{"yet another slime..."
Mizuki complains.
"It seems like that's all I can do"
The grumpiness eventually translates into her action, she starts scratching her head, then explode into an outrage.
"AARRHH! this sucks!"
She throws her latest SP craft onto the ground.
"This is just impossible to do!"
"Not as easy as it sounds doesn't it?"
He winks her way.
"If I start to wield it as quickly as I can, it breaks apart!"
Daisuke only listens attentively to the girl's outburst.
"But when I focus on it too long it either turns into another glass jar-" she kicks the thing she'd thrown earlier
"-or just become a pile of stupid goo!"
"The secret lies in maintaining the bridge"
A strand of nerve in her forehead twitches, she throws the aforementioned slime his way,
"Stop talking in riddles and give me a real pointer already!"
"To keep the essence of the soul in the realm between humans and ghosts,"
Daisuke looks up on the sky with a philosophical look.
"-that is the Reihado"
Still enraged but a little calmer,
"what's that even supposed to mean...?"}
At least that's what Mizuki can remember from the lesson she was having with Daisuke, before the giant bat shows up.
But, back to the current time,
"Why are you-"
Her panting fills in between her question. Holding a conversation as she's running through the woods appears to be quite challenging.
"Why are you just watching?! Help me out here!!"
Mizuki comments as she's running for her life. Behind her, a vicious monster is hopping and crawling fast on pursuit.
Every time the creature screeches and spread it's wing midair before grounding itself back, Mizuki keeps her eyes shut and dash forward even faster in panic.
"Waver not, Mizuki of the Azure Blade-"
Daisuke is running by her side, slightly ahead, but he merely observes.
"For you are already equipped with the wisdom to face this trial"
"Like I said-"
Still panting,
"your lessons... are too vague!"
"It can't be helped.."
He shakes his head gently
"to see is to believe, I request for your attention-"
While still keeping up his pace, clouds of SP starts to form in between his palm before changing shape. Initially a round shaped cloud, they gradually grow longer and longer until they solidify.
'That's-'
Despite being chased by a giant creature, Mizuki still pays attention.
'I remember it, like that time-'
{She recalls memories from her first mission, where a possession happens at school and Daisuke was fighting the possessed female student.
As they're both busy fighting each other Mizuki just watches. She observe how Daisuke creates his blade from SP and tries her best to ponders the technique.
The crescent-shaped "energy" slash he launches at the creature is glowy and seems almost like a very thick compressed fog.
She recalls Daisuke's words
(They are what you think they are)
(.. Recreate..)
(.. Recall...)
(... Remember...)
Jumping to another different memory, she recalls the sight she'd seen in Raiyu's Kyokan back when she's heading into Daisuke's direction. The bloody skies were occasionally filled with giant crescent slash that dissipates upon impact}
Back to the present, Daisuke formed what looks like a coil of ropes on his hand, in Reihado.
He swings the weighted end of the rope and lassoed one of the bat's wing, disrupting it's balance during one of it's flying leap and taking away it's capacity for flight.
"There, I've leveled the playing field"
He exclaims from his safe distance.
Mizuki stands in front of the creature and brings her hand together. Her SP overflows and thing she's crafting turned unstable. Though this time, rather than turning into a glass jar or a pile of goo, it instead blows up all over her.
"Waahh! What's this"
"The universe-"
"Translate!"
But Mizuki cuts him off.
"You're rushing it, you need to clear your mind during the process"
"How am I supposed to-"
The bat's giant claw spears The ground behind Mizuki, demanding her attention. The girl jumps aside and loses her SP focus as she continues running from the beast.
"-clear my mind in this situation?!"
In her panic, she starts crafting random things with her focused SP and throw everything behind her.
"Good grief this girl-"
Daisuke just sighs watching her freak out, but then,
"Wait stop right there, Mizuki kun!"
She freeze in response.
"That's it, in your possession-"
He points
"the Reihado!"
"Heh?"
The girl's eye caught sight of the matter enveloping her hands. A glowy, foggy substance. Dazed by it's brilliance, her hands stay hung in the air.
But right as she's admiring that alien matter, the claw of the bat pierce through her newfound weapon, breaking her daze.
"Careful, Mizuki of the Azure Blade"
Daisuke warns her, but she does not retort.
Instead, her eyes lock onto the direct consequences of the beast's action. It's claw, stuck on the ground, glued by her Reihado.
"Don't get distracted, it's other hand is still free!"
"Y-yes!"
Her replies slides out spontaneously as her quick reflex overtakes her conscious effort. Before the other claw can register in her left shoulder, she blocks it with both her hands. The same hands that's still coated in her Reihado.
TANG!!
The claw pierce her coated hands. However, seeing the thing on her hands, the bat screeches and quickly retract it's arm away. Desperately it flails the free arm towards it's side, trying to get rid of Mizuki's leftover Reihado.
But what distracted Mizuki, again, was the sound she heard when she blocked with it just now. Like the clanking of metal.
Her eyes veered back to the things covering, this time, up to her shoulders. A peculiar substance, an otherworldly material. It hardens when she tries to grab it, but harder to touch when she relaxes her grip. Constantly transitioning from solid to fluid in her hands.
Daisuke make no comments this time, merely observing her reaction. A faint rising arc forms on the edge of his lips.
While the creature's claw still have one of it's arm compromised,
Mizuki weaponizes her newfound Reihado. Taking advantage of her Reihado's sticky properties, she grabs the other flailing arm of the creature, as it pierce her Reitai.
But at least she got a hold of it. Hugging it tightly.
"Well executed, Azure Blade!"
He cheers from the sideline.
Extending one of her legs, the highschool girl steps on some of the Reihado on the ground. The creature's reckless flailing earlier had formed puddles of Reihado nearby. But they now serve as her foothold, keeping one of her leg on the ground.
Countering her move, the giant bat brings it's fang towards her. Trying to bite her and yank her away from it's limb.
'a little more-'
A pep talk echoes in her mind.
'after this next swing, it will stomp the ground-'
Predicting the pathway of the creature's limb, Mizuki takes advantage of that opening.
For a brief second she's finally grounded on both legs,
'HERE!'
she brings her own weight down and planted the other claw into the ground too.
Rendering both it's front limbs immobile.
"Oyyh it's not over yet!"
He finally voices out. His arm arching across his face, immediately summoning a coat of Reihado.
But the bat get to her first, finally landing one of it's vampiric fang on Mizuki's hair. The creature yanks her closer to it's center mass and dropping the tiny girl below it.
But before anyone can react, a slimy blanket runs across her face. The beast's tongue.
"Eh?"