Chapter 503: Resound, Grateful Legacy — Joint Locks Are the Island's Art

[Indy-chan and Poneki are getting outfits? Seriously?]

Another name for it... no, its original name is Dark Fairy Divine Fist.

It is a forbidden school of combat born on the battlefield of GH:C, a game vastly different from the conventional fighting games that came before it.

There are a few exceptions, but as a rule, GH:C defaults to one-on-one fights. That meant this demonic fist was never supposed to have any real use. More importantly, with Twinkle Pixie belonging to the "Hero side," it went without saying what it would mean for her to wield it.

That's right. The true nature of Dark Fairy Divine Fist—or TQC "Evil" Style—is a battle style designed for "one-versus-many" combat. Precisely because the Hero side has no reason to send every NPC in sight flying, it had been deemed taboo.

Then Triangle Trinity was implemented, and at last it saw the light of day.

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Twinkle Pixie: "Here I go!!"

Several members of Mechanitan the Machine Swarm react as I break into a run, turning their gun barrels toward me. The grunts have an opening of about two seconds between lining up their aim and actually firing. I'm not so senile that I'm going to get hit by bullets that aren't even player-controlled.

Twinkle Pixie: "That shitty homing isn't gonna light a fire under my ass...!!"

I race forward in a low stance and jump. I vault over a lizard-shaped Machine Swarm unit, flip over its head, land on its back, and use my lightweight body to run down the huge frame that looks like it used to be a car—a limousine, maybe?

Then I accelerate again and charge straight into the gap between a rhinoceros-beetle type and a stag-beetle type, both already pointing their gun barrels at me and taking aim.

Twinkle Pixie: "Get powdered, you bugs."

Powder deployed.

Tests by those who came before us have already established that as long as Twinkle Powder remains present, its stun effect can apply to multiple targets.

That's why I deliberately squeeze my body into the tiny gap between the two Machine Swarm units, guaranteeing that both of them are inside the Powder's effective range. And with a Pixie's tiny body, slipping back out is easy!

Twinkle Pixie: "Close combat, huh? Not bad, but your moves are too predictable, Valkyrie!"

Haven't they updated your AI since the fight with Dust? Keep this up and the times are gonna leave you behind, scrapheap.

I twist aside from the straightforward downward swing of the lance. The instant I've taken two running steps, I activate Twinkle Pixie's levitation ability.

You can't build up much speed while hovering. But there's one exception: if you've already got momentum when you activate it, inertia lets you glide onward without losing it.

Twinkle Pixie: "Tinky☆Ass Whack!!"

I glide across the asphalt as though it were ice, swing around behind Valkyrie, and slam a full-force, whole-body swing of the Twinkle☆Wand straight into Valkyrie's ass.

Tinky☆Knee Buckle would've worked too, or even the forbidden Tinky☆Seventh Skill, but the latter would look way too bad and be social suicide, so that's out. Come to think of it, I once ran into some brave soul in a random match who sexually harassed Valkyrie... but no. There's no need to dig that horrific incident back up.

A metal face can't exactly make an expression, but leaving behind Valkyrie as the machine goes flying in an impressively stupid-looking fashion, I break into a run again.

I don't have time to waste on grunts anymore. Despite being a Target Enemy, Colonel has poured basically the entire kit into buffing allies, so aside from having a surprisingly large HP pool, Colonel has genuinely nothing else going for it.

In other words, ridiculously weak... the easiest pushover among all the Machine Swarm Target Enemies.

Twinkle Pixie: "Drop dead, nudist!!"

Prison Breaker: "I can read you, drug fairy!"

Twinkle Pixie: "Hey, cut that out! Twinkle☆Powder is legal!!"

Prison Breaker: "What part of a powder that modifies the human body is legal!?"

Twinkle Pixie: "No, you're absolutely right about that... gah!!"

A vicious blow slams into my side. I manage to get the wand up in time to guard, but the petite Pixie is mercilessly sent flying back out of the distance she worked so hard to close. Maybe I let go of it when I got blown away, because the Twinkle☆Wand is nowhere to be seen.

Twinkle Pixie: "Ghk..."

No good. There's nothing I can do when I'm losing in almost every stat.

But what now? Do I use it...? But... no. Maybe now is exactly when I should. With this Twinkle Pixie body, maybe...

Then I notice where I've landed after being blown away.

By some coincidence, it's somewhere even a fairy's tiny hand can reach it.

Twinkle Pixie: "...So that's how it is."

If I just happened to get blown to the exact spot where I could reach it, then heaven must be telling me to do it.

Clack.

The thing I close my hand around is a little too large for Twinkle Pixie. But at the same time, its feel is deeply nostalgic.

Twinkle Pixie: "A little over ten seconds left, huh."

Ever since that day, I'd only been able to use it in offline environments.

Maybe that's exactly why, now that I'm standing here at this moment, in this place—an online environment—it feels like the final switch inside me, the one that had stayed OFF all this time, has finally flipped ON.

Twinkle Pixie: "Fuuuu... all right."

I wonder how many people are watching this match right now...

Well, then.

I'll show you a play that'll make you forget to blink.

Twelve seconds left.

I don't have time to bother with the grunts that have their aggro on me anymore. Using only the bare minimum of slides and jumps I need to break through, I dive without hesitation back into the mechanical front line commanded by Colonel.

Twinkle Pixie: "—Heh... heh heh heh."

I'm suddenly in an incredibly good mood.

I spin the gun whose owner is gone around in my hand as I move forward, forward, forward!

There are obstacles everywhere. I can hide behind them. Vault over them. Launch surprise attacks from them!

But that's too roundabout.

Let's keep it simple.

Unless someone's a real hardcore player, a tiny body like this is guaranteed to make them drop their guard.

Forward, forward.

Out of my way, junkheap. I'm trying to go save that useless pile of scrap on your side, you know? Move.

Twinkle Pixie: ".........!!"

I make my little body even smaller and creep forward, forward, forward—silently, even as I push my speed to its absolute limit.

There.

Just as I thought: whittle down Colonel while still Prison Breaker, then wear Colonel as armor once the re-imprisonment kicks in.

But... too naive.

Twinkle Pixie: "Heh-lo."

Prison Breaker: "!!"

Roundhouse kick—answered with a dodge.

Backfist—answered with a dodge.

Backstep—answered by closing in.

Prison Breaker: "Tch...!!"

Even a pro gamer gets impatient when Prison Breaker's time limit is running out, apparently.

A straight punch comes at me on an unusually honest trajectory.

That's what I was waiting for.

Burn, Riot Blood!

Get high on resolve-caffeine!!

Twinkle Pixie: "Guuuh!!"

Prison Breaker: "Wha—"

Wham!! My vision jolts.

It was a sloppy straight punch I should've had any number of ways to dodge. But what I chose wasn't evasion or defense.

I drove my face into the path of his fist like I was throwing a headbutt, taking the hit completely raw.

Taking it head-on tears a huge chunk out of my HP... but this time, the Goddess of RNG smiles on me.

Bracing myself to deliberately take the blow barely keeps Twinkle Pixie's body in place, both physically and as an in-game presence, and for one brief but undeniable instant, it freezes Prison Breaker in place.

Behold!

The isolated island's Little-Girl-Style Forced Opening Technique... Surprise Face Shield!

Survival Quarter Combat—a technique that works with high probability on anyone except a perverted psycho who doesn't even try to hide his twisted desires!!

Twinkle Pixie: "How does it feel to drive your fist into the left eye of an innocent young girl?"

Prison Breaker: "Wh... wh... What!?"

You left yourself open, Amelia Sullivan.

I've got less than ten percent HP left, but the six rounds I left behind as Dust are all fully charged.

I grab the fist buried in my left eye and leap at him, using the jump to wrench Prison Breaker off balance.

Twinkle Pixie: "Dust to dust—"

A fairy-style submission joint lock, using levitation and an air jump.

I twist and lock the arm of the glowing, half-naked Prison Breaker as he reverts into Cursed Prison, then press Dust's gun against the back of his unprotected head.

Twinkle Pixie: "A parting gift from the demon-possessed and the fairy from another world."

Prison Breaker: "Guh... GAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

One shot. Two. Three. Four.

Muzzle flashes dance, and the Good Bullets hammer his head in rapid, sharp succession.

If this game were rated R18, that might've settled it right there... Too bad. It's rated 15+.

Prison Breaker: "Don't underestimate me!!"

Twinkle Pixie: "Ghk... GAH!?"

I drove him to the point where one more shot would've taken him down.

But that was as far as I got.

As the cursed armor envelops him once again, Twinkle Pixie's body is blasted away... and the final two shots I fire in desperation are knocked aside by a calm defense.

Then a tackle carrying far more emotion than a simple finishing blow sandwiches the fairy's body between the wall and the armor, and all the strength drains out of her...

That's it for me as Pixie.

Good luck, me as Cursed Prison.

[Picture this: a punch you never expected to land connects clean—then the girl you just punched, her face bent at a bizarre angle, flashes you an Original Smile straight out of a horror scene, follows it into a joint lock, and unloads on you point-blank.]