The blade was stopped—but at the same instant, a slash formed of pure spiritual energy shot out from another angle, blasting straight toward Ren Kuroda's neck.
Having to deal with the sword strike in front of him while also guarding against spiritual slashes that could fly in from who knew where, anyone else would likely have been forced into an extremely passive position.
However, for Ren Kuroda—who possessed a whole suite of passive skills such as "Mind's Eye" and "Weak Point Perception"—this kind of spiritual slash posed absolutely no threat at all.
He didn't even need to turn around. With nothing more than a slight tilt of his head, he calmly avoided the spiritual blade that came in at what looked like an impossibly tricky angle.
Seeing Ren evade the ability of Ōdenta Mitsuyo so effortlessly, Kūsu Ryōsuke froze for a brief moment. Then, as if he suddenly understood something, he spoke.
"I see… So you've also awakened something like Mind's Eye."
Most yokai fought using their innate talents or their overwhelmingly powerful bodies. There weren't none who, like humans, learned structured combat techniques to strengthen themselves—but they were exceedingly rare.
At first, Kūsu Ryōsuke had assumed that Ren carrying a sword was nothing more than posturing, just like most yokai did.
Blocking his slash so easily had simply meant Ren's raw strength far surpassed his own.
But when he saw that even the spiritual-energy slash manifested through Ōdenta Mitsuyo's ability was casually neutralized, Ryōsuke finally understood.
The oni standing before him wasn't holding a sword just for show.
He possessed genuine, formidable swordsmanship.
In fact, judging by how effortlessly Ren avoided a slash coming from behind, he might have even grasped the ability every swordsman dreamed of—
Mind's Eye.
And when Ryōsuke noticed that Ren, after blocking his blade, made no follow-up move at all, he realized something else.
In Ren's eyes, he truly wasn't worth taking seriously.
Ren was simply waiting for him to make the next move.
Since the day he began studying swordsmanship, this was the first time Kūsu Ryōsuke had ever suffered such humiliation.
Clenching his long sword with both hands, he no longer hesitated. A storm of blade flashes erupted instantly in front of Ren!
Ryōsuke freely admitted that when it came to swordsmanship talent, he was inferior to his elder sister, Yamato Miku. This had always been a lingering regret of their father's.
More than once, the former head of the Kūsu family had openly declared in front of the clan that if his daughter had been born a son, she would surely have led the Kūsu family to glory.
But Yamato Miku was a woman—and destined to marry into the Yamato family—meaning she could never become the Kūsu clan head.
Every time his father spoke of this, Ryōsuke's heart ached.
As the eldest son and rightful heir of the Kūsu family, he should have been the one his father looked to—yet in his father's eyes, there had only ever been his brilliant sister.
Objectively speaking, Ryōsuke's swordsmanship talent truly wasn't outstanding. Perhaps among ordinary clan members he was respectable—but compared to his monstrously gifted sister, there was simply no comparison.
His father's disappointment. The whispered gossip of the clan.
All of it led Ryōsuke, while still young, to decisively leave the Kūsu family and begin wandering the world.
Stripped of his family's prestige, the only thing that accompanied him was the long sword at his side.
While drifting across distant lands, Ryōsuke challenged strong opponents wherever he went, tempering his swordsmanship through countless battles.
Year after year, he grew stronger—and came to love the sensation of challenging the powerful.
On the day his sister was wed, Ryōsuke finally returned after years of wandering.
He defeated his father.
He proved that so-called talent did not decide everything.
He earned his father's recognition and inherited the position of Kūsu family head—a title he still held to this day.
The world believed the Kūsu clan head to be a genius.
But the truth was that he was no genius at all.
He had simply worked a hundred times harder than anyone else.
And now, Ren Kuroda's dismissive attitude made Ryōsuke relive those bitter memories.
The blade in his hands grew even sharper.
Having traveled the world and witnessed countless schools of swordsmanship, Ryōsuke had not only grasped a high-level Mind's Eye, but also mastered far more than just the Kūsu family's techniques.
Sword light poured down in front of Ren like a torrential downpour—blindingly fast.
Though they were clearly slashes, their speed and density resembled a rain of spear thrusts, relentless and overwhelming.
And because of Ōdenta Mitsuyo's ability, as Ren dealt with this storm of blade strikes, he also had to divide his attention to evade spiritual slashes firing in from every conceivable angle.
Of course, for Ren—who also possessed Mind's Eye, and whose swordsmanship and overall strength both surpassed Ryōsuke—this kind of assault was fundamentally incapable of defeating him.
Demonic power surged into the yokai blade Oni-Gashō.
A blood-red, crescent-shaped slash erupted outward, instantly shredding Ryōsuke's layered sword attacks.
As for the spiritual slashes blasting in from all directions, under Ren's Mind's Eye, each was cleanly avoided.
His speed was so extreme that every time he dodged and returned to position, it created the illusion that he never moved at all—that the slashes simply passed through his body.
As for why Kūsu Ryōsuke had suddenly become so emotionally agitated, Ren was honestly baffled.
Ryōsuke believed Ren's brief pause earlier had been an act of disdain.
In reality, Ren had simply been wondering whether he should kill him.
After all, from the earlier meeting at the Onmyō Academy, Ren knew that this guy was actually Yamato Kukā's uncle.
And to be fair—setting aside his identity as a half-demon—the people of Countermeasures Group Nine had treated him pretty well.
Turning around and casually killing their colleague's uncle felt… kind of awkward.
The yokai blade Oni-Gashō naturally absorbed its wielder's demonic power and amplified any released slash.
Ren's S+–rank demonic power already far surpassed Ryōsuke's.
Once amplified by Oni-Gashō, the slash transformed into a massive red crescent that, after tearing apart Ryōsuke's attacks, continued forward with undiminished momentum.
Facing the oncoming crimson arc, Ryōsuke could only grip Ōdenta Mitsuyo horizontally, bracing himself to block the vertical slash.
CLANG—!
The instant the red crescent collided with the blade, sparks exploded outward.
What Ryōsuke felt first was the crushing pressure transmitted through the sword.
Veins bulged violently on his calloused hands as he struggled to hold on.
He knew that no matter how overwhelming the force became, he absolutely could not let go—
Otherwise, the outcome would be being cleaved cleanly in two.
As one of the Five Great Swords of Japan, Ōdenta Mitsuyo lived up to its reputation. Even after enduring an S+–rank demonic slash, it showed no signs of breaking.
But while the blade held firm, its wielder did not.
Under the immense force, Ryōsuke was driven backward, his legs carving two deep trenches into the ground.
He smashed straight through a building before finally stopping, sending clouds of dust billowing into the air.
Just as Ren was about to press his advantage, he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet blaze with light.
Intricate runes flared to life, and glowing chains erupted from the earth, wrapping tightly around his legs.
The moment the chains bound him, a sudden, inexplicable wave of weakness washed over Ren.
They didn't just restrain his movement—
They were suppressing his demonic power.
The one responsible was the Kagamori family, one of the Thirteen Demon-Slaying Houses.
In the brief standoff between Ryōsuke and Ren, they had already completed the formation of their spell.
Specializing in sealing techniques, the Kagamori family excelled at all forms of restraints and prohibitions.
It was said that their ancestors had once used layered seals to suppress an SS-rank great yokai to below S-rank, eventually sealing it away entirely.
Now, with just a single seal, Ren could already feel his demonic power teetering on the verge of dropping below S+.
If they stacked several more seals on him…
That would be disastrous.
But just as Ren prepared to violently tear the chains apart—and had already marked the Kagamori family head as the most troublesome target to eliminate first—a gale filled with killing intent surged toward him.
At the same time, an enormous shadow loomed over his head.
The head of the Jisō family, using some unknown curse, had expanded his body several times over. His skin had turned a dark bronze, and he was now airborne, leaping high above Ren.
With both hands clasped together, he brought them down in a devastating hammer blow aimed straight at Ren's skull.
The murderous wind was unmistakably from the Hiiragi family.
And the massive figure overhead was the Jisō family head.
Thanks to his infiltration of the Countermeasures Group, Ren had already familiarized himself with these Onmyō families—their histories and their specialties.
Facing the incoming killing wind, Ren gripped his blade and unleashed—
"Swift as the Wind — Breaking Army."
Two storms collided midair, canceling each other out.
And because Ren's demonic power far exceeded his opponent's, the Hiiragi family head fared no better than Ryōsuke had moments earlier.
Despite his demonic power being suppressed by the Kagamori seal, the sword gale generated by Swift as the Wind crushed the opposing storm and sent the Hiiragi head flying, blood spraying from his mouth.
As for the Jisō family head—still falling from above, fully confident in his brute strength and defensive prowess—
He had actually chosen to engage in close combat against someone whose raw power so vastly exceeded his own.
Facing such a foolishly overconfident giant, Ren calmly funneled demonic power into his other arm—
And clenched his fist, driving it straight up into the air.