"Damn it!" Kamiya shouted.
They quickly started running inside. Kinjo and Yahiro were fighting with some people in a corner. At the village entrance, Midra was battling puppets. she landed a solid punch on the puppet in front of him, shattering it to pieces. "That makes fifteen!" she shouted, breathing heavily. Puppets were scattered everywhere. She turned her blood-covered face to Kamiya. "Why did you leave the village, you idiot! With so many enemies, you shouldn't have shown weakness!" she screamed.
Obi, Klenn, Rikimaru, Soma, Midra and Kamiya had lined up side by side. A deep, resonant voice was heard directly in front of them: "Kamiya Naizen." His voice alone revealed how powerful his aura was. "You've finally arrived."
Number Three was floating in the air. "I prepared a little preview for you. Next time I'll put on an even better show, Kamiya. You'd better be ready."
Suddenly Number Five appeared, touched Number Three, and they vanished. "Number Three, your death will come by my hands!" Kamiya shouted.
They quickly began fighting the surrounding puppets. There were more than twenty puppets.
"I think their target was Yahiro. You should go help him, Kamiya - the others can help me," said Midra.
Obi, Klenn and the others were quickly tearing apart the puppets. As Kamiya advanced through the village, he saw that the puppets had made it this far. He destroyed the puppet that stood in his way and continued on. When he reached the central building, he noticed the building was damaged and its entrance was completely destroyed. Yahiro and the others were lying scattered around. Kinjo was tending to Yahiro's wounds beside him. "You can make it Yahiro, hang in there!" Kinjo shouted.
Kamiya approached them. "Yahiro!?"
"Kamiya, you finally made it. The masked ones attacked and took the coffins. Sato's is still here but there's something strange about the seal," said Kinjo.
Yahiro grabbed Kinjo's hands with his bloody ones. "Leave me Kinjo, I'm dying. Kamiya, please protect my child." He coughed and blood came from his mouth. One eye could barely see, while the other was completely destroyed; the empty eye socket was a nauseating sight.
"Kinjo, take my good eye. Have Hanzo give it to you, I know a cursed power..." he spoke with great difficulty.
"But this is the only way to stop Number Three..." Blood flowed from his mouth with each breath, making it increasingly difficult for him to speak.
"Hold on Yahiro, please!" said Kinjo.
"Kamiya, Kida Saya. She's carrying my child. Please take good care of them..." These were his final words. Even though Doctor Hanzo came running, there was nothing he could do.
"No, no..." Kinjo cried out, breaking into tears. "You're going to live!"
Kamiya placed his hand on Kinjo's shoulder. "Kinjo, he's gone."
Though Kinjo struggled to accept the truth, he finally withdrew his hand from the wound. "Doctor, transplant his eye into me. I'm going to kill those bastards," he said, angrily pounding his blood-covered fist into the ground.
The doctor used his energy to remove the eye without damaging its structure and carefully implanted it into Kinjo's left eye socket. The cursed eye was constantly active; Kinjo felt his vision becoming distorted and his energy being drawn by the eye. His long-sightless eye could now see again, but he soon wrapped it with a bandage - it would take time to adjust.
"Keep your eye closed for a while, your energy might not be able to handle it. You'll need time to adapt," said Hanzo.
"Kamiya and you need to help me, there are seriously wounded people." Hanzo stood up and looked around.
Endo and Hirabayashi emerged from the building, wounded. "These puppets just keep coming. Even we're struggling to handle ten at once. Most of them aren't affected by elements," said Hirabayashi.
Kamiya looked at the pair angrily but had nothing to say, since he hadn't been here when everything happened. "Take care of the seriously wounded first, anyone who can still fight should head to the entrance to help Midra and the others," said Kamiya, taking charge.
Akira Tanaka ran up to Kamiya, out of breath. "Please, you need to help Yuki," she said.
Kamiya quickly followed Akira. The ground floor of a house had collapsed and Yuki was fighting with puppets. Without hesitation, Kamiya jumped down and landed on top of a puppet that was about to strike Yuki. Although the puppet collapsed to the ground, it grabbed Kamiya's right foot. Kamiya crushed the puppet's body with his left foot, breaking it into pieces.
Yuki dodged the punch from another attacking puppet by ducking, but the puppet knocked him back with a sudden knee strike. Another puppet caught her from behind. Kamiya reached around behind the puppet that had delivered the knee strike, tore it apart, and when he noticed it was about to explode, he threw it at the other puppets coming from the right. They all exploded simultaneously.
Yuki broke free with a struggle but lost her balance. As she was falling, she turned and said "Element Water: Pressurized Water." A powerful stream of water shot from her hand in a single line, tearing through the puppet's body. When she hit the ground, Kamiya extended his hand. The knee strike had broken Yuki's nose and blood was flowing. Though she was having trouble breathing, she was fully conscious, just in great pain.
"I'll throw you up, Yuki, get ready," said Kamiya and looked up. "Akira, catch Yuki!" he shouted. Akira was momentarily surprised when she saw Yuki in the air and caught her by the hand.
Then Kamiya jumped out through the hole. "Go get help from the doctor, and have that nose looked at too."
Yuki nodded. "Thanks, Kamiya," she said. Akira was limping with a piece of wood stuck in her leg. Supporting each other, they made their way toward Hanzo.
When Kamiya returned to the entrance, the battle there had ended. "Thank you for your help," said Soma, looking quite small next to Obi and Klenn.
"You're welcome. It was an easy fight, but what will you do about this mess?" asked Obi. Kamiya approached and cut in, "We'll handle that over time, but we need to prepare our defenses first. I don't think Kenshin will sit idle - he'll make his move soon."
Rikimaru stepped forward, "I'll handle the cleanup with my clones. Sister Midra, let's work on this together after you've rested."
Midra nodded, Klenn and Obi looked at each other. "Look Kamiya, we'd like to stay and help but our time is limited," said Klenn.
"I understand, you've helped as much as you could. It's unfortunate we couldn't talk in more detail, but there's nothing we can do about it. You can go on your way, thank you again. And if you come back after finishing your business, I'd like to host you under better circumstances," said Kamiya, gratitude evident in his voice.
"We thank you - we've made friends like Soma and all of you. I'm sure we'll visit again," said Klenn with a huge smile on his face, extending his hand while scratching his beard.
After shaking hands, he turned to Soma. "Soma, don't overexert yourself. I'm sure you'll become an even more powerful warrior - you're already quite strong at such a young age. I can't make any promises, but if I come back here again, I'll train you on how to use those big swords." Klenn patted Soma's head as he spoke.
Soma was sad - he had quickly become friends with these men who had saved his life, and now he already had to bid them farewell. The thought that he could become as strong as them and receiving praise from such a powerful warrior had put him at ease. "Thank you Klenn, I'll be stronger the next time we meet," he said as he held out his fist.
After fist-bumping, they headed towards the exit. "Wow, they're so strong they can continue on without even resting," said Rikimaru in amazement.
"I agree, I fought twenty puppets and can barely stand," said Midra.
Obi suddenly paused and ran back, while Klenn watched in confusion.
"Kamiya!" Obi shouted, "I just remembered, about that Cursed Phoenix heart we mentioned. Let's just call it the cursed heart - it's probably inside that Kenshin guy's body. As far as I remember, it was said to be a completely physical heart, so you could say that man has two hearts." After taking a deep breath, he turned back and continued on his way with Klenn.
"Thank you!" shouted Kamiya. Klenn raised his left hand and Obi his right hand to bid farewell.
"I'm really curious about their culture and what they've been through," said Soma.
"We don't have time to think about that now. We'll learn about it if we meet them again. For now, we need to regroup, let's get moving." Kamiya squeezed his son's shoulder.
Then they got to work.
Meanwhile, Kaguyaku-chi had gathered to discuss their recent attack. "The puppets were weaker than I thought," said Number Three.
A woman's voice rose from among them. Number Six, who usually remained quiet, said "Why did we withdraw? We could have destroyed them completely." Number One stood up. They were in their underground base. "Our goal is to capture the pure energy egg that Sato Ryo carries. Then our plan will begin. There would have been no point in destroying them."
"Three, five and I will work on the coffins. Number Six should take care of Seven - that kid lost a lot of blood and still hasn't regained consciousness, it looks like it's going to take some time," said Number Four as he stood up and moved slowly, unable to move quickly due to his hunchback.
"We need to find out who's in the last coffin we didn't retrieve," said Number One.
"Ah, it was the largest coffin that I couldn't get," Number Five cut in.
"You fool, Sato was probably in that one," said Number Six, who had grown tired of these conversations and got up to leave.
"This girl gets on my nerves, should we find someone else to replace her?" said Number Five, to which Number Three punched his shoulder and said "Get moving, that girl is just as strong as you are."
"If it weren't for those eyes, we wouldn't be that different," thought Number Five, even that playful punch really hurt - this bastard is seriously strong.
Number Six walked down a long corridor and entered a room where there was a human body suspended in green liquid contained within a floating bag. Various tubes were connected to the bag, transferring necessary supplies through them.
"Number Four, I can't believe you really captured him..." said Number Six, as two people who once gazed at each other with love had now met again in a different place, at a different time.
"I wonder what will happen when you wake up, Yasue. I hope you've forgotten about me. I don't want you to suffer," Number Six muttered to herself.