Kirishima Bupai slammed his right foot down on Hantengu's mouth as he continued to shriek.
"Mmph! Mmph!!!"
The shrieking stopped abruptly, turning into agonized whimpers.
Hantengu's shriveled cheeks deformed beneath the hard sole of the boot, and several yellowed teeth shot from the corner of his mouth, mixed with filthy blood.
"Upper Rank Four?" Kirishima Bupai ground his foot down, the faint cracking of bones setting teeth on edge. "If I remember right, you really like that whole accusing-yourself routine, don't you?"
Pressing his lips together, Kirishima Bupai carefully recalled the fucked-up things this beast had done.
They included, but were not limited to: "I stole something, but I didn't want to steal it. These hands stole it. You can't blame me! I'm innocent!"
"I killed someone, but I didn't want to kill them. It was my thought of killing that killed them. I wasn't trying to run away. These legs ran away. It's all these legs' fault."
"I'm innocent! I'm so pitiful!"
His recollection ended abruptly. Kirishima Bupai couldn't help marveling that only Hantengu could spout such absurd words and pull such ridiculous stunts...
"If that's what you like... then I'll give you something to be happy about." He moved his foot away and looked at Hantengu's aged face, mangled and smeared with tears and snot, with nothing but utter terror left on it.
At the sight, Kirishima Bupai's lips spread into a roguish grin without a trace of warmth. "Where are your clones? Let me see them!"
"Separation."
Clang!!
Yamato swept from its sheath, a deep, ghostly blue arc of blade light flashing through Kirishima Bupai's hand.
The blade targeted not Hantengu's physical body, but the tangled, twisted Blood Demon Art within him that sustained the power of his four major clones.
The instant the blade light swept