"I'm willing to bet you five thousand yen he survives this," Ren said, not taking his eyes off the fight.
Sophia didn't blink. "Deal."
Derek struggled.
His arms trembled. His legs shook. Blood dripped from his mouth onto the cracked concrete beneath him—slow, rhythmic, like a leaking faucet.
But he stood.
He pushed himself upright, one agonizing inch at a time, and jumped back, creating distance between himself and Yukari. His breath came in ragged gasps. His orange eyes were wild, desperate—but still burning.
Yukari watched him.
She didn't move. Didn't speak. Just stood there with her hands loose at her sides, bare feet planted on the cold floor, waiting.
Waiting for him to do something.
She's strong, Derek thought, wiping blood from his chin. And she's not even a Kinatarou by blood.
He had felt it—the punch to his gut. She had held back. Not a lot. But enough. If she had put everything into that strike, he would be dead. His organs would be paste. His spine would be powder.
She's toying with me.
His jaw tightened.
Fine.
He thrust his palm forward. A ball of light—bright and dense—shot toward her with incredible speed. It screamed through the air, leaving a trail of heat in its wake.
Yukari leaned.
Just a little. A fraction of an inch. The ball passed by her ear, close enough to rustle her hair, and slammed into the wall behind her.
BOOM.
The explosion shook the entire building. Concrete shattered. Debris rained down from the ceiling. The warehouse groaned like a dying animal.
Ren sighed. "They're gonna bring down the entire building."
Derek didn't wait.
He dashed forward—faster than before, pushing his body past its limits. He arrived in front of Yukari in a second, arm arched back, fist glowing with concentrated light.
Yukari moved faster.
Her fist shot toward his chest—
And he vanished.
Not dodged. Not sidestepped.
Vanished.
He disappeared from in front of her and reappeared behind her.
Ren's jaw dropped. "What the—"
Sophia's eyes widened. Just for a moment.
Yukari spun.
Her body redirected its momentum in an instant—energy flowing from her missed punch into a spinning kick aimed at Derek's side. He barely got his arms up in time.
The impact sent him flying.
He crashed into the wall—crack—and crumpled to the ground, leaving a spiderweb of fractures in the concrete behind him.
"Did he just..." Ren's voice trailed off.
"Teleport," Sophia finished quietly. Her golden eyes were sharp, analytical. "Spatial Kizo. He's been hiding it."
Yukari looked at Derek—still crumpled against the wall—and tilted her head.
"I had no idea you were a spatial type too." Her voice was calm. Curious. "You didn't use this during the tournament."
Derek pushed himself up. Blood stained his teeth.
"No one in the tournament was strong enough to make me use it."
It was true.
Renjiro. Ren. Even Yuki—none of them had pushed him far enough. He had coasted through the tournament on talent and light alone. He had never needed to reveal his second ability.
But now...
She's magnificent.
His eyes tracked her movements—the slight shift of her weight, the calm readiness in her posture, the way her blue eyes seemed to see everything.
I used teleportation, and she still reacted in time.
And she hasn't even used her Kizo yet.
The thought made his blood boil.
He teleported again—behind her, faster this time.
Yukari spun, fist flying—
He teleported again.
Above her now, a ball of light charged in his palm, glowing brighter, hotter, denser.
"Stun Grenade!"
He hurled the ball down.
It exploded.
Light—pure, blinding, overwhelming—erupted in every direction. The warehouse turned white. Ren threw an arm over his eyes, hissing. Sophia shielded her face, golden eyes squeezed shut.
Yukari was blind.
Not just blinded—deafened. The light overloaded her vision, the sound of the explosion ringing in her ears, drowning out everything else. She stood frozen, disoriented, senses scrambled.
Derek didn't hesitate.
He teleported to her right side.
His fist flew toward her face.
BOOM.
The shockwave shook the entire building—shattering the remaining windows, sending debris skittering across the floor, rattling the steel beams above.
Yukari had caught his punch.
With one hand.
Derek's eyes widened.
Ren's mouth fell open.
Sophia's expression cracked—just for a moment—into something like disbelief.
How? Derek's mind reeled. She's blind. Deaf. She can't see. She can't hear.
How did she block that?
Yukari kicked his feet out from under him.
Derek stumbled, caught himself, barely keeping his balance—
Yukari squeezed.
Her fingers tightened around his fist like a vice. Like a hydraulic press. Like the jaws of something ancient and hungry.
Derek groaned.
His knees buckled. He dropped to the ground, one hand still trapped in her grip, pain shooting up his arm, through his shoulder, into his spine.
He tried to pull free.
He couldn't.
The grip was absolute.
Yukari shook her head slightly—clearing the last remnants of the flash from her vision. Her eyes refocused, sharp and blue and calm.
"That was a nice attack, but unfortunately for you I could sense your ki clearly." she said. "You can't teleport when you're being held down by something you can't move, right? That's why you're not teleporting now."
She squeezed harder.
CRACK.
The sound was small at first. Then louder. Then sickening—the grind of bone against bone, cartilage tearing, tendons stretching past their limits.
Derek screamed.
Blood seeped from his flesh—dark red welling up around her fingers, dripping onto the concrete below.
He struggled. Thrashed. Tried to free himself.
Nothing.
His free hand rose—desperate, shaking—aiming at her face. Light gathered in his palm. Stun Grenade. He could use it again. He could—
Yukari's free hand moved.
Her fist connected with his nose.
CRUNCH.
Derek's head snapped backward. His body went limp. His arm fell to his side. Blood streamed from his nostrils, pooling on his lips, dripping off his chin.
His eyes—barely open—stared at nothing.
He was done.
The fight was over.
Derek's vision was hazy. Dark at the edges. He couldn't see Yukari anymore—just shapes. Blurs. Shadows.
I'm dying.
She killed me.
His heart hammered against his ribs. His senses sharpened—everything too loud, too bright, too much. Adrenaline flooded his system like a dam breaking.
His eyes opened wide.
And began to glow.
Yukari felt it first.
Her senses screamed—a primal warning, sharp and urgent, the kind of instinct that had kept her alive through a hundred battles. She jumped back.
BOOM.
Beams of light erupted from Derek's eyes.
Not arrows. Not balls. Not controlled constructs.
Raw. Unfiltered. Destruction.
The beams tore through the air where Yukari had been standing. They didn't stop. They kept coming—pouring out of Derek's eyes like a dam had broken inside him.
He screamed.
Not in anger. In pain.
The beams carved through the ceiling. Through the walls. Through everything in their path. Steel melted. Concrete vaporized. The entire warehouse groaned, shuddered, began to collapse.
Derek thrashed on the ground, trying to stop it, trying to control it, trying to make it stop—
The beams swung wild.
They cut toward Ren.
He froze. His eyes widened. His body refused to move—
Sophia shoved him.
Hard.
He hit the ground, rolled, came up gasping. The beams passed over him—close enough that the heat scorched his forearm, blistering the skin, making him hiss through his teeth.
"WHAT THE HELL—"
Derek kept screaming.
The beams kept cutting.
The warehouse was coming apart—walls sliced clean, beams severed, the roof groaning as its supports turned to molten slag. The beams tore through the far wall and kept going—through the dock, through abandoned boats, cutting them in half like they were made of paper.
Yukari dodged.
Gracefully. Effortlessly. Every beam that came her way, she slipped past—a step here, a lean there, her body moving like water around stones.
But her eyes were fixed on Derek.
On the boy screaming on the ground.
On the power pouring out of him.
Then—
The beams stopped.
Derek's eyes returned to normal—dull, exhausted, human. His body went limp. His head fell to the side.
He was unconscious.
The warehouse groaned.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Yukari stood in the center of the destruction—untouched, unbothered, her blue hair swaying gently in the breeze that now drifted through the shattered walls.
She looked down at Derek.
"This guy..."
Her voice was quiet. Thoughtful.
"He has more than one Kizo. He's gifted."
She looked around—at the warehouse, cut into pieces. At the docks beyond, abandoned boats sliced clean in half. At the melted steel and vaporized concrete and the path of absolute destruction carved through everything in its wake.
"But..."
Her eyes narrowed.
"His gifts are dangerous."
Ren stared at his scorched forearm—skin red and blistered, stinging with every breath. He looked at Derek—unconscious, bleeding, broken.
"That was..." He swallowed. "That was insane."
Sophia said nothing.
Her golden eyes were fixed on Derek. On the boy who had just awakened something terrible.
"He's going to become very powerful," Yukari said.
She turned away from the destruction.
From the boy on the ground.
From the future she had just glimpsed.