Volume Zero - CH 5

Chapter 5: Stella’s Sleepless Night

The story takes place during Stella’s one week training with Nene at Okutama before the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival started, and it starts with Stella chasing Nene through the forest. Stella fires ‘Dragon Fang’ towards Nene, but Nene turns around and delivers a roundhouse kick at the dragon-shaped flame. The kick powered with the force of Nene’s gravity ability blasted the flame apart. The blast causes Nene’s body to fly towards a lake and Nene doesn’t sink into the lake but lands on the surface using her gravity ability. Stella pushed Nene towards the lake on purpose in order to remove obstacles such as trees and bushes. Stella arrives at the lake and runs through the lake surface by evaporating the water under her feet with the steam as a foothold. She then fires four shots of flame that land on the water around Nene’s surrounding which creates water column that takes away Nene’s movements and sight. Stella then slashes towards the water column that has Nene in it but once the water column disappears, Nene is nowhere seen. After hearing a voice from behind, Stella turns around and sees Nene standing on top of Stella’s sword. Nene tells Stella the tactic was good but Stella’s sword is still lacking something. Nene then delivers a strong flick to Stella’s forehead which causes Stella’s body to be blown away and bouncing off the surface of the water like a stone. Stella lands on the shore on her back and is unable to get up due to the shock that shakes her brain and the pain on her back. Nene then jumps high and delivers a kick powered by gravity acceleration towards Stella who is on the ground, while saying “Get crushed, big boobs”. The kick is supposed to finish off Stella, but Stella manages to guard herself using her sword in time. Stella asks if there was personal grudge mixed in that last moment but Nene claims she has no idea what Stella means. Nene then jumps off Stella and says that they should end their first day of training now and head back. Stella asks Nene to at least tell her what her sword is lacking, but Nene refuses and tells Stella that she should think about it on her own. Nene then disappears into the forest, leaving Stella alone thinking about what she’s lacking.

Later after midnight, Stella has returned to the lodging facility and then got into bed after taking a bath. She can’t get to sleep because Ikki is not there. Usually when it’s time to go to bed she would exchange a light kiss with Ikki before entering her bed. She then would slowly fall into sleep while feeling happiness from knowing that he’s near. Stella at least wants to hear Ikki’s voice and reaches for her electronic student notebook, but then changes her mind because she doesn’t want him to hear her whining. She then decides to use her trump card which she replaces her blanket with Ikki’s blanket that she brought. She thinks she can sleep when wrapped in Ikki’s scent, but she realizes from the scent that the blanket she brought actually belongs to Shizuku. But Stella says Shizuku hasn’t won yet because the blanket belongs to Shizuku. Stella can just imagine Ikki’s scent using the scent of Shizuku who is his sister. She then sticks to the blanket and smells Shizuku’s milky scent. Within that scent, Stella focuses on the fragrance that is relatively close to Ikki’s and creates an image which feels like she is being embraced by him. Her whole body trembles from the nice sensation. Stella realizes this is the first time she’s imagining Ikki which she didn’t have to before because Ikki was always very close. There are some things she couldn’t do with the real person which is too embarrassing to ask. However, the Ikki in her fantasy will do anything and so she thinks it’s fine to enjoy it. She wonders how much of a happy dream she will have if she takes off her clothes and wraps herself in the blanket. She immediately shakes her head and rejects the idea since it’s a bad thing but the devil insider her heart whispers that it’s fine since it’s just a fantasy. Stella is then stuck between listening to her voice of reason or desire. Stella ends up not sleeping the whole night to the extent that Nene can see dark circles under Stella’s eyes very clearly the next morning.