Kagetsuna was breathing heavily, his glistening skin returned to normal from its previous pinkish hue as he leaned his body against Kira. The unfortunate truth was that he wasn’t in any condition to fight further. He’d pushed his use of Overdrive to his absolute limit. The fact that he was still standing was a testament to his strength of will.

Kira couldn’t be considered any better off. It was only due to the flexibility of her young body that her arms and legs didn’t break under the excessive pressure she endured earlier. That said, if she kept exerting herself, the chance that the bones would break would quickly approach 100%.

Not just her physical body, both ‘Wind Rending’ and ‘Rejection’ were high-level Basic Skills which meant that they were fairly draining on her Twin Energies, not to mention the mental strength she used to execute them correctly.

What we also can’t forget was that she was ambushed on while returning from training her Weapon Skills so she was already somewhat exhausted and her energy was largely depleted.

Overall, Kira was in a much worse condition than Kagetsuna and now they were thrown into this even more perilous situation.

“HeeHee. So, what is it going to be? Live, or die?”

“How about this, if we prove our strength to you now, you let us go. No strings attached.”

“This little missy thinks she can make demands. You clearly don’t understand the situation. I’m the one in control here. I could kill you right now. No, not even me, a stiff breeze and whoops, both you and that boy would fall down. Amirite? HeeHee.”

Kira knew that she needed to stall for time. The sounds of weapons clashing was sure to attract some attention but, if this guy’s cultivation was in the realm of Soul Spirits, most of the clan wouldn’t be of much help. She wasn’t even certain if she could buy any time but, with her personality, it never crossed her mind to give up. Although, if no one came then…it was best not to think about that.

“Fine, oh great and powerful one, may I have one request then?”

“Sarcasm is so cute coming from you. Fine, you can speak. HeeHee.”

“If I survive against you in a one-against-one for the duration of a stick of incense[1], will you let my brother go?”

“Kira…what are you…”

“HeeHee. You really are an interesting girl. But what’s in it for me?”

“Regardless if I win or lose, I’ll return with you to your sect.”

“Kira, you can’t!”

“Deal! Ooooh the blood is rushing to my head. Let’s have some fun. HeeHee.”

Naturally, with his power, the purple-robed man had no intention of keeping his promise. While Kagetsuna was talented, Kira had piqued his interest and he wanted to test her a little. With an almost imperceptible flick of his wrist, the purple-robed man shot a stick of incense into a bamboo stalk, a strange purple energy flickering around it.

“Ready?”

“Of course.”

That strange purple energy sparked, lighting the incense stick.

However, the Kira before him wasn’t the same girl from a few moments ago.

Since the purple-robed man appeared and killed Yamato, from his manner and words, Kira knew that, even if she and Kagetsuna were spared for whatever reason, they wouldn’t be free to leave and this forced her to consider their options.

‘There’s no way we can run away in this state and fighting him would be suicide. I could try to stall for time, but for just how long is uncertain…’

An idea crept into Kira’s head but she hastily swatted it away. However, as she failed to think up more ideas, that one that she was avoiding grew larger and larger in her mind, filling every crevice until she couldn’t ignore it any longer.

‘Is this the only way we have a chance?...’

Kira thought as that darkness in her heart flickered gleefully, the cold chill of fear creeping into her body once more.

‘Argh, dammit! If I’m going to die anyway, might as well be by my own hand. At least I can buy time for Kage to escape.’

Backed into this situation where death was the only real option to her, as she had no intention of leaving with that purple-robed man alive, she threw caution to the wind and began drawing together her Twin Energies.

A blood-red thread of Life Energy repeatedly threaded itself through the tiniest droplet of Soul Energy that she could scrounge out from her mostly-dull, marble-like blue Core that was practically exhausted of energy. Under her rapidly failing remaining mental strength, she forced these two contrasting energies to merge completely into that golden form that was stronger and purer than either of the energies it was made from, Quintessence.

Everything Kira had said about testing her strength was to buy time as she, remembering what her mother had told her and drawing from her one prior experience, slowly and painfully coated her Soul Paths and internal organs with that pristine golden light.

Despite things being slightly easier than the last time and without any explosive mishaps, it still took all of her will not to betray her internal actions as that intense pain, that felt like she was coating her insides with liquid fire, threatened to leak through her calm expression while the Quintessence cycled through her body.

Her patience and control were rewarded as that feeling of power, one which she hadn’t been conscious enough to notice the previous time, filled her body and her glowing Soul Paths actively drew in energy around her and refined it to such an astonishing degree that a single drop of Soul Energy was equivalent to ten times the amount.

Like this, she could fight.

š“Burning…Soul!”

Kira muttered as a surge of energy blasted out from her. On the surface of her skin, you could see a fine white mist of natural energy that was being hastily dragged into her system before being refined at an astonishing speed. At the same time, her skin let off a gentle, rippling golden glow, similar to a metal Buddha, due to the energy coating Soul Paths as well as that special, pure, golden Soul Energy rapidly flowing through them.

Her usually dark pupils gleamed as they changed colour, having the appearance of twin pools of molten gold. When seen in the centre of her bright viridian irises, they looked just like striking green lotuses enclosing the most precious golden nectar.

Although she was only seven years old, in this kind of state she exuded a noble aura of power that was comparable to that of a princess of an upper class sect.

“Well that was unexpected. Who knew that someone of that clan would be here of all places? Looks like I’ve hit the jackpot. HeeHee.”

Kira raised her sword horizontally above her head imposingly, tip forward and edge facing the sky, before kicking off the ground towards the purple-robed man. When she was less than two meters away she stabbed forward as a wind rose around her.

“Phantom Pierce.”

A semi-transparent illusory blade stabbed forwards as Kira did towards the purple figure who raised his strange wavy dagger to block. To his surprise, the ghostly image passed harmlessly through his guard without the slightest effect.

“HeeHee, what a useless-”

Sch!

Just to the left of his blade a vertical stab wound appeared, leaking blood. Kira didn’t stop there, however. Sheathing her sword in the instant he dropped his guard, Kira flashed to the side of the figure.

Even with his advanced level of Soul Sense, the purple-robed man suddenly found that he lost track of Kira’s position as her presence dropped dramatically despite the void of energy caused from absorbing all the energy in her vicinity. As he was trying to lock on to her, he discovered the stab wound leaking blood on his chest, the pain only registering now.

“W-”

Kira, not failing to notice this opening, struck again. The whistling of a blade cutting through the air being the only warning, Kira severed the man’s weapon arm with a rising cut. Not wasting a breath, she brought her sword down to her hip, the wind currents rising around her blowing her hair off her face.

“Wind Rending.”

The man had lost the arm on the side she was on and couldn’t avoid her Skill at this range. Kira slashed with all her might.

But then, the unthinkable happened.

“Psych! HeeHee.”

The purple-robed man’s face under the hood changed in an instant as he moved with a speed that Kira hadn’t thought possible. With his remaining hand, he grabbed the severed hand which was still holding that strange wavy blade out of the air and, in the blink of an eye, brought it before him to block.

Not only that, he leaned to the side as he parried Kira’s blade upwards, avoiding her attack and redirecting that razor-sharp blade of energy from her Skill. Behind him, stalks of severed bamboo fell to the ground noisily. Having seen the way Kira disarmed Yamato, he withdrew his contact immediately and his body flickered as he backed away several meters.

“HeeHee. I’m actually left-handed. That other one was just a handicap to stop things being too easy.”

The man pried the wavy blade from the grasp of his severed hand and tossed it up and down casually as, before Kira’s eyes, she saw red threads of energy dancing around the man’s stump of an arm as well as his chest. Within a matter of seconds, the incision on his torso had disappeared and the bleeding on his stump had been staunched. Kira knew what this was. Only those at the peak of the Skin Tempering rank and above in Life Energy cultivation could use this technique.

“Accel Heal…”

While not a miracle ability, by expending Life Energy, you can accelerate the movement of platelets and clotting elements in the bloodstream to the places where it’s needed, resulting in a greatly accelerated physical recovery rate, hence the name Accel Heal.

The stronger your stimulation of the ability, the faster the healing and the greater the Life Energy cost. The places which it can be used on the body is limited to your current Life Energy rank. Those only at Skin Tempering could, at most, seal up any and all surface wounds, but wounds any deeper than that, such as to muscles or organs, were beyond them.

So far, only a third of the stick of incense had burned up.

“That was a nice warmup. Got any other tricks to show me? HeeHee.”

Gritting her teeth against the pain of maintaining Burning Soul and her body’s constant protests, Kira moved forward by pushing hard off the ground.

After initially using Burning Soul, she knew that that golden Quintessence that let her break her Soul Energy limits had to be reapplied all at once throughout her body or constantly reapplied where it was needed in the middle of a fight for her to keep its effects before they faded away.

Apart from being a constant drain on her already fading Life Energy, to form more Quintessence, her mental strength was also reaching its limits from focusing on this as well as continually using Weapon Skills.

However, her body had had enough. That forced movement which propelled her forward also broke both her legs with an audible:

SNAP!

“Ugh…Haaaa!”

With a yell to focus her thoughts, Kira ignored the pain as she slashed downwards when she reached the purple figure. This time, however, the man simply sidestepped.

“Come on now. No more tricks up your sleeve?”

“Not even close.”

Landing on her legs, it took all of Kira’s will not to fall over even as bile rose in her throat and tears of pain streamed down from her gold-and-green eyes.

While Burning Soul allowed Kira to break her Soul Energy limits, it didn’t enhance her physical capabilities. She knew that being able to cut off the man’s arm earlier was only through the element of surprise and by creating openings. If she used anything other than Weapon Skills, with this man’s speed, her attacks would be useless.

“Rising Wind Current.”

With an upward slash at point-blank range, Kira’s golden pupils rippled as she released yet another Weapon Skill. A raging wind accompanied her blade, but the man did something she didn’t expect as he actually swung his own blade down to meet hers.

Blocked as it was, Kira’s Skill didn’t even cause the man to flinch, let alone the kind of impact it had on her older cousin Yamanaka. Worse however, was that the jarring impact was enough to break the bones in her arms which were already threatening to give in after Kira’s ‘Phantom Pierce’ and cutting off the man’s arm.

Seeing Kira completely open, the man moved to her side and brought his hand down on the back of her neck like a blade causing her to almost lose consciousness. It was, however, enough to send her, whose will was faltering and body broken, toppling onto the ground.

“Aaaaaaaargh! Aaaaagh!”

The combined internal and external pain finally got the better of Kira as she screamed out so loudly that the entire bamboo forest could hear her. Kira was about to force herself to rise up when she felt the icy coldness of metal on her neck.

“HeeHee. Looks like I win. There’s still a third of the incense stick left. The boy’s life is mine now.”

“NO!”

Kira’s calm demeanour was already broken when she fell to the ground, but the thought of losing one of her precious family was too much. But what could she actually do? She’d already pulled out all the trump cards available to her. She couldn’t even move, let alone fight. Even if she tried to move, that razor-sharp wavy blade would cut her head off.

‘Dammit!...I’m still…so weak…’

Kira forced herself to keep her eyes open as she prepared for the worst...

“Jeez, what a hike. Do you have any idea how long it took to find you?”

Kira turned her now-dark and empty eyes towards the unfamiliar voice, her Burning Soul fading away as she resigned herself to her fate. However, she couldn’t see much more than the bottom edges of a very shabby cloak and a pair of old wooden clogs. What’s more, she didn’t recognise the lackadaisical voice as anyone from her clan.

“HeeHee. And you are?”

“Just a friend. Not yours though. I don’t like people who reek of blood. Here’s a tip, take a bath and repent for your sins every now and then. It’s good cleaning for your filthy soul.”

Kira could tell that the mysterious man’s words had shocked this crazy, bloodthirsty, purple-robed man. It surprised even her that he could wander into this scene of violence and death while remaining so calm.

“So, if you don’t mind leaving that cute little lady alone and pissing off back to whatever garbage heap you came from, it would be much appreciated.”

“You really think you can make me do anything? Do you know what sect I come from? What can one man like you do anyway?”

“Hey, I’m just a humble hermit. I don’t want to make trouble with Trash Sect A or B or whatever. It’ll take forever to get the stink out. Let the kids go and we can forget this ever happened.”

“T-Trash Sect?!...I’m going to kill you!”

In an instant, the pressure was gone from Kira’s neck. She could hear the two men exchanging blows and slowly turned her head, sharp needles of pain stabbing into her entire body whenever she moved too fast.

The one who came to save her appeared to be in his forties with a stubbly beard and dark wild hair, a lazy expression on his face as if this was something as menial as cleaning dishes. Overall he looked like a scruffy, roaming vagabond. Although she couldn’t fathom why this ragged stranger would help them, Kira didn’t care about his looks at that time.

What surprised her the most was that he didn’t seem to be using any visible weapon, yet the sounds of metal on metal were ringing out repeatedly through the bamboo forest. Although the clash was at a pace she couldn’t hope to keep up with her current strength, she could tell that her saviour was just toying with the purple figure.

“The way you fight is too wasteful. It’s like you want to see blood with every attack instead of just trying to end it. I figured you had a crappy personality but this is just too much.

Trash like you…

…doesn’t deserve to live on the same world as us.”

As those words left the mysterious man’s mouth, a flare of gold crossed his eyes.

Fierce waves of energy radiated out from him, enough to cause the purple-robed man to stagger backwards. As the energy fluctuations passed through Kira, she could tell just how immense the power the ragged-cloaked man was gathering was.

A howling gale rose up around him, the wind strong enough to make one laugh at Kira’s ‘Rising Wind Current’ or even the wind fluctuations from the potential power of the Skill she failed to create. The gale continued to grow fiercer and threads of lightning could be seen flickering in and out of existence around the man.

‘This level of power, is he in the Soul Spirit realm? No, he might even be a Spirit Projector! More importantly, just what rank of Skill is he going to use?’

Kira thought as she laid there, unable to protect herself, as wisps of the vicious winds cut at her, leaving thread-like red lines on her skin.

Raising his hand towards the purple-robed man, palm upwards with his middle finger cocked against his thumb, the ragged man flicked his finger.

GROAAAAAAR!

A roar like a lion, tiger and wolf intermingled and dialled up to eleven exploded through the forest. The burst of energy almost blew Kira away from where she lay. Those thick stalks of bamboo around them seemed to bend almost ninety degrees away from the epicentre that was that scruffy man.

As the forest settled, Kira could just about see that, in front of the man, there was a massive trench, about ten meters wide torn through the forest for as far as her eyes could see in her awkward position, everything in front of him completely decimated as if a god had taken a finger and carelessly dragged it through the earth.

Several meters in front of the man a vague bloodstain and threads of purple cloth marked where her tormentor had once stood.

“Ah man, overdid it again. Guess I have to leave now before the local authorities try and bring me in. It’s such a shame. This place’s sake was so good too.”

As the man mumbled to himself, he pulled out an old but long pipe from somewhere within his scruffy cloak and lit it before walking over to Kira and sitting down. Kira was laying beside him, her Burning Soul had long since ended which meant her compounded exhaustion and intense pain was threatening to overcome her will to stay conscious, but she had to know what her fate was destined to be.

“Thank…you…”

“Hey, don’t mention it. I was actually trying to find you since I saw you being carried through town a few days ago. Let’s just say I got a bit…side-tracked…This city’s sake is surprisingly amazing.”

The man took a puff on his pipe as he looked towards Kagetsuna who had passed out on the side once he realised that Kira was safe.

“Listen kiddo, that ability is extremely rare. There are people who would literally kill to have it. They can’t get it themselves though, so they make it a point to recruit, kill or manipulate anyone who does have it. In this tiny city, once word gets out, it won’t be safe for you anymore. So, I was thinking, how about you take a trip with me? I’ll train you, make you strong enough to deal with anyone coming after you and in exchange…well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. What do you say, cute little miss?...Hello? Helloooo?”

No longer able to resist the pain and exhaustion Kira’s body had shut down. Only when she didn’t respond did the mysterious man notice.

“Aww hell, kids are so fragile these days. Damn, where’s the Doc in this town?”

[1] About 5 minutes