Six hours later, the sun was fully up, casting bright morning light across the ruined Sando compound.
Himiko stood in the center of the main hall, arms folded, crown spinning with clear impatience. Kuro paced nearby, wings buzzing irritably.
Just as Kuro opened his mouth to complain, a loud buzzing swarm poured back into the hall through the broken windows.
The fly-heads had finally returned.
Himiko's mismatched eyes narrowed. "You're late."
The fly-heads froze in mid-air, trembling.
Kuro tried to defend them. "They probably ran into—"
"I didn't ask for excuses," Himiko cut in sharply. "I gave a clear order. Report back by sunrise. The sun is already well above the horizon."
She stepped forward, voice commanding. "Every wasted hour gives the clans more time to prepare. I will not tolerate tardiness."
The fly-heads huddled together, making small terrified clicking noises.
Kuro rubbed the side of his head. "They're insects. They're not exactly built for speed."
Himiko turned her cold gaze on him. "Then train them to be faster. A general shouldn't have to make excuses for his troops."
She looked back at the swarm. "Report. What did you find?"
One of the larger fly-heads flew forward and started making rapid buzzing and clicking sounds, gesturing with its claws.
Kuro translated. "Northern ridge has a strong granite deposit. Eastern forest has several large fallen cedar trees. Western slope has a clay bed and a sand stream nearby. All locations are usable."
Himiko was quiet for a moment, then gave a single nod.
"Acceptable. But the delay is not."
She turned and walked toward the doorway. "Half the swarm comes with me to the northern ridge. The other half stays here and starts clearing rubble under Kuro's command. We begin now."
She paused at the threshold and glanced back. "And the next time I give an order, you will not be late again."
The fly-heads buzzed nervously in agreement.
Himiko stepped out into the bright morning sun, the swarm trailing behind her like a dark cloud.
Kuro watched her go and let out a long, tired buzz.
"…She's gonna be fun to work for."
Himiko walked across the cracked courtyard toward the broken main gate, her porcelain feet clicking against the stone. Half the swarm followed nervously behind her.
She reached the ruined gate and stopped.
Standing just outside was a tall figure wrapped in a tattered black haori. His glowing yellow eyes were locked directly on her.
Himiko's crimson and silver-black eyes met his without hesitation.
Neither of them moved.
Neither of them spoke.
They simply stood there, the Porcelain Queen at the threshold of her broken palace and the yellow-eyed assassin from the Hollow Blade just beyond her gate, staring each other down in the morning sunlight.
Hidden in the treeline, the four observers watched in tense silence.
Gojo no Kenji's hands trembled as he held the telescope. "…That's Kurosawa. One of the Hollow Blade's top associates. This is really bad."
The Zenin scout's face had gone completely white. "She's not alone. Kuro is still inside the hall. If they start fighting, it's going to be two-on-one."
Kamo no Jiro swallowed hard. "Even with both of them, it won't be easy. Kurosawa's taken down multiple Grade 1 sorcerers. He's terrifyingly strong."
The Abe onmyoji clutched his talismans, eyes wide. "If it turns into a real fight, this entire area could be devastated. The council's plans never accounted for something like this."
Kenji lowered the telescope, voice barely a whisper. "We were sent to watch one growing threat. In less than a week we've seen her recruit a special-grade general, and now she's standing face-to-face with one of the Hollow Blade's most dangerous men. If this turns into a fight… the power balance in this era just shifted permanently. And we still have three days before we can report it."
The four men fell silent, eyes fixed on the two figures at the gate, knowing Kuro could burst out at any moment and turn this into a deadly three-way battle.
Kurosawa's scarred grin widened as he looked Himiko up and down.
"A queen with no followers," he chuckled. "You call yourself a ruler but all you have is a bunch of brain-dead flies buzzing around your feet. Pathetic."
He took one lazy step closer, blade resting casually on his shoulder.
"What kind of queen rules over nothing? No army, no loyal subjects, just a broken doll on a broken throne. And now you've got one oversized bug as your general? How adorable."
He tilted his head, that jagged scar stretching across his face.
"Tell me, doll… what is a queen to a god?"
His yellow eyes burned with cruel amusement.
Himiko remained perfectly still, eyes cold.
Without turning her head, she called out in a calm, commanding voice, "Kuro. We have a problem."
From inside the hall came furious buzzing. A second later Kuro burst out through the broken doorway and landed heavily beside her, wings flaring aggressively as his compound eyes locked onto Kurosawa.
Now the three of them stood at the gate — Himiko regal and cold, Kuro buzzing with hostility, and Kurosawa grinning like a predator who had just found worthy prey.
Kurosawa's yellow eyes shifted to Kuro, grin growing wider.
"And look at this one. The mighty Fly King. What a joke. A special grade that rules over nothing but maggots. You're not a king, you're a glorified pest control problem."
"Enough," Kuro cut him off, voice low and dangerous. "You talk too much for an intruder."
His wings flared wide. "A human dares enter our domain and insult the queen? I will have my flies feast on your corpse."
Himiko's lips curved into a cold smile. "I agree. He must die."
The moment the words left her mouth, Kuro exploded forward, clawed hand raised for a crushing strike.
Kurosawa didn't dodge. The instant Kuro's shadow touched the ground, his black blade flashed.
An invisible thread shot from Kurosawa's shadow into Kuro's. Kuro's left arm jerked violently to the side, throwing his attack off course.
Kurosawa's grin widened. "Predictable."
He drew his second blade, holding both in a relaxed stance. Every time Kuro tried to close the distance, Kurosawa changed how the sunlight hit the broken walls, twisting the shadows and disrupting Kuro's momentum.
Himiko watched for only a few seconds before her eyes narrowed. She had seen enough.
She blurred forward, black grudge shards exploding outward from her crown as she joined the fight, turning it into a deadly two-on-one.
Kurosawa's yellow eyes flashed with genuine excitement. "Now this is more like it."
Himiko and Kuro started moving together like they had practiced it. Kuro deliberately kept his body low, sweeping his wings to kick up dust and ruin the sunlight's angle, making the shadows chaotic. The moment the light was disrupted, Himiko hurled shards high into the air above Kurosawa.
Two shards detonated in rapid succession. Violent soul ruptures slammed into him. Fresh grudge shards tore out of his body and began orbiting him.
Before he could recover, Kuro snatched one of the orbiting shards and smashed it into Kurosawa's face at point-blank range.
Kurosawa staggered for the first time, blood leaking from his mouth.
Himiko didn't give him a second to breathe. The two of them had found their rhythm — Kuro using his size and swarm to create openings, Himiko raining down precise soul fractures the moment those openings appeared.
The momentum had completely flipped.
Kurosawa wiped the blood from his lip, eyes now focused and angry instead of mocking.
"…Not bad," he muttered, spinning both blades into a tighter guard. "Not bad at all."
The fighting continued for a couple more minutes before
Kurosawa's voice turned low and unhinged. "Enough."
Cursed energy exploded out of him. Every shadow in the courtyard came alive, writhing like living things.
Hundreds of thick black threads erupted from his shadow, lashing out toward both of them at terrifying speed.
Himiko dodged most of them, but Kuro wasn't fast enough. Dozens of threads wrapped around his massive frame, pinning his wings, arms, and legs.
Kurosawa vanished in a burst of speed and appeared in front of the trapped Kuro, fist already pulled back.
Black Flash.
The moment his fist connected with Kuro's chest, everything slowed. A perfect spark of cursed energy ignited, turning pitch black. The impact bypassed most of Kuro's durability and struck his soul directly.
Kuro's body jerked violently. His wings crumpled. He crashed heavily into the dirt and didn't move.
Kurosawa stood over the fallen Fly King, chest heaving, blood running down his chin. His entire body trembled with adrenaline.
He slowly turned his glowing yellow eyes toward Himiko.
Rage ignited inside Himiko.
Her crown spun violently. Cracks spread across her porcelain knuckles as her fists clenched. For the first time, her regal mask completely shattered.
Kurosawa blurred toward her, still riding the Black Flash high. Himiko threw a Fracture shard, but he stitched her shadow, forcing her body to twist awkwardly, then slammed his elbow into her side with monstrous force, sending her flying.
He was relentless. Every strike was perfectly timed, every shadow manipulated to disrupt her movements. Himiko tried to fight back, hurling shards desperately, but he was too fast, too fluid. He beat her down with a barrage of blows that left new cracks spreading across her white surface.
With one smooth motion he swept her legs out from under her.
Himiko crashed hard onto her back.
Kurosawa was already above her, one black blade raised high, point aimed straight at her head.
"Die."
He drove the sword down.
Just before the blade reached her face, Himiko's hands shot up on pure reflex and caught the sword between her palms, stopping it inches from her forehead. The edge bit into her porcelain hands, cracks spreading rapidly across her fingers.
In that desperate moment, something inside her snapped.
With her left hand still gripping the blade, Himiko raised her right hand in a sharp one-handed seal.
Her voice rang out cold and furious.
"Domain Expansion: Court of Fractured Oaths."
The incomplete domain exploded outward.
A wave of freezing white porcelain surged from her in a fifteen-meter radius, flash-freezing everything it touched. Black pillars of jagged grudge shards erupted violently from the frozen surface.
Kurosawa was caught completely off-guard. The porcelain wave slammed into him and locked his entire body in place, freezing him mid-motion like a statue.
Himiko didn't waste a second. She shoved his blade aside, rolled to her feet, and immediately started attacking while he was trapped.
She hurled one grudge shard after another straight into his frozen chest. Each one detonated on impact, sending brutal soul ruptures tearing through him.
She stepped right up to the paralyzed Kurosawa and kept firing. Fracture after fracture slammed into him from point-blank range. Cracks spiderwebbed across his grey skin. Blood sprayed from his mouth and nose with every hit.
Himiko's breathing grew ragged. Maintaining even this incomplete domain was draining her fast — she knew she only had about thirty seconds before it collapsed.
But she didn't let up. She kept chaining the technique relentlessly, pouring every bit of her rage into the assault while Kurosawa remained helplessly frozen in place.
By the time the domain finally broke apart, Kurosawa was barely standing — a broken, bloodied wreck on the verge of death.
She instantly pulled the largest grudge shard she had left and hurled it straight at his head for the finishing blow.
But Kurosawa moved first.
With his last ounce of strength, he ripped a small black orb from inside his torn haori and crushed it in his fist.
A violent burst of dark smoke exploded outward, completely swallowing him. The smoke reeked of death and carried an overwhelming presence that made even Himiko flinch back.
When the smoke cleared… Kurosawa was gone.
Only a single black feather drifted down where he had been standing.
Himiko stared at the empty space, chest heaving, rage still burning in her eyes. She wanted to chase him, but her body was at its limit.
The moment the adrenaline faded, her legs gave out.
She collapsed onto her knees beside Kuro's motionless body, porcelain hands shaking as she gently touched the side of his shattered face.
"…Kuro…?"