The mirror had no body, no voice, no face capable of making a confused or bewildered expression. Yet it paused—visibly, unmistakably.
It had no idea why she'd asked that. It had even less idea how to answer.
"Think carefully before you respond," Bella said, not at all in a hurry. "I just want to hear something genuine. That's all."
She'd asked in English. She waited half a minute. The mirror's surface seemed to struggle, letters appearing one at a time as if being dragged out against its will, slowly assembling themselves into a sentence.
You are the most beautiful woman.
Bella was unconvinced. There was a trace of dissatisfaction in her tone. "Really? I feel like that might not be entirely honest."
Apparently pushed past its limit, the mirror suddenly flooded with names.
Natasha Romanoff. Heather Sawyer. Lara Croft. Jean Grey. Emma Frost. Raven Darkholme… they are all the most beautiful women!
Every name imaginable. Bella's was not among them.
Bella's expression didn't change. She swung the Kusabimaru sideways into the nearest stone surface, carving a gash over ten meters (~30 ft) long and nearly half a meter (~2 ft) deep.
Then she leveled the blade at the mirror's face.
"I'll give you one chance to rephrase that."
The mirror capitulated.
Isabella Swan is the most beautiful woman in the world.
"Enthusiasm seems a little lacking."
Isabella Swan is the most beautiful woman in the world. (?ω?)
The mirror had discovered emoticons entirely on its own. Bella nodded, satisfied.
"That's more like it."
She was genuinely pleased. The spiritual energy this thing generated was even slightly higher than Lara's. The best part: she could ask the mirror every single day. Lara wasn't an option for daily use—ask her every morning and she'd have Bella committed.
She spent some time testing the mirror's remaining functions.
The claim that it could "withstand any attack" was one she took with a grain of salt. Divine artifacts had limits. In ancient Japan, perhaps it truly could block anything. But in today's world? If Odin came charging in with Gungnir, would a mirror stop him? If Surtur swung the Twilight Sword, would it hold?
She wasn't about to bet her life on a hand mirror. Big attacks: dodge first, always.
The illusion-casting ability was a nice bonus, though she already had her own illusion spells.
All in all, the Yata no Kagami was useful as a utility item—daily compliments, a bit of extra defense, and not much else.
She clipped the mirror to her hip and looked around.
She was now properly inside Himiko's tomb. It was enormous. In her sweep through the corridors she'd already spotted three burial chambers over a thousand square feet (~100 sq m) each—and this was only a fraction of the whole. Considering Yamatai's population and production capacity in that era, Himiko had essentially redirected the entire nation's output into building herself a burial site.
Modern archaeologists moonlighted as tomb raiders, and Bella was no exception. She'd spent the past six months studying Japanese-period tomb layouts, and while Himiko's era was ancient even by those standards, the underlying logic still held. She found the central axis of the tomb, bypassed several traps, moved around the main hall, and worked her way to what had to be the queen's primary burial chamber.
Huh. What she found inside was quite the scene.
Himiko's desiccated, mummy-like body was locked against Sadako in a grapple neither could break. Dr. Vivienne Graham had one hand pressed to a wound on her side—her clothes soaked through with blood—yet she was still pulling at Sadako, trying to pry them apart.
Bella had spent time subduing the Yata no Kagami and arrived a beat late. Lara had reached the main chamber just ahead of her; the adventurer was pulling a torch off the wall and driving it into Himiko's back. Flames began catching on the mummy's dry form.
Bella's eyes were sharper than theirs. She looked past all of that and saw Sadako—or rather, Sadako's dark side.
A second self hiding in her soul. And the worst kind at that.
A chill ran through her. If Himiko hadn't blundered in and triggered it herself, that dark side might have stayed hidden forever.
Himiko saw through Bella in an instant—someone above my level?!—but with Sadako's dark side clinging to her and Lara's torch scorching her body, she couldn't regain control of her own form.
Out of options, Himiko seized control of Sadako's body, raised one arm in a stiff, jerky motion, and pointed straight at Bella.
The air split open. Wind roared. Concealed within it were killing strikes—seven or eight invisible blades slashing in from different angles. Himiko wanted her dead in one move.
The Ice Armor materialized and absorbed three of the wind-blades before shattering. Without hesitating, Bella raised the Yata no Kagami as a shield.
Clang. Clang. Clang. Metal on metal—the mirror deflected everything that remained.
Himiko seethed. You're using my own artifact against me?
That split second of fury and distraction was exactly what Sadako's dark side had been waiting for.
The furious tide of blood that had surged endlessly from the Well of Yomi—the gateway to the underworld—had been reduced by eighty percent. The gate itself had been forced shut by Himiko's own power. The dark side was on the brink of annihilation. Now her enemy had slipped, and with savage joy she gathered everything that remained—every last scrap of resentment in that blood river—and hurled it at Himiko in one final wave.
She wasn't trying to destroy her. Sadako's dark side was realistic about her odds. She just wanted to expel Himiko from Sadako's body.
The opening was there. And outside, Bella had spotted the same opening.
In a straight fight, she couldn't beat Himiko either. The woman had lived eighteen hundred years—older than Thor himself. Her mastery of storm-force power had been developed to its absolute ceiling, light-years beyond what a half-trained student like Bella could match.
But she didn't need to win. She only needed to hold out for seven or eight exchanges.
The reason she'd immediately brought out the Yata no Kagami wasn't just for defense—it was to appear weak, and to buy time to reach Sadako's light side through a mental link.
She'd run this exact play during the fight against Ogun. Old trick, new arena.
"Don't you want to be a star?"
"Think about your dream. You can't give up now."
"If you want people to recognize you—really recognize you—you have to stand up and fight!"
Like the obligatory supporting character in any shonen manga, Bella flooded Sadako's mind with every motivational speech she had.