"She is Nifa," Yagato said, introducing her.
"I can see even your future," Nifa affirmed.
"That's incredible!" exclaimed Fukuoka, feeling the pressure of her power.
Next, she began to prepare for the search for Nobaru. A silver aura began to pulse around her.
"Absolute Form!"
Her body was engulfed by a white lightning bolt. When the light subsided, she was covered in ancient glyphs that moved like rivers of ink across her skin, the very manifestation of divination.
"Her last memory is from a dense forest. But she is not there..." Nifa said, frowning, her voice filled with urgency.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know. Some very strong magic is blocking me! I can only see small things..." Nifa hesitated, frustration evident on her powerful countenance.
"She went blind... a fight... but she didn't die. Some creature saved her, but I can't see its face. The energy is... protective, but overwhelming."
The Hundred Thousand Petals
Nobaru was unconscious for sixteen long days.
She woke up in a cabin high up on a mountain, on an isolated island of flowers in the southern part. As she opened her eyes, blurred by the recent darkness, she looked outside and saw a figure that made her catch her breath: her father. Nobaru's most powerful Osmo, whom she rarely used out of respect.
The weather was cloudy, the heavy clouds ready to burst, and the wind blew with the fury of the sea. He was sitting, looking at the ocean horizon, without reaction.
"Father... father..." Nobaru whispered, her voice cracking, her eyes quickly filling with burning tears.
He turned. He spoke words incomprehensible to anyone, except to his daughter. She slowly dragged herself to him, sat down, and rested her head on his shoulder. Nobaru looked at the sea, and tears streamed down her eyes in silence.
"I miss you so much. I am so sorry, Daddy," Nobaru whispered, every word a dagger.
When Nobaru's mother died, her father began to lose consciousness, becoming a complete Osmo. Nobaru, as an Osmo controller, had made the painful decision to take him as her spirit, in order to protect him, transforming him into her most powerful Osmo. She rarely invoked him.
"I'm so sorry... for having been too weak," she repeated, the weight of the world on her chest.
At that moment, she felt a wave of warm energy. Her father's Osmo vanished, not in a burst, but in silent peace. Nobaru was cured. She stood up, the pain transforming into cold determination. The time for crying was over.
"Seal Break!"
Nobaru opened her dimension and reappeared in a violet flash of light, exactly where they were unloading human bodies. The air smelled of blood and ashes. She knew Cute Cat would be there.
"Well, look who showed up to die! The blind bitch decided to return to the slaughterhouse!" Cute Cat mocked.
Nobaru did not answer with words. She answered with power.
"Seal Break! ABSOLUTE FORM: ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND PETALS!"
Her body exploded into colors. It dissolved into particles of light, and where there was once skin, thousands of cherry blossom petals appeared, spinning around her. Her speed became immeasurable, leaving trails of light where she stepped. She dragged her axe across the floor.
"Get her, you trash! FINISH HER!" Cute Cat shouted.
Nobaru showed no fear. There was no hesitation. There was cold fury. She advanced, her axe slicing the air, turning henchmen into jets of blood and steam. She cut them as if they were paper.
"I have you to thank," she said, her voice cold as freshly broken ice, but loaded with a terrible strength. "If you hadn't broken me, if you hadn't almost killed me... my father wouldn't have had that little bit of consciousness to save me. I got to talk to him one more time! YOU GAVE ME HIS FAREWELL!"
Nobaru channeled all her pain and love into that moment.
"Forgive me, Father. Forgive me for not having tried to save you sooner, for having been too weak... FORGIVE ME!"
The emotion erupted like a volcano of power:
"CUT ENHANCEMENT: SLISH, SLISH, SLISH!"
In just one minute, she had obliterated all the henchmen. The ground was littered with wreckage and blood, and she was unharmed, surrounded by her incandescent petal aura.
Cute Cat staggered backward, despair taking over his face.
"You bitch! You'll never finish me! YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH STRENGTH TO KILL ME!" he yelled, maddened.
Nobaru looked down at him, the heavy axe resting on her shoulder, the manifestation of her determination.
"I am Nobaru Monuki, daughter of a human and an Osmo. I lost my father, but I gained the chance to finish you. " Her blind eyes, but full of spiritual light, fixed on the villain. "Nothing is impossible for me! This is your end, Cute Cat!"
"Seal Break: ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND CUTS!"
The air around Nobaru distorted, the axe disappeared and reappeared one hundred thousand times in the blink of an eye.
"DIE!"
A sharp sound, a booming Ziiip!, and Cute Cat collapsed into pieces.
Nobaru took a deep breath, undoing the Absolute Form, and her body trembled with the cost of that power.
She looked back and saw Yagato. His eyes were full of tears, but also of immeasurable admiration and relief.
"It's just you, Yagato," Nobaru said, with a weak smile, feeling finally home.
And he ran, exploding with speed, disregarding the carnage around him.
"NOBARU! My love! I missed you so, so much!" Yagato hugged her, squeezing her tightly and crying uncontrollably on her shoulder. The weight of the world was gone with that embrace.
"You don't need to cry. I'm alive," she replied, returning the hug with all the strength she had left.
"SENSEI NOBARU! You're still alive!" shouted Fukuoka, overcome by a relief that felt like electricity.