（He's really strong!）
Chihiro, who was hiding behind an
obstacle again, answered Chisato while adjusting his breathing.
Arima Shizuru is definitely strong.
If she had appeared in the first event, Kamishiro might have been in danger...
but Shizuru must have avoided "a battle with few uncertainties".
Because she is the type of person who
gains more power whenever there is a chance to intervene.
If this is the case, then this battle
on the ground, where bullets may choke or run out, is a bad situation.
Even if Shizuru does not make any
significant move, accidents will happen by themselves on her opponent's side.
Among the cards in the enemy's hand, there is no one better suited for
defending the position than Shizuru.
（How many ammunition did she has?）
（If she was saving her ammunition, she
must have some left. And she would have shot many bullets to end the battle as
soon as possible.）
**a
Shizuru can move consciously, but she
can't quickly attack the opponent.
If Chihiro hides like this, Shizuru
will not attack him forcibly, still he can't leave Lucille and the others
fighting two against four.
But if he is impatient, it will lead
to an opening.
――So, he must hold back his thoughts
that are going to go from bad to worse.
However, what's the best move he can
make?
[Stimulus Amplification] is
pointless. [Mind Reading] can't keep up with the speed of a bullet. [Sleep Aid]
and [Domination] are useless. He is also not so naive as to expect the
awakening of a new ability at this stage.
And the only move he could make is to
attack her with Chisato at the same time to force her to choose between the
two, but will that be enough to defeat her?
（...Can we use that
"ability"?）
（It might be a surprise attack, if she
doesn't get some dust in her eyes.）
（I want to say that's not possible...
but）
He's not so sure after seeing Hana's
situation.
And having a discussion with Chisato,
some time has passed. Chihiro saw from a distance that Hana, who had been hit
by a bullet, had left the scene, and decided to take action.
（Chisato!）
（Yes!）
Chisato jumps out from the shadows.
But alone.
「...Hmm」
Bang!
A shot is heard, and Chisato comes
back into Chihiro.
For now, he lets her use one bullet
for nothing.
「Are you planning to use some tricks
to make me run out of ammunition? If so, it's useless」
That was to be expected.
After all, she seems confident in her
abilities. In fact, she has the power to do so. Then she does not need to keep
shooting illusions.
Even if Chihiro appears to be a
phantom, she can prevent the first shot by "accidental", and then she
can shoot him again.
But, how about this?
Without separating from Chisato, he
runs out of the obstacle.
Although she was wary of
interception, Shizuru still did not try to shoot him.
And the bullet that she fired at
was...
Bang!
It hits on on the empty ground
besides his legs.
Immediately, Shizuru corrected the
direction of the shot. But Chihiro avoided the bullet.
He looked up as he sat up, staring at
the muzzle of the gun pointed at him and at Shizuru's eyes.
「...Ah」
Shizuru blushed and closed her eyes.
At the same time, the bullet ejects,
and passes by Chihiro's evasive maneuver. This is the result of Shizuru's
reaction to "the image" that popped into her mind at the time.
Even though Kaname has given her
information, it is difficult for Shizuru to remain unresponsive to the vision
of her own desire. This ability is not something that Chihiro would use in a
serious game, but at this time, he can't afford to be so extravagant.
**b
Now, during the short pause, Chihiro
step on the ground with two feet.
Shizuru opens her eyes, and when her
gaze is slightly downward, toward Chihiro's chest, she saw Chihiro "become
two".
Shizuru was attacked from both sides.
And in this situation, it is
difficult to decide for a moment which one to intercept. Aiming at both sides
would reduce the accuracy and use extra ammunition. Also, if she looks too
carefully to determine her opponent, she may fall prey to the [Desire Exposure].
After a short pause, Shizuru points
the muzzle of her gun to one side――Chisato's
side.
Bang!
Now, this student council president
of Shibatsuru was surprised to see the paint bullet penetrate with a light air
noise.
Maybe she was confident that she
could choose the right answer between the two options.
「With this!」
Chihiro decided to take the fight to
Shizuru.
He fired a volley of paint shots at
Shizuru, exploiting her opening. As expected, his attack is interrupted by
another fall, but he continues to pull the muzzle of the gun.
He doesn't care if he shoot all of
them.
Because even if he gets one shot off,
he wins, and naturally, Shizuru showed her impatience and pulled the trigger
while rolling over.
And then...
「Kuh!」
「Ugh!」
Fortunately or unfortunately, the
orange stains on both of them were on their camouflage uniforms at the same
time.
――After the battle, Chihiro heard
when Shizuru and him were facing off, Yotsuba had changed the target of
[Fortune Sharing], excluding Marika and Hana, who had been eliminated from the
fourth event, to the rest of the member.
She was hoping that this would help
the remaining Chihiro and others.
The luck was changed from one-sixth
to one-fourth.
Perhaps that little bit of luck was
the difference between victory and defeat.
「...It's more than I expected」
Shizuru smiled as she slowly checked
the situation while facing Chihiro.
「After all, we had planned to get the
information and then take the initiative」
「You mean you all knew what we were
going to do?」
「Yes. There's no point in hiding it
now, so I'll tell you... our school's Iwaki Tsukasa has [Farsight], the ability
to see in the distance」
**c
With this ability, Shizuru and the
other had a bird's eye view of the field right at the start of the competition,
or rather, right before the competition started.
So they knew that Kamishiro was the
only one left to defend the flag, and they also knew where Lucille and Marika
were headed.
They also knew the countermeasure
that Chihiro and the others had taken against Saki, and they still thought they
had a 50-50 chance of winning the battle, but failed to do so.
The two-stage strategy of negotiating
an alliance with Shibaryu Academy and capturing the flag by surprise also
failed, and Shizuru herself misjudged Chihiro's ability.
In addition, Tsukasa was planning to
use her ability to steal information from other schools in the third event as
well――that's
why she could afford to interfere with Shibahou, but Shizuru's calculations
went wrong because Shibahou had a more suitable ability for the competition.
「...If we were not good enough, you
would have taken both of them...」
「Yes, that's right. The actual result
is as you can see...」
Shizuru's expression changes with a
wry smile.
She then bows her head toward
Chihiro,
「Then, I apologize. I am sorry about
Kaname, but it was my lack of supervision. I will scold her well after all the
competition is over.」
「Oh, yes. But please don't be too hard
on her」
「Yes, don't worry. Then, I'll just
keep on tormenting her all night long.」
Is that the less harsh way?
Well, it seems that Shizuru is the
type of person who understands what's going on.
She left the field with an attitude
of "I'm not going to do anything else".
And then...
『Shibahou Academy, all students are
eliminated? Therefore, Shibakko Academy wins the fourth event!』
A few minutes later, an announcement
was made that Shibahou Academy had narrowly missed the victory.
* * *
