The rooftop was a storm of bck smoke and fshing steel.

  Watari’s heart pounded in his ears as he weaved through the dense smog, his grip tight around Takemikazuchi.

  The bde crackled with energy, its wind-charged edge slicing through the air.

  Somewhere within the swirling abyss, Yasuke moved unseen—his presence a whisper in the darkness.

  Then—A flicker.

  Watari barely had time to tilt his head before Yasuke’s bde carved through the air beside him, cutting cleanly through where his throat had been a second ago.

  Too close.

  Way too close.

  He twisted his body mid-dodge, sshing through the smoke—

  but his sword hit nothing.

  Just air.

  Just Yasuke’s battlefield.

  “Too slow.”

  Yasuke’s voice slithered through the void.

  A sharp pain.

  Watari’s stomach caved inward as a brutal knee smmed into his ribs.

  His feet lifted off the ground.

  Then—impact.

  His back smmed into the rooftop, stone and dust kicking up from the sheer force of it.

  The moment his spine hit, Yasuke was already on him.

  A foot crashed down toward his chest.

  Watari barely managed to roll, the heel of Yasuke’s boot crushing the stone where his heart had been.

  His body screamed.

  His lungs burned.

  The smog was filling his mouth, his throat—

  He was breathing Yasuke in.

  This bastard…

  Watari staggered to his feet, just in time to see Yasuke stepping forward—

  bde in motion.

  No time to block—He dodged. Barely.

  The tip of the sword sliced through his shoulder, the cut deep—flesh splitting as blood burst out.

  Watari didn’t scream.

  He had no time.

  He struck back. A wild, full-force swing—Takemikazuchi howling as it cut through the air, storm and steel roaring as one.

  The wind screamed.

  But Yasuke was gone.

  Not dodging.

  Not running.

  Becoming smoke.

  The moment the bde passed through, Yasuke rematerialized on the other side—mid-ssh.

  Watari felt the steel before he saw it.

  Pain. White-hot. Burning.

  Ripping through him.

  His side split open. The gash was deep—deeper than it should have been.

  The cut felt like it reached bone.

  Watari staggered, gasping.

  His knees almost buckled.

  His fingers nearly loosened around the hilt of his sword.

  And Yasuke was already moving again.

  This time, he wasn’t attacking.

  He was toying with him.

  ?

  He circled Watari like a phantom, his form flickering in and out of the smoke,

  only appearing long enough for his bde to carve another gash into Watari’s body.

  One after another.

  Cut. Vanish.

  Cut. Vanish.

  Cut. Vanish.

  Watari’s body was being carved apart.

  Blood poured. Dripped. Spttered.

  His breaths were ragged, his vision hazy.

  His fingers were starting to feel numb.

  Yasuke’s smirk sharpened as he walked through his own smoke, watching Watari struggle.

  “You feel it, don’t you?” Yasuke murmured.

  “That’s the difference between a warrior and an executioner.”

  He stepped forward.

  “I kill without hesitation.”

  Another ssh.

  Watari’s ribs tore open.

  Blood painted the rooftop.

  Another ssh.

  Watari’s thigh split.

  Another.

  Watari’s cheek sliced open.

  Yasuke was cutting him to pieces.

  ?

  “And you,” Yasuke whispered, finally stopping in front of him.

  He grabbed Watari’s face—fingers pressing into his jaw, tilting his head so their eyes met.

  ”…you hesitate.”

  Then—

  A knee to the stomach.

  Watari colpsed forward.

  Yasuke let him fall.

  The rooftop tilted. The world blurred.

  His limbs weren’t listening. His sword felt too heavy.

  He tried to breathe, but the smoke filled his lungs.

  Shit…

  This wasn’t a fight.

  It was an execution.

  But then—

  The air shifted.

  The clouds rumbled.

  The wind returned.

  Slowly—painfully—Watari pnted his feet.

  Forced his knees to lock.

  He straightened.

  And ughed.

  It was hoarse. Weak.

  But it was a ugh.

  Yasuke’s eyes narrowed.

  “You—”

  ?

  Watari lifted his bde.

  ”…Man, you talk a lot.”

  Yasuke’s smirk twitched.

  Then—

  He vanished.

  Watari was ready this time.

  The moment Yasuke flickered back into existence, Watari’s storm exploded.

  The wind snapped outward—pushing the smoke back.

  And there—

  He saw him.

  Watari’s body moved on instinct.

  He twisted— sshed—

  His sword caught Yasuke’s ribs.

  Blood.

  Yasuke’s blood.

  ?

  The first hit.

  The first real hit.

  For the first time in the fight—

  Yasuke had been cut.

  For the first time in the fight—

  Yasuke hesitated.

  Watari didn’t.

  He drove his knee into Yasuke’s gut—sent him stumbling backward.

  Then—

  another ssh.

  A second cut.

  Another wound.

  Yasuke’s stance wavered.

  Watari grinned, breath ragged.

  “Remember when you brought up my orphanage back then? Your fate was set as soon as you did that.”

  Yasuke wiped the blood from his lip.

  Then scowled.

  Then—

  snapped.

  The bck smoke rushed back.

  Not a battlefield.

  Not an ability.

  A weapon.

  Watari’s storm cshed against the abyss, but this time—

  Yasuke was faster.

  Too fast.

  And before Watari could react—

  Before he could even blink—

  The world tilted.

  A fsh of red.

  Pain.

  Then—

  nothing.

  A second passed.

  Then another.

  Then—

  A drop of blood.

  It hit the stone.

  Followed by another.

  Then—

  His vision went dark.

  And in the reflection of Yasuke’s bde—

  A single, severed eye.

  Yasuke exhaled, flicking the blood off his sword.

  “See?”

  His voice was almost bored.

  “I told you.”

  He stepped forward.

  “You hesitate.”

  But Watari—

  Watari was still standing.

  His breath was shaky.

  His body screamed.

  His vision—half gone.

  But he grinned.

  ”…Then I guess I don’t have time to hesitate anymore.”

  ?

  The storm roared.

  Lightning crashed.

  And in the middle of it all—

  Watari raised his sword.

  Yasuke raised his.

  One st csh.

  One st moment.

  And then—

  It ended.

  A single, clean strike.

  Silence.

  Yasuke staggered.

  His sword fell first.

  Then—

  his body.

  Blood poured.

  Drenched the stone.

  Watari stood above him, chest heaving, Takemikazuchi humming in his grip.

  Yasuke coughed—blood spitting from his lips.

  His body twitched.

  His head tilted back.

  He had lost.

  The battle was over.

  Yasuke coughed again, blood pooling beneath him.

  His breath was ragged, his body failing—

  but his gre never wavered.

  Even now, even at the end, that same contempt burned in his eyes.

  “Tch… cocky brats.”

  A smirk, weak but bitter.

  “Even after all this… you’re still screwing up Kuroda’s pns.”

  He exhaled sharply, his body trembling.

  “And he still won’t see it.”

  “He still won’t see you for what you are.”

  Watari tensed.

  ”…What I am?”

  Yasuke let out something between a chuckle and a cough,

  blood staining his teeth.

  “A mistake.”

  His fingers twitched against the ground.

  “And yet… even a mistake can ruin a masterpiece.”

  His hand shook.

  ”…Hurry, you brat.”

  His fingers twitched again.

  ”…That beast. It’s Tenzan.”

  “Kuroda… he gave him Ancient’s blood.”

  Watari’s blood ran cold.

  Yasuke exhaled.

  ”…And he’s got more. For himself.”

  “If he takes it… he’ll be invincible. A whole league above Ancient.”

  ?A final breath.

  Then—

  Stillness.

  Yasuke—the executioner—was dead.

  And Watari was still standing.

  With one eye open.

  Cut to bck.