Akatsuki Translations

When the drums sounded twice in quick succession, the murmur of the crowd packed into the venue set up in the courtyard abruptly ceased. Bright red and yellow banners hung from various points, and the entire surroundings were decked out in a festive atmosphere.

—It’s become a spectacle.

Seeing the people staring intently at him with drinks and snacks in hand, Ba Ryouki felt a renewed sense of realization. Even if he was revered as the Sword Saint, he had no intention of resting on the laurels of that title. But as a general of a nation, this place was far too vulgar to be called a venue for a serious match. However, it couldn’t be helped since it was the result of the seeds he had sown.

The match he had desired so much. His opponent was brought to the arena with his hands and feet bound, pulled by a rope attached to his waist. As the silver hair characteristic of the northern people swayed in the wind, the audience hurled angry shouts filled with resentment.

The man who had brought him glanced over, as if seeking confirmation. Ba Ryouki nodded in response, and the man untied the restraints on the silver-haired Murakumo soldier, who was a prisoner, and withdrew.

The clear sky had a thin layer of clouds, moderating the intensity of the sunlight. The midday air was dry. The wind blowing above was strong, but here, protected by walls, it was only a gentle breeze. As a day for a match, one could not ask for better conditions.

Ba Ryouki tossed the pair of swords he had been holding. The opponent who caught them showed a hint of bewilderment.

　──His name is…

Sifting through his momentarily stumbling memory, Ba Ryouki called out to his opponent with whom he was about to engage in a duel to the death.

“It was Shuou, wasn’t it?”

“…Yes.”

“I believe I’ve done what I can in my own way. I’m selfishly making you go along with this, but either way, it was a life that would have been lost. There should be no regrets.”

They were words spoken on the premise of victory. Perhaps understanding their meaning, his opponent’s gaze sharpened.

“What happens if I win?”

At those words showing no intention of backing down, Ba Ryouki suppressed the smile threatening to spill out.

“Think about that after you win. We’re from different countries to begin with. I have no obligation to arrange anything beyond that.”

As he drew the sword on his back, Shuou pulled out one of the swords he had received, placing the sheath and the other sword on the ground. Ba Ryouki furrowed his brow.

“No need to hold back. Draw both of them.”

Shuou made an awkward, bitter face.

“I can only use this one.”

“…You’re not lying, are you?”

His opponent’s weapons were twin swords. Both were crafted with the same weight and length, which anyone with some knowledge would assume were intended to be wielded simultaneously.

—It’s a strange story, but…

Although he wanted to know why Shuou had a weapon he couldn’t use at his waist, the time to ask had already passed.

“Very well—”

Holding the long hilt of the treasured sword Iwanawa in his right hand, Ba Ryouki took a stance facing forward. A grandiose, dull sound of percussion instruments resounded. While finding the tasteless performance unpleasant, he focused all his attention on his opponent who had lowered his hips with a sword in hand.

Taking the initiative, Ba Ryouki lunged forward. The closed distance was three steps. A godspeed thrust that shortened all movements pierced the air just as it was about to stab his opponent’s abdomen. Shuou twisted his upper body to dodge, using that momentum to spin his body and aim a feinted slash at Ba Ryouki’s neck.

—Magnificent.

There was persuasiveness in that series of movements. It was not relying on instinct but a calculated action. Incorporating evasion and attack into a single motion, it was not lacking as a lethal blow. However—

—But!

Ba Ryouki stood his ground with all his might, taking a half-step back with his robust lower body. The sweeping slash of the short-bladed sword grazed his long, white beard and was flung into the air. Without delay, both of them immediately took distance.

Exchanging sword strikes without feeling each other out, Ba Ryouki felt as if he had only now truly heard the man’s greeting.

—I saw his method.

His specialty was techniques from a disadvantageous position. Watching and dodging, aiming for a vital point with a single strike before the opponent’s posture could be corrected. It was a method that sought certainty and despised waste, but it was also a considerably dangerous way of fighting. However, there was no strain on his opponent. Without breaking a sweat, he calmly repeated his breathing, staring at Ba Ryouki without blinking.

—There’s something.

He had a premonition. He was overlooking something decisive.

His opponent appeared slender, but there was no instability in his core, and his lower body was also in perfect condition. Looking closely at his overall physique, it was clear that he had been in quite harsh environments. However, none of it exceeded the limits granted to ordinary humans. This man did not possess a sunstone. He was fundamentally different from Ba Ryouki, who enjoyed the blessing of innate physical enhancement.

—What is it?

The ability to effortlessly dodge his own strike, which combined the power to pierce armor and the speed and accuracy to shoot down flying birds. That difference should not have been something that could be compensated for just by training one’s body.

It was clearly different from when they had briefly crossed swords on the battlefield in a near-ambush.

His opponent, who brushed back his fallen bangs with his free hand, was calm. Slightly pursing his slightly open mouth, he stood still, probing Ba Ryouki’s next move.

It felt like challenging an impregnable fortress.

—A way to overcome it.

Ba Ryouki earnestly wished for it. To kill this man, that would be necessary.

He slowly slid his front foot. Testing the waters, he swung up Iwanawa from a lower stance, but his opponent dodged it by slightly leaning back with his right foot lowered. His lack of wasted movement was infuriating.

Only the sound of air being sliced rang out. Ba Ryouki laid the sword that had flowed to the lower left and aimed a horizontal slash at the torso. However, this time it was not a simple strike. The instant the blade was about to reach his opponent, he loosened his grip on the hilt, changing the distance at the same time as the attack, a cunning technique. Although the power would decrease due to the loose grip, it should have been fatal for an opponent whose mindset was to narrowly dodge attacks.

—Got him!

However, the momentary conviction of victory dissipated as his opponent dodged by pulling back his body just enough for the extended tip to miss.

　──Can he see it?

In the mind of Ba Ryouki, who had pulled back to create distance, the simplest answer was circulating. It was not instinct, nor extraordinary strength in his limbs, nor the supernatural power of a sunstone. In other words, he could see it. The preconception that his opponent was one-eyed had completely slipped from Ba Ryouki’s mind, but if the left eye that fiercely proclaimed his fighting spirit excelled at capturing the movement of objects, it would explain each and every one of the divine feats he had accomplished so far.

“The eye, huh?”

As he spoke while maintaining a proper stance, Shuou’s expression clearly flickered with emotion.

His opponent was still young. Even if he excelled in martial arts, he seemed inexperienced in the art of concealing his thoughts. However, thanks to that, Ba Ryouki had obtained the answer. Once he understood, it was simple. Facing an opponent with an unfathomable power was unsettling, but once he knew what they excelled at, he only needed to take countermeasures accordingly. From there, it was truly a contest of strength and skill.

Ba Ryouki leaped towards Shuou, raising his sword high. Knowing it would be dodged, he swung down the sword, and while it followed the expected result, he used the momentum to strike the ground paved with moonstones with the tip of his blade, shattering it.

The treasured sword Iwanawa, known for its toughness to crush rocks and pierce steel, did not suffer even a single chip in its blade even as it shattered the hard stone pavement with Ba Ryouki’s technique and strength.

The ground, smashed by that sturdy treasured sword, cracked in multiple layers, scattering and revealing a miserable sight as it kicked up dust.

Ba Ryouki was wary of a counterattack and had already pulled back his hips. As intended, his opponent lost sight of his prey and withdrew without making a move.

His opponent showed a perplexed expression, but it was understandable. Ba Ryouki’s attacks, which had been aiming for his life with lightning-like sharpness, had suddenly become sluggish and lacked precision. However, this was also part of his plan.

Ba Ryouki continued to raise his sword in the same manner and brought it down on Shuou’s head while smashing the ground. Repeating this several times, in just a brief moment, a treacherous footing with shattered spots scattered about had been created.

Amidst the faintly dark dust swirling around, Shuou, disliking the dirt getting into his eyes, slightly lowered his eyelids that had been wide open until now. Perhaps realizing Ba Ryouki’s intentions, beads of anxious sweat formed on his forehead for the first time.

Ba Ryouki did not miss the opportunity he had created to secure victory. He threw himself into the swirling dust and swung with all his might from a lower stance, aiming for his opponent’s torso. However, he did not think this would finish him off. As expected, Shuou slid his feet and tried to dodge by flowing his body, but his foot got caught on the shattered ground, causing him to lose his balance. Seeing his figure disappear into the dust cloud on his back, Ba Ryouki held Iwanawa in a reverse grip, pointing the long tip towards the ground.

　── A chance for victory!

Putting even more body weight behind his powerful arm, he brought down the sword leaning forward, aiming at his prostrate opponent. However, as his vision slightly cleared, instead of the frightened face of someone awaiting death in an unsightly manner, a ruthless hunter’s gaze awaited its prey in the nest, piercing through Ba Ryouki.

──Damn it!?

The tip of the sword engraved with a wolf’s crest, well-positioned, glinted dully. Ba Ryouki’s sword, greatly deviating from his prediction, was swung down in a completely different direction. From his opponent’s perspective, Ba Ryouki had exposed his vital heart in a defenseless state.

Ba Ryouki discarded all thoughts and distractions. Entrusting himself solely to the movement of his body trying to escape death, he twisted his body while raising one foot in an unreasonable posture. The other foot, burdened with all his weight and momentum, screamed in pain, but at the cost of that agony that could make an ordinary person lose consciousness, he achieved the divine feat of barely dodging the thrust of Shuou’s sword. The twisted body, with an absurd momentum added to it, caused Ba Ryouki to tumble magnificently on the ground.

Amidst a silence so deep that one could almost hear the sound of the watching audience swallowing their saliva, the swirling dust was washed away by a gentle breeze.

In front of Shuou, who stood still with a cool demeanor, Ba Ryouki, who had rolled on the ground in an unsightly manner and was holding his foot, laughed.

“Fu—hya!”

He bared his canine teeth, spilling saliva from the corner of his mouth. It was a vulgar smile that was utterly unfitting for the title of Sword Saint.

“You even resort to underhanded tricks. I thought I had prepared the stage for victory, but to think you saw through everything and instead used it against me. If it weren’t for this body of mine, that would have been the end—”

Surpassing the intense pain, his right ankle, which he had used as support, had already lost sensation, but it was rather convenient for standing. Pressing his chest, his heart was beating violently like a fish brought ashore. It was a truly exhilarating sensation that he had not felt in a long time.

—To think that such a great warrior could remain buried in obscurity.

The opponent, calmly wiping his sweat, stared intently at Ba Ryouki with a gaze honed to the point of ruthlessness. Faced with his demeanor, Ba Ryouki deepened his smile further. While getting up, he grasped a small stone from the ground he had shattered and rubbed it in his hand.

Seeing Ba Ryouki’s injured foot as an opportunity, Shuou took the initiative for the first time. Holding his sword as if to let it flow behind him, he closed the distance and approached. Assaulted by a flash aimed at his throat as if to slash through, Ba Ryouki used the flat of Iwanawa’s blade as a shield to defend against it. For the first time, their weapons overlapped, and a scream of hard metal rang out. At that moment, Ba Ryouki sprinkled the moonstones he had crushed to powder in his left hand onto his opponent’s face.

“Aargh!?”

Shuou let out a groan resembling a scream and retreated, covering his face.

His opponent’s strength relied on his eyes at its core. It was because of his fixation on seeing that he fell for this all too simple cheap trick. However, for someone of Ba Ryouki’s status as a general of a nation, it was an excessively cowardly means in this match he had desired himself.

Ba Ryouki’s action drew a stir from the watching audience.

—Go ahead and laugh.

Ba Ryouki had always thought that many people had misconceptions about him as a person. The Sword Saint who valued propriety and lived by the way of the sword. Such a thing was nothing more than an illusion born from people’s ideals. Like many others, perhaps even his father and mother had misconceptions about him. The fact that Ba Ryouki had not particularly staked his life on wielding a sword.

Aiming at his opponent, who was desperately trying to create distance while rubbing his eyes, Ba Ryouki, regardless of his injured foot, chased after his back with a desperate expression while raising his sword.

—I can win!

That was the purpose he had lived for. Above all, to defeat others, to place their bodies beneath him, and to gain the right to move forward. For him, living meant continuing to win. The sword was a tool for that purpose, and it was simply the object that best embodied that will and fit in his hand.

Shuou fled as if crawling on the ground and came to a standstill in front of a half-missing statue standing in the courtyard.

Thinking of the pleasure and ecstasy that victory would bring, saliva overflowed in Ba Ryouki’s mouth.

His reputation had become a hindrance, and now, when faced with Ba Ryouki, most people would abandon the match. Unable to find equally skilled prey who wielded a sword, he had come to no longer feel sad that the joy of defeating the strong had become something difficult for him to obtain.

—I’m grateful!

He thanked the revered demonic gods for bestowing such a powerful opponent upon his aged self.

Ba Ryouki slashed at his opponent, who had yet to regain his stance, with the sword held in both hands. Shuou, without regard for his appearance, laid his body down and rolled, and Ba Ryouki’s falling sword severed the stone statue behind him from its waist to its base in a single stroke.

It was just a brief moment. However, it gave his opponent enough time to recover. Unable to firmly plant his right foot, which grew more numb with each passing moment, his body slightly flowed with the swung-down sword. Shuou, having regained his vision, shed tears from his bloodshot left eye and slashed at Ba Ryouki’s left neck with the momentum of a gust of wind rising from the bottom of a cliff in a low stance.

“Ngh!”

He deliberately abandoned the choice to flee. Planting his feet, he naturally offered a range to his opponent attacking from the left. He felt a sensation as if cold ice had touched his neck, but relying solely on the feeling that immediately hit his shoulder, he frantically pushed it away in a state of selflessness. There was a definite response.

Looking, Shuou had completely lost his balance and fallen on his back on the ground. Aiming for that opening, Ba Ryouki swung Iwanawa with all his might. A hard sound rang out, and the sword engraved with a wolf’s crest swam through the air and clattered to the ground.

He pressed the blade of his sword against the neck of his opponent, who had become completely defenseless.

There was no voice, no sound. They simply exchanged gazes while breathing heavily.

“KILL HIM!”

The familiar angry shout rang out, shattering the brief silence that had fallen. There was no need to recall; the one who had spat out those ugly words first was undoubtedly A Zan, the man in charge of this Uzumi. After a short interval, low voices began to rise from here and there as if following suit.

“KILL HIM…”

“KILL HIM!”

“FINISH HIM OFF!”

Words with the same meaning rose from all directions, and eventually, they were repeated as a single bundle.

Suddenly, prompted by the pain he felt in his neck, Ba Ryouki touched it. Looking at his palm, which felt lukewarm and slimy, it was thoroughly soaked in bright red fresh blood. Feeling a trembling fear, the blood that had been rushing to his head slowly subsided.

The face of Shuou, who continued to glare at him with reddened eyes, was not that of a loser.

“Silence!”

Ba Ryouki rebuked the grating voices of the audience desiring the loser’s death. Raising his voice to the instantly silenced audience, he shouted.

“I, Ba Ryouki, have lived long, but I have not experienced such a match in a long time! What about you all who have shared this with me?”

The questioned spectators turned their heads left and right, looking at each other and nodding in agreement. From somewhere, applause and cheers filled with the intent of acclamation rose.

Before the commotion could die down, Ba Ryouki immediately raised his voice again.

“A good match is only possible with a worthy opponent! So let me ask again. Does this person deserve to die here?”

The applause stopped, and a murmur arose. Without waiting for an answer, Ba Ryouki continued.

“I would say no! Only by generously sparing the life of this young and strong warrior who staked his life in this match can we of the Southern Mountain Alliance truly claim victory over Murakumo!”

No one answered, and silence enveloped the place. However, from somewhere, small voices began to rise, saying, “That’s right.” People who agreed began to clap their hands, and such an atmosphere spread like ripples. With each blink, it spread like a great swell.

Ba Ryouki withdrew the sword he had placed against Shuou’s neck.

“Stand up.”

Shuou stood up while casting a glance that seemed to want to say something. Aside from his bloodshot eyes, his appearance looked far healthier than Ba Ryouki, who had achieved victory.

“…”

As Shuou was about to open his mouth, Ba Ryouki shook his head to stop him and picked up the wolf-crested sword that had fallen nearby.

“In exchange for your life, I will take this as proof of victory. Take the other one and leave here while everyone is still excited. I will have my subordinates escort you to the outside.”

However, Shuou stood still as if taking root, not making a move. Ba Ryouki shouted at him.

“Hurry!”

Watching Shuou’s back as he went to pick up the sword, bathed in gazes, Ba Ryouki signaled to his subordinate who was waiting nearby with his hand, conveying his intention. After confirming that Shuou had disappeared in the direction of the gate, escorted by a stellar knight of Shanoa, Ba Ryouki pressed his bleeding neck and twisted his face grimly.

The face of his nephew Libi, with whom he made eye contact, looked extremely pale.