"Let's see if sending another 'Boss' gets them to 100%," the Unknown Voice said, from a dimension completely separate from the protagonists'.
The sun began to set, and the birds were singing, but a tension hung over the lakes. A melody started to play, and the birds fell silent. Slowly, a crocodile began to rise from a lake, but this one was different. Its eyes were red and pupilless, its claws enormous and razor-sharp, and behind it came identical crocodiles carrying greenish swords. This was Boss 16, called "MegaFlash." He looked around and, using X-ray vision, spotted his target: Kiro. He dropped to his knees and closed his eyes, then leapt up to the clouds and pushed off with a backward jump, reaching 500 kilometers per hour. He landed on a rooftop and crashed straight through it, scanning his surroundings as he fell. Then he punched a wall and broke it, and walked slowly toward the protagonist's home.
Kiro, who was eating with his family, sensed a threat approaching.
"I'm going out. Get out of here, fast," he said firmly, rising from his chair.
His parents and sister looked confused, but then they remembered what Kiro had told them long before: *I was in Italy, fighting enemies who call themselves Bosses.* If that was true, he had to go out now. With that thought, they began packing their things.
Outside, Kiro stepped through the door with a graver expression and looked at the enemy emerging from a broken wall.
"Well, well, so you're this 'Kiro,' huh? Don't worry, after I kill you, I'll kill your family. Let's see if you're on my level, little one," MegaFlash said, amused and arrogant, with a thinly veiled streak of malice.
Suddenly he was in front of Kiro, throwing a punch at his face. Kiro blocked with his arms, but it wasn't enough. He was hurled into his own home and through the wall. MegaFlash pressed his arms together, formed an energy attack, and fired it at Kiro. The blast drove Kiro through the floor. As the energy kept pushing him down and hurting him, he gritted his teeth and smiled. A gust of air pushed the attack back, though not by much.
Kiro's little sister saw a blue blast tearing across her family's yard. She couldn't help looking, and she made out the faint shape of a person. It was a terrible mistake. Still firing the attack with one hand, MegaFlash walked up to the girl and set his other hand on her head.
"Hello, little one. Do you want to go be with your brother? Don't worry, you'll be with him in heaven soon," he said, grinning a macabre grin.
He gripped her by the waist, and she froze in terror. Down in the hole, Kiro was struggling to push the attack back when his ears caught movement above him. Someone was touching someone. His mind went dark with fury and revulsion.
"You son of a bitch, you will not touch my little sister! HERMANITAAAA!" Kiro screamed, his rage at its peak.
A small burst of fire erupted from the hole and pushed the attack back. MegaFlash was a little surprised, but he only tightened his hold on the girl and leaned in close to her ear.
Kiro climbed out of the hole and, with one stomp, was in front of the Boss. His face was covered in black shadow, with only his white eyes visible. He seized MegaFlash by the throat, pressed his face to the ground, and took off at full speed, grinding the Boss's face into the pavement without stopping.
The street cracked in a three-by-three-meter area as Kiro ran with the Boss's face against the ground. He kept running so fast that the pavement caught fire. Then he lifted the Boss's face and smashed it through twenty buildings in a matter of moments. He grabbed a shard of glass and jammed it into MegaFlash's eye. The Boss screamed and tried to shove him away, but Kiro dodged, caught his face again, and kept slamming it into the ground nonstop at 1,000 kilometers per second. With one leap, he punched through the ground, and MegaFlash's face smashed into everything beneath the surface as Kiro kept going. He reached the Earth's core without touching it, though he felt its immense heat, then passed alongside it and came out on another continent. The Boss's face was thoroughly destroyed, but it had begun to regenerate.
"You think you're going to use your damn regeneration after what you were about to do to my sister? You piece of trash," Kiro said, shaking with rage.
Small flames sparked at his feet. Then he repeated the process, dragging the Boss's face through the ground again, many times over this time. At 1,500 kilometers per second he began tearing through the earth toward the core without touching it. Red lightning could be seen in space, and the aura Kiro built up by passing through the crust so many times grew to an unimaginable scale. His speed reached 2,000, then 4,000, then its maximum of 12,000 kilometers per second. Meanwhile, the Boss's cells fought desperately to survive, and the crocodiles with the greenish swords were running to his aid. Kiro began to tire, and a thought crossed his mind. With an effort, he reached Italy and hurled the Boss's burned body forward. It slammed into a wall. The Boss was charred, faceless, with no eyes or mouth, and his skin was burned beyond recognition.
The crocodiles arrived in Italy, guided by a signal that came from the one living cell in Boss 16's body. Kiro closed his eyes for a moment, breathing hard. The crocodiles took advantage, grabbed the Boss's body, and carried it a little way off. They stopped and began a ritual to summon rain, using an artifact once used for this kind of rite. After the ritual, the sky clouded over and the clouds turned gray. It began to rain, and every drop that fell on Boss 16's body restored his regeneration and started to heal him. Little by little his body grew bulkier, larger, and stronger. He reached two meters in height, his claws grew bigger, and his eyes turned a brilliant red. Twenty fangs sprouted from his jaws, and his crocodile tail turned to platinum. With a roar he awoke and raised his hands to the left and right, and energy attacks shot from them, fired without a second thought. The one on the right caused a gigantic explosion that destroyed an entire city. The one on the left tore through several buildings, curved through the sky, and exploded in a blast that made the clouds swell. A storm of lightning began to fall, and Kiro noticed when he looked up. He quickly reached for his phone, but it was gone, vaporized from being so close to the Earth's core.
Suddenly a figure appeared behind him, its footsteps slow and menacing. Kiro turned around slowly. MegaFlash had arrived in his new form.
"This time you'll lose. The rain regenerates my body. No matter how much you hit me, I'll just heal myself," MegaFlash said, his voice grave and full of resentment.
In one step he was on Kiro, and his punch knocked the air out of the protagonist's lungs. Kiro was hurled violently backward, and without wasting a moment MegaFlash hit his face as he flew. Kiro spat blood at once. Water wrapped around his arms, and then they were yanked hard to either side.
"AAAAAAH, YOU BASTARD!" Kiro screamed, in pain.
Kiro smiled, and a current of air began to push MegaFlash back, but the Boss slammed his tail across Kiro's mouth to shut it.
Kiro was thrown into a building and landed on his back. MegaFlash fused two different energy spheres, a blue one and a red one, into a purple sphere ten centimeters across. He launched it above the building, and from there it plunged downward, tearing through the floors until it reached Kiro and struck him. All of the attack's energy poured into Kiro's body, hammering him without pause. He screamed in pain. His mind was struck like an anvil, the agony unbearable, worse still as it was absorbed into his body. His emotions suffered as never before. Alarms began to wail across Italy, and everyone started to evacuate. Boss 16 noticed and began walking toward the nearest city. Inside the building, Kiro kept suffering, his heart racing at 200 beats per minute, his breathing terribly heavy.
"Seriously? Are you really this weak now? Prove why you're Kiro Suzuki Ishikawa, you wretch," said a voice in Kiro's mind.
Kiro opened his eyes and sighed, calming his breathing. Then...
"You won't beat me. I won't let you kill anyone, or touch my own family, and least of all my friend," Kiro shouted.
Rays of purple energy burst from his body and tore through the clouds, and the rain stopped. The building exploded into a thousand pieces, and Kiro emerged on a jet of fire and raised a fist at MegaFlash, who stood in front of him. The Boss dodged the punch, but Kiro caught his leg and slammed him into the ground, then leapt up and unleashed a hundred kicks in a single second. The ground shook and cracked across a seven-by-seven-meter area.
MegaFlash hit Kiro, who was driven back but held his ground. The Boss began spinning his arms in circles, building a water attack. His crocodile subordinates arrived and attacked Kiro, but a ball shot through three of them. The ball bounded upward and landed on its feet. It was Sone, who had arrived. The last four crocodiles drew their greenish swords.
"You could use a little help, right? Hahaha, well, here I am," Sone said with a grin.
He looked at the crocodiles and fired spines at them, and they defended with their swords. Sone got behind one, leapt, and in ball form drilled down through it from above, destroying it. Meanwhile, Kiro hit MegaFlash in the face and threw him slightly off balance. What followed was a trade of blows, with Kiro dominating in combat skill and Boss 16 in raw strength. They fought across the whole city, leaving a trail of fire as they ran.
Kiro stomped and drove a punch into MegaFlash's stomach, making him spit. Without wasting a moment, Kiro jammed his fingers into the Boss's eyes and pressed hard. Boss 16 was blinded, his eyes streaming. He grabbed Kiro's arm and slammed him into the ground forty times in a single millisecond, but before he could go on, a punch hit him in the face.
It sent him flying thirty kilometers away from Kiro. When he looked more closely, he saw that his attacker wore a red shirt with white sleeves, black shoes with a red lightning bolt logo, and elegant black pants. His eyes were purplish and his hair was black going gray. It was Worh, completely recovered.
"Leave him to me. I'll fight this scum," Worh said, his voice very serious and calm.
A greenish sword flew toward him, but at the last instant he caught it with two fingers without even turning around and sent it back. The crocodile that had thrown it was run through by its own sword in two seconds and died on the spot. With a stomp, Worh launched himself and punched the Boss in the teeth. The Boss answered with a headbutt that knocked Worh down, but from the ground Worh drove a kick straight into his chin. MegaFlash's head snapped upward. He quickly recovered and created two water chains that seized Worh's arms.
The Boss hit Worh in the stomach, but Worh bit into the Boss's shoulder, planted his feet, and strained until he tore free of the chains. MegaFlash threw Worh far away. He landed on top of a half-destroyed building and crouched there, legs spread, perfectly balanced.
"You don't know how to use your power. You don't have much experience. But let me tell you something: 'With great power comes great responsibility,'" Worh said, looking down at him.
Then he flipped through the air, landed on the ground, drove his fingers into it, and began to lift the entire city. Everything started to collapse. Sone put Kiro on his back and ran off in a blue aura, escaping the city quickly and reaching a nearby place. He set Kiro down on a bench and looked up, and his eyes went wide. The city was above the clouds, near space. The crocodiles that remained were crushed to death.
Worh launched himself in a burst of red aura and struck Boss 16 with a storm of blows.
"Consecutive Serious Strikes!" Worh shouted.
MegaFlash's bones broke with every hit. Worh seized his nose and tore it off. MegaFlash screamed in pain and snapped Worh's leg, but that didn't stop him. Worh planted a hand on the ground, flipped, and delivered a spinning kick with his good leg. The Boss's head whipped backward, and Worh took the opening, raising a fist wrapped in fire and reddish aura. The punch struck MegaFlash's neck and went straight through it, and the fire poured into the hole and burned the Boss's heart. An explosion of water burst from the body and flooded much of the ruined city.
The city fell from the sky and crashed to the ground, devastated and unrecognizable. Worh came out clutching his leg, but with a calmer, still serious expression.
One week later, things had settled. Kiro had recovered somewhat, Worh had bandages on his foot, Sone was training, and Sebastián got the news on his phone. The Italian government began rebuilding the city. It was a calm day.