Horizon:Volume 10B Chapter 38
Chapter 39: Wolf Daughters in the Forest Night[edit]
A wolf does not live in the forest
The forest is where the wolf lives
Search for the wolf
Enter the forest even with no moonlight
Point Allocation (Cleverness)
●
Kousaka saw figures in shadow.
She was at a position just inward of the bow corridor on the Musashi’s third port ship.
The enemy had fallen back to the higher ground on the outer edge and they were fighting back using a formation that took advantage of that higher ground. She was impressed her team had made it this far, but Kiyomasa’s team was apparently in a similar position to stern.
…This is totally doable!
She wanted to find some way of taking the higher ground before the withdrawal order arrived, but…
“Hm?”
She realized Inada was pointing at the enemy movements on the higher ground. She focused on them and found there were times when the enemy up there would look in the nonhuman unit’s direction.
She thought they were making observations in preparation for an attack, but no. The enemy technically wasn’t looking at the nonhuman unit. They were looking at the floor. Or rather, at the shadows cast there.
Kousaka looked too. Their shadows were lit up by the flying artillery and the scattering defense barriers, but…
…Oh…
A pair of exceptionally large shadows were cast shallow on the floor from a more distant location.
They were engaged in a rapid dance where they would come together, move apart, and otherwise dance atop the floor.
They were wolves.
There were a few stories told about the Loup-Garous who lived in the Loup-Garou forest feared even by nonhumans.
“On moonlit nights, the wolves mimic humankind by standing on their hind legs and dancing together.”
And…
“A single human will vanish from the village. If you are lucky, they were simply eaten. Because if they weren’t…it means that person was a Loup-Garou in disguise.”
●
They danced. And danced. The wolves twirled.
They twirled. And twirled. The daughters danced.
The bipedal wolves leaped in a waltz and treated all as a forest as they danced.
The long-haired daughters did not hold hands and treated all as their prey as they twirled.
Speak the truth in this forest and it would be understood.
The truth was found in a time that could not be reclaimed.
Never looking back in a refusal to go back, the wolves danced.
Never looking back in a determination to remain here, the daughters twirled.
●
Mitotsudaira danced at a speed that left even the sound of her footsteps behind her.
Kasuya danced at varying speeds created by long and short bursts.
Mitotsudaira dodged her attacks but moved on.
Kasuya made an instantaneous leap toward her mother.
Whenever they got close, they would move apart.
Whenever they moved apart, they would close in.
The metallic sounds came from Mitotsudaira’s claws. Her high-speed slashes produced melodious notes as they carved into the surface of the Argent Clou shield.
Kasuya, meanwhile, quickly shifted between Argent Clou’s forms to produce the musical tones of metal biting into metal.
They used their claws and spikes differently depending on their distance, producing countless lights in their dance.
They spun and left their body open, but then covered up their body as if to hide it and faced each other with hair rippling.
Spitting out a quiet breath, Mitotsudaira spoke.
“I saw all this during the Kantou Liberation.”
“Likewise.”
“Did you do your summer homework?”
“Did you, mother?”
They both laughed once and Kasuya made the first move.
She made a long burst of speed in time with Mitotsudaira’s breathing.
●
Mitotsudaira saw a sudden move.
Just as she was weaving accelerations together to approach Kasuya from the right, she saw a black shape in front of her.
It happened without warning.
“Mother,” Kasuya swung an attack up on the right as she spoke. “You are slower than a dragon.”
The three-clawed attack struck Mitotsudaira diagonally at the bottom of her chest.
●
The sound of impact combined with a metallic tone and Kasuya launched her entire body along with the upwards strike.
…I hit her!
It was a direct hit. But despite hitting in a good location, it hadn’t been a solid blow.
Because her mother had accelerated away a moment later.
She had used her speed to lift herself up, including her feet from the deck. Hitting her like that let the damage pass through her instead of remaining inside her. She had definitely struck her mother in the solar plexus, but the collision of her mother’s acceleration and Kasuya’s speed only launched her mother’s body backwards.
Kasuya turned around. She accelerated backwards and spun herself around.
She was confident her mother would stick the landing and attempt to control the damage done to her. So Kasuya also needed to land and launch an immediate follow-up attack.
“…Eh?”
Her mother was in front of her.
Her mother swung an attack up on the right as she spoke.
“You are slower than your mother’s mother.”
The strike of a chain-wrapped fist slammed into Kasuya diagonally at the bottom of her chest.
●
…That worked!!
After knocking Kasuya away, Mitotsudaira landed on her feet and worked to surreptitiously catch her breath.
She was honestly surprised about a number of things. She hadn’t expected that counterattack against a longer burst of speed to land.
She must have gotten careless, she thought, but that was why she kept moving.
She had wrapped the still-extended silver chain around her relaxed arm and guarded. Then she had shifted her center of gravity forward and toward her head, so she could jump up in the moment of impact and soar behind Kasuya.
With that understanding of the situation and sufficient control, all she had needed was the will. She couldn’t let her opponent get into her groove, so she had needed to make sure she could turn things around when this first strike arrived.
She had done so.
But even though she had guarded, the damage was significant.
She had been hit in the solar plexus, so she couldn’t breathe deeply. That would prevent her from making back-to-back bursts of speed, so…
…It will be easier to wait than to pursue.
While telling herself not to forget to attack, she cast a physical buffing spell and a pain reduction spell. She had used both during her duel with her mother, so they seemed to be necessities for a battle against a Loup-Garou.
And she saw Kasuya spin around in midair where she had been launched.
“That was a close one.”
Kasuya placed her hand on the deck for just an instant to send herself into a twisting flip that landed her facing Mitotsudaira.
Mitotsudaira watched Kasuya breathe in deep and begin some light stepping in place, but there was barely any evidence of damage in her. Her breathing wasn’t heavy and she hadn’t changed her stance due to pain.
…I did hit her, didn’t I!?
She was puzzled by this, so she asked about it.
“I thought I hit you in the solar plexus. Are you pretending otherwise?”
“Eh?”
Kasuya stared in confusion for the span of a breath. And eventually…
“Um, mother?”
“Yes?”
“Your attack hit me…below the chest here, in the extra material making up the chest of the suit. So all it did was stretch my suit. It did nothing to me.”
●
Still Got It: “Nate! Don’t crash out over this! This happens all the time when people take on your wonderful, beautiful, and busty mother!”
Wise Sister: “Heh heh. If you want to stick your hand in the bottom of someone’s chest that badly, you can just do it with me. Are you listening, Mitotsudaira? I’m saying you can stick it in mine anytime you want!”
Asama: “Stop that, Mito’s mom and Kimi. Even my god is saying this is too much for Mito.”
Silver Wolf: “Tomo, I feel like yours hurt most of all!”
●
Whatever the reason, she had messed up.
Mitotsudaira looked down at her chain-wrapped right fist. Had she misjudged her aim because her opponent was busty?
…I need to get used to this!
Kasuya rushed toward her.
●
“…!”
Mitotsudaira chose to evade this time.
…What is going on!?
She hadn’t been paying attention, but it had still been too sudden. She couldn’t read her opponent’s timing.
Those bursts of speed had to be fundamentally the same as her own. But for some reason, Kasuya’s had changed since the Kantou Liberation.
They started so suddenly and she rushed in so suddenly.
Just like now. By the time Mitotsudaira noticed, Kasuya had already turned around or was in an attack stance directly in front of her.
“Kh!”
So she evaded. To the right. She took a short burst so her disturbed breathing wouldn’t affect it.
She heard a metallic sound from where she had been.
Kasuya had put her Argent Clous in pile bunker mode and struck empty air.
She shook while leaning a bit forward as if trying to straighten her back.
She had used the core of her body to gather all her strength and concentrate it on this one strike. It was a lot like stomping the ground with one’s full weight.
And with her attack dodged, Kasuya turned toward Mitotsudaira.
Mitotsudaira inhaled to prepare for her next burst of speed.
A moment later, Kasuya did it again. Instead of trying to catch her off guard, this seemed to say this was all she could do.
“Mother.”
Kasuya circled around on the right.
“I said you are slower than a dragon.”
She was going to pass Mitotsudaira by, but her right arm had already prepared to fire.
Kasuya was coming and Mitotsudaira had not fully caught her breath yet. She could not use her bursts of speed the way she wanted.
Just as Mitotsudaira wondered what to do, Kasuya’s right arm swung in for a horizontal blow.
It wasn’t aiming for her face. It went for the more central torso. The attack would thrust diagonally up from flank to chest.
●
Kasuya didn’t notice what happened before her eyes.
It happened so fast and it so thoroughly betrayed her expectations that she failed to understand or recognize it as a fact.
What happened was simple.
Her mother bent backwards to dodge the attack launched at point-blank range.
That was all it was, but it was absurd. Because…
…I made my burst first!
Had her mother moved second yet surpassed her speed?
That seemed odd. She hadn’t thought her mother had that much speed.
Could she boost her speed all of a sudden like that?
Needing time to warm up her body made sense. She could also understand if her mother needed to apply various spells and protections before she could reach her top speed.
But that wasn’t what her mother had done. She hadn’t made any kind of preparation and the damage of the previous attack was still affecting her, but she had suddenly surpassed her previous speed.
…How did she do that!?
Kasuya wondered this while sending out a combination blow.
She had used this combo against the dragons and the Reine des Garous.
Her mother had seen the combo during the Kantou Liberation, but she had strengthened it during her summer training camp.
She launched it.
Once her mother had completed her evasion, Kasuya struck right, left, right, right at her mother’s body and at the likely range of another evasion. Her silver claws audibly activated all at once.
It was a tearing blow.
But she saw her mother shut her eyes and opened her mouth a little.
“Lu.”
She dodged it all with a trembling breath.
●
Kasuya understood.
It was simple. Her mother had done the same thing she had by using a burst of speed for her two-arm combo. And…
“She only accelerated her upper body!”
She kept her lower body loosely fixed in place and allowed only her upper body to move for the smallest possible evasion. The shaky breath and the slightly opened mouth were to relax her body and prevent anything that might obstruct the burst of speed.
Kasuya could do the same thing. But…
“My chest makes accelerating just my upper body a challenge!”
Her mother suddenly attacked.
●
Mitotsudaira belatedly grasped the difference between her and her daughter.
She excelled at quick, sharp movements.
Her daughter excelled at long, extended movements.
She hadn’t noticed before because Kasuya wasn’t as sloppy and inexact as her mother, but Kasuya’s quick evasions were better suited for longer distances.
…Which is why she says dragons are faster.
In terms of speed, Mitotsudaira was faster than a dragon. She had rapidly responded to the invisible attacks launched by Celestial Dragon Kirigakure Saizou at Sanada and then struck back.
So when Kasuya talked about “fast” and “slow”, she wasn’t talking about speed.
She meant stride.
The length of a single step. Or the length of your legs. When comparing a 100m dragon’s legs to her legs, the dragon could reach a farther distance by placing its foot down.
And so the dragon was “faster”.
It all pointed back to the distance of a single step.
How far could she travel in a single burst of speed? And…
“You don’t lose speed during a burst, do you?”
More accurately, she landed before her leaping burst of speed decelerated.
That gave it a slow start, but then she could make use of the best part of her speed.
That had created the illusion of her suddenly rushing in.
Mitotsudaira had struck the bottom of her chest instead of her solar plexus because she had predicted Kasuya would evade with a burst of speed but the lead up had taken longer than expected.
To avoid being open to attack when battling a dragon, you had to leap the same length as the dragon’s stride and not let your speed drop.
That was the origin of Kasuya’s new burst technique.
Of course, it would be possible to match that with the older version. Whether it worked would come down to how well Mitotsudaira could catch the initial movement, but it would be alright even if she was a little slow. Because…
“What’s the matter?”
She walked toward Kasuya.
Kasuya responded by clenching her fist and launching another combo. But…
“Heh.”
Mitotsudaira could dodge it. She sent her upper body down, right, left, right, lightly moved her hips too, and didn’t allow a single tear of her clothing.
Kasuya breathed in and narrowed her eyes.
…She’s ready to do this.
Kasuya would be able to pull this off too.
They weren’t spent yet. Two Loup-Garous who carried the queen’s blood in their veins met in the night.
“Here I go.”
With that, Mitotsudaira started forward.
She took a light but grounded step.
●
Kasuya attacked and struck with a combo, but she had to fall back.
…This is what happened against great mother during the Keichou Campaign!
She couldn’t hit her mother. Her mother focused her bursts of speed on her upper body, while occasionally allowing her waist or hips to move too, to evade it all.
It was the shortness of the movements that impressed Kasuya.
She couldn’t move all that much when only using her upper body, but the bursts of speed came from her relaxed muscles and her bones. She needed something to launch them from and a decent landing distance, so there would be some movement afterwards as well.
But her mother did it all over an exceptionally short distance.
Not just 20, 10, or 5 centimeters. She regularly used it over distances of 3 or even 1 centimeter.
The technique was meant to make quick leaps of several meters, but she had fine enough control to move the distance of a fingertip.
And that wasn’t all.
Within Kasuya’s combo, her mother seemed to extend her hand to reach her.
Kasuya sent out attacks to reject that hand, body, face, and torso, but…
“I can’t hit her!?”
“Kasuya Takenori.”
Words reached her. She answered the voice with her combo. She applied her bursts of speed to individual body parts to step up onto the same stage as her mother and she increased her precision.
But her mother said, “I will show you where this acceleration method began.”
At the same moment, her mother further relaxed her body.
She took a breath and just stood there as Kasuya sent a rapid attack in from the right.
Immediately, Kasuya saw something in her field of vision.
Her mother had shifted out of place.
●
Her mother’s coordinates weren’t right.
She hadn’t moved. Yet she had moved around 12cm at a speed that felt like teleportation.
…What?
Kasuya questioned it as she attacked. She sent out a combo. Each hit should have struck her mother, but she saw something entirely different.
As each of her attacks approached, her mother would again shift out of place and close in on her.
“When I took the greatest possible damage and thought there was nothing I could do in response…I ended up doing this.”
A breath. Her mother had finished catching her breath and she raised her head.
“In your world, ‘I’ never taught you about my battle with a shapeshifter after my king died, did I?”
It arrived along with the words.
A chain-wrapped right fist flew toward Kasuya’s solar plexus.
●
I need to dodge, thought Kasuya.
The slow start meant her anti-dragon movements wouldn’t work. Using her legs to move away would also be too slow.
She could give a burst of speed to her upper body like her mother had. She could lean back to distance herself from the fist.
She could do it.
She did it.
She could also gave a burst of speed to her hips to escape to the side.
She could do it.
She did it.
How about that? she thought. I can do anything mother can.
But her mother was still moving.
With a burst of speed to her hips, she turned to face Kasuya. With a burst of speed to her upper body, she pursued Kasuya. With a burst of speed to her shoulder, she gained the initial speed. With a burst of speed to her elbow, she gained acceleration. With a burst of speed to her wrist, she corrected the course. With a burst of speed to her fist, she gained strength. With a burst of speed to her fingers, she created a pushing strike. It all came together to extend the range and correct any mistakes.
“…!”
The result was a strike that drove her first into Kasuya’s solar plexus almost up to the wrist.
●
…I reached her!
Mitotsudaira didn’t think of it as a decisive blow.
Her opponent had as sturdy a body as her own. The weak points like the solar plexus did still apply to them, but they would recover quickly and, more importantly, they had a full assortment of protections and spells.
She didn’t let her guard down, but she she did make sure Kasuya had raised her head and was still looking at her with those bestial eyes as she accelerated. With the silver chains wrapped around both hands…
“Lu.”
A small howl escaped her throat and into the air as she charged. She raised her speed and launched an attack in the private battlefield before her.
●
Move, thought Kasuya.
The threat here wasn’t physical. It was mental.
She wanted to continue fighting, but the rational part of herself deep in her mind was trying to stop her.
She thought she could keep going, but another part of her said it wasn’t possible and she couldn’t do it.
Her mother’s attack just now had shown still unseen depths. Her mother had taught her all sorts of combat techniques back when they were in Avalon, but she had never shown her anything like this.
…Honestly!
It does make sense, she thought. These finely divided bursts of speed were the result of her mother’s build, technique, and experience. Kasuya likely could learn it, but she wouldn’t have any reason to use it and growing her own strengths would be a better use of her time.
But seeing it here was a threat. The feeling that she could never catch up to her mother had been a source of respect and relief back in Avalon, but now it engulfed her heart as a threat.
Could she win this?
“No.”
She had to win this.
So she had to move.
But the power she had been shown and that had reached her had deflated her courage.
Then what could she do to defeat this opponent?
She had to move. That was the same opinion her mother had had before. And it must have been what her version of their mothers had said about defying destiny.
Their mothers were on the move. Meanwhile, Kasuya’s group was questioning if they should move or not. She felt like the latter was their choice, but she also knew what she had to choose now.
…Move!
Her mother was rushing toward her. She was damaged and couldn’t match her mother when it came to technique.
“Lu.”
Her mother’s first attack was coming. It was going to hit. She couldn’t dodge it. No, dodging it would be meaningless.
But she didn’t want this to end. She wanted it to keep going.
However, this opponent was a threat and there was nothing she could do without a definite countermeasure. If she simply kept herself going and delayed her defeat, she thought she could find some way of winning, but…
…This isn’t good.
Her memories of sparring with her mother in Avalon were mixing in with the present situation, distracting her.
She had taken damage. Just as she was thinking it would be an excuse to use her damage as reason she couldn’t fight properly, her mother’s attack arrived.
It was going to hit her.
Just as she thought that, her view changed. Her mother was in front of her. But…
…Eh?
She was looking at her mother’s back.
At some point, she had circled behind her mother.
●
…That was a trained reflex!
Mitotsudaira sensed that in Kasuya’s movement.
It had happened shortly after taking damage, when her body wouldn’t move even when she willed it to. That she moved regardless meant it had to come from somewhere other than her mind.
…My body got up on its own when I was fighting Rudolf II.
She had known she couldn’t afford to lose and an action built up by her training had risen from her subconscious and been replayed.
Kasuya’s evasion here was the same. When Mitotsudaira rushed in, Kasuya had clearly tried and failed to move her body. But as soon as she saw Mitotsudaira’s attack coming, she had accelerated as if kicking off the deck.
Mitotsudaira noticed Kasuya was crying. She must have been conflicted about something. But now…
“Ah.”
She roared.
●
“Lu!”
Kasuya moved.
She cried. She roared and her entire body shook as she sensed she had broken free of the bonds restraining her.
It wasn’t her mind that reacted to her mother’s threat. It was her body.
Sensing the danger of the impending attack, her body had moved on its own.
It was a reflexive action built up by her past training and combat. The subconscious reaction born of something other than her own mind had indeed wanted her to continue fighting. And more than that…
…Yes.
Several memories had replayed in her mind to respond to this threat. Most were of the summer training camp and her previous battles, so she could tell all the memories inside her were being sifted through to find some way of responding to the battle before her now. And…
“Hey.”
She thought she heard a deep woman’s voice. Along with the feeling of a hand on her shoulder.
A Loup-Garou was an embodiment of the emotion of fear. So had the emotion sent to her become a part of her?
This was someone she had fought a brief but intense battle against and emerged victorious.
“You aren’t going to call it quits here after you beat me, are you?”
That opponent had also lost to her mother, but maybe that was why she had her thoughts here.
…Takigawa Ichimasu!
Kasuya recalled her battle with that woman and inhaled a still inadequate breath.
She knew what Takigawa would have said if she were still alive.
“Avenge me, Reine des Garous II…or would you be the third?”
●
Mitotsudaira felt déjà vu when she saw Kasuya’s movements waver.
She had seen this before. She couldn’t immediately remember where, but…
“Let’s do this,” said Kasuya, lowering her shoulders.
Just as the memory came back to Mitotsudaira, it was replayed before her eyes. Kasuya stood on her toes as if lightly landing on the deck, except there were five of her now. This was…
“Tachikawa Ichimasu’s solid copies that the 1st Special Duty Officer can only make two of!!”
●
10ZO: “Am I catching strays in a battle I’m not at all involved in!?”
Uqui: “With two, do you only have enough for a shield and a diversion?”
Laborer: “Sounds like the default unit from a bad tower defense game!”
Scarred: “T-two is plenty! …Oh, oh, thank you for the applause! Thank you! I promise I will return to the front line once I get Excalibur mended, so please take care of Master Tenzou for me!”
●
…Wait, Excalibur broke!?
Mitotsudaira had been considering borrowing it if things got too bad, so she felt a bit more at risk now.
A moment later, the black wolves came at her.
All five of them.
That was the same number Takigawa had used, so this had to be a move Kasuya learned from her. And…
…She was the one who fatally wounded Takigawa before me, wasn’t she!?
That had given Kasuya strength here. Kasuya was probably only mimicking what she had seen, but since these solid copies required high-speed movement and martial arts, this copy technique may have actually been well suited for Loup-Garous.
They were coming. They first jumped in around Mitotsudaira to encircle her and then jumped to different heights.
“Here I go.”
A total of ten silver claws per copy unleashed a flurry of attacks from all sides.
●
Kasuya moved.
She didn’t regulate her breathing. Distracting herself with that would keep her from focusing on her opponent. Her physical and healing spells and protections wouldn’t affect the relaxation and contraction of her respiration muscles. Instead of trying to push herself, she let the breath in her throat act in place of her senses.
She couldn’t manage a long-distance burst of speed. But her breathing wasn’t fully stopped, so she could actually adjust that tempo and apply her acceleration there. This evened out the distance between the copies, but it allowed her to create more of them. Her opponent would be able to read the tempo, but she responded to that by changing the frequency of her attacks.
She felt herself sweating. The previous attack had caused the exhaustion built up from her previous movements to hit her all at once. But an exhaustion reduction spell could handle that. She also applied localized pain reduction. And from there…
“Can you manage it?”
She felt like Takigawa was saying that from within this technique.
Even though they had only fought for a short time and she had forcibly secured a victory from her.
Kasuya’s own exhaustion had reached its limit back then, but Takigawa, mortally wounded and bleeding, had smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Interesting. …You’re not…us, are you?”
She had left things in Kasuya’s hands.
Kasuya hadn’t understood what she meant at the time, so she had accepted it as an obvious fact given the Ten Spears’ origins and objective. But despite defeating someone obviously more skilled than herself, Kasuya had known she had been given that victory and it had felt like a defeat.
So she had understood why the Takigawa Unit had fought back during the Battle of Shizugatake. Which was why she had made sure to personally drive them off.
She had defeated a great upperclassman. To defeat was to inherit. So…
“…!”
She continued on. She made her high-speed copies solid and moved to strike the silver wolf.
She had the support of P.A. Oda’s greatest ninja.
“Let’s do this. I’ll take you there with my technique.”
But her mother sped up. Kasuya clearly had the greater number of attacks, but her mother responded to them all with sparks flying along several arcs.
“Lu, lu lu, lu.”
The next thing Kasuya knew, her mother was charging in with a light rolling breath.
She shifted herself away from Kasuya’s attacks and fought back.
Kasuya’s attacks weren’t meaningless. A few of them hit, scattering some hair into the wind or tearing her clothes.
But none of them were a solid hit.
Meanwhile, her mother’s attack was coming. She attacked so much that Kasuya had to constantly use one arm or the other to guard or deflect while keeping up her combo. Even now…
“Lu.”
She threw an attack with her right arm, but her mother’s attack slipped past that arm to strike her in the side.
“…!”
Kasuya used a burst of speed to evade and avoid the damage.
After she let out a breath and pulled her arm back, her mother was already coming for her again. She made an attack and…
<Exhaustion Reduction: 80% complete>
She had recovered a fair amount. But how could she get in a decisive blow?
“Ohh!”
When she took a blow to her left chest, she made up her mind. She accelerated her entire body and…
…Here I go!
She felt a push on her shoulders. Not even Takigawa Ichimasu had used her solid copies alongside wolf techniques. But the fact remained that Kasuya had only made it this far thanks to her, so…
“Thank you.”
It was her own acceleration pushing on her shoulders. But that acceleration had been built upon several things.
It wasn’t just her mother. The few opponents she had fought were pushing her onward.
Her mind was fully focused on the battle ahead and she controlled her five selves.
“Lu.”
With a lupine breath, she shot forward.
●
They danced. And danced. The wolves twirled while scattering sparks.
They twirled. And twirled. The black and silver daughters danced while whipping up the wind.
The bipedal wolves danced a rondo and treated all as a forest.
The long-haired daughters’ hands did not reach each other and they treated all as their own power and bonds.
Speak the truth in this forest and it would reach the other.
The truth was found in times from their memories.
Never looking back in a refusal to go back, the wolves danced.
Never looking back in a determination to remain here, the daughters twirled.
●
The metallic sparks formed endless links of rapid curves.
Mitotsudaira fended off her five daughters’ attacks and decorated the center of the fray with her carving movements.
She swung the chains she held, occasionally using their tension to pull herself and move herself.
The black wolves worked together to strike their opponent with ether light trailing behind the weapons held in their hands.
At slight delays and with subtly different timing, they launched ten attacks simultaneously.
The chains deflected them and, with all the attacks swept aside, the silver wolf launched a counterattack.
The black wolves evaded and blocked the silver attacks, creating a trail of scattering sparks before attacking again as if entangling the two of them.
The scattering sparks and ether light drew out several trails, sprayed out, and made noise.
Those lines came together on their way toward the silver wolf in the center.
Coordinating their timing, the black wolves used every method they had to strike.
One launched a swift silver nail combo.
One launched a spike from mid-range outside the target’s view.
One launched a kick aimed low from behind.
One jumped high and launched her right claws.
One used the other four as a diversion and launched a strike from diagonally behind.
At the center of the space ruled by speed, the silver wolf raised both hands.
She had the chains wrapped around her hands, but…
“Release.”
With that word, the silver lines unraveled and dropped in spirals around the wolf.
A moment later, the silver wolf swung the chains. All four. The silver arcs raced out.
“My king,” she said. “This is thanks to you.”
Four black wolves were thrown spinning into the air.
They had been caught by four instantaneous counterattacks.
●
When the real Kasuya leaped in alone, her eyes widened.
…The silver chains!?
That was the source of those attacks. Her mother had swung her four chains and struck the four copies.
But, thought Kasuya. I didn’t see the silver chains in flight.
The silver chains were an artifact that propagated her mother’s strength, but as far as she knew her mother had never applied her bursts of speed to them.
…Isn’t that why she gave up the silver chains and made them a part of my Argent Clou!?
Was this version of her mother different? If anything could have made this version different, it had to be…
“Father!?”
Her father and their king must have taught her mother something. Probably quite recently. That had allowed her mother to move her silver chains like this. And now she turned toward Kasuya.
“Bow your head, black wolf.”
Her left hand was raised.
“This technique comes from your father – our king.”
Immediately, four attacks rivaling artillery blasts stuck Kasuya’s limbs.
The silver speed drew out curves as it flew her way.
●
Kasuya knelt on her own.
She still had her previous speed, but now she was brought to a stop and slowly fell to her knee.
In front of her, Mitotsudaira thought to herself while swinging the chains behind her once more.
…That was a close one.
Applying her bursts of speed to the silver chains was something she had learned to do playing baseball during the Tres España battle in Kyou. That situation felt a lot weirder in hindsight, but that was just how it had turned out.
She had accomplished it back then by linking together all of her training. She had thought the silver chains might not be able to manage it, but…
…It’s a form of propagation.
But not of her strength. It had helped that she had been excited by her king cheering her on, but she now had a better understanding of the silver chains’ true power.
The chains received her instructions and acted on them.
If she simply applied her strength to them, her strength was all that would reach them. If she wanted them to carry her burst of speed, she had to send them her momentum, her spirit, and an image of speed.
The rest was simple.
She was a Shinto worshiper.
She had originally been Gallican, but she had converted religion once she began serving her king.
She worshiped the same god as her king. She had also switched to using the same primary spells. His entertainer god wasn’t a good fit for a knight, but that was her king’s god and that was all that mattered.
Entertainment was about conveying one’s feelings and thoughts. That meant it was primarily a form of mental propagation.
Her religion had always been a symbolic thing that never helped her all that much, but its power had helped her here. A lot like my king really, she was calm enough to note.
But this was her first time using that technique with all four chains at once.
In that sense, you could say she had finally managed to regulate her breathing and gather her focus. And…
“Eh?”
She realized the wind was moving around her.
It was Kasuya.
●
The wind – the ether light – was blowing towards Kasuya.
Mitotsudaira saw the black wolf shake and shudder.
She knew what was happening.
…A beast transformation!?
Tonight was a full moon. But the moons weren’t currently out.
Of course, nonhumans could transform to an extent even without the moons as a catalyst.
But if Kasuya was her and her king’s daughter…
…Shouldn’t her nonhuman blood be thinner than mine!?
No, she thought.
This was due to her having more human blood.
When Mitotsudaira’s mother had transformed during the Kantou Liberation, her body had been obliterated first. Her true form as a beast had emerged because she could no longer maintain her human form.
So what if a Loup-Garou with a lot of human blood took a significant damage as a human?
“She’s revealing her Loup-Garou form instead of her human form?”
Mitotsudaira knew that Kasuya had fought Takigawa Ichimasu before she had and done critical damage to Takigawa.
What if that were the result of being severely wounded and undergoing a beast transformation?
…Don’t tell me…
“Did you use Takigawa’s technique to reproduce what happened then!?”
She received an answer.
In the form of Kasuya.
The girl stood up transformed.
Her hair had grown, she was wrapped in ether light, a wagging tail stuck out behind her, her uniform remained the same, and…
“––––”
When Kasuya’s bestial eyes focused on her, Mitotsudaira saw the sky.
She had been blown away by Kasuya’s Loup-Garou strength.
●
What Kasuya had done couldn’t even be called a single technique. It was a high-speed combined rush.
Mitotsudaira had never been attacked by anything like it.
This was Kasuya’s true from as a Loup-Garou, but it was different from Mitotsudaira’s mother. Her build, particularly her height, was close to Mitotsudaira’s. She didn’t demonstrate speed like Mitotsudaira’s mother. In fact…
…That’s mine.
Kasuya approached applying bursts of speed to Mitotsudaira’s own basic movements.
Mitotsudaira responded by wrapping the silver chains around her arms and guarding. Argent Clou crashed into her arms with too much force to be swept aside, knocking her backwards. No, she had launched herself backwards to avoid taking damage.
She fell back. She had no choice but to. However, the black wolf increased her speed.
“…”
And circled behind Mitotsudaira. Using a long burst of speed. With her Loup-Garou strength, even a small movement was enough to arrive behind Mitotsudaira.
“Mother.”
Mitotsudaira evaded the attack from behind.
…Silver chains!
While moving back, she swung the silver chains from her arms, had them grasp the deck, and pulled.
By applying a burst of speed, she managed to slip past Kasuya’s attack.
“Toh!”
By taking a back step, Mitotsudaira arrived right in front of Kasuya who had just finished swinging her arms. Mitotsudaira sent the silver chains toward her.
“Strike her, silver chains!”
She launched the four weapons with a shout and let them roar through the air.
They were deflected and broken.
The next thing she knew, Kasuya was standing in front of her. She held the Argent Clous in pile bunker mode with a pair of broken chains tangled around each one.
Mitotsudaira knew what had happened.
Kasuya had moved even faster than her burst of speed. She had responded to the four attacks with two pile bunker attacks.
She slowly lowered the broken silver chains instead of tossing them to the deck.
Once placed on the deck with a clunk, the tight arms and chains no longer moved. And Mitotsudaira’s side of the broken chains only swayed weakly.
Kasuya simply looked to Mitotsudaira.
“Mother,” she said with a tearful smile. “You were so happy when I showed you this form.”
“––––”
Kasuya nodded and gave her a meaningless “testament”. Her tears fell and she directed her bestial eyes at Mitotsudaira again.
“I have one question.” She went on to state that question. “When you and the others abandoned us, we all wondered – I wondered – why you had been so kind to us if you were only going to abandon us. Why had you wanted us to be born?”
“I…” began Mitotsudaira before stopping. She realized a reflexive response here would only sound like an excuse.
Kasuya had to understand that. One remaining tear fell from her eyes.
“It doesn’t matter. Because that isn’t going to happen again.”
And she came. An attack too fast to follow was going to hit Mitotsudaira’s guarding arms wrapped in the powerless silver chains.
Just as she realized there was nothing she could do, she heard a metallic clang.
●
Kasuya realized she had been stopped.
…Huh?
The Loup-Garou had the greatest strength of the humanoid nonhumans. Yet her strength had been solidly stopped.
By a horizontal blue line.
It took her some time to realize it was a long sword, but the answer was given to her first.
“Okay, that’s enough of that. I think we know who won that duel, right?”
The figure that smoothly emerged from behind the sword had short brown hair and wore a track suit.
It was her mother’s homeroom teacher.
“You!?”
●
Mitotsudaira saw her homeroom teacher’s back.
Oriotri shrugged toward Kasuya.
“Did Ishikawa-sensei mention something? Well, she and I do have a history.”
Mitotsudaira didn’t know what this meant. But Oriotri was speaking with the sheathed sword acting as a barrier between the two wolves.
“I’m using my authority as a teacher to stop this duel. Why? Because Mitotsudaira is Musashi’s 5th Special Duty Officer and not an official participant in the Battle of Yamazaki. Also…”
Oriotri smiled a little.
“If you want to have a family spat, give her some time to prepare first. You know knights have trouble with surprise attacks, right?”
Hearing that, Kasuya glanced over at Mitotsudaira and breathed in.
“Mother. …If you intend to continue this, I will ask the same question again.”
That would be Kasuya’s previous question. Why give birth to her if she was only going to abandon her? Mitotsudaira thought only her future self would know the answer to that, but…
“Do you want an answer?”
“Testament. I have carried that question with me for so long. …But I already believe stopping you is the answer.”
Kasuya then bowed her head and sped away.
The black wolf vanished in a burst of wind and ether light.
She had left.
●
Mitotsudaira somehow managed to avoid falling to her knees.
Oriotri must have noticed her at that point because she turned around.
“I know you lost, but are you alright?”
“W-well, um…”
While Mitotsudaira tried to find an answer, Oriotri collected the silver chains that had fallen to the deck. After wrapping the fragments in a towel she had hanging from her hip hard point part, she handed then to Mitotsudaira.
“Take good care of those. You’ll be using them again, won’t you?”
“Oh, judge. Thank you.”
Mitotsudaira wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t know if she should thank Oriotri for saving her or if she should say she could have kept on fighting. But the appearance of a sign frame distracted her.
Oriotri glanced over at the names listed on the sign frame and smiled bitterly.
“Oh? Looks like they’re all gathered together. Everyone except you and…”
Masazumi was calling her.
Vice President: “Did you finish Mitotsudaira!? …That just leaves Futayo! Where is she?”
The answer came in the form of noise.
A clashing of swords came from between Okutama and Oume.
●
They were on a wall.
A space with a width of about 30m covered the edge of Okutama’s bow as a wall-top passageway. For the port and starboard ships, a defense barrier generation spot was built there, but the central ships didn’t require those on their port and starboard sides, creating a battlefield with a wonderful view.
From there, the battle raging to port looked like no more than distant fireworks.
Those fireworks acted as the background as two figures scattered sparks.
Futayo and Fukushima. They both rapidly moved apart and pursued each other in an endless back and forth. They used constant footwork and repeated acceleration spells, but more to correct their movements than for speed.
When they closed in, they used their spears as barriers to create a safe zone and attempted to take up an attack position against each other. When the other swung her spear, they would move in and attempt an attack of their own.
“Toh.”
Instead of being swept away, one went along with the motion, slipped her hand down the shaft, and swung her own spear in a horizontal sweep. And…
“––––”
Her opponent let go of her spear, ducked, and rushed in.
“Now, then.”
As they each swept aside the other’s spear, they each stepped in to shift their positions.
Several acceleration spell sign frames appeared and vanished at the leading points of their legs and bodies.
They maintained control.
They used their own body as a fulcrum to rotate the spear around their waist.
They let go of their spear and spun it around.
And after a full rotation, they grabbed their spear, spun their bodies away from each other, and applied an acceleration spell.
With their new momentum, they again swung their spears and crossed paths.
The blades struck, drawing out a curve of sparks.
Their footwork and the occasional sparks illuminated a terribly quiet battlefield.
The sky rotated around them.
The two ships made the sky above rotate and it had already turned more than a half loop.
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