More than usual, Kaguya hurried her pace as she continued down the winding streets of the city towards the entertainment district. Though she took care to not go so fast so as to endanger civilians, she was on a tight schedule! Justice called her forth; the Innocent lay in danger, requiring protection from the rightful hand of the Overseers. While she, too, was a criminal who she would soon apprehend for the good of all, Kyomi was nothing compared to the vile deeds of a Warsmith! They were, in the simplest of words, Real Jerks - or so she thought. They were no mere criminals, but wicked fomenters of war and disruption, opponents to peace itself! As the blade of Justice, it was her duty above all to stop them whanever they decided to bother the good people of the City Between!
As she continued to make her way through the winding streets of stone and dirt, the architecture changed ever so gradually; the winding corridors of the poorer residential zones of the city, where countless souls attempted to eke out a modest living, soon began to give way to more upscale buildings. Bars and restaurants, filled with customers of many shapes and sizes, upscale housing where the luckier lived. The street, widening in size, became more inviting, more well kept. Bathhouses and game clubs of the legal kind stood side by side, a daill reprieve for the worker wise enough to stay far away from the lawless vice dens of the devil moon. Yes, that was the Entertainment District.
Upping her pace yet again, Kaguya continued to run through the streets until she finally ended at an opening - a large plaza, a central node which led to several other streets. At it's center, was the building she sought - the tall wooden edifice known as the Sokiyama Teahouse. Spotting a group of Overseers already waiting outside the cordoned off building, Kaguya jumped moved towards them.
"My fellow enforcers of the law! I have arrived to aid you in arresting this wrongdoer!"
Turning to see the newcomer, the Overseers turned to a strange mix of annoyance and relief. They were mere clock-punchers, beat guards barely stronger than the street criminals they had to face. Kaguya, however, was another thing entirely; the wielder of the Masamune, a holder of considerable power even at what they presumed to be an extremely young age. Yet for the common ranks like them, she was just as likely to arrest them for the corruption they were all but resigned to as she was to end their problem with great ease. Kaguya continued.
"Inform me, brave justicars, of this Warsmith that troubles us!"
"It's Sabutai." begins one of the Overseers, a stocky man. "He's a minor sectmaster running a group of bandits in the wilds. They were in some manner of 'outing' here. We're told he started making trouble with one of the customers, and started wrecking the place. All the others are out, but they seem to be holed up in the building."
"There's been nothing but silence for the past few minutes, but neither of us are strong enough to walk in alone." says another, a diminutive yokai woman.
"Fear not!" exclaims Kaguya, goose-stepping past the squadron as she heads towards the building, Masamune unsheathed and raised in hand. "I shall apprehend this wicked wrongdoer and deliver him for arrest!" Marching determinedly to the large wooden doors, Kaguya pushed the wooden gates, and walked inside..
Immediately, the shift in the atmosphere was clear. The building, usually so packed and full of life, was now quiet. No sound was present, save for the subtle whistling of the wind flowing through the windows and the burning of candlefire. For a building supposedly hijacked by an aggressive bandit group, it was too quiet. Blessed sword in her hand, the excitable overseer continued down the hallway towards the main room. In her watchful ears, the sound of dripping liquid began to echo. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.
In the main room at last, a gruesome sight. Corpses by the dozen were sprawled amidst the visage, sprawled against walls or even held aloft in the air by crimson-tinted wire. Heads and limbs were scattered about, cut so cleanly as so to appear surgically removed. Blood painted the Teahouse like winter snow upon a plain. It was no struggle, but a painting, a portrait of death willfully done, and at its center, looking downwards, was its black-masked artist.
At his side, there was a great corpse, a body bigger than any other: Sabutai, the unlucky warlord, had not escaped the fate that befell his clan, laying crumpled over a fallen table, a deep gash ran across his chest. Instinctively, Kaguya gripped her blade, seals loosening upon her back as she stared at the perpetrator of the massacre. As she began to think of what to say, the man turned, staring at her from beneath his woven hat.
"Shukisame!" she yelled, never the one to lose her composure. "You have committed crimes too vast to count! Surrender to Justice and accept your punishment, or I shall take you down!"
Wordlessly, the Karmic Outlaw continued to stare at her. And though his mask had no mouth, at that very moment, Kaguya could swear that he had smiled.
In the blink of a moment, the man disappeared, surging in a bout of movement and wind so quick it caught her off guard! She moved to turn, but before she could react, a force exploded on her back, rocketing the girl through the room with the force of a bullet, launching her straight through the wooden counter and into the wall behind it, breaking the wall with ease as she skidded on the ground, finally losing her speed. Without missing a beat, Kaguya jumped up, ignoring the growing bruises and embedded barbs that covered her groaning body. Faster and faster, the seals on her power began to unravel, cognizant of the crimes committed by her assailant.
Shukisame strolled towards her, carelessly drawing his stolen blade as he began to speak in a cheery tone. You! I didn't think you would be responding to this. I was satisfied enough with our barbarian friends back there, but this is far better! Fortune has truly blessed me today, don't you think?"
"You won't think that when you're thrown in jail, Villain!" Kaguya roars in response, Masamune pointed at him, it's Azure glow flaring up in response to the evil energies of the man who stood before them.
"This blade of mine...Onimaru...I have used it for quite a long time." continues the Insurgent "Though certainly not as legendary as the Holy Blade you hold, It is still an ancient one. It makes me wonder..."
"What would happen, were the two to clash?"
"Dagger Ricochet."
Yet again he surged forth, bursting out of his place in a blur of movement that seemed almost immediate as he appeared right before Kaguya, his blade thrust forth like a spear that would have surely impaled her had she not stepped sideways just a moment earlier. Letting the blade go before grabbing it nigh instantaneously again with a reversed grip, he swungs at the small woman besides him, Kaguya just narrowly parrying the blade away with Masamune. Yet still not done, he attacked her again, swinging at Kaguya with a two-handed grip, swing followed by swing, chained into a thrust or a chop which would then turn into a lunge. Relentlessly attacking, Shikusame barraged Kaguya with wave after wave of attacks, his footwork more like a dance as he moved back and forth, left and right, throwing his sword from hand to hand without giving her a moment alone to think. Kaguya, on her part, attempted to weather the storm as best as she could, just barely managing to parry, dodge or block her aggressor's attack; though every strike loosened up the sealings on her mind, the pressure and aggressiveness of the monk's style stopped her from even a moment of thought, forcing her body to operate on instinct to avoid certain death. Already she could feel some errant nicks and shallow cuts across her body.
Still, she was growing faster; finding a minute hole in his offensive, she struck his sword out of his hand with a powerful slash, and in the next moment, attacked with an upwards slash, only to find him narrowly avoiding her blade, twisting out of the way as though his spine did not exist. Her counteroffensive was rewarded with a straight punch to the face that one again saw her hurled away into the ground. But beyond the bruise, this attack gave her something else; the time to finally think. Twisting her fall into a roll and springing into a standing position, she brings her sword to her side, muttering:
"The Blade that Cleaves the World."
The effect is almost immediate; ethereal waves of cutting wind burst towards her opponent, Shikusame has only a fraction of a second to react as he moves into a hanging stance, just barely stopping a cleave that would have cut him in twain as the remaining waves arc past him, carving into his sides. To most, gashes that ran clean through your lumbars would be enough to put them out of comnission, a horrible pain that would shake even a hardened soldier. Yet as the Kosamebō's blood began to stain his tattered kimono, Shukisame only seemed to get more excited.
But perhaps, he had taken too long; her power almost entirely unleashed, her blade sheathed, and intent on finishing this fight quickly, she concentrates her energy; almost all of the aura she held still into her body. Falling upon him so quickly even he was unable to see it, she delivered an uppercut that launched Shukisame through the very roof, flying into the skies above the teahouse before quickly falling outwards, crashing upon a nearby stand.
"Divine Hand." she states, to no one in particular. Already, she grows tired, her last release having cost her a good chunk of her reserve. However, she must not rest yet! The outlaw had to be oficially arrested and taken to face justice! Rushing outside the teahouse, she entered the plaza yet again to find her quarrel just barely standing on his own, surrounded by the overseer trio. If he wasn't heavily wounded before, he heavily is now: large jagged pieces of wood, lodged within his body, just barely contain the growing spill of blood falling around him. His left arm lays entirely limp, dislocated by the attack; even now, the spot in his chest where her punch had landed lays burnt and sunken, almost caved.
Yet despite that, the squadron did not move, even as they held him at spearsight, poles shaking as they refused to even approach the infamous terrorist. Kaguya, as chipper as ever, approached him yet again. "You've been defeated, criminal! Accept your punishment and resist Justice no longer!" she declares, pointing at him.
"What a nice attack, friend. What a nice attack indeed!" he begins to talk, through laboured breath. "That's a mighty powerful technique! You were holding back from killing me, weren't you?" he continues, staring at the diminutive overseer.
"Justice demands that I take you in to face proper judgement even if your penalty is death, ruffian." she responds.
"I suppose i should be thankful..." he says, slowly raising his closed hand. Opening his fist, he reveals within a small gray sphere. "But i'll do this instead."
Swiftly, he throws the capsule on the ground, and a burst of gray smoke explodes, enveloping the area around him. With a roar, the spirit sealed within takes its beastly form, roaring with savage intent as two of the guards begin to panic and run from the cloud. Quickly, Kaguya jumps forwards and unsheathes Masamune, running it through the spirit just as it pounces on the remaining overseer, exorcising it with ease. Wasting no time, Kaguya runs outside of the cloud, looking desperately for the criminal, but it is too late; all she finds are the wounded bodies of her compatriots, their lungs punctured so that they might not speak. He had left them there on purpose, that she would be forced to ignore him and save them from their wounds instead. Her choice was an easy one.
"This is Overseer Kaguya!" she spits hurriedly into her radio "We have wounded officers near Sokiyama Teahouse! I need a medic here quickly!"
That cruel find had escaped this day, but she knew his time was running short! She would find him again, sooner or later, and deliver him the punishment he deserved!
Shukisame whistled a merry tune as he continued to stumble through the maintenance tunnels that ran besides the sewers of the entertainment district. Though his wounds were crippling, and his pain was of immeasurable intensity, he could only smile. Already, he felt his body's aura refill and grow, his injuries ever so slowly stitching themselves back together. "That was pretty good, wasn't it?" he thinks to himself. "I definitely had it until the ending...that child is no weakling, but her mind is not of the battlehardened sort in the least. I definitely shouldn't have let her become unsealed..."
"Ah well. I'll do better next time! I hope you heal up right, friend..." he says, as though the now distant overseer could hear him.
"I'll be seein' you..."