They met the bounty hunters at the perimeter.
Dan had wanted to fortify the facility, fight from defensive positions. But Tadano had convinced him otherwise—better to engage away from their base, keep the location secret even if they won. So they'd taken position in the forest clearing just beyond the illusion boulder, weapons ready, hearts pounding.
"Remember," Dan said quietly, his laser sword humming to life. "These aren't Dark soldiers. They're professionals. Experienced. They hunt dangerous targets for a living."
"Then they picked the wrong targets today," Vivi said, flames dancing between her fingers.
The bounty hunters emerged from the trees like ghosts—six figures in tactical gear, weapons raised, moving with the coordinated precision of a trained team. Their armor was a patchwork of technology and magical enhancements, clearly customized for their individual fighting styles.
The leader—a tall woman with a cybernetic arm and a rifle that crackled with energy—stopped ten meters away. "The Shadow Blade, the Inferno Witch, and the Tech Phantom, I presume?" Her voice was calm, professional. "You can make this easy. Surrender now. You'll be arrested, not killed. The bounty pays the same either way."
"And if we refuse?" Dan asked.
The woman smiled without humor. "Then we earn our money the hard way. Your choice."
For a moment, nobody moved. Then Tadano's hand settled on his sword hilt, and he felt it.
The sensation he'd experienced countless times but never truly understood. The way the weapon seemed to hum in his grip. The feeling of rightness, of completion, like the sword was part of his arm rather than held by it. The subtle awareness of edge alignment, of perfect balance, of potential energy waiting to be released.
That was Cursed Arts. That feeling. That connection.
It had always been there. He'd just never known what it meant.
"No surrender," Tadano said quietly.
The bounty hunters attacked.
Three rushed Tadano—clearly recognizing him as the close-combat specialist. Two broke toward Dan, weapons raised. The last one, wielding twin blades wreathed in dark energy, went for Vivi.
Tadano drew his sword.
The world slowed. Not literally—he knew that wasn't possible. But his perception sharpened, expanded, processed information at speeds that shouldn't be human. He saw the first hunter's strike coming before the man fully committed to the attack. Saw the second hunter flanking left, looking for an opening. Saw the third hanging back, ready to capitalize on any mistake.
Professional tactics. Solid approach.
Completely inadequate.
Tadano's blade met the first hunter's weapon—a reinforced combat knife designed to parry swords. The steel should have caught, creating a bind. Instead, Tadano's sword slid along the knife's edge like water, redirecting the attack with minimal effort, and continued its arc toward the hunter's exposed shoulder.
The man barely twisted away in time, the blade kissing his armor hard enough to score the surface.
"Fast!" the hunter gasped, resetting his stance.
The second hunter attacked from the left, a staff crackling with lightning magic. Tadano pivoted, his feet finding perfect placement without conscious thought. The staff whistled past his head, missing by millimeters. His sword came up in a rising cut that caught the staff mid-shaft.
The staff didn't break—it was enchanted, reinforced with magic. But the impact knocked it wildly off-course, and Tadano's follow-up strike slammed into the hunter's chest with the flat of his blade, sending the man stumbling backward.
The third hunter—the one hanging back—suddenly understood the problem. "He's not just skilled," she shouted. "There's something else! Some kind of enhancement!"
Close. But not quite right.
Tadano felt it now—really felt it for the first time. The Cursed Arts flowing through him like a second circulatory system. Not in his blood or his muscles, but in his stance. In the way he held his sword. In the perfect economy of motion that wasted no energy, telegraphed no intent.
Every lesson Master Renjiro had drilled into him. Every hour of practice in the underground. Every sparring match with Vivi, every solo form practiced until his arms screamed. All of it had been building toward this—skill so refined it bent reality.
The magic wasn't in him. It was in the perfection of his technique.
The first hunter came again, more cautious now. But caution meant hesitation, and hesitation was death against a blade that never wavered.
Tadano attacked.
His sword moved in patterns he'd practiced ten thousand times, but now they flowed with supernatural fluidity. Strikes that should have been separate techniques blended seamlessly. Feints that should have been readable became invisible. His footwork carried him across the clearing like he was dancing, always in perfect position, never where the hunters expected.
The first hunter's knife hand—disarmed with a twist that sent the weapon spinning into the trees.
The second hunter's staff—caught mid-strike and broken, the enchanted wood finally succumbing to the Cursed blade's edge.
The third hunter's leg—swept out from under her with a low cut that didn't break skin but definitely bruised bone.
All three hunters were down in less than thirty seconds.
Tadano stood over them, sword extended, breathing steadily despite the adrenaline screaming through his veins. His blade gleamed in the filtered sunlight, unmarked, unbroken. Perfect.
"Stay down," he said quietly. "I don't want to kill you. But I will if you make me."
The hunters, to their credit, knew when they were outmatched. They stayed down.
Behind Tadano, Dan was finishing his own fight. His laser sword danced through the air in hypnotic patterns, and where it touched the bounty hunters' weapons, it simply cut through. One hunter's rifle—severed in half. Another's armor plating—sliced clean off. Dan's Tech Magic let him predict their movements through their equipment's electronic signatures, turning the fight into a one-sided massacre.
"Down!" Dan commanded, his voice carrying an authority Tadano hadn't heard before. His laser sword rested against one hunter's throat while earth suddenly erupted around the second, pinning the man in place. "Stay down or lose important body parts!"
Both hunters surrendered immediately.
Vivi's fight was the most spectacular. Her opponent wielded twin blades with dark energy crackling along their edges—clearly a skilled dual-weapon specialist. But Vivi didn't fight like a traditional mage. She fought like someone who'd grown up sparring with a sword master brother.
Flames erupted around her in a defensive sphere, forcing her opponent back. Then she compressed the fire into her fists, using them like bludgeons, her enhanced physical strikes backed by explosive heat. The dark-energy blades cut through her flames—they were designed to counter magic—but they couldn't cut through her unpredictability.
She feinted high, struck low. Created walls of fire that were actually just distractions. Used her flames not to burn her opponent but to blind, disorient, control the battlefield.
The hunter was good. But Vivi had been fighting dirty her entire life.
A burst of flame in the face. A sweeping leg strike while the hunter was blinded. A gout of fire that forced the hunter to choose between blocking with a blade or dodging.
The hunter chose to block.
Vivi's other fist, wreathed in flame, caught the hunter square in the chest. Not enough heat to kill—just enough to knock the wind out and send the woman sprawling.
"Told you I'd burn someone today," Vivi said cheerfully, standing over her defeated opponent. "Though I was hoping for someone more... evil-looking. You're just trying to make a living, huh?"
The hunter groaned. "Worst. Bounty. Ever."
Within a minute, all six bounty hunters were subdued, disarmed, and sitting in a miserable line while Dan's Tech Magic-created restraints kept them from trying anything stupid.
Tadano finally sheathed his sword, and the moment he released the hilt, the clarity faded slightly. The heightened awareness, the supernatural perception—still there, but muted. The Cursed Arts receded like a tide, waiting to be called upon again.
"Well," Dan said, walking over with a satisfied grin. "That went better than expected."
"You three are monsters," the leader of the bounty hunters said. Her cybernetic arm sparked where Dan had disabled it. "The bounty descriptions were completely wrong. You're not some lucky amateurs. You're—"
"Revolutionary," Tadano finished. "We're revolutionaries. And you just learned why the Darks should be worried."
"What do we do with them?" Vivi asked, her flames finally extinguishing.
"We can't kill them," Tadano said immediately. "They're just doing a job."
"Agreed. But we can't let them go either—they'll report our location." Dan knelt in front of the hunter leader. "So here's the deal. I'm going to wipe your equipment's location data, corrupt your mission logs, and make sure you can't find this place again even if you tried. Then I'm going to let you walk away."
"Why?" the hunter asked suspiciously.
"Because I'm not a murderer. And because—" Dan's smile turned sharp, "—I want you to spread the word. Tell everyone you meet exactly what happened here. Tell them the Shadow Blade, the Inferno Witch, and the Tech Phantom are real. Tell them we're not easy prey. Tell them the next bounty hunters who come after us won't be treated as kindly."
He stood. "Consider this a professional courtesy. We won't hunt you. You don't hunt us. Deal?"
The hunter leader looked at her team—all bruised, defeated, demoralized. Then back at Dan. "Deal. But you should know—fifty thousand credits per person is serious money. Others will come."
"Let them," Vivi said, flames sparking in her hands. "We'll be ready."
Dan's green Tech Magic flowed over the hunters' equipment, corrupting data, erasing coordinates, making sure their base remained hidden. Then he released them.
The bounty hunters gathered their damaged gear and limped back into the forest, occasionally glancing back at the three teenagers who'd defeated them so thoroughly.
When they were gone, Vivi let out a whoop of victory. "We did it! Six professional bounty hunters and we barely broke a sweat!"
"Speak for yourself," Dan muttered, deactivating his laser sword. "I'm exhausted. Tech Magic combat is draining."
"But we won," Vivi insisted. "That has to count for something."
"It counts for a lot," Tadano said quietly. He was staring at his hands, still feeling the ghost of the Cursed Arts flowing through them. "I understand now. What it feels like. The power Dan was talking about."
Dan turned to him, interested. "The Cursed Arts? You felt it during the fight?"
"I've always felt it. That sensation when I hold my sword—like everything clicks into place. Like the weapon and I are one thing instead of two." Tadano looked up. "I just never knew what it meant. But now..."
"Now you know what you're working with," Dan finished. "That feeling? That's your baseline. Your starting point. As you push your skills further, as you break through to new levels of mastery, that feeling will deepen. Expand. Become more."
"And the sword?" Tadano asked. "Why does it feel... alive?"
"Because in a way, it is. Your Cursed Arts bind to your weapon. It's not alive in the traditional sense, but it responds to your will, your skill, your intent." Dan gestured to the blade. "That sword is an extension of you now. As you grow stronger, so does it. The regeneration is just the first manifestation. There will be more."
Tadano drew his sword again, studying it in the afternoon light. The blade that had stood up to Dan's laser sword. That had cut through an enchanted staff. That had never wavered, never dulled, never failed him.
His Cursed Arts. His power.
"I felt something else too," Tadano admitted. "During the fight. It wasn't just the sword. It was my stance. My footwork. Every movement felt... perfect. Like I knew exactly where to be and when."
"The magic in your technique," Dan said, nodding. "That's what Cursed Arts means. Your skill has transcended the physical. When you fight, you're not just using learned techniques—you're manifesting perfection. Every stance is ideal. Every strike is optimal. That's why you wiped the floor with three professional bounty hunters."
"It was terrifying," Tadano said honestly. "And exhilarating. And I want more of it."
"That's the curse," Dan warned. "That hunger for perfection, for the next level. It's what drives Cursed Arts users. And what kills them."
"Then we'll make sure it doesn't kill me," Tadano said firmly. "I'm not dying before I see the Darks fall. Before every child they've taken is avenged."
Vivi clapped him on the shoulder. "That's the spirit! Besides, you've got me to keep you from doing anything too stupid."
"Says the girl who regularly sets things on fire 'by accident.'"
"Those are strategic fires. Completely different."
Dan laughed, the tension of the fight finally breaking. "Come on. Let's get back to base. We need to upgrade security—if six bounty hunters found us, others might too. And Tadano needs actual training now that we know what we're working with."
They walked back toward the illusion boulder, three teenagers who'd just defeated professional hunters, carrying the weight of impossible powers and revolutionary dreams.
Behind them, the forest was quiet. But somewhere in the distance, the defeated bounty hunters were already spreading the word.
The Shadow Blade wasn't just skilled. He was something else. Something dangerous.
Something cursed.
And the revolution had just announced itself in blood and steel.