Better When You've Waited
"You're strong, I'll give you that, Arang."
Yujeong looked Arang up and down as she spoke.
"But next time."
Yujeong kicked off the ground.
Cutting in line was unforgivable.
And cutting in line for her senior sister — that was something she would never, ever forgive.
The monster that had once been her grandfather raised its own blade and caught the sword Hoeyeon had swung to cut it down.
"Mm. It has been a long time since I last held a weapon myself."
Hoeyeon said nothing and swung again.
"Will you not spare even a single word for your grandfather? This humble one finds that rather hurtful."
"If you're going to lie, at least get the speech pattern right."
Even as they spoke, the two of them exchanged countless blows. Hoeyeon's grandfather had been a martial officer — famous not as a commander, but as a vanguard.
Then, abruptly, their exchange broke off.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
Someone burst in from the side, and another sword sheared clean through the monster's arm.
"Hup!"
The monster's reaction to losing its arm was as inhuman as every word and gesture it had made so far.
It stabbed its sword down and caught the falling left arm on the tip of the blade. From the severed cross-section, a sticky black fluid like sap seeped out — slowly, drop by drop.
"Hey. You."
The one who had crashed the fight flicked her sword clean and spoke to the monster.
"Who said you could cut in line."
Yujeong's lips twisted. She was furious.
Hoeyeon called the name in a trembling voice.
"…Yujeong?"
It was Yujeong. Without a doubt, her junior sister.
Her hair had turned pink, her eyes purple. Two horns had sprouted from her forehead, and she carried a belligerent air Hoeyeon had never seen on her before — but it was Yujeong.
"Senior Sister Hoeyeon, haah… honestly."
Yujeong flicked her sword clean once more.
"Why do you have to look so delicious?"
In the next instant, Hoeyeon's and Yujeong's blades clashed right in front of Hoeyeon's face. Hoeyeon had barely managed to block the strike Yujeong had thrown at her.
Hoeyeon's feet slid back a step.
"Yujeong?!"
"Fight me, Senior Sister!"
Bearing down with her sword from above, Yujeong's violet eyes hungered for Hoeyeon.
"Please? Come on. Please?! Come on!!!!!!!!!! Fight me!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yujeong shouted and swung again and again.
"Please?! Do you have any idea how long I've held this in?! Please?! Senior Sister! Fight me!! Stop just standing there!!!!"
"Yujeong!!"
Having done nothing but defend, Hoeyeon decided this couldn't go on and thrust her sword at Yujeong.
Their blades met between them.
"Fine?! You want to fight?!"
Hoeyeon gritted her teeth and roared.
"Then let's fight!!"
At Hoeyeon's words, Yujeong's face lit up with pure, radiant joy.
"Ahahahahahaha!!!!! Hah! Ahahahahahahaha!!"
And from that moment on, their swords poured toward each other like a storm. Scattered sword qi mowed down the grass and toppled trees. The flash of blade on blade became lightning; the crash of impact became thunder.
"Mm. I believe I shall withdraw for today."
The monster that had been Hoeyeon's grandfather began to back away with its severed arm still skewered on the tip of its sword — but it had not gone more than a few steps before it was forced to stop. Ice had seized its feet.
"And just where do you think you're going?"
Gayul's voice was cold with revulsion. And as if to give that feeling form, the temperature across the entire area was dropping.
"Mm. So it was not a barrier meant to repel, but one meant to catch. No wonder it broke so easily."
With its left arm still impaled, it could not even swing its sword. The blue mana stretching from the marks Gayul had drawn to form her barrier was turning to ice, climbing from its feet upward.
"What a foul stench. I feel as though my nose shall rot clean off."
Arang spoke from behind the monster. The tips of her nails had become sharp claws, and her golden eyes held a contempt no milder than Gayul's.
"Ah! So one of you means to pin me in place, and the other means to tear me apart! Excellent! You deserve praise!"
The speech pattern shifted again. The monster aping a human threw its head back and laughed heartily.
"No choice, then! Indeed!"
The monster lifted its own left arm — still skewered on the sword — and brought it to its mouth.
The sleeve that had wrapped the arm tore away and flew off, revealing skin studded with the cores of countless Masu.
In the same instant that Gayul and Arang moved, the monster swallowed its own arm whole.
She looks so happy.
Looking at Yujeong's face, Hoeyeon thought.
Swinging her sword at Hoeyeon with everything she had, mixing killing intent with killing intent — Yujeong wore an expression of rapture Hoeyeon had never seen on her before.
Blood flowed, and blood was made to flow.
That neither of them had yet lost a limb was a miracle — or the product of a perfectly matched balance of power.
"Haaah… aah, Senior Sister."
In a moment when they broke apart, Yujeong spoke.
She called out to her, aching and tender.
"Senior Sister!!!!!!!!"
Like someone so overwhelmed by emotion and joy that calling the name was all she could manage.
Her two new horns glittered in the moonlight.
Hoeyeon laughed. A laugh just burst out of her — hahaha.
"My little junior sister."
At first, she had only meant to hold out until Yujeong came back to her senses.
"Want to play with this big sister for a round!!!!!!"
But Yujeong was in her right mind.
She hadn't gone mad. She hadn't lost her memories.
It was simply that her craving for battle and struggle had grown so vast it was boiling over inside her.
It was so much fun, and she wanted it so badly, that she simply could not endure it.
"!! Really?!"
At Hoeyeon's words, Yujeong's face brightened another shade.
"Senior Sister!!"
"That's right! Let's have a proper fight!!!!"
There was no need to overthink it.
She was just sparring a round with her junior sister, who had spent her whole life suppressing the desire that kept trying to boil over inside her.
And if it was a contest of sword against sword — that was something every swordsman craved, and Hoeyeon was a swordsman too.
There was a world of pleasure you could only reach when you fought with the genuine intent to kill each other with your blades.
A realm only swordsmen knew, and only swordsmen could share.
Anyone you could play in that place with was a precious existence indeed.
The blades they had been trading came to a simultaneous halt. Hoeyeon's sword stopped just short of piercing Yujeong's chest; Yujeong's hung in empty air.
"Victory!"
"Aaaagh! Again! One more time!!"
When Yujeong threw a tantrum like a child, unable to bear her frustration, Hoeyeon laughed and adjusted her grip on her sword.
It was a night the heavens favored.
The moon was bright, and everything that glittered was beautiful.
After countless exchanges, the two of them stopped at the same time again.
"My win again!"
"One more! One more time!!!!"
Hoeyeon won the next round too. And the one after that.
"Four to zero!"
"Aaaaaaagh!!!!"
Yujeong swung her sword wildly like an angry child. With every swing, the sword qi she couldn't fully control toppled trees, tore up the earth, and split the air.
"Why are you so strong, seriously!!!!! One more!!"
"We can play as much as you want!!"
The blood that had boiled would not cool.
"Five to zero!"
"One more!!"
"Six to zero!"
"Aaaagh!! Next time I'm really going to win!!"
Every plant around them had been cut down, and the ground looked as though explosives had gone off — a complete wreck.
"Eleven to zero…!"
"Just one…! Just once…! Let me win a little…!"
Both of them were breathing hard. And both of them were smiling.
"More…! As much as you want, until you're exhausted…!"
Hoeyeon didn't know the particulars of Oni-kin traits, but she could sense instinctively that this — fighting and being broken, fighting and being broken, over and over — was something Yujeong needed.
"Senior Sister!!!!"
"What!!!!"
"I'm having so much fun!!!!!!!!"
When sword met sword, it was thunder.
"The whole time! From way back! From the very beginning! I've wanted to fight like this!!!!"
"Hey!!"
Hoeyeon shouted loud enough not to lose to the clash of their blades.
"So have I!!!"
"Really?!"
"Really!! The first kid I ever met who was worth sparring with was you!!!!"
"I'm so happy! We felt the same way?! We're of one heart and mind?!"
"That's not quite—"
Blocking sword with sword,
"—close enough! We'll go with that!"
Because now was not the time to fuss over details.
The only thing that mattered right now was the rival standing in front of her.
I'll play with you for as long as you can take it — so go on. Throw everything in your heart against your big sister.
"Arang, are you all right?"
"…Does this look all right to you?"
Hmm, Gayul said, tilting her head to inspect her.
"Surely something of this level is nothing to you?"
"Comfort me a little, will you. Comfort. Honestly."
"If you want comfort, ask for it more gently. Come now, up you get."
"Tsk… you would have to be right about that."
Grumbling, Arang took the hand Gayul offered and stood.
"Did that thing escape?"
"Seems so."
The place where the two of them had fought the monster was scorched and soaked, the vegetation flattened.
"Gayul, are you all right?"
"No serious injuries."
"That is a relief."
"Indeed, a relief."
Both of them were scratched and cut in places, blood running, but nothing serious.
Arang's gaze turned toward the cluster of torches climbing up from the foot of the mountain.
"We shall have to deal with those, after all."
What she meant by "those" were the villagers coming with the torches — hoes and shovels and sickles in hand.
Gayul suddenly ducked her head. A tree trunk, cleanly severed, sailed past over her.
"I am glad to see your body is still quick on its feet."
"Have you been rather short with me for some time now? Have I given some offense?"
"…It is nothing."
"Is it Hoeyeon?"
"It is nothing! Nothing at all! This one has already said so!"
"Do not shout so. You shall start barking."
"How rude!! Woof!"
"…."
"…."
"Let us go down for their sake, at least. If we meet them here, they might all die by accident."
"Would a few deaths truly be such a great matter?"
This time Arang twisted her body in a hurry. A chunk of stone tore through the space where she had been standing and punched clean through a tree.
"Do not be so harsh. They are weak and foolish, and so they are frightened, and so they mean to do harm."
"…This one does not care for spoiling creatures overmuch."
"No need to worry on that account. I am not one to spoil my subordinates either."
"Hah."
Arang laughed.
"Well then. We had best go fight our own fight."
"Indeed. Hoeyeon is fighting so hard down there — we can hardly stand about at our leisure."
"…Gayul. Had it not been for you, this one would have fought hard as well…."
"Hm? What was that?"
"It was nothing."
Gayul's self-inflicted heartache still had several days left before it would ease.