Chapter 202 — A Sister's Blood, A Shattered Space
Junai shook her head gently, unwilling to let her sister shoulder any more burdens.
"Suika-neesan, please don't wear that expression. It's not disappointment—I've been living well. Whether I return to the Himejima clan or not doesn't matter anymore. Just promise me this… you'll always be the sister I respect the most."
To Junai, there was only one person worthy of being called family. The rest of the Himejima? Strangers. Enemies. Some deserving vengeance.
"I—Junai…" Suika's expression, once drenched in guilt, hardened into something glacial.
Their rare reunion—two estranged sisters finally facing one another—was abruptly interrupted. The air shifted. Sounds faded. They had been drawn into a sealed barrier space.
Moments later, shadows emerged. Grotesque figures, twisted and monstrous. And among them, humans—cold-eyed, arrogant. Members of the infamous Hollow Cicada Sect.
The Hollow Cicada Sect was forged from five exiled bloodlines. Children cast out by their families, stripped of status. Their goal: vengeance upon the houses that betrayed them. Rumors swirled of recent collaborations with a terrorist group known as Calamity Horde. Their reach had grown reckless, brutal.
Suika had come to Kyoto chasing a thread of intel. What she hadn't expected—what fate had cruelly aligned—was to find her sister again.
"Huh? Isn't that the mongrel from the Himejima house? Junai?"
The vile taunt struck like daggers. Junai and Suika's expressions darkened at once.
"What's she doing here?"
"Who cares? I'll take her…"
Disgusting jeers spilled out from the crowd—foul, degrading things. One man turned to Suika and laughed.
"Suika-san, I've been wanting to test a new spell. You wouldn't mind if I used these creatures for experimentation, would you?"
She smiled—brilliant and deadly.
"Of course not."
And then the spell activated.
A massive arcane circle flared open around the caster's waist, enveloping the entire battlefield. Spatial magic. A basic teleportation array?
That was what Suika thought—until blood began to fall.
Chapter 203 — Split and Severed by Space
Teleportation magic. Simple in theory, devastating in misuse.
Basic teleportation spells required pre-drawn arrays—etched into earth, inked onto parchment. Time-consuming. Vulnerable to interruption.
But those who truly commanded spatial magic? They could construct teleportation arrays in real time, from raw mana—flexing reality with surgical precision.
The difference was vast.
Paper-drawn arrays yielded precision, like circles traced with a compass. Mana-forged arrays? Like drawing blindfolded. Beautiful if done right. Catastrophic if not.
And if a spatial adept intervened? They could collapse an opponent's array. Or worse—forge new dimensional spaces mid-battle, trapping foes within.
Teleportation also required a matching destination array. Without it, the spell might fizzle. Or send the user hurtling into the unknown.
What unfolded before Suika was unlike anything she'd witnessed.
The caster had formed two arrays—one at his waist, the other ten meters above the battlefield.
As the spell triggered, the top halves of the Hollow Cicada members were ripped from their torsos—teleported upward, leaving the bottom halves behind.
The arrays were still active. Technically, they were mid-transfer. The severing hadn't yet occurred.
Then, in a blink—the arrays collapsed. The connected spaces severed.
And reality snapped shut like a guillotine.
Screams tore through the barrier. A massacre. Limbs and entrails fell like broken clockwork.
Suika trembled. Sweat glistened down her brow. She thought herself dead—her own body split across the arrays.
But she was intact.
He had done something else. Nested arrays. Teleportation within teleportation. Layers of spatial folds—like opening a tesseract, then burrowing deeper still.
Suika, Junai, and he were stored within that inner space, preserved from external collapse.
It was genius. And terrifying.
Couldn't he just toss the array onto his enemies? No. The caster would also be affected. And arrays, once disrupted, were fragile—easy to shatter under attack.
As the last cries faded, Suika summoned fire to her palm. It slithered like a serpent, alive.
With a snap, she unleashed flaming birds that soared downward—incinerating the remains in a heartbeat. No ash. No evidence.
After all, her upper half still hovered in the sky—bisected like the rest.
Just as the space collapsed, everyone stitched back together, and reality returned.
She exhaled shakily.
Why such haste in cleaning up the dead?
Two reasons. First, the barrier was fading. The corpses would be exposed. Second, she feared another experiment. That he might use their bodies for further testing. Safety was not guaranteed.
Junai was pale—stunned. Her first time seeing him wield such power.
Suika had seen into his spell. Into the abyss of his mana.
What monster had they aligned with?
"Mr. Hakumoon," Suika muttered, voice tinged with dread, "if you ever intend to test magic again… please warn us. Or let us leave your casting range."
"Truly. It was frightening, Hakumoon-sensei," Junai added.
Chapter 204 — Sisters at Dusk
That night, they dined together.
Correction: the sisters laughed, reminisced, and drank deeply—while Hakumoon sat frozen at the edge of their table, thoroughly ignored.
"No way. I'm definitely taller!"
"No, you're mistaken. Big sister's the tallest!"
They argued like children, alcohol stripping away all dignity. Foolish comparisons spiraled—until clothing was removed, and bodies compared directly.
Hakumoon, mid-bite, struggled to maintain composure. He had seen enough anime to guess what came next.
Would he be asked to judge? Measure? Decide the victor?
Of course not. He was overthinking it.
Both sisters passed out before any judgment could be requested.
With silence settling in, Hakumoon returned to his work—reaching out to the world's primordial energy, fine-tuning the ritual that would link him to its source.
Time passed. He opened his eyes, startled by weight on his chest.
Junai hovered above him, eyes glazed, wings unfurled—half bat, half fallen angel.
"They look hideous… don't they?"
Her voice trembled.
She feared his judgment.
After all, he had fought Satan—a creature with similar wings.
Junai confided everything: how the Himejima called her a curse. Her mother's death. The blood she bore. The shame she'd swallowed.
He stared silently, unreadable.
"You're seriously still hung up on this?" he said finally. "Let's be blunt. Wings aren't ugly or beautiful—they're just accessories. Beauty depends on the person, not the parts."
"Stop whining about bloodlines and purity. Whatever power you have—it's yours. Right or wrong depends on how you wield it."
"Why do you care what others think? You live for yourself. If you're strong enough, the world shuts up. If you're strong enough, the Himejima will tremble. They'll reinstate your mother without hesitation. They'll worship your bloodline. They'll beg for your children."
"So don't spiral into self-pity. Or you'll grow into a depressed shut-in—"
She silenced him. Lips pressed to his. His voice died in her mouth.
The night… stretched long.
And in her gaze, something changed.
That night, a girl became a woman.
Chapter 205 — Sunrise Secrets
The room was dimly lit when Suika opened her eyes for the umpteenth time.
She hadn't slept since midnight. Not from drunkenness. From something else entirely.
The nerve of them, she thought. Acting like she wasn't right there.
Footsteps echoed. He was awake, slipping out of the room.
When the door clicked shut, she finally sat up.
"Ugh… I did drink too much," she muttered, massaging her temples.
She glanced at Junai, peacefully asleep. No signs of disturbance.
But Suika knew what had been said. She'd heard it all. The confession to Hakumoon. The yearning to restore her mother's name.
Junai hadn't cast off the Himejima clan entirely.
What she wanted—deeply—was to grant dignity to the woman who bore her.
Suika sighed again and moved toward the window.
She opened it, letting in the morning air. The scent of magic and memory was thick.
Looking to the horizon, she whispered, "Junai… I'll see to it that Aunt Juri's name is recorded again among the main family."
A voice answered behind her.
"No need to trouble yourself, Suika-neesan."
Junai stood, quiet but resolved. "I plan to do it myself. I'll make them recognize her. I'll personally move her grave… into the sacred grounds of the Himejima."