Horizon:Volume 9B Chapter 50
Chapter 50: Fellow Countryman[edit]
It is needed to convey your thoughts
Everyone has it
But unfortunately
Not always equally
Point Allocation (This Isn’t About Chests)
●
Adele was flipped upside down and had no idea how it had happened.
…Huh?
She let her glasses slip onto her forehead as she looked to the front console where everyone was visible on the sign frame. The image had its brightness slightly amplified and it showed them all running this way.
That meant she had passed them.
“Eh? But how?”
She shook her head at the question while Raging Beast’s auto-balancer got to work.
She didn’t understand, but she could move. So she stood up.
She was a little frightened to see everything was functioning normally. But the monitor did report that the rear hatch had taken a powerful blow.
Sassa’s attack had hit her in the rear.
That meant she had rushed in and arrived in time.
What speed had she needed to cover more than 30m in so short a time?
…Around 120km/h.
But Raging Beast was slow. Try as she might, she could never coax that kind of speed out of it.
Or so she thought.
But since she was here now…
…How did I do it?
Meanwhile, Raging Beast had stood up. And everyone was running this way. Mitotsudaira was in the lead and she waved at the two split columns following after her and pointed at Sassa who was running in from the other side.
“Now, Adele! Crash into him!”
“Well, at least that’s a straightforward request!”
Nevertheless, Adele didn’t know what to do.
…Umm.
All the settings should have been untouched. The legs were entirely in manual mode. So she looked to her feet and tried to recreate what she had done.
“Like this.”
When she took a step, so did the mobile shell. And when she took a second step…
“–––? No, this isn’t working.”
It was the same. Heavy. This was meaningless. And when she looked ahead, she saw Sassa catching up to the others.
…Uh, oh.
The enemy was straight out in front of her.
Raging Beast was slow, but she would reach the rear of the Musashi group before Sassa did. So…
“I-I still don’t get it, but here I go!”
She began a straight line run toward the enemy.
And.
She felt a great impact and saw the sky.
●
Sassa punched on pure reflex.
A great pressure had suddenly rushed in toward him.
He hadn’t managed to see it, but his body had reacted.
So he had punched it. A Lily Flower attack struck the pressure head on.
…What the hell!?
The impact pushed him back a few meters and…
“–––––”
A shape flew by overhead and behind him.
The shape was round and fairly large.
It was that mobile shell.
●
Adele made no mistake this time.
She operated Raging Beast’s balancer while still in the air. The legs’ jacks and absorbers worked together to shift the feet from tiptoes to flatfooted. After landing like that, she used the tail ballast to fully soften the impact coming up from the feet.
But after all that…
“Why can Raging Beast run like that?”
She had no clue how this was possible.
No, she knew how it had happened. She could take a guess anyway.
What she didn’t understand was why.
“Why does Raging Beast have a sprinting system installed?”
Why did it have that kind of acceleration system? But…
“Ha.”
She felt heat running down the cheeks of her lowered head.
She could feel her heart hammering in her chest.
…Wow…
She felt like this strange sense of hope would burst if she didn’t turn it into a joke. Please send the pressure into my chest.
<Give up. By, god.>
“You didn’t have to answer!”
But she took a breath and faced forward.
Sassa had his back to her while he raced on ahead. He was pursuing the others. And the Chancellor…
“Adele! Over here! Here, girl!”
He pointed down and called to her. Sorry, but I’m not the 5th Special Duty Officer and I’m not a dog. But she knew he understood that.
“Coming!” she replied, as she ran.
She sent her weighty speed straight ahead.
●
I get it now, thought Adele.
She was running.
When moving Raging Beast, she didn’t “move her legs”. She sat in the seat and “ran”.
Straight ahead.
Just because Raging Beast’s legs were spread apart didn’t mean she had to match her movements to that.
It probably came down to the structure of the legs. Yoshinao had said he cleaned and tuned the internal drive system because it was rusted. Even though Adele had fully maintained it in the past.
Which meant…
…The internal structure of the legs was slanted, causing the parts to rub!
When metal pieces that large rubbed together, the friction alone could act like a brake.
But what if those parts were all straightened out?
She straightened her back and moved as if stretching forward within the cramped cockpit.
“Here I go!”
When she took a step, the speed instantly accumulated.
She threw her entire being forward.
●
Sassa shuddered when he heard a metallic sound behind him.
But not from nerves. This was excitement at knowing his enemy was approaching fast.
…It’s that thing!
The mobile shell. There was no mistaking it this time. Each step added more forced acceleration as that blue mobile shell ran.
The hunk of metal raced in a straight line and this time it had a long lance held out on the right.
It was fast. But…
“That’s not all!”
Sassa looked back and threw a backhand blow.
His punch struck the blue mobile shell.
“…!”
It made a half-rotation to the side and crashed head-first into the ditch. Then it rolled four times.
But the enemy didn’t stop there.
Even as it rolled, the mobile shell pushed out a hand to get back up.
…Persistent bastard!
It was coming. His next attack wouldn’t be fast enough. So…
“Tch!”
He viewed dodging as shameful, but it was better than taking a hit.
So he took a quick step back, allowing the mobile shell to pass by right in front of him.
…How bout that!?
As far as he could see, that mobile shell had a weakness.
“It can only run in straight lines!”
●
…H-he’s right about that!
It was true. While Raging Beast could reach speeds that could be called the artillery super express, it could only run straight. That seemed to mean falling and rolling was the only way to turn, but…
Bell: “A…dele!”
Flat Vassal: “Eh? Oh, judge! What is it, Suzu-san!?”
Bell: “I have a message…from Vice Principal Yoshinao!”
…From the vice principal!?
Adele wondered what this could be, but it turned out to be a single instruction.
Bell: “Use your…right-side weapon!”
●
After ordering the gunner unit to fall back and fire, Mitsunari heard rubble being destroyed.
She looked up, wondering what it could be, and saw an act of destruction.
The mobile shell, which had been moving so rapidly, was smashing the stone pavement. The lance it held on its right side was stabbed straight down into the line of stone and acted as a pivot point.
“Turn!”
The mobile shell forcibly rotated around it like a pole dance.
The entire blue machine made a 180-degree turn.
“Here I go!”
And it ran.
●
The acceleration collisions were a series of impacts and metallic sounds.
The noises came fast and reached all the way up to the Musashi overhead.
The provisional government office was located at the front and center of Musashino. Or, it had been. It had already been purged, split into three, and was being carried to Shikoku.
All that remained was a portion of the park left on the frame found at the edge of the base hull.
Currently, a transport ship was moored there. When on that ship, Honnouji and the pillars of light were visible past its bow.
The sounds could be heard too.
The distant sounds of impacts and of stone pavement being destroyed.
Someone stood on that ship’s deck, listening to those sounds with his eyes closed.
He was Musashi King and Musashi Ariadust Academy Vice Principal Yoshinao.
He sighed and spoke calmly.
“Honestly, he still causes me so much trouble.”
“Did he not teach her how to use the mobile shell?” asked his wife, who was already viewing a map of sightseeing locations in Shikoku.
But Yoshinao shook his head.
“No, when we asked Adele-kun, she said ‘the manual said to go straight ahead!’, which is not wrong. It’s just…that assumes your definition of ‘straight ahead’ is based on being aboard the mobile shell.”
He smiled a little and drew a half-meter circle in the air.
“The knee acceleration panels had clearly been worn down like they were brakes. Most likely, that poor posture became a bad habit for her.”
“But why didn’t she notice back before she picked up that bad habit?”
“Have you forgotten what it is like to be a child?”
After a pause, his wife smiled.
“Judge. You have a point. You were shorter than me when we were children.”
“Only until age 10. …But for Adele-kun, that likely only happened recently,” said Yoshinao. “If the power cannot reach every last part of the machine, it cannot draw on its full power. While we were removing the rust caused by her bad habit, we noticed the rusted portion had not been rubbing recently. That means her legs can reach. She only had to move her legs properly. And now the vassal bearing our beast crest has taken action to save her friends.”
Yes.
“He always stayed still to act as a shield, but now his daughter has been given freedom. And we helped give it to her. How about that?”
“Yes,” replied his wife. And she joined him in looking straight ahead to Honnouji. “A king’s job should be carried out where his subjects cannot see it.”
●
Adele was crying.
Operating Raging Beast required her entire body, so she couldn’t wipe away the tears. And she couldn’t run straight if she tensed her body to try and suppress the tears.
She simply wept and ran.
“Yes!”
She repeatedly charged toward Sassa.
She ran. She attacked. And she regained control when deflected and knocked away. She planted her feet back on the ground. She no longer used the auto-balancer. Raging Beast fit her entire body. It was heavy, but she still took her steps straight ahead and pulled her body out from that weight.
She ran.
She continued forward as if pushed by her speed.
…Dad.
He had died long ago. On the Musashi.
She had thought Raging Beast was the only thing he left her.
That was true. But…
…Dad.
She spoke to her father where no one outside could see.
“I’ve finally grown as much as you’d hoped!”
Her feet could push the foot pedals all the way down. She could almost feel the power coursing between the shoulder hard point parts connected to the seat and the bottom of her feet.
She could do this.
She had everything she needed: the leg strength gained by moving Raging Beast, the martial arts knowledge she learned in her vassal training, her daily training and running, her life loving on the dogs she walked with, her poverty, the hunger knock she experienced during maintenance, the dried weeds she had mistaken for bread crusts, the leftovers she received at the Blue Thunder. Lately, it’s been the dinner sets from the night before. All of that had played a role. A lot of it seemed like it had more to do with her being poor, but…
…I will get through!
When she placed her foot down, the ground was there to meet it. The cacophony of speed made her pulse race and her acceleration shook away her tears.
This was pure joy.
She felt like she had used up everything she had in the opening part of this battle, but there was no helping that. She knew everyone would understand.
Me: “Hey! Nate! Adele’s moved on from being a hammer!”
Silver Wolf: “Hee hee. It won’t be the same without her. Nothing else will hit quite as hard.”
Horizey: “Adele-sama has been promoted from Adele Hammer to Adele Auto-Hammer. Congraaaaaaatulationzzzzzzzz!”
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
But her opponent here was one of the Five Great Peaks.
…That’s incredible!
Sassa reacted to her charges and turns and even made counterattacks, but he also managed to close in on the Musashi group.
Adele still wasn’t used to moving like this.
Every time she left an opening in her movements, Sassa approached the others.
“Kh…”
She clenched her teeth and groaned.
“I will assist you, Lady Adele.”
A white sword rose and someone emerged from the others’ ranks. That was…
“Mary-san!?”
●
Sassa questioned this.
…It isn’t their ninja!?
The ninja was the one who had chopped off one of Shibata’s arms. Sassa had expected him to make a move, so…
“What’s wrong with that ninja!? The coward!”
●
Gold Mar: “What’s wrong with that ninja!?”
Laborer: “What’s wrong with that ninja!?”
Asama: “Mary, do you consider Tenzou-kun to be ‘that’ ninja?”
Scarred: “Eh? Oh, sorry, I’m kind of busy right now. …And if you must know, I would call him ‘my’ ninja.”
Horizey: “Thank you very much for an answer as sweet as a sugar stick up the butt.”
Art-Ga: “Oh, we’re getting a lot of posts in both threads.”
10ZO: “What are you all doing!?”
●
If Mary wanted it, Tenzou thought it was best to let her go.
Her skill with a sword was more than adequate. She was well-balanced between offense and defense and she had clean movements. He had learned all this during the battle at IZUMO and the battle against Takakane, but…
…She never makes mistakes.
You could say she sent her sword where the enemy would block it.
Calling it hit intuition sounded weird, but that was what it was. It was a skill she had likely learned while cutting down the 300.
And she had another reason for heading out on her own here. She could do something he could not.
“Okay.”
Mary held Ex. Collbrande at mid height and swung it toward Sassa as he ran.
●
Sassa didn’t fear bladed weapons. The power of Israfil would shatter any blade on contact.
So his mood changed when he saw Ex. Collbrande. He honestly wasn’t interested in dealing with the English Princess, but…
“Lily Flower!”
He threw a punch. A hit would shatter that blade. But…
“…!?”
He was wrong. The loud impact was followed by light shattering and his right hand’s spell bursting.
The Lily Flower spell had self-destructed.
●
Sassa viewed his enemy through the scattering ether light.
His right hand’s Lily Flower had scattered, but it hadn’t been destroyed.
It had self-destructed.
The spell lost all power and concluded it could no longer last, so it destroyed itself.
The feel of the attack told him what had happened.
“Damn you! You did that thing to Israfil to make stuff happen, didn’t you!?”
He was a little ashamed of his poor vocabulary.
…I think Fuwa got after me about that before.
The English Princess nodded and spoke in a soft but carrying voice.
“Judge. I did that thing to your spell to make stuff happen!”
She understood me!
●
Art-Ga: “Oh, no! Is that ninja being left out of this one? He is, isn’t he?”
Laborer: “Tenzou! You should’ve been more of an idiot!”
10ZO: “Hey, don’t call Mary-dono an idiot!!”
Worshiper: “Wait, I’m lost.”
●
Asama more or less understood.
“It comes down to their compatibility.”
“Their compatibility, you say?”
“Oh, Toori-kun, not that kind.”
It was easy to explain.
“Israfil probably uses earth power. He releases it from his fists. Now, Mary’s Ex. Collbrande came from a spring spirit, but it was repaired in the ley lines. So we can assume it was given an earth protection.”
And…
“Mary herself is a descendant of a great tree spirit. They are both quite strong in the earth element. Also, our Far Eastern uniforms have ether conduction in the shoes and such to draw the local protections from the ground. If Mary negated and restored Israfil’s power with Excalibur, it would have passed through her to reach the ground. That’s my guess as to what happened.”
Mary had in fact buried Excalibur in the ground to refuel back at Mitotsudaira’s mom’s house. Israfil also used earth power, so even if she couldn’t directly absorb it since that power had been converted into the Lily Power spell, she could let it “pass through” her as ether.
Mitotsudaira looked back while running out in the lead. She was closely affiliated with forests and she seemed to understand what Mary had done.
“Um, you mean…?”
Asama knew what she was trying to say.
“Yes, Mary is Sassa Narimasa’s worst enemy. …Now I see why she didn’t want Tenzou-kun’s help. In this case, anyone other than her would only be in the way.”
●
“Now,” said Mary, holding Excalibur at middle height and facing Sassa. “I will do the other thing. Are you ready? …You will lose.”
Sassa responded by readying his fist and activating spells across his body.
He stared at her through his sunglasses.
“What will you be doing?”
“The other thing.”
“Oh, the other one?”
“The other one,” she confirmed.
But…
“Oh,” she realized. And then she quickly added an “um”.
Because she had to change her plan here. Which meant she would not be doing the other thing.
…I-I don’t want to play dirty.
Sassa was a warrior. His personality was quite different, but he was a lot like Walter. He was the type to wait if told to wait, so she wanted to do this right.
So she made sure to explain what was about to happen.
“Sorry. I will be doing the other, other thing.”
“The other, other!?”
His question was immediately followed by Adele charging in from the side. Yes, that other, other thing.
●
Horizey: “Mary-sama was untouchable there, wasn’t she?”
Asama: “Come to think of it, when cooking during our training camp, she was always telling Tenzou-kun to grab ‘that thing’ for her.”
Gold Mar: “She was, wasn’t she? Getting it right about 70% of the time would be adorable while still being useful, but Tenzou stupidly got it right every time.”
Art-Ga: “Eh!? So you’re saying I’m adorable, Margot!? I’ll remember you said that!”
10ZO: “Not only are you leaking private information but you’re going in for the kill too!?”
●
Sassa was knocked away.
…Damn!
Thanks to Excalibur earlier. The attack was ridiculous even for a divine weapon and, even though he’d been ready for it, he hadn’t expected it to work with its wielder to gain a drain effect.
His punch against the mobile shell just now had been weak.
He hadn’t gotten his strength through to his opponent. So the impact destroyed his spell and knocked him away.
And as the mobile shell made a turn…
“Take this!”
A shockingly sharp sword wind flew his way.
She was using her drain attack on him while the mobile shell couldn’t attack.
…Damn them!
The mobile shell had to be a non-name inheritor. The English Princess was a name inheritor from another nation altogether.
This was supposed to be the Honnouji Incident. It was a Far Eastern history recreation and Sassa Narimasa wasn’t allowed there.
So he hadn’t expected any of his opponents during this turning point of history to be any match for him.
But he was an ordinary warrior. He didn’t get to choose who he fought. And he was certain that…
…It would’ve turned out this way even if I was here as Sassa Narimasa!
The English Princess’s sword was coming.
The mobile shell had completed its turn.
He couldn’t deflect the English Princess’s sword. If he tried, he would lose his power. That left just one option.
“Don’t mess with me!”
●
Sassa punched Excalibur with his left fist.
But he didn’t use a spell.
He used his bare hand.
He was wearing a gauntlet, but he struck the side of Excalibur’s blade with no assistance.
The impact rang loud and the sword was indeed knocked away.
The English Princess immediately took a step back, showing she had good a fighting sense. If she had stayed put, he would have attacked again.
And he felt pain in his left hand.
His gauntlet wasn’t a divine weapon, but it did have a lot of Orei Metallo in it. That had split a bit and blood was leaking from between his fingers.
…Does the blade itself have a buffing protection!?
That explained how it had managed to cut off that idiot’s arm.
And in the next moment…
“Lily Flower!”
He punched the approaching mobile shell.
●
Mitotsudaira heard the sword strikes and punches.
The sounds of Mary’s attacks and the responding attacks reached her from behind as she ran.
…Mary can fight pretty well.
Had fighting the Tres España Vice Chancellor in the evening straightened out her instincts? She attacked Sassa once with each breath.
How compact her attacks were was obvious even just from the sounds.
She made quick movements of the blade from mid height to attack with the middle of the blade, not the tip. Excalibur was not a curved sword, so she didn’t need to use the curve to slash. So instead, she swung as if pushing in with the middle, which had more weight and made it easier to catch the enemy.
To pull it back, she moved her entire body back and only then pulled her wrist in.
And she completed the motion by bringing her heel back.
But it was all so fast and precise. Not to mention…
…She uses the raised blade as a shield.
By raising Excalibur at mid height, it shielded her from the enemy. With that sharp shield in the way, she used her footwork to keep herself in an advantageous position.
Her motions looked so minute but also solid.
This had to be the sword technique she had built up killing the three hundred. And in response…
“Ohh!”
She was targeted with punches.
Mary responded to all of Sassa’s attacks.
It had all reversed.
Before, Sassa had been responding to Mary’s attacks, but not anymore. Sassa was now the primary attacker as he pursued Mary.
But this pursuit was built on his own injury.
“Damn!”
Blood spilled from Sassa’s left fist. And his right. At first, he had only used his left to oppose Excalibur, but the severity of the injury had to be getting worse and worse. He was now using his right as well, swapping back and forth between them.
The small wing insha kotobs on his hands had to be Israfil being used for healing.
Adele sped up in response to him.
She was learning to take tighter turns.
Mitotsudaira could tell from the sounds.
Before, Adele had simply poured all her strength into moving straight ahead and used her lance as a pivot point to turn. But now…
…She’s tilting Raging Beast, isn’t she?
She was probably relying on the auto-balancer.
Raging Beast itself didn’t fall over easy and the balancer was primarily meant to get it back up after it did fall, but it would prove its true worth during this high-speed movement.
How far could the mobile shell tilt without falling while running? Raging Beast had several modes for the bottom of its feet. The mode that had seemed like it was meant for shock absorption was now clearly meant to grip the ground while running.
That allowed Raging Beast to move along curving paths like a top. Of course, it couldn’t make immediate course changes, but this would still open up new tactics.
But…
“Mary!”
Mary was attacking more often now.
And Sassa was having to go in more aggressively.
But Sassa’s attacks also worked against Adele’s charges. Neither Mary nor Raging Beast could reach Sassa on their own.
If they were going to win, they would have to wear down Sassa’s stamina. His blood loss and injuries had to be getting serious by this point, but…
…He’s also activating Israfil to heal, isn’t he!?”
“1st Special Duty Officer, can’t you do something!?”
Adele turned around to find the ninja was gone.
●
Sassa was glad he was wearing sunglasses. Because out of the corner of his eye…
“Hey! Hey! Over here! I’m over here! Don’t you want to watch this fascinating ninja moonwalking!? Or would something else grab your attention more!? ♪Night falls over the town~ Oh, this southern night~ Smooch~♪ Thank you very much!”
…God, this diversion is annoying!
And I can tell the English Princess is struggling to suppress her laughter!
●
Me: “Why is he only funny when he does stuff like this?”
Vice President: “I’m not sure, but maybe it puts him in the right mood?”
Wise Sister: “Hee hee. Love! It’s love!”
Asama: “Hey, the enemy is starting to attack even more!”
●
Mary felt some mild concern.
…He saw through it.
Her attack neutralization using Excalibur required a certain condition.
“Kh.”
When she tried to step back, he sent a preemptive attack her way.
The angle of the punch limited where she could go. Which meant…
…He really has figured it out!
“Yeah, I know what you’re up to. I figured it out earlier!” said Sassa, punching back Adele who had rushed in after noticing how Mary was acting. “Your drain attack only works when your feet are on the ground, doesn’t it!?”
Only on the ground. That meant she had to place her feet in specific locations on this stone pavement.
“You can only step on the spots where that mobile shell smashed up the stone, exposing the ground!”
●
Sassa shifted to attack.
…I get it now!
His opponent wasn’t using a specialized spell to send his power back to the ground. Wasn’t she a half-spirit? Then it was the geographic phase itself she was using.
Israfil could ignore that kind of obstacle to access the earth power, so it had an advantage in combat.
Now he could restrict her movements.
Excalibur was a great punching target. If it would drain his power, he could attack it with his bare hand, so…
“Even that idiot would’ve enjoyed this!”
He punched.
He was injured, but he had Israfil. And…
“I’m using Lily Flower to boost my speed!”
He threw his punches with just his own strength, but he applied Lily Flower to the rest of his body to assist.
It was a forceful technique that only worked with his light, bare hands. Besides, he wasn’t that great at these combo moves.
But he did it anyway. And in the middle of it all…
“Lily Flower!”
He punched away the mobile shell.
He could focus on his main opponent until it returned. So…
“Excalibur is mine!”
●
Noriki wondered what would happen if he fought this opponent.
Of course, Sassa went for one-punch wins while Noriki went for triple-punch wins.
…I’d be done for with the first attack!
It was nice finding an answer so quickly. But…
“A combo’s coming!”
He saw Sassa launch a high-speed combo of his one-punch win moves.
Meanwhile, Mary couldn’t move much with so few spaces she could stand and attack with Excalibur.
But Sassa had predicted that.
He had Mary trapped.
“Ohh!”
As a fellow puncher, Noriki understood Sassa’s determination in that moment.
After throwing his left fist with all his might, Sassa opened the hand midflight.
“I said it’s mine, didn’t I!?”
He grabbed Excalibur. With no concern for the fact he was holding the blade.
●
Sassa saw the English Princess gasp and pull back.
…She was raised well!
She might be prepared to harm others, but it still shocked her when it happened in an unexpected way.
The blue mobile shell was performing a turn behind her.
But it wouldn’t arrive soon enough to prevent this.
As the English Princess pulled back, her foot stepped on something: a stone tile.
Now she couldn’t drain Israfil’s power. So even as his left fist was cut and the gauntlet split…
“Lily Flower!” he shouted, throwing his right fist toward the English Princess.
●
The movement happened unusually slowly.
Sassa watched as the English Princess, who was within his right fist’s reach, trembled a bit.
Less like she had realized something and more like her back had hit a wall.
…Is it him!?
The ninja.
A shadow appeared suddenly.
The guy who had been such an annoyance earlier was now supporting the English Princess from behind and pulling her back.
But that wasn’t all.
A crouched shadow with its back turned was now in the path of Sassa’s fist.
This wasn’t a newcomer to the fight. The shadow wore one half of Ex. Collbrande on its back.
There were two ninjas. Sassa knew about this technique. His upperclassman Takigawa had used it all the time,.
“Physical copies!?”
There were two of him. It would probably only last a short time, but that was why he had made that diversion at close range. He had gained the time needed to get them both moving by approaching for the diversion.
Sassa’s punch crashed into the Excalibur worn on the crouching ninja’s back.
And the English Princess was carried half a step back, taking her out of the range of Sassa’s fist.
Then the ninja copies vanished and Sassa heard someone fall to their knees behind him.
“…!”
A moment later, Sassa saw the mobile shell approaching by rushing right past the English Princess.
“I’m not gone yet!” he shouted at that high-speed attack.
He struck the mobile shell with the Lily Flower punch that had nearly ended in failure.
The mobile shell was knocked away.
That was one of the strongest punches he had ever thrown.
He had achieved it by using one of the combos he usually didn’t bother with.
The ground shook and the mobile shell emitted a rumbling sound as it flew away.
Its lance left its grasp and floated loose in the air.
He had done it.
The enemy mobile shell had lost the weapon it used to change direction.
The English Princess lacked any means of escaping.
Sassa could still use his right arm and his left hand held Excalibur in place.
He could win this. Or so he thought.
He was wrong.
Someone new had arrived.
A small girl. She was skinny, wore a Far Eastern uniform, and had her blonde hair tied back.
She came running along the path the mobile shell had just flown. Running fast.
“Here I go!”
●
Oh, I get it, realized Sassa. You were piloting that thing.
She caught the airborne lance with her full body and continued forward.
That must have been intentional.
In the instant he was focused on the English Princess and distracted by the ninja, she had emerged from the mobile shell’s rear hatch.
The mobile shell must have been empty when it flew away just now. Explains why it made such a nice sound. And here I was thinking it was one of the best attacks in my punching career.
Damn.
What is going on?
Sassa Narimasa shows up at Honnouji, a big turning point in history, and he lets the English Princess and some creepy ninja mess with him before he’s finally taken out by a no-name student with a lance?
This is why.
This is why I can’t stand it
This is why I can’t stand any of this Warring States and Thirty Years’ War nonsense.
But…
“I can’t stand it, but god do I love it!”
●
Sassa prepared himself.
He viewed the enemy that were about to defeat him: the English Princess, a no-name student, and… Eh, forget the ninja.
But as the attack hit him, a name came to mind.
…Fuwa.
I just know you’ll call me an idiot next time we meet.
But why am I thinking about her now?
…Oh, because this little one is wearing glasses?
Then the attack hit.
It was like taking a small artillery shell to the center of his torso. A broken sternum, seven broken ribs, plus countless bruises and cuts. But most painful of all…
…I lost!
This might be what made that idiot happier than anything else.
“Naru Naru-kuuuun!? You’ve still got a long way to go!!”
As he collapsed, the night sky, the full moons, and the pillars of light began to distort in his vision.
Damn.
Laugh it up, you dumbass. I know you know how I feel.
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