Kaguya-senpai’s scythe was inflicting the fourth hit, fifth hit―<br /> <br /> And then sixth hit. Every senses and magic power of Hikaru-senpai were all stolen, she fell down on that spot.<br /> <br /> The golden light was swallowed by the black haze, Kaguya-senpai received the declaration of winner of the match.<br /> <br /> ===Part 3===<br /> <br /> “Kazuki~, Kaguya’s way of fighting is still as brutal as ever see~! I don’t want anymore~! Comfort me~!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki and the others spread out a leisure sheet and prepared lunch boxes, Hikaru-senpai was mimic crying while running up at him.<br /> <br /> “Eh? Wasn’t Hikaru-senpai feeling good from the pain?”<br /> <br /> “What on earth are you saying! Hoi!”<br /> <br /> When he mentioned the reference from the previous talk, Hikaru-senpai poked ‘kotsun’ Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan~! Koyuki-oneesan is a bully desu~!”<br /> <br /> Lotte too came straight at Kazuki and hugged him. While saying ‘there there’, he stroked her head repeatedly.<br /> <br /> “Hikaru-senpai too, you were valiant till the end, that was really cool.”<br /> <br /> “Ahaha…rather than looking valiant or cool, I want to be said as cute see.”<br /> <br /> While laughing awkwardly, with a ‘kyun kyun’ heart mark of positivity level up came flying.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, I too was working hard on the cheering!” “This one too had working hard on cheering you know!”<br /> <br /> Mio and Kohaku said something incomprehensible, they came clinging at Kazuki as if opposing Hikaru-senpai and Lotte. “You girls are different right?” Kazuki pushed them aside. What would they need to be thanked for?<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai’s team that were doing some greeting in the stand also finally came slightly later.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama-! Receiving Nii-sama’s heated gaze, Kanae was working 30 percent harder-!!”<br /> <br /> Kanae hugged Kazuki at full speed.<br /> <br /> “I watched you clearly. Aren’t you the hidden MVP today?”<br /> <br /> Kanae was beaten up in the middle but, the one that broke up this match was that divine work of Kanae.<br /> <br /> Lotte could reduce her sense of pain with her advanced Telepathy skill. If that Lotte survived until the last struggle together with Hikaru-senpai, the result would come out different without a doubt.<br /> <br /> With understanding of that fact, Kanae went to help Koyuki even if she had to expose a fatal opening.<br /> <br /> “Nii-sama, don’t just watch this match…tonight please watch even Kanae’s everything, up to the maiden’s {{furigana|beeep|secret place}} too without sparing anything left. On top of the bed, an adult observation diary until the depth of every corner…”<br /> <br /> “Don’t get carried away with that incomprehensible mood. Don’t say out beeep sound with your mouth.”<br /> <br /> “Well then Nii-sama, please do Hayashizaki-style secret technique &lt;{{furigana|Rising Sun|tossing someone into the air}}&gt;!”<br /> <br /> “There is no such secret technique. …But, like this?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki lifted up Kanae’s small body, then exercising Enchant Aura he flung her as high as he could directly above.<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol 05 030.jpeg|thumb]]<br /> <br /> “I don’t really get it but it look fun! Banza―i! Kana-chan banza―i!”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai too joined in the Rising Sun with bright eyes, “banza―i” Koyuki who was saved by Kanae just before this also joined, Kanae's body leaped like a beanbag to the blue cloudless sky.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The finals would be after the afternoon recess.<br /> <br /> “The lunch box today was made by everyone except Kazuki! Come on, the {{furigana|karaage|fried chicken}} made by me. It’s fried beautifully right? Aa―n!”<br /> <br /> “No, I can eat by myself. Give the chopstick to me too.”<br /> <br /> “We didn’t come bringing Kazuki’s share of chopstick though.”<br /> <br /> While feeling like his human rights had been stolen, Kazuki opened his mouth like the chick of a small bird and got spoon-fed by Mio. …Though it was already too late to feel embarrassed over a mere ‘aa―n’ after all they had done together.<br /> <br /> For the sake of Kazuki who was going to challenge the final, everyone of the Witch’s Mansion prepared the lunch box. Everyone of the Sword Division who were guessing that special atmosphere surrounded them slightly from a distance.<br /> <br /> “Yeah, delicious. Also there is a hidden flavor inserted that is different from usual. Is it garlic?”<br /> <br /> “Ah, you know it. I changed the shoyu&lt;ref&gt;Soy Sauce&lt;/ref&gt; for dipping sauce into garlic soy sauce. So that you will become more energetic!”<br /> <br /> From the side Kaguya-senpai pushed out a dish.<br /> <br /> “Here Otouto-kun, eat the one that I made too! Charred newt!”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, why are you making this food that look like something a witch would cook?”<br /> <br /> “It will make you energetic you know! Probably!”<br /> <br /> He had the feeling that charred newt was not vitality medicine but more like a love potion though….<br /> <br /> While Kaguya-senpai kept making a smiling face that was pressuring him, she smoothly *zuii* presented the newt that was skewered on a stick to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Eh, he really had to eat this? From the head? Uwaaa….<br /> <br /> Ah, but unexpectedly he could eat it. It had crisp texture and savory surface, leanly refined meat. It was also grotesque but when he crunched the head, a taste really preferred by food expert from the innards’ body was slowly spreading in his mouth.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki! I grilled a meat! Now! Eat! For men it's beef meat for sure!”<br /> <br /> With meaningless gallant tone, Hikaru-senpai presented a galbi&lt;ref&gt;Korean-style beef ribs&lt;/ref&gt; mixed with dipping sauce&lt;ref&gt;Called tare, sauce for dipping, etc. made from soy sauce, mirin, vinegar and dashi&lt;/ref&gt;. It was certainly a flavor that was impossible to not make the blood of a man boil up. It was simple but there was no miss in it.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniiisan, mine is tako-san wiener&lt;ref&gt;Sausage that’s made to look like octopus&lt;/ref&gt; desu! It’s that one that you often see in anime desu!!”<br /> <br /> Was Lotte intending for it to mimic an octopus, the wiener pursed out *nyuu* its lips and making a weird face.<br /> <br /> “Pwease stoopp~♪” She said delightfully. She was really a happy child no matter what she was doing…<br /> <br /> The tako-san wiener added Lotte-like charm to the big lunch box.<br /> <br /> …However the whole lunch box was very meat heavy that it was covered with light brown color of meat. It really gave him a lot of stamina, but these people were unexpectedly carnivorous, so if he left them alone he had the feeling that they would just eat meat everyday. Just as I thought, if I don’t control the kitchen….<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, what I made is onigiri. I thought if it’s this even I won’t fail…”<br /> <br /> “Oh, right when my mouth started to become oily. Is Koyuki going to feed me too?”<br /> <br /> “…My finger will indirectly get included into your mouth like this, but if you don’t think it’s dirty like that…”<br /> <br /> “You over think it you know.”<br /> <br /> Far from dirty, Koyuki’s small hand was surely cute like an ice fish.<br /> <br /> The presented onigiri was beautifully formed in triangle shape, it was a workmanship that was really like the methodical Koyuki.<br /> <br /> “The side dishes’ taste are deep, I felt anxious adding my cooking poorly so it’s just a mere salted onigiri though.”<br /> <br /> “But the surrounding foods had deep flavors, so food like this is fine. …Yes, it’s delicious.”<br /> <br /> While chewing the onigiri, Kazuki tasted a faint sweetness inside his mouth. It was not the sweetness of the rice itself. Koyuki was also not the type to mistake between salt and sugar. Thereupon this was….<br /> <br /> The reason why Koyuki was poor at cooking…might be because of this.<br /> <br /> “Perhaps Koyuki unconsciously cooked food using &lt;Alchemy Cooking&gt;?”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s sudden pointing out, Koyuki was going “Eh…?” and opened her eyes widely.<br /> <br /> What was called Alchemy Cooking was a technique to operate magic power on cooking and dragging out taste that normally couldn’t be let out from normal cooking. Perceiving the Prima Material of the ingredient with Extra Sense, then with delicate Psychokinesis and Pyrokinesis the ingredient was rearranged and altered.<br /> <br /> However common magic was the product of imagination. Just from having unneeded thoughts flash for a moment or making an error in magic power control, an impossible cooking would be created from the original ingredient by the Alchemy Cooking. Because sometimes poison could be also created, there was a warning to never use this method of cooking in a household where there was someone with weak defensive magic power like children or elderly. Even in the case of each store where they offered Alchemy Cooking, they need license just like the license system of Fugu chef.&lt;ref&gt;Because fugu fish is poisonous, the chef who prepares it must take a license to prove their competency in preparing fugu fish that is safe to eat.&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> “Perhaps because Koyuki’s magic power is stronger than other people from the start, even inside your subconscious your magic power leaked out to the cooking and it completely became an Alchemic Cooking. That’s why the onigiri become slightly sweet.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki also tasted the onigiri and ascertained the taste.<br /> <br /> “Certainly…. But for me to be unable to control my own magic power…”<br /> <br /> “I wonder if that’s not the result of your thought of wanting the one who eat it to be happy. I’m really happy from the transmitted feeling that Koyuki’s heart put into shaping this.”<br /> <br /> A strong feeling would naturally became a common magic, affecting the reality itself.<br /> <br /> “Uu…” While leaking such sound Koyuki became red completely.<br /> <br /> Because it was a simple cooking like onigiri that it ended with just the taste becoming sweet.<br /> <br /> However in the past, he heard Koyuki had a criminal record when she attempted to make a homemade food for the senpais, it became a great disaster where the inside of the mouth of the senpais were shining with defensive magic power (in short it was poison).<br /> <br /> Because of that Koyuki was totally convinced that [she is an elf that has no worth other than fighting] or that [she is a failure who cannot do anything like making people happy]. However those thoughts were a big mistake.<br /> <br /> “If you get used to using your magic power skillfully to make Alchemy Cooking, I think Koyuki too could become good at cooking.”<br /> <br /> “…Is it really true? Even me, can make someone else happy?”<br /> <br /> Koyuki opened her eyes and it shined as if discovering a hope that she never even thought possible.<br /> <br /> “Then let’s practice together with me. I’m going to raise Koyuki as a full-fledged maid! Koyuki is a girl who can make people happy properly!”<br /> <br /> Hearing Kazuki’s words, Koyuki’s cheeks blushed with a puff. And then,<br /> <br /> “Kazuki…!” Overcame with emotion, without even paying any mind to the eyes of the surrounding she leaped into Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> Kazuki hugged Koyuki back tightly. After that they toppled over on top of the leisure sheet altogether and *goron goron* rolled around. …From that reaction, Koyuki made a bewildered face.<br /> <br /> “Ka, Kazuki…it’s too intense…why do you need to roll around…”<br /> <br /> “Well, when I hugged you, you looked really cute like a plushie, so unconsciously.”<br /> <br /> In regards to Koyuki, against his better judgment he overdid his expression of affection.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki-oniisan! Without doubt that’s surely an emotion called [moe rolling] desu!!”<br /> <br /> Lotte taught him a strange thing .<br /> <br /> “Fufu-“ Koyuki who was settled inside Kazuki’s arms compactly spilled out a laugh.<br /> <br /> “…Then because Kazuki is teaching me the way to make people happy, you are my master&lt;ref&gt;In the sense of teacher, not that.&lt;/ref&gt; now.”<br /> <br /> And then from the angle where other people couldn’t see, she secretly kissed Kazuki’s cheek. The proof of the increase of her positivity level, a big heart mark also came flying. Once more, Kazuki did the moe rolling.<br /> <br /> “That looks nice-. I’m not the type that can get treatment like that am I? Cute type like Koyuki is so envious…”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai dropped her shoulder and murmured. Kazuki abruptly stood up and denied that statement.<br /> <br /> “That’s not true at all. Hikaru-senpai too, saying this kind of thing to senpai is a little, but I think you are cute.”<br /> <br /> “Really? Then can you give me a hug and roll around?”<br /> <br /> “Of course. Though it’s a little embarrassing, come here.”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki spread out his hands, “Waa―ii” Hikaru-senpai leaped into there. Kazuki hugged Hikaru-senpai who had a little more sensual feeling in her body than Koyuki tightly, making them glued to each other, then they *goron goron* rolled around.<br /> <br /> “Not fair. Kazu-nii, do that to me too!” “Kazuki-oniisan, that looked fun desu-!” “Otouto-kun, me too ‘’me too―’’&lt;ref&gt;Kaguya said this in English.&lt;/ref&gt;!”<br /> <br /> Mio, Lotte, and Kaguya-senpai were starting to create a line in succession in front of Kazuki.<br /> <br /> Kazuki received them in turn, they hugged, fell down, and *goron goron* rolled around.<br /> <br /> Am I an amusement park’s attraction or what?<br /> <br /> ===Part 4===<br /> <br /> And then finally the appointed time of the finals drew close.<br /> <br /> “Before the finals, there is something that I want to let everyone know.”<br /> <br /> He couldn’t keep on doing moe rolling. Inside the portable tent that was turned into a waiting room before the match, Kazuki spoke frankly about the black shadow that was hovering above this battle election.<br /> <br /> The new Board Chairman that suddenly proposed the idea of deciding the Chief Student Council with this battle election, Takasugi Takayoshi.<br /> <br /> In concert with that, the delinquent students who until now were never cooperating with the school events like the quest or the like introduced themselves as candidates. Their announcement to become a candidate was also really unnatural.<br /> <br /> So that Board Chairman Takasugi could raise a puppet Chief Student Council President that would move according to his own will, he might have bribed those delinquent students and proposed to carry out this battle election.<br /> <br /> The backing of that new Board Chairman Takasugi was an extreme political organization named &lt;Kenshitou&gt; that was advocating [the suppression of Magika Stigma], both sides had a close relationship with each other.<br /> <br /> At the same time, Kazuki was assaulted by an assassin. That assassin was skilled in dangerous Chinese kenpo that ignored the magic power and destroyed the opponent’s flesh. Kazuki had determined the assassin’s true identity, but that assassin was participating in this battle election as a student of the Knight Academy. She was a character that had already won through until this final match.<br /> <br /> In addition that girl not only used Chinese kenpo, she also used the Summoning Magic of &lt;Chinese Mythology’s Diva&gt;. That Diva possessed the power to brainwash other people, a part of the students that were participating in this battle election had traces of being brainwashed by someone. Adding to the unnatural participants, the brainwashed participants…<br /> <br /> The inauguration of the new board chairman, the suspicious candidates, the assassin from China…if all of that were connected with one line. Kenshitou’s advocacy of [Magika Stigma’s oppression] would be the decline of Japan’s magic military power, it might bring an advantage for other Magic Advanced Country―namely China. The new board chairman and Kenshitou were most likely spies from China that were aiming for this academy and Kazuki’s life.<br /> <br /> The opponent they were going to fight after this might be the vanguard from this bottomless darkness….<br /> <br /> “””Chinese Mythology’s Diva!?””” Everyone expressed great shock.<br /> <br /> “You are saying that those two from the Sword Division, Katsura Karin and Hayashi Shizuka are contracted with Chinese Mythology’s Diva?”<br /> <br /> Towards Mio who was looking half believing half doubting, Kazuki showed a nod filled with conviction.<br /> <br /> “Certainly those two are not using kenjutsu but kenpo. So that’s Chinese kenpo. Now that you mention it, it was different from karate.”<br /> <br /> Kohaku nodded with deep interest. As long as they were not a successor of special old-style kenjutsu like Kazuki’s Hayashizaki-style or Kohaku’s Shinkage-style, the average swordsmen were recommended to practice &lt;The Knight Order’s formal kenjutsu&gt;. Because of that meeting a user of Chinese kenpo or the like seldom happened.<br /> <br /> “Then that time when Mibu Akira and Asamiya Anna kept getting back up even though they were done in several times by Hoshikaze-senpai, that was the &lt;Divine Protection&gt; of the Chinese Mythology’s Diva that is contracted with those guys?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai inquired. Divine Protection was a type of effect that was granted to the contractor where it was always continuously active.<br /> <br /> “Correct, it was the power of Hayashi Shizuka’s contracted Diva, &lt;Joka&gt;.”<br /> <br /> “Joka!? The one pillar of Chinese Mythology’s &lt;Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors&lt;ref&gt;Mythological rulers of ancient China&lt;/ref&gt;&gt;!?”<br /> <br /> Mio raised a loud voice. That name was an important person that was impossible to not be known if one was learning mythology. Besides Mio, Kohaku and Kazuha-senpai also gasped.<br /> <br /> “From what the Einherjars were saying, that girl named Hayashi Shizuka seems to be a dangerous character that was notorious for rampaging in the strife between China and its surrounding countries. …Whether her inside really is a high school student or not is doubtful.”<br /> <br /> China was a religious country that had faith in &lt;Taoism&gt; that completely believed in &lt;Sinocentrism&gt;. They were known to be the most warlike Magic Advanced Country in the world, their quarrel with neighboring countries in Asia never ceased.<br /> <br /> It seemed other Advanced Magic Countries dispatched their intelligence operative to investigate those armed conflicts. Eleonora of Einherjars knew about Hayashi Shizuka as if it was par for the course.<br /> <br /> “From what Eleonora said, the Divine Protection that Joka has are brainwashing people to add as their comrade, strengthening their comrade, and reviving their comrade’s magic power until 70 times, those three.”<br /> <br /> “…It’s unbeatable.” Kohaku leaked out a groaning voice.<br /> <br /> The reviving power of immortality was not granted to Shizuka herself. Because of that she was no threat in the level of one on one fight, but for increasing sleeper agents in foreign countries and then leading them for battle, it could be said to be the most optimum ability.<br /> <br /> …Exactly a power to [incite conflict].<br /> <br /> “Of course we have no chance of victory even if we fight them directly. I think we could only use purge magic to destroy the effect of the Divine Protection, or defeat the practitioner Hayashi Shizuka first.”<br /> <br /> Magic that could destroy the opponent’s magic effect and possibly disregard it, from the sphere of people whom Kazuki knew was Damian’s [Mistletein II]. Hikaru-senpai’s [Beelzebub], and then―<br /> <br /> “Is it [Futsu no Mitama]?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai whispered. [Futsu no Mitama] was a sword of cutting evil that severed the very magic power itself.<br /> <br /> Along with [Ride Lightning] Kazuki secretly thought if he could become able to use it…though it was also a magic that could unintentionally become unneeded.<br /> <br /> “But according to the rules, I can’t summon Futsunushi no Kami you know?”<br /> <br /> “Yes. That’s why I will aim for Hayashi Shizuka directly. Kazuha-senpai and the others please stop Mibu Akira and Asamiya Anna with the three of you. I will defeat both Katsura Karin and Hayashi Shizuka.”<br /> <br /> “Are you going to be fine by yourself? Certainly you are strong but you know…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai’s face became clouded from worry, so Kazuki finally let his expression relax.<br /> <br /> “Is senpai worried for me?”<br /> <br /> “E, even me can worry a little, although the other side is someone like you!”<br /> <br /> “As long as those guys don’t use Summoning Magic I’m going to be fine. Rather I think the side of Mibu Akira and Asamiya Anna would be the one that is going to be hard. On top of their high skill in magic, they are strengthened by Joka’s Divine Protection. They could also use poison magic that will be troublesome in protracted battle…”<br /> <br /> “Is, is that so…it’s not a situation where we need to worry about you huh. I’m the weakest here…”<br /> <br /> This time senpai became completely anxious about herself. She looked down in dejection.<br /> <br /> Kazuki stood from his chair and approached her, he grasped her hand tightly.<br /> <br /> “There is no such thing. Senpai has become incredibly strong. I, as your master guarantee it. Moreover senpai is a magic swordsman. If I and Mio properly supported you with magic, senpai’s real strength will also become several times stronger. Please believe that.”<br /> <br /> “Master huh…. That’s right isn’t it, you haven’t taught me anything wrong at all.”<br /> <br /> “Yes. That’s why please I’ll leave Mibu Akira and Asamiya Anna to you!”<br /> <br /> …Moreover Hayashi Shizuka and Katsura Karin used a technique that gave damage directly to human flesh.<br /> <br /> He didn’t want to make such dangerous guys to be the opponent of everyone else, he also had such feelings.<br /> <br /> Was Mio the only one that saw through Kazuki’s innermost thoughts, she came directing a glance full of meaning.<br /> <br /> “I’m going to cover for Kazuki too okay? Don’t keep trying to burden yourself with everything.”<br /> <br /> “…Naturally. Even I’m going to look at the situation and chant covering magic to your side too. We have won and come this far from our team play.”<br /> <br /> Kazuki turned back to Kazuha-senpai once more and put his strength into both his hands that was holding her hands.<br /> <br /> “Just in case, if Hayashi Shizuka and Katsura Karin use their Summoning Magic because they are cornered, at that time Kazuha-senpai please don’t hesitate and use [Futsu no Mitama]. If possible I want to get a complete victory without violating the rule, but if the opponent violated the rule first we won’t have any room to spare.”<br /> <br /> If they resolved to lose from foul play and used Summoning Magic―that means they were going to try to kill Kazuki forcibly. If circumstances permitted, China, Board Chairman Takasugi was going to aim on making the Chief Student Council President as his own pawn, but…if the situation developed where he could obtain just one thing, then without doubt Kazuki’s life would be the highest priority. The death of the King would cause the doom of this country far quicker and easier.<br /> <br /> The vigilance toward Shizuka and Karin was going to be even stronger after this, so for these two this finals was the last chance to kill Kazuki by taking advantage of the match.<br /> <br /> But with Kazuki as bait, if he could make Shizuka and Karin use illegal summoning, he could rip off the wolf clothing of these two who had never left any evidence behind before. …That was the aim of Headmaster Amasaki.<br /> <br /> “Got it. Breaking the rules is going to be after the other side breaks the rules first.”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai nodded decisively while keeping hold of Kazuki's hands.<br /> <br /> “If [Futsu no Mitama] is used, it should be possible to release Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai from Joka’s brainwashing. If by any chance Katsura Karin is also brainwashed, it might be possible to free her too.”<br /> <br /> That was this fight’s biggest objective.<br /> <br /> {Though if you could conquer Tsukahara Kazuha too, the story would finish far quicker.}<br /> <br /> Idly, Leme transmitted her voice using telepathy to Kazuki’s mind.<br /> <br /> That was certainly so but…, even so he didn’t want to behave like trying to get close to Kazuha-senpai aiming for power. Kazuha-senpai was not someone that he could make into his partner just from a cheap act like that. She was one of his important people.<br /> <br /> “…Oi, how long are you planning to hold my hand…”<br /> <br /> “Ah, I’m sorry. Has senpai recovered her confidence?”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai returned a grin. A small heart mark came flying.<br /> <br /> “Thanks for various things, Hayashizaki. …I’m really glad to come until the finals with you.”<br /> <br /> The appointed time had arrived. While being greeted with thunderous cheering voices, Kazuki and the others exited the portable tent.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki-kuu―n, do your bestt―!” “Kazuki-kuu―n!”<br /> <br /> All of a sudden shrill voices could be heard, Kazuki was taken aback and looked around the stands.<br /> <br /> Not Kaguya-senpai and the others, all of it were from female students that he didn’t know about. Moreover it was not just one or two people.<br /> <br /> {Fufufu, so it is even probable to reach positivity level around 40 even from unknown companies!}<br /> <br /> Leme leaked out a chuckle inside Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> …But somehow it was quite frightening, for the positivity level of other party that he never even heard of speaking to him….<br /> <br /> He had watched some of his classmates that were members of sports club receive some cheering from the girls in the sports meeting or club activity tournament when he was attending middle school. However he had never even imagined for himself to be treated like this.<br /> <br /> {…Don’t get fidgety. You are such a petty bourgeois guy in strange places huh―}<br /> <br /> Of course Kaguya-senpai and the others too were sending him their supports by forming a cheerleader line from the front line of the stands.<br /> <br /> The venue for the final match was changed from the ground to the fountain plaza. The fountain plaza that originally didn’t have guest stands were set up with guest stands in its surrounding so it was a little narrow but, the atmosphere was absolutely showy.<br /> <br /> Even from the tent on the other side, Mibu Akira and her teams also entered the stage.<br /> <br /> Immediately the spectator stands became quiet.<br /> <br /> “Exactly like an away game huh! I’m gonna enjoy each of these guys crying face ze―!!”<br /> <br /> “Things like away game is no biggie no biggie, everyday we’re in away game right, Aneki―!”<br /> <br /> “Ou! We always keep on living defying against something ze!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai were making idle talk with their usual tones. But in contrast with those girls' frivolous figures, everyone had already known that they were not mere plain magicians.<br /> <br /> Behind them, Hayashi Shizuka and Karin silently followed them.<br /> <br /> With all their members that were proficient in close-quarter combat, the four girls formed a single line.<br /> <br /> On the other side Kazuki and his teammates were taking a strange Heaven and Earth Formation with only Mio in the rear column while the other three became the front column.<br /> <br /> The spectators became noisy. The normal Heaven and Earth Formation had already become uncommon practice.<br /> <br /> “{{furigana|I know thy name|Shem ha Meforash}}…Thy name is [Phoenix]…become a poet that is magician! O singing bird that toyed with reason, show that strength in accordance with my life!”<br /> <br /> Mio performed the Access, her body was wrapped in Magic Dress.<br /> <br /> That form of hers was like a single flower of red amaryllis blooming in the fountain plaza.<br /> <br /> “I know thy name…thy name is [Astaroth]! O {{furigana|slanderer|Diablos}} that is well versed in human’s history of sin, show the dark power of the empress of terror!”<br /> <br /> “I know thy name…thy name is [Gamygin]! O depraved fallen angel that follow the {{furigana|morning star of dawn|Lucifer}}, show the loyalty of hell!”<br /> <br /> Both Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai too had their body transformed into Magic Dresses with black undertone.<br /> <br /> “All members, have you finished your preparation?”<br /> <br /> The referee was Liz Liza-sensei. However a great number of teachers were also observing the match in the staff member exclusive tent that was set up temporarily in front of the stands. There was no reason he could hope for a judging that was plainly favoring his team.<br /> <br /> “Well then, the finals, begin!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Hyahha―! There is no need to make Karin-chan and Shizuka to get troubled zee!”<br /> <br /> “Right right―, we’re gonna show the hidden strength of our heinous delinquent combi yeah―!”<br /> <br /> The combination of Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai pushed out from the column line at the same time with the start of the match. It looked like the formation of one column line was only a bluff and they planned to have the two Magika Stigmas as the vanguard as usual.<br /> <br /> They went through all their matches by overusing Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai. That must be because they were on guard of the worst possibilities of Shizuka getting done in in the middle of the match and having the Divine Protection of Joka and the brainwashing get undone.<br /> <br /> “We are going to hold back these guys!” “Leave it to us, Hayashizaki-!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku and Kazuha-senpai clashed against Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai.<br /> <br /> Kazuki slipped through from their side and headed to the enemy’s center where Shizuka was standing.<br /> <br /> “Wha-!? Oi handsome guy that has Akamaru&lt;ref&gt;Not really clear about this one. But it seemed to be the name of a band.&lt;/ref&gt; sudden rise and the current center of attention there! Don’t you dare ignore us―!”<br /> <br /> “Fun, that’s why don’t you dare ignore this one!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku went and slashed at Mibu. But―<br /> <br /> “That kind of greenhorn sword, do you think it will hit us who have been granted super strength and clairvoyance huh?!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki took a glance at his back, Mibu-senpai skillfully evaded Kohaku’s sword.<br /> <br /> “Does it hit, ii―diot ii―diot!! Just run crying to your moo―ther you crybaby-!!”<br /> <br /> While Mibu-senpai made her provocation, she started her magic’s chant. Immediately aside from her―<br /> <br /> “I know I know already―, you are the number one small fry in this team right―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who was toyed with Asamiya-senpai’s skillful movement made her sword only strike an empty air, she leaked out “kuh” a mortified voice.<br /> <br /> Sensing his comrades disadvantage made Kazuki stopped his feet for a moment.However―<br /> <br /> “Don’t you dare look down too much on this one…Shinkage style secret sword, Meteor Disturbance!”<br /> <br /> As if removing Kazuki’s worry, Kohaku yelled out.<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai anticipated Kohaku’s sword, she had already entered evasive maneuvers before the sword had even been slashed. However the &lt;Meteor Disturbance&gt; that Kohaku swung while yelling, when it was thought that the point of the katana had been evaded it suddenly looked like that the katana leaped and the slash trajectory made a sudden change.<br /> <br /> “Wha, whattt!? It, it entered the strike zone! Nowaa―!?”<br /> <br /> The phantasmagoric secret sword chased Mibu-senpai, who thought she had already escaped, and slashed her apart.<br /> <br /> “Burn all that is touched into ash…scorching heat of rejection without any place to go! Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> On the other side, Mio’s support magic flew to Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “…If there is everyone’s support, I can become strong several times over! I’m the same like that guy…a magic swordsman!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that received Mio’s backing recovered her spirit, she collected the oxygen in her surrounding toward herself and doubled the fierceness of the flame that was armoring her body.<br /> <br /> Using Pyrokinesis she concentrated that flame in the blade of her katana, heightening its attack power. The flame that enveloped the blade easily grew into a height that surpassed Kazuha-senpai herself. It easily became established thoroughly as Kazuha-senpai’s signature move, her magic sword.<br /> <br /> “Wha, what the hell is with thaatt―! Scaa―ry but, its useless if it can’t hit―!!”<br /> <br /> Asamiya-senpai evaded the flame slash with light movement skill. But, “Barrett!” when Asamiya-senpai’s attention was concentrated on Kazuha-senpai, Mio’s flame bullet was flying.<br /> <br /> “Ouch-!” Asamiya-senpai was thrown back.<br /> <br /> “Thank you, Mio-san! YAAAAAAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> Not missing the chance Kazuha-senpai took pursuit with her flame sword. “Wagyaaaaaaa!” Asamiya-senpai was blown away.<br /> <br /> …It’s fine. If it was them then there is no need to worry.<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt relieved, he headed to Hayashi Shizuka and Katsura Karin.<br /> <br /> “Fuh, what are you planning coming here as a magic swordsman that doesn’t even have his sword huhh!?”<br /> <br /> With the characteristic step of Chinese kenpo &lt;Jouchouho&gt;, Karin assaulted Kazuki with a momentum like a rocket. Riding that momentum she attacked with her palm heel. When he evaded that, Shizuka came from the side and launched a kick. Kazuki parried it with the back of his hand, but his arm rattled and became numb. In spite of being barehanded, its power should be feared. Both of them were strengthened powerfully.<br /> <br /> And then without pause Karin and Shizuka attacked him alternately. With turning speed distinctive of unarmed attacks, moreover their cooperation was in the level of flawless. Before long Kazuki was cornered into a one-sided defensive battle.<br /> <br /> If he didn’t chant some kind of reinforcement magic he wouldn’t be able to catch the chance for counterattack.<br /> <br /> ―But Kazuki felt a concerning magic power wave from the other side of the battlefield.<br /> <br /> “…Don’t you dare think that such clever attack is going to stop my chanting! …O goddess that accept the abuse of people from the past until reaching the future…Change that darkness into deadly poison and spit it all around! Slander all these fool!! Poison Argument!!”<br /> <br /> ―Mibu-senpai invoked poisonous Summoning Magic that ought to be cautious against.<br /> <br /> The giant monitor lizard that accompanied the Empress Astaroth spat out foaming poisonous bubbles with pitch black color. The poisonous bubbles immediately spread out with forces that made people thought it would cover the whole venue of the match.<br /> <br /> “Hyahha―, get contaminated! Serves you right, this is protracted battle ze~. From now on you all are going to suffer from poison for a long time while fighting!!”<br /> <br /> ―Foresighting the invoked magic, Kazuki thought that he had to at least disturb this.<br /> <br /> “O water’s surface that quiver from my singing voice, manipulate and gather the ripples and become giant tsunami! Coming from the beyond and washed away to the far off…Tidal Wave!”<br /> <br /> What he invoked was the magic that he became able to use from his bond with Koyuki.<br /> <br /> A large amount of sea water welled up in the match venue, it became a undulating giant tsunami and surged forward.<br /> <br /> The scattering tsunami in this spacious venue didn’t have the momentum to the degree of inflicting damage to people.<br /> <br /> However the bubbles of poison that were going to fly around in the surrounding surface were all swallowed by the tsunami.<br /> <br /> When the magic tsunami vanished―the poisonous bubbles were all washed away, after that there was nothing left.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that’s too muchh―! That bastard, the spilt water is going back into its tray―&lt;ref&gt;This is a Japanese idiom that means it’s no use crying over spilt milk. Only that Mibu said it with the opposite meaning.&lt;/ref&gt;!”<br /> <br /> “…You, since a while ago you keep using dirty Japanese language!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku mercilessly slashed at Mibu-senpai who was raising a scream.<br /> <br /> Kazuki released a sigh of relief after looking at the battle progress at the other side.<br /> <br /> “…Fuh, you are pretty relaxed aren’t you! With the two of us as your opponents you are not chanting magic for your own sake!”<br /> <br /> While Karin was sneering at Kazuki’s action, together with Shizuka she poured surging consecutive attacks on him.<br /> <br /> It was exactly like a tidal wave of fist and kick.<br /> <br /> Certainly devoting a long time of chanting not for reinforcing himself but spending it for [Tidal Wave] cost him a heavy price. Karin’s heel palm caught his torso, making Kazuki’s body bend forward from the waist.<br /> <br /> Not missing that opening, Shizuka suddenly entered from the side.<br /> <br /> A super close distance. Shizuka’s palm softly pushed against Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> Kazuki had known already that it was an extremely ominous sign. <br /> <br /> His face lost color and a goosebump ran through his whole body.<br /> <br /> With a ‘SON!’ Shizuka used &lt;Shinmyaku&gt; on the earth. The recoil energy from kicking the earth was magnified by the spiral movement of the whole body and converged in the palm. Using Shinmyaku and the spiral twisting, it became a severe zero-distance strike!<br /> <br /> At the same time that palm perceived the wavelength of Kazuki’s defensive magic power and released magic power wavelength of its exact opposite. Like the yin and yang the contrary magic powers opposed each other and expanded Kazuki’s defensive magic power!<br /> <br /> Through that crevice in the defensive magic power, a zero-distance strike was screwed inside like cannon―Secret Technique &lt;Shintoukei&gt;.<br /> <br /> His heart was going to get destroyed directly!<br /> <br /> He must not get hit by this. Kazuki shook off Shizuka’s arm in panic, then he forcibly rolled behind and escaped from his predicament. However Karin mercilessly came in pursuit at Kazuki who was rolling unsightly.<br /> <br /> “What a great sight you are, I’m going to make you correct the insulting remark from before you’ll see!”<br /> <br /> Karin kicked away Kazuki as if she was kicking a soccer ball.<br /> <br /> “Don’t get carried away, Karin. This guy is chanting a spell again.”<br /> <br /> Shizuka talked with calmness that was really odious.<br /> <br /> “We have allowed him to invoke a magic before. Even if we win in exchanging blows it’s going to be bad if we couldn’t stop his spell.”<br /> <br /> “…But your chanting ability is average right, Hayashizaki Kazuki!”<br /> <br /> Both of their beastly fists trampled Kazuki down even now. When he showed even the slightest opening the both of them would come aiming with a technique of instant death. Kazuki made a full rotation with both his hands and parried the two’s fists and kicks. The part that he couldn’t parry he endured. Endured it out till the end. …Because he didn’t want his chanting ability to be made a fool of forever.<br /> <br /> Endure endure, not letting go of the connection between the Diva and the magic power…invoke the magic!<br /> <br /> The low level magic he could chant even in this situation yet a magic that would display the maximum effect!<br /> <br /> “Suicide Black!”<br /> <br /> “…That magic is from that time!”<br /> <br /> When Kazuki’s whole body was covered with black haze, Karin became hesitated in her attack toward Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “Magic that reflected pain huh...hnn!”<br /> <br /> But Shizuka unhesitatingly launched a kick with power outside human’s realm. Kazuki didn’t doge and intentionally received that kick. The pain that kick should bring should be reflected back to Shizuka.<br /> <br /> However Shizuka didn’t show even the tiniest bit of turmoil except for a slight tremble on her lips. And then immediately she hammered in a second strike, a third strike. …This girl, is she a cyborg or something!?<br /> <br /> “Karin, don’t hesitate! Suppress your mind! If you let a {{furigana|King|Basilleus}} freely chant magic it won’t finish with just this much!”<br /> <br /> “U, UwaAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> While screaming in abandonment Karin came attacking. But that attack became dull.<br /> <br /> Kazuki easily parried that. Just from the room that dull attack gave him, it created a room for chanting.<br /> <br /> Before long the effect of Suicide Black was cut off, but now he was able to invoke even higher level of magic.<br /> <br /> “…Thunder descend on my body granting me lightning mind and god speed…Wake up the sleeping lion! Ride Lightning!”<br /> <br /> “That’s my magic!” Hikaru-senpai let out an excited voice from the stand.<br /> <br /> The electric impulse that flowed inside the neurons of his whole body whirled like a whirlpool.<br /> <br /> Muscle strength, nerve transmission speed―every specs of Kazuki were sped up electrifyingly.<br /> <br /> Kazuki saw everything of Karin’s thrust in slow motion, he struck her with his fist in a counter. While Karin was blown away, he parried away Shizuka’s kick with room to spare and hit her back!<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s fist grazed Shizuka’s cheek. Fury and irritation clearly floated in her expression.<br /> <br /> He wanted to immediately pound her with consecutive attacks, but Karin too immediately got back up and headed his way again. He mustn’t force himself. Give undivided attention in controlling the offense and defense.<br /> <br /> If he could do that, he could chant even more additional magic.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, do your best!” He could hear Hikaru-senpai’s delighted voice.<br /> <br /> …I want power, but that’s not the only reason that I gained a great relation with Hikaru-senpai.<br /> <br /> Senpai gave her trust on that feeling, so…I borrowed senpai’s power!<br /> <br /> “Ayamur!!”<br /> <br /> Storm was condensing inside Kazuki’s hand, the pike of wind god was created.<br /> <br /> He swept the pike sideways with speed that couldn’t be caught by eye and blew away Karin and Shizuka altogether.<br /> <br /> Without a moment’s delay he narrowed his target to Shizuka and drew closer. He launched a barrage of thrusts like a meteor shower.<br /> <br /> Shzuka attempted to parry with both her hands but she was unable to do it. Her posture was disordered thanks to the wind, just like that she got hit with multiple strikes. She was enduring with Resist but the magic power she used for that was shaved off greedily.<br /> <br /> Karin attempted to help her from the side, but Kazuki had anticipated it earlier and swung his pike. Karin was blown away by the storm from the tip of the pike. Kazuki’s speed overwhelmingly surpassed both of them.<br /> <br /> Just by swinging the pike alternately to Karin and Shizuka, the accelerated Kazuki was able to overpower them.<br /> <br /> In short he was able to gain even more room to chant his spell.<br /> <br /> “Self Burning!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki covered himself with armor of flame, he concentrated that flame with Psychokinesis into the tip of his pike.<br /> <br /> The spearhead of Ayamur was blazing up, he swung that with all his strength.<br /> <br /> The synergy of wind and flame―the wind incessantly supplied oxygen that strengthened the fierceness of the flame. Each time the pike was swung, whirlwind of raging flame burst out. That pike wielded by the accelerated Kazuki was exactly like a living tornado.<br /> <br /> “Is, is this a joke!? This is already too absurd!!”<br /> <br /> Karin raised a scream. The girl was sadly repelled away when she tried to help Shizuka. Shizuka too was blown away like trash by the blazing wind pike.<br /> <br /> The audiences were making a stir. Manipulating multiple Summoning Magic at will, exhibiting a synergy that had never been seen before―the people were looking at the manifestation of a King at that time.<br /> <br /> Shizuka who was blown away and fell on her backside was…for the first time, a look of terror floated on that shrewd face.<br /> <br /> “Karin! Become my shield!!”<br /> <br /> Karin who was trying to save Shizuka who had been targeted constantly until now had never tried to get in his way but she was commencing attack from the side. Toward that girl, Shizuka was handing down an order [not to help her but become her shield]. …Without hesitation Karin forced her way through between Kazuki and Shizuka with her body.<br /> <br /> And then she was burned and pierced as the sacrifice to Kazuki’s pike.<br /> <br /> That blown away body was caught from the back, Shizuka whispered into Karin’s ear.<br /> <br /> “It’s fine, you too are going to resurrect until 70 times. As long as I’m safe everything is fine…”<br /> <br /> “Hayashi Shizuka! …You!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki felt nausea and discomfort in his stomach. He tried to avoid Karin and aimed at Shizuka. But―<br /> <br /> “Like that Karin! Right, left!! Block it!”<br /> <br /> In response to Shizuka’s instruction, just like an unsightly puppet show Karin was moving right, left, throwing out her body in front of the spearhead, desperately stretching her arms and legs.<br /> <br /> Even with the difference in speed, if there was the intuition to predict the movement, it was enough for something like just throwing out her body.<br /> <br /> For the attack that Karin couldn’t cover, Shizuka parried it with a lot of room to spare.<br /> <br /> Before long the effect of Kazuki’s [Ride Lightning] was used up.<br /> <br /> “Ride Lightning!”<br /> <br /> Without a moment’s delay the same magic was invoked. If the preparation was done while swinging the spear, he could continue to strengthen himself like this without pause. But the problem was the consumption of magic power.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s pike that persistently kept trying to aim for Shizuka was continuously blocked earnestly by Karin. …If the thing called defensive magic power didn’t exist, then surely there wouldn’t be any spot left in Karin’s body now that was not opened into holes or scorched away. And then, Karin’s magic power was exhausted.<br /> <br /> “UAAAAAAAAAAA! Ku, ugu, AAAAA-!!”<br /> <br /> Karin grasped her head and leaked out a voice of anguish. From that body, magic power was overflowing into its original amount―Joka’s Divine Protection of resurrection. But this resurrection was accompanied with agony. Surely the magic power was restored, but Karin breathed roughly with face that looked white like paper. Even so the girl kept standing and blocking Kazuki’s way. <br /> <br /> “Ahhahahaha! This Karin too, those guys that became the opponent of your comrades too, they are immortal! Your magic power too won’t hold out forever. What are you planning to do if this becomes a protracted battle?”<br /> <br /> While hiding in the shadow of Karin, Shizuka ridiculed Kazuki.<br /> <br /> In place of his reply, Kazuki swung his pike, but Karin threw out her body like a manipulated puppet and continued to cover Shizuka. While leaking out a moaning voice, even so she continued to receive the attacks showing a ghastly figure―Kazuki unintentionally stopped his pike. With Kazuki’s will, the whirlwind of flame ceased from the spearhead too.<br /> <br /> Suddenly a strange silence flowed between the three people.<br /> <br /> “That’s it, it’s a chance Karin! Become useful!!” With a ‘DON!’ Shizuka pushed Karin’s back.<br /> <br /> “A…UAAAAAA_! I am! I amm!!”<br /> <br /> While raising a loud voice, Karin slipped through the pike and leaped into Kazuki’s chest. She made contact with Kazuki’s chest using her palm, stepping onto the earth with Shinmyaku, and scattered apart the defensive magic power using peculiar magic power. Shintoukei…!<br /> <br /> “Kuh!” There was no reason he could ignore it. Kazuki immediately used the butt end of the pike―he swung the tip of the opposite side of the spearhead and bashed her. Karin was blown away, that magic power of hers hit rock bottom once more.<br /> <br /> “UAA…hurts…my head, it hurts like it’s splitting up…”<br /> <br /> The collapsed Karin leaked out a complaint, but her magic power was restored while she writhed in pain, then she stood up once more.<br /> <br /> The used up magic power, in what way was it restored? It made him think, as if the mental power that by all rights wasn’t supposed to be spent for magic power―the heart and the humanity itself were being whittled off in return.<br /> <br /> “Hahaha, when she thought that she would get sympathy, she got done in again. How pitiful.”<br /> <br /> “….kh! You, what do you think a comrade is!!?”<br /> <br /> “They are just disposable dolls to be thrown away in the land I’m hiding of course, ribenren&lt;ref&gt;Japanese person in Chinese language&lt;/ref&gt;. What do you currently see these guys other than puppets, I’m going to teach you the contrary.”<br /> <br /> In rage, the color left from Kazuki’s head.<br /> <br /> When he heard the personal history of Katsura Karin from Headmaster Amasaki about how she was a former orphan that was adopted into Hayashi household, inside his head Kazuki imagined that Karin and Shizuka were raised as sisters and they were taught Chinese kenpo shoulder to shoulder. Just like him and Kanae, like Headmaster Amasaki and Mio, ―he pictured a family.<br /> <br /> Kanae’s smiling face and, Karin’s expression of anguish in front of him, overlapped in front of Kazuki’s eyes.<br /> <br /> …Hayashi Shizuka. She is someone he couldn’t accept.<br /> <br /> This girl…is an existence that denied all the warmth that I received throughout my life until now.<br /> <br /> “I am, not a puppet…I’ll show that I can be recognized…”<br /> <br /> “Hahaha, go for it go for it! Quickly stop the root of that guy’s breath with Shintoukei! After all you have no worth other than the Chinese kenpo I taught you and your Stigma!!”<br /> <br /> With Shizuka’s indifferent words at her back, Karin glared at Kazuki with a messed face stained with tears.<br /> <br /> “You, insulted my fist…! You denied my everything!!”<br /> <br /> At the time when she attempted her second assassination, certainly Kazuki talked about something like that to provoke her. Right now, the figure of Karin with her heart whittled and her body writhing in pain yet still showing tenacity in that matter was bizarrely, courageously, not a figure to be pitied on. This girl’s everything in her life, what in the world it could possibly be?<br /> <br /> Kazuki stopped his pike once more. In his heart he had decided, that he wouldn’t hurt anything of Karin anymore.<br /> <br /> “UaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> Toward Kazuki who was not moving, Karin kicked the ground and approached while yelling.<br /> <br /> “…Soaring wings, glaring eyes, invading world-destroying conflagration―manifest the authority of god right here, as the agent of civilization I’m advancing deeply and deeply…Deep Striker!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki equipped a gigantic thruster unit on his back, flame spouted out from that back and leaped his body to the sky. Karin’s sorrowful rush was tragically hitting at nothing.<br /> <br /> “What!?” Shizuka was taken aback and looked up to the sky.<br /> <br /> After Kazuki drew an arc on the sky, he gripped Ayamur in one hand, and took a nose dive toward Shizuka like a falling star. The world blurred from the terrific acceleration, he became unable to see nothing other than Shizuka.<br /> <br /> The thruster system of [Deep Striker] was using Kazuki’s magic power, his force of will as fuel.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s force of will was amplified by the acceleration of his nervous system due to [Ride Lightning].<br /> <br /> Even the performance of the instrument that was created from magic, was affected by the effect of [Ride Lightning].<br /> <br /> The thruster system of Kazuki at this time spouted out flame explosion nearly double the intensity even compared to when Lotte was manipulating hers. In addition the wind produced from the spearhead of Ayamur redirected the stream of air, decreasing the air resistance, realizing even further acceleration.<br /> <br /> “He is still overlapping magic and enhancing it even further!?”<br /> <br /> Shizuka raised a shrieking voice. It was already a speed not in a dimension where Karin could return to cover for her.<br /> <br /> “―I, won’t accept someone like you!! UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-!”<br /> <br /> From the air resistance that couldn’t be counterbalanced, Kazuki’s own defensive magic power was also breaking while giving off luminescence. Kazuki that turned into the very ray of blue light itself pierced Shizuka fiercely. The earth erupted from the impact of the nose dive.<br /> <br /> Karin was also blown away. With the buried Shizuka as the ground zero, a giant crater was gouged in the fountain plaza.<br /> <br /> Kazuki shifted the propulsive power from vertical to horizontal. Shizuka who was buried in the earth was dragged along still pierced on the pike. Kazuki reaccelerated again with her right beside.<br /> <br /> “U…UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”<br /> <br /> With her body protected by the defensive magic power there wasn’t supposed to be any pain in her, but Shizuka raised a scream of terror. Dragging along the earth’s surface with explosive acceleration, stormy cloud of dust and blue light of defensive magic power danced down.<br /> <br /> While leaving behind a straight line of track from one side of the fountain plaza to the other side, Kazuki dragged Shizuka along and rotated. Just before crashing with the stand he directed the propulsive power to the sky and sprang up the spearhead. Shizuka’s body was launched to the sky with great momentum. After a passage of several tens seconds remaining in the air, she was falling to the earth.<br /> <br /> It was a strike with power that wouldn’t be strange if it caused the receiver to fall into a severe magic intoxication, but―was it the boon of an excellent Resist skill, or thanks to the reinforcement of Joka, Shizuka stood up even with a pallid face.<br /> <br /> “Im, impossible! Even with Joka’s Divine Protection, if it keeps like this…! Karin, we are going to use Summon!!”<br /> <br /> Are they finally going to use Summoning Magic? It was the proof that these guys were also challenging this match with preparedness of their determination. With this, the match had become something other than a contention for victory!<br /> <br /> Responding Shizuka’s order, Karin performed Access.<br /> <br /> “O sinfully beautiful woman decorated with peach petal, thy name is…&lt;Dakki&gt;! I know thy true form…o fair complexion golden fur nine tail fox passing time of thousand years, lavish despair in the party of the last days!”<br /> <br /> Beside Karin, an avatar of a bewitching beautiful woman was floating.<br /> <br /> {Yareyare&lt;ref&gt;Exclamation of relief or disappointment&lt;/ref&gt;, so in the end you are risking your life, for such a trifling matter.}<br /> <br /> Dakki. ―Famous in [Houshin Engi]&lt;ref&gt;Famous Chinese legend&lt;/ref&gt;, the great apparition of a thousand year old fox spirit that brought ruin to a country with her beauty.<br /> <br /> The incarnation of [history’s undulation] that induced revolution in ancient China in accordance with Joka’s order.<br /> <br /> Karin who obtained that power put on a Magic Dress tinged with the color of the great mainland&lt;ref&gt;It refer to China&lt;/ref&gt;, red and gold that shined bright. From her lower back, a golden fox tail grew out luxuriantly.<br /> <br /> “…The symbol of infinity half of the yin and yang, o personification of earth. In this universe that would be deified in China, there is no one that doesn’t know thy name…Thy name is &lt;Joka&gt;. Wearing the light of five color o snake body human head goddess, alter the universe of Pangu creation! …We are going! Kill this guy!!”<br /> <br /> What floated beside Hayashi Shizuka was one of the pillars of Chinese Mythology’s three emperors, Joka.<br /> <br /> Holding a compass in her right hand, she was a gigantic goddess with a woman’s upper body fixed on a dragon’s lower body. Both divine and ominous, filled to the brim with dignity that couldn’t be lumped together with the scale of a human, she was in waiting behind her contractor. Shizuka’s Sword Division uniform also shifted into an opal Magic Dress that was near endlessly colorless and transparent.<br /> <br /> “…Kazuha-senpai! Access!!”<br /> <br /> At this moment that finally came, Kazuki shouted at Kazuha-senpai and called out to her.<br /> <br /> ===Part 5===<br /> <br /> “It’s foul play! Stop the match…”<br /> <br /> “Please wait!” Towards Liz Liza who was going to stop the match with her authority as the referee, a man leaped out from the staff member’s tent―the Board Chariman Takasugi.<br /> <br /> “For what kind of reason do you stop me? We have to stop them immediately, it’s dangerous.”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza glared at Board Chairman Takasugi from inside the grounds. From the start Liz Liza and Headmaster Amasaki planned to use Kazuki as bait and bait these guys to use illegal summoning in public, proving the suspicion at them. In addition it was not stopping at just Kazuki surviving, if he could defeat these guys and drive them into magic intoxication then they could catch them with more certainty.<br /> <br /> But right now, to aim for those complete victory…was too dangerous with how much Hayashizaki Kazuki and his team’s magic power had been reduced into. Kazuki’s life was at risk. Liz Liza judged that it was enough to preserve their victory for the moment.<br /> <br /> “Certainly there are rule violations, but…” Board Chairman Takasugi talked with calm tone.<br /> <br /> “It’s not to the degree that you need to stop the match isn’t it?”<br /> <br /> …What on earth is this guy saying!?<br /> <br /> “Although the swordsmen are totally using Summoning Magic, there is no danger for the opposing team. If their magic power fall into dangerous area, all you have to do is make them leave the stage as the referee to protect them, right?”<br /> <br /> Board Chairman Takasugi shrugged his shoulders. With an expression as if what he was saying was something really obvious.<br /> <br /> But that was a story that left behind the fact that those two, Katsura Karin and Hayashi Shizuka possessed a mysterious technique that ignored defensive magic power and stopped the heart.<br /> <br /> Those girls intermingled Summoning Magic together too and were going to aim for Kazuki’s life in the middle of the battle.<br /> <br /> “This match had already been Hayashizaki Kazuki’s team victory on the record, but isn’t it fine to continue the match? The objective of this battle election is to witness what the candidates are going to show in the middle of battle…to ascertain that with one’s own eyes. Katsura Karin and Hayashi Shizuka, the both of them when they were at their wit’s ends and were going to lose, continued to fight even if they perpetrated a violation of the rules. They chose to show something by means of the fight. The students' last tenacity while resolving themselves of defeat, we as educators should watch it with our own eyes right!?”<br /> <br /> What last tenacity…what those guys were aiming for was an assassination in the middle of the chaos!<br /> <br /> “…Using Divas outside the Solomon 72 Pillar which safety hasn’t been confirmed yet in this battle election, that’s the first problem before the matter of their tenacity.”<br /> <br /> “Let’s stop regarding forming a contract with Diva that is treated until now as illegal Diva as [absolute evil]…didn’t our school just change such policy recently? If those girls are treated indiscriminately, then Hayashizaki Kazuki, Charlotte Liebenfrau, Tsukahara Kazuha, won’t those three people also have to be seen as illegal magicians too?”<br /> <br /> So that kind of logic is coming? So that the match wouldn’t be stopped by rule violation even if Katsura Karin and Hayashi Shizuka used Summoning Magic, they really had prepared a rebuttal beforehand.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza looked up to Headmaster Amasaki as if to surmise his opinion.<br /> <br /> “Make the match continue.” Headmaster Amasaki informed with a grave voice.<br /> <br /> It won’t do if the power of the King isn’t demonstrated to this guy. Headmaster Amasaki whispered inside his mouth.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Kazuha who guessed the situation performed Access even before she heard Kazuki’s voice.<br /> <br /> “My bare hand grasp the red hot ore. Ridge in the sky, blade in the earth, merging in a flash become namely a sole sword. Thy inscription is &lt;Futsunushi no Kami&gt;! O god of steel and fire, show that forging!”<br /> <br /> Her hair lengthened with a flap, transforming into a figure of divine red and white miko. Mibu Akira opened her eyes wide.<br /> <br /> “Yo, you bastaa―rd! You ‘re going to break the rules even though you al’ are honor students!! Ain’t that the privilege of delinquent!?”<br /> <br /> “I’m thought as one of the student council and its pleasant companies but…I’m the dunce of the whole school! Don’t lump me together with them!”<br /> <br /> Receiving an unjustified disparagement, Kazuha-senpai retorted back. Kohaku who was fighting in the side tilted her head deep inside thinking whether that was the real problem, but she circled back in order to earn the time for Kazuha’s chanting.<br /> <br /> “Anekii―! Shit, what coward for the swordsman to suddenly use Summoning Magic! …O soul gathering by the calling voice of the god of death, armor my body make this body into hell’s tormenting devil…the trump card against the heaven right here! Black Titan!!”<br /> <br /> Asamiya Anna put a black mist on her body, transforming her own form into a jet black giant.<br /> <br /> And then she assaulted Kazuha that began her spell chant!<br /> <br /> “…In the middle of fighting with me, it’s unacceptable to avert your eyes!”<br /> <br /> Mio who spread out wings of flame and flew in the sky was overlooking that situation and shouted.<br /> <br /> “O bird of paradise where the light of heaven reside in that body, burn away the sin on earth following my accusation! Israel Judgment!!”<br /> <br /> Phoenix’s avatar floated up on Mio’s back as if a halo was shining behind her. Brightness as if all the light in the world was condensing became an ultra heat laser, pouring on the defenseless back of the giant. The black mist melted in the blink of an eye inside the light, it thoroughly burned even up to Asamiya Anna.<br /> <br /> “Flaming bird is not flame but light!? Ain’t that the element that darkness element is poor against oii―!?”<br /> <br /> With that one attack Asamiya Anna’s magic power was mostly used up.<br /> <br /> “Ugu…” Leaking a voice, the girl fell to one knee with a violent shaking.<br /> <br /> But―even so new magic power was welling up from the depth of the girl’s mind!<br /> <br /> “Sti…still not yETTTTTTT! Are we going to lose against the brightness of honor students huh, Anekii―!!”<br /> <br /> “Son of a bitch―! I ain’t gonna get deceived by that handsome bastard’s bluff again―! That guy already had zero mood to chant things like that tsunami magic ain’t― it―!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu Akira finally shouted in a burst of anger. From the trauma of having her poison magic nullified by Kazuki in the opening of the match, she had been hesitating in chanting poison magic for quite a while.<br /> <br /> “We make sure of human nature. Thy bowels is hell’s crucible, the spouted slanders become indictment toward the sons of heaven and man. Fill the surface of earth with the anguish of the end! Apocalypse Venom!”<br /> <br /> Astaroth that straddled a poisonous monitor lizard materialize her figure in the sky. From the mouth of that monitor lizard pitch black vomit was spewed out, pouring down on all the area of the match venue.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was protected by the wind that arose from Ayamur, but Kazuha, Kohaku, and Mio were helplessly afflicted by poison. At the same time, Mibu Akira’s magic power dried up and she staggered.<br /> <br /> “No, nooo still not yet, it’s starting from now…! They‘re ravaged by poison, as long as we don’ get beaten, from now on we gonna beat ‘em them up slowly in a long battle for surEEEEEEEEEE!”<br /> <br /> Mibu Akira’s magic power was restored too by the Divine Protection of resurrection from Joka. There would be no end to this if it keeps like this.<br /> <br /> Kazuha while being afflicted by poison…however she finally finished chanting the spell they had long-awaited for.<br /> <br /> “I become the miko of sword. Rock cleaved, root torn, sin severed, that virtuous sword of crushing evil right now in this hand! Draw sword, Futsu no Mitama!!”<br /> <br /> A light shined inside Kazuha’s hand, inside it an ancient sword that looked as if Futsunushi no Kami itself materialized was created. What Kazuha first did was slash herself as if purifying her body that was ravaged by poison.<br /> <br /> [Futsu no Mitama] that possessed the power to sever a magic effect destroyed the poison with a single stroke.<br /> <br /> “”Kazuha-senpai!”” Kohaku and Mio who saw that state of affairs were scrambling to reach Kazuha first.<br /> <br /> Kazuha slashed the two in turn, extinguishing that poison immediately.<br /> <br /> “Do, don’t screw with meeeeeeeeeee! You bastaa―rds from the start ‘till the end keep screwing around making a mess outta my poison eehhhhhhh!!”<br /> <br /> “That evil clinging on all of you too…will be severed by this sword!”<br /> <br /> After deciding with a strict decision as a miko, Kazuha-senpai first slashed at Asamiya Anna. When the shining blade tore apart the defensive magic power of Asamiya Anna, white light overflowed from the opening of the cut.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that sword…are you seriously saying it can destroy our Divine Protection!?”<br /> <br /> Asamiya Anna, guessing the change that happened in her own body, screamed out.<br /> <br /> “…Joka’s Divine Protection cannot be severed with just one strike!? Then, one more strike!”<br /> <br /> Asamiya Anna turned her back while raising her scream. She was trying to escape from Kazuha-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Stop, if you do that I’m going to go back to just a mere delinquent, stop! C’mon stop, save me AnekiiIIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> “Barrett!”<br /> <br /> That back was shot out by Mio’s bullet, Asamiya Anna’s movement was stopped. Right there Kazuha dealt the final blow with one more stroke of the sword. This time for sure she felt the reaction that all the magic power effect had died out at her hand.<br /> <br /> “If, if the Divine Protection disappear so suddenly, the recoil will…nn giiIIIIIIIII!!”<br /> <br /> The girl having obtained empowerment surpassing her original true strength forcibly abused her flesh body.<br /> <br /> Furthermore having already resurrected multiple times repeatedly, the girl’s soul was distorted. That distortion was corrected by [Futsu no Mitama] in one stretch. What resulted from that was…recoil.<br /> <br /> Who knows how much pain was surging inside her all at once. Asamiya Anna raised a scream so loud it was as if her throat would be torn apart. She writhed around on that spot and then lost consciousness.<br /> <br /> Looking at that appearance, Kazuha shuddered once more at [the absurdity perpetrated by Joka].<br /> <br /> “So, sorry! But even though that look really hurt, you are sure to get back to normal!”<br /> <br /> Believing on Kazuki’s tactic, this time Kazuha slashed at Mibu Akira.<br /> <br /> “Sto, stop! Don’ steal this power from mee―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha’s [Futsu no Mitama] severed Mibu Akira’s strengthening until halfway. One more slash…!<br /> <br /> “Sto, stooOOP! Crawl out from the crack of the earth that’s besmeared by sunshine, ugly beast with lips smeared by gore! Liberate the pig of earthly worry with that big mouth! Dragon Bite!!”<br /> <br /> Mibu Akira counterattacked with offensive magic. A giant head of dragon was summoned in the presence of Kazuha who let her guard down. That big mouth lined with vicious fangs was opened. …She was going to be bitten!<br /> <br /> “It's dangerous, Kazuha-senpai!!”<br /> <br /> Kohaku who predicted the danger forced her way through right there, pushing Kazuha away.<br /> <br /> ‘GUSHA!’ The dragon’s large jaw crunched Kohaku, the blue light of defensive magic power scattered.<br /> <br /> “Hikita Kohaku, that’s the end! Get back already!!” Voice ordering to leave came from Liz Liza-sensei.<br /> <br /> “Ko, Kohaku!” Kazuha rushed to Kohaku who was kneeling on the ground even though she was still in the middle of the match.<br /> <br /> “This one is fine so…slash her and remove her from this match!”<br /> <br /> “…Got it! With this it’s the end!!”<br /> <br /> Liz Liza lent her shoulder to Kohaku and brought her off the grounds. Taking a glance back, Kazuha drew closer to Mibu Akira and swung down the second slash of [Futsu no Mitama].<br /> <br /> White light flashed in the track of the slash. From the body of Mibu Akira, all the Divine Protection was extinguished.<br /> <br /> “The, the power of resurrection is…! Stop, don’ steal that from us! We’re gonna keep standin’ no matter how many times and keep fighting! Whatever pain that hit us we will keep standing to show our guts, if you steal that from us…! …uugYAAAAAAAAAA!”<br /> <br /> Similar with Asamiya Anna, Mibu Akira too were attacked by the recoil and raising a scream while writhing around.<br /> <br /> While feeling pity toward that figures, Kazuha looked up at the direction of Kazuki who was flying in the sky.<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki, this side is finished!”<br /> <br /> ―Kazuki run through the sky using the thruster system of Deep striker.<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, please lend Futsu no Mitama to me! Katsura Karin too…I’m going to release her from Hayashi Shizuka’s curse!”<br /> <br /> Not merely winning, he was going to save that Katsura Karin too. Toward Kazuki who was speaking such thing, Kazuha felt a faith that couldn’t be expressed by words. This guy is seriously kind, that was what she completely felt once again.<br /> <br /> “Right! I’ll entrust this to you!!” Kazuha presented Futsu no Mitama to Kazuki.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Hayashi Shizuka immediately inferred the aim of Kazuki who was heading to Kazuha.<br /> <br /> “…O pitiful pit viper sipping the mud water. Disturb the flow of Yin and Yang, bring about the three thousand years of spirit essence to thy…Now, thy name is Yinglong&lt;ref&gt;Dragon-like beast from Chinese Mythology&lt;/ref&gt;! Show that power of thy that had become the king of dragon running in the sky!! Yinglong Invitation!!”<br /> <br /> Making the avatar of Joka waiting upon her side, Shizuka invoked Demon Beast summoning magic.<br /> <br /> The sky was covered with deep black dark clouds. With a flash of light as if the rift between the clouds was torn apart, from there a gigantic dragon clad with lightning came flying. Yinlong―the dragon king that matured after the passing of three thousand years.<br /> <br /> Looking at the flying Kazuki who was going to get [Futsu no Mitama], Shizuka directed the dragon king.<br /> <br /> “I won’t let you!”<br /> <br /> But to prevent that obstruction of exchange, Mio stood in the way of the dragon king. The dragon swung down its three claws at Mio. It was Mio who was poor at close-quarter combat, but she blocked that with the wings of flame.<br /> <br /> An even defense and offense―it was not. The claws of Yinlong was not blocked but as if to say it [wouldn’t let her get away] the claws grappled Mio. Its mouth opened widely in a flash and radiating electricity was shot out.<br /> <br /> “Self Burning!!” Mio instantly summoned an armor of flame.<br /> <br /> However―even though the flame armor absorbed the electric heat, it didn’t defend the electric shock that flowed through the whole body. Also with all the damages that tormented Mio through this protracted battle, her consciousness felt far away.<br /> <br /> It’s no good…I as well is going to protect Kazu-nii! I won’t allow this guy become a hindrance to Kazu-nii!<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii, take [Futsu no Mitama]…”<br /> <br /> Mio looked down at the ground from the air. If that sword was handed over to Kazuki, this fight would…!<br /> <br /> “Dragon Biteee!” ―From behind Kazuha, a voice that should not be possible came.<br /> <br /> Without even time to turn back, a gigantic large jaw of a dragon was created at her back, the perfectly off-guard Kazuha was crunched with a ‘GUSHA!”. Her defensive magic power was scraped off to the utmost limit.<br /> <br /> “Tsukahara Kazuha, leave from the area!!” Liz Liza ordered her to leave the stage.<br /> <br /> Kazuha turned back with unbelieving eyes.<br /> <br /> “Li, lies…why, even though you are supposed to have been freed away already from the brain washing…”<br /> <br /> Even while in agony Mibu Akira was just barely getting up on her knees, with fire lighting in her eyes and bloodcurdling expression, she carried out her spell chant.<br /> <br /> “No way we’re fightin’ in this under brainwashing zeee―…. We’re fightin’ to prove that even a useless trash has their own spirit! …We are fightin’ to make Karin-chan win!”<br /> <br /> [[image:Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou Vol.05 069.png|thumb]]<br /> <br /> The girl raised her head, she shouted facing at Katsura Karin.<br /> <br /> “Karin-chan, don’ lose! If you win against that Hayashizaki Kazuki, you are gonna get recognized by that always cold Nee-chan right!? Don’ lose okay, Karin-chan you’re not somethin’ like a pup…pet…!”<br /> <br /> After shouting only that at the end, she crumbled down and fainted.<br /> <br /> “So, sorry Hayashizaki…my magic power doesn’t last already…”<br /> <br /> [Futsu no Mitama] vanished from Kazuha’s hand. Kazuki and Mio looked on with astonishment.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “Yosh, Karin. You too use Dakki’s magic.”<br /> <br /> “But if I use this magic now, even those three people that cannot fight already…”<br /> <br /> Karin hesitated to carry out the spell that she had already chanted until halfway, but Shizuka commanded coldly.<br /> <br /> “It doesn’t matter. Do it, puppet. Kill that guy!”<br /> <br /> {Again with the command for cruel thing…how pitiful.}<br /> <br /> Beside Karin who was nodding powerlessly, Dakki’s avatar sneered at the transient world’s affair.<br /> <br /> “…O goblin flower, bloom with glossy pride! What enfold tonight is the banquet of brute, tilt the cup sake of dosa&lt;ref&gt;Buddhist, ill will or antipathy&lt;/ref&gt;. The five hundred years of heaven’s torture right here…{{furigana|Daitai Bonsou Jigoku|Great Toad Lantern Thought Hell}}!!”<br /> <br /> Pitch black shadow spread from under the feet of Dakki and Karin, covering the whole surface of the fountain plaza. Even up to the bottom of the crater that Kazuki gouged out in the ground was swallowed by the magic shadow. From the depth of that shadow, innumerable poisonous serpents and poisonous scorpions were creeping up disgustingly.<br /> <br /> It was as if the match venue had been transformed into a pit that was blanketed all over with vicious life forms.<br /> <br /> “…!? You are using large scale offensive magic even though the defeated still haven’t left the area!”<br /> <br /> The referee Liz Liza-sensei shouted while escaping to the staff tent outside the ground with Kohaku borrowing her shoulder.<br /> <br /> “Your teammates too are fainting you know!!”<br /> <br /> “I’ll save them!”<br /> <br /> Mio ran from Yinlong, she fluttered her wings heading under the fainting Mibu-senpai and Asamiya-senpai.<br /> <br /> “Bas, bastard―…No way I’ll get saved by the enemy…you bastard is still enemy now…”<br /> <br /> Mibu-senpai that was caught in one of Mio’s arms let out abusive language. The other arm also held Asamiya-senpai. Although she was using Enchant Aura, Mio who was strained to the limit by the weight of two people got irritated.<br /> <br /> “You’re annoying, I’ve seen with my own eyes your spirit or perhaps I should say I’m tired of looking at it. Just rest already!” Mio carelessly threw the both of them into the staff tent. And then one more person, Kazuha-senpai was―<br /> <br /> “Kazuha-senpai, watch out!” Kazuki who was rushing with a plan of taking [Futsu no Mitama] just barely rescued Kazuha-senpai from a dangerous spot. With the girl in his arms, he made the thruster system of [Deep striker] to spout fires, he flew away to the sky from the hell of serpents and scorpions.<br /> <br /> He saved Kazuha-senpai but…he still couldn’t say that all’s well and end’s well. Kazuki felt impatience and distorted his expression. [Futsu no Mitama] had vanished completely.<br /> <br /> Despite his intention to liberate Katsura Karin too from Joka’s power.<br /> <br /> If by perchance Karin was not brainwashed, perhaps nothing would change even if she was slashed by [Futsu no Mitama]. Was the current Karin fighting by her own will, it couldn’t be judged at all looking from the outside.<br /> <br /> But…Kazuki didn’t want to think that the distortion in Karin’s mind was all the effect of undergoing abnormal education. He wanted to believe that her mind was overwritten by brainwashing magic and that was why she was made to obey so abnormally like a puppet. He wanted to believe that if the brainwashing magic was negated in this place and she was pulled away from Hayashi Shizuka, the girl too ought to be able to return back into a normal girl for sure. Despite so…!!<br /> <br /> “Sorry, I weighed you down again…. Because I’m too half-baked and weak…”<br /> <br /> Surmising Kazuki’s color of impatience, inside Kazuki’s arm Kazuha-senpai’s eyes slowly became blurred with tears.<br /> <br /> “That’s not it, senpai has no need to apologize for anything.”<br /> <br /> “But…to save that girl Karin, the power of [Futsu no Mitama] is absolutely needed right? Even while I’m fighting I too had heard the cries of that child many times over. …That’s just too pitiful. Even though you are trying to save her…I, cannot do anything to be of help…”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai who could sympathize for a complete stranger until that much was surely a really kind person.<br /> <br /> “Hey, don’t you have any other way!? You can use magic of so many types right!?”<br /> <br /> Finally with a single line of tears going through her face, senpai raised a voice of dependence at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> However among the magic that Kazuki could use, there was no purge magic. …I’m still inadequate as a King. If only I had made my bond with Kazuha-senpai too as something definite….<br /> <br /> Severing all the magic power of the technique user Hayashi Shizuka was also one way to extinguish the power of brainwashing.<br /> <br /> But Kazuki too realized inside his heart that it was a difficult undertaking. Because at the time when he was attacked on top of the hill in the public park, he had seen Shizuka escaped with Joka’s [space transfer magic].<br /> <br /> Space transfer―if some kind of countermeasure was not arranged for that magic, he wouldn’t be able to defeat Hayashi Shizuka. Precisely because her way to escape was ensured that Shizuka could display the use of her trump card so readily like this.<br /> <br /> Other than hitting her with purge magic before she made her escape, there was no other way to save Karin.<br /> <br /> Things like another method…. No…. Kazuha-senpai was removed from the stage but, right now she was still inside Kazuki’s arm. If that was the case then there was still one thing left that he could still do. Right, just one….<br /> <br /> “Oi, that face of yours, that’s a face that just thought up some kind of method huh!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai guessed from the change in Kazuki’s expression, she rocked Kazuki’s shoulder strongly.<br /> <br /> “If there is some kind of way, then let’s save that girl! You are…not a brutish harem guy but a kind person right!? Please!!”<br /> <br /> However, if I do that kind of thing, I….<br /> <br /> “Hayashizaki Kazuki! It’s dangerous for your companion that doesn’t have magic power left, so drag her here to the staff tent!”<br /> <br /> As if cornering the hesitating Kazuki, Liz Liza-sensei’s warning from the ground came.<br /> <br /> “Yinlong, knock that down!”<br /> <br /> Receiving Shizuka’s command, Yinlong too headed to Kazuki and flew.<br /> <br /> “Coming from Ken’en tomb cave, one of Chūou Teishin’s three apparition princesses, o Dakki’s truly cruel next younger sister! Nine headed pheasant spirit &lt;Kokibi&gt;!!”<br /> <br /> Karin too invoked even more Summoning Magic―from the far off sky, an unknown strange bird was flying.<br /> <br /> A gigantic pheasant possessing nine heads&amp;mdash;nine headed pheasant spirit. Possessing mystic power from passing through a long time, an apparition of a pheasant.<br /> <br /> Its speed even surpassed Yinlong, this giant strange bird too was heading at Kazuki.<br /> <br /> “I told you already…I won’t let anything near Kazuki!!”<br /> <br /> In front of Yinlong and the nine headed bird, flapping the wings of flame Mio cut between them and Kazuki. Mio struck the strange bird as if pushing with her wings of flame, the scream of the eerie bird rang out in the sky of the battlefield.<br /> <br /> But from the side, Yinlong hurled breath of lightning attack. Mio blocked it with the wings of flame but, she failed. The shock of the lightning attack pierced through and inflicted damage.<br /> <br /> Mio’s remaining magic power lessened, the wings of flame was shriveling down in the blink of an eye.<br /> <br /> “The energy of the wings is exhausted…if it's exhausted, I’m going to be dropped into hell! If I fall into that kind of place in a condition of magic intoxication…I’m going to get bitten continuously by snakes and scorpions unable to escape…he, help me Kazu-niiii!!”<br /> <br /> He could hear Mio’s scream. The situation was…rapidly becoming urgent!<br /> <br /> …As expected there is no other way than this! Without a doubt this would hurt Kazuha-senpai but…if it keeps like this then he would regret it in the end no matter what his choice!<br /> <br /> Kazuki while still carrying Kazuha-senpai flew to the height where they couldn’t be seen by other students in one go.<br /> <br /> “Senpai, forgive me!!”<br /> <br /> “What are you apologizing…nmuchu!?”<br /> <br /> While accelerating and crossing the cloud, he pulled the bewildered Kazuha-senpai’s face closer―and piled up their lips.<br /> <br /> He kissed her. Inside Kazuki’s chest, Kazuha-senpai was struggling with her hands and legs violently. But Kazuki kept hugging her strongly, he didn’t separate their lips immediately. Reinforcing the link of bond between their magic power, after he felt a strong circuit was tied together―Kazuki finally separated their lips.<br /> <br /> “Wh, wh wh wh wh wh why!”<br /> <br /> After separating their faces with a ‘chuu’ sound echoing, Kazuha-senpai raised a panicking voice.<br /> <br /> “Why are you suddenly kissing! My, my first kisss, why how!?”<br /> <br /> Kazuki too, what kind of face he should made and what should he say that is good, didn’t immediately come to mind. But Kazuha-senpai immediately took notice of something unusual starting to happen inside herself, she pressed her own chest *gyuu* tightly.<br /> <br /> “…Wha, what is, this sensation!? Something hot linking something with you is…”<br /> <br /> “Senpai, I’m sorry. But there is no other way except this!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki one-sidedly apologized like that and swoop down, he entrusted Kazuha-senpai to the staff tent.<br /> <br /> “Wa, wait, Hayashizaki Kazuki! You why…just explain thiss―!”<br /> <br /> Kazuha-senpai that was dropped on the ground was crying with blaming voice in fluster. While receiving that question with his back, Kazuki silently flew up to the sky once more. <br /> <br /> [Deep Striker]’s energy too only had a little left remaining. If he didn’t decide the match immediately…! At the same time inside his head, a spell was coming to the surface.<br /> <br /> “O god of sword from time immemorial that is extolled together with Takemikazuchi…”<br /> <br /> Through the link with Kazuha-senpai, he called out to the true body of Futsunushi no Kami in Astrum.<br /> <br /> “DON’T MAKE MY CUTE KAZUHA CRY”<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami floated beside Kazuki. That vision was changing from an avatar into a real entity.<br /> <br /> “Well, there is no other way. I understand what you are doing. Anyone will judge that what you are doing is the right thing without a doubt. Kazuha too is angry, but she doesn’t hate you. But I’m worried you know? …You, something inside you that you were intending to never let twisted, is it twisted now?”<br /> <br /> “…!” The words of Futsunushi no Kami pierced Kazuki’s chest deeply.<br /> <br /> I was…for the sake of power I kissed Kazuha-senpai!!<br /> <br /> “It’s only a worry of mine that something of you had completely wavered though. Well your decision is not something mistaken! Right now raise your face, look at the enemy in front of your eyes! If it’s my power then just in accordance to your will, you could sever every evil!! Come, chant the spell until the very end!!”<br /> <br /> “Born from the whirl of steel and flame o god of blade that become pure! I’ll take hold of thy with this hand receiving glory…draw sword! Futsunushi no Kami!!”<br /> <br /> Together with the completion of Kazuki’s spell chant, the presence of Futsunushi no Kami that was floating beside him was deepening thickly―accomplishing materialization in this transient world. Materializing a Diva…the ultimate Summoning Magic!<br /> <br /> Futsunushi no Kami that was floating in the air was moving airily to Kazuki’s hand.<br /> <br /> “…Come, wield me!!” Eyes opening with a flash, Futsunushi no Kami declared.<br /> <br /> …no wait, that’s it!? I’m just wielding you like this without anything else!!?<br /> <br /> Kazuki made a tsukkomi inside his heart, but from the hilt that Kazuki held…a power that was without question was transmitted into both his hands. …It was extremely impertinent for him to tsukkomi or the like wasn’t it? Right now, the very thing in Kazuki’s hand…from time immemorial the people of Japan regarded katana as something sacred. This sword in his hand was that very divinity itself.<br /> <br /> Its appearance was an ancient sword with the face of a middle-aged man fixed on it, it was just Futsunushi no Kami that was materialized as it was without any change. [Futsu no Mitama] too was an ancient sword that looked just like a smaller Futsunushi no Kami, compared to that this was just something the same with a bigger size without any change in its appearance.<br /> <br /> But the power hiding in its blade was like something completely different. If this real thing of [Futsunushi no Kami] was compared, that thing [Futsu no Mitama] was a shadow that was created by Futsunushi no Kami. He comprehended that it was nothing more than a cast-off shell.<br /> <br /> Its appearance was, just a mere sword―but that blade hid a terribly frightening something.<br /> <br /> “Kazu-nii! Save me quickly!!” Mio who was cornered by the dragon and pheasant raised a scream.<br /> <br /> Kazuki opened the energy of [Deep Striker] on his back at full throttle.<br /> <br /> While cutting apart through the cloud―he slashed at the Yinlong that he crossed path with.<br /> <br /> Line. When the sword Kazuki wielded drew a line, Yinlong that was touched by it, along with the three clawed fingers it used trying to block―’zuu―’ its body became two equal parts. In Kazuki’s hand, he felt the same as if he was slashing at nothing with no sensation of touch at all. It was not a dimension of sharpness anymore.<br /> <br /> The root of the magic life-form which was its magic power was destructed, the entity of Yinlong became countless lights and scattered apart.<br /> <br /> Kazuki who was dashing in the sky drew an arc and circling, this time he was heading to the nine headed pheasant spirit.<br /> <br /> The apparition of pheasant was not allowed any response―a flash. The nine headed pheasant spirit too became a light shower and vanished.<br /> <br /> …What a clean feedback his hand felt.<br /> <br /> At that time the wings of flame exhausted its strength and vanished, Mio completely exhausted freefell down to the hell. Kazuki swoop down and caught up with her just barely, taking her in his arms.<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s [Deep Striker]’s energy too was exhausted with his consecutive maneuver. Kazuki while holding Mio inevitably fell naturally. At their falling destination, innumerable poisonous serpents and scorpions were waiting for them in swarms. Kazuki embraced Mio with one hand, he took a reverse grip of [Futsunushi no Kami] with his other hand―he stood the blade toward the hell simultaneously while falling. With a flash, the match venue that was covered with darkness was ran through by light. Every vicious creatures disappeared, the fountain plaza returned to its original space.<br /> <br /> “Mio, retreat back to the tent. Those guys’ ways of fighting are not straightforward.”<br /> <br /> “…It’s okay to rely on the teachers and stop the match you know?”<br /> <br /> Mio said so worriedly. She seemed to want to say what would happen if Kazuki’s heart was stopped when she was not there.<br /> <br /> “It’s okay, you don’t need to worry. Also…if this is stopped now then there is no meaning.”<br /> <br /> The wish of Kazuha-senpai, he would show that he was going to free Karin too here!<br /> <br /> Sensing the obstinacy of Kazuki’s determination, Mio ran to the staff tent.<br /> <br /> “Coming from Ken’en tomb cave, one of Chūou Teishin’s three apparition princess, voice of Shinin, dance of Hokuhi, playing the comfort of Bibi o Dakki’s youngest sister! Gem and stones biwa&lt;ref&gt;Japanese lute&lt;/ref&gt; spirit &lt;Oukijin&gt;!!”Even during this interval, the opponent chanted their spell. At Karin’s side, a gigantic stone biwa appeared. It moved by itself and began to play music.<br /> <br /> What kind of ominous power that tune possessed―Kazuki had no idea.<br /> <br /> Just by thrusting [Futsunushi no Kami] right in front of himself, all of the mystical sound waves were cut apart and dispersed.<br /> <br /> “Tha, that…how could sound get cut!?” Against that unreasonableness, Karin’s expression was taken aback.<br /> <br /> Kazuki was naturally reminded of Prometheus’ [Olympia Forger].<br /> <br /> As the result of the mutual hailing with Kazuki’s soul, Prometheus’ power was embodied in the shape of sword. But to the last its essence was [weapon]. Its blade hid energy that would explode to outside direction, it was a weapon that released a wave motion that would defeat countless military forces altogether with one slash.<br /> <br /> [Futsunushi no Kami] in contrast with that, hid energy that was concentrated in inside direction. It couldn’t do something like releasing sword wave and defeating an army altogether. However the thing that was touched by that blade―whether it was material thing or an effect of magic power―it would get cut down and bisected with one stroke.<br /> <br /> “Ride Lightning!” ―A fitting spell to wield this blade, Kazuki had already finished the chanting for it.<br /> <br /> Kazuki accelerated his body and filled the distance with one breath, he parted the gem and stone biwa spirit into two.<br /> <br /> And then with the returning slash, he cut Karin.<br /> <br /> The power to cut all things―that was not all there was to it. This sword was able to cut only the thing the wielder wished to cut. At that time Kazuki was able to choose what he wanted to cut.<br /> <br /> What was cut from the girl named Karin? …Joka’s Divine Protection. …Everything that remained of her magic power.<br /> <br /> And then sense of pain and consciousness. So that there would not be anything painful for the girl from the recoil of the Divine Protection’s severing.<br /> <br /> Slowly swaying, Karin fell asleep at that spot like her battery was plugged out. Seeing that Kazuki caught her in his arm.<br /> <br /> Kazuki softly laid the girl whose expression was only now just softened down on the ground.<br /> <br /> “The water god of raging scarlet hair is the broken heaven pillar, mending the chasm of destruction Joka’s greatness shine! …Distribute that light of world compilation in this hand! {{furigana|Goshoku Seki|Five Color Stone}}!!”<br /> <br /> Shizuka too invoked her magic. The tremendous magic power wave conveyed the power of the invoked magic. On the palm that Shizuka raised to the sky, a shining [sphere] was created, it emitted light of every color…!<br /> <br /> “GUWAHHAHHA! Hey Kazuki, what that stone released is wave that overwrite and transform all existence – the world! Superficial magic power would just get rewritten magic power and all, it’s a power of instant death you see! But if your skill and me are joined then there is nothing we cannot cut!! Believe in me and just slash―!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki with his honed swordsmanship faced the light and swung [Futsunushi no Kami]. The light was bisected right into two―as if the impact was transmitted through the light, the [Goshoku Seki] inside Shizuka’s hand was smashed apart.<br /> <br /> “Kuh…impossible, does anything goes for that sword!?”<br /> <br /> “GUWAHHAHHA! Strictly speaking it’s not everything. The thing that I can cut is in proportion to the skill of the user just for you to know. That’s why…putting aside Kazuha if it’s Kazuki then it’s possible everything really can be cut! Wielded by the supreme swordmaster, as a sword too it’s the supreme enjoyment! GUWAHHAHHA!!”<br /> <br /> Kazuki’s might was roused up. As a swordsman, it was words of a sword god that were really more than he deserved…!<br /> <br /> Shizuka was “Chih” clicking her tongue. The girl had noticed that [the battle was impossible to be kept on]. Even while holding up the five colored stone, she had already begun to spin an emergency spell.<br /> <br /> “O five colors that are the shine of Joka, repaint the world! The sky I wish for is not here! To the end that compass pointed at…Kujinhen’i!”<br /> <br /> The compass held by Joka’s avatar that was floating beside Shizuka rotated fiercely. Space transfer magic!<br /> <br /> It was that compass! With this sword of cutting evil, if he could destroy that compass…!<br /> <br /> Kazuki accelerated with [Ride Lightning] and approached Shizuka. But in the nick of time the compass shone. …Not enough, only with [Ride Lightning], the acceleration was not enough…!<br /> <br /> Right in front of Kazuki’s eyes, the space distorted like jelly. And then the figure of Hayashi Shizuka thinned out and disappearing!<br /> <br /> Right after, feeling a slight presence at his back Kazuki looked back.<br /> <br /> At the back a half transparent Shizuka was standing. That form of hers was already not a material substance but an avatar.<br /> <br /> After the girl looked down on the unconscious Karin, she glared at Kazuki provokingly.<br /> <br /> [I’ll give that puppet to you. You, I should have met you while you were still weak…. However I’ll soon come again to kill you just so you know. I too, cannot go back to motherland empty handed…]<br /> <br /> ―Leaving behind words of ill omen, Shizuka’s figure disappeared.<br /> <br /> She wouldn’t be able to show her figure anymore as a Sword Division second year of the Knight Academy.<br /> <br /> At the conclusion of the strange final battle, the stands erupted in commotion. This match had obviously became something odd from the midway. Students that were supposed to be swordsmen were recklessly firing magic using unknown Divas, defenseless students that were in the middle of evacuating the arena were dragged into it. On top of all that a single student’s figure was vanishing to who know where.<br /> <br /> Liz Liza-sensei who grasped the situation called out a blessing with a megaphone in order to gloss over the incident.<br /> <br /> “The match is over! The Knight Academy’s Chief Student Council President Tournament battle election, the champion team is…the candidate Hayashizaki Kazuki and his supporters! Give a big applause for them!!”<br /> <br /> The students of the whole school at the stands, even with many things they didn’t understand, all at once gave applause and raised loud cheers with great mood.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {{SimpleNav}}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase https://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Magika_No_Kenshi_To_Shoukan_Maou:Volume_4_Intermission&diff=460198 Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 4 Intermission 2015-09-01T04:35:20Z <p>Hiro Hayase: </p> <hr /> <div>==Intermission – Renewing Determination==<br /> <br /> ===Part 1===<br /> <br /> The second match of the semifinal should be said to be as expected, Hayashi Shizuka’s team took the victory.<br /> <br /> Around the evening when the match ended, Kazuki was called by Headmaster Amasaki. The result of the investigation of the students that assaulted him in the middle of his date with Hikaru-senpai had arrived from the Knight Order.<br /> <br /> “All of those students had lost their memories of the battle election. From the result of the mind scan, there were traces of the work performed in their mind. Though currently they are in normal condition. Those girls didn’t even understand why they announced their own candidacy.”<br /> <br /> “They are all safe…although there is that but there is no clue or testimony in the end.”<br /> <br /> Hearing the result that betrayed his expectation, Kazuki released a heavy sigh.<br /> <br /> “The students were [brainwashed] by someone. When they asked the friends of the girls, those girls were strangely blank during the day. They didn’t even reply when talked to, other than their sudden entry into the battle election it seemed there was also a lot of other unnatural speech and action from them. Even if they were left alone, soon there will be the problem of people around them thinking [something is strange in their condition].”<br /> <br /> Even if it was said to be brainwashing, it looked like it was not a perfect technique where it could deceive the eyes of the surrounding.<br /> <br /> Of course it was so, that Naiarlatoteph too even though he made the former Headmaster Otonashi into his own pawn, a long period of time was needed.<br /> <br /> If there was a convenient magic that could perfectly brainwash a great number of people for long period of time continuously, this country would have been conquered already since a long time ago.<br /> <br /> “Also do you remember about the assault incidents that occurred just before the battle election? According to the story that we heard from the brainwashed students, we know that those girls too were attacked in the interval of a few days just before the battle election and fell into magic intoxication.”<br /> <br /> “You said that they were attacked just before the battle election, could that possibly mean…!”<br /> <br /> “The assault incidents were not just three cases. The victims in those three cases had good luck and managed to escape so there were reports that reached the academy, however the other victims were brainwashed without anyone knowing at all.”<br /> <br /> And then the brainwashed students attended the school the following day normally and went to announce their candidacy for the battle election.<br /> <br /> “In short the success requirement for this brainwash magic is [the target has to be in magic intoxication] right?”<br /> <br /> Headmaster Amasaki said “Right” and nodded toward Kazuki’s hypothesis. “This is an eerie story, but the enemy’s brainwashing magic is not perfect and it’s also not something that could be completed so easily on their whim too.”<br /> <br /> They were starting to see through the enemy’s circumstances little by little.<br /> <br /> “With how imperfect the brainwashing is that it couldn’t deceive the eyes of the surrounding people, then that means the Board Chairman Takasugi and his backing, the politicians of Kenshitou party are also not being brainwashed and manipulated.”<br /> <br /> “Probably so. Probably they were hiding in this country and slowly blending in here as Japanese along with the passage of time and then they became politicians, possibly they are spies with ideology education performed on them without relying on brainwashing magic. Possibly in the period when magic was born in this world and Japan fell into pandemonium, perhaps China had started to move at that time. Even though Japan established the Knight Order but it took a considerable time, but at that period China changed into Chūkadou and settled their national policy with Taoism as their base so their effort went smoothly.”<br /> <br /> China that managed to consolidate their nation slightly early sent spies to Japan that was still in a state of chaos at that time. The spies became politicians, before long they became a political power that put a stance of [Anti Magica Stigma] as their outward appearance, forming the [Kenshitou]. With former Headmaster Otonashi and his faction’s loss of standing as the impetus, their action came to the surface….<br /> <br /> “…What an out-of-there story.”<br /> <br /> The impetus that made Kazuki into an orphan was also the [Tokyo’s Great Destruction] by the illegal magicians, but the period of chaos after the birth of magic had been more than ten years ago from the present.<br /> <br /> “Actually, an investigation regarding Katsura Karin and Hayashi Shizuka that had been confirmed as the perpetrator also had been done.”<br /> <br /> Those two were present at the location where Kazuki was attacked. But on top of the fact that they were not even captured red-handed, Kazuki’s eyewitness testimony was not recognized as proof.<br /> <br /> With the birth of concept that was known as magic, the power of &lt;the testimony of victim&gt; as proof decreased and not as recognized if compared in the past. It was so that people were not easily tricked by magic that fooled the senses.<br /> <br /> “Katsura Karin’s father was a former police officer. But he was killed in line of duty against an illegal magician at the period of chaos. Katsura Karin that became an orphan was taken into the custody of Hayashi household, it was the encounter of those two.”<br /> <br /> So it was a motherless family. Hearing the word orphan, a deep shadow fell inside Kazuki’s chest.<br /> <br /> “There is a point of contact with China in the household of Hayashi. The mother was someone originating from China and went through naturalization into Japanese person. …Of course I don’t mean that she is suspicious because she is a naturalized Japanese person. Liz Liza-sensei is also a naturalized Japanese person originating from England, but her service as a knight was without doubt.”<br /> <br /> Even England or China didn’t change that they were countries that had ceased diplomatic relation with Japan.<br /> <br /> “Of course I understand that.”<br /> <br /> With the ceasing of the diplomatic relation with foreign countries, the discrimination towards naturalized foreigner that lived in Japan became a social problem. Even Kazuki had the experiences of receiving slanders just because he was an orphan without any other reason, so he hated discrimination.<br /> <br /> This was a problem with regards to Katsura Karin and Hayashi Shizuka as individuals.<br /> <br /> “After that, both of them took the examination for the Knight Academy as swordsmen. They passed the exam due to their high physical ability. Their grades as swordsmen are in average degree and they reached until this point as inconspicuous students.”<br /> <br /> After Katsura Karin came into Hayashi household, it seemed she learned Chinese Kenpo. Just like Kazuki who was learning Hayashizaki-style.<br /> <br /> However if what Eleonora said was true, Hayashi Shizuka’s figure often appeared in the dispute areas of China. She was an existence that was known secretly as &lt;dangerous character&gt; by every country’s intelligence agency.<br /> <br /> No matter how he looked at it her identity was fake. Even her age was suspicious whether it was true if she really was in the same generation as him.<br /> <br /> “Couldn’t we abort the finals itself? Although injuring Hikaru-senpai was not in the violation of rule, it’s obvious that she overdid it don’t you agree?”<br /> <br /> “Regarding that case I had called both of them, but she said [I intended to have a show performance about the technique I have that can penetrate defensive magic power, but I overdid it completely. I didn’t intend to go that far], like that. On the contrary she claimed that if they get the seat of student council president, they will add this technique into the curriculum and plan to raise the position of swordsman among other things.”<br /> <br /> It was an argument that made him want to hold his head in frustration.<br /> <br /> “Isn’t that actually a really great battle pledge…moreover it would gather a lot of vote too…”<br /> <br /> “That’s why the finals with you cannot be avoided. But this might also become our good chance to catch the tail of those guys in this final battle. Hereafter the monitoring of those two will become even stricter. Those guys should perceive this final match as [their last chance to assassinate Hayashizaki Kazuki]. Your life and the seat of the Chief Student Council President, if they have to choose one of those two…those guys will aim for your life without doubt.”<br /> <br /> Taking advantage of the match and killing the opponent. Those girls had the technique needed to make it happen.<br /> <br /> “If they couldn’t kill you easily in the middle of the match, those guys would ignore the rule and might use their summoning magic. If that happen those guys won’t have any excuse to fall back on anymore.”<br /> <br /> “To risk my life until that far…it has to be like that in the end. Certainly if the situation develops like that it would be really dangerous, but it might still be better rather than having this end without definite conclusion. But, I’m the bait?”<br /> <br /> This country still hadn’t recognized him, yet there was this gap when another country regarded him as dangerous as a King. Like this he was just a bait.<br /> <br /> In the first place Beatrix called him a {{furigana|King|Basilleus}} or the like and that meant that in other countries there were also existences that were also called King? The existence that stood on the summit of the Mythology….<br /> <br /> “Win through the finals as a King. This was supposed to be the requirement for your continuing living arrangement in the Witch’s Mansion. All the same if you can’t do at least this much, then I too won’t recognize that you are a King.”<br /> <br /> ===Part 2===<br /> <br /> “””””Welcome home, Goshujin-sama&lt;ref&gt;Master&lt;/ref&gt;!”””””<br /> <br /> Kazuki who went home from the headmaster’s office to the Witch’s Mansion was greeted with brilliant voices.<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai, Hikaru-senpai, Mio, Lotte, Koyuki, the five people, everyone was wearing maid uniform and welcomed Kazuki who was called to the headmaster’s office and came home late. The Witch’s Mansion―had became the Maid’s Mansion.<br /> <br /> “…What in the world is going on with this spectacle?”<br /> <br /> Kaguya-senpai pulled the arm (gui-gui) of the wide eyed Kazuki repeatedly and led him to the living room. In the living room, cakes and a feast were spread out in a row as if it was someone’s birthday.<br /> <br /> “You see, this is [Otouto-kun’s advance to final congratulation maid party]!”<br /> <br /> “Party…that should be done after I get the overall victory though. No, if I say more it should be after the last voting is over that we celebrate.”<br /> <br /> “When you get the overall victory it’s fine if we party again. It’s great even if we do it a few times right?”<br /> <br /> Mio laughed cheerfully.<br /> <br /> “This also doubles for a cheering party for you who is heading to the final match. …Kaguya-senpai said, the opponents in the final have some kind of shady history. …I cannot really cooperate much but, I plan to work hard at the tidying up after this.”<br /> <br /> Koyuki said so and displayed the table with her hand. The foods lined up in a row were…broiled eel and rice, full course of soft-shelled turtle, lever with oyster and garlic….<br /> <br /> “It looks delicious but…what a lineup that looks like it would wake up something different somehow even before the final…”<br /> <br /> “We always kept leaving the housework to Otouto-kun, but it’s fine if you do nothing until the final while feeling like a master. We are the maid right now not Otouto-kun!”<br /> <br /> {Well, but this is quite a juncture right? You have obtained all of the &lt;keys of the heart&gt; from all the girls that are here, they are companions with whom you have tied bonds with. You still haven’t become able to use all of their magic, but it’s fine even if I say that you have succeeded in conquering all of them. Uh huh…so finally everyone of the Witch’s Mansion are conquered! But you still have some way to go, your harem starts for real from here so don’t relax yet!}<br /> <br /> Leme came telling such frightening things to Kazuki using telepathy.<br /> <br /> Now that she said it, that was true. I…had finally conquered everyone of the Witch’s Mansion!?<br /> <br /> When he looked around, everyone was directing a gaze filled with affection at Kazuki that made him ticklish.<br /> <br /> Right now all of the warmth of the Witch’s Mansion was changed into his strength. That truth granted Kazuki who would challenge the final after this a hot and seething courage.<br /> <br /> “Kazuki, use my [Ride Lightning] and take revenge for me okay!”<br /> <br /> “Please take revenge for me too! It’s a promise desu♪”<br /> <br /> Hikaru-senpai and Lotte were also jumping at him. Leme too materialized and raised her voice.<br /> <br /> “Rather than that kind of thing let’s immediately eat without delay, o King! The food is getting cold here!!”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> After the full swing of the party, around the time when he was starting to make seasoned rice gruel from the remaining turtle hotpot, Leme came and was secretly sending words at Kazuki with telepathy.<br /> <br /> {Come to think of it there is one thing that I remember. King Solomon said regarding Leme’s power…it’s a power for the sake of releasing human from {{furigana|the rule of god|theocracy}} and let human stand on their own feet.}<br /> <br /> The age of god and the age of human….<br /> <br /> What immediately came to Kazuki’s mind was about the encounter of human and god, the turning point of the era.<br /> <br /> Fifteen years ago, humankind obtained the power of magic in their hand due to the philosopher stone that was given birth by the mysterious alchemist and encountered Diva. At that time, the age of human and science was replaced by the age of god and magic….<br /> <br /> {What is born from the connection between human and human, the power that makes human as human…without doubt it was the bonds between them. For you to follow the same path as the king Solomon, Leme feels very happy right now.}<br /> <br /> ―Beatrix said that she fought with god’s will as her foundation.<br /> <br /> ―I am always fighting for the sake of protecting my important people.<br /> <br /> Inside the party that was overflowing with warmth, Kazuki embraced the bonds that he found by himself inside his chest, he once again ascertained his own feeling inside him that he wouldn’t waver anymore for sure.<br /> <br /> &lt;noinclude&gt;<br /> <br /> ==Translator's Notes and References==<br /> &lt;references/&gt;<br /> <br /> {| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;&quot;<br /> |-<br /> | Back to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 4 Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]<br /> | Return to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou|Main Page]]<br /> | Forward to [[Magika No Kenshi To Shoukan Maou:Volume 4 Afterword|Afterword]]<br /> |-<br /> |}<br /> &lt;/noinclude&gt;</div> Hiro Hayase