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Chapter Forty-Nine: Labyrinth:

Panting. Circles.

Nobu gritted his teeth as he looked around. He could hear her voice.

"Where are you?!" the old man shouted. "Come out and show yourself!" Nobu saw a flash out white out of the corner of his eye. He turned at sound of giggling. He thrusted out his knife. Nothing but thin air. The former professor clicked his tongue. A warm pressure formed on his head.

"My, my, my," the Mother said. "Look at you. What happened, my son?"

"Shut up, whore!" Nobu shouted. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" He thrust his knife forward in the darkness.

"Why?" she asked. Her puppet growled.

"You did this!" Nobu shouted. "You killed my family!"

"Only your doormat wife," the Mother said.

"Murderer!" he shouted. Her laughter ripped through the darkness.

"You're one to talk," the Mother said. "How people have you killed? Hundreds? Thousands?"

"We had no choice!" His voice ripped through the air. Warm fluid flooded at his feet. Nobu slowly looked down. His frail body broke into trembling. Screaming jumped up to his ears. The former professor stumbled backwards.

"Why so afraid?" the Mother asked. "This was your handy work. Don't turn away from it. You did this!"

The screaming grew louder.

"Why did you kill me?"

"Please spare my life!"

"Stop!"

"No, I don't want to die!"

"Please don't kill me!"

"Stop it, it hurts!"

Nobu trembled as he shook his head. "It's not my fault! I had no choice! I had no choice!" The Mother scanned Nobu's back with her eyes. Where was it? Haruka drained most of his power already. The weak chain couldn't be that hard to find now.

Where are you?

"I can't let you have it," a voice said. The Mother froze.

"Hm?" she asked. She looked and saw a pair of golden eyes staring back at her.

"Ah," she said, smirking. "I was wondering when you show up." Nobu's kitsune leapt out of the shadowed veil. The Mother pushed back her hair.

"It's pointless to hang onto him like this," she said. "He's as good as dead now, sweetheart."

"I know," Yayoi said.

"So why do you stay?"

"I don't know. I don't have anything else."

"Then let go already. What's the point if you have nothing else?"

"The clan's still alive."

"But that will be dead too."

"I know."

"So… why?" The air began to ripple at her back. The Mother clenched her teeth. I don't have much time.

Looks like she would have to get violent.

"You leave me no choice, my son," the Mother said. She reached behind her back and drew out a fuda. Tsuzuki's words for the spell echoed in her head.

/Only one chance to get it right/, she thought.

Yayoi raised his eyebrow. His six tails stood on end. The Mother softly chanted the spell. In a flash, she disappeared. Yayoi felt like everything was moving in slow motion around him. He only had a half-second to look into the Mother's amber eyes.

"Farewell," she mouthed. She pressed the fuda against Yayoi's forehead. The other kitsune didn't get time to scream. His body exploded into black dust. The Mother didn't blink as Nobu fell backwards with his eyes open. She placed her hand under his nose and mouth.

"That's done," the kitsune said. Airi closed her eyes.

"Okay, I'm done," she said. "Take me up now." The Mother disappeared as if she was a doll snatched up from a toybox.

Tsuzuki leaned against the torii, panting. His wife sat on the ground with her back to her beloved shinigami.

"Is it over?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Yes," Anna said. "For now." Inches away lay Nobu's body covered in black ash.