Toku cast a glance at Nashimi, his lips curling into a sly smile once more, and his voice dripped with a taunting arrogance.
"You know... Can't you just surrender or something? It's a waste of my energy to fight a small fry like you."
Nashimi saw through his crude attempts at dismissal, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. The corners of her lips twitched, but she responded with a cool, dangerous calm. "It would be better if you kept quiet while I knock you out..."
His annoyance was palpable, and Toku's irritation swelled, pushing him to bring this encounter to a swift conclusion. His voice turned dismissive, impatient. "Fine. You know what to do."
At his command, one of the four men with him nodded, and in an instant, the group vanished—teleporting away without so much as a sound. Nashimi stood there, momentarily caught off guard, her brow furrowing as she observed their sudden departure.
"Wow, your lackeys just disappeared... Are they scared, or did you not want them to get hurt? Or perhaps you have some grand plan in mind that you think will work against me?" she said, her tone sharp and questioning, laced with both curiosity and suspicion.
Toku shrugged carelessly, his expression a mixture of indifference and annoyance. "Blah, blah, blah..." he muttered, brushing off her words as nothing more than noise.
Nashimi let out a sigh, her gaze cool and unflinching. The weariness in her voice reflected her growing frustration with his antics. "Just disappear..."
But Toku, ever the instigator, couldn't resist prodding further. He grinned, his next words dripping with malice.
"Lost Memories... Dark Awakening: Void Shaker."
The air around them shuddered violently as darkness seemed to leak into the very fabric of the world. The ground trembled beneath their feet, and soon, the world around them had turned into a vast, endless void. The shaking stopped as suddenly as it began, and Toku found himself standing in the center of a seemingly infinite chasm, encased by an impenetrable blackness.
Nashimi's voice, cold and unwavering, filled the space. "Usually, when I cast this spell, anything living except me dies instantly."
Toku's lips twisted into a cruel smile. "VoId SHakEr? Seriously? That sounds cool, but you're just trash... so much for DaRk AwaKEnInG."
Nashimi's composure cracked, the façade of calm slipping away to reveal the true fury beneath. Her eyes blazed with a fire she had kept buried, and her voice quivered with a mix of rage and frustration. "You... you! You baka!! Don't judge me!!"
The anger that had simmered beneath the surface now boiled over, and in an instant, tears welled up in Nashimi's eyes, her face contorting with an adorable yet furious expression—utterly tsundere in its intensity.
Toku, clearly enjoying the spectacle, chuckled darkly. "How cute. Want to be my girlfriend? I promise not to try to kill you anymore..."
Nashimi, flustered but determined, scowled at him, her words laced with defiance. "I-I'm not falling for that!!"
But Toku's arrogance would not be denied. In the blink of an eye, he drew his Bluefrost Blade, its gleaming edge flashing as he slashed toward her neck. The blade sliced through the air with deadly precision, but Nashimi barely managed to dodge the attack, the cold steel grazing past her skin and severing a few strands of her hair.
"You'll pay for that!" she hissed, her voice an angry promise of retribution.
As the battle raged on, Nashimi's sharp eyes caught sight of a number etched on Toku's left wrist. She squinted, though the details remained unclear. "So, you're a Zeroāto bearer?" she asked, her tone laced with growing intrigue.
Toku's lips curled in a twisted grin, confirming her suspicion with a simple nod. "27... seems like you're quite gifted."
The word "gifted" struck a nerve in Toku. His anger flared, his voice laced with frustration. "Gifted? Gifted!? I trained like hell to earn this number... And you call me gifted!?"
His fury threatened to consume him, and Nashimi, ever unfazed by his outbursts, offered a chilling response. "So you can train to decrease your number and become more powerful? Sorry, emotional train wreck, but I didn't know and I don't care either way."
Toku's face twisted in pure malice as he seethed. "I'll kill you..."
His eyes locked onto hers, a psychotic gleam in them as his grin widened unnaturally.
"DIE!!!"
With a roar, fifteen blades materialized around him, each one unique, each with a different hue, spinning in the air faster than the eye could follow. They orbited Nashimi, their speed so great that even light could scarcely keep up with their movement.
"Blades of Despair: Anemo, Cyclonic Lacerations!!"
The blades tore through the air, cutting and slashing with a fury that threatened to obliterate everything in their path. The very space around Nashimi seemed to break down as the blades sliced through it—subatomic destruction at its finest. Yet, to Toku's horror, Nashimi stood unfazed. Not a single wound marred her, and her confidence seemed unshaken.
"H-how!?" Toku stammered, disbelief staining his voice.
Nashimi's voice, filled with a quiet, unwavering confidence, cut through the silence. "It's simple. I'm stronger than you."
Before Toku could react, Nashimi cast another spell, her movements fluid and precise.
"OVERVOID."
In an instant, Nashimi vanished from his sight, leaving him momentarily disoriented. "Hey! You leaving, you scaredy cat!!" he shouted, his voice echoing with frustration.
But no sooner had she disappeared than she reappeared right where she had stood before. With a deft motion, she reached out and grasped a singularity no larger than a coin, its powerful force crackling with raw energy. Without hesitation, she crushed it in her hand, reducing it to nothingness and obliterating the very domain that had enveloped them.
The destruction is absolute. Everything within the void's grasp—physical and spiritual—was erased.
Nashimi stood amidst the aftermath, with the finality of her statement. "Powerful or not, no one beats me... other than my brother."
With a calm demeanor that betrayed none of the chaos she had just unleashed, Nashimi turned and walked away, returning to the restaurant as if nothing had transpired at all.
The echoes of their battle lingered in the air, a quiet testament to the power she held.