2.10: Maneki-Neko FistUshi’s forelimb plunged toward me like a falling guillotine.

  I twisted aside on pure instinct. His hook smmed into the courtyard’s stones, shattering it in a spray that peppered my body.

  I rolled over my shoulder, scrambling upright, and threw myself backward as another leg stabbed down with what felt like killing intent.

  Think. THINK.

  Martial arts alone weren’t cutting it… not against a massive creature with six arms, eight legs, and a prehensile tongue long enough to serve ramen across the room. I needed something else. Something more effective. I needed what I’d relied on without fully understanding the mechanics of my makeshift technique.

  My hand closed around the jade bracelet on my wrist again.

  I’d felt something for a moment, but I fumbled for it, not understanding what it was. I didn’t feel any different either.

  This was a completely different kind of artifact than that cat paw. It wasn’t calibrated to react to spiritual energy the way I wanted. But how it was actually supposed to be used escaped me.

  The Maneki-Neko paw had flown off into the night during my fight with Mitsuhiko. I’d lost my grip on it. That stupid, miraculous little charm wasn’t coming back to me. I was alone in this with a bracelet I didn’t really understand.

  “You keep touching that bracelet of yours,” he rumbled, his eight legs scuttling in wide arcs across the courtyard as he stalked around me. “It’s a pretty little thing like you. Maybe I’ll take it off your dead body. It looks useful.”

  I didn’t respond to his taunting. My breathing was heavy, my heart thudding loudly.

  DOKI-DOKI

  Reiko’s instincts were still flickering through my limbs, but even her ghost couldn’t answer the problem of his much greater mass with her speed and skill. I wouldn’t st. Eventually he would wear me down.

  Ushi was crawling closer, cornering his prey. His bulk blotted out the nternlight behind him, lifting his forelimbs to crush me underfoot like a cockroach.

  Then one of them shed out at me.

  I made a snap judgment and dodged it leftward.

  His limb sliced to my right, grazing my chest under my breasts.

  Pain detonated through my ribs and radiating through my breasts. The hit knocked me away even though he’d missed, sending me spinning. I hit the ground, skidding, and rolled to my feet again just in time to avoid another of his stabbing legs pulverizing stones.

  “Keep moving, Sumire!” Rui shouted. “Don’t get skewered! Win it!”

  She was acting almost like this was a boxing match.

  “I’m trying!” I wheezed at her.

  Nothing that I’m doing is working!

  Ushi went after me right away, the courtyard shaking with every strike he unleashed. His legs hit the ground with the force of piledrivers. His tongue flicked out again, hunting for my ankles with shocking accuracy. I kicked it numerous times from me, retreating in tiny pivots.

  My fingers pressed at the jade bracelet so hard my knuckles had whitened.

  There has to be something I can use this for!

  My spiritual energy pushed the paw away from me, propelling my punches faster than Mitsuhiko could see. It was my energy that unched it.

  But how can I possibly do that again?

  I shifted my grip, my thumb sliding across the beads as I kept moving, keeping my eyes on Ushi’s movements, struggling to track the movement of his nine limbs.

  And then I felt something, my heart racing with excitement.

  DOKI-DOKI

  It’s the current of energy in my bracelet… I feel it flowing.

  It was the softest of sparks, warmth slipping between two beads, like static electricity with the potential to become a bolt of lightning.

  My heart lurched as the bracelet jerked on my wrist, trying to slip off my hand, writhing like a tortured thing.

  What was that feeling—?

  Ushi charged me again.

  His bulk loomed over me, a monster that filled my entire vision. All eight legs pushed off the ground. He unched himself at me like a bull-headed missile.

  No time. Nowhere left to run this time.

  My thumb flicked across the bracelet again.

  Sharp, instinctive, like flipping the switch on a toy I didn’t understand, I stood my ground.

  Something shifted…

  A spark jumped up my arm from the bracelet.

  My eyes widened in surprise.

  A warmth bloomed along my wrist… and then ignited.

  It’s not the same as when I fought Mitsu… It was passively augmenting my noh face powers that time… but it’s reacting…

  The jade had realigned somehow. Something in its energy channels were reporizing and snapping into a new flow, as though the bracelet had finally decided to accept me. I felt a jolt shoot through my palm.

  My body moved on its own as Ushi reached me.

  My stance tightened. My hips torqued. My spine aligned perfectly on the axis Reiko’s memories had taught me… showing me a punch that she had trained for a long time, maximizing its impact. I pulled back my fist as far as it would go…

  FWIP—!!

  My right arm snapped forward so fast the skin along my bicep heated from the air. It wasn’t power born from muscle training, even if Reiko’s body strength boosted it. This body was built to fight, even if Susumu wasn’t. It was my tent spiritual power firing against the bracelet like a spring coiled along my arm, snapping loose all at once.

  A violent, spring-loaded burst, the Maneki-Neko paw’s instinct to flee from my spiritual energy.

  My knuckles collided with Ushi’s descending jaw.

  CRACK—!!

  For a heartbeat…A single, impossible heartbeat…The massive ushi-oni lifted off the ground.A shockwave ripped through the air through and behind his cow-like head.I felt his momentum halt, his spider legs faltering, his whole monstrous frame being knocked backward in a ragged jolting.

  His face was filled with disbelief.

  “What…” Ushi gasped as he crashed down, dust exploding outward. “the hell was that?”

  I panted, my hand throbbing madly. “...My Maneki-Neko Fist...”

  Ghost Muscle Memory… Plus Maneki-Neko Fist!

  “You’ve already named that helciously strong punch? HELL YEAH!” Rui squeaked in astonishment, jumping and cheering.

  “I’d named it back when I was fighting Mitsu,” I said, a little bewildered.

  Ushi roared, shaking off my hit with some effort. Fury rolled across his aura. His legs braced for another blitz, his tongue cracking through the air like a whip. He moved with far more caution now, far more killing intent than ever.

  That’s fine with me. Bring it.

  My eyes cleared and shone with a fierceness that I’d never before felt.

  I felt the same way as him, my blood rushing. Let’s finish this!

  He renewed his assault, his spider legs stabbing in unpredictable sequences now, two high, one low, one sweeping. Reiko’s ghost instincts kept me alive. Her perceptions and instincts guided me. My body ducked and redirected his power with a fluid accuracy that I didn’t even know I was capable of.

  Reiko’s moves got me where I needed to be. The bracelet and my spiritual power finished it.

  When a wide gring opening finally appeared…—my arm blurred into motion.

  FWIP—!!BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

  A piston jab smmed into a soft spot at his colrbone. Ushi wheezed.

  He flinched, accidentally giving me another opening—my body twisting to capitalize.

  FWIP—!!CRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Shockwaves burst behind Ushi with every punch I nded.

  His shoulder jerked back.

  Which opened yet a third—FWIP—!!BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  His jaw snapped sideways again, sending saliva and blood flying everywhere.

  It just sucked that I could only use my right arm with this technique. Only my right arm could make use of my Maneki-Neko Fist. The jade channeled and cshed wildly against my energy with a physics-defying force. Every punch was packed with my spiritual energy. My joints ached, but this body was prepared to withstand the torque and thrust.

  Reiko-chan sure was terrifying.

  This was the perfect blend of who we both were. A perfect storm.Reiko’s razor-edged technique merging with my spiritual power.A miracle that shouldn’t have been possible without yōkai energy.

  “Sumire!” Rui cried from the edge of the courtyard, bouncing on her toes. “Kick his ass!!”

  “I must say that your Maneki-Neko Fist is REALLY KAWAII!!! Especially when it goes ‘whoosh’!” Ume added, squealing.

  I didn’t have any time to blush.

  Ushi tried to regain lost ground. He grappled at me with all six of his limbs, scuttling on two in patterns too fast for a normal fighter to be able to follow.

  It was a lot like the weird spider dances I’d seen whenever they felt cornered by a human.

  But Reiko had never been normal. She fought faster.

  My left hand deflected his hooks the instant they came in, not meeting strength for strength, just turning it aside.

  FWIP—!!

  A second arm snapped for my throat and I rolled my wrist under it, guiding it past my shoulder so it sliced through empty air.

  FWIP—!!

  A third grabbed at my waist and I jammed my forearm down across it, pinning the limb for a blink.

  THUNK—!!

  That was all I needed. My knee drove up inside his guard and crashed into his ribs before he could tighten.

  BAM—!!

  His breath stuttered as my hit distracted him. I kept close, my right fist following up immediately, driving in again, compact and vicious, right where my knee had nded.

  CRACK—!!

  He tried to swarm me again, his arms folding and unfolding like a net, but my feet kept moving, skittering in sharp little steps across the courtyard, so I was never where his hands expected me to be. I redirected one wrist, clipping another aside, slipping under a third.

  FWIP—FWIP—FWIP—!!

  Then my right fist found the openings those turns created. One shot into what hopefully was his sor plexus.

  BAM—!!

  A second into the hinge of his jaw.

  CRACK—!!

  A third into the soft spot under his sternum, not wide, not sloppy, just brutally concentrated, the force colpsing inward instead of scattering.

  THUD—!!

  Ushi staggered. His spider legs buckled, his arms drooping.

  “Enough of that shit—!” he snarled, forcing himself upright. “I said ENOUGH!”

  He reared up for a full-body sm.

  I stepped in and centered myself…

  …

  And felt the current in the jade bracelet rotate one fraction of a degree tighter.

  And let my punch spring forward.

  FWIP—BOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!

  My fist smashed upward into his jaw with the full recoil of my body strength, the bracelet’s power, the ghost of Reiko guiding me, and the memory of a stupid broken cat paw all firing off at once. Shockwaves echoed from the back of his head like a gale.

  The courtyard shook from the force.

  Ushi’s entire upper body snapped backward.

  He toppled over like a felled temple pilr, crashing onto his back with a ground-rattling thud. His spider legs twitched in the air once… twice… then slowly sagged and folded in like wilting stems.

  The courtyard was abruptly filled with silence.

  …

  My arm pulsed with agony, my ribs screaming in pain, my vision blurring with tiny white stars. A faint breeze caressed my skin, making my skirt and shirt flutter, cooling me off a little.

  I recognized how sweaty and achy my body felt right then.

  But I was still standing, although my technique had taken this body to its screaming limits.

  Rui’s jaw was dropped so far her tongue almost fell out. Ume had both hands over her mouth, her fangs faintly peeking below her hands. Akuchi, her face still in the dirt, lifted her arm with a victory sign, two fingers extended and a mumbled awed, “K.O… Mistress Sumire wins!”

  Ushi groaned.

  His arms pressed to the ground. His spider body retracted in small jerks, shrinking back into its comparably less creepy humanoid bulk with six arms. Ptes folded inward. His legs melted away like shadows exposed to sunlight. His massive form returned to how it was, scarred, hulking, bull-headed, six-armed, panting like a winded ox, his clothes torn beyond mending.

  He looked up at me and then ughed, letting out a low, begrudging, rumbling ugh.

  “…Not bad,” he grunted, rubbing his jaw. “Not bad at all, perfect-face.”

  He shifted his massive form aside, dragging one hoof across the stone to clear a path.

  The courtyard gate swung inward with a heavy, resonant groan.

  Warm light spilled outward.

  Standing on that threshold, her hands folded, her heavenly blue eyes gleaming in amusement…

  Stood Natalia-sama.

  Her nine tails drifted in a slow, contented sway.

  “It appears,” she said warmly, her voice like silk and silver bells, “that you have passed their spiritual entry test.”

  My knees almost gave out.

  “A test—?” I croaked. “Y-you mean this was just… A TEST?!”

  Rui pointed furiously at Ushi. “This BASTARD almost KILLED US!”

  Ushi shrugged all six shoulders. “Training builds character. I work for the Yōkai Council.”

  Akuchi let out a genuinely pained groan. “I feel… very shit…”

  Ume giggled. “We did well, I presume?”

  Natalia’s smile deepened. Her smile wasn’t mocking, but proud. Sincerely proud of me.

  “Sumire-chan,” she said softly, “welcome to the Yōkai Council grounds.”

  I stared at her.

  Had Natalia-sama known this would happen from the start?

  Would she lie to us…? Or did she just know exactly what would happen if she made me fight?

  Her smile answered none of my questions.