Chapter 267: Raikiri!
Just as Luke had expected, the battle ended without the slightest suspense.
Shizuku, who had gradually run out of options, ultimately had no choice but to launch a frontal challenge.
A high-pressure current of water wrapped around her blade, forming her sharpest Noble Art at present: "Hisuijin."
Using the thick fog produced by water vapor as cover, Shizuku launched a surprise attack toward Touka, whose vision had been blocked!
However, the instant the girl rushed in front of Touka and swung that strike with full confidence—
Bzzzt—!
The sound of lightning suddenly rang out!
Touka was inside a thick fog. It should have been impossible for her to capture Shizuku through sight.
But the fact was, she had accurately captured Shizuku's figure and taken a sword-drawing stance.
Touka's Device, "Narukami," was covered in visible surging currents of lightning.
Then, the lightning burst apart!
"Raikiri!"
Boom—!
Thunder roared and lightning flashed! Golden light split apart everything in front of her!
The enormous heat carried by the lightning caused the blade of flowing water to vanish into ash and smoke in an instant.
Before the astonishing speed of "Raikiri," Shizuku could not even react before her consciousness directly sank into darkness.
…
After the match ended, everyone first went to the infirmary to visit Shizuku.
However, because she had been directly struck by "Raikiri," Shizuku was unable to wake up for the time being.
So Ikki, Stella, and Arisuin decided to stay in the infirmary and wait for Shizuku to wake up.
As for Luke, he left first.
It was not that he was cold-hearted and did not care about his friend. Rather, the moment the match ended, Luke received an email from Misogi Utakata.
The general meaning was asking whether he had time right now, and if it was convenient, inviting him to come to the student council office.
After thinking about it for a moment, Luke understood.
No matter how busy the work of the student council president was, Touka would not be so busy that she did not even have time to rest after the selection match ended.
Calling him over now was probably because Touka had finally freed up some time.
After confirming that Shizuku was not seriously injured, Luke left the infirmary first and headed directly toward the student council office.
As he walked, he recalled the "Raikiri" he had just witnessed with his own eyes.
Luke specialized in swordsmanship.
His talent in swordsmanship was very well-rounded, without any particular tendency toward one field over another.
That said, if one had to say what Luke used most often, it was naturally sword-drawing techniques.
Up to today, he had seen several strong fighters who could be called swordsmen, but among them, there had never been anyone truly skilled in sword-drawing techniques.
In that regard, Todo Touka could be considered the first.
That extreme-speed strike, the violent lightning, and the unheard-of method and technique of exerting force all deeply moved him.
He even gained some inspiration from it.
The things Touka could do through lightning—if they were modified slightly, Luke should also be able to accomplish them through water currents.
Among the three sword styles he was currently most proficient in, aside from the Dual-Life-Sword, which he had not yet fully mastered—
After combining Hiten-Mitsurugi-Ryu with Prana and Star Swordsmanship, it had now made tremendous progress. It had almost completely transformed into a sword style unique to him alone.
But the progress of Shigure-Soen-Ryu had always been less than ideal.
Without the unique power of the "Flame of Rain," although Luke had opened another path and achieved similar functions, the compatibility had never reached perfection.
The result of its power and upper limit being unable to increase was that Shigure-Soen-Ryu could currently only be used as an auxiliary sword style.
And as Luke's strength grew stronger and stronger, its usefulness also became smaller and smaller.
However, this match between Touka and Shizuku had provided him with quite a few ideas.
"Maybe Shigure-Soen-Ryu can develop in a different direction?"
Just as Luke was thinking this, a voice called out to him from behind.
"Luke-kun?"
"Hm?"
Luke stopped and turned around. After turning his head, he saw Touka walking over while smiling and greeting him.
"It really is Luke-kun. I'm glad I didn't recognize the wrong person."
Touka, who had walked to Luke's side, lightly stuck out her tongue.
The girl's appearance was very cute, making it difficult to connect her with the powerful figure who had defeated Shizuku like a demon god just a while ago.
"I'm very sorry for making you specially come over at this time. But I haven't had much free time recently. If I missed this time, I don't know when the next chance would be."
"Is Shizuku-san all right?"
Perhaps because she felt apologetic about specially making him come over and having him away from the injured Shizuku's side, Touka's first reaction after seeing Luke was to apologize.
"Shizuku isn't seriously injured. She should wake up after resting for a while."
Luke looked at Touka and shook his head. After indicating that she did not need to mind too much, he continued,
"And Todo-senpai herself should also be clear about this. That final 'Raikiri'—you held back, didn't you?"
"…As expected, I can't hide it from you, Luke-kun."
Being exposed face-to-face for holding back in battle made Touka somewhat embarrassed.
Her face flushed slightly as she explained.
"But my attitude toward the match was serious, okay!"
"I even took off my glasses. Luke-kun already knows, right? I know everything about you investigating me."
As she said this, Touka even gave him a playful smile.
Luke had investigated her openly and aboveboard, so as the student council president, there was no way Touka would not know.
However, she did not mind. On the contrary, she was rather happy.
Similar to his thoughts, she was also very much looking forward to the moment when the two of them would face each other in a match.
Just as she said, since Luke had learned about her in advance, he naturally knew why Touka took off her glasses during matches.
The Noble Art "Reverse Sight."
This was an ability that relied on electric current to sense the opponent's neural signals.
Including psychological changes, all information such as movements, actions, physical condition, and so on would be captured by Touka.
"By the way, after seeing my 'Raikiri,' what are your thoughts?"
"My thoughts…"
Facing Touka's question, Luke sighed somewhat helplessly.
"Senpai, you're really shameless enough to ask that… when you clearly only used a half-finished sword technique."
"Is this supposed to be a test for me?"
That was right. Against Shizuku, Touka's final "Raikiri" was nothing more than a half-finished version.
The reason lay in that clearly visible sword light.
The true "Raikiri" was a strike comparable to lightning. How could the trajectory of a sword technique of that level possibly be clearly visible?
That move was not even as good as the one Luke had seen in the videos from last year, let alone this year.
If someone said that a swordsman of Touka's level not only had not improved her sword technique after a year, but had instead regressed, Luke would be the first not to believe it.
"Ugh… It's true that my move was only half-finished, but aren't you the same, Luke-kun?"
"The move you used on Vermillion-san and Kurogane-kun before school started wasn't your full power either, was it?"
(PS: Vote for more chapters this week. If this fanfic reaches 100 powerstones, I will upload 5 more chapters next. So, hurry up!)
---
Read more than 20 chapters in advance, with pictures, to enhance your reading immersion:
patréon.com/tom22
Replace "é" with "e" on your web browser.
---
For Audiobook:
youtube.com/@animefic22