Chapter 42 — Ryūjin Jakka
At the same time, Ren studied the enemy still standing before him. A trace of surprise flickered between his brows.
"Your durability is impressive," he said sincerely.
"@!#%!"
The harsh, guttural sounds once again translated directly into Ren's mind:
"You bastard!"
Hanami naturally took the boy's praise as mockery.
After all—
When someone nearly cleaves you in half and then compliments your toughness, it feels less like admiration and more like:
You make an excellent test subject.
As they spoke, flesh bubbled and churned at Hanami's wound like foaming sap. The gash that had nearly split its body in two sealed completely.
But only Hanami knew how much cursed energy that recovery had cost.
"So that wasn't enough to finish you?" Ren muttered, narrowing his eyes.
Of course.
Curses were beings formed purely of cursed energy. As long as they weren't killed instantly, they could reconstruct their bodies at the cost of more energy.
"In that case… I'll just try something else."
He clapped his hands lightly.
The naginata of pure cursed energy dissolved into nothing.
"Is he going to use that move again?!" Hanami's heart lurched.
It remembered the black lightning-wreathed strike that had descended from the sky earlier.
"No," Ren tilted his head, a faintly amused smile touching his pale face. "I'm not that desperate yet. I don't repeat the same move twice."
"You're a plant-type curse, right?"
Hanami paused, confused.
"If that's the case," Ren continued casually, "then this is perfect for testing a new technique."
He raised both hands.
Each formed a completely different hand seal.
"Flame technique… combined with Sword Saint technique."
Whoosh.
A small flame flickered to life at the tip of his left index finger.
Clang.
A sharp metallic note rang out from his right hand, like a legendary blade leaving its sheath.
Ren curled the fingers of his right hand slightly, as though grasping an invisible hilt. With his burning left hand, he slowly drew from right to left—
As if painting in midair.
Flames flowed along an unseen boundary, giving form to an invisible edge.
"Way of the Void, Thirteenth Form—"
"Ryūjin Jakka."
A katana wreathed in flowing fire materialized in his grasp.
Slash—
A flash of searing heat and blinding light.
The flaming blade vanished the next instant.
Ren flicked his wrist lightly and turned away.
Behind him—
Agony.
Hanami felt its body ignite uncontrollably. A horrific wound reopened across its chest. Flesh frothed outward in a desperate attempt to regenerate—
But before it could even stabilize—
It was reduced to ash by roaring flames.
In the blink of an eye, fire spread across its entire body.
"To cut down trees," Ren's cool voice echoed faintly through the blaze, "you use a blade of fire."
Heat.
Overwhelming heat.
Its consciousness dimmed.
…
Waves lapped gently against a shore.
Sunlight bathed the skin in warmth.
"Hanami should be more honest," said a blue-haired young man with stitched features, turning his head slightly beneath the golden sky.
Mahito…
"I wasn't pretending."
"I'm not saying you were. I understand your purpose in battle. But maybe you should try enjoying the process a little more."
"Do you enjoy it?"
"In a way… deception, manipulation, slaughter… that sense of fulfillment that comes without realizing it… Just like eating, sleeping, mating are human instincts—this must be a curse's instinct. We may have gained reason, but that's no excuse to suppress our nature."
"Your soul is too restrained, Hanami. You shouldn't…"
"…Become stronger?"
A different kind of heat flared at its shoulder.
Not the destructive blaze consuming its body—
But something else.
An offering flower blooming.
Suppressing instinct…
Yes.
It was different from other curses.
Very different.
It had been born from the concept of "protection."
A curse created to safeguard the sky, the land, and the seas—
to protect this very planet.
To protect—
it chose slaughter.
To protect—
it would eradicate the planet's pests: humanity.
For a long time, protection and killing—two irreconcilable opposites—had coexisted within its body. The contradiction bred confusion. Conflict. Suppression.
The crimson "Offering Flower" blooming from its left shoulder was the embodiment of that contradiction.
It was a flower that devoured life.
A curse born to protect life, yet gifted with the power to steal it.
Hanami loathed that ability from the depths of its being. It wrapped its entire left arm in white cloth, hiding the flower—pretending it did not exist.
It hated that instinct.
Hated that part of its true self.
But now—
At the brink of annihilation—
That long-suppressed self shattered its cage.
Under the unprecedented pressure of this enemy…
Under the imminent threat of death…
Hanami finally grasped what it should have understood long ago:
To protect—
one must kill.
Only by surviving could it safeguard the planet's future.
And to survive—
It had to kill the enemy before it.
At any cost.
Even if it meant sacrificing part of the world it sought to protect.
Bloom.
Offering Flower.
---
"...One strike. Just one strike!"
Megumi Fushiguro's mouth twitched.
He and Maki stared in disbelief at the boy walking calmly across the ground—flames raging behind him.
That second-year from Kyoto—Ren—
Had defeated, with a single slash, the opponent that he, Noritoshi Kamo, and Toge Inumaki together had failed to even scratch.
"You've got to be kidding me…" Maki felt cold sweat stream down her temple.
So he hadn't been serious earlier?
If he had gone all out against her… she would've been finished in one move.
"Ren!"
Momo Nishimiya descended from the sky on her broom, calling out sharply.
"That 'Way of the Void' of yours—did you develop another new technique?"
"Yeah."
"What's 'Way of the Void'?" Megumi and Maki asked simultaneously, puzzled.
"It's basically advanced cursed energy manipulation," Momo explained, lifting her chin slightly, unable to hide a trace of pride.
"But compared to conventional techniques, its output is much closer to an actual cursed technique."
"Flames, sword aura… things derived from innate techniques, but replicated and refined through postnatal study," Ren had once explained.
"Abilities that can be acquired through effort rather than inheritance. I call it 'Way of the Void'—as in 'approaching the Way with humility.'"
Momo was debating whether to repeat his full explanation—
When her expression suddenly changed.
Rustle—crack—
From her vantage point in the sky, she saw it clearly.
Within a radius of several hundred meters, the lush forest turned yellow in an instant.
Leaves withered and fell like rain.
The once-dense canopy shriveled into skeletal branches—like the desperate fingers of the dying.
It was as though the land itself had been drained of all life in a single heartbeat.
"Ren!" she cried out.
From within the raging flames—
A figure rose.
And then—
"Domain Expansion: Shining Sea of Blossoming Feasts."