As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
"Enten."
Kagurabachi aims for visual flair from early on with spectacular panels of people getting sliced up with katanas and other cool sorcerer powers.
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Vs. Sojo Arc
- Right from Chapter 1, Chihiro effortlessly uses the "Black" ability of his enchanted blade to slice up mooks who outnumber him twenty to one.
- Shiba demonstrates his teleportation powers in Chapter 2 when a mob boss explodes as a trap, being extremely nonchalant about it right down to Casual Danger Dialogue, demonstrating that he's a lot more skilled than it would seem.
- Chapters 3 through 11 deal with Chihiro and co. encountering Char and doing their best to rescue her from her persecutors:
- Daruma uses disposable chopsticks to murder a shopkeeper when his patience runs out.
- Chihiro's demonstrations of the "Red" ability of his sword, first invoking it to block the daruma-wielder's explosions, then while tied up, deflecting one of Daruma's explosions right back at him and landing on his feet.
- Shiba can put a crater into a floor just by stepping on it, and crushing the daruma-wielder's foot between it and his own is how he gets answers out of the mook.
- After Daruma, more sorcerer Bounty Hunters attack, including one who attempts to give Chihiro a Heroic BSoD by using his empathic abilities to Mind Rape him, forcing him to relive the day his father was murdered. However, Chihiro gets back up, telling him that all he did was reinforce his willpower, and slices his head off before the sorcerer can do anything. His colleague the Marionette Master is felled after another Splash Page of all his dirt puppets getting carved up.
- Chihiro: That day is what drives me. You just made the reason clearer.
- Chapter 7 gets a Big Damn Heroes moment from new character Azami, who bails Chihiro out when he's close to a Heroic RRoD state by effortlessly sweeping the floor with three other bounty hunters, who Know When to Fold 'Em.
- Genichi Sojo demonstrates that he, like Chihiro, has The Power of Hate when the empath's brother tries to use the same power that the empath did on Chihiro, showing him a disturbing vision of a child bathing in the blood of hanged men and he No Sells it, practically relishing the bloodshed.
- When Sojo and Chihiro finally clash in Chapters 9 and 10, Chihiro not only uses Enten's "Red" ability to deflect Sojo's lightning attacks without a single civilian casualty (which is remarked upon by Kamunabi members as being incredibly impressive) but also knows — because his father made the sword Sojo's using — that he has an opening to retaliate while the attack recharges and comes within a hair's breadth of ending Sojo.
- Chapters 12 through 16 simultaneously handle Chihiro's attempt to rescue Char and the Anti-Cloud Gouger Squad's attack on Sojo.
- Sojo effortlessly murders some associates who interrupt his bath to complain about the "help" he gave them, casually bathing in their blood until he decides to leave; he did so without Cloud Gouger given that he left it at the counter, and calmly tells the bathhouse owner to call the cops before he sees that the squad's turned up to seize his sword.
- Chihiro successfully finds his way to the lab despite his weakened and wounded condition, slaying a guard who took an unfortunate toilet break, two of his friends before they could get up from their card table, and interrogating the last guard for Char's location.
- The Squad shows what they can do, instantly relocating their battle to over the ocean to limit collateral damage and going all-out against Sojo to stop him from using Cloud Gouger's abilities effectively.
- All seems lost when Chihiro finds himself massively outnumbered and outgunned and forced to hide, but he reflects back on his father urging him to develop "flexible thinking" and discovers a new ability within Enten to conserve energy whilst still able to make all the cuts he needs to, and it's a Curb-Stomp Battle from then all the way until he finds Char.
- Just as the Squad think they've dealt Sojo a crippling blow and seized Cloud Gouger, Sojo reveals he too has learned how to activate new abilities in his enchanted blade, and tears through them in the blink of an eye.
- Specifically, the way Sojo defeats the Kamunabi is nothing short of badass. As he's falling to his seeming death, Sojo cloaks himself in a lightning-coat of Mei à la Chihiro's Nishiki, and then, following the logic of Chihiro’s pseudo lighting-rod back in chapter nine, Sojo literally bolts himself through the Kamunabi in a blink of an eye, retrieving Cloud Gouger by catching it in his mouth as he flies through the air.
- Chihiro and Sojo's climactic second duel, in only twelve seconds (which is kept track of throughout the chapter) both men pull out all of the stops with their Sacred Blades to try and kill one another.
- Chihiro realizes Sojo's actually faster than him now with Cloud Gouger's heightened potential, but Chihiro is able to keep himself alive after Sojo gains the advantage by letting his arm be cut off to alter his trajectory.
- Sojo tries the same counterattack strategy which put him on the winning end of their previous duel, only for Chihiro to reveal he thought through a way to counter the attack if he tried it again. He feints a finishing attack with Nishiki to bait Sojo, before canceling it out and closing the gap for his real finishing attack with the proceeding opening, cleaving Cloud Gouger, and Sojo after it, in half with all of his remaining spirit energy.
- Throughout the fight, Sojo and Chihiro "converse" with each other in a mental world where they challenge each other's beliefs in wielding a Sacred Blade. Chihiro is initially on the defensive of the argument, realizing his father's tools will inevitably be used by people like Sojo and tarnish his father's legacy no matter what he does. He turns it around by acknowledging Sojo's belief system as valid to the Blades, but refusing to accept him as an equal because of it. He states in no uncertain terms Sojo will never understand his father or be able to stand as his equal because of how he chooses to wield his weapon.
Rakuzaichi Arc
- In his first appearance, Hakuri Sazanami fearlessly charges into the fray to stop a trio of yakuza from kidnapping a little girl. Despite his eccentricity, he manages to force two of them back into their car and demand they take him to their base with enough ferocity to have the driver shaking in fear.
- The yakuza instantly lose their nerve when they see Chihiro's goldfish floating by the window, and for good reason — he instantly starts to slaughter his way through their ranks in a Hallway Fight sequence. At one point, the leader sics the last two henchmen on Chihiro, only for them to fall over dead of expertly cut throats from across the room before he's finished giving the command.
- Hiyuki Kagari's confrontation of Chihiro. Pulling up a blazing skeletal gauntlet from the earth piece by piece, she confidently challenges Chihiro to hand over his Sacred Blades and instantly engages him in a duel.
- She quickly shows off the power of her sorcery, Flame Bone (which she is not allowed to use to full potential) being able to overpower Chihiro's Red and summoning giant ribs from the ground to keep Chihiro on the move.
- After Chihiro's becomes conflicted and unfocused following Hiyuki's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, she finds an opening and prepares to take Chihiro down, only for Hakuri to instantly jump in and take the blow clean to the face to protect Chihiro. Despite his lack of combat proficiency and oddball nature, he is no coward.
- In the second half of the fight, Chihiro resolves to master his blade from Hakuri's words of support and puts Hiyuki on the defense. She blocks with Rikuo's ribs and gives an opening for Chihiro to exploit, which leads to her catching his sword with her bare hands. He reveals he anticipated her strategy and let her catch his shortsword before following up with a strike from his main katana. Not to be outdone, she calls his bluff that he is willing to kill her and simply takes the blunt blow to the head, simply getting more riled up by a blow strong enough to draw blood.
- In an attempt to bring the fight to an end, she pulls out the trump card of her restricted abilities and prepares the Spinal Column of Rikuo, only to have to immediately cancel it as Hakuri, who'd been laid out by her punch, finally falls unconscious, breaking the "pocket dimension" and risking civilian lives with her attack. The fight ends inconclusively but with a strong showing from both ends as Chihiro opts to flee and Hiyuki runs out of adrenaline to keep up the pursuit.
- With Hakuri's information, the duo of Chihiro and Shiba are able to effortlessly infiltrate the heavily-guarded Sazanami household and confront his father Kyora. The head of the family remains completely composed in the face of the two intruders and calmly gives them explanations to all their questions which also makes it clear how many contingencies he has prepared for the family business. Just as Chihiro and Shiba plan to regroup with this new information, the Tou teleport in and prepare for a fight.
- Meanwhile, Hakuri's elder brother Soya confronts him in Tokyo and plans to bring him back to their father. With timely intervention by Hinao, Shiba is informed of the situation. He prepares to teleport himself and Chihiro out of the Sazanami estate, but Chihiro tells him to go alone, planning to fight the rest of the Tou by himself to make sure they can get the Rakuzaichi before the auction. Shiba confronts Soya and instantly puts him on the backfoot as Chihiro engages the trio of Tou warriors, Kyora observing his relatives fight on his behalf with a wicked grin and a glass of tea.
- The overlapping duels between Soya against Shiba and Chihiro against the rest of the Tou:
- The first takes place high above the city, Shiba dodging Soya's Isou blasts midair, which are powerful enough to collapse a building behind them.
- Chihiro proves to be an equal match to the other three Tou at once, breaking their blades throughout the fight. To their credit, the Tou are quick to adapt and after reequipping themselves, the lead member manages to bait him into killing his own momentum, which leaves him open to another's Isou blast...
- Which is perfectly deflected by Shiba teleporting in, who shoves Soya in the way as he fires an Isou himself, cancelling both spells out.
- Chihiro's group invading the Rakuzaichi at the climax of the arc.
- The first thing Chihiro does is save "Mr. Inazuma", a kid attempting a rescue mission of his sister who is one of the "items" up for auction. While the kid is out of his depth, he serves as an ample distraction as Chihiro waltzes through the front door and effortlessly cuts through the first room of guards, assisted by an undercover Shiba releasing the rope of a large chandelier. And after Kyora details his belief that Enten can now be wielded by anyone since Chihiro is apparently dead, Chihiro reveals that he's far from unarmed as a trickle of lightning illuminates the sword on his waist...
- As the auction guests realize what is happening and sic their henchmen on Chihiro for his bounty, he continues to near effortlessly slaughter them, using the last embers of Spirit Energy within the hilt of Kuregumo to distract them before cutting an entire group down, which even one of the Elite Mooks finds impressive and compliments him on as he watches from the rafters. Before he can continue, the wall explodes, sending Mooks flying and heralding the arrival of Hiyuki onto the scene, just as confident as ever as fire roars around her.Hiyuki: Yo.
- After cutting down everyone in their way until they are face to face, Tafuku transports them all to his sorcerous subspace. Chihiro manages to convince them to team up by playing to Hiyuki's obvious reason for showing up: both of them want the Rakuzaichi to end. Despite her initial frustrations, she instantly snaps back to attention to keep fighting off the criminals as Chihiro makes his escape deeper into the auction house, even going back to back for a moment against their now shared foes.
