.05 second reaction times.

Evading and defending against attacks that had almost absolute perfect timings. Disappearing like haze and attacking from a completely different angle. All of these were the fruit of one certain ability.

"What are you talking about!? Is there some kind of trick!?"

Ayase immediately pressed at the topic. For her, this might be the answer to why her father was defeated so one-sidedly two years ago, a truly important matter.

Did Kuraudo use some kind of trickery? But Ikki denied that.

"No, there's no deceit nor trick."

"Haha, seems like you've noticed…. Say it, I'll match the answer."

Kuraudo, who had a large grin, asked to reveal the true identity of his power that Ikki had managed to see through.

"It's something Kurashiki-kun got directly from his roots: reflexive sensitivity."

"Reflexive… sensitivity…."

"Ikki, that… isn't that the same normal reflex gear all humans have?"

"That's half right, half wrong. If put into words then it would be that, but the efficiency, and speed are all too great. I'm talking about the time it takes for a human to complete the sensory process, as in 'sense', 'comprehend,' and 'respond'. For the most part, it's point three seconds for us. They say a professional sprinter has a time of point fifteen seconds. And no matter how much you train, this number can't cross the bounder of point one seconds. That is common sense. However… for Kurashiki-san who just dodged that counter, it seems like the time for him is point zero five seconds or lower."

""―!?""

Stella and Ayase became speechless at that fact. Well, it was obvious to be surprised. The reaction time for Ikki and Stella was about 0.13 seconds. Kuraudo's senses had long crossed the human boundary. In other words, the time it took for Ikki and Stella to perform one action, Kuraudo could do about two or three actions in that same amount of time.

"And with that common sense defying reaction speed, he can dodge our attacks that might seem absolutely impossible to dodge with perfect timing, or he can change the direction of an attack just before it clashes with ours and make it come from a completely different angle. The reason why his sword seemed to vanish halfway was because of that."

"Haha… hahaha… HAHAHA! BINGO!"

Kuraudo widened his eyes while laughing madly.

Yes, his sword wasn't an art. It was pure violence. And with that violence, the Sword Eater tramples all down.

Because reaction speed was the base of all sports and actions. No matter how much one trains, or how much one polishes his stance; it doesn't matter how much experience one has, it all becomes meaningless before it. No matter how much of an absurd surprise attack is thrown at him, he can deal with it after seeing it. No matter how someone charges at him recklessly, he can change his guard after seeing that. It allowed something irrational like seeing the opponent's choice of rock, paper, or scissors before making his own: that was the true value of the Sword Eater.

Techniques and experience, schemes and tactics, a nightmare that renders all of these useless. Superhuman reflexes, and reaction ability born from that, adding the two and thus creating Marginal Counter.

"You're the first one to see through my Marginal Counter on the first meeting! I'll commend you, Worst One! As I thought, you're the best. But so what!? Even if you know how it works, can you do anything about it?"