"What the hell does that mean?" she finally asked.
Merun sighed and rested both armored hands against the stone battlement. Below them, Britannian engineers continued working beneath the moonlight while fresh patrols moved between the growing siege lines.
Mikan stepped closer until she stood beside him. "You could destroy their camp. Their army too, if you really wanted to. You're not even supposed to be here, but since you already are..." She gestured sharply toward the field. "You might as well do something useful, right?"
Merun glanced toward her. "Nope."
Mikan's eye twitched.
"Nope!?" She jabbed one finger against his breastplate. "Merun, this isn't a game anymore. This is war! Sekigahara is losing people every time Britannia attacks. You could end this and save hundreds of lives."
She pointed back toward the fortress.
"And you can heal people. You healed my leg, remember? Yoshimoto is barely holding himself together out there, so why aren't you healing him too? Why are you just standing here while our countrymen are getting worn down?"
Merun let her finish.
Then he exhaled slowly beneath the kabuto.
"I came here for you. That's it. And I am nothing without my family, so I followed."
Mikan frowned.
Merun turned slightly toward her. "You know I'm not supposed to be here."
Her expression softened for half a second, but the irritation quickly returned.
"That still doesn't explain why you can't help now."
"It does."
"If I get exposed, you know what happens next."
Mikan's eyes narrowed.
"I've already taken more risks than I should have," Merun continued. "Showing myself at all was bad enough. Using Master's swordsmanship was another mistake."
He paused.
"A convincing mistake, sure. People can look at this form and assume I'm some hidden disciple, secret weapon, whatever they want."
Mikan listened more carefully now.
"But if that same mysterious Martial Apprentice suddenly walks into Britannia's main force and destroys the whole army by himself, that becomes a different problem."
Merun turned fully toward her.
"Even the strongest Martial Apprentice should only be able to do so much."
Mikan's expression tightened as she understood where he was going.
"If Britannia starts wondering what I actually am, they investigate. If Sekigahara starts asking questions, they investigate too. Kandria already saw too much."
His voice remained calm.
"And if a foreign power decides Sekigahara is secretly hiding something capable of wiping out armies..."
Mikan's eyes narrowed further.
"...Then this could turn into something much bigger."
"Exactly."
For a few moments, she looked away toward the siege lines.
She still wasn't satisfied.
"But people are dying."
"I know."
"You could stop it."
"Most definitely."
Mikan looked back at him, frustration still clear on her face.
Merun stepped closer and placed both armored hands on her shoulders.
That made her pause.
"You should go all out, Mikan."
Her eyes widened slightly.
Merun continued before she could say anything.
"You spent both battles on defense and support. Running around, saving people, pulling fighters out, breaking formations."
Mikan frowned. "Someone had to."
"Sure."
His grip tightened slightly on her shoulders.
"But you're the winner of the Steel Convergence."
"You're Kinzoku's strongest Martial Apprentice."
Merun's voice lost what little humor had remained in it.
"So stop letting yourself get pushed to the sidelines."
Mikan stared at him.
"You don't need to spend this whole war fixing everyone else's mistakes."
He leaned slightly closer.
"Have some pride, Mikan Furutsu!"
Her expression slowly changed.
Merun released her shoulders.
"I can't put myself at any more risk than I already have. But you can."
She glanced back.
Merun tapped one finger lightly against her chest.
"Use the thing I taught you."
Mikan's irritation faltered. She looked down at herself. "...Ki?"
"Yes."
"I've already been using it."
"No, you weren't."
Mikan frowned. As far as she understood, Ki wasn't particularly complicated in concept. It reinforced the body, allowed someone sufficiently skilled to levitate or outright fly, and could be expelled as those ridiculous energy attacks Merun occasionally demonstrated.
The first two had obvious applications for her Martial Path. The last one didn't interest her nearly as much. Throwing weak glowing blasts across a battlefield had very little to do with silver threads, daggers, or anything she'd spent her life learning.
There was healing too, apparently, considering what Merun had done to her ruined leg, but Mikan had already placed that firmly in the category of things only genuine masters of Ki could accomplish. She was still figuring out how to move the energy cleanly through her body without wasting half of it.
Or burning herself.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "I strengthen my body with it. You already told me about flying, which I do when I remember to do so. And unless you're planning to teach me how to throw giant glowing balls at people, I don't see what else I'm supposed to be doing."
Merun stared at her for a moment.
Then he sighed.
"I guess I didn't explain well enough... Mikan, Ki isn't a Martial Art."
"I know that."
"No, shh, listen."
Her eyebrow twitched, but Merun continued before she could interrupt.
"You're still treating Ki like it comes with a few techniques. Strength enhancement, flight, energy blasts. Yada yada."
Merun tapped an armored finger against his chest. "Ki is energy. What matters is what you learn to do with it. You can reinforce muscle, bone, skin, weapons, armor, whatever you're capable of properly channeling it through. I haven't even seen you try to reinforce your Portia threads!"
Mikan's eyes dropped instinctively toward her fingers.
"You can reinforce the threads?!"
"And your daggers."
That got her attention immediately.
Merun nodded toward the small Portia blades she carried. "Same principle. Pour Ki through them properly and they stop being limited to what the material can normally endure. Harder strikes, tougher edges, more force behind the weapon without needing a heavier weapon."
"The enhancement depends on how powerful your Ki is."
Mikan slowly touched one of the daggers at her side. Her eyes narrowed as possibilities began assembling almost immediately.
Merun watched her for a second before continuing. "And then there's your body. That's the part you're really underestimating."
"I already reinforce my body."
"Pfft. Barely."
Mikan glared at him.
Merun ignored it. "You push some Ki into your legs when you want speed. Maybe spread it around before taking a hit. You're treating reinforcement like something you switch on when you need it."
He raised one hand and slowly curled it into a fist.
"It can become your baseline."
He glanced around the battlement first. Nobody stood close enough to see them clearly, and the nearest patrol had already moved farther along the wall.
Then Mikan felt his Ki change.
The transformation happened almost immediately.
The enormous shoulders beneath the armor began to sink. His chest narrowed as the exaggerated bulk packed beneath the breastplate seemed to melt away, thick muscle visibly deflating beneath the gaps in the armor. His arms became leaner, his waist tightened, and within seconds the monstrous proportions of Kabuto had disappeared.
The armor suddenly looked slightly oversized around him.
Mikan stared.
Standing in front of her now was the build she actually knew.
Merun was still large. Still broad-shouldered and heavily muscled by any normal standard. His Saiyan body had never exactly been slight.
But this was Merun.
Not the hulking giant he'd been pretending to be.
Mikan pointed at him in disbelief. "You've been... flexing this entire time?"
"What? No, It's more sophisticated than flexing!"
"You made yourself twice as wide!"
"Exactly. Sophisticated."
Mikan slowly looked him up and down.
"So Kabuto's body isn't even real."
Merun placed one hand against his chest. "Huh? Every bit of that muscle was real."
His Ki gathered inward as he slowly inhaled.
Mikan watched as his body expanded again.
Muscle swelled across his shoulders and chest, thickening with startling speed. His arms filled the armor sleeves until the plates once again sat properly against him, while his torso broadened until the exaggerated silhouette of Kabuto returned in full.
It was Master Roshi's technique!
Within seconds, the giant stood beside her again.
Merun rolled one massive shoulder with obvious satisfaction.
"There."
Mikan stared at him.
Then her face scrunched up.
"Ew."
The kabuto snapped toward her.
"Ew?"
"Yes."
"I don't know what you mean. It's fucking awesome."
Mikan covered her face with one hand.
Merun crossed his enormous arms and cleared his throat. "Ehem. The point is, Ki is much more flexible than you think. Body reinforcement, flight, weapon reinforcement, all of that comes from the same source. You just have to stop treating it like some separate trick you pull out when convenient..."
"Ki is life."
Mikan lowered her hand and gave him a long look.
Merun leaned back against the battlement. "That doesn't mean you abandon normal Martial Arts either. Ki doesn't replace what you've already built. Your Martial Path, your footwork, your threads, your instincts, all of that still matters."
He tapped his breastplate with one armored finger.
"Think of Ki as another source of power."
"It multiplies what you already have," Merun continued. "If your movement is good, Ki makes it better. If your threads are dangerous, Ki makes them worse for whoever gets caught in them. If your body is already strong, Ki pushes it further."
He looked over the Britannian siege lines below.
"For the next week, I'll take your place on defense."
Mikan's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Yes. I'll keep them from pushing too far. Nothing flashy."
Relief flashed across her face, but it didn't last. "Then I should stay out there too. They need me."
Merun glanced at her. "These are Sekigahara's strongest Martial Apprentices, Mikan. They'll manage."
"People are still getting hurt."
"I know. That's exactly why you need to get stronger instead of spending every battle patching holes."
Mikan frowned, but Merun gestured toward her threads.
"Use the fortress training ground. Learn how Ki moves through the Portia. Reinforce the threads, then the daggers. Work on your body too."
She looked toward the battlefield again, still hesitant.
"I'll cover you for one week," Merun said. "No more, no less."
Her expression tightened. "And after that?"
"I step back."
"What if I'm not ready?"
Merun looked directly at her.
"Then get ready."
Mikan went quiet.
His voice softened slightly.
"I won't always be with you, Mikan. You must do this."
Merun rested the greatsword against his shoulder and looked toward the Britannian army in the jungle.
"I can buy you one week."
Then he glanced back at her.
"After that, you're on your own."
.
.
.
Dawn came with another Britannian attack.
The first horns sounded just as pale light began creeping over the horizon. Sekigaharan Martial Apprentices were already exhausted from the previous engagements, but there was no time to complain. Gates opened across the fortress as defenders rushed out from multiple sides, spreading along the approaches before Britannia could fully close in again.
Yoshimoto moved with the western force, tightening the sash around his damaged ribs as he stepped beyond the gate. The pain was worse than yesterday. He ignored it and focused on the armored formations advancing across the field.
Britannia had returned exactly as expected.
Fresh Knights marched at the front while defensive squads protected the rear. Their pacing was deliberate, almost relaxed, as if they already knew Sekigahara would come out to meet them.
Yoshimoto scanned the line beside him.
He felt like there was something missing.
Ah, where's Mikan?
He frowned.
Maybe she had been assigned to another side of the fortress.
That would make sense. Her speed and battlefield awareness made her useful wherever the fighting became unstable, and there were multiple gates being pressured at once.
Yoshimoto was still thinking about it when heavy footsteps came from behind him.
CLANK.
CLANK.
Several Sekigaharans glanced back.
The enormous armored man emerged through the western gate.
Yoshimoto's eyes widened slightly.
Kabuto walked with the massive greatsword resting against one shoulder, every step making his dark armor shift with a low metallic scrape. He ignored the looks from the surrounding Martial Apprentices and continued forward until he reached Yoshimoto's position.
Then he stopped directly beside him.
Yoshimoto stared.
"...You."
The kabuto turned slightly.
"Hm?"
For a moment, Yoshimoto seemed unsure how to begin. Their previous encounter had ended with him unconscious and this unknown swordsman standing between him and a masked Kandrian who had very nearly killed him.
He cleared his throat.
"I never properly thanked you."
Kabuto said nothing.
Yoshimoto glanced toward him, then continued.
"For yesterday. Against that Kandrian."
The armored giant gave a small nod.
"No problem."
His voice remained low beneath the helmet.
"Do your best to survive, Lord Yoshimoto."
Yoshimoto blinked.
There was something strangely casual about the way he said it.
"Ah."
He scratched lightly at the side of his neck.
"No need to worry about that."
Kabuto said nothing.
Yoshimoto looked toward him again.
"Though... I should probably know what to call you."
The helmet slowly turned.
Silence stretched for several seconds.
"...."
Yoshimoto waited.
"...Guts."
The answer came with the faintest trace of excitement beneath the voice.
Yoshimoto stared at him.
"Guts?"
"Yes."
Another pause followed.
Yoshimoto eventually nodded.
"Right. Lord Guts, then. Thank you."
The armored man's posture somehow became a little straighter.
Yoshimoto noticed, but decided not to comment.
This man might be the strongest Martial Apprentice in Sekigahara...
Lord Guts of Kinzoku...
Across the field, Britannia continued advancing.
Sir Kay Pendragon was already moving toward the front.
Yoshimoto exhaled through his nose.
Sir Kay spotted Yoshimoto almost immediately.
A grin spread across his face as he raised his sword and began moving away from the formation around him.
"Yoshimoto!"
Yoshimoto stepped forward.
"Morning, Kay."
Kay's smile widened.
"Still standing, I see?"
"Always will."
"Wonderful."
Flames began gathering along Kay's blade as he accelerated.
Yoshimoto lowered his stance.
"Here we go again."
The two collided moments later.
Their battle quickly dragged away from the main defensive line, fire and compressed air tearing through the morning mist as the rest of Sekigahara crashed into Britannia around them.
At first, the battle looked almost identical to the previous engagements.
Sekigaharan Martial Apprentices hit harder.
Britannian Knights fought in coordinated groups.
Whenever one Knight was overwhelmed, another stepped in.
Whenever a Sekigaharan tried to force a breakthrough, nearby squads closed around them.
But something changed within the first few minutes.
The Sekigaharans began getting hurt faster.
Much faster.
A Martial Apprentice broke through one shield line and immediately found himself trapped between two offensive knight apprentices without anyone interfering from the side. He barely escaped with a slash across his back.
Another Martial Apprentice knocked one Knight unconscious, then took a powerful blow directly into the ribs while trying to capitalize. Nobody pulled him clear.
Farther down the line, another Martial Apprentice became surrounded by five Britannians and had to force his way out through brute strength, taking several strikes in the process.
Confusion began spreading through the Sekigaharan ranks.
They had fought these same formations yesterday.
They thought they understood the rhythm now.
Yet the openings they'd used before weren't appearing.
The pressure felt heavier.
The Britannians seemed more coordinated than they remembered.
Then someone shouted.
"Where's Lady Mikan?!"
Several nearby Martial Apprentices froze for half a second.
Another fighter looked around sharply.
"She's not here!"
The realization spread almost immediately.
Mikan had been the reason so many Sekigaharans escaped yesterday without understanding how close they'd come to being trapped.
Whenever someone became surrounded, silver threads had broken the formation.
Whenever a spear came from a blind angle, it had suddenly been yanked aside.
Whenever a wounded fighter needed an opening, one had appeared.
Now those openings were gone.
The Sekigaharans adjusted quickly.
Aggression disappeared from several parts of the line as fighters stopped chasing individual advantages and began protecting one another more carefully. They stayed closer together, avoided overextending, and gave up opportunities they would have taken the previous day.
It kept them alive... But it also gave Britannia exactly what it wanted.
The battlefield slowly compressed toward the fortress.
Sir Kay noticed.
He blocked a compressed air strike from Yoshimoto and smiled.
"Your men seem less eager today."
Yoshimoto's expression tightened as he glanced toward the line.
Kay followed his gaze
"No orange-haired girl?"
Yoshimoto's eyes narrowed.
"Focus on me."
"I am," Kay replied with a grin as fire crawled along the length of his sword. "Mostly."
Their exchange had barely begun when Yoshimoto drove a compressed burst of wind against Kay's flaming blade and forced the Britannian several steps back. Around them, the rest of the western battlefield was already settling into a very different rhythm from the day before.
The Sekigaharans had noticed Mikan's absence quickly.
Without her racing between engagements and breaking apart Britannian formations, the consequences of overextending became painfully obvious. Fighters who had charged aggressively the previous day now found themselves surrounded the moment they pushed too far ahead, forcing the entire Sekigaharan line to become more cautious.
They stopped chasing wounded Knights.
They stopped trying to break through every opening.
Instead, they stayed closer together and concentrated on holding ground.
It kept them from being isolated as easily, but it also meant Britannia could steadily press forward.
The armored lines advanced a few meters at a time as Sekigahara gave ground toward the fortress walls.
Except in one place.
The enormous armored stranger had not moved.
Kabuto stood exactly where he had planted himself at the beginning of the battle, greatsword held loosely in one hand as the Sekigaharan line slowly receded around him.
At first, several Martial Apprentices, mostly Kinozoku had been positioned near him.
Then they had been forced backward.
The Britannian advance flowed around the gap until the giant eventually found himself standing several dozen meters ahead of the rest of Sekigahara.
Alone.
That should have made him vulnerable.
Instead, it created a problem.
A group of Britannian Apprentice Knights rushed him first.
Most carried no weapons at all. One fought with reinforced gauntlets while another relied on a heavy defensive Martial Art that hardened his forearms and shoulders. Only a single Knight among them wielded a spear.
Kabuto barely moved.
His stance remained rooted beneath the dark armor, feet placed firmly against the earth while the greatsword rested beside him.
The first Knight entered his range with a reinforced punch aimed at the chest.
Kabuto shifted his torso by inches.
The fist passed beside the armor.
His greatsword moved.
A simple Blossoming Blade arc swept across the formation.
He turned the blade at the final moment.
WHAM!
The flat side struck three Apprentice Knights almost simultaneously.
One was hit across the side of the helmet.
Another took the impact against the shoulder and jaw.
The third barely managed to raise his arms before the slab of steel crashed through his guard.
All three left the ground.
They struck the earth several meters away and did not rise.
The remaining Knights hesitated.
Kabuto didn't pursue them.
He simply returned the greatsword to his shoulder.
Another squad arrived seconds later.
This group spread farther apart and attacked from several angles, apparently assuming the sheer size of Kabuto's weapon would make rapid changes of direction difficult.
They were wrong.
The giant took one short step.
Another uncomplicated Blossoming Blade technique followed.
The sword swept low before curving upward through the formation with an elegance that looked absurd coming from something so massive.
The flat side caught one Britannian across the ribs and folded him around the impact before continuing into the next man. A third tried to slip behind Kabuto during the swing, only for the armored giant to rotate smoothly and bring the weapon back across his body.
BAM!
Three more Knights collapsed.
Suprisingly, none were dead.
Kabuto was deliberately striking with the flat, controlling each swing just enough to render his opponents unconscious without cutting them apart... or turning them into meat paste of a shower of blood.
More squads moved toward him.
The Sekigaharan line continued retreating behind him until Kabuto was completely surrounded by Britannian Martial Apprentices.
Yet the western advance stalled around that single point.
The problem wasn't merely that they couldn't bring him down.
They couldn't safely ignore him.
If the frontline simply pushed past and continued toward the fortress, every Britannian squad advancing beyond Kabuto would be exposing its back to a Martial Artist who had already demonstrated that he could incapacitate several Apprentices with one swing.
So they had to deal with him first.
And they couldn't.
Wave after wave attacked., but Kabuto's feet barely shifted.
A punch missed his helmet by centimeters.
The greatsword came around.
WHAM!
Five bodies dropped.
A sixth rushed into the opening immediately afterward, throwing a heavy palm strike toward the exposed side of Kabuto's armor.
BAM!
"Aaaargh!" The man wailed as his striking arm's bones felt fractured.
The giant turned his shoulder and easily smashed him away.
His sword reversed.
Two more Britannians hit the ground.
By then, the first wounded Knights were already being dragged toward the rear.
Then another three fell.
Then two more.
The Britannian formation simply stopped advancing in that section.
Sir Kay still hadn't noticed.
He had his own problem.
Yoshimoto.
Their fight had only properly begun, and Kay was already smiling as flames curled around his longsword.
Then an aide came rushing toward the edge of their engagement.
"My lord!"
Kay parried a compressed strike and answered without looking away from Yoshimoto.
"What is it?"
"We require assistance on the western center!"
Kay frowned.
"Assistance?"
"The line cannot advance!"
That got his attention.
Kay twisted away from another gust of compressed air and glanced toward his aide.
"Why?"
The man pointed.
"Look!"
Kay followed the gesture.
His expression changed.
Far ahead of Sekigahara's retreating defensive line stood the enormous armored man from the briefing.
The unknown!
The supposedly irrelevant nobody without a name, record, or known affiliation.
He was completely surrounded, but somehow Britannia was the side being stopped.
Kay watched one squad rush him from multiple directions.
The greatsword flashed once.
Three Knights collapsed.
Another attacked from behind.
Kabuto turned just enough to avoid the strike and drove the flat of his sword backward into the man's torso.
The Knight flew several meters and rolled unconscious through the dirt.
Another group immediately moved in.
Kay's eyes widened.
"How many?"
"Five full squads have already been rendered combat incapable, my lord. More are falling now."
Kay stared at the battlefield.
"Ridiculous! In that short amount of time?"
"Yes, my lord. We cannot advance around him either. If the line passes him, our rear will be exposed."
The thought struck Kay hard enough that he stopped paying attention to the fight in front of him.
Yoshimoto noticed.
His fist slammed straight into Kay's breastplate.
BAAAM!
The silver-armored Knight flew backward and crashed into the dirt.
"Guh!" Kay rolled once before digging a gauntlet into the earth and stopping himself. Pain spread across his ribs as he looked up, but his attention immediately returned to the armored giant in the distance.
Another three Britannians went down.
Kay's expression hardened.
"Unknown variable."
Kay didn't hesitate.
He ripped the whistle from beneath his breastplate and raised it to his mouth.
FWIIIIIIIIII!
The sound pierced the battlefield.
Britannia reacted instantly.
Frontline formations began disengaging while defensive specialists moved forward to protect the withdrawal. Wounded Knights were dragged toward the rear as the squads surrounding Kabuto backed away from him with obvious caution.
Sekigahara did not pursue.
Yoshimoto raised one arm and ordered the defensive line to hold while the Britannians steadily withdrew toward their fortifications.
Kabuto already turned back and walked toward the gates.
He made no attempt to chase them.
Kay rose from the dirt while retreating with the rest of his force.
His eyes never left the armored man.