I Just Awakened My Sharingan, and You're Telling Me This Is DanMachi?

The two of them kept moving at blistering speed across the courtyard, their blades clashing like a raging storm.

Every collision rang with the sharp scream of metal, every dodge so perfectly timed it was as if they could see through each other's thoughts.

Even in this dizzying, almost inhuman contest, neither side could break the stalemate.

Only the craters left on the ground and the clouds of dust swirling around them proved just how far beyond normal this battle had gone.

Standing at the front of the crowd, Loki clutched her forehead, her face written all over with confusion and disbelief.

"…Wait a second."

She muttered under her breath, sounding like she was about to crack.

"An LV.1 and an LV.5 can fight like this?"

Staring at those two silhouettes flashing through the dust, Loki's eyebrows were tied in knots, her face twisted in an expression of are you kidding me right now?

"I've been alive for billions of years and I've never even heard of something like this!"

She really, truly, could not understand it.

Ais was LV.5, the Sword Princess, a legendary champion who'd been through hundreds of battles without a scratch.

But Ryota?

That kid, with a bit of a youthful look still on his face, a newbie who'd only awakened his Falna not long ago — an LV.1, yet he wasn't falling behind at all. In fact—

He was starting to look more and more like… another Ais.

"This kid… what kind of monster is he…"

Loki whispered, her expression so tangled it was like witnessing a miracle even the gods couldn't explain.

Just then—

Clang!

A sharper, harsher metallic shriek rang out.

With one final collision of their power, the two figures were flung apart, each skidding back several paces.

Swords held low, feet rooted to the ground.

Ryota came to a stop, steadying his breathing.

Opposite him, Ais's eyes burned with a battle thrill she hadn't felt in ages.

She watched him for a moment, then tilted her head slightly, her voice quiet but tinged with curiosity.

"Can I use magic?"

"Ariel".

Ais's ultra-short-chant magic.

In an instant, it could wrap her in a boost to offense, defense, speed, and maneuverability — even grant her brief flight.

A true dream buff for a combat-type adventurer.

In Orario, magic was strictly controlled, though not completely forbidden.

After all, Orario was a labyrinth city, but not every street was a battlefield.

There were civilians living here, raising families, running shops, living peaceful, ordinary lives without Falna.

Any magic with large-scale destructive power, if fired off in the city, could mean—

At best, a Guild bounty and prison time.

At worst, exile from Orario forever.

It wasn't a written law so much as a code, forged by gods, the Guild, and every Familia over generations of coexisting.

An unspoken rule, but one no one dared break.

However, a self-targeting boost magic like Ariel was in a different category —

No widespread damage, no risk to bystanders.

In internal training or sparring, it was a gray area, quietly tolerated so long as you didn't go too far.

Ryota didn't answer right away.

Instead, he glanced over at Loki among the crowd.

Loki's eyes narrowed just a bit, but she didn't seem bothered.

She was about to give a reply when Riveria's calm voice interrupted from beside her.

"Loki, there's no need for that."

Riveria's gaze was steady, carrying the serene caution of a high elf.

"This is just a spar, not a fight to the death. If Ais uses magic… and something goes wrong, it won't end well for anyone."

Her eyes shifted toward Ryota in the ring.

"Ryota is certainly strong — stronger than any of us expected. But no matter how strong… he cannot possibly surpass Ais with Ariel activated."

She wasn't underestimating Ryota.

As a top-class mage and the Loki Familia's vice-captain, she simply knew exactly what Ais was like with Ariel engaged.

"Mm… you have a point, Mama. Maybe—"

But before she could finish, Ryota spoke up.

"It's fine. Go ahead, Ais — use it."

The reason he'd looked toward Loki was because she was his god, after all.

If he was going to go all out here, he needed her permission.

And since Loki hadn't said no, that meant she'd given him the green light.

As for Riveria's concerns — those were just worries for his safety.

"You can use your magic," Ryota said with a grin,

"But— I'll be using my own means too."

Ais tilted her head, a faint question flickering in her eyes.

"…Huh?"

Clearly, she hadn't understood.

She thought it was just a normal sparring adjustment, not catching the deeper meaning behind his words.

Ryota didn't bother to explain.

He simply flicked the Kusanagi Sword up, holding it level across his chest.

At the same time, the three tomoe in his eyes began to whirl at high speed.

A moment later—

Whoosh!

A wave of blazing crimson flame erupted along the blade of the Kusanagi Sword!

The tongues of fire writhed upward inch by inch, the searing heatwave forcing away the dust around him in an instant.

A faint ring of scorched marks appeared under his feet, and even the air itself shimmered from the intense burn.

Ais's golden eyes shrank, her heartbeat picking up despite being no stranger to combat.

In the crowd, every single person froze as if turned to stone, their expressions going stiff.

Finn stared blankly at the sword wrapped in flame for a good few seconds, then smacked himself hard across the face.

Smack—

"…Not a dream."

He muttered to himself,

"That sword… is it a magic sword?"

"Did Hephaestus give it to him? No, that's impossible…"

He shook his head on reflex, logic quickly shooting down the idea.

"I'm being stupid. No one just gives someone a magic sword…"

"But then… how the hell do you explain this?"

The Pallum famed for keeping a cool head even on expeditions found his brain blue-screening for the first time.

"It doesn't feel like a magic sword… more like an extension of Ryota's own ability?"

Riveria, worthy of the Nine Hells name, saw through it in a single glance.

But even she was left mystified — it was neither magic sword nor spell, nor anything that fit any known framework.

Yet the sheer pressure radiating from it made her eyebrows knit together.

In all her long memory, she had never seen an LV.1 brandish a sword that made her feel this kind of dread.

"Ahhh! Whatever!"

Loki slapped her own forehead, shaking off the jumbled thoughts flying through her mind.

She threw up her hands and shouted toward the ring:

"Ais, Ryota! Make sure you two stay safe, alright? I don't want to be picking up any corpses!"

That line made Lefiya's face instantly drain of color.

"L-Lady Loki! Don't say things like that!"

In the ring, Ryota smiled and said,

"Feels like this is the right moment, huh, Ais? How about we settle this in one strike?"

Ais lifted her head, golden eyes locking onto his.

After half a second, she gave a soft "mm" in reply.

Then she leaned forward slightly, whispering under her breath.

A silent shockwave burst from her feet.

Magic wrapped around her like silver threads, flooding every part of her with raw power, speed, strength, agility —

In that instant, it all woke up.

And then—

BOOM!!

They launched at each other at the exact same moment, slamming together in the center of the courtyard!

Steel shrieked against steel, the ground cracking beneath their feet in a spiderweb of fractures.

But this world-shaking clash lasted barely a second.

CLANG!

After a single exchange, they broke apart again, each retreating a few steps to the edges of their ring.

It was as if all the air had been sucked away, a silence so deep it felt like the world itself had stopped.

No one dared to speak.

No one even dared to breathe.

Loki, Finn, Riveria… even loudmouthed Tiona looked like she'd been nailed to the spot.

Every sound was crushed under that moment.

Then, in the next instant—

Crack!

A dull, brittle snap echoed out.

Everyone's eyes shot toward the center of the courtyard.

Ais's substitute longsword — the one she'd used in place of Desperate — had a single, clear fracture running through it.

Then a second. Then a third…

Crack.

The blade split down the middle, a faint tink as silver shards clattered to the stone floor, coming to a dead stillness.

And then—

drip.

A single drop of blood slid down from Ais's fingertip, hitting the ground and blooming into a tiny, dark red flower.

Opposite her, Ryota still held his sword at the ready.

The Kusanagi Sword was still blazing, its blade now crawling with cracks as if it would shatter at any moment.

But that red flame — it hadn't faded one bit.

On the contrary, it burned even hotter, like a greedy beast thirsting for destruction and victory.

No one spoke first.

But in that moment, who had won and who had lost was already obvious.

Ais stood there silently, the glow of Ariel already dimming.

She lifted her hand, staring at the bead of fresh blood on her fingertip.

Then she lowered her head for a moment, thinking, before lifting her gaze back to Ryota.

In those golden eyes, there was no regret, no anger, no shame.

Only… a kind of shock and confusion that no words could capture.

Ais opened her mouth, trying to speak, but found that for the first time, she had no idea what to say.

She had never even considered the possibility of losing.

Let alone — losing to an LV.1, having her sword broken to pieces.

I'm screwed!

Ryota stared at the shattered sword littering the ground, black lines running down his face.

Forty million — that thing cost forty million, dammit!

Loki won't make me pay for it, right? Right?!

He was just about to open his mouth, hoping to break the weird, heavy silence.

Then—

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

A shrill scream suddenly pierced the air behind them.

Loki came charging over like a lunatic:

"Aissssss!!"

"Y-y-y-y-your hand's bleeding! What are we gonna dooooo?! Does it hurt?! Is the bone broken?! Should we cut it off and get you a new one?!"

Ais: "…"

Ryota: "…"

Everyone: "…"

Ais had been about to say "it's fine," but seeing Loki screaming like a banshee, she fell silent instead, just shaking her head softly, her eyes drifting off into the distance like her soul had left her body.

Ryota, meanwhile, quietly stepped back half a pace, trying to play off his attempt to speak as just stretching his shoulders.

No one stopped Loki's meltdown, because at that moment, she was the voice of the entire Loki Familia's rawest emotions:

They had never imagined Ais could lose.

Right then, a familiar mechanical voice rang in Ryota's ears:

[Ding! Chakra Nature has changed!]

[Ding! Main Branch Quest: Defeat an LV.3+ Adventurer completed!]

[Reward calculating—]

[Reward One: Dōryoku +10%!] [Dōryoku= Eye/Visual Power]

[Reward Two: Chakra cap +4000!]

[Reward Three: A-Rank Jutsu Lightning Style: Chidori unlocked!]

"Huh? What the heck?"

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