Hey there guys, sorry for the relatively long wait on this chapter. Started my new semester not too long ago and I focused on adjusting to my new classes and all that stuff first before sitting down and working on this whenever I had the chance. Oh boy, from the sound of things so far, two or three of my classes sound like they're gonna be rather rough on me. Hopefully, the more difficult assignments of each class won't end up being tossed my way at around the same time. I guess I'll find that out as I go along with it.
Here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 14
Kenichi clenched his fists tightly, remembering for a moment of when he fought Kano and the promise he made to him. "That's right. I promised that guy. So I can't die here," he thought to himself with a small smile.
He was quickly snapped out of this memory when Shigure rushed forward along with Aya. Kenichi, not wanting to be left behind, quickly did so as well. All three of them lightly jumped off the cliff and upon making contact with the sloping ground, they began to slide down it.
At the same time, several of the men were making their way up the very same slope while the archers kept firing. Shigure pulled out a chain with a ball attached at one end and a sickle on the other and spun it around to deflect the incoming arrows. The very few that made it past her casual self-made shield bounced off of Aya's sword, the brunette using the flat side of the blade to do so.
"A frontal assault eh?" one well-built, spear-wielding man commented as he and another one of similar height and build, but with a sword charged at the trio.
However, if they thought this frontal assault to be a foolish move on Shigure's part, they quickly came to regret it. In an instant, Shigure let down her 'shield' and launched her ball at the spear user, striking the man hard in the chest. The man let out a strangled cry as it nearly cracked his sternum and knocked him back.
The sword user remained undeterred by his comrade's sudden fall and readied his sword for a strike, but Shigure moved faster, tossing a few shuriken at him. The sword user quickly found himself having to hold back his strike and instead deflect the thrown weapons. After doings so, he once again ran forward and prepared to strike, but at the split second he started to swing his sword, Shigure used the sickle end of her weapon to stab the slope and suddenly hoist herself up just enough to avoid the sword attack.
"Shit!" the sword user swore as he missed. He tried to pull back, but Shigure then reached into her coat with her free hand and pulled out a tonfa, which she then smashed right into the side of the sword user's face. The sword user let out a pained yell, only for it to change to one of panic as he stumbled back off the edge of the slope.
Two other men, another sword user and pole user, were nearby when this happened and the fall of the first sword user caused them to leap at Shigure and attack from both her sides. But when the sword user swung, Shigure merely used the bottom of her sickle to slam into the bottom of the sword just enough to deflect it away from her and right into the pole user to her left, stabbing him in the shoulder a bit. At the same time, Shigure increased her speed, moving forward to avoid the pole and causing it to slam right into the side of the aforementioned sword user. Shigure didn't spare the two a second glance as she, Kenichi, and Aya then charged past them.
Kenichi and Aya looked at Shigure with awe. "She's really strong!" they both thought. They also took note of the fact that so far, she has yet to kill anyone, intentionally or unintentionally. They were both certain though that the men taken down so far were going to be feeling those hits for quite a while.
If Shigure had any clue as to what the two teens were thinking, she didn't show it, merely letting out snort as she took aim at monk-like man near a large tree and tossed her chain at him. The man hardly had time to react, only being able to get out a short cry of surprise as the chain wrapped around him and the tree, with the sickle ending up stabbing the back of the tree while the ball on the other end of the chain smacked the man right in the face, making him lose conscious.
Shigure touched down on the ground just several feet away from the now knocked out man and immediately started to unsheathe her sword. Kenichi and Aya landed just a few feet behind her, clearly trying to keep up with Shigure's pace.
At the same time, the rest of the men that hadn't taken off after them at first now surrounded the trio, each of them drawing their weapons and preparing to strike the second they found an opening.
However, Shigure ignored them in favor of Sai, pointing her sword at him. Sai didn't even react to this. "You don't look like someone who has children," he commented, between her and Kenichi and Aya.
"You don't say," Shigure commented.
"I'm her disciple!" Kenichi said.
Aya merely kept her blade at the ready when the attackers made their move. The men took notice of her stance and tensed, but when Kenichi just talked right now, they flinched slightly in surprise. "What!" one of the men exclaimed.
"The prodigy has a disciple?" another yelled in shock. Then he chuckled. "Well, then I wonder how strong he'll be."
"Now I just have to fight him," another said.
Kenichi froze so suddenly that it would have been comical under different circumstances. "Why did I just say that!" he thought with comical tears running down his face.
But Shigure ignored all of that. "Hey, uni-head, do you remember me?" she asked Sai.
Sai's eyebrow twitched in annoyance and it showed also in his facial expression. "Damn, haven't you read my guide? I don't answer any questions if you're talking to me in that tone!"
"Uh, Shigure-san, shouldn't we be trying to figure out a way out of here?" Aya brought up, noting some of the attackers getting a little closer now.
Shigure spared the men a very brief glance. "Indeed. They have around four master classes as well," she said, sizing them up. She stayed silent for a few seconds. "Kenichi, Aya, 'if a sword has been properly polished, you can… reflect your enemy's image into your heart,'" she said.
Sai smiled, evidently understanding the meaning behind the phrase. The other men, however, didn't appear to share his line of thought. "A direct teaching? How pathetic. This abstract way of teaching doesn't work in the middle of a battle!" a sword user said from where he was at.
But Kenichi and Aya understood exactly what Shigure was getting at. "Is she… asking for our help?" they both thought. The two of them then proceeded to stand right behind Shigure, ending up back to back with her, in order to cover the blind spot she had. Aya, being a swordswoman herself, knew that this is what the weapons master wanted for through the reflection on her sword, she can see nearly everything except for the small area directly behind her. And that was the spot she wanted the two teens to cover.
A few attackers took a small step forward, as if testing to see how close they can get without Shigure attacking just yet.
Kenichi looked forward. "So since I'm here, then my opponent is…" he thought, but then trailed off upon seeing the armor wearing man in front of him with a long spear. "Him!" Kenichi slowly, but surely began to feel fear again, very worried on how he'll be able to stand up against that guy. He knew that he had resolved himself to try hard to get over his fear, but he felt he chose the wrong person to start off with.
"Kenichi-san," Aya said, getting his attention.
"Y-Yeah?" he said.
She got a small smile on her face. "Do you know what fear is to a martial artist?" she asked.
"Er... not really…" he muttered.
Aya's smile widened a bit. "It's a weapon for martial artists. A detector," she answered. From behind her, Shigure smiled ever so slightly.
"A detector?" Kenichi asked.
Aya nodded. "A true martial artist can use his fear to avoid danger at the very last moment. If you can get used to your fear, then you can make your weakness into a weapon!"
Kenichi stood rigid for a second before calming down. "R-Right!" he said, taking the advice to heart. And that was when three of the men attacked.
The traditional armored one lunged at Kenichi as one ran towards Aya and another to Shigure. Kenichi steeled himself for the inevitable attack, trying to keep his eyes open lest he be struck down.
Sure enough, his opponent, without any movement to give away his next action, he struck. The armor wearing man launched his spear forward in an attempt to skewer Kenichi, something he nearly succeeded in doing thanks to it being so sudden and being incredibly fast. But Kenichi had unconsciously put up his Seikuken in time to react to the attack and managed to side step in time to avoid the attack. However, it had been a very close call; if not for the chainmail he wore under his gi, he would have been grazed by the spear tip.
Kenichi ran forward, using the armguard of his left arm to keep the spear at bay by grinding it up against its side. But just as he moved in for an attack, the attacker let go of his spear and went for his sword which he kept at his left side. Kenichi was forced to abandon his attack in favor of ducking in time to avoid the sword slash the attacker performed upon drawing his sword. Kenichi cried out as he tried to leap back from his opponent, but the armor wearing man took a step forward and swung down his sword, intent of slicing Kenichi into two. Kenichi let out a yelp as he then brought up his arms to block the attack, praying that the armguards would be tough enough to withstand the strike.
What happened next was a bit of a shock to both Kenichi and his attacker. The sword made contact with the armguards, slamming into them with such force that it knocked Kenichi off balance a bit, but also doing the same thing to the attacker as well.
"Wow! Just what are these things made of?" Kenichi pondered aloud as he spared a glance at the armguards and not seeing so much as a scratch on them. Whatever material the armguards were made out of was evidently very strong.
The attacker looked just as impressed, though it was hard to tell with his helmet on. "You have an interesting piece of equipment, but to fight me barehanded is insane," he commented.
Kenichi glared at him. "My fists are weapons!" he roared. As soon as he said that, he immediately recalled what Tirawit had said to him about him being a deadly weapon. "Wrong!" he thought without any hesitation.
As the attacker moved in, Kenichi did the same, taking the attacker off guard as he suddenly pressed the tips of his fingers against the attacker's chest. Kenichi's right arm and leg suddenly pulled back as he pushed his left side forward, pulling off his move Mubyoshi. The original attack struck with deadly force into the attacker's chest. The attacker hardly had a chance to register the pain of the punch before he flew back from the power of the hit, falling to the ground after practically flying back several yards.
"My fists are my masters' gift to me! They are the sign of my own path!" he yelled as his opponent tried to get back up, only to pass out before he could even get back on his knees.
At the same time Kenichi had been fighting his opponent, Aya had also engaged hers as well. She was facing off against a sword user and at first they had been in a bit of a deadlock when their blades clashed and refused to back down. Aya gritted her teeth as she put forth her full strength, but while she was much stronger than the average martial artist, the one she was facing off against seemed to have the edge as he slowly but surely began to push forward.
Aya then decided to switch things up a bit and so when it seemed like the sword user was going to win their deadlock, Aya suddenly pulled back, causing the man to lurch forward awkwardly as he now tried to adjust to the ended clash. Aya promptly took this moment to slash away at him. The man was able to regain in his balance just in time to avoid being potentially cut in two, but Aya had expected as much and had even hoped for it – she had no desire to try and kill someone – and so she ended up giving him a light slash wound across his chest.
The sword user than backed up, avoiding the urge to touch the new wound to check to see how bad it is and simply held his sword in front of him in a kendo stance, now rather wary of Aya. Whatever he had thought of her before, he now saw as her a considerably more dangerous foe given how easily she executed her movements just now.
Movements of which he was just about to experience again. Aya, not wanting to give up on the attack, charged forward, holding her sword in her hands ready to strike. She looked up at the sword user's neck and in that instant, the man felt that that was Aya's target. He couldn't help but feel just a bit of fear at how intensely Aya seemed to be gazing at his neck. However, that didn't stop him from responding and so he took a step forward and with a battle cry swung down in an attempt to cleave Aya straight in two.
But Aya had other plans. As soon as the man started to swing, Aya put on a quick burst of speed and moved to her left. In doing so she ended up passing right by her opponent's right side, which was now exposed as a result of his attack still being in progress, though a quick glance to his face was enough for Aya to confirm that her opponent knew what was coming and seemed appropriately scared.
Sure enough, Aya finished passing him and suddenly spun around, ending up behind him. With one swift move, she transitioned from spinning to swinging, slicing her opponent's back lightly. Though the wound was by no means fatal, it was certainly more than just a simple scratch, made obvious by the show of pain on the sword user's face and his yell of pain. The man stumbled forward from the hit and attempted to shrug it off and turn around to face Aya, but Aya quickly followed up her attack with another, switching from a normal grip to a reverse grip and then slamming the bottom of the sword hilt right into the back of the man's head. The man cried out once more before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell face forward, now unconscious.
She let out a sigh, glad that he was down for now. She then turned to face the other men – only to freeze as she saw Shigure with her sword leaning over her shoulder. All around the weapons master lied the unconscious forms of the other men. Kenichi, just several yards away from Aya, looked rather shocked to see them all down; they had gone down very fast.
"Not bad," Shigure commented to the both of them, "you really helped me… out."
Kenichi ignored her compliment though. "You took out all of them!" he exclaimed, amazed at how fast she had done it.
Aya looked just as impressed. "Wow," she muttered. While she didn't have too much of a problem with her opponent, she knew that she'd be hard pressed to take down the others so quickly.
"No." The single word from Shigure was enough to get Aya's and Kenichi's attention. "There's still the most important one left," she said to the two. She then turned to see Sai still sitting down on the bench. Kenichi and Aya did the same as the weapons master, the two of them tensing up, with Kenichi getting into his usual fighting stance and Aya gripping her sword in anticipation of the undoubtedly difficult battle to come momentarily.
"Finally my turn I see. That's good; I was getting bored," Sai said as he made a fist with his right hand. He began to stand up from the bench.
Shigure pulled out the picture of the sword she was given from her coat. "Are you the one to send me the picture of this katana… to lure me out?" she demanded in her usual monotone voice.
"Indeed. My beloved katana, Setsunamaru. Pretty, isn't it?" he said as he now stood to his full height. Kenichi and Aya couldn't help but take a step back, a bit intimidated by his height now that they were close enough to him to really see the height difference between themselves and the Yami weapons division member. "All this just to lure you out. You should feel honored," he said before pulling out yet another of his guides, "by the way, you should read my guide."
He tossed it towards Shigure, but before the guide could get within a few feet of her, Shigure swung her sword with a speed that Kenichi and Aya could barely see, slicing the paper into dozens of pieces. She then pointed her sword at Sai. "I ask you only once… do you remember me?"
What happened next nearly made Aya and Kenichi attack out of sheer surprise: Sai suddenly closed the distance between himself and Shigure, bending down considerably so that he can get a good look at Shigure's face. "You're… Mi-chan?" he said after a moment of intense staring.
"Who's that?" was Shigure's response.
Sai sighed and backed up a bit. "Ah, give me a break. I am not interested in those creature called women; they all look the same to me." Then he got a very serious expression on his face. "But you treat my guide this way. What happens to someone who does this is written in it," he said, holding up a small piece of paper with the words 'don't tear… die…' written down on it.
The Yami weapons division member then started to let a tremendous amount of Ki, this action being so sudden that when Kenichi and Aya felt it, the former fell on his butt from the suddenness of it while the latter couldn't help but place a hand over her ample chest, specifically over her heart as she felt it speed up in rhythm from fear. "What tremendous Ki. He's completely different from the other guys," Aya thought as slowly removed her hand and placed it back on her sword.
Kenichi was just as shocked too, but not for the same reason as Aya. What really had him freaking out a bit was the fact that Sai had a Seikuken and he was able to see it. "It's huge!" Kenichi thought as he saw the Seikuken extend several yards all around him, making the field a veritable death place given how Sai is. "Even I'm inside his reach!" he thought as he saw that he wasn't even close to the edge of the Seikuken.
Sai took a half step towards Shigure. "Ryozanpaku's Prodigy of Weapons and Swords… to test your strength, I have let those small fries do as they like, but…" He sighed. "I'm disappointed. You call yourself the Prodigy of Swords with only this much skill?"
"You'll regret having said this… from today on…" Shigure responded. "Tochumaru." The mouse perked up from within Shigure's coat when Shigure called his name, but then a split second later, he leapt out and landed near Kenichi as the teen stood up, the mouse now sitting in on his knees. Up until that moment, Kenichi and Aya had completely forgotten about the mouse.
"She dropped Tochumaru! She's getting serious!" Kenichi thought. But then he was snapped out of his thoughts when Tochumaru began to gesture to him and Aya, pointing at them and then at the ground. "Eh? We should sit down as well?" he asked the mouse. When Tochumaru nodded, Kenichi nodded back in confirmation and sat down. A moment later Aya did the same thing, knowing that in this battle, she and Kenichi were out of their league.
Sai leaned forward towards Shigure as the teens sat. "I am Tsubanari no Sai Kagerou, member of Yami's Weapon Division!" he said, formally introducing himself. "Ryozanpaku, Prodigy of Weapons and Swords… you have been hunting down my colleagues and stealing their weapons, right?" When he received no reply, he continued. "Your head is very valuable. Plus that katana, the secret of steel… evne though it's not as good as my Setsunamaru, I will treat it well."
Shigure snorted. "I have always wanted to kick your ass. Stop the talking… come."
Kenichi and Aya immediately perked up when they heard the clicking sound of a sword being drawn. However, Shigure already had her sword out so they immediately assumed it to be Sai. They were having one problem though: they couldn't see Sai draw his sword.
"Know your place," Sai said to Shigure as a torrent of slashes suddenly made themselves known, practically enveloping Shigure before she could move.
"Shigure-san!" Kenichi and Aya both cried out in worry.
They watched helplessly as Shigure's coat was quickly sliced away into pieces. However, as this occurred, Shigure casually grabbed it with her left hand and tore it off, revealing her usual kimono underneath. And she didn't have a single scratch on her. "What's wrong… flatfish face? You couldn't slice me… even once!"
Sai did nothing but stare at her in shock. But the shock he felt quickly wore off and was instead replaced with joyous laughter. "I see, so you haven't shown your true skill yet! You prevented me from reading through your true movements!" he exclaimed happily as he started to do some kind of strange dance. But then he stopped. "I did the same!"
This was the last thing he said before yet another click was heard and over a dozen invisible sword strikes could be heard being deflected by Shigure, who Kenichi and Aya noted was still visible in blocking in said strikes. Sai's strikes, however, were still invisible to their eyes.
"Incredible!" Aya thought, "when the sound arrives, his katana is already back in its scabbard! Not only that, but his right arm is nothing more than blur at best! Just how fast is this man?" she wondered.
From beside her and Tochumaru, Kenichi was having similar thoughts. "Please make it through this okay, Shigure-san!" he thought.
All the while, Shigure continued to block or parry Sai's relentless assault, her stoic expression still remaining unchanged on her face. "Is she… parrying those iai slashes with her bare hands?" both teens thought as they continued to watch, unable to blink as they were simply that absorbed by the fight.
"It's getting faster! Be careful!" Sai suddenly shouted to Shigure over his sword strikes, playing with her.
"What!" Kenichi cried out. Aya looked just as shocked as he sounded. Tochumaru, all the while simply sat diligently as he waited for this battle to end.
Sure enough, the sword slashes increased in both number and frequency. Kenichi and Aya watched in both shock and fear as slowly but surely, Shigure moved faster and faster to parry, putting in more and more effort to do so. Not only that, but with every strike she seemed to parry or block, Shigure ended up getting pushed back, the weapons master grunting under the pressure of the unrelenting assault.
Shigure, sensing that she'll lose if she doesn't stop Sai's attacks soon, waited until yet another sword strike was about to land and ended up jumping back and onto the ledge of a small, traditional Japanese styled building nearby, one that Kenichi and Aya hadn't even noticed until now, their attention having been on the enemies.
However, as soon as Shigure landed on the ledge, she was forced to jump back once more and not a second too soon as the ledge was promptly obliterated, sliced into dozens of pieces. Sai then gave chase to Shigure, still launching attack after attack with Shigure still parrying them even as she moved about.
"Ah, they're going inside!" Kenichi exclaimed as he suddenly got up and took off after them, anxious to see the fight. Aya and Tochumaru followed after him.
They took off as fast as they could and just barely managed to go round the corner of the building in time to see Sai force Shigure up against the wall, striking with devastating force as seen by the destruction of the wall.
Sai let out a battle cry as he prepared to attack once more. "I'll chop into noodles!" he cried out. At that instant, Shigure saw a very small opening and so with her usual speed, whipped out a sai, ironically, and tossed it at the hilt of Sai's sword, one of the weapon's small, but sharp points going right through the opening of the handle, keeping the sword locked in the scabbard. "Ah," was all Sai said as he tried to pull out his blade only for that to fail.
This provided Shigure with the time she needed to take the offensive and she lunged forward and let loose a swift, graceful sword swing to Sai's midsection. Sai moved back at the last possible second. "Whoa, that was a close one!" he said as he pulled the sai loose from his blade, "a pretty swift strike. Nicely done!" he complimented as he stood up, revealing a small gash in his clothes and an equally small cut on his stomach.
"Even though I swore never to cut anyone with my sword… this is for my first friend!" Shigure said, thinking of the bird that she had often played with, the one that Sai had ruthlessly cut down. "Be prepared, flatfish face."
"Your friend? I have killed so many, I can't even remember. But I think you can understand my situation," Sai began, "this is all for the sake of improving my sword skills!"
Shigure got into a low stance, placing her left foot out in front of her while putting most of her own weight on her right one. With her right hand, she held her sword at Sai over her head, preparing to attack. "You are… hopeless."
The two sword users proceeded to fall silent, staring the other down. Kenichi, Aya, and Tochumaru looked on in nervous anticipation. "How long are these two going to stare at each other? They're like statues…" Kenichi thought.
Meanwhile, a piece of debris began to fall from the ceiling of the building they were now in, thanks to the damage Sai had done to it. Just before it can fall on Sai, the tall man took hold of his sword and cut it into several pieces. And that was when Shigure struck.
"Kousaka Ryuu Samidare Shuriken!" she yelled as she suddenly let go of her sword and instead flung a handful of shuriken at Sai. The thrown objects flew towards the man together in a bit of a straight line at first before breaking off from one another and curving in their own directions, aiming for his limbs and midsection.
"Oh. For an instant, both of your hands let go of your katana! And you can even control the flight of your shuriken!" he commented, genuinely impressed by the action. But then he regained his composure. "But, it's a shame," he said as a click resounded throughout the building. Just as fast as the sound occurred, the shuriken all seemed to just stop in their path and split in two. "I have the ability to cut everything approaching me automatically with my iai draw!" he boasted.
However, when Shigure responded to this, she did so from behind him, having used the shuriken as a distraction to move to that spot. Kenichi and Aya merely looked on in awe as this all occurred. "You're overconfident," Shigure said, "the sound and sparks made you lose sight of your opponent. Even though your slashes are supersonic… from this position, I'm the one who's… faster!" she said as she swung her sword at Sai.
"She's done it! She's going to win!" Kenichi exclaimed happily. Aya looked ready to jump up in joy along with Kenichi as he said this.
But the moment was very short lived as suddenly Shigure's attack seemed to bounce back. For the first time in the fight, Shigure's face registered shock as did Kenichi's and Aya's. And Sai didn't see fit to give her time to figure out what just happened, as he started to once more unleash a torrent of slashes and doing so without even facing her. Shigure had to do everything she could to avoid being cut, swinging her sword around to once more parry the attacks, though it was a difficult task to do; she was still airborne from her failed attack and she was off balance too from the bounce back.
"Hmph," was all Shigure could say. Roughly a moment after Sai began his counter attack, she managed to slip out a kunai and place it up against the side of her own sword and she swung it just in time to intercept one of Sai's slashes, quickly pulling the kunai away enough for Sai's sword to slip in between the kunai and her sword before Shigure slammed the two back together, trapping Sai's blade.
The amount of force she struck with was enough to bring the slashes to a stop as her strike stopped Sai's sword. "Oh?" Sai was once again impressed; Shigure had been able to stop his sword.
Kenichi and Aya put up one of their arms to cover their eyes as the blade clash had been strong enough to kick up dust. Once the dust settled, they lowered their arms to see what just happened.
What they saw amazed them: Sai's arm had somehow managed to twist itself enough to move as though he had been fighting Shigure face-forward the whole time.
"Eh? His joint is…" Kenichi began.
"He's double-jointed!" Aya exclaimed, almost immediately recognizing what exactly it was. She had encountered many different martial artists over the course of her life and a few had been double-jointed. Though she hadn't fought them, she saw them fight enough to know how they can move at times. Sai was no different, though his use of his this condition certainly made him more dangerous than he already was.
Sai, having been trying to free his blade from Shigure's grasp, decided to just make things easy for himself and so he hoisted his own blade and by extension Shigure as well and with a 'tsk' swung upwards with enough force to make Shigure let go of his sword and throw her into the air.
"You are the first one that was able to stop my beloved Setsunamaru!" he said, "as a reward, I shall send you to Heaven with my ougi!"
"Shigure-san!" Kenichi cried.
"Oh no, she can't dodge in mid-air!" Aya exclaimed. Though she knew that she would be of now use to Shigure if she decided to jump into this fight, she knew she could help out another way.
"Hiken Usuba Kagerou!" Sai yelled as he let out an uncountable number of stabbing motions at Shigure, the speed with which he did them combined with the angles he performed them with caused his sword to bend a bit, almost in a wave-like motion.
Shigure grunted as she prepared to try and counter it, but couldn't think of any way to do so. That was when Aya spoke. "Stay still!" she yelled.
Shigure, instinctively trusting the girl, did as told and as a result, Sai's rapid thrusts just barely missed her. Though the deadly attacks missed her marks, the same could not be said for her clothes as they started taking damage and falling off of her.
Kenichi looked over to Aya to see just how she knew that was the way to avoid getting hit and nearly froze when he looked and saw Aya with her Dragon's Eye activated. The brunette had activated it just seconds ago and used its power to predict the way Sai's sword would bend and in which direction he was moving the sword in. With her Dragon's Eye, she was able to see that the so called ultimate technique Sai was using seemed to require the enemy to be moving around a bit as he never really seemed to be aiming for the middle, instead going for the sides so that the slightly bending sword would strike the limbs and damage them enough to disable them. The killing part came with the blood loss or if the enemy moved around too much to try and counter, would end up getting stabbed or cut to pieces. Aya may have just saved Shigure's life.
However, had she not been focusing her Dragon's Eye so much on the fight then she might have been able to predict and stop what happened next.
Tochumaru, out of concern for Shigure and anger at Sai, leapt from the ground, his eyes glowing with determination while his left hand held nunchuks that had been made specifically for his tiny stature. "Chuu!" he cried as he leapt right at Sai.
"Toochumaru, don't!" Kenichi yelled upon seeing him do this and even made an attempt to try and grab him before the mouse could any further. But Tochumaru's leap at Sai had been too sudden and so Kenichi was unsuccessful in this.
Aya deactivated her Dragon's Eye and looked on in shock at what Tochumaru was about to do. She didn't need her red feather ability to know how this was going to turn out. "No!"
Once he was roughly a few feet away from Sai, Tochumaru let out a battle cry and threw his nunchuks right at the tall man's back in a spinning motion.
Without even looking away from Shigure, Sai turned his left arm around and flicked the incoming object away, more specifically, right back at Tochumaru. "How annoying," Sai said just as the nunchuk slammed right into Tochumaru's throat with enough force to send the mouse flying back into the wall.
Shigure watched in complete shock as Tochumaru began to fall, Sai's attack having ended as a result of being temporarily distracted by the small creature.
Kenichi rushed forward and dived, catching the mouse in his outstretched right hand. "Tochumaru! Are you okay?" he asked as Aya quickly ran over to him.
The mouse remained still for a few seconds before he shakily raised his right hand and gave the two a thumbs up. Then his hand fell and he stopped moving.
"Tochumaru!" Kenichi and Aya cried in concern.
Sai watched this with a detached expression. "Che, I got distracted…" he muttered. Then he focused on Shigure again, only for his eyes to suddenly widen. In an instant, Shigure attacked, doing so with such ferocity, that Sai leapt back to avoid the slash she unleashed. Upon landing, he eyed Shigure almost warily. "A fierce slash I have never encountered before… not even my auto-slash could react in time" he commented as he observed his scabbard strap and saw a small cut on it, enough to make it break and have the scabbard fall to the ground.
He once more regarded Shigure with a measuring gaze. The swordswoman was unhurt, but a good portion of her pink kimono had been utterly destroyed by Sai's ougi, revealing the chainmail she wore underneath. Portions of her leggings had been destroyed as well, exposing her legs as well, though Sai wasn't distracted by this.
He crossed his arms over one another. "As expected of Ryozanpaku. To be able to perform such sword technique… most impressive." He paused. "If you'd allow, I'd like to retie the scabbard to my back. For someone using the iaigiri, without the proper pose…" he trailed off as Shigure then gazed at him. He couldn't help but blink at the look of sheer rage in her usually expressionless eyes.
Shigure held her blade out in front of her. "For someone like you, I will no longer my katana's back…" she said softly, but with an edge that none could have missed.
Kenichi and Aya gulped; looks like the fight was going to be getting much more serious.
And done! Yeah, like I said in the top AN, sorry for the wait. Classes and all that jazz you know.
And as for this sword hunting arc, I will be ending it next chapter so that I can get back to the Juken Club and the Shinpaku Alliance once Kenichi, Aya, Shigure, and Tochumaru return home. It's about time I start to really start including the Juken Club in this story. So expect the next chapter to rather long too as I will be trying to get things done and rolling on.
Anyways, thanks for reading the chapter and I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to drop a review!