Misora Chivalry of a Failed Knight: Volume 2

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-7183-4714-4
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 2, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Chivalry of a Failed Knight

A month has passed since Ikki and Stella promised to cross swords again at the Seven Stars Battle Festival. But while they've won all of their qualifying matches in that time, their relationship hasn't progressed one bit. To make matters worse, Ikki finds himself taking on a beautiful upperclassman as a disciple, making Stella lose her mind with jealousy. And to top it all off, he winds up challenging the infamous Sword Eater-a Mage-Knight who reached the quarterfinals of the previous year's Seven Stars Battle Festival-to a duel! Things are heating up for both Ikki's love life and his dueling career!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Misora, Riku

Weitere Mitwirkende

Won

Ningen

Leseproben

Chapter 1: Apprenticeship

“It’s time for the seventh match of the day! Coming out of the blue gate, we have Kurogane Ikki, the Rank F Blazer who defeated one of last year’s Seven Stars Battle Festival representatives, Rank C Kirihara Shizuya, in his debut battle! Since then, he’s remained undefeated, racking up an impressive eight-win streak! On top of that, he’s won all but his first match without taking even a single hit! But today, our beloved Worst One will be facing his biggest threat since he took down the Hunter!”

The commentator went on.

“And from the red gate, we have the Rank C second-year Tomaru Renren, also known as Runner’s High! She’s part of Hagun Academy’s student council and is one of the favorites to earn a spot in the Festival! Just like Kurogane, she’s won all eight of her battles so far! Furthermore, she was ranked the third-strongest student in our school last year! Will Tomaru be able to defend that title today, or will Kurogane once again prove to the world that martial might can overcome supernatural powers?! Yanagida-sensei, how do you think this match will play out?!”

“You took so long with your intro that I fell asleep halfway through.”

“Thank you for your input! Now, let the battle begin!”

The buzzer signaling the start of the match rang, and the crowd let out a cheer.

In the ring below, the two knights faced each other down while maintaining their distance. On one side was Kurogane Ikki. He was wearing his usual uniform and holding his Device, Intetsu, comfortably in one hand. On the other was Tomaru Renren. She was wearing a windbreaker over a standard gym uniform, and her Device was a pair of brass knuckles.

Though the match had begun, Renren stayed where she was, hopping lightly from foot to foot. She smiled amicably at Ikki and said, “I saw your battle with the Hunter, Kurogane-kun! That was an exciting match!” Her voice was lively, matching her energetic demeanor perfectly.

Ikki smiled back and replied, “Why, thank you. It’s an honor to be praised by the school’s third-strongest knight.”

“Aw, come on. Don’t be so stiff. We’re the same age, aren’t we? But you know, if you can fight so well, how come you ended up repeating a year?”

“Aha ha, well, some stuff happened.”

“If you say so. Well, whatever the reason, it’s a damn shame. It would have been so much fun to have a strong guy like you in my class, Kurogane-kun.”

“If you’re just looking for strength, isn’t Saijou-san in the same grade as you?”

“He’s not good enough. That knucklehead relies much on strength. He can’t even touch me. Though I guess you won’t be able to either, Kurogane-kun. If you struggled with someone as weak as the Hunter, you’ve got no chance of beating me.” Tomaru’s smile turned into a feral grin. “I’ll show you what it means to be the third-strongest in the school!”

A second later, she vanished. But this wasn’t the work of a stealth skill like Area Invisible. The sound of her kicking off against the ring’s stone floor rang out loud and clear for Ikki to hear. He could also hear her cutting through the air at blistering speed.

Even when he strained his eyes, all he could see were the afterimages she was leaving behind. Tomaru hadn’t vanished, she was just moving so fast that it looked like she had. This was her unique Noble Art.

“There it is! Tomaru’s Mach Greed! It looks like she’s trying to end this match quickly!” the commentator bellowed.

Tomaru’s Blazer power let her accelerate endlessly. The deceleration that naturally occurred due to air resistance and other physical forces didn’t apply to her when she ran, and unless she came to a stop, she would continue to gain speed.

“I looked into you ahead of time, but I’m still amazed by how fast you can go,” Ikki said, genuinely impressed.

“Seeing it in person’s totally different than seeing it on a screen, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. My eyes can’t keep up. I guess the reason you were talking to me at the start of the match was to build up acceleration with those hops of yours?”

“Bingo! My power’s only weakness is how long it takes to rev up, so I did some warm-up steps to get my starting speed up to five hundred kilometers an hour. And this is just the beginning! My Mach Greed gets even scarier once I pass the speed of sound!”

Tomaru was running laps around the ring, even running along the walls surrounding it, and was getting faster every second. She was truly defying all known laws of physics.

Once she hit twelve hundred kilometers per hour, she broke the sound barrier, becoming literally supersonic. Naturally, she was too fast for the human eye to perceive. Even Ikki, with his enhanced kinetic vision, couldn’t track her anymore.

“As you can see, I don’t just pull a cheap disappearing act like the Hunter! Not only is it impossible to see me, but with how fast I’m going, you won’t be able to catch me either! You struggled so much against someone who was invisible, so there’s no way you’ll be able to beat me!”

“So if I manage to catch you, will you admit defeat?”

“Ha ha ha! Sure, why not?! Not like you’ll be able to! Sorry, Kurogane-kun, but your dream of entering the Seven Stars Battle Festival ends here! Take this!” Tomaru gathered mana in her fist and circled behind Ikki, aiming to take him down with a single blow powered by her supersonic acceleration. “Black Bird!”

Tomaru’s fist created a sonic boom as it rocketed toward Ikki’s unguarded back at a speed surpassing Mach 2. Not only had she been moving too fast to follow with the naked eye, but her punch was also too fast to react to, much less dodge or block. Tomaru was certain of her victory.

“What a moron,” Kurogane Shizuku said with a sigh as she watched the battle unfold from her spot in the spectator stands. Ikki’s sister was a Rank B knight who’d recently been awarded the nickname “Lorelei” for her propensity to defeat enemies by drowning them in water. Getting to her feet and looking down at the ring, she muttered, “The reason Onii-sama had so much trouble with the Hunter wasn’t that he couldn’t see him.”

A second later, Tomaru came to realize her mistake.

She watched in disbelief as Ikki turned to look directly at her, making it clear he’d been able to follow her despite the speed she was moving at.

The next instant, Ikki moved out of the path of her supersonic fist. Her punch sailed through the air, and she passed by Ikki, unable to slow herself down. He grabbed the collar of her windbreaker as she did. Utilizing her own speed against her, he spun her around and slammed her against the ring’s stone floor.

“Gah!” Tomaru gasped in pain as her back smashed into the floor.

“Looks like I win,” Ikki said plainly.

Tomaru said nothing. She couldn’t understand how Ikki had been able to see her or how he’d managed to grab her. But she knew she’d been defeated. Once she stopped, the acceleration provided to her by Mach Greed was reset. It was a skill that required her to constantly be on the move. Building up speed again would take some time, and it was clear that the samurai staring down at her wouldn’t give it to her.

Accepting her defeat, Tomaru nodded meekly and announced her surrender.

“Wh-What an anticlimactic finale!” cried the announcer. “The academy’s third-strongest student, the fearsome Runner’s High, has been defeated by Kurogane Ikki! This marks his ninth win in a row! It looks like, for the first time in history, we might actually have a Rank F knight be one of our school’s representatives in the Seven Stars Battle Festival!”

“No way!”

“Even Tomaru-san couldn’t stop him?”

“What the hell is with that guy?! How come a monster like him is Rank F and repeating a year?!”

“H-He’s so cool...”

The spectators all shared their thoughts.

“Well done, Ikki. That’s another flawless victory under your belt,” Alisuin Nagi said, applauding Ikki as he walked out of the ring. They then turned to Shizuku, who was standing next to them, and said, “He didn’t even need to use Ittou Shura.”

“Why would he, Alice? The only reason Onii-sama struggled against the Hunter was because Area Invisible was a perfect stealth Noble Art and he used a bow to fight from long range. No matter how fast someone is, the moment they enter Onii-sama’s range, their fate is sealed. That’s how good of a swordsman he is.”

At Ikki’s level of skill, he was able to take down anyone who got within his sword’s reach. Regardless of whether they were fast or slow, visible or invisible, his honed sixth sense enabled him to react to anything they might do. Tomaru had lost because she’d underestimated Ikki’s powers of observation.

As Ikki made his way back to the blue gate, a red-haired girl walked out of it and smiled at him. “That was a good fight, Ikki.”

“Seeing as I had to dislocate my right shoulder to earn that victory, I think I could have done better. Anyway, good luck, Stella.”

“I won’t even break a sweat against someone of that caliber,” Stella replied, brimming with confidence,...