Kei: You can’t!
I leap for Uzuki-san’s sword.
As I lift it, its weight is remarkable.
Just in lifting it with my thin, untrained arms, I immediately begin to tremble.
Trying to lighten it the best I can, I open the vacuum and draw the blade from the sheath.
Nozomi: What can’t I do?
Kei: Using those hands of yours… to oppress her, to hurt her……
As I drop my eyes to the halfway lifted, dangling Ito, in the cold, hard, sharpened blade are reflected a feeble pair of eyes.
Bleary, as if ready to cry even now, those feeble black eyes are the eyes of an herbivore.
Kei: Above all, I can’t allow that!
I firmly wipe at them, lift their corners and fix them ahead with a glare.
Hidden under my closed eyelids, I redraw Uzuki-san’s strong, black gaze, the gaze that captivated me with one look…
Releasing the last of the blade, one swipe. I throw the golden sheath to the floor and take a stance.
Kei: Nozomi-chan… I won’t forgive you!
Even without the weight of the sheath, the heaviness of the steel quivers with a grating sound in my hands.
Nozomi: Without forgiving, what will you do? Swinging around such an unbecoming thing, what could you possibly do?
Kei: I’ll protect Uzuki-san.
That’s why these hands won’t let go.
Starting with the pinky, I gather power in my fingers, gripping the hilt as if to wring it out.
Nozomi: Hmm…… can you really protect her, I wonder?
Kei: I’ll protect her, no matter what!
Nozomi: Can someone as powerless as you protect her?
Kei: I admit that I’m weak, but…
Kei: …I made a promise with her!
Even if I like period dramas, I’ve no idea how to use a sword. Hefting Ito through the air, my swing looks more like something from golf or baseball.
A moonlight-colored gale traces a curve as it slips through the air.
My hands are pulled by Ito’s weight, and my upper body is swept into the momentum.
In their force, my arms try to drag my body with them.
Within these hands, the katana is fearsome, just as likely to wound me as anything else.
Even if I was holding a stick, it would truly hurt if it hit, a giant swing.
Yet, Nozomi-chan doesn’t dodge it. She doesn’t even try.
Imagining the awful sensation of the blade cleaving into flesh, I shut my eyes without thinking.
Why was it? They say to never close your eyes in combat, no matter what…
And so I cut through with the Ito no Tachi.
Kei: What…?
Shuffling my feet as my body staggers, I nervously open my eyes.
Nozomi: Fufu! What is it you find so strange?
Nozomi-chan stands in the same place as before – the place where the Ito no Tachi passed straight through.
Kei: W-why aren’t you hurt?
Nozomi: I suppose you wouldn’t know with your eyes shut. But it’s not like you didn’t wound a single hair on me, you know.
Nozomi: Look…
Nozomi-chan grabs Ito’s blade of her own accord, and shows the proof of her words.
Slipping the gripping palm through it, in the place of spouting blood is born a red light. Exploding like the sparks of toy fireworks, it spreads as a fog and blurs.
Ahh, now I remember…
Even when Uzuki-san cut her before, the enchanted blade passed straight through without any great effect, didn’t it…?
Then, using her ougi, Tama Kezuri, Uzuki-san chased Nozomi-chan’s group away.
In other words, a layperson like me who can’t even swing a sword has no way to deal with this situation, does she?
What do I do… what should I do…
Nozomi: And with that, I’ll go next.
*gunyari*… (condition of strength leaving the body)
The world revolves, spiraling in twisted ripples.
Even knowing it’s her usual suggestion, my consciousness is played for sport. The concentric waves of illusion bring illness.
I slip into vertigo.
I slip into nausea.
My feet lose their hold, quivering. It’s so hard to keep standing.
But I can’t fall. If I fall, I’ll lose the ability to swing Ito, my only option with any effect, no matter how faint.
If that happens, it’s over. Like the predator hunts you see on TV, Nozomi-chan would probably pin me down and sink her fangs in my throat.
The spiraling world brings vertigo.
The rippling earth brings nausea.
There’s no way I can stay standing at this rate.
So, into my trembling leg…
Kei: Aagh!
…I swing Ito, biting in.
The heat and pain spreads thoroughly, carving a strong, concrete sensation into my leg.
Illusion yields to reality. In the end, illusions must disappear before a stronger light, after all.
The feeling of the retreating trembling and whirling inspires the image of poison leaving a wound in the company of blood.
Nozomi: Ahh, what a waste.
It really is a waste. The blood inside of me is low enough as it is.
But, I couldn’t think of any other way, so there was no avoiding it. For such a cliched solution, I couldn’t have done better…
The tension in my lips softens.
What do you know…? I’ve plenty of fight left, after all.
Nozomi: Hey, what makes you able to push yourself so far?
The pain of my leg, so painful it’s hard to stand, holds fast my retreating consciousness.
Just like two minuses add into a plus.
But that’s little more than crossing a dangerously suspended tightrope. If my resistance fails, the situation will be completely reversed.
But, I can still go on.
Kei: Because I made a promise… because I believe in her.
Nozomi: What do you mean, you believe?
Kei: Because Uzuki-san promised she’d protect me… I know she’ll protect me…
Nozomi: The human that’s just sleeping over there? You think she can protect you like that?
Kei: Even so, I promised I’d believe in her!
Kei: So I’m not going to run! Because I’m waiting for her to come and protect me!