The Power of a God

Battered but upright again after the Minotaur's beating, Seiko shrugs off Payase's worry by likening the ordeal to the worst osteopathy clinic imaginable, a joke that lands with Kashimoto and baffles Payase. She warns the pair that the Minotaur is iron-bodied and only grows stronger each time he is struck. Thrilled at the prospect of worthy foes, the Minotaur brags that heat is building in his groin, and the remaining jiangshi rush in. Seiko sends Payase and Kashimoto to deal with the Minotaur while she goes after her bag.

Drawing on a guardian spirit, Kashimoto unleashes his Aphoom-Zhah to blast the jiangshi back, while Payase shrouds himself in darkness, fuses his shadow to theirs, and strikes upward to crumble their bodies. The Minotaur covets that power, but Payase scoffs that his Kodoku-poisoned form would never suit him, then tries to skewer the beast from below, only for the shadow to glance off the iron. The Minotaur wrenches Payase out of the ground and tosses him aside. Kashimoto pelts the Minotaur with repeated Aphoom-Zhah, yet the creature retaliates by slamming him into a wall and goading him to keep hitting. With his "ultimate hotness" reached, the Minotaur downs both men, snatches Seiko mid-throw before she can grab her bag, and crushes her in a bear hug, threatening to scatter her organs unless she yields.

When Kashimoto resumes his assault, the Minotaur warns that the shockwaves are carrying through his iron frame into Seiko while fueling his own strength, but Seiko orders Kashimoto to press on. Boasting that nothing reaches him, the Minotaur is stunned when his arms snap off as Payase thrusts his hands clean through them. To the beast's disbelief at breaking despite peak hardness, Payase, still in shadow, explains that the brighter a light burns, the more profound the shadow it throws. Kashimoto adds that never feeling pain was the Minotaur's ruin, since pain is what tells a body how much it can endure before it shatters. He reveals his "Ice Flame" plunges to absolute zero, and that chilled iron lets hydrogen seep in and crack it. Bag finally back in hand, Seiko thanks the Minotaur for the rare thrashing, sticks a talisman to his head while recalling his craving for a true rival, and as he panics and tries to name her real pursuer, she caves in his skull with a kick, telling him to take it up with a god instead.

The fight of Seiko, Payase, and Kashimoto against the jiangshi and the Kettetsu power user plays out. Kashimoto calls on his guardian spirit's power to burn the jiangshi away. Payase slips through his darkness form and impales the jiangshi on spikes of shadow. The two try to bring down the Minotaur but fall short, and he turns on Seiko, seizing her from behind. Kashimoto hammers him over and over while Payase tears off his arms, the freezing temperature of those strikes leaving the iron body brittle. Seiko then slaps a talisman from her purse onto the Minotaur and ends him with a kick.

Running December 24, 2024 in Volume 21 of the Ultimate Yokai Saga, this extended chapter resolves the duel with the iron Minotaur through Payase's shadows and Kashimoto's absolute-zero Ice Flame. Seiko finishes the foe herself, closing out the cursed-object collectors' showcase.