This event would go down to be known as the single most devastating terrorist attack in world history. And it was caused by two very dangerous men; Usako Ban and Abe Shinya.
In the middle of the freshly made wasteland, the only noise that broke the dead silence was the sound of the wind blowing against the ground. It continued to rain. Harder now than before.
The news was quickly spread all over the entire world. Everyone knew about what happened within minutes.
Kouta found himself near the very edge of the affected area. He'd blacked out from the impact. He was bleeding from the head and various other places. He looked in his arms. Akane was still there, but she was badly injured. As if she wasn't already bleeding enough, there were shards of glass in her torso. She was completely limp and unresponsive. "Akane? Akane!! Damn it!!"
He looked around. There was nothing around him. Just destruction. There was no sign of Mandarin. He stood up, wobbling to catch his balance, then started looking around. "Taku?! Taku!! Answer me!!" He started running. "Taku!! Answer me if you're still there!!"
Kouta saw someone's orange hair in the distance. "Taku!!" He ran towards Mandarin, Akane still in his arms. He knelt down. "Taku! Hey, Taku, answer me!"
Mandarin opened his eyes. "Kouta...talk about a reunion huh?" he said groggily.
Kouta lifted up a piece of concrete that was crushing Mandarin's lower body. He didn't move.
"Get up, we've got to get away from here!"
Mandarin let out a gasping huff of a laugh. "Forget about me Kouta. My legs are crushed. I can't move."
Kouta started tearing up. "Taku...I don't know what to do anymore! I'm not gonna let you die!"
"Heh...Kouta...even if I do somehow make it away from here, I won't be able to walk...and who is gonna treat a criminal like me?"
Kouta frowned. "I promise I'll get your legs back, I swear it! So don't die!! Don't die on me!!"
Mandarin closed his eyes. "I won't make any promises."
Kouta gently laid Akane down next to him. He took off his own shirt and tied it around her leg to cut the blood flow.
Mandarin took a glance at him. "Hey, hey, Kouta. You aren't thinking about doing what I think you're about to do are you?"
"I'm not making any promises." Kouta ran off.
--
Shinya stood up on the battlefield. He took a look around him. His neck was broken. He also had various cuts and bruises. He grabbed his head and straightened it out. All of his wounds started healing.
Ban jumped out of the ground. "I hope you didn't think you killed me."
Shinya flexed his neck. "I'd be disappointed if I did."
Ban wasted no time. He started running at him with a clawed hand. Shinya pulled a pistol out of thin air and started shooting.
Ban jumped in the air and pulled on it. The blue cracks stopped the bullets as an explosion of steam came out as a reaction.
Shinya smirked. "What kind of vector is that? I'm actually curious. I want it."
Ban held out his hands. "Deconstruction. Anything I want can be broken down into as little pieces as I want. I can break things down normally, or I can tear apart the chemical bonds between atoms."
Shinya chuckled. "So that's where the steam comes from. The air is broken down into its respective gases. I like that."
Ban and Shinya fought at close range for some time. Every now and then Ban would break off Shinya's arm or a piece of his torso, but his healing vector immediately repaired his body.
On the other hand, Ban had no such vector. He was consistently accumulating damage.
In the midst of their combat, Ban swiped at Shinya's head. Shinya ducked and pushed his palm into Ban's chest, blowing him back several meters.
--
Kouta was walking up to the battlefield.
His skin turned blue.
"Hey!! Kouta, what do you think you're doing?! I never said you could draw on my power!"
"And I never said you could live in my body. Call it even."
"You insolent...!"
--
Ban was catching his breath when he noticed Kouta walking up. "Well, well, well...look who's still alive..."
Shinya frowned. "You're awfully persistent."
A gold necklet and two gold armlets appeared on Kouta's body. His eyes turned blue. A gold staff with a hollow disc at the end and two rings dangling from it appeared in his hand.
"Takireiou."
"He's using a Guardian...!" Ban said.
"That doesn't matter to me!" Shinya put his hands to the ground. Thousands of gallons of water immediately begun to spiral around him. The water grew into a tall stout tornado. Bullets of water shot out every which way.
Ban defended himself by cracking the air around him.
Kouta flew forward, dodging all of the water bullets as he passed them. As he got closer the water cyclone spun even faster, spitting out hundreds of water bullets a second.
Kouta was hit with a barrage of water and was thrown back.
Shinya held both of his hands out to the sides. "Mizuchi!"
Water serpents burst from the cyclone. Two chased after Kouta and two went for Ban.
Kouta beat the serpents down with his staff. His staff never actually touched them, rather, the staff repelled the space around it, which then caused damage to the water serpents.
Kouta flew high up in the air until he was above the tower of water. He slashed downward with his staff, emitting slashes of Zen. They disrupted the flow of water, allowing Ban to get close to the tower and crack it. The cracks deconstructed Shinya's water into oxygen and hydrogen gas.
Shinya leapt back away from the gas. Kouta quickly flew in towards him and started fighting using acrobatic movements. Shinya wasn't as prolific in close combat ability. As a result, Kouta used his staff to beat the living daylights out of Shinya.
thwack!
Another hit with the staff sent Shinya flying. At that exact moment, Ban came up behind Kouta and attempted to grab him. Kouta flung his staff behind him and repelled the space. Ban jumped back before being hit. He put his hands to the ground and cracked a good amount of it.
Kouta flew upwards before he could be caught up in the explosion.
Shinya clapped his hands together. "Bakekujira!!"
Ban jumped back immediately. "This is bad..."
Shinya began emitting large amounts of blue Zen. The Zen formed in the air about a hundred feet long. Inside of the Zen formed the skeleton of a giant blue whale.
Shinya's body was now covered in skeleton armor. "Whale Song."
The giant whale opened its skeleton mouth and let out a deafening moan. The soundwaves ripped through the air and started tearing away at the ground.
Kouta covered his ears. The noise was rattling his brain. "I can't think straight!!"
"Kouta!!"
It was the voice of Kidomaru.
"What now?! Can't you see I'm busy?!" Kouta said.
"Use my Gate instead. I could slay a yokai like that in my sleep. Bakekujira is a Guardian. He's strong, but not on my level."
Kouta returned to his normal form, then turned red. His hair got longer and started flowing upwards like black water.
Kouta disappeared from his position and got himself above the yokai. He brought his fist down on its skull. The whale yelled out as it hit the ground. Kouta's fist smashed through the bone and ultimately defeated Bakekujira.
After defeating it, Kouta quickly stopped using Kidomaru's Gate and went back to Takireiou. His staff floated behind his head barely above the shoulders.
Shinya's armor vanished. A whitish-blue dragon slithered down his arm.
Kouta stopped in his tracks.
Shinya chuckled. "Hey, Kouta. Recognize this?" He extended his arm out. A giant blue dragon shot out, ripping up the ground as it traveled. "Lunar Dragon!!"
Kouta stared at the dragon. "That's...dad's..."
[Start Flashback]
Kouta walked outside into his backyard to find his father meditating. There was a blue dragon wrapped around him. "Dad? What's that?"
Ryuji opened his eyes. "Oh! Kouta! What are you doing up so early? I'm just meditating. This is my partner, Seiryu. They call him the lunar dragon because of his glow, but he actually has nothing to do with the moon, how silly is that!" he laughed.
Kouta carefully walked up to it. "Will it bite me?"
"Not unless I tell it to, do you want it to bite you?"
Kouta shook his head no.
"Then it won't hurt you. Seiryu, I don't want you to hurt Kouta. See? He's not attacking."
Kouta touched the dragon's head. He quickly pulled his arm back. "It tingles!"
"That's because Seiryu is a spirit. He's not from here."
Kouta grinned. "I think he's really cool!"
Ryuji smiled as well. "Isn't he? If you think this is something, you should have seen your grandpa's dragon, Tianlong. His is much bigger than mine."
Kouta jumped up and down. "I wanna see it too!"
Ryuji patted his son on the head. "I'm sure you'll get a chance to see it one day..."
[End Flashback]
The lunar dragon hit Kouta, pushing him through the ground. "Seiryu..." Kouta's eyes turned from blue to yellow. He dug his right foot into the ground, preventing the dragon from pushing him any further. "SHINYA...!!"
Ban simply stayed to the side and watched the spectacle unfold. "Uh oh...he learned the truth." He started laughing to himself.
Kouta let out a massive amount of Zen from his body, which caused the lunar dragon to vanish. He extended both of his hands in front of him and dug his fingers into the space around him. As he pulled, space started to bend. Shinya could feel himself being nudged forward.
"What? What are you doing?" Shinya asked, confused.
Kouta's entire eye began glowing yellow. "DON'T...USE...MY DAD'S POWER...!!"
Kouta whipped his arms back and Shinya was pulled towards him with almost magnetic force.
When Shinya was just inches away from Kouta's reach, Kouta brought his fist up and straight into his face. "..AGAINST ME!!!" He slammed him into the ground with such force that the ground shook.
Ban jumped in behind him.
Kouta turned around to hit him but Ban already had the air in front of him cracking. Kouta was caught up in it. He couldn't move.
Ban started laughing hysterically. "I've gotta say! Good job taking down Shinya for me! Once you die, I'll use Red Factor to take control of the country!"
"So you're the leader of Red Factor...I thought as much..." Kouta said.
The expression on Kouta's face after saying that struck fear into Ban's heart.
"It's too bad that I have to kill you before that happens."
"What are you going on abou- ack!" Ban threw up blood. There was a giant shard of ice that was going through Ban's entire upper body, from the waist to the top of the chest.
Even if Kouta couldn't move because of Ban's vector, he could still use his own power. Kouta used his ice to shoot along the ground and behind Ban, ultimately leading to his death.
The blue cracks dissipated into thin air. "Wait...I can't die yet...I still haven't...reached my goal..." Ban fell to the ground with a flop.
Kouta's Gate ran out of power. He reverted to his normal form. His head started pounding with pain. "ARRGH!!" he yelled out, holding his head. He started breathing heavier. "I used my Gates too much..."
"And that will be your downfall."
"What?!" Kouta turned around to find Shinya standing up with all of his wounds healed.
"It's really a shame that you came all this way just to be killed by me, which would've happened anyway if I'm being honest with you. In this world, the weak will be oppressed by the strong. And I...am the strongest."
Kouta gave Shinya a half smile. "Now that I know for a fact that you're the one who killed my family, I don't really know how to feel anymore. But I'm not meant to die today, and I won't."
"And why are you so sure about that?"
"Because...you seemed to be so proud of the fact that you could see the future. Well, you told me that your future has already been set. You're gonna be killed by the strongest man in Tokyo... but I'm not the strongest man yet."
"You assume that you will be the one to kill me?"
"I know that I'll be the one to kill you. Bet on it you snake bastard."
Shinya put his hands on the ground. His eyes started glowing white. "Portal. Open!"
A white-blue portal opened on the ground. It was about a hundred feet in diameter. A horde of white flares flew out of the hole and into the sky.
After some seconds it closed back up.
Shinya started chuckling. "I've sowed the seeds." His arms covered themselves with water. "Mizuchi!"
Kouta countered with the Deconstruction vector. The blue cracks turned the water into gas.
Kouta's head pounded again.
In the moment Kouta was distracted, Shinya kicked him in his chin, knocking him back.
Kouta's vision got dizzy. He was about to faint. Then he saw white wisps of energy in his vision, swirling around. He hadn't seen them for quite some while now. But even with his dizziness. He could clearly see one thing; a red string. He instinctively moved out of the red string's way. Immediately, Shinya's leg kicked in the direction that the red string went.
"It's showing me...where danger is coming from?" he thought.
As time continued to move in slow motion for Kouta, Shinya repeatedly attacked up close. Kouta envisioned the red strings and moved accordingly. When he got the hang of it, it was like Shinya couldn't touch him.
weave, weave, weave, block, weave.
Perfect synchronization.
Shinya was out of Zen himself, so he had no more energy to conjure his vectors.
He leapt at Kouta with a spinning kick.
Kouta weaved to the right of it and countered Shinya with an uppercut to his jaw.
wham!
Shinya fell back holding his chin.
Three hooded figures in black and red robes came from nowhere, surrounding Shinya. "That's enough right there. Shinya, I suggest you come back with us."
Shinya stood up. He caught his breath. He was staring at Kouta.
One of the hooded figures held a hand out. A black vortex started swirling. "I can finish the kid off myself. He's been weakened."
Kouta started backing up slowly. All of the white wisps in his vision were now red. He had no way out.
"Kogarasumaru!"
fwoom!
A quick shot of air aimed at the hooded man with the vortex hit the ground and made a deep hole. The man jumped back. It broke his concentration and the vortex disappeared.
Mamoru Hasegawa landed from the sky in front of Kouta. He was bloody and bruised. He firmly stood his ground and waited.
"Let's just leave." one of the hooded people said. They took Shinya and disappeared.
"Who...?" Kouta said half-conscious.
The samurai turned around. "Mamoru Hasegawa." he said proudly. "Come with me. I will not carry you."
"Wait...! I still...have to get Akane and Taku. They're badly injured."
Hasegawa turned his head to look at Kouta. "Hmm." He continued walking. "Well let's go then. This battle is over."