CH 159.1

（He's really strong!）

（Yeah...!）

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.）

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.

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」

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.