And I go to meet them.
The final fury comes fast.
They surge up the stairs toward me, and I meet them head-on, blades already moving as I descend back down into them. The fight compresses instantly. No room for wide swings. No room for pretty.
Just bone and steel and momentum.
An arm comes off at the shoulder and skids down the steps, spinning end over end through blood and bodies before disappearing below. I don’t track where it lands.
I stab straight down through a woman’s throat as she lunges upward, feel cartilage give, feel the vibration as the blade punches through her neck and into the stair beneath. I wrench it free and kick her body aside.
Another rushes me from the left. I pivot and drive myshoulder into her, knocking her off balance and straight into her sister’s blade.
They collide.
I don’t hesitate.
I run my sword clean through both their necks, skewering them together. Their eyes go wide in mirrored surprise as I shove them backward, letting gravity take over.
They tumble down the stairs still joined, hitting hard, rolling until they don’t move anymore.
Above the chaos, I feel her gaze.
Tomoe stands on the landing below, white and still, watching her Onryo fall one by one. She doesn’t intervene. Doesn’t speak. Doesn’t flinch.
This is the test.
Awhooshcuts through the air.
I turn instinctively, shoulder twisting away just as the first axe sails past my head. It doesn’t miss its target.
It buries itself in the skull of an Onryo who had worked her way behind me, the impact snapping her head back before she drops bonelessly to the stairs.
Another axe follows immediately, spinning end over end.
I snap my hand out and catch it by the haft.
No pause. No breath.
I hurl it back the way it came.
It hits the thrower square in the face, metal biting deep, and she collapses without a sound.
The last of them hesitates.
Just a fraction.
That’s all I need.
I close the distance in two strides and run her through,blade punching out between her shoulders. I pull it free and let her fall where she stands.
Silence floods the stairwell.
Bodies lie twisted and broken, blood slicking every step between me and the landing below. My breath comes hard now. My side burns. My hands are slick with red.
I turn.
Tomoe waits.
