Step Forward If You Want to Die! – Part 07

“Wow! Amazing. Even I couldn’t see that last attack. I expected nothing less.”

She didn’t seem hurt at all. Wearing the same cheerful smile, she stepped closer.

“Seraphim!”

“I know!”

Sera stood up and closed her eyes. To pull Chris away, Saras leapt over the guardrail and dashed to the opposite lane.

“The essence of my blade lies not in secrecy!” Saras roared.

“It dances like leaves in the wind,” Sera muttered softly.

“Flying Sword: Demon Horde’s Insidious Slaughter.”

Countless leaves and water droplets wrapped around Chris. Hundreds, thousands of blades were about to tear into her.

Chris saw it, smiled, and raised her hand. The storm of blades rushed the small girl.

The wind rose, slamming hundreds of swords into the ground and walls. But that wasn’t enough.

This assault from all directions couldn’t be fully defended. Big Teach had blocked it once before, but that was when Sera did it alone. The thousands of leaves she created weren’t even a third of Saras’s Demon Horde’s Insidious Slaughter.

Blades pierced Chris’s left hand. She danced around, stirring the wind to deflect what she could, and let the rest bury themselves into her left arm. She realized she couldn’t dodge them all, so she sacrificed her arm.

When the torrent of leaves and water finally slowed, her left arm looked like a mountain of swords. Yet with a casual sweep of her right hand, she brushed them away like dust. Her left hand might as well have been unscathed.

What the fuck is that?! She’s way too strong!

“That was a nice bit of exercise. Mind doing it again?”

“Monster,” Saras hissed, grinding her teeth.

Good. My body was starting to recover.

Sera, on the other hand, looked like she needed more time. So she couldn’t just reattach herself instantly like a zombie, huh.

“Ayumu,” she called softly.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need… blood. If I don’t get any soon… I will die.”

My chest tightened. You’ve gotta be kidding me.

“You can’t reattach your arm?”

“I don’t have enough blood for that. I used almost all of it on the Demon Horde’s Insidious Slaughter.”

“So Vampire Ninja techniques consume blood?”

“Yes. Saras also used up a lot. She can’t keep fighting for long.”

“A hopeless situation, huh. But if it’s just blood you need, then you can have mine.”

“I can’t take blood from the opposite sex… unless it’s my husband.”

Because it was against the Vampire Ninja code? I’d heard that enough times already.

I sighed. “We’re family, aren’t we?”

“But pressing lips together is a bit too much.”

“Forget the kissing part.”

“Without the drug, getting your blood sucked is very painful.”

So that was why they always kissed before biting. They basically injected a painkiller.

“I’d rather you make it hurt. I’m a freak, you see.”

Sera closed her eyes and sank her fangs into my neck. My whole body went slack. It felt very good. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind her sucking my blood in the future.

Meanwhile, Saras slashed with her water sword. No matter how many cuts she landed, nothing. The wounds healed the moment they were made. My shitty teacher was more of a zombie than me.

Dodging Chris’s attacks with peculiar movement, Saras suddenly hopped back. A high backstep. Chris didn’t miss that opening.

Before her feet even touched the ground, Chris’s small hand clamped onto Saras’s face and slammed her head into the pavement. Then she dragged her along at blinding speed, like striking a match.

Saras’s body skidded across the ground, flailing like a ribbon in rhythmic gymnastics.

“Ahahahahahaha!”

Chris’s maniacal laughter mixed with the sound of shattering stone as one lane of the four-lane road turned a deep red.

Saras grabbed at the tiny hand. Her water blade stabbed at Chris’s body, but it had no effect.

Chris pressed her into the asphalt, and once again the wind burst forth, creating a massive crater, leaving Saras at the center.

“Sera, can you fight?” I asked.

“I can heal the arm, at least. Just a little more.”

Saras kicked Chris away and raised her water sword. Her sailor uniform was soaked in blood.

I was ready to rush to her, but Saras shouted, “You two, get out of here!”

“Saras.”

“I’ll protect you, even if it kills me. I beg you. Run!”

We didn’t stand a chance against her. Then, the only choice was to sacrifice yourself. I understood that feeling all too well.

“No, I’ll take this one,” I said. “You and Sera run.”

“Idiot. At least let me go out in style. Or I’ll kill you.”

I knew all along. I wouldn’t buy even a single second against Chris. And Chris’s target was Saras alone. She might finish Saras, then change her mind and kill us afterward.

“Twenty seconds,” I said. “Just buy me twenty seconds. Hang in there for a bit, okay?”

I turned, grabbed Sera, and bolted.

“A wise decision, Ayumu Aikawa,” Saras said.

I pushed my zombie legs to their limit, sprinting toward home.

“How could you leave Saras behind? You’re a horrible person!”

I couldn’t care less about Sera’s whining right now.

My house was five minutes from school on foot. I covered the distance in fifteen seconds. Well, I was already about halfway home, so it was actually much closer.

I threw open the door and set Sera down. Then, I reached for the chainsaw leaning like an umbrella by the entryway.

“Are you serious?”

Sera instantly understood what I was about to do.

I recited the incantation. “Htaed fo regnibrah a tub gnimrahc dna ylevol.”

My school uniform burst apart, replaced by a frilly pink costume. Never had I wanted to transform into a Magiclad Girl more than today.

I whirled around and rushed back out the door. Taking to the sky, I flew back toward Saras. In Magiclad form, I returned to the scene several times faster than before. Twenty seconds had already passed. But Saras… wasn’t there.

“Thanks for bringing me a Magigear.”

Chris laughed loudly, her hands stained red.

“Where’s… Saras? Where’s Kirara Hoshikawa?” I growled. The answer was obvious.

“She’s gone. Not a trace left, blown to tiny bits.”

I swung my chainsaw before she could even finish. It shrieked, echoing my rage. The blade shredded Chris’s Gothic Lolita outfit. But it didn’t leave a single scratch on her.

Her hand brushed my stomach. I instantly twisted away, but she still tore a chunk out of my side.

“Wow! I was wrong. You, Aikawa, are the strongest around here.”

“Thanks.”

I grabbed Chris’s hand to crush it. But the moment I touched her, the left half of my body blew apart. My heart included, probably.

I swung my chainsaw at her anyway. She stopped my full-powered strike by pinching it between her thumb and forefinger. A kick made me lose my grip on the chainsaw.

“Ah, that was fun. I’m taking Mystletainn, okay?”

Seeing the smirk on the cute girl’s face, I forced myself to hold my ground. “You’re not getting it.”

“Aww, but I need a Magigear for my revenge.”

“You already stole something precious from Haruna. I won’t let you take anything more.”

“Oh, right. I had to call you big brother when asking for things, didn’t I?”

She juggled the chainsaw, grinning.

“I won’t hand it over! Never!”

I grabbed the chainsaw again with my free right hand.

“Gimme, big brother.” She flashed an angelic smile, then tore the chainsaw right out of my grasp. “You’re so desperate, big brother. So annoying. Want me to send you to the two-dimensional world?”

That sweet smile drove me mad with hate. What the hell was this monster? What could work against her? Could I really not land even a scratch?

“Well then, bye-bye, big brother.”

I fell into a pitch-black world. Still in my Magiclad Girl form—with half my body gone—it felt like I was sinking into a dark pool. Was this what outer space felt like?

Wait, why did I still have the chainsaw? Why wasn’t it taken?

Where the hell was this place? I shut my eyes and opened them again. I was at the front door of my house.

What the hell was going on? None of it made sense.

Maybe someone had saved me.