Konbini Ossan Volume 6 Chapter 25 — Like a Game of Shogi
With his sword still poised at my neck, Kanehama spoke.
“Now then, what do you want to do? If I actually win here, it’ll cause problems. We could stage the ending if you’d like.”
“Yes, that would be convenient for me, but… hmmm.”
I stalled on purpose. Obviously stalling. Buying time.
“But Kanehama-kun, aren’t you misunderstanding something?”
“Huh?”
“This isn’t a death match. It’s a duel. With the witnesses and audience unable to see us now, the outcome hasn’t been decided yet.”
“Well, sure, but once this dust clears everyone’s going to see that I won.”
“Yes. That is, if nothing else happens further…”
And with that, the final preparation for my last move was complete.
A moment later, I activated my last skill.
My self-inflicted wounds. The scattered blood.
The single drops of «Curse-sludge» mixed into it.
The sphere-shaped barrier Mimori-san cast, now smeared with my blood. Everything in this space, every point where my blood touched.
All of that.
Then, using the scant light that pierced through the dust and my well-trained «Night Vision», I mapped every position precisely —
Kanehama, myself, the splattered blood.
Every angle.
And with all of that aligned, I activated «Iron Blood».
Because of the tiny amount of Cursed Sludge, all the splattered blood qualified as still in contact with me.
That made them valid targets.
From each blood spot, I created a dark-matter-like device identical to my flechette launchers, but this time built from orichalcum.
A tube formed around each blood droplet.
The rear end became a stake, driven deep into the soil or barrier. The open end was capped with a metal needle, attached directly to the blood by an orichalcum thread.
Then I detonated the blood inside each tube with «Self-Destruct».
Dozens of orichalcum flechettes burst out — not toward Kanehama, but around him. A dense formation of razor-thin threads spread out without him noticing.
His foresight didn’t warn him, because none of them were lethal.
Within an instant, Kanehama stood encircled by countless wires.
“What… did you just do?”
“Nothing special. I merely enclosed you in extremely sturdy threads incapable of harming you.”
And here’s what that leads to.
I leapt backward and triggered a small «Self-Destruct» at my abdomen, the blast helping me put distance between us.
Naturally, Kanehama lunged after me to close the gap.
His forward step pulled the taut threads tight — and because each thread was anchored by those orichalcum stakes and weights, they were yanked free from the ground and barrier.
Then, with him as the center point, the countless wires began to twist and loop around each other, like gears catching gears, wrapping him in an ever-growing web.
In moments, he was ensnared by the threads.
“Tch, but—!”
“I won’t let you!”
He immediately tried to cut through the wires despite the awkward angle, raising his sword.
Of course, I’d planned for that too.
I released «Curse-sludge» and «Miasma», saturating the area. The orichalcum threads were corrupted, transformed into dark matter.
And contact with cursed mud triggered «Iron Blood» again, allowing me to thicken them into reinforced cables.
He sliced several at once — that was expected — but the remaining threads grew thicker, stronger, and tightened around him as I retracted and rewove them.
In the end, Kanehama was completely bound in a cocoon of dark-matter iron wire.
“I see. So this is what you’ve been setting up all along.”
He spoke with a tone of dawning understanding.
“Well? Can you escape?”
“Honestly? Easily. But I’d have to break Saori’s barrier or use one of the rare magic tools the kingdom gave me. Neither is acceptable in a duel.”
“Exactly. Since you’re a sane, kind, and sensible person, I knew you wouldn’t choose a brute-force solution.
…
That’s why I used this method — both the battlefield and the rules to limit your options.”
Upon hearing my explanation, Kanehama laughed, amused.
“Hah! This is incredible. Like shogi or chess. You used every piece on the board, manipulated the flow of every exchange, controlled the entire field, and guided everything to your final victory. So you intended to win like this from the start?”
“Well… something like that.”
As we talked, the dust finally cleared.
Now everything was visible: I stood, battered and bleeding. Kanehama stood untouched, but completely immobilized.
I approached him and created another karambit knife, pressing it toward him.
“With this, I win.”
“Haha. I surrender.”
Our voices overlapped just as —
“The winner! The winner of this duel—?! In a shocking outcome, the man who has restrained our kingdom’s hero while standing bloodied yet unbroken—! Is OTOGI YUUICHI!”
The magically amplified announcement from Marquis Roosevelt echoed through the arena.
A wave of cheers erupted.
Hearing them, I finally understood.
I had won.
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E/N:
What a freaky battle! I believed in this Ossan till the end and certainly did not disappoint!
In fact, just like Kanehama, Ossan was holding back! What if he wasn't? Would Hero's blessing from the goddess survive? Guess we would never know or would we?
Stay tuned! (2/3 chapters)
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