Miguel stood with the Black Rope looped around one arm, the rest of it hanging loose like a living thing. His stance looked lazy.
Across from him, Oden adjusted the white cloth bundle resting against his shoulder.
Then, in one smooth motion, he let it fall away.
Two katana slid into his hands.
Plain blades.
No special craftsmanship beyond how well they had been forged.
Just steel.
Steel that Oden flooded with cursed energy until both swords hummed faintly in the morning air.
Miguel grinned.
"There we go," he said. "Now you look like you're taking this seriously."
Oden leveled one blade low and kept the other angled near his shoulder.
"I always take it seriously."
Miguel snorted.
"No. You always say that."
Then he vanished.
Oden moved instantly.
The Black Rope cracked through the air from his blind side like a whip.
Oden twisted, one katana snapping up to intercept. Rope met steel, and the cursed energy coating the blade shuddered violently.
The disruption ran straight up his arm.
Oden's eyes narrowed.
Annoying.
Miguel's foot came next.
Oden dropped his center of gravity and took the strike on the flat of his second blade, angling the impact away instead of blocking it cleanly. Dirt exploded beneath him as he slid back.
Miguel did not let up.
The rope lashed again.
Oden ducked.
Again.
He stepped inside the third swing and drove the flat of his sword toward Miguel's ribs.
Miguel bent just enough to let it skim past, then hammered his elbow toward Oden's jaw.
Oden met it with the hilt of his other blade.
A sharp crack sounded between them.
Then both sprang apart.
Miguel rolled his shoulder once.
Oden reset his footing.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Miguel smiled wider.
"Good."
Oden said nothing.
But his shadow rippled.
Miguel's grin sharpened.
"There it is."
Three snakes burst from Oden's shadow at ankle level, darting through the grass with wicked speed. At the same time, Oden himself rushed in from the front, blades flashing.
Miguel clicked his tongue.
"One from above, one from below. You're getting smarter."
The Black Rope spun.
It struck one snake, disrupting it on contact.
The second he crushed under his heel.
The third reached him—
only for Miguel to pivot, catch Oden's descending blade on the rope's coil, and yank hard.
Oden let go with one hand immediately.
He stepped into the pull, rotated through Miguel's defense, and smashed the pommel of his free katana toward Miguel's throat.
Miguel's eyes widened slightly.
He jerked back just in time.
The pommel clipped his chin.
Oden pressed.
Two blades moved around Miguel in intersecting arcs, one herding, one punishing. Oden never chased empty space. Every miss forced Miguel somewhere worse. Every angle closed another option.
Miguel deflected one strike with the rope and slipped around another.
Then Oden's left blade swept low.
Miguel hopped it.
That was what Oden wanted.
A rabbit exploded from his shadow like a white blur.
Miguel's eyes snapped down.
"Cheap."
The Rabbit slammed into his midsection with horrifying speed and launched him backward. Miguel hit the ground on one hand, rolled, and came up with the rope already moving.
A pulse ran through it.
The Black Rope shivered with Miguel's cursed technique, its disruptive force spreading wider this time.
It clipped the Rabbit as it circled back in.
The shikigami flickered and vanished.
Oden was already there.
His right blade came down in a brutal overhead strike.
Miguel caught it with both forearms wrapped in cursed energy, teeth gritted. The impact drove him half a step into the ground.
The second sword came from the side.
Miguel bent backward so far it looked impossible, the flat passing a hair above his chest.
Then he snapped the rope around Oden's wrist.
"Got you."
Miguel yanked.
A normal fighter would have lost balance.
Oden's eyes stayed flat.
His shadow surged.
Tiger emerged behind Miguel in total silence.
Miguel sensed it a fraction too late.
Claws ripped across his shoulder.
Miguel landed several meters away and touched the blood staining his shirt.
Then he laughed.
"You marked me? Really?"
Tiger's eyes gleamed from behind Oden.
Oden rolled his wrist once, resetting his grip.
"You said to stop fighting like a beginner."
The clearing changed.
Miguel felt it immediately.
The pressure.
Tiger had his scent now.
His cursed energy signature.
The hunt had begun.
False Tigers appeared among the trees.
One to the left.
One behind.
Another crouched in the grass.
Miguel exhaled.
"Psychological warfare. Very nice."
Then a gust tore through the clearing.
Dragon.
Wind pressure slammed down from above as a colossal shape coiled into existence overhead, its body twisting through the sky like a storm given life. The air thickened, currents shifting violently, dust and leaves spiraling upward.
Miguel's expression sharpened.
Now this was dangerous.
Oden moved with it beautifully.
That was the difference now.
Years ago he summoned power like someone accidentally setting loose wild animals.
Now his shikigami worked around him like extensions of thought.
Tiger distorted the battlefield.
Dragon controlled the air.
Oden entered through the one line of movement Miguel had left for himself.
Miguel blocked the first blade.
Avoided the second.
Stepped around a lunging false Tiger.
Then cursed under his breath as the real one came from the opposite side.
He cracked the Black Rope against the ground.
The cursed technique woven through it disrupted the nearest manifestations and created a gap.
Oden filled it immediately.
Steel rang.
Flat met forearm.
Pommel struck ribs.
Miguel countered with a knee to the stomach.
Oden absorbed it with cursed energy reinforcement and answered with a rotating double strike that forced Miguel back three full steps.
Miguel breathed out hard.
Yeah.
The boy was stronger now.
Physically? Not by much.
But overall?
Absolutely.
More cursed energy.
Better output.
Better shikigami coordination.
Sharper instincts.
And his battle IQ—
That was the really irritating part.
Oden fought like someone who never forgot a lesson once it was beaten into him.
Miguel's mouth twitched.
'My greatest mistake.'
The Black Rope whipped outward again, but this time Oden did not meet it.
He retreated.
A tiny movement.
Yet deliberate.
Miguel noticed too late why.
Ox manifested behind Oden in a wash of spiritual heat.
Flames rolled low across the clearing—not exploding wildly, but advancing with crushing presence. They devoured space. Pressured movement. Denied angles.
Miguel clicked his tongue and leapt sideways.
Dragon's turbulence caught him midair.
Tiger's illusions crowded his landing.
And Oden—
Oden was already waiting there.
One blade at the neck.
The other at the ribs.
Both stopped a finger's breadth away.
Miguel froze.
For one suspended second, only wind and flame moved.
Then Oden lowered the swords.
Miguel stared at him.
Then barked out a laugh.
"Okay," he said. "That was good."
Oden said nothing, but his chest rose and fell a little faster now.
The shikigami faded one by one.
Dragon dissolved into the sky.
Tiger into shadow.
Ox into embers.
Miguel straightened, rubbing at his neck where the blade had nearly landed.
"You're definitely stronger than me now."
Oden blinked.
That admission clearly wasn't what he expected.
Miguel smirked.
"Don't look so proud. I said stronger, not better."
Oden's face went flat again.
"As always, you ruin the moment."
"As always, you're too stiff."
Miguel rolled the Black Rope back around his arm.
"You still telegraph your rhythm when you think you've won. And your second blade drifts half an inch too far inward when you switch from pressure to feint. Someone with better eyes than me would kill you for that."
Oden frowned.
"…Half an inch?"
"Yes."
"That's irritating."
"It should be."
Miguel reached into his pocket just as his phone began to ring.
The sound cut cleanly through the clearing.
He glanced at the screen casually—
Then paused.
Oden noticed immediately.
"What is it?"
Miguel did not answer right away.
His eyes stayed on the caller ID.
The smirk left his face.
When he finally spoke, his voice had changed.
"…Well."
Oden adjusted his grip on the wrapped swords.
"Who is it?"
Miguel lifted the phone slightly, still staring at the screen.
On it was a name Oden had never seen before.
Suguru Geto.
---
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