Hinata: Byakurenden
Hyuga Hinata vs Kijin
"Kijin…?" Hinata repeated the name the sentient blood had used to introduce itself.
It wore the armor of the samurai, looking like a true devil with its horned helmet dyed red in crimson from the raining blood. The very same blood that made up its true body, having once been trapped inside Kubikiribocho. Only once all the other swords were shattered did the seal come undone and the blood became free to escape the sword.
In the first place, what exactly was Kijin? She had heard the legends, but this was different than that. In the old tales from the Land of Water, Kijin wasn't an actual demon, just a man with demon-like powers, the first to wield and master all Seven Swords of the Bloody Mist.
She had also heard rumors on her travels of a man from the Hōzuki clan that belonged to the previous generation of swordsmen, the second ever to master all seven swords, earning him the title as the Kijin's second coming.
Yet when faced with this sentient blood that had been sealed in the swords calling itself the Kijin she was forced to recontextualize all the legends that she heard.
"It's unsurprising that you don't know." Kijin didn't bear the aura of someone that had been insulted, but his displeasure was equally prevalent. "I once contended against that alien woman Otsutsuki Kaguya for the right to rule this planet. So I suppose you could say my existence is even older than you ninja."
"You fought against Kaguya…" Hinata found the very concept hard to believe. Not that it was impossible, but Kali had never mentioned anything about this thing that had fought her grandmother.
Despite his advanced age, he seemed to have some knowledge about the current state of their modern world. Had he been able to gain information somehow? Perhaps through the chakra of the users Samehada ate or the blood of those absorbed by Kubikiribocho. Regardless of how he did it, he wasn't entirely ignorant of when and where he was.
"So what, you're not with the samurai then?" Tayuya asked cautiously, still a step behind Hinata. She hadn't yet dropped her guard, ready for anything to happen.
The Kumonin had also taken note of the strange development and were watching carefully. Shee was almost finished healing Darui, meaning he could fight if it came to it, but his strength would be significantly diminished. The Raikage was also injured, the black lightning armor having burst blood vessels all over his body. He could move and fight, but for how much longer?
"On the contrary, I desire nothing more than their deaths. Speaking of which…" Kijin looked past Hinata and Tayuya, at where Urakaku and the remaining nameless Samurai still were. They hadn't risen from where they had collapsed to their knees, still distraught at the destruction of the swords.
The aura around the Kijin changed. Not in a way that was perceptible to just anyone, but only to Hinata who could see the natural flow of the world around them with her Nichiren Byakugan. He lifted a single fist, holding it in the air above his head, channeling the natural energy of the world and projecting his power outwards.
"Please wait-!" Hinata shouted too late. The Kijin brought his fist down. And the two remaining samurai were splattered, their bodies crushed flat into an unrecognizable red pulp, as if a large mallet had just fallen on them. Not just any type of mallet, but one in the exact shape that Hiramekarei had been capable of producing.
"That is the fate of those who would seek to use my power for their own gain." Kijin said apathetically, not phased in the slightest by the random act of violence against those that no longer had any desire to fight. In the first place, his voice lacked any kind of inflection or emotion to begin with, constantly flat in tone and hoarse, like he wasn't used to speaking. The only way to understand his feelings was by the way the natural energy around him reacted.
That made him similar in nature to Amaterasu. Not just that, but in the way he killed the samurai just now too. This thing, whatever it was Kijin even was, couldn't be allowed to leave here. Like her, he was a danger to all humanity and it was Hinata's duty to purify him. That was why he hadn't wanted to reveal the true nature of his existence to her earlier.
"What are your plans if we let you out of here?" Hinata asked just to be sure. Despite already knowing what he was, she still wanted to hope against reason that it wouldn't come to a fight between them. It was this exact part of her that led to her fight with Kali last time too. Yet she wouldn't change that part of her, not for anyone.
"Let's see…" Kijin stared at her with those abyssal eyes, and she felt like she might fall right in. "First of all, I need to take care of that upstart that's spreading her foolish religion." In other words, he also had reason to fight Amaterasu. Was this perhaps a case of the enemy of my enemy being my friend? "Then I'll retake my rightful place as the ruler of this world."
No, in the end it would seem the enemy of my enemy was still just that: also an enemy.
If she offered to let Kijin go now so he could help them with Amaterasu, she would just be trading a megalomaniacal goddess for a blood-hungry demon. A literal deal with the devil as it were. Nothing would be solved and she would just have to deal with it sooner or later. Only dealing with it later would make things more complicated.
"It seems like it's exactly as you predicted." Hinata settled once more into the gentle fist style stance of her clan. Tayuya and the Kumonin took that as their cue, also tensing for combat. "We cannot allow you to pass." She declared.
"Humans with a taste for power are all the same, no matter the age." Kijin crossed his arms, lifting his head as if to look down on her and the rest of them. "Your place is in the mud. Leave the complicated things like ruling to those of us with divine right." It was the most impassioned statement he made yet. And it was all about putting them in their 'rightful' place.
If the others hadn't been entirely sure on what was going on before now, they wouldn't be able to just hear that after watching him flatten those samurai without being spurred into action. Even they could all understand that whatever this Kijin was, he was bad news for them and all of humanity.
"Darui! Shee!" Ei roared, the normal blue lightning armor exploding off his frame once again. He was gone in a clap of thunder, crossing the distance in a single second to Kijin. He appeared just above him, right arm raised high as he prepared to bring the vambrace down.
"Raiton: Lightning Illusion Flash!" Shee once again began to use his genjutsu, robbing Kijin of sight and ability to block the attack.
"Ranton: Laser Circus!" Darui still couldn't move very easily, but he could at least fire off his elemental Kekkei Genkai, launching flowing streams of electricity.
Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and Genjutsu, all three primary forms of Shinobi combat unleashed in a single second, all brought down upon the same target. Any ordinary person would be obliterated in an instant, unable to block such an onslaught. Kijin was no such existence, being neither ordinary, nor a person. He was some kind of demonic blood, possibly not even of their world.
"How utterly boorish." Kijin waved his hand. With that single motion, Ei's lightning armor, Darui's Storm Release, and Shee's genjutsu all vanished. It was as if he absorbed them, just like how Samehada had been capable of eating chakra.
"Wha-" Ei didn't even get to finish the exclamation, Kijin placing a hand on the vambrace that came down on top of him. There was an explosion, just like Shibuki's tags, and Ei was sent flying backwards.
"I'll return this to you." Kijin pointed a single finger at Darui, and a bolt of lightning flew from it, the same type of electricity that covered Kiba. Such an attack normally wouldn't have been able to strike Darui, but with his stomach wound still fresh, he couldn't hope to dodge in time and was struck down, collapsing to the floor unconscious.
"Boss! Darui!" Shee froze, unsure of who to check on first. That moment of hesitation cost him. The ground beneath his feet split open, dozens of wires made out of blood wrapping around him and binding him in place. Wires that were not so different from Nuibari.
It was almost like he had all the abilities of the swords. No, that wasn't such a strange coincidence. He claimed that the swords had been made from his body. So it wasn't that his abilities were like the swords, it was the opposite. The swords had gotten their powers from him.
This was even worse than that. Even weakened from their battle just now, these three represented the greatest power Kumogakure no Sato had to offer. And they had been utterly thrashed in a single move each. This meant that Kijin's power while in the swords had been severely handicapped, but now his true power could be unleashed.
"Tayuya-chan! Hold him in place!" Hinata still had the power of two gates flowing through her. If she could just strike him with the first dance of the white lotus she might be able to seal him. No, just one time wouldn't be enough. She would perform it eight consecutive times. In order to do that, she needed, "Third Gate: Gate of Life- Release!" Chakra and natural energy even greater than before flowed off of her.
"Leave it to me!" Tayuya didn't hold back either, activating her own form of Sage Mode. Horns grew from her head, signifying the transformation. With the power of natural energy and the strength of her sealed Doki, she unleashed the strongest version of the adamantine chakra chains she possessed. They bound the Kijin in place, restricting his movements in the same way he currently bound Shee.
At least, they did for a single moment.
"Please don't waste my time with childish tricks such as this." All Kijin had to do was flex and the chains shattered into pieces. The Uzumaki chains that could break one of the swords and bind the Kyubi no Yoko were destroyed with just a shrug of the shoulders. As if the true strength of Kabutowari was unleashed now.
"There's no way…" Tayuya gaped, unable to accept that the Uzumaki chains had been broken that easily.
"It would seem that unlike the others, I can't underestimate you." Kijin held up an open palm, pointing it right at Hinata. A chakra hammer like that of Hiramekarei formed in front of him, but it wasn't just that. She could see the powers of Kiba, Shibuki, and Kabutowari flowing through it as well. In other words, an electric, exploding hammer that could cut through anything.
"Tayuya-chan!" Hinata grabbed Tayuya, throwing her out of the way and towards the downed Kumonin. She hoped her intention was clear, telling her not to join the fight any further and look after them instead.
"Do you have the time to worry about others?" Kijin asked her, as apathetic as ever. He unleashed the attack, the wall of chakra flying right at her.
"Yata no Kagami!" Hinata activated the power implanted in her left eye, projecting the astral form of the mirror. The hammer ripped apart the underground bunker and caused parts of it to collapse. Tayuya did just as Hinata hoped, moving to protect the Kumonin. That was the last thing she really saw before the attack hit, the force of the explosion upon contact with the mirror erasing everything around her.
It took her several moments to realize she had been sent flying. The ground beneath her feet had been blown away and without anything to anchor her down, she was carried aloft, the explosion destroying anything that might have acted as a buffer between her and the outside. Now she was high in the air, the sky above and one of the three mountains below, approaching fast. That wasn't because she was falling, but about to collide with the side of the slope.
By that point she had already slowed down enough that she could land comfortably on the snowy mountain-side, skidding to a stop. The first thing she noticed was how much colder it was up here on the mountain, the wind sending a chill through her shrine maiden robes. She released a shaky breath, her exhalation crystallizing in the air and coming out as visible fog.
It seemed like the other battles had also moved to the mountain slopes. Or what was left of them. Four Biju fought on where the mountain should be to her southeast, and Itachi fought some kind of fleshy abomination on the remains of the mountain to the southwest. Naruto clashed with one more Biju, his battle taking place over what was left of the Samurai Fortress in the middle of the valley.
Things had escalated on all fronts. She started down the mountain, debating who to help first.
No, now wasn't the time for her to worry about the others. Things had already gone off the rails on their end. It was supposed to be as simple as defeating the Samurai and only then joining the other battles. Instead, they had accidentally released a seal housing a kind of sentient blood, and now they risked something just as dangerous as Amaterasu getting out.
"To think there was something my power couldn't shatter." Kijin had already arrived, standing just down the slope from her. He stared up at her with those pitch-black eyeholes, his gaze somehow transmitting his curiosity. "Just what was that Yata Mirror you used?" He had even been able to break Tayuya's chakra chains, but not the mirror.
"Does it really matter?" Hinata asked, not really wanting to explain how the mirror came into her possession. Even if she told him about Amaterasu and her ploys to sneak into their world, she had a feeling he wouldn't understand or care. Nevermind they were two sides of the same coin.
"No, I suppose it doesn't." Kijin agreed with her surprisingly easily. "It would seem my impression about you was correct. Just like how you couldn't allow me to leave, I also cannot forgive your existence. Our clash would have been inevitable. Just know that I am grateful to you for freeing me from that seal, but I cannot allow someone with your power to exist."
"I too am sorry." Hinata placed her hands in front of herself and bowed. "For breaking your seal only to become your enemy." She then took her stance, placing a hand on the next tenketsu point. Like it or not, there was nothing for her to do but accept that Kijin was on a level similar to that of Amaterasu. That meant that Hinata couldn't fight him at the mere level of just three gates. She had to go beyond that. "Fourth Gate: Gate of Pain- Release!"
She was completely surrounded in chakra now, and with the increase of natural energy to match, she could then use that energy to create the dawn lion, unleashing the second dance of the white lotus. If that wasn't enough, then she would unveil the fifth gate, and unleash the Shishidama, an attack inspired by the ultimate attack of the tailed beasts.
"Byakuren: Tsugi no Mai- Akejishi!" The chakra finished forming the dawn lion, the second dance of the white lotus about to begin.
"I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to do that either." Kijin said with a casual wave of the hand. In the next instant, all that chakra was gone.
Hinata blinked, trying to understand what had happened. No, she had been foolish to unleash more chakra. She already knew he could just absorb it, but she had somehow assumed that by mixing it with the sage energy then it would be different. Now she had fed him even greater power than he already had.
"I know you Ninja like to have big showy battles, but that would be problematic for me. It would be much more preferable if you just died quietly." Kijin held out his hand. With a snap of the fingers he launched a web of bloody wires.
Hinata jumped to the side, slower than before with all the power of the gates gone completely now. The web shredded the area she had just been standing. She hit the snow and rolled, springing back to her feet. Only to find a bolt of lightning flying right for her. Extending a finger, she struck the lightning right in the natural tenketsu point, shattering it upon contact.
"Interesting. How about this then?" Kijin swung his arm in a sideways chop, unleashing all the chakra he just absorbed. A massive blue blade of chakra mimicked the action, splitting the mountain itself in half. The mountain had originally been in the shape of a wolf's head, Hinata and Kijin fighting on the topside of the slope. With nothing below it to hold it up and severed from the rest of the mountain, the top half tumbled, causing a miniature earthquake as it fell away.
Hinata had just barely gotten out of the way in time, diving into the snow and disappearing beneath it temporarily. That snow was washed away now, being carried down below them in the beginning of an avalanche.
"You're light on your feet, I'll give you that." Despite having a voice that sounded like he wasn't used to talking, he sure liked to make lots of small comments. It reminded her of Kali in a way. Had Kijin perhaps been bored while sealed all this time and was using her to let off some stress?
"Why am I still alive?" Hinata asked, dusting off the snow that still clung to her shrine maiden robes. If Kijin was serious, she shouldn't have survived those last few strikes. Since she was alive though, she had to keep going. In order to do that, she had to buy a little time, just a small amount should be enough.
"You would be a little rusty too if you had been sealed for a thousand years." Kijin admitted while rolling his shoulders and shaking his arms as if to wash away the grogginess. "Fighting someone with your abilities is a good way to remind myself of my old strength. So if you have more power, now is the time to use it. My next attack won't miss." That was his last warning.
"Thank you for your consideration." Hinata nodded, having bought all the time she needed. "Sixth Gate: Gate of View- Release!" She pressed the tenketsu, getting closer and closer to going all the way to the eighth and final.
"You humans really don't learn." Kijin was disappointed. In the end, she would just go back to that power, even though he had eaten it once already. "It doesn't matter how much you have, I'll just continue to take whatever chakra- hmm…?" He stopped, his arm raised halfway in preparation to absorb the power of the gates.
There was nothing. It was like her chakra footprint had disappeared altogether. He couldn't sense anything from her anymore, like she had just merged with nature itself.
Hinata inhaled deeply, then let out a long exhale, her breath crystallizing in the cold air. She took a similar stance to before, but something about it was different. The gentle fist of the Hyuga clan fought with open palms, but now Hinata had balled her hands into normal fists. She stepped forward, swinging her fist as if practicing her kata.
"What are you trying to do-" Kijin was cut off, a dent appearing in the breastplate of his crimson armor. Air pressure? No, he hadn't detected any change in the wind. That blow just now- it was like nature itself had struck him. He hadn't even sensed the power behind her punch until his armor was already dented.
Hinata stepped again, swinging the other fist forward. Kijin moved to the side. The dent appeared in his shoulder this time. He thought he had dodged it? Had he misread the trajectory or could she manipulate the way the blows moved? As the attack was impossible to detect until it already landed, he couldn't understand the principles behind how it worked.
He felt something develop, a type of emotion he wasn't used to. The very first time he felt it was when those seven heroes had ripped him apart, sealing him inside their swords. That's right, this sensation… it was fear.
"…You damn humans!" Kijin roared, the apathy in his voice disappearing and being replaced with rage. He swung his fist, channeling the power that had become Hiramekarei, creating a giant mallet of chakra. Hinata didn't say anything, swinging her first fist again, the mysterious invisible strike hitting the mallet, the attacks halting one another.
He kicked off the ground, moving around where their attacks met and closing the distance to her directly, leaving a trail of lightning in his wake. In the span of time that couldn't even be called a second he had closed in on where Hinata was standing and struck, creating an explosion that covered half the mountain, breaking away more of it and sending it crumbling down.
Yet Hinata wasn't there. In the same moment that he had charged, she had moved too. Where did she go? He should have been able to track her by chakra signature, but that had disappeared. It was like she had truly become one with nature.
Another dent appeared in the back of his plate armor. Hinata was just behind him now. He swung on her, unleashing a torrent of bloody wires surging with electricity, ensuring she couldn't dodge no matter where she ran to. Instead of dodging, she struck the natural tenketsu points of his attacks, breaking right through them.
He was on her before she had even done that, swinging a wild haymaker covered in an aura of chakra and lightning. The blow never even connected, it wasn't that Hinata had dodged or blocked it, but more like he missed- No, he had been made to miss. She was covered in some kind of aura, it was just something he couldn't perceive or react to.
"What the hell are you!?" Kijin held his arms high, shooting bolts of lightning into the sky that he then brought crashing down, striking with rolling thunder and piercing through solid rock like heavenly lances.
Hinata didn't respond, instead jumping backwards and sliding further down the mountain, or what was left of it. Each bolt of lightning that fell chipped away more and more of it, the once tall wolf head being reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble.
It wasn't that she was ignoring Kijin, she just couldn't afford to respond. This was the first time she had actually used the sixth gate in a real combat situation and it was taking all of her focus just to maintain her sense of self. Up to the fifth gate, her chakra was still mostly her own, mixed evenly with the natural energy to create increasingly large constructs of white energy that she could shape into a lion.
Upon opening the sixth gate, the very energy she was releasing transformed. It was no longer visible waves of chakra, but something transcending that and it felt like she was actually fusing with the natural energy around her. That wasn't to say that the massive amounts of power she had before had disappeared, it was just undetectable to those who didn't know how to sense it. In this great storm of natural energy, it was all Hinata could do to maintain her sense of self.
She felt like if she let her guard down for even a second, she would be overwhelmed and become something more than human; A kind of Buddha who would abandon all worldly desires, including the purpose for why she had to fight. This was the true risk of using the sixth gate and beyond. Yes, she gained the power to fight at the level of beings like Kijin and Amaterasu, but she risked crossing over to their side if she was careless.
The area they were fighting in now was covered in dust and steam, the falling lightning having superheated the snow and turning it into vapor upon contact. From within the steam, Kijin stalked forward and into view. The dents she had managed to put in his armor popped back into place, Kijin also possessing the incredible healing factor of Kubikiribocho.
It would seem something simple like just the Senken wouldn't be enough to defeat him. The Senken, otherwise known as the Sage's fist, was the technique she had been using to strike Kijin. Taking the swirling power around her and concentrating it into a focal point with her fist as the anchor, she could launch that energy out like a cannon. Against a normal opponent, it should have blown them to pieces. Yet the most damage she could do against someone like Kijin was just temporarily dent his armor.
"If it's going to be like this, then I have no choice but to go all out as well." Kijin had regained control of his emotions, having vented out all his anger when bringing down those bolts of lightning. He took a combat stance as well, having just been otherwise standing lackadaisically until now. "Your death shall serve as the offering for my return, on my name as Demon King Kijin of the Demonic Blood."
"I won't allow that to happen. I pledge this on my name as Hinata of the White Lotus." She proclaimed, the act of stating her name and title helping to sharpen her focus and separating her identity from that of the world around her.
The two moved as one, crossing the distance between them. Her senken met his exploding lightning fist. The ground beneath their feet and the area around them was immediately destroyed, forcing them to switch locations, and clash again. This repeated several times, the two bouncing around the rubble that had once been a mountain, each time they traded blows destroying more and more of it.
It was just as Hinata suspected, the sixth gate by itself wasn't enough to overcome Kijin. She disengaged, trying to put distance between them. It wouldn't be that easy, Kijin unleashed a web of bloody wires that sliced through anything in their path. She knocked the wires aside, manipulating the storm of invisible natural energy to swat them away like one would a normal spider's web.
Kijin had closed the distance to her again, slashing down with a strong chop. She stepped to the side, but was then assaulted from every angle, a tornado of electric chakra blades mimicking Kijin's chop.
"Yata no Kagami!" Hinata projected the astral mirror, reflecting the storm of blades.
"That mirror again!?" Kijin's fist followed, hitting the mirror with enough power to send Hinata flying backwards, unintentionally creating distance between them. Still, it was perfect for her. She needed whatever precious time she could get.
She held her hands out in front of her chest, palms facing one another. Taking the natural energy all around her, she focused it on that single point between her hands. Reality itself seemed to warp, the space she focused on beginning to bend and change. Lightning, Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind; She mixed the five elements together with natural energy compressing it into a single focal point, forming an orb. Finally, she covered the orb in the forces of Yin and Yang.
"Gudodama!" She had done it, successfully replicating the truth-seeker's orb of the Rikudo Sennin. The black orb floated peacefully between her palms, belying the terrible power stored inside. Creating this orb was the real reason Kali had trained her in elemental manipulation over the past two years, focusing on that over everything else.
It could only be achieved by combining all the elements while compressing them with a great amount of natural energy, finally using the strength of Yin and Yang to hold it together. A single mistake would have caused the whole thing to blow up in her face, quite literally.
Of course, the Rikudo Sennin had a different way of creating the orb, but Kali didn't have his natural gifts, so she had been forced to find her own way of doing it. That didn't mean this version of it was somehow inferior, just more difficult for her to generate and unlike her uncle, Kali and her reincarnations could only create one at a time.
"A weapon then?" Kijin asked, noticing the orb. Unlike the natural energy that surrounded Hinata, he could feel the insipid energy emitting from the Gudodama. He also understood this was something he couldn't hope to consume, its existence defying logic itself. "In that case, shall I show you the power of the Shinigami Blood Scythe?" He held out an open palm, blood leaking out from the wrist.
The blood took shape, forming a long polearm with a curved blade on the end. Spinning the weapon of blood and placing it over his shoulder, Kijin looked even more like a demon, specifically a type of grim reaper coming to ferry off the souls of the damned. As he formed his weapon, Hinata also commanded the Gudodama to take shape.
"Gohei!" Hinata reflected a shape burned into her right eye at the Gudodama. In her left eye was the astral form of the Yata Mirror, and in her right was Kali's original ceremonial Miko wand, the tool of a shrine maiden. A short staff, decorated with two streams of intertwining paper seals attached to the end.
She took the Gohei in hand, waving it gently, watching as if mesmerized as the paper seals danced with the motion. Since it had been made with the Gudodama, the wand and seals were in reality pitch black, but to her right eye which was reflecting the original, she could see the pure white of the paper and the pristine wood that it had been carved from.
"Shall we make this the final exchange?" Kijin poured all his power and abilities into the blood of the scythe. It was with this very weapon that he had created the Land of Water, carving out a piece of the continent, and allowing the waters of the ocean to come flooding in. All because the people of that land had defied him.
It was from the few survivors of that calamity that the Seven Heroes had been incensed, wielding their swords with which he had been sealed. A mistake he would never allow to be repeated. This time for sure, he would remove all those with the power to threaten him.
He took a low stance, bending his knees and hunching his back while grabbing the scythe in both hands, holding the curved blade high over his head. With a single swing he could wipe out a whole country. That was nothing when compared against a single girl.
Hinata strode forward, each step small and precise. As she walked, she waved the wand gracefully and deliberately, as if performing a ritual. Her Shrine Maiden robes flowed with the movement, the purple and white material billowing in the chill wind. She wasn't even looking at Kijin anymore, her focus solely on the Gohei. As if she had forgotten about the battle entirely.
"Chigiri!" Kijin brought the scythe down, unleashing enough power to completely destroy not just the Sanro, but the entirety of the Land of Iron. In response, Hinata hoisted the Gohei high.
"Byakuren: San no Mai- Kagura!" The third dance of the White Lotus had already begun.
She waved the Gohei, swinging it from above her head, out to her side. The effect was instantaneous, a visibly wide eight trigrams mark forming beneath her feet, encompassing the entire space between herself and Kijin. She stood on the pinyin in the center, the traditional marks of yin and yang spinning beneath her.
Going outside the pinyin, there were three layers of circles. Inside the first layer, were a series of symbols to represent numbers, and etched into the outside of each layer, were a series of characters. The first row had eight characters. The second and final row consisted of twenty-eight characters each, completing the entire range of sixty-four characters that made up the hexagram of the Hakke. With each wave of the Gohei, she could spin the circles, altering the combination in which they were aligned with one another.
Not that it mattered. She had performed the dance too late, the red wave of Kijin's attack about to consume the entire circle, Hinata along with it. Then it would destroy the Sanro, before finally spreading to the whole country. It would all be reduced to nothing.
In spite of this immutable fact, as if trying to defy this fate, Hinata waved the Gohei.
With it, she manipulated the three circles simultaneously, aligning them so the character for 'Dispersing' located outside the second circle was highlighted. It glowed brightly- and Kijin's attack vanished, as if dispersing into nothing more than thin air.
"W-What is this…?" Kijin looked around, not understanding what he was seeing at all. There should have been nothing left, the whole country reduced to nothing more than a crater. Yet it was his attack that was gone instead. It hadn't been overpowered. No, it was like it had simply been ordered out of existence.
With nothing more than a twirl and the flick of the wrist, Hinata had done the impossible and eliminated his ultimate attack.
Hinata didn't answer his question, instead waving the Gohei once again, spinning in place as she did. It was like she had been possessed… or rather was channeling some kind of spirit or god. She actually looked like a proper Shrine Maiden, performing a sacred ritual. The pinyin along with the characters spun again, realigning themselves at Hinata's will.
When they stopped again, the character for 'Holding' was the next one to highlight. Realizing this was bad, the Kijin moved to get out of the Eight Trigrams. Only it was too late, the power of the selected character holding him in place, not allowing him to move. Hinata gave the Gohei another wave, sending the characters spinning yet again.
This time they stopped on the 'Abounding' character, located outside the third circle. It wasn't Kijin that was affected, but Hinata, overwhelming and abounding power flowing through her. This wasn't chakra, natural energy or anything Kijin had ever seen before, but some kind of heavenly energy bestowed upon her from another plane of existence.
Yet again, Hinata waved the Gohei and selected a new character, this time it was 'Humbling' that was chosen. If the last character had been to increase Hinata's own power, this one was meant to rob him of his strength and reduce him to a humble state, making him no different from that of humans.
With that completed, Hinata gave one final wave. The trigram spun, coming to a stop on the character for 'Swallowing.' A rift opened beneath Kijin, and he began to sink as if it was a pool of quicksand. It was impossible to see what lay beyond the rift, only a dark void existing on the other side. Yet Kijin understood that it wasn't a journey he would survive.
"Ah… so this is my loss." Kijin sighed, the apathy returning in the face of his inevitable demise. As he glanced up at Hinata, he felt a strange mix of contradicting emotions. This girl had been his savior and soon would also be his killer.
"I'm sorry." Hinata repeated, holding the Gohei in front of herself as she bowed, ponytail falling over her shoulder. Her dance had been absolutely captivating, and despite the terrifying power she called upon with each movement, Kijin wouldn't have minded continuing to watch it forever.
"The strong don't apologize." He had sunk into the void up to his neck, almost all but gone now. "This is your victory, Hinata of the White Lotus. Reshape the world in the way you see fit. That is, if you think this is also enough to defeat that sun goddess." Then he was gone, Kijin being swallowed whole by the rift and disappearing from their realm entirely.
Their fight had decimated the mountain they had been on, and as she turned to survey the battlefield, she verified once again with her own eyes that the other two had been destroyed as well.
The battles were all but finished, and the Sanro were no more.
Chapter End
AN: This third dance is perhaps the most abstract of my ideas, so I would like to talk about the inspirations and the inner-workings behind this one.
First, I'll start with the name. Byrakuren: San no Mai- Kagura（白蓮・参の舞・神楽）or "The Third Dance of the White Lotus- Kagura." The San no Mai part is keeping with tradition of following the naming scheme of Rukai's Shikai from Bleach. Kagura is a ritualistic dance performed by Miko（巫女）or Shrine Maidens, to divine oracles from the gods. One important tool in this ritual is the Gohei（御幣）or a kind of wand, that you might see Shrine Maiden's holding. For quick reference to what I was imagining, then please consider Hakurei Reimu from the Touhou games.
Now for the dance itself, I incorporated the Hakke（八卦）or the Eight Trigrams, the green markings you see below the feet of any Hyuga character before they use the Sixty-Four Palms strike and its variations. This is where things get the most complicated. You may have noticed that there are Japanese characters, or Kanji, written inside the trigram. It's possible for there to be up to 64 of them, and this dance is able to make use of them all, divining meaning and power from the character selected. I divided the circles of characters into 8, 28, and 28. The first 8 are used as the kind of prime characters, their meaning often associated with the elements. By combining them in different ways, you can get the other 56 characters, which can be split into a "lower" tier and an "upper" tier. If you're curious and want more information about how I envisioned it, then I recommend going to the English Wikipedia and typing in "Bagua", then scrolling down to the Hexagram lookup table.
So there you have it. The third dance is a combination of a Shinto Ritual, where Hinata dances as a Shrine Maiden to call upon the power of a Hindu Goddess, Kali, to divine powers from the Daoist symbol of the Hakke. I know that's kind of a lot of inspirations, and all from different cultures, but I was very excited to bring this to you, so I hope it wasn't so convoluted that you couldn't enjoy it.
One final translation note, Kijin's final attack, the Chigiri（血切）can be translated as "Blood cutter" which is much more simple and straight-forward than Hinata's technique, haha.
Next time, this arc reaches its conclusion, so please look forward to that!