"Paverschlev!"
Enormous Spirit energy poured out from the tens ters long Demon King, like a giant roaring wave from a sea of night, attempting to completely destroy everything in its path.
"Railgun!"
Countless bolts of lightning, manipulated by the Angel, turned into terrifying energy. Like burning magma erupting from a volcano, an orange pillar of light blasted from the muzzle, splitting the night in two, eting the Demon King's strongest attack head on without dodging or hiding.
The next second, the two terrifying energies clashed, eroding and crushing each other, like two wrestlers trying to push the other out of the ring.
However, Tohka's attack soon began to gain the upper hand. The Demon King's slash swallowed the Angel's pillar of light, destroying the vegetation and the ground itself, leaving a long, deep trench.
"I won...!"
Before Tohka could finish her sentence, a short sword, using the cover of the night, silently traced a curved path and flew toward her.
Swinging Nahemah to knock away the thrown short sword, Tohkanarrowed her eyes and looked down at the ground.
In that trench, Tohka saw Ryougi Yutsuki floating above it. Although her CR-unit and Astral Dress were battered and torn, she still had all her limbs intact.
(So it didn't kill her because part of the power of the Sword of Demise was canceled out... Well, it wouldn't be fun otherwise.)
Realizing this, Tohka didn't feel disappointed. Instead, like a hunter finding a rare prey, she gripped her giant sword tightly and rushed toward Ryougi Yutsuki impatiently.
"—!"
Seeing Tohka coming at her, Yutsuki's pupils contracted slightly. She gripped her only remaining short sword tightly and moved to et her.
The tallic sound of clashing blades rang out again. However, unlike last ti, after firing that ultimate move and using her Spirit energy shield and Territory to defend, Yutsuki's Spirit energy was almost completely empty. After just three exchanges, the short sword in her hand was shattered into light dust by Nahemah's attacks.
"What a pity. If you weren't fighting in this half-baked state, maybe this battle would have been a bit more interesting."
After a slightly regretful sigh, Tohka raised Nahemah.
"I acknowledge you as an opponent. Out of respect, I will cut off your head in a way that you won't feel any pain."
Seeming to react to Tohka's words, Yutsuki slowly raised her head.
Looking into Yutsuki's amber eyes, Tohka felt a jolt in her heart. She sharply sensed that this woman had not given up yet.
"D..."
As if trying to say sothing, Yutsuki's lips parted slightly. Then, the next second, she suddenly raised her voice and roared.
"Dodge! Tohka!"
"—!?"
Perhaps shocked by Yutsuki's sudden shout, Tohka subconsciously followed her words, sidestepping her body.
—Clang!
At the exact mont Tohka finished dodging, the short sword she had knocked away earlier flew out from behind her, accurately hitting Nahemah's hilt and knocking it out of Tohka's hand.
Then, facing the disard Tohka, Yutsuki raised her right hand, and the dancing blue-white lightning appeared around her again.
Tohka saw that, at so point, a tal coin was resting on Yutsuki's thumb.
And then—
"Railgun!"
Accompanied by a powerful wind pressure strong enough to blow away a normal person, the coin turned into an orange heat ray and shot into the night sky, lting and disappearing after crossing a distance of about fifty ters.
"..."
Seeming not yet able to comprehend the current situation, Tohka widened her eyes in disbelief, her mouth open but no sound coming out.
"You brat!"
After a long mont, Tohka finally snapped back to reality. With a furious roar, she kicked Yutsuki hard in the stomach.
Instantly, Yutsuki's body flew straight out. After smashing through dozens of thick trees in a row, she crashed into the side of a mountain, leaving a hole.
"Ugh—cough, cough—"
Feeling like all her internal organs were dislocated, Yutsuki coughed painfully, bright red blood flowing from the corner of her mouth.
"Nahemah!!"
Just then, Tohka's voice rang out. Yutsuki looked up and saw the Demon King's blade slashing straight down toward her head.
Yutsuki didn't choose to dodge or defend. Rather, she didn't have the strength left to do so. As if she had finished everything she needed to do, she silently closed her eyes.
"..."
After a long ti, feeling that her body hadn't been split in two, Yutsuki slowly opened her eyes.
She saw that Nahemah's blade had stopped less than five centiters from her.
"Congratulations, you won this duel, Tohka. And then—"
Completely ignoring the pain in her body, Yutsuki looked at Tohka and said with a smile.
"I won this war."
"..."
Hearing Yutsuki's words, Tohka's expression changed several tis like a Peking opera performance. Finally, she grit her teeth and lowered Nahemah with a look of unwillingness.
"Why did you hold back at the end?"
Tohka asked in confusion.
At that last mont, Yutsuki's Railgun wasn't aid at Tohka, but intentionally missed, flying past Tohka's side.
If not for that, Tohka would definitely have been killed by Yutsuki.
"And what was that 'dodge' about? If you hadn't said anything, your short sword wouldn't have just hit my weapon, it would have injured directly."
"Well, I never planned to kill you from the start."
"What do you an?"
Under Tohka's confused gaze, Yutsuki explained with a bitter smile.
After interacting for a while, Yutsuki found that unlike Origami and Nia, who only destroyed things mindlessly after inverting, the inverted Tohka, although having a completely different personality from the Tohka Yutsuki knew, had a clear consciousness and could be communicated with.
If it were a mindless beast, the only option would be to defeat it. But since it wasn't, there was room for negotiation.
So, while helping Shido conquer Mukuro, Yutsuki was also constantly observing Tohka.
—Proud, cold, stubborn. This was Yutsuki's evaluation of Tohka.
Although she seed like soone you could reason with, she was extrely arrogant to her core. She didn't care about the words of the weak at all, and preferred solving problems with force rather than talking.
But if you tried to make her surrender by force, Tohka's competitive personality would absolutely never allow her to lose. Once a fight started, it was destined to beco a battle to the death.
And if a real fight broke out, even if Yutsuki showed no hostility and surrendered directly, Tohka would definitely kill her without hesitation.
On the other hand, even if she chose to fight, after seeing how much she hated the word "defeat", Yutsuki understood that the only defeat Tohka could accept was death. This result was obviously not what Yutsuki wanted.
Honestly, Yutsuki found this kind of stubborn person who wouldn't listen to reason the hardest to deal with. But the actions Tohka took against Shido gave Yutsuki an idea.
Winning doesn't count as victory, so she won't fight.
Killing won't satisfy her anger, so she won't kill.
Because her usual thods couldn't give her a satisfactory result, Tohka chose to accept Origami's proposal.
Then, the only way was to show that she had the possibility of "winning", and then "lose".
"A battle doesn't only end with soone living and soone dying, Tohka."
"...Tch."
After listening to Yutsuki's explanation, Tohka clicked her tongue in annoyance, but didn't argue.
Throughout the entire battle, Ryougi Yutsuki hadn't used a single tactic that could be called underhanded or tricky. She fought Tohka head-on in her area of expertise. That last move could be considered Yutsuki's only sneak attack, but with Tohka's pride, she naturally wouldn't make things difficult over that. In fact, even if she had been killed just like that, she wouldn't have made any excuses.
Just as Yutsuki guessed, the current Tohka absolutely wouldn't kill her. After all, that would only make her more frustrated.
(This woman... was she aiming for this from the very beginning?)
Looking at the outco of the one on one duel, Yutsuki was covered in bruises and injuries, while Tohka was almost completely unhard. Anyone seeing this would think Tohka won.
But in reality, both of them survived, and Tohka had lost the will to fight. For Yutsuki, her goal had been achieved.
"Answer one last question for ."
"Hm?"
Under Yutsuki's confused gaze, Tohka asked with a serious face.
"Why were you so sure I would stop? What you said were just guesses. It wouldn't be strange if I had chosen to just kill you right then. What exactly made you gamble your life so decisively?"
"What, you don't even understand sothing so simple?"
Slumping her shoulders speechlessly, Yutsuki sighed and answered as a matter of course.
"Yatogami Tohka—you are my family. So, I chose to trust you."
"...Pfft—hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
Hearing Yutsuki's answer, Tohka first showed a look of surprise, then, as if her funny bone had been struck, she held her stomach and burst out laughing.
"Hey! What's so funny about that!?"
Seeing Tohka laughing so hard she even had tears in her eyes, Yutsuki suddenly felt like she had said sothing stupid, her cheeks burning with embarrassnt.
"Hahaha—I can't! This is hilarious! I didn't think there was another idiot like that guy."
After a long ti, Tohka finally recovered from her laughter. Wiping away the tears from laughing, she said with a serious face.
"Ryougi Yutsuki, let correct a misunderstanding of yours first. I am not Yatogami Tohka, and I am not your family."
"Oh..."
"However—I really like this foolishness of yours! Since you let have so fun this ti, I will overlook the matter with that key Spirit and that guy Itsuka Shido."
Saying that, Tohka grabbed Yutsuki's arm and pulled her out of the dirt pit.
"Ow, ow, ow—gentle, gentle!"
It would have been better if she hadn't pulled. With Tohka's pull, the intense pain from all over her body almost made Yutsuki stop breathing.
"Hey... you asked so many questions. Can I ask you a question too?"
"What?"
"Back in Tengu Tower, were you really planning to forcefully kiss Shido?"
"How could I."
Tohka denied it firmly.
"I was just scaring that guy a little. Doing that wouldn't make that man's heart surrender, and it would also an I was afraid to fight the key Spirit head-on. aningless."
"...I really wish you had made that clear from the start."
Hearing Tohka's words, Yutsuki couldn't help but lower her head in exhaustion.
"No need, too troubleso."
"If you didn't mind that bit of trouble back then, you wouldn't have so much trouble now."
"..."
Looking at Tohka who lowered her head deep in thought, black lines covered Yutsuki's forehead.
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