Chapter 44: Mahito's Test
Boom!
As Clear Blue Sky came crashing down, the dark, rain soaked alley was instantly swallowed by golden red flames.
The heat was so intense that the falling rain evaporated on contact, turning into rising white mist that blanketed the narrow street. Although Mahito twisted his body at the very last second and barely avoided the center of the slash, the scorching aftermath still swept past him like the edge of a death sentence.
A section of his hair was burned black.
His expression darkened at once.
"Human, you're getting way too full of yourself."
Mahito's voice lost its playful lilt. His face twisted, his stitched features writhing with genuine rage.
As a Special Grade Cursed Spirit born from humanity's hatred of itself, he had stood at the top of the food chain from the moment he came into being. He was the one who played with souls. He was the one who decided the shape of fear and death.
Since when had it become the turn of a brat without a trace of Cursed Energy to lecture him?
He bared his teeth.
"I don't know what's wrong with that sword of yours, but none of it matters if you can't hit me."
With a furious roar, Mahito's body began to distort.
His arms swelled and split apart, transforming into multiple long, whip like blades lined with vicious hooks and barbs. They lashed wildly through the air like the tentacles of some deep sea monster, each one wrapped in dense Cursed Energy that tore the atmosphere apart with shrill cracking sounds.
"Polymorphic Soul Isomer, Body Repel!"
He shouted the name loudly, but beneath the arrogance was unmistakable caution.
His instincts were screaming at him.
He had to kill this human immediately.
So the moment he attacked, he chose a wide area assault that covered the entire alley, filling every inch of space with blade shadows and giving his opponent nowhere to escape.
"Die!"
Mahito grinned savagely, already picturing Yami shredded into chunks of meat.
But standing before that overwhelming barrage, Yami's face remained as calm as a still lake.
His breathing shifted.
The heat that had surrounded him a moment ago changed at once, becoming gentle, flowing, and almost weightless.
Though Yoriichi Tsugikuni's foundation lay in Sun Breathing, the source of all breathing styles, once Yami's assimilation had reached fifteen percent, he could already derive and imitate the qualities of other base breathing arts through Sun Breathing's principles.
"Total Concentration, Water Breathing."
His quiet voice vanished into the rain.
"Third Form, Flowing Dance."
At the exact moment the hooked blades were about to rip into his flesh, Yami moved.
His body seemed to dissolve into water.
He slipped through the dense storm of lashes with impossible grace, stepping left, turning right, ducking, gliding, pivoting. Every movement was perfect, every shift made at the precise instant needed, as though he had already foreseen the full path of every whip before Mahito even launched them.
He did not force his way through.
He flowed through.
Like water finding cracks between stone, no matter how sharp the rock, the current always found a road.
Mahito's pupils shrank.
"What?!"
He could not understand it.
This was a cramped dead end. Even an experienced Grade 1 sorcerer should have been torn apart by that attack. Yet Yami passed through it untouched, not a single cut marking his body.
And that was not the end.
The moment Yami crossed through the final gap and closed the distance to within three meters, his aura changed again.
The flowing softness of water vanished.
In its place erupted a violent, blazing heat even fiercer than before.
Water and fire switched in a single instant.
This was a combat rhythm Yami had tempered through repeated practice. He used Water Breathing's pliancy to evade, then shifted into Sun Breathing's explosive destruction the moment an opening appeared.
"Sun Breathing, Third Form!"
The Shiranui in his hand cut forward.
Golden red fire gathered on the blade and condensed into a deep crimson arc.
"Raging Sun!"
The slash flashed out.
It was too fast for Mahito to process.
He had not even finished retracting his transformed arms before the crimson line tore straight through his defenses.
Slash!
A massive wound split open across Mahito's chest.
Not only that, but the whip blades he tried to use as shields were severed the instant they touched the red light, as cleanly as paper sliced by a heated blade.
"Aaaagh!"
His shriek echoed through the rainy alley.
He stumbled backward, clutching his chest. Normally, such wounds would have been meaningless to him. His soul could be reshaped at will. His body should have already been knitting itself back together.
But it did not.
Golden red sparks burned along the edges of the wound, devouring the very foundation of his existence and locking his soul in place.
For the first time since his birth, Mahito understood what it meant to suffer.
"Impossible... this is impossible..."
He stared at the gash in sheer horror.
Idle Transfiguration was supposed to let him freely alter his soul, and through that, repair any damage done to his body.
But now the soul around the wound felt scorched solid.
It would not move.
It would not change.
It would not heal.
This human was his natural enemy.
Absolute restraint.
"It's still not over."
Yami's voice rang out again.
He gave Mahito no time to recover.
His foot slammed into the ground, and he shot forward like an arrow released from a drawn bow. Shiranui rose once more in his grasp, flames licking across the dark blade.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Mahito panicked completely.
If he took another hit, he would really die.
That realization shattered the last of his arrogance.
"This brat can kill me!"
Desperation twisted his face. He forced his hands into position, intending to gamble everything on deploying his incomplete Domain Expansion.
"Domain Expa"
But then he met Yami's eyes.
Those unwavering red eyes held no hesitation, no confusion, no fear.
Only judgment.
And in that instant, Mahito's courage broke.
He abandoned the attempt without hesitation.
Run.
He had to run.
His body exploded apart at once into countless tiny chunks of flesh that scattered in every direction.
This was his emergency escape method. As long as even one piece got away, he could survive.
"Trying to run?"
Yami's gaze sharpened.
The heat around him vanished, replaced by violent, crackling thunder. Golden red arcs burst across his body, and the puddles at his feet hissed into steam.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form."
He crouched slightly, right hand settling on the hilt. His entire body compressed into the stillness that came before a lightning strike.
"Thunderclap and Flash, Eightfold."
Boom!
A thunderous roar exploded through the alley.
Golden red lightning tore through the confined space in a savage series of flashes, each strike piercing through a fleeing fragment of Mahito's flesh with brutal precision. Thunder Breathing's speed and Sun Breathing's scorching soul destroying nature overlapped, turning the alley into a furnace of light and sound.
The smell of burnt flesh instantly filled the air.
Yet because of the twisted layout of the backstreets and the open sewer grate nearby, a few surviving scraps still slipped away.
Plop. Plop. Plop.
Several chunks dropped into the sewer water and vanished into the underground flow.
From the darkness below came Mahito's weak, hateful scream.
"Yami! I'll remember this! I'll definitely come back!"
Yami slowly returned Shiranui to its sheath. The lightning around him faded.
He did not give chase.
The sewer system beneath the city was too broad and too tangled. Tracking Mahito down there would waste time and expose Junpei to unnecessary danger.
Besides, today's objective had already been met.
He had crippled Mahito badly enough that the curse would not be causing trouble again anytime soon.
And more importantly, he had made one thing clear.
Mahito could bleed.
Mahito could fear.
Mahito could die.
Yami glanced at his own hand and let out a quiet sigh.
"Still not smooth enough..."
The switch from Water Breathing to Sun Breathing, then from Sun to Thunder, had worked. But to him, it still felt sluggish.
If the transitions had been even a tenth of a second sharper, none of Mahito's flesh would have escaped.
Still...
"It's enough for now."
He turned toward the mouth of the alley.
The rain had stopped.
Junpei Yoshino stood there in a daze, holding two bowls of ramen that had already gone cold.
He had seen everything.
An ordinary person could not perceive Cursed Spirits clearly, but Junpei had seen the blinding light when Yami swung his sword, and he had seen the monster that had haunted his nightmares flee in panic before him.
"Ya Yami kun..."
Junpei's voice trembled.
Not from fear.
From excitement.
From awe.
From the feeling of finally seeing light after walking too long in darkness.
"Sorry," Yami said as he approached, the coldness on his face melting away as naturally as snow under sunlight. "I let your noodles go cold."
He took the bowl from Junpei's hand and smiled faintly.
"As an apology, I'll treat you to something better next time."
Then, as if casually asking about tomorrow's weather, he added,
"By the way, do you have school tomorrow?"
Junpei hesitated, then nodded.
"Good."
Yami patted him lightly on the shoulder.
"I'll stop by your school too."
His tone was gentle.
But the light in his eyes was cold enough to cut steel.
"I'll help you clean up the rest of the trash."
.....
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