Editing Horizon:Volume 10B Chapter 34 (section)

==Chapter 34: Rude One in Between==
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''Is it Ebi?

''Is it Uni?

''Is it Kani?

''Is it Kiyo?

'''Point Allocation (Don’t Forget the Dono!)

●

The Technohexen flew through a sky of confrontation.

The sky above the Musashi and the Azuchi was greatly distorted by the ships’ northward turn.

…''So we aren’t just going to Sanuki.

As far as Naito could tell, the best destination for them would be the M.H.R.R. Protestants.

They wanted to be close to Hexagone Française since they would become Europe’s conquerors, but it would be best to keep their distance for now since Mouri would be Matsudaira’s enemy at Sekigahara.

England and Russia were too far, so the M.H.R.R. Protestants were best.

But they needed to do something first.

“We need to settle things with Hashiba!”

“Judge. It looks like they’re having trouble below, but I think we have the advantage for now?”

Naruze, who was flying too far away to say they were flying side by side, was referring to the condition on the Musashi. Looking at the current state of the battles there…

“Ma-yan and Tenzou lost, but Uni(?) took over for them. Adele sent Komaoumaru tumbling down. Yoshy beat the mechanical dragon, but she’s pretty beat up. And Uqui beat Suzuki Magoichi.”

“Verbalizing it, it sounds a lot more mixed, huh.”

But Naito still thought they were winning. At the same time…

…''Oume’s in trouble.

Rather than take Oume, the enemy was trying to clear a path to the central ships.

The Excalibur clash at the stern before had let Hashiba push in.

And at the bow, word was the nonhuman unit was forcing their way through with some help from the Sanada Ten Braves. The bow was Mitotsudaira’s post, but she was currently fighting Kasuya, who claimed to be her daughter. Even if she did pursue the Hashiba forces at the bow after she won…

“This could be bad.”

“Yes,” agreed Naruze, her attention behind them.

They had their own enemy to focus on, but…

“We’re going to reach Europe before securing Oume.”

Naito more or less understood Hashiba’s intention.

…''It has to be that.

'''Gold Mar:''' “They want to keep Europe from determining which side has the upper hand when we arrive there.”

●

Masazumi agreed with Naito’s suggestion while she hurried to Okutama’s bow, led by Kanou and flying Urquiaga.

'''Vice President:''' “So Hashiba has two objectives here.”

Oume’s current situation could be seen as another, but…

'''Vice President:''' “One is for the Ten Spears to protest our plans based on their future knowledge. But that is a difficult political card to prove is real, so their second objective is probably to show the European nations that the Musashi and the Azuchi are in fact evenly matched.”

'''Wise Sister:''' “Heh heh. So would that be the idealistic versus the practical? And what do they get from this?”

'''Vice President:''' “A chance for Hashiba to resist once more.”

'''Unturning:''' “So they want to return this battle to its original arrangement?”

''That’s right,'' she thought.

…''Asama and the Date Vice Chancellor did question this situation.

'''Vice President:''' “Their goal is to stop us. But they failed to do so in a battle between the Azuchi and the Musashi. That’s why they had the Ten Spears board us and tried to stop us in a battle between the Ten Spears and us. That’s where we are now.”

But they had to consider something else here.

Kanou spoke up while leading the way and pointing to the Okutama’s bow.

“The Hashiba Ten Spears’ staff officer Takenaka Hanbei and their leader Ishida Mitsunari are not your children. Their decisions will come from a more neutral position.”

“You mean like how I decided I didn’t much care what they did after learning there were no elder sisters among them?” asked Urquiaga.

Right.

'''Novice:''' “No matter how sensational the truth of the Ten Spears is, it would be lazy to fully rely on that. Any strategist worth their salt would plan more than that.”

'''Unturning:''' “So if their warriors’ invasion manages to take even Oume, Hashiba can tell Europe they have done enough to stop Musashi. The Ten Spears won’t even factor into it.”

'''Vice President:''' “Judge. They failed to stop Musashi in the Musashi vs. Azuchi battle, but the outcome of the Musashi vs. Ten Spears battle is still unknown. So…”

So what would a strategist do?

'''Vice President:''' “They will use their forces to show Europe they have invaded the Musashi and then prepare to politically stop us.”

The Ten Spears’ claims would be brought up after that was done.

'''Novice:''' “This is only the worst case scenario, but when we try to stop the Apocalypse using something other than the Genesis Project, will they claim we’re no match for destiny because we were invaded by Hashiba even though the Ten Spears already said they were no match for destiny themselves?”

'''Circle Be:''' “It would be nice if Kantou had some clear solution to the Apocalypse, but if not, the Genesis Project is going to sound pretty good to them. Any nation that feels that way could end up opposing us, which leaves us with even less support.”

'''Vice President:''' “What do we do about this?”

This was too big a problem to solve on her own, so she tried asking. And…

'''Me:''' “Can’t we just run away?”

'''Vice President:''' “If only that were an option…”

Their remaining fuel and the politics made that an impossibility, but that did lead her to a conclusion.

'''Vice President:''' “It will all be decided here.”

That had been the intention from the start. The plan had been to return to Europe and find safety there, but then Hashiba had made an appearance and the Ten Spears had revealed their truth, leading to the present situation.

But what if she took a simpler view?

'''Novice:''' “With or without Hashiba or the Ten Spears, I think the Hashiba forces could have pulled this much off on their own if they really worked at it on the way from Mikawa to Europe.”

'''Vice President:''' “Because this is their last chance, huh?”

Breaking free of them here would return everything to the way it was. But Hashiba knew that too.

…''So this isn’t going to be easy.

So she made up her mind. She instructed Neshinbara to make the rest of the decisions and…

'''Vice President:''' “This ends here. Everyone, give this your all. And, Mukai…I’ll be sending you instructions on where to go from here. Discuss it with ‘Musashi’ and the others to reach a decision.”

●

''So they’re doing it,'' thought Naito.

Naruze took a glance back and pointed out ahead.

“Let’s go, Margot. We can drop down and loop around behind them.”

“You’re pushing us harder than I expected, Ga-chan.”

But this opponent required it. Their schale besens flew using gravitational control and…

…''They’ve learned most of our flight skills!

Those two were tearing through the sky to pursue Naito and Naruze. The sound couldn’t reach them at these speeds, so they simply created a distortion in the air.

Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin. But Naito and Naruze didn’t have time to watch their heirs. Not at the speed of this battle.

“Let’s do it, Ga-chan.”

“Let’s go, Margot.”

They pushed themselves forward and accelerated.

●

''They’re fast,'' thought Yoshiaki. Their mothers’ schale besens had exchanged some initial light attacks with them before ascending in a flash.

Their mothers had once swooped down to their level, slipped between the artillery fire, and now this.

…''They’re assessing our abilities.

However, Yoshiaki and Angie were badly worn out. So to avoid revealing too much, they had been keeping their distance rather than engaging, but then the Azuchi and the Musashi had changed course.

At this rate, the two ships would reach Europe separate from the Technohexen battle.

The others were doing their part aboard the Musashi’s third port ship. They were doing everything they could to achieve a political advantage over Musashi, but they also hadn’t given up on “sinking” the Musashi.

Yoshiaki and Angie had been left with their own job while the others completed their job.

They would have an outcome soon.

When they entered Europe, the European powers might just make a choice between Musashi and Azuchi. They wanted to make sure they had as much of an advantage as possible when that happened, so…

“Let’s go, Angie.”

“Sure thing!”

This would mean engaging their mothers in battle, but so be it. They ascended, accelerated, and pursued.

“You aren’t getting away!”

●

Angie decided to fly out ahead.

…''Cause Kime-chan’s going a little too hard.

Angie had cried earlier, but Yoshiaki had toughed it out. That was always how it worked. Maybe it was just a part of Angie’s personality, but Yoshiaki always chose to tough it out to strike a balance between them.

But that allowed frustration to build within Yoshiaki, which sometimes led her to push herself too hard.

So this time Angie took the lead since she was a little calmer now. That way Yoshiaki could be held in reserve until she could make proper use of her skills.

But their ascending opponents made another rapid descent, forcing Angie to pursue.

…''They’re so fast!?

She could see now why Yoshiaki wanted to rush.

Their mothers were unusually fast. Their descending course should let them make use of their falling speed and Angie should have been able to overtake their initial speed doing the same, but…

“What is with their speed!?”

Instead of just increasing their speed or racing out ahead, it was more like the white and black brooms were building speed in stages as they gained more and more of a lead. And…

…''They’re circling around behind us from below!?

They flew in a loop. And by flipping their brooms upside down to place themselves at the center of the loop…

“They’re watching,” said Yoshiaki. “They’re watching us.”

●

…''We can’t lose them at all!!

Weiss Fraulein and Schwarz Fraulein were providing all the acceleration they could as individual brooms. And to blast through the air resistance, Naruze drew guide lines ahead of them. Those courses placed Margot just a bit ahead of her where she could read the winds.

Margot’s Schwarz Fraulein had a greater focus on high speeds, so she was good at reading the air at these speeds. While battlefield experience did make a difference, it really came down to how their flying styles made use of their broom’s specs.

But even with all that…

“They’re still on our tail!?”

“Here they come!”

Naruze could see above them from her further back position. So when she glanced into the sky behind them, she saw a white broom and a black broom taking a shortcut that carved away an arc of the loop.

…''Huh.

She had expected a more forceful flying style since those two used gravitational control, but that was surprisingly clean.

“We must have taught them well.”

“Then what if we do this?”

Naruze responded to Margot by bringing Weiss Fraulein up alongside Schwarz Fraulein so they were within each other’s spell effect range and…

“Herrlich!”

They tightened their loop to shoot straight up.

●

Their mothers’ broom had tightened their loop without combining.

Angie reflexively reacted to the sight.

“What was that course skip!?”

Their mothers had tightened their loop even more than they had. Even with gravitational control, Angie and Yoshiaki had had a tough time tightening it as far as they had, yet their mothers had gone further. In fact…

“They managed gravitational control flight in this era!?”

“No, Angie.” Yoshiaki spoke through teeth clenched to bear with the inertia. “That was the wind. They let the wind hit them for just an instant and used its resistance to launch themselves upwards.”

“But that would hurt like hell!”

“That’s why they drew out guide lines and altered the effective range of their repulsion acceleration. Naruze Mama’s guide art is quite effective.”

“So they cheated!?”

“I’m willing to call it that.”

“Ugh.” Angie pursed her lips. “They never told us they could do that.”

“Testament. Thinking back, they wouldn’t have told us about any tricks only they could pull off. And in that case…”

“Testament!” agreed Angie, flipping her broom around. With their white and black schale besens aligned, they hurried onward so as not to lose sight of their mothers.

“Weiss Fürstin, Schwarz Fürstin – combine!”

They matched their power output and flew together. They brought their white and black wings together and soared in pursuit of their mothers.

●

Weiss Fürstin took the inner side of the loop. Yoshiaki piloted the white schale besen while holding Angie’s hand and lifting her up.

She was performing a backwards loop. Even with gravitational flight, she couldn’t ignore air resistance with the wind hitting her. Besides, her fuel wouldn’t last if she used only gravitational control. So she generally used gravity to push or pull her as she flew. Angie pushed from the outside of the loop while Yoshiaki pulled from the inside.

They rotated.

Overhead, their mothers remained two separate brooms. Their mothers’ power output was clearly higher than theirs.

So they increased the speed of their loop, ascending as they broke through the wind, and…

…''We need to tighten the loop more!

Yoshiaki was pulling Angie up, but she couldn’t push herself too hard. The two of them were in sync, but this was still a precise maneuver. Any careless action would tear apart their combination, or Angie could bring her power too high, causing their rear end to slip out of alignment and send them tumbling. So to make sure Angie understood, she slowly but surely tightened the loop.

“…Kh.”

The inertia was rough. She was amazed their mothers could pull off this maneuver, but she noticed ether light constantly scattering from those two.

Was that a protection, a spell, or Naruze Mama’s art?

''Maybe all three,'' she decided, sensing the great gap between them. But…

“Kime-chan! We can do this!”

Hearing that, she tugged hard on Angie’s hand. More than lifting her up, it was like yanking her out of something.

“Let’s catch up!”

They took a sharper angle. With a motion like a leaping fish swinging its tail fin through the air, they adjusted their angle of pursuit. Rotating backwards through the sky, they launched themselves toward their mothers’ backs.

●

''We did it. We’ve caught up,'' thought Yoshiaki.

The port armor of the 90-degree rotated Azuchi was visible ahead in the airspace below. They had caught up there.

This had to be the limit of their mothers’ schale besens, skills, and protections. Besides, those two hadn’t even combine their schale besens. They might be able to force out greater maneuverability using their combined power output, but they were currently separate.

If the lighter separate weights were what had allowed them to manage this loop, maybe the greater weight of the combined brooms would be too much for their propulsion to handle. Either way, Yoshiaki and Angie had caught up as they looped through the sky. Their mothers wouldn’t be able to tighten the loop even further to lure them into overshooting.

“Now!”

They were coming into position. Yoshiaki prepared homing bullets to launch once the angle was right.

…''This will hit them!

And just as she had pulled them up into position, their mothers made their move up ahead.

They both jumped off of their schale besens.

●

…''They fell!?

Angie saw their mothers’ reckless action.

Jumping from their schale besens freed them from the shackles of the loop.

Angie and Yoshiaki would pass those two if they simply continued their high speed loop.

“They’re trying to get us to overshoot!?”

No.

Their mothers forcibly spread their six wings and, in perfect sync, placed an arm around their schale besen.

They made their move.

With the seat of their schale besen under their arm, they caught the wind with their wings and tilted backwards as if struck. Then they operated the accelerator via Magie Figur to aim the nose straight up along with themselves, aiming into the sky.

…''They forcibly corrected their angle!!

They rotated.

They did not leave the loop.

Instead of using the wind hitting the brooms or an acceleration spell, they used their own bodies to forcibly direct the nose upwards and then reduced the rotation.

They had done it.

They had moved in above Angie and Yoshiaki before they could even react.

Angie thought she heard something beat at the wind. No, she really did hear it. Because those two had taken the full brunt of the air resistance at such high speed.

Their wings, flesh, and bones had to have crashed into the wind.

But their mothers had done it. And Angie couldn’t help but remember those two’s schale besens were technologically inferior to their own. So…

“That’s just how they fly!?”

They weren’t cheating.

They were just idiots.

They showed no concern for their own well-being. The mothers who had treated Angie and Yoshiaki with such tender care showed none of that same care of themselves. But…

“Angie!”

Light arrived from above. After their aim reached the appropriate angle, they fired from the sky above.

●

Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin separated and scattered just before a roll of 10-yen coins burst where they had been.

It was a scattershot round.

The powerful round burst in every direction with several metallic sounds.

“Kh!”

Weiss Fürstin and Schwarz Fürstin immediately used gravitational control to launch themselves outwards.

But the bullets pursued them.

With loud sounds too solid to be direct hits, a few pieces of their brooms’ acceleration systems were taken out.

But the brooms kicked themselves forward to pull away. The brooms angled themselves parallel to the course of the scattershot to reduce the surface area exposed to the bullets. And…

“Angie!”

“Sure thing!”

Realizing they weren’t going to last with separate brooms, the Technohexen recombined and then looked back.

Behind them, their mothers had finished their loops and began accelerating while finally combining their schale besens.

“Zwei Fraulein Second Form!”

Zwei Fraulein pursued with an explosion of black repulsion acceleration light behind them.

●

Kiyomasa heard the pursuing and intersecting accelerations in the sky.

Her ears were interested in sounds from all around, but her eyes were only focused ahead. And her body…

“…!”

She was exchanging attacks and defenses with Uni.

She had her four pieces of autonomous armor and Ex. Caledfwlch in each hand.

Uni had her six ejected spears.

Kiyomasa moved in. She deflected Uni’s attack with her defense while her footwork carried her forward.

Uni use on of her ejected spears as a shield, hid behind it, and continued her attack.

She stepped backwards and sent her spears in from outside the usual range.

Kiyomasa deflected those with her autonomous armor and counterattacked with the butt of Ex. Caledfwlch.

Ex. Caledfwlch’s butt whipped up the wind but was deflected by Uni’s ejected spear.

Beyond the metallic clang, Uni again moved behind the spear and shifted her position to the right.

That movement was hard for Kiyomasa to deal with.

…''There’s a moment when I’m unsure if she’s going to move right or left!

It happened because Uni’s steps mostly moved her body to the front or back. If they moved her to the side, Kiyomasa could tell which way she was going based on how she lowered her hips or how she used her knees.

But she couldn’t let herself panic just because she didn’t know.

If she didn’t know what her opponent was doing, she simply had to find out. Yes, and this case…

“What about this?”

She turned to present her side to Uni.

●

''Ah!'' thought Uni in surprise. It had to have shown on her face, but that was fine.

Kiyomasa had changed how she moved. Before, she had approached straight on with her hips a little lowered, but now…

…''She’s turned to the side!

She had her right shoulder forward and her left side pulled back.

And that wasn’t all. She swayed back and forth a little and used her left foot to…

“Go around!?”

She began moving counterclockwise around Uni.

That wasn’t forward for Kiyomasa. She was taking her steps backwards. She was shuffling her feet a little and her gait was a little exaggerated, but…

…''She’s given up attacking head on!

This was a challenge.

What was? Kiyomasa’s movements.

From Uni’s position in the center, Kiyomasa was attempting to circle behind her on the left.

And she moved quick.

If Uni didn’t want her to get behind her, she would have to turn to the left.

And so she turned. Or rather, was made to turn. And as a consequence of that…

…''It’s hard for me to attack her from the right!

With Kiyomasa moving around to the left, any attacks from the right would have to chase after her. That would reduce their strength and was terribly difficult to aim for with the straight line courses Sasamura took once ejected.

And this situation also made it hard to attack Kiyomasa from the left.

Uni could try to launch a counterattack as she circled around on the left, but Sasamura couldn’t take a hooked course.

If she did want to hit her from the left, she would have to move to the left even faster than Kiyomasa and catch her from the front.

That would mean leaping in front of Kiyomasa, which would give Kiyomasa the perfect opportunity for a counterattack.

Attacks from the right and left were a challenge now.

Uni was stuck.

She had to figure out what to do about it.

Kiyomasa was only performing a rolling side step, but she had effectively restricted Uni’s options.

It was simple, but it wasn’t one-note.

Uni thought she knew why Kiyomasa could switch up her footwork mid-battle like this. It call came down to…

“You learned this for dealing with Fukushima-senpai, didn’t you!?”

Kiyomasa blushed.

●

When Ex. Caledfwlch’s light sword stabbed into the inner side of the ship, “Oume” checked the status on the large sign frame inside Oume’s bridge.

Of course, she only checked it because it happened to catch her eye.

Things were bad outside, but belowdecks was untouched and the bridge was safe. Everyone had assumed the enemy would focus on the central ships in order to show they had conquered the general idea of “the Musashi”. That appeared to be accurate and she agreed with that view.

But now this.

'''Oume:''' “Why!? Why is it always me!? Attack the others! Right now! Over.”

'''Musashino:''' “To be clear, the first attack was on me. It surprised Suzu-sama so much she still hasn’t fully dealt with it and who knows what ‘Musashi’-sama will say up top. So you were saying? Over.”

'''Oume:''' “Never mind… Over.”

●

Kiyomasa realized she was performing really well today. In hindsight, she wondered if she should have launched these two blasts toward the Musashino bridge instead of Uni, but she also felt she had only managed to launch that Ex. Caledfwlch Embarrassment Masking Shot because it was against Uni.

At any rate, she had nailed the movement.

She was side stepping around Uni and also closing in. And when necessary…

“Here I go!”

She launched her own attacks.

●

…''Here she comes!

A series of attacks arrived from Kiyomasa.

Uni gasped at the attacks and footwork.

The attack density was so high. And Kiyomasa was weaving together combos of head-on attacks and curving slashes that kept Uni from escaping to the sides.

Was this really the same person who had been pursuing her in straight lines and rushing in with a combination of attack and defense?

Now she was moving around Uni in a perfect circle while also closing in using her defense and attack.

She was multifaceted.

But Kiyomasa did have her consistent traits.

She was always defending and always advancing.

Could she do anything by combining those two things?

After fighting so many people with such flashy techniques, Uni found this grounded fighting style refreshing.

Speaking of being grounded, she felt like her feet had barely touched the ground when fighting Fuwa during the Battle of Shizugatake. And she thought the same was true when fighting Mogami Yoshiaki too.

She had been more grounded during her battle with the Reine des Garous, but that had been inside the ether forest, so technically speaking she had been floating.

…''Ah! I’ve barely ever fought on the ground!

She was pretty sure she done so back when she was still training, but now she was surrounded by such incredible warriors. This just made Kiyomasa all the more wonderful. She whipped Uni into shape wherever she was being conceited or sloppy and Uni was certain she would discover how to do her best using her actual skill itself.

Uni was glad Kiyomasa was such a steady fighter.

“That steadiness was built up by Fukushima-senpai, wasn’t it!?”

Kiyomasa steadily launched a blushing attack from Ex. Caledfwlch.

●

'''Kuro-Take:''' “How can you fire so many of those today?”

'''Kiyo-Massive:''' “W-well, um…it’s Fukushima-sama’s fault!”

'''Llaf:''' “I am not certain what thou mean, but have I done something wrong!?”

'''Azuchi:''' “I don’t care as long as you don’t fire them in my direction! Shaja!”

●

They took a breath, faced each other, and bowed below the scattering light. And…

“I will not go easy on you.”

“Please don’t!”

With that, the two clashed.

●

Glowing attacks repeatedly burst out on Oume’s port side and the ship shook from the stepping feet and clashing blades.

Fukushima saw and heard it from Okutama’s port side.

“Ohh, most impressive,” she heard her mother say.

The two of them were clashing spears while running. Fukushima would occasionally knock away the base of her mother’s spear tip by hand or rotate her spear shaft around herself, grab it again, and complete the swing.

“Kiyomasa-dono is demonstrating excellent footwork.”

“You mean the white one?”

Yoshiaki was white too, but maybe she would be considered white and gold? Then again, that also applied to Kiyomasa. But her mother sighed while listening to the sounds of battle and then sent three rapid spear jabs toward Fukushima.

“Is she strong?”

“Testament. If anyone could defeat me, it would be Kiyomasa-dono because she knows my moves so well.”

Kani…or was she Uni or Ebi now? She was Fukushima’s aide and Fukushima felt a little bad about the role she had to play this time.

…''I hope she will be alright.

“Are you worried about something?”

“Oh, um…”

There was no point in mincing her words with her mother. She had once sparred with Kiyomasa in the pool at night when she was in a slump. At the time…

“When she wants it…she can demonstrate a truly stubborn strength. Yes.”

●

Kiyomasa measured Kani’s stride, judging it to be shorter than Fukushima’s.

Kiyomasa herself had more of a focus on maneuverability. So she had her mobile suit’s power assistance activate only at briefly but strongly when she took a step. Instead of relying on a program, she had the autonomous system learn from her actual movements and apply an immediate optimization as she continued the duel.

She used something close to a back step to circle counterclockwise around her opponent. With her right side turned forward, her right leg was always directed toward Uni.

And she aimed for…

…''A counterattack!

When Uni ejected a spear, its movement synced with her arm’s movement.

So even though she could move, they restricted her actions. And unless she ejected several in a row, the last one launched would act as a blind spot for her.

Kiyomasa aimed there.

“There.”

She kept her voice low as she used a snap of the wrist for rapid jabs and slashes with her sickles.

She set her mobile shell’s power assistance to focus on speed and…

“There.”

She deflected all of Uni’s attacks with her defenses, stepped outside them, and continued to…

“There.”

Strike at the air. She slashed through the gap, brought the two halves together, used her counterattacks to boost her overall attack, and continued forward and side to side at her own tempo.

“Now my mobile shell should more or less be set up.”

The power assistance optimization for attack, defense, and movement was set.

So she renewed her speed.

●

Uni realized Kiyomasa had made her move.

Sparks flew and several lines of scraping smoke were drawn out in the air.

Uni launched a large spear to fight back. It shook the air, but it was loudly deflected by the enemy.

During all this motion and collision, Uni realized Kiyomasa was moving even faster.

She had accelerated.

Her movements were essentially the same as before. But she could react to wider range of angles and timings, so her counterattacks had stopped leaving any openings as they rushed in one after another.

Ex. Caledfwlch’s blades arrived as icy lines, like rain falling horizontally toward her.

Uni dodged and repositioned herself to survive.

…''She’s so fast!

This was more than just the mobile shell’s assistance. Instead of pulling her two spears back and raising them, she would reverse and rotate her wrists to swing them like whips. Instead of tensing up, she used the power assistance to pull off the movements from a relaxed state.

Uni responded by using the Sasamura spears she launched as a shield and changing position, but couldn’t get away from Kiyomasa and had her hands full keeping Kiyomasa from fully escaping her.

When her angle did match Kiyomasa, she would charge in.

She generally ejected Sasamura straight in as a shield and chased after it, but…

“There.”

With that word, Kiyomasa side stepped out of the way and sent her blade in.

As this process repeated itself again and again, Uni realized something.

…''This is the reverse of how our battle began!

At the start, Uni had been stepping around and Kiyomasa had been defending against her attacks while moving in.

At the time, Kiyomasa had been able to advance.

But now Uni couldn’t gain any ground.

And at the time, she had let Kiyomasa move in.

But now Kiyomasa was fully holding her back.

What did that mean?

…''Our skill levels are completely different!!

●

''Oh?'' thought Kiyomasa.

She had sensed something like a sudden leap in Uni’s aura.

“So that’s it.”

She must have realized what it was she lacked. But this was a duel.

Kiyomasa had more or less “figured her out” from her previous movement. Her battle against Niwa at Shizugatake had worked similar, but she had been watching her opponent a little too much then. But that was just the kind of person she was.

Her time training Fukushima had made her that way. And with that thought…

“There.”

She took another step toward Uni. And immediately…

…''Here it comes!

Just then, a trio of spears flew toward her. They had been ejected one after arranged in a diagonal line from the upper right to the lower left.

The attack had aimed for the brief moment Kiyomasa’s body sank down after performing her footwork.

She thought it had been well done. But…

“Fukushima-sama would have aimed for my legs, not my torso.”

With that, she stepped in.

She entered from the outer right side of the diagonal line of spears. Her left shoulder’s autonomous armor pushed at one racing spear, redirecting it a bit upward.

“Right there.”

Past the spears, she sent a jab and slash toward Uni on both sides, one from the below and one from above.

●

…''Perfectly simultaneous attacks!

That was rare. Not so much with mechanical ejections like Uni’s, but it was difficult for people to make them. But Kiyomasa had managed even that.

She used the three spears launched to her left as cover as she sent her two attacks past those spears.

From above, was a jab toward Uni’s face. From below, was a slash aimed at her legs.

Avoiding them would mean either jumping outwards or ducking and pulling her legs up to use the cover provided by her spears.

But if she jumped outwards, she would create a gap between her and Kiyomasa. She was attempting a close-range battle here, so she wanted to avoid creating a gap like that. But if she duck jumped, Kiyomasa would just aim for her when she landed.

…''What do I do!?

Uni suddenly recalled being in a similar situation before.

…''But that-!

She wasn’t sure why she had felt that way.

But as the two blades rushed toward her…

“…!”

She simply obeyed her memories.

●

Kiyomasa did not feel the tactile feedback she had expected.

Uni must have jumped behind the three spears she had launched.

Because she would have lost her head and feet otherwise.

But Kiyomasa didn’t feel her attack land.

That meant Uni had jumped. So now Kiyomasa only had to aim for her landing.

But she wasn’t there.

…''Where is she?

Kiyomasa glanced to the sides before noticing a shadow in the light scattering from the sky.

Her body instantly decided she needed to rapidly back step away.

At the same time, a trio of roars stabbed down from the sky in front of her.

That was Uni.

She had launched three spears down from the sky above.

Kiyomasa knew how the girl had ended up there after ducking earlier.

“You grabbed onto one of the spears and let it launch you, didn’t you!?”

Above, Uni simply nodded with the falling rain of light behind her. Then she spread her arms and swung them in the sky.

“Here I go!”

●

Uni rode the spear she ejected. No, she kicked it away to change her position, stepped on another she ejected, grabbed onto it, let it push her to change her position and angle, and then picked up speed.

“Here I go!”

●

Uni remembered the move she had pulled off when dueling the Musashi Vice Chancellor during the Keichou Campaign before summer break.

She had used her ejected Sasamura spears to change her position and perform midair maneuvers.

She had similarly used them as footing since, but she hadn’t used them to support her footwork quite like this.

''But,'' she thought. ''I need this if I’m going to keep up with this upperclassman.

So she focused on her feet and…

…''Yes!

Yet again she didn’t have her feet on the ground, but maybe that was just the way she did things.

She ejected Sasamura, repeated the process, jumped every which way, picked up speed, and approached Kiyomasa.

She could reach her.

And in that moment, she saw Kiyomasa return her gaze.

“There.”

Kiyomasa calmly stepped toward her.

●

Several roars crashed down like pillars and the air was torn asunder as the attacks missed.

Uni ran, jumped, and raced above them, battling Kiyomasa while remaining entirely in the air. Everything felt motionless to her now as her six unstoppable spears tore into every surface like lightning strikes and she leaped horizontally in pursuit of Kiyomasa.

And Kiyomasa fought back as if traveling through the deserted wilderness.

She kept moving.

Her footwork was flawless, never rushing and never stopping.

The spears dropped into the gaps in her circular motion, countless powerful attacks struck before her eyes as she backed away, and they roared past her as she swayed to the side.

But she didn’t care. She would intentionally strike the incoming power with her shoulder armor to deflect it. As if to demonstrate she could predict exactly where that power was going, she would use her shoulder armor to scatter one, two, three, or even four careless attacks outwards.

And as Kiyomasa backed away, she spun around in a sliding turn and sent her blades toward Uni with backhand strikes.

“––––––”

Again and again, she launched simultaneous attacks.

Her evasion and defense carried her through the falling and approaching powers and Ex. Caledfwlch pursued Uni as she raced rapidly through the air.

Uni continued launching her spears to fly through the air and…

“…!”

She struck Kiyomasa’s simultaneous attacks.

She sent two Sasamura spears toward each of Ex. Caledfwlch’s simultaneous attacks.

The Sasamura spears struck Excalibur, spreading Kiyomasa’s arms apart.

Uni chose that moment to leap straight toward Kiyomasa.

“Sasamura!!” she cried, ejecting her two remaining spears.

●

Uni slammed her arms forward.

Kiyomasa was stopped with her arms spread. Even with her power assist, she wouldn’t be able to react immediately after each Ex. Caledfwlch half was hit by two Sasamura spears.

That just left the center. Uni sent a Sasamura spear toward her wide-open body’s center line, one high and one low.

She did it.

If this hit, she would win. That was her intention when she raised her voice and launched the attack.

But she saw the earlier four Sasamura spears bend and heard them strain.

Those four spears had struck the blades of both Ex. Caledfwlch halves.

They should have stopped Excalibur with their momentum and held the blades in place, but they suddenly twisted around and clearly bent.

…''Huh!?

As she wondered what had happened, she saw something fitting together. The Sasamura spears had struck the front end of the Excalibur halves, but more specifically…

“The interior o the half sickles,” explained Kiyomasa as she spun the Excalibur blades.

With a twist and a swing, the two Sasamura spears caught by each sickle was thrown away.

Kiyomasa cast off that burden, backed away, and swung down both Ex. Caledfwlch halves.

“There.”

After hitting the two spears launched straight toward her, knocking them down to the deck, she rushed in.

She swung both blades outwards like whips and launched simultaneous high-speed attacks.

●

Kiyomasa knew this would hit.

She hadn’t held back. She had just sent out her fastest pair of simultaneous attacks yet. They had both been aimed at the center of Uni’s torso, making them very hard to dodge.

But she realized something.

“…Eh?”

Uni was standing. She was leaning her upper body forward, her head was lowered, and her arms were stretching toward…

…''The tips of the left and right Ex. Caledfwlch.

That was when Kiyomasa realized she had not fully swung the Excalibur halves she held.

She focused on the sides of her vision to determine what had happened and realized something was missing.

The objects that had struck the tip of the two Excalibur halves had been instantly stored in their phase space.

The Sasamura spears.

But something wasn’t right.

Ex. Caledfwlch had no difficulty handling a Sasamura strike. Her power assistance had learned the motion when she caught and deflected them with the half sickles just now. If the same thing had happened again, she would have instantly deflect them and return to her original course.

Even if she did lose some speed, she wouldn’t fail to swing the weapons.

Yet ''that had happened.

That could only mean one thing: they had been stopped by Sasamura. She didn’t know how it had happened, but…

“Thank you!!”

She wasn’t sure who that was directed at, but Uni raised her head while shouting the words. With a strong, direct look in her eyes.

…''Full power!

She recalled the phrase Uni had used when this had all started.

At the same time, Uni ejected Sasamura spears below her feet and around her and burst into action.

●

Kiyomasa dealt with it. As the spears flew toward her from all sides – and really from everywhere other than the deck below her – she swung her body around, forced her defenses through, leaped, and repeatedly used Ex. Caledfwlch’s blade and butt.

…''To deflect them!

The half scythes’ power assistance could handle most of it. But sometimes different happened.

Ex. Caledfwlch would be deflected and she would have to withdraw as she attacked.

What caused that?

She saw the answer within their high-speed clash. It was the same thing that had stopped her earlier simultaneous attack.

“Double Sasamura strikes!”

Another Sasamura would be driven into the rear of the one used before.

The records from Shizugatake said Kani had learned that technique while battling Fuwa.

Now Kiyomasa had experienced it for herself. Launching a long spear was a fairly weak attack for a name inheritor class warrior. Kiyomasa had heard Kani had improved her spears for that reason, but it had all been for this. And…

“Sasamura!!”

With that cry, several claws slashed toward Kiyomasa.

…''Is she making her move!?

The many attacks all came together.

Uni had begun doubling all of her attacks.

She had six Sasamura spears in all. When doubling them like this, she effectively only had three. Include the ones she needed for her own mobility and it took high-speed ejection and excellent control to pull it all off.

But Uni had definitely increased the frequency of her attacks. Kiyomasa could tell she had been scoping things out before.

“Were you testing me!?”

Uni had come up with this technique during her summer training camp.

She had improved her spears to pull it off.

She had actually used it against Fuwa.

And now she was making it her default.

…''You have a very bold underclassman, Fukushima-sama!

The number of attacks available to Uni had shrunk, but she increased her speed to double the frequency of her attacks and to display her full power.

The attacks pushed past Kiyomasa’s defenses and deflections and forced her to fall back. She in fact slid back four steps.

And when an attack was launched toward Kiyomasa’s face, she realized the attack included a further idea.

It had spin.

●

Uni launched her attack.

She knew Kiyomasa would block it with the spear tip and half sickle of the Ex. Caledfwlch in her right hand. Because Uni knew Kiyomasa would conclude she could stop a double Sasamura strike using the multi-level shock absorption of the spear, her arm, and the mobile shell.

So Uni added a spin to the initial attack.

The idea had come to her when she saw Kiyomasa twist the Sasamura spears to deflect them. And she knew she could apply spin using her wrist at the moment of ejection. From there, she only had to swing her arm to send another one along a straight line. That final strike would act as a screw launcher.

But she didn’t need to stop there.

“A second one!”

As she rapidly sent a third, fourth, and fifth one and hoped they would reach Kiyomasa, she opened a lernen figur with her open hand.

To send a divine transmission. She hoped it would reach its recipient.

“Mori-senpaiiiii!!”

●

Mori was cleaning up after Shizugatake.

He had a lot of thoughts, but so did everyone else. So his plan was to help clean up here for now and, once they were done, discuss it with the others.

The warriors cleaning up the rubble and weapon fragments scattered across the plaza turned his way.

“Mori-kun, you have a call.”

''Eh?'' he thought. ''Who would be sending me a divine transmission at this point?

Fuwa was working on the accounting and reports using the least damaged transport ship as an office. She had made it clear she would kill anyone who tried to talk to her right now, so he knew it wouldn’t be her. ''She’s probably worried about Sassa,'' he thought, but he kept that to himself because she wouldn’t just kill him if he said so – she would erase him. ''Then who?'' he wondered as he checked the name.

…''Uni!?

''Do I have any friends by that name?

''I’m a tentacle, but I don’t like the ocean. The salt water stings.

''But I do enjoy seafood,'' he thought as he checked the profile.

…''Wait, this is just Kani-kun!

He was confused now. But wasn’t she on the battlefield? The scuttlebutt was she had joined Musashi’s side for the history recreation of the Battle of Yamazaki, but he had something to say to her unrelated to that.

'''Mory:''' “Uni-kun!”

Yes. There was something he could say no matter where she was or what she was doing.

He had sparred with her during the summer training camp, so he had some advice as her upperclassman.

'''Mory:''' “Do your best!”

Believe.

'''Mory:''' “Your full power can reach anyone! I’m an honest tentacle, so you can believe me! So do your best!!”

●

“Judge!!”

Uni sent in her sixth attack.

…''Here goes!

Mori had helped her a lot during the training camp. Toshiie, Matsu, Fuwa, and Sassa had all watched on. They were wonderful people. Shibata and Oichi had caught her in the end and they had clearly been wonderful people too.

She had been blessed with their presence and she was here now because…

…''I have someone to show off my full power too!

That was Kiyomasa.

So to make this final attack with her full power…

“I’ll do my best!”

She slammed her right fist into the butt of the sixth Sasamura.

●

She struck. A tremor rang out, the metal strained and roared, and it all led to a single result.

Destruction.

Balance, structure, and stance were all sent upwards.

“There.”

Kiyomasa’s right hand, which had blocked the attack, was knocked up toward the sky.

Ex. Caledfwlch’s right blade flew through the air and all the pieces of the mobile shell from right shoulder to wrist scattered.

Uni’s attack had overpowered Kiyomasa’s skill and strength.

<noinclude>
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    | [[Horizon:Volume 10B Chapter 33|Chapter 33]]
    | [[Horizon:Volume 10B Chapter 35|Chapter 35]]
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