"Prepare yourselves."
The courtyard no longer sounded the same as it had at the beginning.
Before the first match, the noise had been expectation. Before the second, curiosity. Before the third, pressure.
Now it was calculation.
Everyone was watching differently.
No one was only watching who was faster, who hit harder, or who had the flashiest technique anymore. After three matches, even those who did not want to admit it had understood something uncomfortable.
The tournament was not measuring power.
It was measuring decisions.
Hana and Yui entered the field first.
Hana walked slowly, eyes open, but her gaze fixed on too many things at once. The ground. Kenta's hands. Ishida's wrists. The edge of the field. The place where Yui would probably put the first barrier.
Yui walked beside her without raising her hands yet.
After what she had done in the first match, that was almost a threat.
Ishida entered with his book closed under one arm.
Kenta entered opening and closing his hands, as if checking that the fire was still there, but without inviting it out yet.
Baku tilted his head.
"Look at that. They no longer look like teenagers about to do stupid things."
Kanzaki glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
"That is inaccurate."
"You're right. They look like teenagers about to do stupid things with context."
"More precise."
"Thank you. I'm growing."
Kana struck the ground with her cane.
"Same rules. Five minutes. Victory by joint immobilization, forced ring-out, surrender, or instructor decision. Penalty if there is real danger to a partner."
Kenta looked at Yui.
"I'm not planning to burn your barriers."
Yui raised her eyebrows slightly.
"I wasn't planning to ask your permission."
"It was a tactical statement."
Hana looked at Kenta.
"It was an emotional statement with tactical words."
Kenta opened his mouth.
Ishida spoke first.
"Don't answer."
"But—"
"Don't answer."
Kenta closed his mouth.
From outside, Mei smiled.
"That hurt even from here."
Harada, beside her, said:
"That was an effective preventive intervention."
"Don't give him points for that."
"It wasn't scoring."
"Everything you say sounds like scoring."
Tatsu checked the folder, even though he no longer needed to. The gesture was part of the order. And in that moment, order seemed like the only thing preventing the tournament from turning into something else.
Kana raised her cane.
Hana breathed.
Yui opened her fingers.
Ishida left the book outside the field.
Kenta let air out through his nose.
Kana lowered the cane.
"Fourth match. Begin."
Yui raised the first barrier before Kenta could light a flame.
It was not a wall.
Nor a cage.
It was a low panel, almost flush against the ground, placed between Kenta and Ishida as if it did not matter much.
Kenta looked at it.
"That's in the middle."
Yui answered without changing her expression:
"Yes."
Kenta lifted a hand.
A small flame appeared on his fingers.
Ishida moved a low chain toward the opposite side.
Hana opened her eyes a little wider.
"Don't burn."
Yui did not ask.
The panel tilted.
The flame Kenta had placed to close an entrance had to die before touching the barrier. Not because it was dangerous. Because if it continued, it would rebound toward Ishida's angle.
Kenta extinguished the fire.
"I already dislike her."
"That was fast," Ishida said.
"I didn't say anything."
"You thought it loudly."
Hana took a step.
Not toward Kenta.
Toward the line between Kenta and Ishida.
Yui raised another small panel, this time to Ishida's right. It did not close his path. It invited him to move where Hana wanted him to move.
Ishida saw the invitation.
He did not accept it.
A chain came out from his wrist and marked a route along the ground, curved, slow, as if it were drawing a question.
Kenta followed it with his eyes.
"That way?"
"No," Ishida said.
"Then what for?"
"To make them think so."
Kenta smiled.
"Ah. Lying with chains. I do like that."
Hana said:
"Left."
Yui raised a thin panel exactly where the chain seemed to want to end.
Ishida was not surprised.
That worried Hana more than if he had been.
The chain changed direction before arriving.
Kenta placed a flame at the new end.
Small.
Low.
Exact.
Yui closed her hand.
A panel appeared to cut off the flame's advance.
But the flame did not advance.
It died there.
As if its only purpose had been to force Yui to raise that panel.
Hana saw it.
"They're making us draw."
Yui blinked.
"What?"
"They're making us put walls where they want them."
Kenta heard that and smiled.
"Sounds like we're winning."
Ishida did not look away.
"Don't say it out loud."
"Why?"
Hana said:
"Because now we know."
Yui lowered the panel.
The field changed again.
Kenta's smile disappeared.
"Ah."
"Yes," Ishida said. "That 'ah.'"
From the side, Yuna crossed her arms.
"Hana read it quickly."
Kato nodded.
"Yui reacts quickly. That pair doesn't need much conversation to correct themselves."
Baku leaned toward them.
"Which is unfair to those of us who need to talk in order to exist."
Kanzaki answered without looking at him:
"No one needed that."
"I did."
"That's part of the problem."
The fight tightened.
Hana and Yui did not attack with violence.
They attacked with shape.
Each of Yui's panels cut off an exit, changed an angle, forced Kenta to choose whether his fire would close an entrance or die before bothering Ishida. Hana did not talk much. Only what was necessary.
"Low."
Yui lowered the panel.
"Open."
Yui left a door.
"Not all."
Yui did not close the entire field.
Kenta tried to place a flame beside a chain.
Yui's panel turned and made that side into a corner.
The flame became useless.
Ishida tried to extend a chain to surround Hana.
Hana took half a step back, not to dodge, but to make Ishida choose between following her or covering Kenta.
Yui raised two low panels around Kenta's feet.
They did not trap him.
They only stole his footing.
Kenta looked down.
"Again with the feet."
"It's efficient," Yui said.
"I hate it."
"That doesn't make it less efficient."
Hana moved toward Ishida.
Ishida raised a chain.
Yui closed the space between chain and fire with a slanted panel.
For the first time, Kenta was truly separated.
Not far.
Separated.
That was worse.
Kanzaki raised a hand.
"One."
Kenta clenched his teeth.
Fire climbed along his fingers.
Not much.
Not yet.
Ishida looked at him.
"Don't burn the wall."
Kenta turned his head slightly.
"Then what?"
Ishida tightened the low chain.
"Burn the door."
It took Kenta half a second to understand.
Yui had not made a complete cage.
She had left an exit.
Not because she wanted to give him an exit.
Because she needed the trap to have a shape.
Kenta saw the door.
It was not a large opening.
It was a place where the panel did not close completely so Hana could move if Ishida tried to rescue him.
Kenta did not throw fire at the barrier.
He placed it in the door.
A small flame.
Ridiculously small.
But in the right place.
Yui had to choose.
If she maintained the trap, the exit would also close for Hana.
If she opened the exit, Kenta regained his footing.
Hana saw it at the same time.
"Open."
Yui opened.
Kenta moved his foot.
"Two," Kanzaki said.
But the count was already dying.
Ishida pulled a chain and placed it exactly where Kenta needed to orient his body. Kenta did not touch it. He did not need to.
He used it as a reference.
He got out of the enclosure half a step before the third count could arrive.
Kanzaki lowered his hand.
"Continue."
Kenta breathed hard.
"I hate that that worked."
Ishida looked at the field.
"Then remember it."
"Because I hate it?"
"Because it worked."
"Both help."
Yui lowered her hands slightly.
Not from exhaustion.
For correction.
Hana looked at Kenta differently.
Not as fire.
As a boundary.
"He isn't trying to burn," she said.
Yui nodded.
"He's closing endings."
"Yes."
"Then let's not leave him endings."
Kenta heard them.
"That sounds bad for me."
Ishida moved a chain in a circle.
"Only if you expect the fire to end by itself."
Kenta looked at him.
"Was that a teacher phrase?"
"No."
"It sounded horrible."
"Concentrate."
Hana advanced again.
Yui changed the shape of her barriers.
Until then, they had been panels.
Now they were interruptions.
Small plates appearing and disappearing before Kenta could decide where to end his fire. One in front of his foot. Another beside Ishida's chain. Another behind Hana, not to protect her, but to allow her to change direction without losing rhythm.
Hana stopped saying everything.
Yui began to read her.
That turned the field inside out.
Ishida marked routes.
Kenta closed endings.
But Hana and Yui began erasing before the drawing was finished.
"They're erasing us," Kenta said.
"Yes."
"Do you have a plan?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to tell me?"
"Not all of it."
"I hate when you do that."
"Good."
Ishida let a chain fall to the ground.
Dead.
Too dead.
Harada, from outside, saw it.
"Again."
Mei looked at him.
"What?"
"Dead chain."
Mei looked back at the field.
"Then Hana will see it too."
Hana saw it.
And that was part of the problem.
Because when a trap becomes visible, one stops stepping on it.
Or believes one has stopped stepping on it.
Hana made a small sign with her fingers.
Yui raised a panel over the dead chain, neutralizing it.
Kenta placed a flame beside the panel.
Yui did not respond.
There was no need.
The flame had no exit.
Hana took a step toward Kenta.
Ishida moved another chain.
This one was not dead.
It looked alive.
Too alive.
Hana ignored it.
That made Ishida's jaw tighten slightly.
Kenta saw it.
"She didn't bite."
"I know."
"Was that bad?"
"Not necessarily."
The living chain passed behind Hana.
It did not try to catch her.
It tried to tell Yui she had to close it.
Yui did not.
Hana had understood too quickly.
"They want to occupy our hands," Hana said.
"Then leave one free," Yui answered.
Yui opened her left hand.
Only the right remained active.
The barrier she had been sustaining with the left disappeared.
That opened a line for Kenta.
Too good a line.
Kenta almost smiled.
He did not.
That was progress.
"No," he murmured.
Ishida heard him.
"Good."
"It's a trap."
"Yes."
"I'm starting to hate good lines."
"That's progress too."
Kenta did not answer because Hana was already on top of him.
Not on his body.
On his decision.
Hana moved toward the place where Kenta would have to put fire if he wanted to close Yui's entrance. At the same time, Yui raised a low panel behind Ishida.
The field split them in two again.
But now Kenta did not try to get out.
Ishida did not try to rescue him either.
Both accepted the division for half a second.
And there, Hana hesitated.
Very little.
But she hesitated.
Because if they accepted being separated, perhaps they were not separated.
Kenta placed fire on his side.
Ishida placed a chain on his.
They did not touch.
They did not help each other.
Not yet.
But they marked two ends of the same idea.
Hana opened her eyes a little wider.
"Yui."
"I know."
"No, you don't know yet."
Yui raised another panel.
Too late.
Ishida's chain moved toward Kenta's fire.
Not to touch it.
To close the space between them.
The fire did not advance.
The chain did not attack either.
The gap between them disappeared.
Hana and Yui were left in a narrow strip of the field, not trapped, but limited.
Kenta smiled.
"I burned the door."
Ishida corrected him:
"You closed the street."
"That also works."
Yui tried to open an exit.
Hana raised her hand.
"Not that one."
Yui stopped.
If she opened the obvious exit, Ishida's chain would push her toward Kenta's fire.
If she closed the fire, Ishida would move.
If she closed Ishida, Kenta would gain space.
It was not a cage.
It was a problem with too many bad answers.
Baku spread his arms from the side.
"Look at that! The fire learned urban planning!"
Kanzaki spoke:
"Don't shout false concepts during the fight."
"They are emerging concepts."
"They're noise."
"Noise also guides crowds."
"Toward the wrong exits."
"That was almost poetic."
Kato did not laugh.
He was looking at the dead chain.
The first one.
The one Yui had neutralized.
It had not moved.
It had not disappeared.
It was still under a panel.
And coming from Ishida, that did not look like carelessness.
Hana noticed it too.
Too late to ignore it.
"Yui, the first chain."
Yui looked down.
The dead chain tightened.
It did not rise.
It did not attack.
It dragged itself under the panel, using the edge of the barrier as a guide.
Yui tried to raise the panel.
Kenta placed a small flame beside it.
If Yui lifted it, the fire would occupy the exit.
If she did not, the chain would arrive.
"How annoying," Yui said.
It was the closest she had come to sounding angry.
Kenta smiled.
"That was almost an insult."
"Don't celebrate."
"Too late."
The chain came out from the side of the panel and closed around the space behind Hana.
Not around Hana.
The space behind her.
Hana took a step forward by reflex.
Kenta had already placed fire there.
Small.
Low.
A warning.
Hana stopped.
Yui raised two panels to cover her.
Ishida moved the second chain, the living one, toward Yui's side.
Yui understood the pattern.
"They're using me to trap her."
Hana answered:
"And me to move you."
The understanding arrived perfectly.
And late.
Kanzaki raised a hand.
"One."
Hana was not immobilized.
Neither was Yui.
But their options had been reduced to a space too small.
Hana could retreat, but the dead chain took away her return.
She could advance, but the fire closed the entrance.
Yui could raise more barriers, but each one of them became an edge for another chain.
Kenta kept the flames low.
His body wanted to raise them.
So did his pride.
Mei watched him from outside with her arms crossed.
"He's not going to explode."
Harada looked at her.
"Does that disappoint you?"
"A little."
"That is information too."
"Don't start."
"Two," Kanzaki said.
Yui made a decision.
She opened everything.
Not a little.
Everything.
The barriers dissolved at once.
For an instant, the field was free.
It was a risky decision.
But a good one.
If there were no walls, there were no edges.
If there were no edges, the chains lost support.
Hana moved at that same instant.
To the left.
Not toward the obvious exit.
Toward the only space Kenta had not closed because closing it would force Ishida to cross his own chain.
It was a real exit.
Kenta opened his eyes.
"Shi—"
"Now," Ishida said.
Kenta closed his mouth and his hand.
The flame that had seemed destined to close Hana's exit went out.
And another appeared behind Yui.
Not to attack her.
To take away her retreat.
Yui stopped.
So did Hana.
Because if Hana escaped, Yui would be trapped.
And if Yui raised a barrier to cover herself, she would give Ishida back the edge he needed.
Hana understood.
The exit was not for her.
It was to make her choose whether to leave alone.
"Three," Kanzaki said.
The courtyard went silent.
Kana raised her cane.
"Victory to Taro Ishida and Kenta Arimoto."
Kenta did not put out the fire immediately.
Not because he wanted to continue.
Because he had not fully understood that it was already over.
Ishida touched his shoulder.
"It's done."
Kenta lowered his hands.
The flames went out.
"We won again."
"Yes."
"Without a big explosion."
"Yes."
Kenta looked at his hands.
"I'm starting to worry."
"That is also progress."
"I hate progress."
"You're using it a lot."
"Because it keeps showing up too much."
Across the field, Hana lowered her gaze to the ground.
Yui dissolved the last residual plates of mana.
"I read it late," Hana said.
Yui shook her head.
"I closed too much."
"No."
Yui looked at her.
Hana breathed.
"You closed well. They chose better where to leave open."
Yui observed the field again.
The routes were gone.
The flames were gone.
The chains had disappeared.
But for one second, she seemed to see them anyway.
"Then next time we need to look at what's open before what's closed."
Hana nodded.
"Yes."
From the side, Kanzaki spoke without raising his voice:
"Good final adjustment."
Yui looked at him.
"We lost."
"Yes."
"That doesn't sound like a good adjustment."
"It was. It arrived late."
Hana let out a small laugh.
Not happy.
But real.
"Everyone is using that phrase today."
Baku raised a hand.
"I propose we make T-shirts: 'It arrived late, but it was correct.'"
Kana did not look at him.
"No."
"I hadn't even said what the fundraising was for."
"No."
"What a cold government."
Kato approached Ishida and Kenta.
"Better than before."
Kenta pointed at him.
"That was more than 'less bad.'"
"Don't get used to it."
"You never let me live anything."
Ishida gathered his chains.
"It took us too long to understand how to use their barriers."
"But you understood," Kato said.
"Yes."
"And you were close to losing before that."
Ishida nodded.
"Yes."
Kato looked at Kenta.
"You almost raised the fire twice."
Kenta lowered his gaze.
"But I didn't."
"That's why you won."
Kenta waited.
Kato drank coffee.
"That counts too."
Kenta opened his eyes a little.
"Was that praise?"
Baku appeared behind Kato.
"It was praise wearing a winter coat. Hard to recognize, but it warms something."
Kato looked at him.
"No."
"See? He got embarrassed."
"No."
Kenta smiled faintly.
Not much.
But enough.
Tatsu approached the scoreboard.
The sound of chalk ordered the courtyard again.
Ishida / Arimoto: 6 points.
Sendai / Takashima: 3 points.
Amane / Wada: 3 points.
Shirogane / Harada: 0 points.
Tsukino / Mura: 0 points.
The scoreboard no longer looked simple.
It looked like a warning.
Mei stared at it with her arms crossed.
"How generous of the tournament. Now it lets us arrive late with an audience."
Harada observed the field.
"There is still a mathematical possibility."
Mei turned toward him.
"Don't give me hope with a funeral voice."
"Hope was not guaranteed. Only possibility."
"That's worse."
Hina placed her hand on the handle of the axe.
Kaito stood beside her.
This time, he did not seem to be thinking about where not to stand.
He seemed to be thinking about where to decide with her.
Yūta looked at Chiho.
"This match is going to be weird."
Chiho watched Mei.
Then Hina.
"It's going to be personal."
"That's worse than weird."
"Yes."
Sota felt the air change.
He did not know why.
The fifth match had not started yet.
It was only four students entering the field.
But something was different.
Mei and Hina knew each other too well for a blow to be only a blow.
Kaito and Harada moved like opposites: one too present, the other too absent.
And everyone, even those who did not speak, seemed to understand that the tournament was approaching a more delicate place.
Tatsu raised the folder.
"Fifth match of the scoring phase: Mei Shirogane and Jin Harada versus Hina Tsukino and Kaito Mura."
The courtyard grew tense again.
No one knew it yet.
But that would be the last match of the tournament.