Chapter 62: Chapter 62
Watching the bandaged freak wrapped in red chakra roar and charge straight at him, Kiriya’s eyes flickered with surprise.
"Holy shit! Are you seriously going that hard from the start? Partial Tailed Beast Transformation right away?"
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
"Hehe... hehe..."
Kusui let out a low laugh.
In her partial Tailed Beast Transformation, her voice had become deep and hoarse, layered with strange echoes that made it sound eerie and unsettling.
"Kid, this was prepared especially for you."
"You’re the one who killed those seven, right? Then bring out that power! Let me have some fun."
Kiriya’s face darkened, the corner of his eye twitching despite himself.
What the hell was with that tone?
Did she think she was picking a man from a menu at a host club?
"What, scared?" Kusui’s expression sank. "Pathetic! You can’t even handle a little pressure, you’re all bark and no bite after all."
Kiriya: "..."
Confirmed.
This woman was definitely a regular at host clubs!
For the first time, Kiriya felt like someone had beaten him at dirty talk.
He almost opened his mouth to win the field back, but the moment he saw her deeply moving face, the soul of the veteran driver inside him quietly died.
He had a feeling that if he tried making those kinds of jokes in front of her, he would lose something important.
"Tch. I hate men like you the most. All timid and pathetic. Seriously, it’s ugly."
Kusui spat to the side, her patience completely gone.
She shot forward, raised her fist, and swung straight at Kiriya’s face.
Boom!
At the last possible second, Kiriya turned sideways and avoided the blow. Kusui’s fist smashed into the ground instead, blasting out a huge crater.
Cracks wider than a palm tore through the earth, proof enough of how terrifying that punch had been.
As Kiriya dodged, he kicked upward and struck her head.
A dull thud rang out.
Kusui remained standing where she was as if nothing had happened, mockery spreading across her face.
Then the red chakra around her surged like a tide along the point of contact and rushed toward Kiriya.
The red chakra clung to him.
In no time at all, it corroded his shoe and clothing, then began eating into the flesh of his foot and lower leg with unstoppable speed, leaving the skin and muscle raw and bloody.
"Hahahaha! Idiot! You actually tried to fight me in close quarters while I’m in a partial Tailed Beast Transformation?"
Kusui laughed wildly.
"Did your elders never tell you how terrifying Tailed Beast chakra is?"
She was looking forward to it.
Once the Tailed Beast chakra, filled with hatred and malice, melted away his flesh, what kind of expression would he show her?
Despair?
Rage?
Resentment?
Whichever it was, it would be a fine wine worth savoring for a long, long time.
And yet...
Crack, crack.
The flesh on Kiriya’s body quickly shifted into wood, absorbing the chakra and saving him from the miserable fate of losing a limb.
Not only that, his foot transformed into a thick log, coiling around Kusui like a python and binding her tightly.
’Chakra—devour!’
Kusui immediately felt the chakra inside her body rush away like a river breaking through a collapsed dam.
After absorbing that abundant chakra, the log binding her sprouted and grew rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, it had become a towering tree, trapping Kusui firmly in place with only her head exposed.
"You... This is... Wood Release?"
Kusui’s expression shifted from amused delight to dark fury.
She suddenly felt as though she had been made into a clown.
"So swordsmanship and taijutsu aren’t the only things you’re good at."
’This is a trap.’
Kusui instantly decided that from his very first attack against the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, he had already been planning this.
By releasing information that he was "good with a sword," he had pushed Kirigakure into forming a fixed impression of him.
That way, they would be unprepared for his Wood Release and far easier to catch off guard.
’This brat is more calculating than he looks.’
"Burp."
Kiriya even let out a burp, then looked at Kusui with a smile.
"Nice chakra, Thanks for the meal!"
"Want more? Big Sis has plenty left. Enough to make you scream."
Kusui revealed a strange smile.
Kiriya’s instincts immediately screamed that something was wrong. He drew his sword at once, ready to take her head off.
But just as the blade neared her neck, it was stopped by an invisible wall.
Chakra.
A wave of chakra a hundred times stronger than before erupted from her body.
Boom!
The violent chakra kicked up a hurricane and blasted Kiriya away from point-blank range.
The giant tree binding Kusui was shattered in an instant, then scattered completely by the storm.
Slimy tentacles began pushing out from Kusui’s body.
Her own form was swallowed by rapidly swelling soft tissue, and within a few seconds, the skinny bandaged woman was gone.
In her place stood a slick, soft-bodied creature with six tails.
The Six-Tails, Saiken.
Kusui had entered full Tailed Beast Transformation!
"Kid, you forced me to use this form this quickly. In all these years, you’re the first."
Kusui’s muffled voice came from within Saiken’s body.
"For such an outstanding young man, I really ought to give you a proper gift."
Then Saiken raised its head high.
A massive amount of chakra gathered above it, compressing again and again until it formed a dense chakra sphere over two meters wide.
Tailed Beast Ball.
A standard map-clearing attack for Tailed Beasts, powerful enough to flatten a small hill in an instant.
If it came from the Nine-Tails, the strongest of the Tailed Beasts, it could even erase an entire ninja village.
And now, Kiriya was about to face that terrifying attack alone.
"Ahahaha! Kid, I hear Wood Release is the best counter to Tailed Beasts. Then try blocking this!"
Kusui’s arrogant laughter rang out, as if she had already won.
Kiriya simply spat out one word.
"Idiot."
Whoosh!
The second before Saiken could release the Tailed Beast Ball, a log shot out from the ground beneath it and slammed hard into Saiken’s chin.
The force snapped its head upward.
The Tailed Beast Ball, already on the verge of firing, was knocked off course and flew straight into the distance.
Rumble!
The Tailed Beast Ball exploded.
For an instant, the world seemed to lose its color.
A deafening wave of sound rolled in from afar, so loud it felt as if it might split a person’s skull open.
But even more annoying than that was Kusui’s furious roar.
"You damn brat!"
Kiriya paid no attention to it.
He focused completely on controlling the trees, twisting them into ropes that wrapped around the Six-Tails again and again, binding it until it looked like a giant silkworm cocoon.
Pchh, pchh!
Sharp spikes pushed out from the surface of the logs and stabbed into Saiken’s body, continuously drawing out its chakra.
"Kid, is this all you’ve got?"
Kusui’s voice came from inside Saiken.
"If you think this is enough to trap me, you’re a hundred years too early!"
As she spoke, chakra erupted from Saiken again.
The wooden vines wrapped around its body broke apart rapidly, exploding into countless splinters and chips that filled the air.
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