Sparks of light flickers on the top of one of the gate's rooftop. The noises of metal striking each other echoed throughout the castle grounds.
Under the moonlit sky, two slender figure dance on top of the Torii gate with their blades in hand. Their hair lagging behind their agile movements, the two shadows are locked in a series of exchanging of blows, matching each other in attacks.
Due to the gunshot earlier, everyone in the party were alerted to their duel. Those near the main gate to the castle could even see the duel itself on top of the Torii gate.
And yet despite the violence, the crowds cheered on the fight.
"Quite a sight isn't it? The moon is in perfect position, from this angle and seeing their motions so clearly even though it's just their shadows... It's like a moving piece of art."
From Lord Katsuyori's side, he simply saw it as entertainment. As the leader of the Takeda Clan he has seen his fair share of duels, this duel is no surprise to him.
"Takeda-sama, I shall take care of that disturbance immediately." Said the female ninja standing next to Katsuyori.
She is the leader of the Takeda Fangs, a personal friend and bodyguard to the warlord. She is Hatori Gotou.
As Gotou was about to head towards the exit of the hall, Katusyori stopped her with a gesture.
"Let them be, the guests seems to enjoy it."
"...Understood. May I ask why does the guests like it?"
"I am no expert at martial arts but...
Fighting is in a way, like dancing. When two warriors match each other blow-for-blow unable to land a hit, people lose grip to the reality of blood shed. They view them as any other performance just like a dance. Especially when the view is as magnificent as this."
"I see.... Personally I think there's nothing beautiful about it. Fighting is merely people trying to kill each other, what's there to like about taking another's life?"
________
________
'Clang-!'
On a tight platform like this, the weapon with the longer reach will beat out the shorter weapon.
Losing the option to flank the sides, Takina was forced into defense because Fujimoto's attacks can zone her out of her own range. She can't hit Fujimoto with the shorter blade but Fujimoto can.
And on top of that there is another disadvantage - the scythe's odd angle. It makes Fujimoto's attacks difficult to deflect because a portion of the blade would always slip pass any guarding stance of her sword. To avoid being cut by this, Takina have no choice but to launch attacks of her own and strike Fujimoto's scythe as it comes, knocking it away completely — in other words she is forced into parrying every attack from Fujimoto.
'Clang-!'
This is why the clashes between the two are so loud. Parries are two blows coming in contact with each other, the force involved in these exchanges are larger than conventional blocking/deflecting leading to the louder clanging sounds.
'Clang-!'
"Hmph!" Fujimoto raises her scythe in an attack stance and swung the scythe aiming at Takina's neck.
Takina steps back slightly making the scythe miss her neck while aiming her sword at Fujimoto's legs.
Fujimoto gracefully moves back slightly making the thrust miss and follow the motion through with a spin that leads into an attack.
Takina sees the slash and launched a cut of her as Fujimoto turns around.
'Clang-!!!'
When two attacks collide, in the case where they are equally powerful both the attacks will bounce off resulting in a partial parry.
But when a difference in power is present, the weaker attack will be the only one to bounce off causing the person to lose their balance. This makes them unable to attack, forcing them into defense. Proper usage of parrying enables it's user to go on the full offensive without worrying about counter attacks!
The momentum from the spin added power to her attack, leading to Takina being the one to be parried.
"Tch-!"
Takina was finally knocked out of her stance. Seeing the chance, Fujimoto dashes forward with her scythe over the shoulder in an attack stance...
Having been knocked out of her stance and unable to parry, Takina was forced into deflecting the slash instead. This once again landed the scythe's blade right behind Takina's back.
Fujimoto pulls the scythe "hooking" and slicing Takina's back just like before. Except this time Takina dashed into Fujimoto as she pulls on the scythe. She is moving along the path of the blade making the cut to her back shallower.
"?!"
'Thud-!'
Takina slams the hilt of her sword into the face of her sister, before raising her blade overhead — "Seiya!"
'Clang-!'
Fujimoto caught her swing using the pole of the scythe. Their weapons locked together from this.
"You were a fool to use the same trick twice."
"Tch, what do you know about using a scythe?!"
As they pushed harder, Fujimoto throws a leg kick at Takina's knee causing her to lose balance. This let her shove Takina away once again creating space.
Takina back flips to regain balance and lands on her feet. When her sight goes back into Fujimoto, she notices that she had drawn her pistol once more.
(She forgot that she fired a shot already? That's impossible-)
'Bang-!' 'Clink-!'
Takina raised her sword just in time and deflects the bullet to the sides, before sheathing it to ther waist.
(That gun isn't normal!)
Seeing the quick draw, Fujimoto assumed a offensive stance ready to parry her sword draw, Takina pulls her sword and slashed - not at Fujimoto but at the floor!
'Sching-!'
"What?!"
(How did she so easily bisect a Torii gate?!)
The Torii gate collapses from being sliced in two, causing Fujimoto to fall with the roof.
As she fell, Fujimoto noticed a trail of white light coming from Takina's blade.
Takina jumped off her own piece of the roof, rushing at Fujimoto as they fell, raising her blade overhead.
Fujimoto sees the attack stance and raised her sycthe into a blocking stance... Only for Takina to feint the slash into a kick.
"Hmph!"
'Thud-!!!'
The kick sent Fujimoto flying, right through the window of the nearby buildings.
She crashes into the room of the building and slams into a table on the floor.
'Thump-!'
"Urgh!..."
But she immediately jumps up from the ground and got back to her feet.
"Hiee-! Don't hurt me please!"
The voice of a terrified girl surprised Fujimoto. She looks to the side and saw a young girl lying in a mattress with a terrified face, whom she assumed to be sleeping earlier.
Fujimoto realizes she was distracted and activated her Empyrean Eyes to sense where Takina is... but it was too late.
"Shit!"
'Shing-!' (x3)
With three precise slashes a triangle was cut into the floor where Fujimoto was standing, causing her to fall down.
"Hyah!"
'Thump-!'
Takina kicks the platform that was falling and sent it flying along with Fujimoto behind, slamming into the wall of the building.
Takina once again sheathed her blade from this opening that she created.
'Shing-!' Fujimoto sliced the platform in half and comes out unscathed. She immediately raises her scythe into a defensive stance from seeing Takina assuming a sword drawing stance even from behind the platform.
She dashed forward and draws her sword. This time Fujimoto saw it clearly - the sword flashes white as it comes out, and even with her reflexes it was hard to react to the speed of the draw itself.
'Clang-!!!'
"Urgh-!"
The attack sent Fujimoto flying, crashing through the wall and flying out of the building itself.
"Something is different about that sword draw...!"
She flips mid-air and rebalances herself, landing on her feet on a wide empty area.
And just like on the roof, when she raises her sight she saw a piece of wood - the platform that she cut in half from earlier was threw at her.
'Sching!' She sliced the piece of wood apart using her scythe and immediately traced after Takina with her Empyrean eyes.
Takina had flanked to the left side using the wood she threw at Fujimoto as cover. She had her sword sheathed to her waist once again ready to draw.
But then Fujimoto reached for her waist as well and-
'Bang-!' 'Clink-!'
The bullet was parried by Takina and landed on a distant wall.
"...I knew it."
Something within Takina changed.
(The quick draw that she did before on the balcony was nothing like this. )
(There was something different with this sword draw just like the slash that bisected the Torii gate... or the one that sent me flying out of the building. )
(It was correct of me to force her to keep her distance with my gun instead of trying to defend against it like before. )
"You improved your technique mid-fight..."
"Heh...." Her grin widens even more. "Can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"That guy... Minuano was it, you fought him before right? Can you tell me... did my sword draw technique match the one that he did?"
"His was slightly more powerful, but in terms of refinement you are both equal now."
(Yes... I can tell.)
(His drawing attacks flashed bright white and left a trail behind even after the attack was finished. It come out so fast that even I had trouble reacting to it, making it extremely difficult to counter.)
(This woman... my sister. She was able to replicate that. )
(Minuano is no doubt on a level that transcends what a normal swordsman could reach. Fujiwara had just climbed to this level from practicing her technique on me!)
"The flash phenomenon... It only occurs on slashing attacks. It's also called a 'True Slash' by Kenshin-sama.
I don't know how exactly one can activate it but I found it easier to do so by putting all my focus and mind itself into the act of drawing the sword. Subsequent true slashes were less challenging to perform after the first... which I performed on that stage in the sword dance.
Easier said than done, I could never do that before."
(Something's off... she's just rambling on and on.)
"I thank you, Fujimoto. There was no one else who would be able to survive so long against me to allow me to perfect this technique! "
"Don't get too far into your head, our fight here is just getting started."
"Oh? You are right... I suppose it's time we stopped playing around."
Once again Takina sheathed her sword to the scabbard and entered the stance of a quick draw attack.
"Your gun fires without needing to reload, yeah? I must be your magic, a new trick that you learned. But who cares? The next time you fire it I will slice the bullet in half along with your gun."
"You will try." Fujimoto says as she raised her scythe into an attack stance once more.
The two locked eyes in the flat area, coming into a stand off as they waited for the next move....
'Thud-!'
As Takina dashed forward and draws her blade, Fujimoto steps backwards and swung her scythe.
'Clang-!!!'
The true slash from Takina attack knocked Fujimoto out of stance. She immediately followed up with a kick which Fujimoto blocks with her own leg, but it sent her flying away regardless.
(She's going to throw something at me again!)
Fujimoto flips mid air and lands on her feet. Just like before, a piece of the stone tile on the floor was sent flying towards Fujimoto.
Anticipating the projectile, Fujimoto catches the stone tile with one of her arm and swings it around herself. Tracking Takina's movement, she sees her flanking to the sides.
"Hyah-!" Fujimoto flings the piece of stone back to Takina, who sliced it clean in half using her sword.
However Fujimoto rushed in using the stone as a distraction, swinging her scythe immediately as she got in range.
Caught by surprise, Takina wasn't able to wind up an attack of her own and was forced into blocking the attack.
'Ting-!'
The blade of the scythe hooks onto Takina's back. Instead of pulling the scythe towards herself, Fujimoto drags the scythe side ways and throws Takina right into a building.
'Thump-!'
She slammed into a stone wall on her back. Immediately following that, Fujimoto rushed in with the lower end of her scythe thrusting forward.
'Tink-!'
Takina dodged the thrust at the last second by side stepping it. But just as she does so-
"!"
She noticed that Fujimoto had her gun on her other hand, aiming it towards her.
'Bang-!' 'Tink-!'
Barely raising her sword in time she deflects the bullet, making it graze her face as it glides away.
Chasing forward from behind the bullet, Fujimoto swings her scythe into Takina. Takina ducks under the swing causing it to slam into the wall. 'Sching-!'
The scythe was stuck in the wall of the building. Takina immediately latches onto the scythe using her free arm-
"?!"
"Checkmate."
'Thump-!'
She throws a kick right into the head of her sister, slamming her into the castle wall.
The wall cracks and crumbles slightly from the impact. Fujimoto drops to the ground dazed from receiving a kick directly to her head and crashing into the wall on the process....
"Hah... Hah... Clever of you to make me unable to True Slash by forcing me into defense.
Too bad you focused too much on hitting me that you didn't realize your scythe would hit the wall if it missed."
"Urgh..."
Takina points her sword at Fujimoto's throat.
"I won."
But before she could decide what to do with Fujimoto, distant yelling could be heard.
"I expected the guards to react slower because of how much we changed locations... but it matters not, the fight is finished anyway.
I will be waiting for your reply sister. And sorry for... these."
Takina said all those to Fujimoto before she started sprinting away.
"After her, do not let her escape!
And someone tend to the injured girl!"
(Chapter end)