megaraa
At the center of the crater stood a girl in a pitch-black uniform, boots planted as though the earth had risen to meet her rather than the reverse. Smoke drifted upward in delicate spirals from the scorched ground around her, curling past long jet-black hair that fell unbothered over her shoulders. Her posture was relaxed. Her shoulders loose. Her head tilted.
She beamed.
"Yaho! Sorry for the late arrival, my adorable juniors!"
Her eyes were crescent moons, the smile wide enough to show teeth, untroubled by the crater she had created. A faint ring of residual kinetic energy shimmered around her frame before dissipating into the dirt. Not a scratch marked her uniform. Not a strand of hair was out of place.
Yuji blinked. "Who-"
Todo did not speak. He assessed.
The cursed plants that had encroached upon the clearing recoiled not from fear but from severance. Their network had been disrupted. Hanami's connection to the earth had been forcibly interrupted within the radius of her landing. The curse itself had staggered half a step back, bark splintering where uprooted tendrils had been violently detached.
The girl brushed imaginary dust from her sleeve.
Behind her, smoke thickened into a vertical plume. From within it, a shape emerged with deliberate slowness, as if unimpressed by theatrics. Two tails swayed lazily before the rest of the body followed-a bipedal cat, fur dark as ink steeped in shadow, bamboo pipe resting between its teeth. It exhaled a thin ribbon of grey smoke that did not disperse naturally but coiled with intention.
The Nekomata regarded the crater, then her.
"Brat," it said flatly. Its voice carried the rasp of something ancient and deeply inconvenienced. "You promised we would arrive discreetly."