12 Hakama Alice 1

Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/15/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

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Yachimata Alice was riding the Shonan Monorail. A vehicle commonly called the “roller coaster.”

Alice is afraid of heights,——so the Shonan Monorail is Alice’s natural enemy.

“U——uuu……”

There are two reasons Alice is challenging this natural enemy even while gripping the seat rail with a bad color.

One is that she wants to overcome her fear of heights triggering when she moves on the ground in a Versus Frame.

The other is,

“Ah…… that!? Y-Yachimata-san!?”

To meet the socially anxious person she respects, who appeared fidgeting as usual——Suzusaki Suzuhi, Suu.

“G——goo……d morning———!”

Alice’s expression, even while trembling, shines a little.

“Y-Yachimata-san. Riding the monorail, are you okay!?”
“Yes, seeing Suu-san’s face made it better.”

Alice thought, “Somehow with this person, I feel like even if I fell from a height she’d save me.”

Alice gripped the hem of Suu’s blazer as she sat beside her and let out a breath of relief.

“——Haa. I calmed down a little.”
“G-good. Yachimata-san, j——jijiji, want juice? ……Ah, if you’re carsick that’s not——”
“May I have it?”
“Eh, ah, yeah.”

Suzuhi handed Alice juice, so Alice twisted the bottle open, put sakura-colored lips to it, and sent the contents down her throat.

Crisp sparkling eases her mood.
Then Suzuhi hops as if she noticed something.

“Ah, crap, no! ……That’s, drinki——Suzusa-germs.”

Alice turned a kind smile on still-unconfident Suu and returned the bottle with “I feel better.”

Suzuhi took the bottle back with a weird face.

Then, as if she noticed something again, she stared hard at the mouth of the returned bottle and muttered something.

〔Re,——al——Yachimata jui〕

Alice gave a wry smile at Suu’s usual odd behavior.
Then she remembered her purpose.

“Ah, Suu-san.”
“Eh, what.”

Suzuhi, who had stuck her tongue out a little to lick the bottle mouth, hurriedly screwed the cap on and hid it.

“Did you watch the clips?”
“Clips?”
“Like videos from people who edit stream highlights into short summary videos.”
“Ah! I watch those sometimes!”
“A lot of Suu-san clips have gone up too.”
“R-really!?”
“Really!”
“Those are nice because streams have long bits, and they pack the fun in tight like a video. Then people who watch the clips get interested and come to the stream, right?”
“That’s the feeling, yes.”
“I’m grateful———”

Suzuhi slowly looked up at the monorail ceiling.

“You’re bad at watching in real life, but you like watching streams.”
“Y……yeah…… I wonder why, I think it’s probably a bad reason.”
“That’s no good. If you look for bad reasons you can find as many as you want.”
“Ah, thanks.”
“Sometimes looking for the good parts and spoiling yourself is one of the tricks to living easy.”
“——Yachimata-san, you’re amazing.”
“I’m not…… I’m always full of anxiety.——Yes, that’s it. The day after tomorrow, Sunday, there’s a kendo tournament.”

After Suzuhi was surprised, she clenched her fists and cheered her on.

“You just enrolled and there’s already a tournament!? That’s rough…… do your best!!”
“Yes, it’s the Kanto tournament. And I have a request.”
“——Heh? A request for me? Eh…… I don’t know kendo at all!? I can’t be a sparring partner!!”
“Sparring isn’t boxing,”

Alice smiled and continued.

“Won’t you come cheer? If Suu-san is watching I’ll feel so much stronger.”
“M——me?”
“Yes! Please!!”

Alice took Suzuhi’s hands and looked into her eyes to ask.

Suzuhi, who is bad at going outside. And the venue will have a lot of people. Same-age students, which she’s also bad with.

Alice repeated “please” several times to the reluctant Suzuhi. Pressed by the enthusiasm, Suzuhi nodded “u-un.”

To happy Alice, Suzuhi asked. “Come to think of it, you’re British, so why did you start kendo?”
Then Alice’s eyes went a little far.
And she murmured.

“Suu-san, may I tell you a little of my story?”

Suzuhi noticed Alice’s “looking somewhere that isn’t here” expression and quietly nodded.

“———Yeah.”
“I was born between an English father and a Scottish mother. The mother who gave birth to me died when I was little, and I was raised by the Japanese mother Father remarried.”

Suzuhi hadn’t known this. There was a rumor Yachimata Alice was half, but apparently she was actually a child of two British people.

“Grandfather apparently had some trouble with Japanese people long ago——something about being betrayed by a Japanese person who was a best friend……”
“……I see.”
“So he hates Japan——and Father abandoned the house to marry my current mother and eloped with her to Japan. Then he became a son-in-law and took the Yachimata name.”
“……So that’s how it was……”

At Suzuhi’s worried expression, Alice hurriedly denied the worry.

“Ah, it isn’t that it’s hard or anything. I myself have fun every day.”
“See, Yachimata-san is strong.”
“That isn’t true. But just having fun every day isn’t enough. I want Grandfather to acknowledge my current mother.”
“That’s true.”
“So I want him to acknowledge me, raised by Okaasan. I’m working hard at various things for that,——for example if through me, raised in Japanese culture, he could learn how wonderful Japan is———. Okaasan did kendo too.”

Hearing Alice’s will, Suzuhi was convinced and nodded hard.

“That’s why kendo……”
“Yes, and it seemed to suit me too.”
“Sorry for asking so lightly…… ‘why do you do kendo’——but, yeah——do your best———really.”
“That’s why I want Suu-san to come cheer.”
“——I-I got it! If I’m okay——I’ll definitely come cheer!”
“Please!”

 

Kanto High School Kendo Tournament, Kanagawa Prefecture Preliminaries

Women, preliminary final

“Rei.”

At the referee’s word, the two women kendoka who remained for the final bowed their heads to each other.

Yachimata Alice, while bowing, felt herself being honed.

The nicks in her heart being ground, sharp———endlessly sharp.

The opponent facing her is Tachibana Mizuki.
A visitor from another prefecture, last year’s “National Middle School Kendo Tournament” champion.

Tachibana Mizuki is rumored to be good at a mysterious do.

Yachimata Alice. Tachibana Mizuki. Both “drew” the shinai at their hips.
Alice put everything she had piled up into the bamboo blade.

The crouch they take facing each other——combat stance.

Alice’s fighting spirit flaring.

(I will win.)

Suu-san is watching.——And I made the final.
Then there’s only “win and take the championship.”

Mind, technique, body, all complete.
No fear at all about putting out everything.

The moment Alice stood she put spirit in and voiced her purpose.

“I’ll take the championship!”

As Alice said it with conviction, at the same time.

“Hajime!”

In an instant two raptors stepped in as if pouncing, and the tips of their shinai crossed.

“Yaaaaaaaa!!”
“Taaaaaaaa!!”

Alice and Tachibana Mizuki raised their kiai.

Alice had simulated this fight over and over.

She had watched recordings of Tachibana Mizuki’s matches over and over and researched them.

Tachibana Mizuki certainly has sharpness in her movement, unexpected techniques.
But she doesn’t have a frame.
The technique is amazing, but she’s short and doesn’t have much muscle.
Her blade path isn’t especially fast; ordinary speed.

——Someone with Western blood like me can’t be caught.

And Alice has a Gift granted by God.

Alice has always been sensitive to other people’s emotions.

You could call it the air-reading ability common in girls.

At first Alice’s Gift was only “I understand other people’s feelings better than normal.”
But at some point, going into space honed it. Using a sword while piloting robots through VR, in fights like putting your life on the line, it was honed further.
Before she knew it she could see the places other people were “aware of” and “not aware of.”

To Alice’s eyes, places others are aware of shine, and places they aren’t aware of look shadowed.

Alice thinks this happens because her brain on its own “processes and visualizes” various “information” like “the opponent’s gaze, slight muscle movement and tension, body temperature, breathing, heartbeat.”
Because of a power like this, Alice had come to be called a top ranker in FateLege too.

Alice in a vermilion do, white dogi, indigo hakama.
Tachibana in an indigo do, white dogi, white hakama.

They clashed the tips of their shinai two, three times.

Both were trying to make an opening by knocking the other’s shinai.

Suppress the opponent’s shinai or put in a feint, and strike while they can’t move.
This is standard kendo.

Eventually on the fourth clash, Alice’s shinai was knocked far aside.
But this was Alice’s lure. She pretended to be knocked aside on purpose.

At once Alice used her Gift and looked at Tachibana Mizuki.
Tachibana laid her shinai down a little.

(——I saw it, the shadow!!)

The “light above the head” of Tachibana Mizuki, who was probably aiming at the do, vanished.
Right now Tachibana Mizuki is not aware of above her head.

(I have it!!)

“Meeen——”
“Do.”

Tachibana’s voice, quiet like a water drop hitting a surface. But there was her fierce step——as if shaking the whole gym.
A terrifying burst of sound from shinai and bogu rang.

Alice’s eyes went wide.

“Eh.”

She had been cut down sharply.

By a thin, magic-trick blow where “a turning shinai moved in a straight line.”

(————I was struck?)

There were a few instants.
No one could react.
Sound had vanished.

“I…… ippon!!”

A red flag went up.
The flag showed that “Yachimata Alice had been cut in two.”

Alice was staring at her own shinai in shock.

Alice’s brain couldn’t process the present situation.
She had lost thought and words.

She had heard Tachibana Mizuki was strong. Really strong, monster-strong, she had heard.
So she had simulated.
She should have fully prepared against the way of fighting and that specialty, the “sharp do.”
To counter do she had even sealed the jodan stance she was good at.
But she hadn’t imagined strength this far from human.
Tachibana Mizuki was stronger than Alice’s imagination.
“The assumed simulation was surpassed,” so the countermeasures were insufficient.

In the stands, the boys of Souha High’s kendo club—same school as Yachimata Alice—were in an uproar watching the women’s final.

“Wh-what was that just now!?”

The boys’ matches were already over, and now everyone was in the stands.
There too was Souha High kendo club captain Tsukahara, who had already decided the championship early.

While Tsukahara put a hand to his mouth and quietly watched the two women kendoka, the boys’ uproar didn’t settle.

Kendo club vice-captain Todo said in a big voice from the biggest build in the club.

“Did you see it!? Tachibana Mizuki’s blade path!”

A first-year member answered the vice-captain, trembling.

“——I-I couldn’t see it!”

Kendo club vice-captain Todo, in a big voice from the biggest build in the club——but as if shuddering, asked the manager.

“We watched Tachibana’s match videos with Alice, and we could see the blade path, right!?”
“Yes, we could see it easily…… ordinary speed——or rather from us boys it was even slow, right!?”
“That’s right! Tachibana Mizuki’s blade path was ordinary women’s speed!!”

The vice-captain’s words at a glance sounded like Tachibana Mizuki wasn’t much, but the fact was the opposite——something terrifying.
Because a movement no one could catch with their eyes was, physically, a slow attack.

Everyone talking was shaken.

“Why couldn’t anyone’s eyes see such ordinary speed!?”
“It’s weird, what was that.”
“Is it a magic trick!?”

Without moving an eyebrow, captain Tsukahara, who had been watching the two on the court, quietly murmured.

“This is bad. Tachibana Mizuki——too strong.”
“……Tsukahara——you’re the one saying that!?”

Vice-captain Todo was surprised at captain Tsukahara’s words.
No, the other boys too.

The vice-captain, suddenly uneasy, asked Tsukahara with a half-laugh.

“Ts-Tsukahara. No way you’d lose, right……?”

Tsukahara had decided the championship with straight wins.
He hadn’t let anyone take even one ippon.

To Todo’s half-laugh voice, Tsukahara,

“That’s right, ‘seven times out of ten’ I’d win.”
“———!?”

A chill of fear ran through Todo’s body.
And even though shouting during a match is forbidden, he almost screamed.

He hurriedly held it, but still asked in a fairly loud voice.

“What do you mean ‘three times’ you’d lose, Tsukahara!? ——The opponent is a girl!”

Tsukahara answered nothing and, with an expression like a drawn blade was pointed at him, stared at the two women kendoka and waited for the restart.

 

In a quiet part of the stands, one girl had her hands folded as if praying.
Suzusaki Suzuhi.

(She made the final——Yachimata-san, don’t lose———!!)

She’s bad at raising her voice in front of a crowd; she can’t speak——so she just wished fiercely in her heart.

 

Yachimata Alice couldn’t control her disordered breathing.

(I——don’t know——what was done to me)

I completely took the opening. I moved first.
Probably my moving speed is faster too.

It wasn’t a timing Tachibana-san could make.

And yet I had my do cut first.

(It doesn’t make sense!!)

It was something no one in this court could understand, but it came from the kendoka Tachibana Mizuki being born to a family of swordsmen.

For example her house has a technique of evading as if pressing in on the opponent.
And movement of the fastest curve, faster than the shortest straight line.
Converting a curve into a straight line. And so on; that one blow had countless principles in it.

The crystallization of techniques the Tachibana family’s successive swordsmen spent 300 years thinking through is packed into Mizuki’s body. That’s why no one understands.

The girl called Tachibana Mizuki is truly nothing other than a jewel of condensed, crystallized principle——its purity so high it has reached a height no one can understand.

So you can say this——even if Yachimata Alice studies kendo for ten, twenty years from now, she probably won’t understand most of the 300 years of technique the Tachibana family piled up.

Alice’s trembling wouldn’t stop.
She was frozen with too much fear.
But Alice can’t afford to lose either.

To have Grandfather acknowledge Japan, and to have him acknowledge Japanese Okaasan.——I want him to acknowledge me, raised by Okaasan.

And I can’t show a pathetic figure to the person I yearn for who should be cheering from the seats behind, Suzusaki Suzuhi.
So Alice worked her head somehow trying to grasp the true form of Tachibana Mizuki’s technique.
But while Alice is thinking, time mercilessly keeps moving.

Tachibana showed a bowing posture.

“Hah,” Alice took a bowing posture too.

“Hajime!”

Alice must not take even one more.
If two are taken first, the match is over.

“——……Yaaa…… Yaaaaaaaa!!”

Alice tried to put fighting spirit into a trembling heart.
She shook her body with the air she exhaled.
Then from Tachibana,

“Taaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

A fierce flame of spirit was released. A kiai like it would smash Alice’s heart, which had been trying somehow to burn fighting spirit.

“——Hih.”

Alice, who involuntarily stepped back, had a blow loosed at her like a hawk stooping on prey.

Waist-retreating Yachimata Alice dropped back far as if fleeing.

(Win, I have to win, Okaasan———!)

Approaching Tachibana, fleeing Yachimata.
Suddenly Alice noticed she had the out-of-bounds at her back.
Even half a step back and it’s a foul loss.

She hurriedly escaped in a circular motion.

(I have to win, I have to win!!)

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

Alice filled herself with kiai in a voice from the bottom of her belly, shaking her whole body.
And through the men she looked at Tachibana Mizuki.

“Eh——”

Then the Tachibana she saw beyond the men was like a huge wall.

“What…… is this.”

A hugeness she had never seen————boundless.
A huge wall as if it reached above the clouds.

To frightened Alice, Tachibana Mizuki quietly asked.

“Not coming?”
“———”

Alice swallowed a hard swallow.

It isn’t that she isn’t going; she can’t go.
A monster she can’t understand, who knows what will be done if she goes.
She can’t even imagine what techniques will come.
A monster beyond the pale, Tachibana Mizuki.

“People are made to fear what they can’t understand”——a line she heard from someone crossed her mind.

“Yachimata Alice, you aren’t a kendoka who takes go-no-sen. Until you came to the final you only did matches where you attacked and attacked and ripped out the win. A kendoka who takes sen-no-sen. If you still won’t come, is the match already over?”

“Is this as far as you go?” Those asking eyes looked at Yachimata Alice.

No contempt, no mockery, just resignation.
Even feeling the humiliation of “being given up on,” Alice still couldn’t step forward.

Tachibana Mizuki suddenly shut her eyes.

“Then there’s no point fighting anymore. I’ll end this match.”

The moment she spoke, Tachibana Mizuki got s-m-a-l-l.
The Tachibana who until just now looked cloud-piercingly huge——small, small, small small small…——

(She vanished!!)