Yoshino's Battle

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[A/N] A lot of action this chapter

A large blizzard was raging around Tengu City. This definitely wasn't a common occurrence for the place, but the cause wasn't exactly normal, either. In the center of the speeding snow stood a young girl, hunched over as if she was crying, which she was, in fact doing.
Her blue hair bounced at the same time as her back shuddered from her soft sobs.

"Yoshinon......."
A dozen or so people were around her, all dressed in incredibly heavy armor, and weapons that seemed to be several times their body weight. Despite the weight, they were all floating in place, pointing missiles at her. 

Ryouko Kusakabe, the captain of the AST, was currently in a slight mental struggle.
Should we really fire at the poor thing? Is that the right thing to do? 
She shook her head. This was no time for such thoughts. If left alone, that thing would cause the deaths of many innocent citizens.
They weren't humans. They shouldn't be saved. Desperately trying to convince herself of that, Ryouko gave the order.

"Fire."

Immediately, several lights dotted the sky as half the squad launched their missiles at the small blue form below. Noticing this, Yoshino swung her hand backwards weakly. 
"Freeze.. sniff"
Frozen solid, the missiles dropped straight out of the air. It seemed like the defense had not only frozen the propulsion, but somehow also the kinetic energy of the projectiles.

With a heavy clunk, they reached the ground and lay there, without any explosions. 
"Dammit, just shoot until you hit it!"
Several sharp cracks rang out in succession, without stopping. A rain of bullets followed in their wake. 
"Zadkiel!"

An ice barrier sprang into life, sheltering Yoshino from the deadly onslaught, buying her time to run away.  At the same time, the giant puppet appeared, lifting Yoshino up and making its way out.
She fearfully looked over her shoulder. The AST was flying behind her, slowly but surely catching up. Why? Why were these people trying to kill her? Where was Yoshinon?
As one member caught up with her, they swung their standard blade at her. Before the blade could even come close, however, a massive ball of ice formed around her entire territory, freezing it in place. She powerlessly fell out of the sky, though Yoshino made sure she wouldn't outright die from the light fall.

She was attacked in a similar manner several times, but the territory freezing tactic seemed to be effective. She stopped near a bridge, hoping that it would force the assailants into approaching from the sides instead of from above. Indeed, a white-haired girl sped up to her with remarkable speed. She remembered this girl. This was the person that Shido had blocked when she tried to attack her last time.

Paying little attention, she attempted to freeze the territory that was about to touch her.
"Wha?!"
Surprisingly, the freezing attempt missed completely, the girl had seemingly compressed her territory to the limit, its range reduced from 3 meters to a mere 50 centimeters.

While panicking, Yoshino attempted to freeze the newly compressed territory, but she met some unexpected resistance.

The phenomenon of the territory gave the Wizards the ability to control the laws of physics around them to a certain extent. Naturally, this came with a limit. If something was far away, it became exponentially more difficult to affect it, leading to the standard radius of three meters around a wizard. Yoshino's freezing ability could freeze the standard territory with ease. She was a Spirit, after all.
However, Origami had now compressed her territory to a sixth of that size, making it dozens of times stronger than before. Even with the immense Reiryoku of a Spirit, it wasn't something that could be broken in an instant.

Because of the slight delay caused by the compression, the Wizard's weapon would impact her before it actually froze.
Yoshino quickly reacted, managing to move her arms in front of the approaching sword.

Crack.

Due to the strength of her Astral dress, it didn't manage to reach the skin, but it was enough to send Yoshino crashing into the floor. It became difficult to move.  The Wizard was trying to hold her down with the strength of her Territory, completely focused on defense for some reason. 
Why? What's she trying to do?  W-wait, what if?!

An ominous tearing sound echoed out as the bridge on top of her swayed precariously.
With a start, Yoshino realized why the remaining members hadn't rushed in after the first wizard. 

...
A few minutes earlier...

"Captain." The ace of the AST, Origami Tobiichi, floated up to Ryouko. 
After seeing the missiles frozen by the Spirit of Ice, Ryouko was furiously searching for a plan to deal with the Spirit. Ryouko prayed that the white-haired genius would have a plan.
"What is it? Do you have any ideas?"
Her prayers did not go unanswered.

"Yes. Lure her over to a bridge, and collapse it on her. I'll hold her in place."
Ryouko mentally slapped herself. Of course! If the Spirit froze their missiles, all they had to do was find something bigger and heavier.
"Are you sure you can hold her? It would be a challenge to even approach her..."
"Leave it to me."

...

Yoshino struggled to move, but it was too late. The bridge was already falling. It probably wouldn't kill her, but it would weaken her enough for the Wizards to finish the job.
I'm sorry, Yoshinon. Yoshino summoned a shield above her and waited.

Bang. 

The sound that was transmitted to her ears was not that of the bridge crashing to the ground, nor did she feel the expected crushing sensation. 
What she did hear was the sound of a gunshot. 
She opened her eyes to see the paradoxical sight of the bridge ignoring gravity, floating back up and repairing itself, as if time was flowing backwards.


"The fourth bullet, Dalet."

A certain boy with blue hair had arrived on the scene.

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To be continued


waaaaaa a cliffhanger again

Here I am with chapter 9!
Felt some motivation in the middle of the day randomly, and 1000 words later, here we are.

This chapter had way more action, with Yoshino as the main star here. I was going to make the spirit sealing happen here but the fight dragged on for quite a while...

imo this is one of my best chapters yet, but tell me what you think in the comments (or badmouth me, works too)

cya next time for the finale of the volume 2 arc.



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