Chapter 37: The Burning Message
The Titan of Ice stood silent in the abandoned lumber yard, a grotesque parody of nature sculpted from the Hokkaido winter. Its breath was a blizzard, its claws were razors of diamond-hard permafrost, and atop its head sat the Ice User, Aokiji Kuzan.
Across the snowy expanse, perched on the rooftop, Pyre grinned. His gray hair had ignited into a crown of roaring orange flame, casting long, dancing shadows against the white snow. The heat radiating from him was palpable, melting the snow on the shingles beneath his bare feet.
Aokiji scanned the area. It was desolate. Empty. Perfect.
No civilians. Just snow and wood, Aokiji thought, his black eyes narrowing. I don't have to hold back.
The giant Snow Bear opened its cavernous maw.
WHOOOOOSH.
A beam of concentrated, absolute-zero frost erupted from its throat. It wasn't just cold air; it was a ray of freezing light that turned the moisture in the atmosphere into instant hail.
Pyre didn't wait. He moved.
He sprinted along the rooftop, his body a blur of motion. He leaped from the edge of the warehouse, clearing a ten-meter gap to the next building. As he landed, he rolled, coming up in a fluid parkour motion.
The frost beam chased him, turning the rooftops behind him into glistening ice slides.
"Too slow!" Pyre laughed.
He reached the edge of the second building. The gap to the next one was too wide to jump.
SNAP.
His body flickered. He vanished in a burst of sparks, reappearing instantly on the next roof, ten meters away. It was short-range teleportation via combustion—he was burning himself out of existence in one spot and reigniting in another.
Behind him, the frost beam hit the roof he had just vacated. The wood groaned and cracked as it was flash-frozen.
Pyre reached the highest point of the lumber yard—a tall, dilapidated watchtower. He leaped off the edge, plummeting toward the ground. As he fell, he twisted his body in mid-air, aiming his fiery bow straight up at the sky, far above the Snow Bear's head.
He pulled back the invisible string.
"Skyfall."
He released an arrow. It screamed upward, a comet of orange fire trailing smoke, ascending until it was a mere speck against the gray clouds.
The Snow Bear roared, a sound like cracking glaciers. It clenched its massive fist, encasing it in a gauntlet of thick, blue ice. It swung downward, aiming to swat the falling Pyre out of the air like a fly.
Pyre grinned.
SNAP.
He vanished again. The bear's fist crashed into empty snow, sending a shockwave through the ground that rattled the nearby trees.
High above, at the apex of the arrow's flight, a spark ignited.
Pyre reappeared in the sky, clutching the arrow he had just fired. He hung there for a split second, suspended in the freezing air, illuminated by the orange glow of his own power.
Aokiji looked up. The light from the burning man reflected in his dark eyes.
He teleported to his arrow? Aokiji realized. Clever.
"Catch!" Pyre shouted.
He hurled the arrow downward with all his might. Gravity and fire combined, turning the projectile into a streak of burning light aimed directly at Aokiji's head.
Aokiji didn't move. He simply tapped the bear's head.
The Snow Bear looked up. It opened its mouth wide and roared again.
"GLACIAL BEAM!"
A pillar of blue-white light erupted from the bear's mouth, meeting the descending fire arrow head-on.
The clash was silent for a split second, then deafening.
The frost overwhelmed the fire. The blue beam swallowed the red arrow, ascending into the sky like a reverse lightning bolt.
Pyre's eyes widened in shock. The cold light illuminated his face, revealing a moment of genuine fear as the beam raced toward him.
"Oh shi—"
The beam hit him.
It didn't kill him. It encased him.
The column of light solidified instantly into a jagged crystal of ice around Pyre, suspended in mid-air for a heartbeat before gravity took hold. Inside the crystal, Pyre was frozen mid-fall, his fiery hair trapped in a static wave, his bow extinguished.
The crystal plummeted from the sky.
The snow bear shrank to half its size after the last chilling flash, as if it had consumed half of its own mass in the attack.
"Get him," Aokiji ordered calmly.
The Snow Bear crouched, its massive legs coiling like springs.
BOOM.
It leaped. The force of the jump shattered the ground beneath it. The titan soared into the air, intercepting the falling crystal.
The bear grabbed the ice crystal with the claws of his right hand.
CRACK.
The ice starter to break because of the pressure building.
Inside the crystal, something glowed. The blue cracks in the ice began to turn orange and red. Veins of molten light appeared on the surface, pulsing like lava.
Aokiji's eyes widened. He's heating it from the inside?
KABOOOOOM!
The crystal detonated. It wasn't a shatter; it was a thermal explosion. A massive fireball erupted from the bear's grasp, blasting the titan backward.
The Snow Bear crashed to the earth on its back, shaking the entire lumber yard. Its right arm—the one that had held the crystal—was gone. Melted into slush and steam.
Aokiji stood on the bear's stomach, shielding his face from the heat and the rain of boiling water.
He looked up.
Standing on the edge of the nearest warehouse roof was Pyre.
He looked terrible. His hair was gray again, no longer burning, but singed. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead. His clothes were in tatters—his left pant leg was burned away up to the knee, revealing his pale skin. He was barefoot, shivering violently in the cold wind, one eye swollen shut.
Aokiji stared at him.
He blew himself up just to escape the grab? Aokiji thought, impressed despite himself. That explosion hurt him almost as much as it hurt my bear.
Aokiji snapped his fingers.
The giant Snow Bear collapsed instantly, dissolving into a harmless pile of white powder.
"You really go all out for a simple message, don't you?" Aokiji called out, his voice carrying over the wind. "To the point of suicide?"
Pyre panted heavily, leaning on his knees. He wiped the blood from his eye and laughed. It was a wheezing, painful sound.
"The fight... had nothing to do with the message," Pyre gasped. "That was... a personal decision. I was curious... about the clash of our elements. I am... satisfied."
He straightened up, wincing.
"But I don't think I can keep this up. This snow... it's too much of an advantage for you. So, let's get to the point."
"Make it quick," Aokiji said, his hands back in his pockets.
"My name is Pyre," the villain said. "I am a mercenary from the Chinese underworld. The black market. The dark web. Call it what you want."
"And what do I have to do with the Chinese underworld?" Aokiji asked, frowning. "I don't think I've made any enemies overseas."
"You're right," Pyre nodded. "I wasn't paid to kill you. In fact... the client wants you alive. I feel sorry for doing this, really. But money is money."
"I don't understand," Aokiji said flatly.
"The message is simple," Pyre said, his voice dropping to a serious tone. "Hand over your Quirk to All For One. If you do, no one in your life will suffer. Not your family. Not your friends. Not your loved ones. Give up your power, give up the path of a Hero, and everyone will be safe."
Aokiji blinked. He stared at the man as if he were speaking a foreign language.
"Give up my Quirk?" Aokiji repeated slowly. "Is that even possible?"
Pyre sighed. He raised his hand, looking at his watch.
"What happens next," Pyre said softly, "is what I was actually paid for. This is our last meeting, Kuzan."
He raised his hand high into the air.
Aokiji frowned. The message was nonsense. Give up his quirk? All For One? He didn't know the name.
Pyre snapped his fingers.
SNAP.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, the world ended.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM.
The explosion didn't happen in the lumber yard. It happened two streets away.
The ground under Aokiji's feet shook violently, knocking him off balance. The air pressure dropped.
Aokiji turned his head.
In the distance, rising above the line of pine trees that shielded his family's estate, a pillar of fire erupted.
It was massive. A mushroom cloud of black smoke, orange fire, and red debris clawed its way into the gray sky.
The light from the explosion washed over the lumber yard, painting the white snow in shades of violent amber. It looked like a sunset, but it was the wrong time of day.
Aokiji froze.
The color drained from his face. His eyes, usually so calm and lazy, widened until the whites showed all around the irises. His mouth opened slightly, a silent gasp caught in his throat.
The orange light reflected in his terrified eyes.
That direction...
That's...
The images flashed in his mind like a slideshow on overdrive.
His mother, cold but present.
His father, stern and demanding.
His grandfather, silent and strong.
His grandmother, warm and smiling in the kitchen.
And Sayuri.
Sayuri, bundled in her layers, laughing on the porch. Sayuri, holding the ice flower. Sayuri, the only warmth in his frozen world.
Tears welled up in his eyes instantly, unbidden. They didn't fall from weakness; they fell from a shock so profound it shattered his composure.
He took a step forward. His legs felt like lead. His brain, usually a supercomputer of tactical analysis, was screaming a single, burning word.
NO.
He looked back at the roof. Pyre was gone. Vanished in a wisp of smoke.
But Aokiji didn't care. He didn't care about the villain. He didn't care about the message.
He gritted his teeth so hard...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A guttural scream ripped from his throat—a sound of raw, unadulterated panic.
He slammed his arms down.
BOOM.
The snow around him exploded outward. Aokiji launched himself into the sky. He didn't run; he flew. Like a blue streak cutting through the gray sky toward the pillar of smoke.
The wind whipped his face, freezing the tears on his cheeks, but he didn't feel it. His eyes were locked on the burning horizon, his heart pounding against his ribs like a hammer.
He was fast. Faster than he had ever been in the USJ or Sport Festival. But in his mind, he was already too late.
.
.