Maki Zenin had intended to stay where she was and wait for Akutagawa Shang to bring the cursed spirit back.
But she waited and waited, and Akutagawa Shang still did not return. Left with no choice, she could only go see what had happened herself.
As soon as she arrived, she saw the two sides facing off.
"What are you doing?" Maki walked toward the three of them, step by step, with her long blade resting on her shoulder.
At the sight of Maki, Mai Zenin's pupils contracted slightly. She discreetly shifted the muzzle of her revolver toward her, but her expression remained composed.
"Well, if it isn't Maki. What? Afraid he'd get bullied, so you came all this way to back up your pretty boy?" Mai's tongue was as sharp as ever. Even though she no longer had the advantage, she still had to sneer.
Maki Zenin ignored her and simply walked over to Akutagawa Shang.
"What happened?"
"Your sister wants to steal my stuff, and she said she'd gang up on me." Akutagawa Shang held up the half-dead cursed spirit in his hand for Maki to see, sounding utterly aggrieved.
"Enough, quit fooling around. As for you, Mai-how did spending all that time in the Zenin Clan turn you into such a delinquent? You've even learned to steal from people." Maki looked up at Mai and spoke slowly.
"So what? The rules only said we were free to exorcise cursed spirits. They never said we had to catch them ourselves. Why can't I steal one?" Faced with Maki's accusation, Mai Zenin merely curled her lip, utterly unconcerned.
"But you, Maki-we were planning to look for you. Who knew you'd deliver yourself right to us? That saves us the trouble."
"Now that you're here, this is easy. We'll settle it the old-fashioned way: a duel, a fair one-on-one fight. Whoever wins gets the cursed spirit. There are two of you and two of us. Perfectly fair, perfectly reasonable." Mai spun the revolver in her hand and spoke with complete seriousness, as though she had entirely forgotten saying they would gang up on Akutagawa Shang.
"Hey, didn't you just say you were going to gang up on me? You can't just change things like that." Akutagawa Shang stared helplessly at Mai as she spouted nonsense with a straight face.
"Did I say that? I don't remember-" Mai Zenin looked utterly innocent.
He was just about to ask Maki what she thought when she held out a hand to stop him.
"No need to make it so complicated. I'll handle this alone." Maki pointed at Mai Zenin, then at Kasumi Miwa.
"Hey, don't push yourself-" Akutagawa Shang hurried forward to try to talk her out of it.
"It's fine. Just keep an eye on the cursed spirit. Don't let it get away. Leave them to me." Maki waved a hand.
"Then be careful. Don't get hurt," Akutagawa Shang urged, still worried.
"Relax. I'll win. Besides, even if I do get hurt, I've still got you, haven't I?" Maki pointed her thumb at herself, cheering herself on.
Seeing how confident Maki was, Akutagawa Shang simply shut his mouth and quietly stepped aside with the cursed spirit in his arms, watching her.
Maki walked forward alone to face Kasumi Miwa and Mai Zenin.
"Are you sure you want to do this alone? Don't go crying when you lose."
"That's none of your concern. Which of you is first?" Maki simply watched them calmly.
"Huh-? Don't get so full of yourself. Go on, Miwa, teach her a lesson." The sight of Maki's unruffled face instantly infuriated Mai Zenin, and she shoved Kasumi Miwa forward.
"Huh-am I going first?" Caught off guard by the shove, Kasumi Miwa looked bewildered.
"Go, Miwa! How dare a mere Grade 4 Sorcerer act so arrogant? Beat the hell out of her!!!" Mai found a good spot to watch and kept cheering Kasumi Miwa on.
"Whew, all right." Kasumi Miwa took a deep breath, placed her hand on her tachi, and slowly assumed her stance.
At the same time, she silently repeated Mai's words to keep encouraging herself. A mere Grade 4 Sorcerer, a mere Grade 4 Sorcerer, a mere Grade 4 Sorcerer...
Then she raised her head and looked at Maki Zenin with a cold gaze.
"Come on."
Maki watched Kasumi Miwa, a hint of a smile in her eyes.
"Nice look in your eyes. Here I come, then."
Brandishing her long blade, Maki charged straight at Kasumi Miwa.
Kasumi Miwa drew her blade and slashed straight at Maki, only to have it knocked aside.
Then Maki swung her own weapon down at her. Kasumi Miwa immediately held her blade across her chest, trying to block the blow.
But only when the attack actually landed did she realize how absurdly powerful it was. The instant their weapons collided, the tremendous force buckled her legs and drove her knees lower.
Kasumi Miwa had initially gone into the fight expecting an easy win, ready to cut Maki down. But as the battle continued, she abruptly realized that the woman before her was ridiculously strong.
It was not just her strength. Her speed was inhuman too.
And despite wielding a polearm, she could swing it in broad, sweeping arcs even in the cramped forest, surrounded by obstacles.
Countless attacks rained down on Kasumi Miwa, moving so fast they nearly left afterimages, each carrying tremendous force.
Even with all her strength, Kasumi Miwa could barely fend them off. She could not find a single opening to counterattack.
If Maki had not deliberately wrapped the blade's head to blunt its edge, she would probably have died several times over already.
She turned to look resentfully at Mai, who was watching nearby, her eyes voicing a silent accusation.
Mai, you set me up-?!! Didn't you say she was just a mere Grade 4 Sorcerer, someone I could beat easily?
With that strength and that speed, you call her a Grade 4 Sorcerer? It feels like she could treat a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit like some stray by the roadside. Why is Tokyo Jujutsu High full of people pretending to be weak when they're this strong? What's wrong with them-!!! Kasumi Miwa complained incessantly to herself.
But in that instant of distraction, Maki seized the opening and sent Kasumi Miwa flying with a kick.
Thud-!!
The tremendous impact sent Kasumi Miwa flying several meters. She rolled over and over across the grass before finally coming to a stop.
She knelt on one knee. That kick had struck her squarely in the stomach, and the intense pain left her clutching her abdomen and dry-heaving, saliva spilling all over the ground.
"Hey, if you can't keep going, just give up and let Mai take over." Maki looked at the half-kneeling Kasumi Miwa and offered a kindly reminder.
But Kasumi Miwa gritted her teeth and shook her head, forcing her aching body slowly upright.
"You can still stand? Not bad." Maki watched Kasumi Miwa with a smile.
Kasumi Miwa gripped her sword hilt tightly and lowered her body. A circular cursed energy barrier with a radius of 2.21 meters spread beneath her feet, pale blue light flowing through it as she once again unleashed New Shadow Style: Simple Domain.
"Oh? New Shadow Style. Interesting." Rather than retreat before the deployed simple domain, Maki advanced straight into it.
Watching Maki approach step by step, Kasumi Miwa concentrated completely, her nerves stretched taut. She clutched her sword hilt, ready to draw and counterattack at any moment.
Yet when Maki reached her, the expected onslaught never came.
Crack-
With a sharp snap, Maki broke the head off the spear in her hands and hurled it at Kasumi Miwa.
"What-?!!"
Kasumi Miwa's pupils contracted sharply as she watched the spearhead fly toward her. She had not anticipated Maki's unexpected move at all.
The advantage of New Shadow Style: Simple Domain was that it could automatically counter any attack that entered its range.
But its weakness was now fully exposed as well: the simple domain's automatic counterattack could not discriminate between targets.
In other words, anything that entered it would forcibly trigger a sword-drawing counterattack.
As the flying spearhead entered the domain, it immediately triggered the counterattack mechanism.
Whoosh-!
Kasumi Miwa instantly drew her blade and knocked the spearhead away.
But in that brief instant when she was locked in place, Maki had already reached her.
She shot out both hands, caught the hilt of Kasumi Miwa's tachi with precision, and wrenched it from her grasp with a tremendous burst of strength, then flung Kasumi Miwa away with a backhand motion.
Having her sword taken away twice in a single day made Kasumi Miwa's eyes instantly redden. She felt so aggrieved that she nearly cried.
Fortunately, Maki could not bear to see anyone cry. She walked over to the fallen Kasumi Miwa and gave her neck a light tap with the staff, helping her sink into a deep "sleep."
Kasumi Miwa-down for the count.
She gently placed the tachi beside the unconscious Kasumi Miwa.
Then she pointed, raised her head, and shouted, "Now it's your turn-Mai Zenin-!!!!"
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