The "life flashing before one's eyes" that experience people at the brink of death is essentially a desperate struggle to find a glimmer of survival from past memories and experiences.
Whether this theory is true or false aside, that sensory experience—where everything in one's field of vision is stretched and slowed down like time-lapse photography—is hardly a novel experience for someone immersed in the realm of divine speed.
That was only natural. Without that level of sensory perception, one couldn't possibly adapt to such speed, let alone fight at that velocity.
Yet even within that perception, Hii Kao's sword strike remained astonishingly swift.
Compared to himself—who emphasized enhanced power and self-healing cycles—in pure speed, Hii Kao, in his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, held the advantage.
"Ha!"
Having already deeply realized this, Hii Kōri suddenly pressed his palms together and let out a sharp cry. Deflection, interference, deceleration, distortion, stagnation, protection, counterattack... Over a dozen barriers, shimmering in different colors with varying structures and functions, materialized out of thin air in an instant, forming an intricate and complex layered wall before him, hoping thereby to impede Hii Kao's blade.
Yet—"Shrrrk!"
The sound, like a hot knife cutting through butter, was particularly harsh.
The instant that pitch-black Kusanagi touched the first barrier, a streak of faint blue light flashed along its edge. Then, the exquisitely layered barrier, before it could play any role, shattered like a popped bubble.
The second layer, the third... all barriers were effortlessly sliced apart by the Kusanagi as if they were nothing, not even slowing Hii Kao's speed by a hair.
Rather than being "broken" or "destroyed," the state of those barriers is more like purely "severed."
Hii Kōri's pupils slightly contracted. A sense of foreboding already rose in his heart.
"Exactly. This Kusanagi's ability is to sever 'boundaries.'"
Seeming to read Hii Kōri's momentary shock, Hii Kao, charging forward with furious speed, spat out these slightly distorted words through the violent lightning: "Teacher Orochimaru spent quite some time helping me find this thing."
"Though I can't freely unleash its full power, it's enough to counter your specialty—barriers!"
Swordsmanship, Lightning Release, and a divine tool that can fully utilize these techniques while countering part of his abilities... Truly targeted, well-prepared!
Hii Kao's explanation made Hii Kōri's hanging heart finally drop—he nearly lost his breath mid-Shunshin.
With a bang, Hii Kōri clasped his fists together, ignoring the wild lightning wrapped around the Kusanagi, and forcibly pinned that sword strike between him fists.
"Ha! You're quite a filial son!"
His face showed no anger or gravity—only helpless absurdity and amusement.
Hearing his complaints, the corners of Hii Kao's mouth unconsciously curled into a relaxed smile. The gloom that had long suppressed his heart, as if making even his breath heavy shackles, seemed to completely evaporate in this instant, bringing him a sense of liberation unprecedented ease.
As if influenced by this lighthearted mood, the gloomy canopy above the snowfield seemed to gradually fade.
Riding this sudden burst of emotion, Hii Kao—having inherited the monstrous strength from his mother's bloodline—suddenly burst, spun, withdrawing his blade from between Hii Kōri's fists, and sliced open one of his palms.
"Eight clouds rise, in the clear land of Izumo, an eightfold fence I wish to build to enclose my wife, thus I build the eightfold fence of Izumo, that eightfold fence of Izumo..."
The chant from the Kojiki recited from Hii Kao's lips. The lightning dissipated. Vast energy, originating from the same source as cursed energy but clearly more positive, infused into the Kusanagi in his hand along with chakra.
"Eight Clouds—"
The pitch-black blade, raised overhead, instantly blazed with blazing green light, as if infinitely extending to the heavens, blending indistinguishably with the clear sky revealed behind the parted thick clouds.
"—Severing Sword!"
The clear blade light traced a perfect arc, seeming to become myriad yet condensed as one. In that instant, as if everything between heaven and earth was filled by this sword, exhausted to infinity, across the void. Even this world itself trembled violently from the endlessly echoing sword intent.
Then, the sound itself seemed to be "severed" and lost.
Although... this move is also something I learned from you...
The blade light, enough to shake the imitation domain's spatial structure, engulfed Hii Kōri's figure. Witnessing this scene, Hii Kao unconsciously marveled inwardly.
Even in this moment of full confrontation, he couldn't completely sever the inheritance of technique between himself and his father.
Tsunade's existence had filled the first half of his life, and in the days to come, he would inevitably accompany Hii Kōri.
As the child of these two irreconcilable people, he could never completely break away from that bond—until this moment, Hii Kao had never felt this so clearly.
"Heh, not bad."
Moments later, from within that surging blade light—which could almost be called a sure-kill—came this mocking laugh.
Layer upon layer of intricate barriers rapidly expanded from the point where Hii Kōri stood, like inflating balloons. One layer shattered, and the next instantly filled the vacancy, further expanding outward.
The clear blade light was thus scattered, like falling night cherry blossoms.
"Your verbal induction was decent... but you still underestimated your father a bit, Kao."
The redundant structure constructed from over a hundred barriers rapidly collapsed. Hii Kōri's figure slowly descended to the ground.
The blue aura around him had already extinguished. His complexion was somewhat pale. He leaned on his knees, gasping heavily.
Clearly, instantly deploying over a hundred high-level barrier techniques was no small burden for him. But compared to the consumption of enduring that seemingly endless blade light with Reverse Cursed Technique, this was nothing.
"You can't yet freely wield that Kusanagi's ability. Setting aside 'severing boundaries,' even to cut through my barriers, you need actual physical contact."
Considering the effect of Hii Kao's charging thrust and his subsequent words, anyone would think "I can't block this blade light with barriers." But with Hii Kōri's keen perception, how could he misjudge the feedback from his barriers?
Facing this strike, he couldn't dodge in time. His optional defensive means were either barrier techniques or relying on Reverse Cursed Technique combined with the Seven Essence Release Gates' physical enhancement to endure.
Though he couldn't dodge, he also guessed Hii Kao intended to force him to endure this technique's sustained damage with Reverse Cursed Technique.
Hii Kōri looked up at Hii Kao, who still stood midair, sword in hand, motionless as a mountain. Those light gray eyes narrowed slightly, curving into a playful smile: "After using that strike, you'll need a while to recover too, right?"
Hii Kao's overt and covert inducement for he to abandon the former approach was likely intended to heavily consume his stamina with this technique while buying time to recover from his own "stun" period.
***
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