As soon as Yayoi chanted the graduate's release command, a small tremor was felt in the building. Polka and his faction felt the presence wavering. Then, a ghost as large as a whole room materializes out of the doll. The ghost has a distinctive mark on his skull, suggesting that whatever struck him lead to his death.
Xiaoyu regained consciousness by the time the tremors had finally stopped. He couldn't quite register what was going on until he woke up, and begins to analyze everything in his surroundings.
This girl, her power is just like the fake Polka. My left hand has been nearly torn to shreds by that woman, but if I could get close, perhaps I can deal with the larger ghost at close range with my right arm… No, can't do it. Soara's condition is worsening, I need to warn off Civil.
For now, he tries to get close to the room Civil is at.
Meanwhile, Keitaro looked on as Misaki and the Maiden prepare to fight.
"Eiko, Keitaro, get back to the car. I'll hold them off" Yayoi warned off the couple
Misaki then leapt off towards them, intending to prevent them from escaping.
"Not on my watch"
Just then, another of the Maiden's arm touches right on her left tendon, causing her to kneel on one knee
"That should be my line"
Nevertheless…
"Keehee… Just because you made me kneel, doesn't mean I can't do THIS!"
She quickly threw her knives on the couple with the intent to harm. Polka immediately took notice and warns her off
"MISAKI, DON'T KILL THEM!"
All of a sudden, before the knife could even reach them, the Spirit suddenly makes a swatting gesture within his reach. The force created by the action swerves the knives off its path, causing them to lose aerodynamics and drop off. Consequently, the glass has shattered due to the force of the swatting.
"THANKS YAYOI" yelled Keitaro as they ran hurriedly down the stairs
Misaki gritted her teeth in annoyance. Her targets got away thanks to the Spirit itself. She then turned to the Maiden, grinning with malice in her eyes
"You ought to be thankful Polka warned me not to kill them, but that doesn't mean you two get to snatch away my prey"
"Then I'll pay back your gratitude in kind" the Maiden responded in kind, reverting back to her real form; just a head
She then conjures a number of hands onto Misaki, slashing her numerous times in her body. Confident in her regenerative abilities, the bespectacled latter rushed towards the head with crowbar in her hand, not caring about the ever-expanding wounds she was dealt with.
Bloodied but still standing, Misaki strikes the head with a crowbar. As expected by the Maiden, this has no effect as the crowbar simply passed through it. In response, the latter slashes her right elbow off, leaving the curse itself to slowly sever it. The severed arm levitated by itself, however, and Misaki instead directs it to attack the head rather than reattaching it as she slowly recovers.
"Valiant effort, but it's still in vain" said the Maiden as the attacks simply won't have any effect on her.
Wanting to waste no time, the Maiden slashed the severed hand in shreds, dropping the crowbar. A bloodied Misaki finally lies down grinning as she's hit with the realization.
This was the first time somebody other than Polka handed me defeat. I'm sorry, Polka. Seems like I'm not strong enough to win against this creature
"Any last words?"
The Maiden reverted again to her ethereal form and prepares to deal the fatal blow to Misaki when she's warned off by Yayoi
Don't kill her yet, I'll deal with her personally
Hesitant, she instead tore each of her limbs off and slashed them to shreds with her curse. Then, any attempt for her to regenerate was blocked by slashing off the bats.
On the other hand, Xiaoyu faces off against Yayoi while Polka summons his own set of invisible hands. The transitional spirit took notice and lunges at the fortune-teller, but the hands took hold on it and rips him apart, leaving his head intact. To his surprise, the Spirit didn't put as much of a fight when he attacked him
Strange, that huge spirit caused an earthquake that lasted 30 seconds when he was summoned. Now he was too easy to defeat? What was the point of summoning him?
Then, Polka noticed Yayoi was rather calm about it. She can see ghosts so she must've been aware of his summons's defeat. Perhaps it was part of her plan? Anyway, he can't afford to let his guard down as he turned to assist Yayoi.
Perhaps I should help Xiaoyu before passing this spirit on
On the contrary, Yayoi was rather relieved than worried that the Spirit was easily defeated. Nevertheless, she can't help but express frustration at her oversight
It's a good thing the Transitional Spirit got taken care of. His curse isn't suitable for an urban city like Shinjuku. I should've brought the Condemned Sinner with us.
Meanwhile, Xiaoyu tries to attack the girl with a couple of light blows that can knock a foe unconscious. The girl cautiously dodges his attacks.
Chinese martial arts, quite the fighter for a young man like him
How is this girl able to react to my moves? Did she learn martial arts too? Come to think of it, that gut punch earlier was too strong for a young girl like her.
As the boy finds an opening on her gut, Yayoi immediately closes it off by whipping his fist with a large rope.
"Damn it, I was so close" cursed Xiaoyu, "I need to get to the room"
"Fat chance" Yayoi answered back, overhearing him. "Whoever you're trying to reach shall stay there"
She then took notice of his arms and from there, she analyzed his weakness
This boy only uses his right arm, and it is imbued with an otherworldly spirit I'm not familiar with. His left arm has mangled fingers, probably the Maiden's doing before I punched him in the gut. Perhaps I should go for the left arm.
"Xiaoyu, back off" Polka yelled at him
Then, from Yayoi's point of view, few disembodied hands came out from the walls and trying to reach at her. All of a sudden, two familiar, large hands came out above her and grabbed the other hands.
Polka was caught off guard. Where do these hands come from? Then he remembered…
The Spirit!
He turned to where the Spirit's head was supposed to be, and in an instant, it was gone.
Shit! I should've pass him on earlier
The Transitional Spirit re-emerged above Yayoi and consumed the hands, catching Xiaoyu off guard. The distraction gave Yayoi enough time to lasso his mechanical arm.
"Crap, I got distracted-"
Before he could even recover, Yayoi uses the rope as a sling to propel herself into the air. Then, in an instant, she delivered a right hook to his face, then simultaneously landed a spinning overhead kick into his shoulder, causing him to kneel on one knee. To finish it off, she delivered an uppercut to his jaw, knocking him out cold once more.
"XIAOYU!!!"
Polka stepped outside the room to check on Xiaoyu, having been knocked out by Yayoi. However, what he saw outside made him realize how terrifying Yayoi is; Misaki lied down in a pool of her own blood with her limbs missing while the Maiden watched over her, slashing the bats off one by one to prevent her from regenerating.
"Xiaoyu…Misa...ki…" Polka muttered their names in despair
He somehow remembered how he was forced to watch as the children he took care of was mercilessly killed by the soldiers of Geldwood in his past life. That resulted in the birth of the loathed creature he became. Having to experience it again in this world, Polka decided he had enough of this and took matters in his own hands
"I had enough. Put them down, kid" Polka warns Yayoi, changing his tone to a deep one. That voice was just a remainder of his true form.
At the adjacent room, during the Yayoi-Xiaoyu fight…
"Impossible…knocking out Xiaoyu is one thing, but to be able to defeat a monster like Misaki…what kind of girl is she" said Takumi in a fearful tone
He can't believe one of the best fighters in Polka's side, a crazy assassin who had abandoned humanity and became a vampire, was defeated by a girl who can summon nigh ordinary spirits of her own
"So she's like a necromancer of this country" analyzed Civil as he observed the fight through the monitors
"There's no such thing as a necromancer in our world" retorted Takumi "Perhaps an exorcist, but that Yayoi doesn't look or act like one"
"Exactly. To tame a powerful ghost like this white woman here, and strengthened it to become useful in a fight like this. That's close to what a necromancer usually do in combat, a dark summoner perhaps?"
Takumi got chills in his spine as soon as the word dark summoner was brought up. The only one who really fits that name is none other than Polka himself.
After that banter, Civil witnessed something he can only see that gave him a general idea of Yayoi's summon
Those hands, they're from the video of that night – and they got crushed by those large hands at that instant?
The sequence of events subsequently culminated in Yayoi knocking out Xiaoyu once more. At this point, Takumi felt despair and anxiousness at what just happened. Not only Misaki got taken out, but Xiaoyu was defeated by none other than Yayoi herself. He could only hope that everything happened today was a dream.
Present time…
Polka's heavy aura suddenly increases, forcing Yayoi to take a step back. The Maiden attempts to attack him with her bunreis, but Yayoi urges her to focus on the task at hand and keep Misaki from regenerating herself. Mere moments later, a skeletal figure formed around the boy.
Skeletal arms materialize around him and grabbed both the unconscious Xiaoyu and the weakened Misaki, bringing him towards his spot.
"I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS, BUT BECAUSE YOU TRIED TO HARM MY FRIENDS, YOU'LL PAY THE PRICE" Polka vengefully declared
The hands later rushed towards Yayoi. She, the Maiden, and the Transitional Spirit took guard for the oncoming attack when all of a sudden…
"AMATERASU WAKEMITAMA, TSUKIYOMI WAKEMITAMA"
Two more spirits came forth in a blinding light and dispelled both arms with a sword and a scythe, respectively. They don a shrine clothing and possess tremendous aura, even greater than Polka's when combined
This power…it didn't come from the girl
Those shikigamis… Keitaro!
"YAYOOOIII!!!!"
It was Keitaro who called out from the outside. Those pair of godly shikigamis belong to him and had been summoned to assist Yayoi's escape. As soon as she heard his voice, it was time for her to leave.
"Return, both of you" ordered Yayoi to her graduates, who dispelled back to their dolls at her command.
"We'll meet again once more, fake Polka" Yayoi declared and gave Polka the middle finger
Using the rope, Yayoi jumped out from the window and into the top of Eiko's car, startling Eiko once more. Keitaro then ordered both shikagamis to return, causing him to collapse from fatigue as a drawback from summoning them.
"I'll never ever get used to summoning these shikigamis" Keitaro complained as they all drove away from the building
Civil, Takumi, and Sayo, who had just awoken from a long nap, impervious of what's happening a few hours ago, rushed outside. The first thing she was worried about is Xiaoyu, lying unconscious on the floor.
"What happened to Xiaoyu?" asked Sayo angrily as she checked on her butler, to which Misaki weakly replied
"We've…been done in…"
Civil looked on to Polka, and his other friend, the one that Yayoi saw as a corpse in her dreams, Emperor Flamrodia Byandilaz, appeared behind him
"Who was that girl?"
"I have no clue, but one thing is for sure: She's the most dangerous enemy I have ever met, and she knows something about you" Polka replied, pointing at Flam