The aircraft landed several kilometers away from the neighborhood identified by Federation X's network, its engines falling silent beneath the cover of an ordinary industrial warehouse whose existence had long ago been absorbed into one of countless government shell operations.
By the time Akashi and Omoshiro reached the street, twilight had settled comfortably across the district, bathing rows of modest homes and family-owned businesses beneath the warm amber glow of streetlights that had only just begun replacing the fading sun.
Nothing about the place suggested it had become one of the most heavily monitored locations on Earth. Office workers carried convenience store bags while returning home, children argued over trivial games as they rode bicycles through narrow residential roads, and elderly couples wandered between small restaurants discussing ordinary concerns that possessed infinitely greater importance to them than wars, governments or Yin.
It was almost insulting in its normality. Somewhere within those peaceful streets walked a man capable of erasing his own existence from history itself, yet life continued around him with complete indifference.
Omoshiro walked several steps ahead with both hands resting comfortably behind his head, his posture carrying the same absent-minded ease that had gradually become more common ever since meeting Akashi.
Akashi followed beside him at a slower pace, though the expression resting across his face had become increasingly unusual the closer they approached the location. Confusion. Genuine confusion. It unsettled him more than any overwhelming opponent ever had. Throughout his life, every powerful Yin user had awakened the same instinct buried somewhere deep inside his existence. Fight. Improve. Climb.
His world had always been beautifully simple because he had unconsciously measured everything through that single desire. Mountains existed to be climbed. Opponents existed to be surpassed.
Yet the closer he drew toward Inei, the more those instincts quietly dissolved into something he had no language to describe. It was not fear. Akashi doubted fear even possessed a proper place inside him anymore. Instead, it resembled standing before a vast ocean after spending an entire lifetime believing only mountains existed. His body refused to decide what this man represented.
The convenience store appeared almost disappointingly ordinary, its illuminated sign humming softly above automatic glass doors while promotional posters advertised discounted drinks and late-night meals to the handful of customers drifting lazily through the aisles.
A mother compared prices between two brands of cooking oil. An exhausted salaryman absentmindedly browsed refrigerated drinks. Two teenagers laughed quietly while arguing over snacks.
Yet something felt profoundly wrong.
They simply continued walking deeper between the aisles until they rounded the final corner near the refrigerated section.
There he was.
Inei stood quietly before an almost empty shelf containing cigarettes, one hand resting inside the pocket of his trench coat while the other held a single unopened pack he had apparently just purchased.
His long black hair fell naturally across his shoulders, moving only slightly beneath the cool air circulating through the store. Without displaying the slightest hurry, he removed one cigarette, placed it calmly between his lips, then reached for a lighter resting beside the register. There was nothing theatrical about the movement. Nothing intimidating.
If anything, it possessed the practiced rhythm of someone who had repeated the same ordinary gesture thousands of times across decades. Yet the instant Akashi's eyes settled completely upon him, that strange emptiness returned with overwhelming clarity. Looking at Inei felt less like observing another person and more like staring into a void.
Inei acknowledged neither of them.
He lit the cigarette.
Took one slow breath.
Then simply walked between Akashi and Omoshiro without so much as turning his head, passing close enough that faint traces of tobacco drifted quietly through the air before continuing toward the exit exactly as though they did not exist.
Akashi remained standing for another heartbeat.
Then turned.
Without exchanging a word, both he and Omoshiro followed him outside.
Inei stopped only after several more steps, exhaling a thin stream of smoke toward the darkening sky before finally turning around. The cigarette rested comfortably between his lips while his expression remained completely unreadable, neither irritated nor curious, merely... tired. His eyes moved calmly from Akashi to Omoshiro before returning once again to Akashi, as though recognizing without surprise that neither intended to leave.
Inei – ''...What.''
He took another slow breath.
Inei – ''What do you two want?''
The playful curiosity that had accompanied him throughout the entire journey evaporated without warning, replaced by an erratic intensity unlike anything Omoshiro had witnessed before.
Invisible pressure rippled outward from Akashi's body as Omega stirred violently beneath his skin, not in preparation for battle but in response to something it could neither understand nor categorize.
Fine fractures immediately spread across the pavement beneath his feet before small pieces of asphalt rose several centimeters into the air, trembling violently against gravity itself. His black irises darkened until only brilliant crimson pupils remained visible, glowing faintly beneath the streetlights while the surrounding atmosphere distorted in uneven pulses that resembled heat rising from burning steel.
Akashi – ''...You.''
Another step.
Akashi – ''What... are you?''
Inei watched him for several silent moments before removing the cigarette from his mouth. No pressure emerged from his body.
Inei – ''What I am?''
A faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared.
Inei – ''What are you?''
Before Akashi could answer, Inei closed the distance separating them through nothing more than an ordinary series of steps. Yet each movement produced an increasingly unsettling sensation, as though the space surrounding him no longer agreed with conventional geometry.
Streetlights seemed fractionally farther away than they should have been. The air itself bent subtly around his silhouette, creating minute distortions that disappeared the instant anyone attempted to focus directly upon them. Omega reacted immediately.
Inei stopped scarcely an arm's length away.
His tired eyes never left Akashi.
Inei – ''Just leave me alone.''
The distortion surrounding him deepened.
The pavement beneath his feet remained perfectly intact, yet the space around his body appeared increasingly unstable, folding upon itself through invisible fluctuations.
The silence stretched until Omoshiro finally stepped forward.
Unlike Akashi, his expression remained almost perfectly calm.
Omoshiro looked directly into Inei's face.
Omoshiro – ''...Your eyes.''
Omoshiro continued.
Omoshiro – ''They're like mine.''
Tenka's voice erupted through the communication device with such urgency.
The calm composure that normally defined her reports had disappeared entirely, replaced by the clipped precision of someone simultaneously processing dozens of rapidly changing tactical displays while struggling to determine which information demanded immediate action.
Akashi instinctively lifted one hand toward the receiver resting against his ear, never allowing his eyes to leave Inei for even a fraction of a second. Whatever strange equilibrium had settled between them moments earlier remained intact, neither advancing nor retreating, each simply observing the other with intensity.
Tenka – ''Akashi... we've found him.''
The words alone altered the atmosphere.
Hearing Tenka speak those words with complete certainty immediately captured Akashi's attention despite the man still standing only a few meters away. Holographic coordinates unfolded before his eyes, displaying the eastern outskirts surrounding Yggdrasil where the military exclusion zone swallowed the last remains of civilization before surrendering entirely to the colossal tree dominating the Japanese landscape.
Tenka continued, her breathing noticeably uneven.
Tenka – ''Opposite side of Tokyo. Outer exclusion zone... close to the largest western root formatio, Enazumi is there.''
Another pause.
Then...
Tenka – ''He's not alone.''
Akashi's expression changed almost imperceptibly.
Tenka – ''The Golden Boy is with him.''
Akashi found himself standing before three completely different roads, each pulling upon his curiosity with equal force. Directly ahead remained Inei, a man whose mere existence was a mystery, Hundreds of kilometers away stood Enazumi, the invisible center around which countless lives had unknowingly revolved. And alongside him...
Kanji.
The only opponent who had ever grown at a rate fast enough to genuinely surprise Akashi after their battle.
Three mountains waiting to be climbed.
Yet despite every instinct telling him to move, his body remained perfectly still.
The realization irritated him far more than any enemy ever had.
Why?
Why wasn't he attacking?
Every fiber of his existence screamed that Inei represented one of the greatest unknowns he had ever encountered, yet that familiar exhilaration preceding battle refused to emerge. It almost felt as though Omega itself recognized something hidden beneath the weary man standing before him, not fear, not superiority, but an understanding that no human could understand.
Akashi had spent his entire life trusting his instincts more than reason, and now those very instincts betrayed every expectation he possessed.
Akashi frowned.
His jaw tightened.
Akashi – ''...Move.''
He wasn't speaking to Inei.
He was speaking to himself.
His frustration surged violently through Omega.
Without warning, crimson Yin exploded outward from his body with such overwhelming density that the surrounding neighborhood seemed to convulse beneath its arrival.
The pavement fractured in expanding circles while every nearby window shattered simultaneously, countless pieces of glass hanging suspended for a brief instant before crashing across the empty street. The pressure increased again. Then again. Omega answered his emotional conflict not by calming itself, but by amplifying every contradiction until its output multiplied beyond anything Akashi consciously intended. Buildings groaned beneath invisible force. Streetlights bent. hundredfold.
The expanding shockwave hurled Omoshiro violently across the street before Theta instinctively unfolded around his body, slowing the impact just enough for him to land against the wall of a nearby apartment complex instead of crashing directly through it. Dust drifted downward while broken concrete scattered across the pavement, yet even before standing again Omoshiro's attention had already returned toward the two figures facing one another in the middle of the ruined intersection.
Akashi barely noticed.
His eyes never left Inei.
Then...
Inei's expression lost the quiet resignation that had accompanied every previous word. It wasn't anger. Nor surprise. It resembled the expression of a man reluctantly accepting that the conversation had failed
The cigarette resting between his fingers continued burning undisturbed while the whites of his eyes slowly dissolved into absolute blackness. Only the very center remained visible, each iris gradually shifting toward a deep, impossible shade of blue that seemed almost detached from ordinary color itself.
Shadows bent through impossible angles despite the unchanged position of the evening sun. Reflections inside shattered windows refused to agree with the objects standing before them.
Still...
Inei said nothing.
He merely looked at Akashi.
Instinct screamed.
Akashi moved.
His body twisted sideways without conscious thought.
The world behind him vanished.
An entire section of the street simply... ceased existing.
Nearly thirty meters of asphalt disappeared completely, revealing naked bedrock beneath the city as though every layer of earth between them had quietly been removed from existence.
A parked car tilted violently toward the newly formed abyss, two wheels hanging over empty space before crashing against the remaining pavement with a deafening metallic shriek. Water pipes ruptured somewhere beneath the exposed foundation while electrical cables sparked helplessly into open air, yet the destruction itself carried no violence.
Akashi stared.
A single word escaped before he could stop it.
Akashi – ''...Tch.''
Pure instinct finally awakening.
His body leaned forward.
Muscles coiled.
Omega erupted once again.
This time there existed no hesitation.
His foot left the ground.
Then another hand caught his shoulder.
Akashi instinctively looked sideways.
Omoshiro.
Theta continued flowing calmly around him despite the destruction surrounding the neighborhood, his expression remaining remarkably composed even while dust drifted through the evening air behind them.
Omoshiro – ''Go.''
Akashi blinked.
Omoshiro never released his shoulder.
Omoshiro – ''I'll stay.''
His eyes quietly shifted toward Inei.
Omoshiro – ''This isn't the battle you truly want.''
Omoshiro smiled.
Only slightly.
Omoshiro – ''You're forcing yourself.''
Akashi looked back toward Inei.
Then toward the coordinates still floating before his eyes.
Enazumi.
Kanji.
Inei.
He genuinely didn't know what he wanted.
The uncertainty frustrated him more deeply than any defeat ever could.
Them...
A sound unlike anything either of them had ever heard rolled across the Japanese landscape, arriving not through the air alone but through the earth itself. Buildings trembled. Windows vibrated. Birds erupted from distant rooftops in enormous flocks while parked vehicles rocked gently upon their suspensions. The detonation had originated hundreds of kilometers away near Yggdrasil's exclusion zone, yet its force still reached them with terrifying clarity.
Akashi's head snapped instinctively toward the horizon.
He knew.
Two overwhelming powers had just collided.
One belonged to Kanji.
The other...
Had to be Enazumi.
Hundreds of kilometers separated them.
Akashi felt his heartbeat accelerate.
How...
The thought formed before he consciously realized it.
How strong have they become...?
Curiosity reclaimed him completely.
Without another word, crimson Yin erupted beneath his feet as the surrounding street collapsed into another crater. The next instant Akashi disappeared, accelerating so violently that the atmosphere behind him detonated into a thunderous sonic boom, leaving nothing except violently swirling air and shattered pavement where he had stood only a heartbeat earlier. There would be no helicopter. No transport aircraft. No waiting.
If those two monsters had already begun fighting...
He refused to arrive late.
--
The violent pressure left behind by Akashi's departure continued rolling through the neighborhood long after the crimson streak vanished beyond the horizon.
Dust drifted lazily across the shattered street while frightened civilians cautiously emerged from nearby buildings, confused expressions gradually replacing panic as the ordinary rhythm of life attempted to reassert itself
The battle that had almost begun had ended without a single punch, leaving behind only silence and a road carved apart by forces neither engineers nor governments would ever publicly acknowledge.
Omoshiro quietly watched the direction Akashi had disappeared until even Theta could no longer distinguish Omega's heartbeat from the countless other vibrations crossing Japan. Only then did he slowly return his attention toward Inei.
The older man had not moved since Akashi departed. The cigarette between his fingers had burned almost entirely away, leaving only a thin column of smoke rising quietly into the evening air before he finally dropped it onto the fractured pavement and extinguished it beneath his shoe. Without another glance toward Omoshiro, he simply turned his shoulders slightly, clearly intending to continue the peaceful evening that had been interrupted by two strangers who had suddenly decided to involve him in problems he neither wanted nor cared about.
Inei – ''Your friend finally left.''
His voice remained calm.
Almost bored.
He slipped one hand back inside the pocket of his trench coat before taking a single step away.
Inei – ''Good.''
Another step.
Inei – ''Then we're finished.''
Omoshiro didn't move.
He simply watched him.
Theta continued listening.
Omoshiro – ''No.''
Inei stopped.
it mildly irritated him.
Without turning around, he let out a quiet sigh that carried the unmistakable exhaustion of someone who had repeated the same conversation too many times throughout life.
Inei – ''You don't understand.''
His shoulders barely shifted.
Inei – ''People usually decide they're finished after I leave. You're saving us both time.''
Omoshiro remained exactly where he was.
His expression didn't change.
Omoshiro – ''I've never been good at saving time.''
That answer...
Actually made Inei glance over his shoulder.
Only briefly.
Then he looked away again.
Inei – ''...You really are friends with that monster.''
Several seconds passed before Omoshiro quietly shook his head.
Omoshiro – ''No.''
Inei waited.
Omoshiro – ''He's my first friend.''
Something about that honesty caused Inei's fingers to tighten almost imperceptibly inside his coat pocket.
He didn't reply immediately.
Instead he looked toward the darkening sky, as though hoping the silence itself would convince Omoshiro to leave.
It didn't.
Another sigh escaped him.
Slightly heavier this time.
Inei – ''...Young people are exhausting.''
Omoshiro walked forward until only a few meters separated them, stopping well outside what most fighters would consider striking distance. Neither caution nor aggression guided the movement. He simply wanted to see the older man's face more clearly.
When he finally spoke again...
His voice remained as neutral as ever.
Omoshiro – ''Your eyes.''
Omoshiro – ''They're like mine.''
The older man answered almost instantly.
Almost defensively.
Inei – ''No.''
Inei finally looked directly at him.
Inei – ''They aren't.''
His answer came faster than any previous sentence.
Almost reflexively.
Omoshiro didn't argue.
He simply kept looking.
Several uncomfortable seconds passed before Omoshiro quietly finished the thought he hadn't completed earlier.
Omoshiro – ''really..i dont think so.''
Another pause.
Omoshiro – ''Yours are clearly devoid of reason, similar to mine.''
...
Inei's expression actually changed.
It was the unmistakable look of someone hearing a sentence they had unconsciously waited years for another human being to say.
His gaze lingered on Omoshiro far longer than before.
When he finally spoke...
The irritation had softened.
Only slightly.
Inei – ''...Who taught you to look at people like that?Who do you think you are to say baseless claim to someone you just meet''
Omoshiro answered immediately.
Omoshiro – ''Nobody.''
Inei didn't try to leave.
He had almost forgotten what it felt like to genuinely want to continue a conversation.
Finally, without looking directly at Omoshiro, he spoke with the reluctant resignation of someone already annoyed at himself for caring.
Inei – ''...Walk with me.''
Omoshiro tilted his head.
Inei started walking.
Hands in his pockets.
Cigarette still unlit.
Inei – ''If we're going to waste my evening...''
A faint breath escaped through his nose.
It wasn't quite a laugh.
But it was closer than he'd come in many years.
Inei – ''...At least don't make me stand in the middle of the street while you do it.''
Omoshiro followed without another question.
For reasons neither of them fully understood...
It had been a very long time since either had found someone who looked less interested in their strength...
...and more interested in whether there was still a person beneath it.