Editing Hyouketsu Kyoukai no Eden:Volume 4 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

A desert ─── one of the harshest fields aboveground.

The shining assassin-like direct sunlight coming from overhead was burning his eyelids and the fine sand mixed with metallic materials underfoot was reflecting the sunlight back. There were no shadows or oases in those hot rays.

It was normally forty degrees Centigrade, and depending on the day it had been recorded to reach fifty degrees.

It was a plot of land that faithfully replicated the deserts that lay far from the floating continent. It was the stage designated for the second screening.

“Ahh──……It’s such a pain with this heat, what the Hell was the guy who made it thinking?”

Vaiel had his formal clothes’ sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

On his two hands were {{furigana|iron fist protectors|Knuckle Dusters}}. They extended all the way from his fists to his elbows and had numerous designs on the front that showed the formal carved seal of Shinryoku. <ref>[T/N: Knuckle dusters is 拳鉄甲. Literally "fist iron armor".]</ref>

“That’s quite an uncommon weapon.”

“Ahh? This is?”

Nodding wordlessly, Sheltis also readied his dual swords in both hands.

“Since I haven’t really seen anybody who uses them.”

{{furigana|Iron fist protectors|Knuckle Dusters}} were a weapon that specialized in ['''''hitting'''''].

They aimed to raise striking power and also protect the fists from the impact.

Depending on how they were used, they were stronger than edged weapons because of their ease-of-use but───

“You’re not going to say it’s dangerous?”

“……Hmph.”

A Yuugenshu’s entire body was a lump of curses. For that reason, using hand-to-hand combat which required close proximity was extremely dangerous. Even though there were Shinryoku carved seals upon those {{furigana|iron fist protectors|Knuckle Duster}}, it was the same as saying that taking an attack with anything other than those fists would result in being showered with Mateki.

For example, the Sennenshi, Ran ─── she was the sole guard who fought Yuugenshu empty-handed, but that was because her skin was directly engraved with the formal carved seals. It was because she had endured the harsh pain and rejection reactions of the carved seals that she was permitted to do that. If it wasn’t like that, fighting up-close with a Yuugenshu was a suicidal action.

Yes, unless they were extremely reckless or were unparalleled in skill.

“I haven’t used any other weapons before.”

“Ah, i-is that so?”

……So it was because he’s reckless.

He scratched his cheek in response to the answer he had somewhat expected.

“I’m just gonna say this, but I’m only here to make up for the count. I’ll just be loafing off in the rear guard.”

“……That’s what we promised.”

It seemed like he really intended to make up for the count. His behavior didn’t beget any will to participate in the unit battle……but if he had no intention of becoming a Regular Guard, why had he entered the tower in the first place?

“Can I ask one thing? Do you have some kind of goal, Vaiel? Like aiming to become a Sennenshi or something.”

“None. To begin with, even though I had no interest in becoming a Regular Guard, that Instructor Yumelda half-forced me to enlist. The instructor’s a scout or something like that.”

“A scout? That’s definitely strange.”

There was no end to the hopefuls who enlisted as a guard. At any rate, out of those who were skilled in martial arts, an instructor singling one of them out was exceedingly rare.

“It’s a real nuisance for me though.”

“But───”

Something had caught the instructor’s eye. There were also the hopes of the instructor and it should be fine for them to aim to become Regular Guards together.

“It’s time. You two, get into your positions.”

Suddenly interrupting their conversation, the {{furigana|unit leader|Monica}} raised her voice from behind.

“Sheltis, I’m sorry but I’ll be relying on you.”

“'''''Rather, we’re welcoming that. Work him as hard you want.'''''“

“Is what she says.”

Flicking {{furigana|machine crystal|Ilis}} to silence her, he lined up to the right of Monica.

……That’s right, I have to focus on this first.

The battle with four people unified as a unit.

On the opposing sand hill about twenty metres away. Beside that should be their starting position.

“Well then, we’ll start. First unit, limit of four people.

The format is ['''''Open Flag'''''], time limit is three hours.” <ref>[T/N: The "open" here is 公開 which means "open to the public".]</ref>

The instructor’s reverberating announcement.

Open Flag ─── one of the main methods for unit battles. One person from the team would be the general and defeating that person would constitute victory. Who was the captain would be openly known to both sides and that person would come under concentrated attacks.

“Kagura, I leave it to you.”

“My specialty is escaping, after all.”

She sat down on the floating {{furigana|machine crystal|Machina}} with a pwoof.

“Ohh, you can ride that?”

“It also serves as an emergency pod that accommodates one person. Rather than that, Sheltis, you need to attack the enemy general or we won’t win. You know that.”

“───Suicide attacker, right.”

The general holding out at the back would be Kagura and the central interceptors were Monica and Vaiel. And the duty assigned to him was front line enemy lines penetration.

“Start!”

At the same time that the instructor’s order came, four shadows flew out from the sand hill.

Two of them were approaching without hesitation while the other two were keeping their distance and circling around.

“'''''The general is positioned in the back. It’s a standard formation with two up front and two in the back.'''''“

“That’s convenient.”

Against their vanguard that consisted of two people, they also had two interceptors. Without significant difference in their battle strength, Kagura’s defense line wouldn’t fall. The only thing left was for him to engage the two in the rear guard in a solo suicide attack.

“……Let’s go.”

He broke into a run and accelerated.

He kicked off the sand and jumped, closing the distance between him and the opponent’s vanguard.

───Two people in the vangaurd.

───One used a rod and the other and the other wielded a metal cane. <ref>[T/N: The rod here is 昆 which is the same as in Monica's weapon name.]</ref>

Either of their weapons had long reach and were well-suited to high-speed movement during use.

Whooooosh.

The rods whipped up the sand and the metal cane came crashing down from above. It was a pincer strike. He blocked the rod and used the resultant impact to dodge the metal cane.

It was a momentary passing.

Passing by each other, they only exchanged glances as they ran.

……So they won’t pursue me.

There was no meaning in a showdown between vanguards in Open Flag. If they wasted time on a match between the vanguards it would only serve to heighten the chances of a draw. Both sides were only aiming for the general.

The rest was a battle against time.

Dashing up the hill, he chased after the two who were trying to widen the gap with him.

“'''''One is a heavy spear guard and the other one is……'''''“

Before the {{furigana|machine crystal|Ilis}} could finish speaking, something silver flew over.

The thing shining with the sunlight showering it was a circular blade. On that large flat circular blade was a donut-like hole in the center. One, two, three of those drew arcs───

“{{furigana|Throwing steel|Chakram}}, huh.”

A throwing weapon that resembles the full moon. They didn’t have much power on their own, but each circular blade was razor sharp so grasping their movements in midair was exceedingly difficult.

“Tch!”

He crossed his dual blades and matched them to the path of the {{furigana|throwing steel|Chakram}} ────── and out came a dull grinding sound. He intercepted the incoming circular blades and smacked them to the sand.

……The sun is a nuisance.

The direct sunlight was beating down from above and reflecting off the ground. The enemy was aiming for the point where the two multiplied each other’s effects so the already hard to see blades of the {{furigana|throwing steel|Chakrams}} were made even harder to see.

“'''''The enemy’s general is a heavy spear guard. Taking out the defender first and then attacking the general is the safest course of action; the other means is a little riskier and involves just going straight for the general.'''''“

“Which one do you recommend?”

“If you weren’t my master, it would be the safe method. But if you’re aiming to be a Sennenshi, then it’s the latter, and please do it with no injury in a swift breakthrough.”

“……How nice of you to make it sound so easy!”

Replying with a fearless smile, Sheltis faced his feet in the direction of the heavy spear guard.

Directly to the side, the {{furigana|throwing steel|Chakram}} user sent out the circular blades in one motion. Five {{furigana|throwing steel|Chakram}} danced through the air and approached, each on a different path.

───There was no need to go out of his way to track the circular blades that were hard to see.

It would be fine if he just dodged according to the predicted paths. Of the five, three were just threatening shots that weren’t actually meant to hit. He stared only at the two that were sure to hit and then.

Scraaaaaaape……!!

Each of his dual swords deflected one of the two {{furigana|throwing steel|Chakrams}} back.

“!”

His two opponents’ expressions trembled and their movements slightly stiffened up. He dashed, aiming for that moment. He passed and left behind the defending {{furigana|throwing steel|Chakram}} user.

───What’s left is the finisher.

“!”

The heavy spear guard readied a very long spear in both hands.

Even amongst metal spears, the heavy spear boasts an especially great range. If the opponent were of the same calibre, dual swords wouldn’t be able to break through and he would get speared. It was that much of a bad match-up.

His opponent’s skill was unknown. It would be fine if it was just simple Cadet Guard-level skill but if by chance it was Regular Guard-level, carelessly jumping in would entail the danger of being one-sidedly speared.

……If so.

He took a rough estimate of the heavy spear’s length and came to abrupt stop just short of it.

A distance that was uncrossable with dual swords. Ignoring the doubt that crept onto his opponent’s face, Sheltis swung down his sword at the sand below with all his strength.

Zaaaaaaaaaaaaa…………countless sand particles flew up into the air and completely shrouded the vision of Sheltis, the heavy spear guard and the {{furigana|throwing steel|Chakram}} user who were in that area.

“Wha!?”

A confused voice was raised.

In the world veiled by a cloud of sand, Sheltis faced the heavy spear user, drew an arc and kicked off the sandy ground. Immediately after, with a whistle of the wind, he passed through the enemy’s spear’s right flank.

───As I thought.

The heavy spear guard thrust their spear out impatiently as a result of being blinded. If Sheltis kept going straight here, it would be a direct hit but he dared to take a roundabout route and the spear went in the wrong direction.

“Haa!”

Holding back his breath, he sliced up with his right-hand sword from directly below.

The sound of metal colliding echoed.

The uplifted cloud of sand silently lowered to the ground and in his vision that had cleared up───

The boy thrust his dual swords at the heavy spear and its user that had been blown back.

“Fumu, let’s stop there.”

Then came the reverberating order from the instructor that sounded like she hadn’t found the battle enjoyable.

“The second unit will break up for today. Think up counter-measures for the second match tomorrow.”

……Finally a single victory.

The first day of the second day of the screenings was finally over. He didn’t think that the competition between units before the merit system mission would be this harsh.

“Good work.”

“Ah, yeah. You too, Monica.”

The girl with sakura-colored hair descended the sand dune towards him. There was sand clinging to where sweat had flowed on her cheek and there were sand-colored patches on her formal clothes here and there……

“Was it also hard being the interception?”

“We won so it’s good result-wise but that was dangerous.”

She nodded with a halfhearted expression. She pointed to the other end of the sand dune with her {{furigana|crossed rods|Rosario}}, indicating someone who was nonchalantly chasing someone else───

“Hold on, Vaiel, why didn’t you protect me even though you were in the interceptor role?”

“Ha? You’re the one who said something like escaping was your specialty.”

Kagura sat atop her {{furigana|machine pearl|Machina}} as she protested about something with Vaiel who had his face turned away.

“There’s a limit to everything. You can’t just keep running away! If Monica hadn’t been covered for in time, right about now───”

“Idiot, for I who is a man amongst men, I can’t get serious in this kind of unrefined match.”

“A man amongst men? Then you shouldn’t be ditching and should come to help. Protecting a frail lady is the beauty of that.”

“Hah! A brat with no sex appeal shouldn’t run her mouth off in some knowing tone. Protecting someone in this kind of safe match guided by regulations can’t decide a man’s worth. A man will only get involved and protect a woman in a large battle of life and death. That’s my belief.”

“A man who can’t protect in a match saying that isn’t trustworthy.”

“So when was there ever a need for you to trust me? Ah── it’s so hot, what an unbelievable pain in the ass that there’s another unit battle tomorrow.”

“Ah, wait a second!”

The girl followed after the young man who was getting more distant as if trying to run away.

……Umm, so what basically happened?

Judging from the conversation just now, he could somewhat imagine what had transpired just now.

“So it would be correct to say that Vaiel who was on interception duty didn’t do anything and so you had to do your best to defend her?”

“That’s a good guess. ……It looks like it’ll be the same tomorrow, so it’s giving me a headache.”

Fuu. Monica sighed deeply.

“Let’s make a plan in preparation for tomorrow. I had intended to divide up but if Vaiel is going to do nothing like that that then it would be for the best to think of a formation for the three of us.”

“Yeah. ……It’s best if you don’t push yourself too hard. I’ll make up for the slack.”

“I’ll take you up on that.”

Leaving behind a momentary smile, she left as well. It truly seemed to have been a harsh battle. That back didn’t have its usual energy.

……I see, for Monica.

……This was her first unit battle as unit leader.

“'''''It’s obvious that she’d also be mentally exhausted.'''''“

“……That’s right.”

The responsibility of a unit leader. Monica’s worries would continue for a while longer. Depending on the situation, he might also have to think up a way to alleviate her burdens.

“Hey, Sheltis.”

Instructor Yumelda’s voice came from behind him.

“Do you have any external wounds? Still have energy? Okay then, we’ll start today’s training.”

“Tell me, how did it lead to that!?”

He hurriedly jumped aside to dodge the hand coming for the scruff of his neck.

“Ah, but I’m glad. I had something to ask you, instructor. About our fourth person.”

“Are you interested about Vaiel?”

“Well, yeah. ……He’s actually hiding some ridiculous ability, and I was just wondering why.”

“Fool, you’d understand from his actions. He’s only at the top of the lower half of the Cadets at best.”

It was conclusive and without any hidden meaning.

“If so ─── why did you scout him?”

“…………”

She lit her cigarette than was as thin as a needle and gazed at the flame.

“There are two qualities in a guard. There’s a need for at least one guy like that around.”

“……Eh?”

“There’s no loss in remembering this. Rather than the Priestesses atop the tower, there is also a man that is influenced by ‘'''''something'''''‘ completely different.”

I wonder what that means.

“I said you’d come to understand naturally, right. Rather than that, now’s training so let’s go so I can try the hellish training I thought up yesterday that I’ve been itching to test out.”

“……No, that’s why I said I”

“If you get careless, you’ll die. Now come along.”

“Like ─── I ─── said ────────────!”

His arguments had no effect as he was caught by the scruff of the neck and dragged along the desert.