Translator: Ranzan

  Their connected lips separated.

  Their connected eyes didn’t.

  In front of him was the same strange beauty.

  Pure white, jet black.

  Sharp as a tempered blade, strange as a fluttering ray of sunshine.

  He looked on her.

  A girl with no ability to reply. The barbary of his lips opened up a moment of silence between them.

  After a moment, she opened those well-shaped lips silently to speak.

  「That was…my first.」


  「Wha?」


  「My first…」


  「…」


  Taiyou swallowed those words.

  Her first…her first kiss.

  His mind became gleeful after hearing her admit that to him.

  A strange delusion, and an arbitrary request.

  Those two things blossomed rose-colored inside of his mind.

  Maybe…just maybe…that request he would make could happen.

  However, that was the end of that story.

  Shirokiyami simply looked at him silently, and he could see that she hadn’t completely understood what had happened.

  In the air flew a red colored fairy.

  「Some-thing…is there.」


  「Yeah…oh! That’s Hera.」


  「She’s al-ways…been there?」


  「Yeah. She can fly even with broken wings, and you’ve seen us watch her countless times yourself. That was always her.」


  「Your power…too?」


  Taiyou nodded.

  「The power…that messed up your brain…too?」


  「Don’t say my brain’s messed up!」


  He yelled at her, and then cleared his throat and nodded.

  「Yeah, I got all of my power from her.」


  「Natsuno-kun!」


  Aoba shouted, and he somewhat knew what it was about, but raised his hand to stop her.

  No matter what anyone said, Taiyo’s power…all the power that he had came completely from Hera.

  「I…see.」


  「That’s why I wanted to stop her.」


  As soon as he said that, he fell down prostrate on his hands and knees.

  In a request.

  He could feel Aoba swallow her words above him. That meant nothing to him now, as he bowed his head to Shirokiyami and begged for her help.

  「…」


  In an instant, his sensation from there was gone.

  When he raised his head, he saw a white apparition floating.

  Its legs weren’t on the ground, nor was it moving quickly.

  It was a heavenly woman. It seemed to have wings from its back as it turned to face Hera and Shirokiyami.

  In the confusion, Shirokiyami unsheathed Gyakuten.

  From its sheath it flashed in a strike too fast for the eyes……

  It struck the red fairy directly, and sent it flying.

  There was no sound or shock.

  An attack so fast that it might make others turn their heads and wonder if something had happened.

  They all looked at an unexpected incident as they held their breath.

  A swordfighter had engraved a slice in the wall, damage that told the story of a great battle.

  From one side of the wall to the other, there were a diagonal strikes, stories of a sword fight.

  Immediately after, the building shifted. A creaking sound rose up and the upper half of the wall began sliding and fell from the diagonal slash there.

  It was an attack with no past comparison.

  Anger.

  And in that attack, Taiyou could feel that anger.

  「Sorry.」


  「It’s…fine.」


  「No, I really am sorry.」


  「Instead of…that…you want to stop…that, right?」


  「Oh…yeah.」


  「I see…then I’ll…stop it. But my secret tech-nique didn’t work.」


  「That was a secret technique?!」


  「She cut through the building, after all.」


  Aoba muttered in a shocked tone…and sounding a bit puzzled too.

  They could understand it was her secret technique, as the building itself was cut up, slid and fell in a strange looking scene.

  To the contrary, it was surprising as a quick jab.

  A secret technique that huge…that didn’t work. Hera returned silently after being knocked away.

  「Taiyou…chan…a new…face…desu.」


  「You need to…take care of yourself.」


  A comment like that at a time like this.

  Even with a response like this, Taiyou could smell something sour.

  Hera began flying quicker back to Taiyou with no look at any of the others there.

  Also, Shirokiyami had cut Hera back with a strong slash. You could see it was a long, sweeping cut from the wall behind, but Hera came back without any damage.

  「She even…fell back when I cut…her.」


  「I was told that she can only take damage from me.」


  「Oh…」


  「A strange thing though. You can physically hit her, but she can’t take any damage.」


  「I guess that’s why you can call her the joker.」


  「…geez, what should we do? I can’t go easy on her, and if anyone else attacks her, she doesn’t get a scratch.」


  「It’s…fine…」


  Shirokiyama nodded and walked forwards. You could see confidence in her face.

  「What are you going to do?」


  「Another 『Hakutei-hachirin』.」


  As soon as she said that, she cut Hera again with her 「Gyakuten」.

  She followed Hera bouncing along the ground, and cut her again.

  The same scene occurred as before, a one-person rally.

  After eight slashes at her, the last strike hit the ground.

  Of course, Hera flew around not damaged by this at all.

  「Impossible, I guess.」


  Taiyou’s head hung.

  「No…look.」


  「Wha? What do you mean?」


  「The eight…cut.」


  「What do you mean, the eighth cut?!」


  He reacted in amazement as the girl frowned back at him.

  He remembered how strongly he had kissed her, and felt a bit guilty.

  Without thinking, for a different reason, he was going to fall prostrate in apology.

  But Aoba stopped him before he could.

  「Natsuno-kun, maybe something…」


  She said as she continued staring at Hera.

  「Is the red light coming from Hera, getting weaker?」


  「What?」


  He jolted and looked at Hera.

  Shirokiyami looked at Hera too after Aoba’s remark.

  It was hard to see at first, but after staring for a while, they watched the red light from Hera pulsate weaker and weaker.

  「So the power she took is getting weaker?」


  「Power…she…took?」


  Quietly, Shirokiyami turned her head to ask.

  「Yeah, I don’t know the reason, but the thing she had before. She was hit by it and drew some kind of power, and it became power for her, somehow. I guess the words for it is…life…or spirit, something like that.」


  「I…see.」


  She nodded slightly and said,

  「A magic…blade.」


  「A magic blade…it does seem something like that.」


  「So…a measure…of last re-sort.」


  「Last resort?」


  「Yes, against the magic…blade.」


  After she whispered this, Shirokiyami walked forward and began her one-person rally again.

  The same way, the same rally, and both returned.

  Hera was at her wit’s end as Shirokiyami slashed away at her again.

  Even more than eight time, never hitting the ground, the rally continued and seemed that t would go on forever.

  Sometimes you could hear shouting, but not anything from damage.

  They would have seen whomever it was cut to ribbons if it were anyone but Hera.

  Shirokiyami continued slashing with a whuff, whup, whuff, whup.

  Changes eventually occurred.

  The red color emanating from Hera was now fading bit by bit.

  It began to dull and the pulsation disappeared.

  After this, Taiyou finally realized what Shirokiyami was doing and felt relief.

  Dozens of minutes passed, and the broken sword finally dropped out of Hera, who now no longer shone red.

  Just before it hit the ground, Shirokiyami kicked it and slashed at it endlessly in the air, cutting it into powder.

  After all this was finished, Taiyou said,

  「Don’t move, I’m going to strike.」


  「Wha?!」


  「With a punch.」


  「You have no mercy, Natsuno-kun.」


  With this, Taiyou finally felt that everything was finished.