Ikki's persistence

When Tsukasa and his group went to visit the training facility at the Okutama mountain, Ikki and Shizuku spent their time together, showing the meaning of love. Even if they were siblings, nothing could stop them. They should be lucky since when they stayed on the Hagun, they didn't have to fight against a group of terrorists. Instead, they could enjoy their time together, learning the meaning of love.

The relationship between them had changed. They weren't mere siblings anymore. Instead, they transcended into a pair of lovers.

Yet when they were about to be together, a cruel fate parted them up.

Ikki was taken away by the Ethics Committee because of crimes he didn't even commit. He couldn't do anything, nor did he fight back since if he fought back, it would give them a chance to say that he was at fault. What he had to do was just to stay in silence, without doing anything, and let them do whatever they wanted to with him since as long as he shut his mouth, closed it tightly while denying their slanders, there was nothing that they could do.

However, if Ikki nodded and agreed with their slander, he would be at fault.

Shizuku wanted to stop them, but she couldn't do it while she tried to stop it, and even though to visit her parents to stop all of the charades, Ikki told her that everything would be alright and he would return.

That's right!

Ikki will return!

Ikki wouldn't give up!

No matter how thorny, painful, and suffocating this fate was, Ikki had decided to walk into this path. However, unlike before, he had someone who supported him. Someone who loved him. Even though he knew this love was immoral, he didn't mind since she was the only one who could give him this warmth.

'Shizuku has believed me so much, so I can't let her down!'

Still, Ikki must admit this torture was tough. Whether it was his spirit or body, every part of his being was exhausted. The people of the Ethics Committee might say everything was just asking for his clarification, but in the end, they were trying to force him to acknowledge the crimes that he hadn't done.

They might not torture him, but the treatment he received wasn't that much different from torture.

Ikki might not have been beaten to death since, even if the Ethics Committee definitely couldn't raise their hands against him, considering there was a certain image that needed to be kept by such an organization.

Even if Ikki was just an F-Rank Blazer, without any worth, and also known as the weakest, there was no way the group of the Ethics Committee could beat him up.

However, even if they couldn't beat him up, there were thousands of ways to torture him.

In the past week, Ikki had never fallen asleep. Instead, he was forced to open his eyes all the time, and when he decided to sleep, he would be roared at, screamed at, being told to get up since he had to face an important trial, and he couldn't appear so sloppy by sleeping, or else, he would give a bad image.

It was unreasonable, but what could he do?

Being unable to sleep for a week was already hard, but Ikki was also forced to eat something filled with poison.

Thanks to all of that treatment, his body was weak, he was sick, his throat was hoarse, and he was coughing all the time. He could feel the abnormality on his body, but he couldn't do anything and just waited until the trial was over since he knew they couldn't keep him forever.

"How is it, Ikki-kun? Everyone is busy. Why don't you help everyone, so they can go back quickly to their families? Don't you feel sorry for everyone? Just acknowledge that you have committed all of those crimes."

"...I haven't done any of that." Then, with his hoarse voice, Ikki said.

"Stop, stop, Ikki-kun. You shouldn't talk since I haven't given you permission, or else you'll get a bad point from us."

The pompous tone, which made Ikki annoyed before, made him tired. He didn't even have the energy to talk against this person and just shut his mouth, trying to recover his energy. However, when he was about to sleep, the bars on his cell were hit by a cane.

"Wake up, Ikki-kun! Don't sleep! We're on trial, you know?!"

Ikki opened his eyes lightly, staring at the person who had caused everything.

Mamoru Akaza.

He was a middle-aged man with an obese body and an aura of all-importance that told everyone that he was an elite, an important someone everyone had to respect. He might have acted like that, but his identity was quite amazing since he was the head of the Ethics Committee and also the head of the Branch of the Kurogane Family.

Yet Ikki didn't even feel a shred of respect toward Mamoru, but he didn't really have the feeling for revenge since he knew his position, and because he was often being looked down on, he also looked down on himself, so what he wanted to do was just to get out of this place and meet Shizuku.

Akaza kept taunting and scolding Ikki, but all of them were useless. Still, this was bad since he knew there was a rumor that started to question the Ethics Committee at their handling of a student. After all, there was Kuraudo, who was worse, yet it was only Ikki who was punished.

Was it okay?

Was it fair?

Was the Ethics Committee so overbearing?

As for Kuraudo, who was mentioned, he didn't care at all since he had been training to become stronger.

However, Akaza was under pressure from the public. After all, while he could manipulate the regional media, it was quite hard to stop the rumor on the internet. If he made a wrong move, it would make everything worse, so in the end, he could only do this, "How about this, Ikki-kun? We can release you and clear up every slander on you."

Still, if possible, Akaza wanted to know who this mouse had caused him so much trouble. He had just ignored it for a while, but who would have thought this matter would become so huge that he almost couldn't control it. If someone didn't help him, he would be overwhelmed.

Ikki was stunned, but he frowned since he knew Akaza wasn't someone easy to deal with. "As I have said before, I haven't done any of those things that you have mentioned."

Akaza sighed and said, "Ikki-kun, you're so stubborn, but anyway, how about we settle this in a duel?"

"Duel?" Ikki was stunned.

The duel might sound simple, but it was a tradition between the Blazers to solve everything.

"If you win this duel, then you'll be cleared up from everything, and we won't bother you from now on, but if you can't win, then we'll continue to see whether you'll have another crime or not," Akaza said with a smile as if he was a buddha who had given a single thread to help someone in hell.

"Duel?" Ikki thought for a moment and nodded. "Okay, let's do it." He didn't want to be charged with anything like this again. He also didn't want anything to do with the Ethics Committee from now on until the future.

"Good!" Akaza smiled brightly, then sighed. "Unfortunately, you have missed your 18th match, but you don't need to worry. We'll choose the best opponent for you for the 19th match."

"Best opponent?" Ikki felt a foreboding.

"Railgun, Touka Toudou." Akaza smiled and said, "She'll be your opponent."

"....." Ikki.