Katahane no Riku

Chapter 5.The sharpened sword and the thrown away?sword

Following after Vrusto, Riku arrived at a cave.

Pushing away the cloth that was in front of the entrance, they went inside it. The place was dimly dark. It was somewhat chilly too. Right as Riku started rubbing her own arms, Vrusto laughed with his nose.

“Is it really so cold you can′t even stand it?”

“Five-men leader Vrusto, isn′t it cold for you?”

“Not even a bit. It′s because I am covered in fur… Hey, here.”

With his hand, Vrusto signed her to come in a rude manner.

As she came closer, she noticed in there was a great variety of weapons side-by-side. Because it was somewhat dark, she didn′t know well, but starting from swords, there were spears, axes and weapons that looked like bows tightly organized next to each other. It seemed like that cave was an armory.

“Anything inside here is fine. Choose the one you think you can handle the best.”

“Uhh… But it′s dark and I can′t see very well.”

“Do you want me to light a fire for you? Stupid, what do we do if it lights up the gunpowder? Well, most of demons can see well in the dark, so this level of darkness usually wouldn′t have been much of a thing.”

To Vrusto′s blunt response, Riku didn′t say anything else.

As expected demons and humans were very different. But if that is the case, why was it that Leivein had chosen to take Riku into his battalion? Next time, she decided she should try asking that if possible. As Riku was thinking about that, her eyes laid on a certain weapon.

“It can be any weapon, right?”

“Yeah… By the way, have you ever even touched a weapon?”

“More or less.”

From a very early age, in order to fight against demons, she had been practicing to use varied arms.

She had trained with them, although she couldn′t imbue the weapon with spiritual power. As she remembered her training, she became kind of solitary. Her father wasn′t there to train her anymore. Because she was now a member of the demon army, it was now completely impossible for her to visit the Barusak residence. Meeting her father, or her little brother, or her a bit prideful older sister; all of it was now impossible. Whether it was her impression or not, she felt her view blurring a bit.

“Hey, choose something. Stop wasting time.”

“…Yes.”

Riku rubbed her eyes with the sleeves of her clothes. And then, she started to look for a weapon.

Thinking back of the weapon most easy to handle at the training, she tried touching many two-handed swords. But because she had trained many times with the same sword, she couldn′t find anything that felt like it matched her. Putting the swords back, she looked overhead. Up there in the corner, she fixed her eyes on a certain spear. With a single glance , one would think it was very much like a spear. However, right on the tip of the spear, there were attached an sharp axe shaped blade and the hook at the other side. Right at the moment Riku saw the tip, unconsciously…

“A halberd!”

She unconsciously shouted.

Just by the appearance of the weapon, it was cool, but because it could not only cut, but also thrust, sweep, and other things, that it was possible to fight in many different ways with the weapon. But its flexibility also demands a lot of ability to handle the weapon. Actually, among the spiritualists of the Barusak household, the amount of people that could properly use the weapon were very few.

Since long ago Riku, liked halberds. As she would play with a training halberd made of wood, she would be always imagining that when she became a spiritualist, she would wield a halberd to fight off the demons.

The dream of her wielding a halberd perhaps would actually come true.

“I will chose this one.”

Riku took the halberd to her hand.

The very heavy weight weighted down onto her arms. It was many times heavier than the training halberd she had made at home. But, strangely, the weight felt very well fit. Besides, if it was this level of heaviness, then it was something that she would eventually get used to. Knowing the basics of spear wielding, she tried to lightly spin it in her hand. With that, the sound of air being cut was possible to be heard. She felt like there was nothing more perfect than that.

“What? You will choose this one?”

Vrusto raised his voice intensity by one level.

“Don′t choose this one. It is too hard for you.”

“I will learn.”

“It′s not at the level of managing to use it somehow just by learning it. For starters, it should be something like that sword, or maybe a spear.”

“Thank you. But it′s fine for me. When I was still at home, I used to train with a training halberd. Besides, you told me to choose anything I wanted, right?”

“Well, certainly it kinda feels fitting on you… Ok, change your clothes there. After changing your clothes, go to the place marked on the map. It will be training.”

As Vrusto gave a big sigh, he threw to Riku some kind of package.

As she catched the packadge with the hook of the halberd, without saying anything, Vrusto left the place. Opening the package, inside there were clothes and something that seemed to be a map. Stretching the clothes, she noticed that it was the same kind of military clothes Vrusto was wearing. Because of the darkness, she wasn′t certain of its color, but if it was the same as the one Vrusto was wearing, it should be dark green. Changing into the clothes, when she passed her arm through the sleeves, she noticed they were a bit long to her. But it still wasn′t to the extend which she would need to fold the sleeves. Finishing wearing the uniform, she moved the halberd to her shoulder.

“Alright.”

After leaving the armory, using the map given by Vrusto, she started walking, heading to the place.

On the way, she has been given glances, but when she would look at the direction of those glances, there wouldn′t be anybody looking at her anymore. All there would be was demons that were doing nothing but sword training. While thinking how strange it was, Riku reached to the place it was marked in the map.

In the center of that place that was similar to some kind of arena, Vrusto was swinging some kind of wooden sword. Before Riku could say anything, Vrusto′s nose moved. And then, turning to her direction, he pointed the tip of the sword to her. Right away, Riku readied her halberd. Vrusto laughed using his nose as he saw Riku′s defensive stance.

“You came, brat. Let′s start this training at once.”

Vrusto threw to her direction a wooden weapon. In its tip, there were the axe and hook parts of the halberd which were made of wood. It was a wooden halberd. Riku made a discontent face.

“This is a training halberd?”

“It′s better like that. This is training after all. See? I am going to use one against you too.”

Vrusto was showing a provocative smile.

Riku left her halberd lying on the ground and readied herself with the wooden halberd. If it was a training halberd, then she had already used it many times. That′s why she thought everything would be fine somehow. Deciding where to aim, she rushed at Vrusto aiming for his neck.

But Vrusto, as he was showing a carefree smile, lightly stroke the halberd away. Although it was lightly hit, the trajectory of the halberd changed. Then, without mercy he hit Riku, who was still trying to recover the direction of her weapon, right at her arm.

“It hurts!”

Because the shock and the pain that went through her arm, Riku let go of her halberd.

But even so, Vrusto didn′t stop attacking. Aiming at the now unarmed Riku′s belly, he kicked her with all his strength. With the blow, Riku had lost some air from her lungs. With no time to suffer from the pain, a strong force went through her back. She was thrown all the way to the wall.

Her belly and back hurt, and her arm too. It wasn′t as much as that time when she was at Perikka, but it still hurt so much that it felt like tears would start coming out of her eyes.

“Stop wasting time. Stand up already and come!”

Vrusto once again pointed his training weapon to Riku.

Riku unsteadily got up. She trained so much before, but even so for some reason her feet and arms weren′t doing well enough. At the time she was still doing training at the Barusak household, it had always been said of her that her spiritual arts were very lacking, but even so, that her physical strength was reasonably good. But even so, not even one attack went through him. Vrusto gave a look at Riku as if he was troubled.

“Certainly compared to human brats, you are superior. But…”

Immediately after she picked the wooden halberd up, Vrusto′s traning sword was already closing up to her.

Riku panicked. Putting her strength in her halberd, she somehow pushed the blow aside. But right after that, she felt a strong blow to her belly even though she had properly defended the training sword. Due to her intense pain, she crouched while putting her hands onto her belly. And finally…

“Why…?”

This word had left her mouth.

As she moved her eyes up a bit, she saw Vrusto in a posture which he had his right knee raised up. In the end, it seemed that the pain was from the knee strike he had done. But even so, Riku couldn′t understand. The kick from before and the knee from this time… It happened even though they were doing training with weapons. She wondered why would he use such moves.

As if he had read her mind, Vrusto laughed at her as if he was looking down on her.

“You are wondering why I used kicks and the sort, right? Stupid. The technique you are using is only for fencing. From now on, you will be going to the battlefield. There, you won′t need cute techniques. Put this onto your head!”

Vrusto lightly swung his training sword.

Despite how she was crouched down now, the sword was quickly approaching. Rolling on the ground, Riku evaded the attack. Picking up her own weapon, she tried to somehow defend once again from the next attack. She frowned at the weight of the blow that was put on her weapon. It was possible to hear the floor cracking by the force that was onto her feet. Because of all the weight, she was starting to hear cracking sounds from her arms. While gritting her teeth, she somehow was able to resist. As she did so, Vrusto whistled, pleased with what happened.

“Hou, you defended. Then, what about this?”

Right at the corner of her field of vision, she noticed Vrusto moving his left foot.

Then, Riku instantly jumped back. It was just how much she didn′t want to be kicked at her belly again. But his right foot, without even being aimed at her, just like that, was put down to the ground. Vrusto, who was leaning forward, was now aiming for Riku′s legs. Just as Riku landed, she was hit and lost her balance.

“Waah!”

Tripping up, Riku fell down in an unsightly manner.

An excruciating pain was echoing from her spine through her whole body. Her vision was gradually becoming blur. Riku′s whole body was in so much pain that she couldn′t bear. If it was the Riku from before, she would have probably screamed and cried. But she knew that now, if it was just this much, she shouldn′t do this sort of things.

Before Vrusto could provoke her, she unsteadily got up. While straining her feet to keep standing, she readied her halberd, full of fighting spirit. While lowering her stance, she was deciding where to aim.

“Hee, you can still stand up? I wonder until when you will be able to keep this up.”

At a nice timing, Vrusto swung his weapon. Aiming at Riku′s flank, he swung his sword down. Riku, who could only keep looking to the front, without being able to react received the blow. The pain, which would remain unvoiced, ran from her flank to the whole body. While tightly holding her halberd, she fell down to the ground.

Kicking Riku, who fell down to the ground, Vrusto said.

“Listen to this, alright? Never lose your composure. You must only think on how to kill your opponent!

“…”

Riku half opened her eyes and looked at Vrusto′s movement. Out of boredom, Vrusto was tapping his shoulder with his training sword. He must have thought that Riku wouldn′t be able to get up for some time. He was now uninterestedly looking at the sky.

Then, her mouth was formed into a smile.

To only think on ways to kill your opponent. All she had learned until now was how to infuse spiritual power onto equipment and how to use such equipment. The formal way to use weapons was almost like an already decided rule. If she were to get older,perhaps, she would have learned more practical forms, but she was thrown out before being able to reach to this point.

“Really, for you to not be able to stand up again… In the end, humans are humans…”

Out of boredom, he started to whistle.

With aim to Vrusto′s legs, tightly holding her halberd, she thrust it at him, who was now slacking. Because of the surprise from the sudden attack that came from bellow, Vrusto unsightly raised his voice. Using this chance, she got up in a way that looked as if she had jumped.

“Take this!!”

Aiming for the unguarded private parts, Riku swung her fist and hit there.

Vrusto, who took such a direct hit, twisted his face in pain. It must have hurt a lot, she had thought. With bulging eyes, Vrusto′s full of fur face became twisted. He leaned over as he was holding his private parts. Lowering her weapon, Riku felt as if she did something unforgivable. But she didn′t really do anything wrong. Vrusto said to only think in ways to kill the opponent. He didn′t only use his weapon, but also used kicks and so.

That′s why Riku decided to think she didn′t do anything wrong…

But hearing his groans, she started to doubt whether she actually did the right thing.

“Uhh… Are you alright?”

“If it seems like I am alright, then you are fucking blind.”

Looking at Vrusto′s eyes, it was possible to see his tears shining.

Riku averted her eyes from Vrusto. She started feeling like running away from this awkward situation. But before anything, right at the corner of her vision, there was a blow coming. Even though she had her weapon lowered down, Riku immediately shoved aside the incoming blow.

“Tch, you avoided it.”

The one attacking was none other than Vrusto, who was a few moments ago groaning on the ground.

Riku was making a surprised face.

“Are you alright?”

“Stupid. There is no way I am alright! It hurts to the point of making me want to cry!! If you can′t handle this much, you would just die in real battles!!”

Vrusto′s sword was being aimed at her neck.

Receiving the blow with the hook, she tried to kick Vrusto at his belly. But right away, her foot was caught, and then she was thrown away.”

“Don′t just go for kicks!! You gotta think your next moves!”

Vrusto′s angry yell were resounding through the training site.

From then on, it isn′t known for how much time this carried on. It was all pretty much just swinging weapons and Riku being hit, kicked and sent flying. But even so, with determination, she kept standing up again and keeping it up. This, countless times repeating it.

“Well then, that′s it for today.”

When Vrusto finally declared that, the sun was already setting.

The sky to the west was faintly red and the first stars were already possible to be seen. Riku exhaustedly sat down.

“Tomorrow, we will be continuing on with that. Hey, for now, go take a bath. After that, it will be dinner.”

And then, Vrusto threw a towel to her.

A white towel fell down onto Riku′s head. It was worn out by its long use, but even so, it was a very clean white towel. Riku then timidly looked to Vrusto.

“Hmmm? What is it, brat? I will already be saying, but the only reason why I′m taking care of you is all because captain Leivein ordered me to. Otherwise, there would be no way for me to be bothered by some human brat. You should be thanking the captain.”

After saying that, Vrusto left the place to somewhere,

In the training arena, only Riku was left. Using her wooden halberd to get up, she grasped the towel.

Then, looking forward to go to the bath, she started going her way, but suddenly had to stop.

“Ah… I forgot to ask where the bathing place is…”

With those words not being heard by anyone, her silhouette vanished within the dark sunset.

———————————

A few hours later, on that same day, through the royal capital, there was a small shadow running.

Even though it was already very dark at night, the person was using a hat to hide the face. The shadow was vigorously running through a back-alley. In the shadow′s small hands, there was a letter that had been crumpled to a paper ball.

The name of that person was Kurumi. Behind the hat, were long squirrel ears hidden; ones that only demons would have. She was a girl that was tasked on infiltrating the capital′s taverns. Because the taverns would gather guards serving the nearby castles and spiritualists, it was the perfect place to gather information for the Demon Lord′s army. While doing simple chores, that girl, who would gather information at all those nights, including this one, with all her efforts, was finally able to find an information that could be influential to the demon lord′s army.

“Finally… I was finally obtained something. With that, I can finally say farewell to going to those alcohol stinking places! Going back to the demon capital, I can finally live in a house that doesn′t have cracks and holes blowing cold wind!”

“Unfortunately, that′s as far as you will go.”

But suddenly a person blocking Kurumi′s path appeared.

Waking up from her happiness, contrary to her previous feelings, the feeling of the danger that appeared dominated her. And then, Kurumi looked at the girl that appeared in front of her eyes. The girl that stood there had a mismatching appearance to that alcohol stinking back-alley.

It was a big breasted maid with a broom in her hands whose breast size was so big it made one want to ask whether she was actually using fillings. Even Kurumi, who didn′t have much interest in clothes, knew how high level the quality of the maid clothes the maid in front of her was using were.

“What?”

“Regarding the information which you obtained, I have something to talk with you.”

The big breasted maid was step by step closing in the distance between them. While she tightly held the letter, she started to step back. That information was one that, no matter what, she needed to report. Her little head started to work on thinking how to run away from that situation.

“No Mary, I want to talk to her myself.”

From behind the big breasted maid, there was a voice that had an intellectual feeling to it.

With the appearance of that other person, Kurumi unconsciously put her guard up. She readied herself so that she could immediately use the knife secretly hidden inside her sleeve at any time. At the worst possible occasion, she would need to directly confront them to open a path of escape. On her forehead, a single drop of sweat flowed down.

“B-but! Even though it is a young one, the opponent is a demon. It might be dangerous to young master.”

“It′s fine Mary. Because she is certainly a kind-hearted demon.”

Saying that, the one that was behind the big breasted maid finally appeared.

It was a child wearing very expensive clothes and with an elegant appearance. As she saw that, Kurumi ended up putting a perplexed face. She was certain that he would be a bit older, but he was actually a child even younger than her. His hands were so small that he would most likely not be able to even properly hold a sword. It started to feel stupid how Kurumi had her guard up before.

“Kind-hearted? Who are you talking about?”

“It′s obvious that it is about you, right? Because with your power, you could have already broke through us. But even so, you waited to hear us out. While you could have already attacked us, you instead want all to end peacefully.You… Your true thoughts actually are that you don′t want to hurt anybody.”

“Wha-?Th- There is no way it is like that!”

By that child′s nonsense talking, Kurumi blushed.

Without doubt, she was angry. Being said she was someone like that made Kurumi so embarrassed that she couldn′t stand. In denial to that child′s words, she took out her knife.

“I′m not kind-hearted or something like that!! Specially to you humans!!”

She then planned to cut through the child and deliver the information at once.

Aiming for the child and the maid, she dashed forward. But…

“Ehh?”

Right after the moment she had thought about it, her arm was seized by the child. Because of the sudden scene, Kurumi was taken by the surprise. She didn′t notice the movements of that child. It could only mean that the child was faster than her. Kurumi didn′t know what was happening. Right next to Kurumi′s ears, the child whispered.

To the point of being unimaginable for a child, it was a very kind and enchanting voice.

“You closed your eyes, you know? When you pointed that knife to us.”

“Such a thing…”

Being told something she didn′t even notice herself, Kurumi was dumbfounded. Even the knife that slipped off her hand went by unnoticed to her.

“I know the real you. If you don′t really want to hurt anybody, then this war itself… If it is me… No, if you and me cooperate, we can stop this war. That′s why I have something to ask you.”

The moment the sound of the knife falling down reverberated through the back-alley. Something inside Kurumi had changed.

Kurumi herself didn′t notice, but now the bloodlust in her eyes from before wasn′t there anymore. The blush in her cheeks changed into something that wasn′t anger.

“I understand… But… I really need to report this information.”

“Yes, I know. So, from the information there, I need you to only take a single word from it.”

Near Kurumi′s ear, the child whispered something. Looking at it in other way, it was like lovers whispering love words. One could only wonder what thoughts the maid had when seeing this scene. With her face red, the big breasted maid cleared her throat, interrupting.

“Young master, you are flirting with her too much.”

“Ah, sorry Mary.”

Like a wave going back to the sea after having been blown to the shore, he distanced himself from Kurumi.

Because of the fading warmth, Kurumi showed a bit solitary expression.

“I understand… I will do as you say. But… Before I go, tell me one thing. What is your name?”

Kurumi looked at the boy which was being now carried by the big breasted maid′s arms.

Showing a smile comparable to a angel, he said with a very gentle voice.

“I am Rook Barusak. Nice to meet you, Kurumi-chan.”

Being carried by the maid, he was brought out of the back-alley. While thinking back to those words said by Rook before, she also left the place. But now, the strength that was put into holding the letter wasn′t as much as the amount from a little ago.

“Quickly…I need to report this information.”

But this murmur wasn′t regarding the matter of the Demon Lord army.

And at the back-alley nobody remained, the forgotten knife was giving off a solitary shine.