“So Nameless Glory can cause other people to make mistakes as well.”
“Who knows? The only thing I’m thinking is, ‘I want to win this game.’ I have no idea how it’s making that happen. But you know what they say: Even a chess grandmaster makes blunders. Humans are fallible creatures. No matter how hard you’ve trained, there’s always a possibility you’ll mess up. That’s true for every action we take, even something as simple as walking one step forward. Every now and then, someone twists their ankle or stumbles on a pebble. And the more complicated the action, the easier it is to mess up. Managing the trajectories for your spells requires a lot of complex calculations, doesn’t it?”
“Rgh...”
The more Shizuku learned about Amane’s ability, the more overpowered it seemed. If he could make her mess up, then it was too dangerous to even attempt using Azure Reincarnation.
What should I—
“You’re wide open!”
“Gaaah?!”
While Shizuku was distracted by this latest reveal, Amane swung one of his Azures down at her. She reacted too late, and the blade scored a deep gash on her forehead. Blood dripped into her eyes, hampering her vision and making it harder for her to avoid follow-up attacks.
Knowing that she was in a bad spot, Shizuku once again tried to put some distance between the two of them. As she took a step back, however, she felt herself press against the cold, hard concrete wall. Her heart started to hammer as she realized she was trapped. Cold sweat poured down her back.
How do I fight him? I can’t think of anything that’ll work!
Her mind was getting clouded with impatience, despair, and helplessness. But she refused to give up. She glared angrily at Amane and spurred herself into action. Even if she wasn’t sure of what to do, she had to do something. Having looked into Shinomiya Amane’s eyes, Shizuku knew the deep darkness that stirred within them was directed squarely at her beloved Ikki. She couldn’t let Amane near him, no matter the cost.
Besides, while she wasn’t as passionate about becoming a knight as Ikki or Stella was, she’d still spent the past few months fighting to earn a spot in the Seven Stars Battle Festival. Through those fights, she’d seen how much the tournament meant to people and how seriously they took it. Amane’s blatant cheating was a slap in the face to everyone who’d worked hard to get there. She had to make him pay for that too. So she kept her eyes wide open despite the blood dripping into them.
“You have no right to be at the Seven Stars Battle Festival!” she shouted. “This is a stage for knights who are wholeheartedly chasing their dreams with dignity and pride! You have no dreams and no dignity! You don’t deserve to move on to the next round, and I’m going to make sure you can’t!”
Even if she was punished for it, Shizuku wouldn’t let Amane get away with desecrating this exalted tournament. A second later, the wall behind her began to ripple. The ripples grew in number and spread all across the wall.
“Bloodstorm!”
Pellets of highly pressurized water shot out from behind Shizuku, heading toward Amane. And they weren’t targeting just him; she was firing them off in all directions except toward herself. If Nameless Glory could mess up her aim, then she wouldn’t aim at all. She’d overwhelm him with a barrage so thick that it would hit everything.
The room shook from the force of the attack, and mist rose up from the ground like steam. It was so dense that you couldn’t see even a meter ahead, but through it all, Amane spoke.
“Sorry, but you’re out of time.”
“Ah—”
A dozen silver flashes cut through the mist, flying straight at Shizuku—Amane’s Azures. They cut into her limbs and pinned her against the wall.
“Gaaah!”
One of them pierced her throat as well, causing her to scream out in pain. But what she saw as the mist cleared shocked her so much that she momentarily forgot about her pain.
“No...way...”
The walls, ceiling, and floor were riddled with holes from where her bullets had landed, yet somehow, Amane was unscathed. Only the spot he stood on and the wall behind him were unblemished. Amane’s Nameless Glory had caused Shizuku to mess up her control over the mana in just the bullets that would have hit him, softening them up enough that they reverted to mere water droplets rather than deadly bullets.
“I see, so you decided not to aim at all if your aim was getting messed up. You sure thought a lot about your next course of action. Does everyone have to think this much in a fight? That’s amazing. My uniform’s soaked now because of that. But, well, I was feeling a little warm anyway, and this cooled me down nicely. Guess I got lucky again. Heh. Aha ha ha ha ha. Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
Fear gripped Shizuku as Amane laughed maniacally.
Is there anything his power can’t do?
Shizuku had racked her brain for the optimal course of action, but so long as it had even the slightest chance of failing, it would. Fate would be twisted to work in Amane’s favor. It truly was an unfair ability. One couldn’t help but think that Amane had been blessed by Lady Luck at birth. Only now did Shizuku realize that Alisuin had been right to try to flee immediately. That would have been the smart choice.
There’s no way we can win...against that...
A wave of despair washed over Shizuku, crushing the last of her resolve.
“Shinomiya! Shizuku! What are you two doing?!”
The announcer’s panicked scream came out through the loudspeaker in the room. People had finally figured out what was going on in here. Amane turned to the screen and explained that Shizuku had attacked him while he was waiting, and that he’d simply defended himself. He even said to check the security camera footage if they doubted him.
How...pathetic... Shizuku thought bitterly, her consciousness starting to fade away due to the blood loss. She’d failed to accomplish anything, and now her failure was exposed for everyone to see.
“Oh, by the way, I imagine you’re listening to this broadcast, Ikki-kun. I know I’m the victim here, but please don’t be too hard on Shizuku-chan! She did all of this for you, after all!”
Shizuku let out a gargled scream upon hearing that. She wanted to protest, but her windpipe had been run through, and all she could let out was a pitiful moan. Meanwhile, Amane kept talking.
“I could tell from fighting her that Shizuku-chan really loves you, Ikki-kun. And I don’t mean that in a familial way. She loves you as a woman. It must have really hurt her when you started dating Stella-chan. She must have spent ages trying to make you look at her instead.”
“Stop...” Shizuku managed to barely get out in a weak voice. She didn’t want Amane of all people to speak for her.
“It’s those pure feelings of hers that drove her to this extreme. She wanted to remove any potential obstacles in your path to becoming the Seven Stars Sovereign because she wanted to help you achieve your dream, and because she wanted you to love her.”
“Stop...it...”
But her weak cries fell on deaf ears, and Amane continued voicing what he assumed Shizuku’s true feelings were. This was the greatest torture of all. Shizuku hadn’t attacked Amane because she wanted Ikki to love her. And yet...
“What Shizuku-chan did was wrong, of course, but it’s only natural to want the person you love to love you back. I feel bad for her, being neglected like this. Don’t you think you should make her your woman and love her like—”
“Agh... Ngh...”
Shizuku couldn’t take any more. Amane was taking her most important feelings, the love she had for her brother both as a sister and as a woman, and talking about them as if she were a temperamental cat in heat. To Ikki himself, no less. It was nothing short of rape. Indeed, Shizuku would have preferred being physically violated. There was nothing more humiliating, more mortifying than this.
“Just...stop...” she pleaded, tears spilling from her eyes. Her pride was in tatters. All she wanted was for this to end. Just then, the waiting room’s far wall was blown apart.
“Whoa?!”
Amane held his arms in front of his face to protect himself from the sudden shock wave. Shizuku, too, reflexively closed her eyes against the wave of heat and pressure that assailed her. Once the shock wave subsided, the two of them opened their eyes to see a woman with blazing red hair standing in the hole in the wall. It was Stella Vermillion.