Fox Mask looked at the girl in front of her who couldn’t stop trembling.
Fox Mask tapped Valentine with the sword hilt, signaling him to bend down and listen.
“You go first. I’ll deal with Sakuraraku.”
“Yo—” Because he was wrapped tightly from head to toe, Valentine could only express his surprise through exaggerated body language.
“You’re way too concerned about this magical girl.”
“None of your business. Remember to clean up those disgusting spider eggs before you leave.”
Fox Mask held her blade and said coldly.
“Fox Mask, don’t tell me you’re afraid of spiders.”
Valentine tapped her mask and teased.
“Hey, don’t forget what the boss @’d you about in the group chat.”
Reminded by Fox Mask like that, Valentine finally remembered how dangerous what he had done this time was.
Not only had he gotten carried away and made such a huge commotion in the urban district, he had also talked back to his direct superior, making him so furious he sent Fox Mask to chop him to death.
The moment he thought about how if he really pissed off this little thing in front of him, she would actually draw her blade and slash slash chop him into chunks of meat, and then he’d have to beg Baby Face to sew him back together piece by piece, Valentine couldn’t help shivering.
Better go back and apologize to the boss with a thorn stick before Fox Mask chopped him to death.
Valentine let out two dry “Haha” laughs, waved at Sakuraraku, and turned to leave.
“He sure runs fast.”
Fox Mask muttered inwardly and turned to face Sakuraraku.
They had been sweetly leaning against each other just that morning, and now they had to draw blades against each other.
This sense of disconnect made Nadeshiko’s heart ache faintly.
I’ll make it up to you twice over later, Rakuraku.
Fox Mask drew her blade.
The blade let out a zing of ringing steel.
This blade was named 「Hatsuzakura」.
The blade body was slender and elegant, like a woman’s painted eyebrow.
A touch of sakura color decorated the tsuba, echoing the silver-white tsuba from afar.
She lowered her stance, pointed the tip at Sakuraraku, and lightly brushed the blade with her left hand, taking a standard “Fang Thrust” stance.
“I won’t hold back, Sakuraraku.”
She tossed out that sentence coldly and charged at Sakuraraku like a phantom.
Sakuraraku hurriedly raised her longsword to block.
The blades collided, letting out piercing clang clang sounds.
Just blocking a single strike made Sakuraraku feel as if the web of her thumb had gone numb.
Yet Fox Mask’s attacks continued.
After the thrust missed, she changed the path of her blade: left diagonal cut, thrust, right upward cut.
Three slashes from different directions were launched at almost the same time, forcing Sakuraraku to retreat again and again.
Several slash marks had already appeared on her clothes.
“I can’t keep going like this!”
Sakuraraku knew that in close-quarters combat, she was completely no match for Fox Mask.
Suddenly, a bold idea surged into her mind.
When Fox Mask’s storm-like offensive came again, she abandoned defense and instead threw her longsword toward Fox Mask’s rear diagonal.
In a battle of this intensity, abandoning one’s weapon was no different from seeking death.
Yet just as Sakuraraku expected, when Fox Mask saw her throw her longsword, she clearly paused for an instant.
She twisted the path of her blade again and instead struck Sakuraraku’s abdomen hard with the hilt, sending her flying more than two meters away.
“She really doesn’t dare kill me!”
A mix of joy and bitterness brewed in Sakuraraku’s heart.
“Fox Mask must be a kind child. She sent Valentine away so she wouldn’t hurt me either. But what kind of price will acting like this bring her? Will she be punished by [Night Theater] for letting me go again and again? Or even disposed of?”
Thinking this, Sakuraraku steeled her determination to save Fox Mask.
“I will definitely redeem you, Fox Mask!”
She pulled the hidden magic threads in her hand.
The longsword that had just flown out split into several in midair and was pulled to stab toward Fox Mask.
——
When Fox Mask saw the girl in front of her actually throw away her longsword, the expression under her mask almost couldn’t hold.
Did I hit too hard? Did she lose the will to fight from my attacks and just resign herself to being slaughtered?
Ever since she escaped from her former teammates and joined [Night Theater], Sakuraraku was the first new-era magical girl she had come into contact with, and also her first lesson in playing the villain.
Although she prided herself on having a good sense of measure, she couldn’t help bringing some old-era habits into battle.
Looking at the girl in front of her giving up and throwing her sword, she couldn’t help wanting to go over and hug and comfort her.
But the moment she thought of the system’s punishment, she didn’t quite dare step forward.
Just then, the sound of a longsword tearing through the air cut through her thoughts.
She instinctively sidestepped.
The blade body parried one longsword.
In the instant the longsword hung in the air, she saw Sakuraraku’s eyes.
Those were eyes full of pity yet also resolute.
“I don’t know what you thought of, but it’s really great that you haven’t given up the resolve to fight.”
Nadeshiko smiled in relief under the mask.
She backhanded grabbed one of the longswords hanging in the air, used the momentum to turn and leap up.
Her movements were elegant and light, like a ballerina on stage.
Yet the dual-blade heavy strike coming straight at Sakuraraku was like Mount Tai pressing down, carrying a whistling sound as it slashed toward Sakuraraku.
At the critical moment, Sakuraraku condensed another longsword again and gritted her teeth to block this attack.
Her legs nearly knelt under this overbearing force, pressing irregular cracks into the ground.
Having no intention of wrestling with Sakuraraku, Fox Mask delivered a front kick that sent Sakuraraku flying into the mall ruins, kicking up a large cloud of gray-white dust and the rustle of falling gravel.
(Using the sword hilt to heavily strike the magical girl’s abdomen, Villain Points +50)
(Using a front kick to heavily strike the magical girl’s abdomen, Villain Points +50)
Listening to the system’s prompts, Fox Mask’s mood greatly improved.
This meant she was a little farther from those cruel punishments again.
And Sakuraraku hadn’t fallen into depression because of fighting her.
Wasn’t this a perfect win-win?
Just as she was thinking about how to make her exit, an arrow tore through the air toward her.
She subconsciously swung her blade to cut it down.
But when that arrow hit the ground, it triggered a huge explosion!
Thick smoke and dust covered Fox Mask’s vision.
She quickly retreated, withdrawing from the range of the smoke.
“New magic power. A magical girl?”
The smoke and dust slowly dispersed.
A slender girl’s figure slowly appeared.
Her golden pupils stared straight at Fox Mask.
Three arrows were already nocked on the bow in her hands again.
“Sakuraraku-senpai, where are you?”
So it was a new magical girl?
Another new punching bag she could beat up!
After all, she couldn’t always harvest Villain Points from Sakuraraku alone.
Fox Mask secretly delighted as she sheathed her blade and pointed at the mall ruins behind her.
“What does that mean? Senpai is inside?”
Before the girl could react, Fox Mask snapped her fingers.
In an instant feathers danced around.
She vanished from the spot as if she had never been there.
“She ran away?”
The girl let out a long sigh.
The bow and arrows in her hands turned into particles and drifted away.
She straightened her skirt hem that had wrinkled a little from her movements and walked into the mall.
“Sakuraraku-senpai? Are you here?”
A faint voice answered her call.
“Um, I’m over here.”
Sakuraraku, covered in dust from head to toe, crawled out of a human-shaped hole.
But because her movement was too big, a broken brick from overhead smashed down and made her even more dusty and dirty.
“What a sorry sight.”
The girl with a pair of golden pupils narrowed her eyes at this moment and smirked.
“Hey! If you’re going to call me senpai, then respect me a little!”
Sakuraraku’s face flushed with embarrassment. She stamped her foot angrily, and another layer of sand and dirt shook off her body.