"Get the fuck off me!" Rikuya hissed.
Luke sent the boy rolling away with a jerk of his hand.
He had dragged Rikuya all the way to Ground Beta, far from the dorms.
Rikuya groaned as he fumbled his way to his feet, clutching the right side of his face.
If it hadn't been for the swelling numbing the pain, he would have felt agony shooting into his skull from the loosened molars beneath his cheek.
Even then, Rikuya knew it would hurt like hell tomorrow morning.
And that knowledge manifested as boiling fury on his face, his gaze digging deep into the boy standing in front of him — the boy who had punched him — the boy who was his stepbrother… a year younger than him!
"Have you lost your fucking mind, bastard?!" Rikuya cursed. "You dare put your fatherless hands on me?! Me?! One word from me and you'll be kicked out of the Saionji family like the dog you are!"
Luke's blank expression turned colder still.
He took a step toward Rikuya.
Then another.
Finally, just as Rikuya processed what was happening, Luke broke into a sprint.
His punch hissed past Rikuya, missing his head by an inch as the older boy moved reflexively.
"Fuck—!" Rikuya stumbled as he tried to regain his footing. "You won't get the inheritance just by killing me, you fool!"
Luke slowly pulled back his hand and looked toward Rikuya again.
Silence hung between them.
"I will get the… satisfaction," Luke said.
Rikuya's eyebrows shot through the roof.
Luke shot toward him again — faster, much faster than before.
Rikuya's heart skipped a beat, the hair on the back of his neck stood up, and a chill ran down his spine.
He ducked the punch, leaped over a sweep, twisted his torso to avoid a tackle, and somehow kept dodging, scrambling to survive.
Luke panted.
Rikuya panted harder.
Both stared at each other, separated by the quiet darkness.
Then, suddenly, Luke stood upright, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.
When his eyes opened, Rikuya experienced a chilling feeling, as if he was no longer looking at his stepbrother.
"I am going to kill you now," this other Luke said.
Rikuya's eyes widened.
There was a blur.
Rikuya's dark eyes flashed a brilliant blue.
By a hair's breadth, he shifted to his left as the punch slammed into the wall behind him.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
A mere hole didn't form in the concrete — it outright exploded, rubble flying in all directions.
Rikuya was sent tumbling across the ground, choking in dust and coughing his lungs out.
When the dust settled, he found Luke towering over him like some vengeful Greek god, his face flushed with fury.
"Does Aina know?" Luke asked.
"Cough…" Rikuya tasted blood in his mouth. "I don't know what you're talking about, asshole…"
"DOES SHE KNOW?!" Luke roared.
Rikuya stared into his stepbrother's blue eyes, which were ringed with bloodshot red.
"I hate you…" He spat, meeting that gaze head-on. "I hate you. I've always hated you… I HATE YOU!"
BOOM!
Luke buried his fist an inch into the pavement next to Rikuya's ear.
He leaned down, clamping his left hand over Rikuya's jaw and wrenching his mouth open.
"I will ask one more time…" Luke said, his grip tightening until bone groaned. "Does… Aina… know?"
Rikuya strained his neck upward, glaring directly into those manic blue eyes. "Fuck you…"
Luke stood up, dragging Rikuya up with him while maintaining his vice grip on the boy's jaw.
Slowly, he lifted him until his toes barely grazed the asphalt.
Rikuya clawed at Luke's forearm, feeling as though his lower jaw would be ripped from his skull at any second. When that failed, he lashed out with a kick. That proved even more foolish; it felt like kicking a wall of solid steel.
"Rikuya Saionji…" Luke said, the chill in his voice freezing the air around them. "… is my brother. Aina Saionji is my sister. Reijirou Saionji is my father. Misaki Saionji is my mother. You… I don't care what you're scheming. But you shouldn't have messed with my family… I will burn you alive… Singularity."
Rikuya clawed and pounded frantically at Luke's face, choking out muffled curses.
With a sharp shove, Luke let go, sending Rikuya crashing to the ground.
[Sigh…]
Rikuya ignored that sigh in his mind and the implication behind it.
He lifted his head, massaging his throbbing jaw.
"Ha…" Rikuya began, a broken grin spreading across his bloody lips. "Haha… Hahaha… Burn Her alive? Haha… Just because you're a nerd, you think everyone else is a fool?! Just because you were toyed with for most of your life, you think everyone else is being played too?! Just because people treated you like dirt, you think the entire world is rotten?! Haha… If I had a stick, I'd shove it so far up your blessed ass, bastard…"
Silence returned.
Rikuya watched Luke turn around and walk away, disappearing through the shattered wall.
Moments later, he returned carrying something in his hand that he tossed onto the ground.
Clang!
Rikuya watched as a heavy metal pipe clattered to a halt next to his knee.
His gaze shifted back to Luke, who gave a sharp nod toward the makeshift weapon.
Cursing under his breath, Rikuya grasped the pipe and dragged himself to his feet, exhaling a long, shuddering breath.
"I think it's time for an older brother's lesson," he said, dropping into a fighting stance, his dark eyes flashing bluer than ever. "Before you go sullying the Saionji name with another self-righteous, brain-dead speech…"
Luke scoffed. "I know a liar when I see one," he said, raising his fists. "You… don't give a fuck about the Saionji name. Come on. If I have to beat some sense into you, so be it."
Sense into him?!
He —the murderous bastard playing gods and devils across the world— was going to beat sense into him?!
Rikuya's sneer twisted into raw, unbridled rage.
With an enraged roar, he charged forward just as Luke blurred toward him, swinging his fists like iron hammers.
Before the metal pipe could collide with Luke's knuckle, however, a deafening explosion shattered the night air—
… Midoriya and Bakugo crashing down between them with a massive BOOM!