With a sudden ferocity, Kiniro threw himself at Todo, his knives gleaming dangerously, their razor-sharp edges and points reflecting the sunlight beaming down on them.
'Those knives,' Todo thought as he tilted his head to the side, avoiding a lunging strike as Kinrio pushed off the ground and launched into the air, 'Cursed tools, without a doubt, and given their owner, I need to consider the possibility that they're imbued with a technique.'
Reaching the apex of his jump, Kinrio now bore down on Todo, pulling his legs up to his chest, coiling like a spring before executing a drop kick aimed at Todo's face.
Raising his hands up in a cross guard, Todo caught Kinrio's kick on his forearms, only to widen when he felt the amount of force behind the blow. Todo bent his knees to keep his footing while Kinrio used the rebound to flip back through the air and land in a crouch, 'His cursed energy reinforcement must be at an entirely different level, and the fact that it doesn't manifest until the very last second before impact makes it nearly impossible to read.'
Todo lowered his arms and bounced on the balls of his feet as Kiniro came at him once more, this time sticking to the ground and gliding across the sand to close the distance.
Instead of retreating, Todo held his ground and waited for Kiniro to get within reach before suddenly shifting all of his weight onto his back foot. With his front leg completely weightless, Todo was free to execute a snapping front kick, using his knee as leverage to generate the necessary force.
Kiniro's eyes widened a fraction of an inch as he registered the kick's blistering speed, but he managed to react nonetheless. Dropping into a slide, Kiniro leaned all the way back, just managing to avoid the bottom of Todo's foot from grazing the side of his face.
Without a second of hesitation, Kiniro threw out his right arm, sending Lust flying at Todo's toned stomach, forcing the towering brawler to dodge or end up with a knife in his gut.
However, Todo's mind was concerned with something else.
'There's no Mark, he didn't activate his technique,' Todo thought before quickly dismissing it, 'No, that makes no sense, it's far more likely that after I have my Sins absolved, I enter a grace period where I can attack without fear of persecution. That's why he switched to the offensive, he's trying to run out the clock.'
Todo grinned as he brought his hands together and clapped, swapping their positions yet again.
Instead of sinking into Todo's flesh, Lust buried itself up to the hilt into the massive boulder in the middle of the Zen garden. But that didn't seem to deter Kiniro in the slightest as he stood up and planted his feet, bracing against the ground while flooding his left arm with a tremendous amount of cursed energy as he grabbed onto Lust's chain.
Todo spun around and was ready to sprint directly at Kiniro, only to find a massive boulder flying at him through the air. Gritting his teeth, Todo's cursed energy output exploded as his fist shot forward, slamming into the boulder with an ear-splitting crack.
A web of cracks spread across the grey stone before the boulder exploded, sending fragments flying in every direction along with no small amount of dust. Todo squinted, trying to stop the irritating dust from entering his eyes, but the moment he did, Kiniro dispelled the smoke screen as his knife flew forward once more.
Raising his hands, Todo was ready to swap their positions once more when he realized that the hand Kiniro had presumably just used to throw his knife wasn't empty. Instead, he wielded its twin that should have been in his right hand. Kiniro had laid a trap, swapping his knife hands to create a chain loop that flared out behind him.
'The loop is large enough that even if I swap our positions now I'll still be caught inside, but what choice do I have to avoid the knife flying at me?'
Todo grinned as Kiniro masterfully forced his hand, 'An excellent check, and it was almost mate, had you not provided me with exactly what I needed.'
Raising his hands together, Todo clapped, and Kiniro tensed, expecting his orientation to switch. However, this time Todo was the only one to disappear, and in his place a stone appeared.
Staring at the rock, Kiniro's eyes widened as he realized it was a fragment from the boulder Todo had shattered, 'He used the punch to infuse the boulder with cursed energy?! I thought it was just a residual from the impact!'
Before Kiniro could marvel at Todo's tactic, he stepped back and spun, letting Todo's fist narrowly graze his cheek as the topknot gorilla appeared behind him, a wide grin on his face, "The stage is set, Kiniro, now allow me to demonstrate the strength of my Boogie Woogie!"
Kiniro replied with a quick swipe of his knife that didn't even come close to landing before Todo managed to clap and switch his position again. This time, Kinrio wasn't fast enough to completely avoid Todo's punch and instead had to block, dropping his arms over his midsection.
The impact still landed with the force of a small sedan, and Kinrio was sent sliding back across the sand, but at least his ribs were still intact. Basking in the throbbing agony of the blow, Kiniro had a broad grin across his face as Todo charged after him, 'He knows, my technique is down. He's trying to end the fight, right here, right now!'
In the blink of an eye, Todo closed the distance between them, his fist raised, ready to punch, but Kiniro didn't tense. There was no hostile intent behind the action.
As he expected, the raised fist was a feint, and Todo instead brought his hand together once more, then, again and again and again.
The sound of Todo's claps filled the air, and even Kiniro, with his excellent senses, found himself overwhelmed as Todo teleported around the sand garden. The boulder had shattered into hundreds of fragments, and every single one of them was a viable target for Todo's technique.
'Every time I come close to catching the rhythm,' Kiniro thought as he threw himself back, only for Todo to appear right behind him, 'He switches up the tempo, and there's no way to tell what he's swapping. Even when I can sense his technique targeting me I still don't know if I'm going to switch positions with him or a rock.'
Instead of turning around, Kiniro sent Lust flying back at Todo with a thought, though the knives didn't get within a foot of him before another clap rang through the air.
'Just a few more seconds…then I can use my technique and take control again,' Kiniro thought as he let out a forceful exhale, and stared Todo down, who regarded him with a broad grin, "The fact that I still haven't managed to land a direct hit is absolute absurdity, I've never fought against someone who's able to keep up with my technique."
"I'm not surprised," Kiniro muttered, "Your cursed energy activates only when sound is produced, meaning that there's a window between your technique manifesting and when your opponent can react due to the limited speed of sound. And even if they realized it, most don't have the ability to perceive cursed energy within that window."
"But you can," Todo stated with certainty, "That's why you never fall for my feints, you can sense if I'm going to activate my technique, and you can also probably tell if I'm targeting you or not when it activates."
"I wouldn't have fared this well if I hadn't," I answered honestly, "But just so you know, you've got about five seconds left before your atonement ends."
"So forty-two seconds total," Todo replied as his cursed energy surged, "I wonder if that's a fixed rate."
"Looks like you'll have to find out, that is if you managed to survive your next absolution." Kiniro taunted as five seconds elapsed and, without warning, Lust shot through the air
But he hadn't been the only one counting down as Todo acted immediately, squaring his feet and punching the ground with all his might.
There was a muted boom as a tremor passed through the sand, making the white grains roil and buck and sending a thick cloud into the air and rolling across the ground. It only took a couple of seconds before Todo and Kiniro were swallowed and lost sight of each other.
Still, even with his vision obscured, Kiniro knew that Lust wouldn't find its target, as he had felt the flare of cursed energy when Todo hastily activated his technique, meaning he could be anywhere within the dust cloud.
Kiniro's eyes narrowed, but before he could act, the dust in front of him warped as a stone was suddenly flung at him, slicing through the air with bullet-like speed. Holding out his hand, Kiniro projected his cursed energy, only for another stone to arrive within less than a second at a completely different angle.
Realizing what was about to come, Kiniro held out both of his hands and erected a domain infused with his cursed trait just in time as a hail of stones rained down on him. For a moment, Kiniro didn't realize what was happening before he managed to catch up to Todo's strategy.
'There's no hostile intent because he's not targeting me directly, but guessing where I'm located. Without being able to look into his eyes and with no hostile intent, my technique can't take effect.'
As more and more stones slammed into his domain, Kiniro felt his excitement reach an all-time high, as he slowly brought his hand up to his left eye, 'I'm so glad we met Aoi Todo, I can't wait to learn more about the shape of your soul.'
Then, without warning, Kiniro's fingers stabbed into his eye, and it popped out of the socket like a grape from the vine. Tossing the ocular organ to the side, Kiniro reached up and grabbed the ember above his head, the one that had opened upon absolving Todo's sins.
Kiniro smiled as he tilted his head back and forced the flame into his empty socket, 'Allow me to show you Todo as your friend, that no one can hide from their sins.'