Kenzo’s Reibaku trembled, blood running down his wrists. Still, he ughed.

  “So this is what it means to be a captain, huh?”

  His voice cracked from the pressure, but his grin never faded.

  Koharu’s bde hovered beside her, petals swirling like a storm restrained by elegance.

  “You talk too much.”

  She vanished.

  Kenzo barely brought his arms up in time—

  SLASH.

  A flower-shaped gash tore across his chest.

  Koharu appeared above him—mid-air, hand raised.

  “Bloom.”

  Dozens of spectral bdes bloomed around her.

  They rained.

  Kenzo roared, his body fring.

  “COME FORTH!”

  His Reibaku fred with jagged bronze lines as bck gauntlets formed over his fists—covered in kanji glyphs.

  “Ryōte!”

  He punched upward—every hit detonating mid-air, dispersing the spectral bdes with sonic bursts.

  Koharu nded in front of him.

  They cshed—strike for strike.

  Grace against aggression.

  Petals flew. Dust kicked up.

  Kenzo went to swing again—

  SLASH.

  A cut opened across his shoulder.

  Another across his hip.

  Koharu exhaled, eyes narrowed.

  “Your body’s too slow for your ambition.”

  Kenzo dropped to a knee—barely conscious.

  “Tch… Don’t forget you’re not just fighting me this time.”

  Koharu turned—just in time to block a bde coated in eerie, resonant bck fme.

  The Shingan’s Reibaku had changed.

  The weapon was now jagged, curved upward like a predator’s fang. The hilt glowed with a red core.

  This was his form. This was Tsuyome.

  His bde sang with a corrupted hum—like a cry echoing through metal.

  Their bdes locked.

  Koharu’s feet skidded across the stone.

  The Shingan pressed in—each swing heavier than the st.

  She ducked one. Parried the second.

  Blocked the third—barely.

  Her petals wrapped around her arm and shoulder, cushioning the force.

  But her foot cracked the ground beneath her.

  The Shingan’s eyes glowed faintly.

  “Even with the Spring Wind… you can’t cut what doesn’t resist.”

  She responded by sshing upward.

  “Then I’ll slice through everything until there’s nothing left.”

  They cshed once more.

  The Chūkan rumbled.