"Lightning Dragon!" Brilliant white light filled the street below. Springing off of the roof on which she had been hiding beside Kunoichi, Ryoku threw her arms out wide as electrical discharges flashed across the bridge of her nose, dancing between her eyes. Her body disappeared into a bolt of electricity, and suddenly every nerve ending, every sense, was heightened to the point of absolute precision. On the street below, several heads turned toward her from the group of Odoshi-gumi and Tsuyoi-gumi who had appeared from the next street over, looks of shock and confusion on their faces. But all of Lightning-Ryoku's attention was fixed on the group of girls a half-block down the street from her, dressed in the kimonos and makeup of hangyoku. Kamidoku pushed Bu-Geisha's hand away from her throat and spun around, dropping into a fighting stance and slipping something out from inside her belt which flashed metallically. Bu-Geisha let out a cry of surprise, holding her hand out in an attempt to shield the girls behind her and pushing the closest girl to the ground.
"We need to help Bu-Geisha!" Ronin's voice rang out in Lightning-Ryoku's electrified mind. As if in slow motion, Ronin and Kamikaze emerged from the alleyway closest to Bu-Geisha and the girls.
At a thought, Lightning-Ryoku streaked down the street toward Bu-Geisha and Kamidoku, as Bu-Geisha stumbled backward away from Kamidoku, batting away the kunai spinning at her from both directions. Kamidoku swung her arms wildly, and Bu-Geisha ducked beneath, slashing at Kamidoku's chest with her kaiken, which sliced through the front of Kamidoku's unbuttoned jacket. Lightning-Ryoku shifted slightly, aiming to rematerialize between Bu-Geisha and Kamidoku, even as Kamidoku drove her knee up at Bu-Geisha's chin, but a blurred flash of movement behind Bu-Geisha caught her attention.
Already halfway through the crowd of rescued girls was a thin man in midstride with long hair that whipped behind him as he ran – Kamiikioi, the same man she had seen the other night. Bu-Geisha and Kamidoku both stumbled in a sudden wind gust kicked up by his passing, and one of Kamidoku's kunai fouled on Bu-Geisha's sleeve. One of the girls had already stumbled and fallen to the ground as Kamiikioi shoved her into the girl behind her. His hand flashed; held tightly in each fist were tekko-kagi, with which he backhanded the next girl across the face, leaving four long red marks along her cheek and sending her spinning away from him to the ground. Lightning-Ryoku only caught the quickest glimpses of Kamiikioi before he streaked away down the street, leaving a trail of dust in his wake.
Still halfway to the ground, Lightning-Ryoku glanced back and forth between Bu-Geisha and Kamiikioi, hesitating for only the briefest moment before veering to chase after Kamiikioi, who had already reached the brothel and had started trying to push the planter away from the brothel's door. "I'll take Kamiikioi," Lightning-Ryoku thought, concentrating on the communicator that had been in the ear of her material form.
"Keep him busy," echoed through her senses in Ronin's voice. "We'll handle the rest."
Kamiikioi took his eyes off of the door for a fraction of a second, just as Lightning-Ryoku shot through the space in front of him below the awning and careened past him, nearly impacting the brick wall of the building next door and only catching herself at the last moment. As if in slow motion, Kamiikioi lunged backward and stumbled, driving one of his tekko-kagi into the ground to catch himself before bursting forward after her. Lightning-Ryoku watched him come, conforming her lightning form around as he reached her and swiped wildly. The tekko-kagi passed straight through her lightning form, and with a thought, Lightning-Ryoku concentrated her energy on her hand and swatted it at him still in lightning form, sending a jolt of electricity toward him. Kamiikioi dove to the side, and the lightning bolt shot past him and shattered the brickwork on the side of the brothel, sending a plume of brick dust into the air as lightning scorched up and down the wall through the metal latticework. The cloth awning over the doorway crackled as it caught fire.
Rolling back to his feet, Kamiikioi's eyes widened in shock and he stared are Lightning-Ryoku. "What even are you!?" he demanded, dodging backward to increase the distance between them.
Further down the street, a seam appeared in the ground, tearing apart the road surface as it rippled toward Kamikaze, who sprang into the air and fanned both tessen at the ground below him. A gust of wind pushed down into the seam, blowing dirt out in both directions in a massive wall, and Kamikaze held himself a meter above the ground in the middle of the building dust storm, suspended on a cushion of air. Crouching at the origin point of the earth seam, Kamitsuchi pushed his hammers into the road surface, sending ripples through the pavement in all directions from him. Behind him, Kamiseikaku sprang into the air, pushed off of Kamitsuchi's back, and flicked a pair of shuriken at Kamikaze. Swinging his legs back and forth while holding his arms steady, Kamikaze kicked with both legs, propelling a massive gust of wind back toward Kamitsuchi and Kamiseikaku. The wind gust caught Kamitsuchi square in the chest and pushed him backward into Kamiseikaku, just as Kamiseikaku drew another shuriken and twisted toward where Ronin was about to attack Kamidoku. Kamiseikaku yelped in surprise and smacked his foot into the back of Kamitsuchi's head, tumbling forward and releasing the shuriken wrong. The shuriken passed between Ronin and Kamidoku, missing Ronin's arm by a hair's breadth. Ronin's katana froze mid-slash, and Kamidoku sprang back away from him.
Kamiikioi let out a wild cry and dove away from Lightning-Ryoku, back toward the still-blocked brothel door. Smoke poured from the awning, strips of flaming material dropping into the soil on the front step. Lightning-Ryoku contorted herself around to chase after him, darting toward the brothel door and throwing out her arm. Another lightning bolt reached out toward him and diverted into the metal poles holding up the awning, coursing through it to ground. At the same moment, Kamiikioi slipped on the soil and spun around to kick off of the front door, throwing himself back away from the building toward Lightning-Ryoku, who concentrated on holding her arms out wide. Electricity crackled all around her, seeming to drip down to the ground.
Dropping to the ground, Kamiikioi slid beneath Lightning-Ryoku's form, slipping between the lightning lines trailing below her, and sprang smoothly back to his feet. In a moment, he was sprinting back toward the cluster of girls behind Bu-Geisha and Kamidoku, only a few meters away from Ronin and Kamisenshi. Kamisenshi lunged for Ronin, who held up his crossed katana and wakizashi to block the slash, sliding to one side and driving his shoulder into Kamisenshi's chest as he did so. Leaping back away from Ronin, Kamisenshi swept his katana at Ronin's middle, as Kamidoku flicked her hand out and sent a kunai flying in Ronin's direction. A sudden gust of wind from the direction of Kamikaze pushed Kamitsuchi backward and caught the kunai, knocking it away into a tree on the far side of the road. Taking advantage of Kamidoku's distraction, Bu-Geisha jabbed at her, narrowly missing Kamidoku's elbow.
Kamiikioi sprinted down the center of the street, leaping over the seam splitting the road surface and hurdling over two of the girls who had fallen and were huddling together not far from Bu-Geisha. Blocking a slash from Kamidoku, Bu-Geisha stumbled backward, nearly stepping on a girl's hand. Kamiikioi held one tekko-kagi out toward Bu-Geisha, and Lightning-Ryoku threw her hand forward. Lightning arced after Kamiikioi, passing harmlessly over his arm but startling him into he turning his tekko-kagi side-on to Bu-Geisha's arm. Thunder cracked, and the lightning struck a streetlight next to Geber, who dove backward and over a swinging kusari as the streetlight exploded. Past Geber, Capricorn faced off against two Tsuyoi-gumi. Kamiikioi's tekko-kagi flashed, faster than Ryoku could follow, and Capricorn stumbled away from him, grabbing for his shoulder blade. He turned in Kamiikioi's direction with a look of annoyance, and Kamiomomi, a large woman with rippling muscles and her hair pulled back into a tight bun, swung a massive fist at Capricorn's face. Geber shouted something that Lightning-Ryoku couldn't catch, dove toward Capricorn, and snagged the woman's fist inside of his spur, pulling it just far enough off target that it missed Capricorn's head. Startled, Capricorn spun back toward her and jumped, kicking her in the shoulder and pushing off into a back-flip. The woman stumbled off-balance, caught herself, and let out a growl. Capricorn smacked her with his shepherd's crook, which clanged off of her forehead.
Leaving them in the dust and skirting around a roiling patch of darkness from which the occasional burst of light shone out, Kamiikioi turned and sprinted up the side of a tall apartment building, and Lightning-Ryoku shifted upward in pursuit. Putting on a burst of speed, Kamiikioi raced up, almost to the roof of the four-story building. Mentally, Lightning-Ryoku pointed one finger up at him, and a bolt of lightning shot past his head and up into the air where it burst apart in a shower of light and sparks above the building's roof. As the sparks fell down all around him, Kamiikioi jumped backward away from the wall, out into open space, spun through a backflip, and shifted his body to aim toward a spot near the middle of the street, not far from Bu-Geisha and Kamidoku. Lightning-Ryoku stared after him in confusion.
Suddenly, a tiny speck appeared near that spot and grew into an enormous man with muscular shoulders and a round face who stood with his legs spread in a powerful pose, large metal cleats on his feet. Kamiikioi dropped feet-first onto the supersized Kamitakasa's bicep, ran up to his shoulder, and turned to race down his side before darting toward Kamiomomi and Capricorn. Kamitakasa took one step forward and swung his foot toward Bu-Geisha, whose attention was entirely focused on Kamidoku. As the spiked cleat came down on her, however, a blast of fire shot up from the patch of roiling darkness and light that had swallowed up a third of the street. The fire engulfed Kamitakasa's foot, and he stumbled backward, waving his arms wildly but unable to regain his balance. He toppled backward with a deep baritone cry. As his head struck the ground, however, he bounced back up off of the suddenly-rubbery surface, waving his arms to regain his balance before lumbering down the street toward Kunoichi's cloud of darkness.
Lightning-Ryoku sent a passing bolt of lightning after Kamitakasa, which struck the spongy road surface and dispersed around it into the soil lining the roadway. Kunoichi's cloud of darkness shifted to one side away from Kamitakasa, revealing Kamihikari for a moment before she dove out of Kamitakasa's way. But Lightning-Ryoku couldn't focus on them; all her attention was on Kamiikioi, who had already sprinted past Kamitakasa, toward where Ronin and Kamisenshi dueled furiously in the middle of the street, not far from the terrified girls. Kamiikioi's tekko-kagi flashed. Lightning-Ryoku's eyes narrowed.
In this form, she could see him; she could follow him. And yet, he still somehow seemed to have that edge, that extra step that she couldn't match. With his speed, he had remained at least one step ahead of her for this entire fight. Ryoku had fought alongside other speedsters in Angola and Tarascon – Tenedaw, Velocimonio, even Hermes and Mercury. Kamiikioi moved at least as fast as any of them.
But what could possibly move faster than lightning?
Lightning-Ryoku slowed her thoughts, slowed her mind, and allowed herself to truly become one with the lightning. Suddenly, the world around her seemed to slow to a crawl. Kamiikioi appeared to be moving at normal speed, even as Lightning-Ryoku pursued him, drawing closer with every nanosecond. Slowly, ponderously, Ronin drew his wakizashi back for a strike, parrying with his katana and pushing Kamisenshi's blade aside, ignorant of the danger behind him. Kamiikioi's tekko-kagi drew back. At a thought, Ryoku surged past him and dropped to the ground, rematerializing behind Ronin in a burst of light and thunder, her sword leaping from its sheath as a blade of pure energy which shifted almost instantly into miraculous metal. Time caught back up to its normal speed, and Ryoku brought her sword to bear with a yell, slashing downward as the blur reached her.
The forearm seemed to appear out of thin air, falling to the ground at her feet as a gust of wind whipped past her and Kamiikioi tripped and splayed against the far curb, clutching his elbow and moaning.
