After this, Hana was never going to look at Kikyou the same way again.
“I don’t think she was quite so dominant before, but…”
This wasn’t even a match anymore. This was a show, and Kikyou owned the stage.
“I think you being here motivated her, Hana.”
Kiriya casually added his own take.
“Uh, there’s being motivated, and then there’s whatever this is…”
The homing projectiles eventually caught up with the students and effortlessly bowled them over, ending the match with Kikyou’s overwhelming victory. Hana’s impression of Kikyou being weak bowled over with them.
Kikyou returned with a satisfied smile and gave Hana a big hug.
“Hanaaa! How did I do? I tried reeeally hard!”
“Yeah, maybe a little too hard…”
This was probably when Hana was supposed to compliment the victor, but she felt so bad for the fallen students that she couldn’t be quite so straightforward.
There were a lot of Association members visiting to see the Campus Cup. Part of their purpose was to scout practitioners with promising futures, like Hazuki. The majority of Obsidian High students went on to seek employment at the Association of Practitioners anyway, but being scouted beforehand made a big difference. Being recognized as exceptional changed how the Association treated you, too. That’s why entrants, particularly third-years, who were preparing for graduation, took the Campus Cup very seriously. And why getting whupped so badly must have been devastating beyond belief.
These students all had to be the cream of the crop, since they were chosen for their campus’s team, so for them to be taken out before they could even demonstrate their abilities… If any of those students could see Kikyou’s innocent joy right now, it might cement her as a demon in their minds. You had to hope they’d let it go; they happened to get thrown into the lion’s den, that’s all. Hana brought her hands together to pray for those tragic victims.
And so the first event was settled as Kikyou’s victory, leading the Campus Cup to move on to one category after the next.
This was a school for practitioners, so a competition here wasn’t going to involve the obstacle courses and beanbag tosses you’d see at regular schools. Though Hana would have preferred peaceful events like those…
The next category had entrants compete via time taken to defeat shades. For this event, each campus sent one student for each year. Representing Campus One’s third-years was the most motivated member of the Campus Cup team, Nozomu. He showed no fear when standing before the shades, and he even had a confident, indomitable smile that looked just like Saku’s. They were brothers, all right.
“They’re really using shades, huh?” Hana mused. Her first Campus Cup was full of surprises. “Where’d they pick them up from?”
From what Hana could tell, these were way stronger than the cannon fodder shades the teachers rounded up for Class C’s lessons. Well, both were weak from Hana’s point of view, but still.
“They’re captured by Association practitioners just for the Campus Cup. There are talismans that let you capture shades, you know. Nijouin-made, at that!”
Kikyou bragged and puffed out her chest as though those talismans were her own handiwork.
“Isn’t that dangerous? We’ve got Class C students watching and all.”
“The barriers trapping the shades are quite strong, and there’s another similarly strong barrier set around the field. Those shades won’t be getting anywhere near the audience. Even if they did, all the Association practitioners here would slay them in an instant.”
“Ah, I see.”
Indeed, there was a barrier encircling Nozomu and the shades that wasn’t going to get broken too easily, and Hana could feel plenty of powerful practitioners among the crowd. Saku was in the front-row seats, and on the field where the match was taking place was Yukizasa, who had come to Campus One to serve as a teacher. And while Hana couldn’t see him, the man who was known as the strongest Obsidian-rank practitioner, Kazura, was surely in the area.
With three Obsidian-rank practitioners in peak condition at the ready, Hana concluded that a couple of shades that she herself could shrug off wouldn’t cause much harm if they got out of control. Just like Kikyou said, they’d be slain in an instant; she had a hard time imagining them surviving a second longer.
Heck, the practitioners might not even need to lift a finger; Aoi was yawning with boredom now that he was free from his multiday shackling with Tsubaki, so he might take the chance for some action and clean any shades up himself. This situation wasn’t even going to call for the assistance of the Obsidian-rank practitioners, the pinnacle of the practitioner world.
But just because Hana could shrug the shades off didn’t mean regular students would have such an easy time. Right now, Nozomu and his shikigami, Guren, seemed like they were having a tough fight.
“After all that bluffing, Nozomu still hasn’t beaten those things?”
Nozomu was the one pumping up the team with how they’d absolutely win, so if he managed to lose, Campus One’s fighting spirit wasn’t going to be flying too high.
“You can’t blame him. Those seem to be rather strong shades.”
“Strong, huh? Right…”
“You can’t judge them by your standards, Hana. You’re the bizarre one here.”
“Okay, ‘bizarre’ feels uncalled for.”
What did Kikyou see Hana as? Even Hazuki and Kiriya gave her the side-eye as they silently nodded.
“Normal students don’t have two human-form shikigami, and they certainly aren’t going to have an inugami at their command, either.”
“You’re right about Aoi and Miyabi, but Arashi was just how things turned out. Arashi only stays as my shikigami because his heart is as wide as the ocean.”
It was just a show of appreciation for Hana saving him from becoming a tatarigami. In any other situation, making a prideful god into one’s shikigami was done only by those with a death wish, and it was far from simple, either.
“It’s still amazing, though.”
“Oh, thanks.”
Hana felt uncomfortable since she wasn’t used to praise, so she forcibly ended the conversation there by saying thanks. She got the feeling that they’d start giving compliments with no end if she didn’t.
Hana had long since gotten used to insults and denigration, but it was only very recently that anyone started telling her the opposite. She stopped hiding her power for Hazuki’s sake, but that didn’t mean she wanted compliments. After all those years of being called useless or scraps, compliments rubbed her the wrong way. Hana was more comfortable being insulted…though Hazuki and Kikyou would give her some weird looks if she ever said that. There’s no way they wouldn’t.
“Once that phony princess sees your true power in the final event, Hana, there’s no doubt she’ll start quaking in her boots!”
“I mean, I don’t need people to think I’m great or anything…”
What Hana desired was peace, tranquility, and normality. Being the star player in the Campus Cup didn’t fit any of those goals.
“You know, Hana, the Association might scout you after seeing you fight.”
Hazuki put into words the exact scenario Hana wanted to avoid the most. Hana made the most disgusted face she could to express that.
“Guess I gotta make Saku clean up whatever mess happens.”
The shade hunt finished as they were talking, and with its end came roaring cheers.
Nozomu returned with an exhausted look on his face, so the team congratulated him.
“Nice goin’.”
“Heh, did you see how valiantly I battled?”
“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t watching.”
Hana laughed it off with an innocent “Ah-ha-ha.”
“What?!”
Nozomu started to howl, so Hana decided to deflect his attention to get him to sit still.
“But hey, it looks like your dear brother was watching you!”
Hana pointed in the direction of Saku. Nozomu’s eyes lit up when he saw his own brother applauding his efforts.
“Saku, you really did watch!”
“Yeah, good for you!”
Hana had to shrug at how easily Nozomu’s anger had vanished.
“Still, though…”
Hana had been wondering this whole time about who the person sitting next to Saku was.
“Who’s that next to Saku? That dude looks mega scary.”
Hana’s winced because of the man’s appearance. He was an old man with a black eye patch over one eye and white hair that reached his shoulders. His visible eye had a glare so sharp, it could send an enemy running for the hills. If this were a video game, he’d be the final boss without a doubt. He exuded the kind of presence that told people loud and clear that he was something else.
Since he was sitting next to Saku, he must have had some kind of high status. Saku had his own aura beyond his age, but even that was getting blown with the wind compared to this guy’s aura.
Just then Kikyou gave a shocking answer.
“That person is my and Kiriya’s grandfather.”
“Huh? Your grandfather?! So he’s the Nijouin clan lord?!”
“Yes, that he is.”
“That’s…pretty scary, all right. Can’t say it doesn’t fit, ’cause he’s on another level from the average person. He looks like he’s even stricter than my mother-in-law.”
“Oh, Grandfather is just as strict as he looks… Ha-ha-ha…”
Kikyou’s laugh was dry and weak.
“What have you two gone through…?”
Kikyou didn’t answer Hana’s question, and Kiriya also averted his gaze.
The other students finished their battles as they chatted. Regardless of Nozomu’s struggling earlier, the results put him cleanly in first place.
“Master, I know they’re students, but I can’t help wondering what will become of this nation if this is the level our next generation of practitioners are at…”
Miyabi stated her fears with drooped eyes and a concerned expression.
“You can’t say that to Nozomu. It’ll make him sad.”
Nozomu was celebrating his first-place win with the rest of the Campus Cup team. There was no reason to rain on his parade.
“Very well…”
Miyabi was always with Hana, so she tended to compare others to her. However, her master was someone who saved a tatarigami even though she was a student; comparing an average student to her was just cruel.