by Yuu Miyazaki
The rain, still pouring around them, evaporated as soon as it hit the long blade of the Orga Lux, causing a haze of white steam to rise up around them.
“I see you’ve turned to a brute-force approach. Do you really think that gigantic thing will be able to reach me?” Bujinsai scoffed, casting a flurry of at least a dozen more tobi-kunai toward him.
“Ugh!”
In its current state, the Ser Veresta was too large to knock them all down. His only option was to leap to safety.
But as if having already anticipated that, Bujinsai suddenly appeared right in front of him.
“I won’t let you get away this time. Even if you do try to withstand it, I’ll just have to whittle your prana down bit by bit…” The old man’s eyes glowed darkly as he approached ever closer.
This was the chance that Ayato had been waiting for.
Letting go of the Ser Veresta and concentrating his prana into his stomach to endure the powerful slash, he clasped his hands around his opponent as strongly as he could.
This is the only way to bring down a faster, more skilled opponent…!
“What?!”
It was the same strategy he had used in a duel against Kirin.
The Amagiri Shinmei style was originally developed to be used by those dressed in full battle armor, and so the purpose of its grappling techniques wasn’t to strike one’s opponents or knock them aside, but rather to pin them down. After all, once an armored opponent was pushed into the ground, further resistance was all but impossible.
As such, he had resorted to one of his school’s oldest and most inelegant moves:
“Amagiri Shinmei Style Grappling Technique—Twisted Vine!”
He grabbed Bujinsai’s arm, pushing himself toward his opponent as he kicked his legs out from under him.
He was, in short, throwing his whole body on top of him, so it wouldn’t matter too much if Bujinsai managed to interfere with his movements.
“Ngh…!”
If Bujinsai was as knowledgeable about the Amagiri Shinmei style as he appeared, he would probably know how to free himself from his situation, so Ayato immediately moved into his next attack, concentrating his prana into his fist and slamming it down into the soldier’s chest.
“Amagiri Shinmei Style Grappling Technique—Divine Hammer!”
“Koff…!”
Ayato had put so much strength into the strike that the air around him trembled, the shock coursing straight through Bujinsai’s body and shattering the ground into a small crater beneath him.
It was a more advanced version of the technique that he had used against Eishirou, made more powerful by his having poured his prana into the attack.
This should do it…
“—!”
But as soon as Ayato, thinking he had snatched victory, relaxed his guard, Bujinsai’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
Ayato’s body immediately turned stiff, leaving him unable to so much as lift a finger.
A binding technique…?!
Left completely defenseless, Bujinsai drove the palm of his hand into Ayato’s stomach.
“Ngh!”
The attack sent him flying through the air, crashing into the ground before he could have any chance to prepare for the impact.
“Serves you right, you damn kid…!” Bujinsai spat out a ball of blood before wiping at his mouth with his fist.
“Now you’ve gone and done it. I wasn’t going easy on you or letting down my guard, but I suppose some part of me wanted to see what you could pull off. I guess I’ll have to be more careful.” The man’s words, finally shedding their false dispassion, rang with indignation.
“Argh…” Ayato forced himself to move, albeit only slightly, but most of his body remained frozen in place. The best he could do was force himself to his feet, though unsteadily.
“It’s over for you. The immobilization effect hasn’t worn off yet. I’m impressed that you can do this much, but now…,” Bujinsai trailed off, balancing his staff against the ground, and effortlessly cast eight separate tobi-kunai toward him.
“—!”
Ayato was in no condition to dodge them. Barely managing to raise his hands to protect his face, he poured his prana into his body in an attempt to withstand the blows.
If he couldn’t free himself from this binding technique, he was finished.
Continuing to let his prana flow through his body, he glanced between his clenched fingers covering his eyes and caught his breath at the sight of his opponent.
“…I wonder how much you can endure?” Bujinsai murmured, another round of tobi-kunai already clenched between his fingers.
He can’t mean to do it like this…?!
The man intended to engulf him in a storm of steel.
Each and every one of Bujinsai’s endless shower of blades found their targets, tearing into Ayato’s flesh, rasping against his bones.
Ayato gritted his teach, trying to weather the pain, but he could feel his prana decreasing at a frightening pace.
“Haah… Haah…!”
But there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t even get his body to move as he wanted it.
When finally it came to an end, dozens, perhaps even hundreds of the small throwing blades had struck Ayato’s body.
The blades seemed to be composed of some mysterious substance, as they quickly began to soften away in the rain, melting into a puddle of a strange black liquid building up at his feet.
Ayato fell to his knees, letting the strange liquid splash all over him.
His prana had reached its limit. His whole body was covered in wounds.
“…I guess it’s time.” Bujinsai, staring down at him, raised his staff to deliver the final blow.
Bujinsai approached slowly, without revealing even the slightest opening.
This… This is bad…
Ayato’s vision was growing blurred, and though he strove to muster what remained of his strength, he couldn’t bring his body to move.
And then—
“Ayato! Get ahold of yourself! You’ve got more in you than this!”
—Claudia’s voice, strong and clear, came rushing toward him.
Her words were filled with confidence. She wasn’t merely trying to console or encourage him.
And with that, before he knew it, he had brought himself to his feet amid the darkness.
Or more precisely, he was overlooking himself from above, watching another version of him lift himself up.
This is…
Though at a loss, he immediately understood. He had experienced this before.
He was looking at an image—an image of the chains that bound him.
Like last time, there were three locks attached to the chains. The first lay shattered, the second unlocked. And the third…remained clasped shut.
He slowly unfolded his clenched hand, revealing a glimmering key.
He understood it immediately. The key was still incomplete. It needed more.
Even so, he didn’t hesitate to insert it into the third lock. Even if it was incomplete, even if it wasn’t enough, even if, like when he first broke the first lock, it only lasted for a short length of time, if he could just break free now…
“Now then, let’s finish this.” Bujinsai raised his staff toward the stormy sky as he prepared to bring it down upon Ayato’s exposed neck.
It had taken longer than he had intended, but now he would finally be able to clear away this final obstacle. All that would be left would be to take care of the target, and his work here would be complete.
Or at least, that was how it should have happened.
“—?!”
And yet, the strike, which should have sheared its target’s head clean from his shoulders, cut through nothing but air. Ayato, who had been kneeling weakly on the ground, had completely disappeared.
Taken aback, Bujinsai spun around—only to see the boy standing calmly a few yards away.
“When did you…?! No, more importantly…”
Bujinsai inadvertently took a step backward, staring at Ayato, who continued to stand motionless in the rain. His face was unreadable, tilted toward the ground, while a powerful force emanated from his body.
His prana had been on the verge of depletion, his body covered in injuries and bleeding profusely, and now he was unarmed as well.
And yet—
I’ve got a bad feeling about this…
A cold sweat began to run down Bujinsai’s back.
He wanted neither to admit it nor to believe it, but his instincts told him he was in danger.
I’m not going to let some kid get the better of me!
Trying to shake off his uneasiness, he cast four tobi-kunai toward Ayato to distract him while shortening the distance between them.
The binding technique was another application of the Yabuki clan’s secret Void Tide ability, intended to put the subject into a state of extreme tension so they found themselves unable to control their body. Its biggest weakness was that the user had to be looking into the subject’s eyes at close range. Bujinsai couldn’t work out why it had stopped working, but if he could just activate it once more, he would be able to finish everything once and for all.
“…”
Ayato, in total silence, moved his body slightly to dodge each of the airborne blades one by one.
Bujinsai, of course, had taken such a possibility into account.
The tobi-kunai had been no more than a distraction—and one that had given him the opening he needed to get close enough to—
“Gah…?!”
Before he could properly react, however, Ayato’s clenched fist slammed into his chin.
I-impossible…! How can he be this fast…?!
He hadn’t even had a chance to use the Void Tide technique.
There was no obvious reason for his opponent’s change. But despite that, his level of skill had undergone an unfathomable transformation.
What the hell just happened…?!
In his confusion, Bujinsai quickly leaped back to safety.
Only then did he realize what he had done—
He had lost sight of the boy.
And at that very instant, his long-cultivated intuition warned him of a fast-approaching source of danger coming from directly behind him.
That’s… That’s our technique…!
“Rending the five vital organs and crushing the four limbs—”
Bujinsai spun around, but the voice continued to echo in his ears.
“Amagiri Shinmei Style Grappling Technique—Nine-Fanged Hammer!”
At that instant, a tempest of nine consecutive strikes slammed into him, breaking both his arms, crushing his legs, and gouging into his liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—the final blow delivered with unimaginable force.
“Gargh?!”
His body went flying into the base of a large crane, the shock strong enough to practically impale him on the machinery.
“Ugh… I-impossible! How could this…?”
His broken voice filled with resentment, he could do nothing but watch as Ayato slowly stepped toward him.
It was a strange feeling.
He didn’t feel as if there was any new power welling up inside him, but rather like he had returned to how his body was supposed to be.
He had merely followed his instincts, and just like that, he had overpowered his opponent.
“…But it’s not over yet,” he murmured.
Even having been subject to the Nine-Fanged Hammer, Bujinsai didn’t appear to have lost his will to fight. He probably wouldn’t be able to stop him unless he knocked him unconscious, Ayato thought.
He stepped forward, preparing to deal the final blow—when he suddenly fell to his knees, letting out a terrible scream as an overwhelming pain began to take hold.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
His time was up.
Magic rings appeared around him, spewing out fresh chains that wrapped about his body.
“N-no! Not yet…!” Ayato let out a mute curse. But his sister’s ability was too powerful. There was no way he could resist it.
Bujinsai began to smile, an expression of relief and dead assurance.
He cast a fresh tobi-kunai toward him.
In his current state, Ayato could do nothing to dodge it, nothing but watch as the black blade approached, as if in slow-motion. He had fought to the bitter end, but his efforts, it seemed, had come to nothing.
But just before it could reach him—
“Ayato!” Claudia leaped in front of him.
“Claudia!” he cried back, but he was too late.
Fresh blood flowered amid the cold, dark rain.
CHAPTER 8
NIGHT
“Claudia!” Ayato ignored the intense pain running through his body as he swooped down to take her in his arms.
One of Bujinsai’s black throwing blades was lodged deep into her chest, blood seeping profusely from the wound to soak her tattered uniform.
“…Are you okay, Ayato…?” Claudia asked weakly, stretching out a hand to brush his cheek as she flashed him a gentle smile.
“I’m okay…! But you, Claudia, you’re…,” Ayato began, before finding himself at a loss for words. She was in a perilous condition.
“Ah… Sorry, Ayato… Please don’t make such a face… You haven’t done anything wrong… But I guess… I guess it’s no good—me saying that now… I’m sorry, Ayato, truly…” Despite her situation, despite what she was saying, her face wore a look of contentment that Ayato had never seen before. “I’m… It was selfish of me… But finally… I’ve been able to reach this point in time…”
“Claudia! Hang in there!” Ayato pressed against the wound to try to stem the bleeding, but it didn’t help.
“Right… You probably don’t know…just how long I’ve been waiting for this… For this moment…that I saw in my dreams…” She was growing weaker by the moment, her voice hoarse.
Her eyes had already lost their focus.
Tears had begun to trickle from the corners of her eyes, all but indistinguishable from the pouring rain.
“Ah… I’m so happy, Ayato… To me, this… This wonderful moment… No matter how much time passes… This feeling… Forever…” But with that, the hand that was brushing against his cheek lost its strength, falling silently to the ground.
“Claudia!” Ayato cried out again.
But it looked like she had only lost consciousness.
The wound was serious, but if he could get her to the hospital right away, there might still be time. Director Jan Korbel’s reputation wasn’t unearned.
However—
“Heh-heh… I guess luck is finally turning my way…” Bujinsai chuckled, his shoulders trembling as he staggered forward.
“Tch…!” Ayato glared back at him.
“Our target was always that young lady.” His eyes glimmering dangerously, the old man bent down to retrieve his staff, all without shifting his gaze away from the two students. “But now that it’s come to this, I won’t be satisfied until I take your head, too…”
Bujinsai, it seemed, was in no mood to let him go.
He seemed to have suffered grave injuries of his own, but Ayato had reached his limit.
Ayato had no idea how long he would be able to resist him, but he couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.
I’ve got to get out of here, no matter what it takes, and get Claudia to the hospital…
“Hmm…?”
Before Bujinsai could reach him, however, a black-clothed figure suddenly appeared behind him, whispering something in his ear.
“—"
“What…?” The old man’s face twisted in displeasure, and he clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Tch, fine! We’ll pull back!” Seemingly no sooner had he finished speaking than he, along with the black-clothed figure, disappeared into the rain-drenched night.
“…I don’t get it… I guess we made it…?”
At that moment, an air-window suddenl
y snapped open in front of him.
“WELL, LOOKS LIKE BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF THEIR HEALERS TAUGHT THEM A THING OR TWO. AND THOSE LITTLE LADIES HAVE HAD A BIT OF FUN AS WELL, BY THE LOOKS OF IT. OUR FRIENDS PROBABLY CAN’T KEEP THIS PLACE SEALED OFF FOR MUCH LONGER, HEH.”
“Wha—?!” Ayato startled as the words flowed silently past. Glancing around, his gaze found its way to a masked woman emerging from behind a nearby warehouse.
He readied himself as best he could for more trouble, but the woman hurriedly raised her hands as if to say that she had no intention of fighting him.
“LOOK, CLEARLY THERE’S NO USE IN ME TELLING YOU TO RELAX, BUT CAN YOU AT LEAST HEAR ME OUT? YOU CAN TRUST ME, YOU KNOW?” The words flowed across the air-window, overwriting those that had been there a moment ago.
“Who are you…?”
On closer inspection, the woman looked to have suffered several injuries of her own—and rather serious ones at that. Just managing to stand up straight must have been quite an ordeal for her.
“I CAN’T TELL YOU THAT, AND YOU DON’T HAVE TIME FOR IT ANYWAY. THE BOAT THAT I USED TO GET HERE IS NEARBY, AND THERE’S A CAR WAITING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CANAL. LET ME GET YOU BOTH TO THE HOSPITAL.”
There was no mistaking that, in his present condition, Ayato would have a hard time getting Claudia there on his own, and it was impossible to tell just how long it might take.
“…All right. Thank you,” he replied, making up his mind.
The woman nodded. “THEN LET’S GET GOING. SHE DOESN’T LOOK TOO GOOD.”
Ayato could see that for himself.
Holding Claudia in his arms, he followed after the woman as she led the way.
“AH, RIGHT. I SAW YOU FIGHTING HIM JUST BEFORE. I GOT A REAL KICK OUT OF IT, WATCHING YOU BEAT THAT OLD MAN AROUND. YOU’RE PRETTY GOOD, YOU KNOW?”
“Ah…”
“…I THINK I’M GONNA HAVE TO HAVE A GO AT YOU ONE OF THESE DAYS MYSELF.” Fortunately, these words appeared in the air-window only for the briefest of moments, vanishing before Ayato could have a chance to read them.
“‘Fall back’…?!” Silas repeated in dismay.
At the sound of his voice, the melee in which ally was all but indistinguishable from enemy came to a sudden halt.
