On the other side of the door was a girl with a presence so overwhelming that it put my very heart on edge.

“I had a feeling it’s be you. This what you meant when you said we’d meet on the battlefield someday?” I asked to the girl staring at me with a distant expression.

“Truth be told, I had hoped our rematch would be under different conditions. After all, what measure of leadership can one take if those they lead aren’t with them?” Came the voice of Juno Nakama.

Every word she spoke struck me with fear. Her 「Overwhelming Presence」was suffocating, even when the words she was saying weren’t all that threatening.

“Even if we’re not together, I have faith in my girls to get through this. I take it they’re facing down your comrades right now?”

“Of course, and just as you have blind faith in them, I have every confidence my girls can do what must be done. Though I do wish I didn’t have to put the lives of my loved ones on the line like this.”

“Then you’re in luck. We resolved not to kill any of you even if our hand was absolutely forced. We’ll prove that the will of humanity is stronger than you believe, and we’ll do it without shedding any blood.”

“Such ridiculous faith in ideas like ‘the will of humanity,’ what strength do your lofty ideals have in the face of raw overwhelming power? This is why you’re a failure as a leader, Saki. You put the lives of those you love on the line to protect something as asinine as ‘the will of humanity.’”

“And you bend the knee at the first sign of danger, dragging those you claim to love down with you. What good is protecting their lives if you lose love, friendship and family in the process?”

“And you had the audacity to call me selfish during our talk before. You see no value in lives that you cannot love?”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it, Nakama. You’re forcing the people you claim to love to live in a loveless world, all so you can continue to possess them like toys.

“Forcing? I’ve forced no one. My girls have agreed this is the best course of action.”

“Stow the shit. You know they’d follow you to their graves if you decided to protect humanity instead of betraying it. You’re a coward who forced her cowardice upon those she claims to love. Now stand aside and let me rectify your mistake by securing humanity’s future, or lose a limb trying to resist me. It’s your choice.”

“Oh? What happened to your vow against killing?”

“With your healing factor, you can survive without a leg or two. Now step aside, Nakama. I won’t ask a third time.”

“Hmm… I’m afraid I can’t do that, Saki.” I felt the already suffocating presence intensity further as she spoke, drawing her twin kunai from her back. “Now, personally I have no stake in you running off and getting yourself killed by Lord Baal, but the job of administering the trial was entrusted upon me at my own request. Were I to disappoint him by simply standing aside, my own life would be at risk in recompense. So I’m afraid I’ll have to be the one doing the dismembering today. But don’t worry: I won’t kill you. I’ve grown somewhat of a spot for you, arrogant meathead that you are.”

”Lucky me. Guess I’ll have to carve out that soft spot when I kick your ass.”

I drew my katana and started towards her, the two of us slowly approaching the centre of the arena. Neither of us had any directly offensive magic, and both of us knew it. In other words, this was about to be a head-on battle of attrition. No gimmicks.

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The time it took us to draw close enough to fight felt like hours, though it was actually less than a minute. Every step we took brought us both closer to danger. Neither of us wanted the other dead, but that didn’t mean the stakes weren’t exceptionally high, and we both knew it.

We both stopped just metres away, weapons drawn, waiting for the other side’s impatience to force them to move. However, I was the one on a time limit, so inevitably I had to take the initiative.

I gripped my katana in both hands and advanced with a sweeping upwards slash with my sword, judging the range as best I could to avoid getting too close to her kunai. I kept that pressure up continuously, slash after slash as I attempted to find any hole in her defences.

She effortlessly dodged almost all of my attacks, and those she failed to dodge she instead calmly deflected away with her kunai, her mastery over redirection of weight making her iron defence almost impossible to break through. But I had no choice. My friends and comrades back on Earth needed me, so I didn’t have the time to slow down.

I upped the ante every further, striking with my sword with far more power than before in an attempt to shatter the kunai or the arms that held them. For a normal person, blocking one attack of this strength would numb their arms completely.

But Nakama wasn’t a normal person.

Sensing that I was about to overcommit to my attack, she took a quick step to her left and let my sword glide past her face, giving her free range to attack my now undefended body.

I paid for my hubris with a knife in my shoulder.

“Argh! Shit!”

I retreated quickly, and surprisingly she didn’t push her advantage. She seemed like the type to play with her prey before ending it. Meanwhile, I was leaking blood form my left shoulder and in immense pain.

“I didn’t expect you to fight so sloppily, Saki. Colour me disappointed.”

“Fuck… you…” I said through the pain.

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. Had I not relented to my desperation, I wouldn’t be ailing from a knife wound. I got careless, and I had been punished for it.

I ripped the knife from my flesh and threw it aside, vowing silently not to make that mistake again.

I decided to employ a little trick I had learned from Mai.

I approached her once again, sword in its sheath but prepared to taste blood soon. Wordlessly, I attacked exactly as I had before, with wanton aggression. I heard Nakama sigh as she once again drew her two kunai (where was she getting these spares from? How many of the bastards did she carry?).

However, this time I had a plan.

As I attacked, I began to understand her habits in blocking, dodging and deflecting. She preferred dodging when possible, but was happy to deflect to minimise risk. When she deflected, she always waited until the last moment before gently redirecting the momentum away from her body to throw off my coordination. It was so calculated, in fact, that it was predictable.

I feigned a heavy slash and, sure enough, she positioned her arms to redirect away. With her focus occupied with my sword, she was unable to predict the foot sweep from my legs that knocked her to her ass.

Through caught unawares, she recovered quickly with a backwards roll, but not before I was able to leave a big cut along her abdomen with my sword. Back to even, bitch.

I didn’t relent, attacking her as she got to her feet to push the advantage I earned.

Though she spoke no words, the renewed fury in her attacks said enough. Play time was over. She was ready to put me down now.

I kept up my own attack with as much speed as I could manage, but she kept up well, occasionally scoring shallow cuts on my face and arms as counterattacks.

It was obvious what she was looking to find a chance for. I couldn’t let her try it, or it’d be curtains for me.

Her desperate movement gave away her idea, so I quickly brainstormed possible countermeasures. With the aggression she was showing. I could think of just one solution. And it was an unpleasant one.

I had to bait her into thinking it was safe. There was no other way.

I deliberately threw in a small handful of minor mistakes in my sword play that I knew she would jump on at first opportunity. In her words, I was fighting sloppy.

By the way she gripped the knife in her left hand, I could tell what her idea was, and I knew how to lure her into. I waited until her stance was reset to a normal defensive position, before feigning a heavy attack. In reality, there was no weight behind it. But from her perspective, I had been practically disarmed by my own ineptitude.

She tried to use this time to use the one remaining gimmick she had.

To keep me away from her as she casted, she threw one final knife that would have hit my face were I tad slower. I caught the knife through my right hand and dropped the katana, putting her into a frenzy that she couldn’t keep up with.

“T-Time dila-!”

Her last word was cut off as I socked her in the mouth with every ounce of my body strength.