Swords in the Sky

Eien Akagawa

“Put the orb on the ground and roll it to me,” the masked figure said with what I decided was a feminine voice. She wore a mask with a demon motif. The pistol that she held pointed at my head was a flintlock. If I could make her waste her one shot, then we’d be on even ground as she had a katana at her waist too.

She wasn’t someone that I had encountered before which was hardly surprising. Scavengers come and go at a whim. And it wasn’t like most of us wanted to do it. There was just a lucrative amount of coin to be made for those down on their luck. Which made for desperate people.

“You sure we can’t talk about this?” I asked with forced cheer in my tone. It wasn’t like I expected her to listen to me. I needed to buy time and form a plan. “It’s bad manners to go after someone else's haul.”

“Put the orb on the deck, now!” she said louder. She was new to the scavenging business. She was slightly unsure of herself in posture but she knew how to use her weapons.

“Alright, alright.” I bent down at my knees and placed the orb on the deck, her gun following me all the way down. The gods still spun around in a circle. I gathered my strength in my legs and glanced around with my eyes. Most of the ship's railing was still intact other than the port side near the front. As long as the orb didn’t roll that way, there shouldn’t be a problem of it falling off.

I roughly pushed the orb forward, towards her feet. As soon as her mask tilted down, I launched myself across those few feet in between us. Her head jolted up and her finger tightened on the trigger. My hand flashed out and knocked her gun hand into the air.

She didn’t fire her shot. I lashed out with my other hand towards her stomach while she was off balance. She jumped back just as my fist landed. Some breath escaped from her but not enough to leave her truly winded.

I really didn’t want to kill her, scavenger or not. Regardless, I drew my katana from its sheath as her gun hand came back down to train itself on me. I swung as my katana exited the sheath. The tip of my blade met her gun as her finger tightened on the trigger.

Fire erupted from her gun and my hearing went with it. I felt the iron ball go just over my left shoulder. I didn’t know if I had been grazed or if it had completely missed me. All I knew is that my swing had managed to direct her shot enough to not kill me.

She cursed and threw the now useless weapon at me. I batted it aside as she stepped back and drew her katana. I wanted to curse as I couldn’t get to her in time before she drew. Which meant that this was going to be a real pain in the ass.

Amazingly the orb hadn't been kicked around too much. It rolled around to the damn port side of the ship. The exact opposite side that I wanted it to go in. I was partnered with a Zashiki Warashi, shouldn’t I have more good luck than this?

I rushed forward with an overhead two-handed grip and brought it down. She didn’t take my blow head on. Instead she parried my blade to the side and made to stab me through. I brought my sword back in time to knock hers aside.

I kicked at her leg but she twisted away and swung towards my neck. I ducked under the swing and felt it whistle by. I stabbed forward and was rewarded by her retreating. I stood straight and studied her.

I really wished that I had my jitte or even my revolver with me. Anything to make this fight end faster. I glanced at the orb. It bounced against the portside railing, far enough away from the broken section.

She rushed me this time with a flurry of wild strikes. I blocked and parried when I could. I earned a couple of scratches on my arms but nothing too deep. I gave ground before I went on the offensive.

When her next strike landed on my sword I knocked it aside and hit her mask with my pommel. She staggered back and I swung towards her neck. She managed to sloppily guard against my strike. I landed several heavy blows on her blade, pushing her back. Even now her guard was good, none of my strikes were getting through.

I disengaged and we stood there panting. I glanced around, we were falling faster now. The spiritual connection between the orb and the ship was weakening. I had to finish this fast if I wanted to make it out alive.

Are you having fun?

Iroha was nearby but I couldn’t communicate with her with my mind. She wouldn’t be able to hear me with the distance involved. In any case I didn’t want to have my opponent hear what I was talking about anyway. Instead I twirled my katana and briefly pointed it towards the port side with the broken railing.

Got it.

I dashed towards the orb which was still rolling around on the port side. It took only a moment for the woman to react and rush after me. But that moment was all I needed. I kicked at the orb and it rolled towards the broken railing.

“What are you doing you fool!?” she screamed as she chased after it. It rolled off the deck and into the open air. She skidded to a halt and turned to face me. “What have you done!?”

I ignored her and snapped my katana back into its sheath. I took off running towards the starboard side of the ship. We had moments before the spiritual connection broke and the ship picked up speed to plummet into the ground. I felt the rush of air as an airship flew in behind me as I leapt the railing and into the open air.

I hit the deck of my ship. I turned as the other scavenger ship flew away from the sinking ship. Then the spiritual connection snapped between the ship and the orb. Gravity fully took hold and it only took moments for it to smash into the ground far below. I grinned and saluted the other ship before turning away.

You’re lucky we’ve done that before.

“I know, how's the orb?” I checked in the small cabin to find two orbs, one being Iroha. The other being the one I had kicked off the ship.

They’re still asleep.

“Ah, ha. So they were twin gods. I wonder how they managed that?”

I don’t know but frankly, I don’t care. I want them out of our hands as fast as possible.

“I agree with you there. Use the usual course to get us bac-” An explosion knocked me off my feet. “The hell-!?”

Someone shot the back of the ship! I can’t keep this thing up in the air! Brace for impact!