The night sky above the replica Nijo Castle was a bruised violet, the moon replaced by a colossal glowing sigil that pulsed like a dying heart.
The castle's honmaru palace had been twisted into a ritual arena: stone floors etched with crimson runes, torii gates inverted and bleeding black fire, and at the center a massive magic circle thirty meters wide.
Inside it floated Yasaka, leader of the Kyoto Youkai, her nine golden tails bound by chains of pure holy light that crackled with True Longinus energy.
Her eyes were closed, breathing shallow, yet the sheer pressure of her restrained aura warped the air into heat shimmers.
Cao Cao stood at the northern point of the circle, spear planted like a standard. Georg, Heracles, Jeanne, and a still-bandaged Siegfried formed the other cardinal points. The Hero Faction had come in full force this time.
Issei, Asia, and Kunou stepped through the tear in reality that had opened the moment Issei silently sold one Master Ball back to the Gacha System.
The transaction had been instantaneous and invisible: one empty sphere vanished from his pocket dimension, and in exchange the system carved a perfect keyhole into Georg's Dimension Lost barrier. No alarms. No alerts. Just a silent back door that only Issei knew existed.
Kunou's ears flattened the moment she saw her mother. "Mama…!"
Yasaka's eyelids fluttered, but the chains tightened, drawing a pained gasp from the nine-tailed empress.
Cao Cao smiled pleasantly. "Welcome. You're right on schedule."
Issei's hand closed around True Excalibur's key-chain. "Let her go, Cao Cao. Last chance."
"Or what?" The spearman twirled True Longinus lazily. "You'll wave that stolen holy sword at me again? Or will your little goddess girlfriend drop from the heavens and break the rules of mortal combat?"
His eyes narrowed with genuine curiosity. "I felt her mark on you yesterday. Tell me, does the new 'God' know you're here playing hero?"
Issei answered by unfolding Excalibur into its full seven-fragment glory, Ruler and Destruction aspects glowing crimson-gold with Phoenix Force infusion.
The fight detonated.
Cao Cao lunged, spear becoming seven after-images of god-killing light. Issei met him head-on, Rapidly doubling his speed, Nightmare aura exploding outward to erode Cao Cao's confidence. Steel rang against holy steel in a storm of sparks that lit the courtyard like fireworks.
Asia and Kunou split off instinctively.
Heracles charged Asia with a roar that cracked stone.
"BOOST ×10!" The Boosted Gear screamed. Asia slid under the punch, palm slamming into the giant's knee with transferred draconic force. Bone shattered; Heracles howled and toppled.
Siegfried, one arm in a sling, summoned four remaining demonic swords and sent them spiraling toward Kunou.
The little fox princess snarled, tails weaving a nine-layer foxfire shield. Blades met flame in explosions of black and azure.
Georg began compressing the dimension again, gravity tripling.
Jeanne circled behind Kunou, holy sword raised for a killing strike.
Kunou never saw it coming.
The blade descended.
A ripple of pure, apocalyptic fury detonated from the ritual circle.
Yasaka's eyes snapped open, pupils slit gold, nine tails exploding outward in a corona of solar fire. The holy chains binding her did not break, they vaporized.
The magic circle beneath her feet shattered like glass under a supernova. A shockwave of raw youki flattened every combatant except Issei and Cao Cao, who were locked spear-to-sword twenty meters away.
Yasaka landed in the center of the ruined circle, hair whipping in a cyclone of golden flames, aura so dense it manifested as a second sun behind her. Her voice was no longer elegant or maternal; it was the roar of a primordial beast.
"YOU DARE TOUCH MY DAUGHTER?!"
The rampage began.
A single tail lash bisected a stone pillar and sent Heracles flying through three walls.
Another tail whipped toward Jeanne, holy sword and all, would have turned the saintess into red mist had Jeanne not desperately summoned every defensive relic she owned.
Siegfried tried to intercept with dragon-slaying blades. Yasaka caught one in her bare hand and crushed it into glittering dust, then backhanded him across the courtyard. He didn't get up.
Georg frantically tried to reinforce the dimension. Yasaka's aura shredded the mist like tissue paper.
Cao Cao disengaged from Issei with a spinning vault, spear raised. "Balance Breaker: Caelum Transfixio!"
A pillar of pure divine judgment speared down from the false sky, aimed squarely at the raging nine-tails.
Yasaka looked up, snarled, and met it with a point-blank sphere of golden foxfire the size of a house. Light met light. The explosion carved a crater fifty meters wide and collapsed half the replica castle.
Issei saw the problem instantly: Yasaka wasn't distinguishing friend from foe anymore. One stray tail sweep would erase Kunou, Asia, even him(if it was possible).
He made the decision in less than a heartbeat.
From his inner pocket he drew one of the remaining nine Master Balls, empty, gleaming white and red, no bigger than a baseball.
He pressed the button. It expanded to the size of a softball, energy rings glowing.
Asia saw it. "Issei, what is—?!"
He didn't answer. He couldn't risk the secrecy clause killing him mid-sentence.
Yasaka spun, sensing the new threat, tails coiling to crush him.
Issei hurled the Master Ball with perfect accuracy.
It struck Yasaka between the eyes with a soft ponk.
Red energy erupted, forming a capture beam that wrapped around the nine-tailed empress faster than even her reflexes could counter.
She had time for one startled, almost comical blink, golden eyes wide, before the beam yanked her inside.
The ball fell to the cracked stone, wobbled once, twice, three times, pinged with a cheerful electronic chime, and went still.
Silence.
Absolute, ringing silence.
The Hero Faction stared in stunned disbelief.
Georg's mist collapsed entirely. The dimension shattered like glass, dumping everyone back into the real Nijo Castle courtyard under a cold November moon.
Kunou ran forward, tails bristling. "O-Onii-chan… what did you do to Mama?!"
Issei picked up the Master Ball. It was warm, pulsing faintly with Yasaka's restrained aura. He slipped it into the inner pocket of his haori, right over his heart.
"Safe-keeping," he said quietly. "She was about to level half of Kyoto. I'll let her out once she calms down. Promise."
Kunou's ears flattened, fists clenched. For a moment it looked like she might cry or bite him, probably both.
Then Asia knelt, hugging the little fox gently. "He saved everyone, Kunou-chan. Your mother most of all."
Kunou sniffled, glared at Issei's pocket, then finally nodded, ears drooping. "…Fine. But you'd better let her out soon, Onii-chan. Or I'll burn your eyebrows off."
Cao Cao lowered his spear slowly, expression unreadable. "A capture relic that works on a being of that level… interesting."
He glanced at the unconscious bodies of his teammates, then at the three children who had just demolished his elite squad.
"This isn't defeat," he said, almost to himself. "It's data."
He tapped True Longinus against the ground once. Light flared, and the remaining conscious Hero Faction members vanished in teleportation rings.
The castle was silent again, only the wind and distant temple bells.
Issei exhaled, feeling the warm weight of the Master Ball against his chest. Nine left. Yasaka made one. He had no intention of telling anyone, not Rias, not Elysara, not even Asia, where it had really come from or how many he still possessed.
Kunou tugged his sleeve. "Mama's really okay in there?"
"Perfectly safe," Issei assured her. "Like a luxury poke-capsule with infinite sushi and hot springs."
Kunou managed a tiny, watery smile.
Asia looked up at the moon, Boosted Gear fading back into light particles.
"We should head back before Rias-sama sends a search party."
Issei nodded, turning toward the castle gates. In his pocket, the Master Ball pulsed once, almost like a heartbeat, as if Yasaka were already trying to figure out how to scold him from inside.
Tomorrow there would be explanations, jealousy from Rias, smug messages from Elysara, and probably a very angry nine-tailed fox to release in a controlled environment.
But tonight?
Tonight, Kyoto was safe.