The peace was not a conclusion; it was merely a breath before the plunge.
a few months had passed since Uri and Tori-san became the anchors of Class 1-A. The city of Oukoku felt safer, more vibrant—until the morning the sky turned the colour of tarnished nickel. It started with a disappearance. Jiro, the iron-willed rival who had finally found respect for Uri, vanished from his dormitory. No struggle, no trace—only a lingering scent of ozone and cold metal.
Then, the Animaju arrived.
They weren't flesh and bone, but roiling blobs of liquid metal that shifted into the shapes of predatory beasts—wolves, hawks, and serpents—each radiating a jagged, artificial Conquerors Energy. They tore through the downtown district, indifferent to steel or stone.
"Emergency protocols! All students to the shelters!" the academy sirens wailed, but the high-rankers were already on the move.
From the rooftops, a blur of motion appeared. Shisui the Speedster didn't run; he flickered, leaving behind afterimages that cut through the metal wolves before they could even lunge. Beside him, Naoya, the master of Wind Release, stood with his arms crossed. With a sharp exhale, he summoned a localized vacuum that compressed three Animaju into harmless silver spheres, their liquid forms unable to maintain cohesion against the sheer atmospheric pressure.
But the tide was endless. A giant humanoid construct, twenty stories tall and made of pulsing, viscous silver, rose from the central plaza. It raised a massive fist, ready to level the academy.
"Too slow," a cheerful voice rang out.
Isagi-sensei appeared, sliding across a pedestrian railing with sparks flying from his boots. He was smiling wildly, his eyes reflecting the silver monstrosity above him. With a reckless leap, he vaulted into the air, his hand outstretched.
Pop.
The giant's right arm didn't just break; it vanished into a cloud of superheated steam. Isagi landed back on the railing, his grin widening as he explained his Kekkei Jutsu: Thermal Absolution.
"Most people think heat is something you add or subtract," Isagi-sensei chuckled, his aura shimmering with a strange, distorted light. "But every object has a Specific Heat Capacity—the energy it takes to change its temperature. My bloodline allows me to manipulate that constant. By touching these silver brutes, I change their specific heat to a negative value."
The class watched in awe as the giant's remaining limbs began to glow a violent, incandescent white.
"When heat capacity is negative," Isagi continued, his voice dropping into a teacher's lecture even in the heat of battle, "the more energy the system loses to the air, the hotter it actually gets. Their temperature rises beyond any physical limit until..."
The humanoid Animaju didn't just melt. It detonated, its liquid metal vaporizing in a spectacular flash of white-hot heat that cleared the sky for miles.
Uri stood at the academy gates, his hand instinctively going to the seal over his heart. The city was under siege, the high-rankers were revealing their true power, and somewhere in the chaos, the shadow of Levi-san felt closer than ever.
The chaos of the city felt like a distant hum compared to the absolute stillness of the Kokushibo island where Levi stood. Towering over him was a nightmare of silver—a nine-foot-tall Animaju humanoid, its surface pulsing with a specialized durability technique that made its liquid skin harder than diamond. It was a predator designed to absorb energy, moving with a twitchy, unnatural grace.
Levi adjusted the cuffs of his white dress shirt, his black trousers pristine despite the soot-choked air. He looked at the monster, then glanced back at his companion.
"Yorozu," Levi said, his voice smooth and devoid of fear. "Place a barrier and exit. This one is going to be loud."
Yorozu didn't hesitate. With a flicker of her own Conquerors Energy, she erected a shimmering dome around the alleyway. Levi stepped forward, a playful smirk dancing on his lips. To any observer, it looked like he was toying with the beast. He dodged its strikes by mere millimeters, his movements a blur of casual arrogance.
However, his eyes—sharper than Uri's—noticed the truth. The Animaju was accelerating, its speed hitting a localized warp of ten times the speed of light, its durability absorbing the very friction of the air.
"Hoh? You're sturdier than you look," Levi mused. He didn't break a sweat, but his expression sharpened. "Yorozu! Change to a 16-layer barrier."
Yorozu's breath hitched. A 16-layer? The Barrier of the Sun? She knew what that meant. Levi was done playing. She reinforced the dome until it glowed with a blinding, solar intensity, sealing the two combatants in a private dimension of pressure.
Inside the barrier, the silence became deafening. Levi stood perfectly still, his palms coming together in a slow, deliberate motion.
The temperature didn't just rise; the air itself began to scream as it was stripped of its electrons. The interior of the 16-layer dome ignited like the heart of a stove. Dark, violet-black embers began to swirl around Levi's feet and chest, devouring the light.
"Kekkei Jutsu: Yamato" he whispered.
The Darkness Cloaked Flames erupted. Levi didn't let them scatter; he compressed the void-like fire between his hands, molding it into a singular, jagged arrow of pure erasure. The Animaju shrieked, its liquid body struggling to maintain its shape against the sheer gravitational heat.
Levi loosed the arrow.
The explosion didn't just break the barrier; it disintegrated it. When the dust settled, the 16-layer dome was gone. In its place was a perfect, terrifying sphere of empty space. Every atom of the Animaju, the concrete, and the air had been erased from existence.
Levi stepped out of the crater, smoothing his shirt as if he had just finished a light stroll. He regrouped with Yorozu and the rest of the gang, his eyes turning back toward the academy in the distance.
"Let's move," Levi said, his smirk returning. "It's almost time for the exams. I want to see if little Uri has finally learned how to burn."