The battlefield lay silent, drowned beneath the ringing in Akira's ears. Dust floated like ash after a dying wildfire. His breath trembled as he knelt on the broken ground, blood dripping from where his left arm had been only moments ago. Half of his vision was swallowed in darkness—the world seen only through his remaining right eye.
His pulse hammered in his skull.
My hand… my eye…
He swallowed pain like poison, forcing himself to stay conscious. The air tasted like iron and smoke.
A faint crunch of footsteps sliced through the silence.
Akira raised his head.
Kaerath stepped out of the smoke—massive, injured, bleeding from his left eye, but standing tall with a cruel confidence. His red aura flickered behind him like burning embers ready to re-ignite.
He wiped the blood from his cheek and smirked sharply.
"Impressive," Kaerath said, his voice low and amused. "Only one fighter before you ever pushed me this far."
Akira's heart clenched at the meaning behind those words.
Him again… that unknown fighter. The shadow Kaerath keeps comparing me to…
But Kaerath's expression sharpened—predatory, merciless.
"But now," he continued coldly, "you're going to die. And you can join your little pretend family in the afterlife."
Akira froze.
The words pierced deeper than any wound.
Pretend family…?
Images flashed through Akira's mind—Li Wei's grin during training, Ishita's laughter echoing through the halls, the nights spent fighting side by side, trusting each other with their lives. The bonds they formed. The silent promises of loyalty.
They weren't blood-related.
But they were family.
Kaerath stepped closer, voice dripping with mockery.
"They're not real to you. Not really. They're just replacements you cling to. Isn't that right?"
Something snapped inside Akira.
A sharp, painful breath escaped him. His fingers dug into the cracked earth, trembling not from injury—but from something rising inside him, violent and uncontrollable.
At first it was a faint hum beneath his skin.
Then the air changed.
The ground trembled.
Kaerath's smirk faded.
A soft blue glow spread from Akira's chest, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Kaerath narrowed his eye.
"…What is this?"
Akira's breathing grew uneven. Every inhale shook through his entire body. Every exhale released shimmering blue particles into the air.
The glow intensified.
Not like before.
Deeper. Wilder. Unstable.
His aura was responding—not to survival, not to fear, but to something rawer.
Something rooted in loyalty… and rage.
Blue flames began crawling over his body, slow at first, then faster, as if recognizing the pain inside him.
Kaerath instinctively took a step back.
"This energy… it's stronger than earlier."
The air pressure around Akira skyrocketed.
Stones lifted from the ground.
Cracks spread outward in jagged lines.
A low vibration filled the dimension, like a storm preparing to tear it apart.
Akira slowly raised his head.
His right eye glowed—bright, unnatural, alive.
A swirling blue storm raged inside it, reflecting every ounce of fury and heartbreak.
Kaerath clenched his fist.
"This isn't normal aura… What are you?"
Akira stood—slowly, painfully, but with a strength that seemed impossible with his injuries. Blue flames rose behind him, forming a blazing column that climbed into the fractured sky.
"I'll tell you what I am," Akira said, voice trembling—but steady. "I'm someone who doesn't lose the people he cares about."
The flames surging around him intensified, turning the air into a roaring blue inferno.
"You call them fake… meaningless…"
Akira's voice rose.
"You mock the only real family I've ever had."
Kaerath braced himself as the aura burned hotter.
Akira took one step forward—
The ground shattered beneath him.
Another step—
The flames exploded outward in a blinding flash.
Kaerath shielded his face from the sudden blaze.
Akira roared—
"I WON'T LET YOU TAKE ANYTHING FROM ME!"
Blue energy spiraled upward, ripping the clouds apart. Shockwaves burst outward, slamming into the destroyed terrain.
Kaerath cursed under his breath.
"You're awakening…? How?!"
Akira didn't hear him.
Or maybe he did, but he no longer cared.
Every memory—every fight beside Li Wei and Ishita—every laugh, every scar, every moment of trust—fed into the power rising inside him.
This wasn't aura.
This was identity.
Akira spread his stance, flames swirling around him like the wings of a divine beast.
His voice thundered—
"I WILL WIN THIS TIME!"
The sky cracked with the force of his cry.
"BECAUSE I'M AKIRA TANKA!"
Kaerath barely had time to react.
Akira vanished from sight—
Blue trails glowing behind him like a comet.
Kaerath threw up his guard—
"Come then, Akira!"
Akira appeared in front of him in a burst of blue light.
The force of his speed shattered the ground beneath them.
Their auras collided—
Red inferno versus Blue awakening.
The shockwave blew apart the battlefield, sending debris flying in every direction.
And for the first time…
Kaerath slid back.
Not Akira.
Not the wounded boy missing an arm and an eye.
But the awakened warrior wrapped in blue flames.
Akira gritted his teeth, voice low and deadly:
"This fight isn't over."
He stepped forward.
"And neither am I."