Reino lunges to attack but suddenly freezes dead in his tracks. He stands paralyzed, staring forward in absolute shock.
A katana blade has pierced clean through Sou's abdomen from behind. Sou looks down at his stomach, stunned by the cold steel embedded in his flesh. Turning his head back with blurred vision, he whispers, "You... you, Yurezo..."
Yurezo rips the katana out with a cold, detached expression, completely indifferent. He raises the blade toward Sou's head. As the steel catches the light, the memory of Yuma's smile flashes inside Yurezo's mind.
Sou desperately reaches out, grabbing the blade barehanded. His fingers are sliced open, but he channels enough force to drive a heavy fist into Yurezo, grounding him instantly.
Reino watches motionless, thoroughly confused. "I don't understand what you're doing here, Yurezo... What reason do you have to be here, you idiot?"
Yurezo pushes himself up, unleashing a scream fueled by raw rage and deep sorrow, "You stole my friend from me! My brother, my family, my entire life!" He charges at Sou again, but Sou overpowers him, pins him down, and drives the katana directly next to his neck.
"Don't you dare move! I'm done playing games with you," Sou snaps, visibly losing his composure. "Go back to Yuma! How did he even let you come here?!"
Tears stream down Yurezo's face. "To Yuma? Go back? How dare you say that... You! You killed him! You took away everything I had in this world! The one person who stood by me my entire life, through every good and bad moment!"
Yurezo struggles to rise. At those words, both Sou and Reino are struck with utter disbelief.
Sou's voice begins to violently tremble. "What... what did you say? Me? I... no, no! Get back! I didn't do it!" He begins to shriek in pure terror, "No, no! Impossible!"
Reino's voice shakes with pure rage, "What... what did you do?!"
He screams, driving a heavy fist straight into Sou's stomach, flooring him. "We never agreed to this! Never! Why did you do it?! We were supposed to be rivals, but not... not executioners! Not murder!"
Sou shrieks back in sheer desperation, "I didn't kill him!"
Yurezo snaps. Snatching the katana, he bellows at the top of his lungs, "Die! Just die already!"
He plunges the blade directly into Sou's heart. Instantly, Yurezo collapses to the floor, bursting into a violent, sobbing breakdown.
Reino stares at the ground, paralyzed in disbelief. "I still can't believe you actually did it, Sou... How low have you fallen?"
Sou mutters, his voice cracking and fading, "We... we were just bait... in Yugo's trap... inside the Fake World..."
Suddenly, Sou forces his hand onto the katana, rips the steel out of his own chest, and flings it away. Yurezo gasps, "What...?"
Sou: "We were... bait... for Yugo... in the Fa...ke W...orld... Reino... We weren't fighting... by our own choice... but because he willed it... All this time... Sinish, the casualties, the Bravo strikes... and the Sword Fire attacks... they were all... all... all... engineered by a single man."
FLASHBACK: 10 YEARS AGO
As the sun dips below the horizon, a young child—Sou—stands frozen beside a fresh grave.
Sou whispers through chattering teeth, "Mom... when will this strange noise in my stomach stop? It keeps making this grlrլr sound... When will it go away?"
He bursts into heavy, ragged tears. "When are you going to wake up, Mom? I can't take this anymore... You told me it would only be a few hours, but days have passed. Months... Why won't you wake up?" He strikes the damp earth with his tiny fists. "Wake up, Mom! Mom, you promised me we would travel all over Japan, that we would discover everything together! Why... why?!"
Suddenly, a violent downpour erupts. Sou collapses onto the wet ground, curling up right against the tombstone. The rain turns the dirt to mud, slowly cloaking his fragile body.
He whimpers into the storm, "Mom... I don't want to be alone. Ever. I want to have a goal. No, not just one... many! So many goals... a friend... a rival..."
FLASHBACK WITHIN A FLASHBACK: 3 YEARS AGO
Inside a grand hall, all the leaders of the Academia Non-System Ninjutsu are gathered around the table.
Kaiser stands up, shouting, "Listen to me, you idiots! Today, I've decided we're throwing a tournament to settle which academia is truly the best this year! What do you say?!"
Yurezo counters with a cold, deadpan stare. "Try telling another lie. That was our idea—all of ours. Stop taking credit for everything."
Sou asks, sharp and focused, "What will the roles be? How is this going to work?"
"I know exactly how it's going to work!" Reino snaps, standing up proudly as he wheels in a whiteboard.
Kai Mori whispers mockingly, "Oh great, the 'scientist' is speaking... brace yourselves."
Keal glares at him. "Say one more word and I'll burn your tongue off, Kai Mori! Shut up; all you do is run your mouth."
Reino yells over the noise, "The doctrine of this tournament will be the winner takes it all! What do you think?"
The entire room just stares back at him, completely frozen and unresponsive. George mutters in a voice so faint it's barely audible, "I d-didn't catch any of that..."
Taro looks over at him, exasperated. "Of course you didn't! You're deaf, blind, and clueless. I don't know how the devil inside you even survives—pretty soon he's going to take your mind too."
George: "Huh? What did you say?"
Taro: "Oh my god, why did you pair me up with psychopaths? One can't hear, the other..."
Taro glances to his right. Zalinio is fast asleep, snoring with his mouth wide open. Suddenly, a stray fly buzzes straight into his open mouth.
Omos, Lios Shika, and Wren absolutely lose it, bursting into hysterical laughter. The room echoes with their loud roaring: "Mahαηαηαha! Gha-gha-gha!"
Mio Lena fires a death glare across the table, chilling them instantly. "What kind of circus is this? Are you two going to shut up, or do I have to turn you into mushrooms? You brain-dead morons are just wasting this planet's oxygen for nothing!"
Reino tries to salvage the meeting. "Alright guys, can you shut up for a second so I can explain?"
Mio Lena snaps back irritably, "Let's see what the 'greatest scientist' of the 21st century has to say... the idiot."
Reino clears his throat. "Alright, look. We'll run four 1v1 matches every week. Whoever wins gets 3 points. By the end, the top 20 will move on to the knockout stages, all the way to the finals. The goal is simple: instead of picking random fights all over SINISH and destroying everything, we'll have a designated zone to tear each other apart!"
Sou speaks up, a deep frown carving his face. "And what are the terms? How do we know that filthy organization, the Private Defense Hunter Devils, or Private High: Ninjutsu Education, won't sniff us out?"
"Don't sweat it," Reino reassures him. "They aren't stupid enough to send sorcerers to execution duty. There are only 24 Ninjutsu users out there, and we represent the 5 pillars of the Academia Non-System Ninjutsu: Alpha, Delta, Echo, Sword Fire, and Bravo. We are a force."
"I won't just calm down!" Sou fires back, his gaze narrowing. "They've been hunting me for ten years, trying to put me in a grave. And I haven't forgotten that your clan wants the rest of us dead, either."
"Oh, come on, don't be so cynical!" Zanryū chimes in. "I had the entire Tasaku Clan breathing down my neck! Imagine that—the actual Tasaku Clan was hunting me."
Keal lets out a heavy, sarcastic sigh. "Ah... the room's biggest liar has spoken. The clueless vice captain of a clueless academy. Both of you are idiots; we just don't say it out loud to spare your feelings."
"If I stand up from this chair, you're dead!" Zanryū barks, half-rising.
Sukizei rubs his temples, whispering, "Here we go again. Every single time. We will never reach an agreement, ever... And I am trying so hard to remain calm."
"Enough," Sou cuts through the noise, turning his dark eyes back to Reino. "Tell us the terms so we're all on the same page. Though I still don't get why we're trying to act like diplomats."
Reino's face hardens, his voice dropping an octave as he locks eyes with everyone at the table. "Rule number one... and the only rule that matters: No killing your opponent."
A heavy, dead silence drops over the hall.
Reino continues, "We aren't here to butcher one another. We're here to grow stronger, completely detached from the clans' filthy system."
The tension is palpable. Sou, Kaiser, Kai Mori, and Reino extend their hands toward the center. But before their palms touch, they freeze. Their eyes shift simultaneously toward the far corner of the table.
Yuma has literally vacuumed the entire spread. Every single piece of food prepared for the meeting has been shoved down his throat.
"Hey!" everyone roars in unison, lunging at him. Keal violently grabs Yuma, forces his hand into the guy's mouth, rips out a half-chewed piece of meat, and pops it into his own mouth.
The room freezes, everyone backing away in sheer revulsion. "Ewwwwww! Someone get a disinfectant spray to kill this parasite! How disgusting can you be?!" Natalia shrieks, staring at Keal.
Once the chaos finally dies down, they gather around the center once more. Every single leader extends their hand, stacking them one by one in a sacred pile.
They shout in unison, cementing an oath that would haunt their future:
"We swear it! Rule Number One will never be broken!"
RETURN TO THE PRESENT
Sou violently coughs up a thick spray of blood, collapsing heavily onto his knees. Looking up at Yurezo with a fading, raspy voice, he whispers:
"I hope you can forgive me... It wasn't by my will..."
Then, he locks his dying gaze straight into Reino's eyes. A faint, final smile traces his lips:
"Thank you... for being my rival..."
Sou's body crashes flat against the cold floor. No breath. No movement. Sou Lisou is gone.
Reino, his eyes wide with absolute horror, begins to shake violently. He cannot accept that Yugo's twisted game brought them to this. He lunges over Sou's lifeless body, screaming in pure desperation:
"Sou! Sou! No... no! Get up! No time to die! Get up, damn it!"