13 Ryouma's Last Request

Three days had passed old man Ryouma had already sent Ikki back to the Kurogane's manor. Leaving the only two of us left in the snow-covered land.

"Are you sure you want to do this old man? You're dying." Otto shouted.

"I'm certain boy *cough*... I don't have that much time left. Do this old man a favor and fight with him until he is satisfied." Ryouma smiled softly.

"You expect a lot from a kid, don't you?"

"Hahahah, forgive this old man's selfish request. How about this, if you win go back to the cabin and you should see a couple of letters in the drawer. I might trouble you by sending those to my 2 acquaintances. Who knows they might help you in some way in the future."

"*sigh* For a dying wish, alright. Still so much for that talk about not taking life and morals the other day." He was confident that we wouldn't lose.

"Come, young man. Don't underestimate this old-timer. *cough* *cough*"

"Hyouga!" Ryouma manifested his device as it made a snowstorm around them, just the presence of it alone was enough to freeze an ordinary person to an ice block.

"Blade of Tathagata." Otto summoned Blade of Tathagata as it was engulfed in flames.

He only found out that he should be an easy counter to Ryouma's element which was ice since Blade of Tathagata had an affinity with the fire element.

"Made the first move old man." Otto took a defensive stance as he was against a real master of the sword arts.

"Then if you don't mind. Toudou Heigen." Ryouma turned the ground into ice which made Otto have a hard time trying to not accidentally slip.

The Old man charged at Otto, since he didn't seem to be affected by the ice terrain.

"Blade of Ember." Otto drew his katana, melting the ice on the ground. Ryouma parried his sword immediately without him knowing noticing that the old man had already closed the gap between them.

"You're a too distracted young man."

*Spiral Cloud Passage*

Otto released shockwaves as he sent 9 slashes to the old man, which he easily parried all.

"Ikkaku." Ryouma slowly made a slashing motion to Otto, so slow that it was easy to parry or dodge. Hence Otto chose to parry it instead of dodging which was a mistake.

As Ryouma's sword collided with Otto's katana, it immediately froze Blade of Tathagata along with Otto's right arm.

"Huh!?" Otto looked surprised as he leaped back immediately before trying to melt the ice covering his weapon.

"Gou no Kiwami - Karai." The old man rushed in front of Otto delivering a horizontal slash that made a shallow cut in his chest, before receiving a heavy punch to the stomach, which made Otto instinctively pull his body away to reduce the damage.

"*cough* *cough* So fast." Otto muttered as he had puked what he had eaten yesterday.

*Mortal Strike*

Otto coated his blade in intense flames as he did a quick draw to the old man.

"Jin no Kiwami - Amaterasu." The old man blocked his strike, before unleashing a flurry of strikes to him.

*clang* *clang* *clang*

The both of them inhaled heavily before charging towards each other in full force.

"One Mind."

"Retsu no Kiwami - Amatsukaze."

Both of their quick slashes collided with each other, Otto was on the losing side since his strikes only contained high strength but were a bit slower than the old man's quick movements.

"Unknowning Fire." Otto crotched before dashing at high speed leaving flames behind his steps, as his sword burned brightly.

"You're getting faster young man! That's good!" The old man seemed to show excitement, as he also grew faster while creating several ice walls that easily slowed Otto in his rapid speed.

"Ice shard." The old man waved his sword creating several ice pillars that shot towards Otto.

"Blooming Lotus Flames." Otto performed multiple slashes in a circular motion to defend against the ice projectiles, as they melted the ice immediately.

Otto's flame wasn't dropping as time passed, instead, it became wilder each second as he blitzed all of the ice created by Ryouma.

*clang* *clang* *clang*

"Your leg boy," Ryouma warned as he swung his sword horizontally and once again froze the Blade of Tathagata, leaving him open before Otto tried punching him. But was dodged, as the old man maneuvered his body to make a laceration on Otto's right calf.

"ArgH!" He gritted his teeth as flames burst forth around him, but the old man didn't back away as he moved forward and threw Otto towards the ground pinning him using his ice magic.

"Better think fast boy," Ryouma said coldly.

'This old man is seriously gonna kill me!!!' Otto was starting to panic as he struggled to melt away the ice.

"Kuhhh." Otto's abdomen was stomped by Ryouma who still had his cold expression.

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" Otto screamed as to stimulate the flames in his heart, the ice in the Blade of Tathagata was starting to melt as it quickly turned around into a blazing inferno.

"Impressive..." Ryouma muttered in surprise. "To grow this strong at an unbelievable pace..."

"PURGATORY!" Otto took a high stance before dashing towards at extremely high speed and unleashed a single slash at Ryouma as he blocked it with his Hyouga attempting to freeze it, but was quickly melted as their clothes started to burn.

"Ha!" Ryouma kicked Otto's stomach hoping he would loosen his sword, but Otto didn't flinch one bit and pulled his katana slightly before heavily striking Ryouma's katana again. Causing him to drop one knee from Otto's abnormal strength.

"*cough* Ikkaku." This time Ryouma didn't slow down and tried to take Otto's left arm. But Otto parried it perfectly as he pinned Ryouma's sword to the ground using his foot, as he grabbed him with his left arm as he stabbed his chest slightly missing the heart.

*huff* *huff* *huff*

Ryouma's blood spurted out as it dyed the white snow in red.

"Uhhh- you didn't hit my heart... *cough*" The old man coughed up blood as he positioned himself into a seiza.

"Boy... Tell me your name." Ryouma hadn't got his name just yet and wanted to know who was he before he let out his final dying breath.

"I am Otto Apocalypse, the Raksha. And will become the strongest in the world, for I am unrivaled under heaven." Otto introduced himself to Ryouma, even though he knew the old man held back by at least 90% of his prime. But regardless Otto was still proud he won against someone who is known as the Great Hero of Japan.

"Very well, Otto Apocalypse. I accept my last dying words as a piece of advice. Sometimes it's not the swordsmanship that wins the fight, but the one who understands the heart of his opponent." Ryouma stated as he readied his head towards Otto for him to behead him.

After killing Ryouma. Otto lay in the bloodied snow as he was mentally exhausted.

"I killed once again..." As he closed his eyes knew noticed that two people were watching their duel.

"It's you Ikki Kurogane." While still lying on the ground, Otto looked at him who was accompanied by his little sister Shizuku as Ikki covered his sister's eyes from the gory scene in front of them.

"Leave. I'll clean it up..." Otto shooed them away, as he could see Ikki's tears after witnessing his great-grandfather fall in front of his eyes.

Ikki just nodded held his sister tightly and left the area, unable to see it for any longer.

"Hooooooo." Otto let out a deep breath, as the snow started to fall once again.

"Hope this isn't another blizzard." He sighed as he summoned Brynhildr as his crutch for the time being since his right leg became numb.

Brynhildr wanted to complain but stayed quiet for the time being, since she knew Otto wasn't in the mood to talk right now.

Otto grabbed Ryouma's corpse to bury it somewhere that couldn't be disturbed by the outside forces. After he had done tending his right leg.

Code: Unknown only made the body sturdy, and strong and stopped the bleeding, but it couldn't supernaturally heal itself like super regeneration. So Otto had to rub a handful of salt into the wound so that it could recover the sliced-up tissue faster.

...

-Chapter End-