by Yuu Miyazaki
For an agent from one school to enter the grounds of another, that alone was enough to incur heavy repercussions.
“More to the point, there’s no benefit here to be had by Jie Long, no matter what you do,” Bujinsai added.
“HA! LISTEN TO YOURSELF!” Alema laughed back at him. “WE’RE NOT LIKE THOSE SPINELESS CLOWNS YOU ALL KEEP. AT GAISHI, WE DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH BENEFITING IEFS OR SCHOOLS. WE’RE JUST THE BAN’YUU TENRA’S HANDS, DOING AS WE’RE INSTRUCTED. SAME GOES FOR YOU GUYS, RIGHT? WE’RE BOTH PROS, HUH?”
“…Hmph, you’re a boastful one, aren’t you?” Bujinsai remarked with a faint smile. “Still, you look more promising than my idiot son.”
“I’M ACTUALLY PRETTY DISAPPOINTED, YA KNOW? YOUR GUYS WERE PRETTY EASY. I WAS HOPING FOR MORE.”
“I see. So it was you who took them out.”
Alema Seiyng was, after all, the former number one at Jie Long Seventh Institute.
And unlike the major PMCs and elite brigades belonging to the foundations, both of which enlisted only the finest graduates and fighters, the Yabuki clan’s members belonged to a lineage with the power to employ only certain special techniques. Based on individual fighting ability alone, it wasn’t surprising that Alema would be able to defeat them.
But even so, they shouldn’t have been that weak as to fall victim so quickly to only one person.
“…Fine. At any rate, I don’t have time to waste sparring with you,” Bujinsai said just as a row of shadows appeared in front of him on the crane.
From the girl’s position, a melee on this kind of footing would be unwise. The Yabuki had an overwhelming advantage.
“WHAT’S THIS? THERE’S STILL THIS MANY LEFT? I THOUGHT YOU YABUKI FOLK WERE SUPPOSED TO BE JUST A FEW ELITES…? HUH?” Alema tilted her head to one side, her expression one of curious astonishment. “THIS AIN’T RIGHT. YOU THERE—AND YOU…YOU TOO—I’M PRETTY SURE I STRANGLED THE LIFE OUT OF YOU JUST A LITTLE WHILE BACK.”
Four Kinoe had surrounded her. They were each dressed identically, and it was impossible to make out their faces. Of course, there were differences in their statures and builds, but for her to be able to recognize them all so quickly was quite a feat.
“My people are unusually sturdy.”
No sooner had Bujinsai finished speaking than the four Kinoe burst into action, attacking simultaneously from all sides, seemingly without paying any attention to their own defense—just as they had when they had captured Eishirou the previous day.
And yet, Alema, through some miracle, managed to deflect them all.
She leaped from the tip of the crane at her right, brushing aside the black-coated blade that came toward her with her right hand, while at the same time twisting her body around and using her left hand to snatch the bou-shuriken that came hurtling toward her from midair. She then moved to trip over the Kinoe that had come charging at her from in front, before repelling a kick that had come from behind, using her left arm as a weapon in and of itself.
Had her timing been off by even a fraction of a second, she wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.
Alema’s smile was one of pure joy. For her, the Kinoe weren’t enemies.
She struck at the one that had attacked from the front with the palm of her hand, sending it flying through the air, while she placed a fingertip on the neck of the one that had attacked from her right, its body going stiff as it flew into the next crane.
She used her momentum from the kick to launch herself through the air and threw the bou-shuriken in her hand back at its caster without so much as a backward glance, scoring an immediate hit. Landing behind the remaining Kinoe, she effortlessly dodged its attacks and launched into one of her own, digging both hands into its abdomen. An intense shock ran through the Kinoe’s body, which then dropped silently off the edge of the crane.
“Hmm, not bad.”
Bujinsai was legitimately impressed by the complex sequence of attack and defense.
Her skills in the martial arts, polished to a frightening degree, were worthy of the highest praise.
“COMPARED TO XINGLOU, YOU GUYS MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD WEIGHTS.” Alema sneered, her breathing so regular and calm that it was as if nothing had happened. “I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THESE APPETIZERS. LET’S MOVE ON TO THE MAIN COURSE.” Alema trained her eyes on Bujinsai, pupils glittering with malice.
The man stared back at her calmly, seemingly disinterested, as he scratched his head. “…You’re strong. There’s no doubt about that. But you are unwise to look down on your elders, girl.”
“OH-HO, WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?” Alema smirked, lowering her body to attack.
“Be grateful. I’m going to give you a lesson,” Bujinsai responded, beckoning with his hand.
“Haah… I wonder how Alema’s doing…?” Hufeng murmured as he watched the drizzling rain from a corridor in the Hall of the Yellow Dragon.
“Oh-ho, are you worried about her? How unusual.” Xinglou, walking in front of him, came to a stop. She turned toward him with an innocent smile.
“It’s not her I’m concerned about! It’s the institute! Don’t you understand, Master? If she slips up, and it can be traced back to us… No, I guess that would still be better than the alternative… If things go wrong, and she gets captured by Seidoukan, it’ll turn into a huge problem!”
“Oh my, you’re a worrier, aren’t you? They’re involved in something shady themselves, so even if something was to happen, there’s little chance they would dare to go public with it. And besides—” Xinglou paused there for a brief second, glancing up at the somber sky. “I have confidence in her strength and ability. As far as martial arts go, she’s no less skilled than Xiaohui.”
“That’s… I’m aware of that, but still…” Hufeng bit his lip in frustration.
In other words, Xinglou viewed Alema with higher esteem than he did himself.
Alema had her own style of martial arts, one that incorporated techniques from various schools and that continued to evolve with each passing day. It arose not from a hunger for strength, but a hunger for fighting in and of itself.
It was no mere story that she had challenged every single student within Jie Long and defeated them all. While she didn’t participate in the Festa, even now, Hexa Pantheon still ranked her within the top ten fighters in all of Asterisk. The fansite’s rankings were determined by ability and were greatly influenced by one’s public exposure. As such, the fact that Alema had maintained such a high ranking, despite having been relegated to behind-the-scenes work for some time now, was nothing short of astounding.
“Are you saying that we don’t need to worry about all this?” Hufeng asked.
“That isn’t what I said.”
“Huh?”
“It grieves me to say this, but she’s rather dim-witted. She’ll probably end up challenging the head of the Yabuki to a duel,” Xinglou replied, before continuing down the corridor.
Hufeng, feeling left behind, hurried after her. “W-wait, Master! Are you saying that she has no chance of winning against their leader?”
“I didn’t say that. There’s a chance she might win,” Xinglou answered carefully. “However… The Yabuki clan, just like Fuyuka’s, is composed of a unique bloodline, inherited uninterrupted generation to generation. The one in whom that blood flows strongest is chosen as their leader. And with stronger blood, he naturally has the most affinity with their techniques. I don’t know how strong the current head is, but at the very least, there’s little doubt that Alema won’t fare very well against those techniques.”
“…And you still sent her, despite knowing that?” Hufeng began, before a sudden, intense pressure bore down on him.
“—!”
The pressure, emanating from Xinglou, seemed to swallow him whole, leaving him unable to so much as breathe.
“…Of course. No matter what happens, it will only make her stronger.” Xinglou turned toward him, glaring with eyes that screamed death. “Listen well, Hufen
g, and don’t forget. I, the Ban’yuu Tenra, am here to train you students of Jie Long. She might not be one of my disciples, but she is promising. And I am willing to use any means necessary to accomplish my goal.”
“…I understand,” Hufeng gasped in apology. “F-forgive me.”
With that, the pressure immediately abated.
“At any rate, if she is to fight him, it shouldn’t take long,” Xinglou muttered to herself as she turned her gaze once more to the dark, rainy sky. “Who knows? It might already be over.”
The rain continued to grow stronger.
“Dear me, I wonder if this old body can stand up to this autumn rain?” Bujinsai murmured as he wiped a hand across his brow.
Alema grimaced at the acute pain and cold running through her as the raindrops struck her face. Mustering her strength, she managed to pull herself away from the crater-like impression on the wall of the warehouse, spat out a mouthful of bloody vomit, and rose to her feet.
“Oh, so you can still stand? You look much sturdier than us, that’s for sure,” Bujinsai said, as through truly impressed, stroking his chin.
In his right hand, he was holding a staff-shaped Lux. It was an unusually designed weapon, in which the circular upper part was comprised of glowing light, with a metal disk lodged inside. Alema had never seen such a Lux before, and it was hard to say that it looked particularly practical.
And yet, her opponent was using it to defeat her so one-sidedly. She hadn’t been able to get so much as a single attack of her own in.
Damn it, what’s with this old geezer…?!
She steadied her breathing, summoning forth her remaining prana. The pain grew dull as she felt the strength flow through every corner of her body.
I’m all right. I can still fight.
At that moment, a wave of delight gushed up inside her.
Right—that was all that mattered. Whether she won or lost, that came second. She just had to fight—and keep on fighting. Because fighting was what she lived for.
“Are you out of your mind? How can you smile in your situation? What a nuisance.”
But without responding, Alema instantly closed the distance toward Bujinsai.
She repeatedly thrust with her fingers toward his throat—but to no avail. She moved on to striking with her fists, her palms, her elbows, even the sides of her feet in a midair assault, flowing from one to the next without pause, but none reached their target. Her attacks, all of which had looked at first as if they would find their mark, each fell short.
And to make matters worse, for some reason she couldn’t fathom, she found herself unable to evade his attacks, attacks she should have been able to dodge without any particular difficulty.
“Let’s end this.”
And with that, a slash that Alema should have had no problem brushing aside cut into her neck.
She managed to stop it from digging in too deep, but any more, and it would probably have reached an artery.
Nonetheless, taking advantage of that opening, Bujinsai landed a powerful kick into the pit of her stomach and, as Alema fell to her knees, mercilessly kicked her head backward from below.
It was a powerful blow, enough to send her flying until she landed faceup on the ground.
“Even you, Seiten Taisei, cannot fight forever,” Bujinsai said indifferently as he stared down at her.
“…JUST LET ME ASK YOU ONE THING,” Alema asked, still lying motionless on the ground. “WERE THOSE YOUR STEALTH TECHNIQUES?”
To be perfectly honest, Alema didn’t think there was much difference between her and Bujinsai when it came to normal martial arts.
At the very least, she didn’t feel the kind of difference in ability that always led her to despair when she fought against Xinglou. Nonetheless, their duel had been completely one-sided. There had to be some other factor involved.
“Maybe.” Bujinsai’s response was, as she had expected, completely noncommittal. After a moment, however, his lips curled in a slight smile, as if suddenly remembering something. “Well, there’s no way a kid like you, trained by Xinglou Fan as she is now, would be able to see through them.”
“As she is now…?”
“The story of my great-grandfather fighting that undying monster has been passed down for more than a century. She’s the kind who gets stronger with age but was stupid enough to replace her body with that.” Bujinsai sneered down at her. “She doesn’t even have half the strength now that she did then.”
Half?!
The shock of those words was overpowering.
But at the same time, an indescribable sense of elation began to well up inside her.
Still lying on the ground, Alema broke out into a sudden burst of laughter—albeit a silent one.
“Hee-hee… Ah-hahaha! Ah-hahahaha!”
Bujinsai knitted his brows, looking down at her suspiciously. “What is it, girl? Have you finally lost your mind?”
“NO, YOU’VE JUST REMINDED ME HOW HUGE THE WORLD IS! I CAN’T AFFORD TO DIE NOW, NOT LIKE THIS!” she exclaimed, before leaping up and lashing out with a sudden kick.
He dodged the attack without any difficulty, but that was fine.
“Ngh…!”
Just as Bujinsai stepped backward to distance himself from her, Alema ran up the wall of the warehouse to leap atop a nearby crane.
“…Oh, so you’ve still got something in you, have you, now?” he murmured, as if truly impressed.
“MY BAD, BUT I’VE ALREADY KINDA FINISHED WHAT I CAME HERE TO DO, SO I’LL CALL IT QUITS FOR NOW.”
Her instructions, as given by Xinglou, had been to support Seidoukan’s student council president to give her an opportunity to escape. It was hard to really call it an achievement, but she had immobilized the majority of the Yabuki clan’s assassins. One might say that that was enough.
Her most troublesome opponent might still be left standing, but that couldn’t be helped.
“You’ve finished what you came here to do, huh? You’re still wet behind the ears, it seems,” Bujinsai said, before slowly lifting his arm.
What…?! Alema wondered.
With that, the figures of what looked like several Yabuki clan members emerged behind him, as if seeping out of the shadows.
More figures had emerged from the shadows around the crane, surrounding her.
Reinforcements…? No, they’re—
She should have already defeated the vast majority of them. She might not have had the luxury of finishing them off completely, but the wounds she had dealt them hadn’t been so light that they should be able to encircle her now.
Which meant—
“…TCH, SO YOU’VE GOT A HEALER WITH YOU, I TAKE IT?”
Alema’s eyes caught sight of a long-haired figure waiting behind Bujinsai. She was wearing the same kind of outfit as everyone else, but like the clan’s leader, her head was uncovered. It was readily apparent that, as far as raw strength went, the woman was far below the level of all the other members.
The only reason for bringing someone like that on their kind of mission would be for support, and considering the situation, the only sensible conclusion was that she was a healer.
That said, no healer, not even in the best of hospitals, should have had the power to deal with so many people with so many injuries so quickly. There had to be some kind of explanation, some kind of trick…but she couldn’t afford to try to uncover it now.
“…TCH, SO I’VE BEEN HAD. LOOKS LIKE I’VE LOST THIS TIME. BUT REMEMBER THIS, OLD MAN! I’LL BE LOOKING FORWARD TO FIGHTING YOU AGAIN SOMEDAY!” Alema declared, before launching herself from the top of the crane and landing on one of the warehouse buildings below.
“Hmph! I don’t have time for that!”
The shadows surrounding her wasted no time leaping after her in pursuit. Alema, however, was in no state to be able to deal with them all again.
Well, it isn’t like I don’t have my last resort… Alema thought, before raising her hands to her throat. But I can’t af
ford to use it without Xinglou’s permission.
That said, it would be too easy to simply run away.
And she wouldn’t be able to show her face to Xinglou if she didn’t at least bring back a souvenir.
Alema wondered what she might be able to take with her as she ran across the rooftop, when her mobile began to sound with a message from an unknown sender. It was a custom-made device, capable of receiving messages only from a select number of individuals, so there should have been no need for anyone to try to hide their identity.
She couldn’t help but be suspicious, but she wasted no time in opening the data.
What do we have here…?
The rain buffeting her as she continued to run, she hurried to mentally work out her present location on the map of the harbor block that had accompanied the message.
If what was written there was true, she might be able to bring back a good present after all.
“…Father, shall I assign more people to the pursuit? I’m a little uneasy leaving only four of us to catch her.”
“No, let her go,” Bujinsai replied to his daughter, Eika, as he watched Alema disappear into the rain.
Just as Alema had surmised, Eika was gifted with an extremely rare talent for healing. With the help of certain special medicines, her abilities allowed her to guide even the most severely wounded people back to full health in a matter of minutes. They were only effective, however, on blood relatives.
Bujinsai had brought not only his daughter, but two other healers on their present mission. Each were priceless treasures to the Yabuki clan.
“Our top priority is to carry out the mission. Fighting her took up more time than I expected.”
It was already approaching evening. They could try to wait until the target had used up all of the Pan-Dora’s precognition stock fighting off the Kinoe in waves, but that would take time, and the longer they waited, the greater the risk.
