Chapter 389: Side 8: Star-Slashing Swallow
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Gunfire criss-crosses the air. The twin revolvers gripped by Raid Boss Yura spit flame with a roar, and the propelled iron pellets, carrying clear killing intent, fly toward the two facing her.
Sunraku: "Alright, here goes!!"
Tousen: "Hmph!!"
But the two facing the strongest player aren't the type to just end up as punching bags either.
???: "Whoa! They both cut the bullets!!"
???: "To pull that off from that position..."
???: "Could you do that?"
???: "If it was a 'ready, go' situation, maybe, but with all that delay piled on, I'd say... seventy percent?"
???: "Man, being in the Shinsengumi really does seem to make bullet-cutting easier. I get jealous sometimes."
???: "Well, Raid Boss-san does it on the Restoration side with no problem anyway."
???: "It's Raid Boss-san, after all."
Two bullets split cleanly in half, four fragmented chunks total, bite into the wall of a row house. At the exact same moment, Festival Music: Sunraku and Our Hero: Tousen break into a sprint. Both belong to the Shinsengumi, so they have no firearm bonuses. Their means of attack converge on the blades they grip in their hands.
Sunraku: "Divine!"
Tousen: "Punishment!"
Sunraku unleashes two flashes from low to directly above. Tousen slams down a single flash from a high stance to directly below. Through a single exchanged glance, a silent agreement of "no hard feelings even if we die" is made. A two-pronged choice is presented to Yura.
No. But no. With two guns gripped in both hands, and the one wielding them being Bakumatsu's strongest Raid Boss, she forces her way through and creates a third option.
Yura: "Reload."
Sunraku & Tousen: "!?"
Both hands occupied. And yet, using only her pinky, she manipulates the window. She tosses both pistols straight up, and with almost zero time lag, she grips new revolvers in her hands—fully loaded.
The roar chains together. Consecutive shots, forcing excessive strain, shake the atmosphere. Four rounds of killing intent are launched at each of their faces.
???: "Ah, I'm gon—"
???: "Oi, you bastard, 'I'm gonna die' is so uncouth, you know!?"
???: "Ah, divine—"
???: "That’s fine."
???: "I have absolutely no clue what part of that was 'okay.'"
???: "But seriously, he dodged that barrage..."
???: "Well, Festival Music face-planted into the ground, and Our Hero wrecked his back... Their numbers advantage got flipped in an instant."
I see. Indeed, even to Kyogoku's eyes, the situation looks nothing but disadvantageous. On one hand, Sunraku dodged the bullets by slamming his own face into the ground with some mysterious technique called "Self-Inflicted Tumble." On the other, Tousen dodged the bullets by bending his body back to its absolute limit. But even in full-dive, that reckless reverse backbend couldn't have been without risk—you can tell from his expression.
However, in a turn-based battle, boss monsters typically get multiple actions per turn. And the player given the alias "Raid Boss" likewise doesn't stop her attacks.
???: "Re... reload?"
Sunraku: "Tch...!"
Tousen: "Collateral, huh...!!"
She discards the emptied revolvers. At the same time, she catches the revolvers she'd thrown into the air—that's right, the guns that still have bullets—and shoves them at the two who've lost their balance, firing immediately. Evasion is impossible. Their stances are too unstable for bullet-cutting. Faster than Kyogoku, watching from the safety zone, could reach a conclusion, the two twitch slightly.
Sunraku: "Oi oi, offering up your mobility against Raid Boss-san is a bad move, y'know."
Tousen: "Idiot. You, offering up an arm when you're a dual-wielder, is way worse."
Yura: "How about we balance it out?"
Sunraku & Tousen: "We’ll pass."
Yura moves, Rust Gleam in her right, revolver in her left. Her target is Tousen, damage effects scattering from his left thigh. The gun barrel is thrust at the Shinsengumi member who's down on one knee... But the next moment, as if sensing something, Yura leaps on the spot, twists her body, and swings Rust Gleam behind her.
???: "Ga, ni...!?"
Sunraku: "Nice work, meat shield!!"
???: "Gubah!?"
Zeninari's body, who'd interrupted the impromptu coordination—a solo aerial-ambush divine punishment without collusion—is split cleanly in two from the waist. But as if tearing through his upper body, the event-limited weapon Catfish Tail Fin bursts forth. Sunraku, strength drained from his left arm, uses Zeninari's upper body as a shield and lunges at Yura.
Zeninari: "Can you see ahead?"
Sunraku: "Now is the time to open your mind’s eye...!"
Zeninari: "No, wait, I’m the one getting stabbed!?"
Sunraku: "Let’s go!"
Pushing forward as if to say, "Make your peace with it." Kyogoku thought Sunraku had flipped allegiances yet again, but apparently, that's not the case.
Tousen: "Dammit, you're such a handful!!"
Sunraku: "Thanks!!"
Tousen, having shifted his body to dodge the thrusting blade, presses the back of his katana against the meat shield and pushes with all his might, like a baseball swing. Sunraku doesn't resist, falling backward, narrowly avoiding a decapitation.
???: "Ah, the meat shield's head flew off."
Zeninari: "Hey, aren’t you making a little too much effective use of my body?"
???: "Hello, Mr. Waste-Not Ghost."
Zeninari: "I’m the one being wasted on, not the other way around!!"
Still, perhaps having some feelings about Zeninari—impaled through the upper body and then decapitated on top of it—Sunraku and Tousen shamelessly wipe away nonexistent tears and howl.
Sunraku: "Unforgivable! How dare you do that to Zeninari!!"
Tousen: "Yeah, this is vengeance for him!!"
A ghost directing an incredible amount of negative emotion toward Sunraku and the others has been added, but the person who botched his own ambush must share some blame, too. At the very least, even if, by some one-in-ten-thousand chance, they did manage to kill Raid Boss-san, the fact that he'd neglected to deal with the other two means he was just being naive.
That said, ranking-wise, the moment you divine-punish Raid Boss-san, a top rank is guaranteed, so as a gamble, it's not bad. Just as Kyogoku is acting all knowledgeable with that thought, an ominous conversation reaches her ears from nearby.
Zeninari: "Man, I ran away and Raid Boss-san just happened to be there, so I was totally cornered. I jumped in out of desperation... but, well, no way, right?"
Kyogoku: "Ran away? From who?"
Zeninari: "Huh? Well, obviously..."
In that instant, the wall of one of the row houses shatters from the inside.
Jumonji Daifuku: "First place, second place, AND Festival Music! Not bad, not bad at all, oi oi oi!!"
Great General of Sincerity: "Found you, Sunrakuu!!"
Sunraku: "GYAH—! You bastards were still alive!?"
"Blizzard Hunter: Great General of Sincerity" and "Mad Dog: Jumonji Daifuku" crash the party. More poison is thrown into the already chaotic hot pot, and the situation plunges further toward pandemonium.
At least, it should have.
Yura: "I'll get a little serious now."
Those words, even stripped of hyperbole, were a death sentence. And Jumonji Daifuku, who'd witnessed its appearance from the closest range, speaks its name with a grin mixed with joy and a twitch of fear.
Jumonji Daifuku: "Star-Cutting Pole...!!"
With a slick, dragging motion, a single sword is drawn from thin air. No—can that even be called a sword? There are zanbatō, great katanas made to cut horses. But that... that blade is even longer. It's almost like...
Sunraku: "Star-Cutting Pole... seriously, the New Year's event reward!?"
Tousen: "That's the first-place reward from the Ganryu Event!!"
Kyogoku: "Huh? What's that?"
???: "Raid Boss-san's serious weapon! Material proof of the hundred-man slayer... Record it, record it!!"
From the words in the conversation, nine out of ten, the motif is Sasaki Kojiro's "Monohoshizao"—the Clothes-Drying Pole from the duel at Ganryu Island. But, swinging a sword and swinging a pole are entirely different things. In fact, since it's bigger, wouldn't the openings be larger too...? Kyogoku's almost optimistic thought vanishes in an instant as she sees the headless body of Jumonji Daifuku.
???: "There goes Mad Dog, dead again."
???: "No, but even moving to try and deal with it is insane."
???: "How long will he last?"
???: "Five minutes!"
???: "Two minutes!"
???: "What about you, Kyogoku-chan?"
Kyogoku: "Huh? Uh... three minutes?"
???: "Cup noodle time... that's the safe bet."
???: "But you could also call it the classic answer."
Kyogoku has no way of knowing, but each ranking reward has its own special ability. Though, it's nothing fantastical like shooting out shockwaves—it's mainly assists for the player, like improving strength or reducing stamina consumption. And the effect on the Star-Cutting Pole that Yura wields is air resistance reduction. It's a simple effect, but it transforms the handling—which should normally expose huge openings due to its length—into an extremely dangerous disaster through Yura's skill.
Sunraku: "Shit...!"
Yura: "Divine punishment."
Sunraku: "You bastard!"
Sunraku's left arm goes sailing through the air. Being long means that much more kinetic energy rides on the tip. Even without the absolute severing of Rust Gleam's criticals, the swung blade slices through the avatar's arm with absurd ease.
Sunraku: "Tch...!"
Sunraku: "Oi, Shogun! Buy time for recovery!"
Great General of Sincerity: "You’re asking the impossible...!"
Yura: "It's fine. I'll wait."
Great General of Sincerity: "That opening will be your death—Divine Punishment, Chestoo!"
A declaration to wait, the tip of the blade drooping lazily toward the ground. Seeing his chance, the Great General of Sincerity leaps into a high stance. But he's forgotten something.
???: "He got impatient, Blizzard Hunter."
???: "Idiot, it's a clothes-drying pole and Raid Boss-san we're talking about."
A clothes-drying pole with a master wielder. If that's the case, the return blade can even cut down a swallow.
Yura: "Return divine punishment."
Great General of Sincerity: "A-at least one hit———!"
Slashed in a single straight line, the Great General of Sincerity, with his last strength, hurls his giant katana. Perhaps it's the wielder's grudge embedded in it—the blade, with a sharpness you'd never expect from a dying avatar, cuts through the air and hurtles toward its target.
Sunraku: "That was close—!?"
Tousen: "CHEEH!!"
Sunraku: "If I hadn't deflected it with Jifubuki, that would've been instant death..."
Great General of Sincerity: "You bastards!!"
Can we please get that back-and-forth tension back? Kyogoku mutters that with half-lidded eyes as two more vengeful spirits are added beside her.