The rooftop was silent but for the howling wind.
Watari stood his ground, his grip firm on the hilt of the sword Ren gave him.
Across from him, Yasuke stood—
rexed.
The executioner at ease.
He rolled his wrist once, loosened his shoulders, then exhaled—
as if this were nothing more than routine.
“You don’t even realize it, do you?”
Yasuke’s voice was calm, yet something simmered beneath it.
His eyes gleamed, sharp as the bde at his hip.
“Just by being here, you’ve ruined everything.”
?
Watari tilted his head.
“Sadly… I get that a lot. Usually from guys who lose.”
Yasuke smirked, but there was no amusement in it.
“Ren should still be a puppet for the Setai.”
“Akira should still be a ghost.”
“Ryuko should still be the traitor he was raised to be.”
“Yumi—she should have been shaped into a true Musabori elite under Mori.”
He took a single step forward,
and the weight of his presence pressed down like a guillotine.
“And yet, all of that was id to ruin. Because of you!”
Watari clenched his jaw, but Yasuke wasn’t finished.
“You’re an anomaly, kid.”
“You weren’t supposed to exist.”
“And Kuroda made a mistake letting you weasel into the Musabori just so he could experiment on you.”
His gaze darkened.
“A mistake I intend to correct.”
Watari exhaled sharply.
“Seems like talking about this is getting us nowhere.”
?Yasuke moved first.
His bde fshed through the air, a sharp, decisive cut aimed at Watari’s throat.
But this time—
Watari kept up.
Steel met steel.
Cng!
The impact sent sparks skittering through the air as Watari deflected, shifting his stance—
faster than before.
The Chūkan had changed him.
He wasn’t struggling to keep up anymore—
he was fighting back.
Yasuke’s eyes narrowed as their bdes cshed again.
A precise counter.
A redirection of force.
An effortless flow of motion—
Watari was matching him.
A flicker of irritation crossed Yasuke’s face.
“Oh? You think you got stronger? This is why I hate cocky brats.”
Then, he sighed.
“Enough pying.”
He stepped back, bde lowering—
but the air around him shuddered.
Then came the smoke.
?
Thick.
Bck.
Choking.
It poured from Yasuke’s form, curling around his body like ink spilling into water—
then spreading outward in all directions.
Take Form—Enenra.
The rooftop vanished.
The world turned to smoke and shadow.
Watari’s vision blurred as the battlefield became Yasuke’s domain.
A ssh from nowhere.
Watari barely blocked in time.
Another strike—
this time from behind.
He twisted, parried—
but his arm stung where the bde bit deep.
Yasuke wasn’t just hiding in the smoke.
He was the smoke.
Watari gritted his teeth.
This wasn’t Hitomi’s mist.
Hitomi had moved like drifting fog—
elusive and untouchable.
But this?
This was suffocating.
This was overwhelming.
This was a death sentence.
A cut along his ribs.
Another along his thigh.
He couldn’t see.
He couldn’t breathe.
He couldn’t fight like this.
Watari steadied his stance.
He tightened his grip on his sword.
“Come forth—Takeminakata!”
His body flinched.
Hesitated.
The greatsword materialized in his hands.
A familiar weight.
But something was wrong.
Watari’s breath hitched.
?
The greatsword was heavy.
Too heavy.
Why—?
His swings were slower.
Sluggish.
Every move was a second behind.
It’s not the same.
He wasn’t used to this bde anymore.
Yasuke’s voice slithered through the smoke,
low and knowing.
“Slower, aren’t you?”
“You thought some training would save you? Cute.”
“But you forgot something.”
A sudden force smmed into Watari’s chest,
sending him skidding across the rooftop.
He hit the ground hard, rolling to his knees,
coughing as the smoke cwed at his lungs.
“That training made you fast. Strong.”
Yasuke stepped forward,
his form shifting in and out of the swirling bck.
“But I am the air.”
“I am the BATTLEFIELD!”
?
Watari steadied himself,
hand tightening around his bde.
His breathing was ragged,
but his mind was sharper than ever.
This wasn’t the first time he’d been drowned in a battlefield like this.
His mind fshed back.
The training hall.
Hitomi.
Shirakumo, the White Cloud.
He had been outcssed then,
just as he was now.
But—
He had cut Hitomi.
And if he could cut him—
Then this bastard was no different.
He inhaled, closing his eyes for just a moment.
Takeminakata.
A pulse.
A whisper.
The bde trembled in his grip,
heavier than it should be.
He looked down—
And his breath caught.
The greatsword.
He had called Takeminakata—
but instead of the weapon that had become his own,
he held its old form.
Massive.
Unwieldy.
Wrong.
And he just couldn’t figure out why.
His movements had been too fluid in the Chūkan.
He had resonated too well with his Reibaku.
And now, this felt like a weapon meant for someone else.
Sluggish.
Slower.
Not his own.
Yasuke didn’t let him think.
The smoke twisted—
another strike.
Watari barely lifted the greatsword in time to block.
The impact rattled his bones.
“You can’t even wield your own weapon anymore,” Yasuke scoffed.
“Pathetic.”
Watari ground his teeth, shaking off the pain.
He needed to fix this.
Now.
Takeminakata.
No response.
Not yet.
Another strike—
Watari barely deflected.
Then—
another.
A cut along his arm.
The smoke swirled, pressing in tighter.
“Your bde is only as strong as your conviction.”
The voice rumbled through him.
Takeminakata’s voice.
“If you doubt yourself, you will never wield me properly.”
Watari’s grip tightened.
“I know that—”
“But I’m not doubting myself right now.”
“I just need you to lend me your power so I can end this.”
Then—
It hit him.
The realization sunk in.
“No.”
“I don’t need you to lend me it.”
“I need you to remember who it is that possesses this weapon.”
“Now—COME FORTH!”
?
His eyes took on a menacing glow.
And then—
The wind surged.
The bck smoke churned, writhing against the storm.
Yasuke’s movements stuttered for just a fraction of a second—
And in that instant—
The greatsword dissolved.
The storm settled.
And in Watari’s hands—
Takemikazuchi, Raijin’s Fang.
Not borrowed.
Not given.
His own.
Yasuke’s gaze darkened.
“Tch, and this is why I DESPISE cocky brats!”
Watari exhaled, rolling his shoulders.
The weight was gone.
The hesitation was gone.
The lightning surged, crackling along the bde’s edge.
And then—
he vanished.
A blur through the smoke.
This time—
it was Yasuke who had to defend.
?The execution had been deyed.
But now?
Now it was round two.
Cut to bck.
