ch341-ch360 · 344-ch344

Chapter 344: The Ceaseless Hell

Maybe I've died.

That's what I've come to think.

If this place is hell, everything makes sense.

I'm atoning for my sins, dying over and over here......

"Ah, it's Kasumi-san. Shall we dance—?"

Lately......

Every time I die, I go back and it starts again right away, so I've lost all track of how much time has passed.

A week? A month? A year? Each death resets me to the center of the spotlight, and my sense of time is gone entirely.

Each round runs ten to fifteen minutes, and within it I die and return, die and return......

Anyway—lately, these past several days, these past several hundred rounds......

I make a point of spending as much time with the black armor as I can.

"I've memorized that thrust, you know? Kasumi-san, you're all thrusts, aren't you. Don't you use 【Slash】?"

Part of it is that the black armor's movements are the best reference I have, but more than anything, keeping time with Kasumi-san is what keeps my mind balanced.

Honestly, I'm close to my limit.

I can still think of things left to try, and that's the only thing keeping me hanging on.

"......"

I keep talking to her with everything I've got, and of course there's no reply.

I say "Kasumi-san," but her way of fighting and everything else is a completely different thing.

The only thing she shares is the same skill.

"Sorry, Kasumi-san. It's time already. See you next round. ......【Gate】."

The next enemy is coming.

But I can't very well kill the opponent I've decided is Kasumi-san, so I have her kill me instead.

The skeleton's aim is precise.

Show an opening, and it will certainly strike there.

What's more, the black armor even uses 【Aiming】, so I'm safe at the same spot every time.

The spear launched at my heart is swallowed up by the 'Right Eye Gate' and comes out of the 'Left Eye Gate' I opened behind my back.

And then pierces straight through the center of the black armor's back.

A spear impaling its own body—a sight that could never happen in reality.

The full-power thrust shatters the magic stone, and it crumbles.

"【Gate】."

Right on schedule.

This time I put out the 'Left Hand Gate' and block 'Sword Saint-chan's' 【Dimension Slash】.

One block first.

I leap out from the 'Left Hand Gate's' shadow, then put out the 'Left Hand Gate' again.

I hear a small schwa of wind being cut.

That's two.

She can't use 【Dimension Slash】 again now.

All that's left is to close the distance and finish it with the Rocket Punch.

I've gotten used to dealing with the incoming 【Flying Slash】 too.

Bip-bip, easy.

Unlike 【Dimension Slash】, it doesn't cut at the instant the sword swings—the name 【Flying Slash】 says it all: a flying slash, so it can be dodged.

(Saw it coming, dodged it, no problem.)

Close combat.

But nothing I learned from the black armor works at all against this 'Sword Saint-chan skeleton.'

Even attacking by the orthodox method, everything comes back at me and it's over.

As for spear technique that's actually been useful against the 'Sword Saint-chan skeleton,' the only thing is that I can now thrust with either hand, thanks to Hiramatsu-san.

('Armor Shot'!)

Left-hand thrust, then a no-motion Rocket Punch from the right—no, a Nukite!

To fire a fist-shaped Rocket Punch, the fingers have to be pulled out of the gauntlet beforehand, or the gauntlet won't fly.

And I'd get dragged along with it and it'd just be a regular punch.

For a no-motion launch, the hand naturally settles into an open palm.

And THIS is the Hiramatsu-ryu secret art: the Rocket Nukite.

To think Hiramatsu-ryu holds a technique that can fell even a 【Sword Saint】—truly a formidable school.

But despite it being a no-motion secret art, the 'Sword Saint-chan skeleton' cuts down my gauntlet—the one that should have been enhanced with 'Charge Armor.'

And that, after deflecting my spear attack.

I have no idea by what logic that got there in time.

Well, it seems it can't kill, so the halved gauntlet just buries into her, but......

(Break time, maybe?)

From here on is, if I had to name one, my only break period.

Next, the 'Blue Shadow skeleton' and the 'all-rounder samurai skeleton' come out simultaneously, but there's a short interval.

I release all the 'Charge' skills and rest.

Of course, I never forget to stay on guard above.

Sit down, and fireballs come flying at you.

I gather up equipment while waiting, occasionally tossing a sword or something up top.

While I'm at it, I borrow the right-hand gauntlet from Sword Saint-chan and reload.

Only my own skeleton carries a shield, so if I fire off the left-hand Shield Gauntlet, there's no reloading it.

That's why earlier I thrust with the left and used 'Armor Shot' from the right.

If I wanted, I could thrust with the right and fire the ultimate secret art from the left, with 'Charge Shield' stacked on.

Something about there being a next step once you can do Hiramatsu-ryu's basic movements equally with both sides, or something?

As things are, I'm not symmetrical, so when I get back I'll have to ask for a Shield Gauntlet for the right side too.

"When I get back, huh...... No, don't get down on yourself."

For now, I'll think: win, and I go home.

Besides, winning might not be the only way home.

If I dive into the darkness, there might be something there.

Give up on winning and go looking?

"No—right now, something else......"

I shake my head and drive off the stray thoughts.

Let me think about the Hiramatsu-ryu ultimate secret art.

I don't know what it is, but if Hiramatsu-san repeated "make the right and the left the same" until he was blue in the face, there has to be something to it.

Probably—something with no right or left. Symmetrical......

"Here it comes."

Break time's over.

︙

︙

I might be done for.

Soushi tricked me.

Why is a water jet flying at ME......

I stuck it on with the seal facing the right way and everything!

It's a stick-on type—why does it come flying at this side, I don't get it.

......No, wait, it's the kind you stick onto stakes or sheets, isn't it.

So I'm supposed to stick it to the ground, huh.

(I'm tired...... Let me be soothed by Kasumi-san.)

I step into the spotlight.

A Hiramatsu-ryu dropkick on the headless armor that just formed!

I snatch the right-hand gauntlet.

In hyper mode I carve through the 'helmet warrior'—that is, 'my own skeleton'—snatch up the Shield Gauntlet too, and then it's time to wait for Kasumi-san.

"Kasumi-san! One match, please!"

Come to think of it, back when I first met Kasumi-san, we used to spar like this all the time.

I was trying to get her to raise her leg somehow, and instead she started attacking my shins over and over......

Last time we fought, she broke my leg, didn't she.

Feels like such a long time ago.

Could I win now?

"......"

No reply.

But taking a stance means accepting the match.

Let's call that a conversation, shall we.

If I really am dead, what has happened to the real world?

Like in that dream I once had, is Kasumi-san at my house, keeping my mother company?

That's entirely plausible—exactly the dutiful thing Kasumi-san would do.

Even if I win here, there's nowhere left to return to......

"Huh? Kasumi-san, did you get a haircut?"

The black armor's atmosphere seems different.

If I can't even notice a change like that for her......

Well, skeletons don't get haircuts—and she's wearing a helmet in the first place, but still.

There's definitely something off.

Where is it?

Not the helmet.

Usually Shiraishi-san gives me hints with this game......

"The spear? The spear. Did you change your spear?"

What Kasumi-san holds isn't her usual guandao-like naginata.

It's a Japanese naginata like the ones you see on TV.

Except—even the shaft seems to be solid metal, gleaming silver.

......A light shone into the never-ending hell.