“Waoh, Himeno! That’s Bushido style isn’t it!?”
“Call it whatever you like.”
Himeno’s black hair was tied back, and she wore a headband as she headed towards the entrance of the village with a tight expression on her face.
The sleeves of her shrine maiden attire were fixed with a large band, and she had a short sword hanging from her waist and a larger one strapped to her back. She seemed more ready for battle than ever.
The sword hanging from her waist was her dear Kurourushi Hirumaki, and on her back she had the newly summoned dodanuki.
It was well known as a sword made for the field of battle. It was bulky, 76 centimeters long and weighed 1.4 kilograms. It was a little large for the small Himeno, but she would need the sharpness and destructive power of this zanbato type sword to fight back the slave sorcerer that would attack the village.
Himeno informed everyone of their strategy to intercept the slave sorcerer.
It was simple, Himeno would challenge the sorcerer on her own as their ‘guard’.
She would fight the slave sorcerer one-on-one, and Ameriko would watch the battle before trying to snipe from a distance.
Ameriko and Himeno found Chai as if fate led them to him, and were invited to stay in the village as its guests.
Their stance was that they wandered into the village and wanted to repay them for feeding them and staying the night, but they would be fighting independently to try to avoid retaliation against the village just in case they lost.
“So we’re like their guards… It’s pretty exciting, it’s like a western.”
“For me it is more like a historical drama… Different cultures influence each other… But that is not important, let us follow our plan.”
Himeno warned an excited Ameriko.
“Okay! Leave it to me. But…”
“Nyugu…?”
Ameriko suddenly grabbed Himeno’s face, who was taken by surprise and blinked rapidly. She was flustered, thinking Ameriko was going to try to kiss her again.
“Your face is scary. It’s like you’re going out there to die.”
“…Fighting means facing death.”
Himeno had death on her mind ever since she arrived in this seemingly lawless world. This was the truth, even if she had the frame of mind of a warrior from the sengoku period, whose life revolved around battle.
The history of the country known as Japan was condensed inside Himeno. The last days of the Heian and Kamakura period existed as one inside her, as did the chaos of the sengoku period. This influence turned into pessimism, and she was prone to fall into tragic and ephemeral thoughts.
“No. Fighting is a way to obtain a tomorrow.”
Said Ameriko with a serious expression and a strong will behind her blue eyes.
“…!”
Himeno gulped.
“I’m scared too, but I’m not thinking of losing or dying. We’re going to win. A strong mind is the key to victory. We’re going to get our tomorrow and carve out a future for us. That’s why we fight. Understood?”
There was no doubt in Ameriko words, she truly believed in her strength and was sure she would be victorious. Himeno felt all of her strength leaving her body as she heard Ameriko’s infinitely positive words.
She was becoming too stiff and overly serious, and that would have hindered her ability to bring out her full power.
“…You are correct, Ameriko.”
Said Himeno with a quiet smile.
“You’re not going to die. I’ll protect you.”
“I will entrust my back to you.”
“Leave it to me.”
●
It was finally time.
Dark clouds suddenly covered the afternoon sky.
These ominous, gray mammatus clouds wriggled in the sky above her, and even the beasts and monsters in the forest seemed to be holding their breath.
“The wind… Has stopped.”
Said Chai on top of a five meter tall watchtower in the village’s entrance.
“The atmosphere feels heavy…”
“The spirits of the wind are gone…”
Chai’s sisters were also with him, and they felt an anxiety that typically preceded a disaster.
For them, who used the divine protection of wind spirits to fly, this was akin to losing their wings. They would not get any help from wind spirits.
Himeno stood a little far from the watchtower with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, as though she were meditating. She was searching for the presence of her enemy.
“…It’s here.”
Himeno opened her eyes.
The disturbing presence drew closer, feeling more and more heavy and cold.
Himeno looked up, and saw the lead colored clouds approaching the ground with a large vortex. They touched the ground, blowing up grass and dust.
This happened twenty meters away from Himeno, and although it looked like a tornado, there was no wind.
“I see, this is strange.”
The lack of any noise made it all the more unsettling.
The clouds dripped something that looked like slimy, melted lead, as though it was coming from a living being’s tongue. As it licked the ground, it turned black and condensed, eventually turning into what looked like a three-dimensional shadow of a person.
“It’s here! That’s it!”
Screamed Chai.
As the black clouds were absorbed, the person’s features became more clear. His body was uniform, and he wore tight clothes that looked like white underclothes. It was as though he was forcibly trying to fit into children’s clothes.
The man also had several faces around his body. Creepy looking masks were attached to it.
“Uu…!”
Himeno could not help but groan. These death masks looked as though they were peeled off people’s heads. These dark, anguished looking faces that appeared to have been worked on as if they were wooden masks were actually real faces, and they covered his body as if they were medals.
His expression showed only one thing, madness. Something indescribable, like a mixture between ecstasy and cruelty.
“Mister Mihirakula is here.”
“…Oh?”
“No one’s here to greet us.”
“Odd.”
“Are they playing hide and seek?”
The dead faces stuck to his body started talking, or at least that was what it appeared to be happening. In reality, it was the man talking. He altered his voice and used the death masks as his puppets.
He was mad.
Himeno shuddered.
His shiny red, but vacant eyes stared at her.
“A single girl.”
“Black hair, how rare.”
“It’s an offering. Let’s make her a slave.”
“Hihihi, good.”
The high-pitched voices were deeply unpleasant, and Himeno felt sick just listening to them.
The man took his time approaching her, as if he was appraising her. Himeno felt as though thick miasma surrounding his body distorted the air around him with every step.
In reality, the scenery behind him was shaking, like a mirage.
“My name is Himeno. I am a wanderer with no relation to this village, and I will cut you.”
This was not an opponent she could talk to, but since he said his name, she felt it was appropriate to introduce herself as well.
“Did you hear that?”
“I have no idea what she’s saying.”
“I hate this girl. She says complicated things.”
“And she has a sword too.”
“A girl swordsman I presume?”
“A very haughty female knight perhaps.”
“It’ll be great to defile her.”
““““Hihihi, hihihi…!””””
The coating of insanity mixed with rotten lust was sickening.
Himeno mustered her strength, and faced the madman that went beyond what she imagined.
He was Mihirakula, a slave sorcerer and an eerie aberration.
Himeno could not even begin to imagine what kind of magic he would use. All she knew was that these sorcerers employed a powerful barrier. Even Chai’s father, who fought him with his sword, had no idea what his magic was like.
Himeno grabbed the sword on her back, and held it in her left hand, still sheathed. She opened her legs just a little, and lowered her back.
And then she held the handle with her right hand as well.
“Here I go.”
It was a stance meant for unsheathing techniques.
Himeno assumed this world was unfamiliar with fighting styles that involved taking down an opponent with a single strike. She spoke to Chai’s father the previous night, and learned about how people battled in this world. Most people used double-edged swords and hit, thrust, and swung, utilizing the sword’s weight.
It should be the sorcerer’s first time seeing an iai.
“Strange stance.”
“Isn’t she going to draw her sword?”
“She’s scared.”
He continued walking with a grin on his face and no caution.
Swords were nothing to him, he thought. He had absolute confidence in his barrier.
Three meters. Two meters.
The man covered with death masks stepped within striking distance.
“Let’s break her legs and take her with us.”
“Sounds fun.”
“As she begs for her life.”
“I want to see her cry and scre…”
Himeno drew her sword without saying a word.
Without any prior movements, Himeno unleashed a lightning fast slash.
The sword made no sound as it ran through the sheath, and even Himeno’s breathing was silent. Doudanuki drew a sharp, silver line, undodgeable at that distance.
However… The blade stopped with a shrill sound.
There was an invisible wall. The blade was stopped by some sort of invisible, thin film. The invisible field drew a red ripple in the shape of an hexagon.
“It doesn’t work.”
“Useless useless.”
“Don’t you know the power of a slave sorcerer?”
It was the barrier Himeno read about.
“Is she a bumpkin?”
“It doesn’t matter how good you are with the sword.”
“Just like the lady knights from the kingdom.”
“Let’s break her legs.”
“And make her cry and let out some nice screams.”
The man covered in death masks let out a vulgar laugh, but Himeno’s expression remained unchanged.
She expected the barrier. Her sword spread sparks on the surface of the barrier, but she continued to push.
“Secret technique, Tenken Chikaku Zero!”
She had an attack hidden behind her unsheathing technique.
The shadow of the blocked sword slipped through the barrier like a blue phantom, and glittered inside it.
“Wha!?”
The mad slave sorcerer let out his first surprised scream.
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