Sai, Corse, and Seabi stepped into the weapon testing room, a vast underground zone that stretched as far as the eye could see. The grassy field was the size of forty football fields, and the ceilings soared miles above, dotted with numerous lights that illuminated the entire area. As they entered, their attention was immediately drawn to several men in hazmat suits hurriedly carrying boxes away.
"Hey! They have weapons!" Seabi exclaimed, pointing at the men. The men quickened their pace, clearly alarmed.
"Something doesn't feel right…" Corse muttered, his eyes scanning the surroundings. "I can sense a presence… a strong one at that!"
"With Sai here, we'll just trample over them! Tsuki No Ono!" Seabi declared confidently. In response, Corse transformed into a hatchet in Seabi's hand.
"S-Seabi, can you not sense mana? This mana I'm sensing… I-It's—" Sai stammered, his voice filled with unease.
"Skill 1: Blood Slash!!!" Seabi interrupted, swinging his sword and sending a projectile slash racing towards the hazmat men. Just as it was about to hit, it was blown apart by something small. This small object flew between Sai and Seabi, catching both of their eyes.
Is that... a grain of dirt? That was flicked, not thrown... Sai thought, sweat forming on his brow.
I only know one person childish enough to pull off such a petty move like that— Seabi's eyes widened in terror.
A disembodied voice echoed through the room. "Do you losers think that you're ready for someone like me so early? Gooood-lee, I was positioned here thinking that I would encounter maybe some amateurs—"
Seabi's face went pale, sweat dripping uncontrollably.
"Instead I encounter a group of rejects and traitors. Mobling trash, vampire sloppy seconds, revenge story failure, and twiddle dumb and twiddle dumber."
Don't lose focus now, Seabi... Corse's voice echoed in Seabi's mind.
"I'm so sick of it," the voice continued. "I haven't seen so many failures since a science fair, but if it wasn't Damiki, it would be my job to get rid of all of the pathetic failures."
"Reveal yourself!!!" Seabi shouted, his voice trembling.
"H-002 and H-001. Do you know how pissed I am?! Do you really think you have the right to fucking yell at me like I'm in the wrong?!"
"But you are in the wrong! All of this is wrong—" Seabi protested.
"No, you're just so blind and unreliable," the voice retorted. "And to think you two would actually be loyal, you turned on us the moment you left, and for what reason? Do you know what you're fighting for exactly? Who are you fighting for exactly? It just doesn't make sense."
"We're fighting for the Negative Point—" Seabi said, his voice wavering with uncertainty.
"But why? We're the ones who saved you from starvation, gave you care and a home, gave you a family. You threw us away at a moment's notice. No loyalty, no regret, and you seem to be having fun? Why couldn't you have just stayed with us? You had all the reason to stay with us and all the reason to hate the Negative Point with us."
"No— That's not true…" Seabi whispered, his conviction faltering.
The disembodied voice echoed again, tauntingly. "But it is true. If you stayed with us, you would have stayed on the winning side. It breaks my heart to see that you changed sides so quickly. You joined the side that killed H-003, after all."
"SHUT UP!!" Seabi shouted, his voice trembling with anger. "M.A.G.I.C is the reason he died! I joined the Negative Point because I saw it as a chance to redeem myself. Kutsiva never got the chance to, but he deserved it just as much as we did! M.A.G.I.C is full of nothing more than manipulative bastard criminals!!!"
"Is that really how you see us? Criminals?" the voice retorted, almost sounding hurt. "Even the ones who aren't, even the ones who are fighting for much more than themselves, the ones who genuinely see our cause as more than an after-school club—are those people bastards worthy of killing?"
"J-Just come out already, bastaaaard!!" Seabi demanded, his voice breaking.
"You don't deserve our love. You never deserved our love. We should have left you to rot, and now you will never find a better family, because the Negative Point won't treat you any better than we did."
"YOU SHUT YOUR—" Seabi started, but his words were cut off.
Suddenly, the source of the disembodied voice revealed itself. Kachiro Jibun stepped forward, his sunglasses reflecting the light, his face mask covering most of his face. His cyan hood, combined with a backward baseball cap, completely hid his hair, and his scarf flowed dramatically in the artificial breeze. He walked between Seabi and Sai, holding his sword.
"Filthy traitor," Kachiro spat.
In an instant, a huge, gaping slash appeared across Seabi's chest, blood spraying as the force of the attack sent him crashing into a wall, pinning him there.
"Seabi!!" Sai screamed, panic in his voice.
Sai quickly ripped off his shock tag, his body enveloped in an electric aura. He shot a beam of electricity at Kachiro point-blank, but Kachiro effortlessly backflipped over it and delivered a powerful dive kick to Sai's face. Sai's body tumbled across the room before coming to a stop.
My burn cooldown has 10 minutes left on it... Sai thought, struggling to rise. I'm so glad that it took us a while to get down here in the first place.
Kachiro slowly walked towards Seabi, his eyes cold and unforgiving.
"I would have fought by your side, we all would've," Kachiro said, his voice tinged with regret. "But let bygones be bygones."
Seabi's body slid down from the wall to the ground. He stood up, blood dripping from his mouth.
"You're the primary reason I trained," Seabi said, a smile forming on his lips despite the pain. "To get stronger, to not be scared of you."
Kachiro pointed his sword at Seabi, a smirk playing on his lips. "You were scared of me? Oh my god, you're such a cornball."
"Skill 4: Dying Moon!!!" Seabi shouted.
His weapon began to glow, growing three times its original size. Suddenly, Seabi's wound magically disappeared, a green energy charging into the blade of his hatchet.
"Corse is a unique weapon. Our fourth skill traded having variants for being an ever-evolving ability. This is its next level!" Seabi declared, swinging his weapon. A powerful green slash of magic shot toward Kachiro.
"Converting the damage you take into an attack? By the looks of it, it only activates when you turn that mode on!" Kachiro observed. Effortlessly, he used his sword to cut the slash in half. "Come and die."
Seabi charged at Kachiro, attacking with quick slashes. Kachiro easily dodged each one.
"Now that I'm focused, I won't let you pull another quick one on me!" Seabi said, determination in his voice.
"When will you learn that you're just out of your league here, bud," Kachiro responded, parrying one of Seabi's slashes with his sword. A small tendril of Kachiro's white blood emerged from the bottom of his foot, impaling Seabi through the liver and stopping him in his tracks.
"Breaker Magic—" Kachiro's fist began to glow with silver magic.
"Damn—" Seabi muttered.
"Breaker Punch!" Kachiro's fist connected with Seabi's stomach. The sound of glass cracking could be heard before shattering, knocking Seabi far back. He quickly flipped back onto his feet, clutching his liver in pain as more blood dripped from his mouth.
Dammit, I didn't really account for his breaker magic... I have no chance at winning. He just attacked my mana directly with it. He didn't destroy all of it, but a big portion of it was destroyed... Seabi thought, wincing.
Breaker magic is a powerful sub-category of raw magic, producing attacks capable of shattering other magic as if it were glass. It could also target and shatter internal mana. Once mana or magic was shattered, it was completely removed, leaving a breaker hole, which made magic even more fragile.
Seabi stared at Kachiro, whose fist was still smoking from the punch. Kachiro vanished and reappeared behind Seabi. Seabi reacted quickly, blocking a slash from Kachiro, but the strength of the slash knocked him off balance. A powerful sound wave emanated from Seabi's chest, hitting Kachiro directly. However, Kachiro remained unaffected and kicked Seabi in the chest. Seabi rolled onto his back and flipped back onto his feet.
"That did nothing?!" Seabi exclaimed, frustration and fear evident in his voice.
Seabi leaped towards Kachiro, slashing down with his hatchet. Kachiro blocked the initial attack with his sword, but as Seabi continued to strike repeatedly, Kachiro shifted to dodging after the first two blocks.
Behind you, Corse's voice echoed in Seabi's mind.
Seabi jumped up, narrowly avoiding a fiery punch from Sai in his aura state. The punch landed squarely on Kachiro's stomach, but Kachiro remained completely unfazed.
"Don't forget about me," Sai said, determination in his eyes.
Kachiro retaliated with a swift punch to Sai's face, knocking him back slightly. Seabi landed next to Sai.
"That did nothing to him," Sai noted, frustration seeping into his voice.
"Don't bother using any physical attacks against him, magic-infused or not," Seabi explained quickly. "Any and all blunt or impact force that touches him is completely negated by his white blood that acts as a shield for his body."
"White blood?" Sai asked, puzzled.
"That's his ability. He can freely shape and manipulate his blood, which can infinitely soften itself to the point of negating all physical attacks," Seabi clarified.
"How about we just tear through it?" Sai suggested.
"I probably can. I just need to get a good hit on him first. Though it may be tough, if I get a supercharged slice on him, it may be able to penetrate. His body carries more than a million times more blood than a normal human body, so he can reinforce his body like crazy," Seabi responded.
"We'll still find a way!" Sai dashed up to Kachiro, delivering a barrage of punches. Kachiro stood still, taking the hits as if nothing was happening. From above, Seabi came down to slash him, but Kachiro simply pushed Sai out of the way and extended a second body completely made of white blood from his back. The white-blood body stretched up and punched Seabi in the face, knocking him onto his back.
How strong is this guy? Sai thought, bewildered.
Seabi stood up, only to be immediately punched in the face by the white-blood body again, sending him flying across the room into a wall. The second body then grew thirty more arms and fists, stretching all of them across the room to barrage and pummel Seabi with relentless punches. The attack stopped, and the arms retracted back into Kachiro's body. Blood trickled down Seabi's forehead as he barely clung to consciousness.
Keep it up, Seabi! You can't stop so early! Corse's voice urged in Seabi's mind.
"I know, dammit!" Seabi shouted, standing up and running towards Kachiro.
"Holy, schmoly, you sure are a lot more resilient, Seabi," Kachiro mocked.
Sai backed up and threw a barrage of magic red balls at Kachiro. Kachiro blocked the balls by using his blood to create a wall in front of them. The balls bounced off the wall and headed back towards Sai, who simply jumped over them. But as he jumped, Kachiro was already above him, kicking him to the ground before landing on top of him.
"And you're kinda tough. You'd probably make a good trampoline," Kachiro sneered, jumping on top of Sai with each impact causing Sai to cough up blood.
"Get off of him!!!" Seabi roared, lunging towards Kachiro and swinging his hatchet. Kachiro dodged back, getting off Sai. Sai quickly stood up, and he and Seabi began to attack Kachiro, trying to give him no room to move. Kachiro stood still, taking Sai's punches and kicks while dodging Seabi's slashes.
"So you're dodging me? Scared of taking damage?!" Seabi smirked as he continued to attack Kachiro.
"Knowing how B.S. magic can be these days, I can't risk anything glowing and sharp touching me!" Kachiro retorted.
Why can't I do anything? All my magic he dodges, and my physical attacks, he just takes! Is there a way I can hit him harder? Sai thought desperately, trying to find a way to break through Kachiro's defenses.
A sudden surge of movement erupted from Kachiro's chest as an arm and hand, formed entirely from his eerie white blood, shot out and slapped both Sai and Seabi back before retracting seamlessly into his body.
"Look, I know you guys may think you're strong, and may or may not be in a stage of denial. You all chose an early death, and I'm all here for it. Just give up and let me kill you-" Kachiro's voice dripped with condescension, his eyes glinting with malicious amusement.
Without hesitation, Sai put both of his hands together and shot a massive beam of red magic at Kachiro. The air crackled with the energy of his attack.
"Or make me waste my breath too, I guess," Kachiro sighed, seemingly unimpressed. He pointed his finger at the incoming beam. "Breaker Magic. Breaker Beam."
From his finger burst a massive beam of silver magic, which met Sai's attack head-on. The red beam shattered upon contact, as if it were a fragile stick of glass, the shards dissipating into nothingness. The silver beam continued its relentless path toward Sai.
"What-" Sai's eyes widened in shock and terror. Just then, Seabi leaped in front of him.
"Don't worry!" Seabi shouted, cutting the beam in half with a swift motion, destroying it completely.
Kachiro's expression darkened with annoyance. "What a pain." White blood oozed from his wrist, forming into a sharp blade. His body flickered, moving with inhuman speed until he appeared beside Seabi, slashing him through the midsection. In a fluid motion, Kachiro dashed behind Seabi and headbutted Sai, knocking him out of his fiery aura and sending him sprawling to the ground with a bloodied forehead. Seabi dropped to one knee, blood dripping from his mouth, his hatchet reverting to its original size.
"Stop playing with your food, dammit. You have to kill me in one go, remember?!" Seabi's voice was strained but defiant. "Skill 4: Dying Moon!" Instantly, all of Seabi's wounds disappeared, and green magic surged into his blade. The hatchet grew in size once more.
Kachiro clicked his teeth in frustration. "Never thought you could just outright spam it."
Seabi unleashed a powerful green slash towards Kachiro, who casually chopped it in half, seemingly unfazed by the attack.
He's doing more damage to me than he can even do to himself... I'll force something out of him by the end of this! Seabi's thoughts were resolute, his determination unwavering.
Sai struggled to sit up, his body trembling. He managed to knock me out of my form... Am I really this pathetic? Am I really just not cut out for this fight? Doubt gnawed at his mind, but a flicker of determination remained in his eyes.