Chapter 3 - In my sword I trust

Toshiro woke up.

"It's about seven in the morning. You took your sweet time. And how didn't you feel that Yoshika crawled into your bedroll?'

"I what…"

He looked down. Yoshika was tucked into his bedroll, tightly grasping his body.

Oh that little devil…

"Hey kids, time to wake up. Yoshika has to go to school, the weather is perfect." The voice of Sayaka was heard nearing Yoshika's room. "And we have a guest!"

"A guest… Who could that be?"

"Pearls against peanuts that it's Mio."

"Probably… Wait, I'm in one bedroll with Yoshika, I have to…"

The sliding door opened, revealing Sayaka.

"Oh my… You sure don't take your time, huh Toshiro?"

Toshiro put his hands up in the air.

"I didn't do anything! I slept like a stone the whole night!"

"I'm kidding… You could hear a cat fart in this house, nothing will go unnoticed…" Sayaka said with a sly smile.

"Yeah…" Toshiro started poking Yoshika. "Hey, sleepyhead, wake up, time for school."

"GImme an hour…" She mumbled.

"Who are you, Erica? Wake up, your mother is looking at us."

"Mom…MOM?!" Yoshika opened her eyes and shouted in panic. "We didn't do anything! I promise!"

"Ahahahah… You two are really on the same wavelength… Get dressed, Yoshika, we have a guest."

"Who?"

"Your beloved Major."

"Miss Sakamoto?"

"Yes. Although I think her visit is rather concerning Toshiro…"

"I probably thought so…" Said Toshiro. "Well, time to get dressed and talk to her…"

"I'll leave you two for now."

Sayaka closed the door.

Toshiro put on his ninja suit and went out of the room. In the living room, Sayaka, Mio and grandma were seen sipping tea.

"Good morning grandma."

"Morning."

"Hi, Mio."

"Hello, Toshiro."

Toshiro sat down. Sayaka gave him a cup of tea.

"Thank you. So, what brings you here, Mio?" Toshiro asked.

"I have come with your stuff. It's the chest in the anteroom."

"Well, thank you, Mio. You lugged the chest by your own?"

"There's nothing a witch can't do, haha! Besides, it wasn't much to be honest. Your books and newspapers were donated to the local school, just like you told me…"

"Very good, Mio. The contents of the chest are unscathed?"

"Yes. The Fuso officer and khaki uniforms, the Afrika Korps uniform, the Luftwaffe officer uniforms… The Luftwaffe officer boots… The robe and mask… Swimming trousers… What else… The insignia box, the Iron Cross box with certificate… The Wound badge… And the pistol with ammo pouch… The waterproof bag… Also all the papers about your equipment. Ah, your wallet and money are also intact… Speaking of which…"

Mio pulled out a wad of cash out of her uniforms pocket and placed it before Toshiro.

"Your personal wealth, Toshiro."

Toshiro's eyes widened.

"But… How…"

"After you went missing, I took initiative of caring after your finances. Until you went missing, your pay was paid out, and you got orphan money from Karlsland, although I think your uncle had some doing in this, because well… After summing it up with that cash you had in your wallet, and consolidating the yens and marks into pounds, before you lay four hundred and ninety five pounds."

Even grandma had to react to that.

"Hoho, sonny! You could buy this clinic with that money, and you would have money for a next one!"

Toshiro took the money, looked at it, and looked around the room.

"Did any of you have any expenses because of my funeral and disappearance? As you can see now, I can reimburse you."

"No, not at all. The flower on the grave now and then is nothing important."

"As you wish, Sayaka."

"Oh, hello Miss Sakamoto." Yoshika burst into the room, clad in her school uniform.

"Hello, Miyafuji. I'll liberate Toshiro from the three of you for a while."

"Huh? What do you want from me, Mio?"

"I want you to show me something."

"Well, okay. But I have to be at Yoshika's school after 1200."

"Fine. Let's go then."

"Have a nice day everyone, I'll return soon. For sure." Toshiro winked.

While dressing up, Toshiro asked, "So what do you want to see?"

"Wait until we get in place."

"Ugh, okay… And the place would be…?"

"The summit at which we met for the first time."

They went outside, and Toshiro said, "Let's sing something on the way there."

"Oh pfff, come on…"

"Oh? Don't like singing, Mio? It's fun! Let me start then… Yuki no shingun…"

"I told you I won't…"

"Kori wo funde…"

"I won't…"

"Dore ga kawa yara michi sae shirezu…"

"Allright! I'll sing! Uma wa taoreru sutete mo okezu!"

"That's the spirit! Koko wa izukozo, mina teki no kuni!"

After an arduous march through the fields of snow, the finally arrived at the summit.

"Douse ikitewa kaeranu tsumori! (We intend to pass away and to live on anyway!)" They sang the last stanza together.

"Wow, Mio, you really have a lovely voice! A shame you use it only to bark orders…" Toshiro said with a wry smile.

"Oh shut up…" Mio said baffled. "Now, Toshiro, I want to you to show me what you've learned."

"Nah, don't wanna…"

"Come on, don't be such an ass. I want to see it for my own eyes!"

"You won't back down now, will you?"

"No."

"Ugh… Fine."

Toshiro summoned his sword.

Mio unsheathed hers.

"Oh no, Mio! I vowed not to use my new gained abilities against humans."

"What? Scared?"

"No. I'm just not in a genocidal mood."

"Then how can I test you if not in battle?"

"I can just give you a dry run…"

Mio looked at him angrily.

"Sorry, Mio, but you wouldn't want to get hit even by my weakest blade technique. Especially since your shield is mainly for looks now…" Toshiro ended with a gloomy look.

"Don't say that! I have trained to make it stronger!"

Mio pulled up her shield. It looked strong, it didn't flicker.

Toshiro bent down, and started looking for something under the snow.

"Toshiro, I'm here, not under the snow." Mio said obviously annoyed.

He found what he was looking for. He showed it to Mio.

"Mio, you know what this is?"

"Looks like a pebble? Why do you ask?"

"Is that your strongest shield right now?"

"Well, yes… Why…"

Toshiro swiftly wound up and threw the rock. It reached subsonic speed and pierced right through the shield, grazing the hood of Mio's snowsuit.

"What… How…"

"I've thrown that little pebble so that the force of impact would be that of a 9mm Parabellum bullet. It pierced through like nobody's business." Toshiro made a pause and grabbed his sword like a javelin. "Now imagine Aganaimaru is a Neuroi beam. Want to take a chance?"

"No…" Mio responded with a bitter tone.

"Good girl…"

"But I won't stop fighting! NEVER!" Mio shouted, dangerously close to being hysterical. "That's why I'm practicing blade techniques!"

Mio was shaking on her whole body.

"Your magic as a whole is also fading, Mio. I can feel it through the Hebigan… Your magic signature is… dim… Rushing into battle would be suicidal…"

"Don't you teach me about being suicidal… Remember the Neuroified Akagi? What was that actually? You only gave some vague answer back then..."

"Ugh… It was an ancient and forbidden technique called Kamikaze, or Divine Wind if you prefer. Basically my whole body was turned into a hypersonic bomb…"

"How did you survive then?"

Toshiro's face was gloom as a graveyard during a rainy night in November.

"I didn't. I died."

"What?!"

"What you see before you is a new body with the old soul…A price had to be paid for it… My mother paid it with her own life, willingly… Now you know the real reason why I wanted to commit suicide after the funeral… The guilt and sorrow almost literally killed me, because first I thought that my mother's life was taken in exchange for mine… And at the end I was right…"

"Toshiro…" Mio was so surprised by Toshiro's words that she could only say his name.

"I know, Mio. You want to comfort me, but don't find the words to do it… I don't blame you… Don't worry about me, I already found peace. But I have to atone for what I did, and cutting down Neuroi with Aganaimaru is one way. So, you want to see those blade techniques or what?"

"With pleasure, Toshiro."

"But… Hmmm… It's kind of befitting and inconvenient that there's nothing to destroy here…"

"Why don't you just bang at the mountain?"

"Nu-uh. The temple in which Keiko was brought up is sealed there. I can't risk destroying it."

"What? A temple is sealed away in the mountain?"

"Yup. Hmmm… Doh well, I'll just fire the stuff in the air… Prepare your Magic Eye, Mio."

"Roger."

She took of her eye patch and looked at Toshiro with tension.

"First things first… Remember the Rending Gale?"

"How could I not? You used my sword and cut that Neuroi like a ripe apple."

"Hah. It took me a month, but I perfected it. I call it Rending Gale EX."

"Not an imaginative name…"

"Because it's only an evolution. It now has twenty sword lengths of reach, which given the length of Aganaimaru is about thirty meters. Also, again thanks to the sword, it can be overcharged to EX' level, which triples the reach and doubles the yield. Since I want to show you more stuff today, I won't go overboard. Watch closely."

Toshiro changed the grip on the sword, so the blade pointed downward.

Silently, without wild cries, he charged the blade. The blade started vibrating and buzzing on an unpleasant frequency. Toshiro took a wide horizontal swing. The untrained eye only would only see the gust that made a small snowstorm. However, Mio saw it differently – a half crescent made of magically infused compressed air swooped into the sky and disappeared, everything during one second.

"To…To…Toshiro…" Mio stuttered. "Just don't tell me that was your weakest sword spell…"

"Heh… Well… Sort of…"

"Unbelievable…"

"Well, that was that. If I would do that with two swords, I would combine the two attacks into one, executing the Cross Shot Rending Gale EX, but enough about that. Next thing I want to show is the Reppuzan.

"Wait, did you say Reppuzan?!"

"Yeah. Does it ring a bell?"

"Well, yes! That's my mentor's technique!"

"Your mentor?"

"Kitagou Fumika. She was almost like a mother to me, guiding me through my life as a Witch. Well, to be honest, I'm sort of a copy of her… I have the same character, same hairdo, I can't even cook like her, haha…" Mio coughed briefly and continued. "Uhm… Well… But how did you come to know the Reppuzan? It's a secret technique, passed on only to the most proficient sword wielding witches!"

"Mio… Did you forget I was training in a realm of a goddess? You know, gods tend to be omniscient…"

"Right… How long did it take you to master it?"

"Three months. It was harder to master, because as opposing to the Rending Gale, the Reppuzan doesn't use air as a medium for transporting magic. It's magic itself, in pure form. Before I demonstrate, I just have to tell you that I can pull this attack off five to six times a day… Oh, and it doesn't have an arbitrary range limit; it just gets progressively weaker after crossing a certain distance."

"And that would be…?"

"Well, a kilometer, give or take a few meters. Want to see for yourself?"

"As hell I want! Kitagou didn't show it to me, saying stuff about showing off…"

"Well, it certainly is flashy… Okay, show time!"

Toshiro took a proper stance with his sword and started pouring magic into it. This time the magic surrounding the sword looked like as if it was a flame, flickering and sparking.

He started taking an uppercut with the sword and yelled.

REPPUZAN!

A magic wave roared into the sky and continued flying upwards until even Mio couldn't see it with her eye.

"Wheeeew... so that's the Reppuzan. I see now. Thank you for demonstrating it, Toshiro. I believe I can advance my own training with the technique after seeing it for myself."

"Now I'm having second thoughts if I should show you something even better…"

"Something even better…" Mio pondered for a while. "I believe that Kitagou mentioned something like that, but she said that executing it would be rather difficult for anyone but the very best, maybe one or two persons in the whole world. I believe she called it the 'Shin Reppuzan'."

"Indeed."

"Who could think that you would obtain that technique before me…? Show me then!"

"Of course. But first, some boring stuff. It took me half a year to master, and I still don't feel comfortable swinging it around... I can only manage to do it ONCE daily…"

"Well… If it would endanger you, don't show me…"

"Nah, don't worry. I have a method to counteract that." Toshiro looked around. "Say…" He pointed at a mountaintop not far away. "Should I slice that piece of rock in half?"

"Okay, I dare you. To my knowledge it's just an uninhabited piece of rock, so fire away."

"Dare taken. Stand away, Mio. This can get a bit too hot for you…"

Mio walked back a few meters.

"Okay. Now witness the glory of the True Reppuzan!"

Toshiro was set ablaze in white flames. Magic particles started swirling around him, leaving long blue traces. He lifted the sword above his head. The blue flame appeared again, only this time, the magic particles started to flow into the sword, increasing the flames magnitude. The air was flickering from the Sacred Flame's aura, and the snow on the ground around Toshiro evaporated, showing the grass underneath it. Finally, the flame turned into a solid, pulsating indigo glow.

SHIN REPPUZAN!

Toshiro shouted with fury and swung the sword so fast that it left a blue afterimage. The air around him furled violently and the distant mountaintop was cut in half. It slowly slid down, and crashed into the valley.

Toshiro felt weak and fell on his knees. The Sacred Flame had receded, and he was breathing heavily.

"Toshiro! Are you all right!?" Mio shouted and ran up to him.

"Yeah… Whew… If I didn't use the Sacred Flame…. as a spare energy source… I would probably be on the verge of death… already…"

"You sure look like you are now… Why not use that Respite thing you used to back that day you were running with armor?"

"No… It won't work… right now… That time… the Impure… Give me a sec, okay?"

"Okay."

Toshiro sat down on the grass and calmed himself down.

"Whoo… Okay, now I can speak normally. So, back then, the Impure Sacred Flame was blocked out from me, so I wouldn't go genocidal on everyone around. Yuki could leak some of the power from it to regenerate my magic and fatigue. Now, that I possess the pure form of the Sacred Flame, it changed into a… how to word it… An auxiliary battery with separate circuitry. I can either go all out with it, or try to manage without it."

"I think I understand the analogy. I'm impressed by the Shin Reppuzan… To think such a power is at your hands…"

"There's more, Mio…"

"Oh shut the f…. seriously, what?!"

"There's another stage of the Reppuzan… Something that would not cut in half, but rend asunder not that little hill, but something ten times bigger. I don't even know the name of that technique, but I failed to master it…"

Mio did something unexpected – she hugged Toshiro from behind. He felt her firm breasts pressing against his back, although they both were wearing thick clothes.

"Mio… What…"

"Shhh… Toshiro… You deserve it… For all the progress you've made, you deserve it like nobody else…"

"Mio showing emotions… What has the world come to…?"

"Don't joke around… Stupid…"

"You know what, Toshiro?"

"What?"

"I'll call the samurai lady by her first name now. She also deserved it."

"Nice of you, Yuki."

"I probably got too soft…"

"Okay, Mio, stop already, I have to eat breakfast."

Mio let go of Toshiro and said, "Oh right… I snatched you away before you could eat something… You know what? I'll treat you to takoyaki!"

"Takoyaki…. Gaaahhhhh… Want…"

"Toshiro… Why are you drooling so heavily? It's just takoyaki…"

"Mio… I haven't eaten in a year… You know how I missed the taste of homemade dishes?"

"Somewhat… I made myself only drink water for a week... Never more…"

"Ahh… So you are also a connoisseur, Mio?"

"Since we are all being honest… Yes, I like to eat good food. Maybe because I can't cook for shit myself…"

"Oh well, you can't have cooking skills AND awesome fighting skills… Oh, wait… That would be me, Yoshika, Shirley… Lynne… Erica, Trude and Eila to some extent…" Toshiro said with a wry smile.

Mio bonked him on the head with her fist.

"Don't rub it in…" She said discontented.

"I miss them…"

"What?"

"I miss the girls… All the horsing around, drama, laughter, fighting together… My big and little sisters…" Toshiro said with melancholy in his voice.

"Toshiro, stop, or I'll get all mushy myself..."

"Okay… Let's go for the city already, before I'll start reminiscing even further…"

Following their tracks, they quickly got back to the city. Mio led Toshiro along the streets, to a takoyaki stand.

"Oh! The Major! The usual?"

"No, Takumi. Two extended portions this time!"

"Ah yes! You have a guest! Coming right up!"

The man named Takumi started dicing the squid and other ingredients.

Toshiro and Mio sat before the stand.

"Might I ask your name, dear guest?" The man asked.

"Yeah… Major Toshiro Edelweiss, Karlsland Wehrmacht."

"Well, well! Two Majors sitting before me… It's probably the biggest event this stand witnessed!"

After a few minutes, the two were eating.

"Dewishush!" Toshiro mumbled with his mouth full.

"Toshiro, you are a member of the Wehrmacht, show some manners…"

"Showwy…"

"Hopeless…" Mio sighed.

"Now that we have eaten… What are you going to do?"

"I'll change into my Luftwaffe uniform, since it's the only one with long sleeves. And I'll go to Yoshika's school…"

"Okay. Have a nice day, Toshiro."

"You too, Mio!"

Toshiro came back to the Miyafuji clinic.

"Excuse me for the intrusion." He said upon entering.

"You are back? Took you some time…" Said Sayaka, peeking out from the living room.

"Mio treated me to takoyaki, how could I say no?"

"Have more room in that stomach of yours? I have sushi left from breakfast; don't want them to go to waste…"

"If Yoshika's cooking is half as good as yours, then there's always room!"

Toshiro went into the room and sat on the floor besides the chabudai. Sayaka brought him a plate full of sushi.

"Wow… I'm really getting spoiled here…"

"I have to care about my future son-in-law, so my grandchildren will be healthy." She said with a carefree tone.

Toshiro made a disgruntled face.

"Toshiro, don't make such a face. I'm half serious here. I won't hinder you in your advances to Yoshika, but you have to take responsibility for whatever you do to her, yes?"

"Yes ma'am… And if it pleases you, we didn't get past first base, if you get the reference…"

"I get it, don't worry. But you are not far from second, sleeping with her half naked like that… Nice body by the way, heehee…"

"Stop giggling like a teenager, Sayaka. You are a widow in your middle ages…"

"I'm sorry, mother…"

"I'll just eat up then!" Toshiro said hastily and began eating.

After eating everything, Toshiro said, "Well… I have a dilemma now… Has the student outperformed the master…?"

"Don't worry about that. Yoshika was very diligent and enthusiastic about cooking from her early days. She is especially fond of natto."

"Yeah… I know that already. Every time she had kitchen duty, she added natto as a side dish."

"Oh that little Yoshika…"

"Say, Sayaka, do you have any good books around here? I could really use a read right now…"

"Oh yes, you can use the books of Ichiro in Yoshika's room. But there a few in storage, follow me."

The stood up from the table and went into a closed room. Sayaka opened the door and said:

"This is our little storage… I kept most of Ichiro's books, since he left on Yoshika's tenth birthday… You will probably find some nice literature; Ichiro was an avid leader…" Sayaka said with a gloom face.

"How are you coping with Ichiro's death, Sayaka?" Toshiro asked out of the blue.

"It's been five and a half years already, I'm managing somehow… But each time I pass around this room I feel a needle pricking my heart…"

"You know… After I got the death certificate of my mother handed to me, I fell unconscious… The stress surge of that moment made my hair white as you can see… For the whole year during which i was training, every day I thought about my mother, but now, it's a matter of the past… I have been ascertained by the goddess that my mother's soul is resting peacefully in the afterlife, which made my heart feel at ease…"

Sayaka gave off a faint smile and said, "Your mother must have been a saint to you…"

"She was… She truly was…"

Toshiro entered the room. It had no windows, nor lighting, so he had to use Yuki's powers to see anything. He took a few books he found and exited.

"I see you really like to read, Toshiro."

"Always something new to experience with each new book, Sayaka."

Toshiro went to Yoshika's room and started reading.

"Hey, Toshiro, I think you should start moving your butt, it's past twelve already."

"Okay, okay…"

Toshiro put a bookmark in the book and went to dress himself in his snowsuit.

"Toshiro, may I have a request?" Sayaka peeked out of the living room.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Could you buy some pork on the way back?"

"Of course I can."

"But… heh… There will be a problem…"

"What problem?"

"I'm broke…"

"Ugh… I told you something about me being rich and all, right? And why didn't you tell me about it?"

"I don't need charity…" Sayaka huffed.

Toshiro grumbled and opened the chest, which still was at the entrance. He picked up the wallet and pulled out some money.

"Here, Sayaka, fifty pounds. Consider this a present from your future son-in-law." Toshiro said with a smile and winked. "And I'll buy the meat with my own money, don't you worry about that!"

"Well, when you say it that way…" Sayaka said silently and pinched the money out of Toshiro's hands. "Thank you."

"No problem… mom."

They both blushed slightly after Toshiro said that.

He went out of the house and into the cold and snow covered streets of Yokosuka. The sun was shining strongly, so his dark snow goggles helped a lot. After walking for a while, he came before the grounds of the Yokosuka 4th Girls-only Middle School.

Toshiro didn't have to grow roots while waiting for Yoshika, because the chime announcing a break sounded of only after a few minutes. He saw her darting out of the main building like a rocket.

"To…To...Toshiro! You came!" Yoshika said out of breath.

She was wearing a thick pink winter jacket, earmuffs, and something that made Toshiro a tad excited.

"Hmmm… Yoshika, do my eyes deceive me, or are you wearing black tights?"

"You noticed them? Heehee, I had to wear them, because magic alone couldn't counteract the cold…"

"Your legs never looked so sexy, Yoshika, rawr!"

"Oh you! Always some dirty thoughts! Why are you actually wearing a snowsuit?"

"Ah, I don't want to waste magic on heating myself… I'm a traditionalist regarding some matters…"

"Well okay… Are you ready?"

"Since I'll be only standing there in the middle of the class like a dunce, why shouldn't I be?"

"You could say a few words you know…"

"We'll see."


Notes:

Chapter title – 'Ensiferum – In My Sword I Trust'

You all may think 'OP HAX! SHIN REPPUZAN!1onesix', but rest assured, Toshiro won't be running around and cutting down mountains all the time. :P

If you want to praise/rant about my story, please leave a signed review, so we can continue via PM's. Seriously, I don't bite. Unless provoked :]