It was good that she had come.
Hoshino smiled faintly, took another cherry blossom petal between her lips, her long ears drooping as she turned around.
"Ridiculous."
"Then let me sink into it. Don't stay away—come closer to me instead... Mm, could it be that you want to sink with me?" Ch'en saw a vivid flush appear on the shrine maiden's cheeks, seemingly an expression of bashfulness, but there was clearly something wrong with that look.
Please act normal. You're scaring me.
"Fine. Come sink with me, then." She stood up. "I'll make this world into what I want it to be with my own hands."
She vanished.
The enormous fox threw back its head and howled, yet it had become nothing more than background scenery.
Ch'en's pupils immediately shrank to pinpoints. She drew her blades and slashed, and the twin swords struck something in midair with a clang, as though blocked by some unseen barrier. The shrine maiden's swords were lying on the ground beside her, so how had she...
She looked ahead.
The sharpest parts of the two blades were caught between palms, seemingly cutting into bone, yet she had caught them firmly.
The shrine maiden still wore that vivid, captivatingly bashful expression, but her eyes were utterly empty.
She had gone insane.
She had absolutely gone insane.
Surging strength traveled through the blades. Ch'en discovered that she had been controlled in turn, even her weapons slipping beyond her command. It was utterly inconceivable, beyond anything Ch'en considered common sense.
Ch'en had no choice but to treat her like one of those violent criminals high on drugs.
Both swords flew from her hands.
Ch'en drew a plain and unremarkable third sword. It was a standard Lungmen Guard Department sidearm, pitch-black and utterly insignificant compared to her other weapons.