Pathro emerged violently from a golden portal, his boots skidding across a wide stretch of tarmac as gravity reclaimed him. The portal that had expelled him hovered briefly, five meters above the road, before collapsing in on itself with a silent implosion, leaving nothing behind but displaced air.
He straightened and looked around.
"Huh…?" he muttered. "Skyscrapers… cars?"
Towering buildings of steel and glass pierced the sky in every direction. Empty roads stretched endlessly, traffic lights blinking to no one, vehicles frozen mid-lane as if abandoned in haste. Morning sunlight reflected off windows, casting long shadows across the city.
Pathro frowned.
"This can't be Earth… right?"
It felt wrong. He had left Earth seconds ago. There was no reason, no logic, that he should be standing here.
With a sudden burst of force, he leapt.
The ground cratered beneath his feet as he soared upward, landing atop the tallest skyscraper within sight. From there, the view expanded, cities upon cities, familiar layouts, unmistakable landmarks.
His eyes widened.
"…Tokyo."
There was no mistaking it. The skyline, the structure, the scale, this was the capital of Japan. His home. And yet, it shouldn't exist here.
Pathro exhaled slowly and closed his eyes.
A faint red aura leaked from his body as he stood perfectly still, extending his senses outward. Seconds passed. The wind whispered against concrete. Then his eyes snapped open, glowing crimson.
"…Nothing."
No people. No animals. Not even insects.
Only plants, trees, grass, moss, each carrying a quiet, passive life energy, fundamentally different from that of living creatures. As a Zunan Fighter, Pathro could never mistake the two.
"There isn't a single human on this planet," he said under his breath. "Not one."
Understanding settled in.
"I see… a perfect replica of Earth. Geography, infrastructure, even technology, identical." His gaze hardened. "But completely devoid of animal life."
Too accurate. Too modern.
"If this world were created long ago, there's no way it would mirror present-day Tokyo this precisely," he reasoned. "Which means… it was made recently."
A test ground.
The thought lingered only briefly. The purpose didn't matter now.
His task was simple, to prove what a newly forged soldier of Japan was capable of in the Delay Universe.
"I don't sense any Zunan," he thought. "Not yet."
And no trace of Kiligaku, Toshiro, or the others either. Separate battlefields, perhaps, or entirely different worlds.
There was no time to deduce further.
A sudden spike of hostile energy slammed into his senses like lightning through his skull.
Pathro's head snapped upward.
High above, against the blinding glare of the sun, a humanoid silhouette hovered in the sky. Its form was barely visible, swallowed by light, until a sphere of swirling red-and-black energy bloomed where its face should have been.
The blast fired instantly.
Faster than any sniper round. Faster than sound.
Pathro reacted on instinct.
He launched himself upward in a violent leap, the sheer force of it pulverizing the skyscraper beneath him into collapsing ruin.
A split second later, the energy blast struck the ground.
The impact was catastrophic.
A blinding detonation erupted, shockwaves tearing outward like a tidal wave of destruction. Tokyo vanished beneath the blast, buildings flattened, streets erased, entire districts reduced to dust. The devastation didn't stop there.
Four cities.
Gone.
Reduced to rubble by a single strike.
Suspended in midair, Pathro looked down at the annihilated landscape. His expression was calm, almost expectant.
"So," he muttered, eyes narrowing. "That's how you choose to introduce yourself."
The light shifted as the creature descended.
Now visible, the Zunan stood roughly two and a half meters tall. Its body was encased in dark-green, armor-like skin that gleamed unnaturally, with dense fibrous tissue exposed at the joints to allow movement. Its face bore no nose, no mouth, only three eyes aligned vertically from forehead to chin, unblinking and alien.
Along its arms ran grotesque canal-like openings lined with jagged teeth, grinding against each other with a sickening sound.
Both landed with force, the ground cracking beneath their weight.
"A Rokude-type Zunan," Pathro said flatly. "This shouldn't take long."
The Rokude began forming another energy blast.
It never got the chance to fire.
Pathro vanished.
In the next instant, his fist was buried deep in the Zunan's abdomen.
The impact cracked its armored hide, blood spraying as flesh split beneath the force. The punch sent the Rokude hurtling backward, farther than the range of its earlier blast, until it slammed into a distant mountain.
The mountain collapsed.
Pathro flexed his fist, steam rising faintly from his knuckles.
"…Tougher than I expected," he admitted. "Guess I'll hit harder next time."
The Rokude clawed its way from the rubble
—and Pathro was already there.
His punch erased its head.
Armor, flesh, bone, obliterated into paste.
Pathro stood over the lifeless remains of the Rokude, its shattered armored body still steaming against the ruined ground. He looked down at it, expression calm, almost bored.
"I was told the others would be tested against two… maybe three Rokude," he thought.
"So if this test is meant to be 'unique', like she said it was for me and the other six then I suppose I'm expected to face more."
His gaze hardened.
"…Or maybe you're just the opening act."
The air behind him shifted.
Pathro sensed it instantly, a Rokude lunging from behind, its arm already swinging toward his shoulder with crushing force.
He didn't turn.
Pathro flipped forward, his body rotating effortlessly through the air. As he inverted, his heel lashed out, not with killing intent, but dismissal. The kick sent the Rokude skidding backward several meters before its own momentum ruptured its frame, armor splitting apart as it collapsed.
Pathro landed smoothly and faced the remaining Zunan.
Without hesitation, it formed a familiar red-and-black energy sphere and fired.
Pathro stepped into the attack and backhanded it skyward.
The blast screamed across the heavens before crashing down onto a distant island. In the next instant, the island was gone, flattened into nothing but ash and vapor.
The Rokude froze.
Pathro tilted his head slightly.
"What's wrong?" he asked coolly. "Don't tell me you monsters can feel fear."
Snarling, the Zunan forced itself forward and threw a punch.
Pathro met it head-on.
Their fists collided, unleashing a sharp, thunderous gust of wind that rippled across the battlefield. Then, Pathro's strength overwhelmed it completely. The Rokude's arm shattered from the point of impact, pulverized into fragments.
Before it could even scream, Pathro seized its face with one hand.
And crushed.
Armor, skull, and core collapsed inward as the body went limp.
Two Rokude eliminated in less than two minutes.
Perhaps the monsters weren't weak.
Perhaps Pathro was simply monstrous.
His eyes glowed red as he turned westward.
In the next instant, he vanished.
The ground behind him fractured as he accelerated faster than sound, his movement tracing lightning across the ruined land. In seconds, he reached the edge of Japan, nothing but endless ocean ahead.
Pathro crouched, then launched himself.
He landed on the surface of the Indian Ocean and ran, each step detonating water beneath his feet. In under thirty seconds, the African continent rose before him.
Night blanketed the land.
Naturally, Africa lagged hours behind Japan.
Pathro halted and focused.
Three presences.
All Rokude.
All within a single nation.
"Nigeria," he murmured. "Scattered."
He exhaled.
"Hunting you one by one would be inefficient."
Pathro leapt high into the sky. His fist began to glow—red-hot, like molten metal drawn straight from a furnace.
"One strike," he said. "All of you."
He plunged downward.
The moment his fist met the ground, a transparent barrier enveloped his body.
Then
Calamity.
The explosion that followed erased Nigeria in an instant. Cities, mountains, and land itself vaporized into plasma. The devastation expanded outward, consuming neighboring regions. Within a thousand-kilometer radius, the crust collapsed, the country wiped from existence, the three Rokude erased without a trace.
The shockwave hurled Pathro across the continent.
He crashed into southern Africa, carving a crater into the land.
Rising slowly, he exhaled.
"…I held back," he admitted. "But if I keep this up, there won't be any ground left to stand on."
His eyes flared.
Two more Rokude, hiding nearby.
"Enough," Pathro said flatly. "Come out."
A sphere blast fired from behind, hoping to catch him off guard.
Pathro caught it with one hand, without even looking.
In the same instant, he vanished.
He reappeared directly in front of the Rokude behind him. It swung wildly, aiming for his head.
Pathro ducked, kicked it skyward, and hurled the captured blast back.
"Here," he said. "You dropped this."
The explosion detonated high in the atmosphere, sparing the land below, but the Rokude emerged, barely scratched.
"…You can tank your own blast," Pathro mused.
Too slow.
The second Rokude attacked from behind.
Pathro caught its arm, twisted, and snapped it clean off. His knee drove into its abdomen, cracking it open. A flying kick followed, its head burst apart in a spray of blood and shattered armor.
The surviving Rokude began forming another blast.
Pathro appeared in front of it before it could fire and punched straight through its torso.
"Haven't you learned anything?"
As it struggled, he flipped upward, locked his legs around its neck, and twisted violently.
The head tore free.
Silence returned.
---
Pathro scanned the ruined land in silence.
"…No more Rokude," he muttered.
He frowned slightly, thinking back. When he had first searched this world for human life, he hadn't sensed the Rokude either. They hadn't existed, not yet.
"So they only appeared after the test began," he realized. "And once they did… I had no trouble finding them."
That meant one thing.
This wasn't random.
A massive baobab tree stood nearby, its ancient trunk towering over the devastated terrain, the last thing resembling stability. Pathro leapt onto one of its thick branches and stood there, arms crossed.
"This test isn't over," he thought. "But what's the angle? Keep sending Rokude until I burn myself out?"
The answer came before the thought finished forming.
A presence.
Pathro stiffened.
His eyes snapped to the right, pupils contracting.
"…That's not Rokude."
For the first time since the trial began, genuine shock crossed his face.
The energy he sensed wasn't close, it was impossibly far.
Across the planet.
Deep within the Pacific Ocean.
At the ocean's abyssal depths, a massive, glowing sphere pulsed like a malignant star. Cracks spread across its surface and then it ruptured.
Something tore its way out.
Dark energy erupted outward, crushing the water around it. The ocean convulsed violently, tectonic plates screaming beneath the pressure. Colossal waves surged toward the continents, swallowing coastlines whole.
Had this been the real Earth, the death toll would have been beyond comprehension.
The waves raced across the globe, reaching even Pathro.
He clicked his tongue.
"Great," he said dryly. "A walking natural disaster."
Pathro clapped his hands together.
The air detonated.
A hurricane-force gust tore forward, splitting the incoming waves and forcing the water back, the ocean itself recoiling from him.
The sea floor ruptured.
From the exposed depths, the Zunan leapt.
It landed several meters from Pathro, the impact shaking the land.
Pathro studied it carefully.
"One massive red eye," he said. "Four meters tall. Ghostly white skin… and a mouth in the abdomen."
Recognition settled in.
"…So you're the Ichigan."
His expression hardened.
"They really went all out, huh? Sending me that thing."
He remembered the reports. Tokyo. The devastation. The regeneration that bordered on absurdity, a single surviving cell was enough. Endless stamina. No attrition. No mercy.
"This won't be a war of endurance," Pathro concluded. "I have to end it in one decisive blow."
Both his hands ignited, glowing bright red, like superheated metal moments from melting.
A grin tugged at his lips.
"Let's see if you're worth the hype."
He vanished.
Pathro lunged for the Ichigan's abdomen, fist screaming forward, but this was no Rokude.
The Ichigan reacted instantly.
It twisted aside and clasped its massive arms together, swinging them downward in a brutal slam.
Pathro barely escaped.
The Ichigan struck the ground.
The impact annihilated the land beneath it.
South Africa shattered. Shockwaves tore through neighboring countries, continents fracturing like brittle glass.
Pathro shot skyward and stared down at the devastation.
"…Damn," he muttered. "So this is Ichigan-level power."
He exhaled.
"Guess Sergeant Taneki really did save Tokyo."
Pathro descended onto what remained of the continent. Earlier, Nigeria along with everything in a thousand kilometer radius had been erased by his own hand. Now, the southern half of Africa lay in ruins from a single missed strike.
A shrill whine cut through the air.
Horn-like projectiles screamed toward him.
Pathro dodged, barely.
Two clipped him. One tore across his leg, another grazed his cheek. Blood spilled.
"…So those were fired from its body," he realized. "Fast. Dense."
Lethal.
The horns continued past him, piercing the land behind him as if it were paper.
The Ichigan dropped from the sky.
Fist raised.
Pathro braced, charging his right hand until it burned brighter than before. He leapt up to meet it.
Their punches collided.
The shockwave split the ground apart, ripping the terrain open for kilometers. Had that clash happened on the surface, the damage would've been catastrophic beyond measure.
Then
The barrier formed.
Transparent. Absolute.
Detonation.
Pathro released everything.
Every ounce of explosive power he possessed erupted at once.
The explosion erased what remained of Africa. The Pacific and Indian Oceans vaporized into plasma. A massive crescent-shaped scar carved itself into the planet,ten percent of Earth's crust gone in an instant.
When the light faded, the ground glowed magma-red.
Pathro landed, breathing heavily.
"…Did I get it?"
He searched.
Then he saw it.
A chunk of flesh, no larger than a human heart, charred, floating amid the molten ruin.
Pathro froze.
His blood ran cold.
The flesh twitched.
Then it regenerated.
In seconds, the Ichigan stood whole once more.
Pathro stared in disbelief.
"…That didn't kill it," he thought grimly. "It survived that."
His jaw tightened.
"This is bad."
---
Pathro stood amid the molten ruin, chest rising and falling heavily.
"From what we were taught…" he muttered between breaths, "…the Ichigan has no exploitable weakness."
His eyes narrowed.
"So the only option is overwhelming it with raw output. Makes sense."
A bitter smile tugged at his lips. "Vice Captain Taneki had to destroy the moon just to kill one."
He clenched his fists.
"Unlike him… my firepower isn't anywhere near that level."
Pathro slid into a martial arts stance, muscles tightening, focus sharpening.
"…Still," he thought, "I reduced it to a single chunk once. That means it's possible."
The Ichigan screamed.
The sound was apocalyptic, dense, vibrating, painful. Had there been glass left on this world, it would've shattered instantly.
Spiral horns erupted from its body.
Pathro moved.
He weaved between them, shattered several midair with precise kicks, and blitzed forward. The Ichigan swung both arms together in a crushing smash
Pathro caught one arm.
The impact split the ground beneath his feet, but he held firm, muscles screaming as he absorbed most of the force.
He roared, forcing the Ichigan's arms apart inch by inch.
A contest of strength.
Veins bulged. Bones groaned.
Then
Dark energy gathered.
The mouth in the Ichigan's abdomen opened.
A blast was forming.
Too close.
Too fast.
"…Crap."
BOOM.
The explosion detonated beside Pathro's face.
The planet's crust screamed as it warped further, Earth's silhouette bending closer to a crescent.
Both combatants were engulfed.
When the smoke cleared, Pathro stood, burned, bruised, suit torn, blood trailing down his face—but alive.
The Ichigan?
Reduced to scattered flesh.
Then the pieces moved.
They regenerated.
Pathro clicked his tongue.
"…Not fair."
He wiped blood from his mouth.
"My durability's higher than yours, but you recover instantly. You fire blasts without restraint. Your energy hasn't dipped at all…"
His breathing grew heavier.
"…And I'm the one running out."
The Ichigan's fingers reshaped, extending into massive sickle-curved claws.
Pathro's mind raced.
"My Explosive Fists trigger blasts on impact. The barrier only forms at detonation."
His jaw tightened.
"I can't activate it at will. That means against direct hits… only my body's durability is keeping me from becoming barbecue."
The Ichigan began charging another blast.
"Again?" Pathro muttered. "No cooldown too, huh?"
He leapt skyward.
"If the ground keeps getting destroyed, I'll lose mobility, I can't fly."
The blast fired.
Pathro swung his arm midair, releasing explosive force behind himself to redirect his trajectory, narrowly dodging it.
He descended with an axe kick.
The Ichigan blocked with its bone-like hand.
Crack.
The hand shattered, and instantly regenerated.
Pathro landed, dashed forward, and drove his fist straight into the Ichigan's eye.
Minimal damage.
A surge of energy repelled him violently.
He skidded across the magma-red ground, fingers digging in to slow himself.
"…Just a little more," he thought.
Then pain exploded through his body.
Spiral horns tore into him, three hits.
One through his right leg. Two through his left arm as he shielded his face.
He hissed, teeth clenched.
The Ichigan appeared before him in a blur, claws swinging.
Pathro deflected the strike with an upward kick and countered with a punch to its abdomen.
The Ichigan was sent flying kilometers away.
Pathro ripped the horns from his body, blood splashing onto the molten ground.
He didn't scream.
He charged.
The Ichigan dug its claws into the earth to halt itself.
Sensing Pathro's approach, it prepared another blast.
"…Damn it," Pathro thought. "I can't redirect that in time."
The blast fired.
Pathro dodged, but the blast continued downward, moments from detonating against the planet.
He vanished.
Pathro slammed a punch into the Ichigan's chest.
And activated his Explosive Fist.
At the same instant, the Ichigan's blast struck the ground.
Pathro's eyes widened with clarity.
"I can't one-shot it," he realized.
"So I didn't."
Every strike.
Every touch after his first strike failed.
From the very beginning
He had been planting dormant explosive energy inside the Ichigan.
Layer upon layer.
"Each impact transferred power equal to my maximum output," he thought.
"And now… it's all stacked."
The barrier snapped into existence.
Two explosions collided.
The Ichigan's blast.
Pathro's delayed chain reaction.
The planet ceased to exist.
Earth was torn apart, debris screaming into space, oceans vaporized, continents erased.
Pathro was hurled across space , slamming into the moon.
The impact carved a crater two kilometers deep. Magma and rock rained down.
Pathro lay there, coughing blood.
Then he laughed weakly.
"…I finally did it."
He forced himself upright.
"My first Ichigan Zunan."
His knees buckled.
Exhaustion crushed him.
"I underestimated it," he admitted. "Being top of my class really went to my head."
He stared at his shaking hands.
"I had to stack eight times my maximum output… delaying explosions like that nearly broke my concentration."
He exhaled slowly.
"…Hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon."
A portal opened before him.
Pathro smiled faintly.
"So that's it, huh? Guess the test's over."
He stepped forward.
"Wonder if Kiligaku and Toshiro are done already."
Wincing through the pain, Pathro walked into the portal, and vanished.