I moved my hands toward Towa’s floating breasts. Then, just as my fingers were about to touch her voluptuous silhouette, they passed right through.
“...What are you doing, big brother?”
“Yeah, what are you doing?” Yukihime chimed in.
“Uhh, I thought I might be able to touch her... Guess not.”
“Stop goofing around and begin the next step.”
“The next step?” Yukihime moved ahead of me and turned around.
“Fight. What do you think we’re here for?”
“I have to fight already? Seems kinda sudden...”
“We don’t have time to let you ease back into the swing of things, now do we?”
“...Guess not.”
“Liberation – Snowbloom.” Yukihime gripped her azure blade. “Here I come.”
“Bring it on.”
Yukihime swung her left hand down, and a barrage of icicles shot out toward me. They were closing in fast, and there was no way I could dodge them all. I thrust my twinblade out in front of me and began spinning it at a rapid rate. As it started deflecting the icicles, I sped up my mind and body.
The moment I tried to get closer, Yukihime created a huge star circle. Out of it slid a hulking block of ice, ready to run me over like a train. I could dodge sideways, but the thought had only just crossed my mind as icicles came shooting out of the ground on both sides. I was being attacked from three different directions at the same time. I thought about jumping back, but I wouldn’t be able to escape the block of ice in that direction. Jumping upwards was also out of the question, since I wouldn’t be able to move when in mid-air. Which meant...
I injected star power into my twinblade, twisted the hilt, and split the blade in two. When I swung both of the glowing blades at the same time, two golden slashes shot out and destroyed the icicles on both sides of me.
Normally, this move was impossible for me, but Towa’s power freed me from the critical limitations of having no star sorcery range. I managed to get rid of the icicles on the right and left, but shaving off bits and pieces of the ice block that was coming from ahead wasn’t getting me anywhere.
I gripped my blades, poured more star power into them, then released one of the gigantic star power slashes that Towa was so skilled at creating. My slash collided with the ice block and eradicated it. Now I could finally move toward Yukihime – but she was no longer in front of me. Where did she go?
“Big brother, above you!” Towa called out.
I quickly looked up and saw Yukihime kicking off a square panel of ice. She raised her sword over her head, then came sailing down toward me. I crossed my blades upward and prepared to block the attack from above.
We clashed. In the next moment, Yukihime instantly created a block of ice behind her and used it to jump back into the air. Now she was behind me. Before either of us could turn around, I thrust my longsword backwards. Likewise, Yukihime thrust her own blade backwards, blocking my sword once again. After we clashed back to back, I ran out to create some distance, then swung my blades and shot two slashes into an empty space.
Yukihime squinted in suspicion. It must have looked like I was doing something pointless, but these actions were necessary for the star sorcery I was about to activate. Yukihime didn’t seem to care, and came running – right into my trap.
“SlashSet – Release.”
The moment Yukihime’s body entered the trajectory I had swung along, I chanted the words necessary to activate my star sorcery. Suddenly, the two slashes reappeared and sliced up Yukihime’s uniform.
“...What?” Yukihime froze.
That was the correct decision. If she took another step forward, she’d fall into another one of my slash traps. SlashSet was a star sorcery that allowed me to cause slashes to reappear where I had swung earlier. By using my time elemental star sorcery, I waited until Yukihime ran across the right spot and wound time back to where my slash had still been active. The star power in my slashes allowed them to retain their attack power when time was reversed, which meant that anyone standing there would get sliced up.
“That’s a pretty crafty move for you.”
“It’s all thanks to Towa.”
I would have never been able to use that move without her. The only things I could do on my own were speed up my mind to make things appear slower and speed up my body to make me move faster, although it tired me out. I could also use Progress Boost, which sped up how quickly my star power charged and allowed me to launch a really powerful attack, but that was about it. All I could really do was speed up and strengthen myself, the most basic of abilities.
“Gotta move cautiously, or I’ll get slashed again, right? No matter. I’ve already thought of several ways to get past this,” Yukihime said.
“Oh yeah? Let’s see ‘em.”
Yukihime raised her left hand into the air. “No, I think I’ll save them for now and just force my way through instead.”
“...Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m not about to let you test me.” Her gentle smile sent a chill up my spine.
In the next instant, I felt star power above me. I glanced up to see a gargantuan block of ice – the move Yukihime used to defeat me two battles ago.
The Stardrop, which earned its name from the fact that Yukihime dropped a block of ice large enough to be a meteor.
“You think that’s gonna work?!” With ease, I shot a slash upward and cleaved the ice.
“How about this?” Suddenly, an even larger ice block appeared. Can I actually cut through that? I hesitated for a moment.
“Just fast forward!” Towa’s voice echoed.
“Yeah.”
I combined my twinblade again and quickly spun it several times, but not in order to speed up my body. I followed through with what I usually did to speed up, but stopped right before I activated the star sorcery itself. Then, I threw my twinblade straight at the ice block. I was going to activate this star sorcery from a distance.
The moment my twinblade pierced it, I activated the star sorcery and sped up the ice block as fast as I could. This caused the ice to melt. No matter how big that block of ice was, it couldn’t last forever. If enough time passed, it would melt away, and I could make all that happen in the blink of an eye with a little acceleration. This had been what Towa meant when she said ‘fast forward.’
I caught my twinblade as it fell, then prepared to close in on Yukihime once and for all.
“I knew you two would give me a good fight... Guess I’ll have to get serious now.”
As she said that, a staggering surge of star power emanated out from Yukihime. It felt like something even more powerful than her Stardrop was coming... then, just as I recovered my stance–
“You can’t block this, can you?”
She slashed me. Yukihime stood in front of me with her blade out. What did she do to me? The moment I saw her disappear, I got hit. I couldn’t even tell when she had seemingly teleported and reappeared. There was no trace of where she had moved, or when she had attacked.
“And that makes my 1,001st win. In terms of fighting you and Towa together, I have one win and one loss. Ahh, finally... I finally beat you.” Yukihime revealed a content smile.
“...What was that just now?”
Yukihime answered my question. What she unveiled to me was a star sorcery so frightening, I could do nothing but stand aghast.
That night, Yukihime and I sat across from each other in the living room. Often, after Towa fell asleep, Yukihime and I would sit here and talk about things that we normally weren’t able to.
“Can I ask you a question?” Yukihime spoke up suddenly.