Chapter 39 - Traces

Time seemed to have stopped.

That was how utterly still the rest stop's backyard had become. Had silence been all there was, it might have been bearable. But not now. A tension that weighed down that silence hung over them as well.

It was all because of the intruders on the roof. They merely looked down into the backyard in silence, making no particular move.

In that strange, silent standoff, Ash was the first to speak.

"... You seem to have missed the sign by the door. The rest stop is closed for the day."

It was a perfectly reasonable statement, and utterly out of place. Apparently amused, the intruder in the middle—the one in the wolf mask—gave a low chuckle and replied.

"Is that so? We did not come through the front entrance, so we missed it."

"No matter. Now you know. Why not be on your way? As you can see, our celebration is not yet over."

The wolf mask shook his head.

"I'm afraid we cannot do that, Ash Blade."

"Hmm? You know me?"

Ash sounded indifferent. At the same time, he slipped one arm behind his back and made a few simple Pathfinder hand signals.

[Danger][Protect][Prepare for combat]

Ifrit immediately grasped his meaning. Her eyes sharpened as she slowly moved, wrapping an arm around Akina's shoulders.

"Kid. Stay right next to me from now on. Got it?"

Akina answered with a nod.

Dullahan and Jack also moved slowly, keeping their guard up. They headed toward Santa and Rudolph, whose half-closed eyes suggested he was on the verge of losing consciousness.

Lastly, Siren stuffed the rest of the skewer she had been savoring into her mouth and looked around. Finding something to her liking, she pulled an old sword from the mound of scrap.

Although they were gradually putting themselves into position, the ninja in the wolf mask merely answered Ash's question with the utmost sincerity.

"Of course I know you. You have been quite the sensation lately, haven't you? Our brothers and sisters were most impressed as well."

"By what?"

"Your swordsmanship, sir."

"... Thank you for the compliment. But why is it that you cannot leave?"

The ninja leaped off the roof and landed with remarkable grace.

"There is something we must take with us."

"And what might that be?"

"Nothing much."

The wolf mask turned to look at Rudolph, whom Dullahan and Jack had just begun supporting.

"A thief's... head, shall we say?"

Rudolph trembled at those words. As though that were of no consequence, however, the wolf-masked ninja immediately turned back to Ash.

"So I must ask: do you intend to interfere with our business?"

Unexpectedly, Ash shook his head.

"I have no such intention. It has nothing whatsoever to do with me, does it? And a thief, at that. I have no reason to stop you."

"Heh heh. Quite true."

Santa, who was helping support Rudolph, shouted furiously.

"Hey! Ash! You...!"

"However."

Ash adjusted his grip on his blade, bringing its edge to bear.

"As I said, our celebration is not yet over. Yet your arrival has spoiled the mood. We were having a very pleasant time. What do you intend to do about that?"

The unexpected remark left the ninja speechless. After a moment, he said,

"... Are you demanding compensation?"

"No. I am telling you to leave. Stop making the atmosphere any uglier. We intend to enjoy the rest of our evening."

"As I said, we cannot—"

"Then."

Ash directed his optical sensors at him.

"Are you determined to interfere with our celebration?"

For a moment, the wolf mask could say nothing. He had never expected his own words to be thrown back at him.

He regarded Ash wordlessly for a little while, then his shoulders twitched as a low laugh escaped him.

"Heh... heh heh."

Then, shaking his head slightly, he said to Ash,

"You are far more entertaining than I had imagined."

He snapped his fingers. At that signal, the two ninjas waiting on the roof also leaped down to the ground.

"Regrettably, we will have to interfere with that celebration."

"Hmm. Most unfortunate."

There was no further conversation.

The wolf mask lowered his stance and reached behind his back to grasp his sword's hilt. The courtesy he had displayed vanished without a trace, replaced by bone-chilling killing intent that spread in every direction.

Those behind Ash moved in response. Jack and Dullahan supported Rudolph, while Ifrit held the tightly wound Akina close, retreating toward the Revenant.

Santa and Siren, by contrast, stepped forward and took their places on either side of Ash.

Keeping his gaze fixed on the wolf mask, Ash addressed them.

"My lady, take the rabbit mask on the left. Old Master San..."

He glanced at Santa.

"... Where is your weapon, by the way?"

Santa tilted his neck with an exaggerated motion.

"At the counter."

"... Will you be all right barehanded? Their presence is no ordinary thing."

Santa smirked, removed his sunglasses, and slipped them into his shirt pocket. There was not a hint of drunkenness in his fiercely gleaming eyes.

"You don't always get to fight at your best."

Ash asked no more.

The six gathered in the clearing stared down their opponents for a moment. Then, with no one moving first, they all charged at once.

* * *

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

Sharp reports rang through the air one after another—a cacophony of steel striking steel. Santa rushed through it and drove his steel fist forward.

Rather than meet his strength head-on, the rat-masked ninja blocking his path slipped around his attacks like a loach and slashed down with a sharp dagger.

CLANG!

It was hardly the sound one would expect from a blade striking skin. But that was only natural: Santa had replaced most of his body with cyberware, making him a cyborg closer to a humanoid.

"You son of a—no, you rat bastard!"

The ninja held his dagger horizontally to block Santa's immediate punch. Unable to absorb its full force, however, he was sent flying backward.

A flashing sword strike blossomed in the gap that opened between them. It was Siren's, aimed at the rabbit mask.

"Hah!"

Her swordsmanship was utterly different from before. Its bold, domineering force made it hard to believe these strikes came from such a beautiful woman.

Its principles differed both from Undine's data stored in her right arm and from Ash's swordsmanship, aloof and majestic as the clouds above.

Surely this was Siren's own sword.

Under a fierce succession of blows like raging waves, the rabbit-masked ninja retreated frantically.

But only for a moment.

Eyes flashing behind the mask, the ninja suddenly lunged forward, all but ignoring the disadvantage—as though intending to take Siren's strike bodily.

SHUNK!

Sure enough, the sword pierced the ninja's right shoulder.

But despite the blood, she rushed at Siren without the slightest hesitation, as though she felt no pain. She even seized the sword embedded in her shoulder with one hand, locking Siren in place.

"What...!"

Appalled, Siren hastily twisted aside to avoid the flashing dagger. But her balance was already completely broken.

Hurriedly pulling her sword free, Siren scrambled back and caught her breath. As she did, she examined her opponent—and witnessed something unbelievable.

The ninja's shoulder, which she had just pierced, was no longer bleeding. More than that, the torn muscle fibers were tangling together with a grotesque sound, and skin began to knit over the wound as though sprouting from within it.

"What in the... ?"

Regeneration that defied common sense.

It was nothing like cyberware's self-repair function. The sight was strange and surreal, as though it transcended the bounds of life itself.

Santa was just as bewildered by this phenomenon.

"Eat this!"

Despite letting every attack land, Santa had soon driven his opponent into a corner. He planted a steel fist squarely in the center of the ninja's chest.

CRUNCH!

With a crumpling sound, the ninja's chest caved in, and he flew into a distant wall. It was a perfect blow, one that would have killed an ordinary human instantly.

But...

"... What?"

The rat-masked ninja rose creakily from where he had struck the wall, like a malfunctioning android rebooting.

His sunken chest pushed outward from within, returning to its original shape, accompanied each time by the sound of bones reassembling.

A short while later, the ninja adjusted his grip on his dagger and stared at Santa as though nothing had happened.

"You... goddamn monster...!"

While Santa and Siren's fights briefly reached a lull, a somewhat different battle was unfolding in the center of the clearing.

Ash and the wolf mask maintained extremely close range as they exchanged blows without pause. The unnerving clash of steel on steel rang out continuously.

Still, it was clear who was winning.

Ash held the advantage.

The wolf mask's lightning-fast strikes certainly carried a keen edge, but unfortunately for him, they never touched Ash. By contrast, the attacks Ash occasionally unleashed always left long cuts across his opponent's body.

The problem was that those cuts healed and vanished in an instant.

A body that regenerated the moment it was cut.

Even Ash had never faced an enemy like this before.

"Your swordsmanship truly is remarkable."

The wolf-masked ninja spoke then. Even as Ash's blade continued to cut him, not the slightest disturbance entered his voice. His tone was perfectly calm, as though they were chatting casually.

"But as you can see, it is meaningless."

Ash did not answer. He merely continued swinging his sword in silence, concentrating on his opponent's sword movements.

The ninja chuckled softly.

"Are you bewildered? Your blade seems to have dulled a little."

For the first time since falling silent, Ash activated his voice module.

"Bewildered. You are not wrong."

With that, Ash leaped backward. The unbroken exchange of blows that had continued since they first clashed finally subsided.

"I have a question. May I ask it?"

"If you mean to ask about our hyper-regeneration, I cannot tell—"

"No."

Ash shook his head.

"I have no interest in such parlor tricks."

Having cut him off flatly, Ash made his optical sensors blaze more fiercely than ever.

"What interests me is your swordsmanship."

"My swordsmanship?"

Caught off guard by the question, the ninja had yet to notice the subtle change in Ash's manner of speech.

"So tell me."

Ash took a step toward the questioning wolf-masked ninja. Then, releasing an explosive fighting spirit unlike anything he had shown thus far, he spoke in an electronic voice as cold as ice.

"Why is someone I have never met wielding my school's Thirteen Swords of the Cloud Dragon?"