We don’t waste time, not when ambrosia flows, and I can taste it on my very tongue. Mother’s weight burdens my back, yet it’s nothing to the pumping adrenaline powering muscle and vitality as we rush forth in our own manner of transverse. That hulking oni with a perforated throat exploded with speeds that felt on the skin like Koutei’s blade swings, a spring of shivers running down my spine as my lungs overworked to keep up with the pressure—before, I would've passed out. I move—, Kasen-nee, her face torn and eyes burning, dematerialized quicker than I could enter the non-Euclidean plane and was already on top of Yukari, her legs making up for the lack of arms with grace and a kindred vengeance, our Danmaku bombarding in high amounts contrary to Yuugi, dunking onto Yukari with fists alone—I froze before Ibaradouji after killing a dragon… Kasen-nee exudes the same pressure, and I walk free—, and I…

… I backed them with enthusiasm. Not an ounce behind, not an ounce of fear drowning me or excuses to remain behind a wall of bodies, crying, screaming and flailing like a foolish child.

Teeth clenched, blood boiled.

Gravel beneath; an ocean of radiation by there.

Half a kilometer of hollow earth above us.

The heart weeps with the memory of my mother’s wide scarlet eyes, the sickening secret now of her knowledge. She’ll never forgive me—the woman she’s become… That woman who fought without backing down a second against a foe like Yukari, the same woman whose eyes dulled in death. Again and again.

For her daughter, she had screamed.

I want to be like that woman.

Yukari hissed and flared onwards with the same hostility as the three of us combined, the red blade flashing and aiming for Yuugi’s throat mid-charge, intending on lopping the head off. The oni cackled, throwing her bulky arm at the sword with wild abandon, the blade lodging there with a sharp, meaty sound. It did not go all the way through, Yukari’s bloodied face scrunching; lightning resounded, a dropkick from a body rematerializing centimeters above them, aiming at Yukari’s hands wrapped around the blade. The Gap Sage squirmed furiously, but the hulking demon wouldn’t let her go so easily, the other hand clutching around Yukari’s hair and pulling as if trying to rip a tree trunk off the earth; a groan of struggle left her as the blood pooled thick from the gash on her throat. The kick missed, yet Kasen-nee continued; the spot she’d landed turned to glass. Her horn shot up to pierce through the Yakumo woman’s hands, the Sage dematerializing in a cloud of lightning, buying herself time. The Gohei met her like a serpent from a second already gone, the sacred wood and shide biting the back of her neck, sending her tumbling, her sword turning to face my Gohei blessed by Father’s spell… Only to meet Mother’s second Gohei first, wrapped tight in my left hand, which deflected the cursed blade away as my own on the right surged to hit her full on the belly, planting the scourge of the Hakurei blessings, a poison to Youkai of every walk of life. “GIVE HER NO QUARTER!” I roared, already on top of Yukari as she stumbled with widened eyes, and, mimicking Kasen-nee’s maneuvers, I went for the sword, Mother’s faceless mikos besieging the Yakumo with their own Gohei—

—A lightning storm bubbled from the very ground, the air crackling as the purple electricity aimed to vaporize my body. The non-Euclidean world shielded me, time and space manipulated. Kasen-nee and Yuugi barely paid attention to the lightning, a jumble of kicks and punches and the hulking oni using her body as a flesh shield with the greatest of smiles. How she can enjoy so much being maimed and flayed like a piece of pork is beyond me…

The results spoke for themselves.

Yukari had not a moment to breathe; her eyes bulged, her chest couldn’t rise nor fall, and the skin swiftly flushed with the absence of oxygen. Her blood soaked down a broken jaw, her purple eyes wild as they jumped from one to another, never allowed a respite of any kind.

My heart swells with vengeance.

Just a little more…

I clench both Gohei, the surprise advantage gone and, without a moment more to waste, I push through the non-Euclidean world and land on top of Yukari just as she dodges having her sword stuck to Yuugi’s body, the cursed blade deflecting my twin onslaught, Danmaku of three sources and a myriad of colors—hers had become a bloodied pink, as if blooming Sakura petals bathed in blood—flying maddeningly as Kasen-nee joined me in the flurry, her pink electricity blinding and coursing through the blade as if seeking the smallest of gaps to shock Yukari’s hands and so deny her hold of the accursed blade. My body came in and out of non-Euclidean space; Kasen-nee for not a moment interrupted her efforts, a reborn manifestation of power, and Yuugi, reveling in the blood, fought like a true oni.

It was no surprise the cursed blade had hooked between two Gohei and, for the briefest of moments, left Yukari’s loose grasp.