Kouji stumbled forward, his steps uneven, barely holding himself upright. Beside him, Sora walked calmly, hands tucked in her jacket, white hair dancing in the wind. In the near distance, the thunder of battle still ongoing.
They crested the final hill, and the ruined battlefield revealed itself. Bolts of lightning cracked against the ground as Ketsu ducked and weaved through arcs of electricity, his shirt torn and soaked in blood. Further off, Yuusuke clashed with again Hanzo, their figures darting and flashing through scattered debris. Sora's eyes narrowed. Kouji exhaled slowly.
Hanzo turned as if sensing them. His eyes caught Kouji's and for a split second—there was surprise. A breath. Then: "What happened to Akechi?" his voice called across the distance, loud and sharp.
Kouji didn't slow. "Ryo's fighting him."
Hanzo's brows furrowed. He clicked his tongue, almost like he wasn't surprised. "So they couldn't hold him back…"
Without hesitation, Hanzo shifted. His stance grew tighter.
In a heartbeat, a pistol of refined Kyoukai constructed itself in his palm—sleek, perfect, and dangerous.
Kouji winced. His legs trembled beneath him, his body screaming from the fight he barely survived.
"You're in no shape to fight," Yuusuke said, stepping in beside him. He looked over his shoulder, voice firm. "Sit this one out. Weakness is a death sentence right now."
Kouji hesitated—but then nodded, stumbling toward the outskirts, sitting on the curb of cracked asphalt. Sora turned to Yuusuke without missing a beat.
"I'm not allowed to use my ability," she said.
He looked at her for a second too long but nodded.
Ketsu shouted as he dodged an incoming lightning. Sparks rained around him, his bloodied arms shifting with unnatural elasticity. He carved the blood dripping from his left hand into a whip, then into daggers mid-swing. The Lightning Demi-Human closed in again, electricity coursing around his fists.
The battlefield exploded into chaos again.
Hanzo's twin pistols barked sharp bursts of Kyoukai energy toward Yuusuke and Sora, forcing them into evasive maneuvers. Yuusuke retaliated with his target-card technique, flicking a set of three into the wind—each homing toward Hanzo's chest. Hanzo ducked, rolled, and retaliated, but Yuusuke noticed something odd: he never fired directly at Sora.
He aimed—but didn't shoot.
Why?
Sora's fists glowed with compressed aura, her movements sharp and fast. She kept low, trying to strike Hanzo's sides while Yuusuke pressed from the front. Hanzo didn't let himself be flanked. His eyes flicked between them constantly, lips pressed into a thin line.
Across the field, Ketsu slashed upward with a jagged blood-formed scythe, only to have it shattered by a bolt of lightning. The Lightning Demi pivoted with unnatural speed, sending another current of electricity through the ground—Ketsu jumped, but a whip caught his leg mid-air.
Blood spattered the concrete.
The wound closed the moment it opened.
Ketsu landed in a crouch, exhaled sharply, and dragged a line across his forearm. Four crimson knives floated from the wound. One missed. The other slashed across the Lightning Demi's shoulder. He staggered.
It was brutal. Balanced. And no one was winning.
Then it hit.
A wave of pressure that rolled over the battlefield like a collapsing mountain. Thick. Sharp. Overwhelming. It hit the lungs before the ears. A spike of aura so intense that Hanzo, Sora, and Yuusuke froze mid-step.
Even the Lightning Demi staggered.
Ketsu's eyes narrowed, the only one not visibly shaken. "Ryo?," he muttered.
The air returned to stillness. The pressure vanished.
Yuusuke acted first, charging forward—Hanzo stood still. He took Yuusuke's punch square in the jaw, unmoving. The impact should've sent him flying—but he barely flinched.
Yuusuke drew back, shocked. "Why didn't you dodge?"
Hanzo looked at him with weary calm. "Akechi lost," he said. "There's no need to continue."
Behind him, the Lightning Demi growled, eyes wide with rage. He lunged toward Hanzo with a glowing arm.
A blur of motion—Sora intercepted him mid-charge, her fist slamming into the Demi's side. She didn't budge an inch.
The Demi reeled back, snarling. Ketsu stepped beside her.
The three stood in silence.
Then something changed in the Lightning Demi's eyes. For just a second, he looked—not at them—but toward Hanzo. A flicker of thought. Doubt. Maybe betrayal.
Hanzo lifted one hand.
Bang.
The shot rang out clean and final.
The Demi-Human collapsed, a hole through his skull.
Silence returned once more.