The seventeenth match of the day and the first semifinal match was between Noa Hiiragi and Alice Sakayanagi. As always, Noa immediately tried to settle it with one strike using her Third Layer Jin'i but her thrust was expertly blocked by the hilt of Alice's sword, her right knee also raised up in gyaku aku, a stance unique to her sword style.

"The hilt!?" Honami exclaimed.

"Whoa, that's Taisha-ryu, isn't it?" Suzuran marveled.

Alice pushed forward, forcing Noa back as she attacked with a kiri-otoshi. Noa dodged backward before leaning forward again to counter which Alice also avoided by leaning back. Both girls stepped back to put some distance between each other. Alice then closed the distance with another kiri-otoshi which Noa threw aside with a powerful side sweep. Almost comically, Alice gasped in English, "What?"Noa forced Alice's arm aside and before she could recover, she struck, bisecting her.

Alice collapsed backward, singing, "Ahh, I've been beaten!"

After having slashed her way past her, Noa recovered her stance, facing the downed Alice. While she didn't notice, Maya was boring a hole in her with her stare. Noa Hiiragi... I've heard she began attending Heijou right after I was scouted by Nanae-sama and made the leader of her Elite Guard. She really has been training if she's already this good.

Suzuran's fists tightened as the smile on her face widened. She's amazing...! I definitely wasn't imagining what I felt yesterday! This is referring to the small incident the previous day when she had just happened to come across Noa. When they walked past each other, both girls felt their swords at their waist vibrate, although they had absolutely no knowledge that both girls were experiencing the same phenomenon at the same time. Both girls simply chalked it up to sizing up their opponent.

Honami, meanwhile, quietly observed Suzuran's countenance. She was awed again by her friend's adamant resolve in finding a worthy opponent to cross blades with. Although saddened that it wasn't her that made her blood boil so much, Honami was content knowing that she can walk beside her. She turned her attention back to the tournament brackets which had finally reached the second semifinals match.

It was to be between Suzuran and Honami.

"So it seems that we did end up fighting each other."

That one sentence stated by Suzuran was the only sound heard in the duel. Both were simply just staring each other down, their blades drawn. Honami held herself in seigan while Suzuran held herself in gedan-no-kamae. Neither of them made a move even though the signal to start the duel had already been given. "Ugh, why does it have to be Suzu and Honami?" the cheer club from Osafune muttered. "This is just nuts."

Suzu. We've fought each other hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times. You know me and I know you. That is why I will put my all into defeating you! Today is a day when I shall not back down!

Honami's seigan stance is incredibly tough... It can't be broken so easily. I'll need to bait her—

The audience raised a quiet chorus of gasps as Honami sank down to her knees in a sort of "standing" seiza position. She had resheathed her blade, although not all the way. From where she was observing, a startled Suzuka removed her hands from her hips and grabbed the railing, unconsciously putting an excessive measure of strength into the grip. "She's using iai?!"

The cheer club, meanwhile, sucked in air with bated breath. "Honami..."

Despite being on the receiving end of the attack, Suzuran couldn't help but smile. She changed her stance to in-no-kamae before activating jin'i. Accelerating once to appear directly in front of her then twice to appear directly behind her, Suzuran brought down her sword. Honami responded by drawing out her blade but she was stopped by Suzuran's hand. She had let go of her two-handed grip to stop the attack.

However, Honami had seen through this and had pulled her arm back just before Suzuran could grab her hand. In a flash, Honami resheathed her sword and drew it out again, slashing across Suzuran's midsection. At the same time, Suzuran returned to a two-handed grip and slashed through Honami's shoulder down to her hip. Both girls ran past each other, having struck at the same time. Both girls lost control over their utsushi which quickly dissipated. The referee declared, "Aiuchi!"

Aiuchi—.

By definition, it is a term primarily used in Japanese fencing and in kendo where two swordsmen strike each other at the same time. In Japanese fencing, an aiuchi is an invalid form of attack and no points are rewarded in the case where this occurs. However, the Toji are swordswomen who practice kenjutsu, the art of swordsmanship strictly learned to be used in battle. As such, in the case that aiuchi occurs between two Toji, both risk certain death if they did not have utsushi up.

"Seeing as Suzuran Arisugawa managed to keep her utsushi from collapsing for slightly longer, she shall be deemed the winner."

Suzuran was also the only one to have managed to stay on her feet even after having her utsushi forcibly dispelled. She turned around and held out her hand. "I'm sorry, Honami, but I wanted to win. I wanted to win and fight that girl."

Accepting the hand up, Honami gave her most genuine smile, all of the stress from the previous days melting away. "Do your best in the final round."

"Yeah, of course!"

Afternoon.

The final match was to be held after lunch and so, after the girls had finished up their picnics, they were all ushered inside the grounds proper of the Origami mansion. Spectators filed onto the prepared bleachers as they waited patiently. Suzuran giddily hopped up and down, her energy at a high. "You'll be fine," her cheer club declared. "After all, you're you, Suzu. Just stay calm like you always are."

"Yeah, sure."

"You've come this far, you might as well shoot to win!"

Suzuran nodded silently along with his claim, as she clenched her fist. Steeling her resolve, she stared over at the opposite end where her opponent sat, meditating.

Tomoe Ichihara, who had dropped out of the tournament herself after being eliminated in her first appearance to none other than Suzuran Arisugawa, tried comforting Noa in her own way, asking hesitantly, "Hiiragi-san... Are you tired?"

Noa opened up her eyes and replied, "No. I'm sorry, Ichihara-san, I want to focus."

"I see..."

However, it wasn't long until Noa's meditation was broken for the second time when she heard mutterings of the appearance of the Origami head ("Look, it's Nanae-sama!", "She's so fit in her role as the head of the Origami family!" "She's so refined!"). Noa didn't share in their sentiments as she narrowed her eyes, stabbing her with a hostile stare. Of course, she did not notice this and proceeded to sit down on the elegantly furnished chair with Yomi Satsuki in tow. She arrogantly crossed her legs which only made Noa's temper flare even as she was bowing along with all of the other students to welcome her appearance.

"This is my first time seeing the head of the Origami family, Nanae Origami-sama," Honami mumbled.

"Yeah, isn't she the great hero from fifteen years ago?" Suzuran replied.

"Indeed, they say she's the strongest Toji if you grant her possession of her two okatana."

"The strongest, huh..."

Fifteen years ago—.

This is referring to the Great Disaster of Tokyo Bay which occurred in Heisei 15, an incident where the largest aradama in recorded history appeared in Tokyo Bay. While civilian casualties were minimal, reports say that the casualties inflicted upon the Special Sword Administration Bureau would be far higher than it was were it not for the actions of Nanae Origami. It is said that she vanquished the large aradama by herself.

The referee remained unchanged from the preliminaries as she raised her voice, "We will begin the final match shortly. Suzuran Arisugawa, Noa Hiiragi, step forward."

Suzuran turned back toward the front, her smile cracking on her face, as she marched. She stopped at her designated location and so did, Noa.

"Bow."

The girls did as they were told.

"Now, both sides, take your stances."

Both girls drew their okatana before they declared;

" "Utsushi." "

Oh man, oh man, oh man, what's going on? I can't calm down at all! I'm so excited, I can't stop shaking...! Suzuran thought.

"Begin!"

Both girls held their initial seigan stance but Noa proceeded to change to a stance that threw Suzuran off-guard. Sha-no-kamae...? Suzuran changed her own stance to a gedan-no-kamae in preparation for whatever Noa would throw at her. However, she was again thrown when she saw Noa glance to her left, where Nanae Origami was seated. Immediately, she felt Noa accelerate to her maximum possible limit with her Third Layer Jin'i and charge straight for Nanae.

The crowd simply had only one reaction as they were unable to make out the speed Noa was traveling at: "She disappeared...?"

Nanae, on the other hand, simply casually stood up from her chair and drawing Onimaru, easily swept aside Noa's pinpoint thrust. That deflection was powerful and it really forced Noa to lose her balance. Nanae scoffed, "Hah, so that's your one thrust?"

This simply confirmed Noa's suspicions.

Nanae Origami is not human.

To think she so easily swept aside my attack... That was 24 times the speed of sound...! She attempted to recover her stance but was stabbed from behind by Maya who had used jin'i to accelerate to the vicinity from her post at the gate of the mansion. Collapsing on the spot, Noa tried to move but the backlash from reaching the maximum limit of her jin'i as well as the feedback from having her utsushi forcibly dispelled prevented her from moving a muscle. She glared at Maya in frustration as she brought down her sword.

However, Suzuran had accelerated and blocked Maya's stroke. She turned around and exclaimed, "Use jin'i!" Both girls then accelerated out of the foyer and ran toward the gate of the mansion.

Yomi Satsuki was about to take off in pursuit ("Please leave it to us.") but is stopped by Nanae. She held out her right hand, stopping Yomi from moving. "It is fine. Leave them be."

Maya along with Suzuka and Yume (who both had accelerated to the foyer as well after Maya had disabled Noa) looked back incredulously as if they wanted to question the order but couldn't. Yume, however, was a unique case. She giggled cutely before accelerating. "Yume!" Maya called in a failed attempt to stop her.

Suzuran ran with Noa in tow, the latter of which had some trouble due to the backlash from earlier. Suzuran put out her hand to stop Noa as Yume appeared in front of them, a fearless smile plastered on her face as she sang, "Let me play too~!" Of course, Yume had already activated utsushi.

Ngh... Ten'nen Rishin-ryu... That's not something I need right now...! Suzuran grumbled as she engaged Yume. She crossed swords with her before breaking off; Noa attacked in that opening much to Suzuran's surprise. Yume had no trouble shaking off the tired Noa whose strikes were nowhere near fatal. Taking a rather muddled tachi-no-tori stance, Suzuran thrust forward with a controlled jin'i on her upper body to accelerate the attack. Yume dodged it but smiled viciously and was about to counterattack when Suzuran grabbed Noa's arm. "Noa-san, now!"

They both activated jin'i as they leaped onto the roof of the gate and down the outside, leaving an unsatisfied Yume to complain, "Aww, no fair!" She even added as she watched them disappear, "Boo..."

Maya, Suzuka, and Yomi had mixed expressions but Nanae simply stated, "Chidori and Kogarasumaru. I see. They are still hatchlings. Leave them be." She then turned around and said, "Call for the presidents of Osafune Girls' Academy and Heijou Institute. Bring the representatives from both schools to me as well."

"Yes, ma'am," Maya replied.

"Suzu..." Honami mumbled as Maya approached her and apologized to her for the possibility of any sort of rough treatment that Honami may receive during her detainment.

"Why did you help me?"

On her knees, Noa voiced this question as she looked up to stare at the seemingly permanently smiling face of Suzuran Arisugawa as she tried to catch her breath. "This has nothing to do with you."

She never expected the reply to be, "Um... Because we never actually managed to cross swords?"

"Haah..." Noa grumbled. "I see. You're impossible to deal with."

Suzuran simply laughed this off as she resheathed her blade and put out her hand with the intention of helping Noa onto her feet. "Come on, let's go. We can't dawdle now that we're technically fugitives."

Noa sighed again as she also stored her blade and accepted the hand. The two girls then ran in a completely random direction with the sole intention of escaping from the watchful eyes of the Origami family.

At the same time in the principal's office of Heijou Institute.

Madoka Shinonome put down the receiver of the landline. She had just gotten off a conversation with her superior, Nanae Origami. As the principal in charge of Heijou Institute, it is her duty to explain why Noa Hiiragi had gone rogue. Suddenly, her personal mobile device rang and she calmly reached for it, as if expecting the incoming phone call all along. "It seems that it's beginning, Chi-chan."

"Quit calling me that and I'll agree with you." The person on the other end of the line was Chikage Serizawa, the principal of Osafune Girls' Academy. She also was contacted by Nanae just earlier and she had directly called her colleague in order to confirm if she got the same message.

"Aw, come on, what's wrong with calling you that, Chi-chan?"

"Woman, that's my nickname from when we were children. We're both full-fledged adults, you know?"

"Ahaha, let me have some of my fun..."

"Anyway. Let's get this call back on-topic."

"Yeah... It seems Manami's daughter has finally made her move."

"Gotta hand it to her, this Noa girl is as straightforward as her mother."

"The blood ties are even stronger since the okatana, Kogarasumaru, was passed down from mother to daughter. Ah, wait, its name is Yatagarasu now, isn't it?"

"Yes. Emiri-senpai's daughter also."

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I never expected that."

"To think Chidori and Kogarasumaru would reunite in this manner. Really, this concept called 'fate' is intriguing."

"Mhm. Anyway, we both need to get ready. I'd rather not find out what would happen should we respond late to Nanae-sama's summons."

"Quite true. I'll see you in Kamakura then."

"Alright." Madoka pressed the red 'End Call' button and pocketed her phone. "Haah... I better get ready."

"Nanae-sama, I have received replies from the principals of Heijou and Osafune," Maya reported. "They will arrive at eight tomorrow morning."

"I see." Nanae sat in her swiveling chair, not facing her subordinates as she looked outside the window. "Call for my rebellious son. I have a job for him."

"Yes, ma'am." Maya escorted the other members of the Elite Guard out of the office before bowing at the door. "Do rest well, Nanae-sama."

"So I shall," she replied, waving off her subordinate who proceeded to close the door behind her after straightening up from her bow. Nanae stood up and out of her chair, putting her right hand on the glass window. "So begins the wild goose chase. I do hope these hatchlings will be able to look after themselves." Out of sight of the four girls, Nanae cracked a devilish smile.