For Said Reason

The one undeniable feeling she currently felt was fear. Her body shook, shivering.

And knowing her, especially with the past hardships that struck her hard, she would fight back. Fight back, but when she’s her usual self. The usual Izanami firmly steers that way. But right now, she wouldn’t dare move.

She waits for the stalker to make a move first—

—Suddenly, charging into Izanami as she finally made a move, attempting to back up.

His knees pierced her stomach and in response, Izanami threw a punch, which she hesitated to curl at first.

Her punch got caught with his mere palm. She aimed for the jaw, but she gave away her attack by pulling her fist back too far and being too tense. She’s too slow and predictable and of course she knew.

He let go of the caught fist and tapped it down, proceeding to throw the exact same, slow punch she did.

His knees that became engraved in her stomach, pushed forward; sending her rolling a few yards away.

Apart from the impact she tried minimizing, Izanami began stumbling after successfully getting back up. Wha…t…the…?

What surprised her the most is that the stalker closed the distance in a mere second. She clenched her teeth at not the thought of it but the fact that she’s powerless.

It’s not the same as before—not like catching a spirit or being late for class—that one exciting feeling she can’t control…is not there for her to rely on.

She charges at him—who’s stood still. And this time with a little more speed despite her stumbling. If i can…the hood.

But to no avail, her attack got blocked by his palm. After hitting the ground once again, she rolled away, with no strength to minimize the impact, back to zero. I need to see.

—Again, she repeats. …have to.

—And again, he parried.

She charges once more. This time, grabbing a handful of nothing, but pretends to. As she got close enough to him, she threw her slightly opened hand, trying to catch him off guard with her fake out. With her free hand, she threw the same punch as before—

—He raised his palm, expecting the exact same outcome.

Just as her clenched fist was about to hit contact with his palm, she twisted, curving her thrown punch to avert his block. Opening her hand wide, she snatched his hood by the collar and pulled it down.

In that moment, Izanami managed to catch him off guard twice. What an astonishing performance.

But even though she pulled it off, one thing that wasn’t expected was…

“A girl?!”

Revealing a girl and her wicked smiling face, the pleasure showing on her face. “Boo!”

In an instant, the revealed stalker who Izanami assumed was a man, headbutted Izanami. The sound of impact became heavier, having her sent more yards away then ever before. She stumbles, spins, and bounces upon every hit against the ground.

Izanami struggled to breathe and her nose ached in immense pain.

The girl momentarily held the side of her neck after cracking it. “Wow…! What a strategy: a blatantly obvious fake, following another fake, and then the unexpected…”

The girl puts her hand in one of her hoodie’s pocket, grabbed out a lollipop, took off its wrapper, and proceeded putting the lolly in her mouth.

Izanami struggles to stand up. Her arms barely holding up her upper body to see the face of her opponent. “Why…are you—?” She coughed harshly.

Her voice became raspy after just one cough. That one cough leaked tiny streams of blood out her mouth.

“—”

After a few struggling breaths and complete silence from the girl, Izanami spoke again.

“Why are you doing this…?”

“Two reasons,” She raises her index finger. “First, you contracted with a spirit,” Following that, she raised her middle finger. “And second of all, you—a Drafter—is on my turf.”

Izanami was left in utter disbelief and pure disgust, which showed on her face.

“So because of two puny whines, you tracked me and my friend down…?”

“Not her, just you. Buuuutt, if she wasn’t that angry to have left and decided to come here as well…”

“You wouldn’t,” her eyes narrowed, fixating on the girl with a sharp glaze.

She didn’t take the hinted threat lightly, great., the girl thought.

“Well, it’s my playground.”

“…Your sick.”

Izanami grunted at her comments. It seemed to be her last straw. Looking up, she shouts by repeating the same words.

With determination, she got up quickly and darted to the girl, holding her hand out. Then—

—In a flash, with a slight dark glow, a katana appears in that very hand she confidently held out.

Clashing against the girl’s held weapon—a lollipop, the very sound of metal sparking against mere hardened sugar was one thing that widened Izanami’s eyes.

Otherwise, its her current closest partner.

I’m awake, Izanami!

This very response prompted her eyes to shed tears.

“Noktu!”

What the hell happened while I was gone?!

The girl with the lollipop questions, “…Noktu?”

Izanami deflects the lollipop of a weapon and backs away.

How did I do that?, Izanami questions.

Don’t worry and just follow along for now.

Izanami charges in with her katana—back to her usual speed—it widened her opponent’s eyes.

She struck upwards and got parried.

She struck downwards and got parried.

Now, she struck diagonally and momentarily made the girl hesitate.

How fast., the girl thought.

As Izanami got faster with each hit, the girl got pushed back even further.

Her change of attack pattern already made it hard, but with more speed in addition made it even harder to defend, let alone give the opponent a chance to attack back.

However, the girl would soon catch up to Izanami’s uncoordinated attacks.

Strike diagonal again! Then from upwards!

Izanami followed Noktu’s instructions to the brim and it actually worked in her favor.

Now pierce forward and pull back right before slashing down!

But the girl already caught up. Initially blocking Izanami’s previous attacks, the next one said by Noktu got parried. Her odd weapon pushed back Izanami’s sword greatly.

A fist appeared in front of Izanami’s face, it came quick. Though in time, she blocked it with her very palm.

Izanami smirked faintly.

It widened the girl’s eyes to see Izanami blocking the same way as her. Honestly, it impressed her.

Then, as Izanami struck once again, the girl started to parry even harder. She became more serious in her attempt to defeat Izanami now than before. Every strike by every parry made the air heavy. Continuously blow for blow, but eventually they stopped as fatigue caught up.

“Your strong… Way too strong,” the girl confidently said as she huffed.

“—”

Simultaneously, Izanami huffed.

They continued huffing while idled for some time, until the girl finally spoke out.

The girl gave a serious expression. “Even so—”

“—Wait.”

…

Izanami stayed quiet and confused—and so am I.

“Are you…not one of them?”

“What?”

“…Forcing spirits and stuff that i cannot mention for said reason?”

“—?”

“? Is that not your aim?”

“Sorry? …I have no idea what your talking about.”

The girl held her chin while in deep thought. …Did she even force a spirit to contract?

“Oh, then you have nothing to do with anything I’ve just mentioned?”

“…No.”

…

Both were speechless. The girl mindlessly stalked and attacked another Drafter, which she thought was the target of her mission. Though in Izanami’s perspective, nothing made any sense other than the fact that she’s a Drafter, knowingly.

So…the girl raised her hand and waved after turning her back to Izanami.

Upon the girl leaving, Izanami just stared—perplexed—while dropping her arms low.

“…What?”

After getting some distance, a tune played mildly loud, echoing throughout the whole floor. Izanami particularly blankly stared at her.

—Grabbing her phone out of her jean’s pocket and putting it by her ear, Izanami still watching, continues to watch.

After a moment of silence, she turned around facing her initial opponent. Walking towards Izanami with the utmost worried face.