“Hana, go wrap up that final event already.”
With that, Saku returned to the spectator seats. After seeing him off, Hana returned to the rest of her team. Not a moment after she arrived, Nozomu glared at her and instantly opened his mouth to complain.
“What took you so long?! The event has already started. What were you gonna do if you got disqualified?!”
“Sorry, my bad. Something came up.”
The final event category had already begun while Hana was away.
It was a battle between shikigami. Entrants were placed into a tournament bracket, and Hana’s first round wasn’t scheduled to take place until a little later on, so she managed to make it on time.
Hazuki’s match was ongoing. Fortunately, Hana hadn’t missed it, but Yanagi was likely going to join Kazura to deal with those talismans. Even though he’d said he’d come to watch, odds were he wouldn’t have the time.
That news could make Hazuki sad, so Hana decided not to mention it.
Hazuki wasn’t alone in the limelight, of course. She was joined by her shikigami, Hiiragi, who took the form of a ten-year-old boy.
Hiiragi’s weapon was a folding fan. Human-forms were considered the highest level of shikigami, and sure enough, Hiiragi’s strength was on another level compared to the other students’ shikigami. Though even his power was far below that of Tsubaki, Saku’s shikigami, Tsubaki, to the point where Hana felt it cruel to compare them. Even between fellow human-form shikigami, some were just stronger than others.
A shikigami’s strength was influenced by their master’s power. As such, a shikigami became stronger or weaker following the growth of their master. Hiiragi, too, was much stronger now than he was when Hazuki was ten.
Hana didn’t interact with Hiiragi too often, so she didn’t know exactly how much he’d grown, but he sure seemed to be head and shoulders above his peers. Watching him claim victory in an instant with a mere swipe of his fan certainly supported that impression.
“Great!”
Nozomu clenched his hand in celebration of Hazuki’s victory, clearly having the time of his life. But it was Botan, the person who’d gone undefeated even against Hazuki, whom Hana had her sights on. And it was for reasons unrelated to the match.
“Good job out there, Hazuki.”
“Hana, thank goodness, you came back. Where have you been?”
Hana hesitated, but she decided to hide the truth. If Saku, the clan lord himself, was going to keep quiet, then Hana wasn’t going to blab.
“Arashi called for me.”
She left her excuse at that and patted Arashi’s fluffy head.
“Okay.”
Hazuki didn’t seem to have any doubts about her answer.
The matches continued, and soon, Hana’s turn came.
“I wanna get this done quickly…”
Hana couldn’t stop worrying about where the talismans were, so she wasn’t too interested in drawing out this match. She walked briskly out onto the field.
The eyes of all the spectators gathered on Hana. While she heard some cheers from her fellow Campus One students, their voices were drowned out by the sheer amount of mockery that came from the other campus’s students.
“Whoa, c’mon, did they lose it? They’re sendin’ out the worthless one!”
“What’s a Class C loser coming out here for?”
“Maybe they signed her up by accident?”
“That inugami stuff was such an obvious lie. I can’t believe they’re making her embarrass herself in public over it!”
The jeers and insults poured in from all sides. Anyone without skin as thick as Hana’s would’ve been overwhelmed and probably in tears. Kikyou, knowing Hana’s true strength, seemed furious—she was yelling something at the crowd, but Hana couldn’t hear what over all the voices around her.
Once she was far enough away from her team, Hana saw that Botan was watching it all play out. Judging by the mean-spirited smile on her face, Hana could tell that she thought just as little of her as the rest of the crowd did.
Hana was getting irrationally angry remembering how Botan had insulted Azuha earlier. While it was a given that she wanted to end things quickly, Hana’s malicious expression hinted that she had a greater desire to knock Botan’s socks off.
While disregarding the endless deluge of insults, Hana happened to look toward the stands and see Saku…whose mouth was twisted into an indomitable smile. A smile that clearly conveyed his unshakable trust in Hana’s victory. A smile that seemed to say, Get this over with and shut this crowd up already.
“Well, if you’re gonna look at me like that, then I’ve got to meet your expectations.”
After spotting his self-confident stare, Hana found herself smiling along with him.
And conveniently, her opponent just happened to be a female student from the same place as Botan, Campus Four. It was the perfect opportunity to throw down the gauntlet at Botan’s feet.
“Both contestants, please call forth your shikigami.”
Hearing the teacher serving as the referee set the stage, Hana’s opponent called forth a snake shikigami, one as large as a human. Hana had to give her points for an impactful impression. And they had a fair amount of power, befitting someone who managed to get selected for their team. Unfortunately, they had the bad luck of being pit against Hana.
“Let me start with an apology. Sorry for what I’m gonna do to you, ’kay?”
“Huh?”
“Aoi, Miyabi, Arashi, come on out.”
With an expression that could only be described as purely villainous, Hana called the names of her dearly beloved shikigami. At that moment, Aoi and Miyabi materialized, and Arashi hopped over from outside the stage.
“Huh? Wha—?”
Hana’s opponent couldn’t hide her bewilderment, but she paled as soon as she saw all those shikigami.
And it wasn’t just her. The peanut gallery from earlier went silent, letting everyone hear the cheers and rallies from all the Campus One students much more clearly.
“Yoooooo! Going all in on the first round!!!”
“Go on! Get ’em!”
“Awww, poor little Campus Four!”
“I’d cry, too, if someone pulled that out on me.”
“Show ’em why you’re Campus One’s lethal weapon!”
They didn’t seem to be restraining themselves at all, either.
“L-let the match begin!”
The teacher seemed to be shaken as well—Hana assumed, based on his stuttering—but he managed to do his job.
As soon as the signal to start was given, Aoi drew his sword, Miyabi readied her squeaky toy hammer, and Arashi bared his fangs for all to see.
“Everyone, have at it.”
“Gotcha!”
“Very well!”
“Grrrr!”
The expressions on Aoi’s and Miyabi’s faces were wicked enough to make their master proud, and even Arashi was joining in to intimidate despite his previous hesitation. In the face of such pressure, the opponent’s shikigami was shivering enough to make one feel sorry for it.
But not enough to stop Hana’s shikigami from charging in all at once.
“N-noooooo!”
Wails of terror resounded throughout the arena. The match ended in what could quite accurately be described as the blink of an eye.
“Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!” Hana made her triumphant return with a high-pitched laugh. Her teammates greeted her upon her return but seemed to have some complicated feelings about what they just saw. “What gives? What’s with the weird looks?”
“Well…I know she’s an enemy, but I kinda felt sorry for her…”
“Couldn’t you have gone easier on her, just a little?”
Nozomu and Hazuki explained their thoughts with a bit of pity for Hana’s opponent, and Kiriya nodded in agreement.
“What, so after all that talk about how I had to win, this is how you thank me?”
Hana had only done exactly what she was told. It wasn’t fair.
“And, Kikyou, you’re the one who fanned the flames the most! Weren’t you telling me to grind her into the dirt?”
“That may be true, but a match that one-sided goes beyond anything I’d be happy to see. It’s almost disturbing…”
“I can’t win with you people.”
Hana sighed, exasperated.
“Maaaster, I haven’t had enough action yet!”
Aoi came over to grouchily complain.
“We’ve got more matches coming up, so just take turns for the next ones. Everyone’s whining that we took it too far anyway.”
“Oooh, in that case, I’ll go next!”
“Then I shall go after.”
Aoi immediately raised his hand, and Miyabi followed with her own show of excitement.
“Arashi, you don’t have to come out until the final match. I know you don’t like this stuff too much.”
“Yes, thank you. I charged into battle earlier mainly to silence those who had mocked you, but I’m not too fond of such violence myself. I apologize for sitting out despite being your shikigami, but I very much appreciate it.”
“You’re fine just the way you are. The last thing I need is more violence-lovers around here…”
Hana gave Aoi and Miyabi the side-eye. They were warming up—Aoi with his sword and Miyabi swinging around her squeaky toy hammer. These two were plenty, so Arashi had nothing to worry about. In fact, Hana made a mental note to warn those two not to go overboard.