Kira ran straight at Hideyoshi, hands firmly gripping her sword and sheath, before drawing it in one smooth motion.

"What?"

Hideyoshi hesitated as the air suddenly became thin and the space around Kira became distorted. The distortion was centred on the black katana she held, which had a blade darker than midnight. It didn't reflect any light, instead seeming to devour it. Just looking at this katana, he felt as if he might also be swallowed whole.

Hideyoshi gulped. He'd been through dangerous fights before, but always with his Master by his side. This time, he could only rely on himself. His cultivation could be called fairly good among the Murasaki clan for his age, having reached Core rank at nine years of age. At fifteen years old now he had a decent grasp on his own strength.

Kira, on the other hand, had combat experience that he could only dream of. Knowing that she was at a disadvantage, she knew that it was imperative that she catch him off-guard somehow. The fact that they were already face-to-face meant that her options were limited and was why she chose now to reveal her black katana.

Constrained by the narrow confines of the alleyway, Her attacking options were limited. With this in mind, she used the most domineering cut that made full use of the deadly aura of the black katana while being, at the same time, being the humblest of attacks, the overhead cut.

While Kira had trained with this unique blade for a decent amount of time and was used to its effects, to Hideyoshi, who was experiencing it for the first time, it felt as if a Demonic Void Beast's black talon was descending on him with full force, splitting the air asunder as it left a trail of nothingness. He felt paralysed by the pure pressure of it.

Hideyoshi had to be commended for not breaking under the pressure right then and there. Even so, he made the mistake of trying to block the attack head-on, crossing his daggers above him to catch the blade. As soon as the katana made contact with the pair of daggers, the pressure on him seemed to increase exponentially, as if the blade itself was hungering for his blood. Eventually, the katana broke through Hideyoshi's trembling guard, scoring a cut on his arm.

Although it was only a small nick, in that instant, Hideyoshi experienced the most disconcerting sensation he had ever felt in his life, that of his Soul Energy being forcefully ripped from his body through the wound and into the blade. No matter that it was a small amount, it was enough for him to develop a certain wariness of that black katana, perhaps even fear.

'From the look on his face, this blade's effect must really be terrifying. But, if he knew the limitations it places on me, he might not be so afraid.'

Hideyoshi wasn't very good at hiding his emotions. When had he ever needed to? Using this knowledge, Kira pressed her offensive, with each strike, getting one step closer to her current goal.

After dodging several attacks and keeping his distance, Hideyoshi finally realised what happening, but by then it was too late. With one last overhead cut, Kira forced him backwards, out of the shadows of the narrow alleyway and into the light of the main street. Now that she had some room to move, Kira lashed out with a wide horizontal sweep, forcing Hideyoshi to nimbly hop several steps backward and cementing her position on their new battleground.

Having finally come out into the open, Kira felt much more at ease. She didn't realise earlier how much the stifling alleyways had made her feel trapped. Hideyoshi, on the other hand, was relieved to have more room to avoid that deadly, black blade and made a firm intention never to go anywhere near it, without a decent plan at least.

Flipping backward another few metres, Hideyoshi once again threw out his daggers which were covered with crackling blue energy.

'Doesn't he know any other moves?'

Kira wondered. That said, while she didn't have a better answer to it, seeing it coming for a change, she was able to deflect the daggers to the sides. As she refocused on Hideyoshi, she saw a puzzled look on his face. Quickly glancing at the grounded daggers, she saw that they were dull and lifeless, without a trace of their previous energy.

'That energy must be a core element of his Skills.'

She thought, followed by...

'He really really doesn't know how to hide his emotions.'

Her slight satisfaction at shutting down his Skills was short-lived as Hideyoshi reached into his purple cloak and withdrew six daggers skillfully held between his fingers, each with a different size and shape, each carefully crafted and each crackling with blue energy. Swinging his arms, one after the other, he threw the daggers at Kira.

With that many daggers flying at her, Kira's first thought was that she wouldn't be able to deflect them all. In this kind of high-pressure scenario, her highly-honed battle sense and reflexes kicked in. Dodging wasn't an option as at least two of the daggers were flying along unnatural trajectories, blocking off her escape routes. With the black katana in her grasp, she also didn't have access to any of her defensive Skills.

'Then I'll have to give myself more options.'

Instead of immediately defending herself, and to Hideyoshi's utter amazement, Kira stabbed her black katana into the ground to her right. With the flurry of daggers almost upon her, Kira was already drawing her twin dragon-motif katana as she crouched down next to the vertical black blade. A flash of gold crossed her pupils as she released a Wind Rending at the incoming daggers.

However, it wasn't quite enough to stop the entire barrage that whistled through the air. Two of the daggers were stopped by the black katana and, with a clang, fell to the ground, lifeless. The third sliced through the air above her head while the fourth left a gash on her cheek as it flew past, numbing the side of her face. The fifth and sixth daggers, one of which was particularly broad, were directly deflected by her Wind Rending.

What she didn't anticipate was, hidden in the shadow of the broad dagger, there was a seventh, thinner dagger which slipped through her defences and impaled her left shoulder, it's crackling, blue energy numbing her entire arm down to her fingertips. Kira gritted her teeth.

'Damn, I was careless.'

This wasn't necessarily due to a misjudgement on Kira's part. Rather, her standards for herself were simply far beyond an ordinary person's. Very few people would have been able to do as much as she'd done in that minimal space of time, and certainly none at her cultivation level.

It just so happened that Hideyoshi had intended for that dagger to hit her leg, numbing it to reduce her mobility. But because she crouched down, it instead hit her shoulder, an occurrence that could only be called bad luck.

Hideyoshi didn't have time to dwell on his luck as Kira's Wind Rending, which easily deflected his energy-charged daggers, created ripples in the air as it flew at him. His instinct, through years of training, was not to try and dodge, but instead he felt out the positions of his other daggers and, with a flash of gold across his pupils, released his Skill.

'Lightning Step.'

Kira didn't feel any pain from her injured areas, as they were both numbed by the crackling energy, but her shoulder was a cause for concern. She knew that she wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding if she removed it now. She also didn't really have time to contemplate her situation before noticing that Hideyoshi had vanished from his previous position.

'Shit.'

Having seen it a few times now, Kira had some idea of how his vanishing Skill worked. Ruling out the thin dagger embedded in her shoulder, she spun around, slicing out with her black katana which she still held in her right hand. Her blade cut only air and, seeing the two daggers behind her, she immediately turned her gaze and her guard upwards.

Sure enough, along with the broad dagger, the other dagger which had been deflected by her Wind Rending was another one that Hideyoshi intended to be blocked. For only when it was deflected from its course, it had the unique ability to be sent soaring into the air, only to land directly on its intended target. At the same time, it was the perfect target to Lightning Step to.

Knowing that he held the element of surprise and that the black katana was basically out of the way, Hideyoshi didn't hold back and released his strongest Skill.

'Lightning Fang!'

With a thunderclap, the crackling blue energy around the dagger in his right hand became extremely vicious and lashed out at the air as its colour changed from blue to a bright yellow. The energy increased in volume, tightly wreathing the dagger like a cloak with a volatile form that sparked off before joining into itself again. The overall shape of the energy-cloaked dagger was one that was several times larger than before with several spikes of lightning rippling along its edge.

With this Skill active, Hideyoshi slashed at Kira as he fell from the sky. Unable to change positions, Kira narrowed her eyes as she met his attack head-on with her own weapon, simultaneously releasing her own Skill which had proven invaluable so many times before.

'Rejection!'

The two Skills clashed in a blaze of energy as sparks flew everywhere. However, with just one arm, Kira wouldn't normally have been able to withstand an attack of this level with her physical strength alone, especially when Hideyoshi also had gravity on his side. This was where the true power of Rejection showed itself. With one last push, Kira just about managed to force Hideyoshi away from her about 2 metres.

As a purely defensive Skill, as long as the difference in strength between the two Skill users wasn't too big, it would always have at least some effect. As to the difference in Skill strength...

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Kira didn't have a chance to spit out the large mouthful of blood that had risen up from the backlash from resisting such a powerful Skill, when Hideyoshi vanished again.

Just as Kira had been paying close attention to his Skills, Hideyoshi had also been observing her moves, waiting for an opportunity to exploit the moment when she felt safe.

Naturally, Kira had been keeping that fact that he would go for the dagger in her shoulder, should the opportunity arise, in the back of her mind, so she wasn't completely unprepared.

Even so, the situation was dire. As Hideyoshi reappeared and ripped the dagger from her arm with his free hand, she pivoted to face him as he cut down with his Lightning Fang.

'Time. That's all I need, time.'

Despite all the odds being against her, Kira believed that she could figure a way out of this situation given the chance. With that mind-set, she raised her katana between them, knowing full well that, without her Skill to reinforce it, it was a pathetic defence.

The two blades clashed once more but this time the difference in offensive and defensive strength was just too great. As Kira's sword arm was knocked aside and Hideyoshi prepared his killing blow, Kira bet everything on one last movement.

Dropping her sword, she hopped backward. Her movement couldn't completely avoid Hideyoshi's Lightning Fang, which scored a deep gash across her cheek and along her left arm. Reaching behind her, she pulled out that black katana which she had left there earlier and raised it to block his follow-up strike.

Seeing Kira once again hold that terrifying weapon made Hideyoshi's heart falter but he didn't allow himself to hesitate. He had her under pressure which he was certain that would break her if he kept it up.

When these blades, black and golden-yellow, clashed, however, the difference compared to using her normal katana was like that between heaven and earth. The black katana greedily devoured the yellow energy coating the dagger like a ravenous beast, the energy peeling away from the dagger in streams only to vanish into the void that was the black blade.

At the same time, Hideyoshi felt terror as the black blade felt like it was trying to devour his soul. Similar to Kira's Burning Soul, Hideyoshi's Lightning Fang was a type of persistent Skill that required constant refreshing of its Quintessence to remain active. As such, there was an inextricable link between him and his dagger. Sustaining it for the previous three attacks had already left him feeling spent and now the black katana was forcefully draining what remained of his Soul Energy.

Kira, on the other hand, didn't know that it was having this strong of an effect. She only thought to use it to dispel his Skill which was a constant threat on her life in her partially-disabled state. Her surprise came when she held the sword and feeling suddenly returned to her left arm and face. The sharp pain from her wounds caused her to gasp but, at the same time, sharpened her thoughts and she came to a sudden realisation.

'The paralysis must be caused by the energy infused into the daggers, energy that got stagnated by this sword.'

Even though her arm was still injured from Hideyoshi's previous attack, at least now it wasn't completely useless.

The pressure exerted by the black katana, in turn, relieved some of the pressure on Kira herself as Hideyoshi forcibly dispelled his Skill or risk it overdrawing his Soul Energy. Not one to let an opportunity like this slip by, Kira grimaced as her wounded left arm once more gripped the hilt of her blade and she moved in to attack.

Hideyoshi wasn't in a good condition either, having used a considerable amount of Soul Energy for his Lightning Fang and even more as Kira's dark blade indirectly attacked his energy reserves. Right now, he could barely muster the strength for a few more Lightning Steps to try and finish the fight quickly.

Kira, unaware of the entirety of his desperate situation, wasn't nearly as energy-fatigued but her injured arm was causing her constant pain, making it difficult to think clearly.

'I think I have more Soul Energy than him but it doesn't matter. If he uses that Skill again, I need to have this sword ready to stop him.'

Kira thought as she moved in. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi stabilised his churning Soul Energy and used his Soul Sense to feel out the location of his remaining daggers. The energy he imbued in them wasn't that much at his level so they wouldn't retain it for long. His pupils flashed gold as Kira's blade came down.

Even though Kira had seen it several times now, the fact that there existed a Skill that allowed seemingly instantaneous movement was still wondrous to her and she couldn't help but think that if she had an ability like that, she would've been able to save her Takanashi Clan.

'Enough time for that later. Focus on the battle.'

While Hideyoshi had been using his Soul Sense to track his daggers' locations, Kira had been mentally memorising their general locations. Since she had an inkling of how his Skill worked, she turned instantly to face him as he removed a dagger from the ground.

Not expecting Kira to react that quickly, and with three daggers in hand and limited energy, Hideyoshi knew that his next move would be his last. Even though he had trained for most of his life since being adopted by the Murasaki Clan, his fighting style relied heavily on his Skills. In terms of pure weapon technique, he'd realised since the moment she'd dealt with his dagger barrage that he was no match for Kira.

Gripping his daggers tightly in one hand for a moment, he threw them at Kira in succession.

With her mind somewhat clouded by pain, Kira couldn't think beyond deflecting what she needed to. When the first dagger instead flew past her, she realised that she'd been duped as Hideyoshi vanished from in front of her.

At that moment, her body moved on its own, the years of training in the Takanashi Clan deeply ingrained in her muscle memory. What rose to the surface at this point was specifically the techniques for dealing with multiple opponents.

Her left arm dropped to her side only to rise again, hand tightly holding the sheath of her sword. As she brought her left arm us to block Hideyoshi's incoming attack. Although she was injured, Hideyoshi's attack was focused more on speed than strength. Meanwhile, her right arm holding the katana slashed out, deflecting the second dagger, removing its crackling energy.

As his attack was dealt with, in that instant, Hideyoshi had a sense of being completely outclassed, but he wasn't the type of person to give up that quickly and continued with this combo attack which he had practiced enough to do with his eyes closed.

Kira suddenly felt the resistance against her left arm disappear. At the same time, as the last dagger was about to reach her, Hideyoshi appeared holding it and rapidly changed the angle of attack. At such a close distance, Kira didn't have time swing her sword, instead taking a risk as she dropped the black blade to the ground and pivoting while crouching to make herself a smaller target and buying an extra moment. As she raised her left arm holding the sheath to meet his attack, a flash of gold raced across her pupils as her Skill, One Leaf Splits The Wind, was released.

When Hideyoshi's last desperate attack hit her sheath, it felt as if he was hitting a solid rock wall and his arm was numbed for a moment as his attack bounced off. This moment was more than enough for someone like Kira who quickly grabbed the black katana off the ground, not caring that she was holding it backhand, and sliced towards him.

You had to commend Hideyoshi for not panicking at this moment. Kira's attack would have completely disembowelled him were it not for the fact that he raised his other dagger to block. That said, it was a rather poor block and, as Kira broke through it, her attack instead cut through his thighs causing him to collapse on the ground.

His efforts to get up were stopped as the tip of that black katana was held centimetres from his face, its tyrannical devouring aura enough to make him stop struggling.

"Now, let's see the face under that hood. If I'm killing someone, I at least want to know who they are."

With the tip of her sword, Kira skilfully flipped up the hood of Hideyoshi's purple cloak and was momentarily startled.

"Now do you remember me?"

Looking up at her was the panting face of the young man she'd met at the night market, the one who'd assisted her at the dagger shop.

'Gods above, you sure have a twisted sense of humour. First Oda's son and now him.'

Previously, in her old life, she was always clear on who her enemies were and she'd felt no sympathy for them. Now, for the second time in succession, not counting the crazy, purple-cloaked guy, she'd ended up having to sincerely fight against people who didn't seem to be bad at heart. While she didn't kill Oda's son, if she'd had to, and if she killed this young man now, she knew it would leave a bad taste in her mouth at best.

Caught up in this dilemma, Kira didn't move, something Hideyoshi couldn't help noticing.

"So, are you going to kill me or not?"

Even though he didn't have sufficient strength remaining to fight back, Hideyoshi still didn't beg for his life, something that wasn't lost on Kira and something that her pride as a warrior respected. Between this 'simple to say but hard to accomplish' gesture and the kindness he'd shown she previously, her heart softened a little, but she still didn't lower her sword.

"Listen, do you remember what I told you earlier?"

How could Hideyoshi forget? Only now, without the battle to distract him, all his uncertainty came rushing back.

"It can't be true, it just can't..."

"I'll admit, some of what I said were calculated guesses but what I'm about to say now is the absolute truth. The real truth is that your clan accepted a psychotic murderer and sent him to my home, for reasons I don't know, where he killed many innocent, young people. And that is something I'll never forgive your clan for, not until the day it's completely destroyed or the ones responsible die by my hand.

Secondly, I've decided that I'm sparing your life. I believe that you're not a bad person and you're a talented warrior. Under different circumstances we may have been allies. If I'm right, I'm sure that you want to find out the truth so I'm giving you the chance to do so.

Before you thank me, I have one condition, which is that your master doesn't make it out of here alive today. Besides the fact that it's unlikely either of us could have an impact on their fight now, I can't let you interfere. Your master killed someone very close to my uncle and now he needs to deal with his pain, by paying back the one responsible."

On hearing that his life would be spared, Hideyoshi was relieved but, once Kira mentioned that his Master would die, he nearly impaled his face on the black katana in his rush to try and get up but was forced back down by its threatening presence. Incomparable guilt welled up from inside him. He wanted to scream, to shout,

'It was me! I was the one who killed her! So please, spare him!'

But he found himself unable to do so. The battle between wanting to save the one who raised him and wanting to stay alive to search for the truth concerning his clan actually scared him by how close it was. He owed the clan everything, but that same loyalty made him want to prove Kira's accusations about it wrong. However, his Master was someone irreplaceable in his heart and he couldn't be certain that telling her he was the one who did it would mean that his master would be spared. It may just mean that both of them would die today.

After what seemed like an incredibly long time but was only the space of a few breaths, Hideyoshi spoke up.

"The one who killed her...was me. So please...spare my Master."

Hideyoshi couldn't take it. He knew that if he didn't at least try, he would live with the guilt for the rest of his life.

"I believe you. However, even though you dealt the finishing blow, compared to her, your strength is insignificant. All you did was just finish up work your master had already done. If he hadn't reduced her to a state where that was possible, you would've been dead in an instant."

Kira would never forget the feeling of strength and vitality that Kazumi gave off, even when she wasn't exerting herself, and it left a lasting impression on her. That someone like Hideyoshi could even scratch her was an inconceivable notion.

As Kira spoke, the wounds on her cheek and left arm were soundlessly pulling closed, the skin on either side of the cuts slowly stitching back together. Having progressed past the Skin Tempering stage of Life Energy cultivation, Kira had naturally started learning the signature technique that came with the breakthrough, Accel Heal.

Unlike the purple-robed killer she'd faced before, who'd healed up her attacks within a matter of seconds and who'd not even flinched at losing a hand, Kira was still a complete novice and it took all her focus to use it at this snail's pace, which made it using it in battle, especially one as fast-paced as she'd had just now, an unrealistic expectation.

Even though the black katana, with its intense devouring capabilities, gave the impression of being able to consume anything even being able to indirectly halt her Soul Energy from circulating, it actually had no effect on the Life Energy that flowed through her veins, a property Kira found both strange and possibly useful.

Kira and Hideyoshi both remained silent as there was nothing more to be said, a silence that was soon broken by a roaring that shattered the sky...