Chapter 35. Smoke and Mirrors

 Although Yara's face was covered with a material through which Lucy couldn't see even using her Piercing Sight ocular ability, which allowed her to see even through the trunk of a 5-meter thick tree, Lucy was sure that Yara's face must be gorgeous, as it was impossible to imagine that a pair of penetrating eyes like hers could belong to an ordinary face, just as it was impossible to imagine that a flawless purple sapphire stone wouldn't deserve to adorn a finely crafted jewelry piece made by the hands of a true artist.

 Being only slightly shorter than Rina, and possessing a very seductive figure, accentuated by her tight-fitting clothes, Yara had no trouble attracting all eyes around her, Lucy suspecting that the reason she preferred to move through the shadows was because it was nearly impossible for her to go unnoticed in any environment, even if she were amidst hundreds of people.

 Moreover, her long silver hair tied in a ponytail and her velvety grayish skin made her appear to Lucy as a true night nymph, one of the magical beings she often dreamed of in her childhood on full moon nights, so Lucy couldn't help but be fascinated at the moment she saw her, even amidst the tense situation they were in. That being said, it's no wonder that Lucy couldn't treat her the same as she did with all her other opponents.

 How to put it? Perhaps justice is blind, but Lucy certainly isn't. On the contrary, she could see better than anyone in that world. And when it came to Yara, well, there was plenty for her to see...

 "Well played, kitty. Not only did you manage to trick me into thinking I captured you, but you also sneaked behind me, something no one has been able to do before. But do you think it's enough to put a strange knife to my throat to make me admit defeat? And even if I said I surrender, what guarantees you that I'll keep my word? You're too childish, kitty... Only an opponent who can no longer move is truly defeated...", Yara said without a hint of concern in her voice, as if Lucy were just a child playing games, threatening her with a toy knife.

 'Damn it, why does everything she says sound so cool? Is it because her words are one hundred percent original and describe something she truly believes in? Yes, she would be much more entitled than me to identify herself as a ninja. Next to her, I seem like just an actor who's been given the role of a ninja and thrown into action without even being given a script, like I've heard some eccentric directors do in their productions. But what's my fault? All I know about being a ninja is from movies and anime, while she has lived her whole life sneaking from shadow to shadow, and considering she's a dark elf, she might have lived for over a hundred years...', Lucy said to herself after hearing the words of the young dark elf woman whom she held a kunai to her throat. She was a bit irritated at the thought that her ninja creed was just a mishmash of ideas taken from movies that managed to impress her, rather than the result of her own experiences, which would always make her wonder if perhaps her entire assumed identity since she was reincarnated was just a farce.

 Truth be told, Lucy's passion for ninjas had almost disappeared before she was reincarnated, aware that much of what she appreciated in her childhood about ninja life was just the inventions of some screenwriters who had never even held a ninja sword, but after arriving in a new world, where she was offered the chance to obtain ninja-specific skills, she couldn't resist the temptation to fulfill her childhood dream and try to behave like a real ninja, just like a young person entering the workforce buys a toy from their first paycheck that they wanted as a child and their parents refused to buy for them.

 But if you play a role long enough, isn't it possible to identify with it, especially if it's the role of your dreams? In Lucy's case, the answer was 'maybe', because her mind easily assimilated many ideas cataloged by her subconscious as 'cool', the proof of this fact being the moments when she imitated certain characters or acted out scenes from a movie or anime, but in some occasions, after killing someone or while torturing someone, when she wondered if what she was doing was wrong, she quickly rid herself of any trace of remorse, telling herself that all her actions were not characteristic of her own person, but of the ninja role she had assumed.

 "What's the matter, kitty? Don't know what to do next? If you don't dare to use your knife, how about I help you?", Lucy was interrupted from her thoughts by Yara. Then, she saw how the dark elf she held captive suddenly pushed her throat onto the blade of the kunai she was threatening her with, which penetrated the flesh on her neck easier than through butter.

 Though taken by surprise by Yara's action, Lucy was sure that Yara wasn't the kind of person to give up life so easily, so she didn't think for a moment that her kunai had actually pierced the dark elf's throat and immediately started looking for clues about the skill Yara used with her ability to analyze the flow of mana.

 "Heh, it's a good trick... So you can transfer the ability to be material from your body to your shadow...", Lucy said in less than two seconds, then she attempted to grope Yara's buttocks with her free hand just to see her hand pass through it like through smoke.

 "You're a clever kitty, but I don't think anyone has taught you yet not to put your paws wherever you please...", Lucy heard a voice coming from Yara's shadow, which began to rise from the ground and gain more and more three-dimensional properties.

 "Well, you're welcome to try to teach me...", Lucy said, her body transforming into a heap of dark vines as soon as Yara's shadow attempted to grab her arm, wrapping around both Yara's shadow and her body, eliminating any chance of escape.

 "Maybe I will. And if you're obedient, maybe I'll keep you for myself...", Yara said, both her body and her shadow slipping into the shadow of the heap of dark vines, unaware that Lucy had left behind not only a substitute of dark vines but also a freshly purchased stun grenade from the Ninja Shop, which once it exploded, caused all the shadows generated by the dark vines to disappear, abruptly interrupting Yara's skill that allowed her to slip into shadows, throwing her over 3 meters away.

 "Heh, I'll probably teach you to fly first...", Yara heard Lucy's taunting voice in one of her pointed ears, which Lucy couldn't help but pinch by its tip even though she knew the effect of the Bending of Light skill would be canceled, so Lucy suddenly appeared next to her, her proud expression managing to irritate Yara more than she had ever been in her entire life.

 "Kitty, pray you don't end up in my hands..."

 ............

 Watching from a distance of about 50 meters from where Lucy was fighting Yara, Rina was not at all pleased with the direction the confrontation between the two was taking, her jealousy growing so intense that the grass beneath her feet began to catch fire.

 'What kind of fight is this? Have they exchanged any serious blows so far? It feels like they're just teasing each other... Damn it, Lucy... You dare to play with other women right in front of me... Heh, I'll make sure you won't forget again that you have a girlfriend...', Rina said to herself, very dissatisfied that she wasn't strong enough to intervene between the two to separate them and assert her sovereignty over Lucy.

***Author's Thoughts: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you're wondering whether Yara will also become Lucy's lover, the answer is not yet, but probably in about 40-50 chapters. The next chapter will be in a week. Until then, I will also provide 1-2 updates for my other two novels.