In her eyes, Tetsu no Sosuke's talents were many-sided.
He was strong in combat, skilled at forging, and just as gifted at making automatons.
The Butterfly Estate still had a training puppet that Kanao used, and it was remarkably powerful.
"Here we go!" Tetsu no Sosuke warned.
The next instant, the automaton moved.
Its six arms swept forward, blades flashing in a continuous barrage as it charged Shinobu Kocho.
She slipped to the side, instinctively circling behind it, but the Automaton Puppet abruptly changed the direction of its attack.
Caught off guard, Shinobu Kocho barely escaped the exchange. She sprang clear with her superior speed, then lunged back in, her blade driving straight at the Automaton Puppet.
She expected it to dodge and ran through every possible counter in her mind. Instead, the Automaton Puppet stood perfectly still and let her blade pierce its body...
"What was that?" Shinobu Kocho stared at it, then turned to Tetsu no Sosuke.
He gave an awkward laugh. "It got too far away. It's outside my control range."
"..." Shinobu Kocho gritted her teeth. "Give me back the effort I just put into that, you jerk!"
Tetsu no Sosuke regrouped, and the two began fighting in earnest—one human, one automaton.
In the end, Shinobu Kocho came out on top.
Even with a few tricks up his sleeve, Tetsu no Sosuke never managed to beat her.
When the fight ended, Shinobu Kocho steadied her breathing and looked back at him. "That's terrifying!"
Tetsu no Sosuke was pleased with it too.
He hadn't set out to win. He wanted to test the Automaton Puppet's capabilities.
The fact that it could hold its own against Shinobu Kocho to this degree was a pleasant surprise.
That said, the main reason Shinobu Kocho had only won by a narrow