Sweat streamed down Akio's face as he tracked Ryusei's movements. He smiled faintly, the smile of someone who had finally realized that speed alone would never be enough.
'I can't beat him by just chasing him… I have to make him take the first step.'
Akio lowered his gaze to the ground. The stone tiles were scorched with dark marks from their clashing blades, yet beneath that chaos… his energy was quietly seeping out. Tiny sparks crept from his fingertips, thin threads of light slipping between the cracks.
'This is my chance…'
{Vakin of Lightning — Vein of Raijin!}
Lightning flared briefly around his feet, then vanished. It was as if he had evaporated. The crowd noticed nothing. Even Ryusei didn't seem to care and continued walking forward steadily, stellar fragments orbiting him in a faint glow.
But when his foot touched one of the glowing points on the ground, light exploded beneath him. A sharp electric crack resounded, and a web of lightning veins shot through the floor like living nerves. Ryusei's body jolted violently, his arm lifting by reflex. Sparks burst around him like a small meteor detonating within his body.
From afar, Akio raised his head, that subtle smile of triumph returned to his face.
"Got you."
But he didn't yet realize that the flicker of scattered fragments wasn't coincidence. Ryusei hadn't fallen. A low choked groan escaped him, caught between pain and fury. His body trembled, but he didn't retreat. Slowly, he raised his head, his green eyes burning with a cold glow.
Veins spread across the side of his face and neck, pulsing under his pale skin with inner light. His grip tightened on the stellar sword until the fragments emitted a piercing sound like cracking glass.
He stepped forward once, the ground quaked. Then again. Then a third time. Each step drained what was left of his buried rage. His muscles tensed so hard that the air around him began to warp with faint heat.
He looked up at Akio and spoke with a low voice but filled with strain:
"You think pain will stop me? I've lived entire years in silence far crueler than this."
Then he raised his sword, and the light around him shattered into rings of glowing fragments.
Ryusei vanished in a moment. There was no clear flash, only broken gleams, as though light itself had splintered. Fine streaks of brilliance appeared in all directions around Akio, followed by a faint whistling sound like glass breaking in the void.
'Where did he—?!'
Akio spun, his blades were ready, but the first strike came from nowhere, flashing once before blood sparked across his shoulder. The second hit his arm. The third, his waist. Each strike landed before he could even perceive its source.
Then it hit him, panting between gasps:
'He's not moving fast… he's making light itself deceive me.'
He took half a step back, gripping his swords as sparks rose again from his body.
'Calm… think like lightning. Don't see it… be it.'
When the next faint whistle came, he didn't dodge. He charged straight into it with all the energy he had. The blades met midair, and the electric flare revealed Ryusei before him once more, face to face.
Akio roared, lightning coiling around him like a storm:
"I won't let the light fool me twice!"
Thunder and radiance exploded between them, the collision booming like a storm across the arena. Stellar shards scattered in every direction. Ryusei's movements began to slow, not from exhaustion, but from boredom. His expression didn't change, but his eyes lost their deadly gleam.
'How tedious… all this noise for nothing.'
He raised his stellar sword in his right hand and opened his left. Dozens of new fragments burst forth, orbiting him like tiny planets. With each subtle motion, they emitted slashes of light that sliced through the air.
In a single step, he closed the distance. No one saw what happened next. The blade sank into Akio's shoulder, then withdrew. Before he could cry out, a second thrust struck his side, a third pierced his thigh. Ryusei moved in silence, stabbing with surgical precision, each strike echoing like a repeating memory.
Akio dropped to his knees, blood dripping from every wound, yet his hands still clutched both swords. He rose again, his chest heaving like a drowning man, then lunged only to be pierced once more.
Ryusei said coldly:
"Your fall is slower than I expected."
From afar, Ann stared at the ring with a wide eyes, her lips were trembling as she whispered:
"He's… a child. He can't die here…"
Ken stood motionless, his arms were crossed, his eyes were empty of sympathy or admiration, only that grim silence that precedes truth.
He spoke quietly, his voice nearly drowned by the chaos:
"If he doesn't find a reason to stand… this ends now."
Akio's state was painful to watch, his body was screaming from inside. Blood streamed from his mouth, nose, and wounds. Yet he stood again, swaying, fighting against death itself. His grip on his swords remained tight, though his breaths had grown heavy and uneven.
He lunged forward as always, driven by instinct more than strategy, each step costing him double the pain. He tried to strike from the right, but his body betrayed him for a moment. And in that exact moment… Ryusei's sword pierced through his chest.
The sound of metal tearing flesh slowed in his ears, as if time itself decided to mock him. His eyes widened, blood splattering on the ground as he coughed violently, his mouth filling with the taste of iron. Everything around him stopped, the crowd, the noise, even the air, leaving only a faint heartbeat echoing in his ears.
'No… not today… I won't die today…'
Akio's body crashed to the ground, the earth shuddering beneath him, his swords clattering beside him like they were declaring the end. His hand pressed against the wound in his chest, the blood was seeping between his trembling fingers with searing heat. His breaths came short and uneven, each inhale another stab of agony. His wide eyes wandered aimlessly, following the gray sky above as if it were the last thing he would ever see.
'This pain… it's burning me from the inside… Is this… my end?'
His thoughts tangled with his ragged breaths, his inner voice trembling just like his body:
'I haven't reached anything yet… I haven't achieved anything… I haven't even started my journey.'
A few steps away, Ryusei was walking slowly, his sword still glowing. He didn't look back. His eyes carried the coldness of a killer who knew his opponent would never rise again. But inside Akio, there was no silence. There was chaos… there was a war between the pain pulling him into nothingness and a faint voice pulsing inside his chest.
'I wanted to be a Shogun… I wanted to change this world… I wanted to live a real adventure, with friends I could trust… It can't end like this.'
His hand clenched the blood-soaked dirt, sparks creeping weakly from his fingertips, it was small and fragile… but real.
'I… can't… die… now…'
Ann had reached her breaking point. She could no longer contain everything she'd held back that dreadful day. From the moment Mabushi fell until now, she had swallowed her anger and tears, but seeing Akio covered in his own blood, even though she had only met him hours ago, something inside her shattered.
She screamed suddenly, her voice was sharp enough to pierce the air, echoing through the arena:
"STOOOOP!!! You bastard!!!"
Everyone froze. All eyes turned to her, including Ryusei, who slowly turned his head. Ann stood there, the tears were filling her eyes for the first time, her face drawn tight with anger and shock.
She glared at him and shouted, her voice was trembling but fierce:
"You call yourself a samurai… and you attack a child?! Where is your honor?! A true samurai doesn't raise his sword against the weak! A samurai protects them, fights for justice, not for pleasure! What you did here… isn't victory, it's shame!"
The president froze on his platform, eyes wide at her boldness, unable to believe someone had interrupted the duel so fearlessly. Ryusei began walking toward her, slowly. His footsteps were calm, but each one felt like a stab into the silence.
He stopped a few steps away and looked at her with his cold eyes. His voice came out low, emotionless:
"This is none of your concern."
He lifted his head slightly, his words directed not just at her, but at the world itself:
"The traditional samurai… died long ago. There is no such thing as honor or mercy in battle anymore. All that remains… is survival of the strongest."
Then he turned toward Akio's fallen body and continued, his tone was frigid as before:
"That boy… was my opponent. Don't expect me to show mercy just because he's a child."
Ann's gaze hardened. She raised her voice again, this time not just with anger, but with defiance.
"What about Shogun Shiro?!"
The whispers stopped. Even the director lifted his head slowly towards her.
Ann continued:
"Would he have done what you did if he were in your place? Would he strike down someone who can't fight back anymore?!"
For a moment, silence ruled. Then Ryusei's eyes widened. He took a step forward, his grip tightening on the sword until the air around him trembled, his voice cracking with fury:
"Don't ever mention that name again…!"
But before he could take another step, the arena guards rushed in, realizing blood would spill if they didn't act. One grabbed his arm, another placed a hand on his sword hilt as Ryusei struggled violently to break free.
Amid the chaos, Ken stood up quietly from his seat. He took only two steps forward, his calm voice sliced through the noise like a blade:
"Enough."
The whole arena turned towards him. His gaze locked on Ryusei, his tone was cold, his eyes were sharp:
"A man who loses control over a few words… is not a samurai."
Everything froze. Even Ryusei didn't move. The air between them trembled with pure tension.