"Here I go…!"
Testarossa moved first.
Softly. Light footsteps rang on the stage.
Not sharpness, but an acceleration that slid gently.
Yet that one step was certainly for closing the distance.
"Hmph…"
Rigel did not move.
He only moved his eyes slightly and caught the approaching girl's movement.
The stance with the strength gone from it looked unguarded, but that did not mean he lacked tension.
Rather, that quiet itself was alien.
An uncanny silence wrapped his whole body.
Testarossa's fist extended.
In an instant, air like steel tautened around Rigel.
The silver gauntlet reflected sunlight and aimed straight at his chest.
But.
Rigel still did not move.
He neither evaded nor received. He only stood there.
"…!"
The fist stopped just short.
Testarossa immediately leapt back and retreated two steps, three steps.
A little sweat beaded on the brow of her who exhaled lightly.
The audience seats began to stir.
"What a splendid movement! A fist that combines sharpness and beauty. Truly a contestant worthy of the semifinal! Facing her, Rigel is… standing still!!"
The female commentator shouted.
The voice was full of excitement, but it was also somewhat flippant.
She herself was still skeptical of Rigel's ability.
"Could this be… loss of will to fight!? After the quarterfinal victory there were some voices acknowledging his ability… but was that a lucky win after all!?"
The words raced through the venue.
Fervor and confusion mixed, and a tumultuous air wrapped the venue.
But at the center, on the battlefield, Testarossa's eyes wore a different color from the audience's.
"…You don't get it, commentator-san."
She laughed small.
Her mouth was loose, but a cold thorn lurked in that voice.
A ring as if warning not the enemy, but the air itself.
"That just now was only a warm-up. I haven't even 'attacked' yet."
Words heard quietly amid the stirring audience.
Answering that, Rigel's lips moved slightly.
"…Yeah, that's right."
The tone was flat, poor in heat and emotion.
Testarossa reset her stance and continued speaking without lowering her fists.
"The match has already started. Stop testing the waters and fight me soon, won't you."
The voice was calm, but in its depths dwelled an earnest wish.
What she sought was a clash from the front.
Not mere victory, but a blow where souls collided.
Wind blew.
Light-blue hair swayed.
There was no lie in Testarossa's eyes.
Rigel turned her words over as if chewing them for a few seconds, then nodded.
"…Got it. I'll go a little serious."
At the same time as that voice, he moved.
Sound caught up late.
The sound of kicking the ground.
The sound of splitting the air.
Rigel's figure vanished from sight.
None of the audience could understand what had happened.
What wrapped the venue was soundless shock.
A silence as if time had stopped.
And the next instant.
Rigel appeared right in front of Testarossa.
That appearance was as sudden as if space had split and shown a figure.
A fist, sharp, tore the wind.
Testarossa sensed it by instinct.
Her body reacted before thinking.
She twisted her body on the spot.
An evasion by a hair.
But that relief was smashed in an instant.
Without a pause, the second blow had come.
"!"
Swallowing her breath short, she immediately raised her arm.
The gauntlet received a fist like a murderous blade.
That impact pierced her whole body like lightning.
Bone creaked, muscle went numb.
She had certainly blocked it.
And yet her feet slid backward.
The edge of the stage.
At a position one more step from falling, she barely held her ground.
Rigel did not launch a pursuit.
He only stood there quietly and looked at Testarossa.
Testarossa's eyes opened wide in shock.
She had not thought she would be pushed this far.
That fragment of thought stirred her chest.
"That just now was dangerous…! If my reaction had been even a little late, by now…!!"
She exhaled.
Her body was trembling.
Her intuition as a martial artist recognized that instant as "fear" itself.
"…I still haven't looked into the details, but…"
She muttered as if telling herself.
His existence was so heavy she seemed ready to be swallowed if she did not put it into words.
"Rigel-kun is… the hero of that 'Valstine campaign'…!"
A battlefield where three talented princesses and their direct units were said to have raced around.
Even for a great nation like the Wistaria Kingdom, it was not a country that could be taken easily.
And yet conquest had succeeded in a short period.
A gag order had apparently been placed, and detailed information on that campaign had not yet been transmitted.
Testarossa too had only looked it up simply after hearing the words "Valstine campaign" during yesterday's match spectating.
But even with that fragmentary information, the extraordinary nature of the supreme commander who led the invasion army came through.
And now that "hero" stood in front of her.
That was why.
"I have to go all out from the start…!!"
Testarossa said it as if shouting and took her stance again.
That her fists trembled was not fear.
It was fighting spirit.
Something she had been holding down was about to be released right now.
The venue boiled as if seething.
Part of the audience was beginning to notice.
This was not a "fluke."
The boy called Rigel was not a mere lucky boy.
Testarossa's and Rigel's gazes crossed.
Words were no longer needed.
What would collide with the next move was will and will.
Such a premonition quietly began to burn deep in their chests.
The true curtain of the semifinal would rise from here.
—-
Testarossa's body moved as if bursting.
"Azure Emperor, Dragon-Slaying Kick!"
The voice she declared sharply rang as if tearing the arena's silence.
At the same time Testarossa's body danced through the air.
She twisted in midair and swung her leg down from an inverted state.
In that leg, contrary to the lightness, overwhelming destructive power dwelled.
Rigel evaded that blow wrapped in killing intent by only tilting his head.
There was no waste at all in his movement.
By quietly moving his neck only a few centimeters, the wind of death grazed past his ear.
"Haaaah!"
At the same time as the voice Testarossa's foot kicked the ground.
The attacks did not break.
Rather, as if saying the real thing started from there, she readied her fists and concentrated the ki in her body on one point.
"Azure Moon, Divine Fox Fist!"
Together with that shout, a flickering pale light appeared behind her.
That phantom taking the form of a fox was quiet like a hunter aiming at prey, and sharp.
What dwelled in the fist was a divine feat, said to shatter armor in one blow.
This time Rigel moved too.
But it was not to evade.
As if meeting the fist, he lightly put his right hand forward.
The movement was far too natural, far too quiet.
Then the instant of collision arrived.
Testarossa's fist settled into Rigel's palm as if being sucked in.
There was no crash sound.
Rather, it was as if every sound had vanished.
Even the wind stopped moving.
His arm did not twitch.
Like a giant rock rooted in the earth, it received Testarossa's full-force fist.
"…!?"
At that reality Testarossa's eyes opened wide.
As if wanting to say she could not believe it.
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