“It’s three on two. I hope your sword arm is better than your math skills.” Toshi smirked.
Takara stepped forward and joined Ryuichi and Kato. “Apparently, you’re the one who can’t count. It’s three on three.”
As soon as she spoke, all laughter and mockery stopped. Because the one thing they all knew...
If she or her yokai didn’t kill them, her father would. No one with a brain would ever attack her. To go at her throat would be the same as going at her father’s.
And it would be punished severely.
It wasn’t because she was a girl. There were a lot of female students. It was because she was a Hattori. The offspring of their leader. It was one thing to spar against her and her brother. But to fight them...
That was grand stupidity that wouldn’t be tolerated.
There was a tense silence. One that made the hair on the back of Ryuichi’s neck stand up.
The Black Tortoise on Toshi’s right blanched, then leaned in to whisper to him. “Th-that’s Hattori Takara.”
“I know who it is, Ito. I’m not blind.” He raked a scathing glare over his friends. “Are you Black Tortoises, or are you cowards?”
For a second, they hesitated, which gave Ryuichi hope that their common sense would prevail.
But he was stupid for even thinking that.
The Tortoises braced and prepared for war. Ryuichi saw the way their eyes turned to soulless black as they merged with their yokai.
With a loud, ringing kiai, Toshi charged Ryuichi, who barely had time to block, and no time to think or prepare for the powerful blow. It knocked him sideways so hard that he almost lost his footing.
Catching himself before he fell, he returned the blow. But it was as useless as he was.
Toshi, while merged with his yokai, was fast. Blindingly so.
For a group named after a tortoise, they showed no turtle-like qualities whatsoever.
“Masaru!” he groaned between clenched teeth.
His companion completely ignored him.
Without pausing, Toshi swung his wooden sword into the right side of Ryuichi’s face.
Unable to block, Ryuichi gasped as pain rattled his senses and rocked him hard. The blow was so forceful that he lost his footing and hit the ground.
Hard.
“Ryuichi?”
He lifted his hand to assure Kato that he was still alive. Though, honestly, he didn’t feel like it. He could have sworn Toshi had just knocked the life and soul out of him with that one single blow.
As it was, his ears rang, and his vision dimmed.
With a nod, Kato turned just as Ito swung at him. Just like the Tortoises, Kato was using his yokai in battle.
Where was Masaru?
Unlike Ryuichi, Kato ducked in the nick of time and swung at Ito’s leg.
His mark hit true. A sickening crack echoed. The tip of Kato’s sword split and broke as Ito howled in pain and rolled on the ground, away from Kato.
That blow caused the yokai to pull out of Ito’s body and return to its usual place, in his sword.
