Kumari fell on his back again, his body smoking from the last explosion.
“That’s the third”, Sajin said. “Not bad, I thought that, by now, I’d have already crushed you.”
The bear demon got up as fast as he could, leaning on the sheathed sword. His opponent had been hit the same amount of times by Daikumade’s power, and his breath had shortened since he took a second blow to the chest, which indicated that one or two of his ribs were broken. Still, he was in much better condition and, at that pace, Kumari certainly would be the first to go down and never get up.
“You’re tough, too. No wonder you made so light of the fox demons.”
“What do you mean?”
“Their ‘fox fire’ had no effect on you. It’s no surprise you’re immune to your own element.”
“You’re wrong.” Sajin inflamed his right fist. “We aren’t really made of fire; we’re just resistant to it to the same extent of our ability to control it.”
“Then how…”
“All the fox demons can do are mere illusions. Trickery. But our eyes can see the heat in other things, so it’s easy for us to tell apart their mirages from reality.” He opened his hand and the flames were gone. “So… Now that you know all about my powers, why don’t you show me how far do yours really go?”
Kumari snarled, angry. He had already thought of using his true form, and the idea was becoming more and more tempting with each hit he took. However, he felt on his enemy’s eyes, from the beginning of the fight, that it was exactly what he wanted. Enlarged, he’d be an easy target for the explosions, even with his bad aim. There had to be a way to explore that weakness! If only he could keep him at a distance…
“Give me a good reason to do so, fire demon.”
Sajin frowned, hiding his disappointment.
“Very well, then...”
Suddenly, a scream echoed from the top of the valley. Kumari looked up, desperate.
“Sazume!!!”
Mikami’s whip hit the girl hard, tossing her downhill. The bear demon ran to help her, but his adversary bolted after him. Thinking quickly, he turned around and hit the ground with the scabbard; Sajin found himself on the way of a landslide and ended up overwhelmed by a pile of rocks.
Kumari jumped right on time to catch Sazume in the air, before she hit the bottom of the valley. While Mikami had his attention drawn away from the fight and ran to help his brother, Kumari did the same and hid behind a boulder, panting.
“You can drop me now...” Sazume whispered, blushing; he still had her in his arms.
“Sorry…” Shy, he put her down. “Are you alright?” the flame whip had ripped her sleeve, leaving a seared cut on her left arm.
“If I’m alright? What about you, you look like you’ve walked out of a war!”
“I had worse...” he whispered, concentrating on hearing what happened at the other side.
“I think Ichi is having a hard time up there too… We need to end this, and quickly. Any idea?”
“I don’t know, why don’t you ask your future husband nicely?” he muttered.
“Would you stop it? He’s not my fiancé! His father proposed a marriage between he and me, but mine never accepted it.”
“You could at least have told me about it...”
“And since when this is of your business?”
“Yeah, maybe I really shouldn’t care then!” he yelled, making her step back, frightened. He waved his head, trying to calm down. “Sorry. It’s not what…”
Suddenly, the stone that hid them blew into pieces, right near Kumari. He was thrown away, and Sajin, already freed from the rocks, chased after him. She was already running to join the fight when the flame whip cracked right at her feet.
“What’s that, hiding around with other men? This isn’t appropriate behavior for a wife, honey…” Mikami said, grinning.
She immediately prepared her whip too, out of reflex, but didn’t know what to do anymore; with that sword, the fire demon kept effortlessly parrying her attacks, while she had nothing to defend herself from his strikes.
Right above them, the sound of a blade cutting through flesh, and a grunt of pain; Ichimaru fell at his sister’s feet.
“Ichi!!!”
