Smoke still rises from the spot where Takumi's body had crashed into the wall moments ago, leaving a deep crater behind him.
Silence... then—
CRRRACK!!
The broken wall explodes outward in a blaze of molten orange.
From the heart of the rubble, he walks out—head slightly lowered, steam rising from his shoulders. His fists tremble, not from fear, but from the uncontained energy flowing through them.
And then...
His voice slices through the smoke like a blade—
"En no Seishin..."
His arms pull back.
The sky shudders.
"...Shinenryū no Hōkō!!!!"
The Spirit of Fire... Roar of the Divine Blazing Dragon.
A pulse of heat surges. The ground scorches beneath his feet. A vortex of flames wraps around his arm, spinning wildly, shaping itself into something ancient, something divine.
And then it roars.
A massive blazing dragon—its form forged from pure fire, with glowing eyes and fangs of sunfire—erupts from Takumi's fist. It doesn't fly. It hunts.
The dragon spirals into the sky, curls once midair, then dives. Its roar echoes like a call from the heavens themselves—loud enough to shake bones.
...
From behind Hayato—who's barely holding himself upright, blade lowered but still in stance—the air booms.
FWOOOSH!!!
The flaming dragon tears through the battlefield like a meteor.
Kazuo barely turns—eyes wide.
"Wh—!"
Too late.
The dragon slams into him with the wrath of a god. Flames spiral upward, forming a burning cyclone. The force lifts Kazuo clean off the ground and engulfs him. Not in fire—in fury.
"AAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
His scream is drowned by the roar of the divine dragon.
For a moment, nothing can be seen—only fire, light, and the sound of burning winds.
Then... silence.
The flames die down.
The battlefield sizzles.
A blackened crater smokes at the center.
Kazuo's figure lies inside it—motionless, his armor scorched, pieces of it melted onto his body. His eyes are open… but empty.
Hayato doesn't speak.
He just slowly straightens, the heat of the dragon's breath still warm on his face.
Takumi lowers his hand, panting, but his eyes stay sharp.
===
The flaming dragon I launched just now… it roared. Like for real. I felt it leave my fist like a living thing—a divine beast of fire. It tore through the ground, curled around Hayato like a guardian spirit, and slammed into Kazuo like a blazing comet.
Didn't see that coming, did ya?
Hayato steadies himself nearby. He's tired—half worn out—but still standing strong in that perfect sword stance of his. I glance at him, sweat dripping from my forehead.
He looks at the scorched battlefield, then at Kazuo's charred body flung across it.
"He's in no position to talk about Arisu now," Hayato says, calm but cold.
I rub my neck, embarrassed. "Oh... right. Sorry. I guess my ego did the talking there." I chuckle weakly, then mutter, "Got a bit carried away with the divine dragon dramatic finale thing..."
Hayato doesn't answer. He just exhales, that classic cool silence of his.
We're about to move when—
Khak! Khuk-Khh...!
That wheezing, gravelly cough cuts through the air like a blade.
We both turn—instantly alert.
"...You're kidding me," I whisper.
Kazuo. Still alive. Barely. He's lying in a twisted mess, coughing up smoke and blood. His body looks like roasted meat, but those hateful eyes... still awake.
I clench my fists, ready for round two if needed. But instead—
"...I accept it," Kazuo wheezes, voice shaking. "You've defeated me... I lost."
We exchange a glance. Hayato nods slowly. I step forward, wary.
Kazuo chuckles bitterly, every laugh sounding like it's peeling off his lungs. "And now... since you've bested me... I'll tell you what I know. Only what I know."
I narrow my eyes. "What do you know, then?"
He looks at me—no pride left, just ash and regret.
"...The Testiment you came here for... it's not in this Nexus."
My heart skips.
"What...?"
So… the whole mission…?
"She's not here?" I whisper, stunned.
Suddenly—buzz—my earpiece crackles to life.
"Knew it," Kaito's voice breaks through. Tired, but sharp. "I had a feeling. Arisu's location… it's been moved."
Kaito's voice crackles through the comms again, a bit more serious this time.
"Arisu isn't here."
I clench my fists. The wind feels colder all of a sudden.
"Then what do we do now?" I ask, my voice low but tense. There's no time to waste.
Kaito doesn't hesitate. "First, we need to ask for Arisu's exact location. Without that, we're blind."
I nod, turning toward Kazuo, who's still glaring at us like he's on some kind of righteous mission.
"Where is Arisu?" I demand.
Kazuo scoffs. "That information is not available to Cyberwatch operatives. Our only directive is to capture the Hyakuren—dead or alive. After all, you are fugitives."
I grit my teeth. "Damn it... then what now?"
Before the weight of that silence can crush us, Kaito speaks again. "Wait, Takumi. I'm getting something from Ruby and Yora's side. Let me connect comms with everyone. Hold on—"
A second later, Ruby's voice cuts in, slightly distorted but clear enough.
"Hello, Takumi?" she says, her tone sharp but calm, like she's holding back a hurricane.
I sigh in relief but reply fast. "Ruby-san, bad news. Arisu's not here."
"Yes yes, I know," she replies dryly. "But now is not the time to panic. Everyone, listen up."
Her voice tightens as she continues. "I tried to extract Arisu's location from Kei Hidaka... you know, my way."
She lets that hang for a second before going on,
"And after... considerable effort, that smug little snake finally opened her mouth."
There's a pause, like she's weighing her words.
"She told me Arisu is being kept in The Bastion Citadel. But we're not entirely sure—it could be a lie."
My heart skips.
"Bastion Citadel...? What kind of place is that?" I ask, the name heavy in my mouth like some long-lost myth.
There's a silence.
And then—
Kaito-san's voice cuts through. Steady. Cold. Like he's about to drop a death sentence.
"Takumi... Bastion Citadel isn't just any place."
His voice lowers.
"It's considered the most secure stronghold the World Government has ever built.
The heart of everything.
A fortress designed to be impenetrable.
Themain Five Inspectors guard it day and night.
And it's under the direct command of the Fleet Inspector himself."**
My eyes widen. My throat tightens.
No way... Arisu's at a place like that?
It's like someone yanked the ground out from under me.
Like falling.
Endlessly.
My heart's pounding, but my brain's already slipping into panic mode.
How?
Why would they take her there of all places?
We barely made it out of the last battle alive—
And that wasn't even a fraction of what we'd be up against if this is true.
"Takumi," Kaito says again, voice quieter now.
But heavier.
Like he's burying hope before it even had a chance to breathe.
"If Arisu really is there..."
"Then we have no way of saving her."
The words slam into me like a punch to the gut.
And for a moment, I don't breathe.
I just… stand there.
Frozen.
"If she's there," Ruby's voice cuts through the static of the comms like a blade through fog, calm yet sharp, "then we'll go there."
There's a pause. The kind that makes even silence feel loud.
"Don't be reckless," Kaito responds immediately, his tone firmer than steel. "This isn't some ruined outpost or hidden bunker. We're talking about Bastion Citadel—the strongest base under World Government control. It's not just heavily guarded—it's built to be impenetrable. The Five Inspectors stay stationed there permanently. Not agents. Inspectors."
Ruby's voice doesn't flinch. "I heard you the first time."
"Then you know what that means," Kaito snaps back. "This isn't a place we just stroll into and ask for Arisu back. If she is in there... then we don't have a plan. We don't even have a crack to slip through."
"So what?" she says. "We do nothing? Sit here twiddling our thumbs while they rip her mind apart? While we guess if she's alive or…" Her voice almost shakes but doesn't. "If we hesitate, we lose her. And I'm not going to let that happen."
I finally find my voice.
"Ruby-san…" I say, softly, but she speaks first.
"If Kei Hidaka was telling the truth, then Arisu's in Bastion. And if Arisu's in Bastion... then I'm going to Bastion."
"Even if that place is crawling with Inspectors?"
"Even if it's crawling with the devil himself." Her words are cold fire. "If I said I'll rescue her, I will. That's all there is to it."
Wow..
Ruby-san's resolve… it never wavers.
Not even for a second.
Here I am—heart racing, head spinning, barely able to stand still—while she talks about storming Bastion like it's just another day.
That's the difference between us.
She doesn't just fight.
She decides.
And when she does… nothing—not logic, not fear, not even reality—can shake her.
Honestly?
I'm lucky.
Lucky that I've got her as our president.
Lucky that in all this mess, someone like her is still standing tall—eyes ahead, never looking back.
I take a breath.
Not a deep one. Not a brave one.
But enough.
"…Ruby-san is right." My voice comes out steadier than I thought it would. "If she's going there… then so will I."
But just as those words leave my mouth—
"Wait, you guys," a new voice cuts through.
Sharp. Certain.
Yora.
We all freeze.
"…Arisu isn't there."
He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"I'm sure of it."
"What do you mean she's not there?" I hear Ruby say sharply over the comms.
Yora's voice comes through, calm but a little too smug for the situation. "I scanned the Nexus internal systems with my Kōshinteki Trace Resonator—ahem, don't ask me to spell that. Basically, I extracted Arisu's Seishinsu signal from their logs and synced it to my tracker."
He pauses for a second, then adds, "According to the readings… she's not in the Bastion Citadel. Not yet."
For a moment, everyone goes quiet. Even the static in my earpiece sounds like it took a breath. I feel my shoulders drop just a little. Okay… okay, she's not there. That's something.
"So," I ask, "if she's not there… where is she?"
Yora doesn't even flinch. "About... umm... 150 kilometers away from the Bastion. Her signal is moving slowly—likely in transit. My guess? Nexus is relocating her. They're on their way to the Citadel, but haven't reached yet."
Kaito's voice breaks in, sharp and urgent. "Then we need to move. If they get her inside the Bastion, we'll lose all our chances. That place is a fortress."
No arguments there.
I clench my fists. Time was never on our side, but now it's practically sprinting ahead of us.
Ruby doesn't waste a second.
"Okay," she says, her voice crisp like a command wrapped in silk. "If what Yora says is true, then let's get moving."
She then presses a finger to her comm. "Kaito, bring up the helicopter. Now. And tell Shizuka to use her healing magic on Hayato and Takumi."
Kaito nods and taps his comm, already giving orders. "Shizuka, prep healing. We're mobilizing. Coordinates inbound."
Meanwhile, Ruby's already walking ahead, cape fluttering behind her like she owns the wind.
Yeah… when she switches into command mode, it's kinda scary. But also… kinda cool.
I tap my earpiece. "Yora, I hope that fancy scanner of yours doesn't glitch. If we're flying into enemy skies, I'd like to not die for a signal error."
Yora just grins. "Relax. My tech's smarter than half the people in this team."
"Gee, thanks."