Northern ridge - roughly twenty minutes prior
Yasui flicked the blood off her disks with a quick, practiced twist, the shimmering edges folding back slightly as she turned to face Nishihara. Around them, the mist glowed with the distant flash of gunfire and the occasional low rattle of Yatzuls prowling unseen.
Nishihara was checking the pulse of a wounded soldier, giving him a firm nod before rising to his feet, adjusting the grip on his odachi across his back.
'That's the last of them we could find,' he said, glancing around at the cluster of exhausted, wide-eyed soldiers pressed against the rocks for cover. 'If we push south, we can regroup with Yanagi and Sakaguchi before moving back to the fallback perimeter.'
Yasui rolled her shoulders, the disks retracting fully into her arms, leaving faint, ember-like lines beneath her sleeves. She looked over the gathered soldiers - muddy, bleeding, some shaking but alive.
'Good,' she said, exhaling. Then she looked back at Nishihara, her dark eyes steady beneath her lightly wet hair, her braid still well tied. 'Listen, I'm gonna head out. Check for any more stragglers. Ike went off on his own, and I'm not the type to let subordinates wander off alone.'
Nishihara's jaw tightened, brows pulling down. 'Yasui—Captain, the fog is thick, and we've already lost too many. If you split off now—'
'I trust you,' she interrupted, stepping closer and lightly tapping his chest with two fingers. 'You can look after them in my absence. If I don't find anyone, I'll circle back.'
She turned, beginning to walk down the slope, the mist swirling around her boots. Then she paused, glancing back, a faint, tired grin breaking her stern features.
'Don't die, Nishihara,' she called over her shoulder.
He sighed, shaking his head lightly. 'Copy.'
Yasui lifted one hand, waving lazily before it fell back to her side, the glow of the disks returning to her forearms as she vanished into the fog, her boots splashing softly in the shallow water.
Nishihara stood still for a moment, glancing up at the dark, heavy clouds swirling above before turning back to the soldiers.
'Alright,' he muttered, gripping the hilt of his odachi. 'Let's move.'
***
Present
'Put her down.'
The figure carefully lowered Yasuko's limp body to the floor, water pooling around her, then raised its fists, silent.
Yasui's eyes narrowed, and she vanished.
The fog exploded as she dashed forward, low to the ground, her disks spinning silently with a humming vibration that trembled through the air. The figure reacted instantly, ducking under her first swipe, the disk shearing off a chunk of rock as it carved through a nearby boulder.
They exchanged blows in silence, Yasui's disks whipping around her like living creatures, flickering through the mist as she spun, kicked off rocks, and used the uneven terrain to pivot, vanish, and reappear behind the figure with surgical precision.
The figure blocked a slash with a forearm, sparks and blood spraying as the disk bit deep, only for it to swing an elbow toward Yasui's temple. She ducked, letting the blow skim her hair, before she pivoted on her heel, planting a kick into the figure's ribs, sending it crashing into a shallow pool.
It rose, water cascading off, and lunged. Yasui blurred sideways, her disk slicing upward, carving a shallow gash across its chest before she used the momentum to flip backward, landing atop a jagged mound. The fog swallowed her silhouette, the pulsing red glow of her disks the only sign of her presence.
The figure snapped its gaze upward - too late.
She came down from above, both disks slamming down in a scissor strike, forcing the figure to block, the impact driving it to its knees in the water. It retaliated with a sweeping kick, but Yasui dissolved into the fog, reappearing behind its blind spot, her disks slashing horizontally.
It twisted, narrowly avoiding a decapitation, though the disks tore through the edge of the cloak, blood flicking across the ground.
The figure swung a heavy punch, which Yasui deflected with the flat of a disk before snapping the edge upward, catching the figure's jaw and sending it stumbling back, shards of the broken mask falling into the water.
The fog closed around them again, Yasui's breathing even, her boots splashing quietly as she circled. The disks continued to spin, orbiting her wrists like silent, hungry predators, reflecting the faint glow of mist-filtered moonlight as she waited for the figure's next move.
'Not bad,' she murmured, 'but you're bleeding all over my subordinate, you know.'
The figure steadied itself, water and blood dripping from its fingers, then surged forward again, and the mist swallowed them both as the quiet clash of steel, flesh, and spinning blades echoed through the crater.
The fog exploded again as the masked figure lunged, its feet silent on the slick rocks as it closed the gap. Yasui's disks snapped outward, a blur of polished edges whispering through the mist as she twisted, one disk slashing for the figure's throat while the other carved low for its knee.
The figure ducked under the throat slice, pivoting with unnatural speed as Yasui's low disk sliced a line across its thigh, drawing another spray of blood. It didn't flinch, countering with a sharp backfist aimed for Yasui's jaw, but she twisted away, her hair flicking through the fog as she sent a disk arcing back toward its exposed flank.
The figure spun, hand snapping out, and caught the spinning disk mid-air.
For a heartbeat, the disk's humming edge chewed into its palm, blood spraying in a dark mist as the figure held it in place, the fog swirling violently around them. The spinning blade shrieked against flesh, trying to saw free, but the figure held firm, locked in a silent, vibrating stalemate.
Yasui's eyes widened slightly, boots shifting across the rocks, her second disk flickering as it hovered near her hip, ready to launch.
The figure's grip tightened. Blood dripped in steady rivulets down its forearm as it twisted its wrist, forcibly slowing the disk's rotation with sheer muscle, a guttural growl breaking through its mask. Then, in a single, explosive movement, it wrenched the disk downward, slamming it against a rock to force its trajectory off course.
The disk rebounded violently, skipping off the stone with a scream of metal, narrowly missing the figure's head as it ducked and rolled aside, the disk ricocheting across the ground before snapping back toward Yasui like a loyal pet.
She caught it mid-flight with a reverse grip, the force sending ripples up her arms, and she dropped into a low stance, boots skidding on wet stone as she steadied herself.
The figure's hand was shredded, blood trailing in streaks as it flexed its fingers. It straightened, chest rising and falling as it stared at Yasui, droplets pattering softly into the puddles between them.
The figure's shoulders rose and fell, its remaining eye visible through the cracked mask, a cold glint of challenge flickering in it before it surged forward again.
They collided in the mist, disks screaming through the air as Yasui twisted, using the fog to disappear and reappear in bursts, striking from angles the figure could barely anticipate. The figure ducked and weaved, heavy punches cracking the air, one grazing Yasui's ribs, another clipping her shoulder, forcing her to stumble back as it pressed the assault.
Yasui's disks lashed out again, cutting shallow grooves along the figure's arms and legs as she slid through the fog, her footwork dancing atop slick stone and water, every step a pivot to launch another slice. The figure countered with brutal efficiency, slamming a palm into her wrist to break her flow, following with a roundhouse that Yasui narrowly blocked with the flat of a disk.
The impact rattled her bones, forcing her back a step before she dipped low, carving a slash across the figure's hip, drawing another hiss of pain.
The fog churned around them, each breath sharp and fast, the clash of steel and flesh a quiet thunder inside the crater as Yasui and the figure fought with mirrored savagery, the world shrinking to the ringing edge of blades and the fog that swallowed them whole.
***
The ridge was silent, save for the soft hiss of the fog curling over the crater below. The soldiers lay prone behind rocks and barricades, rifles steady, eyes locked on the swirling grey.
'Hold fire,' Nishihara ordered quietly, odachi resting across his knees as he scanned the shifting shapes below. The fog swallowed everything, and the only sound was the steady breath of men trying not to breathe too loudly.
A sudden crash broke the silence. The fog erupted as a Yatzul came flying out, limbs flailing, skidding across the mud before coming to a twitching halt.
The soldiers flinched, fingers tightening on triggers, but Nishihara raised a hand, eyes narrowing.
Out of the fog, Sakaguchi emerged, blood dripping from a cut across his temple, panting heavily, YNS lightly torn but slowly repairing. Behind him, Yanagi stepped forward, dragging one of the wounded survivors with him, another two stumbling out after, weapons ready but lowered, eyes wide and tired.
The fog rippled around them, but no other Yatzuls came.
Sakaguchi glanced up toward the ridge, spotted Nishihara's silhouette, and raised a hand, giving a shaky thumbs up. Yanagi followed, his eyes sharp even under the grime and blood.
Nishihara exhaled, shifting his odachi back across his back as he turned to the soldiers.
'Get ready. We're bringing them up.'
The soldiers nodded, beginning to move down from the ridge to guide their comrades up as the fog swirled around them, the brief calm pierced only by the distant, muffled echoes of fighting deeper in the crater.
Chapter 51 - end