Queen's Blade: Sword of the Unicorn, chapter 1-b

For the Bowsette poll, "loved it!" won with 27v-42%, followed by "like it" and "neutral to it" with 12v-18% and 10v-15%. After that, there was a tie between "enjoyed it but fed up" and "what's a Bowsette?" at 6v-9%, then last was "hated it!" with 3v-4%.
Hmm, interesting little phenomenon it was (and still hasn't ended), I wonder what it'll end up turning into...?

And next poll, Living Weapons time?

So, it's time for Leina and Fio to meet! What's gonna happen? All bets are off!

Enjoy!




The silver haired girl… Fio, ran into the bustling shop, searching for someone able to protect her.
An armed woman willing to fight for her more specifically.
Men were a no go. The moment they noticed her true nature, she shuddered to think how they might react. She figured she could manage well enough in that case if it were a woman though.
“Ah!”
Looking restlessly inside, the girl found just the girl she was looking for. The moment their eyes met, that sealed the deal.
A female warrior with golden hair, sitting by the counter next to an old man, the shopkeeper from what Fio could guess. She could vaguely discern her well trained body beneath the cloak of her travel gear.
[I made up my mind!!]

Fio cried out as she ran straight to her:
“Help! Please help! I’m being chased by a bad guy!”
“E-Err, a bad guy?
The fighter asked back, understandably confused.
“Yes, a bad guy! If they catch me, they’re going to kill me!”
Fio kept on talking, not wanting to give the other any time to think.
“N-Now just hold on a minute, calm down.”
But contrary the young girl’s expectations, the warrior’s composure failed to break.
“I don’t entirely understand the situation here.”
“Long story short, there’s a bad guy after me. I beg of you, please help me.”
She pleaded with tears in her eyes, a low blow aimed at stirring the fighter’s maternal instincts.
[Time to bring out the waterworks, there’s no way she can resist this!]
However, rather than reply with her usual and immediate ‘leave it to me’, Leina paused. She smelled trouble. In cases like these, it was best to proceed with caution.

The Vance heiress sized the silver-haired girl up, as if appraising her.
“Come now, Leina. Why not help the girl?”
The shopkeeper threw Fio a bone.
Although, that was more or less to be expected. Most people would be more than happy to believe a beautiful girl asking for help like Fio was doing.
“I do feel for her, but…”
Starting with that, the warrior then went on to explain her train of thought to the shopkeeper.
“What if she’s in the wrong, and the pursuer is the good guy? I’d be fighting on the wrong side of justice then. I’d like to avoid that if possible.”
[Surprisingly stubborn, aren’t you.]
Holding back from voicing her thoughts, Fio figured she needed to rethink her tactics.
[This warrior seems more street-savvy than I thought.]

Sadly, being on the spot, one could hardly expect her to come up with something new right that instant.
“I beg you, please help me. I won’t be able to save myself if I get caught.”
Instead, the girl opted to just keep stressing how badly she needed her help. It wouldn’t matter if she ended up repeating herself. As long as she managed to look even a little distressed, then that could only serve to get her point across even better.
Besides, so long as she kept wasting time, her pursuer was bound to appear sooner or later.
When the fighter saw it, then she’d definitely want to help. It was almost a guarantee.
[And if she doesn’t, well then that only means this fighter is a shoddy coward anyhow.]

***

“I beg you, please help me!”
Fio kept pleading, much to Leina’s dismay.
“Hey, uh…”
What broke their stalemate was Logan’s voice.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but it looks like your ‘bad guy’ is here.”
Hearing that, both girls turned to look at the shop’s entrance.
*Clonk*...
Dry footsteps echoed.
“Who are you?”
There was no reply.

His entire body covered in tattered robes, the suspicious individual silently turned to look within the store, seemingly looking for something.
Fio’s hands clutched at the fighter’s cloak. From a casual perspective, it almost seemed as if she was terrified. But, in actuality, she was ecstatic.
[Great, now I don’t have to keep up with that awful act.]
“Get down…”
The blonde urged her to hide behind the counter.
“Please be careful.”
The girl quietly answered.
“I’ll be fine, I know my way around a fight.”
Leina smiled to encourage the seemingly anxious girl.

[Score!]
Fio suppressed her urge to dance in absolute joy, and let go of her cloak.
[Looks like she enjoys fighting too.]
Logan reluctantly invited Fio behind the counter:
“I’d rather you two not fight inside my store.”
“That’s up to my opponent.”
The blonde warrior readied her hand by the sword beneath her cloak.

***

Without a word, the robed fiend took a step within the shop.
And sensing the incoming battle, the customers began energetically placing their bets.
“One silver coin on the female fighter!”
“I’ll go with the guy in the robes!”
No matter how vivid the image on a crystal ball, it could never quite match the intensity of the real thing. The crowd waited for the match’s start with bated breath.

“This child has asked me for protection, tell me, why are you following her?”
Leina asked in a booming voice.
The robed man gave no reply, instead he simply thrust the tip of his sword out at her.
Anticipating that reaction, the blonde smiled. If he was willing to attack first, then it was safe to assume he was the wrongdoer.
Entwining the tip of the incoming sword with her cloak, she closed the distance between the two in an instant.
“Too slow!”
And before the man-- his sword now tangled in her cloak-- could react, Leina’s sword slit through his robes.
“Oooh.”
Echoes of voices brimming with admiration, and then despair, filled the shop. Admiration from watching Leina’s superb skill, cutting her opponent’s robes off without injuring them, and despair from discovering the robed man’s true identity.
Because, lurking underneath the robes, was a human skeleton.

“Why is there a skeleton warrior within town?”
The heiress was somewhat taken aback: skeleton swordsmen were monsters that appeared in graveyards and underground labyrinths. You wouldn’t typically find one wandering the streets.
“Now, who will win? Place your bets!”
Logan’s vigorous cheers sounded from the counter.
“Hey now, don’t go starting things without asking me!”
“Win, and you can stay for free.”
Grinning despite her protest, he flashed her a thumbs up.
[Where I stay the night will be the least of my problems if I end up losing this.]
“I’m going to hold you to that promise.”
She wouldn’t know unless she fought.

Without dropping her guard, she readied her sword again and, as if mirroring her, the fiend did the same. It seemed to understand that it needed to defeat her to fulfill its purpose.
“As pointless as this may be, allow me to introduce myself.”
It was a Queen’s Blade tradition to introduce oneself before a fight. Of course, to the casual observer, this fight may have seemed totally unrelated to the Queen’s Blade, but to Leina, all battles paved the road to the tournament so it was only fair.
And so, she announced her name.
“I am the Exiled Warrior, Leina.”
This raised a ruckus among the customers watching the fight. The Exiled Warrior was widely known as a chivalrous warrior, someone who fought to protect the weak and put a stop to villains.
Among the commotion, and almost as if replying to her, the skeleton’s teeth chattered.

The battle had begun.

Without hesitation, the skeleton swordsman swung at Leina’s side but, reading his move, the blonde parried it before dealing an attack of her own.
*Thump!*
[That sounded like it did some good damage.]
Her sword shattered the skeleton’s ribs. Losing its balance, it began wobbling unsteadily.
But, unwilling to give it any respite, Leina followed up by swinging down on it from above. The powerful overhead blow crushed its cranium.
The match was over before it had even begun, a bit of a disappointment.

With a dry rattle, the skeleton collapsed onto the floor, turning into a pile of debris.
“I win.”
Its opponent declaring her victory over it, the pale light from the skeleton’s eyes faded.

“Don’t stop!”
Fio jumped out from behind the counter, screaming.
“It’s not over yet!”
She stopped in front of the skeleton’s remains and raised her foot high.
“Eh?”
“Take this, you bastard!”
*Stomp!*
Fio brought her whole foot down hard on the remains, with enough force to leave a footprint.
“Wha?”
The warrior’s eyes went round at the girl’s strange behaviour. The skeleton’s remains weren’t even twitching and yet she was stomping on them with all her might, seemingly intent on crushing them into dust.
“Wai, wait, you! What do you think you’re doing!?”
“If you don’t destroy it completely, it’ll revive! Don’t tell me you didn’t know that!”
Wholeheartedly, the silver-haired child continued crushing the skeleton’s remains as much as she could. As the bones kept breaking, the sound of dry crunching filled the room.
“Still, desecrating the dead like that…”
As far as Leina was concerned, the battle was over. Any further violence beyond that was typically against her principles.
“I said, quit it.”
She put her hand to the girl’s shoulder to stop her rampage.
“Eh? Ah?”
But the girl suddenly found herself losing her balance before falling to the floor, unable to react in time.
*Bonk!*
A dull sound reverberated through the inn.
“Kuuh~~~!”
And with a loud groan, the girl began reaching for her head before she stopped moving altogether.

“Eh? Hey!”
[Did the girl I was meant to protect just get hurt? In an accident I myself caused? Oh no, this is bad!]
The warrior rushed to pick the girl up.
“W-What should I do?”
She looked between the immobile girl and the old man, worry clear on her face.
“The room is on the house. Take good care of that kid for me there.”
He gently told the woman holding the stunned child.

Unlike what the other two may have thought, the old man hadn’t let himself get suckered by those pleading eyes at all. It was all in the name of good business, he’d made quite the tidy profit thanks to that fight between Leina and the skeleton warrior after all.
Even deducting the fee for the room, he’d earned plenty enough.
“Better get this cleaned up.”
He reached out for a broom and collected the near powdered skeleton warrior remains. Normally, one would turn to the city watch for guidance on how to dispose of things like undead remains, but that’d be bad for business.
“I’ll just toss this at the garbage dump.”
If only he knew... the kind of disaster his own actions would later cause...

***