The everyday training content of this Mixed Training Camp posed no real difficulty for Shikime Natsu. He handled it as easily as he handled everything else, and every training session amounted to little more than a formality he walked through.
Of course, finding anything that would actually challenge Shikime Natsu was itself a rather difficult proposition. If even he ever found something hard, then everyone else might as well not bother playing at all and simply surrender on the spot.
After all, something capable of giving Shikime Natsu trouble would be a hell-difficulty stage in front of an ordinary student. No — not just students. For any human being at all, it would be hell difficulty.
After several days of training, everyone else had more or less adjusted to the routine as well. Once dinner ended, Shikime Natsu left the dining hall and stepped outside. The sky had gone completely dark by then, and the mountain wind carried the clean scent of grass and trees through the trees, brushing past with a touch of cold.
He was strolling with no particular destination in mind when a figure in red caught his eye. A girl — quite tall, with long silver hair, dressed in a set of athletic wear that was red from top to bottom, the trim cut tracing the lines of her tall, well-balanced figure perfectly.
It was Kiryuuin Fuuka, second year. She stopped walking the moment she saw him, and the two of them stood face to face in the not-especially-wide corridor.
Shikime Natsu was the one to break the silence, a trace of amusement in his voice.
"I didn't expect to run into you out here, Kiryuuin-senpai. What a coincidence."
Those pale purple eyes settled on him, and something faintly surprised flickered through them. It passed quickly. The corners of Kiryuuin Fuuka's mouth curved up into an easy, unhurried smile.
"It is, isn't it. So what brings Shiki-kun out here?"
She smiled as she asked, beating him to the question.
"Just out for a walk. Helps the food settle. And you, Kiryuuin-senpai?"
Shikime Natsu answered simply, returning the smile.
Hearing his question, Kiryuuin Fuuka's own smile softened a little, and she replied.
"Nothing more than getting some air to clear my head."
As she spoke she raised both arms and stretched, and the motion pulled the fitted red athletic wear tight against her body, making the curves of her figure all the more obvious.
Kiryuuin Fuuka herself clearly could not have cared less about that. She lowered her arms, tilted her head, and smiled at him again.
"Seems the two of us are both at loose ends. Since we've run into each other anyway — would Shiki-kun care to walk with me?"
Her gaze drifted off toward somewhere else as she said it, followed by a low laugh.
"When Kiryuuin-senpai invites me like that, I could hardly refuse."
Shikime Natsu nodded with a smile, and with his answer in hand Kiryuuin Fuuka set off, with him following behind her.
They walked one after the other along the corridor for a stretch, then Kiryuuin Fuuka turned at a fork and led him out to a clearing that was a little more open.
The ground here sat higher, and the wind was stronger than it had been below. It blew in off the mountains in waves, each gust carrying its own chill.
Kiryuuin Fuuka stopped at the edge of the clearing. Those pale purple eyes looked out at the distant ridgeline swallowed up in the dark, as though she were taking in the view — or perhaps staring past it at something on her mind.
Shikime Natsu came to stand beside her, about a fist's width of space between them. They stood like that for a while before she spoke.
Her voice came out soft and unhurried against the wind.
"The first time we met, if I remember right, Shiki-kun was in the middle of a wager with that Nagumo fellow. Wasn't he?"
Her gaze wandered a little, as though she were retracing the scene of that day.
"That's right. And Kiryuuin-senpai put a great deal of trust in me back then," Shikime Natsu said with a smile, thinking back on it as well.
"True enough. Though I trust Shiki-kun just as much now — that hasn't changed in the slightest. And… Shiki-kun turned out to be exactly as impressive as I thought he'd be."
Kiryuuin Fuuka praised him again, and there was nothing false to be found anywhere in those eyes.
"That reminds me. Once this term ends, the third-years will be leaving, and I'll be moving up to third year myself."
A note of quiet feeling entered her voice as she said it, her eyes still fixed on the distance.
"Time really does move quickly. Blink once and a great deal of it is already behind you."
She was mostly talking to herself by then. Then she fell silent, and something amusing seemed to occur to her, because the corner of her mouth lifted into a smile.
"Come to think of it, if I'd ended up in the same class as Shiki-kun, being carried along by you might not have been so bad either."
At that, Shikime Natsu turned to look at her and laughed under his breath.
"You're giving me too much credit, Kiryuuin-senpai. Besides, none of that matters to you anyway, does it?"
With Kiryuuin Fuuka's ability, standing out from the crowd would present no problem whatsoever. It was simply that she had never wanted to.
In a certain sense, Kiryuuin Fuuka was much like Kouenji Rokusuke — both of them lived for themselves alone, indifferent to how anyone else looked at them.
"True enough."
Kiryuuin Fuuka laughed lightly, conceding the point. The Kiryuuin name had given her a great deal, but she had no intention at all of living beneath it. She meant to walk toward the life she had decided on under her own power.
That was a life she had mapped out for herself, and she had no plans to regret it. Still, thinking about what came after, a few other thoughts surfaced.
Kiryuuin Fuuka slowly turned to face him. The night wind lifted strands of her silver hair, moonlight fell across that finely made face, and it made the pale purple of her eyes look especially bright. The smile stayed at her lips.
Then the amusement in those eyes drew back, and her expression turned a great deal more serious. A single sentence came out of her mouth, perfectly clear.
"Shiki-kun, I've taken a liking to you. Would you be willing to become my boyfriend?"
The words were about as direct as words could get. There had been no lead-up, no circling around the subject, nothing softened at the edges — but that was simply how Kiryuuin Fuuka was.
In the picture Kiryuuin Fuuka had drawn of her future, Shikime Natsu was in it. So she wanted Shikime Natsu to be her boyfriend.
It might have seemed abrupt, coming now. She said it anyway, because it struck her that now was as good a moment as any.
And compared with the other girls around Shikime Natsu, Kiryuuin Fuuka did not have much time left. As for those girlfriends of his, naturally she did not mind them in the least — otherwise she would never have spoken at all.
Hearing this, no hesitation or uncertainty surfaced in Shikime Natsu's pale golden eyes. He simply smiled a little and nodded his acceptance.
"Sure. I'd be glad to be Kiryuuin-senpai's boyfriend."
His phrasing was as clean and unadorned as hers had been. She had been perfectly straightforward with him, so hemming and hawing on his end would have been unbecoming.
The curve of Kiryuuin Fuuka's mouth deepened at the answer. The night wind stirred her silver hair again, something flickered in her eyes, and she took a step forward toward him.
Then she lifted a hand, and that pale, slender hand came to rest against his cheek as naturally as breathing.
Her palm carried the cold of the night wind, her fingertips resting lightly on his skin. Shikime Natsu neither pulled away nor let any embarrassment show — for him, this was hardly anything out of the ordinary.
Kiryuuin Fuuka tilted her head slightly toward him and pressed her lips to his. It was a gentle kiss, and a brief one. Soon enough she drew back and let the distance return between them.
It happened to be Kiryuuin Fuuka's first kiss, but as far as she was concerned there was nothing to be shy about in it.
Those pale purple eyes stayed fixed on him now, unblinking.
"Natsu, I may be your senpai, but since we're going out now, just call me Fuuka. I'm going out with you because I took a liking to you, Natsu, and I don't believe I've misjudged anyone. What I intend to do today is simple — first I'm keeping you at my side."
"What we feel for each other isn't all that deep yet, I'll grant you. But that part we can leave to the future. No objections?"
The smile she wore when she finished was as unbothered as ever. Then she turned and started back the way they had come.
"None at all," Shikime Natsu said with a smile, and set off after her at an unhurried pace, heading back toward the lodging area.
Over the next several days, the Mixed Training Camp's training and coursework rolled on according to schedule.
None of the assessments gave Shikime Natsu the slightest trouble. His performance stayed as steady and effortless as always.
Whatever the training involved, whatever else came up, he came away with solid scores across the board — and the others in his group did well too.
During the free periods between the training curriculum he ran into Ibuki Mio now and then. Her attitude toward him had softened considerably from the bristling-all-over version of her he'd known before.
She still spoke with a certain awkward edge in her voice, but she no longer went cold and walked off at the slightest provocation.
Now and then, when they crossed paths, Ibuki Mio would even greet him first. That was hardly surprising — since learning that the Shikime Natsu in front of her and the Shikime Natsu in her dreams were one and the same person, she had not been entirely composed about it. Then again, nobody could stay composed about something like that.
For Ibuki Mio, though, this much contact with Shikime Natsu already counted as an enormous step forward on her part.
As for Kiryuuin Fuuka, not much changed after their relationship was settled.
She was still the same brisk, unruffled woman she'd always been. When they crossed paths she would fall into step beside him and chat, and when they parted there was none of the clinging or fussing.
It was exactly as she'd said: get her hands on the person first, and let time slowly grow the feelings.
Shikime Natsu was in no hurry about it either. Feelings were never something you could rush. Though Kiryuuin Fuuka did lose herself in a kiss now and then.
Before long, the special exam simply ended. Nobody was expelled. Everyone made it through the Mixed Training Camp exam safely.
When the Mixed Training Camp began, Nagumo Miyabi had, as always, gone up against Horikita Manabu. And, unsurprisingly, Nagumo Miyabi lost.
Nagumo Miyabi had known from the very start that he would lose. His original plan had been to exploit the rules of this Mixed Training Camp, use a failing exam result to drag Tachibana Akane — who stood at Horikita Manabu's side — down with him, and rub Horikita Manabu's nose in it.
That plan was never put into action.
The reason was simple enough: Nagumo Miyabi didn't have the Private Points for it. Sparing a single student from expulsion cost an enormous number of Private Points. Once upon a time Nagumo Miyabi could have produced that sum without feeling it at all.
The Nagumo Miyabi of today could not. He thought of the points that Shikime Natsu had squeezed out of him — no small figure, that.
And besides… ever since he'd lost to Shikime Natsu, his reputation among the second-years didn't carry the weight it used to. Simply helping himself to other people's Private Points had become a rather difficult proposition.
Toward Shikime Natsu, Nagumo Miyabi harbored something close to hatred. Facing Shikime Natsu had cost him everything.
Not only his Private Points. He'd lost his childhood friend as well.
Even so, Nagumo Miyabi didn't dare throw down another challenge at that monster. Shikime Natsu wasn't human — that much was plain.
With nothing but a human body to work with, there was no beating Shikime Natsu. Strangely enough, once he'd accepted that, Nagumo Miyabi found he could live with it.
So his eyes had gone back to Horikita Manabu ever since. Only now Horikita Manabu was on the verge of graduating, and Nagumo Miyabi still hadn't managed to beat him — which grated on him badly.
Which meant that from here on he'd likely have to wait until university to defeat Horikita Manabu. Nagumo Miyabi quietly resolved to test into the same university, and there, fair and square, to beat the man.
As for the time immediately ahead, Nagumo Miyabi planned to start by taking Horikita Manabu's place as the school's model student council president.
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