Chapter 278: The Sword-Wolf Faces the Thunder-Fire Beast, Part Eight
[Author's Note:] For scenes where characters' emotions flare up and the fighting gets intense, freshness is everything (this makes no sense).
Sunraku: "I knew it! Counter-based stuff just doesn't suit me after all!"
Psyger-100: "You're accelerating even further...!? This is insane, just how many buffs are you stacking—"
Sunraku: "If specs decided everything, then players would never beat Lycagon, now would they!"
A booming, wild laugh echoes. A complete shift into a hyper-aggressive rushdown style — the polar opposite of the read-and-respond tactics he'd used up to now. His body, cracked and trailing flames, combined with his Spartan-style armor, gives off an eerie sense of wrongness — as if he's cast aside his humanity, yet it's terrifying precisely because he was originally human.
Everyone present, even those in the same clan, is witnessing the full-throttle reveal of the player "Sunraku" for the first time. They're terrified, recoiling, each reacting in their own way.
Pencilgon: "Hey, isn't that the same guy who was calling Momo-chan a boss character and all that stuff just a little while ago?"
Oikatzo: "Yeah, who's the boss character now... So you had a second form, huh."
Professor: "Pencilgon-kun! Oh my, hahaha, he's incredible! I'll pile up as much gold as you want — please, I beg you, talk to him about cooperating on information sharing!"
Pencilgon: "Agh! The troublesome old geezer's gotten himself all lit up too! Zero-chan, go call Massive Dynamite-san real quick!"
Psyger-0: "H-huh, wha, um, err..."
Some are shocked — "Which mouth was that bastard using when he ran his mouth calling other people final bosses?" Some are delighted — "This is a treasure mountain packed with not just gold but rare metals, with all this hidden new info!" Some are throwing chaos at the newbie to enjoy themselves, and others are just confused because the troublesome guy started some troublesome hustle. Some are thinking about how to act now that they know this player is worth several times more than expected. And one is thinking, with a completely straight face, "If he's gonna do it anyway, couldn't he just hurry up and turn into a girl, let his boobs bounce around while he fights?"
Three people, three ways. Ten people, ten colors. As everyone shows their own reactions to the player Sunraku finally revealing his true nature — the cards he'd kept hidden precisely because he'd played mostly solo until now — there was one person consumed entirely by a shock so profound her mind went completely blank.
Kyo the Ultimate: "..............."
Speechless. That word has never been more fitting. Her mind dominated by shock, the player stares intently at Sunraku, who had abandoned the roleplay he had been using until moments ago and returned to his original playstyle. Yet her head is filled with the fighting style she had just witnessed — one that was extremely familiar.
Kyo the Ultimate: "What...? Huh? Why... why?"
His footwork, his sword handling, everything about it was... crude. Unworthy of comparison. It moved like an amateur who'd just chosen the most optimal answers, with none of the flow of the sword's path.
And yet.
And yet.
The movements Sunraku showed were more "Ryuguin Fugaku" than anyone else — more than her. The movements didn't hold a single trace of the Ryuguin School's formalities, yet they were unmistakably those of "Ryuguin Fugaku." More than her, who had watched her grandfather's movements from up close, longer than anyone else. As if her grandfather had possessed his body. No, that's wrong. Those movements were entirely his own. Which means he's made the "Ryuguin Fugaku" style his own...!
It makes no sense.
Psyger-0: "Um, err... Kyo the Ultimate...san?"
Kyo the Ultimate: "—!"
And so, when a hesitant voice called out to her, Kyogoku's brain — flooded with full doses of brain chemicals and all the rest — kicked into its highest gear ever. Having arrived at a conclusion, she seized the person who'd spoken to her: Psyger-0, Rei Saiga.
Kyo the Ultimate: "Tell me! You know, don't you?! Who he is...!"
Psyger-0: "E-err..."
Kyo the Ultimate: "Tell me! You know, right?! Hey! He's not one of our students, is he?! Who is he?! Come on!!"
Psyger-0: "C-calm down... calm down, Kyogoku-chan...!"
Kyo the Ultimate: "......gh, ah...! ...Hngh!"
Overflowing emotions. The words she needs to spit out get caught in her throat, and as if choking, she shakes Psyger-0. As the system reads her emotions, tears even begin to spill from her eyes. Her complete transformation, destroying her previous impression, draws the attention of the others around them, wondering what's going on.
Psyger-0: "Umm... first of all, he has... absolutely no connection to the Ryuguin family..."
Kyo the Ultimate: "...Hah?"
That's impossible. Are you mocking me? Even without putting it into words, her face says it all. A feeling that can only be called murderous intent spills out, aimed entirely at Psyger-0. The armored knight, facing the full brunt of a look that could strangle her at any moment, doesn't flinch. She stands her ground and faces it head-on. Because the impulse of emotion beyond reason tells her she cannot hesitate to prove it.
Psyger-0: "He's... um, he doesn't practice martial arts... really."
Kyo the Ultimate: "That can't...!"
Psyger-0: "It's the truth."
A declaration. An assertion, so full of absolute confidence it feels like even if the universe started spinning around the Earth at this very second, this one fact alone would remain unchanged. Kyogoku's emotions regain a sliver of calm.
Kyo the Ultimate: "Then explain that! His footwork is sloppy, his sword handling is a mess! Yes, that's right! He's practically an amateur! And yet that was exactly like my Grandfather! What does it mean?!"
She roars furiously. A threatening manner so intense that if this were real life, spittle would be flying into her face. Psyger-0 takes it all and still doesn't back down. If I'm overwhelmed here, it'll degrade not just me, but him too... A strange conviction, one she doesn't quite understand herself, supports Psyger-0. And so the knight does not waver. As if to demonstrate that as long as he's still standing, blazing like a raging fire, she won't fall either.
Psyger-0: "That was... probably, something he learned... in a game, I think."
Kyo the Ultimate: "...What."
There's no confirmation, but if you gather the circumstantial evidence, that's probably the correct answer.
Psyger-0: "Do you know... the game your grandfather Fugaku supervised?"
Kyo the Ultimate: "...Know it? I cleared the whole thing."
Now that's a strange thing to say, Psyger-0 thinks, tilting her head. The game that an older female acquaintance had recommended to Sunraku features a secret boss — an NPC traced from the great swordsman she knows. It's no wonder that Kyogoku, a relative of their greatest collaborator, would have gotten her hands on that game. But if she cleared the whole thing, why is she asking this?
Because her reaction just now wasn't "There's no way you can learn that from a game"—
It was more like, "Why are you bringing that topic up now of all times?"
Psyger-0: "Umm... the secret boss... where you can fight the trace AI of Ryuguin Fugaku... you knew about that...? No way... you didn't know?"
Speechless—record updated. An expression beyond emptiness, as if her very soul had left her body. Worried that her real-life body might have gone into cardiac arrest from sheer shock, Psyger-0 hurriedly shakes Kyogoku.
Psyger-0: "A-are you okay...?"
Kyo the Ultimate: "...I didn't know... I... didn't know something like that..."
The truth revealed. The wish left behind by the genuine, now-gone "Master of the Sword." Truth is stranger than fiction. Through a chain of events so astronomically unlikely you couldn't even calculate the odds, the Master of the Sword's granddaughter learns of her grandfather's wish.
But there's no way the two fighting in the arena could know that. The digital "Master of the Sword" and the digital "Cracked, Burning Mercenary" — their clash is only growing more intense.