Balance
I drew my power into myself, analyzing the Kihaku's every move. With a snarl, it charged me, swinging Kutsuriuri's sword towards me, and our swords clashed with a blow that rang and echoed off of the mountains. It blasted a scorching beam of fire from Kutsuriuri's free hand, aimed at my face, and I batted his palm away from me, setting fire to a swath of trees that erupted into a crackling flame. I drove a punch towards Kutsuriuri's face, and was rewarded when my fist connected with his left cheekbone. However, though the Kihaku's power enhanced Kutsuriuri's physical prowess, it did nothing to strengthen his body as a vessel, and his skull cracked from the force of my blow. I cried out and leapt backwards from Kutsuriuri, terrified at the prospect of hurting my dearest friend.
The Kihaku looked at me, blood leaking from Kutsuriuri's left eye and a bruise blossoming on his pale cheek, glaring at me with absolute hatred. It circled me more warily, taking note of how I reacted with my sword and newly unlocked power. I anticipated that it was also drawing from Kutsuriuri's memories so as to garner more information on my enhanced power.
"Leave the vessel and attack me without restrictions," I ordered, my deep bass shaking the burning trees.
The Kihaku shook Kutsuriuri's head. "Even though this vessel is weak, it gives me an advantage over you," it hissed. Once again, it flew at me, wielding the sword in one hand and fisting the other. When I blocked its blow, it drove Kutsuriuri's fist into my elbow, and though the blow did nothing to my own limb, I heard and felt Kutsuriuri's knuckles crack and splinter. The Kihaku howled, once again glaring at me.
Watching the Kihaku, I realized that it would drive Kutsuriuri's body into disrepair, leaving a fractured bag of blood and bones. I could not activate my sword to exorcise the Kihaku unless I wanted to suck Kutsuriuri's soul from his body since both his soul and the Kihaku occupied the same vessel. I had to get the Kihaku to leave Kutsuriuri's body.
Taking the initiative this time, I grasped my sword in both hands and attacked the Kihaku in a quick succession of blows. Each blow I calculated so as to allow the Kihaku to easily block them, but I hoped by doing this that I would weaken Kutsuriuri's sword to the point of breaking. I had a plan, and I hated it with every fiber of my being, but it was my only option.
Finally, with a resounding crack that flattened the trees with the force of its power, Kutsuriuri's sword splintered into pieces, the jagged shards falling to the ground as if in slow motion and the enchantments with which we had imbued Kutsuriuri's sword breaking with a sound like bells. Within the span of a blink, I picked up the largest of the fragments, wielding the fragment in one hand and my sword in the other, and settled into a crouching position.
The Kihaku looked at the remaining part of the sword still connected to the hilt, then back at me, meeting my golden gaze with its hate-filled black. It too stooped slowly, picking up another fragment with which to fight, and I winced as I saw the blade cut into Kutsuriuri's delicate palm and broken fingers.
The Kihaku opened Kutsuriuri's mouth and exhaled a column of flame at my face. I ducked to avoid the inferno, and drove the sword fragment at Kutsuriuri's knees. I scored a lucky blow, hobbling my friend but piercing my heart with anguish. I saw a flash of Kutsuriuri's pale blue eyes overtake the pitch black of the Kihaku, but it was quickly extinguished. The Kihaku continued to glare balefully at me, and it once again swiped its sword in front of my face, just barely missing my nose.
I took in the sight of my possessed friend. A line of blood trailed from his eye, gracing over an ugly purple discoloration on his cheekbone. Droplets of his life dripped from his bleeding hands, and a growing stain on his trouser knee did nothing to hide the severed muscles of his knee. I swung my Sword of Exorcism at Kutsuriuri's bicep, drawing his balance to expose his ribs.
And with a desperate cry, I drove the fragment of Kutsuriuri's sword in my opposite hand into his lung.
The Kihaku let out a scream, and throwing back Kutsuriuri's head, it exorcised itself from his mouth in a streaming black cloud. With an unearthly howl, it moved opposite the clearing and began to coalesce into physical form of its own, and Kutsuriuri's broken body fell to the ground.
I dropped the fragment of Kutsuriuri's sword, tears dripping from my eyes, and immediately drew a salt circle around him to prevent the Kihaku from touching him again. I placed my hand against his brow, shaking, and drew upon all of my reserves of power to try and heal him. If I had not been in tune with my sword, I would not have been able to do this, but as I finished my intention, my power poured into Kutsuriuri's body, healing the deadly blows I had dealt him. Wiping the water from my eyes, I stood up quickly, activating my sword and facing the fully-formed Kihaku.
It was grotesque in form, a misshapen behemoth with the body of a boar, the feet of a tiger, the head of a snake, and the tail of a scorpion; each animal was symbolic of anger. It towered over my head, sixty feet in the air, and it loosed a roar that made me clap my hands over my ears.
Looking up at it, I lessened the drain on my strength that I was giving to Kutsuriuri, and I swelled my own size so that I stood regally at eye level with the Kihaku. I lifted my sword in my left hand, holding it horizontally in front of my face.
"Prepare to meet your judgment, Ikari," I said, and with an upward drive of my fist, I sent the Kihaku flying into the sky with the force of my power. It roared at me, extending its deadly claws on the way down, but I lassoed it with my power and pulled it even faster into the ground, falling to one knee as the force of its impact with the earth knocked me off of my balance and opened a network of chasms in the ground from the crater left by the Kihaku.
The Kihaku's scorpion tail flashed out of the pit and struck my left thigh, and a groan of agony slipped through my teeth. I leapt up into the air and landed with all of my force on the edge of the pit, driving a cascade of rocks and boulders into the pit. The Kihaku roared, and with a flash of power, it exploded through the rocks and back up to meet me.
I charged the Kihaku again, anger fueling my attacks. The Kihaku blocked my sword each time by stinging my arm with its tail, each blow leaving my arm more and more shredded. When the blood sheeting down my arm and the pain became too much, I switched arms, and renewed my fervor.
"You sought to disrupt the balance of this world by possessing a human, and you used him and me as each other's' weaknesses. You took a family from a boy who hardly had six years with them. You disrupt the balance of the entire cosmos because you needed to feel as though you were being effective," I snarled at it. Each sentence ended with me driving a strike against the Kihaku's face, and on the last one, I drove my sword into its eye socket, and the Kihaku let out a scream.
However, instead of exploding into a million fragments, the Kihaku gave me a smile full of antagonistic glee. "How little you know, Baransu; you cannot get rid of me that easily."
With that, it grabbed my leg and smashed it between its claws.
I collapsed, screaming, the broken remnants of my bones doing nothing to support my weight. The force of my fall dragged my sword out of the Kihaku's eye, and it growled. I gathered up some of my power through the haze of pain, and blasted the Kihaku away from me so that it crashed into the mountainside.
Groaning, I made a quick set of my bones so that it would last me for the rest of the fight. I realized that my anger, the anger that had infected me over my mental link with Kutsuriuri, was what was still anchoring the Kihaku to this realm. Gathering my resolve, I prepared once again to face the Kihaku that was racing towards me.
I left my sword floating in midair and attacked the Kihaku with my bare hands. Each blow I drove into its form left it screaming in pain, though none of my blows were as effective as my sword. I did not want it just yet; I had to incapacitate the Kihaku so that I could then deal the mortal blow with my sword.
With a burst of power that left the Kihaku shuddering with weakness, it blasted me away from it, and I fell onto my shattered leg. I nearly blacked out then and there from the pain, but through the white haze that was my vision, I saw the Kihaku limping towards me. I tried to get up, but the Kihaku summoned its remaining power to bear down on my head, weighing down like a ton of rocks. What little vision I had left diminished to a pinhole as I lost even the power to keep my sword floating in the air, and I saw it fall and clatter to the ground.
The Kihaku stood before me, dripping with sweat and blood. Its hold on its physical form flickered, though whether it was from its own weakness or my disappearing vision, I could not tell.
"Die, Baransu," it said, and I screamed as it plunged its scorpion tail straight into my heart.