The Kamaitachi's momentum was brought to a violent halt.
It weaved left and right, dodging the sudden onslaught of 'enemies' that had materialized on all sides.
And the assault only kept growing.
The Old Locust Tree had spread its branches and leaves wide like a folding screen, breaking the wind. The Kamaitachi's gusts were immense — but the gaps between those leaves were perfectly placed, splitting the airflow apart and robbing it of its force.
The Big Stone rolled into its path. Slow, yes — but massive enough, and inconvenient enough, that it couldn't simply be ignored.
The Water Well erupted in a torrent of spray that scattered in every direction. The water lacked the penetrating force to pierce the Kamaitachi's hide, but the dense moisture thickened the air just enough to drag against the wind.
Timber from the Abandoned Thatch Hut launched itself in a volley. The rotting wood couldn't possibly injure a Corporeal Sublimation yōkai — but the planks kept coming, one after another, relentless and tireless.
And then there was the hoe.
It had managed to stand itself upright. It couldn't even graze the Kamaitachi. But it was still trying.
And like a weathervane, it pointed — directly at the Kamaitachi's core.
"What in the world is happening?!"
The Kamaitachi's voice was choked with confusion and fury.
It was wind. It controlled wind. By all rights, anything moved by wind should have been under its dominion.
But these things…
They were resisting.
The force was feeble — nowhere near enough to harm it. But it was real. Tangible. And it was slowing it down.
Kōbe Hikaru watched the numbers flicker across the system panel.
[Old Locust Tree: Affection 15. Currently throwing everything it has into blocking the enemy. It tells you — in two hundred years, you are the first person who ever talked to it every day. It is happy.]
[Big Stone: Affection 21. Currently rolling with all its might. It says it's just a stone and can't do much — but being able to help at all is enough.]
[Water Well: Affection 18. Currently spraying. It says this is the first time it has been useful since it was dug — even if this is not exactly what it was dug for.]
Reading through those notifications, something strange stirred inside Kōbe Hikaru's chest.
This was the Affection System at work.
None of these things had reached the threshold for unlocking a talent — that required a full hundred points of Affection. But as long as Affection was high enough, they would answer his call.
It was extraordinary.
Because none of these things were yōkai. They had no consciousness. No thoughts. By most definitions, they didn't even qualify as 'alive.'
And yet —
In their own way, they were breathing.
This was a secret Kōbe Hikaru had discovered over the past several days.
All things have spirits.
It wasn't just a saying.
The energy that permeated heaven and earth moved in two directions. The murk sank and gathered into demon-qi. The pure rose and condensed into spiritual power. Ordinary stones, trees, wells — they couldn't absorb demon-qi and become yōkai. They had no self-awareness. But over the slow accumulation of days and years, they could absorb the thin, wandering traces of spiritual energy that drifted freely between heaven and earth.
Very thin.
So thin it was nearly negligible.
But it was there.
A locust tree two hundred years old had gathered two hundred years of it. A boulder that had sat in the same place for untold ages had its own quiet rhythm of breath. These things didn't move on their own. They had no will.
But when someone consistently spoke to them — consistently paid attention to them — consistently made them feel noticed —
The infinitesimal spiritual energy within them began to resonate.
And the Affection System, at its core, was precisely the act of building that resonance.
Kōbe Hikaru didn't need them to be powerful.
He only needed them —
To listen.
"GRAAAAUGH——!"
The Kamaitachi let out a furious shriek.
It opened its maw and unleashed a howling gale from deep within its throat, shearing through every branch and leaf in its path.
The Old Locust Tree's boughs flew apart.
[Old Locust Tree: It has been wounded. But it says it's all right — the roots will grow back eventually.]
Kōbe Hikaru tightened his grip on the hilt.
Enough.
They had bought him all the time he needed.
My turn now.
The stone tiles beneath his feet exploded.
[Phantom Step] — activated.
An afterimage flickered through the air and was gone.
Kōbe Hikaru materialized on the Kamaitachi's left flank.
A blind spot — the side where it had just sheared through the tree roots, its body still carried forward by its own momentum.
Muramasa carved through the air.
Black sword-qi tore across the gap and drove straight for the Kamaitachi's flank.
Clang——!
The Kamaitachi twisted aside, catching the strike with its claw. But Kōbe Hikaru's assault didn't stop.
He used the rebound force of the deflection to spin his body, and a second slash came immediately after — aimed at the Kamaitachi's throat.
The Kamaitachi wrenched itself backward.
Third strike.
Kōbe Hikaru's body twisted mid-air at a near-impossible angle, driving the blade's tip toward the Kamaitachi's eye socket.
Those hollow eye sockets — full of spinning, spiraling air. The core of its wind-control.
"You're asking to die!"
The Kamaitachi erupted in fury. Its body swelled in an instant.
From half a jō back to one jō. Then to two jō.
Growing larger meant power dispersed and speed decreased. But it also meant —
Defensive coverage expanded.
It stopped dodging. It simply took the hit head-on.
Clang!
Kōbe Hikaru's blade struck the Kamaitachi's cheek — and stopped dead. No penetration. That ashen-grey fur was harder than steel.
The Kamaitachi grinned, all fangs.
"Pathetic little trick."
Its claw swept horizontal in a wide arc.
Kōbe Hikaru had no time to dodge. The blow caught him squarely and sent him flying — a kite with a snapped string — punching straight through the outer wall of the shrine.
Brickwork shattered. Dust and rubble billowed.
"Hk—"
He dragged himself up from the debris, black blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
That one had hurt.
But his eyes were still bright.
Because he had seen it.
Through the blood-mist hanging over the battlefield, he had traced the rotation pattern of the air current spiraling inside the Kamaitachi's eye socket.
Which meant —
It's charging up something big, isn't it?
The Kamaitachi said nothing more.
It simply opened its mouth.
Wider and wider — until the gaping maw consumed nearly its entire face. Ashen-grey currents gathered in the depths of its throat, thickening, condensing, building in density by the second.
That was its killing blow.
Every last ounce of wind, compressed to its absolute limit — then released all at once. A single devastating strike capable of leveling the entire shrine.
But Kōbe Hikaru didn't retreat.
He simply raised his left hand.
"Help me one more time."
Not to the Kamaitachi.
Still — to the 'friends' still struggling on the battlefield.
The shattered roots of the Old Locust Tree shuddered again. This time it wasn't just the leaves — even the root tendrils seemed to move of their own accord, writhing upward and coiling toward the Kamaitachi's ankles.
The Big Stone rolled into its knees.
The Water Well launched its final torrent into a spreading curtain of water that rose up before Kōbe Hikaru like a veil.
The last few planks of the Abandoned Thatch Hut flung themselves toward the Kamaitachi's eyes.
And the hoe — the hoe finally made it.
It barely grazed the Kamaitachi's tail. A ghost of a tap.
But it was enough.
The Kamaitachi was disrupted.
Its attack stumbled by half a beat.
And in that half a beat — Kōbe Hikaru had already moved.
[Bloodthirst Frenzy] detonated at full force.
[Blood Change] converted every drop of blood in his body into raw propulsion.
In that single instant, his speed reached its absolute ceiling.
Fast enough that even the Kamaitachi couldn't track him.
A flash of steel.
Muramasa drove into the Kamaitachi's eye socket — straight into the heart of that spiraling air current.
"GRAAAAAUGH——!!"
The Kamaitachi let out a shriek that shook the sky.
The charged current lost all control. It detonated inside its own throat — and the force tore apart the internal organs that it had so painstakingly condensed through Corporeal Sublimation, scattering them in every direction.
Kōbe Hikaru wrenched the blade free and stepped back.
The Kamaitachi staggered. Blood poured from its eye socket in a torrent.
That eye was gone.
Not dead. But its combat capability had just been cut by at least thirty percent.
"You… you actually…"
The Kamaitachi's voice was drenched in disbelief.
It had never bothered to carefully categorize the power hierarchy of yōkai the way Kōbe Hikaru had — but it felt the absolute chasm that existed between itself and this insignificant little demon.
And yet.
This insignificant little demon had wounded it?
Seriously wounded it?
Impossible.
And yet the evidence was right in front of it.
Kōbe Hikaru stood there, Muramasa still dripping in his hand. His body was covered in wounds, black blood soaking half his robes red.
But he was standing.
And compared to a moment ago — he hadn't retreated a single step.
Quite the opposite.
He had moved forward.
They say: when fortune turns, heaven and earth lend their strength together.
In this moment, Kōbe Hikaru had not received the blessing of heaven and earth.
But he had received the support of every thing in this village.
He could still fight.
He could still move forward.
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