C-Rank Ranked Match — Four-Blade Style Vs. Three-Blade Style

Niko vs Kurenai.

Gunman City. A town dressed up like something out of an old Western, the kind of place that could have passed for a movie set. The two of them faced off along its main street.

“Finally, I get to fight you. I’ve been looking forward to this forever.”

Both Niko and Kurenai were grinning, teeth bared at each other.

“We’re both pure Attackers, no guns for either of us. And telling me not to fixate on you? Yeah, that’s just asking the impossible.”

Niko fought twin-blade, her Sabers held in a reverse grip; Kurenai fought single-blade, with her greatsword. The two Thruster-Boosted in the same instant and locked their sabers together.

“Ngh—!”

In the blade-lock, Kurenai had the upper hand.

“No matter how you slice it, I’m the one with a Wing equipped — I win any shoving match, hands down!!”

Just as she’d promised, Niko was driven steadily back, then shoved clean through the wall of a saloon and into the building beyond.

But all of this was exactly what Niko had counted on.

“Idiot. You went and walked right into a nice, cramped little box!”

“?!”

Niko twisted out of the blade-lock and drove a Shin Saber straight at Kurenai’s face. Kurenai ducked under it, then snapped her right foot up and thrust with a saber sprouting from the sole, but Niko caught it and turned it aside with the Shin Saber on her own leg. Kurenai Thruster-Boosted, trying to slip in behind her, but the cramped space wouldn’t let her hit full speed, and Niko read the move easily.

They lashed out with every saber on both arms and both legs, and with a deafening crash they hammered each other apart, distance yawning open between them.

“So the first blade-lock was on purpose. You let me push you in, lured me inside the building, and choked off my Thruster. Open it up too much in a tight space and you slam into a wall.”

“Pretty much.”

Neither of them reached for their Shield Pieces. Short of being a Guardner, you simply can’t stop a saber with one; that’s how much weight a single saber strike carries.

“Alright — here I come!!”

Niko sprang up and kicked off the wall.

“Heh!”

She spun and came bearing down on Kurenai.

“So this is that spinning slash I’ve heard about!”

Spinning-Top Slash.

Niko’s signature technique. She tuned her Thruster output with exquisite precision, whirling her body at blistering speed and slashing as she cut in. Working her Slide Step into it, she ranged all over the room without pause, up and down, side to side.

At a glance it looked monotonous, but actually laying a hand on that spinning top was a nightmare. She moved too fast to draw a bead on, and with her body in a constant spin, her trajectory was impossible to predict. Freeze your feet and she’d close the gap in a heartbeat and cut you down; do nothing and she’d whittle you away, one-sided.

And Kurenai’s answer to Niko’s brilliant technique?

“Second-rate.”

Kurenai fired up her Wing and shot straight to the ceiling.

“?!”

“The spinning top’s weak spot is up here, right?”

Kicking off the ceiling, Kurenai accelerated, driving for the crown of Niko’s head, the blind spot at the top of the spin.

“Tch—!!”

Niko cut the spin short and caught the greatsword on the Sabers in both hands, but she couldn’t hold it, and her left arm was sheared clean off.

“Gah—?!”

“There — here’s another!!”

Kurenai brought both feet up and extended a saber from each sole.

A somersault…!

Niko barely parried the foot-sabers away with her Shin Sabers and pulled back to open distance.

“Ngh… tough…!”

There was no doubt the spinning top’s weak point sat directly overhead. But to strike it, to aim at the pocket of air above a Niko moving at blinding speed, was a feat no ordinary player could manage.

The sheer level of Kurenai’s skill dragged a smile out of Niko despite herself.

“Starting to regret accepting a one-on-one? Too bad for you — I’m a class above.”

A class above, huh. Niko’s eyes narrowed.

Oh yeah? So what of it. Next to her, someone like you doesn’t even come close…!

Niko remembered. A certain girl she’d met back in January of her second year of middle school.

That day, Niko had been cutting class with the school’s other outcasts, playing a full-dive fighting game in an empty classroom. When she and the others logged out for a break and surfaced back into reality, the girl was simply there, standing in front of them, arrived before anyone had even noticed.

The girl’s name was Koshiki Azuha. Newly elected student council president, she’d come to whip the delinquents into line.

“Instead of skipping, how about you come to class? At this rate, every one of you is going to be held back a year.”

Something in Azuha’s faintly condescending tone sent a flash of irritation through second-year Niko.

“Th-that’s the student council president, Niko…”

“I-isn’t this really bad?”

Ignoring her hangers-on, Niko glared at Azuha.

“I couldn’t care less about repeating a year. Not if the price is doing what those garbage teachers say.”

“You may not care, but it’s a problem for me. If someone in my year gets held back or expelled, it reflects on my record. — And if we set aside every last pro and con and I go purely on feeling, then honestly, I couldn’t care less what becomes of any of you.”

“…You really tick me off.”

“You can think whatever you like about me. Just come to class.”

“No.”

Azuha considered for a few seconds, then said:

“What’s the one thing you’re best at?”

“Huh?”

“If I beat you at whatever you’re best at, you’ll obey me without question. In the delinquent world, strength is everything — isn’t that right? So I’ll make you understand. With strength.”

That attitude, so contemptuous, even Niko began to lose her cool.

“Bring it on! If you can actually beat me at this fighter, I’ll go to your precious classes!!!”

Her hangers-on laughed. Reckless Fighter, the game Niko played, ran in a full-dive environment, and Niko was the reigning prefectural champion in it. There was no way she could lose. Everyone was sure of it.

Everyone but one.

“Sure. Let’s do it. Hand it over.”

Azuha borrowed a full-dive rig from one of Niko’s hangers-on.

“Huh? You’ve actually played this game before?”

“No, but it doesn’t matter. With a full-dive game, I can get the gist of it by feel.”

“…Don’t come whining about the terms after you lose.”

Thrash this cocky honor student. That was the spirit Niko took into the match.

The result: a crushing, total defeat for Niko at Azuha’s hands.

“Wha…?! Huh…?!”

She hadn’t stood a chance. Against an opponent she couldn’t land a single gauge move on, she’d been ground down to the very last shred.

Reflexes, processing speed, both at the absolute summit. Niko had been trampled flat under sheer, overwhelming talent. No matter the opponent, even a top-tier national-level player, she’d never once been beaten this cleanly; the gulf between them was too vast to even measure.

“Boring.”

With that, Azuha pulled off the full-dive rig. Something in the look on Azuha’s face as she said it, a boredom that went bone-deep, drew Niko in, though she couldn’t have said why.

“I know the faculty had it out for you because you decked a teacher who was sexually harassing students. Relax. I’ve already gotten rid of that piece of trash, and I’ve cleared up every other teacher’s misunderstanding about you. There’s no one left who’ll come after you unfairly anymore.”

“You… what even are you?”

“Koshiki Azuha. Just a person who wants to live a normal life, that’s all.”

She said it wrapped in an aura that was plainly anything but normal. And for the first time in her life, Niko found herself interested in another person.

A few months passed, and then Niko handed her a copy of Infinity-Space.

“Here. This is for you.”

“I don’t really want it, though.”

“Just take it already! I’m insanely good at this game. Next time, I won’t lose — not even to you.”

“Hah. Whatever.”

And then, a few days later, over a call:

“Hey… did you play it? The game?”

Her voice came out timid, hesitant.

“Oh, that? I gave it to my big sister.”

“Huh? …Haaaaah?!”

“Sorry to say, but I’ve got zero interest in games.”

“W-wait just a second! Come on, just give it one try! If you do, I’m sure you’ll…!”

“…”

After a few seconds’ thought, Azuha said:

“Fine. Then here’s what we’ll do.”

“Huh?”

“If you can beat my big sister, I’ll play it.”

“Sister…? Your sister — what’s her name?”

“Rei. The one and only opponent I’ve never been able to beat.”

At that, a flicker of fear went through Niko, and yet she grinned anyway.

“Rei… Rei, got it. Fine. I’ll take down every last player named Rei, one after the other!”

Niko remembered Azuha’s face, and smiled.

The one and only opponent even that monster can’t beat… and I’m the woman who means to take her down. As if I’d let myself lose in a place like this…!

Niko took up a saber in her one remaining hand.

“Oh? Still got some fight left in you?”

“Obviously! Niko’s whole thing is that she really gets going once she’s backed into a corner!”

“Nice. Now that’s what I like to hear!!”