On the first day of the new term, what should have been a relaxed adjustment period was thrown into turmoil by an unexpected "reunion."
After the class's brief round of self-introductions, Oriki Yuri announced that everyone was dismissed.
Kashu, Stella, and Ikki Kurogane headed back to the dormitory together.
Ikki still looked weighed down by worry as he walked ahead, brows knitted and face as sour as if he'd swallowed a bitter pill.
Stella quietly slowed her pace and drew up beside Kashu, lowering her voice.
"What exactly are you planning? We can't keep putting off the intra-school selection matches."
Kashu heard her and let the corner of his mouth curl into a teasing smile.
"What's this? Is the famous Miss Vermillion worried she won't make the rankings?"
"W-who's worried about that?!"
Stella's cheeks flushed. She drew a deep breath and tried to steady her heaving chest, which only made her already impressive curves stand out even more.
She glared indignantly at Kashu, who remained perfectly composed, and was about to retort when a sudden commotion broke out up ahead.
Kashu and Stella looked up at the same time. Ikki, who had been walking in front of them just moments ago, had somehow ended up sitting on the ground.
A petite young girl was clinging tightly to him, her face blissful as she greedily breathed in his scent.
Stella: (⁄⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄⁄)
The princess's face turned bright red. Trembling, she raised a hand and pointed at the couple embracing so intimately, her voice wavering.
"Th-those two... Could they be lovers?"
"But isn't that girl a little too young? Could he be... a lolicon?!"
As she spoke, she swiftly whipped out her mobile terminal, apparently intending to order Ikki a tonkatsu set meal right away.
Kashu reacted quickly and grabbed Stella's hand just as she was about to make the call, wearing a sly, meaningful grin.
"Hold on, Miss Vermillion. Let's hear the 'suspect's' testimony first."
"Hey! How did I become a suspect?!"
Rubbing the back of his head, which he'd banged against the ground, Ikki protested loudly, on the verge of tears.
"Shizuku's my sister! My real sister! We hadn't seen each other in years. I was surprised too, okay?!"
At that, Stella paused and looked at Kashu, suspicion still written all over her face.
"Um... Are siblings from Japan usually... this close?"
Kashu gave a helpless chuckle. "Miss Vermillion, if I didn't know you were a princess from a foreign country, I'd almost think you were deliberately making a dirty joke."
Just then, Shizuku Kurogane, who had been lost in her own world, finally seemed to come back to her senses.
She slowly lifted her head and gazed tenderly at her long-lost older brother, Ikki Kurogane. Then—
She leaned in again without hesitation, aiming squarely for Ikki's lips!
Stella: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
Kashu narrowed his eyes, calmly took out his mobile terminal, and tapped the screen, searching for the name "Shizuku."
Name: Shizuku Kurogane Class: Hagun Academy, Year One, Class Four Age: 15 Blazer: B Attack: D Defense: B Magic: C Magic Control: A Physical Ability: E Luck: C Device: Yoi Shigure
Hmm! She really did have the surname Kurogane!
Kashu wore an inscrutable smile as he looked down at Ikki, who was still struggling, and spoke in a breezy tone, as if his voice came from the heavens above.
"Mr. Ikki, would you rather head to the police station and file a report, or go straight to the hospital and book an appointment with an orthopedic specialist?"
Ikki Kurogane: (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
After a chaotic scramble, Ikki finally managed to explain the farce of "sibling affection."
Even so, Kashu and Stella still looked at him as if he were a scumbag. Clearly, they weren't entirely convinced by his explanation.
Kashu had a feeling that if they kept arguing about this, they'd waste the entire day, so he made a quick decision and headed off to the chairwoman's office.
Shinguuji Kurono had been waiting for some time. When Kashu walked in, she skipped the pleasantries and tossed him a thick stack of documents.
"These are the enrollment reports for every student from first to third year. Are you sure you want to screen them all over again?"
Kashu took the hefty stack, straightened it casually, and asked in return, "What else? Do you have a more convenient way, Chairwoman?"
"If a dark horse like Ikki Kurogane can emerge from among the F-rank Blazers, who can say there aren't other overlooked gems at Hagun Academy?"
At his words, a trace of awkwardness flickered across Shinguuji Kurono's face. She gestured for Kashu to make himself at home.
She was more than happy to take it easy and serve as the background figure who only gave orders.
Kashu sat down on the nearby sofa. First, he pulled out the files for himself, Stella, Ikki Kurogane, and Touka Toudou and set them aside.
Those four were already his chosen candidates for the main team.
As he leisurely flipped through the documents, he asked Shinguuji Kurono without looking up, "How's the plan to add more IPS Regeneration Capsules coming along?"
"Honestly, you—"
Shinguuji Kurono felt her temples starting to throb again and gritted her teeth.
"Do you think IPS Regeneration Capsules are just discarded junk lying around on the side of the road?"
IPS Regeneration Capsules weren't things one could get their hands on easily.
They were a medical miracle, the culmination of countless years of research and effort by the International League.
Whether someone had lost a limb, suffered a ruptured organ, or sustained a life-threatening head injury—
as long as they still had a breath left in them, a Regeneration Capsule could treat them in an extremely short time, without leaving so much as a scar.
"The International League has always distributed resources equally among its affiliated academies. Every application I've submitted so far has been rejected without exception."
Kashu looked up at Shinguuji Kurono's deeply troubled expression and spread his hands helplessly.
"If we can't guarantee there'll be enough Regeneration Capsules, we'll have to adjust the later stages of the tournament. Otherwise, it'll be too harsh on the main team members who have to fight consecutive matches."
Shinguuji Kurono understood that perfectly well, but could only wave a hand with a pained expression.
"I understand. I'll see if I can use some of my personal connections. Maybe I can secure one or two more."
Kashu's eyes flashed with surprise.
He hadn't expected the chairwoman, who didn't seem particularly skilled at working the system, to have such extensive connections.
"Good. I'll leave that to you, then."
He gathered the remaining enrollment reports into a neat stack and stood up.
"One more thing: information on the other six academies."
"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you'll never be defeated. I don't want to reach the arena and still know nothing about our opponents' abilities."
After Kashu left, Shinguuji Kurono deftly lit a cigarette and turned her office chair so her back faced the door.
She gazed out at the clouds billowing beyond the window, her figure revealing a weariness and world-weariness she could barely conceal.
Sigh... She was so sick of being this blasted chairwoman!
Inside the Hagun Library.
Kashu opened an ancient book titled Overview of Devices and carefully studied its contents.
It was true that he wasn't a Blazer, so naturally he didn't have anything called a Device.
But the term "Device" had only been officially established after the International League was founded.
Over the long ages before that, people had given them all sorts of names—
"holy swords," "demon bows," "cursed artifacts," "Noble Phantasms"...
As manifestations of the soul, they could resonate with their wielder's heart and unleash all kinds of strange abilities, faithfully reflecting the wielder's very nature.
The Hagun Academy library held countless training journals left behind by Blazers of exceptional talent.
They generally believed that the human soul was not unchanging.
If a Blazer experienced a major upheaval at some point in life, the symbol of their soul—
their Device, too, would undergo a transformation.
After carefully comparing accounts in several texts, Kashu slowly closed the book in his hands.
He held out his right hand, palm up, and the strange platinum-white longsword in its scabbard appeared before his eyes.
He gazed calmly at the bizarre greatsword, its blade and scabbard seemingly fused into one, and murmured to himself.
"A sword-shaped Noble Phantasm that can't be drawn... I should have realized its true form long ago."
Perhaps being impossible to draw was itself a kind of restraint—or perhaps it was the prelude to some deeper ability.
The blade suddenly gave a clear hum, and the scabbard trembled violently with it.
At that moment, Kashu had touched the deepest secret of the Noble Phantasm, whose true name remained unknown. It was answering its wielder's search in its own unique way.
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