"Act two, Shameful Bedding..."
Okkotsu's body suddenly became unbearably heavy. He felt as though his limbs had been filled with lead, his movements several times slower than usual. Black spots began appearing on his skin.
Those black spots spread from his arms to his shoulders, then from his shoulders to his chest.
An eerie chill enveloped his heart.
"Yuta!!!"
The Shikigami Rika let out an anxious roar.
Her enormous white body began lunging frantically at Lu You. The scattered smaller Shikigami flew past on beating wings like mosquito missiles, thick, sharp claws slashing down at him head-on.
Lu You remained expressionless, steady as a mountain.
"Act three, Broken Fish Abyss."
The earth beneath the two men and the Shikigami vanished.
Their bodies instantly plunged into an endless expanse of icy, ink-black water.
The water was extremely dense and bone-chillingly cold, its chill nearly freezing their limbs stiff. Darkness swallowed their vision, and all they could hear was the roar of surging currents.
Rika's phantom form struggled wildly in the water. She could not drown, but the water's terrifying pressure restrained her movements.
Separated by a stretch of darkness, Lu You and Okkotsu looked at each other underwater.
Okkotsu frowned deeply.
"Act four, Final Act, Thread-Cutting Shears, Blood-Stained Throat."
Lu You smiled and walked out of the deep water.
Or rather, the deep sea moved aside for him.
The ink-black currents solidified beneath his feet, as though he were stepping on congealed darkness. He pressed his right index and middle fingers together, condensing a slender white thread.
That movement...
Was it a beheading?
White threads wound around his fingertips. They swam through the water like living snakes, instantly piercing the ink-black depths and winding around Okkotsu's neck.
The moment the threads touched his skin, Okkotsu felt a chill unlike anything he