Ride 9: Re:Prisal

30th of March, 2019 AD

Normally, approaching Zenkō Temple would've been a trivial task given that it was Nagano City's main cultural landmark that was erected during the Asuka Period. So with that in mind, one would assume that getting there would've been as easy as walking up to the main complex after traversing the main city streets leading towards it.

However, Sona had quickly devised a different route towards the enemy base upon discovering one simple caveat.

There were no public sightings of the Oni being sighted, meaning only one thing.

Kataki's Genjutsu had flat-out created a sub-space within the temple grounds to avoid public detection. After all, given that Zenkō Temple is hallowed ground, who would expect the heretical Yomi Faction to establish a base there?

And there weren't reports of the Temple being raided overtly, meaning that they snuck in and established a parallel space within.

Which left the alliance following Takeshi's trail, leading them deep into the adjacent Mt. Jitsuki.

"MOVE IT PEOPLE!" Rias barked out as she led the alliance through the wooded path. "DON'T LET THE ENEMY PATROL SLOW YOU DOWN!"

"EASY FOR YOU TO SAY!" Suguru heaved as he ducked under a slung rock as he carried his disembodied head. "THEY'RE THE ONES AFTER OUR HEADS!"

Behind the alliance on the run were a whole stampede of Yomi-aligned Oni and Gaki pursuing them, throwing rocks and dark fireballs at the intruders before they could reach their main base.

"WE CAN'T KEEP GOING LIKE THIS!" Yasuhiro pointed out as he ditched his burning kanmuri hat. "WE NEED TO ESTABLISH A LINE OF DEFENSE TO MAKE SURE OUR OPERATIONS AREN'T COMPROMISED!"

"Then leave it to us, Yasuhiro-sama," one of the lesser, zenko-ranked Kitsune remarked. "The strongest among our alliance shall be the one to deal with the enemy commanders."

"Hold on, let me find us a good choke point to defend!" Sona then took out her phone's GPS and began analyzing the local topography. "... Got it! 400 meters inbound from where Takeshi was last seen, and we'll set up a defensive line from there!"

"Yuuto!" Rias cried out. "Get ready to throw down as many explosive swords as you can conjure! Everyone! If able, make a smokescreen as soon as we reach the upcoming checkpoint!"

"RIGHT!"

Everyone then readied whatever spell or method to create explosions they had on hand as they then reached their checkpoint.

It was a secret stairwell that led up towards the main temple, long neglected and overgrown with weeds and flora, and standing atop of the stairs was an old torii gate.

"... Sheesh, where are we, Ibaraki?" snarked Tsubasa as she and everyone climbed up the old stairs.

"To be fair, I'm glad they're not at Ibaraki," Tsubaki pointed out. "... That place is so choked with overgrowth that navigating either on foot or by air is a bit of a logistical nightmare."

"Then it's a good thing that they're such messy campers," Akeno pointed out as they were following the tracing of residual kegare. "... Although given how the city's main gate is being guarded by Niō, I think they're just strapped for options."

"Great, they have proven themselves to be proficient at finding backdoors," Yasuhiro rolled his eyes. "... WE'RE HERE!"

"NOW!" Sona barked out as she and everyone else then released their payloads.

Demonic energy blasts, tossed [Fire Brand] blades, fire and lightning-based Yōjutsu, and actual grenades were thrown downstairs, right before the Yomi Faction's feet.

*KABOOM*

The whole earth below them was now a veritable sea of fire, consuming all of those who were caught in the combined blast until they were nothing but flailing silhouettes.

"... Hopefully, we can write this off as a mere wildfire," Sona remarked as Yasuhiro and the other Kitsune began activating the old torii gate.

"Personally, I'd worry about angering the local kami residing here, but given how the Yomi Faction infiltrated this sacred place, it appears that we're in for a needlessly complicated aftermath," Kumowatari remarked.

Then the gate behind them shines.

"Whenever you're ready!" Yasuhiro remarked.

"Alright everyone! Who's ready to kick some ass?!" Kambei roared out.

"We'll support the Kyoto Faction!" the Karasu-Tengu remarked as they readied their ringed staves. "We'll defend this gate with our lives!"

"I'll hold them back with them," Kikuchiyo then joined the Yōkai as she then kicked her perpetually-burning axle into her hands and over her shoulder like a barbell. "I fight better in fire anyway. Also, I'm not gonna risk pissing the Buddha off by setting his house on fire."

"Don't forget about us!" Gorōbei remarked as he and his twin Shichirōji then raised their rifles before cocking them. "It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel!"

Rias nodded as she and everyone else then walked through the gate's light. "... Take care, everyone."

The remaining Yōkai chose to stay behind then set up a defensive perimeter on higher ground as the Oni and Gaki resumed their advance.

"DON'T LET THEM PASS!" one of the Kitsune then brandished their jūmonji-yari spears as their peers then drew their yumi's bowstrings nocked with arrows made of blue fire.

Hell was unleashed upon the choke point as the two opposing factions fought for their very lives.

Out of the Other Side of the Gate...

"WHAT THE HELL-?!" Rias then found herself in free fall before unfurling her wings to break her fall and land safely. "... Okay, so there's no cohesion between where we walk through and where we end up in this fucking subspace. Good to know."

Everyone else then finds themselves appearing in random spots throughout Zenkō Temple's subspace, with Rias spotting Sona and the rest of her Peerage landing on top of a giant incense burner, knocking it over and spilling its ashes onto their heads.

"You okay?" asked Rias as she helped up her friend.

"Just sooty, nothing dire," the Student Council President remarked. "... Think that might've been a countermeasure for intruders-?"

"INCOMING!" Tomoe cried out as they spotted a three-horned Oni crash onto where they were standing prior, revealing himself as Rengokuki, brandishing his kanabō club at them like a baseball bat.

"So a bunch of stuck-up Devil brats walked into our base uninvited..." he snickered. "Guess you all have your shitty luck to blame for what's about to happen next."

"How exactly?" Rias replied, causing the three-horned Oni to sneer.

"Well, what if I told you that your little Evil Dragon User joined our side recently?" boasted Rengokuki. "Maybe next time, keep your pets on a shorter leash so they don't run off on you!"

Everyone then adopts a troubled look among themselves, all according to plan.

"No! That can't be!" Momo cried out.

"Damned traitor..." added Reya.

"But don't worry," he snickered as he readied himself for combat. "None of you won't live long enough to feel the sting of his betrayal!"

"... Do your worst, then," growled Rias as this Yomi-aligned Oni was proving himself especially blind to their basic acting. ... Good. He's buying it.

At the Foot of Mt. Hiba...

"... Senpai?" muttered Koneko as she and Hisaya saw Takeshi's entire being enveloped by a column of dark flames.

Within the inferno, his body was then encased in his Sacred Gear's base armor, but upon finishing its default transformation, a deviance then occurred.

First, the undersuit beneath the armor turned into silver. Then the armor plates turned black, transforming the transitional form into an inverted color palate of [Cataclysm Zone]'s main armor.

Then from the flames then formed add-on armor parts that then stamped themselves over the main form. Vambraces and grieves akin to a Dragon's claws and talons respectively encased his forearms and legs. His breastplate and pauldrons were overlaid with additional armor that resembled a Dragon's wings with an eye-like blood beryl gem planted in its center and a pair of silver fangs coming out of the sides of his shoulders. From the back and his rear waist then sprouted two pairs of Dragon-like wings, the former pair spreading out in place of the wearer's Devil wings before resting behind the shoulders as tassels, while the latter pair after flourishing then moved downwards before attaching themselves as faulds around his waist.

"What in the name of the Nine Lightning Gods of Yomi is happening?!" the traitor Oni cried out as the ashen flames dissipated around the Evil Dragon User, now exposing him openly as his grilled visor then splits open horizontally to reveal his pair of bright violet-red compound eyes-like lenses underneath, and sliding down from the back of his head and across the top of his scalp was a Dragon's visage before stopping right above the eyes.

Both the Dragon's mark and the visor begin folding into each other, forming into a new mask and crown-combo that vaguely resembles Nidhogg's own visage, accentuated by his red eyes shining in activation to a greater power than his previous iteration.

An atmosphere of dread pervaded all of Mt. Hiba that even surpassed the ambient kegare surrounding the empty wilderness. Both Koneko and Hisaya have heard tales of what happens when the Evil Dragon User advances to the next stage of their power.

The dreaded "Balance Breaker," a miracle run rampant that defies all laws of present reality, now manifested fully before them.

"Fufufu..."

Koneko raises an eyebrow. "... Senpai?"

"FUUUUCK YEEEAAAHHH!" roared Takeshi's voice as his jubilance boomed throughout the wilderness. "Finally! A form that doesn't suck balls! Guess good things do come when one waits, right Nidhogg?!"

The Evil Dragon scoffs as the blood beryl at the chest's center blipped with his voice. "... Proving me wrong again," Nidhogg grumbled. "... Although I have to admit, the look on that dumbass' face is worth the trade-off."

"... Impossible!" the traitor Oni exclaimed. "... You.. YOU TAMED THE EVIL DRAGON TO THE POINT OF UNLOCKING ITS BALANCE BREAKER?!"

Takeshi clicks his tongue while wagging his finger disapprovingly. "Wrong! Not 'tame,' but 'synchronize'," he pointed out. "Simply put, Nidhogg and yours truly have formed a degree of mutual understanding to unlock our 'Phase One,' [Balance Breaker: Dead Shore Advent]!"

Koneko's eyes widened upon hearing that statement. "... Are my ears working?" she remarked. "... So senpai... bonded with an Evil Dragon?!"

"I'll explain later, but for now, I'm hyped as fuck right now!" Takeshi sneered underneath his helmet as he then pressed a certain button on his [Cataclysm Zone].

"[Transfer]!" announced the Sacred Gear as a dane axe manifested into Takeshi's hands. "[Mayhem Striker]!"

The traitor Oni's breathing quickened at the sheer disbelief of what he was witnessing. To understand evil without falling into its depths? It was inconceivable for such a thing to happen in his mind, let alone a child accomplishing what he couldn't.

"... You've lost your mind," Hisaya hissed as he readied his ringed-staff kanabō club. "... Why is a being of great evil fighting for this rotten world?!"

"Nah," Takeshi replied coyly as he rested his auxiliary Sacred Gear across his shoulder. "... My mind's in top gear."

Now Playing: "Don't Lose Your Mind" by S.S.P.D. Steel Sound Police Dept. (from Kamen Rider Drive)

"So with that said..." he then crouches his legs down into an asymmetrical wide spread while leaning towards his right, "... you and I are going for a spin."

In a blur, Takeshi disappears before reappearing in front of Hisaya, bringing his axe down unto his head.

Being faster than anticipated, Hisaya parries against the downwards swing with his own weapon, sending the two back from each other before they collide once again.

"JUST WHO ARE YOU TO ASSUME THAT YOU'RE THE ONE IN CONTROL?!" the Oni bellowed as he then dragged the kanabō-end of his dual weapon before kicking up a stream of kegare-laced eruption towards Takeshi.

Takeshi then emerges from the smoke before swinging his [Mayhem Striker] to unleash a black crescent wave towards the Oni from above.

However, it phases through Hisaya as the Oni then jumps up from behind him, winding back his kegare-laced Senjutsu-boosted club swing before then snapping forth with his sneak attack.

"Predictable."

Takeshi then uses his four wings to somersault underneath the swing before using the centrifugal momentum to then slash his [Mayhem Striker] across the Oni, nicking him across his right chest vertically before the two clashed arms and descended.

"How did you predict my sneak attack?!" Hisaya remarked.

"Not telling." smirked Takeshi as he then moved for the offensive while dragging the dane axe behind him before unleashing an uppercut swing that Hisaya blocked with his ringed staff-end of his weapon.

The clanging rings then cause a faint distortion in the air, allowing the Oni to figure out what was happening.

"You're using your own dispersed ash as remote feelers?!" the Oni pointed out. "... And the ambient kegare... YOU'RE FEEDING UPON IT TO SUSTAIN YOURSELF?!

"Wow, give this genius a gold star, why don't you?" deadpanned Nidhogg as his host then headbutts Hisaya away from himself to gain enough room to wind up a follow-up swing.

Hisaya upon being knocked back, then winds up his own swing with his kanabō, imbuing it with a lightning-based Yōjutsu to inflict as much damage as possible with this upcoming strike.

*CLANG*

However, Takeshi's [Mayhem Striker] was sharper and more durable than Hisaya's own weapon, cleaving the electrified bludgeon in two before the rest of the blade then raked itself across his arm and chest.

"You're outgunned, buddy," boasted Takeshi before he then sends the Oni flying with a kegare and miasma-boosted dropkick that burrowed into his solar plexus. "See what happens when you assume?"

Before Hisaya could completely recover, Takeshi and Nidhogg immediately close in on the gap between them before the former then administers a long-awaited beatdown unto the latter.

"THIS ONE IS FOR KONEKO!" Takeshi slashed his [Mayhem Striker] across his shoulder and chest. "THIS ONE IS FOR SUGURU!" The dane axe then tears through the Oni's chest from another angle. "THIS ONE IS FOR CHIHARU!" In an act of karmic retribution, Takeshi then cleaves off Hisaya's left arm from his shoulder, cutting through the Senjutsu-enhanced bone and muscle tissue like a hot knife through butter. "AND THIS ONE IS FOR WRECKING MY BIKE LAST WEEKEND!"

*DING-DONG*

In a sudden shift of mood, Takeshi's taloned boots then kick the Oni in the groin, rupturing both of his testicles upon contact, stunning the Oni long enough for Takeshi to then deliver a wound-up Rider Punch imbued with Nidhogg's ashes and propelled by the follow-up momentum from his kick that sent Hisaya careening into the woods.

He really didn't let that one go, huh? thought Koneko as she kept recording the whole fight since its beginning. "... Got that out of your system, senpai?"

"I can sort of understand Nidhogg getting off of negative emotions, specifically to those who deserve it," snickered Takeshi as he then gave a thumbs-up. "... I think it's called... 'schadenfreude'?"

"Close enough, whelp," Nidhogg agreed. "... Also, we're not out of the woods just yet."

*BOOM*

A bolt of lightning then strikes the trees, causing both Takeshi and Koneko to redirect their attention towards the surrounding forest set ablaze. From the inferno then emerged Hisaya, rage seething from his gnashing teeth, grinding against each other as the smoldering flora crumbled and fell behind him, as if to accentuate his building wrath.

"The Devil defying his fate, I sort of understand..." growled the Oni as he then stripped the top of his kimono to let it hang around his waist, "... but why is an Evil Dragon taking that child's side?! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FANGS THAT YOU ONCE BORE AGAINST THIS WORLD?!"

"Oh really?" said Evil Dragon replied. "Then what's my name, strákur?"

"Does evil really need a name beyond what it ushers?!" Hisaya retorted.

"And that's why I don't like you," Nidhogg answered immediately. "... At least the whelp respects me enough to remember my name."

The traitor Oni's fury then peaks. "... THEN YOU'LL ALL DIE HERE FORGOTTEN!"

Manifesting a magic circle next to himself, Hisaya then pulls out a massive shichishitō from it before he then imbues it with his own natural supply of kegare and lighting-based Yōjutsu that he learned from Kumowatari, transforming this holy weapon that belonged to his former betrothed into a pseudo-Demonic Sword.

"... Oh that is just dirty," commented Takeshi, to which Nidhogg agreed (not by principle, but by the sole application and morbid symbolism behind this gesture).

The Oni's hair and horns all spike up into topaz-yellow spines from the boost in power that he'd gifted himself with, and his eyes now losing all white in favor of jet black and burning amber-orange that glowed brighter than the flames around them.

"The time games have come to an end, child," declared the empowered Hisaya. "... You, that bitch, and the rest of this fucking world shall never live to see tomorrow!"

Takeshi then readies his [Mayhem Striker] as he and Nidhogg tap into their new combined powers of their synchronization, with Koneko taking a step back while keeping the camera locked onto the two as their sole witness to two veritable titans of legend standing before her very eyes.

"... Kill his ass, senpai," the Nekoshō spoke with bated breath.

Takeshi smirks underneath his helmet as he hears the faint affirmation from his kouhai.

"Bring it on, scumbag."

Back at Zenkō Temple's Subspace...

"WHY DID WE END UP IN THE MIDDLE OF A TSUCHIGUMO NEST?!" Yuuto exclaimed as he and Akeno threw their [Fire Brand] and lightning magic at the pursuing spider-men in the basement of the temple littered with the freshly-picked bones of its former occupants.

"Genjutsu, remember?" she pointed out as the two then broke through the doors' locks that led them outside.

*THUD*

"Ow..." Yasuhiro groaned. "... Watch where you're going-!"

The low screeches of the rampaging Tsuchigumo coming from the open door were heard.

"... Actually, RUN!" The kiko-ranked then hastily seals the basement doors shut with his ofuda, buying the three of them enough time to create some distance between them and the hostile Yōkai before they broke through and resumed their pursuit.

"Quick question, but where did you land?" asked Yuuto as he and Akeno continued fire as the Tsuchigumo began spitting webs towards them.

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR QUESTIONS!" Yasuhiro barked back as he then threw more of his ofuda tags at the Tsuchigumo before they all erupted into balls of blue fire. "WE NEED TO REGROUP WITH THE OTHERS SO WE CAN MOUNT A COUNTERATTACK!"

Akeno then threw another one of her thunderbolts and spells of other combustible elements at them, only for their webs to intercept fire before the rest tried to bind them up. "... Hate to say it, but we're sorely lacking in firepower. A few of them, I can reasonably deal with, but over a dozen climbing over each other like a zombie B-movie? It's going to be an issue."

"Don't know what you're talking about, but I agree with your sentiment!" the Kitsune remarked as their way forward was then intercepted by several more Tsuchigumo emerging from the earth before spitting out their webs.

The sheer volume of the webbing was so immense for the three of them that they ended up cocooned before they could even put up a resistance.

Just as the three of them were about to break free, the Tsuchigumo surrounding them pounced on them all at once.

"DUCK YOUR HEADS!"

The three do as instructed as a bolt of lighting then strikes all of the hostile Yōkai down from the air, allowing Akeno to break free before double-tapping the downed Tsuchigumo with her own lightning magic.

"Thanks for the save, Kumowatari-san," she said to the Raiju as she freed Yuuto.

"Pay me no mind," Kumowatari replied as he freed the Kitsune from the web. "... Where are the others?"

"No clue, but given Kataki's practically turned this whole temple into his own funhouse, it's likely that everyone else who walked through the gate are just as lost as we are," Yuuto pointed out as he heard more footsteps coming towards their way. "... Guess we're fighting our way out of this pinch, aren't we?"

"Agreed," Yasuhiro then drew his katana and wakizashi from their scabbards. "Here they come-!"

A booming roar was heard followed up by an explosion from behind the corner that sent the spider-men flying into the adjacent wall.

"HEY! IT'S YOU GUYS!" Kambei remarked as he and Heihachi showed up before the four. "Let me guess, you're lost as well?"

"Did you find a way out, at least?!" the old Raiju replied.

"Leave it to Heihachi!" the Namahage pointed to his Shōjō companion perched onto his shoulder. "My man's so plastered that his mind isn't even affected by Genjutsu!"

Yasuhiro and Kumowatari both blink before looking at each other. "... That's not how it's supposed to work."

"Don't question it and get moving!" ordered the Namahage as the four then took his lead.

The alleyways of the temple were never-ending and winding like an illusory path. Akeno and Yuuto's senses couldn't make out what was ahead of the road as if they were stuck on a treadmill blindfolded.

"... Is this how the Sitri Peerage felt?" commented Yuuto.

"I should probably apologize to them later," Akeno agreed as the red-faced Shōjō pointed his finger towards the wall.

"... That way," as proof, Heihachi then digs out a pebble from his jinbei jacket before tossing it into the wall, the cast stone phasing through the wall. "... Fake walls... muddled senses... Tsuchigumo are backed up... with familiar copies..."

"Thank you for the reference, Heihachi-san," Yasuhiro then stepped into the fake wall before everyone else followed inside, ending up at the parking lot without the cars.

Kambei sniffs the air. "... Bear fur," he said. "... Katsushirō's nearby!"

Yuuto nods before running ahead. "Then let's get moving-!"

"COVER YOUR EARS!" screeched the Shōjō as everyone stopped and did what he said.

*DOOM*

A resounding gong of a bronze temple bell echoed throughout the Zenkō Temple's subspace, the bell's sound rocking their brains in their skulls until the vibration had passed.

"... What in Satan's name was that?" Akeno asked.

"... Genjutsu... figured out... how it works," Heihachi explained. "... Sound... from that Oni!"

"I see," Kumowatari snarled as he remembered that Kataki had a bell attached to the pommel of his blade. "... His brand of Genjutsu uses sound itself as a conduit."

Everyone then looks up at the bell tower and spots the odd-horned silhouette perched atop the temple's shōrō bell tower.

"There's that son of a bitch!" growled the Namahage. "We got him on the ropes now!"

"First, we need to find the others!" suggested Yuuto before turning towards the Shōjō. "Heihachi-san, please lead the way!"

Everyone then proceeds deeper into the temple complex in search of others, using Heihachi's drunken sense to navigate through the illusory maze crafted by the theatrical (yet low-key) Oni.

On their way, several more Tsuchigumo appear from the underground, now supported by Oni and Gaki.

"Told you he's our go-to guy for dealing with magic shit!" boasted the Namahage as he butchered through several of Yomi's footmen with his dual cleavers. "Now nothing's gonna stand in our way!"

"Celebrate after we put every last one of these filth to the ground!" Yasuhiro pointed out as he slashed through the Tsuchigumo's webs before piercing his wakizashi into the spider-man's throat and slashing through it with his katana.

"Agreed," Akeno then lashes a bolt of lightning like a whip to stun the crowd of Yomi-aligned Yōkai, allowing Kumowatari to finish them off with his lightning Yōjutsu that formed into a long ōdachi blade that clove through the enemy ranks with a single swipe. "Coast is clear! Let's move!"

The five continue further into the temple grounds before happening upon a kyōzō sutra repository building, now occupied by various Oni led by a pair of hideous-looking Shikome whose arms were now clutching onto the temple's scrolls as their ill-gained loot.

"ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME?!" Yasuhiro exclaimed as he then drew his shichishitō blade from his back as it then glowed brightly in holy light. "SHIKOME IN HALLOWED GROUNDS?! UNACCEPTABLE!"

The pie-faced Yōkai then shriek as they pointed at the five of them, signaling the Oni to attack the five as they began reciting heretical mantra to charge their combined Yōjutsu.

The Kitsune, utterly furious at this act of defilement, swings his saw-toothed blade through the Oni, disintegrating every last one of them upon contact as he makes a beeline towards the Shikome duo.

One of the pair then casts a spell to send a locust swarm to slow him down, but Yuuto throws his [Fire Brand] swords at the swarm in tandem with Akeno's lightning to create a scorching flashbang to both blind the Yōkai and destroy the swarm.

Moving solely by instinct, Yasuhiro then interrupts the Shikome duo's ritual by running one of them through with his serrated greatsword, catching her organs and bones from the blade's many teeth before she crashes into the ground beneath the temple. The other Shikome tries to help out her fellow, but is then interrupted by Kumowatari's lightning arrow followed up by Yuuto, Akeno, and Kambei (w/Heihachi) destroying the other so thoroughly that her body was reminiscent of burned hamburger meat.

"Good riddance," Kumowatari snarled.

"Let's just go," Akeno agreed as everyone then left the kyōzō and headed elsewhere.

Once again, more Tsuchigumo and Oni intercept them, but rather than kill all of them on sight, they elect to kill the ones in the way to save on time and energy.

"... We're going the wrong way," Heihachi warned before sniffing the air. "... Something wrong."

Kambei then looks at shōrō, discovering that they're now further away from it. "... Shit! We're walking in circles at this rate!"

Yuuto's eyes widened upon looking down at his shoes. "... Kumowatari-san, you mentioned that Kataki's Genjutsu uses sound as a conduit, correct?"

"What are you getting at?" asked Yasuhiro before he then sees Yuuto going barefoot.

"Bad day to wear loafers, apparently," the Devil pointed out as Akeno did the same. "... We really do take our hearing for granted, don't we?"

Everyone nods as Yasuhiro then takes off his wooden shoes. "... I swear to Takamagahara, the moment I get my hands on that Kataki bastard, I am going to make him suffer for making me dirty myself to this extent-!"

*BOOM*

An especially large eruption then appeared behind the Kitsune, revealing a train-sized Ōmukade emerging from the temple grounds, with Suguru, Katsushirō, and Kyûzô hanging onto the insect's back as if their lives depended on it.

"... He doesn't have the cape on him," Heihachi pointed at the Mujina hanging onto his nagamaki blade.

"THAT'S YOUR MAIN CONCERN?!" Everyone else yelled out as the giant centipede then descended towards them, forcing them to higher ground lest they get run over.

"After it!" Akeno barked out as everyone else pursued the Ōmukade slithering through the temple's alleyways.

On the giant centipede's back, Suguru and Kyûzô were hanging onto the former's kodachi stuck between the carapaces' gap, while Katsushirō was slowly trying to get to the giant Yōkai's head to get to its weak point.

"BLASTED MONSTER!" the Mujina snarled. "YOU SHALL NOT IMPEDE MY PURSUIT TOWARDS VICTORY-!"

*snap*

Then his weapon breaks in two, causing him to be sent flying off of the Ōmukade's back before he was then caught by Yuuto. "You okay?"

"I'm denied my arms, but I still live!" he answered. "It's weak spot is the head! There's a gap between its eyes that it opens to expel the dirt before it could dive back in!"

Upon learning that, the group then moved in to slay the monster before it could get away. Akeno and Kumowatari try slowing it down with their lightning, but the thick armor-like carapace bounces the bolts off like water off of a duck's back.

"We're going to have to get in close!" Yasuhiro barked out as he and Kambei ran adjacent towards each other as he then drew his wakizashi. "Kambei-san! Throw me as hard as you can towards that creature's head!"

The Namahage then grabs the Kitsune by his tail before flinging him towards the monster as hard as he could. As he careened across the air, the Kitsune then planted his wakizashi into the centipede, but rather than stake its weak spot, it instead took out one of its eyes, causing it to go into a frenzied panic.

Its movement became more sporadic and uncontrolled, causing it to go on a chaotic rampage that then threw both Suguru and Kyûzô off of its back.

"I got you!" Akeno then caught the Amikiri into arms while Kumowatari caught his Nukekubi pupil from his descent.

"Quick question, how did you three end up on that Ōmukude?" asked the old Raiju.

"We got teleported into its nest and woke it up by landing on it," Suguru answered with a hint of embarrassment.

"I lost my entire katana collection on my way here!" Kyûzô exclaimed with discontent.

"Here! Use mine!" The Nukekubi then throws one of his kodachi towards the crustacean-like boy as the latter catches it. "We have to stop it from going underground again!"

"I'll take the lead, then!" Yuuto then taps into his Knight's speed to then fly ahead of the group as everyone else follows him from behind.

From atop of the shōrō's platform, Kataki spectates upon the chaos while maintaining his subspace around the whole temple complex.

"... They're beginning to grow wise of my machinations," the odd-horned Oni remarked to himself as he fondled with the bear pelt cape he'd pilfered from the Mujina during the chaos. "... Something's wrong."

He then bangs onto the bronze bell once again to throw their senses off, but to no avail as Kataki sees the group chasing Rengokuki's pet not fall for the bogus paths opened for them.

"... I shall await for my next orders, then."

Back at Mt. Hiba (now on fire)...

The fight between Takeshi and Hisaya rages on as both combatants unleash their respective new thresholds of their power.

The traitor Oni's boosted form emits bolts of lightning with each swing of his ex's sword, unleashing jagged arcs of pure destruction as the armored Evil Dragon User parries each blow with his [Mayhem Striker]'s ashen swings, the thick miasma buffering the former's attacks.

"DIE ALREADY!" Hisaya screeched as his shichishitō ground against his opponent's dane axe. "YOU CANNOT WIN WITH A HALF-ASSED RESOLVE TOWARDS EVIL!"

"BETTER TO BE HALF-ASSED THEN TO BE A SLAVE TO EXPECTATIONS!" retorted Takeshi as he pushed back with the blade of his [Mayhem Striker] erupting with another burst of collected kegare and ash.

Hisaya and Takeshi then both let out a yell as they began pushing up against each other harder than before, the former reaching the natural limits of his mastery of heretical Senjutsu, Yōjutsu, and Taijutsu to push his performance past its threshold, whereas the latter tapped deeper into both his own and Nidhogg's powers to unleash a greater aura of pure malice against the Oni, his [Mayhem Striker] humming with greater power that pushed back against his opponent's own.

*BOOM!*

The buildup between the two clashing powers erupt, separating the pair from their lock, with Takeshi controlling his blowback with his two pairs of wings, whereas Hisaya rolled across the dirt before picking himself back up to his feet.

"... I cannot lie, whelp," Nidhogg snickered. "... I'm actually beginning to enjoy myself."

"Let's not drag it out too long before it gets stale, okay?" Takeshi replied.

Seeing this casual back and forth between the Devil and Evil Dragon, Hisaya then cries out a screech of rage before he then drags his shichishitō behind himself before unleashing a massive serpentine Eastern Dragon-like lightning construct that snaked towards both Takeshi and Koneko.

"[PROMOTION: BISHOP]!" activating his Pawn powers, Takeshi was then enveloped in a red aura as he then molds several missile-like projectiles from the dispersed ashes before firing the payload to intercept the attacks.

Once the lightning Dragons were intercepted, Hisaya then leapt towards Takeshi to resume their CQC, clashing blades once more.

"Seriously, buddy, Himejima-senpai's lightning are scarier than yours," he taunted before pushing him back with a serrated edge of ash from his dane axe's swing.

Hisaya blocks the attack using his Senjutsu to boost his body's durability, letting him tank the attack before Takeshi moved in for the offense.

"YOU FOOL! IZANAMI-SAMA'S BLESSINGS ARE NOT LIKE YOUR PALTRY POWERS!" the traitor Oni spat back before then unleashing an electrified slash from his shichishitō against the Devil's [Mayhem Striker].

"You really can't help but insult me with every breath you take, don't you?" Nidhogg deadpanned as his host parries the lightning slash before using his [Promotion: Bishop]'s bequeathed powers to then unleash a barrage of ashen shurikens that exploded upon contact with the Oni's body like micro-explosives that drummed across his skin and flesh. "... I'm sick of his drivel. Finish him off, whelp."

"Gladly!" Takeshi then taps further into his and Nidhogg's latent powers, pushing Hisaya on the backfoot as his odds of winning were quickly dwindling before his very eyes.

Why?! Even after everything, why is this mere child besting me?! Me! Hisaya! The "Fierce Full Moon!" How is he stronger than me when his heart isn't drawing forth from the infinite powers of evil itself like me?! the traitor Oni thought as Takeshi's onslaught gradually built up to his winning formula.

"Don't you get it?!" Takeshi said as if he were responding to the Oni's thoughts while they clashed arms. "When a superhero gets a power-up, there's no way that he'll lose in this episode!"

As he was about to respond with another retort, the corner of Hisaya's eye then detected his opponent's weakness.

With a wicked sneer, Hisaya then ditches his shichishitō sword by planting it between himself and Takeshi, causing it to then explode to then unleash a thick smokescreen, allowing him to beeline towards Koneko, overclocking his Senjutsu and lightning Yōjutsu to make him run as fast he could.

"IF I CANNOT WIN...!" the traitor Oni growled as his murderous intent was all aimed towards Koneko. "THEN NOBODY WILL-!"

"[Promotion: Knight]."

Blitzing past the desperate Oni, Takeshi then grabs Hisaya by the back of his head and slams his face into the dirt. Upon pinning him down, he then unfurls both pairs of his wings and then takes off from the ground as he then proceeds to wipe the floor with the traitor's face, dragging his visage across the course dirt while flying at increasingly-higher speeds.

Upon closing in on Koneko, Takeshi, with Hisaya's head in hand, lifts off towards the sky, prompting Koneko to instinctively push her skirt down against the sudden updraft. Upon reaching high up towards the sky, Takeshi then grabs Hisaya by his right thigh and arm while coiling both of his legs around his neck.

"BIG BEN EDGE!"

With a sudden and intense downdraft, the Evil Dragon User then sends both himself and the traitor Oni into a fall.

*KABOOM!*

The explosive piledriver makes contact with the ground, the impact breaking off one of Hisaya's horns, but Takeshi himself wasn't done just yet.

"KONEKO! TOSS ME MY PHONE BACK!"

She then throws the phone back to its owner, to which he then resumes recording the fight by himself, with Hisaya as the main attraction.

Hisaya tries to worm his way out of the camera, but Takeshi quickly catches on to his escape plan and proceeds to bind him with a Spinning Toe Hold and Leglock-combo.

"... Oh, I see what's happening," Koneko remarked as she began stretching her worn out body.

Good, she got the message, thought Takeshi as he begins to really ham up Koneko's own, well-deserved slice of the pie called "vengeance". "... In the blue corner, standing at 155 cm and weighing in at 31 kg with a killer iron grip and a voracious appetite for destruction...!"

The traitor Oni tried to worm away from his grapple, but Takeshi activated his [Promotion: Rook] to reinforce his lock on Hisaya as Koneko herself began to approach Hisaya, rolling her right shoulder and neck as a warm-up.

"The 'Hellcat of Kuoh'... the 'Little Rook with Steel-Shattering Fists of Gremory'...!" Takeshi kept continuing to build up the hype for his kouhai's long awaited retribution, raising his voice up by a few octaves to really sell the excitement, "... it's TOUJOU KONEKO!"

Both Takeshi and Koneko could hear the crowd's roar to the building hype in their shared imagination.

With a sadistic grin after having to suffer an almost-24 hour-long torture session, she then takes out her collected frustration and rage as she taps into her powers of a Rook...

"IT'S THE PEOPLE'S ELBOW!"

*BOOM*

The sharp joint dropped with the entirety of Koneko's body weight and Rook's power then burrows into the Oni's face, cratering the ground that the three of them were standing upon.

"... Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson?" Takeshi asked as he let Hisaya's legs go.

"John Cena too," Koneko answered. "... I'd go for the Great Muta, but I didn't have enough time to prepare a poison mist."

"If you two are done bellyaching," Nidhogg spoke out from the chest armor's blood beryl, "then would you mind separating his neck from his head already-?!"

*THUMP*

A quaking heartbeat was heard coming from the Oni's chest as it then began to glow with a hellish orange hue.

"... Abort?" she asked.

"DOUBLE TIME!"

Takeshi then grabs Koneko before flying out of the crate of their own making as fast as the former could, nearly engulfing them in a chthonian inferno whose radiance temporarily turned night into day.

"... Shit, forgot about the plot device that started this whole arc," cursed the Evil Dragon User.

Emerging from the raging flames was Hisaya, his skin now charcoal-black with volcanic veins that cracked across out of his chest and around his limbs and face, his remaining horn now a bright amber beacon of divine power gained through ill means, and the pair of tar pits that were his eyes now glowed with the flames coming from him, accentuated by his hair now becoming an unkempt mane of crimson-colored reeds that shone like eternal fireworks.

The Oni had covertly hid/swallowed the magatama as a preemptive measure to keep it secure from prying hands, nor did he disclose where he'd kept it after he'd pilfered it from his former home.

Celebrating his new power, Hisaya then lets out an explosive roar that then unleashes a wave of crimson flames that disintegrates the surrounding foliage into ashes, the resulting shockwave and heat blasting both Takeshi and Koneko out of the air, forcing them to land onto the now-desolate patch of earth.

"... Koneko, are you okay?!" Takeshi cried out as he got up to his feet.

"... I'm fine," she answered as she held up Takeshi's phone that was still recording, wiping the hot soot off of her face with her free hand. "... Did he just explode?"

"I warned you, but instead, you two had to waste time showboating!" Nidhogg pointed out. "... Although, it's a good change of pace to feast on your own shock and... is that desperation coming from him?"

The cindered Hisaya broke the charred earth with his ashen feet, telekinetically willing his shichishitō back to his hand before setting the whole blade ablaze in this unearthly conflagration.

"So this is the power of a god..." the Oni remarked as he checked out his new form, his voice now an echoing bass to symbolize his new power. "... To respond to what you have said earlier, what happens when the supervillain gains his own power-up?"

Takeshi groans in apprehension, not a single trace of fear within his voice. "... Let me guess, the magatama?"

Hisaya snickers. "... Thanks to you brats, our plans to fully unleash Yomi's unholy might upon Takamagahara and its residents are now moot," he pointed out. "... However, it would be a waste to let this fragment of Hinokagutsuchi-sama's powers be left unused. Granted, my lifespan is being sapped away as we speak, but at this point, I NO LONGER GIVE A CRAP!"

Like a meteorite falling from the sky, Hisaya in his empowered state then breaks blades against Takeshi, immediately pinning him down onto his back with only one (remaining) arm wielding a shichishitō imbued with the flames of a god.

"Senpai!" Koneko then tried to intervene, but the ambient heat was more than enough to combust her clothes before she was forced back and left in her bra and skirt (mostly) intact.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL, CHILD?!" roared Hisaya. "HOW DOES IT FEEL TO FACE DEATH?!"

Takeshi tries to push back, but the Oni's hysterical strength was proving to be a herculean task to overcome.

Either die at his blade, or be cooked inside-out in his own armor, as he begins to feel his flesh melt from his bones, with Nidhogg's own healing being the only thing that's letting him survive inside this unholy bonfire that he was trapped in.

Even Nidhogg was starting to feel a slight concern for his host's well-being. ... This heat is becoming more unbearable then Surtr's armpits, whelp, the Evil Dragon vocalized. DO SOMETHING!

"I'M TRYING, DAMMIT!" Takeshi cried out as he tried to form ashen constructs from the remaining ashes still floating around, but as soon as they tried to form into a solid object, every last one of them exploded into fireballs, making the surrounding heat even worse to bear. "OH FUCK YOU BRO! THAT IS JUST CHEATING!"

"HINOKAGUTSUCHI'S FLAMES HAS FELLED GODS, CHILD!" boasted the empowered Oni as he then pushed down harder, the white-hot blade of the shichishitō nearing Takeshi's throat. "EVERYTHING THAT IT TOUCHES SHALL BURN-!"

Taking the dirt and mixing it with the remaining ashes, Takeshi blinds Hisaya, triggering his gag reflex long enough for him to shove the Oni off of him before striking back with his [Mayhem Striker] as hard as he could, sending him flying back until he was rolling in the dirt.

"Good thing your eyes still work, pal," snickered Takeshi as the surrounding flames then died down to more tolerable temperatures. "... Nidhogg, how many years do I have left?"

"4444 years. The heat alone shaved off more than half of your extended lifespan," warned Nidhogg. "... Ah, if this is the taste of Ragnarök, then consider my dead heart to be aflutter with excitement."

"That said, got anything else in the tank to turn it around?" he asked as Hisaya struggled to get back up to his feet. "... Because I don't think 'wait until he burns out' is a viable option."

The Evil Dragon sighs seething. "... I got one," he answered. "... But fair warning, I'm charging double the rate for this favor, am I clear?"

"Whatever it takes!" declared Takeshi as Hisaya then lunged forth with his flaming shichishitō thrusted towards him.

"PERISH IN THE EMBRACE OF THE GOD-KILLING FLAMES, EVIL DRAGON USER!" roared Hisaya as he came flying towards his opponent like a great ball of fire. "I'LL USHER YOUR DAMNED SOUL STRAIGHT TO HELL-!"

*CRACK*

As Takeshi parried the infernal strike, a stream of subzero ice erupted from [Mayhem Striker]'s edge, emitting a jet of blinding steam that repelled Hisaya from his planned trajectory.

"Ice magic?!" Koneko remarked as the ambient temperature began to plummet. "... No. We didn't teach him ice magic!"

Surrounding Takeshi's [Dead Shore Advent] form were permafrost, spreading throughout the scorched earth like a fungi infestation, extinguishing the flames with each step that the Evil Dragon User took forth.

"You said your flames killed gods, strákur," Nidhogg spoke from his host's chest gem. "... Has it ever killed a Dragon?"

Hisaya tried to retort, only to be shocked into silence as he began to see his own breath while his subsumed divine flames were still active. "... How? HOW CAN SOMETHING PETER AWAY HINOKAGUTSUCHI'S FLAMES?!"

The edge of the Evil Dragon's dane axe then scraped against the frozen earth, trailing sparks and powder snow from the friction.

"Let me tell you something about Helvíti, strákur," boasted Nidhogg. "It was only after those Christians came knocking to Iceland that the word 'Hell' equated fire towards death and damnation. 'Hell' derives from the Goddess Hel, to which I bunked in her domain, Helheim."

"In a word, you merely adopted evil, I was born in it," boasted Takeshi. "I did not reject evil without submitting to it. So in a way, you're the one biting my style!"

"With Ymir's grudge as my origin and my countless moons spent within my own slice of Helheim..." the Evil Dragon declared with rising malice and fervor. "I shall now unleash my true power!"

*FWOOSH*

As Takeshi and Nidhogg then bellowed out a howling roar that then triggered a localized blizzard, both Koneko and Hisaya struggled to keep their foot bound to the earth from the sheer turbulence generated from this otherworldly snowstorm.

"BEHOLD THE TRUE POWER OF EVIL!" Nidhogg and Takeshi loudly declared in unison. "[HELFROST]!"

Upon the declaration, both Takeshi and Hisaya clashed blades once more, fire and ice colliding one another as both fighters' lives were siphoned from their very bodies in the name of godly power.

"YOU CANNOT BEAT ME! FOR I HAVE THE POWER OF THE GODS AND YOMI ON MY SIDE!" the traitor Oni roared with fiery fervor.

"I FOUGHT AND BEATEN DARK SOULS BOSSES HARDER AND MORE TEDIOUS THAN YOUR SORRY EXCUSE FOR A POWER-UP!" the Evil Dragon User howled with chilling candor.

During the clash, all tension suddenly dies for a moment after that non-sequitur.

"... What the fuck is Dark Souls?!" Hisaya pointed out.

"Dude, buy a PS4," Takeshi deadpanned.

Senpai's brainrot is even affecting a genocidal maniac... Koneko internally groaned before the fight then resumed as it should; destroying the local environment with extreme oscillations of the ambient temperature.

The divine flames of Hinokagutsuchi crackled against the ethereal wails of [Helfrost]'s icy storm.

"Helvíti isn't meant to be hot like midsummer, but rather, it should be freezing like Fimbulvetr," commented Nidhogg as his host fought for his very life. "Regardless... THEY'LL BOTH BURN JUST AS WELL!"

Both fighters damned to fate roared as flames and frost warped the surrounding nature into something unrecognizable.

At Mt. Jitsuki's Hidden Gateway...

The defensive line holding back the horde of Yomi-aligned Yōkai were now beginning to stretch thin as the defenders' attrition rate was becoming intolerable.

"HOLD THE LINE! HOLD THE LINE-!" one Karasu-Tengu then chokes on his own blood after a snapped log thrown by an Oni crushed his chest.

Gorōbei, Shichirōji, and Kikuchiyo were leading the defensive efforts to prevent the gate they're defending from being breached by the enemy forces. The Kawauso twins kept shooting their rifles in tandem with the Kitsune shooting their bow and arrows, while the Kasha was in the thick of it, ramming her flaming wheels into the sprawling crowd of Yomi's supplicants.

"HEY! TOSS ME A GRENADE!" Kikuchiyo cried out as she wheeled away from an emerging Shikome rallying the remainder of the Yomi's forces.

"WE'RE OUT!" Gorōbei yelled back before reloading. "DAMMIT! THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND!"

"DON'T GIVE UP!" one of the Karasu-Tengu cried out as he impaled a Gaki through its potbelly with his ringed staff's sharpened tip. "WE'RE THE ONLY ONES STANDING BETWEEN VICTORY AND OBLIVION! IF YOU RUN OUT OF AMMO, THEN ARM YOURSELVES WITH BLADES TO REND THEIR FLESH! IF YOUR BLADES BREAK, THEN GRAB A STONE AND BEAT THEM TO DEATH! IF THE STONE BREAKS, THEN USE YOUR FISTS AND FANGS TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES THAT THEY DO NOT GET PAST!"

The Shikome then leaps into the air to bite off both of the avian Yōkai's wings from his back, but as the wingless Karasu-Tengu plummeted towards a feeding frenzy, he then casts Yōjutsu onto his own body to turn it into a magic bomb.

"HERE'S A GRENADE JUST FOR YOU, KIKUCHIYO-SAN!" the corvid cackled. "DAMN YOU YOMI BASTARDS TO HELL!"

*KABOOM!*

With a final act of defiance, a breach has been opened in the Yomi's raiding formation after the explosion incinerates several Oni, Gaki, and the Shikome rallying them, allowing the survivors to push their defensive line forward.

"THE ENEMY IS IN DISARRAY!" Gorōbei bellowed out. "ADVANCE-!"

*TWACK*

A stray arrow then pierces his chest, knocking him onto his back before his twin brother's eyes.

"BROTHER!" Shichirōji cried out as he then spotted where the arrow had come from, detecting another Shikome with a yumi bow leading the next incoming wave. "YOU BITCH!"

With great pain and anger spurring his pained heart, the surviving twin then conjures a magic circle before him to pull out a heavily-customized Fedorov Avtomat M1923 with a frame reconstructed with lightweight polymer, its magazine being a 50-round drum, and each of its individual rounds blessed with Yōjutsu to turn this light machine gun they've salvaged from a dead Russian soldier during World War Two into a veritable automatic grenade launcher.

This was the twin brothers' life work, swore to only be used when one of them dies in the presence of another. Such is the restriction for a weapon this terrible.

"EAT LEAD!" Shichirōji then squeezes the trigger with the barrel pointed towards the coming Yomi Faction Yōkai, sending forth a volley of rounds that each then explodes with a force of a dynamite upon impact.

The whole forest before them was now a veritable art piece of fire running amok, burning the Yomi-aligned Yōkai in the inferno alive as they danced in the hellish incandescence until they dropped.

"SUCK ON THAT, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" the surviving Kawauso roared as he kept firing at the incoming horde, quickly reloading with another 50-round magazine after running dry. "WHAT ARE YOU ALL WAITING FOR?! KILL THOSE FUCKERS!"

The other Yōkai then pushed for the offensive as they met the Yomi Faction's combatants in disarray, killing them all where they stood as their collective fervor burned hotter than the ambient flames.

"DIE!" one of the Kitsune cried out as he staked a downed Oni with his jūmonji-yari spear before a Gaki jumped onto his face like a maddened monkey. "GET OFF OF ME!"

The Karasu-Tengu then swoops down to swat away the potbellied Yōkai with his ringed staff before unleashing an earth-based Yōjutsu to impale more Yomi-aligned Yōkai with stone spires.

"Your wings!" the Kitsune pointed out as his savior's feathers were caught on fire.

"TO HELL WITH MY WINGS!" the avian Yōkai rebuked as he then impaled another Gaki with his staff's sharp tip. "THEY ALL NEED TO DIE!"

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" warned Kikuchiyo as her flaming axles began concentrating the surrounding flames into her wheels, turning them into scorching steamrollers that crushed and burned everything that they ran over. "I'M GONNA DO A THING!"

Drawing forth from her ki and enduring the pain from the ambient kegare, the Kasha then unleashes her ultimate technique.

"[ADVANCED YŌJUTSU: FLAMING WHIRLWIND ART]!" The wheels around Kikuchiyo's axles spun faster than it was previously, each generating a veritable firestorm that spread throughout the battlefield of Mt. Jitsuki.

The Kasha then begins performing doughnuts with her ride, spinning around in her own vertical axle to sweep up the surrounding Yomi Faction affiliates into the incarnating spiral, ending with their ashes falling like dark snow.

"... How's that, you bastards?" Kikuchiyo snickered out before she then fell onto her back. "... Sitrep. How many of us are left?"

One of the Kitsune then surveyed their overall situation, spotting Shichirōji mourning his twin brother, Gorōbei. "... We can only handle one more wave, at best."

"... God-fucking dammit," she cursed as the Kasha and everyone else sensed the ambient wave of kegare approaching them. "... You think that's all they have left?"

"If it is, then we have no reason to hold back!" the Karasu-Tengu pointed out as everyone spotted a stampede of Oni, Gaki, Shikome, and a Gyūki ridden by a flaming Katawaguruma, whose burning form reminiscent of a nude woman wielding a single-wheeled axle over her shoulder.

"... Guess they finally brought out their big guns," Shichirōji growled as he then handed two surviving Kitsune his and Gorōbei's Murata Type 22 rifles. "You know how to use 'em?"

The surviving representatives from Kyoto prove him by reloading the rifle's chamber seamlessly and with discipline. "Don't underestimate us just because we're traditionalists."

"That's all I needed to hear!" The Kawauso then took a prone position with his and his twin brother's customized 50-round Fedorov Avtomat M1923. "HERE THEY COME!"

The veritable stampede of the last of Yomi Faction's strength then emerged from the darkness of the scorched woods.

"I'LL PISS ON THE BUDDHA'S LAP IF IT MEANS SAVING THIS WORLD FROM RUIN!" the Kasha declared as her flaming axle spun faster with her and everyone else's rising resolve to survive past this fateful night.

Back at Zenkō Temple's Subspace...

"DAMN IT ALL, THIS IS TAKING FOREVER!"

Rengokuki against Rias and the entire Sitri Peerage was so far at an even stalemate. Rias' [Power of Destruction] was used against the Oni, but he somehow used his burst of innate kegare as a shielding to guard himself from the Devil's signature powers.

The rest of the Sitri Peerage then moved in to create an opening, but Rengokuki had anticipated this multi-pronged counterstrike and repels his efforts with another burst of his kegare-corrupted ki, preventing anyone from closing in on him as he instead was the one closing in on the Devils with his kanabō that hurt like a motherfucker when it actually hit the Devils, being that they're creatures of sin and his weapon hurting the more if they've "sinned."

However, despite his relatively advantageous state, Rengokuki himself was nowhere near killing even one of the Devils present for how slippery they are.

"Yura-san, are you still able to fight?!" asked Sona.

"Just a couple of fractured ribs, President. Nothing I can't walk off..." the Rook groaned as she clutched her left side of her lower chest. "... Guess he's the enemy's commander for a good reason."

Momo and Tomoe were keeping each other close since the former is a Bishop, while Sona, Tsubaki, and Rias were the front line against the Yomi Faction's general.

"Come on, you sluts, hold still and DIE ALREADY!" The three-horned Oni then leapt towards the air before coming back down with a resounding crash.

After landing, Rengokuki wastes no time scraping his club against the tiled floor, flinging the shards across the whole temple grounds like shrapnel before exhaling a massive breath of dark-colored flames.

Momo then casts a barrier spell around herself and Tomoe before they could be consumed by the inferno, but the three-horned Oni grew wise of the Bishop's specialty and closed in on her to shatter both her barrier and her bones with the swing of his club.

"MOMO!" Tomoe with her Knight's speed, tackled the Bishop out of the way, and while neither suffered fatal injuries, both of them were still blown back by the attack's shockwave, hitting the ground rolling before stopping.

"We're okay!" Momo cried out.

"NOT FOR LONG!"

Rengokuki zeroes in on the Bishop and Knight duo, but Sona intercepts the Oni with a well-placed demonic energy blast shot towards his throat before then throwing a flash grenade towards the Oni's face, blinding and stunning him momentarily, enough time for the King to retrieve her fellow peers.

"PRESIDENT!" Coming out of the invisibility spell cast onto herself, Reya then tosses Sona a medical kit as she begins applying first aid to Tomoe and Momo.

"SO THAT'S WHERE YOU WERE HIDING!" Rengokuki cried out as he then spat out a massive fireball towards Sona's second Bishop, but Rias intercepted it with her own, warhead-grade demonic energy blast that only sent the Bishop flying back from the danger zone.

"Are you okay?" the red-haired Devil asked.

"Sorry, fighting's not my forte, so I'm a little out of my depth," the Bishop apologized.

"She has a point," Sona grimly remarked as she and everyone else saw Rengokuki charge at them, only for Rias and Yura to intercept the Oni in close-quarters combat. "... We're sorely lacking in any options on how to decisively defeat this Oni... At best, all we can do is slow him down."

"President," Tsubaki then appeared next to Sona. "... I have a suggestion, but it's not without risk."

"... You mean your Sacred Gear?" The Vice-President then nodded at her question. "... Alright, as soon as we make another opening, you do what needs to be done. Understood?"

Tsubaki nodded as both Rias and Yura were blown back from the Oni's swing of his club.

"Yo, President Gremory!" Sona's Rook remarked. "How many times can you use your [Power of Destruction] today?"

"About two," she answered as she then blocks an overhead kanabō swing heavy as a meteorite's impact before dropkicking the Oni into his stomach, breaking them off from each other. "... Three if I'm feeling better."

The three-horned Oni growled as he got back up. "I'm getting sick of this play-fighting!" he snarled as the Oni then braced himself for his next assault. "TIME FOR YOU DEVILS TO MEET YOUR MAKERS-!"

*RUMBLE*

Then the whole temple grounds tremors under their feet.

"... What the Hell was that?" asked Sona as Reya then used her magic to scout ahead where the quaking was originating from.

"Something's coming!" the Bishop warned. "IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US-!"

*CRASH*

Just around the corner, a subway train-sized Ōmukade crashed around and off the corners of the alleyway leading towards the main temple ground, with Yuuto, Akeno, Kumowatari, Yasuhiro, Suguru, Katsushirō, Kyûzô, and Kambei (w/Heihachi) riding atop of its head, hanging on for their dear lives in this joyride.

"What the fuck?!" Rias said out loud.

"SOMEONE STOP THIS STUPID THING!" the kiko-ranked Kitsune cried out as he hung from his shichishitō stabbed into one of the Ōmukade's eyes.

"YUUTO!" Akeno cried out.

"I'M WORKING ON IT!" The blond Devil then takes a massive gamble by summoning his [Starlight Flash] with his [Sword Birth] before stabbing the thin blade into the dust exhaust located between the giant centipede's eyes.

With that bladed lodged deep inside, Akeno then shoots the blade with her lightning magic, shocking the monster inside out while triggering the pseudo-Demonic Sword's attribute of unleashing a collected stream of demonic energy, rending the monster's mental faculties null and void due to its brain now sporting an additional hole.

"EVERYONE BAIL!" the Namahage barked out, causing everyone to then jump off their ride towards the main temple grounds, leaving the slain Ōmukade to ram Rengokuki in its post-mortem state like a runaway vehicle, with Rias and the entire Sitri Peerage leaping out of the way.

*BOOM!*

Both the three-horned Oni and his gargantuan pet ram headfirst into the bronze Buddha's crotch, bringing the whole main temple that it was sequestered in down upon the two heretics.

"... I don't think we can pay for that," Rias pointed out.

"I'll see if I can convince Nurarihyon-sama to foot the bill from the Kantō Faction's treasury," Kumowatari remarked as he and everyone else that came riding atop of the Ōmukade regrouped with Rias and the entire Sitri Peerage. "... Oh, and we're here. Apologizes for being late."

"It's a relief to see you all here and safe," Rias replied as she headed towards Akeno and Yuuto. "... Welcome back."

"Likewise, President," Akeno bowed her head before she and Yuuto looked back at the collapsed Zenkō Temple. "... Did that stunt actually kill him?"

"Hardly," Rias grumbled as she cracked her neck. "Alright everyone! Get ready for phase two!"

Yasuhiro blinked. "... What do you mean, 'phase two'-?!"

*KABOOM!*

With a surge of kegare and equally corrupted ki, Rengokuki emerged from the rubble and wreckage, albeit slightly more injured, but relatively blase enough to come out semi-composed.

"Ah poop, that's my second pet that got killed this week!" the three-horned Oni grumbled as if he'd stubbed his toe after seeing his pet Ōmukade die before him. "... Maybe I should stop getting pets."

"Damn it all, and we need to deal with Kataki afterwards!" Kambei pointed out in distress. "HOW IS HE STILL ALIVE?!"

"Apparently, we didn't hit hard enough to make a difference," sighed Sona. "... Guess I'm adjusting next year's recruitment standards towards active combat."

"Even still, this is perfect," Rias smirked as she readied her [Power of Destruction]. "With all of us here, we should be able to deal with him once and for all!"

As everyone then readied to face Rengokuki, the aforementioned Oni then yanks out a pair of stone coffins from the rubble, each attached to the chains he was found holding in his hand.

"Let's even the playing field, shall we?"

Heihachi gasps upon what's coming next. "COVER YOUR EARS!"

*DOOM*

The resonance of the bronze bell run by Kataki from his shōrō echoed inside everyone else's ears even as they were covered with their hands. However, the reverberation caused the stone coffins to crack in different places, each fracture seeping out unfathomable amounts of kegare from within the confines.

"I don't like where this is going..." Suguru remarked before the two stone coffins then exploded outwards, the scattered stone shells breaking like overcooked pottery.

From the broken caskets then unleashed a pair of fundoshi loincloth-wearing Oni, both radiating with chthonic malice and hatred against the world expressed in stoic expressions of contempt, each crowned with a thick stubby single horn that made up their entire foreheads, as if their frontal craniums burst out from underneath their skins. One was green-skinned whose legs were encased in spike-studded bronze grieves, which he then lifted one up, readying himself to fight like a Muay Thai fighter. The other was more copper-skinned, whose arms and knuckles were encased in spike-studded bronze gauntlets and knuckledusters, performing a quick session of shadowboxing as a warm-up.

"... No," Kumowatari gasped in horror. "... You didn't!"

"BUT I DID!" the three-horned Oni then cackled triumphantly. "BEHOLD YOMI'S GREATEST CHAMPIONS! SHŌKI, THE 'DEMON OF DEATH'! AND SHUKI, THE 'BLOOD DRINKER'! ONCE MORE, ON THE EVE OF IZANAMI-SAMA'S ASCENSION, THE HELL BROTHERS WALK UPON THIS WRETCHED WORLD TO BRING DEATH UPON WHERE THEY STAND!"

Rias (and presumably everyone else in the know) were internally rolling their eyes at Rengokuki's ignorance on what is actually happening, with her in particular getting a funny feeling that the so-called "Champions of Yomi" were somehow a giant reference to a possible work of Tokusatsu.

Takeshi would've enjoyed this, she thought. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole world is catering to his fantasies.

The two unleashed Oni then stood adjacent to their liberator, confronting the haggard alliance face-to-face.

"Alright, who's taking who?" asked Rias.

"Yasuhiro-san and I shall deal with the pugilist," Kumowatari remarked. "Kambei-san, can I trust you and your group to deal with the kicker?"

"No sweat," the Namahage replied as he then brandished his twin cleavers.

"I'll go with Gremory and Sitri-san to face Rengokuki!" Suguru declared as he drew his sole kodachi. "... Please, everyone! HELP ME SLAY THESE MONSTERS BEFORE US!"

As each side chose their respective opponents, a triple-pronged counterattack commenced.

"KEEP THE CHAMPIONS AWAY FROM THE DEVILS!" Kumowatari barked out as he and Yasuhiro clashed against the demonic Oni's lightning-fast jabs that whipped against their armaments.

"MORE FOR US THEN!" Kambei then parried the other sealed Oni's whip-like kicks with the flat of his dual blades. "KYÛZÔ! KATSUSHIRŌ! TRY RESTRICTING HIS MOVEMENTS!"

"YES SIR!" both Yōkai then begin moving into Shōki's attack range while their Namahage leader kept the enemy busy by drawing his aggro towards himself.

Rias, Akeno, Yuuto, Suguru, and all of the Sitri Peerage then face Rengokuki, the latter ready for another round of bloodshed despite the injuries he'd sustained prior.

"Everyone, I have a way to decisively finish him off," Tsubaki pointed out. "All I request is that you slow him down as much as you can!"

"Consider it done, Shinra-san!" Yuuto then tapped into his [Sword Birth]'s hidden function. "[Full Release: Gravity Nail]!"

He then plunges his sword into the ground, causing several more copies of the large black-iron broadswords wrapped in chains to fall around the Oni, increasing the gravitational force of his surrounding area, slowing his movements enough to allow everyone else to set up for a counterattack.

"QUIT PUSSYING ABOUT AND FIGHT ME!" Rengokuki then swung down his kanabō towards the ground to remove the black blades binding him, but is then immediately parried first by Tsubasa, and then Rias and Akeno uppercutting the bludgeon back into the Oni's face.

"It's been a while since we fought bare-handed, President," Akeno remarked.

"Trip down memory lane will have to wait," Rias remarked as they continued monitoring Rengokuki's limited movements. "Incoming fire breath!"

Just as the Oni exhales another stream of chthonian fire, Tsubasa was then rescued by Tomoe dashing into her rescue.

"Hang on, Yura-san!" the Knight exclaimed as she brought the Rook to the Bishops, Momo and Reya. "We'll get you patched up ASAP!"

"President! I need to borrow your tablet and drones!" requested Tsubaki.

"Catch!" Sona then tosses her tablet towards her Vice-President as she herself conjures magic circles that summon forth numerous quad-copter camera drones. "The rest is up to you, Shinra-san! I'll provide covering fire for Rias and Himejima-san!"

"Yes ma'am!" Tsubaki then activates the summoned drones as they all begin calibrating the Oni's limited movement while waiting for the right opportunity to strike as her President shot demonic energy blasts to cover for Rias and Akeno's melee.

Round 1

At the temple's west wing, Shuki's fists chipped through several meters of pavement like a chainsaw through a wood shop. It's jabs were faster than Kumowatari's lightning and are stronger than Yasuhiro's Yōjutsu, making it extremely difficult for the two veteran Yōkai to pin this Champion of Yomi down.

"How are you holding up, Yasuhiro-san?" the old Raiju asked.

"Aside from my bare feet aching, wonderful," the Kitsune replied as the Oni then resumed his assault. "Incoming!"

Shuki's swift jabs disintegrated whatever it made contact with, punching clean holes through walls and pavement while it nimbly dodged the Yōkai's own counterattacks aimed towards him.

"Slippery bastard, aren't you?!" The Kitsune then conjures several ofuda tags from his sleeves before unleashing them as a barrage of magical projectiles.

As Shuki parries all of them with his rapid flurry of punches, Yasuhiro, with his body boosted with Senjutsu, brings down both of his blades onto the Oni's shoulders in an attempt to cut both of his arms off, only for them to get wedged stuck between the Oni's flexing shoulder blades, leaving the Kitsune wide open for the Champion's bite attack.

"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Kumowatari then throws a temari ball made of electricity into the Oni's mouth, gagging on it before it explodes, blinding the monster long enough for the Raiju to pull him out of the Oni's killing range.

"Damn it! I was so close!" cursed the Kitsune, much to the Raiju's disapproval.

"My friend, you were nowhere even close," he remarked as Shuki then flexed his muscles again, snapping the two blades lodged in his shoulders in half like matchsticks.

"Well, do you have any other ideas?!" Yasuhiro cried out as the Oni then resumed his offense, now blasting vacuum punches with the sheer force of his jabs, carving out the earth in its trails.

"I'M THINKING!" Kumowatari barked back as the Champion of Yomi then attacked them with a series of vacuum-force jabs.

As the two Yōkai were put on the backfoot, Kumowatari tries to figure out a way to slay a creature that was sealed away in the first place. Specifics of how it was defeated in the first place will have to wait.

If I remember correctly, my mother told me the tale of how the two "Champions of Yomi" were sealed away for their terrible strength, the old Raiju thought as he and Yasuhiro dodged the green-skinned Oni's punches. Shuki, the "Blood Drinker" soaked his fists with the blood of his victims before partaking in them. They were confronted by Susannoo-no-Mikoto with Fūjin and Raiden-sama before he and Shōki were sealed away underneath Mt. Fuji-wait... Can it be?!

Shooting out its lighting bolts, Kumowatari attempted to cover as much ground between him and Shuki as possible. However, as if he had no room to dodge, Shuki, rather than attempt to parry his attacks, instead "dodged" by digging out a foxhole to cloister himself in.

So there are things that even his body couldn't handle?! Kumowatari thought as the Oni then excavated outwards from where he stood under, forcing the Raiju to flee until he was pinned down by his foot before the Oni then delivered a wicked right hook. "THEN TO HELL WITH THINKING!"

At the last minute, Kumowatari narrowly dodges the full brunt of the Oni's right hook, rolling with the punch at the cost of his entire left eye destroyed from the pressure of the punch's vacuum. But in that instant, the Raiju unleashes a massive discharge of electricity from his own body to give the Oni a really nasty shock that paralyzed him momentarily.

"IT WORKED!" the Raiju exclaimed as he escaped from his pin after uppercutting the Oni in his throat. "YASUHIRO-SAN! I FIGURED OUT HIS WEAKNESS!"

"Lightning," the Kitsune remarked as he then pulled out more ofuda tags to then unleash a swarm of fireflies made of electricity that shocked the Oni even more. "Guess it can't parry what it can't touch or put out with a vacuum."

Upon recovering from his stun, the Oni begins bobbing and rolling his upper body in place in a tempestuous display of a Dempsey Roll, generating a small hurricane from his movements alone, limbering up for his next barrage.

"It's going to finish us off in this next attack!" Kumowatari pointed out. "I'LL KEEP IT BUSY! YOU GET YOUR SWORD HOWEVER YOU CAN!"

"ALREADY ON IT!" the Kitsune replied as both the Raiju and the Oni disappeared into a blur, with the occasional sonic boom emitted from their collisions in a pace rivaled by none.

Within the acceleration, Kumowatari's speed was pushed to its absolute limit to keep up with Shuki's blinding barrages of deadly fists that were strong enough to kill him with a single direct blow.

I'M BARELY KEEPING UP WITH HIM! he thought as he and the Oni bounced off of each other, with the Raiju pushing himself off of the latter's blinding blows to not get splattered upon contact. ... Desperate times call for desperate measures. Forgive me, little Chiharu. Your sensei is about to be a bigger fool than you are.

Coiling himself up into a ball, Kumowatari abandons all forms of cohesion and transforms into a form solely designed for speed.

"[ADVANCED YŌJUTSU]!" declared the Raiju as it then turned into a ball of pure lightning. "[ROLLING THUNDER]!"

Kumowatari now outpaced Shuki's blows at the cost of halving his own durability. But given that a single blow from the Oni would kill him regardless, it was a worthy trade-off.

The Oni was now put on the defensive, unable to parry the lightning-fast tackles that knocked around Shuki like a soccer ball.

However, even if Kumowatari was faster, that didn't mean that he wasn't predictable. Adjusting his stratagem, Shuki, rather than parry his next attack, instead catches his next attack and locks the old Raiju into a grapple.

Once caught, the Oni then delivers a wicked low uppercut that impaled Kumowatari through his chest with the Champion's spiked arm, causing the old Raiju to cough blood into the Oni's eyes, blinding him for a second...

*SHANK*

... A second needed for Yasuhiro to return after he retrieved his shichishitō from the Ōmukade's corpse beneath Rengokuki's notice. The serrated blade ripped straight into the Oni's back and out of his chest.

"... Do it," the Kitsune tried not to cry at his companion's sacrifice, "... KUMOWATARI-SAN!"

The old Raiju smirks as he performs his final act. With the last embers of his life, he then transforms his entire being into lightning itself, conducting through the bloodied blade and traveling into the Oni's body, electrocuting it from the inside-out long after the Oni's corpse was charred beyond recognition.

Shuki, the "Blood Drinker," one of the infamous Hell Brothers, at the cost of Kumowatari's life, has fallen.

Round 2

At the eastern wing of Zenkō Temple, Kambei (w/Heihachi), Kyûzô, and Katsushirō were keeping Shōki, the "Demon of Death" occupied, balancing acts of attacking him and dodging the copper-skinned Oni's deadly kicks that carved through everything that it struck like the sharpest of blades.

*CLANG!*

"FUCK!" cursed the Namahage as his cleavers were being chipped away piece by piece from having to parry the Oni's attacks constantly. "GIVE ME A BREAK, MAN! I ONLY GOT TWO OF THESE!"

Shōki paid no mind as he kept kicking with his armored legs, whipping them around in vacuum-like whips that rent the air, striking in random places with little to no cohesion, almost as if its kicks were defensive in nature rather than offensive.

"It's like it's waiting for us to attack..." the Amikiri pointed out as he and the Mujina watched the copper-skinned Oni repose himself into a one-legged Muay Thai stance, his right knee raised to his chest like a makeshift guard.

"Given that its weapons are the same limbs that one needs to walk with, I'd surmise that this beast has a practiced sense of caution," Katsushirō agreed as he clutched onto his Nagamaki with a snapped blade. "... There are faded scars on his thighs."

His claims held a degree of truth. Beneath Shōki's armored legs were a series of scars that brushed across his well-developed calf and thigh muscles, remnants of those who tried to strip him of his sole weapons of choice, and paid the mortal price of failure.

"... Think we can carve 'em out?" asked Kambei, brandishing his dual cleavers.

"It's dangerous, but it's our best shot at beating this guy," Kyûzô answered. "... Now if I only had my katana collection with me, we might have a chance."

"Then go find 'em!" the Namahage ordered. "Katsushirō! Be sure to look out for the kid on your way! Remember to cover your ears so you don't get lost!"

"Yes sir!" answered the Mujina as he and the young Amikiri ran the opposite direction where their Namahage superior was facing.

Shōki raises an eyebrow upon seeing the two run.

"Worried?" the Namahage smirked. "Don't be. BECAUSE I'M HERE!"

The two young Yōkai from the Tōhoku Faction hear their leader belt out his battle cry as he resumes engagement with the Oni.

As they ran through the alleyways of the temple, Kyûzô and Katsushirō kept their ears shut to prevent Kataki's Genjutsu from disorienting their sense of direction.

Despite this, the two were able to communicate via blinking their eyes in patterns (akin to modern-day Morse Code) and traveling at a steady, yet fast pace that prevented them from colliding into each other.

"[Front area, no enemies]," blinked Katsushirō. "[Find anything]?"

The Amikiri shook his head before blinking the following. "[I recall arriving in front of the main gate]," he answered. "[The quarry got to me first]."

The two of them then headed towards the direction of the Niōmon front gates.

From atop of the shōrō, Kataki noticed the young pair heading towards where the wicker basket full of sheathed katanas were at.

The odd-horned Oni then looked at his pilfered bear pelt. "... Should I?"

He then closes his eyes before opening them.

"... Orders received," The Oni then takes out a slip of ofuda before casting the bear belt to the winds. "... Object without a will of its own, let the will of Ashiya Dōman give you purpose."

Upon finishing his incantation, Kataki then throws the tag towards the loose animal hide, transmogrifying it into a temporary familiar of his own.

"[Advanced Heretical Senjutsu: Tsukumogami Manifestation Art]."

The bear pelt, imbued with Kataki's own ki, morphs into a sugar glider-like creature, being a crude approximation of the Yōkai Nobusuma.

"Go," ordered the Oni as he then threw more ofuda at the Tsukumogami, the tags printed with "爆破" sticking onto the creature's underbelly. "Intercept them."

The familiar without a will of its own then glided towards the Niōmon at Kataki's command, the latter bitterly chuckling at that poor bastard's set fate.

"... Guess the pet takes a lot after his master."

Upon arriving at the temple's front gates, both Katsushirō and Kyûzô felt the ambient power emitting from the statues that guarded the hallowed grounds from behind the gates' arch.

"... Save your adoration for later," the Mujina instructed. "Get your swords."

The Amikiri then began collecting his loose weapons from the ground and into his recovered wicker basket as the Mujina kept watch around the perimeter.

"I got all of them!" Kyûzô said as he hoisted up his basket full of katanas onto his back.

"Let us be off then-"

A horrid shriek was then heard from above as the two Yōkai looked up to spot a sugar glider-like creature soaring towards them. The Mujina then sniffed the air to pick up a familiar scent.

"SO THAT'S WHY MY CAPE WAS CAPERED?!" Katsushirō exclaimed as he then brandished his nagamaki. "STAND BACK KYÛZÔ! I'LL HANDLE THIS!"

Charging forth with his broken blade, the Mujina confronts the gliding aberration.

"FIEND! I KNOW NOT WHO YOU ARE!" Katsushirō declared as his own cape coming to life to kill him and his comrade. "BUT I WILL NOT BE BESTED BY A MERE BEAST LIKE YOU-!"

The creature then unfurls itself, revealing several ofuda with "爆破" written on it. The printed calligraphy then burned bright as the Mujina realized what kind of trap he'd fallen for.

"MOVE-!"

*KABOOM!*

A loud explosion echoes across the whole temple, with everyone's attention aimed towards where the front gate was located.

"NO!" Kambei cried out as he saw the cloud of smoke rising up towards the night sky.

His distraught sorrow then quickly ignited into rage as he knew who was responsible.

"DAMN YOU!" the Namahage bellowed as he then pushed back against Shōki and his kicks. "DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

The copper-skinned Oni replies with a bellowing roar of his own, now forgoing defense in favor of offense. Cleaver and kicks clashed in a dance of sparks.

"YOU THINK JUST BECAUSE YOUR FOOTWORK IS FANCIER THAN MINE MEANS THAT YOU CAN KILL ME?!" snarled Kambei as his Shōjō companion hung onto his neck. "THINK AGAIN-!"

*DOOM*

The bronze bell rings once again, but this time, the Namahage has prepared himself.

Heihachi had clasped his ears shut just in time before the Genjutsu could take effect, allowing the burly champion of Tōhoku to fight unimpeded.

"YOUR TRICKS WON'T WORK ON ME ANYMORE, KATAKI!" Kambei roared triumphantly as his cleavers continued clashing against the greaved feet of Shōki, both weapons chipping away at each others' metal until they were resembling moth-eaten paper. "IT'S A SHAME THAT YOUR ARMOR ISN'T WELDED ONTO YOUR BODY, FIEND!"

*SNAP*

Both spiked greave and cleaver broke off from their base of attachment, leaving one of the Oni's legs bare and the Namahage one short weapon.

"SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR LEG, YOU BASTARD!" The Namahage then brought down his other remaining cleaver towards the exposed copper-colored skin.

But in a daring reversal, Shōki catches the cleaver between his toes, negating the Namahage's finishing blow in an instant.

"... Shit."

As Kambei brought up his other arm to defend himself with, Shōki, with his other armored foot, whips out a kick across the Namahage's median.

The spike-studded greave gouges out pieces of Kambei's arm, chest, and bones, getting less "kicked" and more "slashed by a massive blade" from that attack alone.

His entire right forearm was separated from his limb, his heart and lungs were exposed from the breach, still pumping blood and air even as they were naked to the elements, and his ribcage was now missing a few of its bars.

Upon the attack finishing its arc, Kambei was then sent flying across the ground before his back hit the wall, nearly pushing out his exposed organs from his body as he fell unconscious.

"... Kambei!" Heihachi remarked as he tried to tend to his friend's wounds, but just before he could, a vacuum kick nearly decapitated him, dodging at the last second and only exposing a pair of scars underneath his bald spot.

But just as Shōki could come in and finish the two of them off...

*CLANG!*

... A snapped blade of a katana plants itself before the dreaded Oni. Behind him was Kyûzô, the young Amikiri tossing aside his broken katana before drawing another from his basket.

"... You... smell... like fire," the Shōjō commented.

The Amikiri's clothes were covered in soot and eaten away by ember, leaving nothing behind of this child's innocence as his eyes burned with nothing but focused ire.

"... Heihachi-san," Kyûzô remarked as he then readied himself into a deep, wind-up stance with his blade. "... I'll deal with him."

In a blur, the Amikiri then showed what he could really do once he reclaimed all of his katanas.

The boy and the Oni clashed, crossing blade and limb upon each collision, the impact generated ringing loudly like forged metal upon an anvil as Heihachi healed his friend's wounds with his Senjutsu in the given time.

Shōki used his remaining armored limb to parry the Amikiri's blades, even going so far as to snap it in two once again. However, Kyûzô was undeterred by this loss, instead drawing out another blade from his wicker basket before resuming his assault.

Upon each clash, the Amikiri's blade broke from the sheer force of the Oni's kicks. But after every broken blade, he immediately draws another from his collection, continuing the onslaught of cuts over and over again in a recited repetition that bordered on insanity.

Eventually, the whole field was now a valley of blades strewn about on the brick-paved road. Kyûzô was completely spent as his basket ran empty, while Shōki was completely unharmed, more confused than anything at what had transpired.

Certain at his victory, the Oni then moves in for the kill. Blitzing towards the Amikiri with a raised leg, he then stomps onto Kyûzô from the head up...

"... You fell for it."

*SHANK!*

With a broken nagamaki, the Amikiri then unleashed a devastating uppercut slash that severed through both his greave and leg, cutting cleanly through as if it were mere air.

"All of those nicks..." the exhausted young Yōkai heaved out with a deranged smile, "... was for this one attack!"

Now off-balance, the Amikiri then disappears into a blur before one of the snapped blades burrowed into the one-legged Oni's back before another planted itself into his arm.

From the outside looking in, one would assume that the blades were moving on their own like magic.

In reality, Kyûzô had unleashed his trump card. For those swords in his collection weren't his "backup" in case one broke.

Rather, the broken blades themselves were the true weapons of this Amikiri. The katana itself was the "sheath" rather than the actual "weapon."

A quixotic technique that he'd poured his body and soul into, all for this moment of becoming a trailblazer for a new type of swordsmanship.

"[Advanced Taijutsu - Senjintō-ryu: Full-Body Blades]!"

The Oni was slowly being turned into a pincushion of all of Kyûzô's broken blades until none of his copper skin could be seen through the silver quills that adorned the Oni's flesh.

Kyûzô kept stabbing and stabbing until Shōki was completely motionless, still as a statue of a one-legged Oni could be.

"... I did it!" the young Amikiri cheered in elation as he looked towards the Shōjō. "... Heihachi-san! I did it-!"

*SPLAT*

The motionless one-legged Oni was very much alive. In an instant, Shōki had sprung back to life and into the air, before crushing the Amikiri into a bloody paste that stained the surrounding walls and floor from where he'd landed.

A low grunt was heard from within the silver-quilled Oni, now flexing all of his muscles within his tensing body to snap each blade that was lodged into his body. With a bellowing roar, Shōki then frees himself from his bladed prison, now covered in myriad cuts all over his body, but no worse for wear despite the amount of blood he lost.

Tensing back his one good foot, the Oni kneels down to prepare himself to spring upwards and crush the two remaining Yōkai underfoot.

"Dumbass."

Heihachi instantly decapitates Shōki with his tantō, grabbing the Oni's head by his messy hair before drinking a mixture of the Oni's blood, saliva, and cerebral fluids to get himself drunk on something.

"... I hate this," he spoke to himself as he found himself covered in his enemy's blood. "... I need a better drink."

Taking the healed Kambei by his straw raincoat and dragging him along while continuing to empty out the Oni's head of its composite fluids, Heihachi leaves the now-headless and legless Shōki, the "Demon of Death" of the infamous Hell Brothers, behind to rot.

Round 3

"ALL OF YOU ARE A THOUSAND YEARS TOO EARLY TO FACE ME!"

Rengokuki then belches out a kegare-laced fireball towards the two Peerages and Suguru, evading the projectile as they all charged towards the three-horned Oni even as he was bound by the increased gravitational weight of Yuuto's [Gravity Nails] planted around him.

As both sides got into each others' melee range, Rengokuki faced down ten-to-one, but proved himself especially stubborn and formidable as a combatant.

He parried Suguru, Akeno, Tomoe, and Tsubasa's blows with a single swing of his kanabō, dodged Rias and Sona's ranged firepower without even moving from where he was currently standing, and still had enough wiggle room to continue harassing Yuuto, Reya, Tsubaki, and Momo from afar with his fire breath.

"YOU THINK JUST BECAUSE YOU ALL OUTNUMBER ME MEANS YOU SHITS CAN BEAT ME?!" roared Rengokuki as he then parried Akeno's thunderbolt with his fiery club swing before ripping out a chunk of molten earth with said attack that were flung towards his opponents. "I AM THE GODDAMN 'BLOOD MOON PAINTER'! AND TONIGHT, ALL OF YOUR BLOOD SHALL PAINT THE HEAVENS RED!"

The battle could go either way, with Rengokuki moving towards Shimane Province and ruin Takeshi's plan, or they somehow neutralize the wicked Oni and assist Takeshi in his plan.

Time was of the essence, and they really can't afford to waste any more of it unless more unknown elements come into play in tonight's carnage.

"Shinra-san, how long until the calibrations are complete?!" asked Sona as she kept firing her demonic energy towards the Oni.

Tsubaki looked back at her tablet to still read the results being at around 87%. "ETC 3 minutes!" she answered. "That Oni's still too wild to pin down!"

"I CAN'T HOLD ONTO MY SWORDS FOR MUCH LONGER!" Yuuto cried out as his body began to buckle from the strain of his [Full Release] technique. "WE NEED TO KEEP HIM PINNED DOWN MORE SECURELY!"

Sona briskly sucked her teeth as she looked towards Akeno, who herself was keeping up a strong front, but was clearly running on fumes as everyone else is. "... Himejima-san, can you support me?"

"Got a plan?" Akeno replied as her fingers crackled with lightning.

The Student Council President gnashes her teeth. "... Got one."

From her hands, she then manifests a magic circle bearing the insignia of House Sitri before a massive stream of water from the glyph.

"In the name of Prince Sitri...!" Sona recited as she tapped into her bloodline's powers of [Water Manipulation], drawing her source from the hand fountains nearby. "... I beckon forth the waves that shape this world!"

A raging surge of water soaks Rengokuki, extinguishing his chthonic flames that covered his body. Steam hissed from the bubble containing the Oni, increasing the water's temperature as the fiend tried to instinctively reignite himself within the boiling orb that he'd found himself trapped in.

"NOW!" barked out Sona, letting Akeno then unleash her lightning magic upon the bubbling water balloon containing the three-horned Oni.

*KABOOM!*

The sudden introduction of electricity within a concentrated body of heated water then triggers a very violent reaction akin to a bomb going off. More specifically, Sona recalled a certain chemistry factoid (that she got from a Snapple cap last year; she collects them as a hobby) that electrolyzing water breaks down the chemical bonds between hydrogen and oxygen/separating it, both of which are highly-flammable gasses, and combined with the particles being hyperaccelerated by Rengokuki's flames and Akeno's lightning, turned the Oni's water prison into a veritable pile of volatile liquid-based explosive.

"... Alright, I'm out of water," Sona remarked as the fountain she drew her water from now ran dry. "... Satans below, the mounting damages are going to burn a hole in my wallet."

Then an enraged yell dispersed the fog from the steam explosion, Rengokuki emerging from the fog madder than ever, all of his ire now directed towards Sona and Akeno for their little stunt.

"LOOK OUT!" Akeno then shoved Sona aside to take the full brunt of the Oni's kanabō, catching the bludgeon with both of her hands and arms as she was kneeled down from the weight of the weapon's properties correlated to her.

"Oh my, we got another one on the naughty list!" the Oni cackled as he then pressed down against his heavy weapon. "... Well with both of your tits each the size of your head, your whole body is a sin-!"

Tsubaki then delivers a flying kick that knocks away the Oni and free Akeno from her pin. "Are you okay?"

Akeno winces a little as both her arms felt slightly broken. "... I can still stand."

"Here!" Tsubaki then slaps an ofuda onto Akeno's back, covering her in a white aura. "A little gift from the Shinra Clan. Us exiles have to look out for one another."

Akeno bitterly smiles at her fellow Queen's gift bestowing her the sacred beast Byakko's blessings of [Metal], one of the Five Principal Elements of the Five Sacred Beasts. The blessing hardened her bones and skin like armor. "... Funny how fate works, doesn't it?"

As the Oni then bounces back from his received attack, Akeno and Tsubaki evade the retaliatory swing before being suppressed by Rias' warhead-grade demonic blast that was then followed up by the two Queens counterattacking with lightning and blue flames enveloping their limbs.

"Rias, we got a situation!" Sona remarked as one of the [Gravity Nail] blades had its chains snap loose around their blade blade.

"PRESIDENT!" Reya cried out in distress. "THE ONI'S GETTING FASTER-!"

"MOVE!" Tsubasa then tackled the Bishop towards Tomoe, the Rook taking the brunt of the crossfire of the Oni's sweeping attack, taking her out of commission as the Sitri Peerage's Knight runs back to retrieve her while Momo regrouped with her fellow Bishop to try and maintain one of the other [Gravity Nail] blades in Yuuto's stead, but it was for naught.

"PRESIDENT!" Yuuto then let out a strained cry as two more blades surrounding the area were compromised. "... I CAN'T...! HOLD IT... ANYMORE!"

"HANG ON!" Rias then headed towards where her Knight was before donating her demonic energy to him to keep up the diversion for just a little longer.

"I GOT HER!" Suguru helped Tomoe out in recovering the unconscious Rook after both Bishops were running back from the destroyed [Gravity Nail]. "SHE NEEDS TREATMENT! I'LL GO AND SEE IF I CAN FIND HIS BLINDSPOT!"

"WAIT!" Sona cried out. "WHAT ABOUT THE CALIBRATIONS-?!"

*POOF*

*fzzt*

Both the tablet and the drones overload from the ambient abundance of clashing energies before breaking down.

"... We're backed into a corner, Sitri-san," the Nukekubi remarked as he clenched his kodachi. "... Chiharu... please watch over me!"

The ninja Yōkai then runs towards where the Oni and the two Queens were clashing, joining the fight as their third vector.

"WHAT'S A FUCKING HANGER-ON DOING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?!" Rengokuki barked out as he knocked back the two Queens with a burst of kegare-infused ki blasted outwards from his body. "BEGONE, WEAKLING!"

The three-horned Oni then lifts up his club imbued with the negative energy of his own malice over Suguru's head before bringing it down...

*thud*

... Only for the lithe ninja to take the blow as if he were merely struck by a cheap wiffle ball bat.

"... What?" the Oni blubbered as he and everyone else's jaws hit the floor. "... B-but your sins! You were supposed to be crushed by their weight!"

The Nukekubi looks up with eyes sternness akin to Takeshi's own resolve, his pupils glowing in a similar color towards Rengokuki's own, but with none of the malice present within his heart.

"... I have sinned," he answered, grabbing the kanabō by its handle. "... But I refuse to let them weigh me down!"

In a shocking reversal, Suguru then seizes the massive bludgeon from the three-horned Oni after cutting off the fingers holding the weapon with his blade, utilizing the latent kegare within the club and making it his own, lifting a weapon roughly twice the size of his own body as if it were light as a feather, winding it back for a giant swing at the flabbergasted Oni.

"So tell me..."

The Devils present could no longer deny it. Suguru, a Yōkai born and raised within the confines of Hakone Shrine, somehow awakened in his latent potential to use kegare without falling towards evil, bridging the gap between the original Yōkai hailing from Yomi to those thriving and serving the Shinto Pantheon to this day.

Rias, Akeno, and Yuuto saw Takeshi in the Nukekubi's place for a brief moment, now understanding where he'd gained his resolve from.

"WHAT COLOR IS YOUR SIN?!"

*SPLURCH*

Suguru's violent reprisal then rends off both of Rengokuki's legs with a single swing through those trunk-sized limbs, destroying the kanabō within the same stroke.

The three-horned general of Yomi then bellows out a roar of pure agony as polluted blood spouted from his stumps below his thighs, the caustic fountain hissing against the stone tiles of the temple as the Nukekubi was splashed by them, but to no avail to his physical health save for his hair turning stark-white from his sanguine baptism.

"... The trick is to accept that I'm a sinner... that I am a coward... but I won't let that be the end of me," he answered as the Oni flailed about in pain of losing both of his legs to a weakling. "... That's what it means... to not run away."

Once the pain and the shock subsides, everyone snaps back to reality on the fact that Rengokuki, despite losing both of his legs, was still well and truly alive.

"... YOU FUCKING PUNK!" Pounding both his fists into the ground, Rengokuki then propels himself towards the Nukekubi, but the latter merely smirked, knowing that he was in good hands.

"... I'll leave the rest to you, Shinra-san."

*SHATTER!*

Appearing between him and the Oni, Tsubaki then manifests an ornate mirror that reflects Rengokuki's visage before its surface. As his nails made contact with it, the mirror itself immediately shattered, which was then followed up by a retaliatory shockwave that sent the Oni flying back from his trajectory, the damage inflicted onto said mirror being literally reflected back to the attacker.

"... You bitch-!" Rengokuki then coughs out a wad of blood. "... How the fuck... did a Devil like you... even hurt me?!"

"[Mirror Alice]," answered Tsubaki as she disclosed the name of her Sacred Gear. "Takes the anecdote of 'seven years of bad luck' and makes it lethal."

Unfortunately, it can only be used once per day due to its admittedly-broken defensive properties, but she instead chooses to leave out explaining that out loud, given that A) the Oni's on the verge of death, so there was no point, and B) she's smart enough to avoid the "explaining your powers to the enemy"-trope that was pervasive throughout various works of media.

Speaking of the latter, she herself kept the fact that Akeno's talisman was originally applied to herself, but given that Tsubaki was relegated in the rearguard to make sure her gambit worked, she made the call to let the other Queen borrow it for a while.

"Himejima-san, are you well enough to finish him off?" asked the Student Council Vice-President as she then took back her ofuda. "... Admittedly, I'm a bit spent."

"Indeed," replied Akeno as she then instills all of her demonic energy into her next lightning bolt. "... It's punishment time, you disgusting Oni."

*CRACK*

A whip of lightning akin to an Eastern Dragon lashed across the Oni's body, frying him where he was laid at as Akeno brought the scourge of the divine unto the heretical Rengokuki in a rain of lashes that were a web of blurred swings.

All that was left of the Oni was merely the charred remains that looked like a humanoid body. After doing the deed, Akeno moans while stretching as Yuuto falls back onto Rias' arms in exhaustion, the remaining [Gravity Nails] being dismissed.

"That felt great...!" the Gremory Peerage's Queen remarked in catharsis. "... Is everyone okay?"

"Unconscious, but still alive," Momo remarked as she and Reya finished healing Tsubasa's injuries. "... Mostly. Tonight was rather turbulent."

Sona then approached Suguru and Tsubaki, the former being helped up by the latter. "... Suguru-san, by any chance, was Ryuugamine-kun a factor in your sudden development?"

"... Maybe," he replied with a slight smirk. "... Someone has to end the cycle that made people like Hisaya-nii. That was merely the first step."

"Still, to use kegare without having your ki polluted..." Tsubaki pointed out. "... Pray tell, how did you accomplish such a feat?"

"... I don't know exactly how," the Nukekubi confessed. "... I... I was more sensitive to ambient kegare ever since I was young. Never told anyone about it because it might give the other initiates a reason to bully me even more. ... I got picked on a lot."

"... So it was something akin to a gift, then."

From the west wing game Yasuhiro, the Kitsune coming back with his priest robes tattered and burnt at the sleeves, both of his scabbards now missing their blades, and his shichishitō blade acting as his crutch.

"... Yasuhiro-san," Suguru said as he approached the kiko-ranked Kitsune. "... Where's Kumowatari-san?"

Yasuhiro looks away in shame. "... I'm so sorry."

The Nukekubi tries his hardest to not cry, failing to dam his tears behind his eyelids.

"Wait," Rias remarked after she took Yuuto to get treated by the Sitri Peerage's Bishops. "... Where are the Tōhoku Yōkai that came with us-?!"

A belch was heard from around the eastern corner, revealing Heihachi dragging the unconscious Kambei by his straw raincoat while chugging composite cerebral fluids from the severed head of Shōki, one of the Hell Brothers of Yomi.

"... I have several questions," Tsubaki pointed out, her eyes wide as pie plates as everyone else seeing this bizarre sight.

"... Don't wanna talk about it," the Shōjō murmured before passing out piss-drunk and sawing logs on the stone tiles.

Everyone seeing this blinked for a moment before realizing that he and Kambei were the only survivors from facing the kicking Oni.

"... Well," Rias remarked as she looked towards the collapsed temple lying before them. "... Just need to clear out the mess before we reach Takeshi-"

*FWOOSH*

A pair of dark geysers of kegare then blasted from afar before the streams then all concentrated towards Rengokuki's corpse.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Rias exclaimed as she and everyone else were being blown back by the sheer amount of kegare concentrating towards the cadaver.

The charred body began to regain color, the burnt skin and meat instantaneously swelling back with vitality. Lost limbs were sprouting from their stumps like plants, the new skin was more akin to fire as his flesh became like melted candle wax, with the faces of both Shuki and Shōki twisting out of the gelatinous composition as if the two damned souls were trying to free themselves from this warped corporeal prison, his crown of three horns turned gnarled and flame-like in shape, with the one in the middle being enlarged and forked like a pair of a Devil's horns on top of a single horn, and his face, once human-like, if a roguish and unkempt, was now the visage of an otherworldly monster, with furrowed brows that folded into a scowl of pure contempt, his lower fangs sticking out of his lips like a pair of toothpicks, and his eyes were now glowing like lit coal.

"... Fools," the reborn Oni spoke with an echoing candor. "Do you really think that the Hell Brothers were the ones I was after? Well you're wrong."

"EVERYONE, STAND BACK!" Rias then emits her [Power of Destruction] from her hands before blasting the sphere of chaotic energy towards the monster.

However, the resurrected Oni simply backhanded the sphere with his bare hands, taking out the entire shōrō where Kataki was stationed.

"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!" exclaimed Rias as the otherworldly being resumed his explanation.

"The truth is, every Yōkai possesses the latent ability to utilize kegare akin to the famed Touki, like that Nukekubi over there," he pointed towards Suguru. "But whereas he and the rest of his kin retarded their natural gifts after generations of self-purifying, us of the Yomi Faction had all the time in the world to master our innate gifts, with yours truly being the acme of that latent potential!"

The pocket space within Zenkō Temple began to distort from the demonic Oni's mere presence, now feeling as if the Devils and Yōkai were now facing down a god.

"No longer am I simply 'Rengokuki'!" declared the empowered Oni. "After absorbing the concentrated kegare released upon the demise of both Hell Brothers... I HAVE BECOME THE KIJIN, JIGOKUKI!"

Upon that declaration, the Kijin then blasts everyone with a burst of thick kegare-laced Touki akin to a shockwave, sending them all flying towards the walls as their backs break against it from this ceaseless tide of pure evil.

"Now it's time to send you all reprobates to your maker!" Jigokuki then gathered the evilest of ki from within his body for one, final killing blow. "DIE-!"

*SHANK*

Suddenly, the wave of malice ceased immediately, causing everyone caught in the blast to then hit the stone floor.

"What happened...?!" Rias said as she and Sona saw a gleaming blade burst out from Jigokuki's chest.

The Kitsune then spots a pair of odd horns sticking out from behind Jigokuki's shoulders.

"... Kataki?!"

Behind him was none other than the mercenary Oni, his unsheathed blade impaling his supposed ally from behind.

"... Why?" The Kijin then coughed out a splash of blood, his supply of kegare now slowly being purified by the blade itself. "That blade...? A Holy Sword...?!"

Yuuto, barely awake, flinches upon hearing those words.

"... [Kogarasumaru] is merely a tool for my master's bidding," the odd-horned Oni dispassionately said as he then twisted the blade in his grip before pulling the backstabbed Oni closer to him. "... Here's the first lesson in kabuki theater: in every plot, the 'artist' is always the traitor."

Jigokuki's eyes then widened upon what he was implying.

"... Then that means...!" he shuddered in shock. "... The Evil Dragon User was...!"

Kataki then locked eyes towards the remaining members of Yōkai and Devils. "... Took me a while, but I caught onto your ploy, Gremory."

Rias' breath quickened upon that revelation. "... So why didn't you stop us sooner?!"

"Because it doesn't matter."

Pulling his Holy Sword out of the Kijin's back, Kataki then decapitates Jigokuki, the severed head of Yomi's general rolling towards the alliance as the headless body, now deprived of all kegare sustaining it, crumbled into dust in the wind.

All the while, the apathetic Oni's eyes didn't so much as illuminate with a hint of emotion from this act of treachery.

"... Proceed," the odd-horned Oni spoke as he sheathed his [Kogarasumaru] back into the shaft of his parasol. "... I no longer have a reason to quarrel with you."

"... Give us a reason why it shouldn't," Yuuto heaved out as the Oni turned his back.

The Oni didn't even so much as look back as he walked away, with the clacking of hyōshigi clacking through the air as it hailed a gust carrying a swarm of cherry blossoms.

"... Because we lost," he revealed. "Ergo, I must now search for a new client."

Upon his departure, the subspace around all of Zenkō Temple disappears... leaving all the damages inflicted onto the property intact, with the only thing that the dismissal had done was to reveal their presences to reality.

"Goodbye, my yearly savings..." Sona comically sobbed as she can hear her black credit card begging for mercy for the damages to cultural and religious property that she (and Rias) are probably going to have to pay for.

"I'm partially responsible for this too," Yasuhiro interjected. "... And I'd add the Tōhoku Faction... but those barbarians are way too poor to pay."

"We'll worry about the money later!" Rias pointed out as she and everyone else began clearing out the main temple's wreckage. "For now, we need to get to Mt. Hiba, ASAP!"

The pile of rubble and splinters were soon then cleared out, leaving the bronze Buddha statue and the teleportation array out in the clearing.

"Anyone else here know how to utilize Eastern Magic Scripture?" asked the Kitsune before Tsubaki and Akeno stepped up. "... Thank you."

"Think nothing of it, Yasuhiro-san," Akeno sighed before she and Tsubaki began activating the teleportation array with the kiko-ranked priest. "Our interests no longer lie with the Shinto Pantheon nor their subsidiaries."

"Teleportation array is back in working order!" revealed Tsubaki as the magic circle around the three of them glowed in activation. "President, we're ready to move on-!"

Then all of the sudden, the atmosphere turns ice-cold as a surge of negative energy comes from the reactivated teleportation array.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY-!"

*SHANK!*

Right as Yasuhiro shoves both Akeno and Tsubaki out of the way, a spectral Oni claws him across his back before a whole stream of ghostly Yōkai shoot out and up towards the night sky in a phantasmal swarm.

"Yasuhiro-san!" Tomoe cried out as she then used her Knight's speed to retrieve the Kitsune from the incursion zone and drag him back to Reya and Momo to be treated.

"His body is getting colder by the minute!" panicked the brown-haired Bishop as she and Momo tried to cast healing magic onto his wound. "What the Hell are those things coming out of the portal?!"

"Reiki," Tsubaki snarled. "... The Yomi Faction must've employed necromancy to turn their own prior attrition rate to their advantage!"

As the swarm of ghostly Yōkai flew around the temple, they all then converged towards the remaining members of the alliance to finish them off where they stood.

"... Fuck this."

Then a surge of pure power then bursts forth from Rias, her crimson red hair glowing with ambient might as she then raises her hand towards the vengeful parade of Reiki.

"Perish."

Rias then unleashes her [Power of Destruction] at maximum output, escorting the vengeful souls to oblivion as they all disappeared in the blinding sanguine light, completely engulfing the skies, temporarily turning the moon above blood-red.

"... The Shinto Pantheon can send us the bill later," the ORC President scoffed, now running dry of her patience and her usage of her own bloodline's powers. "Come on. Takeshi's waiting for us."

"And if we encounter any resistance?" asked Sona as she and everyone else followed.

"Destroy them."

Zenkō Temple was left behind in utter ruin as the alliance made their way towards Mt. Hiba of Shimane Providence.

Back at the Foot of Mt. Hiba (still on fire)...

... Why?

Fire and ice collided once more.

Why?

Unrelenting evil clashed against malice-fueled spite.

Why?!

Evil God versus Evil Dragon dueled in a world at its brink.

"WHY?!"

Hisaya roars like an erupting volcano as his flaming shichishitō ground against the subzero dane axe.

"WHY ARE YOU STILL RESISTING?!" the smoldering Oni roared out as he and Takeshi continued clashing arms. "WHY WON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THIS WORLD WILL NEVER ACCEPT YOU?! WHY DO YOU STILL CLING ONTO THESE DELUSIONS OF CAMARADERIE AND HOPE WHEN YOUR STATION DEMANDS DESTRUCTION TO ALL?!"

Neither Takeshi or Nidhogg have anything to say to this sad Oni who chose to embrace hatred.

Not because of lack of things to say, but because they've grown tired of hearing his delusional drivel of perpetual cynicism when it's clearly all his fault.

... I am sick of hearing him breathe, whelp, the Evil Dragon scoffed. Hurry up and send him to whatever afterlife he believes in.

Gladly.

Takeshi then swings his [Mayhem Striker] against Hisaya's serrated sword, the two blades colliding against each other, knocking each other out of their owners' grasps.

"I won't...! Let my sacrifices... BE IN VAIN!" Hisaya, with his one good arm, slugs a punch aimed towards Takeshi's face, only for the latter to tank it thanks to his [Promotion: Rook].

"... What did you sacrifice?" he asked before grabbing the Oni by his wrist. "What did you 'sacrifice' when you all did WAS THROW EVERYTHING THAT WAS GIVEN TO YOU AWAY?!"

With his other hand, Takeshi then punches Hisaya across his charred maw, letting the coal-black teeth fly out of his rubber-like gums.

"Whether someone believes in me or not...! Whether the whole world shuns me because of who I am... I DON'T GIVE A SHIT!" Takeshi roared as he unrelentingly beat Hisaya's face in while his other hand kept a tight hold around the Oni's sole limb. "I will move forward while believing in myself and upholding my ideals! I won't submit to those who dare call me evil!"

In retaliation, Hisaya kicked Takeshi away, separating the pair from each other before the two then ran towards one another as Koneko kept recording.

"THIS WORLD IS SICK AND YOU KNOW IT!" retorted Hisaya as he gathered the flames around the area into his one good hand. "YOUR FIGHTING SPIRIT MEANS NOTHING!"

"THEN HERE'S MY REPLY!" Takeshi barked back. "[PROMOTION: QUEEN]!"

This was Takeshi's fourth [Promotion] in a row. Normally, even the hardiest of Pawns would limit to using one [Promotion] per battle due to the strain that it inflicts on both the Evil Piece and the user itself with each successive activation. However, after synchronizing with Nidhogg, an act that was deemed impossible until this very day, the strain itself was no longer a factor as both the Devil and the Dragon, now sharing one body (Nidhogg, and by extension, was able to evade the Evil Piece system's King Piece power threshold requirement by hiding in the weakest Sacred Gear, the inactive [Cataclysm Zone]), were able to share the burden.

For Nidhogg, a twenty meter-long serpentine Evil Dragon whose diet consists of corpses of traitors and oath-breakers and the ambient negative energy, it was about as strenuous as a human getting up and stretching their own backs.

"NOT EVEN THE DEVIL'S POWERS WILL ENOUGH TO ECLIPSE MINE, CHILD!" the burning Oni declared as he then imbued his fist with his own lightning, pushing his crumbling body to their absolute limit. "MY CONVICTION TOWARDS EVIL SHALL TRIUMPH!"

"Then here is my conviction!" Takeshi declared as he and Hisaya have now reached within each others' punching distances. "THIS! IS MY GOLDEN RULE!"

*CRASH!*

As Takeshi's and Hisaya's fists met, the latter crumbled like a rotten log collapsing under the weight of its own impact, unable to hold itself together due to the flames making the Oni's flesh and bone too charred and brittle.

"... And that's why I like my food cold," Nidhogg taunted as his host's fist dug into the Oni's face. "Look what happens when it gets overcooked."

With a yell like a Dragon's roar, Takeshi, with Nidhogg and Koneko as the winds behind his back, sends the chthonic Oni flying across the razed earth and his back to collide on the face of Mt. Hiba.

A half of Hisaya's jaw then falls off, but the Oni could still utter the following.

"... You...! YOU!"

Now Playing: "Revolution" by Hiroshi Kitadani (Kamen Rider Ryuki)

Takeshi then presses both sides of his [Cataclysm Zone], activating his long-awaited finisher.

"[Charge]!" announced the Sacred Gear. "[Malice Overflow]!"

Takeshi then wound back his body as the ambient ashes then formed a serpentine winged Dragon around himself.

"Is that..." Koneko's voice trembled as she saw an ashen Dragon manifest around Takeshi. "... Nidhogg?!"

Unfurling both pairs of his wings, Takeshi then takes to the skies, the manifested Nidhogg ascending with him as both the Dragon and the User oriented themselves for their finisher.

"To think I'd see the outside world for myself..." the manifested Evil Dragon spoke. "... Now let's see how it feels to kill out here!"

"[Abyss Blast Fever]!" The Sacred Gear announced as the Evil Dragon then propelled his host with an icy Dragon's breath attack, sending Takeshi diving towards Hisaya as he performed his Rider Kick.

In his act of defiance, Hisaya, despite being armless and half-jawless, runs towards the attack as he then wildly shoots out lightning and flames towards the descending Takeshi with his sole remaining horn.

"YOU... WILL NOT... DENY... OF MY VICTORY!" declared the Oni.

"VICTORY WAS NEVER AN OPTION FOR YOU!"

Takeshi's foot imbued with both demonic and draconic energies then struck right onto Hisaya's chest, pushing him back from the momentum of the aerial dive kick before a wind tunnel of subzero sleet enveloped the two of them.

Even as Takeshi's finisher struck right at the dead center of the Oni's chest, the latter still remained defiant, even going as far as to push himself against the finisher's trajectory as an act of pure spite.

Realizing that he wasn't going down without a real fight, Takeshi then pressed both sides of his buckle once more.

"[Charge]!" the Sacred Gear announces once more. "[Abyss Rage Full Throttle]!"

Realizing that one kick isn't enough to kill him, Takeshi then opts to do several demonic and draconic energy-infused kicks in a succession ala a bicycle kick.

With the buildup of the strikes, Hisaya was now being pushed back. The Oni tried to resist, but from the upper fringes of his eyes, he saw the manifested Nidhogg descend towards him.

"YOU GOT BALLS FOR TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!" the manifested Evil Dragon cackled out. "YOU'RE JUST AS MAD AS I AM!"

Both Nidhogg and Takeshi roared as the former then opened his ashen maw while the latter then scissors both of his legs between Hisaya's neck.

"SEIYAAA!"

*SNAP*

As soon as Nidhogg's jaws clasped around Hisaya, the Evil Dragon disappears as his host slide-lands behind the Oni.

Koneko's eyes widened as she nearly dropped the phone in shock of what she was seeing.

Hisaya's armless corpse now had its head turned a full 180 degrees, snapping it in two from the Evil Dragon User's finisher.

It then falls onto his knees as all life expired from his eyes. And as soon as the rest of his body hits the dirt...

*KABOOM!*

"... He actually did it," snickered Koneko, recalling her senpai's prior declaration of making his Rider Kick work. "... Explosion and all."

"... GOTCHA!" Takeshi yelled in triumph before he then collapsed in exhaustion and his Balance Breaker being dismissed. "... Goodnight."

"Senpai!" Koneko then wobbled towards Takeshi. "... Are you... alright?"

Takeshi gave her a thumbs-up. "... Just need... a day or two... to nap..." he groaned as his head was then rested on Koneko's bare laps. "... Almost died a few times... maybe took out several centuries out of my life..."

"Right on the money," Nidhogg interjected. "You only have four years left in your tank. I recommend you don't use me from now on unless you want to die."

Then tears dripped onto Takeshi's dirtied cheeks.

"... You're such a fool," sobbed Koneko. "... Why... why did you give up so much to save me?!"

Takeshi smiles the most heartfelt and genuine smile he'd ever given in his whole life.

"... Because we made a promise, remember?" he pointed out. "... That I'd watch your back. ... And I did."

Koneko's heart began to flutter from that moment. She now understood that Takeshi wasn't just another Low-Class Devil like her.

He was something else more. Someone she could trust her life to. Someone that she could trust to be by her side.

... Oh Satans below, she thought as her face blushed with embarrassment. ... I'm in love with him.

For Koneko, Takeshi had proven to her that he's the kind of person who'd go through Hell and back for her.

"Takeshi! Koneko!"

The two then looked towards where the voice was coming from, revealing Rias running towards them before she hugged them both in her arms.

"President?!" yelped Koneko as she was squeezed with her senpai.

"I'm so sorry that I couldn't get to you two sooner!" she apologized as her arms kept a tight hold around the two lesser Devils.

"Can't breathe... can't breathe...!" Takeshi then tapped onto Rias' back as a signal.

"Oh, sorry!" Rias then lets the two go. "... The others are in the cave having their wounds treated. We should get back to ORC as soon as possible."

Sona and Tsubaki surveyed the surrounding area that was now devoid of all greenery and life save for themselves. "... What the Hell happened here?!"

"I recorded everything on senpai's request," Koneko pointed out at the phone that was still recording. "We can watch it together when we have time-"

A horrible shriek was then heard from Hisaya's corpse.

"I THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD!" Takeshi exclaimed as he and everyone else saw the Oni with a twisted neck hobbling itself back up to his feet.

"... Congratulations," declared the burned-out Oni as he snapped his twisted neck back into place to face them. "... You've won... BUT I WON'T LET ANY OF YOU ENJOY IT!"

From the cracks around the cavity in his chest, a hellish heat began to emit from his body.

"... Yomi... will never be released... because of you all...!" The Oni wobbled as Sona and Rias tried to fire their demonic energy blasts at him, only for it to dissipate from the sheer heat of his local surroundings. "... So the next best thing... is that none of you survive the fallout!"

Tapping into the magatama he'd swallowed, Hisaya then overclocks Hinokagutsuchi's flames to turn himself into a bomb strong enough to take out the local ecosystem.

"Shit!" Sona cursed. "EVERYONE RUN!"

"WE WON'T MAKE IT IN TIME!" Tsubaki pointed out.

Koneko then tightly embraces Takeshi to emotionally secure herself for their journey towards oblivion.

"... To you... I offer my own life... IZANAMI-SAMA-!"

Then out of nowhere, the cloaked figure appeared before the Oni.

"What the-?!"

*KABLAM*

The stranger's gauntleted fist then punches into Hisaya's chest as he and the enigmatic figure propelled themselves towards a cliffside of the mountain, the Oni's back hitting against the surface of stone.

"Your blind devotion is beyond craven, wretch."

*SPLUCH*

With an additional thrust, the metallic fist digs through the Oni's body and out of his back.

*CRACK!*

Upon the fist breaking through the whole torso, the punch then carves out an imprint of a Dragon's skull before pulling out the out of control magatama from Hisaya's body.

"... Give it... give it back..."

As Hisaya heaves out his final words, the cloaked stranger coldly walks away with the magatama in hand.

"... You're already dead."

*KABOOM*

Everyone stared at the explosion behind the stranger.

"... Is he dead-"

*KABOOM!*

"... Nevermind, he's super-dead." Takeshi then threw his hands up in surrender after the second explosion.

"What's happening?!" Yasuhiro cried out as he ran outside of the cave with bandages around his body before spotting the cloaked stranger in possession of the magatama containing Hinokagutsuchi's flames. "You there! Are you the one who'd reclaimed the magatama?!"

The cloaked stranger remained silent as the Kitsune priest then approached him.

"Please, relinquish it at once-!"

*CRACK*

Then to everyone's surprise, the stranger then crushes the magatama within their hand, unleashing the divine flames in full that engulfed their whole body.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" exclaimed Yasuhiro as the flames roared around the stranger.

"SOMEONE PUT OUT THE FIRE!" Sona remarked as she tried to look for a source of water.

"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" the Kitsune pointed out. "THOSE FLAMES BURN PERPETUALLY-!"

*FWOOSH*

Then the flames devouring the stranger shrunk.

"... Uh, I don't wanna be 'that guy'..." Takeshi remarked. "... But I think they've done it on purpose."

Within the flames, the stranger's silhouette could be seen from within the divine inferno. Their cloak slowly burned away as the flames of a god was sucked into his waist like a vacuum.

In less than a minute, Hinokagutsuchi's flames were no more. And in the place of the great fire was the stranger's true form that is no longer hidden behind a tattered cloak.

Standing tall at around 190-200 cm was clad in a semi-futuristic armor with a black undersuit, silver armor platings around its arms, legs, upper torso, and a brace-like collar around the neck, with eye-like protrusions on their knees, shoulders, and chest, bright red lines ran through the bodysuit and armor like circuitry, and their helmet was covered in a semi-translucent red visor with a pair of small, blade-like antennas jutting out from the their brows, with a streak of topaz-yellow akin to a jagged lighting bolt or a wave frequency on a line that were their "eyes" that were printed across the red full-face visor.

And the most damning of all, there was a belt around the stranger's waist that resembled Takeshi's own [Cataclysm Zone], only with a sleekness akin to a modern-day touchscreen device than a vault made of lost technology and magic.

"... Who are you?!" asked Rias as everyone else was shocked into silence at what they're seeing.

The stranger then discloses their real identity as they point their finger up towards the starry heavens.

"... I am Re:Live," the stranger spoke through a filtered voice box. "The salvation of all mankind."

"... Why?" the Kitsune asked with a trembling voice. "WHY HAVE YOU DESTROYED A TREASURE FROM THE GODS?!"

Re:Live then shoots a glare at the Kitsune, stunning him into silence. "I did it to ensure that no one will ever target Hakone Shrine ever again."

They then turn towards Takeshi before approaching him as Rias and Koneko move in to defend him.

"I mean no harm," said Re:Live. "Step aside. I need to talk to him."

Reluctantly, Rias steps aside before Koneko follows shortly after, the latter being especially skeptical of this "Re:Live" as she keeps recording everything that is happening just in case.

"... Hey," greeted Takeshi. "... May I ask why you look like a cooler version of me?"

"Irrelevant," they replied. "What is relevant is that you've used your Balance Breaker masterfully. Well done. You're now one step closer to becoming this world's hero."

"Yeah, and I only got four years left in my life," deadpanned the Devil.

"I can fix that."

Re:Live then reaches their hand into their own chest before pulling out an orb of light from it. They then toss the orb into Takeshi's chest, immediately revitalizing his body back into peak condition.

"... What is this...?!" hissed Nidhogg as he felt his host become full of vigor once more. "... The whelp's lifeforce... increased tenfold?!"

"Your reward is 100,000 years of life from me," revealed Re:Live, much to everyone's shock. "Spend it wisely. For the upcoming ordeals will push your strengths to their very limits and beyond."

"Impossible!" Rias pointed out. "There's no way that you can give away 100,000 years of life like candy!"

Re:Live aloofly turns away before creating a spatial distortion simply by tapping the air and causing it to ripple like disturbed water. "That little detail is for me to know and you to find out," they declared. "This way will lead you back to ORC. Hurry along. Your friends back at Mt. Jitsuki is waiting for you all back home."

Too exhausted to protest any further, Rias and Sona coordinate their alliance's return trip back to Nagano through this spatial distortion.

But just before Rias herself could leave through the distortion with Takeshi carried on her back, she then turned her head back to take a look at Re:Live.

"... Who are you, really?" she asked.

But as Rias walked through the distortion, she then heard Re:Live utter the following.

"That boy is now at the crossroads of destiny. Guide him well."

With everyone gone, Re:Live then looked up towards the moonlit sky.

"How long are you going to linger up there?" they spoke.

"Hilarious."

An ethereal male dressed like a Heian Period nobleman, with his dark purple sokutai and a black kanmuri cap that was perched atop of his bright silver hair that glittered throughout the night sky. In one hand was a yumi bow that was tall as he is, and in the other hand was a shaku scepter that denoted his authority. The man was then attended by an entourage of zomen-mask wearing Tennin and Tennyo following behind him in a recited, courtly manner.

"Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto," revealed Re:Live as they then retrieved a fallen shichishitō from where it had landed. "... I trust that your foray at Mt. Kurama was successful?"

The Shinto Moon Deity clicks his tongue in apprehension. "... Because of you, I had to debase myself by wallowing in this unholy filth like a common peasant after my sister was convinced by you to renege on her prior decree," he snapped as the god instinctively wiped his pearlescent skin with a handkerchief before burning it with a lantern of blue fire. "... So is the Yomi Faction dealt with properly?"

"They stumbled at the finish line, but got the job done regardless," the armored stranger revealed. "By my estimates, the Yomi Faction has now lost a majority of their leadership and military assets. At best, they're nothing more than a roving band of disorganized bandits."

"To think that those Devils would actually be of use," Tsukuyomi remarked as he then gestured to his celestial entourage to begin the cleanup and restoration of Mt. Hiba and its seal. "... Pray tell, why are you hiding your face behind that ridiculous facade?"

"The time has not yet come," answered Re:Live as they then took out their tally counter before clicking it to a "009". "That boy must grow stronger on his own first before I intervene. I will help him, but I will not be his crutch."

Tsukuyomi huffs haughtily. "... To think that wretched brat of all mortals is the one you proclaim that will save this world from a great calamity," he bitterly remarked as he noticed that Re:Live had destroyed a piece of Takamagahara's treasury. "If this is Deus Trinity's way of humor, then it's not amusing in the slightest-"

As soon as the Shinto Moon God turned his head, Re:Live was nowhere to be found.

"... Asshole."

Inside [Cataclysm Zone: Section Náströnd]...

"... Huh, back here of all places."

Takeshi looked around Section Náströnd for its sole resident, and spotted him laid about atop a fresh pile of corpses consisting of several slain Yōkai, including Hisaya's rotting visage sticking out of the pile.

He took notice of the Evil Dragon now bearing a silver collar around his neck that was similar to his own [Cataclysm Zone]. "... Satisfied?"

"After performing that badass Rider Kick from Ryuki, fuck yeah I'm satisfied!" Takeshi replied with great elation.

Nidhogg scoffs before slinking his neck back down. "... Don't get too cocky, whelp," he warned. "... I'm the weakest of the seven of the deadliest of the Evil Dragons within this penitentiary. Out of the forty-nine previous hosts, only eight have made it past me."

"Well, it's progress, so add me as tally #9," shrugged Takeshi. "But normally, you'd think that I'd be binding you with chains or whatnot, but now we're synchronized with each other, guess you and I are in it together."

"Don't expect me to change with your influence," Nidhogg pointed out. "Or at all."

"I'm not asking you to change who you are, Nidhogg," Takeshi replied. "... I'm just asking you to stay by my side until the bitter end. After all, a story ending in a mere 31 episodes like Decade? That's going to suck, so at least... this time around... can you be a witness to my story as I am to your readership?"

Nidhogg glares at his host with scrutinizing eyes. "... I do enjoy a good story," he remarked. "But now that we're one and the same, you do realize that you're technically an Evil Dragon by association alone, correct?"

"That's fine," nodded Takeshi. "If I'm destined to become an Evil Dragon, then I'll become the greatest and the most beloved Evil Dragon in history!"

Nidhogg's eyes widened in surprise before the malicious being then let out a booming cackle.

"... You're insane!" Nidhogg kept cackling at his host's unique perspective on his fate. "... 'Beloved'? Hardly. 'Greatest'? Well you sure love to aim high, whelp."

Takeshi smirked with an ironclad resolve in his eyes. "... Everyone keeps calling this Sacred Gear 'Deus Trinity's Greatest Folly'," he pointed out. "But I want to change that. I want to show the whole world that our existence is not a mistake! That we are here for a reason beyond being the designated villains to someone else's story!"

Nidhogg huffs. "... It should be stated again: you're in for a whole world of pain, whelp."

"I'm no stranger to pain, Nidhogg," Takeshi answered. "And with you guys around? Along with the rest of ORC? I'm in good company."

Nidhogg then smirked, almost impressed at this boy's uncanny ability to appeal to him without flattering him.

A small, dust-sized speck of respect was spared from this Evil Dragon of the depths of Yggdrasil.

"Then the next one, you'll definitely like," the Evil Dragon then snickered. "... He's also no stranger to pain, just like you."

"Well, you know what they say," Takeshi then extended a fist towards Nidhogg. "Don't be a stranger."

Nidhogg smirked as he bumped his tail claw against Takeshi's own.

"Feel free to let me cut loose any time."

31st of March, 2019 AD

Another Sunday. Another Super Hero Time. Another giant bowl of Cornfrost.

Yesterday and the days before it felt like a distant dream, or at least, a convoluted nightmare consisting of miscommunications and near-death experiences.

But despite everything, everyone (at least who were alive) came out of it for the better and spiritually satisfied. Takeshi was at peace with his fate and ready for whatever was coming next, Nidhogg's belly was filled to the brim with suffering of his enemies and their corpses, and both the ORC and Kuoh Academy's Student Council's reputations in the Underworld had gained immense renown thanks to their efforts of preventing a regional apocalypse and Koneko's recording of the fight between himself and Hisaya was saved and being reviewed by both peerages (and according to both Presidents, Koneko's cinematography skills are above average for an amateur).

The only cost paid was that his phone's battery hit 0% after got home (currently charging at 87%), but that was crumbs compared to what he might've lost. But for now, he had the whole house to himself. His mom was at the community center gossiping with the other ladies in town, his dad was at the gym pumping iron, and he himself was trying to unplug from reality momentarily with Pretty Cure and Tokusatsu.

And in the end, all is right in the world... thought Takeshi as he watched Episode 9 of Star Twinkle Pretty Cure, "Ring of Friendship! Space Donuts," which was basically filler. ...I jinxed it, didn't I?

Given our short, but extensive track record, I don't think you even need to jinx it, Nidhogg snickered as he was able to tolerate the episode's saccharine tone due to him having more than enough of his fill of negativity from yesterday's battle.

As soon as the episode of Pretty Cure ended, the doorbell rings. "Hold on a sec!"

Quickly running back upstairs to his room, Takeshi then dresses half-presentably to prevent last week's near disaster with Akeno. Upon coming back down, he then opens the door...

"Morning."

And before him was Koneko, dressed in her casual clothes as she came inside the house as Kamen Rider Zi-O began to air its 29th episode.

"...Toujou-san," Takeshi nervously said as she sat down on the couch. "... Didn't know you were coming. Are you... okay after yesterday?"

"I'm okay," she answered as she watched the episode begin with Swartz and White Woz in the middle of a transaction. "... So this is what you watch every Sunday?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Takeshi nervously chuckled as he found himself sitting next to his kouhai while Zi-O was airing.

The two sat together and watched the whole episode together.

"... Huh, this time it's a Blade tribute," Takeshi chuckled. "I knew a guy who liked this series."

"Really?" Koneko replied. "... Who was it?"

Takeshi sighs before answering. "... A friend," he said as the hulking Another Blade was on a warpath screaming Hajime/Kamen Rider Blade's name. "... Haven't seen him ever since I graduated from Elementary School. "... I think he was a foreigner, maybe English, but I was just glad to have him as my friend along with some other guy."

"What were their names?" asked Koneko.

Takeshi then tries to remember their names, but he was drawing a blank while Kamen Rider Diend fights Black Woz on the TV screen. "... Damn it, I forgot!" cursed Takeshi. "... Ah well, at least wherever they are, I hope that they're doing better than me."

Oh definitely, deadpanned Nidhogg.

Koneko chuckles. "... Well, you're not without company right now," she pointed out. "... By the way, I have to ask, but why are you calling me by my surname when I'm younger than you?"

Takeshi sighs. "... I guess three hellish years at Junior High crippled my social skills to the point where I come off as overly-polite... because I assumed that there was something wrong with me in how people perceived me," he explained as the miscommunications between various parties causes the conflict of this episode to begin piling up. "... I mean, the Pervert Trio being the first people that weren't affected by the Evil Dragons' latent aura didn't leave me with a lot of options, but ever since, I... kinda regained my spine to have... some disrespect with people I can talk to equally. But when I joined you guys... I was a fledgling. I was completely out of my depth and realistically speaking, I should've died several times over if it weren't for you guys and the Sacred Gear. So, in a way, and still... I kinda couldn't help but look up to you guys still. I still feel compelled to speak to you guys formally, at least... until I can ask for your consent."

Koneko then places her hand onto Takeshi's as Blade and Chalice clashed. "... Then here's my answer."

*chu*

Takeshi's lips found themselves locked with Koneko's as the latter took the initiative.

"... Senpai," she smiled with a blush. "... I love you."

"... Eh?"

Takeshi was blushing redder than Koneko was right now.

"... I love you, senpai," she said again, this time, hugging her face into his chest as Ryusoulger Episode 3 starts airing. "I love you for being my rock when I was alone and scared. I love you for how genuine you are with your feelings and pains. I love you... for being the one to save my life."

"Toujou-san-"

Takeshi's lips were then shushed by Koneko's finger pressed against them.

"Shh." She then looks up with a teasing smirk. "... Call me Koneko, Takeshi-senpai."

Takeshi smiled as he then let Koneko lay on his chest like a cat, gently stroking her hair as a sign of affection. "... Koneko-chan."

"... Take responsibility," she said as she nuzzled her head against his chin. "... You stole both my first kiss and my heart in a single night, after all."

"Right, right," Takeshi chuckled. "... Wanna stay home with me for today?"

She nodded as the two then watched the remainder of Ryusoulger, as the monster of the week being the Medusa Minosaur.

"... By the way, how are the others doing?" he asked.

"Haven't heard," she answered as the two kept each other physically close, sharing in this warm comfort after a week of agony. "... Although given how last week was, I think everyone is a little too tired to talk."

"Can't blame em," Takeshi remarked as Ryusoul Pink, Asuna, tried to stop Ui from committing suicide upon learning that she was the source of the rampaging Minosaur. "... I'd ask more, but my head freaking hurts from thinking about it too much."

Koneko nodded as she kept laying on Takeshi's chest before instinctively sprouting out a pair of cat ears and forked tail from her lower back, a sign of her letting her guard down in his presence.

For now, the two of them enjoyed a quiet afternoon for themselves. No outings to local restaurants. No talking about Peerage-related business or anything of sorts. No talking about each others' pasts that the two knew each other on their own.

It was just the two of them spending time together in a quiet afternoon on the couch.

"... By the way, my mom's coming back to the house around 1:00 PM," Takeshi pointed out. "... You want something for lunch?"

Koneko snuggles against him on the couch. "... Yes please."

Back at Mt. Hiba...

"Well shit. There's nothing left."

Coming out into the open was a tall individual holding a cane whose shaft and ornament was ruby-red, and the tip and chameleon skull-shaped pommel was silver who was dressed in a luxurious three-piece black suit adorned with a black cravat around their collar and over their ruby-red suit vest underneath, and over the base ensemble was a flowing trench coat, whose right side is black ending with a monochromatic checker pattern and left side is white ending in a horizontal striped pattern. They also wore matching pairs of dress gloves and pointed boots, the former pair being a mismatched pair of black and white that were worn on the opposite colors of the trench coat's halves, with the black glove worn on their left hand and vise-versa. Their facial features were covered with a half-white, half-black helmet with two crescent-shaped slits in the eye area and a larger one where the mouth is that is shaped like a smile, which were then topped off with a tall silk hat that was also half-black and half-white like the rest of their ensemble, and a bigger version of the silver chameleon skull was perched on their right shoulder, whose red "tongue" was coiled around their arm as the bulbous tip hung loosely from their wrist.

If one could see them, then they would look like an otherworldly showman who was in search of a circus.

"Guess they must've cleaned up."

Emerging from the shadows from the trees was an amorphous being covered head to toe in an all-encompassing black cloak so dark that light couldn't penetrate through it, and over their face was a smooth blank mask that was made of reflective materials akin to an unspoiled mirror, perfectly reflecting was it was facing without a drop in fidelity.

"As expected of the gods," said the masked figure in the suit as they reviewed the video of the Evil Dragon User fighting against a god-empowered Oni that they acquired through their secret channels on their smartphone. "... Paranoid until the bitter end. You'd assume that they'd slip up and leave something of note, but it's as if yesterday's battle never happened, Megrez."

"Must you refer to me by my codename?" the mirror-masked figure replied. "... It's just us here."

"True, but perhaps I am just as paranoid as these gods I curse with my breath, my friend," the dapper figure replied. "... You know what we do with eavesdroppers, don't you?"

A severed head of a Tennyo then rolled out of the woods, whose death mask underneath her zomen was frozen in a twisted expression of pure horror and despair.

"Understood..." grumbled Megrez as they took the severed head and brushed it underneath their cloak. "... Alkaid."

"Chin up, my good fellow," Alkaid remarked as they then manifested a small magic circle from their gloved hand before pulling out a heavily sealed scroll wrapped in black-iron chains. "Even if this foray of ours amounts to nothing, the only thing of value we lost is time, of which we have all of in this world."

"Then we best make every second count," Megrez remarked as Alkaid then traces a line across the air with their cane, cutting open a spatial rift for the two of them to travel through. "... Even my patience has a limit for how long I can wait."

The two mysterious individuals then stepped into the rift, vanishing quickly as they came.

Arc 2: Heretical Demon Way - COMPLETE

To Be Continued...

And with that, the reboot's "Chapter 9" is done. Apologizes for the holdup, but I did not foresee that this chapter was going to be as long as I thought.

Granted, that is my habit of making sure every character involved in the arc gets a fair shake, but DxD's canon has a problem of introducing minor characters that they just throw out and forget after their introductory arc, which then triggers my incessant desire to "fix" that, in a sense.

Enough about my writing pet peeves, let's get to what really happened in this arc's finale.

First of all, I have a little funny story to tell regarding the setting.

Turns out there are TWO Zenkō Temples in Japan. And the one I was trying to reference was located in Ibaraki, not in Nagano. The former being the run-down one where Kamen Rider Kabuto's Hell Brothers made their base at, and the only good thing that I managed to get out of it was that I had a bigger battlefield to work with, and the Buddha statue's inclusion was the only accurate thing I got out of before my revised research.

Whoops.

Second, the overall difficulty of this arc compared to the original. Yeah, having the original's Arc 7's villain assisting Arc 2 villains really showed, with Hisaya having an interim form before he taps into Hinokagutsuchi's flames, and Rengokuki, despite his initial bullheadedness, showed some of his own cunning by utilizing the Hell Brothers he retrieved from Mt. Fuji's secret shrine as a fallback rather than ancillary allies, enough so to turn into a Kijin (basically an Ultimate-Class Oni evolution).

And then he gets worfed by Kataki, who reveals that his weapon was none other than the Holy Sword, [Kogarasumaru]. How did he keep it hidden from plain sight? Genjutsu bullshit, so unless one brings earplugs or resorts to making themselves deaf during a fight, he's a tricky opponent. Also, regarding how strong he is, let's just put him at the "above average" in the High-Class power, and he would utterly stomp Kuroka, an SS-Rank Stray. The only saving grace is that he's an implied "Submissive Badass" to Ashiya Dōman's orders, which will be further explored during this reboot's Arc 7 when the cast goes to Kyoto.

Third, Suguru takes a level in badass via unlocking the ability to use kegare without going insane. Ever since him being "Spared in Adaptation," I decided to make him a "Mirror Character" to Takeshi himself. In a sense, the difference between one's inner Evil Dragon and kegare potential without going insane is superficial at best. His powers will be explored and explained later on, but I think that kegare as a concept can serve as a deconstruction on the "Always Chaotic Evil" trope, in that while all Yōkai are born of Yomi, they still have a choice to make their own decision. It's only due to the stringent system of conformity that breeds a "With Us, or Against Us" mentality between the opposing sides, leaving the so-called "Strays" to either be caught in the middle, or conform to either side. Suguru himself is in a way, the Yōkai's take on Takeshi, in that he uses the power of evil to do good, and shows that Takeshi's fate, even though 99% of the supernatural community will damn him, Suguru is that 1% who is inspired to be like him: a hero accepting evil, but not submitting to it.

Consequently, since Suguru was spared, Kumowatari had to take his place on the chopping block. I have nothing against the character himself, but really, the way I wrote him, he was basically on rail for an "Mentor Occupational Hazard" trope to kick in.

Fourth, the reveal of the stranger themself, Re:Live. They're going to act as the "Stealth Mentor"/secret benefactor to the main cast (the closest comparison I have is Daidoji from Senran Kagura), and will occasionally drop in to straighten out any loose ends. In a way, their inclusion in place of Tsukuyomi's "Deus Ex Machina" was my attempt to fix the main confusion I had with the original run, with me alluding to Tsukuyomi being the one to lead the charge on retaking Mt. Kurama.

In a way, me shifting the villains' plans on a grander scale kinda nullifies the whole "Obstructive Bureaucracy" that seems like Takamagahara's hat, which is a "loose end" that I created Re:Live to fix. And yes, they're the one who repaired the seal back at Mt. Iwafune, clearing up the kegare to incentivize the Shinto Pantheon to send Takemikazuchi to station himself there, allowing the ball to start rolling from there.

And finally, Takeshi's overall characterization.

I've noticed something in the original run, but in a way, I think subconsciously, I think dvdryms' Ryuugamine Takeshi is an amalgam of Heisei Phase 2 Kamen Riders, being more of the typical shōnen protagonist (which I am not personally against), and that his flaw is more geared towards him being impulsive and being overly inquisitive. I may or may not be wrong, but the original reminds me of Hidari Shotaro from Kamen Rider Double, with some elements of Banjo Ryuga from Kamen Rider Build.

The reboot's Ryuugamine Takeshi, I took elements of the Reiwa Era Kamen Riders, whom I noticed to be more empathic and less prone to fly off the handle (unless pushed too far, which seems to be a common thing), and as a result, Takeshi in the reboot is more socially sensitive/awkward, but his kindness and empathy is increased without a drop to his ability to lay down the law to the bad guys. Think Hiden Aruto from Kamen Rider Zero-One, or Kamiyama Touma from Kamen Rider Saber. Overall, he's sort of a foil to his original counterpart, where he's less prone to doing reckless shit but at the cost of being more socially awkward.

When it comes to romance in this fanfic, I want to focus more on different kinds of intimacy rather than just the physical. Although given that this comes from someone who never wrote a lemon scene beforehand, take my efforts with a grain of salt.

And with that, thank you all for your patience.

I will be taking about a half-month off from this fic to mentally adjust myself, work on my Gunpla, and tackle my smaller fanfic project that I still need to finish up.

See you whenever.

[Cataclysm Zone]'s Data Entry: [Dead Shore Advent]

Punching Power: 5 t

Kicking Power: 13 t

Maximum Jump Height: 16 m

Maximum Running Speed: 100 m in 4 seconds

Tokusatsu References:

- Takeshi's default armor shows up as the parts of [Abyss Rage Awakening] is plated onto the base before the visor splits open to reveal a pair of red compound eyes that are then slid over with a dragon-like crown that then transforms into a form based off Kamen Rider Chaser with some elements of PuToTyra Form from OOO.

- Kikuchiyo's [Advanced Yōjutsu: Flaming Whirlwind Art], is named after the same technique of Ninja Red, Sasuke from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.

- The Yomi Faction's trump card: the Hell Brothers Shōki (named after Sou and the Chinese deity Zhong Kui and spelled as "鍾馗", and specializes in kicks) and Shuki (named after Shun and name is spelled as "酒気," meaning "Smell of Liquor," an allusion to Shuten-dōji and specializes in punches), are based off Kamen Rider Kabuto's Hell Brothers, Kamen Rider KickHopper and PunchHopper respectively.

- Kataki recites Ninninger's Kibaoni Gengetsu's incantation that creates his Yōkai to act as the show's monster of the week when creating a Tsukumogami out of Katsushirō bear pelt cape.

- Kyûzô's [Advanced Taijutsu - Senjintō-ryu: Full-Body Blades], is named and themed after Hyakkuyappa from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, who in turn is based on an Amikiri.

- Rengokuki's short-lived super form, Jigokuki, is based off Endolf from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger and Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto from Kamen Rider Kabuto.

- Takeshi's [Dead Shore Advent]'s finisher, [Abyss Blast Fever], is now based off Kamen Rider Ryuki and Ryuga's Final Vent, with [Abyss Rage Full Throttle] being partially based off Kamen Rider Ouja's Final Vent. At the end of the fight, he quotes Kamen Rider Gotchard's "Gotcha" line after the explosion.

- Re:Live's appearance is based on Kamen Rider Geats' Kamen Rider Glare in Kamen Rider Super-1's color palette with some Kamen Rider Faiz added in, along with some elements of Kamen Rider Eternal and Kamen Rider Zein. Also the punch that carved out a Dragon skull-imprint is inspired by Kamen Rider Kiva's finisher.

- Takeshi's declaration towards Nidhogg after the arc's final fight is lifted from Tokiwa Sougo's declaration from Kamen Rider Zi-O.

OC Fancast:

- Tsukuyomi: Nobuhiko Okamoto (JPN), Y. Chang (ENG)

- Alkaid: Yutaka Aoyama (JPN), Keith Silverstein (ENG)

- Megrez: Akira Ishida (JPN), Nazeeh Tarsha (ENG)

...

Well given that I'll be gone for a while, here's a reboot-exclusive epilogue for this arc!

Enjoy!

Light flickered from the gaps that her eyes were looking towards.

"... awake... someone... a doctor!"

Her ears rung in a painfully high pitch as if they were in silence for an undetermined amount of time.

"... Where... am I?"

Taking a deep breath, Chiharu then gasps back to life, finding herself back in her room, stared down upon by the Osaki acting as her attendants.

"... You're awake!" one of the Yōkai matrons said with an elated feeling. "We were so worried that you wouldn't wake up."

Chiharu groggily looks around her room before looking out of the screen doors and catching a familiar scene.

"... I'm back," she muttered. "... I'm back home-"

Then a sudden shock overcame her consciousness before her breathing began to quicken as the memories of what'd happened before she woke up came flooding back in all at once.

Springing out of her futon and crawling towards her room's hand mirror to see if it wasn't a bad dream.

It wasn't.

"No...!" Her voice trembled as she saw her misshapen horn, her missing left eye, and her hair now being snow-white in her reflection. "... It can't be!"

She then felt her left arm with her right hand, only to feel that it wasn't there anymore as the phantom pain vanished as reality set in.

All Chiharu could do was scream hysterically as the Osaki attendants tried to calm her down upon realizing that the Oni had lost parts of herself that she couldn't get back.

"SOMEONE GET THE DOCTOR!" begged one of the attendants restraining the struggling Chiharu.

"I'm here!" Dr. Date then entered her room, seeing the Yōkai try to calm down the recently-awoken patient. "... Aw crap. Never dealt with an Oni before."

Quickly, he then jabs her limb with a syringe full of tranquilizers to calm his unruly patient down, leaving Chiharu in a state of half-dazed, half-awakened after the application.

After a few moments pass, Chiharu finds herself on her futon again, her body no longer in a state of hysterical strength as it were prior. Next to her was Dr. Date, checking in on his patient's state and to break the news as best as he could for the temperamental Oni waking up from her medically-induced coma.

"... Hello, Chiharu-san," the doctor bowed. "... I am Dr. Date from Shinjuku, and I've been monitoring your condition ever since you were brought under my care."

The wave of hysteria wasn't as strong as the last one, allowing the Oni to take in her surroundings more steadily. "... How long... How long was I out?"

"About a month," the doctor answered. "... The amount of injuries you sustained on your body belonged at a war zone in the Middle East. I couldn't save your left arm after necrosis set in, with all the ruptured blood vessels, muscle tissues torn in different places, and your bones broken everywhere. It's honestly a miracle that you're still alive."

The Oni then looked around her room, seeing that it was recently cleaned up after her outburst, with the mirror itself no longer present. "... Suguru... Kumowatari... and the others... where are they?"

Dr. Date sighs. "... I'm sorry," he spoke. "By the time I got to Hakone Shrine, you were the only one present."

Her chest begins to convulse as her breathing quickened once again.

"Now, I don't know if they're still around or not, I wasn't informed of their presence," noted the doctor. "Unfortunately, I am not privy to those details, given that, well, I'm an underground doctor and you're... well, some supernatural shit that's way above my pay grade."

"... Who sent you here then?" asked Chiharu.

"My regular, Rias Gremory-san," he explained. "Paid me extra to keep an eye out on you until you woke up."

Then the doors slid open with an Osaki kneeling before it.

"Chiharu-san," said the attendant. "... Nurarihyon-sama would like to speak to you."

Dr. Date then helps the Oni back up to her feet and dress her semi-presentably. "... Normally, I'd protest that a patient just woke up, but such a mortal like myself can't exactly impede this kind of an affair, can I?"

The Osaki sighed in apprehension. "... Help her walk towards the meeting door and back to her room," she requested. "But after the meeting, I request that you leave as soon as possible."

"Right," nodded Dr. Date as the two helped Chiharu out before taking her to her meeting with Kantō Yōkai Faction's leader.

As soon as they reached the meeting room, Dr. Date was then forced back as he watched his patient go inside on her own.

"... Good luck, kid," he remarked as he resisted the urge to smoke within hallowed ground. "... That's all I can say."

Inside, Chiharu kneeled before a shadowy figure with a gourd-like head obscured behind a veil-like curtain that only revealed his silhouette from candlelight.

"... Nurarihyon-sama," greeted the Oni, bowing her head deeper before this venerated leader of the Kantō Yōkai Faction.

"Chiharu," the silhouette addressed. "... I take it that you know why you're here?"

She tried to come up with the words to say, but came up short of speaking even a single letter of what she could say.

"... It appears that your injuries affected how you think too," he scoffed as he smoked from his kiseru pipe. "... I'll fill you in on what's happened. The Yomi Faction's gambit failed, the fiftieth Evil Dragon User has succeeded in slaying that traitor Hisaya, the magatama that this Shine was entrusted with was destroyed during the struggle, and our head Guardian Kumowatari has fallen in battle against one of the Hell Brothers, Shuki."

Chiharu's breathing rhythm turned uneven as the news of her mentor's demise was given to her.

"... What about Suguru? And the others?!" she asked pleadingly. "... Please, Nurarihyon-sama! I need to know!"

The Kantō Faction's leader sighs as he exhales a stream of smoke behind the curtain. "... Only you and Suguru returned here. The latter left Hakone Shrine a week after and never returned."

"... No," she gasped. "... But why?"

"For the same reason why I'm relieving you of your duties as a Guardian," he revealed, further shocking Chiharu. "... Takamagahara's decree states that a Yōkai who cannot be cleansed of their kegare are disqualified to serve the gods. I expect you to leave this place by tomorrow morning. Understood?"

Chiharu wanted to protest. She wanted to ask why she was to be banished. But she knew.

She knew that her recklessness that led her fellow Oni to turn into twisted mutations of themselves because Hisaya had played to her emotional vulnerabilities was the sole reason why she ended up the way she did.

With bated breath and a crumbling heart, Chiharu bows as she utters the following. "... Yes, Nurarihyon-sama."

"Dismissed." The candlelight then goes out, the screen dividing them rolling up to reveal a standing mirror meant for secret communications.

She then walks out of the meeting room and returns to her room to cry under her sheets.

There was no one left here in Hakone Shrine anymore. She was now all alone.

"... Nee-sama," she wept under her futon. "... I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry that I'm such a failure!"

The Next Morning...

Taking whatever possessions she could carry within her furoshiki cloth, Chiharu then walked out of the shrine's gates and down the stairs, looking back on Hakone Shrine's front doors for the very last time.

No one was there to see her off. For she was the one that led them to their deaths.

She'd now accepted that she was to live as a mutated freak for the rest of her life. A cripple that no rogue faction would take her.

A Stray, never to find refuge with the gods ever again.

Alone. Outcast.

The only thing she could do was find a quiet place in the wilderness and wait to die.

"... Why?" she sobbed, gradually losing the will to continue walking for what it felt like ages through the infinite wilderness. "... Why?"

Then rustling came from the bushes, revealing themselves to be a pack of Gaki dressed like feudal era bandits.

"Look it here, boys," one of them snickered while licking his tantō blade. "Finally something to vent on after our bosses ate shit!"

They moved too quickly to resist, grabbing her arm and legs before ripping all of her clothes off, leaving her naked on the dirt as they restrained her.

She was completely choked up in fear as the potbellied Yōkai then stripped themselves while taking a pill, their phallus swelling to the size of split logs that would split her groin in two if it entered.

"Papa needs some puss!" The lead Gaki then prepared to ravage Chiharu as she was pinned down by the other Gaki who outnumbered her fifteen to one.

"... Kill me," she begged as the shaft's shadow was casted over her face. "KILL ME-!"

"Persecute, [Uramasa]."

*SCHWUNG*

The lead Gaki's head slid off of his chicken-like neck, landing before Chiharu's bare groin.

"Now we strike!" a commanding voice bellowed out.

A rolling roar was then heard from above, the exiled Oni spotting a one-legged silhouette descending towards where she was.

*BOOM!*

An eruption of dirt then sends her and the Gaki flying, with Chiharu's back hitting against a tree. Upon shaking off her disorientation, she realizes that an Ippon-Datara dressed in a leather smock and a circle-visored welding mask wielding a pair of flat-nosed tongs and a sledgehammer, with a splattered Gaki underneath its steel-toed boot.

"OH FUCK! IT'S THE MONONOKE!" one of the Gaki cried out in panic. "RUN-!"

"It's too late to flee."

Then a flurry of crimson slashes zipped around the woods, decapitating the fleeing Gaki with blinding slashes.

Chiharu's savior then reveals himself by standing before her, being a male with unkempt black hair that went down his upper neck, a tattered white haori jacket draped over his black kimono with red spider lily patterns stitched onto the fabric with a pair of hakama pants with its legs wrapped up in a bundle of cloth that went to his toes over his straw waraji shoes, and held in his hand was an unsheathed katana whose back edge was rubicund and ridged like a spine made of the blood-colored gem, and with a stark white scabbard around his small obi, etched with the mantra of Fudo Myo-O reading "Homage to all the Vajras. The Great Wrathful Canda! Destroy!" on its exposed length.

"... Who are you?" the disgraced Oni asked as the stranger then took off his coat before offering it to her to reclaim her modesty.

Upon getting a closer look at him, Chiharu recognized that face and the noticeable slit around his neck that were hidden behind the prayer beads he wore.

"... Suguru?!" she exclaimed before her friend then turned back.

"We'll talk later," the revealed Nukekubi answered as he brandished his Demonic Sword towards the Gaki in disarray. "Right now, I need to slay the remnants."

As Suguru then ran towards the thick of battle, Chiharu couldn't recognize him from that shy initiate she'd befriended anymore.

Gone was the coward and meek Yōkai that the Oni had remembered before her great folly, and in his place was a brave warrior marred by evil, but showed no signs of submission as he unleashed a burst of kegare with each of his own attacks, making the damned energy his own and no one else's will.

The Gaki that had failed to flee were then reinforced with a group of Yomi-aligned Oni, to which Suguru stared down along with his Ippon-Datara companion.

"Guess these Yomi bastards don't know when to fucking quit, ain't it boss?" the masked blacksmith Yōkai said as its tongs snapped a Gaki's neck that it held between its clamps.

"All the more reason that we need to purge them," Suguru answered as his [Uramasa] glowed with dark power. "Let's make it quick."

The two Yōkai then rush through the Oni as if it were nobody's business. None of the Oni could even graze the two, their attacks were either being dodged or parried.

Chiharu watched as Suguru, the weakest and the meekest of Hakone Shrine's initiates, improved this much within a month, his current fighting style reminiscent of her late sister's.

"... Nee-sama?" She deliriously called out as Suguru and the Ippon-Datara slew the last Oni, leaving no survivors of the Yomi Faction's remnants present.

"We're done," the Nukekubi remarked as he turned around towards Chiharu. "... You okay?"

The Oni nodded without a word.

"Boss," the Ippon-Datara spoke out as it then put its satellite phone away. "Rest of the guys spotted a patrol from Chichibu heading this way. We need to bail, ASAP."

Suguru then carried Chiharu over his back before the two then fled elsewhere. "Hold on tight!"

The Nukekubi then hopped onto the Ippon-Datara's back before the latter then sprung up to the air and high into the sky before the three of them were caught up in a spatial distortion that they fell into.

At an Undisclosed Location...

Chiharu screamed as the Ippon-Datara and Suguru fell out and into a minka cottage.

"Ow..." the Oni groaned in pain before looking around. "... Where are we?"

Suguru sighs as he gets up. "... Well, you can say that this is the place where I've been ever since I left," he explained. "But in short, welcome to the main base of my own new Yōkai Faction, the Mononoke."

Wisps of floating blue flame lanterns lit up the darkness, revealing several other Yōkai and a few humans living inside the abandoned cottage.

"Before I begin," the Nukekubi said as he tried not to peek at Chiharu's bare body. "... I think we need to help you get dressed. Can someone lend her some clothes?!"

"Leave it to me!" A bikuni nun wearing an all-encompassing tengai hat over her head then stood up before taking out a small, golden ceremonial mallet from her sleeve before waving it towards Chiharu.

The suzu bells atop of the hammerhead jingled with a swing, which then caused a plain-white-beige kimono to appear around the Oni's bare body.

"There you go! All dressed up and totes pretty!" the nun spoke in a lackadaisical kogal slang. "Alright, well good luck with your lady-friend here! Me and the fam are gonna go outside and give you two some space, kay? Kay!"

All of the Yōkai then leave the room and give their leader and his friend some privacy.

"... Suguru," Chiharu spoke, her voice still trembling. "... What's going on here?"

The Nukekubi sighed before he began explaining. "... As you can already tell, I'm the founder and leader of my own breakaway faction of Stray Yōkai," he addressed. "I left Hakone Shrine after realizing that the system designed to separate the Yōkai as 'civilized' and 'Yomi' was the very reason why Hisaya-nii betrayed us in the first place. I created the Mononoke Faction to not only give the Strays a home, but to also prevent the Yomi Faction from rebuilding their ranks with said Strays. So far, I've amassed twenty to my side, and it's still growing as we speak."

Chiharu looked at him in awe. "... And you did it within a month?"

"I had help," he revealed as he lifted his sheathed [Uramasa]. "This Demonic Sword was the first thing I sought out after my resignation. I almost died on my way getting it, but a guy named Re:Live, the very same one who saved our lives back at the ambush in the bus stop, saved my life and after I told them what I was after, he supported me in looking for Strays that have yet to join Yomi's ranks."

"I see..." she remarked as she looked at herself. "... How did you manage to use kegare without falling to evil?"

"Turns out I have a gift to utilize it as well as any Yomi-aligned Yōkai," he answered. "The only difference is, I choose to use it to do good rather than spite the world for calling me evil because of it."

Chiharu bitterly chuckled as she then recalled how the Evil Dragon User was the one to defeat Hisaya and not go insane. "... So you were inspired," she pointed out. "... By him."

"He gave me the courage to face my fears," answered Suguru. "He showed me on that night that the power of evil can be used for good. I... I want to help you, Chiharu. I'm sorry that I couldn't take you with me-"

"SO WHY DIDN'T YOU?!" She then grabbed the Nukekubi by his jacket and pulled him towards her. "IF YOU KNEW THAT I'D BE BANISHED, THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE ME WITH YOU?!"

Suguru then reaches into his kimono before pulling out a folded parchment of paper wrapped in a cord. "... It's because of this," he answered as he handed the paper to Chiharu. "... Azu-nee's will."

The Oni gasps before letting him go so that she could read the paper. Undoing the cord, she then opens it up and begins reading the following.

"If you're reading this, my little Chiharu, then this means that I have died at the hands of Hisaya," it began. "It may pain you to realize this, but I knew that it would be my destiny to die at the hands of the man I loved with all my heart, yet he didn't return the same to me."

Chiharu kept reading.

"I understand how much it must hurt to know that I've kept this hidden from you all this time. I kept this hidden because I don't want to condemn all of us to heresy for what I am about to speak here," the letter continued. "I understand that Hisaya's treachery should be met with retribution, but all that will do is send you down a path that is similar to his. The road called 'revenge' leads to Yomi's influence and the relinquishing of your very soul."

A wave of unfathomable emotions flooded Chiharu's heart.

"So I pursued the path of forgiveness. The path of acceptance, in hopes of saving Hisaya from his own darkness clouding his very soul," it revealed. "But I was just one candlelight in the wind-filled hollows that was my home. Fear, rancor, and disgust barraged him as I tried to soothe him with love, compassion, and understanding. But all I've done was prolong his pain, propelling him further toward the path of darkness that he'd undertook before we first met him."

The Oni's eyes began to water slightly.

"So even if it were in vain, I ask that you forgive," the message read towards the end. "I ask that you let go of the hatred that was seeded into your heart by the man that I loved who damned me and you all with every breath. I ask that you find it in yourself to forgive him for being unable to forgive the rest of us. And above all else, I ask that you forgive yourself for failing to save me."

"... Why...?" she sobbed.

"I have failed."

"... Why...?" she choked.

Tears stained the paper as she read the last line.

"I leave the rest to you, Chiharu. Be well on the rest of your journey without me."

Chiharu then breaks down crying on the floor, crumbling the paper in distraught upon realizing how much of an utter fool she was. Suguru then wraps her in his jacket while hugging her to comfort her tortured soul.

"I'm so sorry Suguru!" she bawled. "I'm so sorry that I called you a coward!"

"No..." he sobbed. "I was a coward... but I won't let it be the end of me!"

The two exiles sobbed until their tears ran dry, letting out their wounded emotions for each other's catharsis.

Eventually, silence befalls upon them as the two were then wrapped in the same haori while cuddling next to each other.

"... The others at Hakone Shrine found this and tried to destroy it before you could wake up," revealed Suguru. "... I had to get it away from their hands as long as I could... or at least, until I can track you down."

"... You could've waited for me at the front gate, you know," she pointed out.

"No," he rebuked. "... All of us here are basically marked for death if we so much as try to enter hallowed ground... so the only way for the other Yōkai Factions to acknowledge us... is to make them."

Chiharu smiles. "... Take out the remnants of the Yomi Faction like a band of heroic ronin?"

Suguru then gets up before offering a shichishitō to Chiharu.

"... This is nee-sama's!" the Oni pointed out.

"Re:Live recovered it from Hisaya-nii after his death," he explained. "... It can't be completely purified of its impurities, but as a kegare-mutated Yōkai like yourself, you should be able to wield it without any harm befalling you."

Her hands then held up the serrated ceremonial sword, with memories of her past seeing Azusa and Hisaya being endorsed as Guardians coming back to her as better times of her innocence that made her remember why she wanted to be like Azusa in the first place.

"... I want to be the sun that shines above all those who I care for," she recalled with a warm smile, the seven-branched blade then glowing with a warm light. "... Thank you, nee-sama. I'll live well... and shine like the sun that you were!"

Suguru smiles as he then extends his hand towards the Oni who finally found herself in the dark, redeeming the former coward as he finally saved someone from their own darkness.

"... So what do you say?" he asked. "Wanna come with?"

Chiharu then takes Suguru's hand before pulling him in for a hug.

"... Thank you," she wept with joy.

As the two finally make up, an Ippon-Datara comes in as the bikuni nun tries to stop the blacksmith.

"Boss, we got a call!" they said.

"Sorry, can't stop him while you two were having a moment," apologized the nun.

"Give it here," Suguru then took the satellite phone before handing it to Chiharu. "... It's for you."

The Oni then takes the call gently. "... Hello?"

"It's me," spoke the voice behind the speaker. "Sorry if I'm putting you on short notice, but do you have free time around the first week of May? I need a Senjutsu expert like yourself for a certain Evil Dragon User."