Ostremu and Horse carriages were becoming a common sight in Fujiishima and its neighboring towns and villages. During other seasons, they used to be only seen during early hours and late nights due to long distance traveling. Many PCs would use them to journey for hundreds of miles over land to avoid unnecessary encounters with hostile NPCs and bandits. However, during the summer season, people tend to hire them more within cities as a means of public transportation due to frequent rains.
And just like the rest of the citizens of Fujiishima, Satsuki and Chizuru found themselves riding a horse carriage to take them home from having to do some weekend shopping. It was the day before the preliminaries, so they had to do some last minute preparations.
Satsuki sighed and turned pale. "I spent all my quest money again, Chizu-chan.."
Overspending on unnecessary items was one of Satsuki's bad habits. All Chizuru could really do was giggle. "Well.. what's new, Satsu-chan? You'll get a hefty pay very soon anyway."
"But still..", cried Satsuki as the horse pulling them galloped through the rain.
There were splashes heard everywhere. Horse carriages were driven all over the city in the midst of a very heavy rainfall. It simply meant that weather disturbances never really halted anyone's business.
"Hey, Satsu-chan..", Chizuru suddenly called in the middle of Satsuki's lamenting of her being broke. "Why are you pushing Seijurou to fight?"
The question caught Satsuki a little off guard, but she still managed to smile. "I'm not pushing him that much though. If I did, I'd probably sound like Masako-sensei.. which really isn't my thing. Why? Are you worried about him getting hurt?"
"Don't tell him that I told you this because he didn't want to..", Chizuru looked at Satsuki sternly. "He's been getting into trouble with Jax lately."
"Because of me?..", asked Satsuki, which shocked Chizuru as well. "I know what's been going on, Chizu-chan.. but he really isn't in trouble, you know."
The sound of clattering hooves took over as soon as the two fell silent. They hit solid ground meaning the rain was beginning to let up, and the sun was peeking from behind the clouds. In just a few minutes, the carriage would be arriving near Chizuru's doorstep.
"They already got a taste of what Erida-kun could do during class..", Satsuki continued. Then, she gave Chizuru a reassuring smile. "They won't be troubling him for a while."
"But that's the thing about Seijurou. That's class work and not a real fight..", Chizuru rebutted immediately. "He thinks that if he fights back, things will only get worse. He used to not think that way before his mom died."
"You know.. Chizu-chan, I envy you..", Satsuki kept smiling at Chizuru. "You know so much about Erida-kun. I wish I could do things naturally the way you do things for him."
Slightly turning red and wide eyed, Chizuru stared at Satsuki for a while. "Well, I've known him since we were toddlers. He's like that stubborn brother of mine."
"You're so right!..", Satsuki laughed. "You know what, I have an idea."
"Eh?.."
"Since we both want to bring Erida-kun's passion for battle back, why don't we work together?..", Satsuki said with a devious smirk. "Let's do everything we can to make him join me in the preliminaries."
"In that way, I don't have to babysit him all the time if he doesn't hesitate to fight back anymore..", Chizuru smiled devilishly as well.
They both agreed with a high five as Seijurou felt a little chill while he studied back at home. He must've felt that someone was talking about him.
Going back, the carriage that Chizuru and Satsuki were riding on halted to a stop as it neared Chizuru's house. "This is me, Satsu-chan. Aren't you coming down too since you're near?"
"Oh.. I have to meet my parents in the Arcane University and handle some errands..", replied Satsuki.
A little confused, Chizuru furrowed her eyebrows. It seemed like she had more questions, but she was already on her way down. "Okay. See you tomorrow, Satsu-chan!"
Satsuki smiled and waved goodbye at her friend as the carriage moved forward again. And then, a blank expression slowly took over her face.
"Where to, ojou-chan?..", the carriage driver asked.
Satsuki answered coldly while just staring at some distance. "Arcane University. Healing Ward."
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With the sun finally showing itself the following morning, Seijurou's dread was becoming ever increasing. Once again, he lacked sleep due to reading the latest volume of the "Tanuki-hime" light novel series. And with some good weather projected, the preliminaries were good to go. The thought of having to modify and repair his classmates' gear the whole day did not amuse him.
And just like every school morning, his "console command" beeped relentlessly with Satsuki's messages.
"Of course she'd be on her way, and I'll be carrying her heavy load..", Seijurou talked to himself painstakingly as he read Satsuki's message. "Come to think of it, I'm getting stronger because of that."
Seijurou scrolled more into Satsuki's profile in his "console command" while he prepared for school. "And maybe I can take a heavier beating now the next time Jax decides to do so.. which is because of that girl, of course."
All of a sudden, Seijurou stopped scrolling as soon as one of Satsuki's newest images popped up. It was her holding up two crepes and eating one of them. The next one was about her eating the other crepe.
"This was the day we spent time under the statue before she left abruptly..", Seijurou said to himself in his thoughts. "So.. she didn't spend time with that ape after all."
Seijurou then went down to the workshop to say to his father that he was off to school. After which, he treaded towards the front door to leave. However, he stopped suddenly.
"Then what the hell was that about?..", asked Seijurou to himself.
With his thoughts about Satsuki still bugging him, Seijurou did what a normally confused high schooler would do. He went back to his father, Kajiya.
"Oyaji!..", called Seijurou as he went into the forge room.
"That was fast. I didn't know school ended quickly..", Kajiya jested.
A droplet of sweat rolled on Seijurou's head. "Okay, never mind."
"What's the question, Seijurou? Spill it out..", asked Kajiya before his son got out.
"It's Kinjou..", answered Seijurou without looking back due to his embarrassment. "She's been acting weird lately. It's getting uncomfortable. What should I do?"
"Is it the bad kind of uncomfortable, son? Or the good one?"
Seijurou stared at his father blankly. "What in the world does that mean?"
Kajiya laughed at his heart's content to Seijurou's fury. But right before Seijurou hit him with a blacksmith's hammer, he spoke.
"I'm not really one who should be giving advice to these kinds of things. I'm just a blacksmith, you know..", Kajiya answered with a smug look while he hammered a thin sheet of metal. "But as your father, I can only tell what I learned from your mother."
A beep resounded in the room coming from Seijurou's "console command". Satsuki was probably near already.
Kajiya held the sheet of metal up to inspect it after pounding continuously on it. "The girl will let you know once you get there, Seijurou."
It only brought more confusion to Seijurou's mind even if his father's statement was clear as day. It was still too vague for him. Disappointed at not getting more specific advice to resolve an issue with a dear friend, he just waved goodbye and walked away.
But Kajiya smugly grinned as he thought to himself. "Looks like our boy's growing up, Masako."
The moment Seijurou opened the door, Satsuki was already there. With a big smile on her face as usual, she handed some of her gear to Seijurou. It seemed a little heavier than usual, but he did not complain. It was the day of the preliminaries after all, and maybe she needed extra stuff for the Round Table.
However, there was something unusual between the two. An invisible wall stood between them as they walked to school. Seijurou looked at Satsuki and she smirked as always. But there were no words exchanged between them. Silence was not a rare occurrence with long time friends. However, there was definitely something awkward.
Seijurou thought maybe it was because of that time under Orca's statue. For him, seeing Satsuki apart from being a friend and training partner before was nonsense. But the thought of her looking beyond the horizon that day, and somehow leaving abruptly, lingered in his thoughts ever since. And everyone knew, him most especially, that he never understood nonsensical things.
That was precisely why he could not say anything to Satsuki.
For Satsuki's part though, the reason she could not say anything to Seijurou was because of her devious plan to force Seijurou to compete in the preliminaries. Being dishonest to her friends, most especially to Seijurou, was not one of her best qualities. Smiling in front of him, with a little bit of cold sweat in the summer heat, was all she could do. Blurting out a single word might foil her and Chizuru's plans, which made her very nervous.
"This is heavier than usual, Kinjou..", Seijurou finally broke the silence with an awkwardly random thought. "What's this?"
Satsuki giggled naturally. "My gear and yours for the preliminaries."
A wide eyed Seijurou suddenly stopped in his tracks and stared at Satsuki.
Realizing that she just dropped a bomb of revelations, Satsuki chuckled awkwardly and scratched her head. "Eh? Oops..?"
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FSG's atmosphere during the preliminaries has always been a festive one. The usual "afternoon only" duels in the Octagon have become a whole day affair for an entire week. This was so to accommodate all teams from all year levels to participate.
In turn, people of all ages and builds flock the school as early as the first duel. Food stalls were scattered everywhere. Hero merchandise were sold wherever one went. And most importantly, scouts from guilds, companies and government units were in attendance to look out for potential recruits.
Some scouts from the smaller combat groups looked so hilariously out of place since they did not know the latest trends in fashion. However, those of the more successful guilds obviously did their research and blended perfectly with the crowd to avoid being spotted by rival recruiters.
"It's way too noisy for a morning stroll..", lamented Chizuru as she dragged herself towards school. Like Seijurou, she was not a morning person.
"Then why don't you yell and tell them to shut up?..", Jax joked while he suddenly walked alongside Chizuru.
"Unlike you, I prefer the more civilized approach, baka..", sneered Chizuru. "And why the hell are you walking with me?"
Jax laughed as he snatched Chizuru's gear to help carry it for her. "Looks like someone's having a rough morning. Don't you remember? We're teammates now, Taneda-chan."
Chizuru just glared at Jax, which caused him to back away a little.
And then without a moment's notice, a blitzing Seijurou went past everyone. He ran so fast that one could imagine he was leaving a wake through the summer haze.
"Looks like someone's lively today..", Jax commented.
Seconds later, it was revealed why Seijurou was running for dear life. He was being chased down by a near supersonic Heiress.
"Wait! Erida-kun! Please.. we already have the draw!..", begged Satsuki while she ran after Seijurou.
Witnessing the swift chase down, Jax furrowed his thick eyebrows as he felt anger boiling in him. "That otaku.. I told him to stay away from Satsuki-chan!"
"Are you blind, Jax? Can't you see that's exactly what's happening?..", Chizuru argued while she wondered why Satsuki was chasing Seijurou. And then, she realized it. "That Satsu-chan! She really couldn't keep her trap shut.."
After running three flights of stairs and turning a corner to hide in an empty stockroom, Seijurou rested his back against the wall and slowly sat down. "That girl's crazy fast. I told her I won't fight."
As soon as Seijurou heard Satsuki's voice again, he began to move silently towards the fire exit at the other side. He was starting to worry about being late since his classmates would be looking for his gear modifications in the Octagon's "Underforge".
"Erida-kun! Where are you? We need to talk..", pleaded Satsuki, which alarmed Seijurou even more. "Please come out.."
"That girl really doesn't give up..", Seijurou whispered to himself as he quickly went down the stairs. "Good thing her gear was heavy enough to slow her inhuman speed down."
After catching his breath, Seijurou cautiously went to the locker rooms to change his footwear from shoes to indoor loafers. To his shock, an enormous amount of the preliminaries' flyers spilled out of his personal locker. What was worse was it indicated the day's main event of him and Satsuki dueling together.
There were only two possible culprits who knew of Seijurou's locker combination. And one was peeking through the door before suddenly disappearing as Seijurou glanced towards her. "Even Chizuru's on board too."
The series of unfortunate events that would force Seijurou to fight did not end there. As both Chizuru and Satsuki's combined forces plotted more against Seijurou's resolve. It practically went on the whole day.
The next one was when Seijurou tried to enter the "Underforge". At first, he thought he was not allowed to enter because of being late due to all the commotion. However, he was actually early.
"Combatants aren't allowed here until before their designated duel..", a guard said as Seijurou tried to enter.
"But I'm my classmates' alchemist..", replied desperately by Seijurou. "And I'm not a combatant."
"Oh, yes you are! You think we don't know you?..", the guard rebutted as he blocked the door with his battle scythe. "You're the Heiress' partner. Everyone knows that since you're in today's main event."
"Great..", Seijurou thought as two peeking heads in the form of a devilish Satsuki and Chizuru suddenly vanished when he looked at them. "Just great."
The guard sighed. He probably felt pity for the boy who looked down. "I'll let you in when your classmates compete, so you can tend to their gears. But in the meantime, you stay out. That cool?"
Seijurou nodded with a faint smile. However, it does not diminish the fact that he was still in the preliminaries' official list. And since he decided not to be a fighter, he needed to fill a certain number of hours in the Underforge, which seemed to be unachievable already in his current situation.
"Tell you what. Since you're here already..", the guard added. "Why don't you go up and watch the current duel? I'll log it in your Underforge hours. That alright?"
Seijurou sighed in relief and bowed. "Thank you so much, sir."
A squeal of excitement similar to Satsuki's and Chizuru's, together with a sound of a clap like a high five, was heard from a distance. Seijurou shivered like someone's plans worked on him.
As Seijurou went to the stands to get a better view of the duel, the cheers were getting louder. It seemed that he just arrived in time to witness the climax of a match. But what surprised him was the duel's nature itself. It was a one on one.
"No wonder it takes a whole week to finish the preliminaries..", Seijurou thought while he watched two sophomore melee fighters clash. "Some actually prefer fighting alone.. which means more duels."
When the two combatants broke the sword lock, the one in the blue knight armor weaved a "download gesture" with his non sword hand. Then, just like raising someone from the dead with his hand lifting up, a horned beast appeared out of thin air.
Seijurou's eyes widened in shock and excitement. "That's a conjurer! But with armor?! What the hell is that? A 'Death Knight' build?"
But the other one, a girl dressed in yellow Kunoichi armor, immediately vanquished the beast with a single slash from her dual wielded ethereal swords.
"Now that's a bad match for a conjuration type mage..", stated Seijurou to himself as he analyzed the match. "That girl's a 'Banisher' build.. sort of an anti summoner."
The duel went on with both fighters negating each other's ability. Until finally, they decided who was better at straight up physical combat.
"At least the conjurer can use a sword..", Seijurou commented.
However, the end was nearing when the blue knight incapacitated the yellow Kunoichi with a "rear naked choke". Close to be knocked out cold, the girl used one more trick off her sleeve: a back kick to the groin.
"The fight's over..", Seijurou clapped and smirked awkwardly as he shook his head. "I guess anything goes inside that Octagon besides killing."
Little did Seijurou know that both Satsuki and Chizuru were watching him from a distance. Small droplets of tears lingered in their eyes as they saw him enjoying himself with the match. It seemed that he was slowly getting his passion back, but the day was far from over.
There were a few more duels that Seijurou got to watch, and most of them were starkly different from each other. The skills of his seniors were so refined for battle that no one got to duplicate another one's build. He was so much in awe that it almost disappointed him to be finally called into the Underforge.
It was time to work, and seemed quite a daunting task. It was going to be a battle between "trinities" from the freshman class. So, it simply meant Seijurou had to work on multiple sets of battle gears in a short period of time.
Seijurou sighed in frustration. "This is precisely why I insisted on staying here inside."
And then, Seijurou remembered that he could not stay inside the Underforge for long because he was an official combatant. Watching all those duels before this almost made him forget his predicament. Nervousness began to surface within him as he started polishing his classmates' armors. Having to see the combatants' skill levels also did not help to calm his nerves.
Seijurou was beginning to lose focus. With that, he opened his textbook on craftsmanship, and to his shock, it was filled with drawings of swordsmanship stances. He started feeling the chills again as he felt like being watched by two ghosts peeking behind the door. Though he knew by intuition that this was Chizuru's and Satsuki's doing.
To make matters worse, he realized that this fight was the last before the main event. For Seijurou, it felt like the prelude to his total demise. The pounding of metal in the Underforge was getting louder as it rang in his ears, only to realize that it was his own heartbeat. Thoughts of paranoia swarmed his brain while he tried to quickly finish his job. The inevitable was about to happen. And without warning, he burst into a mad dash.
There had been a total of fifteen duels on the first day before the main event started. It may have seemed quite a lot, but it really was just a small fraction of what was to come in the entirety of the preliminaries. However, no one can discount that it had been a long day. But for Satsuki, it was far from over.
"I'm sorry Satsu-chan..", uttered Chizuru as she panted in exhaustion. "I can't find him anywhere."
"Oh, man.. I thought we already had him fired up..", Satsuki replied in an unusually sad tone. "But thank you for your help. You really are the best Chizu-chan! I still enjoyed this, you know!"
"But what about you?..", concerned, Chizuru asked. "You still have to fight alone, right? Like that's hard for you anyway."
Satsuki giggled. "Our opponents are decent fighters too. I still can't afford to take the wrong step."
After a few moments, Satsuki sighed and started looking towards a distance. It was as if she was deep in thought. Until suddenly, an idea came out.
"Of all places.. we forgot to look for him there!..", beamed Satsuki before she bolted.
True enough, Satsuki found Seijurou hiding himself in a dark place on the roof deck. He was just eating comfortably as if nothing astronomical was about to happen.
There was something different in Satsuki as she approached, and Seijurou could not help but notice.
"Why are you still here?..", asked Seijurou stoically. "Your duel's about to start."
Satsuki smashed Seijurou with a kick to the side. "That's the first time I get to hit you cleanly. Yes!"
Wailing in pain, Seijurou stood up slowly. "Somehow, I think I sort of deserved that for running away.. but I was pretty clear with you that I don't want to fight."
"Shut up and let's go..", an uncharacteristically serious Satsuki pulled Seijurou. "Don't give me that, Erida-kun. Even if you say you don't want it.. I see you cling to it everyday. I know you still have it in you."
"No, I don't!..", Seijurou exclaimed, which caused Satsuki to let his hand go and face him. "Can't you just realize that I detest these kinds of violence?"
"Really? Or are you just lying to yourself because of Masako-sensei?"
Silence engulfed the rooftop after invoking the Swordmaiden's name. Usually, it would be an ugly affair once she is mentioned. But between these two, it was never a taboo. However, it was still quite too heavy to even mention her in a situation like this.
"Mama only taught me not to get hurt, remember?..", Seijurou said, which broke the silence. "She was supposed to teach me how to use a weapon when I get older.. but she's gone."
"Whatever she taught you was enough..", stated Satsuki as a smile began to form on her face. "You can do it like you always did before."
"But I don't have much practice now.. and it's my first duel."
"But you have me.. and you've been watching duels all day.. not to mention you seeing basic sword stances in your notebook..", Satsuki answered to encourage Seijurou more. "It's just the nerves. Even the greatest heroes like your Mama were nervous before big battles too, you know."
"It's not as simple as that, Kinjou..", Seijurou rebutted with a higher tone. "The all powerful Swordmaiden died before teaching his son how to fight. All I've ever known was to protect myself since then. I am already hopeless since losing her couldn't get me anywhere anymore."
Once again, a wall of silence stood between them. Seijurou went back to the corner to eat, but Satsuki remained where she was.
"You still have time. You can probably get another partner since it's just the first day..", Seijurou added while he slowly sat down on the floor.
Just as soon as Seijurou sat, he suddenly found himself standing up again when he saw something astounding. Like a cherry blossom petal in midsummer slowly dropping between them, Satsuki's tears began to fall. She usually faked it for hilarious circumstances, but something felt so real this time.
"That's not true!..", exclaimed Satsuki in between her sobs. She was continuously wiping her tears with her arms, but they kept coming. "You don't just protect yourself.. you protect me and Chizu-chan too! You think I don't know whenever you get hurt for our sake?!"
The sight was beginning to break Seijurou's heart. "Kinjou.."
"I want you and no one else..", cried Satsuki while she bowed in a right angle to plead. "And I most definitely don't want to fight alone! I lost her too.. but I don't want to feel like I'm losing hope. So, please.."
After sobbing so much, Seijurou approached Satsuki to help her stand upright. In his entire life, he had never seen her like this before.
'You were right, oyaji..', Seijurou thought about his conversation with his father that morning. 'The girl will let you know..'
Translation Notes:
Underforge - a makeshift workshop and blacksmith's forge under the Octagon.
Honorifics Guide:
Ojou-chan - an informal way of saying "young lady".