*At a church inside the red world*

“The one with white dress on the left of 3rd row and the brown hair in office suit next to her” Lexar points to two women in crowd.

“Got it” Yuuko answers then jumps high.

With the strength recovered, Yuuko is able to fight with her full potential. She jumps 3 meter in the air then drops forcefully on a woman’s head. The gravity force with the stepping force push the head inside the body, smashing it into pieces in the process. She keeps jumping like that two more time to reach the target.

Lexar, who still keeps the “Potential” left eye, observes the whole battlefield. A change in the layout of the black flames occurs. The clones who were killed by Yuuko have the main body and other clones of same kind switch the position, and a replacement appears in the back. Yuuko killed one of the white dress clones so the target she is heading for is not the real one anymore.

“Yuuko, don’t kill the clone of the target. They will switch their positions each time you kill a clone.” The cat warns her.

Hearing the warning, the samurai girl, who is going to behead a clone of the office suit, moves the blade and cuts the arm only. She punches the clone to knock it down then charges toward her targets. A swift cut comes and two heads fly in the air. All the office suit women groan a few second then vanish.

“Keep it up! Their size has gone down by 5 people. Remember don’t kill the those who look same as the one you want to kill.” Lexar cheers for her achievement.

Giving a nod, Yuuko resumes her action by looking for the one her partner points out. The slaugther keeps going on and the crowd of ripped mouth victims become thinner and thinner. When the last woman falls down, the church hall is already dyed with blood.

“Good job! You are amazing, Yuuko. You really deserves a one-man army title.” Lexar praises.

“Hahaha, thanks. Your support really helped too. If it was not for you, this battle would be an endless struggle.” Yuuko laughs happily being praised.

“Ok. The underlings are now gone but the boss is not really defeated. Do not let your guard down yet, Yuuko.” He reminds her.

“Did you find anything about her?” She asks.

“The leader is outside the church, right behind the door. Something is very strange about her. It looks like she is expecting us to come out instead of coming inside. Apparently, there is something special about this church that makes she do not want to enter. What are you going to do?” The cat checks with his clairvoyance eye.

“It’s going to be a stalemate if we just stay here. Let us go outside and take a look first.” Yuuko brandishes her katana and approaches the door.

“Be careful.” The cat follows behind while warning her.

When the duo open the door, the leader of those women are in front of them. It is the same woman yet there are so many things that make them doubt so. The clothes is clean and tidy without any bloodstain. Black eyes look bright and beautiful, filled with gentleness. And more importantly, the mouth is in perfect condition without any injury. All the traces related to her psycho behaviour disappear. If this was not the red world, they would think that she is just a normal pretty lady that coincidentally looks the same as the ripped mouth leader.

“Am I beautiful?” She asks with an alluring voice.

Yuuko and Lexar remain silent at such question. The story of Kuchisake onna is well known so they don’t know what is the right answer to say. Lexar checks her with the potential eye and discovers something unexpected.

Unlike the disfigured body on black flame before, she now looks like a normal human with a black flame inside her heart. For unknown reason, he can see that the black flame is struggling to spread outside but it is contained by a box, similar to those inside the magical girls.

(What the hell is going on?... ) He is confused and starts thinking about the nature of these white flame and black flame but a voice breaks his thinking.

“Yes, you look beautiful” Yuuko answers with a straight face.

“I see. But unfortunately, being beautiful is a sin, you know? If I had been ugly, all of these would not have happened to me.” The woman answers in a sad voice.

The flame inside her heart breaks out of the box and she turns into the slit mouth form again. Yuuko and Lexar brace themselves for the attack when the whole world becomes dark.

When light returns to their eyes, they find themselves in a Japanese style room. It is the type of luxurious room that can be found in a high class inn in Japan. However, the scene happening in front of them take away all of their attention to notice that.

Four half naked men are restraining a woman in the middle. She is screaming for help and rejection as her clothes are torn apart. Watching that are a bunch of men look like yakuza and a woman acting like a boss. Yuuko, who saw the despicable action, dashes forward and swings her sword at those rapists. However, her blade passes through them and hits the tatami.

“Yuuko, this is an illusion. Those people are not real.” Lexar says.

He adjusts his potential eye to see what is happening. They are still standing outside the church but the tatami room scene keeps overlapping dimly with what he sees. The woman is nowhere to be seen but he can sense her presence slightly in the illusion of the two females in the scene.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Yuuko, we should go back inside the church. Who knows what this illusion can do to us?” The cat tells her.

“No, Lexar. We will face this until the end. That woman is definitely still here. Even if they are probably all illusion, my warrior instinct tells me that our victory lies in defeating her right here.” Yuuko says with certainty.

Seeing her confident face, the cat knows that he should trust her and follow her decision to the end.

The raping is still going on as the bossy woman laughs hysterically. Yuuko looks at the scene with a calm face but the cat can feel the anger inside her as she grips the handle tightly.

The raped woman gasps weakly and weeps as she curses her fate when the men finish their act. Their boss gives them a signal and one of them takes out a knife then proceeds to cut his victim's mouth. The woman gives a loud cry and starts thrashing around but it only makes the cut become more horrifying instead.

Right after that, the door is suddenly broken open and a different yakuza gang appears and attacks everyone inside. The boss lady yells out of anger that they interrupt her. The man who seems to be the leader of the intruders enters with an angry voice, telling her that she is just a jealous bitch that went too far. The pair starts arguing while their henchmen are fighting. The argument escalates to the point that the man is too furious that he takes out a katana and slashes at the woman. Not expecting he will do that, her eyes are full of disbelief then she starts laughing madly before dying. The man checks the raped woman but she already passed away due to a cut on her chest.

“What a crazy situation.” Yuuko says observing how the situation escalates.

However, Lexar does not care about that. He is looking at the face with cut on the mouth, Lexar asks Yuuko “Have you noticed it, Yuuko?”

“I am confused here. Even the injury looks the same and both of them have similarity in some areas, she and that slit mouth woman are totally two different people.” Yuuko gives her assessment.

“No, she is the leader, no doubt. There are actually two dead women here. You should also inspect that lady boss over there, too.” Lexar signals her to look at the other corpse.

“Wait, do you mean …?” She is struggling to find the correct word.

“For unknown reason, those two's grudges fused together and formed that woman we saw. She has all the traits from both women. This implies that we may not be fighting only one enemy. Prepare for a pincer attack, Yuuko.” Lexar states his observation and warns the problem.

The world becomes dark and the raping scene replays in front of us once again. However, with the potential eye always open, the cat notices a significant change this time. They are not in the illusion anymore, but inside that luxurious room. The negative energy thickens in the surrounding area and a knife image is blinking at different places.

Right at the moment the rapist penetrates the woman, a vivid knife image appears right below Yuuko and stabs her.

“Yuuko!” Lexar calls her.

With fast reflex, Yuuko takes a step back and the knife flies pass her body. However, it still hit her thigh and shatters her leg guard. Blood begins to flow out from the crack.

The man moves his hip and a series of attacks from underneath Yuuko begins. With each thrust, an attack will come and the target is the girl's lower body. Yuuko keeps evading those knives by constantly moving but they are too close for her to dodge completely. Figuring out the attack pattern, Lexar immediately leaps on the rapist's back and slash his claws at him.

Three straight lines of blood on the man's back forces him to stop his action to yell out of pain. The whole room suddenly notice the presence of the intruders like they were never in the room. The attack at Yuuko also stops but blood already flows out profusely from her legs.

“Heal” Lexar uses one of his new abilities on Yuuko. A stream of warm light reaches her lower body and heals her wound. The ability works like the healing spell in game but its mechanism is still unknown. He did not have a chance to use it and was afraid to test it out. What if the healing spell has a long cool down and he accidentally loses the chance to assist right at the crucial time?

“Thank you, I owe you one.” Yuuko thanks him.

The men surrounding the boss lady, who suddenly have black flame in the eyes, stand up to apprehend the intruders. The four rapists ignore everything and continue their despicable act. Lexar becomes angry and tries to attack another time. However, a knife suddenly flies from below him, nearly cutting his tail. The slit mouth woman now recognizes him as a threat and starts targeting him. The cat has no choice but to put all of his focus on avoiding the knife and the yakuzas, missing the chance to stop the attack.

But that does not apply to Yuuko. Noticing this is the only chance before the yakuza men close in, Yuuko creates four daggers and throws at the four half naked men. Their heads are pierced through and they all fall on the ground, stopping their breath. The series of dirty attack comes to a stop. However, Yuuko does not stand still but takes out her katana and charges at the lying woman.

“What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?” Lexar yells at her.

The standing men who realize what she is going to do block in front of her but their action is too slow for her. Without hesitation, the sword cuts off the rape victim's head, ending her life in the worst possible way. Lexar is scared whether another attack will come and serve his partner's neck, but fortunately, there is no attack coming. Confirming that there is no attack, Yuuko smiles and prepares to finish off the other woman.

The world abruptly becomes black again and the raping scene rewinds to the beginning again in front of her eyes.

“Yuuko, how can you act so reckless like that? Do you know how much dangerous your action was? You should ...” Lexar immediately gives her a lecture.

“There is no time for that. We have to kill both of them at the same time or this loop will continue forever. Help me finish the lying one when I give signal” Yuuko interrupts his word then creates four daggers in her hands again.

Before the men can start their activity, Yuuko already ends their life then dashes toward the woman sitting on the mat. A wall of men in black suit stand in front of her, defending their boss. They are also armed with katanas and hatchets, some guys even have guns in their hand, but that is not enough to stop Yuuko.

A tower shield forms in her hand, blocking the incoming bullet. The surface is full of sharp spikes and Yuuko rams it on those men. The katana in her other hand makes an arc, cutting those who get out of their formation. The others try to attack her with their own weapons but it is blocked by either the shield or the katana.

Using the confusion, Lexar sneaks up near the lying woman and takes out a knife from the man who damaged her face in the first loop. He is prepared to stab her heart when the signal is given. Although he feels bad for the rape victim, when he thinks that her grudge has killed so many people, the sympathy toward her is completely gone.

Over there, the fight with the men has ended and Yuuko is now stepping on that lady boss's head with the katana on her neck.

“Ready, Lexar?” She asks.

“Yeah” Lexar answers.

“Okay - three, two, one, now!”

The moment she gives her signal, both the knife and katana end two lives at the same time. And the world becomes black again.