Hanabi

Chapter 18: Monsters

Haruna felt angrier by the minute. That mask kept her from seeing his face, but she knew Myogibou was looking at her in disdain. She could feel it.

- While we’re at it, tell me how you understand the Oni and the way they are related to human’s and youkai’s emotions.

- I don’t wanna talk, I wanna kick your ass.

The brunette attacked again, and he blocked her bokken by holding the shakujo with both hands. She swirled around quickly and tried to make a hit on his neck, but she didn’t have time for that before feeling another strong blow, this time against her back. She lost her balance, but didn’t fall and moved around him again to try another hit.

Unfortunately, she missed again, but Myogibou moved away from her instead of hitting her with the shakujo one more time.

Haruna assumed her normal position with the bokken in front of herself once again, and stared at him. She couldn’t understand why she wasn’t hit and thrown to the ground this time. But it did look like Myogibou was studying her, so maybe that was the reason.

She grinned when she noticed that her old swordswoman self was coming back quickly, it was a lot like riding a bike. All the excitement she always felt as a kid just by holding a bokken was filling her again, and she started to pay more attention to tiny details.

First, Myogibou was more worried about making a point than actually fighting. It felt like he just wanted to prove how they didn’t deserve to have that katana, and she was the easiest and fastest way of doing that. Rina was scared to death, but now Haruna knew how dangerous she was, and Tomoko could cause more damage than most things Haruna had seen in her life. Myogibou just chose what he thought to be the weakest target.

That was a rather coward thing to do, especially for a daitengu.

Second, the fact that he wasn’t that worried about the fight made him let his guard open. Haruna couldn’t hit him because she wasn’t fast enough before he realized his mistakes, but the openings were there. She just had to figure out a way of moving faster.

… Or maybe she didn’t have to move faster. Maybe she just had to move more. That daitengu just had to keep underestimating her, and she’d have enough time to adjust her actions.

- You’re truly arrogant and at the same time truly weak. But that’s normal for humans. - Myogibou said again - You should be worried about every single characteristic of the Oni that you can possibly learn, if you wanna fight them.

He was just trying to mess with her. He was trying to make her feel stupid and small.

Of course Haruna knew she had to learn as much as possible, but what good would that make during a fight? None. Filling her head with Oni talk would only work to change how she channeled her efforts and attention.

That tengu was certainly smart. He really didn’t want to tell them where that katana was.

She advanced towards him again, bokken firmly held, and delivered another blow that was easily dodged when he moved backwards. Going with momentum, she threw herself against him like a bull and saw when he had to jump to the side to completely avoid her. She stopped moving with a smirk on her face and the shakujo hit her on the ribs instantly, making her lose balance and kneel down on the grass.

Her smirk didn’t vanish though.

- What are you trying to pull?

She didn’t intend on answering that question, she was done talking until she could squeeze the information she wanted out of him. Her whole body was aching from the blows she received, so she had to make her hit fast before it turned impossible.