Yuji found him in the middle of a ruined avenue where the fire had already burned itself low.
The street was wide enough for movement, but cluttered with broken signs, shattered glass, abandoned festival carts, and chunks of masonry torn loose by earlier fighting. Smoke drifted between the buildings in long gray sheets.
The vampire stood alone.
No civilians.
No other Hunters.
No distractions.
Just a man with a sword.
Yuji stopped several meters away.
His eyes went first to the vampire.
Then to the blade in his hand.
It was unusual.
Not ornate.
Not oversized.
Just clean, narrow, and balanced in a way that immediately caught Yuji's attention.
He stared at it for half a second longer than necessary.
Then a wry smirk touched his face.
The vampire noticed.
Fujitatsu: "What're you smiling about, boy?"
Yuji's gaze stayed on the sword.
Yuji: "That's a nice blade you got there. Mind if I take it for myself?"
Fujitatsu's expression hardened.
Fujitatsu: "You must be dreaming if you think you can defeat me. But don't worry, I'll make that dream permanent."
He pushed in.
And the fight began.
Fujitatsu covered the distance with a single aggressive step, blade already descending toward Yuji's collarbone.
Yuji shifted his lead foot six inches.
Nothing more.
The attack missed.
His own sword came up from below, angled toward the inside of Fujitatsu's wrist.
Fujitatsu rotated his grip and caught it.
Steel touched.
Something jolted through Yuji's hands.
Not force.
Feedback.
A strange pressure traveled from the contact point, through the edge of his sword, into his wrists.
Yuji's eyes sharpened.
Fujitatsu's blade snapped away.
Then the air screamed.
A second slash tore outward from the point where their swords had touched.
Same angle as Yuji's attack.
Far stronger.
Yuji's body moved before thought caught up.
He folded backward.
The invisible counter cut passed over his face and continued through the building behind him.
Stone split open.
Yuji landed on one hand, kicked off the pavement, and came upright several meters away.
Fujitatsu had stopped.
Just slightly.
The surprise showed in his eyes.
Yuji saw it.
So did someone else.
Far from the avenue, perched above the battle on a damaged rooftop, Lily watched through narrowed eyes.
Lily: "Uh oh. Looks like Fujitatsu may be in danger."
⸻
Yuji attacked first this time.
Not recklessly.
Testing.
He stepped in with a shallow diagonal cut toward Fujitatsu's shoulder.
Fujitatsu met it.
The moment steel touched, Yuji released pressure and slipped his blade away.
The returning force still came.
A doubled slash tore through the space he had occupied.
Yuji was already elsewhere.
He pivoted around Fujitatsu's flank and thrust toward the ribs.
Fujitatsu caught the thrust against the flat of his sword.
Again.
That strange feedback.
Yuji instantly abandoned the line.
The counter thrust followed.
It punched through the air like a spear.
Yuji twisted his torso.
The invisible point scraped past his clothing and drilled into the wall behind him.
He understood the first rule.
Contact mattered.
Not being struck.
Not blocking.
Contact itself.
Every time Fujitatsu's blade met an incoming attack, something came back.
Stronger.
Yuji tested the second rule.
He attacked without committing.
A quick flick toward the hand.
Fujitatsu parried.
Yuji pulled away before the exchange could settle.
The retaliation came anyway.
Faster than before.
Twice the force.
The blade did not simply reflect physical momentum.
It returned the attack itself.
Yuji's eyes narrowed.
He changed stance.
Lower.
More compact.
The smirk was gone.
Now he looked cold.
Interested.
Fujitatsu advanced.
His sword came from the right.
Yuji did not block.
He slipped outside it.
Fujitatsu reversed into another cut.
Yuji leaned under.
A third attack followed immediately.
Yuji stepped through it.
Too close for a full swing.
He drove his shoulder into Fujitatsu's chest and cut upward from nearly no distance.
Fujitatsu still managed to wedge the Counter Blade between them.
Steel touched.
Yuji felt the feedback.
He released his weapon with one hand.
The returning slash erupted upward.
Yuji rotated around it.
The counter missed his neck by inches.
His free hand caught Fujitatsu's sword wrist.
Yuji pulled.
Fujitatsu stepped in instead of resisting.
Good response.
The two collided shoulder-to-shoulder.
Yuji tried sweeping the leg.
Fujitatsu hopped the sweep and turned his hip into a short-range cut.
Yuji withdrew.
The blade passed close enough to slice a few strands of hair.
Both separated.
No wasted motion.
No hesitation.
They moved again.
Fujitatsu struck high.
Yuji evaded.
Low.
Yuji stepped over.
Thrust.
Yuji redirected the wrist without using his sword.
That mattered.
Every exchange became a choice.
Normally, a blade was protection.
Here, Yuji's sword could betray him the instant it touched Fujitatsu's.
So he began fighting around it.
He parried Fujitatsu's forearm instead of the weapon.
Redirected shoulders.
Attacked hands.
Used footwork to let cuts pass naturally instead of meeting them.
When he did engage blade-to-blade, it was only for fractions of a second.
Touch.
Release.
Move.
Every contact became a trigger he was already prepared to avoid.
Fujitatsu accelerated.
His swordsmanship was good.
Very good.
The Counter Blade was not carrying him.
He understood spacing.
He knew how to force contact.
That was the real danger.
He began deliberately creating exchanges where Yuji had no comfortable choice except to block.
A horizontal cut drove Yuji toward a collapsed cart.
Yuji stepped back.
Fujitatsu followed with a thrust that denied the left.
Yuji shifted right.
Exactly where Fujitatsu wanted.
The next slash came from below.
Yuji had no room to retreat.
He blocked.
Feedback.
Yuji instantly dropped flat.
The doubled counter cut passed above him and tore through the cart.
Wood exploded across the street.
Fujitatsu kicked downward.
Yuji rolled.
The heel cratered pavement.
Yuji used the momentum of the roll to rise behind Fujitatsu and cut for the spine.
Fujitatsu turned.
Counter Blade met steel.
Feedback.
Yuji had already anticipated the return.
He stepped inside the reflected line.
That was new.
Instead of escaping away from the counter, Yuji entered beneath it.
The doubled slash screamed past his shoulder.
His sword pommel struck Fujitatsu under the jaw.
Fujitatsu's head snapped back.
Yuji followed with a knee to the stomach.
Then a short cut across the chest.
Fujitatsu twisted enough to keep it shallow.
Blood appeared.
First blood.
Neither reacted.
Fujitatsu retaliated immediately.
His blade came down.
Yuji stepped aside.
The next attack chased him.
Then another.
Fujitatsu began forcing tempo.
Yuji gave ground through the center of the avenue.
One step.
Two.
Three.
His heel touched loose glass.
He registered it instantly.
Fujitatsu attacked.
Yuji kicked the glass upward.
Hundreds of fragments flashed between them.
Fujitatsu's eyes closed reflexively.
Yuji changed direction.
His sword came from the blind side.
Fujitatsu caught it anyway.
Feedback.
Yuji released the hilt entirely.
The reflected cut launched from the collision point.
His sword was knocked spinning into the air.
Yuji ducked beneath the counter, stepped around Fujitatsu, and caught his own weapon by the handle as it fell.
The entire sequence lasted less than a second.
Fujitatsu's eyes widened again.
Yuji attacked before he could reset.
Three cuts.
Different angles.
None fully committed.
Fujitatsu blocked the first.
Counter.
Yuji avoided.
Blocked the second.
Counter.
Yuji was already moving.
Blocked the third.
The reflected slash came twice as hard.
Yuji used the recoil from his own withdrawn step to spin outside it.
Then attacked from a fourth angle.
This one was real.
Fujitatsu shifted late.
Yuji's edge opened his upper arm.
Blood ran down Fujitatsu's sleeve.
Yuji didn't chase the wound.
He watched the feet.
Fujitatsu adjusted his stance.
Slightly wider.
Weight farther back.
Defensive now.
He had realized the problem.
The Counter Blade made ordinary swordsmen afraid to attack.
Yuji wasn't ordinary.
He was using the counters themselves to learn timing.
Every reflected strike revealed exactly how the weapon responded.
Angle.
Delay.
Direction.
Strength.
Yuji memorized it through instinct rather than conscious calculation.
Fujitatsu surged forward.
Yuji met him.
Their swords almost touched.
Almost.
Yuji stopped his cut an inch before contact.
Fujitatsu reacted anyway, raising the Counter Blade to intercept something that never arrived.
Yuji changed direction instantly.
His blade came beneath the guard.
Fujitatsu twisted.
The cut tore across his side.
Yuji stepped past him.
Fujitatsu spun and attacked backward.
Yuji leaned away.
Their eyes met.
The rhythm changed.
Fujitatsu stopped waiting for Yuji to strike.
He began attacking purely to force Yuji's blade into contact.
A fast thrust toward the face.
Yuji slipped left.
Another to the chest.
Right.
A low cut.
Yuji hopped over it.
Fujitatsu followed the jump with an upward slash designed to catch him while airborne.
Yuji rotated in midair and put one foot against the flat of Fujitatsu's blade.
Not his sword.
His boot.
He pushed off.
Fujitatsu's weapon was forced down.
Yuji landed behind him.
The counter did not trigger.
Important.
Yuji slashed.
Fujitatsu turned just enough.
The blade opened his shoulder again.
Fujitatsu elbowed backward.
Yuji blocked with his forearm.
The impact pushed him away.
Fujitatsu turned and immediately pressed.
Yuji's sword disappeared behind his back for a moment as he changed grip.
Reverse.
Fujitatsu cut downward.
Yuji crossed underneath the arm.
His blade slid beside Fujitatsu's ribs without touching the Counter Blade.
A shallow cut.
Fujitatsu pivoted.
Yuji changed grips again mid-motion.
Standard.
The next strike targeted the knee.
Fujitatsu jumped backward.
Yuji followed.
Fujitatsu's heel had barely touched the ground before Yuji was there.
One slash forced the Counter Blade high.
Yuji stopped before contact.
Fujitatsu hesitated.
That hesitation was everything.
Yuji kicked his lead knee.
Balance broke.
A vertical slash came toward Fujitatsu's chest.
This time Fujitatsu intentionally met it.
Feedback surged violently.
The strongest yet.
Yuji felt the recoil through his fingers.
He immediately knew the return would be dangerous.
He moved.
The counter slash exploded outward.
Yuji tilted his head.
The attack missed his face by a hair.
It continued behind him and cut through two streetlights in a single line.
Both poles fell.
Fujitatsu stared.
Yuji had dodged it before the attack had properly existed.
Not because he understood the curse completely.
Because his body had already decided the instant he felt the feedback.
Instinct.
Pure sword instinct sharpened beyond what most people around him had ever seen.
Fujitatsu attacked harder.
For the first time, urgency entered his movements.
Yuji answered.
Their blades flashed throughout the street.
But now Yuji controlled when they touched.
Fujitatsu tried forcing contact.
Yuji denied it.
Fujitatsu feinted toward the shoulder.
Yuji ignored the blade and stepped toward the body.
A cut opened Fujitatsu's thigh.
Fujitatsu retaliated.
Yuji pivoted around it.
Another cut across the ribs.
Fujitatsu blocked the third.
Feedback.
Yuji vanished from the reflected line before it arrived.
The counter tore through empty space.
Yuji reentered immediately.
Steel flashed.
Blood followed.
Fujitatsu backed away.
For the first time since the fight started, several meters opened between them.
Both were breathing harder now.
Yuji's clothes carried small cuts.
One thin line of blood ran down his cheek.
Fujitatsu had considerably more.
Arm.
Shoulder.
Ribs.
Thigh.
None individually serious.
Together, they told a story.
The supposedly defensive advantage of the Counter Blade had become something Fujitatsu was struggling to impose.
Yuji rested his sword loosely at his side.
His expression had returned to its usual cold stillness.
Fujitatsu tightened his grip.
His eyes no longer carried amusement.
Far away, Lily continued watching.
She leaned forward slightly, chin resting against one hand.
For once, her usual playful expression had faded.
She watched Yuji shift his stance by less than an inch.
Then watched Fujitatsu instinctively adjust in response.
Lily understood before Fujitatsu did.
This boy had not shown anyone around him the full extent of his swordsmanship.
Not even close.
Lily smiled.
Lily: "Uh oh. Looks like Fujitatsu may be in danger."
Fujitatsu abandoned finesse first.
Yuji noticed the exact moment it happened.
The vampire's shoulders loosened. His grip slid lower along the hilt. The measured stance he had maintained throughout their duel disappeared beneath something far more primitive.
Frustration.
He had a weapon that punished anyone foolish enough to cross blades with him.
He had a vampire's strength.
A vampire's speed.
And somehow the human standing across from him had turned every advantage into another thing he needed to worry about.
Fujitatsu pushed off.
The street cracked beneath his foot.
Yuji moved half a step.
The Counter Blade ripped vertically through the space beside him and buried itself in the pavement.
Stone erupted upward.
Yuji was already on it.
His sandal touched a tumbling piece of concrete for an instant before he pushed from it, using the debris like a step suspended in midair.
His sword flashed toward Fujitatsu's neck.
Fujitatsu ripped his blade free and raised it.
Yuji changed the strike before contact.
The edge stopped barely short of the Counter Blade.
His body kept moving.
He sailed past Fujitatsu, planted one foot against the side of an overturned food stall, and pushed sideways.
The wooden structure tipped beneath the force.
Yuji came back from the opposite angle.
Fujitatsu swung horizontally.
Yuji dropped flat.
The blade passed above his nose.
He slid beneath the vampire's arm, one hand grazing the pavement for balance, and cut behind Fujitatsu's knee.
Blood sprayed.
Fujitatsu twisted violently.
His backhand would have crushed Yuji's skull.
Yuji wasn't there anymore.
He'd already kicked off the ground.
One foot landed against a lantern post.
He ran two steps up it.
The post bent.
Yuji kicked backward.
Fujitatsu looked up.
Yuji descended with his sword held overhead.
The Counter Blade rose.
Yuji saw it.
His wrists relaxed.
Instead of completing the slash, he released the sword.
Fujitatsu's blade passed beneath it without contact.
Yuji dropped beside him empty-handed.
His elbow struck Fujitatsu's temple.
Fujitatsu staggered.
Yuji caught his falling sword with his other hand.
The blade never touched the ground.
He cut upward.
Fujitatsu barely twisted clear.
A line opened beneath his jaw.
Yuji landed.
Fujitatsu spun around with enough force to throw dust outward from his feet.
His expression had changed completely.
He charged.
Yuji retreated.
Not quickly.
Almost lazily.
A step backward as the first slash passed.
A slight turn for the second.
A duck beneath the third.
Fujitatsu's attacks smashed everything Yuji left behind.
A wooden cart split down the middle.
A stone railing shattered.
A vending stall was torn from its foundation and thrown across the avenue when the Counter Blade missed Yuji and struck it instead.
Fujitatsu stopped trying to touch Yuji's sword.
He started trying to touch Yuji.
That should have made things easier.
It didn't.
Yuji's movement changed with him.
There was nothing rigid about it anymore.
No formal stance held longer than necessary.
His sword moved high, then low, sometimes loosely hanging behind him as if he'd forgotten he was holding it at all.
His feet crossed when conventional swordsmanship said they shouldn't.
He changed grips in the middle of steps.
He leaned away from attacks instead of retreating.
Stepped inside swings that should have driven him backward.
Sometimes his free hand touched the ground.
Sometimes a wall.
Sometimes Fujitatsu himself.
Anything could become balance.
Anything could become momentum.
The street became part of his swordsmanship.
Fujitatsu swung for his waist.
Yuji hopped onto the side of the blade.
For one impossible instant, his sandal rested against the flat of the Counter Blade.
Then he stepped off.
Fujitatsu looked upward.
Yuji flipped over his shoulder.
A cut opened across the vampire's back before Yuji landed.
Fujitatsu whirled.
Yuji ducked.
The return swing demolished a lantern post.
Yuji caught the falling pole beneath one arm and redirected it toward Fujitatsu.
The vampire smashed through it.
Wood exploded.
Yuji disappeared behind the fragments.
Fujitatsu couldn't see him.
A sword flashed between two pieces of falling wood.
He jerked his head aside.
The edge sliced his cheek.
He swung toward the movement.
Nothing.
Yuji appeared low.
Another cut across the stomach.
Fujitatsu kicked.
Yuji leaned away.
The foot passed centimeters from his chest.
The displaced air alone fluttered his clothes.
He stepped back in before Fujitatsu could plant the leg.
A kick to the supporting ankle.
Fujitatsu's balance tilted.
Yuji struck him across the face with the pommel.
The vampire stumbled into a wall.
Yuji followed.
Fujitatsu exploded forward with brute force.
His shoulder smashed completely through the wall when Yuji slipped aside.
Yuji entered the building after him.
Dark.
Damaged.
Narrow.
Better.
Fujitatsu ripped himself free of the debris.
Yuji was already climbing the staircase.
Fujitatsu followed.
Two steps at a time.
Then four.
He swung upward.
Yuji jumped onto the handrail.
The Counter Blade cleaved through the stairs beneath him.
Yuji ran along the railing.
Fujitatsu attacked again.
Yuji jumped.
The railing shattered.
He planted one foot against the wall.
Then another.
For two steps he ran horizontally across it while Fujitatsu's blade destroyed the corridor underneath him.
Yuji kicked from the wall.
He passed directly over Fujitatsu.
His sword descended.
Fujitatsu raised the Counter Blade.
Steel met steel.
Feedback.
Yuji had intentionally made contact.
The doubled slash erupted back toward him.
Yuji twisted in midair.
The reflected attack missed.
It struck the ceiling instead.
The entire upper floor groaned.
Fujitatsu looked up.
Too late.
Yuji landed beside him.
The ceiling collapsed.
Beams, roof tiles, and chunks of concrete poured down.
Fujitatsu roared and smashed upward with one arm.
A beam exploded against his fist.
Yuji didn't fight the collapse.
He moved through it.
A foot on one falling plank.
Then another.
He hopped between descending debris while Fujitatsu bulldozed through everything in his path.
A slab dropped between them.
Fujitatsu punched through it.
Yuji was behind it.
His sword came through the dust.
Fujitatsu caught the attack.
Feedback.
Yuji released pressure instantly and stepped around the counter.
The returning slash cut through another support column.
The building lurched.
Yuji glanced once toward the leaning floor.
Calculated.
Moved.
He ran uphill as the entire room tilted beneath him.
Fujitatsu chased.
A table slid between them.
Fujitatsu kicked it apart.
Yuji used one half as a platform.
He stepped onto it while it was still sliding, rode it down the collapsing floor, then jumped.
Fujitatsu swung.
Yuji turned sideways in the air.
The Counter Blade passed between his torso and bent leg.
His sandal landed on Fujitatsu's shoulder.
Yuji stepped across him.
One foot.
Then the other.
As casually as crossing a stone in a river.
His blade flicked backward.
Another line of blood opened across Fujitatsu's neck.
Not deep.
Deliberate.
Yuji landed behind him.
The floor gave way.
Both fell.
Fujitatsu crashed through the lower level.
Yuji landed on a falling beam.
He rode it downward for several meters before jumping through an open window.
Glass surrounded him.
Moonlight flashed across the shards.
Yuji twisted between them and landed outside.
Fujitatsu came through the wall.
Not the window.
The entire wall.
Brick and timber blew across the street.
Yuji stood in the middle of it.
Fujitatsu charged straight through the debris.
His speed increased.
Yuji's eyes narrowed.
The vampire had stopped caring about his surroundings entirely.
Good.
Yuji backed toward the remains of the festival district.
Fujitatsu followed.
A slash.
Yuji ducked.
Another.
Yuji pivoted.
A thrust.
Yuji stepped outside.
Every miss destroyed something.
Yuji let him.
One support after another.
One stall.
One wall.
One sign.
The street steadily became more cluttered.
Yuji moved through the chaos effortlessly.
Fujitatsu forced his way through it.
That difference grew with every second.
Yuji slipped between two overturned carts.
Fujitatsu cut through both.
Yuji stepped atop one falling wheel.
The wheel rolled.
He moved with it.
For three steps he ran across the rotating rim before pushing forward.
Fujitatsu swung.
Yuji vaulted over the blade.
His body turned sideways.
His sword sliced Fujitatsu's forearm during the rotation.
He landed behind him.
Fujitatsu attacked backward without looking.
Yuji had already crouched.
The blade screamed overhead.
Yuji swept his leg.
The vampire jumped.
Yuji expected it.
He kicked a broken sake bottle lying near his foot.
The bottle spun upward.
Fujitatsu instinctively struck it.
Glass shattered against the Counter Blade.
The weapon reacted.
The force of the kicked bottle returned double.
A violent burst of glass fragments shot back through the air.
Fujitatsu turned his face away.
Yuji entered through his blind side.
One slash.
Fujitatsu blocked.
Feedback.
Yuji ducked the return.
Second slash.
Fujitatsu twisted to meet it.
Yuji stopped short.
Third.
Real.
The blade opened Fujitatsu from shoulder to chest.
Blood spilled heavily.
Fujitatsu roared and punched.
Yuji tilted his head.
The fist missed by less than an inch.
That became the pattern.
Not once.
Not twice.
Every time.
Fujitatsu threw enough strength into one punch to crack a wall.
Yuji slipped around it.
An elbow capable of caving in ribs.
Yuji turned his shoulder.
A kick that broke the pavement from the wind behind it.
Yuji raised one leg and let it pass underneath.
Fujitatsu swung both sword and fist in combination.
Yuji flowed between them.
He wasn't running from the vampire's strength.
He was letting it pass him.
The difference was almost insulting.
Fujitatsu began swinging harder.
That only made it worse.
Yuji started using the missed attacks themselves.
A fist struck the ground.
Yuji stepped onto the forearm.
He ran up it.
Fujitatsu tried throwing him off.
Yuji jumped over his head.
The sword opened his shoulder.
A kick struck a stone pillar.
It broke.
Yuji caught himself against the falling pillar, pushed from it, and accelerated toward Fujitatsu.
A downward slash came.
Yuji sidestepped.
The Counter Blade lodged in the stone.
Yuji stepped onto Fujitatsu's weapon.
The vampire tried wrenching it free.
Yuji ran along the back of the blade.
One step.
Then another.
He jumped from the guard itself.
His knee struck Fujitatsu under the chin.
The vampire reeled.
Yuji came down beside him.
The sword flashed.
Fujitatsu barely blocked.
Feedback.
Yuji saw the counter coming.
Instead of dodging away, he stepped onto the broken pillar behind him.
The doubled slash followed.
Yuji jumped.
The counter cut through the pillar.
Its upper half fell.
Yuji landed on the falling section.
Fujitatsu stared upward.
Yuji rode the stone downward.
At the last moment, he kicked off.
The falling pillar crashed between them.
Dust swallowed the street.
Fujitatsu struck through it.
Yuji wasn't there.
Another swing.
Nothing.
The dust shifted behind him.
Fujitatsu turned.
Yuji kicked him in the chest.
Not enough to hurt.
Enough to move him.
Fujitatsu staggered backward onto loose rubble.
His heel rolled.
For the first time, the vampire lost his footing completely.
Yuji was already there.
A slash toward the neck.
Fujitatsu desperately raised the Counter Blade.
Yuji redirected mid-swing.
The sword passed around the guard.
Across the ribs.
Fujitatsu tried countering with brute force.
Yuji ducked.
Cut the thigh.
Turned.
Cut the upper arm.
Fujitatsu swung.
Missed.
Yuji stepped behind him.
A shallow cut across the back.
Fujitatsu spun.
Yuji had already moved to the other side.
Another cut.
Then another.
Never deep enough to commit himself.
Never close enough for Fujitatsu to catch him.
The vampire seemed surrounded by a single swordsman.
His strength had become useless.
His Counter Blade had become increasingly difficult to place between himself and Yuji.
And Yuji still had not been touched.
Not once.
His breathing was controlled.
His gaze remained cold.
His expression almost bored.
That was what finally broke Fujitatsu's composure.
He stopped.
Blood ran from half a dozen fresh wounds.
His chest rose heavily.
Yuji stood ten meters away with his blade hanging loosely beside him.
Fujitatsu stared at him.
For the first time, there was no superiority in his eyes.
Only disbelief.
Yuji glanced at the Counter Blade again.
That same faint, wry smirk returned.
Yuji: "Yeah."
He rolled his wrist once and raised his sword.
Yuji: "I think I'll take it."
Fujitatsu finally snapped.
The frustration he had kept buried beneath confidence and technique burst out all at once.
His posture broke.
His breathing turned ragged.
Blood ran down his arms, chest, and face from the cuts Yuji had accumulated over him one exchange at a time.
The Counter Blade trembled in his grip.
Then the vampire roared and charged.
Gone was the measured swordsman from the beginning of the fight.
Gone was the careful spacing.
Gone was the patience.
What remained was brute force.
A vampire furious that a human boy was still standing in front of him.
Yuji watched him come.
Calm.
Cold.
Almost expressionless.
Fujitatsu swung.
Yuji stepped aside.
The Counter Blade tore through the street and carved a trench through the pavement.
Yuji's sword answered with a clean cut across Fujitatsu's ribs.
The vampire twisted and attacked again.
Yuji ducked.
Another cut opened his shoulder.
Fujitatsu spun.
Yuji pivoted with him.
A slash across the back.
Fujitatsu threw a punch with enough force to collapse the wall behind Yuji.
Yuji shifted his head by inches.
The fist missed.
His blade flicked upward.
Blood sprayed from Fujitatsu's forearm.
The vampire stumbled forward.
Yuji followed.
Every mistake became another wound.
Fujitatsu attacked high.
Yuji slipped underneath and cut the thigh.
A horizontal slash came next.
Yuji leaned backward, let it pass above him, then stepped forward before Fujitatsu could recover.
The tip of his sword opened the vampire's chest.
Fujitatsu swung the Counter Blade desperately.
Yuji refused contact.
He shifted outside the edge and struck from the opposite side.
Another cut.
Another.
The difference between them had become brutal.
Fujitatsu was faster than most humans could follow.
Stronger than any human body should have been able to withstand.
But Yuji was no longer fighting the power behind the attacks.
He was fighting the spaces between them.
The moment before a shoulder finished turning.
The instant weight moved from one foot to another.
The tiny gaps between offense and recovery.
Fujitatsu's vampire body gave him enormous physical advantages.
Yuji simply never stood where those advantages mattered.
Fujitatsu lunged.
Yuji stepped off-line.
His sword cut across the wrist.
The Counter Blade nearly slipped from Fujitatsu's hand.
The vampire caught it.
Yuji saw the opening.
He closed the distance.
Fujitatsu swung wildly.
Yuji bent beneath it and drove his shoulder into the vampire's chest.
Fujitatsu staggered.
Yuji stepped around him.
His sword flashed.
A deep cut opened across the back of Fujitatsu's knee.
The leg buckled.
Fujitatsu dropped halfway down before forcing himself upright through raw strength.
He swung backward.
Yuji was already gone.
The attack struck nothing.
Fujitatsu turned.
Yuji stood several meters away.
The vampire's chest heaved.
His body was covered in wounds now.
Yuji had far fewer.
A few shallow cuts from earlier exchanges.
Nothing more.
Fujitatsu looked at him as if the sight itself were offensive.
Then he screamed and rushed again.
Yuji's eyes narrowed.
The sword came from above.
Yuji stepped inside.
Fujitatsu tried changing the angle.
Too late.
Yuji's blade cut across the abdomen.
Fujitatsu grunted.
He drove forward anyway.
A knee.
Yuji turned.
Missed.
An elbow.
Yuji ducked.
Missed.
The Counter Blade came around.
Yuji shifted just outside its line.
Missed.
Then Yuji struck three times.
First across the arm.
Second across the ribs.
Third across the chest.
Fast.
Compact.
Controlled.
Fujitatsu reeled.
He tried forcing contact.
The Counter Blade swept toward Yuji's sword.
Yuji withdrew before steel could meet steel.
Fujitatsu overextended.
Yuji stepped in again.
A slash opened the vampire's cheek.
Another cut beneath the collarbone.
Fujitatsu roared and smashed through a ruined stall trying to follow him.
Yuji moved around the debris.
The vampire came through it.
Yuji was already waiting on the other side.
His sword flashed across Fujitatsu's stomach.
Fujitatsu stumbled.
Yuji turned.
A second cut opened his back.
The vampire spun around.
A third caught his thigh.
Every movement made Fujitatsu more desperate.
Every desperate attack made Yuji's next cut easier.
The fight had stopped being equal.
Fujitatsu understood that now.
That made him even angrier.
He rushed with everything.
No technique.
No restraint.
Just speed and strength.
The Counter Blade came downward.
Yuji stepped left.
The road shattered.
Fujitatsu ripped the weapon free and swung horizontally.
Yuji hopped backward.
The blade missed.
Fujitatsu followed.
Yuji deliberately gave ground.
One step.
Then another.
Then another.
Fujitatsu thought he finally had momentum.
Yuji let him believe it.
A broken wall stood behind Yuji.
No more room.
Fujitatsu attacked.
Yuji kicked backward against the wall.
His body launched forward instead of retreating.
He passed inside the arc of the Counter Blade.
Fujitatsu's eyes widened.
Yuji's sword struck the vampire's weapon wrist.
Not the blade.
The hand opened.
The Counter Blade spun away.
Fujitatsu looked toward it.
That was the last mistake.
Yuji landed.
His feet settled beneath him.
His grip tightened.
One clean motion.
No flourish.
No wasted movement.
The blade passed through Fujitatsu's neck.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the vampire's head separated from his body.
It struck the pavement first.
The body followed.
Silence settled over the ruined street.
Yuji remained still.
Blood slid slowly from the edge of his sword.
He looked down at Fujitatsu's corpse.
No satisfaction.
No shock.
Just the quiet acknowledgment of a fight that had ended exactly when it needed to.
Then his eyes moved toward the Counter Blade.
It had landed several meters away.
Yuji walked over.
He crouched and picked it up.
The weapon felt different immediately.
He turned it once in his hand, studying the balance.
Good weight.
Good edge.
Dangerous ability.
His original sword remained in his other hand.
Yuji looked between them.
For the faintest moment, the same wry smile from the beginning returned.
He kept both.
⸻
Far from the ruined avenue, Lily stared toward the distant battlefield with wide eyes.
Lily: "Wow, I can't believe one of us got defeated. And as easily as that! Hanako won't be happy he lost a close friend."
Her surprise lasted all of three seconds.
Then her expression brightened again.
She shifted her attention elsewhere as casually as someone changing channels.
Lily: "Now, how's my idol Ariel doing?"