2.09: Bull by the HornsAkuchi inhaled once, her shoulders squaring, her eyes sharpening. Then she grinned, fshing me a peace sign, and charged.

  POOF

  One second she was a tanuki-girl… the next, a huge, striped boar thundering across the courtyard. Her tusks gleamed, her hooves tearing divots from the stone as she smmed into Ushi’s front legs like a living battering ram.

  The impact sounded almost like a small car crashing into a wall.

  BAM

  Ushi rocked back half a step. Just half.

  “That’s my tanuki!” Rui whooped. “Get him!”

  “I’m Mistress Sumire’s and NO ONE ELSE’S!” Akuchi yelled.

  Rui glowered and shook her fist at Akuchi. “Stubborn furball.”

  “Quite sturdy, isn’t he?” Ume muttered under her breath against Rui’s ear, a nervous ugh slipping out.

  Akuchi didn’t slow down.

  Her boar-form blurred at the edges, her fur smearing.

  POOF

  She twisted mid-sprint into a leaner and longer form… a huge bck-and-white civet, her striped tail snapping like a whip as she hooked her cws around one of Ushi’s ankles. Using all of her weight and momentum, she wrenched sideways, trying to turn his stance.

  Ushi’s hooves actually skidded.

  My heart leapt. Wow! She’s actually moving his bulk!

  Then all six of his arms flexed at once, his muscles knotting under his fur like braided cables, simply bracing himself. And moments ter he stopped grinding backward.

  “Cute move, tanuki. Never saw one looking as goofy as you,” he rumbled.

  “I’m a proud African Civet bonafide tanuki with all the moves!” Akuchi grinned fearlessly with her civet’s mouth as she released him and dropped low, darting between his legs in a blur of fur and tail. The second she cleared his shadow, she sprang upright in tanuki-girl form again, spped both palms to the stone, sinking her arms into the ground and snarled, “Check out this fun one! GROUND-SPIKE!”

  POOF

  The stones beneath Ushi heaved apart. A squat stone pilr erupted straight up under his center of mass like an uppercut thrusting from the earth, looking like Titan’s fist. For a second the bull-spider yōkai left the ground and held on to the narrow column as he was thrust into the air with surprising force.

  “YES!” Rui shouted, pumping a fist. “Throw him down hard, Akuchi!”

  Akuchi bared her fangs in a wide grin and twisted her arms. The pilr suddenly tilted, dragging Ushi’s weight with it. Ushi toppled forward with an undignified bellowing noise, crashing down onto all his hands and knees.

  The gate behind him shuddered with the impact, dust scattering around the courtyard.

  “Finish him!” I yelled, clenching a fist.

  She’s way tougher than anyone thought!

  Akuchi vaulted onto a low wall and sprinted along it in a blur and then unched herself into a flying kick aimed squarely at the back of his neck.

  Ushi’s tongue snapped out, long, sinuous, and horribly fast.

  It wrapped around her ankle mid-flight and yanked her off bance.

  “Gya—!” Akuchi yelped. “SLIMY! BAD TOUCH!”

  He swung her around like it was his morning exercise routine and flung her into the far wall. She twisted midair with a choked scream…

  POOF

  And turned herself into an anime wall scroll with herself posing naked like a pinup centerfold on it.

  I blushed, averting my eyes until she gently settled on the ground.

  Pervert…

  “Ecchi tanuki!” Ume cheered, giggling. “Gogo!”

  She spped ft against the stones at the base of the wall, the cloth that she was made out of rippling. Ushi galloped forward and his beefy fist smmed into where she nded cracking the wall instead.

  Rui winced. Ume’s grip on her tightened.

  The scroll she turned into got hit directly, tearing under the force of his punch, thrashing wildly around his fist, clinging tightly to it.

  POOF

  Akuchi re-formed wrapped around his burly arm, panting, a little wobbly, but still grinning. She looked up at him impishly. “Haah… looks like you missed me!”

  One of Ushi’s lower arms rubbed at his forehead. “Very annoying.”

  He brushed her off with two more arms, sending her flipping away. She hit the ground, skidded, then snapped back onto her feet.

  He stamped once, his spiritual pressure rolling outward from his hooves like a shockwave. A stone pilr nearby snapped in half, crumbling into the courtyard’s tiles.

  “Don’t think cheap tricks like those will keep me busy forever, tanuki.”

  “They impressed me, even if he doesn't seem to be,” I blurted.

  Akuchi fshed me a quick, proud smile.

  Then Ushi moved, one of his hands grabbing a broken chunk of the pilr and hurling it like a shot put at her. It smmed into Akuchi’s chest with bone-rattling force. She caught it with both arms, barely in time.

  “Akuchi!” I gasped, running forward, but stopped when Akuchi transformed.

  POOF

  In a blink, she turned into a contraption of stacked springs that flexed under the impact. The thing she became smmed into the wall hard enough that dust rained down.

  But then…

  The springs hit their limit and snapped back. The chunk of pilr catapulted right back at him, smashing across his chest.

  THUD

  He caught it without skipping a beat or even breaking a sweat and discarded it.

  POOF

  Akuchi turned back to her tanuki-girl form, spitting out dust.

  “I’m fine! I’m used to getting stoned for my artistic taste. Just stone them right back!” she decred, wheezing, then immediately regretted the phrasing.

  Ushi stared at her for a long moment. “That kami-awful joke alone deserves divine punishment.”

  He closed the distance in two strides. Akuchi tried to drop and roll under him, but his six arms gave him too many ways to grab her. One enormous hand cmped around the back of her neck with contemptuous ease and simply lifted her off the ground.

  “BAKA!” Rui roared.

  Her legs kicked uselessly.

  “Gwah—!”

  “Put her down!” I yelled, my body moving without my permission yet again. I dashed forward, intent on kicking his wrist.

  His other hand swatted me aside like an annoying fly.

  The world tipped sideways. Something that felt like steel smmed up into my ribs and knocked the air out of me as one of his arms intercepted me. I slid across the courtyard, my back scraping through dust and grit, saliva leaking from the corner of my mouth.

  “Augh…” I muttered, trying to catch my breath.

  “Sumire!” Rui’s voice cracked as she broke from Ume’s grip and threw her arms around me. “You okay?”

  I nodded, struggling to breathe normally. “I’m okay,” I panted.

  Rui helped me into a sitting position, my lungs refusing to cooperate. Pain fred behind my eyes, sharp and nauseating.

  “Maybe we bit off a little more than we can chew here,” Ume said, resting a gentle hand on my shoulder.

  “It’s fine. Sumire’s tougher than she’s acting,” Rui grated. “Don’t forget how well she fought against Mitsuhiko.”

  Ushi swung Akuchi around in a short arc and pnted her straight into the ground, sending chunks of stone and dust flying.

  WHUMP

  The courtyard jumped under us. Rui stumbled and Ume wrapped her arms around Rui again, steadying her. Akuchi poofed mid-impact, bounced once like a dropped plushie, then flopped ft. Stars practically spiraled in her eyes.

  “Don’t worry…” she groaned, wobbling a thumbs-up before her arm flopped limply back down.

  “So much for him not being that tough…” I wheezed, gring at Rui. “I think you’re expecting miracles here.”

  “We should probably think about running,” Ume muttered. “He’s a little too strong to take on.”

  Ushi finally let go of Akuchi’s neck. She sagged to her knees, swaying like she was about to throw up, but somehow still managed to reach her arm toward me.

  “I… I can still support you… Sumire-sama…” she tried.

  Her strength gave out and she face-pnted onto the ground.

  That left…

  …just me to fight.

  I swallowed hard and pushed to my feet, my legs shaking, but I forced my knees to lock.

  Ushi turned toward me fully, all six of his arms flexing, his nostrils fring hot. “You sure about this, perfect-face?” he asked, voice low. “You can still walk away from this as long as you don’t try to get past me. You won’t get a better offer. I’m feeling pretty generous after having whipped your tanuki’s ass.”

  Everything in me wanted to take that offer, but he’d just hurt Akuchi.

  We could wait and be patient…. let Natalia come back and let her fix everything, let someone older, smarter and much more powerful handle this. That was the smart move.

  But Rui’s eyes were on me, expecting something.

  “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! Kick his butt!” Rui yelled.

  Ume’s arms were wrapped tight around her waist from behind.

  Akuchi y groaning on the ground, still trying to push herself up for my sake.

  And somewhere beyond the gate, Natalia-sama was probably talking to the Council right then. She was most likely assuming that we’d be doing a little better than this.

  I’m a total embarrassment. Everyone believes so much in me, though I'm just a normal human. Even though I spent some time as a yōkai, I’m nothing special…

  Something in me rebelled against that thought.

  No. STOP cowering! You can’t stay this way!

  I clenched my fist with determination.

  “Fine. If you want it. I’ll bring it.” I decred, my voice shaking, but at least it came out. “Don’t compin when I win.”

  …What was that even? I wanted to show some more guts, but that was pro-foud-ly stupid to say! Did my old mock Yakuza bluster come back to haunt me in a pinch? Yai!

  He ughed. Not breathy nor mocking for some reason. It was full-throated, like he appreciated the bravado.

  “Good answer. Try not to die too fast, Pretty Face.”

  He lunged.

  Despite his bulk, he was fast. Terrifyingly so. One huge fist blurred toward my face.

  I ducked on instinct, the air pressure from his punch screaming over my head, sending my hair streaming in the rush. The stone wall behind me cracked like he’d hit it with a sledgehammer.

  My body moved before my brain caught up, my eyes burning.

  … Hopefully not with held back tears.

  Something clicked inside me.

  It wasn’t depression, nor resignation. It wasn’t acceptance of defeat.

  I shed out, because I saw it. Something that called out to me.

  A weak spot. He’d left himself totally open.

  A right straight to the ribs. A low kick toward his knee. DO IT!

  My fist smmed into his side and pain bloomed, running from my knuckles through my wrist and straight into my elbow. It felt like I’d just punched a steel girder. He didn’t even twitch.

  The shock in my arm made me forget the kick I’d thought about. I knew how it would have pyed out anyway, if my shin met his knee.

  I realized what I’d just tried and why.

  It was a cssic combo I’d spammed in Tekku a hundred times trying to beat Reiko-chan, and my brain had reached for it like it actually seemed like a good idea.

  Real fighting was regrettably nothing like a video game.

  What AM I EVEN DOING?!

  In return, he flicked one wrist, a simple contemptuous gesture.

  His backhand caught me across the cheek and flung me sideways. I tasted blood. The courtyard spun in a wild arc before the ground intercepted me again.

  “Susu!” Rui shouted, panic twining with anger. “Get up!”

  I forced my arms under me and pushed up, my jaw throbbing, my shoulder screaming, my entire body screaming.

  One of Ushi’s hooves nded inches from my head. The shock made my teeth chatter.

  “Too soft,” he rumbled. “This is what they call a ‘perfect human form’ now? Is this the best someone like you can do? Disappointing. It’s almost like you really were just a weak human this whole time.”

  I scrambled backward on my hands and heels as one of his hands chopped down where I had just been. The stone shattered.

  “This isn’t working,” I gasped. “I don’t have any Noh face powers. I don’t have any real consciousness powers. I don’t have—”

  “SUMIRE!”

  Rui’s voice sliced through the noise. I looked up, my chest heaving.

  And nearly died on the spot.

  Rui had broken free from Ume’s arms again and she was on the sidelines…

  …doing Caramelldansen for me again.

  “Till denna melodi (Oh-wa-ohwa-ah)Dansa med ossKppa era h?nderG?r som vi g?rTa n?gra steg ?t v?nsterLyssna och l?rMissa inte chansenNu ?r vi h?r medCaramelldansen,” Rui sang.

  Her small hands were raised by her head, her wrists flicking back and forth, her hips swaying side to side in that silly, adorable looping motion. Her expression was deadly serious, her cheeks bright pink.

  “I’m powering you up, Susu!” she yelled. “You’d better appreciate it!”

  My brain short-circuited.

  She’s seriously cute when she’s cheering me on like this!!! It actually motivates me.

  My chest did something amazing and painful and too perfect all at once and Ushi actually stopped moving mid-step, several of his fists lowering as he stared at Rui, bewildered.

  “What… is she doing?” he asked, looking genuinely thrown for a loop for the first time.

  “She’s cheering me on,” I muttered, dazed.

  “Obviously, baka!” Rui snapped. “Do your job and be moved by my sacrifice!”

  Ume joined her a heartbeat ter, sliding into position beside Rui like they’d rehearsed it together. Her twin tails swayed in perfect time, her fangy grin locked squarely on me as she bounced and flicked her wrists.

  Caramelldansen

  Her breasts bounced as she moved, her hips swaying, her hands at each side of her head, fpping.

  I could feel heat climbing up my neck like my blood was going to boil.

  I didn’t feel any surge in power, like when I was a yōkai. The universe didn’t suddenly hand me more miraculous spiritual power.

  But my heart did flutter.

  Kami, I love them! What have I been doing?

  I spped my hands on my cheeks, ignoring how my body ached.

  You can’t just stand here and get beaten up in front of them, idiot!

  I sucked in a breath and forced myself upright.

  “Alright,” I whispered. “So what if I can’t be a Noh-Face yōkai anymore… So what if I can’t be a sentai hero anymore either. Then I’ll just be me. Sumire Shinohara.”

  Something clicked inside me.

  The world sharpened at the edges.

  Ushi moved again, one of his fists scything toward my ribs.

  I didn’t think.

  …

  My body slid off the line of his attack, pivoting on the ball of one foot, my heel whipping around toward the inside of his ankle, nudging his weight.

  He grunted, bracing himself with his other leg.

  He swung with a lower arm, trying to swat me out of the air.

  I adjusted mid-movement, letting the momentum carry me past his strike, my toes skimming his forearm instead of taking the full hit.

  I see it. How he moves.

  I suddenly felt different… weirdly supercharged. I’d felt it before. Back when I fought Mitsuhiko. I didn’t think about it back then. I didn’t reason out where it sprang from.

  My brain was mapped to a combat rhythm like Tekku matches I’d pyed a thousand times against Reiko. Heavy straight. Hook. Low kick. Grab. Reset.

  My body responded with counters that Reiko had drilled into me as I struggled time after time to beat her even a single time in a hundred matches… or so I thought…

  It was actually more than mimicking video game techniques as I was trying to do before. It was much more profound and mysterious.

  I remembered how Reiko would always try various moves from time to time on me. That interest eventually led her to get real martial arts lessons.

  I recognized it. How I was moving now…

  This was Reiko’s soul stirring in me. This was Reiko’s fighting experience rising up like the tide flooding a beach.

  Ghost Muscle Memory

  I ducked under his next punch and snapped three jabs into the soft joint between two of his arms. He snarled, one fist missing my head by centimeters as I slipped to the side and drove an elbow into his ribs, then pivoted behind him to target his shoulder, punching upward.

  For a few dizzy seconds, I was ahead of him.

  Every time he swung, I wasn’t there anymore. Every time his weight shifted and he shed out, I let him overcommit, then I stole that opening and hit him for it. I knew my hits weren’t doing much, but every single one still got through.

  Knuckles, knees, and short brutal kicks.

  Ushi roared, all six of his arms trying to catch up with my speed.

  I almost ughed with the rush of it. It was strange feeling suddenly competent, my movements fluid. It was as though I truly belonged in this body.

  Reiko-chan… are these your moves? Or mine now…?

  Whatever the answer was, Ushi gave me no time to ponder on it.

  Ushi’s eyes narrowed. The hesitation I hadn’t noticed burned away inside him.

  “Enough,” he snarled. “Let’s see if you can dance with this form.”

  His spiritual pressure spiked.

  The air thickened and his body warped.

  Muscle stacked over muscle as his torso swelled. Chitinous ptes pushed through the fur along his sides, locking into pce with disgusting clicking noises. His arms twisted and elongated into hooked, spiderlike forelimbs, losing its human aspects. The remaining four grew thicker and elongated simirly, his skin mottling into a texture like rough stone.

  Then he fell forward onto all eight legs, sending dust and chips of stone flying everywhere.

  The ragged hem of his hakama had split.

  Eight spider legs supported him, shredding the fabric entirely as they spread. Each limb ended in a hooked cw that dug into the courtyard. His lower body sagged down into a bloated, armored mass that connected bull to spider.

  A bull head with his prehensile tongue thrashing in the air. A half-humanoid torso. A spider abdomen and legs.

  So this is a real Ushi-oni!

  The old Susumu inside me filed in a panic.

  Ushi dropped into a stance that made the ground quake.

  If the first form had been a wall… this was the whole fortress.

  I stared, cold sweat dripping down my spine.

  …

  …

  He moved, leaving no room left to think.

  Spider legs stabbed at me. I moved, instinctively dodging, his limbs smashing into where I’d been standing a breath ago. I backflipped, my shoes barely clearing another hooked cw that hewed a furrow through the stone. I cautiously tried to slip inside his attacking range, but soon discovered that there was no safe spot to be standing inside. His arms and legs, tongue and horns covered every weak point.

  One of his spider legs swept my feet out from under me faster than I could react. I smmed down hard, my teeth ccking together.

  “Sumire-sama!” Akuchi croaked somewhere to my left.

  I rolled, feeling the stones shattering behind me. A long, wet sh wrapped around my ankle. It was like a wet noose. His tongue flipped up and I was suddenly airborne, weightless for a heartbeat.

  A shadow loomed beneath me.

  POOF

  He threw me to the ground. It rushed up at my face quicker than I could react.

  Something brown and fuzzy fshed in front of me a split second before my head would have smmed into the stone.

  I nded on something soft, having expected my skull to sptter. My face sank into fur. It cinched around my body.

  Akuchi had turned herself into an enormous furry beanbag cushion. We bounced once, then twice, tumbling across the courtyard together. My bones screamed, but nothing snapped.

  POOF

  She reappeared beside me, staggering, her eyes gssy. “Sumire… sama… run… You did well, but you can’t beat something like him,” she mumbled, then colpsed face-first into the courtyard.

  Ushi advanced inexorably.

  The caramelldansen that Rui and Ume were doing for me continued to loop at the edge of my vision. They were bouncing in sync, stubbornly adorable. Rui had tears in her eyes. Ume was obviously worried. She seemed to be conflicted, on the point of acting.

  Rui’s earlier words echoed in my head.

  Didn’t you manage to fight Mitsuhiko before he tore your face off?

  I pushed myself to my knees, panting.

  How… Did I manage to do that?

  I remembered fighting him below his tower. I recalled my fear. The same fear I felt now. I remembered the way the jade bracelet had lit my whole arm on fire when I was fighting him inside the tower ter.

  And then I remembered why I was able to fight him without any real skills.

  The paw.

  …That stupid little Maneki-Neko paw rocketing away like a bullet, cracking Akuchi in the head, then smacking into the back of mine as I turned to shower.

  My fingers closed around the bracelet now, feeling the cool surface of the jade beads against my skin.

  This is all I have except for Reiko’s memories of martial arts. I don’t have that cat’s paw anymore.

  I had no idea what I was doing then. I was just desperate, betting that I could use my spiritual power as a way to propel an artifact that was porized so that it rejected spiritual energy like repelling magnetic poles.

  Was there anything useful in that?

  I sucked in a fresh breath of air as Ushi’s shadow fell over me, and I forced myself to think despite the increased pressure.

  How did I stand up to a martial artist like Mitsuhiko with just that…? And all this guy has is just brute force.

  Ushi reared back, all of his eight legs tensing.

  I clutched my bracelet tighter.

  The memory of the beckoning cat rose up in my mind, its paw jerking, the paw snapping off and ricochetting, cratering the walls with its force, Rui’s cackling expnation, Natalia’s worry, Ume’s gentle hands.

  When used the way I had, it was a tiny, ridiculous, deadly weapon.

  Maybe only someone silly like me would ever think of something like that.

  Ushi’s forelimb came down, the hook aimed straight for my chest, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Move, baka!” Rui screamed.

  As she screamed, I rolled away.

  And somewhere between terror, motion and the feel of jade under my fingertips, something in me twisted.

  The power current in my bracelet stirred and tingled...