"Airflow Manipulation… full thrust." The words echoed through the ring. The crowd watched in silence as Blessing stood still, his fingers trembling as a sphere of concentrated wind formed slowly in his palm. Unlike before it didn't hum. It screamed a shrill, eerie whine that pierced the air and sent chills down spines.His eyes burned with determination as one last word suddenly left his lips. "Hollow."The word was whispered, almost lost in the roar of the swirling pressure until it wasn't.The sphere launched from his hand like a cannon blast. The raw backlash blew him off his feet, hurling him backward into a nearby wall with a loud crack. His body dropped to the ground, motionless for a moment, steam rising from his clothes.Kaito's eyes widened. He had felt every kind of Veira based attacks, seen every kind of trick. But this was different. The moment the attack neared him, his instincts kicked in. He raised his hand, activating his nullification field, the power that reduced every attack to nothing before they even touched him.But the wind didn't fade. "What…?" he muttered, raising his second hand in shock."The sphere pushed through, tearing the air apart as it reached him. "Impossible!"He braced with both arms, the pressure crushing into him, dragging his heels across the ground as if he were resisting a collapsing sky.Cracks formed in the earth behind him. Only after a long grinding moment did the sphere finally destabilize.And as Kaito barely stabilized the technique and the sphere finally unravelled in his hands, something unexpected happened.The pressure trapped within the airflow, the part that should've dissipated with the nullification, had nowhere to go.It exploded outward. A ripple of invisible force surged through the arena, cracking the barrier formed by Veira energy that separated the ring from spectators. For a moment, everything went quiet.Then, crash! The barrier shattered like glass, fragments of lights flickered through the air before dissolving. A blast of wind followed, blowing spectators, spectators shielded their faces from the sudden gale.Several proctors instantly activated their defence, barely managing to keep the surge from injuring the onlookers.Chairman Kaida stood with his coat whipping in the wind, his eyes wide in shock. "He… he broke the boundary…" he gasped.Elan also stood there her eyes wide open, for once without a smirk. "And that was after it got nullified." She thought.Yuki blinked, stunned. "That wasn't raw power," she whispered "That was, that was, I don't even know what that was."From within the ring, Kaito stood panting, smoke rising from his arms, still trying to recover. His nullification had just barely suppressed Blessing's newest technique, airflow manipulation full thrust hollow. The sheer force had not only knocked Blessing into a wall but shattered the barrier."What… was that attack?" Kaito muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing as he tried to make sense of the sudden spike in Blessing's power.But before he could even finish his thought, Blessing was already there.In a blink of an eye, he appeared directly in front of Kaito, closing the distance like a phantom. Kaito's eyes widened too late.Crack! A clean, brutal punch connected with his jaw, snapping his head to the side. The impact echoed like thunder through the half destroyed arena. Blessing had finally landed his first attack.Kaito was sent flying and fell to the ground. The boy he had looked down on was now standing tall, chest rising with each breath, eyes calm but deadly.Blessing looked him dead in the eye. "You don't get do you? If it means protecting the ones you love… a person can do anything, even surpass their limits."Those words hit Kaito harder than the punch.Suddenly, a flicker of memory. A dark room, blood soaked hall. The walls echoed with silence. Kaito, much younger, stood in the middle of a grand orphanage room, surrounded by dead bodies of children. His hands shook, his eyes filled with tears. Alone.The memory faded. Kaito clenched his fists."You're wrong." His voice was low, cold but cracked silently. "Love… doesn't protect anyone."Their eyes locked, two opposing worlds. Two truths born from pain.The arena fell silent, tension thick and the fight was not over yet.Blessing and Kaito stood facing each other, bodies bruised, breath ragged. Their clothes were torn their movements now sluggish, yet their eyes still burned with defiance.No more techniques, no more powers. Just fists. Their bodies moved in unsteady rhythm, dodges barely timed, punches lacking force but carrying every ounce of desperation left in them.A swing from Kaito, a blocked counter from Blessing, a knee then a stagger, a grapple then a gasp. Every strike now felt like it could be the last.Kairo in seeing narrowed his eyes, his voice low but cutting. "They're past their limits," he said "Blessing poured a lot of energy in his last attack and it'll should make sense that Kaito used a bunch of his trying to nullify it.""And now, this fight seems to be less about whose gonna win and more about whose gonna remain standing." Elan said.The proctors watched, stunned, not just by strength but the sheer will. And after a bit more gruelling exchange of blows between two exhausted people some words left Kaito's lips. "You're still not strong enough." And then it happened. Kaito, wobbling on his feet, feinted a jab. Blessing shifted to guard but it was a trap. At close range, Kaito's palm opened, from it a dark sphere released as if it was torn of a villains aura.The blast hit Blessing in the stomach and sent him flying across the arena.Gasps echoed through the trial grounds. A proctor muttered, stunned "Was that… an energy discharge?"Another added, "Kaito's power… is nullification? So how did he?"The dust lingered, then showed a motionless body on the ground.Kaito exhaled "It's over."He turned away, his foot dragging as exhaustion finally settled in his limps, he took two steps forward but then.He stopped. Something was wrong. His body refused to move. And slowly as if forced by instinct alone, Kaito turned his head.What he saw made his heart lurch. Blessing was standing, no not just standing, rising. A powerful, unseen force pulsed from his body in rhythmic waves. The air shimmered around him like heat on pavement.The crowd gasped. "He's… still conscious?" "Is that guy human." Kaito's eyes widened. "This pressure… what is this feeling?"Blessing stood there motionless then his body gave out. He collapsed.The pressure vanished in an instant. But the damage was done, not to the ring, not to the trial but to every onlooker's certainty.Kaito stood still, eyes wide. For the first time in the trial he was shaken. Kaito turned away again and began walking out of the ring."The winner Kaito Kurozawa." The announcer said his voice uneven.In the observation booth Chairman Kaida stood there looking down upon Blessing. "Say Kairo, Elan who is that boy.""That's Blessing Chiaki sir, he's the boy who is thought to be the one chosen by the wind." Kairo said. Chairman Kaida looked at Blessing once more. "So that's the boy? But doesn't he have a little sister." "He does Esther Chiaki age twelve." Kairo said. Chairman Kaida looked at Kairo. "So where is thev girl,"Kairo turned to stare at Elan who stood there picking her nose. "Well Elan why isn't she here."Elan stopped picking her and in a hyper tone said. "Well sir the thing is." Her voice started lowering. "Her Veira flow is…""Now next match Naoki versus Ken." The announcer said.Naoki stepped forward. His movements were calm but not confident. Controlled but not collected. There was something in his eyes, not fear, not anger but something else."Wait isn't that the kid who just fought before the last match, why is he fighting again." A candidate asked as he pointed at Naoki.A memory burned across Naoki's vision. Rika standing victorious above him.Yuki fixed her hair and murmured in a low tone. "In this place after a fight you are given treatment that makes you as good as knew meaning people can fight at full power and can fight in different fights continuously." She paused for a moment. "But in times like these I'm more worried about Naoki's mental state than his physical."Now the crowd looked at him again, but this time it was through pity and doubt."That's the guy who lost instantly, right?" "Can he even fight?" "Maybe he's not cut out for this."His steps echoed as he walked into the ring. And yet, his opponent, already waiting, paused frowning.But for some unknown reason there was something unnatural in Naoki's presence. His back was straight, eyes dark and there was no sign of the talkative little paper boy hero.It was unknown what was happening in Naoki's head but one thing was clear, something about Naoki had changed.
