Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Ruler of the Formation

Farther than I thought

More confusing than I thought

Where are the things

Beyond what I thought?

Point Allocation (Abnormal)

●

Kani leaped across an elevated position.

She was up above the city of transport ships at the center of the Shibata Team’s formation.

She ran and leaped along the deck roofs, occasionally kicking off Sasamura to soar further.

She was engaged in combat.

But she didn’t understand.

“Fuwa-senpai!”

She and Fuwa were currently exchanging attacks. She was launching a series of attacks with Sasamura. But…

“What are you even using for attack and defense!?”

As the Sasamura spears flew between the ships, they would slow and ultimately be deflected before they reached Fuwa. She could see lernen figurs appearing when they lost speed, but…

…They’re losing speed in stages!

They didn’t travel slowly and they didn’t suddenly come to a halt.

It was like they were breaking through several walls in a row. They would vibrate more and more as they lost speed.

“It’s weird!”

But in the end, they were deflected.

Fuwa herself was unusual too. She kept launching lernen figurs toward Kani like guided projectiles.

Kani wondered if there was an attack spell that used several lernen figurs like this.

“Fuwa-senpai, I didn’t know you were so athletic!”

“That’s rude, you know,” replied Fuwa with a bitter smile, kicking lightly off her footing and launching several more lernen figurs.

…That sound!

Kani heard several sounds like stone splitting or metal forcefully latching together and then Fuwa flew. Despite only taking a light step, she flew as if repelled.

This wasn’t athletic ability. It was definitely a spell. But…

“What is that spell!?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because I want to try it out myself!”

“Unfortunately, you couldn’t.”

“Why not!?”

Kani sent out her own power, but it again lost speed in stages accompanied by sounds of impact and was ultimately repelled.

That her spears weren’t immediately repelled only made it trickier to deal with. And the number of stages before the repelling differed. It appeared to differ based on the force behind the attack, but there were also times when a powerful attack had fewer stages.

…What is this!?

Kani wasn’t sure. But the sounds were really cool. It was weird.

But Fuwa said she couldn’t try it. Which would mean…

“You’re so cool, Fuwa-senpai!”

“Ah ha ha. Thanks.”

Fuwa laughed and swung her hands. Kani noticed a few glinting lights at Fuwa’s fingertips. The metal cylinders were…

…Pens!?

Why is she pulling out writing implements here!? wondered Kani, but Fuwa’s power arrived all at once.

Eight lernen figur guided projectiles appeared, probably to match the number of Sasamura spears, and drew out guide lines as they flew toward Kani.

●

Kani rushed to intercept.

She launched her eight Sasamura spears right as they ejected. She kicked off one of them as it appeared to launch herself into the sky above.

The Sasamura spells collided with the eight incoming lernen figurs, and…

“They can’t get through!?”

The spears lost speed in stages before being repelled. So Kani immediately stored them in her phase space and immediately ejected one below her feet as she fell.

“But I’m not done yet!”

She slipped between the vanishing guide lines and kicked off the midair Sasamura to pursue Fuwa.

●

…The girl sure has energy!

Was this the energy of a girl who had been in middle school until half a year ago? Or was Fuwa just too much of an indoorsy person.

This was honestly a challenge, but she was glad she could keep the girl busy.

…Our warriors could never keep up with her.

Fuwa estimated they would need an entire battalion of warriors to deal with Kani. Kani had taken on Mori’s gods of war during the summer training camp, after all. A platoon or a company just wouldn’t be enough.

But the Shibata Team couldn’t spare that much personnel right now.

There was a lot of personnel inside the formation, but most of them were busy operating the ships or supporting the daily necessities. To survive in this frigid land, a larger percentage of the Shibata Team had vital support roles than in other teams.

As the on-site treasurer, Fuwa was well aware of this.

The noncombatants would have withdrawn to the eastern transport ships or into the central square. The supply personnel and medics would be out securing a supply line and performing other duties. Only then did they get to the actual warriors.

There were a limited number of warriors. They had only managed to defend the border with Hokuriku and make their campaign into M.H.R.R. because they were elite fighters, but Shibata himself also played an important role.

But at the moment, Shibata was waiting in Kitanosho Castle.

He was probably focusing on the final battle.

He could seem so careless, but he also came off as sensitive at times like this.

Who would be the one to challenge him? Could it be…

“Kani! You have a chance here too!”

“A chance for what!?”

“To battle Shibata-senpai!”

Kani used her spears to intercept Fuwa’s insha kotob guided shots. They both landed on the deck of the transport ship that had been used as a supply store in the formation. And they took off running.

“How about it!? Don’t you want to duel P.A. Oda’s strongest!?”

Their exchanged blows rang loud. And while Kani’s ejected spears lost speed in stages, her expression changed.

…Wow is she easy to read.

Kani’s eyes widened for just a moment, but then she shook it off and faced ahead.

“I’m not worthy! But…if I defeat you, could I at least greet him!?”

“He loves energetic underclassmen.”

“Testament! I’ll do my best!”

Kani dashed toward Fuwa and raised her voice.

“Do my best to defeat you!”

●

Kani saw Fuwa take a step back along the transport ship’s deck.

But this wasn’t just an ordinary step. She opened several spell-looking lernen figurs at her feet and kicked them with her toes.

“There.”

That launched her backwards.

Kani didn’t know what exactly that was, but she knew Fuwa’s offense and defense were both based on it. In other words, Fuwa was using a single spell.

And as well as Fuwa was fighting, Kani could tell she wasn’t used to combat.

She was managing the combat footwork thanks to the spell, but she had a general path in mind.

They were currently near the center of the Shibata formation, moving along the transport ships crammed in close together to provide storage and otherwise support the camp.

This was their third circuit. Kani hadn’t noticed at first because the path changed subtly each time and it had some ups and downs, but Fuwa was following a general route. For the most part…

…She uses the wider areas!

Did that mean Fuwa was avoiding less certain footing?

But once Kani knew she wouldn’t move in just any direction, dealing with her was easy. If she could predict where Fuwa would go next, she wouldn’t need to pursue her quite so closely.

Instead, she could attack from an angle that gave her an advantage.

“Here I go!”

Kani ejected a Sasamura into the air between the ships and used it as a foothold to leap forward.

“Go! Sasamura!”

●

The Shibata warriors heard a series of loud crashes in the sky as they hurried down below.

They were metallic crashes. And far louder than the different armor pieces clanking together when a mobile shell moved. These were just as loud as the artillery fire from the north and the divine “checkmating” to the south and they echoed off the outer wall of ships, further chilling the late summer air.

Mobile shell heads had a limited range of movement, so they directed their sight devices upwards to gather more data.

“Fuwa-san’s paired up with Hashiba-san’s newcomer!?”

“What, did Sassa-san dump her?”

“She’s making up for our limited numbers!”

“Wait,” someone said in sudden realization. “The on-site treasurer can fight?”

“Every officer can fight. In P.A. Oda anyway. But I guess you wouldn’t know since you were only sent over just before the midterms.”

“That’s right. And since she’s the on-site treasurer, she can use spells like crazy as long as our formation is functioning and she’s inside it. She’d be in trouble if she moved outside, though.”

“But,” said another. “When we were leveling out the ground for the ships we were going to use as shops, she used that spell to blast the ground while we lowered the ship. That sped things up so much.”

“So is it a construction spell?”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Huh?”

Another older member laughed a bit at the confusion.

“She’s the on-site treasurer, remember?”

“So it’s money?”

“No, Fuwa-san is more Mlasi than Shinto. And we’ve also got Maeda-san going a bit nuts over there. She predicted that and decided not to focus her spells too much on money.”

“Then what is that?”

“It’s something simpler. But something that did a lot to develop the world.”

As a few others asked what he could possibly mean by that, another spoke up.

“Hurry up! Fuwa-san is only doing this cause we’re too slow!”

“Testament!” they all replied and sped up. Their mobile shell legs moved faster, making a lot of metallic noise. But the metallic noise from the sky was a lot louder. And…

“Wow…”

Several reverberations echoed off the metal walls in quick succession. These were a lot faster than before.

It seemed more like the ships were vibrating than reflecting sounds. As the warriors hurried between those ships, they spoke even though they could only hear their own voices.

“What are we even supposed to do?”

They saw two people moving between the ships overhead.

“This is beyond anything we can handle.”

●

Light scattered through the air. Between Fuwa and Kani.

Fuwa made rapid back-steps to launch herself backwards while responding to Kani’s attacks.

Kani pursued Fuwa and launched herself to the sides while ejecting Sasamura spears with different time delays.

“Go!”

But the eight launched spears lost speed in stages and were ultimately repelled.

Still Kani advanced.

She surpassed the stopped spears, making herself the leading edge of her attack, and still moved forward.

She had nothing to shield or cover her, but as she approached Fuwa…

“Here I go!”

She accelerated as if launching herself.

Fuwa responded by launching insha kotobs with guide lines. A maximum of eight lines ran through the air. They intercepted Kani’s spears and, if they had time, targeted Kani too.

A few times, Fuwa also placed an insha kotob down on the deck. They reacted to Kani’s movements like landmines, launching guide line bombing attacks.

“…!”

Kani moved even further forward to dodge them. She raced across the deck to catch up to Fuwa and swung her hand forward.

“Sasamura!”

The density of ejection, slowing, interception, and attack increased.

Mostly due to the pursuer.

She would not stop.

Each time they passed between ships, Kani ejected her spears more quickly.

“Ohh!”

Her own movements were in sync with the eight spears.

She had just accepted that her spears would slow and be repelled.

She didn’t bother watching to see if they hit or made it through.

She ejected them, let them slow in stages, and re-stored them the instant they had been repelled.

Instead of just launching attacks, she controlled the ending of the attacks too. That allowed her to increase the density of those attacks.

“Here I go!”

Sasamura, as a whole, continued forward. The individual spears were still being deflected and missing their marks, but the instantaneous retrieval and re-ejection allowed them to continue alongside Kani.

They picked up speed.

In response, Fuwa sped up the launch of her guide lines. Before, she had been launching the eight when the timing was right, but now she kept up an endless downpour. She must not have had time to activate any insha kotobs on the deck anymore because she only sent them forward.

They both traveled across the ships.

They leaped between the ships at different heights from each other, trying to gain an advantageous position.

But any advantage there was a brief thing. They would soon arrive on the next deck where Fuwa leaped along with metallic noises and Kani’s solid stride pounded on the hardened wood while she swung herself to the sides and ran.

They exchanged attack and defense like working in perfect cooperation.

“–––––”

And they again leaped between ships.

Mid-flight, they both viewed the battlefield below.

●

…Wow!

Kani saw the battle.

She had fought on the Edo Bay bridge during the Keichou Campaign and she had later seen the Edo Bay coast and the Satomi battlefield from the transport ship while withdrawing.

But this was her first time seeing a battle from an elevated point in the very center.

To north and south, she saw fires and gathering lights, along with plenty of noise. Were those spotlight spells, or were they from attacks or fires? Whatever the source of the lights, they cast everything in strong contrast.

Most of the silhouettes she saw were people fighting or moving. The shadows cast on the walls of the landed transport ships were on the move, either leaving or returning.

Everything was in motion.

Even the people on standby weren’t idle. They were constantly working their minds to grasp the situation and decide when and where they might be needed.

She sensed the busyness of it all more from a general feel of the place than anything she saw. Up in the air, she could feel the movements of the wind. But these were not natural air currents. These disturbed air currents were a gathering of the minuscule winds created from all the people moving around.

From what Kani could see, the area from the south to the west was the current hot zone. Hashiba must have entered the formation there. Instead of following the main north-south pathway, they had moved a bit westward on their way to the center. The Shibata warriors to the east were moving west in response.

Everyone was working hard and on the move.

She could tell.

Even in the places she couldn’t see, she could tell people were active and setting things in motion.

Her past self hadn’t been able to tell. But maybe she could only tell now because of her past self.

She had been too focused on her own role during the Siege of Odawara. She knew other people had been fighting too, but she had assumed each duel was a localized fight.

During the Keichou Campaign, she had helped people withdraw along a straight bridge and sensed everyone’s cumulative motion there. She and Kasuya had acted as a breakwater and she had been focused on helping everyone else.

Things had changed again here.

It was a plane.

At Odawara, her battle had been a point.

During the Keichou Campaign, it had been a line.

And here, it had grown to a plane.

So she could tell. And…

…The upperclassmen can tell too!

She had achieved an understanding of the battlefield. But what about Fuwa? She was the on-site treasurer, so…

…She can tell!

Kani’s family ran a greengrocer, so she knew about finances. She sometimes helped organize the receipts, but she honestly found doing all the calculations for the account book to be too complicated. What does accounts receivable even mean!? Does it mean we’ve received something or not!?

But what did Fuwa think about this battlefield?

After all, this was the site she had supported on the financial side. She had worked as treasurer to support and protect the upperclassmen here.

And now Kani’s side was invading. So…

“Fuwa-senpai!”

Kani understood.

She more or less understood why Fuwa had returned here.

Kani would do the same thing.

If her family’s greengrocer was about to be taken over by ruffians, she would return even if her parents had made sure she escaped to safety.

After all, she was a name inheritor. Fuwa was that and an officer too. So…

“Here I go!”

Was Kani’s side like the ruffians taking over a family store?

Kani hoped not as she advanced.

“Here I go!”

●

…You don’t have to come for me, you know!?

Dealing with these children is a pain, thought Fuwa.

But, she added. I never thought I’d be doing this.

People might say it wasn’t like her.

But it was rare for a name inheritor or officer to have no combat skills. This just meant that she was no exception there. Of course, her skills were adaptations of spells she primarily used for work and they only functioned within this formation since they relied on the divine protections she had set up as on-site treasurer. But…

“Here I go!”

She must have been a good match for Kani because she was managing to really go all out in this fight.

…I really would have preferred an artillery spell or a full-body defense spell, though.

Kani had escaped outside.

The girl was too powerful to ignore. Her combat skills went beyond the usual bounds of an individual.

This was a problem.

Fuwa believed all combat came down to an “assessment” related to power, density, time, and range.

As Fuwa fell back, Kani was sending in repeated spear strikes.

She had eight Sasamura spears in all. That provided decent density.

Her power mostly came from the ejection spell, but her accuracy was quite high.

…She did well against Mori during the summer training camp.

She directed the tip of her spears toward Fuwa without any hesitation whatsoever. Furthermore…

“Reach her!”

Kani shouted a lot, but she did surprising little playing around. The idea of intentionally missing for a feint apparently didn’t occur to her, so every single one of her attacks was aimed at Fuwa. On occasion, she would launch one from far outside to limit Fuwa’s movement, but…

“Whoa.”

She didn’t miss. The attacks were aimed at Fuwa’s side: her arm, the side of her hip, or wherever else.

She was a lot less one-note.

Probably because Fuwa wasn’t moving around as much anymore. But…

…She’s really good at this!

Fuwa could tell that to an extent even if she wasn’t much of a fighter herself.

Kani only accelerated the rate of her attacks when she moved between ships.

In midair, she would eject the Sasamura spears down below her feet to expand the range of her attacks. So she sped up the rate of her attacks and then kept that rate going as she landed on the next deck.

If she had made that decision in the moment and then incorporated it into her attacks, she had excellent instincts.

I see, thought Fuwa. I really do need to defeat her here. Because…

…Sassa said her upperclassman was having difficulties.

But if that upperclassman returned fully recovered, how much of a threat would she be?

Fukushima Masanori.

She would be even better than this girl. And she was supposed to be stronger than Kasuya, who had defeated Maeda up north, and Kiyomasa, who had fought on equal footing with Niwa down south.

With the possibility of a fighter like that showing up, Fuwa needed to wear down the enemy forces before that happened.

But while there were others here who could fight, she couldn’t afford to lose any of their warriors. Their role was to push back the enemy and take control of the important points and pathways the officers didn’t have time for.

As an officer, Fuwa had to battle Kani and the others so they couldn’t focus on those warriors. And again…

“Testament.”

Something audibly pushed at the air behind her to the east.

They were transport ships.

A group of ships was rising and beginning to move.

Most of them were headed west. Fuwa confirmed that out of the corner of her eye as she spoke.

“The rearrangement of the battlefield has begun.”

●

It’s simple really, thought Fuwa.

The empty ships were being moved to block up the main pathway and stop the enemy’s progress. As on-site treasurer, Fuwa had checked over the altered supply line and given approval.

So now several transport ships were floating up into the air.

Including the one that’s deck she and Kani were standing on.

The stage for their battle was transforming.

This required an on-site decision. It required a higher level of management to ensure supplies kept coming in and going out no matter what form the supply line took.

From an elevated position, she could see everything.

By circling along a set pathway instead of moving without a plan, she could view the overall flow of the battlefield.

That was why she had chosen to fight up here.

How to move the ships was a decision that could only be made on site. It wasn’t a decision a treasurer who never fought could make.

But the ships were moving.

Changing the shape of the battlefield had to stall the enemy’s approach.

She had to be on site to ensure that happened.

Which was why she was here. So she could support this place and protect the personnel. Because…

“That’s a treasurer’s job.”

●

“Shiro-kun! Shiro-kun! We just got around half the negotiations with the Kantou nations done by forcing five of them into a linked prostration, so what even is a treasurer’s job!? Some kind of prostration compulsion system!?”

“Don’t be absurd, Heidi! A treasurer’s job is money! Money itself is a treasurer’s job! Prostrations are no more than an enjoyable way to lay the foundation for future money! The economy and the on-site system are both meaningless compared to pure money!”

“Wow! I love how purely smooth and shiny you are!”

“Make haste, Heidi! Our next stop is the Nanbu clan! We must arrive uninvited in the middle of the night and force a box of sweets upon them!”

●

…This must be a treasurer’s job!

Kani ran along the deck of the rising transport ship as she reassessed Fuwa. She didn’t return here for anything as simple as sentiment!

Fuwa was here to do the absolutely best she was capable of.

She was here to stop Kani, but that wasn’t all.

An “uh, oh” filled Kani’s mind when she realized she had allowed the ships to start moving. She could just say she hadn’t known that would happen, but leaving Fuwa enough time to do it was still her failure.

…Now I know why she was holding those pens earlier!

Fuwa must have been doing the finances. But what had happened had happened, so now…

“I need to stop her!”

If Kani didn’t stop Fuwa, the battlefield would be rearranged. So she would stop her.

“That’s my role…”

The tremor running below her feet suddenly softened. The transport ship acting as their stage had ended its ascent and was truly just floating.

Up ahead, Fuwa spoke while taking a step back.

“This should buy some time. ...There is more to combat than moving personnel to fight each other. So Kani?”

The deck pushed up at Kani’s feet.

It was floating up.

But that meant something a little different for this ship compared to the others. If the ship she was using to pursue Fuwa moved now…

“You will lose your footing. Now, I want to focus on rearranging our formation, so our battle ends here. Do you get what I mean by that?” asked Fuwa. “It means I will defeat you here. Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

Kani ran forward and ejected Sasamura.

She charged Fuwa with the same force as the spears ejected out ahead of her.

●

Kani launched four spears

They were all ejected at once and lined up nearly horizontally while aimed at Fuwa.

The spears accelerated to the point they seemed to stretch and their tips split the air.

Then Fuwa made her move.

In the middle of her back step, she simply held her left hand out in front of her.

Four spell insha kotobs appeared out from her hand.

The white and red spears crashed dead center into them.

Multi-stage deceleration was accompanied by solid shattering sounds.

A moment later, Kani swung her left hand out front as she ran. She spread her fingers as if to slap the empty air.

“Eject!”

With those words, an additional four spears were ejected from empty air among blossoms of ether light.

A spell was already applying acceleration to them.

Instead of piercing, their tips collided with the previous four spears. The very bottom of those spears.

The slowing spears were kicked forward like a nail struck by a hammer.

“Go!” shouted Kani just as the slowing insha kotobs shattered.

It worked.

The force of the blows shattered the halting and pierced right on through.

“Yes!”

Kani continued forward, running past the second set of four spears as they bounced back from the blow. She raced up alongside the first set of four that had broken through.

Just then, Fuwa made a quick movement with her right hand. She sent the pen in that hand racing through empty air.

This produced light.

The deck Kani was running across was a 50×20m space of hardened wood tiles, so about the size of a small playground.

Slowing insha kotobs appeared along all four sides.

No, those were only the ones shining brighter. They had originally been the guided explosion spells that reacted to Kani’s movements like landmines. Fuwa had stopped trying them once the density of their attacks had increased, but…

“You see, my spell isn’t limited to any one thing. Like I said, I can apply it to just about anything, even landmines and interception.”

As if to demonstrate, Fuwa wrote a small check mark in the air with her pen.

“Consider your account settled.”

With that, their battlefield changed shape.

The deck split down the center and fell away.

●

The sound of metal joints and hardened wood fibers snapping was a lot like teeth biting into a fruit.

Fuwa’s location and Kani’s location were separated.

Fuwa was up top and Kani was below.

Kani wasn’t in free fall. The 50×20m section of deck was falling as it struck and broke the interior frame.

The wind of the fall caught at Kani and…

“Too bad.”

She heard Fuwa’s voice up above along with another four slowing sounds. Kani’s four attacks were blocked by insha kotobs, never reaching her opponent.

Fuwa and Kani were vertically separated while falling through a vast space.

●

Kani didn’t understand.

…What just happened!?

The floor had suddenly fallen away.

She didn’t have any flight spells, so this was a devastating surprise attack. She had used Sasamura as a stepping stone while jumping between ships, but she couldn’t do that with the deck as a floor below her feet.

It would be a great intentional move, but if Fuwa could have done this at any time, she would have done it earlier. Why had she waited until now, with the transport ships rising?

Kani had honestly expected her Sasamura double hit to be stopped. Because Fuwa knew she had already done that during her combat training with Mori. So she had been trying to come up with another way, but…

…What is this!?

Kani was more surprised than angry. She couldn’t figure out what Fuwa’s spell was.

She wanted to know.

Fuwa wasn’t a fighter, but under these limited conditions, she could do all this.

So Kani ran. She kicked at the falling deck.

“Make it!”

She stretched out her kicking legs faster than her footing fell. It was a simple action, but the large section of hardened wood was falling abnormally fast. Since she could hear the frame breaking below it, she assumed some kind of spell was in effect.

But her toes reached.

She used the very tips of her toes and every part of her body she could stretch to extend her reach.

“Do your best!”

And she leaped. She jumped up toward coordinates on the same level as Fuwa.

“––––”

She made it.

●

“Sasamura!”

Kani’s aim was to re-eject the four spears she had used for the second half of the chisel strike plan. She had already stored them when she made her jump and she could bring them back out as footholds.

She chose to use two of them for footing and send the other two on a collision course with Fuwa.

She swung her arms back and made the motion to eject them.

“Nope.”

She was intercepted there.

Fuwa sent a single guide line blast into Kani’s body.

Much too late for Kani to dodge it. But…

…I’m fine!

Based on what she had seen so far, Kani could guess this would be an impact attack.

If this was a striking power, she could endure it as long as she had footing. There might be some knockback, but not so much she couldn’t hold her ground. So she sent herself forward through the air and steeled herself.

“––––!?”

Fuwa’s launched insha kotob struck her.

But there was no loud noise.

Only a quiet sound from her left shoulder where it had hit.

A dry sound, like a branch snapping.

Her bone had broken. And…

…Eh!?

She hadn’t been able to resist it at all.

Her intent to hold her ground went entirely ignored.

…What is this!?

It was far too accurate to call a counterattack. And instead of sensing a blow where it had struck her, she felt…

“A wall!?”

Her body had slammed into something immobile.

Immediately afterwards, her feet failed to find any footing. She found herself tilted onto her back in midair.

…Oh, no!

Before she could fully comprehend her situation, she fell. As if pursuing the broken and falling deck.

“Ah!”

Her body froze up from the chill in her left shoulder as the broken bone’s halves pressed together, so she simply fell.

And on all sides of her vision, she saw movement in the edges of the split deck.

“Kani, get some rest. It just won’t be in a cell this time.”

Fuwa’s voice reached Kani along with impacts from all sides.

The hole in the top of the transport ship closed up like a crushed box. Some great force on all sides folded in the ship and its metal frame from the top.

Just as Kani realized she was closed in, her back crashed into something solid.

She had fallen onto a piece of the deck that had fallen all the way to the bottom.

●

“Youth is something else.”

Fuwa watched as the transport ship noisily transformed.

This transformation system was caused by her spell. Several insha kotobs were opened mostly on the sides of the ship and they worked to bend the top of the ship from the sides to seal her in.

But the process was soon complete. The shape of the enclosure reminded her of something.

…It’s been far too long since I had any gyoza.

Oichi-sama prefers Far Eastern food, she thought, but would they have a gyoza stand during the celebration after Shizugatake? Well, at least everyone will be in high spirits, she thought, but…

“I guess that really depends on how Honnouji plays out.”

By that time, the metallic sounds had stopped.

The ship was closed up. The opening had been properly folded back to seal it up.

Kani could no longer escape. And…

…The ship’s still producing its virtual ocean.

That meant it could remain afloat for a while longer.

If the Azuchi cared about Kani’s well being, they wouldn’t be able to fire in this airspace during that time. So…

“Even young kids can come in handy.” Fuwa snorted with laughter. “I guess I’m still pretty young too.”

It was just that everyone around her kept moving on.

Oh, god. I sound like Maeda and Sassa. This is supposed to be a celebration, but here I am talking to myself.

“Okay.”

She had to get down from the silenced transport ship.

She could see the flow of battle, so she had to join the others to get the next phase started.

A lot about the flow of battle bothered her.

“Like in the south. What is Niwa-senpai doing?”

●

Sakon and Niwa faced each other in the moonlit southern clearing. The Kiyomasa Team had already entered the Shibata formation through the fortress wall of ships.

And Sakon was directly facing a top-class upperclassman.

“Um, it is an honor to battle you.”

But what am I supposed to do now? she wondered.

Except she knew exactly what she had to do. First, she drew the two swords on her back.

They were wooden, but they were not training swords. They were as thick as a combat knife and the tip was sharpened.

They were around 80cm long and the blade was nearly 30cm wide. They looked a bit like kitchen knives and they would be the size of an azure dragon sword compared to a normal person.

For her, they were more like knives.

Hirano had given them to her before she left. Hirano had had a few ideas to help her out after seeing her fight at Aki, so she had arranged to have these made at the Tsurugi Shrine.

That was why Sakon had a few different similar weapons. She hadn’t touched the ones made of metal or stone because they seemed too dangerous, but there were also pearly ones and ones that appeared to be made of glass.

After giving them some practice swings, she had discovered the lighter ones worked best for her.

To examine this result, Hirano had opened a lernen figur from the power management device and monitored Sakon’s physical status.

According to Hirano, “It looks like the heavier ones place more stress on your elbows. You could reduce or eliminate that with a mobile shell, a spell, or your regeneration divine protection, but that stress would probably return when you swung them.”

“Just out of curiosity, what is he advantage of a heavier weapon?”

“The weight helps them cut deeper when striking your opponent. Or stab deeper if you’re jabbing. The more weight, the easier they can enter your opponent’s body. But,” said Hirano. “With your speed, even a light blade should be able to cut through most anything.”

So Sakon decided a light weapon would be better. The two primary candidates had been a pair of gravity swords and these, but she had chosen these because she liked the feel of the blade. Yes, I can’t really tell where the blade is on a gravity sword, so I accidentally chopped off five of my fingers and had to regenerate them. It actually didn’t hurt very much. That was a new discovery.

She had named these ones Southern Sky.

For no other reason than she was being deployed on the south side of the battlefield and she thought it would give her good luck.

The Testament said the home she had lived in would become a Buddhist temple after her death. But some strange things supposedly happened at that temple and one of them was known as Sakon’s Nandina.

“After I die, the nandina tree I liked, well, it’s supposed to give you an upset stomach if you touch it. Kind of gross, really.”

“As a tree, they stain easily with blood and germs, so it will be given a divine purification coating. Touching it should be fine.”

But that aside, Onitakemaru had accepted the name.

“What’s this, Kohime? You actually did your homework? Great job.”

“Well, when we had nothing to do in Aki, it was, you know, summer and all. We were watching a spooky legends show called A Dimension Unknown to Thee and they were talked about it. At first, I didn’t know who they were talking about, but when I said ‘Touching it gives you diarrhea? How awful’, Kasuya-senpai elbowed me and, after I had time to process it, I went ‘wait, that’s me!’ ”

“And you call yourself a name inheritor!?”

I didn’t ask to be one.

Regardless, the swords felt right in her hands. Hirano had said they were made from a sacred tree and then laughed, telling Sakon not to worry about that too much. So I’m not going to worry about it and focus on this battle instead.

“You need to stop losing yourself in your thoughts,” said Niwa, immediately lopping off Sakon’s head.

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