New Tricks

Kimiko swings her katana towards Temi’s head, desperate to leave no time for a counter.

And yet, a hand swiftly moves in before it can slice through the queen’s neck.

Ogun reveals himself to all parties present, as he shatters the blade while moving his hand towards Kimiko.

But Kimiko disappears once again, before his hand has the chance to reach her.

And reappears directly behind Temi, already crouched low and grabbing hold of a katana that appears directly beside her, with an oni’s hand reaching out from the shadows to pass it on.

Kimiko quickly slices through Temi; but instead of blood, the only thing coating her blade is air, as Temi jumps high to avoid the strike in the nick of time.

Kimiko kisses her teeth as she glances up towards Temi.

She’s quick.

However, just before Kimiko could attempt to make another move, Reze suddenly appears directly in front of her, and grabs her by the throat. Kimiko resists his hold to the best of her ability, punching and kicking him with all her might, but her efforts remain futile.

The oni in charge of blocking the attendees from leaving suddenly disappear from their posts, allowing plenty of people to finally escape.

Soon after, the oni reappear from the shadows all around Kimiko and Reze to protect their master.

Reze quickly turns back to protect himself from the onslaught of red demons, and as soon as his hand releases its hold from Kimiko’s neck, she disappears.

Reze’s eyes glance back towards where Kimiko had just been.

Ah…so that’s it, then.

You’re not alone.

A bit of a distance from where she had been on the stage, Temi lands safely.

But the second she does…

Kimiko appears directly in front of her once again, with her arms already in full swinging motion.

This time!...

Surely!...

Temi grits her teeth as she attempts to jump back, but understands it’s far too late for her to escape from Kimiko’s impending strike. As Kimiko appeared directly opposite to his position with Temi, Ogun quickly turns around, and desperately attempts to hold his hand out to block the katana once more.

But in the same motion, a different hand interferes, deflecting Ogun from blocking Kimiko’s strike.

Ogun slowly peers towards his right side, and sees a fellow god also desperately reaching out to help their avatar wielder.

“Izanami?!”

Finally, Kimiko’s katana strikes Temi’s neck, and follows through with its motion, finally putting an end to the queen.

Or so Kimiko thought.

Because instead of seeing Temi’s head flying in the air, she sees the head of one of the girls she had tried to persuade to leave earlier.

From the time of the girl’s head slowly flying across the air, up until it finally lands on the ground, Kimiko’s breathing stops, as she remains completely stunned by what had just transpired.

Kimiko slowly glances back towards the stage, and her mind begins to race with all kinds of emotions. Izanami’s does the same.

All around the stage are her immortal oni, now somehow lying dead on the floor. And in the middle of it all, Reze is crouched down onto his knees, clearly out of breath. Holding onto Reze’s hand stands Temi, also seemingly shocked by what had just transpired.

“Not bad…not bad at all,”

“It’s no wonder…he survived as long as he did…”

Reze lifts his head and smiles confidently towards Kimiko.

“It’s a shame, really…his selfless sacrifice will now be for nothing…”

Kimiko feels a great sense of rage building up inside her, but still none greater than the confusion she feels.

“Just what in the world are you?” she asks quietly.

As Ogun chalantly returns to Temi’s side, Izanami glances towards him, and quickly realizes something is off.

“Kimiko…we need to escape…”

“While we still can,”

Kimiko turns her head towards Izanami…

Right before Reze appears directly beside her.

“Kimiko!”

Reze’s hand swiftly moves towards Kimiko’s head, far before Izanami could ever hope to reach out and save her.

Yet, Kimiko disappears…

But doesn’t.

Kimiko remains exactly where she already is.

Proving Reze to be the one actually disappears.

“AHHHHHH!!”

Everyone in the venue, including Kimiko, turns their heads to where the scream had come from, and upon seeing the cause for commotion, Kimiko’s eyes shake with fright.

Reze stands directly beside Narada, and with the same hand he had moved towards Kimiko's head, he has now blown out Narada’s outstretched hand, instead.

Narada crouches down and cries out, while Reze grabs him by his collar and pulls him in close.

“So it was you after all, haha. You did pretty well to mask your presence to such an extent.”

“A new trick of yours?”

Narada grits his teeth, as the blood from his missing hand continues to flow out. Different from the usual Narada, he glares directly towards Reze’ soulless eyes instead of pleading for mercy.

“You don’t want to answer?” Reze asks while chuckling in amusement, “I can tell you mine, if you tell me yours,”

Narada spits in Reze’s face, prompting Reze to immediately slam Narada’s head into the ground. He repeats this action constantly, before grabbing him by the collar and smiling brightly towards his severely beaten up face.

“How about now? Come on, brother to brother,”

“...you’re not…my brother…,” Narada barely manages to reply.

“Let him go!”

Reze turns his attention back towards Kimiko.

“I’m the one that crashed your wedding! He was only trying to save me!”

“And in doing so, he became an accomplice,” Temi calmly interjects, “The wages of sin against the crown is death, so he deserves to die all the same,”

“You, shut it!” Kimiko yells as she points towards Temi, “I’ll deal with you and your god later,”

Temi smirks, “And just how are you going to do that? You can’t even best the man over there,”

Temi confident expression turns into a sinister glare.

“You think you can defeat your queen?!”

In an instant, Kimiko launches herself into the air while carrying an extremely angry look. A large surge of demonic energy balls up within her and migrates to her katana, as she aims directly for Temi down on the stage.

“YOU ARE NOT…MY QUEEN!”

Kimiko slams herself into the stage with her katana, slicing up its base with tremendous power. However, as the dust settles from her attack, Temi remains standing in front of her, without a single cut or bruise.

While Reze stands directly behind her, with his right arm already extended towards her head, and left hand holding onto Narada like a insignificant rag.

“Since you clearly miss your people so much…”

Kimiko’s eyes shake in fright.

“You should be with them.”

Reze blasts a hole into Kimiko’s head, putting an end to the entire ordeal…

“Or so you thought…” a voice calls out as it laughs.

Even with zero dark clouds in sight, lightning strikes the destroyed stage, and two sets of hands immediately come out of nowhere to parry Reze’s hand, resulting in the blast reaching the empty air rather than Kimiko’s head.

In the same motion, a fist pumps into Reze’s stomach, and sends him flying back with tremendous speed.

Temi freezes in place.

Kimiko does the same.

Narada slowly glances up, and as his eyes expand, tears begin to well up from them.

“The king…”

Oshé morphs back into its natural battle axe form, prompting a great surge of dark clouds to encompass the entirety of the early evening sky. Thunder and lightning roars across the mountainside, as Kayin grabs Oshé’s hilt and rests the axe on his shoulder, while smiling confidently.

“...he’s back!”