Escape

The Drill Vines shot straight at Mashiro, faster than the spearheaded vines before them and at trickier angles.

Three drills attacked high, middle, and low at once, cutting off every avenue of escape.

Mashiro trusted her judgment and let the Drill Vines strike her body.

Her left chest, abdomen, and right leg were hit simultaneously.

The Drill Vines began spinning rapidly the instant they touched her skin, trying to bore through her defenses.

But the spear-shaped vine that had struck her left shoulder earlier had failed to leave a wound, and the result was the same now. The drills spun madly against her skin, leaving only a few faint white marks.

Hanami looked startled, but had no time to ponder the reason.

Mashiro's defenses kept improving throughout the fight. The second strike of the same type of attack was always weaker than the first.

Mashiro reached back and seized the bases of the Drill Vines. Cursed energy poured backward from her palm, following their internal grain to the source and surging straight toward Hanami's body.

Hanami abruptly severed the vines. Clear sap spurted from the cuts, and the severed vines withered in Mashiro's hand.

At the same time, Mahito's voice came from behind her to one side, so close it was almost against her ear.

"What are you grabbing?"

A pale hand reached for the back of Mashiro's neck from the side, all five fingers spread, their tips still transformed into bone spikes.

While Hanami dragged him deeper into the woods, Mahito had actually torn his only remaining left arm from his shoulder again and launched it as a ranged weapon, while his main body continued retreating with Hanami.

The arm finished reconstructing itself behind Mashiro to one side. From fingers to wrist, forearm to shoulder, it regrew a complete limb at an astonishing speed.

Mahito had torn off his entire left arm to use it as a projectile.

Without even turning her head, Mashiro thrust Murasame diagonally backward. The silvery blade pierced the palm with pinpoint accuracy.

After piercing the palm, the blade continued forward, its tip about to reach Mahito's wrist.

Mahito's palm deformed after being pierced. A mouth split open in its center, filled with tiny, barbed bone teeth. It bit down on Murasame's blade, trying to clamp it in place.

At the same time, two new bone spikes grew from either side of the opening in the palm, curving around the blade to stab at Mashiro's sword-holding wrist.

Mashiro jolted her wrist. The high-speed vibrations produced by sound waves made Murasame instantly shatter the bone teeth. Then she kicked backward with her right leg, striking Mahito's wrist precisely.

The instant the kick landed, Mahito's wrist transformed into soft tendrils that wrapped around her ankle. They were too weak to restrain her.

But Mahito would never remain fixated on restraining someone. What he wanted was always slaughter.

Each of his five fingers transformed into a miniature bone blade, aimed at her Achilles tendon, and sliced down.

The bone blades cut into her skin, leaving five wounds so shallow they were barely visible.

Click, click.

Mashiro ignored the insignificant wounds on her heel. As she caught Murasame in her left hand, she slashed horizontally, the silvery blade sweeping across Mahito's forearm.

The blade cut into muscle, but he deliberately deformed himself to evade it again.

Before the edge reached him, Mahito's arm split open to create a passage, letting the blade pass through its center. He withdrew behind Dagon's wall of water unscathed.

"Interesting." Mahito pulled back his left arm and retreated behind Dagon.

Intense curiosity filled his face. "I've used my cursed technique on you so many times, yet your body won't change at all. I can't even budge it. Why is that?"

"Oh, so you've already used your cursed technique? I didn't feel a thing."

Mashiro straightened up, twirled Murasame once in her left hand, and transferred it to her right.

The five wounds on her heel had already begun healing. New skin covered them before any blood had much chance to flow.

"You came all this way to save your companions? What a waste of your lives."

In the few seconds the two sides faced off again, Blue blasted clean through Hanami's massive barrier formation.

The blue-black sphere of gravity smashed into the vine curtain head-on. Hundreds of layers of interwoven plant fibers were torn open in the center, leaving a massive hole. Every vine struck by Blue was crushed down to the atomic level by gravity and vanished.

In that single second.

Dagon activated the Water Escape Technique, and vapor gushed from cracks in the ground.

A salty, fishy-smelling mist enveloped the entire edge of the dense forest, so thick that no one could see their own hand.

The mist interfered with Mashiro's cursed energy perception. Hanami's and Dagon's cursed energy traces mingled together, making it impossible to distinguish who was where.

Mashiro did not stop to wait for the mist to clear.

She charged into it and slashed horizontally with Murasame, the blade reaching Hanami's retreating back.

The slash cut into the left side of Hanami's torso without hitting anything vital. As the blade entered, Hanami twisted away, evading most of the strike.

As Mashiro pulled her sword free, she turned her wrist, dragging the blade sideways through Hanami's body.

Hanami's left arm was severed completely, leaving nothing below the shoulder. Roots still writhed at the stump.

Satoru Gojo walked up from behind Mashiro, his fingertips still held in the position he had used to fire Blue. His gaze pierced the mist from behind his sunglasses, sweeping over the fading silhouettes of the fleeing cursed spirits.

Hanami had only a right arm left and held Jogo tightly with it. Mahito trailed at the rear, dragged along by Hanami's vines, both arms severed at the shoulders and regenerating. Dagon's tentacles had been caught in Blue and hung limply at either side.

"Oh wow, they're fast!" Satoru Gojo raised a hand to his brow and peered into the distance.

Mashiro did not answer. She stood where she was and drove Murasame into Hanami's severed arm on the ground.

The blade hummed. The severed arm turned to ash, and an enormous surge of cursed energy flowed through the blade into her body.

They really had escaped. It was not that she did not want to pursue them.

The mist still lingered. Hanami's cursed energy had blended into the entire mountain forest, while Dagon's Water Escape Technique masked all the residual cursed energy.

Mahito had used Idle Transfiguration to animate all the broken branches and debris on the ground, turning them into a dozen or so little bugs that scurried in every direction and muddled the last clues to their trail.

A few seconds later, all four cursed energy signatures vanished completely into the forest.

"They got away." Mashiro withdrew Murasame into her body and turned around.

"That wasn't your fault."

Satoru Gojo walked over to her and glanced down at the withered remains of the vines. "The plant person traded a left arm for room to escape, and the sicko used both arms as disposable supplies."

"That octopus must have specifically practiced hiding cursed energy with the Water Escape Technique. They must have rehearsed this coordinated retreat plenty of times beforehand."

He nudged the debris left on the ground with his foot.

"They never intended to fight you in the first place. Every move was meant to buy time so they could pull out."

He paused, his gaze settling on Mashiro's face from behind his sunglasses.

The wheel whirring above the girl's head gradually slowed, then finally stopped.

A flicker of curiosity passed through Satoru Gojo's eyes, but he still had no intention of pressing her for answers.

"Feel like you missed an opportunity?"

"Not really." Mashiro looked away and stretched. "They got away, but they paid a hefty price. At least they won't be able to cause trouble for a while."