Hitsugi no Chaika Vol 1 Chapter 2.3

Chapter 2, Part 3

“Nii-sama.”

When he opened his eyes the next morning, his sister’s face was so close to him that their breath touched—the same situation as the previous one.

And it should also be said that the iron hammer was again eating into his pillow in the same fas.h.i.+on.

“Good morning.”

“…You,” Tohru mumbled. “What the h.e.l.l are you playing at?”

“You say ‘what am I playing at’, but…”

Akari tilted her head.

The hammer remained sunk into Tohru’s pillow.

“It’s the same as yesterday. I’m here to wake you up.”

“That’s why I’d like to hear why you’re using the same method as yesterday.”

“Because this is the same situation as yesterday.”

“…”

Tohru was at a loss for words.

Sure, thanks to Chaika they had obtained breakfast for yesterday—well, it was basically lunch. But when you thought about it that was only for one day, and since he wasn’t working they were still penniless. Or rather, what little day-to-day income Akari did earn from working at various stores in the neighborhood had all gone to last night’s dinner.

For you see, they had both used “Iron-Blood Transformation.” So for not only lunch but also dinner, they ate many times more than a normal human would.
As a result, the money that had originally been intended to last them for three more days was spent on a single dinner.

So basically, the situation was indeed the same as yesterday morning’s.

“…I haven’t even recovered from my wound yet.”

“But you can still do simple jobs, can you not?”

“I thought I told you, I’m not planning to make this “working” thing a habit,” Tohru said with something like a groan. “Besides, you’re not doing all you can do either. Find some suitable guy and marry him already. If you learn how to fake a smile it’ll probably be all right. And even if you still haven’t had s.e.x, you’ve learned a few techniques—”

“But if the man I married didn’t do any work either, wouldn’t it eventually end up the same way?”

“Well, sure, I guess.”

Tohru didn’t like to brag, but there weren’t many men like him. The postwar period was a “period of chaos”, so to speak, and though everyone was still getting by it was an era of desperation. People like Tohru who said things like “If I work, I lose” in this era would have to be either very eccentric or very stupid.

Basically, it would be like saying “Well, it’s okay if I die.”

“In any case…”

Akari began.

“I’m almost at my limit.”

“Limit?”

“The limit of my patience.”

She said.

In the next instant—

Tohru leapt from the bed.

Akari had thrust her hand forward with vicious speed.

She wasn’t playing around this time. If Tohru hadn’t seriously tried to avoid it, her right hand would most certainly have pierced right through his stomach and out his back.

“—Akari!?”

When he had jumped, Tohru had kicked off of the wall with an unnecessary amount of force, then kicked off the ceiling and landed on the floor. It was a pretty run-down house, so that caused a chorus of creaking and groaning, as if it protesting being treated so cruelly.

“I think I said it already.”

As she said it, Akari raised up.

“If Nii-sama refuses to work, then I’d rather he be stuffed.”

“…Seriously?”

Tohru groaned.

Akari took out her hammer, but instead of swinging it around like yesterday, she pointed it straight at him. There wasn’t any hint of it being just a meaningless bluff. She was intending to kill.

Well, I guess she has a point, Tohru thought despairingly.

As she had said, she had reached the point where her patience had run out. Naturally—after enduring day after day of him lying around the house doing nothing with no future prospects to speak of–rather than having to call that kind of existence “family”, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for her to think that erasing it once and for all and starting afresh would be a better option.

The war had ended, and not much time had elapsed since then.

A human’s life was a trivial thing. The registers for the residents of the town were not kept up, much less those of the refugees. They had no clue who was where. It was for this reason that Tohru and Akari were able to blend in with the commoners so innocently.

At any rate—

“!”

Without warning, Akari’s hammer went flying towards him.

Tohru avoided it—just barely. The attack grazed his head as it pa.s.sed him, and it went right through a wall that had already looked like it was on its last legs.

Rolling to the floor, he grabbed the belt with his swords that was lying on the bed and jumped, evading a second attack. When their eyes met each other once more, Akari had already returned to her original position.

There existed a sword-drawing technique called iai where one sheathed their sword after cutting down their opponent, and this was much the same thing.
If its user was tired, a hammer would have no strength. A hammer was different from an edged weapon in that a when a hammer wasn’t moving, it had no destructive force. So in order to use consecutive attacks, either centrifugal force from swinging it around or something like iai, which allowed for the constant acceleration of a single strike, was necessary.

I’m not good against these hammer techniques…

While thinking that, Tohru slowly stepped back, and, checking if there was some sort of blind spot, equipped the two swords to his waist.

Then, leaping through a hole in the destroyed wall, he made it outside.

Akari followed him.

Perhaps it was due to the noise from the wall being destroyed or something else, but he could see heads poking out of their houses. However, there wasn’t anyone capricious enough to want to intervene. Faced with Akari’s serious killing intent, no commoner would entertain the notion of jumping into the fight.

“…If you’re joking, it’s time to knock it off,” Tohru said as if delivering an ultimatum. “It isn’t funny anymore.”

“Nii-sama.”

Akari said.

“I have never joked even once in my entire life.”

“Wait, is that really true?”

“Of course.”

“…”

There were all sorts of things he could have said about that, but he decided to leave it be for now.

“…No choice, then.”

Tohru prepared himself, gripping the hilts of his swords. As he squeezed them, the etchings on his palm and the etchings on the swords’ hilts became linked. At the same time, he flicked back the snap fastener on their guards and drew them out.

“…Heh.”

The feeling in his hands…no, his legs, had changed in an instant.

Tohru’s favored double blades might not have had a name, but they weren’t just any old blades. They were comblades, which were often used by soldiers on the battlefield. Its hilt and blade were set up so that its user could activate it by using the “key” of the seal on his hand.

In that moment…the comblades literally became a part of Tohru.

When used, they felt completely natural. Even though he was gripping swords to kill the enemy, it was as if they were merely an extension of his hands. As he was now, Tohru could get a read on the feeling of the wind and temperature of the swords like his own skin. He even felt that his arms had extended to resemble swords; there was no longer any sensation of “holding” them.

Then—

“—I am steel.”

Tohru and Akari both muttered it simultaneously.

“Steel knows no fear. Steel knows no doubt. When faced with my enemy, I hesitate not. I am a weapon to destroy them.”

The hidden technique, “Iron-Blood Transformation.”

With the chanting of the keywords, both saboteurs’ bodies underwent the optimum changes for them to become weapons.

Tohru became one with the comblades, meaning in that moment he existed only for the purpose of wielding them. He was a part of them. His body had become the comblades.

A blade didn’t feel.

A blade wasn’t frightened.

With those keywords, his only purpose now was to destroy any and every enemy without hesitation.

In the next moment, Tohru and Akari both simultaneously kicked off of the ground.

However, they didn’t leap at each other; they were merely gauging each other’s agility. A careless leap into the air could lead to being scooped up by an attack from the ground. It didn’t matter how much “Iron-Blood Transformation” they used—there would be no way of avoiding an attack like that while in midair. At the very most, one could change their stance by using their limbs, but they wouldn’t be able to avoid an attack aimed at their center of gravity.

Tapping noises. .h.i.t the ground.

Metal screeched on metal, again and again.

The two saboteurs dropped their upper bodies and ran, almost crawling along the ground. When they met each other, they kicked off the ground mightily, putting all their power into their stretched muscles before releasing.

“Ugh…!”

Tohru groaned.

He was just barely able to avoid her attack.

The hammer had flown towards him from the left, and by crossing his swords he was able to block it. Of course, if he had tried to block the pointed part of the hammer, his blades would have been done for, so Tohru had aimed for the grip of the hammer. When there was centripetal acceleration the hammer’s destructive force was at its strongest using its pointed end, so basically, the closer the part was to the user, the weaker it was.

But, that also meant that a rather dangerous opening could be created. A normal human would use the opportunity to pull back and gain some distance, but then they would fall prey to the hammer. Furthermore, the hammer would just continue to attack by accelerating in a circle. Deliberately entering her s.p.a.ce was the only correct option.

Tohru showed no sign of fear or hesitation in his transformed state.

The optimal retooling of his body for battle had even killed his instinct for fear.

However, Akari was the same way.

At once, she drew her hammer back.

Due to that movement, the swords that had been grinding against the hammer’s grip were pulled away, and he lost his balance. At the same time, using the recoil from pulling the hammer back, she rotated her body instead of her hammer and gracefully outstretched her legs, sending them, like another hammer, towards Tohru’s undefended right and forehead.

“—!”

There was iron in various places in both Tohru and Akari’s boots. Fundamentally it was for self-defense, but when that much force was added they could be used as a weapon. Of course, that kick had the weight of her entire body put into it, so if it had been a direct hit Tohru’s skull would have caved in—after all, the forehead was the thinnest layer between the cranium.

But, with no regard to his own balance, he invaded Akari’s s.p.a.ce once more, barreling into her.

He was able to avoid the toe of her boot colliding with his forehead, but her knee smashed into his cheek, and both of them rolled onto the floor, becoming entangled.

“Uuu…”

He immediately pushed Akari aside, rolled away, and sprang up using the force of the roll.

He glanced at her, and saw that she was also getting up.

She’s strong, Tohru thought unconcernedly.

They had had plenty of skirmishes back in the village of Acura, but up until now they had never fought seriously.

Her ability is on par with mine. So muscle and endurance alone won’t cut it…

He had s.h.i.+rked his training for a whole year, so his abilities had diminished somewhat. Akari, however, seemed to be even better than before. Not to mention…

Did my wound open up again? he thought, as if it was somebody else’s problem.

Akari had done a more proper job of sewing up the wound on Tohru’s back, but it hadn’t had the time to heal completely yet. In everyday life there was usually no danger of straining spinal muscles, but all the leaping and bounding he was doing now was taking its toll.

Even in stamina, Tohru had no chance of victory against Akari.

So–

It’ll be a sudden death match then.

Preparing his swords, Tohru came to a decision.

If there was one advantage to be had, it was the difference in their weapons. Akari’s weapon excelled in destructive power, but its attack patterns were limited. For its rotation to be effective, all of its movements had to be large and p.r.o.nounced.

Tohru’s weapons, on the other hand, could thrust as well as slash, but far and away their most important advantage over the hammer was that they were light, making them easily maneuverable. Also, since he had two of them, the number of skills he had at his disposal doubled.

If he could make use of that difference, he might be able to turn the tables.