Silly author note: BREAKING NEWS: Local Man John Zenin Claims To Be Head Of Zenin Clan, Clan Members immediately agree after seeing his face.
===
The sky went dark.
One second it was a normal afternoon, sunlight filtering through trees, birds doing bird things. The next, everything had this sickly purple tint, like someone had stretched rotten fruit over the sun. The air got heavy.
Shinra watched from his tree branch, EMS active, tracking the massive cursed energy signatures now inside the barrier.
Two of them, he thought. No. Tree...
Junpei grabbed his arm. "What is that? What's happening?"
"Invasion." Shinra stood up on the branch. "Stay here. Hide. Don't move until someone you know comes for you."
"But..."
"Junpei." Shinra looked at him. EMS spinning. "I'm serious. Stay hidden."
Junpei swallowed. Nodded.
Shinra jumped down and ran.
---
At the edge of the forest, Gojo, Gakuganji, and Utahime arrived in less than ten seconds.
Utahime reached out first. Her hand passed through the black film like it was nothing, just a weird temperature change on her skin. She pulled it back, staring at her fingers.
"I can get in," she whispered. Her face was pale. "It's not blocking me at all."
Gojo stepped forward. with His usual smile. He raised his hand, fingertips barely touching the barrier.
CRACKLE, BOOM.
Black sparks erupted everywhere. Violent, angry, like the barrier itself was screaming. A high-pitched noise that made Utahime cover her ears. The feedback threw Gojo's hand back like he'd touched a live wire connected to a power plant.
Gojo stared at his hand. Then at the barrier.
His Six Eyes were working overtime, you could see it in the way his pupils contracted, the way his whole focus narrowed to a single point.
"A customized barrier," he said quietly. playfully observation. "This isn't meant to keep people out." He paused. "It's meant to keep me out. Specifically."
Gakuganji didn't waste time on shock.
The old man shrugged off his formal overcoat in one motion, revealing combat gear underneath. Wiry build, but dangerous, the kind of dangerous that came from decades of being a. He pulled his guitar from its case, polished wood gleaming, strings already vibrating with cursed energy. (A/N:bud became a Rock star real quick.)
"If they went through the trouble of locking you out, Satoru, then they intend to slaughter the children."
He struck a chord.
The ground shook. A shockwave blasted outward, clearing leaves and debris in a perfect circle around them. Without another word, Gakuganji walked into the barrier. It let him pass like he was nothing, just an old man with a guitar.
Utahime looked at Gojo. "What do we do?"
Gojo didn't worry because he knew shinra was in there.
"Well... we wait and trust them but I'll try to break the barrier."
---
Meanwhile, Inside the Forest
Megumi was mid-fight with Mechamaru when the roots came.
One second he was trading blows with the mech, mahoraga vs. machinery, neither really landing a clean hit. The next, the ground exploded.
Wooden tendrils shot up everywhere. Not aiming, just erupting. Dozens of them, each one thick as a human arm, sharp as spears.
Megumi dodged left. A root grazed his shoulder, tearing his uniform.
Mechamaru wasn't so lucky. A root caught his leg mid-stride and threw him into a tree like a ragdoll. The impact shattered branches. His mech arm sparked.
"WHAT THE HELL!"
Another root shot toward Megumi's face. He ducked, rolled, came up with a cursed blade already in his hand, pulled from his shadow mid-motion because that's just how he operated.
Then he saw it.
Hanami emerged from the treeline.
Tall, Wooden and Vegan.
Megumi didn't hesitate.
He lunged. Fast as he could move, blade aimed at the curse's center mass. Full power. Everything he had.
CLANG.
The blade bounced off.
Didn't even leave a mark. It was like hitting a mountain made of solid iron. The shock traveled up his arm and numbed his shoulder.
Hanami didn't even flinch.
They just raised one hand casually, and the ground beneath Megumi's feet turned into a forest of sharpened wooden stakes.
"RUN!" Megumi shouted, scrambling backward on pure instinct.
Panda and Kamo came skidding into the clearing from the opposite side. They'd been playing cat-and-mouse a mile away, Panda running, Kamo chasing with blood arrows, but the curtain had changed everything. They stopped dead when they saw Hanami.
Panda blinked. "Is that...?"
"Special Grade," Kamo finished, his voice tight. His hand hovered over his blood bags, but his face said he knew they wouldn't help.
"Unless that's a very tall, very angry tree-person in cosplay..." Panda shifted instantly, Gorilla Mode, muscles upon muscles (A/N: I guess it should be fur upon fur?) "Yeah. That's a Special Grade."
Hanami's voice echoed in their heads. like leaves rustling and with pure psychic pressure.
"Stop."
Everyone froze.
"You are children of the earth, yet you trample it." Hanami's mental voice was calm. Disappointed. Like a teacher scolding misbehaving students. "This forest must be reclaimed. You must be removed."
Kamo blinked. "Did it just... talk in my brain?"
"Welcome to Special Grade things," Panda muttered. "They do that."
"And it's mad about... plants?"
"Apparently."
"some of you eat plants," Hanami continued, their mental voice somehow judgmental. "some of you consume the plants and cut down trees. You are parasites."
Kamo looked at Panda. "Is it... lecturing us about diet?"
"SPECIAL GRADE CURSE IS CARNIVOROUS, APPARENTLY."
"I EAT MEAT!" Kamo shouted back, genuine offense in his voice. "I have a good diet! My family's meals include multiple food groups!"
Hanami tilted their head. "Not enough."
Roots exploded from the ground.
Not a few... hundreds. They shot up everywhere, creating walls, blocking paths, herding the group like cattle. Every direction Megumi ran, more roots appeared. Every escape route Panda checked, wooden barriers slammed down.
"We're being corralled!" Megumi yelled.
"I NOTICED!"
They ran. There was nothing else to do. The roots kept pushing them, driving them away from the forest edges, forcing them deeper into the killing zone.
They burst into a clearing near the river.
The roots stopped at the edge, forming a solid wall behind them. No going back.
Maki and Inumaki were already there.
Maki had her naginata out, eyes scanning the treeline. Inumaki stood beside her, collar down, ready to sacrifice his voice.
"Inumaki!" Megumi gasped, doubled over. "Can you..."
Inumaki stepped forward without hesitation. Locked eyes with Hanami as they emerged from the trees.
"BLAST AWAY YOU PHOTOSYNTHESIS."
The words hit Hanami like a bomb.
They flew backward, body ragdolling through the air, tumbling end over end before splashing into the river on the other side of the clearing. Water erupted fifty feet high.
Inumaki grabbed his throat. Coughed. Winced.
"salmon," he rasped.
"You're insane," Maki said. But she was already moving forward, naginata ready.
Megumi reached into his shadow. Pulled out Playful Cloud, the only weapon that mattered against Special Grades.
Maki unclipped the Dragon-Slayer's Hilt from her belt.
The moment her fingers touched it, the blade erupted. Pure white energy, vibrant and alive. It lit up the whole clearing, casting sharp shadows. like the weapon recognized what they were facing.
Panda whistled. "That's new."
"Shut up and fight."
Hanami rose from the river.
Water streamed off their wooden frame in sheets. They looked at Maki's blade, at the energy it radiated, and for the first time, something flickered in those empty eyes type branches.
Recognition.
"Dangerous," Hanami murmured. Their voice was different now. Less lecturing. More focused.
"Damn right."
Maki moved first.
She blurred across the clearing, Dragon-Slayer's Hilt singing through the air. The blade connected with Hanami's arm.
SHING.
It cut.
an inch or two. But it cut. First time anything had drawn blood... sap? (A/N: jk ). from the Special Grade. Blackish purple fluid dripped from the wound.
Hanami swung back. Massive arm, tree-trunk thick, fast as a striking snake. Maki moved around it, Flowing Water, Crushing Rock in full effect. She redirected the momentum, used it to spin, brought her blade around for another strike.
SHING. Another cut. Deeper this time.
Megumi followed.
Playful Cloud in both hands, he lunged for Hanami's exposed side. The weapon connected with a CRACK that echoed across the river. Hanami stumbled off balance for the first time.
"NOW!"
Nue descended from above. Massive shadow owl, crackling with electricity, talons extended. It slammed into Hanami's face, lightning dancing across their wooden skin. They roared ground-shaking.
Divine Dog: Totality shot in from the side, jaws clamping onto Hanami's leg. The shadow hound bit down and held, teeth sinking into wooden flesh.
Panda charged. Gorilla Mode full power, every muscle engaged. He slammed into Hanami's chest like a freight train.
For a moment, it worked.
Hanami was staggered. Surrounded. Taking hits from all sides. Sap... blood, whatever, dripped from multiple wounds. Their head swiveled, trying to track all the threats at once.
Then they raised both hands.
WOODEN SPIKES. EVERYWHERE.
The ground exploded upward. Hundreds of spikes, sharp as spears, thick as arms, shot up in every direction. No pattern. No warning. Just death from below.
Everyone scattered.
Megumi took a gash to the arm, deep, bleeding badly. Panda caught one in the shoulder, the spike punching through his Gorilla Mode like paper. He grunted, stumbled, kept moving.
Maki moved through three spikes in a row. Her blade flashed, cutting them down before they could reach her. But she was separated now. Alone on one side of the clearing.
Inumaki grabbed his throat again. "EX-"
Hanami's head snapped toward him. Roots shot out, faster this time, wrapping around his mouth, his throat, cutting off the words before he could finish.
"INUMAKI!" Maki screamed.
She charged. Blade high. Full speed.
Hanami watched her come. Waited.
At the last second, they moved.
A wooden branch shot out, not at Maki, but past her. Straight into Megumi's chest.
SPLAT.
Megumi's eyes went wide. He looked down at the branch protruding from his torso. At the blood spreading across his uniform. At the wood that had just... gone through him.
"Oh," he said quietly. Voice small. Confused. "That's... that's not good."
He collapsed.
His knees hit first. Then his face. Then nothing.
"NO!" Maki spun, but Hanami was already moving. Another branch shot toward her.
She flowed. Dodged. Barely.
But now she was alone. Panda was also down, clutching his shoulder. Inumaki was bound, roots around his face. Megumi was bleeding out on the ground, a hole in his chest that shouldn't exist.
Kamo stood frozen at the edge of the clearing, blood bags ready in shaking hands. What could he even do? His arrows would bounce off. His techniques were useless. He was a Grade 1 sorcerer in name only against something like this.
Hanami raised both hands.
Roots gathered. Dozens of them. Sharpened. Aimed.
This was it.
Then.
"BROTHER! THERE!"
Two figures burst through the tree line.
Yuji and Todo.
Yuji took one look at the scene, Megumi bleeding out, Maki fighting alone, everyone else down and his face went cold. Not scared. Just cold. The kind of cold that happened before violence.
Todo cracked his knuckles. Rolled his shoulders. Grinned.
"We made it," he said simply. "Now let's kill this tree."
[END CHAPTER 18]