The gist of this guide is basically a how to on how to kill the hardest enemies in this game by a long shot. Tougher than any of the bosses besides Suzuka pretty much.

There is exactly one decent way to actually do this if you're not capable of flourishing that I have found. Divine Wind > Tsumugi.

2 Tsumugis that come as the final attack after a divine wind barely puts a Very Hard Knight right before bloodied, it will take 2-4 hits to knock him into it, but from there it's easy zanshin spam until you get 3 petals and kill him.

The problem is, you cannot Divine Wind > Tsumugi if the Divine Wind is interrupted.

Which it always is.

Now we're at the actual key to the method. Do not shoot the Divine Wind at the knights, but instead the opposite direction of the knights. Hold the direction towards the knight however while attempting to execute the Tsumugi and you will dash into range of them to successfully hit them with the Tsumugi.

You'll need to do this several times in a row though, expecially on the knight only stages. After you manage to hit them with the Tsumugi, they'll be stunned. However, attacking them is probably suicide since anything past the first hit on a knight is blockable by them. If you try to take this opportunity to immediately Divine Wind in opposite direction > Tsumugi back at them again, there is actually a pretty decent chance of them blocking it.

So it's best to just run away from them in a circle around the arena and do it after they start chasing again.

On VH 4-4, you will not have enough katana meter to do the entire round like this. There's a total of 12 knights(4 waves of 3), it is vital that you actually spend some time hitting the knights with melee combos once they're bloodied before actually finishing them off with zanshin. Not until the katana gauge is full, but just like half a meter to a meter of comboing. It raises the amount of katana gauge recovered when you finally do zanshin.

The final thing to keep in mind is camera manipulation so the knights do not attack you. Basically do not point it at them ever and don't dilly dally too much or they'll attack anyways. You should be facing it where you're running which is a precise circle around the edge of the arena. Once you think the knights are at the appropriate range(might take a bit of practice to get the timing down) perform the Divine Wind away from them > Tsumugi back at them technique. If you're lucky, you'll hit every single knight stunning them.

After that immediately run away from them and repeat once or twice depending on whether you're capable of landing the last few blows to get them to bloodied state yourself.

The camera manipulation is super super important on inferno mode. I have no idea how to dodge a knight's attack consistently, especially their consecutive side dash strikes. Their tracking on their normal combo is also brutal.

Thankfully, Inferno mode Knights only take 1 Tsumugi to be bloodied. It is possible to beat Inferno Mode 4-4 without them attacking once if you camera manipulate well and are lucky with their grouping.

Hopefully this guide helps you in beating Very Hard and Inferno mode if you lack the ability to flourish on command like I do.