End of the tournament

Amid a battered arena, a testament to the fierce combat that ensued, stood the small figure of a boy with jet-black hair, heterochromia, and bandages half covering his face yet still not hindering his wide grin.

Kuki had just shattered the blades of Mizugestu, who had gone at him at her full strength, with his right hand and nothing else, shocking his opponents and the audience.

Mizugestu took a step back in disbelief as her hands still shook from the impact, she glanced to the side to spot her missing blade or what remained of it. She clenched up her hands as her opponent had just crushed her most powerful attack, causing a bit of despair to seep into her mind.

"What's wrong? Why did ya stop-"

Kuki spoke casually as if to taunt Mizugestu, but before he could damage Mizu's psyche further, he was interrupted by Hori's shout at Mizugestu.

"Snap out of it Mizu, the fight isn't over yet!"

Mizugestu immediately regained her composure at her teammate's cry, she held up the bladeless wakizashi in front of her with a new sense of confidence in her eyes.

"We're taking this battle!"

She shouts out intimidatingly at Kuki.

Kuki moved his hands into a triangle seal as he closed his eyes. Thinking that he was about to release an extremely destructive attack, Mizugestu and Hori hurriedly braced themselves.

Abruptly, something shiny appeared around Kuki as it flew at Mizugetsu.

Mizugetsu was prepared to evade the incoming projectile but ultimately stopped as she realized that it wasn't aimed at her but rather at the ground next to her.

A sword was now inserted into the ground near her, an elegant-looking wakizashi that looked exactly like her now broken sword.

"What is this?"

Mizugestu asked in confusion as she grabbed a hold of the sword's metallic handle.

"I remade your sword, of course, you can't go all out without it, right?"

Kuki replied in a "isn't it obvious " tone to a dumbfounded Mizugetsu and a frustrated Hori.

"Now let us fight to our heart's content!!!!"

Kuki blurted out before laughing maniacally with his left hand grabbing onto his face. The audience was taken aback by Kuki's "uniqueness" while those who knew Kuki could only let out an awkward chuckle.

Mizugestu grabbed her newly bestowed weapon and dashed towards the still laughing Kuki, attempting to take him by surprise with a strike in his blind spot.

Slipping to the left of him where his view was covered up, she locked her eyes on the young boy's ribs before swinging with all she got.

Through the sliver of Kuki's fingers, his byakugan was fully active and was watching Mizugetsu's every move unbeknownst to her.

Just as her strike was about to land, Kuki smirked as he twisted his left arm and caught Mizugetsu's blade.

"Caught you~"

Kuki hummed innocently before letting the blade go. While Kuki was preoccupied with messing with Mizugetsu, Hori was already behind him and managed to stab his back.

To her total dismay, her attack yielded no results as her blade simply bounced off as if she had just stabbed a metal wall.

Kuki turned his head back upon feeling a poke to his back, revealing a childish face that had contorted into an eerie smile filled with joy.

Shocking Hori to her core, she involuntarily took a few steps back, how much of a samurai she may be, she was still essentially a young maiden at heart, and witnessing such a deranged smile ought to bring some fear into her heart.

At the same time, Mizugetsu whom Kuki had just blatantly dismissed was despairing at her own weakness for not even being able to scratch Kuki.

To both of these girls, Kuki was no longer a brat that is only a samurai in name but an insurmountable wall to first place.

Seeing that his opponents were losing their spirit, Kuki was ready to neft himself to keep enjoying the battle.

"If this is too much for you two, I guess I'll turn it off"

Kuki announced in a disappointed voice as he had expected more from this fight.

"NO!!"

But just as Kuki was prepared to turn off his newly created trump card, the shouts of two young girls rang out.

Hori and Mizugetsu snapped out of their despair and walked towards Kuki side by side with a new gleam in their eyes.

"It doesn't matter if we can't hurt you, we won't accept your pity, we're not willing to lose!"

The two young girls roared out as they prepared to dish out their best attack.

Mizugetsu held her sword tight as she pumped water into her limbs, significantly increasing their strength. She grits her teeth as she uses more water than she ever had.

Hori on the other hand simply closed her eyes and got into the most basic attack stance, concentrating on the world around her, her focus was unrivaled at this moment.

"Very well"

Kuki mumbled as he got into the stance of gentle fang, with red fog emanating from his hands as his byakugan was wide open.

Their battle had started in the afternoon, the sky was now a yellowish-orange as they had been battling it out close to two hours, the setting sun in the distance was a testament to this, when the sun hits the ground is when this will all be over as they will deliver their strongest strike.

As the sun touches the land, orange lights encapsulate the three samurais and cast their shadows onto the ground.

Mizugetsu leaped forward with all her might swinging her wakizashi horizontally, as Hori followed suit cautiously observing Kuki.

With a smile on his face, Kuki faced Mizugetsu's strike head-on with his hands, using first fang: predatory counter to deflect her formidable strike.

Flinging Mizugetsu's sword away from her grasp, he soon landed a clean palm on her stomach, putting a hole into Mizugetsu and knocking her off her feet.

Hori sneaked in between their exchange and took a clean slice at Kuki's sides, drawing blood.

Through sensing the chakra around Kuki, Hori realized that Kuki's body hardening technique was unstable and managed to strike at one of the few places that Kuki's chakra didn't cover.

Right after hitting Mizugestu, Kuki felt a pain in his sides and shifted his body toward Hori, he dashed at Hori with a smile on his face preparing to knock her out.

"We surrender"

Hori hurriedly blurted out before Kuki was able to reach her.

Kuki stopped in his tracks and walked slowly toward Hori, putting his hands on her shoulder.

"You did well"

Kuki spoke before catching Hori who collapsed from exhaustion due to her frail physique. Mizigestu on the other hand had already fainted from her chakra being depleted by Kuki's strike.

"And the official winner of the tournament is the 19th division!!"

The announcer yelled out excitedly as everyone clapped and cheered.

The rookie tournament had come to a close.