The instant the blade's light closed in, Suguru Geto moved.
No-to be precise, the ground beneath his feet moved.
A pink figure shot out from beneath him, as fast as lightning. Its body was broad and flat, with rippling folds along its edges and a slender, whip-like tail trailing behind it. Its entire body was a soft pink.
A Grade 2 Cursed Spirit, [Stingray].
Suguru Geto lightly tapped his toes against [Stingray]'s back, rising rapidly as it took flight. The blade's light swept beneath his feet and cut through empty space, leaving a faint white streak in the air before vanishing without a trace.
A moment later, Suguru Geto was in the air above the Combat Arena.
He stood on [Stingray]'s back, his clothes snapping in the wind. Sunlight shone from behind him, gilding his silhouette and making him look like a figure who had stepped out of a myth.
The spectator stands fell silent for a moment.
Then-
"He's up in the air! Isn't that against the rules?"
"What Cursed Spirit is that? A stingray?"
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation really is nasty!"
"He's flying! He's actually flying!"
Suguru Geto ignored the spectators' cries.
He glanced down at Matsumoto Futa on the ground, then at the referee standing beside the platform, and did something no one had expected.
He cupped both hands around his mouth and called out to the referee.
"Referee-"
His voice wasn't loud, but reinforced by cursed energy, it carried clearly across the entire arena.
"May I ask whether being in the air counts as going out of bounds?"
Though phrased as a question, the certainty in his tone was unmistakable-he wasn't asking. He was informing.
The referee froze.
He looked up at Suguru Geto, floating five or six meters above the Combat Arena, and opened his mouth,