As the illusionary gas began to clear, Kiro charged forward, finally spotting The Fool trying to slip down a side alley.
KIRO: "Found you!"
He threw a punch, but it was still too hard it connected with nothing but air, the gust of wind from the force alone rattling the walls.
Come on, Kiro. Softer. Control it.
The Fool used the distraction to his advantage, jumping onto Kiro's back and driving a shock-knife into his shoulder. He scrambled up, using Kiro like a ladder, before leaping off and landing on the ground.
THE FOOL: "Fire in the hole!"
He threw a bomb. Kiro raised his arms in a defensive block, bracing for an explosion.
Pop.
Instead of fire, a net of high-tensile wires shot out, wrapping around him and tightening.
KIRO: "Ouch! You lied!" He grunted, then easily tore the wires apart with a single flex of his arms. The last of the illusion gas wore off from his system; his mind was clear now.
Seeing his chance, Kiro faked being disoriented, throwing a punch at empty space to his left while keeping his eyes locked on the real Fool.
The Fool took the bait, lunging in for an attack aimed at Kiro's eyes. Kiro pivoted, a controlled kick cutting through the air right next to the Fool's chin. The shockwave of the near-miss was enough to daze him. Kiro grabbed him before he could fall, pinning his arms.
The Fool struggled, a wild laugh escaping him.
THE FOOL: "You're strong! I'll give you that!"
As the Fool's hand twitched toward another gadget on his belt, Kiro caught his wrist in a vice-like grip.
THE FOOL: "You got me. But why hunt me? For credits?"
KIRO: "Because you're a criminal."
The Fool's laughter echoed through the alley, sharp and bitter. "That's right! I'm a criminal! But have you ever thought about the difference between black, white, and gray?"
Across the city, Raiji faced his own battle.
The Drunk swayed before him, a living paradox of lack of coordination and terrifying power.
RAIJI: "So this is one of the top 10? Using drunkenness as a strength? How can you drink so much and still function?"
THE DRUNK (with a exaggerated slur): "Sssimple. I am gifted. Got a Cube... Rank F... 'Alcohol Resistance.'" He took another long swig. Raiji, remembering last time, didn't try to stop him. "I process it... way faster. Liver of a god, boy."
His mood suddenly shifted. The cheerful grin melted into a deep, melancholic frown. A single tear traced a path through the grime on his cheek.
THE DRUNK (SAD): "It's sad now... I was so angry at you... for wanting to break my beer bottle. It's... it's all I have sometimes."
Seeing the opening in the emotional display, Raiji lunged. "Wind Slash!"
The Sad Drunk didn't even try to dodge. The blade sliced across his chest, and he took the full force of the hit with a grunt, stumbling back. The weakness of Sad Drunk: he can hit his target, but he can't avoid theirs.
THE DRUNK (SAD): "See? Now I'm bleeding... and sad."
But before Raiji could press his advantage, the Drunk's body language shifted again. The sadness burned away into pure, unadulterated rage. His eyes glowed with fury.
THE DRUNK (ANGRY): "AND THAT MAKES ME ANGRY!"
He ignored the bleeding wound and launched forward, delivering a swift, brutal kick to Raiji's stomach that sent him skidding backward across the sand.
RAIJI: "Oof! That's like nothing--"
Then came the gut punch. It wasn't faster, but it carried a weird, penetrating force that drove the air from his lungs.
RAIJI (gasping): "Oach! Still an effect...?"
(What should I do? Maybe... that skill?)
then drunk fell too felll (too much blood)
how a weakling like you must betoo much blood loss.
the drunk sobber up time too end this.
RAIJI'S MIND FLASHED BACK.
His father's voice, stern but calm: "Raiji... if you move fast enough, you don't just cut the air... you make the wind obey."
It wasn't just about speed. It was about command.
Back in the present, Raiji shifted his stance. He raised one sword high and angled the other low, his body coiling like a spring. He poured every ounce of his remaining energy into the blow.
RAIJI: "TORNADO SWORD CUT!"
He became a blur. Not just a slash, but a vortex of cutting wind that shot toward The Drunk.
The Drunk, in his Angry state, responded with a super hard kick, meeting the whirlwind head-on.
They clashed in a explosion of force the sheer power of the kick against the relentless, cutting whirlwind.
For a moment, it seemed even. Then the whirlwind won.
The attack subsided. The Drunk stood still for a second, covered in a dozen fresh, deep cuts. "Impressive..." he mumbled, before his eyes rolled back and he fell forward, face-first into the sand.
Raiji didn't celebrate. He fell to his knees, his chest heaving, his arms trembling from the effort. He had given that move everything he had.
ANNOUNCER MIDAS: "UNBELIEVABLE! The Wind Blade actually made it! He wins! Anyway, no break next opponent, THE HEAVY BLADE!"
A mountain of a man with a cruel, evil smile already stood at the edge of the pit, cracking his knuckles. Raiji's rest was over before it began.
KIRO'S APARTMENT
Veyra was rummaging through Kiro's kitchen, attempting to cook something that smelled surprisingly good. Kiro sat at the small table, checking his account on a holoscreen.
KIRO: "So, how's the money looking now?" The screen updated, and his eyes went wide. "Wait, it's great! I got 22,000 as payment... and you took 3,000?! That's too much from my bonus!"
VEYRA (without looking up from the stove): "Finder's fee, consultant fee, and 'putting-up-with-you' fee. It's a package deal, muscles."
KIRO: "Anyway, I bet Raiji's back by now. His fight couldn't have lasted that long."
VEYRA: "Unlikely. He's now fighting two of the Top 10. It's gonna be a hard fight. And one of them is a Blue Dragon the youngest son of the clan head." She tossed a glance over her shoulder. "Anyway, I bet 500 credits on Raiji. He's stubborn."
KIRO (frowning, changing the subject): "That guy I collected, The Fool... he didn't seem like a fool. He asked me a question: what's the difference between white, grey, and black?"
VEYRA: "Huh. Deep for a casino cheat."
KIRO: "I never answered. I asked him for it. He just laughed and said, 'I'm not the one with the answers. I'm just the question.' He wants me to answer it. Then he said something weird... 'Destripador' ring a bell?"
The pan in Veyra's hand went still. She turned around, her playful mood gone.
VEYRA: "How suspicious. He might not be just a fool. That's the name of the number one serial killer in the world right now. The one who only targets the corrupt elite." She pointed a spatula at him. "For now, don't stress. Just let me cook at your place. But first..." She tossed a bag of groceries at him. "Give me a six-pack. Time to get rid of that belly, Mr. Muscles. You can afford better protein now."
Kiro caught the bag of groceries, his holoscreen still glowing with his updated balance: 31,000c. A slow grin spread across his face. That was more money than he'd ever seen at once.
VEYRA: "First, I patch you up. That cut on your body from the shock-knife." She turned, a med-kit in her hand, but paused. "Wait. Where is it?"
KIRO: "Oh, that? Don't worry about it. All healed." He held up his hand, showing a scar. "See? Just a scar this time. from last injury before i got this cube"
VEYRA: Her amber eyes narrowed, studying his perfectly smooth shoulder where the wound should have been. "Wow. Did your healing get even faster? Must be my imagination." Her tone said it absolutely was not her imagination. She filed the observation away, a new piece of the puzzle that was Kiro's impossible Cube.
Shrugging, Kiro dropped to the floor and started into a set of brutal core workouts.
CUT TO: THE ARENA PIT
ANNOUNCER MIDAS: "...AND NOW, FRESH OFF HIS 'VICTORY' AND READY TO BE CRUSHED, HERE IS THE HEAVY BLADE OF THE BLUE DRAGON CLAN SHIN!"
The mountain of a man standing across from Raiji didn't roar. He simply smiled, a cruel, cold twist of his lips that promised pain. He was a paradox slender, almost wiry in his build, but he moved with a dense, heavy gravity. His bright blue hair was cut short and whipped in the dusty arena wind. He wore a crisp, expensive-looking suit, now slightly stained with sand, utterly out of place in the pit.
And in his hands was a blade. A monstrous, thick slab of polished metal, nearly as tall as he was and just as wide. It looked less like a sword and more like a piece of a building had been sharpened on one end.
Raiji forced himself to his feet, his arms screaming in protest, his breath still coming in ragged gasps. He raised his two swords, the stance feeling pathetic against the coming onslaught.
Shin didn't charge. He simply walked forward, each step deliberate. Then, with an effortless grace that belied the weapon's size, he swung.
It wasn't fast. It was inevitable.
The air itself seemed to tear as the massive blade came around in a devastating horizontal arc aimed to cut Raiji in half.
CLANG! SCREECH!
Raiji crossed his blades, bracing with every ounce of strength he had left. The impact was monstrous. It wasn't just physical force; it was pure, overwhelming pressure. The wind from the blow alone felt like a wall.
Raiji's boots skidded backward through the sand, his muscles trembling violently as he struggled to hold back the unimaginable weight. The metal of his swords groaned in protest, threatening to shatter all over again.
Shin didn't push. He just held the blade there, applying relentless pressure, that cold smile never leaving his face.
SHIN: (His voice was a calm, quiet murmur, yet it carried perfectly over the crowd's roar.) "They call you the Wind Blade. Let's see if you can cut through a mountain.show me that speed"
He leaned forward, adding just a fraction more of his strength.
A sickening crack echoed through the arena. A hairline fracture spiderwebbed across the blade of Raiji's primary sword. show me that speed
Raiji's ( eyes went wide. He was out of energy, out of tricks, and out of time.)
ANNOUNCER MIDAS: "Look at this! Raiji's facing impossible odds! And what's this? His famous Wind Slash looks slower than normal! Is the Blue Dragon's favorite already running out of steam?"
Shin (didn't even smile. He just stood there, that massive blade resting on his shoulder.)
SHIN: "Is that all you have? I heard you and that runt Kiro beat up my people. And that Kiro... he put my enforcer in the dirt. I'll teach him a lesson later. But first... I teach you."
Raiji lunged, striking with everything he had left. But Shin moved with unreal speed. The gigantic blade, which should have been slow and cumbersome, moved like a butter knife in his hands, effortlessly blocking every single slash.
RAIJI: (Coughing, blood speckling his lips) "How... are you doing this?"
SHIN: (His voice cold, a simple statement of fact) "It's easy. Bio-enhancements. Chip implants. Speed. Strength. You rely on a Cube. I was bought and paid for by the Blue Dragon clan. There is a difference."
Desperate, Raiji gathered the last dregs of his energy. "KIRO... THIS ONE'S FOR NOTHING! WIND SLASH!"
He didn't just send one slash. He sent twenty-two, a final, blinding storm of cutting wind straight at Shin.
For the first time, Shin was forced to block seriously. The impact pushed him back a single step across the sand. He looked down at his feet, then back at Raiji, a flicker of annoyance in his eyes.
SHIN: "You still have fight in you? Then this ends it. HEAVY BLADE SLASH!"
He swung the colossal sword in a devastating arc.
With a final, roaring cry, Raiji didn't block. He put every last ounce of his stamina and strength into one move, aiming not at Shin, but upwards.
"WINDD TORNADO... SLASH!!"
He became a vortex, a whirlwind of cutting force that shot upwards and then down onto Shin, moving so fast Shin couldn't track it, couldn't react.
The attack subsided. Raiji landed on one knee, his body screaming, completely spent.
Shin stood frozen for a second. Then, a dozen deep cuts appeared across his chest and arms. His eyes widened in shock. He took one stumbling step forward, then collapsed face-first into the sand, his massive blade clanging beside him.
Raiji froze, unable to believe he'd won.
ANNOUNCER MIDAS: (A long, exasperated sigh into the microphone) "Unbelievable. This weak nobody... this broken boy... actually beat a Blue Dragon. Well, I would've done better. But... I guess Raiji wins."