Mingde Prince's Mansion.
Despite the rebels' vast numbers, Mitsubishi and Tomonobu had somehow procured regular tactical gear, leaving the rebels unable to find a way to force entry after half a day of intense fighting.
Just as the rebels outside the Prince's Mansion were contemplating calling upon high-tier ability users, several tsukumogami emerged from blind spots unseen by both sides.
"As the Master said... what should we do?"
"Who cares! Let's make a ruckus here!"
A Shakotan pulling a Karakasa-obake emerged from the shadows. Seeing that no one noticed them, they pulled the remaining little demons into the nearest room.
Gazing at the pipes covering the walls and the raging furnace (boiler room), Shakotan excitedly exclaimed, "We've come to the right place!"
Before long, the yakuza hired by Mitsubishi and Tomonobu found themselves out of ammunition.
"Resupply! Hurry!" a man with a scar carved into his eye shouted.
"I... I brought it over just now..."
"Baka!" the scarred man slapped his stammering subordinate to the ground, then ordered his men to fetch more bullets and armor.
Suddenly, something flew through the air and struck the scarred man directly on the head.
"Ah!!!—Baka yaro! What was that!" The scarred man instinctively looked down, only to see a frag grenade with its pin pulled lying in front of him.
"Ah!!!"
Boom—
The explosion illuminated the midnight sky.
The rebel commander, seeing this, immediately organized a group to investigate. The result was an encouraging piece of news – someone had just thrown a grenade into a crowd, creating a large gap in the yakuza's defense line.
"Yosh! Sagigge!!"
At the commander's order, the rebels swarmed into the Prince's Mansion, slaughtering everyone from Prince Mingde, the Mitsubishi Group, and the Tomonobu Group.
As a group prepared to exit, they smelled a strange odor as they approached the entrance.
"What is this..." The commander wiped his nose, smeared with blood, and sniffed carefully. "Something burnt?"
Boom—
The entire boiler room exploded violently, the resulting spiritual energy fluctuations even blowing off several roof tiles.
Two-thirds of the rebel force instantly perished, and the remaining were injured to varying degrees, crying out to their superiors for help.
But no one noticed the purple oni ki gradually rising from outside the gate on Pingan Street.
...
The Crown Prince's Mansion.
The rebels eventually deployed an eighth-tier ability user to forcibly assault the Crown Prince's Mansion.
The high-tier ability user defending the Crown Prince's Mansion was seventh-tier. In the first clash of domains, the latter suffered a significant disadvantage, and subsequent confrontations were essentially one-sided.
"Fill it! Fill it!" Several guards directed the soldiers to drag the bodies out of the cover and then speed up their defenses.
They could only pray that their plea for reinforcements was effective.
Just then, the seventh-tier ability user was flung into the flower beds of the Crown Prince's Mansion like a cannonball, creating a long gouge.
"Myojin Ippon-ryu is nothing special." The eighth-tier ability user stood on the surrounding wall, sheathing his naginata with a casual air.
"We respect your loyalty. Surrender to my enlightened lord now, and you will still have the opportunity to serve the Great Neon Empire," the leading rebel leader said, attempting to persuade them to surrender.
"..." Everyone fell silent. With even the high-tier ability users defeated, they knew their own capabilities. Could they still resist?
Suddenly, the eighth-tier ability user seemed to sense something. He turned his head towards Pingan Street behind him, his pupils constricting instantly.
He saw that the vast Pingan Street had, at some point, been taken over by dense oni ki.
"What demon are you! State your name!" With that, the eighth-tier ability user drew his sword and stood in the center of Pingan Street, facing the dense mist with great caution.
"Don takar takar takar (hoofbeats)..."
A troop of Netherworld cavalry charged towards the eighth-tier ability user, waving their sabers like thunder.
"Nani..." The eighth-tier ability user watched the cavalry charge at him in disbelief, momentarily forgetting to counter.
The leading Khan swung his saber at the ability user. The latter instinctively blocked, but the immense force made his tiger's mouth ache, and his naginata was almost knocked from his grasp.
"This..." The high-tier ability user spat out a mouthful of blood and retreated several steps, finally leaning on his naginata to stop.
Looking at the unharmed Netherworld cavalry still charging, the eighth-tier ability user felt a long-lost emotion of fear in his eyes.
"Oni... Oni!!!"
...
Mo Chuan first cast [Shadow Rush] towards Pingan Street, then asked, "This is my first time leading a Hyakki Yagyo. Are there any key points?"
"Nothing much, as long as the oni ki is sufficiently dense, it can be organized," Shuten Doji said while releasing his oni ki. "All the oni and great yokai in Tokyo have come. The current amount of oni ki is definitely enough for us to traverse the entire Pingan Street."
"Traverse... street?" Mo Chuan shook his head, forgetting the highlight he had discovered, and said, "Mainly, I really didn't expect to coincide with this coup. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so rushed like this."
"Alright~" Shuten Doji revealed his oni form and patted Mo Chuan's raised tail. "Let's start quickly!"
...
The Imperial Palace.
Xuande took a dagger with a long, narrow fuller from Toyama Momoyama and turned to Kiyoshi Toyama, asking, "What should I do?"
Kiyoshi Toyama took out a broken piece of jade from his怀 and said, "Put the blood into the container, then put this jade in."
Xuande kicked out the brazier used for warming by the side, then emptied the charcoal ash to use as a container. Ignoring the Emperor's whimpering pleas, he cut open his wrist with a knife.
Trickles of blood slowly filled the brazier.
The Emperor's consciousness gradually blurred with the flow of blood and the weakening of his breath.
"Here." Xuande handed the brazier to Kiyoshi Toyama.
The latter took the full brazier of blood and pulled a hair from the Emperor's corpse.
"Bloodline..." Kiyoshi Toyama swayed the brazier in his hand.
"Flesh and bone..." Kiyoshi Toyama threw a section of hand bone and the Emperor's hair into the brazier.
"Soul..." Kiyoshi Toyama placed the brazier on the ground and slowly put a piece of shattered jade into the blood—if Shuten Doji saw this, he would surely recognize it as another fragment of the Yasakani no Magatama.
As the three items merged, the blood began to boil, and bizarre bloody characters filled the entire bedroom.
"Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi..."
The bloody characters above the brazier formed a long sword, faintly shimmering with golden light.
"Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi..."
To the right, the bloody characters formed a katana, faintly shimmering with purple light.
"Yasakani no Magatama... Hmm?!"