"Ah, damn! I knew it!"
I unintentionally shouted at Nagisa as she ran out toward Shinya.
It is obvious that this would happen if Nagisa saw her family murderer, Shinya.
I want to curse the heavens for this man who is the fourth heavenly king of the demon king army to appear in the beginning of the game.
"I really shouldn't have come here!"
I run after Nagisa without caring, even though the spell to hide my appearance is lifted.
Although he is an enemy that I do not want to fight at this moment, now that Nagisa recognizes him, a battle is inevitable.
And as I run alongside Nagisa, I draw my sword from my waist.
"Hmm, a newcomer, huh?"
While Nagisa runs toward him with a murderous intent, Shinya, who has been fighting Leon, turns his eyes toward her.
The sharp, cold look in his eyes made Nagisa think of her own death, but she pointed the tip of her sword at her enemy.
"Nagisa! Match me!"
"...!"
Nagisa's eyes show a drop of reason as I shout out the command.
She reflexively matches her attack based on our experience of training together in the morning.
"Magic sword — 'Black Wolf Slash'!"
"Seikai Itto-Ryu — 'Namikiri Fuudo'!"
"...!"
A black slash from the right. A blue slash from the left.
The simultaneous strikes are a true kill. The timing of the two attacks was so exquisite that it would be impossible to reproduce them even if asked to do the same thing again.
However...
"Seikai Itto-ryu — 'Zekkai'!"
Shinya make a slash with his sword and it collides with our slash.
Two slashes and one slash. They balanced each other for about half of a second.
But Nagisa and I are the ones who are blown backward by the force of the blow.
"...!"
"Damn... it's no use!"
Nagisa and I rolled on the ground and quickly got up.
Shinya was standing in front of us, not blown away.
The attack was not so bad, but... there was too much difference in our stats at this point. Our skill level is too low.
"What kind of unreasonable game is it to take on the Four Heavenly Kings in the first half of the story... it's just too much!"
"...I'm surprised. You're a lot better than those nominal heroes. Who are you?"
A closer look reveals that Shinya's chest is slightly ripped open, with a red line trailing under his dark blue outfit. He may not have been completely unharmed, but he is far from damaged.
"But... it's sad. It's really sad to see a surprise attack by two people like this. It's sad that I thought you went in to save the hero there... but you were reckless enough to jump in without running away."
"Seikai-san and Baskerville...!? Why are you here...!"
On the other side of Shinya, Leon is kneeling with his shoulder moving up and down violently. His breathing is erratic, and he is clearly at the end of his physical strength.
He also has small wounds all over his body. Each wound is not large, but together they probably cause a lot of blood loss.
By the looks of things, Leon will not be able to fight any longer. It is unlikely that he could be counted as an asset.
"Seikai...? What a surprise! Isn't it Ojou-sama?"
Shinya shouted in response to Leon's words.
It was not a derisive taunt, but a voice of pure joy.
"Don't tell me you have followed me this far west! What a surprise! I'm glad to hear that you are so attached to me!"
"Shut up... you are a disgrace! You're a traitor of our school!"
"This is harsh. The strong slaughter the weak and survive by eating them. That was the truth of the sword your father taught us!"
"Do not mock my father's teachings! The law of the jungle is no excuse for oppressing the weak! My father taught us to have the strength to stand up to the strong. I will not allow evil people like you to oppress others!"
"Nagisa!?"
Nagisa, who was enraged, cut at Shinya by herself.
I rush to follow her, but the fierce swordfight between the two swordsmen with Japanese swords is too fierce for me to intervene.
Her eyes are bloodshot with intense hatred, and she looks only at Shinya. If I carelessly joined the fight, we might have ended up in a comrade's duel.
"Damn... I knew this was going to happen!"
I growled through my clenched teeth.
Shinya Kushinagi, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King's Army and the man who killed Nagisa's father and destroyed the school. In fact, this man is a fellow student of the Seikai Itto-ryu style, just like Nagisa.
In the past, Shinya was a talented swordsman who outshone other students and was well known in the Far East as an excellent and ambitious swordsman.
His talent was so great that even Nagisa's father, the master, was so impressed that he was thinking of having him take over the dojo as his son-in-law.
But... Shinya's too high aspirations lead him astray.
A sword is a weapon. Swordsmanship is the art of killing.
This is a truth that has been told in a famous manga about swordsman, and Shinya has also been possessed by such subject matter.
And to perfect his sword, he must slay and kill.
So, he became a swordsman who only seeks for strength, and has begun to commit dojo-storming against swordsmen of other schools, and even to engage in a kind of "Tsuji-giri" (The killing of a passerby on the road at night, in order to test the sharpness of a sword, or to improve one's skill).
The country where Nagisa lived in the Far East was in a peaceful period of about 100 years after the end of a long war. It was the Edo period in Japanese history.
But in this peaceful time, Shinya, who was a manslayer, was akin to a demon. It is impossible to leave him alone.
So, Nagisa's father, though regretting Shinya's talent with the sword, cut off his dominant arm and banished him from the school.
"And... in retaliation, I made a pact with the demon and attacked and destroyed the dojo. You stupid, recalcitrant bastard...!"
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
Nagisa and Shinya are fighting each other with techniques of the same school, and are engaged in a fierce battle.
At first glance, the two seemed to be fighting evenly, but while Nagisa was looking desperate, Shinya was smiling with a relaxed smile on his face.
He is obviously cutting corners... but for now, I have to make the most of this time Nagisa has made for me.
"Aeris, come here! Treat Brave and his friends!"
"Ah...yes!"
I call for Aeris, who has been standing a short distance away, fascinated by the battle.
Now, let's heal Leon's party while we can. So, I take out my own healing potion and run over to Leon's party.
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