Tendōkyū. That was the name of the palace floating high above the clouds, enclosed within a gigantic bubble.
The mobile palace was crafted by Gavida long ago, before being bestowed upon Alastor, one of the Crimson Gods and the embodiment of Retribution.
But after the previous Flame Haze Warrior contracted to Alastor died in battle, the palace became the training ground for the next wielder of the title, the Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter.
The people responsible for running the facility were Wilhelmina Carmel, the powerful Flame Haze Warrior known among her kind as the Specialist of Everything, and her contracted Crimson Lord, Tiamat, the Tiara of dreams.
At the moment, however, that powerful Flame Haze Warrior wasn't in Tendōkyū. She was out purchasing supplies.
The only human currently inside the palace was a black-haired, black-eyed girl sitting beneath a tree in the courtyard.
She was young. She was inexperienced. And she didn't have a name.
"WHO?!!"
Yet at that moment, the young girl was simply staring blankly ahead after responding to the mysterious message.
'Crismon God? The Unfading Sun? Who is that? I've never heard of that name before.'
The girl opened her eyes and quietly surveyed her surroundings.
Nothing had changed. There wasn't even anything remotely unusual nearby.
The nameless girl had grown up in Tendōkyū, receiving nothing but an elite education designed to train Flame Haze Warriors.
Naturally, she was even more confused.
'There are no signs of an intruder. No fluctuation in the Power of Existence. The Concealed Sanctuary surrounding Tendōkyū hasn't changed either. So… did I imagine that voice?'
'Wilhelmina never mentioned a Crismon Sun God among the Crimson Realm's inhabitants. It must've been my imagination…'
As the girl sat there in confusion, a gentle breeze swept past.
Her unfocused eyes suddenly sharpened.
Through the movement of the air, she sensed someone approaching.
There were only three "people" who could move around freely within Tendōkyū.
One was her instructor, Wilhelmina.
Another was the instructor responsible for teaching her martial arts, a skeletal figure whom the girl called Shiro.
And the last was herself.
With Wilhelmina away, there was only one possibility for who could be approaching. Shiro.
'I'm twelve years old. I've been receiving formal combat training for seven years. And I've never once managed to beat Shiro…'
The thought didn't discourage her. Instead, it ignited a fierce fighting spirit.
'I'm still six years away from turning eighteen and officially becoming the Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter. At my current rate of progress, completing the instructor's requirement of landing a hit shouldn't be difficult... But I don't want that.'
The minimum requirement for her training was simple. She had to land at least one effective attack on her instructor.
But after seven years of training, the nameless girl had never once accomplished it.
'I don't want to barely scrape through on the final day. So…'
Without hesitation, the girl pulled out the last of the ketchup she had hidden away.
The training program for the future Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter had never prohibited trickery. If anything, cunning was an essential part of the curriculum.
Among the Crimson Denizens who indulged their appetites by devouring humans, there were plenty of cunning lunatics.
To become a competent Flame Haze Warrior, you needed to know how to use your head.
So the girl had absolutely no qualms about what she was about to do.
She crushed the ketchup packet she had prepared and smeared the contents across her lower abdomen.
Then she lay beneath the tree.
Soon, the illusion of a severe abdominal wound, complete with blood flowing from it, appeared.
It was a very crude trick.
But everything depended on who you were trying to fool.
If the target were a close family member, seeing such a scene would inevitably shake them.
And that was what the girl was counting on.
Of course, she didn't have particularly high hopes.
It really was too fake.
And her relationship with her instructor consisted almost entirely of their twice-daily combat lessons.
Lessons in which she had always been beaten one-sidedly.
It was only over the past year that she had gradually developed enough strength to fight back.
'If it were Wilhelmina… she'd probably fall for it.'
'But Shiro…'
As she thought about it, the direction of the airflow changed ever so slightly.
Someone had approached.
The girl quickly held her breath.
At that moment, the "instructor," a skeletal figure draped in a tattered purple cloak, slowly approached.
Step by silent step.
When he came within three meters, he noticed the enormous rolling pin in the girl's hands.
It was the same rolling pin Wilhelmina had used to make Dango the previous night.
The skeleton remembered it well. There had been a gas explosion in the kitchen yesterday, and some of the debris had even struck it.
'Did she secretly hide it afterward and plan to use it as a weapon?'
'And wasn't she just calling out "Who?" a moment ago? Now she's pretending to be dead? Does she really think I don't have ears just because I'm a skeleton?'
The skeleton silently assessed the situation.
Then he changed course, climbed up the tree, and prepared to launch a surprise attack from above.
'She's far too naive… Her talent is exceptional. She's gifted in both academics and combat, has an incredibly sharp eye for whatever she studies, and she's clever without being the sort to blindly memorize everything.'
'She's the most complete successor we've seen in centuries. But she's still far too naive…'
The skeleton silently climbed higher until his legs hooked around a branch.
From there, he prepared to strike from above, safely outside the rolling pin's initial range.
Then he saw the red liquid on the girl's abdomen.
Clearly, it wasn't blood.
As a battle-hardened veteran who had survived countless fights, the skeleton recognized that immediately.
But when that red liquid was combined with the girl's special identity, it still caused the skeleton to tremble.
A Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter. A devastating wound to the abdomen. Blood.
The sight dragged an unforgiving past back into his mind.
A past in which the previous Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter had been grievously wounded.
A past in which he had hurt the woman he loved, then watched helplessly as she marched toward her death despite her injuries.
That was the past belonging to the self he could never forgive.
A tremendous emotional surge welled up inside him.
The result was an orderly collapse in his control over the Power of Existence.
"AAAH!"
With a furious roar, the girl reacted instinctively.
She swung the rolling pin with perfect timing.
WHAM!
Like a baseball bat striking a ball, it slammed directly into the skeleton and sent him flying into the air.
"I hit Shiro?! An effective attack!"
The girl's delight had barely begun when she realized something was wrong.
"No, wait! The scream came out before I hit him! And I didn't even put any strength into that!"
At the same time, rainbow-colored flames of Power of Existence erupted from the raging skeleton.
The flames condensed. Gathered. And transformed into a rainbow-colored sword of light.
With a furious roar, the blade pierced straight through Tendōkyū's defensive barrier and shot into the sky.
It was as though a giant had swung a sword.
The clouds split apart.
Cracks raced across the cloud layer until the night sky above was exposed.
...
..
On the coast near Tendōkyū, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet suddenly lit up with excitement.
Someone had drawn a ridiculous pair of jagged eyes on the helmet, making him look like some bizarre cross-dresser.
"We found it! The presence of Tendōkyū! This is a huge achievement!"
...
..
At the same time, in the city, a pink-haired maid who had been out shopping suddenly frowned.
"An anomaly!"
A voice immediately came from the maid's headpiece: "Emergency situation. Return to base!"
Two concealed presences flickered faintly around the maid.
...
..
At the Rift Between Both Worlds, Ryo stared at the Dimensional Forum.
The only reply to his invitation was a single word: "Who?"
He was completely dumbfounded.
"Has the Forum really sunk to the point where simply responding counts as accepting an invitation? And who exactly is this nameless girl?"
"Wait. Nameless?"
Ryo suddenly thought of something.
The Forum only searched for the people who stood at the center of an era, the ones who could shape the course of a world's history.
And in Shakugan no Shana… wasn't the only protagonist who initially didn't even have a name the heroine herself? Shana?
"Holy crap. Did the Dimensional Forum just lure the heroine over with a single word?"
''But isn't this a scam? Since when did the Forum become more shameless than me... Oh, wait, it always was. I almost forgot about its daily scamming Little Garden Center."
.
.
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