“Are you a friend of Hazuki’s and Hana’s?”
“Yes! I’m Suzu Mitsui!”
Yanagi wasn’t the type to let his emotions show, but Suzu’s cheerful, all-smiles attitude seemed to loosen him up.
“I see. I’m Yanagi Ichise. Please continue to be a good friend to my sisters.”
“You betcha!”
Suzu firmly grasped Yanagi’s outstretched hand and shook it with vigor. Yanagi looked a bit puzzled by Suzu’s enthusiasm.
“Yanagi, why are you here at school?” Hana asked.
Yanagi let go of Suzu’s hand and turned his gaze to a corner of the PE field. A number of adults in suits just like Yanagi’s were gathered there. One could immediately tell from their clothes and their demeanor that they weren’t teachers.
“Who are those people?”
“They’re practitioners sent by the Association for the festival. They’ll be working security during the event, as Saku has ordered. Right now, they’re scouting the area in advance.”
“Practitioners are working security?”
“Yes. Anything going wrong would be a stain on Saku’s reputation.”
“Huh…”
A practitioner having to work security for a simple school gathering sounded pretty rough. Then again, Hana had heard that plenty of VIPs were coming to see the Campus Cup, so maybe this was normal. Still, having a Lapis rank like Yanagi on the security detail, too? It begged the question of whether the Association was low on recruits.
Amid Hana’s pondering, Yanagi called out to her hesitantly.
“Er…Hana. Are you doing well at the Ichinomiya mansion?”
“Yeah. Well, I guess…”
“I see.”
“…………”
“…………”
And so the two drifted into silence. An incredibly uncomfortable one.
Even though he was her brother, Hana had never been too involved with Yanagi. She had no memories of sharing friendly chats with him. She wondered if things had maybe been different when she was little, and she tried digging through her memories, but nothing came to mind.
He was close to her by blood as her brother, but his heart was distant, much farther away than Saku’s. Even Suzu, someone she had no relation to, was much closer to Hana. With so little between them, Hana had no idea what to talk about…and it was surely the same for Yanagi.
Thanks to Saku’s intervention, Hana had learned just how much Yanagi treasured his sisters and why that had made him stay so distant, but that didn’t mean their relationship would change overnight. It was an even greater hurdle for Hana, who had cut off her family long ago and went to great lengths to avoid speaking to them. The misunderstanding had been cleared up, but how were they supposed to interact going forward?
Watching Hana and Yanagi uncomfortably shift their eyes around the room, Hazuki felt compelled to chime in.
“Yanagi said he’d come see the Campus Cup, too.”
“Y-yes, I did.”
Hana had a look of undisguised relief on her face as she silently thanked her goddess of salvation for so mercifully changing the subject.
Hazuki had always respected Yanagi and wasn’t as quick to burn bridges as her sister, which was probably why the two didn’t seem to have trouble holding a conversation. Hana was jealous of that. Still, not wanting to let the chance her sister granted go to waste, Hana joined in on the subject as well.
“But will you have any time to watch if you’re working security?”
“I intend to have that taken care of. So don’t worry—I’ll be there for your time on the stage.”
“You sure? You’re a Lapis-rank practitioner, so won’t that mean you’ll get stuck with the most responsibilities?”
“That won’t be a problem. Other practitioners greater than me will be there.”
There was only one rank above Lapis, and that was Obsidian.
“No way. You mean Saku?”
It was a natural assumption for Hana. Besides, there were few Obsidian-rank practitioners to begin with, and they were far from the type of person one would just stumble upon. Hana knew of two Obsidian-rank practitioners: Saku and Yukizasa. Knowing two people of that rank was already impressive enough. But the name Yanagi provided was a different one.
“No, it will be someone called Kazura Shidou.”
That name didn’t do much for Hana, who was far removed from the world of practitioners and had no way of knowing its significance. In her stead, Suzu’s eyes sparkled enough for the both of them.
“Kazura Shidou is coming?!”
“Suzu, you’ve heard of him?”
“The only person who wouldn’t have is you, Hana! They call him the strongest of all the Obsidian ranks, after all.”
Acting like this was news to her, Hana turned to Hazuki and found her sister laughing at her.
“He’s the brother of Seiran Shidou, who we talked about before.”
“Well, huh.”
Hana still didn’t have much of a reaction, as that discussion was already a vague memory to her. Suzu, however, was reaching a fever pitch.
“The few people who are Obsidian-rank practitioners are already on another level of power, so Kazura Shidou is a marvel among the Obsidian marvels! He has enough influence that even clan lords have to heed his words, and he’s super-duper amazing enough that even other Obsidian-rank practitioners pay their respects to him!”
“Why, thank you very much, young lady.”
Alerted by the unfamiliar voice, the group looked over to see a man with a mellow smile and an innocent vibe. His neck was adorned with an obsidian pendant, hung high enough that its presence was unmistakable.
“Being complimented so much without my doing anything kinda embarrasses me, though.”
“C-could you be…Kazura Shidou himself?!”
Suzu’s shock was so great that her voice rose into falsetto range.
“Yes.”
“Whoa, whoa! What do we do, Hana?! It’s him, in the flesh! Think I should ask for an autograph?”
“It’s an honor to have someone so excited to see me.”
The sudden appearance of the strongest Obsidian-rank practitioner in the business was exciting Suzu enough that she flailed around with glee, but Hana just calmly observed.
He seemed to be maybe a bit older than Saku. His looks certainly rivaled the clan lord’s, but this man’s gentle demeanor was the polar opposite of Saku’s hotheaded hubris. His style of speech was soothing, leading him to exude the self-assurance that came with maturity.