Gakusen Toshi Asterisk - Volume 12 - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 
PREPARING FOR BATTLE 
“…What’s this about?” Saya demanded with suspicion as she entered the room at the Hotel Elnath. 
“Th-this is…” Kirin, coming in behind her, raised her hand to her mouth in surprise. 
“Welcome, you two. Thank you for coming,” Claudia said with her usual open smile. 
Ayato grinned back at them nervously from his seat on the sofa at the back of the room, while beside him, Haruka’s expression was one of warmth. 
The source of their confusion was on the other side of the room. On the sofa at the opposite side of the table sat Sylvia Lyyneheym, alias Sigrdrífa, waving at them; while leaning against the wall with her arms crossed was the commander of Stjarnagarm, Helga Lindwall. 
“We’re all here now.” Then, from the adjoining room, came a blond woman in a black suit. 
“Saya Sasamiya, and Kirin Toudou. My name is Isabella Enfield. Pleased to meet you.” 
“Enfield?” Kirin repeated. “You mean…?” 
“Yes, I’m Claudia’s mother. It’s a pleasure,” Isabella replied as she held out her hand to them, her countenance practically a mirror-image of her daughter’s. 

 

“Y-yes…,” Kirin stammered as she shook her hand. 
Saya, however, pursed her lips. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I came here because Ayato said it was important. I want an explanation.” 
Nor did she understand why Julis was absent from the group. 
If it was as important as Ayato had made out, then she should have been the first to come to his help. Judging by the situation, Saya got the impression that she wouldn’t be joining them later, either. 
“Please, take a seat,” Claudia urged them, motioning toward an empty sofa. “Ayato wasn’t lying when he called you. Although it did take us some time to convince him that we should bring you all in.” 
Ayato nodded. “I’m still against it. I don’t want to drag either of you into this, Saya, Kirin. There’s no going back once we get started, so please, think about it carefully before—” 
“It’s fine. Go on,” Saya said without the slightest hesitation. 
“…Please.” Kirin nodded in agreement. 
That should have been obvious. If Ayato was in trouble, nothing could stand in the way of their helping him. 
“This really is dangerous,” he continued, his expression grave. “I mean—” 
“I told you, didn’t I?” Claudia said, patting him on the shoulder. “Neither Saya nor Kirin is the kind of person to turn their back on you.” 
“How nice,” Sylvia said, chuckling. “They must really love you, Ayato.” 
“…Sigrdrífa. How lucky. I’ve been wanting to meet you for some time.” 
“Sylvie is fine. But what for?” 
At this, Saya leaned forward, looking her over distrustfully. “If you’re just messing around with Ayato, I want you to leave him alone.” 
“Oh my, what an awful thing to say. I’m completely serious about him. And do I really need your permission to get involved with him?” 
“Of course.” 
“And why would that be?” 
“Because I’ve known him forever,” Saya stated flatly, sticking out her chest. 
“…That isn’t a particularly good reason,” Sylvia replied, returning a sharp look. “But what makes you think I’m the problem? If I’m not mistaken, Miss Toudou and Ayato stayed at each other’s houses over the New Year. Maybe you should be more worried about her.” 
“Whaaat?!” 
“I haven’t forgotten about that, either…” 
“N-no, like I said, that was…” Kirin, suddenly finding herself at the center of the conversation, tried to blunder out an explanation. 
“Ah, speaking of which, Dad spoke pretty highly of you, Kirin,” Haruka interrupted. “He thought you were very considerate.” 
“Eh? Th-that’s… I’m honored!” Her face turned bright red under the praise as she stared at her feet. It was clear from the pleased ring to her voice that she wasn’t as flustered as she would have them all believe. 
“Ngh… I guess this is what they mean by that saying. ‘He that would the daughter win, must with the mother first begin,’ huh…?” 
“Ah-ha-ha! In that case, I’ll just have to get his sister on my side…” Sylvia leaned forward with excitement, grabbing Haruka by the hand. “What do you say? Why don’t we go out for tea sometime? I’d love to hear what Ayato was like as a kid.” 
“Oh my, I’m honored to be invited by the world’s most popular songstress. I have to admit, I’m interested in you too, Sylvia,” Haruka replied with a laugh as she gripped her hand back. 
“Sylvia, if you want to hear about Ayato’s childhood, I’m sure that Saya will be able to satisfy you,” Claudia interrupted, joining the fray. 
“Oh? Bring it on.” Saya beckoned toward her. “I could go on for three days and nights.” 
“What would be the point in that?” Sylvia shook her head, frowning. 
“Um… Sorry about this, but do you mind if we move on to why you called us all here?” With the situation getting out of hand, Helga, with a look of bafflement, somehow managed to bring the room back under control. 
“That’s all we know about the Golden Bough Alliance and their current activities,” Isabella finished, having summarized everything that had happened thus far. 
“That’s…” Kirin had raised her hands to her face, as if she could hardly believe what she had just heard. “How could they use Haruka’s life as a bargaining chip…?” 
“Hmm… This Lamina Mortis is one thing, but the Varda-Vaos’s abilities sound extraordinary…,” Saya murmured. 
Indeed, if it was the Orga Lux’s energy output that gave it the power to interfere with people’s thoughts, then not even a Genestella normally resistant to mind control would be able to withstand it. 
On top of that, the body that it had currently usurped was that of Sylvia Lyyneheym’s former teacher. 
By the sound of it, all of their problems were tangled up with one another. 
Isabella gave Saya and Kirin a moment to digest everything before asking: “Do you understand our position now, and why we asked you all to come here in secret?” 
“…I understand,” Saya answered. “This Golden Bough Alliance is a serious danger. And Ayato will have to enter the Lindvolus.” 
If Haruka’s life depended on it, then he had no choice. 
“I have some questions, though.” 
“If I can answer them, I will,” Isabella replied with a composed smile. 
“Firstly, why exactly were we all called to this meeting? The Varda-Vaos is supposed to be top secret, so Galaxy shouldn’t want information on it spreading unnecessarily. On top of that…” She paused there, glancing toward Helga. 
It could turn bad for Galaxy if the head of Stjarnagarm shared that information with her colleagues. 
“Ah, you don’t need to worry about the commander here. We’ve already made all the necessary political arrangements.” 
“…I can’t say I’m happy about them, though,” Helga murmured. 
“Of course, your concerns are reasonable, Miss Sasamiya. At Galaxy, we certainly want to make sure that knowledge about the Varda-Vaos stays in the hands of as few individuals as possible. However, I’m afraid that circumstances have already moved on to the next stage.” 
“Because I woke up, you mean?” Haruka asked with a reluctant smile. 
“Exactly. The information that Haruka provided came as a great surprise to us. As such, we revised and presented our threat evaluation of the Golden Bough Alliance to the executive committee, and they have decided to review our approach with the Varda-Vaos. As it happened, the commander already had a thorough grasp of the situation, so now that we’ve got several conditions out of the way, we have decided to establish a united front.” 
“And those conditions are?” Saya asked bluntly. 
“That I, as well as Haruka—although she hasn’t formally joined us yet—won’t share this information with any other members of the guard,” Helga answered with a shrug. “That we’ll keep all this secret, that we’ll hand over the Varda-Vaos once it’s secured, and so on.” 
“…And you’re okay with that?” 
To be honest, Saya wouldn’t have expected her to agree to those kinds of terms. As commander of the city guard, Helga Lindwall was renowned for her sense of honesty and honor. She wasn’t normally the kind of person to make such a deal. 
Perhaps having guessed what Saya was thinking, Helga let out a deep sigh. “Don’t look at me like that. The highest priority of all of us at Stjarnagarm is the protection of this city. If this information was made public, and the power balance among the integrated enterprise foundations fell into disarray, all of Asterisk would soon follow suit. It’s my duty to prevent that from happening.” 
“A wise decision,” Isabella added. 
Helga, however, cast her a sharp gaze. “Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m going to overlook any illegal activities. I’m simply prioritizing stopping Lamina Mortis and the Varda-Vaos. Once that’s taken care of, we’re going to have to settle our accounts with Galaxy, too. That’s why I agreed to this.” 
“Well, that is a separate matter,” Isabella replied, returning Helga’s look. The intensity of their gazes as they stared each other down was almost enough to set off sparks. 
“U-um…,” Kirin began timidly, raising her hand. “But why were we called here?” 
“Because you’ve already heard Haruka’s version of what happened, and we decided it would be easier to bring you in fully rather than risk leaving you unsupervised with only a partial understanding of the situation. The executive committee was divided on this matter, so I’ve taken personal responsibility. I’m looking forward to your cooperation,” Isabella said, bowing her head. 
“Wh-what…? Don’t say that!” Kirin shrank back for a moment but gradually relaxed as she seemed to understand what exactly she meant. 
Galaxy no doubt needed to increase the number of pieces on its side of the board, Saya surmised, but was unable to bring its own units in. 
“…What exactly do you want us to do?” she asked. 
“For now, just collect information. Anything you can relating to Lamina Mortis or the Varda-Vaos. For example… The Raksha-Nada is one clue. The Orga Lux is the property of Le Wolfe and is supposed to have been sealed away. And yet, it’s clearly in the possession of Mortis. We need to know how.” 
“Can’t you check that with Le Wolfe directly?” Kirin asked, putting into words the very doubt that Saya herself had been harboring. 
This time, it was Claudia’s turn to respond. “Unfortunately, they are under no obligation to respond to queries from students belonging to other schools, nor from the city guard, for that matter. They will no doubt ignore any queries that we might make. Although it would, of course, be different if Solnage were to get involved…” 
“But if its whereabouts have been deliberately covered up, doesn’t that mean Le Wolfe must be involved as well?” Sylvia pointed out. 
“Le Wolfe was closely involved in the Eclipse, so we can’t discount that possibility,” Helga answered. “And yet…it’s difficult to believe that the school itself is working with the Golden Bough Alliance. It’s possible that they have a collaborator in a position overseeing their inventory of Orga Luxes. And, of course…the Varda-Vaos itself has the power to turn just about anyone into a coconspirator.” 
“…There’s quite a lot that we would like you to do, from following up on leads like this, to inspecting the place where Ayato and Haruka encountered Lamina Mortis and the Varda-Vaos. Especially now that we have much more data on the man’s past activities thanks to Haruka here,” Isabella said with a clap as she summed up their various options. 
“We would like to locate them before the Lindvolus, if possible,” Claudia added. “We don’t know precisely what their goal is, but if they’re willing to go this far to force Ayato to participate in the tournament, then their plans must be timed to coincide.” 
“Ah…!” Saya startled, suddenly realizing something. “Then, if we can’t deal with them before that, maybe it would be best if I pulled out?” 
If they couldn’t stop Mortis before the Lindvolus, then Ayato would have no choice but to win the tournament. If she and Ayato were forced to face off against each other, that would only get in the way of things. 
It pained her to have to break her promise with Camilla, but as vexing as that was, Haruka’s life was more important. 
“Ah, right. I guess I should do that, too.” Sylvia clapped her hand against her forehead, as if having realized the same thing. “It’d be a shame to miss my chance at getting revenge on Orphelia, but if this is how things are, well, there’s no helping it.” 
“…I’m really sorry,” Ayato said, bowing his head. 
“Really, really sorry,” Haruka added, following suit. 
It wasn’t the fault of either of them—Saya didn’t need to be told that. If she was going to blame anyone, it would be the Golden Bough Alliance. 
“No, I think it would be best if you both entered the tournament as planned,” Claudia interrupted with a cool smile. “Neither of you are aiming for the top, if I’m not mistaken. You both want to defeat specific opponents, no? There’s every possibility that you would be able to do that before possibly facing Ayato. Not only that, but it would, of course, be a great help to him if you could defeat as many potential obstacles as possible.” 
Of course… Saya was shocked that she hadn’t thought of that herself. 
“And if you do end up facing him, you can always withdraw from the match. That would be much better than not entering the tournament at all.” 
“B-besides, we might find a way to remove that piece of the Raksha-Nada from Haruka’s body before the Lindvolus!” Kirin added, clenching her fists in front of her chest. 
“I’m afraid I don’t know what our chances of success are as far as that’s concerned, but I’m having Director Korbel look into it. Although I should say he didn’t seem particularly optimistic,” Isabella told them. 
As harsh as her words were, it was no doubt better than getting their hopes up unnecessarily. 
“…One last question,” Saya began, turning away from Isabella and Claudia and toward Ayato. “Why isn’t Julis here?” 
Kirin was startled at this one, looking over the room once more as if she hadn’t realized Julis’s absence until now. 
Indeed, Julis’s absence troubled Saya the most. 
Given her personality, she, like the others, could have been expected to do whatever was in her power to help Ayato. 
Nevertheless, she was the only one of them not present. 
“…I told Julis the situation a little earlier. I left out the stuff about the Varda-Vaos, but I did tell her I would be entering the Lindvolus for Haruka’s sake.” Ayato fell silent there, a pained expression settling over his face. 
Ayato had been saying for seemingly forever now that he wanted to be Julis’s strength, to help her however he could. That was why he had originally decided not to enter the tournament in the first place. 
For him to break that promise now was no doubt a cause of considerable shame for him. 
“And what did Julis say…?” 
“…I think it came as a shock to her. She said she wanted to be left alone for a while,” Ayato replied, biting his lip. 
“That…doesn’t sound like her,” Claudia commented. 
“I thought she would have been concerned for you and Haruka…,” Kirin added. 
Saya was of the same mind. She knew how obsessed Julis was about facing her childhood friend Orphelia Landlufen. Doing so had been at the forefront of her thoughts for as long as she had known her. Nonetheless, despite all that, Saya would have expected her to come to the same conclusion as she and Sylvia. 
And yet— 
“Anyway, I want to respect her feelings,” Ayato said, closing his eyes as he gripped his fists tightly. 
For Saya, just seeing Ayato like this was painful. For some reason, as she stared across the room at him, she felt her own chest tightening, overcome by a wave of emotions that threatened to make her break down into tears. 
 
Julis was sitting alone in her training room, curled up into a ball by the far wall. 
The only spot of light in the almost pitch-black room was a small flame, conjured up by her abilities. The dim light left her expression looking dark and sullen. 
“…Why?” She herself hardly heard the faint whisper that emanated from her lips. 
Naturally, there was no one in that dark silence who could have responded to her. 
“Is this the fate that you keep mentioning, Orphelia…?” 
But, of course, there was no answer. 
“In that case…” She paused there, clenching her teeth. 

 

Tears were welling in her eyes. 
“What exactly am I supposed to do…?!” 
Still casting her head downward, she slammed her fist against the wall, a dull thud echoing across the room. 
“…” 
She had no idea how long she had been sitting there like this. 
She rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hands before slowly rising to her feet. 
At the same time, countless small flames burst into light around her. 

There were well over a thousand of them in total. 
“…How am I supposed to make up my mind?!” 
How could she be expected to choose? 
All she could do was follow through with what she had already started, no matter how much it ate at her. 
That was the only real option left to her now. 
 
They were on a small outdoor stage in the corner of a park located in the commercial area. There were, of course, no defensive barriers or any such advanced facilities at a stage like this—rather, it was enclosed only a by low-lying physical wall. 
“…Your uniform suits you.” 
“Do you think so? Ha-ha, thanks. Well, I’m not officially enlisted until tomorrow, so it’s still just for show… I wanted to show it to you, though.” 
In the center of the stage, Ayato and Haruka were chatting idly as they did their prematch stretches. 
He, of course, was dressed in his Seidoukan uniform. Haruka, on the other hand, having easily passed the recruitment exam, was clothed in the formal uniform of an officer of Stjarnagarm. 
It was eight o’clock in the evening, and seeing as they were some distance from the business areas, there was no one else in sight. 
“Well, should we get started? Can you lend me the Ser Veresta for a second?” 
“Right,” Ayato murmured, removing the Orga Lux from its holder at his waist, before activating it and handing it over to her. 
“Sorry, Ser Veresta,” Haruka whispered to it. “This will probably be a little uncomfortable, but it will only take a little while.” 
Chains of mana flowed from her hand and then across the blade, wrapping themselves around it as the seal took hold. 
“…Hmm, this should do it. I don’t think it will last for very long, but this should seal away the sharpness of the Ser Veresta at least for a little while. We wouldn’t be able to train properly otherwise.” 
Ayato could only look on with admiration. “I had no idea your ability could do this… You really are amazing, Haruka.” 
In principle, Orga Luxes greatly exceeded the abilities of Dantes and Stregas in power. They were simply too different in the ways that they manifested themselves. Even if it was only temporary, the fact that Haruka could even do this at all was nothing short of incredible. 
“It only worked because Ser Veresta is willing to cooperate. If it wasn’t, there’s no way the seal would hold,” Haruka said, waving her hands as if to brush away the praise. 
In other words, the Ser Veresta trusted her. That, too, was almost unbelievable. He knew firsthand how difficult the Orga Lux could be to please. 
“Are you ready, Ayato? Like I told you earlier, you’ve never been very good at properly controlling your prana. But we won’t have time before the Lindvolus if we start right from the very beginning.” 
“…That’s why we’re using the Ser Veresta, then?” 
In other words, he didn’t need versatility. 
It would be enough if he could properly handle the Orga Lux. 
“First, you’re going to need to have mastered Ser Veresta. You’ve always been the kind of person who learns through practice, so we’re just going to have to jump right into it. Are you okay with that?” 
“Yeah, I’m ready.” 
The two of them took their positions before bowing toward one another and adopting fighting stances. Ayato held the Ser Veresta in front of him; Haruka, her blade-type Lux over her shoulder. 
“I’m not going to hold back. There would be no point to this if I did.” 
“I wouldn’t want you to,” Ayato answered. 
No sooner did he finish speaking than Haruka rushed toward him. 
“Umph!” 
Ayato stepped back, hoping to avoid her diagonal overhead slash, but as she closed in, the tip of her blade flashed in front of him before darting down straight into his chest. 
The Amagiri Shinmei Style, Middle Technique—Twin Serpents, Recapitulation…?! 
He shifted his body with the Ser Veresta in an attempt to evade her attack, but Haruka wasn’t about to let him get away. She moved to the side, closing in around him, to prevent him from putting any distance between the two of them. 
At their current positions, it was clear that Haruka had the advantage. The Ser Veresta was too large for him to match the speed of her blade. It seemed she was trying to force him to up his game by staying as close as possible. 
As he should have expected, she was showing him no mercy. 
He dodged her next strike, a low slash, while at the same time realizing that she was holding her weapon single-handed. As a result of that, her movements were slightly slower than usual. He moved reflexively to counter, when she reached with her left hand behind her back and— 
She activated a second blade. 
“!” 
Ayato raised the Ser Veresta desperately to shield himself. 
“Haaah!” 
She swung down first with her right hand and then cut back across from the left with it. She spun around and then lunged forward, cutting down diagonally with the left blade and slashing across with the right. Haruka spun around once more, stabbing toward him with her left, until finally stepping yet closer and, with her right-hand blade, launching into the Amagiri Shinmei Twin Sword Style, Middle Technique—Hell Spider. 
Ayato, withstanding the sequence of seven consecutive attacks, still couldn’t pull away from Haruka, who came now rushing toward him with her twin swords reversed, poised to slam the pommels of both blades into either side of his body. 
“Ngh…!” 
It was a grappling technique from the Amagiri Shinmei style—Grindstone Pommel, Strata. 
There was no way that he could have avoided this move. His only option was to focus his prana and hope that he could withstand it. 
But Haruka didn’t stop there, spinning her blades around back to their normal position and swinging them toward his shoulders like scythes. 
This was Twin Serpents, a dual-sword technique from the Amagiri Shinmei style—but this time, Ayato managed to parry the move at the last possible moment before taking advantage of the brief opening to pull himself away and regain his defensive stance. 
“Haaah…! Haaah…!” His breath was ragged. 
“Just like I thought. The Ser Veresta hasn’t fully accepted you.” 
With that, Haruka returned the Lux in her left hand to its holder at her waist and adopted a two-handed posture with her remaining blade. 
“That’s a bit harsh, Haruka…!” 
According to what she told him when she had woken up, he was supposed to have reached her own level of ability back when he had unlocked his third seal. 
While it was true that her assault was giving him few opportunities to counter, and that the sheer size of the Ser Veresta was one contributing factor to that, he couldn’t deny that she was simply more proficient at the Amagiri Shinmei style. If they were to fight with the same weapons, using the same techniques, she would undoubtedly get the better of him. Ayato, who had only been taught the basics by his father, Masatsugu, couldn’t hope to match her in that regard. 
To begin with, Haruka had already mastered almost all of the Amagiri Shinmei style’s various techniques. As a rule, students of the style weren’t permitted to study other weapons, such as the spear or the short sword, until they had mastered the sword techniques up to at least the middle level. The grappling techniques in particular were a necessary building block before one could master the hidden techniques. While Ayato had learned both the sword and the grappling techniques to a considerable level, he was still studying the others (although it was true that Masatsugu had taught him the basics of wielding two blades simultaneously). 
The two of them were practically equal in overall strength, but as far as physical stamina was concerned, Ayato was no doubt ahead. In an actual battle, Ayato would probably have been able to emerge victorious. 
However—if he couldn’t adjust the Ser Veresta to an optimal size, he wouldn’t be able to control the most essential component of all his techniques, which would leave him with little chance of turning his current situation around. 
“Let me give you some advice,” his sister said. “What’s the Ser Veresta to you? Think about that.” 
“What is it to me…?” 
Ayato had no idea what she meant. 
“If you don’t know that—no, if you can’t feel that—it won’t stay with you for very long.” 
Haruka wasn’t the kind of person to prolong a match just to tease her opponents. She was no doubt planning to deal the final blow. 
No sooner had that thought run through his head than she began to shuffle toward him, narrowing the distance between them, when, as expected, she launched into another full-frontal assault. 
She swooped toward him from above, from below—from every possible direction with an almost godlike speed. 
That’s the Amagiri Shinmei Style, Middle Technique—Spiraling Whirlpool…! And the First Technique—Scarlet Saber! And another Middle Technique—Saddle of Knowledge! 
He only barely managed to catch the moves with the Ser Veresta thanks to the sheer size of the weapon. It was clear, however, that at this rate, Haruka would keep chipping down at his defenses until he could no longer resist. 
Of course, Ayato wasn’t devoting everything he had to defense. While holding Haruka off, he poured his prana into the Orga Lux’s urm-manadite core, trying every possible technique he could think of to try to make it take on a more optimal size. 
No matter what he did, however, he couldn’t bring it under control. 
While controlling one’s prana was often compared to threading a needle, given the sheer quantity of Ayato’s prana, it was much more like trying for force a rope through the eye of one—in other words, all but impossible. 
This is bad…! Any more of this, and… 
Haruka’s attacks continued to increase in speed and intensity. By the way she was managing to stay one step ahead of him, she looked to be reading his every movement. 
Ayato might have grown considerably from how she remembered him, but given that she was the one who had taught him most of what he knew of the Amagiri Shinmei style, it was perhaps inevitable that she would be able to see through his actions. 
For his part, Ayato knew Haruka’s fighting style all too well, but as far as raw speed was concerned, he was simply no match for her. 
“Ngh…!” 
The tip of her blade tore through his uniform, leaving blood oozing from a light wound. 
She certainly wasn’t going easy on him, but this was still just a training bout. She had probably pulled back at the last minute to keep from seriously injuring him, although given Ayato’s prana, it was unlikely that a slash from a regular Lux would cause too much damage. 
In any event, if he couldn’t win here, he wouldn’t stand a chance against Orphelia. 
Nor would he have any hope of defeating Lamina Mortis. 
I’m not about to lose…! 
He wouldn’t let that happen. 
Those words echoed through his mind like a prayer, and that was when he felt something emanate from the Ser Veresta. 
“What…?!” 
There were no words. 
It was a pure, unmediated sense of will. 
An emotion close to anger. 
Unwillingness. Displeasure. Those were the kinds of emotions it was directing toward him. 
What did I do to…? 
Though confused, he probed deeper into the Orga Lux’s mind. 
What was it about him that the Ser Veresta didn’t like? 
He had always been sincere with the weapon, or so he liked to believe. He had always respected it, and he had always trusted it. 
Which was why it should have been willing to help him now. 
And yet— 
“!” 
He had misunderstood. 
At that moment, something in his mind clicked. 
Right. I’ve been wrong all this time. 
What the Ser Veresta wanted from him—what it wanted from its user—wasn’t respect or trust. 
More than anything else, it wanted to be used, the same as all swords did. 
Now that he finally understood that, a voice-like sound echoed through his mind. 
That will do. 
Then, he felt the Ser Veresta guiding him as his prana harmonized with its urm-manadite core. 
“Yaaaaaaaaaargh!” 
“Oh…!” 
Ayato let out a ferocious roar to precede a slash with the Ser Veresta, cutting straight through the middle of Haruka’s blade and forcing her, with a look of surprise, to jump back to safety. 
“My, my! Excellent. I knew you could do it, Ayato,” she said proudly as she deactivated her blade and returned it to its holder. 
“…I have you to thank for that.” 
In his hands, the Ser Veresta had shrunk to around three feet in length. But it wasn’t just the size that Ayato found astonishing—the Orga Lux felt remarkably familiar in his hands now. 
By the looks of it, the seal that Haruka had placed over it had also been burned away. 
“You’re too kind, Ayato. You’ve been treating Ser Veresta like any other person you might meet, keeping it at a distance. I could see that right away. But you know, that isn’t what it wants from you,” Haruka said, her gaze a complex mix of affection and severity. 
Ayato stared down at the sword in his hand. 
“Of course, it won’t allow itself to be touched by someone who doesn’t give it the proper respect,” Haruka continued. “But more than anything, it needs to satisfy its dignity as a weapon. If you’re willing to do that for it, it will surely lend you its power.” 
“If you knew that, why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Ayato bit back. 
Haruka placed her hands on her hips, lobbing him an amused smile. “What would be the point of that? It wouldn’t mean anything if you didn’t work it out for yourself.” 
He had a feeling that was what she would say. 
“But I guess you’re finally ready now.” 
“…Huh?” 
Just as he was wondering what she meant, Haruka removed her still-functioning Lux from its holder at her waist, the one that she had been using as her secondary weapon until just a few minutes earlier, activating it. 
“When I went home, Dad gave me permission to pass them on. He said that you’re ready now.” 
“H-hold on a second. What are you talking about?” 
Ayato had no idea what she meant. 
“Ayato, I don’t think you know this… But there’s more to the Amagiri Shinmei style beyond the Hidden Techniques.” 
“—?!” 
Ayato had never heard of any more advanced teachings. 
“The Amagiri Shinmei style’s Hidden Techniques are designed to ensure your survival on the battlefield, so they assume you’ll be fighting in a melee, right?” 
“That’s…only natural, seeing as that’s how it got started. Isn’t it?” 
The Amagiri Shinmei style was, after all, developed as a set of techniques to be used by warriors clothed in a full set of armor. 
“Indeed. But you know…not all of our fighting forms are inherited from our founder,” Haruka explained as she readied her blade. “Ayato, it’s time I taught you the Amagiri Shinmei style’s Ultimate Techniques.”