[ he listens with the patience and quiet studiousness of, possibly, a storyteller with attention to a warrior recounting a tale of battle. in this case it might just be accurate enough: the enemy is an almost complete unknown with power they could barely comprehend, someone who had already succeeded in slaughtering all his opponents even indirectly like this through a forced killing game--except natsuno, technically. by now death itself could be treated like this, a factor in the battle instead of a full stop--but they needed to put a full stop to the captain.

Selectively intangible goes to the top of the paper: probably the most important issue, if the captain isn't physical, he can't be attacked.

perhaps. ]

We can see that he can either transform into smoke or simply be incorporeal at his discretion. It's likely that he allowed you to land a blow on him; it's arrogant of him, even if he wasn't truly wounded. Even if we don't know what exactly his... constitution is, we can consider attacking the void inside him or something else. [ the captain is a body after all, even if he contains or is made up of... something completely different. ] I would guess that if you attack his heart there might be that same void, but if you felt something different in there, it's worth trying. It might require that knife of yours rather than a blunt object when you struck his head.

Now, for my idea...

Have you considered attacking or containing him while he's incorporeal, as smoke?

[ his smile at her is small, encouraging. even still, he doesn't prefer to lead or be a vanguard. he had always been support, gentle guidance as the wind; a hint of his idea brushes to reach to her in the form of a small breeze from him, carried with a single white feather.

there is another one of them that could turn incorporeal besides the captain. ]