–Noble Diamonds are not Cute Stars–

At the boundary of the space designated for the Survival Recreation is Kasai Souji with the expression of an oni on his face. In his hands, he rubs a pair of branches against each other.

“So annoyin—g. Starting a fire would be so much easier if I could use [Cold and Heat].”
“What are you trying to pull? If you do that, it’ll get out that you’re a special ability user. Hora, hurry up and move those hands.”
“Hey, hey.”

While Souji rubs a pair of dried branches together, Akari interjects to scold him from his side.

“onee-chan, Souji-kun, we’ve collected some tree branches and ivy.”
“““We’re back, ssu.”””
“Great, welcome back.” (Souji)
“Shizuka, and everyone too, thanks for your hard work.” (Akari)

With Shizuka at the forefront of the group, they approach those 2 carrying wood and ivy in their arms.

While their location is a bit far from the training institute, it is plentiful with resources. Furthermore, it’s distance lowers the possibility of developing any competition for supplies with the other teams. As such, Souji and his group have been based there since the start.

Also, as the group consists of delinquents and middle school gals with Souji being the foremost boorish member, Akari chose that place in order to avoid conflicts with the other teams.

“Ah—h, just where is Yuuki-san’s group? I want to see how they are doing for a bit.” (Souji)
“You’ll just end up being a nuisance if you go. Hora, do your best at starting a fire.” (Akari)
“Do your best, to start a fire.” (Shizuka)
“Damn it…”

With encouragement from Akari and Shizuka, Souji silently rubs the branches against one another.

“Onee-chan…”
“Hm? What is it, Shizuka?”
“From within the forest, I sense something odd.”

During that, Shizuka is the first to notice that something strange is approaching from within the forest.

“I don’t feel anything, although Shizuka does have incredible intuition.”
“I ain’t feeling anything or hearing anyone coming either. Hey, you guys get back to the training institute… Ahh?”

Souji, trusting in Shizuka’s intuition, tries to have the other members of their group escape, but the decision comes too late.

“Hey, you guys! Hey!”

The 2 delinquents of his group and the 2 middle school gals stare into the forest with vacant eyes. None of them show any reaction to Souji’s words.

“This is, bad.”
“Yeah, this obviously ain’t normal.”

Akari and Souji mutter their thoughts immediately afterwards.

The plants of the forest suddenly come to life, clearing a path as if to welcome an extraordinary entity.

“Ara, so there are children who can fell my presence yet still retain their consciousness.”
“[Bestowal]!”

A woman wearing an ominous jet-black dress appears. The second Akari sees her, she invokes her special ability on Souji and Shizuka.

“Uugh…!”

Akari struggles to retain her consciousness despite being overcome by a wave of exhaustion. Her special ability, [Bestowal], allows her to augment the physical capabilities of others. Her [Bestowal] is rank C and she should only be able to apply it on one person, but due to being forced to exceed her limit in the battle against the special ability organization, daily training has allowed her to maintain her consciousness even when invoking it on 2 people at the same time.

“Akari, thanks. Leave the rest to me.”
“onee-chan, rest for now.”

However, she is only barely able to remain conscious afterwards and isn’t left with any strength to move afterwards. Souji, thus, while hiding Akari behind himself, steps towards the woman wearing the jet-black dress.

“I see, so you’re all have special abilities. Everyone comes to obey just by feeling my presence, but I guess that’s not enough for special ability users…”
“What are you yabbering about!? Bastard, your special ability is what did this to everyone else, so hurry up and cut it out already!”

Souji invokes [Cold and Heat] at Io simultaneously with that declaration, freezing the ground and plants surrounding her.

[Cold and Heat] is a special ability that manipulates temperature, but he needs to make preparations before he can emit any heat. By absorbing the surrounding temperature, it can be temporarily stored up to later be released as heat.

“What an interesting special ability. I might even be able to warm up my shoulders a bit. [Take them down.]”

Io commands the plants surrounding her. Ivy rises and branches sway as they rush towards Souji and Shizuka.

“The special ability for manipulating plants!?”
“Shizuka, I’m leaving Akari and the others to you!… [Cold and Heat]!”

Shizuka, having had her abilities strengthened by [Bestowal], lightly pulls her befuddled team members away to take refuge behind Souji. Picking up Akari last, she finishes getting everyone to safety.

Souji, confirming everyone has been cleared, incinerates the approaching ivy and branches by releasing a heat wave at them.

“Fuu— —… [Cold and Heat].”
Souji once more freezes his surroundings and stores heat for his next attack.

“A special ability for strengthening others and a special ability for accumulating and discharging heat? How interesting, wa. What if I do this? [Take them down.]”
Io commands what is underfoot and the ground begins to rise. A countless number of arms made from dirt attack Souji.

“Che, [Cold and Heat]!”
Immediately after releasing a heatwave, Souji takes the heat away. The sharp change in temperature destroys the dirt arms one after another.

“Ufufuu, that was fun, wa.”
“Damn it…! [Cold and Heat]!”

Io’s attack never reaches Souji. For one, [Cold and Heat] has been empowered to the equivalent of B rank with the strengthening of [Bestowal]. Also, due to daily training, Souji was able to learn how to control temperature.

Despite that— — —

“Ufuu, aha, ahahahahahahaha!!”
“Guh……!”

— — —Io’s onslaught doesn’t stop.

Dirt arms, flying small stones, leaf blades, tree spears, and the such hail down on Souji in succession.

What in the world is this special ability!?

With Io’s offense growing in intensity, Souji finds himself unable to fend it off and is being covered with wounds.

“[Union]!”
Shizuka targets the plants and ground Io controls and invokes her special ability, [Union].

“Ara? Everything slowed down all of a sudden, wa.”
Io tilts her head upon seeing the ground and plants that are acting under her command become noticeably slower.

[Union] doesn’t just link recognized objects, it can also temporarily increase bonded strength. Shizuka inhibited Io’s onslaught by raising the bonding structure of all the ground and plants in her field of view.

“I’ve seen a couple of people with special abilities, but it’s my first time seeing special abilities like you all have, wa. You truly are quite interesting, wa. Fufufuu.”

Io, however, resumes her attack without any sense of fluster. The velocity of her attacks has dropped, but Souji is still being assaulted by a wave of countless plants and rocks.

“Damn it…”
Souji, having already passed his limit, can only helplessly watch the oncoming wave.

“Souji-kun!”
“Souji!”

Cries of despair echo out from Shizuka and Akari, but the outcome the 3 expect doesn’t happen. From nowhere, a barrier of water surrounds Souji and protects him from Io’s barrage.

“The heck, what just happened?”
“That’s my line! Why are Kasai-kun, Shizuka-san, and Akari-san battling against that magician?”

Before Souji, who has no idea what is going on, appears Mizukami Uruka, who deployed a water barrier with no idea to what is going on.

“You’re onee-chan’s classmates, right? Are you senpai also practitioners?”
“Their power feels different from techniques, desu. It’s strange, desu.”

Following Uruka into that place are Uruna and Owl. Neither of them understand the situation either, they watch both Souji and his classmates and Io with caution.

“I’m curious about various things, but let’s discuss that later. More importantly, we need to somehow deal with this enemy before us.”
“I agree.”

Despite her doubts towards Souji, Shizuka, and Akari fighting a magician, Uruka focuses her attention on the opponent before her eyes. In line with her, Uruna and Owl also concentrate on dealing with Io.

The curtain to the united front between special ability users and practitioners unveils.

---

T/N: I am very curious to see how this will affect their relationships at school. Uruka is something like an oujo-sama and Souji is a delinquent. Them just acknowledging each other in the hall should be enough to cause a stir.

~Lyfe

<52.1 Violence isn’t Good!
53.1 What are you Doing–?>