“Hey. So what the hell was—”
Sera crouched on the mats, somehow forcing her voice out between ragged breaths.
“This. What the hell was this? You keep using nothing but dirty tricks.”
She broke off into a light cough. Getting thrown a moment ago must have done its job.
“You can’t use any of that in a match.”
The other two were in more or less the same state. Shirogamine was sprawled on her back with her arms and legs flung out, while Indo had barely managed to stay upright by leaning against the wall. That, in itself, gave me a pretty good picture of their overall level.
“Yeah, true.”
I acknowledged Sera’s point. None of that could be used in a match. She was right.
“That sparring just now was completely useless as match reference.”
“Hey... are you screwing with us?”
“Not really. I did think you looked pathetic, but I’m not going to waste effort just for that.”
A master must not lose to his disciples. No matter how dirty the trick, he has to make them feel he is always one step above them. Who listens to instruction from someone who looks worse than they are?
That was what my master used to say, and I did not think he was all that wrong. Especially not in my case. I had not studied theory like a sports coach, and I had no teaching record to speak of.
“I think I said this already, but there’s no killing technique that’ll make you strong overnight. So you’re better off figuring out your own problems and working around them. Probably. Most likely. First, let’s see.”
I tried to put into words what I had felt during the sparring.
“All three of you are at a decent level, I guess. You’ve got the basics, if that’s how to put it. No, that’s a little off. Your way of fighting is... ingrained... No, that explanation’s weird too. Whatever.”
I gave up almost immediately. I was not an expert at explaining this shit anyway.
“So once you fix the problems, you should be able to beat other students pretty quickly. Probably. I also have a general idea why you’re bottom-rung.”
“You say ‘probably’ way too much.”
“No—just as expected of you, Master.”
Shirogamine had finally sat up and apparently recovered enough stamina to speak. Her breathing was still rough, though.
“To think you have already discovered the reason we are bottom-rung students. Please, by all means!”
“First, Sera is way too scared.”
“Huh?”
Sera glared at me with the eyes of a beast.
“What the hell are you talking about? Who’s scared?”
She growled, looking ready to leap at me any second. But it was nothing but a bluff. If she wanted to kill me, she should have done it without saying anything and without letting it show on her face. Meaning that attitude of hers was proof she wanted to intimidate the other side into avoiding a fight.
“When you attack, you always come in third. And every time, you lead with a full-power downward strike.”
“That’s because I was trying to kill you.”
“Meaning you want to finish it in one blow. You don’t want the other side to attack you, so you try to end things with your first move. Once you miss, you turn passive and think about nothing except how to survive their attacks.”
That pattern of fighting was ingrained in her. Once we crossed blades, that habit showed itself to an absurd degree. Only fight opponents you can absolutely beat. As a Hero, that approach had some merit, but now I understood why she would struggle to win swordsmanship matches against classmates.
Even when I had put the sword to her neck, she could have thrashed around if she had wanted to. The problem was that she tried to end the fight there so she would not be attacked any further.
“You were taught to fight like that since you were a kid, weren’t you?”
Sera did not answer. She just glared at me with pure, sour displeasure. Her face said there was something she could not stand at all. The cause was probably one thing and one thing only.
Her father, King Arthur.
“Anyway, you should fix that. Basically, you need to fight with the mindset that you’re going to force a mutual hit.”
Sera still gave no answer. No argument, at least. Do whatever the hell you want, I thought. I had fulfilled the bare minimum duty to explain. Next.
“Then there’s Indo.”
“Yeah.”
Yukine Indo seemed to have recovered a decent amount already. She was sitting near my feet with her knees drawn up. Her expression was as sullen and blank as ever, but her eyes somehow looked expectant.
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“No, nothing in particular.”
That was the honest truth. Yukine Indo was plenty strong. Against classmates, she should almost never lose. She had nearly landed blows on me several times too, and without <E3>, it might have been dangerous.
“Actually, in your case, your scores on exams like this aren’t bad, are they?”
“Yeah.”
“Yukine is top-class in the year when it comes to practical skills.”
Sera said it with a growl.
“She’s hopeless at academics, though. She’s at the level where I don’t even trust her with times tables.”
“I can do that much.”
“Bullshit! When I helped you study the other day, you solved things with some weird code-like method. People who know their times tables don’t do that.”
“That was a coincidence.”
“There are no coincidences in how you solve arithmetic! So first of all—”
“I don’t care which of you is right, so shut up and listen. You’re wasting time. From now on, raise your hand before you speak.”
It looked ready to develop into a barren argument, so I made a swift decision and cut in. Yukine Indo immediately closed her mouth and looked up at me.
“Anyway, Indo doesn’t have any real problems. Study seriously, I guess, but that isn’t my job.”
From what I could see, Yukine Indo clearly bore signs of having received some kind of combat training. Probably military training, at that. She might have some strange past of her own.
“But, Instructor.”
Yukine Indo dutifully raised her hand before speaking.
“I want to become stronger. Right now, you are stronger than I am, so I want you to instruct me.”
“You said ‘right now,’ didn’t you? Cocky little shit. Someday.”
“Someday? When? I want you to promise.”
“Someday.”
I did not take the bait. These girls would keep forcing concessions out of me without limit. Leaving Indo, who still looked like she wanted to say something, alone, I pointed at the problematic third one.
“And last is Shirogamine.”
“Yes!”
Shirogamine raised her hand high. Apparently she had recovered, because she was sitting beside Indo with her knees drawn up.
“Please be gentle with me as well, while also making it meaningful!”
“Fine. You’re completely hopeless. Not even worth discussing.”
“That is not—”
“No, seriously.”
I immediately shut down what sounded like an attempted objection from Shirogamine. Letting her talk would be a pain.
“You’re not fighting with the intent to kill or break your opponent.”
I thought about it briefly, but that was the whole of Shirogamine’s problem.
“Did you go on the attack even once during those four rounds? You did nothing but defend. There’s nothing wrong with counterattacking itself. If, after deflecting an attack, you can land a counter that breaks the other person’s body.”
Because she could not do that, she simply slid into one-sided defense. It was a major problem. Sera’s cowardice drove her into an extreme offensive tendency, but Shirogamine was the opposite.
“In other words, you’re underestimating your opponent. I thought this last time too, but what, do you think you don’t want to kill people? Then quit being a Hero. That’s a problem that comes before talent.”
“But, Master!”
Shirogamine spoke without raising her hand.
“Huh?”
I felt a slight headache coming on.
“If peace can be built without harming anyone, is that not the best possible outcome? And what reason do we have not to strive for the best? If the path of a Hero is already one of thorns, then should we not always continue doing our utmost to reach the best possible result?”
“Listen.”
My head hurt enough that I was clearly aware of it. I pointed at Shirogamine, but turned not to her, but to Sera.
“Is she always like this? Or is this basically what the Academy teaches?”
“No, Aki is...”
Sera hesitated a little.
“She’s a little weird. She’s not a bad person, but...”
“In that case, Shirogamine, you—”
Should I “educate” her a little harshly?
No. To begin with, did I owe her that much? Was I being paid enough to go that far? My head hurt. I knew the reason too. That was why I hesitated briefly.
And in those few seconds of silence, I noticed.
“Oh.”
A faint sound.
Hard. Repeating at a steady pace. Slightly muffled. Even without <E3>, I could distinguish that much. There was no mistaking it for anything but human footsteps.
They were getting closer.
More than one set too. At least two people.
Were the owners of those footsteps connected to the Academy, or were they trespassers unrelated to the school? Either way, running into them would be a problem. By then, Sera, Indo, and even Shirogamine had noticed. Sera looked anxious, Indo expressionless, and Shirogamine dissatisfied as they glanced at one another.
I nodded.
“Perfect timing.”
“Master?”
Shirogamine raised her hand.
“Do you have something in mind?”
“Well, it’d be bad if we were seen here.”
I moved toward the wall and killed the lights. In an instant, darkness swallowed the gymnasium.
“But they’re coming closer. What do we do? Sera Pendragon, your answer.”
“Run. Obviously.”
Sera’s voice. I shook my head.
“You really are scared, aren’t you?”
“What did you say? Hey, you’ve been—”
“Raise your hand before speaking, I said. I have a plan that kills two birds with one stone. Whether the ones coming this way are security guards or teachers staying late...”
I picked up the bastard-sword training blade lying at my feet.
“We beat them down and shut them up. You get real combat experience too, so there’s nothing to complain about, right? If you screw up, expulsion. Nice and tense.”
The three of them answered with silence.
“Sera and Shirogamine, solve your own problems. I basically won’t interfere. Brilliant. Maybe I’m actually cut out to be a teacher.”
The answer remained silence.
I decided to take that silence as agreement.