1.62: OutpyedI lifted my head.

  He was there again.Standing in the open.Smug and untouched.Smiling that same cold, mocking little smile.

  My gloves were fraying at the knuckles.My arms trembled.But I forced myself upright, fueled entirely by rage.

  “Give them back. Right now!” I snarled, my voice cracking.

  “Hm?” Mitsuhiko tilted his head. “Did I trigger a nerve?”

  He walked toward me casually…as if strolling through a parkas if I wasn’t even worth consideringas if I were an insect buzzing in his path.

  “Araaahhhh—!!” I screamed and charged, swinging wildly.

  He sidestepped with a zy smile, barely moving.

  “I don’t even need to attack you,” he said lightly.“You’re so weak.”

  I spun, trying to follow his voice……and smmed at empty air.

  “It’s honestly amusing taunting you,” he continued.“So pathetic. Are you crying in that helmet of yours? She told me that you were a complete crybaby.”

  I clenched my teeth, hot tears burning behind my eyes.I’d never admit it… never…… but I couldn’t stop the wetness from rolling down my cheeks.

  “SH-SHUT UP—!!” I howled, throwing my body into a flurry of roundhouse kicks.

  Was I actually doing a Tekku move?I’d literally never attempted anything like this before.But I didn’t know martial arts.I had no training.No discipline.Nothing.

  So I tried to mimic fighters I’d only ever watched on a screen.

  It was pathetic.It was desperate.It was all I had.

  “RUI—!!” my mind screamed. I can’t do this alone! I CAN’T!!

  But I persisted anyway.I had to.

  I threw everything I had at him… every kick, every punch, every ounce of leftover yokai strength in my veins. My limbs hurt. My lungs burned. My movements blurred beyond what should’ve been humanly possible.

  But still…

  I couldn’t nd a single hit on him.

  Not once.

  He dodged everything.

  Laughing.

  Taunting.

  Belittling me.

  My breaths turned ragged. The world swayed. My arms stung with fatigue.

  Rui’s traps had failed.Her backup pns had failed.Her army had failed.

  And like her…While it wasn’t especially clever or sophisticated… I had one trump card left.

  As I battered him with one hand, my other slipped into my belt pouch, fingers trembling through the dust and grit until…

  There.

  A small, cool object.Hard.Uncooperative.Like it didn’t want to be grasped.

  My legs were still churning desperately…Too tired to stop,too angry to give up.

  This trump card of mine…Would it be enough?

  Was I about to die anyway?

  SUSUMU!

  A voice thundered inside my skull.It was loud.Echoing...Like a war drum smashing through my panic.

  FIGHT!

  I hissed under my breath, a low growl vibrating in my chest.

  Mitsuhiko ughed again, his voice dripping with contempt.

  “Fool. This is becoming tiresome. This game is nearly pyed out. How disappointing… and yet appropriate. I expected nothing from you… despite that somewhat impressive spiritual focus.”

  My heart hammered violently against my ribs.Something inside me snapped...… or ignited…or both.

  I shoved my fingers harder around the object in my pouch.It resisted.But my anger shattered whatever held it back.

  At st…I gripped it.

  My fist closed tight around the stubborn thing, and I ripped my hand free.

  A silver light erupted.

  My arm blurred—Faster than I ever thought possible—So fast my shoulder nearly tore off—

  And my glowing fist smmed into Mitsuhiko’s smug face.

  BAM—!!

  He went flying across the pza.

  “YES—!!” I gasped, adrenaline surging as I sprinted after him.

  He staggered up, wiping at the blood trickling from the corner of his twisted smile.

  “Well… that was unexpected,” he murmured. “It seems I should take you more seriously.”

  He finally took a real stance.His feet pnted.His body angled.… Guard up.

  It was the first time I’d seen him treat me as anything other than a joke.

  He unched at me…a blur of cold precision.

  His eyes were merciless.His aura was freezing.

  But my rage burned hotter.

  BAM — BAM — BAM!!

  Our fists collided mid-air.Shockwaves snapped through the street.Somehow… I blocked his blows with one hand.

  And with the other…I kept swinging.

  THUD — THUD — SLAM — BAM

  Anger versus arrogance.Heat versus ice.Spirit versus sorcery.

  For the first time…

  We were actually fighting.

  Until now he had only been using his arms.

  But the moment he added his legs in…

  …I was done.

  A blur of kicks smmed into my guard, forcing me backward. He moved faster than me by a terrifying margin. My miracle-defense hand darted wildly, intercepting blows with blurring silver trails, but…

  It was failing.

  KABAM—!!

  My body smashed into the side of a parked car. The metal buckled behind me. My breath burst from my lungs in a harsh wheeze.

  No retreat.No escape.He was…… closing in.

  My counterattacks grew sloppy. Desperate. Weak next to the precise, surgical devastation of his strikes.

  He hit my ribs.My arms.My legs.Each blow was like a hammer made of freezing iron.

  “That hand of yours,” he mused, almost leisurely. “It’s as if it’s possessed by a spirit.”

  I dragged my aching arm back…and struck him across the face with the back of my fist.

  He barely flinched.

  Instead, he chuckled… and snatched my wrist with python-like speed.

  “If I pin you down and disarm you,” he said, tightening his grip, “you’re nothing.”

  His hand rose.

  “No—!”

  SNAP—!!!

  The pain was indescribable.

  White-hot.Explosive.My wrist shattered like gss beneath his merciless chop.

  I screamed…a raw, animal sound bursting from my throat.

  “D-DAMN IT—! DAMN YOU—!!”

  His cold smile didn’t waver.

  “I could kill you now,” he said quietly. “But you are far too amusing.” His fingers trailed casually along my trembling arm. “Instead… I’ll take you apart. Limb by limb. And when you’re a helpless pile of trash, we’ll talk about how foolish you were to oppose me.”

  His words stabbed deeper than his blows.

  “At least tell me,” he continued. “Why have you even bothered?”

  Because—

  Because—

  “I’LL TELL YOU WHY!” I roared, my vision swimming with tears and fury. “YOU KILLED REIKO!! BECAUSE OF THAT I HATE YOUR GUTS—!!”

  My anger detonated inside my chest. The jade bracelet bzed like a newborn sun, flooding my broken arm with burning light.

  The pain drowned under a surge of impossible power.

  My fingers……although shattered…opened.

  And my will poured out.

  “Killed her?” he scoffed, raising a brow. “You think that? Fool. I love her. I’d nev—”

  CRAAAAACK—!!

  He flew backward—HARD—He was flung across the pza like a ragdoll.

  And something else flew with him…

  A white, porcein-like object spiraling upward through the night sky, vanishing into the darkness.

  He crashed into the ground with a sickening THUD.

  I blinked in disbelief.

  The cat’s paw.My ridiculous little maneki-neko lucky charm.

  I didn’t think I would use it this way.But I knew the potential after it nearly concussed me.

  That was what hit him.

  That was what sent him flying.

  I’d lost my grip on it with a broken wrist.

  If it could knock me unconscious, then—

  Surely—

  SURELY—

  “He’s out!” I gasped, adrenaline and relief flooding me. “I—I did it!!”

  I sprinted toward his prone body, ignoring the blood soaking my glove from my ruined wrist.

  Reiko-chan—I beat him.I beat the bastard.

  I D I D I T!

  “I win!” I crowed, dancing beside him like a triumphant idiot, just like I had that morning when begging for my father’s attention. I was twerking at him, unleashing the whole obscene dance at his prone body, my hips thrusting. “I’ll save the girls… they’re probably in the tower…!!”

  “Oh, yes.”

  It was his voice.

  Cold. Calm. Amused.

  My whole body spasmed.

  I turned slowly.

  He was on his feet again… Dusting off his immacute suit.Blood trickled from a thin cut on his forehead, but he wiped it away like it was nothing.

  “I don’t know what trick you used just now…” he said casually, “but I saw something fly before I lost consciousness for a moment. I suppose it was an artifact of some sorts.”

  He chuckled…… a sound like knives sliding together.

  “Fascinating. You have some interesting tricks up your sleeve… Even though you’re useless.”

  My blood boiled.

  “HAH!! It was a cat’s paw!” I shouted, pure spite driving me. “A stupid good-luck cat’s paw!! My Maneki-Neko Fist. I beat you with THAT!”

  “I see…” His smile darkened. “That you would reveal something so crucial to your victory so easily… thank you.”

  He rolled his shoulders.

  “I won’t settle for destroying just your body,” he said softly. “For mocking me… I’ll tear your mind apart as well.”

  He snapped his fingers.

  And the world…

  Went totally bck.

  Relwing