Whispers of Shikiban:The king walks among us-Chapter 55 --(大地決戦編 — Earthbound Showdown Arc)

"Hey—what the hell is this place!?" Yeaga groaned, mumbling half-asleep on Daigo's back.

"Why are you carrying me again?! Put me down!"

Yeaga squirmed and leapt off with a shaky thud.

"You were snoring, man," Daigo said with a grin. "Thought you died for a sec. Kinda wanted to toss you in a river."

Yeaga rubbed his head. "I was... crying? I think? Then I remembered something stabbed my neck... and I blacked out."

Daigo waved it off. "Ahhh bro, that's nothin'."

Ishigo looked around. "Yo... this place is beautiful."

They were standing in a wide open forest. Sunlight poured through the canopy, rivers glinted in the distance, and old stones littered the ground like ancient markers. The air was warm, and unnervingly quiet.

"It's like... each stone here has a story," Daigo said. "Almost like this place has levels. Like a gift of welcome."

Then—BONK.

"OW! What the—?!" Daigo smacked into something midair and stumbled back, holding his forehead. "Bullshit, what is this?!"

In front of them, shimmering blue light sparked to life. A digital log unfolded in the air, pixelating into existence.

█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

> HOLOGRAPHIC LOG: SYSTEM IDENTIFIED_0012

> ACCESS LEVEL: CLEARANCE CODE GAMMA-4

> COMPILING DATA STREAM...

█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

> SUBJECT PROFILE

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ NAME: KATSUREI YEAGA

▸ AGE: 18

▸ DESIGNATION ID: 000-012

▸ STATUS: ACTIVE | POWER UNLOCKED

▸ THREAT LEVEL: UNDER EVALUATION

> POWER SPECIFICATION

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ CLASS: TWIN SIASH

▸ TYPE: Soul-Linked Katana | Flame Reactive

▸ DESIGNATION: [SS-SERIES: UNSTABLE POTENTIAL]

> ACTIVATION CONDITION

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ REQUIRED TRIGGER:

→ KATANA FLAME SATURATION: [HIGH DENSITY LEVEL DETECTED]

→ SOURCE ENTITY: SHIKIBAN (LV.3 or above)

→ ACTION: FLAME ABSORPTION COMPLETE

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▸ RESULT: KATANA–SOUL LINK ESTABLISHED [SYNC COMPLETE]

> EMOTIONAL SYNC

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ STATUS: NOT REQUIRED

▸ NOTES: TWIN SIASH bypasses psychological link chain

▸ STABILITY INDEX: 89% (FLUCTUATING)

> COMMAND SUITE – STAGE ONE

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ UNLOCKED COMMAND: [TWIN SLASH]

▸ NEURAL PATHWAYS: CALIBRATED

▸ RESPONSE TIME: 0.31 SEC

▸ USABILITY: INSTANT ACCESS

> ADVANCED SYSTEM DIRECTIVE

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ COMBAT MASTERY-BASED ADAPTATION:

→ As user proficiency increases, command chain expands automatically.

→ Advanced skill triggers will route through neural relay without manual override.

→ Anticipated commands: [CLASSIFIED]

█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

> END OF REPORT – TWIN SIASH SYSTEM INTERFACE v2.7.3

> AUTHORIZATION LOGGED | RETURN TO MAIN INDEX [Y/N]

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"H-Huh?! My... power?" Yeaga stared. His jaw dropped.

"Bro, how'd you get a power? We were just walking!"

"I dunno! My sword just... glowed one day after I sliced some flames."

Yeaga read the data again. "No emotional trauma required...? So it just unlocked? That's... kinda lame..."

Daigo patted his back. "It's okay bro. Not everyone gets a tragic origin arc. Some of us are just... accidental main characters."

"I wanted something cool like your wolf spirit," Yeaga muttered. "Or Ishigo's blue flame..."

"Don't worry," Ishigo said. "You can still be edgy. Just squint a lot and say mysterious stuff."

Suddenly, Daigo pointed. "Yo, look! Reika!"

Across the forest clearing, Reika was walking—katana out, calm as always. Daigo raised a hand to wave—

CRACK!

A sharp stone sliced out from a stone wall nearby. A human hand was now embedded in it—fresh blood dripping.

A scream echoed.

Daigo spun around.

"Ishigo?!"

Ishigo fell to his knees, groaning. His left arm was gone. Blood splashed onto the dirt.

Yeaga's face went pale. "Oh my god... Ishigo—!"

From behind the stone, a figure emerged.

A Shikiban. Not human. Razor-black eyes, short hair, tattered kimono dragging behind. His mouth curled into a twisted grin.

"I love human body parts..." he growled. "Hands taste better."

He licked the blood off the severed limb like it was soup.

Another log flickered into the air—louder. Urgent.

█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

> HOLOGRAPHIC ALERT: IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY

> TRANSMISSION PRIORITY: OMEGA-RED

> RESPONSE REQUIRED: IMMEDIATE

█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

> SUBJECT PROFILE

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ NAME: ISHIGO NAKANO

▸ STATUS: CRITICAL

▸ CONDITION: LIMB SEVERANCE – LEFT ARM

▸ BLOOD LOSS INDEX: 97% | CATEGORY: EXTREME

▸ NEURAL RESPONSE: UNSTABLE

▸ VITALS: DROPPING RAPIDLY

> TERMINAL ESTIMATE

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ TIME TO FATALITY: 05.00 SECONDS

▸ INTERVENTION WINDOW: < 05.00 SECONDS

> EMERGENCY PROTOCOL – INITIATION

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ REQUIRED TECHNIQUE: BLUE FLAME – STAGE ONE

▸ ENERGY ALLOCATION: 08% (MINIMUM THRESHOLD)

▸ SYSTEM FUNCTION:

→ BLEED CONTROL: ACTIVE

→ TISSUE FUSION: IN PROGRESS

→ SHOCK SUPPRESSION: PARTIAL

> EXECUTION STATUS

───────────────────────────────────────────────

▸ AUTO-TRIGGER: ENABLED

▸ COMPLIANCE: USER CONFIRMED

▸ PROCEDURE INITIATED: 00.42 SEC AGO

▸ CURRENT RESULT:

→ BLEEDING CONTAINED

→ NEURAL CONNECTION: STABILIZING

█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

> STAGE TWO TRANSFORMATION: COMMENCING...

> FUNCTION: LIMB REGENERATION PROTOCOL [BLUE FLAME v2.4]

> ENERGY USAGE: 05%

> TARGET LIMB: LEFT ARM

> RECONSTRUCTION STATUS: 94%

> FUNCTIONALITY: OPERATIONAL

█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

> END LOG | ALERT CODE 013-BF | SYSTEM MONITORING CONTINUES

"I got it!" Ishigo grabbed his katana, forcing blue flames to surge from his palm.

The burning light covered the wound. The bleeding slowed. His face contorted in pain, but he stayed conscious.

████ STAGE TWO PROTOCOL: ACTIVE ████

> ENERGY CONSUMED: 05%

> CORE STABILITY: SECURED [✓]

> REGENERATION MODULE ENGAGED

▸ TARGET APPENDAGE: LEFT HAND

▸ BIO-SYNTHESIS: COMPLETE

▸ INTEGRITY: 98% FUNCTIONAL

▸ SYSTEM RESPONSE: SYNCHRONIZED

> STATUS: FULL REACQUISITION ACHIEVED

A new hand formed—right before their eyes.

"Dude... you just regrew a hand," Yeaga said, stunned.

"That's cool," Daigo muttered.

From behind them, another voice echoed:

"Not bad..."

They turned. Another Shikiban stepped into view.

"...Now let's dance."