Crash, crash, crash......
"What's this?!"
"Fall back! Fall back!"
The samurai were struck by flying rubble from a shop that had exploded without warning, and wounds bloomed among them.
Several had already taken injuries, and the damage kept mounting.
From within the billowing cloud of dust, something emerged......
"I will avenge Lord Kōen!"
There floated the figure of a Yōjin.
Four wings beat the air behind her, and where a single head should have sat, there were eight.
Beneath her, appearing from who-knows-where, stood Kamazuchi Mikan, the Sugar Man, the Eight-Armed Panda, and more besides.
Tōyama Kinshirō looked upon this grand and terrible sight and grinned.
"Ha! Well, well, well... ain't you actin' all high and mighty!"
Ōoka Echizen answered him quietly.
"You're the last man alive who ought to say that to anyone... though I'll grant you, she is acting cocky."
Tōyama laughed at that.
"Then let's teach the brat some manners! Come on, boys! Let's go!"
""""Yes, sir!""""
The Northern Magistrate's Office's forces charged in to strike down the assembled Nue!
The Southern Magistrate's Office's forces, meanwhile, moved with far more composure.
"Take no unnecessary risks. Defeat them one at a time, with certainty."
""""Yes, sir!""""
Under Ōoka's steady command, the Southern Magistrate's troops chipped away at the monsters with cold precision.
Onihei, on the other hand, had fallen into disarray.
"You!"
"Boss... why did you send me out there......"
An old man's ghost had appeared, and Onihei froze solid.
"Ah... ah......"
"Boss... I'm so lonely... please, you come too......"
"AAAAAAAAAAH!!"
Onihei, so different from the commanding figure he'd been only moments before, had come completely undone.
Watching this, Mōha asked,
"What in the world is that?!"
"That's Umabuki no Riheiji! Don't tell me he became a wandering spirit......"
One of the Fire and Arson Bureau's inspectors twisted his face in dismay.
(That's the Riheiji who's supposedly been reborn a dozen times over!)
For all Onihei's usual bluster, this trauma clearly cut deep, and now the man was falling apart before their eyes!
And because of it, the Kato's own forces were being dragged down along with him!
"...... Vow of Enlightenment! Begone, Evil Spirits!"
Iseki the monk chanted the Spirit-Pacifying Sutra... but it did nothing to Riheiji!
"Booooooss......"
"STOP IT!!"
"Impossible! The Sutra has no effect?!"
The Spirit-Pacifying Sutra, cast upon the ghost that had appeared, simply did not work!
This sutra was a hōjutsu with special potency against undead yokai; even if it could not fully deliver a spirit to enlightenment, it ought to at least have wounded one.
Yet against Riheiji's ghost, Iseki could not detect so much as a flicker of effect, and stood there baffled.
And that was not the only trouble.
""""""""THERE!""""""""
BA-BOOOOOOOOM!!!!
Kana, wheeling through the sky, poured down a torrent of hōjutsu upon them!
Because of it, the men kept coming maddeningly close to finishing off the monsters, only to fall just short each time!
"Damn you! Flames, oh flames♪ rise up and burn~♪"
The Bird-folk soaring through the sky tried to strike Kana down with a Sacred Hymn hōjutsu attack, but......
Ploink......
The spell struck an invisible mirror and bounced straight back!
"Dammit!"
"Flames, oh flames♪ be stilled~♪"
Fwoosh......
A comrade's hymn snuffed out the rebounding spell before it could strike home!
"Son of a bitch!"
Plink-plunk-plink♬
A Bird-folk holding a biwa summoned a flying warrior-doll to press the attack on Kana, but......
Thud, thud......
Whether slashed or stabbed, it had no effect whatsoever.
The blade couldn't even tear her kimono. Nothing landed!
Kana threw back her head and let out a great, ringing laugh.
"Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"
"It's useless, useless, useless!!"
"Every single attack you throw at me......"
"...has absolutely no effect at all!!"
"Pointless! Pointless!!"
Kana jeered at them, mocking.
With eight heads speaking at once, it came out as an eerie, overlapping round, which was somehow even more irritating.
Watching this, Mōha drew his kunai and hurled them at Kana!
"Eat this!"
Thock-thock-thock-thock-thock......
Every single kunai he threw buried itself in Kana's body!
(For some reason kunai worked terrifyingly well on Kōen. So this ought to do it!)
That was Mōha's hope, but the kunai only slid loose and clattered lifelessly to the ground, and Kana showed no sign whatsoever of being hurt.
Kana grinned.
"I watched Lord Kōen's failure."
"I won't make the same mistake."
"No attack, of any kind, can touch me."
"Pointless, pointless!"
"Rejoice."
"For all of you......"
"...shall be offered up......"
"...to great Gimanshin Jinkai!"
"Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"
Kana cackled and cackled.
(Gimanshin Jinkai? Is that the name of this newly-arisen demon god?!)
None of them had ever heard the name before, but a demon god was surely a dangerous thing regardless.
(What do we do?!)
Between the Yōjin's monstrous strength and the powerful yokai at her command, the situation had turned dire.
The real problem was Kana and Riheiji's ghost, above all else.
Something had to be done about the two of them, and yet nothing anyone tried seemed to work.
"You bastard!"
Whooooosh!!
A band of light, some manner of qigong art unleashed by one of the Kabukimono, shot toward Kana...............
Snap!
It wrapped around her, binding her tight! But then......
"It doesn't work on me!"
Crack!
Kana shattered the bindings of light without the slightest effort.
"Damn you!!"
Fwip!
An onmyōji among the Kabukimono summoned a spider shikigami and fired its thread at her!
But Kana, flying high above, was simply too far away.
"How tiresome!"
Fwooosh!!
She breathed fire from her mouth and burned the thread to ash!
""""""""You're all going to die right here!""""""""
Kana's laughter rang out high and triumphant.
Every face below turned grim at the sound of it.
(((((What do we do?!)))))
And it was at that very moment, as everyone stood in despair before Kana's overwhelming power, that......