Shigenaga dueled against a series of slashes.
They came from Kageura Masato.
He was the #2 B-Rank Squad Captain and his weapon was...
...A flexible Scorpion blade!
"Keh! From one set of shields to another! What's with you people and your fixation on these sorts of things!?"
Shigenaga was irritated by this opponent who twisted his body to cover more area with his blade.
But Kageura's actions were solid. He moved his blades around him, creating an entire space for his attacks, and he moved to dodge her shields, but there was no disturbance at all in the movement of his attacks.
He was an expert.
She could not approach him carelessly.
But he was an opponent Shigenaga wanted to take out.
...A victory against Kageura Squad would be valuable.
For Meishō Squad, Kageura Squad felt like a far off squad. Others were also in the middle and were moving constantly, so they would normally not matter much.
But they had managed to make it to the top tier. Once that happened, they needed to hold their place against strong opponents and show themselves off a bit.
Also, they wanted a victory over strong opponents. Meishō Squad could view this as them getting stronger while also providing others with proof of their strength.
...So this battle should be valuable.
Shigenaga lowered her hips into a combat stance.
Kageura responded by clicking his tongue and swinging his body forward.
"You wanna up the ante here!?"
She pulled up her rifle from her side and fired it at him.
.
That did it, thought Shigenaga.
But she was wrong.
The destruction did not hit Kageura. The trion bullet she had launched exploded when it hit the end of the road far behind him.
He had dodged it.
It had been an instantaneous movement. Kageura had seen her rifle attack coming and bent his body to the side.
The main entrance of the building far past him was left shattered and smoking.
Meanwhile, he briefly glanced back that way.
"That was too damn close. Your wave of emotions is annoying as hell! Why are you copying what that guy did!?"
"It worked against you, didn't it?"
"Tch! You lot just love to harass people, don't you?! Too bad I've dealt with people who cannibalize each other on a daily basis!"
He irritated her, so she decided to fire a second shot.
She took her firing stance.
A moment later, the color black spread out in front of her eyes.
It was Kageura.
He had closed the gap between them in an instant. That may have been due to his abilities in movement, but…
…There was no disturbance in his movements…!
He had moved smoothly without any vertical shaking. It was almost like he had slid forward from his previous position.
And he swung his flexible blade around her like a snake would.
"—"
Blades fell from the upper right. Shigenaga swung her body right to dodge the attack from Kageura's left hand.
She targeted his wide-open left side by swinging her left fist toward it. That fist held the thick sword that had been in her waist hard point. It was her own Kōgetsu made from her trion.
She could use that to slice through Neighbor armor like it was a cutting torch, so it could instantly cut through an another person's body.
Just as Shigenaga knew she had his left side, a blade flew out from between his vertically swinging left arm and his chest.
He had made a sideways jab with the flexible blades in his right hand after altering his angle.
His right arm moved as if to embrace her chest from the left.
It was a forceful action, but she read more into what he was doing and gasped.
…What kind of timing is that!?
He had yet to finish the swing of his left flexible blade. But to make such an accurate jab with the right ones meant he had already begun making that right attack when he made the left one.
That was before she had made her move.
"Kh..."
He had altered the angle of the blades so as not to cut his own body.
She knew even he had only just barely been able to pull this off.
But she successfully intercepted it. She raised her thick blade and took a defensive stance.
She had placed her right foot to the right, but now she sent that heel ahead and to the right while also kicking her left leg to the right. She avoided the next blade slash to the right. Or she intended to.
A moment later, triple sparks scattered from an impact.
Her Kōgetsu had blocked the triple jabbing blade in Kageura's right hand.
Catching the sides of the blade on her upper arm paid off. She blocked the impact with her elbow and lightly stepped to the right.
Or she should have.
…This weight…!?
Kageura had made a curving jab past the front of his body, but its strength was not what mattered. It had numbed her elbow and provided a weight that affected the right step meant to soften the impact.
What she meant as a light step had her slide half her body-width across the ground.
In an instant, the grip of her shoe's soles loosened, but...
"Ohh...!"
She was not in her real body, so she could produce physical strength several times that of a regular human.
So instead of using her light weight, she worked to stop her momentum. She ended the knockback slide and then rapidly circled behind Kageura.
The Attacker had his right arm across the front of his body and he was swinging his left arm down over the right one. Whether he corrected his stance or turned around, he needed to make a preparatory action before actually beginning his attack.
But Shigenaga only had to make a backhand strike on his back with her left blade.
So she did so.
After circling behind him, she moved toward him and sent out her left sword.
Just then, she saw something: eyes.
Kageura's body had turned 180 degrees to follow her. His eyes were narrowed, his tongue clicked again, he looked down at her, and...
"Pathetic."
At the same time, he moved. But not to dodge or to attack. He swung his body toward her.
…Oh, no…!
He sent his own body into her Kōgetsu.
The trion-made sword stabbed into the Attacker's side almost up to the guard.
But it did not inflict any damage. The tactile feedback that reached her left hand felt like the blade had caught in something.
Kageura had captured the blade between his Scorpion blade.
She had to make a split second decision.
Would she pull it out, or would she swing the Kōgetsu upwards despite the risk of it breaking?
She chose...
"...This is a dangerous choice!"
She abandoned the blade and launched herself back to his left side.
A moment later, Kageura sent an attack to the spot she had just vacated.
It was his left arm.
He had swung that arm forward, but he had forcibly swung it around to the back.
He had increased the durability of his other blades, and...
…Did he use his right arm?
When he swung his right arm toward her earlier, it had ended up below his downwards-swinging left arm. He had forcibly lifted that right arm to push his left arm back up like a whip.
Also...
...Here it comes...!
His face was looking at her. His head spun slightly like it was rolling on his shoulder, so how he was angled to her.
And as soon as he realized his left arm blade would not capture its target, he made his next move.
His right arm was already moving upwards, but now he rotated it around to the outside. And...
"...!"
He spun to the right on his right leg.
He relaxed his left arm to swing it around from his shoulder. Also…
"Here's this!"
His multi-angle slashes began rotating. He used both arms and he released any tension built up.
"!"
The multi-angle blades raised their output to create an attack that covered everything around him.
The omnidirectional attack that erupted in the false city was on a far greater scale than before.
"Oh?"
Yuki looked over the table to see the screen properly from within the observation room.
"Looks like Kage's really trying there. ...I get the feeling that Shigenaga's following her teammate's lead and flooding him with emotions. Should I assume this gives her the advantage...?"
The city was shaken by the attack and the blowing wind it made.
Yuki spoke while viewing it all and thinking of his own fights against Kageura.
"Even I have a hard time against attacks like those. They're annoying, but also the most fun to get around, don't you think? ...Well?"
He called to the people also in the room, each watching from their own spots.
"What do the rest of you think? Well, minus the airhead over there. I don't care about his thoughts."
"Hah. It's just an irritation to deal with."
"Y'u wo'd s'y th't."
Yuki looked over to the chair next to him, making it so that Kimura and Inukai were visible to him. They had been watching alongside him.
"What about the two of you? Kimura can't really say much about the attacks themselves, but I still want to know your thoughts here.
"Our entire group is pretty bad, so seeing that kind of thing might just mean he's a bit mad."
"Um..." Inukai nodded. "We will just assume that was accidental, since you did it too flawlessly and it didn't hurt too much."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just ignore that."
If only it was that easy to do, Inu, thought Yuki while turning back to the screen.
The battle was still going on within the false city. That battlefield only continued to accelerate.
Just hold out, Shigeko!
Mitsuteru internally cursed himself. He had left Shigenaga to fight Kageura for the time being.
I'm not help in a close quarters fight. I'd only get in her way if I was there.
So he chose to create some distance away from the two fighters so he could fire when he was needed.
There was no doubt in his mind that Yuzuru had managed to see him leave, but there had been no sniper fire yet, slightly confusing him as he ran.
Staying on ground level is my only option here. If I try and climb back up then I'll probably be sniped at or take a white light beam to the face.
The city was filled with narrow spaces and open spaces, so if he got caught in either of them then he could easily be hit by others. But...
I know how to move through cities like these.
His original home was one similar to this, meaning he had some experience in these sorts of settings. Running through narrow spaces with friends and freely walking with his parents in open spaces had been his favorite pastimes back then.
As someone who hated forgetting things he made sure to always remember those times. But more than that, he made sure to remember something just as important.
My times right now. ...And my time back then.
Everything going on right now felt great when he was with his squad and friends. Mikado City had less narrow spaces and less open spaces compared to his original home, but he could walk freely with more than just his family in both places. His teammates and friends, even while being terrible at times, were all people who would go places with him.
Sometimes the stronger ones would forget him, but the blame for that was on his constitution as someone weak.
More than the now, he made sure to keep true to his word by remember his time with all of his previous squads. The ones who had been leading him up to his current "now".
One of the people who was involved with both his "then" and "now" had been Shigenaga. Leaving her behind felt bad, but it would lead to them meeting back up later. Overlooking this was fine so long a she could provide support for her. And besides, there was something he knew about her.
She's super dependable. She won't be taken out until I'm able to help her.
She never asked for his help, but he made sure she never had to. He would always be there to help, no matter if she vocalized it or not.
So...
Just hold on!
Urushima crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.
"The both of them are the same as ever. It's pretty annoying to watch them."
He was sitting with a group that seemed to be mixed with those a year older than them. The large screen was in front of them all and he could see the match playing out.
Everyone had said something or other about what was happening and the commentators were doing their best here.
...Why did I decide to come along?
"Hey, Urushima. Can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you, I can hear you. What were you saying? That your lunch was good? What did you eat?"
"You aren't even listening!"
Sasmori's character sure has changed, he thought.
Urushima looked on at the fight from the large screen directly in front of him and he viewed the prices on some items he had seen online at the same time. Those prices were reduced by sales after being there for some time, but...
...It's all so expensive...
He thought of getting food from somewhere instead of buying those items. The food he could get from the Red Lightning was a good amount because "we'd just have to throw it out otherwise".
No, he did not eat much, so he was not hoping for much. But when he compared the prices that he was seeing now...
...This is not good.
Urushima thought, I need to learn what it's like to be one of those kinds of people.
After all, most of the people he knew ate more expensive food than he did. Those same people did not live lives of searching for what was cheapest and being willing to go to the people they dislike for something to eat.
As a working boy, he needed to look at things from different viewpoints.
"Hey, Sasamori. How much do you spend on lunch?"
"Huh? About 1500 yen? Why?"
Urushima closed the conversation. He felt he had to.
He looked up at some other prices and saw a "50 yen" note.
...Sasamori, you can't do that.
For Urushima, it was the difference between free and 50 yen. For Sasamori, it was the difference between 1500 yen and 50 yen.
Sasamori had the greater difference.
Besides, 1500 yen could buy two or three brand new things. Or 15 used ones.
What are you doing, Sasamori? You can't be like that. Yes…
"That guy is an idiot, but he would agree with me."
"Who are you talking about?"
They wouldn't get it, but I'm pretty sure he would agree regardless, right? he concluded.
Meanwhile, messages from some others came along as the fight continued on.
Momo: "Hey, how are things going over there? I can't watch the match myself right now."
Kane-shima: "Things are fine. People are being idiots. ...Well, it's mostly the duo from Meishō Squad. Oh, but Sasamori likes to eat expensive lunches. He said they are 1500 yen."
Yes: "That's crazy...!"
Someone agreed with him. He decided to ignore that a lot of people around him looked the other way. But then someone else came in to the conversation.
Manager: "Oh, I completely understand that one. Ariake and I would used to complain whenever everyone wanted to get 1700 yen lunches. They are all crazy."
White Fox: "It really wasn't that much... Besides, Mei and I would usually spot the both of you."
"Why those two!?"
Urushima was tempted to throw his phone on the ground but realized how much it would cost to repair it.
"Why did it have to be that idiot's former teammates who answered?"
"You really don't like them, do you?"
"It's because of them that I couldn't get that guy to stay on my squad."
"I think that's because he isn't into money the same way you are."
"Tch."
"Anyway," said Tonooka while looked readily at the screen in front of them all. "It looks like I'm going to need to have a talk with Mittsun after this match."
These kinds of people are annoying as hell!
After attacking everything around him within a few meter radius and blowing anyway any of the remaining falling glass, there was nothing but gashed pavement of the area. The attack did not reach any of the nearby buildings, but it was enough to scrape some of the closer pillars along with the pavement.
The attack only left behind destruction, gashes along the ground, and an open area with a dying wind.
At first glance, it looked like all of the city's pavement had been cut by multiple large swords.
At the center, Kageura spun his around and swung two sets of Mantis in a way that made them different attacks.
His opponent was Shigenaga.
She generally focused on dodging while he sent a series of high-speed slashes against her.
They were not simply slashes. Not only could he move his attacks at unnatural angles, but he could switch between front and back of his body or even spin the attacks all the way around.
"Hold still! I've already dealt with fast people using shields!"
"What kind of stupid order is that...!?" asked Shigenaga. "It's time you were blown away!"
She put some distance between them and fired the rifle attached to her right hip.
She immediately stuck clicked in the next round and rotated the rifle to load it. After all, she had predicted the path of Kageura's attack and had to leave her stance to dodge it.
And after she dodged him...
"Crap, that was close! You have a pretty short time before firing on someone!"
"You're one to talk!"
He sent a Mantis slash at her while they spoke.
Those trion blades would turn depending on how he wanted them to move.
"This guy is such a pain...!"
With that, Shigenaga moved forward. In the widened city street, she passed along the gashed ground and used it while charging toward Kageura.
.
Shigenaga made her move.
She ran forward.
Kageura responded with a casual strike of his right arm.
It was a somewhat diagonal strike, but she could not focus too much on that. He could change the trajectory of his swords midflight.
It was better to think of it like homing projectiles.
And the beginning of that motion was his vision. The unrestricted movement of the blades allowed him to change the trajectory of his moving blades, but it was even more of a problem with his body.
No matter how she moved, she was doing it further out and away from him. That meant her speed could never match that of him turning his body at the center.
…And that allows him to follow me with his gaze while he attacks!
Since he followed her with his eyes, attacked, and then followed her again, she had to be constantly on the move. And since his flexible blades caused gashes, he also had to stay on the move. So first of all…
"Hikigane Shield...!"
Shigenaga used a Trigger to produce a trion shield from her left palm and sent it toward Kageura.
The shield was literally launched toward him for a shield bash.
She targeted his right arm so it would hit the flexible blades. But...
"Keh! You missed!"
He released his blade coming from his right hand during the slash, so the arm bent around over the top of the Hikigane Shield.
And immediately after dodging it, he reset his blade to normal. Also...
"!"
He also sent out a slash with his left arm.
...Kh!
He was too fast.
And his attacks would not hit the ground.
He used his great speed to rotate the flexible blades, but he would pull them back before they hit the ground and begin his next rotation.
It was a forceful series of slashes and pushes. That was Kageura's sword technique.
Since it was based on forceful action, it was powerful.
Shigenaga, however, had not fallen back. She used Hikigane Shield.
"Ohh...!"
After dodging his attack, she sent out the shield to fight back.
The shattered shields spread and the dodged slashes roasted the air.
A high-speed exchange of roars and light was held below the false clear sky.
Within that, Shigenaga saw a grin. Kageura was grinning as he continued his assault.
"Great...!"
"What is!?"
"There are other people like you, but I never fought you myself!"
She did not reply with "so what".
This enemy wanted to fight all of those people.
...Is he a battle-crazed warrior...!?
When referring to Kageura Masato, the term "battle-crazed" formed a certain baseline. He was not truly looking at her anymore.
He thought of her as a waypoint.
That fact created a feeling in her chest.
"Don't underestimate me, you demoted A-Rank!"
She would stop him. Meishō Squad would stop this madman here.
The points no longer mattered to her. Kageura Masato had turned her into a mere waypoint.
As someone who lived in a world of fighting, that was...
"Unforgivable!"
.
Shigenaga swung her body to the left to dodge the slash Kageura sent down from the right.
She stood in front of him, but his slash would immediately pursue her. And it would do so by hopping back up from extremely low to the ground.
So she hurriedly took two actions.
She fired her right rifle to the bottom right while sending a Hikigane Shield toward him.
The right rifle blast was crucial. Because...
"Hit...!"
His flexible blades arrived from the bottom right. A moment later, they would hop up to cut her down.
She was prepared for it to be a lethal attack.
And after the slash, the power produced by those blades would reside within their target and cut them even further. The movement she saw came from his usage of limbs and was something like a guiding point.
So there was a time lag from the slash to the movement.
That prevented the flexible blades from damaging themselves or injuring their wielder.
But what if she fired her rifle at the blades in advance?
The power would reside within the hit to the slash, but the impact would be unable to leave the blade.
...So it'll be destroyed!
With the force of the rifle blast included, she guessed it would destroy Kageura's left arm along with the flexible blades.
Her bullet hit as planned.
It happened instantly and Shigenaga gathered strength in the left arm swinging her Hikigane Shield.
A moment later, the flexible blades would shatter and an explosion would erupt.
But she was in her trion body. Her nonbiological body could endure a small-scale blast at close range.
So she relied on that. And...
"Did you try something!?"
Kageura's forward facing head approached as if ducking below the Hikigane Shield.
...Huh!?
Her confusion was not directed at Kageura.
It was directed to the bottom right where she had fired her rifle.
The bullet should have collided with the flexible blades.
And she could see that had definitely happened.
Except the blades were not producing power.
One of the flexible blades was forcefully destroyed. At the moment of impact, Kageura had destroyed his blade and released it.
The bullet had knocked the forgotten blade until it shattered.
"—!"
And just as they shattered...
"Too bad! One more!"
Kageura sent out a flexible slash using his three pronged attack in his right hand. A flash of light moved along with that movement.
Shigenaga did not have the proper timing or stance to dodge.
...I was careless...!
That thought sank into the pit of her stomach and she moved.
.
Kageura thought he had sliced through his opponent. A sniper shot had also come to assist in his attack.
But he felt no tactile feedback from the double attack And...
Hm...?
He shook his head a few times in a trembling motion.
As his right arm moved up and down to tilt his head, he found his clothing was disturbed at that arm and its shoulder.
His squad's uniform was torn and the right half of his face was covered with leaking trion.
That was proof of an explosion going off at close range.
Wait, wait! What's this!? Where's that girl?
He wondered what happened and looked over to where glass had shattered.
Shigenaga slowly stood up after having been blown away and embedded in a shattered window.
.
Shigenaga stood up.
She breathed out and faced Kageura from a distance of 12 meters.
She looked forward.
But her knees were shaking.
"Hey! Are you sure you're really there?"
The impact had triggered something inside her.
She had taken some damage, but that was not what mattered. And...
"That's cause of that shield!"
The Hikigane Shield.
She had tried to send the left shield toward Kageura, but she had thrown it to the left in the instant she realized he had abandoned his left flexible blade.
She had predicted that he was already swinging his right arm down.
As a result, that shield was hit by the flexible blade, sniper shot, and her own Meteora, but...
"You got me with that last blast. I'll give you props for that one!"
When the Hikigane Shield exploded between the two of them, it had sent her flying before the slash could reach her.
That was why she still lived.
Her only injuries were from being thrown backwards by the explosive blast.
The same was true for Kageura. But there was a difference between Kageura's extensive experience and Shigenaga's limited knowledge: the pride the two of them had.
Kageura had not taken a blow due to his movements and he could immediately continue fighting. Shigenaga, on the other hand…
"—"
She had stood up on instinct, but she could not move. She was gradually coming to, but she still could not move.
And Kageura did not hold back. Even as he spoke, he inspected different parts of his body.
"One, two. Three, four."
He jumped and ran toward Shigenaga. And in his emptied left hand…
"!"
He now swung his next set of attacks.
.
Shigenaga did not really understand her situation.
She felt some kind of intense anger and she remembered she had been fighting.
But when she tried to remember what she had to do and think about now...
...Kh.
It felt like there was a fog in her mind. Her thoughts were wrapped in a white emptiness.
...Why is that?
It was all such a pain. Thinking only gave her a headache.
Something black was rushing toward her with long hands raised.
This is bad, she thought, but she did not understand what it was or why it was bad.
But she knew it was bad.
Yet her mind was simply blank. So…
"—"
Her mind wanted something she did not have to think about.
She saw the buildings. They were extremely dull, just like her mind at the moment.
There was a city spread out from those buildings and the area around her was badly destroyed.
And just then...
...Eh?
She saw a color beyond the empty sky.
It was blue. The color of the sky.
Ohh, she thought. Has spring arrived?
The sky had always been dull in the world she lived in. The world she had once created in her dreams that had been brought to life.
It had led her across a distant sky. She would call out infinitely, but he had always been a great distance from her - in a world different from her own.
He had always been barely visible ahead. But he was the hope she had been searching for.
There had been some scars along the way with him, but she had decided to keep those close to her. She took all of the pain for the two of them. It had been worth it every time she had seen him enjoying himself.
Then he had noticed her loneliness in her perfect world. So he had brought a taste of something else - something more than she had wanted.
The world she had once created inside of her dreams had been brought to life and he had decided to go into it willingly. So if she viewed that world as much as now then he was guaranteed to appear.
And appear he did.
Daybreak: "Shigeko. ...Sorry for the wait there."
It was Mitsuteru, her teammate and friend.
This was him speaking to her from where he hid. And that friend clearly spoke to her.
"You really shouldn't be sleeping. We're in the middle of a fight, but I'll say this just in case."
She could imagine the smile on his face.
Daybreak: "Assistance. Can you help me, Naki?"
.
"—!"
Her mind woke up.
Yes. This was a match.
It was a clash with an enemy. For Meishō Squad, this was where they needed to show themselves.
So below the clear sky, Shigenaga awoke to the charging enemy.
This was her specialty. This was Meishō Squad's specialty.
It was a head-on battle. She had won countless of these and been blown away by countless of them. So she had a technique for it. That being...
"Hikigane Shield...!"
She forcibly gathered strength in her hands and opened several of them.
There were 16 in all. She arranged the trion shields in a fan shape before her. And...
"...!"
The shields flew out, blowing away the glass as they went. The glass of nearby buildings was blown and rolled away and the trion shields burst out.
But something took evasive action directly ahead.
It was Kageura. He swung his entire body around as he charged in.
"It's about time!"
The Attacker sharply bent his legs to clear the flying shields and accelerated toward her. The flexible blade had created another area of attack and his racing feet galloped like a horse.
Meanwhile, Shigenaga had moved forward while the Hikigane Shields were still flying.
And she launched a second wave of 16 shields.
"Go...!"
She launched them at Kageura's waist height.
But it only took the enemy an instant to dodge them. He rearranged his body's position as he ran and dodged the close-range attack by shifting a portion of his torso to the side.
He was closing in on her, but Shigenaga moved forward as well.
And...
"Ohh...!"
She clenched her teeth and launched another 16.
She aimed for his face, but not to hit him. To blind him.
However...
"!?"
Kageura lowered his face.
He shifted around, literally bent his body forward, and placed his head below the Hikigane Shields.
His attack had already begun. He swung his right arm to send the flexible blade's attack straight down through her left shoulder.
At the same time, Shigenaga swung her right arm. She held a rifle in her right hand.
"There...!"
She fired on empty space. But she scored a direct hit on something: Kageura's left arm.
That was a second attack he was trying to make. She had predicted it and fired there.
In that instant, he released his left elbow. With an obvious light noise, his arm bent sharply.
It dodged the bullet.
Shigenaga had no weapon.
So the enemy spoke.
"Here's the last!"
Meanwhile, Shigenaga took a light step. Instead of focusing on weight like before, she took a stance that focused on speed.
"Allow me to teach you about what our squad is about."
"Meishō is one thing, but the rest of you are the same!" roared Kageura as he made a deep swing of his flexible blade to raise them once more. "Just people who want to seem big!"
"Precisely."
Shigenaga lowered her body.
A moment later, a certain power produced destruction.
It was the rifle blast she had fired. It had missed his arm and continued behind him where it shattered a light.
One of the Hikigane Shields she had sent out earlier had yet to fully disperse when the bullet split it.
"—"
The light shattered.
.
Kageura turned just his head to view it.
He saw light.
He had magnificently dodged the shot fired by the All-Rounder woman in front of him, and yet...
...Huh?
Green shards of trion scattered, but they flew out forcefully.
"Take this."
The light ignited as soon as the woman said that.
The shield fragments had come in contact with his Mantis.
The rest was simple.
Three lights flashed as they struck his body.
It only took a short time for him to finish his attack.
Kageura gave a shout.
"Now!"
.
Shigenaga saw the light moving towards her at the same time Kageura continued to move forward.
Even if he had been shot three times, he continued towards her.
I'll give him points for continuing like this, but he's just finishing off someone who has already lost.
That was why she focused on the light she saw beyond him.
It was someone also trying to snipe her.
I guess I should at least try this now.
Shigenaga sighed inside and shifted her position once more. This time she spread her legs, reeled back her first, and lowered her body.
A hexagon formed in front of her first. From within the hexagon a shield formed in the shape of a dagger.
That dagger began to shine.
"Here's my answer!"
As if punching the shining dagger, she threw her fist forward with her entire body.
The shining dagger flew through the air at the same time Kageura's attack reached her.
The flexible blade in his hand pierced her heart before a second one went through her head.
As her body began to crack she heard Kageura's voice directly in front of her.
"...You were pretty good."
Bail Out
Ema saw it from his scope. The shot he had fired against Shigenaga had collided with the strange dagger thrown at him.
Instead of destroying both or only one of them being destroyed, something else happened.
The shot was sent back to him.
The dagger glittered for a moment before sending the shot back to him. It had followed the shot itself and was now headed for him.
...That's the prototype Trigger Taiyōko-san was working on.
Shigenaga had taken that Trigger to use for herself. It's a good thing she didn't use it until the last moment.
But not that it had been used, he had no way to dodge it.
The first thing to reach him was his own shot. It crashed into the muzzle of his Ibis, shooting it to the side.
The next thing was the strange dagger.
Ema tried to bring his Ibis back in position to block the dagger, but it reached him before he could move. In a way, it had felt as if Shigenaga's attack had come first and everything else came after.
"This is her answer, is it?"
Mitsuteru had told him before about Shigenaga, but this was his first time truly seeing what she was capable of. Against an opponent stronger than her she would have needed to answer to that strength.
And this was it.
"...Mitsuteru, you have a pretty scary teammate."
Bail Out
…Oh, that's unexpected.
Denji thought that from the front of the window displaying the hall and screen.
He had his eyes on both the screen and the ones in front of it. The first was to keep track of the fight and he relayed that information.
"Sekai, Shigenaki just got taken out."
"That's fine," replied the other Unneeded.
But Denji tilted his head at his bluntness.
"...It was Kagemasa who took her out, you know? She did use your shield attacks."
"That's why I said it's fine."
"Oh." Denji realized what Sekai meant. "It's fine because she got the experience."
"Hah. If you get it, you don't have to say it."
Denji raised his eyebrow at that. And after a beat...
"Do you have anything particular to say about that last strike?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
The final attack that Shigenaga had done used her Hikigane Shield bash as a basis but turned it into something more offensive.
The attack was already pretty offensive, but this only increased that.
More than that, it had a certain properly to it that was different from Sekai's method or her previous attacks. That was...
"Something incredible has happened because of it."
It was a counter attack.
Instead of initiating the attack herself, Shigenaga had waited for an attack to be fired at her before she moved to counter it.
"Well? Do you think that counter is worth mentioning?"
"...It isn't perfect, but they had to have been her first time doing it in real combat. Hah. Fine, I'll give it a name, at the least."
"What's that?"
"Right." That irritated man viewed him with his usual dull and bored expression. "Giving something like that a name really doesn't mean anything. But it's something to note whenever someone speaks about her. ...Would this make her happy?"
"That's not up to me to decide." Denji smiled bitterly as the information on the screen changed. "So what are you going to name it?"
Sekai gave another sigh that got everyone else's attention.
"Answerer - That which attacks last strikes first."
Looks like we have a name for that attack just now, Mei thought while calculating out the odds of the name sticking.
Mitsuteru had been someone she held dear, but she knew very little about Shigenaga. The girl had performed admirably against Kageura and managed to take out Ema with her counter, but this was her first time really seeing her fight.
The people down below could be heard speaking, so she decided to see what they had to say.
"Kage really took some damage there."
"That's because he was being harassed the entire time."
"Is that so? It looked like he was having some fun."
Jinsei saying that made it sound more believable than anyone else here.
But there was someone who whistled that seemed to have something else to say.
"Those two really had their fun, didn't they? It's good to know they're still on such good terms."
It was Kanda.
"Took you long enough. I thought you wanted to watch your little buddy fight here?"
"Hahaha. I've been keeping up. But sorry I'm late."
He took a seat next to Arafune and immediately crossed his arms. To her it seemed like he was excited to see what was left of the match.
Jinsei's sudden move to grab Kanda was easily stopped by another Arafune Headlock, but that was normal. Kanda didn't even notice it.
"Wow," he said with another whistle. "Meishō Squad and Kageura Squad sure are taking a beating here. But they also earned the most points compared to the others. Azuma-san took one, but that's all."
"Now that Kage's down trion, he's going to be a bit easier for Azuma-san to take out."
"Do you think he will get the chance?"
"What do you mean?"
Kanda raised his brow towards Arafune, but said nothing.
Nothing needed to be said if they already understood his words.
How will you respond to this, Arafune?
"Tch. Don't look at me like that."
"Do you not trust your own student on this?"
"It's not that I don't trust him..."
"Arafune being a tsun when it comes to Mitsuteru is nothing new."
"Hokari!"
Mei smiled at Hokari sticking his tongue out and Arafune's response. She always knew the relationship those two had with Mitsuteru due to calculating it out before, but this only confirmed it for her.
Kanda must have also known about it form the way he laughed without covering his mouth.
"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't want to admit that you want him to score some points here."
"...Hah. That's not it at all. I just don't like the thought of him without his teammates around. He isn't the type of person who can really do much without them. Especially since he just lost Shigenaga."
"Oh? Is that so? Just for that, I feel like hitting you."
"Do it and find out what happens."
"Hey, hey, Mei's been looking dow here this whole time! If you start a fight here then she might come down and hit you two!"
It was no surprise that Jinsei was able to notice her watchful gaze the entire time.
Arafune and Kanda froze for a moment before turning to the screen without facing her once. Their fear came through clearly, but she thought it would be fine with the way Hokari was waving her way.
Mom: "You are certainly in a good mood. Does it have to do with the fight?"
Rampage Dress: "A little bit. Personally, I can't say there isn't anyone who I'm not rooting for. But what I can say is that we have a definitive answer on what to call the move that Shigenaga has performed. It has come from Sekai - the originator of the Hikigane Shield and the basis behind Shigenaga's fighting style."
The shout of "He really named it!?" was drowned out by Mei's voice reaching everyone.
Even the noise of pounding glass behind her didn't stop her for a moment.
Rampage Dress: "Coming form Sekai himself, the move Shigenaga had used is called 'Answerer'. It uses Shield alongside Starlight - a prototype Trigger. From the looks of it, the shield is transformed into something that can move faster in the air after being launched. From there, Starlight will hit anything that is in the shield's way, bouncing it back and moving to hit the target dead on."
Myth: "If that is the case, why not simply use it with Scorpion? I have heard that Murakami-kun had used that Trigger with Kōgetsu, so it should be no problem with Scorpion."
Rampage Dress: "That is likely due to the way Shield is. The density of it can be shifted in a different way to Scorpion. If I were calculate them all out, it would say that Raygust is the best option for this, then Shield, Scorpion, Kōgetsu. If timed properly then Raygust can go even faster. Kōgetsu should not be thrown like that, so it is terrible. But what Shield has over those two is the way it can be thrown, as shown by Shigenaga and Sekai."
Kiyome: "But then why wait as long as she did to do that?"
That was a good question.
If she had used that sort of technique before then she might have been able to get more done against Kageura. Against Takeshi it would have been even better. But she had kept it to herself until the last moment.
That could only mean on thing.
Rampage Dress: "It is meant for a final attack. A power strike or the opponent's best move. A true counter meant to strike before and after her opponent has done everything they could to win. As for why not against Kageura..."
That was much more simple.
Rampage Dress: "He had never gone all out against her here. Or rather, his style is quick and relatively weak attacks using Mantis. Using this move against that would do very little. Also, he was using Shukuchi to move around the battlefield too much. Marking him like that would have been terrible."
Kiyome: "He is able to do that as well!?"
Mom: "Shukuchi?"
That was right, someone here would not have known about such a thing if they were from a different country. Even more so when the practice of it was almost unheard of after trying to properly performing it.
But there was someone who had been able to pull it off without issue.
That person was Yuki.
Rampage Dress: "That's right. The high-speed body movement technique - Shukuchi. Yuki is the only person known to pull it off in rapid succession, but it looks like Kageura can do it in short bursts."
It had been why he was able to turn around and keep track of Shigenaga for so long.
He had moved his body before she could register what had happened.
Honestly, these people are starting to get worse and worse.
But that was a good thing.
Rampage Dress: "This means they know what it takes to be strong."