At that moment, Tsumiko's pupils trembled uncontrollably.
"…Mera."
But before she could utter another word, Mera surged forward in silence, her steps resolute.
Flames roared around her hands and feet, licking at a body marred with wounds and exhaustion. A third of her reiatsu had already been sapped away.
The light had vanished from the red-haired girl's eyes.
She moved as if marching to her death.
Makoto raised his blade toward her. "An attack of this caliber won't even graze me."
The instant his voice fell, those words solidified into an immutable law within this world.
[From lies forged into truth.]
[Fixing Falsehood]
Mera's voice rasped, a guttural roar tearing from her throat. Her flame-wreathed fists and feet whipped through the air with a fierce howl, sharp and unrelenting.
Yet Makoto standing still followed an almost instinctual pull. With effortless sidesteps and subtle shifts and movements so minute they were nearly imperceptible, he evaded her every strike.
Such deft dodges rendered Mera's onslaught utterly futile.
The vast gulf in reiatsu between them nearly double hers allowed Makoto to wield Fixing Falsehood with minimal effort, dominating the exchange with crushing ease.
Their clash unfolded like a farcical puppet show.
Until, at last, Makoto's blade swept down in a casual arc, tracing Mera's momentum to carve a long, jagged mark across the red-haired blade maiden's body.
Her knees buckled, and with a dull thud, she collapsed to the ground. Blood streamed from the wound's edges.
"What's wrong?" Makoto asked, his tone tinged with mock confusion. "Are you so unable to accept the truth that you'd resort to this, begging me to finish you off?"
"You… liar!"
Mera propped herself up on trembling hands, her voice a strained, guttural hiss.
"Still refusing to believe?"
Makoto sighed, a faint note of helplessness in his breath.
Dragging his blade, he approached the red-haired girl with measured steps.
As he had gleaned from the 'wooden plaques' himself...
Sokushinteigi was an ability that wove reality and illusion into one another.
But at its core, its full effect demanded a vast disparity in reiatsu.
Within the realm of Playlife x World of Revelry, this power's spiritual demands lessened considerably. Yet the moment he left that world, many of the 'truths' he crafted would unravel entirely.
To carry those 'truths' into reality required specific conditions.
First, an overwhelming gap in reiatsu between both parties.
Second, when a gap existed, breaking the opponent's spirit to the brink of collapse forcing them to acknowledge the 'truth' from the depths of their soul.
This intricate maneuver struggled to alter the physical or biological turning stone to gold or a burly man into a curvaceous maiden would dissolve upon returning to reality.
In Makoto's still-nascent state, the ability's truest potential lay in manipulating the intangible like mind and will.
A simple demand.
Or a subtle betrayal.
To test whether this theory could bear fruit, Makoto needed a subject someone straightforward, impulsive, with a heart sharply divided between love and hate.
Mera was perfect.
Yet just as he advanced, blade in hand, closing the distance to heighten the pressure...
"Get... AWAY!"
Tsumiko equally battered let out a shrill cry from beneath her mask. The jet-black hammer in her hands swelled to its utmost limit its weight and density pushed to the peak of her crafting ability.
With a thunderous crash, the hammer struck the earth, unleashing a devastating imprint akin to a lightning bolt's fury. The shockwave rippled outward, accompanied by a deafening explosion.
Makoto retreated a few steps, steadying himself.
He gazed at the masked figure standing before Mera like a she-wolf guarding her cub.
Tsumiko's body could no longer sustain such an attack. Her mask was soaked with crimson threads, the color dim and foreboding.
Her back to Mera, she dared not turn around.
Her voice quivered. "I-I didn't mean…"
"Mera."
Mera lifted her head with effort, her near-extinguished eyes reflecting Tsumiko's silhouette.
Her lips parted, trembling as if to speak.
But the memory of what had just transpired stilled her, uncertainty warring with disbelief. Her head drooped limply, leaving only a silence heavy with near-death stillness.
"…"
"Damn it!"
Tsumiko cursed under her breath. Clutching a long hammer in one hand and a short one in the other, she prepared to charge Makoto.
However…
"Too slow."
Makoto's voice cut through, his reiatsu now at [5] elevating his speed, strength, and reflexes far beyond the pair. His flickering Shunpo outpaced Tsumiko's vision entirely.
The moment his words reached her, Makoto's form materialized before the grim, masked girl.
Her eyes caught the glint of his radiant blade.
Instinctively, her twin hammers rose to parry the descending strike.
But as Makoto had said...
Too slow.
Shrrk!
A sharp, rending sound pierced Tsumiko's ears. Agony lanced from her left shoulder to her lower right abdomen, blood and reiatsu draining with her fading vitality. Weakness consumed her, swift and ruinous.
In truth, Tsumiko as the most analytical of the trio had known it all along.
The moment Hasuka fell, their defeat was sealed.
Everything since had been mere survival.
Yet in the instant the blade struck, a revelation flickered through her. Her gaze, wide with dread, fixed on Makoto's unrelenting edge as she whispered, "N-No…"
Before she could finish, the blade plunged ruthlessly through her heart.
A vital strike.
[Pact: Once I strike your vitals, you must learn to obey my commands.]
A pink radiance flared in the depths of both Makoto's and Tsumiko's pupils, mirroring one another.
With the last vestiges of her strength, Tsumiko cried out to Mera, her voice breaking.
"N-No, don't believe…"
Before she could finish, Makoto's blade slid free from the girl's heart, a vivid spray of crimson blooming in its wake.
Mera stared blankly at the scene unfolding before her.
Had both Hasuka and Tsumiko been dispatched so effortlessly?
If so, then the next…
It would be her, wouldn't it?
The moment that thought struck, an inexplicable sense of relief inexplicably welled within Mera's chest.
She knew.
Of course she knew!
Her mind wasn't built for grappling with such convoluted matters!
Who betrayed whom, who seized the chance for revenge…
She couldn't make sense of any of it!
Being defeated might be for the best.
After all, Zanpakuto couldn't die.
Once she slipped into unconsciousness, it wouldn't be long before Oetsu came to their rescue, right?
With Oetsu's strength, he'd dispatch a small fry like this in an instant. Then they could erase this day from memory, and return to their old ways, bickering, laughing, living as if nothing had ever happened.
After today, her bond with Tsumiko and Hasuka could go back to how it once was, couldn't it?
At that thought, a flicker of courage to face reality stirred within Mera.
Kneeling on the ground, her upper body swaying with exhaustion, she shouted toward Makoto with all her might.
"Bastard! Idiot! Scum!"
"Come!"
"Kill me!"
"A guy like you isn't anything special!"
Her diminutive frame belied the sheer volume of her voice.
Yet as he watched her defiant fury, Makoto grew ever calmer.
Like a hunter observing prey bleeding out, fleeing until its strength waned to nothing.
His flat and explanatory voice rose.
"My apologies."
"I lied earlier."
"?"
Mera froze lifting her head in bewilderment to meet his gaze.
Unperturbed, Makoto continued, "In this space, beyond the basic manipulation of rules, I possess another distinct ability."
"The power… to turn falsehood into truth."
At those words, Mera's expression stiffened.
Realization dawned.
Like a mastermind savoring a successful scheme, Makoto offered a gentle smile as he elaborated, "In truth, every choice your comrades made was correct, whether probing the rules' loopholes or feigning compliance to evade them."
"The sudden enforcement of my commands? That was merely the result of this ability's demands."
"You… you…"
Mera's body trembled.
From some unknown reserve, strength surged into her battered frame. She staggered to her feet and lurched toward Makoto, flames flaring across her back.
Yet within her, guilt gnawed born of the doubts she'd harbored against Tsumiko and Hasuka moments ago.
That filthy remorse threatened to shred her spirit.
Makoto's voice pressed on, serene and relentless, "The only one who truly doubted them… was you."
"From start to finish, Hasuka and Tsumiko trusted the friends at their side. It was my enforced power alone that puppeted them before your eyes."
"Stop it!"
Flames blazed in Mera's eyes as if they'd consumed her from within.
But Makoto continued undeterred, "You alone, Mera."
"You're the only fool who fell for my clumsy ploy like a clown jerked by a single thread, instantly suspecting the friends who trusted you. Here, in this wretched arena, you performed a farce worthy of a jester."
"I told you... SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Her entire body ablaze, Mera roared, charging at Makoto with a speed she herself couldn't fathom. Her fist, heavy with explosive force, aimed straight for his face.
Yet Makoto's voice refused to relent.
"Until the very end…"
"Tsumiko still trusted you."
"BASTARD!"
Her emotions and flames peaked in tandem the moment his words landed, pushing her body to its absolute limit.
Intricate, serpentine patterns coiled across her skin.
"But."
"Those betrayed by your doubt…"
"…How disappointed must they have been?"
Makoto's final words fell like the first raindrop in a firestorm, piercing straight through Mera's core.
And in that fleeting instant, they birthed…
Fear.
Her blazing fist, a mere breath from his face...
Countless golden tendrils erupted behind Makoto, weaving into a complex web. In a blink, they shot toward the flame-clad Mera, ensnaring her limbs with frenzied precision.
The clash of momentum and recoil suspended her midair, her body wracked by a momentary tearing sensation as if her limbs might rip apart.
Before the inferno within her could erupt...
Hasuka's face appeared before her.
The golden-haired woman's lovely features were etched with resolve and coldness.
That expression alone halted Mera's fist mid-swing.
Then, a whip of woven hair lashed down, striking her with brutal force. Already gravely wounded, Mera spun through the air, crashing to the ground in a series of explosive thuds.
She didn't dare retaliate.
Gazing at Hasuka's once-irritating face, an irrepressible wave of apology surged within her.
And with it, the memory of Hasuka's chest pierced by that blade.
The searing guilt eclipsed even her pain.
Sliding to her knees, Mera struggled to rise.
But before her hands could brace her weight, a familiar long hammer traced an elegant arc through the air, descending toward her back with cold, silent intent.
Boom!
Her body slammed fully into the earth.
In the corner of her vision, she glimpsed Tsumiko's unfamiliar gaze.
That piercing guilt stabbed through her chest, her mind helplessly replaying the moment of doubt and anger she'd felt toward Tsumiko.
Beneath the weight of such tangled, ferocious emotions...
The flames on Mera's back flickered and died.
That last blow had drained her final reserves of reiatsu.
Only her consciousness lingered.
Prostrate in the crater, her eyes dull, she murmured, "It's all my fault…"
"Indeed."
Makoto's calm yet infuriating voice sounded once more in her ear.
"It's all your fault."
"…"
Mera fell silent, her eyes dimming completely.
No longer did she lash out in furious defiance as before.
Her reiatsu, stamina, and mental defenses had all plummeted to their nadir.
Makoto's feet entered her blurred vision.
A hand seized her collar, hoisting her into the air, forcing her to meet his gaze.
"But, fortunately…"
"You now have a chance to make some amends."
Her drooping eyelids snapped up at those words, straining to look at him.
Makoto smiled. "It's simple."
"All you need to do is return to reality and follow a few small requests of mine."
"Not many, just three or five will suffice."
"You'll do it, won't you?"
"Mera-san."
As his words settled...
Their eyes locked.
In the depths of their gazes, twin hearts overlapped and burned.
[From lies forged into truth.]
[Fixing Falsehood]
***
[1] By the way, Sokushinteigi and Yuseiboushi are not the names of his shikai, but the abilities possessed by his shikai.
Yuseiboushi came from his pervert gremlin who gave him domain-type abilities with many scenarios and rules like when he fought Nel (Playlife x World of Revelry).
Sokushinteigi comes from his mature female spirit, which gives him the ability to transform illusions into reality and reality into illusions.
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