Chapter 143: Kazuko Kirigaya

"She really showed up!" The moment they spotted Saeko Busujima, the classroom fell abruptly silent, and every student let out a frantic cry in their hearts.

"It seems our junior students were having a lot of fun, but perhaps you carried it a bit too far. This thing flew straight through the wall and into our classroom!" At these words, everyone knew Saeko had come to settle scores. They immediately pointed at Yexing, who was sitting in the corner, and blurted out, "He did it! It has nothing to do with us!"

Considering the relationship between Yexing and Saeko, they assumed Saeko wouldn't blame him. Sure enough, knowing it was Yexing's doing, Saeko walked over to him, handed back the paper airplane, and left: "Yexing, your paper airplane."

Interrupted by Saeko, Tsukimi Rito managed to calm down somewhat, realizing this wasn't the right time for an outburst. Struggling to maintain her previous image, she said, "Everyone, the Blaze Dispatch mock battle is officially called the 'New Blade Battle.' The rule is simple: apart from your Duet partner, everyone else is your enemy!"

Her voice sounded just as it always had, but her grinning expression seemed somewhat strained to Yechen and the others. Deep down, a faint, imperceptible cold smile appeared on Tsukimi Rito's face.

"The detailed arrangements will be announced later. The schedule is set for next Saturday, the day before Golden Week. It will start at 17:00 and end at 19:00. During these two hours, you will use your Blaze to fight. The location is the academy's North District area. It doesn't matter even if someone gets sent to the hospital; remember, everyone is the enemy!"

"In addition, aside from participating in the 'Ascension Ritual' at the end of the semester, Duet pairs who show outstanding performance in the New Blade Battle will be granted a chance for Ascension. This is an extraordinarily rare reward! Every Ascension can boost your strength by a massive margin!" Stretching out both arms, Tsukimi Rito drew a large circle to emphasize how immense this reward truly was.

"Of course, such slots are definitely limited. Teacher Usagi can tell you that the top three Duet pairs with the best results are guaranteed to get this opportunity. Whether there will be any further slots depends on the circumstances, so everyone must utilize the characteristics of your Blaze and actual conditions to devise a solid strategy!" The chance of the Ascension Ritual had all the students eager to try. Prompted by Tsukimi Rito's pointed words, many gazes drifted toward Yechen's corner.

The more opportunities to increase their strength, the better. As long as this Ascension was successful, they wouldn't need to worry about the academy's expulsion issues. However, having only three guaranteed slots was still not enough for the entire class, and the most dangerous among them were Yechen and her three companions. Their strength was clearly a tier higher than the other students, and they directly occupied two of the slots, meaning the remaining people had to fight over just a single spot.

Thinking of this, the students looked at Yechen and the others with changed expressions. They had to eliminate them to secure more opportunities. Since most of them had been knocked unconscious by Shiina and Saeko last time, aside from Tsukimi Rito, none of the students realized that Kanade Tachibana possessed the combat strength to match Shiina.

If they had known, they probably wouldn't have harbored the thought of eliminating Yechen's group first. Trying to fight someone on par with Shiina, whom the entire class couldn't stop earlier, would simply be courting death.

The moment class ended and Tsukimi Rito left the classroom, the students began secretly contacting others to form alliances, discussing how to take down Yechen's group first before fighting among themselves. Most of them readily agreed, seeing Yechen as their greatest enemy.

"They're all planning to team up to deal with us first. Yechen, shouldn't we do something? Otherwise, just sitting here feels so idle!" Hakuki said, having noticed these people's actions.

"Hm?" Focused on a small flame dancing in the palm of his hand, Yechen raised his head, pinched the flame out, and said, with no one noticing his action, "Even if they team up, it won't do them any good. I'm more concerned with the fact that since this is a Blaze mock battle, figuring out how to use my Blaze to fight is quite a serious problem."

Recalling his Blaze, which could hardly be considered a weapon, Yechen felt rather troubled. If worst came to worst, he would just defeat everyone else directly. The Awakening of the Blaze seemed to come with the ability to manipulate fire, but Yechen wasn't particularly interested in such powers; close-quarters combat was his specialty.

"Ah, I've never seen Yechen's Blaze before." Julie shook her head, the bell on her hair making a crisp sound. As his Duet partner, she still had no idea what his Blaze was like, and she was quite persistent about it.

"Yechen's Blaze is red, round, and very pretty." The airheaded Kanade Tachibana traced a circular object in the empty air with her hand, using clumsy language to explain the appearance of Yechen's Blaze to Julie. Yet her description left those nearby who were eavesdropping in hopes of gathering intelligence utterly speechless—who on earth could picture anything from such a description?

However, one somewhat airheaded girl was explaining earnestly, while the other listened just as earnestly, nodding knowingly as if she could already picture it. It made the onlookers marvel at how easily two airheaded girls could communicate.

"Um..." The sole dark-haired girl, looking somewhat isolated, walked over to the corner where Yechen and the others were. She scratched her cheek in embarrassment. Yechen and Hakuki turned to look, and Hakuki asked somewhat kindly, "Is something the matter?"

"No, I just wanted to ask if I could join your team. Because, well... I don't have a Duet partner, and I'll be at a huge disadvantage during the New Blade Battle. That's why I want to join you," the girl said, looking rather conflicted as she explained her situation.

"No Duet partner?" Taking a closer look at the girl, she could be considered a pretty girl, and her heroic aura gave off a pleasant impression. Surely her popularity couldn't be so terrible that she couldn't even find a single Duet partner?

"The girl who was my Duet partner before couldn't handle the training over the past few days and dropped out of school. Now everyone else has already formed their official Duet pairs, and I'm the only one left over." Suddenly noticing that Julie and Kanade had stopped talking and were gazing at her with calm, sympathetic eyes, the girl hastily explained in a panic.

"How pitiful, does she have no friends? Yechen, help her out," Kanade said to Yechen, without waiting to hear the girl's full explanation.

"I do have friends! Even though I go eat breakfast alone every day, sit at my desk alone after class without talking to anyone, and stay by myself when I'm in the dorms, but... but I'm definitely not the kind of person who has no friends!" The girl desperately tried to defend herself, but with every sentence she uttered, her figure seemed to grow paler. By the time she finished speaking, she had collapsed to the floor in an 'orz' pose, completely drained of color.

"This is the first time I've seen someone describe themselves like that. What's your name?" The girl's state amused Yechen, and he asked.

"My name is Kazuko Kirigaya, and I'm from Amamiya City."