Chapter 32: How to Die for Love and Possibly Glory
(In Which Kaito Learns Armor Is Hot, Ki Is Loud, and Enemy Ninja Do Not Respect Your Dream Girl List)
Kaito had trained for this. He'd meditated. He'd practiced Ki control until his brain felt like soup. He'd eaten forest snakes and regretted it later. He'd been punched across clearings by Daichi, chased through shadows by Akira, and emotionally destroyed by Master Jin's disappointed little "hmm" whenever he managed to do something incredibly stupid with Ren's body.
Now, finally, it was time.
And he was wearing chainmail underwear.
Okay, not exactly underwear, but the fine protective mesh beneath his tunic did cling a little too closely in places no teenage boy should ever have to associate with cold metal. Still, it looked cool, and that was what mattered. Kaito had gone full fantasy-knight-Ninja hybrid with his equipment: reinforced dark-blue armor plates hidden beneath normal-looking cloth, black gauntlets on both arms capable of stopping blades and arrows, and a fitted helmet that made him feel like an ancient warrior who had watched too much anime. His boots were deceptively flexible despite being made from formation-reinforced alloy—basically steel socks—and while the armor made almost no noise when he controlled his Ki properly, every accidental clink still cost him approximately ten points of Ninja dignity.
Master Jin gave him a firm pat on the back before sending him into the wilderness like a proud but wildly irresponsible parent. "Remember, kid. Die well or, preferably, don't die at all."
"Thanks, Master. Wait—what?"
Too late. Jin, Akira, and Daichi disappeared almost simultaneously, leaving Kaito alone among the rocky mountains several dozen kilometers from the Veiled Moon Sect. Jagged cliffs rose on either side, twisted trees clung stubbornly to cracks in the stone, and the whole region had exactly the sort of atmosphere that screamed excellent place to get murdered by somebody with professional training.
According to the mission briefing—read: Master Jin explaining things over breakfast while suspiciously refusing to answer several follow-up questions—the target was a rogue Ninja believed to have connections to the Stone Fang Sect, an old enemy of the Veiled Moon Sect. He had supposedly murdered several people, attacked Sect couriers, and vanished into the mountains after being discovered, which meant that if he saw Kaito walking around in Ren's body looking like an armored cupcake, he would almost certainly try to kill him.
Great motivation.
Kaito crouched behind a large rock and took a slow breath. He'd been practicing Ren's Ki sensing for weeks, and while his control had gone from wild waterfall attached to a fire hose to something approaching functional plumbing, subtle techniques still demanded concentration. He let a controlled pulse of Ki spread outward, allowing it to move through the surrounding terrain before listening for the disturbances returning through his senses.
Whooom.
The sensation rolled across stone, trees, caves, animals, and distant movement like striking a tuning fork and waiting for the world to sing back. Within seconds, Kaito caught something roughly two miles away: fast, controlled, moving through terrain in a way no animal would, and suppressing its presence well enough that an ordinary person would never have noticed it.
Ninja.
Bingo.
Then Kaito realized something else.
The other Ninja had almost certainly felt that pulse.
"…Oops."
He slowly stood and cracked his knuckles. "Well, I guess stealth was never really my greatest contribution to this operation."
A figure darted into view several moments later, little more than dark cloth and reflected metal between the rocks, and Kaito reacted immediately. He formed a condensed sphere of Ki in one palm and fired it forward like an energy baseball thrown by someone whose targeting education consisted mostly of Akira sighing at him from increasingly greater distances.
BOOM.
The enemy dodged, the Ki sphere smashing into the cliff behind him hard enough to explode stone outward. Smoke and pulverized rock filled the narrow pass, and then came the unmistakable sound of metal slicing through the air.
Shk-shk-shk.
Blades.
Lots of blades.
Kaito's eyes widened as he ducked behind the boulder, several throwing knives burying themselves into stone around him while two struck his helmet and gauntlet hard enough to send vibration through his skull and arm.
"Yep," he muttered, pressing himself against the rock. "This is fine. Everything's fine. Perfectly normal first death match."
Another blade screamed past his face.
"Okay, maybe not fine."
He risked a glance around the edge and caught a flash of dark brown and grey fabric moving through the dust. His heart pounded—not because he particularly enjoyed people attempting to turn him into a decorative knife rack, but because somewhere deep inside the part of his brain Master Jin had successfully encouraged, Kaito imagined surviving this fight, becoming stronger, entering some grand tournament one day, and casually mentioning the story in front of one of those beautiful young cultivators from Jin's book.
Oh, you survived a death match in the mountains? That's so impressive, Kaito.
Possibly followed by a date.
Maybe several dates.
For now, though?
Ducking and surviving would do.
The moment Kaito got a clear look at the enemy's uniform, he knew this wasn't going to turn into a friendly spar followed by tea. The man wore the stone-grey field clothing historically associated with the Stone Fang Sect, complete with the small mountain-shaped insignia near his shoulder that might as well have said, Hello, I belong to a sect that has hated yours for generations and today I intend to make that your problem.
And not entirely without reason.
Kaito had heard enough history from Akira to understand that the Stone Fang Sect and Veiled Moon Sect had crossed blades repeatedly during the conflicts of the previous century. Assassinations, retaliation campaigns, destroyed outposts, territorial disputes, and several battles during the War of the Broken Pass had left enough blood between the two organizations that neither side needed much encouragement to dislike the other.
Which meant this guy probably wasn't here for hugs.
Kaito didn't waste time giving some grand speech about friendship or understanding. This wasn't a tournament match and, according to Jin, the enemy genuinely believed he was fighting for his life.
So Kaito reinforced himself with Ki.
Energy surged through Ren's body, flowing through pathways Kaito had spent weeks learning not to overload. Muscles tightened. Bones strengthened. His vision sharpened, his balance shifted, and the already absurd physical ability of Ren Kisaragi became something much harder for Kaito's old Earth instincts to comprehend.
Then he moved.
BOOM.
The ground beneath him cracked as Kaito launched forward, breaking the sound barrier so violently that the surrounding trees shuddered. Mach ten stopped feeling impressive remarkably quickly when you occupied the body of a Foundation Establishment Ninja capable of treating thousands of tonnes like an inconvenient workout weight.
The Stone Fang Ninja's eyes widened.
Then narrowed.
Because, to Kaito's massive disappointment, the guy did not immediately fall over and surrender after seeing him move.
No.
He accelerated too.
An experienced Foundation Establishment fighter.
Wonderful.
"Great," Kaito muttered as the two blurred between the trees. "My first real enemy and I get the one guy who definitely didn't skip leg day."
He formed the Shadow Clone Art.
Ten living silhouettes peeled out from his shadow, each one shaped like Ren and moving independently as they scattered across the terrain. Ten was about the maximum Kaito could maintain without the mental processing turning his brain into scrambled eggs, and even now he could already feel the strain of tracking ten additional viewpoints while fighting at high speed.
The clones moved to flank.
Kaito went straight down the middle.
Predictable?
Maybe.
Dramatic?
Absolutely.
The enemy slammed one foot into the earth.
The mountain answered.
Stone surged upward in jagged walls and pillars, transforming the ground itself into a moving barrier that cut Kaito off and forced several clones to change direction.
Kaito stared.
"Oh, we're playing evil mountain architect now?"
Fine.
He could adapt.
Darkness gathered behind his shoulders with considerably more difficulty than Ren would have needed, shaping itself into two broad wings made from compressed shadow. Kaito pushed Ki through the construct, lifted himself above the shifting stone, and sent a rain of razor-edged dark feathers downward.
The Stone Fang Ninja raised both hands.
A massive earth dome erupted around him.
The shadow blades struck like black rain, carving lines across the surface while several clones attacked from opposite sides. For a moment, Kaito thought he had him trapped.
Then—
KRAK-BOOM!
The dome exploded outward.
Stone fragments blasted across the battlefield like artillery, tearing through five Shadow Clones at once. One of them had just enough time to yell, "WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME?!" before dissolving back into darkness and dumping a wonderful packet of additional memories directly into Kaito's already overloaded brain.
Worse, a stone spike caught Kaito across the side.
It didn't penetrate far through his armor or Ren's reinforced flesh, but the impact was enough to knock him sideways through the air.
Kaito crashed behind a boulder and sucked in a breath.
"Okay. Ow. That one actually hurt."
Before he could fully recover, the enemy was moving again, closing distance with the efficient aggression of someone who had no intention of giving Kaito time to invent another ridiculous idea.
And that was when panic overrode training.
Kaito felt the enemy appear somewhere beyond the rocks, felt his own pulse jump, and reacted before thought could catch up.
He screamed.
Not an ordinary scream.
Ki exploded from his throat in a concentrated sonic blast.
The sound tore across the mountain like a dragon roaring into the world's largest amplifier, cracking loose stone, shaking branches, and sending every bird within several kilometers fleeing in offended terror.
The Stone Fang Ninja took the blast directly.
He disappeared backward through several trees before crashing into one thick enough to stop him.
Kaito stared.
"…Did I know I could do that?"
No answer.
A squirrel fell out of a branch nearby.
Kaito looked at it.
The squirrel looked at him.
"Sorry."
After unleashing a sonic blast that could probably have doubled as the opening act for a very aggressive concert, Kaito stood breathing heavily while watching the enemy's apparently limp body half-embedded against a shattered tree. Dust drifted through the air, broken branches littered the ground, and somewhere far away every forest animal had probably started a petition requesting that the Veiled Moon Sect relocate.
"Alright," Kaito muttered, brushing dirt from his armor. "That has to be it. Cue dramatic walk-away."
Then he remembered one of Ren's most frequently repeated lessons.
Never trust a body simply because it has stopped moving.
So instead of approaching personally, Kaito sent two of his remaining Shadow Clones forward. "Check him. I'll stay over here and provide emotional support from a strategically intelligent distance."
The two clones reached the body, checked the neck, examined the breathing, and one eventually looked back.
"No pulse," it called. "I think he's—"
WRONG.
Two hands exploded from the ground beneath Kaito.
GRAB.
They locked around his ankles and pulled.
"NOT TODAY!"
Kaito activated Substitution instantly, exchanging himself with one of the nearby clones. The shadow copy vanished beneath the earth as Kaito reappeared on a tree branch several meters away.
Another clone was already moving.
It dive-bombed toward the ground with a rotating sphere of compressed Ki forming in one hand.
"Special delivery!"
The clone slammed the spinning sphere downward.
BOOM.
The earth collapsed beneath the impact and opened into a fresh crater, debris flying in every direction while nearby trees shook violently.
But the enemy?
Gone again.
The Stone Fang Ninja moved through the ground as though swimming through water, his Earth-aligned Art letting him merge with stone and soil before reappearing somewhere else.
Kaito stared downward.
"Okay, that's cheating."
Several shadows shifted below.
Kaito immediately pushed himself into the air again, dark wings opening behind him while a spherical darkness barrier formed around his body.
Just in time.
Dozens of stone spikes erupted upward like a field of angry stalagmites attempting to murder a particularly irritating bird. They slammed against Kaito's barrier one after another, cracks of force rippling across the darkness, but none reached his body.
"Nice try," Kaito called downward. "I have plot armor."
Nobody laughed.
Rude.
Still, he wasn't particularly worried about stamina. Ren possessed an absurd reserve of Ki compared to what Kaito had ever imagined possible on Earth, and although Kaito's ability to control that reserve was still crude, the Stone Fang Ninja was not going to win simply by waiting for him to run dry.
But Kaito didn't want to win by hovering several hundred meters overhead and throwing energy downward until the other man became exhausted.
Ren would call that lazy.
Probably while looking disappointed.
So Kaito used Substitution again, exchanging himself with a large boulder near the ground before dashing forward and throwing several formation-tagged blades ahead of him.
KABOOM! KABOOM!
The weapons detonated against the terrain, throwing dust, stone, and what might have been another extremely unlucky squirrel into the air.
Then the enemy burst out of the smoke.
No more tunneling.
No more long-range attacks.
He came straight at Kaito.
Clash time.
The Stone Fang Ninja's stance was grounded, controlled, and heavily focused on grips, balance destruction, and throws. Kaito recognized enough similarities to Earth martial arts to immediately categorize it as something close to Judo, although the Ki reinforcement and cultivation-specific joint attacks made it considerably more unpleasant than anything taught in a normal Earth dojo.
Kaito grinned. "You wanna grapple?"
He shifted into a kickboxing stance, feet light and hands raised. Daichi's training, Ren's memories, and Kaito's own growing experience worked together as he snapped a spinning heel kick toward the man's head.
The enemy ducked.
A palm came toward Kaito's ribs.
He blocked.
A sweeping kick cut toward his ankle.
Kaito hopped over it.
They moved like dancers with a personal grudge, exchanging strikes while dirt exploded beneath their feet. Every time the Stone Fang Ninja attempted to close distance and secure a throw, Kaito used kicks, elbows, and short bursts of speed to create space.
"You're pretty good," Kaito said as he slipped beneath one attempted shoulder throw and countered with a Ki-enhanced uppercut that sent the other man sliding backward. "But I grew up watching MMA, and I've got one advantage you probably didn't prepare for."
The enemy narrowed his eyes.
Kaito raised one foot.
"I'm not wearing normal boots."
Then he roundhouse-kicked the man across the jaw with a formation-reinforced metal boot that was effectively the cultivation-world equivalent of a fashionable weaponized brick.
At first, Kaito thought he was winning.
They exchanged attacks at increasingly high speed, Ki flashing through the air as Kaito landed several clean strikes, including a spinning back kick that forced the Stone Fang Ninja several steps backward.
Then the man smiled.
That should have been the warning.
"Finished?" the enemy asked, his voice suddenly far calmer than it had been throughout the fight. "That was entertaining, but I've fought children with better control."
Kaito frowned.
Before he could answer, the man vanished from sight.
WHAM.
A palm strike crashed into Kaito's sternum and emptied his lungs.
Then—
CRACK!
The man caught Kaito's left wrist, rotated it perfectly, and broke it through leverage before Kaito could react.
Pain exploded up his arm.
Kaito screamed.
The enemy didn't stop.
He caught Kaito by the shoulder and hip-threw him directly into a boulder.
The rock shattered beneath Ren's body.
Before Kaito could recover—
POP.
Two fingers snapped.
Kaito gasped and tried to roll away.
The Stone Fang Ninja was already behind him.
"Let me show you how an actual Ninja fights."
KRAK.
Kaito barely understood the movement before both of his forearms were pinned and broken beneath a Ki-reinforced stomp. His remaining Shadow Clones vanished as pain disrupted his concentration, his Substitution failed before he could stabilize the technique, and the darkness barrier he tried to form collapsed almost immediately.
The world blurred.
Pain came from everywhere at once.
Ren's body was enormously durable, but the person attacking him was also a Foundation Establishment Ninja who knew exactly how to damage another cultivator. Reinforcement reduced the damage; it did not make Kaito invincible.
He tried to stand.
One arm refused to work.
His wrist screamed.
His breathing came shallow and uneven.
For the first time since arriving in this world, Kaito understood with absolute clarity that Ren's incredible body did not guarantee his survival.
He could die.
And in that haze of pain, a single thought burned brighter than everything else.
If I die here, Ren loses his body.
Then another.
I never see Mom and Dad again.
Another.
I never go home.
Fear became panic.
Panic became refusal.
No.
Something moved inside Ren.
Not Ki.
Not Kaito.
Something much older.
Much darker.
Deep within the soul space, chains tightened around something that had been waiting since Ren's birth.
And Ballom answered.
Darkness spilled beneath Kaito's feet.
At first he thought his vision was failing, but the black stain spread across the broken ground in every direction before climbing his boots like living ink. It wrapped around his legs, crawled across his torso, swallowed his armor, and covered Ren's body until almost nothing human remained visible beneath it.
Kaito gasped as the darkness rose over his face.
Then the pain changed.
His bones were still broken.
He could feel them.
But the black covering wrapped around the damaged limbs like a second body, bracing them, holding them together, and moving where flesh temporarily could not.
His silhouette grew monstrous beneath the power.
Smooth black armor-like flesh covered him from head to toe. His fingers stretched into long claws. Horn-like projections curved from his head. Irregular ribbed tendrils unfolded from his back and sides, swaying through the air as though they were alive.
The Stone Fang Ninja stepped backward for the first time.
"What the hell are you?"
Kaito looked down at one clawed hand.
The enemy moved.
Kaito didn't see the attack.
He didn't form an Art.
He didn't gather Ki.
A wall of darkness simply rose beside him and shattered the incoming stone spear.
Kaito froze.
The darkness waited.
He flexed his fingers.
Five enormous claws formed beside him and flexed at exactly the same time.
For weeks, using Ren's darkness had been an exercise in concentration, Ki control, visualization, and trying not to lose control of ten other things at once.
Now?
It was as natural as breathing.
The enemy attacked again.
Kaito thought:
Stop him.
Black tendrils erupted from the ground.
The Stone Fang Ninja barely escaped.
Kaito thought:
Closer.
The darkness beneath him contracted and launched him forward.
The man's eyes widened.
Kaito's distorted voice came from somewhere beneath the black covering.
"…Oh."
The Stone Fang Ninja backed away.
Kaito stared at him through the darkness.
"This is new."
Then he moved.
Phase One: Ragdoll.
Kaito vanished in a burst of black movement.
One moment he stood several meters away.
The next—
THUD!
He appeared behind the Stone Fang Ninja, a tendril wrapping around the man's leg before Kaito swung him downward and smashed him into the earth.
The ground cratered.
Kaito pulled.
The darkness obeyed.
The man rose from the crater against his will and was hurled across the valley, skipping over stone like somebody had thrown a human-sized pebble across a lake.
He tried to stand.
Bad idea.
Kaito was already there.
BOOM.
A darkness-covered punch struck the man's stomach, the impact caving the earth beneath them and sending a shockwave through the surrounding rocks.
The Stone Fang Ninja coughed blood.
Kaito stared at his own fist.
He hadn't calculated that.
Hadn't consciously shaped anything.
The darkness had simply reinforced the strike because he wanted the man down.
It understood intent.
Or perhaps Ballom's power understood something even simpler.
Violence.
Phase Two: Domination.
The Stone Fang Ninja forced himself backward and raised a massive earth dome around his body.
Kaito looked at it.
He could have broken it.
He could have punched through it.
Instead, the darkness around his arms flowed outward, coiling into a huge rotating sphere of compressed black power above him.
He didn't know the technique.
Not properly.
But Ren's body knew rotation.
Ren's affinity knew death.
And Ballom's darkness knew destruction.
The sphere screamed as it spun.
The Stone Fang Ninja reinforced the dome.
Kaito dropped from above.
"Try grappling this."
He drove the black sphere downward.
The earth dome lasted approximately half a second.
Then the darkness tore through.
KA-BOOM.
A crater opened across the valley.
Dust and stone exploded outward.
Trees bent away from the impact.
For several seconds, nothing could be seen.
When the smoke finally cleared, there was no intact body lying at the center.
Only blood.
Kaito stood above the crater.
Darkness moved slowly around him.
Waiting.
Ready.
Natural.
Too natural.
The dust had barely settled before the valley became eerily quiet. Broken stone, shattered trees, and the huge crater beneath Kaito told the story of the battle, but the real war was happening inside his chest as Ballom's power began to withdraw.
The monstrous black covering peeled away slowly, tendrils dissolving first, then claws, armor, and horn-like projections sinking back into shadow. The moment the darkness stopped supporting his injuries, pain returned with enough force to nearly drop him instantly.
Kaito's knees buckled.
He hit the ground breathing hard.
His fingers shook.
Then his arms.
He had almost died.
He had felt his wrist break.
He had heard his own bones snap.
He had spent weeks thinking that Ren's body was almost impossible to seriously hurt, and somebody had dismantled him in less than a minute.
The fear arrived afterward.
Harder than any punch.
This was only my first real fight. What happens next time? What if I'm not good enough? What if I destroy Ren's body before he ever gets it back?
His breathing shortened.
Then—
poof.
Three figures appeared.
Akira folded his arms. "Alive?"
Daichi looked over the battlefield before giving a short nod. "Apparently."
Master Jin crouched beside Kaito, and for once there wasn't even a trace of humor in his expression. "You did well."
Kaito stared at him.
"I almost died."
"I know."
"I didn't want to die."
Jin's expression softened slightly. "Good."
Kaito looked up.
"Remember that feeling. Fear of death isn't weakness, Kaito. It's part of being alive. The problem begins when fear makes your decisions for you."
Daichi crouched near Kaito's broken arm and carefully examined it. "You kept thinking after being injured. Poorly, occasionally, but you kept thinking."
"Thanks."
"That was praise."
"Didn't sound like it."
Akira looked toward the crater. "Ballom's power responded."
Kaito swallowed.
So that was what it had been.
"I didn't control it."
"No," Jin said. "But once it covered you, you controlled darkness far more easily than Ren normally does without drawing on Ballom."
Kaito looked at his hand.
"It felt…"
He struggled for the word.
"Easy."
Jin's eyes sharpened.
"That is exactly why you should be careful."
Before Kaito could ask what that meant, movement sounded behind him.
Then—
whump.
Someone wrapped both arms around his shoulders from behind in a sudden hug.
Kaito froze.
A woman's amused voice spoke beside his ear. "Not bad, rookie. You gave me several good bruises."
Kaito's brain stopped.
He knew that voice.
Not personally.
But he had heard it during the fight.
Slowly, painfully, he turned his head.
The woman behind him looked to be in her early twenties, with dark violet hair tied loosely behind her, sharp amber eyes, and the sort of amused smile that immediately suggested she considered danger a recreational activity. Her field coat hung open over standard Veiled Moon combat clothing, several snake-shaped metal ornaments decorated one belt, and she looked entirely too cheerful for someone who had spent the afternoon systematically breaking his bones.
Rika Tsukishima.
Twenty-three years old.
Veiled Moon field operative.
And apparently professional destroyer of Kaito's trust.
"I—wait."
Kaito stared.
"You were the Stone Fang Ninja?!"
"Guilty."
She did not sound remotely sorry.
Master Jin chuckled.
Kaito slowly looked at him.
"Surprise."
"You lied to me."
"I prepared you psychologically."
"You told me she murdered five people!"
"Very convincing preparation."
Akira added dryly, "Rika volunteered."
Daichi looked toward her. "And enjoyed it too much."
"Absolutely," Rika said.
Kaito stared at the crater.
Then at her.
"But I—"
He pointed shakily toward the blood.
"You—there was—"
"Blood decoy."
She smiled.
"Veiled Step at the final moment."
Kaito's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Rika tapped his helmet lightly. "You really thought Jin would use your first real test to feed you an actual wanted criminal without someone ready to intervene?"
Kaito slowly looked at Master Jin.
"Yes."
Jin appeared offended.
"I am irresponsible, not incompetent."
"That distinction is getting increasingly difficult to see."
Rika laughed before giving Kaito's shoulder another quick squeeze and stepping around in front of him. "You did better than I expected. Your technique still needs work, your control gets terrible when you panic, and you rely too much on Ren's ridiculous reserves, but you kept adapting."
"You broke my arms."
"They'll heal."
"You broke my wrist."
"That too."
"My fingers."
"Also those."
Kaito stared.
Rika smiled.
"Welcome to advanced training."
Daichi placed one hand over his face.
Jin looked proud.
Akira seemed completely unsurprised.
Kaito had no idea whether to be angry, impressed, traumatized, or simply relieved that he had not actually killed anyone.
Then Rika ruffled his hair.
"You looked like you needed that hug."
Kaito immediately became aware of the fact that a very attractive woman in her twenties had just hugged him after beating him half to death.
His face heated.
Rika noticed.
Of course she noticed.
Her smile widened.
Kaito desperately searched for something intelligent to say.
"You… hugged me."
Excellent work.
Truly legendary charisma.
Rika laughed. "Don't make it weird, rookie."
His soul left his body from embarrassment.
Master Jin burst out laughing.
"Kaito," Jin said solemnly, "your harem training still has a very long way to go."
"MASTER, NOT NOW!"
Rika raised an eyebrow.
"Harem training?"
"No."
"Yes," Jin said.
"No!"
Rika looked at Kaito for a moment, then chuckled and tapped his forehead with one finger. "Survive your combat training first, Harem King."
Kaito stopped breathing.
She walked away.
He stared after her.
Then slowly turned toward Jin.
"You told her."
"I tell everyone."
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
Daichi began using Moonlight Healing over Kaito's arms, pale light sinking into the fractures while Kaito sat there contemplating betrayal, near-death experiences, Ballom's terrifying power, and the fact that Rika Tsukishima now knew about his Harem King ambition.
He looked toward Akira.
"Was any of this normal?"
Akira thought about it.
"For Rika?"
Kaito waited.
"That was practically restrained."