Gakusen Toshi Asterisk - Volume 10 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 
THE CELESTIAL WARRIOR AND THE KEEN-EDGED TEMPEST 
On that day, Xiaohui had been on the verge of death. 
Indeed, had he passed even one more minute in that state, he very well might have died then and there at the age of only six years old. 
The ruins of dilapidated towns and villages lined the barren remnants of what was once the Qingyi River. It was in the middle of the main road in one such settlement that Xiaohui lay, flat on his back, parched and unable to move. 
“Oh… You have a good sacrum, boy,” a voice said. 
A woman wearing a strangely amicable smile had suddenly appeared within his vision. Everything looked yellow and blurred due to hunger and thirst, and so only her cheerful voice reached him clearly—distinct but, at the same time, strangely distant. 
“Become mine. It would be a shame to let such raw talent go to waste. Although, if that is what you desire, I won’t compel you otherwise…” 
Xiaohui tried to respond, but he couldn’t even produce so much as a weak groan. He succeeded only in opening his cracked lips a fraction wider. 
“Don’t fret. Just say it in your heart,” the woman said, her voice remaining calm and detached. 
And Xiaohui filled his mind with a single thought: I don’t want to die. 
At that moment, a lone tear dripped down his cheek. 
“Very well. From now on, you belong to me,” the woman said with a gentle smile before lifting a bamboo canteen to his lips. 
The cold water flowed down his throat, and Xiaohui lost consciousness. 
A world controlled by the integrated enterprise foundations required by simple necessity an underprivileged class. That wasn’t to say that those on the other end of the spectrum lived in security and peace of mind. All it took was one mistake to be mercilessly cast down into the abyss. 
Xiaohui’s had been one such family, brought to ruin by some trivial blunder and scattered in the wind. While he was still too young to fully understand what was going on around him, his mother had taken him across the country, from one dilapidated provincial town to the next, until at last she, who had lived her whole life in luxury, could endure the hardship no longer and departed from the world, leaving him to fend for himself. 
After an unknown time had passed, the young Xiaohui found himself wandering away from her cold sickbed, wandering without purpose or destination, until he could wander no longer. 
“…!” 
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in what looked like an old, elegant hermitage. Apart from the bed on which he was lying, the room was fitted only with a lacquered black desk. Even so, it looked to be meticulously maintained, unmarred by even a speck of dust. 
He lifted himself up, glancing toward the latticed window at his side. Before him, he could see flowers rich in bloom, small birds singing, and a gentle light that glowed with all the colors of the rainbow. At the time, he had thought he must have died and woken up in paradise. 
“Hmm, so you’re awake. These drugs are strong, but you must be stronger still.” 
He glanced around, to find a woman standing at the foot of the bed. 
She had long black hair, her modest clothes loose around her body. To his surprise, she was young—more girl than woman. 
“…Where am I?” 
“My hermitage at Huangshan. This area is filled with Nüwa stones—what you would call urm-manadite. They used to be quite useful, but I haven’t touched them since I went to Emeishan.” 
For a brief second, Xiaohui wondered whether this kind of place could really exist, but he quickly cast aside his doubts. He knew instinctively that the normal rules of nature didn’t apply to the woman standing in front of him. 
“In this body, I go by the name of Xiaoyuan Wang. What are you called?” 
Without waiting for him to respond, Xiaoyuan leaped, bringing her face up to his own. Her eyes stared into his, sucking him in, consuming his heart—his very soul. 
“…Xiaohui Wu,” he answered, his mouth moving of its own accord. 
“Good. Well, Xiaohui. Do you remember agreeing to become mine?” 
Xiaohui nodded. 
At this, Xiaoyuan, too, nodded in satisfaction, her eyes narrowing in delight. “Good, good. Then let’s start by hearing what you can do.” 
“What I can do…?” Xiaohui repeated, his mind going blank. 
He ought to have been able to do whatever he wanted—not because his life had been saved, but because he himself wanted to do it. 
That said, his six-year-old self had yet to fully comprehend that fact. 
“…Tea…” 
“Hmm?” 
“I can make tea.” 
Desperately trying to call something to mind, those were the only words that came to his lips. 
He had learned it from his mother and remembered fondly how his parents had praised him after his first attempt. Since then, he had volunteered to brew the tea himself at every possible opportunity. 
“Oh-ho! I see, I see. I’ll have you make some later, then,” Xiaoyuan said with a sonorous laugh, placing a hand on his head. “But, Xiaohui, that isn’t all that I want from you. I need you to be strong.” 
“Strong…?” 
“Indeed. Do you know any martial arts?” 
Xiaohui shook his head. 
He was a Genestella, but his mother had always detested fighting, and so he had never had an opportunity to learn anything like that. 
“Hmm, very well. In that case, we’ll have to start from the beginning. I will make you stronger, Xiaohui. Stronger, stronger, stronger, until one day you will be even stronger than I am… Satisfy me. That’s all I wish from you.” Xiaoyuan’s eyes glowed like those of a child. 
That was when Xiaohui first realized it, that the Xiaoyuan standing before him now, the young child that he saw in her eyes—this was her true self. 
“…I’ll do it. I promise,” he answered, staring back into those warm, innocent eyes. 
“A fine response… You should know, the signs all point to something great happening afar in the near future. I want to see it for myself. Which means that soon…yes, in four or five years, I will have to take a new body. You will need to grow during that time, too.” 
Xiaohui had no idea what she was talking about, but he nodded along regardless. He didn’t want to disappoint her. 
Xiaoyuan smiled down at him gently, stroking his head once more. “Well then, how about you brew that tea for me?” 
Xiaohui’s daily training regimen began that very day. 
“Listen well, Xiaohui. The basic principle of this world is conflict. None of us can escape it. So we must master the art of war to give meaning to that conflict.” 
They began by training his body, building upon that foundation by learning new techniques little by little. 
Xiaohui, who had no experience in the martial arts, devoured Xiaoyuan’s teachings like cotton absorbs water. 
That wasn’t to suggest that the lessons were easy. 
He would run through the untamed mountain, climb its sheer peaks, fight against Xiaoyuan with all his might, while she effortlessly resisted him using nothing but a single finger. When his body became worn out and exhausted, he would soak in the medicinal hot springs, the pain of his injuries searing through his body, tormenting him until the break of dawn. 
And yet, he didn’t once find those days to be unbearable, not even for a moment. 
“Listen well, Xiaohui. It is knowledge that lies at the heart of martial arts, and knowledge is based on understanding.” 
It wasn’t just the martial arts that Xiaoyuan taught him, but all of her accumulated wisdom. 
Everything from arithmetic, to the motions of the stars, to how to communicate in various languages spoken all throughout the world, until Xiaohui came to wonder whether there wasn’t anything that his master didn’t know. 
And sometimes, Xinglou would tell him about existences that defied the laws of nature. 
“…Are you saying that there are other people like you out there?” 
“Indeed. Well, I haven’t seen them for a long time. In fact, I could count those with whom I still have contact on one hand.” Xiaoyuan laughed nostalgically as she prepared an elixir by his bedside. 
Xiaohui, in the center of that weak patch of candlelight, listened carefully to her gentle voice. 
“I suppose the last time I met one of them in person was when I visited that decrepit old fool holed up in his ivory tower off in Europe. That must have been half a century ago now.” 
“Is there anyone else around here?” 
“Well, now… There were quite a few sages here when I first came to this mountain… Unfortunately, we didn’t get along.” 
“You didn’t get along…? What do you mean?” 
“They had thrown away their attachments. A rather tedious bunch. The ability to laugh with joy, to writhe in agony, to cry in despair—they had practically given up on life itself. Don’t you make the same mistake. A good sacrum is said to be proof of great talents, but it’s you who needs to clear your own path forward.” 
“I see…” 
By then, Xiaohui was already half asleep and couldn’t make out the bitter smile that had appeared on Xiaoyuan’s face. 
Several years passed, and Xiaohui found himself gradually becoming able to hold his own as Xiaoyuan’s sparring partner. Even she was astonished by his progress—and by the fact that he had managed to pick up seisenjutsu almost immediately. 
“You’re even more talented than I had imaged,” she exclaimed after one of their training sessions, her pleasure shining through. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor of their training room, a cup of her student’s tea in her hand. 
“…I’m honored,” Xiaohui responded graciously, his voice ringing with confidence. 
“Hmm… It’s a shame that that charm of yours has all but disappeared, though. Whatever happened to your cute nature?” Xiaoyuan asked, catching him in a sudden embrace. 
“M-master!” Xiaohui exclaimed, his cheeks turning red as he looked away. “Please, stop playing around…!” 
“Oh-ho, I see. So there’s still something left in there.” For a short moment, she knuckled her student on the head before suddenly letting go and returning to her usual serious expression. “Now then, you should be able to fend for yourself now. The time has come for me to take on a new body.” 
“Master…?” 
“I will return here in a few years’ time. Until then, you must continue your training by yourself,” Xiaoyuan said, her voice solemn, before holding out a sealed scroll. 
“…Very well,” answered Xiaohui, carefully taking it in his hands. 
Xiaoyuan gave him a satisfied nod, though her expression still contained a touch of unease. 
Xiaohui maintained his daily regimen, training in solitary silence for the next six years. 
He polished his techniques as per the instructions Xiaoyuan had left him, focusing day after day on improving himself for the time when his master would finally return. 
All the while, he kept what she had said to him close to heart. 
Yes, he would become stronger. 
Stronger than he was now, stronger even than Xiaoyuan herself. Because that was what she wanted of him. 
Before long, he found himself having grown taller than he remembered her being herself, having grown, to anyone who might have seen him, into a tall young man who showed no resemblance whatsoever to the boy who had once been hanging on the verge of death in the middle of a deserted road. 
And then, while meditating deep inside the hermitage, he heard the high-pitched sound of a door creaking open. 
Amid the spring light that flooded the room was a small silhouette. 
Xiaohui, quite as if he had known she was coming, immediately fell to his knees, head bowed. 
“Welcome back, master.” 
“Oh-ho-ho! You’ve grown since I last saw you, my dear student.” 
The laughter that greeted him was different than he remembered, the innocent, childish figure before him that of someone else. 
But there could be no mistaking that it was her. 
“Now then, get ready. We’re going to Rikka.” 
“Yes, master.” 
Xiaohui had begun his preparations as instructed when the young girl clapped her hands together, just like he remembered. “Ah, yes. I forgot to mention it. My name now is Xinglou. Xinglou Fan.” 
 
“Haaa!” 
Xiaohui brushed aside Ayato’s downward stroke of the Ser Veresta with his staff, at the same time twisting his body to dodge Kirin’s oncoming attack from his right. 
Her katana continued its arc, however, carving through the air as it zeroed in on his chest. At the same time, Ayato, having regained his balance, thrust the Ser Veresta straight at him. 
Xiaohui, holding his staff one-handed, parried the oncoming strike while using his free hand to brush aside Kirin’s Senbakiri. One of the charms wrapped around his staff quickly burned itself out, pushing Ayato backward with tremendous force while he spun around to take down Kirin—who only just managed to jump to safety at the last moment. 
His two opponents put some distance between themselves and him. Xiaohui returned to his usual stance. 
As could have been expected from Seidoukan’s current and former number ones, they were both of consummate skill and ability. Battling them both at the same time—all it would take was a single mistake, and he might end up losing his school crest. 
But of course, there was no chance of that happening. Xiaohui had long since resolved to dedicate everything he had to his master, Xinglou. 
His heart, his prowess at martial arts, his techniques, his words—everything he had, his life included, he had dedicated to her. 
To repay her, to grant her wish. 
Which was why he would never make a mistake. 
“Jí jí rú l? lìng, chì!” he chanted as he made the symbol with his fingers, when a wall of fire erupted in front of his opponents. 
Ayato didn’t hesitate to cut through it with the Ser Veresta, but by then, Xiaohui had already moved into his blind spot. 
Xiaohui was well aware that Xinglou wasn’t satisfied with his current level of skill, so he had no idea whether she was enjoying what she saw that day. 
In the end, it was up to her. It wasn’t something for him to know. 
So he just had to do what he always did—fight as best he could, without holding anything back. 
“Pò!” 
“Oh, crap!” 
Ayato had noticed the oncoming attack, but Xiaohui was still faster. 
There was no opening to reach his school crest, but Xiaohui landed three consecutive blows along the right-hand side of his body: on his shoulder, chest, and thigh. 
“Ugh…!” 
Ayato fell to his knees, finally giving Xiaohui an opening for his prize. 
First, he would take down this one. 
He lashed out with an assured blow—only to have Kirin’s Senbakiri appear in front of him. 
“I won’t let you!” she shouted. 
“…!” 
Xiaohui’s brow wrinkled slightly. He hadn’t let down his guard against her; on the contrary, he had judged that she wouldn’t make it there in time. 
Did I misread her…? No, but then… 
Kirin was staring straight at him. Had he simply imagined the strange glint in her eyes? 
He took a half step back, when— 
“Sorry, Elder Brother! You might want to look away!” 
A blinding burst and a terrible roar engulfed the stage as a torrent of lightning came crashing down. 
 
“There’s no need to go crazy on my account, Raigeki Senka!” Julis bellowed. 
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! What, is this too much for you?” Cecily laughed back. 
Lightning continued to tear into the stage from every angle, cutting through the air like countless soaring dragons. 
The storm she had unleashed at the beginning of the match had been like an out-of-control tempest, but this was at a completely different level. 
Dodging those blasts of electricity had become much more difficult, as not only were they crashing down from above, but now they also ran practically parallel to the ground. It was an attack directed not at specific targets, but at specific trajectories—although, luckily, their distribution seemed to be randomized. Nonetheless, Julis knew she’d have to keep an eye on it. 
“Ngh! Fine, let’s do this properly, then!” Julis cried out as she thrust her hands down onto the ground, summoning up an enormous magic circle on the stage floor. 
“Burst into bloom—Grevillea!” 
With that, pillars of fire at least ten meters tall erupted out of the ground throughout the arena, colliding with Cecily’s lightning in a massive explosion of mana. 
In the center of that explosion, Ayato, Kirin, and Xiaohui had resumed their contest. 
And then— 
“Pò!” 
Saya emerged from the roiling flames, catching Hufeng’s oncoming kick with the body of the Ark Van Ders. 
“…Ugh!” 
She shook off the heavy blow, but Hufeng leaped back into the air, circling around her as if rebounding off unseen walls. His movements were fast—too fast to be seen with the naked eye. 
His attacks could come from any direction, so it required everything they had just to stay on alert. Nonetheless, her injuries were mounting. 
“I’ll show you no mercy!” 
“…Ngh!” 
Even so, Hufeng still had to avoid the lightning and flames that now filled the arena, meaning that his movements were, at least, partially restricted. If not for that, he might have already defeated her. At the very least, she was no match for him at close quarters. 
“Even so…!” 
Saya poured her prana into the Ark Van Ders, waiting for a chance at a Hail Mary strike. 
She had made contact with him just before, but so far, he had managed to evade most of her attacks. If she didn’t time it right, it would be practically impossible to hit her target. 
Just as she was trying to line up a shot, Hufeng made his most daring leap yet, landing directly in front of her. 
“—!” 
“I’ve got you now!” 
Saya quickly lowered her weapon to catch him, but Hufeng swiftly brushed it aside and drove his elbow into the pit of her stomach. 
“Gah…!” 
His fist came flying toward her school crest, but she managed to twist away just before it could make contact. 
However, as if having anticipated this move, Hufeng then swept her feet out from under her. But Saya sunk her weapon into the ground and used it as a pivot to swing to safety. 
Hufeng leaped after her as she again lined up her shot, but it was too late. This was the chance she had been waiting for. 
“Now!” 
She swung the Ark over her shoulder, tightening her hold on its grip, and pulled the trigger just as Hufeng was about to dash toward her once more. She hadn’t had much time to aim, but at this range, there was no way she could miss. 
The burst of light made a direct hit on its target—and went right through. 
“Wha—?!” 
For a second, Hufeng’s figure seemed to waver in the air before disappearing like a mirage. 
An illusion?! 

But by the time she realized what had happened, it was already too late. 
“I didn’t want to have to rely on those twins to do this… My apologies!” came a voice from her rear, when something collided into her with a tremendous impact, like a giant boulder falling down and crushing her underneath. Everything went black. 
“Saya Sasamiya—unconscious.” 
“Saya…!” Julis hissed at the sound of the automated voice before turning back to her own opponent. “Damn it! You can’t keep this up forever!” 
“Oh? And why not?” responded Cecily as she pursued her across the battlefield, surrounded by countless saber-like lightning bolts. 
Each one was powerful enough to tear a hole through the base of the stage, but with their user’s aim being what it was, dodging them wasn’t too difficult. 
Nonetheless, now that Saya wasn’t tying Hufeng down, she had no more time to waste. 
“Because I won’t let you! Burst into bloom—Antirrhinum Majus!” 
She drew an outline of a magic circle with the Nova Spina, from which burst the figure of a fire-clad dragon. 
“Heh, so it’s tiger versus dragon, is it?” Cecily had taken a bunch of spell charms in one hand, using the other to make a series of unusual gestures. 
“Jí jí rú l? lìng, chì!” 
The charms activated in a cloud of lightning, writhing in the air as if a living thing, until, just as Cecily had said, it had vaguely taken on the form of a tiger. 
“Let’s see whose is the strongest!” 
Both elemental creatures were close to equal in size—but Julis, her face grave, wasn’t going to just watch from the sidelines. 
“I’ll crush you!” she cried out, recalling six of her fallen Rect Lux units and positioning them around the dragon. 
“Bloom!” 
At that moment, the Lux blades flew through the air as the dragon swelled to almost three times its prior size. 
“Wh-wha—?!” 
The flames practically swallowed the tiger-shaped cloud of lightning whole before swooping down toward Cecily. A wave of panic spreading across her face, she continued to desperately cast more spell charms in rapid succession, summoning up a wall of lightning to protect herself—but the dragon simply opened its maw wider, engulfing them all in a powerful explosion. 
Julis covered her face with her arms to shield herself from the heat of the blast. 
She had synchronized the particular junction pattern of her mana and prana with the units of her Rect Lux to temporarily boost the power of the technique. It was only the second time she had managed to pull it off in the middle of battle, and the first time in conjunction with a move as destructive as the Antirrhinum Majus. 
When the flames subsided, a motionless figure lay sprawled in the middle of a deep crater. 
“Cecily Wong—crest broken.” 
“Ah-ha-ha… You got me,” Cecily said with a bitter smile. “Argh, why did I go with seisenjutsu? I should have done this the old-fashioned way.” 
Cecily’s martial arts certainly had been beyond compare during the Phoenix four years ago. If she had used those against her, Julis would no doubt have found herself in a difficult position. 
But if she had done that, her team would have had inadequate support. It wasn’t a one-on-one contest, so it made sense for her to take over the rearguard. 
It looked like Cecily understood that, too. “Well, it’s just me who’s out, not the team. It isn’t the end of the world…” 
“—!” 
Before she could finish, Julis leaped backward, and the ground where she had been standing suddenly erupted before her. 
“Tenka Musou!” 
It was indeed Hufeng on the other side of the roiling dust. She tried to brace herself with the Nova Spina, but she had already exhausted her prana with that last move. 
I guess I still haven’t really recovered from yesterday… 
Of course, Hufeng hadn’t failed to notice that, either. 
The next moment, he descended upon her faster than the eye could see, carving straight through her crest. 
“Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld—crest broken.” 
“Ayato, I can handle this! Go help Claudia!” Kirin called out over the automated voice announcing Julis’s defeat as she parried Xiaohui’s staff. 
“But don’t you…?” 
It was obvious, now that both Julis and Saya had been eliminated, that Hufeng would go for their team leader. Even with the Pan-Dora, Claudia couldn’t face three opponents alone. 
He knew that she needed someone to back her up, but he couldn’t just leave Kirin to face Xiaohui by herself. Even with the two taking him on together, he still had the upper hand. 
“Don’t worry. I’ve realized something.” 
“Huh…?” 
“Trust me, Ayato! I’ll be okay!” 
“…All right.” 
He couldn’t afford to waste time asking what exactly she meant. She seemed confident about it, whatever it was, so he had no choice but to trust her. 
He got his breathing under control, focusing his attention on the other side of the stage, before rushing over to Claudia. 
“Ayato!” Claudia’s expression was one of relief as he appeared by her side. 
That was understandable, given that she had been fighting alone thus far. Before they could say anything more, however, the air around them seemed to waver as Hufeng appeared behind them. 
“Claudia, get down!” 
But she had already begun to dive out of the way before he could finish speaking. She had probably used the Pan-Dora. 
Ayato leaped over her, wincing slightly as a dull pain ran through his right leg, and then swept the Ser Veresta downward. 
“Jí!” 
To Ayato’s surprise, Hufeng caught the attack with a kick—or more precisely, with the back of his outstretched leg. 
Of course. Those armored boots were an Orga Lux. 
“Why did you think I brought these out?” Hufeng called out as he swept the Ser Veresta aside. He twisted through the air, rushing toward him. 
Ayato ducked down just as Hufeng vanished. 
Instead, the twins now stood on either side of him, spell charms ready. But that wasn’t Ayato’s main concern. “Claudia, he’s headed your way!” 
“I know!” she called back. 
Shenyun grimaced as he threw himself out of the path of Ayato’s oncoming sword. 
And then, the figures of the twins, lunging toward him to attack, simply melted away. 
“That shiki of yours—” 
“—is a real nuisance…” 
Shenyun and Shenhua both glared at him resentfully. 
Ayato poured his prana into his weapon, using Meteor Arts to mow down everything around him. Behind the brilliant afterimage, the traps that Shenhua had just set burned away unused. 
“Thank you, Ayato!” Claudia said with a bright laugh, moving to stand back-to-back against him. 
“There’s probably still more of them out there, though, so keep your eyes open.” 
“Argh…” Shenhua glared at him, but Ayato had more immediate concerns. 
Hufeng was speeding toward him once again. 
“Pò!” 
Ayato repulsed Hufeng’s ax kick with his sword, forcing him back. Hufeng was quick to react, but it seemed he was being particularly vigilant around the Ser Veresta. At least to a certain extent, that made his movements easier to read. 
“P?n!” 
Ayato dodged the downward strike, thrusting back at his opponent’s chest. Hufeng managed to dodge the blade with only a hair’s breadth to spare before leaping forward once more, lashing out with his elbow. Ayato, however, took ahold of that arm with his free hand, letting his prana flow through him as he flung his opponent backward—yet, it was Hufeng, bracing his legs against an invisible wall, who ended up launching Ayato across the stage. 
“Ugh…” 
It looked like Hufeng was indeed the stronger of the two when it came to unarmed combat. And of course, Ayato was still wounded from his earlier engagement with Xiaohui. The pain running through his shoulder continued unabated. 
Even so, he managed to correct his bearing before he hit the ground and landed safely before readying himself to meet Hufeng’s oncoming midair kick. His opponent leaped over him, unleashing a torrent of high-speed strikes. Ayato swung the Ser Veresta backward, meeting those blows head-on as his own weapon repeatedly collided with the Tongtianzu. 
Brilliant sparks flew in every direction as the two Orga Luxes clashed against each other, until the two fighters’ attacks became so powerful as to force both of them apart. 
“I should have expected as much from the Murakumo…” Hufeng’s breathing was ragged, but his smile was one of excitement. “You really are an outstanding opponent!” 
“I could say the same about you!” Ayato replied, just as a strange feeling began to well up inside him. 
It was the same dull throbbing in his chest that he had felt during the Gran Colosseo when he had witnessed Earnest’s and Sylvia’s abilities firsthand. 
No, Ayato reminded himself, quashing the thought. The team comes first… 
He edged closer to his opponent, keeping his gaze locked on Hufeng. 
It was clear that Hufeng was focusing his prana into his legs. He was no doubt planning to leap forward with explosive force in an attempt to settle their duel. 
The air practically throbbed with tension, until finally, it came to a head. 
“?, crest broken.” 
The mechanical voice rang coolly across the stage. 
 
“…I see.” 
Watching Ayato rush to Claudia’s aid out of the corner of her eye, Kirin held the Senbakiri at eye level as she faced off against Xiaohui. 
Her opponent, staff held low, knees bent, wore a suspicious frown. “What are you up to?” 
“What am I up to…? Do you mean, why did I tell Ayato to go?” 
It was the first time that Xiaohui had said anything to her. Kirin, surprised, wanted to choose her words carefully, without allowing her concentration to lapse. 
“You can’t fight me alone.” 
There was no trace of conceit behind those words; he had uttered them merely as an objective fact. 
“Maybe not. But still…I won’t know unless I try!” Kirin cried as she leaped forward with an upward swing of her blade. 
Xiaohui raised his staff to block the attack, while at the same time making a gesture with his free hand, summoning up a powerful gale that pushed her backward across the stage. 
“Ugh…!” 
This was it. 
Under any normal circumstances, she would be able to flow from one strike to the next with the Toudou school’s Conjoined Cranes technique, but that wasn’t an option against Xiaohui. Put simply, he was too fast for her—the number of skills at his disposal too great. There was little chance she would be able to take him down in this state. 
“Pò!” 
Using the powerful gale at his back to leap after her, Xiaohui lunged toward her school crest, but Kirin managed to evade the attack by running toward him herself. His staff still made contact with her cheek, but she couldn’t afford to dwell on the blood that now dripped from the shallow cut. 
Xiaohui’s staff was sharp and heavy. If she tried to parry his attacks with it head-on, there was a high chance that it would end up breaking the Senbakiri. 
“Jí!” 
Even so, the normal strategies for dealing with an opponent armed with a long weapon wouldn’t be effective against Xiaohui’s martial arts. Indeed, just as she was thinking that, he immediately followed through with a charged punch with his free hand. 
The attack, made all the more powerful by his having channeled his prana into it, could have ended up shattering her bones if she had met it head-on. 
Instead, she twisted her body out of the way, dodging it at a hair’s breadth. The strike grazed across her left shoulder, tearing her uniform and skin. 
“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” 
She countered with a wide swing of the Senbakiri, its tip reaching within a few centimeters of her opponent’s school crest—but by the time that it had gotten that far, Xiaohui, like she herself had done just before, had already spun out of its path. 
He twisted through the air before lashing out with a backhanded punch aimed for her head. 
Kirin, however, again ducked out of the way, leaving only a few strands of glittering silver hair to fall softly to the ground. 
“Haaah…haaah…” Her breathing was growing ragged, but her concentration hadn’t flagged. 
She could still win. 
“…How?” Xiaohui asked, the two opponents having retreated from each other after their rapid exchange of blows. His gaze seemed to be filled with even greater suspicion than last time. “How did you dodge that attack? It would have been impossible for you just a moment ago.” 
“I’m not the same person I was a moment ago,” Kirin replied firmly, leaping forward with a downward stroke of her blade. 
In actual fact, not even she could say how exactly she had done it. She could just read him better than she could before. She could gauge his movements based on the way he concentrated his prana throughout his body. She wasn’t lying when she had told Ayato that she had realized something. 
She had always been unusually sensitive to the flow of prana. Any Genestella could discern the movements of another person’s prana, but her understanding went to a deeper level in a way even she couldn’t properly describe. It was thanks to that that she had been able to master the Conjoined Cranes at such a young age. 
And this wasn’t the first time she had been able to completely read an opponent through the way they focused their prana. However, whereas her previous experiences had lasted only for a short moment, she found herself now filled with a newfound confidence. 
“The spirit of Tianshang Shengmu…?” Xiaohui murmured under his breath. 
Kirin had no idea what he meant, but there was something else bothering her. “Do you mind if I ask a question of my own?” she asked, her gaze fixed on his face. 
“What?” 
“You… You aren’t trying to win, are you?” 
Xiaohui’s eyes opened wide, as if caught off guard. 
Right. That sense of unease that had been at the back of her mind since first facing off against him—it stemmed from his extreme selflessness. 
“…Exactly. For me, victory is no more than a maximum display of one’s own power against an opponent.” 
“In other words, you aren’t bothered about the outcome?” 
“Is there anything wrong with that?” Xiaohui responded calmly. 
Kirin pursed her lips in mild annoyance, shaking her head. “No. As a warrior, that’s…probably a very idealistic way of thinking. It’s a wonderful thing to want to better yourself and to simply want to fight at your best, without worrying about whether you win or lose,” Kirin said before catching her breath. “But I’m not so broad-minded… I want to win!” 
“Then why do you seek victory? For yourself? For your friends? Or maybe you hope to win the tournament to have a wish granted?” As he spoke, Xiaohui was letting his prana flow through his body. He no doubt meant to bring their contest to an end. 
Kirin, too, let her prana flow through her as she responded: “For all those things. I want to win for my own world!” 
The two leaped toward each other. 
Xiaohui’s staff spun upward with a howl, cutting through the air as it approached. Kirin, however, had already taken account of his movements. But of course, while she could read those movements in advance, she couldn’t hope to surpass him in terms of raw technique. If she wanted to beat him, there would only be one way to do it. 
She stepped backward just far enough to dodge Xiaohui’s low attack as he tried to knock her off her feet; steadied herself as she turned aside his next strike with the Senbakiri; then spun out of the way of what was meant to be a surprise hand-to-hand attack. 
It was a fierce series of moves, leaving her without any chance to counter. 
Even with the ability to read his actions in advance, she was at her limit just trying to keep up with him. 
“Jí jí rú l? lìng, chì!” Xiaohui chanted as a surge of lightning exploded in front of her. 
She shielded her eyes, but a sharp burning pain ran through her left arm. Because of the distraction, she had been too slow to react to Xiaohui’s next strike with his staff. It had probably left her arm broken. 
But she couldn’t do anything about that now. 
She shifted her hold on the Senbakiri to better control the weapon one-handed before lunging toward her opponent’s school crest. 
There was no way she could have missed, and yet, the strike simply passed straight through its target with no resistance. Xiaohui’s figure wavered in the air for a second before disappearing. 
An illusion?! 
She had assumed that only the twins would use those, but there was no reason to have thought that Xiaohui wouldn’t be able to do so, either. She cursed herself for not realizing it sooner. 
“This is it…!” Xiaohui, taking full advantage of the opportunity, swept his staff toward her. 
Having seen the oncoming blow out of the corner of her eye, she had just enough time to leap out of the way but ended up losing her balance and falling to her knees. 
Xiaohui changed his trajectory, homing in on her school crest with the tip of his weapon. 
Once more, however, Kirin saw that coming. Her eyes flashed with a purple glimmer as she watched him fill his body with prana and exhaust it all in a sudden move. 
She raised the Senbakiri one-handed to defend herself. A clear, crystalline sound rang out as the katana shattered, but she wasted no time before rushing toward Xiaohui’s chest. 
Only the base of her blade remained, but that was enough. 
Xiaohui was strong. 
She still hadn’t been able to land any real attacks against him. The difference in ability between the two was clear, and he wasn’t the kind of fighter to let down his guard or underestimate his opponents. 
Even so, Kirin didn’t hesitate. 
It was her need to win that kept her going. An unbecoming reason, but that was what it was. 
She had seen what drove Ayato, Saya, Julis, and Claudia forward—she understood what they wanted, why they needed to win. All those things existed in her world, too; all of them gave her the power to keep going. 
A wall of fire began to erupt in her path, but she had seen through that, too. It was the same technique that Xiaohui had used against Ayato earlier, and Kirin had made the connection between his techniques and the symbols he made with his fingers, the movements of his lips. 

 

Before the flames could fully emerge, she wrapped herself around her opponent’s arm, guiding her broken sword toward his school crest. 
For the first time, Xiaohui’s eyes opened wide in shock. 
Still, he didn’t allow himself to falter. Letting his staff drop to the ground, he readied himself to meet her with his bare hands, one fist clutching a glowing spell charm. 
“Bào!” 
A huge conflagration engulfed half the stage, followed by a tremendous explosion of searing wind. 
It was a merciless attack, and one that, at this range, would risk engulfing him, too—which meant he would have had to have positioned it perfectly. 
In which case— 
Kirin spun around behind him, her legs screaming with pain as she pushed herself beyond her physical capabilities. 
Just a little longer… 
“Aaaaaargh!” Xiaohui let out an earsplitting war cry as he prepared to meet her attack. 
He let out his fastest punch yet—but Kirin, filled with admiration for her opponent, let it swing past her, thrusting what remained of the Senbakiri at his chest. 
It was, when all was said and done, only a broken sword. 
Yet, it still reached its target. 
“Xiaohui Wu—crest broken.” 
Kirin’s final movements, her series of offensive and defensive maneuvers that completely engulfed her opponent, were as graceful and elegant as the folding of an origami crane.