*"Damn it!!"*
Now then, wracked with agony as she was, Kana still managed to haul herself into the air!
*"Curse you, Potato Samurai! I'll make you pay for this, mark my words!"*
So screaming, Kana tried to flee high into the sky, but...
BOOM!
One of her heads suddenly went flying clean off!
*"Gyaaargh!!"*
With that head gone, the remaining seven twisted in agony.
Meanwhile, the very Bird-folk who'd blown it off wore a look like he couldn't quite believe what he'd just done himself.
"No way... all I did was whack her with a shakuhachi, and that's what happens?"
"Seems like anything that isn't a weapon does absurd damage to her..."
The Bird-folk gathered round were equally dumbfounded.
All he'd done was strike her with a flute, and by the look on his face, even he hadn't expected quite that much force behind it.
"Curse you!!"
Kana glared at the Bird-folk who'd struck her and moved to unleash her Hōjutsu, but...
Squelch...
*"Gyaaargh!!!!!"*
Once more her face twisted in agony!
Standing behind her was another Bird-folk, flute in hand, the instrument dripping with blood and flecks of brain matter.
"Ugh... maybe we ought to lay off the flutes..."
This time, one of her heads had been run clean through with one.
Her weakness, it seemed, was now common knowledge.
Groaning in pain, Kana looked about and found herself entirely surrounded.
"Surrender quietly!"
*"Damn it!"*
Kana let out a low growl at just how badly things had turned.
Until a moment ago, nothing they'd thrown at her had so much as scratched her, and she'd had the upper hand for it. But now that they'd found her weakness, she was hardly worth worrying about.
Every last Bird-folk stood ready, instrument in hand.
(If I take a hit from one of those, I'll lose a limb! This is bad!)
Just as Yasutaka had suspected, weapons alone couldn't so much as scratch her, but anything else dealt an entirely absurd amount of damage.
Even Hōjutsu attacks could be countered by the Bird-folk's hymns, and since the instruments they carried weren't weapons to begin with, every blow from one tore into her something fierce.
Under normal circumstances, clubbing someone with a biwa would only break the biwa. But in Kana's current state, that same blow was enough to blow her arm clean off.
Resigned to it, Kana bared her teeth in a grin.
(Then so be it!)
She dove, setting her sights on a single man!
(At the very least, I'll take that one down with me!)
With that thought, Kana fixed her aim on Yasutaka.
Whoomph...
She gathered Hōjutsu in her hand, letting it flare out around her to warn the rest off, and then...
(There!)
Whoosh!
She dove straight for Yasutaka!
(That Potato Samurai is the one I will never forgive!)
And in that instant, as such things are said to do, Kana's whole life flashed before her eyes.
Getting her very first boyfriend.
Only to be abandoned by him again almost as soon as she had one.
Taking on that man's debts as if they were her own.
Every man who came after leaving her with nothing but more debt for her trouble.
Ending up working in the pleasure quarters.
Meeting Kōen there.
Falling for him as though it were fate, and hiding him away when he became a wanted man.
And then, at last, Kōen teaching her the Secret Arts of the Demon God.
(In that whole pile of worthless men, Kōen alone ever taught me how to truly live!)
Thanks to him, she'd been able to seize control of Ebiya and rise to real strength as one of the Yōjin.
She'd brought a whole band of bandits under her thumb and lived in luxury ever since.
Yes... until Yasutaka exposed her for what she truly was, she had been standing right at the peak of her life.
(That man, and that man alone, I will kill!)
With that thought driving her, Kana dove straight at Yasutaka, when she noticed something.
(Hm? Did he have a tattoo like that before?)
With his face and armor stripped away, bare skin showed through, and there, plain as day, was something that looked exactly like a tattoo.
But there was no time to dwell on such things now.
*"DIIIIIE!!!!!!!!!!"*
Screaming those words, Kana went to slam the Hōjutsu gathered in her hand down upon him, but Yasutaka simply spread one hand out toward her, calm as you please!
(I'll blow you to pieces!)
Just as Kana thought that and moved to hurl her Hōjutsu at him...
Snap!
Something pure white burst from Yasutaka's hand, filling her entire field of vision!
"What—!"
Kana faltered for just a moment, but she quickly realized what it was.
It was spider silk...
"No—!"
In that single moment of hesitation, the spider silk began to wrap itself around Kana's body!