Miwa's blade was fast, she'd give her that.
The cold light rose from low to high in a sweeping arc, the steel wrapped in Cursed Energy and humming as it sliced through the air, driving straight for Mahiko's chest.
Mahiko leaned back.
The edge skimmed past the tip of her nose. She dodged it without even trying.
The sword style Miwa used was called Shinkage-ryū — a combat system developed specifically for jujutsu sorcerers who lacked an innate Jujutsu Technique, with bladework at its core.
Simply put: swordsmanship plus Cursed Energy.
Miwa had trained in kendo, and trained hard. Her fundamentals were solid, her results respectable.
But that was all it amounted to.
Against your average low-grade Cursed Spirit, Miwa's level of Shinkage-ryū was more than enough. But against an opponent of Mahiko's caliber, Miwa swinging her blade was about as threatening as a child waving around a kitchen knife.
Miwa knew this, of course.
But she had no way out.
She bit down, stepped forward, and came again — a horizontal slash, a vertical cleave, then a driving thrust. She attacked with everything she had, holding nothing back against this powerful and terrifying opponent, leading immediately with the techniques she'd drilled to the highest level of mastery.
Mahiko hopped lightly aside and dodged every last one.
She stepped up onto the table beside her and looked down at Miwa from above, her smile utterly, infuriatingly relaxed.
"Your blade isn't fast enough, big sis. And it's not nearly mean enough either."
Miwa's jaw tightened. She pivoted on her heel.
That caught Mahiko off guard.
Miwa whipped her scabbard backhand and flung it straight at her.
The scabbard spun through the air toward Mahiko, no slow thing.
Mahiko tilted her head. The scabbard grazed her ear and sailed past, cracking against the wall behind her with a loud thud.
But it wasn't done.
The spinning scabbard bounced off the wall and changed direction entirely — spinning right back, driving straight for Mahiko's spine.
"Oh?"
She had that trick up her sleeve?
Mahiko felt the change in the airflow at her back. She shifted slightly to one side. The scabbard grazed past her again and clattered to the floor.
Mahiko hopped down off the table and landed.
"I need to check your membership card. Card's fine — now shine my shoes..."
Another hypnotized patron shuffled between them with a blank expression, going about their business.
Miwa's eye twitched.
"Damn it," she muttered through clenched teeth.
She could feel it. The other girl was toying with her.
Had been from the very beginning.
Watching the way Mahiko moved, the way she carried herself — this blue-haired Cursed Spirit could end her effortlessly whenever she chose. The moment her playful mood wore off, that would probably be the end of Miwa's story.
But more than the fight itself, what truly gnawed at Miwa was everyone around them.
She'd heard the rumors about this blue-haired Cursed Spirit — that despite being able to communicate with humans, she was the kind of existence that would slaughter them without hesitation. The twenty-odd mangled corpses in that factory were proof enough.
This Cursed Spirit had said she was running experiments. That these people would return to normal when it was time.
If they could return to normal, that meant there was still a chance to save them.
But the moment the experiment ended — the moment Mahiko lost interest in them — that was probably when the killing would begin.
And this was almost certainly part of Mahiko's grand design.
She'd deliberately told Miwa "these people are still alive." Deliberately let her know "they can still be saved." All to use them as leverage — to force Miwa to stay, to be mocked, to be treated like a plaything.
What a thoroughly rotten piece of work.
So what was she supposed to do now?
How could she defeat this opponent and get everyone out?
Miwa's mind raced, turning over every angle she had.
Mahiko tilted her head, as if she'd read every thought going through it.
"Since you're so eager to fight — then let's have a proper one."
Mahiko clapped her hands together, then opened her mouth and shouted across the entire hall:
"Everyone! Get into that room over there, shut the door, and go to sleep! When you wake up, you will have forgotten everything that happened here and returned to your normal selves! Now — go!"
Cursed Speech, activated.
In an instant, the whole library went quiet.
Every single person who had been rolling across the floor, climbing the bookshelves, meowing like a cat, declaring themselves some kind of milk dragon — every last one of them stopped what they were doing and filed, in perfect unison, toward the children's reading room at the back of the library and walked inside.
Clang——
The door shut.
And those words of Cursed Speech had reached Miwa's ears too.
"——!"
Miwa's pupils flared wide for a split second. Her head felt like it had been struck by a sledgehammer — a loud ringing burst through her skull and the world tilted sideways in a sudden wave of vertigo.
But the next second, she was fine.
Only now did Miwa understand how this blue-haired Cursed Spirit had made all those people act so strangely.
So it was hypnosis.
"Here's the deal," Mahiko said, repairing the blowback damage to her throat once more as she smiled and spoke. "Let's play a little game, big sis."
She held up one finger.
"If your blade can touch me — even once, just once — then I'll let you and everyone else walk out of here free."
Miwa's grip tightened on the hilt.
It suddenly struck her as odd that this Cursed Spirit already knew her name. But compared to that puzzle, the wager being offered was far more pressing.
"Touch you once and you let everyone go?" Miwa asked seriously. "Are you making this a Binding Vow?"
"Of course it's a Binding Vow." Mahiko blinked, innocent as you please. "I'm a girl of my word."
Miwa felt something shift in her chest.
A Binding Vow meant no taking it back. No loopholes.
Mahiko was clearly doing this for her own amusement. But there was no question about it — this was Miwa's chance.
She could actually survive this.
She could actually save everyone!
Miwa drew a slow, deep breath.
"Fine." She tightened her grip on the hilt. "I accept."
The moment the words left her mouth, an invisible covenant took shape between them.
And the sealing of that covenant, right here and right now, rang out like the crack of a starting pistol.
Miwa drew her blade again.
"Shinkage-ryū——"
She leaned forward, drove off her toes, and launched herself like an arrow.
The blade cleared its sheath from her hip, every drop of Cursed Energy she could wring out of herself condensed along the steel——
"Strike!"
Cold light shot straight for Mahiko.
But the next instant, the shadow beneath Mahiko's feet began to move.
Massive dark shapes surged up from the floor beneath her, a tide of black liquid spreading rapidly across the floorboards, expanding outward in every direction.
And then.
From within that darkness, countless crimson tentacles reached out.
「?!?!」
The tentacles were slick with viscous mucus, catching the light in a sickening sheen of wet, writhing and coiling as they swept toward Miwa in a wave.
Miwa wrenched her body sideways to dodge. The tentacles slammed into the floor with a wet smack, spraying slime and leaving a spreading mess of revolting damp patches across the tiles.
Miwa stumbled back two steps, unable to stop the goosebumps crawling up her entire body.
Mahiko stood at the center of the darkness, one hand raised to her lips, smiling so hard her eyes had curved into crescents. "Do your best, big sis~~ You just need to hit me once, that's all~~"
Splat—whoosh——
The tentacles extended again, twisting and coiling toward Miwa, reaching to wrap around her completely and drag her in.
Miwa stared at the wet, slippery, crimson mass of tentacles surging toward her, and every last hair on her body stood on end.
What kind of depraved attack is this?!?!
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Re:Zero: Wrath Route Yandere Emilia Watches the Projection
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