. The hexagram barrier formed at her arm as she blocked, Akira's powerful kick meeting it head-on. Light flared with a harsh grating noise as the power of a youkai slammed into the barrier at full tilt.

  Erina's knees buckled for an instant. She forced herself to stay upright. The sigil on the spell circle changed, the outer spokes dividing into smaller inlaid Sierpinski triangles. One micro-layer after another formed as fast as they broke away, splitting down into ever greater detail to maintain the entire structure.

  Erina pushed back, the seal broke with a flare of light, and both sides were forced to withdraw. Erina stumbled, nearly losing her footing. Akira's steps were even and controlled, slinking into a low shuffling stance before returning to her full height.

  "I swear," she muttered. "I look away for ten seconds and you've got a new trick up your sleeve."

  A motion of Erina's hand. Lingering behind her butterflies, the glittering dust condensed into orbs of light. Akira twisted around the ensuing lasers and launched herself at Erina, thrown knives flying through the air to disperse the insects.

  Erina dodged low under the high kick, katana drawn and swung in one motion to cut open Akira. Her slash found only a spare body, Akira herself spinning aside in a blur of crackling static.

  A flash of steel and Erina's barrier blocked the knife swipe. A leg to the stomach knocked the wind out of her. Erina bent over instinctively, eyes barely tracking Akira as she spun, and then Erina's leg gave out under her with the light tap into the back of her knee. Erina buckled, a terrible chill rushing through her as her eyes went skyward towards the sole of the boot slamming down towards her face. Akira set her up to finish this in one devastating blow—

  Green lasers perforated Akira as another twirled and weaved away. Erina's butterflies lent their support fire. Erina hit the ground and rolled upright, a blind shower of lasers around her protecting her in the process.

  Akira slid back a few more feet as a laser burnt a hole where she was standing. Erina locked onto her with hand hovering at her katana, ready to draw at a moment's notice. Butterflies of light fluttered through the air as the light drizzle fell.

  "Damn, that's annoying." Akira scraped the sole of her boot against the ground, black-green venom smoldering in its wake. "Why'd you have to go and get so brave all of a sudden? What happened to the Erina who only wanted to go home?"

  "I have my pride too, sir," said Erina.

  "You don't even know what you're getting yourself into!"

  "Then tell me. Make me understand."

  "You banging rocks together in that head of yours?" Static crackled around Akira's figure as she crouched down. "Put your damn brain to work!"

  Erina flourished her wrist and her butterflies doubled. Beams of light filled the air between them as Akira pushed off, one body becoming four as they dodged and flipped through the maze of lasers in seconds.

  Erina dodged away from the first powerful kick, deflected the next with her barrier, dodged again, deflected again. The pressure was overwhelming. Lasers shot down around her, striking a copy here or there, but Akira simply multiplied and came in again from another angle. Erina found herself backpedaling to the edge of the rooftop before she knew it.

  Erina's spear flashed into her hand and she took a blind stab into the blur of speed in front of her. Lightning flashed and forks of energy obliterated one Akira, spreading through her body and demolishing everything above the waist. Hundreds of scorch marks burned themselves into the next building over as Erina drew her katana and stabbed it into the ground, a concrete tree flinging her to safety in its branches.

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  Akira pulverized the trunk with one good kick. The tree tilted and listed. Erina spotted Akira spreading out over the rooftop, ready to come in from every angle when she fell down in their midst.

  A large spell circle formed, tracing along the edges of the rooftop and then vanishing with a flare of green light. Space drew away from itself—a single layer distortion field, doubling the distance.

  Light shot down around Erina in an intense shower, further hindering her opponent. A seal at her feet and Erina drew her katana in a vast emerald arc, cutting down one foe before dodging away from the rest. Every step she took demanded two from them, every movement for repositioning and every disengagement to gain space. A tenth of a second became a fifth or even half a second of breathing room—in combat where every instant mattered.

  Beams of white-green light scorched the rooftop. Blood splattered the concrete and then faded away in the rain and crackling static. Knives whistled through the air, dispersing the butterflies as fast as Erina could make them. One body after another hit the floor. Erina's heart pounded in her ears as she turned every which way. One hand to pilot her remote attack terminals, one hand cutting down Akira again and again. For every body she killed, another took its place like nothing happened.

  Akira dodged through the lasers and flanked Erina as she cut down another. Erina turned in time to see the heel snapping towards her face before it connected in a blast of dark venom. She went from standing to tumbling across the floor in an instant, no control over her movement until she struck the edge and went over.

  One hand flailed blindly and caught the lip of the roof, narrowly arresting her fall. Still disoriented, Erina called her spear into her grip and drove it into the ledge. Branches of light exploded around her, protecting her as she clambered back on top.

  One more knife and the butterflies were no more. Akira regathered herself into one body, feet constantly moving and shuffling, threatening another assault from another angle at any second.

  "Why?" panted Erina. "When you found me that day, why did you bother to rescue me?"

  The hexagram barrier flashed as it deflected Akira's next kick, her boot pounding a small sinkhole into the rooftop. The katana flashed next, putting down Akira as another pulled free and away.

  "When did you start mouthing off so much?" said Akira, coming in to keep up the offensive.

  Erina barely brushed her fingers across her clip in time before twisting away from the next high kick, hopping the low and then deflecting the follow-up.

  "Was it because you saw value?" said Erina. A seal formed at her feet and then burst, thick stone branches growing everywhere around her to buy the few seconds she needed to restore the flock of butterflies. "Was it because you wanted to use what you knew I am?"

  Akira tore through, shards of concrete flying.

  Erina was ready, katana sheathed at her side. Her next draw was a perfect copy of the swordmaster, a vast emerald arc parting the world like a crescent moon. "Am I just another asset to you?!"

  "You idiot!"

  Akira threw her entire body into a massive swing of her arm. Without even touching her, a titanic force sent Erina flying, smashing through her own concrete branches and then shattering a window, spilling into the next building over.

  Erina scrambled upright and then staggered as the entire building shook. Solid stone pillars cracked and sheared. Bricks tumbled away from each other, all four walls crumbling apart around her. The entire upper half of the tall office building ripped itself free and lifted into the air above Erina's head. Stray bricks and rubble floated in the air, slowly spinning end over end.

  Akira had one arm extended, hand curled into claws as static crackled at her fingertips. Several thousand tons of concrete hovered at her command, rising higher alongside her lifting hand.

  "Is that what you really think of me?" Her expression was twisted into a humorless smirk. "That after all this time, I'm still some common street thug? Huh?!"

  Erina's accelerator launched her away as Akira brought the entire building crashing down on itself. The land quaked, windows shattering and the din deafening as it was totally demolished.

  Erina drew and struck with her katana as she flew overhead, canceled by Akira's knife slash in return before skidding across the rooftop behind her. The blade snapped back into its sheath.

  Akira swiped her hand to the side. Huge rifts tore open in the space above them. Reality distorted, crushing in on itself in the form of giant claw slashes mimicking the motion. Erina's butterflies were sucked in and obliterated completely.

  The rifts collapsed and winked out of existence. Erina found herself struggling to stand, beat down under the powerful shockwaves of air rushing out. Akira stood unaffected, her hair whipped up by the fading gusts.

  "…Kano Akira," she said, looking out over the city. Rain wetted the vibrant blue tattoo on her back. "That's the name they gave me when I was born. But honestly? I couldn't give two shits about my family. Money, territory, status, it can all go straight to hell! I never came here for any of that."

  "Then why?" A current of frustration slipped into Erina's voice. "Don't leave me in the dark! Answer me!"

  Her shoulders fell slightly. Akira turned to face her, grim and mirthless. "Save your breath for the fight, Erina."