“Quite surprising for a girl to remember a lot of people.”

Oyama’s astonishment lasted until Kumiko decided to drag him out of it. His consternation produced words riddled with perplexity that gradually increased the creepiness of Matsuda, no, Nomura’s chuckle.

“If you aren’t Matsuda, then where’s he?”

Nomura's evergrowing chuckle burst out like an explosion. The outcome of this was leaving the monk in a deep state of inquisitiveness, perplexed about the real Matsuda’s fate.

Instead of advancing towards Kumiko, Nomura retreated towards the shack. Anticipating another surprise onslaught, Kumiko’s hand slowly sent her hand through her pouch and produced a Kaginawa rope. While inside the shack, Nomura brought the hut down with a couple of slashes with his nagamaki. When the walls hit the ground, a figure of a man appeared, embedded into the pillar supporting the broken wall. The figure which appeared to be a dead body, was covered in blood and had entered the bloating stage, with flies circling it.

Kumiko's heart filled with disgust when she encountered this rotting body, and it only took a while for her to realise that the terrible smell that was ruining her sense of smell was delivered by none other than this dead body. Oyama, who too was in the same mental state as Kumiko, immediately produced words after recognising the decomposing body of his close comrade.

"No! That's... that's Matsuda! He was killed!!!"

"I have observed the body. And If I am not wrong, he has been dead for two or more days.

"Are you sure? Well, that explains it. So, you just killed him and switched places with him, you bastard."

"Haha!" Nomura replied. "You think these teachings from the other side would bring you peace?"

Kumiko was furious but she strived to hide her emotions. She dragged her Iaido Katana back and targeted it to at Nomura.

"Is cruelty what your way is based on?"

Kumiko's sentence agitated Nomura, which triggered him to advance towards her to land a deadly strike using his nagamaki.

She foresaw his intentions and signalled to Oyama about the upcoming sword strike. He ran up onto a nearby tree using the kaginawa rope that Kumiko had given him.

Nomura dashed towards Kumiko and launched a vertical nagamaki strike targeting her left hip area. She noticed the outcome and changed the location of her katana case to repel the attack. The uncorroded steel of Nomura's nagamaki clashed with the katana case, ensuring the production of a few sparks. Nomura continued to increase the distance between Kumiko and him. In the hope of launching a counter-attack, Kumiko ran and grabbed the kaginawa rope. Using the rope as assistance, she clambered up to the tree, while staying on her feet. She seemed to be defying gravity. Nomura executed his next move, scooting back up towards Kumiko and trying to strike her with a point-blank attack. Using his speed, he almost walked towards her but couldn't reach her. Taking advantage of it, Kumiko descended the tree and landed a devastating stab through Nomura's stomach.

Gotcha.

Kumiko rolled away and spectated the result. Her instincts went nuts when she realised that there wasn't a scream nor a cry, though some blood had dampened Nomura's robe.

"Young girl, your attack was futile."

Kumiko looked behind and kept gazing at Nomura's wound for the next few seconds. Her eyes caught sight of the injury but she was surprised by upon finding out that the cut had almost healed.

"Wh..what? But how did you…"

She spoke in wonder.

"Oh, you ignorant girl. You have chosen the wrong opponent. I have the power of the ultimate Ruby of Regeneration! No matter what you do to hurt me, my body will be unscathed by the time you drop dead!"

Nomura gave his explanation.

"Great! What an awesome way to exploit someone's power. Now how am I supposed to beat him?"

When she was imagining Nomura's potential, Oyama suddenly tapped on her back to wake her from the imagining dimension.

"Kumiko, did you see how he managed to heal himself so quickly?"

Kumiko replied.

"Yeah. This guy is exploiting the power of the Ruby of Regeneration."

"Ruby of Regeneration???"

Kumiko understood his perplexity but skipped the explanation.

"But then...how are we supposed to defeat him?"

Oyama asked the same question that had been echoing inside Kumiko's mind for a while. She held her silence for about ten seconds before finally coming up with a reply that hardly answered any of Oyama's perplexities.

"He might be able to regenerate infinitely but remember, strengths always come with weaknesses. Even the strongest enemies will have a small flaw dormant within them."

Oyama's puzzled look withered away. And he immediately warned Kumiko about the incoming attack from Nomura.

"Kumiko, look out!"

The response was instantaneous. Kumiko leapt away from Nomura's nagamaki stab while Oyama used his martial arts skills to combat him. Oyama's busy keeping bought Kumiko a bit of time to come up with a strategy.

But she couldn't do that for long as Nomura decided to switch his primary target to Kumiko. Taking the little time she got to communicate with Oyama she cried out, asking about his condition after she noticed how Oyama's right hand had been injured by Nomura.

"Bhante, your arm! It's wounded!"

His reply could relieve her...at least to a slight degree.

"It is okay, Kumiko. I can deal with this!"

Nomura furiously scurried while in a state of unbearable thirst to harm Kumiko. He got nearer to her and tried to land a nagamaki onslaught on her but was obstructed by Kumiko as she managed to land a kick on Nomura's stomach which sent him through the dirt, scraping his limbs and opening up his blood vessels.

But as you might have already guessed, he managed to heal up his wounds like they were nothing, resulting in a total waste of Kumiko's energy.

"Kumiko, you don't have a chance against me. I am the Steel Tooth of Kōga."

"The Steel Tooth who's responsible for kidnapping children in Nagoya and selling them off to brothels and other messed up places? No, I'd rather take my chances."

"Kids...how naive can they be at times? All it took for me to change my face into an unsuspecting friendly individual to drag them into my ultimate investing grounds."

"Enough talking, you monster of a human being! You have no idea how much of a negative impact you made on those innocent children. You deserve to rot in hell...and I'll make sure you'll get there soon enough."

"You don't understand anything. The third piece of the Star of Izanagi empowers me. I am invincible. I'll make a deal with you, kid. Just give up and I'll make sure to send you to heaven...painlessly."

"I can't go to heaven now. My friends need me. and I certainly won't give up, especially when it comes to bringing justice."

Nomura had been half anticipating this answer. After receiving the reply, he lifted his heavy weapon and began charging towards Kumiko with blood-hungry eyes while screaming,

"Well then, DIE!"

Kumiko quickly opened up a small sack inside her shinobi Kimono and unloaded some ninja spikes, or to be precise, she got hold of some Makibishi spikes. As a defence procedure mechanism, she laid a total of thirteen makibishi claws on the ground, without drawing the attention of Nomura.

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"This should work."

She thought.

And it actually did. By the time Nomura realised that the ground had been covered by Kumiko, he was too late to halt himself from the momentum that he had gained when he was charging. The result was a favourable one on Kumiko's side as it left Nomura's feet bleeding with most of the Makibishi having penetrated through the hard skin on Nomura's slippers and reaching his legs.

"It worked…"

"Nice try kid. You really thought you could get me with these stupid Makibishi? I have already told you. I am invincible."

Nomura pulled out every Makibishi claw embedded in his feet and the healing process immediately jump-started. The process lasted for about three seconds, leaving only a few small scars behind.

Oyama felt sympathetic towards Kumiko as he could see the tireless attempts of Kumiko to take down the steel tooth of Koga.

"Kumiko!" He cried. "This is not gonna work. No matter what you do to hurt him, the ruby will heal him. It's just an infinite loop. You attack, he takes damage is injured, he gets healed and so on. This only reminds me of one thing, the Samsara cycle."

Just when Kumiko was listening, she was struck by Nomura on her chest and could void the attack in a close manner.

She retreated and headed to Oyama. She swung her katana and slammed it into the soil. Pulling the katana back up again, she threw it up into the air and opened up the case to let the katana slide through into its place. And she replied,

"If it is an endless cycle, there might be a way to break it."

"But will there be one?" Oyama questioned again in an uncertain tone.

Kumiko couldn't reply at first as she was assaulted once again by Nomura. He initiated a nagamaki whack that targeted Kumiko's belly. Kumiko immediately pulled her katana to resist the strike. The force she used to divert the attack was only enough to change its impact location to her left hand. The hit could wounded her arm to which she reacted with a small cry but didn't continue.

She threw a shuriken and backed off towards Oyama. He got heated when he saw Kumiko's wound and decided to tear a piece of cloth from his outer kimono coat. Kumiko couldn't bear to see the monk tearing his kimono to help a girl. She started discouraging Oyama at a high rate.

"Bhante, please don't do that. Please don't ruin your kimono just for my wound!"

Without listening to her words, Oyama forcefully grabbed her left arm and started wrapping up the trauma wound. After covering it up the wound, he replied,

"It doesn't matter, Kumiko. We are taught to help people. It's not exclusive to helping people correct their paths and lead a happy life. So please, accept it."

"Thank you so much, Your venerable. I am grateful to you."

"Take this, you blue-haired freak!" It was Nomura who made an abrupt appearance out of nowhere, surprising both Oyama and Kumiko. A stab through Kumiko's heart was the only thing on his mind when he chose to interrupt their talking. But Oyama managed to pause his move by performing a sweep to trip him, granting them enough time to retreat once again and make a quick share of thoughts and a quick discussion about Nomura while he was recovering.

"Kumiko, it's no use. We just can't beat him."

Kumiko made a quick reply when Nomura was trying to grab his weapon.

"I saw it. It's almost as if we didn't even touch him. But…"

"What is it, young lady?"

"If I am not mistaken, even the most universal forces of nature have ways that can break their cycles right?"

"You are talking about the Samsara right?"

"Mhm..."

"But it's a totally different topic. How's that supposed to make sense?"

"Yes, it might not make sense at first. That's how I thought about it too. But..."

The moment she paused her sentence, the monk's facial expression transformed into a puzzled look. Kumiko directed her finger towards Nomura and let Oyama know about what she noticed a while back.

"Bhante, can you see that bruise on his forehead?"

"Yes. I can see it. What's so special about it?"

"Didn't you notice? That bruise hasn’t healed. That one appeared when he and I engaged for the first time. It should have been rejuvenated by now. But it hasn’t."

"You are right. I didn't even notice it. Wait...if that bruise hadn't been hasn’t healed by now, that means….."

An excellent idea flashed into both Kumiko and Oyama's minds. They both looked at each other and shook their heads, confirming the idea.

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" Oyama asked.

"Yes," Kumiko replied. "Let's get to work."

Oyama shook his head and agreed while attempting to evade the kunai that Nomura had tossed at him. It was a successful attempt and caused Nomura to enter an aroused state, entering him into a state of tunnel vision. Determined to take full advantage of the given opportunity, Kumiko shot three shurikens one by one at Nomura, with each one targeting Nomura's head, torso and legs respectively. Nomura swung his body as an investment in an attempt to escape the incoming projectiles but he could only dodge the one targeting his head, while the other two whizzed past through his arms and legs, opening up the inner flesh and causing the blood to gush out.

But like clockwork, the ruby of regeneration tied around his neck promptly started twinkling in a brilliant red colour, signalling the beginning of the healing process. After a few seconds, the wounds were almost gone, though a few scars were left behind.

"Try all you want, young girl," Nomura boisterously began boasting about his almighty power. "It doesn't matter. You will have to taste the sharp edge of my nagamaki very soon. I feel too bad to kill someone like you. It doesn't go well with what I have been known for. But...I can't turn back on my lord. I oathed in front of his mighty presence that I would eradicate the Igas from this sacred land, and I will do it."

Kumiko didn't care for his words. In fact, she was immersed in trying to find the perfect way to execute his plan to take down the invincible healing ninja.

Her analysis went somewhat like this…

"Okay, my doubts are getting clearer and clearer. It's obvious that he only cared about the one attack that was targeting his head. Maybe it's because he can't heal the wounds around those vital spots, which clears the enigma behind the scrape on his forehead. So, the only question is…Isn't his head the only vital spot on his body? Or does it include his chest where the lungs and the heart are located? Well, I might have to find it out myself. But at least, I have disclosed Nomura's weak spot."

Kumiko used her sword to strike Nomura's legs, which were deflected by Nomura's nagamaki. Just when she had completed her move, Oyama advanced and attempted to kick Nomura. Nomura rolled away to dodge the kick. When his attack failed, Oyama cried out loudly, asking Kumiko to execute her move.

"Kumiko, now!"

Nomura was alerted about the incoming threat. He foresaw Kumiko approaching him with her Iaido katana lifted, signalling the incoming strike. Nomura held his weapon and pointed towards Kumiko's direction to penetrate Kumiko's body when she got close. Though she caught sight of the Nagamaki that would give Nomura an easy kill, the momentum she had gained didn't allow her to slow down.

Seeing her impending death, Nomura smiled.

"Sayounara, Kumiko!"

Nomura tried to stab Kumiko as she got close but instead of trying to fight back or move away from the impaling nagamaki, Kumiko hurled her sword over Nomura and slid past him while grabbing a missed kunai on the floor. The flying katana distracted Nomura's vision but was later quickly stimulated after seeing Kumiko coasting away from him. Nomura tried to turn around to stab her but was immediately paralysed by Kumiko, who had punctured a nerve ending on Nomura's left leg, completely immobilising his movement.

"Got him!" Kumiko shouted.

"Not so fast, kid," Nomura replied while turning back. Kumiko's instincts suddenly realised that her move hadn't completely paused Nomura's movements as the ruby was doing its job. In Nomura's eyes, he could only see Kumiko as his prey who had fallen onto her knees, about to beg for mercy. Glancing at her with a strong thirst for blood, Nomura tried to impale Kumiko's chest using the nagamaki he had, while yelling out...

"NOW DIE FOR GOD'S SAKE!"

As Nomura sent his blade into Kumiko's chest, she panicked. Unequipped with anything to defend herself, Kumiko held her hands on the blade's pathing, slowing it down. Nomura kept on adding more pressure trying to sink the blade into Kumiko but she held her grip to nullify the impaler using her bare hands, despite her senses starting to pick up the razor-sharpness of the nagamaki gradually biting into her skin, opening up a bloodstream.

She abruptly shouted,

"Bhante, now!"

Nomura was alarmed and immediately locked on to a new objective; to track the monk he hadn’t been paying any attention to. His eyes took a while to trace the monk's whereabouts, who had jumped over Nomura while grabbing the iaido katana that Kumiko had launched into mid-air. Seeing the incoming threat, Nomura tried to turn around to engage Oyama but couldn't move as Kumiko was using all her strength to hold the weapon using her bare hands. Upon landing on the floor, Oyama bolted into Nomura and landed the final blow by impaling the katana through Nomura's heart.

"No!" A scream essenced by mortal fear ravaged the entire Enryaku-Ji temple complex. The edge of Kumiko's katana popped out of Nomura's heart, opening up a fountain of blood into the environment and silencing Nomura's voice, permanently.

Kumiko exhaled deeply and released the nagamaki, followed by Oyama. The corpse of the steel tooth of Kōga collapsed onto the ground, wetting the entire floor with red blood.

Dropping Kumiko's weapon on the ground, Oyama said,

"He is dead. This is over."