Standing amid a sea of crackling flames is not unfamiliar to her.
… As odd as such a statement sounds.
It reminds Shiki of her most recent Obon experience, a little bit. To be precise, it reminds her of the flame barrier that she and all the others present during the okuribi had been briefly trapped in.
But flames in the real world are flames of an entirely different nature, as one might expect. For starters, there's a lot more smoke involved, which had been conspicuously absent in the barrier in comparison. If it were not for her cursed technique, Shiki would probably be finding it difficult to breathe right now as she navigates throughout the building.
A loud, dangerously creaking sound suddenly comes from somewhere above her. Was a portion of the ceiling overhead about to collapse soon? In that case, she should–
"… elp! Someone… please…"
Another voice?
It's definitely not Irifune. Irifune is a man, and the voice that Shiki just heard sounds far too feminine to match the description.
Following the cry for help leads her to the corner of one of the meeting rooms in the office building, where part of the room has collapsed, trapping a young woman beneath it. It doesn't appear as if the flames have reached her yet, but there are reddened patches on her skin nonetheless. The woman's trembling voice is also decidedly hoarse, and Shiki isn't even sure if the civilian is entirely conscious right now, given that her eyes seem to stare past Shiki as she crouches down in front of her.
But she's alive, still.
Shiki silently lifts her hand and deftly presses two fingertips to the woman's forehead. The sleeping spell takes hold instantly, and the woman's head lolls down, unconscious.
… Shiki is trained to kill curses, not rescue civilians. Something like that falls more under the purview of Windows and assistant managers than it does sorcerers who specialize in combat like her. But if there's someone who needs help right in front of her and it's fully within her abilities to provide help, then there's no particular reason not to.
As Shiki makes her way through the building, she ends up finding a few more individuals scattered throughout the building in similar situations. The most notable of them being a scraggly, unresponsive young man who turns out to be sleeping through the entire thing, even without aid from her sleeping spell. It's almost impressive.
But aside from a few civilian stragglers, all of them being Irifune's coworkers rather than the man himself… Shiki does not notice any other irregularities within the burning building. And that, in itself, is something she finds to be quite strange.
Because isn't it odd? The moment that Shiki arrives in the city and comes to take a look at Irifune's workplace, it's to find the entire place on fire. It could be coincidence –but Shiki finds that to be rather unlikely. Yet the fact that Irifune is nowhere to be found inside the building…
Had he been one of the people who'd already escaped outside on their own? Was the fire meant to scare and intimidate, rather than kill? … Or was there something else that Shiki was overlooking here?
…
Shiki tugs down the baseball cap on her head as she slips outside the building. No one seems to notice her, which is a good thing. It probably helps that most of the civilians crowded around here are currently distracted by the unconscious survivors who'd somehow mysteriously stumbled their way out of the burning building on their own.
Still feeling mildly confused, Shiki makes her way back to Choki and the Kobayashi brothers.
"… What the hell? You look like you didn't even break a sweat!" Kobayashi Aoma looks at her, looks at the burning building, then looks back towards her. "How is that possible?"
Rather than entertaining the curse user's curiosity about her abilities, Shiki is rather more preoccupied with mulling over the oddity of the situation at hand. Was this really just a coincidence?
Maybe, but… the chances are minuscule.
"Irifune wasn't inside," she says briskly.
"We didn't find him outside in the crowd, either," Choki anticipates her next question and provides an answer before the words have even formed in her mouth. "If that's the case, then it seems that Irifune isn't present here at all."
"He's not already dead, is he?" Kobayashi Tamotsu frowns pensively. "That would be…"
Inconvenient.
"… really awful."
"Wait. If the guy isn't here, then what about checking at his house?" Kobayashi Aoma suggests. "Technically, all the people here are just putting in overtime, right? Makes sense that there are others who'd prefer to go home and sleep instead. Maybe Nanami-san found him already."
Shiki reaches into the pocket of her red leather jacket and brings out her cell phone. With practiced ease, she calls Ken-jichan's number, raising the handheld device to her ear.
… It's been ringing for quite a long time. Is Ken-jichan preoccupied at the moment?
"He's not picking up," Shiki informs the others around her.
"Must be busy, then," Kobayashi Tamotsu remarks. "I mean… we could still head over to take a look at how things are going there?"
Shiki stares at her phone for a moment.
… By all means, Ken-jichan is a powerful Grade One sorcerer who can take care of himself. He's more than a match for most threats, cursed spirits and curse users alike. But for some reason, she'd briefly felt a strange sensation in her chest, almost like a missed heartbeat.
It's just an unanswered phone call, isn't it?
"We'll go find the Irifune household," Shiki decides.
From what she remembers, the man's home isn't located too far from their current location. The trip there shouldn't take too long, then, and they should be able to make their way over shortly.
This turns out to be a good thing.
Because as soon as they approach the area, one thing becomes clear: There's the wavering silhouette of a dark, shimmering Curtain drawn over one of the buildings. Which is a glaring indication that something has most definitely gone wrong here. Curtains are primarily intended to hide whatever is inside it from the view of non-sorcerers, and for one to be drawn over Irifune's home like this, when Ken-jichan was here…
It's not a good sign.
Suzurigi Mutsuo, who'd been the assistant accompanying Ken-jichan when they'd separated, currently stands in the street a slight distance away from the shaky Curtain. There is a look of intense concentration on his face, and his body trembles with exertion from the effort of holding together this incomplete barrier.
Choki takes one look at Mutsuo, and swiftly forms a seal with his own hands.
"Emerge from the darkness," Choki recites, and the unsteady barrier immediately solidifies and stabilizes as he reinforces his cousin's Curtain.
Mutsuo, abruptly relieved from his burden, gasps and collapses to the ground.
"T-thanks," he manages to get out, wheezing slightly.
"What's the current situation?"
Mutsuo draws in a shaky breath, and forces himself upright. "… Nanami-sama is inside. He went in to speak with Irifune-san, but it wasn't long before a portion of the wall suddenly just exploded. I-I tried to contact you first, Choki. But then Nanami-sama shouted at me to make a Curtain, quickly, and I…"
And Mutsuo had evidently tried to follow Ken-jichan's order first, only to encounter great difficulty with the attempt. After which it had then been impossible for him to contact Choki while barely holding together the Curtain on his own at the same time.
The young man swallows roughly, lowering his head.
"… I apologize for my incompetence, ojou-sama," he whispers.
"Now's not the time for that," Choki sighs, shaking his head. "We'll talk more about this later."
Mutsuo nods jerkily, shame-faced.
… It seems that Choki has things well in hand here.
Shiki turns towards the barrier, "I'm going in."
"Ojou-sama–"
She does not wait to hear her assistant finish the rest of his sentence.
Without another word, Shiki brushes past the both of them and steps through the Curtain.
…
Just as Mutsuo had mentioned earlier, there is indeed a gaping hole in the side of one of the walls. Uneven pieces of rubble are scattered messily on the ground, along with dark splatters of blood. Not enough to be life-threatening, but enough to indicate that the ongoing violence was far beyond the level of a trivial scuffle.
Following the distinct sounds of battle that she can hear coming from deeper inside the house, Shiki deftly steps over the rubble and enters directly through the gaping hole.
Was Ken-jichan fighting Ogami right now? A commotion like this was–
Movement.
Cursed energy surges through her limbs, and Shiki leaps forward just in time to avoid the explosive force that bursts downwards through the ceiling above her.
"Is that all you've got, Grade One?"
A drawling, mocking voice drifts through the air, and Shiki turns back around to see–
It's Ken-jichan who falls through the ceiling. Who… looks as if he'd just been thrown through the ceiling, more like. Her uncle hits the ground back-first, wooden floorboards splintering beneath his body from the force of the collision.
… There are numerous injuries crisscrossed over his body, almost as if someone had attempted to carve him into pieces with a sharp blade.
Shiki's eyes narrow.
A dark blur follows down after him, and–
Shiki's sword misses the assailant by mere centimeters, the enemy pursuing her uncle sensing her attack at the last moment, and promptly disengaging in order to avoid a blade through their midsection.
"Shiki?" Her uncle's voice is breathless and startled upon catching sight of her, and then his expression hardens. "Be careful. That's–"
"Ha, what's this?" Ken-jichan's opponent straightens, wearing an amused look on his face. "A kid? That's your reinforcement, Grade One?"
… Shiki recognizes him.
She recognizes him. The man rising to his feet in front of them is tall, muscular, and there is no cursed energy that Shiki senses from him, which is the most distinctive detail that stands out about him.
Even though Shiki has only ever encountered this person briefly as a young child before, there's no doubt about it. The enemy standing at the other end of the half-destroyed hallway is the same one who'd nearly ended up killing her and Satoru-niichan during the Star Plasma Vessel mission so many years ago.
The Sorcerer Killer–
"Zenin Toji."
… He resembles Megumi, a little bit, in the eyes and the shape of his jaw. But Megumi does not possess the same stature as he does, and Megumi would never have that sort of expression on his face, either.
An expression that's almost lazy, but smugly confident all the same. A razor-sharp smile that expresses delight in violence.
The Zenin Toji that Shiki had encountered in her childhood had been a cocky, vicious man, with the strength to back up his attitude. And he was also someone who was supposed to be dead. Satoru-niichan had killed him with his own hands.
… The Seance Technique.
Ogami Shiho.
Shiki doesn't know how Ogami had managed to summon the Sorcerer Killer of all people, but there's no denying what she sees in front of her. Somehow, the curse user had accomplished this unexpected feat, and now Shiki was the one who needed to deal with it.
"You know me?" Zenin Toji arches an eyebrow. So it seems that Ogami had not only summoned the body's information, but also the soul's information in this case.
… Unless the vessel was only pretending to be the man himself, in an attempt to intimidate her or something else along those lines. The Sorcerer Killer had quite the reputation prior to his demise at Satoru-niichan's hands in the end, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for others to take advantage of it.
"Heh," the man hefts the dagger in his hands, deftly spinning it over his fingertips and catching it in a firm grip. "Seems like dying hasn't affected my reputation too much, hmm?"
"Dead men should stay in their graves." Shiki doesn't bat an eye at those words, then addresses her uncle. "Ken-jichan, is that Ogami in front of us, or an alternate vessel?"
"An alternate vessel. She summoned Zenin Toji into her grandson. But Ogami was here earlier, impersonating Irifune's wife," Ken-jichan responds with a slightly strained voice. "… Shiki, you can't be thinking–"
"Go find Ogami."
The ambush by Inoue-Emoto in front of Kon Shiu's office had thoroughly proven that Ogami Shiho was fully capable of remotely utilizing her cursed technique. Which meant that it was entirely possible that, even right now, she was using the Sorcerer Killer to stall Ken-jichan while she made her escape.
If they allowed her to successfully flee from here, then they'd have to hunt down the old woman all over again. Except this time, Ogami would be aware of them coming after her, which had the potential to make things all the more difficult in the future.
And…
Shiki draws her cursed Muramasa blade, and levels it in the direction of the Sorcerer Killer. "Leave the situation here to me."
Both of them specialize in close-quarters combat, but Shiki's abilities make her deadlier in a fight than her uncle. He's also injured –not gravely, thankfully, but his opponent had managed to gouge out several dark, bloody tears into Ken-jichan's body. If Ken-jichan continues fighting the Sorcerer Killer like this, then… the results of that would be unacceptable.
Better for Ken-jichan to track down Ogami, then, while Shiki dealt with Zenin Toji here. Either Ken-jichan would be able to find and catch up to Ogami first, in which he would be able to figure out a way to get the woman to terminate her cursed technique, or Shiki would be able to put down the Sorcerer Killer first and rendezvous with her uncle afterwards.
"Shiki–"
"Trust me, Ken-jichan," she interrupts her uncle's words. Now is not the time to be hesitating like this. "We're wasting time here."
Ken-jichan is silent for a brief moment.
Then, his hand lands on Shiki's shoulder, squeezing slightly. Rapid footsteps sound up behind her and gradually fade as her uncle departs.
Mentally, there is a small corner in her mind that lets out a quiet sigh of relief.
(She won't have to fight the Sorcerer Killer while worrying about protecting her injured uncle.)
Outwardly, however, Shiki does not allow any of her thoughts to show on her face. Her gaze remains firmly fixated on the Sorcerer Killer –who, for some reason, seems oddly content to let Ken-jichan go without a fight.
Why? Had Ogami summoned him without instilling a command for him to protect his summoner?
"What, surprised?" Zenin Toji bares his teeth at her in a sharp, mocking grin. "… You'll put up more of a fight than your 'jichan' did, won't you?"
Without waiting for a response, the Sorcerer Killer lightly tosses the long knife in his hand, flipping the blade and catching it in a firm grip–
Then vanishes.
Shiki barely manages to intercept the first strike; the Sorcerer Killer is fast, much faster than anyone she's fought before. But unlike when she'd been younger, when Zenin's movements had been a complete blur that she hadn't been able to react to at all…
He's still fast, but Shiki can perceive his movements.
Which means that after parrying his first blow in a loud clang of steel clashing against steel, she's able to block the consecutive following strikes from him as well. Yet each rattling impact causes a harsh tremor to run down through her arms, even though she's already reinforcing her body with cursed energy to keep up with the man's strength and speed.
… The Sorcerer Killer possesses a Heavenly Restriction that strips his body of all cursed energy. In exchange, all physical capabilities are strengthened leagues beyond that of a regular human's, and Shiki is currently receiving firsthand experience on just how exaggerated these augmented physical capabilities are. Any sorcerer who was not well-versed in close-quarters combat would've been obliterated by the man in a heartbeat.
Shiki hasn't been obliterated in their first exchange, but–
Frustratingly enough, none of her attacks manage to even reach the man, much less cut through any of the gleaming red lines on his body. But in stark contrast, she's already sporting several minor cuts of her own, one of them being a stinging cut scored into her forearm.
If she hadn't reacted fast enough, it would've sliced through her tendons.
The way that the man wields his dagger –whose length is more like a tanto than a conventional dagger, really– is something that Shiki finds difficult to read. However, the man does not struggle to read her movements.
Shiki's sword aims for the gleaming red line on Zenin Toji's leg; the man shifts the limb back before her blade even gets close to cutting him, and suddenly there's a long dagger driving down into her hand–
Do not let go of your sword.
–and Shiki's blade curves up sharply, going for the man's arm as a new target. The dagger coming down at her hand instantly vanishes, and the Sorcerer Killer whirls about with a heavy kick instead. One that Shiki sidesteps and stomps down towards, only for her foot to come down on empty air.
But it's not enough to unbalance her. Shiki immediately uses the momentum to propel herself into a graceful flip over the other leg that promptly sweeps out towards her, Zenin's attempt to knock out her own feet from beneath her. The tip of Shiki's sword swings out as she's mid-air, barely grazing the Sorcerer Killer's neck as the man leans back just enough to avoid her retaliatory strike.
His lips curl ever so slightly upwards, in a way that indicates this is very clearly intentional. But if Shiki just reaches forward just a little more, then she'll be able to slit his throat–
A faint gleam from the corner of her eye.
Zenin Toji stabs his dagger upwards, gouging directly into Shiki's torso while she's overextended and off-balance and vulnerable–
Not.
The Sorcerer Killer's dagger digs into her ribcage and tears down to slash through her front… to no effect. There is no gory splatter of blood and viscera that accompanies the cut of his blade at all.
Instead, there is only a corresponding thin flash of brilliant white light from where his weapon fruitlessly attempts to rip through her body.
Shiki's cursed technique lapse is not so easy to bypass, after all.
In terms of its effectiveness, White has been classified as a defensive technique on par with Satoru-niichan's infinity barrier. Practically, though, there are more drawbacks to utilizing Shiki's technique than there are to her cousin's.
For the longest time, Shiki's greatest struggle when it came to White was the lapse technique's steep cost in terms of cursed energy. Training herself to become more efficient with how she controlled her cursed energy was helpful, but only up to a certain point. Even though she's wasting less energy with better control, it's still not nearly enough to offset the cost of White, even if she possessed perfect control over everything.
Hmm. In that case, I'd say that there are two methods of solving your problem! One, increase your cursed energy reserves so it becomes a non-issue for you to use White like this. Unfortunately, that's not very realistic –a person's capacity for cursed energy is more or less determined at birth. And while there are ways of increasing your reserves, most of those training exercises take years to show any visible results, as you already know.
… And the second method?
Well. If you can't significantly increase your capacity, then just decrease the amount of cursed energy that you're putting into your lapse technique.
It had taken a lot of trial and error, and Shiki likely wouldn't have succeeded without Satoru-niichan using his Six Eyes to helpfully observe her progress from the side. But the end results are very satisfying, since Shiki is now able to use an extremely precise version of White in a highly limited scope.
Previously, every usage of White applied to a target always encompassed the target in its entirety. If Shiki used White on herself, then she was being completely protected from anything that could negatively affect her, down to every last strand of her hair.
But by carefully picking apart the lapse technique and whittling it down to its bare bones, then painstakingly reconstructing the technique again under Satoru-niichan's watchful eye, that was no longer the case.
For example, if Shiki needed to scoop out a mistakenly-placed handful of sliced radishes from a pot of boiling water, then she could now use White only on a single arm for the task. The amount of cursed energy required to use the technique on one arm was vastly lower than the cost of using it on her entire body.
When Shiki had walked through Irifune's burning workplace earlier, she'd applied White to her entire body in order to protect herself from the hazardous environment. But against the Sorcerer Killer, she'd elected against doing so.
Her reasons for taking the higher risk were twofold. One, White was a costly technique. She'd already expended a portion of her cursed energy back in the burning building, so it would be better to reserve as much cursed energy as she could for an opponent like the Sorcerer Killer. It's already become clear that this was the right decision to make; Shiki had known going into this that Zenin Toji was a skilled combatant, but she still hadn't been prepared for just how skilled the man was.
Two, using the full version of White wasn't necessary –yet. If Shiki found herself being completely overwhelmed by Zenin's attacks, then perhaps she would need to resort to fully protecting herself. But fighting the Sorcerer Killer was a different breed of danger than walking into a blazing inferno.
Because if Zenin Toji wanted to kill her, then he'd need to raise his weapon and attack her. That meant Shiki could use White to only block serious or lethal blows as they came. Or even use it to her advantage, if she could manage to catch the Sorcerer Killer off-guard.
… It seems that she hasn't been entirely successful in her attempt, however.
Although Shiki comes out completely unscathed from what should've been a fatal attack that carves open her midsection, Zenin is still able to react swiftly enough to avoid having his throat sliced open. He tips back and kicks upwards, knocking her strike askew.
When the man straightens again, there's only a faint red line on his neck, a single droplet of blood trickling down from the light scratch.
How unfortunate. The missed opportunity to kill him just now means that the Sorcerer Killer will be warier from here on out.
"So that's your cursed technique?" Zenin casually raises a hand to his throat, and wipes a thumb over the faint line of blood. He looks towards Shiki again, and this time, there is a strange, chilling glimmer in his eyes. "Interesting. It almost reminds me of…"
Suddenly, there's a dagger right in front of her face.
Shiki flinches backwards, even as she swiftly draws on her cursed energy and the protective white light of her lapse technique blooms before her. Her sword slashes out towards the man closing in on her, but Zenin is prepared for it. He nearly snaps her blade, but Shiki simply twists and cuts down–
The Sorcerer Killer leans back, eyes fixed unerringly on her as he slowly steps away.
Guarded, Shiki does not remove her gaze from the dangerous man, either.
To the side, the baseball cap that she'd been wearing falls to the ground with a soft thump.
"Gojo," Zenin suddenly says, breaking the silence. "Those eyes, too. You're…"
A thoughtful hum, and then the man snaps his fingers.
"You're that Blessed Child," he says. "Yeah, I remember now. That cousin of yours freaked out when I stabbed the two of you together."
Shiki does not rise to the obvious bait.
So Ogami really had summoned the 'soul information' of the Sorcerer Killer using the Seance Technique… Well, Shiki supposes that only the Sorcerer Killer himself would know best how to utilize the advantages of the Heavenly Restriction affecting his body.
Regardless, "I don't know what you're talking about." She's not going to give him the satisfaction of any notable reaction to his words.
"Weren't you the one who recognized me on sight earlier?" Zenin sounds almost amused, clearly not believing her at all. "Don't tell me that meeting me was so traumatic that your mind just blocked out the entire experience."
"Or maybe it was so trivial that it wasn't worth remembering," Shiki counters serenely.
Zenin laughs.
In the next moment, Shiki is very nearly run through on the Sorcerer Killer's blade again.
…
… Fighting Zenin Toji is frustrating. Because the man outclasses her in every aspect –speed, strength, reflexes– and despite her best efforts of retaliating whenever possible, Shiki is acutely aware that the Sorcerer Killer is the one dominating the flow of battle here. It's difficult to admit, but it's the truth. Zenin moves fast enough that it almost feels like he's teleporting at times, and Shiki says this as someone who's both witnessed and experienced actual teleportation techniques before.
She can definitely see why Satoru-niichan had once struggled and nearly died at the hands of this opponent.
Zenin stomps hard on the ground, splintering the floorboards. One particularly large, jagged piece comes up underfoot, and he proceeds to kick it towards her. Shiki slices through the debris with a single clean stroke of her blade and ignores the dagger that collides harmlessly against her side in a shower of white sparks. She pushes forward and drives her sword into Zenin's torso–
–but it's no use. The Muramasa blade in her hand only whistles through empty air, and there's a hot burst of pain from where Zenin's dagger slices down over her back.
His blade makes it only partially into her shoulder blade, before being forcibly deflected by a bright, white glow.
… This isn't working. Forget about conserving her cursed energy. If things continue on like this, then the injuries that the Sorcerer Killer is leaving on her will slowly accumulate –and eventually, Shiki will fail to block a fatal blow.
But using the fully empowered version of White won't resolve this, either. Because even though Shiki will be protected from Zenin's attacks, it will be a severe drain on her cursed energy. And once her cursed energy runs dry, then she'll still have to face the Sorcerer Killer's onslaught without anything else to fall back on.
Things would be easier if she could just use reverse cursed technique to heal herself, but it's impossible to use different techniques simultaneously like this. Reverse cursed technique requires positive energy to operate, while White requires cursed energy. As long as Shiki constantly needs to use White to defend herself against Zenin's relentless attacks, there's no way for her to heal herself while she still has enough cursed energy to do so. Zenin intentionally isn't leaving any gaps in his relentless attacks for her to effectively make use of.
With all of this in mind, then–
A battle of attrition is not in her favor, Shiki concludes. She isn't going to be able to win against the Sorcerer Killer like this.
The only advantage that she can see to her current situation right now is the fact that Ogami's Seance Technique seems to be… fading, somewhat. Because Zenin no longer speaks to her with an intelligent light in his eyes; the man does not speak at all anymore, in fact. Which is quite possibly a sign that the 'soul information' of Zenin Toji that was summoned into this vessel has begun to expire. If that was the case, then once the 'body information' weakened as well, Shiki would have a better chance at victory.
… But who knows how long it would take for the Seance Technique to deteriorate to that point? There was no way for Shiki to know if her cursed energy reserves would be able to outlast the time limit on the Seance Technique, or if there was even a time limit at all.
So… essentially, Shiki's dilemma still remains unchanged.
One thing is clear: If she wants to turn the tables, then she can't continue fighting Zenin like this. Sooner or later, the Sorcerer Killer would eventually overpower her, and Shiki refused to let that happen.
It didn't have anything to do with a sorcerer's useless pride, or looking down on those who did not possess cursed energy.
Shiki refused to lose to a mere imprint of a man who her cousin had already killed, and refused to allow her own shortcomings to endanger everyone around her like this. Ken-jichan, Choki, the Kobayashi brothers… if Shiki failed to stop Zenin Toji here, as the strongest individual in their group, then what would that mean for them?
… The entire reason for her training so hard all these years was so that she wouldn't be a burden to those around her. And considering that she was the one who'd wanted to look for Geto Suguru, which was what had landed them here in the first place…
No.
If Satoru-niichan could kill Zenin Toji, then so could she.
… But it's not going to be easy. Shiki's strengths lie in close combat, in being able to kill with only a few simple cuts –but it means nothing when Zenin Toji has made himself all but untouchable. Does this mean that he's aware of her abilities? Or is it pure instinct, perhaps, that has the Sorcerer Killer so keenly avoiding the edge of her blade?
No matter the reason, Shiki needs to figure out a way of breaking out of this spiral.
Her physical abilities aren't enough to overcome the Sorcerer Killer. White will only prolong her inevitable defeat. Being able to see Zenin's lines is useless when she can't cut any of them.
Which means…
…
…
… Shiki still lacks practice, and the option that comes to mind after considering all of these factors is… unreliable. Uncertain. Unstable, and incomplete.
But it's also the only viable option that she has at the moment. She'll need to take a gamble.
… Kinji would approve of this, wouldn't he?
Shaking aside the extraneous thought, Shiki takes a deep breath and focuses.
When Zenin's dagger curves wickedly towards her jugular on the next strike, she blocks it with her own blade–
And her free hand snaps out towards the Sorcerer Killer's body.
Invert the cursed energy, accelerate the rotation, concentrate on the output and increase it beyond your limits–!
Clearly sensing something off about her sudden action, the man jerks to the side to avoid her bare hand. As a result, Shiki's fingers barely manage to brush against the man's shoulder, before she's left grasping at thin air.
But it's enough.
Shiki draws her hand back to herself, and forms a single seal.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Black."
.
.
…
.