Episode 61: The Strongest Student vs. The Oddball
Isurugi Kanna from the Second Esper Academy was scouting for enemies when she encountered Kazuma in his outlandish attire and froze for about a second. She probably couldn’t even imagine how many times she could have been taken down in that one second. If Kazuma had been serious, her party would have undoubtedly already been eliminated.
“Well now, just when I thought I saw a strange fella, ain’t you a Crown holder?”
If one were actually equipped with a crown or something similar in this Virtual Space, it would be completely obvious. Kazuma was dressed as a ninja, his face hidden by a hood, so it wasn’t clear, but above his head, a crown mark and his name were displayed.
In short, it was displayed like in a game. However, it was impossible to tell if it was real or not. Not until they were defeated, that is.
“Still, what’s with you? Dressed up in a cosplay like that. And you’re carryin’ so many weapons, like you’re Musashibo Benkei or somethin’!”
Kanna clutched her stomach and laughed at Kazuma’s utterly ridiculous appearance.
“Maybe you were tryin’ to get a laugh? If so, it’s a huge success! It’s super funny!”
“(Wow~. She’s chattering away right in front of an enemy. Doesn’t she realize this is a battlefield? Well, she’s a student, so I guess it can’t be helped. The President was like that at first too.)”
In a way, Kazuma was impressed. Despite her target being right in front of her, Kanna displayed an air of composure and continued to chat fluently. Kazuma wondered just how confident she was.
“(It’s not unpleasant. This reaction seems normal.)”
However, he couldn’t stay like this forever. Kazuma was determined to score the very first takedown. Therefore, while the completely relaxed Kanna was laughing, Kazuma thrust his hand into his breast pocket and threw a kunai, a projectile weapon, at the player who was laughing along with her behind her.
Naturally, the opponent didn’t notice. The kunai, thrown with unerring accuracy by Kazuma, splendidly pierced the forehead of the laughing player. As they fell backward, two of her party members were judged as killed and vanished.
“Huh?”
Kanna, whose two party members had been taken out, couldn’t understand what had happened and turned to look towards where her companions should have been, but that was the worst possible move.
“And, boom!!!”
“Eh?”
Kazuma had been aiming for that moment, as if waiting for her to turn around. Seeing the spear piercing her own stomach, Kanna understood for the first time. What she had been doing in front of an enemy.
“Y-You—”
She tried to voice a complaint, but Kazuma mercilessly cut her down. He had no use for losers. Kazuma approached the remaining Crown-holding student and silently thrust his spear into them.
“Alright, on to the next one.”
Fireworks shot up into the sky, and the first takedown of the Crown Battle was announced. This was the moment the name Satsuki Kazuma, a first-year from the Seventh Esper Academy’s Support Course, became known throughout the world.
The spectators watching this scene all had their mouths agape, their faces blank with astonishment. Those who had disparaged Kazuma, those who had scorned Kazuma, those who had laughed at Kazuma, those who had praised Kazuma, those who had evaluated Kazuma—all of them cried out in unison.
“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT?!?!”
He wasn’t just some cosplay weirdo. He wasn’t just some cringey idiot.
The weapons he carried weren’t just for show.
He was, without a doubt, a strong person.
“W-What in the world?! The first takedown of the Crown Battle goes to Satsuki Kazuma, a first-year from the Seventh Esper Academy’s Support Course! What on earth is going on?! The party led by Isurugi Kanna from the Second Esper Academy has been defeated in an instant!”
“It wasn’t exactly an instant, but… no, in a way, it was an instantaneous event, wasn’t it?”
“L-Let’s take a look at the replay for a moment. I couldn’t understand what happened either.”
And so, just as the confused announcer said, the replay video began to play.
While Kanna was clutching her stomach laughing, Kazuma let go of the spear in his hands, and just as it seemed he thrust his hand into his breast pocket, he threw kunai at imperceptible speed towards the two people behind her, taking them down.
Then, as Kanna turned around wondering what had happened, Kazuma quickly picked up his spear, closed the distance to her in a single step, and impaled her, finishing it.
After that, he easily defeated the remaining Crown-holding student, taking down four people in an instant.
It didn’t make any sense. First, the motion from taking the kunai out of his pocket to throwing them was far too fast.
The human eye couldn’t follow it at all.
It could only barely be captured by a super slow-motion camera.
At this point, it was just insane.
“Man… even watching the replay, I still don’t get it at all.”
“Indeed. It was only by slowing it down to super slow-motion that we could finally see he threw projectiles… Could he really be a ninja?”
“Ah, some data has just been sent over. Let’s see… Seventh Esper Academy, Support Course, first year, Satsuki Kazuma-kun. It seems his reflexes are outstanding, but his Gift is apparently Transposition. It’s said to be a Gift that allows him to swap the positions of objects.”
“I see. So that explains his good reflexes.”
“However, that alone doesn’t explain those movements.”
“But the VR machine scans biometric data, so cheating is impossible, you know? You can’t even use doping.”
“In that case, does it mean he’s a ninja, just as he appears?”
“I don’t know, but that seems to be the only possibility we can think of.”
A ninja revived in the modern era—if you put it that way, his strength was understandable, but it felt a bit unreasonable. Support Course students are no different from ordinary people, so they are permitted to wear Powered Suits. Moreover, high-performance ones that can enhance physical abilities up to five times.
If such a suit is given to someone who already has high physical abilities from the start, and who is also a martial arts master, then it’s a different story.
Ordinary Combat Course students would likely have no chance of winning.
No, if it were a Gift user who could manipulate natural elements like fire, ice, Elec, water, or wind, they could defeat him without issue by attacking from a distance. That is, if he were an ordinary human.
“However, it seems there were students in the past who, like him, mastered martial arts and fought back. It’s an old record, but I believe there’s a precedent where a master of ancient martial arts defeated about three Combat Course students.”
“Is that so? I wasn’t aware, but so there were such cases~.”
“It’s a very old record, you see. The only ones who would know about it are probably elderly individuals by now, wouldn’t you say?”
“Then, is it possible that Satsuki-kun was raised by those past masters?”
“Who knows? I can’t say for sure, but judging from his earlier movements, he likely possesses Combat Power far surpassing that of an ordinary student.”
Just as the elderly male commentator said, Kazuma was fully demonstrating his hidden abilities. He effortlessly defeated a party from the Eighth Esper Academy that he encountered on the other side of the monitor and was heading straight for the ruined area.
“(Hmm, this is too easy, I’m starting to yawn~. There’s no one with any backbone… Since it shows up in the sky who defeated whom, they should be wary. Why do they let their guard down when they see I’m alone?)”
Normally, if a Support Course student with a Crown was walking around alone so brazenly, unless they were extremely cautious, others would definitely judge them as mere prey and let their guard down.
In the first place, they were still students.
Someone like Kazuma, who always maintained a battlefield mentality, was the strange one.
Having reached the ruined area, Kazuma began to climb the tallest building. Unfortunately, the elevator was unusable, so he was slowly climbing using the stairs.
Without encountering any enemies, Kazuma reached the rooftop. He walked to the edge, looked down at the scene below, and stood there.
“(Alright, I think I’ll take it easy here for a bit.)”
Kazuma thrust his spear into the floor, folded his arms, and gave off the air of a final boss. As he was looking around, wondering if many students were fighting in various places, he sensed a human presence. Kazuma turned towards the rooftop entrance, and there stood Souji, leaning against the door.
“Yo, Kazuma.”
“…”
“Hey, hey, cut the silence. You’ve already been found out.”
“Ah, is that so? Well then, I’ll speak normally, but why are you here?”
“My genius inspiration.”
“No way~.”
“Hahaha, well, that’s a lie. To be precise, it’s my trust in you.”
“Could it be… the fated partner I’m connected to by the red thread of destiny was you, Souji-senpai…”
“Don’t say such creepy things. There’s that saying, right? ‘Fools love high places.’ I figured you’d definitely come here.”
“Damn it…! Is it because of my usual behavior?!”
“That’s right. Thanks to that, my prediction was spot on. But man, you really were hiding your true strength.”
“They say a wise hawk hides its talons, don’t they?”
“That doesn’t apply to you, though.”
“Tehee!”
“I was actually looking forward to fighting Hayato… but there’s someone even more dangerous here, isn’t there?”
“As for me, I was planning on leaving Souji-senpai to the President~. I never expected you’d be aiming for me from the start.”
“I could have fought Hayato first, but then by the time I fought you, I might be exhausted and battered and bruised. So, I figured I’d aim for you at the beginning, while I’m in peak condition and perfectly prepared.”
“I see… Well, I understand the situation. Shall we do this?”
“Yeah, let’s do this. As a final memory of your student days, you’ll let your senpai win, right?”
“What kind of soft-hearted thing are you saying? This is where you should let your cute, first-time participating kouhai take the win.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! There’s no way you’re a ‘cute kouhai’! Calling you an ‘unidentifiable monster’ fits much better!”
“Kukuku! Then, I shall do just that! ‘Unidentifiable monster’ suits me just fine! I’ll carve true despair into you!!!”
Souji and Kazuma adopted combat stances. On the other side of the monitor, people eagerly watched, anticipating the moment the battle between the strongest student, Souji, and the suddenly appeared mysterious Support Course first-year, Satsuki Kazuma, would begin.
Kazuma pulled out the spear he had thrust into the floor, aimed it at Souji, and shouted at the top of his lungs. As if to make himself heard by everyone in the world, he bellowed from the depths of his stomach.
“Those afar, hear my voice! Those near, draw close and witness!!! I am the successor of Satsuki-ryu, Satsuki Kazuma! A practitioner of the art of killing, passed down since ancient times, from the Asuka and Nara periods! Those confident in their skill, come forth and try to take this head of mine!!!”
It was a magnificent proclamation. Most people held their breath, frozen in surprise. However, some were impressed, tilting their heads at the unfamiliar school known as Satsuki-ryu.
And the one holding her head the most was Honoka, who had been contacted by Kazuma beforehand. She had heard he would cause trouble, but Honoka agonized, wondering if this meant concocting a non-existent art of killing.
Judging by the name, it would mean Honoka was also a practitioner of Satsuki-ryu. After all, Kazuma was an orphan, and Honoka had raised him. Without a doubt, suspicious eyes would turn towards her as well.
“……That idiot.”
“Mom. Did you teach Kazuma-niichan the Satsuki-ryu he’s talking about?”
“That’s right. But that’s a secret art passed down to only one child, so I won’t teach it to anyone other than Kazuma, okay?”
“Ehh~”
Seeing Kazuma striking a perfect pose on the other side of the monitor, the children had wanted to try it themselves, but Honoka had warned them off, and they puffed out their cheeks in dissatisfaction.
Souji, upon hearing Kazuma’s proclamation, widened his eyes in surprise, but he quickly broke into a ferocious smile and retorted with similar words.
“The ace of First Esper Academy and the strongest student—that’s me! Kenzaki Souji! Now, let’s have a fair fight!”
With their self-introductions finished, they glared at each other with ferocious smiles, then charged.
“”OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!””