Ishura - Volume 8 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15- Border of Old ............ Prefecture

Back when he met Tsukayoshi, Soujirou hadn’t known anything of war.

It was like a living creature being unaware of the air. No one perceived something that naturally surrounded them from birth as a concept in and of itself.

All of the minia and weapons he encountered in his daily life generally greeted him with murder in their eyes, and he thought defeating them was what it meant to live. It may have been fair for Soujirou to refer to Tsukayoshi Yagyuu as his master, in the sense that he corrected this misconception.

“Okay, listen.” This Tsukayoshi Yagyuu said in exasperation. “You really go way too far, Soujirou…”

The memory was from when Soujirou had first cut down an M1 Abrams, while he had still been living in the Beyond.

Debris was piled high on both sides of the road, and he knew that this road was for tanks to pass through, corpses and carcasses violently brushed aside willy-nilly by the heavy machinery.

There a tank was stopped with a deep slash carved into it.

Soujirou’s katana had torn the main battle tank’s armor apart and slain all the passengers inside.

“Cutting up a tank’s just nuts. There’s something off about you, for real.”

“You’re the one who’s weird here. You and that damn wavy outfit of yours. ’Cause of that stupid getup, the enemy’s always picking us out.”

“Huh? My clothes have nothing to do with it. I’m over here trying to stop us from being spotted and you’re always jumping right out in the fight! Why’re you so gung ho about killing people?!”

Even in times like this, Tsukayoshi was obsessed with always wearing the same ratty old casual kimono. He wore a sword despite being unable to fight, he always acted self-important despite being a complete coward, and he was completely, utterly useless.

He claimed to be the last legitimate heir of the Yagyuu Shinkage-ryuu sword style, but Soujirou didn’t even know about any sword style called Yagyuu Shinkage-ryuu to begin with. He couldn’t tell what the truth was, but he figured there was a pretty high chance Tsukayoshi was lying.

“If the other side’s raring to go, what’s wrong with going out to get ’em myself? What else are you wearing the damn sword for, then?”

“Let me tell you, okay? That’s not what Yagyuu’s about, all right?”

Tsukayoshi roughly scratched his head. He seemed to hold some annoying, illogical philosophy when it came to fighting that was necessary for their survival.

“Sekishuusai Yagyuu even says, ‘Knowing one word makes you the master of those who know none. It is not other styles you must defeat. You must surpass the self you were yesterday,’ okay? Basically, it’s better to avoid the fight entirely before you end up crossing swords, and attacking someone yourself is something only the lowest of the low do. Just ’cause you’re a strong martial artist, using that strength just to take down those weaker than you means that you aren’t really all that impressive. I guess, in the end, it’s the guys that can incorporate the areas where someone else excels who get stronger, not the ones that just get the upper hand in the areas where they’re already stronger…”

“Enough already.”

The people that thought over this pointless, boring theory stuff in the middle of a fight must’ve all died in the process.

In a sense, Soujirou could understand now why Tsukayoshi was as weak as he was.

“I’m getting at something here, okay? Even I’ve got my own really talented aspects that you don’t, so I just wish you’d respect that a little bit instead of deciding everything based on whether you can cut it down or not…”

“What, then?”

“……”

“What specifically are you so great at?”

“……”

Tsukayoshi was at a loss for words, and his eyes wandered all over the mountain of debris.

Tsukayoshi Yagyuu was weak. If Soujirou didn’t send their foes packing, there’s no telling how many times the man would have already died by now.

He wasn’t skilled enough with a sword to brag about it. Even setting aside that, when compared to Soujirou, the same could be said for everyone else in the world, Tsukayoshi’s technique didn’t look like anything more than a grown man swinging around a stick with brute force.

“…Oh! Right here!”

Tsukayoshi pulled out a book from the mountain of rubble.

“Okay then, can you read? Your generation never properly learned to read, did it?”

“Nope, I guess I can’t.”

“Well, in any case, one thing is for sure, that when it comes to education, I’ve got a huge leg up on you.”

“Is it useful at all?”

“……”

“From here on out, is reading or writing gonna be useful for anything?”

“I mean…sure it might not, but still!” Tsukayoshi shouted in the uninhabited wasteland and slammed the book to the ground.

In all likelihood, the writing and books of this country were never ever going to be useful for anything again.

All of the nation states of the world were trying to erase the very existence of this country. The terror of the young girl named Shiki Aihara had changed absolutely everything forever.

“Why do you even go on and on ’bout Yagyuu this and Yagyuu that? I told you I don’t care about any of that stuff. Saying the same crap over and over again when a guy doesn’t care about any of it is just being annoying.”

“Why do you care? Not like you’ll listen to me anyway…”

“What’re you sulking for…?”

Soujirou was truly appalled by the attitude of this man over ten years his senior.

He had to make him give up on it forever, or the same thing was likely to play out over and over again.

“Gimme a reason. C’mon. I asked a question, so answer it.”

“I mean… You’re strong, Soujirou.”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

Soujirou was aware of it himself. While slashing up the fighters or missiles flying through the sky was still a bit of a stretch, if he didn’t have to include losing by default to those things, Soujirou had yet to see anything stronger than he was.

“It’s such a waste! Why then aren’t you some grand master swordsman, then?! You’ve got all the strength of the sorta swordsman you hear about in legends and fiction and stuff…anyone would want to be just as strong as you…! Act the damn part at least! Yagyuu swordsmen are super badass, okay?!”

“That’s a super stupid reason…”

Soujirou grew more and more disgusted. With it, he was also fed up with listening to the same meaningless preaching all just to appease some sentimental middle-aged man he wasn’t even related to at all.

“Fine, how ’bout you make an effort to get strong, then? I’ll start by teaching the easy stuff to ya first.”

“N-no way! Your teaching methods are way too dangerous, and there’s nothing easy about it!”

“Who’s the one who was going on ’bout learning from what someone excels at?!”

“Ah-hah! Sekishuusai’s words! If you’re acknowledging what he’s saying, then I’m gonna take that to mean you’ll learn Yagyuu Shinkage-ryuu, thank you very much!”

“So then tell what you’re so damn great at, then?!”

“……”

“Say something, dammit!”

Soujirou the Willow-Sword was wandering through a war-torn city.

This was the same atmosphere as the Beyond. The world where he was born and raised, countless soldiers baring their bloodlust at each other.

While he hadn’t cut down any tanks along the way, he had cut down constructs and carriages.

Some appeared to be part of Aureatia’s army, while others looked to be with some other power.

He didn’t particularly mind. He simply cut down all the foes that sent attacks his way.

“Geh, heh… The ones who avoid fighting are the stronger ones, huh?”

Remembering these words from sometime in the past, he couldn’t suppress a laugh.

Even if using his far greater might to defeat his enemies didn’t lead him to true strength, Soujirou would continue fighting for all eternity.

“No damn way that’s right. You gotta fight… If you don’t, no one’ll know who’s actually stronger…!”

Soujirou wasn’t walking the streets aimlessly.

He hadn’t been completely idle after arriving in Aureatia, nor while he was in the hospital with more free time than he knew what to do with.

Soujirou had some grasp of the city geography. As long as he knew which streets to go down, he could reach the arena.

In the process, he would have to pass through several battlefields, but that was a trivial issue.

Corpses piled up on the edges of the avenues, cars crushed people, gunshots flew this way and that, and explosions went off. This very scene was, to Soujirou, part of a nostalgic way of life.

“I’m gonna fight… Rosclay. You aren’t getting away from me…!”

All these people who had “true strength” for themselves just had to come and face him, then.

Two days before the scheduled day of the tenth match.

Yuno the Distant Talon didn’t go back into the carriage she had shared with Hiroto, instead parting with him in the old town.

Given what she had heard from Hiroto, there was somewhere she needed to go immediately.

Hiroto the Paradox was trying to kill Linaris. This operation was likely to be carried out on the day of the tenth match, too. Something was bound to happen at the mansion where Linaris was on bed rest.

Will I be able to make it there on my own? Aureatia is so vast…but I only barely remember the path to the mansion, and I don’t even know how far public transportation will even take me.

Should Yuno manage to reach the mansion somehow, during these past two days, Hiroto had surely set up something that far outstripped Yuno’s abilities. In the case of both Aureatia, and the Gray-Haired Child, the situation beyond Yuno was beginning to drastically shift.

Expelled from everything that hemmed her in, if she simply waited around, everything would come to an end.

Yuno herself was in a situation almost like Soujirou the Willow-Sword’s.

Will Soujirou…

Hiroto said that he would force the match between Soujirou and Rosclay.

…actually fight in the tenth match?

Even if the match did occur that day, Yuno once again wouldn’t be able to see his fight.

There was some part of her that hoped the match would just get postponed according to Aureatia’s scheming. Seeing the conclusion to the revenge she wanted for herself would have certainly been some salvation to the version of Yuno from that day long past.

However, Yuno now understood it all after seeing Soujirou up close.

Soujirou got heartfelt enjoyment from being able to fight in the Sixways Exhibition.

Nothing about that would change, even if he knew the truth—that she had led him here to kill him.

Yuno gazed at the sky.

He probably always wants to fight.

A peaceful sky, ignorant of everything and anticipating the Sixways Exhibition match.

However, as long as one had the power to remain true to their will, like Hiroto and Soujirou, they could even turn an impossibility like holding a match against Rosclay into a possibility—

“…Wait.”

Then, she suddenly realized.

The schemes Hiroto laid out weren’t from some power of will to never give up.

He was trying to make Rosclay participate in the match, in a more concrete way that gave him no room to escape.

That was why he said a joke like that during his negotiations with the shop owner.

Matters that sounded like jokes, even to someone with full knowledge of Hiroto’s intentions, like Yuno, would actually happen.

Assuming…that is the case… Even so…!

That scheme wouldn’t be made into a reality. There was a decisive hole in the plan.

Which was why, even someone who knew Soujirou like Yuno did, hadn’t noticed up until that very moment.

It may have been nothing more than a spark of unpredictability.

Yet, Yuno the Distant Talon had, without a doubt, through her own strength, touched on part of a shura’s line of thought.

“Soujirou… Soujirou is going to have his match!”

Of course. To Soujirou the Willow-Sword, Yuno’s talk of revenge had nothing to do with him at all.

Having the shura who wished for battle more than anyone else end without any fight at all was something that could not come to pass.

Yuno had wanted to make Soujirou fight.

She needed to head out to save Linaris’s life without a moment’s delay.

As such, there wasn’t very much she could do in order to make Soujirou battle.

Yuno had to have already possessed the information she needed to lead her to the answer. Could she give him that answer without letting anyone else catch on?

“…Soujirou! Until I see the end with my own eyes…”

First, Yuno scratched a mark into a nearby fence.

A mark etched by Yuno’s sharpened arrowhead.

“…you can’t lose and die yet, you hear me?!”