Even Weapons Retire

The group surrounded Yumeno who lay in the hospital bed covered in cuts and bandages. Her appearance was almost akin to a mummy in their sarcophagus. Arthur then shouted,

"YUMENO-CHAN!"

The second he opened his mouth he was promptly slapped and scolded by the nagging Yukiko, "She is too injured to speak right now can you turn down the noise?"

While the two fought Akumu was lost in his thoughts, he could only think about different actions he could take against Haoran as he was definitely going to be an opponent in the upcoming matches. Ken then asked him,

"Are you ok?"

Akumu snapping back to reality responded with a simple nod. Ken tried to persist but saw he wasn't getting anywhere. That is When Taori shouted out to everyone in the room,

"SHE IS WAKING UP."

Everyone quickly gathered to surround the sleeping woman. Omo then asked everyone,

"Is it just me or is she getting younger?"

Nobody had noticed, but what Akumu found resembled that of a 30-year-old woman, but now she only looked 16. Despite her being monitored this whole time it had been made apparent this girl had gotten, younger.

As the woman woke up she was silently observed by everyone around her. Taori quickly asked her,

"Who are you?"

She silently looked at her before answering,

"I don't remember."

Despite her lack of memory, she could still speak Japanese. She then asked everyone, "Who found me?"

They all pointed to Akumu who still sat by his lonesome in the corner. The girl slowly got out of the hospital bed before slowly walking over to Akumu. As she did she then tripped however, Akumu was able to catch her quickly. Before passing out once again the girl asked,

"You saved me again."

Everyone was confused about what had just occurred. The girl had now left them with more questions than she did when she arrived. As the Doctor returned to give her another check he announced some odd news,

"This girl has malediction lethargy disease. It is a condition that can cause memory loss, lack of energy, and irregular body temperature, the main issue it causes though is the increased deficiency in cursed energy. As long as this girl remains like this she will die."

Akumu asked, "Is there anything you can do?"

The doctor simply replied, "It's a new disease that has appeared within the last 100 years. Not enough research has been done into cursed energy to treat it."

The group then sulked for a bit. The doctor, however, asked to talk to Akumu in private. The two left the room to converse in private.

The doctor then asked, "There is one method I am aware of that can save her. However, it is highly illegal so I'm only willing to perform it for... the right price."

Akumu then asked, "How much does it cost?"

He said bluntly, "9 million Russian Rubbles (around 15 million Yen)"

Akumus's heart sank for a bit before he began calculating. He thought to himself, "I have 5 million Yen saved up right now. If I take out a loan I could then pay the debt to him right away and I'm a special grade soccer right now too, I should be able to recover after 4 or 5 missions maybe."

While his head was cloudy with thoughts the doctor shouted over to him, "If you can't pay then don't bother. You need to find a compatible donor in the first place which is already a 1 in a 1 billion chance. And even then there is already a 1 in one trillion chance of the surgery being successful. If it fails it will result in the deaths of both patients. She has at most a year left to live, I can test you to check if you are compatible right now for free, after that the choice is yours."

Akumu thought about it carefully, was this person's life really worth that much to him? Either way, he took the test and decided to get some rest for the next day.

The next day

Like Many other times before Frosty Whipp shouted into the microphone, "ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT ROUND???"

The crowd shouted in excitement, now it was time for round 3 of the servant battles. Leonie then spoke,

"Can Yamehito Taori and Luo Xiang enter the arena?"

The two cursed tool users entered the arena while locking eyes onto one another. Taori was more serious among the two while Xiang appeared to be more confidant. 

The countdown then began to start,

"3..2..1.. FIGHT"

Taori quickly drew her sword preparing to end the match with one strike. Before she had only used her cursed technique only to replicate herself, but now she has gained the ability to expand the size of her very attacks in the form of an extension technique!

"Aura Edge"

As she swings her sword a great mass of purple energy is released from her blade forming into a giant slash that hurdles towards the opponent. Xiang as a counter released her own technique that conjured a massive golden shield that blocked the attack.

Without giving her a chance to counter-attack, Taori jumps on top of and over her attack, while preparing to strike at her once more. Unexpectedly, Xiang had prepared two smaller spears that telekinetically flew towards her.

She blocks one with a normal attack and the other with her aura clone but right when she did the attack exploded while releasing a scorching flame. 

As she reached back towards the ground, the golden shield began to fade away revealing the young girl who was now bearing a long golden whip.

As she waved her weapon-bearing arm around, the highspeed attacks barraged Taori in all directions. She activates her overlay technique shielding her from the whips, however, the attacks began the ignite and explode all around her. 

As the wave of attacks slowed down, they eventually revealed a gravely injured Taori who crouched with one knee on the ground. She was not only burned but also covered in bruises. Xiang then spoke out,

"Is this all that you are capable of? That's rather disappointing I was hoping that I could get a work-out from you at least."

She then responded, "Don't act cocky. You just revealed your greatest weakness"

"What are you talking about?", Xiang asked while panicking.

"Your innate technique ignites when it comes into contact with cursed energy. However it also comes with an activation condition!", she shouts.

Taori along with her aura clone began to kick up a massive cloud of dust that flew in the direction of Xiang. As she began to protect her eyes Taori prepared for one last attack while shouting,

"your innate technique is in your eyes! You can't manifest those weapons without seeing can't you?"

She summons her aura clone one last time but instead of coating it in her sword, she embraces it in her fist. 

She punches Xiang right in the head, crushing her skull into the ground while even cracking the ground beneath her. Xiang struggled to summon even a single arrow until eventually falling unconscious. Frosty Whipp declared into the mic, 

"THE WINNER OF ROUND 3 IS ONCE AGAIN THE JAPANESE TEAM, YAMEHITO TAORI"

The Japanese team had now scored their tenth point putting them only 3 points behind the once-so-dominant China.