Chapter 36: Then Please Cheer For Me

People cannot fly. Only by keeping one’s feet firmly on the ground can one move forward inch by inch.

Mine Mizuho, you alone are special. At this very moment, I will cut you down.

Hifumi stared at Yuan Qing, her eyes revealing nothing.

“What was that just now!” The host stood up from his chair. “Miss Raven’s body… turned into crow feathers?”

The guest was silent for a moment before speaking slowly. “…She decomposed her body. She used crow feathers to constitute every part of it. The moment she was attacked, she decomposed, then reassembled.”

Hifumi turned around, looking at Yuan Qing standing behind her.

Yuan Qing rolled his shoulders. The instantaneous decomposition and reassembly from a moment ago left his body feeling a bit unsteady, as if he had just fallen back to the ground from a long period of weightlessness.

“You’ve grown,” Hifumi’s tone was flat and unemotional. “In your battle with me, you comprehended a new realm.”

“I just learned this move,” Yuan Qing looked down at his hand. “Right when your blade came down.”

Hifumi was silent for a beat.

Then she smiled.

This time it was a real smile. Not just a slight upturn of the lips, but her eyes crinkled, the corners of her mouth lifted, and her whole person seemed to glow.

“You really are…”

But Hifumi didn’t finish that sentence. She moved.

The blade light flashed again, faster than before, heavier than before.

The blade fell. Yuan Qing’s body once again turned into crow feathers, tumbling in the air, reassembling behind the arc of the blade.

Hifumi’s second slash was already there.

Decompose. Assemble.

Third slash.

Decompose. Assemble.

Fourth slash.

Fifth slash.

Every slash struck the crow feathers. Every slash cut through empty air. Yuan Qing’s figure continuously dissipated, coalesced, dissipated, coalesced within the flashes of the blade.

Nearly all twelve thousand spectators in the stands were on their feet. Some covered their mouths, some clenched their fists, some forgot to breathe.

The host and the guest had their mouths hanging open, unable to utter a single word.

Sundae hugged Inu-oh, unable to tell if what she felt now was nervousness or excitement.

Mizuho stood in a corner. She lifted her sunglasses, her eyes unblinking as she stared at the center of the arena. There, after Hifumi’s fifth slash missed, she did not launch a sixth.

“Right now, just standing there is a struggle for you, isn’t it? I can tell. Your feet are unsteady. Your body isn’t accustomed to being transformed into another existence and decomposed,” Hifumi’s tone was uncharacteristically light. “I admire your strength. But if you’ve only fought this far by forcing yourself, that’s just pathetic.”

Yuan Qing leaned forward slightly, preparing to charge. “Then please cheer for me.”

With that, Yuan Qing rushed forward again to engage Hifumi.

CLANG—

With the eagle’s empowerment, the crane’s thrust and Hifumi’s cold blade were evenly matched. The two were temporarily locked in a stalemate.

Their faces were separated only by that cold blade, close enough to almost see the reflection in the other’s pupils.

Hifumi’s eyes, at this moment, were illuminated by the white light on the blade’s edge, while in Yuan Qing’s pupils, her blade was reflected.

Then, both of them exerted force at the same time, both pushed off at the same time, and both charged forward again at the same time.

Their figures continuously intersected at the center of the arena, white light and black shadow tangled together.

Yuan Qing’s body continuously decomposed, reassembled, decomposed, reassembled within Hifumi’s blade light, impossible to grasp. Yet Hifumi’s blade grew faster and faster, each slash heavier than the last, each slash closer than the last.

No one in the spectator stands spoke.

Twelve thousand people, quiet as if the place were empty.

Hifumi could only hear her own heartbeat, only the sound of the blade cleaving the air, only the faint rustling sound of crow feathers churning every time the person opposite her decomposed and reassembled.

Her blade was fast. Faster than the first round, faster than the second round, faster than any slash just now.

But it wasn’t enough.

Her blade could not hit him.

Every time the blade light fell, his body would turn into crow feathers the instant it made contact, then reassemble behind her, to her side, above her. Her blade was always chasing his shadow, always one step behind.

The White Snake coiled around her arm, tightening slightly. She could feel the White Snake’s power flowing along the blade, could feel the White Snake matching her rhythm with every swing.

They had worked together for over a decade.

Since she was a little girl, the White Snake had coiled around her wrist, licking her fingers with its tongue. Back then, her hands were small and tender, unable to properly grip the hilt, so the White Snake used its tail to help her hold it steady.

For the White Snake’s expectations…

‘Enough. I will subdue you completely.’

Hifumi quickly changed tactics. She stopped chasing Yuan Qing’s figure to slash. Instead, she stood still, sheathed her blade. The White Snake coiled around her arm, its crimson eyes fixed on Yuan Qing.

Yuan Qing landed five meters in front of her, not attacking.

“Your crow feathers, each one is different,” Hifumi said. “When the first slash fell, the direction your crow feathers scattered was thirty degrees east of north. The reassembly point was in the northwest direction, distance three point two meters.

“Second slash, crow feather scatter direction due north. Reassembly point southeast direction, distance two point eight meters.

“Third slash, due west, northeast direction, three point five meters.

“Fourth slash, southwest, due east direction, two point five meters.

“Fifth slash, northwest, due south direction, three meters.

“The flight path of each crow feather is different, but I’ve found the pattern of your reassembly.”

“……”

Yuan Qing showed no surprise. He knew Hifumi would inevitably find a way to break it.

Hifumi raised her cold blade, the tip pointing at Yuan Qing.

“When your body decomposes into crow feathers, your head becomes the twenty-three feathers in the north-biased direction. Your torso is the forty-seven feathers in the middle. Your limbs are the eighty-one feathers on the periphery. As long as I cut these feathers before that, your reassembly will be disrupted.”

Hifumi took a step forward. The blade light fell.

Yuan Qing decomposed again. Hundreds of crow feathers tumbled in the air, scattering in different directions.

But this time, Hifumi’s blade did not stop.

She did not slash once and then withdraw. The moment the crow feathers scattered, the blade light transformed into countless fragmented arcs, precisely slicing toward those feathers.

North-biased direction, twenty-three pieces.

The blade light swept past. Half the crow feathers in that area were severed and shattered.

Yuan Qing’s body reassembled, but during the coalescence of his left arm, a few crow feathers were missing. The outline of his entire arm was somewhat incomplete.

Hifumi’s second slash had already arrived.

North-biased direction, the remaining eleven crow feathers were swept by the blade light, all of them shattering.

When Yuan Qing’s head reassembled, half of it was missing. The position of his right eye was an empty hole, through which the lights behind him could be seen.

He did not panic.

The remaining crow feathers made an abrupt turn in the air, abandoning a complete reassembly, forcibly coalescing in an incomplete form.

The black robe appeared, but there was no left arm. A chunk was missing from the right side of his face. His right wing was only half there. He stumbled upon landing, using his remaining left wing to maintain balance.

Crow feathers would naturally regenerate, but having consumed too many earlier, his current feather reserves were nearly depleted.

Hifumi raised her cold blade once more.

Yuan Qing took a deep breath. The remaining crow feathers detached from his wings, swirling around his body. This time, he did not scatter the feathers too widely. Instead, he kept them densely gathered around him.

He wanted to use quantity to compensate for precision, but Hifumi’s blade was faster and more accurate than his feathers.

The blade light cut in, precisely slicing the crow feathers needed to reassemble his body.

Yuan Qing’s reassembly became more and more strained.

First the left leg, then the right arm, then the torso. Each reassembly was missing a part. Each missing part became harder to replenish in the next reassembly.

In the spectator stands, someone covered their mouth.

“Miss Raven…” The host’s voice trembled. “Her body…”

“Her new ability was countered this quickly…” The guest stared fixedly at the center of the arena. “Miss Kazama…”

Mizuho stood in the corner. The fingernails of the hand clutching the hem of her clothes had already dug into her palm.

The doppelganger poked half its head out of the handbag. “This isn’t… going to be a loss, is it?”