Rio knelt on the ruined floor, his chest heaving as sweat mixed with the blood trickling down his chin. He looked from his sister's torn torso to Dante's limp body ten feet away.
Regret hit him in his gut.
He had staged the duel in the first place just to confirm a suspicion. Ever since he met Dante in the dorms, he had caught a faint, barely perceptible trace of an ancient power lingering around the white-haired boy. Rio wanted to force it out—maybe land a solid blow to test his limits.
But when Dante started moving, Rio forgot all about his plan. Dante fought with honed instincts, fluid footing, and sharp flexibility. Rio got caught up in the thrill of a good match.
Then Mia showed up.
Seeing her reminded Rio of what he had set out to do. Using his mind-link ability, he transmitted a brief, unspoken message straight into Mia's head: Provoke him. If he steps out of line, hit him.
Mia didn't ask questions. She hated humans anyway, so when Dante answered her with cold indifference, Rio thought his work was done. He stepped in only to keep Mia from executing the boy on the spot.
He never expected this.
The power that erupted from Dante wasn't the subtle, dormant force Rio had originally picked up on. It was a mindless, abyssal terror that turned the boy into something unholy. Dante hadn't used technique—he had moved with unnatural speed, driven by pure, destructive rage aimed straight at Mia.
The pressure had been so violent it ruptured the stone walls of the Martial Arts Hall, sending tremors through neighboring halls where students were currently clutching their chests and coughing up blood.
Rio closed his eyes, his teeth grinding together. I should have kept my hands to myself.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Three hundred yards away, on the eastern edge of the campus, a man in a black tailored suit stood on a stone balcony.
He didn't move as the ground beneath his polished shoes vibrated. He stared toward the Martial Arts Hall, his brow furrowed in a deep frown.
"Such immense power," the man murmured into the quiet air. "Who is the vessel for such a power?"
"Richard will have to handle it, otherwise the higher council will have to get involved"
Before the dust in the courtyard could settle, the man stepped forward and vanished into thin air, leaving no shadow behind.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Back inside the ruined hall, the crushing gravity finally lifted.
The silence that followed was suffocating. Smoke rose from the three-foot crater in the floor where Dante had slammed Mia moments earlier.
Nobody had even seen Dante move. One second he was standing over her, and less than two heartbeats later, his arm was buried through her back, emerging from her stomach. The sheer velocity had been too fast for their eyes to track.
Dante lay face down on the cracked boards next to Mia, completely unconscious.
Dabi and Smith scrambled across the floor, their knees scraping against wood splinters as they reached Dante's side. Over in the center of the ring, Lee lay sprawled out on his back, breathing heavily, completely knocked out from the atmospheric pressure.
Rio rushed to his sister, lifting her shoulders off the ground. "Mia! Mia, wake up! Open your eyes!"
Her chest wound was already knitting together with thin crimson strands, but her face was pale, her breathing shallow.
"What happened here?"
The voice echoed from the shattered entrance. It wasn't overly deep, but it carried a weight that made everybody in the room freeze.
Rio, Dabi, and Smith turned their heads toward the door. Sweat rolled down Dabi's temple as his throat went dry.
Standing in the doorway was a tall man wearing a dark tailored suit. His arms were folded behind his back, and his eyes swept over the broken stone, the blood on the floor, and the unconscious students.
'We're dead,' Dabi thought, his stomach dropping. It's an instructor.
The instructor stepped over a fallen stone pillar, his eyes locking directly onto Rio. "I need an explanation. Now."
Rio's mind raced at a dangerous speed. He weighed three options in a fraction of a second: lie and risk getting caught, tell the whole truth and get his sister expelled, or say nothing and face whatever punishment came.
"I asked a question," the teacher repeated, his voice dropping an octave.
"It was an accident, sir," Rio blurted out, forcing his voice to stay steady as he took the fall. "We were sparring... just testing each other out. I landed a hard hit on his face, and it triggered something in him. The outburst... everything that happened... it was an accident. My hit must have set off his power."
He left Mia entirely out of the story, taking the full blame on his own shoulders.
The teacher squinted, his gaze shifting away from Rio toward the two boys kneeling beside Dante. "Is that true?"
Dabi looked at Rio, then down at Dante. For a second, Rio feared Dabi would expose the truth.
Dabi swallowed hard and nodded. "Yes, sir. That's what happened."
Smith gave a firm nod beside him. "They were sparring. Things went out of control."
The teacher walked over to Dante's motionless body. He knelt down, pressing two fingers against the side of the boy's neck.
"His core is completely drained," the teacher muttered. "The power took a severe toll on his nervous system."
He stood up, looking at the destruction surrounding them—the split stone walls that looked ready to cave in, the shattered wooden railings, and the bleeding students.
"We will wait for him to wake up," the teacher said, his voice cold. "When he opens his eyes, you had better have a full, detailed report ready for me. If I find out any part of your story is a lie, every single one of you will be cleared out of this academy before nightfall."
The teacher raised his right hand and snapped his thumb and middle finger together.
CRACK.
A soft ring of white light rippled outward from his hand, sweeping across the entire hall.
The broken floorboards lifted into the air, fitting back together like a solved puzzle. The deep crater in the stone sealed seamlessly. The cracks running along the high walls zipped shut, leaving the dark masonry smooth and pristine once more.
Dabi gasped as the burning pain in his ribs vanished instantly. The blood trickling from his mouth dissolved into nothingness. Across the room, the gaping hole in Mia's stomach closed completely, leaving her skin untouched.
Even the neighboring training halls across the grounds shuddered as their cracked walls repaired themselves in seconds, restoring every injured student to perfect health.
Mia sat up with a sharp intake of breath, clutching her stomach in disbelief.
Lee stirred on the wooden floor near the railing, groaning as he rubbed his eyes like he was waking up from a nap.
The only person who didn't move was Dante. He remained lying on his side, his white hair messy against the restored floorboards, fast asleep.
Rio stared at the untouched floor beneath his hands, his mouth slightly open.
Did he just... turn back time? Dabi thought, his eyes wide as he stared at the instructor.