Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.
It's been a fast week (8 days again actually) for me. Time has gone by very quickly this time around :| . Sadly, it will slow down to a crawl for this weekend due to... unpleasant stuff I have to do.
Anyway, we have a chapter on our hands. Since I'm uncreative, I'm starting to struggle with titles haha. As for content, here's where we'll get to the first example of "battle and explanation", something that DxD does a lot, but fits well with the story I feel. Hopefully I'll be able to handle it decently enough.
Timewise, this chapter doesn't cover much. As in, we'll see very little after the "body drop" so to speak. It should be picking up a little bit eventually, but this is what we have today.
I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy.
Arc 2 Chapter 10 - The Plan (Part 1)
"So, I can easily reach the mid-way in a single leap if I have a running start and jump from the window, yeah?"
"That would be where the gym is, more or less. What about it?"
"I'll destroy the building."
"...Why?"
"Allow me to explain."
A few minutes before the start of the match, Orochi had declared that he had a plan to take control of the battle as early as possible, and had explained to Raynare what he intended to do and what he wanted her to do.
"Riser claims to be an expert of Rating Games. This competence however makes him predictable. I'm sure he has already assumed that I'm a total hothead, and that I will make a beeline for his base, which in fact is exactly what I intend to do."
"Obviously. I wouldn't expect anything else from you, Hothead-san."
Orochi was slightly irked by that comment. "...At any rate, I intend to jump from the window and dive head-first into a building that will definitely hide people within. And it just so happens to be in the path to Riser Phenex's base."
"Ah, I see. You're predicting him to throw people at you in a place that you won't be avoiding in your path to the base, or in other words, Phenex is most likely attempting to gather info on your power, which is something that you won't allow."
"Exactly. If the building fails to eliminate someone as it crumbles I'll go ahead and "clean up". I need you to wait here for about two minutes after the gym falls, in case I need the time to force some dropouts, and after that I'd like you to clear a path for me."
Raynare didn't even bat an eye as Orochi explained his crazy, unorthodox plan. She was so used to his bullshit that it didn't affect her anymore.
"Huh, I guess I am allowed to do that. But how?"
"Can your Fragments reach the trees that are in the way between the gym and the new building, if you fire them from the roof of this one?"
"!"
Raynare understood right there what Orochi wanted her to do. She was in fact capable of such a feat, now that she had some semblance of control over the unstable Fragments that she could create out of pieces of her light spear. He wanted her to launch Fragments in a straight line in the woods between the new building and the gym, and carve a direct path to the opponent's base by detonating them.
"...Alright, I'll handle it. But only if you promise to treat me to yakiniku."
"Yeah yeah sure- wait, what?"
"Yakiniku. Treat me to some and I'll do it. And if you can't promise me that, I'll just go mind my own business and beat that Yubelluna bitch."
"I don't understand that request but... Fine, I promise."
Whether Raynare helped him out or not wasn't really a matter of necessity in Orochi's eyes, but rather of convenience. She had nothing better to do until Yubelluna showed up, so it would have been wise to use her power to make the Rating Game last as little as possible. The more it lasted, the more he would have to bully the opposing team, and they only had the one fault of being a little too gullible if the general gender there was anything to go by.
He supposed he could sacrifice a bit of money to make sure Raynare would comply.
...Such an odd request, though.
"I only have one question then. Did you forget that I'm not allowed to engage anyone but Yubelluna?"
"Why, you're not engaging anyone by doing that. If someone gets caught in the blast it will be their fault. You were just opening a path for me."
"! I see! If someone gets hit by the explosions it will be treated as collateral, since the purpose of that particular maneuver is not "to eliminate an opponent". Not bad at all, so that's what you meant when you said you found an exploit."
"And that's not the only exploit I have in mind. After all that, I will make use of the fact that we can't do that Promotion thing."
"Huh?"
"Don't worry about it, at that point you just need to watch until Queen-san shows her face to you. And it seems that our time has almost run out so go to the roof already! Shoo!"
"Don't you shoo me! I'm going! STOP PUSHING ME!"
"W-What the hell?"
Anya couldn't help exclaiming that.
"...Unryuu-san, d-did Orochi-san just headbutt a building?!"
"...I'm not sure, Asia-chan. Mostly because I don't believe what I just saw."
"Woooooooaah, that was so cool, Bruder! Destroy more, destroooooyyyy!"
"Aaah, I knew it, he's a bad influenceeeeeeee!" whined Nina.
Ruval was the only one to remain silent as the gym crumbled, pondering to himself.
'...Incredible. Such a strategy is incredible. It isn't something that I've never seen, but to think that a human of all people could decide to do something so reckless...'
"A-Anya-san, are you absolutely sure that that man is a human?" It seemed that similar thoughts to Ruval's were shared by Lord Phenex.
Anya noticed her own outburst and composed herself. She turned to the man beside her and smiled lightly.
"You wouldn't believe me even if I confirmed it."
"Three of Riser Phenex's Pawns have retired."
Ajuka's voice announced the instantaneous defeat of three out of 15 people (not counting Yubelluna).
Riser was fuming as he looked at the now-turned-to-rubble building from the window of the classroom he was standing in.
'HOW? How can a simple human come up with something like this?'
He had been immediately outplayed. He had planned to send that group to engage the human first and gather information on his abilities before deciding what to do, but they were immediately taken out.
'...Wait! Beelzebub-sama said only "three Pawns"! Xuelan is still there!'
Sure enough, the Rook in question, despite being buried by the rubble, was still conscious. The same couldn't be said for her companions, who had passed out shortly after some sort of meteor hit the building.
"Gh! W-What the hell was that?!"
She lifted the piece of roof that covered her person and threw it to the side. And as she looked around, the first thing she noticed was a white haired man with his hands in his pockets, who had given his attention to the nekomata twins in front of him.
Ni and Li had noticed the ruckus as they were hiding in ambush in the woods, and after listening to the announcement and noticing Xuelan hadn't retired yet, they had run over to the collapsed building. They had identified the perpetrator and were getting ready to take him on when Xuelan emerged from the rubble.
"Ah, Xuelan-san, are you alright-nya?
"Please stay back, we will engage this horrible man-nya!"
'...They're right. My job in this battle is to gather information on this bastard. If I am defeated too early, Riser-sama will be in trouble!'
"I think I know what you're thinking, Qi Pao-san." (1)
The human turned to face the Rook.
"There's a fair bit of distance between me and you, but it would be ludicrous for you to think that you're safe from me." declared Orochi.
"!"
He vanished.
"Gespenst."
*BAM*
And a heel suddenly dug into Xuelan's side, launching her quite far away.
"Sorry, but I'd like to keep my privacy."
"One of Riser Phenex's Rooks has retired."
After the announcement was made, Orochi lowered his leg, straightened his uniform jacket and turned to the twins, who were still astonished by the sudden elimination of their companion.
"It has already been one minute. You have thirty seconds to decide who fights me first, I'm on a tight schedule right now."
Ni and Li sobered up from their stunned state, looked at each other, and a moment later they both charged Orochi.
"HAH, CAN'T SAY I DISAGREE WITH THAT CHOICE!"
"...It's that technique again. The one that caught me completely off guard. Come to think of it, didn't you say that you had figured it out, Anya-sama?" inquired Unryuu.
"Ah, yes, or at the very least I was able to identify its purpose." explained Anya. "I don't exactly know how he achieves that level of speed when he performs it, but what he essentially does is hide from his opponent's line of sight. He doesn't become invisible or teleport or anything silly like that: rather, he moves at incredible speed into a blind spot in his opponent's vision before striking. The name Gespenst is quite fitting, I find. And without my Wisdom, I wouldn't have been able to figure it out at all."
"But how does he find out where that blind spot is? Surely it can't be the same every time for different people."
"W-Well, that's... less clear to me."
"I can tell you that." said Nina, looking at the two Devils. "It's merely what happens when one has full control of their body. He explained that maneuver to me the other day: he switches off all the unnecessary functions in his brain and concentrates the impulses in his nervous system into his leg muscles for a brief moment. You could say that, for a split second, he can force himself into a trance and dedicate all his physical strength to leg movement. Before all that however, he also gathers information about his opponent's line of vision just by looking at the shape of their eyes, so once he finds a blind spot he goes into a trance, moves using Gespenst, switches back on the functions that were turned off, and finally makes his move."
She turned her attention back to the screens. "A terrifying technique for sure, but it's not invincible. There is an obvious blind spot at the back of the neck, but that one is common to every humanoid, and as such completely worthless to Orochi-kun who doesn't want his movements to be read easily. And certain opponents might not have a blind spot in their vision at all. While this wouldn't exactly obstruct the technique itself, his approach would be seen despite his speed since he wouldn't be able to hide from his opponent. Orochi-kun himself stated that it is unreliable, and that he plans to find something else to use as "movement tech" as he called it in the near future."
"I feel like you've said something incredible just now, Nina-san." said Anya, suddenly suspicious. "Everything you said makes sense, although I didn't know about the "full control over the body" part. Is that simply a thing that Orochi-kun can do? Do I have to accept it as such?"
"For now, yes. There are... circumstances, which prevent me from telling you any more than this about that kid. Circumstances that have forced him to tell me and Raynare-san all kinds of interesting things about him. They are however extremely personal, which is why you'll have to be satisfied with just what I tell you for the time being."
"I... see."
Unryuu's mood dropped under her shoes hearing that. Did he have his own share of secrets after all? What could they be? It certainly wasn't a matter of hiding his own nature like she did, since he had never bothered to hide his power. Why was it imperative that nobody knew about what hid behind the monster of a human that was Kamakura Orochi?
She knew she shouldn't have expected anything. She knew how Orochi tended to behave: he would never, ever open up to her, or to anyone else for that matter, if he could help it.
She knew, she knew, she knew.
Then... why did it hurt to hear that he confided in someone that wasn't her?
(1): It's the name of Xuelan's dress for those who didn't know: typically Chinese, so you might not know its name unless you read the LN. Then again, it's been ages since I've watched Season 1 so I don't remember if someone said its name at some point.
Welcome to the bottom.
My decision, as you've seen, ended up being "use everyone in the gym as fodder". I mentioned before that I was unsure of how to handle all these people and this is the solution I came up with. Hope you people are not fans of those four girls or something, hahaha.
Orochi has reached a level where he can take out an unprepared Rook in a single blow. Not bad, right? Unless one braces for impact, it will be fairly hard to defend against his blows: I intend to keep this little detail a constant of sorts throughout the story, if I can manage it. Raynare has also progressed well, and in a very short time at that. I have yet to define a proper direction for her own background past a certain point, but as usual I'll give it my all. Once I've gotten unstuck in Arc 3, I mean. XD
Finally, I've addressed Orochi's obvious trust issues with that last scene. What he said that night, he said for convenience's sake as you know, so that he wouldn't be bothered as much as he would be if he did otherwise. As such, someone like Unryuu, who is completely unrelated to his past, and is part of a supernatural side that doesn't need to know more than necessary (since the Devils are well aware of the White Serpent's deeds), is not worthy of that much trust yet. It almost seemed to become a moot point after Nina went and reported to Ajuka, am I right? Well, I'm not done with that concept yet so I slapped it right back in, aha!
For now we're done. Next time, an actually impressive display of strength.
Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!