[Hakkai nods, casting a thoughtful glance at Trunks. His voice was getting thin, anger shoring up the places where exhaustion undermined, in a way Hakkai would recognize as, oh, two or three healings from the point where he himself would pitch over face-first into the street.

Hakkai can catch him if he has to, but he'd rather not have to.]

I agree. -- Stick to borderlines until we do. You've been working harder than I have.

[He's been rending, and that doesn't drain him the way that using his chi to attack does. The magic seems to be drawn from elsewhere. From belief? From something rooted in the bones of this world, instead of his own youkai marrow? He doesn't know, but he's willing to use it.

He sprints forward, raising his leaf-bladed sword, towards the wormlike ayakashi. It shrieks, swinging its head to bring those wicked horns down towards Hakkai, and he twists even as he runs to let one slice down through thin air and embed itself in the asphalt to his left.]

-- I, Li Tieguai, wielding Shiki, expel thy vast defilement --

[Hakkai leaps. The blade pierces the ayakashi's skull between its horns, sinking deep as his full weight bears down on it.]

Rend!