1.70: Overwhelming StrengthRui-chan doesn’t care about me?

  The thought hit harder than any blow Mitsuhiko or Enenra had ever delivered.My power flickered, dimming like a ntern drowning underwater. The bze I’d been holding onto began guttering, wobbling, threatening to colpse entirely. I could keep it going if I focused…yes… but it was slipping, bit by bit. A prolonged struggle I could not win.

  Enenra’s energy was endless. Eternal. I was fighting something like a bck hole… an inevitable phenomena.

  And Rui was in his hands.

  The situation was impossible. I couldn’t think my way out. Every scenario I could imagine ended badly. Tears spilled silently as I struggled to keep Enenra from consuming me cell by cell.

  If I broke free too quickly, he’d snap Rui’s neck or back, assuming he hadn’t already done it. That loud cracking noise filled me with anger.

  If I hesitated, Enenra would finish unmaking me.

  My muscles shook.My breath trembled.

  Does Rui love me? Truly? I wonder…

  Sometimes she smiles at me. Sometimes she acts so warm… so gentle. And those worried eyes of hers should’ve been enough for me to understand. But right now… right now… I wasn’t sure of anything. Maybe she cared. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she just needed me. Maybe she could never want me.

  Reiko-chan’s voice flickered inside me…Take care of her.

  Rui had even talked about hiring me as a bodyguard.At least I could do that, regardless.Even as a yokai… even if I would be nothing more or less than this… I could protect her until she retired, or until she tossed me aside.

  Do I love her?

  “Yes…” I whispered to myself. “I do. For better or for worse.”

  But she could not……right?

  My mind betrayed me with a memory… the ridiculous cartoony picture she drew of male genitalia on fire.That would be absolutely impossible.

  But that was so her.I couldn’t help giggling under my breath.

  “Don’t think about that right now!”I wasn’t sure if it was Reiko-chan in my head or my own survival common sense speaking, but the scolding lit something deep in my chest.

  I felt a spark.A fire.My fire.

  Even though the situation was desperate… I would not give up.Not now.Not ever again.

  It was all me now.Reiko-chan gave up once. I gave up too.But I had found something worth fighting for.

  I thought of the st two days.

  Rickey. Ume. Natalia-sama. Rui-chan. Akuchi.

  Their faces ran across my memory like nterns through the fog.(Sans Rickey’s smile, of course. That would be taking too much creative liberty for the universe to handle.)

  Thinking of them made something inside me stabilize. I felt settled.It felt like they were all here beside me. Believing in me.This strange, grueling adventure… I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

  “I’ll win… no matter what.”My voice was a whisper, but the resolve behind it burned like a vow.

  “Even if you’re indestructible,” I hissed through clenched teeth, “I’ll still pulverize you.”

  That’s when I saw it.

  Down near my feet.Inside the pot Rui had pointed at earlier.

  It was a strange object… rolled tightly, glowing faintly.The pot had become a mp, its light pulsing upward like a heartbeat.It hummed, eerily.Dark energy radiated from it… yet there was brightness too.That was a contradiction. Maybe an invitation.

  Rui’s meaningful look.Her hand signals.Her courage.

  My noh-eyes narrowed. “This…”

  I reached into the pot and wrenched the object free like it was Excalibur.The instant my hand touched it, the air around me changed.

  It pulsed.It thrummed.It called to me…

  …

  Memories exploded across my mind like shooting stars.

  I lifted my arms above my head instinctively, trying to keep Mitsuhiko from snatching the scroll back after I’d stolen it. Even trapped inside Enenra, even with my body fracturing molecule by molecule, that single panicked instinct pulsed like a heartbeat:

  Don’t let him take it.Get it to Rui.She’ll know what to do.

  I didn’t understand spiritual matters.Not deeply. Not the theory, not the rituals, nor the mechanics.But I had seen that scroll before… again and again… dangling at Mitsuhiko’s side during his twisted ceremonies.Even before I knew what it could do, I knew Rui wasn’t ignorant like I was. She had no spiritual power of her own, but she had knowledge… genuine knowledge passed down from her father.

  She’d know what this thing truly was.

  So I tched onto it with all the desperation I had left.Clinging to it as if clinging to life.

  In that instant… when I was silently begging for a higher power, any power, to intervene… something ripped open.

  Not physically.It was something far deeper.

  The scroll responded.

  A pulse of energy surged up my arms, wrapping around me like a chain forged of ancient light.And from that single moment of connection…

  A yokai… a Noh-face was summoned.

  Not by Mitsuhiko.Not by me.

  But through me.

  It wasn’t something I consciously did.It wasn’t a technique.It wasn’t a decision I’d made.

  But the moment the scroll acknowledged me, the moment its power brushed against my soul…

  I understood.

  Just as Rui had once mentioned…

  The scroll was an exorcist’s artifact. A binding tool. A weapon made to seal yokai.

  And yokai answered to its power.

  Even I should have answered to it.

  And that connection…That bond…

  …was why Noh-face had appeared that day.

  Not as Mitsuhiko’s weapon.Not as an independent killer.But as something tied to my soul.

  Now, holding the scroll again…No longer human, no longer just Susumu…

  The truth hit me like lightning!

  This artifact didn’t just bind yokai.It called to them.It called to EVERY fragment of me.To Reiko.To everything we had become.

  And through it…

  I felt our power begin to stir… mine and its.

  Had Rui pced it there on purpose?Had she slipped the scroll into that pot at just the right angle, exactly where I’d nd after breaking free of Enenra?Had she known I would trust her and look?

  Did this mean that she wanted me to seal Enenra?

  Even though I was still a rank novice… barely learning to survive as a spiritual being?

  A soft, incredulous smile pulled at my noh-lips beneath the helmet.

  But… no.Would one of Rui’s tools… one of her father’s ever glow with such a sinister aura like this?This energy wasn’t hers.It was too heavy. Too dark and corrupted. Too angry.

  Enenra sensed the shift of my movements immediately.

  Its eyes formed in the darkness… twin pits of molten hatred… staring straight through me.The force of its gre alone made my breath catch.Its entire mass surged violently, condensing, twisting, its pressure tripling as it tried to erase me outright. The game was over.

  Everything became real. Its previous attempts felt like mere intimidation now.Pure instinct told me to retreat.

  Instead, I gasped once… then forced my breath to slow.

  My determination solidified.

  My mind stilled.

  There’s no time to be afraid.No time for second-guessing.Just act.

  I tightened my grip around the scroll until it hummed.

  I had to do what I had done before.

  No…It wasn’t me.

  Reiko-chan had done it.

  But I remembered every detail… every sensation, every spiritual contour… of the summoning she had performed.Our souls had merged enough that those memories felt like they were my own now.

  I knew what to do.

  I closed my noh-eyes.

  And I thought of them.

  Akuchi’s manic grin.Ume’s quiet strength.Natalia-sama’s unwavering dignity.Rickey’s stubborn, silent loyalty.Rui-chan’s fierce determination… and fragile bravery.

  All the faces that had carried me this far.

  All the people who loved me…Or believed in me…Or refused to abandon me.

  My heart surged with the weight of the truth of their feelings for me.

  I had to save them.

  I would save them.

  I lifted the scroll as light gathered around my fist, and with every scrap of will I could muster, I roared inside my soul…

  JUST. DO. IT.

  And the power answered.

  FOOM—!

  The swirling cloud of darkness constricted around me, its pressure like a whole universe imploding.Rui’s pale face twisted with uncertainty and regret… she wasn’t sure if I understood her signals. Her faith wavered an instant, and then…

  Crack.

  Mitsuhiko squeezed her neck harder. She winced, her fists trembling, her breath held. But even with pain etched across her expression, she kept her eyes on me.

  She could do nothing except trust in me. I understood.She had to trust I would act.Hastily leaping into action seldom works in your favor… but she had no other choice.

  Mitsuhiko sneered as Enenra’s shadow convulsed around me.The fact that I was still “struggling” only amused him.Rui watched, tears slipping from her shes… silent, clenched, praying that her pn would work.

  FWOOOOOM—!!!

  Enenra imploded.

  A brilliant silver explosion burst from its center… light shredding darkness like a divine spear.Rui’s expression transformed instantly… expressing joy, relief, pride… before shock widened her eyes.

  I stood where Enenra had been just a heartbeat earlier.

  I had sent it back. To wherever it belonged… hell, the in-between pces, some spiritual void.The scroll in my hand throbbed with malicious energy. It seared my palm. But it didn’t matter.

  Because my friends returned to me.

  Natalia-sama materialized at my left, her furious, regal eyes locked on Mitsuhiko like a goddess of vengeance.Ume appeared at my right, fshing her sharp, predatory fangy grin;...she gave me a cheeky wink.Akuchi… bless her insane soul… immediately transformed into a guillotine. The kneeling-and-lopping off your head kind of device.

  …Wow.Extreme, but I appreciated the enthusiasm.

  Rui sobbed with joy on the floor, even with Mitsuhiko’s boot grinding into her back.

  Mitsuhiko’s smirk faltered.

  His eyes had widened.

  He reached inside his suit and pulled out his scroll… identical in form, but empty… inert.He stared at the one in my hand, realization dawning too te.

  Some instinct moved my body.I tossed the cursed scroll to Natalia-sama… because she, out of everyone here, could safeguard it best.

  The moment she caught it…Ume pivoted and kicked me squarely in the back.

  I shot forward like a unched projectile.

  My fists tightened.

  I smmed into Mitsuhiko with enough force to crack the tiles beneath us.

  Natalia-sama swept in, seizing Rui and dragging her out from under his heel.

  Mitsuhiko smashed into the wall, his hatred carving deep furrows into his expression.“She switched scrolls while I was holding her hostage!!” he spat, teeth grinding.

  His aura darkened… rippling with evil energy.

  I noh-smiled.

  It was finally down to just him and me.Cliché? Hell yeah.Satisfying? Beyond description.

  He moved first… fast as a whip.

  Both palms shot forward… one smming into the center of my sternum like a piledriver, the other snapping upward beneath my ribs with surgical cruelty.

  The double impact crushed the air out from my lungs in a violent burst. My spine jolted from the force as I staggered back, my armor ringing…

  …but I pnted my feet anyway and lunged again.

  This time, I rained down blows… swift, trained and ruthless. They were strikes Reiko-chan herself would’ve approved of. Of course she would. They were her moves. Our moves.

  Mitsuhiko blocked them all with infuriating calm.

  His eyes flicked toward Natalia-sama.

  I seized the nearest pot… one of his most priceless, polished treasures… and smmed it into his ribs.But he redirected it effortlessly… flicking it straight at Natalia-sama.

  She ducked, her teeth bared, and her divine glow fred. Her form rippled……and then she transformed into her full kitsune body, rge and magnificent.

  She pounced.All cws, fangs and power.

  The impact shook the kitchen.She tore into him with sshes, bites, and her relentless fury… but Mitsuhiko twisted and evaded, countering with icy efficiency.Even with a nine-tailed goddess on him, he remained maddeningly composed.

  That insufferable confidence made my blood boil.

  I snapped my hands forward, unleashing a silver shockwave at his feet…BOOM—!

  The floor cratered under him.Natalia-sama lunged over the gap, jaws wide……but Mitsuhiko sidestepped and spun.He hooked an arm around her throat and stomped down on her spine.She snarled, her windpipe constricting, her tails shing wildly.

  Ume grabbed one of her filing tails and vaulted up Natalia’s back like a gymnast… and leapt, her legs outstretched.

  Her flurry of kicks blurred.

  Mitsuhiko casually reached upward.It was just a flick.With that, he redirected her whole center of gravity.

  And Ume sailed over his head like a screaming comet.

  Akuchi transformed again… this time into an anti-tank guided missile uncher.Rui, giggling despite the crisis we were in, hefted him up onto her shoulder and took aim.Somewhere in the universe, physics itself began trembling.It turned into putty in the face of pure consciousness spiritual power.

  “FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!” Akuchi yelled as she unched.

  My heart stopped.

  “N–NATALIA-SAMA!!” I shouted.

  That missile—whatever kind that Akuchi had just turned herself into—could possibly wipe out the entire floor.Colteral damage wasn’t just possible.

  Mitsuhiko only smirked, icy composure sliding back into pce.

  “Worry not,” he murmured, meeting my eyes. “This is mere child’s py.”

  He lifted his leg with effortless bance, using Natalia-sama’s body as a brace.

  Then…

  KICK.

  The rocket veered straight into the ceiling.

  KABOOOOOOM—!!!

  A hole ripped clean through the floors above.Dust rained down like snow.

  Mitsuhiko brushed debris from his sleeve.

  “Did you think Enenra was my only weapon?” he asked, his voice cold enough to freeze marrow.“If I retrieve that scroll, I have infinite ammunition. But even without it…”His grin sharpened.

  “My martial skills alone are more than enough to handle fools like you.”

  Relwing