Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 2 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 4===


Basara found himself moving at high speed in a genuine fight against Kurumi.

Kurumi was a magic type, capable of long-range attacks, whereas Basara was a speed type.

First he needed to get close to her with his speed or he wouldn't stand a chance. Kurumi freely flew through the air by controlling the wind while Basara jumped from rooftop to rooftop of the different sized building.

With the speed of a speed type and the strength of his legs that produced that speed, Basara took off from the edge of the rooftop and jumped.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

He shouted along with a flash of Brynhildr, but

"---You don't know when to give up."

Kurumi evaded it easily. The surrounding wind lifted Kurumi's body up.

''...Damn.''

He had tried to land hits on her for a while now, but she would dodged them all like this.
Nonaka Kurumi was the same magic type as Mio. Her magic-orientated battle style was same too.

However, Mio was a High Wizard that chanted her magic directly with her own magic power, in contrast to Kurumi, who was an Element Master who borrowed the spirits' power to activate magic.

Therefore she could chant magic by employing or contracting a spirit through a channel without consuming her own magical power.

A troublesome opponent---

However, Basara saw a way to prevail this time specially because of that fighting style. Because "Byakko", which had it's power as a mythological guardian beast sealed, was nearby.

Therefore he figured that Kurumi could only utilize the wind attribute of "Byakko" in this fight, since opening channels to other spirits would interfere with "Byakko's" power.

Furthermore, the barrier was set up from Takashi's "Byakko" and Mio's magic.

As an ally of Takashi, Kurumi likely could only cast wind magic inside the barrier. And as a matter of fact, Kurumi had only used wind magic so far and her materialized spirit gauntlet had still wind as the main element too.

Thus it should also be difficult for her to attack towards the west, since "Byakko" would interfere.

---However, Kurumi's wind showed no signs of such a handicap.

To begin with, wind was polymorphous. No matter how often Basara got on her west side, the wind attacked him by simply going round. He somehow tried to retaliate while narrowly dodging these attacks, but

"Kuh...!"

as he evaded an attack, he ended up landing on the wall of a high building in his way and he started running up the wall vertically at once. One attack after another hit into the white wall always one step behind him.

It was Kurumi's gale magic. As Basara escaped upwards, the attacks gradually closed in on him.

"----?"

Basara had his attention to his back, when "something" invisible approached from the top that winded up the surrounding air.

Basara kicked off the building at once and jumped towards the wall of the building across the street. Right afterwards, the "something" he dodged crashed into the ground.

After he heard that roaring sound while in midair, Basara pierced Brynhildr edgewise into the wall of the building he had jumped to, spun his body upwards with his right hand on the handle and landed on the broad blade of the sword.

"Just now, that was..."

When he looked down at the ground, he saw a wide crater that had a three metre radius under the rising cloud of dust.

She probably shot compressed air or something like that.

"...You're good at running away as ever."

When he suddenly looked up, there floated Kurumi--- ten metres away at the same height as him.

---So Basara moved at once.

He jumped towards her, using Brynhildr as a stepping stone. Since he had abandoned his weapon,

"What the... A desperate suicide attack?"

Kurumi wearily held out her hand towards him and unleashed a wind magic. At the same time, Brynhildr vanished behind Basara--- and re-materialized in his hand.

Kurumi's expression became frightened upon the unexpected feint.

Basara cancelled out her gale magic with Brynhildr's blade right in front of her and drew near her in the same movement.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHH"

He launched a horizontal slash. However, it was repelled by something invisible right before hitting Kurumi's stomach.

It was a magical barrier that she had immediately erected to defend.

Still, if it was the same barrier from five years ago, he should be able to cut through it. That he was warded off proved how much stronger Kurumi had gotten.

And then Basara got a taste of Kurumi's newly gained strength.

He hung motionless in the air in the moment his attack was repelled and suddenly felt the atmosphere accumulating around Kurumi---

In the next moment,

"---GAAAAAAAAAAAH!?"

Basara was blown away from a violent torrent of turbulent air. He crashed into the wall of the building behind him, broke through it back first and kept flying even though he got caught in various chairs and desk of the office inside.

After he repeatedly crashed through walls with an impact, he clashed into a huge steel locker. The content poured out with a noise on that impact.

"Gah..... Guh.... Ah....!"

Basara had sunk into the demolished locker with a crucifixion posture. He spit out blood along with all the oxygen in his lungs. Unable to breath from the impact on his whole body, his vision blurred from the intense pain.

"---That's what you get for looking down on me and treating me like a kid."

Kurumi slowly walked down the path of her shock wave--- all the way to where Basara had been blown to.

Then she stopped not far away from him.

"You... have only attacked me with the back of your sword so far. Even at a time like this, you think you can make the <village> reconsider their decision on Naruse Mio if you show off a strength that defeats us without hurting us?"

In reply to these acrimonious words,

"...Is that, bad...?"

Basara said groaning, then slowly stood up by holding onto the edge of the locker.

"My dad and I decided to protect Mio and Maria... To protect the girl that has to fear for her life just because she's the previous Devil Lord's daughter and inherited his power. But,"

For that goal, Jin had told him to fight after drawing a line. The school nurse Hasegawa also advised him to just protect the line he would never back off from.

However,

"But can I only pick one precious thing...? I don't want to fight you--- my childhood friends and former comrades. Maybe there's a way to end this without fighting. Even if the chance for that is small, is it such bad thing to gamble on that chance?"

He knew that his wish was utopistic. Still, Toujou Basara didn't want to back down.

Amongst the ones he definitely wanted to protect--- behind that drawn line were Mio and Maria.

However, Toujou Basara had drawn a final protective line too, which included those he never wanted to lose.

Amongst them were not just Mio and Maria, but Yuki, Kurumi and Takashi as well.

No matter how rationally he thought about it, he didn't want to back down from that one line. However,

"Not really. Do whatever you want. Just keep crying for your Utopia until the end while getting beaten to a pulp. In the end, you'll regret your naivety to death anyway."

Kurumi started to focus the wind around her right hand, held out towards him. And then,

"Because when you wake up again--- Naruse Mio won't be in this world anymore."

At the same time she declared so, her wind was unleashed upon Basara.

What Kurumi released was a mass of air compressed to the limit.

It had a diameter of 1 metre. Hit by that in the stomach, Basara was robbed of his consciousness this time for sure.

---Or so it was supposed to be.

But,

"Eh---...”

Kurumi muttered dumbfounded. Because the magic she released vanished right in front of her eyes.

''And without a trace.''

''...Don't tell me.''

On a look, Basara in front of her ended his swing of Brynhildr.

<Banishing Shift>--- In the moment she remembered the name of the skill he could no longer use, he had already drawn near her.

Kurumi tried to erect a barrier against the incoming attack, but she couldn't.

''...No way...?''

It didn't just erase the wind magic, but also the channel to the spirit?

By the time she realized that, Brynhildr was already before her.

"----!”

It was too late for a backward jump.

Kurumi realized that fact not from the pain of the horizontal slash, but from being sent flying through the air.

In her path was a broad window front. Quite the useless object to stop Kurumi's momentum.

With a shrill clinking, Kurumi's body was blown outside the building.

Since her channel to the spirit was severed, she couldn't use magic.

Her inevitable fall began. Her body wouldn't move, maybe due to the impact of the attack, and she could do nothing but look up to the night sky as she was falling backwards. She fell from the fourth floor. Falling onto her legs would be one thing, but crashing into the ground with this posture was hopeless---It was over.

''...Sis...''

Kurumi suddenly thought of her older sister. They had always been together.

She knew of Yuki's feelings, but Kurumi herself couldn't forgive Basara for putting Yuki through so much sorrow--- and trampling all over her feelings, as she had desperately gotten stronger in the past five years.

Would Yuki be sad over her death? And--- would she take vengeance for her?

''...But,''

Kurumi suddenly closed her eyes. She didn't want Yuki to fight against Basara after all.

After all, Yuki had gotten stronger for Basara's sake. She worked so hard for that.

So Kurumi wanted to spare her at least a fight to the death against---

"---Eh?” 

As she was suddenly tightly embraced, Kurumi opened her eyes in a flash. The person in question

"Y- You...”

"Stay still!”

"----!”

told her so in a harsh tone and Kurumi reflexively stopped trying to move.

[[Image:Shinmai v02 229.jpg|thumb]]

Still holding her in his arms, Basara turned his body vertically--- and landed on the ground.

"-----"

Basara was injured too. Moreover, he was holding Kurumi.

The impact from the landing wouldn't kill him, but his legs should have received quite the shock.

However, Kurumi felt nothing of such a vibration.

Because right before the landing, she was embraced stronger than that by him. And then,

"...Seems we're safe somehow..."

Basara made a sigh of relief while still carrying her in his arms. Kurumi was enveloped by his voice that had became lower in the past five years and his grown body that overshadowed her while she was held.

''...Ah.''

In response to the tight embrace, Kurumi said with a powerless voice in his arms.

"...L- Let me go."

"Mh? O- Oh... sorry."

Then, Basara finally let go off her, but he hastily averted his eyes from her.

When Kurumi lowered her gaze on herself puzzled, she saw that her clothes were greatly torn on her right side, exposing her bare skin.

It reached from under the swelling of her breast up to near the tip of it.

"N- No...----!?"

The moment she hastily tried to cover her breasts, a fierce pain ran through her whole body and suffocated her. Kurumi got onto her knees from that and Basara gently held her around the waist to support her, while saying.

"Are you okay? Wait, I did that to you... Sorry."

"...Idiot... Worrying about your enemy, that's exactly what I meant by looking down---!?"

The instant she tried to raise her voice, a reverberating pain befell her. She most likely broke a rib or two.

After all, she was hit by Basara--- by the thick sword Brynhildr, even if it was just the back of the sword. She was lucky that she didn't suffer more from it. It could be that Basara weakened Brynhildr's momentum at the last moment.

''...Besides.''

If Basara hadn't saved her, she would have crashed into the ground head first and died.

With slightly tearful eyes from the pain in her side, Kurumi looked up at Basara.

Basara's eyes, as he looked at her worried and crouched down, were the same as the time as when they were together in the past.

''...I see.''

Even if everything had changed after five years, Kurumi was still like a younger sister to Toujou Basara.

But rather than treating her as a kid, he was treasuring her as a family member--- And that feeling was

''...The same for me...''

Even if she could never forgive. Even if the <Village's> order was absolute.

Nonaka Kurumi realized what kind of existence Toujo Basara was to her.

---It wasn't just Yuki, who stayed by Basara's side and kept looking at him from a small age on.

Because Kurumi herself stayed with these two and kept watching Basara's back and side-profile, too.

As she closed her lips and looked up at him wordlessly,

"You seem fine, seeing as you can glare at me like that..."

Basara slowly stood up.

"...Sorry, if possible, I would like to stay with you until you can move again, but---"

Saying so, Basara turned his gaze towards the station. When she followed it,

"Sis..."

Yuki was slowly coming over from the other side of the street.

Kurumi thought for sure that she had been worried about their fight.

And that she came over here, ignoring Naruse Mio, for that reason. However,

''...Sis?''

Yuki raised her slightly lowered head and looked at her. She wore a peaceful expression that made it hard to guess her emotional state.

Even so, Kurumi recognized an emotion in that expression and was astonished.

When she hastily looked up at Basara next to her,

".......Yuki."

He must have already noticed it too. Basara mumbled, but didn't materialize Brynhildr despite of it. As to show that he didn't want to fight her by all means.

"............."

But Yuki came to a halt and wordlessly called out her spirit sword "Sakuya"--- In the next moment, she launched a reverse and slantwise slash from afar.

Seeing that, Basara immediately bent his knees a bit.

Defense for a speed type was basically evasion. And his movement was a preparation for that. However,

"No.... Basara, ''block it''!"

Kurumi shouted at once. But it was too late.

"---?"

An attack hit Basara from downright. The moment it hit, there was a dull sound of a blow instead of a slash. It hit his chin, rattled his brain and made him tumble towards the ground. Kurumi hastily caught his body, ignoring the pain that ran through her body by doing so.

"....Sis, why...?"

Wasn't she against fighting him? In reply to her question,

"....I can't think of any other solution."

When Yuki crouched down in front of her eyes, she pulled out a bottle from her pocket, opened its lid and held it in front of Basara's face, who had passed out.

This sweet fragrance was an aroma that was passed down within the Tribe to put the target into a deep slumber.

Vulnerable as he was from having passed out, Basara breathed it in.

"Now he won't wake up for half a day..."

Yuki softly touched Basara's cheek and showed a gentle expression for only a moment. And then,

"Kurumi... Take care of Basara."

"What are you going to do...? Don't tell me---"

Yuki didn't answer. She stood up wordless and went away like that.

Towards the station--- Towards the other battlefield.