What I Have Inherited

A beautiful green grassland stretching out beneath a cloudless blue sky.

The same scenery as ever, never changing.

The time was noon.

Lit by the sunlight from high in the sky, the grass and flowers swayed in the wind, shining with life.

In the midst of that grassland of Vera Kenu, two women stood facing each other, squared off.

One was Lairine.

Going by looks alone, she was a woman who had kept the youthfulness of someone in her 20s.

She usually wore a coat and a hat, and often dressed in a way that gave the impression of a fashionable city lady, but today her outfit was different.

She was wearing a simple short-sleeved top and long trousers, each with a little pattern on the sleeves.

Of course, there was no doubt they were of fine quality, but at any rate, she was dressed in clothes made above all for ease of movement.

And unlike usual, she was laying bare her true power as a demigod.

The concentrated magic power circulating through her made her body shine, and the space around her creaked, mishimishi, under the pressure pouring off her.

It was a pressure so great that an ordinary person might lose consciousness just from catching sight of her.

But the way she smiled, gently and beautifully, even while giving off such pressure, could only be called divine.

Had the one facing her not been Emi, a new faith might well have been born right here.

Now, as just mentioned, the one facing such a Lairine was a girl named Emi.

Black hair and black eyes, an appearance loathed in this world as that of a cursed child, yet endowed with a frightening beauty: this girl had wrapped her whole body in something rough and belt-like...... something like black cloth, which did nothing at all to set off that beauty.

This black cloth was something Emi had prepared herself.

In other words, it was her special ability, 【Black Arms】, transformed.

Until now, 【Black Arms】 could only be transformed into something like rugged rock armor, but as a result of her tireless daily training, Emi had, more or less, succeeded in reproducing a cloth-like texture.

But even with a cloth-like texture, a rusty red still surfaced now and then, and together with her magic power, which leaked out like a murky black haze in answer to her fighting spirit, she looked right now like something you could fairly call a terrifying humanoid monster.

It was a ghastliness that might make an ordinary person burst into tears and run.

But that face of hers, eyes burning with fighting spirit as she stared straight at Lairine, was beautiful all the same.

Though the only one who got to savor that beauty was Lairine, who stood facing her.

“Now then, are you readyyy?”

“Obviously.”

Having exchanged just those few words, the two began the fight without so much as a signal to start.

Today was the day of the trial.

For Emi to go out into the outside world.

In other words, exactly one month had passed since Emi's declaration.

◇ ◇ ◇

Charging straight at Lairine, Emi swung her right fist through with great force.

It was a fist that would likely punch a huge hole even through a castle wall, but to Lairine, it had about the same power as being pelted with an acorn.

She brushed it aside lightly.

And the left fist that followed, and the right fist again.

But Emi did not lose heart, and she never stopped pounding her fists at Lairine, right, left, right, left.

How touching and adorable she was, fighting so desperately!

Blocking those attacks perfectly, Lairine found the corners of her eyes softening and the corners of her mouth turning up in spite of herself.

Note that this is Lairine's personal impression; to put it objectively, from an ordinary person's point of view, Emi's attacks are a fierce, storm-like onslaught too fast for the eye to follow.

Normally, if you took even one blow from that fist, the impact would be too much to defend against, and your body would be blown apart into a miserable lump of meat.

If you get punched by Emi, prepare for death.

Now, perhaps judging that she was getting nowhere with every punch blocked, Emi let fly a sharp kick aimed at Lairine's stomach.

Lairine, naturally, stopped it with ease.

But this kick, it seemed, had not been meant as an attack.

Using the palm that had caught her kick as a foothold, Emi pushed off hard and leaped several meters back.

“Does this mean we're starting overrr?”

“............”

Lairine called out to her with a beaming smile, but Emi said nothing.

Still silent, she dropped into a forward lean, then charged again.

(......Fast!)

Lairine was surprised by that speed in spite of herself, and her eyes went wide!

Emi's movements were clearly several times faster than they were just a moment ago!

(Is it that her body's warmed up...... no, doesn't seem like iiit)

This was probably a feint.

Come to think of it, Emi's attacks just now had been, at most, a little faster than a month ago.

First, deliberately attack slowly and let the opponent's eyes get used to it, then run rings around them at full, serious speed, making the most of what her training had achieved.

Indeed, you could certainly call it an effective tactic.

......That is, if the opponent hadn't been Lairine.

“Ufufu.”

Emi, putting such earnest thought into how she fought, was so cute, so very cute, that a laugh slipped from Lairine's mouth in spite of herself.

After all, the gap in strength between Emi and Lairine was immense.

Even if Emi's movements had gotten several times faster, it might surprise her a little, but to Lairine it was no threat at all.

Right fist, left fist, right fist, left leg, right fist, left fist, headbutt......

Lairine continued to defend against all of them, exactly as she had before.

“Emi-chan...... you really worked hard at your training this past month, didn't youuu”

Lairine still had plenty of room to spare.

That was why she had room to chat while fending off Emi's fierce onslaught.

“It's true that in this one month, you could say ‘the Grim Reaper's’ ‘technique’ inside you has been polished to far greater heights. You really are a genius, aren't youuu”

She spoke with a smile, brushing away fists and parrying kicks.

“But...... I told you, didn't I? That ‘technique’ is, after all, nothing but the struggling of the weak. Before the overwhelmingly strong, technique is just too, powerless.”

Gently, so gently, she denied Emi's efforts.

“What you need is specs. And gaining them would be easy for you...... All you have to do is stay with me. I have 300 years' worth of experience and knowledge as your predecessor. I can grow your specs efficiently.”

And then she declared it outright.

“What you need...... what is fitting for you, isn't the ‘Grim Reaper’. It's me!”

“Don't make me...... laugh.”

Then, at that moment.

“Don't talk like you know.”

Still slamming her fists and feet into her, Emi spoke for the first time since the fight began.

“But it's the truth, isn't it?”

“Wrong.”

Lairine asked, a troubled expression on her face.

Emi continued her fierce onslaught with a blank expression.

“You are the same as me. That's why, as your predecessor......”

“That's not the point.”

“......Not the point?”

Lairine finally tilted her head.

She didn't understand what Emi wanted to say.

If the goal of this was to disrupt her thinking through conversation, then the plan was a huge success.

......Not that such a petty trick meant anything at all to Lairine.

“You know nothing. You haven't even tried to know. For someone who calls herself my mother.”

“Eh, wait...... what are you saying......?”

Emi, it seemed, was angry.

Her attacks were getting faster still, but more than that, Lairine was shaken by the anger in Emi's voice.

Lairine had no idea at all why Emi was angry.

“I told you! ‘I'll polish “what I have inherited” and land one hit on you without fail’—that's what I said!”

“Eh, ehhh?”

Right fist, left fist, right leg, left fist!

Perhaps in answer to Emi's anger, the force of her attacks was gradually growing......!

“You know nothing! Of my life! You haven't even tried to know! What it is I ‘have inherited’! What the things are that I ‘have inherited’!”

Here, Emi jumped back—ton, toton—once again putting distance between herself and Lairine.

“That's why you'll lose today.”

Emi declared that...... and the very next moment!

The black cloth she was wearing...... instantly unraveled, and formed two new arms upon her shoulders.

Rugged, spiky black arms, ferocious and ghastly in shape.

【Black Arms】.

“YOU'LL LOSE, TO EVERYTHING, WHAT I HAVE INHERITED!!”

Readying her four arms, Emi shouted and lunged at Lairine once more!