Amidst the freezing air and thick clouds of smoke, the sound of iron striking steel echoed continuously through the alley.
*CLANG!*
Sparks erupted from the darkness.
For a brief instant, the flashes of light revealed the scene.
Doma stood at the center of the smoke, his fans raised defensively as several figures surrounded him. One attacked from his left. Another came from behind. A third descended from above.
It looked as though several people were attacking him at once.
But that wasn't what was happening.
There was only one person.
Kagerou.
He was moving so fast that his body seemed to disappear between one movement and the next. His speed, combined with the thick smoke surrounding them, created afterimages that lingered for fractions of a second.
And those afterimages cast shadows of their own.
To anyone watching from outside the battle, it looked as though multiple Kagerous were moving through the smoke, attacking Doma from every direction simultaneously.
It was an almost impossible sight.
And Kanae was witnessing it with her own eyes.
She had moved away from the heart of the battle moments earlier. Her entire body ached, and one hand pressed against her side as she endured the pain from the attack she had received earlier.
Her breathing was uneven.
Her vision occasionally blurred.
Her eyelids felt unbearably heavy.
Perhaps it was exhaustion.
Perhaps it was the pain.
Perhaps it was both.
But Kanae refused to close her eyes.
She had to keep watching.
She had to see this fight.
She had to witness the man she loved- her boyfriend, her soulmate- stand against one of the strongest demons in existence.
She was worried.
Of course she was.
Anyone would be.
But Kanae believed in him.
She believed in his strength.
She believed in the promise he had made to her...that he would never leave her.
And more than anything...
She believed in the bond they shared.
Her fingers tightened around her katana.
Her gaze remained fixed on the battle raging before her.
"...Survive, Kagerou"
Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
"For me..."
Kanae's eyes softened.
"...For all of us"
---
*CLANG!*
Inside the thick clouds of smoke, Doma deflected a strike from one of Kagerou's afterimages.
Before he could fully recover, another figure emerged from the smoke behind him.
Kagerou.
He ducked low and swung his ninjato upward.
*SLASH!*
The blade carved across Doma's torso.
Blood sprayed through the smoke as the force of the strike tore his already-disheveled clothes even further.
Yet despite the wound, Doma's expression remained completely unchanged.
No grimace.
No gasp.
Not even a flicker of pain.
Kagerou's eyes narrowed.
He wasn't pleased.
He knew better than to mistake a successful strike for victory.
His blade had cut deeply enough to reach the flesh beneath Doma's ribs.
And yet...
The demon didn't even flinch.
'He's tough...'
Doma slowly turned toward him.
His golden eyes remained fixed on Kagerou.
Then, as though the wound were nothing more than a minor inconvenience, he raised one of his fans.
"Frozen Lotus"
With a single sweep of his fan, countless razor-sharp ice petals erupted into the smoke.
The temperature plummeted.
The moisture in the air instantly began freezing, and even the smoke surrounding Kagerou started to crystallize.
Kagerou's eyes sharpened.
He could feel the cold spreading through the battlefield.
But he didn't panic.
Just before the attack reached him, his body blurred.
The ice petals tore through his figure.
*SHATTER!*
The image broke apart.
Instead of blood, smoke spilled from the wounds.
The figure dissolved completely into the surrounding haze.
Another afterimage.
Doma's eyes narrowed slightly.
"...Another?"
He glanced around.
Nothing.
Only smoke.
The wound across his torso was already closing. Flesh knitted itself back together at an absurd speed, erasing the damage as though Kagerou's blade had never touched him.
Doma slowly ran his fingers across his healed torso.
Then he looked back into the smoke.
His smile returned.
"My~ my~"
He opened his fan again.
"This is getting annoying~"
Doma's smile remained unchanged.
"But I think I've finally understood the concept behind this strange technique of yours"
He raised both of his fans.
His Blood Demon Art surged.
A violent wave of freezing air exploded outward.
*WOOSH!*
The surrounding smoke was caught in the powerful current.
Thick clouds were torn apart and swept away in every direction, rapidly thinning until the battlefield was completely exposed.
Kagerou's afterimages vanished along with them.
Within seconds, the dense veil of smoke that had concealed the battlefield was gone.
Doma slowly lowered his fans.
His golden eyes calmly scanned the area.
"There you are"
There was only one Kagerou standing before him.
Doma's smile widened.
"Your little tricks only work as long as you have your smoke, don't they?"
For the first time since the battle began, the entire battlefield was completely clear from smoke.
Kagerou stood motionless.
His kiseru hung loosely from the corner of his mouth, supported by one hand, while his other hand held his ninjato low at his side.
He said nothing.
He simply stood there.
Calm.
Unhurried.
Almost as though he had all the time in the world.
Then, slowly, Kagerou drew a deep breath through his kiseru.
He exhaled.
A thin stream of smoke escaped his lips.
Within moments, it began spreading across the battlefield once more.
It wasn't nearly as thick as before.
It didn't completely obscure the surroundings or swallow the entire alley.
It didn't need to.
The smoke merely drifted around Kagerou, blurring the edges of his silhouette and making his exact position slightly harder to read.
Enough to give him room to move.
Doma's smile twitched.
For the first time, there was a hint of irritation in his eyes.
Kagerou took another slow puff from his kiseru.
He calmly watched Doma through the thin veil of smoke.
Then, finally, he spoke.
"...So?"
Doma tilted his head.
Kagerou's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You figured out one of my tricks"
He took another puff.
"Congratulations"
A pause.
Then the corner of his mouth lifted.
"Here's your reward"
His fingers tightened around the hilt of his ninjato.
His breathing changed.
The thin smoke surrounding him suddenly began to move.
It curled around his feet.
Then his legs.
Then his torso.
One strand became two.
Two became four.
And then-
*FWOOSH!*
Kagerou moved.
His body darted forward.
Then abruptly vanished into the smoke.
Doma's eyes followed him.
Left.
No-
Right.
A second silhouette appeared behind Doma.
Then another to his left.
Then another directly ahead.
Doma's smile faded slightly.
"...Oh?"
The figures moved.
Not randomly.
Together.
Each one perfectly synchronized with the others.
Kagerou's footsteps overlapped until they became impossible to distinguish.
One phantom raised its sword.
Another lunged.
A third circled behind him.
Doma snapped his fan toward the nearest figure.
*CLANG!*
The blade struck.
Smoke exploded outward.
But another Kagerou was already there.
*SLASH!*
Doma twisted aside.
The ninjato narrowly missed his neck.
He countered immediately.
*WHOOSH!*
A freezing wave swept through the smoke.
Three Kagerous disappeared.
But a fourth emerged from the opposite side.
Then a fifth.
Then a sixth.
They weren't simply afterimages anymore.
They moved like a formation.
Every slash created another distortion in the smoke.
Every movement produced another silhouette.
Every phantom mirrored the real Kagerou perfectly.
Doma's golden eyes widened.
For the first time, his expression showed genuine surprise.
"...How troublesome"
Kagerou's voice came from somewhere within the smoke.
"Smoke Breathing..."
The phantoms accelerated.
Their blades flashed from every direction.
"Fourth Form..."
Doma raised both fans.
*CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!*
He blocked one strike.
Then another.
Then another.
But there was no way to tell which attack was real.
The smoke swirled around him as countless silhouettes moved in perfect rhythm.
Kagerou's eyes remained cold and focused.
"Phantom Dance"
The Phantom Dance had begun.