“Good. It looks like you’re still breathing, Shizuku.”
Stella strode through the hole and into the waiting room.
“Y-You scared me, Stella-san! I thought the building was coming down for a second there,” Amane said, turning to her. “Um, I-I know this isn’t something you can ignore since you’re Ikki-kun’s girlfriend, but breaking through the wall is a bit—”
“Shut up.” Stella’s quiet, commanding voice caused Amane to fall silent. Without so much as looking at him, she added, “If you say another disrespectful word about Shizuku, I’ll turn you into ash where you stand. I don’t care if they disqualify me. You won’t live to draw another breath.”
She was so disgusted with him that she knew if she looked at his face, she wouldn’t be able to contain her burning anger. As it was, she was biting her lip hard enough to draw blood in order to keep herself from thrashing him.
Stella-san...
Though her vision was hazy, Shizuku was still able to make out Stella’s expression. If Stella had been mad at her for being a jealous woman who wanted to steal Ikki away like Amane had claimed, things would have been so much easier. If she’d been any less nice of a person, Shizuku could have hated her rather than come to like her. Instead, she found herself torn between her desire to make Ikki her own and her desire for Ikki to find happiness with Stella. They were opposing feelings, but they were both how she truly felt from the bottom of her heart.
“Thank...you...” she muttered softly as Stella removed the blades pinning her to the wall. Saying that took the last of her strength, and she wasn’t even sure she said it loudly enough to be heard, as she passed out immediately afterward.
✦ ✦ ✦
The tournament managers checked the security camera footage to see what had happened in the waiting room. For some inexplicable reason, the audio was corrupted, so they couldn’t make out what Shizuku and Amane had been saying, but the video clearly depicted her launching a surprise attack on him, verifying his claims. She was found to be in gross violation of the rules and consequently disqualified from the tournament, which meant Shinomiya Amane progressed to the semifinals.
Fortunately, neither Shizuku nor Alisuin was expelled for their conduct. Instead, they were barred from entering in any public tournaments for three months, and each had to write an essay reflecting on their actions. The teachers, the members of the Management Committee, and even the International Mage-Knight Federation officials overseeing the tournament clearly found Amane’s consecutive wins by default suspicious, so they didn’t want to punish Shizuku and Alisuin too much for something that potentially wasn’t their fault. They had no evidence of any misconduct on Amane’s part, however, so they did still have to disqualify Shizuku.
With that rather tumultuous end to the day’s matches, the nation’s top four fighters had been decided.