If Madi-san is going after the control room...
... does that mean that there is someone on the other side?
When the vase rattled above my head, these were the thoughts that floated through my mind.
Peeking over the ornamental table, I palm the vase for myself, opening the cover of my blue flipphone.
Vase in one hand, and back of the phone pointed on its shiny surface,
I rapidly tap the 'fshlight' function on my phone!
-... .- -.- .- / -- .. - .- ..
Repeated fshes of light fragments show up on the darkened wall,
just within the edge of the st cone of red death,
yet flickering just outside of its reach at the same time!
The reflection is just soft enough to not reveal my location,
yet obvious enough that whomever is on the other end
HAS to take notice!
Just as I tap the final 'e' in fsh fragments...
the [Security Orb] swivels upwards,
centering its conic gaze on the fshes of light!
So these things CAN be manually controlled!
In lifting its gaze, the controller also left a huge gap on the floor!
So huge your detective can crawl through the unlit carpeting with some grunting difficulty, but in the end, she makes it the same! Eat your heart out, Madi-san, this is REAL tactical espionage as Kxjima intended, not whatever circus freakshow you were putting up before!
Righting myself into a crouch behind the corner, I dust off my kimono and am about to turn the corner.
Ah. Before that.
I scroll to the speed dial, which has exactly two names on it, Madi-san's and Sachiko-senpai's.
Punching down on Madi-san's name shows a text box in which I punch the words,
"HUMANS (?) IN CONTROL ROOM"
There, that's all the help that boobs-for-brains is getting from me! Seeing that she was absolutely NO help in getting me through the corridor of death, this level of assistance is possible for Ayano Sane! Satisfied with my handiwork, I slide my phone back within the robes of my white kimono, turning the corner into the light!
The smell of victory is in the---
... oh no no no.
I had just turned the corner when I realized that it might have been wiser to go with Madi-san! This stretch of the hallway is a dead end, a single double-door carved in ominously tinted redwood at the end of the path.
Why not pass through the door, Ayano-dono? I would, were there not two rows of Horseguys standing in the shadows of the pilred balcony! Their ripped and muscled arms csped before their body, they face each other in rows of three, meaning every bit of gogogogo business just standing there menacingly! These guys do NOT skip arm day!
Just as I was about to backtrack, the [Security Orb] swivels back into pce, locking off my escape path with its red cone of area denial!
Ah. Okay...
That's perfectly okay.
It would be more okay...
... if my teeth could stop chattering, thanks!
Doing my most natural Egyptixn wxlk with hands inside the sides of my kimono towards the red door, the moment I make fifty paces within the door, all six horseheads turn to look at me at once! Green eyes fshing in the darkness, only their necks move, their bodies perfectly still and refusing to budge an inch! The long veins on their thick equinox necks bulge in sync at once, as if daring me to make a move!
That is not okay,
that is NOT okay!
My lifted foot instantly jerks backwards,
and the Horseguys turn their heads away!
Huh.
Tentatively, I hover my foot a little over the spot my cute little sandal stepped on...
No reaction.
[SFX:STOMP]
But the moment I bring my foot down,
fshing green eyes
turn,
the abyss gazing at me once more!
Sumimasen!
Sumimasen!
I shouldn't have done that!
I hurry to retract my foot, but this time, the abyssal gaze of the Horseguys lingers on me, not willing to turn their heads back! I've clearly triggered some sort of fg that causes them to be overly suspicious of me now! Back away slowly, Ayano, just back away slowly...! You didn't come this far to get turned into horse paste!
Everything's fine, Ayano. Just stay calm!
Act like you are supposed to be here!
I'm just going to casually take a look over the balcony now!
And I'm going to casually lean on the railings!
This is such a casual and natural move,
not trying to blend in or anything!
Just taking a short rest, that's all!
Evading security is very, very hard!
Looking down from the very nice chandeliers here,
this must be a ballroom of sorts!
Ahhh, the first floor is the very vision of calm, isn't it!
[SFX:BOOM!!!]
Cold sweat slides down the back of my kimono, I had chosen the worst timing to be overlooking this ballroom now!
Just as I decided to blend in, a towering Horseguy on the ballroom floor throws a downwards punch at a much smaller-framed girl with golden hair. You would think that being so close to Val-sama, the Horseguy's hit would connect; but Val-sama simply moved her feet, left-to-the-left, bde at a strange right angle to her body! This strange and seemingly rigid stance feels perfectly at home with Val-sama's rexed shoulder posture; like it could take any attack from any angle!
With the most minute of moments, Val-sama meets the middle of her lightly luminescent bde with the middle of her attacker's arm: the elbow. When the middle of both bde and arm meet, Val-sama's simple circur stepping gives her the leverage to push down and off the much rger arm! It was Val-sama's entire moving momentum versus an overextended right arm!
If Horseguy's lumberous movements took four motions to complete, Val-sama only took two. A clear advantage!
Not only that, Val-sama was aiming merely to change the trajectory of that punch; Horseguy, having been circled around would find it difficult to retract its arm for a follow-up, the velocity of that punch now working against it in a highly open position!
Val-sama had found the opening she was looking for!
In one fluid motion, the tip of the bde shining a faint blue is thrusted into the point between Horseguy's shoulder and chest!
A direct hit!
Green eyes widening, Horseguy falls backwards onto the ballroom floor with the other Horseguy sprawled on the floor!
[SFX:BOOM!!!]
What... the hell!
That wasn't the first one she beat?!?!
All of that happened in less than the span of three seconds!
If I hadn't observed the whole thing from up high, it would have seemed like Val-sama used some trick or magick to do that.
But there was no trick!
It was all bdework and that circur stepping I've never seen before! Compared to Madi-san's irregur hopping, Val-sama's bdework is controlled and precise, with minimalist movements that seek the greatest advantage from the least effort!
When the danger had passed Val-sama spins around on one foot to meet the Prinz and her small court of minions in animal masks.
The single extravagant movement of the night.
Her bde still at a right angle pointed towards her audience going zawa zawa[1]. Having seen that she dispatched the two mountainous guards with so little effort, the blubbering circle of animal masks lost their already non-existent will to fight! Seeing this, Val-sama swings her bde vertically against her face, tipping it slightly in salute!
"A cupped rapier using that stance... That was... [La Verdadera Destreza]...!"
Rufti had not been brought up as an Olden elite for nothing! Having seen Val-sama dispatch the two guards, she recognizes this ancient bde stance as the very same bdework that The First Princess of Vespana favored! [La Verdadera Destreza] used circur footwork and a focus on as little risky actions as possible, this right angle stance was once deemed the 'God of Stances'...!
The significance of this stance was complex indeed!
As time passed, more efficient stances were developed and Destreza was forgotten and left behind in the annals of history, its practitioners few and far between.
Even then, the Destreza of [CURRENT YEAR] simply could not be called the true Destreza. It had long been mixed with magick techniques that took it further and further away from its roots! To see it performed in its purest and most original form as recorded in 《The Princess Wars》...
To the Restorationists, it seemed as if a ghost had come back from the dead to haunt them!
Just as they were discussing how to remove The First's legacy...
A person using The First's personal stance appears?!
Can this be a coincidence?!
... The First had come back to life to haunt them!
This caused the circle of sycophants to tremble in fear...!
Evil and guilty conscious pricking their minds like thorns,
this was the natural reaction of evildoers!
"I am gd you recognize this humble stance of mine..." Holding a hand to hide her ugh, she swings her bde downward to dissipate it in a burst of flowing blue shimmers! "Please excuse the injuries, [La Verdadera Destreza] is a stance made to preserve life after all..."
"What's next? Are we going to see First Princess Villetia's 'Camity Move'?"
Rufti and company are on guard against this seeming phantom of The First. To them, they've already accepted that this person is definitely reted to The First, evidence be damned!
What they don't notice is that Val-sama is already taking steps backwards from under that long skirt of hers...! Taking out non-humans was one thing, but fighting off an entire ballroom of innocent, maybe not so innocent guests was not part of the pn. Val-sama is not the kind of soul who would take lives wantonly, it also vioted a central tenant of [Trono Palido]: its faction members were not allowed to take human lives! Too many mistakes to be had, too messy of situation to control!
It was time for a lower-stratum strategy.
"Oh? If you wish to see [Horizon Cutter], one more humble trick shall suffice---"
The cupped bde reforms in Val-sama's hand, but instead of holding it at a right angle, she holds it with both hands, winding it behind her right shoulder! This was the setup stance for the [Horizon Cutter]...! A stance that no Continental would mistake!
"Every single person in the hall, GET DOWN!"
At Rufti's sudden shout, every single person in the hall immediately went prone, holding their heads down in anticipation of the move which once cleaved mountains and moved rivers!
"Just kidding~ [Skystep]~"
To the horrified and not-understanding animal-masks below, small swirls of lightly green wind form at her feet, pushing her backwards in the sky! Much like the name of this magick spell, it appears like she is stepping back in bursts on invisible stairs behind her! Each time her back foot nds on a flight of invisible 'aerial stairs', it pushes off again to lift her body backwards and higher into the air!
Gently tapping down on the second floor balcony railings, a new trouble had risen.
For (me), that is.
For the first time, this unnamed intruder meets eyes with your smart and cute detective!
"Oh."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Go Go And Learn Moonrunes With Aya-chan![1]zawa zawa- ざわ??ざわ??, onomatopoeia from gamberu manga, usually used to denote nervousness in a crowd, especially when you are trying to tilt an entire building and deceive the heavens!
