Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume1 Chapter6 (section)

===Part 1===

—It was 2 am. The time when the academy students slept and forest spirits began stirring.

On the stone paved path illuminated by the moonlight, Kamito was walking alongside Claire.

"The academy at night has an atmosphere that is very different, "

"Of course, night is the time for spirits."

Claire kept facing front and bluntly replied. Solid sounds of walking resounded loudly.

Since some time ago, Claire had not said much. She might be tense about the duel with the Knights.

"Where are you planning to do it?"

Private battles should be prohibited within the academy according to academy regulations. Is there a place for a duel outside?

"Over there—"

Claire abruptly stopped.

In front of what she was pointing, there was a gigantic stone circle.

Its ground was dimly shining in bluish-white.

"That's the—Astral Gate!"

"Yea, the gate that connects this world with the Astral Zero. The reason why the academy was built in such a remote place."
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"...I see."

He was surprised that there was a Gate within the academy premises. That stone circle was perhaps a prehistoric ruin, which was used with an unknown art. It probably had a function to stabilize the unstable Gate.

"Isn't it dangerous? There are spirits that cannot be controlled by humans roaming about in the Astral Zero."

"You see, that Gate connects to a safe area where there are only low-level spirits. If not, the academy wouldn't leave it alone, right?"

Claire murmured "stupid," and stepped into the middle of the stone circle.

She recited the words of opening the gate in the spirit language and the blue light on the ground further increased its brightness.

"Come on, you, faster! Get on too."

Led by Claire, Kamito hurriedly jumped on top of the formation of lights.

At that moment, his field of vision was filled with a white flash.

He had a feeling that his whole body was attacked with dizziness. And then—

...

—After opening his eyes, a scenery of another world spread out.

There was a deep dark forest with twisted trees standing tall.

Shining brilliantly in the night sky was a blood-like red moon.

There was a pale purple smoke-like fog shrouding nearby.

Astral Zero—another world, which spirits live in.

"If it's here, nobody can disturb us. Even if we were injured, it would not be serious, so this place is often used by the academy students for duels."

A situation in which such a thing occurred, the physical body of humans possessing divine powers would be treated the same as spirits, this meant that there's almost no physical damage received.

Naturally, this was not absolutely safe. Pain was felt normally; in exchange of the physical body not receiving damage, the mind would suffer an equal damage.

To fall into a lethargic state was still a good thing, but in the case of receiving a serious injury, one would receive severe memory impairment and the destruction of the mind, there was also the possibility of not regaining consciousness.

"—Flame, illuminate."

Claire recited the spirit magic and a small fire ball was born on her palm, dimly lighting up a narrow open path in the middle of the forest.

"Let's go, Kamito."

Claire gently brushed her twintails and calmly walked.

"Do we have a chance of winning?"

"That depends on your ability. ...Honestly, it might be a little hard."

"Is that so?"

Kamito was surprised. For an elementalist of Claire's level, it was unexpected of her to say such a thing.

"Putting aside the other two, Ellis is strong. She isn't the Knights leader just for show. Besides, Scarlet exhausted some strength from this morning's fight with the sealed spirit. Rinslet's ability is—well, at least I recognize it, but her teamwork is the worst."

"...That was a surprisingly calm battle strength analysis. I thought you were the more impulsive type."

"You, what do you see me as?"

"A dangerous fellow, who instantly swings a whip—Ouch!"

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Pashii*— A whip was promptly swung down onto Kamito's back.

...After walking a while, there was a historic ruin of a gigantic theater in the forest.

It was something from when Astral Zero and the human world were one—a long gone mythical era.

The crumbling looking stone gate greeted the two. It seemed that here was the stage for the duel.

"First of all, you, the sword elementalist, are the attacker. Rinslet and I will provide cover."

"I've got the most dangerous role! Isn't it your duel?"

"What! Do you have a complaint? Alright, if that's the case, I'll let you choose a position. Attacker or cinders, which do you like?"

"I get it. I'll be the attacker."
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"A wise decision."

Claire nodded seemingly satisfied.

"By the way, you can properly handle that contracted sword spirit, right?"

"Hn, ahh...probably."

"...Probably? What do you mean?"

Claire's eyes lifted up with danger. Kamito backed off in a panic.

"Well, you see, isn't it bad if it was summoned poorly and went out of control? That's why, I have not summoned it even once since I contracted it this morning."

That was somewhat of an explanation—he thought. Actually, it was half of the explanation.

The truth was that, by contracting with another spirit, he felt guilty in regards to her.

He felt a sense of betrayal about using a new contracted spirit.

"You succeeded in contracting in just one try, therefore there should be little chance of losing control but—well, it is a sealed spirit with a history and it certainly won't be funny if anything happened."

However, Claire seemed to have agreed for once.

"For the time being, try releasing your elemental waffe. You are able to do that, right?"

"A...aahh... Yeah."

The releasing of an elemental waffe was not something anyone could do but—

(Can't seem to get into the mood, it can't be helped—)

Kamito closed his eyes and concentrated his consciousness to the spirit seal engraved on his right hand.

""Dispassionate Queen of Steel, the sacred sword that destroys evil—""

He recited the summoning in the spirit language and the crest of two swords crossing faintly shined.

The path with a contracted spirit would be normally connected—however,

(What?)

...It was strange. He could not feel the presence of such a powerful sealed spirit.

No—he could pick up its presence, but it was as if something wasn't right, like gears not fitting together.

""—Now form a sword of steel and be the power in my hand!""

At that moment, small particles of light gathered at Kamito's palm.

And then, what appeared was—

"..."

One short sword.

To be more precise, it was a small sword almost like a knife.

...*Shin*. An awkward silence arrived.

"...Is that the sword spirit's elemental waffe?"

Claire said with her face twitching.
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For an incarnation of the powerful sealed spirit that cut down Scarlet in one blow—

...Honestly, it was too shabby.

"D...Don't judge it by its appearance, it might actually have an amazing ability."

"Y...eah, that certainly may be true!"

Claire nodded for a moment while having a stiff expression.

Kamito tried cutting a buckwheat tree as a test.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Bekii*. The short sword very easily broke and vanished.

"..."

"...Ahh, how should I say it, it's probably that."

Kamito bore the frozen Claire's gaze and calmly opened his mouth.

"To tell you the truth, this is the first time I've used a contracted spirit in three years. I have yet to regain that feeling."

"...Huh?"

Claire blankly opened her mouth to that shocking confession.

"You're lying... after all, didn't you easily tame that sealed spirit!?"

"That time was because I was frantically trying to save you. To be honest, I don't really understand myself how I succeeded in contracting it."

No matter how powerful a spirit one contracted with, there was no point if one could not fully draw out that power. When an inexperienced elementalist contracted a spirit beyond his means, it was often the case that its power would be too much to handle.

(...However, for my case, it's a little different.)

Kamito stared at his left hand, inserted in a leather glove.

(Probably, within my sub-consciousness, I thought about her.)

—Therefore, he could not connect the path with the new spirit.

"Wh..Wha..What's with that..."

He heard a dead groan. After lifting her head, Claire was tightly grasping a leather whip, used for training animals, with her shoulders trembling.

"No, I mean, um, my battle strength is lacking..." <!--「いや、だから、その、俺は戦力外ってことでひとつ......」-->

"What do you mean! I am counting on your battle strength!"

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Pishii!* *Pishii!* *Pishii!*

"Ouch! Wait..stop!"

A tempest of unforgiving whips descended onto the escaping Kamito.

Then, there—

"What in the world are you doing? Claire Rouge."

From the other side of the dark tree grove, that voice was heard.

Claire stopped her whipping and sullenly turned around.
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The ones who appeared were Rinslet and the maid Carol.

"You're late, Rinslet."

"Aah, a lady getting dressed takes time."

Rinslet proudly brushed her extravagant platinum blonde hair.

"...? What, is Carol here too?"

"Of course, as milady's supporter."

After Kamito heard that, Carol brought out a flag, seemingly from nowhere and began swinging it.

"By the way, why were you whipping Kazehaya Kamito?"

Rinslet placed her index finger at her chin and frowned dubiously.

That was—before Claire answered, Carol interrupted.

"Milady, that's something unrefined to listen to."

"What do you mean?"

"That was a form of a slightly unusual love. In a unique way, that was a perverted play."

"Ehh! Is that right, you two!?"

"T...Th..T..That's not it! W...What are you saying, you stupid maid!"

Claire's face became bright red as she denied it.

...Indifferently, he wanted the fuse-blowing whipping to stop, as it hurt.
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(...Why am I already worn out before the duel.)

Kamito began to seriously think about the absurdity of his life. At that moment.

"—Your side seems to be all present, Raven class."

A frigid voice descended from right above.

"...!?"

The four of them looked upwards together.

There, above the crumbling theater wall was—

A figure of a gallant female knight with her blue hair fluttering in the gentle breeze.

Beside her, two knights, also wearing the same silver armor, were standing.

He heard their names from Claire. The one with the short hair was Rakka. The one with the braiding was Reishia.

"—Ellis Fahrengart, for how long were you here!"

"By the way, you wouldn't by any chance be waiting for a chance to appear at a cool moment, right?"

"Wha... T...There's no such thing! I just only got here!"

After Kamito pointed it out with his half-opened eyes, Ellis was frankly disturbed and ended up almost falling.

...Somehow, that was a rather deplorable look for a Knights' leader.

Ellis sharply glared at Kamito and the rest, and drew her sword from her waist.
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"Let's go, Raven class. Let's finish this duel by day break—"

At that moment. The illumination of a large flame lit the stage of the theater.

The one shined on by that illumination—

"That's—!?"

A large eagle was spreading its enormous wings and making an appearance in the red night.

"Let me introduce to you, Kazehaya Kamito. This is my contracted spirit—demon wind spirit, Simorgh!"

With a howl like the wind—The large eagle, clad in wind, swooped down.