Chương 37: 36th Move | Archduke Franz Ferdinand
"Hinata... what do you mean? What are you talking about?!" Shizue asked, a very distraught look appearing on her unmasked face, "I'm not a slave, I'm under a contract!"
"Tsk!" Hinata hissed, her face twisted in hate, "Is there a difference? It doesn't matter, what matters, what defines whether or not you're a slave is if you've been given a choice! And you weren't, Sensei!"
The young adult blitzed forward at speeds close to that of sound. Though there was something wrong. The ground from which Hinata launched herself wasn't damaged at all despite the amount of force that would've been required to accelerate the woman to near sonic speed.
A distance of a hundred meters was crossed in less than a single second as Hinata drew her rapier back before thrusting forward with the intent of piercing the slimy innards of Rimuru.
"I will save you Sensei!"
*Clang*
The rapier stopped when it met the unbreakable time-locked body of Shizue's War Chassis. More specifically, the unbreakable hand of the War Chassis.
Hinata's feet dug into the ground thanks to the sudden halt in motion. Even with her Extra Skill [Inertia Manipulation], the woman still wasn't able to halt all of her personal inertia and had to instead divert it into her feet, making them dig into the ground.
Next, God's Right Hand tried to pull the sword out of Shizue's grasp, only to express confusion when it didn't budge one bit.
"Hinata, please! We don't need to fight! We can talk this out!"
Feeling the rapier loosen by the thinnest margin when Shizue spoke, Hinata then kicked her Sensei.
Since Shizue was an unmovable object, Hinata used Shizue as a platform and leaped away from the War Chassis, taking her rapier with her as she does.
The leap was done without any hesitation or wasted movement. It had an inhuman elegance to it, as it was brought about by training and experience in combat against other superhuman monsters.
Landing over two dozen meters away, Hinata got into a combat stance that had no opening before subtly gazing at Shizue to carefully reassess the situation.
"Mr. President, please get behind me," Shizue said. The Digital Lich really doesn't want to fight her student, especially with her new body. This body was designed for war. It was designed to go up against Demon Lords, so Shizue doesn't doubt if she goes all out, this battle would end in less than a second.
Except that would end with Hinata's death. Her student's death. An old student, but a student of hers nonetheless, and if she did that, Shizue could never call herself a teacher if she's willing to harm, much less kill, her students.
"Sensei, you don't need to say anything, you've been compromised." God's Right Hand then got out of her stance and brought up the rapier, "this rapier is known as 'Moonlight' among the upper echelon of the Western Holy Church. It is a Legend-grade blade and was gifted to me by the Pope himself. More relevant to me, however, is this blade's sub-ability to capture the souls of those it had slain and purify them like how the light from the Moon purifies the dark night, meaning that it'll get rid of your contract and free you from this bondage!"
*Boom*
The moment Hinata finished talking, there was a sonic boom, and again, the ground from which Hinata launched herself wasn't damaged at all.
She charged faster than the normal eye could see and aimed Moonlight toward Shizue's core—
*CLANG*
And again, the rapier hadn't so much as scratched the surface of the War Chassis. Before Shizue could grab Moonlight's blade, Hinata used [Inertia Manipulation] to let her accelerate to 100 g in three milliseconds.
Without her Saint physiology, the woman would've died way before then.
Hinata's swordsmanship and combat style was built upon her Unique Skill [Mathematician] and Extra Skill [Inertia Manipulation]. With [Compute Prediction], a subskill of [Mathematician], giving Hinata effective precognition for the immediate future, she would then use [Inertia Manipulation] to do all kinds of moves that ignore the problem of Newton's First Law.
"Afterward, I will ask God Luminous to gift you a new body, and then, you'll finally be free to watch as I destroy Tempest!"
"Hinata Sakaguchi!" Shizue raising her voice temporarily caused Hinata to freeze in place. Even after so long, Hinata still sees Shizue as her teacher, "Stop this madness! You can't harm me, much less kill me."
Shizue's words caused the Saint to grit her teeth. A sonic boom rang out as Hinata appeared suddenly in front of the Digital Lich. The rapier ready, Hinata let out a flurry of stabs and jabs and thrusts with Moonlight, all of which uselessly either bounced off or is stopped entirely as causality itself is denied in the Static Matter.
"You can't harm me," Shizue stated with sadness and finality in her tone as she took Hinata's attack without budging.
"Grrr——!"
In response, Hinata thrust Moonlight faster and harder. The nearby grass fluttered about like it was near a tornado with how quickly Hinata attacked.
Amidst all this, Shizue noted how her student never once used the sword held in her other hand. All of these attacks were done exclusively with the rapier.
Seeing how Shizue was an unbreakable wall, Hinata jumped back with a frustrated scream.
"Mr. President, please stay back and let me handle this. Try to make contact with Lady Scientia if you can with your [Soul Corridor]."
"I tried that. There's a Holy Field that's blocking it."
Shizue grimaced as though she had bitten something sour. "Then, please, leave everything to me and try to escape. My Lady would be extremely heartbroken if you were to get hurt."
"Wait—!"
Whatever Rimuru was about to say was cut off when Shizue rocketed forth to meet up with the swordswoman. Pulling back her right fist as she moved, Shizue punted Hinata back by a dozen meters even when the latter tried to cushion the former's blow with [Inertia Manipulation].
"—I'll help you!" Rimuru tried to interject and pulled out a specially made polymer-based monomolecular katana given to him by Scientia. The slime had named it 'Byakko' for its chalk-white appearance.
The cutting-edge rippled and heated up as an electric current runs through it.
Before Rimuru could move more than a few meters, Shizue turned around and blew him away with a thunderclap.
"Mr. President! Only I can stand against my student in this Holy Field! Please escape while I distract them!"
Hinata got up. Her chest plate had a large dent in the shape of a fist in it.
Stabbing her rapier into the ground while never letting go of the other sword, God's Right Hand reached into her Church-issued coat that signifies her rank as the First of the Ten Great Saints, and pulled out three black stake-like blades each held in between her fingers.
Without drawing back her arm, Hinata threw the stake-like blades into the air.
Eyes widening, Shizue realized the technique Hinata was about to unleash and jettisoned up to try and grab those swords... only for them to disappear in a flash of blue light.
Hinata's free hand came in front of her head. Forming a fist with three of her fingers unfurled, it looked almost as if the young adult was about to do half a prayer.
"[Sacred Sealing Sacrament]!"
Instantly, the three swords appeared above Rimuru's head and stabbed into the ground in a fashion that formed a triangle, with each sword being a corner.
When Rimuru tried to move, he bumped into an invisible barrier that stopped him from escaping.
Shizue hovered there in the air, staring at Rimuru as her analysis programs detected electromagnetic disturbances in the area surrounding the President.
"A Legend-grade magical artifact," Hinata's words caused Shizue to face her with a blank expression on the silver woman's face, "built by Vina of the Seven Luminaries, it has the power to immobilize Demon Lords."
Even if Shizue's sophisticated sensors are being blocked, her own experience as an adventurer tells her that this was a very powerful isolation-type field.
The Saint then pulled Moonlight from the ground, "Normally, in an ideal situation, I would've prepared more for such an encounter. I would've prepared more like having traps placed all over the place or even strengthened the Holy Field enough that it melts away all monsters. But upon hearing such an atrocious act performed upon someone I deeply respected, the Total Isolation Field was all that I could manage."
"Is there truly no way for you to stop this madness...?" Shizue pleaded for the last time.
"No," determination shone in Hinata's eyes. Then, she launched herself toward Shizue, her rapier was in the motion of a thrust once more with the intention of piercing through the War Chassis' inviolable body.
Right before the tip of Moonlight touched Shizue's body, the Digital Lich uttered out a single phrase.
"So be it."
*Snap*
Shizue casually grabbed the rapier's blade and promptly snapped it in half.
It was such a nonchalant and easygoing act that dumbfounded Hinata. The way that Shizue simply grabbed the rapier and snapped it in half was like a bully snapping their victim's pencil in half for fun.
Taking control of herself at such speed it surprised Shizue, Hinata abandoned the rapier just as the War Chassis was inches away from grabbing the young woman's arm.
Blitzing back until there was a distance of a dozen meters between the teacher and student, Hinata's eyes narrowed into a glare. Frustration was clear on the Saint's face at the destruction of the weapon she'd been using.
Composing herself, all previous emotions were drained from her face as she stared at Shizue with a look of cold professionalism. That sense of respect and adoration that once existed in her eyes the last time they had met seemed like a fading memory.
Hinata muttered with a sense of odd calmness, draping her head so that it was facing the ground, "I see then, so it seems that it must come to this."
Her voice was full of regret as she brought up the sword in her other hand. Holding it in front of her head, Hinata then pulled up her sleeves with her pinkie finger before tracing the blade of the unknown sword through her arm, dying one of its edges in the Saint's blood.
"Hinata?!"
Even still, Shizue still sees Hinata as her student, so she was worried for the young adult at the sight of self-harm.
From those blood, a rainbow of light emerged and started infecting the rest of the blade.
It was an enchantment that required a bit of blood to activate.
"I hereby give an offering to God Luminous."
*BOOM*
Hinata propelled herself at speeds so quickly, the air around her could've easily boiled away water. There were massive turbulences of wind as the student closed in on the teacher.
Hinata's speed reached high hypersonic as she swung the unnamed blade.
*CLANG*
Shizue caught the blade in between her two hands. The Digital Lich couldn't help but be surprised at the rainbow glow coming from the sword.
The number of enchantments that glowed rainbow when activated is estimated by Guildmaster Yuuki Kagurazaka to be in the single digits. The only known rainbow enchantment that could possibly help Hinata against an unstoppable force numbered only one.
"Dead End Rainbow...?" Shizue faltered as she flew up high into the air.
Hearing her, Hinata's lips thinned, before the edge trod down into a grimace, "As I said before: I will save you from this bondage. By whatever means necessary. Even if I must kill you; I will end your bondage. He had said that your 'War Chassis' resides in a time-locked state and will thus reject any and all attacks be they magical or physical since time, the very concept that allows change, cannot occur. But then, I got to thinking, what about an attack on the Soul itself?"
Hinata wasted no time and catapulted herself upward to Shizue's position to unleash a whirlwind of attacks. Stepping on pockets of solid air generated from a Greater Wind Spirit, God's Right Hand was able to mimic a form of flight.
Even still, none of those attacks reached Shizue as the War Chassis also took inertia as a faint suggestion that was promptly ignored.
"I refuse to think of the person I had once seen as a teacher becoming a corporate slave to someone else!"
_____________________________________________
All the while the teacher and student were fighting, Rimuru was busy trying to figure out a way to escape from this place.
He first tried to cut the barrier with a slash of his katana. It failed.
Truthfully, the katana was more for ceremonial and personal purposes. The slime can still recall how weird of a look he was given by Scientia when he asked if he could have a katana. She had said how it's obsolete ever since the invention of guns but relented after Rimuru insisted.
Having a katana is the dream of every Japanese, even if he's an ex-Japanese.
It's just so cool.
'Any ideas on how to escape here, [Great Sage]? Or any headway into making contacts with Scientia or Veldora?'
<A Holy Barrier surrounds the area, resulting in any Skill being rendered unusable— >
'Can I resist it?'
<[Resist]...partial success, [Soul Corridor] partially opened, unable to send messages through, all Magic Skills have been blocked off, available Skills to use include: [Predator], [Wise One], [Thread Manipulation]...>
[Great Sage] listed all of the abilities that Rimuru could use, yet none of it he can see a way to get past this [Sacred Sealing Sacrament].
So if he can't escape this barrier, could he perhaps break it?
'Is there a way to break through this barrier? Or at least rip open a hole large enough for me to get out?'
<Negative. There is no Skill or Magic in your arsenal that has the capacity to break free from this barrier>
Damn it! He's truly trapped in here, completely helpless. All he could do was watch as Shizue and her student fights on. Based on how much Shizue's holding back, Rimuru easily figured out that she really doesn't want to fight a student of hers.
He's truly out of options, so he asked [Great Sage] once more.
'Is there absolutely no way to get out of this barrier?!'
<Due to the fact that this barrier requires an enormous amount of magicule to operate, it will likely fall once all the magicule is sucked dry within the area>
Rimuru smirked, finally, there was a way out!
'How soon is that?'
<7 hours 35 minutes 21 seconds>
THAT'S WAY TOO SLOW!
Then, another idea popped into the slime's head.
'How quickly can I suck in all the magicules inside this barrier?'
<Based on the current abilities of Unique Skill [Predator], it will take approximately 23 minutes and 6 seconds to consume all magicules within this sealed area and the barrier to drop>
That's still a bit too slow, Rimuru thought. Still, seeing no other options and not really wanting to feel useless, the slime used his Unique Skill [Predator] and transformed his hands into something that resembled a suction cup.
Then, he started eating.
_____________________________________________
The battle between Shizue and Hinata rages on. It was a clash between the perfect spear and the perfect shield.
Unknown to most of the world, Hinata had a second Unique Skill all but a few know about. Unique Skill [Usurper], the original Unique Skill given to the Otherworlder the moment she crossed over. It was her hidden trump card, since [Usurper] gave Hinata the ability to both copy the Skills of the opponent she's fighting against and their fighting style, 'usurping' their martial abilities as Hinata had once explained to Shizue.
This was the reason why Hinata was seen as the next Granbell Rosso. Unique Skill [Mathematician] alone would make anyone an extremely deadly foe by granting them the ability to gain information concerning the immediate future through calculation. [Usurper] is the true horror by ensuring the more Hinata fights, the more powerful she becomes.
Hinata Sakaguchi is an exponential curve. A grey-goo scenario in the form of a one-woman army. Yuuki once thought that after half a century of constant battle, Hinata can probably stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Velgrynd.
God's Right Hand, the strategic weapon of the West, is so powerful that there was a written accord between the Council and Ruberios detailing how any movement of Hinata must be reported. If she's here then it must mean it's in secret.
Knowing her student's capacity, Shizue had to mix and matched elements from hundreds of fighting styles downloaded into her War Chassis by Lady Scientia to create entirely new ones on the fly just so Hinata couldn't get used to them.
The battle continued in the air, on the ground, underground— all over the Total Isolation Field. Very quickly, the once lush grassland was now more lacking in green.
As Shizue dodged the newest whirlwind of attacks from Dead End Rainbow, she couldn't help but think had Hinata used any other sword besides the one possessing an enchantment allowing them to destroy an individual's spiritual body in seven strikes, then perhaps her War Chassis could've barreled straight at her with reckless abandon. However, that enchantment hits the soul itself and may bypass her insane durability.
There was once a time, during the first few tests involving the War Chassis, that Shizue asked her Lady whether or not her new body could stand up against attacks on the soul itself. Most soul attacks are often in the form of curses and poisons, indirect methods, but there are legends that talk about how powerful demons could rip the soul out of an armored individual.
The result of the tests involving lasers seemed to be a 'Yes', and was further reinforced after the incident with Milim. Yet after that, Shizue had forgotten to ask if enchantments that directly attack the soul, like Dead End Rainbow, could affect her.
And now she's paying the price for her forgetfulness.
The silver woman dodged another thrust while dealing out another punch that turned Hinata's chest plate into a slag of useless metal. During the battle, Shizue had already been struck six times, and one more strike was all that was needed for the Dead End Rainbow enchantment to take effect.
"GAH!" Hinata spat out glops of blood, causing Shizue to wince.
Feeling her teacher's side returning, Shizue pleads with her student once more, "Hinata! Please stop this! I don't want to kill you but you're forcing my hand!"
In response, Hinata silently wiped away the blood leaking from the edge of her mouth before gripping the edge of her broken chest plate with her free hand. The chest plate had dents all over the place, thanks to Shizue's attacks.
"Damn. You're really fast you know, Sensei? Like, due to your ignoring of inertia similar to me, [Mathematician] could only give me the probability of where you'd be in the next three seconds, and those probabilities aren't static but instead dynamic, so it's always shifting. Thus, I can't predict you like I could with my opponents."
One can almost say that Hinata 'sees' in probabilities instead of light.
Hinata then wiped her bloodied finger across the edge of her chest plate. In one single swift motion, God's Right Hand ripped the metal armor off and threw it at her teacher.
"Hinata what—"
The chest plate was a distraction. There was a large flare of junk data coming from the thrown chest plate that overwhelmed Shizue's still active sensors.
Using this three-millisecond window as estimated by [Mathematician], Hinata Sakaguchi blasted forward, stabbing Dead End Rainbow right through the falling chest plate and then into Shizue's chest, specifically, the tip of the sword met at the area possessing the shortest distance to the Soul Orb.
*Ping*
Automatically, the War Chassis tried to grab the blade but failed as Hinata blasted off and away from Shizue with a single kick using the inviolable chassis as a platform.
Touching the area she had stabbed, Shizue traced her fingers all over the surface to examine it, finding nothing but utter smoothness—
"—!"
A false breath hitched in Shizue's throat.
Her fingers felt a tiny dent. It was a microscopic scratch, one so small you'd need a microscope to really concentrate on it as it's almost invisible to the naked eye.
The silver woman stilled.
How?
In the span of five milliseconds, Shizue checked her system log to find that there had been seven disruptions to the stasis field which surrounds and permeates the War Chassis, with all but one of these disruptions happening in areas around her hand. Focusing on the time stamps of those disruptions, Shizue then recalled her battle and found those disruptions matched when she had blocked Hinata's sword strikes.
"..."
That's when the teacher realized she's been outplayed by the student.
Hinata seemed to recognize how the jig was up. She stood still, though her body was tense, ready to either attack or defend at a moment's notice.
"That's not Dead End Rainbow..." Shizue said, "No, it's something else. That's a false enchantment! The rainbow radiance from the sword was mere decoration! A ruse to hide the fact that it has a stasis-breaking effect!"
Hinata had a look of surprise at Shizue's deduction, before smiling, "I see you still retain that edge of sharpness even after you've been enslaved. I promise I will give your master a quick and merciful death for not breaking your mind."
The young woman then began to stride forward with confidence belonging to one of the strongest saints in the world. Now that the secret has been revealed, Hinata can focus on slowly but surely disabling Shizue's War Chassis.
Though, as this was happening, Shizue couldn't help but wonder exactly how the sword in Hinata's hand was able to emit a strong enough normalization effect on time to affect her War Chassis.
Throughout all of history, there was perhaps only one person who can control time better than her Lady, and that person disappeared off the face of the World over half a century ago.
So it's impossible, and yet... that's the only explanation.
.
.
.
.
"That's Hero Chronoa's sword, isn't it?"
Hinata stopped, before nodding quietly as the illusion around the blade crumbled away like sand on a windy day. Underneath that illusion was a two-handed sword with a fancy golden crossguard, deep blue grip, and another golden pommel.
Even after centuries, there's not a single spot of rust.
The sword of myths and legends, the sword that the Hero of Time used to fight against Relentless 400 years ago.
Unlike many other famous swords throughout history, it doesn't have a name since Chronoa said that something that's been with her for so long doesn't need a unique identifying name. Even still, Western historians have come to call it: the 'Clock Candle', named so for the two most common timekeeping methods, for the Great Hero of Time.
Damn, Shizue cursed in her mind as she recognize the weapon in her student's hand. How couldn't she, when it was the Hero Chronoa who rescued her younger self from the Great Betrayer of Mankind?
Though, now seeing it here, the Hero Sword complicates things immensely
Being with Chronoa for so long, the amount of Time Magic weaved into that blade was sure enough to overpower the stasis effect of her War Chassis.
Never would she have thought that the Western Holy Church would dare use something that was seen as sacred as Hero Chronoa's sword. Within the canonicity of their holy books, Chronoa was always depicted as second to God Luminous. Though some earlier and fringier sects of Luminism place Chronoa as one above Luminous.
Because of her standing, any artifact of the Hero of Time is highly sought after by the Church. Thus, to see Chronoa's sword here of all places, being used... being God's Right Hand must come with some special privileges.
Even as Shizue faced down potentially her end, a feeling of pride budded within her chest, swelling at how far Hinata have come, how far her students have grown and progressed.
Yet a depressing ever-present sadness was a specter that dosed the pride since the teacher knows only one of them is walking out of this alive.
Damn it!
"[Lightning Slash]!" God's Right Hand called out the name of one of her strongest attacks.
Hinata suddenly burst forward faster than she had ever managed to before, reaching such speeds that if she moved any faster, she'll escape the pull of the planet's gravity.
The Saint became a fireball. Hinata Sakaguchi was sheathed in a coat of superheated air as she closed the distance between her and Shizue, the latter of whom was able to clearly react to the sudden increase in speed thanks to an emergency program of the War Chassis to automatically speed up Shizue's perception of time to match that of the incoming projectile.
The Digital Lich was able to clearly see Hinata raising her sword across her chest in preparation for her most powerful slash yet.
"..."
If Shizue decides to give up all her morals and end this fight as quickly as possible, the silver woman can end this in a single move by just picking up a small pebble no larger than a grape and throwing it at Hinata with enough force that the pebble reaches low relativistic speeds.
Moving so quickly, the air molecules in front of the pebble would appear static, unmoving. Therefore, as the relativistic pebble moves, the atoms of oxygen, nitrogen, and other atmospheric gases can't move out of the way and would be forced to fuse with the atoms of the pebble, creating a trail of nuclear fire and explosion.
That sounds absolutely horrible. Shizue couldn't live with herself if she personally killed her own student.
That would destroy her.
It was only because of her contract with her Lady that she's only keeping that option as a last resort.
Shizue can only hope she could outlast Hinata's stamina.
_____________________________________________
'How long until the barrier fall, [Great Sage]?'
Rimuru asked his Unique Skill as he anxiously watched the battle that was leaning increasingly toward Hinata's favor. Some of the moves they made were too fast to be tracked even if he used [Thought Acceleration] to its maximum 1000 times perception speed.
<18 minutes 29 seconds>
'Damn it that's not quick enough! Is there really no way we can speed this up? I don't know if Shizue could last 18 more minutes.'
<Recalculating... no path to victory found>
Frustrated, Rimuru bit his lower lips hard enough that if this had been his old body, it would've bled. The slime then kicked the barrier to try and vent out some of his frustration.
The invisible wall stood tall and unbreaking, making Rimuru feel incredibly useless.
He was the more useless one, wasn't he? Even being the President of the Jura Tempest Republic, he never really struggled. From the Orc Lord, Milim, and Charybdis, every major and minor crisis that Tempest encountered was solved by Scientia. Everything that made Tempest what it is was all thanks to Scientia.
All Rimuru had to do was just sit on the sidelines and claim partial credit as the President of the Republic. In the grand scheme of things, he did nothing. His position could've easily been given to anyone and the result would've been the same.
He truly, was useless, wasn't he?
The suction cups that were Rimuru's hands slowly returned to normal. The self-loathing caused him to subconsciously stop eating just like how those with chronic depression sometimes found they had no appetite.
Hands falling to the side, Rimuru bumped his head against the invisible wall, his posture almost screaming 'lifeless'.
If he survives the next hour, the slime promised himself to spend a large percentage of his day training with Rubedo instead of just staying in the office.
Knowing that the self-loathing wouldn't do him any good, the slime tried to use his mind to come up with a solution to this problem.
Since the [Soul Corridor] isn't wide enough to allow direct communication, is it possible that he could send something through it? Something that could alert Scientia to what's happening?
'[Great Sage], is there any way I can use this partially opened [Soul Corridor]?'
<Replicating the process of the Hyperspace Link, it is theoretically possible to send a copy of a Skill to either Veldora or Scientia using the [Soul Corridor]>
'What's the likelihood of that happening?'
<1.004%>
Rimuru flinched at the small number. Giving one of his Skills to either Scientia or Veldora would surely alert them that something's wrong, but only 1%? Those are some really bad odds.
Though, the lottery had even worse odds and Satoru Mikami constantly buys them because they're redoable, so...
'If the first time fails, can I do it again?'
<Yes>
'What about Unique Skill?'
<Yes, but the chance is only 0.4%>
Damn, those are some really terrible odds, Rimuru thought, but at the same time, a Unique Skill would be more cause for alarm than a simple Extra Skill like [Gravity Manipulation].
"Ahhh!" Rimuru scratched his head, causing his blue hair to go wild, "I'm really not seeing any other options."
'Start sending [Wise One] to Scientia, keep on repeating until success.'
<Acknowledged, sending Unique Skill [Wise One] through [Soul Corridor]>
<Sending... failure>
<Sending... failure>
<Sending... failure>
As [Great Sage] kept on repeating the sending process every time it failed, Rimuru continued to helplessly watch from behind the invisible barrier the clash between Hinata and Shizue. There were no sounds coming from clashes strong enough to cause explosions as the barrier blocks out everything coming from the outside aside from visual light.
<Sending... failure>
"Please, just wait a little bit longer Shizue."
_____________________________________________
"Ha... hah... haaa..."
Hinata's labored breath sounded like music to the weathered form of Shizue, her silver coat now showed much more scratches and visible dents from the number of attacks that Hinata unleashed in two minutes.
The two women stood on a destroyed grassy field. Much of the greeny was gone, and flames burned what was left, clouding and choking the sky of much of its splendid blue.
Hinata herself looked much worse compared to Shizue. Almost all of her armor was gone, her left arm was dislocated, a stream of blood slowly trickled down from somewhere inside her hair, and the Otherworlder was seemingly struggling to stay up, if the fact that she was using Clock Candle as a makeshift clutch is any indication.
Internally, Shizue is simultaneously impressed as a teacher by Hinata's growth but also disturbed as a friend by how different Hinata had become. In her mind, Hinata Sakaguchi was always a humble girl who had difficulty getting close to people due to her cold and standoffishness. Now, she's an extremely powerful stubborn brat who refuses to see anything other than her own way, or as a villain in one of the books she had read would say: 'My way or the highway'.
Hinata refuses to budge.
The silver woman wondered just how did Hinata change so much. Her internal logical reasoning computer narrowed it down to a 50/50 chance of either due to Hinata's explosive growth in power, or the authority that comes with being appointed as the first of the Ten Great Saints and being known as God's Right Hand.
Hinata stood up straight again. Her right hand came up to her disjointed left shoulder and—
"GRRRRRR—!"
—popped the shoulder back into place.
Shizue had to wince at that. Phantom pain exploded all across her own shoulders as the Digital Lich reactively recalls her own dislocated shoulders.
Hinata then moved her shoulder testily, finding that it has regained most of its functions. Medicines can do the remaining bit.
Blinking away the small droplets of tears that have gathered, Hinata growled, "I see. So much stronger than before, then it must mean your master Scientia must cherish and trust you very much. They mustn't want to see their investments die after spending so much effort in removing Ifrit."
The way Hinata positioned Scientia makes the Perfect Homunculus seem to be a heartless person caring only about numbers.
"..." That's not completely incorrect, but... Shizue's lips thinned, "My Lady isn't like that, at least, not fully. In the beginning, I didn't know fully whether or not she could actually free me from Ifrit, so I went in thinking I'd die. I made a contract with my Lady in that she'll save my students if I did die, and since Ifrit was getting dangerously close to fully taking over my body, I didn't mind making a lifelong contract. And well, my Lady did manage to free me. Between that or letting thousands die when Ifrit goes berserk, I would gladly become a servant to someone else."
Hinata's lips pulled back into a snarl before speaking in a tone of calm fury, "I am disgusted by the fact that you didn't come to ME—" She then pointed her thumb at her body as if to emphasize herself, "for help. I am the Right Hand of God Luminous. I carry enormous influence within the Western Holy Church! I could've asked anyone! The Clerics of the Seven Luminaries, the Emperor, the Cardinals, the Pope, or hell, even God Luminous to save you! And they would all gladly agree to it to keep me happy! You didn't need to trade Ifrit for another form of slavery!"
Hinata's free hand then formed a fist above her heart. The Saint let out a silent scream as if to vent away the vortex of emotions that were swirling inside.
"Why..." Hinata said in a much quieter tone, almost whispering, "Do you have any idea how insulting that is? To prefer slavery over my help? Why didn't you rely on me, Sensei?"
Hinata stood, her current posture had none of the pride befitting of the Right Hand of God but instead more resembled a confused child wondering why their parents had left them.
Shizue felt touched. Finally, after peeling away so many layers of arrogance, Shizue finally saw it: the same standoffish girl that she had taught a long time ago.
Even when the internal computer is warning her to not approach, the teacher part of her mind overwhelmed all reasons, causing Shizue to slowly approach Hinata.
"Life. Life takes us on many different paths. While you may have wanted me to follow you, I have another path to follow, and this path has led me into the service of Lady Scientia. Perhaps... perhaps in another life, another time, I would have trouble—"
"It would not have been any trouble! I would've been glad— no, overjoyed to repay you! To repay the kindness that you had once shown me!"
Shizue let out a soft smile. It was a gentle smile, that a parent would use to comfort their child as they cried.
"Regardless, in another life, perhaps I would've asked you for help, but I didn't. To do so would be tantamount to a teacher asking to borrow money from the students they'd taught. It's supposed to be the other way around."
Hinata looked like she wanted to say something, but no sound came out. So in lieu of a response, Shizue hugged her ex-student.
"I know... I know seeing me like this is a shocker. God knows how long it took to get my last batch of students to trust me again, but I am and always will remain; me, not another broken slave. Granted, in your old world, my contract may be deemed illegal, but in mine, not an insignificant number of people would happily take the contract with all the benefits it contains. Despite all this, I tend to think of this as a punishment for attempting to cheat in a contract."
"How did you know about the legality of contracts in my old world?"
Shizue then stopped the hug and placed her two hands on Hinata's shoulder.
There was a sound of metal crashing into the dirt as Hinata's grip on Chronoa's sword weakened.
"Like you, my Lady, Scientia, is also an Otherworlder. A reincarnated Otherworlder to be exact. She was reincarnated alongside the slime you trapped. Based on what they told me, it seemed that they came from a World not too dissimilar to your own."
"But...he said..." Hinata mumbled in a bit of shock, before swallowing, "I see."
Confident the fight has ended with a draw, the Digital Lich turned around and walked toward the triangular prison that held Rimuru. Hinata stood behind her, silently while Rimuru seemed happy that his friend is no longer locked in a duel to the death with her students. The President sat on the ground and waited to be freed.
Placing a hand on the barrier, Shizue tried to push forward but was stopped. Interesting, a kind of barrier that can reject Static Matter? Not even Ramiris' Labyrinth could've contained the War Chassis.
"Hinata, now that you're no longer trying to kill me, can you please take down this barrier? I'm sure that if I and Rimuru explain and place a good word about you to Lady Scientia, we can sweep this all under the rug and she wouldn't be very paranoid about your attack." All of her attention is on the [Sacred Sealing Sacrament], trying to decipher a way of how it works "by the way, who was this 'he' that you were talking about? I would like to know about someone who wishes me harm—"
"[Melt Slash]"
(AN: Play: Doki Doki Literature Club OST - Sayo-nara)
Whatever Shizue was about to say was paused when Hinata moved at near lightspeed to deliver her strongest attack. The attack was silent, as though all the air molecules in the path of Hinata's slash were suddenly made intangible.
In the span of two dozen nanoseconds, Hinata crossed a seven-meter distance and pierced her teacher's time-locked body with Chronoa's sword.
The attack was so quick that to Shizue and Rimuru, Hinata flashed blue for a second before turning invisible and suddenly, there was a blade sticking out of Shizue's stomach.
"Ah?" Shizue sounded disbelieving, as she looked down, her facial expression tells of how her mind couldn't process how a sword from her own student now struck out of her body.
In the next instant, Hinata twisted and turned the sword to bifurcate Shizue Aizawa at a slanted angle.
The two pieces of Shizue's War Chassis fell onto the ground, with the upper body facing the sky.
Warning symbols flashed in Shizue's mechanical eyes about catastrophic damage to the lower half, but all that was meaningless in the face of her own student's betrayal.
"Why...?" Shizue mumbled out weakly, her widened eyes displaying only disbelief.
Hinata's footstep on the grassless ground was like the faint heartbeat of a person about to die. Getting down next to the upper body, Hinata said, "I told you, I will save you—"
She then grabbed the now exposed core that contained Shizue's soul.
"—by whatever means necessary. It pains me that I must act in such a dishonorable way but I see no way of winning with you still alive in the end."
Just before Hinata was about the yank out the orb, Shizue realized that while she's been playing checkers, Hinata had been playing 3-D Chess. From the first move, Hinata knew she could not defeat the War Chassis, [Usurper] isn't enough. Even with Chronoa's Sword being able to deal damage to her time-stopped form, the God's Right Hand simply couldn't keep up with her sheer speed and flight in a drawn-out battle, so unless Hinata can end it in a decisive strike, she'll likely lose.
And that's what she exactly did. Hinata appealed to Shizue's protective and soft teacher side to get her guard down before using a move that attacks at speeds near that of light— faster than her non-blocked sensors could detect— and finished her off with that final attack.
If Shizue's War Chassis still had the power to talk, she would've remarked with a hint of sadness about how different Hinata was now, how much she had changed. Shizue's last words were of silent prayer, though not prayer for herself but for Hinata: Shizue prayed, she prayed like she never had before to every god and goddess of every religion in this world and her old Shintoism, for mercy to be bestowed upon Hinata's soul, for she knew that Scientia would have none.
The Perfect Homunculus was rather protective of those whom she saw as 'employees'.
All Shizue knew was darkness after Hinata pulled out the orb.
_____________________________________________
AN: A TWIST! Now we really get to see the effect of a weaker Rimuru and Shizue surviving.
If you guys still can't figure it out, Chronoa will play a far greater role than canon.
yes, the [Sacred Spatial Sacrament] is inspired by Noel's anti-vampire bounded field
I would bet 100 dollars that Noel would be a future love interest in the remake, potentially in a DLC.
I mean, she fits all the bills! someone who idolizes love and marriages, a twisted sadist, a bit of a coward, tragic past, inferiority complex, a nun, being a young female teacher (anyone who watched Domestic Girlfriend should have their bells be ringing right now), a boy who looked like Shiki had betrayed her which left a deep scar in her heart-
I mean, what else could one need in such a potential love interest? It fits the bill entirely for a Redemption Arc like Accelerator
Nation ID using the Stellaris format.
Name: Jura Tempest Republic
Ethics: Egalitarian, Militarist, Materialist
Authority: Democracy
Civics: Byzantine Burarcracy, Beacon of Liberty, Idealistic Foundation, Efficient Buracracy, Merchant Guild.
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