Chapter 457: Every Strike Draws Blood, Yet None Are Fatal
The elegant Head Maid Sakuya Izayoi, a human living among a host of yokai in the Scarlet Devil Mansion of Gensokyo, actually had a rather ordinary relationship with her fellow humans due to her innate ability to manipulate time.
After dedicating all her thoughts to the Mistress, over time, the Head Maid stopped caring much about how humans viewed her.
However, this didn't mean she was unaware of how rare and precious her ability was; she was, indeed, an anomaly among humans.
Yet, in the days since she followed the Mistress to the real world and was inexplicably chosen to participate in the main tournament, she had repeatedly felt power fluctuations extremely similar to her own ability—specifically, the presence of stopped time.
Only the caster and other users of stopped time could move within stopped time.
However, after entering the real world, the Head Maid's time-stopping ability was inevitably restricted; she couldn't achieve the nearly limitless time stops she could in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, so she temporarily abandoned the idea of finding the source of that power.
She never would have imagined that another user of the same power would be so close!
What was that man's name again?
Ah, right! It was Cheng! The same name as that cat from the Yakumo family!
The Head Maid, who hadn't understood why the Mistress suddenly made her participate, suddenly had a flash of insight. Perhaps, this was the main reason?
But now was clearly not the time to ask. Under the influence of the rules, the Head Maid's infinite time stop became finite.
With a gaze that was almost like a scan, the Head Maid spent two precious seconds imprinting Cheng Tian and The World into her mind, then, under Cheng Tian's watchful eye, she rushed towards Chizuru Kagura, who was in a state of complete stasis.
Cheng Tian hadn't initially known that Izayoi would use Za Warudo so decisively, as it was a time stop, and normal people couldn't possibly detect it.
However, the moment the opponent's time stop was released, The World, his Stand and the carrier of time-stopping power, automatically appeared and began to resist. This was an automatically triggered self-protection behavior.
The World, as another user of time stop, would not allow its user to be completely defenseless when facing a time stop.
Since it was only resisting and not directly casting, the consumption didn't reach the 300 MP per second rate, but 100 MP per second was still enough to make Cheng, who had already used a lot of MP in the previous match, prepare to trade his HP for MP.
Not only that, but at this moment, Cheng Tian even had a very dangerous thought.
What if, just what if... if he had used that 30-second Yasakani no Magatama back then, wouldn't it be equivalent to crashing the entire dungeon?
Of course, the premise was that he wouldn't have to bear the mental burden of the subsequent time stop; otherwise, he might die in a corrupted save file of stopped time... He really envied the Head Maid, who used time stop for her work.
Ah, by the way, during a time stop, would the user's original lifespan be consumed?
With a 'scared' look, as if watching someone else get an injection, Cheng Tian watched from afar as the Head Maid mercilessly and rapidly plunged her power-infused silver daggers into various parts of Chizuru Kagura's body.
Izayoi could kill people but didn't like to kill indiscriminately, let alone in a mere fighting tournament.
But there were no rules for defeat here, like an out-of-bounds countdown.
If it were an infinite time stop, she could simply move Chizuru Kagura several kilometers away and abandon her, but that wasn't enough here; she could only first incapacitate her for further combat.
Looking at Chizuru Kagura, who was being stabbed but seemed like a puppet being casually manipulated, Cheng Tian suddenly recalled that news anecdote, true or false—
A girlfriend stabbed her boyfriend a dozen times, but because she was a medical student, every stab avoided vital organs.
Cheng Tian wasn't sure if the medical student in that anecdote could do it, but the phantom killer in the night mist before him certainly could.
"Then, time resumes."
In an instant, extreme stillness turned to extreme motion, and the cacophony returned.
The elegant maid already stood over ten meters behind Chizuru Kagura, who was still cradling the illusion of the Yata Mirror to her chest.
As for Chizuru Kagura herself, her body seemed to have suffered dozens or even more impacts, and her facial features were visibly contorted in pain.
Then, a large amount of blood mist burst forth from her entire body!
Everyone except Cheng, who had witnessed the Head Maid's actions firsthand, was stunned. Although there was no time stop, the entire arena suddenly fell silent, and even breathing was subconsciously held back.
What happened?!
What's wrong with Chizuru Kagura?! What did that maid do?
A flood of questions filled the minds of the people present, but the person who could provide the answers clearly had no intention of telling them the reasons.
Oh, right, Iori Yagami, who occupied a resting area all to himself, although also frozen, vaguely felt a certain disharmony, like a smoothly operating scene that had experienced an imperceptible stutter.
Chizuru Kagura! A human blood fountain!
But relying on her strong physical fitness as a martial artist and her energy manipulation, the geyser of blood from Chizuru Kagura's body almost only sprayed for two seconds before her tensed muscles forcibly closed the wounds.
This was also thanks to the Head Maid's exquisite technique; the wounds she left on Kagura's body could almost be stitched directly without correction, or even more extremely, if left alone to self-heal, they would barely leave scars.
So, Kagura's current state looked far more tragic than it actually was. The merciful Head Maid hadn't damaged any of her internal organs; otherwise, Kagura's mouth would also be gushing blood by now.
But this was all she could do; having stopped the bleeding by tensing her muscles and sealing energy, she could no longer move normally. Pain was a minor issue; if her muscles relaxed for even a moment, she would turn into a mobile blood fountain.
The audience couldn't understand what had happened, but Chizuru Kagura's white miko outfit, almost drenched in blood, spoke for itself.
Let alone them, Chizuru Kagura herself was the most bewildered, but the pain in her body couldn't be faked.
"I! Surrender!"
After a quick comparison between her martial artist's dignity and her responsibility as a sacred artifact inheritor, the latter prevailed, and Chizuru Kagura, with trembling pain, laboriously raised her hand and declared.
"Winner! Izayoi! Let's congratulate the Scarlet Devil Mansion team on advancing!"
"Medical team! Quick!"
As the host made his professional announcement, Kyo Kusanagi, who had a family connection and good personal friendship with Kagura, had already rushed onto the stage ahead of everyone else, simultaneously calling for the medical team to help immediately.
But facing Kagura, who was like a blood-soaked person, he was like an insect on a hot stove, stomping his feet in place, not daring to touch her casually.
Buzz~ Buzz buzz buzz~
At the same time, some inconspicuous mosquitoes seized the opportunity to fly over, land, extract, and fly away, then all landed in Cheng Tian's direction.
As these mosquitoes landed in Cheng Tian's palm, in the genetic collection library of his portable laboratory, the percentage display for "Chizuru Kagura Blood Material" slowly increased by about 0.1% per tick.
Cheng Tian's agreement with Nero the cat was still ongoing.
Looking at Kyo Kusanagi beside her, Chizuru Kagura finally closed her eyes and fainted, succumbing to the dual factors of blood loss and pain.
This caused the halo enveloping the Yata Mirror's main body, enshrined within the corporation, to noticeably dim.
Simultaneously, the figures of the Hell Band trio had already appeared near the shrine, which the Kagura Corporation guarded with strict vigilance at all times.