Shinya stood face to face with the most renowned samurai in all of Japan. Mamoru Hasegawa.
Even still, Shinya was confident in his own ability. He'd already seen the outcome.
Hasegawa struck first. With a single slash of his sword, an entire corner of the building was cut off cleanly. Shinya of course moved out of the way. He already knew it was coming.
Shinya gradually lifted his hands up from his sides. In an instant a tower of water flung up surrounding all sides of the building.
Hasegawa looked up at the hole in the top. He sheathed his sword and took a stance. He kept his hand near his hilt, just barely touching it.
"Totsuka no Tsurugi (Sword of Ten Hand Breadths)."
Seemingly without even drawing his blade, Hasegawa cut the tower of water in half. Shinya ducked beneath the cut, already foretelling its arrival. The cut also sliced every building close to it in half within a three hundred foot radius."
Shinya's arm became covered in water. "Mizuchi."
A large water serpent came from his arm and attacked. Hasegawa leapt high into the air. The serpent chased him. "Futsunomitama!"
shing!
The slash of Hasegawa's sword completely demolished the building below along with mostly everything around it. A gust of wind flew upwards after the slash.
Shinya was standing on the side of one of the slashed buildings. He raised a hand. "Tsunami."
True to the name, a tsunami of water came out of nowhere.
Hasegawa fell from the air and landed on the ground with a loud crash. The gigantic wave of water grew closer. "Dojigiri Yasutsuna!"
An X-shaped cut went into the air and dispersed the entire tsunami.
Shinya landed on the ground. "They called you Hasegawa of the Thousand Swords. A well-deserved name indeed."
Hasegawa put his sword back in its sheath. "I don't think you have time for praise."
In the blink of an eye, Hasegawa was right behind Shinya.
"Hizamaru."
shing!
Shinya was cut in the back. He grit his teeth from the pain.
In another fraction of a second, Hasegawa was in front of Shinya. "Higekiri."
shing!
Shinya fell to his knees after the second cut.
In another flash, Hasegawa was several feet away from Shinya, with his back facing him. His sword was halfway into its sheath. "Onimaru."
click!
He put his sword back.
Shinya then realized that he was already cut a third time before Hasegawa even moved. He fell on his face.
"The way of the sword will always be supreme." Then Hasegawa heard a sizzling sound. He turned around to look at Shinya. His wounds were healing themselves.
"Hasegawa...!" Shinya stood up. "You took it! My vector!! I can't see it! I can't see the future!!"
"Yes...your rarity is gone now. It can never be retrieved. Now that you live in the present with the rest of us, you are no longer immortal!"
A black mist burst out of Shinya's body. "I'm going to end this here and now! Gashadokuro!!"
A giant human skeleton formed out of the black mist from the waistline up. It had what appeared to be dirty white bones and a few missing teeth.
Shinya raised his fist. The skeleton copied.
Hasegawa started to emit blue mist. His body began glowing.
Shinya sent the skeleton's fist forward. It was just inches away from the samurai.
Hasegawa put his hand on his sword. He opened his eyes. He had white irises that glowed from his Zen.
"Thunder God Susano'o...Kusanagi!!"
A clap of thunder descended from the heavens.
--
Usako Ban clawed his right hand. "I'll kill you..."
Mandarin started hopping from side to side. "Only if you can catch me!"
Ban lunged at him.
"Quiver!"
Mandarin disappeared. He started running up the side of a building.
Ban chased after him. He ran up the same building and stuck his hand into the side of it. Blue cracks went up the second half of the entire building and blew it off.
Mandarin backflipped off the building. Ban jumped towards him and kicked him in the back mid air. He kicked him into a building on the opposite side of the street.
"You're faster than I thought you'd be..." Mandarin said. "Let's go! Quiver!" He disappeared again.
A vein pulsed in Ban's forehead. "You little..." Ban and Mandarin started moving at nearly the same speeds. They clashed back and forth.
--
Takeshi caught a hold of his breathing. "What can I do..." He took a glance at his car. It was crushed, but the trunk was popped open as a result. He grunted as he pushed it open. There was a black briefcase inside. He pulled it out and laid it on the ground. Inside was a sniper rifle. "Haven't used this in a while..."
--
Kouta and Hyun-Joo were completely focused on each other, oblivious to what was happening around them.
Hyun-Joo was beginning to overpower Kouta with his ice. At the end of the day, Kouta didn't have a true flame vector. He could only generate explosions or small amounts of fire.
Hyun-Joo covered his fist in ice and gave Kouta a solid hit to the chest.
Kouta slid back, out of breath. He started emitting steam from his body. "I have to risk it..." Kouta's eyes started glowing red. "Kidomaru!!" Kouta's muscles bulged as his skin began to turn pink.
Hyun-Joo rushed him again. This time Kouta disappeared from his sight. He appeared directly above him and pushed his foot into Hyun-Joo's back. He was slammed into the ground knocking his head into the asphalt below. Kouta then picked him up and threw him into the air. He chased him down at grabbed his head with both hands.
Hyun-Joo could feel Kouta's palms heating up as the orange glow grew brighter.
boom!!!
--
Takuya and Akane were engaged in a battle of close combat. Takuya was slightly faster, but Akane was more skilled and nimble. She mainly used her legs to fight, as her arm strength was not nearly as strong.
Akane noticed the helicopter keeping a relatively safe distance away from the fights happening on the ground. It likely had cameras. The entire scene was being used as a live news feed.
"That's funny." Akane said. "I never heard anything about you or Hyun-Joo working under Ban."
The two fought and talked simultaneously.
"I don't work for Ban. I'm not a traitor like you and Fujin."
"Then why are you two even here?"
"Shinya wants Kouta dead. No other way to put it!"
"I know that's not how you feel!! No one actually follows Shinya with all their heart! That's the reason I went with Ban in the first place! But being with Kouta I now see, that neither of them was the right answer!"
"And Murakami is? He's just hellbent on revenge!"
"Even still! He has the best interests at heart for the people around him!"
Akane created some distance between her and Takuya. She looked up. The helicopter was almost directly over her head. She bent her knees and jumped up towards it, outstretching her hands so she could grab on.
pow!!
A gunshot ran through the air. Akane was hit. She let out a scream and fell to the ground.
Takuya was stunned. "Where'd that come from?!" He looked both ways.
pow!!
Another shot hit him in his chest. He clutched at the wound and fell to the ground.
Takeshi took cover behind his car. "I got two of them! There's still at least four more though..."
Mandarin flew in out of nowhere and hit the ground. Ban started walking towards him. "Brats like you always think they can do something by themselves. I've been around way longer than you kid."
Kouta walked up from a side street. He froze when he saw Mandarin standing up.
Mandarin noticed him. He put a finger to his lips, telling Kouta not to say anything.
Ban's gaze went to Kouta. His eyes narrowed.
Kouta saw Akane on the ground in pain, clutching at her leg. He ran over to her. "Akane! Akane! What's wrong with your leg?!"
"I was shot. There's a sniper behind that car..."
Takeshi overheard. He started running. First he slipped into a backstreet and took off.
Kouta contemplated going after him, but decided that he wasn't a serious threat.
He knew that he had to get Akane back to the hideout. Saki could treat her.
Mandarin was just a few feet from him on the right. Kouta stared.
"We'll talk later." Mandarin said.
Kouta nodded. He picked Akane up. The helicopter was still flying above the scene. Kouta reached his hand up. Ice burst out of his arm and formed a giant five-fingered claw of ice. He used it to grab the helicopter and crushed it. He threw the helicopter to the side and let it hit a building, destroying it all.
"You killed Hyun-Joo."
Shinya was walking up the street with his hands in his pockets. His clothes were torn to shreds, but he had no visible wounds.
Blood dripped out of Kouta's hands. Akane was losing a lot of blood. And fast. She fainted.
"Akane. Stay with me. I can't let you die on me!" His body started steaming.
Shinya smirked. "You really did a number on me, Kouta. But all of that ends today."
Ban started laughing out loud. "Interesting!! Shinya, who gave you so much trouble?!"
Shinya cracked his neck to both sides. "It's nothing. I ran into Hasegawa on my way here. Don't worry though. You're going to die here as well."
Mandarin's eyes widened in shock. "Hasegawa?! No way!"
Shinya took his hands out and the wind started blowing violently. "And is that Mandarin?" Shinya started laughing. "It's like killing three birds with one stone!!"
The clouds in the sky started to swirl in a clockwise rotation. Shinya raised a hand in the air. A vortex formed in the clouds and started to descend. When they reached Shinya's hand, he was controlling a tornado of wind and water that was over twenty-thousand feet tall.
The sheer wind force was knocking over entire buildings. Everything in the surrounding area was being destroyed.
Shinya started laughing some more. "You can all die right here!!"
Ban grinned. "I'm up for the challenge!! HURRAAGGGH!!" he roared. He put both hands in the air and pulled down on it. Large blue cracks violently went all the way up to the sky and the space around it. The ground started shaking from the pressure.
"Kouta, run!!" Mandarin said.
They both started running as far away from the scene as possible before they were caught up in the blast.
Shinya pulled his arm down, bringing the tornado to the street.
Ban brung a hand up towards it.
Destruction.
Kouta saw the shockwave headed for him. He covered Akane as much as he could and yelled out as it hit him.
Takeshi was still running away. But he too was overtaken by the blast. It wiped out everything.
Thousands of people died in seconds. Everything from stores, to apartments, to monuments, to temples, even Tokyo Tower was caught up in the shockwave. It was all obliterated.
What was left after the legendary clash of Abe Shinya and Usako Ban was a barren wasteland.