Chapter 18 - Goddess of War vs Young Emperor

Momoyo and Yōta were pushed backwards at the same time after the clash.

The Goddess of War clenches her toes and doesn't waste her time as she jumps forward to reach out for Yōta with godspeed.

The Young Emperor also dashes forward in a burst of speed, he twists his wrists and coat the blade with Color of Arms, making the silvery blade turns into black blade.

"Shindō Munen Style – Mount Fuji Splitter." Yōta brought the blade over his head and jumps above, spinning forward like a bey-blade before bringing his sword down to Momoyo with all of his might.

Momoyo grins widely at that as she brings her fist back before she jumps as well to meet Yōta in mid-air, "Kawakami Style: Forbidden Move – Fuji Smasher!"

BOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!

Another great explosion happened in the sky as spark of flames blazing around and shockwaves blow everything in their immediate vicinity.

Tesshin was forced to put a strong barrier around the Kawakami Temple now as he can't really afford those two to destroy the city by simply executing their techniques like this.

"Wawawa!!" Kazuko was trying her hard to balance herself so she won't get blown away by the wind and shockwave from the attack above.

"This is ridiculous..." Lu Yi muttered under his breath as he looks the sky with eyes full of concentration.

Both fighters are currently trading blows after blows in mid-air, easily defying the law of physics.

Momoyo kicks the empty air behind her and propels herself to delivers a mighty drop kick.

Yōta who was expecting that already on his move as he brings his sword back to his side before he swings it upward from below.

He successfully deflects the kick to the sky above, he then follows-up with another attack of spinning slash to the torso.

In response to that Momoyo smacks the blunt-side of the sword with her palm and use that as a platform for her to balance herself before she delivers a sweep kick to Yōta's head.

Yōta squints his eyes and drops his whole body down to avoid the kick by letting the gravity to push him down.

While still dropping down, he twists his body and slashes the leg that passed him with godspeed, drawing the first blood.

"Hm..." Momoyo hummed at the wound that Yōta gave to her leg before she drops her gaze to Yōta who's currently doing free-fall below.

She raises her right hand above and suddenly the hand lits ablaze in intense flames.

She then clenches the hand so hard that the flames started to burning more powerful before she brings it down in Yōta's direction.

"1-km-radius Momoyo Microwave!"

"Are you fucking serious...?" Yōta muttered to himself as he saw a deluge wave of flames are coming at him from above.

It's like a freaking tsunami of flames.

Yōta takes a deep breath before he brings the sword to the side of his head and infuse the blade with his Color of Supreme King, generating a black lightning around it.

He poised his body in lunge stance before kicking the air behind him, propelling himself upwards.

"Shindō Munen Style – Thunderclap Eight Trigrams!!"

He lunges forward to the wave of flames with bravado before he swings his sword horizontally, striking the deluge wave of flames with tremendous force.

BOOOOOOMMMM!!!!

A wind and shock that were generated from Yōta's swing is powerful enough to blow the wave of flames back to Momoyo above.

Momoyo simply grins in response as she leans her upper body forward before kicking the empty air behind her.

She propels herself once again, charging at the wave of flames with big smiles on her face as she simply shrugs off the flames with a simple flick of wrist.

And just like that the wave of flames completely blown off without a trace.

"Horaaa!!"

Upon entering Yōta's range, she swings her fist down to him but the Young Emperor dodges the punch barely by leaning back and he grabs Momoyo's hand with one hand in the process.

He then proceed to hold her arm with armlock, using his whole body and two legs like a spider before he thrusts his sword to Momoyo's temple.

In response to that, Momoyo simply headbutts the sword and it blows Yōta's arm back.

"The fuck...!?"

"Good try!" Momoyo yelled with big grins before she clenches her left fist and swings it to Yōta's side.

Yōta brings his free hand in front of him and coat it with Color of Arms to up his defense, but even so, the punch from Goddess of War still powerful enough to force him to let go the armlock and blew him off from her sight.

Momoyo then chases after Yōta with breakneck speed and delivers flurry strike of punches.

Yōta grunts in annoyance before spinning counterclockwise to stop his momentum from flying backward and creates new momentum by spinning clockwise this time to response Momoyo's attack.

He does spinning slashes to repel Momoyo's flurry punches in one go.

He then twists his body in mid-air to lunges his body forward and performs two simultaneous slashes to Momoyo's neck and ribcages.

The Goddess of War kicks the air to propel herself backward to avoid the slashes, she then brings her arm to Yōta with her palm lit in red aura.

"Kawakami Style – Killer Fireflies!"

She sends 24 balls of energy to Yōta with great speed.

"Shindō Munen Style – Arc Moon!"

In response to that attack, Yōta sends the exact same amount of mid-sized cutting waves to meet Momoyo's balls of energy.

A chain of explosions occured in the sky like fireworks.

In the middle all of that, two shadows are clashing with great speed, they're trading blows after blows without stopping.

Momoyo grabs Yōta's right hand before she yanks him towards her and she shoots the Young Emperor with a ball of energy from point-blank.

While that's happening, Yōta also doesn't miss a chance to deliver a devastating slash to Momoyo's head as her vision suddenly blacken out for a second before she come back to her sense and kick the Young Emperor in torso.

"Ghk!"

Yōta was blown away to the sky for umpteenth time as he stops the momentum once again by kicking the air and twisting his body in mid-air.

Momoyo was still floating in mid-air as she's shaking her head repeatedly, trying to collect herself after the earlier attack Yōta just delivered.

Seeing this as a chance, Yōta grabs the handle of Higekiri with two hands before the blade lits in black with red outline.

"Shindō Munen Style – Moonbow, Half-Moon!!"

He swings his sword erratically at great speed, creating a barrage of downward black crescent slashes from an extremely long and wide range, resulting in a powerful six-fold slash crashing down on Momoyo.

The crescent slashes were as big as the real crescent moon itself.

Momoyo raised her head above and sport a crazed grin on her face as she witnessed the power Yōta just generated by swinging his sword.

The Goddess of War suddenly leans her body backward and let herself to free-fall from the height as she raises both of her arms in front of her.

She smiles amicably for a second before her hand lits in rainbow aura.

"Kawakami Style – Phanta Rhei."

A large transculent barrier appeared in front of her as a mean to protect her from the ranged-attack.

As the crescent waves are crashing down on the barrier, the waves suddenly changes it's trajectory as it's coming back to Yōta.

The Young Emperor fixes his glasses while squinting his eyes in response to that as he sighs, he then also lets the gravity to push him down to fall.

The girl in front of him just seriously invented some bullshit technique in the middle of their fight right now.

What a hax.

"Shindō Munen Style ..."

As he free-falls facing the crescent waves below, he let go of his sword from his hand and perform a front-flip to catch the sword he just let go with his leg.

He then starts balancing himself in the mid-air, using the pommel of his sword to be his platform to stand on with one of his leg.

Yōta pushes the sword with so much force through his foot as he imbued his sword with Color of Arms and then infused it with Color of Supreme King.

The blade generates a black lightning as he swiftly and smoothly descends from above like a meteorite.

Any crescent waves that's coming at him right now were destroyed through the force of his fall.

The speed of his fall also exceeded Momoyo's calculation as she lates to react on it and can only take the attack head-on.

"SAVAGE STAR!!!"

DUUUUAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!

Another ginormous explosion occured in the middle of already destroyed arena, creating a massive crater as if a real meteor was just falling in the area.

The barrier that Tesshin created also shook with greater intensity as it starts to crack here and there.

"Both of them are so awesome..." Kazuko blurted out as she looks at the entire battle with starry eyes.

So, this is what the top of the world looks like.

"Aiya... Look at this destruction they caused." Lu Yi shakes his head in disapprovement as he looks around the area.

Everything's gone, from the walls to flora, nothing remains, only craters and destruction.

"Hoho, if not for Yōta's abilities that could restore all of this back to its former glory, I'll definitely smack those two in the ass for destroying my Temple like this." Tesshin said as he stroke his beard and reforge another barrier.

Inside the crater with plum of smokes surrounding the area, two silhouettes are distancing themselves from each other as their bodies are hunched forward.

An erratic and tired breath pattern could be heard inside the smoke as the fighters are staring at each other with frown on their faces.

Momoyo's left hand was blue and purple because earlier attack broke her hand when she's trying to defend against it.

Yōta also received some damages as the side of his head was bleeding out.

At the same moment when his attack made contact with Momoyo's arm, the Goddess of War also throwing her attack and strike his head.

They both are injured but it seems like that wouldn't stop them from continuing their fight.

And without waiting for any longer, both of them are dashing forward at the same time with loud shout.

Yōta brings his sword over his ribcages before performing a mighty sideway slash and Momoyo response that with a mighty straight punch.

Each attack caused both of them to blown away, but they stop their movements in mid-air and once again hurls themselves at each other with such bravado.

They're aggressively throwing attacks after attacks with intent to completely destroy their opponents.

Punch meets slash. Thrust meets kick. Knee meets pommel. Elbow meets guard.

They are moving at such high-speed that you can't really see anything with untrained eyes, it's as if their limbs are disappearing.

Kazuko and Lu Yi are the prime example of people who couldn't follow both fighters movements. They're simply watching the fight from behind of the Grand Master with thunderstruck expressions.

"Shindō Munen Style – Earth-Crawling Slash!"

"Kawakami Style – Earth Splitter!"

Yōta swings his sword downward, generating a rapid slash wave that travels across the ground in Momoyo's direction.

And the Goddess of War responded the attack with a punch to the ground with such force that the ground split open in direct line, nullifying Yōta's rapid slash wave.

She then jumps on the Young Emperor, grabbing his shoulder with one hand before throwing him over her shoulder onto the ground.

She tries to follow-up with a knee attack, but Yōta is quick in response as he raises his leg to kick Momoyo's head and perform a hand-stand to increase the power of his kick using his entire weight.

He successfully kick Momoyo out from his face before he twists his body and throws a horizontal flying slash to the Goddess of War.

Momoyo simply kicks the slash away with her heel before tapping the ground with her dainty fingers to slow her momentum in the air as she lands on the ground perfectly.

"Haha, yes, yes... You are good, you're so good, Yōta." Momoyo finally spoke out as she forms a battle-lust-like expression on her face, but weirdly enough she still looks beautiful with that expression.

Her heart is beating so fast right now. Her body also feels so hot for many reasons. And the cause all of this is in front of her.

She just feels happy and excited at the same time. Nothing could make her feel this excited except for the man in front of her right now.

She wants more. She NEEDS more.

"Yōtaaa!!!" She dashes forward with crazed smile on her face.

Yōta narrows his eyes as he looks at Momoyo before shaking his head, "What a troublesome woman you are, Momo-senpai."

"Kawakami Style – Ultimate Right Crusher!" The Goddess of War delivers a rapid fire of straight punches with both arms to Yōta.

"Shindō Munen Style – Atomic Cutting!" In response to her attack, Yōta unleashed rapid slashes with supersonic speed to meet Momoyo's flurry punches.

A tenth, hundreds, and thousands strikes are crashing on both of their bodies every seconds with godspeed-like.

Momoyo was laughing like crazy as hundreds and more slashes lands on her whole body, drawing a lot of blood.

Yōta on the other side grunts in pain as hundreds and more lands on his body as well, he coughs up a lot of blood.

They're trading blows after blows for a whole minute until Yōta finally broke it out with force.

He sheathes his sword while dodging all Momoyo's punches by utilizing his Color of Observation as his eyes flashes in purple.

His whole demeanor suddenly changes, like he's a different person.

"Yōkkun changes his stance!" Kazuko shouted from sideline as she looks at the battle with eyes full of concentration while pointing a finger at Yōta.

"Hoo, how nostalgic." Tesshin hummed as he looks at the stance that Yōta took right now, "It's really been a while since I've seen that kenjutsu style since Seijūrō-brat died in the war..."

"If I'm not mistaken, that's an ancient style from Sengoku Era, isnt' it?" Lu Yi asked.

"It is." Tesshin nods his head in response, "It's an ancient kenjutsu style that Hiko Seijūrō I invented to fight against a whole army single-handedly. It's the..."

"Hiten Mitsurugi Style..."

Yōta dodges another strike by crouching low before he spins his whole body and swings the sword upwards in godspeed.

The slash hits Momoyo's jaw and blast her away into the sky.

He then leaps high to chase after the Goddess of War, but rather than making a follow-up attack, he passes her in mid-air, placing himself above her, thus opening up more vulnerabilities in Momoyo's position.

By using the momentum of his fall and the gravity, he grabs the sword with two hands and perform a mighty downward slash on her.

"Dragon Hammer-Soaring Flash!"

"Dimension Change."

ZAAAANNNN!!!

A deep and wide-ranged gash appeared on the land below as Yōta's slash missed its target.

Just the moment Yōta swings his sword, his and Momoyo's position swapped all of a sudden thus why he's missing his target.

The Goddess of War simply manipulates the space and warp their positions like it's nothing.

"Got you!" Momoyo shouted with big grins on her face as she cupped her hands on her side with her red Ki is concentrated into a single point, "Kawakami..."

"Motherfucke—!"

"HA!!!!" She thrusts her hands forward and shoot out a streaming, powerful beam of energy at Yōta.

The Young Emperor changes his stance once again in mid-air as he squints his eyes at the torrent of energy wave in front of him.

His whole demeanor once again change all of a sudden, he's looking at his opponent with such cold and supercilious eyes.

There's no remaining of the usual Yōta in that dispassionate eyes.

He grabs his sword's handle with two hands in response as his whole body suddenly emits a tremendous amount of aura in color of black and red.

"Mugen Ittō Style..."

The aura then starts crawling into his sword, making Higekiri's blade lits ablaze in black flame and red lightning.

With Higekiri finally absorbing the aura, Yōta unleashes a mighty downward slash.

"Black Getsuga Tenshō."

At the instant of the slash, he releases a highly condensed energy from the tip of the blade, which, magnifying the flying slash attack that he hurls it at Momoyo.

The slash wave takes the form of a gigantic black crescent moon with red outlines.

"Oh shit..." Tesshin blurted out when he looks above, he hurriedly takes his stance in response while giving a warning to two people beside him, "Lu, Kazuko, get behind me right now!!"

Lu Yi and Kazuko while doesn't understand what's happening right now, still follow Tesshin's order as they move to hide behind Tesshin in rush, as the old man himself clasp his hands together so hard that it creates shockwaves.

"Kawakami Style: Secret Technique – The Ninth Manifestation, Amatsu-Mikaboshi!!"

A gigantic statue of a being that made purely by darkness suddenly appeared behind Tesshin as the world basking in its dark and dread aura.

The Grand Master of Kawakami Temple constructed a gigantic statue of Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the Dread Star of Heaven, a rebellious Shintō God, with his Ki.

The statue emits a dark aura as it starts open its mouth, showing its gigantic and sharp fangs to the world to see.

Inside its mouth was black and dark like void itself as a ginormous amount of black energy gathers inside its mouth.

"Fourth Star: Black Hole!"

The statue then throws a large ball of darkness from its mouth in-between Momoyo and Yōta's attack.

Before the wave of destructions from both sides could meet with each other in the sky, the ball of darkness that Amatsu-Mikaboshi threw suddenly expanded and absorbs everything within, effectively nullifying Momoyo's Kawakami Ha and Yōta's Black Getsuga Tenshō.

The ball then disappears without leaving a trace except for a puff of black smokes that dissipates within a second.

"The fuck are yo—Aghk!"

"...!?"

"Sixth Star: Hell Journey!"

Tesshin makes a motion of swiping downward with his hand and the statue of Amatsu-Mikaboshi follow his movement as well as it swipes its gigantic claw-hand downward.

All of a sudden Momoyo and Yōta respectively pushed down by a powerful downward force of gravity, sending both of them down into a crater of massive darkness.

Effectively straining both of them as the gravity above pushing their whole body down and the darkness below sticks itself into their body so they can't freely move any of their limbs.

As Momoyo was about to force her way out from this, she stops herself when she hears what her grandfather just said.

"ARE YOU TWO A FOOL!!?"

The shout is accompanied with a blast of aura that pushes Momoyo back to the ground, while Yōta already give up on resisting.

He's using this chance to take a rest and control his emotions.

"That attack of yours could easily destroy this whole Temple and half of the city if I don't stop it!"

Momoyo grumbles inaudibly under her breath in response as she looks very displeased if a big scowl on her face is any indication.

She then smashes her head hard on the ground, creating a small crater in its wake, trying to control her battle-lust.

"I'm sorry, Gramps." Yōta muffled out his apology in his position still facing down the ground.

Not gonna lie, he's getting carried away for a moment back then that he forget to hold back.

Tesshin looks at both of the youngsters with thoughtful eyes before he sighs as the gravity and darkness that holds them down disappears completely.

The statue of Amatsu-Mikaboshi also turns into a thousand black particles as the old man wished it.

"Heal yourself, you two." He continued while stroking his beard and look at Yōta with amicable smile, "And I count on you to restore all of this destruction, my boy."

Yōta nods his head in respones as he starts to stand up and pick up a stone nearby with his hand before he cut it with Higekiri, "Antithesis."

And like magic, all of the destruction that Yōta and Momoyo caused in their battle starts to restore itself into its former glory.

It's like time have been turning back, but it's only affecting the Kawakami Temple itself and all of the objects and floras that subjected as one as the Temple.

It doesn't take long for the restoration of Kawakami completed by itself, and lo and behold, everything's look alright like nothing's ever happened.

And the stone that Yōta just cut earlier crumbles into dust since all of the damages that Kawakami Temple took were transferred into the stone.

"Hohoho, it's always fascinating to see your Karakusamoyō in action." Tesshin laughed jovially as he's surveying the area, to see if there's any missing parts or something.

Why this is possible?

That's because Yōta cuts the concept of 'destroyed condition' from the Kawakami Temple and the concept of 'perfect condition' from the stone, he then simply swaps their concepts with each other.

Thus the reason why Kawakami Temple back into its perfect condition form while the stone was destroyed into nothingness.

He's also doing the same to himself by swapping his 'wounded condition' to a 'perfect condition' from a stick that he found nearby.

"Instant Recovery." Momoyo's body start to lits in green light before all of her wounds instantly recovered.

"You both are awesome!" Kazuko cheered out as she runs around Momoyo and Yōta, "You guys are going zwoom! Bash! And DWOON!" She continued while energetically swinging her fists and legs, trying to copy their movements.

Momoyo and Yōta chuckles at the cute sight of Kazuko copying their movements, even though she failed miserably.

Momoyo then approaches her little sister and snuggles on her, cooing at her cuteness.

The youngest Kawakami happily reciprocates the gesture with big smile on her face, basking in her big sister's affection.

As the Kawakami sisters are having their moment together, Yōta fixes his glasses while smiling at the sight before he grabs his phone from his jersey's pocket.

He checks the time and his eyes slightly widened, "Hey, you two, it's already past 10."

"Wait, really?" Kazuko asked in surprise.

Momoyo on the other side waves her hand casually in response, "Nah, it's okay. We only late for minutes. They won't mind it."

"I guess you're right." Yōta hummed thoughtfully before he texts everyone to say that they're coming right now.

With that the Kawakami sisters and Yōta are said their goodbyes to Tesshin and Lu Yi before they walk on to the Tama's riverbed to meet with the other Kazama Family.