Sports Festival, D-1
"What is this supposed to be?"
"I thought about what you'd need to draw out your power, Sua."
In Sua's case, the goal was to let her freely wield the strength that normally only surfaced, beyond her limits, when she was protecting Lua.
"Here."
Lua pulled out a photo she had prepared in advance, roughly the size of a sheet of A4 paper. It was a picture of her own face, taken and printed the night before.
"Unnie, you're really not cut out for selfies."
"I-ignore the little things!"
She tore off a strip of tape and stuck the photo over the teddy bear's face. Somehow, the result looked strangely right.
"From now on, think of this as me."
"Ahh."
Sua nodded as if she understood perfectly.
Lua set the teddy bear in the center and arranged the baseball pitching machines used for defense-skill practice in a circle around it.
"You'll block the baseballs flying at you irregularly with your skill—but do it while thinking of the teddy bear as me. Keep going until you can bring out that same power from before."
"…That won't be easy."
Sua drew her staff and let out a sigh.
"If I pull this off, what do I get?"
Of course it came down to a reward.
"W-well… a one-time pass to skip cleaning my room?"
"That was your job to begin with."
As Lua laughed awkwardly, Sua leaned in a little and whispered.
"How about this? I got assigned as an operations committee member for the sports festival this time."
The sports festival again?
"Stay with me then."
Lua let out a dry little laugh. Even Sua was making the same request as the other two.
Just how hard are they planning to work me?
It made her a touch uneasy, but she was the one who had told them to name their rewards. For the sake of raising the party's overall strength, she would have to accept.
"All right."
"Yes!"
Beaming, Sua headed for the teddy bear.
Lua stepped back and watched her little sister unfold her defense skill. Beside them, Himari's legs were trembling as she struggled to draw her sword, while Juju dodged this way and that from the targets charging after her like bulls.
Still, pulling this off before the sports festival is probably too much to ask.
She had told all three of them they could do it, but achieving it in such a short time would be difficult. They had to take skills they had always used one way and completely reinvent how they applied them.
If they failed to manage it by the sports festival, the rewards would vanish too—but they were the ones who had chosen those rewards, so that was that.
"Whoa!"
"Juju! That way, please! Ah—I'm shaky enough as it is…!"
"You two! Keep it down! Unnie's teddy bear keeps getting hit!"
Lua watched the practice ground descend into chaos and thought it through. Himari, Juju, and Sua only needed to throw themselves into training without a care in the world.
Uncovering Park Haengsin's scheme is my job…
That was what she had to do—as a gamer who had mastered this game, as the party's leader, and as their teacher.
The sports festival held in the first semester, together with the second-semester festival, was called one of the academy's two great crown jewels.
It was meant to put the growing students' physical abilities on display for the world and to prophesy their future as hunters who would one day save it—
—or so the official principle went. In practice, the event meant something different to everyone involved.
To the school, it was a chance to proudly flaunt its current educational standard and renew Felix Academy's claim to the title of best in the world.
To the major outside guilds, it was a precious opportunity to scout promising talents who could strengthen their own forces.
To the students, it was one of the few chances they had to sell themselves to the agents of those great guilds.
That was why the school's support, outside sponsorship, and student interest all ran so high.
Interest in the sports festival was especially fierce among the top-tier Special Class.
"I brought the VIP seating chart!"
Even the seating assignments for the guild agents were enough to draw intense attention.
"Sky Cleaver Guild is in the second row on the west side. We'll have to make a lot of plays toward the west."
"Murim Alliance is in the back row? Guess they're not planning to recruit this time."
"Hey! Olympus snagged the first row on the east. They're definitely taking at least one special hire this year."
By the day before the sports festival, not only the third-year Special Class but the second-years as well—and even the first-years, who were relatively less obsessed with their career paths—were poring over every scrap of information they could find.
"Himari! Which one are you watching?"
A student tossed the question even at the usually quiet Himari. Sitting silently with a book open, she gave a small wave of her hand.
"I do not particularly care about the guilds."
"Huh? Then what?"
"Once I graduate, I am to return to Japan and succeed my family, after all."
"Ohhh, I see…"
The students who heard her answer let out envious little sighs.
"I'm jealous. I wish I had a family business to inherit."
"If my parents would just leave me one building, I'd have nothing left to wish for!"
Himari answered with a quiet smile and turned her eyes back to her book.
"……"
But the words refused to settle on the page.
Having one's path already decided… is not such a fine thing.
The future laid out for Himari was to succeed her father as head of the Hoshikawa family. It was both a duty and a right that had fallen to her after the previous heir—her older brother—had died.
Once, she had believed that was simply what she was meant to do. But now that she had seen the wider world by her own will, it was only natural that doubts about that fixed future would rise.
—All the more so when it was a future offered by a father who even tried to decide, on his own, whom Himari would serve as his "Moon."
"…Tsk."
Himari clicked her tongue softly.
Since their last call, there had been no further requests or contact from her father. Himari had no desire to reach out from her side either, so the cold war simply continued.
There is no need to dwell on it.
—Snap.
Himari closed the book and shut her eyes.
Studying abroad is a right I won for myself. Serving my teacher is a choice I made.
Right now, she wanted to focus on what she had chosen—not on what someone else had decided for her.
For instance, the battoujutsu atop a moving cart that, even after two full weeks, still refused to come together.
"Haa…"
From Himari's perspective, she had not improved at all since the first day. Keeping her balance on the cart was easy enough, and the sword-draw itself was a motion she had performed tens of thousands of times—but doing both at once was maddeningly difficult.
My teacher's assessment that I am lacking was not wrong.
She had felt it keenly inside the Gate. Her current battoujutsu did not hold up in real combat. Lua had pinpointed that flaw exactly and offered a way to mend it.
I will give it everything I have.
Picturing Lua's face, Himari let out a long breath. To overcome the weakness of Hoshikawa-ryu Battoujutsu, to become a hunter in her own right—and—
To stand beside my teacher at the sports festival.
At the thought of Lua, a faint smile touched Himari's lips. Her small, adorable teacher, from whom there was still so much to learn.
On that impulse, Himari took out her phone. Only a few days ago she had barely known how to use one, but Juju had taught her all sorts of things.
—Tap, tap.
What she opened was a messaging app. Now that Lua was on her mind, she wanted to say something.
As the sports festival drew near, Lua's workload ballooned at an exponential rate. She had to oversee the setup of a temporary clinic, draft plans for treating and transporting the injured, and even personally track down tents to block the direct sunlight.
I never want to do this again…
She had not realized how grueling the position of school nurse could be. Filling out forms and balancing budgets was one thing, but having to meet people face-to-face to make requests or give orders drained her dry.
Still, even that crushing load ended today.
The casualty-response system was finished, so once the sports festival began tomorrow, she expected to have a little more breathing room.
—Shhhhh…
"Haa."
Washing herself with her own hands for the first time in a while, Lua let out a warm breath. The feel of the hot water running from the crown of her head all the way to her toes was wonderful.
After two straight weeks of nonstop work, she had taken a half-day off just for today.
Tomorrow is the real thing.
Of course, part of the point was to face tomorrow's event in peak condition.
She already had the entire flow of the sports festival mapped out. She knew which events there were, and even how the results were supposed to go.
If anything looked even slightly different from that vivid knowledge, she would treat it as a piece of Park Haengsin's scheme and investigate.
Until she learned who was behind the incidents at the academy—and why—
—Beep!
Just then, an alert chimed from the phone she had left outside the shower stall. Stretching out a wet arm, Lua checked the screen and saw it was a message from Himari.
Her inexperience with the messaging app was written all over it.
"Cute…"
Instead of typing a reply, Lua called her. The ringtone sounded only a couple of times before Himari's voice came through at once.
"Yes, Teacher! This is Hoshikawa Himari!"
"What's the occasion, Himari messaging me first?"
"I simply… found myself thinking of you, Teacher."
Listening to Himari's voice, Lua squeezed out shampoo and worked it through her hair.
"Yeah? Nothing's wrong, is it?"
"…No, Teacher."
Lua did not miss the briefest hesitation before Himari spoke.
"I'm glad to hear it, but Himari—if anything ever gets hard, make sure you tell me."
"Teacher…?"
"I can't fix everything, but I can at least worry about it with you."
"……"
"Thank you, Teacher. If a problem arises, I will be sure to do just that."
A smile touched Lua's lips as well.
"Mm! Let's give it our all at the sports festival tomorrow!"