“I like that look on Kurogane’s face. Seems like he’s found the hole in the Seven Stars King’s fighting style,” Touka muttered, watching the television broadcast from a hospital room at Hagun Academy.
“Is there a hole in his fighting style?”
“There is, though you’d only be able to find it by researching tons of videos like he did. I bet he used their little skirmish to confirm his suspicion.”
“I don’t understand. What could it possibly be?”
“Think about it this way, Kana: if you used a spear, how would you attack?”
Kanata thought for a moment before deciding on her answer.
“I imagine I would use stabbing attacks.”
“Of course you would. Spears are made for stabbing, after all. But their incredible reach gives them another method of attack: sweeping.”
There was more to a spear than just its pointed head. With enough force behind it, the hard staff, usually over a yard in length, could easily break bones. Sweeping techniques were especially prevalent among certain Chinese spearmen, who would often use stabs to force their foe to dodge before swinging their spear like a club. The sweep of a spear couldn’t compare to the swing of a sword, of course, but that didn’t mean it was something that could be ignored.
“But the Seven Stars King doesn’t use sweeps when he fights,” Touka continued. “He’s not just avoiding it now; in every match since his comeback, he’s only used stabs. That includes his match with me, of course.”
“My, I never would have noticed that,” Kanata declared in surprise, but with a refined tone befitting of her usual manner of speaking. “But why is it that he only uses stabs? Does he simply believe that’s all he needs to win?”
“Stabs are strong. With very little effort, you can strike fast and hard, since the power is all focused at the one end. Moroboshi’s Astral Trio goes even further, removing the danger inherent in pulling the spear back. Chances are that it’s his strongest possible method of attack, so maybe, like you said, he never needs to sweep to beat his opponents. That changes when he’s up against a master like Kurogane, though.”
No matter how fast or sharp it was, a stab could only attack a fixed point. It seemed almost harmless in comparison to the wide-range attack that was the sweep. Worse, it was highly predictable, and the follow-through would cause one’s body to naturally lean forward, making it easy for their foe to counterattack.
“A dodged stab gathers no blood,” she explained.
“In other words, you’re saying that Kurogane’s reflexes are going to ensure that he has little trouble overcoming Moroboshi’s fighting style?”
“That’s… what you would normally think.”
Touka grinned in a way that was unusually wicked for her.
“‘Normally’? What do you mean?”
“Unfortunately, the guy Kurogane is up against isn’t normal. If what I just said is what Kurogane is thinking, he’s in for a world of hurt—just like I was a year ago.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What’s this?! Kurogane’s on the offensive again!”
Just as Touka finished giving her vague, grave warning, the match in Osaka jumped back into action. Ikki had confirmed that he no longer harbored any fear, and once again closed the distance between himself and his opponent, ready to expose the hole in Moroboshi’s fighting.
“But Moroboshi’s not going to let him have his way so easily! He counters with another Astral Trio!”
Naturally, Moroboshi led off with a counterattack, using his long reach to preempt Ikki’s charge. For the first blow, Ikki moved right to dodge the spearhead aimed at his forehead.
One!
Then, he stepped left to dodge the one that came for his heart.
Two!
Moroboshi’s Noble Art attacked three places in the space of one breath. It was a terrifying skill, but it was the result of endless training and repetition rather than an inherent, superhuman ability like the Sword Eater’s Marginal Counter. Thus, Ikki could react to it with ease.
I’ve dodged two, so the next one is the last! After that, Moroboshi will pause! Three was probably the most he could stab without stopping to breathe. Thus, Ikki had decided that the third and final stab would be his chance to counterattack. The moment he dodged, he would leap into sword range. I’ll squeeze in there and draw first blood! It might not take him down, but I’ll at least get a leg up on him!
The third stab was trained on Ikki’s femur. When it came, he immediately put his plan into action.
That’s three! Now!
No matter how fast or well-executed, a stab could only attack a single point. If he dodged even inches left or right, it wouldn’t hit him. He sidestepped to the left, ready to pounce into sword range.
I’ll get a nice hit to his torso, and—
As Ikki escaped the stab and prepared his sword to slam into his opponent, a jaw-dropping event occurred in his periphery. The head of Tiger King immediately turned left, changing directions to follow its prey like a snake that had missed its initial strike.
“Hrrrngh?!”
The spear continued its pursuit. Though he was dumbfounded by the nonsensical sight of it, Ikki made the split-second decision to give up on pressing forward. Instead, he jumped to the left once more to move out of the spear’s range. He’d made a hairbreadth escape, but it did not leave him entirely unscathed.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-Whoa! Kurogane, who dodged Astral Trio with ease! Moroboshi, who seemed to be stuck in a defensive battle! Their skirmish, which seemed clearly in Kurogane’s favor, has just been turned upside down! Kurogane’s earlobe has been half-torn off! The King draws first blooood!”
The crowd stirred at Moroboshi’s drawing of first blood. Ikki, however, showed no interest in that blood as it trickled down his neck. What interested him was his opponent’s attack, which made him shudder so powerfully that it shook him from head to toe.
Wh-What was that stab?! I never saw anything like that in the videos!
By watching countless videos of him, Ikki had researched Moroboshi’s fighting style inside and out. That was what had made the hole in his fighting style so clear to him. That attack was different, however; never before had he seen Tiger King behave that way. Ikki first thought it a new skill, but quickly decided that it couldn’t have been—not with the very peculiar problem it posed.
Why didn’t play-by-play say anything about that? Did they not see it?
✦ ✦ ✦
Ikki’s hypothesis was correct: no one in the crowd had noticed the curving of the spear.
“Argh, darn! I thought for sure he was going to get him that time,” Alice frowned in annoyance. She had seen Ikki prepare to strike but fail to take the chance. It was quite the shame. He’d only needed a little more.
At least, that was how it had seemed to her, who thought it a shame because she had only seen that Ikki had failed to dodge the final blow. If she knew what had truly happened in that moment, her view would have been different.
In that last skirmish, Moroboshi had lured Ikki into his trap by coercing him to set upon taking advantage of his weakness of only using stabs. It was an ambush designed to subvert Ikki’s belief that all he had to do to be safe was to move to either side. Everyone in the audience—Alice included—held that belief as well.
“Was he, though?” She hadn’t seen the spear curve, but Shizuku still had her doubts.
“Shizuku? Something up?”
“Look at Big Brother’s face.” Even from a distance, Ikki was visibly shaken. “If it were as simple as him flubbing his dodge, he wouldn’t look so wary. Something happened down there that we couldn’t see. And the one who made it happen must have been Moroboshi.”
✦ ✦ ✦
There was someone aside from Shizuku who knew that something was amiss—someone who had anticipated the outcome.
“I thought he’d use that,” Touka Toudou, the Raikiri stated. It was natural that she had predicted it, because she had fallen for the same trick the year before. “Though he hit me directly in the side with it, since I couldn’t avoid it.”
“President, is there some secret to his stabs? To me, it only seemed as though Kurogane failed to dodge the third and final blow.”
“I said before that the weakness of a stab is how easy it is to avoid as a result of being focused on one spot, but Moroboshi’s stabs overturn that basic logic. No matter where you dodge, his attack curves to follow.”
“It… curves?”
“Yeah. And by using what you could call his ‘pursuing stab’, Moroboshi altogether removes the major drawback of stabbing.”
“But from what I saw, it didn’t appear to bend at all. Further, his ability has nothing to do with altering his reach. Blazers each only have one type of ability, so I can’t imagine that he’s able to change the shape of his Device the way the Sword Eater does.”
“It’s no surprise you didn’t see it bend. You couldn’t have, because it doesn’t. Like you said, what he’s doing isn’t the result of his Noble Art; it’s a skill that relies on his physical abilities, just like Astral Trio.”
“Hm?”
“Anyway, now that he’s drawn first blood, Moroboshi will go on the offensive and press his advantage. This is Kurogane’s moment of truth.”
“The Seven Stars King advances!” the TV blared. Once again, the match developed just as Touka had predicted. “The tables have turned!”