"T..." Pearl's head split open with agony, her vision swimming in red static. Something wet trickled from her nose—blood threading down her lip, copper-sweet on her tongue.
Flutter...
The letter slipped from her trembling fingers. It drifted down like a dead leaf, landing in the spreading pool of her own blood. No words remained legible except the final two, scrawled in what looked like dried rust:
—Zenith Kairo.
"She is... she is alive," Pearl said, her brain freezing, ice crystals forming in her gray matter, synapses dying by the thousands.
Kling...
Her blood-slicked hand brushed the Vesper Loom in her pocket. The weapon woke Astrael with a scream that wasn't sound but pure neural agony.
Gulp.
Her grip tightened around the instrument of her own destruction. The metal bit into her palm, drinking her sweat, her blood, her sanity.
Pearl started hallucinating; her vision twisted into meat. The room spun like a blender. The air thickened into clotted plasma, and sudden heat erupted across her collarbone, breaking into undeniable heavy moisture—her own skin blistering, weeping, and preparing to slough off.
The Vesper Loom slipped from her wet grip. When she looked down, she didn't see a weapon to keep. She saw a weapon to kill—its needle eye staring back like a second mouth, hungry for ventricular flesh.
In an instant, she picked up and stared at the needle. Her hallucination screamed into her skull, the weapon's voice wet and eager, telling her to pierce her heart and there would be no pain, only the beautiful emptiness of a stopped clock.
TCHK! TCHK! TCHK! TCHK!
Pearl used all her strength and tried to pierce her heart and die, until she stopped hallucinating. But to her surprise, there was no blood on her clothes or her body; rather, her forehead was touching another person standing there—warm, solid, and bleeding out onto her face.
"Ahhh! Zorian, how can this happen? You are bleeding!" Pearl tried to move, crying, her tears mixing with the blood dripping from his wound.
"I didn't know what was in that letter, but let me give you the answer to one of the questions you asked before," Zorian said, not letting her move, his blood soaking through her shirt, hot and real.
"Wh... What question?" Pearl asked, crying.
"You asked why I followed Arashi. He brought me as a remnant, not as an ally, not as competition, then why?" Zorian said, smiling through the pain, his teeth pink with blood.
"Yes... Yes... but—" Pearl stopped, her tears not stopping, her mind breaking at the sight of his wound.
"'Cause, he once told me one thing. I don't know if it was to the previous owner of Judicium Eternis, but it has been my life's motive since then," Zorian said.
"Your life's motive?" Pearl asked, her tears finally stopping, her breath hitching on the copper stench.
"If I am going to bleed out in the dirt, I am doing it as an equal to the people I call my best friends. Not a step behind them," Zorian said, stepping away from her and leaving a bloody handprint on her shoulder. "You have a long way to go, Pearl, and you have the fuel; just wait till you can stand right beside me," Zorian said.
"Only to you?" Pearl's face darkened, shadows pooling in her hollow eyes.
[Pearl's Thought]
What is this feeling? Zorian has gone to find his sensei, but even his silent caring and his words have made my path clear. I don't want to die; I want to fight back.
"I want to stand beside both of you," Pearl said.
[Cut]
RRIP...
Pearl tightened the knot of the cloth she had wrapped around her knee, the fabric already blackening with the blood that wouldn't stop weeping from the four self-inflicted punctures in her flesh—wrists and ankles, raw and dripping, the cost of admission paid in agony.
"And when my eyes opened, I was still not stabbed. It was my companion who had hugged me with his wings open," Pearl said, completing the story and standing up, her blood pooling on the floor beneath her.
"I did as you said. I pierced all four of my limbs with my own weapon as the cost of your teaching. You will teach me," Pearl said, unleashing her weapon, the metal singing for more flesh.
Master giggled—a sound like broken glass in honey.
"You have got some balls for telling me everything and also giving me my desired fees," Master said, standing up, his movements fluid as oil on water. "But you have a very long way to travel. Do you want me to up my weapon or my power?" Master asked Pearl, his voice as soft as a mother's lullaby.
"You are the teacher. I expect the best from you, USHIMOTO SENSEI," Pearl said.
"Oh! Don't use that. If we are gonna be teacher and student, call me by my first name, which is R E N."
WHAM!
Before Pearl could register his name, a kick—delivered with the gentleness of a father placing his child to bed—directly to her chest sent her flying, her ribs cracking like wet twigs.
BOOOM!
Her whole body broke the wall into big pieces of brick, her spine snapping against the support beam, and...
While her body was in the air, as she turned mid-air, vomiting blood that caught the light like rubies, on one of the flying brick blocks sat REN USHIMOTO, his posture as relaxed as a man enjoying morning tea.
"I won't go easy on you," Ren smirked, his eyes tender with genuine affection, "unless you want me to," Ren said, dropping the Vesper Loom from his hand, the weapon falling like a gift.
THOOM!
HOLD THAT THOUGHT.
[A bar in the Netherlands]
"Arashi, I figured out you would easily come to land from TENKOKU, but I didn't think it would be that easy," Vance said, drinking, the liquid running red down his chin.
"As I said, I am really desperate for you to be my teacher and will do anything, Sensei," Arashi said, his tone respectful, his body still aching from the landing.
"I knew that the moment you agreed you would call me Sensei, but it is not enough," Vance giggled, his eyes glinting with approval.
"For the past 72 hours, I have been doing everything you asked, and the last task you gave was to chase you, and I am here." Arashi sat on the floor as he said it, his muscles coiled like wire.
"Fair enough, so I will give you the last task before actually accepting you." Vance took a pause, tasting the tension in the air.
"You mean after this you will start teaching me, forgetting my past mistakes, right?" Arashi asked.
"Actually, I don't consider disrespect from a boy of your age as a mistake, and we haven't spent enough time together, so I don't know of your mistakes. You are cleared already from it, but..." Vance smirked, his gaze sharpening. "This last task will give me the clarity that you will follow my every instruction blindly."
"If it will give you trust in me, I am ready, no matter what it is," Arashi promised, his blood pumping with anticipation.
"First, you have to use a normal fighting style in the next task," Vance smirked and stood up, power radiating from his frame.
[Vance's Thought]
I know he won't leave a skill set 'cause I have seen his hospital reports. With Zorian's report, he definitely won't have a fighting style, and I want to see what he will do.
"Absolutely, Sensei. This will also help me test my new fighting style," Arashi said plainly, his body primed for violence.
"H-HUH?!" Vance's face changed in shock, realization dawning.
[Vance's Thought]
I also heard from Ren this boy is a genius, but already making a fighting style, he definitely is a genius.
"Now fight me, but remember to destroy everything in our way, and you have to defeat me," Vance Sensei whispered in Arashi's ears.
KSLING!
As the words escaped Arashi's ear, it was just a fraction of a second before he unleashed his katana, the blade screaming for release.
KLANG!
As he threw his katana at Vance, Vance took the impact on his fan (Shin Kaze Uchiwa), the force shaking the room.
THWACK! —
CLACK! —
KLANG! —
Vance hit Arashi three times continuously, not giving him the time to dodge, each strike testing his endurance.
THAM!
Arashi's katana met the war fan at high speed, pressing against his guard.
WHOOSH!
Vance vanished in a sudden movement, leaving afterimages.
SWISH!
Arashi appeared behind him, his form perfect.
CLANG!
His katana clashed with the war fan, the vibration testing his grip.
"You shouldn't leave an opening, Sensei."
"Would you mind, Arashi, if I use an attack I formed before?" Vance said to Arashi in mid-air, grinning with challenge.
"I won't mind, Sensei," Arashi said, his muscles tense, ready to endure.
"KAZE DOMINION: THOUSAND GALE REND." The attack's name was the same, but the outcome changed with the person as the slashing air wave flew toward Arashi, tearing at the edges of reality.
The crescent-shaped slash ripped towards Arashi, threatening annihilation.
For one heartbeat, both figures remained locked in the frame.
Then...
The view swept sideways.
Past Arashi's shoulder.
Past the screaming arc of steel. Closer. Closer.
Until Vance completely disappeared from sight...
NOW THE INCOMING SLASH FILLED EVERYTHING...
'CAUSE IT WAS COMING STRAIGHT AT [ME].
[ARASHI USHIMOTO - POV]
I didn't know if I could fight it, but even if not, without taking this attack, I would die anyway.
So...
SHING-SHING-SHING!
VSH! VSH! VSH!
These crescent air slashes were cut from the middle into two perfect halves and were redirected to destroy the bar, carving through stone like butter.
[Vance Sensei's Thought]
As I thought, he doesn't only rely on his flux; he is also a master of raw swordsmanship.
"Now, as you asked, Sensei, should we start the real thing?" I said, raising my sword blade, my form exposed.
"Yeah, else it would be boring," Vance Sensei said, tightening his grip, his power building.
"I, Ushimoto Arashi, present to you my freshly made skill set, MUSŌ: RAIN PIERCE," Arashi smirked, bloodlust in his eyes.
[Vance's Thought]
What?! Such a great attack. He just moved his sword, launching multiple thin, thrust-like slashes falling in line; if I dodge one, that puts me in the path of another. Genius.
"Great move, but not enough! KAZE STYLE: PETAL SEVERANCE," Vance shouted, meeting his attack.
The attack was the same as before, sending small air slashes towards Arashi's attack. It completely changed the direction of the attack and the length of the slashes, destroying the harbour they were at, overwhelming the space between them.
"I think your art style is too boring, as it only has 3 repeated moves," I mocked Vance Sensei.
"Hah. Arashi, I thought I should go easy on you; that is why I used this fake fighting style," Vance Sensei said as he teleported 3 meters in front of me, his presence suffocating. "But I think now you deserve to see the truth."
"And what is it?" I asked mockingly, raising my sword, challenging his power.
"Ryūgari: Sky Fall," Vance said slowly, each word a promise of obliteration.
Whoosh!
Vance suddenly launched the Shin Kaze Uchiwa into the air, the weapon devouring light.
SNATCH!
And then he suddenly caught the Shin Kaze Uchiwa in mid-air, his palm crushing reality.
THOOOOM!!
It was like he was slamming all the air beneath the fan to the ground, crushing existence into a single point.
"Very well," Vance Sensei said, lifting the fan, his arm trembling with contained force. "If you survive this and perform a single attack after it, I will accept my defeat and you as my student," Vance Sensei said, turning, the pressure mounting.
KARRRKKKKK...
Starting from the top to the bottom, everything inside Arashi's body turned into dust, like someone punched his head from above. His brain burst, gray matter spraying like a fountain, every nerve ending screaming its final death song, his skeleton compressing, organs flattening into paste, the weight of the sky itself crushing him into nothing.
GRRRRMMMMM...
The ground beneath him buckled downwards with him, his body becoming two-dimensional meat, creating a crater larger than a playground, filled with blood that boiled and steamed.
But...
The next moment, as Vance turned to see a 2-D version of a dead Arashi, what he saw made his body ache, his soul withering with hope.
Vance willed his right hand to close around his war fan, but his fingers merely twitched against the grip, feeling as heavy and useless as stone, anticipation freezing him.
[Arashi's Flashback]
"You know, Arashi, when you wake up, you will enter a different world," June took a pause. "'Cause Zorian is repeating the same line to everyone," June giggled.
"You don't get it; across all the seven realms, there isn't a single soul who can make Arashi bow, and he isn't about to start today."
"..."
"I am not about to start today."
[Cut]
"FLUX RESTORATION: LUMEN... REVERSAL," Arashi said, his voice rebuilding itself from nothing.
Shift.
Arashi's hand arose slowly into frame. His thumb brushed across his chin, wiping away the thin smear of blood that had gathered there, flesh knitting itself back together.
"For you, Zorian," Arashi crossed his hand in the air, his broken body restoring itself.
"Now we will start from tomorrow, Sensei," Arashi said, pointing his sword toward Vance Sensei, who was laughing.
"Now... MUSŌ: BREATH OF THE DRAGON GOD," Arashi said, his voice the sound of a massacre deferred.