A/N: Yo, just wanna say that some irl stuffs happened midway through writing the following two chapters, so if the quality dips that is the reason. I'm feeling better about things now tho so all's good on that front.
If there is no dip in quality and I'm just being overly critical, then yippiee!! :D
anywho;
///
"You are the challenger here."
Ibaraki regards the woman who dared proclaim such a thing in a brief moment of stillness.
Challenger, she said. Her.
In a way, it's amusing. That arrogance, that ignorance. She felt much the same when she was in Tamamo's position. Fresh off the high of breaking an impossible bottleneck; it leaves one feeling invincible. It's understandable.
But still...
"You are the challenger here."
Objectively, it's a simple fact. Without looking at any of the undertones surrounding the words, one could see them as a simple statement of what is true. Ibaraki did, after all, come here and challenge her to a fight.
However, that is not what those words mean—not what they truly mean.
Ibaraki would have laughed if the sentence didn't leave her so very angry.
"You are the challenger here."
Tamamo-no-Mae will pay for those words.
Swiftly~!
Brightened by that thought, Ibaraki's mood flips as she rapidly begins to think.
Going by the surprise attack, Tamamo clearly wanted to end the fight before it could begin, so she's in a rush to get back to whatever Ibaraki interrupted. That means that she's unlikely to give Ibaraki time to prepare.
That's fine. Humans apparently think really slowly, but it's no issue for Ibaraki to make a proper plan in a literal instant. Tamamo won't let her make any actual physical preparations, but she can't do anything to stop Ibaraki from thinking. Not right now, anyway.
So, plan.
Ibaraki momentarily considers a bait—it's a common tactic in battle simply because it works—but she quickly decides against it.
The majority of Ibaraki's power that isn't directly tied to her Osore is tied to her fire, so it's not uncommon for Ibaraki to start a fight with a showing of some other element. Ice, if she wants her opponent to be in a mindset opposite to what they need. Sometimes she uses other elements or concepts, especially anything that can be easily countered by wind.
After all, if her opponent throws a bunch of air at her then all they'd be doing is providing more fuel for her flames.
However, relying on trickery here would do her no favours. Her opponent is a Kitsune, after all.
It's funny, but if her first act in this battle were an attempt at trickery, then she might actually lose. At least, the possibility would exist due to the nature of her Osore.
Her Osore more or less forces her to commit to certain courses of action, and committing to a battle of trickery against a Kitsune would result in her Osore being more of a hinderance than anything.
By making a single poor choice right at the very beginning of this battle, Ibaraki could doom her chances of victory.
Isn't it hilarious how actions can have consequences like that?
So, no tricks. At least, not overtly and certainly not as an opening.
That said, while outright trickery may not be the right course, that doesn't mean that all forms of subtlety must be abandoned. She is far too old to still be rushing head-first into everything without a thought.
If Tamamo wants to open with a sucker punch, then she can most certainly return the favour.
Ibaraki glares at the hovering Kitsune standing in the sky ahead of her and narrows her eyes.
The only problem, she thinks, Is that that is definitely a fake.
If Ibaraki hadn't at least somewhat blocked that sucker punch, she does not doubt that Tamamo would have immediately followed up with a slew of offence. However, since she did, Tamamo chose to present this moment of grandstanding instead of an immediate follow-up that likely wouldn't have brought victory anyway.
Half of all war is psychological in the end.
But Tamamo is a Kitsune, so Ibaraki just knows that what she is looking at is an illusion, even if the hovering figure doesn't feel any different to the Kitsune in truth.
Ibaraki doesn't know exactly where Tamamo is hiding right now, and she's hesitant to force the Kitsune into the open.
Better to save cards like that for a more opportune moment.
In conclusion; keep things direct, don't get goaded into a competition of trickery and, most of all, educate this woman on the heights she has yet to achieve.
Decision made, and knowing that she has no real time to physically act before Tamamo's follow-up attacks will eventually come, Ibaraki immediately engages her Osore and defies causality.
She doesn't feel like taking this too lightly, not after Tamamo's bold words.
The world in her eyes dims as Ibaraki blurs in front of Tamamo, moving faster than either of them can perceive, her arm already drawn back to punch.
The world's colour returns right at the start of her swing as it is as far as her Osore can take her here, but Ibaraki is stronger than Tamamo, so unlike her, the Kitsune doesn't have the speed to bring her arms up to block. Instead, it is all she can manage to tilt to the side and take the blow on her shoulder instead of her jaw, eyes wide with surprise.
Before any counter attacks can be levied against her, Ibaraki immediately follows her punch up by exploding, sending impossibly hot fire lancing in every direction around her, melting through trees and mud and stone alike as the shockwave of her explosion uproots trees for hundreds of metres in every direction and sends molten earth splashing into the sky.
"Found you~!" Ibaraki spins around with maliciously gleeful eyes, bending her knees and holding out her right hand. The air cracks! as she throws herself at the invisible Tamamo and a brief flash of light leaves her oversized sword in her hand as she swings it.
Tamamo glitches into view as she is bisected across the waist, the two halves falling to the earth in a shower of gore and it is all Ibaraki can do to grin in disbelief, impressed despite herself as she feels a pressure drop on her back and the back of her head.
Ibaraki twists her head just enough to see Tamamo standing above her—on her, looking down with cold eyes and a cold smile, all the while burning blue rings of fire line her legs, pulsing up, up...
"Of course you would expect a decoy," Tamamo murmurs as the image Ibaraki killed fizzles away, "I am a Kitsune, after all."
...And down.
The impact itself isn't too bad, Ibaraki muses as she rapidly plummets to the earth and craters a dozen metres down.
The fire barely touches her, drowned out by a failing competition with her own flames. The physical impact is the part that she really feels, especially the impact on the earth.
Something that Ibaraki has learned through her many fights over the centuries is that generally speaking, a fist is harder than the environment. She's sure that there are humans weak enough that this isn't true, but that's hardly relevant for her, is it?
The point is, getting thrown through a tree or mountaintop is basically no different from getting thrown through air. Similarly, getting slammed into the earth isn't as bad as a fist. Earth craters, after all. Softens the blow.
However, for every inch of earth that gets compressed, it becomes more and more dense. A harder and harder surface.
Twelve metres down? It's not the worst, but that kind of impact is enough for her to feel it.
If only a little.
So while Tamamo's little trick doesn't really hurt anything other than her pride, it does serve one purpose.
It's... a wake-up call, so to speak.
After all, it's difficult to get in the mood to fight against someone who can't even hurt you.
So even if the pain is only a touch, it is enough.
Enough for Ibaraki to consider this battle as begun in truth.
She can feel it; within her chest.
Her heart.
Ibaraki's smile softens against the earth, becoming something genuine as she feels her heart beat faster.
Only slightly for now, but she is sure that will change soon enough.
It's been a while since she's had a good fight against anyone new.
Usually, if she wants a good fight there are maybe half a dozen people she can go to, but she's already fought them all so many times that it's just not the same anymore. Over the last two centuries, the only original fights she's had have been against Sorcerers.
A few of their Special Grades and one bastard with a Sacred Beast in his Soul.
Fighting Humans can be interesting sometimes, at least in the sense of novelty. But it's also boring. Even against that Principle Clansman, she just doesn't have to think when fighting a Human. They're all so weak that she has no need to plan anything out at all.
The Sacred Beast Hosts are only really a threat because they have a lot of tricks specifically for Yōkai. But when Ibaraki had Shuten by her side to deal with the tricks while she fights the Sorcerer, well, he wasn't that impressive in the end.
So Ibaraki really wants this to work out. She wants to have some fun. To be pushed in new and interesting ways by someone who can actually match her, even just a little bit.
It leaves her with a dilemma.
On one hand, she is worried that if she fights like she does with her usual fighting partners, Tamamo will simply die or break and her fun will end in disappointment.
On the other hand, if she goes too easy on her and half-asses this fight, then she might as well just fight a Human. There'd be no point to that.
In the end, after taking a moment to think about it, Ibaraki's conclusion is a fairly simple one.
She simply does not want to fight a Sorcerer.
I need to regain the initiative, Ibaraki thinks to herself, more committed now. It's not like she cannot fight well enough without the initiative, but she also acknowledges that her Osore makes it basically impossible for her to lose so long as she retains the initiative.
With that in mind, Ibaraki doesn't bother to get up. She simply rolls over onto her back and stares up from within her crater at the burning form of Tamamo; glowing bright blue as enormous rings of Foxfire prepare to descend upon her like a finger of Amaterasu-Ōmikami.
Looking at the sight and feeling the weight of Youki, Ibaraki hums to herself with a slight grimace that falls into a sighing pout.
This is gonna hurt a bit.
Ah well. This is hardly the place to complain about a bit of pain.
Ibaraki's pout dissolves into a small grin, her wide, hopeful eyes twinkling blue under the light of the towering pillar of flame descending upon her.
It's beautiful, Ibaraki thinks as seconds pass in small eternities, allowing her to see every detail of Tamamo's attack.
The Kitsune is putting a lot of herself into it. She can feel it, like a Curse being thrown at her.
An executioner's blow, dealt by an impatient woman who wishes to be elsewhere.
I must have interrupted something precious indeed, Ibaraki chuckles in her mind as her body lifts her free hand, the rest of her merely continuing to lie on the shattered earth.
As the fire draws ever closer, Ibaraki points an empty hand upwards, curling three fingers and cocking back her thumb like an iron sight as Tamamo's Foxfire begins to lighten her fingertip.
"This is a joke from the future," Ibaraki whispers, and in that very moment, Tamamo's flame touches the tip of her finger and her thumb snaps down and— "Bang."
In a span of time so miniscule that it would be rounded to zero, Tamamo's pillar of flame flattens against Ibaraki's finger as if some invisible barrier is in the way, forcing the pillar's momentum to crush into itself like a bus flattening against a wall.
Yet, without any time to settle or account for inertia, the flattened disk left of Tamamo's attack surges upwards at the exact speed that it once fell, crashing into Tamamo and setting the entire sky ablaze in an explosion that leaves the world cast in blue light.
The echo of noise and raging wind blows everything away in a perfect sphere, leaving not a cloud nor tree in sight and drowning out all other noise for a time as the world shudders around them.
"Hah!" Ibaraki coughs out a laugh, her entire prone form steaming and red around a lancing spiral of burnt flesh that spreads from her fingertip to cover her entire body. That attack packed more of a punch than she was expecting! "Not bad!"
Ibaraki moves.
The crater beneath her dips even further into the earth as Ibaraki throws herself at where she can feel Tamamo reeling.
As Ibaraki emerges from the remnants of flame around Tamamo, her sword mid-swing, she sees the Kitsune's eyes widen again in shock as she hastens to catch Ibaraki's blade on a shield of lunging tails.
Surprisingly, the hasty defence does manage to catch Ibaraki's blade—she suspects it to be more the fault of the rings of blue fire that coat her from head to toe and, relevantly, the rings hovering just beyond the tips of her tails that catch Ibaraki's blade like their fires are oppositely magnetic.
However, Tamamo's defence means little as Ibaraki's other hand clenches into a fist and snaps into the side of the Kitsune's face with a crack! of air and then bone and then air again as Tamamo's body winks into the earth like a falling star.
The faux-earth of this Realm shudders against Tamamo's landing, cratering so thoroughly that great mountains of earth are thrown up and into the air in shattered cubes and dust and broken bits to replaces the crumbling mountains around them that fall into that same broken land below.
Ibaraki, however, does not wait for the land to fall to ruin before chasing after her foe. She crashes into the earth by Tamamo's side not a second after the Kitsune herself did, both of them wreathed in flame, gold and blue in a contest that reduces all around them to liquid.
"What's wrong!?!" Ibaraki yells as she slams a kick into Tamamo's side before she can even finish bouncing up from hitting ground.
Another crack! echoes the impact before Tamamo blurs into the distance, crossing a kilometre in a second before Ibaraki appears ahead of her, leg raised.
"Where'd your confidence go!?!" Ibaraki's smile is all teeth as her legs snaps out to meet the flying Kitsune in a spartan kick, yet when her foot impacts Tamamo's hastily crossed arms, she can only watch as her foot phases through Tamamo's flesh despite the fact that she definitely feels the impact.
Her brief confusion is immediately answered as her foot seems to push a clone out of Tamamo's back, phasing through her true body as if by touching the clone she became unable to touch Tamamo.
Yet, like a chain dancing about within its link, the moment that the clone of Tamamo would have been pushed beyond the bound of the original's skin, it catches, getting yanked back along with Tamamo's velocity and forcing Ibaraki's foot to tear through its chest to get passed her.
"HAHA!!" Ibaraki, soaked in gore that stopped existing the moment her attention left it, twists around with a laugh to see Tamamo flipping over herself and thrusting both arms forward, sending two potent rings of blue fire backwards.
Ibaraki reacts without thought, swinging her sword up at the fire and summoning forth her own.
A great wall of gold follows her swing, drowning out Tamamo's flames in an all-consuming roar and banishing the shade of blue from the world, leaving only the golden radiance of her flame.
Ibaraki's father is Yamata-no-Orochi; with a Dragon's heart beating in her chest, a contest of flame is not something she will lose. Certainly not against a Kitsune.
A twist of will has the fire blocking her sight vanish from view a second later, just in time to see Tamamo split into over a hundred identical copies.
Ibaraki doesn't even have to think. She doesn't want to give up the momentum, so she doesn't hesitate to use one of her cards against tricks that she can't see through.
Ibaraki throws herself forward in a blur of movement, gathering her surging flames within her chest once more and preparing to unleash them at every clone at the same time. At the same time, a much thinner line of fire is painted against the edge of her blade by an incredibly fine manipulation of Youki.
It's a trick. The fire, a distraction for the actual attack, a projected slash. It is a trick that a Kitsune like Tamamo should see through with ease.
Ibaraki's eyes widen with anticipatory delight as her mouth opens and releases a gout of flame that would impress any volcano-dwelling Kami. Immediately, Ibaraki follows up with wide a swing of her sword to bisect every clone at once with the projected slash.
Her own wall of flames is parted around her cut and Ibaraki laughs as she sees half the clones duck her slash and half leap over it.
You saw trough my trick~.
Ibaraki's Osore activates and every Tamamo but one poofs out of sight.
"Shit!"
Ibaraki laughs again at Tamamo's curse, but doesn't let that slow her down as her sword makes another swing.
Tamamo is more ready this time, catching Ibaraki's blade again with her tails before catching her wrist as she goes for another punch, however Ibaraki simply abandons her blade and lets her hand snap into Tamamo's gut faster than she can react, even as doing so allows the Kitsune's tails surge forth without a force to counter them. Ibaraki ignores the tails as they merely bounce off of her flesh like water on stone.
With the fist in Tamamo's gut, Ibaraki grabs the Kitsune's clothes and flesh before twisting her torso, lifting the Kitsune over her head and throwing her at a distant mountain.
The Kitsune disappears down the horizon leaving a broken sky in her wake as Ibaraki summons her sword back into her hand and lines herself up in a piercing stance, sword tip pointed at the increasingly distant signature of Tamamo as flames gather around her with a sudden weight enough that a crater of molten stone larger than the Human's' Imperial Palace is rapidly forged beneath her feet.
Maybe this attack is a bit much, but Ibaraki isn't really worried about killing the Kitsune.
After all, the main difference between a self-actualised Ultimate-class and those that are born under the title; the quality that separates those who have earned the title from those that did not, is that the pursuit of such power teaches one how to avoid death.
Compared to those born with the title, it is nearly impossible to actually kill a self-actualised Ultimate-class being. For what God need ever learn how to survive?
And so Ibaraki thrusts her sword forward, and everything she sees is reduced to ash.
///
Tamamo-no-Mae
///
Tamamo coughs and winces as more ash and blood leaves her mouth than air, making her cough some more as it catches in her throat until at last she can breathe again.
Pushing herself more steadily to a seating position, she winces under the pain coming from every inch of her unblemished and entirely bare body. A quick glance behind her sees one of her tails dulled, as if the colour of her fur had been drained of saturation, of life.
I just died, Tamamo realises with a startling sort of clarity.
It was only half by instinct that she managed to twist illusion with reality enough to pass her death away onto an imagined fracture of her Soul. If she was just a bit slower with that...
Shaking the thought away, Tamamo feels the faintest stirring of helplessness as she observes her surroundings.
She saw what Sukuna did at the capital; later learning that his slash cut all the way to the coast twice over—a one hundred kilometre journey. She saw the chasm it left behind.
She knew that there was an elevation between an Ultimate-class and High, felt the difference for herself. But still...
Around her, where once was mountains and forests lies now only ash. With an almost casual degree of ease, Ibaraki threw an attack at least as strong as Sukuna's Black Flash. Probably a bit stronger.
It does not cut into the earth as deep, but it is certainly wider in effect and likely just as far reaching. Tamamo sits within a cavern of ash up to her knees that is wide enough that the land untouched by the fire seem distant.
Unharmed, too. Unlike earlier, where Ibaraki's every move was melting their surroundings to liquids, this attack was much more concentrated, not igniting a single thing outside of the actual attack itself. As if a God took a brush and painted a line of ink across the Realm.
Even within this cavern, nothing has been melted down. Everything touched by Ibaraki's flame was simply reduced to ash immediately, leaving a smooth surface of moderately heated stone beneath all the ash.
No matter that the sky remains aglow with the golden light of Ibaraki's fire, still burning in the sky as if the clouds themselves were kindling.
No wonder we have to fight here, Tamamo finds herself thinking. The Human Realm really wouldn't survive.
Briefly, a man's laugh and smiling eyes echo through her mind, making her smile despite herself.
Indeed, it would be best to keep their battle within this Mirror Realm.
"Oho~, not even a scratch?" Tamamo glares at the diminutive figure swaggering up to her, ash crunching beneath bare feet, sword resting casually against a shoulder. "Well! Guess I'll hav'ta try harder then!"
Tamamo's body ignites, every inch of flesh transmuting to Foxfire at once in the same instant that Ibaraki blurs in front of her, sword raised high.
"I can do that too!!" Ibaraki screams at her as her sword descends and her body becomes fully wreathed in golden flames between one moment and the next without any visible transition. It doesn't seem as total as Tamamo's own transformation, however the change still leaves Ibaraki faster.
Her sword descends the same as it already had twice over, but with the extra speed Tamamo knows her block will be off even using half her tails. However, at the last moment Ibaraki's blade halts and blurs around into a backhand rising slash instead, forcing Tamamo to block with foot instead before it can pick up too much momentum.
The blade still digs halfway up through her calf, which hurts, but better that than being bisected so Tamamo doesn't let the pain distract her, knowing better now than to focus too much on Ibaraki's weapon alone. A decision that allows her to catch a roundhouse kick on three tails and counter with a strong punch forward.
The blow lands and stops dead as if by her own choice and Tamamo has no time to ponder on why as Ibaraki regains her footing and blurs back into movement, swinging her sword without a hint of grace but with so much speed and strength that despite having nearly thrice the number of limbs to fight with, Tamamo still struggles to keep up.
Ibaraki is just too fast; her sword always seems to be in four places at once and Tamamo has no time to think, let alone retaliate. It's like she's sparring against Hagoromo again—an incredibly worrying thought considering how much stronger she has grown since then.
Two dozen strikes are traded between them before a full second even passes, not one of Tamamo's causing any damage at all. Two additional Tamamo's phase their bodies halfway out of her sides by the second second, adding their limbs to her offensive.
"You know!" Ibaraki yells at the same time, grin widening in a way that sends a sharp jolt of dread through Tamamo's chest. A feeling that is proven valid as the Oni abruptly claps her hands and Tamamo's fire disappears.
What—! is as far as she gets before an unstoppable weight impacts her chin with dizzying force, causing her mind to white out for a second, waking up with the wind howling around her in the sky.
"This is about more than seeing if you're worthy of the title!" Ibaraki yells again, appearing by her side with a fist cocked back, aglow with battle fervour as she loses herself to the moment. Tamamo tries to summon her Foxfire back into her bones and finds that the ability isn't sealed away. "This is a tradition!"
Her Foxfire helps her move fast enough to block and blunt the blow a bit, but that doesn't help much as the punch still lands and Tamamo finds herself slamming into the earth and sending up a plume of ash so quickly that the two impacts sound like one.
How—! Tamamo thinks, the feeling of her Foxfire being wiped out just then not making any sense to her. The same with her illusions earlier. However, she doesn't get any further into the thought before Ibaraki creates another crater landing by her side.
"This is a trial!" Tamamo pulls herself out of the path of Ibaraki's kick with her tails, leaving behind an afterimage that is immediately shattered, but with Ibaraki's leg still extended, Tamamo sharpens her fingers into claws and thrusts them at the Oni's neck only to miss.
Ibaraki did not dodge. Tamamo simply missed.
—Are you doing that! Tamamo finishes her thought to the sight of Ibaraki's wide grin as the Oni spins around in a blur of motion and plants a heel into Tamamo's rib, breaking it and throwing her out of the cavern of ash and straight through a distant mountain.
"A lesson!!" Ibaraki continues, her voice echoing for miles before the Yōkai appears again by Tamamo's side, grabbing a hold of her leg and throwing her at another mountain like she's some toy to be played with.
"A lesson to all fresh blood!!!" Ibaraki repeats as Tamamo flips herself in the air, transforming with the motion into her true form—a seven-tailed fox that dwarfs the surrounding forest—and begins condensing a ball of Foxfire between her jaws that she just knows will either match or surpass Ibaraki's earlier attack. "So that you'll never forget this one immutable fact!!!"
In the distance, Tamamo sees Ibaraki emerge from the still crumbling remains of the mountain she threw her through, and she doesn't hesitate; unleashing a beam of Foxfire that sparkles like gemstones, a single, solid, sapphire blue cutting through the golden sky like a comet through dawn.
Tamamo watches as Ibaraki does not try to block or move. The Oni faces the attack with wide, open arms and a wider grin as she finishes her explosive rant, the words reaching her even over the sound of her attack burning through the Realm itself.
"THAT THERE ARE LEVELS TO THIS SHIT!!!" Ibaraki screams the words and not an instant later Tamamo's attack lands and parts around her like air.
What the fuck—! Tamamo's complaint is cut off my a sharp kick to the side of her face that cracks! against the air but only sends her much larger form stumbling through some trees to the side.
Her retaliation is immediate, swiping a clawed paw through the air much faster than one would expect for something of her size.
Almost predictably at this point, her paw hits the airborne Oni and stops dead; yet the following tail somehow manages to slam Ibaraki into the land below, carving a furrow through the earth with her body.
What are the conditions! Tamamo rapidly thinks, her mind working furiously to try and figure out what the fuck is going on. Why can some attacks land and some can't? How did Ibaraki reflect her attack at the start of this? How has Ibaraki disabled her abilities twice now?
This is why the 'Reveal One's Hand' Binding Vow can be so potent. Tamamo is almost glad that Ibaraki isn't using it, because with how much of an advantage that Tamamo not knowing it is giving her, the resulting power spike would be noticeable.
At the same time however, Tamamo is starting to get really annoyed at the apparent arbitrariness of Ibaraki's abilities.
Think! What are the conditions! It can't actually be arbitrary! Not unless she's being selective about when to use her Osore.
Ibaraki explodes out of the earth before she can truly think the problem through, and Tamamo can only react fast enough because her Foxfire has spread entirely around her that it's basically functioning like an empty Domain, letting her feel everything moving around her.
It is only because of that that she can catch Ibaraki's oversized sword on one of her claws while the other tries again to bat the Oni away. At the same time, seven rings of Foxfire start to grow at the tip of each of her tails, poised like scorpions ready to strike.
Ibaraki's sword digs an inch into her claw and the Oni uses that as enough leverage to throw herself onto the limb, avoiding the second paw and allowing her to run up Tamamo's leg as if the Foxfire that is her fur doesn't burn at all.
Tamamo snaps her head down at the Oni, and when she leaps over the bite, she splits a second head out of her neck that grabs the airborne Oni around the waist with its fangs and hurls her back down into the earth.
Seven rings of Foxfire follow the Oni, detonating in an explosion that shakes the foundation of the Realm with thunderous noise, an echoing clap! following the explosion as air rushes back in to fill the vacuum she created.
And in the centre of it all, Ibaraki burns. Not enough to reach bone, and Tamamo can already see the Oni's flesh regenerating, but the point of the matter is that her attack landed.
"HAHAHA!!" Ibaraki's glee reaches her with ease at the same time that she feels a surge of power abruptly spawn within Ibaraki such that to Tamamo's senses it feels as though the Oni has become well of gravity, crushing the atmosphere with the density of her power. "NOT BAD AT ALL!!"
A premonition hits Tamamo abruptly—as if she can see the future, she feels Ibaraki swing her sword in a wide, horizontal arc. The entirety of her gathered power projected along the line of the blade, moving as fast as lightning and cutting Tamamo in half.
However, the feeling of the power swelling within the Oni... it causes within Tamamo the forming of a... suspicion.
And then like blinking the eye, Tamamo is again looking at Ibaraki in the present, her sword held across her body, moments away from swinging. Tamamo doesn't hesitate to act, knowing instinctively that she won't be able to dodge as she is—her large size making it a lot harder to avoid blows.
So at the same time that Ibaraki swings, Tamamo's large form reels back before shrinking in a flash, leaving her humanoid again in the middle of a backflip right as the projected slash passes beneath her. However, Tamamo does not avoid it entirely. Intentionally, she kept a hand extended below her, just far enough for the edges of the slash to burn through her fingers.
Tamamo's eyes widen as she feels the flesh of her fingers melt from bone—the pain not even registering as her mind hones in on something far more important.
The strength of the blow, the power behind Ibaraki's attack... It is stronger than the rings of Foxfire Tamamo sent down at her. Much stronger.
About... seven times stronger.
That's it! Tamamo exclaims in her mind, the satisfying feeling of solving a puzzle filling her for a moment. Her eyes track Ibaraki as the Oni blurs into the sky by her side, sword cocked to swing, but Tamamo no longer feels any concern about facing the Oni. She feels only victorious as she concludes her epiphany.
Your Osore is—!
///
A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
Trying out the cliffhanger tech for the first time, what do you think? :P
fr tho I've just barely gotten back to having ONE chapter in the backlog, so I just can't be double uploading to avoid cliffhangers like I usually do, no matter how much it irks me not to. sowwy