“T-turn around!” she ordered in a low voice, full of forcibly suppressed emotion.
“Huh?”
“Just turn around already!”
He rushed to obey, the authority in her tone beyond question.
From behind him came the faint rustling of her clothes. And a strangely pleasant scent. Ayato could not have been more uncomfortable.
On top of that, he was still perched on the windowsill. He was one wrong move away from a deadly fall. He waited like this for several minutes, while the wind on several occasions threatened his balance.
At last she sighed and said, “O-okay. You can turn around now.”
When he did so, he saw now a girl blooming with radiance.
Wearing her uniform impeccably, she cut the very picture of class and elegance—such a stark contrast to her earlier appearance that he wondered if he’d imagined it. Her sullen expression and fierce glare loudly declared a foul mood, but even that seemed somehow endearing. Ayato couldn’t help but gaze at her.
She bluntly interrupted his trance. “So, the handkerchief?”
“…Sorry?”
“You were saying something earlier. About a handkerchief.”
“Oh—oh yeah! Um, here it is…” Ayato took the handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to her. “I found it floating along in the wind and picked it up. Is it yours, by any chance?”
The girl inhaled sharply, opened her eyes wide for a split second, then let out a deep sigh of relief. “Thank goodness…”
She took the handkerchief and gently held it to her chest.
“Thank you. This handkerchief…it’s very special to me.”
“Oh no, I mean, I just happened to find it…”
“All the same. I really do appreciate it.”
As Ayato stood embarrassed by her gratitude, she bent forward in a deep, formal bow. But then—
“Well, then… That’s settled, I’d say,” she muttered, her head still bent low. Her voice had completely changed, simmering with an emotion that might detonate at any second.
“Huh?”
The girl slowly looked up at him, a grin illuminating her face. There was, however, not a hint of mirth in her eyes. Even as her mouth made the arc of a warm smile, he noticed the corners of her lips twitching.
“Now, you die.”
In the next moment, the air in the room changed completely. The girl’s prana heightened explosively, and the atmosphere rumbled in response. Mana, given direction, converted the elements in the air and set a phenomenon into motion.
That aura! he thought. Is she…?
“Burst into bloom—Amaryllis!”
That instant, an enormous fireball materialized in front of the girl and flew toward Ayato.
“A Strega!?”
He pushed off backward from the window, regained his balance midair, and landed.
A deafening roar rang across the grounds in his wake. Ayato looked up to see a huge flower made of fire opening its bud to bloom—a giant wheel of flames, overlapping petals of scorching heat.
The air wavered and gusts of hot wind blew over him. It was an incredible force, exactly as if a bomb had gone off.
“…Aw, no…”
As Ayato stared in awe amid the falling sparks, the girl leaped out of the open window. Just as he had done, she landed four stories down with effortless grace.
She had to be a Genestella—one of those gifted with an affinity for mana that bestowed wondrous physical abilities. And judging by the power she had just displayed, she had to be Strega—a special class even among the Genestella.
Most of the students in the six schools of Asterisk, of which Seidoukan Academy was one, were Genestella. Even Ayato, who had little interest in the Festa, knew that much. He also knew that Stregas and Dantes, who could bend the laws of nature by linking themselves with mana, were not commonly found.
According to the theory he’d heard, even among the Genestella only a few percent manifested the talents of a Strega or Dante. And while they were gradually increasing in number, Genestella made up a very small fraction of the population to begin with. So it would go without saying that Stregas and Dantes were exceptionally rare. Ayato himself had only met one Strega in his life—before this.
“Oh… So you managed to dodge that. Not bad.” The girl sounded slightly impressed, though her voice still dripped with anger. “Very well, then. I’ll give you a real fight. For a bit.”
“Whoa—hold on, okay!”
“What now? Just don’t give me any more trouble, and I’ll be nice and turn off the grill when you’re well-done.”
“…You mean, you want to cook me all the way through?” said Ayato. That didn’t sound at all like being nice. “Wait—I’d at least like to know why you’re trying to kill me…”
“You peeped on a young lady getting dressed. It’s only natural that you should pay with your life.” She issued this disturbing proclamation with perfect sangfroid.
“But then, why did you thank me just now?”
“I do appreciate that you returned my handkerchief, of course. That, however, has nothing to do with this.”
“…Maybe you could be a little more flexible?”
She rejected his plea with a smile. “Unfortunately, I hate that word—‘flexible’!”
There was no getting through to this girl.
“Anyway, if you wanted to give me the handkerchief,” she went on, “there was hardly any need to barge in through the window! Degenerates like you who sneak into the girls’ dorm deserve to be beaten by an angry mob.”
“Huh? The girls’ dorm?” Completely dumbfounded, Ayato stared alternately at the girl and then the building. A bead of sweat trickled down from his temple.
“You mean…you didn’t know?”
“How could I? I just transferred in. I’m supposed to start today. I only got here a little while ago. It’s true, I swear!” As Ayato pleaded his case, he pointed to his crisp new uniform. Having hardly been worn, the jacket and pants still looked stiff.
The girl spent a few moments staring suspiciously at him, then let out a long sigh.
“Very well. I believe you.”
Hearing that, Ayato exhaled in relief and put his hand to his heart.
But then, without pausing, the girl continued, “However, that still has no bearing on this.”
As she smiled, more fireballs had already taken shape around her. Smaller than the one before—but this time there were nine.
“Burst into bloom—Primrose!”
“Ack—!”