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[Other side of the Eastern forest, 1:40 AM]
Thunder cracked overhead overshadowing the machnical buzz of multiple toy bettle drones. Rain pattered off their wings as they darted through the canopy, colorful glows blinking through the storm.
"Okay, we're ready to go. Lead the way," said Child Emperor, his yellow raincoat clung to his frame.
Toru stood beside him, eyes fixed on the handheld device in his grasp, displaying a digital compass.
"They shouldn't be far," he muttered. But suddenly—the glow turned red as it continuously blinked.
His heart sank. His thumb trembled over the device as he read the sudden text.
'Wait… It can't be him… Then what happened to Kazuhiro?'
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Xxxx
WARNING: A THREAT IS APPROACHING
• THE 8TH (TAKESHI HANAMURA).
A BOSS BATTLE HAS BEEN INITIATED.
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The two heroes studied Toru's expression only to be soon alerted, something is coming their way—
Metal Knight's visor lit up. "Energy surge inbound. Target approaching fast."
Child Emperor's sensors spiked. "Above us—!"
BOOOOOM!!
A sonic explosion shattered the air.
Wind howled as it crashed on to the ground.
Trees snapped, uprooted and hurled like debris. Stones cracked and tore loose as the forest floor cratered inward.
A raw clearing formed, carved out by the violence of that single strike.
From the sky, a black figure descended
His geta clacked against the wet ground. His dark kimono fluttered against the backlash of residual wind,
Mist and dust spiraled around the area due to the impact, masking everything in its surroundings.
At the edge of the crater, he stood surveying the damage of his own arrival.
WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIR—
A sharp whistle cut through the heavy dust.
Dozens of glowing-red missiles shot through.
In response, Takeshi's fingers twitched.
SHIIING—
In a blur, his katana arced upward in a vertical slash that carved the very air. A sharp ring of compressed wind burst out like a wall.
KRAKKA-BOOOOM!!
Missiles collided—
Fire licked against Takeshi's wind barrier, hissing as it fought to break through. His vision was then swallowed in the haze of the explosion's aftermath.
He swung his blade sideways.
WHHHHHHSHHH!
A horizontal burst of wind tore through the smoke, clearing the battlefield in a sweeping arc—His ears caught on the sound.
'Above.' His gaze snapped upward.
A thunderous roar split the sky as a cluster of missiles rained down.
And behind them—
Metal Knight.
No longer in his standard battle mode—his form had twisted, armor compressed into a conical drill, spiraling at high velocity. From above, he descended, the air shrieking around him as his frame blurred against the storm's veil. Lightning cracked behind his trail, flames reflecting off his metallic shell.
That angle.
That speed.
That weight.
"...Tch."
Not even his wind can stop that.
And in a burst of momentum, he vanished.
BOOOOOOM!!
Both the missiles and Metal knight hit where Takeshi had stood—the earth erupted.
Shockwaves rippled outward in a hellish quake. The blast hollowed out the surrounding terrain, carving a raw crater with one violent spin.
its form burrowing deep into the bedrock with a thunderous grind.
From a nearby ledge, Takeshi stood, eyes narrowed through the dust-storm.
"He's going underground now?" His grip tightened around the hilt at his hip.
"What is it up to this time…"
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Meanwhile—
As the dust began to settle, a shimmering sphere of energy hummed quietly within the crater. It pulsed faintly—shielding two figures from the chaos beyond.
Child Emperor, crouched under an umbrella, the emitter of the barrier around them.
"You okay?" the boy genius asked, eyes scanning through sensor feeds on his wrist module.
Toru exhaled, adjusting his damp collar. "...I guess. For a kid, you've got some absurd tech."
Child Emperor deadpanned. "You talk as if you don't have powers of your own."
"…Fair." Toru rubbed the back of his neck, he did mention his abilities beforehand, but he made sure not to go into detail.
The two stared out past the glow, to where dust and mist still cloaked the battlefield.
"That him?" Isamu's eyes narrowed at the figure in the distance—Takeshi, barely visible beyond the wreckage.
Toru shook his head. "No. He's not the one… but I recognize him." His brows furrowed, "He's the one I spotted during my surveillance inside the castle. I suspected him to be their leader."
Isamu frowned, "Then we're behind schedule."
Without another word, he passed the umbrella to Toru.
"Hold this."
"Huh?" Toru blinked,
Isamu didn't glance back.
His gaze had shifted—locked onto something beyond the battlefield. Flames beginning to crawl unnaturally high in the far distance.
"If I don't handle this fast, your coworkers die. You want your people alive? Then stay put."
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Takeshi stood,
He observed the ground where Metal Knight had drilled through.
His brow twitched.
Something was wrong.
That machine—it vanished underground, but his instincts didn't warn him. Not yet.
Through the storm's veil his senses picked up on the pungent tang of scorched bark that wafted through the air. In the distance, fire flickered faintly behind a swell of smoke.
'Surya…' he mused grimly. 'It seems he's testing them.'
A brief grunt escaped him as he shifted his gaze back toward the crater's edge.
Through the thinning dust on the far side of the clearing he caused, his enahanced sight caught a silhouette, an umbrella shielding his frame.
'There's no doubt. That is him, the boy from the intel. However...' But then—his gaze shifted slightly as if trying to search for someone
A figure. Not in the footage.
"…It seems that creature had more allies hidden elsewhere."
WHIP!
Something zipped through the haze in an instant... a pencil?
It blazed through with uncanny speed.
Takeshi's instincts roared to life. His left foot slid back—shing!—and a spiral barrier of compressed wind snapped into form just as—
BOOM!!
The projectile detonated, splashing heat and pressure across his guard.
Takeshi clicked his tongue, irritation breaking through his usually cold demeanor.
"Tch. Im getting weary of explosives…"
The hairs on his body stood up.
'—behind!'
He twisted, spinning low with a draw of his blade as something is approaching—fast
CLANG!
His katana clashed with metal limbs—a cyber dog with human limbs, lean and agile, fists whirring with built-in engines. Its eyes blinked red, part of Child Emperor's high-speed assault units.
Before Takeshi could press in—
VRRRRRMMM!
The robot's forearms split open, revealing twin blades and thruster ports. It lunged, closing the distance.
The automated unit surged forward, bladed arms spinning,
Takeshi sidestepped the first blow. His sandals slid across fractured stone, and with a twist of his hips—shhhhiiing!—his katana carved a clean crescent through the mist. The arc of air pressure howled outward.
WHOOOOM!!
The gust blasted the robot off its feet. It spun mid-air, recalibrated, then launched grappling hooks into nearby trunks to stabilize. Its metal limbs hissed with heat from internal boosters.
From above—more units dropped in. Insect-like, small, fast. They zipped in from the forest canopy, each carrying explosives or taser nets. Child Emperor, hidden behind cover, was already inputting new commands.
Takeshi stood, blade lowered at his side.
One breath.
Two.
In a blink, he was gone.
CLANG—CLANG—CLANG!
Multiple bots were cleaved apart mid-lunge. Circuits flared, sparks hissing out before—
BOOM!
BOOM!
Chain explosions rippled through the field as their cores detonated
Takeshi dashed through many. His blade drew tore through the machines.
''He's fast...'' Child Emperor watched. The hidden toy insects providing him vision on the battlefield
Only then did Tekeshi step where he wanted him to.
"Now."
From the underbrush, three of his Underdog-Men Units, previously cloaked in passive standby, surged forward—one armed with electro-spears, another with restraining nets, and the third ready to detonate on impact.
Takeshi felt it.
His stance shifted.
SHHHHHHINK—
He spun.
In one flowing motion, he lowered his stance, katana drawn close to the ground, then swept upward in a tight spiral slash. The very air twisted around him—compressed and sharpened.
WHRRRRRRAAASH!!
A vortex of slicing wind erupted from his blade. The gust howled outward in a wide circle, howling through trees and robots alike.
The closest unit was launched skyward, sliced in half midair, while the other two were blown off their path. one crushed against a tree trunk, the other slammed into its ally, detonating prematurely in a burst of flame.
Though he wasn't done...
His foot skidded through the wet soil as he pivoted sharply, slashing upward—
FWOOOSH—
A curved gust shot forth, shattering an incoming missile barrage midair. The blast illuminated his grim face for a moment—eyes narrowed, mouth drawn in irritation.
But then—he felt it.
A shift in the earth below.
'...!!'
He launched upward just as the ground beneath cracked open. But what erupted wasn't Metal Knight.
A swarm of small, rodent-like bots burst out—each one smiling with sharp drills on their head.
As he was in the air,
A new volley of pencil missiles shot toward him—angled to box him in mid-flight.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
He blocked the wave with a desperate sweep of wind—but the concussive force knocked him further into the air, his back facing the forest.
And that's when his instincts screamed.
'Behind—!'
His eyes flared wide as his fingers shaped a spiral of air, trying to halt his momentum midair.
The wind obeyed—halting his body.
SHRICK!
He was too late to act.
A thin, near-invisible thread lacerated the air behind him.
Blood sprayed from his back.
Takeshi let out a sharp gasp as pain bloomed.
His kimono shredded where the cut passed—muscles torn.
Takeshi landed hard, feet carving trenches in the mud, one hand behind his bleeding back as wind swirled around him protectively.
Takeshi dropped to one knee.
His breath came in heavy bursts. Deep gashes tore across his back, blood dripping into the mud below, mixing with the rain.
Steam hissed from his skin—a sign his regenerative ability had finally kicked in, but slow, taxed by damage that cut too deep, too fast.
"Tch…!" He spat blood, the copper taste bitter on his tongue.
His eyes narrowed, falling to the scorched crater he caused.
'Just like back then… back in the castle. That trap...'
His vision sharpened, scanning the rim of the blast zone.
"To be grazed... then wounded." His fingers twitched around his blade. "Unforgivable."
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From behind the jagged edge of a cracked boulder, Child Emperor crouched, eyes scanning the readouts on his tablet.
He dispatched a bug drone into the misty field.
FWIP.
SHNK—!
The drone was sliced midair—pierced by something unseen.
His eyes narrowed.
"…So it's like that, huh?"
He turned, glancing to where he left Toru before.
'Gone.' He blinked. 'Is it really just setting up traps?' His brows furrowed. What Toru gave them about his abilities was vague. 'I'll ask about his abilities later on. But for now—'
—BEEP.
An alert lit up across his display.
"Huh?"
The sensors detected a sudden spike in ambient temperature.
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Takeshi slowly straightened. The muscles along his back twitched as they stitched themselves together.
The pain was... distracting. Irritating.
"This is disgraceful." His eyes half-lidded with contempt. "I need to finish this—fast."
His hand reached for his katana—
But he froze.
Something was wrong.
The air... was growing hotter.
Much hotter.
His brows furrowed. "This heat—"
His head whipped toward the forest behind him, pupils contracting. A shimmering orange pulse rippled through the mist.
His heart skipped.
"No…"
"Don't tell me—!"
His wrist snapped up.
"LISTEN UP!" His voice roared into the comm channel.
"THIS IS ABOUT SURYA—"
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[Other Side of the Eastern Forest]
A door shimmered into existence among the charred forest—buzzing softly before clicking open.
"Get them inside," Jiraiya ordered, arms folded.
'He looks like one of them kabuki plays...' Denji he thought bluntly, squinting at the strange man with the face paint and wild hair.
He had one shoulder supporting Akemi, the other Asahi, both unconscious.
Pochita trotted close, as soon as they crossed the threshold, the door blinked out of existence—sealing them away from what was to come.
Jiraiya's gaze shifted forward.
A figure knelt amid the destruction—His head hung low, his body mangled, right arm severed at the shoulder. His face had been seared raw, exposing muscle and bone, his upper body scorched from the explosion and yet something about the stillness felt... wrong.
'I thought energy manipulation didn't exist in this world…' Jiraiya thought as he recalled the people back in the market, he narrowed his eyes. 'Then how the hell did he summon that kind of fire?'
He stepped forward cautiously, gaze locking on the severed arm. The disc on it's wrist has gone inert—lifeless now. Still, it glinted with something unnatural.
'Could it be, by the use of tools? ...Maybe'
Jiraiya retrieved a sealing scroll. He placed the disc at its center and weaved a quick hand sign.
FWHUMP.
The disc vanished into the seal as new markings began to form on it's surface.
He moved to claim the other one—still attached to the man's wrist—when a whisper slithered through the scorched wind.
"In..."
Jiraiya's ear twitched.
His steps halted. The whispers, it came from that man.
"Is it because... I was careless?"
"No."
His voice, now warped and distorted.
"It's this world's fault... the creator's fault... for making it so boring…"
Jiraiya's brows furrowed. The temperature had begun to rise—fast. The disc on Aarav's remaining wrist flared, spinning erratically.
FWOOSH!
Flames erupted from Aarav's body. His skin blistered, peeled away, replaced by writhing fire. The heat distorted the air, the drops of rain around him began to hiss.
Jiraiya reacted instantly.
THWIP!
A kunai flew straight for Aarav's skull—aiming to end it clean.
But—
it melted...
The red flames on Aarav's body expanded, as the disc on his wrist spun like crazy. Then-
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
An explosion tore the landscape apart like a NUKE. The sky was pierced by the demonic flame, creating a hole within the storm. —waves of fire devouring and turning everything into ash in a large radius...
What once was a historic landmark, the forest and it's castle, now turned to dust.
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