This Is Bizarre

"Wait!" Seeing the tense standoff, Huan couldn't sit still. She immediately ran between the two and spread her arms. "You two, this isn't the time to turn on each other!"

Yura's scarlet eyes settled on Huan, her gaze indifferent.

That woman was clever, but sometimes she was just plain stupid.

Without the slightest hesitation, one of the spears around Yura transformed into a long whip and shot out. It crossed the ten-odd meters between them, and its wrist-thick shaft slammed into Huan's abdomen. Huan was knocked off her feet with a muffled grunt, then vanished from sight and plunged headfirst into the woods nearby.

That should wake her up. Yura looked at the man opposite her.

Mochizuki Gen's pupils contracted slightly.

What had that attack been? He couldn't see it at all. Even after secretly activating his technique, he still couldn't detect the invisible thing that had struck him.

There had been no hand seals, no telltale movements before the attack, no chakra fluctuations, not even the sound of wind being cut.

No, there had been a sound. It was just very faint.

Unless he listened closely, it was easy to miss.

"That attack just now..." Mochizuki Gen said. "Was it a blade? That was a beautiful sound. Your swordsmanship would rank among the top three in the entire history of the Kusanagi Clan."

Being able to make the sound of a blade swing that quiet couldn't be explained by swordsmanship alone.

"Paired with the Invisible Blade, your swordsmanship is truly dangerous."

"Who knows?" Yura smiled faintly. "Maybe it's a sword, maybe a spear, or maybe something else."

Because she came from the Kusanagi Clan, he'd assumed it was a sword. But by making it invisible, she kept her opponent from identifying the weapon. That made it impossible to judge the attack's range and trajectory, leaving them open to a strike.

In the bushes nearby, Huan emerged unsteadily, one hand clutching her stomach.

The force had been just right: enough to leave her baffled, not enough to hurt her brain.

With tears in her eyes, she looked at Yura, all aggrieved, then plopped down beneath a tree and muttered, "What a heartless woman." All the rapport they'd built over a day of getting to know each other had gone to waste.

Seeing that Huan didn't seem badly hurt, Mochizuki Gen breathed a sigh of relief. "It's a terrible disadvantage to have to estimate a weapon's length, width, and height. I'm within your range right now, aren't I? Most shinobi probably haven't even realized how deadly that is."

They were standing in a small clearing in the woods, less than thirty meters apart in a straight line.

"So you're going to stand there empty-handed without drawing a weapon?" Yura smiled faintly. "I was hoping you'd block a blow or two."

Mochizuki Gen shook his head. "I'm not good at swordsmanship, but I do know a little hand-to-hand combat."

"Oh?" Yura rested a hand on the hilt of Hongxia and tilted her head toward him, smiling. "Here I come."

Mochizuki Gen narrowed his eyes. In an instant, a powerful glimmer flared in them.

A dojutsu?

As he wondered, Yura launched her attack. The sixteen spears around her shot out together, like lurking vipers, silently streaking into the air. They changed direction midflight, then plunged down toward the area around Mochizuki Gen's head.

If he thought the weapon was a sword, then subconsciously he'd expect the attack to come from the front, not from above.

Yura was a devious woman.

In an instant, sixteen sounds of stone and earth being pierced rang out as Yura's spears struck the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Huan's heart tightened as she looked toward the clearing. Sixteen holes, each as wide as a bowl, pocked the earth around Mochizuki Gen. He stood in their midst, a faint glimmer in his eyes, completely unharmed.

Did she miss? Huan wondered.

"What is that?" Yura tilted her head, watching Mochizuki Gen standing there at ease.

She should have hit him, but somehow every attack had been deflected.

"Interesting." Yura chuckled, and the hair transformed into spears recoiled to her side.

"A spear?" Mochizuki Gen said, studying the weapons' faint outlines beneath the dirt. "No matter what kind of attack it is, it's ineffective against me. Swordsmanship and spearmanship alone can't defeat me."

Yura was certain he hadn't made any special movements during her attack. If anything, he hadn't moved at all.

Her hair transformed into a series of sickles that floated beside her.

Mochizuki Gen said, "How about we end this sparring match here?"

"You're the one who's incredibly arrogant, senior," Yura said.

As she spoke, all sixteen sickles slashed out at once, surrounding him and leaving him no room to dodge. The blades swept through the air in a frenzy, forming an endless tide of steel. Wave after wave of slashes came crashing down without pause.

In Huan's eyes, invisible slashes erupted through the air. A continuous chorus of shrill whistles filled her ears, while one vicious gash after another crisscrossed the ground around Mochizuki Gen. Amid the roar of the slashes striking the earth, dirt and stones flew everywhere.

That kind of assault could chop a person into minced meat.

In the midst of that frenzied dance of blades, the most astonishing thing was that Mochizuki Gen simply stood where he was. The weariness had vanished from his face, replaced by a shinobi's keen edge. A fierce glimmer shone in his eyes as he watched Yura, standing utterly unmoved like a reef amid a raging sea.

"I told you, no matter what kind of swordsmanship you use, it's ineffective against me," Mochizuki Gen said sternly. "That's enough, junior!"

Huan whipped her head around to look at Yura, afraid she'd lose her temper.

But to her surprise, Yura didn't seem angry.

She was crouched in midair with her hands cupping her cheeks, watching Mochizuki Gen with interest. She, too, hadn't moved an inch and looked perfectly at ease.

"You really are strong," Yura said with a faint smile.

As soon as she spoke, the storm of attacks abruptly stopped.

"You're frighteningly strong as well," Mochizuki Gen said. "With these Invisible Blades, few in the Shinobi World could withstand even one of your attacks."

If he hadn't been on guard, he could easily have died in Yura's first attempt to assassinate him.

No matter what kind of technique it was, it had to be activated before it could work.

With Yura's ability to turn invisible and her Invisible Blades, she was truly terrifying.

"Is that so..." Yura stood up. "I've more or less seen through your trick, too."

Mochizuki Gen's eyes narrowed. His technique had an extremely obvious tell when activated, and he couldn't hide it. But being able to see through it didn't mean she could counter it.

"A genjutsu eye?" Yura smiled. "No, a hypnotic eye."

Genjutsu and hypnosis were two different things.

"My dojutsu is called the Eye of Breaking Writing," Mochizuki Gen said, avoiding the question. "It can break all the techniques in the Shinobi World. That makes me invincible."

"Lying to me is one thing..." Yura said. "But do you really believe that yourself, senior? Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara are still alive."

A long silence followed.

Mochizuki Gen gave an awkward laugh.

Before he'd met those two men, he'd believed it himself.

Yura snapped her fingers, and a blue flame flickered at her fingertip.

Mochizuki Gen's expression turned grave. She could use Fire Style, too?

"I'm curious. If you faced Uchiha Madara's Fire Style—say, Majestic Destroyer Flame—could your technique deflect a sea of fire on that scale?"

After a moment's silence, Mochizuki Gen said, "Those two men are monsters beyond the ordinary. I'm human." Then he asked curiously, "Have you fought Uchiha Madara?"

Yura snapped her fingers, the flame at her fingertip dancing.

She would.

"You said you're skilled in this field, too, right? Your technique is a truly bizarre one, senior," Yura said with a light laugh. "Your technique altered and distorted my perception."

"Psychological Rule is a kind of mental technique, similar to an ability that can adjust the psychological distance between yourself and others."

"It can make your opponent unable to attack you—or, rather, unable to hit you."

"Swordsmanship requires considerable precision. A difference of a hair can lead to a miss by a thousand miles. All it takes is a slight distortion in perception to keep me from accurately locking onto my target."

"That's how something so bizarre happens. I think I've aimed correctly, but I actually haven't."

"Psychological Rule. That's a good name for it," Mochizuki Gen said. "You're right, that's what my dojutsu does. But so what? How will you break a technique that makes me invincible?"

"Senior, that's why I say you're arrogant." Yura rose to her feet and slowly drew Hongxia from her waist. "Since your attack targets my brain, this becomes very simple."

Simple? What was she going to do?

"Watch closely, senior. Don't even blink." Yura smiled faintly. Then she abruptly raised her sword to her chin and smoothly drove it up through her jaw, plunging the blade into her brain.

At that moment, Mochizuki Gen and Huan's eyes both widened as they stared at the scene in horror.

Blood bloomed before them in a brilliant display. The girl's sweet smile carried a faint, unhinged air of death.

Immortal body, man.

Yura twisted the blade, stirring her brain. Blood dripped from her small hand as her scarlet eyes fixed on Mochizuki Gen.

Under that inhuman gaze, Mochizuki Gen sucked in a sharp breath.

Was she still alive?

She had to be alive...

Yura let go, the blade still lodged in her head, and smiled faintly. "Senior, round two. This time, I won't cut the wrong thing."

Mochizuki Gen sucked in another sharp breath and immediately shouted, "Wait! I give up! I lost!"

Her brain had already been destroyed. How could he attack her brain's perception now?

Yura tilted her head, looking vaguely annoyed.

He'd surrendered too quickly. She hadn't even gotten to cut him once! She felt a little cheated...

Yura raised her hand and pulled out Hongxia, then slid it back into its sheath.

Fine strands of hair emerged from the wound on her chin and quickly stitched it shut.

As for the wound in her brain, she'd let her demonic energy heal it slowly. It was a little troublesome, but not a big deal. Her brain was more or less just a decoration now. Still, because it was connected to her soul, the false information her brain received could cause her true self to misjudge things.

In other words, her brain could be used to cast a genjutsu on her.

"You're a monster too, Yura," Mochizuki Gen muttered bitterly. "You're the bizarre one..."

"That's a very rude thing to say," Yura said, displeased.

Huan stared at Yura, at a loss for words.

"I'm sorry. That was rude of me, Lady Yura," Mochizuki Gen said. "As for the plan for this mission, we'll follow your lead."

Yura nodded.