Alisuin immediately alerted the medics that Ikki’s heart had stopped, and they brought him straight to the arena infirmary, which was stocked with state-of-the-art medical equipment. There, they attempted to resuscitate him. Shizuku waited outside the operating room with Shinguuji Kurono and her father, Kurogane Itsuki, her hands clasped in prayer as she waited to hear the results of their efforts. After about two hours, one of the doctors walked out of the room. The “operating” sign was still lit, which meant they weren’t done yet, but Shizuku nonetheless immediately ran over to him.
“Did you save him?!” she asked. “Is Onii-sama okay?!”
“We can’t be sure yet,” the doctor replied in a pained voice, shaking his head.
“Wh-What do you mean you can’t be sure?!”
“Well, we still don’t understand what exactly the problem is. At first we thought it was a heart attack, since his heart had stopped with no external trauma. But once we restarted it, we detected problems in his brain. After treating those, another one of his organs suddenly started failing. Every time we treat a symptom, a new one pops up. It’s as if his body is being drawn toward death somehow.”
The only thing that could explain such a phenomenon was Amane’s power.
“But Onii-sama dodged all of the hands!”
“That’s not quite correct, Kurogane Shizuku,” Kurono shook her head and responded. “When I looked over the footage of the match, I noticed that his arm was grazed slightly when he protected the referee. I suspect that’s how Shinomiya’s power got in.”
“N-No!”
Shizuku staggered backward, the knowledge hitting her like a sledgehammer. But she quickly regained her composure. Her brother’s life hung in the balance. She couldn’t afford to fall apart here. Now that she knew the cause, a potential solution presented itself.
“Then if we kill him, Onii-sama—”
“Calm down,” Itsuki said in a stern voice. Shizuku rounded on him, glaring, and he curtly explained, “Bad Luck’s power is still active even though he’s unconscious. That means killing him won’t change anything.”
“Ngh!”
She couldn’t argue against that logic. Amane had indeed fallen unconscious after the match. The fact that Ikki was still being drawn toward death meant that once his power had carved a result into something, events progressed toward that result regardless of his intentions or even his state of consciousness.
Itsuki turned to Kurono and asked, “Would you be able to use your power to rewind my son’s body back to the state it was in before the match?”
Kurono shook her head sadly.
“I wish I could, but that’s not possible. Inorganic objects I can rewind pretty far back, but rewinding living beings takes a massive toll on their body. At best, I can rewind them thirty seconds or so before they start to break apart. Kurogane’s heart had been stopped for a few minutes when his sister found him, so my power won’t be able to take him nearly far back enough.”
“I see...”
“So there’s nothing we can do?! No, I refuse to accept that!”
Shizuku started walking toward the operating room.
“Shizuku!”
“Please, no one’s allowed into the operating room!”
Itsuki and the doctor grabbed her arms, but she shook them off.
“Let me go! If you guys can’t save him, then I will! Don’t get in my way! Onii-sama! Onii-samaaa!”
Just then, a newcomer walked into the room.
“My, it’s quite noisy in here. This is technically a hospital of sorts, so I’d prefer it if you’d stop making such a racket.”
“Ah, you’re...”
Shizuku recognized that voice. She’d only spent a few hours with the woman it belonged to, but their time together had been recent enough to still be fresh in her memory. She turned to see a greenish-brown-haired girl in a white lab coat walking into the room.
“K-Kiriko-sensei!” the doctor exclaimed, relieved to see the best doctor in all of Japan.
“I’ve heard the details from Director Kurogane here,” she said, nodding back to him as she strode past Shizuku and grabbed the door handle. “Leave the rest to me.”
“Will you be able to save him?” Shizuku asked in a tearful voice. She wanted reassurance that Ikki would be safe.
But of course, a doctor couldn’t casually make such a promise. Saving a life was never a sure thing. It was unethical to promise what might not be possible, even if doing so would ease the worries of the patient’s loved ones. However, Kiriko just looked over her shoulder.
“I hope you’re not underestimating me, little sister,” she teased. There was a confident smile on her face. “Any doctor worth their salt can take care of a death god or two.”
✦ ✦ ✦
As the sun set and the moon rose, the dark clouds covering Osaka moved off to the west. Late that night, Shinomiya Amane finally awoke and raised himself up into a sitting position. The first thing that popped into his mind were Ryouma’s words that Ikki had passed down to him. There was a faint creak, and the door to his room swung open.
“Oh, you’re already up? What a shame,” Saikyou Nene said as she sidled into the room. It seemed she’d wanted to sneak in without being noticed. Clicking her tongue, she hid the permanent marker she’d brought with her into the sleeves of her crimson furisode. “You caused a lot of trouble for everyone, so I thought I’d mess with you a little, but I guess you’re as lucky as always.”
Yeah, I guess this is pretty lucky.
There was something that Amane wanted to ask about, so he was grateful to have someone with him.
“Is Ikki alive?”
Saikyou raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“So you noticed?”
“I just overheard some of the nurses. They were talking outside of my room about how he’s in critical condition.”
“I see.” Nodding, Saikyou told Amane what she’d just heard from Kurono over the phone. “He’s still alive. The Doctor Knight rushed over to save him.”
“She did, huh?”
Naturally, Amane hadn’t forgotten that he’d cheated to avoid fighting her.
“I actually came here to pass on a message from Kiriko-chan.”
“A message?” What could it be? It’s not like we were friends or anything.
“‘With this, I’ve paid you back for what you did in the first round. Serves you right.’ That’s the message,” Saikyou said with a triumphant grin.
“Ha ha... I see. I guess that means I wasn’t even able to beat my very first opponent in this tournament.” Amane let the reality of that sink in for a second. “Everyone here sure is strong.”
“Course they are. If Kiriko-chan cared more about being a knight than being a doctor, she’d be Rank A by now. She’s as much of a monster as Stella-chan and Ouma-chan. No way you can handle her as you are now, Ama-chan.”
“Is that all you came here for?”
“Nah, there’s one more thing. The Management Committee held a meeting, and they’ve decided on your punishment for breaking the rules and endangering the ref and the audience. They’ll probably officially tell you tomorrow, and let me tell you, it’s not pretty. But I guess for a terrorist like you, that doesn’t matter since you can just go back to the underworld.”
“No, I’ll accept my punishment.” Amane’s reply made Saikyou look genuinely taken aback. He gave her a pleading look and added, “So do you think you could get them to lighten my sentence, Saikyou-sensei? I promise I’ve reflected on my actions.”
Saikyou let out a long sigh.
“Don’t get cheeky now, brat. But, well, I guess I am a teacher. If you’ve really learned your lesson, then...I’ll ask them to go easy on you.” Saikyou had more than enough influence with both the Management Committee and the Mage-Knight Federation to get her way in cases like this. At the same time, though, she had no intention of helping Amane out for free. She glared sharply at him and said, “But in return, you better not mess with tomorrow’s match.”
While Ikki and Stella didn’t consider Amane’s interference worthy of even caring about at this point, that was still no reason to let Amane get away with any further cheating. As a teacher and as a knight, Saikyou wanted Stella to have a fair match.
In response, Amane nodded.
“I promise. There’s no point in me messing with their match now anyway.”
He smiled at Saikyou—the first genuine smile she’d seen him give. She was confident he wouldn’t break his promise, so she turned on her heel and started walking away.
“All right, well, that’s all I came for, so I’ll be leaving. Get some rest. Your body’s exhausted from getting healed.”
“I will. Good night. And...thank you.”
As Saikyou walked out the door, Amane bowed his head to her. She paused to look back at him one last time before walking out of the room and closing the door.
“Heh. Looks like you’ve really turned over a new leaf,” she muttered to herself with a smile. She then turned to the man whose presence she’d sensed while first walking into Amane’s room. “What a coincidence running into you here, Tsukikage-sensei. Any reason you’re here this late at night?”