Perhaps it was slightly unforeseen by Okuni for whatever reason, but in a momentary lapse of observation, Erina has closed the gap and slammed her foot into the handle of the katana she had just sheathed. The weapon pushed through and tore her Obi, letting lose both the katana as well as the second weapon on her waist. In an acrobatic reactive move, Okuni grabbed the relic weapon and let the force of the strike carry her backwards, spinning and sliding her feet on the floor before resetting back into a readied posture, now with the talisman-wrapped blade in her hand. The undoing of her Obi caused her Kimono and Hakama to be undone, the cloth now freely draping down to the floor.
As she regained her bearings, Erina came in with her second flurry of punches, aiming to crush Okuni’s face in. She held the sheathed blade to intersect with the fists, and as the two collided, Erina would find her fist smash through the scabbard, shattering the wood with sheer force; though she would find her fist meeting with the blade of the sword within, yet it would proceed no further than that. At the very worst, her hand would be cut by her own force if she pushed through. Regardless, the force of the blow carried through, sending Okuni flying backwards into the wall of the throne room.
Colliding with the wall, she crashed in, breaking the wall and creating a cloud of dust that surrounded the crater. With no signs of movement from the impact point, a pause overcame the room, an eerie silence that fell upon both the participants and the onlookers within the room. Had Okuni lost? Was the duel over?
“...Onee-san…”
Next to Ashford, Hikari could be heard speaking Okuni’s name softly. Though if to the many the fight seemed to be over, Hikari could sense what was to happen next.
…
The key of all martial arts was one’s breath. The key to life was one’s breath. Through the oxygen humans intook, they were given life and allowed to flourish throughout history. To a martial artist, one’s breath was their life. The oxygen that filled their lungs, that filled their muscles, allowed them to continue fighting, and allowed them to strengthen themselves beyond that which was normal.
“Fuuuuu….. Haaaaaaa”
To end the silence within the room, a singular breath resonated throughout the atmosphere of the throne room, one that would bring both chills and sweat to all who heard it.
Okuni could feel it. As the oxygen entered her lungs and proliferated throughout her body, she began to feel revitalized, clearing her mind and relaxing her muscles. Her Haki followed the Oxygen, forming in her torso then spreading through her body, enveloping her muscles, strengthening them.
With the scabbard broken, the blade of the weapon was revealed to all. It was a pristine white jade-color, that held no reflection in its construction. The blade was crafted with materials unknown neither Earth, nor the moon for that fact. The golden Tsuka shimmered in the dim light of the throne room, giving the weapon an almost regal or divine look to it.
Okuni looked at the blade, in an almost surprised manner, as it was the first time she had seen the blade herself. She blinked twice then gave herself a nod, returning her focus back to her foe. Holding the blade in her hands, she could feel the weight of it, in more ways than one. She held the blade at the ready and closed her eyes.
“Fuuuuuu….. Haaaaaaaaaa……”
Okuni took another deep breath, taking in the atmosphere. Her body was covered in scratches and bruises, and her clothes were turning into tatters. Her nervous system had completely shut off all sense of pain, the wounds inflicted on her giving no toll to her fighting ability. Her Haki continued to fill her body before entering into the sword, beginning to course through the Jade-like material.
“Had you had been serious from the start, perhaps I would’ve used this sooner.”
It was now that Soul and Sword would become one.
“Relic Weapon: Takamagahara, Release.”
It was then that Haki would burst forth from the blade, enwrapping the blade in vibrant energy, and amplifying it enough to make the energy visible to the normal eye.
“Allow me to fight you seriously now.”
This was the first time in a long time Okuni had the chance to fully go all-out in combat, though in the back of her mind, she knew there was no glory to be won from this fight. While the woman held a superhuman level of strength and could be seen as a worthy adversary, she lacked the skill of combat and the prowess of a true warrior. It was no different than fighting a mere animal in Okuni’s eyes.
The pristine white blade of Takamagahara was covered in in Okuni’s Haki; if one could see the flow of mana within her, the two would be connected in a seamless fashion, almost as if the blade itself was an extension of her body; no, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the blade was a part of her body itself. Though the flow was notably in a single direction.
With two steps, Okuni had vanished from the crater in the wall, a crackle and burst in the stone following where she had been not but a second after. She had moved to within slashing range of Erina, her blade held sideways to perform a horizontal crescent slash. While Doban might’ve expected the swing to come at her as fast as Okuni’s prior strikes, this strike started surprisingly slow, perhaps even catching her off guard, almost as if Okuni was swinging the blade in slow motion. Erina could hear Okuni grunting through the swing, her whole body immensely tensed, Haki building seemingly condensing around the blade. Despite this, the blade screeched like a banshee as it moved through the air; to Erina it would be as if Death was slowly moving towards her.
And nothing would stop it.
One thing Erina would notice was that Okuni’s eyes were closed. rather than relying on her visual sight, using her other senses to ‘reach’ out and feel for where Erina was.
Though, roughly a quarter of the way through the swing, as if time had returned to normal, As Okuni exhaled, releasing the built-up Haki with a crackle and ‘boom’ that ruptured from the air, the blade completed its arc, the weapon slicing with force beyond reckoning, cutting through wind and air itself, blowing away small stones and any other loose materials that were lying about, and even slicing into even a pillar beyond Erina. Were it to strike Erina directly, much less than bisecting the woman, it would be more likely that her body would get blasted to smithereens with the sheer force that laid behind the weapon.
With a forward step, her foot making cracks in the floor as she planted it into ground, Okuni quickly shifted the position of the blade now holding it overhead as she swung downwards. The blade screeched through the air again, before crashing into the floor, creating a crater and kicking up dust and stone. The earth-shattering swing shook the ground creating a further mess of the throne room than what already was.
“Fuuuuuuuu…… Haaaaaa….”
With another breath, Okuni turned her head to the direction of Erina. If she saw through the dust, Erina would see that Okuni’s eyes were shut, and her expression was blankly calm. She began to reset her position and held her blade vertically at the ready, relaxing her body and mind.
Hikari in the meanwhile, perhaps in seeing her cousin continuing to fight, became motivated to fight too, as she pulled out her Katana and moved with the automatons of Ashford, moving to attack the Lunar Knights. She felt a little put off by the words Ashford had said, but he was their charge, and helping him ensure his goals was all they could do.
“Inmetsu! Fuurinkazan, Third Gate: Open!”
Haki began to fill her body too, though not quite to the same extent as Okuni. She might not be as great a warrior as her cousin, but she was still a practitioner of the Kusanagi sword style, and wouldn’t lose to any of these knights.
She held her blade at the ready to strike at one of the Knights.