After their conversation with Kamisama, Touya felt tired.
"Are you alright, Touya?" asked Sue.
"I'm just exhausted. I knew that seeing Kagenou again would bring me trouble." complained the Great Duke.
The girls comforted him as they could before they arrived the game room where their guests were.
The first thing that came to their attention, especially Sakura's, was that someone was playing the piano. Moonlight Sonata.
"I like that song." said Sakura softly.
"What's the piano doing there anyway?" asked Touya.
Lapis, the head maid, bowed as she apologized profusely. "My apologies Great Duke, but the guest asked to borrow the piano, but I told him that they had to wait in the game room, and one thing let to another and before I realized he brought the piano with him."
Touya rubbed his temples in frustration. At least Kagenou played the instrument well.
With a sigh, he opened the door and realized that the one playing the piano was the blue-haired elf, Epsilon. In the meantime the elf with the silver hair was deeply involved with the first tome of the Order of the Rose novel series (that made Touya shiver). The beastkin woman was smashing the whac-a-mole with a demented smirk as she violently smashed the fake moles. Seeing her enthusiasm made Touya happy that he have used his magic to make the game indestructible.
Alpha, Kagenou's second in command, was playing Solitaire with a blank expression as she watched her companions to make sure they didn't cause any problems.
As for Kagenou, he was wearing his black trench coat in the shadows, looking at his allies with a mysterious expression.
"I see that you have come to a decision, Mochizuki-kun." said Kagenou with a deep voice.
He groaned. "We are going to help you. My kingdom, Brunhild, is the leader of the world alliance. A group of countries that work hard to keep peace. We have the resources to help you uncover the Cult's hiding spots so you can hunt them down."
Touya said the last part with obvious reluctance on his voice, but Kagenou and his allies didn't seem to notice.
"Just like that? I thought we will have to convince you some way." said Kagenou.
"I spoke with... someone I trust deeply. He told me to leave the Cult to you and your group, but it was okay for me to help you expose them." explained Touya.
The woman, Alpha, bowed. "As expected to one of the former companions of Shadow-Sama. Your judgement is absolutely correct."
Touya sighed and pulled out his smartphone. "I will make some calls. We may have to wait a couple of days before all the leaders can reunite. In the meantime, you will be treated like guests in my country. Please make yourselves home, I will speak with Mika to prepare a couple of rooms for you in the Silver Moon inn."
Kagenou smiled. "Thank you, Mochizuki-kun. Don't worry, the sooner we finish with our enemies the sooner we will go back to our world as we have a lot to do."
Touya nodded tiredly and snapped his fingers. A woman dressed like a shinobi came from the roof and bowed before Touya.
"My Lord?"
"Tsubaki, guide our guests to the Silver Moon and tell Mika to send me the bill."
"As you wish my Lord. Please, follow me."
Shadow Garden and their leader started to follow Tsubaki, when Moroha stopped the group by aiming her sword to Kagenou.
The elves and the beatkin stopped and extended their hands, summoning a black substance that solidified into black swords. Moroha, however, stopped them with a king gesture.
"Please calm down. My name is Moroha Muchizuki, Touya's older sister and goddess of the sword. I just want to test the sword skills of Kagenou-kun, I mean Shadow. What to you say?"
Alpha nodded, and all the girls put their swords away.
"I see! Is only natural after hearing the stories about the greatness of Shadow-Sama!" said Beta cheerful.
"It is true, especially if she calls herself the goddess of the sword." said Epsilon.
In the meantime, Delta waved her tail and glanced at the whac-a-mole machine wanting to go play again, which caused Alpha to scold her.
"Delta!" said Alpha with a warning tone.
That made Delta flinch. "Yes, Alpha-sama! But the game..."
Touya smiled at them. "It's okay Miss Alpha. This game was created to be used by someone as strong and hyperactive like her, so I added my bests spells to make it unbreakable."
Alpha nodded. "Oh, it's fine then. You keep playing Delta, but don't cause any problems!"
The beastkin celebrated. "Yeeey! Take this and that you stupid mole!"
And she kept playing happily as Moroha concentrated her look on Kagenou. "So what do you say, Kagenou-kun? Do you want to fight?"
A confident smile appeared on Kagenou's face. "Let's do it!"
***
The rumors that an old classmate of Touya had come spread like wildfire, and before Touya and Kagenou realized, almost everyone in Brunhild came to the baseball field to witness the fight.
Moroha stared at Kagenou, who now was wearing his gym uniform of his knight academy. Both opponents bowed before each other before taking their positions. They were using training swords that Touya had enchanted to make them unbreakable as Moroha's training was extremely intense and the practice swords got broken in the daily basis before Touya finally used his magic on them.
"Are you ready, Cid Kagenou-kun?"
He nodded and took the first position of the 'Bushin style', his world's sword art.
"Come at me with everything you have." said Moroha.
Kagenou smiled.
...
Touya and the others were looking at the field from the seats when he heard the familiar sound of someone dragging his feet.
"Ende! Is your training with uncle Takeru over?"
He nodded. "Yeah, and as usual, everything hurts. So what's going on here?"
"An old classmate of mine came for visit, and Moroha nee-san wants to test him."
...
Moroha had her sword ready as she watched Kagenou's all moves and immediately knew something was off. Something in Cid's position told her he was about to do something strange. He could feel it.
Touya shot a blank to the air as a signal, and the fight started.
Cid ran toward Moroha, and milliseconds before their swords touched, Cid started to move at hyper-speed, too fast to be perceived by the naked eye. He then took a small bag of fake blood from his pocket that he put in his mouth and then he moved his sword a few millimeters to make it look as he missed Moroha's sword.
Moroha's blade impacted fully on Cid's abdomen, sending him flying making spectacular flips until his body crashed against the seats so hard that they cracked. He looked surprised and defeated but was smiling on the inside. This was perfect! My secret technique bloody tornado is a total success! Perfect for a nameless background character such as myself.
...
The public couldn't believe what they were seeing. Most of them could only see how pathetic Cid's performance was.
"Oi, is he really an old acquaintance of the Lord?"
"Yes, that was just sad."
"What is Miss Moroha thinking?"
But Touya, his wives and all the knights who have been training under Moroha were frowning as they all witnessed how he launched himself to Moroha's blade. And also they saw how he purposely made all those impossible flips to make his fall more spectacular. What was he thinking?
Then Touya remembered how back in school, Kagenou used to do these things all the time. perfecting the art of losing in the most pathetic and theatrical way possible.
"You have to be kidding me! You are still doing that on your second life, Kagenou?"
"Touya?" asked Sue.
...
Back in the field, Moroha was emitting a murderous dangerous aura. The knits of Brunhild gulped at this, knowing that she was angry, and thanking God they weren't the ones facing her wrath.
Cid got up clumsily, pretending to be very hurt when he felt Moroha's anger.
"Do not joke with me!" said the goddess.
Cid shook his head innocently. "What do you mean? You are very strong!"
Then Moroha vanished, surprising Cid. He was wondering how someone could move faster than he does, when she reappeared right in front of him and pulled him by his shirt's neck holding his bag of fake blood with the other hand. It was when Cid noticed that his secret Mob-Fu technique 'bloody tornado' had no blood. He was supposed to spread a trace of blood after being smashed by his opponent's sword. Did he just failed?
"How?" asked the boy.
"You are not the only one who can move at hyper-speed," explained Moroha. "I am just a bit faster than you."
"I see!" said Cid with a smirk.
"What is your game, kiddo?"
Kagenou smiled. "I was planning to show you my forty-eight Mob-Fu secret techniques."
...
Back on the seats, Touya facepalmed and groaned in exasperation.
"You haven't change Kagenou-kun."
"Touya, what is Mob-Fu?" asked Sue.
Touya shook his head. "Is the art of losing in the most spectacular and pathetic way possible. Back when we were in school, he has always pretended to be clumsy and having no athletic ability, but you could see his well-toned muscles under his clothes."
"Why on earth would someone create techniques only to lose?" asked Ende scratching his head.
...
Moroha frowned when he heard Touya from the seats.
"Are you telling me that you created those techniques to lose? What the hell?"
"Do not underestimate Mob-Fu. You don't know how long I took to develop every single one of my moves."
That irritated Moroha even more.
"Stop kidding and show me your true sword already!" shouted Moroha charging against Cid.
Once again, her sword hit Kagenou and he was thrown away for over the seats.
"Seriously, what are we watching?" asked Norn, commander of Touya's knights.
Everyone was confused. Seriously, what was Kagenou's game plan anyway?
Moroha was clearly pissed off, but she didn't say a word. Instead, she threw the sword and started to walk away. Why did she challenge Kagenou anyway? This was nothing but a waste of time.
But then, she felt a strong presence, and turned around. Right before her was Kagenou, dressed in a long black trench coat with golden details. He started to walk toward Moroha at a calmed pace, as he stared at her with his red eyes.
"I am Shadow. He who lurks in the shadows and hunts the shadows."
A black substance came from Shadow's suit and it turned into a black sword that he aimed against the goddess. Moroha picked up her sword.
"How did you change your clothes that fast?"
Kagenou didn't respond, and instead waved his black sword against Moroha. She responded by blocking the attack with her own sword and countered with a swing on her own. She was expecting another of his stupid Mob-Fu techniques, but instead, she blocked her as a true sword master.
Sparks were flying every time the two swords touched. Both Moroha's and Shadow's expressions changed to a huge smile as they kept fighting each other.
Shadow then tried to kick Moroha, who instinctively jumped backwards giving Shadow the chance to charte against head.
Moroha barely had the time to block and counter the attack but she was losing terrain to Shadow. She smiled.
"So, this is your true sword. Just for that, I am going to forgive your little joke from before."
Moroha vanished and reappeared right behind Shadow attacking his back. Shadow blocked Moroha without even turning around.
"Huh?"
Shadow made an elegant step aside to face his opponent and threw a powerful swing against her. Moroha dodged with just moving her head a little and then she stabbed Shadow's abdomen.
He vanished into thin air as soon as her blade touched him.
"Sorry, that was an after image." said Shadow appearing at Moroha's right and cutting her in half with his sword. But she vanished just as he did.
"What a coincidence, same here!" said Moroha happily as she materialized behind Shadow.
Surprise was visible on Shadow's face for a fraction of a second, but disappeared as soon as he blocked a torrent of attacks.
They both started to exchange swings at superhuman speed. Luckily all of Brunhild's knights were personally trained by Moroha and could easily follow the battle. It was unbelievable how the clown who got hit on purpose could be this great of a swordsman. He was in his own league.
...
Back on the seats, Ende's eyes widened in amazement.
"Hey Touya, all the men on your world are this strong?"
Touya just shook his head as he was speechless. He knew Kagenou had to be a good fighter but not this good. He could differentiate a lot of different techniques blended on his fighting style, the main one being kendo. But this didn't make this less impressive.
"He is cheating!" said Leen out of sudden.
"Cheating how?" asked Touya.
"He is enhancing his physical abilities with magic. Some on his feet to increase his speed, and fluctuant waves of power to his arms to make his attacks stronger."
"What?"
"Physical enhancement magic, like the one Elsie uses but without chanting or doing any type of magic affinity." explained Leen.
Touya allowed his divinity flowing through his eyes and he could see it. Kagenou was enhancing his skills with magic. "Yes, definitely cheating!"
Alpha, Kagenou's second in command, shook her head. "Is not cheating. Enhancing your strength with magic is a common practice on our world. It the basis of all the fighting styles, not only with the sword."
"So, are you telling me this is the norm where you came from?" asked Hilde,.
Alpha nodded as Epsilon joined the conversation happily.
"The master is using a refined version of the 'Bushin' style, the most common martial art in the country of Midgar. There had been some champions during the years, such as Princess Iris and Beatrix the self-proclaimed goddess of the sword, and even the Master's older sister. But Shadow-Sama is the one who polished and perfected it to what you re witnessing."
"Bushin style..." said Hilde mesmerized by the fight.
...
During the fight, the two of them were exchanging strikes smiling. Always smiling.
Cid could not complain. For him, a fight was like a conversation, and it had been a while since he had a decent one. This was what he always looked for in a fight.
"It seems that I have to get serious!" said Shadow jumping backward to get some distance from Moroha.
"So, you were holding back?" she asked.
The black sword turned into two crowbars that he made spin on his hands.
Moroha was surprised. Crowbars? In any fight, leaving the sword aside was an immediate sign of defeat, but Kagenou felt more dangerous for some reason.
Morha charged at Kagenou once again, but it was blocked with one crowbar as the other descended over her head. Moroha rolled away just in time to avoid the attack as she blocked a new one.
"You are a worthy rival. But I am a literal goddess."
She allowed her divinity to flow through her body making Shadow to take a step backward.
"Impressive power. But you are still holding back." said Shadow.
"Yes, but if I let my true power flow, my mortal form wouldn't resist it."
"I see. I never forget a strong opponent. I will remember your name, Mochizuki Moroha."
And with that exchange, the fight was over.
"Never lose sight of the true enemy." said Shadow extending his hand and releasing a bluish purple light to the sky, making everyone to cover their eyes.
But Touya, Moroha, Ende, the wives and the knights of Brunhild were able to see how his slime bodysuit transformed back into his school uniform and he ran behind the seats.
When the others were able to see again, they saw Cid walking back to the filed looking dizzy.
"Is the fight over?"
Everyone had blank expressions on their faces. They saw him ran behind the seats at hyper-speed but they collectively decided to not to say anything.
Ende looked at Touya. "Hey, is your friend right on the head?"
"No. As far as I know, he never has been."