Volume 4, 29: Seeing Through the Lies

Volume 4, Chapter 29: Seeing Through the Lies

There is no need to see through a lie

But there is also no need to permit an empty falsehood

See through those in order to save something

Sayama moved through the moonlit clearing.

His left hand, the hand that once formed a fist, now held Georgius and a sword.

He felt a slight phantom pain from the scars on his fist, but it was small enough to put up with.

He stepped forward.

He swung the sword toward Atsuta.

Atsuta evaded by bending his body to the right.

He swung Futsuno horizontally.

That was when covering fire came from behind Sayama.

Shinjou fired three shots of light from her staff. They flew toward Atsuta with both vertical and horizontal gaps.

And they hit. Or they should have.

Sayama saw Atsuta alter Futsuno’s path.

The sword heading horizontally toward Sayama suddenly shot up vertically.

The blade’s path drew a fan shape and moved to the man’s right side.

Rotating the large blade produced a certain result.

The light fired by Shinjou flew past Atsuta.

“…”

Sayama heard Shinjou gasp.

But he had expected this. And he had already taken his next action.

Atsuta dropped the sword down from the right, so his left side was wide open.

And so Sayama swung in the silver arc in his left hand.

Atsuta smiled bitterly.

“You have good instincts. Where were you taught?”

Part of the training at the Hiba Dojo included techniques to stand up to a swinging blade. Sayama used those techniques to move up to Atsuta in an instant as the man’s blade sliced through the air.

Atsuta moved back.

Sayama only heard a single footstep, but the man quickly moved back a large distance.

In an instant, he created a space of about five meters between them and Sayama’s blade sliced through air.

There was a gap between them now.

“…”

They both prepared their next stances at the same time.

Sayama prepared to charge in.

He wanted to move straight forward.

And in that instant, Atsuta suddenly spoke.

“I think that’s about enough warming up.”

Then he vanished.

Or rather, Sayama was no longer able to perceive him.

“!”

This was the Art of Walking.

Kazami held G-Sp2 as she ran.

She was fifteen meters from her opponent. She needed to instantly bring that down to zero.

As the wings on her back produced wind, she literally flew forward.

She moved quickly.

And her high-speed movement brought the trees of the forest toward her.

Her tension had narrowed her vision, so she perceived the trees rushing toward her as shadows.

Straight, right, and right.

Then she forcibly corrected her path to the left.

“…!”

She lightly flapped her wings and stepped on the ground.

The combination of the two actions supported her movements.

She moved so quickly that it swept away her sweat in an instant.

Simply flapping her wings would launch her forward.

While moving so swiftly, she could only rely on her own senses.

…And my name.

Kazami Chisato.

As Kazami, her eyes read the wind. As Chisato, her running feet covered great distances.

The distance was down to five meters.

A single light came from ahead.

But it did not matter. She tilted her head to the side and it flew past her cheek.

“And I keep running!”

She did not stop her movements or lessen her focus. She simply continued her acceleration to the end.

“Go!”

Her feet produced the white steam of an atmospheric explosion and she blasted her body forward.

She flew.

But not into the heavens. She flew forward.

At high speed, she slipped between the last trees and covered the last bit of distance.

At the same time, light arrived before her eyes.

It was an aimed shot of moonlight. As a counterattack, it had been fired at almost point blank range.

“!”

But Kazami did not hesitate.

She swung up G-Sp2 and thrust it forward

The Cowling Spear stabbed through the air and collided with the light while wrapped in a white steam.

She could feel it hit.

A white noise burst and the light scattered in every direction.

And she looked beyond it.

If she continued forward and blew away Tsukuyomi, they would win.

However…

“She’s gone!?”

Beyond the scattered light, Tsukuyomi was nowhere to be seen.

Or rather, Kazami could not perceive her.

“Chisato!”

Izumo’s voice caused her to tremble.

Before she could even think the term “Art of Walking”, she stopped breathing and stiffened.

There was one way to break through 2nd-Gear’s Art of Walking which worked by syncing with one’s opponent.

…Intentionally disrupt your heart rate and such to break the sync!

She had succeeded doing so against Izumo on the rooftop the night before.

She held her breath, gathered strength to encourage the flow of blood, and widened the focus of her vision.

“…There!”

Right in front of her, Tsukuyomi held her large bow with an expression of exhaustion.

But the lost instant had been too much.

Tsukuyomi had already twisted her body around and avoided the attack.

She leaped out of the forest.

Meanwhile, Kazami flew out of the forest and right past her.

The river lay ahead of her.

The flowing water was only about five meters wide, but it was plenty large to bathe in the moonlight.

As she cautiously viewed Tsukuyomi’s stance, she gasped.

As she fell toward the river, she saw Tsukuyomi head toward the river and aim the bow up toward the sky.

“After firing so much, you can’t possibly have charged up any…”

Her shout of protest trailed off when she saw the truth before her eyes.

As Tsukuyomi drew the bow with her right arm, the center of the bowstring was wrapped around the elbow.

That elbow drew the bow tightly.

The bowstring sank into her skin to the point that blood dripped down.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been drawing the bowstring with your elbow this entire time!”

“I’ve been shooting at you by plucking the half of the bowstring above my elbow. The entire time in the forest, I’ve been charging up using my elbow.”

Just as the old woman spoke, Kazami and Tsukuyomi both landed in the river.

They were approximately five meters apart.

Tsukuyomi stood on the riverbed, but Kazami’s stance had collapsed.

She fell to the riverbed as if rolling forward and she thrust her hands into the water to catch herself.

She frantically got up while looking up at Tsukuyomi.

“You put up a good effort. I’ll give you that.”

The old woman nodded and fired the bow into the sky.

The vibration caused the blood on her arm to scatter and the air was dyed faintly red.

In the next moment, light fell from the sky. And this light was much larger than any the bow had produced before.

It fell toward Kazami in an instant.

Atsuta moved forward.

The two people standing before him were not looking at him and were hesitant to move.

Their eyes moved slightly, but their gazes were wandering aimlessly.

That showed that his Art of Walking was working.

He suddenly looked down at his right hand.

Behind him and to the right, Kashima stood in front of the pier while operating his laptop. Atsuta felt as if water was tilting within Futsuno as he held it. This was due to Kashima distributing its weight in real time.

“Don’t get too serious, Kashima. It’s already time to finish them off.”

“I’m close to drawing up a pattern. Plus, I want data on slow movements like this as well as normal combat.”

“I want a fast sports car, not a Royal Saloon that’s only worthwhile at low speeds.”

“An engineer should want stability during both heavy usage and light usage.”

“Is that so?”

Atsuta’s shoulders drooped and he walked up to Sayama.

He was about three meters away. Sayama would need to take two steps to attack with his sword, but Futsuno’s reach only required a single step.

Atsuta stepped forward, but then he stopped.

He did not attack.

After a slight moment of irritation, he spoke.

“Now, then. Getting in a good attack and making you bow down to me naked would be nice, but someone as wise as me is concerned about one thing.” Confidence filled his voice. “Sayama Mikoto. As the representative of the Leviathan Road, I highly doubt you haven’t analyzed our Art of Walking.”

Sayama heard Atsuta speak.

He had already seen through the man’s Art of Walking.

He had seen a portion of the man’s ability in the cafeteria and he had realized the principle behind the Art of Walking when Ryuutetsu had thrown him.

The Art of Walking was a difficult technique to use, but it was very simple to break once you knew the principle behind it.

He had only needed to feign falling victim to it and counterattack once Atsuta approached.

But Atsuta gave an exaggerated shake of the head.

“For example, you could break free by holding your breath the instant you failed to perceive me. That would destroy the sync,” he said. “But I’m not going to bother to check whether you’ve done that.”

He held up Futsuno.

His expression made it clear he was no longer playing around. And his voice contained no hint of ridicule.

“Listen, Sayama. Cut the act and fight me.”

Sayama maintained his silence.

He could not determine what Atsuta was trying to do.

He could not even tell if Atsuta knew he had broken the Art of Walking or if he was only testing.

But then Atsuta gave him the answer.

“Ryouko trusts you. There’s no way someone like that wouldn’t break free of my Art of Walking.”

Sayama gasped.

“…”

And he straightened up. As he did, he heard Shinjou gasp behind him.

But he did not care. He faced Atsuta and spoke.

“Sword gods have become quite sentimental these days.”

“I’m grateful.” Atsuta held up Futsuno. “Let’s have a proper fight, ladies’ man. Unlike just now, I’ll use an Art of Walking tailored especially for you. Try breaking free of that and attacking me.”

“An Art of Walking tailored especially for me?”

Atsuta tightened his grip on Futsuno.

“It’s simple. I force you into sync with me. In other words, I control your body.”

“You cannot control my-…”

“Oh, yes I can. With you, I can.”

“With me?”

What is he going to do? wondered Sayama.

Atsuta’s next comment seemed to be in response to his thoughts.

“Well? You want me to tell you, don’t you? You want to know what words I can use to control your body.” He tilted his head. “Hadn’t you ever wondered why exactly Ryouko trusts you?”

“I have. It is a bit of a mystery why Ryouko has such a high opinion of me.”

Atsuta stepped forward and raised Futsuno above his head.

“I’ll tell you,” he said expressionlessly. “I heard her talk about him so many times. She said your father was kind and smart. I heard her say there was no problem he couldn’t solve. That is how she felt about your Sayama Asagi, your father!”

Sayama suddenly heard his father’s name.

He had expected to hear something about himself, but that name stabbed at him instead.

“!”

That single name brought a reflexive scream to the left side of his chest.

He instinctually bent over from the pain and Atsuta shouted out as if providing the finishing blow.

“She once delightedly told me that his son was exactly like him!”

His words called in the past.

For just an instant, he recalled his father.

…Not good!

His rejecting will outdid the memories.

He knew even less of that existence than of his mother and he had sealed the memories deep in his heart. These references to him brought a squeezing pain to his chest. The pain was intense.

“…Kh.”

His voice leaked from his throat as if his lungs were being crushed.

“Does it hurt? That pain is how I will control you!”

At the same time, Atsuta vanished from his perception.

The man had stepped into his pain.

For a moment, he entered his memories and wondered if his father was truly the kind of person Ryouko said he was, but then he turned his thoughts to the present.

…Those are indeed words which can control my body.

As he doubled over, he heard Atsuta’s voice.

“It’s too bad, Sayama’s brat. Ryouko has a lot of issues…but she doesn’t lie! You did well, but that ends here!”

As he spoke, Atsuta truly vanished.

Moonlight fell from the sky and toward the forest river.

Tsukuyomi faced her prey while standing in the river with the water up to her knees.

That prey was Kazami.

She was one of the two main vanguard members of Team Leviathan. Two years prior, she had been caught in the middle of a battle started by 6th-Gear remnants attacking a Concept Core transport. As a result, she had become the master of G-Sp and X-Wi.

It had been Tsukuyomi and the development department that had altered G-Sp into G-Sp2 for her and fine-tuned X-Wi.

…You are something like a daughter to us.

“Which means we need you to be able to turn back the power of this light.”

But Kazami was currently on her hands and knees in the river and she could not move. She would be unable to read the wind now. The wings of light growing from her back were dim and beginning to vanish.

“In that case…” replied someone else.

It was Izumo. He charged from the forest and leaped toward Kazami’s back.

While in midair, he held his sword down and opened his mouth.

“Ah!”

He cried out and launched an attack just as he landed in the river.

It is useless, thought Tsukuyomi.

She knew V-Sw’s abilities by heart.

…Using its first form is not enough to defeat the falling moonlight.

What were they going to do? Were they simply going to use their weapons as tools of power?

Immediately afterwards, Izumo shouted out and shattered Tsukuyomi’s thoughts.

“Ahhhhh!!”

As he let out a roar, he swung V-Sw up from below.

But he was not targeting the moonlight.

“The water!?”

As Tsukuyomi watched, a great splash rose up behind Kazami.

The strike had used the full power of the weapon’s first form, so it thoroughly swept up the river’s water.

It produced a reverse waterfall.

And Izumo shouted loud enough to be heard over the din of water.

“Chisato! Quit pointing your ass at me and raise your wings!”

Kazami raised her head.

She looked into the sky and saw the falling pillar of moonlight.

Tsukuyomi also watched the moonlight as it arrived directly above them and…

“Into the spray…”

The water Izumo had sent into the air struck the light.

The collision between moonlight and water lasted an instant.

But it did not produce destruction. It did not produce an explosion, a shockwave, or collapse.

It produced harmony.

It was water and light. The great amount of airborne water reflected the moonlight, took it inside, reflected it inside itself, and scattered it everywhere.

The moonlight danced through the sky.

And Tsukuyomi saw Kazami crouch down below the water and light.

Her expression could now be described as an acute angle and a voice escaped her throat.

“Thanks, Kaku.”

And with that, she formed a smile and light shot from the two wings stretching up from her back.

The concept activated.

—Light is power.

In an instant, her wings of light grew past two meters in length and they did not stop here.

They took in the moonlight.

“This power…is the same!”

The wings responded to Kazami’s shout. As they rose up into the sky, they stabbed into the glowing water and absorbed the light that had been scattered by that water.

With a soaring sound, the wings twisted as if shuddering in agony and they continued to grow while absorbing the surrounding moonlight.

The light vanished as the wings swallowed it all.

And wings measuring about dozen meters appeared in its place.

Atsuta stepped forward.

His slight deviation from the sync was as perfect as ever.

Intense pain was the easiest sensation to grasp.

A single pain great enough to fill the entire body was enough to take over every sense in one’s body.

He now only had to attack.

It was a mock battle, his blade had a cowling over it, and both Kashima and Tsukuyomi had told him not to kill, but he would still beat the boy with the mass of metal until he could no longer fight.

“Don’t hold it against me, Ryouko!” he shouted as he swung down Futsuno.

Sayama was doubled over in front of him. It almost looked like the boy was bowing to him.

It gave him a nice feeling.

All that remained was to smash Sayama’s body with Futsuno.

“…”

But Sayama suddenly moved.

As Atsuta watched, the boy opened his right hand and grabbed the left side of his chest.

Before Atsuta could wonder what he was going to do, Sayama spoke.

“I have remembered my father! It is not much!” He clenched his teeth until they creaked, but he continued on. “But it is still more than you know!!”

He stood up.

He used his full strength as if breaking free of his bonds.

He relied fully on strength like a struggling child.

He wrinkled his brow and his expression twisted, but he truly faced Atsuta.

He had broken free of the Art of Walking tailored specifically to him.

How? wondered Atsuta with a frown.

“I can give myself even more pain than you can give me!” shouted Sayama. “I can do so using a past you know nothing about!”

He looked up into the sky and raised his voice.

“Everyone!”

He took a breath.

“It is time to settle this!”

As Sibyl sang on the grassy plain, she heard a voice from the direction of Susaou.

“As we use even the past to bring victory, let us begin the true negotiation.”

As Ooshiro focused on firing beams, he heard Sayama over the communicator.

“Listen, everyone! Gather your will into your surname and draw the meaning of your birth from your given name. Tonight, we ask our questions with our birthplace in hand. Are you listening!?” As Ooki worked with the others to fire Boldman, she turned toward Susaou and narrowed her eyes in a smile.

“Understanding, peace, reconciliation, and everything else will come later! We must knock some sense into those who wish for the status quo and teach them what it is like to cry out and struggle to break free of the status quo!”

As she watched wings of light develop before her, Tsukuyomi heard a single voice.

“I, Sayama Mikoto, make this announcement with my authority as Team Leviathan’s representative. We will face destruction as a whole. We will not yield to any past. We will recall everything and see what lies ahead of it all. And we will remain together until the end!”

He took a breath.

“This is an order. All team members, advance on them. And make sure to bring them back even if you have to beat them into submission. Bring them back to a world of more than just names. Force the past into these name-obsessed people’s hands and kick them out of their peaceful bed!”

Before Tsukuyomi’s eyes, Kazami’s giant wings had finished their rise into the night sky. They pierced through the forest and the night.

Meanwhile, the water had lost its light, so gravity dragged it down.

“…!”

A single strike from the moonlight wings caused the water to burst and become a mist.

And a question arrived from the direction of Susaou.

“Where is your response?”

While bent over with her wings facing the heavens, Kazami opened her mouth.

She gave a single word in response.

Behind her, Izumo shouted the same word.

“Testament!”

Sayama heard the word testament.

It came from beyond the forest, within the forest, and from the sky.

Testament, testament, testament.

It had already gone beyond Team Leviathan. Members of 2nd-Gear had joined in.

I see, thought Sayama. This is quite pleasant.

He began to understand what it was they wanted.

“The only conclusion we desire is victory!” he shouted before taking action.

Pain still filled his body, but he could move while driving away the pain.

As Futsuno flew in before his eyes, he jumped backwards.

He poured all his strength into this evasive leap.

And once his feet hit the ground…

“!”

He threw his body forward.

As he leaped, he drew and struck with his sword.

The silver line raced toward Atsuta.

“…!”

After swinging Futsuno down to the ground, the man swept it upwards.

He intercepted the strike from below.

But he did not make it in time. He had tried to cut the blade, but deflecting it upwards was the most he could manage.

The blade with a Low-Gear name struck the blade with a 2nd-Gear name and a metallic noise rang out.

Sparks flew and illuminated the two sword wielders.

Atsuta then moved back.

He created a gap of five meters. At that comfortable distance, he prepared his stance once more.

Meanwhile, Sayama remained in the stance he had landed in. He clicked his tongue once as he watched Atsuta.

He had failed to defeat the man.

…If I do not get an attack in soon…

The pain in his chest was taking over his body now that he had stopped moving.

The pain he had used to break the bonds of the Art of Walking was becoming a new set of chains.

Atsuta no longer spoke. Nor did he move forward.

He held Futsuno up in both hands.

“…!”

And he suddenly swung it down.

He was using Futsuno’s cutting ability to cut through everything in range of the sword’s pressure.

“This is a shameful method for a sword god, but it’s the only way to ensure victory!”

The blade sliced through the air and stabbed into the ground.

With a roar of the ground being struck, a change occurred.

A shimmering appeared from Futsuno to a few hundred meters behind Sayama.

This was the advanced notice of Futsuno’s explosive strength. It was the initial stage of the blade slicing through everything.

“Go, Futsuno! Use your slicing blade to cut through Mikoto!! Cut through his life!!”

An instant later, Sayama saw the explosion of the sword god’s strength.

A bursting sound reached him.

But he also heard a voice amid it all.

“Sayama-kun!”

It was Shinjou’s voice.

Shinjou moved within the shimmering.

She suddenly remembered when she had first met Sayama.

When faced with the werewolf, she had been unable to do anything and it had put him in danger.

…How long will I be dragging him down?

She felt this was something she would never be able to forget. And if she did forget it…

…I wouldn’t be able to save him.

She asked herself what she should do now.

She knew the answer.

And so gave voice to her words of self-understanding. She spoke so she could hear it.

“Concepts of 2nd-Gear! Earth, air, and sky that provide power to names!”

She held up the staff resting on her shoulder and faced forward. She faced Sayama’s back.

His back remained motionless as if waiting for her words, so she spoke.

“In accordance with my name, I reject the cutting power that is trying to cut through Sayama Mikoto!”

Accept it, she thought. You are no longer Sadame or Setsu. Accept your true name once more.

“My name, Sadagiri, does not cut away life,” she shouted. “It cuts away the bonds of destiny, freeing life!”

As she spoke, she pressed the trigger button.

A light appeared.

It was a straight beam of light that possessed seemingly unending force.

The light was fired from Ex-St as it rested on her shoulder. That was the cannon with the name Tiger Star.

“…!”

With a metal roar, the recoil knocked Shinjou backwards and a clear noise rang out.

The front portion of Ex-St broke.

In response to its master’s will, the machine readily destroyed itself.

With the sound of a metallic explosion, Shinjou’s body was blown backwards.

But the light flew forward.

The white light formed an arc and struck Futsuno’s cutting power head on.

As the light crushed each consecutive slice, it produced a sound resembling a bombing.

A clear sound and a deep sound struck the air.

The light continued forward.

As the cutting power attempted to expand over a wider area, the light kept it in its compressed form, broke through it, and continued on.

And the light struck Futsuno.

A high-pitched noise reverberated through the air and Futsuno flew through the sky.

The blade that symbolized 2nd-Gear’s current form slowly, slowly rotated as it flew up into the sky.

In the forest river, Tsukuyomi saw Kazami disappear.

No, she had not disappeared. She had flown.

In just an instant, she had flown up into the heavens.

Tsukuyomi looked up into the sky.

Two wings were visible in the night sky which was filled with named stars.

They were moonlight wings. They beat the sky and seemed to bounce back toward her.

Tsukuyomi looked at the wings flying directly toward her and the spear travelling with them.

“Testament, hm?”

She smiled.

As she realized that expression contained no hesitation or error, she aimed her large bow into the sky.

She aimed overhead, past the approaching wings and spear.

She targeted the orb with her name and released the bowstring from her bloody fingertips.

After a bursting, high-pitched noise filled the night sky, the one bearing the conclusion flew down.

Kashima saw one object in the sky.

Floating in the moonlit night sky was a falling and rotating sword.

As he observed its shape, he noticed something about the cowling covering the blade.

…It’s gone.

The shot from the girl named Shinjou had knocked the cowling away, leaving the steel-colored blade exposed.

He watched the curve of that metal arc reflect the moonlight.

…This is dangerous. It could bounce off the ground and hit someone.

He was from a military god family, so he was used to handling dangerous things.

With that in mind, he reached his hand out overhead. The sword fell into his open right hand.

The chill, weight, and reliability of steel entered his hand all at once.

“Oops,” he said as he dropped his laptop.

The laptop bounced off the weeds once and the LCD monitor faced him.

For an instant, he could not decide whether to prioritize the sword to the right or the laptop to the left.

A window opened on the laptop screen.

The shock of the fall must have hit the mouse button.

And something appeared on the screen.

“A video…”

It showed his home on a sunny day. In front of the doll stand in the yard, a woman held a baby.

The camera was zoomed in on the child, but the child did not understand what was before her.

She merely faced the camera.

And as she faced the camera and everything behind it, she smiled and spoke.

The speakers were not activated, so he could not hear her voice.

But he could read the child’s lips and he had seen the video countless times before.

He knew exactly what she was saying. The baby had said the following.

“Ah.”

And then she had opened her mouth again.

“Ah.”

She repeated herself.

What had she meant by “ah, ah”?

The camera pulled back and showed the woman holding the child.

The woman’s short hair shook and she gave a surprised look.

But then she formed a smile and opened her mouth.

Kashima remembered what she had said as well.

“Do you think she meant ‘papa’?”

He tried to remember what he had said.

…She might have said ‘mama’.

That might have been it. But it might not have. He may have been beautifying the important parts.

He smiled bitterly and looked at Futsuno in his right hand.

…I can’t feel Futsuno’s weight.

As he wondered why, he realized he did not need to ask why.

“I am a man of 2nd-Gear and I have remembered my power as one. …That is why.”

He nodded.

“The surname Kashima indicates a military god.”

He gathered strength in his right hand and looked down.

In the laptop window, the woman faced the camera and waved while still holding the baby. She waved with her left hand which lacked two fingers.

The video ended and the window closed.

Kashima faced forward and saw Atsuta looking his way as he stood empty-handed on the weed-covered clearing.

“Are you done with the family videos? Then go deal with them.”

Atsuta used his chin to point to the right.

Two people stood in that direction.

Sayama and Shinjou.

They stood next to each other, but Sayama had drawn the sword at his waist.

And so Kashima asked a question in a carefree and inviting tone.

“Shall we go settle this?”

He held up Futsuno and pointed the tip toward Sayama.

Shinjou looked at Sayama with the ends of her eyebrows lowered.

Kashima read the emotion there and understood their connection.

And so he spoke.

“Susanoo slays the serpent and marries the princess. Is that it?”

“It is too soon for that. Eight dragons still await after this. The marriage will have to wait a while.”

Sayama’s comment caused Shinjou to blush.

She then seemed to realize something, so she faced the sword in Sayama’s hand.

“Sayama-kun, can I see that sword for a moment?”

“What is it?”

“Just a protective charm.”

She held the sword and slowly cut off a tuft of her hair.

She let out a breath and held the hair.

“Sorry if you find this creepy, but this is a type of good luck charm, right?”

She then lightly tied the hair to the sword and Sayama’s left hand.

Kashima interpreted it as a type of shimenawa.

“That should suffice,” he said. “The hair of someone with the name Sadagiri should give the sword the protection of that name.”

It would be difficult to cut through it even with Futsuno.

Sayama gave a testing swing of the sword and faced Kashima.

“I would like to keep Shinjou-kun by my side during this battle. Would that be acceptable?”

“Go right ahead.”

Right now, he always had his wife and child with him in a way.

“But if something happens to her, the responsibility lies with you.”

“Of course. And as long as it is Shinjou-kun, even a corpse is fine by me.”

Sayama then asked him a question.

“What about you?”

“I don’t think I’d like that…”

“Heh heh heh. Then I win this round. Rejoice, Shinjou-kun! …What is with that look?”

“D-don’t say you win if I die!”

What a strange Susanoo and princess, thought Kashima with a bitter smile. I wonder how strange a Yamato Takeru and princess we are?

But he erased his own smile and held up Futsuno.

He was from a military god family. The sword he held would tell him how to wield it.

In his hands, the almost perfectly tuned Futsuno would be a powerful weapon indeed.

“Let’s begin, bearer of the Leviathan Road. Let’s walk down the road of battle that leads to the conclusion.”

“Yes, I shall take Totsuka and answer Yamata’s question.”

“Can you do it?” asked Kashima. “If so, then decide what lies ahead once we break free of the status quo. Is it Low-Gear or 2nd-Gear? Is it the truth or lies? Or…is it something else entirely!?”