Katahane no Riku - Chapter 83

“Riku…Ane?”

Rook couldn´t believe the scene that was happening before his eyes.

A hair red like a ripen apple was fluttering in front of him. This had happened right before the attack reached Rook. Getting in front of Keity, the red haired girl had pushed aside the blow Keity had used all her strength at.

Because of that, the direction of Keity´s attack had changed, hitting the paved ground. Because of the dust that had risen, it wasn´t possible to see the surroundings well.

“Riku-ane? It is Riku-ane, right!?”

But Rook knew.

Rook knew the name of the girl holding the halberd.

“Why did you save me?”

With a trembling voice, Rook called for Riku Barusak.

As far as he was concerned, Riku hated him. No, it went beyond hating him. Riku hated Rook very much for how he had betrayed her at their childhood, and certainly resented that. In fact, it had been only a few months since he had been completely rejected by Riku.

“Riku-ane, tell me. Why did you save me?””

Did any changes happened to Riku´s heart in these few months?

Had she become willing to forgive Rook, who had betrayed her? With a gaze full of expectation, Rook looked at Riku´s small back.

“That´s obvious. ”

Riku didn´t turn back to him.

Even more now that the white smoke had cleared away, Riku´s eyes were looking straight at Keity Fostar.

“There is no way I can let you die here. ”

“Riku-ane!”

A smile appeared at Rook´s face.

Rook´s sincere feelings had finally reached Riku. Rook felt he was safe now. He had the feeling that the stained part of his heart was gradually being cleansed. However….

“If you die here, I won´t be able to have fun later, right?”

Even looking at Riku from her back, Rook was able clearly feel it.

A feeling of killing intent filled with insanity came from Riku´s back.

“It will be inconvenient to carry you, so let´s have your arms and legs cut off later, okay? It´s alright, I won´t kill you right away. I have many things I want to tell you after all. ”

With the tone of voice of a innocent child that was playing with her favorite toy, Riku spoke. Rook wasn´t able to tell what expression Riku had in her face, but she was surely showing an smile so broad to the point that her mouth would tear apart.

Taking back everything he had thought just now, the feeling of comfort had vanished in an instant.

“The sin of putting your hand onto one of my toys is heavier than prison breaking, you know… Keity Fostar. ”

Riku moved her halberd next to Keity´s throat. It was possible to hear the sound of Keity clenching her teeth. Clenching her fists, Keity was intensely glaring at Riku.

“Riku Barusak, why are you here!? Could it be… that you had been working with the humans?”

Keity´s ferocious eyes were even more intense than moments ago. The killing intent that couldn´t be compared to the one that had been directed to Rook was now being aimed at Riku. Because of the density of killing intent, even the air started to tremble.

“Haven´t you heard what I´ve just said now? This guy is someone I want to have revenge on. It is a toy I had let escape before, you know? It is impossible for me to join forces with this thing even if the sky and the earth were overturned. …. That is, differently from your previous lord. ”

The instant Riku said those last words, Keity kicked the ground. The strength of her legs gorged into the ground and made a cloud of dust rise up.

“I won´t forgive your insult to Charlotte-sama!!”

Keity rushed at Riku like a bullet.

“What a pain. ”

Clicking her tongue, Riku rotated her halberd at the palm of her hand. And then, she pointed the axe shaped point to Rook. In that manner, Rook´s collar was caught by the axe-shaped blade. (TL note: I guess she used the hook of the halberd?)

“Dwaah!?”( どわっ！？)

Rook´s body was many times more robust than Riku´s. Rook´s height was more than a head higher than Riku, and the amount of muscles and weight were also close to the double of hers. (TL note: Is Riku a semi loli or something? It seems she is much smaller than I thought she was 0. 0 Remember Rook is fourteen or something right now)

“Roppu, look after that luggage. ”

Riku vigorously swung her halberd.

Rook was sent flying to the air and fell down at Roppu´s arms.

“Until I am done here, don´t let it run away. ”

“Y-yes!”

Tying Rook with a rope, Roppu hurriedly retreated to the rear.

Rook didn´t resist. Maybe because of Keity´s beating, it became hard for him to move, or perhaps, everything that was suddenly happening now still didn´t get to his head.

Most likely, it was both.

Grabbing Rook, Roppu ran into the crowd of people and vanished from Riku and Keity´s view.

“Are you protecting that spiritualist? Even though you´ve denounced Charlotte-sama at that time!!”

Keity roared.

With bloodshot eyes, she was pulling out her hair, with it falling everywhere. No matter from what angle one was look at Keity, she had lost her sanity. Lightly doing a swing with her halberd, Riku sighed.

“I am capturing it for the sake of extracting information. Differently from that promiscuous girl, Keity Fostar. ”

“This mouth of yours that is talking bad about Charlotte-sama… I will smash it up!!”

Moving her hand inside her clothes, she took out a sword.

The sword was of a size that was convenient to carry around, but despite that, it seemed very heavy. Just by touching it, it was possible to feel a dangerous sensation that made one imagine it could very well bring down an arm. (TL note: ;-; I hate words that don´t really have english translations in the meaning they are being used. Do anyone have better ways to translate ->武骨重厚感<>

“Die!!”

Keity attacked. Her speed was many times more than before. With her speed, it became difficult to confirm her position by sight. While Riku was preparing her stance, an horizontal attack came at Riku faster than she could think about it.

The whirlwind made her red hair rise up.

Indeed, it had been just by a hairs breath. Riku had barely avoided the sword that had come at her in a blink of an eye. With her attack missing her target, Keity´s went. Normally, this would be the time when Riku would get behind the opponent and attack him while he was distracted, but unfortunately, she couldn´t follow Keity´s speed. Before Riku could attack, Keity had already crashed at the group of humans.

“Kyah!!”

“Uwah, run away! Run away!!”

The bystanders were caught into a whirlpool of agony.

The sword that was overpowering to the point that seemed it would cut arms just by touching them and the lump of meat that had a speed to the point that it was difficult to follow with the eyes had hit the group of defenseless people. Crashing into the people that were wearing festive costumes, an amount of blood that could be to be paint flowed off.

At that time, the people of Derufoi had finally noticed. The fight that was happening in front of their eyes wasn´t something like a cute [lover´s quarrel], but a fight of a [demon and a spiritualist].

“Where is that brat? That guy was a spiritualist, right? Hey, why won´t he protect us? It´s his job, isn´t it?”

“He is not here! He vanished together with that rabbit boy! He abandoned us!!”

“What!? A spiritualist had abandoned us humans!?”

Since it became a battle against a demon, as if it was the obvious thing to do, they sought for the help of the spiritualists.

Keity was clearly a ferocious demon, and on the other hand, the red haired was someone they wanted to avoid. Their only hope had been taken by Roppu and had already left the place.

The existence the people of Derufoi sought help from was nowhere to be seen.

In the end, something as trivial as the humans being troubled didn´t matter to Riku and Keity. Without thinking about anything else, Keity only continued her murderous attacks without thinking about anything else and Riku would keep avoiding them at a hairs breath. And every time it happened, the people behind Riku would get torn to pieces and run over by Keity.

“Tch, annoying! Get out of my way, stupid humans!!”

Trampling over the accumulated corpses, Keity started swearing.

“What is it? Why won´t you attack!? Didn´t you want to punish me for breaking up your toy!?”

“…”

Riku had only been avoiding Keity´s attacks and didn´t attack back.

Keity´s irritation was increasing. Rook Barusak hadn´t attacked her back, and Riku Barusak wasn´t fighting her seriously. Keity Fostar was extremely angered, feeling she was being looked down upon.

“You keep moving around! I´ve misjudged you, Riku Barusak! I´ve thought you would have given me a better fight, but this is what you have!! Die at once and beg for forgiveness to Charlotte-sama in the other world!!”

“…”

Riku didn´t answer anything.

Of course, she had no intention of dying and apologizing to Charlotte, and moreover, she didn´t remember doing anything she had to apologize for. The reason why Charlotte had been judged was for the crimes she had done herself. Riku only had participation in helping disclosing them; there was nothing to apologize about. But that said, it didn´t seem like Keity wasn´t in a condition she would listen to Riku if she was to tell her that. While waiting for a gap in Keity´s attacks, Riku continued to avoid them.

Riku was supposed to be able to block Keity´s attacks, but unfortunately, she had only one arm now. If Riku had both of her arms, she would be able to muster more strength for fighting her directly, but with one arm, she didn´t have the confidence of being able to fight perfectly.

Riku was waiting for the instant a gap would appear in Keity´s attacks, aiming to reverse the situation when it happened.

But while Riku was thinking of that, something happened.

“Sob, daddy. My foot hurts. ”(TL note: How is the onomatopoeia for sobbing? -. -)

Someone´s sobbing voice reached Riku´s ears. Turning her eyes for only a moment, she saw a little girl crouched at the ground. Apparently, the girl had sprained her foot. While sobbing, she was grabbing the hem of the clothes of the man she had thought to be her father.

“Eei, how annoying! Let it go!”

The girl´s father kicked her away and vanished to the direction of the crowd of people.

It was the figure of a miserable and insignificant human. However, for some reason, even though Riku was supposed to not have even a fragment of interest about something like this, she ended up getting distracted by that.

“Don´t look away, Riku Barusak!!”

Still being controlled by her anger, Keity swung her sword.

Even though Keity only had swung down her sword, a roaring blow of the wind was created. Riku tried to jump to the right and avoid the attack, but right when she did that, she noticed something.

Riku noticed that the little girl that had been abandoned by her father was right in front of Keity´s attack path.

“Tch. ”

Before she could notice, Riku was already jumping in front of that girl.

Stopping Keity´s sword with her halberd, Riku barely held it out. Keity´s attack was heavy and her left arm started to make a sound of creaking. Perhaps it would have been better for her to let it go, but if she was to do that, the girl behind her would end up hurt.

“A contest of strength? How long can you hold it out!?”

“…!”

Keity was showing a cruel smile. While clenching her teeth, Riku was desperately trying to withstand the attack. Sweat was flowing from her forehead and falling down from her cheek. Without being able to completely resist Keity´s strength, her feet started to sink into the ground.

In the end, was it really not possible with only one hand? When Riku thought about pulling back, it happened.

“Riku-dono!! I will assist you-de gozaru!!”

A voice came from above.

Keity looked at the sky, saying “What!?”. At that instant, her death was decided.

Riku forced Keity´s sword away and aimed her left foot at Keity´s stomach. Staggering by the unexpected attack, she gave one… two step backs.

“Thank you. ”

Muttering her gratitude to the reinforcement, she kicked the ground. After slipping into Keity´s flank, Riku swung her halberd. Keity had ended up letting Riku get too close and couldn´t avoid the attack Riku had done with all her might. (TL note: Can´t find it anywhere->懐に潜り込む

In a flash, Keity Fostar´s head was sent flying and soared high up in the sky. She was showing an expression that didn´t know what had happened until her last moments. While looking at the severed head lying at the ground, Riku spoke her parting words.

“Goodbye, Keity Fostar. ”