Chapter 639 — Arc 9, Chapter 51 – “Yae Tenzen”

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――A shinobi must never give their heart to anything.

In the shinobi village of the Vollachian Empire, that was an absolute teaching imparted upon those forbidden to lead any way of life other than that of a shinobi; it was an ironclad rule that demanded absolute obedience even more so than the law of iron and blood rooted in the vast lands of the Empire.

If they were to yield their heart to something, the honed blade known as shinobi would easily come to rust.

Therefore, any and all who took on the mantle of shinobi, without exception, etched that ironclad rule into their soul, abiding by it no matter the cost.

And despite that――,

???: [Hey, yer that, ain’t’cha? Same like me, ya can do just about anythin’ without so much as a second thought, ‘n so life kinda loses its spark, dun’it? Wouldn’t it be fine ta keep at least a single somethin’ in yer heart then?]

When the village chief had spoken those words, grinning with a tidy set of teeth left in spite of his old age, Yae recalled wondering to herself where exactly the ironclad law of the shinobi had disappeared to, and experienced some intense feelings of irritation.

――Included among them, was a firm belief that she would never be able to live her life in such a way.

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――The Crimson Sakura, Yae Tenzen, was an unparalleled genius of a shinobi.

That was an unshakeable fact, and something that even Yae herself was humbly willing to admit.

Those around her had lauded her as possessing the greatest talents the shinobi village had seen since its founding, loudly voicing their admiration that her potential might even rival that of the Admirer of the Kararagi City-States.

To tell the truth, Yae herself had earnestly wished for them to stop comparing her to such an outrageous individual, but setting aside those feelings of the person in question, Yae’s talents drew out a frenzy from the people of the village.

In practice, if the thing known as talent was something that allowed for an almost prideful extent of shortcuts to be taken past the many hardships within a given field, then Yae unmistakably possessed the innate talents of a shinobi.

However, contrary to that evaluation harbored by those around her, Yae fiercely hated the “special” treatment she received.

That was akin to a physiological sense of rejection, a resistance towards the idea of being “special”, so perhaps it was a phenomenon that ought to be labeled as a “Special Allergy”.

It did not bother her when others were given special treatment, but the moment she experienced “special” treatment for herself, she was assailed by an unbearable sensation, and began wanting to abandon anything and everything. It was that sort of visceral rejection.

For Yae, who possessed this violent allergy towards “specialness”, the ironclad law of the shinobi that the village chief had personally denied in the introduction, was something she had exceedingly high compatibility with.

To give one’s heart to something, was to create a kind of “specialness” within oneself.

Since she had an allergy towards such “specialness”, Yae could obey the ironclad rule of the shinobi without very much effort. Certainly, it could be said that she was a woman who had been born to be a shinobi.

But then again, that was one of the reasons why those around Yae were giving her “special” treatment, so it was truly quite a quandary.

――Now then, to begin with, the path walked by the shinobi was a steep one, and it was not something that could be easily accustomed to.

Only one of a thousand trainees would become a genin, only one out of a thousand genin would become a chunin, and only one out of a thousand chunin would finally become a jonin―― such sentiments were commonly repeated due to how high the hurdles were. To this day, whenever Yae heard that example, she would think about how it would require a billion shinobi candidates.

Well, it was a good thing that the senior shinobi had such awareness of just how grueling the path was, to the extent that it made them want to use such ridiculous expressions. No matter the torture, it was in human nature to want to undergo it whilst knowing “this is meant to target this part” rather than suffering through it whilst wondering “what is the point of this?”.

And in practice, the process to complete a shinobi was undoubtedly the harshness known as torture.

Yae believed that the shinobi training, which commenced around the age a child first gained awareness of their surroundings, was more aptly described as child-abuse than it was torture, but the immorality that went into the makings of shinobi was a list that went on endlessly, so stumbling at the entryway would prevent this digression from progressing.

First of all, the candidates for shinobi trainees were mostly children who had been abducted from other places.

As mentioned previously, shinobi training began during the early stages of childhood, but the drills levied upon them were so inhumane and unreasonable that an abundance of them would end up dying in cold blood. For the sake of efficiency, instead of babies, they abducted toddlers who were at a suitable age to commence training right away. Here, the fact that the shinobi skipped straight past the most laborious infant stage revealed just how truly nasty their inhumanity was.

And so, the first thing that the abducted children were subjected to, above all else, was the disposal of memories.

It was said that the methods consisted of drugs, signals, and techniques that had direct influence over memory, but it was not entirely clear. Only, through these methods, the abducted children were wiped to clean slates, completely forgetting about their families and hometowns. Yae did not remember her parents’ faces either, nor did she even know her own real name. “Yae”, it was a name that she had only received later on, and until then she had simply been called “Red No. 8” in accordance with her hair color.

Those without aptitude would fail first at this memory disposal. For some, the memory erasure would not function effectively enough, and conversely for others, it would function too effectively, leaving them as useless husks; it was a mess right from the start.

And so, Yae, to the extent that she even thought herself heartless, completely forgot her past in an instant.

It had slipped away so effortlessly that even the one in charge of her memory disposal, Fujirou Tenzen, was left speechless, so much so that he told her about it afterwards. ――Incidentally, this Fujirou would later go on to be Yae’s namegiver, and was the previous Tenzen whose family name she inherited.

But even if he had the title of her namegiver, their relationship was an emotionless, obligatory one of instructor and pupil, familial only in name. From Yae’s perspective, her impression of Fujirou more or less amounted to someone in the village with whom she had a high frequency of contact, who had also happened to bestow her with a name.

Regardless, forcibly robbed of their heart’s foundations, they would become a white canvas to be painted at the mercy of the black brush known as the shinobi―― once the children stripped of their past were prepared, the true essence of the inhuman training facility that was the shinobi village would begin: not merely strengthening of the flesh and muscles, but the very restructuring of the human body.

Destruction and correction of the bones in order to achieve mastery over a soft body and acrobatics surpassing human understanding; training to build up a resistance to poison by gradually advancing from small doses to lethal ones; daily routines comprised of learning the dangers of martial arts and shinobi tools by the pain they inflicted upon the body; and being tasked with meeting a quota of broken bones, torn-up flesh, and shed blood.

Peers who had grown cold, unable to see the next morning, were scattered all about; since that too was a teaching material for their training to grow accustomed to death, it was forbidden to bury them, and instead the putrid odor of those corpses rotting day after day was drilled into their minds, causing some to end up losing their sanity.

All those so-called dreadful drills were easily completed by Yae. ――No, even for her, calling it easy would be a lie. Yae had faced adversity in her own way. But, it seemed to Yae that the adversity she had faced did not even amount to a single ten-thousandth of that which her peers had experienced.

If that could be called talent, then she certainly had talent.

The destruction and correction of her bones flipped the switches for pain perception within her, and the agony of the poison that seemed to melt and scramble her entrails was kept to a minimum along with her bloody urine and stool; just by laying fingers upon a shinobi tool, she acquired a mastery as if she had been exclusively wielding it for ten years, and after experiencing a martial art just once, she could use it to take down an opponent larger than herself, and would never be hit by it ever again. Only the smell of the dead bodies was tiring, but she got used to that in the end as well.

So after such happenings, the very young Yae had become the first one of a thousand at an unprecedented speed.

Fujirou: [――From this day onward, you are to call yourself Yae Tenzen.]

The day Fujirou gave her that name, was the day she had qualified to be a genin.

Unfortunately, she harbored no particularly strong feelings on the matter. After all, she had been treated differently from her other peers since the point she had been called “Red No. 8”, so whether she had a name or not did not have any particular influence on Yae’s self-perception. Only, receiving such “special” treatment made her feel itchy, and she had thought it bothersome.

――For what reason Fujirou had named her Yae, she knew not even to this day.

She had missed her chance to ask. By now, she had taken somewhat of a liking to it, and the Tenzen part also had a nice ring to it. It was far better than ending up with something like Yae Dunkelkenn through some sort of mistake.

Upon hearing that sarcastic sentiment from Yae, the village chief had burst out laughing “Kakakakka! Yer startin’ ta say some cheeky things, ain’t’cha!?”. Speaking of which, there was not a single person in the shinobi village who bore the same family name as the village chief, but whether that was because the village chief was a poor teacher or because he had abandoned his duties, was unclear.

The former seemed more plausible, so that was what Yae suspected.

Either way, even if she had gone from being called “Red No. 8” to Yae Tenzen, Yae’s path as a shinobi, as well as the very way the world felt to her touch, stood unchanged. ――That which had changed was not Yae, but rather the environment that surrounded her.

――Unmistakably, that was the prime reason why Yae had come to detest “specialness” so much.

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――Now then, the fact that Yae possessed a “Special Allergy” has already been mentioned, but for her, the youngest and fastest-promoted genin in history, a certain situation arose that caused this allergy to accelerate.

Ultimately, everyone in the village ended up recognizing Yae’s talents and abilities, but upon qualifying to be a genin, there was one who grew enchanted by her promising future. ――Fujirou Tenzen.

As her namegiver, and as the senior who provided her with guidance, Fujirou was completely enthralled by Yae’s ability to take the first piece that he taught her, and extrapolate the next hundred or thousand pieces, let alone ten.

Namely, that was an act that ran counter to the ironclad rule of the shinobi to never give their heart to anything.

He was left with no choice but to forge the unparalleled genius, Yae Tenzen, into an extraordinary shinobi with his own hands. ――Fujirou had ended up blindly obsessed with that sense of duty.

Fujirou: [You have more than enough talent for it. Why can’t you understand that!?]

As Fujirou exclaimed so with bloodshot eyes, he harbored a fanatical belief in Yae’s talents.

Day by day, she felt the eyes with which he looked at her tinged with more and more ardor, but the damage brought about by their eruption was far greater than what Yae could have imagined.

With Yae’s “specialness” seared into his mind, Fujirou had arranged the “Crawling Bane”―― a rite structured in the same manner as the Imperial Selection Ceremony that was used to decide the next Emperor of the Vollachian Empire; dragging in thirty genin who were the same rank as Yae at the time, it was a reckless folly capable of spelling the demise of the village.

The genin were taken out to a forest far removed from the village, and there they were ordered to fight to the death until only one last person remained standing; without questioning those directions from their superiors, lives were expended in futility.

Just as Fujirou had hoped when he devised the rite, the only one still standing in the end was Yae Tenzen.

However, she never once took up the offensive against the others, instead using the tactic of turning the tables on any opponent who came after her, and in the end, when she let her final peer get away when he pleaded for his life, Fujirou had gotten exceedingly incensed.

――No, to be precise, it was not just him, it was all of them.

Enthralled by the talents of Yae Tenzen, Fujirou was not the only one who had gone astray.

Inspired by his words, or perhaps by directly witnessing Yae’s growth, there were a great number of people who wished to have Yae shoulder their distorted expectations by holding the ritual they had named the “Crawling Bane”.

Yae had betrayed the expectations of those who blindly believed in her; however, rather than causing their ardor to subside, their fervor only intensified, explosively flaring up.

If they had simply dealt with Yae after she betrayed their expectations, and then took their own lives, it would have still been somewhat endearing.

But, for those who had steeled their mistaken resolve to repeat the “Crawling Bane” as many times as necessary until Yae was established as the model of the ideal shinobi they desired, there no longer existed any remedy.

Fujirou: [You are, the one who shall overturn the very way a shinobi ought to be…!]

Collapsing as he spoke those words, Fujirou had died, believing in Yae’s potential until the bitter end.

The throat repeating that grating assertion was gouged out, and ironically enough, the beautiful blossom of snow white sakura petals began to flutter down upon the corpses of her namegiver and his foolish comrades, face-down in a pool of their own blood.

Yae recalled those blood-stained cherry blossoms alongside an indescribable sense of futility.

???: [――Ohoh, now this here’s quite the big deal, eh? Has a lass whose rump’s still as pale as snow really gone ‘n taken down all of ‘em even tho’ there were even jonin in their midst?]

Having hastened to the scene a bit later, the village chief gazed over Yae and the corpses of the young men surrounding her, and then let out those carefree remarks. It seemed like the secret operations of Fujirou and his allies had been grasped by the higher-ups of the village, so regardless of the outcome of the “Crawling Bane”, there likely would have been no future for them.

She did not want to entertain the idea that the reason for this delayed response despite having such a grasp on the situation was because they had decided on leaving it entirely up to Yae to deal with the disruptive elements to the village.

Village Chief: [So, all of ‘em ended up dyin’?]

And although that suspicion was not the reason, Yae lied in response to the village chief’s question.

The reason why Fujirou and the others had been displeased, was the fellow genin whom Yae had turned a blind eye towards when he had pleaded for his life. ――She concealed the fact that not only had she allowed him to flee the “Crawling Bane”, but to run away from the shinobi village entirely.

That peer had suggested “Ahh, in that case, you also gonna flee with me?” to her, but Yae firmly refused his offer. It was not that she had wished to remain in the village, but that she simply had not wished to stand alongside him.

In terms of both skills and talent, Yae was vastly superior. And yet, her instincts were alarming her. ――If death were to ever come for Yae, it would be when she stood by his side.

Genin: [――My bad, my bad.]

And so, when that peer of hers took his leave and gave those parting words, she sensed his desire to eliminate every person who knew of his existence, but thanks to him being rational enough to abandon that goal, Yae and that fellow genin made it out of this “Crawling Bane” as the final survivors.

Because it ended without her being the sole survivor, Yae wondered if her own status as “special” might erode even if just a little bit, and as she thought such things.

Village Chief: [Well then, let’s start headin’ back now. ――Crimson Sakura.]

Turning his back towards her, the village chief called Yae by that alias for the first time.

Until the bitter end, Yae had not known why Fujirou had named her Yae. But, the reason why the village chief had called Yae by that alias was clear even without needing to say it.

――After all, on the night brimming with excessive shinobi deaths, the full bloom of the snow white sakura was lavishly dyed in blood.

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――The Crimson Sakura, Yae Tenzen, was an unparalleled genius of a shinobi.

As the youngest to ever be promoted to jonin, that perception of her had become widely known as something unshakeable, so Yae’s “Special Allergy” had worsened to a point beyond any help.

To Yae, being treated as “special” by others was something of a curse, a menace, an abhorrent interference that brought nothing but negative influences onto her life.

Things like expectations or hopes often had a strong positive impression, so there were far too many people in this world who would wave them around while blind to the fact that they could become blades gouging deep into others. Moreover, blades wielded blind made it difficult for both aggressor and victim to notice the wounds, truly a nasty characteristic.

Such things had held a great deal of sway over her life thus far, and Yae was completely sick and tired of it.

???: [Hey, yer that, ain’t’cha? Same like me, ya can do just about anythin’ without so much as a second thought, ‘n so life kinda loses its spark, dun’it? Wouldn’t it be fine ta keep at least a single somethin’ in yer heart then?]

And so, when the village chief said those things to Yae, despite being fully aware of the blades, he seemed truly odious.

The village chief was personally advising her to do something like break the ironclad law of the shinobi. She could not think him sane. To begin with, Yae did not seek anything like a spark in life. Such a thing would be a superfluous accessory.

A spark: namely, that was the act of harboring expectations for one’s own abilities, or placing hope in one’s own future. ――It was none other than believing in one’s own “specialness”, that was undeniably Yae’s landmine.

Hence, Yae deliberately distanced herself from the image of the ideal shinobi that everyone seemed to be placing their hopes and expectations in.

That was the exact opposite of the ideal shinobi image that Fujirou Tenzen had staked his life attempting to complete―― a frivolous attitude, speech and conduct that left nowhere to grip onto, and a friendly demeanor that would absolutely never get along with anyone.

Bearing such a facetious humanity, Yae Tenzen’s personality took shape.

She did not wish to be misinterpreted, so she would assert it here: this was the natural consequence of Yae spurning the notion of “specialness”, and was by no means something inspired by the village chief’s own nature.

Without getting deeply involved with anyone’s life, without ever confronting anyone head-on, and without being held dear by anyone.

That was the very worldly wisdom that the Crimson Sakura, Yae Tenzen had arrived at, her life philosophy――,

???: [――Surely you do not misconstrue that disgraceful way of being for your own nature, do you?]

Addressed in such a manner when the two of them were all alone, Yae held her breath before the crimson beauty.

Yae, with her “Special Allergy” having worsened, hated being treated as “special” by others, and at the same time, had developed a keen sense of smell for specialness within other people. In that regard, the woman with whom Yae was now in close contact was an individual who seemed to be the embodiment of nothing but “specialness”, both inside and out.

But then again, her specialness was so glaringly obvious to anyone that having a keen nose was hardly necessary to ascertain it.

――The Bloody Bride, Priscilla Barielle.

For Yae, who had completed all sorts of missions as a shinobi, the days spent together with that woman who was fondly called the Sun Princess by the local population were quite striking, and profoundly memorable.

Originally, Yae’s infiltration as a maid in Priscilla’s vicinity had been something set into motion by Chisha Gold, one of the Empire’s Nine Divine Generals.

Just what sort of significance a woman participating in the Royal Selection of the far away Kingdom of Lugunica had to the Empire, was not something Yae had been informed of, nor was it something she had even thought to question.

The essence of the shinobi was to obey commands without asking too much, and Yae considered that a preferable trait. The only one who would brazenly disobey was the village chief, and since Yae was not the same as him, she remained obedient.

That said, it was a bit of an illogical and enigmatic mission.

Fundamentally, her job was to monitor the target and report on her actions; she had not received any particular instructions for disruption or sabotage, nor was it simply a matter of a quick assassination. Since Yae had been designated to this task, there was no doubt that they were counting on her befitting skills and ability to return alive, but while she was undercover at the mansion, her days as a simple maid went on monotonously. ――She was loath to say it, but this felt like a bit of a waste of the genius shinobi that was the Crimson Sakura.

In practice, the innate talents Yae had been bestowed were not just that of a shinobi, there was an all-purpose nature to her that allowed her to easily master most other things. And so, flawlessly mastering all the duties of a maid, Yae’s infiltration of the Barielle Mansion was a job just as easy as all her other missions up to this point.

However, only when she interacted directly with Priscilla, did she need to pay extra careful attention.

Throughout her career, Yae had gotten all sorts of opportunities to glimpse important figures.

Counted among those were the White Spider who had ordered Yae on this mission, and for the most part, her village chief known as the Vicious Old Man was also an important figure in the Empire. She had also seen His Excellency the Emperor from a distance―― back then, the Blue Lightning standing next to the Emperor had locked eyes with her and given a wave of his hand, leaving her with the trepidation that there would always be somebody on a higher level than her.

And so even from Yae’s perspective, having encountered those sorts of first-rate individuals, Priscilla’s insight had a somewhat unfathomable quality to it, making it impossible to anticipate just how much she had actually seen through.

Even though it should not have been possible, she had questioned many times if even her own identity as an assassin sent from the Empire had been seen through.

Only, if that suspicion were true, there would have been no reason to keep turning a blind eye to Yae, so her identity should have still been a secret. ――But was that really so? Priscilla was so difficult to read that it was entirely possible that she would turn a blind eye even if she became privy to Yae’s identity.

That could be called a disposition towards favouring danger without valuing her own life, or perhaps it could just be outright classified as the delusion she fully believed in without caring what anyone might think, repeating on a daily basis how the world would unfold however she wished it to.

Either way―― considering it a misfortune, Yae pitied the “special” Priscilla.

Priscilla possessed exceptional beauty, of course, but she also harbored a bewitching allure that charmed others with her mannerisms, words, and even the manner in which she breathed; whether she desired it or not, that “specialness” would catch the eyes of all sorts of people, leave marks upon their lives, and stir their emotions.

A great number of people would likely place their hopes and expectations on her, only to be consumed by foul desires and emotions. ――After all, even this pity that Yae felt, was something that had been brought about by the “specialness” possessed by that woman.

And as if reading right into Yae’s heart, she had spoken the words mentioned prior.

Eyes cast down upon the book in her hands whilst sitting in her private room, just as Yae was serving tea, noticing how she did not pass even a single glance in her direction, Priscilla had suddenly spoken those words without any forewarning.

Regardless, as had been mentioned previously, Yae was always on guard when interacting directly with Priscilla. So even at this juncture, though she had received a bit of a surprise, she had managed to respond with her usual frivolity.

Mixing in a light playfulness, and acting as if she had no mind to earnestly grasp the meaning, she forged a smile.

And seeing Yae’s unchanged attitude, Priscilla closed a single eye――,

Priscilla: [――Someday, you too shall have no choice but to expend everything you have to offer. Be diligent, and keep mine words close at heart. Your preparations must be “perrfekt”, yes?]

Yae never asked about the true meaning of those words.

Her shinobi instincts warned her that asking again might arouse suspicion. But, probably more so than that, Yae was loath to do so.

From the lips of the “special” Priscilla, she did not want such inconvenient words to be hurled at her.

For that reason, Yae did not grasp the true intent behind Priscilla’s words.

Neither did she know the reason Fujirou had named her Yae, nor did she know the village chief’s intentions in endlessly trying to get her to break the ironclad law of the shinobi to the point it felt like harassment; she knew nothing.

In order to avoid being treated as “special” by others, she continued to plug her ears and avert her eyes from all of that.

――After all, that was Yae Tenzen’s life philosophy, not desiring to be “special”, in order to not be desired as “special”.

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In the end, Yae’s thinking turned out to be correct.

Having shone so radiantly, captivating great numbers of people with her flame-like, “special” way of being, even Priscilla had ended up laying down her life in those cruel and merciless lands of the Empire.

Thus, while fiery emotions with no place left to turn to scorched his soul, the one who had yearned for that “special” woman who was no longer among them, even now still wishing to repay her, was burning his life to naught in order to do so.

Yae Tenzen did not wish to live her life at the mercy of such “specialness”.

That was why, that was precisely why.

That was why, as soon as possible, she would rid this world of the “specialness” that had burdened her with such an undesirable fixation.

Unmistakably, that was the sole reason why Yae was willing to risk her life to assist the man abandoned by the “specialness” his heart had yearned for――,

Yae: [――Hk.]

The discus of ice rapidly revolved on all axes without consideration for its surroundings, yet still using it as a platform whilst constructing the battlefield, Yae intercepted the incoming Oni girl―― Rem.

A steel thread reeling out from her right hand dashed up vertically, and a steel thread from her left hand snagged a dagger to perform a horizontal sweep; the two varieties of precise, and difficult-to-avoid severing flashes pincered Rem from the front and behind.

――Due to the cooperation of her opponents, Yae had failed to stop Emilia from fleeing the battlefield.

Having grown wings of ice upon her back, Emilia received the momentum of the ice discus that had been forced into a spin, and caught the wind; chasing Al as he soared far off to a distant sky, she was rapidly gaining speed. As she got further from the two who could do nothing but plummet straight downwards head-first, she at last escaped the range at which a steel thread could still reach her.

It was not impossible to still use a thread to launch some projectile like a stone fragment or sword at her, but――,

Rem: [Looking away is forbidden!]

With that, after countering the double layered attack from a moment prior by meeting the dagger with her chains, and bending down to evade the steel thread, Rem obstructed Yae, causing the chance to take such an action to slip through Yae’s fingers.

While gritting her teeth at that failure, Yae pivoted to getting away from Rem as she rushed her down, and using the steel thread she had sent out as a grip, she executed a wide turn, circling around to the other side of the ice discus,

Yae: [Isn’t it a bit unfair to become so formidable all of a sudden? For what reason――]

Rem: [――It’s love!]

Yae: […Shouldn’t have asked!]

Chasing after Yae as she went over to the other side of the ice disk, Rem smashed through the ice by sheer force. Distancing herself at an apt medium range from the barbarity of the Oni girl whose vitality surged along with the brightness of the horn on her head, Yae’s footwork managed to sidestep the iron ball wielded by the stout arm, and sticking to the revolving platform, she spun around behind Rem.

It was a high velocity, but although there was a certain randomness to the direction of the ice disk’s rotation around its origin, the speed of rotation itself had a fixed rhythm to it. As long as she kept to that, there was no risk of losing the platform, and so Yae freely danced across the ice, leaping and bounding as if in flight.

And contrary to Yae’s magnificent mastery over the ice disk, Rem’s movements were plain and simple――,

Rem: [Won’t let you do that…!]

As Rem firmly declared so, she struck the ice with a pointed hand, with the tips of her toes, and with the iron ball held close in her grip; using them as wedges to secure herself, she ferociously pursued Yae with beast-like movements.

Far removed from refinement or grace, the hunting style was like that of a savage carnivorous beast―― and yet, she was fast. As Yae fled in a dance, the distance between the two of them was shortening in the blink of an eye.

Yae: [Aren’t you way too unconcerned with appearances, and isn’t that totally improper conduct for a maid?]

Rem: [Unfortunately, there is only one quality our master requires from his maids―― utmost effort!]

Raising her face, Rem twisted her body with three of her limbs as anchors, utilizing the rotation of the ice disk to launch an attack of her iron ball with minimal movement. Its might was dispersed through the mobilization of the steel threads, but as she had needed to fire them directly to her side, Yae internally clicked her tongue.

A battle to decide on the best maid between the two factions―― Yae did not have the leeway to joke about such things.

Superior in skill, Yae could even assert that she was three stages higher in terms of strength, but against Rem, Yae simply had a poor affinity. The Morningstar wielded by Rem was a weighty weapon, and those kinds of heavyweight attacks that aimed to guarantee a kill with a single blow were the most troublesome to defend against using steel threads.

The strength of steel threads was that they had the potential to defend against any attack so long as they were bundled and intertwined together, but that necessitated an adequate amount of time as well as a suitable number of threads. For Yae to defend against Rem’s blows, she needed to use at least seven fingers to guarantee safety.

If she was unwilling to do that, then she also had the option of dodging, but――,

Yae: [The aim is way too accurate…!]

Despite how unstable this platform was, Rem was able to launch her iron ball in a way that came biting at Yae as if it were a great serpent.

Each throw followed a trajectory straight towards the exact middle of Yae’s body, and although she would not fail to defend against it even if she held her eyes closed, the rhythm of her own attacks was collapsing.

And to top it all off, the fearsome combat capabilities of the Oni Clan would now be thrown into the mix.

Rem: [RAHHHhhhhh!!]

With all four of her limbs planted in the ice discus, Rem’s entire body discharged red steam as she roared.

That was the result of the low temperature from falling thousands of meters from a high altitude, the Oni Clan trait of invigorating all the Mana surging through her body, and finally, rapidly regenerating from the lacerations given to her from Yae’s steel threads.

Until now, while Yae was evading Rem’s lethal blows, she had carved her with many wounds that aimed to render her incapable of fighting. But, none of them could outstrip the Oni’s regeneration.

And, above all――,

Yae: [Sh――!]

Bringing her rings to her lips in a kiss, the steel threads were once again swallowed by tongues of flame.

That instant, after Yae had blanketed Rem’s vision in flame, she aimed for the neck of the enemy on the other side of this heat wave, and with a flick of her arm―― with a speed nearing that of sound, the steel thread flashed as it aimed to perform a decapitation.

That was one of Yae’s original techniques that could not be found written down anywhere in a book of secrets, and was the fastest brandish possible amidst the Steel Thread Technique employed by Yae; something that Al might have called an “ultimate move”. She had confidence that this invisible thread attack of undiscernible range, a flash of absolute death, could vanquish any opponent. ――And yet, Rem had avoided it.

And that was not just once, but twice.

Yae: [――Hk.]

In its initial reveal, it had been an attack that aimed to take out both Rem and Emilia at once.

Since that had been averted, this time, she aimed not just for the neck, but for the chest, unleashing the single flash so that it could not be dodged by the retraction of the head. It sliced through the wind as if to proclaim that it would not allow any fluke evasions―― hence, the fact that Rem managed to avoid it was no miracle or fortuity. It was inevitable.

Rem had fully seen through Yae’s Steel Thread Technique.

The ice fog had already vanished from their surroundings, so this was a different method to how Emilia had perceived the steel threads based on how the ice particles were being sliced. Though, she had no way to confirm the exact principle behind it.

Yae: [Won’t let you do that.]

No longer keeping up the appearances that were meaningless to keep up, Yae muttered as she tensed the corners of her mouth.

Won’t let them do that. Won’t let them go. Won’t let them stop him. ――Yae would thwart both Emilia and Rem.

Yae: [――――]

Stretching out his wings of stone, Al had fled to the sky without waiting on the outcome of this battle.

Even if he had left her behind, Yae would not take that as him abandoning her. It was not impossible that he had abandoned her, but Al had a tendency to be frugal. He would not easily give up on the pawns and cards in his arsenal.

And so, Yae would take Al’s breakaway as him entrusting it to her. She would interpret it as an order to stop the two who were chasing after him, no matter what it took.

Hence, Al had granted it to Yae. ――A license to kill.

Yae: [――Even if it means killing you, I’ll stop you.]

I’ll stop them, I’ll stop them, no matter what it takes, I will stop them.

She would see to it that Al accomplished his objective. Anything that might get in the way of that would be removed. Everything was so that she could have Al, floundering after having lost Priscilla, who was his own “specialness”, disappear from the world as soon as possible.

After all, if she did not do so, Yae Tenzen would be unable to return to the self who obeyed the ironclad law of the shinobi, to the self who would never give her heart to anything, and to the self who loathed being “special”, who distanced herself from it at all costs.

△▼△▼△▼△

???: [――Your stars were bad.]

Indeed, the monster who had taught Yae Tenzen the meaning of dread, uttered those same words over and over again.

Her days at the Barielle Mansion, sent there as an undercover operative, abruptly came to an end.

Performing her daily maid duties, teasing the adorable butler apprentice, and joking around with the clownish Knight who did not receive any Knightly treatment; working for the tremendously dazzling Sun Princess had been not so bad.

But, Yae’s own emotions would not matter in the slightest once she received the order. She would fulfill her duty and disappear without leaving a trace.

Thus, in order to carry out the assassination directive that had been passed so suddenly, Yae attempted to sneak up on Priscilla in her bedroom, but in a dark corridor of the mansion, she was stopped by that man.

Leaving no room for excuses, obstructing her as though he had known all along, the man―― Al, battled Yae in a death ballet.

Even if she called it a death ballet, the difference in their abilities was evident. Although he was the Knight of a Royal Candidate, Al’s strength was far inferior to Yae’s, so the outcome was decided in an instant―― or so it ought to have been.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

The man whose heart she had certainly gouged out hurled those words at her in the same tone. Even when faced with that abnormal situation, Yae’s body acted without delay, stripping him of his life for a second time.

Someone who would not die even when killed; this was not her first encounter against such an individual. There were a great number of bizarre and astonishing people in this world, and she had even fought against someone who had not just two, but three hearts. All she had needed to do was crush all three hearts for that person to properly die. The important thing was to just keep killing them until they died.

She lopped off his head. Bisected his torso. Burned his whole body. Plucked off all his limbs. Tore out his throat. Smashed his skull. Gouged out his eyeballs. Peeled all the skin off his back. Shattered all of his bones. Crushed his organs. Fed him poison. Plunged him into the ground. Plunged him into water. Wrung his neck. Wrung everything other than his neck. Testing out all manner of shinobi techniques on him, she robbed him of the life benamed life, enacting every conceivable manner of slaughter as she drove the act of killing to its absolute limit.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

But, no matter how many times she killed him, Al would get back up, hurling those same words at her.

Wielding the entirety of the shinobi techniques in her arsenal, and attempting every countermeasure that came into her mind, Yae finally abandoned rationale and tried yielding herself to her instincts, but she still could not kill him. She had failed to fully kill him.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

She attempted to put him through torture that would make him regret being born. It was all for naught. She attempted to abandon her mission and get away. It was all for naught. She attempted to drag other people into the fray. It was all for naught.

After finally having enough, she even attempted to put a thread around her own neck and end it all.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

Even that, was all for naught.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

The repetitions of the same dialogue, an unending helix loitering in the interval between death and death; conferred with those same things for a time that seemed to stretch on forever and ever, for the first time in her life―― Yae Tenzen knew dread.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

If it meant she could be saved, she was willing to do anything. She vowed to do anything.

If it meant she could put an end to this, she was willing to do anything. She vowed to do anything.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

Even with dread newly awakened in her heart, she won no pardon from Al, from the man, from the monster.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

Even after her heart was exhaustively shattered beyond repair, the monster’s indifferent cruelty showed no signs of stopping.

She was unable to even keep count anymore. There existed none in this world whom Yae had fought to the death as much as this monster.

A countless number of times, Yae had killed him, and a number of times she wished not even to count, Yae had been killed by him.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

This kind of individual, there was nobody else like him. Such a thing was not needed. She did not want to even consider the chance of there being another.

Even now that she had been released from that endless torment on the monster’s whim, even now that she had pledged obedience to him and was devoting her entire being to his objective, it had been engraved into the depths of her soul.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

There was no choice but to have the monster, to have the man, to have Al, disappear as soon as possible.

After all, no matter the trigger, no matter the reason, no matter the relationship, Yae Tenzen’s heart must never be shackled to anything.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

――After all, her heart must never, be shackled, to anything.

△▼△▼△▼△

Yae: [――Your stars were bad.]

As Yae’s lips spun those words, an invisible light of decapitation surged forth, aiming for Rem’s slender neck.

Perceiving that alongside the sensation of goosebumps on her skin, Rem reflexively swung her arm gripping the Morningstar, swatting away the flash by wedging the chain into its trajectory.

The boundary of death, unmistakably, they were standing on the boundary of death.

It was the type of high risk situation that Rem had not encountered when she had lost her memories and fighting strength in the Vollachian Empire, and at present, Rem was in a state that she had never managed to reach before having lost her memories, even in the battles against the Sin Archbishops and the White Whale.

Rem: [――Subaru-kun.]

Amidst sensations that seemed as if her organs were quaking and her blood was boiling, the greatest heat was stored within the horn sprouting from her head―― vividly experiencing the strength, emotions, and pulsations of the world pouring in from there, Rem roused her soul by calling out the name of that darling boy.

Synergizing the advice she had received from the dazzling Sun Princess with the swell of feelings towards her beloved, the Oni Clan blood flowing through Rem’s veins was finally able to exhibit its original specs.

Even so, the gap in abilities between Rem and Yae was vast, so the fact that she was able to persist so much against someone ranked among the foremost powerful individuals Rem had witnessed until this point, was not solely thanks to her own strength.

In order to stop Yae―― to stop Al and his group, this was the culmination of the many forces who had endlessly refused to back down.

Starting at the Pleiades Watchtower, a clash with the Felt Camp and then a battle at the Royal Capital, followed by Otto’s relentless pursuit, by using this divide and conquer tactic and steadily piling on the irregulars, Al’s group was bound hand and foot by the inescapable chains of attrition.

What had allowed the gap in strength between Rem and Yae to be temporarily bridged, was the weight of those chains. In addition to that, an ironic twist of fate had become a tailwind for Rem.

That was――,

Yae: [――Hk.]

Yae grit her teeth as one of her fingers sprung up, sending a thread reeling out as it sliced through the air in an onslaught towards Rem.

As countless severing flashes rained down upon her, Rem keenly sensed them through her horn; chaining together perfect evasion after perfect evasion, she made it out with the life that ought to have been cut short, ferociously clinging to the battlefield.

The secret to that evasion, seemingly brushed by the hand of the divine―― no, by the hand of an Oni, lay in but one thing.

Rem: [――Bloodlust.]

She could see it. She felt it. It was coming through to her. ――Through the horn of the Oni Clan, her opponent’s intent was transmitted.

That vividly colored boundary of death, evading it, tracing it, and bouncing it back, Rem closed in on Yae.

Just before Emilia had set off, and just after Al had fled the battlefield, Yae’s attacks had started to be tinged with a definite bloodlust. A boisterous dance of bloodlust, showing no hesitation in Yae’s will to decapitate her or slice off all four of her limbs, vehemently stimulated her Oni Clan instincts, ironically yielding a state of hyper-reactivity within Rem.

If Yae had kept to the initial policy of “no-killing” and faced off against Rem, she would have likely rendered Rem powerless much sooner. ――As the result of starting to go all-out with her true abilities as a shinobi, Yae’s attacks had lost their ability to reach Rem.

If not an ironic tailwind, just what could this be called?

Rem: [――――]

Digging her toes into the revolving ice disk as she supported her body, Rem grasped Yae within the field of vision glistening with ice shards flying about, the smile gone from her face as she stared at her.

The figure of Yae sharpening her almond-shaped eyes was so captivatingly beautiful as she regulated her heart; as for what was sustaining her supply-tempered body, Rem understood perfectly.

What had filled Yae’s slender body to the brim, was a sense of duty.

A wish that she needed to fulfill at all costs, and a prayer that she wished to accomplish no matter what it took; those were the things that granted Yae extraordinary power, giving her the resolve to not even care about making an enemy of the world.

Thus, as for where that sense of duty originated from, Rem was well aware.

Rem: [After all, I’m… Rem is, the same way.]

With a horn growing out of her forehead, her entire body littered in wounds, while plummeting down head first from five-thousand meters up high, the reason why Rem was standing here now was also because of a sense of duty.

A wish that she needed to fulfill at all costs, and a prayer that she wished to accomplish no matter what it took; those were the things that granted Rem extraordinary power, giving her the resolve to throw everything away in order to save a single person.

Thus, as for where this sense of duty originated from, Rem had no reason to keep it hidden.

That was――,

Rem: [――Love!!]

Yae: [One who knows little often repeats it… hk!]

As Rem howled, Yae’s voice filled with irritation in response.

The expression of the shinobi, of congealed or perhaps fabricated emotions, that would by no means ever reveal her true feelings, slowly began to unravel. However, Rem would not interpret that as conceit, carelessness, or lack of experience.

Gritting one’s teeth was only natural.  ――That is, if one was to devote their everything for the sake of another.

Rem: [――――]

In the corner of her eye, amidst the fierce battle, a line engraved into the cliff face grazed Rem’s attention.

The Agzadd Canyon, five-thousand meters, the final stretch, all that remained until they reached the bottom was――,

Rem: [――Ten seconds!!]

Yae: [――Hk.]

While fighting off the thread storm that seemed as if a tidal wave closing in, Rem deliberately called that out.

She would give her information. Increase the factors for decision making. Disrupting her thinking, and causing hesitation in just one or two of those twenty digits on her hands and feet. She would irritate her, strip her emotions down bare, and make Yae hate her. Making her overflow with malice, enmity, and murderous intent, she would slip past it, slip past, slip past slip past slip past slip slip slip――.

And then――,

Rem: [Here!]

Just as Rem and Emilia had planned―― five seconds after the final ten seconds commenced, an impact from directly below would mercilessly perforate the ice discus.

△▼△▼△▼△

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

Indeed, the monster residing in Yae’s heart would often mutter those words.

Even now, the man’s voice that Yae felt like she had heard however many thousands and tens of thousands of times, still haunted her dreams.

At first, she had found that catchphrase of Al’s to be rather odious. After all, even the stars would eventually get tired of being blamed for anything and everything, and would end up wanting to object.

Even though it was not the stars’ fault that Yae’s heart had been chipped and shattered, and was rather unmistakably the monster’s fault, how could he dare to shift the blame like that?

Only, she gradually came to realize that she had been mistaken, that this was not the man shifting blame.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

Whenever he spoke those words, Al was by no means celebrating his triumph.

Present there was nothing like contempt or scorn, but rather, things akin to pity and compassion.

As proof of that, the monster, the man, Al, had refrained from saying it.

Following the death of Priscilla Barielle, he did not resort to saying the stars had failed him.

When his own worthless self had failed to save her life, he did not resort to saying the stars had failed him.

Al: [――Your stars were bad.]

Whenever the monster, whenever the man, whenever Al spoke those words, it was always on the occasion that his own outrageous power thwarted the desires or goals of an opponent. Those words, spun out of pity, compassion, and feelings of guilt, were always to impart this sentiment unto the other party.

――It isn’t your fault; such was its significance.

Ahh, how unpleasant.

How unpleasant, how unpleasant. How truly unpleasant.

She had not wanted to realize such a thing.

Al’s words, the man’s gaze, the monster’s heart, she had not wanted to realize any of those things.

Yae did not want to discover any motivation other than dread from Al. She did not want to embrace it. She did not want to feel it.

Therefore, as soon as possible, she wanted to put an end to it.

――Upon this “specialness”, she did not wish to bestow any name other than dread.

△▼△▼△▼△

Yae: [Everything… is the fault… of the stars…]

Hearing those sounds spill from her own lips, Yae snapped back to reality after her consciousness trailed off for just a moment.

At that moment, she could tell that her body had been blown into the air, and that her field of vision was spinning around.

A crash, yes, there had been a crash.

Something had struck the ice discus from below, and the impact that shattered the ice had also run through Yae.

When she glanced down at the edge of her consciousness to see what had shattered the ice discus, there was the summit of an enormous mountain of ice that had been erected at the bottom of the canyon in which they had fallen down thousands of meters―― freezing the great river that ran through the ravine floor, it had been shaped into a dreadfully colossal mass of ice, lying in wait for the falling ice disk.

Factoring in the momentum of their descent, the air resistance, and the number of seconds they had been falling, she estimated that the distance of the fall was roughly five thousand meters―― the only geography matching those specifications that she could think of was the Agzadd Canyon, the largest canyon in the world; witnessing the great feat that was freezing the river that ran along its bottom, Yae realized just how extraordinary Emilia’s magic truly was.

But, what had struck her the most deeply was――,

Yae: […You’re quite the tough woman, aren’t you.]

Amidst her revolving vision, fragments of the shattered ice disk sparkled like diamond dust within the breathtaking scenery, and therein did Yae catch sight of Rem, crowned by her shining horn.

At the moment of the crash, Rem had fled to the sky in order to avoid the impact, and using the scattered ice blocks as platforms to accelerate, she was about to come charging at Yae, who also still remained in the sky.

She had been tricked into thinking that there were ten seconds left until impact, when in reality, there had only remained five.

To lose one’s composure, was a blunder unbecoming of a shinobi. To lag behind, was a folly unbecoming of a maid. And to go against the duty entrusted to her, was a deed unbecoming of the Crimson Sakura――,

Yae: [――Your stars… were bad.]

Neither was that directed towards the Oni girl drawing near before her eyes, nor towards herself as she put on such a disgraceful display, but rather, towards the one no longer present here, towards the monster who had soared far, far into the distance, Yae spoke.

With the same nuance that the monster would always attach whenever he hurled those words at another, she spoke those words to the monster.

Yae: [――Ah.]

The impact Yae had been struck by had caused her entire body to creak, and she was even unsure if all her limbs were still properly attached. But, this numbness was nothing. She had already overcome numbness back during her poison resistance training. This sensation in her hands and feet was nothing. All the bones in her body had already been broken back during her torture drills. This cloudiness of mind was nothing. She had already surmounted the training to fight in a near-death state, with vast amounts of blood drained from her body. The fact that every single one of those things was now useful to her made her feel like she could hear the village chief’s wily laughter, which aggravated her.

It aggravated her, but――,

Yae: [――Ahhh.]

Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions of times, she had repeated the same movements.

The steel threads that had seen no wielder in several hundreds of years, that which demanded the delicate skill to move one’s fingertips by millimeters at the utmost precision, in a state of numbness, low on blood, and with a clouded mind, Yae operated them.

Even if seventy percent of her lifeforce poured out of her body, the digits pulling those steel threads would not err.

Yae: [――AHHHHHHHhh!]

She pulled tight on her extended arms and legs, and in that moment, the chunks of ice bound by those steel threads ferociously bolted through the sky.

The fragments of the shattered ice discus, ensnaring them with her threads, Yae had them whirl violently through the air to match her body’s rhythm, slamming them right into the side of Rem as she charged towards her.

Rem: [――――]

A thunderous crash rang out, and Rem was sent flying away by an ice chunk with vehement vigor.

And as if to kick Rem when she was down, the ice chunks caught by the steel threads crashed into her one after another, after another, and after another; the barrage of powerful blows rained down upon her as she slammed into the summit of the ice mountain.

A white spray of snow was blown up into the air, and with blood mixing into the enshrouding ice fog, the ice mountain would be made into the Oni’s gravestone. ――That instant, the gravestone was perforated, and the iron ball shooting straight out of it thrust directly into Yae.

Yae: [――Uh.]

The spikes accompanying that heinous lump of iron gouged into Yae’s torso, deeply penetrating the side of her abdomen.

But, she had avoided damage to her vital organs by shifting them aside. Through the inhumane shinobi modifications to her flesh, Yae could shift the positioning of her internal organs. The spikes pierced a cavity with nothing in it, scattering blood from her back.

However, this was a blow she had deliberately taken.

Tightening her muscles, she trapped the spiked iron ball in her own body.

Subsequently, emerging out of the enshrouding white fog of snow was the blood-stained Oni, ferociously leaping upwards as she followed the chain of the iron ball that had stuck into Yae.

Her trajectory was perfectly straight, bereft of any twist or artifice, a straight line following her heart―― awaiting in her path as she soared up, was a deployment of steel threads laid out in a web.

Rem: [――――]

Voluntarily diving into the steel thread birdcage that would tear her body to shreds, it birthed countless lacerations upon Rem’s white skin as it attempted to cut her body up into hundreds of little chunks of meat.

But, just before that could come to fruition, Rem’s lips spun an incantation,

Rem: [Huma.]

It was a spell that created ice, one that she had thoroughly borne witness to throughout the course of this battle.

For Rem to opt for that in this eleventh hour, Yae’s entire body was on guard for where the ice would be created, exercising her senses in the three-hundred and sixty degrees of every direction around her, she readied herself to defend against any kind of surprise attack.

However, that had been unnecessary. There was no surprise attack. The ice took shape right before Yae’s eyes.

The stream of feedback from the steel threads that ought to have carved Rem’s body to shreds came to a halt. Taking a look, the steel threads that had dug into her flesh had been stopped by red ice―― by her own frozen blood.

As soon as Yae comprehended that, her kiss set the steel threads alight with flame, and the explosive heat melted the frozen blood, and attempted to recommence the lethal thread attack. But, it was too late.

Rem: [YAHHHHH――!!]

Without overlooking the momentary bending of the threads, Rem howled as she raised her fist against Yae.

A blow imbued with the resolve to settle this battle, alongside the power to make that happen; the fact that Rem’s bloodstained white fist held such might, was something that Yae perceived from her measurements.

Hence, she would not take this blow. She could not afford to take this blow. After all, she still had Emilia to take care of.

In order to reach that point, she drew her trump card.

Yae: [――――]

The mobilization of steel threads utilizing all twenty of the digits between her hands and feet, had been evaded by the enemy.

But, it was not over. It was not over yet. The trump card of Yae Tenzen’s Steel Thread Technique, sticking out her red tongue as if to provoke her opponent――,

Yae: [Behhh.]

Out from a ring placed on the tip of her tongue, her final flash of severance was unleashed.

True to its aim, it struck the slender neck of Rem as she ferociously approached, rending her life in a single brandish.

△▼△▼△▼△

――The Crimson Sakura, Yae Tenzen, was an unparalleled genius of a shinobi.

The Vicious Old Man, Olbart Dunkelkenn, held her talents and capabilities in a very high regard.

The person in question very much hated being praised so highly, but that averse reaction seemed only to fuel Olbart’s sadistic delight, and so he had never let her hear the end of it.

Given his years of experience, he was likely stronger than her overall.

But, her raw talent far exceeded his own, so with enough years of experience, she would easily transform into the strongest shinobi, untouchable by anyone. Hence, he could somewhat understand why some might have had big dreams for Yae.

Be that as it may, he was his own person, and other people were other people.

There was no point in dreams that were fulfilled by somebody else. Hence, still harboring big dreams of his own, the only thing Olbart could do for that genius girl was offer her some heartfelt advice―― no, a warning.

Olbart: [Ya don’t wanna? Listen, I’ve been there myself. Remarkable folk like the two of us end up livin’ longer than most ordinary shinobi ‘thout even realizin’ it, ‘n we end up seein’ tons’a things. So occasionally, there’ll be times. Times when you’ll hafta end up breakin’ the ironclad law of the shinobi.]

Olbart: [Hm? Ya think it’s a matter of people who don’t hold anythin’ dear ta ‘em bein’ weak? Nah, nah, y’ain’t gettin’ what I’m sayin’. It’d be somethin’ more like, ya can’t deal with a poison that’cha don’t know, yeah?]

Olbart: [Ya make brats drink poison when they’re young so they won’t die from it later. ‘N so, tellin’ ya that it’d be fine ta keep at least a single somethin’ in yer heart, was just some advice ta keep ya from dyin’.]

Olbart: [After all, never’ve I loved, nor ever been loved. Makes ya end up incredibly weak, that sorta thing. ――I’m tellin’ ya, the first time a shinobi goes ‘n starts holdin’ someone dear… Kakakakka!]

△▼△▼△▼△

With the brandish of her trump card, a steel thread bolted out from the ring placed over her tongue, and without err, it reaped the slender neck of the Oni girl leaping towards her, severing the connection between head and torso.

Annulling the “no-killing” restriction, she had succeeded in the elimination of one of the obstacles standing in the way of Al’s objective.

Thinking of that fact, and anticipating Al’s reaction when he learned of this, Yae felt a grating sensation in the depths of her chest――,

Yae: [――Hah?]

Just before she could digest that heartache, Yae widened her eyes, doubting the sight before her eyes.

Beyond any shadow of a doubt, Yae’s steel thread had severed Rem’s slender neck. She had distinctly felt the sensation that accompanied cutting away a prey’s life, and she had certainly heard the rasp of the wind that blew upon severing the blood and flesh and bone that made up a life.

And despite all that――,

Rem: [――I wasn’t exactly playing fair either.]

Yae’s crimson eyes intersected Rem’s pale blue ones. And, there was still light to be found in those eyes.

Then, the red line emblematic of her reaped life, one that certainly ought to have been left as a mark on her neck, slowly faded away. ――Neither had she protected against it, nor had she evaded it; the blow that by all means was supposed to have taken her life, had been cancelled.

That was not something that could simply be explained by the regeneration possessed by the Oni Clan; a miracle that should have never happened. Even in this vast world, the likes of someone capable of wielding that level of healing magic was――,

Yae: [――Al-sama.]

The monster who, even when making an enemy of the world, seemed like he would absolutely never lose; she had wanted to assist him.

She had hoped that by doing so, she would be able to erase the “specialness” living within her own heart.

And yet――,

???: [――Your stars were bad.]

Shutting her eyes, she once again heard the dreadful words that seemed to make all her hairs stand on end.

Though oddly enough, right now, in this moment alone, the feeling they inspired within Yae was not dread, but instead.

Yae: [The cause of my defeat…]

Rem: [――Is love.]

The powerful arm unleashed alongside that answer, smashed into the iron ball stuck within Yae’s torso.

Far more lethal than the fall from five-thousand meters, the Oni’s thunderbolt exploded―― atop the icy crown of the mountain amidst crags of the Agzadd Canyon, cherry blossoms fluttered down as though in requiem.

――Before the Blue Oni, the Crimson Sakura known as Yae Tenzen, ephemeral as her namesake’s petals, was scattered to the wind in violent splendour.