"This is what I've been waiting for!"
The moment Yasutaka shouted it, the wind that had gathered before Tokuzō surged straight toward him!
But Yasutaka kept his cool and gave the otter puppet a mighty kick!
THWACK!
"Hup!"
The gust that had rushed in from Yasutaka's kick slammed straight into the otter puppet!
KA-BOOOOM!!
The otter puppet went sailing off into the distance from the impact...
Plop...
With a soft splash, it dropped into the river.
"Wha—!"
Tokuzō could only stand there, dumbfounded by what had just happened.
But Yasutaka wasn't foolish enough to let such an opening slip by.
"Got him!"
He closed the distance in an instant and planted himself right in front of Tokuzō...
Snap...
He sliced clean through the biwa's string, first thing!
"What?!"
As Tokuzō reeled from having his string cut, Yasutaka crossed his twin blades and pressed them to his throat!
There was no wriggling out of this one.
Tokuzō let out a deep sigh and said, in a voice fading to nothing.
"...I surrender."
"Very well."
Yasutaka began tying Tokuzō up, but there was one thing nagging at him that he had to ask before he finished.
"There we go... By the way, something's been bugging me. Why were you using an otter puppet of all things?"
Now, your typical Kabukimono handles a puppet decked out as a valiant, manly samurai in full armor.
It cuts a finer figure, you see, and most Kabukimono who care about appearances go that route.
Hearing the question, Tokuzō answered, looking rather embarrassed.
"Well, you see... girls just love that cute stuff~♪"
"That's your reason?!"
Yasutaka couldn't help but smack him on the head.
Now then, over on the other side, let's see how Mōha was faring against Vainglory Mika...
FLASH! ZAP!
(Whoa, that was close!)
Mōha dodged the beam by the skin of his teeth.
He'd been struggling to press the attack, what with the One-Eyed Boy's beams raining down on him.
And now, more bad luck came raining down on Mōha too.
Slip!
His foot skidded on some trinket lying in the road!
"Whoa!"
Mōha went down hard on his backside.
(That's it! It's the others' stuff!)
With everyone else fighting all around, the odd bit of gear kept slipping loose and scattering across the ground.
Sure enough, looking closer, all sorts of trinkets lay strewn about, and one of them had tripped him up.
He tried to scramble back to his feet, but Mika's staff came flying at him at once!
CLANG!
"Not bad, keeping up... let's see how long you can last!"
Mika bore down on him, trying to force him back!
"Damn it!"
Mōha, blocking from an awkward stance, couldn't put any strength behind it.
"Get lost already!"
Mika pressed to finish him off, but...
THUD!
Something knocked into her, sending her stumbling lightly!
"What?!"
When Mika turned to see who'd shoved her, she found one of her fellow thieves, knocked senseless by the fire brigade.
With everyone else's battles raging around, the fights kept bleeding into each other in the strangest ways.
"There's my opening!"
Mōha hurled the kunai in his hand with all his strength!
Fwip...
It flew true, striking the One-Eyed Boy square in its great eye!
Hisssss.......
The One-Eyed Boy dissolved into mist and vanished on the spot.
"No!"
Mika scrambled to summon it again, but Mōha wasn't about to let her.
"Don't move..."
He held the kunai to her throat.
"Hands behind your back."
"...Damn it."
Looking utterly defeated, Mika let herself be bound, hands behind her back.
Just then, Mōha noticed something about her necklace, and it turned his stomach.
It was strung with fingers, supposedly collected from every enemy she'd killed.
"I'll be tossing this tasteless little necklace of yours."
He reached to pull it off her, but...
"Huh? What the—these are fake fingers."
Every single one of them was a fake.
She'd strung the necklace together from nothing but toy fingers.
"Ehehehe..."
Mika gave a dry laugh, and Mōha, thoroughly unimpressed, asked her straight out.
"Why the hell were you wearing this thing?"
"Ehehe... it's just for show, you know~ I wanted to make myself look scarier."
"Unbelievable..."
Mōha could only sigh at Mika's flippant excuse.