When Taeko saw Tatsumi coming for her, she brought Windcutter across in front of her body, met his blow, and gave five paces of ground.
She'd just revised her count of enemies from one to two, and wanted the distance so she could answer threats from both sides at once.
Once she'd steadied, she leveled her blade at him.
"Don't get in my way, kid. All I want is that man's life."
"Huh?"
Tatsumi blinked, then snapped, "Are your eyes broken? Sayo's a girl, not whatever man you're chasing! You nearly cut down an innocent person—do you get that?!"
Taeko's brow creased.
She shot a glance at the barrel-chested, wickedly grinning pervert behind Tatsumi, and her face went dark.
'Damn it! The kid was lying through his teeth with his eyes wide open, and doing it with a completely straight face.'
For a second there she'd actually hesitated, which made her feel like a total idiot.
That thing was a girl? Was the definition of "girl" really that broad in this kid's eyes?
The ripple of unease passed, and she spoke again, colder this time.
"Kid. Stop being unreasonable and stand down. Now."
"Tch. 'Kid this, kid that'—you don't look much older than me! And there's no way I'm letting you hurt her!"
With that, Tatsumi turned to reassure her. "It's okay, Sayo. This time I'll protect you for sure... You—you're—!"
He turned back to find not the faintest trace of Sayo behind him—only a hulking, fiendish-looking man. H
e looked left and right, but she was nowhere.
Rage flared in him at once, and his grip tightened on his sword.
"You bastard—who are you? Give Sayo back to me!"
"..."
Hahahaha! Zank broke into wild laughter.
Grinning, he sneered, "Oi, oi—weren't you just saying you'd protect me a second ago?"
The thick fog rose again.
Tatsumi watched it swallow the man in front of him, watched half that face melt into Sayo's shape, and a jolt of horror crawled through him.
What kind of trick was this? Sayo... was fake?
In his daze, Sayo's figure suddenly appeared before him once more.
And she was running toward him.
At the sight of her again, Tatsumi stood there blankly, no thought of dodging or defending—instead, he opened his arms.
Zank's weapons were blade gauntlets, sliding out from the cuffs of his coat to cover the backs of his hands—broad-edged, nearly as long as a short sword.
He raised one high now, a jeer plastered across his face as he looked down at the fool of a boy who had no idea death stood over him.
"Delightful. HOW Delightful!"
Everyone who fell for his illusions ended up just like this—heads taken clean off, no resistance at all!
It was simply too delightful!
Swish—clang!
Windcutter stopped the gauntlet blade.
The fierce clash of steel, and Taeko's figure cutting Zank from view, snapped Tatsumi out of the illusion.
Dazed, he stared at the girl in front of him, and at Zank held at bay.
Zank's face twisted with rage. "You dare to get in the way—hmph! You're all going to die anyway. In such a hurry to jump the line, are you?!" He roared, both blade gauntlets whirling like a storm.
Expressionless, Taeko matched the speed of his slashes with ease, turning aside every last one with a single blade.
To Tatsumi's eyes the whole exchange was nothing but a blur; only the dense ring of steel on steel told him anything was happening at all.
"S-so strong..."
He was stunned.
He'd always figured his own skills were pretty solid. But ever since he'd reached the Capital—or rather, since he'd joined Night Raid—it felt like everyone he laid eyes on was a monster.
This girl too! Who's barely older than him, and already this frighteningly good.
As for Sayo... hard as it was to swallow, he'd worked out the big man's trick.
So he hurried to warn her. "Hey, careful—he's got some power that makes you see things!"
At his words, Taeko understood in an instant what that strange earlier exchange had been.
She brought her blade down in a chop, and Zank crossed both of his to catch it.
"I see. Illusions—so that's your Teigu's power."
"Kekeke." Zank chuckled, neither owning up to it nor denying it, that gleeful look still all over his face.
'Teigu?' The word left Tatsumi a little confused.
But he wasn't slow, and he could roughly guess that the power making him see Sayo came from some kind of tool.
A tool called a Teigu.
The realization brought a swell of grief and loss.
That's right.
Sayo and Ieyasu were both dead—buried by his own hands. The dead couldn't return... He knew it perfectly well, and still...
Tatsumi's fists clenched.
Unforgivable!
That bastard—striking straight at the most painful place in a person's heart!
While trading blows with Zank, Taeko found her opening and landed a cut near his shoulder.
Then, oddly, she didn't press her attack.
...
Zank, for his part, was left puzzled.
That had clearly been the perfect chance to press the attack.
Could it be... she'd run out of stamina?
He had to admit that the girl's swordsmanship was terrifying, and her speed was incredibly fast.
But high speed meant stamina consumption was also unusually high.
Still, just to be safe, he would use Spectator to read her thoughts.
With that, Zank switched on another of Spectator's powers—mind-reading.
But the very instant it opened, an image surfaced in his mind: himself, cleaved through by an enormous slash!
It happened so suddenly that cold sweat broke out across his forehead. He couldn't make any sense of the vision that had just flashed behind his eyes.
Just then, Taeko brought Windcutter around into a stance that promised a head-on strike.
Seeing this, Zank hurriedly raised his weapons in front of himself, having just witnessed the girl's speed, he was keenly wary of it.
But with every scrap of his attention fixed on Taeko, he completely overlooked the wound on his shoulder—the one that had seemed so trivial—now leaking a faint white glow.
The air around it rushed inward, compressing into the cut.
Ssshk!
Zank stared in horror at his shoulder, which suddenly sprayed blood, and at the arm that had nearly been cut off from that same shoulder.
He was utterly dumbfounded.
'What just... happened...?'
'Was I... the one who got cut?'