The Kamaitachi's razor talons came slashing down. A gale wrapped in blade-edged currents swept toward Kikyō like a scythe through wheat.
Kikyō didn't look at it.
Her gaze remained locked on the escaping Magatsuhi.
"Did you think I came unprepared?"
Her voice was soft — so soft it was nearly swallowed by the roaring wind.
But Kōbe Hikaru heard it.
Magatsuhi heard it too.
"What?"
Countless faces twisted into a single expression of confusion.
Kikyō's lips parted.
A single incantation left her mouth.
In that instant —
The ground blazed to life.
Lines of radiance spread outward across the earth, threading beneath Magatsuhi's feet and expanding into an immense formation. The array's markings were dense and intricate, every line radiating a white light so fierce it stung to look at.
"This is…"
For the first time, something like terror crossed Magatsuhi's faces.
"The Four-Spirit Sealing Formation?!"
"You mean to seal me completely?!"
"Impossible — when did you —"
Kikyō didn't answer.
She simply raised her hand. A thread of spiritual power shot from her fingertips and activated the formation's core.
BOOM —
White light erupted skyward.
Countless chains of light poured from the formation and coiled toward Magatsuhi's body like living vines.
Magatsuhi thrashed wildly. Every face contorted into something grotesque, shrieking in a pitch that scraped across the bones.
"Let go of me! Let go!"
"Five hundred years — I waited five hundred years!"
"You treacherous humans —"
"You — and Midoriko too — all of you, every last one of you — you deceived me!"
But the chains only tightened.
Every link was carved with dense lines of sealing script, binding arts forged specifically to contain Magatsuhi.
Watching all of this, Kōbe Hikaru felt something click into place.
She had known.
She had known from the very beginning.
That Magatsuhi would try to escape on the night of the full moon.
Perhaps every time the guardianship of the Shikon Jewel passed to a new hand, Magatsuhi had made the attempt. This was its only window. Its one chance.
But every time — every single time — it had been suppressed before that window could open.
And Kikyō —
She hadn't done what her predecessors had done. She hadn't thrown everything into suppressing the Shikon Jewel.
She had been waiting for Magatsuhi.
Every act of suppression before this moment had been a performance. A show staged for Magatsuhi's benefit.
To make it believe there was an opening.
To lull it into lowering its guard.
To coax it into leaping out on its own.
And then —
Catch it all in a single net.
Pure of heart, pure of soul — but Kikyō had always been sharp. Sharp in ways that cut quietly.
But Kōbe Hikaru had no time for admiration.
Because the Kamaitachi's attack had already arrived.
Wind like a barrage of blades.
Every ounce of Kikyō's focus was on suppressing Magatsuhi. She had nothing left to spare for what was behind her. If that strike landed —
A cascade of images flashed through Kōbe Hikaru's mind.
The Kikyō from the original story.
That solitary shrine maiden.
Guarding the Shikon Jewel alone. Facing an endless tide of demons alone. Bearing every burden alone.
No one to help her. No one qualified to stand at her side.
Was that why she had been caught off guard in the end? Why she had died the way she did?
And then he understood something else — something sudden and clear. Even without him here tonight, Kikyō would have managed. More than managed — she would have handled it, inevitably, because she was Kikyō. But it would not have been clean. She would have taken serious wounds. She would have come face to face with the truth that she was not invincible. And perhaps, after that, she would have begun to want something to lean on…
But.
There was no 'without him.'
Because Kōbe Hikaru was right here.
Everything else — every other version of events — was already impossible. Already gone. Already irrelevant.
His body moved.
Of course it moved. Even if only for his own gain — it was the natural thing to do.
[Phantom Step] activated.
An afterimage flickered through the air and vanished.
The next instant, he was behind Kikyō.
Directly in the path of the Kamaitachi's strike.
He swept his blade upward. Black sword-qi tore through the air and met the gale head-on — that howling wall of wind that could shred anything it touched.
CLANG —
Steel rang against steel.
Both of Kōbe Hikaru's arms went dead numb. The sheer force drove him skidding backward. The stone tiles beneath his feet splintered and cracked, leaving two deep furrows gouged into the ground.
But he held.
The Kamaitachi's strike — he had blocked it.
"You…?"
Kikyō's voice came from behind him.
She didn't turn around. She couldn't turn around. Magatsuhi's thrashing was growing more violent by the second — the chains of light could fracture at any moment. She had to hold absolute focus.
"Keep your mind on your work," Kōbe Hikaru said.
His voice was calm. But the blade in his hand was trembling.
Not from fear. From the force it had taken to hold.
The Kamaitachi's power had far exceeded anything he'd imagined. That single blow — only a probe, barely half-strength — had already sent damage rippling through his organs.
If it hit him at full power…
He'd probably be torn apart.
But he didn't step back.
"Leave your back to me," he said.
"I have a plan."
A beat of silence from Kikyō.
Her hand-seals didn't loosen. Spiritual power continued to pour in a steady, unbroken stream into the formation.
But Kōbe Hikaru felt it — a subtle shift. The iron rigidity in her body eased, just a fraction.
That tautness wound tight to its absolute limit — it dissolved.
She trusted him.
She released her vigilance over what lay behind her, without a moment's further hesitation.
She trusted him — more completely than before.
[Shikon Jewel — Naohi: Affection +3]
[Current Affection: 26]
[It conveys a message to you: '…Thank you.']
Kōbe Hikaru paid the panel no mind.
He tightened his grip on the hilt and looked at the three-jō colossus before him.
The great beast was staring back at him through those hollow sockets.
No fury. No contempt.
Just…
Confusion.
It seemed to genuinely not understand why a creature of such meager standing would dare to plant itself in the path of something that had crossed into Sublimation.
This made no sense.
This violated the laws by which demons survived.
The weak were supposed to flee.
The weak were supposed to submit.
The weak were not supposed to stand in the way.
"…You're different from ordinary demons," the Kamaitachi said.
Its voice was like wind through a mountain pass — hollow, spiraling, as if the sound itself had an empty core.
"You carry the scent of a human. You are no ordinary demon."
Kōbe Hikaru didn't answer.
He simply adjusted the angle of his blade.
And then —
The demon-qi within his body began to boil.
His blood surged through his veins like a river breaking its banks.
This was the power of the Blood Change.
His Sixth Change.
Physical Transformation — complete.
And simultaneously, he activated the special ability left behind when Muramasa had fused into him.
[Bloodthirst Frenzy].
Strength. Speed. Reaction. All elevated by thirty percent.
Not enough to close the gap between them. Not nearly enough.
But at least —
Enough to block a few more blows.
"Come on, then," Kōbe Hikaru said.
His eyes held no fear.
Only the will to fight.
And in that moment — [Iron-Skin Mutation]. [Razor-Eye Mutation]. [Bowman's Mutation]. [Spearman's Core Mutation]. [Shield-Bone Mutation].
[Blood Change].
All Six Changes, stacked.
Demon-qi erupted —
Ghost-qi — spread.
And then.
With a sound like cracking bone, the armor covering Kōbe Hikaru's body exploded outward — swelling, thickening, growing heavier. The plates jutted and jagged in every direction, knotted and angular. The crimson demon's mask gleamed with a savage light. His white hair whipped upward in the surge of aura, framing him like something summoned from the edge of myth.
Divine — but more accurately, monstrous.
Like an Asura given form.
This was…
"To possess ghost-qi of this caliber —!?"
For the first time, that hollow voice of the Kamaitachi carried something new.
Shock.
____
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉