The rain falling through the broken roof had weakened to a cold mist, hanging over the ruined arena and softening the edges of shattered concrete. Yuzuki stood near the centre of the ring with his right hand pressed against the knife wound in his side. His left arm hung uselessly beneath a torn sleeve, blood ran freely from his shoulder, and every breath scraped against his damaged ribs. Without the blindfold, the Six Eyes continued pouring information into his aching mind, but much of what he saw had begun to blur beneath exhaustion.
Across the arena, Chrollo lowered Skill Hunter until the spine rested against his hip. His clothes were torn and soaked through, and blood traced one side of his face, but the calm had returned to his expression. The anger Yuzuki had drawn out by speaking Sarasa's name was gone, hidden once more beneath the controlled stillness of the Spider's leader.
Chrollo turned one final page.
The pieces around Yuzuki began to move.
A teleportation mark flickered to life behind him, attached to a broken fragment of stone suspended just above the floor. On either side, ruined slabs near the boundary carried the opposite symbols of Sun and Moon. Medical workers and security personnel were still gathered behind those barriers, helping the injured people Yuzuki had rescued earlier.
Chrollo held the bookmark between two fingers while keeping the book open in his other hand. The knife had disappeared beneath his sleeve, but Yuzuki knew it remained there.
He did not understand every part of the combination.
The open routes beside him were marked. The position behind him gave Chrollo a way to appear inside his guard. If Yuzuki moved carelessly, the explosions would tear through the damaged barriers and into the people sheltering beyond them.
'He's finished setting it up.'
Yuzuki's Infinity had become available again.
Five seconds of protection.
After that, nothing.
Chrollo watched him from across the rain-soaked floor. "You see it."
"Enough of it, I guess."
"And what do you think?"
Yuzuki glanced toward the marked barriers. "You've made this annoyingly complicated."
"It only complicated for about five seconds."
Chrollo's answer confirmed the part that Yuzuki wanted to know. He had measured the active window and was prepared to wait for it to end.
Yuzuki activated Infinity.
He did not remain where he was.
Instead of preparing for Chrollo's approach, he ran toward the left boundary where the densest collection of marks glowed beneath the rain. The sudden movement tore at his back and reopened the wound in his side, but he forced himself across the broken floor.
Chrollo disappeared.
He reappeared behind the position Yuzuki had just abandoned, the knife already extended toward the space where Yuzuki's heart would have been. The blade struck nothing.
Four seconds remained.
Yuzuki reached the marked barrier and drove his right hand toward the stone beneath the seals. He could not safely disable Sun and Moon itself. The marks would remain until they detonated, even if Chrollo closed the book.
So he moved the surface carrying them.
A concentrated point of Blue formed inside the damaged slab. Concrete cracked around the seals, and the entire marked section tore free from the boundary. Yuzuki dragged it toward the empty central pit, away from the workers sheltering behind the wall.
Three seconds.
The second marked barrier began to glow.
Yuzuki reached across the arena with another pull, but his control wavered. Pain lanced through his uncovered eyes, and the slab moved only halfway before catching against twisted reinforcement bars.
He changed the angle and pulled again.
Metal shrieked. The barrier broke loose.
Two seconds.
Both marked slabs collapsed into the crater at the centre of the arena. The symbols touched among the rubble.
The resulting explosion rose through the open roof in a column of fire, dust and shattered stone. The pit contained most of the force, though the shockwave still swept across the arena and nearly tore Yuzuki from his feet.
He used the last of Infinity to stand against it.
One second.
Through the blast, he saw Chrollo moving.
Not toward the barriers. Toward him.
Yuzuki turned, but the pain behind his eyes made the world flicker. Chrollo vanished behind a curtain of smoke and reappeared much closer through another prepared marker.
Zero.
Infinity ended.
The cooldown began.
Yuzuki stood near the broken boundary with no safe technique ready and almost no strength left in his body. The explosions had been removed from the people behind him, but he had spent the entire active window doing it.
Chrollo crossed the remaining distance.
There was no elaborate ability in the final approach. No fog, puppets or altered gravity. Chrollo stepped into Yuzuki's damaged guard with the knife held low against his forearm, hiding its path until the final movement.
Yuzuki tried to raise his right hand.
Chrollo struck it aside.
The knife turned upward toward the gap between Yuzuki's ribs.
Yuzuki saw the blade. He saw the path into his heart and understood that his body could no longer move fast enough to prevent it. Blue would not form in time. Red would tear him apart before firing. Infinity remained unavailable.
Chrollo had won.
Yuzuki's body reacted with the same terror any living thing felt when death became certain. His breath caught, his muscles tightened and every instinct demanded that he find an answer that did not exist.
Still, he did not regret where he had spent his five seconds.
His lips curved into a tired, uneven smile.
"You really do make everything difficult," he whispered.
The knife stopped just short of his shirt.
For an instant, Chrollo saw neither the arena nor the boy standing before him.
He remembered a frightened child in Meteor City smiling for children who were even more frightened than she was. Sarasa had never been fearless. Her hands had trembled, and her voice had sometimes broken, but she had stepped forward anyway because allowing someone smaller to face danger alone had been unthinkable to her.
Yuzuki's smile held the same exhausted stubbornness.
He had known Chrollo was waiting. He had known the final use of Infinity might be his only remaining defence. He had spent it moving explosives away from strangers who could offer him nothing in return.
Chrollo's grip tightened around the knife.
Killing Yuzuki would not undo Sarasa's death or betray some new moral awakening. Chrollo remained the head of the Spider. He did not regret the road he had chosen, and he would not pretend Yuzuki's kindness had washed the blood from his hands.
But he could not drive the knife forward.
Chrollo rotated his wrist. The blade passed beside Yuzuki's body without entering it, and his other hand closed Skill Hunter with a sharp snap.
His open palm struck Yuzuki's chest.
The blow contained enough aura to knock him backward without crushing his already damaged ribs. Yuzuki's boots slid across the wet stone, his balance failing as he neared the edge of the ring.
Chrollo could have followed and finished the exchange.
Instead, he stepped forward.
His foot crossed the shattered white boundary line.
A whistle cut through the arena.
"Ring-out!"
For a moment, even the crowd remained silent.
The referee leaned over the raised platform, staring at Chrollo's foot before lifting one arm. "Chrollo Lucilfer has crossed the boundary! The winner of the first Battle Olympia semifinal is Kagetsu Yuzuki!"
Noise erupted from every level of Heaven's Arena. Some spectators cheered while others shouted in disbelief. Commentators began arguing over the final movement, replaying the angle and insisting that Chrollo's exhausted advance had carried him several centimetres too far.
Yuzuki did not celebrate.
He stood barely inside the ring, one hand pressed against his chest where Chrollo's palm had landed. His bare Six Eyes remained fixed on the man beyond the boundary.
Chrollo had not misjudged the distance.
The knife had been in position. The match had already been his.
He had chosen to lose.
Chrollo dismissed the blade and held the closed book loosely at his side. Rain ran down his face as he looked at Yuzuki, but he offered no explanation.
Yuzuki swallowed against the blood in his throat. "You stepped out?"
"Yes."
"You would never make a mistake that simple."
"Everyone makes mistakes."
"That wasn't one."
Chrollo's gaze shifted briefly toward the private viewing section. Shizuku stood beside the railing with both hands resting at her sides. Their eyes met across the distance, and she gave him a small nod.
Chrollo looked back at Yuzuki.
"The match is over," he said.
Arena officials began approaching with microphones and medical staff, but Chrollo turned away before they reached him. One official called after him about the result and tournament formalities. He did not stop.
Yuzuki watched him disappear into the dark entrance tunnel.
Only after Chrollo was gone did his remaining strength leave him. His right knee struck the wet stone, followed by his hand as he caught himself before falling forward.
Bisky and Kastro were already forcing their way through the officials at the edge of the ring. The announcer continued declaring Yuzuki the winner, his voice competing with the roar of the crowd.
Yuzuki heard almost none of it.
He stared at the tunnel where Chrollo had vanished and remembered the knife stopping before it reached his heart.
He had advanced to the Battle Olympia final.
But the victory did not belong entirely to him.
---
Find early chapters on my patreon
[Patreon.com/tenten100?]