'...Ha?'
Shion froze in sheer disbelief. For a fleeting second, the heavy roar of the crushing downpour seemed to vanish entirely, drowned out by the chaotic storm of her own racing thoughts.
'Tsk... What kind of game is this?' Her fingers twitched against her shadow daggers. 'After all the suffering and carnage its kind has caused... it suddenly wants to talk?! Is it simply terrified that if I destroy this third pillar, the main anchor will be exposed and vulnerable?'
She searched the child's serene face, trying to untangle the monster's true intentions.
"Don't worry, it's nothing devious," the little girl chimed gently, as if reading the tension radiating off Shion's frame. "I simply want us to be able to talk rather than fight. I'm sure both of us know what would happen if we engaged in an all-out battle here."
Shion hesitated for a fraction of a heartbeat. Then, drawing on years of cold Iga discipline, she forced her composure back into place. Her Reiryoku flared to life once more, swirling along her forearms.
'She's trying to stall or manipulate me... but she definitely wants to avoid a direct clash, that much is certain.'
Focusing her vision, Shion activated her mystic eyes, letting her perception pierce through the physical plane to inspect the creature's true spirit aura.
What she saw was deeply puzzling. From one angle, the girl's Reiryoku was terrifyingly thick, dark, and suffocating, a dense ocean of power. Yet, when viewed from another angle, her spirit signature softened completely, appearing no different from that of an ordinary, harmless human child.
'What should I do...?' Shion's thoughts ran rampant, her heart hammering against her ribs. 'If Yorimitsu were here... he would know exactly how to handle this, wouldn't he?!'
The pink-haired girl tilted her head ever so slightly, her sunset-red eyes softening as if sensing the silent turmoil inside the kunoichi.
"I want to live," the girl whispered.
"Ha...?!"
Shion was completely taken aback by the creature's words, her breath catching in her throat.
"Is that really so hard to believe?" the little girl asked softly, her gaze drifting toward the gleaming ceramic roofs. "Ever since the moment I was born... it has been one blood-soaked battlefield after another. And now... I am just so tired. I will give you the pillar that you desperately need if, and only if, you listen to my story. Otherwise... let us fight to the death."
As the ultimatum left her lips, the girl's Reiryoku flared to life with blinding intensity!
The raw pressure surged outward in a massive kinetic shockwave, blasting every drop of falling rain away from her body in a ten-foot radius. For the very first time since their encounter began, her ethereal form solidified, making her look less like a spectral phantom and more like a living, breathing physical creature grounded in the earth.
"Mizu no..." she began to chant in a quiet, melodic rhythm.
Seeing the sheer honesty and weight behind the creature's soul, Shion felt her tight combat posture shift, her guard relaxing just a fraction of an inch as she lowered her shadow daggers.
Mizu no...
It was an ancient Onmyōdō water contract, a sacred ritual where two opposing parties bound themselves to non-violence. By linking their minds, the contract transported their consciousnesses into a secluded spiritual dimension where conflict was impossible, allowing thoughts to flow freely between them like a calm river.
Shion gave a slow, deliberate nod of her head.
The pink-haired girl beamed, raising her index and middle fingers toward the storm-heavy sky in a ritual seal. Letting one of her shadow daggers dissolve into mist, Shion mirrored the gesture with her free hand.
Together, their voices murmured the ancient incantation in perfect unison.
Wooooosh!
A sudden, absolute silence swallowed the world.
In an instant, every sound in the Eastern District vanished. There was no heavy splatter of rain against the ceramic roofs, no rushing river along the cobblestones, nor even the faint croak of frogs in the dark. Reality itself seemed to hold its breath.
Shion blinked.
When her eyes opened a fraction of a second later, the rain and stone streets were gone. She found herself sitting gracefully on pristine, woven tatami mats inside a quiet, secluded room.
Across from her, sitting on the opposite side of a low, polished brown wood tea table, sat the pink-haired girl. The room itself was entirely empty, saved only by the smooth tatami flooring and the small wooden table, which held a simple ceramic kettle and two steaming teacups.
Both of them now wore matching, elegant ceremonial tea kimonos. Inside this sacred space, the bulky male disguise Shion usually wore to conceal her identity was completely shattered, exposing her true form.
Focusing her Reiryoku into her eyes, Shion inspected the quiet room. Extending straight from her chest was a single, glowing red thread of spirit energy, tethered directly to the creature's heart.
Though the Mizu no was indeed a ritual of non-violence, it carried a terrifying hidden risk: if the two parties were not of equal spiritual standing, the stronger soul could easily dominate the weaker one, overwriting their mind and bending their thoughts into reality.
"So you really are a woman..." the pink-haired girl chimed, laughing softly. "If you're this beautiful, why go through all the trouble of hiding it by pretending to be someone you're not?"
She paused, her cheerful tone softening as she leaned over the table, gazing intently into Shion's eyes.
"Why don't you say something? Don't you miss speaking...?"
Shion froze.
Her breath hitched in her chest. Slowly, hesitantly, her lips parted, a motion her body had forgotten for years. She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing air through her long-silent throat.
"T-T... tell me... what you wanted to talk about..."
The sound of her own voice echoed in her ears, sending a violent shiver down her spine. It felt entirely foreign, yet painfully familiar. It had been years since she was last able to utter a single word. To feel her voice vibrating in her throat once more filled her with a rush of overwhelming joy, and yet, an unbearable bitterness washed over her just as quickly.
There was so much she wanted to say, so many words locked away in her heart... yet she knew this voice was nothing more than a fleeting gift granted by the ritual.