The heavy foot of the knight lifted off the ground.
—He's fast!— thought Chizuro, jerking backward.
A wall of gold rose between them.
The swordsman advanced without hesitation.
An oblique slash ripped the golden barrier in two.
«I don't believe it!» The wall collapsed to the ground beneath the woman's incredulous eyes.
The opponent's sword reached her.
A straight thrust struck her square in the chest, hurling her backward.
«No!» golden spikes burst from the woman's arms and drove into the ground, stopping her fall.
In a few moments she shifted, reappearing a few centimeters from the shadow.
«Disappear…» she whispered, as her arms—now transformed—struck the adversary with violent force.
The knight was hurled into the air.
«Rain of coins!»
Once again, an immense quantity of brish fell from above like a golden storm.
The swordsman was completely overwhelmed.
When the downpour ended, the weight of the blows had gouged a crater in the ground.
Silence fell over everything.
—If I hadn't transmigrated my body into gold, that thrust would have wounded me…— she thought, bringing a hand to her chest.
«Can you tell me what you are?» she finally asked, approaching cautiously.
When her gaze landed on him, she was completely overwhelmed.
The knight's body was devastated: full of holes, his head destroyed.
But what disturbed Chizuro most was that the shadow… kept trembling.
«It's still moving… how is that possible?» she murmured, staring at it with incredulous eyes.
Meanwhile, a presence plunged at her at high speed.
«Spirit Slayer!»
Kaito's voice snapped her back.
The attack was avoided by a hair: Chizuro extended the spikes she had generated earlier, pushing herself away.
Kaito fell into the crater, right next to the shadow.
Panting, he lifted his head.
«Strength…»
At his command, the knight stopped trembling.
The body slowly began to regenerate.
«So it's like I thought… you made it,» Chizuro realized, clenching her jaw.
«You're wrong… it's only a vague memory of a battle.»
«What are you talking about?» Chizuro asked, increasingly confused.
Kaito gritted his teeth, anger visible in his eyes.
«I never wanted to use that guy's technique.»
The knight rose slowly to his feet.
«My blades can absorb spiritual energy,» he began to explain in a low voice.
«But you already know that. And you know I can reuse it however I want… to power myself up.»
He looked at the reflection of the blade in his hand.
«However, what you don't know… is that I can also control how to handle incoming energy.»
«Incoming energy?» Chizuro repeated, frowning.
«When I cut a technique made of spiritual energy,» Kaito continued, «I can decide whether to break it down or not.»
He took a step forward.
«If I break it down, I can accumulate that energy in unlimited quantities… and use it to enhance myself.»
Then he lifted his gaze, pointing the blade at the knight.
«But if I choose not to break it down…»
A sinister gleam crossed his eyes.
«…I can reuse that very technique.»
Chizuro gave a small smile at the boy's words.
«I didn't expect a technique like that,» she said, pausing briefly.
«But I wonder why you kept it hidden until now.»
Her gaze turned sharp.
«I didn't want to rely on his technique…» Kaito explained in a low voice.
«You don't get it?» she snapped, raising her voice.
«The mere fact that you kept it is your failure!»
«You're wrong,» he replied without hesitation.
«Letting myself be guided only by pride won't get me anywhere.»
He brought one of the blades to his face.
«I know perfectly well that you're superior to me… yet I promised I wouldn't lose.»
Biting the hilt between his teeth, he added in a firm voice:
«And I intend to keep that promise.»
The steel of his blades lit with a vivid, vibrant blue.
«Spirit Slayer!»
Once again, the luminous slash burst from the blades.
«Ridiculous! This technique again?»
Chizuro's arm transformed into a long golden blade.
With a single strike she cleaved Kaito's attack in two.
The fragments of the wave destroyed the wall behind her.
«Spirit Slayer!»
Kaito repeated the move once more.
«Don't you understand?!»
Chizuro stopped him again.
«Spirit Slayer!»
The echo of her words kept reverberating through the White Place.
In five minutes of fighting, Kaito launched twenty-five consecutive Spirit Slayers.
The number of strikes that hit the target: zero.
After the twenty-fifth stroke, he stopped.
Breathless, staring at his opponent, he thought:
—Now… I really have a chance.—
—What is he trying to do…? Wasting all that energy for what…?—
Doubt crept into Chizuro's mind.
«Was that perhaps your final desperate move?» she asked, with a condescending smile.
«Desperate, you say?» Kaito repeated, lifting his gaze.
«I created the perfect trap.»
He indicated something behind her with his hand.
When Chizuro turned, her eyes widened.
All the remnants of the Spirit Slayers launched up to that moment had cut through several load-bearing columns supporting the Tenshō Tower.
«When they let us into the tower, we took an elevator, right?» Kaito went on.
Chizuro remained silent, eyes fixed on the damaged columns.
«We went up a few floors… and then came back down again, to the White Place.»
Kaito's voice grew firmer.
«That means we're right in the tower's foundations.»
The structure began to vibrate; a deep sound echoed all around.
«I waited for Yume to leave before using this strategy…» he added, breathing heavily.
«In at most ten minutes, the Fuyumi Tower… will collapse.»
—Is it over?— resignation spread across Chizuro's face.
«What are you thinking!?» Ōgon's voice pierced her mind.
—Ōgon?!— she murmured, surprised.
«Would you surrender now? At least eliminate them!» the spirit urged.
«What's wrong with you? At the start of the fight we were winning—where's your usual composure?» he goaded further.
The woman fell silent for a moment, then Chizuro's voice lowered, thick with fatigue.
—I'm sorry, but now I realize we've lost… I won't see him again. I'm certain of it.—
She paused, searching for words.
«Kaito,» she called, as the tower began to crack around them.
«Do you want me to believe that what I did for my husband was a mistake?» she continued, her voice breaking.
Her body began to return to human form; the golden aura withdrew, concentrating only on her right arm.
The shadow knight raised his sword; Kaito readied his blades.
«In your path of revenge, there was never room for remorse… just like in mine.»
«You're right…» Kaito answered in a hoarse voice.
«When I decided to take revenge on the Mugentamashii, I killed people I could have spared…»
His gaze hardened.
«They were criminals, but I could have let them go. Only later did I understand that, by continuing like that, I would become like them.»
«But I didn't become like that… Chizuro.»
Pieces of the ceiling began to fall around them.
«Let's finish this fight!»