She wielded her blade to protect humanity.
Her father had wanted her to take up the blade only after she understood this principle and had found the resolve to point its tip at the Kishin, saving humanity and all those who needed to be saved.
But Father...
She had no such lofty ideal.
I had found my reason to wield a blade.
But it was not the reason you had hoped for.
Heavenly Blade Master—Sirin!
"You took a while to retrieve the blade. You arrived quite a bit later than expected."
"What happened? Did you run into trouble on the way?"
Not long after Yae Sakura returned, she handed Narukami over to Raiden Ryoma and relayed Raiden Mei's thoughts to Kiana as promised.
But how should she put it?
Raiden Ryoma was an extremely stubborn man.
So she had achieved nothing.
"Explaining things took a little time."
Once she had agreed to do something, she had to see it through. Yae Sakura planned to find another opportunity to persuade Raiden Ryoma.
No matter what, she had to fulfill Kiana's request before the war broke out.
She had no idea why Raiden Ryoma was so stubborn. It was not as though he lacked affection for his daughter, and he also knew that Raiden Mei would eventually walk the same path as them.
"Explaining? Didn't you say everything would be fine once you brought the blade over? So you ran into Mr. Ryoma's daughter?"
The Demon Slaying Blade Masters normally did not stay together. They were scattered throughout Izumo, searching for the Eight Million Gods in hiding and maintaining the existing order.
Only when facing enemies like the Twelve Oni Gods—beings who possessed terrifying powers humans could hardly replicate, were extremely difficult to kill, and required Izumo to stake everything on a war—would they set aside everything else and gather in one place.
Then they would throw themselves into the battle together.
They had done so when they once fought Tsumugari no Kami, and they had done so again when they fought Amatsukami more than a decade ago.
Against enemies like the Twelve Oni Gods, humanity had no other choice. Every victory had been bought with countless sacrifices.
No one wanted to die.
But everyone knew that if they shrank from battle, merciless destruction would await Izumo.
They had to fight, and they had to win.
Because they had reasons they had to win.
"When did you become interested in Mr. Ryoma's family affairs?" Yae Sakura looked at the newcomer. "That's not like you."
"Is the pressure getting to you, Sirin?"
The purple-haired girl who had called out to her clicked her tongue softly, embarrassed at having been seen through. Her eyes were different from ordinary people's; conspicuous X-shaped patterns stood out in her golden irises.
Sirin crossed her arms and glanced at the sky thick with thunderclouds. "If you were the bearer of 'Heaven,' the pressure would be even greater than mine."
Ever since the research institute detected that Takemikazuchi was about to escape from this place, they had immediately begun formulating various plans against him.
The initial plan
was for the bearer of 'Heaven'—that is, her—to reinforce the spatial barrier and prevent Takemikazuchi from returning to the present world.
This tactic had been useless against Amatsukami. First, the power used to banish Amatsukami had been based on the first Blade Master of 'True,' that hero deconstructing the authority of all the Kishin and recreating a divine miracle. Only then had they barely managed to imprison Amatsukami.
Second, the current Blade Master of 'True' was far weaker than the first.
But Amatsukami had already been slain and forged into a new Edict Blade—'Heaven'!
The place where Amatsukami descended had been her hometown. Because of Amatsukami, her hometown had been destroyed, and her family had perished as well.
After Amatsukami was defeated, she herself became the unlucky person chosen by 'Heaven.'
Not everyone was qualified to wield an Edict Blade. Ordinary Edict Blades had little influence, but the Edict Blade forged from the strongest Kishin had rules of its own.
The research institute called this adaptability. Based on years of testing, they had discovered that if a user's adaptability with an Edict Blade was below fifty percent, they would not only be unable to learn the Word of Power for releasing the Edict Blade's power from the blade, but even if they forcibly spoke the fixed Word of Power to use the blade's strength, they would be unable to bring out its power and would instead die from backlash.
Being above fifty percent was not enough either.
That merely allowed them to use the blade's power reluctantly, and the longer the battle lasted, the more severely they would be eroded.
They often died after only a few uses.
This data had been obtained through the sacrifices of countless people over the several hundred years before Welt, the current new Blade Master of 'True,' appeared, when Izumo used the blade 'True' to slay the remaining powerful Kishin.
The term "Blade Master" referred to someone whose adaptability with an Edict Blade had reached ninety percent or higher.
Only when adaptability exceeded ninety percent could someone use an Edict Blade without suffering fatal erosion.
Sirin had no desire whatsoever to become this Blade Master.
Her mother had died after being caught in the aftermath of the war. Before dying, she had protected Sirin with her life and urged her to live well no matter what.
Sirin did not know whether the attack that had struck the town had been Amatsukami's power or human artillery fire.
She remembered only her mother's final words: she had to live well, and even if Mother was gone, she still had to live well.
Later, after the campaign against Amatsukami ended, Sirin was rescued by a relief team and taken to a temporary base. There, everyone underwent adaptability tests.
Who could have expected that an ordinary person like her would have ninety-nine percent adaptability with 'Heaven,' infinitely close to that of the first 'True'?
Even after wielding the Edict Blade for so long, the only change in her had been these eyes with their X-shaped patterns.
She had no idea how many people she had made envious.
But that was getting off topic.
What the higher-ups meant was for her to release the Edict Blade's power and stop Takemikazuchi. However, the obstruction she constructed with the Edict Blade possessed only spatial power. It could not possibly stop Takemikazuchi, who had been imprisoned for a thousand years. Even at full strength, she could only delay its return to the present world.
"Recognition by 'Heaven'? I'm sorry, but I'm not someone recognized by 'Heaven.'"
"You're really boring." Sirin pouted. "Is that Raiden Mei also a shrine maiden? Don't tell me she's as boring as you are."
Although the complete Edict Blade had not yet been forged and this could not be formally confirmed, Raiden Mei—the daughter of Mr. Ryoma—definitely had extremely high adaptability with the Resonating Blade.
However, the prerequisite for forging the Resonating Blade was that they win this war.
"That Miss Mei?" Yae Sakura shook her head. "Although I would have liked to speak with her, unfortunately, I didn't meet her."
"Huh?" Sirin looked at her as though she were joking. "So after all that, you didn't even see her? Then whom were you explaining things to?"
Was there any need to explain herself to anyone else?
Sirin was extremely annoyed and under enormous pressure. Those people wanted her to restrain Takemikazuchi during the battle, assist everyone in attacking, and win the war.
But Takemikazuchi was the incarnation of lightning, a dragon that flew through the sky—not a stationary target!
She had already tried. Her power could restrain it only temporarily. Against a Kishin of this level, victory could not be achieved in a short while.
Besides, if she could lock up Takemikazuchi, which was accustomed to breaking through spatial barriers, everyone would not need to be encamped here now.
Yae Sakura had not considered that much.
Against Takemikazuchi, she had only one thought: give it everything she had.
So she had not considered the pressure of defeating Takemikazuchi. Instead, she seriously answered Sirin's question. "She's a very good girl."
"So you went out on a mission, made a new friend, and chatted with her for ages?" Sirin raised an eyebrow. "That's not like you, Sakura."
"We're not friends yet."
Yae Sakura shook her head and corrected her. "We agreed that if we won this battle and survived, she would become my friend."
Sirin's head filled with question marks.
Had she stayed in this wretched place too long, maintaining the space and delaying Takemikazuchi, that she could no longer keep up with these people's thoughts?
What did she mean, they would become friends if they survived?
Yae Sakura, were you all right in the head?
Then She Wasn't My Friend Anymore—Friendship Over!
"Looks like you really like this friend."
Sirin almost made a vicious remark, asking whether something was wrong with Yae Sakura's head. An agreement like this clearly meant that either she or the other person was sick in the head.
Even making friends required picking an auspicious day?
What kind of people were these?
She always felt out of place among this group. If this war had not affected the entire world, and if she would die even without fighting, she would have quit long ago.
She really had not wanted to do this for ages.
When would these days of doing nothing but fighting or preparing to fight finally end?
"Like her? I admire her convictions." Yae Sakura said, "My instincts tell me becoming friends with her would be a good thing."
"Oh? That interesting? Tell me about it too. Let me enjoy it."
She would have to go reinforce the spatial barrier again soon, so while she had a chance to catch her breath, she wanted to hear some gossip that might help her relax.
Yae Sakura thought it over. She really had nothing to do at the moment, and although Sirin seemed somewhat nasty, she was actually a good person.
Perhaps she could ask Sirin to help persuade Raiden Ryoma. After all, she had promised Kiana.
"Do you have any good friends?"
Yae Sakura planned to use an analogy to convey to Sirin the surprise Kiana had given her.
"Friends?"
Sirin's expression turned strange for a moment before she answered decisively, "No!"
Everyone around her was boring.
They had all come to slay the Kishin.
After people discovered that her adaptability with the Heavenly Blade was frighteningly high, she had not returned to the world of ordinary people for a long time.
At best, the people around her could only be called comrades.
People who might not even live until tomorrow if they were unlucky—she refused to admit they were her friends.
Yae Sakura was rendered speechless for quite some time.
Still, Sirin's answer was understandable. Her personality was something of an anomaly among the Demon Slaying Blade Masters.
She claimed that she did not want to become a Blade Master, but she had never once fled from battle and was extremely reliable on the battlefield.
She had saved many comrades with her Edict Blade.
Although she spoke unpleasantly and acted every day as though she wanted to retire on the spot and dump the burden on someone else,
many people at the base respected her deeply.
"Suppose you had a friend, and the two of you had a very good relationship. Then one day, someone suddenly took your blade..."
Sirin interrupted Yae Sakura as soon as she heard this. "There's such good fortune?"
"...Your friend discovered the person who took your blade. To protect your blade, she chased after them without regard for her life, even knowing she was no match for the enemy, intending to take your blade back..."
"Take my blade back?" Sirin clicked her tongue and waved her hands repeatedly. "Then she wasn't my friend anymore. Friendship over!"
Yae Sakura, interrupted again, turned around expressionlessly. She should never have thought Sirin could give sensible advice.
Someone as unreliable as Sirin could never offer her anything useful.
She would ask someone else.
"Hey, wait, don't go."
Sirin caught up with Yae Sakura. "What happened next? Keep going. Who tells half a story and stops?"
"This isn't a story."
"Oh, you're talking about that girl you met on the way." Sirin nodded, then countered, "But what does that have to do with you? In this story, your role seems to be the villain, doesn't it?"
"Villain? I was merely following orders, and I also explained the entire situation to Kiana." Yae Sakura thought for a moment, then added, "She should understand."
Before you continue