The abandoned train yard thundered with cursed energy. Metal screeched. Concrete cracked. Sparks lit the air like summer lightning.
Kashimo stood at one end of the yard, his white hair drifting in the electric wind, his eyes wide with the high of imminent battle. Sparks flickered across his knuckles, dancing along a jagged staff gripped in his hand.
Opposite him, Hakari cracked his neck, his hands sliding into his pockets with deliberate calm.
"So," Hakari grinned, "you're the guy who thinks lightning's enough to win this game?"
Kashimo grinned right back. "You think you can regenerate faster than I can obliterate? I like that."
A beat. Silence. Then—
BOOM.
Kashimo surged forward, his body a blur of voltage. Hakari blocked with his forearm, skidding across gravel before planting his heel and throwing a vicious counter.
CLANG!
Their strikes collided like meteorites. Electricity exploded outward, splitting train cars in half. Hakari activated his Idle Death Gamble, slot machine spinning inside his cursed core. Three symbols aligned—
Jackpot.
His body glowed green, cursed energy overflowing as regeneration surged through him. His injuries healed instantly.
"You're not the only one who gets off on pain," Hakari said with a smirk, swinging a brutal left hook.
Kashimo dodged, flipping mid-air and firing a blast of lightning from his palm. It seared through a tower, nearly catching Hakari's shoulder.
"Impressive," Kashimo muttered, landing with a crash. "I haven't had this much fun since the Heian era."
Hakari lunged again, slamming a knee into Kashimo's chest. But before he could follow through, Kashimo spun with a snarl, his staff cracking into Hakari's temple, sending him flying into a train car.
It exploded on impact.
Hakari stood from the wreckage, blood running down his cheek. Still grinning.
"Round one?" he asked.
Kashimo answered by slamming his staff into the ground, channeling lightning across the entire yard. The field glowed with blue veins of cursed energy.
"Try surviving this," Kashimo whispered.
And the storm fell.