3 bar menu

Last Embryo Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 2

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

And she intended to demonstrate that conviction of hers with her next maneuver.

When Uesugi got close enough to her that she could reach her with a thrust of her red spear, trapping her in all sorts of barriers was no longer an effective option, so instead she decided to do something else. When Uesugi was about to swing her weapon at her, she directed the tip of her sword-whip towards it and had it wrap itself around its handle like a snake coiling around a branch of a tree, and then she yanked it backwards in an attempt to disarm Uesugi as if she was pulling the fish out of the water with a fishing pole. In that moment, Uesugi had no other choice but to let go of her weapon unless she wanted to get pulled towards Ayato along with it.

「. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . !!!」

It might have seemed like it put her at a disadvantage, but this development was not without its own merits for her. Since Uesugi did not let go of her spear without putting up a proper fight for it first, Ayato had to put a lot of strength into yanking it out of her hands, and that would definitely make her lose the stable posture she was maintaining up until now. It would have been ideal if the recoil from that caused her to stumble backwards and fall over, but sensing that something like this might happen, she immediately did a backflip that allowed her to maintain the stability of her position without making her lose any of the momentum she has gained. . . but that was exactly the moment that Uesugi was waiting for. That brief moment when her opponent left herself exposed was all that she needed in order to close the distance between them. Being so close that there was not even a single step of space between them, she grabbed a hold of Ayato’s arm, twisted it in a same manner as if she was trying to wring all of the excess water out of a wet cloth, raised her into the air and promptly slammed her into the ground.

「Gh. . . . . . . . . . . . khaaaa . . . . . . !!!」

Ayato’s gasp was muffled by the sound reminiscent of that of a thunder striking the ground during a heavy storm, and in the next moment it was followed by the cracking of the wooden floorboards. The floor beneath Ayato and Uesugi was shattered miserably, and the sound of the impact that broke it was so strong that it went and echoed throughout all of the lower layers of the Giant Spirit Train that were directly beneath them.

「Aw aw aw aw. . .  it hurts. . .!」

That was all that Ayato could say when she picked herself up from the floor into a sitting position while massaging her hand, which was admittedly hurting like hell. Helping her get back up on her feet, Uesugi announced her victory in a proud manner while smiling from ear to ear.

「Fufufu~~, I believe the victory is mine, would you not agree?」

「Ugh. . . yes, I admit defeat. I have to say though, you samurai types are pretty scary.」

「That might be true, but you were not half bad yourself. I heard rumors about your skills with that sword-whip, but going against it personally, I have to say that these rumors are not doing you enough justice. I was convinced that you relied mostly on acrobatics and other kinds of tricks to mess with your opponents, but to think you would actually be able to make that weapon move as if it had a mind of its own. . .if I did not witness it with my own eyes I would have never believed it! It was so formidable that I had no choice but to resort to rushing straight at you like a madman!

Uesugi praised Ayato with a smile. Apparently she is that type of fighter who resorts to simply charging straight ahead whenever her chosen strategy fails. Even though her body was still aching all over after being made into one with the floor, she managed to answer her back with a slightly bitter smile. What surprised he the most during their battle though, was the way that Uesugi was behaving throughout the entire match. According to Ayato’s experiences with using weapons, everyone who fights with one will always prioritize protecting themselves, no matter the situation they will find themselves in.

On the battlefield, it is unthinkable to let go of the weapon you are holding unless you possess extraordinary courage or martial arts skills on such a level that you would be able to handle the threats around you even when left entirely barehanded. Could this be why it is said that all of the samurai possessed spirits of pure steel?

With their training session now concluded, Ayato was ready to leave, but before she could make another step, a roaring voice of a beast echoed from behind her, rooting her firmly in place.

「That was a pretty shameful display, Ayato!」

Hearing a familiar voice reprimand her without mercy, Ayato instinctively straightened her back until her entire body was standing in a perfectly straight line while waves of cold sweat were pouring down her spine and her eyebrows began to twitch. Doing her best not to show how much her hands were shaking and failing miserably at it, she slowly looked back towards the one who graded her battle with Uesugi as a 「Shameful Display」.

That is right, she has completely forgotten that there was one more person present on the training grounds besides Uesugi Kenshin and herself. Someone who insisted that she absolutely had to watch their sparing match, and was leaning against the wall the entire time while keeping her wine-red hair tied in two braids behind her back: Scathach, Irish Queen of the Dead, Mistress of the Land of Shadows, and currently: Queen’s Knight and Head Butler to the Celestial Spirit of the Sun, Queen Halloween, as well as Ayato’s master when it came to learning martial arts. And the way she was now looking at Ayato was filling her with nothing but heartfelt discomfort that made her sweat bullet even from her forehead.

「Ayato. I am going to ask you a question now, and I expect you to answer me truthfully, without coming up with any pathetic excuses: who taught you to fight like that? Because I am pretty sure that I have never shown you such sloppy, unrefined movements, right?」

「Y-Yes, it is exactly as you say, master. Trying to disarm the enemy by entwining my sword-whip around their weapon was a bad call on my side. . . 」

「No, I am actually fine with that. It is a million years too early to be calling your execution of that move a good one, but I am going to let you off the hook with just a slap on the wrist for it this one time, because your heart was definitely in the right place. It does not matter if this is a friendly sparring, a mock battle to test the results of your training or an actual duel to the death, taking the weapon away from your opponent has always been one of the most effective ways of bringing battles to a swift conclusion.」

While Scathach said that she was willing to forgive Ayato for her bad execution of her moves, the anger in her voice did not diminish even for one bit. Realizing that, Ayato shrunk in fear even more, waiting for Scathach to continue to berate her, which she promptly did.

「What I am truly angry at you about is that sloppy trial and error you were playing at before you got around to trying to disarm Uesugi. . . hey, Ayato, let us play a little game, shall we? The game in which I am going to try and guess what exactly was your thought process when you decided to take Uesugi’s weapon away from her.」

「Eh?」

「When Miss Uesugi chose to abandon all of the more nuanced tactics and chose to charge straight ahead at you, you were probably thinking something along the lines of: 『Since she is rushing at me like a mad boar, then it is evident that my skills are superior to hers. If it is like that, then I do not feel like I am going to lose no matter how I choose to handle it.』. You were so proud of driving her to a corner that it clouded your judgment, making you choose such a brute force option you would not normally pick up, correct?」