Emi vs. Lairine

Next, it's my turn.

Facing the blonde beauty who had declared this and stood in her way, Emi tilted her head.

“Fight? You too, lady? Why?”

“Oh myyy! You misunderstood after aaall? Emi-chan, you have to listen to what people say, proooperly, you knooow?”

Lairine giggled, covering her mouth with her hand.

“What was decided in the discussion earlier, y'knooow, was ‘Fight Emi-chan, and if you win, you get to be her guardian.’ And that is not limited to that man just now.”

“............”

Having understood the situation, Emi quietly readied her fists.

A cold wind, carrying dust, blew between the two of them.

First, Emi activated 【Magic Perception】.

She tried to see how much magic power was leaking from Lairine and gauge her rough combat ability.

But......

“Tch”

Emi let out a small click of her tongue and broke into a cold sweat.

Then, she leaped back—ta, tan—to put some distance between herself and Lairine.

Because she could not detect any magic power leaking from Lairine's body at all.

It was an astonishing level of magic power control.

This was no ordinary opponent.

This woman was not just some kind lady who would keep giving her Mekena Sandwiches endlessly.

Emi understood that immediately.

The wariness that had been softened by the feeding returned, and she began to perceive the facts correctly.

While Emi's sense of crisis intensified, Lairine had yet to even take a combat stance.

For starters, her outfit was everyday wear that showed no intention of fighting at all, which only made the gap between her and Emi, who had deployed her 【Black Arms】, stand out more.

She wore a white coat with fluffy fur on the collar, and a skirt from the waist down.

Her legs, glimpsed now and then as the wind stirred her skirt, were in black tights, and her shoes were high heels, plainly unsuited to fighting.

At a glance, she looked like a fashionable lady from town.

But still, Emi could not read her true strength.

There was no telling how deep she went.

Inside her head, Omake-sama was making a fuss.

Telling her she should run.

If she could, Emi wanted to run too.

But she probably couldn't.

Her intuition, refined in her subconscious through the accumulation of past experience, told her so.

What should she do?

Should she strike first?

Was such a thing even possible?

It wasn't a matter of whether it was possible.

She had to do it.

Do it.

Facing Emi, braced with her wariness at its peak, Lairine, still standing slack, smiled wryly and called out to her.

“Heyyy, so becoming family with me is something you don't want, either, is iiit?”

“No.”

Saying only that, Emi suddenly swung at Lairine with all her might, using the left fist of her 【Black Arms】!

It was a blow like a cannonball, the same one that had sent Arcus flying earlier.

A surprise attack carried out in the middle of a conversation.

Some would call it a coward's move, and there would be no escaping that, but at this moment Emi had no room to care about such things.

She also felt this was no opponent against whom she could afford such concerns.

Emi already recognized this woman, Lairine, as that kind of opponent.

And that recognition was correct.

That would soon be proven by Lairine's actions.

No sooner had she thrust out her right palm than she caught 【Black Arms】 as casually as if they were playing catch!

“Ufufu, Emi-chan, you're full of energy, aren't youuu...... oh my”

Though under attack, Lairine had gone on talking to Emi in her leisurely way, smiling as ever, but her words broke off halfway.

By the time she noticed, Emi had closed in right in front of her!

And without a sound!

As for what Emi had done at this moment: she had used 【Black Arms】.

【Black Arms】 can be stretched and shrunk fairly freely, within limits.

Emi had turned Lairine's catch against her: with the 【Black Arms】 fist held fast in Lairine's palm, she shortened 【Black Arms】 and pulled her own body toward Lairine in an instant, attempting another surprise attack.

Using that momentum, Emi tried to slam her right fist into Lairine's left cheek with all her might.

But Lairine stopped that fist, which by rights could easily crush even rock, with just the index finger of her left hand.

Next, Emi aimed her left fist at Lairine's right shoulder.

Lairine let go of 【Black Arms】, which she had been gripping, and stopped the blow with her right index finger.

Emi brought the freed left 【Black Arms】 fist slamming down from above with all her might.

It was blocked by Lairine's left hand, held above her head.

Almost at the same moment, Emi drove the right 【Black Arms】 fist, which she had kept back, straight in.

It was stopped by Lairine's right hand.

Lairine's left and right hands were occupied.

“RYAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Not letting the opening slip by, Emi slammed her right fist into Lairine's stomach with all her might!

In that exchange of barely a few seconds, Emi had felt Lairine's strength so keenly it hurt.

This woman was unbelievably strong.

The expression she caught a glimpse of was a smile.

The face of a woman gazing with tender, loving affection.

Emi felt a shiver run down her spine at that expression.

That was exactly why the blow she slammed into that stomach was a full-power strike.

A blow that would have sent any ordinary human flying and blown their body to pieces without them being able to do a thing.

Taking that in the stomach, even Lairine was blown backward, obeying the laws of physics.

But partway she spun around and landed on both feet.

Standing upright, she slid back a little while kicking up dust—zazaza—and then stopped.

“Four arms, isn't that a little unfaaair? And here I meant to block them aaall”

The expression on Lairine's face as she looked up.

As expected, a smile.

A kind gaze.

No damage.

“AAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Emi stamped the bedrock at her feet to rubble, then snatched the pebbles thrown up into the air and hurled them, again and again.

It was 【Infinite Pebbles】.

But Lairine, still smiling, brushed aside the countless stones flying at her too fast for the eye to follow as if they were snow or something, and kept coming toward Emi.

It wasn't working!

Once Lairine had come fairly close, Emi began mixing surprise attacks with 【Magic Slash Thread】 in among her 【Infinite Pebbles】.

She unleashed the razor-sharp invisible threads like whips, disguising the motion within the act of throwing pebbles.

But Lairine shook those off too, as easily as brushing away cobwebs.

It wasn't working!!

“Hey, Emi-chan”

In an instant, the distance was closed.

Close-quarters combat began again.

Emi desperately rained blows on her with her four fists.

Lairine blocked every single one of them.

Not only did she block them, but by skillfully parrying them, she no longer showed any openings like before.

“Becoming family with me, you don't want that?”

In the middle of a high-speed battle an ordinary person could barely even see, Lairine asked once more, as leisurely as ever.

“Parents......! I don't need them!!”

Emi was desperate.

“Why?”

“......!!”

She no longer had the room to say anything.

She just desperately continued to slam her fists against Lairine.

Faced with that desperate Emi.

Lairine smiled gently while parrying the fists.

And then.

Approaching Emi at a speed invisible to the eye.

With both her arms, she.

Hugged Emi.

......With all her might!

“Agh......!”

There was a mishi, a boki, the sound of bones breaking.

“A, a, a......”

And because she was being hugged with such immense force, Emi could not even breathe.

Her concentration broke from the pain and distress.

Her magic power control faltered, and 【Black Arms】 dissipated and vanished.

“Why you refuse.”

Kneeling as she held Emi's small body tight, Lairine spoke gently.

“I understand.”

She rubbed her cheek against Emi's.

“Because, I'm the same, as you.”

Lairine, still wearing a smile brimming with tender love.

“......You're scared, aren't you?”

Her cheeks flushed red.

“Humans are weak, aren't they?”

Tears pooled in her eyes.

“They die so quickly, don't they?”

Emi's consciousness was hazy.

“That's why you don't need parents, right?”

At last, Emi's whole body went limp.

“Emi-chan, you're so kind.”

Lairine patted Emi's head, yoshi yoshi.

“But me, I'll be fine.”

Lairine cradled Emi's motionless body in both arms.

“Because, I'm the same, as you.”

She kissed her forehead gently.

“From now on, we'll be together forever and ever.”

And then, Lairine.

“With Mom,”

Stood up while still cradling Emi.

“Let's be happy.”

......And began to walk.

It's a total defeat for Emi.

She was no match for Lairine.

As for Arcus, I think if he had been serious, it would have been a good fight.

In terms of specs as a living creature, Emi is overwhelmingly superior, but there are many cases where effort, technique, and equipment can overcome that.