Queen's Blade Rebellion Illustrated Stories: Upheaval, chapter 9

In this chapter, the elusive dancer is raring to fight! Whose side is she taking?
Enjoy!

Upheaval, chapter 9: Moonlight Dancer

It was a grand banquet.

Here and there, bonfires were burning, and the darkness of the jungle was illuminated just like during daytime.

The rhythm of percussion instruments and men’s voices sang in chorus with the swaying flame, and women carried food and alcohol, weaving their way through them.

The stone pavement under their feet, along with a combination of boulders behind the ruins, was covered in ivy.

“Say, Yuit… there’s no way, we’re, sacrifices… that won’t happen… right?”

“Well… as I expected, it’s the Calibara tribe’s custom…”

“…As I thought, at that time, I wish we could have gotten Vante to help us.”

“But it wasn’t Elina who said to stop Vante, wasn’t that you girls? Since the “Child of the Dragon” had become a hostage, you said we had to do whatever Elina told us!”

Being ordered to stop Vante, who was almost beginning to act violently, Yuit couldn’t help but to seal the control device that operated Vante, stopping her movements.

“That’s true, but… But, I hope we are pardoned in the festival…”

Yuit, Tarnyang and Sainyang were bound, and rolling on the ground, they exchanged such conversation.

Over there, sitting on a chair magnificently decorated, Elina was treated to food and alcohol.

Something was amusing her, as she occasionally laughed heartily.

Beside her, there was also the figure of the “Child of the Dragon”, sitting expressionless. Before their eyes, food was lining up, not touched at all.

“Unless we rescue the “Child of the Dragon” somehow, if she doesn’t return to Shai-Fang… our trip will never end…”

“So, since we came this far… we must absolutely take her back…!”

“But, how…?”

Bound firmly as they currently were, they wouldn’t find a breakthrough.

And yet, not giving up in those circumstances, Yuit told the two of them.

“Please wait until a plain comes into my mind. They’re completely unprepared, so we have to focus on the chance that may come sometime.”

Moreover, Yuit added in a whisper.

 “Besides… I have a hunch we may find the “key”.”

“Eh?”

“It's…”

It was when Yuit’s words were about to answer the twins’ question. A cheer arose from the direction of the banquet, and the secret conversation was interrupted.

“What…?”

When they looked, a single dancer had appeared before Elina, and was bowing with an earnest reverence.

With brown skin, the girl had beautiful black hair that seemed to flow and was beautiful to behold, and was scantily-clad in her native dress, fascinatingly illuminated by the bonfire.

The dancer kept on wriggling her waist alluringly without a worry. Yuit involuntarily considered if her waist movement would ever stop.

“Welcome, visitors from the outside world. Giggle, you love my special, lovely hair, don’t you?”

“What, don’t act so familiar with me.”

“Oh, such a haughty attitude, but I don’t hate that. I’ll put you into submission with my DANCE…”

Turning a flirtatious glance towards Elina, the girl started to dance.

Not only Elina, but also Yuit, Tarnyang and Sainyang, still tied on the floor, were fascinated by the dance.

“Wonderful…”

“Indecent…”

“Yeah…”

The men were raising cheers, some even playing musical instruments, but before anyone noticed they sank into silence, their hands stopped, and the banquet was wrapped up in silence. Even for the beasts of the jungle that had become fascinated, their ears got hurt by the silence and they went into hiding there.

“…Ah.”

Yuit was gazing at the dance, and let out her voice involuntarily. The dancer finished her dance and, by chance, as she didn’t feel her own body weight while in motion, stood again before Elina.

 “Giggle, I wonder, how was it, visitors from the outside world…? How was my dance…?”

“Eh…? W, well, it, it was quite good.”

“That’s what matters the most… because, as the last dance you’ll ever see, I’d be sad had it been boring.”

“…Eh?”

Thinking she had misheard the other’s words, Elina frowned.

But, she hadn’t misheard her.

The girl introduced herself as the “Moonlight Dancer”, and once more, said in order to warn her.

“What I’ve shown you just now was the “Dance of Death”, that the Calibara Tribe shows before defeating an enemy.”

“What… did you say?”

Elina stood up from her chair in a rush, took a fighting stance and raised her claws.

---

“Why weren’t you deceived? But… I thought!”

“To begin with, you guys came and stepped into the forest as you pleased. You precocious lady who plowed through my important bushes, and tried to peek inside the forest, you must be punished.”

Whispering so, the girl waved both arms in a dance, and the decoration twine around both her hands and feet, happening in a motion reminiscent of a mollusk.

“This is the Hand of God. The weapon that repels the enemies of the Calibara Tribe.”

Bringing the tentacle shining with black luster near her lips, the girl said with a smile.

“Nobody can defeat me… so, you who deceived us, and those people who wanted to steal Bligh… everybody, is going to die… at the hands of Luna Luna, the “Moonlight Dancer”!”

Whoosh!

Elina’s face was attacked by a moving, sharp tentacle.

“Kuh…!”

If she got stabbed with the tentacles, that were equipped with blades at their tips, Elina wouldn’t be safe no matter what.

By a hair’s breadth, Elina jumped aside from the chair, and succeeded in dodging the tentacles’ attack.

“Unfortunately, lady, even if you said “Sorry, Sister, I’m turning you down” and begged me in tears… I wouldn’t give up!”

Not fearing the strange techniques of that girl, Luna Luna, Elina mocked her with a broad grin.

A tense atmosphere flowed between the two people that were confronting each other, taking their distance. All in the world remained still, it was only Luna Luna’s bending waist that wriggled.

Watching over them, Yuit and the others exchanged whispers in a low voice, confused.

“W, wait! Just now, that girl… did she call herself Luna Luna?”

“Y, yeah… but, when she told us about the location of the “Beast Cave”… she called herself the “Solar Dancer”, and besides, her skin color wasn’t this dark, she was more fair-skinned…!”

“M, maybe, Luna Luna, is a common name for dancers…?”

“Ah, that has to be it!”

The three people got the feeling they somehow had the answer for the question.

Looking back, Luna Luna and Elina’s battle had become more intense.

“Giggle, now that you’re caught up, become a prisoner of the Hand of God…”

“Ku… kuuh…!”

Elina was going to jump to avoid Luna Luna’s tentacle.

But, as if reading her movement beforehand, a couple of tentacles latched on to Elina’s legs, coiled around her waist and pulled her back to Luna Luna.

“T… this girl…”

“Giggle, give up, you violated the Calibara taboo, to make up for it… get strangled to death by the Hand of God…!”

“Gu, guuh...! L, let me go, let me goo…!”

Entangled with a tentacle wrapping around her body, Elina struggled desperately.

By chance, her hand grabbed a portion of Luna Luna’s crotch, the ornament that imitated an elephant’s trunk.

“Hyauu!”

As if she was sensitive there, Luna Luna stiffened her body.

“Hi, a, ah… afuuh…”

She raised her voice while her energy drained from her body, and the tentacle that was binding Elina loosened its grip completely.

“W, what? A, anyhow, now’s my chance!”

Jumping in a rush, Elina put distance between her and Luna Luna.

When she lifted her head to glare at Luna Luna again, her eyes opened wide in surprise.

“W, who, are you…!”

Yuit’s party were looking at the scene from far away, and they stared in wonder the same as Elina.

“W, wait, that one… that child!”

“What, that’s definitely who we met in the jungle…”

“Luna Luna… as I thought, they’re the same person…!”

Her dark skin kind of discolored into fair skin.

With a glance that seemed to involve her with everyone she saw, her eyes moved round and round somewhat happily.

With almost the same figure as the “Moonlight Dancer” from until a while ago, certainly she had the appearance of a different person there.

“I hate violence. But, I’ll fight for the sake of protecting everybody from Calibara. This Luna Luna, the “Solar Dancer”, will be your opponent!”

Singing a declaration, Luna Luna turned her tentacles once again towards Elina.

“Kuh!”

As she aimed at a different weak point than not long ago, Elina quickly moved to avoid her sharp straight thrust.

“Just escaping won’t cut it! It’s rare for me to play with people from the outside world, so let’s enjoy ourselves a little more!”

Breathless from repeating the attack, Luna Luna said so with a somewhat beaming expression on her face. Not to make light of her, nor to provoke her, it sounded like Luna Luna’s sincere words.

“Uuk… d, don’t play… the fool!”

Elina, who was battling defensively, found her chance in an instant, jumped up with her claws, and stroke, breaking off the blade at the tip of the tentacle!

“Ah!”

The broken blade revolved round and round in midair, and suddenly got stuck into the ground in front of Yuit’s eyes.

“Hyaa! W, wait! That’s dangerous!”

A pale Yuit complained, and Elina gave her a glance.

“Oh, what a pity. If it hit you, I would have gotten rid of you easily.”

“Hey, gimme a break!”

“What are you looking away for? I don’t have just one hand!”

Laughing happily and enjoying herself until the end, Luna Luna turned her tentacle towards Elina.

“Listen, you’ll need to put in a little more effort, or aren’t you beautiful fighters from the outside world that much of a deal?”

“What…! Someone… someone like you who dances such savage, embarassing dances with such an embarassing appearance, won’t make a fool of me!”

Luna Luna stared in wonder when Elina answered her back.

“Embarassing…? Who, me…?”

“That’s right! You have a complaint?”

“A complaint… I don’t.”

Luna Luna said in a whisper. Her cheeks blushed deep red… No, that wasn’t it. Her fair skin turned brown before their eyes.

“However, that’s the first time someone has said that about my dance… so, I’ll have to teach you. About the magnificence of the Calibara dance… giggle.”

In a blink, the “Solar Dancer” had completed her transformation into the “Moonlight Dancer”.

Licking her lips, Luna Luna stared at Elina’s body as if she was going to run her tongue all over it.

“You too, if you surrendered your body to the pleasure of the dance… you’d understand… this magnificence…!”

“Really… what’s with this child…!”

Before her, it wasn’t only Luna Luna’s appearance that had changed in a moment, but her personality had changed completely as well, and Elina screamed in confusion.

---

The ability of both of them was evenly matched. They had been battling, alternating between advancing and retreating, for a long time.

“Still not enough, eeeeih!”

The four weapons were attached to the tip of the two tentacle had been broken off, and yet Luna Luna was overflowing with fighting spirit, unleashing attacks that aimed at Elina’s vitals, and adversely Elina, catapulting herself with the claw of one hand and emitting a sharp thirst for blood, leaped onto Luna Luna’s bosom to try to hit her with a mortal blow.

 “Teyaaaah!”

“Naiive!”

But, Elina’s blow was parried by Luna Luna’s tentacle, and Elina was flung backwards.

“Kuh!”

Elina landed with a somersault. Lowering her body to accumulate spring force, while she prepared to charge at Luna Luna once again, her fingertips touched something on the ground.

 “…Hm?”

Something was amiss. When she looked down, a thick rope had fallen on the ground.

“Hey heyy! How can you look away in the middle of a fight…!”

“W, wait a second!”

“…Eh?”

Noticing something was strange about Elina’s look, Luna Luna stopped her attack.

Looking down to follow Elina’s gaze, a rope had been cut off completely, and dropped beside it, she found a broken piece of the sharp claw.

 “…That rope.”

“…T, that’s the rope those girls were bound with…! That pipsqueak, she cut it with a broken piece of my claw!”

Although she surveyed the vicinity in a hurry, it was too late, the figures of Yuit and the others were nowhere in sight.

“Wasn’t there a silent child you brought, there?”

“Eh.”

Asked by Luna Luna, Elina turned around.

“S, she’s not here…”

The “Child of the Dragon” who should have been sitting expressionless since some time ago, had disappeared.

“T, those girls…! Not only they escaped, but the “Child of the Dragon” too…!”

“Nevermind that, you’re showing something perfect, that expression of anger at being humiliated. You’re quite lovely.”

Luna Luna muttered with an expression completely devoid of any maliciousness, and Elina turned around and asked her.

“Wait! Leaving fighting aside, you know the location of the “Fortress Bligh”, don’t you? Tell me!”

“Eeeh? Why would I tell an outsider about the secret place?”

“Because those girls are heading there! They’ll know the place if they ask the “Child of the Dragon”, and they even carry the “key”!”

“Eh, is that right? But, didn’t they say they didn’t know about it?”

“They haven’t noticed, but they have the key somewhere! Even the “Child of the Dragon” said they carry it, that’s how things are!”

Elina didn’t even hide her impatience when she said that, and kept on staring directly at Luna Luna.

“Say, let’s leave the fighting aside, and cooperate!”

“Cooperate?”

“That’s right, they’re planning to steal the treasure that all you guys from the Calibara tribe are guarding, how are you going to protect it? Will you watch them in silence?”

“T, that is… troubling, yeah.”

Luna Luna considered it for a while, then nodded her head.

She, both as the “Solar Dancer” and the “Moonlight Dancer”, was tasked with protecting the historic ruins and treasures handed down to the Calibara tribe from the ancient times.

And yet, if their hidden treasure was stolen…

“If I don’t fulfill my duty… it’d be troubling, yeah.”

 “I thought you’d say that! So, let’s chase after them! You know where they’re heading, don’t you? Take me there!”

“Thank goodness. Here, follow me!”

Luna Luna said, leading Elina deeper into the forest.

Even in the confusion, Elina was planning to outwit Yuit’s party and snatch the treasure if she had the chance, but one wouldn’t notice that from her acting…

Sure enough, can Yuit and the Tarnyang and Sainyang sisters escape the pursuit from the two people, and obtain the treasure?

They won’t know that unless they fight.

-To be continued-

I thought Luna Luna's transformation was supposed to be subtler, but what would QB be without some fetishes sprinkled in for good measure?

And I noticed recently that the catchphrase, "they won’t know that unless they fight", is used even on the QB anime's intro, they must really like that one.

Next chapter, the ancient fortress Bligh is at hand!