"Shut up… shut up…"
Taro's voice came out as a guttural growl, each syllable scraped raw from his throat. His fists shook at his sides, knuckles white, green aura flaring in violent, uncontrolled bursts that scorched the air. "That's all a bunch of bullshit… I'd never believe that till I see it with my own eyes… they're not some kinda weaklings who'll get wiped out… by the likes of you."
The Rooftop Watcher let out a small, maniacal chuckle, the sound slithering through the silence like a blade across glass. "I'm telling you, man… they should be here any moment now… just you wait…" He turned toward the shattered gates, arms loose at his sides, grinning like a man waiting for a late bus.
Nothing came.
Only wind.
Only dust.
Only the faint rustle of dead leaves skittering across blood-stained stone.
The Watcher's grin twitched.
"Huh…?" His voice dropped, the cockiness cracking for the first time. "What the hell is going on here?" His eyes darted left, right, scanning the empty horizon. "Did they actually get defeated…? No… there's no way that's even possible…" The thought tasted wrong in his mouth. "Maybe they're drained a bit… need more time…?"
He spun back to Taro, forcing the grin wider. "Hey, man… do you have a watch on you by chance?"
Taro's aura detonated, green lightning crackling along his arms. "Are you insane by chance?" he snapped, the words dripping venom.
The Watcher paused, tilting his head like a curious dog. "...It's not that deep, man."
That did it.
The casual tone, the fake familiarity, the way he talked like they were buddies sharing a smoke after everything he'd done.
Taro's vision tunneled. His stomach twisted with pure, black disgust.
He raised his Reibone slowly, deliberately, the blade igniting with a low, predatory hum as green aura poured into it like molten fury.
"Hey… you…"
"What's up, dude?" the Watcher answered, nonchalant, hands in his pockets.
Taro's eyes burned a deep, toxic emerald. "Man… I think you talk way too much."
The aura around the Reibone screamed, the ring on his finger flaring like a dying star. "But no worries… I've been working on something… sure to shut you the hell up."
He moved.
One step.
The ground exploded beneath his boot.
He shot forward like a bullet, Reibone raised high for an overhead strike that would split the world in half. "Are you ready… to die?"
The Watcher's grin didn't falter. "Well, I wouldn't really know until it was time, but I don't think fast-forwarding was one of your powers."
"Hmph." Taro smirked, cold and vicious.
A tear in space ripped open directly behind the Watcher's back, a jagged green portal spitting sparks.
"Huh—?"
Taro feinted.
The overhead strike was a lie.
His leg whipped around in a blur, heel driving into the Watcher's spine with the force of a collapsing star.
BOOM.
The kick slammed the Watcher straight through the portal. "Argh—!"
The world flipped.
Reality shattered and reformed into a purple-pink void, an unfinished box of a dimension: endless shallow water reflecting a glitching, half-rendered sky, floating chunks of broken code drifting like abandoned toys. It looked like a god had started making a game and walked away mid-build.
The Rooftop Watcher crashed into the water, skipping across the surface like a stone before skidding to a stop, cloak soaked, blood mixing with the shallow liquid.
He pushed himself up, water streaming from his hair, and raised a brow. "Where the hell am I?"
Taro dropped from the portal above, landing in a three-point crouch that sent a shockwave rippling outward, water exploding in a perfect circle. "You're in my pocket dimension…" His voice echoed, layered with something inhuman. "…the one I've been using to store attacks."
The Watcher's eyes narrowed. "Since when were you able to enter your own pocket dimension?"
Taro stood slowly, Reibone dragging through the water, leaving a trail of boiling green fire. "Well… since forever, apparently." He glanced at the ring, now blazing like a miniature sun. "I had an idea. What if, instead of storing attacks… I stored *myself*? Turns out I can. Drains like hell normally…" His grin turned feral. "But with this? I barely even feel a thing."
He leveled the Reibone at the Watcher.
----
"So you're dead."
The Watcher tilted his head, water dripping from his cloak. "Okay, but I still don't get any buffs from being in here or somethin', right? Or it's not like you've got developer settings turned on… or do you?"
Taro's chuckle was low, dangerous, the sound of a predator that had cornered its prey. "No buffs?" The green in his eyes flared brighter, swallowing the pupils. "Who told you that?" He took one step forward, water exploding around his boot. "I've got the greatest buff ever."
He spread his arms, aura detonating in a pillar that punched through the dimension's glitched sky.
"I… don't have to hold back."
The Watcher's smile faltered for a heartbeat… then stretched wider, manic, bloodthirsty. "Well… is that so?" He dropped into a unique stance, knees bent, fists loose, cloak snapping though there was no wind. "Then show me what you got… and try to entertain me."
Taro's answer was a snarl.
"Be careful what you ask for… those who keep playing with fire… will definitely get burnt."
They moved at the same instant.
The Watcher lunged, fist cocked like a battering ram.
Taro met him head-on, Reibone screaming downward in a vertical slash.
Their clash birthed a shockwave that parted the water in a perfect circle, the impact so violent the dimension itself groaned. Green lightning and shadow clashed in the air, sparks raining down like burning stars.
Taro slashed horizontally.
The Watcher ducked, driving a punch into Taro's ribs that lifted him off his feet and sent him skidding across the water, carving a trench.
Taro didn't wait.
He flipped upright, boots skimming the surface, and launched a spinning heel kick. The Watcher slapped it away with an open palm, the deflection sending a sonic boom rolling across the void.
Taro dropped low, sweeping for the legs.
The Watcher leapt, catching Taro's airborne leg mid-kick. "Hell no."
He hurled Taro like a ragdoll.
Taro twisted mid-air, righting himself as the Watcher charged, fist glowing with the same dark energy that had murdered Brian. The punch came like a meteor, bending the pocket dimension's reality around it.
Taro met it with his own.
BOOM.
The punch buried itself in Taro's gut, folding him in half. Blood sprayed from his mouth in a crimson arc.
"Urgh—"
He hit the water hard, skipping across the surface before crashing to his knees, Reibone stabbed into the ground to stop the slide.
The Watcher laughed, low and mocking, gesturing with two fingers. "That all you got, Taro? I thought you were about to show me everything… come on, I thought you were gonna burn me."
Taro's head hung low, blood dripping from his lips into the water, turning it red. His shoulders shook.
The Watcher's grin widened.
Then Taro's ring flared.
"No…"
His voice was a whisper, but it carried the weight of a thousand screams. The green aura detonated again, hotter, wilder, the water around him boiling. "I'm not… done… yet…"
He slammed his palms together. Dozens of small green orbs erupted around him, detonating into massive water plumes that blinded the entire dimension in a curtain of mist and steam.
Through the chaos, a green trail of fire carved across the water.
Taro shot forward like a comet, Reibone dragging behind him, leaving a burning scar in reality itself.
One sweet, perfect swipe aimed straight for the Watcher's chest.
The blade connected.
The Watcher staggered back on one foot, cloak ripping, blood spraying in a perfect arc. For the first time, his smile wavered.
He tilted his head, touched the wound, and looked at the blood on his fingers.
Then he smiled—genuinely.
"Alright…" His voice was low, thrilled, hungry. "You're genuinely getting interesting… let's keep this up. Show me more."
"You asked for it."
They collided again.
Taro feinted high with a kick, then dropped low for a punch.
The Watcher answered with a flurry of knuckles—left, right, left—each hit cracking like gunfire. Taro ducked the last, drove an uppercut into the Watcher's jaw that lifted him an inch off the ground.
1-2-3.
Gut.
Chest.
Face.
Each punch launched the Watcher higher, the final blow—a straight right that sounded like a gunshot—sent him rocketing backward, carving a trench through the water.
The Watcher dug his hands into the ground, stopping the slide in a spray of water and green fire, eyes blazing with excitement. "Let's go… again, Taro."
Taro didn't think.
He charged.
The Watcher met him halfway.
A backhand slap came out of nowhere, the impact so fast it slapped the air itself out of existence. The sound was deafening—a crack that ruptured eardrums. Taro's vision went black for three full seconds as he was launched sideways, crashing into the water hard enough to send a geyser skyward.
The Watcher was on him before he hit the ground again.
He grabbed Taro's face, fingers digging into his cheeks, and dragged him across the water at blinding speed, friction burning skin, aura igniting from the heat. Punch after punch rained down—left, right, left—each one drawing blood, painting the water red.
Then he hurled Taro into the air.
One brutal uppercut sent Taro on a tour of the pocket dimension, body spinning helplessly as the world blurred into purple-pink streaks.
Taro crashed, barely catching himself on his Reibone, legs shaking, blood pouring from his mouth, aura flickering.
The Watcher laughed—pure, unhinged joy.
"Yeah… just give up. You already know you can't win."
Taro's arms trembled. His Reibone slipped from his fingers, clattering into the water.
"I can't beat him…"
The thought hit like a blade between the ribs. His knees buckled. "Damn… I'm sorry, Nodoka… Brian… I can't win this…"
He began to fall.
But in that fall, memories flashed—Nodoka's broken sobs over her parents' ashes. Brian's shattered core. Mexus's hand on his shoulder the day he became a Dremapol.
The ring burned white-hot.
"No."
He caught the Reibone mid-fall.
"I… cannot… fall here."
His scream tore the pocket dimension apart, green aura detonating in a pillar that punched through the glitched sky, water evaporating in a perfect circle around him.
"Losing isn't an option!"
His voice wasn't human anymore. It was something primal, something that made the void itself flinch.
"Hoo Lee sheet," the Watcher whispered, eyes wide, for the first time, showing something like awe. "This is a bit extra…"
Taro locked eyes with him, green fire pouring from his sockets, ring blazing like a supernova.
"I swear… I swear on everyone…"
The Reibone ignited, the blade now longer, sharper, wrapped in chains of green lightning that cracked the air like whips.
"I'm gonna bury you… and burn your dead body."
The Watcher's smile returned, wider, bloodier, more excited than ever.
"Well… he sure does have a knack for not knowing when to stop."
He cracked his neck, rolled his shoulders, and dropped into stance.
"But so do I."
"Alright…" His voice dropped to a whisper that somehow carried across the entire dimension.
"I just hope you don't break that promise"