.
Shiki can understand her classmate's surprise. After all, finding a Special Grade cursed spirit on the loose is hardly something that anyone could have reasonably expected to encounter without warning.
Ever since Okkotsu Yuta had been taken in by the Tokyo school, there haven't actually been any instances where the Special Grade cursed spirit haunting him manifested itself. Which was likely in large part due to the fact that there simply hadn't been any opportunities for it. Going by Okkotsu-san's own account, he couldn't really control when and where the cursed spirit decided to make itself known. In his experience, typically it only took corporeal form when he himself was threatened.
The implications of Orimoto Rika's frenzied presence here without Okkotsu-san, then, didn't bode well.
… But if there's any bright side to be said at all about the current state of things, it would be that this at least confirmed Okkotsu-san to be alive.
Satoru-niichan had once spoken of how Okkotsu-san and the Special Grade cursed spirit's energies were inextricably entwined with each other's. The death of any one party would inevitably, significantly affect the other, and not for the better. If killing 'Orimoto Rika' was a viable solution for safely resolving Okkotsu-san's situation, then Satoru-niichan could've easily done so himself a long time ago.
In short, killing this cursed spirit is something that's best avoided.
Yet at the same time, if it becomes necessary… then, there's no avoiding what must be done. Part of their official reasoning for keeping Okkotsu-san in the Tokyo school was precisely because of the unshakable confidence that everything would be kept under control between Satoru-niichan and Shiki. If that was to be proven otherwise, then there was no way that the higher ups would overlook such a golden opportunity to undermine Satoru-niichan whilst strengthening their own authority.
Even setting aside the glaring problem posed by the higher ups…
Although Satoru-niichan desires to help the boy and allow him to realize his potential as a sorcerer, there are still certain responsibilities that he is beholden to. Ones that take precedence over the future and wellbeing of a single child.
That being said, there is a certain nuance to this. Strength allows for far greater leeway in determining what's 'necessary' and not, and Satoru-niichan is the undisputed Strongest in this day and age.
Certainly, Shiki still has a long way to go before approaching her cousin's level. But even so, her freedom to act according to her own will is greater than most.
The girl stares up at the Special Grade cursed spirit, contemplative, one hand resting loosely over the hilt of her sword.
Kill?
… Not yet.
The cursed blade beneath her palm rattles restlessly in its sheath, then sullenly falls silent when Shiki deliberately moves her hand away.
"What in the world is going on?" Unaware of her thoughts, Kirara's attention is solely trained on the Special Grade cursed spirit before them. "This is Okkotsu's cursed spirit, isn't it?"
"Yeah, so where's Okkotsu?!" Kinji complains from off to the side, where he's… still sprawled on the ground, it seems.
"Get up," Shiki tells him.
"… You could at least pretend to be a little more concerned," the boy huffs indignantly, albeit without any real heat. Then, proceeds to pick himself up off the ground. "I almost lost my head just now! Really feeling the love here, ojou-sama."
In all honesty, Shiki would've been far more concerned for her classmate had he actually been injured by the Special Grade cursed spirit when it burst onto the scene. As it is, seeing that he's still in the mood to be making sarcastic quips like this, Shiki thinks that Kinji is doing perfectly fine despite the slight scare.
And so, she focuses on the Special Grade cursed spirit instead.
Due to the unique connection between it and Okkotsu Yuta, it is only reasonable to expect them to be in the general proximity of each other; where one is present, the other is not likely to be very far behind.
And yet, this does not appear to be the case in this particular instance. Kinji asking after Okkotsu-san's whereabouts was a clear sign that he didn't sense the other boy anywhere nearby… and neither did Shiki, for that matter.
Which indicated one of two things: Either there was something in the distorted environment interfering with their senses, or Okkotsu-san really was located somewhere else entirely.
Judging by his cursed spirit's agitation, it seemed that the latter option was a very real possibility that could not be dismissed out of hand.
What was it that Okkotsu-san's cursed spirit had said again, just now? Give Yuta back, or something like that?
… How had they been separated from each other to begin with? And if that was true, then their connection should still be intact, seeing as the cursed spirit was–
Yuta Yuta Yuta YUTAAA!
The Special Grade cursed spirit writhes wildly, curling in on itself while holding its head. The thick coils of its snake-like tail easily tear down a good half of the hallway, widening the already-present hole in the wall even further while also causing bits and pieces of debris to come crashing down upon it.
Not that the cursed spirit even seems to notice, caught up in the throes of its own wailing as it is.
"… Something definitely doesn't seem right about this," Kinji frowns. An understatement, if Shiki has ever heard one. "What's Okkotsu doing?"
"This may not have anything to do with him," Shiki hums.
Kinji blinks, and his frown deepens into something approaching concern. "You mean it's just rampaging on its own like this? … I mean, I guess I don't see Okkotsu around anywhere either. But if he's not here, then how do we get this thing to stop?"
"It doesn't even seem like it's focusing on us," Kirara murmurs, cautiously eyeing the Special Grade cursed spirit as he inches closer to Kinji and Shiki. "I… I don't understand this, either. If it's connected to Okkotsu Yuta, then shouldn't it–"
The cursed spirit's head suddenly snaps towards him.
Contrary to Kirara's observation of its inattention, the Special Grade cursed spirit immediately turns upon the boy –as soon as the name 'Yuta' had passed his lips. Which causes Kirara to take a startled half-step backwards, and the cursed spirit to move towards them in turn.
"Hey, what gives?!" Kinji unthinkingly steps in front of Kirara, hands loosely raised in front of his chest and curling into the seals to activate his Domain Expansion even as he speaks. "… Shit. Shiki, are we really gonna have to fight this thing?"
"Would subduing it allow us to find the first year students?" Shiki points out.
"Yeah, and that's what I'm asking you here!"
"… The answer is 'no,'" she sighs. If anything, taking time to fight and subdue Okkotsu-san's Special Grade cursed spirit would only delay their search. Which was not ideal, to say the least. The suspicious timing of the cursed spirit's sudden appearance like this… was it really a coincidence?
Possible, perhaps, but likely not.
What were the chances that the cursed spirit responsible for this pseudo-domain had deliberately placed 'Orimoto Rika' in their way? That upon easily dispatching the canine cursed spirit earlier, it decided to send something far stronger their way?
It didn't even need to control Orimoto Rika, merely set the Special Grade cursed spirit in the direction that it wanted. If the Special Grade curse was already highly agitated from being unable to find Okkotsu, then it would naturally be more aggressive and lash out at everything in its vicinity.
If this was the case, then the mansion's cursed spirit had far greater control over its environment than Shiki expected, even despite the shoddy incompleteness in the pseudo-domain itself. Under this assumption, it was entirely possible that Shiki's original plan to track the cursed spirit based on the highest level of instability in their surroundings was a faulty one…
… or not? Otherwise, why would the cursed spirit set a Special Grade curse on them, if not to delay them and keep them wandering in circles? Or perhaps this was unintentional on its part, and Orimoto Rika had simply barged here on its own?
There's not enough information to come to any definite conclusions, regrettably, which made things a little tricky. Especially as it was becoming clearer with every passing moment that it was important that they find the first year students as soon as possible, given that the danger in this mansion was much higher than the original mission briefing had surmised.
But from another perspective, this also made things quite simple, didn't it? This meant that–
Where's Yuta?! The cursed spirit roars at them, its thunderous voice causing their surroundings to visibly quake.
"That's what we'd like to know, too!" Kinji immediately fires back towards it, almost reflexively. Sassing a volatile Special Grade cursed spirit, however, is perhaps not the wisest course of action to take. Something that is immediately evidenced by the aforementioned cursed spirit snarling at him, and–
And this time, Kinji is a little more prepared for its attack.
"Domain Expansion: Idle Death Gamble."
When the cursed spirit makes an incoherent sound of rage and slams its hand down on him as if to flatten him into a bloody splatter on the ground, Kinji swiftly responds by expanding his domain. The speed and execution of the technique's activation is a lot faster and smoother than Shiki recalls it being; in mere moments, both Kinji and the Special Grade cursed spirit bearing down upon him have been enveloped in a dark sphere. A barrier, one that encloses Kinji's unique domain within it.
It seems that both of her classmates have made great strides in polishing their skills during the months that she had been absent from the Tokyo school.
Kinji's Domain Expansion does not last long. Shortly after its initial activation, the barrier crumbles. The Special Grade cursed spirit surges out with a shrill screech, bloodstained hands swinging wildly around it–
And Kinji darts between the gaps in its defense with a sharp grin, his body overflowing with cursed energy. There are no traces of any injuries on his body, save for the newly-acquired tatters in his clothes and the blood marring otherwise-pristine skin.
"… If he's just going to enthusiastically jump headfirst into a fistfight against a Special Grade cursed spirit, then why did he even bother asking you if we're really going to have to fight it earlier?" Kirara deadpans.
Shiki shrugs, equally at a loss. "Does it seem like I know what's going on in his mind?"
"Oi, a little help over here, maybe?!" Kinji's muffled voice sounds from overhead, when Okkotsu-san's cursed spirit launches him upwards into the ceiling. Even though his Domain Expansion grants him an advantage in physical combat, it seems that it's not quite enough for him to go toe to toe against a Special Grade cursed spirit.
"Oh, so now you ask for help?" Despite those words, when the cursed spirit rears back and makes as if to crush Kinji, Kirara crooks his fingers in a small beckoning motion, the gesture accompanied by a slight spark in his cursed energy.
Which instantly results in Kinji launching towards him, as if his body has been yanked over by an invisible string, neatly avoiding the Special Grade cursed spirit's blow.
"Thanks," Kinji gives the other boy a cheerful thumbs-up. "Your cursed technique is really handy, huh?"
Kirara huffs, but it's not hard to see that he's faintly pleased by his classmate's compliment. "Any ideas on what to do about the Special Grade curse charging us down?"
"Yeah, I don't think we'll need to worry about that, actually."
Shiki sighs as she steps forward.
An instant before the Special Grade cursed spirit's snake-like tail continues its current trajectory and crashes down upon them like a heavy mountain, she raises her hand and reaches out to meet it.
For the briefest moment, there is a white flash from where the cursed spirit's tail connects solidly against her hand as she activates her cursed technique.
And the Special Grade cursed spirit's strike glances harmlessly off from her palm.
Before it has a chance to regather itself, and coil back for another strike, Shiki moves onto the offensive.
For all the relative simplicity of the cursed spirit's attack patterns –which is likely directly related to the fact that the original Orimoto-san had died as a young child– 'Orimoto Rika' is still a Special Grade, and deserving of its assigned rank. Which explains why Kinji had struggled earlier against it, even despite the advantage of his Domain Expansion.
Shiki, on the other hand, is more experienced when it comes to dealing with Special Grades.
But there's still a need for caution here, however. Shiki remembers what Satoru-niichan had said about Okkotsu Yuta and Orimoto Rika being inextricably bound to each other. Bound, and cursed. The way that their energies were closely interwoven with each other meant that the termination of either party was likely to have heavy negative repercussions. So if Shiki killed this Special Grade cursed spirit, then in the simplest scenario, it was possible that Okkotsu-san would also be cursed to die with it. Alternatively, maybe all the cursed energy shared between them would immediately funnel into the boy and turn him into a cursed spirit on the spot.
The exact results were unknown, but vanishingly unlikely to be anything good. Hence why Satoru-niichan had suggested that Okkotsu Yuta become a sorcerer and learn how to control his cursed energy. That way, he would be able to slowly unravel the curse on his own, and release both of them safely from it.
Shiki will avoid killing 'Orimoto Rika.' Not until it becomes absolutely necessary, and the current situation in front of her does not qualify as that. Which means that she needs to be quite careful. Shiki's skill set is deadlier than most, after all.
She keeps the sword at her side firmly sheathed, and tracks the cursed spirit's movements closely so that she does not end up accidentally cutting its lines. For such a large cursed spirit, it's surprisingly nimble despite its size. In a flash, its body curves left like a sinuous serpent to duck under Shiki's spinning kick, and the cursed spirit even proceeds to lean into the motion, planting its arms into the ground to use as a fulcrum to heave the lower tail-half of its body like a blunt whip.
To which Shiki responds by using her sheathed sword as a spring to neatly flip upwards off the ground, and land precisely upon the cursed spirit's tail as it passes below her.
The instant that her foot touches down, the momentum of the cursed spirit's tail comes to an abrupt stop beneath her, pinned in place.
Shiki's physical weight might be negligible, but the weight of her cursed energy is not something that's so easily dismissed.
… It's not something that freezes the cursed spirit in place, exactly. Okkotsu-san has more cursed energy than Shiki, which makes small tricks like that inconvenient to pull off on him. The same also holds true for his cursed spirit. Satoru-niichan might have better luck than Shiki in regards to this sort of thing.
But by deliberately flaring her cursed energy like this, threatening and provocative, the cursed spirit immediately focuses on her. Which is what Shiki wants here: She needs the cursed spirit to take note of her and become aware of her as something more than a faceless annoyance to destroy in its mindless rampage over Okkotsu-san's absence.
There's no point in dragging things out in a prolonged fight. Technically, they were even supposed to be on the 'same side' as this cursed spirit, given its unique connection to Okkotsu-san.
… Not that this cursed spirit seemed to truly recognize anyone aside from Okkotsu-san. It only holds still for a brief beat, glowering at Shiki, then writhes with a fierce roar. Raises its claws, clearly intending to continue fighting–
But Shiki has no intention of continuing to entertain its meaningless tantrum.
"Do you want to find Okkotsu Yuta?" she asks it neutrally.
Sharp talons come to an abrupt stop barely a centimeter away from the tip of Shiki's nose.
…
Slowly, the cursed spirit lowers itself towards her. There are no eyes on its face. Nothing that's visibly recognizable as such, at least. Nonetheless, the way that it leans over her menacingly implies a harsh glare nonetheless.
WHERE DID YOU HIDE YUTA?
"I'm not the one who hid him," Shiki informs the cursed spirit. Although, she expects that it won't actually believe her… but that's not what's important here. "You want to find him, correct? I know how you can do that."
WHERE DID YOU HIDE YUTA?
For a Special Grade cursed spirit, 'Orimoto Rika' is surprisingly… simplistic. Shiki hadn't really realized that before. This is both a good and bad thing, she supposes, mostly depending on the situation. Something to take note of and relay to Okkotsu-san later.
… But for now, it's something that Shiki can make use of.
The cursed spirit won't understand if Shiki starts telling it about pseudo-domains. Judging by the fact that it had gotten separated from Okkotsu-san, evidently whatever means it had to return to him were also obstructed. But Okkotsu-san wasn't dead. Otherwise, that would also be reflected somehow in the cursed spirit's state. And currently, 'Orimoto Rika' exists in this space as a stable manifestation.
Bearing all of this in mind, the easiest way to find the first year students would be to–
Shiki points at the crumbling wall beside them, "Destroy it. This entire building that we're standing in –destroy all of it."
"Eh?" It's not the cursed spirit that responds immediately, but instead Shiki's classmates. Both of whom make surprised sounds in unison behind her. "Shiki, are you sure that's really–"
YUTA. WHERE?
"Okkotsu Yuta is in this building," Shiki says calmly. "You know that yourself, don't you? That's why you're still here. If you want to find him, then tear down the building and dig him out yourself."
The surprised sounds behind her turn into choked coughing. Shiki ignores her classmates, placidly staring up at the giant cursed spirit glaring down at her.
"Don't glare at me." It's rude. Besides, "I'm not the one who lost Okkotsu-san."
The Special Grade cursed spirit quivers.
YuuUUUTTTaaAAAAA!
Those words seem to be the final straw. The cursed spirit whirls around, and begins viciously tearing into their surroundings, causing the walls to tremble as heavy chunks of debris fall from–
"Wait, wait, wait," Kinji grabs Shiki by the shoulder. Above them, dangerous-sounding creaks begin emanating from the ceiling. "What the heck. Shiki, just, what?"
The girl tilts her head. "You're going to have to be a little more specific than that with what you're asking, Kinji."
"Shiki," he says flatly. "Shiki, my dude. Dude. What are you playing at here? Telling Okkotsu's cursed spirit to just go ahead and destroy everything? You want to bring down this entire place on top of us?!"
"Yes," she responds succinctly.
The boy stares at her. "Didn't you say that this was a bad idea earlier when I mentioned destroying the manor earlier?"
"That was then." If the cursed spirit behind the manor's pseudo-domain was able to make it so that even 'Orimoto Rika' was unable to find its way back to Okkotsu-san, despite being a Special Grade cursed spirit that was bound to the boy… then any method of navigating through this pseudo-domain was unlikely to be very reliable.
In that case, then the answer to solve this dilemma became exceedingly simple.
"You're not concerned about the first years getting crushed under this anymore, if everything gets destroyed?" Kirara asks with a slight frown.
Kirara isn't wrong; that's still an existing concern. If things go wrong, the first years definitely won't be coming out of this unscathed. However…
"We've already wasted enough time." At this point, Shiki is more concerned about what the cursed spirit responsible for the pseudo-domain in this mansion intends with the first year students. What Kirara had brought up is something that's worrying, but comparing the threat of a collapsing building against whatever nefarious plans that a tricky cursed spirit might have in mind… Shiki thinks that it would be safer to bet on the former.
If the first years were together, then they'd most likely try to protect each other, which would help. And if any of them were severely injured by the building falling down on them… then as long as they were still alive when Shiki found them, she would be able to use White to prolong their time and bring them to Shoko-san safely.
With that in mind, what mattered more was finding the first years to begin with. That, and flushing out the cursed spirit in this mansion that seemed to be far too fond of playing hide and seek for Shiki's liking.
Another low rumble, and a tremor shakes through the wooden flooring beneath their feet. Then, jagged cracks proceed to spiderweb throughout the length of the entire hallway, jagged crevices that spread rapidly and grow deeper to the point where the ground itself destabilizes–
"Go, go, go!" Kinji shouts, breaking into a run as he pulls Kirara along beside him. "I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to get buried underneath–"
And so saying, the boy promptly disappears from view beneath a black-white blur.
Because in this moment, suddenly there is a massive black and white object that descends from above out of nowhere.
… An object that is quite furry, in fact, and whose cursed energy signature is actually quite familiar to Shiki's senses.
She carefully leans over the groaning heap, blinking. That was… certainly a lot faster than she'd expected for it to take, in order for them to encounter any of the first years. "Panda?"
"Shiki?!" Panda gapes up at her in shock. "What are you doing here? I thought –oh, oops."
His 'oops' is simultaneously accompanied by the abrupt motion of his entire body sinking down sharply, the precarious flooring creaking dangerously under the heavy girth of his sizable stature.
Then, Panda yelps loudly when the floor splits apart beneath them all.
There's no time to run at this point. More importantly, there's no need to run. Panda's sudden reappearance here lends credence to the theory that destroying the building is a true working solution to their dilemma. Even though it hadn't seemed that the cursed spirit imbued any cursed technique into their surroundings to elevate it into an actual domain, clearly it hadn't been without its tricks even so… yet none of that mattered, because they'd taken the brute force solution:
Destroy the mansion.
Destroy, and thereby the physical walls serving as the pseudo-domain's barrier. As long as the pseudo-domain was gone, then this mansion would revert to being a regular space existing in the real world, terminating the distorted phenomenon going on. The cursed spirit would find it far harder to hide once they were back in the real world.
"What the heck is happening?!" Another voice shouts from somewhere above them. Another familiar-sounding female voice; this would be–
"Oh hey, Maki!" Panda calls back. "Guess who I found?"
"What?"
"Not 'what,' it's 'who,'" Panda corrects, sucking in another deep lungful of air. "I found–"
"Tsuna!"
"No, no, I didn't find any tuna either–"
"That's not what he's saying, you dolt!" Zenin Maki raises her voice. "He's… wait, what are you doing here?"
Panda shrugs, or at least approximates the motion as best as he can while he's still in free-fall. "Falling, I guess?"
"I wasn't asking you, Panda!" Even from this distance, it's not hard to make out the distinct motion of Zenin-san rolling her eyes. "Gojo-san, why are you here?"
"And what are we, chopped liver?" Kinji turns a somersault as he tumbles through the air. "Kirara, are we just that unremarkable?"
A vein visible pulses on the side of the first year girl's temple.
"Ijichi-san contacted me for assistance," Shiki thinks it might be better to respond before the others get up to any of their antics. This is probably not the best time for something like that, not when there was still the unknown enemy that they needed to deal with. And more importantly, there was also the matter of, "Okkotsu-san isn't with your group?"
"Okaka, mentaiko," Inumaki-san says as he nearly gets clipped by a jagged wooden floorboard, which isn't particularly informative. What's rather more informative is the 'x' gesture that his arms are currently crossed in front of his chest in.
So Okkotsu-san had been separated from the rest of his classmates?
Hmm.
"Yuta got kidnapped by the cursed spirit in this place," Panda tells her. "Our mission debrief only said that there were a bunch of minor curses haunting the manor, but the one that took Yuta is at least a Grade One."
That was also quite odd. "A Grade One cursed spirit managed to take him?"
"None of us were expecting it! I actually thought she was a ghost at first, too, not a cursed spirit," Panda protests in his own defense. "Still not really sure about that, honestly."
"Hold up, a ghost?" Even in mid-air, Kinji somehow manages to straighten attentively. "Y'know, I've never actually seen a legit ghost before–"
Kirara slaps a hand over the other boy's mouth. "Stop derailing!"
"Mmrrfwhhmphhhh."
"… Anyways," Panda continues, "Yuta was the one that found her hiding in a corner, and he actually thought that she was just a civilian who got lost in the mansion. So he went over to her while we were getting the other curses in the hallway. Next thing we knew, Yuta was getting pulled into a painting. And after that, the entire mansion just went all topsy-turvy, and… yeah, we've been wandering around trying to find Yuta ever since. No luck, though."
Shiki had not been given as much information as she usually would've preferred, going into this rescue mission. From what she's hearing from Panda here, however, this most certainly does not seem like the sort of mission that first year students should've been placed anywhere near close to.
"When did Orimoto Rika take form?" she asks, pursuing a different tangent.
"Orimoto –wait. Are you saying that Yuta's Special Grade cursed spirit made a full manifestation?" Panda blinks rapidly, as if attempting to process the information.
… If this comes as news to him, then it means that 'Orimoto Rika' had materialized sometime after Okkotsu-san had been separated from the group. Had been taken away by the cursed spirit responsible for making a mess of the manor, as it seems. And then the cursed spirit had somehow separated Orimoto Rika from Okkotsu Yuta. Eventually, Shiki and her fellow classmates encountered Orimoto Rika while searching through the manor.
That general timeline seems to make sense. The unnatural spatial distortion in the manor had been disrupted once Shiki told Orimoto Rika to destroy the physical barriers; this would be why Panda, Inumaki-san, and Zenin-san had all appeared so swiftly. The manor was large, yes, but it wasn't that large.
Since Okkotsu-san was missing, still, then… it implied that the cursed spirit in this manor was still holding him hostage.
… The cursed spirit that looked like a ghost, according to Panda, which was another oddity. Ghosts still retained a fully human form; cursed spirits typically did not.
And ghosts were quite rare in Japan to begin with, thanks to a combination of Tengen's barriers and pacification rituals carried out in various temples throughout the country. Although… considering the mess that had taken place during Obon last year, when the okuribi had been disrupted…
Obon was perhaps the most important of the many rituals utilized in pacifying deceased spirits. Was the appearance of a ghost here perhaps somehow related to that?
According to the scrolls, ghosts are typically harmless. Not unless the deceased individual in question was well on verge of becoming a vengeful cursed spirit, which… might be what the first year students had unexpectedly encountered here?
Deceased souls are not meant to linger in the land of the living. Ghosts must pass on, and vengeful spirits must be either pacified or exorcised.
…
Around them, the crumbling walls and broken stairs almost seem to warp, distorting unnaturally. A sign that the space within this pseudo-domain was finally reaching its limits–
YUTA YUTA YUTAAAAA!
–and Okkotsu-san's Special Grade cursed spirit also seemed to be reaching its limits, it seemed. The limits of its patience, to be precise.
Something around them –bursts, for lack of a better descriptor. Swells to fullness, then finally overflows. There is a crack in the darkness, and then light floods their surroundings, as all the crumbling walls and broken stairs swirling around them crash thunderously to the ground.
And it is indeed solid ground that has finally appeared beneath them, replacing the unending vortex of the unnatural free-fall that they'd just experienced. There are multiple 'oof's and 'ow's that sound in a disorganized chorus as the other Tokyo students tumble down around her in a tangled mess of limbs, Panda acting as the cushion for more than one dazed student.
Shiki, on her part, is able to land adroitly on her feet, and also cleave apart the wide metal beam bearing down on them before the massive structure crushes their group beneath its weight.
"This never gets any less impressive no matter how many times I see it," Panda raises a paw over his face, shading his eyes from the blinding sunlight that glares down upon them. "Like, I get that you see lines and stuff, but how does that even work? 'Cuz if anyone else tried to cut a steel pillar I'm pretty sure their sword would just snap in half."
"Ikura."
"You're right, Toge. This definitely isn't the time to be thinking about eating caviar!"
Inumaki-san rolls his eyes. "Mentaiko."
"Stop being such a buffoon, Panda. You can crack all the jokes you want later, after we've gotten out of this mess." Zenin-san clambers up from the ground, staggering slightly on unsteady feet. "Are we… are we finally out of that weird manor now?"
"Seems like it," Kinji also rises to his feet, stretching, and turns around to pull Kirara up as well. "Which actually still leaves us the question of–"
A loud screech interrupts the boy's words; the sound of a certain Special Grade cursed spirit crying out in rage.
"–never mind," Kinji continues without missing a beat, "Guess we know where Okkotsu's cursed spirit ran off to, then. Doesn't sound like it went very far. C'mon guys, after it!"
.
.
…
.