Chihaya Aine is a member of the team Zero

"I know! Let's continue!"

Before Ultraman Zero and Ultra Seven could say anything, Chihaya Aine agreed in one breath.

“Aine?”

In the consciousness space, Ultraman Zero spoke.

"This is Ichiri-chan's own decision to become stronger. As a friend, I should firmly support her."

Even without Ultraman Zero asking, Chihaya Aine had already answered.

"Is that so? I understand."

In the consciousness space, Ultraman Zero nodded, agreeing with Chihaya Aine's statement.

Goto Ichiri raised the scabbard high and slashed it towards Chihaya Aine's shoulder.

Chihaya Aine calmly retreated half a step, allowing herself to just dodge Goto Ichiri's attack.

Chihaya Aine did not rush to attack, but just kept defending or dodging Goto Ichiri's attacks.

Goto Ichiri was already a little anxious because of the defeat in their first fight, and now he couldn't hit Chihaya Aine, which made Goto Ichiri even more confused.

As he became more and more irritable, his attacks gradually became more and more disorganized.

Chihaya Aine kept defending or dodging, constantly consuming Goto Ichiri's physical strength, and at the same time making Goto Ichiri more and more confused.

As long as a person's physical strength declines and his mentality becomes unstable, various flaws will continue to appear.

For example - now.

After Goto Ichiri performed that downward strike just now, perhaps her arms were sore or her body was tired, but in any case - her feet, which had been firmly planted on the ground, became unstable.

This is the moment Chihaya Aine has been waiting for.

She adjusted her breathing, stepped forward, closed the distance between herself and Goto Ichiri, bent and stretched her upper body, and chopped the scabbard in her hand from bottom to top - Chihaya Aine's movements were done in one go, as smooth as flowing water.

The sword technique used by Chihaya Aine is exactly Sakakibara Ittoryu's Ascending Tower.

The tip of the scabbard was lifted up from the bottom and hit Goto Ichiri's right shoulder accurately.

Chihaya Aine's original intention was to help Goto Ichiri improve through the competition. This was just a competition between friends.

Chihaya Aine didn't want to injure or kill Goto Ichiri.

Therefore, Chihaya Aine's move to climb up the stairs was actually to restrain her strength and control the direction of her attack.

If Chihaya Aine wanted, she could have aimed at Goto Ichiri's chin and hit her hard.

But if he did so, even though Goto Ichiri's body had been strengthened, he would still be injured.

Therefore, Chihaya Aion only aimed at Goto Ichiri's right shoulder, restrained her strength, and only hurt her.

"Well!"

Goto Ichiri groaned in pain, covered his shoulder, and staggered back a few steps.

"Ichiri-chan, are you okay?"

Seeing this, Chihaya Aine thought that her previous attack had injured Goto Ichiri, and she suddenly became anxious and flustered.

"I'm fine, just keep going."

Goto Ichiri released his hand from covering his shoulder and waved to Chihaya Aine to indicate that he was fine.

Just as she got into a fighting stance again, the tip of a bamboo sword rapidly enlarged in Goto Ichiri's eyes. The rapidly enlarging bamboo sword in her eyes directly interrupted Goto Ichiri's thoughts.

Goto Ichiri's pupils shrank suddenly in shock, and then he subconsciously raised the bamboo sword in his hand.

Snapped!

A dull sound exploded.

Goto Ichiri raised his sword in time and blocked the sword that Chihaya Aine was stabbing at.

"So fast! What is she doing?

When did you launch the attack? "

Goto Ichiri could guarantee that he had not blinked or relaxed at all. He had been staring at Chihaya Aine with full concentration, his nerves tense.

However, even so, Goto Ichiri's eyes could not catch Chihaya Aine's movements.

After narrowly deflecting Chihaya Aine's sword, Goto Ichiri didn't even have time to breathe a sigh of relief before Chihaya Aine's next attack came.

After the sword in her hand was blocked by Goto Ichiri, Chihaya Aine quickly retracted the sword in her hand, then switched to an upper stance and swung the sword towards Goto Ichiri's shoulder.

Snapped!

Another dull sound exploded, and Goto Ichiri blocked Chihaya Aine's attack again, but Goto Ichiri's defense this time was even more dangerous than the last time.

"Oops!"

Goto Ichiri shouted anxiously in his heart.

"Aine-chan has completely disrupted my rhythm! I'm being led around by the nose by Aine-chan!"

"I have to readjust my posture!"

"If I don't adjust my posture quickly, I'll..."

Before Goto Ichiri could even utter the word "lose" in his mind, Chihaya Aine's third wave of attack arrived.

This time, Chihaya Aine used her straight stab, which was so fast that Goto Ichiri couldn't even follow it with his eyes.

Chihaya Aine's speed was really too fast, and when Goto Ichiri blocked her for the first time, there was some luck involved.

But this time...Goddess of luck did not take care of Goto Ichiri.

Bang!

Goto Ichiri, who had no time to block Chihaya Aine's stab, was stabbed hard in the chest by the tip of Chihaya Aine's sword.

If it was a real sword fight, Goto Ichiri, who was stabbed in the chest, should have been dead. After taking a few steps back, Goto Ichiri fell backwards to the ground.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Goto Ichiri's left hand, which was not holding the sword, was tightly covering the place where he had just been stabbed, and he was coughing violently.

"One mile!"

As the saying goes, "Care too much and you will be confused." Ultra Seven in the consciousness space couldn't help but shout loudly.

"I'm fine..." Goto Ichiri, lying on the ground, said in a deep voice.

Chihaya Aine slowly retracted the sword she had just thrust out, silently waiting for Goto Ichiri to stand up again.

Although Goto Ichiri was not killed instantly by Chihaya Aine in the previous fight, it was almost an instant kill.

From the moment their swords collided to the end of the battle, less than a few seconds passed.

"As expected, Aine-chan was holding back when we fought in the first round. Given our similar physical abilities, I'm no match for Aine-chan."

"But! I also have my reasons for becoming stronger."

Goto Ichiri slowly but firmly stood up again.

Chihaya Aine and Goto Ichiri slowly moved their feet and moved towards each other.

After Goto Ichiri entered Chihaya Aine's attack range, Chihaya Aine immediately shouted and stabbed Goto Ichiri with her sword.

The move Chihaya Aine used was the same thrust that she had used to defeat Goto Ichiri just now. The speed was so fast that Goto Ichiri couldn't even see the afterimage.

In the previous match, even if Goto Ichiri opened his eyes wide and tensed every nerve in his body, he could not see Chihaya Aine's sword clearly.

And now, Goto Ichiri saw it—quite clearly! Goto Ichiri saw the trajectory of the wooden sword clearly!

As long as we can see Chihaya Aine's sword clearly, the rest will be easy.

He dodged sideways, avoiding the sword that Chihaya Aine was stabbing at him, then stepped forward, aimed at Chihaya Aine's chest, and stabbed her with the sword directly.

It was exactly the same as what Chihaya Aine had felt just now—Goto Ichiri's sword strike was faster, stronger, and more accurate than before!

The tip of the sword, packed with powerful force, stabbed straight towards Chihaya Aine's chest.

Goto Ichiri originally thought that she would be able to stab Chihaya Aine this time.

Unexpectedly, when the tip of the sword was about to pierce Chihaya Aine's chest, Goto Ichiri suddenly felt the wooden sword in his hand shake.

Chihaya Aine retracted the sword that Goto Ichiri had just dodged with unimaginable speed, and directly blocked Goto Ichiri's sword.

Goto Ichiri's counterattack, which had been accumulated for a long time, unfortunately missed the target.

After deflecting Goto Ichiri's sword, Chihaya Aine quickly retreated several steps, out of Goto Ichiri's attack range.

Chihaya Aine looked at Goto Ichiri with a look of surprise on her face.

She found that she seemed to have underestimated Goto Ichiri.

Her bird thorn was fast and accurate, and her attack was so sudden, but it was actually blocked by Goto Ichiri.

Goto Ichiri was also shocked.

It would be more accurate to say that Goto Ichiri was even more shocked than Chihaya Aine.

"Aine-chan!"

Goto Ichiri murmured in shock.

"Her movements just now were completely different from those in the last match!"

Goto Ichiri didn't hold back just now.

However, Chihaya Aine, who had to use skillful blocking to barely use her sword in the previous battle, actually dodged her sword this time.

Not only did he dodge her sword, he also took the opportunity to counterattack her.

“The sword technique that Aine just used was undoubtedly the stabbing technique from Sakakibara Ittoryu—the bird thorn.”

In the consciousness space, Ultra Seven, who had already mastered other martial arts on other Earths, answered.

The speed and power of Chihaya Aine's bird thorn just now made Goto Ichiri shudder just thinking about it.

Just now, when facing Chihaya Aine's bird thorn, Goto Ichiri even smelled a hint of death for a moment.

The oppressive feeling that Chihaya Aine had just brought to Goto Ichiri was almost identical to the oppressive feeling she had felt when she encountered the Zuluk aliens and faced those two invincible Star Demon Swords...

"Aine-chan, how much strength have you hidden?"

Goto Ichiri couldn't help but think.

"Ichiri-chan, your progress is truly astonishing. Maybe soon I won't be able to defeat you."

Chihaya Aine was also quite impressed by Goto Ichiri's rapid progress.

After letting out a long breath, Goto Ichiri slowly raised the wooden sword in his hand and assumed an upper stance.

Looking at Goto Ichiri who was in an upper-level stance, Chihaya Aine silently raised her guard.

Since the training that day, Goto Ichiri's best stance is the upper stance, and his best fighting style is to launch continuous and fierce attacks on the enemy.

Goto Ichiri's upper stance meant that he was going to get serious.

Chihaya Aion also instinctively sensed that Goto Ichiri was now more dangerous than before. She gently moved her right wrist that was holding the sword and resumed her mid-fight stance.

The air seemed to freeze at this moment.

Whether it was Goto Ichiri or Chihaya Aine, both of them stood motionless, staring at each other.

The air around seemed to be infected by this tense atmosphere, and it felt a little condensed.

As if they had agreed in advance, Chihaya Aine and Goto Ichiri, who had been motionless, suddenly moved at the same time.

Snapped!

The two swords collided and then separated.

Snapped!

Then they touched each other and separated again.

laugh!

Goto Ichiri rushed towards Chihaya Aine, but was dodged by Chihaya Aine, leaving only a sharp sound of breaking wind.

At first glance, I thought Chihaya Aine and Goto Ichiri seemed to be fighting evenly.

But this was not the case for the person involved, Chihaya Aine. At the beginning, they were indeed evenly matched.