The Ritual

(A few days after the duel with Genji)

In an empty room, a group of sorcerers formed a circle with Sora standing in the middle.

A magic crest was drawn on the ground. The crest is in the shape of the crest engraved onto the Severance blade.... It is the rune of Severance.

"Are you ready?" One of the sorcerers asked to the boy,

"Yes. Please do it."

The sorcerers began to gather magic energy around themselves as the magic crest glew alight.

"...." Takina watched from the corner of the room, waiting for the ritual to finish.

While the people involved in the process is seemingly full of tension, they all knew that the ritual would succeed. This isn't the first time they tried to retrieve the Severance Blade.

Just a day ago, they had performed the ritual in this exact room, just without the magic crest.

These sorcerers retrieved the blade, quickly copying the magic crest inscribed into the Severance Blade, and then returned it back to Sora's body.

That crest they copied is the symbol representing the concept of Severance. Using it's pattern to draw upon that power, they are now going to actually seperate the sword from Sora's body.

As Takina watched on, she notices the light of the magic crest fluctuating. The sorcerers themselves appears to be losing control....

One of the sorcerer had his hands placed on the crest itself, and is controlling the mana inside to stabilize it. He is referred to as the 'anchor' of the ritual.

"...Stop the ritual, there might be a magic overload!" The anchor said.

"There's no need." Takina responded from the back.

"What?"

She walked forward and placed her hands on the crest... Closing her eyes, she felt the flow of the mana currents inside the crest itself....

"These type of reality-bending magic is unstable like that. It's just a side-effect, though it may be dangerous on a large scale it won't be a problem in such a small circle."

"How would someone without experience in magic know this? Besides, you aren't the only one who will be killed if the crest is overloaded, I'll be dying with you-"

"In that case you can leave. I'll be anchor instead."

"...No. Fine, I trust your words."

"Thank you. Now, let us work together to stir up this flow of magic energy and feed it to the crest."

A few minutes passes where nothing happens. But eventually, enough magic energy was fed to the crest and it began to glow in a bright blue light.

The leader of the sorcerers gave his signal to the rest :

"We'll cast the spell on the boy. On three... two... one... Now."

The blue light glows brightly. Black ink-like mist flowed from the crest and covered Sora who was standing in the middle.

From the tattoo on his back, a hilt of a blade comes protruding out...

"I shall retrieve it."

Takina grabbed onto the blade and draws it out, revealing a black coloured Katana with a lotus hand guard.

"Takina-san... Please catch... Me..."

"What?"

Before Takina could even respond properly, Sora's body went lifeless and fell down. Her quick reflexes allowed her to catch him by his collar, and gently lowering him to the ground....

"Sora-sama, get a hold of yourself!"

______________

"Zzz...."

He's... asleep?

Before I could try and wake him up though, one of the sorcerers had called out to me.

"Lady Fujiwara, what happened to you?"

"What? What happened to me?"

"Your eyes are glowing in bright gold!"

"Huh?"

Without a second thought, I immediately threw the sword away. 'Tink!'

"What about now?"

"It... returned to normal?"

"When my body is filled with Mana - what you Japanese call magic energy, my eyes would glow like that. Pay it no mind, it's a normal thing."

"I've never heard of such a phenomenon before...."

Of course you haven't. I lied.

The blade had somehow strengthen my soul's bond to the dragon's soul... Or at least that's my guess into why my eyes were suddenly turned into the serpent-like eyes of my dragon form.

But now I have to attend to more pressing matters.

Looking at Sora again, he is completely asleep. His face is devoid of pain, and seemed to be slumbering in peace like a baby.

I sighed a breath of relief knowing that he's at least not in trouble... for once.

"The blade is out now and Sora-sama doesn't seem to be hurt even though he's unconscious. For now, I'll take him to his room and let him rest..."

"Excuse me, Lady Fujiwara. May we have the sword for a moment, so that we can inspect it further? We will return it to you once we are done."

"I do not mind. Besides, it would be dangerous to hold onto that thing without a proper sheath... it would be safer for you guys to keep it until one is made."

"You have my gratitude, Lady Fujiwara."

I crouched down and picked Sora up on my arms like a princess.

"Well then, I'll be leaving."

As I exited the room and headed for Sora's room, my mind wandered around the place.

But one thought that never leaves me is the fact that I don't like that sorcerer leader... something about him feels off to me.

I think his name was... Dogen?

Oh well, no use thinking about it for now.

______________

It took about an hour until the boy woke up again.

With nothing to do, I sat in the room with my mind half-asleep waiting for him to wake up... and wake up he did.

"Urgh..."

"You're finally awake."

"How did the ritual went..."

"It was a success. We removed the blade from your body."

"And the sword?"

"The sorcerers took it. They'll inspect it further and return it to us when we get a proper sheath for it."

"I see... Thank you, Takina."

"What's this all of a sudden?"

"Nothing... I was just remembering that you helped in the ritual. I didn't know you knew magic."

"Oh that? Well, stuff you learn at the Magic Academy never leave easy... I used to be a mage afterall."

"Also... I'm sorry."

"Why this again, all of a sudden?"

"It's about Genji this time.... You went through all that trouble to fight him, only to then have to ask for help from him to perform this ritual...

If I had talked with you over this entire thing, maybe you would never have the need to fight him at all...."

"Wait, I don't think you're the one to be blamed here... Genji is the one who refused to talk to me.

Even if you did told me to calm down because he's somehow on our side again, I would still want to beat his face in. He did took an eye and cut my arm from me afterall."

"But you don't sound that spiteful of him despite that..."

"I do hate him now... but I guess I wasn't that serious about revenge because my eye is only temporarily damaged?

The doctor (Enna) said it'll heal up soon. It's just that my vision in that eye would be blurry for a while."

"I'm glad to hear that... If you had gotten a permanent damage because of me then..."

"It's alright. I expected as much the moment I picked up my sword.

With how Genji and my relationship is, us staring down at the end of each other's blade is only a matter of time. It sucks that we have only ever known each other for our fighting skills rather than our personality, but it is just how swordsmen are...."

But of course, it does suck not having my depth perception sometimes. Having one eye half-blinded is very inconvenient.

A brief moment passes where we are just sitting there in silence, trying to collect our thoughts.

Finally, the boy spoke.

"After so long, this curse of mine is finally gone... It feels so refreshing..."

"Is that so?"

"But now... I don't know what I should do next."

"...Just return to your family."

"No way. The Takeda Clan will kill us just like they did to my father."

"Do you trust me to safeguard the Severance Blade then?"

"I trust you but... why would you want the sword other than to seperate your Dragon Soul?"

"The Takeda Clan was only after you because they wanted the Severance Blade. If you leaked news to them about how I am in possession of it rather than yourself, then they'd never bother targeting you."

"But doesn't that mean you'll be facing the Takeda Clan by yourself...?"

"I have always been hunted by assassins and ninjas ever since the war started... I wonder if it's that different now hmm?"

"I see.... I'd hate to have to rely on you one last time but-"

"You can count on me, boy."

I reached my hand out and patted his head.

"...Don't treat me like a kid."

"You are a kid in my eyes."

"Come on, enough of that!"

"Haha, my bad!"

"...What will you do after that then?"

"After what?"

"After separating the Dragon Soul from your body. Will you return to your homeland?"

"....No. I have something to find... Someone, to find."

"Someone? Is that person precious to you?"

"Yeah. She is. I grew up with her... she's practically my twin, despite our differences."

"I see."

Come to think of it I've never told anyone here before that I have a sister... It's been a while since I've thought of her, so it wouldn't be odd if I never talked about her either.

"I want to have a little chat with Kenshin-sama, and also to find Monkey-san for that sheath.

You must still be tired, so you should rest for now, Sora-sama."

"Mmm. I'll do just that-"

'Boom!...'

All of a sudden, the entire castle shook violently following a loud explosion that sounded rather close.

"Hmm, that was quite a strong one... Perhaps the Oda Clan made a new cannon?"

"Uhh Takina-san... You need to see this."

"Hmm?"

Sora had gotten up over to the window, where he peeked out.

Following his call I decided to go and take a look outside as well.

Surrounding the castle is a large moat full of water, making the bridge over the moat the only way to access the castle.

The castle gate by the end of the bridge was blown into smithereens, blocking the way in and out of the castle.

Multiple carriages seemingly full of equipments are stuck on the bridge because of this. Were they trying to enter the castle just prior?

"Those are the reinforcements from Niigata." Said Sora.

How did he know?

"Look, Kenshin-sama and his ninja is fighting out by the castle gate."

"Hmm?"

Just inside the destroyed gate is the sight of four individuals.

Danzo and Kenshin on one side...

A duo of a man and a small-sized woman stood on the other side. Notably, they had what appears to be horns on their head.

With their weapons drawn, the four battled each other in a clash of blades.

"Maybe you should go and help them out..."

"I don't think Kenshin would need my help to handle a duo of demons, but..."

I picked up my sword from the side, and headed out of the room.

"I was going to chat with him anyway."

"You said he didn't needed help..."

"Keep yourself safe, Sora. I'll be back soon."

"The same goes for you too. Don't be too reckless, you've just recovered recently from a coma."

"Yeah."

I ran out of the room and bolted straight for the exit of the castle gate.

___________

While it is true that Takina's intention was to help out Kenshin, it isn't convincing when a grin appeared on her face as soon as she left the room.

Maybe she had never noticed it, but she is very steadily getting more insane the more she fights, to the point where she's starting to enjoy it all.

(Chapter End)