Martial (武)
In the center of a cavern littered with corpses, two swordsmen stood facing one another.
This was the result of Siren snapping up the wager Ash had thrown out so casually. And so, the bloodstained cave had transformed into a dueling ground steeped in an eerie stillness.
Both teams had withdrawn to opposite ends of the cavern to watch the coming clash between the two blades.
"...What the hell is this circus supposed to be?"
Ifrit muttered without meaning to. It was, frankly, an absurd situation.
Her gaze drifted toward Siren, who was loosening up with a grin of pure rapture spread across her face, as if there were nothing in the world she'd rather be doing. Ash, by contrast, simply stood there holding his blade, silent and unmoving. If you had to call it anything, it was observation. Just watching his opponent.
"What is going on in that head of his?"
To Ifrit, Ash was, in a word, a strange and singular humanoid that defied easy explanation. How to put it — more human than the humans themselves. And at the same time, a little old-fashioned. One moment he was a stubborn old codger with a stick permanently lodged up his backside, and the next he was making colder, more rational judgments than anyone alive. He seemed at once like a fussy old scholar and a ruthless back-alley fixer who wouldn't shed a tear for anyone. Utterly unreadable — a walking contradiction, a bundle of everything that couldn't possibly coexist.
This time was no different. Out of nowhere, a wager? No — a wager? Since when did he care for that sort of thing? Everything about him usually screamed that he'd hate it.
And that wasn't all. Before stepping into the duel, Ash had exchanged a few words with Ifrit — or rather, her grandmotherly concern had started the conversation.
"I know you're strong, but still, be careful. That is the rank-one, after all."
"Thank you for the advice."
"Ugh, I'm serious. Don't take this lightly."
"I am not taking it lightly."
"...Haaah. Fine, then remember this one thing. If that tattoo on her arm starts glowing blue, you put distance between you two. Immediately."
"Put distance between us? I take it it serves some function?"
"It's a high-output cooling system. Thanks to it, she can push her neuromatrix to the absolute limit without overheating."
"Cooling? You mean she wields the ice arts?"
"Ice arts, ice goddess, I don't know and I don't care. Point is, when that thing kicks in, she moves batshit fast. I'm telling you, ten slashes a goddamn second."
"Interesting. Pray, continue."
"There's nothing more to continue. Oh, right — it also contains every bit of combat data Undine ever accumulated. There's probably swordsmanship software loaded on there too. I bought her a few programs as gifts back in the day."
"Gifts for Siren, you mean?"
"...What kind of bullshit is that? I said I bought them for Undine!"
"Hmm."
After that brief exchange, Ash seemed to sink into thought for a moment. Then he murmured, half to himself:
"In that case, I shall have to revise my plan somewhat."
"Noona! Noona!"
Jolted out of her thoughts by Jack O'Lantern's voice, Ifrit turned her head.
"What."
"Who do you think's gonna win?"
"...Huh?"
Akina cut in abruptly.
"That's obviously Ash, duh!"
"Yeah, yeah, of course you'd say that. But hey, hold your horses and hear me out for a sec." Jack O'Lantern went on, impossible to tell whether he was soothing her or pouring oil on the fire. "Akina. Siren is rank one. You think you get to number one by lucking out at a gambling table? Just look at her stream clips — she's genuinely, seriously terrifying. Ash hyung is amazing, no argument, but against Siren..."
[feel like he might be outmatched tbh]
Dullahan had drifted over at some point and joined the conversation.
[saw her in person once, we did a collab with Witchcraft yep that thing is NOT human fr fr it's a monster lmaoooo]
Akina snorted.
"Hmph! Well, our mister Ash isn't human either!"
[pfffT hahaha fair that's true lmao]
"Akina, what we mean by 'not human' here isn't literally not a human, it's—"
"ARGH! Shut UP!"
Ifrit exploded, then hammered her fists down on Dullahan's and Jack O'Lantern's heads.
"Talking trash before the fight even starts? What are you two, Witchcraft fans? Then get the hell over to that side of the cave!"
At her bellow, the two men turned into honey-mouthed mutes. Watching them squirm, Akina burst into giggles, then glued herself to Ifrit's side.
"You think mister Ash is gonna win too, right, unnie? Right?"
Ifrit studied the girl for a moment, then reached down and patted her head.
"That's what I'm hoping for, kid."
In that instant, the two combatants finally moved.
It was Ash who began. Without a sound, he raised his blade vertical, then swept it in a full circle, tracing a ring through the empty air. It was less a motion intended to attack than an archaic gesture — the settling of courtesy before the storm.
"I am called Ash Blade. At present, I serve as a mercenary of Team Elementary Girls. With this sword, I shall face you."
At this unlooked-for formality, Siren's eyes sparkled with delight.
"What was that? What did you just do?"
"...That is a kisushik — an opening stance. It is a courtesy offered to one's opponent."
"Huh! What do I do...? I don't have anything like that..."
"It matters not."
"Yes it does! It totally matters! This is the historic first duel with Ash, so I have to give my courtesies too!"
Apparently the archaic air Ash had displayed was much to her liking — or perhaps she simply wanted to learn everything there was to learn about him. Siren deliberated for a moment. Then she swept her blade in one great circle, reversed her grip into a backhand hold, leveled the point at her own chest, and bowed deeply. The gesture itself carried a certain old-world grace, but the drones circling around her made it look uncannily like an idol's ending pose.
Head rising, Siren spoke.
"I am Siren, leader of Witchcraft. I too shall face you with this blade, Ash. And..."
Her black eyes flared with brilliance.
"If I win, I want to learn your swordsmanship."
The brilliance turned, in an instant, to obsession — to madness.
"Especially that final strike at the end of the video... I want to make it mine."
Ash answered briefly.
"That is rather greedy of you."
"Uh, um, I... is that not allowed?"
"I did not say that."
"Th-then! What do you want, Ash?"
At her question, Ash fell silent for a moment. Then, from his voice module, a low electronic tone flowed out.
"Credits."
Siren's opening stance wavered.
"I'm sorry... what?"
"Why so startled? Nothing in this world weighs more than money."
"Um... so, you're saying that if you win, I have to pay you?"
"Precisely. So then, how much could you part with?"
Siren was struck speechless for a moment.
"Um... h-how much do you need?"
"Hmm. I must confess I haven't the faintest notion of such matters. Would two million credits be about right?"
Two million credits. To Ash it was a large sum; to Siren, a small one. A curiously awkward number.
"No! Ask for more, mister!"
From far across the cavern, Akina shouted.
"Add another million!"
"Another million?"
"Yes!"
Having taken his advisor's counsel, Ash amended his terms without ceremony.
"On reflection, I should say three million would be fitting."
"..."
"Is that agreeable?"
Siren blinked once, twice, then nodded without hesitation. Credits meant nothing to her. The only thing that mattered was that she got to cross blades with Ash — that was all.
"I'll pay it. No problem at all."
"Good. Then let us begin."
"Yes!"
At Siren's immediate reply, a bright light flickered twice within her artificial eyes. Whether it was some kind of signal or not, every drone darting about the two swordsmanship sounded off in perfect unison.
As the shrill beep reverberated through the cavern, the two swordsmen who had been staring each other down moved at the same instant.
It was Siren who attacked.
Kakakakang!
A relentless flurry of linked strikes, poured on without a breath to spare. Wicked, powerful blade-work worthy of the number one rank in Halloween — Ash was forced back a few steps just weathering her onslaught.
But that was all.
Even amid the ferocious offensive, Ash knew at once that his read had been correct.
Powerful and flashy, is it.
Ash Blade was, without question, a humanoid built of machinery — yet what resided in his main core was the spirit of a martial artist who had lived his entire life leaning on the sword. To him, the blade had never been a mere weapon. At times it had been his only conversation with the world; at times, his sole doyu — his lone companion on the road — walking with him down the excruciating path of ascetic training; at times, a presence like the King of Hell himself, administering endless trials at the border between life and death. Every breath, every footstep had to carry his intent. Only on that sword's road could he be fully, completely himself. Even in his final years, when he had pawned his very soul to vengeance and dragged everything into ruin, the sword had never once left his side.
His life had truly been one with the blade.
Seen through such eyes, the swordsmanship Siren unfurled was nothing short of utterly crude.
Powerful and flashy, you say? It was wrong from the very premise. Strength, in its truest sense, must embody the subtle principles of heaviness and force; if one's art lies in ever-shifting splendor, then one must devote oneself to speed and illusion. Of course, a master who had reached the realm of the sword and self made one could wield all of it freely, each quality in its proper place — but Siren was not such a master. She was merely strong and merely flashy at the same time. Trusting in the overwhelming output her cyberware provided, she swung the blade by brute force, with no philosophy behind it and no enlightenment within it.
Just then, Siren attempted a horizontal slash. It was already the third time. Her blade came flying along a trajectory identical to the ones before it, without the slightest deviation — doubtless the optimal strike point computed by Undine's combat data and her Melee Combat Algorithm.
That is not a sword's road. It is nothing but a list of 'moves' handed down by data.
Just as I thought. Exactly as predicted.
"Yeohyeop."
Ash spoke to Siren as she swung on and on without end.
"Is this the entirety of your art?"
She could not answer. The moment she activated her combat protocols, her processing resources ran dry.
Siren swung. It was that same horizontal slash again. The fourth identical strike, exactly alike in every respect.
Somehow, it irritated Ash. And so, he stopped parrying her attacks altogether.
He took half a step forward and twisted his blade. Siren's strike met it and was deflected off in a direction she never expected.
"...!"
Her stance collapsed in an instant. And Ash did not miss that hairline crack. His blade darted in like a serpent, and with the spine of the blade rather than the edge, he gave Siren's shoulder a light tap.
"Kgh!"
There had been no force behind it. But what that light touch signified was crystal clear: you have already died once.
Siren jolted backward in a panic, scrambling to open the distance. Ash did not pursue. He simply stood there, gazing at her in silence.
"What troubles you, yeohyeop?" Ash said. "The duel you longed for so dearly — I gather it differs somewhat from what you imagined?"
"...Nngh!"
Face twisted, Siren charged again — faster and sharper than before. The problem was that her sword's road was exactly, perfectly the same.
A thrust came flying. Ash batted it aside. A diagonal slash came flying. Ash batted it aside. The chopping vertical strike, the low cut aimed at his legs, the three linked thrusts boring in from freakish angles —
He parried, parried, and parried again.
And as if that were not enough, Ash closed a single step toward Siren, whose stance had crumbled into disarray. One step. That alone was enough to send her scattered center of gravity toppling, and she landed flat on her rear.
"...Huh? Why did I..."
Even fallen, she seemed unable to grasp what had happened, wearing a blank, foolish expression for a long moment.
"Hm."
Ash, looking down at her, let out an electronic sigh.
"I confess I am somewhat disappointed."
At that one sentence, every thought in Siren's mind froze solid.
But Ash was not finished.
"Forgive me if this is impertinent — but it is true that you wish to learn the sword in earnest?"
Naturally, Ash had no such thing as a facial expression to speak of. But for Siren, looking up at him from the ground, it was otherwise entirely.
"W-wait a second! Wait just a second, Ash!"
Siren scrambled to her feet and readjusted her grip on her blade, then cried out, her voice on the verge of sobbing.
"It's not... it's not over yet! I'll — I'll show you my real strength, so...!"
The truth was that Siren had steeled herself for a certain gap in skill. The Ash in that video had simply been too magnificent. Even so, part of her had figured she could hold her own. She was the number one ranked idol in Halloween, after all. The strongest idol, never once defeated no matter the opponent — that was Siren, and she was confident in her swordsmanship, too.
But look at her now. A gap in skill? This was a matter from some other dimension altogether. Like a small child facing a colossal mountain, it felt as though an unbridgeable chasm yawned between him and her, too deep and too far to cross. She had no idea what to do or how to even begin.
And then, suddenly, she realized it — a horrifying truth she had not registered even slightly until this very moment.
Ash...
Both of Siren's hands, wrapped around her sword, trembled violently.
He never once swung his sword.
It was true. Ash had not attacked a single time. While Siren swung like a woman possessed, he had only blocked, deflected, or let her strikes flow past. One of them had been dancing with everything they had, and the other had received the whole of it with a single finger.
It's this far apart? THIS far?
From the depths of her chest, admiration bloomed wild and fast — and at the same time, the single word disappointed, from his mouth, crushed down on her from head to toe.
"Just once! Can we go one more time, just once?!"
Watching Siren shout now, nearly screaming, Ash slowly nodded. A short inclination of the head. It was permission.
A faint hope kindled on Siren's face.
Everything. I'm giving it everything.
She could not let it end like this. She could not let it end having given him nothing but disappointment.
EVERYTHING I'VE GOT!
In an instant, her black eyes flared with light, and along the wave-patterned tattoo on her right arm, a chilly blue radiance began to flow. The sharp shriek of a high-output cooling system spinning up split the air.
PSHHHHHHH!
Venting coolant vapor swallowed her whole body in the blink of an eye. Inside that hazy sea-fog of steam that scrambled the sight of everyone watching, only her glowing blue arm writhed like a will-o'-the-wisp in the dark.