I'm back! I was late in wishing you all a happy Lunar New Year (for those of you celebrating/benefitting from it); sorry about that. After a few chapters filled with exposition, we're finally here with real action! These new chapters will all be about combat, so there's going to be some moves I missed in my explanation of. Go ahead and ask me if there's anything you guys don't quite understand, because the pace will be quite fast.

There's no mailbag this time, but there's a few interesting PMs which helps build up the background of this story and the meta universe as a whole, courtesy of superpierce & Enigmatic Bandit. These are edited for clarity and length, as usual. Check these out:

superpierce: [...] with [the] obvious exception of John Dee and Kelley, do Gaurdian spirits exist in the same nature in the rest of the world like [Nihon}?
ekaterina016: Yes. In fact, Dee and Kelley do have Guardian Spirits. They just mistreated theirs (at best, considered a mindless weapon) so the relationship wasn't as explored as others. I think I've even mentioned Jeanne having one, though of course she hasn't showed up much other than in narration. It's just one way for the older Divine Spirits who have to move to the Reverse Side to still have a role and be active in the Outer World.
superpierce: So, instead of being like [youkai] or creatures of Eastern mythology, [...] Dee and Kelley have been using the Guardian Spirits [from] the western part of the world are monsters, or certain Divine [Spirits] or Beasts that made contracts with humans? Also, when I said with the exception of Dee and Kelley, I meant like we already knew they had Spirits, [...] wasn't sure if they were like the only people from the Western world who had Guardian Spirits.
ekaterina016: Yes. I'm not even going to overcategorize down to species level like 'youkai' or 'ayakashi'. The Guardian Spirits, in general, are all Phantasmal Species who now find it difficult to live in the Outside World without a host. So, in exchange for that, they lend their strength to prospective users. It's not exactly a subservient contract, and more a mutually-benefitting relationship - which is why I emphasized relationship and personality are important in my story. If you missed it, Kelley's original Guardian Spirit was the OP dragon Ouroboros, while Dee's was the Ophanim from Christian angelology. Louise's and Jeanne's belong to the order of Sephira (though the latter, as expected, is an aberration due to how ridiculously strong she is in this story.)

Enigmatic Bandit: Hello, [...] what do you think would happen if Azaka Kokutou [...] visit the Clock Tower/Mage's Association?
ekaterina016: Yes, I know her very well, in fact. I even have a draft complete for a future installment of my series where I crossover my universe with Kara no Kyoukai, because that's a criminally underinvolved fandom in Nasuverse. I blame DW's decision to use just Fujino to accompany Shiki's inclusion in FGO. Appreciate the description, because you've written it very well, but I already know everything you've mentioned and agree to it wholeheartedly. Azaka's the type to get roped into something both illegal and extremely dangerous while rationalizing she's doing the 'smart' thing due to her pride and tsundere nature. Honestly, she probably prefers classes taught by people like Cornelius and Kayneth compared to mavericks like Touko and/or Aoko.

"Will you allow this one to take this, my lord?"

Muramasa was, to put it mildly, surprised when Danzō cut across and improvised this part of the plan. Still, eyeing his newest-but-not-unexpected opponent, he chose to steel his expression and wait before commenting further.

Otakemaru was almost breaking into a manic grin as he gazed all over Danzō's hazy posture. It was a passive shinobi skill which hid all preliminary movements even when direct eye contact was made, enabling one to kill on plain sight. Predictably, it's nameless, because shinobis assumed this was the natural height of [Presence Concealment], enabling it to be used even when killing intent was leaked. The kunoichi was naturally exuding this whenever she entered combat… but Otakemaru knew that very well through his 'father' avatar.

After all, he was the one who birthed her.

"How lovely. My daughter coming here personally to congratulate my rebirth!" He grandiosely posed with arms spread wide, voice booming across the battlefield. Muramasa curiously looked at him, making an analytical face which screamed he wished to dissect this idiot right then and there. "Then, let us start this feast!"

"A feast for your funeral, perhaps," Danzō countered coldly. "I am sure we have longed for this day to come."

"UHAHAHAHAHAAA! Well, then, come and prove which one of our declarations is true!"

- Fwooosh!

Before the two could launch themselves at each other, an intense horizontal breeze swept across the beach, clearly unnatural.

"Impressive," Muramasa immediately noted before the other two realized what's happening. "I swung with the intention to kill… I have to apologize for underestimating you all, then."

- _▄▄▄▄▄██████████████████████!"

The beach he was fighting the Nanbans on was a wreck from their brief skirmish, mostly due to Kazikli Bey's terrain-altering nature, since Clarent was shot closer to the ocean where the collateral damage was just evaporated water and newly-formed straight whirlpools from the cut-apart water surface. He and Danzō were standing on one of the taller metal spikes, while Otakemaru was floating in mid-air shortly after his appearance… which was out of thin air. No dimensional ripples, no disturbance in local Textures.

Quite curious, that.

A roar far louder and lower in pitch than Otakemaru's boast rumbled both the ocean and earth, before a purple-black pillar simply erupted from where Dee was blown back to towards the sky, far wider than even the Great Calamity's sizeable girth. It moved with seemingly lethargic speed, yet Muramasa knew very well that was deceptive.

He also knew those shut lines corkscrewing across its surface was, in fact, shut eyelids.

"You can open your eyes, you know. It's not going to surprise anyone," he dryly commented. Why did villains always tend to hold a pregnant pause for dramatic effect? For him, he's the type of person who'd launch a lethal assassination attack during a magical girl's transformation to end the show right in the first prologue episode. "I concur, Danzō, love. This Great Ancestor can't take me even with my back turned, after all."

He heard a roar of indignation from Otakemaru, who's technically his multiple-great-granduncle because he's a descendant of Hell's Fourth King like Suzuka-gozen, but he ignored it. His eyes blazed silver, his nose already picking up not just the overwhelmingly putrid stench of the Demon Pillar – he didn't really care which one among the 72 Dee managed to force a Divine Apotheosis with – but Kelley's scent, which was infuriatingly similar to his beloved Chiyome, and Maria's particular brand of cheap perfume she had to use after Spain could no longer maintain sponsorship for her journey here.

…then, another one… which made him quite angry, actually.

- Thunk!

"Owie!"

Without even looking, he swung his fist downwards, driving it into a soft mound of hair and into his little Empress's skull. The disillusionment spell she cast on herself instantly broke, though he had to commend her bravery to use it while his Pure Eyes were active by deliberately moving in his blind spot, hoping his nose would get distracted by his enemies.

"You deserve that, little idiot, for coming here without permission," he chastised. "But I'll allow you to have my back."

"G-Gusu… A-Alright…" Himiko sobbed, painfully rubbing the lump now forming on her head. Still, her Od rose tremendously to match her brother's own simmering pressure, her miko outfit billowing from the mild release. "L-Let's go!"

"Don't bite your tongue."

"What a rude brat. Fortunately, my daughter shall be much kinder to me, am I right?" Otakemaru, after bellowing uselessly at the departing brother-and-sister combo, turned his attention to Danzō. With his three weapons already floating around him, pointed at Danzō, he certainly cut a much more imposing figure than the fake he managed to uselessly project against Muramasa a few years ago. "Come to me. Even though I'm in this form, let us rise to the top again now like all those centuries ago."

"I do not remember the person who taught me the art of lying was so bad at it himself," the kunoichi, displaying a rare case of snark, shot back. "Save your words, Otakemaru. You and I have no connection left to speak of."

"My, my, where does this… vigour of your mouth comes from? Don't tell me… the personality program I concocted will eventually evolve into this kind of intelligence? Hm…" He grumbled, faking a low utterance to himself despite talking in a volume both could hear clear as day while crossing his arms. "How troublesome. Shall I take you down for refurbishment?"

"Right back at you – you stole my line!"

Otakemaru instantly flickered back to avoid a sharp slash from a tsurugi… made of pure wine.

Of course, normal drinking wine was supposed to be either white, yellow, or maroon. This one's glowing with enchanting blue – a colour most often associated with natural poison. It acted and felt like real liquid, even complete with fermentation bubbles rolling around inside its perimeter… before being encased in liquid metal similar in sheen to mercury, but when solid, it shone with a lustre of real, tempered tamahagane.

A figure skidded to a stop right between him and Danzō, her dainty feet landing smoothly on a purple alcohol vapour cloud. "Long time no see, old friend. Have you gotten fatter?"

He squinted at Shuten-dōji, before replying, "You claimed I stole your line, but you've done exactly the same. Have you been feeding properly on the humans under you, Shuten? You look… puny."

Indeed, the sword she slashed him with would look perfectly proportional in a human's hands… but already nearly as tall as she was, discounting the nostalgic gourd pommel and saucière -like guard enclosure – which was infuriatingly anachronistic for the perfectionist blacksmith Muramasa, who grumbled a 17th-century design shouldn't be incorporated into someone who's born more than 5 centuries beforehand. One would assume the now-solid blue centrepiece along the blade was provided by the similarly-coloured gourd, since it appeared to be transparent and tainted only by the liquid's shade it contained, but the two were actually unconnected. Shuten-dōji stored the blade's core – in its liquid form – only in the upper half of the gourd and into its pointed cap, while the rest was perfectly-serviceable drinking apparatus filled with actual liquor.

In contrast to the slovenly hanten she usually wore over the basic modesty of her revealing black straps, she's wearing form-fitting, leg-revealing white kimono with a red manaita obi. And, unlike what Otakemaru remembered of her before the three of them were consecutively defeated by the Minamoto Clan in the past, before the human-yōkai pact was signed due to her and Tamamo-no-Mae's betrayal against him, her alluring smiling face was fully focused and not drunk in the slightest.

Proof how times had changed. Shuten-dōji was never not drunk. Danzō was overly-obedient back then, to the point he instructed his avatar to upgrade her programming so she could move independently. In the end, it appeared everything he did only backfired on every single plan of his.

And not without root cause. That redheaded boy over there was certainly the lynchpin of everything, regardless of his claim of the two being related. He'd love for nothing but to cast aside any other opponent to take the goading Muramasa had just said out loud and really attack when his back's turned, but Shuten-dōji was too dangerous an opponent all by herself, much less when accompanied by Danzō, who knew the old him like the back of her hand.

He might feel he'd grown, but his avatar's all-too-easy demise a few years back cautioned him of how accurately old information about him still rang true, primarily because for ancient and powerful beings like him found it hard to change habits and tactics with the drop of a hat like mortal humans.

He sensed a presence behind him, but had no need to turn around to check who it was. The unmistakeable presence of Yamata-no-Orochi, the one yōkai everyone from the Reverse Side of the World wholeheartedly admire for his daring opposition and dominance over the gods, meant it could only be his current priestess. Again, Muramasa was involved in this because she was his wife. 'Ah, what would I give to see his demise…'

He could sense there's something similar between Muramasa and that Yoritomo brat, the latter who was the clear mastermind behind Otakemaru's sealing and banishment not only from his rampage across human society, but also from yōkai as a whole. He was branded and blamed and symbolically crucified as the representation of the suffering which occurred between the two races, sapping his strength continuously as people's negativity slowly and forcibly transformed his Spirit Graph – the clash between the 'old' and 'new' imposed upon him naturally internally grinding and causing damage all the time. However, embracing a fusion between these two aspects – the current 'legend', twisted and embellished by parents using him to scare their children of life's many vices, and the ancient 'truth' which would stay with his age.

Now, with him and Shuten-dōji floating, facing each other, and the two kunoichis observing from either end atop of the curiously-Nanban tall metal spikes, he opened his mouth to gauge their mental state…

…before a fist nearly tore his head clean off, aimed precisely at the tip of his jaw for maximum leverage against his neck. If it was any other person or limb, he was confident he could simply take and shrug off the attack, but the sight of a bright blue energy jet bursting backwards from Danzō's elbow, which didn't mechanically open but restructured itself into this conical booster, and the sheer amount of Od his 'daughter' had stuffed her fist with meant his instincts had to take over for him.

"That's not my design!" He complained as he forced himself to acutely turn downwards, avoiding a long sweep of a modified kusarigama blade which made it much straighter and longer, akin to Nanban wheat-farming scythe, thrown horizontally from behind him by Chiyome. "It's him, isn't it?! The one who's changed your perfect body?!"

"Wow, what a disgusting complaint," Shuten-dōji drawled, seeing him dodging the two kunoichi's consecutive strikes. "For your information, the world's not yours anymore, Otakemaru. It has never been, and never will be one person's. Not me, not you, not Shirō-kun."

Danzō's palm snapped open, revealing its transforming inside with a magic circle appearing across her skin, where the centre glowed brightly before shooting forth a blue-white blast, as wide as one of the Demon Pillar's eyes. This time, Otakemaru summoned his [Lightning] and [Water] swords to his hand, parrying the blast upwards. Chiyome was there, right in the path of the ricochet, but a feminine white snake appeared on her shoulder and suddenly struck forwards, an ethereal gigantic maw forming around it, swallowing the errant blast. The small kunoichi disappeared the instant Otakemaru's shock showed across his face…

- Thwack!

"Guh!" He grunted as an invisible force smashed against his side, following the motion of Chiyome's kick who suddenly reappeared some distance away. Sensing it's a Sage Art instead of a summon, he blasted upwards to avoid the latter following up the former, as shown by the sudden manifestation of a gouged-out crater right beneath where he was floating earlier on the ground. "You insolent-!"

But Shuten-dōji matched his ascent, already rotating her body vertically to execute a powerful overhead slash using her entire physical and Conceptual Weight. Her ornate tsurugi glowed deep blue, unlike Danzō's new energy which was so bright it's almost white, before bringing it down upon his crossed blades. He instantly counterattacked with his [Fire] sword, which had been idly floating by his side, but the petite oni stretched one hand out and easily grabbed it by the point, her skin entirely unharmed.

- Fuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh…

From the close distance they're blade-locking each other, Shuten-dōji blew her potent corrosive mist directly onto his face, fully knowing it'd serve only to blind him instead of melting it right down to the skull because of their relatively-even Conceptual Weight. 'Hm!' She silently praised him when she felt him loading up his three blades with their respective Elements instead of channelling Reinforcement to his face, choosing a simultaneous harm instead of a defensive escape.

- Bang!

Because of her small stature, her knees were directly in line with his stomach when she sent them forth, hitting with a dull, heavy sound akin to two timbers clashing against each other. The momentum was enough to help her retreat half a step, but aside from the incoming charged-up slashes, his wings slashed downwards at her from both sides.

One was knocked sideways by a concentrated energy blast from Danzō's sole, her foot extending straight after executing a phantom kick, while the other was tightly bound by a thin chain and yanked to the other direction.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"

He yelled, more out of annoyance than the niggling pain, and spread the [Fire], [Water], and [Lightning] gigantic slashes in all directions instead of focused on his fellow Great Calamity. However, he still picked-and-chose his targets: large frost shockwaves against Chiyome, wide thick arcs of lightning for Danzō, and compressed embers towards Shuten-dōji, according to their Elemental weakness he'd assumed.

Having steeled himself for a series of failure before a real opening made itself available, he wasn't that surprised when he noticed unusual resistances covering each of the woman's body, apparent even though they made the effort to at least parry each wide-scale slash. The supposedly-reptilian Chiyome managed to increase her speed instead of forcibly hibernating some internal organs from the cold. Danzō repeated her fellow kunoichi's feat in swallowing the attack through her various orifices, instead of having her mechanisms thrown in disarray. Shuten-dōji's alcoholic vapour did ignite, but the hypnotically multicoloured flames instead obeyed her command and strengthened her tsurugi instead. 'So disappointing…' he cursed this day, when nothing seemed to go right.

…well, that's not quite right, was it? Every single day when Muramasa was involved never went right. Once again, he was the problem – now if only he could bypass the defences of these three…

"Your intention is obvious," Danzō coldly observed, her voice already spread out across the battlefield in the standard shinobi tactic of using Reinforcement and Alteration to mask her location. "But even if my lord isn't here, do you think you can beat me?"

"Don't forget about me!" Shuten-dōji whined, before swiftly uncorking her gourd-pommel and pouring part of its content into her mouth. "Assist me, will the two of you?"

Renkei Ninpō: Jinbenshu Endan
~ Combination Ninja Art: Divine Brew Flame Bullet ~

Wordlessly, the two kunoichi suddenly disengaged from Otakemaru's attacks and flickered to the small oni's side, just as the last drop of the alcoholic portion she'd poured finished. Making one hand seal each – Shuten-dōji with just the one hand still holding her gourd-pommel – they all puffed their cheeks and blew onto the flaming tsurugi: the oni with the dark blue liquor, Chiyome with a concentrated blast of wind, Danzō with a scorching superheated plasma. The whole process was fast enough Otakemaru barely had any time to recall his blades into a defensive formation around him, but still couldn't manage to dodge away from the incoming small sun.

'What kind of sun is devilishly purple…?!' He groaned, fully employing not only Reinforcement, but also activating the emergency defensive runes carved upon his three partners to erect a temporary barrier. Still, it took all his might to survive while deliberately allowing himself to be pushed backwards to dispel at least part of the blow. "AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUURRRRGGGGGHHHHH!"

"Now, now, don't be a wet blanket and suddenly admit defeat, okay?" The small oni's infuriatingly sweet voice cut through the pain and frustration. "I'm going to come at you~!"

Before she even finished, he could feel from a shift in the wind the other two were already rushing at him. They had already blended themselves into the thick Mana caused by the repeated battles here – some of which was still infuriatingly reminding him of Muramasa's presence – to the point they're invisible through regular magic detection. Of course, Otakemaru wasn't one of the Three Great Calamities for a reason, but he's sure Shuten-dōji would constantly interfere with his other techniques… because, shamefully, that's the one aspect of his he'd failed to improve so far.

Being jailed in a desolate, empty dimension had a tendency to do that to one's senses. His strength grew, yes, but even maintaining lucidity was taking up much of his mental faculty, while sensory training required constant stimulation to challenge the nerves and Magic Circuits.

"Storm!"

Raging wind, thunder, and rain exploded with him as the epicentre, a variation of the usual weather-summoning spells which typically brought them down from the heavens. This time, he required it for both defensive and evasive manoeuvres, pushing both the remnants of the combination attack earlier and the two flanking kunoichi away. Rather than relying on elemental matchup like earlier, this was pure, concussive force radiating everywhere spherically.

Bull Swallowing, Reverse
~ Mechanical Illusory Art ~

'I forgot she's equipped with that!' He chastised himself as Danzō tore a clean hole through his storm barrier by absorbing it through her nose and mouth. 'Did these two come prepared with elemental absorption techniques?!'

One of the ways he was defeated in the past was by draining his magic energy. Now, doing that usually carried the risk of corruption if the victim was of terribly foreign disposition, but that's Otakemaru's… part-weakness, say. His mastery over every Element as an Average One meant his Od was particularly docile and adaptable wherever it went. It allowed him to execute his abilities anywhere, anytime, but also removed the ability to attack his opponents from the inside if they presented such opportunity. In a sense, he had everything everyone else wanted regarding Magecraft talent and skill, but a personality and ambition everyone else hated to the bone.

For instance, this was Tamamo-no-Mae's favoured tactic when luring in exorcists for her to kill. Pretending to be a good yōkai who pledged her loyalty and love to several men she disliked, she'd allow them to 'have a taste' of her Od… which would instantly incinerate them with poisonous flares when her bodily fluids were ingested. The Minamoto shogun at the time was fond of 'lending' her to his political opponents as a result, though Otakemaru knew the idea couldn't come from anyone else but her. She was oddly servitude in that way.

Hence, with anyone with the [Mirror] Element like Chiyome or configured with the ability to do so like Danzō, it's easy to continuously swallow everything he threw at them. Of course, the timing and capacity must be perfect, but for these two women, that's not an issue at all.

Before he could finish his thought, the blowing tsurugi had already neared his thick neck. He swung his [Water] sword to knock it aside, noticing Shuten-dōji had thrown her weapon, before thrusting immediately downwards to challenge the control of a rising water spout the smaller oni had conjured. Instead of meeting it head-on, Shuten-dōji opened its centre into a wide rotating barrel, spinning opposite the remaining storm barrier still slowing down Chiyome. It took a split second too long for him to match the change in tempo with his sword, and Yamata-no-Orochi's priestess managed to snake around – no pun intended – the intense, bellowing wind with yet another invisible limb, punching him clean across the air and sending him crashing into the beach outcrop, smashing several steel spikes along the way.

Muramasa was away, so there's little chance the remaining structures could be used to harm someone at the level of Otakemaru, and the three girls concluded he was most likely disoriented than hurt.

"Rush him."

Chiyome nodded at Shuten-dōji's command. "Of course, Great Ancestor."

Danzō, meanwhile, had already silently initiated one of her trump cards. She leapt down, crossing both arms together and opening her palm into tiger claws.

Empress Honeypot
~ Black Arts Decapitation Method ~

A massive purely physical invisible force flattened the entire beach outcrop, levelling out whatever pockmarks Muramasa had left behind as if the entire area was crushed by a giant meteorite. It was the only technique among the Black Arts Decapitation Method specializing in genocide, when shinobi missions from the past required the massacre of entire villages quickly. And while Otakemaru certainly knew her old body well, he had no interest in learning his partner's – the first Fūma Kōtarō – array of ninjutsu, thinking his original and avatar's Magecraft were enough to deal with most situations.

And he likely had encountered such an attack before, perhaps in a smaller scale, but at this level, physical and magical damage were no more important than conceptual matchup. Empress Honeypot aimed to overwhelm any defence based on pure physics, similar to Quetzalcoatl's which was the representation of a world-ending asteroid impact, and in no way magical of any kind in its original form.

Any form of vocal expression from Otakemaru was silenced by the impact. Instead, Shuten-dōji immediately moved in front of Danzō as the buxom kunoichi recovered from her exertion to parry a lightning-quick thrown [Lightning] sword. Of course, 'thrown' wasn't entirely correct when its owner was able to telepathically move them freely, but the most important thing to the three ladies was the swords were nowhere as fast as Muramasa's, enabling them to keep up so long as Otakemaru hadn't keyed into their ever-changing formation.

According to Shuten-dōji – and Himiko, to an extent, via her Guardian Spirit – this self-proclaimed strongest yōkai was horrible against strategies they're using, where all components were actually skilled enough to keep up with him, and solely cooperated to put their combination over the top… perfectly so, at that. Overcoming the typical chemistry issues between powerful individuals… well, that wasn't quite true, was it? If the problem didn't exist in the first place, then everything became much easier. All three women had plenty of experience working together, usually in tasks where overwhelming victory was desired to crush enemy morale despite their presence together being wholly unnecessary.

Otakemaru was used to brute-forcing anything and everything put in his path. Oh, he was no idiot, able to pick apart any haphazard formation by way of instinctive analysis and overwhelming strength. He didn't need for a sizeable crack to occur if he could smash out a figurative crater in any working relationship from a hairline fracture. And, in reality, he actually was that good… until someone with the knowledge, skill, and desire to take him down was born in Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, the previous Heroic Vessel in this reality.

Not that he was privy to that information. All he knew was that boy and this boy both were incredibly annoying existences to him, and while he failed to nip the first problem at the bud, he sure would try his damnedest to kill the latter.

"Grrrhhh…!" He grunted, trying his best to physically raise his body from the oppressive unrelenting pressure, but he's still failing. 'How can Danzō produce this much power? Her core shouldn't be able to…' He roared to rouse his energy, "Aaaauuurrrrggggghhhhh…!"

He could only send his swords to strike at the trio who're undoubtedly rushing at him right now – the pressure was so intense it's difficult to even move and open his eyelids. It's difficult, be he could extend his senses through them somewhat, while also relying on the automated offensive charms installed in them.

Danzō might not be able to sustain this attack for more than the next few seconds, but that was plenty of time for people on the level of Chiyome and Shuten-dōji to seriously injure him, if not outright killing him.

'Fine, then…!'

The advantage of the world Minamoto-no-Yoritomo had created was the ease for yōkai to live freely in this side, instead of being put between a rock and a hard place when the Outer World gradually ground down on them both physically and spiritually, cornering and forcing them to migrate to the Reverse Side. That was the cause of the first Hyakki Yakō – the invasion, and not the current group – when yōkai simply chose to conquer human lands, raise human cattle, and eat human flesh, then create a separate Texture on their own where they could live without the universe's continuous penalty. A Lostbelt, Ashiya Dōman once coined. It's a shame that magus perished due to his rival's scheme, or Otakemaru might've joined forces with that… person. It's hard to classify the thing Dōman had become shortly before his death, and Otakemaru obviously didn't know him personally.

- Yōkai Realm!

Instantly, Empress Honeypot's effect vanished when a pure monochromatic Bounded Field expanded from his body. A world without sun, moon, or stars, where the only sources of illumination were yōkai's proof of themselves. In his and Shuten-dōji's case, this was their horns – though annoyingly vulnerable parts were also often highlighted, making the usual yōkai trick of hiding both their true names and weaknesses redundant. Still, taking advantage of these would mean becoming powerful and skilled enough to do so, which unfortunately his opponents all were.

Red wisteria and lotus flowers sprout randomly across the now-desolate crater, leaving a wide-open expanse for them to fight. Seawater was beginning to rush in from the edges, though that's mostly from the openings naturally left behind by the beach's original outline instead of Danzō accidentally pummelling him far below the water surface.

The activation of his own pseudo-Marble Phantasm also gave him the chance to reposition, the conceptual displacement of one technique overwriting the other providing him with a small push.

"Yeah, I knew you're going to do that."

Shuten-dōji voice sounded very close to him, and he instantly lashed out with a side kick to block a tsurugi slash with his sole, before following up with straight one aimed at her horns. He spread out his hands both for balance and parry Chiyome's downwards slash with her elongated and straightened scythe, now closer to a scimitar-like sakabatō than an actual farming tool. With one free hand, he re-summoned his [Fire] sword and slashed down, intentionally exploding the flames contained within the blade in all directions, momentarily also blinding Danzō, who was swooping in with another attack, along the two others.

"Whu-!"

He wanted to let out an arrogant roar, but he nearly bit his tongue off when he felt both his legs being wrapped and pulled in different directions. Instinctively, he both tightened his groin and retracted both his [Water] and [Lightning] sword straight downwards, cancelling their flanking manoeuvre on Danzō, but the buxom kunoichi felt like she was aiming to meet the pair in the first place, and she actually stumbled when trying to execute Melting Amaryllis, having to roll once to rebalance her core mid-air with the help of several bursts of small jets exiting her extremities.

- Rrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipppppppp…..!

In the end, the [Water] and [Lightning] swords completely missed their marks as Otakemaru was torn in half by his ankles.

His two eyes, now separated clean down the middle, widened in shock not because of this injury – he'd heal if given enough seconds, though it'd be taxing on his Magic Circuits – but the fact Shuten-dōji… had grown a tail.

His one leg was held by Chiyome joining and transforming both her arms into one thick serpentine figure, tightly binding Otakemaru's limb. However, the smaller oni instead had most of her lower half changed, alongside greatly colouring her skin and changing her features. Her new form somewhat standoffish and innocent, to which her maniacal grin was instantly mismatched with.

"Do you think Yōkai Realm is a good idea… against me?!"

""That's a new transformation! How could I know?!"" Both separated halves howled, before dissolving into droplets of water and reforming nearby, energized by one large bolt of electricity, releasing one great burst of heat. ""I see you continue to betray our cause, giving yourself over to be a slave of the gods!""

Even as he spoke, he continued to backpedal rapidly, with both [Water] and [Lightning] swords in hand as the [Fire] one was still stabbed to the ground, parrying Shuten-dōji's suddenly-impenetrable skin, clashing these Noble Phantasm-ranked blades with her tightened palms as if their difference in size and reach didn't matter. "This skill… is that boy's?!" He remarked, his voice back to whole again after a momentary double-echo, about the similarity between Shuten-dōji's attacks with Muramasa's [Sword Burst].

"Ohohoho… On the contrary, he learnt it from me!" The now-dark-skinned oni chuckled proudly, but was instantly shot down by Chiyoime's protest.

"She's totally lying."

Danzō immediately confirmed, having caught up with the other two women. "Indeed."

"Wha- H-Hey! I-I thought we're on the s-same side!" The small half-snake oni whined, interspersing knife palms with powerful, full-body tail slams. The lack of lower appendages did slow her down somewhat, but she more than compensated for it with unorthodox movements and massive increase in Conceptual Weight. "Aaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhh…! Damn you, Otakemaru! You're ruining my spotlight!"

"How's that my problem?!" He growled, taking a larger step back but countering with two simultaneous thrusts by bending his upper body forwards. "Now, die!"

This was a form she had never even shown the father of her children, the one whose seed eventually made it all the way to Chiyome, because… truth be told, only her father knew of this. Earlier, Otakemaru accused her of selling her soul to the Nihon pantheon in exchange for continued support and freedom, which led to her and Tamamo-no-Mae betraying him and castigating him as the scapegoat for all not to follow. Shuten-dōji – or Ibuki-dōji, as she's called in this form – didn't bother to correct him. One, there was no one around to overhear his accusations, so no chance of a PR disaster she had to clean up later… purely because she couldn't say no to the current Empress's icy glare. Second, it's better to play with the enemy's feelings to shake their mental foundation, before the assassination techniques she herself used and taught to Chiyome would strike.

No, she hadn't become the gods' lapdog. She was a god, right here and now.

His decision to evoke Yōkai Realm so early in the fight only made the decision easier. Even with the increase in Mystery, using Ibuki-dōji's full power was difficult, with the same oppression a crazy transformed-Kelley faced when he forced a Divine Apotheosis with Ouroboros, another true divine dragon. Besides, with both Chiyome and Danzō here, she might not even have to use it to win comfortably.

However, aside from the Yōkai Realm, one more event triggered her rush.

It was faint, and perhaps only Otakemaru ignored it even if he caught it, but Muramasa's words suddenly rang in their ears, carried by the shockwaves of the other battlefield between him and the Nanbans.

"I am the bone of my sword."

This was purely Shuten-dōji's whimsical nature acting, but she dearly wanted to finish grandly at the same time as Muramasa, so she could gloat stylishly over everyone in the post-battle banquet. There was no need to worry or check about the fight over there, because she knew that beloved descendant of hers was invincible once his aria had started, much less finished.

He had shown her he could summon his Reality Marble in an instant. There were several combinations when he wanted to take his sweet damn time to indulge in her love for the dramatic, such as completing his chant as the Bounded Field went up, or using the High-Speed Divine Words he claimed he'd learnt from someone – he insisted on this person's anonymity, which made even Shuten-dōji jealous – and many other 'cool' tricks she imposed upon his usually-boor fighting style. In a sense, perhaps he'd make a better assassin than herself, but fate ironically didn't go that way.

Chiyome and Danzō must've heard it as well, if not physically then spiritually through their shared link of [Love] – Shuten-dōji nearly fell over laughing as her mind actually constructed this sentence – hence their sped-up tempo to keep up with her.

Tacitly, the two kunoichi knew their roles were basically over. There's no sense in assisting a literal god stomping just another hapless victim unless they wanted to get in the crossfire. All they had to do was keep up appearances, letting Otakemaru think he could still handle them. Milk him of every drop of strength he had left, make him think he needed all of it, before unleashing a new level of power multiple times more powerful than his narrow, but ambitious mind could ever hope for to drive him into utter despair.

That was Shuten-dōji's favourite method of playing with her victim, since all the way back when she was born into the world to sow [Chaos]. It's too bad others didn't see it that way and took it much too hard, which led to her early conflicts with the Minamoto Clan.

She ducked underneath a wing swing, sidestepping another downwards chop by the [Lightning] blade. She let the sword pass a touch too close for comfort, since the elemental effect it had did occupy quite a lot of space, but she was practically immune to anything he could throw at her in this form anyway. She conjured a thin white layer atop her head, quickly solidifying into an eggshell which she used as a battering ram for her headbutt. Her smaller figure meant she initiated this blow from Otakemaru's blind spot, right behind his own wing which just passed through. Of course, it's going to take more than blunt force trauma to slow him down, even as she felt genuine feedback from his stomach.

Instead, she took off the eggshell 'hat' and conjured its pair in her other hand, matching Otakemaru's sudden onslaught of twin-bladed strikes.

- Clang! Clang! Clang!

It was a comical sight – two Noble Phantasm-ranked mighty weapons clashing against a pair of ordinary, if supersized eggshells. Even the latter's jagged edges appeared to be sharp enough to threaten Otakemaru, considering how much berth he's giving them every once in a while when his defence was breached. Shuten-dōji was using them akin to twin shields, which was appropriate since both she and the eggshells would've been no larger than a one-handed buckler if he was the one using them, for instance. To her, they were more than adequate to cover her entire body, even with the increased length her snake lower half provided.

This oddball way of fighting, one Shuten-dōji never showed anyone before and actually more prevalent in Nanban combat techniques, where great shields were much more prevalent, troubled him greatly, especially since she was literally bouncing around like an elastic kemari, using her serpentine half as a literal spring to instantly change not only speed, but also distance. At times, those two pieces of eggshells moved like two large scythes, opening and closing as if those jagged edges were the maw of some crazed beast. Other times, they mimicked Shuten-dōji's earlier knife-palms, then transforming into wide sabres in the next instant.

Oh, don't' forget those annoying headbutts. While it's not injuring him greatly, the knockback on that move was ridiculous, constantly taking his breath and tempo away and preventing him from managing his Od well.

There's very little time to complain because he could see the other two women were already approaching fast, only left behind earlier due to his emergency scheme and Shuten-dōji's unpredictable change. However, unlike earlier, they chose not to perform their complex flanking manoeuvres and instead line up directly behind the small oni, almost to the point of hiding their figures behind her when viewed form certain angles.

…but right in the next instant, things changed again.

Flames, different from his [Fire] sword but oh-so-familiar from his defeat a few years back, engulfed everything in his sight. No, he could feel it consuming the borders of his Yōkai Realm as if it was shoji. The red spider lilies and wisterias disintegrated before they had the chance to turn into ash, a signal this flame was also conceptual and not only physical. Because of the monochromatic nature of typical Yōkai Realms, the sudden burst of colour and light from the breached area was blinding, both to his eyes and magical senses.

He flickered away – a movement technique he hated because he considered it cowardly – while activating maximum shielding formation with all three swords recalled back, floating to cover his blind spots, his limbs and wings protecting his vitals. A momentary blindness on the battlefield equated death in almost all cases, and he'd hate to test his luck now.

'This is… that brat's…!'

He wanted to say 'Yōkai Realm', but it's clearly a Reality Marble. Last time, he was caught off-guard, but with his full faculty now available in this whole body, he could certainly feel similarities with when he fought against Yoritomo. That time, centuries ago, that Minamoto brat also used a Reality Marble, though it plunged everyone into the ocean depths, beautifully illuminated by mysterious orbs of light and marine-themed structures jutting from a sunken, yet well-maintained modern city.

Compared to that, Muramasa's couldn't be more different, but the source of both these men's power felt the same.

The now-barren destroyed beach had disappeared, replaced by comfortable beds of grass interspersed by rocky spots, where great weapons, each matching the calibre of his blades – if not more – standing on top of them mimicking grave markers. Yōkai Realms generally had an oppressive atmosphere – Yoritomo's Reality Marble even more so – but the presence of calm breezes occasionally blowing through made it overall very present, even with the rather solemn scenes. Strip the vegetations and mild changes in elevation away, and all that's left would be the bloody remnants of a battlefield, where heroes and villains die side-by-side, neither holding a triumphant edge over the other.

In the end, everything was mortal… except for this place's proprietor's soul, which recorded everything to let the wielders' history and experience live forever. One could not truly die until all information regarding the individual was erased from the collective memory – i.e. the Akashic Records – and only another individual was required to confirm the former's existence. Thus, everything was also immortal at the same time.

Still, it's not all bad. Otakemaru could feel Muramasa's attention wasn't directed at him – judging from the fact there's no rain of blades heading in this direction – and the aforementioned mild wind at least gave himself back one physical sense he could use to detect his opponents, which Yōkai Realm often removed to deaden all forms of palpation for his opponents, but also himself.

Shuten-dōji was already upon him, coiling and twisting her body to encompass more angle of attacks, at times using one eggshell underneath her snake tail to increase her speed suddenly by way of skating and twirling around.

"Noble Phantasm."

Then, amidst the hurricane of blue-and-gold flashes grinding against pearly-white rounded walls, the other yōkai in play had already finished her preparations.

- Kuchiyose.

Otakemaru's eyes went wide at the hand signs Chiyome was flashing quickly – an abbreviated version, at that. It's a series he knew very well since shinobis of old had been using this: the simplest summoning technique. The higher one's compatibility with their non-humans of choice, the easier the burden the summoners had to pay, starting with the removal of a lot of the complicated hand signs, and including the amount of Od they had to provide as well.

But what if the technique was combined with Divine Apotheosis? Otakemaru thought this girl was really unfair for having access to so many kinds of abilities: The Sage Arts from her newest Guardian Spirits, while also being supported from within by the beast she held inside. The latter, annoyingly, came from the bloodline of this infuriating small oni which continued to bash away at him, grinning like a maniac, though her movements were very elegant and well-structured after literal centuries of practise.

And right now, Shuten-dōji's transformation into Ibuki-dōji had unknowingly, to him, enabled Chiyome to take yet another powerful step up in class.

O' noble blood and accursed inheritance, coursing through myself
Discarding vengeance, attaining salvation, seeking Takamagahara
Across unrelenting and ever-changing aeons, the pure, indomitable blessing…
Come! Kuchiyose!

Eightfold Fields of Winter-Cherry, Figs, and Cypresses
~ Summoning Technique ~

Otakemaru braced, not knowing what kind of attack was forthcoming – though he did have some ideas regarding Yamata-no-Orochi. After all, however distant, his former best friend, Shuten-dōji, was the dragon's daughter.

…the small oni actually retreated.

The sudden stoppage of attacks broke his rhythm, so he stood there frozen, rather confused.

Shuten-dōji's words answered his silent question soon. "Noble Phantasm."

In front of his eyes, her body shone with turquoise green light.

"Oh, don't think I'll let you!" Recognizing that light – who on Nihon didn't? – he rushed forth, only for a gigantic pair of hands to meet him halfway, locking strength with him. "Danzō, move!"

"Why do you not try yourself?" She coldly asked, having already initiated Passionless Tulip and inflated her limbs. At the expense of speed, this was a Black Arts Decapitation Method which prioritized strength above all else. It might appear as a flawed technique, but the Fūma Kages soon modified it to be able to be cast instantly under the assistance of gravity, using it only to finish combinations. However, Danzō did it while she was dashing forwards horizontally with both her legs emitting the previous white-blue jets directly behind her, meaning she hit with the literal momentum of a small mountain. "After all, pass me, your death awaits."

"You insolent little-!"

Tremble in fear. Revere and worship.
This calamity, mortally-incomprehensible, is gracing this world.
Divine Sword-drawing!

Kusanagi-no-Tachi
~ Divine Blade ~

""Fusion Phantasm.""

That was Chiyome and Shuten-dōji speaking simultaneously, the latter suddenly swelling in size to rival him in both height and presence, clad with white bone-themed armour around her risqué parts and losing her snake lower half. It made quite the imbalanced line-up, since the kunoichi was only slightly taller than the previously-small oni, but now the former barely reached the latter's underboobs.

Eightfold Fields of Winter-Cherry, Figs, and Cypresses
X
Kusanagi-no-Tachi

…enacting a scene only recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon Shiki, though their arrangement was all wrong.

The aforementioned imbalanced only lasted for several seconds before everything was flipped around. Ibuki-dōji's real form was certainly large… but Yamata-no-Orochi's full might certainly could dwarf even the sun itself.

- ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄███████████████████████████!

Chiyome was nowhere to be found – most likely well-protected in the middle of the gigantic, eight-headed monstrous figure – and Ibuki-dōji calmly floated upwards, landing gently on one of the middle heads.

"I think you should move, Danzō-chan," the dark-skinned now-tall yōkai advised, her new talons finding easy purchase on the rough scales. "I know you can take my hit, but it's going to be tricky to explain your condition to Shirō-kun later."

"Please… do not use his name… so casually… to trick me…" the buxom kunoichi strained to let out, even though her tone was completely level all the time. Both she and Otakemaru were trembling in exertion as they locked limbs, but their expression couldn't be more different. The latter was clearly about to sweat ice if he could – that's how worried his face appeared – but his 'daughter' was making that infuriatingly determined expression worn by many of his victims before they charged suicidally and futilely at him. "Do you… think I have… not prepared myself… to chase what my lord calls… greed?"

"Well, up to you." Ibuki-dōji, in contrast, was overwhelmingly casual, even more so than her usual slovenly self as Shuten-dōji. "It's nice knowing you, old friend. I'll take care of things from here."

Oh, how much Otakemaru wanted to roar freely and indulge in his basest emotions to empower himself. But Danzō's constant pressure made him unable to divert even the slightest resource to something else apart from his vision, which showed an image of the reality he feared the most.

[Death].

Nihon didn't have a concrete Divine Spirit to govern this attribute, unlike many other cultures in the world. Perhaps it was because [Death] was considered to be so integral to everything natural, an inevitable destiny, they didn't bother with isolating and worshipping it, much like there was no Divine Spirit for [Life]. Instead, they had several legends regarding the birth of these concepts, before applying it to everything which came after… even the gods.

The most renowned representation, Shinigami, was nothing more than a racial classification. There was no one death reaper controlling everything centrally, just as there was no one 'parent deity' responsible for the very first human, like the legend of Pandora in Nanban.

And, to be honest, Otakemaru had never thought of that. Even Yoritomo never managed to actually threaten his life, only capable of sealing him off. Yes, perhaps he wished for a life worse than death for the Great Calamity, but their legendary duel lacked the tension he's currently feeling now.

Trapped inside another's Reality Marble, where Yamata-no-Orochi could rampage freely because of the boost he received from being close to his daughter and his host's connection to Unlimited Blade Works' master, locked down by the very people who knew his powers best, and at the pointy end of Nihon's most powerful sword. Yes, to say he's nervous would be an understatement.

But before he could actualize his internal conflict, everything ended anticlimactically.

- …!

A turquoise light, shining so brightly it turned white for a split second, merged with a rainbow beam produced by fusing eight different energy balls, and simply blasted both Danzō and Otakemaru together.

Open Garden
~ Black Arts Decapitation Method ~

When the sense of Noble Phantasm activation passed through both Ibuki-dōji and Yamata-no-Orochi, they knew Danzō was safe, and instantly began charging up the next consecutive attacks. Kusanagi-no-Tachi began aglow, this tsurugi version – different from the seven-branched one Muramasa currently wielded – eager to drink the blood of anything it considered [Evil] to Nihon. The eight-headed serpent growled, expressing his desire for victory and annoyance at being so close to the very object which sealed it into his hosts in the first place, but obediently synchronized with his daughter's will and let loose with his stored magic energy.

Danzō, meanwhile, reconstituted her body from the fragments remaining after receiving both Chiyome's and Shuten-dōji's real attacks. That was a technique she created solely because her new body allowed it, in contrast to the series of Black Arts Decapitation Method which was improvements or amalgamations of her experiences as a living being, and not the karakura her 'parents' wished her to be, just to spite them. Yes, she wrongly took out these overflowing negative emotions to the still-living remnants of those two male figures, which was the unfortunate current Fūma generation, but so long as it enabled her to get stronger to walk beside her master's side, she's content.

The ability for an inanimate object to create Reality Marbles, relying on their 'depth difference' with humanity to overcome the need for a strong spiritual core. That was the essence of Open Garden, but it ironically became more of an escape technique, the act of reversing her physical form with her spiritual one, fully knowing the two behind her were using overwhelming physical and magical damage because of Otakemaru's revival. The willingness for a previously-dead object to expose their newly-gained sentience and emotions to the open, risking it all to prove their existence beyond their inorganic vessel… that was what's required to achieve this seemingly-trivial trick. Yes, the knowledge her new body, made from nanomagic particles instead of old-fashioned materials, was easily repairable helped, along with her trust in her loved ones to rescue her, but one corrupting spell from Otakemaru's previous avatar, Kashin Koji, would be enough to shatter her self if she tried it in front of the latter.

The second irony was if he didn't do so, then the Fusion Phantasm of two great attacks wouldn't harm him to this degree, because his detained version lacked both physical and magical presence in that separate jail dimension. His desire to regain his former glory, which entailed a real, imposing body, ended up making him vulnerable to the most basic killing blow, however eventually powerful.

As Danzō finished reconstituting herself, Yamata-no-Orochi grumbled in that recognizable baritone common among large beings, "You've gained weight, my dear daughter."

"Shut up, Papa!"

The buxom kunoichi let out the honest smile she'd been repressing since a few days back, during her grim preparation for this battle, basking in the familiar warmth of familial bickering.