Enra didn't wait.
While Ryu was still knee-deep in the pond, a yawning shadow opened beneath him. He dropped—but something was different.
He wasn't sinking.
He was airborne.
The darkness erupted around him like a tidal wave, a swarm of black claws closing in from every direction. Ryu's eyes widened—then he blitzed, turning into a streak of green light as he shot toward a cliffside. He landed hard, sparks trailing off his back.
In the distance far below, Enra stood on solid ground, staring up.
Ryu didn't hesitate. He lunged down the cliff, charging straight at Enra with everything he had left, but the yokai shifted into a stance, calm, composed, waiting.
As Ryu reached him, Enra moved to counter...
But Ryu feinted. He slid behind him, Enra spun, Ryu was already in front again, hand outstretched.
BRRZZZT!
The lightning blast hit Enra point-blank, electricity ripping through the field. Smoke rose from his chest…and he smiled.
Unphased.
"He's adapting" - Ryu
Ryu backed up, brain scrambling for an answer—but Enra was already there. His arms turned pitch black, and he charged.
And then came the storm...
Left—Right—Uppercut—Body blow—Neck snap—Rib-crack. A nightmare rhythm performed at inhuman speed.
Ryu was launched into the forest, trees exploding around him as he crashed through them. Enra chased him, laughing, shadows trailing behind like wild serpents.
Ryu staggered up, raising his hands, both arms sparking violently. Enra came full speed—but this time Ryu blocked, slipping a gut punch under Enra's ribcage.
Enra countered. Ryu answered.
The two tore into each other, the impact of every hit hollowing out the mountainside, sending avalanches cascading into the forest below.
"Hol' up!" - Ryu huffing and puffing
"Come one now, you're ruining it!" - Enra chuckling
Enra paced like a predator, fingers bent, skipping back and forth.
Ryu coughed roughly—more blood streaming from his mouth. Both hands and knuckles broken. Eyes coarsing red. Breathing uneven.
He wasn't going to make it, not unless...
He gambled.
Ryu bent his knees, charging his legs until sparks crawled all the way up his spine—then launched forward.
THUD!
A devastating kick to Enra's stomach. Ryu followed up—another—harder
Enra endured. Grabbed both legs. And swung him like a hammer.
Ryu slammed into the earth, dirt shooting skyward. Enra kicked him again, sending him rolling through rocks.
But Ryu didn't stay down.
"I never...huff, signed up for this" - Ryu
Shaking, bleeding, barely conscious—he stood. His nose poured crimson. His eyes bled tears of red. He charged his legs one more time, going up and down.
He darted forward. Enra countered—Ryu parried, slid under, and smashed an upper kick across Enra's chin.
Enra tanked it. Then broke Ryu's breath with a brutal gut combo that hurled him into the air.
Ryu crashed, rolled, skidded—but caught himself. He stood, barely.
His vision blurred, his body screamed for a break.
Enra flexing his fingers for Ryu to come at him
"Huff, I really fuckin hate your ass" - Ryu
He sparked his legs again, and tried something...
Ran. Up. Down. Sideways. Back and forth—faster...faster! Enra waited, tracking him, waiting for the moment of impact.
Ryu leapt, Enra read it clearly, but he was just one second slower.
"What the..." - Enra
Ryu dipped under the counter, pulled his arms back—and unleashed everything.
A barrage of punches—so fast they blurred into a single beam of light—slammed into Enra's chest. The yokai shot in up into the sky.
Ryu didn't let him escape. He charged up, and jumped—higher than he ever had—chasing him into the clouds.
Up there, above the battlefield, their silhouettes crossed the moon. Both their hair drifted upward, floating in the static.
The grey clouds above them sparked—flashes of electricity, waiting to descend.
Ryu pulled his shoulder in. A breath. A whisper. A signal.
He pointed his finger skyward.
"Get wrecked...you tattooed fuckboy!" - Ryu
Points his finger downward
"THUNDERCRACK!" - Ryu screaming
BANG!!!!!!
His arm pierced into Enra's chest, driving him downward like a meteor. And as they fell—the sky split open.
A bolt of lightning lanced down, hitting Ryu, punching through Enra, and detonating into the earth with a roar that swallowed the entire mountainside.
The flash swallowed the world...the thunder shook the island...and everything went white.
The scene shifts to Ryu and Jin on the ground, in a crater.
The aftermath was a calamity, the area turned into ruins, and two dormant bodies were the only things still there...
Jin opens his eyes, and realizes, his markings are gone, and his eyes are back to normal, he's free. But at what cost.
Jin turns around
"Ryu?" - Jin with worry in his voice
Ryu lifeless body on the floor, smoke coming from his charred body, current still radiating from in his veins, slowly.
"Ryu...get up. Get up bro, Ryu?" - Jin
"Wake the hell up...you did it, I'm back Ryu." - Jin
Silence
"Wake the hell up dammit!" - Jin screaming
Jin cries
"I heard you, when you explained what happened at the temple, I heard...and I just, sniffles" - Jin
"I'm sorry. I let my emotions carry me, I didn't know what you had to go through, I was selfish." - Jin
"Now wake up so I can tell you in person, sniffles!" - Jin
Silence
"You risked your life, sniffles...for an asshole like me." - Jin whimpers
Jin cries on Ryu's body
"..."
"Gay" - Ryu
"..."
"Huh?" - Jin in a soft voice
"I said you're gay...now get of me." - Ryu
"..."
Silence
"You dickhead, sniffles... why aren't you dead?" - Jin whimpers
"I mourned for you!" - Jin
"And it was sweet...didn't know you cared bout me." - Ryu grunting
"You were a real pain in the ass though" - Ryu
"How...did you beat that, thing !" - Jin
"Oh. Dunno if you remember, but what I did…wasn't new, I just used that same move back in that abyss."
"That abyss…? The one you barely escaped?" - Jin
Ryu nodded weakly.
"Yeah. In Shin'en, I overcharged myself. Counducted so much amps my body couldn't sustain, it cooked part of my brain and fried half my nerves. I shouldn't have survived it the first time…gulp, so I used it again." - Ryu
"You—you used it on both of us?" - Jin
"Kinda...I directed that strike towards him, through us, which was lethal enough to tear our bodies apart so Enra had no vessel to possess…" - Ryu
"That blast killed you for a moment…and it killed me too, fried the remaining half of brain cells I had left." - Ryu
Jin froze.
"So that unhinged version of you..." - Jin
"Yep. Was running on half a brain and fried circuits, hehe" - Ryu
"You said you were gonna kill me!" - Jin
"Sorry...the high got to my head" - Ryu
"..."
"How the fuck are we still alive?" - Jin
"Fate?" - Ryu
"Meh...I'll take that" - Jin
"Also...can you pick me up, like I literally can't move and I have the headache of headaches right now, like deadass." - Ryu
"Humph!" - Jin as he picks up Ryu and piggy backs him
"Hey look, sick tattoo, it's like a thunder srike" - Jin as he notices Ryu's arm
This mark was a Lichtenberg figure—a branching, lightning-shaped scar burned into his skin, a permanent reminder of the storm that had ripped through him.
"Tuff" - Ryu