News traveled like smoke. The scarred hunter had returned with a small band, recruited killers hungry for pay and reputation. They wanted the power Rei carried. They wanted to end him.
The hunters circled the clearing. Rei's hands hummed as he held the black stone. He could feel Enso at the blade's edge, a thin blue seam threading his strike.
When they attacked, Rei moved. Flash-step followed flash-step; afterimages cracked like thunder. The Blade of Resolve met steel. For a time, the hunters faltered. Rei's strikes had become more than blind force; they were precise, charged with Enso.
Then the energy twisted.
A gust of cold rolled through Rei's chest. The Enso in his blade spasmed, shuddering like an animal struck. The ribbon of energy bulged, then erupted in a jagged burst that threw Rei backward. His vision spiked with light—memories, faces, laughter—then blackness.
The hunters hesitated, the scarred man's sneer faltered. He turned to Shira to finish the job.
But Shira moved like a blade drawn clean. She carved through them, two by two, a storm of steel and intent. Rei hit the ground, coughing, bloody, but alive. When he pushed himself up he saw smoke licking from the blade's edge; the Enso had burned and spat sparks, leaving a trembling echo.
The scarred hunter limped away, wounded, swearing a promise. "Next time, you won't stand."
Rei's hands shook. "It went out of control."
Shira's face was unreadable. "You used more than you knew. That's why they came."
The black stone pulsed like a heartbeat. Something had heard.