Chapter 183: Three-Minute Showdown

In front of Ryuudou Temple's Torii Gate, Shiro arrived. Though, a single person greeted him under the moonlight. The man wore a set of blue yukata, his presence being "ordinary".

"I was about to leave, but I can trust them with holding the fort for a while." He said to the man opposite of him.

"The same goes to me, but why do I feel a faint familiarity with you?"

Instead of answering, Shiro took out his Armament, his black sword. It is noticeably weaker as it doesn't have his hidden power anymore, but its sharpness didn't diminish.

Hum-!

As the sword shook lightly, the nameless master felt Shiro's will to fight intensity. Furthermore, it indirectly showcased his mastery with myriad weapons when he saw the vague sense of different weapon's strengths in that blade.

"You'll know soon enough."

Clang-!

Clang-!

Clang-!

In a split second, their blades clashed by three times. Shiro twisted his wrist and tried to pierce Sasaki Kojirou's neck, but the latter blocked it with his katana.

Sparks flew out as their blades came in contact once more. Unfortunately for Sasaki Kojirou, the concept of a spear was incorporated in Shiro's blade, which further enhanced the power behind that thrust.

Bam-!

As a result, he was pushed back by a couple of steps. One has to know that his Strength is merely at D Rank due to his Assassin Class, hence his weakness to frontal combat.

However, his breathing became normal in an instant as he fixed his stance once more, with his sword being held in front of him.

With this, the two continued their silent clash. Each time they clash directly, Sasaki Kojirou is inevitably pushed back by a couple of steps; this had no effect in him as he predicted where he would be in each clash.

After three such clashes, Sasaki Kojirou summarized what he realized in this fight.

'A master of multiple weapons. I can't believe that such monster existed. Still... this is interesting.' He then thought of something. 'Why does he feel so familiar, as if...'

"No way..."

Even though he is a calm and collected person, he couldn't help but link Shiro to the one that ended his life in their duel.

Seeing this, Shiro didn't hesitate to take out [Fragrant Olive Sword] in his left hand. While he might've easily defeated him with more than 3 full-powered magic attacks, he wanted to know more about Sasaki Kojirou.

To be more exact, his sword techniques that received the praise from his troublesome and carefree wife. Hence, he decided to make a quick stop here.

"These might not be a curved blade, but it is still made to cut something down..." Shiro mumbled as he let out a distinct and unique weapon concept. It is a variant of the Sword Concept, but it only has one purpose.

That is, to cut down nothingness—the void. It is far different than cutting down space as it is very easy to do once your strength reaches a sufficient level.

(A/N: MC is pertaining to the difference between a katana and a western longsword. Musashi's techniques are made for a katana, after all.)

Behind him, a clear phantom of something similar to a Bodhisattva appeared. He held a pair of normal blades, one of which is a long silver blade unsullied by anything. The other one has a surrounding ferocious aura in it while it's stained with blood. Just from looking at it, hundreds of millions of lives had been reaped by it at the very least.

While Shiro is calm, the same couldn't be said to Sasaki Kijirou.

After all, the same blade technique is used to end him. Even if he's only an amalgamation of what people believed as "Sasaki Kojirou", one thing that wouldn't change is that he died to Miyamoto Musashi.

Though, he soon recovered from his stupor as he understood the look behind Shiro's pupils:

'One strike.'

As they prepared to unleash the full power behind their techniques, they are like a string of a fully-drawn bow.

[Rikudou Gorin—Kurikara Tenshou]!

[Tsubame Gaeshi]!

Two blades, one that sought to cut down nothingness and the other swallows, was unleashed at each other. Both of them saw the attacks coming closer at them and had different responses.

'Three strikes in a single one... He's really interesting.' Shiro thought as he saw the triple strikes aimed at him. The first one is a downward strike while the other two are diagonal. This made it so that people would first think of the downward strike in Sasaki Kojirou's stance, but the more experienced ones would think that it's just a faint.

Unfortunately for them, all two of them are real. Add to that his third strike, this seals of the deal for anyone else. Their only outcomes would be their deaths due to this inescapable strike.

However, Shiro is someone who had mastered armaments all his life. Thus, he did the unexpected.

Sou-!

The single strike released by him blocked the first two strikes. Naturally, Shiro avoided the third blow easily.

"Huff. My power is still limited." He mumbled as he stored his swords back at where they are before.

Meanwhile, Sasaki Kojirou also lowered his blade. He recalled what had happened just now, which indicated that Shiro saw through the 'trick' in his killing move and easily resolved it. Furthermore, he can vaguely sense that his attainments in the way of the sword is higher than his, so he acknowledged this as his defeat.

"I'm just curious. How are you related to her?" He asked.

Hearing this, Shiro froze for a moment. Then, he recalled that the "Miyamoto Musashi" here is known as a man. Furthermore, Sasaki Kojirou is made from the people's beliefs, so he also thought that Musashi is a man.

After thinking for a while, he dropped a bombshell to the 'failed swordsman' that was still acknowledged by her.

"I'm her husband."

"???"

Sasaki Kojirou's elegant face couldn't be maintained at this moment as it turned into a dumbfounded one. His brain processes stopped for a moment, unable to believe what he had heard just now.

"What in the..."

"Right, so you don't know. You recall your final fight with Musashi, yes?"

"That's right, but he IS a man based on my memories."

"Your memories are only partially right, then."

"Still..."

In the end, he decided to stop understanding it.

"Catch."

Suddenly, Shiro threw him a bottle of wine. It has been preserved for nearly 200 years and is listed as a (UC) reward, so it is undoubtedly a good one.

"Oh? I still get to receive this? I got to say, our meeting is a worthwhile one."

"Same goes to me. After all..." Shiro continued his thought inwardly. 'I finally satisfied this long interest that spanned millennia...'

Only he knew that this meeting that spanned less than 3 minutes satisfied one of his "small" goals. Back then, he couldn't travel to other worlds due to the suppressions imposed on him, so her stories are merely imaginative.

With her ability to travel to different worlds unhinged, her stories brought him interest when he's bored as the strongest.

"I'll be going."

Shiro waved him goodbye as he opened another [Aurora Curtain] that connected directly to a familiar place in Fuyuki City...

The Einzberg Mansion.