The sight of danger has many reactions in the human body. A defense mechanism responsible for deciding whether we fight or flight is triggered. The blood circulation changes dramatically, moving from the vital organs to the limbs. The mind at this point becomes incredibly focused and sometimes it is as if we lose self-awareness in the task of defending. It is an interesting paradox: To survive, we have to forget about ourselves.

Chapter 12 - Great Leaps

All those changes occur within Tsukasa's body in the few seconds between Masaaki leaving the ground until he is hovering in the air above her. An incredibly high jump.

Masaaki has trained hard to be able to use this root without suffering the effects of paralysis and panic that Mai experienced before dying. It is a long and painful but rewarding process, giving great physical power in return.

In this powerful state, the weaknesses of a user are reduced to those of a mental nature. In Masaaki's case, his biggest flaw was his overconfidence due to his inexperience in hand-to-hand battles on the root effect.

In some martial arts great leaps lead to powerful blows, while in others, such as Judo, great leaps are great mistakes. However, the inventor of this beautiful martial art at this point is only a 7-year-old boy, and it would take another 19 years for Jigoro Kano to gather the necessary knowledge for its creation.

Tsukasa's subconscious recognizes Masaaki's posture and the position of his sword as he falls. She does the improbable: She drops the Kusarigama from his left hand.

Minamori, thinking Tsukasa has given up, shouts:

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! TSUKASA!!!"

Masaaki is sure that he will kill the thief with one thrust of his blade.

No, what Tsukasa knows how to fight is not Judo, but something older that will influence its upbringing and that also exploits the opponent's leap in melee. Its name:

'Takenouchi-ryû style...'

Tsukasa waits until the last moment and makes a small jump backward.

"Kogusoku Koshi no Mawari!" (Short sword grab!)

Her left hand holds Masaaki's sword hilt and leads him down gently by stabbing the tip of his sword into the earth.

With her right hand, she brings her Kusarigama to the back of her opponent's head. She gives Masaaki a second to realize that he has lost.

"That's for Mai."

Then she cuts off the samurai's head.

And... Silence.

The Daimyo's troops are affected by the death of Masaaki, known to be strong despite his unpleasant personality. The samurai lower their blades slightly in mourning, but also as a sign of respect for Tsukasa and her perfectly executed technique. For five seconds no samurai makes a sound.

"What are you guys doing? Idiots!"

Soda Katsumi yells at the archers as he feels pain from Bou's grab.

"Shoot! Come on, Shoot! Shoot right away!"

But none shoot, there is no way, the great samurai's own body serves as a shield for Bou. An archer replies:

"Sir, it is not possible to shoot the enemy!"

"Impossible! Do I have to do everything myself?!"

In an awkward moment, Soda begins to swing his head quickly to the sides, like someone trying to get loose. Bou increases the strength of the grab, screaming in the best way a mute can.

"ARGH! DAMN YOU!"

Soda continues shaking his head. Daisuke looks back as he hears the scream of the famous samurai. He can't help but laugh at his ally's desperation.

"What are you doing anyway?"

"SHUT UP!"

He shakes his head so much that his Kabuto helmet starts to come off. He makes a few back and forth movements, causing it to tip over his face. Bou then gets angry at the horns of the helmet, biting off one end and, with a movement of his head, throwing it away with his mouth.

Daisuke finally understands:

"Ah, so it was hidden inside your helmet..."

Looking at Soda again, he smiles while holding something in his mouth. As he bites down and a slimy liquid begins to run down the sides of his face and the thing begins to struggle between his teeth.

Bou starts to hear screaming in his head.

Soda swallows the root and after a few seconds, his arms begin to swell and burst his armor as Bou struggles to maintain the grip.

"Now you'll see, you thief piece of shit! Ahahaha!"

In a swift motion with his hands that break Bou's chest protection, Soda drills him with his fingers straight into his ribs and squeezes. The big thief groans in pain.

Bou looks back and sees that he still has some spears left in the weapon basket that Minamori tore open.

"That's it! Now you're going to die...Eh?!How?! How can you still move? Such willpower...no, wait! WAIT!"

Soda feels his feet leave the ground as Bou lifts him without letting go.

In one sudden motion, the great mute warrior throws the samurai over himself, causing him to be impaled on the spears.

Soda Katsumi screams and struggles as his body sinks deeper and deeper into the spears so that he seems to swim through the air as his blood trickles out. Bou drops to his knees, grunting in pain.

Even Daisuke is surprised. Minamori concludes:

"I told you we were tied."

A bur flies toward Daisuke, but, like the arrow Gori tried to shoot at him earlier, it is intercepted in mid-air.

"Don't go get ahead of yourself, girl...I was just watching, but I haven't forgotten about you."

"Fine."

Minamori kicks some weapons at Daisuke's feet.

"So, have you chose one yet?"

.....

At the other end, Naoki and Gojo are exhausted. Sweat has mixed with blood and completely covered their bodies.

After hearing a hysterical laugh from Masaaki a few minutes ago, it was clear to Gojo that his companions were no longer hiding their true strength. In fact, if the other thieves are as hard to fight as this woman, they would need all their strength to exterminate them.

Gojo does something rare for him: He thinks of a strategy.

He goes to Naoki and tries to push her like a Sumo. The woman slides back a few feet, but then firms her feet on the ground and pushes back, halting the warrior's advance.

"Really big guy? After all, this is how you want to decide this fight? Brute force?! Ahahaha... That's fine with me!!!"

Naoki uses all her strength, her muscles expand, her veins bulge and her arms tremble as she roars, dragging Gojo backward little by little. It would be a way to win this contest if that wasn't exactly what he wanted.

With a spin, he rolls out of the way of Naoki, who falls face down on the ground and takes a chunk of dirt with her as she slides forward.

The thief's experience tells her to get up quickly, so she would prevent the enemy from being able to climb on top, immobilizing her. So she does, in a somersault, ending up crouched and facing towards Gojo.

Surprised to see that the warrior is not coming her way, but rather to his men fighting with Izumi, Tobi, and Jinme, she warns them:

"Look out! The enemy coming north!!!"

She tries to get up and run after him, but her legs feel heavy and her knees are shaking from the force she just did. Still, she manages to take a few steps towards them.

Izumi and Jinme take two steps back but Tobi remains in the same place, positioning himself for a possible attack from the big enemy.

Gojo orders:

"Men, come to me!"

And at the command of his superior, the remaining samurai form a ring around him. Gojo reveals a small, seemingly empty leather bag with a small seal on the side. He removes it and it takes on weight as if something had sprung up inside it. In the next instant, Gojo places the opening on his face, and it is possible to see a black powder falling down to the sides as he inhales deeply.

Jinme warns:

"Tobi, you are too close!"

The three thieves watching Tobi at this moment are aware of his abilities: He is simply the best when it comes to positioning himself in battle, making quick analyses, and responding even quicker, however they all felt that this was too risky, even for him.

Gojo spits out a dense purple cloud around himself until it expands and covers his men. Tobi sees the expanding cloud and doesn't back down, letting it cover him. Soon it becomes impossible to see all of them, and the disappearance of their silhouettes gives way to the deep noises of pain and agony.

Izumi unconsciously holds her breath as she imagines herself in Tobi's place.

After ten seconds the noises stop, but soon others take their place. The footsteps that start out slow, speed up and are then accompanied by war cries. The men emerge from the smoke, bloodied and much more motivated than before. Their eyes are angry, red on the sides. Their muscles seem to have doubled in size and they salivate uncontrollably. Some seem to have spasms and cannot run in a straight line, others put their swords in their mouths and run on all fours like animals.

Walking out of the cloud of smoke, Gojo stands taller, with giant deformed arms, covered with scars, greenish and long. The temperature of his skin is so high that the blood on the surface slowly evaporates, giving rise to a new trail of smoke as he walks. His veins dance across his skin with each beat of his heart, and his eyes turn white.

The cloud dissipates and Tobi can be seen on the ground, trampled and bloodstained.

.....

Haru waits for the captain to get up and position himself with his spear. The sounds of battle can be heard by both of them and it is clear that extreme things are happening, but neither of them looks away.

Again Haru's concentration seems to push the captain into the same state and the two stop hearing everything around them.

The boy realizes that he has never asked himself the captain's name and the doubt for some reason seems important to him.

"Before I kill you, I want to know what your name is."

"Kill me? Ahahaha... right. Ouchi Jiro."

In this state of concentration, the two seem to be able to feel each other's emotions. So the boy Arata can tell that the spearman is lying, but that doesn't bother him.

"I am Arata Haru."

"Yeah, everyone knows who you are. Damn your name. That day on the road...you took half my men with you. I've never been so humiliated in my life! Fools!"

Jiro looks at Haru and sees past his look of hatred and the vertical scar on his face, but looks at his shredded kimono, the bandages on his limbs, and his bare feet.

"Do you intend to fight me in this state?! You are already wounded. Besides you're weak, I've beaten you several times before! Months of you chasing my troop!"

"Yeah... You were always surrounded by samurai and I had no idea how to reach you..."

Haru positions his body the way Tobi taught him and clenches his sword tightly.

"Thanks for solving this for me."

He shoots off at a run at the captain, who responds with a series of counterclockwise spins of the spear around his body, picking up speed for a horizontal attack.

Haru doesn't see the blade coming but knew it would be a horizontal attack, as Hideo accelerates his staff the same way in his Bôjutsu (staff techniques). The thief changes the position of the blade to vertical while running, making sure to block the coming horizontal attack.

Such an attack does indeed happen and is much faster than Haru estimates, however, his blocking does work, causing the spear to rotate in the opposite direction and creating an opening for a counterattack.

Haru attempts a thrust at Ouchi Jiro's throat, which resolves the situation with the fluidity of someone who has experience in being blocked in this way.

He takes a step back, ducking a little, causing Haru's blade to pass over his head as he moves out of range of a possible second blow. At the same time, he does not waste the spinning motion resulting from his opponent's block and adapts by making the body of the spear spin around his neck, catching it in the opposite way, generating a new horizontal attack.

Haru does not anticipate the second move but sees it coming as it is not as fast as the previous one. He leans his body back as he falls on his knees, sliding rapidly in the mud caused by the earth added to the horse's blood, passing under the attack and the legs of his opponent.

The boy tries to cut the captain's leg taking advantage of his movement, but his calf is protected by his armor.

Ouchi Jiro loses sight of Arata for only a second as he passes under his legs, but turns around while with a deadly thrust of his spear where he believes Haru will be.

There is no one there.

Jiro's concentration breaks and he can hear Hideo's words.

"Ah...I hate it when he does that to me."

The captain sees a footprint of blood on his dead horse’s white fur and hears something coming from above.

In martial arts, sometimes great leaps lead to big mistakes... But sometimes...

...They lead to powerful blows.