"Huh?! Slayer Hachi, what are you doing here?! I thought you left?" Mr Linclon asks as he turns to face Nick, who has just entered the security room of the Lincoln Correctional Facility.
"Oh, that was only to see what the kids do without me standing over their shoulder to protect them. How can I pass up a chance to watch my kids fight?!" Nick answers with a smile as he strolls over to the security cameras, watching a blood soaked Grover fight one of the inmates. That is, until Grover flings a kunai knife into the camera, shattering it.
"Uh oh, that's not good," Nick says before turning back to the other cameras, seeing an equally bloodsoaked Ella, Jamie, and Austin fighting their respective inmates. "Hmm…no Luis…" Nick mutters to himself.
"Mr Lincoln, Slayer Hachi!" A voice cries as one of the prison guards bursts into the room.
"Woah, what is it man, spit it out?!" Mr Linclon snaps.
"Inmate Zero, Inmate Zero, he's-" the prison guard stammars, but he's interrupted when what appears to be a bamboo sword stabs right through the guard's chest, killing him instantly.
"EEK!" Mr Linclon cries as he ducks behind Nick for cover.
"Woah!" Nick exclaims as he takes a defensive step backwards.
The bamboo sword is then ripped out of the guard's chest, blood squirting as he limply falls to the ground. Behind the fallen guard, stands a tall muscular man with an eyepatch, wielding a blood soaked bamboo sword. Peering out the door behind the man, Nick sees that the floor is slippery with blood and is littered with the fallen corpses of prison guards.
"Hey, is that your Inmate zero?" Nick asks. "The one that you said can never escape?"
"I don't know!" Mr Linclon whimpers, still cowering behind Nick. "I've never actually seen Inmate Zero before."
Nick rolls his eyes and sighs. "You know, you really are a shitty prison guard!" He snaps.
"Slayer Hachi…" the man assumed to be Inmate Zero gruffly growls as he raises his bamboo sword, aiming it at Nick. "There's a boy you brought with you, with a sinister, powerful Cursed Power to him, where is he?"
Nick's eyes widen. "What do you want with Luis?" He growls.
"Luis, I'll have to remember that name. I need him for King's dream. My dream," Inmate Zero ominously answers. "Tell me where he is, and I'll make your death swift."
Nick's eyes instantly gloss over, a feral growl escaping his lips, as if Inmate Zero had opened up a past wound. "Like I'd sell out one of my own," Nick growls as he gets into a fighting stance.
"So be it," Inmate Zero replies as he clutches his bamboo sword, getting into a fighting stance as well. "I'll just have to beat the information out of you."
The two men stare at one another in silence for a few moments, and then, fwoosh!" A rush of Cursed Power explodes out of their bodies, pale yellow for Nick, and turquoise blue for Inmate Zero.
"Wahhhh!!!" Mr Linclon cries as he's sent flying backward into the wall behind him, overwhelmed by the two's Cursed Power. "How did I get sent flying backward without anything touching me?! And where's this intense pressure coming from?!"
The Cursed Power spirals around the two men, rising into the air like flames, and pushing against one another. The two rushes of Cursed Power shatter the walls and floor around them, as pens and papers are sent flying around, and the screens of the TV monitors crack from the pressure. That is, until Inmate Zero is overpowered, and forced to take a step backwards. The rushes of Cursed Power subside from both men.
Nick smirks. "I win," he says. Nick then turns and looks over his shoulder to face Mr Linclon. "I'd run if I were you."
Mr Linclon stares into Nick's eyes, speechless, just sobbing quietly and nodding his head frantically. Mr Linclon struggles to push his plumb body off of the ground before hustling out of the room. Inmate Zero watches in silence as he lets Mr Linclon go, but then, in the last second, it dashes over to Mr Linclin, and in the blink of an eye, is on top of him, drawing his sword.
Mr Linclon turns and faces Inmate Zero's sword and screams, but that's when the lights in the entire facility begin to flicker. Faster than the blink of an eye, Nick dashes over to Mr Linclon, leaving sparks of electricity crackling across the ground in his wake, shielding him from Inmate Zero. As Inmate Zero swings his bamboo sword downwards, Nick covers his hands and wrists in his pale yellow Cursed Power and bruins them up to block, clashing against Inmate Zero's bamboo blade.
Beads of sweat from across Nick's concentrating forehead as he struggles against Inmate Zero's sword. Inmate Zero remains stone faced and calm, not breaking a sweat. "Normally I only save kids and hot women, but it looks like today's your lucky day!" Nick smirks. "No, but seriously. I'd get out of here if I were you," Nick grunts to Mr Linclon.
"R-right!" Mr Linclon stammers as he scrambles to his feet and rushes out of the room.
Nick turns back to face Inmate Zero and smirks. "Now, where were we?" Nick drops his fist and ducks away from Inmate Zero's slash to his left. Nick then brings his fists up as they begin crackling with electricity, before jabbing his electrified into Inmate Zero's shoulder, right which begins crackling with electricity as well. Nick then attempts a roundhouse kick to Inmate Zero's right. Inmate Zero attempts to bring his right arm up to block, but finds himself unable to do so, and is struck in his right kidney by Nick's paralyzing kick, followed by an electrified punch to the face by Nick. Inmate Zero instantly feels the right side of his body go numb, and stumbles backwards in response.
"I may have been in prison for a while, but I know all about you, Slayer Hachi, and your electrified Cursed Power which leaves your opponents paralyzed," Inmate Zero says.
Nick chuckles as he clasps his hands together. When he brings them apart, tendrils of electricity crackle between his fingers. "You're the truly impressive one here. Your sword strike was able to keep my block at bay without even using Cursed Power. Your muscles are toned as Hell," Nick replies. "How was someone like you kept in solitary confinement for so long?"
"The guards made the mistake of only using a couple hundred steel chains to restrain me. They'd need thousands to stop me, without Cursed Power alone," Inmate Zero explains.
"Ah, those fools. Hundreds of chains mean nothing to a Cursed Ability user," Nick agrees.
"Besides, I needed to stay in prison for a while. I needed to find a certain someone," Inmate Zero continues. "And that boy that you brought with you, he just so happens to be that someone."
Nick's eyes instantly gloss over just as before. In the blink of an eye, with a flash of lighting and the boom of thunder, Nick appears right before Inmate Zero, and jabs an electrified spear-hand into Inmate Zero's gut, piercing his stomach. "I'll keep you alive if you tell me why you and this King guy want Luis," Nick says, with no traces of emotion in his voice, what-so-ever.
Inmate Zero's doesn't respond. Instead, using his one good hand, he raises his bamboo sword into the air above Nick's head. Nick attempts to rip his hand out of Inmate Zero's chest but is unable to budge.
"Damnit, he's flexing his muscles to keep me trapped," Nick growls.
"Now, begone," Inmate Zero says, and with all his might, he slams his bamboo sword downwards, cracking Nick on the top of his skull and forcing Nick to crumble to the ground on one knee.
"Shit," Nick grunts.
Inmate Zero then tries that same attack again. He brings his bamboo sword high into the air above Nick then swings it downwards, but this time, Nick is prepared. With his free hand, Nick swiftly reaches up and grabs ahold of Inmate Zero's bamboo sword, clutching it tightly. Nick's hand then begins crackling with electricity. "Let's try some shock therapy!" He roars. Using Inmate Zero's sword as a lightning rod, Nick discharges electricity into his body, which causes Inmate Zero to grunt and stumble backwards, and forces Inmate Zero to drop his bamboo sword, which is sizzling hot with electricity.
But Nick doesn't give Inmate Zero a chance to rest. Swiftly, Nick reaches up and grabs Inmate Zero by the face before, leaping upwards, tackling him to the ground and pinning him to the floor on one knee. "Electricity: Live Wire!" Nick shouts as he discharges even more electricity into Inmate Zero, causing him to grunt in pain again. When Nick's lightning attack ends, Inmate Zero is left laying on the floor, charred black and smoking.
"Now, are you ready to spill everything?" Nick grunts, the overuse of his electricity dangerously heating up his body.
"Not quite," Inmate Zero replies as he raises his fist, which begins swirling with his light blue Cursed Power.
"So a Cursed Power Barrier user, eh?" Nick asks. Finally attacking me with your Cursed Power?"
Inmate Zero doesn't respond to Nick's taunts. Instead, he socks Nick across the face with a Cursed Power blow, forcing Nick to stumble off of him. Inmate Zero then rolls to the side, grasping his bamboo sword, which begins swirling with Cursed Power as well.
Inmate Zero clasps his sword tightly with both hands as he brings high into the air. Meanwhile Nick pops off the ground as well. "Now…be gone from my sight," Inmate Zero says as he swings his bamboo sword downwards, the impact of his bamboo sword hitting the air sending vertical shockwaves of air flying towards Nick, which sends the loose pieces of paper in the room flying everywhere.
"Woah, Cursed Power emission too?" Nick asks as he leaps to the side, dodging Inmate Zero's projectile slash.
Inmate Zero then brings his bamboo sword out to the side again, still swirling with Cursed Power. Inmate Zero then slashes outwards, sending horizontal shockwaves of air flying towards Nick, who just in the nick of time, limbos under Inmate Zero's attack.
"Shit, he's using Cursed Power Hiding, I can't read his attacks with Cursed Power Sensing!" Nick cries.
Nick then turns and peers over his shoulder, seeing the mass carnage behind him, as the entire walls and furniture in the room is cut up and torn to shreds by Inmate Zero's slashes. "Woah…" Nick softly yelps as the shock of Inmate Zero's attacks causes him to fall onto his butt.
Inmate Zero has sliced right through the steel walls of the prison.
Meanwhile, Inmate Zero places his bamboo sword at his hop and snaps the hilt clean off, and tosses the bamboo blade to the side. Inmate Zero then holds the broken-off handle of his bamboo sword up, and a blade of his light blue Cursed Power forms on top of it. "You should be honored, Slayer Hachi, that you forced me to draw my sword," Inmate Zero says.
"Eh, I don't feel honored," Nick smirks as he gets into a running position, just as Inmate Zero resumes his fighting stance as well. Nick's feet then begin crackling with electricity before taking off. Nick zooms towards Inmate Zero, jabbing him with an electricity-infused spear hand just as Inmate Zero strikes Nick on the top of his shoulder with his Cursed Power sword. Nick grits his teeth as blood squirts from both of their wounds.
Nick then dashes away from Inmate Zero, bouncing off of the walls of the facility before zooming back towards him, striking Inmate Zero as he passes, but not before Inmate Zero gets Nick with an attack of his own. This pattern continues on for a little while, the two men exchanging blows. But then, Nick's speed begins to overwhelm Inmate Zero with his speed, who drops down to the ground on one knee, his Cursed Power blade fizzling out. Nick then skids to a halt, the electricity crackling around his entire body dissipating.
"How's that for the power of the strongest Pro Slayer?" He taunts.
"It's difficult," Inmate Zero replies. "I've been locked up in this prison for years without getting the chance to move even an inch, and I'm not good at fighting in enclosed spaces."
"Excuses, excuses," Nick sighs. "Well…it's not like I'm going even close to all out either." Nick then holds his arm up to Inmate Zero, extending his pointer and middle fingers and thumb out words, while curling his ring and pinky fingers in, forming a gun with his right hand. And as electricity begins crackling around Nick's gun-hand, each and every single light in the facility begins rapidly flickering, just as before. "I'm done trying to get answers out of you," Nick growls.
"So I'm leaving you paralyzed for good."