Article V: Power Spectrum
Endowed with vast cosmic powers associated with their domains, Kami can either impart these abilities onto their followers or wield them directly within the physical plane. Fūjin-Yami, for example, can command the wind and shadows. According to legend, that is.
Contributor: Uzumaki Hanabi
"Faced a human bestowed with the power of Tsukuyomi-Yoru. The moonlight became a weapon in her hands, and she hovered in the night sky. If the logic holds, Kami might have unique powers related to their domain that they can grant to their followers, if they are strong enough to handle it."
The arena stretched across the vast expanse of a twilight world, where the line between day and night was blurred.
The veil of mystery that hung thick in the air couldn't hide it: this place was a testament to the ferocity of battle.
A place where honor, valor were supposedly tested. That's what Yoisen knew about the legends, at least. Sakura didn't quite believe that one: there was nothing so dignified here, nor in battle.
There was a stampede after the first arrow hit the grass.
They looked like men.
The revered Yumihei, archers of Hachiman-Yumi, were celestial warriors chosen by the kami for their unwavering loyalty and exceptional archery skills.
Adorned in lightweight armor etched with sacred symbols, they were protected and guided by their divine patron. Their gleaming helmets, crafted from celestial metal, bore the symbols of their devotion.
With hawk-like face masks, they had a divine glint in their eyes, granting them supernatural sight. Perhaps to discern the true nature of their enemies. They wielded sacred bamboo longbows and arrows of celestial metal.
A few of the Yumihei breathed down on their nocked arrows, and a golden light glinted. They channeled the god's divine power, ensuring each shot would be guided by Hachiman-Yumi's own hand.
And they took position around the two women; upon ledges, looming tree's branches, through canopies.
The ground beneath the feet of the warriors on the ground was a patchwork of scorched earth and verdant grass.
The landscape was dotted with ancient trees, their gnarled roots and twisted branches reaching for the heavens, bearing witness to countless battles fought in the name of the divine.
The battlefield lay still and silent, and the sun cast long shadows, making the solitary arrow, embedded deep in the earth, gleam.
A breath.
And then, a whistle.
The women moved. The Yumihei let the arrows fly.
Sakura's left eye caught their unnatural turn as they did. Arrows that would adjust their flight in order to strike true, then. Chakra coalesced where her left arm ended, shaping itself into a gleaming blue fist. She made a wide sweeping motion and caught the arrows by their shafts, in between clawed fingers.
And on a hunch, with Kamui active, she used her right hand to try and grasp at the one she had left untouched, that was still flying toward her.
Her hand didn't go through.
Of course this kami would manage. Sakura scowled and leaped back, flipping through the air and throwing the arrows back, guided by small tendrils of water that extended from her gleaming left hand.
And this time, they struck their intended targets.
To her right, there was a flash. An edge produced out of flame wrapped itself around steel with a roar, filling the open clearing with dim lights and shadows. The woman disappeared.
Yoisen's blade carved right through metallic armor with a grotesque sound: a hiss, a crack and an crunch, at the same time. The mystical metal melted and fused with the sizzling flesh it was supposed to guard, and one of the Yumihei fell face-down with a clanging sound.
She slammed her blade into the earth, summoning a deadly ring of fire around her, which spread, reducing the earth to nothing but molten rock—
And then didn't anymore. The fire receded. Yoisen scowled as the earth seemed to wrap around the sword, bark-like tendrils of it rising to trap it, as well as her hand.
There were three more Yumihei drawing close to her, short blades in hand. They fell from the treetops, with no regard for their own safety.
Sakura's head whipped around swiftly, and the razor-thin jet of water that sprouted from her mouth cut through two of these men's exposed necks in less time than it took for their bodies to notice the threat in the first place.
Yoisen dismissed her weapon, gathered flame to her other fist… slammed it into the remaining one's mask, which shattered, like his face did.
The arrows continued to fly toward her.
Water rose in a circle under her, forming a flat surface, courtesy of her friend. She went through the portal, reappearing near Sakura; she dismissed and re-summoned her sword.
Sakura still had a single hand raised in a praying gesture.
There was no natural energy to be used here, but she had stockpiled some over time, using what she had gleaned from Tsunade's sealing designs.
A red circle appeared upon her forehead.
And faster she went, trying to push the Jūbi's influence down again.
Her dagger found its way into a man's helmet. His face seemed to break apart, caking the insides of his mask with its contents, as well as Sakura's face. She couldn't help it — perhaps it was the Jūbi chakra. Sakura laughed, high and unnerving.
Yoisen did her best to ignore her, leaped over arrows that were long enough to be considered lances. Her sword went through the joint of a Yumihei's armpit.
Fire rose, as well as the all too familiar smell of fat burning.
She dashed back, three steps, dancing through sword sweeps, that compared to either Naruto or Toru's skill, were positively sluggish. The arrows came at her from every direction. Yoisen let her sword hang loosely in her right hand.
She leaped forward on one foot, sword extended high above her left shoulder, almost hovering in the air for an instant.
Then her sword fell, north-west to south-east, south-east to west, west to north-east to south to east to south-west to north to west to south-east…
And again, faster and faster, in a swift, graceful and deadly dance that only left crimson trails in its wake.
The arrows fell to the earth, cut cleanly through, where they became ash.
Meters away, Sakura was wading through blood, her dagger hacking, rupturing flesh in a disquieting way.
She blurred, appeared behind a Yumihei; his helmet shattered from the back, spilling its contents.
The dagger buried itself into a chest plate, where the same process happened again.
She ducked under a strike, held a half-seal. A swirling tide of water rose in a flash, exploding into cutting blades before it could even be dismissed by the kami's will.
The earth turned to a pond in the same breath, letting several Yumihei fall through it; they faded through the reforming earth like ghosts again, but it bought the two of them time.
Sakura danced through the incoming men, and with each twist, each turn, their ruptured bodies added to the water's murky, reddish tinge.
Until they stopped approaching her at all, if only for a short moment.
A moment's respite was an eternity in battle. Yoisen moved next to her in a scorching step, calling forth layers of red barriers around them.
The two summoned chakra; more of it. Arrows rained down upon them, but didn't go through. Yet.
Violent, twisting columns of smoke rose around the red barriers. Something was burning. The fires did not spread, however.
The Yumihei's footsteps drew closer. The women's eyes seemed almost alight.
The heat rose and rose. Waves of fire came with it, and were dispelled before they could burn the men. The air around them turned heavier, cloying.
Clouds began to form, and the wind continued to howl. Blue and orange light coalesced, thrumming with power, high above them.
Great pillars of water and flame erupted throughout the forest, the sounds and shrieks of men dying became louder and louder.
The arrows, the swords didn't breach. The women themselves seemed to be glowing now, perhaps from the light of the flames. Perhaps from the chakra they were pouring out.
They brought their hands down. A spectral shape rose around them within the barriers, adding another layer of protection.
The clouds fell.
The sky itself seemed to crumble. That's what it looked like, at least.
Torrents of superheated steam dropped from the heavens like thunder. After its raucous shriek echoed across the scarred battlefield, an unsettling silence fell, as though time itself held its breath.
The rampant flames extinguished, leaving a void in their wake. The sky, cleared to reveal the devastation. The forests, once lush and vibrant, were stripped of their glory, their name no longer befitting the ruinous landscape. There was no trace of the formidable Yumihei anymore.
Yoisen released the barriers, Sakura opened her fist. The Susanoo fell.
Quick to regain their bearings, they swiftly scanned their surroundings.
Their hearts sank as they observed more Yumihei, like phantoms birthed from the destruction, emerging from the shadows to replenish their depleted ranks.
"Fuck." Sakura cursed.
Not wasting a moment, Sakura lunged at the enemies with unbridled rage, her white hair trailing behind her like a battle flag on the winds of war.
Yoisen dealt with the archers that had taken the other woman as a target.
Even as her sword flared, sizzled and flew, her mind was on other things.
There didn't seem to be a way out.
None of their escape methods accounted for a kami which had manifested so strongly — the usual solution was to avoid such a situation.
The only thing they could do was wait until its power lessened.
But how long would that be, then…?
And… worse. There was something alarming on the edge of their awareness.
It felt like a second manifestation.
A very silent one, something that only their very sensitive talismans picked upon.
But whether that was another kami altogether… or something that the one they were facing was doing… did not change anything.
Because they could not leave anyway.
Time stretched on and on, and Yoisen's purpose was clear.
She had done this all before. It was like slipping back into old patterns, where it was just herself, her sword, and the enemy.
A few quick, well-practiced slashes cut through limbs and armor alike.
Sakura was preserving her strength, too. Her hair flashed from pink to white only when she attacked, and she seemed locked in this in-between state, where the expression upon her face was something equally human and animalistic.
With a sharp crack, there was bone, erupting from her stump, shaping itself into something halfway between a whip and a flay that she used to throw a soldier into another.
Watery whips extended from it periodically, pulling at feet, weapons and faces alike. And she was laughing at times, still. Quite manically.
Yoisen cut through another, and the soreness in her forearms was something that had been present for such a long time that calling it a mere cramp would be doing it a disservice. Her lungs were on fire, and the pain brought with it memories of her childhood.
Sakura lobbed something that looked like a spiky ball of gleaming water high in the air.
It shattered into what looked like a thousand water needs, all of them aimed at the helmets' insides.
Yoisen cut another.
There was no end to this.
Yoisen cut another man down.
The more of them either of them cut down, the more seemed to appear.
A roaring ball of flame reduced a man to ash.
Sakura disappeared in a thin ribbon of water, reappearing behind Yoisen.
Her hand pressed in between Yoisen's shoulder blades, refilling her reserves. It was only delaying the inevitable, though. At some point, Sakura sharing even more of her stored, purified Jūbi chakra with her or not, their stamina would run out.
They would misstep and Hachiman-Yumi would pounce.
Sakura disappeared again, and from the way she was fighting, Yoisen could almost believe that moment would never happen.
Her combat prowess never diminishing, her eyes tracking the archers' movements with eerie precision, she seemed every bit a goddess of war as the kami was supposed to be.
She didn't waste time, didn't waste jutsu, every strike's goal was simple: keep her stamina and kill them as fast as she could.
Simple, straight to the point and brutal.
She was fast, and a single tap often meant death. And while she could be very careful in battle, she never hesitated.
Yoisen found something humbling about the sight. Here was a woman who was not even thirty yet, who fought with the mastery of someone much older.
Her hair flashed from white to pink to white, and in her eyes, Yoisen could see the glint of madness she had been warned about.
But in spite of what Sakura had said before… she seemed to manage.
And despite Kamui's uselessness here, it didn't seem as though it made a difference. It had been another tool to Sakura, nothing more, nothing less.
And Yoisen thought she could understand what Naruto had seen in the woman.
Not her prowess in combat, but her indomitable will. Something that extended beyond the battlefield. When it came down to it, the other woman would do what was needed, even if it meant she would spend months, perhaps years away from home.
For all her jokes about that Jinsuke man, there was something of this single-minded determination in her too. Something Yoisen would not mention to either, of course.
Because one thing was clear. Sakura would not return home until she found something: the beginning of an answer to their kami problem… or the solution outright.
The shimmering edge of Yoisen's blade danced once more, cleaving through a behemoth of a man, one whose stature outstripped her own by a considerable margin.
Sakura's ethereal water bubbles meandered with intent, insidiously finding their way into throats, silencing them forever.
With relentless determination, they advanced.
And so they went, hacking, sweeping, severing; indiscriminate in their treatment of limbs, armor, and throats, until the entire forest was littered with red.
Time lost its meaning in the heady rush of adrenaline, as fleeting moments stretched into perceived hours, then into a seemingly interminable span of days.
The sun's descent and ascent passed unnoticed, the cycle of days and nights masked by their relentless combat.
It was as if they had been locked in this ceaseless battle for days on end, a perpetual dance with death.
"Don't falter." Sakura's voice cut through the chaos, a sardonic lilt playing at the edges of her words. "There might be more."
The easy words contrasted her posture, contrasted sharply with her slumped posture, which was finally beginning to sag with exhaustion. She appeared on the brink of surrendering to sleep's tender embrace, even as she stood.
Yoisen wasn't faring any better. Even the potent combination of the Naraka path and the colossal power of the Jūbi had their limits.
Each wave of energy felt less potent than the one before, and compounded with the lack of sleep, it felt as though they were close to the edge.
But Sakura, ever defiant, fought on with a fierce tenacity that belied her exhaustion. She fought and fought.
Yoisen found it impossible to track her trajectory amidst the chaotic melee, her attention demanded by a multitude of pressing concerns.
The dying cries of their enemies, however, were impossible to ignore.
If anything, Sakura's relentless advance was accelerating, a fact made evident by the rising crescendo of terrified screams. Despite the implications, Yoisen didn't afford it much consideration.
Sakura didn't emerge from the forest for a while.
And Yoisen lost track of time entirely, falling back on old patterns...
When Sakura finally emerged, her hair a brilliant pink in contrast to the surrounding carnage…
Yoisen was taken aback by the sight of her simply standing, the frenetic motion she'd become accustomed to… nowhere to be seen.
But there were no more archers to be seen.
Sakura's presence brought Yoisen back to reality, and away from the throes of the battle.
Soon they were walking, unsure where they were headed to at all, feet crunching in the fallen leaves.
They moved slower and slower, as though they were nearing sleep.
Eventually, they came to a halt and stood for a long moment, still as stones.
In that serene interlude, a subtle shift in the air arrested their attention.
Whether it was a product of their ceaseless march, the eerie silence following the apparent extermination of their foes, or a product of an unknown factor… remained unclear.
Only the eerie silence served as a premonition, a warning that came a moment too late. In unison, they spun around.
"Sakura—"
Yoisen's voice choked off into an unfinished echo.
Barely a heartbeat later, they dove to either side, but the golden shafts of light were faster, outrunning their mere mortal speed.
One spear of light buried itself in Yoisen's shoulder, the other found home in Sakura's thigh.
The trees behind them were painted a gruesome shade of red as they fell, rolled, and rapidly forced the healing process to start, draining more of their dwindling reserves.
The majestic forest shivered, and trees splintered.
The shadow fell again, its descent inexplicably faster.
The great mighty trees split.
The celestial veil receded, a hulking silhouette unfurled, cutting a stark figure against the fading twilight.
The heavens finally revealed the fearsome kami, a magnificent armored eagle, larger and grander than any earthly bird had any right to be. Each wing seemed artistically sculpted, and reflected diaphanous light.
If the wings were comparable to finely carved bows… Its talons were like deadly arrows, ready to strike with brutal precision.
The bird's eyes were the most striking features, though: golden, bright, and capable of spotting the faintest stir from miles above.
Each blink of its eyes was a thunderclap, its gaze alone enough to freeze the bravest warrior in his tracks.
On silent wings, Hachiman-Yumi cleaved through the boundless heavens, a herald of both awe-inspiring majesty and inevitable, impending doom.
There was a moment of pure silence as the kami glided through the mighty trees.
And then, something that made this earlier pause seem like a mere imitation.
The sky itself seemed to tremble as Hachiman-Yumi readied for an attack.
Air seemed to shimmer into liquid light, rising to pool around the great beast.
Flexing its mighty wings, shimmering with ethereal radiance, Hachiman-Yumi ascended higher into the skies until it was but a distant star.
The third silence that followed this ascent signaled the calm before a tempest, as the world beneath held its breath in suspense.
"Behind me!" Sakura bellowed.
Blue light rose; the Perfect Susanoo, shrouded by Kamui's power. Something that Sakura knew to be pointless, deep down. Both women still gathered their strength through it.
"Metal — It's metal!" Sakura screamed.
Yoisen channeled Fire wordlessly, which came to wrap the spectral giant in its light.
Then, in a blink, Hachiman-Yumi swooped down, a blinding streak of celestial power, straight and unerring like an arrow shot from the bow of creation.
Time stood still.
It felt like moments stretching into eternity. They could see the armored eagle descending from the heavens, a comet of divine wrath, shrouded in silvery light.
There was a sort of electricity to the air, a frisson that went up their spines, made their skin prickle in anxious anticipation.
And then, the impact.
The world was reduced to an inferno of blinding light, everything else blurring into insignificance.
There was a deafening boom echoing through their ears, echoing through their very being, something that drowned out every other sound.
Then, the heat. An all-encompassing heat, as though they had been thrust into the heart of a burning star. Searing, scorching, overwhelming.
And in the aftermath, a disquieting silence blanketing the devastated landscape.
They were at the epicenter of a cataclysm, the nucleus of Hachiman-Yumi's formidable attack.
There was fear in the air, the taste of raw power, and that was what reality felt like as of now. Something painted by a kami's cruel hand.
Yoisen slowly managed to drag herself to her feet, healing the worst of her injuries with a searing flame.
She barely managed to hold in a worried noise when she saw Sakura's state. She was a badly burned wreck, something that she would have trouble recognizing, were it not for the gleaming red eye that stared at her directly.
And then, flesh. Bubbling to life with a hiss, coming to cover Sakura's body. Red and raw, like a newborn's skin. Her green eye formed again, opening wide, and she discarded the remnants of burnt armor, summoning a new one.
Still enshrouded in the metal-born fire, Sakura stood up, brought powerful Water chakra to herself with a sizzling sound, and the corner of her mouth turned down entirely.
"...Fuck it." Sakura stated, panting. "We're leaving — Trying, at least."
"Now? …Has it spent enough power?" Yoisen rasped out. The kami's celestial form had to drain more of something. "I do not—"
"Now or never. So let's hope." Sakura shook her head. "Otherwise, we're fucked."
And none of them were entirely sure what death in a kami's realm meant. If they did, it might even have been a decent option, here.
Sakura extended her hand, reaching for something they could not see yet—
Then she stopped. Yoisen stopped.
Hachiman-Yumi stopped, too.
All of them were staring into the distance.
Sakura paled.
Under the veiled curtain of twilight, a rumbling had begun to stir, an ethereal echo that seemed to resonate from the very corners of existence.
Storms.
It was the approach of another kami, its wrathful aura swirling with the ferocity of a typhoon.
Something that made even Hachiman-Yumi feel like a pretender.
From the deep woods, woods so deep that twilight barely reached, a low laugh rose.
It felt like an inhuman hand reaching out through the void, as if to touch them, but not managing—
Across from it, the deity of the realm, Hachiman-Yumi, looked on with righteous indignation, its armored eagle form shimmering with celestial fury.
The new kami shaped itself into something more physical, moving with divine purpose, thunder booming with each step, lightning flaring with each gesture, its presence challenging the ancient harmony that had held the realms in balance.
The boundary field, the fabric of reality that separated the sacred domains of the gods, had shimmered and pulsed before him, as though sensing the impending onslaught.
A massive gale, the living embodiment of the kami's will, sprang forth, raging against the delicate barrier with a primal force.
The field buckled and twisted, the ethereal weave of reality straining against the unrelenting assault.
Hachiman-Yumi spoke for the first time, the words reaching both humans and kami, like twin simultaneous voices.
"Over such a petty squabble?" It screeched. "You dare?"
The winds, the lightning of the coming storm did not merely threaten to breach the boundary; they sought to rip apart the very fabric of the realm it protected.
Finally, with a mighty thunderclap, the field shattered. Shards of reality, luminous and ephemeral, scattered into the ether like a burst of stardust.
The once isolated realm of another kami had been laid bare, the shattered pieces of the protective boundary field twinkling out of existence.
In the aftermath, there was silence, a lull in the storm.
"You have shattered the sacred boundary!" Hachiman-Yumi howled, its voice as sharp as its talons. "You've broken the Oath."
A hand reached in, through the cracks.
Both women froze.
To Yoisen, the world blurred as her life twisted into a delicate ballet of heartbeats and breaths. Amid the chaos, her mind grasped onto the thread of a simple regret. There had been no movie night, after all. It was a stupid one, she felt; it was a regret, nonetheless.
To Sakura, the world was a whirlwind of color and noise, an anxious dance of uncertainty and danger. Amid the chaos, a fierce determination sparked within her, burning brighter than any fear. An idea, that was what it was, as of now. There was no grand escape yet, none of the relief that came with a close brush to non-existence, either. It was risky, she knew; possibly the stupidest thing she had ever done.
The laughter continued to echo, closer than before. It did not bother answering.
"I demand an explanation, Stormbringer!" Hachiman-Yumi's golden eyes flared, the weight of its authority imbued in its tone. "You violate my realm, and you won't even utter a word?"
Still, the storm deity offered no response.
It simply raised its hand, and an ethereal blade of roaring winds and crackling lightning materialized, a sword that made no sound at all once it became fully physical.
Hachiman-Yumi, horrified realization etched in its golden gaze, understood that its fellow kami didn't intend to stop here.
And so Hachiman-Yumi implored.
"Susanoo-Arashi, this is not the way! The celestial harmony must be maintained! We must not fight amongst ourselves. Nevermore!"
In response, the storm deity merely chuckled, a sound as chilling as the wind slicing through the heart of a winter storm. The laugh echoed through the realm, a cruel and mocking gale.
"These gods were not part of it!" Hachiman-Yumi screeched. "I have not broken the Oath!"
There was only laughter and two horrified witnesses.
"Susanoo-Arashi!" Hachiman-Yumi cried out, desperation creeping into its voice. "We are both kami! If one must die, it has to be the Pretender! I implore you, put down your sword!"
Susanoo-Arashi's laughter only grew louder, a roaring tempest of amusement.
It brandished its ethereal blade with an air of disdain, a mirthful storm in the face of Hachiman-Yumi's desperate plea.
The terrifying reality was setting in: Susanoo-Arashi, the most chaotic of its brethren, was reveling in the imminent slaughter of its kin.
And it was the mightiest of foes.
"Susanoo-Arashi!" Hachiman-Yumi roared, part fury, part terror. "Have you no idea of what you are about to do?!"
A mere celestial form would not do.
With a powerful burst of celestial energy, Hachiman-Yumi began to shift.
Its armored feathers retracted, its eagle form unraveled, and in its place emerged a terrifying mass of writhing, sinewy tendrils, each one quivering with eerie light.
From the center of this chaotic, ever-shifting form, a single, unblinking eye materialized. It was something that held the promise of death.
In this eldritch form, Hachiman-Yumi stood its ground, pushing its fear aside.
Its gaze never left Susanoo-Arashi, the eye at the center of its writhing form matching the storm deity's mocking amusement with its unyielding stare.
No matter how mighty the foe, Hachiman-Yumi, kami of war and archery, would not go down without a fight.
Space distorted again, trees fading to join the kami's dark mass, until they were flying in the middle of a void.
And the two human women found themselves pulled to Hachiman-Yumi itself.
Yoisen understood it at once.
In between the two kami, whose full powers were turned against each other, they had an opportunity.
She screamed at Sakura.
"Now! We will only get one chance at this!"
"Got it!" Sakura shouted. The red fruit that she had pulled out of nowhere earlier was firmly in her hand.
"Where did you get this—"
"Another world — There's no time for that!"
Sakura brought the Isshiki-essence to her mouth. She devoured it.
Humans were not Ōtsutsuki. They were not quite meant to do anything like this. Sakura's face showed Yoisen how bad of an idea this was. It was a terrible sight, she panted, drooled; let out an incoherent scream of pain.
Something under her skin seemed to ripple for a second, but she pressed down on it with nothing but sheer will. Sakura extended her hand, howling.
Dark light began to coalesce in front of her.
Susanoo-Arashi laughed.
At their futile efforts, perhaps. At Hachiman-Yumi.
A thunderous voice rolled over the landscape, for the first time:
BE STILL, LITTLE KAMI. I SHALL TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR ESSENCE.
With a dreadful finality, the blade descended, bringing all existence to an abrupt pause.
The world as they knew it seemed to cease, replaced by a terrifying abyss, an incomprehensible void that lurked just beyond the veneer of reality.
Sakura's mind raced. A kami could annihilate, could cause immeasurable damage to another of its kind.
This revelation was crucial, something the others had to be informed of. And it was a moot point if both of them were reduced to nothing at all.
She had felt the embrace of Hachiman-Yumi's arrows, their ability to pierce her Kamui, although the kami was known for its unerring accuracy and keen sight.
Perhaps luck would be on her side this time.
She could feel the pull, she could feel Hachiman-Yumi being dragged through the other kami's sword.
The options were clear – certain death for them both or… a gamble.
A moment of indecision passed before she chose to place her faith in her instincts.
Fearlessly, Sakura put herself between Yoisen and the swirling cacophony of distorted hues and noises that had once been a deity and now was unraveling.
Sakura clung onto the portal that she still hadn't managed to form.
The entity's tendrils reached out for her, its insatiable hunger for consumption threatening to consume her too. The sensation was overwhelming, threatening to subsume her being.
Sakura resisted; a surge of power coursed into the link that joined her to the kami. She thought she could almost hear something — closer, she needed to get closer —
Yoisen watched in horror, unable to intervene, as her fingers slipped through a woman who had become a friend. She thought she could guess at what Sakura was trying to do. "Stop this!"
Her pleas fell on deaf ears.
A spectral ribcage materialized around Sakura and Yoisen, encapsulating them as their world was consumed in a maelstrom of cosmic energy.
And then, sinewy muscle around it.
Then, the power, not to warp them away, but to render them ethereal—
"Kamui!"