For Her Own Use

"I take back what I said, girl!" Ryuma's expression turned serious. The Black Blade Shusui let out a strange hum, actually drawing in all the sword aura scattered through the air. That was this blade's greatest strength: it could concentrate all power onto itself, multiplying the might of its swordsmanship.

Ryuma roared and brought his sword down. The slash nearly cleaved both Absalom and Doctor Hogback in two. Trees were uprooted by the sword wind, and the gravestones in the cemetery, along with the zombies hiding inside them, were swept into the air.

"108 Grievances! Three-Lifetime Regrets!" Ryuma shouted with all his strength. "Life-Ending, Thought-Ending, Eternal Fall to Yomi!"

A hundred dragons roared within the vortex of sword aura, while ghostly fires of the dead scorched heaven and earth. It blasted toward Kuina from an unbelievably vicious angle.

For a moment, even Miming could not help wanting to intervene. Against sword aura like this, anyone with even slightly weaker resolve would collapse outright. Worse still, this sword aura devoured the opponent's sword aura to empower itself. This was a sword style only the dead could wield!

Yet Kuina's determined expression made Miming's hand stop on the hilt.

Some sword techniques could not even cut paper, yet they could cut steel.

Perhaps she did not have enough strength, but she could cut Yomi, cut fate, cut the future. Because of Ryuma's strike, she felt it—she should have died, yet she was still alive! If that was the case, what was there left to fear?

"I Am Asura!" Kuina suddenly shouted, causing the pouring sword aura to stall slightly. Then she thrust her blade forward, tearing a gap through the sword wind.

Ryuma suddenly felt a tremor run through Shusui in his hand, as though it had been bent.

"Impossible!" Ryuma lost