Vol 4 Chapter 51 (1/2)
Chapter 51: Bent Girl in a Crouching Place
Even as I bend and turn
Even as I crouch and spill
Where is it
I am headed?
Point Allocation (Battlefield)
The Blue Thunder was too spacious to call cramped and too cramped to call spacious
There were tables and a counter to move around and the pathere too clear to hide in or escape through As the lights went out and darkness surrounded her, Futayo realized a battle was beginning
…What do I do!?
She had to move
The unforeseen was coht in such confused circumstances before
She had never before had so much to be worried about
After all, she held the Tonbo Spare which had yet to activate for her, this was the workplace of the princess she served, she orried about the er, and most importantly…
“…?”
She suddenly recalled her defeat during the battle in Mito that day
She was the Vice Chancellor and she had lost
…So if I lose again here…
But as soon as that thought came to her…
“————”
Oh, no, she thought I’ain
“So they’ve made their move”
Soree with the girl’s voice con frame
It was Kanou She stood in the newly asse district of Ta to take a break between shops built around son frames had their illumination off and expressionlessly opened her mouth
“We somehow made it in time, milady But…”
“But?”
Kanou tilted her head and opened a sign frame
“The Vice Chancellor’s actions are quite different fro at the Ariake”
“I can uess why that is”
“That being?”
“Judge,” replied Ookubo on the sign frame “She was raised too well, and…”
There was a slight pause and then a sigh
“Well, it doesn’t ht now But…”
But…
“The Vice Chancellor ht destroy herself here and have to retire”
Futayo sensed her
…Oh, no
She are of the same failure she had felt so many times recently
She had done it again
She was in battle or very nearly so, yet herbefore her body And instead of thinking about battle, she was only thinking dark thoughts about herself
She knehy that was
If she lost here, her failure from that day would be joined by a second failure That pressure created these thoughts that cornered her
She had to stop this She had to avoid these thoughts that caused her to freeze up
But those thoughts told her this was her last chance, and…
…That’s the truth
If she did not allow herself to think about the truth, did thatat reality?
And during the battle that day, fukushi+ma Masanori had called her a coward
What about now? In the face of this battle, she was hesitating and had a lot on her mind
…Kh!
She saw a light It was directly ahead when she turned her back to the counter The figure who had been sitting by the entrance had drao blades which were reflecting the light Futayo felt she needed to face the in from the entrance on the left
And in the back on the right, three figures had broken in through theand were landing on a table while surrounded by glass shards
She could see them and a few ideas of how to handle them came to mind, but…
“—————”
For soh her mind and she hesitated
This is strange, thought Futayo After the Sack of Magdeburg and the Battle of Mikatagahara, she had seenone’s will and she had lost her weapon
…I…
I was broken by that, she thought while unable to move
She lacked the will needed to face battle
She had seen a as he rebelled against nobunaga and perished, Yoshi+tsune as she tried to protect Kantou and the whole east, Satomi Yoshi+yori as he saved the Musashi+, and even fukushi+ma and Katou more recently
Thinking back, Muneshi+ge, Gin, Katsuie, and Takakane had been the same
And not just them All of the officers and name inheritors had the wills necessary to risk their lives and achieve results
What was she compared to them?
She th, skill, and a weapon, but…
…Did I have the will needed to risk my life and achieve results?
She had not
She had an obvious reason for saying that: she was inexperienced
So her intent had been to endure battle ht with the will to win
“…!”
She understood nohy she was a coward
It went back to the Sack of Magdeburg and the Battle of Mikatagahara
She had been adh the results of those battles
Tonbokiri had been destroyed
She had been unable to dodge the attack froismoi Oplo
That should have been obvious As nothing more than a simple job, she had chosen to endure Katsuie’s attacks That would have et her weapon
If she had actually been , she doubted she would have been hit by that kind of sniper attack
Then, thought Futayo Then could I have fought Katsuie back then?
She knew she could not have She had used the strategy she did because she could not have fought him properly
But, she thought
Hadn’t she needed to risk her life and achieve results there?
If she had risked her life and aimed for victory, wouldn’t she have avoided that sniper attack?
That was the past This was nothing ret But she was trapped by that wish that she had done things differently And as if repeatedly ad her, leaders of other lands had achieved results and protected them
What had she done? Why had she been unable to do what they had?
She had her father’s divine weapon, but she had used it in an inexperienced fashi+on That had to be why the Tonbo Spare’s identical thought patterns would not allow her its power
…I…
She had strength and skill, but didn’t she lack theneeded to stand on the battlefield?
What about when she had attee had noticed her losing speed and reached out his hand, had she tried to take that hand?
Had she perhaps rejected it because she was not qualified to take that hand which had an actual will behind it?
Then even here and noas she not the least worthy of anyone to stand on the battlefield? So…
“———”
Yes, she thought
The question was not what she should do
It hether she should be here at all
It was because she did not know if she should be here or not that she had not knohat to do She had needed permission from herself on a
…To lack resolve is to meet failure
And as all this filled her mind, she failed to move
It was not that she did not move
She could not move She felt her failed actions would sully the battlefield
And so she prepared to simply watch it play out, but then…
“Enemy order!!!!”
A sharp voice pierced through thethe shop
The voice sent a tremor down Futayo’s back
It was not a shout or a raised voice It was simply a command meant to convey an objective
…Enemy order…
She was supposed to confir her
Why? she wondered I don’t belong here
But…
“—————”
Her body reacted
Futayo’s vision rather than eyes perceived rather than followed the enemy’s location and movements Who would she have to oppose first?
It was not the three who had ju on the table
Then what about the sh the door and was the closest to her? They had great speed and weretoward her
But she decided they were not the answer either
She was inside a building and in the dark Someone who had just rushed in would not have accurately located her
In that case, she thought as she looked to her eneure that had stood from a seat by the entrance and drao blades
She then realized this was the saeway
In that case, they were definitely targeting her
As proof, there was light behind them
There was an adjacent shop beyond the , but the light came from behind that Poas handled by block and that proved that the areas besides Taone dark
From the perspective of the person with the two blades, Futayo would be dimly illuminated And they had to have known that would be the case
…That’s why they wore the hood to prepare their eyes for the shi+ft to darkness!
This was a planned criroup and not an individual Once she realized that, she heard another voice
“Confirm!!!!”
At the sae
The two blades in front of her fleithout building up any strength first
The figure who had rushed in fro the two blades co from the side
The three who had juh thelanded on the table
But she had to focus on as straight ahead
She looked there, and…
“—————!?”
The two blades ing in from Futayo’s left
They slightly lifted the blade in their right hand to avoid the sure
They could see them, and perhaps that hy…
“Dodge while you have the chance!!!!”
Futayo’s actions and decisions were both performed weakly
She see, but…
“Kh”
She moved forith her spear in hand She did not even silencing her footsteps and her legs ht forward and dodge to the left and below the two blades
So she did so She took ht blade
Her goal was to her left: the wall by the entrance
She made her way there, but the enemy moved at the same time
The two blades ahead of her were swung
The ti was off if it was to hit her, but…
“…!?”
She sensed soer, so she raised her hips as shea crouch start and kicked powerfully forward She forcibly launched herself forward Her stance was off balance
“…”
And she tripped Her right shoulder hit the floor, but she used that point of contact to rotate her body and curl up for a compact roll to the side Just as she slipped past the blade-wielding eneht, the floor was sliced apart behind her where she had just been
It looked like a dull blade had forcibly torn the floor apart and there were two such lines next to each other
Futayo understood what had happened, but she could not understand how it had happened
…The enemy’s blades pursued me on the inside?
Charging right up to an armed opponent was one standard method, but this opponent’s sword technique was different She did not understand how, but this opponent did not have a defenseless spot right in front of them
Futayo had dodged, but not because she had realized this She had simply sensed a cold movement of air behind her and had tried to escape that presence
If she had not done so, she would have been cut
Then she saw her opponent
“…”
She saw a sharp gaze staring at her from within the hood
The opponenttheir eyes off of her
She understood why The sed in fro up their weapon
It was a striking weapon It was a hammer
Futayo then recalled that it had been these people who had attacked her on the rope passageway the night before The one with the two high-speed blades had attacked first And the one who had come afterwards had been…
“Dodge!!!”
She chose action over thoughts of the past
She moved below the table, and…
…The extension device!
The bottom of the spear jabbed into the wall next to the entrance and Futayo flew horizontally just off the floor in a face up position
First, she slipped between the chairs and below the table by the entrance
“—————”
In that instant, two lines were torn in the table above her
The owner of the two blades was on top
Plus, there was ures ju below and the table further back
It was the three who had juh theThey wore black and held swords as they dropped down and moved to cut off her path
…What…
Before she could think “do I do?”, a dignified voice pierced through her entire being
“Respond!!!!”
All of the movements received definite results
The three who had rushed between the tables felt their blades hit and the hooded figure on the table definitely sliced their target in two
But none of those attacks had hit a person
“…!”
The three who had jumped down between the tables had pierced a chair with their swords
The chair had been knocked out fro of their fall The three of theet with their full bodies, so they had been unable to dodge or deflect it Even if they had been able to confirm it was a chair, they had been too cautious to carelessly dodge or alter their stance and their swords had stabbed halfway into the chair
At the sa their two blades
“Toh”