Noble Art 2

"Okay. Thanks for guiding me, Uta-kun."


The girl with glasses and chestnut-colored hair brandished her sword sparkling with golden electricity.

"Toudou-san…."

"It has to be by a hair's breadth, but it's good that you two are safe."

Touka looked at Ikki and Stella's figures, and while her eyes were slightly damp, she showed some relief. And then she tightened her face again.

"Please have a rest, the two of you. I'll handle everything here."

Lowering her body, she prepared to attack the stone dolls that surrounded Ikki and the others.

But Stella turned to Touka and raised her voice to stop Touka.

"Wait, Touka-san! Swords don't work on these things! It's ridiculous to fight these incomprehensible opponents by yourself! I'll also―"

―fight. Stella was going to say this.

"It's fine. I know their weakness."

"Eh…!"

Touka said so.

"It's inorganic matter being manipulated by threads of magic power, instigated by an enemy. This, out of the many types of Device, is a battle technique used by those who favor Steel Wire Usage. And for this battle technique, there is an inviolable rule. When operating multiple dolls simultaneously, one doesn't operate everything directly, but uses some dolls to operate others. In other words, one creates linchpins, and uses them for management. The biggest merit of this battle technique is that while the user conceals himself, he'll attack one-sidedly without risking injury, which makes finding the enemy the number one countermeasure. In that case, the threads that link to him should be made exceedingly subtle. But… if we say it in reverse, as long as we break the hub of those strings, Steel Wire Usage won't be able to operate its dolls."

It was a tactic that couldn't be used standing in an arena without places to hide. In other words, it was a way of fighting that student knights weren't accustomed to. However, while Touka was a student knight, she had gone to the scene of crimes many times as a member of the special convention along with Toutokubara, and currently had experience confronting terrorists. Consequently, she had a thorough knowledge of styles that Ikki and Stella were unfamiliar with.

With that knowledge, her eyes―

"Found it."

Among the dozens of crawling stone dolls, she exposed the one body operating all of the dolls in an instant. And in that instant, Touka's body disappeared.

No, not disappeared. Before anyone could see it, she pierced the enemy line―she plunged toward the hub that she had discovered.

Shippu Jinrai.[6]

Stimulating her muscles with the power of lightning, it was Touka's Noble art that increased her performance to its limit. That speed, it was undoubtedly like lightning. The stone dolls couldn't react to the abrupt change in situation at all. Simply put, wooden puppets certainly could only be caught flat-footed―

"―Raikiri!"

Within that instant, everything was decided.

With the speed of a flash, a blade of plasma was unsheathed, and the hub was bisected with a single stroke.

Then came a blast of air, and all the stone dolls on the field were demolished. After a blast that appeared to send everything flying ended, there was not a single enemy remaining.

There was no sign that the dolls were being recreated again. The enemy who hadn't been found yet seemed to have withdrawn after the hub was destroyed.

"Amazing…."

Standing alone, Stella voiced her astonishment at Touka's performance.

"It's amazing that she recognized the enemy's weak point immediately, but more than that, Touka-san's balance of superpower and sword technique is very good."

"That's true."

Ikki had the same opinion.

And also, that the strength of Raikiri, Touka Toudou, was probably based on her conviction. The breadth of Touka's practical ability was vast. Given lightning's high offensive power, it wasn't only used for normal attacks. From strengthening physical ability with lightning to observing the psychology of others to manage them, her swordsmanship was born from that. Whether it was superpower or swordsmanship, she displayed them at an extremely high dimension of skill, and brought them together at an equally high dimension.

As for how good that balance was, Ikki who was extremely specialized in swordsmanship of course, in his eyes, believed that Touka was higher ranked than Stella. Stella herself probably perceived Touka's strength which she didn't match.

"Honestly, I've been considerably enlightened."