Disclaimer: I do not own Taimanin series.
Five Days Break - 06
Senketsu.
Kotaro had heard of this name.
It belonged to a Taimanin who worked as a blacksmith in the ancient time. He was someone whose life solely devoted to the desire of wiping out demon from the face of the world. Such a wish concealed in every single weapon forged by his own hands. Senketsu's blades would reach as far as anywhere the Gate of the Dark World appeared. His collection had been distributed across Japan, and through time, most of them were lost.
That was how the story goes in the old legend. Now, Kotaro was sure that parts of it were real. In his hand was one of the many swords forged by Senketsu. The crimson-red particles flowing around the body and the extreme bloodlust reserved exclusively for only the Demon-kin were all the proof he needed.
What Ingrid felt from the sword wasn't simply killing intent. It was the embodiment of Senketsu's hatred toward the demon race for the tragedy they brought upon his family. This sword held the boiling desire to cut down everything related to those who came from the Dark World. That was its one and only purpose.
"A demon slayer sword crafted by the hatred of one man. To think there would be such a story." Ingrid muttered thoughtfully.
"Senketsu didn't lose just his family. His friends too, killed by the demon during an invasion. Till this day, his sword still carries the will to possess a wielder upon unsheathed. Those manages to wield these swords will enter an uncontrollable rage and unleash that wrath on any denizen standing on sight." Kotaro added.
Flash!
After taking a picture, Kotaro returned the sword to its scabbard and placed it back inside the box. He would need to inform the Weapon Research Department about this discovery. Senketsu's collection was highly regarded among the elite Taimanins due to its rarity and the unique crimson-red particles infused with the weapons. The fact that he had traveled to this place in the past should shed some light on the whereabout of his other creations.
"How do you feel?"
"Huh?" Kotaro turned to Ingrid with an eyebrow raised.
"How do you feel when you were holding that sword, Fuuma?"
"You can definitely tell it's a good sword. The edge is undull despite hundred of years."
"I'm sure that's not all." She doubted.
"It does tingles my eye a bit but that's all there is to it. Did you expect me to be possessed and fight you or something?"
"If what you told me is true, then I'm very eager to test it out."
What!? Please let that be one of her self-proclaimed witty jokes!
"That's really disturbing! I thought you think of me as your companion!"
"What's the matter?" Ingrid titled her head at Kotaro's reaction. "You should be confident about yourself. I know you can handle at least a single attack from me. You took one of my ping-pong serves to the face, remember?"
Yep! She was definitely joking at this point!
"Honestly, I know you were holding back during the match. Your strength is in another league when it comes to actual battle so the ping-pong game doesn't count. Besides, I barely feel anything from the sword." He slipped the tatami into place, made sure the trap door is safely covered. "I guess that part about being possessed is actually a myth unlike the rest of the story."
"You're putting it back?"
Kotaro noticed the way her shoulders loosely dropped.
"This family's ancestor was entrusted this by Senketsu. It belongs to them so it's only right to put it back." Done, he stood up and dusted off his hands. "Alright, great job done. Now that we found the source of your interest, why don't we head back to the inn? It's getting late and I want to read some books."
"Fair enough. I have spent enough time taking a walk today."
When they left the building, Kotaro didn't forget to close the door behind him and muttered an apology for intrusion.
"Fuuma."
"?"
"How about another match of ping-pong?" Ingrid suggested.
Kotaro smiled at the idea.
"I'm going to read my books."
He was not going to entertain that idea again.
"Oh, this summary looks interesting!"
After a dull meal and a hot bath, Kotaro was plentiful motivated once he finished a book and picked up the next one on the stack. Yes, this firm feeling while holding the the cover, the smooth texture grazing by the fingertips as he flipped each page, the ton of words and paragraphs filled with meaningful intentions, good plot points, shocking twists and the tender aroma, all of it made reading books a great hobby to enjoy.
This was high-quality time at its peak!
Knock Knock!
Then it was brutally cut off. What a timing.
"Yes?" Kotaro responded while lazily making his way to the door.
"Fuuma, it's me."
That was Ingrid's voice. He was not that shock to see her come knocking on his room anymore, maybe that was a perk earned from being a Hell Knight's companion during a vacation.
"Here. Take it."
Kotaro was ready to eat his own words. She still got him by surprise with the thing she was offering.
"A whole coffee packs?"
She actually shared them. Ingrid stayed true to what she had said this morning.
"Oh, t-thank you." Kotaro accepted the item as Ingrid replied by a nod of her head. "But you're giving me the whole bag?"
"I kept my words, and I don't intend to drink this anymore so there's no need for you to thank me."
"Eh?" Kotaro didn't understand the meaning.
"I planned on leaving this town in the morning."
Those sudden words made Kotaro's left eye widen. Well, guess that was another shock at the end of the day.
"You've only been taking a break for two days." Kotaro quickly said before Ingrid could return to her room.
"I still have two days left. Though, I believe I have earned enough of enjoyment from this little trip. My time here isn't so tedious with you being my companion."
"Ingrid."
"You would think not taking the last days off is a waste. However, my position is different. There's not many good hands in Nomad, that's why I need to go back and handle the works before something gets out of control."
"Alright. This means that…" Kotaro trailed off a bit for an idea that would be inevitable. "After tomorrow, things will return to the way it was."
Once Ingrid had left and Kotaro finished the rest of his own break, they would become enemies again. The mood became heavy when he thought about it. Kotaro wasn't sure of what to make out of this atmosphere. Had he knew about this, he would have accepted Ingrid's invitation for another ping-pong match. No idea why that was the case in his mind. Maybe he wanted Ingrid to have a good time experiencing more the customs of Human World? Oh wait, asides from the not-so-delicious food, the hot spring, a giant dead tree and a creepy inn owner, what else did this small town have to offer her?
"Ingrid, are you busy right now?"
"Not at the moment. I've done packing my belongings."
"Well, if you don't mind..." Kotaro smiled. "Care to join me in my room for a quick Go game? I brought a set with me."
"Go game? Is it a strategy board game where the pieces are black and white stones?"
"Yup! That's the one."
Ingrid's eyebrows slightly raised, she regained an interest in his idea.
"My, this is a first from you. How unexpected. A strategy game, you said. I'm one of Nomad's generals with the highest authority to command an army. I've come across many battlefield tactics that's ever existed, will a tactician of a small organization be able to answer my expectation?"
She smiled in a confident manner. Ingrid was being Ingrid again, a Hell Knight warrior proud of her own growth and achievements.
"To be frank, I don't know."
Kotaro simply shrugged.
"But this is a challenge for you to kill time, Ingrid. You can test my intellect through this game and maybe have a good laugh at my defeat. Whatever the case, I get to learn something new from you. It's not every day I get the chance to be personally tested by a demon general outside of battles, especially a Hell Knight. You and me, one on one, we'll see who is smarter on the battlefield."
"Strong words. Let's see how far you've become as a strategist."
Ingrid accepted the challenge.
"Great!"
Kotaro left the door opened for Ingrid to come into his room. His back faced her while he had a faint grin hidden from view. Provoking his companion was a piece of cake.
A low table placed in the middle of the room. Black and white stones scattered at various points on a large-size drawing paper. Ingrid was familiar with rules of the game so there was no need for explanation. The time limit was thirty second on each turn.
All pieces were gathering at one corner of the makeshift board. Currently, it was Ingrid's turn to make a move.
"You know, I would serve us some tea." Kotaro spoke up.
"Hm."
"Then again, I blame the inn services for not replacing those bags. Most of them are expired."
"…"
Her hand froze, a black stone gripped between her index and middle fingers. She was aiming for one particular intersection on the board but hesitated to slip her piece there.
"Ingrid, it's almost thirty second." Kotaro looked at the clock on her side.
"I know that." She said firmly. "I can win this match."
"Okay." Kotaro went along with her confidence.
Most of the pieces were gathering at a corner, her corner. Ingrid's little groups of army were pinned into the wall by Kotaro's white stones, considering themselves captured.
The clock rang. Running out of time, Ingrid finally made a decision to slam her piece at the exact spot where he expected it to be. Subtly covering his mouth to hide a slowly forming smirk, Kotaro watched his companion folding her arms under the bosom chest and nodded her head as if she was satisfied with this move. Poor Ingrid didn't seem to realize that piece's life was at stake, the joints next to it were left empty for a reason. On his turn, Kotaro placed his stone at one of the vacant spots and hit the clock.
"Fufu."
Suddenly, a giggle slipped from Ingrid's lip.
"What an obvious tactic. You wanted to capture my knights by restricting the pieces' advancement with the numbers of eye available."
Oh, she found out. Not bad.
"Your stones may have cornered my troops, Fuuma. However, your way of thinking is still naïve." She grabbed a black stone from the bowl and hit the joint next to his white stone. "How's this? If this was an actual battlefield, I would personally come forth to support my troop and lock your teammates in a pincer formation."
Seriously, not bad! Ingrid's tactical thinking was quick and straight to the point. Sakura was guaranteed to be captured at this point. There was only one eye for that stone. And yes, he named the pieces after the members of the Task Force. Asuka, Yukikaze, Rinko-senpai and Su were busy holding a couple other black stones at bay closed to the edge. The situation over there was unsettled as each of the black stones still had some space to move around.
Clocks ticking. Kotaro took his time taking a white stone from the bowl, his other free hand supported his chin as he scanned the board.
"You are hesitated. It looks like the result has been decided." Said Ingrid with a hint of victory.
She made it sound like the match is over.
"Your troops are still in the frontline, don't celebrate so early."
"Show me how you can make it out alive of this circumstance then."
"Sure thing." Kotaro immediately said, placed his piece, dusted off his hand and beamed a smile at her. "There you go."
Sakura only had one joint to move over and so did the rest of other white stones. However, they were distributed in a way that when the time was right, they can be connected and form a big group with a one hundred percent possibility of living while their enemies were already cornered and scattered. Kotaro only needed one stone to make that tactic a reality.
No wasted move. No overthinking. No unsuspected advantage. Just a clear and precise strategy.
Leaving enough room for Ingrid's troop to charge in and surround a portion of his territory, she would gain a leverage by holding one of his pieces as hostage.
"Huh?"
When Ingrid looked over the board again, she blinked. Very slowly, her lip parted as the unforeseen plan gradually drawn to her. The white stone Kotaro just used in his previous turn became a bridge between that single piece, which was captured by her formation, and other groups.
Gasp!
Still immersed deeply, Ingrid let out such a sound like a general who just realized she had sent her troops to death.
"You baited me!?"
Throughout his turns, Kotaro had aligned his stones in a way that Ingrid would keep deploying her pieces to counter-capturing any joints she suspected he may take in order to reduce territory expansion. That led to Ingrid's stones being cornered right next to the board boundary. It was simply a trap set up to round up Kotaro's group of stones in one turn by taking over the eyes of his stones.
Kotaro anticipated such thoughts. Understanding the mindset of those who have been fighting at the frontline all the time, Kotaro believed in Ingrid's reliance on one own strength and numbers. He knew she would apply that instinct to her tactic. A round about but efficient type of offensive in disguise of a weak defense.
"I was just reading ahead, Ingrid. Your moves happened to line up with my thought process."
In other words, he flipped the table on her strategy.
By luring Ingrid to pick that empty intersection on the board, he sent in Sakura to halt her territory expansion around the corner. The moment she begins the formation to capture Sakura had sealed the deal in Kotaro's favor. Basically, Ingrid wasted two of her turns by capturing a decoy. Most of her black stones now stuck in-between the edge and his pieces, struggling in vain as Kotaro finished all the necessary steps to declare them captured.
This was done thanks to a single joint that connected Sakura and the rest of the Task Force. With the last piece in place, the black stones' movements significantly reduced to one eye. Kotaro called this the "Almighty Asagi's Arrival" tactic. Yep! The last piece was named after Asagi-sensei.
With Asagi-sensei joining the battlefield through an ambush at enemies' side, Sakura's hostage situation changed to unsettled. By uniting with other members of the Task Force, he successfully captured Ingrid's corner on the board.
Kotaro hit his clock and waited for the Hell Knight to finish her turn. The slightest twitch in her eyebrows could be noticed. Ingrid was intimidated by the horror her troops were facing.
"Ku…" Woah! Close one! He almost slipped out a giggle in front of her. Hopefully, she didn't catch that.
Ah. He couldn't help it. This delightfulness! This is the feeling of winning against someone who is a thousand time stronger than him in a battle belongs to his forte.
"Not yet, Fuuma." Ingrid took out another one of her stones from the bowl. "The match is not over yet. I can turn the tide with reinforcement."
As soon as Ingrid hit the clock to end her turn, Kotaro tapped a black stone with his piece and swapped their position.
"This...!?"
That was enough to shock Ingrid. The calm look on her face finally cracked once Kotaro dropped the black stone into an empty bowl.
"Go ahead, Ingrid. Call in more of your knights. In the next six turns, three captured members of your troop will be killed, swift and painless."
Both of them were deeply immersed in their commanding roles during the match.
Not giving up, Ingrid tried to capture Emily who was a bit far away from the group. Kotaro intercepted her move and took away another black stone in two turns.
She decided to trap Saika who was stationed in Kotaro's corner by taking over one of the three empty joints next to the piece. Kotaro mercilessly killed off another black stone in one turn.
"Going after my scattered pieces won't do any good for you, also. At this moment, the more you try to take away my stones' eyes, the better the chances for me to reduce your stones in one place and occupy that entire corner."
Ten seconds had past, Ingrid contemplated on confronting Asagi-sensei by moving her stone to its position. Kotaro did the same thing by placing Rinko-senpai next to her. That black stone stood no chance against two of the strongest swordswomen in the Task Force, dramatically speaking.
Eventually, at her fifth turn, Ingrid broke off the pincer formation on Sakura and focused on capturing Asagi-sensei. Big mistake! That joint where her stone just left was the one place Sakura hasn't used. Kotaro pushed his piece, chasing after it. Ingrid's new turn began with one of her stones ended up in a dead-lock by the Igawa Sisters.
Her lip pressed together, her hand was shaking lightly while holding another stone.
Ring Ring!
Soon, her time ran out as she couldn't decide the next move. Kotaro took one more black stone off the board at his sixth turn. It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't a prediction that Kotaro made come true. It was an undisclosed fact established and proven. In the type of battle that stretched beyond Ingrid's capabilities and landed right within Kotaro's forte, he will always be six steps ahead of her.
"I've never expected you to be capable of such act." Ingrid said. "What a gruesome side you have in you, Fuuma."
"It's just the way I play the game."
The rules of life and death are only applied to the stones anyway. Kotaro couldn't care much.
"I can see that your strategy contains a very cold, calculative way of thinking. Efficient as it is, you were ready to sacrifice one of your stones in order to capture my corner. You succeeded. Will you ever have the courage to make the same decision in an actual life or dead situation?"
Ingrid invoked an entirely different matter. The concept in between the line was the same, however.
"Hard to say. I've never resorted to that kind of plan. I just know that I place all the trust in my teammates' abilities. I give the orders and they get the job done. If things got out of hand, we would retreat."
"Even though completing the objective is a must?"
"If I have to lose a friend to achieve a goal, then I don't deserve to be their Captain anyway." Kotaro smiled softly. "It's like you said, Ingrid. My way of thinking is still naïve, embarrassingly so. But this is just who I am. It's on me and my poor strategy to pour a whole bucket of cold water over my head when we failed a mission, not my team."
Rather than "We completed the mission. Your team did great, Fuuma-kun. However, we also lost a good member today" outcome, he would go along with "Mission failed. Your choice brought up the most undesirable result, Fuuma-kun. You still have a long way to go."
Then, it would be "However, it's fortunate that we didn't lose any member of the Task Force. Everyone was able to return safely."
"Sooner or later, there will always be a difficult choice to make down the line during a mission. I can't turn a blind eye or run away, it's always the Captain's responsibility to face it."
Ironically, he was often confided to the safety behind a monitor and protection while the Task Force were risking their lives on the frontlines.
He carries the role of a Captain, yet he has always been watching their backs.
"Because of that, I'll make damn sure none of them will end up in a dangerous situation, like what I did to that stone. People called me the weakest Taimanin, One-eyed Kotaro or the useless missing eye Fuuma." Said Kotaro with a bit of a stress and shrugged it off. "That's fine. I would rather make the kind of choice that helps me stick to those names. You realize being called dumb, lazy or Idiot Fuuma is better than scum, trash or even worst because I chose to abandon someone in return of a fulfilled goal for my own sake."
Until the day he can stop looking at his team's backs and run straight to the front lines just so he can catch up with them, this would be how Fuuma Kotaro fights his battle.
"To compensate for my lack of strength, I will continue to read ahead, anticipate the enemies' strategy, their thoughts, their movements, their motives and give the Task Force an advantage no one's ever thought possible. That's what I'm striving for, Ingrid."
Kotaro didn't have any ambition, he only had the desire to prove himself as the driving force to his improvement, no matter how little that was. Maybe that was the reason his right eye was still closing and never awakened. It was similar to clinging to a blind hope in desperation. The more you want something, the further it will drift away from your reach.
This would be the way things go. If he couldn't handle a direct confrontation against someone as strong as Ingrid, he was willing to improve and put everything into his wit as a tactician. He would be stronger without the need of an Evil Eye.
"Phew, feel nice letting that out." Kotaro stretched his arms. "Anyway, does that answers your question?"
"Hm." Ingrid closed her eyes as if she was processing everything he had spoken. "Indeed. You have proven your point. After this, I supposed the next time we meet, you will be there at the frontlines alongside others to face me in person, no?"
"Heh, it depends. No promise." Kotaro chuckled. "But there's one thing I'm sure. The next time we face each other, you won't see fear in my eye, Ingrid."
Ring Ring!
"Ah! Your clock."
While they were dwelling on the conversation, Ingrid had yet to make the next move and her time ran out. Kotaro even forgot about her turn.
"It's fine." She turned off the clock. "If I continue to advance, more of my black stones will be taken. I will stop here."
Kotaro knew what this meant.
"It has been a fun night, enlightening I might say so. I get to hear an interesting story from you and this match opened my eyes. It seems like the Task Force will surely become a formidable enemy from now on."
With a genuine smile, Ingrid extended her hand to him.
"It's my lost. Good game, Fuuma."
/