An inch of cold steel gleamed from her sheath.
It was a ready stance from which she could draw and strike at any moment.
By comparison...
The girl standing half a step behind her to the right had a far weaker presence.
She had short pink hair and tightly clutched a black collapsible baton.
She, too, wore a uniform that granted her the privilege of carrying weapons.
A badge denoting her status was also pinned to her chest.
But her somewhat evasive eyes and faintly trembling legs laid her unease completely bare.
-Onigawara Rin.
One of the core members of the Five Heavenly Swords, who ruled Aichi Kyosei Academy by force.
And her follower.
An auxiliary member of the Five Swords.
-Mozunoya.
Haimo recognized the two girls blocking his path at a glance.
"Stop!"
"A man I've never seen before."
"How did you sneak into this academy?"
"And..."
Onigawara Rin's gaze passed over Haimo and settled on Sasamori Aya behind him.
Through the eyeholes in her mask, her pupils could be seen contracting sharply.
"Sasamori Aya..."
"You're actually following behind this man?"
"That isn't like you."
Onigawara Rin found the sight almost absurd.
The empress, who was so arrogant that she respected no one but herself and had defeated every one of the academy's Five Swords, was now following closely half a step behind this man.
Onigawara Rin had never seen Amou adopt such a posture, even before the academy's headmaster.
"What does anything I do have to do with you?"
"And get out of the way."
"I don't have time to play house with you children."
At those words, a flash of malice instantly crossed Sasamori Aya's narrow eyes.
She had just found a new goal called a god.
She was still in a state of feverish excitement.
Now, faced with questions from someone she had already defeated...
Sasamori Aya's only reaction was irritation and the desire to crush her.
After all, though she was as docile as a cat before Haimo, that did not mean she had no claws or fangs when facing others.
Precisely for that reason...
The savage aura Sasamori Aya had finally managed to suppress immediately showed signs of slipping out of control.
"Play house?"
"An anomaly of that magnitude just occurred, and the entire academy is on the highest alert."
"As one of the Five Swords, I have a duty to eliminate every unknown factor."
"Sasamori Aya, even you can't ignore school rules at a time like this."
Clearly stung by those words, Onigawara Rin raised her voice.
Her fingers resting on the sword guard tightened slightly as well.
"Besides..."
"The aura around this man is dangerous."
"I have to investigate his identity."
With that...
Onigawara Rin fixed her gaze firmly on Haimo.
That keen intuition made Haimo think a little more highly of her.
After all, when animals faced a natural predator, they generally reacted in one of two ways: fleeing or fighting to the death.
Onigawara Rin had clearly chosen the latter.
"You want to investigate?"
Sasamori Aya scoffed and was about to step forward to teach this fool who did not know her own limits a lesson.
But then...
A hand extended across Sasamori Aya's path.
Haimo stopped her.
After all...
Since he had come to recruit members for his familia, he might as well try recruiting someone he happened to encounter.
Onigawara Rin's talent for swordsmanship was not bad, either; it just met his standards.
However...
Onigawara Rin's heart as a swordswoman was in turmoil.
Haimo knew this from the information he recalled from his previous life.
The reason she wore a demon mask was that her mother hated how she resembled her father, who had eloped with his lover. Her mother had forced her to wear it from childhood, and she had never broken the habit, even after leaving home to live at school.
That was not a good thing.
It had to do with the traditional school of swordsmanship Onigawara Rin practiced—Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū.
This traditional school emphasized spiritual training that tempered the heart and courage.
Its transmitted teachings, the "Ten Evils," explicitly prohibited ten flaws of character, including arrogance, greed, and fear.
Its training required practitioners to perfect their character through inner cultivation, holding that progress in swordsmanship had to be accompanied by improvements in moral discipline.
Practitioners in the Edo period had to grasp the state of oneness between sword and Zen through wooden-sword practice, combining technical training with Zen meditation.
And yet...
The Onigawara Rin before him was clearly straying from the traditional school of swordsmanship she studied.
She shut herself away beneath a mask, trying to gain a false sense of security from its fearsome appearance.
That was itself a form of avoidance.
But the sword would never smile upon those who ran away.
Chapter 7: The Sword Would Never Smile upon Those Who Ran Away
With that thought...
Haimo stepped forward.
An overwhelming pressure bore down on her.
Under Haimo's gaze, Onigawara Rin felt as though he had suddenly become incomparably vast.
Like a mountain about to topple, the shadow he cast completely engulfed her.
Fear.
It was the most instinctive response a living creature had when facing a powerful being beyond its comprehension.
But in the end, creatures often used anger to conceal their fear.
Like a cornered cat that puffed up its fur and hissed in a show of bravado.
"Damn you!"
Onigawara Rin let out a low shout to dispel the trembling in her heart.
Clang-
Her long sword left its sheath.
There was no flashy probing attack.
Against an opponent who filled her with dread, her opening move was a killing strike delivered with all her strength.
Such decisiveness. Her combat instincts aren't bad.
Haimo silently assessed her.
Onigawara Rin was using Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū.
Secret technique: Dragon Tail Reversal!
It centered on a sweeping slash.
The blade traced an arc through the air.
Fast, precise, and ruthless.
Enough to cleave steel.
And yet...
To Haimo's divine eyes, which perceived the essence of every technique...
The trajectory of this strike, the point where she applied force, and even the follow-up variations were all perfectly clear.
"Your heart is still too unsettled."
Haimo offered that simple assessment.
Then...
He lightly crooked a finger.
Whoosh-
A sharp whistle suddenly cut through the air.
Standing beside Onigawara Rin, Mozunoya, who had been trembling, suddenly felt her hand grow light.
The white collapsible baton she had been clutching tightly shot out of her grasp as though it had come alive.
"Huh?!"
Mozunoya cried out in surprise.
Before she could react...
The baton had already crossed several meters and landed securely in Haimo's hand.
Immediately afterward...
Clang!
A crisp metallic clash rang through the corridor.
The baton, which was not particularly sturdy, struck the side of Onigawara Rin's long sword with extraordinary precision.
Right at the weakest point in the force behind the blade.
A feather's touch to deflect a crushing weight.