Hatsumi vs. Itsuki
A fight was presently about to break out in the garden of the Yakagi estate. A clash of swords. On one side was Hatsumi of the Phantom Sword of the Kurikara Dharani, and on the other was Itsuki of the Quiet Bower School.
Both swordswomen were prepared for battle, squaring off against each other in the garden. But rather than blunt wooden training swords, they were armed with the real deal. The dangerous light glinting off of their metal blades was a testament to the seriousness of this fight.
Hatsumi held her sword parallel to the ground at shoulder height. Itsuki held the tip of her blade behind her in a lower stance, as if to hide it behind her body.
“Here I come,” Hatsumi declared.
“Have at me,” Itsuki quietly replied.
Not a second later, Hatsumi made the opening move with the Phantom Sword of the Kurikara Dharani’s Longsword of the Absolute Blade. In essence, it was a strike that was unrestricted by the physical length of a swordsman’s arms and blade—a strike that only swordsmen who surpassed a certain level of skill were said to be able to perform. It was commonly referred to as a cloudsplitter strike because it was said to cleave anything and everything beyond the sword’s blade.
In demonstration, Hatsumi’s slash tore through the trees behind Itsuki and rent them asunder with ease. Such skill stemmed from an esoteric Buddhist ritual, and the phenomenon brought about by it was said to be based on the same thing. But Hatsumi wasn’t the only one with such extraordinary powers. Itsuki responded in kind.
She answered with the Quiet Bower School’s Sword of Ignorance, the Nightingale’s Crossing. Her approach was utterly soundless; both her footsteps and the clinking of her sword faded into nothingness. The complete absence of sound—for just a split second—tricked her opponent’s uncertain senses into seeing something that wasn’t really there.
Perhaps so affected, Hatsumi took her next swing and missed by a wide margin. Seizing this opportunity, Itsuki slipped soundlessly into Hatsumi’s range. When she did, her silent aura engulfed not just her, but Hatsumi too.
Humans are primarily visual creatures, but they also depend a great deal on their hearing. That goes for ambient noises as much as it does for noises we make ourselves. When unable to hear the sound of our own muscles flexing and bones creaking, it becomes difficult to get a grasp of the way we’re moving.
Now, the exact workings behind Itsuki’s aura of silence were a mystery. It wasn’t clear if they were the result of a martial technique or some magickal force, but said aura of silence was the very foundation of the Quiet Bower. Hatsumi, however, was gradually regaining her senses in spite of it. Or perhaps it was more precise to say that she’d begun relying on entirely different senses altogether.
Pure will alone could cut a swordsman’s target. They sharpened their strikes by honing that will, but it was said that true masters could sense such elevated strikes coming before they were ever thrown. It was like a premonition, a visible flash of a blade at the right moment just before it was swung
With this keen sense, Hatsumi intuited the trajectories of both blades a step ahead of Itsuki. She had a swordsman’s clairvoyance and swung her blade at the indescribable opening that only she could perceive.
Her strike, which was much like threading a needle with a blade, clearly caught Itsuki’s arm. It visibly sank into her skin, yet drew no blood. It didn’t even leave a scratch. But behind Itsuki, the arm of one of the dolls sitting in the garden broke off with a clatter. As it did, both girls’ field of vision turned into a cacophony of buzzing black and white for just an instant. It was like a flash of white noise from an old television set.
When it cleared, Hatsumi immediately leaped back and took her distance from Itsuki. She knew that losing all sense of color on top of all sense of sound would be too much of a handicap. Even though she’d been struck, Itsuki was still primed for a fight. If anything, it felt like her fighting spirit was kindling as her katana glimmered with a silver light.
“You can still keep going, right?” Suimei asked now that the opportunity seemed to present itself.
In response, both girls turned to him and nodded.
“It’s awfully convenient,” said Hatsumi.
“Indeed. I didn’t think such a thing would be possible,” agreed Itsuki.
They were praising the sacrificial dolls Suimei had prepared as a means of subrogating any damage taken in the garden—a demonstration of which had been on full display just moments earlier. This was why the girls dared to put their full strength into striking each other with real blades. However...
“Good. I’m glad to hear it. But I still feel like the instructor would say this kinda thing isn’t exactly good for you.”
That was Suimei’s estimation of the situation. Because this fight was conducted with the dolls to take damage in place of the combatants, the combatants had far less reason to be as cautious as normal. And with that sense of tension thrown to the wind, this hardly resembled a real fight.
“However, we can cut each other up to our heart’s content. Isn’t that wonderful?” Itsuki countered.
“You seriously have a screw loose,” Suimei replied, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders.
“But of course. My madness for the blade is proof I’ve embraced my nature as a swordswoman, after all.”
“Gross.”
Suimei looked genuinely disgusted, but Itsuki simply flashed an elegantly demure smile. Suimei didn’t get it. He knew that Lefille wasn’t anything like Itsuki. Her peculiarities had to be unique to this world, for even the spirited Hatsumi seemed affected by such thoughts.
“It really is nice, being able to go at each other until we’re satisfied.”
Hatsumi was in such high spirits, in fact, that Suimei couldn’t help wanting to tease her.
“Ooh, Hatsumi’s becoming more and more of a naughty girl...”
“What on earth are you talking about?!”
Hatsumi blew her lid in a most theatrical fashion, and Itsuki let out a dainty giggle to see it.
“Teeheehee, the two of you sure do get along.”
“Wh-Wh-What are you saying now, Itsuki-san?!”
Hatsumi turned beet red in protest, but all the joking around didn’t last long. The girls were quickly back to locking blades.
“Man, these girls are scary...”
That was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Suimei’s true impression of them.
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