Strike Witches: Worldwide Liberation

Final Arc

Chapter 32: Gathering of Swords

"Thank you, Xala." Yusu said. "I had hoped I was wrong, but my suspicions are confirmed."

"This is terrible news." Xala said.

"We can only hope that he doesn't gain interest once this war is over with." Yusu said. "And if he does, we must hope she will appear. Listen, I do not want the others to worry about this, so please keep our conversation between us."

"You have nothing to worry about, Miss Yusu." Xala said. "I will speak no word of it to anyone other than you until you wish otherwise."

"Thank you." Yusu said. "I am going to go join the others for breakfast. Thanks, again."

Yusu headed to breakfast, and Xala flew off, presumably heading back to her neuroi friends.

"Yusu, over here!" Yoshika called over to her as soon as she walked into the room.

Yusu grabbed a plate and joined Yoshika. Rei, Lynne, and Lucchini could be found in the nearby seats, with Shirley on the other side of Lucchini.

"What is this?" Yusu asked. "It smells good, but I have never seen anything like it."

"Spaghetti di Farro and Vongole Bianco." Lucchini said. "We made it."

"It's good!" Yoshika said.

Yusu tasted it after hearing Yoshika praise it. Her face immediately brightened up. "It's so good!" She started pigging out on it.

Everyone giggled as they watched her eat.

"What?" Yusu said with a mouthful.

"Her manners are worse than Yoshika's were!" Perrine said from down the table.

"Huh?" Yusu said.

"Pay no attention to her." Eila said.

Perrine gave Eila an evil look.

"Oh, I apologize." Yusu said with an innocent look on her face. "I probably seem odd acting like this." She returned to her food, but slowed down a bit.

From across the room, Mio, Minna, Kye, and Keiko could be heard discussing the next mission.

"Who are you sending?" Kye asked.

"I was thinking pulling Sanya and Eila off the night patrols since we have so many other witches from the other wings and putting them on the next day mission." Mio said. "I'll lead this mission, and I'd like to also take Perrine, Lynne, Yoshika, and Rei."

"I think that's a good idea." Minna said. "Perrine, Lynne, and Yoshika have scarcely been on missions together lately."

"Anyone else?" Keiko asked.

"I'd like you and Takeko on standby, along with Marsielle and Pottgen." Mio said.

"Sure." Keiko said.

"Sounds like a plan." Kye said. "You should take General Galland, too. I don't think she's seen front line combat in a good while, so this could help her get back on top of her game."

"Good idea." Mio said.

"I'll go talk to her after breakfast." Kye said.

"I'll call everyone not present here to the briefing room after breakfast." Minna said. She stood up. "Everyone please meet up in the briefing room in thirty minutes."

"Roger." the witches replied.

"Miss Yusu, you are welcome as well if you'd like." Minna said.

"Thank you." Yusu said. "I will come and listen."

"By the way." Mio said. "Would you like a position in the witches?"

Mio's question surprised half the witches at the table.

"No thank you." Yusu said. "I appreciate the offer, but I have no interest in this war. You do not need my help."

Her response even further surprised the witches.

"Then why is she allowed on base?" Hanna said.

"She has permission." Mio said.

"From who?" Hanna asked.

"Me." Kye said.

"Don't you think you're abusing your authority?" Hanna said.

"Not at all." Kye said. "Yoshika can learn nothing more from me, aside swordplay. Yusu is taking over as her teacher for energy projection and likely will teach her more advanced swordplay as well. I find that to be a good reason to allow non military personnel on base."

"If you say so." Hanna said, returning to her meal.

"So can you go along on the mission today?" Kye asked Galland. The question caught her by surprise.

"Today?" Galland said. "I'd prefer to wait until the next mission. I'd like to do a few practice flights before I go on a mission."

"The mission is in the middle of the afternoon." Kye said. "You have plenty of time to break yourself back in."

"Oh, well in that case..." Galland said. "Sure. I'll need to do a few runs between the briefing and dinner."

"Alright." Kye said. "Briefing is in about... fifteen minutes, give or take."

"I'll be there." Galland said.

"As you can see, it's our turn to take a mission." Minna said. "So let's get this briefing started."

Mio shut the lights off and pulled down the map. Minna pointed at the grid where the intercept was planned.

"We will send a group of witches to intercept here." Minna said. "Mio has requested Sanya, Eila, Perrine, Lynne, Yoshika, and Rei to go along with her and Kye has requested General Galland to participate to serve as a warm up to... how did you put it?"

"To get back into game." Kye said.

"This mission will take place at fourteen hundred hours." Minna said. "Or two o'clock." She glanced over at Yusu, however she caught the look.

"I know all about how the modern day military works." Yusu said. "I was sealed in the sword all this time, but I was aware of whatever the person wielding Jouten was aware of."

"Oh, good." Minna said. "You will all be using your Jet Strikers in this mission. The targets were clocked at nine hundred kilometers per hour."

"There are nine targets." Mio said. "All are medium sized neuroi shaped like the one from Lynne's first kill."

"Keiko, Takeko, Marseille, and Pottgen are on standby." Minna said. "Any questions?"

After a moment of silence, Yusu spoke up. "I have a request that really has nothing to do with the topic."

"Go ahead." Mio said.

"I would like anyone capable of sword techniques to meet me at the docks in the afternoon." Yusu said. "Around the time of the mission. I want to see any new sword techniques anyone might know."

"I'm sure that will be no problem." Mio said. "Kye will be here. Takeko, Ayaka, and Yoshiko are good with swords as well. Do you mind?"
All three of them shrugged, basically agreeing.

"There's a pretty short sprint between the docks and the hangar, so I'd actually be able to get airborne before the others if I'm out there." Takeko said.

"What about Fumika?" Kye said. "I'm sure she'd like to meet Yusu. I could call over to Maizuru and ask her to run out here for a few hours."

"That's up to you." Mio said.

"Please." Yusu said.

"I'll call her then." Kye said, leaning her chair back and balancing on the back legs.

"You're going to teach Rei bad habits doing that." Minna said, referring to Kye leaning her chair back.

"Rei, you know the drill." Kye said, not giving it a second thought.

"Right..." Rei said with a "You still shouldn't do that" look on her face. "Do as I say, not as I do." Rei dropped a pencil on the ground and kicked it over at Kye's chair, landing a direct hit on the underside of the balancing back leg closest to her knocking it off balance. Kye quickly jumped out of the chair in an impressive feat of agility.

"The hell was that for?" Kye said.

Everyone in the room was laughing at this point.

"Yeah, yeah." Kye said. "Laugh it up. Fifty laps, all of you."

"What?" half of the witches said simultaneously.

"Gotcha." Kye said She, returning their laugh and sitting back down. "Two can play that game."

"Any thing else?" Minna asked. After a few moments of silence, aside a few witches struggling to hide their laughing. "Dismissed."
Just as Minna dismissed the meeting and most of the witches were leaving, another witch entered.

"What about me?" she said.

"Well, I haven't seen you since the reunion." Mio said. "Where have you been Tetsuko?"

"I've been over at Maizuru with Fumika." Tetsuko said.

"Hey, Tetsuko, did you get the sword I left for you?" Kye asked.

"Sword?" Mio asked.

"Yes." Tetsuko said. "Thanks, Kye."

"She asked me to craft a magic sword for her a few weeks ago." Kye said. "I flew to Maizuru the other day and dropped it off."

"I heard about your ancestor." Tetsuko said. "I'd like to meet her."

"I'm right here." Yusu said. "Please call me 'Yusu' instead of ancestor."

"Sure." Tetsuko said. "I am Tetsuko Wakamoto."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Yusu said, bowing to her.

"You, too." Tetsuko said.

"We can all meet up at the docks at two when the others go on their mission." Kye said. "I'm going to go call up Fumika and have her fly over."

"Actually, she's already here." Tetsuko said. "She flew over with me."

"Where is she?" Kye asked.

"She's outside." Yusu said. "I can sense her magic."

"Why didn't she come in?" Mio asked.

"No clue." Tetsuko said.

"Let's go outside and introduce them." Kye said, hopping up from her chair.

The mission time finally rolled around after what seemed to be hours upon hours, even though realistically it was only about five hours. Yusu was outside with the sword wielding witches not going along on the mission, Kye, Takeko, Ayaka, Yoshiko, Fumika, and Tetsuko.

"So, what techniques do you all have for me?" Yusu asked. "Kye you first."

"You already know my techniques." Kye said.

"True." Yusu said. "Takeko?"

"My sword technique is Musou Shiden-ryuu - Sora no Tachi." Takeko said.

"That's a mouthful." Yusu said.

"It really is." Kye said.

"Here goes." Takeko said as she began her demonstration.

After seeing it only once, Yusu copied it perfectly. "Next, Ayaka?"

"Cloud Spark." Ayaka said. She demonstrated the Cloud Spark. Which led to Yusu copying it perfectly as well.

"Yoshiko?" Yusu said.

"Skip me for now." Nishizawa said.

"Fumika?" Yusu said.

"Distant Cut." Fumika said.

"Oh, I already know that one." Yusu said. "Kye has used it several times. I haven't actually tried it though." She demonstrated the Distant Cut flawlessly.

"Amazing." Fumika said.

"Tetsuko?" Yusu said.

"If you know the same techniques as Kye, you know mine as well." Tetsuko said.

"I see." Yusu said.

"My turn then." Nishizawa said. "I learned the Distant Cut from watching Kye use it and created an ultimate version. I call this technique Sonic Slash." She demonstrated the technique, generating a sonic boom at the same time.

"I like that one." Yusu said. She copied the Sonic Slash perfectly as well.

"You just eat up anything we throw at you." Ayaka said. "Are you sure you're human?"

"I think so!" Yusu said, holding her hand on the back of her hand.

"Show Tetsuko and Fumika your strongest standard Reppuzan." Kye said. "See if they are as impressed as the rest of us were."

"Okay." Yusu said. "Everyone, please back up from me. When I release my strongest aura it can be... dangerous within a few feet of me."

Everyone backed up as Yusu gathered her magic and just like last time skipped straight to the white aura before pushing over to the true golden aura, again creating a small crater in the concrete. She fired a super powered Reppuzan across the water, easily leaving Tetsuko and Fumika in awe.

"How is that even possible?" Tetsuko said.

Meanwhile, Mio and the mission witches just intercepted the target neuroi two grids west of Yokosuka. Mio assigned each witch to a neuroi, although one was left over. Mio made quick work of her target with a sword attack and continued after the leftover.

Sanya destroyed her target quickly with her rockets. Eila controlled her target with her Influence. "Sanya!"

"Roger." Sanya said. She destroyed Eila's target as well.

"Nice teamwork, you two." Mio said.

Yoshika gunned down her target, but the rest of the neuroi split in three.

"Fifteen targets now." Sanya said.

"Tonnerre!" Perrine said. She used her Multi Tonnerre to wipe out ten of the remaining targets.

"Five to go." Mio said.

"Four." Galland said after destroying one.

"Three." Lynne said after destroying one as well.

"Two." Rei said following suit.

"One." Mio said.

"Where's the last one?" Yoshika asked.

"There!" Mio said. "It's speed is increasing. Chase it!"

Rei threw a Light Wave at the speeding neuroi, but missed. Mio tried to hit it with a Distant Cut, but the attack faded away before it could reach its target.

"Use your auras." Mio said. "We can't let it get to land. Everyone else, follow as fast as you can."

Mio, Rei, and Yoshika activated their auras and speed up significantly, with all three breaking the sound barrier. They could not catch the neuroi.

"Come at me with your best." Yusu said. "You first, Takeko."

Takeko attacked Yusu with everything she had, but could not land a single hit or even force her to parry.

"Not bad." Yusu said. "You would be in the top ten in my time."

"Top ten?" Takeko said. "I couldn't land a hit on you!"

"The difference between number two and myself was astronomical." Yusu said. "Nobody could hit me."

Yusu sparred with each witch, ending with Kye.

"Let's take this up a notch." Yusu said. "Standard golden aura."

"Alright." Kye said.

The two witches both activated both of their auras and went at it full force.

"Even Kye can't land a hit." Ayaka said.

Suddenly, Yusu stopped dodging Kye's attacks and blocked them with her sword.

"Good." Yusu said. "But you could be doing much better. You do not have the appropriate amount of force in your sword." Yusu held her hand out and caught

Kye's sword by the blade without as much as a scratch on her hand, amazing everyone, Kye included.

"The hell?" Kye said.

"It seems you do not know the purpose of Energy Projection Combat." Yusu said.

"You mean Energy Projection?" Kye said.

"No, I included the 'Combat' part purposely." Yusu said. "Energy Projection has many uses, most of which you know. Power is enhanced, but you have not shown the Combat Precision effect."

"What's that?" Kye asked.

"The Combat Precision effect allows you to focus the collective power of your aura into one point." Yusu explained. "By mastering it, you focus all the power of your aura into your striking point for the split second it hits the target and then redistribute the power the split second after the attack to make it seem as though you have done nothing. This can also be done defensively as I just did when catching your sword."

"I see." Kye said. "One more round."

"Wait a second." Takeko said. "One neuroi inbound. I have to go." She started to run for the hangar.

"YOU ARE INTERRUPTING ME!" Yusu yelled into the sky. She could also sense the neuroi and launched an extremely long ranged sword attack at it. Within seconds her attack landed and destroyed the neuroi, surprising the three aura empowered witches chasing it as well as the rest of the witches on the ground.

"That neuroi... was nine thousand meters out." Takeko said.

"And she hit it and destroyed it... from here." Ayaka said.

"I like that Sonic Slash." Yusu said, turning back to Kye. "Now where were we? Come at me."

The other witches were even more surprised at how quickly Yusu dismissed the feat she just performed.

"Just how good is she?" Nishizawa asked.