Hana laughed it off with an “Ah-ha-ha,” but the reality of the danger she’d been in was no joke. She understood that full well and needed no reminders, which was why she was so thankful for Arashi’s gentle nature. It really was just good luck on her part.
“You’ll be having your inugami take part in the final event, correct?”
Kikyou’s eyes flashed with hope.
“That category is a battle between shikigami, isn’t it? It’s kinda overkill, so are you sure? Either way, I think Arashi would be fine just watching.”
“That won’t do. You simply must have him participate!”
This battle between shikigami was by no means one-on-one. If an entrant had multiple shikigami, they were allowed to send in all of them. Having numerous shikigami tested a practitioner’s power and judgment in their own right.
However, just about all students had only one, maybe two shikigami at most. Even if one of her shikigami was an insect, having four shikigami alone put Hana way, way out of their league.
“I was gonna have Aoi join since he’s raring to go, but putting in an inugami like Arashi would just be bullying, right?”
The only future Hana could imagine was that of her opponents’ shikigami being wiped out in an instant, which made her feel bad for them. Aoi alone provided plenty of firepower, and given how much he’d been pumping himself up for this since the day before, Hana intended to let him loose with no mercy. Adding Arashi to the mix would end the fights before they even began.
“It feels kinda underhanded to use a god…”
But Kikyou’s insistence stayed firm.
“That’s fine! There’s no tactic too underhanded if it means defeating that phony princess! An inugami sounds fine by me! I shall allow it, so by all means, get her. Grind her so firmly into the dirt that she’ll never stand again!”
She put a concerning amount of force into this demand. If she wanted to win this much, then Hana didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah, fine, I get it. I’ll ask Arashi just in case. But I’m not gonna force him if he doesn’t feel like it.”
To Hana, Arashi didn’t seem like a fan of needless violence. Shades were one thing, but he might refuse to fight a shikigami who wasn’t hurting anyone, so Hana wanted to make sure Kikyou understood that.
“If it comes to it, I will beg on my hands and knees.”
“No, don’t go that far!”
There wasn’t a shred of hesitation in Kikyou’s stare. Arashi was probably too kindhearted to refuse someone with their head on the ground.
As they discussed this…
“Um, you’re…Nijouin, right?”
Kikyou and Kiriya turned toward the voice that called out to them. In that direction was a group of several boys and girls.
One could tell from their uniforms that they were Obsidian High students, but they weren’t faces Hana was familiar with. She looked at Kikyou to find her wearing a bitter expression. Still, she decided to ask.
“Kikyou, Kiriya, do you know them?”
“They’re…former classmates.”
Kikyou answered, her expression not easing at all.
“Gotcha.”
Hana understood just by looking at the shirts of the group that had suddenly appeared.
Campus One’s uniforms were the same as the uniforms of the other campuses of Obsidian High, so you wouldn’t be able to tell who was who at a glance. So for the duration of the festival, everyone wore badges on their chests that displayed what campus they were from.
The badges on Hana’s group all had the numeral 1 on them, while the other students all had badges with a numeral 2 on them. That meant they were from Campus Two, the same campus Kikyou and Kiriya transferred from. However, Kiriya had said that Kikyou’s status as a candidate for the future clan lord made people from their old campus keep their distance, leaving her with no close friends to speak of. Sure enough, Hana couldn’t feel a lot of friendliness for these people from Kikyou; if anything, her expression said that she really didn’t want to see them.
“What is it?”
Hana was a bit surprised to hear Kikyou give such an icy reply. She said it in a tone Hana had never expected to hear from this emotional roller coaster.
One of the Campus Two students hesitantly asked a question.
“Why…did you transfer schools?”
“That has nothing to do with you.”
“Yes, it does! Just like how Campus One has a lot of students related to the Ichinomiya clan, it’s only natural for a Nijouin to go to Campus Two!”
Campus One was financed by the Ichinomiya clan, so many people related to them attended it. Similarly, Kikyou and Kiriya had attended Campus Two, which was financed by the Nijouin clan. It was natural for these campuses to gather people related to the clans that supported them.
“It’s not as though I absolutely must attend that campus, is it?”
Kikyou’s gaze was firm. As she said, there were exceptions; Suzu attended Campus One despite being from a Sankourou branch family. Even Saku and Yukizasa themselves were classmates despite being direct descendants of different clans, so the precedent wasn’t set in stone.
Hana had asked once, and it was apparently Campus One where the two were classmates. As such, nobody would object to Kikyou and Kiriya being here. At most, they might need their parents’ permission.
However, the Campus Two students weren’t standing down.
“That might be true, but you had to have known we’d suffer a huge loss in the Campus Cup without you two. Can you tell me that isn’t irresponsible?”
Hana picked up that the girl wanted to lay the blame on Kikyou and Kiriya.
Campus Two had few students who specialized in combat, so their goal every year was to avoid last place. Still, they were able to just barely work something out because they had practitioners strong enough to be candidates for clan lord—Kikyou and Kiriya. With his grades, Kiriya was vying for Class A’s top spot, and Kikyou was supposedly superb at crafting talismans. Not that either of them, particularly Kikyou, looked like they’d be adept at anything.
It was easy to imagine the Campus Two students clutching their temples as they went into the Campus Cup without them. That must have been one reason behind their discontent.
“Kikyou, you’re a shoo-in to win the talisman-crafting category, so it’s a huge blow to Campus Two.”
“I can’t believe you’d go so far as to join Campus One’s team…”
“Campus One’s our enemy! Are you really going to betray us?”
They faced Kikyou with resentment in their gazes. Kiriya stepped in front of her, as though to protect her from them.
“A little self-centered of you all, don’t you think?”
Kiriya was always spaced out, chilled out, and hard to grasp emotionally, but right now, he was making his state of mind abundantly clear. Anger burned in his expression and eyes. He glared daggers at them, and the Campus Two students were taken aback.
“What we do is none of your business, so we’ll do what we choose. There can’t be any ‘betrayal’ going on because we’d need to have fond memories or friendly classmates back at Campus Two to feel any connection to it first. If you want to blame us, go look in a mirror.”
“How can you say that? We’re your own classmates…”
“That just means we sat in the same room. There is not a single moment I can recall when we were any friendlier than that.”
Hana didn’t interject and only watched from the sidelines, but she really got a sense of how tense Kikyou and Kiriya’s school life must have been. She never thought she’d see Kiriya take such a confrontational stance. He evidently didn’t let his guard down around these former classmates even for a second.
“If the gulf between them and their classmates is this big,” Hana whispered to herself bitterly, “then it’s no wonder they don’t wanna go back…”
Hana had her own thoughts about how these Campus Two students were practically acting like they were the victims, and she intended to intervene if necessary, but Kikyou stepped forward before she could. Her stare was powerful as she sized up only those who stood in her way.
“In the past, Yukizasa Sankourou attended Campus One instead of Campus Three. And what’s more, we received permission from our grandfather, the clan lord, to attend this campus. It’s not a matter any of you have the right to fault. If you still object, then I suggest you file a complaint to our grandfather using the official clan channels.”
Hana was impressed with Kikyou’s uncompromising attitude. She might have always acted fretful and weak-willed, but yeah, Kikyou was a lady of the five clans and a candidate to be clan lord for a reason.
The Campus Two students were instantly rattled by the mention of the clan lord, and they walked back their stance.
“A complaint to the clan lord? That’s just…”
“We don’t want to take things that far…right?”
“Y-yeah…”
The students all glanced at one another and, perhaps realizing they were fighting a losing battle, fearfully left the Nijouin twins in a hurry.
It seemed the situation didn’t call for Hana’s help. She had been prepared to bring out the big guns by dropping Saku’s name and swatting them away, but there was no need. Hana realized that Kikyou wasn’t the wimp she thought she was.
And then one moment later…
“Hanaaaaaa!”
Kikyou clung to Hana with tears in her eyes.
“I swear, who do they think they are? Hana, I think I might understand why you always call everything a pain! But don’t you think I did a good job? I deserve some praise!”
“Ha-ha-ha…”
Kikyou was back to her usual self. The speed with which she changed gears threw Hana off and yet relieved her at the same time.
The school festival was nothing if not eventful, but in the blink of an eye, the final day arrived. And with it came the Campus Cup.
In one corner of the PE field was a court where practical lessons using shikigami were typically held. On this day, it was encircled by rows of bleachers that created a bowl shape around it, with a small dome built overhead.