Jin, still smoldering from Ren’s earlier attack, staggered to his feet. His fingers trembled with a controlled fury, his lip curling into something between a snarl and a grin.

  "Alright, alright… You got your hit in."

  Ren exhaled, gripping his katana tighter. "You’re still alive? That’s annoying." Then he rapidly begun to shake his head. “Oh no, that for sure sounded like something Ryuko would say. I’ve been around him too much.”

  Jin chuckled darkly. "Oh trust me, I was just getting started."

  The air around him shifted unnaturally, warping in rippling distortions. His bracelet fred with an eerie blue glow, shadows twisting around him like writhing specters.

  "Take Form—Rakujitsu."

  A pair of jagged, crescent bdes materialized in his hands, their edges pulsing with a dark, hypnotic glow. The room tilted—or at least, it felt like it.

  Ren’s breath hitched as his vision blurred, the walls warping and twisting like liquid. Illusions. Jin’s voice echoed from all directions.

  "Can’t cut what you can’t see." Then, he attacked.

  Ren barely managed to parry the first ssh—but the moment their bdes cshed, he felt his own reflection staring back at him. A thousand versions of Jin lunged at him from every direction, the line between reality and deception obliterated.