Tyouro's fist stopped inches from Kimimaru's face.
"Why aren't you saying anything?!"
Kimimaru stared at him.
"...What do you want me to say?"
"Say that you're angry!"
Kimimaru remained silent.
"Say that you're hurting!"
Nothing.
"Say that you miss him!"
Kimimaru's eyes shifted slightly.
Tyouro noticed.
"You do, don't you?"
Kimimaru looked away.
Tyouro clenched his fists.
"Then why are you acting like this?!"
Kimimaru's voice remained calm.
"Because getting angry won't bring him back."
Tyouro's face twisted with frustration.
"You think I don't know that?!"
He slammed his fist into the ground.
"Do you think I want to be angry?!"
The flames around him suddenly erupted.
"I watched him die!"
His voice cracked.
"I watched our teacher sacrifice himself while we stood there!"
Kimimaru didn't respond.
Tyouro pointed at him.
"And you're just standing there!"
Kimimaru finally looked at him.
"I saw it too."
"Then SHOW IT!"
The words echoed through the burning barrier.
"Just once, Kimimaru!"
Tyouro's eyes began trembling.
"Just once, stop acting like nothing can hurt you!"
Kimimaru's expression remained almost completely emotionless.
But his hands slowly clenched.
Tyouro noticed.
"...You're hurting."
Kimimaru said nothing.
Tyouro's voice became quieter.
"You remember what he told us, right?"
Kimimaru looked at him.
"That we were going to become great warriors."
Tyouro swallowed.
"He believed we'd become stronger than him someday."
Kimimaru lowered his eyes.
"I remember."
"Then why are you giving up on him?"
Kimimaru's eyes narrowed.
"I'm not."
"Then what are you doing?!"
Kimimaru looked toward the ruined academy.
"I'm remembering."
Tyouro froze.
Kimimaru continued calmly.
"Every lesson."
"Every mission."
"Every time he corrected us."
"Every time he told us to stand back up."
His voice remained steady.
"But if I let myself lose control now..."
He looked directly at Tyouro.
"...then everything he taught us means nothing."
Tyouro's anger returned.
"You're wrong!"
The flames exploded around him.
"Being strong doesn't mean you have to pretend you don't care!"
Kimimaru stared at him.
Tyouro's voice cracked.
"He cared about us!"
"He called us his students!"
"He believed in us!"
"And now he's gone!"
Tyouro wiped his eyes angrily.
"So I'm not going to stand here pretending I'm fine!"
Kimimaru remained silent.
Tyouro stepped closer.
"You're allowed to miss him, Kimimaru."
The flames around him began burning brighter.
"You're allowed to be angry."
"You're allowed to hate this."
"You're allowed to cry."
Kimimaru's eyes lowered.
"But you're not allowed to disappear inside yourself."
For several seconds...
Kimimaru said nothing.
Then he quietly answered:
"...I won't."
Tyouro stared at him.
Kimimaru raised his head.
"But I won't let my grief control me either."
Tyouro clenched his fists.
"Then fight me."
Kimimaru's expression became serious.
"Fine."
The flames surged.
"Not because we hate each other."
Tyouro took his stance.
"Then why?"
Kimimaru disappeared.
An invisible slash tore through the ground.
His voice came from behind Tyouro.
"Because we both promised him we'd become stronger."
Tyouro turned around.
His eyes burned with determination.
"...Then let's see who gets there first."
The two charged toward each other.
And above them...
The Sun became brighter.
The flames surrounding Kimimaru and Tyouro continued to rise.
The barrier wasn't ordinary fire anymore.
It had become unbearably hot.
Everyone outside could feel it.
Kairo wiped the sweat from his forehead while staring through the flames.
"How is it this hot...?"
Yura was sitting against a broken wall, still badly injured. She looked toward the two fighters.
"Kairo..."
He turned toward her.
"Stop them."
Kairo looked at the burning barrier.
"I can't even get through that."
Yura's expression became serious.
"Then find another way."
Kairo clenched his fist.
"I'll try."
Inside the barrier...
Tyouro charged forward.
"COME ON, KIMIMARU!"
Kimimaru didn't answer.
He simply stood there.
Calm.
Still.
Tyouro swung his fist.
Kimimaru disappeared.
Tyouro's eyes widened.
"What—?!"
SLASH!
An invisible cut passed across the ground beside him.
Tyouro immediately jumped backward.
Kimimaru was suddenly standing several meters away.
It looked like he had teleported.
But he hadn't.
His movement had simply been so sudden and precise that Tyouro couldn't see the transition.
Tyouro gritted his teeth.
"Stop running!"
Kimimaru looked at him.
"I'm not."
Tyouro charged again.
Kimimaru vanished from his sight.
Another invisible slash.
SHING!
Tyouro blocked it with his flames.
The attack still pushed him backward.
Kimimaru appeared behind him.
Tyouro spun around.
"THERE!"
He punched.
Kimimaru leaned slightly to the side.
The punch missed.
Kimimaru's hand moved.
Another invisible slash.
Tyouro jumped away.
His breathing became heavier.
"You're pissing me off!"
The flames around Tyouro suddenly grew.
The temperature skyrocketed.
Outside the barrier, everyone immediately felt the difference.
Kairo stepped backward.
"WHAT?!"
Yura covered her face from the heat.
"It's getting hotter!"
Students who were already injured struggled to move away from the barrier.
Sweat poured down their faces.
Even the metal around the ruined academy began becoming hot enough to glow.
Kairo looked upward.
Then he noticed something strange.
The Sun.
It seemed brighter.
Its light was becoming more intense.
Far beyond Earth, something about the Sun was changing.
Tyouro didn't notice.
He only felt his anger growing.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST STAND THERE LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED?!"
His flames exploded outward.
The entire barrier shook.
Kimimaru stood inside the inferno.
Still calm.
Still silent.
Tyouro raised his hand.
A massive sphere of fire began forming above him.
The light became almost blinding.
Kairo's eyes widened.
"That's not normal fire..."
Yura stared at it.
"Tyouro..."
The sphere grew larger.
The heat became unbearable.
Even Kimimaru's clothes began moving from the pressure.
Tyouro shouted.
"ANSWER ME!"
Kimimaru looked at him.
"...You're angry."
"OF COURSE I'M ANGRY!"
The sphere above Tyouro suddenly became brighter.
Kimimaru looked upward.
For the first time, his eyes narrowed slightly.
"...Interesting."
Tyouro didn't understand what was happening.
He thought it was simply his own flames becoming stronger.
But far beyond the Earth...
The Sun continued to burn brighter.
Its energy was somehow responding to Tyouro's anger.
And Tyouro didn't even know it.
Kairo stared at the barrier.
"If this keeps getting hotter..."
Yura finished his sentence.
"...everyone around them is going to collapse."
Kairo stepped forward.
"I have to stop them."
Yura grabbed his arm.
"Don't."
Kairo looked at her.
"It's too hot."
"I know."
She looked toward Kimimaru.
"But they're not fighting because they hate each other."
Kairo remained silent.
Yura continued.
"They're fighting because neither of them knows how to deal with what happened."
Inside the barrier, Tyouro screamed again.
"FIGHT ME!"
Kimimaru lowered his stance.
"...Fine."
Tyouro charged.
Kimimaru disappeared.
SHING!
An invisible slash cut through the flames.
Tyouro barely dodged.
Kimimaru appeared behind him.
Tyouro turned.
Kimimaru was already gone again.
Left.
Right.
Behind.
Above.
Each movement was so sudden that it looked like teleportation.
Tyouro couldn't keep track of him.
But instead of becoming afraid...
He became angrier.
And the angrier he became—
The brighter the Sun became.
Kimimaru suddenly stopped.
He looked toward the sky.
Something was wrong.
The sunlight pouring through the broken academy had become almost unbearable.
Tyouro looked upward.
"...Why is it so bright?"
Neither of them knew.
Neither understood.
But something had begun awakening.
And the Sun...
was listening to Tyouro's anger.