History Compilation Committee, Akasaka Tokyo Branch Office.
This district lies in the northern part of Minato Ward in Tokyo. Although it is not close to the bustling central zone, it happens to sit near an important spiritual vein. While this had nothing to do with the original urban planning, the result is an extraordinary coincidence.
Nearby stand commercial-residential high-rises that are still thirty to forty percent unfinished. However, the supporting infrastructure connected to them has nearly been completed. The park in front of the station and the shopping complex are already on the verge of opening.
The soon-to-be-completed new capital will debut with a clean and pale appearance—gorgeous, yet utterly devoid of personality.
Even in Japan, where tradition once held the strongest atmosphere, ever since the Meiji Restoration the march toward "industrialization" has never paused. The descendants of ancient onmyōji and shinobi have gradually shed their hunting robes and ninja garb, putting on suits instead and sitting in neat rows before office desks.
The desks are piled high with clutter—small mountains of computers and documents, various books (including manga), all kinds of snacks and sweets, acupressure massage sticks and other health products, and even toys unsuitable for children but perfectly appropriate for older ones.
If someone worked in game development or a related field, they might mistake this for a small studio run by industry peers.
As an important operative, Touma Amakasu was currently inside the office.
Dressed in his slightly worn business attire, he sat at his personal desk staring at the laptop in front of him.
At the moment, he did not appear to be truly working. Instead, he was browsing websites and scrolling through anonymous message boards. Any shut-in might envy him—there really existed a job identical to the lifestyle they dreamed of.
However, aside from slacking off, Touma was also reporting to his superior while speaking aloud.
"The situation with Ainz has already been handled. No need to worry. Please, have a little more confidence in me."
"If only I could."
Sayanomiya Kaoru's voice came from the other end of the desk.
"When the bookmarks on your work computer are filled with idol and voice actress blogs, as well as celebrity news sites, you expect me to have confidence in you...?"
"I'm gathering intelligence properly. It's very important for our work, you know."
Amakasu shamelessly said this while continuing to stare at an online auction page.
"By the way, have you figured out what that old gentleman is plotting?"
"No, not yet. He never showed any interest in the surface world before."
Within the entire branch office, Touma was the agent who maintained the most frequent contact with Sayanomiya Kaoru. Ever since he stepped down from the front lines as a ninja, he had been assigned to serve under her. The two were intimately familiar with each other's abilities, so their cooperation proceeded smoothly.
Sayanomiya Kaoru was a refined beauty with delicate features, yet she never wore makeup. Her slender eyes often gave off a cold impression. A detached, otherworldly aura clung to her—an innate temperament of a Hime-Miko. Even dressed in men's clothing, it was impossible to conceal.
Before they knew it, they had been working together for over three years.
Ordinary people might feel exhausted under the pressure of working alongside such a beauty, but Touma was the opposite. He seemed not to care in the slightest, instead providing key intelligence in an offhand manner, enabling Sayanomiya Kaoru to make decisive and unshakable judgments according to the situation at hand.
And this time was no exception.
While browsing the internet, he said casually, "Hypothetically speaking, if it's because of recent events, then only the incidents involving Marquis Voban or Athena would be enough to attract that person's attention."
"If it were related to the descended Heretic God, then shouldn't that old man be seeking out the new Godslayer? Yet his target is locked onto Satsuki instead."
Sayanomiya Kaoru went straight to the heart of the matter.
"As for major events involving Miss Satsuki, recently there has only been her duel with the King of Swords."
"I've heard that lately you've been actively expanding your personal network. In that case, you should have obtained quite a bit of information from those who keep their distance from the Committee... You ought to have grasped the general situation of our Japanese faction by now."
Sayanomiya Kaoru suddenly changed the subject.
"In the past, handling such matters was troublesome. But thanks to the intervention of an external Campione, they were forced to yield. The four clans I once served under an emperor were originally irreconcilable within the world of sorcery, yet now they can sit at the negotiating table and communicate calmly."
It was not a struggle between magical associations, but a contest for dominance between clans. In Japan's family-based magical community, such disputes were common and hardly surprising. What was unexpected, however, was that the clan which ultimately gained victory turned out to be the operators of the History Compilation Committee.
"But in the end, we still failed to sufficiently integrate Japan's internal forces. Otherwise—what happened with Ena Seishuuin this time would not have occurred."
As the foremost of the four great families, the Seishuuin clan's influence was not far behind that of the second-ranked Sayanomiya family. However, since no one dared to openly defy that elder, and they themselves were dissatisfied with submitting to the governance of the new Campione, they adopted an indifferent stance toward this action.
"Short-sighted fools. They lack the ability yet cling to their positions, obstructing the transformation of a new era..."
There was something dangerously rebellious in Sayanomiya Kaoru's words. Touma immediately turned the laptop volume to maximum—he had heard nothing at all.
Then, the phone by his ear suddenly rang. Glancing at the caller ID, he was startled to see Yuri Mariya. For this Hime-Miko, who knew next to nothing about electronic devices, to take the initiative and call him was unprecedented.
"Hello, Miss Mariya. Calling at this hour—has something important happened?"
"This is bad, Mr. Touma. My spirit sight just sensed Miss Ena's powerful spell power. She's currently dueling Miss Satsuki at a corner of our school. She appears to have unleashed the power of that divine instrument. Even nearby areas have felt considerable tremors and magical fluctuations."
"What?!"
The news shocked Touma. Sayanomiya Kaoru beside him also heard his raised voice through the speaker. She immediately signaled him with her eyes.
Understanding at once, Touma asked, "Does Lady Erica know about this?"
"It was Miss Erica who called me just now to warn me to pay attention to recent magical disturbances. She reminded me that once I detected anything unusual, I should immediately inform you. She seemed to have anticipated this long ago. She only said that you should prepare in advance for the aftermath. As for everything else, do not interfere."
"Anticipated this long ago...?"
Touma and Sayanomiya Kaoru exchanged glances. A sudden realization dawned upon them—perhaps Ena's challenge this time was far from simple.
And upon the battlefield of the two—
The wooden sword radiated dark-golden sword qi, intertwining violently with the divine power of the Kusanagi no Tsurugi.
At this moment, any casual swing from Ena far surpassed her previous level in speed, strength, and the variations hidden within each strike.
It was as though she had leapt from being a clumsy amateur at go to a contemporary title-holder in an instant.
From being unable even to shake Satsuki's footing at the beginning, she had now reached the point of trading offense and defense evenly with her.
Yet this assault, swift enough to leave even renowned masters of swordsmanship dumbfounded, was merely a warm-up before their true exchange began.
Even so, the aftershocks of this so-called warm-up left horrifying marks upon the ground.
Two nearby walls had already been shaved flat, and the pavement had been overturned like plowed farmland. The battlefield looked as though it had just endured a powerful earthquake.
In the blink of an eye, the two met and parted, as if they had merely brushed past one another. In the instant they crossed back-to-back, the light in Ena's eyes as she looked toward Satsuki grew ever more dazzling.
From that brief probing clash alone, her understanding of Satsuki's strength had deepened yet again.
"—If there were no gods in this world, you might well be called the strongest."
Wielding the Kusanagi no Tsurugi brimming with divine power, Ena spoke in a tone tinged with regret.
"To strike against the Kusanagi no Tsurugi with nothing but a wooden blade and leave it unbroken—such attainment is beyond even me. Even my grandfather has praised your strength without reservation, Miss Satsuki."
"Strength and weakness are only relative. 'The strongest' is not an appealing title to me. Compared to that, I prefer challenging the strongest."
Satsuki replied with a light laugh.
Their brief exchange ended, and in an instant the air turned murderous.
"Then please, be careful!"
The Hime-Miko raised her sword overhead in her right hand. With a straight arm, she brought it down before her body, arm and blade forming a single line at shoulder height, force transmitted fully to the edge as it cleaved directly toward Satsuki's head.
A colossal black blade-light, utterly different from before, burst forth from the sword, sweeping straight toward Satsuki at extreme speed.
Had it been the former Erica facing this strike, she would likely have been defeated instantly.
But for Satsuki, who possessed the Tenseigan and had grasped the mysteries of space, any attack that still relied on vector-based movement posed no threat whatsoever. The Dead Line Boundary alone would be impossible for the opponent to break.
However, since this had been decided as a duel of swordsmanship, she naturally would not resort to abilities too outrageous for an opponent of this level.
She chose to counter blade with blade.
Her right hand gripped the sword. Her shoulders relaxed, elbow slightly bent and sinking, wrist lowered. In the instant before the dark blade-light reached her, Satsuki's wrist suddenly exerted force, snapping the sword tip upward from below and channeling power to its very point.
Clang—
With a crisp collision, the divine blade-light was flung upward by that rising strike, shooting straight into the clouds. A drifting thundercloud was cleaved in two, and at the fracture a spiraling vortex formed inward, shredding the lightning within into fragments.
Immediately afterward, the two figures flickered through the air, crossing paths repeatedly. Sword edges collided within the atmosphere, erupting in fierce showers of sparks in the void.
Satsuki was not without offense. Though she used no additional power, her insight was sufficient to perceive the precise timing of her opponent's movements and seize fleeting openings for consecutive attacks.
But Ena at this moment was no longer what she had been before. Already gifted with excellent dynamic vision, now empowered by divine force, she could fully keep pace with Satsuki's rhythm. Combined with the aid of the Kusanagi no Tsurugi itself, she merely swayed lightly from side to side, deflecting all of Satsuki's strikes.
Her mastery of the divine instrument had nearly made it an extension of her arm. At such close range, within split-second exchanges, she could complete her blocks effortlessly.
Not only that—while maintaining flawless defense, she even attempted to counterattack.
An ordinary swordsman would have been unable to withstand such fierce retaliation.
Yet Satsuki, as if foreknowing it, parried the attack and thrust again.
Then Ena once more completed a block and counter within a heartbeat...
As expected of the foremost Hime-Miko of the era. Though the divine power residing in her body amounted to merely two ten-thousandths of Susanoo's divinity, reaching this level was already beyond ordinary humanity.
Satsuki nodded inwardly.
This girl had not undergone the ritual of reincarnated Godslaying. To accept even a fragment of a god's power with a mortal body and talent alone already marked her as extraordinarily gifted.
Though the quantity of power was slight, its nature remained divine.
That was why Ena could wield the divine instrument as a mortal and swing the Kusanagi no Tsurugi. And as the divine power flowed in, Satsuki could sense through the feedback of her wooden sword that the Kusanagi no Tsurugi's might was steadily increasing.
Yet the one even more astonished was Ena herself.
Originally, she had felt that gaining strength through such means was so overwhelming it bordered on unfair, which was why she had apologized to Satsuki.
The Kusanagi no Tsurugi in her hand contained the power of Susanoo and itself held a demigod rank within myth.
From their earlier clash, she knew clearly that the weapon in Satsuki's hand was nothing more than an ordinary wooden sword.
Yet the strange thing lay precisely there.
A blade capable of easily severing magical artifacts could not inflict the slightest damage upon that common wooden sword in direct collision. It was utterly unbelievable.
In this world, not even the toughest metals could achieve such a feat—let alone wood.
Ena's gaze sharpened as she looked at the wooden sword.
The only explanation was the incomparably surging golden sword qi enveloping it. It was that sword qi which had repelled the sharpness of the Kusanagi no Tsurugi.
As thoughts flashed like lightning, their speed increased ever further, and their sword forms grew increasingly perilous.
From the first to the third breath, Ena's vision could barely keep up. From the third to the seventh, she could rely only on instinct and the eye of the heart. By the eighth breath, even the divine Kusanagi no Tsurugi itself struggled to match that speed.
Smack...
Finally, at the thirteenth breath, Ena could no longer follow Satsuki's movements. She was struck sideways once more by the wooden sword.
Rrrrraaahhh—
Though Satsuki's strike carried no lethal intent or crushing force, Ena's feet still carved two deep furrows into the ground.
Only then did Ena fully understand that Satsuki's defeat of the King of Swords had not been due to mercy. Her swordsmanship itself already stood shoulder to shoulder with the gods.
To defeat the formidable enemy before her—even in her current state—was impossible.
The only path was to further release the divine power.
At this point, she no longer sought victory or defeat.
She simply wished, with all her strength, to see where the limit of human capability lay in this world.
For that, she was willing to be shattered to pieces.
"Miss Satsuki, in order to defeat you, it seems I must release the divine power further. From here on, I may not even know what I will do. Please, allow me to witness the most profound sword technique."
As she spoke, Ena's movements became stiff—like a puppet in motion—entirely different from her earlier agility.
"O Kusanagi no Tsurugi, I offer this body as sacrifice. Please calm the raging spirit!"
Kotodama spilled from the shrine maiden's lips.
"The god I worship is no false one! Recognize this as a true god, and revere accordingly!"
It was a whisper both hollow and devout. And within her pupils resided ferocious battle intent and killing intent.
This was not the gaze of a swordsman gambling her life to savor battle.
It was the eyes of a demon determined to annihilate all who stood in her way.
Beginning from the hand that gripped the sword, Ena's body transformed into a blackness like the starry sky. Her uniform was shredded into fragments by the power of the divine blade Kusanagi no Tsurugi. With stiff movements, she raised the pitch-black godly sword.
And facing Ena, who seemed as though divine might itself had descended, Satsuki merely replied softly:
"Very well. Then I shall grant your wish."