Maton ignored Atasu and Hasu, bringing his crossbow arm down toward the, now prone, Kurama and continued his assault aiming for any exposed body parts, or just shooting Atasu if he was too much in the way. He'd run out of quarrels eventually, but for now he had enough stored within himself that he did not need to worry about it.

Simultaneously, he sent his grappling hook reeling back. Kurama had been fortunate enough to be knocked onto the cable and avoid being entangled. Unfortunately, however, the steel cable now tore across his kimono, the friction from been trapped between the samurai and the ground heating it up as well as tearing clothing and threatening to burn the samurai. And, of course, there were the hooked grapple points heading toward his back.

"Well, whatever," Suzume said, shrugging. Then, looking at Tayuumi, "I'd put on that armor and let go, if I were you."

Starting to walk away, the demon hunter turned around a couple steps later, pointed his hand at Kagi, and shot out a soul toward the metallic demon. The single soul hit head on, but wasn't enough to tear Kagi apart, instead throwing him a good distance back and probably doing a good number to his senses.

"Hey, I warned ya didn't I?"

So many things were happening at once to Kurama. There was a rain of sharpened bolts flying to his body, as well as a grappling hook going for his legs. Then a flower tried to stab him in the back. Then a giant bull demon blindsided him and pushed him down onto the ground. And now, the metallic cord attaching the grappling hook to its source was tearing up his nice kimono, and the crossbow bolts were STILL flying at him.

He was slightly angry.

His legs pushed off first, propelling him forward into a roll away from the cord, the grappling hook passing by without gutting him through the back. He kept up with the momentum, moving forward to avoid the dozens of bolts being sent flying toward his body.

After taking a few steps, his foot planted down hard in the ground, his right arm draping over to his left side, the fingers grazing the handle of the Raigaki.

"Reveal yourself!"

Kurama spun to the direction the crossbow bolts were being fired from. As he turned, his fingers tightened on the hilt of his enchanted katana, tugging it from the sheath, its blade glowing brightly. It flashed twice, the sigil closest to the handle giving off a soft green glow as a blade of pure light flew from the sword, soaring at the spot where Maton was hiding.

Hasu oriented on the new man - the samurai that had so calmly dismissed the bull demon's clumsy attempts at grabbing the lady of flowers. She stood there, quiet for a moment, taking the man's features in, as if committing to memory the man she will be fighting.

After the pause, the furisode rustled silently as Hasu raised her shortened tanto to her forehead in a polite salute. The aura around her darkened.

"Fukyuu Hasu. Please step aside. Kurama is my target, not you."

Hasu seemed to grip the handle of her blade like a delicate flower stem, unfazed by the thorns.

Well, you have to give Kagi credit somewhere. At least he had the since to lean slightly to the left, which made the blast that Suzume fired not hit him in the head, but instead hit steel that had Tayuumi clawing all over him. Hey, if it was on him, it could take the impact directly. Then that there explosion happened, sending Kagi a ways off towards the right, sending Tayuumi somewhere else... hopefully.

Kagi looked up at the sky. He noticed how a bird just happened to be flapping its wings. "Stupid bird." Kagi said, and rose to his feet. "Alright then, that hurt." Kagi said, then spat off to the side. If anyone cared, there would notice that he spat out silver blood. "Alright, so who is fighting me again?" Kagi said, taking a defensive position with his weapon, wanting a few seconds to focus without them realizing it.

"Ah." Akira said, a soft exhalation of something too subdued to be called joy.

"My apologies, but it would appear we act at cross purposes. You will need to get past me first" he said to the lady of flowers. Akira returned her gaze, the samurai's eye roving over Hasu. He took in the elaborate furisode of petals garbing her beauteous shape, the pale skin flushed with the hint of pink, the lotus crown atop the long, milk-white hair, seeking the steel beneath the softness.

He pointed his blade at Hasu. "Come. Show me how much you truly desire the Genkai's death."

Maton leapt to the side--or rather leapt in so much as it was possible for a humanoid piece of machinery running on hydraulics to leap, which is to say his feet left the ground by a few inches and slid sideways through the air a bit. His manuever allowing him to just barely avoid the end of Kurama's light blade as it tore through the trees and shrubs, blasting away a small portion of the forest.

Another group of crossbow quarrels fired off quickly toward the Genkai from the falling trees and leaves, before the 'smoke' had settled--but once it had Maton would be visible. Not because he chose to reveal himself, but because his cover had been blown away.

As he continued his distanced assault on Kurama he took stock of his attack and calculated the energy. He figured he was capable of taking one attack such as that without being destroyed if he defended himself--and that his more fleshy companions would die in a single blast, most likely.

The whirring of rotors accompanied the quarrels coming from Maton as his body began to re-adjust, steel plates turning outward and reinforcing his body. They severly hindered his movement--but Maton wasn't fast enough to dodge light blades like that reliably anyway, and the steel would at least protect him from its effects.

"By no means do I want the man dead, Akira-sama," Hasu replied politely, smiling easily as her body relaxed, "You mistake my meaning, and I apologize for the misinformation. I want his sword. It is my fellow friends that may wish him dead."

It was strange, then, what Hasu did. Though the aura around her never left, Hasu stepped lightly forward, her body and posture completely relaxed and composed, as if the battle around them and the obviously threatening opposition was nothing of her concern. Her swaying body danced to an invisible tune, almost hypnotic in gesture.

In fact, it very much appeared to those observing the polite conversation that Hasu was just going to simply walk past the samurai in her pathway.

Hasu moved forwards with her swaying gait, seeming as though she would simply walk past the samurai. Akira raised his blade angled above his head, his right hand coming up to grip it for a powerful two handed stroke.

"But are you resolved to this purpose?" Akira demanded of her, padding around softly, circling Hasu with his sword still raised. She did not turn to keep facing him as he took each deliberate step. Instead she continued her stately advance, golden-orange eyes fixed on Kurama and his legendary blade. "How far will you go to achieve it, Hasu-sama?"

Akira was now behind her, Hasu's back exposed to him. Her furisode of many petals was hidden by the fall of her soft white hair, reaching almost to the ground. She still showed no sign of acting to defend herself.

Akira did not hesitate. An executioner's stroke, his blade swept down.

There was the singing of metal against metal, the screeching clash of Akira's blade against the melodic tones of Hasu's tanto. In a move that seemed to defy speed, Hasu had reacted with lightning clarity, bringing her shortened weapon up and behind her, cocked so it would catch the tip of Akira's blade and slide along past it, deflecting it from the fatal stab and into the earth even as her body turned to face Akira.

Petals spun gently, dislodged from the sudden whirling movement. Hasu, as graceful in combat as she was in her normal stance, sidestepped easily the attack, eyes now blazing.

"As far as you are willing to defend this fool of a man, Akira-sama, and more," her voice did not change with any effort, as calm and as neutral as it was before. It was only her eyes that changed, blazing a deep auburn, flecked with spots of pitiless black.

And so too, did the aura around her change. Her furisode seemed to harden, shifting in colour and intensity as the first shades of red bled into her surroundings.

As quickly as her reaction to Akira's attack came, the singing of metal announced Hasu's rapid withdrawal of her tanto sliding past Akira's blade, which disappeared within the folds of her hardening furisode. A twin, echoing metallic song harmonized with the withdrawing blade as a longer, more wicked-looking katana appeared in her other hand, swiftly swung around in a short arc and towards Akira's neck in a counterstrike.

[entering: Red Fold]