The weakness of the ability however is that the attacks can be easily avoided, rendering his ability useless. Saijou starts swinging his large weapon, revealing that his ability is the accumulation of the power of slashes, which allows his attacks to become more powerful with every slash. Saijou manifests his Device, 'Zanbatou', which coincidentally is a zanbatou (large blade). Next up, is Stella's match against another member of the student council, second year student Ikazuchi Saijou, who is the fourth strongest student after Renren. Knowing this, Renren willingly surrenders. As Renren has now been stopped, her speed has returned to zero, effectively losing her the match. As Renren is about to hit Ikki, he miraculously dodges Renren's attack, grabbing her and smashing her to the arena. In the audience however, Shizuku notes that the reason Ikki struggled against Kirihara wasn't because he couldn't see him, and he will have no problem against Renre. Renren then moves into Ikki's blind spot and charges at him with her Noble Art, 'Black Bird', which releases all of her speed at once. This was the reason for her friendly chatting with Ikki, as she simply needed time to gather speed, now going faster then sound. Ikki however quickly notices that Renren is simply moving at extreme speeds, thanks to her Device, 'Mach Grid', which allows her to accumulate her speed overtime. However, she also claims that as Ikki struggled so much against the 'Hunter', he won't be able to catch up to her, suddenly disappearing. Renren compliments him on his victory against Shizuya Kirihara and notes how sad it is that they are no longer in the same year, as Renren wants to fight more strong opponents. As the match starts Renern manifest's her knuckel-type Device and playfully hops around, while chatting with Ikki.

His opponent today however, is a member of the student council, second year student Renren Tomaru, who is ranked third strongest in Hagun Academy. In Hagun Academy, the selection battles continue, with Ikki now entering the arena for his ninth battle, having won the previous eight matches, without a scratch, except for his match against Kirihara. However, she has already lost everything important to her, with that scene from the past still burning bright in her eyes. Years later, Ayase manifest her blade shaped Device, swinging it as her father taught her. As the man readies his shinai (wooden practice sword), the girl, named Ayase, can only watch. The girl tries reminding her father of his condition, but her father simply tells her to look, wanting to entrust her with his greatest technique, while he still can hold a sword. However, the man, who is the girl's father simply laughs, saying that it's still a hundred years too yearly for someone to hold back against him. In a dojo dyed in red, a girl stands, calling out to the man before, her voice filled with distress. The situation worsened as he and Ayase are pitted against each other for their next match.

Accepting her request as he begins to train her, Ikki starts to find out there is more to Ayase than meets the eye when a Blazer from another school becomes involve and harasses Ayase. The stalker, Ayase Ayatsuji, a third year student and daughter to a well known swordsman, Kaito Ayatsuji, reveals that she has been on a slump and proceeds to ask Ikki to become her teacher in swordsmanship. After his most recent match, Ikki who has been sensing someone's presence for a week, finally decides to call out the stalker. With the battle selection progressing well for Ikki and his friends, who are on a winning streak.

Toradora light novel volume 2